


Ascension Book 2: Eternal

by megamatt09



Series: The Ascension [2]
Category: DC Animated Universe, DC Comics, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F, F/M, Harems, Lemon, Multi, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-01
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2018-01-07 02:25:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 350
Words: 2,291,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1114409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megamatt09/pseuds/megamatt09
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set two years after Book One, the rise to the top continues for Harry Potter as new challenges, new allies, and new women are brought before him. Harry/Kara/Karen/Faora/Diana/Multi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Two Years Later

On August 5th 1995, a warm breeze blew through the deserts of Las Vegas. The bright lights and the loud sounds of the city set the scene. There was a lot of yelling, cursing, and the honking of horns all around the Vegas Strip. There were people on the ground gambling away their entire fortunes, their houses, their cars, their entire livelihood. It was a chaotic scene where many stepped into Vegas hoping to strike it rich and left with nothing but the clothes upon their back, if they were fortunate.

Pamela Lillian Isley thought that she had walked into Vegas and hit the jackpot, which was something that many didn't get walk away with.

The seventeen year old female looked out onto the desert from the balcony of the hotel room that she and her lover were staying in. She had a healthy head of long red hair that framed her face then fell down to her middle back. She had pouty red lips that looked delicious enough to eat although there was still a bit of a shy smile that crossed her face and a look of unexplainable longing that appeared in her eyes at times, although it was really rare these days. She was more at ease with who she was now.

She wore a man's dress shirt that so big on her that it went down all the way to her knees. The shirt wrapped nicely around her developing breasts that were really starting to fill out over the last couple of years. It wrapped tightly around her delicious ass and from there her shapely stems extended down to the ground.

"I know it wasn't your dream wedding…."

"Funnily enough, my dream wedding only involved you, any other details were sketchy," Pamela stated, though she didn't turn around to face her husband at least not at the moment.

She felt a pair of extremely strong arms wrap around from behind her and that caused a feeling of utmost contentment to run throughout her body. The young redhead allowed a pleased sigh to escape her lips.

"Well, as long as the same general idea applies," His voice whispered in her ear which caused her to grow rigid and he smiled as he watched her shift nervously in his arms.

"It was every idea that I had in my head, all that and more," Pamela breathed as she relaxed back into him and his hands were underneath her breasts, but did not slide up any which was a tease that she was about to come undone from. "I can't lie; you're a man of your word Harry."

"You should know by now that I am," Harry said as he tightened his arms around her for a brief moment, before he spun his newest wife around so she could properly face him.

Bright green eyes met brighter green eyes as the two of them kept their gaze locked upon the other. There was a second where another pleasurable sigh escaped Pamela's lips as she watched Harry, nervousness flooding down her spine as Harry ran his hand down her back.

"Mine. Always and forever," Harry breathed in her ear as the two decided to make their next trip the bed.

"Always," Pamela agreed with him as she felt her body heat up with anticipation of what was coming next. "Two years since we had a chance to do this, it's been a long time."

Harry smiled. "Well, you should know that was before my second maturity and it's going to be even better than you remember."

Pamela was filled with even more anticipation at those words. Her first time was a bit awkward but now that she had a bit of experience underneath her belt and Harry had a lot more, it was going to be far more amazing this time. The seventeen year old female was pushed on the bed and prepared herself for Harry.

"And since this is our honeymoon, we should start with a bang," Harry offered to her as he brushed his hand through her hair.

"Or several," Pamela commented as he stroked her red hair and she smiled as she instinctively arched her hips up for eventual penetration.

"Yes, or that," Harry breathed as he planted his lips on the side of her neck, then laid several tender kisses against it. His teeth nipping at the skin ever so slightly as he marked her for his own.

Pamela sighed as Harry worked his magic and that's what his mouth was, it was pure magic, there was no two ways about that. Harry ran his hands all over her as he continued to kiss the side of her neck.

She knew that he was not going anywhere yet she wanted to keep him in place. His hands reached onto the long shirt that she was wearing and he pulled it off, to reveal the true show and the excitement that was about to begin filled her body.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Harry had Pam spread out on the bed. Her blossoming breasts were out for him, a nice C-Cup size, although they were growing to almost D-Cup Levels. He watched her seventeen year old chest heave as he wrapped his hands around her tits and lovingly cupped them, causing an explosion of pleasure to be evident in her eyes.

Pam sighed as she felt Harry's talented hands work over, running up and down her body as he kissed her. She returned the kiss as she anticipated what was to come next. His hands left their mark all over her body, each one was like pure sexual magic running through her body. Each one brought her to slight arousal and then the arousal grew more than slight.

Harry's fingers probed deep between her legs and subconsciously, Pamela lifted her hips as he felt his fingers stroke into her sopping hot core. The redhead cooed as Harry's fingers went into her, although that was going to be a preview for the main event that was still to come.

Harry's tongue was the next course and Pamela lifted her hips up, to meet his tongue as it probed into her. The redhead clutched onto the back of his head, and pushed him into her womanhood as he slurped and suckled the area before her legs. The redhead panted with stiffening nipples as Harry used his tongue to lick her juices from the inside of her.

Harry scraped the heavenly nectar off from around her walls. The woman lifted her hips as for his tongue that went into her body. It moving around her caused an explosion of enjoyment to erupt through her body.

"Oh, fuck me," Pamela panted as Harry tongued out her inside and it felt so good, teasing ever single fiber of her being.

' _In due time, my love,'_ Harry breathed to her as he latched his mouth over her clit and sucked hard, driving her pleasure up even more.

Pamela rested back as Harry pleasured her love button and she felt her pussy heat up from his ministrations. The woman was feeling even more erotic sensations bud through her body, as Harry took things to the next level, grabbing a handful of her breast.

The redhead closed her eyes and felt the rush go through her body but why should Harry give her all of the pleasure he could offer. She managed to reach through to his pants which managed to dissolve and appear on the floor thanks to the magic of magic.

That was a good idea, Pamela did not want to waste time, she wanted to touch and play with his big cock. She used her hand to pump his member. After a few strokes, Harry called an audible and switched to the next play.

It was an inch away from her luscious red lips and Harry touched it to her. The woman's nipples hardened as Harry brushed his cock over her lips once again and she gave it a lingering kiss. The woman was gripped around the face and his phallus brushed against her juicy lips.

With swift precision, Harry plunged his massive member into her mouth. Pamela took it between her lips with hunger and desire and started to hungrily suck it.

He lightly placed his hands around her hips.

His tongue worked deeper into her pussy and brought her more pleasure but it was all about getting her warmed up for the main event.

Every swipe of his tongue brought her more desire as he worked over her hot box. Pamela lifted her hips, breathing, panting, feeling more desire than ever before. Her nipples stiffened as Harry continued to pick up the pace and licked her insides.

Harry tasted the lovely juices and felt his cock throb in her mouth as she worked him over. Her tongue wrapped around him and pleasured him as he worked his member deeper into her mouth. The redhead hung onto him, sucking his massive prick for everything that he was worth. Judging by the look dancing in her eyes, Pamela thought that he was worth a lot as she sucked him deeper. Her mouth made lewd sounds as she brought more of his thick phallus deep into her mouth.

"Mmm, mmm, mmm," Pamela panted as Harry continued to fuck his wife's mouth.

Her juices coated his face as Harry gave her such a going over, as the woman licked her. The woman felt the pleasure.

She was determined to drain Harry of his cum and she hummed deep into her throat as he continued to assault her mouth. The redhead panted as Harry worked into her mouth, as Harry kept working deep into her, her lips stroking, manipulating his manhood.

With a grunt, Harry spilled the contents of his balls into her mouth and Pamela took all that he had to offer greedily lick and suck him dry, gulping down the creamy essence.

"Delicious," Pamela moaned and Harry slid down, kissing down her body, which build up further anticipation. Her nipples stiffened as Harry worked further down her body. The woman panted heavily as Harry explored her body further.

He held her up and she was down upon the bed. The woman's legs spread as Harry grabbed her arms to pin her back.

"You want it," Harry breathed as he teased her, prepping her entrance. Her juices clung to the tip of his penis as it nudged her center.

"I need it," Pam begged as her chest heaved into the air and she bit down on her lip. She wanted it big time and she would have it. Her heart hammered across her ribs as she was about to lift her hips into the air to force the issue and Harry teased her dripping center.

His cock edged further inside her, about ready to push between her walls. The redhead lifted them, hungrily ready to accept his manhood. There was a look of longing, a look of primal and utter desire dancing through her eyes as Harry prepared her for his intrusion.

With a swift motion, Harry jammed himself into her. It was a long and hard stroke at first but then it was tapered off by a few short and gentler ones.

Pamela panted as she was down on the bed, feeling her arousal flood from head to toe. She knew that he was building up momentum and her walls clenched around his tool as he plunged deeper within her, her wet walls hugging him.

Harry plunged his hard phallus deep between her thighs. The redhead hung onto his shoulder as he drove himself into her, seeking her heat with his member. The redhead panted heavily as he worked in between her walls. She closed her walls around him to milk his incoming thrusts and he plunged deeper into her.

"More," Pam begged him and Harry was happy to oblige his latest wife.

Harry kissed down her body as each thrust brought her to even more pleasure. The wizard pushed himself deeper into her chambers.

His large meat missile sought her heat and Pamela closed her walls around him, with Harry plunging himself deeper into her. Her core was being manipulated, pleasured, and each step of the way was like pure magic. It was even better than that; she was feeling the rush of heat between her thighs. She bit down on her lip and she thrust her hips up, to meet a few more plunges of his member.

"MORE!" Pamela begged, her green eyes flooding with an insatiable desire.

Harry kept up the pace; he wanted to seek her heat just as much as her heat sought him.

He lovingly tended to her garden, working his cock in between her thighs. The woman kept breathing as the wizard was really hammering into her tender center. She pushed up towards him with her legs wrapped around his tool.

Harry ran his hands down her delicious thighs and he pumped into her. She tightened around him, as the love making got a bit more intense.

She used her legs to turn him over, he allowed her to do so. She now rode him with Pamela using her hips to spear down onto his member. The redhead was riding him for everything that he was worth and Harry breathed as her walls tightened around him. The woman was going to ride his member for everything that he was worth.

"Pam, damn it," Harry breathed as she worked her hips against his tool.

"Like that," Pamela breathed as she tried to use her tight inner muscles to milk Harry into completion. Harry felt the rush of her coming up and going down onto him.

"Fucking love it," Harry told her as he squeezed one of her breasts and she moaned as she worked her hips down onto his tool.

Her hips grinded down onto Harry's member as they continued the age old dance of passion. The redhead was bouncing up and down and her breasts swayed enticingly before Harry's eyes.

There was no question about it, Harry had to grab them and play with them. He did, stroking and fondling her lovely chest pillows. They pressed into his hands so nicely and her hips speared down onto his tool.

"Great, love," Pamela panted as he channeled magical energy through her breasts and that very nearly made her become undone. She closed her eyes and felt the rush of sexual energy course through her loins as she lowered herself down onto his tool.

Harry held onto her and the two continued their love making session, the meeting of their organs was one for the ages.

With a mighty thrust, Harry brought the first of many rounds of cum between Pam's inviting thighs. The redhead clenched him as she bounced up and worked her way down around him.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

Harry wrapped his arms around Pamela as she rested against his chest, an extremely satisfied smile on her face. The redhead looked up into the air and tried to sit up but she could not or perhaps would not move from her current location.

"Sore, but satisfied," Pamela murmured and she suspected that somehow, Harry was holding back.

The thought of what he could do to a female at full strength both scared and aroused Pamela. She drifted off to sleep with erotic thoughts about eventually being able to experience it dancing through her head.

It was something amazing to think about, and sometime soon she'd be able to experience it.

Sooner than she thought.

That was the tired premonition that echoed through her head as she faded off, very satisfied.

* * *

**Chapter One: Two Years Later.**

Time had this tendency of passing rather quickly. It seemed like it was only yesterday that Harry was trying to escape the asylum that was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and get into the actual world, a huge world filled with promise and possibilities. Not a group of people who largely kept their heads in the sand like an ugly ostrich for the most part, and refused to come up for any air. If it did not happen in their world, it did not count.

That world, Harry could do without.

That world, Harry more or less escaped and he was extremely happy about of that fact.

Harry Potter or rather Har-Zod, was not normal and that was a fact that he embraced wholeheartedly. As far as he was concerned, anyone who longed to be anything but extraordinary were misfits and should be avoided at all costs.

He thought about all of the things that he excelled at. He got the highest scores on his NEWTs in the entire history of Hogwarts. In fact, he took NEWTs for classes that had not been offered in Hogwarts at least in a hundred years, if not more. He wanted to be qualified in everything. After that he proceeded to get three Doctorates in three vastly different subjects over the course of three years.

Yet that was merely but one thing that he was planning do in his future.

He was currently lying in the bed of the master bedroom of Blackgate Manor in Gotham City, although it was one of the many properties that he had in the city and he was acquiring a few more in locations that he was going to head off to.

He felt something large and warm wrapped around his manhood as he was woken up in half of a daze. He saw Karen and Faora in bed with him. These girls were two of his Alpha Wives.

Faora was his older sister, she hailed from Kryton originally, the biological daughter of General Dru-Zod and Ursa. She had silky black hair that fell to her shoulders and alluring ice blue blue eyes that stared down at him. Her face was absolutely gorgeous and she used that fact to lure men into a false sense of security. She had large d-cup breasts, a flat and toned stomach that one could run their hands over, along with an alluring belly button. Her ass was tight and toned, amazing, and her legs were shaped quite nicely, long and soft but deceptively muscular. She worked hard for her body; she was a pinnacle of female perfection.

Kara Zor-L, who went by the alias Karen Starr was an alternate version of one of his other Alpha Wives, Kara Zor-El. She had short blonde hair that lovingly framed her face and the most amazing blue eyes that could burn a hole through people if they annoyed her. Presently they were filled with lust. One of her most defining feature was her breasts which needed a custom made bra to be contained. She had a sensual but also muscular frame. Her smooth stomach was without a blemish. Her ass was shapely and amazing, along with legs to die for and sexy feet.

"Morning, Har, hope you enjoy your wake up call," Faora breathed into his ear before moving downwards and then she proceeded to blow on another part of his body.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Harry found his prick wedged between Karen's really massive breasts. It was pure heaven to him, all of this gorgeous tit flesh, her breasts were truly the tenth wonder of the world. They worked up up and down Harry's hard pole, working him over with those gorgeous, large, tits.

Faora wrapped her lips around his head and hummed lightly, which presented a delightful amount of friction. Waves of pleasure went down Harry's cock as she clutched his balls.

This combination tit and blow job was causing Harry's motor to get running something fierce. He could barely keep his head above the water as the two Kryptonian beauties double teamed him, working him over. His balls throbbed with greater desire than ever before as they kept working him over.

"Oh, yes, oh fuck," Karen breathed as she felt her man's massive pole go between her thighs. Faora's hands between her thighs added a delightful amount of friction as well as Faora rubbed her clit up and down to stimulate herself. The woman closed her eyes as the two of them pounded her.

Karen's body exploded into pure primal lust as Harry jackhammered into her tits.

Faora blew his member, licking around the head. There was a few seconds where she brought her head up and kept her eyes locked onto Karen and then to Harry.

Harry felt his cock assaulted with the lovely, lovely flesh. He was wedged between Karen's breasts which was always a wonderland to end all wonderlands. He breathed in and breathed out, feeling his balls bouncing across her chest.

"Oh, mmm, fuck, yeah," Harry panted as he felt her breasts manipulate his rock hard member.

"Like that," Karen breathed as she felt Faora ram as much as his cock into her mouth as she deeply as she could. "You look like such a wanton slut doing that."

Faora said nothing on the account of her mouth being filled with Harry's cock but she managed to conjure a dildo in her hand and ram it deep into Karen's pussy.

Karen screamed as the dildo started to vibrate within her pussy, but she stayed the course.

"Damn cumming, cumming, oh….two can play that game," Karen breathed as she conjured a dildo of her own and roughly stuffed it into Faora's pussy, while putting the self-sustaining vibration charm.

The wanton moans were getting even more so as the trio pleasured each other.

Harry's balls tightened as his loins were about to burst. That did not slow Karen down.

"About to cum."

That caused Karen to work his cock even more, his balls throbbing with the pleasure and about to release the pressure that was coming from between his legs. He panted furiously as Karen squeezed his length with her chest mountains.

"Cum for me, darling, cum for me," Karen cooed as she kissed the tip of his cock and his balls twitched at those words.

His balls drained onto her breasts as Faora caught a heavy amount of his on her tongue. The rest of his cum, she licked off of Karen's breasts.

Faora's tongue ran up and down Karen's ample breasts and this got Harry extremely hard very quickly. His balls twitched with the pleasure as Faora slurped his seed from the large chest of Karen. His balls kept throbbing as his cum was drained onto her tasty tits.

"Oh, fuck," Harry breathed as he drained himself onto her.

"Yes, in due time, my brother," Faora breathed.

She teased Harry's cock with a slow stroke but Harry took the effort and pinned her down into the bed, yanking the vibrating dildo from her twitching quim.

Faora's pussy twitched anticipation and surely enough, she got everything that she wanted. His cock slammed between her walls.

She felt the pleasure of his hard prick ramming hard inside her tight box. Her walls stretched anew as he plunged inside her. Her legs tightened around him, to ensure that she was not too far away from him.

Harry's hands ran down her thighs as she lifted her hips and gave a barely stifling moan as her walls tightened around him. His hands moved all over her breasts as he cupped them. She offered a promising moan as she took more of his length deep into her body. She felt the thrusts bury into her, going deeper yet. His balls bounced up and down inside her.

The woman's legs tightened their grip around his waist.

Karen was on her hands and knees, as another Harry dupe presented himself.

"Don't think that I forgot about you," Harry grunted as he slapped her tight ass and she closed her eyes.

"Yes, I don't think that you would," she moaned as she felt his strong hand smack her ass once again, prepping her for what was to come.

Harry plunged his rock hard dick in between her thighs after teasing her ass. That was going to come later, right now, Harry indulged himself in Karen's perfect pink pussy.

The blonde felt him roughly plunge in and out between her and her excitement got even greater. His balls slammed against her amazing thighs.

The blonde bit down on her lips.

"FUCK ME!" Karen begged him.

Faora was pinned down the bed, with Harry now conjuring constraints. She was strapped down to the bed and Harry pounded her bound form hard. Her pussy was being reduced rapidly to jelly and she were loving every single minute of his balls slapping against her thighs. She worked in and out of him, burying his cock deeper into her.

Harry felt her walls roughly squeeze him; she was getting off on this as much as he was enjoying giving her this. The dark haired Kryptonian vixen screamed in ecstasy.

"I'm your bitch, hammer me!" she demanded.

Harry was not about to let a lady down, especially that lady was his sister. He pummeled her womanhood, making her feel stiff thrusts of his cock.

Faora hung onto him and felt the pleasure of her brother burying his long length between her legs. Her nubile thighs closed around him and she moaned hotly as he pushed inside her. Each thrust brought her to even more amazing joy. Her walls hugged his manhood lovingly and Faora panted as Harry worked himself into her. The woman was losing herself to the joys of his manhood working over her walls.

"You want more, don't you," Harry breathed hotly in her ear and this caused her hips to twitch up to meet his invading cock.

"Yes, more, more, harder!" Faora begged him.

Harry was not about to turn her down.

Karen was on her hands and knees, feeling the massive stick of meat working between her thighs. His rock cock went between her legs and caused her to tremble with the pleasure of him going between her.

He pinched her nipples and that caused her to feel an immense surge of pleasure. Harry plunged his hard prick deep between her walls. The blonde's walls wrapped around him and stroked his invading prick. The blonde felt his hands move all over her body and he held onto her large melons.

Karen's moans escalated as he channeled magic through her boulder sized breasts.

His hands explored her body and made her feel so good.

Speaking of feeling pleasure, Faora was going to cum so hard that she nearly was going to explode. Harry speared his hard length into her.

Her pleasure kicked up a few more notches as he drove his cock into her at super speed.

Suddenly a dupe appeared behind her and Faora closed her eyes. Surely she would not be gifted with this much pleasure?

The thing was that she was gifted by pleasure, pleasure beyond anything she ever dreamed of in her life as Harry plunged his rock hard cock into her ass.

Faora moaned and thrashed, there were two versions of Har-Zod filling both her pussy and ass. She was sandwiched between them as her brother double teamed her.

"Oh Har!" Faora moaned as she felt his cocks buried into her body. This caused her to become completely undone.

Karen clutched onto the bed sheets, her heat vision creating a fire as she had a powerful orgasm. It was quite fortunate that there were charms in the room that would prevent damage.

"I'm going to take that out on your ass, you dirty girl," Harry breathed as he plunged deeper inside her.

"YES!" Karen shrieked at the top of her lungs. "Take that dirty fucking slut in her ass!"

"Oh Har, drill both my holes!"

Faora yelled this statement as she was hammered between both of his cocks. The two members pushed in her pussy and ass. The woman was feeling the rush of him hammering her from either side.

She clenched him, moaning and writhing, feeling the pleasure as the pleasure escalated within her. Her nipples stiffened as her body racked with orgasmic joy. Her breathing quickened as Harry worked in and out of her.

Faora felt a fulfilling release as she got a huge dose of cum into her ass. He pounded it, never once breaking her moment.

Karen was having the time of her life, as her lover rammed into her ass. She felt him put clips on her nipples as her ankles and wrists were fastened into the bed. He rammed into her and used the vibrating magical dildo to cause her to escalate her passions.

Her tight ass contracted around him and Harry worked into her, pushing her cheeks apart. The blonde clung onto the bed, biting down on her lip as he held onto her and pushed into her. Her tight rectum was pushed apart as Harry pushed back and slammed into her.

The blonde felt a rush of cum explode into her.

They saw stars as they came down from their mutual orgasms.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

Now that they got their morning fun out of their system, Karen, Faora, and Harry rested against each other on the bed, basking in the afterglow of that amazing round of sex.

"As always, above and beyond the call of duty," Faora breathed huskily as she ran her hands down his waist and offered a smile.

"I think that some breakfast is in order," Harry offered to the two females Kryptonians who smiled at that, but then shook their heads, whilst breakfast would be great, they were not completely prepared to move from the rather comfortable position they placed themselves in.

"The merger should be ready before too long," Karen informed Harry.

"You and Faora have been working hard at it over…."

"Seems like two years doesn't it?" Faora asked with a smile on her face as she stroked his abs. She thought about going down further, but that could wait for later, they had to get this business out of the way, otherwise it would never get done. Thanks to the time dilation charms, they'd been going at it for a very long time already.

And that was the way that they preferred it.

"Well, we're nearly at the end of that tunnel," Karen offered as she took her turn, running her fingers up and down Harry's side as she pressed her breasts against the side of his face. Harry shifted to rest his head upon them. "The RAO Corporation is becoming more then an idea with each passing day."

"Yeah, so much so that we're getting the wrong kind of attention," Faora commented to Harry as she looked at him and he nodded.

There was no need to say it, even though Karen decided to clarify the point.

"Lionel Luthor."

That was very true.

"He's been nosing around for information about us as of late," Faora stated to Harry and she smiled a vibrant smile. "I think he might feel threatened."

' _Good,'_ Pamela offered through the bond link. It was no secret that she was not very fond of Lionel Luthor in any sense of the word.

' _We've slowly been buying up LuthorCorp stock as well,'_ Lily chimed in.

' _Correct,'_ Harry said as he remembered it with picture perfect clarity, they'd been buying up LuthorCorp stock slowly through various different trusts, funds, and shell companies for several years. Though in some ways it felt like the plan to eventually take control was still in it's infancy.

The truth was that he had been buying some of the stock ever since he was in Hogwarts, which might as well have been a lifetime ago. It had been slow going getting everything in order.

' _We're looking to buy up a little bit more at a time, trying to make sure that it's nothing overt,'_ Jaime offered as she was glad that Luthor was being undermined when at all possible. She learned enough about the man to realize that Lionel Luthor in all forms was quite the conniving bastard.

' _Good stick with the plan,'_ Faora said swiftly.' _We've got a lot of irons in the fire right now.'_

Harry smiled, if that was not the truth, he did not know what was.

' _Yeah, we do at that,'_ Harry offered in that moment. _'Lots of business deals on the table.'_

' _Good, that's excellent,'_ Faora stated, she was excited that were a lot of deals in the works and what they could potentially bring towards Har-Zod's inevitable Ascension.

' _Looking forward to seeing how they pay off,'_ Karen offered but then Harry had another thought that did not swim to mind immediately although Faora half sensed it.

' _There's another problem that we have to deal with,'_ Faora reminded Harry and there was no need for her to elaborate.

' _Yes, I know,'_ Harry replied to her in a frustrated voice. _'It seems like our friend on the Wayne Board of Directors doesn't seem to want to follow basic orders.'_

' _It does seem that way,'_ Karen stated as she brought everyone who might be listening in on the bond up to speed. _'So are you going to take control?_

Harry's smile grew calculating.

"Yes, now's the time to take control," Harry offered to both of the females on the bed. "Fredrick thinks that he's going to go behind our backs because we are preoccupied regarding other things."

Faora smiled. "Well he's going to be stepping down very soon, because he's been there for a long time. We've got to make sure that the rest of the board knows that we're there and we mean business."

"And your arrival just happens to coincide with the rumors of Bruce Wayne's return."

Karen offered that statement but Diana piped in with an urgent voice through the bond link. _'Isn't there a rumor that he died a while back, or that he was declared dead? I mean I'm sure you've read it…'_

' _Yeah, I've read it,'_ Harry confirmed in a steady voice and there was a moment of silence that coursed through the bond. _'I've read it but I don't believe everything that I've read, as you well know.'_

' _That's the truth, don't believe everything that you've read, because there's a lot of fiction in the media ,'_ Faora commented as she directed the conversation back to the matter at hand. The dark haired woman sighed deeply as she switched tactics. ' _But we're getting off the subject that we were on.'_

' _Right, the Potter Steward, despite the fact that no matter how concise we make our directions. He feels the need to take creative liberties with said directives and the direction that we want the company to take,'_ Harry thought as he paused. _'It's almost like he's trying to take advantage of the fact that we've got our attention elsewhere.'_

' _No, we're focused no matter how much he wants to delude himself,' Faora thought to him. 'We've always had our eye what he was doing. He just didn't give us a reason to take a closer look at his misdeeds until now.'_

' _So the Potter seat on the board of directors is going to fall under firmer control, this is the Potter family legacy in some ways. Even though the name Wayne is stamped on the marquee, my Great-Grandfather and Grandfather invested heavily in the company providing a lot of the funding Alan and Patrick Wayne used to expand it into the corporate behemoth it is today'_ Harry added.

He thought about the plans for a bit longer and he was about to get up to have some breakfast. Faora and Karen slipped off into the shower as well.

Harry pondered, this was a week before his seventeenth birthday, which was the big one, the third maturity, the one where he would have all of the benefits of an adult wizard and also the slowed down aging, although the point was moot given his Kryptonian gifts underneath the yellow sun.

He began to prepare for the next stage of his life.

* * *

 

"First maturity will be coming up for Clark in a few years...Yes, around fourteen years old...His powers will start kicking in in big way," Kara said as she paced around the living room, speaking on the phone with Martha Kent. "Yeah, it's much later for non-magical Kryptonians. It really depends on how much his body assimilates to the yellow solar radiation that is at the root of his powers."

Kara waited for a second.

"Super speed, well we already know about that. Yeah in Harry's case his intelligence and heat vision kicked in first apparently," Kara offered her. "Yes, we know about the strength too….well I figured that you'd have a few busted door frames."

Kara smiled at that, her cousin would have to learn how to properly turn on and off his strength at will.

"Right now it doesn't seem to be much of anything that Jonathan and I can't handle," Martha informed Kara over the phone. "But by the way you're talking, this is just the beginning."

"Yes, fourteen, eighteen, and twenty one, three ages where Clark's powers might go through fluctuations," Kara offered to Martha.

"The three maturities that you told me about?" Martha asked.

"Yes," Kara answered in affirmation.

"Lily mentioned the three maturities for witches and wizards to me once," Martha offered. "This is only slightly different but I think that I can handle it."

"Have you been in touch with Lily since she came from the dead?" Kara asked her morbid curiosity getting the better of her.

"I've talked to her, yes," Martha responded but the woman paused. "Although the way she told it, she wasn't technically dead."

"Yes, though that's a technicality," Kara agreed, there were times where she was not about to try to wrap her head around the magic of magic and she'd been studying it for half of her life. "Anyway, I'm sure you're busy. If anything comes up with Clark. Anything that's out of the ordinary….just call me, please, I'll walk you through it or come down there."

"I'm sure Jonathan and I could handle anything but….I know your number and if I can't reach you that way well….there's the other way You gave me to reach you," Martha replied.

"Has Clark encountered any of the green rocks?" Kara asked nervously.

"No not yet."

"Let's hope not because they affected Harry pretty badly, but they might affect Clark more strongly since he was born on Krypton and he doesn't have natural magical immunity like we do," Kara warned her.

The cure was tuned to Kara, Karen, Faora, and Harry so it might remove Clark's powers, which were a bit different from theirs. His biology weren't based in sorcery unlike the quartet of them. Jor-El's logical DNA and magic mixing would very likely cause the universe to collapse upon itself.

"Well, we'll see, take care, and I hope you and Harry will be able to stop by sometime," Martha told her.

Kara smiled at the thought of it. "Yes, we should be able to stop by sooner rather than later. Don't worry about it Martha."

Speaking of Harry, he was standing there as Kara said her goodbyes to Martha.

"Hey, Kara," Harry offered as he pulled one of his Alpha wives into a huge hug and planted a burning kiss upon her lips. The blonde eagerly returned it as Harry pressed her youthful body against his. "How are you?"

"Fine," Kara responded but she decided that it was now time to share some bad news with him. "It appears that Hermione had decided to take up residence in the main library."

Harry took this matter in stride, given that it was Hermione.

"Looks like she's putting her new degree in Library sciences to good use," Harry said with a smile on his face, although there was times where he honestly wondered if he would be finding a corpse behind a stack of books one day.

Kara frowned at Harry. "It might not be a bad idea to check on her and make sure she hasn't decomposed in the library?"

"Well, I'd know if she's died, I do have spells warning me of such a thing," Harry offered as he sighed "I might have to stage an intervention because she could be relapsing back into old habits."

' _Oh god, I thought we broke her of this,'_ Amanda thought in exasperation.

' _It seems that getting her degree has given my daughter a new lease on her obsessions,'_ Charlotte chimed in.

Harry figured that was the case but he decided to confront Kara on something before he forgot.

"So, my birthday's coming up next week," Harry stated casually.

The blonde figured that this would be coming.

"If you're going to say that you…."

"No, I'm not going to say that but normally I can get a sense of what's going on but everyone seems to be especially mysterious about it this year and I'm not sure how much I like that," Harry commented dryly to the blonde.

Kara thought that if he kept pressing it would blow the surprise and she decided to take action in order to divert his attention.

"I'm sure you've had a rough last couple of weeks," Kara stated as she dropped down to her knees and placed her hands on the edge of his pants and started to unbuckle them. "I think that it's time for you to unwind and relax, don't worry, I'll help you."

Before Harry could say anything or try and prevent Kara from misdirecting his attention from the subject, her hand reached into his pants and began to fish him out. He decided that he would find out when the time was right, right now, he was going to enjoy his wife and her talents.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Kara fished out his cock, it was only half stiffened. Her hand clenched around him and she stroked him up and down. She licked her lips, practically drooling as she edged closer with her mouth nearing his cock.

Harry groaned as the blonde sex kitten was primed to blow him.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Kara breathed hotly on his cock and she licked around his head.

"Damn, Kara," Harry whispered to her and she intensified her efforts.

Kara placed her lips around him and bobbed up and down on him, giving him a nice blowjob. Her lips smacked and tightened around him, giving him quite the great going over. Her hands skillfully manipulated his balls.

She brought his cock deep into her throat and Kara's nipples poked out from underneath her shirt. She felt the walls clench as she breathed in heavily and breathed out. Harry was plowing into her mouth, working his length between her juicy lips.

He grabbed her around the head and his cock speared it down her throat. The blonde's mouth closed around him and Harry pulled back the blouse that she was wearing.

She had a nice blue bra that was barely able to contain her perky tits. The wizard ran his hands down her nice body and slowly, sensually, explored every last inch of her. He stroked the underside of her sexy stomach, with Harry going down and removing the jean skirt that she was wearing.

She wore a matching and extremely wet pair of blue panties. Harry ran his hands down between her legs. The blonde panted as she lifted her hips towards his hands and he prepared to part her hips to dig his fingers inside her white hot snatch. The blonde felt her nipples get even harder.

Harry grabbed around her head and pulled her into her. Kara continued to give him a messy blowjob, happily slurping his cock all of the way at supersonic speed.

The two continued their actions, with Kara's slurping getting extremely loud and Harry pulled himself from her mouth.

She whined, losing her husband's cock but his fingers pushed up into her mouth to make the vixen taste her own juices.

Kara breathed as she licked her own juices off of his fingers. Her tongue slid up and down his fingers, licking the creamy goodness of his digits.

Kara feasted upon her own juices. Her breasts were released for the world and Harry bent down to grope them.

She moaned as Harry licked her nipple, biting down on it, sucking her. The blonde pushed her hips up and met his fingers as he fingered her. His strong fingers probing her womanly depths felt good, so good.

His fingers did not feel as nearly good as his cock but it still caused her to feel so much pleasure.

Kara felt Harry cup her breast and she felt her legs twitch together, her pussy clenching. She wanted him to be inside her and she begged for his meat to penetrate her womanhood.

Harry gave her what she wanted, his length speared into her. The blonde's walls tightened around him, with the blonde's back arching as she accepted his member into her depths.

"HAR!" Kara yelled as his throbbing cock worked between her walls. She was stretched out with Harry working into her and his thrusts jackhammered into her pussy.

The blonde was having the tight of her life as Harry plowed her hard into the coffee table. It was thankfully magically reinforced. The blonde wrapped her legs around him with Harry kept working into her. Her walls tightened hard around his throbbing cock. The blonde lifted her hips and panted as Harry grabbed around her and plunged deeper into her quim.

Kara clutched her arms around him, holding her husband in tight. The blonde's pussy twitched as Harry pushed herself up and buried himself into her. The blonde's walls tightened around his invading prick. Her nails dug deep into the back of his neck, with the blonde panting and groaning as she took his entire cock deep inside her.

Harry picked up the pace, working his length between her legs. The blonde panted heavily as Harry buried his length in her in an endless loop of pleasure. The blonde hung onto the back of his neck and enjoyed the thrill ride.

"You fucking horny girl, you like that don't you?" Harry asked her as he assaulted her pussy.

"Oh, more, yes, more," Kara begged him as she panted. Her hips pushed up to meet him as he plunged into her.

Harry smiled.

"I think it's time for a change of venue, babe," Harry breathed hotly in her ear.

He turned Kara over after pulling out and he pressed her into the table.

The blonde screamed as he rammed into her from behind. The Kryptonian's tight walls, hard enough to crush coal into diamonds, tightened around Harry's rock hard penis. The wizard pushed his length into her, plowing her into the coffee table again and again. The blonde's breasts were pressed against it and then Harry reached down, with Harry running his hands down her.

The blonde's nipples stiffened as Harry created heat with his finger tips and then used a tricky little spell to add cold that she felt as his fingers push down upon her nipple.

"Oh, you like that, don't you," Harry breathed as he ran his fingers down her nipples causing them to become rock solid at the sudden rush of coolness.

Kara nodded in affirmation as her pussy clenched together against his probing member as his dick slid between her walls. The blonde hung onto the edge of the table was Harry plunged into her. His rock hard member worked into her.

The blonde was about to lose her mind with her breathing intensifying. Their bodies were covered in a sexy layer of sweat. Her eyes lit with a teasing tension of heat vision. She was about to rock her head back with Kara breathing in and out. The blonde's waist was grabbed as Harry kept working into her.

Each thrust was going deeper into her body, causing explosions of pleasure in her brain. She hung onto the edge of the table as Harry kept bringing his hard thrusts into her.

His hand wrapped around the edge of her breast and he squeezed it. The blonde panted heavily as Kara closed her eyes as Harry picked up a more intense pace. He went balls deep into the blonde beauty beneath him.

The blonde hung onto the edge of the table as Harry kept working into her. The blonde's walls tightened around him as Harry continued to work into her. The blonde's walls squeezed his cock and milked every last thrust.

Harry's hands greedily roamed her body, with the wizard held onto her ass and touched her sculpted rump. The blonde panted as she bit down on her lip and barely blocked out all of this pleasure.

"Oh, that's….oh fuck," Kara moaned. She came so hard and she splashed her clear liquids onto his manhood with Harry kept working into her from behind. The blonde held onto the table, grinding to add to the friction between the two.

Her walls constricted around him with the blonde feeling the pleasure around her and Harry plunged as deep into her as his cock could manage.

"I need you," Kara moaned hotly

Harry grabbed her around the waist and slammed into her once again. The blonde's walls wrapped around him as Harry hammered her into the table. The blonde's pussy twitched as Harry pushed back and drilled her in the quim. The blonde's nipples stiffened as Harry kept hammering into her, with one push at a time. She felt her walls stretch apart with Harry working into her.

"Oh, this is so fucking great," Kara moaned as her body felt a greater rush of pleasure as he plowed her into the table.

Harry yanked on her hair and this gave Harry the leverage to bang her hard into the table. The wizard kept going into her, his hard stiff pole going between her walls. The blonde tightened around him as Harry felt the pleasure going around his invading member.

"Yes," Kara moaned as his thrusts. "MORE, MORE, I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT YOUR FUCKING COCK, HAR!"

"I know," Harry said as he licked behind her ear which caused her to shiver as Harry caused the cooling air to roll over her breasts.

Kara panted as Harry plunged hard into her, as the blonde felt the pleasure that coursed through her body. Her mind was on fire as was her body as more pleasure assaulted her psyche.

"Getting closer, closer," Harry breathed as he held her arms back and kept ramming her cunt with the force of a train.

"Cum, cum into me," Kara panted as Harry continued to work into her. The wizard speared into her with the blonde's walls clutched around him and his balls grew heavier.

Kara lifted her hips and felt him pump into her. The blonde's tightening lips was like a vice around him, with the wizard's loins were about to explode. The blonde felt the hammering thrusts go into her. Between her legs went his hardening dick, going into her over and over again.

The blonde rocked her head back and bit down on her lip hard, feeling the rush of another mind shattering orgasm.

"Harry, please, I need it!" Kara begged as he continued to give it to her. The blonde's walls contracted around him and Harry smiled as he worked everything into her.

The blonde clutched onto the coffee table as he gave one more plowing thrusts. The blonde's eyes closed as Harry kept drilling her tightening quim.

His balls tightened and he sent a huge jet of cum into her center. The blonde panted as her walls tightened around him with Harry working himself into her. Several thick jets of cum finally injected into Kara and the blonde climaxed hard to soak his cock and the coffee table from the force of him cumming inside her.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

Kara was draped over the coffee table with a satisfied expression on her face, as Harry rested back on the couch with smile on his face. Her expression got goofier.

"You know, you brought this upon yourself," Harry offered as he saw Kara draped over the coffee table, her breasts pressed into the table and her legs still spread as she looked over her shoulder with even more burning "fuck me" eyes than ever before.

"Yes, I know I did," the blonde panted as she rested back on the table, her legs spread and she was willing for more, she was always willing for more with that stud.

"You do realize that you're insatiable," Harry commented as he scooped Kara up and pushed her back onto the couch.

"Can you blame me?" Kara asked as she felt herself moisten in anticipation for more.

He ran his hands down the blonde's body and smiled.

"No, not with me, not in the slightest."

Harry smiled and prepared to fuck her brains out. Again.

* * *

 

Harry had to admit that there was a liberating feeling after he was put through the paces and he let out the breath to signify the end of a training session.

He held up his left hand with a watch strapped around his wrist, it was in place, secure, and that was the way that he liked it. There was a practical reason why he had this watch upon his wrist. Contrary to popular belief, it was not for decoration. The young wizard also wore a sleek set of black battle robes that was made of some of the finest material on the planet, allowing for both practical movement and protection at the same time.

Despite the fact that they had been undergoing a training session which was a combination of transfiguration, charms, and other defensive magic, with Harry varying up the attacks when he could. It was all about switching up the assault.

He also mixed in a degree of physical attacks. Faora mentioned it to him in passing and he'd agreed, that he had been falling back too much on the old standby of using magic exclusively in a fight. The Hogwarts education was very limited in the sense that without their little sticks, most people were lost.

Not Harry but still even without the sticks, he always assumed that there would eventually be someone out there that was stronger than him. Therefore, he was going to keep getting better and become better than his best.

Giovanni Zatanna observed Harry and as daughter as well who he had tested earlier. She had come a long way since the time that she started with him. During her initial lessons, Zatanna collapsed in bed the moment that she had finished. That changed as she was able to push herself to new levels.

Harry was an interesting case study.

It was partially because of his unique heritage, although the more Giovanni looked back, the more he figured that it was because he was extremely powerful.

There was something special within Harry Potter and it was hard not to deny that fac.

Flamel mentioned that fact to him a while back. Giovanni smirked at the thought of the old man. He swore every year that this was going to be the year that he was going to give up the ghost on life.

So far he remained steadfast and alive, ready to cling on just as he had been during all that time.

From one living legend to another, Giovanni had thrown everything that he had at Harry Potter but the wizard had just kept coming back. The man had found himself glad that this was an exhibition for if it was not, the outcome would not be favorable for him.

"And stop."

Harry did stop although he did not break a sweat. Though he did give Giovanni credit for trying to give him a work out and allowing him to push himself to the limits. It was just that his constant workouts with his girls both in and outside of gym put him into the best shape possible. In some ways, being bonded to so many women had made his magic and his reserves even stronger. That much was for certain as determination flooded through his green eyes.

Zatanna watched her husband to be with a bright smile on her face. She felt that working with him, alongside her father had let her get a better handle on her own magical abilities. She did struggle although there was something inherent to her that was really strong and Harry encouraged her to bring out those abilities and her potential to its fullest.

Harry smiled as he took a step back.

"An excellent duel," Harry offered. Maybe it was just him but there was something about a good duel that really allowed him test his limits that put him in quite the good mode.

"I would have to agree, you've improved by leaps and bounds," Giovanni offered and then he quickly added. "Both of you."

He would have to say that Harry was already pretty good to start with but now he was better than acceptable. In fact, one could say that he exceeded all expectations.

Harry smiled at him. "So same time next week?"

Giovanni decided that this would be the best opportunity to slip the news to Harry. "I believe now it's the time for a parting of the ways between the two of us as far as our lessons are concerned."

Harry smiled as he figured this was coming although he did not know when.

"I've taught you everything that I could potentially teach you and it would be a waste of your time and talents if I kept you here," Giovanni offered and Zatanna raised an eyebrow. "The same goes for you as well, my daughter."

Zatanna blinked standing there stunned, she never thought that this day would come but it was here it was.

' _And just think, I was getting used to the lessons,'_ Zatanna offered but Harry smiled at his intended.

' _Only took you, what three years or so?'_ Harry asked her.

' _Something like that, yes,'_ Zatanna thought to him with a smile across her face.

Despite the fact that they weren't completely bonded, the intent to be married was more than strong enough to get the bond link between the two established and allowed Zatanna to hop on the Collective network. They had done some mild sexual activities although nothing that could be considered to be sex in the traditional sense of the word.

Zatanna had another reason to celebrate, as she just graduated high school and that thought put a smile on her face. She did so early and with top honors. When one took into consideration what she was doing with her father and later Harry tutored her a little bit on lost forms of magic that were not even present on Earth. That was slow going but Zatanna thought that she was getting a natural affinity for it.

"So what do you plan to do now that you're out of school?" Harry asked her.

Zatanna thought about that, she had more than a few options in the back of her mind that she was mulling over and she turned to face Harry properly.

"I'm not quite sure," Zatanna offered as she pondered the thought that roamed through her mind. She had many options and she had to think about them extremely carefully. "I was thinking about going on tour with my father now that I'm out of school. Of course there's something else, that we've got to talk about."

Harry knew exactly what she was talking about.

"So the wedding…."

"I think that a good date would be sometime in August," Zatanna commented to Harry.

"That would be the perfect date," Harry concluded with a smile as he pulled his intended into a tight hug.

Of course, both of them had a silent agreement that they would have done it sooner but Giovanni was insistent that his daughter get married the traditional way. Harry would sooner have gone off to Vegas to get married and Zatanna was in agreement with that.

Zatanna watched as her father slipped off to take a call in the other room.

"Wow, this is….it just feels like I've started a new chapter in my life," Zatanna commented as Harry watched her with a smile as she scooted onto his lap.

Harry wrapped his arms around her and the dark haired woman laid her head down on his shoulder with a smile.

"So, are you getting everything ready?" Zatanna asked him.

"Yes, the Wayne situation….."

"I've met him, when I was younger, it was a lifetime ago it seems," Zatanna said to Harry and the wizard smiled.

He met Bruce at Cambridge and when he did, he figured as many did that he would just be a vapid playboy, but there was much more to him than met the eye. In fact it seemed like Harry and himself could be too sides of the same coin. Of course, it was all about the masks that they wore. The young woman closed her eyes as Harry planted his lips on the back of her neck.

"You just….ah those should be…." Zatanna breathed as he continued to kiss the back of her neck and Harry stroked her hair.

"They should what?" Harry asked as he started to suck on the back of her neck and ran his fingers down the back of her neck.

"Oh, they should be registered as weapons…." Zatanna managed as Harry smiled before he begain nipping lightly at the skin on the back of her neck.

"Keep that up and I might not be able to…OH!...wait."

Zatanna shifted to straddled Harry's waist. Causing a smile crossing his face as he looked into her beautiful eyes.

"Are we going to give up the pretext of waiting?" Harry offered Zatanna and a smile crossed her face and she leaned towards him.

"Maybe if you play your cards right, Har," Zatanna purred in his ear as the two of them went down. "Although, as you know, there are certain things that we can still do."

"If it's in the mind, it doesn't technically count in the eyes of magic," Harry offered to Zatanna with a huge smile on his face.

"Yes, let's get our asses to a warded room," Zatanna offered and Harry scooped her up.

"My house or yours?" Harry asked to her.

Zatanna paused for a second and offered him a smile.

"Why not both?"

Magic was wonderful in many ways.

* * *

 

Harrison John Evans might not have been the first of Harry Potter's duplicates, but he was the longest lasting, and that made him much stronger than the rest. In some ways right now he was slightly stronger then the original. He served a purpose that was beyond sexual gratification of the many, many, females that were currently at his beck and call.

His name might not have been the most original in the world either but it was a practical one and served as an alias that he could use for his business ventures.

He was walking to one of his main offices in London where he set up shop, although he would be in the company of several beautiful women within a matter of minutes. That was how all versions of Harry Potter rolled, the more attractive women he surrounded himself with, the better it was.

The first woman that he met was a seventeen year old girl who had short shoulder length blonde hair that framed her face lovingly and alluring blue eyes. She had high and delicate cheekbones that showed her beauty and aristocratic nature. Her lips were a rosy red color. She wore elegant white robes that wrapped around the upper half of her body tightly, to show her amazing rack. She had a smooth stomach, long legs, and a shapely ass, and she was really growing into her body, already having one that most super models that would be envious of.

"Hey, Harry," Daphne commented as she greeted her husband with a kiss and Harrison returned it, pulling her into a tight hug, pressing her breasts against his chest.

"Hey, Daph," Harrison commented as he ran his fingers through the back of her hair and slowly stroked her blond locks.

She was not the only female that was there.

Another woman turned up with longer blonde hair that fall to her mid back and striking blue eyes. She was dressed in a tight white t-shirt that made it look like her breasts were about ready to burst out. The top was low cut and showcased her amazing cleavage. She wore tight black pants that wrapped around her ass tightly. She had an amazing body and she nearly tackled Harrison into the wall.

Harrison spun her around instead and pinned her against the wall, kissing her hard in the process. The woman sighed as she felt the pleasure of his lips.

"You know it's a wonder that I get any work done with you females around."

Lavender Brown offered him a saucy smile and a wink at his words. "Don't pretend you don't like it."

"Well be careful, because if I see you girls getting too far out of line. I'll more than likely see to it, that you're tied up and spanked until you cry for mercy, of which there will be none."

This was a statement that was given by another arrival who had dark hair and alluring violet eyes. She had a smooth face, with a wicked expression etched onto it that was a mixture of mirth and lust. She had pouty red lips that were good for various tastes. She wore a tight black body suit that hugged every curve she had to offer, showcasing her massive breasts, her tight ass, and her long legs.

She was Bellatrix Lestrange, the former most faithful follower of the Dark Lord Voldemort, although she had turned to the other side when she experienced the wonders of a certain part of Harry's body. She stuck close by to Harrison in her role as his official bodyguard.

"Well you do a great job in guarding my body," Harrison offered Bellatrix.

"Yes, and sometimes she does so very obsessively."

A brunette with amazing blue eyes joined them. She had a black top that stretched around the upper half of her body and tight black pants that fit around her shapely ass.

"Lindsey," Harrison stated as he wrapped his arms around another one of his girls, Lindsey Preston. After graduating from Cambridge with high honors, she took a job as assistant to Harrison.

"Good to see you too," Lindsey said as she pulled herself into him and Harrison kissed her deeply. She paused and another smile escaped her lips. "And it's even better to taste you."

Harrison smiled. "It always is."

Bellatrix informed Harrison of the news. "Narcissa and Andromeda are on their way here, my Lord."

"Excellent," Harrison commented, he was looking forward to talking to the two other Black Sisters. They had been grooming replacements at the Ministry for their eventually departure although it would take some time.

"Present and accounted for actually," Narcissa announced as she flew into Harrison's arms and Harrison grabbed her around the waist, kissing her on the mouth hard. The blonde felt his tongue work into her mouth.

"Don't hog him, Cissa," Andromeda protested and Narcissa decided to communicate with her sister through the bond link.

' _You'll have your turn Andi,'_ Narcissa persisted in a stubborn voice.

Andi pushed her out of the way and grabbed Harrison before pushing her husband against the wall, and kissing him hard. Harrison returned it eagerly.

"Oh, am I late to the party?"

That was the voice of the newest arrival to their little group. She had long dark hair that she currently had tied back. Her soulful brown eyes twinkled with mirth. The black top that she wore stretched around a huge set of breasts, and she had a black skirt that was modest, yet showed a hint of the treasures underneath. She wore a pair of black stockings that stuck to her legs like a second layer of flesh.

"No, Charlotte, not at all," Harrison told the woman, as Charlotte Edwards-Potter formerly Granger, grabbed him around the waist and she shoved her tongue into his mouth with a simmering kiss.

The two got it out of system before it was time to get down to business and Harry decided to turn to Narcissa.

"So how are things at the Ministry?"

"About as well as any government could be," Narcissa commented as she inclined her head. "There are still some pureblood idiots causing a stir but they've been negated with the new laws that have been passed. Everyone is put on somewhat equal footing but no one is going to get in a more favorable position unless it's earned."

"Yes, they really can't pull the Muggleborns don't know the world card, when Magical Heritage is now a class and mandatory for all Muggleborns," Andromeda chimed in.

"Just like Muggle Studies will be for all Magical borns," Harrison added. "Minerva is trying to arrange for actual Muggles who are in the know of the magical world to come in and give lectures."

"I'm sure that's going to go over really well with the old crowd," Lindsey stated, she had been let in on the secret sometime back although she figured that it explained quite a lot. Then again, there was a lot of weirdness that was in the world or really the world in general. She just was along for the ride.

"Well who gives a fuck what those douchebags think?" Bellatrix asked and with logic like that, it was really hard to argue that much, if at all.

"Well, you won't have any argument about that one at all," Charlotte offered with an amused expression.

"I didn't think that there's even a possibility that an argument could be found against," Bellatrix offered.

He allowed the females to talk business for a moment but Harrison had another person that he was expecting to show up and she never missed an appointment.

She still had three minutes and she appeared three seconds later standing in the shadows.

"You very nearly snuck on me that time," Harry told Nyssa as she stood in the shadows.

"Well then next time I'm going to have to do my best to ensure that it's not nearly," Nyssa commented lightly as she gave him a passionate greeting.

The woman had long dark hair that fell down her back. She had gorgeous green eyes that were a different shade than Harry's. Her face was that of an angel such it would lure men into a false sense of security so that would underestimate how formidable she was until it was too late. She wore a tight black top that stretched over her D Cup breasts and rode up an inch to show the tantalizing flesh beneath the top.

Harrison had her pinned up against the wall and kissed the daylights out of her. She returned the kiss with hungry desire, her eyes closed in pleasure, as the two of them swapped spit with each other.

He backed off, as Nyssa slumped up against the wall with a sigh that escaped her mouth.

"So, how are things?" Harrison asked her.

Nyssa was only too happy to inform him.

"My sister's project is starting soon but otherwise it's business as usual," Nyssa told Harrison and there was a second where he corked an eyebrow.

There was no need for her to elaborate further, because Harrison knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Narcissa, how are things at the Ministry?" Harrison asked the youngest Black Sister. "With your job?"

"Rita is very nearly groomed as Press Secretary, so I can move on to other pursuits," Narcissa informed Harrison.

Harrison smiled. "Right, right, I figured that you would be moving on soon and how's Nym?"

"After threatening to do so for about a year, I think she's finally pulled the trigger," Andromeda replied to him. "As of today, she handed in her two week notice. Although Amelia gave her a paid vacation the last two weeks so she's pretty much gone."

"Right, She's was grumbling about going to join Prime in Gotham when I last spoke to her," Harrison agreed with a smile on his face.

"That's excellent," Andromeda confirmed , she figured that if her daughter was wasting her time at the Ministry, then it was for the best that she did something else.

"Yes," Harrison agreed.

There was a lot to do but he knew that if he kept busy, he would get the majority of it done in no time flat, at least that's what his intention was.

There were always many ongoing projects and they would kept piling up but one did not punch a time clock when they prepared to improve the world.

* * *

 

While Harrison had business to take care of, Harry did as well. He was hunched over the desk in his office study, going over several pieces of paperwork that required his personal attention.

There was an interesting sight standing across from him which made it very difficult to do the work necessary. Normally he would greet such a sight with encouragement but he had plenty of work to get accomplished.

Fleur Delacour was with him in his office. She was dressed in an extremely enticing French Maid's outfit. The top of the uniform low cut to show off her cleavage. It was through the sheer force of will that it did not give way to show her DD Cup breasts.

The skirt was another matter entirely.

Harry suspected that the skirt was an experiment in how short Fleur could get it, before it could be considered indecent. Of course one could go back and forth all day about what might be considered indecent. It was a quality that was up for a fair amount of cultural debate.

The fact of the matter was that her skirt was so short currently, that one could almost see her panties. And if Harry moved his head at a certain angle, there was no almost about it, he could see her lacy and very skimpy set of white panties. A pair of sexy stockings matched it and she had heels on as well which raised her up into the air, making her tight ass look higher.

It was hard to keep his mind on his work but somehow through sheer force of will, Harry was getting it done. He had an iron will as he watched the young Veela's bum slightly swaying from one side to the other as she did the dusting around the office. He supposed that she could do it the magical way and be done in three seconds flat but Fleur insisted that she do things the normal way, to immerse herself in more mundane culture.

At first the swaying of her ass was subtle, but as the time passed she was shaking her ass more and more towards him. Harry caught her looking over her shoulder a couple of times with a smoldering grin.

' _She's cruising for one, isn't she?'_ Amanda chimed in causing Harry to snicker.

' _Yes, she is,'_ Gabrielle commented as she shook her head. _'Tart.'_

Ginny offered her two cents in on the bond link. _'You do realize that's your sister that you're talking about.'_

' _My point still stands,'_ Gabrielle offered as she folded her arms as if daring anyone else to contradict her. Thankfully there was no one who was going to be brazen enough to do so. The blonde brushed her hands over the top of her head and there was a knock that indicated that Harry had to tag out of the bond link to take care of some business.

Sersi, the princess of the goblin nation and the official Gringott's account manager to Harry Potter, turned up to greet him.

"Hello, Harry, I trust you have been well," Sersi commented as she leaned towards Harry and he met her lips with his in a tender kiss.

"Very well, thanks," Harry offered the goblin princess who shifted a tiny bit. "So how are you…."

"I'm fine," Sersi told him. All the work that the Potter businesses required and all of the businesses under his watch had not been easy to keep track of. It was fortunate that Sersi had a dedicated team in place that would help her keep all of these things. "I'm just doing all of the work that you've had set up for me."

"I hope it isn't too much," Harry told the female goblin as he made a few more notes about a proposal that he was working on.

Fleur's ass continued to shake to the right, to the left as her skirt almost appeared to get shorter.

Sersi was amused by Fleur's antics or at least what passed as amused for a goblin. "Yes….I'm sure it might be too much for human hands but we goblins enjoy a challenge."

"And that's what I like about the goblin nation, no matter what, they are up to face the challenge," Harry told the goblin princess who looked flushed.

"Well some might be interested in having a more intimate relationship," Sersi hinted towards Harry as she leaned over the desk. She had picked up a few human mannerisms that would get her chewed out by the goblin elders, including her father.

But the goblin elders weren't here, were they?

"Well if there's a few more like you…."

"Well no one is exactly like me, but there are some that are close enough, goblins that might be considered to be freakish by what our races standards pass for in regards beauty," Sersi commented and it was with that statement that she pulled a face. Goblins had a cracked sense of what was good looking.

"Well, I'm sure they'll fit in, quite nicely," Harry said as he was momentarily tripped up by the shaking of Fleur's ass as she wiggled it more and more.

"So, I need you to read these, just standard documents, but read through them," Sersi advised him, even though Harry did not need such advice. Only a moron would not read what they signed and Harry was far from a moron.

Harry did read the documents, with the Fleur show going on around him as she continued to shake her ass while cleaning the bookshelf. A smile crossed over his face as he read the documents.

"In order, to the letter, not that I'd expect anything less from you," Harry offered as he scratched his signature on the dotted line.

"Thank you, Mr. Potter, sir," Sersi told him in a professional voice although her actions were less than professional as she leaned up and planted a kiss on his lips. Harry eagerly returned the kiss.

"You're quite welcome, princess," Harry said to her.

"I will be back soon, for more pleasurable endeavors," she told him with a hungry expression dancing in her eyes and she stole one final kiss.

Sersi made her exit, as Harry saw Fleur continue to shake her ass as she continued to clean, which she had been doing for a better part for an hour. The wizard had a smile cross his face as he stepped towards her, slowly, carefully, deliberately. If she was going to ask for it, well he was going to give it to her, give her everything that she asked for and more.

Fleur yelped as Harry threw her over her lap. She was visited by a mixture of excitement and fear, as she felt goosebumps rise as Harry pulled her skirt up.

Without words, Harry spanked her thong clad bottom. Her delicious ass was on display and briefly, red marks manifested on it. Veelas had the extraordinary ability to heal so Harry made sure to put everything into it so he could leave a bit of an impression on her.

Fleur slid down to the floor, with a whine, as Harry turned and left her, feeling extremely frustrated.

Which was by his design, she was being punished so any further fun would have to and be worth the wait.

Harry paused as he sensed the return of one of his Alphas from her day's activities. He sensed that she was on her way to the bath and decided to meet her there.

Harry made his way towards his destination, a smile crossing his face as he saw her at the end of the hallway.

To describe her beauty would be a chore, because there were not enough words in the English, or any other language to describe it, and he spoke several but Harry enjoyed a challenge. She had dark black hair that was sleek and shiny. Her face was elegant and well sculpted, along with the rest of her body. She had luscious red lips, along with deep blue eyes that were full of life and energy.

Currently she was wearing a black blouse that stretched over her extremely ample breasts. A black skirt extended to the ground, but was tight around her ample ass and it was within Harry's abilities to see to her well-toned legs. He saw her black high heel boots that covered her feet and he took a half of a step forward towards her.

"Diana, love, welcome home," Harry said with a warm greeting.

Diana Potter, smiled at her life mate, and stepped towards him, pulling him into a tight embrace. With another swift movement, she kissed him.

"Long day," Harry whispered to her and Diana smiled.

"Yes, a very long day," Diana informed him as she rested in his arms for a moment, just basking in the atmosphere. "You know about my new internship."

Harry smiled. "Yes, at the museum, with Doctor Sandsmark."

"Yes, I've been splitting my time between there and here," Diana concluded but despite that fact, a smile crossed her face. "And I wouldn't give it up for the world. Working for Helena Sandsmark is a unique opportunity. I wouldn't want to pass it up for anything in the world."

Diana closed her eyes and Harry rubbed a tension knot out of her shoulder. It didn't really hurt but still it was the thought that counted. She relaxed a little bit as she allowed her husband to work his magic.

"I was about to take a bath," Diana whispered to him and Harry smiled at the thought. What man wouldn't smile at the thought of something like that?

"I'm about to take a bath," Diana whispered to him and Harry smiled at the thought of that. What man wouldn't smile at the thought of something like that?

"I'll join you," Harry told his wife.

Diana smiled at that thought, then again, what woman wouldn't smile at that?

' _Too bad we're still at the office, otherwise we'd join you as well,'_ Karen thought and Jaime and Faora would have offered similar sentiments as well but Harry focused his attention on the matter at hand.

Diana made her way to the really large bath, large enough for at least thirty people even though it might not look so at a casual glance. And thanks to the magic of magic, Harry could expand the bath to make things even bigger.

The Amazon Princess stripped out of her clothes, showing off her delicious body and Harry smiled at the sight of her. She was a delicious treat; there was no question about it. That was the prominent thought that went through Harry's head as Diana settled down in the bath.

Harry disrobed himself and summoned a rag and some soap. He poured the liquid soap on Diana's back and she shivered. The wizard ran his hands up and down her back, lathering her up. He did it in a practical manner which got her clean and also in a manner where it teased her just a little bit. The woman closed her eyes, feeling the pleasure.

She felt so amazing as Harry worked his skilled hands all over her body, lingering on her legs briefly and teasing her. She felt warmth that rose from between her legs and she knew that things were going to get more intense. Harry's ministrations were slowly causing her to lose herself in a cloud of lust.

He briefly teased her ass crack but it was only a fluttering brush for only a second. Diana groaned at the loss of his hands upon it.

Harry returned fire, working his way around towards her front. He had to get in front of her to do so properly so their sexual organs were inches away from touching each other. One nudge would allow them to meet.

His hands skimmed over her stomach and the woman panted as Harry's talented hands continued to lather her body. The woman's eyes closed tight as Harry continued his work, a calm and cool look in his eyes, although a shadow of a triumphant smile threatened to appear over his face. Diana's eyes were closed so she did not notice.

Things got a bit more hot and heavy as Harry placed his hands over her breasts, working them over. The dark haired woman breathed as the wizard pushed his hands on the underside of her breasts.

The woman closed her eyes.

"Hera," Diana breathed as Harry brushed against her and this caused a heat to rise from her loins as Harry teased the underside of her breasts, washing her.

The woman felt a current of pleasure rock her from head to toe and as Harry kept massaging her breasts, washing them, things got a bit hot and heavy.

The dam inside of Diana's mind busted and she pushed him back into the side of the bath tub, her mouth finding his with a searing kiss. The two of them went at it with each other, their tongues dancing together, both of them trying to reach a dominating position.

Harry's hands wrapped around his wife's waist as she pushed into him and she reached her hand down her abs, and then she inched a little bit lower to claim her prize.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Diana grabbed his thick manhood and pumped it up and down, building up his anticipation for the next round. Harry grunted as Diana played with his cock and balls to stimulate his erection. His arousal along with his orgasm was building as she worked her hand up and down. The dark haired woman kissed him and Harry returned the favor, his lips meeting hers in passionate intensity.

Harry's fingers trailed down her stomach, teasing every last inch of her and causing shivers to erupt down Diana's spine. The woman was feeling his pleasurable strokes as she closed her eyes tight and felt the rush that erupted through her body. The dark haired woman felt even more pleasure as Harry worked her over with his hands, cupping her breasts.

"Damn Diana," Harry breathed as the Amazon squeezed his engorged pole with a firm grip. Every nerve ending of the Kryptonian wizard's tingled with pleasure.

"Mmm," Diana breathed as she was momentarily distracted by Harry working her breasts over with his hands, channeling pure sexual magic which caused her nipples to become stiff. Harry captured one of them in his mouth and sucked it.

Harry indulged himself in the elegant taste of Diana's bud. The dark haired woman closed her eyes with Harry pumping his fingers between her legs.

"Harry," Diana whined as she forgot to stroke him at least for the second.

"I believe I have something for your mouth to be occupied by," Harry breathed to her.

Diana and Harry floated in the air, with Diana's legs spread. Her smooth womanhood with only a hint of dark hair was there before him, ready to indulge his heightened passions in. Harry licked his licks as he indulged himself against her sweet box between her legs. His licking intensified.

Diana felt his licking intensify and she moaned. The Amazon proceeded to busy her mouth with Harry's cock, wrapping her lips around it. The woman's hands skillfully manipulated his balls, feeling every single inch of him as it grew and itched, burying his cock deep into her mouth and her throat.

Harry felt the Amazon's warm hot lips wrap around him, bringing his cock deep into her throat. It was quite the feeling to say the least. He felt his balls twitch with desire as Diana slid his manhood deep into her hot mouth and down her throat. She closed her eyes and hummed, bringing the vibrations go down his shaft.

The emerald eyed enchanter, in response to his wife's actions, indulged himself into more of her hot box. The woman closed her eyes and his hands worked into her thighs, squeezing her.

"Mmm," Diana moaned as she continued her blowjob.

She was determined to take all of Harry's cum and suck it down her throat until it filled her belly. She took Harry extremely long penis into her mouth and went deep into her throat, deep as she could go. Her warm throat closed around him, making him feel her efforts as she pumped herself in and out. The woman closed her eyes and worked into him.

"Yes," Harry breathed to Diana as he worked into her. He went back to her pussy, his tongue working its magic into her.

His tongue rattled inside her and Diana lost it on his face, covering his face in creamy goodness. Harry felt pleased as her juices splattered against his face. Harry's cock grew even harder in her mouth as he pumped himself deep as possible within her tight throat cavity.

"Mmm," Diana managed as Harry gave another thrust and his balls tightened and then burst, sending a heavy stream of cum down her throat. Diana closed her eyes as he pumped an immense and thick load down her throat. To her credit, she slurped it up.

Her nipples stiffened as Harry pumped a load that was thick and large down her throat. The Amazon sucked her soul mate's cock, bringing it to only a semi hard state.

"Delicious," Diana commented.

Harry found her pussy hovering over him and she placed her hands on his shoulders, rubbing her box up and down his tip to allow for better stimulation.

"Ready, love," Diana purred in his ear and Harry smiled, putting his hands on his wife's hips.

"For you, my love, always," Harry grunted as he pushed back his throbbing hard rod and stuffed it into Diana's hot box.

Diana closed her eyes and she felt the rush of her husband's cock stretch out her quim. It was a treat to see him and feeling him buried into her in such a way caused her to tingle. The woman grabbed onto his shoulder as Harry pumped in and out of her.

Harry established a slow momentum at first, it was to build up the anticipation in Diana's mind. His cock rose up and pushed into her walls. Her walls stretched apart with Harry working between her legs. The woman's pussy clenched around his hard rod as he invaded her.

"Deeper, love, deeper," Diana panted as she wrapped her hand around his bicep and gave it an encouraging squeeze as he plunged himself into her.

Harry pulled himself completely out of her to pause for a few seconds and then he slammed back down into her. Somehow in the act, Diana was underneath Harry as they hovered above the bath in mid air. Harry kissed Diana firmly on the lips and she returned fire with a passionate kiss of her own.

Her strong legs, legs that could crush cars with a minimal effort, wrapped around Harry's waist. She held him close into her cunt, never wanting that piece of meat to leave her from long. Harry obliged her with a hard thrust which stretched her walls apart. The Amazon felt a rush as her nipples stiffened and her eyes closed tighter yet.

"Harry, deeper," Diana begged him.

"As you wish," Harry breathed as he grabbed her ass.

His huge pole rammed into her, as he ran his hands down her thighs, feeling the delicious flesh that was underneath him.

Harry's rod speared into her, seeking her heat. The Amazon lifted her hips and the wizard continued to plunge deep into her.

Diana felt the pleasure of him, with the young woman breathing heavily as Harry pumped into her. The woman's eyes closed shut as she panted heavily with Harry manipulating her breasts. The young wizard plowed into her with Harry hammering into her, going even deeper.

"Oh, so tight, baby, so tight," Harry breathed as he cupped her breast and gave her a hearty squeeze. Diana closed her eyes.

He kept pumping into her, working his member between her thighs. She pumped her hips up and she wrapped her arms around him.

Harry's face was pressed between her large breasts sucking on her nipples, with Harry working into her tight quim. The woman's eyes closed as Harry was running his hands down her body down her body. She grabbed his back and sank her nails into him.

He was unable to say much of anything, instead he indulged himself into Diana's breasts.

"Mmm, oh, ah," Diana moaned as Harry worked himself into his cock as the woman pumped her hips up to meet his invasion.

' _Yes, I' m going to take you, over, and over,'_ Harry breathed as he wrapped her up in midair, levitating ropes wrapped around her wrists and ankles to bind her into place.

Diana rocked in the air, her legs spread in the air and Harry hammered into her.

"Time to flip this," Harry breathed as he pulled out of her, leaving Diana frustrated as she was about to have an orgasm. She could not voice this because Harry conjured a ball gag and shoved it firmly into her mouth.

Diana was turned over and Harry took a look at her ass, running his hands down her rear with practiced ease. He caused his finger to become super hot and he stuck it up her ass.

The Amazon Princess moaned loudly from her husband's actions. That felt so good, her nipples were going to get extremely stiff. Harry ran his finger down her crack and brought even more pleasure to her, causing her loins to heat up with pleasure and arousal dripped from her pussy.

He channeled the same kind of magic through his penis, and wrapped his arms around her waist, causing warm and cold alternating touches to manifest throughout Diana's body. The ball gag was removed because Harry wanted to hear her moan.

"Hera…oh fucking Hera!" Diana moaned as Harry grabbed her breasts and the woman felt the pleasure rush through her loins.

Harry aimed his huge cock between her legs and she screamed out loud, feeling the pleasure of this large dick going between her.

Diana's tight quim snugly wrapped around his engorged pole. The Amazon sunk her nails into the edge of the tub which she floated over.

His cock pulled out of her and then after a tease, speared directly into her tight and tanned bum. The Amazon moaned as she felt her husband's warm cock into her tighter ass. Jolts of pleasure exploded into her body.

"Mmm," Harry breathed as he used the Metamorphmagus skills to morph his index finger into a cock and spear it between Diana's pussy, pumping it in and out of her.

"Discovered….a new trick," Diana moaned as Harry's morphed fingers pushed between her legs and brought her amazing pleasure.

"You know it," Harry breathed in her ear and it caused her to clench as Harry manipulated both of her.

Time went by as Diana was brought to more orgasms that she was bothered to keep track of. The woman felt breathing go through her as her chest heaved in and out.

"Oh, yes, oh, cum for me," Diana begged him as her pussy clenched around his penis finger and Harry pumped into her.

"In a minute, darling," Harry breathed as he continued to drill her hot ass. Her ass was slammed with his huge prick and she moaned even more loudly.

Harry's balls tightened and he sent a rush of cum into her ass, as he channeled even more of his hot seed through the morphed finger and spilled it into Diana's inner chambers.

The Amazon screamed out loud, feeling the pleasure and the pressure, breathing loudly. There was a few seconds where both came down.

Then Harry returned to her, where they went at it for several days, although it was moments on the outside world.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

Diana snuggled up against Harry, offering him a few kisses to the side of his neck. The woman wrapped her hands around him and a look of content spread over her face.

"You just keep getting better," Diana breathed in his ear and Harry's cock twitched a little bit.

"Yes, and just wait until after my third maturity," Harry whispered to her and Diana smiled. She was looking forward to that.

As practically mind blowing as the sex was now, it was going to be even better pretty soon and that fact brought a smile on her face. Harry brought her back to the bedroom.

Kara and Faora were waiting for them in the bedroom. Kara was wearing some barely there red lingerie that only scarcely covered what needed to be covered. It emphasized all of her curves and her breasts were about to spill out of her attire. Faora was wearing about the same thing, only skimpier and black, which Harry not knowing that it was possible to get something skimpier than Kara wore.

"Oh, you're here Har," Faora whispered to him and she leaned towards him, offering a kiss to him. Harry took the kiss, as she pushed herself onto Harry's lap.

She did not get enough this morning, not at all. Harry wrapped his arms around her as he worked his tongue into her mouth.

Kara waited but Diana kept her occupied, wrapping her strong arms around her body and the dark haired woman pressed her lips onto hers. Kara breathed heavily as the Amazon's lips pressed against her, feeling the sensations of her hands work over her body. The Kryptonian relaxing under her tender minstrations.

"Time to switch," Faora commented and Harry took Kara into his arms.

"Finally," Kara breathed as her lips met Harry's and she pushed him back onto the bed.

Faora and Diana grabbed each other, wrapping their arms around each other and offering a hungry round of kisses towards each other. Both were trying to outdo the other.

Now that all four of them were together in bed, the fun was just getting started.

**To Be Continued in the Next Chapter.**


	2. Wayne Enterprises

**Chapter 2: Wayne Enterprises.**

Harry smiled as he read the latest news going on in Gotham City, as he sat at the kitchen table of his Penthouse apartment. It was a nice change of scenery from the Manor House and he split his time more or less equally between both with the Penthouse edging out the Manor slightly. There were moments over the past couple of years where he divided his time between the Manor House, the Penthouse and the Castle. Strictly speaking, the Castle was located in the UK, although Peve informed him that it was technically outside of the pull of time and space along with being nowhere and everywhere. Harry shrugged after thinking about it again, most of the time he find it best to just go with the flow and see where it took him.

He flipped through the newspaper, frowning at what he found within it.

' _Some people don't know how to follow orders,'_ Harry thought to himself, there were rumors that Wayne Enterprises was being taken in a certain direction. One that he and Faora didn't want it to go in. In fact, they left that numbskull explicit instructions that a special needs child would able to follow.

Harry sighed as he continued to thumb through the paper. Either this person was trying to serve some kind of agenda of his own or, more likely, there was someone pulling his strings. Harry could think of a few people both in and out of Gotham City, that wanted to get their dirty little fingers on Wayne Enterprises. However, they had made the mistake of getting Harry's full and undivided attention upon themselves.

Getting Har-Zod's full and undivided attention upon you was not something that was conducive to your long term health, when you deliberately disobeyed an order that he made. This man was paid money, good money mind you, to pay heed to a certain vision. Both Harry and Alexandra Potter would be paying a visit to Wayne Enterprises very soon and they would sort this matter out, which had quickly morphed into a huge mess.

The young wizard closed his eyes as he enjoyed the breakfast that he was having. Bacon, eggs, toast, with a helping of orange juice, it was a particularly large helping but no where near what Vernon and Dudley used to consume. Technically speaking given his gifts, he burned through a lot of energy very quickly, so he found himself a lot more at ease and a fair bit less sluggish when he ate something.

Flipping through the paper, he noticed that there was an article about him. A donation to the Gotham woman's shelter, just typical business public relations stuff really, it did mention how he was restoring the Gotham Botanical Gardens on top of that though. Pam had been ecstatic when she found out what her wedding present from him and her follow wives in the Collective was and it would be handed over to her once she got her second doctorate, this time in Botany.

There was always a lot or projects in the offering, everyone within the Collective tended to be up to something and some of them had several different balls up in the air at once depending on their capabilities.

Harry flipped over the paper once again. There was a lot of society fluff in there. Simon Stagg was a name that caught his eye; he was someone who was a poison on society and also on the environment. He was a well known name in the business world and there was always gossip that he was up to something underhanded. From what Harry had seen and heard that his daughter Sapphire was quite the lovely young woman, though he'd yet to meet her for himself as she'd apparently been away at finishing school.

Harry shook his head to clear it, as he got back to the matter at hand. He took in a deep breath and let it out. He offered himself one mental statement that said the following.

' _One problem at a time.'_

That was the truth; Harry had learned very early on to deal with one problem at a time, right now the young wizard thinking about the future of his company. Well companies to be exact. His companies across the pond had been doing well. Harrison and Daphne had that well in hand, so he was very hands off about it and did not stress out about those particular business ventures too much.

' _So, you seem in a good mood this morning,'_ Harry offered to Faora as he caught her jubilation through the bond link.

' _Should we be worried?'_ Amanda piped in.

' _If it's Faora, we should most certainly be worried,'_ Daphne offered in a dry voice.

' _That's amusing, really amusing,'_ Faora commented to Harry. _'Anyway, you'll find out about it later, although by the time you do, you won't be able to get the smile off of your face either.'_

Harry found himself more then a little curious about that statement. Even more so once he factored in the tone of her voice.

' _Oh, the intrigue builds,'_ Kara commented, as right now she was relaxing in the Mansion, taking a nice long soak in the bath. _ **'**_ _Oh, and Hermione's still alive in the library. Apparently she's gotten obsessive about cataloging every book in there into a database so it the information can be brought up easily from any one of the properties.'_

' _Leave her be for now. I'll stage a more direct intervention later if necessary,_ _ **'**_ Harry offered to her.

' _Oh, someone's in trouble,'_ Ginny commented in a sing song voice.

Hermione had been in that library for a long time and she had been doing her best to block the bond link off. Harry did his best to humor her but his amusement of her activities and for her defying him was running fairly thin. Given how well she was doing after Hogwarts, this was about ten steps backwards for her. She did get a Doctorate in Library Sciences within two years, granted, but that did not mean that she did not needed to obsess over it.

Then again, she would not be Hermione if she was not obsessive about something and a bit neurotic. As Charlotte reminded him, that was a quirk that she got from her father. Which was frustrating but that was just the way that things were. So he was willing to put up with it a certain amount but he drew the line at her neglecting her health.

Harry continued to eat his breakfast. He heard someone slip into the room but he sensed that she was not a danger, so he went on reading his paper.

He smiled as he saw her pick up something that she dropped on the floor. Her skirt rode up to show him a hint of her panties beneath and he smiled as he licked his fingers.

Penelope Clearwater was a vision of feminine beauty. She had long dark hair that went down past her shoulders. As well as alluring brown eyes and tanned skin that showed the exotic beauty that she was. She was wearing a tight white blouse that wrapped around her curvy frame. The top button was undone to show her healthy cleavage and a lacy black bra wrapped around her C-Cup breasts. The bottom three buttons were undone as well, and it showed off the taunt muscles of her stomach. This was all topped off by a short black skirt, although not was short as Fleur's, that showed her stocking clad legs.

She stood there in the middle of the kitchen humming to herself as if considering something, before slipping underneath the table and crawling towards him.

"Morning Harry," Penny said in a chipper voice, as she looked up at him with her soulful brown eyes.

"Morning, Penny," Harry commented lightly.

She had completed her training as a Healer at St. Mungos but had decided to take on a job of Harry's own personal healer for him and his women. Given the time of dangers that they could get into, it was a good idea to keep a healer on staff. She also served as his butler, chauffeur and the head of his domestic staff, apparently it was a long standing tradition within her family and both of her maternal uncles and grandfather had functioned or currently functioned in a similar role.

"I'm hungry," Penny said as she batted her eyelashes at him.

She knew what she wanted to eat, it was rather obvious considering the fact she was underneath the table already and she unbuckled Harry's pants, working her hand into his pants in under to pull out what she wanted to play with right now.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Penny's strong hand wrapped around his base and slowly pumped him up and down. Slowly, she worked his rod, licking her lips. Her tongue trailed around the outer edges of her as she pumped him up, building up more pressure as she continued.

"Going to enjoy this," she breathed as she blew on his tip, her hot breath teasing him.

"Well that goes without saying," Harry managed as her lips wrapped around his head and she gave him a slight suck, to accelerate the fun. The dark haired girl worked her lips around him and continued her efforts and said efforts were really alluring.

Another kiss was given to his tip and then Penny shoved her mouth down upon his phallus, sucking him hard.

Her nose touched the edge of him and Harry closed his eyes, feeling the prominent rush that went through his loins as the dark haired girl sucked him skillfully. There were so many emotions that burned through her eyes, emotions that could not be measured.

She hummed and sucked on him happily.

Harry allowed these actions to continue, as he reached for her top, unbuttoning it. This allowed him access to more of her tanned, sleek skin. It was covered in a sheen of sweat, with Harry running his hands all the way down her body.

Penny panted as Harry worked his fingers down all the way her body. He sent slight subtle touches all the way down her body.

"Mmm, yes," Penny managed as she came down from his cock for a brief second but this was only to allow herself to shove more of his rock hard dick down her throat. He went all the way down into the back of her throat as she hungrily sucked him. A series of lewd slurping noises as she clutched his base added to Harry's enjoyment.

She brought the point of her nose down into his pubic bone and Harry closed his eyes, as she sucked.

"Yes, that's the spot," Harry breathed as Penny worked her skilled hands down between his legs and played with his balls.

Several more minutes of deep sucking caused Harry to thrust his manhood deeper into her mouth. Penny's lips tightened around him as her eyes bulged with intense desire. Her slurping and sucking resounded all around as she took him down the back of her throat.

This cock tasted so good, really she could suck it all day and all night long and not get bored. Right now, her lips pursed around him as she worked herself further down that member of his. Her slurping got even more wanton.

"Yes, oh, mmm yes," Harry breathed as Penny went down him and he thrust into her mouth. Her lips wrapped around his shaft as he prepared to pump himself into his lover's mouth.

She hummed and the vibrations coming through the back of her throat caused Harry's balls to twitch. He kept working himself into her mouth, bringing his cock in and out of her, with a sawing motion that rocked her to her very being. The woman's mouth closed around him, licking and slurping him, as she was getting closer to bringing him to the edge.

The pressure in Harry's loins exploded and sent his cum straight into the mouth. The young woman sucked it up like a starving woman.

Penny pushed away from Harry and he pulled her up onto his lap.

"It's like the gift that keeps on giving," Penny breathed in an excited voice and Harry smiled as he played with her folds a little bit to get her excited.

Penny closed her eyes, and Harry held her up by the hips.

The woman braced herself as Harry slammed her down onto his rock hard rod, causing it to spear into her body.

"Fuck," Penny breathed as Harry had her on his lap in the chair. The woman knew what to do next, bouncing up and down on his mighty rod, working her hips around him. She breathed in and out, feeling the pleasure of him penetrating her quim.

"Yes, that's what we're doing," Harry commented as he squeezed her breast which caused a scream of pleasure to pass through her mouth.

Penny was going to hang on for this amazing ride. Her hips closed around him. She felt him bury into her and fireworks went off into her mind. Harry squeezed her breasts and Penny moved her hips around his hard rod. She panted and rode him, as she grounded her heated mound up and down onto him. The woman was hanging on for the ride of her life, her nipples sticking out and about ready to be sucked by Harry.

Harry latched his mouth around one of her nipples and gave her a suck. This caused the woman to throw her head back and scream for the heavens. Her panting got even intense and Harry pushed her down onto his throbbing phallus.

"Oh, that's it baby, harder, oh yeah," Penny moaned as Harry worked his mighty spear up between her legs.

"So fucking hot," Harry breathed as Penny rode him for all he was worth.

This thick cock stretched apart her walls, it was driving Penny mad with lust. The woman closed her eyes and the madness escalated in her mind as Harry grew his tongue to twice its normal size, slithering it up and down her breasts.

"Fuck," Penny breathed.

Penny pulled herself up and then she slammed onto him. She felt his cock go into her, hitting her womb as she rode him. The dark haired woman bounced up and down, throwing her head back. Her tongue trailed around her mouth and she licked.

Harry squeezed her right breast and this got the scream that she needed.

Penny rode him harder, she was going to ride him to a heavenly climax. Her hips clenched around his rod as she buried him deeper into her quim. Her panting escalated as she worked her tanned body around him.

"Damn, Penny, so fucking hot," Harry groaned.

"I'm….going to fuck all of your cum out of you," Penny breathed and Harry grabbed her ass, slipping a finger up her bum.

"Looking forward, ah to your attempt," Harry breathed as he felt the sensations of her flesh working around his. His hard rod was manipulated between her walls as she tightened around him. Her nipples stuck out and Harry leaned forward, to capture one into his mouth.

He licked the delights that were her nipples and Penny moaned as Harry's penis speared into her. His divine rod pushed up between her walls with Harry causing her even more pleasure.

"Damn baby, damn, oh, damn," Penny breathed as she felt the orgasm rock through her body.

She was feeling the heat of him, as he sought her heat. Her walls clenched onto him.

"We'll see who fucks the cum out of who," Harry breathed.

That breathy declaration caused Penny's walls to close tight around his invading phallus. The dark haired woman bounced even higher, working her hips around him. Her moans got labored, delirious, her eyes flashed with passion as she licked her lips and kept bouncing on him. She was being brought to the edge of erotic fulfillment and Harry cupped her breast as she continued to ride his mighty pole.

Penny thought that she was going to lose it but Harry was one who was going to hit all of her pleasure spots all at once. There was an explosive fury that went through her mind. She bit down on her lip, feeling all of that pleasure. His balls throbbed as Harry kept working into her body.

The young female panted heavily as his thick rod went into her, stretching her walls apart in the most delightful way.

She came again as he played with her nipples and as she did so, clear fluid shot out of her. She lubricated his invading rod all the way down.

"Cum, cum for me," Penny practically begged him, shoving his face in between her gorgeous, tanned, sweaty breasts.

Harry pumped her quim a few more times and the dark haired woman kept panting, her nipples stiffening. There was a few times where the woman's eyes flashed as Harry worked deeper into her. The balls slapped off of her thighs.

"Mmm, ah, yeah, mmm, ah, fuck, mmm, yeah," Penny moaned as she writhed around him, driving his hard rod deep inside her body.

The girl practically impaled herself upon his cock and she loved every moment of it. He was tormenting her body, and her release came again and again as she begged for his.

Harry cupped her tit in his hand and this caused her to almost come unglued with a squeal.

He bit on her nipple, licking it.

Penny's exertion was reduced to a mindless automation, bouncing up and down on Harry's cock like a wild woman.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes!" Penny chanted as she threw her head back and closed her eyes, before she gave one more loud and spirited. "YES!"

Penny shrieked this statement at the top of her lungs and panted as his cock slid far into her. So far that she thought that she might as well was going to squeeze it off with these efforts.

"That's good, that's fucking great," Harry breathed as he squeezed her breast and she cooed at the actions of his strong hands.

The woman rode him, panting, preparing to indulge herself into his cum.

Hours of intense riding, where her pussy was sore from getting it pummeled by Harry's hard rod, Penny's walls clenched him and she threw her head back with a lustful moan.

His balls tightened and he began to splatter his cum into her. Penny's eyes closed as she rode him, despite being sore. Her walls clenched around him and Penny slammed herself down onto his stiffening rod.

Penny slid off, cum oozing from her pussy. She bit down on her lip, looking sexy and collapsed with a purr after Harry deposited his seed into her pounded pussy.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

* * *

Harry smiled, he enjoyed a challenge, and the young woman before him was going to give him one, as she had been since the time they first met many, many, months ago. He took a good look at her as the two of them stood face to face across from each other in the gym that they were training at.

She had gorgeous blonde curls that framed her face quite lovingly. Topped off with the face of an angel, but that did not underscore how formidable that she was. The blonde's eyes locked onto Harry as she watched him with hunger in her eyes. She had a subtle muscle tone although that did nothing to take away from her feminine form. She wore a tight black spandex top that wrapped around a set of sizable D-Cup breasts. The tight spandex workout pants that she wore fit around her luscious legs and rear like a second skin. She did not wear a pair of shoes for this workout session, showing her elegant and beautiful feet with perfect little toes.

Her name was Dinah Laurel Lance, she was eighteen years old, and Harry's full time personal trainer, who had taught him quite a lot about how to fight in the year and a half or so they'd been training together. Faora had taught him more than enough, he had learned a lot from the Amazons as well, but there were more to learn and Harry was going to learn from her.

She had been trained by Ted Grant, the former Heavyweight Champion of the world in boxing and a celebrated masked hero in his day. Of course, Grant had lost more than a few steps and had developed a heart condition recently that caused him to reluctantly take a less active lifestyle. Harry had learned how to box under him for six months before he'd passed him onto Dinah after his illness became apparent.

Dinah was his favored protégé, he'd trained her as favor to her mother due to the rather close connection they shared. She'd then gone on from there to take several training trips around the world that had lead to her becoming an incredibly effective fighter in her own right.

"And, again," Dinah told him with a smile on her face. She aimed a kick towards him but Harry caught her leg. She managed to pop up and try and kick him with her other leg.

It was a standard ploy to trip enemies up, get them to focus on one body part, whilst you hit them with the other.

Harry grabbed Dinah's leg and flipped her over onto the ground. She tried to sweep his legs out from underneath him, but Harry avoided her attack by flipping backwards.

Dinah tried to take advantage of it but Harry caught her wrist. She was still amazed by his reflexes and strength. Harry worked her arm around her back and pushed her down, working his foot into the back of her leg.

"Oh, very good," Dinah offered as she used her leverage to push Harry out of the hold.

She turned around and aimed a kick but Harry blocked her foot once again. He then caught the blonde's leg and spun her around.

He took her down to the ground from there and pinned her onto her back, straddling her in the process. It was a simple takedown, he then used his leverage to push down and keep her in place. Dinah tried to get up in fact she was able to break her arms free only Harry to grab hold of her wrists, and pin them in place over top of her head which meant that their faces were a mere inch apart. The woman took a deep breath shuddering breath then let it out.

"I think I've won this round," Harry offered in a low voice and Dinah found herself squirming underneath him, as he kept her arms pinned down above her head.

Harry slowly backed off; although he had learned never to completely let his guard down around an enemy.

"Very good, Harry," Dinah commented as she pulled herself back up to a standing position. She saw that Harry did not take his eyes off of her, which was good.

That was a lesson that Dinah learned the hard way during her earlier sparring sessions with Wildcat. Even if an opponent was defeated, only a completely idiot would take their eyes off of said opponent. They were never truly defeated until they were unconscious or dead. Dinah's body remembered that lesson very, very well, as she closed her eyes and brought herself back to a standing position.

"Very productive training session?" Harry inquired.

Dinah nodded in agreement. "Very."

"Well, I'd hate to disappoint a lady," Harry commented smoothly as he made his way over to the bar area, with Dinah following behind her sparring partner and employer. "I'm buying you a drink."

"You don't…."

"I know I don't but I'm going to," Harry offered to her and Dinah smiled. She knew the game by now and she knew exactly how Harry played it.

It would be a lot easier for all involved if she let him buy her a drink.

The two sat down, cooling off after an intense workout and sparring session. They finished a bit early today but there was no need to drag out things much longer.

"So, Barbara mentioned something to me about you that I found interesting," Dinah commented as she sipped on the drink that she had been given. It was refreshing, especially after the really intense training session.

Harry played it cool, then again, he was Harry Fucking Potter, he always played things cool. "Oh, how so?"

Dinah smiled. "She talked to me about your little group."

"Oh," Harry offered and Dinah was glad that she did not have to explicitly spell out what kind of group it was. Then again, Harry was always pretty quick on the uptake all things considered.

She did have one question on her mind to ask Harry.

"How does that work?" she asked and Harry smiled. "I mean, you must be doing something right, given that females have been known to murder each other trivialities like shoes."

' _Only the insane ones, like Amanda,'_ Emily chimed in happily much to her twin's dismay.

' _Shut it, Emmy,'_ Amanda snapped.

' _Girls, do I need to give you a spanking?'_ Lily asked to the twins.

' _Yes, yes you do. In fact do so now,'_ Harry thought as he chuckled in amusement.

"Well, it's very interesting to see how something like that works," Harry offered, as he sensed Dinah's interest, although she was not trying to be overt about it. It was just that Harry was able to pick up certain cues for people, which was good for training, amongst other activities as well. "The girls aren't going to get their needs fulfilled by anyone else like they can from me or get the support that they do. You can see that I have great stamina from our sparring sessions."

"So, I've noticed," Dinah offered dryly, she could not keep the smile off of her face, as she thought about other things that Harry's stamina could be used for.

It was pretty hard not to think about such a thing.

"So, they get the support that they need, and also if they have any projects, I'm more than able to get them the support on that end," Harry continued.

"There's a rumor that you don't hire any men…."

"That rumor is correct," Harry confirmed as he sipped his coffee. There was less than a handful of men that he could tolerate being in the same room with for more than about five or so seconds. Though he'd actually gotten a lot better about that lately. So he chalked it up to some psychological issue he'd developed from living with the Dursleys that he'd since outgrown. Still, a lot of them were inadequate and they served no purpose in Harry's future plans.

The only rule that he had was that he didn't go after happily married women. Divorce, Separation and Death did happen fairly often though. So he was careful not to mention that around Astoria, or Bellatrix might or they might interpret that was an order to kill all the men in the world. The two of them were with Harrison at the moment and thankfully were kept on short leashes. And he meant that literally.

"So you've got a lot on your mind," Dinah commented to Harry as she broke the silence.

"Lots to do," Harry told her as he sipped on his drink. "So how's the shop doing?"

"Pretty well believe it or not, although given the death rate in Gotham City, there will always be a market for people buying flowers," Dinah commented, but she closed her eyes. That was a grim assessment to make but it was never less true.

"Well that's an interesting view to take," Harry stated and Dinah shrugged.

"Well, it's my mother's legacy, she left it to me after she died a couple of years ago," Dinah commented as she took a drink.

Dinah was getting back into the dating game after her last relationship had gone pear shaped. Then again, given the circumstances, she hadn't been that surprised when it didn't work out. It was good that she broke it off. If he had been honest with his intentions, it would have been more than fine with her, given her interest in Harry.

And the fact that Ollie had tried to get back with her after her mother's body was barely in the ground. Well, that caused Dinah to give him a bruise that she hoped was still hurting him. Sensitive was not the middle name of Oliver Queen, given that he cheated on her with her own mother and was trying to act like he wasn't doing it. The fact that she found out about the true extent of what happened in the days following her Mother's death after reading her journal caused her to become extremely agitated with him.

Harry was honest about his intentions and she respected that. She also knew each of the other girls fairly well. And he was the type of person who treated his girls with the utmost respect. She suspected that there was some kind of political situation going on there, some kind of hierarchy, which was pretty common in most groups like that.

After all, someone, as Barbara so nicely put it, someone had to keep all of those bitches in line.

"So, how's your father, is he still being worked to the bone?" Harry asked the eighteen year old woman.

"Yes," Dinah agreed as she thought about it, her father was a Private Investigator by the name of Lawrence Lance. "He's doing some work for Jim, has to do with some sort of smuggling case."

' _If Falcone isn't involved in this one_ _, I'll eat my hat,'_ Jaime thought in disgust.

Harry smiled at that thought but said nothing. He continued his time with Dinah, although he had another appointment to keep but that was not for some time yet.

* * *

Harry Potter or Harrison Evans, regardless of which side of the pond he was on, was always someone who was busy with certain things. The young man sat in his main office at the MarauderCo headquarters in London. Whilst it was not the most interesting name in the world or the most original name, he thought that this place would allow him to enact many of his plans.

"So, do you think this project will work out well?" Charlotte asked him as she half sat on the edge of his desk.

Lucretia, being the resident Potions Mistress, was the next person who decided to chime in with a couple of statements of her own. "I see no reason whatsoever why it shouldn't work. We've tested it on certain members of the Collective already, so we know that it works. But the improved model? That's an entirely different thing."

"And that entirely different thing will bring many women ultimate satisfaction. So, it goes without saying that this will be something that takes on a life of its own," Harrison informed both of the girls and they nodded in agreement.

Daphne, who sat in a chair on the other side of his desk had remained silent up until now.

"It works as perfectly with normal people as it would standard witches," Daphne stated as she consulted the charts and information. The blonde ran her tongue along the circumferences of her lips as she looked over the glasses that she wore. She did not need the glasses per say but she wore them because they offered a sense of sophistication and professionalism. "It won't bring them up to the standard of the Amazon females or the Kryptonian ones, but it's a pretty respectable power upgrade in strength, and stamina."

"Not to mention longevity," Charlotte commented to them.

"Yes, that goes without saying, though," Lucretia offered as she flipped through her own notes on the project.

Bellatrix smiled from where she stood in the shadows. As she'd been informed, the best mark of a bodyguard was that no one saw them at all. The dark witch watched eagerly from the corner.

"Then, all we have to worry about our any side effects," Charlotte commented, Lucretia and Daphne opened their mouths to say something but the dark haired woman cut them off. "Yes, I know we can test these by transfiguring a cushion into a cat, and feed it the potion. There are simulations that we can run but still real human test subjects are few and far between."

"You know, the idiot Purebloods would do anything if you wave a few pieces of gold underneath their nose," Daphne commented and Harry smiled at her.

"I know, but most of them are not the type of people that I want this potion tested on," Harrison stated in a firm voice and Daphne respectfully nodded her head. The blonde's gaze continued to burn into the young wizard's eyes. "They work in pill form, although the pills only keep for a few days before they dissolve. Therefore, we're working on something much long lasting."

"Balancing Mundane and Magical medicine is always a challenge," Charlotte admitted and no one disagreed with that. But that was one of MarauderCo's bread and butter. Finding a way to take Potions and reserve engineer them so they could be safely released into the Mundane world had made them a lot of money over the past year.

"Yes, science and magic mixing in any way is always a headache inducing endeavor," Harrison agreed but there were a few ideas that he would like to try.

Daphne offered a smile. "Truer words have never been spoken."

Harrison raised his eyebrow. "Naturally, they were spoken by me."

"If we may get back on the subject at hand," Lucretia told Daphne and she could not resist giving her a smile.

"I daresay we may," Daphne said as she waited to see what Lucretia had to say.

"A few months, maybe slightly more, but we should err on the side of caution, just to be on the safe side," Lucretia explained. "You never know the problems that could occur. For temporary usage and conversion of these potions, the pills have worked well but we're taking them to the next level."

"Yes, one of side effects after a couple of years may lead to moderate magical gifts for the mundane," Charlotte offered to him. "Although if you go off the theory that all magical users, even the mundane born, have a magical ancestor somewhere up the family tree, many of us could simply be squibs and not even know it."

"Plus, my DNA apparently has the ability to break down certain barriers," Harrison offered.

Charlotte agreed with a smile. They'd recently discovered that she'd gained the ability to use magic at some point in the last couple of months, after she'd blown out the windows in her car while having a conversation with her ex-husband over the phone. Needless to say it had come as quite a shock to everyone involved. "There is that yes."

"Yes, I believe that you may have been a squib, through the Edwards line of your family. According to Sersi, there was a similarly named family that was thought to have died out hundreds of years ago. They also would have had relatives that married outside the line," Harrison informed Charlotte and the woman listened to him intently. "They've had periods where they have had squibs and then they have had magical users."

"Fascinating," Charlotte commented, she had no reason to disbelieve that it was true.

"Actually it is, it was one of those things where you really have to know where to look. Thanks to my privileged statues amongst the Goblins, in this case we have access to records most wouldn't," Harrison offered to her as he went through the notes that he had. "So what's the ETA on this?"

"We should be able to launch within the next six months, although we should go with nine to ensure that everything is fine tuned," Daphne informed him and Harrison smiled at her. The young wizard brushed the hair out of his face and offered a long sigh.

' _Well, we've got make sure these things are in place to ensure it's done properly_ _,'_ Harrison thought to himself as he placed his hand on Daphne's.

Everyone cleared out of the office, which allowed Daphne and Harrison to be alone with each other.

"So, we're going to go straight to the top with this company," Harrison told her and Daphne smiled.

"Of course, of course we are," Daphne commented to him as she looked smugly satisfied.

"And now we're all alone," Harrison stated with a smile.

"We are," Daphne confirmed as she got up onto the desk and showed him her stocking clad legs, with a lustful gaze and a seductive smile on her face as she locked eyes with Harrison. "So since we're alone…."

Harrison grabbed her around the waist and pushed her further back along the desk. Daphne moaned as his mouth was now on hers. The blonde was pushed horizontally against the desk as Harrison continued to hungrily kiss her.

The blonde's legs locked themselves tightly around his waist, as Harrison ran his hands down her legs, causing shivers to go down her spine.

Harrison kissed the side of her neck a few more times, with the blonde's gaze continued to be numb.

' _Take me,'_ Daphne thought to Harrison.

Harrison ran his hands along Daphne breasts causing her anticipation to heighten as a warmth spread throughout her body. The woman pushed herself up using her elbows so she could meet him halfway, feeling the breath come in and out of her body as Harry prepared her for the next stage of his fun.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Harrison pulled her skirt up to reveal a surprise.

"No panties?" Harry asked with a raised eyebrow as he pressed his thumb against her clit.

"Not for you, there's charms that give off an illusion of them though for others," Daphne offered as he pressed onto her clit which caused the woman to give a whimper and her nipples to stiffen.

"I know," Harry breathed as he brushed his thumb down her love button and caused her hips to buck towards his hand.

Daphne closed her eyes, she vowed not to lose herself to him but it was hard to do so when his tongue went down into her pussy and did such magical things to her. His tongue skillfully worked over her pink folds and Daphne whimpered as he worked himself into her, working her over.

"Damn, damn, damn," Daphne panted as Harry worked into her.

Her blouse was unbuttoned by a sudden burst of magic. Her breasts released to the world and Harry admired their perfection. He worked her nipples, pushing on them and causing jolts of magic to erupt through them which enhanced her pleasure.

"Bloody…yes…oh…yes," Daphne panted as Harry used his tongue to manipulate her, causing her pleasure that continued to assault her body.

Harry smiled as he placed his hands on her thighs, he had a magic touch and he manipulating her folds with his hands.

Daphne panted as Harry kept using his tongue up and down her folds. The licking of her center was allowing him to bring more of her juices onto his mouth and slurp up everything that she had.

The blond beauty breathed as Harry munched on her dripping hot cunt and brought more of his lips into her mouth, sucking and working over her clit with his mouth. The blonde's eyes flooded with pleasure as Harry kept drilling his tongue deep into her wet and moist folds.

"I need you, I need…" Daphne managed but the orgasm washed over her body to distract her.

Harry smiled as he manipulated her tender young folds and licked his tongue deep into her. Her panting escalated to another degree.

Daphne's hips bucked up to meet his tongue as it went into her.

She felt his tongue bury in and out of her. It was a treat.

"I think it's time to kick things up a bit more," Harry whispered and Daphne shivered, thoughts of what he could do to her going down her spine.

And she was not about to fight what he was doing at all.

Harrison caused her to be restrained on the desk, her arms and legs tied down onto the desk. He cupped her pussy and manipulated her folds, teasing her.

Daphne whined, her body was begging for him to enter her. She was wanting, she needed him to ravish her in the worst way.

"Just relax, love, I'll make you feel good," Harrison said as he cupped her breasts.

Daphne closed her eyes, Harrison was a man of his word, he was making her feel good, he was making her feel really good. His hands worked underneath her breasts and sent a jolt of pleasure underneath her breasts, causing pure sexual fire to course through her body.

"Oh, Harry, more!" Daphne begged him as she felt his hands manipulate her.

His prick was up against her slit.

Harrison smiled, he had this young woman in the palm of his hand, like it had been before, like it should be.

"You're really wet, but I can make you wetter," Harrison breathed as he ran his hands down her sopping wet folds, with Harry smiling.

Daphne closed her eyes, she felt pleasure, so much pleasure. All of the pleasure that she felt, it was about ready to hurt.

Harry grabbed her hips and speared his length between her walls.

"Fuck, Harry," Daphne moaned as he penetrated into her walls.

The blonde's cunt was being worked in and out by Harry. The wizard hammered her, cutting a heavy path in her. The blonde moaned as she milked his thrusts.

"So good," Harrison managed as he squeezed her breast and caused her walls going around the throbbing hard cock of him.

The woman's silk walls caressed his manhood. The woman panted heavily as Harrison pushed himself up and teased her for a moment. He rubbed the head of his cock up against her dripping wet slit with Harry grabbing her hips and he teased her.

"Harry, please," Daphne panted as Harrison continued to torment her with his cock.

He clutched her ass checks and clamped his mouth onto her neck biting and sucking her.

Daphne shivered, he was hitting all of the sensitive spots, which caused her pussy to ache. She hungered, she lusted, she wanted his cock and she was going to get it.

"Oh, Harry, Harry, oh yes,"

Daphne moaned as he worked his cock between her thighs. The blonde's eyes flushed as Harrison grabbed onto her tit, squeezing her.

The blonde's eyes fluttered shut as Harrison plowed into her. The blonde's walls tightened around him, as the wizard plunged into her. She closed her eyes.

"You're going to enjoy this," Harry breathed as he hammered into Daphne's gushing cunt and she whimpered. Harrison's large thrusts stretched her apart.

Her walls were punished as Harrison fondled her breast. The blonde's eyes closed as she bit down on her lip and he pushed up. Then there was a huge push going down into her. The blonde's eyes pushed up and Harry grabbed her around the hips. The woman's walls closed around as his thick length went around her, with Harry grabbing her.

"Oh, mmm, ah," Daphne breathed as Harrison was bringing his rock hard cock into her. The blonde's walls wrapped around him as he pushed up and slammed into her.

"Yes, that's the spot," Harry grunted as the blonde's legs were released, to wrap around his waist.

Daphne was determined to keep his cock close to her pussy. The blonde's shivering got even more prominent as Harrison worked into her. A few thick thrusts went into her. A huge thrust went into her body and Daphne closed her eyes, feeling the shuddering actions going into her.

"Yes, oh, mmm, ah, yes," Daphne panted as her walls tightened around him.

Harrison smiled as he kept sawing into her delicious pussy, working into her.

He could see Bellatrix having been returned, she conjured a dildo and placed a vibrating charm on it. Then with a swift motion, she worked it into her.

"Fuck, fuck that bitch hard, reduce her pussy to mush!" Bellatrix moaned as she pleasured herself at the thought of her lord.

Harrison was going to rise to the challenge as he pumped into her. The blonde's eyes closed with Harry working her over. There was a few seconds where Daphne's breath went out of her.

"Oh, mmm, ah, fuck," Daphne panted as Harison plunged his rock hard cock between her thighs.

"Yes, indeed," Harry breathed as he grabbed her hips, with Harrison drilling into her. Daphne groaned and moaned as Harrison continue to work into her.

His hard dick speared into her, making her feel loved, and making her feel everything that he gave her. There was a sense that he could fill all of her in one solid stroke.

Harrison grabbed her and kissed her on the mouth. The kiss was hot and heavy and Daphne returned it, panting. The blonde wanted everything that he had to offer, his hands, his tongue, everything that was on the line. The blonde's eyes flushed over as Harrison nibbled on her lip.

Daphne found herself flipped over, tied up. Her pussy gushed as Harrison played with her tight ass. The blonde's eyes closed shut.

"You're going to beg for me to take your ass," Harrison whispered to his wife, pinching her on the ass.

"Yes, oh, yes," Daphne moaned as he inserted a finger up her bum as a team.

Harrison grabbed her around the waist and pushed up to spear down into her. The woman felt a prime hunk of Potter penis in her ass, his hot meat stick sawing into her guts and she moaned out loud, clamping her eyes shut and writhing in pleasure.

"Just like that," Harrison breathed as he grabbed her sweaty back and plowed his huge cock between her ass cheeks. His fingers morphed slightly, increasing in thickness and texture.

Daphne breathed heavily as his fingers manipulated her core like a penis and it felt like it as well. Magic could do many things. She thought this in a haze as Harrison kissed the back of her neck a few times, bringing her to greater pleasure than ever before.

Harrison brought this back into the home stretch now then ever before. The young wizard pushed into her ass, causing her the greatest amount of pleasure.

"Cum in me, cum in my…mm-hummm,' Daphne moaned as he stuck his thickening fingers into her mouth and she sucked on them. She knew he could channel cum through them with magic, which made her try and coax the cum from them.

Harrison pumped into her ass and the blonde moaned as he kept working into her. The blonde's eyes closed with her lover, her master, pumping into her, his dick drilling into her ass.

The blonde screamed as his balls tightened and he exploded his cum into her ass. Daphne grabbed onto the edge of the desk and she bit down on her lip. The blonde was losing her mind as Harrison pumped his sticky seed into her ass.

Daphne collapsed down on the desk, in a puddle of her own drool and cum, satisfied with what happened.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

* * *

"So….he'll be here in a few minutes, right?"

Barbara leaned back in the chair that she was sitting in. She was careful not to allow the chair to tip back too far and make her fall backwards. That would be an embarrassing to say the very least. The redhead's eyes closed for a moment before she opened them to look at Pamela who sat across the table from her.

"He isn't late yet, and he never has been," Pam commented as she drank her coffee, thinking intently about what she needed to do.

"Well, we do have some faith him in," Barbara offered Pam and Pam's face contorted into a smile.

"I've always had faith in him, it's my husband after all," Pam stated rather firmly as she took another sip of her coffee and hummed underneath her breath. The redhead's eyes narrowed for a brief moment as she drummed her fingers against the side of the cup.

"Well, nice to know, someone has complete confidence in me."

Harry turned up with these words.

"Harry! You're on time! Actually you're about thirty seconds early," Barbara commented, as they'd been waiting around for him to take them out on a date.

"Well, I'm glad that I could meet your expectations," Harry told the redhead with a slight smile over his face and Barbara gazed adoringly up at him with a grin across her face. Even after they'd started officially dating after her sixteenth birthday. She still had a massive crush on him that was causing her some issues.

"You met and exceeded them, actually you always exceed them," Barbara offered him as she sprang up to feet, bouncing up and down on the heels of her shoes.

Pam offered her an exasperated look before she focused her eyes on Harry. It was a nice night and said night was pretty young.

Harry, without warning, swept her up out of her chair and into a hug. Her body pressed tightly against his. It was a feeling that transcended all words. The redhead offered a pleased sigh as Harry held her up against his frame. She pressed up herself up against him as she closed her eyes, feeling a tad bit flushed. She managed to hold her thoughts together as Harry leaned his head down towards her lips.

The kiss connected with her lips with swift precision. The redhead accepted it with glee and a tad bit of greed. She offered a panting moan as Harry parted from her.

"Love you," Harry told her and Pam's lips curled into a smile.

"Love you as well," Pamela offered as she took a half of a step back and allowed Harry to turn his full and undivided attention upon Barbara.

"Hey, Babs, how are you doing?" Harry asked her.

"Oh, I'm fine," Barbara commented.

Harry offered her a calculating smile, that got even more calculating as he threw his arms around her waist. The redhead's body merged with his and Barbara enjoyed the hug that Harry gave her.

The next play from Harry was unexpected, since she still wasn't used to him doing it but welcomed wholeheartedly. He dipped the redhead's body low and planted his lips on hers in a burning kiss.

Barbara's eyes widened and her brain nearly entered full shut down mode but she opened her mouth to accept the kiss as Harry's tongue probed between her lips. The two of them enjoyed the sensation of their lips pressing together, tongues wrapping around each other, dancing in a flurry of passions.

She lit up like a Christmas tree, in both pleasure and a tad bit of surprise. His hands all over her body, that was something that sent tingles down her spine.

Their lips broke apart and Barbara had only word to say, as her numb mind snapped back to life.

"Wow," Barbara commented as she licked her lips as she wondered if that was real. A quick test verified that it in fact was.

"Yes, very much wow," Harry offered Barbara as he lead two of his girls off.

They were going to head off to see a movie together and then after that was over, they were going to have dinner.

"So, ready for school this autumn, Barbara?" Harry asked the female as she walked next to him.

Barbara could not resist offering a smile to Harry, bright and teasing as it was. The redhead placed a hand on her hip as she offered the response. "Well you should know, because you've been tutoring me and I'm pretty sure you're the one who's paying for my scholarship, even though you won't tell me if you are or not."

"Well, I only take interest in someone who I know is going to live up to their full potential and you exceed that potential every day, and have ever since I first met you," Harry told the redhead with a coy smile across his face and Barbara was not going to lie, that was a statement that brought a swift and sharp grin to her face.

Barbara could not believe her luck, well actually she could believe her luck some of the time. The redhead tried to keep a modest expression on her face, although the grin on her face at the moment betrayed the fact that she was being anything but modest.

Pam thought that she might need to take it off with a sand blaster. She was monstrously amused never the less.

"Well when I get my Doctorate in Forensic Psychology, I should be able to open up a whole lot of new possibilities," Barbara commented as she smiled. "Dad wasn't too gung ho about me potentially going into that field but he's going to support me regardless. Although he gave me some advice not to do anything that I was not completely committed to."

The sixteen year old prodigy smiled at the thought and she was counting down the time to a certain event in a year. Much to her dismay and quite frankly embarrassment, her father had asked Harry not to take the next step with Barbara until she was seventeen years old. Barbara was mortified and angered beyond words at the same time.

Given that James Gordon was one of the, like, five males that Harry had any amount of respect for or give a shit about, he accepted. Barbara couldn't help but sigh at that fact, placing her hand on her face. It was an unfortunate thing for sure, but she figured that she should be happy that Harry respected her father.

The good news was that after constant pleading and negotiating, along with a liberal dose of puppy dog eyes, she managed to get her father down from eighteen to seventeen, so if that was not a victory, Barbara did not know what was.

"I am proud of everything that you've done," Harry informed Barbara, wrapping his arm around her waist he pulled her in close to him so he could give her a tight squeeze. He could see the look of pride, not to mention the heavy red blush that matched her hair across her face.

' _And anticipation builds with that one,'_ Kara commented in a jubilant voice. _'_ _Cannot wait until she's part of the bond_ _.'_

Barbara was considered to be part of the Collective, although she was not bonded yet, everyone considered it to be a mere formality.

"I am proud of both of you, and all you've done," Harry told both of them.

Pamela did not say anything but Harry caught a look at her face that said pretty much everything. The redhead made her way over and pressed herself into his other as side, smiling as he wrapped his arm around her waist as well.

She couldn't help but smile.

Harry was just the type of person that coaxed smiles.

It was time for a nice relaxing date night for the three of them.

* * *

"Wonderful night as always," Barbara commented as she felt herself get filled up. She was staggering a bit from the food intake and very close to going into a food coma.

"I'll port you home Barbara," Harry offered her.

He figured that having her walking around Gotham City this late at night would not be the best thing for her.

"Given that I was supposed to be home two minutes ago for curfew, it might be best if you drop me off in my room," Barbara informed him. "You do know where my room is, don't you?"

Harry offered her a teasing smile. "Yes, I have a pretty good idea."

Harry wrapped a tight arm around her, pulling the redhead into his body. Barbara closed her eyes, there was something about the rush of joy that she felt through her body when he held her close that she had to love.

Immediately, Barbara was dropped off at her room.

"Thanks, Harry, you're the best," Barbara told him as he offered a mysterious smile towards her.

"Are you forgetting something, Miss Gordon?" Harry asked the redhead and she frowned, wondering what she could have forgotten.

"And what would that be, Mr. Potter?" Barbara asked in a half teasing and half playful voice. She enjoyed the games that they were playing with each other, it was the highlight of her day.

Harry kept his emerald eyes locked on her, the smile across his face slowly morphing into a soft grin.

"I would be referring to my tip," he told her, the grin growing wider across his face.

"Oh right! That!" Barbara commented in a bright voice as she threw herself forward to wrap her arms around Harry's neck, and their lips met each other once more that night.

She made the most of these opportunities that she could until her big day arrived, the wait until that day pretty much unbearable for her already. The area between her legs tingled with heat but she kept her mind off matters she could not explore for some time. She worked her tongue into Harry's mouth and Harry returned the kiss with equal fury.

Barbara could not believe this, this was amazing, no this transcended amazing, amazing had long since left the building and gotten on a bus. He wrapped his strong arms around her young body and pulled the redhead into him.

Barbara, playfully pinched him on the butt, and he looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

She offered a mock innocent smile. "What?'

' _Someone's being daring,'_ Faora commented although her amusement went through the bond link, and she nearly snickered.

' _Someone is,'_ Kara agreed as she rocked her head back with a smile that got even brighter. Barbara was being beyond daring with that little action.

' _Well, could you blame her?'_ Pamela asked, she certainly wasn't blaming her friend from getting a preemptive piece of Harry before the main event in around a year.

' _I'd say go for it….you do realize that until she's figured in, she's not hearing any of this,'_ Zatanna commented.

' _Which is half of the fun,'_ Ginny commented with an evil cackle.

' _You are wicked, you know that,'_ Astoria offered but she was smiling.

' _Well if that isn't the goblet calling the cauldron round, I don't know what was,'_ Ginny offered in a bored voice.

Harry smiled at the banter that was going on through the bond link. Kissing Babs on the forehead, he teleported back to the Penthouse where Pamela was waiting for him. The redhead placed her hands on the side of her head and rocked back in thinly veiled excitement.

"So, what do you think about the news?" Pamela asked Harry and she brought it back to the conversation that they really did not have a chance to have early. "About being Doctor Woodrue's assistant?"

Harry shook his head. "Right Woodrue….well it's definitely an opportunity."

Pam frowned, she knew Harry was picking one the rare times where he tried hard not to say what he really thought about a person and this was one of those times where he was keeping his mouth shut.

"So do I detect a note of…..well it's not jealously. So I'm not sure what I should be detecting a note of," Pam commented to Harry. "Harry, Jason Woodrue is a noted expert in the field of advanced botanical biochemistry. I'm incredibly lucky that he wants to take me on as his assistant, considering that's the field I want to go into now that we've gotten our Doctorate's in Chemistry, this project of his is going to help the environment so much."

"Man knows his shit I'll give him that, but that doesn't help him from being a CLB," Harry offered to her and Pam frowned at that. "Woodrue, he's a guy who oozes….well he's just a fucking sleazy motherfucker. I met him a few weeks ago, he looks so much like Lionel Luthor crossed with a mad scientist that it's disturbing."

"Oh, yes he mentioned you," Pamela commented to him. The truth was Woodrue wouldn't shut up about Harry. "He had good things to say about you. In fact he kept raving about your chemistry thesis."

"Well, good for him," Harry replied dryly but there was something dubious going on that he couldn't quite put his finger on. "It's just...middle aged men, Professor or not takes on attractive female assistant. He talks about the opportunities that he could give them, but it's obvious what he's trying to do to anyone but the naïve impressionable female assistant."

Pamela frowned. "Do you think you could…."

"Woodrue's the type of person who would use his credentials to sleep with gullible co-eds, which I know you're not," Harry answered. "However, he's the type that's going to keep forcing the issue. The man just looks like your text book example of a pervert and there's something about his agenda that I don't like. I looked at the research he presented as well. A lot of it makes sense I do admit and yes, part of it is based of our work, so we both know it's solid. It just seems like he isn't being honest about his intentions."

"First of all, you're the last person who should talk about men being perverted Mr. Harem…."

"You know that it's not a harem, it's a…."

"Yes, yes, I know, collective not harem," Pamela commented with a smirk. "My mistake."

"And there is no need for me to use my authority to force someone to sleep with me."

She closed her eyes and collected her thoughts as she considered what she was going to say.

"Still, pervert or not, you can't help but see that Woodrue's a brilliant man," Pamela added as she watched Harry. She could tell that he was not disputing that. "We've both seen some of his work…..and I believe that this project of his, it will change the world."

' _Well that's one thing that we agree on, although there's something really….off that I can't put my finger on,'_ Harry thought. To him, Woodrue was someone who wasn't that much different that the Lionel Luthors of the world. Plus, it really was disturbing how similar the two of them looked like they could be twins, clones, or played by the same actor.

' _If Woodrue tries anything underhanded we'll….'_ Faora thought but Harry hushed the bond traffic.

"Just be careful out there," Harry warned her seriously.

"I will be careful, but you know why, you understand why I want to do this," Pamela told him as she leaned towards him. "I'm sure that if Woodrue does try something, you can make his life miserable but I don't think he will."

' _Maybe if he's so smart, he knows that you'll cut him off at the knees and bury him alive,'_ Faora offered, although there was something about Woodrue that crept her out as well. So Har-Zod's thoughts were not something that was exclusive to him.

Harry smiled at Pamela and he pushed her down onto the bed.

"You seem to have had a long day," Harry commented to the redhead, a smile crossing his face. "I think it'd be a good idea if you rested back and unwound a little bit."

Pamela raised an eyebrow.

"Isn't that you exerting your authority a little bit?"

Harry just smiled as he pinned her down on the bed by her arms and kissed her. She wilted like a flower underneath his lips and then Harry prepared to kick things up another notch.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Pam sighed as Harry's kisses caused every inch of her body to feel smoldering pleasure. The redhead's soft legs wrapped around his body and there was a few seconds where he reached towards her blouse and opened it open.

Her breasts were revealed in a nice bra, that pushed them up to showcase the luscious mountains. Harry licked her cleavage which allowed shivers to go down her spine.

"Harry," Pam whined as Harry kept working his tongue down her cleavage and then he ran his fingers down between her legs, teasing her moist womanhood.

Harry smiled as he took his tongue and pushed it between her walls. The woman's eyes closed shut as Harry pushed himself deeper into her walls.

"YES!" Pam shrieked, she felt his warm tongue go between her hot thighs. There was a sensation that caused her extreme pleasure beyond all measure. The woman's eyes closed as her thighs clenched around his head. The redhead panted as he worked his hands all over her nice body.

"That's great, you feel great, don't you?" Harry breathed to her and Pam nodded as he returned back to her sopping mound, licking her juices out.

Pam felt his hands pin her down and Harry had her.

"I'm going to fuck you into the night, because I can," Harry whispered as he brushed the head of his cock against her dripping hot entrance.

"Yes, oh, yes," Pam breathed as her pulsing hole was brushed by with his length and she longed to have him inside her.

Harry held her down, with the smile crossing over his face, as he brushed his large prick over her hot entrance. There were a few seconds where he tormented her and caused her to feel a rush of pleasure through her loins.

"Take me," Pam begged as Harry grabbed her thighs, running down her legs. The redhead panted, as she pushed her thighs up towards him. Harry brushed his thick cock up against her dripping slip and there was a pause.

Her green eyes filled with wide eyed adoration and Harry gripped her hips, burying his length deep within her tight quim.

Pam breathed as Harry sawed in and out of her body. His balls slapped against her thighs as he cut a steady path into her. The redhead's nipples stiffened as Harry worked his large pole in between her legs. The woman bit down on her lip as he continued to work into her.

"I bet you like it, I bet that feels so good," Harry breathed as he pushed his cock up and speared into her, stretching her walls apart.

Pam's moans spoke for themselves, she did love that, she loved it. She loved every inch going into her pussy and it was buried deep into her. Her tight walls hugged his huge pole as he pushed up against her hips, aiming for her dripping hot snatch and with another swift motion slammed deep into her. Each thrusts brought pleasure into her mind.

Pam's eyes closed shut, the rush that she felt through her loins, it nearly caused her to become completely undone. His hands were perched on her hips and Harry worked his magic into her. His balls slapped over her thighs and the redhead wrapped her legs around him, pulling him into her. She never was going to allow his cock to slip far away from her dripping hot walls.

Harry hung onto her and drilled his length into her.

Pam flickered her eyes open and felt Harry pushing her legs up.

"Harry, Harry, oh!" Pam yelled as he grabbed his hands around her arms and drilled her into hard, bringing his thick hard dick into her walls.

The redhead's walls stretched apart with Harry working her pussy apart. The redhead's eyes closed as Harry kept working in and out of her. Her walls stretched even further apart as Harry's balls dribbled against her body.

"Oh, ah, yes, oh, ah, mmm, fuck," Pam mewled.

"Such a mouth," Harry breathed as he kissed it.

She took a nibble out of his lower lip playfully, with his cock spearing deep into her center. His rod slid in and out of her. The redhead wrapped her legs around him and Harry pushed his hands down her legs, feeling up every inch of her supple flesh. He was going to bring himself up and down into her, punishing her, pleasuring her.

Pam managed to somehow roll him over. She figured that this was allowed mostly because he did not stop her.

"Well aren't we being daring?" Harry managed.

Pam gave him a predatory smile and pushed up. Her hips sunk onto his huge meat, his dick spearing into her walls.

He allowed her to have her moment on top, it would build up anticipation for when he would take that away. Harry lifted up his hands and grabbed her breasts, giving them a nice squeeze and Pam breated as he pushed himself up.

His mouth found her nipple, suckling it and Pam panted as Harry kept working it over. There was no question about it, this was pure bliss personified.

Her hips slammed down onto his hard rod as she bounced up and slammed down onto him hard. His huge cock was worked over by her velvet soft walls and Harry returned fire on her breasts.

"Yes, oh, fuck me, harder, deeper," Pamela begged.

"As the lady wishes," Harry commented as he turned her over and held her down.

Harry pinned her down onto the bed and worked himself as far deep into her quim as he could manage to do so. His balls slapped against her hard and Harry smiled as he kept firing into her.

He rocked her back, picking up the pace and she closed her eyes, as Harry worked into her. Now that he was on top, the play was reversed and Pam felt herself clutch him with excitement as he pushed his length deepr into her.

He was so deep into her that her nerve endings felt they were pushed together, pulsed together by hot fire.

Harry plunged into her one more time and she had an orgasm.

After some time, her walls grapsed him and milked him. She was determined to have is seed spill into her garden and fill her up so much that it hurts. She was determined, she would have her prize.

"More, cum, please," Pam breathed.

Harry smiled, working into her and she closed her eyes. His hands worked over her body and that caused her to have a powerful orgasm that rocked her entire body.

Harry speared himself deep into her, making her feel his throbbing hard prick buried deeper into her.

His seed spilled into her, as he pumped into her. The orgasm that she got from his semen spurting into her was so powerful that it made Pam pass out.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

Harry was about ready to call it a day, however he heard the phone ring.

He smiled, in good grace, and tried to hide his annoyance at the phone ringing. He edged himself over towards the other room as his wife was sleeping on the bed and he didn't want to wake her. He could have ran but he allowed it ring a few times before picking it up.

"Hello?" Harry answered, and the person on the other end wasn't somebody he was expecting to hear from at all. "Well….that's interesting, isn't it? Hang tight, keep your head low….his wallet got stolen. Well I'd advise making sure to let the proper people know when he gets back. The last thing we want is having someone take a joyride with his bank account."

Harry smiled as he prepared to go out way out of his way to pick up an old friend of his from Cambridge at the airport.

* * *

"He couldn't have picked a worst place," Penny commented as she wrinkled her nose in frustration from where she sat in a seat across from Harry as their plane landed.

They were in the middle of China, in a dingy airport. It was small and not well kept up at all.

It was the last place where anyone would expect a well known billionaire playboy to catch a flight, so in many ways, it would mean that it was the perfect place for a well known billionaire to catch a flight.

"That would be the elementary fact of the situation, Penny," Harry informed her and the dark haired woman shrugged her shoulders. The two of them stood up and made they're way outside of the plane.

"I assume so," she offered with a shrug but she was not completely convinced. She was willing to let this go.

Harry perked his head up and looked out over the runway, pretty soon he would find the person that he was looking for. All he needed to do was to look for a moment and he would see him.

' _Ah, bullseye,'_ Harry thought with a smile on his face as he made his way towards the party of two that spotted at the edge of the airport.

The first person that he saw was a young man who was seven years older than Harry was and he had been touring the world. Harry had met him or Harrison had rather, when he was on his tour studying at Cambridge for a year. He was fairly tall and had one of those faces that stood out in a crowd. He was Bruce Wayne, and he really needed no introduction other than that.

The second person was an older man, although there was some sense of how formidable he was despite his advanced age. His eyes focused on the two people standing there across from him, a smile crossing his face as he took in the both of them. He was dressed in a well made suit and had silver hair with a formidable demeanor. His name was Alfred Pennyworth.

"Potter pick up service," Harry offered them with a smile.

"Uncle Alfred!" Penny yelled with a joyful tone to her voice as she ran towards the older gentlman and wrapped him up in a hug.

"Penelope dear, it's been too long. How is your mother?" Alfred asked.

It was amazing how one of his girls was the niece of Bruce Wayne's butler but it just proved to Harry that it was a small world after all.

"So, they jacked your wallet?" Harry asked him in a lowered voice. "You're slacking, Bruce. You're normally more careful."

"Just goes to show you that there are a few more lessons that need to be taught to everyone," Bruce commented in a light voice and Harry had to agree.

"Yes, and things are getting intense back in Gotham," Harry informed his former class mate.

"Oh, in what way?" Bruce asked with a calm demeanor.

Harry reminded himself that the billionaire kept himself mostly out of the public eye on his world tour. Of course, that did not stop the tabloids from inventing wild stories. There was a lot about him, although he had connections in the press that allowed him to stifle some of the more wild rumors.

Although he was almost amused by the creativity of some of the people out there, the key word being almost, with it being that close.

"Well, where to begin," Harry offered to him. "The problem, is that there are a group of people within your company that our trying to take it for a joy ride."

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose. He figured that there would be some problems with his company when he came back. However, despite that fact he'd felt he left in it capable hands before going on his world tour, and that they there were going to be more then up to the task of dealing with any problems that might occur. Apparently that had been too much to hope for.

"The usual problems are happening with the criminal element, so business goes up and down based off of that," Harry told him.

"Of course," Bruce commented, that was something that he was planning on doing something about really soon. It was a matter of finding the right opportunity to do so but he was almost ready. His travels had given him a lot of time to think about what he wished to do and there was only one thing that resounded in the back of his head.

"You seem calm and collected," Harry offered to the young man.

"Have to be, with what has to be done," Bruce commented in a light voice and he looked over his shoulder, raising an eyebrow. "Aren't you?"

Harry's smile could not be measured. "Always."

Harry's smile got even wider as the group made their way onto the plane.

"So, were you intending to return to Gotham City? Or is this just a byproduct of your wallet getting stolen?" Harry asked him.

Bruce admitted what he had to do. "Well, I can't be running from the past forever."

"The past chases us all," Harry said with a tone of warning in his voice and Bruce inclined his head in agreement.

"Well, you would understood that better than anyone else," Bruce commented and there was a few seconds where Harry pondered that.

That was true, there was a lot about his past that still chased him around. Although he didn't directly have to deal with. As far as the world knew, Harrison Evans was the Harry Potter they knew all along. The sheep could easily be lead to believe whatever he wanted them to, even though there were instances where it should be obvious to them that they were lambs that were about to be lead to the slaughter.

Regardless of the situation, it was back to Gotham City. Harry's smile grew even wider across his face. He couldn't wait for what was going to happen next. He looked up into the sky as they boarded the private jet, all four of them.

* * *

"Now's the time. If we're going to do this, it needs to be done now."

Harry was saying this to Faora, or Alexandra Potter rather, as that was currently the guise that she was in. She had her hair tied back into a low ponytail. Resting Across her face on the bridge of her nose was a pair of stylish glasses. There was just something about glasses that proved to be an able disguise in any circumstance. A tight black business jacket also offset the outfit that she wore. A black skirt snaked fell down to her knees, which offered a hint of her stocking clad legs. Said legs rested in a pair of high heels that emphasized and highlighted her dazzling stems.

"Indeed, love," Faora agreed as she smiled.

Whilst there were very few who knew her outside of the mask of Alexandra Potter, it would be unwise to get into the habit of being careless. She adjusted the skirt that she was wearing, although she gave Har-Zod a teasing flash of leg. She could not resist herself.

"It's time for us to take our empire to the next step," Harry offered as he and Faora made their way through the front doors of Wayne Enterprises.

They did not have far to go, their credentials were more than enough to ease them through the front door. Smiles went over their faces because of this as the duo continued to make their trek up the stairs.

There was going to be a board meeting today.

They could have taken the elevator, but they felt that taking the stairs was going to make more of an impact. At least that was the thought that chimed through in the back of their heads. Their footsteps got more prominent as they pushed their way up towards their destination.

I really don't get this. Figure they'd make more of a presence walking out of the elevator as if they owned the place. Which they do if you considered the fact they own thirty five percent of the company.

' _Do or die time,'_ Harry thought.

' _Knock them dead,'_ Astoria thought to him and she smiled. _'I didn't mean that literally.'_

' _Well with you know, you never know,'_ Daphne offered with a smile towards her sister who offered a slight pout but she managed to keep herself serious and professional.

' _This has been a long time overdue,_ _'_ Jaime thought to both Faora and Harry.

' _Yeah, but blame that on us getting side tracked by other projects, getting stuck at Hogwarts for nine months, killing Voldermort, getting RAO up and running, you know how it goes,'_ Harry informed her.

' _Better than anyone,'_ Jaime agreed to her.

The doors were closed for the board meeting and Harry smiled. The doors being closed wouldn't stop them from entering and getting their business done. They'd planned on it in fact, after all the best way to make an entrance was to be fashionably late. The wizard closed the distance and opened it pushing his way through and holding it open for his sister to step through.

"And Wayne Enterprises….."

There was a few seconds where time seemed to stop as the group looked up towards them. The Board of Directors appeared to be in awe.

' _Good, they know that you're not someone to be trifled with,'_ Faora thought.

One of the corporate suits rose to his feet and looked at them. "Mr. Potter, Miss. Potter, I wouldn't have thought that you would make the trip."

The Potter Seward looked like a deer caught in the headlights as he watched both of them arrive. They were powerful and if he did not watch his step, it would not end well, it would not end well at all.

"I was going to prepare notes to send to you after the meeting, but surely…."

"That won't be necessary, because I've seen the quality of your work lately and I find it lacking," Harry said as he looked at each and every member of the Board of Directors.

"I hope I'm not missing anything."

Harry and Faora turned around and saw Bruce standing there in the doorway.

"No, you aren't," Faora commented with a smile. They had really not gotten to the meat and the potatoes of the meeting yet, although they were rapidly reaching that point. They would eventually get there in a roundabout way.

"Excellent," Bruce offered, as he blocked the whispers out of his mind. He was used to hearing the whispers of people around him, though it was not every day that you came back from the dead.

He knew far more than what was going on between these walls then he let on. Even beyond what Harry clued him on.

"There's going to be a few changes at Wayne Enterprise," Harry commented as his gaze swept across the entire group.

"Changes? What…."

"Yes, Wilson, changes," Harry commented to one of the members of the Board of Directors.

When such a high profile shareholder knew your name off of the top of his head, that did not bode well.

"This company was founded years ago by Alan Wayne and my Great-Grandfather on certain principles, but they seem to be principles that you have forgotten in your attempt to fit in with the rest of Gotham City," Harry offered with a smile as he watched each and every one of them.

He read the body language of some of them. Some were more obviously panicking than others. There were some that were a far less obvious. It depended on how guilty they were or rather how good they were at lying to someone's face.

The Potter Seward, Fredricks, looked up towards the three of them, although it was Alexandra and Harry Potter that his focus was on. He had worked in this role for over thirty years, and for some hot shot to just come over from Britain, it angered him.

"I don't think…."

"That much is obvious," Faora said with a smile, pleased that her statement got the desired reaction.

That reaction was a stunned amount of shock. The dark haired woman was enjoying the visible amount of discomfort that was swimming through the eyes of the man before her. "You know, we can do this a few different ways, they might be easy, they might be hard. You won't know, until you play the game."

Faora smiled as she looked over to Harry and waited for him to step in and continue.

"Fredricks, your services over the past couple of years and how well you have preformed them, have been noted," Harry commented to the man as he carefully watched for his reaction.

For a brief second, it seemed like the man thought that he was going to get off with a warning. The grin that went over Harry's face never faltered for a second. If this man thought that a warning was going to be the least of his problems, then he was sorely mistaken.

"The key word however, is that your services...were...noted and there is honestly no point in keeping you on from this point forward," Harry offered to the man that stood before him.

Fredricks looked at him in confusion. "Sir…."

"I'd like to wish you the best in your future endeavors, but I don't have a place in my employ for someone like you any longer," Harry offered to him and the man raised both his eyebrows as he jaw dropped in stunned shock. "From this point forward, you're fired."

There was a second where Fredricks stood shocked, unable to believe that he had been so casually dismissed.

"After all…."

"We gave you a simple order. One a child could follow. You decided to go against us," Faora commented to him. "My cousin agrees with me, that if this company is going to go public. We're going to need to put a better face on it moving forwards."

"I've allowed the Potter seat on the board to be mismanaged up to this point, but no longer," Harry offered as he decided to drop the other bombshell that he had been standing on. It would make the paper soon enough so there was no reason to hold it in. "Between ourselves and Mr. Wayne, we control the majority of the company's stock. So moving forwards until the upcoming stock offering, we're going to take a closer look at this company and I would suggest all of you think real hard about what you need to do to earn your positions."

That was a statement that caused a gasp to spread across the board and Harry could tell that he had these people by the nose, hook, line, and sinker.

A dark skinned gentleman standing in the shadows, offered a low chuckle. "Well, I there's going to be a few changes around here, gentlemen."

A mouthful was said to say the least.

Harry smiled, he'd worked this plan of attack with Bruce on the flight back to Gotham. Change was coming to Wayne Enterprise's and he was going to be at the crux of them. He could not wait to implement them all.

"So, if you could hurry up and clear out your office before noon. We're going to need it shortly, and….don't worry, you'll get your final paycheck, it's far more than you deserve," Faora concluded dismissively.

Fredricks slumped his shoulders in defeat and turned around to walk out.

"Just to be clear, the board will be seeing a lot more of us in the near future," Harry added and he could see that they were trying not to piss themselves.

There was an implication in his words that all of them understood, even though few of them liked what they were hearing.

Faora eyed her brother and she said the statement that he had been thinking about. They had both been thinking of it, but she heard the strong thoughts that were going through their minds. It indicated that they stood only to benefit themselves.

* * *

Faora slipped off to take care of some urgent business, which left Harry to wrap up a few loose ends.

' _I think they understand what you're trying to do,'_ Faora offered him and Harry smiled at her.

' _Yes, but if I thought this was over, I would be a bit more at ease. The statements in his checking_ _account_ _indicate_ _that he's being paid by someone other than us,'_ Harry said.

' _We're plugging the leaks as we go,'_ Faora commented with a smile. _'But we have a more pleasurable meeting after this to take care of.'_

Harry raised an eyebrow as he wondered what his sister had in mind and wondered if it had to do with this urgent business that she departed for. _'Oh.'_

' _Yes, it's the matter of your birthday present, an early one,'_ Faora commented to him and Harry was curious. _'This is just a little teaser for the festivities_ _that are going to happen over the next week.'_

Now Harry was intrigued and that was the fact of the matter. He had gotten a brief thought or two about the party but it had been mostly shrouded in secret. If Harry had to think about it, it had to be something amazing if they were going to this much effort to keep the details from him so far.

' _I'm waiting in the limo,'_ Faora informed him.

' _I'll be there with bells on,'_ Harry offered as he quickened his steps. He kept a steady pace.

He saw Penny sitting in the front seat of the limo. He greeted the woman with a smile which she equally returned. The wizard took another step and made his way into the back of the limo where he saw the vision of beauty on her knees before him.

He whistled, this one was going to be amazing, not that he had any doubts otherwise.

The female had a gorgeous set of blonde locks that framed her face in an alluring manner. A pouty set of red lips offset her face and stunning blue eyes added to the package. An open aviator's jacket wrapped around her ample D-Cup breasts barely hiding her stiff nipples, and a bow tie was wrapped snugly around her neck. Her legs were smooth and uncovered, long and shapely, and Harry could see that the jacket and the bow tie was the only thing that she was wearing. Her feet were gorgeous and her toes wiggled seductively towards him.

"Hello, Mr. Potter," she said in a seductive English accent as she locked her eyes onto him, licking her sensual lips with a purr.

Her name was Zinda Blake, a pilot know as Lady Blackhawk during World War II, she looked rather good for her age. The reason was that was due to the fact she had been suspended in time, lost as a relic to the past. She was found frozen in the Arctic by Faora on a trip to investigate some odd readings that detected that seemed to be Kryptonian in origin and thawed out of her suspended animation.

As a result, she owed Faora a life debt and she had been working for RAO and the house of Zod ever since. Faora had naturally shared the merchandise constantly with her brother, because, what kind of sister would that make her if she hoarded the females all to herself?

"So, this is my birthday present," Harry commented as he sat in front of the sexy woman and smiled. "And how lovely, she's already partially unwrapped."

"It's just the way that you like it, Har," Faora commented as a bright and calculating smile went across her face. She enveloped him in a tight hug and their lips met each other in a fiery kiss. The two of them pressed their bodies against each other and Harry could tell that Faora was wearing nothing underneath the business suit that she had on. That was a fact that he wholeheartedly approved of, there was no denying that. He held her body against the edge of the seat.

Harry smiled as Faora offered him a smile and a wink.

"Well aren't you going to unwrap your present?" His sister asked him and Harry smiled as he grabbed the edge of Zinda's jacket and pulled the sexy blonde onto his lap.

"I think that's a great idea," Harry commented as he stroked her blonde locks.

"I concur," Zinda commented, as she found Harry's lips on hers and the blonde straddled him, pressing her bare legs against his covered ones. She felt his hands roam every nook and cranny of her body and it was a delightful feeling, that one could not take away from her.

He pushed her back onto the seats and Zinda found what little clothes that she had be ripped off. Then the real fun of the matter was about to begin.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Zinda hummed lightly as she removed Harry's shirt and felt up his subtle muscles. The blonde's eyes flushed as she worked over his body, making her way around him. She explored every single bit of his body and she edged down, reaching beneath his belt.

With a slight tug, she removed it.

"Delicious, I think I'm going to get the real treat," she commented as she closed her hand around his stiffening tool.

"Oh, I don't know about…ah that," Harry breathed.

Zinda's hand wrapped around his solid hard pole and pushed up and down him. He felt her hand work its magic as she was giving him a nice and powerful hand job. The blonde's eyes flashed with mirth as her tongue trailed over the head of his cock, giving him a nice little lick as she snaked even more around his cock's head. She could tell from the reaction that Harry had in his eyes, he enjoyed everything that she was giving him.

Harry was enjoying everything that Zinda gave to him. Her lips pressed on the top of his prick as she looked up with her stormy eyes, that dripped with so much seduction. Harry felt her hands press against his balls, playing with them.

Faora watched as she felt the rush erotic enjoyment flood through her. She unclipped a few buttons of her shirt and started to rub her breast at her brother getting a blowjob.

"Yes, oh, yes," Harry breathed as Zinda went down on him, popping his huge cock down her throat with one solid and swift motion.

She clamped her hand around his balls and kept working more of her lips around his mighty pole. She pushed more of it down her throat and Harry was feeling the pleasure of this goddess going down on him. His member went down her throat and her lips went apart with a nice little pop. The little pops got even greater as she went down on him, using her hands to stimulate his balls.

Harry was not going to take any more of the teasing, he turned her around.

"Time to take my reward," Harry growled as he grabbed her on the ass.

"Yes, my love, I'm yours," she breathed as Harry grabbed her around the waist.

Harry measured the beautiful blonde, working his hands around her back, brushing his fingers against her dripping hot pussy. He brought his fingers up to his mouth and tasted her.

Zinda could sense him feasting off of her pussy juices and that got even hotter, making her want to give him more to eat, more to feast on. That was causing her loins to burn with the greater desire than ever before. She panted at his actions.

Harry pushed into her from behind and she felt herself get filled up by his penis. She had no room to spare as his thick and long cock spear into her. Her body felt a rush of emotions as her nipples hardened and Harry pushed out of her, nearly emptying her.

He filled her once more, bringing his thick prick into her. Zinda grabbed onto the bed, rocking back and she felt the hard cock of him tease her entrance and ram back into her.

"Oh, bugger me, so hard!" she moaned as Harry grabbed her by the blonde locks and Faora smiled.

Faora was rubbing her pussy lips, trying to get herself off but that was not nearly fulfilling.

"Eat me, bitch!" Faora commanded as she stripped her clothes off to reveal her sexy body.

Zinda, like an obedient pet, went between Faora's legs, using her tongue to slurp and lick her. She was enjoying this threesome very much, as she went deeper between the thighs.

Harry breathed he saw this woman that he was currently drilling into from behind use her tongue to give his sister pleasure. This caused his cock to grow deep into her and he buried more of himself into her. The blonde was going to get everything that she deserved, whether she liked it or not.

Harry hung onto Zinda's sweaty back and worked his huge cock into her from behind. He was picking up a good deal of momentum, plunging himself into her. The blonde's walls tightened around him and Harry smiled as he hung onto her.

Faora went back and she felt Harry's hands on her tits. That were like magic as always. His hands alternated between exploring the tits of her and Zinda and they were pure magic as always.

Harry grabbed her around the waist and kept hammering into her. The blonde's panting got even more wanton and Harry plunged himself deep into her. He stretched her walls apart as his balls slapped against her thighs. The blonde hung onto the edge of the bed, biting down on her lip as she offered a lustful hum.

"She's getting into this one," Harry breathed as he ran his hands down her body and caused several jolts of pleasure to erupt in her body.

"Yes, oh yes, she is," Faora managed, she was losing herself to pleasure that could not be measured at all. The blonde lifted her hips and Harry delved into her. The blonde's thighs dripped with her arousal.

Harry speared himself deep into her, filling her up and he could feel her tighten around him.

Zinda did not want the pleasure to stop, she wanted his hard cock to keep blasting into her body. Each thrust brought her to a miniature orgasm. He alternated between some slow and hard thrusts and some rapid fire thrusts, but every once of them caused her body to tingle. Her toes felt like they were tingling and these bursts of pleasure also went to the tip of her head as well.

Harry held onto the waist of this young blonde, beautiful as she was, Harry had to pick up the pace. He plunged his thick hard dick between her walls. The blonde's panting escalated a bit more and Harry pushed back, plowing into her.

Her walls hugged him and Harry hung onto her, working himself into her. The blonde closed her eyes and bit down onto her lip. There was another huge plunge as her walls were worked apart and Harry continued to work into her.

Harry held onto her, and manipulated her entrance over and over again.

Zinda was not going to lose herself.

Penny watched this entire spectacle, her hand down her pants, and she rubbed herself furiously. Thankfully, she remembered that she was a witch in the midst of the foggy lust. The dildo that she clasped in her hand worked down her dripping hot snatch and the woman's pussy was plowed with the hard rod as it worked into her.

"Oh, yes, oh, fuck, oh, ah, oh!" Penny panted.

Harry felt Zinda's snatch get really tight around him and he felt the pleasure.

"So close baby, going to cum, you'd like that wouldn't you," Harry breathed and she turned a slight bit.

"Yes…."

"Face front," Faora ordered as she shoved Zinda's face into her pussy and Zinda responded by sucking her juices from her hot hole.

Harry gave a grunting thrust and his balls throbbed as he plunged into her. The blonde was losing her mind and Harry was about to finish up inside her.

She went the distance and Harry plowed into her, causing her pussy to be filled with his huge cock. The blonde's walls clenched around him and Harry worked into her.

His balls tightened and he sent a huge load of his seed, painting her insides with his heavy spunk.

Zinda passed out as Harry looked at his still half hard cock.

Faora smiled as she pounced upon his huge prick and felt it enter her. It filled her up so much, it was the only cock that she would allow to even consider to touch her.

"So good, Har, oh yes," Faora breathed as she bounced up and down upon him, feeling his meat push into her, filling her up.

Harry held her down onto him, allowing his sister to ride him. He decided to give Penny a show that would cause the woman to masturbate herself raw.

He grabbed Faora's breast and squeezed it. He offered a certain amount of firmness and that caused her cunt to clench him as she worked up and down him. The dark haired woman breathed as she worked around him. Her eyes closed shut as she felt the pleasure with Harry going into her.

Harry's thick penis went through her, stretching her walls and Faora rode him, she was bouncing up and down, having the time of her life.

Their sweaty bodies met, each other, Faora getting a lot of momentum. She screamed as he worked himself into her and she responded by sinking her nails into his back, which added to the erotic atmosphere. He worked into her and the young man pushed into her, his dick going deeper into her body. Her walls stretched apart and Harry slammed himself as far into her as he could go.

The dark haired woman's walls went around him, with Faora working around him. The dark haired girl kept riding him, panting and thrusting herself down onto him.

Penny had her clothes half torn off. Her face was flushed and red, as she wished that it was Harry's cock that was going through her body instead of this toy. She thought that he was torturing her by withholding his manhood from her.

Faora was now bent over on the seat, eating Harry's seed out of Zinda's snatch, as the half conscious pilot offered a series of musical moans as the dark haired Kryptonian continued to tongue out the inside of her.

Harry smiled as he hung onto Faora, plunging himself as far inside her as he could go and the moans got even louder. He was going to bring her to a climax any moment and then his would sure enough follow.

The dance escalated in tempo and intensity. Har-Zod never backed down as he beat a steady course into the pussy of his sister and wife, her walls lovingly gripping him.

"Deeper, deeper, deeper," Faora breathed, chanting this statement as she clenched her brother's invading rod, pulsing her thighs together.

Harry roamed his hands around her body, sensing the stars that she saw, as he plowed into her.

Harry's cock buried deeper into her, as Faora kept eating her brother's seed from Zinda's pussy.

"Fuck, oh yeah, mmm," Faora said as she came up for air.

Harry saw stars as he felt himself tighten within her and kept plowing himself as deep into her as he could manage. His balls tightened hard and he plunged himself as far as he could into her. Her walls clenched around him and he felt the desire flood his body.

With a grunting thrust, Harry spilled his seed into her, splattering the insides of her. Each rope of cum went into her.

Harry collapsed on her, as Penny passed out as well, having locked onto the bond link too hard.

Everyone was fulfilled, at least for now.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

**To Be Continued in the Next Chapter.**


	3. Birthday Part Two

**Chapter Three: Birthday Part One.**

"Well, to be fair you gave her ample chance to return on her own devices, now you've got to stage an intervention."

Harry smiled, an intervention was most certainly going to be something that was going to staged alright. He thought that he had been more than patient with Hermione and her many, many quirks. One of which was her ability to dive head long into her own studies and never return. Ever since she got her degree, she'd made the library inside of the mansion her new home. He thought that would wear off eventually, but he swore that Hermione spent more time in that library than her entire time at Hogwarts.

That was really saying something the more Harry thought about it. He placed his hands on the back of his head and cracked his neck. He needed all the mental fortitude that he could gather right now, if he wanted to get this dealt with here and now. Hermione could be extremely stubborn despite the fact she was a natural submissive at the best of time.

Thankfully, he had an ace in the hole that would help him lead his friend out of the library and what an ace she was. Having arrived through the Manor gateway yesterday. After saying she was going to move to Gotham and join him there permanently nearly everyday for the past two years, she'd finally pulled the trigger.

Nymphadora Tonks, or Nym as Harry called her, stood before him. Her hair was blonde today, with blue eyes. She looked like she could be Kara's twin sister. Of course, given her abilities, she could look like any girl's twin sister. She didn't think it was prudent to stick with the same look time after time, feeling that she would be doing her powers a disservice.

"Yes, Nym, the thing is….well, the way she's been acting lately. It's worse now than during the entire time she was at Hogwarts," Harry commented as he stood outside of the library, his hand was placed on the door knob and he was precious inches away from opening it. There was something that gave him great pause as he looked over his shoulder.

"You did give her more than enough space," Nym commented to him with a sad smile in her blue eyes. Which, she then shifted into a violet shade that matched those of her aunt's, just because she was able to do so. She wanted to experiment with everything that her powers had to offer and she did not really care about who approved of how she used her powers.

Meanwhile, Harry decided to approach this the diplomatic way. He was going to give Hermione a chance to come out of the library on her own accord without him exerting the authority that he had over her. She might have been upgraded to wife status, just barely, but he could still exert his authority as a lord of an ancient and noble house. He also got the impression that he might have been neglecting to discipline her lately, if Bella and Astoria taught him anything, it was that it was always a bad idea to be lax on that front.

The wizard's fist raised up then he knocked on the door.

"Hermione, open it up!" Harry yelled as he rapped his knuckles on the door.

Hermione's answer was most certainly not to Harry's liking. "Harry! I'm busy, go away!"

Harry sighed, she was going to have to do this the hard way. Even though Harry was not too fond of the hard way, he was going to do what he was going to have to do. He raised his hand and clicked the door open.

He saw Hermione sitting at one of the library tables, combing over the books. She had several huge stacks laid out in front of her.

"Hermione. We need to have a discussion," Harry stated evenly and she opened her mouth to protest. Only for him to interrupt before she could speak and in a firm tone that left zero room for argument. "Right now."

Hermione knew that it wasn't a good idea to argue with Harry when he was like this and he even worse, he had Nym with him for back up. Which was going to make things a bit harder to deal with. Still the brunette made her best attempt to deter him.

"Harry, I need to be here….."

"Hermione. The thing is you don't. You're neglecting your health, and I don't want to walk into this library one day to see a dusty skeleton hunched over books," Harry told the girl sternly.

"I need to be in here Harry….they're….."

"They are books. Hermione, they aren't going to go anywhere," Harry commented and he saw Hermione's eyes flash with rage as she snapped her eyes towards Harry. There was a few seconds where he could see her eyes about to bug out. It was almost a comical sight or it would be if it was not so serious.

"You….you….you….you…."

Harry cut in as he eyed Nym who nodded. It was time for some drastic action.

"Hermione. Follow me to the shower," Harry commanded in a firm voice and protest blasted through her eyes.

Nym grabbed Hermione around the arm and forced the issue. Leading the dark haired girl down the corridors to the shower.

Hermione protested, but a flick of Nym's wand caused her clothes to be removed from her body and another flick turned the shower on. There was going to be some direct intervention, and then some punishment to teach her a lesson.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

"Harry?"

Harry smacked Hermione on the rear hard and caused her to whimper in protest, as Nym grabbed Hermione around the shoulders and Harry made sure the water squirted on Hermione. She shrieked when she felt it hit her body.

"THAT'S COLD!"

Hermione shivered.

"Well you should have came in here whilst the water was still hot,' Harry told Hermione but he said nothing other than that. The wizard's smile got wider as he had her bare, a red mark on her tight ass and Harry raised it.

There was another smack across her ass and Harry used the soap to rub across Hermione's tits.

She screamed as Nym was down beneath her legs and pushed her tongue deep between her legs, licking out her quim. Nym worked her tongue, causing it to grow with her powers. Hermione was being roughly licked by Nym.

"I'm going to take your ass," Harry breathed as he rubbed his hands down Hermoine's ass and took the cold water, spraying it on her tits.

"Oh, oh, ah, oh," Hermione managed as Harry used the soap on the side of her face. His cock head brushed against her ass, as he prepared to push take her anally.

Hermione closed her eyes and felt the rush of Harry pushing his large cock in between her butt cheeks.

The woman hung onto the wall as Nym used her super long tongue to work even deeper down into her quim. She licked her out as Harry kept working into Hermione from behind and buggered her tight bum.

Hermione knew this was punishment, she could tell by Harry's tone that she was being punished. Yet she felt a great amount of pleasure as Harry cupped her tits and worked into her from behind. His balls slapped across her thighs and he wrapped around her. His balls continued to slam against her.

Harry felt her tight ass and he could use charms to make it even tighter. The only lubrication that he had was the soap that he used to watch her dirty ass. He grabbed Hermione around the waist and continued to plunge herself into her. The dark haired woman pushed herself against the wall and Harry buried himself deep into her.

Hermione closed her eyes.

' _How do you like that, you filthy fucking girl?'_ Nym asked, morphing her tongue into a large penis as it was shoved deep into Hermione, nearly ripping her apart.

Hermione screamed as she held onto Nym's head as she pushed into her pussy. This rough handling was caused her to scream out loud and she went deeper into her. The young woman wrecked her pussy.

Harry grabbed her.

"You're going to learn moderation with your activities, or I'm going to force it on you," Harry growled as he groped her nice breasts, spearing into her. The wizard's balls slammed into her backside and Harry kept going into her from behind.

Her ass cheeks clenched around him and Harry plowed deeper into her from behind, with the wizard running his hands against her from behind.

' _Damn,'_ Hermione managed, she found herself gagged and unable to really say anything out loud.

His cock went deeper into her bum and there was a few seconds where Hermione swore that he purpose grew his cock in her ass. She was filled up with so much cock off her bum, with Harry sawing into her from behind.

Harry bit her on the back of the neck roughly, sucking on her neck, signifying his ownership of her body.

"Time to take that pussy," Harry breathed and Nym pulled out.

Harry pushed the gagged and suddenly bound Hermione against the wall and slammed into her.

Hermione felt his huge and thick cock push between her legs. The woman grabbed onto him, hanging on. There were a few more thrusts into her wet quim as Harry kept pushing into her. The woman's walls kept tightening into her, nearly clenching his penis for all that she was worth. Her nails clenched into her. Harry hung onto her, working into the front of her.

Hermione closed her eyes, her entire pussy stuffed full of his cock. There was an instant where Harry hammered into her nicely. The two of them went against each other, with Harry pushing as far into her as he could go.

"Damn, Hermione, it's been a while since you got a good hard fucking, isn't it?" Harry growled as Tonks played with her ass.

Nym was licking the inside of Hermione's ass with her super hard tongue.

A version of Harry showed up behind Nym and grabbed her around the hips. The young woman felt him push into her and her walls stretched around him. His cock was squeezed lovingly, with Harry plowing into her from behind.

Harry grabbed onto her waist, working into her with thrust after thrust. Both of them were going at it hotly, her super hot cunt clenching his rock hard member as Harry worked himself deeper into her. The woman's eyes closed as Harry plowed into her.

The actions in the shower continued, the steam continued to heat up the scene around them.

Hermione was reduced to a drooling mess, her pussy was being drilled with a few thrusts into her. The witch was closing her eyes and she was feeling the pleasure, going into her. She never wanted to have Harry stop fucking her, even though it was a really rough fucking. The woman's legs tightened around him as Harry kept going into her, working his length into her.

Nym's tongue worked into Hermione's ass from behind with her tongue as one of the Harry dupes plowed her from behind. Hermione was being force fucked standing and Nym could tell that she was getting off on it.

Harry's cock went deep into her, his balls gaining a lot of momentum.

"I'm not sure if you earned my cum," Harry breathed and Hermione closed her eyes.

Harry teased pulling out, which caused a whine to erupt through Hermione's mouth. He pushed himself into her, rocking back into her, as he caused her to whimper a little bit.

Hermione looked at him with imploring eyes as he continued to wreck her pussy, with a few more thrusts until his balls tightened and then his cum sprayed out into her dripping wet hole, causing her pleasure but Harry roughly rammed into her and continued to take everything out on her pussy again and again.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

Hermione's eyes were glazed over in pleasure but Harry slipped her one of the Potions. He wanted her to be coherent enough to understand what he was saying. The potion was watered down though so she'd still be feeling some of the consequences of what happened.

"Hermione, we need to have a chat. I thought that this behavior went out of the window after your NEWTs," Harry told the brunette bookworm as he placed his hand on her chin firmly, forcing the woman to look at him straight in the eye. "I know that you want to keep everything in order, but these books. It's not something that you need to undertake on your own."

Hermione's eyes widened and her mouth began to open but Harry was not finished. In fact, he was just getting started. He was just gaining the momentum that he needed to give Hermione a firm lecture that would hopefully teach her a lesson about where he stood on this issue.

"I'm sure Dobby will help you. In fact, I know he'd help you, he'd be over the moon actually, he's always asking me for more work to do," Harry commented as he shifted and kept his eyes locked on Hermione's. "I'm willing to put up with a lot of your quirks. But, when you neglect a lot of things, including your health. We have a problem."

Nym watched Hermione. "Yes, Hermione, they're only books. They aren't going anywhere."

Hermione, finally found it in herself to protest upon hearing that. "You….you….take that back!"

Nym grinned triumphantly upon hearing and seeing her react like that, she kept her gaze locked on Hermione. "Why would I take back the truth? That's what it is. The truth. The books aren't going to revolt and walk off, because the great Hermione Granger didn't pay them the proper attention, you know."

Hermione hung her head a little bit, although there was a momentary amount of disbelief that flashed through her eyes.

' _I thought we had this problem corrected,'_ Daphne thought to them.

' _Old habits die hard,'_ Lavender chimed in through the bond link. Glad, that she was over in the United Kingdom with Harrison and not there with them in Gotham. She did like Hermione to an extent but the girl could drive people bonkers with her obsessive compulsive disorder.

"Now, you're going to have breakfast. Then we're going to make sure what we say sinks in this time," Harry told her and Hermione nodded. "If I catch you in there again neglecting your health. I'll make sure you're banned from any library for the next year."

The thought of that punishment was more than enough to cause Hermione to stand up straight and become obedient to him.

* * *

"So, are you sure that you're up for this?"

Sirius Black, who had just flown in that morning, was the one who offered this question. There were times where he questioned his godson's sanity. To be fair though, willing having more than one wife, would cause any man to question his sanity. However, by nature, most magical duels, spar or otherwise, were fought one on one. Harry was going for a two on one situation, with Nym and Sirius teaming up against him.

"I'm always up for a challenge," Harry offered cracking his knuckles as he closed his eyes and smiled. "The question is, are you ready?"

Sirius smiled, the truth was, it had been a long time since he had been in an actual duel against a wizard. He had spent most of the last fifteen or so years, living the high life or living the low life in Azkaban, depending on what situation they were talking about. The wizard kept his eyes locked firmly upon his godson as the two of them paced back and forth in front of each other.

"Naturally, I'm ready," Sirius commented as he prepared himself. "But you do realize that you could be in a serious situation."

"You know, I should just let Harry hex you just for making that stupid overused pun," Nym commented as she rolled her eyes, but Sirius looked at her, with puppy dog eyes. Granted, the effect was lost because he was rapidly reaching middle age. Although, he should not look that old but then again Azkaban ravaged people. "And you can stop with that."

"Nymmy, Nymmy, Nymmy…."

"Not one more word," Nym said as she closed her eyes and then opened them to focus on Harry, who watched them both in amusement.

"I'll wait for the two of you to get on the same page, and then and only then, will we be able to do this," Harry offered both of them and Nym and Sirius nodded, trying to get back on the same page with each other.

Nym shook her head. "Okay, we're ready."

"Any rules, Harry?" Sirius inquired of him and there was a pause from Harry before he let the two of them know.

Harry thought about it for a moment or two before he informed them of the rules. "Well, pretty much every magical spell is available to us. The only thing that isn't allowed is the Unforgiveable Curses or anything that would be fatal."

"Well that goes without saying," Nym commented as she closed her eyes and smiled.

"So that's settled," Harry commented as he placed his hands down onto the floor to stretch his limbs briefly and then popped back up. He made sure that his watch was in place as he flexed his fingers. His hands sparked with some energy as he rocked back to get himself in the proper mindset. The wizard's green eyes blazed as he locked his gaze onto them.

"Yes. So on the count of three then," Nym commented and Sirius nodded in agreement.

There was a three count, that was followed quickly by an explosion.

Two spells were sent at him at once. It was a daring attack, to try and attack him from either side. The wizard put up a shield that blocked the attacks and there was an explosion that resounded on either side of him.

The wizard smiled as he rocked backwards and then tried to nail them into the wall for an early victory. However, given how well both of them were trained. They were able to avoid his attacks and repel his attacks back at him.

Harry smiled as he saw the fire balls rain down on him. It was an interesting attack, even though fire was an easily blockable attack for anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of how to bend the laws of physics and magic, and Harry had a doctorate in one of those disciplines so his knowledge was far from rudimentary. Still, he figured that they were trying to find a way to break through his fairly formidable level of resistance. Harry closed his eyes and allowed them to continue to push forward with the attack.

The fire balls continued to rain down on him. The bombardment growing even heavier as it pounded against his shield. The young wizard closed his eyes for a moment before making his move.

Harry manifested an ice shield around his body, a handy little defense against fire, not that he needed it. He and Diana had tested their resistance to fire by making love in a volcano once. He then manifested the ice shield around Nym and Sirius, preventing them from performing any fire elemental attacks for the next few minutes.

"Different tactic! I go high, you go low!" Nym yelled to her partner.

She found a pair of thick cords wrapped around her. Thankfully, she was able to move her arm enough to slice herself out. She knew going into this that Harry was going to put her through the paces.

A bank of smoke rolled in around her, making it extremely hard for everyone to see. Harry had an advantage though in that he could use X-Ray vision to see them, putting Sirius and Nym at a disadvantage.

Nym remembered what Moody drilled into her head constantly during Auror training. That was the fact that even if your sight was impaired, you still had four other senses. Of course, he also made a very cutting comment about the sense that most Aurors failed to engage was their common sense.

The woman shook her head to clear her thoughts, she had to focus, no matter what. Her heart beat heavily as she continued to push herself to another level.

Sirius could not see Harry, but he managed to fire off four spells of various intensity in the smoke. With any luck, he would hit him.

He knew that Harry would bury him alive if he did not give it his best shot, so Sirius tried to give better than his best. Funnily enough, it was at this point that words from Lily flashed back into his mind from when they had a practice duel at Hogwarts.

"Either you kick my ass or I'll kick yours, twice as hard."

That was a philosophy that Sirius figured that Harry shared with his mother, they did not want anyone to hold back against them. The two of them were very able to take control of any situation they found themselves in and hold their own against other people.

And as that thought went through Sirius's head, a bone breaking curse impacted into him, cracking his ribs. Although, after spending all of that time in Azkaban, getting ones ribs broken was far from the worst thing that could happen, at least that's was the thought that passed through Sirius's mind.

Harry smiled. Dodging a spell from Tonks, he was surprised when it disrupted his senses despite the fact it hadn't hit him directly. It created a sort of vertigo effect that made him slightly dizzy. The wizard felt a wave of nausea pass through him that made him want hurl. He tried get back to a standing position even though he felt like he was about to collapse to his knees. He somehow held himself up, for better or for worse.

Two spells went off of either side of him and a resounding thump echoed outwards in the aftermath.

Nym watched with glee, as did Sirius as Harry thumped to the ground. There was a triumphant look that spread over their faces at the thought that they'd won.

"I think we got him!" Nym crowed in triumph but the person on the ground faded.

There was one statement that went through the minds of both Sirius and Nym right now. It was rather crude all things considered but it never the less accurately described what was going on. The statement was crude but it got the point.

"Oh shit."

The next thing that passed through the back of their heads was a pair of huge stunning spells. The two of them dropped face first to the ground out for the count.

Harry smiled, he was not going to lie, that battle did tax him. Then again, with the watch on, thing were going to be a lot more taxing then they were without the watch was on. That much Harry could take to the bank, but the watch was necessary.

He saw Nym and Sirius get back to their feet after he revived them with a wave of his hand and Harry only had one statement for them.

"I believe that I've won," Harry informed them, with a bit of a smug tone in his voice.

Sirius offered a pained grimace and he offered a meek statement. "So….best two out of three?"

Harry offered him a smile as he figured that would be for the best, to ensure that he got the most out of his new training.

* * *

Back in the United Kingdom, Harrison looked over all of London from the Penthouse on top of the MarauderCo Tower with a smile on his face. It was an amazing view, one could not dispute that no matter how much they tried. Three towers of the same design had been built in London, Metropolis, and Gotham City, although the one in Gotham was still being finished. There were future plans to build similar structures in other cities as well. Though they would be some time from now. Still, Harrison would be a fool if he did not start thinking about the future as he stood in the present. The smile which spread over his face was proof positive of what he had to do and it would continue to escalate as time went on.

He placed his hands on the shoulders of the young woman that stood in front of him. Then again, Harry was always in the company of an attractive woman, so it was one of those things that went without saying.

"So what do you think?" Harrison asked to Nyssa as he whispered into her ear.

Nyssa offered a smile and her response was honest as always. While, she might not have told him of her intentions and mission when they first met she'd never lied to him once. "Perfect as you are, beloved."

It was a smile that earned one from Harrison.

"The plan as it is, is going as smoothly as could be in this climate," Harrison commented as he placed his hands on the side of her shoulders. The woman's eyes closed as Harry stroked the tender flesh on the back of her neck.

"Quite, beloved. Quite," Nyssa commented as she leaned back into him as they enjoyed the night together, those few moments of quiet. Where it was just the two of them was something that she wouldn't trade for all the world.

Although the night was shaping up to be amazing, Harrison was expecting guests. His eagle ears were sharpened and ready, as he listened for the people he was expecting to arrive. There would be a knock on the door once they'd arrived that would announce them soon.

As if right on cue, someone knocked at the door and Harrison smiled as he moved his hands from Nyssa's shoulders and made his way over to answer it.

Standing on the other side of the door was a pair of teenage females and what a pair of teenage females they were. Then again, Harrison Evans and Harry Potter never did anything but pick out the very best, that much was obvious time and time again.

The first female had striking flame red hair, which was so unlike the ginger the rest of her family seemed to have. Along with a smattering of freckles across her nose. She was fifteen years old, close to turning sixteen years of age, at least she would be in a little over a month. Her red hair was tied back into a low ponytail then fell to her mid back, a smile crossed her face as took a nice long look at Harry. She was wearing a tight black top that wrapped around her bust nicely and she also was wearing a nice jean skirt that showcased a pair of gorgeous creamy legs. A pair of black boots topped off everything nicely as well. Her name was Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley and she greeted Harry with a bright smile.

"Harry!" Ginny yelled as she threw her arms around the young man. "Or is it Harrison?….Well it doesn't really matter now, because I'm glad to see you!"

Harrison smiled in spite of himself, it was a smile that he reserved for his girls alone. Ginny's lips found their way onto his in a long and lingering kiss, and the two of them indulged themselves into each other. The two were about ready to let their passions get the better of each other, but that would mean that Harrison would have to neglect the other female standing before him and she was not the type of girl, who would be neglected by any means.

She had long blonde hair that was tied back into a ponytail and a look of innocence that deceived anyone who saw it. In fact, that look of innocence masked the malicious intentions in her eyes. She had a dark top that wrapped tightly around her body, though it rode up a bit, showing off her extremely toned midriff. She wore a dark jean skirt and a pair of black boots. Her long and lust inducing legs were on display.

"Hello, my lord," Astoria Greengrass commented as she threw her arms around his neck and there was a long kiss between the two of them. The blonde was pressed back against the wall as the two of them indulged themselves in each other. The wizard's hands ran down her legs and she cupped his behind as the two of them continued to deepen their kiss.

The two of them broke apart with a solid pop after a long, and the two of them stepped back from each other.

"We've missed you, Harry," Astoria commented as she placed her hands on her hips and struck a nice little pose. The blonde watched Harrison with an adoring expression in her eyes.

"I believe we just saw each other two weeks ago," Harrison commented with a teasing grin and Ginny glared at Harrison as she shook her head.

"No, it's been almost three weeks," Ginny protested to him and Harrison smiled at her, offering her a raised eyebrow as he amended his statement.

"My mistake."

There was a seconds pause, before Harrison took a girl on each arm and lead them into the living area of the Penthouse.

"One more year, and we'll be out of that bloody place," Ginny commented as she pushed her fingers through her hair and sighed. "Although it's improved a little bit since Dumbledore was gone."

"There's a name that isn't treated with the respect that it used to be," Astoria commented, Rita's book was the first of many that questioned a lot of things about Dumbledore's life. There were more books that came out of the woodwork over the last couple of years. It was something that amused all of them. His reputation deserved to be flushed down the toilet. They had no desire to see him become a martyr after his death.

A house elf popped up offering them some tea to drink.

"Top grades in my year, with Ginny slightly beneath," Astoria commented as she held out her exam scores for Harrison to take a look at.

Harrison looked over the exam scores carefully as he sipped his tea. After a moment of looking them a smile crossed his face.

"Very good girls, very good, excellent even," Harrison commented to both of them as he lifted the tea taking a sip. All Outstandings, although Ginny's ranking was second due to Astoria getting a higher percentage score. "You've done well and that's going to make this summer even better for both of you."

Ginny and Astoria exchanged a pleased smile with each other and then they turned back to face Harry, their eyes glowing as both of them took him in. The two of them were looking forward to this summer ever since he brought up what he had planned for them. They held his arms with tight grips.

"Well, we aim to please," Astoria offered to Harrison with an adoring tone to her voice as she took a biscuit that had been offered, chewing on it slowly, her lips pursed as she nibbled on the cookie. "There's a lot to do….more than a lot to do."

"Well, we're going to find out what we're going to do with you," Ginny offered with a flirty grin.

"The two of you earned this internship, no question about it" Harrison commented to both of them as he went over the papers. He proceeded to share some news with both of them. "Here's some modifications of what we've been doing since you left."

Ginny whistled as she read through the paperwork offered to her. Astoria joined Ginny in looking them over, wide smiles on both of their faces as they flipped through them, becoming even more interested with the changes the further they read.

"Nice, very, nice, wouldn't you say so, Ginny?" Astoria asked the redhead.

"Absolutely, this is going to be amazing," Ginny offered with a gushing tone to her voice as she was flipping through the papers. "And the Potions, that's going to boost a lot of people and cause more of the Mundane people to keep up with you."

Astoria slid herself onto Harry's lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. A wicked grin on her face as the blonde pressed her breasts up against him. Harry wrapped his arm around her waist absently.

"And that's a good thing, more females being able to keep up with you," Astoria commented as she shifted around slightly so that she was straddling Harrison. A playful smile on her face as the two of them exchanged smoldering looks.

"Yes, and it's going to be….it's going to be amazing," Harrison commented, he was trying to think of a term to say much more but found that it was hard to spit out. However, that was a pretty good way to describe it. He was finding it a bit difficult to concentrate with Astoria sliding back and forth across his lap.

"Yes, it will be," Astoria agreed as she leaned up towards him, the smile crossing her face widening in pleasure. "So are you ready?"

"You should know that I was born ready," Harrison commented as Astoria fired back with an adoring smile on her face.

"And I would expect nothing less from you," the blonde said happily as she kept snuggling up against him and things between them were going to get really heated really quickly.

Then again, with Harrison and his females, things always got pretty heated, very quickly to begin with. So he was just going with the flow and seeing where life was going to bring him. It had worked out very well for him so far.

"I will catch you later, beloved," Nyssa commented as she walked towards him and Astoria pushed herself off so Nyssa could talk to Harrison properly. "As much as I'd like to join the festivities. I really need to get back."

"Of course. I'll see you for my birthday, will I not?" Harrison asked her and she pressed her lips against his.

"I would not miss it for anything," Nyssa commented as she turned to take her leave.

Ginny smiled as she watched the girl leave and she offered an inquiry. "So what is the plan for your birthday?"

"Well, party here, then we're heading to France," Harry told the girls.

"Oh, that sounds enticing," Astoria commented to them and they nodded.

He inherited a nice villa there from marrying the Delacours, so it was time to cash in on that. Plus, there were other areas to explore thanks to the inroads he'd made with the Veela Nation. It would be nice to have some time to sit down and relax.

"I looked at those NEWT papers that you found from during Lily's time. They really skimped out on our education," Ginny commented as she closed her eyes. "Not to pull a Hermione…."

"Good, because I will duct tape your mouth shut if you do," Astoria commented lightly but there was a wicked smile on her face.

"Not outside the bedroom, darling," Ginny said to Astoria with a saucy tone to her voice. The two of them stared each other down for a moment.

Harrison agreed that standards had fallen a lot and he knew that they were being changed, although slowly so there would not be a culture shock.

Meanwhile, Harrison took in the view from the tower, he could see everything, three hundred and sixty degrees around him. In some ways, he was looking over the rest of the world there. This was the way that it was meant to be.

* * *

Harry leaned against the limo as he tapped his foot on the ground, patiently waiting for the jet to arrive at the airport. Kara stood next to him, a smile on her face, wearing a black top and blue jean shorts along with a pair of glasses, her hair was tied back in a ponytail. The blonde swayed her hips as she waited and Harry could not take his eyes off of her delicious rear, which he figured was Kara's intention. After a moment or two of watching, he smacked her hard on the ass with a resounding slap, causing the blond to give out a yelp then turn her head over her shoulder to look at him.

"What?" Kara asked with half of a grin on her face and Harry smirked at her playfully before he wrapped his arm around her tightly and pulled the young blonde in close to him.

"You know what," Harry whispered to the blonde and she shrugged her shoulders as she prepared for the arrival of their visitors.

Nym stood there with a thinly veiled smile on her face, she placed her hands on her hips as she kept watching. Her dark eyes focused forward as she pushed herself up and down on her heels, looking like quite the spectacle as she bounced up and down.

They were outside the limo, in their private hanger and awaiting the guests that were coming. Kara offered Harry one question.

"Do you think that Hermione got the point?" Kara asked Harry and Harry shrugged.

"Well, it's Hermione, being Hermione, she's always going to be a little OCD," Harry offered with a shrug of his shoulders. As a result, that was how Hermione's mind was going to work. That was just something that he very grudgingly had to accept.

Nym offered a sigh as she placed her hands on Harry's shoulder. "She was always that way. You know? Since her first year."

Kara shook her head, that was just Hermione being Hermione. The woman's eyes closed shut as she decided to bring up a question that she had for Harry.

"So how is it?" Kara asked Harry and the green eyed wizard looked towards her, so Kara figured that it was best that she elaborated. "You know? The inhibitor watch, how are you doing with it on?"

"Oh...that," Harry stated as he looked at the watch. "It's doing wonders for my training. When you think it, blocking off a good portion of my powers builds up my resistance. Thanks to my magical abilities, everything still functions mostly, about half capacity, roughly at least. That's a ball park really."

Penny frowned as she looked at Harry. She figured she would have to stick her neck out on the line to ask the question. "Why would you do something like that?"

"Well, it's just like I said. It's mostly for resistance training, things like that," Harry informed the dark haired witch with a shrug and she offered a nod of her head at his words, although she did wonder. Then again, there were certain things Harry did which he did for very good reasons.

Harry also had other reasons for wearing it, that he preferred not to get into. There were certain quirks that were unforeseen and there was a huge medical reason why he was wearing the watch. Everything would be stabilized before too long, at least that's what he was hoping for. It was too soon to really tell but he would know in several weeks.

They could see the jet preparing to land and that caused the group to smile.

The jet had landed and aboard it were a group of redheads. Harry smiled as he saw them exit the plane and make their way towards him.

The first was a nearly sixteen year old redhead. She had green eyes, along with creamy skin and a smattering of freckles. She was wearing a tight black top and an equally tight black skirt. Her name was Amanda Lily Potter and she rushed forward as soon as she caught sight of him, nearly tackling Harry into the ground in a bone crushing hug due to her enhanced strength. He returned eagerly lifting her off of the ground with his own still formidable strength.

"Mandy! Don't hog him!" Her twin sister said with a pout, she was wearing the same thing, only her top was green.

Emily Rose Potter stepped over and threw her arms around Harry, but he was still holding Amanda in his arms. So, in essence Harry was crushed between his beautiful twin sisters, allowing him quite the feel of their breasts, which had grown since the last time he saw them. It was an amazing feeling to say the least to be surrounded with all of this sexy female female flesh.

"Harry," Emily said as she gave him a light but fiery kiss. She eased her tongue into his mouth and Harry returned the action, using his tongue to go deeper into her mouth, causing her a slight moan as Harry cupped her delicious rear.

Rose Evans stood there waiting for her turn, she was dressed in a purple top, a black skirt, along with boots. Rose grabbed rather eagerly onto him as soon as the Twins had stepped away from him.

"Aunt Rose, it's good to see you again," Harry commented as he pressed up against her and she kissed him hard.

Lily Evans-Potter smiled as she joined them. She was redhead as well, wearing a white top and a black jean skirt. Sheer black stockings covered her legs and fed into high heel boots were made for walking.

"Saved the best for last," Lily commented with a smug tone.

"Of course," Harry agreed, as he grabbed her into a hug and then their lips met in an explosive kiss. Lily was determined to make the impression that she left on her son count the most, so she cupped his ass from behind, then gave him a pinch to his rear. Harry tightened his arms around Lily and her sexy body molded into his.

Lily closed her eyes, and Harry bit down on her lip, nibbling on it. The redhead moaned out slightly as she felt the pleasurable rush from the kiss that Harry gave her.

Hannah Abbott walked up to join them with a smile on her face. She had gone on ahead, not bothering to wait for her other half to catch up.

Neville lagged behind Hannah and he took in the situation in front of him, which caused his eyebrow to rise in a bemused manner.

"Neville, it's good to see you again," Kara commented as he brought his appearance to the attention of everyone.

"Yeah, Neville, good to see you," Nym confirmed as Lily and Harry broke apart, but there was a promise in their eyes that they would most certainly be wrapping this up a little bit later.

"Neville, how have you been?" Harry asked as he reached forward and grabbed Neville in a strong handshake which he returned.

Neville smiled, he was glad Harry didn't almost break every bone in his hand this time. They exchanged a brotherly hug and again, Neville was glad that Harry did not nearly snap his spine. He was pretty sure that was an Alpha Male thing and he was slightly out of his depth dealing with Harry in that regard. Which, when he thought about it was probably one of the reasons they became friends, since Harry didn't recognize Neville as a possible threat or competition.

"Well, just preparing for actually becoming of age and the responsibilities involved with that," Neville commented, avoiding the elephant in the room that was his upcoming marriage, which seemed to be along the lines of many pureblood marriages. "After Gran died, I had to step up a lot."

Everyone nodded somberly, Neville's grandmother died earlier this year, after being ill for a very long time. Very few knew about it, although Harry got a slight hint about it at Dumbledore's funeral. That just proved how tough of a woman Augusta Longbottom was. She managed to hold her head straight up and soldier on through to the very end, at least until her body could not go on any longer.

"Right, the rite of pureblood passage," Harry told him and Neville offered a smile.

"You make it sound more glamorous than it really is, mate," Neville commented.

Kara decided to ask the next question. "So, how is everyone at the Ministry?"

"Well, there are still a lot of idiots active, but that's the government for you," Lily chimed in with a sigh. She was glad that she was moving away from that world. Since Rose had briefly taken on the role of Deputy Headmistress and the Twins were in the process of getting their school at Hogwarts. She'd been stuck there for two years longer then she would have liked. The redhead closed her eyes. "Amelia and Andromeda are doing their best to ease the transition, but only over the past two years have we begun to filter out a lot of the baggage but it's a never ending process."

' _With some of the morons kicking and screaming the entire way,_ _well the one's who weren't stupid enough to get themselves killed,'_ Andromeda offered through the bond link.

' _Then again, those people who are left_ _aren't amongst the brightest bulbs in the box either_ _,'_ Nym offered to her mother.

' _To be among the smartest of the stupid, I'm not sure how people might feel about that,'_ Andromeda thought. It was not the most ringing term of endearments.

' _Not exactly a good place to be, although I'm sure some of the people who are in this world will settle for less,'_ Bellatrix thought as she placed her hand on the edge of her cheek from where she was.

Harry no doubt that there would be more ramifications from that world he'd need to deal with at some point. Well Harrison would have to deal with them, but he would deal with them in due time. Right now, he had some really important things to do next, as his birthday was tomorrow and it was the time of his final maturity.

* * *

' _So, remind me, what does this ritual do again?'_ Astoria thought to them. She was sitting there at the London office, working through some paperwork. Of course, her multitasking was second to none.

Lily was quick to respond. _'Well, the idea is to take the power that Harry is giving off during his third magical maturation and siphon it off between his blood relations.'_

' _And it should give me and Amanda a boost, at least,'_ Emily commented.

' _Yeah at the least,'_ Fleur chimed in. _'Harry's magic is unique, so we're stepping into fairly uncharted territory.'_

' _Fascinating,'_ Ginny commented but that was the truth. She was fascinated by all of this. The redhead pushed her hair out of her face as a smile crossed her face. She stood up straighter in her office.

' _It really is an amazing process. It's based off of a Veela ritual, although, I'm sure Lily has added her own special spin on things,'_ Appoline commented with a smile.

Lily had a smile of her own regarding the situation. _'Well, you do know me all too well._ _I_ _t's true, I've added my own spin on things to the ritual. Fleur has been very helpful in educating me, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve.'_

' _And I'm sure we're all looking forward to the benefits of them,'_ Rose cut in as she smiled ear to ear.

' _That much is always true, I think,'_ Daphne commented as she rested, making use of some rare downtime for her. So she thought that she'd check in with the people on the other side of the pond. Although, she figured that she could take breaks any time she wanted considering she was the Chief Operating Officer of MarauderCo, it was her need and drive that forced her to work harder than she should.

' _I'll be down there in a second, Karen's covering for me in the office. We have to get things ready for the merger_ _,'_ Jaime commented and everyone knew what she was talking about, so there was no need to elaborate on what they were up to.

' _That's good, hopefully everything comes nicely together,'_ Lily commented with a smile.

Harry was sitting on the bed, along with the twins, as they eagerly prepared for the moment that was coming. While he waited, he decided to make some small talk with his bond mates.

' _How's Gabi doing since I last saw her?'_ Harry asked Appoline and the woman was only all too prompt to answer that question.

' _She's doing fine,'_ Appoline answered in affirmation with a smile across her face. _'Actually there's a fair chance that she might be coming over after she finishes her schooling to get an education in the Muggle world.'_

' _Well that would be interesting, tell her there's a spot open for her,'_ Harry commented and Kara snickered.

' _Thinking about getting another French maid, Harry?'_ Kara commented with a smile on her face with the blonde's arms folding over her chest. The blonde's eyes flashed with amusement and mirth.

' _Well, I didn't think about it until now, but I thank you for bringing it up, love,'_ Harry commented to her.

' _The only thing better that having a Veela as a French Maid is having two Veelas as French Maids,'_ Amanda commented with a smug expression as she threw her head back.

She was looking forward to this ritual, a little nervous all things considered.

' _I think that's a rule for life,'_ Donna chimed in through the bond link.

' _If it isn't, it bloody well should be,'_ Ginny commented with laughter.

' _You do realize that I'm…._ _actually you do realize that,_ _I just don't think that you really care,'_

Gabrielle offered as she delivered a mocking pout. _'You really don't care, do you?'_

' _Not really,_ _but I'm sure you get off on it anyway,'_ Amanda commented to her old friend and there was a smile on Gabrielle's face that showed that she did.

She would be lying if she had not had fantasies along those lines before involving her and Harry. It was a very enticing thought to say the very least. She shook her head to clear a lot of the thoughts that went through it. The blonde's eyes blinking as she leaned back.

"So, are we about ready to go?" Amanda asked as Jaime stepped into the room.

"Sorry, I'm late," Jaime commented as she turned up and Faora appeared in the room behind Harry.

"I checked the barriers on the outside. If this goes wrong, at least no one on the outside will get hurt," Faora commented, but then she added as an afterthought. "Not that any people on the inside have the ability to get hurt after all."

"Of course," Harry said to his sister as a slight smile crossed over his face as he prepared himself.

"Just a few more modifications," Fleur informed the entire group and all of them were ready, they were on pins and needles to see whether this would go right.

"It would be best if this is done with family, given how that we modified the ritual. So yes, Lyta should be here, but she's a bit too young right now," Lily informed them.

"So, this will boost our power a little bit?" Amanda asked.

"Yes, although you won't be able to use it straight away," Harry commented to the twins and both of them nodded their heads in understanding. They had accessed their Kryptonian gifts after their fourteenth birthday, and thus they had to spend some time leaning to use them. At this point in time they only had enhanced strength, speed, and stamina.

Given that it was the crystal that allowed Lily to get pregnant in the first place, it also allowed her to have the Twins after Harry had been born. The young witch smiled as she brushed her hair from her eyes.

"Alright, here's the plan, the runes are going to drive our sex drives up," Lily commented and there were a few looks that she was given from Faora, Jaime, Amanda, Emily, and Rose.

' _Well that's something that might go into the realm of overkill,'_ Astoria commented with a smile.

"We still need five more minutes for it to power it up but you'll know when it's ready," Lily told Harry.

"It's worth the rate," Harry commented but he decided to bring up something. "So how is everything going overseas? Anyone else want to make the move."

' _Well, I'm trying to help Amelia get things ready over here so she can step down, so it will be a little bit longer,_ _Narcissa as well._ _Lucretia and Vega might be inclined to make the move next year as they've been grooming successors for their roles at Hogwarts as we speak,'_ Andromeda commented to them.

' _I'm fine with my job here, I find myself extremely comfortable in my position,_ _if that is adequate enough, master,'_ Bellatrix told him.

' _That's fine, Bella. You know it's fine,_ _'_ Harry said to her with a smile as he leaned back for an instant. The runes where still charging up. _'So you have your successor ready for the position of Senior Undersecretary?'_

' _Yes, and it will cause Dolores Umbridge to roll over in her grave,'_ Andromeda stated smugly, although she was amused by that situation. She was far from the only one.

' _If any bitch deserves eternal damnation, it's that one,'_ Narcissa commented.

Harry smiled, Hope had devised a special torment for Dolores in her afterlife. It was enchantingly nasty, the wizard shuddered to think about it.

"And we're about ready to go," Lily told them all with a smile as they felt the arousal flood through all of their bodies, which meant that everything was working as they intended it to.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Lily took the first step by throwing her arms around Harry's neck and she pressed her burning lips against his with a nice and long kiss, which Harry returned. The erotic energy filling through the air was already getting everything worked up.

Jaime grabbed Amanda into a tight hug and pulled her blouse off, to reveal that she was not wearing a bra underneath. She squeezed the supple mounds, feeling how firm they were. This was an amazing sensation to deal with and Jamie kept playing with the breasts that were in her hands, squeezing them, molding them, treating them like they should be.

Lily went down on Harry, licking his large cock. It was growing even larger and Lily smiled, preparing herself to take it down her throat and give her son the rush of pleasure that he needed.

"SHIT MUM!" Harry groaned as Lily took him all the way down her throat, squeezing her inner throat muscles around him as she sucked him hungrily.

Lily gave a dirty grin for a moment and then she began to suck her son's huge cock, working it down between her lips. She was practically inhaling it, giving him an extremely messy blowjob.

Emily gave a whimper as her legs were parted and Faora's tongue worked deep between her legs. The dark haired woman's tongue went into her and Faora was a benefit of the older girl's oral talents.

' _Do you like your big sister eating out your dirty twat?'_ Faora asked to her and Emily's pussy gushed.

Amanda was motioned to sit on her sister's face and she grounded her heated mound across Emily's face. Emily got the hint.

"Fuck, oh so good, Emmy," Amanda breathed.

Lily was finished sucking Harry's cock as she offered Rose a taste. Rose joined in on the fun, wrapping her soft and moist lips around his throbbing prick, working herself further down around him, tasting him, and really indulging herself in the passions that was his large and hard cock.

"Oh, Auntie, so good," Harry breathed as he clutched Rose's head and watched as Jaime pushed a dildo in Rose as she was sucking Harry's cock, which got even more pleasure, with Amanda and Emily indulging in each other, along with Faora.

Rose speared her mouth down deeper on her nephew's hard cock, trying to ram all of it down her throat. She wanted to indulge in this delicious cream, she wanted it to spurt down her throat. The red head was pushing her mouth down him and worked into her. The redhead closed her eyes, feeling the rush, feeling her lips tighten around his organ as she picked up the pace and gave him an amazing blowjob.

Lily stroked and rubbed his balls as she built him ups climax. She felt his fingers go into her cunt, pushing in and out of her gushing hole, pleasuring her to the highest heights. His fingers were talented, probing into her, driving her completely nuts as they kept pumping into her body. There was no question about it, Lily felt fulfilled but they were just getting warmed up.

Amanda was having her pussy eaten out by her twin but she was the fun about to escalate as Jaime slipped over towards Harry.

"I'm first, just to get you warmed up for the main event," Jaime cooed as she wrapped her arms and legs around Harry and with ease, allowed him to slip inside of her.

Harry closed his eyes and felt the rush that was her tight walls wrapping around him. The young woman pushed herself around him, with her walls stretching out around his body. His thick hard cock went against her walls and Jaime lifted up before slamming down into her, working her hips around his cock.

"Damn it, you're so…fuck ride me," Harry breathed as his energy escalated, causing another dupe to be fired off.

"Harry, I'm wet," Amanda said with a pout as she looked over her shoulder.

Harry grabbed his sister around the waist and then brushed his cock against her wet entrance, pushing into her.

"YES!" Amanda yelled as she felt her brother's huge cock spear into her from behind. It pushed her walls apart and made her feel so wet, so fulfilled. Each thrust brought her more joy and her nipples hardened with Harry pummeling her rather quickly from behind. The redhead felt herself entombed in pleasures that she could barely think about. She bit down on her lip as Harry pushed in and filled her out.

Emily was being pleasured by Faora, her pussy being rammed in and out by a nice dildo but another Harry showed up.

"Well sweetie, you know what to do," Faora breathed as she stroked Emily's hair lovingly and Emily smiled as she buried her face between Faora's legs, heavily munching on her dripping snatch and causing the pleasure to course through her very being.

Harry grabbed Emily around the hips and worked himself back before spearing into her. The young Evans-Potter girl felt her brother's cock bury into her.

"Damn, Emmy, so tight, I'm going to have to put you, through the paces more often," Harry breathed as he felt the glow around her, these actions driving his sister to a climax.

"Yes, oh yes, oh yes, fuck me," Emily screamed as she felt Harry bury himself deep into her.

His huge cock felt so hard between her legs, it was so good, so amazing, so fulfilling, any other term she could use to describe it, it would not do it justice. All she needed was him to go into her deeply.

"YES!"

Amanda was pushed onto the bed and given a going over by her pussy. Her sweet nectar spilled down, lubricating his prick as he slammed in and out of the sexy redhead.

Amanda felt so good, Harry was touching her in places that she never knew she had and his cock was really feeling good inside her. The woman cooed loudly as Harry pushed himself as far up her as he could manage, causing an explosion of pleasure to resound through her young body.

"Keep that up, oh keep that up baby girl," Faora breathed as Amanda kept munching on her cunt with love and tender care.

Lily was being indulged in by her younger sister and she was indulging herself in Lily. Both Evans sisters laid in a sexually charged sixty nine position as Jaime rode Harry's huge prick like a madwoman.

"Oh, keep touching, oh yes!" Jaime mewled as she felt her orgasm become even more powerful than before, soaking Harry's cock with her fluids.

"Feels so good, oh feels so fucking good," Harry groaned as he felt her nubile and soft hips sink down on him, working his cock over.

"Fuck me, fuck your slutty twin!" Jaime moaned as she felt his hands work over her breasts and squeezed them, causing her cunt to clench Harry's invading rod tightly. The woman was really hammering him with a few pumps of her pussy down upon his prick.

"Oh, that feels so good, harder Jaime, oh yes, harder, harder," Harry begged her as he slammed his hard cock deep into her.

Jaime closed her eyes and another Harry dupe appeared. The wizard went between her ass with a prick and then she grabbed another two cocks in her hands, one in each. She started pumping them as another Harry stuffed one cock in her mouth.

She was being assaulted by a barrage of cocks from an army of Harry dupes and loving it.

On the expanded for the ritual bed, Rose and Lily were face to face, kissing each other. Their lips were swollen and breasts were pressed together. There was a Harry on either side of them, smashing his thick dick between their walls. He was ramming into them, as the runes that were drawn upon the wall glowed even brighter, with Harry spearing his hard length into both his mother and aunt even more.

The meeting of the flesh, the rocking between them all, that was amazing.

Amanda's moaning intensified as her brother fucked her practically into the bed. Her face was still in Faora's pussy but her mouth needed a break.

Harry filled the void, sliding his hard cock between her legs, causing the moaning to get intense as he pushed into her as far as he could go.

"Yes, Har, punish me, oh, make me yours," Faora mewled as Harry worked his throbbing cock into her body.

Harry smiled as his sister hung onto him, he pushed into her. Amanda was face down on the bed with Harry pounding her as well and Emily was getting some of it of her own.

There was a loud chorus of moans as everything escalated, the entire group was feeling the pleasure of everything. The pops, the moans, everything that went along with that.

The build up to the climax would be far longer for the ritual to work. Everyone had taken a form of the stamina potions before hand, because they would need to go at it for twenty four hours inside the time bubble for everything to work as it should regarding the rituals.

The girls would be tired to some extent although that would be everyone within the time bubble getting a power boost and their bodies would need to adjust to it.

An explosion resounded as Harry filled their young bodies with seed, splashing their insides.

Everyone felt a rush of erotic fulfillment as they saw white.

They needed to do one more round to ensure that the ritual worked as planned but Harry and his duplicates were up for the challenge.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

**To Be Continued.**


	4. Birthday Part Two

**Chapter Four: Birthday Part Two.**

Despite the energy siphoning process that was the magical ritual. Harry lifted his arms into the air in triumph, he felt rather refreshed despite the drain it had put upon his magic and stamina potions were passed around to all of the girls to help them recover theirs.

Amanda closed her eyes, she had never felt more refreshed or maybe she felt a bit more off than she thought as her mind assimilated to everything that happened. Never the less, she lifted her head up high and asked the question of all of them were thinking.

"So how long….."

"It will take a while naturally, you don't want to burn yourself out too soon," Lily commented as she watched the twins and Harry, who were relaxing intertwined with each other in the middle of the bed. Rose was resting off the effects of what happened to the side of them.

They had plenty of time to rest right now, thanks to the time dilation bubble surrounding the room slowing the time that past inside of it to a crawl. There actually was a party waiting for them on the other side of the door. Harry smiled in spite of himself, who wouldn't enjoy a party? That thought brought a smile to his face. He would get see several of his girls all gathered together in one place, some of whom he'd not seen in a couple of months, others in a couple of days, but never the less, he would be able to see them soon.

"You feel more refreshed? Despite the fact it was your power that was being siphoned off?" Faora questioned Harry with a great deal of interest. He responded by smiling at her and offering a nod. "Well, that's just as well, it was an excess amount which was causing an imbalance and might have been slowing you down slightly. Many witches and wizards….they seem to get a boost of their power upon their third maturity, however slight it may be. With your unique heritage, it's bound to be quite a bit more and we're heading into uncharted waters really."

Harry smiled in spite of himself. "Well, that's a trip that we're going have to take."

He was always interested, always intrigued about learning more about himself and the world around him, that much was for certain. After a moments though he untangled himself from his sisters, then got up to his feet with a yawn before stretching carefully. The fact that he could get to his feet without feeling any dizziness, was an excellent sign. He rubbed his forehead and then he smiled. So far, he felt pretty good, all he had to do was keep himself steady and he would be in the clear.

"Quite," Faora agreed, as she made her way over to her brother and ran several medical diagnostic scans. She wanted to make sure everything was in working order.

Harry stood still and waited to see if his body passed the test. She looked over him, a smile crossing over her face as she scanned every inch of him in intimate detail. She then double checked to ensure that he passed the test. Time stood still as he was watched his sister ran her hands all over his body, before she nodded with an appraising look in her eyes after completing her detailed examination of his form.

"So does he pass the test?" Jaime asked with a smile, but Faora gave her a look that indicated that she should be quiet for now.

"You are as healthy as could be expected given the circumstances," Faora told Harry and she smiled at that fact. Given the watch that he wore, the fact that particular quality of it was working would pay dividends in the future.

Harry took the stamina potion that his mother offered to him and gulped it down. That allowed him to get up and face the world. He had a new spring in his step.

"So, what are we waiting around for?" Amanda asked as she bounced up and down, her young perky breasts following her movements rather enticingly. She had not put her shirt back on and she was giving them all quite the show.

"Well, we're never get to the party if you keep distracting our brother like that," Emily commented dryly and Amanda looked at her sister with a sharp glare.

"Girls, mind yourselves," Harry told both of the twins sternly and they nodded towards him. He placed one of his arms around both of them and with a wave of his hand. Their clothes appeared back on them, just like that.

"Oh, that's good service," Amanda commented with a beaming smile.

"Just don't make a habit out of getting me to do it for you. The last thing I want to do is spoil you girls," Harry told them and Amanda shook her head in disagreement.

"You wouldn't spoil us," Amanda stated with an adoring tone to her voice, as Harry leaned towards her and captured her pink lips in a nice kiss. They were juicy, soft, and Harry could indulge himself in them all day.

"My turn!" Emily demanded impatiently. Only for Harry respond to that by shaking his head and slapping her hard on the ass.

"Learn to wait for it," Harry told her sternly and then he grabbed her and pulled her in tightly against his frame. before giving her an extremely passionate kiss.

"So, between those two, are we leaving this room?" Jaime asked her Mother and Lily smiled as she watched the antics of her children.

They had plenty of time after all. The time dilation spells gave them all of the time in the world. The redhead got up to her feet and slowly they all dressed.

The doors swung open and revealed Karen waiting outside in the hallway for Harry. Standing next to her was a redhead that Harry had never met before in his life. She was gorgeous though, with red hair that framed her face nicely, before falling down to her shoulders. Gorgeous brown eyes gazed with interest back at him. She had a nice pair of C-Cup breasts which had a black t-shirt wrapped around them snugly and a modest skirt that showed that she had quite the back view to go with her front view, with stockings covering her leg. She looked to be around Harry's age as well and was eying him appraisingly.

"So, I'm guessing that it worked?" Karen asked Harry with interest in her voice, causing him to grin at her question.

"Like a charm," Harry answered her. Before turning to face the young woman, who he greeted with a smile. "I'm afraid that I haven't had the pleasure?"

"Patricia Swann," the woman told him as she reached forward for a handshake. Taking her hand gently in his own, he brought it up to his lips and then placed a light kiss on the top of it. Causing her to flush brightly at the intimate contact of his lips on her skin.

"Right, a pleasure to meet you. I've read up on your father's work, it's very impressive," Harry commented, although he was going to keep the rumors of the secret society that Virgil Swann formed under his hat and out of this conversation for now.

"I'm sure he'd be glad to hear that you think so highly of his work," Patricia replied as she eyed Harry with a smile. He was nothing that she imagined, although he was everything that Karen and Jaime said that he was, if that made any sense. After all, this was the first time that she got the pleasure to meet him in person but those two wouldn't shut up about him.

' _I figured it was a good idea to invite her to the birthday party, so you can get to know her a bit better,'_ Karen suggested to Harry and he had to agree.

' _Oh? Is that what we're calling it now. Well, I think that's some pretty sound reasoning,'_ Harry thought approvingly and Karen struggled to keep that shit eating grin off of her face.

"I just decided to work for STARR Labs this Summer," Patricia informed Harry. "I graduated high school with honors, so I'm working there in an internship under Karen and Jaime. Their helping to show me the ropes as well."

Harry wondered how much she knew about everything but until he knew for certain, he was not about to say anything. The wizard kept his eyes fixed on the young woman that stood before him. The redhead placed her hands on her hips and kept her eyes firmly locked onto him as well.

"Well, I'm sure Karen and Jaime appreciate all of the help," Harry told Patricia.

Karen smiled, given that all of the work she had to do, any help was appreciated. They had been put through the paces thanks to their work at STARR Labs. The blonde brushed her hair out of her eyes as she thought about it.

"Well it was nice meeting you, Miss Swann," Harry told her and she smiled back at her.

"Please, Dr. Potter, its Patricia," the redhead commented, although she appreciated the irony of calling someone who was her age by such a formal title. In fact, she just had to laugh about something like that.

"Then I insist you call me Harry, it's only fair," Harry commented back. "I'd hate to cut this conversation short but there are other guests that I have to check up on."

"Oh, it's your party, you should be able to….do whatever you want I guess. I'm sure that we'll get to talk together all too soon," Patricia commented, looking extremely flustered at first but she recovered immediately.

Harry fixed his gaze on her with a smile. "Oh don't worry, we will. We most definitely will."

Patricia watched Harry move off with an intense look on her face. Sad to see him go, but she sure as hell enjoyed watching him walking away. Even more so, after taking in how delicious his toned ass looked in those tailor made casual dress pants.

"It's amazing."

"Really it is."

Harry smiled as he saw two of his favorite blondes talking. Then again, he had many favorite blondes, a few favorite redheads, and some favorite brunettes. He hadn't had any girls with purple or green hair yet, or something absurd like that, but he figured that could come one day.

Then again, Nym tended to favor pink, but she could change her hair into any color she wanted to giving her powers, or several different ones at once come to think of it.

"Harry, it's good to see you again," Dinah commented and Harry looked at her with a soft grin on his face.

"And in a setting that we're not working out or kicking each other's asses," Harry commented dryly causing Dinah to laugh. She was currently sitting there next to Kara, but her eyes were locked on Harry with intrigue and a great deal of interest.

Kara bounced up to her feet and without any shame or preamble threw her arms around her husband's neck, then pressed her lips onto his in a passionate kiss. Harry returned the kiss with an equal amount of passion, pressing his lips against hers. Both of them pressed against each other tightly, with Kara rubbing her crotch against his briefly as a nice little teasing hint of events to come later.

Dinah watched patiently and politely as she tapped her fingers down on the side of the arm chair. The blonde's expression became even more amused as the kiss went on.

"Sorry about that," Harry commented though Kara didn't look too sorry about it at all.

Dinah smiled. "No, no, don't stop on my account. Take your time."

Harry smiled back at the woman. "Oh, I will, believe me, I will."

He looked at her playfully and there was a second where Dinah was debating on what she wanted to do. Actually, after their talk a couple of days ago, she was seriously considering taking the plunge into a relationship with him. It was just a matter of working up the proper amount of nerve to do it however. The blonde's gaze fixed upon Harry's as she watched him.

"Yes, Dinah, what can I do for you?" Harry asked the blonde and she let out the breath that she had been holding. There was a second where it appeared like she might have lost her nerve, although she pressed on despite them very nearly getting the better of her.

"Actually, I was wondering, that is….well I was wondering if you would like to go out for coffee this weekend?" Dinah asked Harry in a bit of a breathless rush letting it all hang out at once as he kept that playful smile directed at her.

"Dinah Lance, are you asking me out on a date?" Harry asked her.

"Depends, are you accepting?" Dinah asked, as she got a bit bolder now that she'd thrown the question out there and gotten passed her initial nervousness. Then again, she could see Barbara and Zatanna out of the corner of her eye, egging her on. The two of them watching her ask out their boyfriend eagerly.

Harry milked the moment, he was pretty good at doing that. After a second he answered. "I accept, is five o'clock a good time for you?"

Dinah offered him a dazzling smile upon hearing his response and she said as much with her next few words. "Five O'Clock is the best for me. Especially, since it's with you."

"Great. I'll be there," Harry told her as he leaned forward but she threw her arms around his neck and offered him a brief teasing kiss on the lips before pulling away coyly.

Harry looked over his shoulder, to see Barbara, Zatanna, and Donna standing there talking together. While trying not to look as if they were watching his interaction with the lovely Ms. Lance and he couldn't help but wonder what they were up to.

"One might think that you three girls are up to no good," Harry informed them as he took a couple steps over to join them and Donna offered him a mischievous smile.

' _Yes, one would think that, considering the way their acting,'_ Daphne offered, she had hopped onto the bond in order to spend some time speaking with some of the girls across the water.

"Well, one might think that, but is it anything that you can prove, my husband?" Donna asked, the now sixteen year old girl going up onto her tip toes so she could kiss him on the lips. Harry, Diana Karen, and her Mother towered over most of the girls, so she was hoping her next growth spurt when she turned eighteen would bring her in line with them.

Donna and Harry indulged themselves in each other hungrily for a brief moment. Harry, having wrapped his arms around her slim waist and crushing her against him after her lips made contact with his.

Zatanna watched this with a smile. She had gotten a small taste of what it was like to be with Harry and she wanted more than a taste, she wanted the entire package. To be honest she burned with need to go even further with her husband to be.

After an eternity seemed to pass, which considering his ability to manipulate time was very possible. Harry broke apart with Donna reluctantly leaving her standing there dazed as she tried to collect her wits.

"So, how's your sister?" Harry asked her, his tone making it quite clear which one he was asking about.

"Diana...but...you live with her...Oh!...She's….she's…I wasn't that bad, was I?" Donna asked as she recalled how she was like before Harry and Diana had given her corrective therapy.

"Depends on what you consider to be that bad?" Harry asked her.

"Okay, don't sugarcoat it. I can take it," Donna offered as she placed her hands on the back of her head and brushed her fingers through her hair.

"You were thirteen. Considering, how time passes on the island? It might as well have been a very long time ago," Harry told the dark haired Amazon.

"Yeah, it was a very long time ago," Donna commented thoughtfully as she looked over her shoulder. Her oldest sister and her mother were going to swing by very soon. In fact, they might have already been here, even though she hadn't noticed them yet.

Harry, Faora, Diana Kara, Karen, and the twins were going to make their way to the island after the party wrapped up. Having visited the island for an extended period last summer the Twins and Donna had gotten rather close to each to other, so she had to smile at the fact they were coming to visit again.

"Daddy!"

Harry smiled upon hearing those words and turned to see a thirteen year old girl making her way towards him. She had sleek dark hair and vivid green eyes, which made her look like a miniature version of Hippolyta with Harry's eyes. She wore a black top that stretched around her body, along with a tight pair of black pants that curved around her frame. She had a nice pair of C-Cup breasts, which were surprising for her age but they looked extremely nice on her.

"Lyta! It's good to see you again. I'm guessing your mother finally let you come over to visit?" Harry commented as he pressed his daughter against him in a tight hug and she hugged him back just as fiercely.

"Well...Donna was supposed to keep an eye on me," Lyta offered, as she looked at her half-sister with a slightly smirk on her face and a wicked little glint in her eyes.

Donna groaned, she wondered what in the name of Zeus she did to deserve this.

' _You, my sister, are now in my role,'_ Diana commented in a sing song voice. _'_ _When you were that age, you acted about the same way she does_ _. What goes around, comes around, after all.'_

Donna Troy Potter did not believe in karma up until now, but now? Now she believed in it. And Karma's middle name was apparently Lyta as well.

"I've missed you," Lyta commented, then she pushed her father down onto a chair before crawling onto his lap and snuggling as tightly against him as possible. She let out a content little purr once she was in place and had her Father where she wanted him. She wondered mentally when she would get to join her mother, Donna, and Diana but good things would come to those who waited.

"You better tell your father what you did," Donna stated with a stern look in her eyes as she put her hands on her hips in an attempt to look authoritative.

"I really didn't do anything," Lyta said to Donna as she rolled her eyes at her older sister's attempt to look intimidating.

' _Well, this looks familiar,'_ Diana commented in an idle tone. _'Be there in a minute, love.'_

' _You're not helping,'_ Donna commented as she bit down on her lip.

' _Just remember, what you did before, comes back to pay you back in spades,'_ Diana offered to her sister with a wicked grin.

' _Isn't the mark on my ass enough of a pay back?'_ Donna asked as she tugged on her air.

' _No, that's just a down payment,'_ Diana commented to her and Donna sounded exasperated.

' _Di-Ah-NAH!'_ Donna cried screaming out in frustration.

After taking a moment to collect herself. Donna turned to look at Harry again before continuing. "Damn it! Your daughter…."

"Hey! They were asking for it! Maybe they should have offered a bit more respect," Lyta commented.

"What did they do?" Harry asked, but then he paused and raised an eyebrow at Lyta. "Actually, what did you do?"

Lyta offered Harry a slight smile, although there was something about that smile that indicated that she knew that she was in trouble. She tried to alleviate the problem by giving him puppy dog eyes and biting her lower lip for a moment.

"You know. That never worked for me, so it shouldn't work for you," Donna commented to Lyta before she looked at her. "Brat."

"Stuck up b…."

"Lyta!" Harry stated sternly cutting her off before she could complete that sentence.

' _Again, this seems familiar,'_ Hippolyta commented as she thought to Harry. _'She's a spirited one but given that she's the combination of an Amazon and a Kryptonian,_ _stubbornness would be….'_

' _Yeah, I know, I know,'_ Harry offered, as he contemplated what to do. He would give her a spanking but knowing Lyta, she would get off on it. His daughter sat there on his lap giving him a faux innocent look and a coy smile on her face, since she knew her father was watching her closely.

There was a few more seconds where Harry kept his eyes locked onto her and there was one thing he had to say to her after her non-statement.

"Well?"

Donna looked rather smug but Harry gave her an expression that told her to knock it off. Donna did in fact knock it off though she pouted and crossed her arms over her chest.

"They were disrespecting you," Lyta commented to Harry. "And….they looked at me cross eyed."

"Lyta," Harry breathed out in exasperation. Considering the culture in which she was raised, on top of how much she more or less worshiped the ground he walked on. He could actually see why his daughter responded like she did. If what she told him was true.

' _Well, she's a girl after my own heart,'_ Astoria offered as she wiped a way a mock tear from her face. _'So proud.'_

' _You're not helping, Astoria,'_ Harry told her in a firm tone and Astoria shook her head.

' _Fine, fine, fine,'_ Astoria commented as she calmed down and airily waved her hand. _'Proceed."_

Harry did exactly that as he placed his hand on the side of his face. The emerald green orbs of Harry Potter swam with frustration, as he tried to figure out what he was going to say and he leaned back in his chair for a moment as a way to help collect his thoughts. He had to admit when he came back to the future to find out he had eleven year old daughter, when he himself was only fourteen? Well, it wasn't something he was expecting anytime soon.

"Lyta, darling?" Harry asked his daughter as he ran his fingers through her hair.

She offered him a smile and a pout, which was a look that Donna knew that she would never have been able to get away with. "Yes, Daddy?"

"I know that…other men might be repugnant," Harry whispered to her.

' _Well that was a nice way of putting it,'_ Faora commented, although she watched with baited breath to see how Har-Zod would handle the situation with her niece. It was going to be a rather interesting test of his capabilities.

Harry sighed and he thought for a few seconds of how he was going to best tackle this. Actually he was proud that his daughter was able to defend herself, especially in a place like Gotham City. However, there was a distinct difference between being able to defend oneself and pretty much throwing around people around who were no real threat in the first place. At least that's what Harry figured.

' _Oh Rao give me strength,'_ Harry thought to himself.

"Lyta, Lyta, Lyta," Harry commented as he pushed her off of his lap and made her face him.

"Yes," Lyta commented with a smile on her face as she watched her Father closely.

"Be careful with who you throw around. Humans are fragile," Harry commented to her and his daughter nodded, though she couldn't resist the smirk that crossed her face. It was a smile that she inherited from him, something that Harry regretted immensely. He once again closed his eyes.

' _Oh! Rao give me strength,'_ Harry thought to everyone in the bond.

' _Sorry, Rao,_ _can't answer the phone right now._ _Please, leave a message at the beep or feel free to ask for help from a lesser deity then her,_ _'_ Ginny commented, doing her best impression of an automated phone service.

' _How do you know that RAO is female?'_ Faora asked Ginny with a great deal of curiosity.

Ginny could not resist chiming in with a counter-statement of her own. _'Knowing Harry's luck? How do you know that she isn't? Considering how things are going, he'll probably end up sleeping with her at some point in the future as well. Or did you forgot the fact he frequently has sex with the incarnations of Death itself?'_

' _Well….she, he, it…..you know I'm not having this conversation,'_ Faora commented as Ginny smiled.

' _So are you enjoying the party on the other side?'_ Harry thought to the young Weasley girl and she offered a smile at the question.

' _Very much so,'_ Ginny commented, offering an air of mystery in regards to what was precisely happening. She and Astoria had a lot of work. Ginny was learning how to be a secretary, although her responsibilities were going to be much more than that, it was a good starting point for her. That was another tale for another time though; the redhead pushed her hair out of her eyes as she smiled.

' _Glad to see that you're having fun,'_ Harry offered to her. He was enjoying the conversation he was having with her, as he observed what was going on around him.

' _Oh yes, quite a lot of fun,'_ Ginny commented as she leaned back in the chair that she was sitting at. _'Enjoy the party on your end, I'll talk to you later.'_

Harry smiled as he saw Hermione in the corner. Nym had managed to get her to join the party, basically forcing her through a great deal of blackmail. He'd overheard something about the burning of books and forcing her to watch said burning of books. If there was something that Hermione hated, it was the smell of burning literature. Of course, even though her bond had been grudgingly updated to that of a wife, Hermione was still submissive towards him and his will. But, that was her nature and he knew he'd have to be much more controlling in regards to her moving forwards.

"The things that you can do with plants, even without magic," Neville commented in awe as he talked to Pamela in the corner.

"That dragon dung that you people use, it's not that good," Pam commented, she really was appalled by such a fertilizer. She and Harry had run some tests, which lead to them finding out it was highly unstable due to a great deal of unfocused magic running through it. So it tended to literally burn any plants that weren't magical in their own right into ash.

"Maybe," Neville commented, although he was really intrigued to hear about how plants grew from the Muggle perspective of things.

Hannah stood in the background with a strained smile on her face, shaking her head. She thought that if there was one thing that her fiancé showed any passion for, it was plants. If he showed her half of the passion that he did to plants than Hannah would be a very happy girl. Right now, she couldn't help but frown as she thought about it. The blonde pushed her fingers through her hair and offered a long sigh.

' _Don't get frustrated, Hannah,'_ she thought to herself. _'_ _Things will improve after your married_ _, just wait and see….just wait…._ _yeah that's probably not going to happen.'_

Harry made his way down the hallway and saw Diana standing there.

"Told you that I'd be here in a little bit," Diana commented as she threw her arms around her husband and leaned forward, giving him a burning kiss. Naturally, Harry returned the favor, the two of them indulging in each other.

The two of them broke apart and Harry offered her a smile. "You're a woman of your word as always, my love."

"Well, I aim to make sure that I please you, my husband," Diana commented as she placed her arms around Harry.

"Hello, Harry, did you figure out how to deal with your daughter?" Hippolyta asked as she detached Harry from her oldest for a moment and gave him a long kiss of her own.

Harry indulged himself in the lips of the Queen of the Amazons, pulling her mature body against his. The two of them writhed against each other, their tongues dancing together with steamy intensity. There was a sense that both of them eagerly anticipated tonight.

' _You have not forgotten our promise, have you?'_ Hippolyta thought to Harry and there was a sense that he seemed to be almost insulted that she thought such a thing. Regardless of the fact, he held his head up straight.

' _No, darling, I have not,'_ Harry thought.

After the party they would make their way to the island. Right now, Harry sent a message to all of the Alphas that it was time for the real party games to commence. Diana, Karen, Faora, and Kara got the message and so did Hippolyta, who slowly slipped off to spend some time with her two youngest.

* * *

Kara smiled, the party had been going loudly for a while. They had presents, they had cake, a few of them had a bit too much to drink, although there were some people who could not handle the drink. The blonde watched everything slowly taper down. The young Kryptonian smiled as she saw the Birthday Boy himself getting ready.

"Come on Har," Kara whispered as she threw her arms around his waist.

"I know you aren't drunk, so do you act like this naturally, or you are just…."

Kara kissed Harry hard on the lips, an action that he promptly returned. The blonde's tongue snaked underneath his gums as she backed him off into the next room and Harry wrapped his arms around her slender waist tightly, much to her enjoyment.

Faora smiled as she prepared the time dilation charms. This would be her second turn of the evening, not that Faora was complaining about that or would complain about it anytime soon. In fact, she was pretty much looking forward to indulging herself in her brother all night long, over and over again. The dark haired Kryptonian watched everything happen as she bit down on her lip.

"Everyone's ready?" Faora asked the group.

"We were born ready," Kara confirmed to the dark haired Kryptonian and Faora smirked at that. Kara returned fire with a smirk of her own as the two of them locked eyes with each other.

"I can see that, I can see that," Faora answered as she placed a hand on the side of her head and saw Diana and Karen turn up. Which meant the party could get started.

"So, this is what we have planned,' Diana stated to them, she'd left most of the planning to the three other Alpha's due to how busy she was at work so this was honestly a surprise to her. Harry smiled as he grabbed one of his Amazon wives around the waist and pulled her towards his chest. Both of them exchanged an extremely passionate kiss that was like sexual fire coursing through both of their bodies.

Diana smiled as they broke apart and Karen swooped in to steal the next one from Harry. The Amazon stepped back allowing Karen to have her moment, after all there would be a few others that she would be able to take for her own.

Kara tapped her foot back and forth, impatience flashing through the eyes of the blonde and while she just received a kiss, she could never go too long without another one.

Faora was going to allow them have their moment because she was going to all that and more for herself when the time was right. The dark haired Kryptonian placed her hands on the wall and looked over her shoulder.

"You know, there is a master bedroom with a rather luxurious bed waiting for us," Faora said casually to them and she took Harry by the arm, leading him towards the bedroom. The dark haired Kryptonian was going to have her moment and then some.

The room had an atmosphere that lead to a great deal of excitement for the group. Faora straddled Harry after pushing him onto the bed and ran her fingers slowly down his collarbone. Tracing every single inch of him.

"It's time," Faora whispered in a breathy voice, a second before she smashed her lips onto Harry's in an intense kiss and everything was going to heat up a little bit more as the female Alphas and Harry were about to indulge themselves in each other on Harry's seventeenth birthday. Which also counted as the anniversary of their wedding day.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Faora pressed her lips harder upon Harry's and the two of them enjoyed an electric kiss with each other, their tongues battling together for supreme domination. Harry grabbed Faora around the waist and tilted her back on the bed to allow himself to deepen the kiss.

The dark haired Kryptonian closed her eyes and Harry's mouth was working over the side of her neck. The woman felt his mouth work over the side of her neck, sucking her flesh and her toes curled with the fun that was offered with it. His fingers were working such magic on every part of her body as she found herself on his lap, feeling his erect cock pressing up against her, teasing her.

"Har," Faora panted as she could not wait but Har-Zod gave her a few more kisses, working his mouth down her body. She enjoyed how he varied things up, sometimes very tender, sometimes extremely rough, it kept her on her toes never the less.

Kara meanwhile had Karen back on the bed, her shirt off and she buried her younger face in the blonde's ample cleavage, motor boarding her. Karen threw her head back in primal, unbridled lust, with Kara working over her breasts with passion and her hand went down even lower.

"Oh, fuck, Kara!" Karen moaned in erotic pleasure and Diana made her way to sit on Karen's face.

"You want to eat out my dirty twat, beautiful," Diana groaned as she grabbed a hearty handful of Karen's breasts as the woman sank down on her face. Her pussy rubbed against Karen's face and her tongue brushed against her love box before inserting it inside.

Faora moaned in pleasure as Harry continued an intense round of kissing on her, leaning the woman back so she could feel the immense pleasure that would rise through her loins. His cock was a few inches from inserting in her and she lifted her hips, wanting him, desiring him, she would have him.

"Ready," Harry breathed as he brushed his length against her dripping mound, teasing her and Faora closed her eyes, offering a whimpering "yes."

Harry slid his cock into her wet and wild folds, causing it to tighten around him as he pumped hard into her. The dark haired woman felt the pleasure and the rush of him entering her, filling her up to the brim with his huge phallus as it pumped into her center.

The woman felt the loving go into her, as he touched every single inch of her tight quim and kissed her hotly, but she returned the favor. The two of them roamed their hands over each other's bodies.

Kara was now down between Karen's legs and she was slurping hungrily on her pussy. Her blonde box was getting an amazing going over from the younger blonde's talented tongue with Diana getting some of her own.

"Fuck Karen, so good, fuck my pussy with your tongue, oh damn, great fucking Hera, that's so good!" Diana moaned as she felt Karen's tongue bury as deep into her pussy as needed.

"Oh yes, oh so good," Karen whimpered as she was allowed up for air for a moment, and then the tongue was buried deep down into her quim once more.

Harry had Faora pinned down on the bed and they were going at it a bit more. He now sped up the action with his trusts burying into her tight center hard.

"Harder, pick it up," Faora mewled, feeling his cock bury as deep inside her as it could go but she could feel more, she would feel more.

"You've got it," Harry managed with a grunt as he buried his member as far into her as he could go. His balls slapped against her thighs as he went as far into her as he could go.

Faora screamed in pleasure as her sweaty back arched. Harry plunged his mighty rod deep into her dripping snatch, stretching her out. She hung onto him and Harry was breathing rather heavily, with the wizard pummeling her pussy at her request.

Her legs wrapped around his body, to ensure that he did not go far from her dripping pussy, as she felt the eruption of his cock slamming into her. His balls slapped against her thighs as Harry continued to work her over with everything that he had and she would give him even more. The Kryptonian lifted up her hips up to meet his invading pole as it buried into her body. She hung onto his body, her legs wrapped around him.

Karen's pussy was being worked over by a magical dildo, as Kara plunged it into her dripping hot quim.

"Don't stop eating, oh don't stop eating," Diana moaned as she felt her juices spill into Karen's mouth. "That's right bitch, lap them up, oh lap them up!"

Harry showed up, a second Harry and he teased Diana's breasts with a hard squeeze and the woman's eyes flooded over with thinly restrained lust as he kept working over her ample breasts. The woman's eyes flushed over and Harry cupped her breasts and buried his face between them.

The Harry on the other end was being squeezed hard with Faora's pussy, his invading cock speared into her and the woman's eyes closed even tighter.

"Cum in me, baby," Faora moaned as se invade her.

Kara shoved the dildo deeper into Karen. "Yes, Harry, blow your dirty spunk into her, so hard that she passes out. I want her to fucking scream until she can't take it anymore."

"Oh that would be so fucking amazing," Diana groaned, as Karen's mouth was occupied so she could not say anything. Plus she was too busy being pleasured by the magical dildo that Diana shoved up her, that vibrated at the highest setting.

"Oh, yes, oh yes," Faora panted.

"About to cum," Harry grunted as he plunged his thick cock deep into her and she hung onto him.

Her pussy wrapped snugly against his invading pole and he plunged into her, his balls tightening as he was about to fire his thick seed into her.

Harry's cock exploded, as the pleasure in his loins burst and he sent splatter after splatter of his cum deep into her. His thick seed spilled into her body, coating her inner walls as he pumped all that he had to offer into her.

Faora moaned and had another orgasm or two before Harry was able to complete his load, her pussy was overflowing with her brother's seed.

Karen was prepped for Harry and Diana moved over, waiting for her turn. The truth was that the other Harry disappeared, although perhaps he disappeared between Kara's legs.

"Fuck me, Har!" Kara screamed out loud as he hammered her pussy. Her lips bucked up and spasmed as she felt the pleasure explode from head to toe.

Harry grabbed Karen's breasts and hovered over her.

"Inside me, FUCK ME DAMN IT!" Karen screamed in wanton need, her eyes burning with an extreme amount of lust as Harry hovered over her dripping snatch and he plunged his thick cock into her warm walls.

Karen screamed as Harry gave her the fucking that she asked for and then some. His cock speared in and out of her and caused her pussy to be battered as Harry grabbed her breast and drilled into her.

"Oh, that's so fucking hot," Diana moaned as she pushed her fingers in and out of her, stimulating her white hot snatch and she felt her juices spill out onto her fingers. She was breathing even more heavily as the woman saw Harry's seed oozing from Faora's pussy, as the Kryptonian rested on the bed, a half conscious expression on her face.

She licked her lips and went between her legs, beginning to feast on Harry's gift, eating it from Faora's snatch.

"Damn, fuck, Diana, oh, fuck!" Faora screamed as Diana's talented tongue dove in and out of her slick walls, eating and munching on Harry's seed as she captured more of it on her tongue.

' _That's right, you're mine,'_ Diana thought hungrily as she continued to feast on her husband's juices.

Harry buried his cock roughly into Karen's snatch as he dove into her breasts, licking and feasting on the sweaty and large globes as she moaned.

"Take me hard Harry, oh beat this pussy out!" Karen yelled as she sunk her claws into his back, scratching him like a wild woman as he plowed into her, working her pussy like it was the prime piece of real estate that he thought it was. His balls slapped against her thighs as he continued to go deeper into her, plunging as far into her hot core as he plunged as far into her.

Harry was going to rise up to the challenge, taking her pussy for his own. His balls slapped against her young thighs and he buried himself into her as far as he could go. The wizard pushed himself even further into her. Her tight snatch constricted around him and the wizard's pushing into her got into her. The blonde hung onto him as Harry plowed deep into her snatch, with the blonde's legs tightening around him.

"Oh, yes, oh yes, yes, YES!" Karen moaned as Harry plowed his cock into her.

"YES, FUCK MY PUSSY TO DEATH!" Kara screamed out loud as one of the dupes plowed into her as hard and fast as he could do. The wizard's hands worked over her sexy body and he cupped her breasts, hammering into her, as he pushed her face near Diana's pussy.

Kara happily lapped up the juices from Diana's dripping snatch, as Diana kept eating Harry's cum from Faora's pussy.

"Oh, ah, oh, ah," Faora panted as Kara kept licking Diana's snatch as Harry plowed into her from behind. Karen was being ravished by the prime version of Harry on the other side. The young wizard plowed his throbbing cock deep into her body.

"Deeper, fuck me, come on, fuck me, make me your cum dumpster!" Karen yelled as she felt his cock spear into her went and willing walls and she hung onto him.

Kara reached over and pulled a candle off of the bedside table to hand to Harry.

Harry took it with a smile and he teased Diana's asshole with his finger.

' _Oh, Harry, please,'_ Diana thought but she felt the hot wax pour into her asshole and she shuddered with pleasure. Kara added to the pleasure that she felt rubbing it inside the area of her crack. The blonde's smile widened as Harry's cock slid into Diana's body once again.

Kara pushed her pussy onto Faora's face and Faora started to lick Kara out with practiced, hungry ease. Her tongue buried as deep into her dripping snatch as she could go. The blonde's eyes flooded over as the lust increased.

"Damn, Faora, fuck baby, use that tongue," Kara breathed as she felt her oldest friends tongue go deep into her pussy.

Faora was going to rise to the occasion as she felt Diana feast on the combination of both her and Har-Zod's juices. The woman's eyes closed as she pushed as deep into her pussy as she could go. The woman's tongue worked as far into her as she could go.

Harry rode Diana into a whimpering mewling wreck as his cock hammered her Amazon pussy. She clenched together as the wax still dribbled from her ass as he went into her.

Karen was being slammed hard into her pussy, with a force that could split a normal woman in half. Karen felt the pleasure of him burying himself as far into her dripping hot snatch as he could go. The blonde's mouth pressed against his lips and Harry pushed as far into her as he could. Her wet snatch pushed around his throbbing hard cock as he went as deep into her as he could.

Diana moaned as Harry made love to her, it was getting hot and heavy. In fact, the sensations of arousal erupted all through the bond link, causing their minds to explode with lust.

After some time, Harry lust his seed in Diana's dripping hot snatch, pushing himself as far into her as he could and spilling his cum into her body.

They were just getting started with tonight's fun and games; it was their anniversary after all.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

Everyone felt the pleasure that erupted through the bond, since it was the combined orgasm of Harry and the female Alphas that created it. Said Alphas were in different states of disarray but all were very pleased at what just transpired.

Kara was on the bed, her hands still bound, but never the less, she had her head draped over Harry's shoulder and a bright smile on her face. The blonde kept her eyes locked onto her husband.

"How was it?" Harry asked her with a smile and Kara wrapped around him as much as she was able, snuggling herself into his shoulder.

"It was….it was simply amazing," Kara sighed as she leaned into him more.

She saw Diana and while she could not speak at the moment due to the going over that she had been given, Kara was confident that she agreed. Her moans during the actual act proved that she enjoyed pretty much everything that they did to each other.

' _Um, mind, kind of blown,'_ Amanda stammered as she had to duck into the bathroom, because she had locked onto the mental link a bit too hard. The redhead's eyes closed as she tried to concentrate, although it was extremely hard work to do so.

' _Yes, it….wow,'_ Donna muttered, they felt everything that went through the bond link.

Harry and Kara exchanged a smile, as Faora was handcuffed to the wall, it was funny how often she ended up like that. Then again, for them, it was their wedding anniversary or close enough to celebrate.

' _An amazing evening,'_ Karen thought from where she lay on the floor. She was barely conscious enough to figure out how she got there but she would figure out how in due time. Right now the blonde was going to bask in the moment that was. Even though she could barely lift up her head, she was smiling happily and ready to go once more.

' _I'm sure the party was equally amazing on the other side,'_ Harry commented.

' _Well being a version of us, how could it be anything but?'_ Jaime chimed in with a bright smile on her face.

' _So, we're being modest, are we?'_ Harrison asked but there was a slight smile across his face. _'However, I will confirm that yes, it was amazing, extremely amazing.'_

' _Of course it was,'_ Harry answered as he leaned back and Kara snuggled into him, with Karen finding her way onto his other side. He had a feeling that Faora and Diana would join them in due time as well. Of course, they'd have to unbind them first.

The night was not done, oh no far from it. They were just taking an intermission from the fun and games at hand.

The group rested and relaxed, as they waited for the next round and also what was happening on the other side of the world, that was going to be equally amazing. Harry thought about that and he figured that during the nightly memory dump, he would get all of the details, in their glorious glory detail. Considering some of the kinky shit Harrison and the girls who hung around him got up to that would definitely be interesting to see.

He thought about this as he pulled Kara into him, the blonde snuggling against his shoulder, and the group was about ready to get the next round started.

* * *

 

On the other side of the world, things had been just as amazing. Harrison had hinted at such during his brief report, but seeing was believing and the evidence of the debauchery he'd gotten up to with his girls lay strewn about the room. He took it all in once more and a smile crossed his face as he saw the aftermath of the events of that transpired. There were Black Sisters and Daughters as far as the eye could see, except for the noted exception of Nym and Harrison was perfectly pleased with that event.

It was his birthday; well technically it was Prime's birthday. His technical birthday was not until August, when he was split off from the prime version, but Harrison was not about to split hairs about the technicalities of magic and life and how they all tied together. All he knew was that there was a beautiful young woman sitting on the ground across from him, feeding him cheesecake.

Both of them were sitting buck naked in the middle of the tiled kitchen floor and that was the perfect situation as far as Harrison was concerned. Nyssa was pressed up against him as he took the cheesecake into his mouth and ate it with a greedy bite.

"Delicious," Harrison managed, after he'd swallowed it down with gleeful relish.

"Just like you beloved," Nyssa told him as she took the piece that he had offered her happily, chewing on it. Her eyes flooded over with a lust that could not be denied. She took another piece and after taking a small bite from it she offered it to him again. The two of them spent all of the time they could indulging themselves in the other.

Harrison smiled, to say this was the life would be an understatement.

"Oh, I think I died and went to heaven," Bellatrix moaned as she closed her eyes and there was no need to go over everything that happened, because she knew what happened in exquisite detail. Her body remembered every single detail of what happened even though she might have passed out briefly, from beginning to end. The woman tried to get up but she collapsed bonelessly to the ground a moment later.

"You might have," Narcissa told her sister amused by Bellatrix's actions. Not that she was able to get up to her feet either. She felt an ache between her legs as she tried to lift her head up.

Harry smiled as he accepted another piece of the cheesecake.

Now that they were at a lull, at least for now, Nyssa could get straight down to business. It was a good thing that they got pleasure out of the way so they could focus on it more easily. The woman's eyes became heavily lidded as she watched him with a smile on her face.

"So, the project that my sister has been working on is moving forward," Nyssa whispered to Harrison and he raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, and how is that going?" Harrison asked the woman and she offered him a secretive little smile.

"Well, it's going about as soundly as one would expect," she admitted to him as she brushed her hair back out of her face. "It's nearly completed."

She recalled how Harrison knew about her intentions very early on although it had been a long while before she was allowed to know what he knew. The two of them indulged themselves in each other and the cheesecake further as they spoke.

"Oh, so has your father….."

"My father works in mysterious ways. Even I haven't been told precisely what he's up to and I know more than most," Nyssa admitted as she brushed the residue off of Harry's chin and popped her fingers into her mouth. She slowly drew her tongue across her fingers, and licked them. She closed her eyes shut and she breathed heavily. "But I have a good enough idea."

"I hope so," Harrison said, he had figured out everything much sooner than Nyssa had thought. And the fact that it took him a bit spoke well for her. He was nearly fooled by what she was doing, although it was her intention to test him more than anything. She'd never lied to him once, even though she might have skirted around the truth. That distinction was important.

And if there was anything that Harrison Evans, Harry Potter, Har-Zod, any name you want to call him, excelled at, it was passing a test. A smile crossed his face as the woman leaned against him.

Another enticing sight showed up at that moment or rather she bounced into the room at that moment. She had long blonde hair that went down past her shoulders, and she was wearing one of Harrison's dress shirts. He could see her ass cheeks poking out from underneath it and as she turned, he could see that she was not wearing anything underneath. She bent over to give Harrison a nice view of her enticing ass.

Then woman spun around and she stepped forward, before throwing herself down onto Harry's lap and pressing her lips against his in a long kiss.

"And Lavender just took the best seat in the house," Astoria remarked with a pout, from where she hung on the wall, completely covered in whip cream. Given how she got here, it had been more than worth it.

"Well, you got more than enough action during the party," Lavender commented as she gave Astoria a challenging look. Ginny crawled out from underneath the table, barely able to stand due to being so sore and wet.

It was worth it, damn it was so totally worth it.

"That's true," Daphne agreed, she looked to be amongst the most coherent of the lot, even after she had her brains fucked out quite thoroughly. The blonde gave her head a little shake as she brought herself back to a level of clarity so she could focus on everything that was going around her.

She felt the soreness pulse out from between her legs but she was better off than some. Perhaps, due to the fact she was able to take a stamina enhancement potion right before.

"You know? If you're here, and able to stand, we're going to take advantage of it," Harrison told Lavender as he stroked her hair.

She'd left the Patil twins tied up somewhere in the tower and she could feel Harrison's hands roam hungrily underneath her shirt.

The next stage of the party was about to begin, in fact Lavender found herself turned around, as his talented tongue slammed into her mouth, and his hands roamed every single inch of her body, causing her to feel intense emotions.

He pinned her back against the ground as Nyssa parted her legs, preparing her for insertion.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Lavender looked up at Harrison, the blonde feeling his cock at the edge of her entrance. His head brushing against her molten hot center and his hands on her breasts, there was only one thing the hot young blonde could do. She looked up at Harrison with imploring eyes and moaned towards him.

"Fuck me, Harry, fuck me please," she begged him and Harrison did not need much more of an invitation to slide his throbbing cock between her moist thighs.

She closed her eyes, feeling the pleasure of his thick tool between her lovely walls and he plunged into her. Lavender felt the pleasure as he worked himself into her, with a few deep thrusts that rocked every fiber of her being and caused her mind to go numb with the pleasure.

"Yes, oh yes, oh yes," Lavender breathed as she eagerly welcomed in his huge cock as it speared itself as deep between her walls as it would go. The blonde hung onto him, and he plowed his thick length as far in as it could go within her walls. She closed her eyes, biting down on her lips hungrily as he plowed her insides, working as hard into her as he could manage. "FUCK ME, FUCK ME HARD, OH YES!"

Nyssa smiled.

"It appears that we need to gag her, beloved," Nyssa advised him as she hovered over Lavender's mouth. "I believe that this will do the trick quite nicely."

Nyssa's pussy draped over Lavender's mouth and the blonde started to suck the juices from the hot box of the mixed race female.

Lavender hungrily lapped up the dribbling juices that were spilling from Nyssa's quim. She kept licking the hot juices into her hot mouth and the blonde was really taking everything that she could, hungrily munching on the tasty, tasty, center.

'Oh, yes, oh, yes, oh yes,' Nyssa thought as she was too busy being indulged by the blonde's mouth to come up with something that was too much more coherent than that. Not that she cared with the pleasure she was being indulged with, the tongue burying deep into her molten hot snatch.

Harrison plowed his cock as far into her dripping hot snatch as he could go. She closed legs around him and he could feel her warm tightness.

He sped up his thrusts a bit more but was careful not to overwhelm her so that she passed out before he completed. That was never fun, he wanted to stretch out her torment for as long as he could.

Lavender's mind exploded with so many sensations that she could hardly keep track of them. The blonde thought that mentally speaking she was going to come undone. Harry plowed his hard cock as far into her dripping wet quim as he could go. The blonde tightened herself around his cock as she tightened her arms around him and arched her hips up to meet his invading thrusts. The blonde's moaning got even more labored as Harry slammed his huge phallus as far into her as he could go.

The wizard was building up a lot of momentum as he kept working into her, the blonde moaning and writhing as he pumped himself into her tight center, working into her. The blondes vice hot center clamped around his cock.

Lavender was having a ball, Harry's huge cock pummeling her cunt into jelly and her tongue slurping around him.

"So good, feels so good, going to cum, think you can last?" Harrison asked her as he squeezed her nipple which caused her to moan loudly and Harry felt her walls wrap around him.

"Don't think that she'd last, beloved," Nyssa commented as the girls on the floor watched the situation, some of them masturbating furiously at the actions but given the going over that they had earlier, they were completely out of it.

Lavender's eyes flushed over, as she burned herself in and out of consciousness. His member worked itself into her inner core and the busty blonde whimpered as Harrison plowed his huge cock in between her nubile young thighs.

His spearing went into her, as her mind was going completely wild and Harrison unleashed a load into her.

"Oh, your pussy feels so good, Lav," Harrison grunted as he pumped his treat over.

Astoria and Ginny managed to get the strength to crawl themselves over and lick Harrison's cum from Lavender's sopping hot pussy. The blonde offered a labored moan as both of the girls used their tongues to give her a going over and they continued to step up things enough.

"Seems like you're hard, beloved,' Nyssa moaned as she stroked his rock hard cock. "Perhaps we should fix this."

"Yes, let's," Harry commented as he felt her slick walls wrap around his length as she pushed down onto him, enveloping him in one fluid motion.

Harry closed his eyes, he felt this and he felt like he was in heaven. Her walls rubbed him up and down as she stroked him for everything that he was worth. He wanted to get some fun out of this situation so he reached up and cupped her breasts.

"Yes, they're yours," Nyssa moaned as his hands moved over her body, as Astoria and Ginny were busy on the ground, indulging themselves in Lavender's pussy.

The next thing Nyssa knew, she was flipped over and Harry plowed his huge cock deep into her waiting walls. The dark haired woman closed her eyes as Harry rammed as hard into her as he could.

"Deeper, beloved, really….I don't want to be able to walk," Nyssa breathed as Harrison grabbed her around the waist and prepared to invade her tight body.

"You got it," Harrison grunted as he speared his length as far into the girl as he could go, causing her to clench his rod tightly as it invaded her.

"Yes, yes, yes," she mewled as she wrapped her arms around him and her juicy pussy clenched around his invading cock and Harrison slammed into her. Her walls were stretched apart with Harry working her over. The woman's panting escalated to a fever pitch as Harrison plunged himself into her.

His balls were getting heavy with his cum, soon he would be spilling his seed into her. A few more thrusts brought her closer to a climax of her own. She wrapped her arms and her legs around him and she lifted her hips with Harrison spearing as deep into her center as he could. The young wizard pushed his large cock as deep into her walls as he could.

"Yes, oh yes," Nyssa breathed with Harrison going into her and he plunged into her a few more times, kicking up a few notches. "Do it beloved, cum inside me, I want it, I want it, I want it!"

"And you'll have it!" Harrison grunted as he plowed he center with a huge spear of his magical rod.

Nyssa's eyes flooded over and Harrison's balls clenched as he brought a heavy load of his cum into her. Several spurts brought Nyssa to the point of pure passion.

He unloaded his load into her, with several long spurts of his cum. Nyssa threw her head back and moaned with Harrison pumping his huge load into her dripping cunt.

Harrison smiled as he pulled out of her and the woman sighed as she slid to the ground, drool flowing from her mouth.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

Lavender was down on the ground, cross eyed and drooling, an absolute mess. Harrison offered a smile as she was pretty much satisfied, at least for the moment.

There would be another moment where she would be less than satisfied but Harry would be there to fill the void and to scratch any itch that she had and she would have many itches that would need to be scratched.

* * *

The gritty surroundings of Gotham City were far different from where Harry found himself right now. The wizard smiled as he lifted his head to look around the room he was staying in. He gave himself a slight shake as he tried to bring himself mentally back to life but there was some buzzing that resounded through the back of his head.

He had returned to Paradise and he returned to Paradise in style. The wizard's smile got even wider as he found himself on a lavish bed, that he did not want to get up from anytime soon. That much could be taken to the bank.

There was a group of naked and thoroughly spent Amazon's laid out as far as the eye could see, and that thought, well that thought brought a smile to Harry's face. The beauties that lay all around him had given Harry quite the greeting when he arrived at the island.

Naturally in the middle of this, was the Queen of the Amazons herself, Hippolyta. Harry rested back on the bed, and looked up at the ceiling. After laying there for a while, the young Wizard decided to finally pull himself out of bed, taking a careful step towards the door. His knee nearly went out a little bit but he lifted himself up.

He saw Hippolyta standing on the edge of the balcony overlooking the island. There were a few early morning sounds of training coming from down below. The Queen of the Amazons just watched all this happen from above with a slight smile on her face.

"It's a sight, isn't it?" Hippolyta mused as she did not even look over her shoulder. She knew Har-Zod was there. She always knew the location of her husband even when he wasn't on the island.

Her bare ass was a tantalizing sight and Harry offered a smile as he walked forwards to join her. The young wizard watched her from behind for a moment before he offered one crisp statement. "I agree."

She smiled at that but did not say anything further. She allowed herself to bask in the moment, in the atmosphere as she closed her eyes.

"I didn't think that I'd feel anything like this until I met you," Hippolyta stated as she looked over her shoulder towards her husband. The woman's eyes flashed as Harry grabbed the woman's shoulders. "I never thought that I'd feel love for someone...a male...like I have for you."

Sure, her daughters, all three of them, she felt something for them but then Harry, Harry had turned up. When he had to leave the first time, she was disheartened but some things were worth the wait and Harry? He was more than worth it.

"It's amazing," Hippolyta whispered when the wizard's arms wrapped around her. The gorgeous Amazon rested back against him and basked in the pleasure of their embrace. There was a few seconds where she tried to sort out the thoughts running through her mind.

"Our daughter decided to assault a few people who looked at her wrong," Harry said as he ran his hands through her hair.

"Well, she's spirited, I imagine if Donna or Diana spent time in man's world when they were around that age. They might have caused more than a few incidents," Hippolyta told him as she turned around in Harry's arms to return the favor from earlier. "That's why I held off on allowing Donna to make her way to Man's World until I felt that she was a bit more tempered."

"If she went there when she was thirteen….well, things would be a bit….."

"No kidding," Hippolyta said, although there was a look of amusement that spread over her face. "My daughter is getting a sense of what it was like when she was that age and how I had to deal with her."

"I hate to laugh at the misfortune of others, but the irony is delicious," Harry said and Hippolyta smiled.

"That it is, my love that it is." Hippolyta agreed as she smiled in spite of herself. She ran her fingers through her husband's messy dark locks in a loving manner, she cooed in pleasure at the feel of them and then she ran her fingers even further down. She traced his back muscles and she just had to smile about everything that was happening.

Harry leaned back towards her and felt her warm breasts press against him as she was now behind him. Not that it was not something that he minded, in fact, only a true fool was going to protest with these particular breasts were pressed firmly against his back. The woman's mouth was pressed against the back of his neck as well.

"I'm sure Donna and the twins are getting up to something right now," Hippolyta stated as she closed her eyes. "The fact that we haven't heard anything from them, indicates that they haven't gotten up to trouble. Yet."

"Or, they're getting a bit better at trying to disguise their misdeeds," Harry told Hippolyta and the Queen of the Amazons offered a very labored sigh as she threw her hair back and she admitted that.

"Yes, there's that."

Hippolyta smiled, as the two of them enjoyed the sunrise. The green eyes of Harry Potter flared a little bit. It was looking like the start of a perfect day.

Hippolyta smiled as she guided Harry fully onto the balcony. They were on vacation, they should enjoy it, after all.

"I thought that I was destined to be only happy with my daughters, then I met you, and that changed everything," Hippolya breathed as she locked her arms around Harry's waist and pressed her body against his. "I want you, my husband."

Harry wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into him.

"And you shall have me," Harry told his wife as he pressed her body against his and then leaned back, before kissing the side of her neck causing her to whimper with desire, as the two of them ran their hands all over the others body.

Hippolyta leaned back against the wall, feeling the rush of her husband against her and she offered him one statement with imploring eyes. The Amazon Queen panted with desire, as Harry worked his hands down her body and his mouth down the side of her neck as he kept kissing her.

"Harry," Hippolyta managed as she felt his hands roam over her naked body.

"Yes, love?" Harry inquired as he pleasured the woman.

"Make love to me," Hippolyta pleaded with a half lidded look of lust in her eyes and a slight whimper.

Harry was planning on doing just that, his hands working all the way down her body as he prepared to have his fun with the Amazon Queen.

"Yes, my wife," Harry stated as he pushed her against the wall and kissed her, preparing her for insertion.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Hippolyta closed her eyes and Harry kissed the side of her neck, licking it and causing shivers to go down her spine. His fingers probed down low on her and the Queen of the Amazons panted hungrily as Harry continued to work his mouth on the side of her neck, causing her eyes to screw shut, the breath leaving her body.

His fingers were completely talented, that was for sure. They probed her wet and moist folds, brushing against them. They stimulated her and caused her unbridled pleasure as he kept working his fingers against her walls.

"Oh, Har," Hippolyta moaned as he brushed his length against her dripping hot entrance. She grabbed his length, impatience dancing through her eyes as she was about to guide his rock hard cock into her inviting quim. The woman's dripping center tightened around him as Harry was guided inside her.

Harry was all the way inside Hippolyta's warm and willing pussy and it was an amazing feeling to say the very least. Her walls rose and fell, enveloping his huge cock within her dripping wet quim as she worked him over with lust and desire dancing through her eyes.

"Yes," Hippolyta breathed as she felt his cock insert into her and felt the feeling of it push as deep into her as possible. The woman's eyes flooded over with a supreme amount of lust as Harry pumped himself in and out of her body, varying his strokes to keep her guessing. She held onto his arm, hungry for more.

"Damn baby, so tight, so wet, yet, oh this feels so good," Harry grunted as he speared his length into the depths of her dripping wet pussy and she wrapped her legs around him, never making sure to allow his cock far away from her womanhood.

"Take me!"

Harry smiled as he pulled completely out, where only his tip was barely in her. He rubbed his tip against her dripping hot entrance and tormented her as she closed her eyes. The woman's legs wrapped around him as she brought his cock deeper into her body.

"YES!" Hippolyta moaned as she felt the hard cock pump into her body. The dark haired woman's pussy tightened around his invading pole and the woman's nails sunk into the back of his neck.

Harry pumped his huge pole into her as they saw the sun rise over their shoulders. Harry kept going into her as hard as he could have and she lifted her hips, meeting his intense, amazing strokes.

"Give it to me love," Hippolyta panted as she felt Harry's huge cock into her, stretching out her walls. The woman's walls tightened around him, as her velvety walls rubbed against his rod.

"Yes, oh, you feel so good," Harry breathed as he squeezed her breasts and pumped into her as hard as he could manage. The wizard's balls slapped against her thighs as he kept working her over with solid and steady strokes into her nubile frame.

He decided to take things up the next level, pushing her legs up to get the level and he really slammed her pole into her.

"Take me harder, HARDER, FUCK ME INTO THE GROUND!" Hippolyta yelled as she looked up at him with lustful eyes.

Harry smiled, his wife, many of them in fact, they had amazing sex drives. His huge pole worked as far into her center, filling her up and emptying her anew. The woman's eyes closed as she tightened her core around him. Her breathing got even more labored with Harry kept going into her. His cock pulsed in her body, with her squeezing him.

"Yes, oh yes," Harry grunted as he felt her pussy wrapped around him and he pushed out of her. More juices dribbled down her pussy, the wizard's hands squeezed her breasts and caused he pleasure.

Harry pushed up out of her and slammed his hard pole as deep into her body as he could go. Her walls tightened around him as he invaded her. The woman's eyes closed as Harry pounded her pussy with a few amazing thrusts. She hung onto him, as Harry kept working her over with his hard pole. Her tightening core squeezed him.

"Damn, tight, oh tight, so hot," Harry grunted as he kept spearing his length into his wife's body, stretching out her body.

Hippolyta felt his mighty spear invade her, no matter how many times he entered her, it was a treat, her eyes flooded over as he hammered her quim with a few more rapid fire thrusts. She hung onto his shoulder, nearly digging her nails into him. The dark haired Amazon breathed heavily as Harry continued to work into her.

Her juices lubricated his thick pole as he slammed it into her center as far as he could go. The woman hung onto him, sinking her nails into his back. The wizard closed his eyes and felt her tightness wrap around him, pleasuring him as he pushed up and went back down onto her.

"That's it, oh that's it," Hippolyta breathed but Harry smiled and he teased her ass. "It's yours, yours, take it Harry, please!"

Harry did not need to be asked twice; he saw her tight ass and brushed his throbbing length against her tight hole. Without another thought, Harry plunged his cock deep into the inviting bowels of the hot Amazon queen.

"Take me, fuck me, HARDER!" Hippolyta screamed as she grabbed onto the side of the wall and Harry plowed her from behind. Sweat dripped down her face from the exertion and she bit down on her lips as Harry's fingers also traced her clit.

"Damn, so fucking…SO FUCKING GOOD!" Harry groaned as he nearly lost a huge load in her bum but he managed to hold on for the ride and plow as far into this Amazon ass as he could. He was balls deep into the Queen and loving every single second of it.

"Oh yeah baby, more, oh more, oh Hera, more!" Hippolyta moaned as Harry kept working her over.

"Yes, I'll give you more, I'll give you everything that you can handle and then more!"

Harry punctuated the word "more" with a deep thrust into Hippolyta's inviting anal regions. The woman closed her eyes, biting down on her lip as he worked her ass over, his thrusting getting more intense as he buried himself into her further and further, with each passing motion.

The Wizard's pushing thrusts buried as deep into her as he could go. His huge meat stick pushed between her anal walls and he worked into her. His hands moved all around her sweaty back and he could see her eyes as she turned around.

"Cum in me, I need it," Hippolyta begged him as he plunged into her ass one more time.

"And you shall have it," Harry grunted as he plowed the woman in her tight rectum, her anal walls wrapping around him with love and fulfillment.

He plowed into her ass a few more times, the tightness wrapped around his huge flesh pole as he worked into her. His balls slapped against her ass and there were a few more pushes of him as he tried to bury as much of himself into her as he could.

Hippolyta closed her eyes and she saw another Harry appear on the other side of her. Her fun was about to be doubled and the Queen of the Amazons was completely fine with that. The fulfilling sensations of two cocks stuffing both of her holes full were something that she could never get enough of.

"YES!" Hippolyta screamed as Harry pushed onto her on either side and she screamed as loud as she could.

"Oh, so close, I'm so fucking close," Harry groaned as he pushed himself into her a few more times, picking up a heavy degree of momentum as he attacked her quim with his invading penis. Both versions of Harry, on either side, gave her quite the going over.

His balls tightened with desire as he was about to fill up his Amazon wife with his cum. He could hear the stirrings in the other room but he was about done for this round. His balls tightened and he unleashed his cum as far into his wife's inviting quim as he could go.

"YES!" Hippolyta moaned as she felt her husband use her pussy and ass both to deposit his cum. It was thick, creamy, and draining from her holes.

She moaned in the pleasure as he filled her all the way up.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

Hippolya placed her head on her husband's shoulder and relaxed as a group of Amazons made their way outside to join the party.

**To Be Continued in the Next Chapter.**


	5. Mercury Rising

**Chapter Five: Mercury Rising.**

"So how are you enjoying your time on the island so far?" Donna asked Amanda who grinned mischievously at the question.

"Well...we've been here before you know?" the redhead Potter girl teased Donna and there was a few seconds where the teenaged Amazon stared at her.

"Yes...I know that but I figured…."

"I get what you're saying," Amanda said. There was no real question about it, the grin on her face told the story of how much she was really enjoying winding the woman up and how that was where she got a great deal of her entertainment from. Donna could tell that much and Emily placed her fist in her mouth, trying to stifle her giggles.

"You two are horrible sometimes, you know that," Donna groaned. Yet, despite that, she was smiling and she placed her hands on the back of her head.

"Thanks! We aim to please," Emily said with a cute little bow. She was looking forward to really testing her powers. Despite having them for some time, she felt she barely scratched the surface.

"You aim to annoy me! I swear! Your as bad as Lyta sometimes," Donna finished saying this just as your younger sister turned up behind her, a smile across her face as she heard what her older sister was saying.

"It's not anything personal. You're just so easy to wind up, that it's not even funny," Lyta commented to Donna and the elder Amazon shook her head. Words failed her but her predicament caused the twins and her younger sister to really break into laughter about everything.

"So are you girls ready for training?"

The wizard who said this seemed to materialize right before their very eyes, causing the girls to look at him in surprise. One second he wasn't there, the next he appeared so quickly that they could have sworn that he popped up from out of nowhere.

"We almost….where did you come from?" Donna asked him as he wrapped his arms around her from behind. Donna smiled as she felt her husband's arms go around her waist. From there he pulled her into him from behind so that she was pressed up tightly against him. His strength, his arms wrapped around her, it was amazing and she couldn't help but melt as she basked in his embrace.

"Now, a true wizard doesn't reveal his secrets," Harry told Donna in a teasing voice as he flipped the woman's hair out of her face.

"Which means you're not going to tell me," Donna replied with a pout and Amanda and Emily exchanged identical grins upon seeing it.

"Careful about pouting too much, Harry might leave another mark there to match the one he gave you a few years back," Amanda said with mischief dancing in her voice. She was pleased to see Donna's eyes flash with embarrassment and Harry smiled at her.

"What are we talking about?" Lyta asked in curiosity and Amanda opened her mouth to explain but Donna side stepped her, cutting it off.

"Nothing that you need to know about, it's really nothing that you need to know," Donna said hastily. There was a frantic quality to her tone and Harry couldn't help but watch this interaction with amusement. He wasn't going to embarrass her any further by talking about what happened, having her flustered was its own award.

' _I would have blurted it out, but that's just me,'_ Astoria interjected through the bond link.

' _I'm not you,'_ Harry suggested to the blonde who offered a smile.

Daphne, being Daphne, could not resist chiming in with a few sentences of her own. _'Well there are a few subtle differences between Harry and Astoria that would make the two of them nothing alike.'_

' _That much is true,'_ Harry offered, he was unable to keep a straight face but after clearing his head, decided to get to the matter at hand. Thus, he would get to one of the reasons that they had come to the island in the first place. Granted, the main reason was the fact that they could use some downtime, however, there were other reasons why they headed off to the island, other then the obvious reason of getting a little bit of rest and relaxation.

The twins were stepping things up in regards to their powers. So they were going to need to get a bit more hands on training in order to fine tune everything. They pretty much had the magical aspects down pat, thanks to the extensive tutoring that Lily and Rose gave them, along with Harry or Harrison offering a little bit of input when they could do so.

Out of the two twins, Amanda was the one with the warrior spirit. Therefore, she was going to be under training under Artemis. His younger sister was pretty excited about the training and Lyta would be training alongside her. While Donna would be supervising a little bit, she still had a fair bit to learn herself so Hippolyta had taken over her training recently.

Emily on the other hand, was not really fit out to be the warrior that her sister was. Granted, she would learn a little bit about fighting but she was more of a passive person. Still there were other skills that she would need to learn and one of those skills was healing. Lyla would be the person most able to teach her those aspects of the Amazon arts.

"So in all seriousness, are you girls ready for your lessons?" Harry asked and all three of the younger girls looked at him with eager expressions, which caused Donna to smile. They would mostly be in the company of someone else. So given that Diana, Kara, and Karen were elsewhere on the island, this might allow her to score some one on one time with Harry. That was among the moments that she cherished the most and she had to smile just a tiny bit at the thought of scoring some alone time with him.

The girls moved off to take their lessons and Donna looked over her shoulder towards Harry, with a smile on her face.

"Peace and quiet at last," Donna muttered as she slid herself on Harry's lap. She would be joining them in a few minutes, but not right yet.

Harry smiled as he pulled the princess onto his lap and looked at his wife. "You know, it's really bad when you have to look into a mirror."

"Oh, Harry! Please not you too!" Donna whined as she shook her head and closed her eyes.

"What, not me too?" Harry asked as he feigned innocence and Donna offered a slight sigh.

"It's bad enough that mother and Diana still go on about something that I did years ago! It might as well have been decades ago, given how slowly time passes on this island. I mean! We've just got to let it go, we all make mistakes right! You know that better than anyone else don't you?"

"Donna, you know I'm flawless," Harry said without missing a beat, as he wrapped his arms around her waist tightly and brushed against the underside of her breasts which caused arousal to pool around the area between her legs.

"Of course not. I forgot that your perfect," Donna sighed, but she couldn't keep the smile off of her face, then again, given that Harry put it there, it was just as well.

The Amazon Princess enjoyed listening to the waves smashing up against the rocks, the serene sound of beauty, as she basked in the presence of her husband. The entire situation was amazing to her.

It had been a week since they had been here but Harry was hoping to stay a lot longer. It was not like he would be missed for long in the real world. There was some times where he caught bond traffic coming in and out but the stars had to align properly for such a thing to transpire, at least that's how he figured it worked. Besides, Harrison was in France and perfectly capable of picking up the slack if anything required immediate attention

* * *

The twins were extremely nervous, it wasn't every day that they had a sparring session with their brother.

"This is just a spar, so naturally it won't be anything too taxing," Diana explained to the Twins in a reassuring voice. From where she sat on a bench to the side, Donna's smile got a bit wider. Lyta, who was standing watched all this eagerly, her hands placed on her hips. She was intrigued by this and after he beat them, she wanted to go a few rounds with her father. In more ways than one. He was the only man on Earth that could be able to handle her but he kept saying she had to wait until she was fourteen. It was so unfair!

"I'm going to be holding back a little bit but I don't want you to," Harry told Amanda, who was up first. Harry figured that was for the best, given that she was the one that was getting the physical brunt of the training.

"Right," Amanda agreed, she tried to look fierce and determined as she stared her older brother down and the two of them locked eyes on each other. She was not going to get psyched out, no far from it; she was going to win today's battle!

"Ready when you are," Harry offered, trying not to put too much pressure on his sister, in fact, he was trying to ensure that she was the one who controlled the pace they went at, at least for the most part.

"Right, right, I'm ready!" Amanda confirmed but there was a fluttering in her heart that she couldn't shake off. Her emerald orbs glowed as she kept them locked onto Harry's matching pair of eyes.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Harry asked the young girl with a smile, which she returned in kind.

"I'm sure," Amanda agreed, as she mustered up the confidence that she needed to go up against her brother, which in her mind, was literally like going up against her own personal god.

' _Soooo...how_ _long do you think she'll last?'_ Kara asked.

' _I don't know, she might surprise you,'_ Faora commented, with a smile. Amanda shared DNA with her brother, so she was pretty sure that she'd be able to put up a pretty good fight.

' _I guess, we can't do much of anything other then to wait and see,'_ Karen added and they could tell how much Harry was in the Zone. _'Har at ten percent of his abilities is scarier_ _than many at full ability.'_

' _He's come a very long way,'_ Faora critiqued and there was a gushing amount of pride in her voice at the achievements that her brother made.

It was time for the spar to start and Amanda's nerves reached a high fever tempo. She was always the bolder, the more brazen of the two twins but….she was not going to lie. She was a bit intimidated going up against her brother, who was always larger than life to her. Even with her increased strength, durability, stamina and a few added skills, she always looked up to Harry in a way and it was not because he was taller than her either.

' _Okay! Mandy! You can do this!'_ She coached herself. The redhead knew that at any moment, a gong would be rung and the battle would commence. She had to ignore the fact that her knees felt like cement and just step in there and do this.

The timer ticked down but each second felt like an eternity.

"Three, two, one, GONG!"

An instant later Amanda saw Harry's fist nearly connect with her face. And she could tell that he was only swinging it at a fraction of his strength and speed. Instinctively, the redhead brought up both of her hands to block it, only to then find her legs taken out from underneath her.

"You better be careful," Harry told Amanda gently and she got up to her feet, watching him warily.

' _Okay, relax, focus, and do,'_ Amanda thought, this was not the first time that Harry handed her ass on a platter. The last time it was a magical duel, this one it was a physical duel. Never the less, it caused her a bit….well it caused her to be frustrated.

"And again," Harry told Amanda, who nodded as she fell back into a ready stance.

She tried a different attack, utilizing a quicker approach. Sometimes speed triumphed over brute force but Harry caught her around the waist and hurled her up into the air. It was not enough to hurt her but rather it caused her some frustration. She did not even suffer one broken bone, no bumps, no bruises, no anything.

"Again!" Harry called to her and Amanda closed her eyes to focus.

She did a somersault roll but Harry caught her mid roll. He gripped her in a waistlock and stared in her eyes.

"Only show off if you can make it up," Harry commented as he picked her up in a gut wrench but then set her down.

Amanda jumped up and she tried to punch Harry in the face but he blocked her fist. The wizard's hand grabbed her wrist and Harry went behind her. He grabbed her around the arms and hoisted her up. He deposited her down on her knees.

"Okay, both twins at once," Harry told Emily who stepped in and nodded, although she swallowed carefully before doing so.

Amanda exchanged a tense look with her sister. They had no idea whether or not the two of them together would be better than the one of them alone. The two of them locked their eyes upon each other before pushing themselves forward.

Amanda tried to get Harry from below and Emily tried to get him from above. Harry took a step back so he could see what his sisters were doing.

That was not the best thing to try, in hindsight, as their heads clonked together. Both of the girls felt a bruising alright, although it was of their egos.

"Oookay, care to try that one more time?" Harry asked them.

' _So...do you have a plan?_ _'_ Amanda questioned Emily.

' _I was hoping that you'd have a plan,'_ Emily commented but there was a second where she paused, before continuing the mental conference with her sister. _'Brute force isn't going work, we'd get spanked in no time flat by him._ _We've got to step things up a few notches.'_

' _You do realize that any plan we communicate mentally, he's likely to be listening in on it?'_ Amanda thought and Emily inclined her head, biting down on her lip in frustration. That was a good point, which made everything that they could attempt to be pretty much null and void. _'Maybe if you try and attack him first, you know as a distraction….'_

' _Right, while I'm getting my ass kicked, you take him out,'_ Emily commented but she tightened her grip as she clasped her hands together. _'Right! That's easier said then done.'_

' _If it's easier said than done, we'll just do it,'_ Amanda thought, but her confidence was not at height that she felt it should be.

Whether or not she would be able to do what she intended to do, the twins never knew. There was a huge explosion that resounded all through the island.

' _ **AGAIN!?'**_ Donna thought, her mind flashing back to the first time Harry, Kara, Karen, and Faora were on the island.

Hippolyta got up to her feet from where she sat on her throne, there was something stirring on the island. She could sense it, given how in tune she was with the magic surrounding the island.

"Go check it out!" Hippolyta commanded Artemis with an urgent tone to her voice and the flame haired Amazon nodded, heading in the direction the explosion had rang out from. The Amazon general kept her eyes focused forward as she moved forwards at a good clip.

Artemis heard the rumbling before she saw anything. The woman's eyes narrowed as the ground shook beneath them.

' _Oh! This sounds like trouble,'_ Kara breathed and Diana slipped off to escort the younger girls to safety in the background but she was not unable to say a parting comment, as several Amazons moved forward to engage whatever might be attacking them.

' _That's because it is trouble,'_ Diana informed her and there was no time to elaborate because their enemies were making their way across the island.

Harry stood there for a moment and then hovered a few inches above the ground in order to get a better look. He recognized the one leading the attack immediately. Ares stood there before him dressed in dark blue armor of a make similar to a Roman Centurion that had several spikes on it. He had on a helmet that mostly hid his face, yet showed off his glowing red eyes and lead a group dressed in armor similar to what he was wearing. Harry did not know who or what they were, as his X-Ray vision could not penetrate their armor.

Diana had already led off the girls on her way to get armored up, which allowed Harry to focus on Ares, knowing that his wife would join him shortly.

Kara dropped down in front of him, cracking her knuckles while Karen and Faora went off to scout the other side of the island.

' _We're going to see if we can sneak up on the other end on them,'_ Faora thought, her strategic mind working into overdrive.

' _Right, we'll figure this out,'_ Kara thought as she stood side by side with Harry and they braced themselves for a fight.

* * *

Ares made his way forwards onto the island. He was being that thrived off of the bloodshed and conflict of others. Being the God of War, he could do no less. The deity led his Legion forwards and took note of the Amazons mobilizing.

' _At last! A challenge,'_ he thought to himself. Word of Circe's failure and subsequent humbling had reached his ears and he'd been intrigued by the tales of the one responsible. Ares would not suffer such a defeat, no far from it. He would gain victory on this day. _'They will fail but one must admire their spirit. Even though they are weaker than everything else, weaker than the world of men. They have allowed themselves to succumb to him,_ _but I will show my superiority to them all!'_

Ares cracked his knuckles and offered a hungry gaze as he led his puppets forward.

"Onward!" he told them and there was a thunderous crash on the ground as they marched towards their destination. "Keep moving forwards! Stop for nothing! Drive them to the ground and crush them beneath your heels!"

There were grunts of agreement from them and Ares strode forwards, determination blazing through his eyes.

On the other end of the island, Harry couldn't help but think that the army was a diversion. The young wizard's eyes focused on the situation at hand.

' _Artemis, you know what to do,'_ Harry informed the woman through the bond link and the general of the army offered a predatory smile as she understood perfectly.

' _As you well know!'_ Artemis responded to him as she led her sisters forward. They were armed, armored and most importantly. They were a ready. There was a thunderous echo as marching soldiers moved towards them.

Harry wondered about the vibrations on the other side of the island. Diana showed up next to him, dressed in full armor. A helmet covered the top of her head and the sleek armor fitted around her body like a glove. It was able to lend both protection and mobility, something that was an important combination.

"Well you're ready," Harry offered with a grin as he saw Diana's really large sword that she once used to take out Voldemort's snake with.

"Of course," Diana muttered as she dodged an attack, then hoisted up her shield to block a spear. Then with a swipe of her sword, she split the spear in half.

Harry moved forwards at blinding speed and caught one of his enemies in the chest with a huge palm strike. The chest plate buckled under the impact then his foe went flying from the force. The wizard pulled his hand back then move to strike the enemies around him with a rapid fire fury. His eyes flashed with joy as he basked in the battle at hand.

Kara used her super speed to confuse her enemies and caused them to attack each other. Their weapons drove in deeply, causing them some pretty severe injuries.

"FIRE!" Artemis yelled, as she had her Amazons step forward to shoot a barrage of arrows at their foes, driving any they impacted against to the ground.

The Legion stepped forward but Harry turned his attention away from the army before him. Ares had slipped off to the side and someone like that? It was not a good idea to let him stray too far. The wizard's eyes flashed as he took another step forward but then he paused. He thought that he heard something akin to a pop, but hearing nothing further he shook it off and headed after Ares.

A bolt of energy struck the ground where Harry had just been standing and it caused him to stand up straighter. Reminding him that he had to focus.

* * *

Amanda's arms folded over her chest as she stood in the library, Lyta, Donna, and Emily were standing next to her.

' _I wish I knew what was going on out there,'_ Amanda thought to her sister, who nodded in agreement, but she knew that they would be in way over their heads. Despite the warrior spirit that all of them exhibited to different degrees, they were dealing with the fucking god of war, and he was on as entirely different level.

' _I know, I know,'_ Emily thought to her sister.

Lyta, being less patient than the twins were, was about to step outside.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going to see what's happening!" Lyta said firmly as she shrugged off Donna's question. Her sister opened her mouth to say something but she cut her off. "I know what you're going to tell me! But we should…."

What they were going to do, what they should do, it was never said because the girls heard something outside. It was a soft pop but there was a sinister ring to it. Which caused the hair on the back of Donna's neck to stand up. Perhaps, it was a side effect of being bonded to Harry or perhaps it was more fine-tuned instincts on her part, but she could have sworn something was out there.

And if there was something out there, then she needed to take the lead.

"I don't know what's out there, but I don't like it," Donna hissed as she bit down on her lip firmly and the dark haired woman looked over her shoulder.

Someone should not have been able to break through these wards, but yet, here was what she was guessing to be an extremely powerful magic user. And that was something that caused her nerves to stand on end. The blue eyes of Donna Troy Potter locked onto where she thought the source of the noise was coming from.

"It's coming from the Throne Room?" Donna inquired to herself and she looked over her shoulder. She pulled her dagger out of it sheath and stepped forward. She turned to face the Twins and her younger sister before she told them in a firm voice. "Stay here."

Somehow she knew that statement was going to fall upon deaf ears.

* * *

Harry landed on the ground with Diana beside him up, the two of them focused on finding Ares. There was a sick cloud of smoke that wafted around them and the young wizard's head rang for a moment before he was able focus himself.

"I think we found Ares," Harry whispered as Karen, Faora, and Kara stepped in to join them. "Keep the underlings off of us; we're going to take down the big guy."

"Right," Karen stated then she frantically had to dodge a series of falling fireballs, barely able to pay attention to the sounds of battle around her. That was more or less because she nearly had her face taking off by a huge metal mallet. Instinctively she dodged it in one movement, squinted her eyes with the second, and in a third sent a burst of heat vision to burn the hands of the foe attacking her.

Kara closed her eyes and then managed to use her super breath to freeze the legs of the enemies. It was only a temporary stop gap at best.

"So, you're the one who managed to tame the Amazons," Ares stated and Harry aimed a punch towards him but the God of War blocked it and pushed back with a thunderous force. Harry proceeded to shove him back and there for few seconds, they stood, face to face.

Diana dove down from above to nail Ares hard in the face with a huge flying dropkick. The blow staggered him back and left him open for the next attack. The Princess of the Amazons aimed a few huge punches at him but Ares blocked them, before pushing her back and grabbing her around the waist hurled her over to the side like a piece of garbage.

Diana flew head over heels to land on her hand and knees in a low crouch. She pumped her legs before she went for a kick, but the God of War blocked it and grabbed her around the throat.

Harry swooped in and hit Ares with a huge uppercut punch sending him flying back a few inches. The punch was extremely powerful, but the follow up was even more so as Diana and Harry joined forces in a huge double punch attack that rocked Ares hard.

Ares dodged between a pillar. He was going to use guerrilla tactics to take them down.

To that effect, he popped back up to throw a flaming spear, which was aimed at the spot right between Harry's eyes. But the green eyed wizard blocked it with a spell, sending it crashing down to the ground where it shattered into glass. The glass flew in every direction and with another spell, Harry quickly sent them hurtling back at location where Ares once stood.

He went to one side, Diana went to the other, but Ares was no longer there. The young wizard looked up when he heard a humming, to see several flaming daggers being thrown at him.

Harry flipped away from the daggers as they slammed into the ground where he once stood. Completing his flip, he eyed Diana and she got his unsaid message. The two of them locked hands and rushed forward in a double team attack.

The twin punches of the husband and wife duo slammed into the face of Ares. His helmet cracked under the impact and he about dropped to his knees, only to catch himself in time. Yet, he couldn't help but offer a grimace. Growling out in rage, the God of War grabbed them by the neck and smacked their heads together.

Falling back for a moment. Diana drew her sword and slashed it savagely at Ares's head, but he manifested a shield to block it. Despite the fact it more or less absorbed the blow, the sword still rent a furrow in the metal of the shield

Harry took advantage of that fact and used his heat vision destroy the shield the rest of the way. Pulling out a pair of daggers, he super charged them with magic, before plowing them into Ares's chest. The God of War howled out in agony as a pain akin to the cruciatus wracked his frame.

It wasn't over yet, as Harry loaded up the magically amplified brass knuckles, it was just getting started. He slammed his knuckle dusters together and electricity arced outwards from him with a bang. He was about to lay the smackdown on Ares.

* * *

Donna's hair was really standing up on the back of her neck, as she heard someone or something creeping where it shouldn't in the throne room. The dark haired girl bit down on her lip as she took a half of a step forward. Another step caused her to bravely venture into uncertainty. She could tell her mother and her sister were both distracted by what was happening on the outside, because this battle? This battle was a horrifying one.

The dark haired girl edged into the throne room to see a man dressed in blue robes. He had a cap on, as well as a sneer was on his aged and malevolent face.

"Well, you've been sneaking around where you shouldn't have been, haven't you, my little Amazon princess?" The man taunted with a leer and Donna's eyes narrowed in disgust at his words.

"Who are you?" she demanded and the man obliged her with a response.

"The name is Felix Faust! Learn it well! For I will be the person who takes you down!" Faust cried as he took a step forward in an attempt to intimidate the young princess.

Donna wondered if all old wizards were always this melodramatic or if it was just this one. She reared her arm back ninety degrees before attacking him, but her punch hit an energy shield. The shield repelled the attack back her at nearly twice the pressure, rattling her and nearly dropping her down onto her back. Her breathing went in and out frantically, as she could not do anything.

"Now! Where is it, it must be around here somewhere?" Faust asked, turning around and discounting Donna like she was nothing. To him, the young princess essentially was nothing, other then potentially a momentary amusement.

Donna frowned, she was not used to being treated as an afterthought. She want to attack him once more, but with a casual gesture while not even bothering to look back at her, Faust used a magical spell to freeze her firmly in place.

"You're out of your depth, child," Faust tutted as he picked up a dust bound book. Glee exploded through the sorcerer's eyes as he found what he was looking for. "Ah yes! Here's the one."

Amanda zoomed into the room at super speed to snatch the book that he picked up out of his hand. Faust was taken off guard and Emily swooped in as well, to pull Donna out of the way before Faust could finish her off.

Donna looked exasperated, as Lyta turned up and she tried to jam Faust in the ribs with a huge staff. He was too quick for her, transfiguring into a gruesome snake that snapped at her hissing all the while.

"I could have sworn that I told you to stay out of this," Donna told Amanda, who shrugged her shoulders.

"Expecting me to listen to you was your first mistake. You're not Harry," Amanda told her bluntly without missing a beat and Donna offered the longest sigh that she could give. That was the truth, if nothing else.

She had bigger problems right now then the fact that the twins wouldn't listen to her, namely this creepy old sorcerer trying to kill her. She was able to dodge his attacks, as she was just a bit quicker than him.

"So, I've got the book," Amanda muttered frantically as she held the item in her hand and she felt like it could very well spit fire at her if she was not careful. "What do I do…."

"I'd tell you if I knew!" Donna snapped in a tone that indicated that she was trying to keep her head together but it was something that was harder than it looked.

"You will hand the book over to me!" Faust yelled as he transfigured a few of statues around him, which he then animated, causing them to come to life.

Amanda tried to run to the door but a field appeared in front of her. It was like fire and ice at the same time. It should not be possible but with magic, anything was possible.

"Nice try! But I'm the one who controls this game!" Faust cried, practically spitting at the girls and it was obvious that all of them were in a high pressure situation.

"Well, this is…."

"I know what this is!" Amanda snapped with thinly veiled despair going through her body and she prepared herself for what might be a last ditch effort.

"We aren't going to let this guy beat us! Are we?" Lyta offered, showing off the fierce determination that let everyone know whose daughter she was.

Donna, Amanda, and Emily stared at the imposing sorcerer, someone who had far more experience than they had, someone who was willing to crush them into oblivion at the next possible moment.

They all knew that this was not going to be easy, but that was always the case when one went into battle. The girls were all ready for everything, for better or for worse, and were trying to figure out what was going to happen.

* * *

' _The girls are in trouble, which we can't_ _…._ _not until we take down Ares,'_ Harry thought to the bond mates currently with, but he saw Faora make her way off rapidly in the younger girls' direction.

He was happy to see that Faora was in the right position to be able to help take care of this problem. Now, Harry could focus on going face to face with the God of War, who stood before him. He was imposing and Harry saw that his minimal powers weren't enough to stand toe to toe to him.

Ares was a god and while Harry was worshiped as one by many, as much as it pained him to admit it, he wasn't one yet.

' _He's not giving in that easily,'_ Diana warned Harry, as the two of them prepared to go in for another attack and once again, their combined assault managed to back Ares off. Their powerful punches rocked the god of war over and over again. The key word was back him off, it did not take him down. It only merely backed him off and Harry was reminded of this fact, rather painfully.

He felt his knuckles crack; even with the extended usage of the brass knuckles and he threw his head back with a long sigh. It was now or nothing, do or die.

He eyed his wrist where the watch rested. The watch that was blocking the majority of his powers. The watch that was causing him to function at a fraction of his full power. He cracked his knuckles together as he stared at it, there was no question about it. He knew precisely what he had to do.

' _Diana, darling, hold him at bay,'_ Harry told her as Kara and Karen moved over.

' _What are you planning on doing?'_ Karen wondered and Harry smiled as he sent out a blast of magical shockwave which allowed the Amazons to overtake the army of Ares. They were only out for one thing, bloodshed and carnage and thanks to the energy wave he'd released they crashed down to the ground like they were nothing.

' _Something to even the odds,'_ Harry thought to his wives and then he turned around as his heart sped up. He knew of the risks but against Ares, this was a desperate gambit of a move.

He shot off into the sky, ripping his wrist inhibitor all the way off, and continued to go as high as he could, becoming a blur as he shot up, up, and away.

Karen could not even begin to think what Harry might be doing, given that Ares rushed towards her and tried to nail her as hard as he could. The huge punch rocked her but she blocked it. The blonde closed her eyes, pushing back against him. She could feel his knuckles cracking against her face.

Kara went down underneath Ares, grabbed his legs, and managed to trip him up. Diana flew back down and nailed her enemy in the face, but Ares caught her around the neck then slammed her into the ground. He looked skyward to where Harry had gone.

"He's run like a coward!" Ares taunted as he grabbed Diana by the hair and tried to haul her up in a rear naked choke but the Amazon Princess fought out with everything she was worth.

"You don't know anything about strategy, merely, violence," Diana said as she escaped the hold with a violent jawjacker, causing Ares to stagger back.

His jaw was already injured from their punch earlier and he saw a blur descend from the air at the speed of light which slammed into him with a horrifying amount of force. The God of War was then grabbed around the head and thrown forwards, which caused him to skip across the ground several times. Before he could complete his flight, the blur flew forward and nailed him into the ground with a spear tackle at supersonic speed.

' _Never saw it coming,'_ Harry thought to his bond, he was back to full strength and he used it to take Ares down. The yellow solar radiation was empowering him, given that he flew so close to the sun. The wizard's eyes flashed with power and Ares got up to his feet.

Ares went to say something, only to find out his jaw had been dislocated and it felt like his ribs were broken. He reached up to pop his jaw into place, which nearly caused him to pass out from the pain. Once the wave of nausea passed he couldn't help but state "No, it's not over."

"You and I have drastically different definitions of what over is," Harry concluded as he looked at Ares and the two of them locked eyes with each other.

Harry manifested an energy spear in his hand and he rushed forward. He could see Ares manifest a shield but it was not at the great power that he had before. This allowed the young wizard to push through the shield and slam the spear through it as hard as he could.

The shield cracked under the strain as Harry's power flowed through it. The spear in the wizard's hand glowed bright as it passed through the shield to be driven into Ares's stomach. There was no question about it, he had his enemy down on his knees before him as the spear had pierced him nearly all the way through.

Ares had his head bowed for a second but then looked upwards to glare at Harry with narrowed eyes. He was not going out quietly. Which suited Harry just fine, since he was going to boot his ass off the island whether Ares liked it or not.

Ares started to laugh loudly at something as his eyes began to glow and then with all of the force, all of the power he could muster, Ares exploded in a concussive blast of bright light that echoed outwards from him as he disappeared off of the island with a massive and thunderous pop. Harry watched him leave, not sorry to see him go.

There was no time to think about this really, because there were a few more problems that Harry had to deal with as he continued to hear the sounds of combat around him.

Even Ares had been taken down his army remained, the work of the hero was never done.

* * *

Faora showed up shortly after she left the scene of the fight between Har-Zod and Ares. She heard the sounds of combat coming from the direction of the throne room which lead her forward. She knew that the twins, Donna, and Lyta didn't get themselves into trouble willingly, at least not this time. The dark haired woman pushed herself through the barrier and blocked the concussive blast of magic that was sent at her.

"You will give me the book!" Faust yelled as he lunged towards Amanda but she managed to block it. Only for the demented sorcerer to grab her around the throat and this caused Faora to see red. She blasted forward and nailed Faust with a full force punch to the jaw.

"NO MAN BUT HAR-ZOD TOUCHES THEM!" she screamed out in rage as she grabbed him by the throat and hurled him with a surprising amount of might into one of the nearby pillars.

Faust was caught off guard and rattled, but he conjured a spiked shield which blocked Faora's next assault. Had she connected with his head, she would have knocked it clean off. Then again, it was her intention to do just that. The dark haired woman's hands connected with the shield and she pushed on through it.

"Give me the book and I won't destroy you."

The book had gone flying when Faust grabbed Amanda and it fell into the hands of Emily Evans-Potter. The redhead flipped through the book frantically as she felt her nerves were at a huge fever pitch. There was no way she could do this, her stomach did a twist and a turn but she stood as tall and proud as she could manage.

No, there was….No! She could most certainly do this! She had to do this! There were people counting on her, there was no question about it, she nervously thumbed through the book.

Donna and Faora bought her enough time, with Lyta contributing what she could. The three of them worked on Faust, but his stone statues caused them massive fits. Faora was inclined to smash his skull in for all he did and Emily thought that after Faust put his hands on Amanda, anything Faora might do to Faust would more than warranted.

' _Got to focus,'_ Emily thought as nerves racked her body. There was a sense that there was some kind of knot tightening in her stomach, which twisted through her being and tormented the redhead. She thought….no self-doubt was not something that she needed right now.

She spoke the incantation she read in the book with a strangled and strained tongue. Somehow she understood it. Her mind went so fast that it was hard to comprehend what was really happening, but the redhead was doing it. She conjured a bolt of light and it shot from her hand, drilling Faust as hard as possible.

Emily collapsed drained, only to be caught in Harry's arms as he and the others arrived just in time to see Faust vanish into parts known.

"I think we won," Amanda said in a somber voice, her face was covered with cuts and scratches but otherwise, she was in good health and good spirits.

* * *

"Both attacks were a carefully planned distraction," Hippolyta told the group after she completed her sweep of the island and everyone turned to the Queen of the Amazons. "Ares, his army, this Faust, all of them proved to be a gambit to lift one thing from the island. All while we were distracted with what we thought, rightfully so, were the biggest threats possible."

Harry looked over his shoulder, he figured something like this was the case when Ares started laughing like that before he vanished. Lyla bowed her head as she decided to give her Queen the grave news.

"It was the pillar, your majesty," Lyla remarked to the Queen and Hippolyta's expression became even more grim and grave.

"The pillar that he's trapped in?" Harry asked and Lyla nodded.

"Hercules….I had thought…..well they've taken it, but they haven't freed him as of yet," Hippolyta said in a distracted voice, as she tried to look on the bright side of the situation. Although, perhaps she was trying to convince herself there was a bright side to this.

"Artemis is doing a quick sweep of the island, to see if they left any clues behind," Lyla said in a tense voice, ashamed that she let her majesty down. The pillar was something that was heavily guarded ever since it was placed on the island. The only thing more guarded than it was the doorway to Tartarus.

It was not the first time that Hercules had behaved out of turn. He had tried something with Hippolyta in the past. Their first meeting…..well their meeting was less friendly then their second and there was really no more to say about that.

"Do you have any clues of who did it?" Harry asked to Hippolyta and Diana wanted to know the answer to that question as well.

The Queen of the Amazons inclined her head once and shook it.

"I'm afraid not, although the possibilities are grave," Hippolyta admitted in a frustrated voice and Harry smiled as he placed his hand on hers.

"They couldn't….we couldn't have known," Harry whispered to her as he placed his arms around his wife and the Queen of the Amazons offered him a smile as she pressed into him for comfort. There was one statement that most certainly passed through her lips as she looked her bonded straight in the eyes.

"I know, that's what makes this frustrating," Hippolyta commented, really wishing that the security of the island worked out a bit better, although she felt that there really was no way for them to have seen this coming. They had no way of knowing Ares or Faust wasn't the really threat.

Harry had another thing he had to discuss things with Donna and the twins.

"So, I believe that I need to have a word with you three," Harry told them and the three girls looked at him with a slight bit of awe. He was radiating power like they'd never seen before in their young lives and maybe the likes of which they would never see again. So naturally, they were a bit nervous. "This way, please."

It was hard to read Harry's expression, so Emily and Amanda exchanged a swift glance that indicated the tension the two of them were feeling.

' _We're not going to be….we can't be….'_ Amanda thought to her sister and she chewed on the side of her mouth as both girls nervously watched Harry.

' _I don't know, but we better wait and see,'_ Emily told her twin as the two girls locked arms and went to face their brother.

Donna decided she'd be the one to go first. She figured that it was fortunate that nothing happened to Lyta, because she would be getting it from her mother, Diana, and Harry, likely also Artemis, Karen, Kara, Faora, and maybe a few others that she forgot about. Oh yeah and the Goddesses.

"So," Harry stated in a swift voice as he stared down the young Amazon who offered a slight swallow, bringing the lump down in her throat.

"Yeah, I think that I owe you an apology," Donna said as she felt herself wilt underneath Harry's intense gaze.

"You did well out there."

Donna opened her mouth to automatically protest and then she closed it after a few seconds. Perhaps it was her hearing failing her but she wasn't sure what Harry just told her. She only had one word to say, she could not help but say it to her husband.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, Donna, seriously," Harry told the Amazon, offering a light chuckle at her eyes widening and closing, she resembled a deer that was caught in the headlights.

Harry laughed, in spite himself, at the look on his wife's face, well it was something that he wanted to burn into his cortex so he could recall it for the rest of his life.

' _She thought that she was going to be in trouble,_ _oh that's so amusing,'_ Faora remarked in amusement through the mental link.

' _It kind of is,'_ Diana commented, who figured that she would keep Lyta occupied. If nothing else, she thought that the young Amazon Kryptonian would appreciate someone going over her performance today, at least she hoped that she would. If nothing else, it would allow Harry to do what he needed to do on his end.

"So, some might think that you got lucky," Harry told the girls. "But there is a fine line between luck and skill. Bravery and valor had to be exhibited as well for you to win that battle in there today. There are times where you think that you can win the day but…."

"We really did it, didn't we?" Amanda asked and Harry wrapped his arm around her, pulling her into a one armed hug.

"Yes, you did," Harry confirmed to her as he pulled her in closely. "And such bravery and valor, well it's a very commendable trait. It's more then worthy of a reward."

"A reward?" Amanda asked as she raised an eyebrow half of an inch and Harry offered a wide grin towards the bolder of the two twins.

"Yes, Mandy, a reward," Harry commented to her as he held her again his waist. Amanda closed her eyes and basked in the feeling. The moment was extremely powerful and after the battle, it was obvious that she would need to work off some tension, at least that was the thought that went through her head. "I think you've more than earned something like that."

Shivers went down her spine as a kiss pressed against her lips, causing her mind to numb with pleasure. His fingers trailed down her spine, as he roamed his hands all the way down every last inch of her body.

Amanda relaxed as Harry wrapped his arms around her body once more and she closed her eyes, there was a heat that was rising in her body as Harry held her tightly. The young witch closed the gap between both of them even further and she felt another pleasurable rise of heat.

"Don't forget I was the one who banished him," Emily stated with a wide smile.

"A lucky shot," Amanda countered, although there was a teasing quality to her voice.

Emily placed her hands on her hips and glared at her sister. Two sets of identical green eyes locked onto each other before she calmly stated. "Sometimes a lucky shot is the only shot that you need."

Harry smiled as he took Donna into his arms while his younger sisters bitched at each other and the two of them exchanged an amazing kiss. The top half of Donna's armor was pulled off as the wizard's hands ran over the upper part of her breasts.

"Oh Harry," Donna moaned as she allowed her husband to work his magic.

She was tilted back as her outfit was pulled off and the fun began.

**Smut/Lemon Begins.**

Donna found herself pushed back on the bed, the soft sheets pressing against her naked back. Her blue eyes flashed with amazement and her nipples stiffened as she wanted him to ravish her hard.

Harry got a look at the visual buffet that was this young Amazon Princess's body. He looked down her body and saw her angel face with silky dark locks. Her blue eyes blazed with fiery passion, and her D-Cup breasts were displayed for him in all of their glory and said glory was very glorious. Her nipples poked out towards him, showing the tender young buds that Harry felt that he could put his mouth around and suck.

He moved his hands down, skimming the edge of her flat, toned stomach and then he made his way towards her young and toned legs, reaching his hands between her dripping hot snatch, pushing one of his knuckles into it.

"Oh, Harry," Donna breathed and she felt her husband's fingers skillfully manipulate her wet and willing folds, causing her nipples to stiffen with desire and lust. Her eyes closed as he forced more of her fingers into her.

Amanda's nipples hardened and Emily slipped her shirt off. She threw her arms around the waist of her twin, pulling her into a long kiss and the two of them went at it with each other.

The fingers of the redhead went deep into the dripping hot snatch of the other redhead and Emily's eyes fogged over with lust as she manipulated her sisters quim.

"Hera, oh fucking Hera!" Donna yelled as Harry's tongue buried itself into her dripping hot snatch and there was a few seconds where he kept working his tongue as far into her as he could. He twisted his tongue in a corkscrew motion all the way around her, causing her to grab onto his head.

Harry felt her legs wrap around his head and he delved his tongue as deep into her moist folds as he could be allowed. His licking got more intense as he brought more of her delicious juices onto his tongue and deep into his mouth, lapping them up.

"Oh yes, oh yes," Donna moaned as she felt the pleasure erupt in her very being and Harry smiled at her but said nothing, slurping the juices that drained from her love box.

Amanda's legs were parted and her twin drove her tongue between her sopping hot folds. The woman's breathing became more intense as Emily kept munching on her smoldering twat, working her tongue as far between her legs as she could be allowed.

"Oh so good, so very fucking….oh so good," Amanda moaned as Emily worked into her.

Donna's lips were moistened, in more ways than one. She crawled over to Harry and pressed her tits up around his cock.

"Oh, this is going to be so good," Harry groaned as Donna wrapped her breasts around his cock and she rubbed the fleshy mountains up and down his shaft.

Harry groaned as Donna smiled, she was going to give Harry an intense working over with her breasts, until he came and hard. She stroked his balls as she continued to work over his delicious shaft, smashing her titanic tits around the area of his shaft. She kissed his head and kept stroking him up and down.

Donna felt his huge phallus wedged between her tits and he was fucking them hard. She moaned as his balls slapped across her chest and his cock slid so far out that she was allowed to capture it with a hungry kiss, her eyes widened and her lust mounting.

Amanda was having the time of her life, as Emily had a magical sex toy. She primed it and slammed it deep into Amanda's perfect pussy, causing the woman to moan loudly.

"TAKE ME, OH TAKE ME, MAKE ME YOUR BITCH!" Amanda yelled loudly as she pinched her nipples and her twin slammed the sex toy into her.

Emily's pussy was bared and dripping for a Harry duplicate to slip behind her. He cupped her luscious tits from behind and the redhead offered a soft whimper as her body began to heat up. The woman's eyes closed as there was a sensation of Harry's hands traveling all the way down her body from head to toe.

"Oh, Harry, please," Emily whimpered as she felt excited and knew that the insertion was going to be just as amazing. She felt his cock head brush against her dripping quim and Harry was priming her for his insertion.

"Ready?" Harry whispered hotly in her ear and she nodded her head.

"Yes, born ready," Emily panted as she removed the dildo and then sunk her tongue into Amanda's smoldering hot folds, which caused her twin to moan loudly and her hands to roam.

Her brother primed his cock and smashed it into her, filling up her pussy with the only dick that would be allowed to touch her. The woman's walls wrapped around him and Harry grabbed her breasts, pummeling her from behind. He was working his hands around her lithe frame.

Donna was giving Harry an amazing tit fuck, her eyes were glazed over like a madwoman as she kept breathing and her breasts wrapped around him, working his cock up and down for everything that she was worth.

"Oh, Harry, I'm so wet, cum on my tits, cum on them!" she chanted as she bit down on her lip with thinly restrained lust and desire and continued to work him up on them.

She wanted her breasts coated in his delicious, amazing spunk. Her pussy burned up with the thought of what it could do to her.

She was going to get what she wanted, one way or another and she kept rubbing him up and down, her mouth pressed against his head as she cooed and worked him over. Her breasts smashed against him as she proceeded to rub him up and down. His balls were about to tighten.

"Cum on them, oh please, cum on them," Donna panted and Harry did as she asked, spurting his cum all over her breasts. The Amazon moaned in pleasure as his cum rocketed up into the air and landed on her lovely breasts. She closed her eyes.

It covered her breasts and Donna moaned as he coated her with his thick seed. Said seed rolled down her breasts and she closed her eyes, offering a lustful and breathing moan.

"Oh, that feels so fucking good," Donna breathed as she closed her eyes. She wanted to play with her dripping wet twat even more but Harry held her hands down.

There was only one expression burning through her eyes and Harry punctuated with his next few words.

"You're mine."

Without another thought or word, Harry slammed his cock into her tight center. The Amazon princess moaned as he grabbed onto her hips and used the leverage to work himself as far into her as he could go. She flushed with the pleasure as he rocked back into her body.

"Oh, yes, oh, yes, oh yes!"

Amanda was now being plowed into by Harry as Emily was taking a rest. Of course, Amanda was not allowing her sister's timeout to be very restful, using her fingers to stroke her center.

"Damn, Mandy, oh fuck, oh yes!"

"How do you like that?" Harry asked as he grabbed her breasts and Amanda moaned as she wrapped her arms around him and another push of his cock caused her eyes to flood with passion. His balls slapped a steady amount across her thighs and Harry pulled out before going as far into her as he could be allowed. He was really giving her a nice going over, his throbbing phallus working over the tight quim of the girl.

"Please Harry, keep pounding me, take your sister's slutty cunt!" Amanda shrieked as Harry plunged into her and she kept plunging her fingers into Emily's pussy as much as she could.

Donna was now flipped over on her hands and knees. Harry rode into her doggy style and she loved every moment of it. She bit down really hard on her lip and Harry pulled out nearly all of the way before plunging into her. Her tight quim got even tighter around his invading penis.

"Oh, ah, yes, oh, mmm, ah, YES!" Donna screamed at the top of her lungs as Harry plowed her with everything that he had. She hung onto the side of the bed and she was panting, she was trying to get off on the pleasure but her cunt, her cunt was being filled.

His cock was just as big as ever and she was just as time as ever. His lips pressed on the back of her neck, hitting her sensitive spots, that might have been pure fire for her cunt.

"Deeper!" Donna cried as Harry plowed into her as deep as he could. The woman's eyes closed as Harry worked himself into her as far as he could go.

His cock was rammed hard into her, in fact it was as far into her as it could go. She grabbed onto the side of the bed and bit down on her lip, getting pleasure.

"Oh, Harry, Harry, Harry, WRECK ME!" Amanda shrieked as she pumped her hips up to meet his invading thrusts and she clenched around him, feeling her body shake with the pleasure. Her nipples got really hard and Harry captured one of them in his mouth, giving them a tender suck.

Explosions of pleasure spread through her body and Amanda was about to lose herself as her brother's huge cock speared into her body. She lifted her hips up and she wrapped her walls around him, his throbbing cock went into her.

Donna moaned as she suffered a powerful orgasm, actually a rapid fire flurry of them as her nipples stiffened and she closed her eyes feeling the pleasure as Harry kept working into her as hard as he could go.

Eventually the explosion of cum filled her body and Donna's body shook and shivered with Harry spilling his huge load into her tight quim. A few more thrusts brought her to the edge and she wrapped around him as Harry emptied his seed into her willing Amazon pussy.

The entire group saw stars as the games did not end but quickly picked up.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

**To Be Continued.**


	6. Merger Part One

**Chapter Six: Merger Part One.**

Harry woke up on the island some time later and a frown crossed his face as he realized that as much as he hated to admit it, he was going to have to leave this island Paradise. Shifting, he could feel Kara resting against his chest, so reaching over the young wizard gently brushed his hand through his blonde wife's hair.

"Kara, time to wake up," Harry breathed into her ear and Kara offered a half asleep smile, before she snuggled further into him in order to ensure that Harry's arms were wrapped around her snugly.

"No...don't wanna...comfy," Kara murmured out in a sleepy voice, but there was a slight smile across her face as she wondered how long she would be able to milk this for. The young woman shifted again, this time pressing her supple rear into his crotch then slowly ground against it and Harry pulled her in even tighter.

"You're going to get up," Harry commanded into her ear and she shuddered as she felt his breath brush against it.

"What if I don't want to?" Kara asked him with a pout and Harry looked at her with a warning expression across his face.

"What if….well you're going to have to find out the answer to that the hard way, aren't you?" Harry commented as he shifted to place his hands on her shoulders and then moved her so that the blonde was now pinned down onto the bed.

Kara got rather excited as her husband pinned her down on the bed. The blonde's eyes flashed with amazement when Harry straddled her waist. He kept his hands on his wife's shoulders in order to keep her held firmly in place. From there his hands roamed slowly down her body and there was a sense that Harry was committing every single inch to memory.

"Ooooh I'm going to find out the hard way, am I?" Kara asked, seduction dripping from her voice and amusement dancing in her eyes as she licked her lips at the thought of the enticing events that were going to come next.

"Yes, you are," Harry whispered as he grabbed Kara firmly around the shoulders again and then pressed her even harder against the bed, pinning her in place on her back.

"Well something is hard," Kara said in an excited voice as she felt it brush against her thighs and there was a few seconds where the wizard ground it against her further.

"Yes, and it's all your fault," Harry leaned forwards to whisper that directly into her ear and Kara felt his tongue brush against it.

Kara shivered; she was slightly out of her depth as Harry pressed his mouth against the side of her neck. The blonde offered another shudder when Harry ran his hands along the sides of her ribs and his lips began to suck lightly on her neck. She was closed her eyes as she felt a kiss planted on the other side of her neck, Harry brushing his teeth lightly against her skin. Another kiss and Kara was succumbing against her better judgment. Any will power she had melted away just like that.

The blonde was already completely naked and taking advantage, Harry brushed his hand between her legs.

"It's time for us to have some fun," Harry breathed out to her then Kara's found her hands and feet bound to the bed.

"You're not giving me that many reasons to go out of bed," Kara moaned out to him. Harry smiled wickedly at that, and then began to tease her. "Oh….Harry…ah…oh…YES!"

Harry smiled, he was about ready to delve between her legs and the blonde's legs parted in anticipation as she closed her eyes to savor the moment.

* * *

Harry placed his fingers between her molten thighs and there was a few seconds where he paused to feel her arousal which caused heat to rise between her thighs.

"Well, someone wants this bad," Harry whispered as he continued to brush his fingers down her dripping slit.

"Yes, very badly," Kara admitted, she was practically moaning and pushing her hips up at the thought of him.

"Well, I think we better not waste any time," Harry told her and he brushed his length against her dripping hot entrance. Her walls pushed up towards him and Harry teased her slit with his large pole.

"Rao, Damn It, Harry, don't tease me, please," Kara breathed as she felt his cock about inside her but he pulled back at the last second, denying her the pleasure.

"I thought that was half of the fun," Harry commented as he cupped her delicious ass and there was a few seconds where he allowed her to soak in the torment. "Are you ready for it?"

"Born that way," Kara moaned.

Harry grabbed her hips and plunged inside her. Her pink walls wrapped around his invading pole as Harry pushed up and slammed down onto her. Her hips pushed up towards him and Harry slammed himself deep into her.

Her walls wrapped around his pole and he continued to pin Kara down onto the bed. He sawed into her cunt with a few more thrusts of his throbbing pole. The blonde's walls wrapped around him and Harry kept up the momentum. He felt her back arch as her hips rose to accept his throbbing manhood deep into her inner core.

His cock speared as far into her body as he could go. The blonde wrapped her walls around his throbbing cock and he hammered into her at super speed. Her pussy was pounded pretty much into jelly and her legs wrapped around him.

"FUCK!"

Kara tightened her legs around him and Harry grabbed onto her shoulders as he nearly plowed one of his Alpha wives into the bed. The blonde's tightening walls hugged his cock and Harry grabbed her breast, squeezing it tightly. She panted heavily as he sped up his thrusts to a nearly supersonic speed.

"I think it's time to take this to the next level," Harry commented and he brushed his hand over her ass to consider it. "Or rather the next hole?"

Kara clenched around his cock and encourage to plant his rod into her a few more thrusts and then he pulled out.

"Turn over," Harry ordered her firmly.

Kara got onto her hands and knees, inclining her ass in the air and Harry raised his hand and smacked her on the ass. The blonde was smacked hard on the ass once again and Harry smiled as he brushed his cock against her asshole, teasing her slightly. The blonde whimpered and Harry teased her hot hole one more time.

"Oh, Harry, HARRY!"

That final Harry was punctuated by Harry slamming hard into her ass from behind. The blonde's asshole was pushed apart with Harry ramming into her as hard as possible from behind. She closed her eyes and allowed the pleasure to flow through her. Each thrust caused her to tingle from the tips of her ears down to the tips of her toes and everywhere in between.

Kara moaned loudly as her ass closed around him and Harry rammed into her. His cock continued to work over her ass. Her delicious rear was getting a tight fucking and Harry cupped her breasts as he hammered into her from behind. She mewled at the pleasure with his thrusts pushing her anal cavity apart.

"Oh, so fucking tight, love it, love it," Harry grunted as he nearly pulled all the way out of her and slammed into her.

Harry kept ramming into her tight Kryptonian ass with a few more thrusts. Kara closed her eyes and Harry moved back towards her. The blonde felt the pleasure as he hammered her ass. His thrusts got even quicker and the blonde rocked her head back.

"Oh, fuck, harder, oh!" Kara moaned.

Harry got a wicked idea and he closed his eyes, splitting off. A second Harry showed up and he slipped between Kara's legs.

"OH RAO!" Kara screamed as she felt Harry's cock go between her legs and two different versions of Harry Potter rammed into her from both sides. The blonde's eyes bugged out and Harry and Harry hammered into her, working over both of her holes.

"Oh, you're so fucking tight, baby," Harry grunted as he rammed into her on either side and Kara's tight ass and cunt clenched him on both ends.

He placed his hands through her hair, stroking her gorgeous blonde locks.

Kara was in heaven, there was no other way to describe that. The blonde's nipples hardened and Harry leaned towards her, pressing his face into her breasts, and suckling on her erect nipples. Harry drilled into the beautiful blonde in both of her holes.

"Damn, you're so fucking horny," Harry grunted as he rammed her in both sides.

"Don't….pretend you don't fucking love it," Kara mewled as she felt him work her hard from both sides. The only cock that would ever get her off was now double.

"Oh, I love it, love it a lot, fucking hell baby," Harry grunted as he rammed into both of her holes on either side.

"YES!" Kara screamed as she felt the pleasure fill her body, not to mention two twelve inch cocks, one up her ass and one in her pussy.

Another Harry appeared and the young wizard grabbed her around the face and speared his cock down her throat.

Kara greedily took the cock into her mouth, sucking him down. The blonde rocked her head back and sucked on him happily and hungrily. The blonde was really going over on him, using his cock to be speared down her throat.

'Mmm, ah, mmm, ah,' Kara moaned as she kept working him over. The blonde's mouth wrapped around him and Harry kept going as far down her throat as he could. The blonde was really sucking him for everything that he was worth.

He then sped up, all three of them. Kara's holes were being assaulted as she was being gang banged by Harry and she was loving every single moment of it. The blonde was being rocked by several cocks, slamming into her body. He was stretching her out and she was moaning loudly. The blonde's eyes closed as she felt the rush through her. The blonde was filled with each and every cock that went into her body. She felt a huge rush and she closed her eyes. She felt her heart pump with a little bit more as he rammed into every side of her.

Harry smiled as he felt her pleasure and the blonde was rammed hard with all cocks in her sexy body. She was feeling the pleasure going into her. He grabbed his hands into her ass and Harry kept ramming into her. His balls slapped onto her thighs and he kept hammering into her. The blonde felt the rush through her loins and Harry kept drilling into her from behind. Her panting got even heavier and Harry rammed as far into her as he could go.

'Oh, fuck, so fucking good,' Kara panted as she felt a stickiness resound through between her legs. She felt her nipples harden as arousal heightened throughout her body.

Harry smiled, he was glad that he was making her feel good but it was time to escalate things up to a final manner.

Kara's eyes closed and there was one Harry now, having her pinned down on the bed and fucking her pussy into submission. His cock somehow got deeper and deeper into her. Her walls wrapped around him.

"Cum, I need your fucking cum!" Kara mewled.

"Good things cum in those who wait," Harry smiled as he wrapped his hands around her tits and hammered her. Her pussy was being pleasured and dare she say it, pummeled by Harry's throbbing hard pole.

"YES, FUCK ME HARD!"

Kara's shrieks got louder and her legs wrapped around him. The blonde's walls snapped around his pole and Harry hammered her tightening quim. She was pummeled into the ground and her screams got even louder. Harry escalated with a few thrusts. The blonde hung onto him, sinking her nails into his side and breathing heavily.

Her brains were practically getting fucked out and Kara was moaning as his balls tightened. He pumped the cunt and splashed into her. The wizard unloaded his cum into her and he injected a few doses of cum into her body.

Kara collapsed, with a goofy grin on her face.

* * *

Kara rested on the bed; a slight bit of drool coming from both sets of lips after what Harry did to her.

"Something tells me that you won't be getting out of bed any time soon," Harry told Kara with a whisper and she nodded her head with a half dazed smile on her face.

"Mmmhmm," Kara moaned as she opened her eyes and then closed them, the drool continued to flow from her lip and she sighed in the deepest contentment.

"Yes, I'm sure," Harry said as he pulled the blonde up onto his lap. The yellow sun rays came in through the window, which allowed the blonde to revive herself from the intense round of love making that they shared.

She could not resist the fucked stupid grin on her face; it had been more than worth it.

"It's a shame we have to leave the island," Kara whispered to Harry before she snuggled into her husband's chest. "I suppose it isn't that bad though, since we know that we're going to be back sooner rather than later."

"That much is for sure, my love," Harry told her as he stroked his fingers through her hair. "But, we've got business, both in Smallville and back in Gotham."

"Right, right," Kara nodded her head in agreement, as Harry continued to run his hand through her golden locks. She lazily rested against him and she couldn't help but enjoy the moment that she was having with Harry.

"So how is Kal-El?" Harry asked her.

"Good, nothing major has happened, he's still got a few years before his powers really kick in," Kara commented as closed her eyes and hoped that the worst wasn't yet to come. "A few years before we find out whether or not he got hit with the worst of Jor-El's….quirks."

"Yeah there's that, isn't there?" Harry asked her. Since Martha adopted Kal, or Clark rather, he wastechnically his cousin as well as Kara's, there was also some relationship through the House of Rell, if he remembered correctly and he often did. So he took a special interest to him. And already, he was a better cousin than Dudley was.

Of course, given the fact that Dudley was Dudley, a pet rock could be a better cousin, so perhaps Harry was working with some rather low standards. The blonde continued to rest against his chest as Harry held his arms tightly around her waist. He barely noticed that Hippolyta had joined them until she spoke from where she sat next to him with her head resting on his shoulder.

"It'll be a shame to see you go," Hippolyta said softly with a sad smile crossing her face, though she tended to get like this whenever Har-Zod had to leave Themyscira. "We're still leading that hunt for Aresia."

"That's something where you're going to keep looking until you're successful, aren't you?" Harry asked her and Hippolyta offered a stiff nod as she sighed.

"I wish we were making more progress," Hippolyta commented, she wished she didn't seem so short with her husband. But, given that Aresia was technically taken in by her as another daughter, what she did….well she took it personally. She took it quite personally.

Harry allowed Kara to slide off of his lap and the Queen of the Amazon's wrapped her arms around Harry's waist as she straddled him taking the younger blondes place. The two of them took a moment to gaze into each other's eyes.

"Amazons have taken refuge in other parts of the world, there have been rumors, Artemis has been looking into a group that was rumored to have taken up refuge in Egypt," Hippolyta explained to him and Harry pulled the Queen of the Amazons in even more closely. She seemed to relax and feel more at ease the closer she was to him.

"I'll be back. Later on," Harry promised her gently.

Hippolyta nodded, it would seem like a lot longer from her perspective but she had plenty to keep her busy. Donna was making her own way into Man's World but she had another daughter that she had to train of in the ways of the Amazons, so there was more than enough to keep her busy. At least, until the moment where she would be allowed to join her sisters and father. Who knows? Maybe when that happened, she'd appoint Artemis as Steward and go with her for a time.

"I love you," Hippolyta told him and she meant every word of that, she held onto Harry and enjoyed the moment.

Diana, Faora and Karen watched this from the door, with a smile on their faces. Donna and the twins showed up to join them shortly after.

The group was about to move off the island. For the most part they were heading back to Gotham City. Although Harry, Kara, and Karen had some business that they needed to take care of in Kansas before they could head back to Gotham.

* * *

After arriving back in Gotham City, Kara, Harry and Lily promptly caught a flight to Smallville on the jet. There were obviously several other ways they could have gotten there, but Harry had quite quickly become a public figure after arriving in Gotham, so most times catching a flight was the easiest. They arrived to find a car waiting for them and from there they drove up to the Kent Farm.

"First time I got to see Martha in person since I returned to the land of the living," Lily told the two of them as they made their way up the driveway and there was a smile on Harry's face. "We talked a bit on the phone, but she's very busy."

"Given that she's raising my cousin, I'm really not surprised," Kara said with a wide grin.

"She told me that the farm is doing a lot better than it was and Jonathan's paying back the loan at a steady pace, although it's always at the mercy of the weather," Harry told his mother and she nodded, unsurprised by this news. The young redhead pushed open the passenger side door and got out of the car.

"It was like that years ago, they always seemed to be just scraping by," Lily commented. She was disappointed by Martha in some ways. Make no mistake she loved her like a sister. She just wasn't living up to her full potential, but perhaps she had her own reasons for that. Love could make a person sacrifice a lot and it was not her place to meddle.

"Well, you can't fault the Kents for working hard," Harry told his mother with a smile. He'd actually been here for a visit a few months ago with Kara. Just a short check up to see how Clark was doing, and then down the street to visit with Nell and Lana.

Lily was the one who knocked on the door.

Jonathan was the one that answered it and he offered them a good natured smile upon seeing who it was. "Lily! Harry, Kara, this is a pleasant surprise."

"Jonathan, good to see you, I missed you the last time I was here. How's the farm doing?" Harry asked. He knew naturally but he wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth.

"It's been a good year, the harvest will be pretty good," Jonathan said, he still hoped that one day, he'd be able to fully pay the loan back and go back to being self-sufficient without any help.

"Harry! Lily! Kara! Good to see you!" Martha said excitedly as she rushed forward out of the kitchen where she was cooking dinner.

She met Lily with a tight hug as she greeted her. The two redheads hugging each other tightly. Despite being in her thirties presently, Martha Kent kept herself in the shape that many women, even those twenty years or so younger, would be envious of. That fact, made Harry suspect that she was more or less a squib, since that at least allowed for some slower aging.

Kara was the next person to receive a hug from Martha.

"It's good to see you, Clark liked the gift that you sent him," Martha commented.

"It belonged to his mother, I'm just glad I was able to restore it," Kara informed Martha. She felt it was important for Clark to know that his mother was a big part of his creation, because if he started taking after Jor-El, it would be doom for him and they would have to deal with any problems that might arise.

"Martha! I'm going to head into town. I need to pick up a part for the tractor, the damn things about shot again."

"Jonathan! I told you to get rid of that thing years ago. It's breaking down every five minutes now," Martha told her husband as she shook her head.

"It's been in the Kent family for years, I'm not about to give up on the old girl," Jonathan persisted stubbornly as he walked out of the house.

"Well...you've got to admire his loyalty at least," Harry offered gently as he watched Jonathan Kent leave.

"Yes, even though that man's sense takes a flying leap every time it comes to that thing," Martha sighed in annoyance. "Clark's down by the river with some friends, but I'm sure that he'll find his way back for dinner."

"I'll get him if you want me to?" Kara offered but Martha shook her head.

"No, Kara, thank you for the offer, but I'm sure that I'll find his way back soon," Martha told the blonde, who nodded.

"If you say so," Kara commented as she stood and bit down on her lip nervously. The blonde opened and closed her hand.

' _That crystal should be able to track him as well,'_ Harry said to her and she nodded.

' _Yes, there's a reason why you put a tag on him, so he doesn't get into too much trouble,'_ Faora reminded Kara and the blonde smiled as she sat down, taking the milk and cookies that Martha offered her. She had a metabolism that would allow her to digest them rather quickly, so she closed her eyes and started to chew on them contently.

' _Careful not to go flying after you had too much chocolate,'_ Harry thought to her.

Kara offered him a dirty look. _'I thought we agreed never to bring that up!'_

' _No, honey, you agreed to never to bring that up,'_ Harry commented dryly, with a wicked little smirk on his face as he eyed his wife.

' _Weeell...we repaired most of the damage to the water tower,'_ Diana offered through the bond link and there was a smile that went across her face at the thought of what happened.

"So, I hear that you're making waves over in Gotham City," Martha stated as she sat down herself to make some conversation and Harry offered a smile at that.

"Well, I don't mean to brag…."

"Never stopped you before, Har," Kara commented with a cheeky tone to her voice.

"Well yes…."

"He gets it from Lily," Martha chimed in after a few seconds.

Lily opened her mouth for a brief moment but then closed and shook her head. "You know, I was going to protest but…."

"You knew that I was right," Martha told Lily as the two of them stared at each other from across the table for a few seconds, before breaking into a shared grin.

"Essentially," Lily agreed with a nod, she was unable to dispute what was essentially fact. She did have an ego but she could back it up, unlike a lot of people who had an ego. So she felt that it was well earned. She was going to take that statement to the bank and yes, Harry did inherit it from her.

Harry shook his head and he decided that it would be best to get back to the topic at hand. His smile widened across his face as he collected his thoughts.

"Alex has done a good job at trying to put all of the ducks in a row, and I'll be honest, the work she was able to do when I was in school, it was great," Harry said.

' _And don't get a swollen head from that, Faora,'_ Kara chimed with a cheeky grin.

' _Too late for that, my darling, Kara, too late for that,'_ Faora fired back with a smug expression on her face.

' _Ladies,'_ Harry whispered to both of his wives in a reprimanding voice. _'Don't make me intervene.'_

' _Aren't you already intervening?'_ Ginny chimed in, unable to resist herself.

' _Well in a way, yes,'_ Harry admitted with a smile but he was willing to let the banter continue.

"The thing is," Harry stated before pausing, he knew how weird it might look to someone who was not part of the bond, so he'd endeavored to learn how to hold a conversation outside of it, while talking in the bond at the same time. "Running a corporation, it takes a lot of work. Even more, when you have to factor in a unique economy like Gotham City."

"The police force are making a decent effort to clean up crime," Martha commented with a smile, although she was skeptical about that considering how the police force was usually a part of the criminal problem in Gotham.

"Well, they're making an effort," Harry offered his cousin carefully and she offered a smile in return.

"I'm sure that the effort will work out in the end," Martha said to Harry, although she was a bit skeptical of Gotham City in general. "So, you're getting your degree in…."

"I understand that you got yours in law," Harry offered Martha, he didn't really want to interrupt her but he hadn't actually made up his mind what he was going to pursue this upcoming school year, and she opened her mouth in surprise. "So if you ever want a position in the company, the door's open for you."

Martha had been seriously considering taking up a career as Clark was getting closer to high school age. She figured that having a job when things got a bit lean on the farm might come in handy. The unfortunate problem was that her husband was a bit of a traditionalist, that was just how he was brought up, so it really was no fault of his own.

It was a nice visit to catch up, although Harry needed to get out of here soon. He had a business meeting that he needed to attend.

"I hate to duck and run this soon Martha, but duty calls," Harry said to her as he gave her an extended hug pulling her in nice and tightly. The red head seemed to melt into his embrace, with a shiver running down her spine as she returned it. She basked in his presence until he broke the hug and pulled away.

"Of...of...course," Martha agreed with him a bit shakily, but with a happy little grin on her face, she was still a bit dazed from the hug as well. She knew that one of reasons that he came to Kansas was for a rather important business meeting in Metropolis.

Harry wrapped his arms around Kara's waist and pulled the blonde into a lengthy kiss. She returned the gesture hungrily. Lily got more of the same then Harry made his way out the door, with him and Clark passing like two ships in the night.

* * *

Back at his office in London, Harrison pondered a few things. Business was always in the forefront of his mind but pleasure was also something that he gave a great deal of consideration to.

"We're offering a smooth transition, it will be a very popular product amongst teenage girls," Preeti was telling him.

"I have to admit, I was skeptical at first, but you sold me on it," Harrison offered, but then again, Fashion was one of his huge blind spots and it wasn't something that he really had a keen enough eye for. Thanks to Lavender and Parvati as well as the other girls who had an interest in it though. He always seemed to be wearing the latest styles to perfection. He'd laughed his ass off when he found himself on a top five best dressed list recently since he'd barely done anything.

"I hope that I did more than sell you on it," Preeti offered playfully from where the Indian MILF sat on his desk with her stocking clad legs folded over each other. "The initial projections are high."

"I know, Daphne talked them over with me, before we signed off on it, can't be too careful," Harrison said as he scratched off a few notes.

"No, one can never be too careful," Preeti added and she fixed her eyes on him. "Parvati and Lavender are ready to take care of that end of the operations, leaving you more time to expand your empire in other ways."

He saw the really short skirt Preeti was wearing ride up and show off a nice bit of her toned legs. Harry kept a smile across his face as he took in this vision, as what was essentially a goddess sat across from him. The wizard watched her carefully and he knew that it was time to make a move.

"My daughters are going to be joining us a little bit later," she told Harrison and he nodded.

"That gives us an ample amount of time to discuss business," Harrison stated as he placed his hand on her thigh and she smiled as she felt a shiver run through her body as he touched her.

His touch was magnificent but what could one expect from someone like him? He was a god reincarnated in living flesh and in fact the Indian magical community had legends of someone who resembled Harry. They were not the only people who had such a legend either.

If he wasn't who she thought he was, then he was a very good duplication of that person because the green eyes, dark hair, and handsome facial features, along with the chiseled physique was right down to the letter.

"Soooo...we have a few minutes to kill before Parvati and Padma join us," Preeti stated as she showed off her stocking clad legs to her boss, her shoes dangling from the tips of her toes. "I wonder what we could do."

"I can think of a few things," Harrison whispered to her then standing he pushed her back onto the desk.

Harrison's lips found hers in a hungry kiss and one of his hands roamed over her chest. Preeti closed her eyes, these were moments that she cherished.

His hands were roaming all over her body sending constant jolts of pleasure all through it.

Her clothing slowly found itself flying to the ground and Harrison was about ready to indulge himself in this sexy Indian MILF.

* * *

Harrison kissed her on the lips and she smiled as she wrapped her legs around him, rubbing her clothed center up and down his pole. Harrison pulled her body against his and she closed her eyes, feeling the rush of pleasure that occurred between her legs.

Preeti closed her eyes and felt something go between her legs. His fingers skillfully inched their way into her center. Each brush against her womanhood that felt really hot.

The twins entered the room and saw that their mother was being tipped back onto the desk, her legs kicking up in the air and her shaven womanhood bared. Harrison licked her pussy, using his tongue around him.

"That's so hot," Parvati breathed and she saw Padma watching in a dazed manner. She grabbed Padma and spun her around, pressing her against the wall and giving her sister a long and deepening kiss.

Padma closed her eyes at the brazen action from her twin but she enjoyed the kiss, her tongue exploring her inner mouth and she felt the rush continue to escalate through her. Her heart thumped over her chest, and it was feeling really good. Padma returned fire with the kiss, her legs wrapping around her twins waist.

Harrison munched on Preeti's pussy as her hands stroked his long hair. The wizard's tongue went into her, licking her folds and she closed her eyes, her hips bucking up towards him. She wanted to get his tongue inside her as deep as possible.

Said tongue began to vibrate inside her pussy. The woman's eyes flooded over and Harrison's tongue rotated as far into her as he could. Her hips pushed up towards her.

' _Eat each other out,'_ Harrison commanded to the pair of sexy twins and Parvati needed really no prodding.

A mattress appeared next to them and both of the twins crawled onto it, wide smiles on their faces as they prepared themselves.

Padma was between her sister's legs and Parvati had her face set up between her sister's legs. Both of them were about ready to munch down on the other's cunts. Their tongues were going to go between their legs and they were licking and slurping at each other, causing both to feel an immense amount of pleasure.

' _Oh yes, yes, yes,'_ Padma panted as she felt her sister's efforts and she wanted more, that tongue, deeper, more prominent, inside her. She could feel it, her nipples stiffened in arousal.

Parvati could feel the pleasure as it exploded through her body.

"Oh, so good," Preeti moaned and she grabbed his cock, a hungry gaze going through her eyes.

"Someone's ready," Harrison grunted as she slowly and sensually stroked him up and down.

He allowed the Indian MILF to guide him into her dripping hot quim. He brushed his length against her entrance ever so briefly, preparing to enter her. She closed her eyes and her hips arched up a few inches, preparing to be intruded.

Harrison grabbed her hips and speared far into her. Her walls tightened around him and the emerald eyed slammed as far into her as he could go. His cock pushed between her legs and the wizard started to push into her.

Preeti lifted her hips a few inches and engulfed his throbbing cock between her amazing walls. She felt him enter her, her walls clenching him hungrily. His cock inside her, it felt so fucking good, she could not even begin to describe how amazing it was. His hands were all over her body and running all over her. She closed her eyes and felt the rush of pleasure that his groin gave her, slamming into her over and over again.

Harrison filled and emptied her, quicker and quicker, riding her into the desk. She wrapped her legs around him and his cock speared into her. Her walls tightened around him as he hammered her with a few rapid fired thrusts. She wrapped around him tightly and moaned loudly as Harrison kept putting her through the paces.

"Oh yes, oh yes," Preeti moaned as she lifted her hips up.

Harrison smiled as his meat missile sought her smoldering heat. It felt really good to feel her wrapped around him in such a way and he continued to delve between her thighs, hammering into her. His cock emptied her and his tip brushed against her entrance before shifting and slipping into her. Her walls wrapped around him and Harrison slammed in and out of her. Her walls wrapped around him and Harrison grunted as he squeezed her breasts.

Both of the twins leaned back on the bed, scissoring their dripping pussies together and rubbing them up and down against each other. Both of them moaned and thought hungrily at what was going to happen.

Parvati rolled off, with her sister's honey rolling down her cheeks. She offered a wide eyed smile and she looked around. She cupped her twin's pussy and a pair of strong hands grabbed her from behind.

"Time for us to have some fun," Harrison breathed in her ear as he brushed his hands between her legs and Parvati closed her eyes as her lover cupped her perfect pussy from behind. The young woman closed her eyes and she felt the pleasure.

Harrison aimed towards her and his cock head brushed against her, his cock pushing against her and he rammed into her from behind. Her walls tightened around him as he rammed into her. The woman hung onto the bed, moaning as he plowed into her over and over again. His balls slapped against her thighs.

Parvati's face was in between Padma's legs and she was slurping and licking, working her pussy with her mouth. She was licking and bringing the juices into her mouth and tasting everything that she had. She hungered for these juices.

Harrison grabbed and sunk his dick into her tight pussy, her tight vice of a pussy clamped around him.

"So good, feels so good, keep eating her," Harrison grunted to Parvati and she happily complied, with him working into her dripping hot cunt with a few thrusts into her. His cock went in and out of her at super speed.

Preeti was now mounting Harrison on the desk and riding up and down his cock. Her tight walls wrapped around him as she pushed herself up and down, riding him like there was no tomorrow. The woman's eyes flooded over, pleasure threatening to explore through her eyes. She rocked up and back.

"Oh, feels good, feels fucking good, oh that's amazing," Preeti moaned as his hands cupped her breasts and she rocked her hips against his invading cock. She pushed herself against him, feeling the pleasure. His cock plowed deep into her pussy.

Both twins were on the mattress and forced face to face. Both kissed each other as a Harry dupe fucked them from either side. Both of them were feeling the pleasure as they were rocked with each other. The wizard hammered both of them from behind, making them feel really good and Harrison continued to escalate the pleasure.

"Oh, fuck, more!" Parvati moaned as she felt Harrison's hands cup her breasts and this was amazing to say the very least.

Preeti closed her eyes, rocking her hips back and down onto him. She was riding his cock like it could cure all of the ills in the world and that was the ticket. His thick length filled her up and down. She clenched his rod as she rode him for everything. Her hips latched around him and she rocked back and forth on him.

"Oh, so fucking good, fucking awesome, amazing," Harrison grunted as he speared into her.

"Yes, I know it is, oh feels good, keep fucking me," Preeti moaned loudly.

Her really wet walls wrapped around him and she rocked up and down around him. The woman's walls clenched him as she pushed herself up and slammed her hips down onto his massive rod. His mighty rod clenched between her walls was an erotic sight.

She thrust herself down onto him, bouncing up and down on his mighty rod. His cock went around her. She was going around him. Her walls tightened around him. Harrison plunge into her and her walls kept wrapping around his tool.

"Yes, oh yes, yes, oh yes!" Preeti breathed as she screamed and threw her head back.

Both of her daughters were being ravished by Harrison, burying into her. There were a few thrusts that went into both of them.

Parvati was on her hands and knees and Harrison grabbed onto her hair, rocking her back. His cock slammed between her walls. He slid in and out between her lubricated walls.

"Oh, this is so hot, baby," Parvati moaned as he rocked her body and her tightening vice closed around his rod.

Padma was pinned against the bed and Harrison hammered into her tightening quim. Her lubricated center hugged his cock as he worked between her thighs. She closed her eyes tightly and he pushed into her. His cock worked into her, working deeper into her center. The wizard's motions were going into her. The wizard's motions got into her deeper.

"Fuck….oh…." Preeti moaned and Harry slammed into her.

She was about ready to request her daughters to get fucked and hard, but given the situation that she felt. She was closing her legs around him and Harrison kept pumping into her, her walls milking his probing thrusts.

"Oh, fuck, mmm," Parvati moaned as the dupe worked into her.

His hands wrapped around her breasts and cupped them lovingly. The walls tightened around him and Harrison rode her hard.

Harrison worked his throbbing length between her legs and she pushed her hips up and down as he pinned her down, hammering into her. Her tight walls hugged around him and Harrison hung onto her, working her over. The walls tightened around him and Harrison slammed into him.

The woman's walls clenched him.

Three different versions of Harry Potter were fucking both Indian twins and their mother in different angles. They were hammered and focused six ways from Sunday.

He unloaded his cum into all of them and they shuddered with the pleasure, as all of them collapsed, really feeling the ultimate tidings of pleasure.

* * *

The tally couldn't lie; there were three sexy Indian witches, two twins and their mother, rendered to a drooling wreck. Harry smiled at the state of them; he couldn't help but take some pride in what he did. He was the best there was at what he did. Yet, despite all of the pride that he took in what he did to them, he was not completely satisfied. His lust was not completely sated.

He would have to remedy that fact.

' _Ginny, Astoria, I want a word with you two ladies in my office,'_ Harry stated to the two of them, figuring that they were the closest.

' _Yes, what is it, Harry?'_ Astoria asked.

Harrison's smile crossed over his face as he tapped the side of his desk and waited.

' _I'm ready to give you two ladies your weekly performance review,_ _so clothing is most certainly optional,'_ Harrison told both of them.

Ginny caught on, giving him an extremely cheeky smile and statement along with it. _'And it's highly recommended that none is worn at all.'_

Harrison laughed in amusement. _'Now you ladies are catching on, now you're catching on.'_

' _That we are,'_ Ginny agreed.

* * *

Harry looked up at the handsome business complex before him with a smile on his face. It was several stories high, with an observatory at the top. He had heard Karen and Jaime describe it to him more than once but he never had a chance to visit it until now. He took in the sleek walls; there wasn't a blemish on it, not even a crack. Harry walked forward and there was only one thing that he could do as he saw the windows on the bottom floor.

He offered a sharp whistle and allowed himself to take in the atmosphere.

He was just a tiny bit impressed, just a tiny bit, and he did not impress that easily, especially in a situation like this.

' _Well, Doctor Swann really went all out on this building,'_ Harry said to himself as he took another careful step forward.

' _He did,'_ Karen agreed as she gave Harry an update on what they were up to. _'Patricia, Jaime, and I are in office three. Go down the hallway past the front desk, take a right, it's right pass the water cooler, you can't miss it.'_

' _Right,'_ Harry thought as the doors swung open on their own accord and allowed Harry entry. The wizard took another couple of steps forward and he offered another whistle as he took in the lobby.

He was not about to lie, he was impressed, but naturally he went over this point in his head already, if not twice. The young wizard made his way through the front lobby following the directions Karen had given him. There was a few seconds where he looked over his shoulder, just in case someone was going to challenge him but it looks like they knew he was expected.

He made his way to the office and taking a step towards the door, twisting the knob he opened the door.

"Harry, it's good to see you again!" Patricia said eagerly with a wide grin on her face as she turned to face Harry from where she stood in front of a desk.

She had not really gotten that much time to speak to him, due to the chaos surrounding his birthday, but what she saw of him, she was really impressed by. The young man watched her as she greeted him with a hug, slightly impressed with how daring it was.

"Patricia, it's good to see you again, how are you?" Harry asked her and Patricia smiled brightly as she answered.

"I'm doing really well! Thanks for asking," Patricia stated brightly as she let go of him and took a step back. Harry then shared a kiss and hug with Jaime briefly, before turning to face Karen.

"I've been good in the six hours since you last saw me, thanks for asking though," Karen said with a grin which caused Harry to wrap his arms around her waist, before leaning towards her and capturing her lips in a hungry kiss, which she returned eagerly. The blonde relaxed in his arms, feeling the rush go through her body that always came when she was in close contact with him and her heart skip a few more beats.

"Well, I know you're doing well," Harry told her with a bright smile as he ran his fingers through her short blonde hair and looked at her with a wide grin across his face. "You're always doing well, when I think about it."

"And we're about ready to go, but my father wants to have a few words with you," Patricia told him. "He wanted me to let you know when you got here."

"Lead the way," Harry stated as he locked arms with her and the redhead smiled at him as she lead him forwards.

"His office is at the top, he pretty much lives there now," Patricia informed Harry as the two of them made their way towards the stairwell. Harry and the girls made it a habit to use the stairs when they could, since it was a good way to keep in shape and it looked pretty impressive when you exited the stairwell not even looking winded in the slightest. It looked like Jaime or Karen had gotten Patricia into the habit as well.

Harry figured that this long walk would allow them some time to walk and talk. The two of them kept making their way up the steps, a smile on both of their faces.

She turned to look over her shoulder at him with a smile.

"So, are you…..so do you think that this is going to go through well?" Patricia asked Harry and he smiled.

"Quite well," Harry informed her with supreme confidence.

"He's studied about Kryptonians for the past decade, ever since before Kal-El's ship came," Patricia whispered to him as the two of them made their way up. "Although your arrival along with Faora's and Kara's….he was really taken off guard by it."

"Jor-El's message prophesied that a savior would be sent," Harry continued and she nodded. "That's a lot of high expectations to put on one's son."

"Well...Jor-El...maybe he thought quite highly of his potential and he wanted to challenge him but….I can see your point," Patricia commented, she walked in front of Harry making sure to sway her ass, as they made their way up the spiraling staircase. She knew a lot about someone putting a lot of high expectations on their child, given who her father was, she needed to be the very best that she could be. But she couldn't help but offer a sigh.

All you had to do was be your very best and she supposed that no one would think the worst of you.

"We have to make our own legacies, ones not built on the backs of our fathers," Harry said to her and she nodded in response. If that wasn't true, she didn't really know what was.

"Yes, I suppose that we do," Patricia agreed as she leaned back a little bit and she closed her eyes, offering a smile. She thought that he was talking about himself as much as he was talking about her and Kal-El.

Harry looked towards the office door and he was anticipating the meeting to come. He was closed his eyes for a moment as he prepared to step into the office of one Virgil Swann.

* * *

"It's good to finally meet you, Doctor Swann," Harry said as he saw the man sitting in the dimly lit room, looking around he noticed that his office seemed to contain various artifacts from different civilizations. Some of them looked like replicas although he wondered if he had a few originals. The candles lit around the around his office offered the only light, but there was a high tech computer on the desk Swann was working at.

Vergil Swann sat at his office desk, he had dark hair and he wore glasses. He was wearing a brown suit and he watched Harry from behind said glasses with blue eyes. Harry figured that he was a super man in his own right in another time, so while he was far from the prime of his life now, he was still a formidable looking man.

"The honor is all mine, Doctor Potter," Swann retorted as Harry walked forward and extended his hand which Swann took.

"I've heard about the signal that you received all of those years ago…."

"It was a crisp autumn night in September of 1986, I remember it well," Swann informed him in a brisk voice as he took a sip from the drink that was on his desk, then moved to pour himself a fresh cup of coffee. He offered one to Harry, who took it. "I had been testing some new satellite communication equipment, when I received a message that had bounced off a distant star."

Harry smiled, he was fascinated by this and motioned for Swann to continue. Now that Swann knew that he had a captive audience, he was more than eager to continue.

"I knew that there was something up there amongst the stars. But, I was surprised to learn that something that was coming to Earth," Swann explained to Harry and there was a pause for dramatic effect before he continued. "A group, made up of myself and a few like minded people prepared for his arrival. He was known to us as the Traveler."

Harry knew that Swann had theories that there was a lot more going on than what met the eye at first.

"Have you received any other messages from Krypton?" Harry asked him.

"I haven't been fortunate enough to do so. I have seen several records though, heard rumors, the caves down to the North of here have been a place of much curiosity and many legends," Swann informed Harry and the wizard nodded, the smile getting wider over his face.

"I've heard," Harry stated, the Kawatchee caves were where the crystal that contained his DNA was located. That was where Lily found it and it gave her the ability to give life to three children, the rest was history. It was a chance meeting, although there was a sense that destiny lead Lily there.

Harry didn't believe in destiny, he believed in opportunity and seizing it at the right moment.

"I believe that there is much to learn from your race, Doctor Potter," Swann told him quietly. "But I don't think that I need to flatter you with statements like that."

' _Considering that Harry and like, half, the other Bonded do a good enough job flattering himself_ _, likely not,'_ Karen agreed.

"So, I trust you've had a chance to look over the proposal," Harry told Swann.

"I have," Swann agreed as he looked at the papers over his desk. "Doctor Starr speaks most highly of you and my daughter has been very insistent that I agree to this merger between our two companies and after looking it over, there are few reasons why I shouldn't do so."

"Patricia is a bright young woman, a reflection on her father, no doubt," Harry told Swann.

"Thank you," Swann said graciously, he had not taken the time he wanted to be a father, but losing one's legs gave one plenty of time to think and contemplate. He had a lot of regrets in his life but just as many triumphs and that was enough to make him smile.

"So, do we have a deal?" Harry asked. "RAO is looking at your company as an opportunity and I'm sure you can see the potential of a young company like ours to breathe new life into STARR Industries."

Swann reflected on the situation, he thought that this was more than fair and more than sufficient. He realized that this was a much more fair deal than he would have gotten from the likes of Lionel Luthor for instance. He knew that Lionel started off with the best of intentions or so it seemed, but his corruption had led him to wanting to gain control of the Traveler for more unsavory reasons.

"We have a deal," Swann concluded signing the paper and the deal was sealed.

Harry figured that there might be a bit more back and forth than this, but he was not about to complain. The deal was signed and that meant that it was another step towards his ability to consolidate some parts of his empire together.

More information about Krypton was always beneficial, even though Alura, Faora, Kara, Karen, Lara, and Peve were invaluable resources having lived and been raised there.

"I'm glad that you found the benefits of this partnership to be worth it for you," Harry told him with a smile as he signed the documents as well.

"Patricia's selling job nudged me in the right direction," Swann admitted with a smile.

"Oh, that's right, she's starting with the company…."

"Yes, she's being showed the ropes by Karen," Swann commented but there was a pause. "Have you seen Kal-El as of late?"

"I've seen him, in fact, I'm visiting him currently," Harry said cryptically.

Swann understood the need for secrecy; the walls did in fact have ears sometimes. Especially given the circles that he ran around in.

"It will be a few years before his powers kick in a big way," Harry whispered, and he was keeping a rather close eye on Kal-El to ensure that he managed to get by without any problems. Someone like that with his powers, well Harry was going to make sure that he did not cause too many issues, at least too many issues that he could not handle.

Then again, there were more than a few issues that he could handle. That was for certain. His emerald eyes flashed with amusement and enjoyment as he prepared for what he was going to do next.

"Well I'm certain that he'll be ready," Swann said with confidence, he was looking forward to the future.

"Do you have copies…."

"Yes, in my desk drawer," Swann told him and he reached forward, to present Harry with a copy.

Harry took them in his hands, he was holding within his hands, a true piece of history and that much, well he couldn't wait to sink into the information for himself.

"Perhaps, you might be able to decode any further hidden meanings or messages with them," Swann suggested.

Harry smiled. "If I do, I'll be sure to let you know."

Harry wondered if there were any hints on here about his Kryptonian ancestors or about the General. If Swann knew about Zod, well, he wasn't saying anything. Then again, Swann looked to be someone who was able to keep his cards extremely close to his vest.

"It will be appreciated," Swann said as he surveyed Harry over his coffee cup.

Swann was thinking that there was a far lot more to Harry Potter than met the eye, although no doubt with this merge, he would find out a lot more about this young man in the future. He was an extremely interesting individual, that much could not be denied. He watched as Harry left and wondered what would happen.

Harry smiled; he would have to take a look at these recordings. He knew from what he had been able to find out that Jor-El sent one message, perhaps two but there could be others. Something that could be picked up on in the background and if there was, Harry was determined to find out precisely what it was.

He adopted a pure wait and see approach but he had never been more excited then he was right about now to find out even more information. Green eyes danced with thoughts of what he might find.

' _So, the recordings, that might be beneficial,'_ Faora suggested to him.

' _You can say that again,'_ Harry offered her.

' _Well I'm looking forward to finding out what we can learn,'_ Kara stated in an excited voice.

' _Information is power, and we're amongst the most powerful people on Earth because of that,'_ Harry commented and there was a smile on his face. The wizard walked forward.

' _Meeting wrapped up, so I'll meet you back at my place._ _Patricia wanted to get a few things done but she'll need a ride back here,'_ Karen thought to him.

' _Don't worry, I'll take care of it,'_ Harry offered to her and he knew that would give him a little time to talk to her. The emerald eyed wizard walked forward and prepared to meet Patricia when she was done with what she needed to get done.

* * *

"My father agreed to the merger?" Patricia inquired of Harry and he smiled at her mysteriously, before his smile turned into a pleased grin.

"I have to admit, there was a little bit where I didn't think that he would agree to everything," Harry said her as he looked around the observatory. He saw it was state of the art, pretty much just as Karen described. He was impressed by it and Harry had to admit, he did not impress that easily.

Although with a place like this, he would have to look around for a long time to get a complete sense of everything that was going on around him. The wizard took a couple of steps forward as it was a beautiful night.

"My father's passions seemed to consume a lot of his life," Patricia admitted to him. "He was respected, famous, some might say infamous but regardless, there it was."

"Well, people are going to see everyone in different lights," Harry told her as the two of them made their way from the Observatory. "And I think that your father, he did the right thing by signing this paper."

"You were doing these things for years….I saw your marks," Patricia said to Harry and he raised his eyebrow.

"Careful, I might think that you are stalking me, Miss Swann," Harry warned her with a smile as the two made their way down the steps and walked outside. They were meeting Karen and Jaime back at the house that they were living in.

"I wasn't stalking you!...I was just researching, I swear!" Patricia told him, although she had the look of a young lady who got caught with her hand firmly wedged in the cookie jar.

"That's what we're calling it now, is it?" Harry asked her and she threw her hands up.

"It's impossible," Patricia said in exasperation and Harry raised an eyebrow. "And by it! I mean you! You're impossible, you realize that, don't you?"

"I've been called worse," Harry admitted to her as they made their way out to Harry's sports car.

"Well...that's a nice ride," Patricia commented to him as she ran her hands across the sleek black trimmed with red exterior.

"I'm sure you could afford a car like this?" Harry offered her with a playful grin on his face.

"Well not like this, I mean, something like this, it would have to be specially made and my father doesn't give me that much credit," Patricia told him and Harry raised an eyebrow towards her. "But not that I mind, he's gotten me a couple of nice cars. Although with your powers, I'm surprised that you bother at all."

"There's something to be said about the freedom of flying," Harry admitted to her and Patricia smiled at him. "But, there's also something to be said about the rush of going down the street in one of these bad boys, breaking every speed law in the book."

Harry opened the door for her, allowing her safe passage into the car.

"I guess it boils down to the fact that all of us need a hobby," Harry commented to the redhead and she watched him with a smile.

"Fair enough," she agreed as she leaned back in her chair. The exterior of the car was just as nice as the outside.

"I doubt you want to fly down the street at a hundred miles an hour, especially with this Metropolis traffic," Harry told her.

"Yeah, it's a mad house," Patricia admitted, as she watched everything happening around them as they drove past. "So, how many degrees do you have by now. Karen told me you were trying to consider your options about what to go for next?"

"I'm still thinking it over," Harry admitted to her. "There are so many different ways that I can go, so many different things that I can learn. I don't think that I'll ever stop picking up new degrees."

"You and Faora have your doctorates, don't you?" Patricia asked Harry.

"I've got three, I got my third one this year. Theoretical Physics, Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry, I've got a Masters in Electrical Engineering but I have had a chance to complete my thesis. Faora's taking on almost as much if not more than I am right now," Harry told her. "Let's see there's Genetics, Cybernetics, Computers, she got her business management one a long time ago."

"I'm working on mine," Patricia informed him. "Got to go to college at an early age."

"Well, let's just add you to the list of prodigies then," Harry commented as he made a turn, he was almost there. "Kara's interested in going into Media. She's looking into her options there, although she's preparing for her Master's in Media Relations and Communications, which is funny as hell if you know Kara at all. Naturally, she has a pretty good grounding in the different sciences thanks to her mother and what I know from Earth, I can fill in. She and Faora just can't get too many at once, even though she has the knowledge to get qualified. That doesn't really apply in my case since I was breaking records from the time I was six."

Patricia could see that, certain people might look a bit too closely. Although Harry was able to do a lot more misdirection thanks his connections, he didn't want to rely on those magic tricks any more than he had to.

"So, I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot more of you," Harry told her.

"Are you heading back to Smallville soon?" she asked him.

"In the morning, I thought that things would move a little bit slower than they did," Harry admitted to her and she watched him, raising an eyebrow curiously. "Smooth as could be, though."

"That's good," Patricia told him as they pulled up outside of the house. She had been rooming with Karen and Jaime, they were helping show her the ropes and it was hard not to forge a friendship based off of all of the time that they spent together.

They spent a lot of time talking up Harry and there were a couple of times where Patricia caught a few seedier details in their conversations than she thought they intended for her to hear.

"So, the deal went as good as could be expected," Karen commented as she got out of her car, having arrived at the same time, since they were picking up take out for dinner. Jaime followed out of the passenger's side.

"It went off like a charm," Harry told the girls and they had bright smiles on their faces, with Karen not being able to resist commenting with the absolute obvious.

"Well that was kind of cheesy, but I suppose that it was very accurate as well," Karen said to Harry as she pulled the key out of her hip pocket and placed it in the lock to open up the door of her home.

The quartet entered the home and the living room was spacious with more than enough room. Harry knew that the bath area was even more so.

"Make enough money so I can spoil myself," Karen commented in an off handed manner.

"I can see that," Harry told her with a wide grin.

Karen offered a smile, walking off into the kitchen to get the drinks.

"I had to lean on my father a bit more, he was kind of….well he tends to choose his partnerships wisely," Patricia offered to Harry and Harry smiled.

"That makes a lot of sense, given all that he's been through, it might be a good idea for him to choose his spots," Harry offered and Karen returned just a moment later, carrying a tray of drinks.

"It's kind of a chilly night you know, figured that we'd have something to warm us up," Karen said and Harry offered her a smile.

"That would be great," Harry told her and Karen's smile got even brighter.

"I knew that you would approve," Karen said as she set the drinks down on the table and bent down ever so slightly, so her skirt shifted. Said skirt rode up to reveal what she was wearing or maybe not wearing underneath. Harry's smile got wider, he approved of this little action from the stacked blonde Kryptonian and knew more was to come later on.

"So, this was a great evening," Jaime concluded and she looked at Patricia with a smile.

"Here, have a drink," Karen said with a smile to the younger girl and Patricia watched her through wide eyes.

"You know, I really shouldn't," she suggested to Karen, who continued to offer her a smile.

"Nonsense, after all you've been through, you deserve one drink," Karen persisted and Patricia shrugged, she supposed that it was not the worst thing in the world.

The redhead put it up to her lips and felt the fluid warm her up a lot. Tingles went through her body as she held her head up. She smiled as Harry watched her and there was a grin on her face.

"So you've been working hard leading up to this?" Harry asked her.

"Yeah, pretty hard," Patricia admitted as she felt the tingles going up her spine and Harry's hands on her shoulders. She closed her eyes tight as she felt Harry's hands on her, rubbing up and down her shoulders and back.

"I figured as much," Harry whispered in her ear. "You deserve some stress relief as much as the next person, I mean, only seventeen years of age and you've done so much."

"Well to be fair, you did even more before you were seventeen," Patricia argued as she felt Harry give her shoulders a light massage. He'd somehow managed to slip off her suit jacket, so now she was just wearing a red tank top now and her skirt.

"Well, I'm glad to be an inspiration," Harry commented to her and he rubbed her neck just under her skull gently.

"Are you….oh that feels good!" Patricia breathed out as Harry kept running his hands down her neck. Carefully working out any knots she had in her neck.

"You need to pamper yourself a bit more," Harry whispered into her as he continued to work the tension out of her neck and shoulders. She offered a slight whimper as Harry worked out a particular stubborn knot between her shoulder blades. "You know that, don't you?"

"Yes," Patricia, whimpered as she felt heat pulse through her.

"Yeah, we were telling her that," Jaime said as she placed her hands on Patricia's thighs, which caused her to close her eyes.

She could sense that Harry was about ready to make his move and she was rather excited by that fact. Jaime smiled in anticipation as she could sense Patricia's arousal and Harry was about ready to swoop in for the attack.

"So, are you nervous?" Harry asked, whispering in her ear.

"Harry, please," Patricia panted as she felt butterflies flapping in her stomach and Harry cupped her breast through her top. The woman's eyes closed as Harry worked her over and brushed his cock against her covered backside.

"Please what?" Harry asked with a smile on his face and he looked at her with a wide grin.

"Take me! Take me please!" she begged him, then turned lifting her arms up to wrap them around his neck and kiss him breathlessly on the lips.

Harry smiled, as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulling her into a long hug, he kissed her back hungrily. After a moment, he he broke it to look into her vibrant blue eyes and pulled her top off.

"If you insist," Harry told as he ran his hands over her body and she shivered as she felt the pleasure course through it.

Patricia insisted, in fact, she was extremely excited about what he could do to her. She was this close to mentally becoming undone and Harry was going to bring her that pleasure.

He kissed her on the side of the neck, then as he kissed her even harder. She felt herself being lost to his actions and her mind become numb as Harry worked her over. His lips continued to suck on her neck and his hands roamed down her back before he grasped her ass then squeezed it possessively. She closed her eyes as he skimmed her stomach with his fingers.

She could feel something between her legs and that was when the real fun begins.

* * *

She felt Karen's strong hands squeezing between her thighs and cupping her pussy. The redhead moaned with pleasure and Harry kissed her hard. She returned the kiss, running his hands over her stomach and then he went around, cupping her delicious ass.

Patricia did not really think, she just felt and what she felt, where it was really amazing. His cock brushed against her dripping slit and was about ready to enter her. She lifted her hips up, encouraging him to go into her.

He grabbed her around the hips and exposed her tender young pussy. It was untainted and he brushed his hands down her, rubbing her clit.

Karen and Jaime were down on either side of her and her breasts were being suckled on either side.

"Just relax, you'll feel so good," Karen told her gently and she pressed Patricia's face into her breasts.

Patricia closed her eyes and she felt her face pressed between Karen's massive breasts and they felt so warm and they were so tasty. She was sucking on them, mostly because she was afraid that she would choke together.

"Oh, you're so good," Karen moaned as Jaime prepped Patricia's pussy for Harry's intrusion as she wrapped her hand around Harry's cock to pump him.

Harry closed his eye and felt his cock stroked up and down from this woman. He felt the pleasure as she pumped up and down upon him. His cock was pumped and he was feeling good.

' _Time for the next step,'_ Harry groaned as he aimed towards Patricia's dripping hot hole and slowly pushed into her.

"MY GOD!" Patricia yelled as Harry's twelve inches slowly pushed into her hot quim. Harry pushed his tongue into her mouth and slipped one of the pills underneath her tongue.

She would be able to go the distance and Harry hung onto his thighs. The wizard's hands wrapped around her thighs and hammered into her. Any pain that she felt was replaced by pleasure.

Jaime went between Karen's legs and while she would have to say that Harry was really good at oral pleasure, Jaime really did know what she liked. Her tongue delved between her walls and licked her really hard. She lifted her hips up and breathed heavily. There was a few seconds where she was about ready to lose her mind at the pleasure he gave her.

She knew that she would return the favor and she felt the hissing between her thighs. Karen thought that Parseltongue was just as good from a female speaker as it was a male speaker.

Karen closed her eyes and felt the rush that echoed throughout her body. Jaime was licking her and her tongue vibrated through her.

"Damn, that's really fucking hot," Harry managed and he rammed into Patricia's pussy, stretching the hot redhead out.

"Oh yes….yes it is," she panted as her walls tightened around with his probing prick. There was a few seconds where she closed her eyes and her pussy clenched him.

Harry slowed down the thrusts and she whined at the loss of him. Then Harry held onto her, pulling all the way out of her.

He slammed all the way into her as far as he could go. Patricia's legs tightened around him and she whimpered in pleasure.

"Oh, Harry, yes," Patricia moaned as she lifted her hips up and Harry worked between her. His thrusts caused her even more pleasure, far more than she could realize.

Her hips lifted up higher and Harry speared between her legs. His cock worked between her legs and Harry hung onto her, working as far into her, between her nubile young thighs, going into her.

Jaime and Karen rested in an extremely sexually charged sixty nine position, eating and suckling on each other, trying to bring themselves up to more pleasure.

Harry grabbed Patricia around the legs and speared into her body. The woman lifted her hips and Harry continued to work her over. Her thighs pressed around his body as he continued to use his cock to work her over. She closed her eyes and Harry grabbed her breast. She felt the rush of pleasure that was going through her body.

"Doing good, oh so good," Harry grunted as he split off.

Jaime smiled as she mounted Harry's cock, spearing down onto his throbbing length. The dark haired woman pushed onto him, rocking herself up and down. She closed her hips around him, feeling the pleasure mount over him.

"Oh yes, so good," Harry grunted as Jaime rocked herself around him with her tight hips. She was pushing herself up about halfway and then she speared down onto him.

This left Harry alone with Karen and he cupped her dripping hot cunt from behind, pushing his fingers between her legs. This caused her more pleasure and Harry prepared to enter her. Her walls clenched together as Harry was about ready to invade her.

"Oh yes….YES!" she shrieked in pleasure, the moaning escalating at the top of her lungs and Harry smiled as he worked into her from behind, his balls slapping against her young thighs as he entered her from behind.

Harry held her breasts and rammed into her pussy from behind. His cock went so deep between her walls that she was really feeling the pleasure of it. It worked into her and she closed her eyes, feeling the rush.

"Oh, so good, so good," Karen moaned as Harry grabbed onto her breasts. He cupped the large wonders in his hands and speared her so deep pinto her quim that he nearly split her in half. The wizard was really putting on the pleasure and she clamped around him. His balls slapped against her ass as he rammed into her.

Jaime was grabbing onto the shoulders and she pushed herself up and slammed herself down onto him, riding him. She was closing her eyes, feeling the pleasure. She pumped her hips around him, gyrating against his invading rod.

"Oh, oh, ah, yes, oh, ah, mmm, ah," she panted as she worked her hips down upon him. She was rocking her hips back onto him and riding his cock for everything that it was worth. Harry rested back.

Patricia reclined back on the bed with her back arching and was being fucked cross eyed by the prime model. She was enjoying this and enjoying indulging herself.

Harry smiled, the stamina potions were making her feel the pleasure for far longer than she would. He held onto her waist and pumped himself deep into her. She closed her eyes and felt the amazing rush that went between her thighs.

"Oh, so good, oh so fucking good!" Patricia whimpered as she moaned loudly and Harry hammered into her.

His train of a cock was pleasuring her tight pussy. No matter what, she felt the rush of him burying between her legs. The woman's eyes flooded over as Harry held onto her breasts and worked into her. She pumped her hips up and closed her walls against him.

Patricia whimpered as she pushed herself towards him. Her walls went around him and Harry pulled out of her.

Karen hung onto the edge of the couch as Harry nearly plowed her over the edge. Her walls went tight around him as Harry rammed into her from behind. She closed her eyes tightly, biting on the side of her mouth.

"Oh, fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck," Karen moaned as she felt an amazing orgasm that rocked her body. Harry pulled all the way out of her and slammed into her. Her walls stretched out from his invading penis.

"Yes, love this, so fucking much!" Jaime yelled, she always figured that a male version of herself was going to be the one who was going to be able to give her the most pleasure and this was the proof.

"Glad you enjoy it, oh yes, harder, faster, oh yes baby, that feels so fucking good," Harry grunted as Jaime rode him for everything that he was worth.

And in the mind of Jaime Lily Potter, this massive cock was worth a lot. She used the strength she could to squeeze his cock as she rode up and down. The dark haired witch rocked her hips up and down onto him and she panted with glee dancing through her eyes. She kept rocking, riding him. She closed her eyes even tighter as she was breathing really heavily. Her panting escalated as she rocked up and down on him, riding him for everything that he was worth.

"Oh, oh, oh," Jaime moaned.

"DAMN IT HARDER!" Karen yelled and Harry rocketed into her from behind. His thick length speared as far into her as he could. She wrapped her legs around him and Harry hammered into her.

He rocked her into the bed and her breasts pressed against the couch. She closed her eyes tightly and moaned really loudly as she cooed loudly with Harry ramming into her. Her hips closed around him as he kept spearing into her hard from behind. Her moaning escalated even more as he kept working her over.

"MORE!" she screamed and Harry was not about to let her down at all.

Patricia closed her eyes and the walls tightened around him. The redhead was feeling the burn and feeling everything, including his cock bury into her. Her walls closed around him as Harry worked her wet walls apart. His cock went into her, over and over again. She closed her eyes as Harry kept working into her. His cock speared as deep into her as he could and she clenched him, feeling his balls slap against her.

"Oh, ah, oh, ah, oh, ah," Patricia moaned.

"So, close," Harry grunted.

She could not say anything due to being so destroyed from the pleasure but her eyes said everything and Harry was going to give her a lot. His cock went as deep into her as she could take.

"Cum, please," she managed, drool coming out of the side of her mouth.

Harry slammed into her a couple more times and his balls tightened. He rammed into her and unloaded his balls into her inner chambers. He shot a load of cum into her and she moaned as she felt the pleasure of him being unloaded into her.

* * *

**To Be Continued in Part Two.**


	7. Merger Part Two

**Chapter Seven: Merger Part Two.**

Harry returned to Smallville from the meeting in Metropolis early the next day. All things considered, he thought that he got more than a few things on many different fronts, accomplished there. So even though it was very early in the morning, he slipped his way in through the front door of the Kent Household.

He thought he saw a hint of Jonathan Kent out there already, even before the crack of dawn, to do farm chores. Then again, Harry thought that man never slept, but the Kent Farm was a place where work didn't do itself after all.

Making his way through the house he stepped into the Kitchen and needless to say, he was greeted by an interesting sight.

"Good morning Harry, I didn't know that you would be back this soon."

Harry smiled as he saw her standing there. Martha Kent was standing bent over at the counter. She was wearing a tight robe around her body, obviously just having gotten out of the shower, given that her hair was soaking wet. She turned around and Harry saw a small hint of cleavage from her pretty good sized breasts, around a D-Cup or so if he had to guess. She walked towards Harry, her bare legs on full display and it was obvious that she had no issues with her body.

"I was just making a cup of coffee, care to join me?" she asked, as if she was not aware where Harry's eyes were traveling.

She was trying hard not to do some checking out of her own, even though she quite honestly couldn't help herself. So after a moment or two, she cleared her throat to bring both herself and her cousin back to reality. Harry not about to miss a cup of coffee, took it with a smile of thanks.

' _People might begin to think that you have a caffeine addiction,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Think?'_ Ginny chimed in.

"The deal went through without any problems yesterday, so we spent most of last night celebrating," Harry said, switching gears to business and Martha sat down beside him, with a smile on her face.

"I figured that it would have," She commented, leaning towards him she slide the cup of coffee in front of him. Taking her own and sipped it slowly, before continuing. "Doctor Swann has fallen out of public eye in recent years but I corresponded with him in the past, years ago. To think that he found out when Clark was coming that's simply…."

"Incredible, I know," Harry offered when the right words failed Martha. "I'm wondering how much he's pieced together about me."

If he figured out anything more then he seemed to know already, well he was not telling. If he knew about the crystal in the cave, he certainly wasn't telling. So that was that, Harry wasn't going to ask, but he figured that there was a chance that Doctor Swann knew.

He was going to have to figure out what was on the tapes that Doctor Swann had given him. Harry was going to run them through more advanced technology and hopefully he would be able to access anything the Doctor might have missed that way.

"Jonathan didn't take too kindly to the fact that someone else knew about Clark," Martha muttered to him with an apologetic look on her face.

"Well, he's just concerned," Harry stated with a diplomatic tone to his voice. Jonathan could stand to be a bit less stifling, because that could blow up in their faces later on. "Someone like Clark, someone like me, we're always going to be someone of great interest to certain parties in the government."

Harry had to really walk a fine line to make sure that he wasn't going to expose himself, Faora, Kara, or anyone else. There was a lot that the world was not ready to understand about those who had extraordinary powers. Hell the entire magic thing was a touchy enough subject, never mind aliens.

When he really thought about it, there were a lot of things he needed and could do to help integrate things smoothly as the years passed.

"The world will be ready, when the world is ready," Martha said wisely. She offered a smile as she surveyed him over the cup of coffee and sipped it. "RAO is doing well in breaking down some of the barriers."

"I think we've modified a piece of Kryptonian technology enough to be something that can be released to the general public," Harry informed her.

It was going to be positively revolutionary for Earth, although it was common place for those on Krypton. Harry also was working on adapting some magical methods to serve mundane purposes. Well technically Harrison was, but all of the information went into Harry's brain and the ideas were shared and the two of them often put their heads together on certain projects. It lead to some interesting conversations, even more so when Jaime got involved.

"This is going to bring us closer together," Harry commented to Martha as he offered her one of the prototypes. He and a couple of the other girls had been testing them extensively over the last six months.

"Given that there are some people who thinks that technology is bringing us further apart, that might be saying something," Martha told him, seeing as how it was a very real concern for a lot of people. "What exactly are its capabilities?"

"This has a stronger signal, it doesn't break up when going through tunnels, you can send and receive text messages, its hands free as well," Harry explained to her. "And you can access the Internet from it as well."

"That's revolutionary," Martha stated with wide eyes. She had made a trip to the library in Metropolis to access the Internet more than a few times, even though it was quite the drive to get there.

Harry had a feeling that the Internet was going to be really big one day and people were going to need devices, which they could use to access the Internet and their e-mail when they were on the go. He was also looking to streamline laptop computers even more than they were now. Modern convenience should be more convenient after all and Harry was going to make things far more convenient for everyone.

"Morning Harry," Lily commented as she showed up, wrapped in a nice bathrobe as she made her way towards the table. She enveloped her arms around Harry's neck and kissed him briefly, without any shame, then she slid herself onto Harry's lap before turning to look at her cousin. "Martha, how are you doing this morning?"

"Just...talking...to Harry about the….what is this thing called again?" Martha asked a bit dazed. She knew Lily and Harry had a closer than normal relationship, but seeing her being so blatant about it was a bit shocking to her still. That and it had been a long long time for her, so she couldn't help but feel her body become a bit heated after witnessing the exchange.

"The Red Sun," Harry informed her, it was the first thing that popped into his head and he found it to be fitting. He held the phone in his hand and looked it over. Putting it away in his coat pocket, he smiled as he looked up at both women.

"That's going to be a name that rolls off of the tip of peoples tongue's," Lily said, making herself a bit more comfortable on her son's lap.

' _If we have anything to say about it, yes it is,'_ Faora stated, she paused for a moment and then decided to get down to business. _'Good job in getting everything in order back in Metropolis.'_

' _Did you have any doubt?'_ Harry asked her with a confident smile.

' _Not in the slightest,'_ Faora confirmed to him. _'I trust you….although Karen and I did get a lot of the leg work done.'_

' _And I thank you for that,'_ Harry told her. He wouldn't have nearly gotten the amount of work he did get done without the help of his girls. So he appreciated everything that they did for him and then some.

' _Well you should,'_ Karen interjected, before she offered. _'And you left your mark on young Miss Swann as well.'_

' _As I should have,'_ Harry said with a smile. _'_ _I have a bit more business to deal with in Smallville._ _I'm having breakfast here and lunch with Nell.'_

' _Oh! I'm sure that will be fun! Given that Lana was following you around like a lost puppy dog the last time you were there,'_ Kara commented with a grin as she got up out of bed and took a shower now that it was empty. _'Oh well, got to plant the seeds when they're young.'_

' _Perhaps,'_ Harry conceded, but it would be a few years before he walked down that road. He offered a mysterious smile never the less as he sipped his coffee.

"You're plotting," Martha said to him, breaking the silence in the room.

"How do you know?" Harry asked and the woman offered a smile towards him.

"Lily gets the same look on her face every time she was up to something," Martha commented to Harry and he smiled, that did make a lot of sense.

"Well, we do have a lot in common, I got more from her than just the eyes, despite what some people seem to think," Harry said and his mother nodded with a smile from she sat on Harry's lap.

' _Yep! You got the ego as well!'_ Amanda chimed in from afar over the bond link.

' _Wouldn't you inherited the ego as well, given that you're related? Besides, we all know how much you like to stroke Harry's ego,'_ Daphne commented in a dry voice, her tone leaving little doubt as to what she was talking about.

' _She does have you there,'_ Zatanna snickered as Amanda pouted.

' _I guess so,'_ Amanda conceded grudgingly. She sounded sour but in many ways, but she was smiling as well. She was highly amused with everything that was going on.

Harry smiled, he relaxed a little bit and he was enjoying the conversation as Martha walked over to start cooking breakfast. There were few things that were better than a home cooked meal and Harry was going indulge himself. Lily had gotten up off his lap, as she wanted to watch the sun rise through the window.

' _So good morning,'_ Kara commented with a yawn and a stretch as she made her way through the doorway into the kitchen.

She was wearing a cut off red shirt that showcased her toned stomach and wrapped around her ample breasts. A pair of cut off jean shorts fit snugly around her ass. Walking forwards, she reached for Harry and threw herself onto his lap which Lily had recently vacated, kissing him on the cheek.

"Morning, my love," Harry said, before spinning her around to face him and giving her a long kiss on the lips. The two of them exchanged a long kiss with each other but Harry pulled away from it quickly.

The last thing they wanted to do was mortally scar Clark from life.

"Oh hey, Harry, I think that I might have missed you last night," Clark said as he showed up to join them, he was in the process of rubbing sleep out of his eyes and looked a bit ruffled. "Where's Pa?"

"Your father is still trying to get the tractor to work, which he better do soon, because his breakfast is getting cold, and so will yours young man, if you don't wash up and sit down," Martha said firmly and Clark nodded.

"I will, Mom," Clark said and in a flash, he was able to wash up.

"So, are you ready to go back to school, Clark?" Kara asked him with a smile.

"I guess," Clark stated in a noncommittal tone and seeing Martha look at him firmly after hearing that, he quickly amended his statement. "Yes, I really am."

"Well, your education is a very important part of your life," Kara said firmly to him. "I don't have any doubt that you will be great."

Kara figured that being the son of Jor-El and Lara, Clark would have some natural intelligence, but hopefully he didn't inherit Jor-El's personality. It was going to set Kal back a lot if he inherited that personality. She crossed her arms and smiled about what her cousin could someday become.

* * *

"It's been a long time Harry!" Nell said in a cheerful voice as she offered him a tight hug no sooner than he entered the house.

Harry smiled at his cousin as she hugged him rather tightly and returned it eagerly holding her slim frame close to his body. "Nell, it couldn't have been more then a few weeks at most."

"Well, the time does fly by," Nell stated with a warm and inviting smile, before she pressed herself into him a bit more firmly. "Then again, with all you do, I'm sure that it goes by pretty quickly for you as well."

Harry laughed in amusement as he pulled his cousin into him tightly and there was a second where the two of them shared a moment with each other.

Nell Potter was an exceedingly beautiful woman in her mid-thirties but one might have mistaken her for late twenties. She had gorgeous dark hair that lovingly framed her face then fell to her mid back. Her brown eyes burned with simmering desire and her gorgeous lips were juicy. She had high cheek bones that enhanced her elegant beauty. She was currently wearing a black blouse that wrapped around her modest but delicious C-Cup breasts. She leaned forward with the top couple of buttons opened which showed Harry a hint of her black bra.

Whether that was done intentionally or otherwise, he had no idea. Regardless, she topped it off by wearing a black skirt and stockings, along with high heeled boots.

"Yes, it does," Harry stated as she stepped back to allow him to get further inside. "You're still as beautiful as I remember."

Nell smiled, she was looking rather pleased with herself. It was no secret what Harry got up to with many different women. While the public might take a dim view of what was happening, she had an interesting perspective, having talked with both Martha and Lily.

The only reason why Martha was not added to Harry's card was that she was still married. Nell, having no such restrictions was going to make her move sooner rather than later.

"Well, you're as charming as I ever remember you," Nell said as she moved to sit down on a rather comfortable looking couch, then invited him to sit down next to her by patting the couch cushion.

"So where's Lana?" Harry asked her after he sat down.

"Out riding, I'm sure that she'll be back before too long," Nell told him with a smile on her face. She leaned in close to him and he reciprocated by wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "She's looking really forward to the trip this weekend."

Harry hadn't forgotten about it, he was looking forward to the camping trip that he and Kara were taking Clark and Lana on. It would give them a chance to unwind and hopefully get away from the insanity that was their lives, at least for a little while.

"I'm glad that she is," Harry said with a smile and the two of them looked deeply into each others eyes for a moment.

There was a sense that Nell was about to say something but what she was going to say, Harry had no idea, because there was someone at the door.

"I'll go and get it," Nell declared as she bounced up and Harry smiled as he reclined on the couch. He recalled how the last time he was here, they had been discussing what they needed to do to make the extra space that Nell had in her house more usable. Harry offered a smile as he thought about it.

' _So, Clark is bugging me about showing him how to fly,'_ Kara stated to Harry through the bond link.

' _It might be a few years since he reaches that point though,'_ Karen chimed in straight away.

' _Yeah I know but I figured…._ _you know, he might want to learn how_ _,'_ Kara admitted with a smile as she shook her head. Flying was the best power and the one that she enjoyed the most out of all of her abilities. Perhaps it was just Kara, but it was just something about the freedom of the wind blowing in her face that got her completely and utterly excited. At least that's what the blonde would have to say if she had to describe the feeling to anyone who couldn't do it for themselves.

' _It's also not one of the discreet ones,'_ Harry warned her with a smile although he was not about ready to shut Kara down.

' _I told him that I'd think about it, right now his father put him to work, since he does have that added energy,'_ Kara said in amusement. _'I'm just waiting for a situation where his powers kick in, in a big way.'_

' _As long as we're monitoring him,_ _there shouldn't be any really problem,'_ Harry told her and she smiled, her husband had a point.

"HARRY!"

Harry's eyes snapped up and he saw an eleven, almost close to twelve year old projectile flying at him in the shape of a girl to wrap him up in a hug that was more akin to a tackle. She had sleek black hair and green eyes a different shade than his own that looked up at him in adoration. She was wearing a black tank top and shorts.

"Hey, Lana, how is my favorite cousin?" Harry asked her.

"Doing pretty good," Lana chirped happily, with a grin at the endearment and letting him go, she sat down on one side of the couch from him, leaving the space on the other free for Nell. "How about you?"

"Fine," Harry told her with a smile.

"I was out riding, and…."

"I know Lana, I haven't forgotten, you and I should go sometime, maybe after we get back from the camping trip," Harry suggested to her and the young girl smiled.

"Oh, that would be cool!" Lana cried with a bright grin as she shifted herself on the couch. She smiled as Nell brought them some juice and some sandwiches.

"Are you enjoying the gear I got you?" Harry asked her and Lana nodded her head up and down eagerly, not able to do anything else due to having her mouth crammed full of sandwich.

"If nothing else, it's a wonder that I can get her back inside the house," Nell commented in a light voice as she sat down and took the drink. She tipped it back a little bit and partook of it eagerly with a smile on her face.

"Well, I'm glad that she liked it at any rate," Harry stated in a light voice to Lana and she nodded with a bright smile on her face. "So are you looking forward to the camping trip this weekend?"

"It's going to be fun," Lana agreed with a smile on her face.

Nell was smiling as well, it would allow her some private time for herself.

"Lana, why don't you put your stuff away, you wouldn't want to forget for later," Nell told her niece and she nodded, before bolting off.

' _Good speed and she doesn't have the benefit of super powers,'_ Harry commented in an amused voice.

' _Well, you never know with all of the weirdness that happens in Smallville,'_ Faora suggested as she shook her head. The meteor showers and everything that went along with that was a rather interesting topic. So given that Lana was in the epicenter of it all and the fact she was a descendent of Harry and Peve, well they had to keep a close eye on her.

' _Right, right,'_ Harry thought in agreement, although he did wonder about the meteor infected. There was an odd case or two that kept cropping up but nothing too serious. Smallville had changed from being known about corn to being known as the meteor capital of the world, eight years ago after the meteor shower struck.

"So, I've been giving some serious thought to the proposal that you gave me," Nell stated out of the blue and Harry turned to his cousin, with a smile on his face.

"You know, there's a lot of room in this place, you wouldn't just be letting it go to waste," Harry said to her and that was a hard point to dispute.

"Yes, I think that I would be happy to give you a place to stay and a small chunk of land to do whatever you'd like to with it," Nell suggested, but then she chuckled slightly before she added. "Of course, given that you do own the place, it would be rather rude for me not to allow you the opportunity to do what you want with it."

Harry smiled. "I may own the place but you've done such a good job with it."

"Thank you, it isn't easy," Nell said to him and Harry reached forward, placing his hand on her bare knee affectionately.

"The fact is, you've done such an excellent job with something that, by your own admission isn't easy, speaks rather well for you," Harry said as he slid towards her, so that they were nearly knee to knee with each other. "Something like that requires its own reward."

"Oh, does it?" Nell asked him with playful interest, although there was no chance of doing anything with Lana running around the house right now.

At least not yet, but there would be other opportunities.

"We'll discuss more lately, and I'm sure you'd like to hear an update as to what I've been up to business wise," Harry told her.

Nell smiled, she'd always been extremely curious about his business ventures and she was looking forward to seeing the RAO Corporation achieve its full potential. Given how hard that Harry and their cousin Alexandra worked, she figured that it wouldn't be too long before they were one of the top companies in America.

* * *

Harry smiled as he made his way through the hallways of one of the RAO Corporation scientific outposts. He was heading in the direction of one of the more private labs. He'd actually split off a dupe before heading to Nell's and the dupe was the one who was working on this particular project.

The lab looked like an actual duplication of a room of that was used in the mindscape that Kara and Faora used for his initial training. It was pretty devoid of personality but at the same time, it was something that Harry could use to focus. His green eyes flooded with determination as he sat up the tapes.

Harry cracked his neck as he poured over the equipment.

' _Any progress?'_ Kara thought to him at that moment. There was a long pause and anyone who knew how he worked could tell Harry was deep in thought and contemplation. So they didn't make any further inquiries at least for the moment. Regardless, he poured over the results and kept trying to figure out every single angle.

' _I'll know in a minute,'_ Harry thought back to her, as he finally broke the silence that resounded through the bond. He had to make sure that he had everything set up properly.

' _Well, don't strain yourself,'_ Amanda stated through the bond with a cheeky little grin and there was an exasperated sigh from Emily, who appeared to be rolling her eyes because of the antics of her sister.

' _Mandy! Be nice,'_ Emily protested and there was a second where Amanda shook her head.

' _No! No time to be nice, we've all got to do what we've got to do,'_ Amanda stated in a faux sweet tone. She shook her head in annoyance, everyone always thought that she was being mean, when all she was doing was showing some kind of concern. I mean come on! Her brother and Mum were the exact same way. _'Anyway! I wasn't….I was just showing some concern.'_

' _Be good you two,'_ Lily whispered in an exasperated voice. Her twin girls were extremely spirited, although given who their father was, that fact made a lot of sense. The redhead threw her head back in amusement, glad that Rose was able to keep up with them, for as long as she did.

Harry craned his neck upwards, the moment of truth was almost at hand, pretty soon, he would know. There was a few seconds where he paused and then he waited for anything to happen.

' _Okay, let's go…._ _let's try this, what exactly did he hear,'_ Harry commented.

"Krypton has fallen!…..Zod has been exiled into the Phantom Zone!" the garbled voice of Jor-El stated, it was barely audible but it was there.

' _So far, nothing unexpected,'_ Harry commented.

"My son, Kal-El, he is the last son born to Krypton, he will be sent to your planet, he will be a beacon which will lead humanity into a new shining age, he will lead you with strength," Jor-El continued. "When he arrives, there will be….challenges, but he will overcome him, for he is Krypton, the spirit of Krypton will live on through him."

That one statement told Harry how much Jor-El knew about Zod's plans, which was absolutely nothing. He had to smile about that fact, no matter what challenges Jor-El set up for Kal, he hadn't planned for other Kryptonian's to be active here on Earth. His green eyes flashed for a moment as he continued to play back the recording.

' _Not what you're looking for?'_ Daphne inquired. She had been doing some work at the London office, but she'd figure that she would pop in every now and again to see what was happening.

' _I'm not sure what I was looking for,_ _but I figured that I should have all of the information_ _, just in case,'_ Harry commented with a smile across his face, even though said smile was rather strained.

' _Are you really sure that there was something else on those tapes?'_ Kara asked him and to be honest, she thought that there might have been.

Faora watched from the doorway, with a smile on her face. She wore a tight black blouse that wrapped around her ample breasts. She wore a nice business jacket that covered her shoulders and a modest skirt that went down below her thighs. She finished it off with stockings and high heels.

"Let's see if I can sweeten the sound a little bit," Harry muttered, although to be honest, he thought that he was just grasping at straws. So far he was going around in circles, not getting any closer to finishing than he was before.

"Just don't lose sight," Faora warned him and there was a second where Harry paused, before he smiled.

He had to think outside of the box to get the victory, because that was what a true Kryptonian did. He switched the tapes and tried to play them backwards and in slow motion.

His eagle ears picked up something and slowly he peered over his shoulder towards Faora, who frowned. The dark haired girl inclined her head and Harry offered her the one statement that resounded through his mind.

"Did you hear that?" Harry asked her.

"Yes, I did," Faora agreed as they tried to lock onto the sound once again to get the proper playback.

They wondered what that sound was, because it was rather strange. It was almost sounded like a beeping followed by a long burst of noise akin to a dial up modem when heard over a communication link.

' _What is that?'_ Ginny asked curiously.

' _If we'd knew, we'd tell you,'_ Harry offered in a calm and patient tone, although one could tell that he was definitely wanted to know exactly what this noise was as well. At least one might say so if they knew how Harry got when confronted with a mystery.

' _Oh yeah, right, right,'_ Ginny agreed with a smile as she looked over her shoulder. She was a bit anxious herself and she could tell that the anxiousness was at a fever pitch for her fellow bond mates as well.

"I don't know what that is, but I know that whatever it is, it surely isn't human," Faora stated as she finally found her voice.

"I figured out that much out already," Harry said to them as he continued to click through the information in front of him.

"It might have sent a message," Faora said and there was a second where Harry paused to look back at her. "It was on the planet, but it was lost. I think father might have corrupted it, in some last ditch effort to...that is...if it's what I think..."

"I'm pretty sure it's exactly what you think it is," Harry offered, he'd been able to conclude that much due to the nature of the transmission at least. Even if he hadn't been able to decrypt it yet.

' _What is, it?'_ Daphne asked Harry, curiosity dripping from her voice.

' _Not worth getting into right now. We're not even sure if our hunch is right,'_ Harry commented as he placed his hand on the top of his head. He brushed his hair out of his eyes then closed them with a smile on his face.

' _Is it right?'_ Faora asked and Kara chimed in.

' _I'm pretty sure it's correct,_ _but I could be wrong as well,'_ Kara chimed in.

' _What in the name of Merlin's semen stained underbritches are you talking about?'_ Ginny demanded with wide eyes.

' _First of all, ew, and second of all, we're trying to figure out certain things…._ _like rather or not one of Krypton's greatest artificial intelligence systems made it off of the planet,'_ Harry informed her.

' _Oh Muggle technology…..well….'_

' _To call it Muggle technology would really undercut what it is, it makes all other computers look like pocket calculators,'_ Faora corrected Hermione. _'And that's providing that the blasted thing survived. Also considering you're Mundane born yourself, you really need to get off your high horse and stop disparaging your own culture. Have no idea why your so enamored of the Magical World, only thing that place was good for was providing Har access to several beautiful and willing females, alongside a shitload of gold.'_

' _You don't think it did, did you?'_ Harry questioned her after she'd finished telling Hermione off.

' _Fifty-fifty shot really,'_ Faora suggested with a smile on her face, although she was both excited and also rather scared about the possibility. Could it be….well it was another fifty-fifty shot and they know more in the future.

They were going to find out sooner rather than later, right now they were going to have to plan out their next move carefully.

* * *

Nature was an amazing thing and it was even more true in Smallville. A smile crossed Harry's face as he leaned back and enjoyed the beauty of the natural world around him. They were out in a wooded area that was a fair distance from the House.

"It landed right across from here," Lana said excitedly from where she sat on Harry's lap. She closed her eyes as she remembered what happened. "The meteors, they struck this field the hardest."

Lana went silent and Harry understood that she was remembering what she lost in the meteor shower. It was a long time ago but the fact that her picture was plastered on every newspaper in the county that talked about the meteor shower, well that made sure that her face was etched in infamy.

"So what do you think?" Lana asked Harry and there was a second where he paused, before corking an eyebrow and turning towards her.

"What do I think about what?" Harry asked her.

"About the meteor shower! Do you think that anything landed down here other than….well the meteors?" Lana asked him.

Clark shifted for a second but said nothing. His sudden shift went unnoticed by Lana, who was too excited about being around Harry, to pay that much attention to him.

"Well anything's possible, although I'm sure that the government must have picked anything up," Harry said to that and there was a second where Kara's face looked a bit strained.

The blonde Kryptonian offered a sigh, she was not going to lie, she was very worried that Clark could have gotten picked up by the wrong people. That was why she was glad that her cousin landed on that field and was picked up by the Kents, just as her aunt intended. She had chosen the place, knowing that Kal-El would have had a stable home there. There was a second where she looked at them.

"Yeah! Whoever came down there, if anyone did. They're likely long gone from now," Lana stated with wide eyed awe.

"They should be," Clark agreed, although he hoped his tone didn't come across as too urgent.

"Did you hear that people got really sick from the meteors and some of them turned into monsters?" Lana asked him with wide eyes and there was a second where Harry paused. It was obvious that he was trying to figure out what to tell Lana.

He met Kara's eyes and she made sure the embers of the fire stayed hot as Clark roasted his marshmallow.

"Lana, don't believe everything you read, but anything is possible," Harry warned the girl.

"Yeah, I guess," she offered, but she was hoping to get Harry's opinion. There was a rumor going around the school that there was a teacher who put students in detention and they never returned. He stole their life energy and transformed them into little dolls.

"Alright there, Clark?" Harry asked him.

"Fine," Clark said in a halfhearted voice.

"Kara, why don't you and Lana make sure the tent is set up properly?" Harry asked her and Kara, getting a sense of where this was going, complied with a brief nod of her head. She turned around and walked off onto the other direction.

Clark watched his cousin, his biological cousin, leave with his neighbor. The young man turned around to face him and his eyes met Harry's.

"Do you ever wonder what it would be like to be normal?" Clark asked him and Harry paused for a second then raised an eyebrow at the question.

"No I don't ever wonder that, I never have, because I know that me being normal is something that's impossible," Harry told Clark in a firm voice. "I'd advise you to put the thought out of your mind, it's not a good one to linger on."

"But….."

"Clark, you have been given gifts that are far beyond those of normal men," Harry told him and he eyed Clark, making sure the young man understood. "It's not something that is given out lightly."

"You seem to know why I was sent here….you know it is me," Clark said to him.

Harry smiled, the Kents sat down Clark on his tenth birthday and explained that while he was adopted, he was not adopted in the legal way. Harry really wished that the Kents wouldn't have accepted the help of Lionel Luthor, because he thought that was a bargain worthy of Faust as far as he was concerned.

The only good thing was that Harry and Kara were making sure to close up all of the loopholes. With the help of the Goblins, they'd erased all traces of the weak shell orphanage that Lionel set up to allow the Kents to handle the adoption legitimately.

The last thing they wanted was someone, curious about Clark, to start digging too deeply into himself. It was not well known that Lily had a squib cousin in Kansas, but it could be found. If the paper trail lead to Clark, there were people in the International Magical Community who would lose their mind over an alien.

Then there was Harry's own origins that might get brought up and then the meteors and it was a never ending cycle of terror.

"Yes, I know Clark, I knew and Kara did…."

"Why did they send me here?"

"You're the last son of your planet, well the final one born there in any event, and your father had high expectations of you," Harry said to Clark as he turned around to face the young man. "These high expectations might not be something that you need to burden yourself with at first, but it is something that you will have to deal with eventually."

There was a second where Harry looked Clark in the eye and the young man shifted uncomfortably, it was almost like Harry was staring into his very soul. There was a sense that Clark thought that there was more going on with Harry than what he was allowing everyone to see.

"If you try to be normal, you'll end up leading a life that won't be very fulfilling," Harry said to him. "Squandering your potential in such a way, won't be doing yourself any favors and you know that Kara and your mother, both of them in fact, would be disappointed if you didn't be the best that you could be."

Clark looked at Harry with a challenging expression in his eyes. "And what about my father's…."

"The same thing," Harry told Clark bluntly and there was a second where both of them locked eyes on each other.

Harry thought that in many ways, he made his point and in many other ways, he knew that it was going to be a long road for Clark to go down.

"Let's see how the girls are doing putting that tent together," Harry suggested to Clark and he nodded.

It was a wonderful night, the winds were blowing and there was just this smell of summer air that went through his nostrils.

"So, how do you do it?" Clark asked him.

"Do what?" Harry asked.

"Be normal."

There was a second where Harry paused.

"Clark, I have even less of a choice to be normal than you do," Harry told Clark and that final word indicated that the conversation was over.

* * *

"So, did you have a good time?"

Nell asked this question in good humor and amusement, as Harry carried a sleeping Lana into the house. Actually, she was not all the way asleep yet, but she looked about ready to crash. His green eyes flooded with mirth.

"Yeah, a very good time," Harry admitted as he headed in the direction of his young cousin's room.

"Seems that way, doesn't it," Nell offered as she helped Harry carry the eleven year old girl up the stairs and to bed. Once they were inside Lana's room, Nell took her carefully from Harry and made sure her niece was tucked carefully in bed.

"Well it was a camping trip, so fun outdoors and all that, a lot of fresh air really wears them out after a while," Harry concluded as Lana appeared to completely crash.

"Clark got back earlier and he seems fine, he appears to have an abundance of energy actually," Nell stated casually, although there was a knowing expression in her eyes.

"Well some people have really good genetics," Harry said to her with a playful grin on his face and the smile that crossed Nell's face grew more mysterious, before she said two words.

"Of course."

"So, are you heading out tomorrow?" Nell asked after she broke the silence that existed between the two of them.

"A couple of days from now actually, I think that it might be a good idea to stick around here for a bit," Harry said to her and Nell offered a smile as she turned her head around to look over her shoulder at him coyly.

"Well, feel free to crash here, I set up a room for you if you need it," Nell stated to him and he smiled. "I know Martha likely offered you a place, but given that you gave me a couple of days of peace, it's the least I can do to thank you."

"If you insist," Harry said as Nell insisted on leading him up towards his room.

He noticed that the skirt that she wore, rose up to showcase her shapely ass. He watched it sway as she walked up the stairs and Harry found it difficult to take his eyes off of such a feminine form.

"I've got so much space, I don't know what to do with it half of the time," Nell admitted to him with a smile as she bent down a little bit to check something. "I could have sworn that I dropped something."

"Right," Harry stated as he motioned for her to lead the way. Nell was one who rose to the occasion and she led Harry into the room.

There was a few seconds pause before she spoke once again.

"So….it's been a long time since I've had somewhere here, other than Lana of course," Nell commented as she looked into Harry's eyes. "I'd like to thank you for allowing me to keep the house for so many years."

"It wasn't a problem," Harry told her but Nell eyed him carefully, before she responded to him.

"I know, I just want to thank you," she commented in a sultry manner then she wrapped her arms around Harry and kissed him hard. Her warm and hot lips pressed firmly against his own, with her arms wrapping tighter around his body. He did likewise, returning the kiss with so much passion that it almost overwhelmed her.

She had a feeling that he held back so she nibbled on his lip in encouragement.

The fact that the two of them were cousins, well it didn't matter to either. Harry had built up the anticipation in her mind for months and months. His hands cupped her delicious ass and he shoved her back onto the bed. Her mouth found the side of his neck and she started kissing it. The wizard's hands trailed all over her body.

She closed her eyes and felt the heat pulse between her legs. She felt her panties moisten with desire and she was this close to becoming undone because of Harry. His hands cupped her from behind and she let out a long and lustful breath as Harry pushed her back onto the bed. She parted her thighs for him in anticipation.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," Harry grunted, as he ran his hands over her thighs then unbuttoned her blouse to reveal a dark bra that showed him an amazing amount of cleavage.

"Please," Nell begged him as she felt his mouth pepper the side of her neck with kisses, lingering there after each kiss for a time. Each kiss sent pure sexual magic coursing through her body. Her heart beat a bit more steadily and she closed her eyes extremely tight, as she felt the pleasure course through her body. Harry continued to trail his hands all over her body.

He paid extra attention to her smooth legs and then she felt herself bare from the waist down. This was where Harry went in for the kill.

* * *

Nell's pussy burned with desire and Harry's tongue dug deep between her thighs to cause sparks of pleasure to burst through her body. She lifted her walls and felt his tongue brushing against her dripping hot entrance. Every single motion was something that caused her greater pleasure.

She placed her hands on the back of his head as he ran his hands down her body. She closed her eyes, she succumbed to his amazing actions. His tongue digging into her quim with the taboo desires that she felt for him getting even more prominent.

She imagined what his cock would do to her and his tongue was already doing a lot of things that caused her to go completely wild. She closed her eyes and allowed the pleasures to rush into her.

Harry's tongue scraped against her dripping core, her pussy was shaven and soft and he imagined what his cock would feel like in that tight quim.

She mewled as Harry continued to work her over with hungry licks and she grabbed his head, encouraging him to eat her pussy more. Every motion he made, it drove her wilder.

"Harry, I want…."

Nell breathed hungrily as Harry pulled up from her and looked at her. He removed her bra to allow her breasts to flow free into the world. They were a nice healthy size and her nipples were erect and dark. He pinched them and there was only one statement that he said.

"Beautiful," Harry whispered as he kissed her breasts and she gasped in pleasure, as she worked her hand down his pants to find his massive manhood to stroke it.

She clasped his huge member to slowly pump it up and down and she closed her eyes. There was one statement that echoed through the back of her mind.

' _My fucking god, he's so fucking big,'_ Nell groaned as she sped up her strokes, hoping to learn her way around his cock before it was jammed into her nice pussy.

Harry felt her nice hand, soft and strong, wrap around his manhood as he kissed her neck, breasts and moved all the way down to her stomach. She removed his pants and his boxers.

Nell held her hand on his cock and ran it across it. She felt its thickness, every vein, every twitch of it. It was a monster, twelve inches long and increasingly thick.

"Well aren't you going to do anything?" Harry asked and Nell pumped him with a smile and licked all the way down his cock.

"Oh, tastes so good," Nell moaned and kissed the tip of his head in response.

Her lips wrapped around his throbbing pole and pushed it onto his pelvic bone. She closed her eyes and pushed him deeper down her throat. The woman's mouth wrapped around his throbbing hard cock and she pushed up and down upon him. Her hand played with his balls, fondling them with expert skill.

"Oh so good honey, so fucking good," Harry grunted as Nell's slurping got even more animated. She kept working him over and slurped him, pressing her nose up against him. Her hand wrapped around his balls and fondled them.

Nell was going down on him and she was determined to have his cum into her throat. She had never tasted anything as good as Harry's cock and she could see herself become hopelessly and entirely addicted to it. Her lips wrapped even more snugly around him and she pushed all the way down him.

"Mmm, ah, mmm," Nell mewled as she deep throated him. His cock pushed all the way down her throat and Harry closed his eyes, as he rocked her head back.

"Oh, fuck, fuck, that's so fucking hot," Harry groaned as the sexy brunette pumped her mouth around his rod.

His throbbing hard phallus pushed into her mouth and his balls tightened, unleashing his cum down her throat. He rocketed such a thick amount of cum down her throat that she nearly choked on it, but managed to pull back before it overwhelmed her.

She slid backwards and Harry rubbed her pussy lips with his fingers. She felt the rush between her legs and Harry lifted her up.

"Ready," Harry breathed at her and Nell nodded, biting down on her lip in nervousness, looking towards him with a smoldering glare and bedroom eyes. "I'll go slow."

She wrapped her arms around him and slammed her pussy down onto his cock, feeling it rupture into her. Her walls tightened snugly around him and she rocked up.

"So big, if feels so good!" she moaned as he buried himself into her. Her walls clamped tightly around his walls and she had a miniature orgasm from her cousin's cock burying into her.

"And so do you," Harry grunted as he squeezed her breasts and she closed her eyes, feeling the pleasure escalate through her. She rocked her hips around his cock and kept her momentum, never once breaking what she was doing.

Nell pushed her hips up and down upon him, riding his cock like it could cure all of the ills in the world. Her wet walls hugged him snugly and she kept riding onto him. She was rocking him up and down. The woman's eyes closed rather tightly and Harry lifted up, squeezing her breast, cupping it for all that she was worth.

Nell felt the pleasure course up through her loins. His cock buried deeper into her and she kept pushing him together. She breathed heavily as his hands channeled the most excellent and pleasurable things through her body.

The woman's eyes closed as she felt it, but Harry was not having any of that..

"I want to see the pleasure in your eyes," Harry stated and Nell submissively opened her eyes, her mouth half open, as her tongue trailed down.

His cock pushed deep into her and nearly split her in half. She impaled herself over and over again on his thick rod, feeling the pleasure burst through her body.

"OH!" she moaned as she rode him and Harry pulled out as she had a gushing orgasm.

Harry had her back on the bed, and kissed her. He slipped her some of the stamina potion and her pussy clenched tightly, juices spilling through her body anew. He used his tongue to push against hers and the two of them kept kissing each other madly, as he brushed his fingers across her pussy lips. He continued to scrape and play with her.

She was on her hands and knees and Harry gripped her around the waist.

"Who does this belong to?" Harry asked as he squeezed her pussy and felt it gush in his hands. The juices stained his fingers.

"Yours….you, please," Nell moaned, wondering if she was getting more than she bargained for but she loved it. His throbbing head brushed up and down her dripping slit and he held onto her, wrapping his hands around her breasts. She closed her eyes and Harry was this close to entering her once again. The dark haired woman was pushed back onto the bed.

He buried his cock into her from behind and stretched her walls around him. His cock slammed into her from behind and slammed into her from behind over and over again. His balls slapped against her thighs as he rode into her. Her moaning escalated as Harry continued to push back and forth into her. His cock slid between her walls, going as deep as he could.

"Oh, oh, oh, ah, oh," she panted.

Harry cupped her breasts and gave her a warm kiss on the back of the neck, which caused her tingle to head to toe. He felt her pussy ooze her cum and Harry slammed into her, pushing into her.

"Damn, so tight, well this pussy's mine forever," Harry grunted as he played with her nipples.

Sweat rolled down her body as her back arched and Harry speared into her deeper and deeper into her from behind. Her walls tightened even greater into her.

She was face down on the bed, pleasure behind all measure exploding through her body. Harry was in the zone and her pussy was the perfect arena for his cock.

Nell closed her eyes, she knew that she might be a little sore in the morning, but it was worth it. Harry's hands roamed her body freely and she gave a lustful moan as she sucked on Harry's fingers which were stained with her cum.

"Dirty girl, eating your own cum," Harry grunted as he punished her pussy with a series of rapid fire thrusts.

"Yes, I'm your dirty whore, fucking punish me!" she screamed at the top of her lungs and Harry kept slamming into her. Her walls tightened around him as he continued to into her.

His mighty tool speared into her and each orgasm was even more powerful. She felt that her orgasms must have lasted for moments and her nipples were stiffen.

Harry smiled, she would have far more stamina that an average non-magical user, given that she was a squib but a bit beneath magical users. Regardless, he kept with the course and kept ramming her into the bed.

"So fucking close," Harry growled as he slapped her rear.

Nell felt him playing with every inch of her body and her body shook all up, she was gushing. His cock slid in and out of her with so much ease that it was about to cause her to become undone. He worked into her and racked her body with the pleasure.

"Cum, please cum," Nell moaned hotly and Harry slowed his thrusts into her, making her wait for it.

His balls went tight and he sent his juices splattering into her body. She spasmed over and over again, as his cum filled up her body.

Her moans got even more prominent as her walls hugged him, her inner chamber trying to milk every single last drop that Harry had to give her.

Her pussy gushed with his cum and her cum and she collapsed on the bed, a goofy lop sided grin on her face and a look of pure ecstasy on her face.

* * *

Lana watched from the hallway, through a crack in the open door. Her eyes widened as she watched every moment. At first, she was going to run away, her aunt and her cousin were on the bed….doing it...shouldn't that be gross?

Yet, she could not pull herself away. No matter what, she could not pull herself away and that was something that terrified her completely. The dark haired girl watched and there was one statement that kept echoing through her mind.

' _Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.'_


	8. Times of Transition

**Chapter Eight:Times of Transition.  
**

"Hey, Lana."

Lana jumped about ten feet in the air and nearly crashed to the ground when she heard those words the next morning. The nearly twelve year old girl spun around to see Harry standing there, but she couldn't quite meet his eyes. The two of them stood there and stared in silence for a moment before she forced herself to speak.

"Oh, Hey, Harry, I didn't….well I didn't see you, not that I was trying to see you, but I didn't see you, um right there," Lana stammered with a flustered tone to her voice.

"Your acting like you've seen or done, something that you shouldn't," Harry said casually, but in the tone of voice a father used when he knew his child had gotten up to some sort of mischief, which caused Lana to stammer and sputter in denial.

"No! Why would I….I mean….well I wouldn't do that," Lana offered in a small voice and she practically squeaked when Harry placed his hand on her shoulder. There was a second where the young girl stood completely rigid.

' _So, do you think you might have had an audience of one last night?'_ Kara asked Harry with an extreme amount of amusement in her voice, she truly found the entire situation hilarious.

' _Well, I noticed the door was partially open when I got up this morning, but I thought that she was out for the count,'_ Harry stated, things would be much more amusing if the look on Lana's face was not so mortifying. There was a second where Harry wondered what to say, what could he say really.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked her in a quiet voice after a moment of consideration as he rubbed her shoulder gently.

"Yeah fine, fine, just fine!" Lana squealed in a mock cheerful voice. "I've got some...um...homework to do! So if you excuse me, I'll be in my room!"

Harry was not going to bother pointing out the fact that it was technically the middle of the summer time and as a result there wouldn't be any homework for her to do. Well, unless you counted Hogwarts, where the teachers did give summer homework but American Muggle public schools did not.

Nell made her way into the kitchen, wrapped in a dark robe. She was walking a little punch drunk and she staggered forward, but there was a bright smile on her face as she greeted him.

"Hi, handsome," Nell whispered as she wrapped her arms around Harry's waist and cupping her face gently within his hands, he tilted her head up so that he could plant a kiss on her lips, which she returned eagerly. The woman's eyes closed and she let out a soft gasp of pleasure into the kiss when Harry took hold of her wrists gently then moved them behind her back as he kept kissing her strongly.

The two of them broke apart from their kiss a short time later and Harry decided to drop the bombshell on Nell. "I think we might not have locked the door properly when we were having our fun last night."

Pulling away from him, Nell raised her eyebrows in shock and there was a slightly horrified "Oh" etched onto her lips. Despite himself, Harry watched her with a smile on his face.

"I…I thought that she was out for the count. Why….why do you think I made the move when I did," Nell explained to him with a stammer and Harry couldn't help but smile a bit wider due to how cute she looked.

"You've been planning on this for some time," Harry offered Nell and she placed a hand on her hip, which had the unintended side effect of causing her robes to hike up to show off more of her legs. "I knew it, I knew you lured me here to seduce me."

Nell offered him a smile as she wrapped her arms around him again. "We have a different idea of who might have seduced who, but I'm not regretting anything that happened in there."

"If you say so," Harry said to her and Nell pushed him against the wall, her lips finding his in another kiss. The two of them enjoyed the moment they shared, their actions intensifying before they pulled apart.

"I'll give Lana a couple of days to be...well...less weirded out about what she saw," Harry suggested and Nell nodded in agreement.

' _Weirded out? I'm not so sure if she was really weirded out, more like you sent her into puberty with your huge cock,'_ Amanda suggested in an oh so casual voice.

' _MANDY!'_ Emily yelled with a scandalized tone to her voice.

' _Well, it's kind of true,'_ Astoria inputted dryly. _'Just imagine the anticipation that will build up in her mind….what did you say that the comfort point was for when you would allow Mundane girls into the Collective?'_

' _Fifteen or so,'_ Harry stated to her. It was different now that he was older.

' _That's fair enough,'_ Daphne admitted. _'Although….'_

' _At that age they'd be around the same maturity level that we were at eleven, given our rate of aging,'_ Harry explained. _'Technically it's a bit younger, about fourteen or so but magic….'_

' _Yes, I realize that,'_ Kara commented with a smile. _'Magic and math is not something that mixes well unless you're quite good at both.'_

' _That's for sure,'_ Daphne offered, she realized that most wizards and most authors as well come to think about it, were incapable of basic math. Or logic as it turned out. Which was probably why most students who took it, ended up flunking out of Arithmancy in the first year.

' _Yes, well that's beside the point,'_ Harry said, there was a sense that he would almost amused by the point they trying to make, that is if the situation was not too serious and it was one of those situations that seemed pretty serious.

Nell waited patiently, she wasn't quite in the loop yet, but she had a good idea that there were times where there was a lot more going on in Harry's head than he let on. The woman offered him a smile as she leaned up against him.

"Thank you for having me over," Harry told her most graciously and Nell nodded with a smile.

"It wasn't a problem, Harry, like I said, it technically is your…."

Harry cut her off, by stealing another quick kiss, which she was surprised about. Never the less, she returned it, wrapping her arms around him as they enjoyed another moment together. The taste of Harry's lips were so very intoxicating.

"If you need anything, I'll be at the Kents for a couple of hours," Harry informed her, he had no intention of just sleeping with her and taking off, but he'd offered to help out around the farm while he was visiting.

"See you later, Harry," Nell said with a smile as she watched him leave and what a view it was.

Given what Lana witnessed, she figured that lunch might be a bit awkward, but that was just the nature of the situation. And given what happened, Nell regretted absolutely nothing. Except for checking to see if the door was locked.

She did need a nice long soak in the tub because Harry put her through the paces. She closed her eyes as she thought about their next meeting, which would hopefully be later that evening.

Although, despite the feelings of soreness going through her thighs, Nell Potter felt stronger than ever before. It was a weird situation.

* * *

"It's been a while since the two of us have gotten together," Harry said to Jaime as the two of them walked towards a nice little cafe that was near the STARR Industries complex in Metropolis. They'd reserved a private booth in the corner, away from the hustle and bustle of everything.

"Yes, it's been about a week, we've both been super busy," Jaime stated sarcastically as she looked over her shoulder towards him. "Karen and Patricia drew the short straws, so they're dealing with everything that's happening back at STARR."

"Should be interesting to see what develops now that the mergers gone through. The Red Sun's only the first project we've got brewing," Harry told Jaime and there was a bright smile across her face as she nodded.

"Of course, we're going to help a lot of people with that product," Jaime commented. She and Karen had been trying for a few years to more or less dumb down Kryptonian technology so that they could market it for the people on Earth.

Harry, Kara, and Faora, had found a way to do so and the two of them could have smacked themselves for overlooking it, but what was done was done. Plus, they knew that Harry, Kara, and Faora were going to do what they could to make RAO grow stronger and stronger, there was a lot of room for growth given that it was a relatively new company all things considered. Therefore, they needed to get things in order first before they moved forwards, as it stood now if things panned out they were looking to become a billion dollar company in five years.

"So, I'm very pleased with the merger going through, as you might have guessed," Harry told Jaime as the two of them prepared to sit down and be waited on. After ordering their food and drinks, they found that it would take twenty minutes, which would give them time to discuss certain matters they'd been meaning to for a while.

"It's been seven years," Jaime said out of the blue although Harry knew precisely what she was talking about.

"Wow, it's been a long time then," Harry offered her gently as she played with her napkin in an absentminded manner. She closed her eyes and offered a slight but pained smile.

"Yes, it's been a really long time," Jaime agreed as she threw her head back and there was a second where she paused as if to collect her thoughts in a coherent manner. "But given what happened in that world, it feels like I entered an entirely new world."

"Mostly because it was an entirely new world," Harry commented to her with a wide grin and there was a second were Jaime's grinned in response to his own.

"Yes….yes, it's…..it's just like that," Jaime offered as the drinks were delivered.

"The rest of your order will be there in a few minutes," The waitress told them blandly, before she walked away with a bored expression etched on her face.

"That's good, gives us more time to talk," Harry stated in a low voice.

"So how's the watch working?" Jaime asked him and Harry raised an eyebrow at the sudden shift in topic.

"Given the circumstances, it's working far better than I could expect," Harry told her and she nodded.

' _You never did tell us what the purpose of the watch was,"_ Amanda stated and Harry glared at her through the bond. She was not sure how he managed it but somehow Harry did. His green eyes flickered in irritation, he would have thought it was clear by now that he didn't like to talk about it. _'_ _Yeah, I know! Sorry! But I need to know….well I don't need to know! But I want to know!'_

' _You do know….I think I told you that the watch is to allow me to perform resistance training,'_ Harry said slowly and clearly. There was another reason, but that was a matter between him, his Alphas, and a couple other parties. He would tell the others soon, when he was ready and if he needed to.

He honestly didn't know how serious the problem was right now, having to take the watch off in order to deal with Ares could have drastically changed things. So there was really no need to alarm people, at least until he had a clearer idea of what was going on and when that happened, he'd let the others know.

Harry dug into the soup and the bread that had been delivered to the table and Jaime commented with a smile.

"Starving?" Jaime asked him and there was a second where Harry watched her closely for several seconds before responding.

"Well, given the food in this place is to die for, I figured that it would be a good idea to really indulge myself," Harry replied and she thought that statement sounded about right.

' _You know, with undisputed logic like that, it's really kind of hard to argue with you,'_ Amanda replied and there was a sense the young girl was smiling from the other end of the bond link.

' _I'd have to agree,'_ Rose commented as she kicked back in the study at the manor. She was working with Lily on a project that would hopefully pay off. Given the potential for young females to developed unique abilities every single day, they felt that they would need the proper guidance moving forwards.

The last thing they wanted was the various governments of the world to get their hands on them and cause some kind of havoc. It was a true nightmare scenario if the government, if any government whether it be the United States, the United Kingdom, magical or Muggle, got their hands on the super powered individuals that were out there. Harry shuddered, and he could feel that Jaime was coming up with similar scenarios in her own mind.

"Seven years," Jaime whispered as she shook her head. "Actually nine years, it was after my fifth year and that foul, awful woman. I felt like I needed to get the hell out of the country."

Harry had a feeling that he was going to learn a bit more about Jaime's life before she crossed over to this whole new insane world and he had to admit, while she had his interest before, now she had his full attention.

The wizard listened closely and motioned for his sister to continue her tale.

* * *

Jaime Potter had to deal with Umbridge for the better part of nine months. The Ministry had really too much power and while Andromeda had been able to mostly cut them off at the pass. She was glad to be in the United States of America where the Ministry of Magic's jurisdiction meant absolutely nothing. Both the United States and Canada were two countries that were out of the Ministry's jurisdiction and Jaime thanked her lucky stars for that.

' _Okay Jaime, focus,'_ She thought to herself as she made her way down a country road.

Smallville, Kansas was one of those quaint little towns and Jaime had managed to find out that she had family there, along with a few properties. She walked up the driveway of a battered property that had a broken and busted sign that said, Kent Farm on it.

She was dressed in casual Muggle attire, a modest white blouse, a skirt that went down past her knees, she had her hair tied back. From there, she wore a pair of glasses that covered her green eyes, and her toned legs were wrapped in a pair of black stockings. She topped things off with high heel shoes, although she noticed quickly that they didn't seem to translate to the country terrain all that well. So a quick transfiguration later, she'd turned her high heel shoes into tennis shoes that worked out rather well.

Stopping at the door to the house, she closed her eyes tightly for a moment and she raised her hand. If she remembered what she read from the papers that she dug up correctly, apparently her cousin Martha lived here after marrying a man named Jonathan Kent. The only problem was the farm was in disrepair, she'd never seen such a mess and she'd visited Ginny at the Burrow.

' _Okay, Jaime, it's show time,'_ She thought to herself after hesitating and remembering that she still had her hand raised. She threw all caution to the wind and knocked on the door. She didn't think that anyone was going to answer for a moment. To make sure, she raised her hand and knocked a bit louder. Her hand knocked at the door again and again.

She heard a noncommittal grunt on the other end of the door and Jaime's eyes widened as the door opened. She saw a scraggly looking man on the other side of the door, looking rather unkempt. He had graying hair and wore ragged clothes, looking like he had not shaved in quite some time.

"What do you want?" He asked in a short and gruff voice. He looked a bit insane and a whole lot bitter.

"I'm here to see Martha Kent…."

"No one by that name lives here!" The rude man stated before he slammed the door in Jaime's face.

Many people would have turned away at such a rude slamming of the door in their face but Jaime Potter was far from most people. She kept her eyes locked on the door and a frown etched over her face. If he thought that she was going to walk away, well she had another thing going.

"I need some information, about a house down the street, the Potter House," Jaime said loudly enough that she would be heard clearly through the door.

"Why don't you ask Lionel Luthor, he owns everything in Smallville!" The man snapped from the other side of the door.

Jaime was even more curious now. She had read the name Lionel Luthor in a few Muggle newspapers, but she wondered what he had to do with this. Even more so considering she legally owned the property in question, so how could he own it?

It was then that a statement Daphne made during their second year chimed through Jaime's head.

' _Money talks and bullshit always walks,'_ Jaime thought to herself with a broad smile on her face. _'Of course it does.'_

* * *

"Alternate universe Jonathan Kent was a real dick," Harry concluded after this part of a story, privacy charms having been put up to keep their conversation a secret.

"Oh, well, given that he went through some really unfortunate things, I guess we can forgive what happened," Jaime said with a shrug. "Anyway, I was known at Hogwarts for having a nosy streak about a mile long, but given the fact that certain adults were notorious for speaking in cryptic fucking riddles, I suppose it was their own doing that I was so bloody nosy."

' _That adult's name wouldn't happen to rhyme with Rumbleroar, would it?'_ Ginny asked to the group and there was a lot of laughter.

' _Given how Dumbledore was,_ _he would be a gold medalist if being cryptic and vague were an Olympic sport,'_ Vega commented over the bond link to a great deal of amusement and agreement at that thought. There was quite a lot of laughter as well.

"We're getting off the subject," Jaime told them, her irritation at being interrupted quite clear in her tone.

' _Of course, finish this story, we're getting to my favorite part,'_ Karen encouraged her friend.

' _Is that because I'm going to meet you?'_ Jaime asked and there was some laughter at her words, Faora also couldn't resist chiming in with a statement of her own.

' _And people say that I have an ego,'_ Faora stated and there was a second where she paused, before she amended to Karen. _'Mostly you, you're the one who gets off on telling me that I have an ego.'_

' _I have no idea what you're talking about at all,'_ Karen commented in a sweet tone of voice.

_'Continue Jaime.'_

"Okay, before I was interrupted, I was trying to hunt down Lionel Luthor and figure out how he acquired a property that I should have had control of. I don't know what happened to my version of Nell and Lana, but…I'm pretty sure Lionel didn't care where they went but that's beside the point. It took me almost two years, because the Voldemort situation side tracked me. I figured I would return later, only to do so and find out that things had gotten even worse. Especially after Karen escaped from Stasis but it was much too late for her to actually do anything, she got captured by that bastard, Luthor."

Jaime took a moment and she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath before she coaxed herself into continuing.

"The point is that he was keeping something underneath LuthorCorp or rather someone. Being me, I was more than determined to figure out what."

Harry nodded his head as he listened closely to Jaime and she smiled as she prepared to continue her little tale about where she left off.

* * *

There were many Luthorcorp facilities in Smallville and in fact all throughout Kansas. This one seemed to be innocent enough on the outside but Jaime knew that things that seemed innocent on the outside, often tended to be rather sinister on the inside. Astoria proved that lesson quite clearly.

' _Okay, don't lose your cool, Potter,'_ She thought to herself as she carefully made her way forwards through the facility with a glowing hand held in front of her. The place was drowning in technology, so if she used too much magic it might short circuit the security system and bring the guards down on top of her head.

This started as a mission to hunt down Lionel Luthor and get some answers, but as she passed a locked door she could sense something on the other side. The witch took a step towards it, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"Help me!" A voice rasped from the other side and Jaime bounced backwards onto her heels. She could hear the voice clearly on the other side of the door, but couldn't help but feel like her mind might be playing tricks on her. Biting on her lower lip nervously she moved back towards it.

"Hello?" Jaime asked her and there was a pause before the voice resounded outwards again.

"If you're there, help me! Please help me before it's too late!"

"So did you get lost?"

Jaime turned around to see a young man standing in the shadows. She could not really make out his facial features, but she did see dark hair, a leather jacket, along with a wife beater top. He had tight leather pants on and seemed to have bad attitude to go along with his generic bad boy look. He stared at her, with a leering expression on his face.

"You know, you shouldn't be down here," He commented with a smug grin from the shadows.

"And you are?" Jaime asked coolly as she clenched her fist and prepared to cast a spell, but she stopped before doing so. Perhaps, she had sensed someone who could help her.

"He's not going to be happy that you're down here. You've been snooping around the other facilities, haven't you?" He asked her.

He had the cold blooded stare of a young man who'd been conditioned to do the very worst things in the world. The young man looked at her with narrowed eyes and the young witch stared back with an even more intense look in her eyes. Her hands opened and closed into fists.

"Well if I was, that's really none of your concern, is it?" Jaime asked him and the man's sick smile appeared as he stepped out of the shadows.

Finally able to make out his facial features, she noticed that he had long dark hair that went down past his shoulders and glowing blue eyes, he'd be good looking enough if it wasn't for the nasty look on his face. There was a few seconds where both sides stared each other down with intensity in their narrowed eyes.

"You're not getting out of here alive," He told her like it was the most matter of fact thing in the world and Jaime's eyebrow raised as she kept her eyes locked onto him.

"We're just breaking out all of the old clichés today, are we?" Jaime asked him, she'd been in this situation so many other times before, heard those words from so many different enemies, yet somehow that she'd always managed to escape them alive, so she couldn't help but respond to them with bored indifference. Funny how that worked isn't it?

He moved to grab her at super speed but she managed to dodge at the last second. Call it great reflexes or seeker reflexes or whatever, but she was out of the way so quickly he smashed into the wall face first.

"You're quick on your feet I'll give you that. You know, I do like a girl with…."

He was wrapped up from head to toe in a series of thick cords and struggled briefly for a moment, before going still. That said and done with, Jaime could hear a slight whimpering from the other end of the door.

"Hang on!" She cried to the other person.

"You've got to help me, before it's too late!" The person on the other end of the door yelled. Jaime moved to open it, only for the young man to grab her around the back of the neck and force her down to the ground.

"Forget it! You're not going anywhere!" He growled as he tried to strangle her.

Once again, Jaime Potter found herself staring into the eyes of a hardened psychopath and a killer. Her heart pumped rapidly as she tried to push out of the grip and her eyes were practically bulging out of her head. Her heart kept pounding in her chest as she narrowed her eyes and struggled harder, her hands locked on his arms as she tried to break his grip.

When that didn't have any effect, she focused on the space right between his eyes and managed to blind him with a blinding flare of magic, then knocked him into a canister that was off to the side with a full force banisher that connecter against him with a WHUMP.

After taking a moment to catch her breath and cast a healing spell on her throat, Jaime waved her hand and busted the doors wide open. The witch scrambled forward and sent a few more spells over her shoulder in the direction she heard the thumping of a few more footsteps.

Jaime saw her, handcuffed there, with a crate of several green needles lying on the ground to her side. She looked like an utter wreck, with dirty medium length blonde hair and a tortured look in her eyes. Jaime corked an eyebrow as took in the blond.

"How long have you been there?" Jaime asked her and the woman tried to swallow the lump in her throat.

"Three weeks, three weeks too long," She managed as she tried to hold herself up. Jaime moved quickly to the blonde in an attempt to try and help her up. The two of them exchanged a look of despair.

"It was Lionel Luthor who kept you here, wasn't it?" Jaime asked her and the blonde nodded feverishly.

"Yes, that bastard polluted my cousin's mind! By the time I got here, it was much too late, damn it! It was far too late," She cursed and then she started hacking, her body wracked by immense pain. Jaime could see the green tinted bracelets and collar that she wore.

"That's making you sick, isn't it?" Jaime asked.

"Yeah, but he made sure that it wasn't enough to kill me. He says that my DNA is too useful to destroy just yet," The blonde told her shakily. "He's….he's mad! He's got to be….but there's someone else trapped here as well."

"Someone else?" Jaime asked her and Karen nodded.

"Yes, a friend of mine, her father….he was one of Luthor's chief business rivals, he had his Demon Spawn kill him or something," The blonde stated as she shook her head, she wasn't clear on the details. But it would be foolish to see that thing as her cousin, because it no longer was. She swallowed the lump in her throat and her eyes were burning, almost watering as she held her head up.

"I see," Jaime murmured as she held her up. "Where is she?"

"One level down. She has the last secrets of Veritas, but her mind could be broken by now," The blonde whispered before she started coughing again, a bit of blood tricking down her mouth.

"Let's get these off of you," Jaime breathed, she carefully tried to remove the bracelets and collar, without creating a chain reaction.

"Thank you," She coughed out but then she sensed trouble. "There's someone coming..."

"Yes, there is, he's coming up behind us," Jaime stated and she asked the question. "Is that…."

"Not any more," The blonde told her firmly as she closed her eyes tight. She had seen a glimpse of him more than a few times and she heard of the horrors that he committed, where he killed every member of his senior class as his senior prank. Innocent people who never did anything in their life suffered because he was bored and needed a laugh. It was not even anyone who killed someone else or even committed any crimes. They were civilians that were caught in the crossfire.

"If he's like you, then he's vulnerable to this," Jaime stated as she summoned one of the needles. "Go, I'll be right behind you."

"Are you…."

"Yes, I'm sure! now go!" Jaime yelled and the blonde nodded before running off.

"You think that you can….AW!"

He'd grabbed her around the wrist only for Jaime to viciously stab him with a needle made of this green meteor rock. She summoned three more needles and used them to pin him against the wall in a crucifix position, then she jammed two more needles into his inner thing and taking hold of the collar snapped it around his neck for good measure.

The young man screamed out in unbearable pain as he was left pinned to the wall and poisoned by the substance.

* * *

"So now we were trying to find Kara's friend," Jaime narrated and she paused a moment to catch her breath before she continued to explain. "Kal-El was found by Lionel Luthor in that reality, so I think that we're all glad that he got found by the Kent's here."

' _After that story, yes,'_ Kara thought with a shudder and Karen agreed with the shudder that went through the bond.

' _Proceed,'_ Faora commented, she wanted to hear how the tale turned out.

* * *

"She's got to be down here somewhere," Jaime told the blonde and she nodded, as she felt her powers slowly returning. Of course thanks to the effects of the simulated red solar radiation, the Kryptonite, and other methods, she felt extremely weak indeed.

"Just keep your head up, she's down below," Karen whispered weakly as she made her way down a staircase. She had no idea what she was going to do from here.

"DOWN HERE!"

"Helena," Karen breathed out as she looked down the hallway.

"I'M IN HERE!"

The two of them skidded to a stop and they held their heads up a little bit before they headed in the direction the voice came. The two of them came to a halt in front of a metal door and Karen reached forwards to open it.

Only for Jaime to grab her by wrist and stop her from doing so, Karen stared at her for a moment with narrowed eyes waiting for her to explain her actions.

"Be careful. That door could be rigged," Jaime told her and Karen nodded in agreement as she took a step backwards.

She waited for Jaime to scan the door, to ensure that they didn't activate a Kryptonite bomb or something else on the other end. Jaime ran her hands all over the door with her eyes closed as the spell relayed the information to her.

' _Okay, here goes nothing, and I do mean nothing,'_ She stated as she prepared to bust the door open.

There was an explosion that echoed through the hallway as the door was blown completely off of it's hinges. This revealed their path down to the source of the screams. There was a set of stairs that lead them into a basement area and a pair of guards had been knocked out by the door blasting into the room.

"Kara, I'm over here, you need to….you should have gotten out of here when you had the chance," Helena managed weakly as she tried to get her throat to work but she desperately needed a sip of water her throat was so dry. It was hard for her to breathe or even think.

"Not without you, I'm not," Karen told her in a firm voice, there was something in her voice that sounded almost like a quiver but she closed her eyes and tried to catch her breath. She felt her throat close up a little bit but she managed to force it out. The blonde's hand was grabbed by Jaime who squeezed it reassuringly. The two of them looked at each other and a new found resolve found it's way into their eyes.

"I'm going to blast that door down, then I'm going to detonate these chemicals, get ready to run," Jaime told her and there was a sense that she was half expecting not to get out of here, at least alive.

Given that she was the Master of Death, there was a whole of lot that she could survive but at the same time, it might not be a good idea to tempt fate. Regardless, Jaime took a step forward and prepared to open the door. There was a moment where she paused to lean her head forward and take a deep breath, before doing exactly what she said she was going to. The dark haired woman tapped her finger on the door and it swung open.

Helena sat there in the shadows; her normally sleek dark hair completely unkempt and extremely greasy, to the point where the slime and the grime was basically rolling off of her face. She tried to get up, although now Jaime could see that her legs had been broken.

Jaime had found it well worth her effort to learn healing magic and it'd served her well time after time.

"I'm going to heal you, just hold on," Jaime whispered to her and she helped Helena up to a sitting position so she could work properly.

Helena felt the pain of her broken legs; they'd actually been broken several times in the couple of weeks since she'd been abducted alongside Kara. They had some kind of technology they could use to partially heal them before breaking them again.

"Okay, that feels much better actually," Helena whispered as Jaime worked her over and she readjusted to the light. " Thank you, It's most definitely appreciated."

"Not a problem," Jaime said as she held her up to her feet. "Kara are you…."

"Yeah...but I'm surprised Kal hasn't found his way down here," Karen said softly as she didn't know what happened to him.

To be honest, Jaime didn't really feel good about this situation. The dark haired witch closed her eyes as she scanned the area. She half expected for him or someone else to tear their way down here and attack her, despite the fact she used the green Kryptonite on him. She should have AK'd the bastard in order to make sure that he stayed down.

"Okay, the chemicals are set to go off in two minutes. Let's get out of here," Jaime told them after she used several charms that would cause an explosion after a short delay. "And if I don't make it through, it's an honor."

"No one is being left behind," Helena stated firmly with her jaw set and her eyes flickered with determination.

* * *

"Ominous, ominous words," Harry commented as he looked across to Jaime with a raised eyebrow and he waited for her to continue, when she didn't after a couple of moments pause he couldn't help but ask. "So….your story, are you going to finish it?"

"In a minute," Jaime said as she tried to savor the moment, but she was also wanted to collect her thoughts. "It's just something that Helena said _**"No one was going to be left behind."**_ We made it out of there with a bang, and I'm pretty sure that only three of us got out of there, but only two of us made their way here."

Harry smiled as he waited for Jaime to collect her thoughts and the two of them stared lovingly into each other's identical emerald green eyes. Taking her hands in his, Harry offered one word with an encouraging smile on his face.

"Continue."

So Jaime did in fact continue after collecting her thoughts for a brief moment.

* * *

Jaime knew that she mustn't lose sense of herself, especially when she was so close yet so far, from getting out of here. She pretty much saw the light at the end of the tunnel and as a result she took another step forwards, with every one she got closer and closer. Her heart beat rapidly against her chest as she looked over her shoulder to see if her two wounded companions were keeping pace with her.

Karen was bringing up the rear and Helena followed closely behind. She had stolen some equipment from one of the guards.

"This is like a maze," Karen whispered in frustration as she looked towards Jaime. "Do you think that we're going to make it or not?"

Jaime was silent for a second as she tried to figure out what she needed to do. The word impossible was not really a part of her vocabulary. She leaned over to place her hands on a nearby railing. She used another scanning spell to get a feel for where they were and she saw the heat signatures moving quickly in their direction, but they were still a fair distance away yet.

' _Okay, this shouldn't be a problem, at least I hope that it isn't,'_ Jaime said to herself but then she heard the voices.

"SPREAD OUT! MR. LUTHOR WANTS THEM ALIVE!"

Jaime would really hate to disappoint Mr. Luthor, but quite frankly she didn't want to deal with any more of his shit, so she levitated several of the boxes and placed them on the landing to create a makeshift barricade. It would only stall them for mere seconds but mere seconds were something that they needed.

"Okay, we've got to keep moving," Jaime told both of the girls and Karen nodded, biting down on her lip so hard that it nearly bleed.

"I don't know if we're going to make it out of here or not," Karen stated in an extremely fretful voice as she looked towards the ground and Jaime reached over to her to grab her by the hand. She squeezed it reassuringly for a brief moment and Karen looked up at Jaime.

"Don't worry. It's going to be fine," Jaime stated in a reassuring but firm voice and Karen felt some courage escalate through her. It was unlike anything that she had ever felt before.

"Now or never," Helena offered them firmly.

"It's going to be now," Karen said to Jaime, who's eyes widened as she had a thought, she looked around in order to make sure she had enough space.

"I'm going to try something, get ready," Jaime warned both of them and they braced themselves as she draw her wand from it's holster and raised it in front of her.

Well, it was not technically her wand, it was more like THE wand, the wand that may have allowed her to survived Tom's last temper tantrum due to mastering the three artifacts. She'd seen the binding ritual for them but she hadn't gotten around to doing it yet.

If she got out of here alive, she might be able to consider it.

"Don't hesitate," Helena whispered as she and Karen pushed over several of the crates, trying to form a bigger barrier.

Jaime closed her eyes tightly and she felt a well of energy. The wand was supposed to be able to breach the barriers of time and space. As a result, only one thought echoed through the back of her mind.

' _Some place but here, any place but here,'_ Jaime commented to herself.

That was a mantra that echoed through her head like a wicked symphony, but never the less, it was perhaps a mantra that kept her focused on what she needed to do. It kept herself from wilting in despair. The woman closed her eyes and she felt the magic course outwards through her.

Purple energy erupted from the tip of the wand to create a rift in time and space in front of her and one thing was obvious as she prepared to step through the portal.

If they walked through this portal, no matter what, there was no turning back. They had to step through it now and be prepared to leave everything behind.

It did hit Jaime at that moment that between all three of them, they had nothing left to leave behind. So with nothing left to lose, the group prepared to slip through to the other side, heading into what might as well be the great unknown.

Jaime led the charge, going through the portal first. Having traveled the magical way a few times, she knew this was going to be unpleasant. Yet, she knew that staying here was going to be even more unpleasant so ready or not, here she comes.

Karen was the next one to follow. She had come to this world after the loss of her planet and she came here to build a new life. However, the horrors she experienced in the short time that she had been awake was far worse than the end of Krypton.

Helena's life was one of tragedy but she held her head up high. Her heart hammered steadily as she recalled her parent's final words that she should be brave, no matter what. She understood that much and swallowing the lump in her throat she stepped through the portal.

Karen and Jaime popped out on the other end of the portal, ending up in the middle of the bright lights and the big city that was Las Vegas. Their clothing was tattered from being pushed out of the portal and both of them landed on their feet, staggered but mostly in good spirits or at least good enough spirits were they not so confused.

One of their numbers was missing however.

* * *

' _So, do you have any idea what happened to her?'_ Zatanna said in a really serious voice.

Jaime did the mental equivalent of shrugging through the link. _'No, I really wish I did. I'd be at peace if I did, but since I don't_ _…._ _well you get the picture, don't you?'_

' _Yes, I know, we searched for years and nothing,'_ Karen thought before she decided to offer one statement. _'Of course,_ _given the nature of time and space,_ _she could have come out so far into the past or so far into the future that it wouldn't make any difference.'_

' _Oh magic, will you ever make sense?'_ Daphne asked in annoyance as she shook her head. She had been growing up with magic her entire life and even then there were times where it baffled her.

' _Well, magic would not be magic if it was easily explainable by common sense and logic,_ _it would be quite mundane,'_ Vega chimed in.

' _Yes, thank you, Professor Black-Potter,'_ Daphne offered icily.

' _You're quite welcome Miss Greengrass-Potter,'_ Vega fired back through the bond link.

"That might have been my second most thrilling escape," Jaime offered with a shrug and Harry raised an eyebrow. She was not going to make a statement like that without another prompt to tell the story.

"And your first would be…."

"What I had to do to get out of Malfoy Manor during what would have been my seventh year, had I not been on the run with Ginny and Daphne from Death Eaters," Jaime stated and she amended. "Well, my Ginny and Daphne. Hermione was with us for a bit but she...ugh no I don't want to get into it…."

Jaime allowed herself a moment to compose herself, thinking about what Hermione did to the three of them always made her furious.

"Mrs. Weasley would have had a stroke given what we were up to, though a stroke might have been a lot better than my Bellatrix carving her up like a Christmas goose," Jaime stated remembering Molly's attempt to be a hero during the final battle and her failing badly.

' _That sounds like a logical conclusion,'_ Bellatrix stated casually. She shuddered to think of herself ever being beaten by Molly Weasley in any way whatsoever. Which included sucking cock, which Molly was said to be a master of back when she was in Hogwarts.

Maybe in Bizarro world, but even there, it would too absurd for logic to accept and reality would shatter around them.

"So, I need details, if they're half as sorrid as I think they might be," Harry pressed on and Jaime smiled towards him.

"And you'll get them, in all of their no children under the age of seventeen admitted glory," Jaime agreed as she milked the anticipation for all it was worth in his mind.

"I can hardly wait," Harry offered with a smile and he invited Jaime to tell the story.

Jaime was not about to skimp out on the details, so she jumped into the story that she was going to tell with relish. She just hoped that she could give it the proper justice that it deserved.

* * *

Jaime Potter currently found herself a guest in the dungeons of Malfoy Manor. It was overly pompous and obviously overcompensating for something, but given that Draco and Lucius obviously were overcompensating for something every day of their life, it was obvious that their home was going to have the same kind of qualities. Never the less, she was in the dungeon, waiting to be interrogated after they got captured by snatchers.

In hindsight, if the Order had a few brain cells in their body, they could use the Taboo to their advantage to lay a trap, but they'd never been the brightest bulbs in the box.

' _Okay, I don't think that I've been in a worse situation then I'm in now_ _….actually I'm pretty sure that I have been,'_ Jaime thought to herself as the chains were….well the chains were not going to give.

"It's time."

Bellatrix LeStrange had arrived in all her glory. The woman's eyes flashed with malice, although there was a hint of a seductive nature within them. Her dark curls wrapped around her face and her violet eyes burned extremely bright.

"Let's go," Bellatrix whispered as she hoisted Jaime up by the throat and wrapping a chain within her hand lead her from the room. "It's time for you and Auntie Bella to play."

Bellatrix lead Jaime to her chambers and Jaime eyed the items on the wall a bit nervously. There were a few toys on the wall, alongside some whips and some handcuffs.

"You're going to tell me what you know about that sword, you little bint," Bellatrix demanded as she caressed Jaime's cheek, her nail digging into the soft and tender flesh.

"I don't know anything, I'm so confused," Jaime said with a pleading whimper, deciding that she needed to do something to save herself. Faking a breakdown might be worth it so she started to sob.

Jaime lost herself, the rattling chains were loose enough she could grab Bellatrix's robes.

"Please! I'm just a weak, pathetic half blood! I should have never fought him, I'm too weak!" Jaime yelled at the top of her lungs as she grabbed Bellatrix by the leg. "I need you to put me in my place."

"Your place?" Bellatrix asked, this wasn't something that she expected so it threw her completely off guard.

"Yes," Jaime breathed heavily, as she made sure her shirt gave way to expose a tiny bit of her cleavage.

Bellatrix paused for a second and Jaime's eyes got extremely wide and lust filled.

"Please, show me how a strong pureblood like you show this dirty half blood slut what to do," Jaime panted as she parted her robes. She added in a purr. "Please mistress…"

For a second, Bellatrix tried to lift an arm to hex her, but she found her panties pulled down and any thoughts of violence were tossed to the side, as she lost herself to pure unrestrained lust.

* * *

Bellatrix felt her legs parted and the talented tongue of Jaime Potter go between her legs. No matter what she tried, she could not even to stave off this oral invasion not that she tried all that much. This wet pink organ scraped over Bellatrix's dripping slit, licking and slurping at her. She closed her eyes, her thighs closing in response to this.

"Oh, fuck," Bellatrix moaned and Jaime's hands wrapped around her thighs, working around them and working her tongue deep into her.

Jaime was happy that she responded in such a manner and kept it up, no matter what. She was determined, bound and determined to bring her to an orgasm quickly. She taunted and teased the tender pussy flesh between her tongue. Her tongue kept burying and going deeper into her.

Bellatrix grabbed the back of her head for leverage, feeling it brush against her. Her tongue, it was really amazing and Jaime was going to pick up the pace.

She tried something really different, rattling her tongue in the quivering quim of Bellatrix Lestrange. The dark haired witch felt nothing but a rush between her legs. No matter what, Jaime was going to lick and work her over. This tongue, it felt amazing and Jaime continued to work her over.

"SWEET MORGANA!" Bellatrix shrieked.

There was a momentary smile, triumph resounding through the eyes of Jaime and she kept licking this tempting mound. The pureblood pussy was delicious and she sucked the juices from it, bringing more down upon her tongue, slurping and suckling the juices.

Jaime kept working the hot pussy over and Bellatrix's thighs clamped around her head. No matter what, she could not begin to appreciate how amazing this was. She felt the breathing and the pressure escalate, her thighs clamped around the face of the young girl.

Bellatrix had had many witches in her day, but never excelled at the passions of this art as Jaime Potter did. Each pass of her tongue in her moist peach, if made her feel good.

The door creaked up and Narcissa popped up to see what her sister was doing and saw that she was being pleasured by the tempting young tongue of the girl that was on her knees. Narcissa felt her nipples get extremely hard and she felt extremely faint and very flush. Her cheeks got even rosier, and no matter what, she could not even keep her growing lust in check.

"So good, but….need to return the favor," Bellatrix breathed as she fumbled with the robes of the young witch.

Jaime felt Bellatrix's experienced fingers go between her thighs, working her over, manipulating the tender young flesh. No matter what, these actions drove her into heaven and her heart beat even quicker as she closed her eyes.

"Yes," she whimpered, her tongue finally escaping from her quim and Narcissa was now down on the ground.

"Don't be a stranger, Cissa, join us," she breathed with a panting sensation going from her mouth.

The youngest Black Sister rose to the challenge, deftly parting the thighs of the young witch beneath her and joined her sister in licking her inner folds.

Jaime felt pure bliss with every lick, every kiss, every inch of her hot and delicious tongues caused her to be brought into new pleasures.

"FUCK!" she yelled as she moaned, bucking her hips up slightly. No matter what, they were experts at pleasuring her.

"Time to take this to the next level," Bellatrix offered as she summoned a magical dildo. She strapped it to her.

"Oh, put it in me, please," Jaime pleaded and Bellatrix pushed between her legs. The dildo stretched out the young girl's walls, causing her an immense amount of pleasure.

Jaime pumped her hips up, feeling her own walls get even tighter around her. No matter what, she had to have this pleasure and it increased, going through her. She panted, feeling her walls clench tight as Bellatrix gave her pussy a working over.

"YES, YES, FUCK YES!" Jaime moaned as Bellatrix drilled into her with the dildo.

"That's it, you're a dirty girl," Bella groaned as she squeezed the tender young mounds of Jaime Potter and pushed the dildo deep into her.

"Yes, a dirty fucking girl, your dirty girl, fuck me, fuck me, fuck me, FUCK ME!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs. She felt no matter what that she could take this hard fucking. Her thighs were parted as Bellatrix continued to work into her.

Narcissa fingered herself, pushing her finger so far deep in her pussy.

"Come on, Narcissa, fuck my ass, show this dirty little half blood slut, oh a good time," Jaime moaned and Bellatrix moaned for the toy.

Narcissa was stripped, showcasing her firm and fit pussy. She prepared to invade Jaime's ass with the strap on, pushing it between her tender young cheeks.

"FUCK BABY!" Jaime moaned as Narcissa hammered into her from behind, working over her young ass. Her hands were on Jaime's waist as Jaime was being drilled like the wanton slut she looked like. Her eyes flashed with pleasure.

"Damn, you're so fucking hot," Bellatrix moaned.

The two Black sisters continued to have their fun with the young Potter girl, taking both of her holes but Jaime's hands all over their breasts, it caused them unrestrained desires as well.

The next thing Bellatrix knew, she was on the ground, juices draining from her pussy. Her ass was parted and there was a huge crack that resounded off her rump.

"Now it's my show," Jaime growled as she slapped Bella's tight ass. She left a red mark, looking very pleased with that.

"Oh, such a dirty, dirty, fucking girl," Bellatrix moaned and Jaime cracked her in the ass again.

Narcissa was chained against the wall but her turn would come soon. Right now, she watched Jaime raise a dildo and plunge into her dripping hot pussy.

"FUCK!" Bellatrix shrieked out loud as the dildo went as far into her pussy as it could manage.

"That's right bitch, that's what we're going to do, we're going to fuck," Jaime told her and she strapped it on her, before hammering her from behind.

"Oh, Morgana, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!" Bellatrix mewled.

Bellatrix's breasts were cupped and this girl had turned the tables on her. She watched her sister chained to the wall, hopelessly horny as Jaime Potter kept drilling her sopping wet cunt.

She had forgot the reason that she brought this girl to this Mansion, all Bellatrix knew was the fact that her pussy was getting stretched out by this toy. Each push into her, it stretched her walls out and caused her eyes to bug out.

Narcissa was not neglected either, she was beckoned over and Jaime's fingers were pushed into the dripping hot cunt of the pureblood witch.

"Fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck," Narcissa moaned as Jaime worked her fingers into her pussy.

Narcissa's quim was worked over and Jaime tasted the delicious juices of the pureblood witch. She agreed that they tasted good and she shoved them into Bellatrix's mouth.

"You dirty slut, eating your baby sister's cum," she mewled in Bellatrix's ear and Bellatrix closed her eyes as Jaime hammered into her sopping hot cunt from behind with the toy.

Bellatrix murmured in agreement that she was a slut and Jaime forced her to eat Narcissa's pussy.

Narcissa reared her head back in pleasure, the talented young of her older sister being licked and slurped into her pussy.

"Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me," Narcissa managed.

"That's a good girl, give her pussy a good licking, and I won't hurt you," Jaime growled as she slammed into her pussy from behind with the toy.

No matter what, she was another pureblood slut that was guided by the whims of her pussy, just like those bitches at Hogwarts were. Jaime smiled as she hammered into her cunt from behind and Bellatrix was down on the floor.

She felt Jaime channel her own cum through the dildo, splashing into her pussy. Bellatrix shrieked as she clamped around the toy like a perfect vice like grip and milked it.

"Oh, you're so hot, I'm going to fuck you into the night, isn't that right?" Jaime breathed as she nibbled on Bellarix's ear.

"Yes…"

"Yes what, you slut," Jaime growled in her ear.

"Yes, Mistress, sorry Mistress," Bellatrix moaned as Jaime hammered into her and the woman pressed her mouth up to Bellatrix's ear.

"That's a good slut," Jaime growled as she kept working into her.

The two Black Sisters had their fun with the Girl-Who-Lived in the Malfoy Manor dungeons. They were mentally making plans to kidnap Andromeda so they could complete the set but naturally it was well within Jaime's capabilities to call her here.

* * *

"And that's how I escaped the dungeons of Malfoy Manor," Jaime offered in a half amused half smug tone and Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"Well, no one can deny that you're not creative," Harry said.

' _Yes,_ _I'd give that one a ten out of ten,'_ Charlotte chimed in through the bond link and the dark haired woman sighed. _'Well, you were in a pinch and you took a risk.'_

' _And it's a risk that paid off, that was a wild night,'_ Jaime offered, though this realities version of Bellatrix and Narcissa were highly confused.

' _I can't believe I fell for that,'_ Bellatrix remarked.

' _Bella, you do realize that's an alternate version of yourself and not this version of yourself, don't you?'_ Andromeda asked.

' _I realize that! But it's merely the principle of the matter,'_ Bellatrix commented with her arms folded and a sigh.

' _Mum, are you pouting?'_ Vega chimed in happily through the bond, it was highly amusing to her to see and hear her mother acting like this.

' _No! I'm just disgusted that my counterpart fell for something entirely obvious like that….but at least the sex was good,'_ Bellatrix stated, knowing from first hand experienced that sex with Jaime Potter was always completely satisfying. There was really no question about that.

' _I'm glad you approve,'_ Jaime commented with a winning smile that was coupled with a mock salute.

' _Of someone like you? Always,'_ Bellatrix offered in a cheerful voice as she leaned back in her chair. _'The four of us….actually just invite everyone because it'll just turn into a fucking orgy anyways, so why put a limit on it?'_

' _Well that does make an insane amount of logic,'_ Harry admitted through the bond link and Andromeda nodded her agreement.

' _In Bellatrix's world, it kind of does,'_ she admitted as she brushed her hands through her hair.

Harry smiled, he would be catching a flight back to Gotham in a little bit, but right now he sat back and relaxed with Jaime to tell some stories.

**To Be Continued in the Next Chapter.**


	9. Nightwing Rises Part One

**Chapter 9: Nightwing Begins Part One.**

A few days in Themyscira, Smallville and Metropolis ending up being a nice change of scenery for Harry Potter and exactly what he needed to recharge his batteries. Now he was back in Gotham City and preparing for business as usual. In fact, he was looking to reestablish an old tradition from his days at Cambridge back in the United Kingdom. The green eyed young man was dressed in a well-tailored casual suit and given what he could afford, it was saying something about the suits quality.

Gotham City was a place that was full of crime, full of corruption, where half of the people seemed to be committing some kind of crime, while the other half just looked the other way, feeling that it wasn't their problem and just trying to go on about their day to day lives. Harry slipped out of his car after parking it and made his way over to a nearby restaurant.

' _So this is the place,'_ Harry thought to himself as he took in the exterior of the rather exclusive eatery, slipping inside, he found the person he'd come to here to meet waiting for him in the lobby.

"Harry, I'm glad that you can make it on such short notice….though I'm surprised that you're here alone," Bruce said to Harry with a warm greeting. He'd learned quite quickly that Harry was often in the company of attractive woman, so he'd half expected him to bring a companion.

"Well, just because you don't see anyone, does not mean that we're alone," Harry told him as he eyed the area around him. "In Gotham City, there are all kinds of deceptions that are just lurking around any corner."

"That's a rather cynical attitude for you to take," Bruce said to him but there was no argument in his voice. It was merely an observation that he made for any prying ears. "Then again, I would have thought that the country air would have done you some good."

"It did give me a certain change of perspective, if that's what you mean," Harry replied briskly as the two of them were escorted to their table by the nearby Maitre d'. "I hope that you're game hasn't gotten rusty, old friend, because I can tell you that I won't be holding back."

Bruce gave him a half smile, which was far from the full blown Billionaire playboy grin that he gave most people. He was certain that Harry would see right through it, so he was erring on the side of caution and waiting to see what Harry would do.

"It's been a while since I've been here, my father used to state that it was the highest of all dining in the City," Bruce told Harry, making some light form of conversation.

' _Well not for the reasons that many people thing,_ Zatanna chimed in out of nowhere through the bond link and then there was a pause. _'Yeah, I'll be there in a second.'_

' _Good, I was hoping that you wouldn't get lost on your way here,'_ Harry replied to her. _'_ _Or that a certain parental unit wouldn't try to stop you.'_

' _No, Harry, that wouldn't make any difference,'_ Zatanna admitted as she threw her head back with a slight sigh. _'Remember, I'm nearly an adult and we're intended to marry, that's why I got the bond privileges even if_ _we barely got to any of the good stuff yet._ _'_

' _Try telling that your father sometimes,'_ Harry commented and there was a pause before he amended his statement. _'And for the record, honey, those were your words and not mine.'_

' _Yes, well….I'll be there in a minute,_ _in fact I'll be there in forty three seconds,'_ Zatanna informed him and Harry frowned, that was an oddly specific time.

Sure enough, in about forty one seconds, Zatanna was right there by his side. She was dressed in a black top with a nice jacket pulled over top it that fit firmly around her body. Topping it off with a pair of jeans that were tight to her backside. Harry looked at her with a soft grin and couldn't help but offer her a whistle in spite of himself.

"Hey, Zee, glad to see that you can make it," Harry said graciously as he pulled his wife to be into a one armed hug, which she returned.

She smiled at him and decided to take things one step further. She firmly placed her hands on his hips then leaning in towards him, offered him a passionate kiss, which Harry returned eagerly.

"Well, it's nice to see you again, Zatanna," Bruce stated in his usual jovial tone as she pulled away from Harry. "I see someone has been able to tie the illusive Mr. Potter down."

"Well, I'm sure there are many women who want to tie you down, Bruce," Harry said to him and Bruce nodded briskly.

"For many different reasons, few of them the right reasons, many of them for the wrong reasons, but are they reasons that suit me?" Bruce asked as he was waiting for an old friend of his to join them, along with his wife.

Friend might be pushing things a fair bit, casual acquaintance might be a better definition of their current relationship. They'd gone to Gotham Private Academy together and became close enough friends despite their differences in social standing.

In fact speak of the devil and he shall appear, Harvey Dent sat at the table waiting for them, alongside his wife Gilda Dent formerly Gold. Bruce moved to make the introductions since as far as he knew, this was the first time Harvey and Harry had met.

"Harvey, glad to see that you can make it, and Gilda as well, an honor."

Harry perked up at this alongside Zatanna, the two of them making their way towards the couple. The sorcerer's eyes rested on the man before him and a smile crossed his face.

He had picture perfect movie star good looks, the type of looks that cause people to stand up and take further notice. He had sandy hair, dark features, and a bright and winning smile. No one could tell at first based off of his good looks that he was a formidable force to deal with and that would work to his advantage.

"So, you must be the famous Harvey Dent," Harry stated as he extended a hand and Dent raised an eyebrow.

"Right, Harry Potter, isn't it?" Dent asked and Harry nodded with a smile. "This is my wife, Gilda."

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Potter," Gilda said politely, she was an unremarkable woman with dark hair and doe like eyes, dressed in conservative clothing. The type of person that no one would expect anything out of the ordinary of, someone that even a paranoid person would not expect anything of.

"Mrs. Dent," Harry offered her as he shook hands with the couple. He turned to Harvey. "So, I hear, Mr. Dent, that you work in Internal Affairs at the GCPD."

"Yes, I do," Harvey said briskly and there was a tone in his voice that indicated that this wasn't something that he wished to discuss over a casual lunch. "And it's Harvey, Mr. Potter, Mr. Dent was my father."

Perhaps Harry was imagining things, but he thought that there was a flash of something in Harvey's eyes when he mentioned his father. Never the less, Dent remained stoic.

"Right, and its Harry, then," Harry countered as he got his drink and sipped on it. "So I'm curious as to your opinion on the current state of the department?"

"I'm sure you're able to read the papers, Harry," Harvey replied in a crisp tone, he'd read all of the current rumors and had seen the most recent news reports, Vicki Vale had a field day about all of the cover ups. Harvey actually wondered if one of the next crimes that was going to be covered up was her murder.

"Yes, I've heard a few rumors, but I'd like to hear it straight from a very credible source other than the news media." He was actually curious about getting the opinion of someone who worked for the GCPD that wasn't James Gordon, who he had a fairly good relationship with, as well.

"I admit, I've been curious as well," Bruce said in a calm voice as he sipped his non-alcoholic beverage.

Gilda just offered a slight smile but said nothing. She looked at her napkin even though it was too late as Harry and Zatanna noticed the smile.

' _Hmm,'_ Harry thought but naturally he did not say anything else other than that idle hmm.

"It's a job," Harvey stated and there were a couple of raised eyebrows before he decided to elaborate that statement. "Half of the people in my department….and realize that is off the record when I say it."

"Of course," Harry said, putting up anti-Eavesdropping spells so no one would be able to hear anything that was being said and spin it the wrong way.

"Everyone in my department and the GCPD, are on the take, the SWAT Team, the Commissioner, the Chief of Police, nine out of ten cops in the establishment, are in the bed with scumbags like Falcone and Maroni," Dent told him in a low voice.

Harry said nothing as he listened with interest and Bruce did more or less the same, at least for a moment. However, there was one question that he couldn't help but ask. "What about James Gordon?"

"Gordon hasn't caved yet, but there have been plenty of good cops that haven't caved for a very long time, that end up finding out as they get older it's too hard to resist the allure," Dent said seriously. "If we can find a way to eliminate the corruption, this will be a far better city."

' _Good luck with that one,'_ Pamela offered with a resigned sigh.

' _Gotham City without corruption is like….well I don't think I can even figure out what it might be like,'_ Kara stated.

"I'm sorry that I'm late, you wouldn't believe the work back at the office."

Harry raised an eyebrow towards the latest guest who had turned up, things were about to get extremely interesting considering she arrived in such a haggard manner.

"Rachel, it's been too long," Bruce greeted with a smile, although it was one that Harry could tell was half genuine and half put on. "Rachel Dawes, I'd like…."

"Recently promoted to Assistant DA as you've been gallivanting halfway around the world, doing god knows what," The woman stated as she stepped into the light so that Harry, Zatanna, and the rest of the room could get a better look at her.

She had dark chocolate curls that framed her attractive face and simmering black eyes. She was wearing conservative attire, her outfit consisted of a loose blouse, business jacket, a skirt, and high heel shoes that fit her body quite nicely. Giving her an air of professionalism that couldn't be denied.

"Yes, I've heard about your recent promotion, congratulations, Barbara told me about you," Harry said to her.

Rachel smiled as she surveyed him calmly. "So you must be….the mysterious Harry Potter."

"I'm surprised my name is that well known at the District Attorney's office," Harry stated.

"Well, you've been connected to Jim Gordon's daughter….and the gossip sheets, half of the department believes most of those," Rachel commented to him as she looked at him, not wanting to form an opinion on him just yet.

"Well you know half of those rumors aren't true," Harry responded back to her with a smile on his face and a hint of mischief in his eyes.

"And the other half….."

"Are complete bullshit," Harry stated the smile on his face morphing into a disarming grin.

Rachel chuckled gently at that, before turning to face Harvey. "I've got bad news though….maybe we should keep this…."

"If it's important, I'm going to read about it in the paper by tomorrow and so are they," Harvey stated tensely as he braced himself for what was to come.

"Carmine Falcone's walking tomorrow, apparently he's been cleared of all charges," Rachel told him bluntly after considering it and she looked about as agitated as Harvey was starting to. "Loeb doesn't seem to think that he's anything but squeaky clean."

' _The Roman clean? Yeah fucking right,'_ Zatanna commented to Harry through the bond. Everyone who grew up in and around Gotham knew who exactly controlled the Criminal Underworld in Gotham. Barbara's confrontation with his youngest son alone in her first year of high school had them wondering if he was going to have her whacked to save face, considering the then twelve year old girl knocked him out with one punch to the jaw.

"Gillian Loeb wouldn't know anything about being squeaky clean, given that grime rolls off of him every step he takes," Dent said with biting sarcasm to his voice.

"I know….but without the evidence, we can't nail him and it has to be damn good evidence to nail anyone in the department," Rachel said.

"You mean just like the damn good evidence that was gathered on Falcone for almost a year that apparently wasn't good enough to put the Roman away!" Dent snapped, and Harry thanked the anti-eavesdropping spells because that would cause more of a scene than he wanted to deal with.

"You know, maybe we should order lunch?" Bruce offered to them, trying to avert the subject and diffuse the situation, although was far more interested in the information than he let on.

Rachel looked at Bruce with narrowed eyes; there were times where she thought that her childhood friend died in that alleyway along with his parents, because he changed.

"Good idea, there might be something in this city that I might be able to swallow," Dent grumbled underneath his breath. If he was honest, he was only trying to make enough money at his job to move himself and his wife out of Gotham City. He was surrounded by too many people who were two-faced for him to really stomach.

Despite the many offers of a bribe, Harvey Dent refused to take one of those because he was a man of principles.

* * *

"So you and Harry…."

"What about me and Harry?" Barbara asked in a tense voice as she looked at the group of Donna, Kara, and the twins. All of the girls were wearing t-shirts and shorts, it was a casual summer day in Gotham City.

"You know I'm surprised…."

"Well my father, Harry kind of respects his opinion," Barbara stated, not knowing whether to feel pleased about that fact or not. It was one of those situations where she didn't know what she wanted to believe. "It's a good thing that I got him talked down from eighteen."

"Oooh, well, I was just wondering, that's all," Kara said as she brushed her hair from her face. The blonde leaned back against a nearby stone statue and smiled at Barbara. "Harry is just a bit more prompt about adding girls…."

"Yeah, there hasn't been an attractive female we've encountered yet, that my brother doesn't have his eye on and he eventually bags them all," Amanda added with a bright smile. She didn't really see this as a bad thing at all, to her, this was a sign of her brothers prowess.

"And he is wonderful at pleasuring them, every single one of them," Donna added with a knowing grin.

"You know, the two of you could knock it off, alright," Barbara said, she didn't appreciate the images that was being put into her head, before she could have a chance to enjoy them.

"Knock what off?" Donna asked with an innocent smile on her face. "Talking about Harry's amazing sexual prowess and the ability to render an entire army of Amazons into a drooling mess?"

"And the Veela, let's not forget about of the Veela," Kara added with a smile of her own and she could see how exasperated Barbara seemed, not to mention frustrated, she was extremely frustrated. Kara threw an arm around her and kissed her on the top of the head. "Oh cheer up Babs! You've only got one more year and then you can ride the Harry train."

"Ride the Harry train?" Emily asked as she closed her eyes and snickered at the cheesiness of the statement.

Amanda offered a smile towards Barbara, an extremely teasing one. "Yeah and in the meantime, we'll keep Harry's broomstick nice and polished for you, so it's ready for you to ride."

"Oh god!" Barbara said as she placed her hands in her face and shook her head at the utter cheesiness of that statement.

' _Amanda! The poor girl is obviously extremely sexually frustrated_ _and knows that her father had a talk with Harry. So please, dial it back down a tad before she jumps Harry,'_ Lily warned her daughter.

' _Sexual frustration? Well if that's sexual frustration, it takes it to an entirely new level,'_ Ginny stated. _'You know there is a disturbing lack of red heads….'_

' _Half of the bloody collective is redheads, so don't you dare give me that, Ginerva Molly Weasley,'_ Astoria argued as she shook her head in frustration.

' _Oh full names! We must be getting testy today, maybe Harrison can give you some relief and take the edge off,'_ Ginny bantered back.

' _No, I think I just need to torch this idiot Muggle salesman,_ _it's obvious that what he's peddling is a bloody scam,'_ Astoria stated in agitation as her hands opened and closed into fists, if this kept up she was going to start fidgeting. Which wouldn't be good for the man in front of her's continued survival. _'He's such a fucking wanker.'_

' _And you kiss your mother with that mouth,'_ Ginny said in a mock reprimand.

' _Amongst other things,'_ Daphne chimed in dryly.

' _Well, that was subtle,'_ Zatanna added and Harry broke into the bond traffic.

' _Zee and I will be there in a little bit, just had lunch,_ _it was most illuminating, and shows just how very messed up this city is,'_ Harry informed the group.

' _And you needed a meeting to tell you that because…'_

' _It's good to have these things confirmed, Ginny,'_ Harry told her along with the rest of the girls.

On the steps, Kara leaned back and stretched as she decided to pipe in out of the blue.

"It was a fun morning, Harry and I got to spend it together, latest time in several weeks in fact," Kara said with a smile as Donna cast her a glare.

"You are a such a fucking nympho," Donna told her shaking her head.

"Hey! Did I say anything about sex?" Kara asked cheekily. "You've got a dirty mind, Donna Troy. Then again, given the way Harry's marked you, I'm honestly not surprised."

Donna grew extremely flustered at this statement as the twins snickered. Barbara shook her head in that instant, they did make life interesting but whether that was a good thing or not, well that was something that could be debated all day and all night long.

Harry made his way down the street; he had one more corner to go and then he would be able to meet up with the girls.

THUMP!

He felt something smack into the side of him or rather someone. She was running like a possessed bat out of hell down the streets.

"Sorry! Excuse me! can't chat, I don't know where that sister of mine runs off to, I swear, sometimes she fucking trying to give me a heart attack!"

Harry watched as the girl ran off again, the only glimpse that he could get of her was that she appeared to be about twelve or thirteen years of age with black hair and startling violet eyes. As much as he wanted to get a better look at her, he couldn't as she moved off quickly.

"Well, if that's the worst thing that you can run into in Gotham City, then you should feel fortunate," Zatanna commented lightly, then she took Harry's hand in her and he smiled in response. "Shall we join the girls?"

"We shall," Harry said as he lead Zatanna up the steps.

Kara was the first to greet him with a hug and a long kiss, that lingered a bit longer than normal. Her fingers scraped against his package a bit as she pulled away.

Then the twins sandwiched him with hugs on either side, and Harry gave them a hug and a kiss each.

Donna practically jumped into his arms and shoved him against the closest wall. Harry allowed her to do so by responding with a long and lengthy kiss as his arms wrapped around her ass, their tongues battling together for domination. Zatanna caught sight of Barbara who was watching with interest and she looked even more flustered.

"Just one more year," Zatanna whispered to her, with an encouraging smile.

"That's about one year too many!" Barbara argued as she threw up her hands onto her face in frustration.

Harry moved over to her and greeted her by pulling her into a long hug, before giving her a kiss that put her mind into complete and utter shutdown mode. She nearly slid down to the stone steps she stood on in the aftermath, only for Harry to catch her in his arms.

"So! We kind of caught bits of it, but we want a first-hand account!" Amanda demanded as she stared Harry down.

Harry and Zatanna prepared to tell the girls what they learned even if he knew it was just fragments of the situation.

* * *

Sixteen year old Ginny Weasley smiled as she leaned back in the chair at her desk. Maturity had done her rather well. She had flaming red hair that framed her face. Cute little freckles that covered her face and other parts of her body nicely, along with burning brown eyes that were swimming with desire. Her red blouse wrapped around a pair of breasts that were now a D-Cup, which she was very happy with and they would only grow larger, during her final maturity. She didn't think that she'd get to the level of certain girls in the Collective that was much taller than her, but she would be up there. She had the perfect hour glass figure, with nice shapely hips and a black skirt covered her stocking clad legs, her extremely shapely and elegant feet with nice little toes and high arches topped things off.

Astoria sank down onto the desk itself. The blonde was growing into her form nicely; she had an amazing set of high end D-Cup breasts that would grow larger if Daphne or her mother were any indication. She had a rocking set of abs that was sensual and muscular. Her blonde hair was shiny and she had luscious lips. She had a nice ass as well, with beautiful stems for legs.

"So did you get rid of the Muggle salesman?" Ginny whispered lightly to Astoria and she looked at Ginny with a smile crossing her face.

"Define get rid of?" Astoria said with a mysterious and shifty smile, she'd ended up fidgeting as the meeting droned on.

"Oh boy! I hope that you didn't leave any finger prints," Ginny said, with a cringe. She was the one responsible with keeping the younger Greengrass sister in line while she was at Hogwarts, though Astoria herself was Queen Bitch of the school itself.

"I've learned charms to remove any traces of my DNA from the scene of the crime, so what do you think?" Astoria asked the redhead who sighed. "And I didn't kill this one, actually, for your information."

Ginny was actually surprised at that. "What do you mean this one?"

"It's a joke, I don't kill salesman, I just hex them to make them vomit if they have the urge to annoy people who have said no or worse scam them," Astoria stated as she kicked her shoes off. "So….I feel a change within the bond."

"Yeah, I feel it too, which is strange, given that I willingly offered a slave oath," Ginny muttered to herself. "Then again, I was eleven and no oath was needed."

"Well, Penny got upgraded to wife status, Daphne got upgraded to primary, but I think she was always meant to be one, the Life Debt just delayed that. Tracey is still Daphne's bitch but she could be classified as a wife. Even Hermione got upgraded and it all happened when they hit their second maturity," Astoria said. "Well, except for Penny, so I think three years or when they hit a maturity is the rule."

' _It is,'_ Faora confirmed very briefly.

"So there you go," Astoria concluded with a smile on her face and she looked at Ginny's body and it was delicious to say the very least. They had some fun when it was slow in the office and Harrison had to discipline them when he caught them having said fun, instead of doing their job.

There was a ding and Bellatrix showed up to join them. Her dark hair framed her face quite lusciously. She was wearing a trench coat that left absolutely nothing to the imagination. In fact, if the hints of her flesh that one saw were correct, they indicated that she was not wearing a damn thing underneath. Her massive DD breasts were about ready to pop out of her top.

"Hello, ladies, Auntie Bella is here to teach you a very important life lesson, we're just waiting for our lord to get here," Bellatrix said to the girls in a cheerful voice, although there was a glint of pure mischief burning through her eyes.

Ginny's curiosity got the better of her. "What kind of life lesson?"

"Well, I want to teach you girls the joys of bondage," Bellatrix stated cheerfully and she looked at both of the girls who smiled.

Astoria got wet at the thought of Harry tying her up and having his way at her, she could also sense that Ginny was having similar thoughts.

"Today, Harrison is your master and I'm your mistress," Bellatrix said to them and the two girls greeted Harrison, who'd arrived just as she was saying those words.

"So, are you ready?" Harrison asked as he entered the room.

"Yes, I want you bitches to strip off your clothes and put these on," Bellatrix demanded, as she pulled two collars from the bag, with chains on them.

Ginny could have sworn that she saw some whipped cream and other toys amongst the other goodies.

* * *

Ginny was pulled onto Harrison's lap and he planted his lips onto hers. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the kiss that she was giving him. The redhead wrapped her legs around him and the emerald eyed wizard placed his hands.

Bellatrix cracked a whip and she gave Astoria a demanding glare.

"Get on your hands and knees," Bellatrix ordered and there was a sense that Astoria was about to rebel but it was only for a second.

Bellatrix saw the Greengrass girls nice and taut ass and she raised her hand, before tagging her ass with a nice little smack.

She pulled out a dildo from her back. It was magical, about the closest thing to a real cock that something like this was going to get. She pulled her skirt down to reveal that she was not wearing any panties. With an expert precision, Bellatrix brushed her sex toy off of Astoria's dripping pussy and then she rammed it hard between her walls.

Ginny was also on her hands and knees on the desk, Harrison situated her.

"Damn, you stay pretty tight," Harrison grunted as he shoved his fingers between her walls.

"My pussy belongs to you, master," Ginny whimpered as she swayed her ass and her nipples got hard as Harrison cupped her creamy ass with one hand and fingered her nice tight pussy with the other. She waited for her man to invade her core.

Harry was quick to claim her and worked into her. The redhead's walls clenched around his invading tool and Harry speared into her. His balls slapped into her thighs balls first and rammed into her. Her tight cunt wrapped around his flesh pole.

"Oh yes," Ginny moaned and Harry bound her ankles as she was rammed in her pussy. She closed her eyes as his cock went into her.

The redhead clamped his cock and breathed in and out as he kept pounding into her. Each thrust of his manhood caused her mind to feel the pleasure of his rod entering her.

Bellatrix was busy spraying Astoria's nubile young body with whipped cream and had her chained onto the desk. Her pussy was exposed and she sprayed whipped cream onto her pussy and her ass.

She reached over and grabbed a tin of strawberries, busting it open and she released the strawberries. She dipped one in a combination of strawberries and pussy juices. Bellatrix tasted the lovely combination, popping the strawberries into her mouth one at a time as she feasted upon them.

"Delicious," Bellatrix stated, fingering herself whilst eating a strawberry. She closed her eyes and tilted her head back, her nipples were poking out of her top. "You should try some, master."

Harrison plowed into Ginny but opened his mouth so Bellatrix could dip another strawberry into Astoria's whip cream covered snatch and feed it to him. The wizard speared into her inner walls and Harrison tasted it.

"Damn," Harrison grunted as he kept savoring the tightness of the redhead beauty's pussy as she clamped hard around him.

Ginny had a ball gag in her mouth and Bellatrix strapped it to her, magically changing it to a dildo and rammed it deep into her mouth, humping her mouth. The redhead closed her eyes and felt the pleasure as Harrison worked into her. She was rammed on both ends.

"You want a taste, baby girl," Bellatrix breathed as she cupped Ginny's delicious young breast, feeling the development and feeling really pleased with it. She roughly fondled the redhead's breasts, smiling at the fact that Molly Weasley was likely rolling over in her grave. But that thought got her even hotter, as the lust burned through the eyes of both girls.

Ginny looked at Bellatrix, simmering lust dancing in her eyes. She felt Harry's cock ram into her from behind. His balls slapped off of her thigh, leaving the mark.

Astoria whimpered and Bellatrix reached over and slapped her ass. She licked her hand slowly in front of Astoria and she saw another dupe turn up.

"Time for you to have some fun," Harrison stated as he burned her robes off but allowed her skin to be unblemished.

Harry saw her breasts and dripping shaven pussy and he waved his hand .The ropes wrapped around her, pressing up against the underside of her breasts.

"Harry, I'm wet, I need you," Bellatrix breathed and Harrison offered her forceful kisses in every single direction of her body, missing her pussy and breasts. The ropes got a bit tighter around her and Harrison brushed his fingers around the inner part of her thigh to tease her more.

Harrison licked his fingers and then he pushed into her, pumping his finger into her. He felt her tight pussy enveloped around his finger.

Her pussy wrapped around him and Harry then pushed his tongue into her. He brushed the strawberry into Astoria's pussy and then Bellatrix's pussy and then made Bellatrix eat it.

She chewed it greedily and Harrison cupped her breasts and rammed him into her. Her walls tightened around him and Harrison nearly lifted her up off the desk. He wrapped his hands on her thighs and rammed into her.

Ginny's breathing got labored as Harry slammed into her tightening pussy. The wizard's tool invaded her inner core and her tight walls hugged him extremely snugly. She felt the pleasure as he drove her to another amazing orgasm.

"FUCK ME FUCK ME HARD!" Bellatrix screamed as Harry had her bound and then a ball gag appeared in her mouth.

Her sounds were muffled and Harry pushed up out of her and teased her. Astoria whimpered as she was on the desk and Harrison decided to give her some love.

Astoria found herself flung up against the wall and she was hooked to the wall, cross legged. Harrison stood there and then advanced on her, his hard rod pole was nearly up against the edge of her entrance. She closed her eyes as her slit was pleasured by his throbbing head. The blonde whimpered, begging him. She was practically drooling for him in more than one way.

Harrison ran his hands all over her body, and pinched her breasts, which caused her to moan. Harrison rammed his cock into her hard and Astoria clamped around his rod. She felt the pleasure as he filled up her body and emptied her.

' _Fucking, oh fuck,'_ Astoria thought and Harrison kissed her lips. She returned fire, biting down on her lip, with passion swimming through her eyes. Her tight walls clamped around him and he was going as far into her as he could manage. Her tightening walls kept working him over. The blonde's walls clenched him and she felt his strong hands dig into her thighs.

Harrison smiled as he kept spearing into her from behind. Her tight core snugly hugged him as he stayed the course, pumping her tight pussy for all that it was worth.

He could see her blue eyes in the reflective surface of the wall and Harrison pulled out her almost all of the way. He brushed his throbbing cock against her dripping hole and then rammed into her.

Bellatrix was hammered into the desk, the tight ropes pushing against her body. She felt the pleasure and she gave muffled moans. His cock filled her all the way up to the brim and she clenched as her walls kept tightening him. His hands over her breasts caused her to be filled up with more pleasure.

He felt her juice spray out of her and he sucked on her really hard nipples. Her walls snugly held him with pleasure and Harry sped up his thrusts into her. Her walls snugged him and he rammed as far into her as he could manage.

"Oh, baby, oh so hot," Harrison grunted as he pushed his rod deep into her. His hands continued to explore her body as she was about to be fucked unconscious from the pleasure.

Ginny was about ready to lose it, her pussy was beaten but she managed to hold on. She was determined to get Harrison to cum inside her. Her walls clamped against him and the wizard speared into her, filling her up and emptying her with his cock. She was determined to have it, every drop from his balls.

The redhead closed her walls around him and Harry hammered into her from behind. Her walls wrapped around him and the green eyes of Harry Potter flashed with amusement and pleasure.

Astoria whimpered as she was pushed against the wall. She was at the mercy of Harrison's cock, being hammered against her in the wall and he grabbed her ass. She was being dominated against the wall and loving every single minute of it. The blonde breathed heavily and Harry cupped her breasts, working into her. She closed her walls around him and pushed against him. The wizard's tool worked against her.

Bellatrix pumped her hips around him and Harrison worked into her.

"Going to cum in you, but you'd like that, my dirty slut," Harrison growled as he slapped Bellatrix on her ass.

Harrison speared into her body, working as far into her as he could go. His cock buried into her and his balls tightened.

There was an explosion of cum that rocked all of them. He injected all of them with a steady flow of cum, pumping into them.

Harrison drained the contents of his balls into all three girls and they whimpered, as they could explore this arrangement for so many different angles and the night is done.

* * *

Ginny, Bellatrix, and Astoria were all panting on the ground, covered in whipped cream, bodily fluids and really nothing else. They were put through the paces and Harrison pulled his pants on as he heard the intercom buzz on Ginny's desk. Hitting the button, he was surprised when he heard Morgaine's voice on the other end.

"Harrison, if your done working the girls over, could you meet me in your office? I have something I need to discuss with you."

After he finished dressing, he made his way into his office, where Morgaine was waiting for him. She was dressed in what could be considered casual clothes for this time period though with a bit of an older style to them, consisting of a button up blouse, a modest skirt, stockings, and high heels.

"Sorry, Morgaine, I had to get dressed," Harrison offered her in explanation.

"This sudden dose of modesty is most concerning," Morgaine told him with a teasing grin on her face, but then she shook her head. "We do have a little bit of a problem, however."

Harrison frowned. "What kind of problem?"

"An old….associate of mine for lack of a better word, has returned and got it in his head that he needs to bring about my end," Morgaine said. "You remember that bold knight that Princess Diana trounced during your vacation to the past?"

"Yes, I do," Harrison confirmed, allowing himself a moment of amusement at that memory.

"Well that knight is a man by the name of Blood, Jason Blood, and I may have misled him into thinking that I would honor him with my favor," Morgaine commented. "Naturally, that fool Merlin decided to bond him to that wretched demon, and he would not let the matter die with Camelot."

Harrison raised an eyebrow and Morgaine continued.

"And while that demon has the most repugnant sense of rhyme, he's still a powerful enemy and I fear that he may have found a hint that I'm here. He also knows who you are, given that Harrison Evans was technically the one who took that journey to the past," Morgaine concluded.

Harrison nodded, that did constitute as a problem. He was going to assume this demon was dangerous, for there was no reason not to.

* * *

"Seems like you've been making some strides in this company," Lucius Fox stated as he walked alongside Harry through the hallways of the Wayne Enterprises headquarters.

"We have been, although there's much more to do," Harry told her, as Faora, under her Alexandra Potter guise, made her way into the meeting to join the two of them. "The problem is….."

"This company is one that I have given some of the best years of my life to and I very nearly resigned from it once or twice, but I was talked out of doing so by an old friend," Lucius said to both of them and Harry and Alex both understood who that old friend was.

Harry made sure that no one was listening and then he looked over his shoulder, towards Lucius.

"We need to be careful because…..there are some people around here that are trying to take advantage of the transition period," Harry muttered in a low voice. Even though he had privacy spells made what they talked about sound like random office chatter, he was not taking any chances and he needed to maintain appearances that his abilities were not supernatural.

Lucius knew, he did know very much so what was going on here, at least for the most part. There were a lot of people who thought they could get one past them. He was very well respected in Gotham City and not in the way that people like Falcone were, where a lot of that respect was made through sheer fear and bullying tactics.

"I think people here think that they are going to get on with business as usual," He said to them lightly.

Harry frowned upon hearing that. "Well, there are going to be a lot of people who are going to be in for an extremely rude awakening before too long."

His super hearing was a vital tool in scanning the hallways of Wayne Enterprises for any wrong doing but so far, he really hadn't heard anything, or saw anything too under the table. At least not yet, but Harry had not had an ample opportunity to dig deep.

' _So, I think it might have been premature to think that someone would have done their misdeeds in public,'_ Faora commented to him, but Harry reached over to grasp her hand.

' _Don't worry about it, we're going to find something, it's just the fact that we haven't dug deeply enough,'_ Harry said as he had his eyes peeled and his ears open for any suspicious activity.

He looked around and saw a hurried looking man go down the hallway, the current CEO of the company in fact. A man like that, well he had something to hide.

"Earle," Lucius whispered to Harry and he wondered if the tone that Lucius Fox used, was a good enough recommendation of the quality of the man's character. "William Earle."

"Someone who has caused you trouble, before?" Alex asked sharply and Fox turned towards both of them.

"Depends on what your definition of trouble is, that can mean many things in Gotham City," He told them and there was tension going through his voice.

Harry frowned, there was trouble brewing and he opened his ear just a little bit more.

"The equipment will be there…..yes, Wayne doesn't suspect anything….Potter….well, he's got other operations, he's been hanging around here a lot more but there's no problem, I'm sure that he'll leave soon."

Harry once again wondered about the significance of this conversation. He saw Earle's briefcase half opened, with documents in it.

In a swift motion, Harry snuck into the office and used a time dilation field to go through the contents of the briefcase. So little time had passed that Earle did not even known that Harry Potter had managed to go through his personal possessions for incriminating information.

' _Nothing but legal documents…._ _fuck, he's marking up these things pretty high,_ _several times their worth and…._ _nothing that I can nail him with now, but several potential trails where I can find something to nail him with,'_ Harry thought to himself.

' _I'll see what I can find o_ _n my end, while you keep searching on your end,'_ Jaime commented.

' _People speaking in my head…._ _wow, this is weird,'_ Patricia offered both of them weakly.

' _So, I'm guessing your bond link got plugged in,'_ Harry said to her and obviously that was a question that needed no answer. _'Welcome to the family, Patricia.'_

' _So...is there any way that I can turn this off….not complaining about the company,_ _I'm just curious,_ _that's all,'_ Patricia suggested and she did not want to sound rude. _'Sorry, if I…'_

' _Karen will teach you what you need to know, about the Collective structure, everything, but let me know if you need anything,'_ Harry said to her as he finished pursuing the last of the documents in Earle's briefcase and cleared up any potential evidence that he was even there.

' _Okay, thanks, thank you very much,'_ Patricia chirped graciously.

' _You're very welcome and again if you need anything, I'll be there for you,'_ Harry offered as he smiled. _'That does give you a wide open license_ _for whatever requests you decide to make, doesn't it?'_

' _Yes, it does,'_ Patricia said as she barely held back a snicker.

' _But as you know,_ _Harry is pretty open minded,'_ Jaime said in amusement.

' _That I am,'_ Harry agreed with both of them as he rejoined the two in the hall. Alex knew that Harry was gone, even though Fox did not.

"The quarterly meeting is next Friday at Noon," Fox informed him.

"Ah, yes, I was wondering if they were going to change that and not inform me," Harry said, the Wayne Board of Directors seemed to be a bit skittish about this going public thing with Bruce taking a bit more control over the company, not to mention Harry and Faora. "I'm sure they'll be surprised when I show up."

"Yes, well I'm sure that there will be some within this company that appreciate your presence," Fox said and Harry reached forward to shake his hand.

"Sorry, to cut this meeting so short, but I have lots to still do today," Harry stated.

"Have a good day, Mr. Potter," Fox said as he reached forward and shook his hand. "Your grandfather would be proud of what you were doing."

"I'm certain," Harry stated with a respectful smile and nod as he made his way with Faora, towards their limo.

Faora stopped and looked over her shoulder, staring towards Harry as Zinda was waiting for them, along with Penny.

"So…."

"I think we might have something to hopefully clean up this company," Harry said.

While RAO was first and foremost in his mind, Wayne was still a company that had potential and he had been slowly buying up stocks in LuthorCorp, although that had been more of a long term project. Lionel Luthor had been too distracted with other projects it seemed to take notice of him, other than some basic nosing around about a potential competitor.

Harry thought that Lionel knew a bit too much for his comfort about the Kryptonian's that might be present on Earth, having been part of Veritas, so he would have to keep an eye on him.

"To the Penthouse, please, I need to get dressed, Sirius insists on taking Neville and I out on the town to enjoy our remaining time as free men," Harry said in a dry voice.

"And how many times have you gotten married now?"

"Well, it's a lot, given that technically I'm married to most girls I bond with and those that I aren't are legally considered Mistresses," Harry said and she nodded, that made sense.

* * *

"You do realize that I've been married several times already," Harry told Remus and Sirius with a smile.

"I realize that but it was Sirius's idea," Remus said as he diverted the attention to Sirius.

Sirius shrugged at him. "Sure blame me, like it's my fault something like this happened….I can't be held responsible."

"Oh you can't…..well you're not responsible for anything, you are the epitome of all things innocent," Remus commented in a light tone and Neville's head turned towards Harry.

"Are they always like this?" Neville inquired of Harry and he smiled at him.

"Not all of the time, not really," Harry replied, but he was amused by the entire situation at hand. His green eyes flashed with amusement as Faora joined the group.

They were going to a gentlemen's club, Faora smiled at the thought of many people who were being entertained at this establishment being considered Gentlemen. These were the type of people who were the scummiest of the scum.

Although she did enjoy the women there, she was always in the market for scouting new talent for her brother and the Collective. She had a special eye for this type of talent, the smile on her face widened as she was bombarded with the bright lights and music. The dark haired woman favored women sexually, with her brother being the sole and only exception.

She found Remus, Sirius, and Neville mostly tolerable and she tried to limit her exposures to only men that she found mostly tolerable.

There were bright lights and Faora could see the attention of the men around her waver, except for her Brother. Just as she suspected, they were going to be distracted by the shiny. A smile caught her lips and Harry caught her eyes as well. Both of the Siblings that made up the House of Zod. looked entirely amused by the other members of their group attention being diverted elsewhere.

' _The ADHD generation indeed,'_ Zatanna chimed in. _'While you're being dragged along with this, Kara, Donna, Barbara, Pam, the twins, and I are having a nice girl's night.'_

' _Well, I'm sure that's fun,'_ Harry said to her.

' _Oh, we're having fun, wish you were here actually,'_ Zatanna said in a saucy tone that gave Harry an idea what she might be up to.

' _I'm sure that you girls can more than make up for my lack of attendance later,'_ Harry offered through the bond.

' _Oh don't worry! We intend to,'_ Kara commented hungrily.

Faora caught Harry's eye and they could see that the other three members of the party were more distracted by the bright lights than anything else.

' _You know, maybe we should have taken them to a stoplight, it would have given them the same simulation,'_ Faora told them and she could sense Harry's amusement course from the other end of the bond link as the two of them held their heads up high to focus on the more important sights, namely the girls working here.

There was something that was extremely interesting in the offing and needless to say, it caught Harry's eye.

He saw a female standing in the shadows, an extremely attractive one at that. Harry had to stand up a bit straighter over the crowd to get a better look at her, but the fact was that she was leading another female around on a leash. Given some of the patrons in this club, Harry somehow thought that would be the thing that would raise the least eyebrows.

Never the less, Harry shook himself back to life and took a good look at them, a really good look at her in particular.

The woman leading the younger woman on the leash had sleek black hair, it went down a little bit past her shoulders, but not too far. She had a burning pair of green eyes that were nearly the same shade as his own. She was dressed in a modest black dress, although it wasn't so modest that it didn't offer a tease of what laid beneath. Obviously she was the type that did not give away the goods without making the person earn what they saw. Her cleavage was exposed with a fairly sizable pair of DD Breasts. She had long legs.

Her companion had red hair and extremely bright blue eyes. She was shorter than the other woman, dressed in a tight black tank top that nearly looked fit to burst around her modest size breasts. She had on a pair of tight shorts, which nicely wrapped around her tight ass. She had amazing legs as well, although not as long or as shapely as the taller woman.

Harry's super hearing picked up two words from the taller woman as she said them with a bit of a purr to her voice.

"Heeello, handsome."

' _Well this should prove to be_ _beneficial,'_ Faora thought eagerly and Harry's smile never once left his face, but he would have to agree with his sister, this was in fact something that could prove to be very beneficial.

The woman sashayed over towards him, swaying her hips like a predator as she walked. She looked over her shoulder as several of the patrons hooted and hollered making crude comments. Given that this came with the territory, she really did not pay them much mind, if any. It was just another night for her.

"Hello there, I hope that you're finding everything alright?" She questioned Harry and he nodded with a smile as she extended a hand outwards. "Selina Kyle, I'm the supervisor here at the Cat's Cradle Club."

"That's quite the tongue twister," Harry stated with a smile as he took her hand and diligently shook it, as if he was not too bothered by a woman being lead around on a leash. Then again, given that he spent enough time with Astoria and Bellatrix, it wasn't too odd for him to see a woman leading another around on a leash, but that was really beside the point.

"Yes and…."

"Oh, I must have forgotten my manors, Harry Potter and this is my cousin, Alexandra," Harry said and he smiled at her.

"Charmed," Selina said as she looked at them. She had to admit, when she first caught sight of him, she could tell he wasn't like some of the other patrons that rolled around here. Then again, she felt that she would be insulting him by comparing him to some of those other patrons. Many of which who looked like the contents of a dumpster and smelled like them too, but that was far and really beside the point. "It's my pleasure to meet both of you and I'd like for you to meet my associate, Holly Robinson."

"Mr. Potter, sir, Miss Potter," Holly said as she looked at them, having a trained look on her face like an obedient dog or maybe a cat would be more appropriate given the circumstances.

"Miss Kyle it's a pleasure to be inside your club, although my friends appear to be distracted by the bright lights," Harry stated and sure enough, Neville, Remus, and Sirius had drifted off.

Neville was going to need a night to unwind and he was going to allow Sirius to get the young man drunk all he wanted to. In fact, that would amuse Harry so much if that happened, but never the less he turned his full attention to Selina.

"Yes, you're him….aren't you, Harry Potter?" Selina asked, she could have smacked herself for not having recognized him sooner.

' _It seems like your fame proceeds you in all parts of the world,'_ Faora said.

' _Well, would you expect anything less?'_ Harry offered and Faora smiled back at him.

' _Not in the slightest,_ _I expect you to shatter any and all expectations, and you have,'_ Faora said with a smile.

"I think that your friends should be more then able to be left to their own devices, I believe that you and your cousin….well, I have something to say with the two of you," Selina said as she offered him a slight smile and a shadow of a wink. "Trust me, given the tab that you've paid since you got in the door, it will be worth your while and then even more."

"Well, I always get my money's worth," Harry said to her.

"Play your cards right, tiger, and you'll get even more than that," Selina whispered saucily as she looked over her shoulder towards a door. "Room Five, no one should bother us there."

Harry was quite interested in what she had to offer. He had no idea what Sirius paid for this little outing, but given the allowance he gave him from the Black Family vault, he could get something truly extraordinary onto the table.

* * *

"There is no room for error and no tolerance for failure, do you understand me?"

The woman in the shadows stated this crisply and calmly. Her body was wrapped in a sleek black body suit that clung enticingly to her form, but also offered her increased mobility. She had a sword on her back and she had the lower of her face from the nose down, covered by a mask.

"I understand what you mean T…."

"You are to refer to me as Nightshade!" She snapped at him in a harsh tone as she looked him over. "My father doesn't want anything to go wrong with this event, if even one error happens, he will be very displeased and you will suffer the blunt of his displeasure. Am I clear to you?"

The man offered a grunt from the shadows. He was dressed in black tactical gear, with his face covered with a Balaclava. He had extremely muscular arms but nothing that could be considered to be overly outlandish. He fingered an object that was in his pocket and peered at her with beady eyes.

"Yes, Nightshade," He grunted but there was some displeasure that went through his voice. There was really nothing that could be done to contradict her, to upset her would mean that it would get back to the Demon Head.

"Good, I'm glad that we are clear with each other," She told him and she turned around for a moment, but she could hear his breathing become labored as his gaze burned into her back. "If you have any problems, I kindly ask you to speak them to my face and not behind my back."

"I live to please your father….Nightshade," The man said as he bent down on one knee.

"Yes, and as long as you cater to his pleasure, you will live," The woman known simply as Nightshade reminded him. She watched him with her piercing green eyes and she was going to impart to him the fact he wasn't going to ever have her favor. "His attention, there will be no casualties, do you understand me?"

"Yes, I understand," He said without any emotion in his voice.

Nightshade watched him leave, carefully following his progress as he did so. She was leaving this mission in his hands.

"Mistress, do you think that he will succeed?" One of the members of her Elite Guard, made entirely of females, stated.

"If he does not, his life will be in graver peril and he will wish he had been left to rot in that hellhole," She said with disgust in her voice.

Her father had been after an heir for his legacy, for his life was getting even shorter with each passing cycle. He had narrowed it down to two potential candidates, one of whom would lead the League of Shadows upon his death, so that they would be able to shape the world and eliminate the chaos from it.

Her success hinged on the fact that he did his job and only sent a message and not a lethal one at that.

* * *

"So, this is a standard show, is it?" Harry asked Selina and she smiled.

"Right, it's one of those, you may look, you may touch yourself, you may touch your female companion, but you may not touch us yourself things," Selina explained to him as she twirled the whip that she had in her hand, brandishing it towards him playfully.

Harry smiled in spite of himself with only one word coming out of his mouth, Faora sat on the edge of the couch next to him watching with eager anticipation in her eyes.

"Gotcha."

"Good, I'm glad we're on the same page," Selina said as she leaned back for a moment and she looked at Harry.

Holly nodded, she knew what that look meant, it was time for the game to begin. The lights added to the atmosphere and the low music in the background also caused them to anticipate what was to come.

* * *

Selina pulled Holly by the leash, the collar wrapped firmly around her neck. The dark haired woman pushed her hand onto her younger associate's breasts, teasing the cleavage. She closed her eyes and started to cup them.

Holly closed her eyes and she moved her hands down Selina's legs and she parted the woman's legs.

"Good girl, serve your mistress," Selina ordered as she cracked her whip and Holly got between her legs.

Harry saw a brief hint of a shaven smooth snatch, she did have a nice pussy from his first glance. Holly placed her face between her legs and there was a few seconds where Selina reared back her head and moaned in pleasure.

Faora watched as Holly started to eat out Selina, licking and slurping her snatch. Faora was not going to lie, this really looked up. She rubbed her finger at the edge of her clit and closed her eyes. Her nipples pushed out from underneath her shirt.

Harry watched as Selina's dress was pulled all of the way down. The dress did not offer much to the imagination and the nice round breasts she had, along with dark nipples were showed. She had very tanned skin and judging by her naked body, she kept herself in really good shape. Holly kissed up and down Selina's body and rubbed her clothed pussy against Selina's bare one.

"I think you're overdressed, honey," Selina breathed and she cupped Holly's ass and removed her shirt, revealing her young breasts.

Selina grabbed a hearty handful of them and gave them a nice squeeze. Holly closed her eyes and rubbed up and down on him.

Harry's cock grew in his pants and Faora, needing some relief herself, decided to get his cock out. She placed it inside her mouth, locking eye contact with her brother and shoved his cock down her throat, shamelessly.

"Shit," Harry grunted, as she slurped and sucked his huge member.

"Oh, that's hot," Selina moaned and she gripped Holly's ripe young backside, gripping at her young flesh. The two of them rubbed back and forth against each other. There was a moment where the two of them kept moaning at each other and Selina pushed her finger up Holly's young backside, pleasuring her.

Harry had no idea what she was talking about but Faora's super strong grip groped his nuts and Faora pushed all the way down him. His cock connected to the back of her throat and she continued to deep throat him. The Kryptonian wizard closed his eyes and Harry closed his eyes.

Her mouth wrapped around his shaft and pumped him up and down.

"Oh, yes," Selina moaned as she had Holly draped over her back and slapped her on the ass.

"More mistress, more!" Holly begged and she felt her ass slapped as Selina reached in her bag and grabbed a vibration, shoving it onto the highest setting, and then ramming it into Holly's pussy.

Holly felt her juices coat the vibrator and Selina then removed it. Like a cat licking up milk from a bowl, Selina's tongue brushed over the vibrator. She took the dripping juices, closing her eyes and licked around the edge of him.

"Perfect," Selina moaned as she shoved the vibration into her own cunt as she worked her fingers into Holly's pussy. She had really long fingernails and it caused Holly to really moan and coo at the actions of her mentor.

Harry was pushed back onto the couch by Faora and his cock stood at attention. Faora's shirt was taken off and Harry squeezed her breasts, roughly handling them. These actions were appreciated as Faora moaned loudly.

The dark haired woman pushed her cunt down onto his rod, riding him. She clenched her walls around him, rocking back, going up, and slamming down onto him. She moaned as she enjoyed her brother's cock rammed up between her walls. The woman pushed her hips up and slammed down onto his hard cock. It went so far into her that she was about ready to scream out loud.

"Oh, that feels good, so fucking good," Faora moaned as her brother's hard dick went into her.

Selina licked Holly's juices and her juice's off of the vibration and made the girl get on her hands and knees. She reached into the bag and pulled out a strap on, preparing herself. She grabbed Holly's snatch and fingered it.

"Oh….this is….keep hammering her," Selina managed as she drilled her young partner from behind with the dildo and Holly's eyes widened.

"Fuck," Holly mewled and she watched the progress of Harry's large cock enter and exit his cousin's sopping hot pussy.

That was amazing and Holly was on her hands and knees. She looked up and closed her eyes. Selina worked into her from behind. Her large dildo went into her from behind and she rammed into her as far as she could go.

"That's it baby girl, take this, take that, oh, that feels good, doesn't it?" Selina asked as she grabbed Holly by the hair.

Faora was now on her hands and knees, so both could watch the real show. Although both groups wondered if the opposite one was the real show but be that as it may, Harry had her on her hands and knees and rapidly prepared to fuck her brains out.

The dark haired woman bit down on her lip and Harry continued to work into her from behind. His cock entered and exited her. There was a heavy amount of breathing as he continued to work himself into Faora's dripping hot snatch. She snugly fit around his invading tool as he cupped her breasts.

"Keep that up, oh keep that up," Harry grunted as Faora tightened her pussy walls against him. Her walls milked him.

His cock was a blur with a fury, Harry cupped her breasts and her nice breasts were squeezed with Harry causing her walls to wrap around her.

"Oh, yes, yes, yes," Selina managed as she slapped Holly's ass and speared into her from behind.

The actions between the two of them continued with Harry feeling his cock clamped. He imagined what Selina's pussy would be like around him but Faora's was more than good enough. His cock squeezed as he groped and squeezed every single inch of her sister's body. The wizard's eyes closed as she flexed her muscles, working and milking his cock.

"Oh, ah, oh, ah," Faora mewled and Harry buried her face first into the couch as he hammered her dripping hot cunt over and over again. His cock kept sliding in and out of her, her walls clamping him hard.

The activities continued to escalate to a new level and Harry hung onto her, cupping her breasts. He saw Selina put Holly through the paces, now a double sided dildo rammed up their twats as they rubbed their hot molten cunts together.

Harry gave a few more thrusts and spilled his hot juices into his sister's delicious snatch. He pumped into her as his balls sprayed its contents.

Faora breathed heavily as her brother's cum coated her insides and the heated center worked. The two girls at the end came over the double sided dildo and all four parties reaching their climax lead to a satisfying experience for all.

* * *

Harry relaxed in the aftermath of the spectacle. Faora had collapsed on his chest, he got the sense that she was winded, although it wouldn't for very long and just needed to catch her breath.

"That was amazing," Faora concluded as she looked at both Selina and Holly, both of whom basked in the amazing afterglow.

"Kind words as always, but from a treat such as yourself, that's to be expected," Selina stated with a smile on her face. "I must say, that we're going to be sad if this club goes the way that it might be going."

"Do tell?" Harry asked, he was curious.

Selina chose her next words extremely carefully. "The owners of this club….well they are losing money. It's a rough spot with the economy and there have been a series of unfortunate accidents that have thrown them into a lot of hot water."

Harry corked an eyebrow. He figured that much, there were many mysterious accidents that took place all the time in Gotham City. All of these accidents had to tie into one thing and one thing only and that was the fact that there was protection money that was not being paid.

"It would be a shame if a club like this goes belly up," Harry told Selina and she offered him one of those rare smiles. "So, I figure that you're trying to do something?"

"I'm trying to determine a way to drum up funding to purchase the club from the owners," Selina said. At first, she thought that it wouldn't take much, but the problem was that they were being stubborn. It seemed like people would willingly go down with the ship, instead of leave with any dignity.

"And it's a shame, because this is a great club and the service is extraordinary," Harry told her.

"Again, I thank you for the kind words," Selina said graciously.

Harry smiled. "Words are cheap, but actions speak louder than words. And service like yours requires a bit of a tip."

Harry closed his eyes, then reaching into his overcoat pulled out a bag and he put it down in front of them.

Selina's eyes widened as she could make out dollar bills, hundred dollar bills, bulging out of the bag. She leaned forwards with interest her green eyes flashing, as he placed his hand and began to count out a small stack of bills, which he placed down in front of her.

"There must be about ten grand here!" Holly breathed in a surprised voice. Her eyes widened and her mouth opened to the point, where it looked like she might have been able to catch flies. The two of them watched each other for a moment and Selina's eyes locked on her own.

"At least," Selina breathed out in agreement as she saw it laying there in front of her. "I don't…."

"Consider this a tip," Harry told her as he smiled at her. He looked at her for about ten seconds and kept his eyes lock on hers. The two of them remained locked in this stare down for a few seconds and then Harry turned around towards Faora. "So, shall we…."

"I think it's time for us to leave," Faora said him with a smile and the two of them stood in preparation to slip their way off into the night.

"Yes, so, nice meeting you, I'll see you later," Harry said.

"I look forward to it," Selina said as she undressed him with her eyes, although she did get the full Monty earlier on.

Holly reached for something but Selina grabbed her hand.

"Don't, not this time, not this one," Selina breathed into her ear and Holly retracted her hand, which was inches away from touching Harry's wallet.

She turned her eyes to the stack of money.

"So what about this?" Holly asked.

"More than sufficient for this evening, this will do quite nicely," Selina said as she reached over to take it. She didn't have to rip off some fat idiot politician tonight and then need to shower by virtue of being in the same proximity of him.

Selina counted the money, the stack of hundred dollar bills, there must have been at least ten grand, maybe a little more.

**To Be Continued.**


	10. Nightwing Rises Part Two

**Chapter 10: Nightwing Rises Part Two.**

"So, I trust that you've had a productive evening?" Harry questioned Neville, who shrugged his shoulders as he staggered off.

Sirius looked disappointed that he did not get Neville as drunk as he would have liked. It was a rather huge personal disappointment for him, this was supposed to be the biggest night of Neville's life but now he was barely going to be hung over.

"You kind of disappeared," Remus offered to Harry and Faora and both of them shrugged their shoulders before they filled in Remus.

"Well, you know, duty called, business, all of those good things," Harry told him in a cryptic voice and there was something about the inflection in Harry's words that told Remus that he wasn't going to know unless he needed to know.

Sirius, on the other hand, did not have any kind of observational skills or the proper amount of comprehension. "So, what do you mean?"

"I mean…."

"I think due to being distracted by the size of that tip, I don't think I properly thanked you for the it," Selina said as she made her way towards Harry, sauntering towards him with a wide grin. She was now dressed in a casual black top and blue jeans that adhered nicely to her body.

"It really isn't necessary," Harry offered her with a smile on his face and the dark haired woman drank in his features. "It was your excellent service that allowed us to have such a wonderful time."

Selina smiled. "I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, but I really need and want to thank you."

She leaned up slightly to captured Harry's lips into a teasing kiss. It didn't last that long, but at the same time, it gave Harry a general idea of the taste and the texture of her moist lips, she broke it with a sensual smile on her face.

"And I would be remiss if I didn't thank Ms. Potter here as well," Selina said as she leaned forward and wrapping her arms around Faora, pulled the brunette Kryptonian in close against her chest.

Selina leaned in even closer to kiss her on the lips, Faora slipping her a bit of her tongue in the process, not that Selina minded, nor did she mind the parting grope she received on the ass.

Sirius watched the action between the two women with wide eyes, because this was two females kissing, it demanded his full attention. He made sure that Faora didn't see him gawking however because he valued his life.

"You're catching flies, Padfoot," Remus whispered to him, although his amusement was obvious and Sirius shook his head to clear it.

"Right Padfoot….just….just…."

"You're Padfoot, I'm Moony, now stop getting distracted by the shiny and focus!"

Harry was amused, mildly by their antics. Of course, other men getting mild amusement out of him was more than some got, they were usually met with casual and cold indifference.

"I'd take this," Harry advised Neville, handing him a crystal vial. "Otherwise the hangover will be a bitch in the morning."

"Is it….."

"Lucretia made it, it's perfectly safe," Harry said to him in a reassuring voice and he crossed his arms as he watched Neville. Who was looking at the veil he held within his hands "And you're really not that drunk in the first place."

Turning from Neville, Harry hailed Selina goodbye and he waited for her to go back inside the club. All in all, Harry thought that he had a productive evening, and then there was a moment where he paused.

There was something about being drunk that caused someone to achieve even greater clarity, if one could call it that. Never the less, there were times where they noticed things that they might not notice in the first place. However, being drunk, it meant that someone was not able to keep their head up and keep their mind straight. It was a weird double standard and he tried to hold his head up as he looked around.

At this moment, the limo pulled up but that wasn't what caught Neville's attention.

Things had got eerily quiet, and that was really saying something for Gotham City. This was an unnatural calm and then he saw someone, perched up on the rooftop across the street from them.

"LOOK OUT!"

Harry cringed at this as Neville had shouted it right into his ear as he pushed him out of the way.

BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG!

The sounds of shooting could be heard and Harry looked up, to see the bullets piercing Neville's chest. Why he decided to jump in and push him out of the way or why he didn't choose to do a shield charm, those were questions that couldn't be answered.

While, magical users had a certain amount of resistance towards most injury, six or seven bullets, one of them lodged in his head and another right next to his heart, tended to cause that immunity to fade away.

Penny burst out of the limo so she could attend to Neville. He'd collapsed to the ground, bleeding badly. Harry watched him with shaky hands, he was numb beyond words. He saw Neville laying there on the ground, bleeding from his wounds and he could see that his skull got cracked from falling in addition to having been shot, so he was in a bad way.

Bystanders made their way towards them and sirens could be heard in the distance, as police and medical personnel approached the scene.

' _Har,'_ Faora thought as she grabbed Harry's sleeve roughly to snap him back into reality and Harry shook his head, mentally thanking her for the stern warning. He was shaky that was for sure, but he tried to hold his head up high.

Harry had Neville's blood splattered all over him, he went to stand only for Neville to grab him by his hand so he that turned to face him.

"Harry….take care of her….take care of Hannah," Neville breathed out raggedly as he tried to hold his head up, but he was failing to do so.

"No, it's not going to end like this," Harry muttered but it was out of his hands.

Neville's blood flowed from his lips as he offered a few more strangled thoughts, even though he couldn't voice them. Harry was one of the few that were fortunate enough, if that was the word for it, that was able to pick up thoughts from a dying man. He heard everything flash through his mind at the speed of light and these thoughts flowed from him just as quickly as the blood flowed from his body. Harry kept his eyes locked firmly on Neville's in his last moments of life.

He didn't want to end up like his parents, even if he survived this, he would not be really alive.

Penny worked her magic the best that she could, but it was obvious from the frustration in her eyes that Neville was gone, despite what she could or couldn't do. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't bring the dead, back to life.

Harry looked away from Neville for a moment and he saw someone on the roof. He got a clear enough look at him to know that he was dealing with someone that was trouble. He fled the scene and Harry couldn't bring himself to pursue him. He saw several shells laying on the ground and he could tell that he'd emptied the clip.

' _Why?'_ Harry thought, it was really hard for him to keep his mind focused just now, but he knew that there was something fishy going on. He very much doubted that this was just a random act of violence.

The ambulance had finally arrived on the scene, but if magical healing could not save Neville, especially with the damage he suffered, there was nothing that Muggle medicine could do.

* * *

At eleven forty five on August 7th 1997, Neville Franklin Longbottom was pronounced dead at Gotham General Hospital. They had done everything that they could for him, but he'd lost too much blood and his injuries where too severe. Cracked skull, punctured lungs, lead poisoning, his kidneys and liver were utterly destroyed, and that was just a tip of the iceberg. The hospital had some of the best doctors in the world at what they did, but they weren't miracle workers.

Harry sat in the interrogation room of the Gotham Police City Department. He was still covered in blood, not having had a chance to get a shower or change into something else.

"So, you were the last one to see the murder victim alive," A gruff voice stated from the shadows.

The man was a tall black gentleman, with dark eyes. He was someone who offered a certain sense of sincerity and warmth, but he also wasn't someone who should be messed with, and Harry could have sworn he felt a light mental probe against his mind.

"Jones, ease off, the boy just had his friend shot before his very eyes," James Gordon stated gruffly. There were a few members of the Department who'd suggested that Harry had something to do with the murder, but Gordon thought that was a bit farfetched. He'd had the boy over for dinner and knew that he wouldn't pull something like that.

He was one of the few standup people in Gotham City and someone who Gordon felt lead by example.

"Here," Gordon said as he offered Harry a drink of water.

Harry carefully grabbed the water and did a wandless scanning charm. Not that he didn't trust Jim Gordon, but it was force of habit for him due to Andromeda telling him that as a pureblood heir, he always needed to scan every drink offered to him, because there was always a potential chance that he would be poisoned.

When the water had passed the test, Harry drank it down slow, and watched the two men in front of him carefully.

"Thanks," Harry stated.

"There is a curious situation with…Mr. Longbottom, if I'm not mistaken?"

"Yes," Harry said to him, not offering any question.

"We're trying to find any documentation for Mr. Longbottom, but we haven't found anything yet, no ID, not a birth certificate, nothing," John stated as he seemed to be watching for a particular reaction from Harry.

Harry said nothing, at least he wouldn't just yet.

"Well, you're not looking hard enough now, are you?"

A woman with short blonde hair and a pair of thick glasses rested on the bridge of her nose, striking green eyes rested behind them. She was dressed in conservative clothes although if one looked hard enough, they could tell that she had a fit body. She entered the room, after having been making quick strides that got even quicker as she reached her destination. She was taking three, four, steps at a time, all of them long and winding. She skidded to a stop pretty much once she reached the table.

"Who are…."

"Donna Milton, I'm Mr. Potter's legal representation, and I'm appalled that you would even think that you had any right to talk to him without my presence or my consent," She told both of the police officers in question without taking a breath.

Gordon took a step back, he'd taken control of the investigation but there were times where he forgot himself.

"Here, are the required documents belonging to the late Mr. Longbottom, birth certification, identification, anything that you need to know. I trust you'll find everything in order and most importantly, you'll find it complete," Milton stated in one breath. She held everything in her hand and placed it underneath Gordon's nose.

' _Goblins work fast,'_ Harry thought and he was pretty sure that thought was picked up by the rest of the bond link, although any banter that may or may not have come through, agreeing with that assessment or not, Harry didn't pick up, due to his mind still being in turmoil from what happened.

John Jones picked it up, there was a sense that he was looking at Harry more curiously than ever before. There was a sense that Jones knew a bit more about what was going on, then he was saying, but perhaps that was just the night that Harry had talking.

"Lieutenant Gordon, the story checks out, doesn't it?" Jones asked and he held the documents up for Gordon to see and to scan with his own two eyes.

"It does, very much so," Gordon agreed, there was no forgery, these documents were authentic. He had seen enough forged documents to smell a fake a mile away.

"I trust that will be all that you need from my client, unless you feel the need to accuse him of this crime?" Milton asked, pausing for a second to catch her breath before continuing. "In which case, we may have a problem with each other."

"No, no accusation, he was mostly hauled in for the lack of identification found on the Longbottom boy," Gordon said, as he continued to look through authentic documents that were in his hand. Having worked for fifteen years in Chicago then Gotham City, he could detect a forgery a mile away, false identifications.

"Correct," Jones said calmly in a low and even voice as he watched Harry. "And our condolences for your loss, it's something that no one should have to go through."

"Right, so if you're okay…." Gordon said trailing off, before he suddenly. "Though if this is an assassination attempt aimed at him. What about protective custody…."

"We have a security force that is more than capable of dealing with any threat, trust me," Milton said.

Harry knew that she was referring to the Amazons, even though Gordon had no idea what she was talking about. He was still very much shell shocked regarding what happened.

Harry nodded with a set jaw and slowly got up, as Milton lead him out of the room.

"Well, thankfully the goblins came through in a pinch," She whispered to him when they were out of ear shot.

"Yes, they are good at that," Harry muttered lowly as he finally found his voice, although it was hard to articulate certain words given that he saw Neville get shot before his eyes. "Thanks, Circe."

In her day job, Circe was a highly successful attorney. Given how much chaos she caused, even she could appreciate the honesty of being a person who upheld law and order. In the end, who knew?

* * *

During his midnight information dump, Harrison received a rather large shock and naturally news spread to the British magical world rather quickly. It must have been less than twenty four hours and already, they were in damage control mode.

"I would say that this isn't good, but I don't need to point out the glaringly obvious to you, do I?" Daphne asked Harrison and he nodded stoically.

"No, there is no need Daphne, I have a full handle on the consequences of Neville's death, the final member of an old pureblood family, in the Mundane World," Harrison stated as he made they made their way down the lift that lead into the ministry. He wished it could be a bit faster.

"And it was done by Muggle methods, this could stir up…."

"Daphne, please, I know what it could stir up, I do need to think," Harry told Daphne gently.

Daphne slumped against the wall of the lift, remaining quiet. Being a pureblood heiress, she was more than capable of wearing a mask of indifference, even though her mind was buzzing.

"And the Prophet is…."

"I know, which is why Rita is ready to be unleashed. So she can direct public opinion where it should be directed, because the last thing we need is a bunch of idiot purebloods trying to resurrect that old movement," Harrison said as he made his way towards Amelia's office.

The Ministry was a mad house, there were people swapping rumors. He saw Susan who was standing there waiting for him sitting on a bench in the hallway.

"How's Hannah?" Harrison asked her and Susan's arms slumped to her side as the redhead sighed.

"I talked to her over the phone, she's in shock," Susan said to him in a serious voice. "I'm gating over there after lunch, but I'm sure she'll be busy with the funeral arrangements."

"When Prime gets over the shock, he'll help with everything, I know he will," Harrison said and Susan got up off of her seat. She was really shaky and Harrison held her up steadily, pulling her into a slight kiss.

She could tell that Hannah being in shock was causing Susan a lot of stress. Never the less, Harrison pulled away from her and Daphne followed him, the meeting with Amelia awaited.

"Amy," Harrison said as he made his way into the office and stepping inside he sank down on a chair in front of her desk.

Harrison did not feel everything first hand, but he saw the entire brutal scene and that was rather overwhelming.

"Cissa, Andi," Harrison greeted both of the women as Daphne took the chair next to him.

"I'm not going to mince words, this is one fucked up situation and we have a lot of problems to deal with that will come from it," Narcissa said to Harrison.

Again, this was a statement that Harrison had no need for her to bring up. His green eyes burned with a bit of frustration and he shook his head.

"I don't think I need to underline the ways where this is a catastrophe," Amelia said as she leaned back for a moment and shook her head. It was a necessary action to get the cobwebs out. She knew that if she did not play her cards right, this was going to make the entire war with Riddle look like a mild skirmish.

"Well, Riddle's name has been dragged through the mud, thanks to Rita's sequel to the Dumbledore book," Daphne reminded them all.

Harry knew what Daphne was referring to with that statement, she was referring to Rita's sequel to the Dumbledore book. The Life and the Lies of Dumbledore did a wonderful job of chipping away at Dumbledore's reputation as a golden child of the light. His relationship with Grindelwald and the allegations of his rumored relationship with Severus Snape, confirmed Death Eater and many time murderer, were brought to light.

However, I Am Lord Voldemort: The Lies of Tom Marvolo Riddle blew the lid wide open. It really caused the blood purity movement to take a hit and Harrison knew that it presented an opportunity to direct any fury away from the mundane world.

"I would suggest a press conference, indicating that it was a few strangling Voldemort supporters that weren't too happy about my dragging their master's name through the mud," Harrison told Amelia and she watched him through wide eyes. "So, we know that…."

"I understand," Amelia whispered, she figured that would be the most logical place to point the finger. "Do you know who is behind it?"

Harrison paused for a few seconds, he was going over the scene in his head over and over again in amazing detail, but he was unable to come up with anything intangible.

"I wish I knew, but right now, I don't," Harrison admitted to her and Amelia inclined her head, that was what she was afraid of.

So it was all about misdirection, and using the followers of a dead and disgraced wizard, who murdered people in what was basically a temper tantrum over his abandonment issues, would work nicely. Given the other alternative, it was the most logical one and one that the majority of the people out there would agree with, especially when one considered that the Longbottoms were amongst some of the more vocal detractors of the Dark Lord.

* * *

"I give you a direct order and you decide to defy it! Did you think that I would allow you to get away with such a thing?"

Nightshade glared at the man from the shadows and her green eyes were the only thing that was visible. However, they were visible enough to indicate how happy she was and that was not very happy at all. She watched the individual as he locked his gaze on her.

"If you forgive me…."

"There will be no forgiveness for this," She said as she glared at him. There was a few seconds where she considered her options, her father considered this worthless thing rather useful in certain respects, but if she had her way, she would have gutted him and left him for dead for his defiance. She had her hand on the sword within her cloak and she was this close to drawing it, but she managed to hold herself back from punishing him.

"You know, you should be thankful, I think that he got the message," He said.

Her eyes flared with anger, that was the wrong thing to say to her, considering the mood that she was in right now. It took all the self-control that she had not to gut him.

"There is a difference between sending a message and spilling unnecessary blood! You crossed that line," She said as she got up in his face. He was about to put his hands on her, but thought better of it rather quickly. The fact that her honor guard stepped in front of her also indicated that he would be fighting a losing battle.

"You're quite lucky that your father…."

"Well, that gives us something in common then," Nightshade said as she clenched her fists together. "Because if it was not for the Demon Head insisting that your useful, you wouldn't be alive and I would have been having this conversation with a bleeding husk on the floor."

"Do not…."

"I do not wish to speak with you, no doubt my father already knows of your failure, so he can decide about what to do with you," She said. Grabbing the back of his head she forced it to face downwards, because she did not even want to make eye contact with him. Other than that she backed off, for she was this close to attacking him. Failure was not something that she tolerated, even in the best of times, even in the worst of times, she did not tolerate failure.

There was a stare down between the two of them, that indicated that today's mission went far worse than it should have gone. It garnered them far too much attention and the plan needed to go smoothly so they could not afford too much attention, not now.

Turning away, she moved forwards towards her quarters making careful strides and found the phone within them ringing. She knew that she should be expecting this call at any moment again.

She picked up the phone and with a cordial yet somehow tense tone she offered one word. "Hello."

"What the hell happened?" Nyssa demanded over the phone.

"Depends on what you mean," Nightshade stated coolly, she was not about to lose her head in this situation.

"Harry's on the war path because of what happened, he's been at the Ministry for almost three hours holding a press conference, and I find out the Longbottom boy has been shot and killed," Nyssa said to her sister without missing a beat.

The woman sighed, she knew that she to explain, but where to start, well, that was another thing entirely. "I know….I know that we have a problem."

"Yes, we have a problem," Nyssa agreed, and her sister could tell that the woman said that through gritted teeth. "Our father won't be pleased with this, T…."

"Don't you think I know that!" Nightshade snapped as she cut her sister off. "And it's the fault of this….bane of our existence. He knows enough about us already, but this might give him an excuse to find out even more about us and dig deeper into this operation before the time was right."

"There is only one person who is privy to all of the details, as you well know," Nyssa said and she held her head up.

The two sisters remained quiet, both of them were thinking.

"Who is it being blamed on?"

"Surviving worshippers of that pathetic wretch of a dark wizard that gave him the scar," Nyssa said to her sister quietly.

"Well that's a sufficient enough explanation, for now," she said. Actually given what Nyssa told her, those sheep would buy that explanation easily.

"Yes, that's the one that is being given," Nyssa said, although she hadn't had a chance to speak to Harrison directly yet.

Given that he was doing a press conference, she only heard a few scrambled tidbits. She'd hoped that her sister would know more.

"Very well then, I'll keep you posted, I'm awaiting word from my father, he is busy with his plans for Gotham City," she said to him.

"And do you…."

"I know no more than you do," she admitted.

She wished she had known more about this and perhaps she would find out even more.

Perhaps, Nyssa would learn something on her end but right now they were in the dark, playing the waiting game.

It was going to be tricky, but she was going to have to be patient.

* * *

Harry was feeling rather stoic all things considered, mostly because he was in shock. He did not want to break done in front of everyone or do something reckless.

Kara sat on the other side of him and thankfully she was able to calm him down somewhat. She held her hand in his and she held him tightly when she could.

Diana sat on the other side of him, they had no idea what really happened, other than the fact that Neville was killed and Harry had to go to the GCPD for an interrogation. Everything else was a complete and utter blank to all of them. They wanted to know exactly what was going on, but what they wanted to know and what they were going to find out, those were two entirely different things.

Pamela swallowed the lump in her throat and Fleur looked rather serious. They never saw Harry like this before.

None of them had ever seen him truly mad and only the Alphas had a clear idea with how far beyond mad he'd been brought by this entire situation.

"So….." Amanda said as she grew completely serious, and it was so scary that she was this serious, because she was rarely this serious. Yet the situation mandated her being a bit more serious than ever before.

"Yes, well….I don't know what to say," Lily said as she sat down on the couch.

Penny was on the scene and she had managed to just stumble in from the shower. Although, things were running far slower than they were before in her mind and she felt her heart hammer a few steady beats, she was able to hold her head up in the air.

"It was awful and so sudden," Penny told them somberly and Emily reached up to pat the other woman on the back. This allowed her a moment to calm down, although her eyes were still a little bit swollen and a little bit bloodshot from what happened.

"You did everything that you could," Harry managed, speaking up for the first time. His voice sounded raw and distant, there was an eerie wind that blew into the room from outside as Faora entered the room after coming in through the front door.

The events played out in his head a million times over. He'd waited for Faora to return from the scene, but it appeared that she could not find anything.

"Selina offers her condolences about what happened, I told her that you're not in a fit state to talk to anyone right now," Faora said as she kept her voice calm and even, the true example of someone who was stoic by nature.

"I offer my thanks to her," Harry said as he let in one breath and let out another breath out. He felt Faora's hand grab his as Diana slid out of the way, but she didn't slide to far from Harry.

"It was a tragedy," she said.

"Yes," Lily said, she knew of the challenges that the Longbottom family faced and tragedy seemed to attack them at every turn.

Hannah was over in the corner, she tried to hold herself together. The questionable marriage agreement aside, Neville was still a childhood friend of hers and it was a shock to see him gone. Thankfully Susan was here to offer her comfort.

"Hannah….if there's anything that I can do for you, don't hesitate to ask," Harry said to her and there was a strangled quality to her voice when she responded.

"T-thank you," She stammered as she was handed a hanker chief to wipe the tears from her eyes. It irritated her eyes to be in such a state but she needed to be calm right now. "I don't want to be…a bother."

"It's not a bother," Harry said as he held his hand out to her and she took it, nodding her head.

"Yes, we're in this together, no matter what," Kara said firmly.

Hermione half-staggered her way into the room. She had been doing some research about the bullets on the scene, because that was her own way of coping with what happened. Neville's death struck her hard as well, he was someone who she had gone to Hogwarts with for three and half years, he was probably her closest friend after Harry.

She sat down, the room was a bit crowded and Harry was just standing there. She could see the almost murderous glare in his eyes, it was kind of scary to see. She was sure that Kara, Faora, Diana, and Karen all saw it, along with Rose, Lily, and the twins, they were the closest to Harry.

Hermione shuddered, she thought that it was not a good idea to add to the crowd right now.

"Maybe you should…."

Kara's face fell as these words barely escaped her lips. Harry barely could hold his head up and he walked out of the room. There was a sense that they knew where he was headed.

There was really no words needed, Lily followed Harry out of the room, she had known Neville's mother pretty well, she was a year beneath her at Hogwarts, and she'd tutored Alice in Charms and Potions. Neville inherited his nervousness regarding Potions from his mother.

Lily smiled at the good memories as she followed Harry out of the room.

Donna rested back on the couch and she locked eyes with Zatanna, the two of them realized the seriousness of the situation. This started out as a good night, a girl's night where they took Zatanna and Hannah out as well. Although Hannah had to skip out on the latter part of the night, they did have a lot of fun.

The fun had been interrupted rather violently and now the middle daughter of Hippolyta didn't know what to say.

' _Difficult,'_ Kara thought to Donna.

' _Does Harry's mind sound like an angry hive of bees to you?'_ Donna asked Kara, tentatively because she knew that when Harry was upset, Kara was likely to go into a rage and she had a short temper as it was.

' _Yes, that's an apt comparison,'_ Kara commented in a swift voice, as she leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes, mentally counting to a hundred.

Exactly what would happen next, she really had no idea. The blonde held her hands, covered in the small amount of blood that was still on Harry's shirt. She shook her head and tried shake off the frustrating thoughts. The blonde thought that tonight just turned around for the worst, although it had been close to almost twelve hours, maybe longer, maybe closer to a day come to think about it.

Ginny chimed in with some news. _'Give the chaotic nature of the bond after what happened, I'm not sure how many of you know this, but Harrison and Daphne have been at the Ministry all day to spin damage control regarding this.'_

' _And…'_ Diana prompted.

' _It's being pinned on rogue followers of Tom,'_ Ginny told her. _'Given that book came out less than six months ago,_ _and railed on him quite hard,_ _there's really no question who might have pulled the trigger and that's all those sheep need to know.'_

' _In their minds, it would make sense,'_ Amanda said as she could feel the angry buzzing and hoped that it would subside soon.

* * *

Harry stood at the edge of the shower; he hadn't made the necessary step to go inside it, at least not yet. His legs were like concrete and jelly at the same time. If he was more coherent, he would have been amused by that contradiction, but the fact of the matter is that all coherency had left him.

"Here," Lily breathed into his ear as she started to unbutton his shirt. She ran her hands down his chest and gave him a gentle kiss to the back of his neck. She threw the blood stained shirt into a pile in the corner.

Lily slowly unbuttoned his pants, still splattered with Neville's blood. She supposed that a good scouring charm would get them clean, although it was a tad too impersonal. And constant use of magic on clothing caused them to fade faster but that was another matter for another time.

"Here," Lily said once again, not trusting herself to say anything else, as she led Harry into the shower.

Harry calmly made out the shapes of Circe and Rose. Rose had slowly taken off her top and her pants, so she stood there in nothing but a silken pair of green bra and panties. Circe had taken things one step further, so she stood there in the nude.

"We'll figure out who did this, who was behind this," Lily whispered gently and there was a second where she looked into Harry's eyes.

She expected some kind of response but Harry calmly, perhaps a bit too calmly given how stone cold his expression was, made his way into the shower. He peeled off the last article of clothing that he had on, which was a pair of boxers.

Tonight began so nicely, in a joking manner, a fun manner, then it had happened and it ended in such a gruesome way. And it was not even a clean death either, that was one of the more horrifying aspects of this tragedy. Harry pressed his hands against the wall and through the reflection on the tile, saw that there was dried up blood clinging to his face.

He turned on the shower, whether he did so by way of magic or by the Mundane way, he could not even begin to figure it out. Never the less, he did it, his heart was thumping against his chest. He closed his eyes and he felt his mother's hands on his shoulder.

Her breasts pressed against his back. It was normally a thing that would get Harry excited, but here it served a slightly different but equally wonderful purpose.

Harry didn't break down, because he knew that if his emotions got out of control, it could hurt those around him that he cared about.

Lily's soft hands worked their way down his back and rubbed the soap into it, as she worked lower. Rose walked around to the other side, Harry saw a flash of his aunt's naked breasts, firm and shapely as always as she bent down towards him. She ran her hands down his body, working over his legs.

Circe frowned, she had never seen her lord like this, he had always had it so together and in a way, it looked like that he did now. There was a chance that this was a mask that could crack at any time. She made her way forwards and decided to help to wash his legs. She knew that Harry had been through a shock, so it was fortunate that the goblins were able to work fast enough.

Tonight, one violent act could have undone so many things, but yet, somehow, they managed to keep it together.

"It's going to be fine, you know that," Circe breathed into his ear as she was working down his legs, relaxing him. Her fingers skimmed along his balls and he closed his eyes, feeling the pleasure wash through him.

Despite the initial way they got together, Circe did grow to care for Harry, they had a relationship where he was able to scratch many of her itches. As far as this goddess was concerned, men like that came around once in an eternity, that was if they were lucky. Harry was one of a kind.

Harry felt himself feeling a bit pleasured. He was closed his eyes and he felt his mother's bare breasts press against his back. His green eyes flooded with an immense amount of pleasure and Rose wrapped her arms around his waist, before gently making sure that he was completely clean.

"Don't think, just relax," Lily breathed in Harry's ear and she could tell that he was getting his emotions in check.

Of course, through their actions, they were going to replace the negative emotions with much more pleasant ones. That was what their plan was and Rose was stroking Harry's chest gently.

"So..."

"Just relax, darling," Circe whispered as she placed her hands on his thighs, she flickered her tongue and moved closer.

There was steam rising from everywhere and it was not just the shower. Lily cupped Harry's ass lovingly and there was a few seconds where everything was about ready to get extremely steamy.

"Just relax, Harry, just feel, everything will be fine, we're going to help you relax," Lily breathed in his ear, then she kissed the side of his neck and Rose's moist lips found his as well. The two tongues pressed back and forth against each other.

"Thank you," Harry said in a calm voice and Rose smiled.

"We have barely begun yet, love," Rose informed him as she ran her hands down his chest and abs and prepared for the next step of his relaxation. "I should make sure that you're cleansed."

"Let's start with down here," Circe stated as she watched at his stiffening member and she licked her lips, water running down her face from the shower, as they prepared to distract him and calm him down.

* * *

Circe gently wrapped her hand around his swollen prick and rubbed him up and down. Her hand made a pumping motion. She realized the need for Harry to need to take his mind off of certain things and to her, this really was the best way to do it.

"Damn," Harry breathed as he closed his eyes.

"Just relax, honey," Lily whispered in his ear hotly and her lips firmly pressed up against the back of his neck. She left a series of molten kisses on the side of his neck and Rose wrapped her legs around him and waited for Circe to continue her work.

"Here, lend me a hand or maybe a mouth," Circe said.

Rose dropped to her knees and she captured her nephew's cock in between her lips, wrapping them tightly around her mouth cavity. She pushed her head up and back, working his cock into her mouth. The engorged prick was really going into her hole.

Circe went down and licked him as Lily got down onto her knees and parted the legs of the goddess.

 _'Oh, so good,'_ Circe breathed as Lily's tongue found her dripping hot snatch. It felt extremely good to get such tender attention and Lily was a pro at eating pussy. Circe breathed in and out heavily as the redhead's tongue kept burying into her.

Harry wrapped his hand tightly around the back of Rose's head and rammed his cock further down her throat. She was about ready to gag on his engorged prick but managed to stay the course. He really had nothing to say, he was just going to sit back and let these beauties perform their work.

"I think we're both warmed up, Har-Zod," Circe purred hungrily in his ear and she allowed the two redhead Evans sisters to slide back. "I need you inside me."

Harry felt her slide onto him and her walls parted to accommodate him. She squeezed him as she pushed down onto his engorged pole.

"Just don't think my love, do, feel, oh that's it!" Circe moaned as Harry pushed up between her legs. Harry wrapped his hands against her ass and kept pumping himself into her smoldering hot snatch, with fluid thrusts.

Harry rammed his huge cock deep into her body and pounded her. He was letting out his frustrations out on this woman and she could take it. Her divine pussy clenched his rod as he ran his hands through her purple hair. Her dripping pussy released its nectar onto his pole.

"Take a taste, darling," Circe cooed as Harry pummeled her against the wall and he slid in and out of her at rapid fire flurry.

Rose closed her eyes and allowed her older sister to part her legs. Lily was down on her knees and treating her to some amazing oral sex. It felt so good, that Rose could hardly even hold herself together. The only thing she could do was grab Lily around the back of her head and push her face onto her pussy, rubbing her molten snatch against Lily's face. The older Evans sister munched on her baby sister's cunt.

"Mmm, ah, mmm, ah!" Rose moaned and Lily munched her cunt, tasting the pleasure that dripped from it. The redhead's actions got more sensual and dug deeper into that smooth snatch.

Circe was pressed against the wall and Harry grabbed her around the waste.

"Don't hold back!" Circe encouraged him as she wiggled her ass and Harry rammed into her from behind.

Her divine pussy hugged his god like cock and he kept sawing into her twat from behind. His eyes, they were flickering with so many emotions but he had to focus on his lust.

"If you...ah need to tag out, my pussy needs him," Rose cooed as Lily was eating her out. Lily turned and allowed Rose to return the favor.

Both Evans sisters rested in a sexually charged sixty nine position, licking and suckling at each other's mounds. Both of them were hungry for sex and they knew that they were going to munch on each other until the other cannot take it.

"Wait...ah fuck, your turn," Circe moaned as Harry grabbed her breasts and pummeled her against the wall.

It felt so good to have such a godly cock inside her, there were those who tried to come close but they did not have neither the stamina or the skill.

Harry was calmed down enough to have a good enough control on his duplication powers.

Lily rushed over towards Harry, threw her arms around him and slammed him hard against the wall, slipping her tongue into his mouth. Harry captured her tongue and dug his fingers into her firm, delicious ass, as he lifted her up.

With one fluid motion, Harry speared his mother on his cock. Her walls stretched out and clenched his hard rod as she rode him up against the wall like a cowgirl that Harry wondered if she was during a past life.

"Oh fuck, oh god, of fuck," Lily mumbled as Harry groped her delicious left breast and gave her a squeeze. Lily worked around him. "Oh that's it baby, fuck Mummy in her tight pussy."

Harry growled as he pummeled his mother's pussy, taking out his frustrations on it.

Rose was on her hands and knees, and Harry grabbed her breasts, soaping them up.

"A dirty girl like you needs to be cleaned up," he managed, trying to get into the fun and he brushed his cock against her entrance.

Rose begged him with a passionate, "Please!"

Harry was happy to oblige his aunt and went balls deep into her with one thrust. The redhead closed her eyes and Harry slammed into her from behind. Her green eyes were filled with so much lust that he saw against the shower.

Circe was being fucked hard against the wall and the goddess loved every single moment.

"Who do you worship?" Harry growled as he groped her breasts.

"Harry Potter, oh Har-Zod, oh fuck me," Circe cooed, encouraging him, squeezing her cunt muscles against him to milk his incoming cock. She wanted all that he had to offer and his balls slapping hard against her thighs, it was an amazing feeling.

Lily was now on top of Harry's cock and riding it with expert ease. She masterfully worked her hips down onto his invading rod and his most useful tool was clenched hard by her slick velvet walls. His hands touching her body, giving her pleasure, spiking her emotions and her hormones to a new height.

This was the kind of thing that Harry needed and Lily was happy to give it to him. Her walls clenched him, causing her fluids to drench his cock.

Rose was being fucked into the ground and she was glad that she took a potion to give her the added heads up. When Harry's emotions got wild, there was a built up of magic. Lily knew about it and knew that they needed to level the playing field.

When a goddess like Circe was being driven through the paces, Rose was glad that she had every single advantage in the book. His member working so far into her that it could have split her in half had she not been a witch was proof of this.

Circe moaned happily, her pussy was beaten so raw by him.

"MORE!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs and his cock went so far deep into her that it was amazing. His balls slapped against her thighs and she held onto Harry, clenching him as he rode into her. She felt the wall crack against her.

Lily bounced as high as she could go. She nearly took flight but she managed to hold on and work her hips down across Harry's throbbing hard member.

"FUCK!" Harry grunted and Lily's walls clenched him.

"Oh you like that baby, well lay back and enjoy this, oh you're really going to love this," Lily breathed as she rocked her tender backside onto his balls and cooed as she clenched him. She came over and over again and was determined to have her son's seed swimming inside of her body. She wanted to drown on it.

Harry's hands fondled her breasts and Lily threw her head back with a shrieking moan. The fact that her sister was being screwed into a submissive and drooling state, that got the redhead witch all the more horny. She whimpered as Harry kept going onto him.

Their organs met with pleasure and Harry's loins, all of the versions of him, they tightened and his balls were about to launch a flurry of cum into them.

Circe moaned as Harry slammed into her twat with a roar and his cum splashed into her. Several ropes injected into her and she held onto him tightly, clenching his rode and Harry squeezed her breasts.

Lily worked her hips down onto him and he spurted up against her. The wizard's rod injected her with burning seed and Harry felt her collapse onto him.

Rose was also injected with more cum that she could handle. She was fucked cross eyed and drooling but damn if it had not been worth it.

* * *

Harry exited the shower as all three women made sounds of sanctification. He saw Kara waiting outside of the door for him with a towel and he was sure that the blonde wasn't the only one, although she was the first one that he saw. He walked out of the bathroom and the blonde threw her arms around Harry's waist as she pulled him into a lengthy hug.

"It's going to be fine, it's going to be okay," Kara told him and Harry lifted her off of the ground to give her a gentle kiss on the lips, which she returned. Her soft lips pressing against his made him feel good.

Kara pushed herself against his body, she lead him into the bedroom where the rest of the Alphas were waiting. They needed a meeting between all of them.

* * *

Gotham City was a location where many deals went down and that was no different tonight.

The dark and brooding figure crouched upon a perch, he needed to keep his gaze fixed steady on what was going on underneath his nose. He had no idea what the extent of this deal was, but there were rumblings. The shadows obscured his form from the rest of the world and he perched there, listening keenly for any information that he could find out.

The thugs below him didn't disappoint him at all. His neck craned forwards a little bit as he strained to listen for anything that he could find out.

"So are you in or are you out?"

There was a gruff tone given by one of the sellers, as he gave off a voice that was almost like he went through three packs a day for a very long time. At least that was what could be heard from his voice. He had a scuzzy look, with greasy hair and half of his teeth missing and the other half were rotten.

"I'll let you know when I get a look at the goods, you know that I don't buy shit until I see if it's shit worth buying," The man across from the scuzzy one grumbled as he shook his head.

The buyer looked over the goods closely, the scuzzy man and his bodyguard took a step forward.

"Hurry up, don't want the Cops showing up and finding us here," A voice muttered.

"Fucking cops couldn't even find a donut shop in this city. Plus, you pay those sons of bitches enough money and they'll keep their nose out of anything."

The group nodded at that and all of them crowded around the crates to get a good look at the contraband inside. All of them raised their eyebrows and one of them could not resist making the obvious statement.

"Well you've got to admit, the fat man always comes through on his deal. This shit's pretty fucking good."

There was a second where one of the men snorted and he shook his head. "The fat man, don't you mean the fat ugly bird?"

One of the goons shrugged and looked at the content of the crate like Christmas came early and brought all of the other holidays along for the ride. "Well, whatever you say, you got to admit, shit's pretty good."

"Shit is amazing," The thug agreed as he went through the contraband once and for all.

"So do we have a deal?"

There was a second where the thugs remained quiet and the seller looked at them, a warning gaze in his eyes. "Remember, this isn't an offer that comes around all that often. Either you buy or we find someone else that will and given that this is Gotham City, there are people who would sell their own mother's to a pet store for this."

That was a statement that could not be disproved by any means and the group offered a grumbling grunt to each other.

"Did you hear that?" One of the thugs said as he jumped up suddenly, having heard something in the shadows.

"Ah, what's the matter, scared of a little noise?"

"I'm not fucking kidding! There's something out there," The goon stated with a finger on the trigger of his gun. His hand shook violently and he could barely hold his arm up.

"Ah, maybe it's the Boogey...AH!"

The mocking thug never quite got to finish his sentence, for he was strung upside down by his ankles. Another snap of the cable and he hurled down to the ground. His arm cracked, but he would survive such a fall. It was the type of thing that had to be planned precisely.

A metal orb hit the ground and released a burning cloud of smoke that caused the thugs to stumble around, running around like chicken's with their heads cut off.

It was hard to tell if they were hitting each other in the confusion or if someone else was swooping around. Never the less, legs were taken out from underneath them, heads were clonked together, and faces were smashed into the ground. One of them saw a big black shape that looked like something from his worst nightmares.

There was a huge thump and the man dropped to the ground, his kidneys feeling like they were going to explode. It would cause a lot of damage without being fatal. His face got curb stomped and the final thug collapsed unconscious to the pavement, his fingers twitching.

The figure swooped down to land on the ground and he turned his head to the right side, then to the left side. He ensured that there was no one else around, whether or not it was cops or criminals.

Once he was able to determine that there was no one else there, he took half of a step forward and placed his hand on the crate. He was about ready to see what the contents were inside of it.

The gloved hands pushed open the crate and saw a shipping invoice inside. It was a legit invoice; but the goods listed didn't quite match up with the items that were inside the crate.

He made sure to keep his body in the shadows, ensuring that no one could see him. He disabled the security camera which ensured that there would not even be a photo of him. The only hint of his presence he left was the broken and busted bones of his enemies.

He looked closely through the shipment, it looked like only half of everything that was supposed to be in the crate was there. He took careful not of the contraband, the drugs that were in there. He frowned as he kept combing over everything that was inside that crate.

That was the least of his worries however. He could see that there was another part of the shipment that was missing and he made his way over.

Tracking everything closely through the shadows, he found that there was a truck off to the side. It was disguised in a moving van and the driver was the only one there, standing there inattentive.

He flipped a pellet through the open window, releasing knock out gas that took the driver out. When he was sure that the driver was knocked down, he pressed forward.

The drugs were only one part of the larger shipment and as it turned out, there was another shipment inside the back of the truck.

He picked up the weapon; it was not your typical street fare. Running his gloved hand down it, the detective took careful note of it's make and he knew that these weapons were military grade. They did not come cheap and he was wondering whether or not the average Gotham City thugs were even capable of using them. If they were, it would make them masters of the underworld.

Judging by the type of deal going on, it was expensive but what was the true bargaining chip of the deal? Was it the drugs or was it the weapons?

"FREEZE!"

He heard a voice behind and made a motion as if he was about ready to stick his hands in the air and surrender to them.

Then he turned his hands off to the side and flicked a few gas balls from his gloves. They busted open in the street and released a thick cloud of gas into the surrounding area. He disappeared into the shadows, as they shot at him but he was already gone.

The police watched from the ground shell shocked as they saw him disappear. He swooped off into the distance, resembling a giant bat as he made his way up and out of the way.

The dark figure made his way off into the night, taking the drug sample with him. The weapons were easy enough to be identified but the drug? The drug was an entirely matter entirely. The man underneath the mask didn't know what it was. Even though he was able to prey upon that superstitious and cowardly lot, he didn't have unlimited knowledge.

However, whilst he had no idea what that drug was, he knew someone who could find out.

Bruce thought that tonight's test run was a minor success, although the fact that he got clipped in the back of the leg indicated that he had a lot more to do and a lot more things to tweak.

* * *

Harry entered the room alongside Kara, the two of them walking side by side with each other.

Faora was sitting on the edge of the bed; she was dressed in a sheer black negligee and thigh high black stockings. She sat there, she thought that given that she was bred to be a soldier, she wouldn't be surprised by anything, but she was surprised by this.

Diana sat next to her, dressed in a black bra and panties, nice and lacy. She leaned back and wrapped her arms around Harry as he sat down on the bed.

"So...are you feeling better?" Diana asked Harry.

There was a second of pause that might have seemed like an hour with the way that Harry was looking out into the distance. His green eyes swam with a multitude of emotion, but the Alphas or no one else in the Collective bond could hear the angry sound of bees that was going through Harry's head earlier any longer.

"Yeah, much better," Harry admitted and he turned his head slightly.

"But you're still thinking about what happened," Karen concluded and Harry paused for a second. She was sitting there dressed in an ultra thin white nightdress that wrapped around her body, emphasizing her amazing curves.

"I don't think that I'm going to stop thinking about what happened any time soon, but I'm mostly in a better mood than I was," Harry admitted.

Faora didn't say anything, although her hand on Harry's shoulder, let the implied thoughts that went through his mind transfer to her. His green eyes flashed for a few seconds as she locked her gaze onto his. The woman pursed her lips together as she watched her brother.

"You're thinking about the person that killed him," Faora muttered, loud enough to be heard.

Kara looked tense as well and she allowed Harry to take her head onto his lap. Slowly, he stroked his fingers through her hair and said nothing for a moment, although if eyes could talk, they could say only one thing and one thing at all.

Once he found that person, he was a dead man.

Tonight was not the night to do this however, mostly, because he couldn't think straight enough to form a plan. However, his mind was about ready to return to a coherent level and he looked at all of them.

His fingers trailed through Kara's hair and he offered a tense look.

"You couldn't..."

"I'm not blaming this on myself, if that's what you're worried about," Harry told Diana in all sincerity and she nodded, with a serious look on her face.

"That's good, because you shouldn't," Diana whispered gently to him and she stroked Harry's hair as her arm wrapped around him. Karen was sitting on the right side of him and Kara had her head on his lap. Faora was behind Harry, her hands on his neck as she rubbed out any tension she found there.

"Good, blame it on the cowardly son of a bitch that did this," Kara concluded with fire burning through her voice.

Faora smiled at her friend and sister wife. She was not going to lie, she was pleased.

Meanwhile while Harry was in better spirits that he was, he still wanted to see the bastard that did this suffer. It was almost time to go to work.

**To Be Continued in the Next Chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Nightwing Rises Part Three.**

Kara was sitting next to Harry, holding his hand as they waited for her aunt to finish performing what might very well be an extremely crucial medical evaluation. Their fingers intertwined as the blonde tried to give Harry a reassuring smile, but really, there was a certain amount of reassurance that she wanted to give herself.

"It will be okay, you know," Harry told her in a whisper although there were moments like this when he had his doubts.

Lara offered a smile across her face as she scanned him closely using several Kryptonian medical devices that had been brought to the Castle by Peve. "Well, we'll know for certain soon if it's fine or not."

Harry waited patiently as Kara continued clutching his hand so tightly that he thought that she might rip it off accidentally. He squeezed her hand in a reassuring manner.

"It was uncharted territory," Lara muttered under her breath. "I'm sure if it had been anyone but you, they would have ripped the person who bonded with them apart in an instant."

Lara smiled as the results of the scans came in and she could tell that her niece might hit something if she was left in suspense for too much longer. The blonde decided to give them the news. "Well, I've got good news and bad news."

Harry tried to lighten the mood the best he could. "Every time, even with the most minor of things….it always good news and bad news."

"The good news first, please," Kara interjected and Harry placed his arm around his wife's shoulders, the blonde was trying to look at things from the more optimistic side of the fence, although it was hard.

"The good news..." Lara agreed as she thought about how she wanted to deliver this news. "The good news is….well, Harry is growing stronger. In fact, he's more than just strong, even though he's undergone his third magical maturity he's still growing."

"Given both his Magical and Kryptonian heritage, his maturity would be different," Kara said to Lara who nodded.

"Yes, and as a result he's growing at a different rate, fourteen is when the first maturity really hits for non-magical Kryptonians, although there are some hints that it happens much younger depending on the Kryptonian…."

"And Kal-El doesn't have a drop of magic in him, or does he?" Kara asked.

"No, magic wouldn't have survived any contact with Jor-El's DNA," Lara commented shaking her head. Then again, Kara got her gifts from Alura's side of the family and as far as Lara knew, her own family lacked any magical talents.

"So there's that to consider," Kara said and she mentally ticked off things in her mind. "So fourteen, eighteen, wasn't the other one, twenty two?"

"That's a bit odd…."

"The body is not sufficiently developed to handle a certain amount of power until most people are older, although there are other factors that might trigger early maturities," Lara commented as she eyed Harry carefully. "So…..it's more of a general guideline. It's not as clear cut as the eleven-fourteen-seventeen guideline for magicals, although you seem to be breaking new barriers there."

"Yes, but I'm the exception to many rules," Harry said and he paused before asking the question they were all dreading. "And the bad news?"

Kara dreaded this but she knew that she had to know it. She felt Harry's strong arm wrap around her in a reassuring manner.

"It's just like you and Peve suspected regarding the Keys of Endless, the Hallows, whatever you wish to call them, when they merged with you," Lara said as she offered the printout for Harry to read, whilst summarizing the more prominent points. "If any other witch or wizard attempted it, the ending would have been explosive."

"Yes, I figured that much," Harry offered her and Lara continued.

"Thankfully for you, it hasn't been fatal," Lara said, she paused for a moment before continuing. "But, it has cracked your Collective Operation Relational Endosphere."

"Or to put things in laymen's terms, the magical core," Harry concluded.

' _Oh, fuck,_ _we don't like it when you refer to the CORE as the magical core,'_ Daphne groaned, although she was amused.

' _Endosphere isn't even a real word,'_ Charlotte said channeling her daughter for a moment, not being able to help herself.

' _And neither is Quidditch, but funnily enough we use that fairly often,'_ Lucretia reminded her and Charlotte was silenced by the thought.

' _She's got you there,'_ Astoria commented, before she paused in shock. After taking a moment to compose herself, she asked the question that was burning in her mind. _'Wait, his CORE is damaged!?'_

Lara knew a conversation like this was going to pop over the bond when they heard this news, so she took a moment to compose herself, before continuing. "It really isn't as bad as one might think, although the influx of energy without certain parameters….well, I'm sure that everyone is familiar with a nuclear reactor."

Kara was most certainly familiar with one and that didn't improve the blonde's mood at all.

"I would ask if you're kidding, but I really should know better," the blonde said tensely and Harry pulled her into a reassuring hug. She drew strength from him as she cuddled in close and Harry decided to speak.

"So as long as I wear the watch for a few more years, I should be fine, right?" Harry asked Lara, who nodded in affirmation.

"Although that stunt with Ares…. was necessary….it set you back a little bit," Lara told him and she decided to sum up what Harry had already read, mostly for her benefit own and to reinforce the facts of the matter. "Your magical and Kryptonian abilities draw from the CORE, and it got super charged to the point that it cracked when you merged with the keys."

"Five years, I have to wear the watch for five more years," Harry muttered, mostly to himself. He'd been wearing the inhibitor for nearly a year and a half already, after the problem was originally discovered.

"Yes, but I know that you enjoy challenging yourself, and that is the absolute maximum, it might have been a shorter had your hand not been forced," Lara said to Harry, who nodded in response.

Kara sighed, she thought that this could be far worse, but after what happened on the island all of those years ago, she couldn't help but be more worried about it then she probably needed to be.

' _Well, we all knew going into it that merging with the Hallows was unprecedented territory,'_ Andromeda concluded.

' _So, if I'm understanding this right,_ _Harry was the only one who would be able to survive uniting them to begin with?'_ Ginny asked and then she whistled. She knew that Harry was extraordinary, but this really took the cake.

' _Yes,'_ Lily offered her with a smile.

' _I don't know..._ _Har's adaptable enough so this shouldn't be too much of a handicap, but it's also far from a good thing,'_ Faora thought. She couldn't help but thing that her powers might be making her sloppy, but perhaps sometime in the training room would verify things.

' _Yes, he is, we'll get through this,'_ Diana stated with finality, but then her faith in her husband was absolute, and could reach that of religious fervor at times.

' _Together,'_ Karen added through the link. She was taking some time off to relax, although naturally she couldn't relax that much. _'As long as he wears the watch for five years, he should be fine.'_

' _The damage will heal,'_ Harry confirmed after he finished reading the report. _'It was pouring too much power into the CORE before I was ready.'_

' _Yes, well like we said, we'll deal with this,'_ Diana added as she prepared herself. _'How about you meet Faora and I in one of the training rooms? We were just thinking about having a spar.'_

' _We're in the one closest to you,'_ Faora thought, figuring that point deserved clarification given that the castle was massive and had many different training rooms.

' _Right, I'll see you there,'_ Harry mentally responded as he prepared to join two of wives.

* * *

Faora Dru-Zod quickly came to the conclusion she really had been spending too much time in the real world and not enough time honing her skills. That point was proven as Diana knocked her down to the ground after she attempted an extremely sloppy take down. She could just imagine the General calling her weak and pathetic for such an effort, not that his opinion mattered, but that was the voice that her inner criticism took.

"Not bad," Diana concluded.

"Don't sugar coat it, princess," Faora groaned as she got back up to her feet, they were having some one on one time.

She rushed forward aiming a palm strike at Diana, but Diana grabbed her hand just before she could strike.

"Telegraphed it a bit too much," Diana said as she twisted Faora's arm behind her back, then sent her down onto her face, not bothering to hold back at all.

"Noted," Faora grimaced as she was driven into the ground, Diana kneeled on her shoulder and forced her into a position that she'd be unable to easily get out of.

Harry arrived in time to watch the spar as it occurred. Even though he was not showing it outwardly, they could both tell that the fact that he had the wear the watch for such a long time and the dangers of not wearing it presented were weighing on him. Har wasn't someone who wore his emotions on his sleeve, although Diana knew him well enough to see it.

"So, your sister seems to be a bit rusty," Diana said as she stood up to her full height and Faora gave her a scowl.

"It's not nice to rub it in," Faora said as she threw her hands up in disgust, but she was smiling never the less. "So, how about it Har, want to go a few rounds with Diana?"

"Like I would ever turn down the chance," Harry said as he looked at his bonded with a smile on his face.

Faora was going to sit this one out for now, so she watched with excitement as Harry and Diana prepared for their spar with each other.

"Right, ready, set…."

Diana went for a quick punch, but Harry blocked it by punching the inside of her forearm just below the elbow. He used a surprising amount of strength, even though his powers were mostly nullified, to push her back.

The Amazon Princess gazed upon her husband with an adoring smile on her face. "The resistance training is paying off, I see."

"In dividends," Harry told her as he rushed the Amazon, but this time, she dodged his attack, showing off her amazing natural reflexes in doing so.

The two of them circled each other and tried any number of creative attacks to take each other out. Their eyes were locked firmly on each other. Diana tried to go for a kick, but Harry dropped down in a crouch and then swept his foot outwards, taking Diana's other leg out from underneath her.

Diana, even on her back, was still pretty good and she wrapped her legs around Harry. With a whoosh, she applied the body scissors around his waist and tried to take him down.

As much as Harry enjoyed his wife's legs wrapped around him, he had to break her hold. The green eyed wizard pried her legs apart and held them their. She rolled backwards managing to bounce up to her feet as Harry went for a punch, but she blocked it. Sensing a weak spot, Harry dove in for the attack.

Punch, punch, punch, and a block, then Harry was caught around the waist, but he broke her grip rather quickly. He took her legs out from underneath her once again and this time was on the other side of her. He grabbed her and applied a full nelson, making sure to lock his fingers into place. Diana managed to power out, and she pushed Harry back.

She took him down and was on top of him just like that.

"Impressive," Harry offered, but he managed to reverse the leverage and pin her to the ground.

"My turn," Faora said and Harry blocked her punch the moment she tried to nail him with it.

"Getting slow, Faora, a year ago, you would have knocked me on my arse with the first attack," Harry said.

"Maybe, you're just getting better," Faora breathed heavily as Harry did a back flip to gain some distance. It was an unnecessary movement, but never the less, it showed who was in control of the fight. The dark haired woman went towards Harry, but he grabbed her arm and twisted it once more behind her back.

"Whatever makes you sleep better at night, sis," Harry retorted as he took her down and caused her to land ass over tea kettle onto the ground.

"Well, you've been able to hold your own pretty good with Diana, given that she's been training longer than either of us," Faora said as she got up off the ground.

"Switch," Diana offered.

Faora growled but also nodded in response.

Diana was holding back a little bit, waiting for Harry to get warmed up. She rushed him once again. He barely blocked her punch and had to crouch down to avoid another punch. She avoided his attempt to sweep her legs and then grabbed him by them.

Harry broke the grip, then grabbed her around the head and flipped her straight to the ground. Diana pulled herself back up and Harry tried to take her out with a flying shoulder tackle to her side. She dodged it and Harry crashed into the padded black mats. He bounced back up with a fury, turning quickly to face her. The Amazon Princess smiled at him, encouraging him to keep going.

"Come on! You can do it," Diana stated to him and she motioned for Harry to move forward. His emerald eyes flared with intensity.

The green eyed wizard sent a snap kick towards her, she dodged his attack and they went hand to hand. She blocked his punch and he returned fire by blocking hers, then counter attacking. Both of them locked eyes with each other.

"Once again, not bad," Diana said, then she tried a take down to keep Harry on his feet.

Harry was able to stay on his feet by dodging her foot as it swung towards his leg. He dodged her follow up attacks again and again.

Eventually, Harry had worked her into the right position and Diana blinked, that couldn't be right.

"Well, you know, I should use every tool to my advantage," Harry commented as he had Diana tied up in her own lasso, a gift from her mother that was passed down to her eldest daughter.

"Very clever," Diana said grudgingly as she tried to push herself out of the tight binding and Harry grabbed her around the waist.

"I think that's an action that desires a reward," Faora commented, licking her lips at the sight of Diana's bound form. The dark haired woman's eyes were burning with lust and Diana shivered as Faora placed her hand her thigh.

"Please, please," Diana managed breathlessly and there was a second where Faora's hand teased her thigh, before she slowly draw her hand back.

"Don't worry, princess, we'll take care of you," Harry said to her and he removed her top before kissing her, with Faora working on the bottom half.

* * *

Diana closed her eyes, her arms wrapped tightly around Harry. Her bare breasts were already out and Harry grabbed them in his hands. Her large melons were squeezed firmly and she moaned, grinding herself against Harry.

Then she felt something hot and wet between her legs. Faora used her tongue to give her pleasure. While it was not as pleasant as Harry's Parseltongue stimulations, it was still quite lovely all things considered. Diana's thighs clenched together as her lover kept working over her center, licking and slurping her and causing a lovely heat to pulse between her legs.

"Oh, fuck," Diana moaned as Faora worked her tongue into her as Harry suckled on her breasts and roughly pinched her ass. That caused her juices to flow more freely into Faora's waiting mouth with the dark haired girl slurping them up in eager contentment.

' _You really want this don't you, you want me to lick that dirty, filthy, Amazon twat clean, don't you, princess?'_ Faora projected in a half taunting tone and this caused Diana's pussy to clench. _'Just getting you warmed up for Har's massive cock to pound you into jelly.'_

' _Yes, fuck,'_ Diana managed as Harry hovered in front of her and she greedily captured his erect cock in her mouth.

Getting a blow job whilst floating in mid air was an amazing feeling, especially at Diana's skilled mouth blowing him like there was no tomorrow.

The dark haired woman closed her lips around Harry tightly and she applied the super powered suction needed to give him pleasure. Her talented Amazon mouth worked him over and his grunts of pleasure indicated that there was pure magic.

Harry grunted as he shoved his cock into her mouth and his balls tightened after many moments of her mouth going to work on him.

He spurted a load down her gullet, with Diana hungrily slurping up all of the seed that he had to offer to her. The wizard was shooting load after load of his essence down her throat and the Amazon lapped it up like a dying woman.

Diana pulled away from him and some of her husband's cum had dribbled onto her chin and lips. Faora slowly lifted herself up from Diana's cunt, her Amazon juices dripping from the Kryptonian female's face.

"Here, let me clean that up for you," Faora purred as he grabbed Diana around the face and kissed her hungrily.

Harry felt his cock grow harder than it was before at this erotic display. Both dark haired females were licking and slurping the juices off of each other's faces.

Faora spun around and grabbed Harry roughly around his iron hard cock. She gave him an intense hand job for a moment.

"I think you're now ready for the ride of your life," Faora whispered hotly in his ear as she pumped him teasingly a few more times.

"Ride my cock like it's the only thing that matters," Harry growled as he hoisted up Faora by his fingers.

She hovered out of his reach and went to the tip top of the room. She measured Harry's cock as it stood erect, prepared for her.

With another fluid motion, Harry felt Faora slam down onto his large cock, her walls squeezing it as she pressed down onto him, her strong pelvic muscles connecting against his.

"FUCK!" Harry groaned as Faora's walls clenched him as the dark haired beauty rode him up and down. She was getting the very most out of his cock as it pressed between her walls. The beauty was really attempting to cause him to feel the pleasure. She closed her eyes and felt his cock pulse between her walls.

"You know…you love that," Faora said as she worked him over, rocking her pussy against her rod.

Diana fingered herself at the erotic display of Faora fucking Harry into the ground, her hips rotating against his in a brilliant display as the two of them worked back and forth against each other. He took her nice breasts and squeezed them.

"FUCK!" Faora mewled as Harry's hands played with her breasts, squeezing them and tempted them.

Diana suddenly was bound on her hands and knees. It was so quick that she pretty much blinked and he was there, behind her, his length teasing her entrance.

"Relax, Princess, you're going to feel so good," Harry growled as he ran his finger down her puckered ass hole.

Diana felt herself get excited at the feel of his cock wedged between her cheeks. It was big and with his Metamorphmagus powers, he could make it even bigger than it naturally was, although very few women could handle more than twelve inches.

"Fucking do it," Diana said as she looked over her shoulder, smoldering lust burning through her eyes.

Harry licked her ass briefly causing juices to spill from her pussy. Then with her ass lubricated nicely, Harry rammed into her tight hole.

Diana closed her eyes as his massive cock tore her apart. He was taking out all of his aggressions over the last couple of days on her ass and that was a pretty good thing. Harry's balls slapped against her thighs as he sawed into her from behind. His cock went pretty far into her ass as her hot anal walls tightened around it.

Harry pinched her nipples which caused her to squeal and twisted them as well. His cock worked into her anus and each slap of his balls against her cheeks made her feel so good.

"FUCK ME!" Faora begged as she was turned over and Harry had her down pinned onto the ground. His cock speared so deep into her dripping hot center that it was nearly pushing her walls completely apart. The dark haired woman breathed as Harry rammed his cock into her, driving her down into the ground. The woman's nails sank deeply into him.

Harry smiled as she grabbed his biceps, using her inner muscles to really work him over. His balls slapped against her thighs as Harry sped up his thrusts into her. The look in her eyes caused his loins to throb with pleasure and desire. Her hips lifted up to meet his thrusts.

Faora felt so good as her brother's cock impaled into her body. She tightened her walls around him and she milked him with her walls. Harry grabbed her hips and kept pumping into her from behind. The woman's eyes flooded over as she clenched him.

Harry held onto her hips and worked his thick prick as far into her as he watched his other self spear his thick hot member into Diana's hot buns. The Amazon Princess clenched his rod between her cheeks, trying to get him off with her expert motions.

"Oh fuck," Diana moaned as she waited for a flood of cum to occur in her ass and the dupe was not going to disappoint her in the slightest. His huge cock pressed into her ass as it spurted a huge load of cum.

Diana pulled back, cum spilling from her ass after he unloaded the load into her. The thick white spunk dripped from her ass.

Harry made a motion and Diana obeyed, positioning herself where her ass was above Faora's mouth so Faora could lick Har-Zod's cum straight from her ass.

Harry cupped her pussy and felt it. Diana felt the heat rising from her smoldering hot cunt and Harry's cock was hovering above her.

"Please, Harry," Diana moaned as Faora licked her ass as the original model of Harry speared into the Kryptonian's tight cunt. The woman's eyes closed as Faora was hammered.

Harry obliged one of his Amazon wives, ramming into her pussy. His spear filled her all the way up and she really closed her eyes tightly. His fingers intertwined around his hair, encouraging him to go deeper.

Diana felt the push of his throbbing meat, touching all the way into her womb as Faora was licking her asshole clean.

"Damn, this is so fucking hot," Harry groaned as Faora's snug snatch wrapped around him and he hung onto her thighs, giving her a good hard fucking.

Faora knew that Harry needed this and she could feel Diana's warm ass rubbed up against her face. The Kryptonian was having a ball with her brother's cock fucking her senseless as she was giving the beautiful Amazon Princess a rimjob as she sat on her face, while another Har-Zod fucked her in her cunt.

Harry grabbed Diana's breasts, signifying his ownership. Diana moaned as he continued to cup her breasts, causing sexual fire to burn through her body.

"Oh yes, fucking molest those tits!" Diana shrieked at the top of her lungs. Harry was fairly happy to oblige her request as well, his cock spearing into her.

Their actions continued to escalate through a fever pitch as Harry buried himself deep between her thighs. His balls were loaded with cum and about ready to explode any moment now.

The two enjoyed their actions with each other until Harry hung onto her hips and slammed into her, spurting his cum deep into her pussy. The woman clenched him hard and his seed spurted between her legs, filling her up with every drop of cum.

* * *

Faora and Diana were put through the paces, but they were certain that it allowed Harry to work out some aggressions that he had been feeling. They hadn't brought up recent events that happened, but they knew and were glad that he was getting his head together.

' _So, how are you?'_ Alura asked, there was a tentative nervousness in her voice.

Harry smiled. _'Well, I'm a bit better now, although I still have a lot of work to do.'_

Given the state that he left Faora and Diana in, he felt that he worked through a lot of his aggressions. The past night….well, it was something that wouldn't be leaving his mind any time soon.

' _Can you and Peve meet me in the lowest basement?'_ Harry thought as he made his way down there and he knew that they would be joining him quickly.

* * *

"Well, that was quite frankly a nightmare, but at least it's out of the way," Daphne stated as she walked next to Harrison and Bellatrix as they left the Ministry of Magic in London.

"Yes, it was, but at least the idiots are pacified by the most simplistic of explanations," Bellatrix concluded. She could see how Riddle got one over on the rest of the world, because they were the type of people that were easily led.

Harrison smiled. "I don't know about you two, I'm hungry."

"Well, when I'm with you, I'm always hungry for something," Bellatrix said with lust burning through her violet eyes as they locked onto Harry and she licked her lips.

"Subtlety is obviously not one of your strong points," Daphne commented with thinly veiled agitation present in her voice.

"Well, you do look rather subtle when you have Har-Zod's cock halfway down your throat," Bellatrix said sweetly.

"More than halfway actually," Daphne countered with a smug smile as they made their way down the street, Bellatrix wrapping her arm around Harrison's waist for a brief moment.

"Ladies, behave," Harrison commented to them with a smile.

"Are you going to spank us Har?" Bellatrix asked as she walked a bit ahead of him, wiggling her tight ass for emphasis.

"You would get off on that, Bellatrix, so I'll need to think of alternate forms of punishment to get certain lessons to sink in," Harrison said.

"Naturally, variation is something that's important, especially with someone like you," Daphne commented as Harrison wrapped his other arm around the blonde and she smiled.

Harrison smiled, he could see that there were times where Daphne needed some stress relief after all she did. Granted, she was pretty good at what she did, but there were times where she could really get agitated by the presence of idiots. She might have taken a bit longer than Harry and Hermione did to get their NEWTs, but she passed it with the top marks, a bit behind Harry, Kara, and Diana, but a fair bit ahead of Hermione, who'd scored better then Riddle and Dumbledore. She'd always had the potential, but motivation was needed as well to achieve that position.

"So, there's this place down the block where…." Harry paused mid sentence to look over his shoulder, he could feel a presence nearby and it wasn't a friendly one.

' _Heads up,'_ Harrison thought to both Daphne and Bellatrix.

' _What…'_ Daphne thought, but then the hairs on the back of her neck stood up. The blonde nearly stopped short, confused and she knew that she wasn't going to like what was going to happen next.

' _Keep walking, pretend that you don't notice_ _anything off,'_ Harrison thought to both of the girls.

Harrison knew who was following him, hoping that he would lead him to Morgaine. The curse….well, the curse was such that he believed that he needed to eliminate Morgaine to be free of it. The green eyed wizard kept walking forward, before nearly skidded to a stop. He looked over his shoulder.

He managed to slow down time all around him, by activating a time dilation bubble.

Harrison allowed three duplicates to split off. One of the dupes slowly morphed into the form of Daphne, with the short blonde hair, vibrant blue eyes, large breasts, long legs, and tight ass, dressed in robes. The other one morphed into Bellatrix, who had a figure that rivaled if not slightly outclassed Daphne, due to her age. The third remind a perfect duplicate of Harrison.

' _Damn, I look_ _hot,'_ Bellatrix said as she shamelessly checked out her own ass.

' _Bella,_ _focus,'_ Harrison thought to her sternly and she fell back in line. The chameleon spells should be able to shield them for a little while, at least until he could figure out what Blood was doing.

Once he was sure that everything was in place, he dropped the time dilation field around them. Harrison looked over his shoulder, waiting for that moment of truth, which was almost upon him.

' _Okay,_ _try not to make any sudden movements,'_ Harrison told both of the girls and they looked extremely serious. _'Apparate behind him, now.'_

Daphne, Harrison, and Bellatrix popped into place behind the man. Now Harrison could properly see him, with his X-Ray vision focused firmly on his back.

' _The moment of truth is now,'_ Harrison thought to himself and he clenched his fist. He saw Jason Blood move in, getting closer and closer.

Bellatrix waited for the signal and she lifted her hand into the air. She was about ready to attack the person from the side, but only on Harrison's signal. His green eyes flared with a certain amount of intensity. There was a few seconds where Harrison waited, pausing, preparing, getting ready for what was going to happen next.

Blood took another step forward and Harrison lifted his hand as Bellatrix did. Daphne prepared to bring up a shield that would block off the exit to and from the ally, as well as keep anyone nearby from noticing what was happening within it.

Harrison nailed him with a high impact attack to the side. He knew that in the back of his mind, the demon would not be taken down from such a sudden attack, but he also knew that this attack would get his attention.

"You should not have done that, now you're going to get squashed flat," Blood commented as his eyes began to burn. "Gone, gone, form of man, rise the demon….ETRIGAN!"

The demon was a hideous sight to say the very least, with a face that not even a mother could love. He had rough looking sallow yellow skin and pointed ears, with dangerous red glowing eyes, and sharp teeth. His red cloak stretched over his body, as his putrid gaze burned towards Harry's face.

"Where is the witch?"

"Not here," Harrison stated as he levitated some rocks, super charged them with kinetic energy, and hurled them at the demon with rapid fire fury.

The demon punched through the flying rocks and Bellatrix slashed her hand downwards. The demon backed off, as she tried to slice him to ribbons but unfortunately, the dark curse that would have torn someone apart barely had any effect on him.

"Nothing more dangerous than a paper cut to me, if you think you can defeat me, well that's a notion where you will soon see the futility," Etrigan commented as he tried to shoot fire at Bellatrix, but she did a duck and roll to avoid being barbequed.

Harrison flicked his wrist and as a results, spikes shot up from the ground, in an attempt to impale his enemy with extreme prejudice. He felt his claws swipe at him, but he dodged the attacks before he was cut by them.

"You think…."

Bellatrix and Harrison managed to back him off with a combined attack, both spells struck him hard. The blinding lights only deterred the demon for a moment.

"I will not allow you to pass, you will bring forth to me the witch, or I will make you my…."

Harrison's fist nailed the demon in the face so hard it slammed to the side, but the demon fought back in an attempt to take him down, hurling him off. He had never fought an enemy this strong before outside of the nine hells, so he relished the opportunity to do so now. The demon jumped into the air and tried to hammer him with a punch, but Harrison blocked his super powerful fist.

"You are quick, but your attacks, they will not stick," the demon stated as he picked his shots wisely for another attack.

The demon's bravado was strong, Harrison would give him that, but it was not as if he was completely invincible. Grabbing him by the arm he locked it against his left elbow, then snapped the bone with his right.

"You have had a good fight, but that is all, for tonight!" Etrigan howled as he broke away from Harrison, driving towards Daphne he knocked her off to the side, causing her to land with a sinister thud.

This caused her spells to break and Harrison tried to bring down the full force of his powers upon him, but a portal had already opened and Etrigan slipped off through it, escaping to fight another day.

Harrison had several scratches, bumps, and bruises, but he ignoring them he moved quickly towards Daphne who was down on the ground.

He bent down and helped Daphne to her feet.

"How are you?" Harry asked her.

"I've been better," Daphne said as blood poured out of the side of her mouth.

Harrison looked up and he knew that the demon would return. Next time, he would be ready but the problem was so would Etrigan.

* * *

Jaime made her way down to the sub-basement of Castle Peverell, there was a lot of curiosity running through her mind. She was wondering what in the hell Harry, Peve, and Alura were up to. Hell, she wouldn't even know whether or not they were down there, had Lara not informed her about the fact that they were.

She was walking with a purpose, Jaime had information in her hand that Harry needed to see and the dark haired woman raised her hand to slowly knock upon the door. There was a long pause and there was a sense that she was going to have to wait. Jaime craned her ear towards the door and she tapped on the door one more time.

She was about ready to leave, but then a calm voice said the word from the other side. "Enter."

Jaime made her way inside and saw Harry hunched over something on a table that was half covered. She could tell that he was deep at work with whatever it was.

"Hey, Jaime, come in and sit down," Harry offered her as he levitated a comfortable looking chair in front of her path. Jaime sat down in the chair next to him, in good grace, with a smile on her face.

"So….how are you holding up?" Jaime asked Harry and he smiled at his counterpart.

"Good enough," Harry told her with a shrug and Jaime smiled. "What do you have for me?"

Jaime was prompt to answer, dropping the papers in front of him. "Nyssa, has some information for you, regarding the man who killed Neville."

There was a second where Jaime could have sworn that she got a visible reaction from him, but there was nothing more then a flicker in his eyes. He just held the paper in his hand, mildly scanning his eyes over it. The green eyes of the Boy-Who-Lived flashed for a brief moment as did so.

"So, what are you working on?" The-Girl-Who-Lived asked Harry, deciding to steer this conversation away from potentially depressing waters, because it was starting to get pretty close to being that way.

It was Alura who answered. "It's a combat nanosuit, based on a Kryptonian design, Harry's been trying to adapt it using state of the art human technology."

"Which, is more than stone age compared to Kryptonian," Lara chimed in as she showed up then to join them. "But, then again, you know Harry, he likes a challenge."

"Yes indeed, we know and love him it, in fact," Alura offered them with a smile on her face.

"Is this?…Who invented this suit…."

"Well, it was something that the two of us worked on together while on Krypton, although obviously, the great and powerful Jor-El got credit for its completion by the Science Council," Alura commented and there was a sense of bitterness present in her voice.

' _The fucking Council,'_ Kara chimed in grumpily. _'_ _Made up of a bunch of grumpy old men, who couldn't see past the end of their nose and didn't even know that it was possible for females to do anything productive in their life.'_

' _Kind of reminds me of the Ministry of Magic before we cleaned it out,'_ Daphne added.

' _Although,_ _that still work in progressed,'_ Amelia contributed with a tense tone. It seemed like there was something about waving a wand that caused people to feel the need to do something completely and utterly stupid. The redhead closed her eyes.

' _Well, just keep working on it, if anyone can make any headway,_ _it's you, Amy,'_ Harry told her encouragingly as he went back to his project.

"And I don't even know why Jor-El is even credited for half of the things that he is credited for," Jaime stated.

"Well, the fact that his family name could have something to do with that, he was well connected and loved by many, well, at least his father was. I think he inherited that reputation even though he wasn't the most social of people," Harry said.

' _Yes, well liked, and well loved, until he started telling the truth that the planet was going to blow up, which they didn't want to hear,'_ Faora added.

' _Most politicians don't like to hear the truth about something going wrong,_ _they'd rather just bury their_ _heads,'_ Penny said wisely. _'True in the Mundane World,_ _true in the Magical,_ _obviously true on alien planets as well it looks like.'_

' _Hear, hear,'_ Amanda cheered with a smug little smile.

' _Yes_ _indeed,'_ Harry commented, but he had a few other things to do. His green eyes locked forward and he stared at a holographic view screen in front of him.

"Still, compared to Peve, he really isn't much of anything," Jaime said and there was a moment where Faora chimed in from the bond.

' _Bit of a Neanderthal really compared to Peve,'_

"Yes, but…." Jaime continued, only for the woman in question to jump in.

"The Council never really liked me during my early years, a female shouldn't be a scientific prodigy, it's just not done," Peve offered to them tensely. "My father was fortunately well connected and he knew that I would never be able to grow under the thumb of the Council, who even then were being difficult and stubborn. Therefore, I was sent to Earth and….well, you do recall what happened from there don't you?"

"I do indeed," Harry said as he grabbed the young woman's hand and squeezed it, causing her to smile at him brightly.

' _Yes,_ _I'm seeing how much history glosses over Rowena and I_ _, trust me, you're in good company,'_ Helga continued. They had spent most of the last two years incognito helping Minerva revamp Hogwarts. It was appalling how much the standards had fallen.

' _Yes, well, if it wasn't for that little bitch fight between Salazar and Godric then Riddle and Dumbledore,_ _we would have been more well known,_ _instead of being the two bastard stepchild houses of Hogwarts,'_ Rowena said. She was angered at how much of her precious book collection was lost to time, due to being too dangerous and not approved by Ministry regulations.

Such a thing wouldn't have been possible during their time, because one didn't have to wait for the approval of a committee, who then had to be approved by another committee, who then had to be signed off by a council, who then had to be approved by another committee, which the Minister of Magic picked, to publish a fucking book.

Then again, up until Amelia became Minister, the Ministry was afraid that people would end up being smarter than the people in charge. Granted, that was not a hard feat but still.

"I have many inventions of mine own, as you've seen," Alura stated to Harry, who nodded.

"Brilliant as well," Harry offered and Alura flushed, looking pretty pleased with herself.

"Never went to the Council, because Zor-El would have taken credit for them," Alura said as she crossed her arms. She hated that arranged marriage, but her father was never quite interested in her feelings. She'd always been judged a bit of a misfit due to her mystical abilities, not like her two older sisters, who were killed in the destruction of Kandor along with Zod's first wife and son.

Kara was the only good thing to come out of that union and she was really glad that she turned out nothing like Zor-El. Of course, given Faora's influence, who had a hand in guiding Kara to grow into the strong young woman that she was.

"Yes….whilst Jor-El never took direct credit, he didn't speak up on my behalf when the Council talked about how it was his brilliance that helped me formulate my own inventions," Lara said as she threw back her blonde hair and gave a very long and prominent sigh.

"Despite the fact that you were the brilliant one in that relationship," Harry told Lara and the blonde offered a smile as she leaned back for a moment.

"Yes, entirely," Lara commented as she placed her finger on the edge of her mouth. "Then again, the point is moot."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

Peve was the one who jumped in with a smile on her face. "Well, you're far smarter than Jor-El. Who managed to only build a life pod that was only large enough to house an infant, real brilliant idea that one."

Harry was not going to say anything about that, but he couldn't help but smile. The dark haired wizard continued tinkering with the suit.

"So, this is information about the guy who…took out Neville," Jaime said, she felt that she needed to be careful not to trigger Harry's temper. She could tell that he was working on the suit as a way to keep himself calm. He looked over his shoulder towards Jaime.

"Thank you," Harry told Jaime as he took it. He didn't really pay that much attention to it the first time she offered it, but now that his mind was on it, he looked it over more thoroughly.

He was trying not to think about what happened, because he had this feeling that whoever sent this message, was trying keep him unbalanced.

"So, it's been a while since we've had a chance to get together," Jaime whispered as she rubbed his shoulders and smiled as she looked in her double's green eyes. Harry leaned back towards her.

Lara and Alura left them for a moment, they had a couple of other things to attend to.

"Yes, it's been too long," Peve added as she placed her hand on her hand on Harry's thigh with a smile. The Kryptonian looked at Harry with her chocolate hair falling in front of her face, while her vibrant emerald green eyes stared into Harry's. The dark haired woman watched him with a smile etched upon her face.

"Yes, it has," Harry offered as he pulled Jaime onto his lap and kissed her madly. The dark haired woman closed her eyes and returned the kiss with equal fervor, his arms wrapping around her. Her legs draped over his hips as he kept kissing her.

Peve sat on the other side of Harry, the three of them might as well have been indulging in themselves, given that they resembled triplets.

* * *

Jaime worked her tongue into her lover's mouth, running her hands all the way down his back. Harry kissed back with her, cupping her backside in his hands. He felt its firmness underneath his hands and he felt Peve go down low.

"I missed this," Peve purred hungrily as she kept stroking his cock, making it grow in her hand.

"It's missed you," Harry grunted as Peve kept pumping his length up and down, making him feel really good.

Peve wrapped her juicy lips around his cock, sliding herself all the way down until she touched his pubic bone. The woman blew him as Harry leaned back.

Jamie pulled her skirt off to reveal her shaven pussy. Harry grabbed her by the thighs and greedily licked her dripping hot cunt.

"Oh fuck, oh yes, oh fuck!" Jaime panted as Harry kept working his tongue deep into her hot cunt. She rubbed her pussy against his mouth and Harry kept munching on her. The wizard was really putting her through the paces and she could not even keep her head up.

Peve kept her mouth around his shaft, using every single trick that she knew and some that she made up on the fly on him. Her hand wrapped around his balls and she fondled them.

Harry hungrily tasted the pussy of his double and felt that Peve was really working him over. His cock went down her throat and she almost gagged on it. It made things feel more erotic as Jaime moaned and came on his face.

Like a dying man, Harry lapped up the juices that oozed from his sister's pussy like they were the life blood that sustained him. His cock throbbed as Peve now decided to work her hips around his cock.

Peve got a slight taste of her lover but after that round she wanted even more. She wanted the entire package. His cock speared into her, stretching out her hot and moist walls. The wizard felt her tighten around him as she kept riding him down.

"So good," Peve moaned as Jaime played with her breasts. Her super warm cunt was being violated by this huge cock. She impaled herself onto him and whimpered, her eyes flooded over with a supreme amount of desire etched within her eyes.

"Oh, you haven't felt anything yet," Jaime stated as she used her skills with her tongue to stimulate Peve's juicy nipples.

Peve's head reared back as the female version licked and suckled on her nipples and breasts whilst the male version hammered her tightening cunt from underneath. There was a loud and lustful moan as she kept working her hips around him, spearing her walls around him. His cock was squeezed with her tightening vice like grip of a pussy.

"Oh, fuck, yes, yes," Jaime moaned as Harry licked her walls. His tongue got longer inside her, and slithered inside her cunt. It touched every area and her nerve endings exploded into a never ending explosion of pleasure.

Harry was having a ball, Peve's tanned thighs worked down onto his balls and they slapped against them. His balls pressed up against her thigh and she kept riding him like a prize.

Peve came hard, she was really….she was really losing it. She had felt this cock many times before and every time, Harry stepped up his effort.

' _I'm sure you're going to lose it, but keep it together, I'm not done yet,'_ Harry grunted as his thick length speared her between her walls.

Peve worked her hips down upon him, groaning and moaning as his cock continued to bury itself even deeper between her walls. She felt the pleasure as he worked her over. She held onto his shoulders and rode his throbbing length. The dark haired woman clenched him as she rocked back and forth onto him. The woman's walls squeezed him as she kept working him over.

Jaime felt her pussy being licked even more and she could tell that Peve needed to tag out. That much was obvious when Peve slid off of Harry's cock and slumped back, her legs spread. There was a whimpering moan and her legs spread. There was a few seconds where her thighs spread and Jaime got off Harry's face, slowly crawled over his body, rubbing every single inch of her flesh over his body, brushing against his cock as she situated herself, thighs spread.

Harry parted her hot walls and prepared to play with her folds. His cock pressed up against her lips and Harry prepared to enter her. His cock was about inside her and Harry wrapped his arms around her body.

Jaime felt Harry's huge rod ram into her from behind. His cock stretched her out and she panted heavily as Harry worked into her tightening cunt like a jackhammer, spearing her over and over again. She panted as Harry went into her. Her walls clenched him and she milked his invading tool with everything that he was worth. His green eyes continued to flow with determination as she clutched her breasts.

"Damn baby, so…fucking hot," Harry grunted as Jaime's face was indulging herself in Peve's hot and warm juices. Harry helped up the path as much as he could and the hot woman's face was munching on the delicious cunt.

He held onto her hips and kept burying himself into her. These walls clutched his tool and Harry grunted as he kept spearing himself as far into her.

Jaime's tongue kept lapping up Peve and she was driven wild by the combination of sensations. Harry rode himself into her juicy hot cunt, working over until it quivered beneath his efforts. The emerald eyes of Harry Potter continued to burn with lust.

Peve panted, she was waiting for Harry's cock once more but Jaime's tongue, that would be so fucking amazing. She bucked her hips upwards to meet the probing motions that her tongue offered. There was a heavy amount of panting as she felt the tongue continue to dig into her dripping hot cunt.

He shifted gears and started to take her in the ass.

' _She loves that, naturally,'_ Harry thought hungrily as he pinched her ass cheeks together and kept working into his lover. He delivered a jackhammer like blow to her ass, working into her. Her anal walls closed around him and Harry kept staying the course, working her over like she was nothing. She panted even more heavily with Harry picking up a steady pace.

Jaime was not going to disagree with that, in fact, she eagerly encouraged the next anal violation. Her walls stroked his thick hard cock and she whimpered as Harry buried himself as far deep into her as he could. His balls throbbed and he was about to release his hot juices into her warm buns.

Harry pushed into her and unloaded, spurting rope after rope of hot cum on her ass.

"Oh, that looks good," Peve managed as she decided to start feasting on the cum that was oozing from Jaime's ass.

Her pussy was parted and ready, so Harry was going to take her anew.

' _Oh fuck, Har!'_ Peve shrieked at the top of her lungs as she felt his cock penetrate her walls, feeling the rush explode into her. Fireworks rattled in her eyes.

Harry smiled as he kept hanging onto her waist, as he buried into her. Her walls wrapped around his prick as he watched her do the completely erotic action of eating his own cum off of Jaime's ass.

Jaime fingered herself as she felt Peve's actions. Even though she had been fucked for a long time in both holes, she was still as horny as hell.

Harry grabbed Peve around the hips and speared into her. The woman's walls tightened around him and milked each thrust. There was a combination of moaning as Harry's massive cock continued to go deep into her.

His member assaulted her dripping hot cunt and Jaime was rolled over so Peve could use her tongue to return the favor from earlier in her pussy. Jaime lifted her hips up, feeling Peve's hand clutching her thighs. She panted hungrily as the tongue continued to speed up with a few swipes of her cunt.

"Yes, oh yes," Jaime whimpered as her tongue kept stroking her body.

Harry watched this erotic sight, his balls throbbed, and he could feel their weight. Eventually something had to give and he would keep up the actions. He slid as far into her as he could and then pulled out. He could tell that his cock touched places that she never thought would be possible. The woman grabbed onto the table and whimpered.

"Cum…please cum," Peve moaned as she used her pussy as a vice clamp. She milked her man's prick until he could take no more.

All three lovers saw stars and offered a few minutes pause as they took a long break with each other.

* * *

' _Harry, are you there?'_ Hermione thought to him, tentatively biting down on her lip.

' _Yes, Hermione,_ _what is it?'_ Harry asked, he had Jaime snuggled on one side of him and Peve snuggled on the other.

' _I was keeping an eye on your e-mail just like you asked and…..there's an e-mail from Bruce Wayne, he's asking if you'd be able to meet him at your earliest convenience. What should I….'_

Harry paused, he was intrigued by this and he wanted to know what was happening.

' _Hermione, it's fine, I'll meet with him, send him a reply and say that I'll meet him at the RAO Corporation building in an hour, third meeting room on the first floor. Give him the directions, I know you know where it is,'_ Harry told Hermione.

' _Right, master,'_ Hermione said with a nod, she shook her head and prepared to do as Harry requested. She was rather curious about what was going on, although she had continued researching the make of gun which Neville got shot with.

So far, no luck, it appeared to be specially made or extremely rare, Hermione didn't know which it was and the fact she didn't? It frustrated her to no end.

* * *

Diana was looking sharp in the outfit that she was wearing. She had her sleek long black hair was tied back in a ponytail and she was wearing a pair of glasses. She wore a blue blouse and a grey business jacket over it. Her blouse was modest enough to offer a degree of professionalism, yet she left the top two buttons undone to hint at the treasures beneath. She frowned as she found the length of the skirt a bit too constraining and she'd almost tripped due to it. She cursed Man's World for having the standards that they did on modesty, but then again, some of them had body image issues.

Something that wasn't even a definition in the Amazon World.

"So, Wayne will be up here in about ten minutes," Pam said, she was wearing a tight green top that showcased her cleavage and a green skirt along with a green pair of high heel boots. It was the closest she could get to match the shade of her husband's eyes.

"Yes, in a few minutes," Harry confirmed, then Pam slowly popped a strawberry into his mouth.

She had heard about what happened and she knew that were shield charms which could block bullets, Harry was quick witted enough to use one, but it still made her worry a little bit. She wondered why Neville didn't use a shield charm like that, but then again, people did not think properly in chaotic circumstances. It was a lot easier to look at the situation and find a logical solution from the sidelines, than what most did in the heat of battle.

It was something that many people forgot.

"Harry, Bruce Wayne is arriving at the door," Penny said over the intercom system. "Do you want me to have him searched?"

"No, the building's wards would have told me if he had anything concealed on him that might pose a threat, Penny," Harry told her as Pam shifted in his lap.

"And if he tried anything, I don't think he would last very long," Diana told them calmly, crack his knuckles her knuckles.

"I don't know about that, he's tougher than he looks," Harry said knowingly. Rumors had reached his ears of an event that happened last night, but naturally he wasn't going to confront Bruce about it. He was going to wait to see how it played out.

There was a knock on the door. Harry craned his neck and paused to build the necessary amount of anticipation.

"Enter."

Harry nudged Pamela and the woman slid off of her lap with grace and a bit of reluctance. Bruce Wayne entered the office.

"Harry, it's good to see you," Bruce stated in a low and serious voice as he extended a hand to Harry who shook it.

Harry looked into his eye for a second. He was pleased to see he wasn't doing the complete full stop airhead billionaire façade with him. That would be an insult to his intelligence, among many other things. The two of them locked eyes.

"You as well Bruce, have a seat," Harry told him and the man nodded graciously.

He could see Harry's bodyguard's eyes lock onto him, not that he was going to try anything. Although, he was actually curious who was more dangerous of the two. Harry had the kind of body that was only achieved through careful and constant training.

Pamela, knowing that this meeting wouldn't likely need her input, edged over to a computer off to the side of the desk and stared to play minesweeper, while Harry and Bruce had their business conversation with each other.

Harry was the one who broke the ice with an extremely simple question. "So, is there something that I can help you with?"

Bruce nodded with a calm expression etched on his face. "I'm hoping that's the case, but first I wanted offer my condolences about your loss. I understand you and Mr. Longbottom were practically brothers."

"Thank you," Harry said. It could have been Neville, who'd been chosen by Riddle that fateful night and who knows how different all of their lives would have been if that was the case. Honestly though, he figured that he'd somehow have ended up being the one responsible for taking him out in the end, even if Neville had been marked.

Bruce cut to the chase, because he knew that Harry was a busy man with many responsibilities. He offered him a vial, alongside a chemical analysis report "I have a friend who managed to acquire this."

"A friend?" Harry offered as he half raised an eyebrow, curiosity getting the better of him, but he didn't say anything further, at least not right away.

"Yes, well, I've been unable to make heads or tails of it, but I do know that it's a unique chemical compound," Bruce commented and Pamela's ears perked up as she shifted over from the game that she was playing.

"And given that I have a doctorate in chemistry, you naturally thought I should be able to make heads or tails or what's going on here?" Harry inquired lightly and Bruce nodded.

"Let's take a look at what you have," Pamela said as she looked at the entirely complicated and utterly muddled mess of figures and compounds listed there in the report.

It took some studying with Harry and Pamela putting their heads together, but after a while they were able to sort through it and come to a conclusion.

"On it's own, it's not really dangerous," Harry murmured and Pamela was the one who chimed in next.

"Added to an already created chemical however, it has the potential to be quite dangerous," Pamela stated, before she turned a questioning gaze towards Bruce. "Your friend….he brought it to Wayne Industries?"

"Yes, we spent the last twenty four hours trying to study it, to no avail, there's nothing in any database that would could find," Bruce explained.

"That's because there hasn't been anything created like this, well until now that is," Harry informed him. "You take a chemical like this and add it to anything, like say heroin for instance. The already devastating side effects are even more devastating and it also adds something else to it…."

"It masks it, standardized drug tests wouldn't pick it up, about the only thing that could pick it up by human means would be an autopsy," Pamela concluded grimly.

Bruce thought this little discovery, well this added a lot more questions than it did answers. He was rather curious.

"Tell your friend, that he should be careful to keep his eyes peeled for this. I'll keep my ears open and if I hear anything from the grapevine I'll let you know," Harry told Bruce and he nodded.

Bruce had a feeling that Harry might not have bought the story about the mysterious friend, but that just proved that he had to get a bit better with his deception. His training had taught him all about deception and misdirection, but there were times where he thought that he could learn a few lessons from Harry in both of those arts.

Harry raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Is that all?"

Bruce inclined his head briefly with a smile of his own. "For now."

Bruce walked out of the office and Pamela turned to Harry no sooner then he did. She didn't say anything however, since it was Diana who brought up the next point.

"So, the plot thickens," Diana whispered to Harry.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure there's some kind of plot with an end game running," Harry said as he reached into his bag and looked at the sealed file Jaime had brought to him.

He had a little business to take care of, once he was finished, he was going to track down more information on this new bane of his existence.

* * *

"So, we've pretty much confirmed Blood's after you," Lucretia stated from where she was hunched over an extremely complex potion that Morgaine was walking her through. The blonde former Malfoy thought that many people wouldn't even attempt it, but she was the type of person who enjoyed a challenge.

"Yes, the only reason he's after Harrison was because his name is the one that the prime model used in the past, so in his simplistic mind, he's putting two and two together," Morgaine stated with a scathing tone.

"Yes, the demon hopes to trap me, thinking that he can use me as bait to lead Morgaine to him," Harrison added as he kept working on the runes that was in front of him.

Lucretia's face shifted into an expression of disbelief. "Doesn't he realize that you're not easily trapped?"

"Desperate men do exceedingly stupid things," Morgaine told them as she looked over Lucretia's work. "You want a little less newt eyes my dear, too much will destabilize the potion."

"Right, thanks," Lucretia told her with a smile across her face as she craned her neck and waited to see what the witch would do next.

Morgaine pondered, Blood had been chasing after her for a very long time now. He was a bit of a fool then, he was a bit of a fool now.

"His curse cannot be lifted until he kills me, Merlin made sure of that, so he just can't let things go," Morgaine commented acidly.

"Is there any way…."

"I'm sure there might be, but the problem is that he's bound to the creature and as long as he is, he's basically immortal," Morgaine stated without a second thought as she locked her eyes onto Harry. "He will keep stalking you every single moment he lives, for it was not a secret that you and I are lovers."

"Yes, there is that," Harrison agreed, wondering what he was going to have to do to deal with the demon and it wouldn't be an easy answer.

"I can avoid him easily enough, with my ability to phase between this world and the next, due to my heritage," Morgaine offered and Harrison nodded as he double checked his work on the rune. "However, as you may know, it's quite bothersome to keep that up for too long."

"And he cannot sense you when you're behind any protective barriers," Harry said to her and Morgaine offered him a stiff nod as she folded her hands together.

Lucretia was doing a great job in brewing the Potion, but then again, she was an expert Potion's Mistress, someone who was not going to screw up. The OWL and NEWT scores had increased several times over since she'd started teaching at Hogwarts. Even old Horace Slughorn didn't achieve that results that good and despite his weird quirks, he was a pretty adept Potion's master in his own right.

"So, this potion….remind me what it does again?" Lucretia asked and Harrison offered her a smile. He figured that it would be prudent to walk her through the process.

Harrison paused with a smile, he was the type of person who enjoyed building suspense, even past the point of reason. "Well, the fact of the matter is that were going to use a two-step process to trap Etrigan and Blood by extension."

Harrison looked over his shoulder for a brief second, he was almost certain he could feel the demon's claws on the wards, but it would take him decades to even crack the surface of them. Still, it was an ominous feel.

"So, the fool's trying to break through, he must be more desperate than I thought," Morgaine told Harrison and there was a moment where his eyes locked onto hers. She knew better than to say much more when this happened. "Do continue."

"Yes, once that potion is finished, the completed rune stone will be placed in it to soak," Harrison stated. "And then the next time Blood or the Demon shows his ugly snout around me, we'll be ready for him."

' _Laying a trap, good,_ _hopefully it's one it hurts,'_ Daphne chimed in. She didn't take too kindly to being attacked.

' _Well, I'll endeavor to do my best to make sure that it does,'_ Harrison told Daphne.

' _You are okay,_ _aren't you?'_ Astoria asked Daphne and she offered her young sister a smile, as pained as it might be.

' _I'll survive, trust me,'_ Daphne commented as she cracked her neck then sighed long and hard. The blonde was preparing herself to get back to work. The Demon had taken a slight swipe at her, but it was nothing compared to the bumps and bruises Harrison suffered, so it could have been worse.

"All we must do is bait the trap and…."

"Say no more," Harrison told Morgaine as prepared himself for the upcoming battle. He knew what was going to be on the line and he knew that he had to focus.

Half of the battle would be won when he got out there. The battle wasn't over though, not yet, but he would go into it as prepared as he possibly could be.

The rune had to sit in the potion for seventy two hours to ensure that it worked as it should and it bonded properly with it. Then he would have the perfect means to trap that demon.

Given what the demon did to Daphne, Harrison was ready to take him down hard.

* * *

Hannah Abbott sat out in the large garden of the manor estate. She had to admit that it was magnificent. She wondered if Neville really got a good enough look at it to really appreciate it. It was vibrant, green, and so full of life.

She had her doubts about the marriage from the moment it was arranged. Like many pureblood marriages, it was a marriage of convenience, a matter of business and politics. There was really nothing more other than that be said about it. The blonde flipped her hair from her face.

"Hey, Hannah."

The blonde slowly turned around to see Harry standing there. There were a few seconds where both of them stared at each other.

"Hello, Harry, how are you holding up?" Hannah asked in a croaky voice as she saw Susan march towards her, a somber expression on her face. She grabbed her friend's hand and guided her down to sit down on a nearby bench.

"Funnily enough, I was about ready to ask you the same question," Harry told the blonde Hufflepuff as he sat down on her other side.

"Well, you were the one who had to witness it in all of its gruesome detail," Hannah stated as she hung her head. "I knew….well, Neville was like a brother to me. And granted, that doesn't mean much in the world of purebloods but still….I didn't think….well, I'm sure we might have been able to make it work, but it would have been a tough haul."

"Well, I think that we can't really change what happened, so we're just going to have to adapt to it," Susan stated and she smiled. "I think that's what Neville would have wanted, because I don't think he would have been the type of person who wanted us to dwell on his death. He went out in true blue Gryffindor fashion, as a hero sacrificing his life for someone else, even when there really was no need to do so."

"It could have been more when we got older," Hannah offered after a moment of contemplation, although there was this sense that she was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince Harry and Susan.

"It might have been," Susan agreed, although she was keeping her tone even out of respect of the dead.

"But given that there's someone else that I've had my eye on, I think that it's just as well," Hannah commented and she locked eyes with Susan tensely.

Those cold hard nights in the Hufflepuff Common room were not forgotten between the two of them. They had been in a relationship for some time, with Harry's blessing on Susan's end. Whether or not Neville gave Hannah his blessing, Susan did not know, she never asked, but that was Hannah's concern really, not hers.

Harry clasped Hannah around the hand and she looked him in the eyes.

That intensity and passion was something that Hannah could respect and she could see why other girls flocked to Harry.

Harry fixed his eyes on her and there was a brief instant where Hannah shivered. She could see these intense eyes on her and at that moment, she glad that she was not the person he going to seek vengeance against.

"Hannah, I swear, that no matter what, I will hunt down the person that murdered him, and make them pay," Harry said.

Susan watched, as a shudder that went through her body. Much like Hannah, she was glad that she was not the person who'd incurred Harry's ire.

Hannah paused and there was only one word to say to this statement.

"Good."

**To Be Continued.**


	12. Nightwing Rises Part Four

**Chapter Twelve: Nightwing Rises Part Four.**

Now that his mind was clear, Harry Potter could focus on the task at hand and that task was figuring out where Neville's killer was holed up.

The information Nyssa had given Jaime to give to him was a start. He flipped through the documents in his hand and took a careful look at everything written there. There wasn't a ton of information to go off of there, only a codename and that codename was Bane.

Given that the man who killed Neville was proving to be the Bane of his existence, that name seemed oddly fitting. Harry parked himself in front of one of the computers in the GCPD building. If he was going to find out if any of Bane's allies were active in Gotham City, this would be the place to start and he could then use that to lead him to the man in question. While the file indicated that he had quite the criminal record, his background and real name were unknown, although there was a note about how he spent time in Santa Prisca.

Harry hated not having any of the answers, so he chose to rectify that situation by parking himself in front of the computer and getting down to work. There was only one problem that was quickly becoming crystal clear and that was the fact that his hacking skills were rudimentary at best.

' _Okay, looks like you and I are in for a long night,'_ Harry thought to himself in frustration as he typed away at the keyboard only to get another error message.

' _Just don't work yourself up into an obsession,_ _whatever you do,'_ Diana warned Harry.

' _Yes, honey, thanks for the concern,_ _but I've got to know,'_ Harry said as he bit down on his lip and continued working.

' _Are you even sure that you'll be able to find_ _anything?'_ Amanda asked him.

' _Won't know_ _until I look for myself,'_ Harry admitted with a sigh. He had other things on his mind as well, the shipment that Bruce found was also something of a curiosity that he would have to delve into further at another time.

Harry barely paid attention to the news report in the background, Gotham City reporter Summer Gleeson was relying the nightly news.

"And official word from the GCPD is that the arson crimes are not related, GothCorp continues to deny any involvement, despite accusations to the contrary. Coming up next, the three most eligible bachelors in Gotham City amongst the Gotham City elite, chosen by the Gotham City elite."

' _Lovely,'_ Lily commented as she heard the news on her end as well as Harry's. _'So any luck on your end?'_

' _Not yet, Mum, working on it,_ _though,'_ Harry said as he bit down on his lip so hard that he left a mark on it. He kept tapping away at the keyboard and sure enough, he ended up getting another access denied error.

He took a drink from the cup of coffee that he had gotten across the street, then ate a donut. He consider the fact that a donut shop opened up across from the GCPD building to be smart business, but that was beside the point.

He continued trying to get into the system to find out the information and his frustration became more prominent with each passing failure. He barely heard the door open and he looked up to see who it was.

Barbara stood there staring at him, there was a period of about ten second where both of them locked eyes with each other. She had her red hair tied back into a ponytail and was wearing a pair of glasses, the combined effect made her look adorable, she topped it off with a black tank top, black jean shorts and sandals.

"What are you doing here?" Barbara asked him in surprise.

Harry smiled at her question and he gestured her over. "Looking for information regarding Neville's murderer."

"Of course," Barbara said, she should have known. The GCPD wasn't any closer to capturing the criminal than anyone else. She took careful not of Harry's attempt to hack into the system and it reeked of total noob. Not that she was going to say that to Harry's face. "Well, you're going about it all wrong."

"Well, if you want to help me, take a seat," Harry offered her with an airy wave of his hand and smirking Barbara took a seat in Harry's lap.

' _Smooth Babs,'_ Zatanna commented lightly and there was much laughter from the rest of the bonded.

' _Well, you can't deny that she took the best seat in the house,'_ Ginny added with a smile.

' _If that's not true,_ _I don't know what is,'_ Donna interjected, envying Barbara's position. She was stuck on Themyscira for another couple of weeks, though not that she could really complain since her Mother was giving her some one on one training during that time.

"Okay, let's see….let's see what I can do here, not much to go off of but…. guy like this, he has to have a record from what it says here," Barbara suggested after looking over the file on the desk, before she began typing away at the keyboard. The security was fairly good, but Barbara liked to think that she was a little bit better.

' _Well, you're about to be schooled, l_ _ittle Ms. Gordon here likes to hack computer systems when she's bored,'_ Pamela informed Harry.

"You really need to teach me how to do this, that way I don't have to keep coming to you," Harry told her as he ran his fingers through her red hair and massaged her scalp gently.

Barbara shivered, before shaking her head to clear her thoughts.

"If we can access the files, we can find out who is working with this guy, and I'm one step closer to nailing him," Harry informed Barbara and she offered him a bright and cheerful smile.

"Right, I'll hook you up, don't worry, Harry, I won't let you down," Barbara babbled excitedly as he wrapped his arms around her trim waist and while she found this to be slightly distracting, she thought it was also something would teach her how to multitask.

She was almost inside the database and a never ending stream of commercials played on the television in the background.

"You seem to know what you're doing," Harry told Barbara and her smile grew even wider, to the point where one could argue that it was fairly smug.

"Well, stuff like this? Kind of a piece of cake for me really," Barbara offered him as she kept working despite the distractions. "I set up a backdoor when I was here about a summer ago or so. It's really easy when you're the daughter of one of the more respected members of the GCPD, people trust you a lot more and don't think that you'd do anything underhanded."

"Fair enough," Harry commented with a smile as he placed his other arm around Barbara's waist, but did not brush up much higher. He rested his chin on her shoulder so he could look at what she was doing and then he felt her tight teen ass brush against his crotch as she shifted.

Barbara realized what she was doing immediately and blushed slightly, but recovered once she saw that inside the system.

"Guys like Wayne Enterprises, LuthorCorp, GothCorp, those are the big pain's in the ass to get into, although it gives something to do when I'm bored," Barbara continued, chattering away as she made her way into the file. "Guess someone didn't want these found, but they didn't really hide them that well either."

She smiled with triumph in her eyes and Harry would have to agree, that particular look was a quite infectious one.

"Okay, let's see….we've got Trogg, Bird, and Zombie," Barbara told him as she punched up the people on the computer one at a time.

Harry took a good look at the man known as Bird. He was a bald man with a grey beard, that dressed like a modern day Pirate. He looked fairly sophisticated, although there was an air of menace to him.

"Then we've got Zombie, he must not like getting his photo taken, this shot's kind of grainy," Barbara whispered before she fiddled around with the computer in an attempt enhance the image, but it was no go, all they were able to make out was a large imposing figure in the shadows, never the less Harry thought he recognized him from the other night.

Harry smiled as he waved for Barbara to continue onto the final person on Bane's list of associates.

"And then we have Trogg," Barbara concluded. She showed Harry the file photo of a short stunted man with black hair and dark side burns. He had a rather calculating look on his face.

"So…."

Barbara was ready to tell Harry what she'd been able to learn after looking through the database, but they were interrupted rather loudly by the television.

"The polls have agreed that Harry Potter is the most eligible bachelor in Gotham City, followed closely by Bruce Wayne and Roman Sionis."

Snorting in amusement, Barbara couldn't help but comment after hearing that. "Well...they have an interesting perspective on what it means to be a bachelor."

Harry smiled back at her. "Well, to be fair….it's not exactly common knowledge that I'm married, several times over by this point, but….that's a discussion for another time, back down to business."

"Right, right, so let's see here," Barbara stated focusing her mind back onto the project at hand. "Bird was last seen in South America, where Bane is known to have kept up his residence. As for Trogg and Zombie….well, I guess you could be in luck."

Harry's focused his full attention on her and a question sprang forth from his lips. "How so?"

Barbara decided to let him in on the news. "Well, they were seen meeting Salvatore Maroni the other night outside of the Gotham City Club, it's nothing that the GCPD can nail them for though, especially when you consider the fact a good chunk of the force is in Maroni's hip pocket, but still I thought it was something that you'd be interested in. Maroni goes to a Club on Fifth every Thursday morning at midnight like clockwork. Seems like he picks up a woman or two, and….not of the reputable type."

Harry got the message loud and clear, Maroni was where the trail to Zombie started and midnight on Thursday morning was only a few hours away.

"Excellent job, Barbara," Harry stated as he spun her around and kissed her firmly on the lips in gratitude.

Barbara's eyes widened in surprise, but she managed to get her bearings together enough to return the kiss. Harry's tongue probed in her mouth and she returned the kiss with equal fervor.

Harry had kept his word about not doing anything too sexual yet, but that didn't mean that they couldn't have some fun. His hands roamed Barbara's teenage body, teasing every inch of her and she closed her eyes tightly in pleasure.

' _Only until I'm seventeen,'_ was the never ending mantra that echoed through her head as they enjoyed an extremely heavy make out session in one of the GCPD offices.

* * *

Harry quickly came to the conclusion that no respectable person would be outside in this part of the City, at this time in the morning, especially in Gotham. He heard police sirens blaring in the distance as he made his way quickly from roof to rooftop until he was looking over the club, lovingly dubbed "The Meat Hook."

He wore the Basilisk armor that Sersi had made for him years ago, the material was comfortable to move around in, unlike the counterfeit armor that polluted the Wizarding World, this was the real deal, made by goblins. Under the distinctive basilisk skin long coat, he had on a black hoodie and had the hood pulled up to cover his face, so that all anyone could see of it was obscured by shadows.

He kept an ear and an eye out for Maroni, considering how often the man popped up in the news and his larger than life personality, there was no mistaking him. Harry looked at the clock, two minutes until Midnight and he braced himself.

After a short wait, he saw Maroni walking out of a building across the street, one that he owned, with a pair of armed thugs, obviously his bodyguards. These two gorillas looked too strong, but none too bright.

"What was that?" one of the goons asked.

"The wind, you idiot," Maroni grunted, he inclined his head as he looked around his surroundings, just in case his muscle wasn't being a paranoid idiot.

Suddenly, one of his goons was smashed face first into the pavement by a blur that was moving too quickly for his eyes to follow. Maroni saw his other goon get his legs swept out from under him and after crashing to the ground, he was knocked unconscious by a swift blow to the side of the head.

"What the hell are you! Some kind of…."

The figure grabbed Maroni around the wrist before he could pull his gun out of his jacket. His arm was quickly twisted around his back and then he was driven face first through the windshield of the car that he was about to get into. Blood splashed everywhere as the glass cut into his face.

As soon as Maroni was rendered completely unconscious, Harry dragged him off into the night for a little chit-chat.

* * *

"So, do you think he'll come?" Ginny asked as she looked over her shoulder to lock her eyes onto Morgaine's.

"Oh, he'll come, trust me, he won't be able to resist such tantalizing bait," the legendary wicked witch of legends stated with a wide smile.

Astoria smiled, she knew that to be fact. Lady Le Faye had been teaching her a few tricks, her and Ginny both actually. Then there was Circe when she was able to pop in, which was fairly often now that she thought of it, she seemed to enjoy Morgaine and Bella's company.

"So, the trap is almost set, all we have to do is drop the spells keeping him blind to our presence and wait for the demon to show up?" Bellatrix asked Harrison, who was kneeling on the ground as he closely inspected a runic circle for any flaws.

"Shouldn't took him long at all, even though he couldn't break through any of my protections, I can still feel the attempt which is annoying," Harrison said and Ginny shuddered.

"Creepy," she remarked as she took careful note of his inspection, she couldn't help but admire the quality of the circle. Although why shouldn't she? Astoria and herself helped create the circle after all. Both girls were the top of their year in the Study of Ancient Runes and budding Rune Mistresses in their own right.

Finishing his inspection. Harrison stood up to his full height, then nodded his head to both girls with a smile in appreciation of their work.

"I'm glad the Rune Circle is to your liking, my lord," Astoria stated with a bowed head.

"And we're in place, since we're acting as the bait to draw him in, he won't be able to resist it," Morgaine commented with a great deal of smug superiority in her voice. That was the thing about Blood, he was never one to be subtle about what he was going to do. So needless to say, there was a reason why he hadn't caught her after these years and she was going to exploit that fact.

"Okay, drop the protections," Harry told Bellatrix who nodded and she lowered her arms to do so.

Harrison could measure the time that Blood took to get in here less than a second, if even that. The creature had been stalking them, hunting them, like some kind of demented beast fixated on it's kill.

"So, you think that you can deceive me, well that's a notion of which you will soon be set free."

"Sweet Morgana it rhymes, quite badly at that," Astoria breathed out in surprise.

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Morgaine commented, amused at her name being invoked in such a way when she was standing less than five feet away from the person who did so.

"You will not escape me this time, because I don't want to hear your hideous rhyme," Harrison mocked in a jeering voice.

The demon's eyes narrowed and he smashed into Harrison like a freight train. The first time they fought he'd been holding back, because he was caught off guard. This next time, he was ready. He smashed the young wizard hard onto the ground with a sickening impact, but it was all part of the plan.

"Soon, the blood from your body will form a coat, then I will rip out your throat," Etrigan growled but Harrison blind sided him with a well-placed spell, then pulled out a pair of enchanted brass knuckles.

One well-placed power of the punch sent the creature flying backwards. He flew up into the air then landed with a resounded crack.

"This is not going as planned," he growled and Harrison offered a smile.

Of course, the demon was far from finished. He grabbed Harrison by the throat and hurled him around like a rag doll. He was trying to scratch out his voice box to keep him from using any more spells. When they didn't work he hurled the green eyed wizard to the ground and jumping up into the air, the demon came stomping down upon his mid-section.

He winced, having a demon come down upon one's ribcage in full force was not fun.

"Creature, you will begone!" Morgaine cried.

"The days of you bossing me around are done Le Faye, now you are my prey," Etrigan growled as he rushed the sorceress, only for Ginny to do something that proved there was a good reason why she was sorted into Gryffindor.

She jumped in front of the demon and used a spell to wrap several cables around his body. He ripped through them like a hot knife through butter, with a feral growl.

Astoria teleported in behind her, grabbed her by the waist and then teleported her out of the way, but this distraction allowed Harrison to lure him right into the exact center of the Rune Circle, just as he planned. The moment the demon was in place, it flared to life, trapping him there and weakening him greatly

"I feel so weak, what is this magic, what shall you speak?" Etrigran growled and Harrison smiled as he summoned the stone he'd prepared beforehand with the help of Lucretia.

"Don't worry, soon it will all be just a dream, for I am going to put an end to your foul scheme," Harrison retorted as he pressed the stone into the forehead of the demon. His entire body was battered, his skin was sliced up, but he knew that he had beaten the beast, so it was worth a little bit of pain.

The stone was doing its job in erasing all memory of Harrison Evans from the mind of both Blood and the demon. It was a three step process in fact.

Etrigan growled, the demon was trying to prevent its memory from being rewritten. Its eyes flashed wildly as Harrison pressed the stone into place and it howled out in agony. There was a few seconds where it tried to attack him, but Harrison kept out of reach and the stone pressed firmly in place against the demon's forehead.

Then another vital process was enacted by the rune, which was working like a charm, bad pun intended. The information regarding what he needed to do to break the curse was removed from his mind.

His eyes flashed with agony as the demon's mind was burned free of this information, his memories being rewritten was an agonizingly slow process.

The final step of the process was also the most vital if Harrison was to be honest with himself. The demon's eyes finally stopped flashing and then he was teleported away.

Any time he stepped foot in England, he would be visited with a sense of incoming dread that would make him think twice about doing so. As soon as he saw the beast disappear, Harrison allowed himself to relax and in doing so nearly ended up collapsing to the ground.

"Harry," Ginny whispered to him as she and Astoria caught him before he hit the floor.

"That wasn't pleasant, but it was necessary," Harrison concluded, he was pretty sure the demon wouldn't be pestering them again for a real long time. Morgaine being killed by Blood in order to break the curse didn't fit into Harrison's plans at all.

Bellatrix's voice was oddly soft and serious, which was strange for her. "We should get you back to the castle, my lord, some of those wounds look severe, if you would allow me…."

"Naturally, Bella, lead the way," Harrison told the woman and she opened the portal to allow them to leave.

* * *

Salvatore Maroni opened his eyes and the moment that they did, he really wished that he hadn't, since he was dangling high above Gotham. The exact height was far too high for him to think about and he tried not to look down, although the temptation to do so was very much there. Half of his face looked like raw meat from what the figure in the shadows did to him.

"You and I are going to have a nice chat, or your going for a long fall," Harry whispered to him, he'd dropped his British accent and was using a more American one to disguise his voice.

"Forget it! I ain't telling you nothing," Maroni spat.

"Your funeral," Harry told him coolly as he let go of his foot and Maroni fell a short distance towards the ground, but it seemed like much further from his perspective.

Maroni was stopped in mid air by some invisible force and then pulled back up.

"I asked you nicely, next time your face is going to get very intimate with the pavement, we're at the highest point in Gotham, so it's a very long drop with a very bad landing," Harry told him in a low even voice and there was no real way to dispute what he was saying.

' _Harry, you really scare me_ _sometimes,'_ Emily commented through the link as she shook her head.

' _I know,_ _it's awesome!'_ Amanda thought gushingly, but she allowed Harry to get back to the matter at hand.

"I'm entitled to due process! You know a lawyer, and everything, you can't do this….."

"This is your due process. I haven't dropped you yet, but you'll find my fingers are loosening every second you don't tell me what I need to know," Harry whispered coldly and the fear of the unknown caused Maroni to nearly soil himself.

"What!…What do you want!…You frea…what do you want?" Maroni managed, he was about to call him a freak, but somehow he knew that was the worst thing to call him right now.

"Trogg and Zombie, you met with them recently, I want to know where they are," Harry demanded as he continued to dangle Maroni off the roof, while carefully monitoring his heart rate. He didn't want to have the man to have a heart attack before he was done with him.

"Trogg…Zombie….let me….ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT!" Maroni yelled out when he saw that the person in the shadow was suspending him by one shoelace. "I don't know about where Zombie went off to, but I know where Trogg is."

"Continue," Harry invited in a faux cordial voice, knowing that Maroni's tongue was loosening more with every passing second. Of course when one's life was on the line, he was more inclined to fess up every single dirty little secret.

"You know! I don't have to tell you shit without an attorney," Maroni stated gruffly and Harry smiled, then he let go of him again.

Maroni screamed like a little girl as hurtled towards the ground, only to stop suddenly with a twang and then he went smashing through a nearby window. The broken glass ended up slicing up his face even more than it already was. He was pulled back up onto the roof, this time with pieces of glass lodged into his face. Harry healed him enough that he wouldn't end up bleeding to death. Although, he'd made certain his face connected in such a way that it would fuck him up pretty badly without killing him in the process.

' _Taking Aunt Lara's lessons to heart, are we?'_ Kara asked with a smile.

' _Well, i_ _t's very practical way of doing things,'_ Faora stated in a fond voice.

' _Yes,_ _it is,'_ Penny agreed, there were some tricks that she learned as a healer that caused people pain, whilst also healing the pain that they were already in. So that they ended up suffering even more by living.

"Okay, scum, talk, unless you feel like flying through more windows," Harry growled and Maroni nearly choked on his own spit and blood as he tried to get the words out.

"Trogg….I don't….ALRIGHT, SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!" Maroni growled from where he was hanging upside down. "He's overseeing a shipment of chemicals and weapons….that short fat fuck Penguin is sending them into the country, I don't have much to do with it, I do know that it's in a warehouse in Old Gotham. I don't know which one, it might be a different one each time, I think that they switch it up"

' _I'm cross referencing all of the warehouses in old Gotham right now, Harry,'_ Karen chimed in. _'Looking for any reports of suspicious activities.'_

' _Depending on where it is in old Gotham, people are going to adopt an approach that it's not their problem, that's where the ghosts hang out,'_ Harry thought back to her.

' _The ghosts?'_ Rose thought.

' _Not real ghosts, more like the ghosts of Gotham's pasts, old criminal gangs, mostly small time,_ _that have been muscled out by the mob,'_ Zatanna informed them as she recalled Barbara mentioning it one time.

' _Okay,_ _that makes sense,'_ Rose remarked.

"Okay, warehouse in old Gotham, anything else that I should know?" Harry questioned Maroni, after jabbing him hard in one of his hanging ribs, which caused it to crack under the impact.

"YEOW...there's...there's...something going on involving the Roman, you know Carmine…."

"Yes, I'm aware of him," Harry told Maroni as he looked at the messed up right side of his face, which was dripping blood down onto the city below.

"...It's Falcone and some doctor up at Blackgate, I don't know who! You hear shit all of the time, but I think this is big, really big, the Roman's scared shit less of the guy in charge," Maroni informed him. "I don't have any idea who it is though."

Harry smiled inwardly while keeping his face blank, he had a pretty idea, although he wasn't going to voice it to trash like Maroni.

"That's all I know! I swear to God," Maroni grumbled.

Harry's eyes glowed red for a moment, a special effect to terrify the mob boss even further. "If I find you're lying to me, even he won't be able to protect you from my wrath."

Maroni was a tongue tied mess after seeing and hearing that. Naturally, Harry had already verified his story through Occlumency, but he wanted to ensure that Maroni understood that he wasn't someone he could screw with.

"Oh, the GCPD will be here in a few minutes to pick you up, I'd like to say it's a pleasure meeting you, but I've never been one to lie," Harry concluded just before he disappeared into the night.

Now that he was gone, Maroni suddenly felt rather brave. "YOU STUPID BASTARD! I'll be back on the streets and when I find out who did this me! I'll hunt you down, do you hear me? I'll hunt your ass down!"

Detective John Jones was the first GCPD officer to arrive on the scene.

"It appears that Mr. Maroni has gotten himself in a little bit over his head," Jones commented to James Gordon who was next on the scene. "Who do you think did this?"

Gordon said nothing, it would be unbecoming of him to make accusations but no doubt Harvey Dent would be pleased that Maroni would be brought in, although he was not in the best shape.

* * *

"Etrigan is still out there, but it will be some time before he regains his memory, if at all," Morgaine concluded as she kept her eyes on Harrison as Lara and Alura gave him a physical going over. Ginny was watching from the door, not saying a word. "However, the immediate danger has passed."

"As long as the immediate danger has passed, now we can look into a more long term solution to the problem," Harrison stated, before he cracked his neck back into alignment.

"Yes, hopefully one that is much less taxing on your own physical well being," Morgaine told him as she assisted with patching up Harrison, although there was only so much that she could do, healing had never been one of her areas expertise.

Harrison took a moment to think about it, Etrigan had waited a long time to get his hands on Morgaine. If he did regain his memories he'd come after the both of them with a vengeance.

' _What in the fuck were you doing,_ _I felt the pain all the way from over here,'_ Harry questioned him through the bond link.

' _Oh, you know, holding back while fighting a demon trying to kill me, no big deal,'_ Harrison thought back to him. _'How was your night?'_

' _Made some mobster soil his pants, smashed him through a couple windows, dangled him hundreds of feet above the streets of Gotham,'_ Harry replied lightly. _'I'm on the hunt for Neville's killer.'_

' _Well, good luck with that, give him an extra punch in the nuts for me,'_ Harrison commented. Thanks to this little mess, he spent far more time dealing with pureblood idiots than he wanted to. The dangerous ones had been taken out but there were still a handful of idiots that remained.

During this little exchange, Morgaine took this opportunity to take her leave.

"Are you…."

Harrison shook his head at Lara's question and **a wince was visible on his face.**

"Since I had to hold back against Etrigan so we could lure him into place, it was no pleasant outing," Harrison concluded with a grimace, he leaned back and he found that his shoulder was a lot sorer than he expected, but he was on the mend.

Lara shook her head in frustration as she took a good look at him. "Yes, that's obvious to see given that you're actually exhibiting pain for once, something that is a rarity. Since you go to amazing lengths to try and hide it."

Harrison smiled, that much was true, weakness was not something that he exhibited a lot of. Growing up with the Dursleys, he'd quickly learned that showing any weakness was an excuse for them to try and walk all over him. His green eyes fixed upon the blonde woman in front of him. She was a thing of beauty with her long flowing blonde hair, vibrant blue eyes, and also tight robes that wrapped around her supple curves. All in all, she was quite delicious.

"So what's the diagnosis?" Harrison asked her and Lara paused for a few seconds after giving Harrison a complete going over.

"Physically, I think that you'll heal, in fact, you'll already healing, it was just the utter viciousness of the demon's assaults and the fact you needed to hold back, that caused you to be a bit worse off than you should be," Lara stated to him as she checked out his healing wounds, slowly tracing them with the edger of her fingertips. They were now merely scratches thanks to her efforts. "This scan should ensure that there isn't anything vital damaged and if there is…."

"Just do what you have to do?"

Alura watched in the background, she had heard of Harrison's battle second hand, although she figured it would be a titanic struggle to end all titanic struggles.

"He'll be okay, won't he?" Alura asked in concern and Lara smiled at her friend.

"We'll know for sure in a moment, but I'm certain that he'll be perfectly fine," Lara commented as she finished giving Harrison a going over. The blonde had taken a good long look at Harrison and the physical examination, the scanning of his body, was going really well.

She peered underneath his clothes to ensure that he was pretty healthy. After all, the very last thing she wanted to do was something to go wrong with him.

"Well, other than a few lingering injuries, you'll be fine, in fact in the next day or so, you'll be more than fine," Lara told him as she handed Harrison a vial. "This should relieve the pain until your injuries fully heal."

' _It tastes about as good as I can make it without it losing effectiveness,'_ Lucretia commented as she watched Harrison down the potion in question.

' _Not bad,_ _much better than many of the potions I've had before,_ _if anything you've improved on both the effectiveness and the quality,_ _so that's what we'd call a win-win situation,'_ Harrison told her.

"So, your going to be okay?" Ginny asked from where she watched by the door. She'd seen the demon giving him a going over and it had shaken her badly.

"Ginny, I'm fine. Oh and next time, try not to jump in front of a rampaging demon or at least hit him with something a bit more lethal," Harrison said to his young wife with a smile on his face.

"Dully noted," Ginny stated to him dryly as Harrison captured her into a one armed hug and the two of them exchanged a heated kiss with each other. "I have work to do with Astoria….but if you need anything from either of us, you know where to find us."

"Don't worry, Ginny, if I need anything, if I need you to take care of any of my needs, I'll be sure to look up you and Astoria, tell Bella that I'll be swinging by the office in about an hour if you see her before me," Harrison informed her.

"Okay, I will," Ginny commented.

' _Or you could have told me through the bond link,'_ Bellatrix whispered to him.

' _It's much more personal to_ _tell you in person though,'_ Harrison thought to Bellatrix cheekily.

' _Well, with undisputed logic like that, how could one disagree?'_ Daphne commented in amusement.

' _Yes, Bella, he does have you there,_ _you know,'_ Narcissa stated and there was a sense that Bellatrix was pouting.

' _You did an excellent job today,_ _I should note,'_ Harrison concluded and he could see Bellatrix's already sizable ego take a massive leap.

' _Well naturally, naturally,'_ Bellatrix commented smugly and after a moment, Andromeda groaned.

' _Why do you have to encourage her?'_ Andromeda questioned in an exasperated voice.

' _Didn't you tell me when I was little that we should encourage people to reach their full potential?'_ Nym asked in a mock innocent voice.

' _Quiet Nymphadora,'_ Andromeda told her sternly and there was a few seconds where the two of them stared at each other through the bond link.

' _Oh, someone's in trouble!'_ Fleur cheered in a sing song voice.

' _Ladies, please,'_ Harrison stated, although he was rather amused by the banter and their antics.

' _Not many ladies in this group Harry,_ _judging by the way that they're acting,'_ Vega offered and there were some indignant moans of protest.

"Ah, banter," Lara stated. She was sort of cued into the bond, in that she could get bits and pieces, although she did have a few limitations. Still she usually got the general gist of what people where saying.

She smiled at Harrison, after coming to a snap decision.

"I think it would be prudent for a more intimate examination," she whispered as she leaned forwards to allow Harrison to get a good view of her assets. "Alura, would you assist?"

Alura, knowing where this was going, offered a shit eating grin that was reminiscent of her daughters. "It would be my pleasure Lara."

She took a step forward and placing her hands on Harry's thighs, peered into his eyes with a hungry grin.

"I think that I would be able to help best by removing his pants," Alura said as she placed her hands on on the edge of his waistband. "And ensure his circulation is in working order."

While Alura was removing his pants, Lara brushed her hands against his abs as she kissed his lips. Harrison returned the kiss as she rubbed against him and Alura's hands crept further up his legs.

* * *

Lara's kiss got extremely intense as Harrison brought his strong arms around her body, pulling him into her. The blonde's tongue danced passionately with his, the two of them causing pleasure, with Harrison running his hands down her young beautiful body.

The blonde panted hungrily as Harrison really worked over her. His hands stroked her skin and caused her flesh to feel like it was ablaze. It was feeling amazing and Harrison had her draped over his lap as Alura slid down low.

Alura smiled. "I think we better check for the circulation better."

With a coy grin, the blonde ran her hands all over Harry's muscular legs and then made her way up towards his balls.

"Yes, and we better check for his reflexes," Lara added as she playfully shoved Harrison back onto the bed.

Harrison was back onto the bed and Lara draped her hips over his face. Her clothes faded from her body and Harry saw that her perfectly pink pussy was exposed for his consumption and consume he did. The shaved snatch was delicious and he munched on it in delight.

"Oh, perfect….movements and ah….reflexes!" Lara moaned as Harry kissed and licked her thighs and then drove his tongue deeper into her.

Harrison's monstrous cock was out and Alura wrapped her hand around his cock and pumped him up and down. The mother of one of his Alpha's gave him a magnificent handjob and he laid back as his balls was licked.

Harrison pushed his cock back and Alura placed his member into her mouth, giving him a deep and passionate suck. Alura pushed her mouth back and started to suck him.

"Ah, proper, oh deeper, reaction, ah, fuck, yes, Har-Zod," Lara moaned as his tongue was buried into her, rattling into her pussy and brought her to greater pleasures than she ever experienced. She rubbed her moist hot snatch up and down and Harrison grabbed Lara around the ass, rubbing up her face.

Har-Zod's tongue really gave her a going over and Lara whimpered as Har's tongue was going so far deep down her as Lara was closing her eyes.

Alura now was finished testing Har-Zod's cock with her mouth and she was willing to move on to more fun pursuits. Her pussy was dripping wet and hungry, ready for insertion. She rubbed her pussy across the tip of his cock and the wall's wrapped around his throbbing cock as she was brought all the way down onto him. His cock buried snugly into her snatch. Her hips pressed around him, working his cock over with her hips as she was raising her hips up and crashing down on him with an amazing force.

The blonde kept working her hips around him, riding him like the stallion that she thought that he was. The blonde rocked herself back and forth, up and down, rotating her hips. The blonde's walls kept clenching him extremely hard and she rocked her head back.

Harrison lipped his hips up and his cock smashed between her legs, working her up.

Alura closed her eyes, this was the best, she would never allow another man's cock to ever enter again and she was not alone. Not that it was even a thought but it was one of those sex crazed ramblings that one had when she kept rocking her hips back onto him, riding his large pole, bouncing up and down, moaning and grinding.

Harrison felt her walls clench around him and his cock pushed up between her walls as Harry kept ramming between her. She was working into her, pumping his rod with her vaginal muscles.

"Oh, so good," Lara moaned as she groped Alura's nice and healthy tits. Her nipples poked out and Lara suckled on one of them. This was a motion that caused Alura to moan wildly.

Juices trickled down her thighs as Harrison pushed his cock into her. She knew that this Artificial Intelligence systems were the best known to man and they could feel just as a normal woman would.

Lara and Alura kissed each other and played with each other's breasts as one blonde Kryptonian rode Har-Zod's tongue and the other rode his cock.

"Time to….ah switch things up," Alura managed as she slid off of him and she got on her back.

Lara slid off of his mouth and got on his hands and knees, swaying his ass. The two of them worked with each other as she offered him a tantalizing wiggle of her ass. The two of them waited with each other and Harrison grabbed her from behind, preparing to enter her.

"I'm ready and able," Har-Zod told her as he pinched and then slapped her ass hard.

"I know, baby, fuck me," Lara moaned as she felt his large cock pressed between her slit.

Har's massive rod thrust as far into her and she closed her eyes, as Lara delved into Alura's pussy.

Alura moaned as Lara kept sucking and licking her pussy. The woman knew what she liked and Har wrapped his hands around her breasts. His cock rammed into her pussy as she felt stretched out. His balls slapped against his thighs and Har pulled all the way out of her and rammed into her. The woman's walls wrapped around him as Har worked her over.

Her pussy was a wonderland and Har explored it for everything that it was worth. He also explored her delicious curves with his hands, working her over. The blonde's whimpering heightened to another level as Har kept working himself into her.

Alura bucked her hips up, moaning and writhing underneath her and there was a panicked whimpering beneath her. She was being driven to the heights of passion and she was shivering underneath these efforts. Her hips clenched his rod.

Lara was so great, she knew what she liked.

"You're so fucking hot, both of you."

' _Harry, fuck my ass, you know you want to,'_ Lara begged him.

Looking at her juicy ass, Har-Zod was not about to turn down that invitation. He waited for her inviting ass and he grabbed her.

Lara moaned as his sausage went between her buns. The blonde's eyes closed as Har-Zod grabbed onto her hips and speared deep into her guts. She moaned as she continued to lick Alura's pussy.

One blonde Kryptonian eating out another while Har-Zod fucking her in the ass, that was an amazing sensation. His balls slapped against her supple ass as he kept working into her. Her moans got even more intense and Har kept going inside her, keeping up with her. The blondes eyes flushed back as she offered an intense moan as his balls slapped against her thighs and he continued push himself to the limits, push himself deep into her.

Har kept pushing in and out of her, pleasuring her as. The blonde's whimpering got even more intense as Har plowed her ass, escalating her passions. He grabbed her breasts and squeezed them, which caused her moans to even escalate more.

Har-Zod kept working into her ass from behind and he kept going as far into her from behind. Her tight ass worked around her anus and he kept working into her. The green eyed wizard speared deep into her, the combination of their sexual organs feeling amazing.

The groups saw stars as Har-Zod's cock exploded and sent an explosive burst of cum.

"A few more tests are in order," Alura commented as she wrapped her legs around him and she brushed her dripping slit across his cock and they continued the dance anew for a while.

* * *

Harrison would have to agree that it was the perfect examination.

"We must naturally undergo another round of testing, just to ensure that there were no complication," Lara stated as she rested her head on his bare chest. He pulled her solid form up against him.

Funnily enough, Harrison had no problems with this arrangement.

* * *

After getting the information from Maroni, Harry had moved quickly in the direction of the first warehouse. Since they were apparently playing musical warehouses all throughout old Gotham, he hoping that if he searched hard enough he'd find the one he was looking for sooner rather than later.

' _It's quiet,'_ Kara thought.

' _I swear, if you say it's too quiet,_ _I will hit you,'_ Amanda grumbled.

' _Why?'_ Kara asked her curiously, since she was still pretty new to Earth and it's culture, she still missed things most people who grew up on the plant took for granted.

' _Every single fucking horror_ _movie cliché ever and that's the worst one,'_ Amanda shuddered, while she wasn't a coward by any means, she also didn't like horror movies much at all.

Harry heard a rustling in the distance and the sound of cars pulling up. He knew that it could be anyone really. This part of Old Gotham was not known for its warm and cheerful personality.

He had to take a good look at the guards and the security before he could even enter the warehouse. He knew that he got lucky taking out Maroni so quickly.

' _One at a time, without arousing their suspicion,_ _shouldn't be too hard right?'_ Harry thought to himself as he used a handy little charm to soften his footsteps. He still moved around as quietly as he could, because he didn't want to grow too dependent on it, since charms could fail in an instant.

The guards were by the numbers goons, punch clock, just doing a job, so Harry was just going to take them out quickly and efficiently.

One guard was drawn off to the side and this allowed Harry to sneak in, wrap his arm around his throat in a rear naked choke and drag him off in the shadows before his fellows noticed anything.

"Steve, Steve, are you there?"

The guard took a careful step forward and he aimed his gun at the shadows. His hands were twitching and his heart racing, but he slowly steadied the grip he had on his rifle.

Suddenly the gun was pulled out of his hand and a knee was driven into the back of the head, wham, bam, thank you m'am, and down went the guard.

The two guards were placed inside empty crates nearby, where they would wake up with a massive headaches, hundreds of miles away. The men outside of the factory prepared to ship out what they thought were more goods.

"Is it just me or this fucking heavy?"

"Just fucking put your back onto it and get it on the truck, we're on a deadline here."

Harry made his way through the shadows and he saw Trogg standing there, just as ugly as the photos would have him believe. The green eyed wizard craned his neck taking a careful look at his surroundings from where he was crouched up in the rafter, before he dropped down to the ground.

Moving from shadow to shadow he mentally calculated how long it would take to take each of the henchmen down while cornering Trogg.

' _Not going to be that easy if he served time in Santa Prisca, it makes Gotham look tame by comparison,'_ Jaime commented, she'd done some homework while sitting monitoring him from the penthouse.

' _So, I'll be careful,'_ Harry said. He had to go about this carefully, safety was something that he wanted to encourage first and foremost. The green eyed wizard kept moving with swift precision as he prepared to lock onto his target.

Trogg's record stated that he was quite the nasty piece of work and he had some technological expertise on top of that. Although he was just another stepping stone towards Harry's ultimate target.

Harry carefully took the guards out one by one, until their was only one person left for him to deal with.

Trogg stopped, he saw the man standing there in the shadows. He wondered if this was the same one who was giving his men shit over by the docks the other night and caused the other half of the shipment to go missing.

"You aren't going to pull that with me!" Trogg yelled as he swiped his knife at Harry, who dodged swiftly under the attack.

He had more than a few weapons up his sleeve and Harry was in for a fight. He was used to fighting dirty and he proved as much, by scratching, clawing, and trying to headbutt him.

Harry grabbed Trogg by the shirt and hoisted him up off the ground. He then hurled him halfway across the warehouse to crash through some empty crates.

The man rolled over onto his feet and picked up a jagged piece of wood, which he tried to stab Harry in the eye with it.

Harry reduced the wood to toothpick with a punch and dodging Trogg's follow up attack he slipped by him into the nearby shadows, then disappeared from view.

"Show yourself!" Trogg yelled as he frantically swung a board with nails on it, but he found himself unable to make contact with his adversary.

He staggered backwards after Harry's jabbed him in the throat from the shadows. He followed it up by wrapping his arms around Trogg's throat in a choke hold and began squeezing the life out of him.

"You are going to talk, or I'm going to force you to talk," Harry said in a low even voice. He spoke so softly that Trogg had to strain to hear him and he knew that there would be consequences if he forced Harry to repeat anything that he said.

Trogg's knees were like jelly as his eyes glazed over. He coughed a little bit of blood up, but Harry made sure he didn't hit an artery, because that would mean that there would be problems.

"Where is Zombie?" Harry asked.

"Worth more than my life to tell you, you piece of shit!" Trogg spat out as he tried to kick Harry below the belt, but Harry was prepared for that type of assault.

The protective charm around that area caused every single bone in Trogg's left leg to snap.

"I don't think we'll be trying that again," Harry stated as he saw the man slump to the ground, still in the choke hold.

Trogg knew right then that if he tried to headbutt this one, he might end up cracking his skull, or impaling his brain, or something like that.

"I'm going to ask you again, one more time, and you're going to answer me," Harry whispered harshly as Trogg whimpered, his leg was killing him. "Where is Zombie?"

He dragged him around the warehouse, forcing him to walk on his broken and busted leg, which caused him even more pain. They made their way into the nearby office.

"Not around...but he's coming...tomorrow night...rundown apartment...right across from the Nolan Complex," Trogg growled as blood trickled down from his mouth. "Don't know what it's about, wouldn't tell you if I did."

"Oh, don't worry, I know that you don't, thanks for the information," Harry said gruffly, before he bounced his head off of the desk, knocking him unconscious with one fluid movement.

Harry walked over and calmly picked up the phone, before dialing a number.

"Hello?" The voice of an older man questioned from the other end of the line.

"Old Gotham, Warehouse 3, you might be able to find an interesting shipment there and someone who knows about it," Harry stated, he was still speaking without his British accent.

It was James Gordon on the other end of the phone. "How…."

"You found Maroni tonight, this is the next step on the trail, something's going down, be ready," Harry told him. "Move quickly, there's military grade weapons here, I don't want to see them get into the hands of any of Gotham's gangs."

Harry turned around to look over his shoulder.

"I'll send a squad right over….Warehouse 3?"

"Yes, Warehouse 3," Harry confirmed as he hung up the phone, he moved to leave, but something on the desk caught his eye.

' _Well, what do we have here?'_ Harry asked himself.

' _I don't know,_ _what do you have there?'_ Kara responded, even though she knew Harry was pretty much talking to himself.

' _It's a blueprint,_ _take a look at this,_ _this is no ordinary aerosol bomb,'_ Harry thought to the girls who had the technical knowledge to make sense of what he was seeing.

Karen chimed in with a few words of her own. _'No it isn't. It's something that's able to distribute a lot of gas within a matter of moments.'_

' _What would they want with something like that?'_ Diana couldn't help but wonder.

' _I don't know,_ _but we're getting closer to the endgame,'_ Harry thought.

He'd be able to take the next step tomorrow night. He couldn't help but notice a large amount of a type of flower that he didn't recognize, it appeared that weapons weren't the only thing that was being shipped out of this warehouse.

After taking a close look at them, Harry picked one of the flowers, he cast a stasis charm on it to make sure it was safe until he got back home.

* * *

It was not a good night for the mobsters of Gotham City, Carmine Falcone found that out the hard way. He was hanging from a street lamp, he didn't know what hit him, but he was pretty sure that he didn't like it.

"Let me down! You'll hear from my attorneys if you don't, do you hear me?!"

"I have all the information that I need from you," the dark brooding figure stated in a throaty growl. His voice was harsh and gruff, sounding like he went through several packs of cigarettes a day.

As it turned out, Harry's lead was spot on, but naturally the Detective did his own homework to make sure.

Breaking into Falcone's briefcase, he found paperwork that linked him to the arm's deal, paperwork that he couldn't be disputed because his signature was on it. He obviously thought that his briefcase was secure, that no one could break into it without the combination.

He was wrong.

Using his grapnel gun to swing up into the night, the figure glided through shadows. Falcone had spilled about a warehouse when his life was in danger. The Dark Knight made his way through the darkness, only to stop suddenly, having been being caught unaware by an extremely peculiar sight.

Taking careful stock of his surroundings he saw the GCPD moving around, looking like they were going to bring someone in. He saw a beaten and battered man get dragged off into a squad car.

' _Seems like if I've been beaten to the punch,'_ he thought to himself from were he was perched onto a ledge in order to see what was going on.

"Make sure to get those crates secured, I don't want any of the contraband falling into the wrong hands."

The dark brooding figure continued watch from the shadows. He knew what he had to do and he knew what was on the line. He knew that no matter what, to remain effective, he must not be seen. The unknown was his greatest tool and a tool that he was going to exploit for however long it took to accomplish his mission.

James Gordon looked up into the air; he could have sworn that he spotted a glimpse of something rustling around in the shadows. However, when he looked back, there was nothing.

He thought it was a dark shape, something that moved swiftly over the city, like a giant bat.

' _Now you're seeing things Gordon, it's been a long couple of nights,_ _don't lose it now,'_ Gordon grumbled to himself.

He turned back to overseeing the investigation. The criminal known as Trogg was not having a good night, although given what he'd been through in the past, he'd probably do well in Blackgate.

The Dark Knight moved through the shadows with nimble precision. He managed not to be seen, except for a slight glimpse. He had smoke bombs in the second pouch on his belt if he needed to disappear quickly.

"HEY! LOOK UP THERE!"

Like right now, he flicked one out of its pouch and onto the ground, a cloud of smoke billowed outwards.

"What's the fuck was that! Get a light on him, get a light on him, O'Hara! Did you see that?"

"Aye, I did," a cop stated in a thick Irish accent.

Gordon looked into the shadows, all that was left was a cloud of smoke, whoever was there had completely vanished into the night.

"He must have been twenty feet tall! With glowing red eyes and fangs," one of the rookie officers stated.

Gordon somehow thought that wasn't the case, but he saw him standing right there, as clear as day. He saw the giant bat.

"Montoya, make sure you have that all rounded up, I'm going to take a closer look!"

Gordon slipped into the shadows but he saw nothing there. Not even a hint of the man. Not even one stinking footprint on the ground.

Whoever it was, he was good.

* * *

Harry returned home, it must have been well after two am in the morning, closer to three. He entered the sitting room area of the Penthouse from the elevator and he smiled as he saw Kara and Karen crashed out on the couch, watching television. Karen's arms were wrapped around Kara and the younger blonde's face was nuzzled in the rather ample chest of the older blonde.

Not wanting to disturb this beautiful sight, Harry moved on. He could see that Diana must have checked in some time ago and was already in bed. She might be up soon actually, given that she always was up for some early morning training. Harry kept moving as he made his way up the stairs.

' _Busy_ _night?'_ Faora asked him, seemingly out of nowhere. He thought she'd gone to bed hours ago.

' _I'm surprised that_ _you're still up,'_ Harry stated.

' _There's always something to do,_ _I got some sleep this afternoon, so I figured I'd get something accomplished,'_ Faora added.

' _That's true enough, well….I'm one step closer to figuring out this entire scheme,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, that's_ _good,'_ Faora thought, she paused for a moment to consider something, before continuing. _'Do you get that feeling of dread that there's something far deeper going on?'_

' _Yes, I do,_ _so I'm just going to have to handle the situation carefully,'_ Harry thought back to her as he made his way up the stairs to the room he shared with Pamela. He didn't have an official bedroom per say, when he crashed, he crashed, usually in the rooms of the other females of the household, but for all intents and purposes, he shared the master bedroom with Pamela since that's where he stored his clothes. The green eyes of Harry Potter flowed with passion.

He carefully made his way into the room and saw Pamela sleeping there soundly, so peacefully, that he moved with extra carefulness so as not to wake her. The room had several exotic plants in it already, due to her interests. There were also a few empty vases and Harry placed the flower that he liberated from the warehouse in one.

He knew it was safe, given that all of the scanning spells he did on it. He barely noticed his wife stirring, although he figured that it was just her tossing and turning whilst in bed. He flickered his finger and water filled the vase.

He placed the flower carefully on the nightstand beside Pamela.

' _What a night!'_ Harry thought to himself, careful not to voice that thought out loud, he didn't want to wake his wife up.

Harry slipped into the bed, he wanted to catch a couple hours sleep, he felt Pamela stir beside him. He thought nothing of it, at least at first, but then her arms wrapped around him and her lips firmly pressed upon his. His green eyes fluttered open as her lips assaulted his.

Harry wasn't slow on the uptake, in fact, he got the message loud and clear as she continued kissing him. He pulled her lithe body, wearing only a green nightshirt and panties, onto his lap as she straddled his waist.

* * *

Pamela wrapped her legs around Harry and slowly worked his shirt off, revealing his muscular chest. The redhead started to work over his muscles and she smiled, liking what she saw.

"Finally," Pamela whispered hungrily as she reached her hand down his pants and started to rub his crotch, causing his cock to become erect.

Harry situated so her soft and creamy thighs were up against his face. He spread her lips and she moaned as his tongue stuck deep into her pussy. She closed her eyes and latched her mouth down upon his cock, giving the proper suction to his cock.

The redhead pushed her head all the way down on his phallus, her lips tightening around him. She kept rocking back and forth, allowing him to go all the way down her throat. She was about to gag on hips phallus but she stayed the course, wrapping her tight hot lips around him. She was breathing heavily as Harry grabbed her face and worked into her face, fucking her throat with the greatest of ease. She closed her eyes tightly.

His hands trailed all the way down her legs, playing with them and he continued to delve into her pussy.

' _Har…oh deeper, yes, yes, YES!'_ Pamela mentally moaned as she worked her hips up towards him and his tongue started to rattle deep within her pussy, causing the pleasurable vibrations that drove her so wild. She was pushing her pussy down upon his mouth.

Pamela whimpered as she was warmed up and she saw his cock, coated in a thick coat of her salvia. She grabbed his cock and kept stroking his cock up and down. She smiled as she kissed him and Harry reversed the positioning.

The redhead nymph shuddered.

"Harry, I need you in me, please," she begged.

"I'll take you any way that I want and I'm going to take you now," Harry breathed as he worked her sopping wet folds and licked his fingers from the tasty, delicious juices that were rolling down her thighs.

Her pussy had a delicious taste and Harry found himself spending a long time indulging himself in the tastes as he stripped off her top. He buried his face between her breasts and teased her dripping hole with his cock. He lifted her hips and Harry inserted his cock into her.

Her walls wrapped around him and Harry kept sliding in and out of her. The redhead sunk her fingernails into the side of his arm and she closed her eyes, feeling the pleasure with Harry ramming into her pussy.

Each thrust in his cock caused her to lose herself in even more delightful sensations. His hands roamed all the way down her body, touching her breasts, her tight posterior, and her dripping hot pussy. Each thrust was amazing, each thrust caused Harry to work into her. His quick and steady thrusts drove her further and further to the edge.

"Please, oh, please, YES!" Pamela whimpered as Harry's cock continued to work deep into her dripping hot core.

Harry gripped onto his wife's thighs and kept working into her. Her pussy enveloped his cock, her warmth really working her over. The woman's hips lifted up and she panted, giving a lustful and amazing warmth continued to hug his member.

"DEEPER!" Pamela yelled and Harry grabbed onto her breasts, working as far into her. She clenched him and Harry worked into her. The walls were really working into her and she was whimpering in immense pleasure.

Her hips connected against Harry's cock as she lifted herself up. Harry grabbed her breast and played with it. The pleasure of the power channeled through her globes could not be denied. Harry's cock smashed into her once again.

"Oh, you're cumming so hard aren't you?" Harry grunted. He continued to spear his wife's hot and tight center, working into her.

"Yes, oh, yes, oh, yes, YES!" Pamela moaned as she worked her hips up against his intrusions. She was determined to get the most out of this coupling.

Harry could feel her pussy clench him and the orgasm wash over her body. He was getting back into the groove, with her pussy clenching him. The redhead's walls clutched around him and Harry kept working into her rather amazingly.

She closed her eyes and his massive cock continued to pound her perfect pussy. Each thrust brought her closer to the edge, closer to losing herself from him. The redhead pumped her hips up towards him and Harry could feel her clench him.

"Oh, I need your cum, please, please," Pamela breathed but she knew that Harry was going to make her work for it and she used her walls wrapped around his throbbing prick.

The walls wrapped around his throbbing cock and Harry drilled his throbbing member into her. He kept working into her, her soft walls caressing around him rather lovingly. She lifted her hips up and moaned loudly as he kept working into her.

"More, Harry, more, more, more," she encouraged him as Harry grabbed his hands around her, hammering his cock deep into her.

"YES!" Pamela moaned at the top of her lungs.

Harry smiled as he pulled nearly all the way out of her, sliding out of her, and then worked his huge member into her, her walls clutching around his thick member.

"Keep it up, almost there," Harry grunted as he slowed down.

Pamela whimpered as Harry grabbed her by the thighs and ran his strong hands all the way down her legs. She whimpered as she felt his massive rod pulse between her legs. She kept working her hips all the way up and Harry rammed into her. The redhead was feeling the pleasure and Harry worked into her. The walls tightened around him and Harry pulsed into her. Her walls wrapped around his penetrating wall.

"Closer, closer," Pamela breathed as Harry tightened around him and she was feeling closer and closer to being over the edge. Harry's thick rod wrapped around her and Harry kept going into her. The walls snugly tightened around her snatch.

Harry's cock worked into her with a thick pulse as he was driving her closer to the edge and she grabbed onto his mighty rod.

His thrusts buried deep into her walls and his face buried in her breasts. Pamela moaned as he kept working over her breasts, licking and suckling on her.

A few more thrusts later and Harry sped things up. She could sense that his climax was getting close, she welcomed it, she lusted for it. Her walls continued to hug him and Harry ran his hands all over. Her ass was cupped as she held him in close.

"CUM, I NEED IT!"

Harry smiled.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked as he kept working into her and she bit on her lip, closing her eyes and she gave a lustful, moan.

Harry was going to keep going into her, his thrusts getting deeper and her walls clutching him. He kept speeding into her, rapid fire thrusts stretching her snatch.

Their loins kept meeting in an erotic coupling with each other. The two of them kept moaning with each other and Harry gave one final thrust.

He drained his balls into her pussy. A few thrusts unloaded his seed into her and it was draining out of her pussy.

Pamela collapsed, feeling satisfied, at least for the moment.

* * *

**To Be Continued In the Next Chapter.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen: Nightwing Begins Part Five.**

"It's all about focus and gaining control of your emotions," Hippolyta advised her daughter. Lyta looked from her mother to her father for confirmation and after he nodded his head in agreement, she faced forwards to focus on the target in front of her. Her heart skipped a few beats as she reared her head back.

She knew that she could hot tempered, but that was something that came from both sides of her family. Harrison kept his eyes on Lyta from he stood on the sidelines, ready and willing to offer his advice.

"Your thirteen years old now, which means you may be coming into some of your gifts, although given that you're a hybrid born of two different races, we're going into uncharted territory," Harrison offered as he looked at Lyta and she turned to look back towards him.

"You have an idea, though," Lyta commented, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Naturally, her father would have the answers to all of her questions.

"I have a theory, yes," Harrison agreed, in fact he had several different ones. While, he wasn't a geneticist like Faora, he had a good enough understanding of it to make several accurate guesses.

' _And what is it….what do you think is going on?'_ Faora questioned him, her scientific curiosity getting the better of her. She wasn't trying to treat Lyta like she was a science project, but this was unprecedented, her niece was a Hybrid born of a Magical Kryptonian and an Amazonian demigoddess, she was going to be very powerful when fully grown.

In fact, given that she's Har-Zod's and Hippolyta's daughter, she couldn't be anything else. But it meant that they would need to keep a close eye on her as she grew, regardless of the situation.

"Just focus on the target and don't exert too much energy," Harrison told Lyta as he pointed out the target to her. As the young girl was focusing her eyes on the target in front of, he walked over to her and began situating her body properly, in order to make sure her stance was perfect.

Lyta's feet were pushed apart so that they were in line with her shoulders. She understood that it was all about maintaining the proper stance and how she aimed at the target. After fixing her stance, Harrison wrapped his arms around her waist and leaned in towards her for a moment.

"Just visualize it from beginning to end and it will happen," Harrison advised her gently while giving her an affectionate squeeze. With that said and done, he let go of her.

"Yes, Lyta, all magic starts in the mind and with the mind properly trained, the body will follow and it will flow through with your mind perfectly disciplined," Hippolyta added and Lyta nodded at her mother's words.

She could do it, she could most certainly do this, she wasn't about to give up anytime soon. Lifting her right hand up, she took in and then let out a deep breath, before she blasted the target.

The blasting charm clipped the target in the side, Lyta couldn't help but shake her head and grit her teeth in annoyance, she was a perfectionist like her Father. Harrison decided to adjust her positioning a little bit more.

The young girl lifted her hand back up and once again, she fired at the target. The target was very nearly destroyed this time, but once again she missed hitting it full on.

Third time was in fact the charm, her spell hit the target dead center, blasting it into dust. Harrison nodded at her effort with a pleased look on his face.

"That was excellent Lyta," Harrison commented and he pulled her into a strong hug, which she was very pleased by.

"I know," Lyta responded, she looked quite smug, a little bit too much so in fact.

Frowning softly, Hippolyta moved over to join them and leaning forwards she whispered something to her husband. "Perhaps, we should make the next test of our daughter's abilities a bit more challenging."

There was a few seconds where Harrison paused to think what she said over and consider his options.

"Okay, let's see if you can sink your teeth into this one," Harrison offered Lyta, who looked a little bit excited and a fair bit frightened, after she had a moment to consider her Father's tone. His emerald green eyes locked onto her identical ones. "I want you to rearrange these blocks back into this pattern, without damaging them. That means not breaking or smashing them in any way."

Lyta looked carefully at the blocks, she thought about levitating them at first, but she wasn't sure how that would work without severely damaging them. She saw that her father really wanted her to work for this next accomplishment and she wasn't about to let him down, she would show him how skilled she was. The dark haired girl concentrated on finding a solution to the problem in front of her.

' _That's a real puzzler, isn't it?'_ Ginny asked.

' _It isn't….wait, that wouldn't work,'_ Hermione thought, she was able to see the puzzle through Harrison's eyes. _'The solution….'_

' _It's not one of those by the book things_ _Hermione, so you might have a bit of difficulty accomplishing it,'_ Harrison thought back to her as he waited to see what his daughter would do.

Harrison sat down on a bench next to Hippolyta, who was waiting there waiting for him and the moment he did so she quickly wrapped her arms around him. To the girls within the collective Harrison was Harry, although he originally started out as a duplicate, he'd lasted longer than all the rest and had gone through some different challenges and experiences than the Prime Model. Which lead to some very slight genetic differences between the two of them. Still the bond registered them as the same person, just within two separate bodies.

' _So….is this possible to_ _solve?'_ Hippolyta thought. _'Or_ _are you giving our daughter a valuable life lesson by showing her that there are certain instances where she shouldn't get too confident about her own abilities?'_

' _Both, actually, it's solvable, but only if you approach it with the right attitude and an open mind, it's hard to do so though,'_ Harrison thought as he saw Lyta standing there, her nose scrunched up cutely in frustration.

Lyta sank down to knees and hurled her arms down in frustration.

"Daddy, this is impossible!" she shouted as she balled her fists up and Harrison couldn't help but smile. To his girls, all of them, Har-Zod was Har-Zod no matter what alias that he used or body he was in, that fact could not be reinforced enough.

"First lesson, my daughter is this, nothing is impossible, even if the solution isn't obvious at first, that's something that you need to learn quickly if you want to meet all the challenges life throws at you," Har-Zod lectured her.

Lyta nodded thoughtfully at her Father's words, she was running into some snags when it came to flying. She could get off the ground and fly most certainly, but it was landing that was the big issue for her.

"Don't get a hot head and lose your patience, there's always going to be a problem if you do," Harrison offered her and Lyta nodded again at.

Her heart and mind, where telling her that had to solve this puzzle. Given who her parents were and the fact she'd been blessed by the six goddesses at birth, she wasn't lacking for intelligence in the slightest. It was just keeping her temper and emotions in check long enough to put the stones back together. They couldn't touch in any way and that fact was giving her headache.

She looked over it in her mind. The stones had been perfectly assembled before being taking apart by her father, surely they could be reassembled again without being scratched.

At least that's what she was thinking in the back of her mind.

' _Okay, let's see, I can do this, I can really do this,'_ she thought to herself as she prepared to switch everything around. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and then attempted it. Unfortunately, she made a mistake and they ended up smashing together, causing them to explode into pieces.

"HERA!" she cursed to herself.

"Had nothing to do with it young lady," Harrison told her daughter sternly, who crossed her arms with a pout. Hippolyta's lips curled into a smile. "Let's try it again and then we can figure out what you need to do in order to land properly."

' _Offering incentive, very good,'_ Amanda commented approvingly as she wondered what her niece would do to get the blocks together.

It was going to be a long involved lesson, but mastering magical abilities took a bit of time. Harrison actually thought that she was coming along a lot quicker than many in the same position would. Then again, being his daughter, she would have to be better than the rest. The smile that stretched across his face showed the pride that he had in his daughter, although he was trying not to really show it all that much. Her arrogance might be her undoing.

Then again, it should be obvious who she got her arrogant behavior from. It was something that ran in the family.

* * *

Harry smiled as he tapped his foot on the ground, flipping through the latest Gotham City newspaper as he waited for Dinah to show up. He was sitting at a outside table at one of the nicest cafe's in Gotham, considering the fact it was within a neighborhood that could actually afford security.

This particular coffee shop was responsible for several memories that Harry held onto very fondly. As Barbara once stated, the milkshakes here were to die for, although Harry hoped that statement wasn't meant literally. Given that this was Gotham City, that statement could be far too literal for his liking.

Regardless of that fact, he was making his way through the paper, as the events of the previous evening and indeed the last couple of days went through his head. Right smack dab in the middle of the front page was a headline blaring out that Carmine Falcone and Salvatore Maroni had been arrested the night before.

Harry figured that Maroni was going to be arrested, after all he'd left behind a tape recording of what he told him, along with several other damning pieces of information that he had on him for the GCPD to find. It was something that would take a while for Maroni to spin. His signature was all over several incriminating documents, despite that fact, he couldn't but reason out that it might be difficult keeping Maroni behind bars given how well connected he was.

Although perhaps not as difficult as it was before.

Falcone on the other hand, now that was interesting news. He knew that Falcone was someone that he would have to deal with at some point, but it looked like a certain someone had beaten him to the punch. With a little thought about the situation, Harry quickly managed to put two and two together in regards to who that someone was.

' _He does work pretty quickly for someone_ _who doesn't have powers,'_ Kara commented, the Alphas were pretty much in the know, giving their higher security clearance and sensitivity to Harry's thoughts and actions within the bonds. In fact, for the time being it was only Harry, Kara, Diana, Faora, and Karen talking, the others were off doing their own thing so they wouldn't be disturbed.

' _Well you can't deny that fact, although Harry did get a lot done_ _last night,'_ Karen thought, then again she did have a lot more information available when it came to a certain someone's costume identity, due to the differing time line of her original dimension

' _I'd say,'_ Kara stated, after he was finished with Pamela, Karen and herself jumped him, then had their own fun with him.

' _Well, double innuendo aside, he did seriously get a lot done,'_ Faora commented with a smile on her face. There was a lot of pride in her voice regarding what her brother accomplished.

Harry smiled, as he continued reading through the paper, trying to keep up with the news of the day. Mostly, because it was a good idea to keep well informed about what any potential headaches were doing.

' _Anything interesting_ _in there?'_ Diana thought curiously. She hadn't gotten a chance to read through it herself yet.

Harry chuckled. _'Well there's something on page eight about a mysterious….Bat-Man, that you might find interesting.'_

' _It's a wonder that the press didn't described him as being twenty feet tall with three heads, considering how prone they are to exaggeration,'_ Faora thought dryly.

Karen was about ready to argue that things were not that bad, but there was something in the back of her mind telling her that she would only end up sounding foolish. The press exaggerated things, that was just what they did.

Harry flipped through the paper, his eyes brushing over a report that the parents of a Roman Sionis being caught in a fire at their mansion and perished. No foul play was suspected, since the Gotham City Fire Department had ruled it to be an accident caused by faulty wiring. He also saw that a man known as Joe Chill was up for parole, along with a rather infamous hitman known as Jack Napier.

The society page had a puff piece about the possible return of one of the famous sons of Gotham City, in Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, who had been sent across the pond to a boarding school in England and then never left. Harry thought that the name Cobblepot sounded a bit familiar, but he was having a mental block in regards to where he heard it before.

He figured that if it was important, it would come back to him.

' _The Media is such a good tool to shape the minds of people with,'_ Harry thought to his bond makes.

' _Oh yes, running a multimedia empire couldn't help but be interesting,'_ Kara commented eagerly, as she thought about all of the possibilities.

' _It's a good long term plan,'_ Faora admitted to them all. _'But you might want to hold off on it a little bit….we've got too much going on to pull the trigger on that yet. A lot of our assets are tied up in other projects.'_

' _Yes, our liquid assets aren't exactly in the best position right now, although maybe in a year or two, that will change, in fact, the partnership between STARR and RAO is already getting us on the right track,'_ Karen thought back in agreement.

' _And when we do,_ _I'll be able to run it,'_ Kara commented with glee, her studies were allowing her to learn about the ins and the outs of how multimedia worked.

' _And we're going to have a nice foundation with Wayne, along with the LuthorCorp stock we acquired,'_ Faora added.

' _So we don't have to rush, but it's something that we can keep an eye on for the future,'_ Kara thought and she looked eagerly towards that even brighter future.

His attention was diverted by an amazing sight as he saw Dinah arrive, riding on a Harley and she was dressed to kill.

He decided to renew access to the rest of the bonded since his meeting with the Alphas had more or less concluded, and it was just in time for them to enjoy the sight of Dinah in all of her splendor.

She had on a nice low cut dark top that showed off her cleavage and it rode up a slight bit, showing off to her tight abs. Over top of that she had on a black leather jacket and a pair of fingerless gloves wrapped around her hands. Her tight black leather pants molded to her sensual ass and legs like a second layer of skin.

"Hello, Dinah, you look great," Harry told her and Dinah smiled brightly at his words.

She threw her arms around Harry and pulled him into an extremely aggressive hug. Their bodies pressed tightly against each other and he could have sworn that she was seeing how close she could press herself against him without it being considered lewd.

She then grabbed his face and tilting his head back, offered him a deep and juicy kiss. He returned it eagerly and their tongues danced against each other. Wrapping his arms around her, he held her in close to him as they indulged themselves in each other.

"Nice to see you, Harry," Dinah said casually, nibbling on his lower lip as a parting shot and her hand "accidentally" brushed against his package as she pulled away.

' _She looks pretty fucking hot for a tomboy,'_ Lavender thought, as a few other girls filed onto the bond now that Harry and his Alphas were done having their conversation.

' _That she_ _does,'_ Astoria thought and she was practically drooling at the sight of the beautiful Miss Lance.

"It's always good to see you," Harry commented as he led Dinah to the table. She sat down in a chair next to him after he pulled it for her. "So...it's been a long time coming, but I managed to finally get you out on a date. "

"What's your point?" Dinah asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I've been trying to ask you on a date for about nine months, maybe close to a year come to think about it. So I got the impression you weren't interested and then you suddenly ask me out of the blue…."

"Well, given what happened with Oliver, I had a lot of trust issues that I needed to work out for myself," Dinah told Harry and he nodded at that. From his expression she could tell that he wasn't too fond of Oliver Queen either.

To be perfectly truthful, Harry didn't see much good in anything about Oliver Queen. He honestly reminded him of a slightly less obnoxious version of Draco Malfoy, he was the typical rich party boy who had a higher opinion of himself then he should. Basically, everything that Bruce Wayne allowed the tabloids to think he was, Oliver 'Call me Ollie,' Queen was in spades.

"He didn't get that far with me either, given that he was having an affair with my mother behind my back...before she passed on, and….well...it was pretty hard to get past that for a while," Dinah said to him.

"Oh, your mother, she was part of the JSA, wasn't she?" Harry asked.

"Yes, she was, along with Doctor Fate, Sandman, Hawkgirl, Starman, Wildcat, they were all charter members of the JSA, just to name a few," Dinah said to him. "They were pretty active in the sixties and seventies, but….most of them were arrested when they refused to play ball with the government, there were certain covert agencies that wanted to use them as tools."

Dinah only understood this much because she had found her mother's old journal, after she died about a year and a half ago. She found out the nature of Oliver's relationship with her mother a bit before that and well….it opened her eyes. Oliver was well known for his drunken exploits and he got himself in more than a few jams because of them. Thankfully for him, he had the money to get out of them, but as a result he never learned a lesson from them either.

"The JSA were heroes, even though the government ruined them in the end, it was sort of a golden age of heroes, really," Dinah stated as she brushed her golden locks out of her face and kept her eyes locked onto Harry. "Oliver and I….well...I don't suppose what we had would qualify as a relationship, but you know, he can be charming, although…."

Dinah stopped herself from saying anything that would make her sound like a bitter ex, even though they went out less than a handful of times and it was nothing more serious other than that.

' _So can dry_ _rot,'_ Faora thought scathingly.

' _It can?'_ Ginny thought back curiously.

' _Trust me, there are some politicians on Krypton who had the personality of dry rot,_ _yet they got very far,'_ Faora responded to her with a grimace.

Dinah and Harry continued to make small talk regarding the JSA and how RAO was doing.

"I heard about what happened the other night," Dinah commented, finally bringing up the subject she'd been concerned about. "Barbara told me, how are you…."

"I'm coping about as well as I can," Harry said in an even voice. The reason why he didn't go on a rampage, was due to the fact the last thing he wanted to do was tear Gotham City in half and kill the portion of the population that wasn't corrupt assholes by mistake.

Dinah nodded, having lost her mother not too long ago, she knew that people coped with things in their own way.

"So, there's this rumor about a mysterious vigilante running around Gotham City, don't suppose you know anything about it?"

Harry's grin grew calculating at that question, instead of responding to it, he decided to take a sip of coffee, which left Dinah curious, but she was perceptive enough to know that she might not get a straight answer.

Gossip out of the GCPD was that half of the force was relieved that this person showed up, mostly because it prevented them from having to do any real work.

* * *

Harry was careful not to make his suit look to extravagant. If he going to be stinking to the shadows until he was ready to strike, then there was no need for him to have something fashionable.

If all someone critiqued about him was how good his suit look, Harry thought that he would be in a very good place indeed. He was putting finishing touches on the sleek black and red suit, readying it for the next stage in this battle.

A pair of vibrant green eyes fixed on the suit from the darkness, making sure that he did not sacrifice functionality for style. He had to make sure it was properly armored against all attacks, while making certain that the armor wouldn't hinder his ability to fight and perform spell work when he was wearing it.

' _So far,_ _so good,'_ Harry thought as he prepared for the final round of tests. He had been working on this project for a fair amount of time, even before what happened to Neville in fact, so he needed to ensure that it was made for quality and ready for action.

Harry ran his hands down the suit, it was very sleek looking. Armored, but not to the point it would restrict his mobility, he needed to be able move quickly in it to accomplish what he needed to accomplish. The suit was made up of two parts, the top half and the bottom half. It was completely black, except for some red trim. It was not about making a fashion statement, it was about getting a job done, although he thought that he would wear it well.

He checked the arms of the suit to make sure he had a full range of movement and then picked up the gloves. After he slipped them on a target presented itself, a perfect simulated human being created by Alura and Lara working in tandem. It was capable of being stunned and shocked.

He held up the gloves and sent a pulse through them towards the simulated human. Sure enough, it was a direct hit.

' _Perfect,'_ Harry thought to himself, barely keeping the grin off of his face. It would have taken out a real thug with the greatest ease. He had spent a long time tinkering with these gloves to find the right frequency, so that the thugs wouldn't get up easily after being taking down, but he could them up if he wanted to interrogate them.

He took a good look at the suit once more. The armor was thick enough to block most bullets. Considering the fact he only had access to half of his powers while wearing the watch, Harry wasn't taking any chances.

He smiled when his green eyes took in the final detail of the outfit. The insignia on the suit located near the center of his chest was a very familiar dragon like creature, known as the Nightwing, the namesake of Harry's Patronus.

He wouldn't call the outfit perfect by any means, there was always more room for improvement as far as he was concerned. However, as far as outfits went, he thought that it would do the job when went into the den of snakes tonight.

' _So far,_ _so good,'_ Faora commented as she looked over Har-Zod's creation from inside the bond link.

' _It isn't the best looking thing fashion wise…'_ Lavender thought back to her.

' _Well, Harry isn't trying to win any awards for being fashionable,_ _he's going for functionality,'_ Daphne argued.

' _Exactly,'_ Harry agreed as he took another look over the suit of armor and then offered a smile.

All of the bio-systems were online, they would link him to the castle and a few other strategic locations. That way, if something injured him badly enough, someone would be able to swoop in and get him out of them.

' _It functions nicely, but…'_

' _No better time for_ _a field run than now,'_ Harry thought to Amanda. _'So, all of you should wish me luck.'_

' _Yes, good luck,_ _hopefully you remember that you're going into the unknown,'_ Faora advised him.

' _Believe me,_ _I know precisely what I'm going into and I know that you'll be keeping an eye on the bios,'_ Harry thought. _'Are they transmitting?'_

' _Yes, yes,_ _they are,'_ Penny agreed, answering for Faora.

' _It's_ _interesting,'_ Patricia added as she spoke up for the first. She was still getting used to people talking in her head, so it did startle her every now and then, when she least expected it to come through.

' _Okay, tonight's the night,_ _I've got my new suit,'_ Harry thought as he prepared to suit up. The nano-technology was something unprecedented Earth wise and when combined with magic, there was so much that could go wrong.

He decided to take the plunge, putting the suit on and making his way out into the night. The meeting Trogg told him about last night was starting soon and he didn't want to be late.

* * *

"The Doctor will be joining us soon."

The man known as Zombie made that statement crisply and cooly from where stood in the shadows with his arms crossed over his chest. He couldn't help but notice the woman known as Nightshade watching him closely. She carefully peered at him from the other side of a mask and two of her bodyguards stood near her. Zombie had a well armed group of muscular thugs with him.

"Yes, he knows that he should be punctual for this meeting," Nightshade stated as her green eyes peered towards him, she had no tolerance for him or his actions. "But what you should be worried about is what happened at the warehouse last night."

"It's not a concern…."

"It is a very large concern! The Demon's Head wants reassurance that everything will happen on schedule, regardless of the loss of your men and equipment!" Nightshade snapped. "He will not tolerant your further failure, given that you have directed 'his' attention too closely to us and this operation far too soon by murdering his friend."

"It was merely insurance," Zombie stated as he shifted in the shadows. "Most of the equipment and chemicals have already arrived at their destination…..everything on schedule."

Nightshade looked back at him, she and Zombie had an entirely different theory about what being on schedule truly meant, but she was not saying that.

"What I want to know is how the Bat found out about our operation?" Zombie questioned her. "And how did he get close enough to leave Trogg a broken wreck, I assumed you had him under close observation."

"It wasn't the Bat man, it was the other one," Nightshade corrected him as she took a step forward. "I expected him to respond, but I didn't expect him to respond so soon and so violently."

"And I suspect that you wish me to do something about that," Zombie stated gruffly.

"I expect you to assist the Great One in correcting the mistakes caused by your incompetence," she commented as she glared at him with absolute disgust in her voice and tone.

Zombie shook his head, then looked over his shoulder when one of his men grunted, two of them were fairly large, well over six and a half feet tall. They looked rather rough and tumble, like they could be like your stereotypical professional wrestler.

' _Weak, disgusting, putrid,'_ she thought as she looked at Zombie. He was a foul man, who'd failed to pass his trials and thought he was worth than he actually was. The only reason why he was kept around instead of being killed, was due to the fact her father thought that he would be extremely useful as a blunt instrument, something that could be used as a show of force.

Regardless of that fact he disgusted her utterly.

"Where is the Scarecrow!" Zombie bellowed as he looked around the apartment.

"You will be silent!" Nightshade snapped at him and her elite guard shifted on either side of her. They were all females, dressed in black garb that adhered to their bodies like a second skin, their eyes stared out from behind the masks with murderous intentions etched within them.

She knew that the only reason why Zombie didn't do anything to her was due to the fact he feared repercussions at the hands of her father, someone who had scared many hardened professionals in the League to death. The Demon's Head was not someone you trifled with, he had made men who tried to defy him disappear and then reappear in pieces for less than threatening one of his daughters.

No sooner did this thought go through the woman's head, then the lights went out with a solid boom.

They ended up shrouded in darkness and unable to get a sense of what was happening. However, they were professionals and not dime store thugs, so they didn't lose their mind completely just yet.

"GET A LIGHT!" one of the men growled from within the room.

Zombie looked around himself warily, even though he was more or less stumbling in the dark, he maintained his composure.

"Go find out what happened to the power," Zombie growled as he looked over his shoulder and several of his men staggered off to do so.

There was a whistling wind outside that rattled the window and built the anticipation in the mind.

They could have sworn that they saw a crouched figure in the shadows briefly, before a flash bang nearly blinded them.

They staggered backwards and then a pair of strong hands knocked their heads together. The double noggin' knocker put them out like a light and then the two were throw through the nearest window, causing an explosion of glass as they landed on the other side with a thud.

"Get him!" Zombie yelled out as his men started to fire on the figure in the shadows, but he seemed to disappear into them as if he was never there in the first place.

Their fire was wild and they couldn't get a fix on the person. They couldn't even hear anything, which did a good job in freaking them out further.

Zombie looked into the shadows and taking careful aim, shot at something that fell to the ground. He moved towards it and picked it up.

It was a cloak and there was no one inside of it.

Zombie was knocked hard through the wall by the figure before he had a chance to blink twice.

After sending Zombie through the wall, Harry slipped back into the shadows, moving swiftly through them he took out another one of Zombie's men. No matter what, he wasn't going to allow them to get a shot at him.

He saw two of the female guards standing in front of them. Lunging from the shadows he smashed their heads together rendering them unconscious. He then shielded them from the inadvertent attacks of the other mercenaries. His moral code didn't allow for woman or children to be killed in presence. Men on the other hand….well, if they shot at him, they were taking their chances.

They were flung out of the way as he heard footsteps thumping towards him. The green eyed wizard kept moving, never once letting up on the attacks.

He waved his hands and the guns flew from the hands of his enemies. They landed on the ground with a huge clatter and Harry propelled himself forwards to land in a low crouch in front of a thug, he then proceeded to knock him out with an magically enhanced uppercut to the jaw.

One of the brutes swung his fist at Harry. He ducked swiftly underneath the attack and then came back up with a jab to the throat of his enemy, who fell to the ground, his legs and arms temporarily paralyzed.

The other brute was kicked in the back of the leg and Harry seemingly vanished from sight for a second as the brute swung around to face him. The large man was confused, unable to see where he went, which way did he go?

The brute received an answer to his question was a sharp blow his kidneys and the brute howled in agony when the pain caused by the attack reached his brain.

Harry slowly turned his attention to Nightshade.

Nightshade felt herself panicking at the moment. As he moved to close to in on her, she fired a dose of a potent neurotoxin right into his face, which quickly caused him to become extremely dizzy.

He tried to stay on his feet, but he was having trouble and felt the need to throw up. He saw several bodies lying on the ground, rotting and moldering corpses all.

Well this was happening Zombie returned, extremely angry at being humbled so easily. He took notice of the fact that Nightshade and the two brutes were the only one's standing. Angrily, he pulled out two syringes filled with a performance enhancing chemical and jammed it into their arms.

"Break him," Zombie ordered them curtly.

Harry could see the two newly hulking figures make their way towards him, muscles bulging and their blood shot eyes wide in their skulls. He tried to shake off the effects of what was happening again, he wasn't sure what the chemical did to him, but it was not good.

Perhaps, it for the best he got smashed through the nearby wall, because the impact knocked him back to reality. He heard garbled voices through the bond and couldn't help but wonder what the hell did she hit me with?

Zombie and Nightshade were gone and one of the brutes rushed Harry, murderous intentions in his eyes.

Nightwing, however, wasn't about to go down without a fight. He dodged the brutes attack and jumped over his head to land behind him. He tried to apply a sleeper hold, but ended up being flung off like a gnat. It was hard to concentrate on much of anything right now, but he had to pull his mental facilities together.

Harry bounced off of the wall hard, but instead of crumpling to the ground, he went straight back on the attack throwing several punches towards the brute in front of him. The brute staggered back a little bit with blow, before responding with a swing of his arm that sent Harry flying once more.

Landing hard on the ground, the green eyed wizard slowly pushed himself up on his feet and saw the other brute coming towards him.

Harry picked up a wooden chair and smashed it over his enemy's head. He could probably take these two out quickly if he used magic, but he was finding it extremely difficult to concentrate after being drugged.

He saw more figures and flames surrounding more broken bodies. He felt himself weaken further as he tried to keep his mental facilities together.

Once again, he brought himself back up to his feet, just in time to get nailed hard in the chest and fly backwards once more. He closed his eyes and his heart was beating rather quickly in his chest. He could barely focus on what was going on around him. There was a sinister whistling in the wind that got even more prominent no matter how much he tried to move around. Blood trickled from his mouth but once again, Harry tried to pull himself back to his feet.

' _What's….happening,'_ a strangled voice voice was heard over the bond.

"Don't know...don't know...if you can hear me, but I'm transferring a scan of my blood, I inhaled something, it must be potent, it would have killed a normal person," Harry breathed out, he brought up his wrist computer and typed quickly into it. It was light weight, compact, and it was something that he could utilize to get the information quickly. "Pamela, get Lucretia….put your heads together….I don't know what's happening…."

Harry had no idea if he was heard or not and he felt a sudden bout of dizziness visit him. He felt like he was going to hack up his lungs and that wasn't because one of the brutes had hammered him with another punch to the ribs. Zombie and his female companion were already gone.

The brutes were easily manipulated, but Harry couldn't see anything but indistinguishable shapes in front of him due to his blurred vision. He heard an insidious laughter in the back of his head that he blocked out.

He managed to direct their attacks against each other, they were simple, mindless really and he was easily able to direct them. He could hear their hearts struggle to pump in their chest. Their bodies weren't prepared for this sudden transformation and soon their hearts would give out underneath the strain. All he had to do was go the distance.

Harry could see pillars falling around him and he felt like he was inside a tunnel. He could see familiar faces, members of his collective slipping away underneath hellfire and brimstone. He reached for them in an attempt to save them, but his arms felt like concrete.

The green eyed wizard could see swirls at the edge of his vision and then he snapped himself back to reality. It was a good thing that he did seeing as how he was forced to quickly dodge several attacks from the brutes.

' _This is quite the disturbing world,_ _now isn't it?'_ a high pitched voice commented in his mind and Harry once again avoided attacks by the shapeless shadows that tried to pull him down into madness.

He was tripping through an entire land of mushrooms and pink swirls. Giant ten feet tall creatures made of multicolored fire appeared, and three headed elephants marched towards him, chanting eerily.

Harry's mind was rebelling against the changes, a less structured mind would have presented fears that were far more real than this multicolored absurdity.

' _Harry Potter, are you hairy? Do you make pots or do you smoke it? What does that name even mean?'_ a giggling voice inquired and the giggling continued.

The brutes were down for the count, their hearts having burst under the pressure. Har-Zod wasn't sure what happened.

 _'HAR!'_ Faora shouted over the bond, but there was no answer, just a thump, thump, thump, and then Harry's world exploded into a multicolored hue of being completely fucked up.

* * *

Harry found himself trapped in a multicolored twister. He heard a loud thumping in the back of his head and he landed on the ground with an explosive impact.

He pushed himself up off the ground and he shook his head as the scene devolved around him.

' _Something tells me we're not in Kansas anymore,_ _Toto,'_ a voice that sounded enough like Rose's that it might as well be Rose's stated.

Harry looked around his surroundings and saw himself at a train station. It was almost a perfect replica of King's Cross Station, he shook his head to clear it. He also heard an obnoxious humming in his head that he tried to dispel immediately. He snapped his head up and saw someone exiting the train.

Albus Dumbledore stepped off of the train, looking quite fabulous indeed. He was wearing a sequined outfit, a combination of whites and gold, trimmed with some silver. His beard was in braids and a purple top hat with a feather rested on his head and a multicolored pink and white set of feather boas were wrapped around his neck. He slinked forwards like a sexual predator, dressed in red knee high boots, before he started skipping.

"Heeeello Harry! My dear boy! I must say, you look quite swell today," Dumbledore lisped cheerfully as he started to continue to skip around the station, humming the Hogwarts School Song.

' _All will kneel!'_

' _All will kneel!'_

There was a whispering in the wind as the chanting continued.

' _Kneel before Zod, kneel before Zod, kneel before Zod.'_

Harry found himself surrounded by a bunch of burly men, all of them kneeling before him. One of them tried to grab a hold of his pants, but he pushed himself away.

"Embrace your destiny, my child," the faceless abominations stated as they crawled towards him.

Two figures looked at Harry, he couldn't make them out and then suddenly, they grew to be about ten feet tall.

One of them grabbed Harry and shoved him down his throat.

"You took our lives…." James Potter stated, although he sounded more like Donald Duck than his normal self.

"...You ruined everything," Snape continued in a high pitched voice, sounding like Mickey Mouse.

"But we will….."

"Ensure you are doomed to a fate worse than death," Snape concluded.

Harry flew off into the distance and then there was an explosion that engulfed him in a multicolored hue of shapes and sounds.

' _And the plot_ _thickens,'_ Amanda commented over the bond link.

' _Harry Potter is back at King's Cross Station, it's nineteen years later, and he has such a nice and cheerful family, wouldn't you say, Amanda?'_

"Mum! I really want to go!"

A redhead girl stated this, although from his vantage point Harry could only make out the back of her head.

' _Oh! It's Ginny Weasley! But she's put on a little bit of weight,'_ Rose offered.

' _I dare say she looks a bit like Molly Weasley,'_ Emily stated at the sight of the rather plump as Ginny, looking about four hundred pounds with a loud obnoxious high pitched voice, entered the picture.

"NO! LILY! You must wait another two years! You are too young! Now what is that platform number again?" Ginny screeched out as she waddled over.

' _Dear RAO! She's turned into her mother,'_ Amanda stated in horror.

' _No, I rather think that she's eaten her mother,'_ Astoria corrected her, chiming in with a hideous tone to her voice.

Harry blinked as another young man waddled forward, once more Harry could only see him from the back.

"You have a pleasant year, Jamie-Poo!" Ginny commented to James in a sugary sweet voice that sounded like a hideous combination of her mother and Petunia Dursley.

"Naturally, Mummy," James stated as he turned around and Harry recoiled at the sight. It was his hair and eyes, but on Dudley's face and body. It was a completely hideous abomination.

"Is there something the matter?" a calm voice stated.

Harry turned around to see a miniature version of Snape, Snape, Severus Snape with Harry's green eyes and Dumbledore's twinkle dancing through them.

"No, ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER! That spells ASP you know! There is nothing the matter! Now get on the train my dear! You don't want to be late, and I BETTER NOT GET AN OWL ABOUT ANY OF YOU!" Ginny shrieked at the top of her lungs.

' _Harry Potter has been resigned to mediocrity,_ _working long hard hours at a job that doesn't appreciate him,_ _while his wife eats bon-bons_ _all day long whilst watching Oprah,'_ Amanda commented.

' _Whilst Harry Potter doesn't work at a job where fat women walk into a shoe store daily or scored four touchdowns in a single game, he is in fact Married….With Children,'_ Emily chimed in helpfully.

Lily turned around and Harry once again stepped back horror, a miniature Petunia with red hair framing her face stood before him.

"Hello Daddy," Lily commented and there was a few seconds where Harry wondered about what madness had presented itself.

Suddenly, he saw Hermione and Ron standing there. Hermione had also put on two hundred pounds and had a troupe full of identical redhead children following her, although two of them looked disturbingly similar to Draco Malfoy in the facial region.

He saw Astoria in the background, standing with Draco Malfoy, he was balding with burns on his face. Astoria turned towards him and her face looked like a carbon copy of General Zod, who began to laugh at him mockingly.

Harry shook his head in despair, he was surrounded by madness.

The scar had not pained Harry Potter for nineteen years. All was well.

* * *

Harry's head was spinning with more sensations than he could even figure out. Somehow, by some act of god, he woke up to find himself passed out on the rooftop of RAO Headquarters building in Gotham. How had ended up there and the trip that he went on to do so, well the less said the better.

' _HARRY!'_ Kara screamed through the bond link, she sounded frantic.

Faora spoke for them all. _'What in the fuck is going on!?'_

' _I'll let you know the answer to that question when my brain….stops trying to escape from my skull,'_ Harry grimaced as he grabbed onto the edge.

He saw a few more flashes, but nothing as bad as the horrors that he saw before.

' _Har, are you there?'_ Faora demanded. _'HAR-ZOD, CAN YOU HEAR ME?'_

' _Yes, I can….I'm here,'_ Harry commented catching himself before he collapsed over the ledge. His natural healing abilities were holding off the worst of that Fear Toxin. Right now it was along the lines of the utterly weird reaction that he had when he encountered the Dementors for the first time and he had no real sense of direction.

' _Lucretia and I very nearly have an antidote ready,_ _but we've been trying to reach you for about three hours,'_ Pamela offered, trying to keep her voice calm.

' _Three hours?'_ Harry thought, he had no idea he was out for that long. He made his way down off the roof, dragging his feet along the ground the whole while.

' _Just stick tight, I'm coming up there,'_ Faora thought to him now that she finally was able to track her brother down, not that the chaos in the bond had calmed down any.

' _So did you see any of that?'_ Harry asked.

Karen's voice was extremely somber. _'We only heard the screams.'_

' _What in the hell was happening in there?'_ Jaime demanded.

' _I was drowning in mediocrity, forced to live in Wizarding Britain, a mediocre wand waver,_ _with no way out,'_ Harry explained to them.

They knew that there was more to this than what met the eye, but what he told them so far, was horrifying to say the very least.

Harry shook his head, his face was coated in sweat.

Harry managed to make his way down to the Penthouse from the rooftop access, although he was pretty sure that his mind was so screwed up right now that he actually managed to fly all away back around the block to get there, despite the fact the Penthouse and the RAO headquarters in Gotham were the same damn building. He saw the horrific images of King's Cross over and over.

He hit the balcony sliding glass door much like a bird hitting a windshield.

"Harry, hang on," Nym whispered to him, but Faora decided to take sudden action.

"He's not coherent, enough, we need to get him inside," Faora commented as she lifted him up and led him inside. "He could have been far worse off had things been different."

Lucretia and Pamela arrived then, with Penny following closely behind them. The other members of the bond were getting enough flashes from him now to really see the horror of what happened to him. It was far more horrifying in some ways to be an outside observer.

"Let's go," Nym managed, she was ready to hex Harry if she had to, although she doubted that she would get that far through the suit.

Nym, Penny, Faora, Pamela, and Lucretia all made their way down to the sub basement with him using the elevator and there was a loud bing from some equipment nearby shortly after they arrived.

"It's nearly done," Pamela whispered to them and there was several nods of relief at that.

"It's going to work, it's got to work," Lucretia stated as she helped Nym strip Harry out of his costume.

' _Yes, because the buzzing is starting to get even louder,_ _his fears are really….well...THEY'RE KIND OF FUCKED THE HELL UP!"_ Amanda thought loudly. She had no idea if Harry could hear her pleas for him to snap out of it.

' _Harry….what the hell…'_

' _We're just going to have to give him the antidote Vega,_ _don't worry,'_ Lucretia said gently.

The diagnostic scan Faora ran indicated that the very worst was blocked thanks to his unique body chemistry. Harry could have potentially had an even more horrifying experience if it wasn't.

"Harry, you've got to focus," Pamela whispered to him, running her hand through his hair and he held his head up, blinking his eyes open and shut. The green eyes of Harry Potter reflected his delirium for all to see.

"Give me the antidote, mass produce it, I have a feeling that was just a setup for what's to come," Harry breathed out as his arm was exposed.

He took a careful look at Pamela, her skin was green and she was wrapped in vines, her hair was a darker red, her green eyes which were now the same color as his own, glowed faintly. She had leaves covering her body and there were people on the ground around her, ensnared and strangled by her vines.

That vision was far less mortifying than the ones from earlier tonight, she leaned in and carefully injected Harry with the antidote.

He slumped to the ground unconscious almost immediately, Faora catching him before he hit the ground. She gave Lucretia a questioning glance and the girl looked back at her evenly.

"He's supposed to pass out," Lucretia told Faora and she nodded. "It would hurt more if he was awake while the toxins burned out of his body."

"I understand, I'll get him into bed safely, Jaime and Karen should arrive here from Metropolis shortly to help you mass produce this," Faora whispered as she held Harry slumped in her arms. She could tell that he would be fine.

* * *

Harry's eyes slowly opened. He felt like he got hit by a runaway train and it was hard for him to think straight. He felt a slight ringing in his head that continued to escalate.

"Congratulations, you're back among the world of the living," Faora told him from she sat at the side of the bed. "You've been out of it for a while, but thankfully with the time dilation spells, it hasn't been that long in the real world."

"She caught me off guard," Harry grumbled weakly.

"She was quick," Faora agreed as she squeezed his hand and leaned forward. The dark haired woman's eyes were burning with an intense amount of passion as she shook her head. "But she's not perfect, she slipped up. She didn't hit you with a nearly potent enough dose. It took some time, about an hour for it to set in."

"The timing felt weird, it was like time sometimes sped up, other times it slowed down, and then there were those horrors…."

"This Toxin, it distorts our sense of reality, in ways that I don't even think that we can even imagine," Faora concluded.

"Oh, I think that I can do a pretty good job at imagining it," Harry commented as Faora continued monitoring her brothers bio-signs.

"You appear to be stable, at least you're better off than you were a little while ago when you stumbled in here, do you remember even stumbling in here?" Faora asked.

"Slightly," Harry said weakly.

"You were paralyzed and your body was fighting it every step of the way, but damn if it didn't do a number on you," Faora confirmed for him as she swung her legs over each other. "The good news is that the antidote is being mass produced and therefore should someone release the toxins into the city, we'll be able to counteract it."

"Oh good, excellent even, and dare I ask the bad news?" Harry asked.

The door opened as Kara entered the room swiftly; wearing an apron and not much else underneath it. She was carrying a tray with biscuits and coffee on it.

"You should eat, your body burned through a lot of energy trying to purge the toxins completely from it," Kara stated as she sat down and started to feed Harry the biscuits where he lay in the bed.

"Well, the bad news is that Zombie and his men slipped off into the night, along with our mysterious Nightshade," Faora informed him as she sat on the edge of the bed and Harry slowly took a sip from his cup of coffee.

"With the antidote in your system, you should be immune to the toxin from this point on and any variants shouldn't have such a grave effect on you in the future," Kara added and Harry nodded.

"That's good," Harry managed weakly as he placed his hand on Kara's and the blonde looked at him through wide eyes.

"So what are you going to do now?" Faora asked, deciding to get to the next point and there was a pause as Harry pondered his options.

"I'm going to go after them, he's not getting away that easily," Harry stated.

' _If you can call something_ _like that easy,'_ Zatanna stated grimly. Being a casual bond observer, she was terrified out of her mind last night. Even when you factored in some of the screwed up things that magic could do to the mind, last night was on an entirely different level.

"He likely cleaned up everything or the GCPD did," Faora told Harry.

Harry had a calculating smile on his face before he stated the obvious. "Maybe not everything, if he left the slightest clue there, I will find it."

"So, you're going back out there after what happened?" Kara asked. This wasn't a complaint, merely a question. She slowly fed Harry one of the buttered biscuits and he took it, along with another sip of the coffee.

"As soon as he's stabilized, I'm sure that he could go, with the antidote in his system, he's perfectly able to fight, once his vitals check out," Faora commented as she stroked Harry's hair fondly with a smile on her face.

She could sense Kara's discomfort, hell she felt a bit uncomfortable herself.

"More sightings of our mysterious flying rodent friend last night as well," Faora told them lightly as she flipped through the newspaper.

"Oh?" Harry asked her and Faora smiled as she elaborated.

"Nothing concrete, they didn't get him on camera, they didn't even get you on camera either come to think about it," Faora offered. "And given that you were tripping balls, that's something to be proud of."

Harry reacted like this one other time before and that was with the Dementors, it was quite weird, although this was completely different. He had gone to a place where he hoped that he would never have to step one foot inside again.

"The antidote is ready," Faora told him.

"I know," Harry told her.

' _Penny make sure Bruce gets a sample of it_ _,_ _he should be able to put it to good use,'_ Harry thought to her and there was a sound of agreement from the girl in question.

"Harry, it's been a long night, I think we all should relax," Kara whispered to him as she slowly ran her soft hands down Harry's chest and abs, allowing herself to feel his muscles underneath her fingertips. The blonde's smile got even wider as she played with Harry's chest and abs.

"Unless you're not up for it?" Faora questioned him with a challenging glint in her eye.

Harry's smile got even wider as she ran her hands all over his legs and he looked her right in the eye. "Faora, you should know that I'm always up for it."

Faora's smile gotten even wider as she slipped down, making sure Harry was nude from the waist down as she kept working him over.

"We can see that, just relax, Har, we'll take really good care of you," Kara whispery hotly in his ear as she pulled off her apron to reveal that she was in fact wearing absolutely nothing underneath. Harry drank in her beautiful body and knew that he was going to enjoy this.

* * *

Kara's pussy was bared and dripping wet for him. Like a starving man, Harry grabbed her hips and pulled it onto his face.

The blonde's eyes closed as lust radiated through her body. Harry's talented tongue got to work, burying itself deep inside her. Each time his tongue touched a different part of her, exploding her nerve endings into a wave of sexual fire.

"YES!" Kara screamed at the top of her lungs as she felt his tongue dig deep into her. The blonde's pussy was being feasted upon by his tongue and his talented cock was being rubbed up and down by Faora.

"Just wait, you're hard now, you'll be even harder later," Faora whispered with a lustful purr and she licked her lips as she prepared to have her way with his cock.

Harry's penis twitched as she used her tongue to bathe his member with her salvia and the dark haired goddess kept working over his member, licking him all the way down.

Faora wrapped her tight mouth around his throbbing pole and took him all the way into the back of her throat. The dark haired woman rocked her head back and forth, blowing him. She really worked him up and down, deep throating him and then pulling her mouth off of it, until she licked the tip and then took him all the way into the back of her throat again.

Harry could not voice his appreciation out loud due to his mouth being preoccupied with Kara's pussy as she sprayed her juices onto his face.

' _Oh Faora, so good, feels so fucking good,'_ Harry grunted mentally as he kept licking Kara's delicious twat.

"SWEET RAO!" Kara shrieked out loud as she felt him eat her pussy out. The blonde's pussy grinded against him and Harry grabbed her thighs and kept eating her. His tongue was working into her dripping hot snatch.

Faora's mouth kept working around his cock and she pushed her face all the way down onto his pubic bone.

She applied a super powered suction and bobbed her head up and down, coaxing the cum from his balls down her throat.

Harry was not about to tap out yet, although her mouth was doing such wonderful and great things to him, along with Kara riding his tongue. The blonde kept rocking back on his tongue and it grinded into him. Her walls clamped around him and his tongue scraped against her.

"Damn, Harry," Kara moaned as he did the Parseltongue trick and made her pussy feel so good. The sensation of a vibrating tongue buried deep inside her snatch made her tingle with pleasure.

Harry jackhammered Faora's mouth and slurped around his member. Her lips were tightened around him with a vice like grip and she also played with his balls.

' _Cum for me Har, shoot your seed into my mouth, I want to choke on it,'_ Faora mentally encouraged him, sending nasty vivid images into his mind, memories of her and Kara fingering each other and playing with loads of different toys.

Needless to say, this did the trick and Harry slammed into her mouth hard. His cum sprayed down her throat in a heavy abundance and Faora stepped back, jerking him off. She caused his cum to coat her face and tits.

Faora looked like a treat with the cum dripping down her face and lust burning through her eyes.

"Oh, I think we need to clean up that mess," Kara cooed as she flew over and tackled Faora to the bed, kissing her madly.

Their pussies briefly rubbed together, before Kara slid off, licking Faora's tits clean of Harry's cum. While she did this, she presented her hot pink snatch at Harry.

Harry got up, his cock rehardened, as he cupped her from behind.

"You're really asking for it, aren't you?"

Kara offered him a smile as she looked over her shoulder and Harry smacked her on the ass, which gave her a pleasurable moan.

Harry grabbed her hips and rubbed against her hot dripping slit. The wizard was about ready to enter her and Kara clenched onto the side of the bed.

His cock slipped into her, inch by inch, stretching out her walls.

Kara whined in pleasure as she felt his hardness penetrate her. The blonde's tightness squeezed him with pleasure.

"Wreck me, Harry, WRECK ME!" she yelled as her pussy was rammed from behind. He pulled nearly all the way out and then when his cock head was against the edge of her pussy, he hammered her from behind. The blonde's walls tightened around him and Harry grabbed her right tit and squeezed it.

Faora's legs were spread and Kara decided to indulge herself in Faora's pussy, warming her dripping hot cunt off for Harry's intrusion. The blonde's tongue expertly worked over the sopping hot folds.

"Oh….that's fucking it, oh yes, fuck yes," Faora moaned as she lifted her hips towards Kara's tongue. Kara dove into her and made her really feel good.

Harry grabbed her tits from behind and buried deep inside her. The walls tightened around his member.

"Oh….feels so fucking good," Harry grunted as he felt her dripping hot snatch hug him. "Keep eating her out, oh that's it!"

Kara rose to the challenge and she used her tongue to slurp at Faora's snatch. The sounds of pleasure and delight spurred all parties on. The woman's tongue was scraping against her dripping hot pussy and she was feeling it.

Harry decided that Faora was ready and split off a dupe.

Faora pulled herself up and tackled Harry. Her legs wrapped around him and she brushed her dripping slit down across his member. His cock was standing at attention and Faora teased his cock before he entered her body.

The dark haired woman pushed herself all the way down onto his member, using her warm tightness to contract around his stiffing member.

"Oh, so good, better than the best," Faora moaned as she rotated her hips.

The two of them floated off of the bed and Faora was forcefully fucking Harry in midair. His cock pushed between her thighs was a feeling that could not be beat. Har-Zod's hands roaming her body, it caused tingles to flow all over her body, he grabbed her breasts, her ass, and then went all the way down her legs.

He squeezed her ass and she moaned, bringing his cock all the way into her tightening pussy. The woman clenched him.

"So good, deeper, harder, faster!" Faora whimpered as she rocked down onto his thick hard length, riding him for everything that she thought that he was worth.

Kara, not to be out done, floated off the bed, and tilted herself in mid air. Harry had the leverage to fuck into her cunt. The blonde's moans could have been heard all the way on the other side of the country, had it not been for the sound proofing spells around the room.

The blonde's tits were squeezed and Harry pulled all the way out of her.

"Harry, cock, back inside me, please!" Kara begged him and Harry brushed his crown against her slit and then pushed into her.

Her eyes bulged out as heat vision shot out and hit the curtains. The visual effect of the curtains catching on fire made for an erotic appeal as Harry held onto his youngest blonde Alpha's breasts and kept working her pussy over for all that it was worth.

Faora and Harry fucked each other in midair, their bodies swaying back and forth. Her pussy squeezed his massive invading tool as Harry kept working into her hard. Her tight pussy kept milking his thick hard tool. The woman's walls wrapped around his thick hard tool and it pushed into her.

"I'm going to fuck your brains out," Harry growled and Faora looked to be quite happy with this arrangement as his member stretched out her pussy. Her tightening walls got even tighter as he pushed deep into her. The woman arched her back and accepted his cock inside her, one inch at a time. She grabbed his bicep.

Harry held her breasts and plowed into her. The walls tightened around his tool and Kara milked him as the two of them went at it in midair. The blonde's juices dripped down and soaked the bed. Siphoning charms would take care of them.

They had many different positions and angles to explore this arrangement but right now, Harry worked himself to an orgasm in Kara's pussy. The blonde's walls clamped down onto him and her heat vision once again went off.

Harry's balls tightened and he exploded into her dripping hot cunt. The wizard splashed his seed into her pussy.

Faora's walls clamped his hard pole and she coaxed his cum out of his balls. She drained his essence into her cunt, twisting her nipples as the orgasm escalated. She trapped him between her strong thighs as Harry pumped a huge load into her.

All of the basked in the glory of this intense round of orgasms that they shared and they were ready for another.

* * *

Harry, Kara, and Faora had a shower after having their fun, although it took a while to get any actual showering done. Regardless after getting dressed, they made their way into the living room, where Nym and Pamela were sitting on chairs to the side and Barbara was parked on the couch.

' _So how are you_ _feeling?'_ Nym thought to him.

' _I'm not in fucking wonderland any longer,_ _if that's what you're_ _asking?'_ Harry asked and there was a few seconds where she paused to consider it, before nodding.

' _Yes, that's exactly what I what I was asking,'_ Nym commented.

Faora sat on one side of Barbara and Kara made her way to sit down on the other. Harry gently plucked Barbara off of the seat, but before she had a chance to protest, he sat down in her spot and placed the sixteen year old girl on his lap.

Barbara looked very pleased by her new circumstances.

' _Smooth,'_ Donna commented to Harry.

' _He wouldn't be Harry, if he wasn't,'_ Diana offered.

' _That much is true,'_ Hippolyta picked up where he daughter left off.

' _Very true, he is quite_ _smooth,'_ Fleur agreed as she made her way into the room to clean it, slipping she accidentally dropping her duster, she bent over to pick it up, allowing her skirt to ride up a little bit.

' _And you're just the epitome of being subtle,_ _aren't you?'_ Gabrielle commented dryly.

' _Quiet, Gabi,'_ Fleur said firmly to her sister.

"So what's going on in the news today?" Harry asked.

"We're just trying to find that out right now," Nym told him and Harry nodded as he waited.

"This is Jack Ryder, of KANE Channel Twenty Five reporting. There was an attempted breakout at Blackgate Prison last night, which required GCPD SWAT to attend the scene," the news reporter informed them. "While information is sketchy at the moment, we believe that it was an attempt to break out Carmine Falcone from prison or an attempt to kill him by a business rival."

The plot was thickening by the minute and they all listened closely.

"The man known in some circles as the Roman, was placed inside Blackgate Prison two nights ago, despite the fact that the attack wasn't fatal, it has left Falcone quite traumatized," Ryder continued. "Blackgate Head Psychiatrist Jonathan Crane has been quoted by press stating that the attack caused Falcone's mind to snap, but he assures us that Falcone will get the treatment that he deserves."

' _Hmm,'_ Harry thought, he wondered what exactly happened last night.

' _Was that a good hmm,_ _or a bad hmm?'_ Amanda thought to her brother, confusion appearing in her eyes.

' _Just_ _a hmm,'_ Harry thought back to her and Amanda shook her head, her frustration becoming even more prominent the longer that she thought about it.

' _Well that clarifies things quite nicely, wouldn't you agree?'_ Emily thought to him.

' _Yes, very much so, Amanda, dear, don't you know how to read between the lines?'_ Ginny thought, doing an impersonation of her mother so accurately that it caused Harry to cringe.

' _Gin, I love you,_ _but don't ever do an impression of your mother again,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, it's kind of creepy,'_ Faora offered and Ginny thought about it.

' _You're right, sorry,'_ Ginny chimed in as she leaned back with a smile on her face.

"And the events at Blackgate have taken another twist as we have word that Assistant DA Rachel Dawes was on the scene last night, although she cannot be currently found by GCPD," Ryder commented but he listened into his ear piece and crinkled up his nose. "Wait….am I getting this right?….there's….he's….really?…."

"Spit it out! why don't you?" Nym asked.

"Nym, he can't hear you," Harry offered.

Lucretia snickered. _'I'm not sure she cares that much.'_

' _Yeah,_ _she tends to be pretty stubborn,'_ Andromeda added in amusement as Nym shook her head.

' _You just enjoy riling me up mother.'_

Ryder was speaking once again. "There also reports that Dawes has not only gone missing, but that the mysterious….the mysterious Bat….Man was on the scene."

Ryder's voice held a great deal of skepticism within it and Harry leaned back as he shook his head in amusement.

"What's so funny?" Barbara asked turning slightly to face him since she was still on his lap.

"Well, it's interesting isn't it?" Harry asked.

Barbara raised an eyebrow. "What's interesting, per say?"

"The news media making such a connection," Harry told her and Barbara was making a connection of her own in her head.

' _No….it can't be, it's impossible,_ _isn't it?'_ Barbara thought to herself, but this was a rhetorical question at best.

"I need to go take care of something," Harry offered as he gently nudged Barbara off of his lap.

She took the cue, but not before getting a nice kiss in return. Faora, Pamela, Kara, and Nym all got one of their own.

Harry made his way from the living room, he was back on his feet.

' _Penny,_ _are you there?'_ Harry asked the girl through the link.

' _I'm here Harry, I can hear you loud and clear, so…'_

' _Is the antidote_ _ready?'_ Harry asked her.

' _Yes,_ _all I have to do is get it there…'_

' _Good, I have a feeling that Bruce will be a bit busy after what happened tonight and might not be having any meetings with anyone, so it would be best for you to get the antidote_ _to your uncle,'_ Harry told her and Penny nodded.

' _Get them there, right, I'll make sure that Uncle Alfred gets them and I'm sure he'll know what to do from there to make sure_ _they fall into the right hands,'_ Penny told him as she left to go drop them off.

Meanwhile, Harry had other things to do, it was time to continue on the trail and hope that tonight would be a productive one.

**To Be Continued.**


	14. Nightwing Begins Part Six

**Chapter Fifteen: Nightwing Rises Part Six.**

In a cavern deep below Stately Wayne Manor in Gotham City, there was a secret chamber that housed some of the most high tech equipment that money could buy, up to and including a state of the art computer. A figure stood there in the shadows, dressed in a sleek black costume that blended in perfectly with his surrounding, while working at a lab.

Bruce Wayne was a millionaire playboy that many people considered to be an empty headed fop by day. However, he was far deeper than that, seeing as how by night, he prowled the city as the vigilante crime fighter dubbed by the press as the 'Bat Man.'

Which was accurate enough he supposed and with this suit, he could see where they got the name from. He was still a bit raw around the edges though and as a result, made a couple of costly mistakes. One of which he could see clearly from where he was working.

Assistant District Attorney Rachel Dawes, his childhood friend, was currently strapped to a gurney, screaming, shrieking and speaking in tongues, while she thrashed wildly against her restraints.

Currently he was hard at work analyzing the sample of blood that he gotten from Rachel, in the hopes of synthesizing an antidote. He'd been down in the cave all night and through most of the morning as a result. The chaos at Blackgate was being reported on the news from a television in the background, although given what he saw with his own eyes, it seemed like the very worst of it was being suppressed by the GCPD.

He wasn't having much luck on the antidote though. While he had traveled all over the world studying several different disciplines and sciences, he was far from a master in any and this fear toxin seemed to be a particularly demented masterwork.

He went to try something else, only to be interrupted by the ding of an elevator arriving, which heralded the entrance of his faithful butler Alfred Pennyworth into the cave.

"Master Bruce, Penelope brought over a package for you from Mr. Potter, he appears to have concocted an antidote with the help of Ms. Isley," Alfred stated, understanding the urgency of the situation after his niece conveyed it to him and not wasting a moment with pleasantries.

Bruce rose to his feet and crossed over towards him, his face still covered by the mask. Even though he was in the cave, he wanted to hold onto the proper mindset, which meant that the mask had to stay on at all times. He was only Bruce Wayne when he was in the mansion above, when he was down here, he was something different.

He was this "Batman" as the press had dubbed him. That was about as good of a moniker as he was going to get right at the moment. Never the less, while he was far from the World's Greatest Detective at this point in time, but he did see that there was a note attached to the package.

_Bruce,_

_I Figured that you might need this given all that's happened._

_A friend of mine has a club and one of her workers was exposed to it. She brought a sample of her blood to me and I was able to get together an antidote with Pamela and Lucretia's help quite quickly._

_Given the fact that you've gained a reputation, they might use this drug to take advantage of you and that will leave you in a vulnerable state, given that whoever exposed to it is prone to delusions._

_This antidote will put a person out for approximately four to six hours if the poison is already in their system, because their body needs to be in a state of rest while the toxin's purged from it. It will hurt a lot if done while awake._

_It seems to be getting dangerous out there, so watch your back._

_Harry._

The letter was short, sweet, and to the point, and Batman didn't detect anything wrong with the explanation. The young detective opened the package carefully and saw four state of the art injector tubes containing the antidote laying within. Turning he saw Rachel on the bed and the sight wasn't pretty.

Her whole body was shaking like as if she was having a seizure as she gave off another scream. Even though he'd sedated her, she was still in a pretty awful state. At this rate she wouldn't last much longer.

He pulled out a vial of the antidote, carefully handling it as not to drop it. He held it in between his fingers as moved over to inject her with it.

Paying careful attention to what he was doing, he injected it into Rachel's right arm. There was a soft hiss followed almost immediately by a full body shudder, then her body went slack and she went into a state of deep sleep. He would have her moved to Gotham General once he was sure it was safe to do so.

Bruce paused for a moment before injecting himself with the second dose of the antidote. He felt some immediate drowsiness, but given that he didn't have the toxin in his system, it wasn't as much of a shock to his system as it would be for someone that had been exposed to it like Rachel.

Be that as it may, he figured that it would be prudent to be prepared for what was happening. Harry was right in the sense that he could be in danger given the crowds that he hung around with, although perhaps not in the sense that Harry imagined, then again if anyone would be able to figure out his nighttime activities it would be Harry Potter.

"Just to remind you, Master Bruce, of your other obligations you might have forgotten about while you were running around playing Detective," Alfred commented with his usual dry British wit.

"I haven't forgotten them Alfred, merely...shoved to the backburner," Bruce stated as he looked up towards to the ceiling for a moment, before turning around and offering his faithful manservant a ghost of a smile. "Make sure Rachel is moved to Gotham General."

"I'll take care of it Master Bruce, she might relapse if she wakes up in this place, it doesn't exactly invite warm fuzzy memories," Alfred dead panned.

"Of course, Alfred," Bruce commented in response, waving off the sarcasm.

"That said, tomorrow night Wayne Industries is holding an event, a party I believe, you do know what those are Master Bruce, or have you forgotten due to your recent nocturnal activities of dressing up as a brooding specter of the night?" Alfred questioned him.

Bruce responded without missing a beat. "I remember, it's to celebrate the company going public, and….many of the elite of Gotham City will be there, including some of the seedier elements."

"Yes, well, security will be amped up, so I doubt any of them will be foolish enough to try anything, at least not on that night, but then again this is Gotham," Alfred commented dryly. "Whatever's affected Miss Dawes….well, it can wait and it would be quite a bother if Bruce Wayne didn't make a public appearance at the party."

"Don't worry, Alfred, I understand my responsibilities, I'll be there," Bruce said as he prepared to get out of character or technically speaking, get into character, because the person wearing the suit was closer to his real self than the playboy billionaire that was the life of the party.

"Some days, I hope that this is just a phase he is going through, but I do suppose that Gotham City needs a protector," Alfred muttered to himself while shaking his head.

* * *

' _Wayne Enterprises stock is a pretty hot commodity right about now,'_ Faora thought to Harry while he worked out. He wanted see how much his body held up under the strain of everything that happened recently.

"Yes….I can...see that," Harry commented as his finished his set, putting the weights down he looked over towards Sersi who was sitting in the corner, waiting to conduct some business.

' _Wayne's going to want to buy up as much as he and you know, this would be a perfect opportunity for you to do so as well,'_ Karen added.

' _I'm way ahead of you, I've got things set up through the goblins to buy up as much of Wayne Enterprises stock as possible the moment it goes public,'_ Harry offered her as he stretched carefully to work out any kinks in his muscles before they could develop. _'A lot of people are going to be selling their stock in LuthorCorp beforehand so they've got the capital to buy Wayne when it goes public. So if I buy it at the bargain basement price it's likely to go at I'll be able to get more of their stock at the same time.'_

' _Are you sure that it's going_ _to work that way?'_ Patricia asked Harry and Kara was the one who answered the question for him.

' _It's just the way that things are going, LuthorCorp stock took a bit of a dip over the last couple of quarters. Their were a couple articles recently that caused their public relations image to take a hit.'_

"It's already happening," Sersi stated offering her professional opinion, at the same time she couldn't help but notice Fleur cleaning out of the corner of her eye. The Veela tart had her skirt halfway up her ass revealing her lacy white thong quite clearly and the goblin princess couldn't help thinking that she should teach her a lesson. "That said, at the same time I'm sure Lionel Luthor is trying to find a way to get his hooks into Wayne Enterprises."

"Which is why we need to make sure that he doesn't buy up all that much stock, if at all," Harry stated to her and Sersi nodded in agreement, which was why she'd spent the better part of the last several months working up close and personally with him in order to get things into place.

Harry smiled as he completed his most recent set, this workout seemed to be going well so far. He would have to run a couple more tests later, but the chemical was out of his system and the antidote didn't seem to be having any negative side effects. Not that he thought that it would.

' _So, did you work yourself_ _hard enough?'_ Faora thought to Harry. _'Tomorrow night…'_

' _Yes, I know, the Wayne Enterprises festivities tomorrow night, the big event were all of the stars will be out in force, trust me Faora, despite all that's happened, I haven't forgotten,'_ Harry thought to her and Faora offered a brisk smile in response.

' _I didn't think that you did, but it's important….'_

' _I know,_ _trust me I know how important it is,'_ Harry commented and there was a slight amount of amusement in his voice.

' _Well with that' settled, we're going to get ready for tomorrow,'_ Diana commented. And by 'we' Harry figured that she meant the Alphas, along with a few others. He knew for a fact the twins, Lily, Rose, and Jaime were all going to be putting in an appearance, and they weren't the only ones.

' _Let me finish my work out, I've got a few things to check out tonight, but trust me, I haven't forgotten about tomorrow night,'_ Harry thought to the girls in the bond.

He checked his vitals again and found that everything continued to be working well. That was a really good thing and he couldn't help but smile.

Standing up to stretch once more, he noticed that Fleur was bent over and Harry thought that despite the workout with Faora and Kara the other night, he should probably run some further tests on other vital parts of his anatomy.

"So, we've got all the paperwork in order, all they need now is your signature, I know you have big plans, but….people have lost gallons of galleons by jumping into something too quickly," Sersi warned him and Harry nodded.

He knew that Sersi knew what she was doing and that she would always act within his best interest, but he always took a close look at the documents he signed. His green eyes scanned over the documents and he smiled, before signing off on them.

"Harry, the last batch of the antidote has been synthesized," Lily informed Harry after stepping into the gym, she'd been making use of the lab down in the subbasement to brew potions and Harry's smile got even wider upon hearing that.

"Excellent, we're right on schedule," Harry told her with a wide grin. "Let everyone know that the plan remains the same."

Lily nodded at his words before slipping out of the room, there was a look on her face that indicated that she understood what needed to be done better than most.

"So, everything is in place," Harry told Sersi after that brief interruption concluded and she nodded.

"Excellent," Sersi commented, thinking that Harry made an intelligent choice. It was a long term plan that would bear a great deal of fruit in the future.

"Yes, a great job," Harry stated as he pulled her into an embrace and her lithe young goblin body pressed against his. "One that I think deserves a reward."

She smiled at him brightly, barely able to keep the triumph she was feeling hidden. "Oh? What do you have in mind."

Wrapping his arms around her ass, Harry lifted the young goblin's up off the ground and she wrapped her legs tightly around his waist when he kissed her deeply, before slipping his tongue into her mouth. The young goblin closed her eyes and returned the kiss with a fury, before breaking it so that she could suck on Harry's lip.

Harry smiled when he saw Fleur bent over with her ass sticking out as she dusted. Walking over, he pulled up her skirt and smacked her thong clad ass.

"You're mine as well," Harry whispered to her and she parted her legs in anticipation, she was bent over, dressed in her French Maid's uniform wet, willing and ready for him.

* * *

"Eat me," Sersi commanded as she sat on Fleur's face, bare from the bottom down.

The Veela had no choice but to comply with this complain. Her Veela tongue worked into the goblins' tight snatch. She closed her eye as she was licking and slurping at her.

Harry smiled as he rubbed his fingers at the edge of Fleur's entrance, teasing her just a little bit. He was getting her ready for the invasion that was to come and she was soaking wet. Her smooth mound was presented towards him and he reached over, grabbing one of her breasts.

The Veela moaned at Harry's efforts, he teased her, made her body pretty much burn with desire and he was working his hands over her thighs, teasing her but stopping just short of any insertion. That caused the blonde vixen to whine as Harry started to work his fingers into her dripping center. She lifted her hips up.

"Further, further!" Sersi demanded as she offered a strong grip to Fleur's tit, roughly fondling it. "That's it, Harry, you know what to do, make the bitch beg for it!"

' _Please, Harry, I need your cock inside me,'_ Fleur panted but his tongue teased her center which escalated her torture level up.

She felt his cock press up against her dripping mound. She tried to push her hips forward but Harry backed off.

' _Please master, please master,'_ Fleur chanted mentally and Harry pushed himself up, dragging his throbbing length up against her smoldering hot entrance. The blonde was about to accept him inside her, all Harry needed was one more nudge.

Her hips spasmed as Sersi unleashed her juices on Fleur's faces.

"Lick me clean or you won't be getting any of Harry's cock," Sersi ordered her and the goblin despite being around five feet tall exerted her dominance on the Veela who was a bit over six feet tall.

Harry hovered over her entrance and when Sersi gave him a nod, Harry took the plunge, stretching out Fleur's walls with his monster cock.

The blonde's walls snugly tightened around him and Harry pushed all the way up and worked into him. Her lips wrapped around him and Harry kept going into her. The blonde's legs hooked around his hips and the green eyed wizard was pushing himself into her. The blonde clamped around him and he kept working into her, using his swift thrusts to bury himself into her.

"Oh yes, yes, yes," Fleur panted as Harry kept going into her. His cock was buried deep into her quim and plunged deeper.

She realized that Sersi was now off of her face for now and she slid back, fingering her pussy at Harry pinning Fleur down and having his extremely wicked way with her. His throbbing cock entered her tightening cunt and Harry worked into her. The blonde's walls clamped around him and Harry ran his hands over Fleur's delicious tits.

"Oh, so hot, so hot," Harry muttered as he kept working into her gushing hot cunt and worked into her. The woman's walls closed around him.

Sersi found her hands removed from her hot cunt and Harry brushed his massive rod against her entrance.

"Harry," Sersi breathed as she watched Harry pull out of Fleur.

Fleur whined at the loss of Harry's cock but she was flipped over. The blonde's pussy was being manipulated from behind, his finger pushing in and out of her. The woman's panting escalated and Harry rubbed his cock head against her entrance, teasing her from behind.

Fleur wondered if Harry was going to take the plunge into her ass. She watched him, waiting for him, wishing for him to take it.

Harry's thick hard rod plunged into her tight rectum and Fleur mewled with delight as Harry plowed her into the table. His balls slapped against her ass.

He had an amazing feel around his cock and her ass squeezed him. The blonde's ass snugly tightened around him.

The green eyes of Harry Potter flowed with lust and he squeezed her tits from behind, which caused her moans to escalate.

"FUCK ME!" Fleur begged.

Sersi's legs wrapped around Harry's hips and her slit rubbed against the tip of his cock. She slammed her goblin body down across his member and she rocked herself back and forth. There was a loud and lustful moan that was coming through her body.

"OH FUCK!" Sersi moaned as she rocked herself backwards and rode him. His cock was splitting her small body in half.

She threw her head back and grinded against him. She pulled all the way up and lowered her tasty ass down upon his swelling balls. She rose herself again all the way and brought herself down onto him.

Harry felt her juices drain and lubricate his member as she pushed her thighs apart. There was a few seconds where she closed her eyes and kept rocking back and forth onto him. She clenched his hard rod and he went into her tightening quim.

"Fuck, so great," Sersi moaned as she rocked her hips down onto him.

Fleur meanwhile was in paradise and that paradise was twelve inches of Harry's cock wedged firmly between her ass cheeks. He groped her tits as he continued to plow her and he escalated his thrusts, jackhammering into her ass. She closed her eyes and threw her head back, with a moan, in addition to another moan.

"Oh, oh, yes, yes, yes, YES!" Fleur shrieked at the top of her lungs as her anal cavity clenched his ass and she suddenly felt another Harry slide into her.

"Suck," a third Harry ordered, an erect cock in her face and Fleur clenched the massive member in her hand and she placed it between her lips, applying a delightful amount of suction. "Better get every drop, or you're going to have a nasty mess….to ah….clean up."

Fleur nodded with her mouth full of Harry's cock and tried to say that she wouldn't do it.

"Poor form….fucking talking when your mouth is full," Sersi moaned as she watched the erotic sight and worked her hips around his rod, squeezing her tight cunt around him.

She could not say much more than that, due to her pussy clamping down onto his rod and having an amazing orgasm that caused her to see many stars. She saw them behind her eyes and reared her head back. There was a lustful moan that escaped her lips and she kept rocking down onto him.

"Oh, yes, suck me harder."

Fleur was determined to drain his balls of all of his cum, in several of her holes. She was going to be drowning in so much cum but if that was the way than she was going to go, then that would be going out with a bang to say the least. She was being rocked in every single one of her holes, deep inside her pussy, deep inside her ass, and in her mouth.

All three cocks caused her pleasure centers to hit an overdrive and her heart sped up, drumming against her ribs. She was moaning at the top of her lungs she kept working them over.

Sersi was getting to the edge, she did not know how much longer she could hold on but she knew that she wanted to hold on for a while. Their loins connected with each other with the expression of pure desire. Her walls tightened around his member and rocked against his member.

"Cum, I need your seed, oh I need your seed," she panted as he stretched her walls out. She felt delight, she felt desire, she felt all of Harry inside her, buried inside her.

"In a moment, Princess," Harry grunted as her walls wrapped around his large prick and she continued to work around him.

"FUCK!" Sersi moaned.

All three Harry dupes deposited his load on the young Veela. She got pumped full of her ass, her pussy, and her mouth with cum. The explosion of cum had caused her body to be racked with pleasure. She spasmed with completely pleasure.

Sersi could feel her orgasm through the bond, of course proximity made it stronger. Her cunt clamped his hard rod like a vice like grip. This little action inspired Harry to inject his hot seed into her tightening cunt and she rolled her eyes into the back of her head.

* * *

Both a goblin and a Veela had been put through the paces and Harry offered a smile at the thought of what happened. He'd accomplished a lot today, but as always, his work only was just about to begin.

* * *

A nice breakfast in the aftermath of his fun, allowed Harry to recharge his batteries, so after eating he headed down to his lab in the subbasement of the tower. He was curious about something that he found during his investigation the other night and he was going to see if he could replicate it. If he could, it would be a revolutionary, if he couldn't, well, at least he'd tried to do something really interesting.

"Okay, let's see if we can get this working," Harry whispered to himself as he kept his eyes locked onto the project before him.

' _What exactly are you doing?'_ Jaime asked curiously, she got a brief hint of it over the bond, but she had no clue about what exactly he was doing.

' _Trogg had the blueprints for a miniaturized aerosol bomb on his desk, it's about the size of a shoebox normally, at least that's what the plans indicated,'_ Harry thought back to her as he looked over them carefully. _'It's revolutionary technology, far greater than what many humans are capable of.'_

' _And what are you trying to do….'_

' _I'm trying to figure out if I can make it even smaller, without any hocus pocus or anything like that,'_ Harry thought preemptively, answering Amanda's question before she could finish voicing it. _'I want to streamline it even further, just to prove that I can.'_

Kara's curiosity was brimming. _'Exactly how streamlined are we talking about?'_

Harry enjoyed talking about his projects when people honestly seemed interested in them and a smile crossed over his face. _'About the same size as a grenade, if at all possible.'_

' _Is it_ _possible?'_ Kara asked, it's not that she didn't believe Harry, but at the same time, it seemed to be a bit….well, it seemed to be impossible using human tech.

' _Kara, the impossible is very much_ _possible,'_ Harry thought as he continued to look over the blueprint and tried to piece together everything in his mind.

If it worked, well it was going to be an amazing tool, and if it didn't, well, it's not as if people were expect it to in the first place.

' _That's very true, some of the greatest inventions could be thrown together in the cave with a box of scraps, but that wouldn't make them any less amazing,'_ Karen stated.

' _Still, you've got to believe what Harry trying to do is insane,'_ Hermione stated with skepticism burning through her voice.

' _There's a fine line between insane and genius honey, although Harry does seem to trend it more often,'_ Charlotte commented to her daughter as she watched with rapt attention. She was interested in seeing if Harry was going to be the one to pull this off or not.

' _If that isn't true…_ _.I don't know….actually, I don't know what else to say,'_ Rose commented with a slight smile on her face.

Harry continued to work carefully on the device, trying to get everything together through his fluid efforts. If this worked, it would be revolutionary, he couldn't state that fact enough. His green eyes were focused forwards, pretty much fixated on what he was doing.

' _Such suspense,'_ Amanda commented idly.

' _Mandy,'_ Harry thought back to her in warning and she bit down on her lower lip, with a pout.

' _Sorry, Harry! I'm so sorry,'_ Amanda said to him while shaking her head. _'Please continue….don't worry, I won't get upset even if you tell me to shut up.'_

' _I'll tell her to shut up if you want?'_ Emily chimed in, hopefully.

' _Do you enjoy trying to assert your authority over me at the most inconvenient times?'_ Amanda questioned her younger sister with narrowed eyes.

' _Girls, be quiet, or_ _I'll give you a spanking,'_ Harry stated, but it was more of an absent minded comment.

' _Ooohh...is that a promise?'_ Amanda questioned hopefully and Harry sighed.

' _Just behave yourself,_ _Amanda,'_ Harry commented.

' _Yes,_ _Daddy,'_ Amanda stated, before she bit down on her lip with a faux innocent expression on her face that didn't suit her at all.

Harry hunched over once again, his green eyes fixating on some minute detail for a moment and then he shook his head. Putting the finishing touches on the device and prepared to test it out.

' _Okay, time for the moment of truth,'_ Harry thought after some time had passed, only half paying attention to the bond traffic around him.

' _Do you want a drum roll_ _or not?'_ Kara asked him.

' _It's not needed,'_ Harry offered as he ran his fingers over the device. He thought that it would either be a complete marvel or a complete flop, depending on how it well worked.

Harry would only need to test it out to find out. He thumbed the primer and launched the device, slowly drumming his own fingers against the table while counting down from three, unable to help himself from doing so.

BANG!

' _DAMMIT HARRY! It's loud enough that I'm pretty sure people heard it going off in New York!'_ Ginny muttered while she tried to rub some feeling back into her ears. She shook her head in disbelief at just how loud the device was when it detonated.

' _Well, that just proves one thing, it's going to work out pretty well once I work the kinks out, a bit louder than I would have expected, but no one is perfect,'_ Harry explained o her.

' _But you are,'_ Amanda offered to him as if it was the truest statement in the world.

' _Mandy, no one likes_ _a kiss ass,'_ Emily hissed at her as she shook her head.

' _You kiss his ass just as much as I do Emmy and don't try telling me anything else to the contrary,'_ Amanda countered and there was a few seconds where it was obvious that the two girls were about to go at it yet again.

' _Ladies,'_ Lily commented sternly and her two daughters fell back into line.

' _Not exactly subtle but it works, I should be able to work out the noise problem with a bit more tweaking,'_ Harry thought to himself as he mentally went back to the drawing board.

' _And if there is anyone_ _that can get this working perfectly, it would be you,'_ Faora commented with a bright grin on her face and that was a sentiment appreciated by everyone.

Harry decided to shelf it for now and take a look at the news, so far there was nothing major, he had been hitting a bit of a wall lately in his investigation into Zombie. The Blackgate incident and what exactly happened with Falcone, well it was being suppressed for the most part.

' _Apparently the Media doesn't know much more than the common man on the street about the situation,'_ Narcissa thought.

' _Given how corrupt a good portion of the GCPD is, I'm honestly not surprised,'_ Pamela chimed in. _'You know, the fact that they're trying to keep everything under wraps for the most part means that it's something serious.'_

Harry didn't say anything in response to that, he had to keep himself busy until it was time to make his next move this evening, and he had to wait until the cover of darkness to do so. That's when he would make his move.

* * *

' _There we go, this is the last one,'_ Harry thought to himself from where he hung in costume upside down underneath a GCPD zeppelin, making sure not to lose his balance. It took a combination of stealth and skill not to be seen.

He had been going from police zeppelin to police zeppelin and the highest buildings in Gotham City, all throughout the night, one district at a time. He knew that no one had seen him, at least not yet. Each device needed to be place for everything to work properly later.

Darkness had fallen over Gotham City and he got a pretty good view of the city from where he was. Although, it wasn't really the view that he was hanging around for, rather it was something far more practical.

' _With that done, there's one device attached to the tallest buildings in each district of the city, along with the Zeppelins,'_ Harry thought as he shifted his hold. He heard the siren start wailing suddenly, but quickly noticed that there wasn't a spot light on him, which meant they hadn't seen him yet. _'The network to distribute the antidote is ready, not sure if I need to do this, but hey, given what happened the other night, it's better to be safe than to be sorry. Gotham City is a crazy enough place without everyone losing their fucking minds due to terror.'_

' _Hear, hear,'_ Pamela chimed in with a smile on her face.

Harry decided to test out another function on the suit while he was up here. Letting his hold on the undercarriage go, he flew off of the Zeppelin.

Harry plummeted towards the ground and when he'd fallen about halfway, he activated a pair of glider wings that were normally hidden within his suit. They allowed him to land safely on the railing of a nearby balcony. A nearby balcony with an open sliding glass door.

"Yes, General…I know it's important!...I'm keeping a close eye on her!... Do you want me to handcuff myself to her or something?!"

Harry was about ready to glide down off the railing, but hearing a voice like that so suddenly, caused him to look towards the open door to see a girl standing there. She looked to be about twelve years old with brunette hair and violet eyes. She was also staring at him in all his costumed glory.

Her mouth fell open as the phone slid out of her hand to clatter onto the floor. The two of them locked eyes for about ten seconds and time seemed to stand still.

It was one of these moments in time where neither one wanted to say anything. Harry brought the pointer and the middle finger of his right hand up towards his forehead, before flicking them towards her. Then without another word, he fell backwards off of the balcony.

The girl rushed towards the railing, nearly slipping over a rug in the process. Her eyes wide since she couldn't believe what she just saw.

"What just…."

"LOIS!" screamed a voice over the discarded phone which caused the girl's head to snap around to face it, she'd nearly tripped over her own two feet and broken her neck, but she shook it off and went to pick up the phone.

Harry landed on a train heading towards the other side of the city and a wide smile crossed his face.

' _I would have to say that the initial trial run was a complete and utter success,'_ Harry thought to the girls keeping him company over the bond tonight.

' _And you caused her_ _….well, you caused her to lose her shit for lack of a better term,'_ Kara chimed in with a gleeful grin spreading over her face.

' _You know, she did look kind of familiar now that_ _you mention it,'_ Zatanna commented and the dark haired sorceresses statement was one of surprise. _'She might have been the same girl that ran into you at the mall the other day.'_

' _Funnily enough, I thought the same thing, although I suppose it could be a coincidence,'_ Harry thought as he leapt off the train so that he could glide over Gotham, free as a bird.

' _Well, I'd say that you made quite an impression on her,'_ Karen commented with a smile and there was much laughter throughout the bond link.

' _Oh that's for sure, she looked shocked, to put things_ _mildly,'_ Harry thought back to her as he continued to move throughout the city towards her next destination.

' _So with all of the devices in place, you should be able to make it back home with time to spare,'_ Faora concluded.

' _Yes, Faora,_ _I'll be back shortly, they're all in place, including the master device on top of the highest building in Gotham City,'_ Harry thought as he continued his descent downwards, before shifting his body weight which sent him gliding back upwards. _'And the wings work great.'_

' _Yes, it's a pity you can't fly or_ _anything,'_ Amanda commented in a mock thoughtful voice. _'Oh! Wait….'_

' _Mandy, if I used my powers all of the time, that would take the challenge out of everything, I'm trying to be prepared for anything, which includes situations where I don't have access to them,'_ Harry told her.

' _Okay! Okay! Don't have a cow!'_ Amanda stated defensively, before crossing her hands over her chest.

Although they did take some amusement during Harry's run in with that young girl, who was looking like she was close to freaking out. Harry was pretty sure that it was going to be an interesting story for her to talk about, once she recovered from the trauma, if any.

Harry had one more quick stop to make and he would be able to head home for the evening. The GCPD building awaited and after landing on the roof, he slipped inside quietly.

* * *

He needed to know what the GCPD had found out so far, including everything they found at docks, the apartment and what happened at Blackgate last night. He had a good idea, but he needed to know for certain, and he could get a full inventory by going straight to the source. But breaking into the files….well...that could be a problem, seeing as how he still sucked at hacking.

However, Harry had a device he hoped would help solve that problem for him. It was like the Red Sun, although far more advanced than the copy he would be putting out. It would be at least ten to fifteen years at the barest minimum, before he put something this advanced out there and even then, that would be pushing thing. He carefully crept through the shadows of the building towards the GCPD server room.

' _Master hacker, I'm not….shame Barbara hasn't been able to give me those lessons yet, oh well, here goes nothing,'_ Harry thought to himself as he prepared to hook the device up to the GCPD database.

As always, with many things that looked far easier as an outside observer, it was far harder to do in the heat of the moment.

' _Well, fuck, that's….this is a bit of a nuisance,'_ Harry thought to himself, he wondered if they had anything in a hard copy, it was worth a shot.

Harry spun around to plan his next move and nearly bumped right into Barbara, who walked through the door at that exact moment. The two of them were about ready to have a meeting of the minds and both of them stopped dead in their tracks.

There was a tense stare down for a moment between the two of them.

' _Dun, dun, duh!'_ Amanda, Astoria, and Ginny chanted in unison over the bond. It was really a mark of Harry's self-control that he was able to keep a straight face through the banter, while having a conversation with someone else, although sometimes it was very difficult.

' _Well, this should prove_ _to be interesting,'_ Zatanna commented in amusement.

"You're….you are….oh my god….your…."

"I'm not Batman," Harry stated, speaking in a calm voice, which was devoid of his normal accent. His eyes weren't their usual vivid shade of green when he was wearing the mask either. They would have been a dead of a giveaway as to who he was, even if he changed is voice. "You know I hear pretty regularly that words are conducive to speaking."

"Right….you're….your….him….the one that brought in Salvatore Maroni and those guys in the warehouse," Barbara stammered, as she managed to stop fangirling for a moment to focus.

' _And she doesn't recognize you at all like this, oh this should be interesting,'_ Kara cackled in amusement, wondering how far they could take this.

' _Oh….that's right, she has a job here transferring files from hard copy to the computer system, I forgot….well, I nearly forgot about it, because I've had a lot of other things on my mind,'_ Harry thought to himself as he tried to figure out what she was doing here. All he'd wanted to do was get inside the system and install a program so he could access the GCPD files through a backdoor he could remotely access from anywhere in the future.

"Right...I didn't….I didn't expect to see you here of all places," Barbara said as she took a good long look at his body and offered a bright smile while blushing slightly. As a teenage girl, complete with hormones, it was hard for her to not to take a good long look at him. She mentally noted to herself that his eyes were a deep shade of green, although far different from Harry's. Not that bad as well, although he did resemble Harry in many ways.

' _You've been up too long Babs, you're starting to come up with_ _insane theories,'_ she thought to herself while shaking her head.

Harry offered her a half teasing smile and he noticed her take a step back to put some slight distance between them.

"Well you see, that's the idea….Miss Gordon," he whispered as he stepped forward the same distance she'd stepped backwards.

Barbara shook her head, she was about to ask how he knew her name, but the lump on her throat that she had to swallow made it really hard to speak. She was up against a wall, literally and perhaps figuratively speaking as well. But, there was something about him that put her at ease.

"So what are you trying to do?" Barbara asked looking towards him, adopting a more business like tone and approach in the process.

"I'm investigating what happened to Carmine Falcone, he was connected to a series of shipments, and I want find out what was in the boxes," Harry informed her.

"Right, well, most of the hard copy files have been moved to the main frame, which is what you were trying to access, weren't you?" Barbara asked as she locked her eyes onto his. Once again, she couldn't tear her eyes away from them.

' _Either she's figured it out or she hasn't, which means you've officially entered a love triangle with yourself,'_ Lily commented lightly with an extreme amount of amusement in her tone.

' _How very comic book of you,_ _Harry,'_ Hermione snickered mostly to herself.

' _Oh that's really mature Mione,'_ Harry thought back to her, before he directed his attention his attention fully to Barbara.

"Okay, we need to find what you're looking for, should be a piece of cake though," Barbara stated with a smile as she started to work through the process. "Should be pretty easy given the fact those files were transferred the other night."

"Right, I'll take your word for it," Harry replied.

"Seems like they got their hands on quite a lot of information," Barbara whispered, as she made her way through the file.

Once again, Harry was pretty sure that she hadn't completely put two and two together, at least not yet.

' _So, should I…'_

' _Actually, it would be far more amusing if she figured it out on her own,'_ Kara suggested as she bounced up and down eagerly in her excitement. Harry couldn't help but think to himself that she was taking far, far too much amusement in the situation, that or she had too much chocolate.

' _If you think about it, you'd be insulting her intelligence if you spelled it out for her,'_ Karen added.

' _Well, you couldn't have made a clearer and more reasonable explanation then that if you tried,'_ Harry commented with a chuckle and there was much laughter over the bond.

"Just a second, I've got the information right here," Barbara told him, she looked flushed as she turned towards him. "This is so exciting! Someone could come in and see what we're doing at any time….you know that sounded a lot cleaner in my head."

Harry ignored the chortling from the girls in his head, which was making it extremely difficult for him to concentrate and he shook his head to clear it.

"Yes, well…."

Harry paused for a moment, Barbara was in the system, which meant that the advanced version of the Red Sun would be able to work its magic so to speak.

"Someone's….com..." Barbara started to say, before she trailed off in mid-sentence when she saw that her mysterious visitor had disappeared just before she could say something.

Harvey Dent walked inside of the room, looking like he had a long night already so far and it was still quite early in the evening.

"Miss Gordon, I could have sworn that I heard someone in here with you," Harvey commented as he looked around, but much to his surprise it was empty except for the young girl he was speaking to.

"No, I'm just finishing up transferring the hard copies to the system like I was supposed to, sir," Barbara stated, still wondering where the hell he'd disappeared off to.

She slowly slipped the device still hooked up to the system into her pocket, carefully making sure that Harvey or anyone else that was watching for that matter didn't see her do so.

"Well, it's been a long night so far for all of us," Harvey said as he shook his head. The Falcone thing last night was quite frankly baffling, even more so when Rachel appeared at Gotham General out of nowhere, and there was rumors of a ninja in red and black seen halfway across town earlier, although that was the least of the insanity that went down in Gotham City.

Barbara slipped out of the computer, he was nowhere to be seen and she was left with this weird device in her hand, with no forwarding address to return it to him. Then again, Harvey Dent's arrival was ill-timed.

* * *

The stars were out tonight for this high society event, some of the best and the brightest in Gotham City.

So naturally, Harry 'Fucking' Potter would have to make an appearance. Although, he could use the diversion as there appeared to be some kind of lull until his enemies made their next move. Never the less, he showed up in force, dressed to the nines in hand tailored three piece tuxedo made of the highest quality material. His hair was straightened out and fell to his shoulders, something that took a very long time to do and would likely be messed up once again by the end of the evening. A stylish pair of glasses rested on the bridge of his nose.

"Quite the turn out," Kara stated from where she stood next to him, dressed in a red dress that wrapped snugly around her nubile frame. It showed enough cleavage to be modest, but also offer a hint of her assets. Her dazzling legs were on full display as she finally managed to learn how to walk in heels. It took a lot of practice, but she finally accomplished it, that said she couldn't fight in them like Diana could yet.

"Yes, including a few people that...aren't that appealing," Karen whispered softly, she wore a dark dress that snugly wrapped around her body. It was something that she had for a couple of years, so it required a couple of charms to make it fit a little less snugly, than it would have when you factored in her massive breasts. She wore a red wig that fell down to her shoulders to hide her short blonde hair, along with a pair of glasses.

"Well, it's one of those nights," Diana offered as she stepped over to join them. She was dressed to kill, wearing a nice form fitting silvery black dress, low cut and backless that sparkled like the night sky. She wore a pair of glasses and had her hair tied back.

Faora had entered the room alongside her, she wore a longer black dress of her own, the material snugly wrapping around her body. It looked like her breasts were about to spill out and her nipples stick out, if she felt so much as a cool breeze and it was slit up the sides to show off legs.

"The resident jackass of Star city is stumbling our way, seems like he started drinking on his way to the party," Faora whispered to her brother.

"Well, it's just one of those things….I wake up in bed with three different women, naturally…..I don't know how we even got here, but I'm sure that it's been a wild night," Oliver commented to the people around him, who offered some lighthearted chuckles.

' _Well he's about as charming as Dinah indicated,'_ Harry thought to his Alphas and he saw a glimpse of Bruce Wayne over on the other side of the room.

' _Is that baby Falcone?'_ Faora thought as she grabbed Har-Zod by the sleeve of his jacket and turned him the direction she was facing.

' _Yes, that's him,'_ Harry commented, he was a bit surprised that Alberto Falcone turned up tonight, given what happened to his father.

Then again, he figured that someone from the Falcone Family would have to make an appearance. He was an unassuming young man with dark hair and he was dressed in a nice suit, along with a pair of thick glasses. It looked like he was being escorted by a couple of women who didn't look to be the most reputable in the world.

' _And there's Rupert Thorne….he's been up to some dirty dealings over the years,'_ Harry thought as he looked over towards the middle aged silver haired businessman. He looked the type that Vernon Dursley would do business with, which would put him on the seedier end of the scale.

' _Nothing proven though,'_ Jaime said as she turned up seemingly out of nowhere beside him. She was wearing a pair of glasses and a strapless green dress, the same shade of her eyes, which adhered to her body like a second skin.

"So, with the rumor of this Bat running around, I can't help but wonder what the GCPD is doing about such a thing," a silver haired man with a faux warm expression commented while leaning in towards a balding middle aged man with graying brown hair, who was a bit on the plump side, making it look he'd been stuffed into the GCPD dress uniform he was wearing. "Commissioner Loeb, I would be quite…concerned if this so called Bat ruined business."

"Now, Mr. Stagg, I'm sure that this Bat-Man is merely an urban legend," Loeb said, although he was a bit uncomfortable with this line of conversation.

"Merely a rumor? Apparently he's been sighted down at the docks, and attacked Carmine Falcone," Thorne replied injecting himself into the conversation, although he was pleased by the incident in question, Falcone had been a business rival of his in the past and the less competition, the better.

' _Simon Stagg,'_ Pamela thought with a look of disgust on her face as soon as she noticed him.

' _Not a ringing endorsement,_ _I take it?'_ Harry asked her.

' _Given that he flaunts environmental laws more often than a Captain Planet villain, obviously not,'_ Hermione added for his benefit.

' _That bastard,_ _is far worse than Lionel Luthor_ _and that's saying something,_ _he's killed off several forests for development,_ _so yes, it's far worse than that crap that Lionel calls fertilizer,'_ Pamela explained to him.

' _Isn't fertilizer technically….'_

' _Not now, Amanda,'_ Harry reprimanded her gently, as he saw his mother and aunt walking in. They both looked gorgeous in matching green dresses the same color as their eyes.

Harry walked over to get some punch for his ladies, after scanning it to make sure it was on the level. Although they had all take an antidote for the fear toxin, he wasn't taking any chances. It would be quite easy to poison something left unattended.

"Oh! I'm sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going."

Harry smiled at the young female standing before him, she looked to be rather close to his age, perhaps a bit older. She had gorgeous blonde hair that shined in the moonlight and beautiful blue eyes that shined like sapphires in the night sky. Her skin was creamy and free of any blemishes. She was wearing a nice white dress that pushed up her high and firm breasts, along with it snugly wrapping around her ass.

"No problem at all, it happens to the best of us," Harry told her with a smile. "And your name is…?"

"Sapphire Stagg," she commented with a smile, she'd been momentarily distracted by his gorgeous green eyes, but was able to shake if off.

"Harry Potter…."

"Oh I know! Your the head of the RAO Corporation, Daddy mentioned you once or twice," Sapphire replied, although it'd had been more of a discussion regarding various top business owners around Gotham City.

"Well, the owner of Stagg Industries talking about me….that's something, I don't think I've had a chance to meet your father personally, so anything that he says about me is likely hearsay," Harry said to her.

' _I've met him before, wish that I hadn't,_ _guy's a swarmy bastard, even more so than Queen_ _….at least Queen has mostly noble intentions_ _when he's isn't trying to get into someone's pants_ _and then leaving them the next day,'_ Faora replied in abject disgust.

"So, it seems like you got dragged along to this party," Harry commented to Sapphire.

"Yes, I did," she agreed as she managed to tear her eyes away from her. "Although….a lot of these people….even if it's just business really, they're ethics make my skin crawl."

Harry smiled at her, which lifted her spirits up a little bit.

"Just hang in there," Harry told her with a smile and she nodded.

"I know, I know," she offered as she looked around the room. "There seems to be a lot of people who want to talk with you."

"Well, I think that there are," Harry agreed, then he took her by the hand and kissed it lightly. "Until next time, my lady."

' _Smooth,'_ Jaime commented from where she watched the entire scene play out. _'Did you deliberately do that when_ _you knew her father was watching you, or was that just a complete accident?'_

' _What do you think?'_ Amanda asked, laughing in amusement from the corner were she stood with Emily. It was a surprise that they even got to come given that they were the youngest guests at the party, but Harry pulled some strings.

' _Well, if anyone deserves some grief,_ _it's Stagg,'_ Faora commented in an approving voice.

"Well, Well, Well, look what the cat dragged in."

Harry turned around to see her standing there in the moonlight. Her shimmering black hair extended a bit past her shoulders. Her green eyes locked onto him with a burning passion, her rosy red lips were moistened with a not so subtle amount of desire. Her cheekbones were soft and high. The black dress she wore showed off a bit of her cleavage and extended past the midway point of her thighs. She topped off the esamble with a pair of black boots that emphasized her shapely legs.

"Selina," Harry said, greeting her with a charming grin.

"High society is out in force tonight, both the high and the low points of it, so I thought I'd crash the party," Selina said as she looked at Harry. "I must have missed you come in, although I should have looked towards where all of the best, brightest, and most beautiful women were crowding in."

"That might have been a good idea," Harry offered after thinking about it for a moment.

"Perfect," Selina said with a bit of a purr to her voice as she looked at him closely, and boy, did he look good enough to eat. This hot summer night in Gotham City was just going to be a bit hotter. She smiled at Harry. "So how have you been holding up?"

"Just trying to keep busy, how about you?" Harry asked.

"Well, business is business, there's nothing more I can say than that," Selina said and noticed someone trying to catch her attention. "Well, I'll see you soon, Harry."

"You too, Selina," Harry said as she slunk off into the shadows her ass swaying all the while, to be replaced by someone who was very much less appealing to the eyes.

Earle made his way over, brushing past a redhead gentlemen who oozed slime.

"Dr. Potter, I hope you're well tonight," Earle stated to him as he shook his hand.

Harry felt like he should be counting all of his fingers in the aftermath, but never the less, it was the polite thing to do.

"This is Philip Kane," Earl informed him, introducing him to a man with silver hair who stepped over and prepared to shake Harry's hand.

"Oh, that's right, Bruce's Uncle, I believe I've heard your name come up," Harry commented to him.

' _Uncle Alfred doesn't approve of_ _him at all,'_ Penny stated lightly through the bond link. _'He's a bit of a corruptive influence, there's was a rumor that he'd been accused of some shady dealings_ _, all cleared up of course.'_

' _Doesn't seem like that it's much of a problem to get shady dealings cleared up in Gotham City,'_ Zatanna chimed in from afar.

"And this gentlemen is Lionel Luthor."

' _Well, well, well, the prince of darkness himself has come out tonight,'_ Patricia chimed in lightly from the bond. Given that her family, the Queens, the Luthors and the Teagues had been involved in the same secret society, she knew them all too well.

"So, this famous Harry Potter?"

Harry turned around to see a man in his late thirties standing there behind him. He had long brown hair that went down past his shoulders. He was wearing a pair of glasses and he peered out from behind them towards Harry, with chilling blue eyes. He had well trimmed beard and was dressed in a black suit that looked to be custom made.

"You'd be surprised how often that I get that," Harry said without missing a beat. "So, you're the infamous Lionel Luthor."

"Yes, well, I recently learned about your….business dealings with Doctor Swann and have been wanting to meet with you for quite some time," Lionel told him.

' _Man gets straight down to the point, doesn't he?'_ Kara thought although given that he was asking about Doctor Swann, she edged over to join her husband. This could lead to questions about Kal-El, so she needed to know what was said first hand.

"Yes, what about them?" Harry asked, his voice was calm and casual, but there was an undercurrent of caution that indicated he was keeping a close eye on him.

"Well, a merger like that seemingly out of nowhere….I must say, I was surprised, LuthorCorp has been trying work together with STARR on a deal like that for years, but Doctor Swann refused to sell to me," Lionel informed him.

"Yes, you must have hit just the right cord, how did you do it?" Phillip asked with narrowed eyes as he looked towards Harry. "Obviously the price was right or if you're in bed with the right people."

' _I'm not sure I like what he's trying to imply here,'_ Patricia commented, she hadn't technically gotten in bed with Harry, until after the deal was signed, sealed, and delivered.

' _Well, he's certainly implying something,'_ Harry thought back to her, as he looked at both business men with icy coolness in his emerald green eyes.

"I can tell you that everything was done on the level," Harry offered as he sipped his drink.

"But surely, you know….about certain reason's why STARR was founded," Lionel commented, hoping to prod Harry into revealing information that Swann had kept from him regarding the Traveler.

Harry's smile was one that indicated that he knew far more than Lionel thought that he knew, although he hid it under the guise of taking a drink.

"Well, well, well it's Lionel Luthor, long time, no see!"

Lily showed up to join them and Lionel looked like he'd just seen a ghost.

"Lily….well...this is….this is...quite the surprise….I thought...I thought you were dead...I have a call that I need to take, one moment please," Lionel stammered out, while trying to keep cool as he nearly knocked over silverware in his haste to get out the door.

' _Dare I ask?'_ Harry thought to his mother, but she was too busy cracking up on the inside to really give him a straight answer.

' _Long and quite amusing story actually,'_ Rose chimed in with a knowing smile, although she didn't know quite the exact particulars of Lionel's past encounter with a younger Lily either. All that she knew that he did something to enrage her and in response she did something that left quite a lasting impression on him.

' _Well, I'm sure it will be interesting to learn the full details about_ _someday,'_ Karen stated as she listened carefully for any snatches of interesting conversation, but the party was just a lot of talk about the mysterious Bat-Man and whether he or not was real or whether he or not he was an urban legend.

"Well, I'd be pretty surprised if he isn't just another urban legend cooked up by the press," Bruce commented as he sipped from the drink he was holding. "And besides, why would someone want to be a brooding avenger of the night?"

"Very true, Brucie darling," a blonde woman with striking brown eyes stated, although there seemed to be about three or four high class floozies trying to stake their claim on the billionaire playboy. None of whom seemed to have half of a dozen brain cells to rub together by the looks of things.

Granted, that would make it fairly easy to get into their panties, Harry noted, but that was beside the point since he liked a challenge, quantity never matched up to quality.

"I apologize for my brother's behavior, he tends to….engage his mouth before speaking."

A middle-aged gentleman in his mid-forties with a shaven head and dark eyes, dressed in a military dressed uniform, stated as he moved over to speak with him.

"Well, I'm used to dealing with people like that, so I just let it roll of my back," Harry said to the man with a smile. "Harry Potter."

"A pleasure to meet your, Mr. Potter, I'm Jacob Kane….I don't believe that you've had the pleasure of meeting my younger sister, Kathy yet."

Harry smiled, he hadn't had the pleasure of meeting her yet in fact and he couldn't help but smile. She stood there, with a curtain of dark hair framing her gorgeous face. Her brown eyes looked at him with interest and she was wearing a blue dress made up of expensive material that wrapped around her snugly, along with sheer nylon stockings that covered her shapely legs nicely.

"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Kane," Harry stated as he reached forward to take the hand that she extended, before giving her a slight kiss on it.

"You as well, Mr. Potter, and please, it's Kathy," the young socialite offered him with interest in her voice as she kept her eyes locked onto him. "….This is Bette, my niece and ward, Bette, come over here and say hello to Harry."

Bette Kane walked up with a smile on her face. She was a teenage girl with long blonde hair that flowed around her face and vibrant brown eyes, along with rosy lips just like her aunt and high cheek bones that showed off her elegant and high breeding. She was wearing a red and gold dress that matched her perfectly along with high heel shoes.

"Hi!" she said in a bubbly voice after walking up to him with a smile, as she checked him out, although she was far from the only one doing so. "It's a pleasure to meet you Harry."

"As it is, you, Bette," Harry stated as he lightly kissed her hand.

Jacob was engaged in conversation with someone close by, but then he brightened upon taking notice of someone else.

"And there's my daughter, Kate….say hello to Harry Potter."

Harry smiled as a striking young woman with red hair stepped onto the scene. She had vibrant green eyes, although a very different shade of green then Harry's. She had a smile on her face that got brighter the moment she took notice of him and she was wearing a black dress that wrapped snugly around her frame.

"How do you do, Mr. Potter?" Kate asked as she more or less shamelessly checked him out. While she mostly favored women, she wasn't exclusive to them. But naturally, that was a family secret that was kept under wraps and it was not something to be discussed at parties.

Harry finished speaking with the Kane's then walked over to the buffet to get something to eat. He found himself standing side by side with a seventeen year old teenager with what like to be a shaved head and brown eyes. He was wearing a three piece suit and he seemed to bemused at many of the people at the party, at least just as much as Harry was.

"Good evening," he said, pleased to find someone else here who was in his age group, well, unless you counted Oliver Queen or Bruce Wayne and he most certainly didn't. The both of them were rich fools that gave the rich and the famous a bad name.

"Hello, are you enjoying the party?" Harry asked to him.

"Not particularly, but my father insisted that I came," he said and offered his hand for Harry to shake. "Lex Luthor."

"Right...your Lionel's son" Harry stated as the two young men shook hands and Lex looked a bit sour for a moment.

"So says the DNA test," Lex stated as he cracked his neck a tiny bit and smiled at him as he looked around. "And you're….you're him aren't you?"

"Depends on who you're speaking about," Harry said calmly and Lex jumped in to elaborate.

"Well, no wonder that my father was interested in meeting you, given all of the things….well, it's not too hard to look up that you were the top of your year at Cambridge and you got there fairly young," Lex said, and while he didn't say it outwardly, he was fairly impressed. He did respect those people who actually did something with their lives.

"Harry Potter, at your service," Harry commented.

"Charmed," Lex said to him as he looked around, mostly to see if his father would turn back up. "And I do apologize for some of these people, they make my father look almost decent."

Lex did wonder where his father had ran off to, but then again, Lex had been a bit late getting to the party given that he ran into an incident. At least it wasn't as bad as what happened a month ago when a psychopath trying to stab him over her mother losing her job. As if he had any control whatsoever of Lionel Luthor's business practices.

"It's fine, I'm used to dealing with high society people who think that their own shit doesn't stink," Harry said.

"Haven't heard it quite put that way, but that's highly accurate," Lex stated, he'd traveled to Britain, but he supposed that he didn't run into the right people or rather the wrong people.

The two young men made small talk, but there was another guest at the party who was interested in speaking with him.

"Harry Potter, we meet at last."

Bruce's attention was grabbed by this voice as well the man who showed up, which made Harry doubly interested in him as well.

"We haven't had a chance to meet yet, although you know my daughter quite well, so with that said allow me to introduce myself, my name is Ra's Al Ghul," the man whispered. He had dark hair with the slightest hints of grey at the edges and green eyes that were almost the same shade as Harry's. He was wearing an elegant green cloak and carrying a wooden staff.

"Ah, the Demon Head himself," Harry offered with a smile though his eyes were narrowed, he know exactly who the man before him was and it was that point in time that things became perfectly clear to him.

"Yes, that's the closest translation," Ra's agreed. "I've been quite intrigued by your work and I can see potential within you that you've merely scratched the surface of so far. I've seen a lot in my lifetime and done much more, but I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like you."

Ra's turned towards the man standing a little to the right behind him, he was a towering and imposing individual with a shaved head and he offered Harry the smallest of courtesy nods.

"My associate, Ubu," Ra's told him. He was the latest in a long line of men to take on that name in order to serve Ra's Al Ghul. "Ahhh….and Mr. Wayne."

Bruce stared down Ra's Al Ghul, one could cut the tension between these two with a knife.

"It's nice to see that you're in good health," Ra's commented lightly, the last time they encountered each other, Bruce had assumed that Ra's had been left for dead.

Harry looked curiously between the two of them, he was intrigued by what was happening, but never the less, the party offered many more sights and sounds.

* * *

"It's ready."

Nightshade stood on a balcony that looked down onto the Gotham City Metro Station, she took in the sights and the sounds of the trains around her. Standing beside her was Zombie and approaching them, with his men and Ubu alongside him, was Ra's Al Ghul.

"Excellent, we must move quickly, before the Detective or the Sorcerer can interfere with our plans," Ra's stated, quickening his pace as he did. "You've done well, Talia, I trust the other team is prepared?"

Nightshade, better known by the name Talia, nodded her head in agreement of her father's word.

"Tonight is the night a cancer is cut free from the fabric of society," Ra's commented as his men nodded, kneeling down before him. "Gotham City embodies the absolute worst of humanity, a putrid acid that burns through that fabric, corrupting, decaying, and spreading its disease through other parts of the world. This city will be the first to be purged from the planet, a new world is upon us. This world will be reborn."

There was a loud round of cheers and the Demon Head's face contorted into a smile.

"We'll begin the cleansing with the most infected areas," Ra's continued. "It's time!…It's time! It's time for the end to come for Gotham City!"

The League watched with rapture in their and they pumped their hands into the air, making some noise.

"The crime! The corruption! All of it will be purged! And the disease will be eradicated from humanity!" Ra's stated as he watched them. "Some sacrifices must be made! But the world will be much better for them and then…."

Ra's speech was cut short when he saw something move from up above. The members of the League of Shadows took note of it as well and Zombie's eyes followed the figure closely.

"It's him, he's up above," Zombie grunted and he prepared to ready his men, but Ra's shook his head.

"Have I taught you nothing?" Ra's asked as he heard a whooshing descend from above. "Do nothing, not yet, not this time."

The dark and brooding figure crashed through the skylight. There was an explosion of glass as he dropped down to the ground in front of them.

He stood there, his face covered by the cowl, with his eyes barely even visible behind it.

"It's over!" he stated in a deep throaty growl.

"You know what to do," Ra's told his men.

The ninjas rushed Batman one at a time. He avoided their attacks, then had to dodge to the side seeing as how Ubu picked up a plank of wood and tried to swing it like a baseball bat to take his head off.

Batman dodged another blow as he saw Ra's and half of his men leave in the direction of a train, while the other half tried to delay him.

He was in for the fight of his life as the League surrounded him with a swords drawn, but he slipped a flash bang from his glove causing an explosion which impeded their vision.

"SPREAD OUT! DO NOT LET HIM REACH THE TRAIN!"

Batman looked down upon the train station from where he was perched on a vantage point above and he knew that his night was far from over, in fact, it barely begun.

**To Be Continued.**


	15. Nightwing Begins Part Seven

**Chapter Fifteen: Nightwing Begins Part Seven.**

Batman could tell that they were the most elite of the League of Assassins, led by the monster of a man known as Ubu.

"Make sure he does not reach the train, the master will not be pleased if he reaches that point!" Ubu growled as he cracked his knuckles.

The Dark Knight shook his head, he planned his next move. They closed in on him.

They jumped up to attack him, knocking him back onto the ground. He flew to the ground and just barely managed to avoid being stabbed with a dagger.

It was much different being out there in the field than it was training, that was a lesson that was pounded in his head by his instructors and reinforced here and now. He crouched down and blinded one of his enemies with a flash bang.

The Dark Knight sprung up over his head and cracked his foot down across the back of the neck of one of his enemies. He kept moving, never once breaking his attacks, knowing that if he had let up, he would be in trouble.

Batman was hoisted up by the throat by Ubu. The large man hurled Batman against a stake of crates.

"You're not so tough," Ubu grunted as he tried to stomp Batman from beneath his foot where he thought that whelp belonged.

Batman blocked the ankle to use the leverage. There was a huge crack as the Detective managed to cause Ubu to stagger back.

The sharp razor blades stabbed towards his costume but he repelled up into the rafters to avoid being sliced to ribbons.

"GET HIM, STOP HIM!" Ubu yelled and Batman was plucked down from the ceiling. He grabbed them and flipped them onto the ground.

He circled them, carefully trying to make his next move but he found himself slammed in the back of the head by a rapid fire force.

He pressed a detonator in his glove and a loud explosion went off, causing debris to fly. Batman pushed himself up and hurled a few smoke bombs at his adversaries. They were blinded, their eyes stinging from the brutal attacks.

Batman was almost to the edge of the tunnel but they fought their way through the debris, he was not going to be able to slip away that easily. Not that what he was dealing with was easy at the slightest. He felt a pair of hands grab his but he jabbed his enemy in the wrist, cracked his elbow around, and hurled him into the wall.

One grapnel later and Batman was above his head. He switched directions and the Dark Knight continued to move forward.

"I'll get him, move!" Ubu growled as he grabbed Batman around the legs and pushed him down off of his perch.

He drilled his elbow into the ribs of Batman but the Detective was ready for him. There was an explosion as several bricks were loosened. They sent cinderblocks flying, smacking into the back of Ubu's head. This served to knock the man unconscious and Batman felt a bit of warm blood trickle from his mouth. He nearly collapsed at the edge of the entrance but kept his head up straight.

When he fell down to the ground, Batman took a few seconds and he struggled to get himself up to his feet. He pressed his hand against the side of his ribs and felt how tender that he was. He grimaced but he had to keep moving. No matter what, he had to reach his destination.

After making a courtesy check to ensure that the members of the League of Shadows were not looming in the shadows, Batman saw that he was alone. He nodded his head, taking another step as he looked around for Ra's Al Ghul.

Much to his agitation, the Demon Head was gone. He and several more of his men were on the train. Batman knew that he had to catch a train but the Elite Guard and Ubu did their jobs, they kept him from reaching the train and thus reaching his destination. He walked forward and winced at his tender bruised ribs.

It was just another day's work and he could hear the sound of the train getting away from him. The Dark Knight could hear it chugging away from them and he staggered a bit more, trying to follow the train. He was about ready to drop to one knee and he violently hacked. It almost felt like he was hacking up pieces of his lungs yet he had to move on.

* * *

Kara was sitting back for a nice relaxing evening at home, dressed in a see through bathrobe that strained against her nice curves. The blonde offered a smile as she turned her head and peered over her shoulder. She was not the only one there, Diana, Karen, Faora, Barbara, and Pamela all joined her, relaxing in the comfort of the Penthouse sitting area.

"Dad wants me to hang out here for a while, after all of the insanity that's happened over the past couple of nights," Barbara informed them as she shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. "I don't know, he seems to think that I'll be a lot safer that way."

"Maybe," Pamela commented although she would have to agree with Gordon, it was going to be a lot safer in here, then out there.

Karen shook her head and said the one thing that had been on the minds of everyone else. "This has been a weird fucking week."

' _Amen to that,'_ Amanda agreed as she shook her head. She was currently upstairs but she was coming down in a second. Emily was sitting in dining room as was Jaime, Lily, and Rose. Harry had left after the party, although given that Ra's Al Ghul guy, he did look a little shifty, so one might think that Harry would find out more about what he was up to soon.

Kara watched, wondering if the never ending stream of commercials would end. She tapped her foot against the ground to the latest repetitive jingle that rang through her ears. It was kind of getting absurd with how often that it was playing.

"Finally," Faora remarked, she suspected that they should all watch television a lot less. That being said, the commercials were repetitive and extremely annoying.

"Hello Megan has been interrupted by a special news bulletin. This is Jack Ryder on the scene where chaos has gripped Gotham City."

' _Must be Tuesday,'_ Zatanna thought to herself blandly.

' _Actually I think that it might be something worse,'_ Lily thought as she stepped into the room. The redhead threw her hair out from in front of her face.

' _Oh worse than….well that's not good,'_ Hermione thought as she was able to switch on the television in the library. The news that something chaotic even by the standards of Gotham had come up had done a remarkable job in pulling her away from her books and studies. The brunette bookworm stood in rapt anticipation.

' _What the hell is going on?'_ Ginny asked.

' _Well, we're about to find out, aren't we?'_ Lucretia remarked patiently, although she wondered how much that this could affect them from across the pond. Still the seriousness of the situation was causing a panic.

"PANIC HAS SWARMED ALL OVER GOTHAM CITY!" Ryder yelled at the top of his lungs as there was static and there was a reason why he had to shout, as there was the stampeding of people all around him. His hand clenched together, as he held the microphone steady. He spoke, not quite at a full bodied shout but still loud enough where he could have gotten his point across. "Symptoms have infected many in the city, something that was extremely similar that the affliction of one Carmine Falcone."

' _Oh boy, that can't be good,'_ Kara thought to herself as she looked at Faora who stared at the television scream in numb shock.

"Something has been released from a train that has just left Gotham City Metro Station," Ryder continued as he tried to catch his breath. It seemed like there were three or four people talking in his ear piece at once but he remained calm and professional on the air, even though it was difficult for him to keep his head off. "We don't know the exact details but the GCPD have been unable to track the train."

' _Harry?'_ Diana thought to him, wanting to know if he found out anything.

' _Sorry, on a mission, talk to you later, everything is in position though,'_ Harry thought as he was getting closer to getting his hands on the person that he had been after for days now. He could almost taste it. _'If I need help, I'll be back.'_

' _Well that was pretty much what it was,'_ Donna commented as she smiled in amusement although she shook her head.

Amanda was confused and decided to bring up one point that was bugging the ever living hell out of her. _'So….why doesn't he….deploy it?'_

' _I'm sure Harry has his reasons,'_ Kara replied, although she wondered how good they were. She was a damn slight bit curious herself as to why Harry was waiting around. Then again, since she knew Har-Zod well, she was pretty sure it was a good reason.

"The city's turning into a war zone by the looks of things," Karen stated as she peered over.

"Things are breaking down and in the center of the chaos….Vicki Vale….Vicki are you there?" Jack yelled as he managed to get out of harm's way, just in time for the microphone cord to be ripped out of his hand and said microphone going flying, nearly smacking his camera man in the face.

There was a pause as the group waited, on pins and needles before Amanda asked the question to the group that had been bothering the ever living shit out of her.

' _So why doesn't he deploy it?'_ Amanda thought to them all once again.

Faora was the one who was best equipped to answer such a question. _'All of them are connected, everything is connected, once everything goes off, he can deploy the countermeasures. If he deploys them too soon, than everything is going to be messed okay, so he needs for the maximum impact to ensure that everything turns out as it should be.'_

' _Okay….so…'_

' _The device that is controlling the explosions needs to be negated,'_ Karen told the group. _'As long as the toxins are being pumped into the city, then the counter measures will be essentially useless.'_

' _That makes sense to me, I guess,'_ Amanda thought as she racked it over in her mind.

' _It's Harry, he has a plan, trust me,'_ Kara added as she projected a warm thought towards the younger girl.

' _Well, yes, it's Harry, naturally,'_ Amanda said blandly.

"This is….are we on….this is Vicki Vale….reporting from Downtime Gotham….OH MY GOD!"

A woman walked into the scene, the camera was flickering in and out, which meant that it was extremely difficult to get a visual on anything. The woman's blonde hair was in disarray, being pushed out of her face. She had vibrant blue eyes that shined out from the cameo, although they had a sense of disturbance in them right now. She was wearing a black button up jacket and dress pants, with black gloves and there was a thunderous explosion that could be heard in every direction.

"THE WORLD HAS SUBMERGED INTO CHAOS!"

Kara wondered if the cable was about to be knocked out.

"Out of the way, move it, move it, move it, MOVE!"

Barbara recognized her father's voice and realized that he was right in the thick of things. Her nerves were escalating to a fever pitch and she placed her hand on the side of her head, trying to brush her red hair away from her eyes.

"It's going to be okay," Kara whispered although she could say that she was a bit anxious about this situation.

"I know, he can handle himself, it's just….well you know," Barbara commented as she trailed off rather lamely.

"Yeah, I know," Kara agreed as she placed her arm around the redhead.

"I'd wish we'd be able to get a clearer visual and the bond….Harry must be focused, I don't think I can get a lock on him," Diana stated as she closed her eyes.

"Well we need to accept that there are going to be situations where he has to shut down access to himself, we have no reason to panic just yet," Faora told them evenly and honestly.

They would have to agree and have faith.

* * *

It was eerily calm from where Harry was standing but he could sense the mood might change extremely quickly.

He was standing in the Wayne Tower, the Central Hub of Gotham City. From what he found out regarding the layout of the city was that if anything happened to this place, the entire utility system of Gotham City would be in trouble.

That was not going to happen, not on his way. Green eyes burned bright as he watched for them. He knew that they would show up here. It was too perfect for them, the opportunity to breed chaos.

He had his finger on the trigger to set off the countermeasure just yet before it was time because things would get extremely ugly really quick.

' _Not yet,'_ he reminded himself.

The sounds of vans approaching were heard and Harry stood, wondering if this was the signal that he waited for.

"Move, quickly, before anyone catches up with us."

The five converted delivery vans pulled up and Zombie exited the nicest looking of the five converted vans, with a group of what Harry suspected was his best men, a squad of about eight. The other vans had squads of eight men as well, all of them were armored and carrying a huge duffle bag. They weren't small guys either, which meant that it was intriguing that they were lugging all of the weight around.

Harry tried to get a clearer visual without really being seen, because he knew that if he was seen, it would be game over for him.

They were straining hard underneath the weight and Harry was sure that he heard a shoulder muscle rip slightly. However, it was hard to tell. He could see Talia standing there in the shadows as way, overseeing the transfer along with Zombie.

He was getting so close.

"When is the Great One meeting us?" Zombie asked, impatience tripping from his tone.

"Ra's Al Ghul meets you on his own time table, never forget that," Talia told him in a voice that indicated that she was insulted by breathing the same air that he was. "Split up, you know the plan."

Five groups became three and Harry waited with bated breath to see which way they would go. He blended into his surroundings and they did not look up. Not that they would see him from where he was standing but he did not want to take any chances.

Group number one split off and they were making their way down to the basement. He was beginning to see that this was a multi-pronged attack and the green eyes of the wizard followed them. He knew that he had to keep an eye on where the others were heading before he made his move.

Group number two appeared to be heading to the very top floor. Which cemented in Harry's mind that this was going to be hit in three separate locations.

' _They're accounting for Batman, they're accounting for me, they're not accounting for a third person,'_ Harry thought to himself.

The third group joined Talia and Zombie and made their way to the top level. Harry ensured that he kept his eyes locked onto them, never losing track of where they were going.

Three sets of people were normally a trouble for some people but it was not a trouble for Har-Zod. He closed his eyes and split off two dupes.

The first dupe made its way down to the basement level, sticking close to that group. It was not going to let them out of his sight, no matter what.

The second dupe, well he was going for a path that was closer to the higher up variety. He was not going to let his sights waver on them as well.

Harry, meanwhile, had his eyes on a bigger prize. He was close to solving this entire mess. They escaped him one night but now he would have his hands on him.

The main Harry, the prime model, had a smirk on his face.

Tonight, he would have them, he would win, no question about it.

* * *

Batman rushed onto the train, picking up the pace. He was a bit winded from the battle with Ubu but he pushed himself forward and kept running.

A guard dropped down in front of him and tried to deck him.

Batman lifted his head and blocked a punch and then he sent the guard flying backwards. The guard was taken down like he was nothing.

Three more were near but Batman pulled himself on the top of the luggage rack. He waited in anticipation as the gaggle of guards searched around, trying to get a fix on him.

He activated a decoy explosion which caused two more of the guards to rush forward. The explosive gel might have been crude but never the less, it did the trick.

The trick was that he was able to pick off the lone guard, picking him up and slamming his head against the metal.

Two were down, two to go, with the Demon Head really close in his cross hairs. He wondered if it would be considered old hat to say that the Demon Head was so close that he could taste him but that was never the less an accurate statement.

"Hey, he's done, man…."

Batman grabbed him and pulled him into the next room and there was a loud sound of thumping in the shadows.

The guard rushed forward, pulling out a sword as he stabbed at the curtains, slashing at them when he heard something stir.

He pulled back the curtain and found that there was nothing behind it. He raised an eyebrow, abject confusion on his face.

Right before Batman's feet stepped on his face. His weapon was disarmed and the Detective concluded by ramming his elbow down into the side of his enemy's head. Batman flipped him down and punched him in the back of the head, causing his nose to shatter and blood to spill everywhere.

Batman picked up the communication device that one of the thugs had dropped. It allowed him to hack inside their communication link.

"The old man at Wayne Manor is putting up quite a fight….MAN DOWN!"

Bruce would have smiled had he not been so serious. He suspected Alfred would have put up quite a fight although it did not really surprise him that Wayne Manor was attacked. The Detective slinked into the shadows, as he tried to pick up more on the communication link.

He made sure that there were no more guards coming.

Batman could hear the gunshots over the communication link and more men dropping down. While he was not too keen on guns, his butler….well that was another matter entirely.

He might have wanted to have those ribs checked out and he was walking with the slightest limp but pain was something that he learned to live with. It was ingrained in his mind that he had to keep forcing his body to move forward.

"So we meet face to face, Detective."

Batman stepped out of the shadows and saw Ra's Al Ghul standing before him in the life. His face was fixed into an expression of chilling calm.

"You have learned your lessons well, but there is one final one that you should understand," Ra's commented as he charged forward, sword drawn, with speed and agility that men a fraction of his age were not even capable.

The sword metal clung against the edge of the wall and Ra's turned around, as Batman held up the blood stained sword that he had taken from one of the guards on the ground.

"What are you up to?" he demanded.

"It's quite simple if you learn to read between the lines, we're not so different, we both wish to meet this city, this world, a better place," Ra's told him as he dove in and the swords clung together. Despite Batman being much younger, Ra's was skilled and he nailed Batman in the knee, noticing his limp and making it worse. "It's just, you go along with your mission crudely, while I offer a more permanent solution to the problem."

"Your solution is madness," Batman growled as he blinded Ra's temporarily with a flash bang and repelled to the ceiling to avoid his next attack.

"Madness is often trying to redeem what cannot be redeemed, even when the government is corrupted, nasty, a disease, an infection that poisons all of society," Ra's stated as he knocked Batman out of air and held the sword to his throat. Batman struggled against the pressing grip of cold steal. "Any time, I could cut the cancer out but it could spread. I wish to change that."

"You wish to…."

Batman kicked Ra's in the jaw and managed to disarm him of his sword. He thought that he was in the clear but Ra's had a second sword which he sliced the side of Batman's face with.

Blood dripped to the ground.

"You have failed to learn your lessons properly, Detective," Ra's whispered as he slammed him into the ribs with an elbow and grabbed the other sword, crossing them in an "X" inches away from slicing Batman's throat. "You continue to make the same mistakes, you fail to learn, therefore all you've learned to do is to fail."

"I've learned more than you think," Batman rasped and with that word, the luggage rack above their heads exploded.

Ra's was caught off guard and Batman slammed him into a huge piece of luggage that dropped. He pulled one of the swords and swung it but Ra's blocked. The clang of metal resounded and sparks flew as the train continued on its destination.

The two of them fought each other, neither giving the other any quarter. They were not going to back down. In some ways, they were extremely similar and very stubborn.

* * *

James Gordon had the barricade set up but there was something that told him that no matter what he did, he would not be able to keep them back for long. Especially if any of his fellow officers got infected, than it was game over.

"Toe the line, behind it, make sure no one gets by here now!" Gordon ordered as he placed his hand on the top of his head. "VALE, I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT OF THE AREA!"

Vicki Vale, being fearless and bold, and like many reporters, had no sense of her own self-preservation stood there with wide eyes. She watched the progress of the fires that were erupting on Gotham City. She had not been fortunate enough to report on anything this insane, so this was a real trial by fire.

"Gordon, they're coming this…."

The young officer never had a moment to say anything, for he was trampled. Several feet stepped on his body and he gave a few blood curdling screams before he said no more.

"Tranquilizer darts at the ready, snipers at the ready, don't shoot to kill unless…"

Gordon was hurled over the barricade by one of the rabid Gotham City citizens. He could see something in his eyes, something horrifying.

"Vicki, maybe we should get out of here now," her cameraman told her as he tried to grab her around the sleeve of the shirt.

However, the cameraman was clonked in the back of the head with a brick. Vicki screamed as she saw him go down to the ground, not moving, not responsive.

Vicki's scream alerted one of the brutish figures. He was staggering around. She managed to pick up the cameraman's camera and shatter it over the head of the approaching figure with all of the strength that she could muster.

The man walked towards her and kept walking through the fire which made Vicki wonder if he was on LSD or something. The man kept walking and she reached into her purse, to grab a can of pepper spray, but she was grabbed around the throat and hurled down into the pavement.

Her purse went flying into the chaos, likely never to be seen again as the smell of smoldering debris filled the air. She nearly gagged on the putrid smell of piss and ash, along with brimstone as the man grabbed her by the hair.

She struggled but his strength was now enhanced several other times by what was happening. She was kicking and furiously trying to scratch her way out but she was being dragged off out of the way by the hair. The brute was making like a caveman and it seemed like no matter what she tried to do, she could not escape his grip.

"LET ME GO!" Vicki yelled as she tried to push her way out of the grip but there was no way that she could do.

Gordon managed to sedate two of them but he saw the reporter being dragged off. He sighed, but he knew what he had to do.

It was all in the day's work. He rushed over the pile of rocks and dove at the brutish figure.

He slammed the infected onto the ground. He kept struggling but Gordon had a stun gun which he zapped the infected with twice.

"Get down!" Gordon yelled as he dragged Vicki off to the side and there were three more of them but they were sluggish and slammed against the side of a police car, trying to get to the two.

Vicki managed to have a backup camera, all good reporters should have one on them at all times and while she did not necessary need a camera man, it did make her life a lot easier. Still, with shaky hands, she managed to manipulate the camera through the broken windshield of the overturned ring of cars that made the makeshift barricade. The street was cracked and there was broken glass laying on it.

"They shouldn't be able to get through," Gordon muttered as he loaded his gun. He did not have that much left, so he should make his shots count. Gotham City was essentially hell on Earth, even more so than usual.

Vicki could feel a chilling breeze that she was not sure whether or not it had anything to do with the situation that was presenting itself in Gotham City. She was pretty sure that she had just stumbled upon the story of the century.

Whether or not she would live long enough to cover it, that was another matter entirely. For all she knew, the next story that could be reported would be her own obituary.

Still she would have liked to see that Summer Gleeson trying to get out of her in the middle of this chaos, with all of her puff pieces.

There was a thump as one of the men looked at her, wide eyed. There was a stampede of footsteps and she could have sworn that things were not improving. Some of the less experienced police were dragged off into the shadows, although others struggled to keep fighting.

Vicki had her hand on a tire iron that was left on the ground as she steadied her camera. She had no idea how much good that was going to get her.

"I'm not going to mince words, Vale, the next time we blink, could be the last time," Gordon whispered but he had no intention on that happening.

Vicki was unblinking and fearless with her arms folded as they were caught in the middle of Ground Zero right in Gotham City.

* * *

It was go time, as the group on the bottom floor was walking around.

"Just do what the guy says and we'll be able to get this done tonight," one of the men told him.

"So, what's the plan?"

"The last person who said that got his tongue cut out for being so direct," one of the men warned him.

"There's something there," the man grumbled as he took a step forward but nothing except for some vermin. "Rats."

"Well with a place this old, it's not a surprise…."

"Keep up, hold it up, don't you dare drop it, or we'll be dropped," one of the men whispered as his shoulder slightly strained against the weight of the duffle bag.

Harry watched them, a calm expression on his face. He kept watching them as he did a head count of the group on the basement.

There were fourteen men who entered the basement area but soon there would be none. He opened and shut his hand, bringing some life back to it. His green eyes flashed as he heard the hiss in the light.

He knew that he had to take out these men without the others from the other levels knowing that something was up. He had to synchronize the attack perfectly as to not get the attention of the group in the middle before he was ready.

His emerald eyes once again flashed as he activated a remote control in his hand. A device he planted was able to cause their radios to be blocked; all communication within the building would not be smooth.

"Okay, this is the spot," one of the men grunted.

"Quiet," one of the men whispered as he saw something in the window.

Harry reached from the ceiling and cracked their heads together.

"Something's in the shadows," another man whispered but his legs cracked together and he was hurled into the wall. The sound proofing spells prevented any sound from going upwards.

"We need…."

Harry caught him in the kidneys and knocked him down. He flipped up and suddenly two of the other men were wrapped up thick cords.

An electrical pulse caught them off guard, knocking them down to their knees. The men dropped to the ground.

' _Seven down, seven to go,'_ Harry thought as he threw a metal ball onto the ground.

Liquid sprayed from the gas balls, a little nasty creation that Lucretia helped him create. It immobilized them for a moment, although it was expensive to create. Still it packed a punch as it temporarily shut their nervous system down and made them a nonfactor.

One of the final men lost their head and began to fire wildly, trying to get a shot in on Harry. The green eyed wizard caused the ground to be transfigured into paste.

His feet were stuck to the ground and he flipped into the air, driving his knees into the top of the head of his adversary. The cracking sound resounded and the goon landed hard.

A split kick wiped out his enemies just like that.

On the floor above, it was more of the same. Harry waved his hand and he caught three of the men in one fell swoop. The men rushed for him but he dodged their attacks. He used a throat jab to take him down. He watched the man drop like a big redwood in the forest.

One of the men rushed to the shadows but a well-placed kick to the ribs put him down and a sleeperhold took him out.

Harry rushed over them and made them knock each other out with a swift maneuver. He made sure that they stayed down.

The prime version of Harry Potter made his way up towards Talia and Zombie. He was beginning to figure out what was happening.

Three female ninjas dropped on either side. They were far more skilled than Zombie's goons, who were dangerous.

Harry dodged the attacks of his adversaries, working up a slight sweat and he felt the cold hot steal going into them.

The green eyes of Harry was focused and he knew that he had to do one of his failsafes.

"Two, nine, two, five," Harry offered and the lights went out with a loud boom.

The ninjas were not put off by the lack of light, in fact they rushed towards the young wizard in the darkness. He kneed them into the face and there were several loud sounds as Harry took them out in the darkness like they were nothing.

Running kneelift drilled one of them in the face and another tried to knock him out. Harry grabbed her arm and flipped her over.

Another trio rushed forward and Harry slid underneath the swords, causing them to clang together. He tied them up and made sure they did not do anything to attack.

Harry got a few wounds and while they were not pleasant, he had worst. He knocked them out and there were huge crunches in the dark.

The backup power was on as Harry ensured that the females were down without any fatal injuries. He stepped forward and saw Zombie in the shadows. He shoved one of his remaining men towards Harry.

Harry dodged an attack and the green eyed Kryptonian caught the hand. He twisted around and caused him to stab his own knife.

The man was hurled into the wall extremely hard where he landed with a huge crunch.

Talia watched from the catwalk above and saw that Harry was standing by Zombie.

"Stand back!" Zombie yelled as he fired a shot at Harry but Harry dodged it, rolled forward, and knocked the weapon out of his hand.

"It's time to come face to face," Harry stated as he looked at Zombie but he kicked Harry off and ripped a pipe off the wall.

He dodged the attack and Harry nearly dodged another attempt to get decapitated with the pipe. Zombie swung the pipe with all of the force of a home run slugger. He dodged the attacks again and again, the pipe swinging over and over again. He blocked the swing with his hand and pushed him back, and elbowed him in the stomach.

Harry jumped up and nailed his adversary down on the back of the head with the point of the elbow. A rolling elbow smash popped him right in the face but Zombie fought back, elbowing Harry in the ribs.

He tried to stab him but Harry dodged and he stabbed the floor. He bounced up and knocked the knife.

"Come on!" Harry yelled, as this might have been the final obstacle to Neville's killer.

Zombie rushed him but Harry nailed him in the back of the head and caused him to land head first into the ground.

"Where's your boss?" Harry demanded.

"You don't get it," Zombie growled as he tried to attack Harry with a wrench but once again Harry dodged out of the way.

He knocked him down across the back of the head and grabbed him around the arms. Harry struggled but he then reared his head back and cracked him in the head with a blunt force.

Zombie gave a loud howl of pain as he was rocked with a huge headbutt. He winced in pain.

Zombie tried to attack Harry with another concealed blade but he grabbed his wrist and forced it back into his own thigh.

"Son of a bitch," Zombie growled as Harry reared back and rocked him with another headbutt, which backed them into the next room, away from the downed female ninjas.

Talia watched, not even moving at that moment. There was a loud rumble as the two of them circled each other. The dark haired woman kept watching their battle, focusing on everything that transpired beneath her. She placed her hand on the side of the railing to steady herself against the rumbling.

Zombie went for Harry once again and tried to put Harry into the wall. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw him one more time and he drilled his adversary in the knee. He slammed his elbow into the side of the neck and another series of headbutts in succession.

Despite his nose getting shattered, Zombie was moving towards Harry and he kept going towards him. He could see Talia below, watching him and Zombie brawl. She resembled an Empress who was casually grading two gladiators who were rumbling for her benefit.

Harry could see his blood pouring down his face and once again, grabbing his arms and nailed him with a series of strikes to the face. Headbutts rocked his face and once again knocked him back. He must have headbutted him at least a dozen times and he banished him backwards, causing Zombie to fly backwards, going head over heels and landing down hard.

Zombie pulled himself up and nailed him in the face with a punch.

With the watch on, Harry was feeling the punch of the punch.

Zombie searched for something and he found it. He was going to crush his skull and show his worth to Ra's Al Ghul and his daughter, showing that this Harry Potter, he was nothing, nothing.

He lifted the canister of gas above his head, intent to cave his enemy's skull in. The canister was in his hands never the less but Harry squinted his eyes and launched a blast of heat vision.

The heat vision impacted the chemicals and Harry flew up above the blast zone, putting up a shield charm.

The explosion knocked the man down. Zombie was rocked with a huge explosion, his back slamming against the metal with the force and speed of a truck careening through a wall as he inhaled the chemicals.

Talia stood as Harry slowly turned his head to face her. The daughter of Ra's Al Ghul stood nervously.

* * *

"Once again, you fail to learn the lessons that I have taught you, time and time again," Ra's stated as he kicked Batman in the back of the leg. "You are tenacious, I will give you that, but you are never the less, severely outmatched."

Batman backed up, to an arrogant person, it might look like he was fleeing but it was all strategy. The sword swung but he dodged it.

' _Just a little closer,'_ he thought to himself.

He was now up against the train controls and the very last second he dodged it.

Ra's sword slammed into the train controls and there was a loud squeal as he realized what happened. He tried to remove the sword from the panel but it was causing the train to go haywire.

The train was on a collision course towards the tower and Ra's let go of his hands, fighting Batman hand to hand.

"Very good, there are lessons that…."

Batman dodged the attack and nailed him in the back of the head. He did not need to do much more than to stall him.

The end would come and Batman crossed his fingers, waiting for it to happen. Any second now, he would be closer.

There was a loud whirling sound and the train was about to head into the tower. Ra's tried to take out Batman instead of figure out an escape plan.

That proved to be his downfall as Batman rammed his elbow into the side of the head and whipped him into the wall. Bones cracked as Ra's grimaced as he slid to the ground.

"Kill me then," Ra's hissed he was unable to escape from where he was pinned down when a huge piece of luggage fell onto him, along with half of the rack.

"I don't have to kill you," Batman whispered gruffly. "But I don't have to save you.

Batman escaped the train as it was about to crash. He repelled up to the ceiling and there was that moment where time stood still for everyone involved.

With furious fury, the train careened into the tower, crashing. The explosion could he heard from miles around and Batman saw the smoking rubble. Ra's Al Ghul never once made an attempt to extract himself from the train.

The fiery wreckage proved this much and Batman eyed it, carefully. He finally allowed his pain to take over him, dropping down to one knee, as he collapsed, letting out the breath that he had been holding.

* * *

"Stay back!" Talia warned him as she waved a sword threateningly. She saw what he could do and knew that she was no match for him, at least at this stage.

She tried to attack him but Harry blocked the sword and ripped it from her hand and hurled it over the balcony. It flew to the ground and smashed inside the debris where Zombie laid in a critical state.

Harry was then behind her and he grabbed her arms. Talia grimaced as she was forced down to her knees.

"Talk," Harry demanded harshly and she felt a chill that went down her spine.

"I don't know…."

"Then allow me to spell it out for you clearly," Harry breathed in her ear and Talia was trying to push herself out of his grip but she held onto her tightly. "Outside of the night club, why was it done?"

"Longbottom was never supposed to die," Talia said. "No one regrets what happened more than my father does, innocent blood should never be spilled."

Harry's glare was burning into the back of her neck and Talia knew that she better talk quickly, less she wanted to end up living out a few miserable seconds without a body part.

It went without saying that Harry would never hurt a female that he could use as a resource but the fear in her mind got her to speak.

"It was a test to see how you would react, even if the results were….less than favorable, you passed the test with flying colors," Talia commented. "The one on the ground he's pathetic and failed his trials, he should have never….."

Harry could hear something approaching that interrupted what she was going to confess.

There was a runaway train on its way there and it was about to crash into the tower.

Harry rushed over, throwing himself out of the window to avoid getting hit by the explosion. He put a shield charm up, which wouldn't really do him much help on the inside.

A huge explosion went off, and boy could he hear it. He managed to block out most of it and his hearing was not as sensitive as it would have been without the watch. Still he could see that they went up in flames.

He used siphoning spells inside and he could see the wreckage of the train, along with the damage and the debris in the tower.

However, he knew what he did not see.

There was no Talia, no Zombie, no anyone. They had all escaped. It took a quick scan of the wreckage to see that there was not even one body.

Harry growled in annoyance. Now it was the time to release the antidote.

' _Done,'_ Harry thought, re-opening bond traffic and hopefully Gotham City would return back to normal or at least what passed for normal in Gotham City.

* * *

Without his gun, Gordon had to resort to a tire iron and a crowbar to keep the hordes of the infected citizens back. He had several scratches over his face and hands but he had far worse. He looked forward and the swelling madness was getting worse moment by moment.

' _Well at least it isn't raining,'_ Gordon thought to himself, trying to keep his spirits up, fully aware that Vicki Vale was at work with her camera, even though she had a few near death experiences tonight.

To prove that this night could in fact get a little worse, thunder was hear. There was a sense that Gordon was on the edge now as rain began to pour from the sky.

Then something happened, the hordes of the madness staggered back. Some of them dropped to their knees and shivered, looking extremely pale and sickly.

Others looked around, like they had come out of comas. They had no idea how they had gotten here or what they had done.

Gordon figured that they might not want to know. He rubbed the side of his face, he would have to get some of these cuts checked out and then phone his daughter to ensure that she was not worrying up a storm.

Right now however, he was just trying to figure out if he could keep his head above the water or not. He saw Vicki who watched in awe.

' _And yet, the chaos stopped just as suddenly it started,'_ she thought to herself. Her keen senses began to wonder if this was any ordinary rain.

She was now intrigued to see what was going to happen next.

"What do you think happened?" Vicki asked Gordon.

Gordon paused for the merest of seconds before he came back with another retort. "You're the reporter, Vale, you tell me."

That really told her all that she needed to know. There was a huge mystery at hand and things went back to normal or what passed as such for Gotham City.

She looked up, she could have sworn that she saw a figure above her but when she looked around, there was nothing there.

A mirage or was there actually something to the sight. That's what she wanted to know.

* * *

Batman viewed the wreckage from afar. He knew that it would be time to rebuild and he turned around, to see a young man dressed in a sleek black costume in front of him. The costume had hints of red and a symbol of a strange dragon like creature. He had gloves and a mask that covered his green eyes, with completely straight dark hair.

"Who are you?" Batman demanded in a gravelly voice.

"You know having a voice like that, one might think that you smoke about ten packs a day," the young man offered him lightly as the two of them locked eyes from the building that they were standing on. It was an intense stare down between the two of them.

A staredown where neither man backed off, neither man tensed up, and neither man said anything, at least for a second.

"So, I'm guessing that you caused the train crash," the young man continued.

"Ra's Al Ghul did, I just directed him in the right path," he said with a throaty growl. "I suspect that you had something to do with the city calming down."

"Come now, I can't reveal all my secrets to you, can I?" he asked as he looked at the man in the shadows. "You're getting quite the reputation aren't you….Batman?"

"One could say that," Batman replied gruffly as he heard news reports of a ninjas at Wayne Manor but they fled once they had got more that they bargained for at the hands of the butler.

"Yes, one could, but who knows what the future would bring," he commented as he locked his eyes onto the cowled crusader.

"Who are you?"

That question was asked and then answered swiftly.

"I'm Nightwing."

The moment that Batman looked up to answer, he saw that this young man, Nightwing, was gone.

' _So that's how it feels when I do it,'_ he thought calmly.

**To Be Continued.**


	16. A Necessary Breather

**Chapter Sixteen: A Necessary Breather.**

"His end has been reached," Talia said to Nyssa as the two of them met up.

"He has been back before," Nyssa said to Talia immediately and she nodded.

"The League will have gone their separate ways," Talia said as she nodded. "As for him….."

"He should not have survived," Nyssa said immediately.

"Unfortunately he has those who would pull him from the fire," Talia said with disgust dripping from her tone. "The situation in Gotham City has become too problematic to stay."

"Until we can determine where the plan goes from this point forward, we will need to regroup," Nyssa said and she had to return to Harrison, no doubt that he would demand more answers than she had given him so far. It was a small favor that he had been distracted by the Demon but now it was time to return.

"I wish you the best of luck, and I'll be in touch," Talia said as the two sisters parted ways. With Ra's Al Ghul's latest hiatus, there was no question that the politics within the League had change. Bane had gone underground as well, fearing retribution, at least that's what the word was. He had bases in South America that he could blend in and not even magic could locate him at this point.

Someone like him would return naturally in time.

* * *

Harry thought that after the last couple of days, he needed to take a nice break and a long breath. He mentally recapped the events in the back of his head.

He was in the back of the limo, with Zinda driving. After Alfred's near scare at the hands of the League of Shadows, Penny made the decision to spend some time with her uncle. Although Harry wondered who got the real scare with the League getting shot up by the Wayne family butler. He had to smile at the thought of what happened. His green eyes blazed for a few seconds as he looked at the people who were in the back of his limo.

Karen was naturally there in her glory. She was wearing her Karen Star Disguise. She had a red wig that was covering her shoulder length blonde hair, along with a vibrant pair of brown eyes that were disguised with a pair of color contacts. Harry kept smiling as he placed his hand on hers and he looked at the other people in the backseat of the limo with him.

Sersi was there as well. A goblin made bracelet with runes had disguised her normal form. She had short brunette hair and she looked like a rather short and fairly attractive one.

Diana also sat right beside Harry, doing her duty as a bodyguard. She was curious about what he had to say about the last couple of days but Harry would fill her in on any details she missed in due time.

"Thank you once again for giving me a ride to the board meeting," Bruce commented after a few seconds and Harry turned to the Wayne heir.

"Not at all, we're going the same way, in more ways than one," Harry stated as his eyes burned with razor sharp focus. "The old Wayne-Potter business alliance….."

"Yes, it's something that is long overdue but it will help both of our companies," Bruce said but naturally he had questions as much as the next person.

He was going to get those answers in due time, right now they hit a red light as Harry leaned back and prepared to take a nice look at the paper that he had on his lap.

Between the two of them, they had the bought up stocks with the vast majority of the company. It was not a complete sweep between the two of them.

' _So, is Earle going to be shown the door today?'_ Faora thought. She actually was not able to make it but business matters happened elsewhere as they were working on development with a project.

Harry slowly flipped through the paper and a smile crossed his face.

"Lucius said that he's ready and he will be to take his spot," Bruce stated.

"He's worked hard with this company, so he deserves a little perk with everything," Harry replied as he gave the paper a good looking over.

' _So, you've been busy, haven't you?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes, the charitable donations with RAO corporation are now in place,'_ Faora commented with a smile on her face as she pushed the hair back out of her face. _'It's just as you requested, my brother.'_

' _Yes, and I'm glad,'_ Harry thought as he continued to flip through the paper as he read the story about him. There was news about his donations to help understaffed facilities to help those who had been infected.

He smiled as he stopped and saw something that was interesting. There was a Wayne Industry security guard that swore up and down that he saw a mysterious ninja fighting the other ninjas on that night. There was little description of him which meant that Harry was mostly not seen.

"You know that's an impressive donation," Bruce said conversationally as he saw the number. "I may have to match it."

"Be my guest," Harry commented with a smile.

Harry continued to comb through the newspaper as he went through the last minute preparations for the meeting. There was some reports of some bat sightings, if they only knew, if they only knew.

The next bit of information was about Jonathan Crane, having being evicted from his role of the head of Psychiatry of Blackgate Prison. This is pretty much news to Harry as he went to next page.

' _It's coming through here on the television, Crane's apparently been in the middle of this thing and helped develop the toxin and he got blasted full force with his toxin,'_ Kara thought as she shifted her legs and crossed them, throwing her head back with a smile.

' _Yeah, I can see it,'_ Harry thought.

"Yes, Bruce, everything's in order, we're almost there, just one more red light," Harry stated as he learned that Bethany Ravencroft was the new head of psychiatry at Blackgate Prison. Crane now was the guest at the Arkham Ward of the prison, given the actual Asylum of the same name was damaged in the riots. Although the authorities were trying to put together the pieces of what was exactly happening.

"We're almost here," Zinda informed the group as she turned one last corner.

"Excellent," Harry offered as the car went to a stop and the group exited the car where Lucius Fox was waiting.

"Dr. Potter, Mr. Wayne, a good day to you both," Lucius commented as he took a half of a step forward and shook hands with both the man. Karen stood there with a smirk on her face as well and Lucius made sure to acknowledge her. "Dr. Starr as well, it's an honor."

"Hello, Mr. Fox," Karen commented as she shook hands with the man as Sersi and Diana stood in the background, getting ready.

"So do you know anything about the Bat popping up into Wayne Manor?" Harry asked, recalling something that he read as he made his way up the steps.

"I beg your pardon?" Bruce asked him.

"Well according to the paper, there was an attack by ninjas at Wayne manor…."

"Well there seemed to be a lot of ninjas around the manor as of last night," Bruce stated with a raised eyebrow with Harry shaking his head.

He figured that he would not get a straight answer for anything, at least he not right away. As for right now, it was down to business.

"The Board awaits," Lucius stated as he was just going to sit back and enjoy the show.

The next thing they knew, they had an entire room full of suits. That was the best way to describe what was happening but it was never the less, an accurate assessment. His green eyes locked onto the entire room as Bruce joined him.

Harry allowed Bruce to have the floor.

"Gentlemen, I thank you all for coming here today, to discuss the changes in Wayne Industries and what's going to happen from this point forward," Bruce told them all.

Earle stood up. "Mr. Wayne sir I…."

"Earle, your years of service are appreciated, which is why you're receiving this, I think that you'd find it more than acceptable," Harry commented as he slapped the envelope down in Earl's hand.

"I don't understand," Earle stated dimly and Harry smiled.

"Well, then I think that we should help spell it out for you, I appreciate your years of service, but you no longer fit in the company's structure, so I wish you the best in all of your future endeavors," Harry told him and he inclined his head for a second, in shock.

"You can't…"

Phillip Kane shifted for a second and Harry noticed his nervous body language straight away.

"So, you're the other shareholder, aren't you?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I know…."

"Well, I look forward to working with you," Harry told Kane, although he was really curious for a number of reasons. He knew that Phillip Kane was the CEO before Earle was and there were a lot of dirty politics involved in his removal.

Yet the two of them thought to be working together but Harry figured that there was someone else who was pulling the strings and making both of the puppets dance. Exactly who it was, Harry was not certain but it was interesting to say the least.

' _Someone looks like they just got caught with their hand in the cookie jar,'_ Kara thought with a grin.

' _Well, that's what a lot of this corrupt corporate types act like,'_ Patricia added knowingly.

' _That's the truth, isn't it?'_ Daphne commented dryly.

"I'd like to introduce the new CEO of Wayne Industries, I'm sure that all of you will find him to be an acceptable replacement," Bruce commented as he inclined his head. "Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Lucius Fox."

' _Well, they're not going to complain about that,'_ Karen added as they all could hear the polite idea.

' _They don't want to go out of the door next to Earle,'_ Astoria stated and no one could dispute that..

' _So they're going to be all, good idea boss, great idea boss, don't….ingrates the whole lot of them,'_ Lucretia stated.

' _If that isn't a word to describe them, I don't know what it is, ingrates,'_ Charlotte agreement with a chuckle.

Harry was going to keep a careful watch on Phillip Kane because other than Bruce and Harry, he had managed to pick up the post stock. Once he met him at the party, Harry figured that he might be a problem.

' _Just play it calm for now, although Kane's got to be sweating bullets, now that Earle's out the door,'_ Faora advised.

Harry was on the same wavelength with her, after all, give someone enough rope and they would end up hanging themselves. It was only a matter of time before Harry got to the end game but right now the board meeting would have to continue.

* * *

When the final member of an old pureblood line died, it was a circus to say the least. There were a lot of witches and wizards who claimed to know the deceased and knew them well, even though they exchanged about six sentences or less, if that.

Harry sighed, it was a political affair that he was just getting back from and he was not attending the Wake. This was a time where Neville's death was finally hitting him. Then again, he had other things on his mind over the past few days, at least that's what he was going to assume. His green eyes looked forward as Kara stood next to him, her arm latched into his.

"Can't believe it, can you?" Kara asked and Harry offered a stiffening nod.

"No, I don't believe it," Harry said to her. There was a huge part of him that really did not want to believe it but it was happening.

He was going to help carry out Neville's final wishes. It was going to be the scattering of his ashes on the grounds of Hogwarts. He stood there, with his Alphas standing next to him, dressed to the nines, Diana, Faora, and Karen joined him and Kara to have their final respects.

"So, what week, huh?" Susan asked as slipped towards Harry and Harry nodded his head.

"That's for sure," Harry told her as he half swallowed a lump in his throat and tried to keep his head up.

"Last son of one of the five major houses," Susan whispered to him.

"Yes, that's always a big deal, the Prophet's going to town on it, although I managed to block some of the more outlandish pieces," Harry said. He knew that Neville wanted the coverage of his death to be understated at best.

"That would be, the Longbottoms, the Greengrasses, the Bones, The Potters, and the Blacks?" Faora inquired and Susan nodded her head up and down.

"Correct," Susan stated, she just realized how many of those lines that now Harry had a direct pipeline into. Of course there was a lot of pureblood politics involving the first born heirs carrying the family line name on but Harry could outlast the old purebloods who were rapidly becoming an endangered species and would so be going the way of the dodo.

"Hannah's….taking things in stride," Harry whispered.

"Neville left her a letter, I think that the contents put her mind at ease about a lot of things," Susan explained to him. "She has had a lot of time to think about it, and to come to terms with his death."

"That's good, I'll talk to her in a little bit," Harry stated.

' _It is hard…..isn't it?'_ Lily asked. She knew that her son respected very few members of the male sex and believe her, she could sympathize with that fact. Especially in the Wizarding World, where there were a lot of idiot pureblood wizards. There were many males that made Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy both look like the cream of the crop.

That was something that terrified Lily, chilling the redhead to the bone as she shook her head and coughed for a brief second.

Harry caught a glimpse of Sprout and well given that Neville was her favorite student, he could figure out that she was taking this way. Given that Neville could potentially be up for the role of the next Herbology Professor, that made what was already a tragedy even more so. He could have had a nice quiet life, with all of his plants.

He thought that things would be much better and at least Neville was in a better place. He was at peace.

"I'm glad that the actual funeral service is over," Amelia stated as she joined Harry. The Minister of Magic was moved her way over towards Harry.

"It was a pretty big circus," Harry commented to her and she nodded briskly.

"Yes, pretty much," Amelia agreed, Circus was a pretty good defining fact for what was going on with the purebloods in this day and age.

"Now, it wasn't the biggest circus that the Wizarding World ever put on, remember the Dumbledore funeral?" Harry asked her.

"Yes, I could hardly forget, and….it's a good thing that you won't be dying any time soon," Amelia said and Harry raised an eyebrow.

"I sure hope not," Harry stated as he shook his head in amusement.

' _Well you won't be dying for a while, well past the point all of those idiots are dust, if at all,'_ Faora commented.

"You know what I meant, your funeral would be the biggest media circus ever, it would eclipse everything past present and future," Amelia stated as she walked over.

"It would be an amazing event though," Susan chimed in as she shifted towards Harry. She gave him a teasing grin. "Not that I'm about to rush you into the grave or anything."

' _I bloody well hope not,'_ Ginny stated as she had been at the Funeral, a visit that she regretted given that there were a lot of pompous purebloods. Of course she was there as Astoria's minder but that was not something that she minded doing. To her it was another day at an office.

"Harry, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Hannah turned up, she was wearing elegant black robes and she had her hair tied back. The blonde looked at him nervously. She took a few seconds to wait for him.

"Sure, Hannah," Harry agreed as he allowed the blonde to lead him from the room. The wake was over, the ashes had been spread, everything was dying down.

Hannah walked with Harry, her eyes locked onto him.

"I've put Neville to rest and….well he was a friend, about as close as a brother, as I told you," Hannah told him, nervousness flowing from her voice and Harry raised an eyebrow as he proceeded for her to continue. "He did leave me one last letter that….I didn't have a chance to open. It was before he died."

Hannah swallowed with a few seconds and then Harry placed his hand on hers.

"Well, we both knew this marriage…it'd be typical pureblood fare, good on paper, not so much in practice," she stated as she flipped through the letter. She had read over it a couple of times and she bit down on the side of her mouth. She locked her eyes onto Harry. "And his letter….well it was pretty enlightening."

Harry raised an eyebrow as he looked at the woman. "Oh, how so?"

' _This is news to me,'_ Susan thought as she raised half of an eyebrow. Hannah must have recently got around to reading over this letter. Then again, she was submerged into the preparations with the wedding that never happened.

"Well I asked Neville….about my arrangement with Susan, although he would have to be pretty blind if he didn't know that there might be something going on there," Hannah stated as she brushed her finger across the side of her lip nervously.

"Yes…."

"He said that we were going to….satisfy the heir clause of our contract, we were going to be essentially sleeping in different rooms, and that's when he wasn't at Hogwarts….when he was going to take up Sprout's role as Herbology Professor when she retired next year," Hannah stated to him. "So he decided to tell me to find any happiness where I can."

"Oh?" Harry asked.

Hannah placed her hand on her hips as she drew breath. There were a few seconds where the blonde looked forward at Harry. She was considering something.

"Yes and well….I was just wondering….how much of that happiness that I should seek," Hannah stated as they made their way up to a set of rooms. It was the old Hufflepuff Common Rooms, although the castle was being redone with the changes that were being done at the school to lead to better house unity.

Without another word, Hannah pounced upon Harry, pressing her lips against his in a searing kiss.

Harry brought Hannah's body into his and the blonde pressed against him. The blonde closed her eyes as she felt the pleasure and she felt herself choking up, his tongue pressed against hers and this caused her mind to explode to even more pleasure. His hands started to roam her body underneath the robes that she wore and he pushed her back.

"Harry, I need you, please," Hannah whispered hungrily, she was going to live up to Neville's wishes of seeking her happiness where she decided and while Susan was good, she needed a real cock. And why settle for the rest when you could go for the best?

* * *

Hannah found herself ensnared within Harry's arms. This was a good place for her to be as far as she was concerned. The blonde's kiss continued to escalate as Harry held her deep within his green. His green eyes were locked onto her brown ones.

She gave him an encouraging moan to tell him that she wanted him to go for this. The blonde pressed her body into his and she wrapped her legs over his, pushing herself onto him.

She unbuttoned Harry's shirt slowly, revealing inch by inch of his amazing physique. Hungriness danced in her eyes as she trailed her hands all the way down his body, feeling him up. The blonde liked what she saw and continued to like what she saw as she trailed her hand down.

"Oh, is this for me?" Hannah breathed hungrily as she wrapped her hand around his thick rod.

Harry felt her firm grip on him and judging by the look in her eyes, she hungered for him. There was a second where Hannah paused and then she started to jerk Harry off.

The blonde's grip around his pole was something that was second to none as far as Harry was concerned. She groped and squeezed him and Harry closed his eyes as he felt her work him over.

"Damn," Harry grunted as she pumped her hand up and down his pole causing it to grow within her hand.

"Like that, well just lie back and relax, baby," she managed as she pressed her lips down onto the tip of his member and shoved it mostly into her mouth.

It took Hannah a moment to figure out what she wanted to do but when she figured it out, she started to bob up and down on Harry's thick rod like a pole. She sucked more of his length deep into her throat and hung onto him. She worked her hand underneath his balls and played with them. There was a long pause as she worked him over.

The blonde fondled his balls with skill and precision and Harry closed his eyes. She continued to stroke his organ and then brought her hand all the way up, stroking his large tool in his hand. The blonde was working him over.

"So good, oh so good," Harry groaned as Hannah pumped him up and down. The blonde really did work him over.

"Yes, it does feel so good, doesn't it, honey?" Hannah asked as she wrapped her hand around his tool and then once again dove down.

She engulfed his member deep into her hot throat cavity, taking him all the way down her throat. She worked herself up and down around him.

Susan showed up, wondering where Hannah went. The redhead stopped, looking completely spell bound.

' _Go ahead Susan, take a taste,'_ Harry encouraged her.

Susan shook her head, finally managing to bring herself back to life and her legs, despite feeling like they were made of cement, she staggered her way forward. She leaned down and her tongue lightly touched Harry's balls. She licked the underside of them quite hungrily and the redhead continued to work him over.

Harry felt himself feel amazing sensations as Susan licked his balls as Hannah sucked his cock. The blonde took more of his rod deep into her mouth, down her throat almost so it gagged her. The blonde worked herself all the way down onto him.

The redhead curled her tongue slightly around the base of his balls and Harry was about to explode, in more ways than one.

The girls waited and they got a flood of cum. The cum was splashing on their tits and faces and it looked really fucking hot all things considered. Hannah made sure to jerk him until his balls were completely drained.

"Oh, what a mess," Susan breathed with a grin as she grabbed her friend around the waist and pulled her into a deep kiss. There were a few seconds where the two of them kissed each other.

Slowly, sensually, both girls were stripped of their clothing. Harry felt himself grow as they continued to make out with each other, their hands expertly roaming the other's bodies. He felt his dick grow even harder and Susan teasingly stroked it.

"Hannah, you go first," Susan suggested as she wanted Harry to eat her out for a little bit before he fired off a dupe.

Hannah wondered if she could fit it all inside her. She eyed the dick quite hungrily and she grabbed the base.

Throwing all of her energy behind what she was doing, Hannah speared herself down onto his pole. She felt a sudden burst of pain but then it was replaced by more pleasure than she could ever recall. Her walls slid up and down him, working the base of his cock. She moaned as she grabbed the underside of Harry's balls and kept riding him.

"Oh, yes, yes, oh yes," Hannah moaned as she felt him slide in and out of her with the greatest of ease.

"So fucking great," Susan managed as Harry's hand cupped her shaven pussy and his tongue worked deep down her cunt. The redhead felt like her mind exploded into a series of lustful sensations as he kept working himself deep into her. His tongue brushed against her slit and she ground herself against him.

Harry licked her over and over again until she was fit to explode. The redhead was determined to soak his face with her tangy juices.

Harry meanwhile grabbed Hannah around the hips. The nympho speared herself up and down on Harry's rod as he grabbed her ass.

"Oh, that's it, play with my ass, touch my tits, I'm yours, yours, YOURS!" Hannah cried as Harry rocked his rod deep into her tight cunt.

"Yes, you are," Harry groaned as he cupped her tits and she mewled with pleasure as he continued to spear up into her, her walls tightening around him.

Susan closed her eyes, his tongue worked some real magic into her pussy. The redhead grinded onto him, bucking and grinding onto his tongue as he captured more juices onto his tongue, snaking deep into her, as he continued to work into her, using his tongue to bury as far into her as she could go.

"Oh yes, oh yes, oh yes," Susan moaned as Harry's tongue was working into her quim and she moaned loudly as Harry continued to work her over.

Hannah's walls clenched him as she continued to ride him up and down. The blonde's mind was exploding into pleasure as she continued to work Harry. The blonde's tight center worked his rod and the green eyed wizard was feeling the rush of her against him. Her tight walls clenched him as she continued to ride him.

Eventually Hannah was losing steam so Susan, being the good friend she was, took over.

Harry cupped Susan's breasts from behind and then slid into her with ease.

"OH YES!" Susan moaned as Harry worked into her from behind.

Hannah panted as Susan ate her snatch out. Her tongue touched all the right spots and caused her to heat up because of unmistakable pleasure.

Harry cupped Susan's massive tits in his hand as he worked into her from behind. His balls slapped against her thighs as he continued to rock back and forth into her. The redhead clenched his hard rock as Harry pulled halfway out of her and then slammed into her.

Amelia slipped into the room next. She had been summoned by Susan mentally to meet her and the first sight that she saw was Harry having Susan drilled from behind as she was eating Hannah's cunt.

"Good afternoon, Amy," Harry whispered from behind her as he grabbed her.

She struck first however, wrapping her arms around him and her kiss was searing. Amelia used her tongue to slam into her mouth and Harry returned the favor.

Susan watched one Harry fuck into her as she ate Hannah's snatch as another Harry stripped her aunt's clothes off and prepared to fuck her.

"Shit," Amelia moaned as Harry's fingers found her dripping cunt.

Harry worked his fingers into her hot cunt, pressing them in and out of her. She moaned as his mouth found hers. The escalating moans continued to go deeper as Harry pushed his fingers so deep into her that she was pushing her pussy onto his hand.

"Fuck me, fuck me," she begged him and Harry slid his hard rod in between her legs.

Amelia was pushed against the wall and her tightness enveloped around him. Her eyes filled with pleasure as his cock filled her. Her tightness enveloped him and he hammered into the tight cunt. The woman was being rocked hard as she wrapped her legs around him.

Harry explored her body, her ass, her breasts, everything, as he caused the pleasure to explode through her body. She kissed him hard and he kissed her back, as the two of them made love against the wall. Each thrust brought her to amazing heights and she clenched his rod even harder. The green eyes of the wizard widened as he rocked her body.

Susan's walls tightened around him with Harry hammering her body. The green eyed wizard worked into the redhead.

"Still with me, Sue?" Harry asked her and she nodded. "About ready to cum."

Susan passed out but Hannah was now back on his cock.

"I need your cum, please," Hannah moaned as she worked her hips around his rod. The blonde rotated her hips around his stiffening hard rod as Harry cupped her breasts. The woman's eyes flushed back as she worked herself up and down upon him.

"Yes, oh yes, yes," Harry grunted as he saw his other self continue to pump his hard dick into Amelia's dripping hot quim.

"Cum for me, please," she moaned.

Harry came as her walls tightened around him and his balls unloaded their prize, injecting her with several loads of his hot cum.

She moaned out loud as Harry continued to spurt his essence, draining his balls into her center with each last thrust.

* * *

"So, they're going to be here in about ten minutes?" Tracey asked and Harrison clarified her statement with a nod.

"Yes, Trace, both of them we'll be here in a little bit," Harry told the woman as he placed his arm around her. Lindsey and Daphne were standing side by side with him.

"Parvati and Lavender are excited by this deal and I am kind of excited as well, this should be big for MarauderCo," Daphne commented.

' _How big per say?'_ Astoria thought.

' _Bigger than big,'_ Lavender added as she made her way up the steps. _'We're on our way there, however.'_

' _Don't rush,'_ Harrison warned her with a smile as there was a few seconds where he was amused but he pushed his shoulders back. He wanted the girls and their guests not to get injured on their way there.

' _Oh don't worry, it will be more than worth the wait,'_ Parvati stated, as she knew that magical fashion was behind the times. In fact, about three hundred or so years behind the times as the woman's smile got rather fixed. _'It will take on a life of its own.'_

' _Well you're getting down the business talk quite nicely,'_ Harrison told her. He needed to be with this meeting given that he had the role of the CEO. He tapped his fingers on the edge of the table and prepared to see what he was doing.

Parvati showed up first out the elevator. The Indian Beauty took half of a step forward, wearing thigh high stockings and a tight skirt that wrapped around her ample ass. She kept walking forward with a bright smile on her face. Harry saw her bright red top that had one button unbuttoned and she threw her arms around Harrison's waist to greet him with a tight hug that pressed her breasts against his chest.

"Hello Harry," Parvati stated as she kissed him on the lips. The burning kiss from one half of the gorgeous Indian twins caused Harrison great pleasure.

She said her hellos to Daphne, Lindsey, and Tracey.

"So Lavender's on her way up?"

"Yeah, in a minute the girls…..well the girls had a bit of a snag getting here, but she's taking care of it," Parvati stated as she shook her head. She was pretty sure that the management of the Harpies had no concept of time and space, given that it was hard to get this meeting down.

"Harry, it's been too long!"

A blonde stepped out of the elevator. She had long blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes along with pouty lips. She had grown a bit since Harry last saw her but she was as beautiful as ever. Her firm breasts were wrapped in a tight white t-shirt that rolled up to showcase her athletic and healthy stomach. She took another step forward as Harry saw that she was wearing a short skirt that showed her creamy legs along with a pair of knee high heeled boots.

"Katie, it's good to see you," Harrison said with a smile as he held her in his arms and he looked at her. "It's really good to see you."

"Yes, likewise," Katie Bell commented as she missed Harrison, Harry, well whatever he was calling himself at any kind of point of time, she missed him. "Angie and Alicia are making their way up with Lavender and her new find."

Harrison smiled, he heard about Lavender's newest find but he wanted to meet her face to face. The stars did not align to do so, until now.

' _So does the fact that Lavender Brown is coming up the stairs carrying twelve bags at the same time, should I be worried or….'_ Ginny thought as she trailed off.

' _Scared and worried, all of the above really,'_ Tracey commented dryly, although she was going to be amused by what was going to happen. The chocolate haired Slytherin sat back against the desk and waited Lavender make her way up the stairs.

"Lindsey, please get the door," Harrison told her, knowing that if Lavender tried to open the door in her current state, well it will be a catastrophe.

Lindsey smile as she opened the door.

"Coming through, oh thanks you Lindsey darling, love you a lot, honey," Lavender said in rapid fire fashion as she levitated what appeared to be about fifteen or sixteen different bags over her head.

' _And just think, we somehow got it down from about thirty five bags,'_ Parvati thought to him and she shook her head.

' _Please tell me that you're kidding,'_ Harrison thought to her.

' _I wish I was, she couldn't make up her mind, and we somehow narrowed it down, it took three fucking days to do so,'_ Parvati thought. _'But we've got the best of the very best. Some designs were thrown out early, others…..well I think we agreed that they wouldn't be very profitable.'_

' _Looking forward to it,'_ Harry thought as he saw three figures make their way behind Lavender out of the corner of his eye. He offered a bright smile to the girls, which they all returned as they kept walking rather closely behind them.

The first one was a tall and athletic chocolate skinned female. She was the closet to Harry in height. She had silky black hair and an ass to die for that was constrained in a pair of dark pants. She had the biggest breasts out of the girls, well past DD Cups. She offered Harry a predatory smile and grin as she gave him a going over. Her name was Angelina Johnson, formerly of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and a Chaser of the Holyhead Harpies although all of them were chasers on the Harpies after Harrison put in the good word with them. Then again, he had charmed their most famous player, Gwenog Jones, but that was another story for another time.

The second one was a dark haired girl who was the shortest of the three chasers but one should not confuse lack of height with lack of potential and skill. She had chocolate hair that went down past her shoulders and she had vibrant blue eyes that looked at Harry with some warmth, along with a little bit of lust. One could say that she licked her lips. She was wearing a tight black tank top and jean shorts that fit around her upper and lower body respectively. She was busty as the other two, with a body to die for and she leaned forward, to allow a hint of cleavage. She had an extremely ample ass as well and long legs that stretched on for miles.

Her name was Alicia Spinnet and she was the third of the three Chasers with the first chaser being Katie Bell, the youngest although perhaps the most spirited of the chasers.

"And I don't think that we've had the pleasure," Harrison stated as he took a step forward towards the girl who was standing half in the shadows, and watched him, with searching eyes.

She had short length black hair that went down to her shoulders. She had dark chocolate skin and gorgeous lips along with dark eyes. She looked at Harry with an intrigued expression in her eyes. She was wearing an orange top that wrapped around her smooth looking flesh and a jean skirt that flowed down nicely to her knees. She had long legs and she looked like a super model.

"This is Harrison Evans, Mari," Lavender told the girl. "Harry, this is Mari McCabe, she is the one that we found during her trip to London a couple of months back."

"Oh, a pleasure to meet you, Miss McCabe," Harrison told her and the girl reached forward to shake his hand. She took her hand and gave her a light kiss on the hand which she closed her eyes.

"The pleasure is all mine, Mr. Evans, and please, Mari," she told him as she watched him. The seventeen year old female watched him with a smile.

"We discovered Mari when she was over in London in a fashion show and her story is an interesting one, but that will be hers to tell," Lavender commented as Mari nodded over to her side. "Not to try and pressure you or anything?"

"No, it's fine," she commented as she closed her eyes. "I escaped my village in Africa….there was this warlord….my father didn't make it. I made it to New York."

She was refugee; she had to cement her new life, her new status, in a new world. She had tried to find new life as a fashion model, her exotic looks having gotten her through the door. She got a gig in London and then she ran into Lavender and Parvati. The rest was as they said was history

"Sorry to hear about that," Harrison told her.

"Don't be," Mari said firmly as she smiled at him and she locked her eyes onto his. "It's been a long time and I've gotten over it."

Actually got over it was a bad way to put it but she was coping with everything that happened.

"So, Lavender, you have many designs to show us," Lindsey prompted.

"Many would be a good word, there would be many, many, many," Lavender stated as she was smiling. "There should be a few more many in there but you get the drift."

"I do get the drift," Harry told her.

"Angelina, Katie, and Alicia have agreed to help model the line, so has Ginny," Lavender stated with a smile. "And I'd love to get Karen on board with this because of her body….well it's the type that would make both men and women want her."

' _I want to stay modest but I agree,'_ Karen commented with a wide grin.

' _We know that you're not trying to stay modest,'_ Harry thought to her and the blonde just shrugged with a bright and wide grin on her face as she leaned back.

' _Although that wig, it's got to go, really it's got to go,'_ Lavender thought to the group. She supposed that it was practical with disguise purposes but Karen looked far better as a blonde, in her own completely biased opinion, at least that was the story she was sticking to.

' _Well, we'll talk about that later,'_ Karen thought to her, she was not saying yes, she was not saying no.

' _Don't worry, honey, I'll make it worth your while,'_ Lavender said with a smile.

Lavender pulled out of the bond link and she rubbed her hands together. She looked forward towards the girls.

"Okay, now to business, ladies, gentleman," Lavender stated as she looked on with a serious tone that many would not think was possible for the blonde but then again, there were people who did not look past the surface.

She was far deeper than the surface.

"I've got plenty of time," Harrison stated, and this job had many perks and one of them was watching beautiful women try on lingerie.

That was something that made Harrison smile a little bit.

* * *

Lavender had to get Mari back to the airport after that little fashion show, which allowed Katie, Angelina, and Alicia to stick around and do a little private modeling for Harrison and the four of them needed to catch up.

Katie was sprawled out on the desk, dressed in a lacy set of green lingerie that matched Harry's eyes. The seductive blonde allowed her hair to flip down across her face. She was visually fucking Harrison as she laid sprawled out on his desk.

"How's this?" Katie asked.

"Well amazing, as everything else you girls have tried on," Harrison told as he watched the blonde relax on the desk, teasing him with her amazing curves.

Alicia slowly slid her way onto his lap as Harrison wrapped his arm around her. She wiggled herself onto his lap, bum first. "Well….you know, we're going to have to look the best in what we're wearing, because we want people to buy what we're selling."

' _Point,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Noted,'_ Emily chimed in with a grin on her face as Harry shook his head.

' _You two are something else, you know that,'_ Lily said as she shook her amusement.

' _Oh and what are we Mum?'_ Amanda asked in a would be innocent voice although Lily did not answer, at least not yet.

' _You just are something, alright?'_ Lily thought as she shook her head in amusement at the antics of her daughters. There was a second where she paused and offered a long smile across her face.

' _Okay, noted,'_ Amanda thought to herself.

' _Yeah, point,'_ Emily added with a wide grin on her face.

Alicia offered a wide grin towards Harry as she snuggled against his body. Angelina was the next one to bring up a certain point.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" she asked.

"A very long time," Harry agreed as he had a pretty good idea where this was going and it never the less brought a smile onto his face. There was a long pause as he locked eyes with Angelina who looked at him with a strong gaze.

"So, why do we even need to have to wait?" Angelina asked as her eyes trailed across Harry hungrily. Each and every bit of her gaze was locked onto Harrison's body and it had been a rather long time to say the very least.

"There's really no reason for us to wait," Harrison agreed but it was Alicia who was the closest to him. Her legs draped over his as she leaned in and the wide grin continued to spread over her face.

"Ready when you are," Alicia said with a hungry gaze in her eyes as she placed her hands on Harrison's shoulders.

"For sure," Katie commented as she ran her hands down her body, teasing Harry.

"Ready, indeed," Harry told Alicia as he tipped her back and offered her a long kiss which she returned. The dark haired girl's eyes closed shut as Harry worked her over and she moaned deeply into his mouth as Harry ran his hands all over her body. There was a long pause as Katie slid off the desk and briefly rubbed Harrison's shoulders.

Then Angelina pulled his pants down and the real fun was about to begin with the entire group. Smiles went across all of their faces at this moment.

* * *

Angelina wrapped her hand around his balls and squeezed them. The dark skinned girl worked her hand around him and her lips wrapped around his pole.

Katie kissed Harrison full on the lips and her tongue pushed into his mouth. She returned the kiss, the pair of them working together with each other. Both of them continued this explosive makeup session between the two of them and Harrison parted back her panties.

His fingers pushed deep into her dripping hot cunt and then he fingered Alicia on the other side. He shoved his fingers into their juicy tight cunts as Angelina went between his legs and started to suck his cock hungrily.

The girls moaned as they kissed each other, giving Harrison an erotic show.

"That's so fucking hot," Harrison moaned as Angelina went down on him, shoving his entire cock down her throat as the two girls were allowed to slide down enough.

They took turns licking and fondling his balls, licking them hungrily. Their tongues trailed all over their balls and captured his balls as they swung towards their tongue across his balls, working over it with a few lovely sucks and slurps as they kept working it over.

"Oh yes, yes, oh yes," both girls moaned as they kept working over his balls and kept licking him over. There were a few swipes of their tongue as they continued to work over him.

He was about fit to burst and his coat coated their bare breasts, faces ,and stomach with a heavy coat of cum. All of them were on their knees and they showered in their cum.

"I get him," Katie stated as she worked herself up and then sank down onto his cock.

Angelina and Alicia pouted but they pulled each other in a heated embrace and their kissed. Their tongues wrapped around each other as both of them began to finger each other.

Katie was spurred on the hot action and then speared herself onto him. She moaned loudly as she worked her hips around Harrison's cock.

"Oh, fuck," Harrison groaned as he cupped her breasts and she sank down onto her. The sexy blonde worked herself up and down him, riding his thick hot pole as she worked up and down her. The blonde closed her eyes as she moaned and worked him up and down with her hot hips.

"Yes, that's it, oh that's it."

Alicia parted Angelina's lips and licked her pussy. The dark skinned Chaser closed her eyes and she lifted up her hips.

Harrison fired off a dupe and he cupped Alicia's pussy, slowly running his fingers, causing her to be warmed up for the eventual insertion.

Alicia felt herself get excited as Harrison's fingers brushed over her dripping hot snatch. He started to work her over and the dark haired girl closed her eyes. His fingers brushed against her hot slit and was about ready to enter her. His fingers were at the edge of her and was close to entering her.

He inserted his fingers into her and then paused and teased her. Then he grabbed her waist and rubbed his cock against her dripping hot quim.

Alicia's walls wrapped around his throbbing tool and Harry worked into her.

"Damn, so hot baby, oh so hot," Angelina moaned as Alicia continued to work over her with her mouth. She was unleashing her juices and getting her pussy prepped for Harry's eventual invasion.

Alicia's mind exploded into mind numbing pleasure as Harry worked himself into her. The sensations blew through her body. She had always felt good after Quidditch but Harry's pole between her legs was far better than that.

Harry rocked into her from behind, working his thick pole between her legs.

"Oh, Har, harder babe, fuck me," she moaned as she felt his pleasure pull her walls apart.

Harrison felt her walls expand and then contract around him as he worked into her. His balls slammed into her as he pulled her away.

Alicia screamed as he cupped his breasts and the wizard plunged into her dripping hot cunt. She closed her eyes and felt the rush between her loins.

Angelina's eyes were following another dupe of Harrison as he hovered over her.

"I missed this pussy," Harrison breathed hungrily as he cupped her pussy and brushed his fingers against her dripping slit.

"Yes, missed you," Angelina moaned and Harrison pushed his hard cock into her.

She wrapped her strong black legs around him and Harrison pumped into her. His thrusts got more intense with each single movement. His balls slapped against her thighs and he rammed into her. The beauty wrapped her around her.

"Oh fuck, so tight, oh yes," Harrison groaned as he worked into Angelina on the floor.

"Give it to me, oh yes, fuck baby," Angelina moaned as she grabbed his forearm and squeezed it. Her walls wrapped around him and her hot center enveloped around him.

Harrison pumped into her, working into her body. His thick tool slammed into her over and over again as she enveloped him with her hot tightness.

Angelina lost herself as the green eyed wizard pushed into her from behind. He sank his thick tool into her hot quim and worked into her. Her strong legs worked around his ribs as Harrison worked into her. Her hot walls tightened around him and the green eyed sorcerer hammered her. His green eyes were flooded with desire as Harrison kept working into her. His balls slapped against her thighs as he drove into her.

Each thrust was getting closer to splitting her apart and bring her a heavy amount of pleasure. Her hands roamed his body.

Katie had Harrison back on the desk as she rode him to a climax and her walls tightened around him. The blonde rode him like a broomstick as Harrison reached up and cupped her breasts. He played with her nipples and that caused her mind to explode with how sensitive she was.

The blonde rode his hard pole and worked her hips down onto him, sinking down onto the base of his cock. She tightened her walls around him as she rocked him up and down. The blonde's walls wrapped around him and she sank down onto him. His balls brushed against her ass. He placed a finger up her ass.

"Oh you dirty boy," Katie moaned.

"Dirty girl, you came so hard from that," Harrison whispered as she squeezed him trying to get him to cum inside her.

She watched as Harrison's dupe nearly pounded Alicia into the ground. The girl's eyes flooded over as Harrison held his hands over her breasts and speared her snatch.

Harrison held onto her and kept working her pussy over into a fury. She was really getting assaulted and there was a heated pulse that spread between her legs.

"Take me, oh take me, fuck me, please me, YES!" Alicia screamed as Harrison picked up the pace and was determined to batter her into submission.

Harrison smiled, he was going to take her. His cock rocked into her body and his green eyes were burning as the wizard pushed into her. The green wizard pushed into her and his cock worked into her. Her walls tightened around him as he continued to work into her.

Alicia's breasts were grabbed as the green eyed wizard pummeled her. There was a loud moan that escaped through her lips as she plunged into her. His rod penetrated her over and over again as she moaned even louder.

"You're so hot," Harrison breathed as he ran his hands over her body and felt every inch of her body. The walls tightened around her.

"Yes, for you, oh for you, baby, fuck for you," Alicia panted as he continued to plunge his rod into his wall.

Angelina moaned as Harrison's hands worked over her body and she moaned as he cupped her breast. He channeled pleasurable jolts of energy through her tits. There was a loud moan as her walls clamped around him and he continued to pass between her legs. Her pussy was assaulted as Harrison worked into her, pushing in and out of her.

Her walls pushed up with him as she caused the most delightful amount of friction. She closed her eyes and bit down on her lip as she was about ready to come undone.

He was about to come undone in all of them. They worked his cock and he unleashed a few blasts of seed into them.

He injected his cum into them and they were moaning really loudly as he kept pumping each dose of his cum into their tight cunts. They moaned as Harrison concluded and finished in them.

* * *

The quartet lied on the ground, satisfied after the explosion climax that they shared, at least for right now.

* * *

Currently Harry Potter was standing in the middle of what would be the wet dream of an exotic car collector. There were a few rare car, along with a few rare motorcycles as well, and the collection was growing really fast.

"Could you hand me that Harry?"

Harry complied as Diana was underneath a 1969 Dodge Charger which the two of them were rebuilding. Technically it could be done with magic but given that magic and technology was something that was not to be mixed, given Arthur Weasley's various misadventures with the like, Harry was not too keen to use that method.

"So it's been an interesting few weeks, hasn't it?" Diana asked in a calm voice as Lyta was sitting in the corner. For once, she actually was behaving herself, although she did know that she could not pull the same crap with Diana and Harry as she did with Donna. She had been allowed to come into town to visit Diana and Harry, something that she agreed with. Donna was glad because it gave her some time away from her younger sister.

Harry stood there in a t-shirt that was a bit worn and a pair of tight jeans. He waited as Diana told him what she needed next. She was underneath the car, a tight t-shirt wrapping around her nice breasts. A pair of jean shorts fit rather snugly around her ass and hips and that sight was quite the delightful treat to say the least.

"Okay, I think we figured out the problem, these old cars are good, they don't make them like they used to," Diana commented and Harry grinned at his wife widely in response.

"No they don't," Harry agreed.

Lyta was amused and intrigued, slightly, although she was not as obsessed with these old things as her father or older sister. Still they mildly interested her, although spending time with her family was something that she was not going to complain about that.

"So what are you planning to do for your next degree?"

Harry wondered when this question was going to come up from Diana and that was a really good question all things considered.

"You know, that's a pretty good question," Harry admitted to her as he pondered the matter. The problem was that he had so many options that it was really hard to begin where to start. He had just finished up his Doctorate in Chemistry along with Pamela. "And….you know, I might just go for Biology or something like that. Then again, my options are going to be really open…."

"You know you should try for psychology or maybe criminology?" Lyta suggested and this caused Harry and Diana to turn their attention to the young girl. The thirteen year old shrugged her shoulders. "I mean, wouldn't you want to know how people think? The bad guys and stuff, I think that would be so cool."

Diana looked amused and sure enough, Harry said exactly what he was thinking.

"You know, with Bellatrix, Circe, Morgaine, Astoria, and likely a couple of others, I have a good idea with how twisted the human mind could get already," Harry stated and she looked at him. "I don't know, Lyta, if I didn't…."

"BUT DADDY!" she whined at the top of her lungs.

Diana smiled at this but said absolutely nothing. She wanted to see how this played out.

' _You know you're going to do it,'_ Faora chimed in, amusement dripping from her tone as she spoke.

' _I have no idea what you're talking about,'_ Harry said.

' _Well I'd give you a hint but I know that you,'_ Faora thought as she smiled at it.

Harry just continued to get to work on the car. He looked over his shoulder and decided to make some more conversation.

"So, how's work at the museum, Diana?" Harry asked her.

Diana raised her eyebrow and smiled. "Pretty good although….given Doctor Sandsmark's really at her wits end dealing with the new curator at the museum."

Harry raised an eyebrow and Diana decided to elaborate. "Her name is Margret Sarrow and….well she's quite the interesting character."

"Judging by the look on your face I'm not sure…."

"No, it's not the good kind of interesting," Diana confirmed to Harry as she sighed. She pushed her hair out of her face and closed her eyes. "She's….well she looks like the textbook poster child for ADHD in the best of times and the worst of times she is a few screws short."

"I see," Harry commented but Diana was not done so Harry was not done with seeing.

"She also moonlights as a singer," Diana continued and Harry raised an eyebrow. "And she's….well she's not that good although she thinks that she's god's gift to music."

"Oh boy," Harry groaned.

"Some people try to sing even though they can't really sing worth a…."

"Lyta," Diana admonished in a stern voice.

"Right," Lyta commented with a smile, she knew better than to defy her father and Diana, although she was going to give Donna more than her fair share of grief.

Harry closed his eyes and he placed his hand on the side of his head.

' _Hey Hermione, I've got a project to keep you out of trouble,'_ Harry thought to Hermione and her interest was grabbed right away.

' _Oh,'_ Hermione thought to Harry and she waited for him to continue to speak.

' _Could you pull any of the books on psychology and criminology out for me?'_ Harry thought to her and Lyta, who had extremely limited bond access due to being Harry's daughter, was at the height of her glory. Her smile crossed over her face.

' _That could be quite a few books, we might have an amazing selection,'_ Hermione thought to her and there was a pause but Harry grinned.

' _All that much the better,'_ Harry stated as he pushed his hair back out of his face. He tapped his fingers on the edge of the bench. He was going to see what he was going to do.

Lyta smiled, she was pretty sure that she inspired some kind of great idea. The dark haired girl smiled at this and she could not get the shit ending grin off of her face any time soon.

* * *

Harry was now in the study and he was leaning back in the chair, in the progress of a phone call. He was flipping through one of the books and immersed himself in them. Say what you might about Hermione but she tended to go above and beyond of the call of duty to get the best out of the books that really worked for the field.

"So, it seems like my father is in quite the state these days."

The voice of Lex came over the phone and Harry relaxed with the book on his lap as he talked on the phone. Fleur was moving around the office, once again half bent over as he saw her panties. Of course she did not do things over the top after what happened last time. Perhaps she learned her lesson or perhaps she was just building up more anticipation.

"Well, isn't that something?" Harry asked.

"Yes my father…although you seem more amused than I do by this for some reason," Lex commented in a laid back tone. "Although not too many people cause my father to run for the quickest exit like your mother does."

Harry chuckled for a second.

"Although there's something that's really funny," Lex stated as he paused and clarified that point. "Well maybe it's not funny funny, but it's rather amusing."

"Exactly how?" Harry asked as he listened for Lex and tried to figure out which direction he was going with this.

"Well, I've come to the conclusion that your mother….well most of us believed that she was dead, you should have seen that my father saw a ghost when she came in there," Lex replied to him.

"Well her death….it was something that was greatly exaggerated," Harry commented lightly as flipped through the book.

' _Well, that's one way to describe it, although technically speaking I was not dead but yes, that's true,'_ Lily added.

Harry chuckled in amusement as he continued to speak. "Well….that's the rumor but she was put in a catatonic state after the accident that killed my father."

"Oh well that makes sense," Lex agreed as he pushed himself back and smiled for a few seconds. "Although there must have been something that happened in the past between both of them."

' _Well in a matter of speaking,'_ Lily commented in amusement as the redhead was this close to being really amused by the situation.

' _Dare I ask?'_ Harry asked in amusement as he pushed his hand on the table.

' _Well it's kind of amusing,'_ Rose stated as she pushed her shoulders back and chuckled. Of course, the incident was mostly second hand and likely had been mutated. It was quite an amusing story and she wanted it to do justice when it happened.

"Well, I think that the two of us should get together some time," Lex concluded as he took a light drink from his other end of the phone. "My father is trying to get me to come to business meetings all day. After the deal fell through, he's in a right mood."

"I'd imagine," Harry offered as he flipped through the book.

' _I can neither confirm nor deny my part in this,'_ Jaime thought and she snickered underneath her breath. She was pleased never the less with Lionel Luthor being taking down several pegs and hoped that he would be taken down several more in the future.

' _But we are very much happy regarding it,'_ Karen thought.

' _For sure, for sure,'_ Jaime confirmed as she pushed her hair back out of her face. The dark haired witch was really amused despite the situation.

"I'll talk to you later, have a good one Harry," Lex commented as he hung up the phone and Harry's smile crossed over his face.

"Talk to you later, Lex," Harry stated as he heard the knock on the door.

' _It's open, Zee,'_ Harry thought as she opened the door a few seconds later.

Zatanna made her way into the room. She was dressed in a white t-shirt that wrapped around her upper body and she had jean shorts that showed her legs.

"Sit down," Harry said as he offered a chair and she did in fact sit down.

"Well….our wedding kind of got sidetracked with everything that happened," Zatanna commented as she folded her arms and crossed her legs.

Harry appreciated the fact that she got straight down to business and she waited for his response.

"Yes, I figured that much, I hadn't forgotten about it, I just…."

"Got sidetracked, I know," Zatanna said as she waved her hand. "And after what happened with Neville and then the League of Shadows and everything….well we've got to figure out what to do now."

"Don't we now," Harry commented lightly as he stacked up the books. He could now give Zee the full and undivided attention that she deserved. "So what do you want to do?"

Zatanna offered that question honestly. "Well, I don't really want to wait that much longer to bond…..because the wait so far has been torture. The little tastes haven't quenched my hunger….they've just increased it."

Harry nodded for a second as he looked at her. "Whenever you're ready….hell we can flight to Vegas and do it right now today if you're so inclined."

"Yeah….if I didn't want to catch hell from my father, we would have ages ago," Zatanna chuckled with amusement dancing through her eyes.

Harry laughed that much was for true and he grabbed Zatanna around the hand. He pulled his wife to be in close and the two of them locked eyes onto each other.

"I think I've got an idea for the proper halfway point," Zatanna told him with a smile. "A small ceremony at midnight would do well I think, on Halloween night but the bonding should be done ASAP. But the ceremony would increase our powers and our bond well I think."

"Halloween, that would work well," Harry told the dark haired girl as the green eyed wizard watched her closely.

"Yes, given the high concentration of magical spirits in the air, it would be a good amount of magic swimming through the air," Zatanna stated to him. "And I figure that if we need to appease my father, we should be able to do the more….traditional ceremony, for the sake of my father."

"Right, if that's what you want…."

She confirmed things with a nod as she grabbed onto his hands. "That's what I want."

"Then if that's what you want, I don't have any complaints with that," Harry told her with a wide grin on his face. "Although your father…."

Zatanna cut off his words with a long kiss onto the lips. The dark haired woman continued to kiss him deeply and Harry returned the kiss. The two of them were going at it heavily as Harry pulled Zatanna onto his lap. She straddled his hips and ran her hands all the way down his body.

She nibbled lightly onto his lip and she ran her hands down his body and grinned as she licked her lips. "Leave him to me, Harry, just leave him to me."

"Okay, I'll leave him to you," Harry commented as he cupped her ass she leaned against him.

"And I'm finding it really hard to wait," Zatanna stated as Harry grabbed his arms around her body.

"Sorry, I can't help but being amazing," Harry whispered as the two of them enjoyed another heated embraced before Zatanna reluctantly detached herself from Harry.

* * *

School was going to start in a couple of weeks for several, whether it'd be with Gotham City Private Academy or University. Regardless classes were about ready to start and Harry needed to ensure that everyone was in place in the Penthouse.

' _Well this is going to become a madhouse,'_ Kara thought in amusement.

' _You're telling me,'_ Harry thought to her as he chuckled for a few seconds. The green eyed wizard looked around as Lyta leaned against the wall, amused by the chaos herself.

The Penthouse was a place that most of the Collective split their time from, with the Mansion. Although Pamela for the most part had moved in full time and the Alphas bounced all over several places, with the Mansion, the Castle, and the Penthouse in Gotham City. Harry saw a folded up newspaper on the floor but he pulled it up off of the ground. It rustled in his hand.

"Amanda, Emily, make sure you move that over, and don't drop it!" Rose stated as she shook her head.

"Relax Aunt Rose, we've got it," Amanda commented as she rolled her eyes and she closed her hand together. "And our Playstation is ready to go."

"I don't know, I'll be fond of the old Super Nintendo more myself," Emily offered as she looked at him.

"Well it was pretty good but we have this, so let's see what we've got to do," Amanda stated as she looked over her shoulder.

They could hear people on the door stairs area and Karen was making her way from the downstairs area.

"Hey Harry," Karen said as she captured her husband's lips in a kiss and Harry pulled the blonde into her. The blonde was pressed against her chest and there was a few seconds where the blonde's legs wrapped around him as she pushed her into the walls.

Harry stepped back as he shook his head and Barbara walked in.

"So if you still want those lessons on hacking…."

"Yeah, I do," Harry stated as Barbara grabbed him around the hand and walked him over to the nearest computer.

Rose smiled; the workers had done a good job in setting of things at the penthouse. A smile crossed the redhead's face as she folded her arms and she got onto her tiptoes, waiting for everything to happen.

The twins made their way over to the PlayStation system and were starting to engage themselves in a game of Tetris with each other.

Lily smiled as she grabbed Lyta's hair and started to put it into a brain.

"Oh, at least you didn't inherit Harry's hair, at least for the most part," Lily stated as she brushed Lyta's hair, with a little help from Karen.

"Yes, although I'm not sure if that hair would have looked quite right on a female," Karen commented with a wide grin on her face.

' _I'd have to say not really,'_ Jaime thought. She could only imagine if she inherited the Potter nightmare hair. Thankfully she inherited her mother's hair and that put a smile on her face. The only difference was that it was darker that but was about it.

' _No, I don't think so either,'_ Rose agreed as she looked at the house elves.

They could have had house elves move everything in but all things considered it was just much easier to have everything done in this way. At least there was a lot less drama now than there was with getting house elves in the house and that put a smile on her face, she could take that to the bank.

' _So you've decided on Psychology,'_ Lily commented lightly to her son as she tried to continue to do her granddaughter's hair. Again it was much easier as she inherited her mother's hair and not her father.

' _Yes, although obviously my daughter would come up with something genius,'_ Harry thought to her.

' _Modest indeed,'_ Pamela commented with a chuckle as she made sure the plant that she brought in was in a location of honor.

' _Well modest or not it is the true,'_ Lyta thought with a bit of a smirk on her face although she tried to keep mostly humble. Her mother, her grandmother, her father, and her older sister were four people that obviously could keep her in line. Donna was someone who was getting all kinds of payback and the twins tended to get the share of her snark from time to time.

' _It runs on both sides of the family, I think,'_ Amanda thought as she was half immersed in her game.

' _True, it's very true, I think,'_ Emily agreed mentally.

Now that everything was settled, Karen was busy looking over some particulars for a project that they were doing. Actually, the RAO Corporation was doing many projects, as one would expect from a multi-national company. Therefore she had to do what she had to do to get everything done. The blonde looked completely excited about this project, yes, there was no question about it, this was going to be amazing.

"It can be tricky before you know your way around there," Barbara stated as she half sat on Harry's lap. "Especially when you're going into a network where the people can afford the best of security that money can buy."

"I figured that much," Harry commented, there was a lot with the networks as the two of them rested back with each other. He threw his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace. She smiled at this as he ran his hands down her neck. She paused and allowed the atmosphere to be soaked in. His green eyes flashed for a brief second as he was slowly getting the hang of everything.

Slow and steady was always going to have to win the race, as far as he was concerned. And he was going to ensure that he learned everything that he had to know. The redhead leaned back against him, his arms folded over her chest.

"Just a bit closer, that's it, oh yes, Harry," Barbara managed as she was pleased with is progress, although this network wasn't very secure. It would be stuff that she would be able to hack into when she was about eight years old.

Amanda smiled, that was not subtle at all. Never the less, she leaned back and relaxed, as things were winding up as the school year was approaching. Now that the twins survived the utterly boredom that was Hogwarts, they were ready to tackle what they considered to be a real education. Much like Harry, they could have gotten their education much sooner but there were restrictions. Naturally, but they were that awesome that they would exceed all expectations.

* * *

"So, if that's what you want to do," John stated as he sighed. There was that unhappy moment in every father's live that he realized that his daughter was truly and completely grown up. It was something that was coming to mind.

"Yes, Dad, that's what I want to do," Zatanna confirmed. She figured that she better seek his blessing for this next step, not that she really needed it. However, if she got her father's blessing, things would a lot less awkward over the holiday season. "I wish to bond with Harry, I've been waiting long enough."

There was a ritual that she picked out that would allow her to get the most out of everything. Her smile got wider as she thought about it.

"You still get to plan the official, official wedding, and we're going to have a smaller intimate ceremony on Halloween because of the energies now but….it's best if we get the most out of this, because I was expecting this to happen this week anyway but…."

"Yes, Mr. Longbottom's death, I recall," Zatara confirmed. The tragedy of the situation was not lost on him. He pushed his hair back and looked at his daughter. "So…."

Zatanna smiled at him and she knew that she had won although he was spending some time hemming and hawing about everything.

"I am an adult in the eyes of magic, as well," she reminded him.

"This is a moment that no father relishes but it must be done," he commented as he looked at his only daughter. "I only wish that your mother was alive to see this day."

"As do I, father," she commented.

The ritual was going to strive for them to get three, seven, or nine orgasms given the magical power of those numbers. They were reaching for the stars naturally.

Harry would have no problem getting her to that level but Zatanna, well given Harry's stamina, she was going to have to step up her game.

She had a couple of aids that should help her get what needed to be done. She said her goodbyes to her father as she went for her soon to be bonded, who was waiting in her bedroom.

"I'm ready," Zatanna stated as she threw her arms around his neck and peered with adoration in her eyes. "Let's do this."

"If you're…."

She pressed her lips against his, their lips pressed together with a hungry kiss, and Harry's hands roamed her young fit body. She pushed herself onto his lap as they continued to deepen her kiss. The young witch shoved her tongue into his mouth and he cupped the underside of her breasts.

Zatanna brushed herself up and down his hardening length and tried to coax him to rise a bit more. She was going to have this; she was going to enjoy this.

It was time, that much she could feel.

* * *

Zatanna closed her eyes and pulled his shirt off. They had gone about this far numerous times, having some time where their bodies pressed against each other naked as they made out. Their sweaty forms meeting each other in the physical world but that was about as far as they went. They had not made it up to the next step outside of the theater of their minds, at least not yet.

Zatanna's hand touched his tool as she licked around his cock. His fingers pushed between her thighs and she felt a heat rise between her thighs. The dark haired witch wrapped her hand around his hard rod and she pumped him up and down. The thickness pressed within her hand as she continued to jerk him up and down.

Her shirt was shredded off by one spell and Harry saw her mature breasts. They were close to a D-Cup in size and had pink nipples that he could suck on. And he did suck on them, wrapping his mouth around the sensitive bud.

Zatanna threw her head back and his mouth suckled her nipple. He licked her nipple and caused her to scream.

This was more than worth the wait but she was ready to take things to the next level.

Her hot pink box was about ready to go down on his rod. The dark haired woman pushed herself up and slammed herself down onto his thick hard rod.

"DAMN!" Zatanna moaned as his cock went into her for the first time. The combination of energy swirled around them as the two of them worked into each other. Their loins were heating up with pleasure, as they thrust back and forth into each other.

She was nearly brought to an orgasm but she did not want to get burned out this early. She pushed her hips up and down against his tool. The dark haired woman pushed her walls around him and kept riding his stiffening pole.

She slid all the way down onto him and rocked her hips down upon his massive tool. The dark haired sorceress felt the pleasure going around her and Harry buried her face in her breasts.

' _Oh, I think you're going to cum first,'_ Harry breathed as he rocked his cock into her walls and she clenched him hard.

' _We'll see…oh fuck,'_ Zatanna thought as she felt her juices gush him. She summoned power to her pussy and wrapped around his thick tool, working all the way down his really hard cock.

She rocked her hips down onto him and her mind was rocked. She kept working her walls around him and wiggled around him, using every trick to try and make him cum.

She kept pushing her power through her loins and eventually, much to her pleasure, she managed to spur Harry to an amazing orgasm.

His balls tightened and he unloaded his fluids into her body. Zatanna used his fluids as her encouragement to continue to ride him.

His cock was deflated for a fraction of a second but then it was pushing inside her, harder than ever. The walls of the hot sorceress rubbed around his hard rod and kept working her hips around him. She rocked his rod and rocked his body.

"Oh, fuck me, hard," Zatanna moaned as she pushed her ass down onto his balls, wiggling her sexy little bum down onto him.

Harry turned her over and had her pinned down on the bed. He pulled his stiff rod out of her and she whined as she felt the loss of him leaving her.

Then he grabbed her hips and speared it down into her. Her hot walls wrapped around him and Harry pushed into her. The dark haired woman lifted her hips up to meet his intrusions.

Each inch that pushed into her caused her pleasure to explode into new heightening levels. She increased her moaning as Harry rocked his rod between her walls.

"You're going for two," Harry breathed as he squeezed her breasts, teasing and tormenting her as he slowed his thrusts.

"So will you, if I have my say," she moaned as she tightened herself around his tool. She could give about as good as he could but it was really hard to keep up a certain pace. Walls tightened around his rod as he worked into her hard from above. His thrusts buried as deep into her as he could manage and she lifted her hips up in response. The two of them went back and forth against each other, with Harry picking up the speed. The woman's walls tightened around him and she stroked his rod as she wanted to get another dose of his cum inside her. She kept rocking back as he speared her insides. He buried himself further into her body as she felt electric sensations burning through her body.

Zatanna was this close, she wrapped her legs around him and pushed his face into her breasts. His tongue worked over her sweaty globes as she closed her eyes and her quim around him as she felt the orgasmic fire explode through her body.

"So fucking close," Harry mumbled into her breasts and he rammed into her, preparing to lose his load into her body.

Her walls wrapped around him tightly and the dark haired girl prepared to milk him dry of every last drop of cum that he had stored in his balls.

He had a second explosive orgasm of the night, emptying the contents of his balls into her.

Zatanna pulled off, her pussy needed a small break and she needed to get him hard again.

"Just relax, honey," she murmured as she licked her lips. She brought his thick pole up and wrapped her tit flesh around it. She jerked him off with her luscious breasts, working him up and down with an increasingly sensual tit fuck.

Harry felt more pleasure explode through him as she gave him a nice tit job. Her globes worked him over and she felt his tool work between her tits. She used her tongue to lick the top of his head and she lathered him with spit as she worked into her. His rod speared between her breasts as she kept working him over. Her tits squeezed him as she worked him over.

"Oh yes, yes, oh yes," Zatanna moaned as she worked him over and then after a few more minutes of work, she got on her hands and knees.

She wanted to explore the next orgasm from a different angle. Harry pushed his tool against her dripping hot slit and rubbed his hard rod against her. He pushed his hard rod into her dripping hot quim and pushed into her once again.

"Oh, yes, deeper," Zatanna moaned as Harry worked his rod into her. Her walls tightened around his thickness as his pole worked into her.

Her dripping cunt wrapped around her hard rod. He pushed into her and she closed her eyes as she felt the rush of enjoyment and fulfillment explode throughout her body. Her wetness enveloped his rod as he pushed into her.

"Oh, you're so fucking hot," Harry grunted as he pushed his hands onto her breasts. He buried his rod into her and her heated walls wrapped around him. He pumped himself as far into her as he could go. Her walls snugly hugged him and his balls slapped against her thighs. He drilled against her from behind and the dark haired woman breathed.

Zatanna knew that she was turning Harry on and her walls wrapped around him from behind. The energy pulsed through them. The joining between the two of them caused a few bursts of pleasure as she rocked her backside against his throbbing hot balls.

"Give me your seed, honey, oh yes, oh baby!" Zatanna begged him as she worked her tight hips around his rod and tried to squeeze her thighs together. She was this close to milking her third load out of the night, it would be that much more special if she had milked it out with her third orgasm, which she was approaching.

"You want to drown in my cum, don't you?" he breathed as he cupped her breasts and she nodded, biting down on her lip. She was exploding in pleasure as her loins once again heated up as he brought his rod into her.

"Yes, yes, please, please, Harry, more!" she begged him hungrily and he sunk his thick pole between her nubile thighs. His rod continued to pass between her deeply and it hungrily explored every inch of him.

Her breasts were cupped and his mouth was on the back of her neck. He buried into her and she felt her orgasm burying closer and closer. She was determined to get him to cum inside her.

She looked over her shoulder at him, giving in the type of smoldering look that would make most men cum straight in their pants. Harry was not most men, so she added a trail of her lips hungrily.

"Oh, so fucking hot," Harry growled as he hammered her hard. His balls slapped against her sexy young thighs as he buried into her tight gooey center once more.

His balls ached and the need to cum was strong. He timed it so they could come together. Her pussy clenched him really tight as her hunger for him intensified with each stroke in her.

He got into her, using the leverage to hammer into her.

He sank his hard rod into her and his balls tightened, unleashing a flood of cum deep into her hot pussy. Her quim milked his thrusts all the way as he unloaded his essence into her over and over again.

They had about six more times and they were determined to hit all of them.

**To Be Continued in the Next Chapter.**


	17. Cry for Justice Part One

**Chapter Seventeen: Cry for Justice Part One.**

"So how was your trip?"

"It was fine, although it seems like that I missed a lot of excitement," the voice of Dinah Lance stated over the phone and the man who she was talking to snorted.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly qualify what you missed as excitement, but it was an interesting few nights," the man replied. He was a middle aged man with dark hair that had hints of grey in it, wearing a white t-shirt and jeans, casual attire more or less. "Especially if half of the rumors that I heard are true."

"What rumors are those?" she asked him, interested in what happened while she was away.

"Nothing substantial yet, so I don't want to speculate," he replied lightly, more to himself than to his daughter as he made his way out of his front door. "Anyway, are you on your way back?"

"Yes, I'm on my way back and I'll be seeing you before too long I suspect," she agreed in a bright and sunny tone as the man made a few strides forwards, getting closer to reaching his destination with each step and that destination was lunch with James Gordon. "Talk to you later, Dad."

Who was this man? His name was Lawrence Lance, but most of his friends called him Larry, he was also Dinah's father and he strode forward with a purpose. It had been a turbulent last couple of years for him, he'd gotten kicked off of the Force, then gone through a messy divorce and his ex-wife had died from cancer shortly after.

He wanted to say that Carmine Falcone had been behind him it, but he had no way of proving it whatsoever. His teeth clenched together at the thought of the Roman and he wasn't too broken up by his fate. In fact, it couldn't have happened to a much better man.

These days, he worked as a Private Investigator and he was going to meet up with an old friend of his for lunch, his former partner in fact.

"Hey, Mr. Lance, how are you doing?" the man at the door inquired with a raised eyebrow towards him. "You wanting the usual?"

"Not today," Larry retorted as he made his way into the diner. "I'm meeting with an old friend of mine and there he is."

James Gordon looked up from his paper to see Larry making his way over to his table. He pulled out a chair and sat down, then they jumped right into the conversation without preamble, they were old friends and partners after all.

"Busy week for you, Jim?" Larry asked him and Gordon gave a strained smile in response.

"Well, you've heard some of the rumors that have been coming down the pike, haven't you?" Gordon asked as he placed his hands on the table and offered a sigh. "Dent is working overtime, he's a bit short tempered these days as well, it's like he see's corruption everywhere within the force."

Larry shook his head as a grim expression threatened to break out on his face, he wasn't that big of a fan of Harvey Dent. In fact, the Internal Affairs Officers investigation of Larry was what got him kicked straight off of the force. His life was ruined for a long time after that and he partially blamed Dent for it, although not as much as he blamed Falcone.

"So, when is Dinah returning from her trip?" Gordon asked, before he picked up his cup of coffee and took a sip of it with a smile on his face.

"She's flying back in tomorrow," Larry replied and he craned his neck around to ensure that no one was listening, before leaning in. Then shifted topics to a slightly more sensitive subject. "Have you heard any of the rumors about this ninja in red in black?"

Gordon paused for a second to consider what he was being asked, before answering. "I've heard a few things."

"Apparently he's almost as elusive as this mysterious Bat Man?" Larry questioned him, a normal person would be skeptical by the existence of such a person. However, given who Larry was married to for years, he was far from it, his ex-wife had been part of that colorful crowd and a member of the JSA. "What do you think of this Bat Man anyways?"

"He's got the mob sweating," Gordon replied casually, deflecting any attempts to get his personal opinion. To be honest, he didn't had enough information to develop much of an opinion, beyond the fact that he was breaking the law, so he was just going to wait and see.

"And some people in the GCPD too?" Larry asked prodding him for more information. "Anyone who doesn't buy them off, they end up seeing as a threat."

Gordon frowned at that, but he wasn't going to reprimand him because he had a point. "Some people are saying that he can teleport and appear out of midair like magic."

Gordon left this statement hanging in the air like he was in disbelief of it, but there were many absurd theories about what was shaping up to be one of Gotham's greatest urban legends. There were many people who were skeptical that he existed in the first place.

"So how's Barbara?" Larry asked, seeing that he wasn't going to get any answers out of Gordon regarding their big black bat, so he decided to switch tactics. "I know Dinah sees a lot of her but…."

"She's doing pretty well," Gordon replied, his daughter was preparing to take some classes at Gotham City University in addition to finishing up her studies at Gotham City Private Academy, and that would be a huge step for her. Even more so given the fact she was a bit younger than many of her classmates. "She got into the college of her choice with the top grades."

"...And what about the mysterious Mr. Potter?" Lance asked and Gordon had wondered when this question was going to come up.

"Well, they are close but…."

"...By all rights, I should be wary of him, but he's proven to be a stand up young man, far more than many of my former colleagues," Larry added, although there was the first law of being a father that indicated that he should be very nervous. However, he was surprisingly at ease with the young man in question.

"Yes, he is something special," Gordon agreed, although there was a few seconds where he paused to consider things. There was a bit of intrigue surrounding Harry Potter, at least it seemed like many females thought so.

"I have to leave in a couple of hours," Larry stated and Gordon raised an eyebrow. "There is a rich old businessman who hasn't been keeping a close enough eye on his young trophy wife that wants me to look into things."

"Young enough to be his daughter?" Gordon asked, he figured that would be true in Gotham City, there were all sorts of seedy characters running around. The entire city was built on corruption, but he was doing his best to clean it up, he was only one person though and it felt like he was fighting a losing battle.

"Nearly enough," Larry stated to him as he looked at the time. "Most of the groundwork has to be done at night. She goes downtown at the same time every night, so I'm going to see where exactly she goes."

"Don't go biting off more than you can chew," Gordon warned his former partner and Larry nodded with determined look dancing in his eyes. "She could be…."

"...I know what she could be into, so I'm going to keep a careful distance," Larry stated to James as he looked over his shoulder to see the server approaching with their food and a slight grin crossed his face as turned back to face him. "This isn't my first rodeo after all."

"I know it isn't, just...be careful," James said as they dug into their meal and made some more small talk over some of the various rumors that they'd heard. Of course, there were just that, rumors, there was no documented proof of anything. Neither Batman or the mysterious ninja in red and black had been caught on camera, although there were a lot of eye witness accounts, but as eye witness accounts went, they had been mistaken before and they could be again.

"Well, good night, and good fortune, my old friend," Gordon said as the two men exchanged a firm handshake with each other.

James Gordon walked over to his car and Larry made his way over to his, he was in for a long night. He going to try to remain inconspicuous as possible by disguising himself as a Maintenance Man that was going to do some work at this apartment complex.

' _Older men with a younger women, well….there she is,'_ Larry thought as he took out his toolbox. The women didn't seem to be the type that would understand much of what was going on around her. She was the typical dumb blonde, which was rather strange because she was a redhead.

Yet, the dumb blonde stereotype fit this girl more than any blonde. She was wearing a diamond necklace and bracelet, along with a white dress with a plunging neckline that wrapped tightly around her body, it was cut high up on her legs, showing them off to the world.

"He'll be with you in a moment, Miss," the doorman told her gruffly, he was the typical well paid thug, but he spoke to her respectfully, perhaps out of fear.

Larry waited until she was inside, then moved towards the doorman, offering him his identification.

"Oh, you're here to fix the air conditioning? Well, it's about fucking time, it's hotter than a furnace in there," the man replied rudely after looking at Larry's credentials.

"Thank you sir," Larry said in a respectful voice, even though he would like nothing better than to punch this disrespectful tool in the face.

He needed to remain calm to get his job done and he made his way through the building. The thug was right, it was broken, but there was something suspicious about this apartment. It shouldn't be this run down and in fact, it appeared to be less rundown the further he got inside the building. The west wing was worse than the east wing, which was very nice, very posh and he got why this was the case immediately.

It belonged to Roman Sionis, the new owner of Janus Cosmetics, apparently he inherited it from his parents after they were killed earlier this summer in a fire of mysterious circumstances. Sionis had been out of the city, very convenient if you asked Larry.

His parents had allowed a good portion of the apartment to fall into disrepair except for where he lived. There was no one in the hall, but he heard voices nearby and that caused him to stand a bit more alert. He needed to keep his wits about him.

Looking out a nearby window, he could see some more cars pull up nearby, apparently there was another entrance off to the side. You had to go into the alleyway to get to it and unless you knew where it was, it was very difficult to see. Meaning that these men obviously knew where it was.

He set up his equipment in the abandoned room next to where the woman had slipped inside, he couldn't afford to lose her. There was a hole in the wall that allowed him to get a bird's eye view of everything going on in the next apartment.

Everything as it turned out in this case, meant that the entire affair was about to get steamy.

* * *

Much later in the evening, Roman Sionis and his lady friend had finished up for the night. Larry had watched this impassively, although he hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary. Granted, he found out that this woman was cheating on her husband but that wasn't something that mandated a private investigation, but he now had video proof of the deed in all of its sickening glory. Seeing Roman Sionis get his groove on was not high on his to do list.

He was about ready to call it a night and hoped that no one found out that the air conditioner still hadn't been repaired.

' _Okay, it's time to…'_

Larry paused for a second as he heard someone arriving, there were footsteps were on the stairwell and he looked over his shoulder to see Roman dismissing his lady friend. Another group of men slipped into the room, and they were the usual well dressed muscled goons you tended to see all around Gotham. There were rumors that the Sionis family were up to something, their son in particular, but then again when someone had wealth like that, there would always be rumors about them being up to something.

He watched Sionis who was now dressed in a stylish and expensive white pinstripe suit. He reached into a bag, then turned towards his men as he slipped on a pair of leather gloves and stated in a gruff voice. "Put them on and make sure the cargo's secured."

He slipped into the next room and now it was hard for anyone to get a glimpse of what was happening. The private investigator craned his neck to get a better view of what was happening.

A group of thugs entered the room dragging something along with them, Sionis entered after them and he had on a sleek looking skull like black mask that covered his entire head. The rest of his gang had on similar skull like masks that only covered their faces, although no where near as elaborate as Roman's.

A man was pulled into the room and there was a sack over his head. His arms and legs were tied up tightly, and it was obvious that he'd been badly beaten.

"You're going to tell us what you know, if you do we might go easy on you," Sionis said as the sack was pulled off the man's head. One of his thugs handed him a bag, which he opened and a hammer slid out of it, crashing to the ground. "Don't think for even a second that we're going to go easy on you if you don't."

He slid a pair of brass knuckles over one of his hands to emphasize his point as he stared the man down.

"Go fuck yourself," the man spat out at him, refusing to squeal.

Larry watched this happening with wide eyes, he recognized him as one of Falcone's employees. Word on the street was that he was a top level enforcer.

A loud CRACK! rang out as the Brass Knuckles impacted again the man's nose, breaking it upon impact. Sionis stared at him impassively as his goons held out the mob enforcer's hand for him.

"See this hammer?" the man commented calmly. "You're going to tell me what you know about the current state of your organization given the fact that the Roman is the nuthouse and Maroni has been sent to the clink."

The mob enforcer swallowed the lump in his throat as he felt his wrist gripped tightly by one of the goons, as unpleasant as the goon's grip was, that hammer connecting with his knuckles would be even less so.

"Mario and Alberto Falcone….the two of them….well, more Mario than anyone else, but Alberto is assisting him in keeping the Roman's empire together, until he recovers," the mob enforcer babbled out as he saw the hammer raised over the goon's head, and he kept spitting out information to save his own skin. "That's only until Sofia Gigante comes back from Italy. Then there's Gazzo, Don Gazzo….he's sending some men up from Metropolis to help the Falcones out."

"Is he now, when is it happening?" Sionis grumbled in a rough voice and there was a long pause as the mob enforcer turned towards him.

"I don't….I don't know."

"Well, you'd better think fast then, shouldn't you?" Sionis stated as he tapped his hand against the side of the man's head. The hammer was every close to impacting with one of his limbs or worse yet, his skull, the thought of which loosened his tongue.

"Next week, I don't know anything more, the Falcones don't trust me enough," the mob boss enforcer in the gruffest tone that he could manage. The fact that he could suffer broken fingers or a shattered kneecap if he didn't, undermined his menace.

"That much is obvious," the man stated in a cold tone as he smashed the hammer against his knee cap, causing him pain. "I don't think that you know anything further, do you?"

"Aaaarrrrgggghhhh...I already said that I didn't!" he howled as he felt pain rack through his body. He was smashed once more time in the knee cap with the hammer, although the enforcer was pretty sure that this wasn't done to get information, but just because this man was a sick bastard.

"Well, looks like you told me everything that you know," Sionis stated as he reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a gun. "Therefore, I don't think that you need to tell me anything else, so, I'm going to send you straight to hell."

Sionis pointed the gun at him and there was a loud bang that echoed outwards as he shot the enforcer in the right eye socket, the man thumped to the floor, blood and brain matter staining the wall behind him.

Larry Lance sat there stunned in the next apartment, his knuckles white as he clenched onto the wall. He wasn't sure what he expected when he went out for the night, but this was far from it. Sionis was far dirtier than anyone realized and now he had proof, he needed to get out of here before he was spotted.

"Hey, boss! There's someone watching us through the wall….."

' _Shit,'_ Larry thought as he quickly gathered up his equipment and the evidence that he needed, preparing to bolt down the hallway with it. This was far more than a case of infidelity, this was very big. He could tell by the sounds of people scrambling in the other apartment that it must be important if they wanted to silence him over it.

He heard the gunshots behind him, but he just kept moving like his life depended on it and in the back of his mind, he knew that it did. His heart was about to take a flying leap out of his chest, but he never stopped running, not knowing if these people got a good look at his face on his way out.

He jumped out of the nearest window, the evidence clutched tightly in his arms, he hadn't had this much excitement in years and he wasn't sure if his heart could take it.

"NO SHIT THAT WASN'T A MAINTENANCE MAN! DUMB ASS! GET HIM!"

He couldn't hear this being yelled since he was already down the street, nearly knocking over several trash cans in his car and causing several shell shocked cats to scurry for their very lives.

Larry Lance was already long gone, but little did he know that his trouble with Roman Sionis had just begun.

* * *

' _They call New York the city that never sleeps, but I swear that Gotham City should be top of the list,'_ Harry thought from the rooftop he was standing one on dressed in his costume, in other words he was the mysterious red and black ninja that had been described recently in the news.

No one had gotten a good shot of him yet, but Harry knew that there were rumors about what he looked like. He also knew that the GCPD likely wanted to hunt him down, because he was a vigilante that made them look rather incompetent at their jobs.

' _There are a lot of problems out there tonight, aren't there?'_ Karen thought, as she kept a close eye on everything through the news, but keeping any eye on what was filtered in through the media and what Harry actually saw, that was two different things entirely.

' _Pretty much,'_ Harry thought as he closed his eyes and practically cringed at the thought, there were a few spikes of gang violence going on throughout the city. He threw his head back for a second, then leaped off of the building onto another rooftop, before moving quickly to another using his grapnel gun. _'Maroni's on trial, Falcone's….incapacitated, so everyone's trying to cut a piece out of the City for themselves."_

They all knew without saying that everyone, referred to the various criminal factions of Gotham City that were trying to pick up the scraps left behind by both Maroni and Falcone being incarcerated. There was a vacuum and if there was something that nature abhorred, it was a vacuum. Someone was going to step in to fill the blanks, it was just a question of who.

Even the Batman didn't deter it from happening, given the fact that most people figured that he didn't ever exist, or that he was a fabrication of the media. To be perfectly honest, criminals, despite being a superstitious and cowardly lot, did do a lot to avoid acknowledging certain things.

Harry shook his head, he was torn being amused and being exasperated, but that was just the way things were going to be.

' _It's going to get much worse, before it's going to get better, isn't it?'_ Diana thought and there was a second where she paused to think about what she just said, before continuing. _'I know, I pretty much just stated the obvious, didn't I?'_

Harry smiled as he made his way from rooftop to rooftop, careful not to be seen by anyone. He was about as big of an urban legend as the bat, although they couldn't put a name to his face, his code name was only known to a select few people. _'_ _Yes, Diana, you did, but it goes without saying and with our recent guests having cleared out, or having gone underground, we're back to square one regarding them.'_

The mysterious Nightshade had disappeared into the night, as did Zombie, so Harry figured that they survived. There were no bodies and if there were no bodies, as far as he was concerned, they were still out there.

' _It's actually a rather quiet night as far as Gotham is concerned….oh, I think that I spoke too soon,'_ Faora thought to them through the bond and Harry raised an eyebrow.

' _Why's that?'_ Harry asked her and Faora was only too happy to elaborate.

' _Well, there's a lot of traffic moving a couple of blocks due east of where you are, a bit too much…'_

' _...I see it, Faora, I'm going to check it out,'_ Harry informed his sister as he promptly headed in that direction.

' _Some kind of deal going done or_ _something else?'_ Karen inquired, Harry sighed but didn't answer. Faora spared him from answering by doing so herself.

' _Given that it's Gotham City,_ _I would have to say yes,'_ Faora thought to her, as she waited to see what Harry was going to do next.

Harry leaned forward and listened in closely, even though his hearing was powered down, it was still pretty sharp so he could hear what was happening down below. He narrowed his eyes as he closely monitored the interaction taking place below.

' _Some kind of deal going down,'_ Harry confirmed as he spotted members of both the Falcone and the Maroni factions of the Mob walking towards each other. With their respective bosses not around to mediate this, it could go south rather quickly.

This exchange seemed to involve drugs from what Harry could see. He leaned forwards even further as he heard snatches of the conversation between the two groups.

"This is only half of what we agreed on!" one of the thugs yelled angrily.

"Yeah, well, you stiffed us last time, so turnabout is fair play," the thug across from him retorted gruffly as he stared him down. "You either take it or leave it."

"You got everything that you deserved last time! You sackless motherfucker!" the thug cursed as he prepared to pull out a knife, but his two partners held him back from doing something stupid and blowing the deal, even though it was already beyond being blown now.

' _Oh fuck, this could be a problem,'_ Harry thought to himself as he waited to see if he needed to intervene or if these gentlemen could peacefully resolve the situation of their own accord. Either way he was taking them down, what happened next, would decide how about he went about doing so.

The sound of gunfire indicated to Harry that might be a bit too much to hope for. So he prepared to jump down and engage them in battle, he was ready for anything at a moments notice. The thugs didn't know what was happening until it was too late. In fact, one of them was nailed in the back of the head and he went down like a sack of potatoes with an oof.

The thugs turned around to look in his direction, wondering what happened. For a brief moment, they were united, or rather they were united in getting their asses kicked by Nightwing, although they were blissfully ignorant about who was doing the ass kicking.

The legs were taken out from underneath one of the thugs and he looked absurd doing a somersault into the crate that was on the ground nearby. Another one had a car door slammed in his ribs and that sent him flying ten feet into the closest wall, he landed in such a way that it would shatter his rib cage and cause him a lot of pain, but the pain wouldn't be fatal, although he might wish that it was.

Another goon scrambled for his gun, but a running kick to the side of the head, sent him down onto his hands and knees, which caused him to rethink that battle plan. Of course, the fact that he was on his hands and knees now, was a big problem for him since Harry decided to end the fight by driving his head into the pavement.

Harry stood tall as he totaled his net result. The thugs were down and out, they could barely get their pants on in fact. He couldn't help but grin at that as he tied them up, then left them with a love note with the police, along with their stash and likely a laundry list of injuries that would need to be treated.

Without Falcone and Maroni around to lead them, they were pretty much running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Which all things considered, was pretty dangerous for everyone involved. The sounds of gunfire could be heard in the distance and Harry had another fire that he needed to put out, he bolted off to take care of what he needed to take care of.

' _Your job's never done,'_ Faora thought to him and Harry didn't respond with anything else, but a smile as he moved to the next crime.

It was just your average night in Gotham City, but in some strange way, it was home. Perhaps that was an indictment of Harry's sanity or lack there of, but never the less, that was what he thought.

* * *

Harry returned home very early in the morning and caught a few hours of sleep, mostly to recharge after running all over Gotham City. Even though he could fire off dupes to patrol different sections of the city, it was still tiring, tiring work.

"Donna should be arriving at any moment," Diana told Harry as she looked across the room at him after their morning sparring session concluded. Of course, the real workout was the one that happened earlier this morning when she woke him up, but that was beside the point. "I think that she's gotten better, at least enough that mother is allowing her to live off of the island."

"Well, given our corrective therapy session, I should hope that she gotten a lot better," Harry told his dark haired Amazon wife and she licked her lips with a grin on her face as she recalled the memories. As it turned out, the memories that she recalled….well, they were fairly vivid in detail and she enjoyed pleasuring herself to them.

"So, what about Lyta?" Diana asked and Harry raised an eyebrow, before his bonded clarified her statement. "Is she going to be able to…."

"When she's fourteen, unless she acts like a brat," Harry told her. "Which she's been good about not being, unlike a certain someone who will remain nameless, acted at that age."

' _Harry, you aren't around her when she's…._ _never mind,'_ Donna pouted through the bond to much amusement.

' _I think you need to familiarize yourself with the meaning of Karma, Donna Troy, for it is bitten you on the ass in a big way,'_ Kara retorted sweetly and then she continued in a happy tone. _'And it's quite the ass indeed, but Harry knows that better than anyone given that he's marked it for his own.'_

Donna looked flushed, but she was almost up to the Penthouse, which caused Harry to snicker, but he was going to let that one go for now.

"Anyway, she can move here when she's fourteen, if she's good," Harry said as he turned to his wife. "Rao knows we have more than enough room."

' _I'm curious about something, Harry,'_ Daphne inquired of him and Harry indicated that he was all ears. _'Why don't you use house elves to take care of the tower? I mean, it's free labor.'_

' _It is, but it's not like over there, where house elves are native to the country and it is much easier to hide those types of things,'_ Harry explained to her and anyone else listening in on the bond link at this moment. _'No matter how fancy they are or if they have a million enchantments on them, most magical homes are out in the middle of butt fuck nowhere, on top of that they don't have the high priced electrical equipment that I do. It raises a lot fewer questions to hire human labor.'_

' _Right,_ _of course,'_ Daphne replied softly, that made a great deal of sense now that it had been explained to her.

' _Plus, after dealing with Dobby, I find them to be really fucking creepy,'_ Harry thought and there was much laughter within the bond.

' _Well, if Dobby was the first experience you had with house elves….I can see your point. He does have more then a few issues, but given he was the Malfoy family house elf and Lucius and Draco were….'_ Narcissa agreed and deciding that she was going to be halfway decent for once, didn't finish that line of conversation, although it was very tempting to do so.

' _I get what you're saying, believe me, I do,'_ Harry thought back to her at that moment with a smile as the elevator dinged open and Donna stepped inside the Penthouse.

"Harry!" Donna said in a bubbly tone as she threw her arms around Harry's waist and he pulled her into a long hug. Her body pressed tightly against his as his hands roamed downwards to cup her ass.

"Hey, Donna, how are you doing?" Harry asked her, after nuzzling his face into the top of her hair.

"Great, but you should know that, thanks for asking anyways," she commented with a grin. "I'm doing great, I just wanted to spend some time with my mother, before I moved her for the long term."

"Well, that's pretty good and Lyta is safely back home," Diana said and Donna nodded in agreement as she greeted her older sister with a tight hug. Their bodies pressed against each other and Harry felt this exchange got a bit heated, but he approved of it.

Donna was lifted off the ground by Diana, who planted her lips onto those of her sister with a long kiss. The two of them were exchanging a kiss for Harry's benefit for the most part.

Harry smiled at them, after he got Donna's things sent off to her room.

"Okay, things are getting to be a bit heated..." Harry told the two Amazons and they offered him a smoldering grin. "...So how about we take things to the master bedroom, it's obvious Diana is worked up after the workout, even if we already went through a round this morning."

"I could always go for another round, Harry," Diana told him and her grin got even wider as she waited for Harry to follow her. Her ass swayed as she made her way up the stairs and Harry couldn't take his eyes off of it.

Donna couldn't either as the trio walked up the stairs, her eyes locked firmly on her sister's delicious ass.

Diana's mouth found Harry immediately as soon as he entered the room and she pushed him down onto the bed. Her strong thighs straddled his waist after she crawled over top of him as she continued to kiss him deeply.

Harry returned the kiss with heated fury. Diana pushed her tongue down his mouth and he returned the kiss once more. He bit on her lip and she squealed with pleasure.

' _Get his pants, Donna,'_ Diana encouraged her sister and the younger Amazon princess didn't need to be told twice. With eager hands, she pulled Harry's pants down over his ankles and then his underwear followed.

* * *

His rod pushed out and Donna took it in her hand, a hungry look in her eyes. She wrapped her hand around his tool and stroked it.

Harry pulled Diana's shorts off and revealed her dripping hot snatch. Harry parted her lips and pushed his tongue deep into her pussy.

"Oh fuck," Diana moaned as Harry worked his tongue deep pinto her and there was a second where the woman felt her pleasure escalate to another level.

Donna smiled as she watched her husband eat out her sister, that was hot and her pussy was burning with the pleasure at the very sight. She took Harry's cock into her mouth and slurped it briefly.

"I'm going to ride this, for all it's worth," Donna stated as she squeezed his balls and his cock twitched in her hand as she ran her hand up and down his thick tool.

"Oh, yes," Diana moaned as she felt her pussy get licked out. "Lick me dry honey, oh yes, fuck, fuck, fuck me with your tongue, and fuck my sister's brains out."

Donna pushed her pussy up into the air and grabbed his thighs. Her tight box wrapped around him and Harry grabbed her breasts as the Amazon vixen sunk down onto his rod.

"Fuck me," Donna encouraged him as Harry reached up as he grabbed her breasts. He squeezed her as she moaned and Diana reached forward and ran her hands down her sister's body. Donna was overwhelmed by the series of situation. His rod pushed deep into her dripping cunt. The woman's walls wrapped around his thickness as she bounced up and down on him, riding him for all he was worth.

' _Keep it up, oh yes, keep it up,'_ Harry encouraged Donna as she wrapped her walls around him. He balanced her sexy body on his tool as she rocked her hips back onto him.

Donna threw her head back and moaned as both Harry and Diana played with her tits. She was really losing herself and her inhibitions, not that she had many more. Her walls tightened around his rod tightened even more around her. His rod pushed deep into her.

' _Faster, harder,'_ Harry encouraged Donna as he cupped her ass and continued to eat out Diana's snatch. Her juices trailed onto his face and it dripped down on his face. He sucked Diana dry and she moaned.

Donna reached forward and she hungrily cupped her sister's breast. Diana moaned as Donna's hand worked over.

"Shit Donna, oh fuck," Diana stated as Donna latched her mouth onto Diana's nipple and began to suck it.

Harry worked his hard rod into Donna's pussy and she bit down on Diana's nipple as she moaned so loud that she was shaken.

' _Damn, you're horny,'_ Harry thought as he grabbed Donna's ass and brushed his hand over the mark that he made.

Donna felt shivers go down her spine as she was reminded of Harry's ownership of her. She sank her walls down onto him and his balls tightened, preparing to unload into her.

She screamed loud and Harry' shot his cum into her. Several thick ropes of cum splattered into her pussy.

"YES!" Donna shrieked as she used her walls to clamp around Harry's rod and she pushed himself back as she forced him to release the contents of his nuts into her pussy.

She slid back and Harry turned to Diana, a grin.

"Go eat my seed out of your sister's pussy," Harry told her and Diana grinned.

"I'd be insulted if you didn't ask," Diana stated as she slinked across the bed, making a show of crawling. Her perfect ass was on the bed.

' _Oh that's fucking hot,'_ Kara thought as there was many moments of agreement through the bond.

' _No shit it is,'_ Zatanna stated as she felt the need to shut herself in her room and play with herself. She wished Harry's wand was here so she could play with it.

Donna felt the first hints of Diana's tongue brush against her pussy. She blushed and her sister playfully bit down on her clit which caused her to explode into moans. Donna's hips bucked up and Diana captured her sexy little snatch in her mouth, sucking and slurping the juices from it.

Harry watched, his rod was standing at attention and he was about to enter Diana's tight ass. His rod was up against her ass.

Diana slurped the combination of Donna and Harry's juices out from her dripping hot pussy. She wiggled her ass and encouraged Harry. _'Go ahead do it, I know you want to.'_

Harry smiled as he squeezed her ass and saw her tight, hot hole beckoning for him. He grabbed her and pushed deep into her ass.

Diana felt his cock split her tight buns apart but she stayed the course. Donna had another explosive orgasm as her older sister moaned into her pussy. The older Amazon knew this much but she could not focus on her younger sister's tender snatch and kept slurping it down.

His balls slapped against her ass and Harry cupped Diana's breasts. Her nipples were really hard and Harry hammered into her. His thick sausage penetrated her rectum and Harry pushed Diana's face into Donna's pussy. The older Amazon hungrily sucked up the nectar from her sisters.

"So fucking hot, oh yes, yes, oh fuck!" Harry grunted as he also played with Diana's pussy, cupping it with his hand.

Diana moaned as Harry worked his fingers deep into her pussy. His cock was pushed up into her ass and the green eyed wizard slammed into her from behind. The dark haired woman screamed at the top of his lungs as his pole worked between her tender cheeks. The wizard slammed into her from behind and worked into her as hard as he could manage.

"Oh, oh, fuck Diana, fuck Harry," Donna moaned as Diana's hands roamed her body as she kept munching her cunt. She thought that she was going to lose her mind and pass out from the pleasure. There were far worse ways to pass out and her panting got extremely labored. Her mouth sank down onto him.

His hands wrapped around her hips and pulled all the way out of Diana. Harry used his throbbing length to brush up against her asshole and he rammed deep into her bowels.

"Cumming soon," Harry stated as he pulled his fingers from Diana pussy and then lifted her head up to dip his fingers into Donna's pussy.

He rammed his fingers into Diana's mouth and she closed her eyes. She sucked the combination of the juices off of his finger and exploded in erotic pleasure. He pulled away from her as he slipped out of her ass and then went into her pussy once more.

He pumped her pussy from behind, encouraging Diana to go forward.

"Eat your sister unconscious," Harry whispered to her hotly and he bit down on the back of Diana's neck which caused ecstasy to burst through her loins. She screamed out loud and Harry plowed into her dripping quim from behind working him over.

Her walls tightened around him and Diana obliged as she wrapped her walls around his throbbing hard tool.

She milked his thrusts as he was brought closer and closer to completion. His hands cupped her breasts as he hammered her from behind. He was going to reduce her dripping hot cunt to jelly and Diana was really getting into this.

Donna blacked out on the bed, one final orgasm flowing through her body. Diana was not done, she wanted to suck the last of Donna's juices from her quim. The dark haired princess pushed her hips up and Diana captured more of them on her tongue.

Harry's balls essentially tightened and he was about ready to finish up in her. He pushed into her and Diana whimpered as he went into her. His rod speared deep into her cunt and he was about ready to finish off into her.

His balls tightened and an explosive flood of cum went into her cunt. He injected his hot load into her.

Donna grinned as she pulled herself up and placed her face between her sister's thighs and started to lick her. She wiggled her ass towards Harry and now things were going to be really reversed.

Harry re-hardened and inserted his dick into Donna's ass to cause the dance to continue once more, again and again and again.

* * *

Diana draped her head over Harry's shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her waist. His green eyes burned with pleasure as he pulled her onto him. Donna was curled on at the end of the bed, her ass invitingly stuck up in the air, Harry couldn't help but lean back into the pillow with a smile.

"You never cease to amaze me," Diana whispered to him as she wrapped her arm around him and he grinned. Her hand trailed down his abs, then a bit lower as well.

"You should know," Harry stated as he looked at Donna. "She's out for the count."

"Well, you did wreck her," Diana concluded as she looked at her sister with a smile. She looked so innocent, so vulnerable this way, that it was almost adorable.

The dark haired Amazon Princess shifted as she worked back into him. His hands running slowly along her back.

"Let's go take a shower," Diana suggested to Harry and he grinned as he locked eyes with her.

"Lead the way, my Princess," Harry encouraged her and Diana lead the way to the bathroom, her ass swaying from one side to the next.

* * *

Harry and Faora arrived with a smile to one of the best restaurants in all of Gotham City. The dark haired Kryptonian turned to her brother with a smile and he raised an eyebrow towards her. "So, she's going to be meeting us here?"

"Trust me, given what we're going to discuss, she's not going to want to miss a moment of this meeting," Harry said and Faora wrapped her arm around Harry's waist, she pulled her brother close to herself, then whispered into his ear hotly.

"I'm sure that talking to her is all you that want to do," Faora commented with a saucy smile, which became an even saucier grin. Harry merely raised an eyebrow at her, but responded by giving him one of those smugly superior looks, Harry knowing that she was right, let it go. "So, shall we go and meet up with the lovely Miss Kyle now?"

Harry nodded in agreement with her words as he pulled her closer to him as they cleared out of the limo, which allowed Zinda to take it around back. Given the crime rate in Gotham City, they would be inviting trouble if they left the limo parked outside unattended. Even with the protective charms around it, Harry didn't really intend to cause any more trouble than he normally did.

"Well, we'll see what happens, although she does seems like a challenge," Harry replied to the woman and she inclined her head with a nod as she leaned in to steal a quick kiss.

"And if there's something that you thrive on, it's challenges," Faora commented lightly as the two of they waited for Selina. Faora and himself, made their way into the café and decided to order a cup of coffee while they waited.

' _I'm beginning to think that you might have an addiction,'_ Zatanna commented lightly.

' _To sex? We already knew that Zee,'_ Ginny chimed in as Harry laid out the paper that he had in his briefcase, he idly noted another red and black ninja sighting was mentioned in the paper.

' _No, well, yes, but no,'_ Zatanna commented with a shake of her head. _'I'm talking about the coffee thing.'_

' _She does have a point, if you weren't a Kryptonian, you would be dead from the amount of coffee you consume,'_ Lily said at that moment.

' _Hey, there's nothing wrong with_ _a good cup of coffee,'_ Karen commented, she always had a cup or two or ten in the morning in order to get going, it was just a part of her day.

' _Plus, when you factor in all of the work that Harry has to do, there's really nothing wrong with a good cup of coffee to keep him going,'_ Jaime added and she paused, before confirming what she thought was obvious. _'And yes, I do agree, there's nothing wrong with a good cup of coffee.'_

' _Although, Kara's not allowed to have any after what happened the last time,'_ Faora commented with a teasing grin. She decided to elaborate on what she was saying. _'She's hyperactive enough as is.'_

' _See my face? It's pouting right now,'_ Kara stated and Amanda chimed in at that point.

' _Yes, I can see your face and it is the epitome of all things adorable,'_ Amanda added, before she paused and smiled wistfully. _'And there's nothing wrong with a good cup of coffee! Hell, I could go for a good cup of coffee myself right now.'_

' _NO!'_ Emily, Gabrielle, and Astoria all screamed out in terrified voices and Ginny laughed at the thought of what happened, although she shared their horror.

' _Dare, I ask?'_ Harry questioned, wondering if there was something they were keeping from him.

' _Well, there was an incident about a year ago at Hogwarts, involving house elves, coffee…..and needless to say,_ _I had to perform some favors for McGonagall to get it smoothed over,'_ Amanda replied lightly, with the air of a person who was discussing the day's weather forecast. Once again, Harry paused and raised an eyebrow.

' _So, do you want to inquire about this further_ _or do you want to allow it to remain a mystery?'_ Karen asked and she could tell that Harry was mulling over the matter in his mind. Of course, the answer to that question would have to wait for an extremely long time.

It was quite the eye catching sight that caught Harry's attention as Selina Kyle slinked into the room, and she did so in such a way that she commanded every single bit of male attention to her. All of the males and Faora, along with some of the other women present, locked their eyes onto the woman. Selina was dressed to kill, a term that might have been thrown around a bit too much, but with the lovely Miss Kyle, it was appropriate.

She wore a green blouse the same color her eyes, but left the top couple of buttons teasingly undone, showing a hint of her impressive assets. She was wearing a black jacket over it, but she gently slid it over her shoulders, almost teasingly, under the pretense of adjusting it.

A cat's eye pendant rested on her chest and she wore tight black pants that molded to her ass, along with leather boots that came up to just below her knee. She took half of a step forward to greet Faora and Harry.

"Alexandra, Harry, we meet once again," she said with a warm and wide smile on her face as Harry pulled up a chair for her to sit down on.

"Delighted, as always, Selina," Harry remarked as he took hold of her hand and kissed it lightly. She closed her eyes for a moment, then smiled as she sat down across from Harry. "So how are things?"

"Well, you know how it is running a club, there's never really a dull moment," she stated as she looked him over, visually undressing him with her eyes, but once she realized he'd noticed her looking, she pulled back, acting cool. A small, subtle, grin was the only hint that of what she'd been doing. "I'm sure that you have plenty to do in your life, don't you?"

"Oh yes, I have plenty to do," Harry stated as he drank in the sight of her. She sat on the edge of her chair, slowly wiggling her leg up and down to the tone of the music, giving Harry a visually appealing treat as she looked back at him.

"Perfect," she purred out, in fact she actually drew out the first part of that word into a purr and licked her lips slightly. "And as for you Alexandra, you're looking as gorgeous as ever."

"You're too kind, so thank you, and I have to say likewise for yourself," Faora commented as she tapped her fingers along the surface of the table, she took in this visual treat before her and there was this instant where the two of them locked eyes. "But business before pleasure."

"Of course," Selina agreed, picking up her cup of coffee, she began licking at the cream around the top of it. She lapped it up quite hungrily as she continued to make eye contact with Harry, then when she was finished, she trailed her tongue across her lips once more to clean them. "Sooo, what's on your mind?"

"I wish to buy the club," Harry said bluntly and Selina looked at him with surprise, but she intrigued by this proposal. "I will naturally leave the day to day operations to you, but we'd like to lay a few ground rules if you want this business proposal to go through."

"Given that you're funding this purchase, I'd imagine so," Selina stated to him and Faora smiled at her.

"We'll mostly be silent partners, we will however, have to look over most major business transactions, but that shouldn't be a problem if you accept the rules that we lay out," Harry told her.

Selina smiled and nodded as she waved her hand, inviting him to continue. "Shoot."

Harry shot, he could recite these terms off of the top of his head from memory. "First of all, no private dances outside of the club. Our employees are going to be exclusive to it and we don't want the shit storm it might cause."

Selina understood what Harry was implying by private dances, she had never been part of that, but the previous owners had loaned girls out to some of the politicians in Gotham. There was one incident about three years back where a girl left the club for a private dance, but never returned and her body was never found.

"Fair enough, what else?" Selina asked Harry and he prepared to tell her, but first he took a sip of his coffee to clear his throat.

"No drugs, we don't need it, we want clean employees, and we don't want them to do something while under the influence. That includes people trying to sell them inside the club as well." Harry continued and Selina nodded in agreement. "And finally, no stealing from the customers."

Selina's face contorted into a very obvious "Who me?" expression. The woman's lips curled into a fierce grin and Harry looked back at her evenly, he didn't even blink or back off from what he was saying.

"Selina, it's not worth the shit storm it would cause if people found out, because in this town, if you get caught doing things like that? You'll get a bullet in your head," Harry told her firmly.

' _And whether that would be figuratively or literally,_ _well…..I'll leave that up for debate,'_ Faora added mentally to Harry.

"So, do we have a deal?" Faora questioned her and there was a second where Selina paused to consider the offer, then she offered a nod as she extended her hand forward in silent agreement.

Harry took it and shook it, it was a pleasure doing business with her as always.

* * *

"So, what exactly did you do on your vacation?" Harry asked Dinah as she walked with him to a nearby bar. She had on a nice leather skirt on that showcased her shapely legs and even shapelier ass, along with thigh high boots. She wore a tight top that was modest enough, but at the same time showcased everything that she had to offer.

"I went a martial arts training camp out west, in California to be exact," Dinah informed him. "Guess I picked the wrong week to step out of town."

"Or the right week," Harry concluded.

"Well, I guess you're mileage might vary on that one," Dinah admitted, as she locked her arm in Harry's. "But still, I seemed to have missed out on what seemed to be an interesting couple of evenings. Now there's this, what do they call him, Bat Man running around?"

"Yes, that's the rumor," Harry said casually, figuring that he would play it cool for right now.

"And then there's this mysterious ninja in red and black, although he hasn't been named properly by the media yet, he's even more of mystery then the Batman," Dinah continued, although there was something about the way she was talking, that told Harry she figured something was up. "I'm sure that things are going to be interesting around Gotham City for a while."

"Yes…so I was curious if you were interested in more work training a couple of people?" Harry questioned her and Dinah looked towards him with interest as they sat at a corner table of the bar.

They idly noticed a couple arguing nearby, the male looked to be your average douchebag biker, with hiss drunken buddies. His girlfriend had been dragged along for the ride, she was the type that thought she was classy, but she came off as a little bit trashy.

"It would mostly be my sisters, maybe a few others, do you…."

"...Anything you want, Harry," Dinah agreed as she placed her hand over top of his on the table and squeezed it gently.

The argument off to the side was getting a bit loud, but both Dinah and Harry tried to block it out.

"So, what exactly happened with…."

"...I don't really know, actually, I know some things, but it all happened pretty fast," Harry told her in a calm tone and she nodded seriously. "There were so many things that happened at once…."

"Well, you were in the thick of things, as you always are," Dinah commented as a plate of nachos was delivered to the table. This was the unofficial confirmation that she'd pretty much had put two and two together, but Harry wasn't going to spell things out. She slowly picked up the nacho and dipped it into the sour cream, before placing it between her lips and taking a slow bite out of it, as if she was making a show of it for his enjoyment. "But, you're always pretty good when the pressure is on, aren't you?"

"...Yes," Harry murmured as she fed him one of the nachos. The two of them started taking turns feeding each other. "And the antidote being distributed with help from RAO…."

"Things seemed pretty intense for a while, at least it was if you go off the few news reports that I managed to catch," Dinah commented, but her information was sketchy at best seeing as how she'd been out of the state.

Harry had only barely noticed the girlfriend of the biker douchebag giving him cow eyes from the other side of the room and checking him out. The argument got a bit more heated, but Harry pressed on with their conversation and gave her a detailed account of what the official news was, although there was more than enough to go on for Dinah to draw her own conclusions.

"You know what that reminds me of?" Dinah said as she ran her finger along Harry's lip and brushed off some cheese from it, before popping it in her mouth. She smiled after licking her finger clean. "The stories about my mother and her friends, you know from the good old days of the JSA?"

"I know what you're talking about," Harry stated as he leaned over and brushed the cheese off of her lips in return, then popped it into his mouth. She smiled as she fed him another nacho after he finished. "Never a dull moment really."

"She used to tell me those stories, but there must be difference between hearing it and being…."

Harry felt a large hand grab hold of his shoulder, so he slowly turned around to see who had put their hands on him. He was face to face with the dumbass douchebag biker and his beer breath.

"May I help you, sir?" Harry asked in a cool and cordial voice.

"You think you're funny, do you?" he asked and Harry raised his eyebrow at him. "You think you can...I hate people like you, you think….you think that you're so hard, don't you, rich boy?"

"Excuse me?" Harry asked calmly. "Have you've been drinking, sir, perhaps, a little bit too much?"

"Yeah, I've been drinking! But you've been messing with my girl since you got in here!….I don't think you get it, do you?" the biker grunted and Harry pushed his hand off of his shoulder firmly.

"Touch me again and….well, I don't think you'll be able to use that arm tomorrow," Harry warned him, brushing dust off of his shoulder, before the biker grabbed him roughly.

Dinah popped up out of her chair to nail him with a vicious kick to the face, causing him to crash into the pool table and send the balls flying.

"I think he said that you shouldn't touch him," Dinah said and one of his idiot biker friends lurched over to throw a punch at Dinah. It was a wonder that he could walk in his current inebriated state.

"Dumb bitch," he stated, but Dinah elbowed him in the face and flipped him through a table to the ground. She followed it up by driving her knee into his chest.

One of the bikers tried to nail her with a bar stool, but Harry grabbed it out his hand, then broke it over his head.

The sound of glass breaking indicated that it was the time for everyone in the bar to settle any various grudges against each other or maybe get into a good old fashioned drunken bar fight.

Harry sent three of them flying to the air with a smile on his face and the greatest of ease. Dinah slid out of the grip of someone who'd tried to grab her, then sent him to the ground with a rolling elbow strike to the back of the head. She ducked another attack and the man was launched over the bar a moment later.

The battle continued and when the dust settled, Harry and Dinah were the only one's standing there.

The bartender was peering over the bar, fearful for his life. Harry turned to him and he trembled, as he reached for his wallet.

"No, it's on the house, if you leave…leave right now!" the bartender begged him, but Harry pressed down a couple of one hundred dollar bills onto the bar.

"Keep the change," Harry informed him as he took Dinah on his arm. Everyone else was down and out, or had fled the bar during the fight. The two of them planned to continue their date and they headed off to attend an MMA fight that was happening in town. It was a bit underground, but the two fighters were as tough as nails.

* * *

Little did they know that their little adventure at the bar would be the more entertaining of the fights that evening.

"Glass fucking jaw, I swear," Dinah concluded, she was in the back of the limo with Harry. His arms were wrapped around her waist as she leaned into him. "Down in the first round, so much for your big main event match! You think that biker douchebag would've lasted a bit longer?"

"Yes, I do," Harry agreed, Penny was the one driving the limo.

"One more block," Dinah told her and she nodded. Harry looked at her with a question gaze for a few seconds. "Kind of want to check in on my father, I haven't heard from him since last night and want to see if he's okay."

Harry nodded with a smile on his face as she shifted against him. Her body was pressed up against him.

"He was also keeping an eye on my bike, so that nothing happened to it while I was out west," she told him and Harry gave her a teasing smile as the pair exited the limo.

"Ahh, okay, you had your father keep an eye on it, it isn't like I have a couple of massive garages with plenty of room where you could store it again, is it?" Harry told her and Dinah's lips curled into a brief smile as she threw her arms around him, then playfully shoved him back.

Harry's back hit the cold stone wall of the building and she had him pinned there playfully. He supposed that he could have broken her attempts to pin him against the wall, except that, he kind of didn't want to, so there he was.

Her lips pressed onto his in a kiss and the two of the exchanged saliva for a moment. Their tongues dancing against each other.

' _Well, played Miss. Lance, well played,'_ Karen snickered, highly amused by the situation.

' _Well, deserved too, so she's nearly entangled into your web,'_ Jaime said.

' _As if there was any doubt,'_ Lavender thought to her.

The two broke apart, with Dinah's lips a bit swollen from the kiss, but there was a smile on her face. She reached in her pocket to pull out the key. She put the key in the lock and prepared to turn it over, waiting for the telltale click to indicate that it was unlocked.

That was not the only thing that Harry heard click.

"DINAH!"

Harry tackled her to the ground, shielding her from the huge explosion that blew out the front of the building where they stood.

**To Be Continued.**


	18. Cry for Justice Part Two

**Chapter Eighteen: Cry for Justice Part Two.**

Harry was glad for his quick reflexes because otherwise he would not be able to adequately shield himself and Dinah to the point that he did. Unfortunately, the explosion impacted both of them. The shield charm blocked a good brunt of it, but his shirt and jacket was shredded fro mthe impact. The burn marks made his life less than pleasant.

Dinah would have been turned into mush, her insides would have been liquefied. The combination of Harry's body and the shield charm averted this fate.

He could smell the fire and brimstone, nearly swallowing the ashes that shot up into the air. He adjusted his vision and could see the damage.

Despite the blurred vision, Harry could see everything. He kept his eyes locked onto the limo and assessed the damage. The heavy clouds of smoke slowly parted as the limo doors were cracked and the windows were busted. It was almost like it had been rammed with a hummer but thankfully, it a dangerous fate was averted. The magical spells put on the limo worked to protect it.

Still he had to check. _'Penny….Penny are you there?'_

' _Yes, Yes Harry, hang on, I'm going to get the door opene,'_ Penny said, although she had put up her own shield charms when she heard Harry scream. It was instincts that saved her life. She blew the limo door opened and could smell everything. She saw Dinah on the ground and there was only one thing that she could say. _'Bloody hell!'_

' _She's fine….call 911, I'll take care of her,'_ Harry thought to her after he checked Dinah for a pulse. The explosion did not raise too many eyebrows because they were in Gotham City.

Harry remembered that Dinah's father was inside. He proceeded to scan the wreckage, with debris having been scattered everywhere. It took less than a minute before he found what he was looking for.

He saw Dinah's father all worse for wear in the bathtub. Harry could still hear his faith breathing, but his sufferings should not be minimalized at all.

Harry deduced that he had been worked over a bit before the explosion. Not that the explosion helped matters. Harry tried to piece things together as Penny scrambled over, her mouth hanging halfway open.

' _Sweet Circe, if he hadn't been in the tub, he would have been….'_ Penny thought; her thoughts trailed off and there was no need for her to say anything further.

Harry made sure the watch was in one piece, it was. The pain on his back was just minimal compared to what could have happened. Penny helped him move Dinah's father from the danger zone.

Dinah stirred and coaxed herself to open her eyes. She watched in horror as her father was gently levitated from the wreckage. Penny did the best that she could do but with this level of injuries, medical help was required.

"Dad," Dinah whispered and she nearly tripped her haste to get to him. Thankfully Harry caught her in his arms which was a strong comfort for her at this present moment.

"It's going to be okay, help is the way," Harry whispered as he stroked her hair. It gave her ease, although she could not get the image of her father, looking like he was clinging to life, out of her head.

"Good….quick thinking," Dinah commented as she managed to stand up straight on her own. Her legs felt like Jelo.

"I don't think you have a concussion but it's best to get that checked out," Harry whispered to her.

"Yes," Dinah said, glad to get that out of her mind. They both looked up the street but so for the ambulance was a no show.

Penny moved over to give them the damage report, something that they both dreaded hearing. That being said, it was a lot better to know than to be left in the dark.

"I did all that I could, stabilized him," Penny said to them both as Harry pulled her in. Her eyes widened as she got a good view of Harry's back. "You look…."

"I don't look like a prize, I know," Harry said as he wondered where the EMTs were. It was almost like someone delayed them and Dinah felt as restless as Harry was.

' _They should have been here by now,'_ Faora thought as she paced around like a caged animal. The sudden explosion jarred her out of her work and it was hard to focus now.

' _They should have,'_ Jaime agreed but the ambulance arrived, about five minutes later than it should have. That proved to be extremely suspicious.

The paramedics arrived to load Larry into an ambulance. Harry wondered what the delay was but he supposed that he would find out in due time. For the moment, he would ride with Dinah, just in case.

Penny would also be with them and Jaime and Faora were being summoned to conduct their own investigation. They would get to the bottom of this, the sooner the better.

* * *

"We heard the clicking noise when we returned, I don't really know what happened."

Harry finished giving his interview to John Jones, the Detective. It was almost the man was giving him an appraising scan. The wizard was trying to recover from what happened, right now there was a blanket wrapped against his shoulders as he shivered. His shirt and jacket were damaged so bad that they could not be repaired by any conventional means

Jones nodded as he looked at them. It appeared to line up with what he saw.

"It checks out with the scene of the crime…..what…."

"We were out on the town, we just returned back, to visit my father and pick up my bike," Dinah told him firmly, not liking that her and Harry were being treated like potential suspects. Even though they knew that the police were only doing their jobs.

The two of them sat in Gotham General, waiting to hear the news. She hoped for the best but feared the worst. Harry squeezed her hand and that calmed her down. It also was a reminder of how lucky she was and how lucky her father was that they were there.

One could debate the merits of him being lucky with the fact that he was in critical condition. Dinah was not going to be someone who was going to do that. Her thoughts were brought back to reality with a bright surprise.

James Gordon walked through the door and Barbara followed, making a beeline for Zee. She was extremely frantic. Zatanna followed second and Pamela followed up the rear. Both of them were frantic but they did not look as frantic. Pamela carried in her arms a sweater as she smiled at Harry, looking over his injuries.

"Harry, Dinah, what happened?" Barbara asked as she greeted her friend with a long hug. The two girls lingered with each other.

"No greeting for me?" Harry asked teasingly and Barbara smirked.

"Fine," Barbara said, glad that Harry was in good spirits because that put her in good spirits. She hugged Harry tightly, inadvertently scratching up against the injuries on his back. She pulled back. "Sorry…."

"Not a problem," Harry said, waving off her frantic apology even before it started. "My shirt has been totaled, kind of sucks as Lavender and Parvati spent ages trying to get the design right."

He was sure that magic could repair it but it wasn't the same.

"Here," Pamela told him as she handed him the sweater. Harry appreciated it, Gotham could get cold on these nights. The blanket fell to the ground and Zatanna and Pamela helped him into the sweater.

"Are you alright?" Zatanna whispered to her bonder.

"Little sore, have had worse," Harry said as he squeezed Zee's hand in reassurance.

"What happened?" Gordon asked, deciding to get down to business. Jones might have gotten information but he wanted to give information.

"Well….I was getting back with Dinah, and I heard this weird clicking, I just managed to cover her and it was lucky that I did….because….I don't know if you've seen the building or not," Harry muttered and Gordon nodded gruffly in affirmation. This was all the prodding that Harry needed to wrap up his story. "Well I covered her and after the explosion…..I heard someone coughing….and that's where I saw Larry Lance."

Questions went through Gordon's mind. He knew the case that Larry was on but he doubted that being caught in the act of infidelity would have lead for such an extreme reaction.

"Lucky you got out of there," Gordon said, given what happened in Gotham City, he would not have been all surprised if Harry had been another statistic in the nightly obits.

"Yes, lucky," Harry said, although that might be pushing things to describe that as lucky.

' _So you're okay, aren't you?'_ Diana thought, she had been passing around like a cage animal.

' _Diana, please calm down, you're giving me a headache,'_ Donna thought.

' _I AM CALM!'_ Diana demanded.

' _O-kay you're doing an impression of someone who is really not calm,'_ Kara replied and Harry cleared his throat.

' _Sorry, but that didn't answer the question,'_ Diana said, pressing on and Harry answered.

' _Okay, yes, physically, but I'm trying to figure out who did this because this was no accident,'_ Harry thought back to the dark haired female.

Kara chimed in seriously. _'Well duh, but it's lucky that you thought quickly enough.'_

' _There were a couple of things I could have done differently, I could have teleported us out of the way, but that might have raised some questions,'_ Harry thought. Practical situations seemed so when you were not in the line of fire. Most people would have frozen up completely so Harry felt that he did what he had to do.

' _These things are far easier to come up with when you're thinking about things later, than they are when you're actually in the battle,'_ Faora thought, pretty much elaborating on the thoughts in Harry's mind. _'No one was around, not sure if they determined whether or not they finished the job.'_

"It must have been rough to be there….thankfully you arrived when you did," Barbara was telling Dinah and she nodded up and down in an erratic manner.

"I just wish I knew why they took so long to arrive," Dinah grumbled, that was going to a mystery that was going to bug her until the end.

"Miss Lance….I need to speak to you for a moment."

The doctor arrived, and she knew that this was coming. She dreaded it but if the worst was to come, she was better off knowing.

' _The type of injuries he likely would have received….would not have responded well magical healing,'_ Penny explained, answering an inquiry that a few people in the bond. _'Magic healing tends to work best with people who are witches and wizards regardless and on Muggles….well it sometimes complicates matters. At least the invasive things, simple healing spells, that does work, just enough to stabilize them.'_

"Your father will survive," the doctor told her and Dinah nodded as Harry stood next to her. They did not let go of each other's hand. "He will need surgery because of the internal injuries he suffered."

Gordon half heard the list of injuries as the doctor said it; something was not adding up here.

The doctor lead Harry and Dinah into the next room to visit her father. Larry was sprawled out on the bed and he was not conscious, likely having been put under to spare him the pain.

Dinah saw that her father was wrapped up like a mummy and she made his way over to him. Even though it was unlikely that he would hear her in his state, she still wanted to be at ease with herself.

"Don't worry dad, it will be okay, this will be made right," she told him as she kissed him lightly on the forehead. She stepped back to lean against Harry.

Harry rested his arms over her chest and the blonde lazily leaned into him. This was a calm before something happening, he could feel it.

* * *

' _And I have no clue what's happening, but I'm going to find out,'_ Harry stated, in full Nightwing attire. His back was still tender but he had work to do. Carefully, as to not disturb any potential evidence, he lowered himself into the ruins.

' _It's Gotham, of course there's going to be something happening,'_ Jaime chimed in.

' _Yes, thank you, Madam Obvious,'_ Karen chimed in cheerfully and Jaime pulled a sour face but Harry gave them a stern expression. _'Well, they didn't try and finish the job yet, did they?'_

' _No, which means they're really biding their time,'_ Harry said as he got his sneaky on in the shadows.

Harry would have really liked to avoid the cops if he could help it. That was why he did not enter the area right away, creeping around on the outside. They had the same idea that Harry did, comb the area for any evidence. To find it or perhaps to remove it, given the rumors of the GCPD being on the take, but thankfully Harry was able to look in from across the street.

' _You might be there awhile, you know,'_ Amanda commented, seriously, or at least what passed as seriously for the redhead.

' _Yes, I know,'_ Harry told her as he kept his eagle eyes peered. When they let off, he would slip in. X-Ray Vision was a good benefit to keep an eye on everyone but he had more things. He switched on something in his mask that would help him highlight anything. It was something that, he, Peve, Alura, Karen, and Faora developed.

It became utterly apparent that someone paid them to take an entire sweep of the compound.

' _Well whoever set this bomb up obviously knew their shit,'_ Harry thought. _'Some kind of chemical accelerate that would cause the bomb to burn through everything and erase any traces of evidence.'_

' _That makes sense, they'd want to cover their tracks,'_ Faora agreed, it was almost genius. Not that she would give this lot any credit.

' _Lance was fucking lucky that he got in the tub, and fucking lucky to survive even after that,'_ Jaime concluded grimly.

The cops were gone and Harry snuck his way inside. He could get a closer look at the chemical and learn even more about it. He skidded to a stop when he saw something. It was the charred remains of a wooden desk and he only noticed it because he pretty much practically ran into it knee first. He noticed something.

It was a disc, slightly damaged in the explosion but it was hanging out of the side of the desk. Harry could barely contain his glee. This might be the clue that he was looking for. He could restore it, he had the capabilities.

He heard the door open and then there was someone coming. James Gordon opened up the door and saw him standing in the shadows.

The ninja in red and black, Gordon saw him before his eyes, and the man widened his eyes, unable to believe what he just saw. Then he blinked, the ninja in red and black, he was gone. Even though Gordon could have sworn that he saw him as clear as day.

"Is there a problem, Jim?" Jones stated as he popped up to join his partner.

"Too much coffee, not enough sleep," Gordon muttered sullenly and the officer looked at him in a sympathetic manner, nodding.

"Yes, I understand, nothing downstairs and nothing on your level?"

Gordon paused, he stared to where the mysterious ninja was. He looked things over but he did not see anything ,not even a scuff mark.

"No, nothing," Gordon said as he turned to his partner. "Let's do one final sweep of the wreckage, I can't help but think we missed something."

"Of course," Jones said as he sipped the coffee and the two cops continued their search.

* * *

Two days had passed since the incident and Dinah managed to pull herself away from her father to take a short break. It had been the longest two days of her life and he now lapsed into a coma-like state thanks to his injuries.

Barbara was a godsend when she showed up and Harry stopped by whenever he could although she understood that his responsibilities mandated that he could not be there. And she understood. Right now all she needed was a cup of coffee to refresh herself and recharge her batteries.

"Yes, hey Harry, what's up?" Dinah asked, waiting eagerly for his response. She always anticipated hearing the sound of his voice because it brightened her day more than any cup of coffee.

"I'm just checking up, seeing if everything's fine on your end," Harry told the blonde and she smiled. She would not classify things as fine but perhaps they could be worse.

"Yeah, I'm doing about as well as could be expected," she admitted quietly as she returned from the coffee shop to go and see her father once more. "Babs was here for a little bit….for a while actually but she had to go home to get some rest."

"Had to, or you made her?" Harry asked, which caused the blonde to crack up into laughter.

"Obviously you should be smart enough to figure that out yourself, Harry," Dinah stated as she paused at the door. She was not quite ready to return yet. "Zatanna….she should be coming up here a bit later to keep me company, likely she's reporting back to you, isn't she?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Harry told her. Whilst Zatanna would likely keep him up to date on any problems, she was there on her own accord.

"Oh, okay, of course you don't," Dinah replied in a patronizing voice. She was grinning though but Harry was not about to wrap up the conversation.

"So, your father is he….being guarded?" Harry asked.

"Yes," she confirmed, and she was fairly more at ease. "Despite the fact that he got booted off the force so fast that his head spun, he still has a police escort. They're treating this as attempted homicide, there's no way they can spin it off as an accident."

The cops of Gotham City might not be corrupt but stupid they were not and they did take care of each other. Some were more corrupt than others but there were a fair share of honest cops that got buried in the system. Her father was one of the force and when they were in, they were in together.

Unless the cops had something to do with it which in that case, Dinah had no idea whatsoever what she was going to do.

"So did you find anything out yourself?" Dinah asked.

"Nothing tangible," Harry replied, although Dinah could almost tell that he some ideas. He did not want to get anyone's hopes up, especially her own "I'll keep you posted if I learn anything and I think that you'll do the same so we can compare notes."

"Right," she said, knowing how busy Harry was. She did feel sorry for him some days, but he could handle things better than most could with his level of responsibility. I know that you're busy….it's fine."

"So did you recover your bike?" Harry asked and this brightened Dinah's spirits.

"Yes it was in the garage, slightly damaged just a tiny bit, but it wasn't all that bad all things considered," she confirmed with glee dancing in her voice. "I've got it next to the flower shop and it's actually in pretty good shape. Might want to make a few tweaks but not really too shabby."

"If you need anything you call me, don't worry about it, I'll be there," Harry reminded her. "And I'll be in touch."

Speaking of anything out of the ordinary, Dinah craned her neck and she watched something through her fathers room.

"Dinah?" Harry inquired, wondering if the cell phone had dropped the call.

"Harry, I'll call you back, something's come up," Dinah said as she noticed something peculiar. The door was half open and obviously the person who entered wanted to enter the room fairly quickly. They were sloppy and could not avoid detection.

Dinah's eyes widened as she saw a scuzzy looking man standing over her father. He had a pillow in one of his hands and a handgun in the other. Both of them were close to doing some kind of damage to her father.

"HEY!" Dinah yelled and the man looked up just in time to get scalding hot coffee hurled into his face.

"You dumb b…."

Dinah blitzed him in the face with a high kick that rocked him. A series of rapid fire punches caused him to be put on dream street. The scuzzy man staggered forward as she practically tackled him through the bathroom door which was opened.

He reached for his gun but she punted it from his grip. It slid underneath the stall door and out of reach.

Dinah clenched his arm behind back, twisting it, and she ran him head first into the mirror. He grunted and his hand bounced hard off of the mirror, knocking the wind out of him. His head collided against the mirror twice and the wall once. She rattled the side of his head with a knee strike for good measure.

He attempted to scramble from the bathroom but she stood on the back of his neck. It was days like this where he regretted his decision to climb out of bed.

She pinned his arm behind his back in a chicken wing armbar. She could dislocate his shoulder from where she stood. Leaning down, she angrily hissed in his ear. "Who sent you?"

He spat in her face, big mistake given that he already had made the critical error in trying to kill her father. He was sent back into the bathroom for one trip into the mirror and again, until she was sure that he got the message. Blood splattered out of the side of his head as she kicked him in the thigh to force him down once again. She only eased up when she did not want him to say anything.

"WHO?"

Blood splattered from his mouth but he choked out two words. "Black….Mask."

He fell to the ground, looking a bit worse for wear and Dinah's adrenaline pumped through her body. She still had far more questions than she did have answers.

The door swung open to allow another man entrance. He was obviously a few donuts overweight although not too many. He had long black hair and a rough face. He carried a box of donuts in one hand and a revolver gun in the other hand.

His mouth hung open in abject shock as he looked around. He tried to process all of what was going on around him.

"What the fuck is going on here?"

Harvey Bullock corked an eyebrow, he wanted answers and he wanted them.

* * *

Harry redefined the term "burning the midnight oils." He was heavily at work on a project in the subbasement of the Penthouse. Alura's holographic image was active to keep him company.

Hermione bit down on her tongue as she tried to research companies that might have made the chemical compound. Pamela was down there as well, to lend her expertise.

"Any luck?" Harry asked them and Hermione bit her tongue as she took a moment to collect her thoughts.

"Well there are a few companies who might have the capabilities to make it, other than RAO of course, who we can safely rule out," Hermione commented and Harry nodded. He made a motion for her to continue which she picked up on. "Wayne Industries is out for the same reason."

"Could it be LuthorCorp?" Pamela asked her and Hermione looked thoughtful for a second.

"Well they have the capabilities to make it but they aren't really based in Gotham, more of the Smallville/Metropolis area type of thing really," Hermione summarized, adopting a Thinker style pose as she weighed the pros and cons. "Doubt very much it's them personally."

Click, click, click, that was the sound that went on in an never ending loop in the background.

Harry watched the progress of the hard drive being scanned by the master computer. It was taking far longer to repair than he thought. As it was getting closer to be repaired, he could start downloading the information, which might not be that big of a problem. If he had anything to do with why Lance was attacked.

Given his line of work, Harry was willing to bet money that it did. Or it could be from entirely different case, Harry would only be sure when he looked over the information. He turned to Alura and raised an eyebrow. "So…."

"These knives are second to none," The AI said gushingly.

' _Exactly like Harry,'_ Kara said and there were several instances of agreement all throughout the bond.

They were crafted from a special alloy that was for private use only. Harry always looked for new ways to fight his enemies, knowing that he could not always rely on magic.

"So what are you working on right there?" Pamela inquired curiously.

"These throwing knives….are not just your average knives, they are useful for disarming people and also I can stab people with them," Harry explained as he twirled the knife in his hand.

"Yes, that will come in handy," Pamela agreed, she knew that Harry had some good ideas up his sleeve and many projects, although some of them were not about to come true as of yet. That was the nature of the long term project.

"And magic can be channeled through them," Harry said as Hermione continued with her research over on the other side of the room. "And there's a second set….where I'm going to put explosive chemicals in them. They will be able to penetrate through any surface, watch."

A practice dummy rose out of the ground and his hand was wrapped around the handle of the knife. He twirled it in his fingers as he lifted up his hand and took aim. He proceeded to launch it at the dummy.

The knife hit into the surface and with a whine, it exploded, blowing the head of the practice dummy cleanly off of its shoulders. He turned to his group, looking for feedback.

"Well it's not pretty, but it will do for now," Alura agreed with a half of a smile on her face. "That's why we run these tests, so we can really iron out the kinks."

"Why do you do it though?" Hermione asked and Harry raised an eyebrow. She wondered if she had stepped out of turn but he waved towards her and invited her to press on. So she did. "Well….you know, you are a wizard, so why the gadgets?"

Harry paused and Hermione once again pushed on. She folded her arms and locked eyes with Harry. "I mean you're a wizard, so you can do magic with anything, so you should only bother with the magic that you're going to do…."

"Hermione, why do you think that….it's surprising that you think that, given that you're a Muggleborn and not a pureblood idiot," Harry said as he surveyed her over his glasses.

Hermione shivered a little bit and felt insulted at the comparison to those people. "Well it's just…."

' _Don't worry Harry, it's just Hermione's issues with her father coming through, she tends to forget how excited she was about magic because that meant that she would not have a normal life, '_ Charlotte explained

' _Oh she has Daddy issues, doesn't she?'_ Astoria asked with a teasing grin on her face. _'You know, you should call Harry, Daddy during sex like Astoria and I do.'_

Hermione's jaw hung open in abject horror, especially with how aroused that she got about the thought. Astoria, Kara, Amanda, Emily, and Ginny all laughed through the bond.

' _You walked right into that one, you know,'_ Donna replied sullenly. Hermione was not her favorite person in the world. She was bossier than Diana was when Donna was younger and that was really bad.

"The disc restoration is complete, the information can access," the computer informed him and that was the news that Harry wanted to hear. He scooted over to the desk, cracked his knuckles ,and got to work.

Most frustratingly he was hitting his dead ends but he refused to be put down. He pressed on and was going to find something that made all of the trouble that he went through worthwhile.

' _Well that's curious?'_ Harry asked as he once again clicked through it.

' _What's curious?'_ Kara chimed in and Harry enlightened the blonde along with the rest of the group.

' _There's a rather large attachment to Harvey Dent that was sent by Lance, the last thing he done, but it's coming up corrupted, I can't access the file,'_ Harry thought in frustration.

' _That's a dead end then,'_ Karen suggested but Harry was smiling.

' _Maybe not, maybe not,'_ Harry thought to her and Karen raised her eyebrow.

' _What the hell are you planning, trying to break into Dent's office at IA or something?'_ Karen thought flippantly. Harry smiled one of those "what do you think?" smiles that projected to everyone in the bond that told them that's precisely what he intended to do.

"Well this is….this is interesting," Pamela cut in and turned the attention onto her.

Harry looked at her, way too interested for his own good. "What…per say is curious?"

Pamela did not hesitate for a second in her explanations. "Crossing off RAO, Wayne, and Luthor, we've got three other chemical companies that could make the chemical. We have Stagg Industries and give what he's been involved with, I wouldn't be surprised at all. Then there's Ace Chemicals….yes, they're quite the shady operation, and then we've got….and this is the weird one, Janus Cosmetics."

' _Why prey tell is it odd?'_ Lindsey asked, she had heard about Janus and it's particularly questionable business practices.

' _The other two….they're companies that I've heard of, they're murder to the environment, and since I'm an environmentalist, I'm going to have to go with what I know here,'_ Pamela replied, frowning.

' _That does make perfect sense,'_ Daphne stated, she did her homework, with her responsibilities with Harrison it would be foolish not to. _'And Janus….well they've done the vast majority of their….crimes against the animal community.'_

' _Which is why they don't register….although some people would likely have my neck for my uncaring attitude against animals but….the environment is kind of essential for them to live, so in a roundabout way I do care,'_ Pamela protested, frowning as she did so.

' _I know, I know,'_ Harry thought, he began to stick together the pieces but there were more than a few missing. _'So Dent, he has an office at City Hall and that's going to be the next place where I'm going to head to.'_

He needed to find that attachment it could give the vital clue and Nightwing's night was just beginning.

* * *

Dinah had smoothed things over with Harvey Bullock but it was easy because he knew her father and her by extension. He was like the surly drunk uncle that made an ass out of himself during family outings.

It was settled, Bullock and Renee Montoya would be taking shifts watching over her father. Gordon would be involved as well, in other words, people Dinah trusted.

Bullock and Renee Montoya would be those who would be taking over watch of her father. Gordon would be lightly involved as well but those were two that they trusted and Dinah trusted. She knew that things were going to get intense.

' _Maybe it's going to come the time for decisive action,'_ Dinah said as she peered out the window.

She considered doing something drastic since the incident two days ago, getting closer to three now. The words "Black Mask" made her wonder about something, whether there was a new crime boss in Gotham City and her father was a target of him. Bullock almost said as much, although he did not mean to do so.

She recalled the stories that her mother told her about the JSA and maybe it was time for her to draw inspiration from them.

' _Let's see what I can do myself,'_ she thought, now in the shower, mostly to wash the blood off of her from the douchebag that she roughed up in the hospital.

The shower gave her time to think and she returned to her room, a renewed determination the likes of which had never been seen before. An old trunk greeted her, it had not been touched in a couple of years. She ran her finger over the top of it, the dust from it accumulating on it.

It belonged to her mother and contained something that was…..well it contained something that she used during her days as Black Canary back in the JSA.

Dinah Drake was one of the greatest heroines of her time and Dinah wondered if she could excel to that degree someday. There was really only one way to find out.

Her hands were on the dusty old trunk and she pushed it open. The costume was still in pristine condition, all things considered although she wondered what she was about to get herself into.

' _So do you do this or do you not?'_ Dinah thought as she slid the towel off of her body.

First she slipped on the mask, okay it was kind of goofy but really it was just a black mask that covered her face. The gloves slipped on next, so far so good.

The costume part…..well Dinah had a bit of trouble with it. It fit her, just barely. In fact, it formed tightly around her breasts and she winced as she managed to figure out a way to move with ease. It was black one piece, looking like something that a woman on the wrong side of town would wear or maybe a Playboy bunny. It looked like it was more for role playing purposes than for actual crime fighting. Only one thought went through her mind.

' _Well, I guess it was more practical….oh well, it's going to have to do,'_ Dinah said as she kept testing the movement.

She bent over to pick up a heavy bag, so far so good now, other than the killer wedgie the custom was giving her.

She had to make a call to one person who might be able to get her the dirt on Black Mask and she slipped the jacket on as she dialed up the phone.

"Hey," Barbara said and Dinah jumped in without any hesitation.

"Barbara, I need….some help….."

"What kind of help?" Barbara asked, granted she was eager to help. However her natural curiosity was her defining factor and she wanted to understand the full disclosure on the situation.

"My father…..well I think I might know who attacked him or at least who sent goons to attack him," Dinah said to Barbara and the blonde hitched in her breath. "Tell me, do you know anything about a guy named Black Mask?"

"Just a second, I'll check," Barbara told her and she was getting on the line, trying to figure out more about this Black Mask character.

Dinah waited patiently as her friend worked some hacking magic in an attempt to find her some information. She once again shifted in the two sizes too small costume but she had a surprisingly amount of mobility. Perhaps things weren't going to end out all that badly.

After about fifteen minutes, Barbara came back with some information for Dinah to sink her teeth into.

"He doesn't seem to have much on him, but it seems like he's been taking over after Maroni and his men have been pushed out," Barbara said. "He's taking advantage of the power vacuum that has opened up."

"Right," Dinah muttered, she had an inkling, being a daughter of crime fighters, why wouldn't that be?

"He's only really in the industrial district of Gotham, one of his rumored locations is 44 Finger Ave," Barbara said but there was a note of warning her voice. "Dinah….just don't do anything that you're going to regret later."

"Don't worry, I won't regret what I'm doing," she confirmed and that was not the reassurance that Barbara was searching for.

"Okay well be safe out there, I guess," Barbara muttered, hoping that the dread did not overwhelm her.

"Don't worry, Babs, I will, take care, bye," Dinah answered.

She made her way down to the garage making sure that her costume was adjusted properly. Once again, she was taking that final step and there would be no turning back once she went down this road.

It was in her blood so she was going to push forward. She threw one leg over one side of the motor cycle and then started it up, slipping a helmet on her head.

The Black Canary was going to ride again in Gotham City.

* * *

Harry was perched, hanging upside down behind the office of the district of attorney of Gotham City. He knew Dent had an office inside City Hall but it was all about finding that right moment to strike.

Dent was burning that midnight oil and Harry frowned. There was a second where he debated something in his mind. Either this was going to work out well or he was going to place his own neck inside a noose. Either way, it should be a calculated risk and he needed to take those calculated risks.

With one movement, he slipped his way inside the window. And with the second movement, he made himself at home in a chair in front of Harvey Dent's line of sight.

Harvey Dent looked up, there was this one moment where he thought that he would yell or jump in surprise. He blinked and commented in an extremely casual voice. "You know, I suspected that you'd look more like a bat."

"I'm really sorry to disappoint," Nightwing remarked. "Afraid to say I'm the other one."

"Right," Dent replied as he leaned back, half of his face submerged in shadows. That was an interesting effect for him. "So you've been busy the last few days with your activities. The brutal attacks on Gotham city mobsters, circumventing any police procedures, the destruction of private property, need I continue?"

"I get the picture," Harry said smiling as he looked underneath the folder. He could read it at any time but he felt that he would give Dent the courtesy to explain.

"Why shouldn't I bring you in?" Dent asked him and Harry's lips curled into a half of a smile, smug as it might be.

"Do you really want to do that, Mr. Dent?" Nightwing asked him "Like it or not, Falcone and Maroni have been benched for the time being and the mob influence is going to get uglier from here. You need my help, but I need yours as well. The two of us, we can help each other."

Dent paused for the briefest moment; he was pondering what he needed to do. He held a silver dollar in his hand and he flipped it over in his hand.

The flipping was agreeable and he looked Harry in the eye. "So what do you need?"

Harry wondered if he was going to do but it seemed like the option came up extremely favorable.

"So what do you need?" Dent asked him and Harry smiled, everything was coming up well. He decided that he would now tell him what he needed in detail.

"Larry Lance sent you an e-mail attachment, it might have a vital clue to his attacker," Harry informed Dent and for a second, he thought that he could be pushing the limits of this arrangement.

Dent paused. "I wonder how you know about this…."

"That part isn't important now," Harry said as he waved it off. "The important thing is that someone tried to kill Lance and I want to figure out who's behind it."

"Fine," Dent grunted, he was pretty sure that they were going to run around like a hamster on a wheel with this one. "I got it last night, but I didn't have a chance to look at it…you know, I don't have a name."

"Not important right now," Harry said and Dent decided to get down to business and open the file.

The video link was attached and Dent frowned. For a brief second, he thought that this was nothing but some rich douchebag getting a booty call from someone. Roman Sionis was not lost on him and he doubted very much that Larry Lance would send him badly done pornography starring Gotham's rich and famous.

' _Hello,'_ Dent thought as he looked at it.

"Black Mask," Dent whispered as he saw it and Harry, having heard certain things, decided to play it calm for now.

"I beg your pardon?" Harry asked him.

Harvey Dent managed to stop being struck speechless long enough to say something else. "It's Black Mask…Sionis is Black Mask….new crime boss, he's rumored to be operating in the Industrial District and….that's one of the Roman's employees."

The grisly conclusion of Carmine Falcone's mob enforcer was caught on tape for the entire world to see.

"So what do you think?" Harvey asked him and Dent was not the reflective type although he had his thoughts regarding what happened.

"Sit on it, until you can find a way to bring in Sionis, but with his money, he's likely bought a few people," Harry said and Dent paused.

The evidence was concrete but perhaps not good enough to get anything accomplished. Dent gritted his teeth immediately.

He wanted to talk to his new associate and ask him another question but he was gone the moment that he left. He shook his head.

He was in quick, he was gone quick, Dent had no idea why he did that, but given the life that he lived, he was going to take a lot of these things in careful, careful stride.

' _Harry, Barbara's…..well she's not too happy, she wants to call you, so if you want to take that call….she sounds pretty upset actually,'_ Kara thought seriously and Harry paused.

' _I'm free, I'll take the call,'_ Harry thought to her. _'Put her on.'_

From her position, Kara switched the communication call to Harry and it came in through his headset as clear as day.

"Harry, I think that Dinah's going to do something a bit….well she's going to do something a bit reckless," Barbara said fretfully over the phone and Harry watched and waited to see where this was going to go.

"Now, Barbara, I'm sure…."

"No, Harry, listen, she asked for information about someone who was called Black Mask, and….I found out a bit more about him but he's a dangerous crime boss and….." Barbara rambled but Harry cut her off before she could choke on her own words.

"Barbara, I need you to tell me exactly what you told her," Harry said and he waited as Barbara unloaded the information on him.

Harry figured that this would be close to being the case. He needed to track down Dinah and immediately before she did something that she might regret. The emerald eyed wizard slipped off to meet her.

* * *

Thunder clapped in the air, lighting flashed in the sky, and rain pulled down. Dinah rode down the streets of Gotham City to the warehouse, intent for a fight, and determined to find one. She had been preparing for this her entire life but her preparation was almost over, it was now do or die time.

Her mother, her mother's friends, they had all trained her from the moment that she was able do so . One could argue that she was born for this.

She stopped, ignoring the chills of a Gotham City downpour. The clouds in the air added to the already dismal atmosphere. She made sure that her bike was parked a block away as she took a careful look at her surroundings.

She saw two guards but she could barely hear what they were saying. Then again, they were just making conversation and it was hard to hear them all over Gotham City. The blonde watched as she heard the snatches of conversation between the two of the guards.

"Did you hear anything?"

"Not a damn thing."

Dinah paused and walked back over to the bike. She placed one leg over her bike and another leg over the bike, mounting it.

A grin spread over her face as Dinah began to rev up the engine.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?"

That panicked shout was given by one of the guards. The debris from the impact caused the guards to thump down onto the ground for an extremely long nap.

As the bike skidded to a stop, she did a back flip. The bike continued to skid and took out a pair of its goons on its trajectory of crashing into the wall.

She landed on her feet, pulling out a pair of sticks, no more than about a couple of feet long.

The goons were bemused for a second, until they remembered that they suddenly had guns that they could fire upon this woman. She braced herself for the impact that was to come.

A pair of throwing daggers flew out of the shadows and hit the goons in the hands. Their guns flew up into the air and landed down. The impact also caused them to become unbalanced and fall flat upon their asses.

A second set of daggers took care of any guns that they could use to rearm themselves. Explosions destroyed the guns in a fiery flame.

The mysterious ninja clad in red and black jumped down from the ceiling and stood back to back with her, as the goons moved their way in. Someone finally managed to take charge.

"GET THEM!"

The ninja snapped them down by the ankle and followed up the attacks by kicking him straight the mouth. He shocked two of the goons and watched Dinah attack the leg of a rather large goon and knock him unconscious. She tricked two of the goons into plowing each other in the face and knocking the other out.

' _You know, if these guys spent a lot less time yelling to get you and actually just got you, they might have had a better chance, '_ Faora commented idly.

' _As if they had a chance to begin with,'_ Amanda chimed in just as one flew through the wall with a bone breaking fury.

' _I know that, but now they have chance and look like complete and utter tools,'_ Faora said to them as she watched Dinah take out another with a swift and brutal takedown at the legs through the corner of Harry's eyes. _'Oh she's pretty good, although she did get in a bit over her head.'_

Harry channeled magic through the palm of his hand and blasted his enemy back with a palm thrust. This was a shot that was ninety percent skill and ten percent magic. In other words, it worked fairly perfect.

"I've got a quick way to take care of these guys," she said as she knocked the wind completely out of them with a vision kick to his stomach. "Trust me but you need to cover your ears."

Harry, without any hesitation, clapped his hands upon his ears.

She slipped around and opened her mouth. A super-sonic cry knocked the goons out. They did not see this Canary cry coming as it rendered them completely and utterly unconscious.

"So….I wondered if you would show up….." Dinah said as she grabbed him by the arm and lead them out of the building. "I know who you are."

"Oh do you?" Harry asked as he smiled. He suspected so never the less but this was confirmation. "Well I didn't want to insult your intelligence by saying it outright to your face."

"Understandable, besides I pretty much put two to two together and seeing your fighting style really sold it," Dinah admitted as the two of them quickened their pace.

"I didn't know you could do that, by the way," Harry told the blonde and she shrugged her shoulders, taking a moment to collect her thoughts.

"Well we all need our secrets," Dinah told him with a bright smile and he nodded, conceding that point as he placed his arm around her. They could hear the sounds of sirens as they left, which was the sign that they needed to make themselves scarce.

Harry and Dinah edged over to the blonde's bike and with a swift movement, Harry transfigured the bike into a Portkey and it got them onto a rooftop across the street and out of harm's way. Seconds later, the cops made their way inside, to join them.

The moment that they were away, Dinah's lips pressed on Harry's and she hungrily kissed him. He returned the kiss, his hands roaming down, exploring, enjoying every last inch of her sexy well formed body. His green eyes burned with a lustful passion that was powerful.

"It's obvious….well to me," Dinah reminded him and she smiled. "And that pretty much told me all I needed to know because no one kisses like you."

Harry would have asked what if she would have been wrong but then again, he respected Dinah enough to understand that she would have not made a mistake like that.

"So, Dinah….why are you dressed like a Playboy bunny?" Harry asked her and her eyes widened at the question.

Dinah paused for a second, her mouth hanging open. "It….was…my mother's!"

Harry smiled at her agitation, given that she may have had similar….misgivings about the suit. "Your mother was a Playboy bunny?"

Dinah rolled her eyes at that moment. "No it was hers when she was a member of the JSA."

Harry offered her one of his extremely charming smiles. "Dinah, that doesn't make my theory any less valid you know."

"God, I swear, sometimes you're worse than Ollie!" Dinah raged but Harry acted insulted.

"Actually I'm charming, quite charming, compared to Queen," Harry told her and he looked at Dinah. "So, that was a fight….so how did you enjoy your first time?"

Dinah smiled at the innuendo that was dripping from his voice. "It was quite pleasurable….but I think that our performance demands a celebration."

Without another word, Dinah threw her arms around him and kissed him harder than ever before. Her hands hungrily roamed his body and she ground up against his crotch. Her legs tightened around his waist and she placed her hands on the back of his head.

He was down on the roof and she straddled him. Harry managed to put some privacy spells up.

"You're so fucking hot and I want you so badly," Dinah breathed hungrily as she ran her hands down across his chest.

* * *

Dinah could not wait and she pulled down the bottom half of his costume, exposing his cock and balls to her. It was extremely erect and all twelve inches pulsed in her face. Her tongue trailed over the bottom of her lip and she placed her hand on his balls and squeezed them.

"Just relax," Dinah purred as she placed her lips on the head of his penis and prepared to push it into her mouth.

Harry grunted as her lips enveloped his penis with a solid embrace. Her mouth worked him over with a hungry blowjob as Dinah's hand groped his balls. She stroked him and worked him over. The slurping and the popping his dick deep into her mouth, taking it halfway down her throat.

Harry decided to give her as much pleasure as she gave him. She allowed her breasts to spill out of her top. They were D-Cup Breasts with erect and perfect nipples. Harry inhaled her glorious scent and fondled them, grabbing them, and causing her whimpering to increase as he worked over them.

Dinah popped his cock between her lips, hungrily dragging it around the top of it. She blew him, determined to get his cum down her throat. It was something that she was working with.

Harry had to play with her sweet little pussy and he rubbed her clit to cause her to moan. She nearly gagged on his cock but it was worth it.

He rested back and Dinah's warm thighs were inches away from his face. Harry groped her ass and prepared to drive his tongue into her perfect hot pink box. His tongue worked deep into her dripping cunt and worked her over. His tongue rattled inside her, vibrating at a super speed and that caused her to go down hungrily on his cock.

Dinah closed her eyes, she was determined to gulp up his cum, drain his balls. Her hands fondled him, rubbing him like a madwoman. She kept trying to coax every drum of his seed from his balls.

Eventually Harry unleashed his load deep into her throat. His seed spilled into her throat and she gulped it down. Rope after rope of heavenly cum splashed into her mouth and she pulled off, a few strings of it dripping down her lips.

Slowly, Dinah made sure Harry's eyes were locked on her as she licked her bottom lip off.

"So hot," Harry grunted as he watched her lip her lips clean and she smiled as she locked her eyes burningly onto his as she placed her hand on his crotch.

"And so hard," Dinah purred as she lifted her hips up with her legs spread inviting towards him. "I need that in me, now."

Dinah pushed her hips around his hard rod and her walls collapsed together around him. The blonde closed herself around him and began to furiously ride him.

Harry felt the burn as she impaled herself over and over again on his cock. It felt so good, this tight heaven wrapping around his cock as her pussy lifted off until the tip was almost out and she forced herself down onto it.

"Oh, fuck Harry, like that," Dinah moaned as he grabbed her breast and pinched her nipples, placing his lips around them and giving them an extremely hungry suck. He kept sucking and licking at them which drove Dinah to the edge of passion.

Dinah rocked her hips back against his tool as it probed inside her. She was really enjoying the feel of it, how much it stretched out her walls. She closed her eyes and kept herself tightened around him. His rod pulsed inside her as she rocked her hips back against him. The blonde was riding his member for everything that it was worth.

He thrust back into her and he used the next time she cum to reverse the position.

Dinah watched as Harry pulled out of her and her legs were spread. He pinned her arms down. Juices flowed from her thighs as he was hovering right over her and about ready to penetrate her body. The blonde panted heavily as Harry was this close to entering her hot and warm hole.

He grabbed her breasts and gave them a hungry squeeze. Then with another motion he plunged his thickness straight into her quim. She tightened around him as he hammered into her.

"Fuck, fuck, more, more!" Dinah begged him as his rod assaulted her body. The blonde's hot walls tightened around him as Harry drilled into her willing and wet pussy. He had his mouth down and he licked and kissed her breasts.

"You're insatiable, aren't you?" Harry grunted as his balls dribbled against her thighs. He could feel her arousal and it was wet. She was so tight, wet, and hot that Harry felt in heaven as she worked around him.

"YES, HARDER!" Dinah begged him as she squeezed his bicep roughly, digging her nails into it. She moved her nails over and sunk them into the back of his neck. This gave him encouragement to plow into her tight body.

Harry grabbed her legs roughly and she squealed with delight on that. His hands pinched the lovely flesh and then moved around to grope her tits. He slammed his rod deep into her body and stretched her out, causing her screams to get even more vocal as he hammered her tight, dripping, lovely cunt. The deeper his rod plowed into her, the more she screamed.

"I know you want it hard, but you got it," Harry grunted as he emptied her all the way, touched the tip against her dripping slit.

Then he grabbed her thighs and pushed into her. Her legs kicked up with her ankles resting on his shoulder.

Dinah clenched him as he rode her into the roof. It could give way and she would not be any the wiser until she hit the ground. She trusted Harry not to bring them down that much but in many ways she was brought to new highs. Her fingers or any toys would never pleasure her again.

"I always knew you like something strong and powerful between her legs," Harry grunted as he cupped her breast and sucked it which she moaned from his actions. He grabbed her tits.

She used her legs strength to flip him over onto the pavement and she placed her hands down on his shoulders, giving him a rough kiss, biting down on his lip. She trailed down his body and played with his ball sac before his cock was pushed all the way between her moistening thighs.

"Yes," Dinah moaned as she worked her hips around him, fucking him hard. She bounced up and down, she was not the least bit tired and she was pleased to see that he kept up with her stroke to stroke. This was everything that she imagined that he would be and more.

His hands groped her ass and she reared her head back, giving a powerful moan. She managed to hold herself back as to not defean him.

"Fuck, I feel it," Dinah mewled as her thighs clamped around his rod and she brought him deeper into her body.

His cock speared between her thighs, digging deep into her slit and she closed her eyes, moaning at the top of her lungs. He was this close to causing her mind to be blown and he pressed as far deep into her as he could manage.

Eventually, Harry managed to speed up his thrusts and blow her mind even more. He was about to pump into her.

"Cum in me, I want it, I need it," Dinah said as she clenched his base with her pussy and rode him up and down like there was no tomorrow.

His cum exploded into her, shooting several thick spurts of his seed deep into her. She closed her pussy on him, milking his rod as he fired his load into her.

Dinah saw stars as she pulled out of her.

"You want it, don't you?" Dinah asked as she exposed her sexy ass towards him. "I see you staring at it; I'd like you to fuck it."

His cock rose up at attention at the thought of fucking Dinah's ass and his cock was already well lubricated by a combination of their juices.

Dinah's tight ass wrapped around his pull and he grunted as she sat down onto his erect cock, her ass being stretched out.

"Fuck me," Dinah moaned as she felt it up her ass. This was a better feeling than fighting for sure. He grabbed her breasts and eased her anal cavity down onto her ass as she threw her head back. Harry placed his fingers onto her pussy and collected the excessive juices off.

He continued to fuck her ass hard. Her tight anal cavity wrapped around his rod as she bounced up and down him. Her tight buns worked him down up and down, hugging his cock.

He placed his fingers up towards her mouth and she sucked the juices hungrily off of his fingers. She licked him hungrily and rocked herself up and down his ass. She squeezed around his cock and rocked herself all the way down on his balls.

Harry grabbed her pussy and hammered her hard. She hung onto him, her ass tempted and played with him as he prepared to inject her with his love juices.

"Oh cum, cum in my ass," Dinah breathed and the thunder clap was not the only bang that resounded through them.

His cock unloaded his cum into her ass. She moaned as he grabbed her breasts and pussy, breathing at the top of her lungs as her mind was blown as she came down from a climax.

**Smut/Lemon Ends.**

**To Be Continued.**


	19. Cry for Justice Part Three

**Chapter 19: Cry for Justice Part Three.**

After their fun concluded at the top of the roof, Harry wrapped his arm around Dinah's waist and teleported her back into the sub-basement in the RAO main headquarters.

"So what do you call this den of fun?" Dinah asked as she now was dressed back into her costume for lack of a better term and she took a good look around. She had to say, she was impressed.

Harry pondered that point for a little bit. "I'm not sure what I'm going to call it anytime, I haven't had much time to think about it."

"Makes sense," Dinah agreed with him and Harry turned towards her. "So what are you calling yourself again….I didn't catch that."

"That's because I didn't say," Harry told the blonde and she nodded, she thought she heard rumors. It was better than the ninja at any rate. "I go by the name Nightwing….it was a rare species of dragon, which given that I took my name after that, I guess we're standing in my lair."

' _That's as good of a name as any,'_ Kara chimed in through the bond link and Dinah nearly stood up straight in surprise.

"Oh, Dinah, don't be alarmed if you….randomly hear voices in your head," Harry told her as he performed a drying charm on both of them and they warmed up

"I'll give you a second to explain," Dinah said lightly as she smiled brightly, although she was confused.

' _Well, you've been brought onto the collective bond network,'_ Kara informed her. _'It's about time, I thought that Har might have been losing his touch for a second as he took so long to get you on board but since you're here, I, but….as one of Harry's Alphas, it's my duty, along with Diana, Faora, and Karen to discuss how the bond structure works but we can do that another time. If you want to shut the door, all you have to do is focus. It's hard the first few times but smooth sailing after that."_

' _Okay,'_ Dinah thought as she closed her eyes.

' _Only Harry and us four will be able to override it and it's only in the case of absolute emergencies where we do, okay?'_ Diana jumped in.

Dinah nodded as she was really trying assimilate everything in her mind. She and Harry switched out of their costumes and already there was a roaring fire in front of the couch which they sat. There was a blanket that wrapped around their body and the blonde smiled.

"So that's quite the interesting evening," Dinah said, as she knew that she would find out more about what was going on. That being said, she knew a lot and could infer much. "And I can't wait for an encore."

She snuggled her face into his shoulder as Harry lifted up his hand and snaked his arm around her waist, pulling her into him. The blonde smiled a bright and sunny smile.

"So Dinah, I have to ask you one thing?" Harry asked her and the blonde's eyebrow raised as she turned towards Harry. "What were you hoping you accomplish by going out there and attacking those goons?"

"I wasn't….well I was trying to get my hands on Black Mask and I was trying to track him down, but all I had was an alias and I had to go down the chain of command," Dinah said. These things always looked so much easier as an outside observer and while she did well, she could have done a bit better.

Harry figured that he should clue her into what happened. "Well….I'll save you some of the trouble if you want to know who is underneath the mask."

Dinah's eyebrows raised for a second, curiosity burning through her eyes and there was a moment where her eyes locked onto Harry's "Exactly who…."

"Black Mask is Roman Sionis," Harry said without any pre-amble and Dinah tried not to react even though she was surprised. "I'm sure that you could figure out where there might be a problem."

"Yes, rich son of a bitch, all of that, it's going to be really hard to pin him down," the blonde agreed as she put her hand on her chin and reared her head back with a brief thought. There was a few seconds where she had to pause and ponder everything in her mind.

"We might not have as much of a problem as you might think," Harry said as he broke the pause. She motioned for him to continue as he continued. "As far as Sionis knows, the only person who knows that he's Black Mask outside of his inner circle is in a coma. As far as he knows, he hasn't told anyone."

"Which gives us the element of surprise," Dinah said as Harry's hand gripped hers and squeezed it with confidence.

"Exactly, and he isn't going to be hiding in a hole underground, he's going to be hiding in a location where he thinks that no one will be able to find him, so he won't be able to put two and two together," Harry replied as he thought about it. "So are you thinking what I'm thinking…."

Before Harry could complete this thought, Penny made her way down the steps with some sandwiches and a thermos of coffee.

"Figured that you were hungry, and you do have a long night ahead of you," Penny said as she prepared to look Dinah and Harry over to ensure that they didn't have that many injury problems today.

"So how am I?" Dinah asked as she waited with an amused grin as Penny gave her a going over.

"Good, excellent even," Penny said.

"It's really a surprise that you're a meta-human," Harry said, he had already brought up this point, he was sure but he thought that it was something that should be brought up again.

"Well as I said, we all have our secrets," Dinah added and she offered him a raised eyebrow and a bright smile on her face. "And some of us….well we have more secrets than others."

"Too true," Harry agreed and then he turned his attention towards what he wanted to do. "Mum….I'd like you to please run a search on everything that is known about Roman Sionis."

"Just one second," the voice said and Dinah took half of a step back as a hard light construct of Lily manifested. That caught her off guard.

"Well that's new," Harry said casually drumming his fingers and Dinah once again corked an eyebrow at him. He had no idea that particular part of the system was online but never the less, he was glad that it was ready to go.

' _Did you doubt that it would be done soon,'_ Peve thought as she as barely able to hide the smugness that was a trademark to those of her bloodline.

' _Now, Peve, don't brag,'_ Harry thought to the dark haired woman as there was a few rounds of laughter throughout the bond with many people.

' _Oh, that's….that's actually rich coming from you, saying that someone shouldn't brag,'_ Amanda thought to the group and there were even more laughter.

' _And you reprimanding Harry for his ego is even more rich,'_ Emily thought to her through the bond link.

' _Ladies,'_ Faora said although she was smiling.

Dinah could not help herself, so she decided to jump into the bond chatter in style. _'Well no offense….and I honestly mean no offense but things are kind of weird when you have a copy of your mother….a AI copy of your mother. I don't want to offend you but….'_

' _No offense meant, trust me Dinah, it does seem a bit odd, yes,'_ Harry thought to the woman. _'It was based off of her brain waves before she went into the coma, and it was invaluable in helping me reverse the effects.'_

' _I see,'_ Dinah agreed and really she saw, she saw a lot actually. And she was rather impressed by all of what she saw.

Information popped up and Lily was the best in the world at what she did and what she did was researching information. Blue light engulfed the lab and Harry skimmed through a lot of the fluff, like Sionis being one of the most eligible bachelors in Gotham City.

"His parents were killed in a fire, but it was ruled to be an accident and he made out like a bandit," Dinah said and her tone indicated that she knew that she thought the accident part of this story was unmistakable BS. That was only the tip of the douchebag iceberg for this guy.

There were more information, about the steel mill that he bought that fired a lot of smog into the environment that really damaged it. Criminal record was pretty straight forward and there was enough context clues that money changed hands.

' _Guy's got a temper,'_ Karen thought as Harry informed her of some of the information.

' _He beat one of his exe's half to death, and pretty much left her battered and broken, so I'd say,'_ Harry thought, there was more information than he wanted to go through. The point was that he took control of the holdings that his parent's made in Janus Cosmetics and made out like a bandit.

Now he wanted more and with Falcone and Maroni's absences, Black Mask was going to take control of the Gotham City Underworld.

Information was what Harry had but all he needed to know was how to utilize it properly.

* * *

The information was a large undertaking but they picked together some of the most relevant information but they had narrowed things down.

Dinah was now really rested and she was sitting on Harry's lap. His arms were folded underneath her breasts as she sat on his lap and she wiggled her delicious rear against his ass. She wore a half night shirt that rode up, stopping halfway underneath her breasts. It showed off her toned tummy and she wore a pair of boy cut panties that showcased her alluring long legs. Harry placed his hand on the other side of her rear and she looked over her shoulder at him with a smoldering gaze as her tongue trailed over the edge of her mouth.

"So what do you think?" Harry asked after they went over the information that they obtained.

"Well, I think that you've got a good point, about the mansion being out, given that it just got burned to the ground, he got a killing off of the insurance money," Dinah said and Harry held his arms around her. The blonde writhed against his lap, wiggling her hot ass against his crotch.

"So that leaves a couple of locations," Harry said, going over it one more time. "His penthouse….possible but he strikes me as the paranoid type that would clear out all traces of his presence."

"Right, after Dad arrived there….he would have bolted," Dinah agreed with him. "So that knocks us down to the two most probable locations."

"The Steel Mill and Janus Cosmetics," Harry continued, picking up right where she left off. "But….something tells me that it won't be the steel mill?"

' _How so?'_ Kara asked curiously.

' _I think that there are more than a few ways to get inside,'_ Harry informed his girls. _'There are too many blind spots that could be manipulated against security.'_

' _Very true,'_ Faora agreed, nodding. It was elementary to be honest.

"So that would leave….Janus Cosmetics," Harry said to her as the Lily AI brought up the floor plans and it flashed before them.

"Oh that's going to be tricky," Dinah mused but she enjoyed the challenge never the less. The floor plans fired to light.

"We can get in through the parking garage, the roof, and the front and back entrance," Harry said.

' _All of them are layered in with the best security that money could buy,'_ Jaime thought to him but all Harry replied was with a grin.

' _That actually might make things a bit…easier,'_ Dinah thought to him and Harry was glad that she was catching on with his train of thought.

' _Yes, obvious,"_ Harry collaborated and there were mutters of agreements all throughout the bond.

' _Okay, I'll bite, why is it obvious?'_ Hermione thought with a frown. She thought that the increased security would allow things to really have things difficult. It just seemed logical.

' _Because, obviously, no one is going to think that someone is just going to get inside the window in a building of that size,'_ Faora thought.

' _Yes, no one is going to be able to figure that out,'_ Harry agreed. _'We could go through the front door, that would cause people to take too much of a notice.'_

They could pretty much easily take everyone down but by walking in the front door, they would gain the attention of the SWAT team a bit too soon. Harry shook his head, while he was sure that he could handle the entire Gotham City SWAT team, he did not want to risk things yet.

Harry was banking on the fact that Sionis was going to be arrogant enough to go to any unknown safe houses. If he did that somehow, they were fucked but Janus Cosmetics were the number one target on their list.

"So are you ready?" Harry asked the woman and Dinah nodded with a smile.

"I was born ready," the blonde offered as she grabbed him by the hand.

It was time for Nightwing and Black Canary to suit up and get to work.

* * *

Nightwing and Black Canary were ready to rock and standing on the rooftop that was looking down from across the street from Janus Cosmetics. The two heroes craned their neck and kept watching everything around. Their hands were placed on the side of their waists and watched.

Dinah was glad that she borrowed his basilisk long coat because the rain was getting really intense in Gotham City. The woman's eyes peered down and she could tell that Harry was waiting.

' _So this seems like a sound plan,'_ Faora thought as she went over with it.

' _Glad you approve,'_ Harry thought and there were similar agreements from Diana and Nym and for obvious reasons, Harry thought that them thinking that the plan was sound was a ringing endorsement indeed.

Harry kept the hood that was over his head secured, his face was more hidden than it normally was. His eyes were burned at the window that would be his least likely way in. He ensured that he would not be running into any surprises. While he got a full report of the security system, he wanted to make sure he had everyone present and accounted for.

' _Twelve of them on the main floor alone,'_ Harry thought and Dinah nodded. She only counted about eleven but Harry pointed out where the other one had been squirreled away off to the other side. His green eyes surveyed the scene around them. _'Four more….four of them covering the doors and there are more patrols there. Six on the garage, four on the roof.'_

' _Don't forget the police activity going up and down the street, '_ Dinah thought and Harry smiled at her as he closed his fist around to leaning his neck down.

' _A fortress, but at the same time, should be easy to get in through a couple of blindspots,'_ Harry thought. _'Like that window right on the east side.'_

Dinah frowned. _'So how are you going to pull that one off?'_

Harry smiled at her and grabbed her around the waist. _'Oh just watch and learn my dear Dinah, just watch and learn.'_

It was all about timing and all about picking the right opportunity. Harry knew all about opportunity and he had been mentally calculating the thunder claps. They were on an average every twenty six point nine seconds which allowed him to mask the pop that he would get by teleporting into the office.

He gripped Dinah around the waist and prepared for him to go inside. His arms wrapped around her waist and teleported. The thunderclap masked the pop which proved one thing and that was it was perfect timing as he got in the office.

Magic was something that he could use easily, perhaps a bit too easy. Then again, it was too easy to fall into lazy habits of relying on it too much. Especially given that he had the gear that could allow him to conserve his energy for the battle which he needed it.

He clicked a device and the motion sensors and the cameras went completely and utterly dead. Harry figured that would buy them some time, although how much and for how long, he did not have the slightest idea.

He stole a triumphant kiss with Dinah. It was brief given the type of fix that they were in but it was never the less extremely enjoyable. The two of them slinked down the hallway, making extremely simple headway as they made their way past the office door and then to the stairs, Harry keeping his eyes peeled all the way for the unfortunate surprises that might come with an operation such as this.

' _Sionis's office should be across the hall from what we've been able to figure,'_ Karen thought to Harry.

' _Yes, which means it could be armed to the teeth with bodyguards and with more security than you can shake a stick at,'_ Harry thought to himself. It was do or die time now.

One of the patrols made their way down the hallway right close to where they stood. Black Canary and Nightwing stood and wondered if they were going to turn the other direction or come their way.

It took only seconds for them to get their answer, the people on patrol, they were coming their way.

Harry blended into the shadows and grabbed one of them around the mouth. He put him down to the count. Dinah swiftly took two more of them out, making sure to render them unconscious by ramming him into the carpeted area, while her foot connected with the back of his head.

The combined efforts of the two crime fighters took the goons down before they could even think about radioing for backup.

Dinah eyed the closet and Harry got the message loud and clear. There was a few seconds where they had to drag the guards towards the closet, with it gently being opened.

The guards were stuffed through the door and Dinah and Harry continued to make their way forward to their destination.

She stopped and saw the guard with an inattentive look in his eyes. The blonde grabbed a huge mug of coffee that was on the edge of the desk and Harry raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly, it was clear what she was doing. She walloped him in the back of the head with the mug, throwing it at his head with a stunning force.

The mug would not break unless it smashed into a surface as hard or harder than it was. The guard slumped down onto the chair, spilled coffee on the desk, with an overturned mug. It looked like he had nodded off during the course of what was happening.

The blonde's eyes had triumph in them and Harry turned towards her with a smile.

' _Impressive,'_ Harry thought to her and the two of them moved down the hallway or were going to but Harry stopped.

His eagle eyes were pealed wide open and he saw something that was on the edge of the desk. It was a file opened and his natural nosy instincts could not resist.

' _I think we hit the jackpot,'_ Harry thought to Dinah and the blonde turned towards him.

' _Well, yes, I think so,'_ Diana agreed, it looked as if they had finally found out where Black Mask had holed up, at least that was what she inferred from the thoughts in his mind.

' _He's purchased some club from Alberto Falcone, there was a big deal that went down, drugs for the land apparently,'_ Harry thought as he looked the file.

' _An addict's paradise,'_ Lily chimed in as she could see the information through Harry's eyes, there was coke, meth, heroin, and whether Falcone was using or trying to sell it elsewhere at a markup, they didn't know.

' _And he's going to finalize the deal,'_ Harry thought.

' _We have the bastard, we really have him now,'_ Dinah offered and smugness filled her mental tone.

' _But what about the drugs, maybe you should go after those first,'_ Zatanna thought. _'Actually that's a tough one….'_

' _I could split off a dupe and go in two different directions,'_ Harry thought and while that possibility seemed to be enticing and extremely likely, there was another direction he could go through. He scanned everything and he would pass the information on to certain parties. _'If I know our fabled flying rodent of the night, he's on patrol so if this gets to his faithful friend, then it would be passed on to him.'_

Those who were in the know understood that Harry met that he would pass on the information about the shipment to Alfred who would get it to Bruce. Those who were not in the know knew enough that they should not ask.

' _Sionis likely has an entire network there, of incriminating information that you can use,'_ Dinah mused and Harry smiled.

Dinah slipped off to do some scouting around the office and she discovered something interesting, a safe in the office. The safe could not be opened by conventional means.

Harry finished working through the network and siphoning off all the information when he could through the network. A noise in the distance caused their efforts to slow down and cease.

The footsteps of the goons caused both Dinah and Harry to stand up and slip off into the night, as quickly as they could leave.

As they made their way outside, having the information they need, they heard the information that was relayed to them.

"Fucking boss forgot to close the window and the thunderstorm of the century is raging on outside," the goon said as he angrily walked around to shut the window, not even bothering to consider any other reason why the window might be open.

* * *

A goon pushed down onto the ground, wondering what he deserved to do this. There was a huge crack that popped behind his back. Batman held him down onto the ground and stood on his back.

"That's everything that I know, I swear," he managed as he tried to push himself up and Batman's knee rammed into the back of his head and knocked him out.

Another goon rushed him from behind. He had not noticed the goon as first. He blocked his hand and drilled him with a running knee to the chest. He grabbed him around the head and spiked him head first into the ground face first. His skull cracked onto the ground. It was the mark of another goon who had been wiped out by the Bat.

"Alfred, call the GCPD, I have some trash that they might want to pick up," Batman said to his butler.

"Very good sir, I'll get right on that and also, there is some information that you might want to know from….an anonymous source," Alfred said and Batman stood up for a second and turned his head around. "Although I'm certain that it's easy to figure out who is behind it."

"Yes," Batman said as he stay calm. "Although he knows far too much."

"Well I would think that you would be the last person who does have the grounds to complain about someone knowing too much, sir," Alfred said after a moment.

Batman did not really say much of anything, he figured out who the mysterious ninja was as well but he decided not to say anything. The fact that both of them knew each other's identities or potentially thought that they did rather. Never the less, it was something that indicated that both knew more about either than they really should have.

"Transmit the information to my computer," Batman said as he made a snap decision of what he was going to do.

"Very good, sir," Alfred said without missing a beat, because he was that calm and collected. He did as he was told with the swift dedication that one would expect from him.

Batman awaited the information that was coming to him and he never thought that it would be that interesting. Yet in some degrees, it was. The Dark Knight plotted his next move and he moved towards his vehicle.

His vehicle was top of the line, sleek and black. It had a small but not quite visible black bat insignia on it. It was armored and bulletproof which was a must for his work in Gotham City. The young and budding detective took the information and he knew that the shipment, well something like would have to be moved through certain routes. At least routes where the GCPD were less likely to ask uncomfortable questions that would lead to problems.

The windshield allowed him the proper vision as he made his way down the streets of Gotham to the most probable location.

He saw it, the truck, the only one going down this rickety road, a neighborhood where very few dared travel in, unless it was absolutely necessary and even then, people avoided it.

' _Got it,'_ Batman thought as he got in closer. He was careful not to get too close at least until the moment where it was logical where he could make his move.

He was locked and ready to go at him. He carefully moved forward, the stealth capabilities indicated that following this vehicle would lead to something that was extremely smooth.

All he needed to do was get a little bit closer and he would be right underneath the vehicle. His car nearly skidded to a complete stop but he held onto the wheel.

The HUD was locked onto the vehicle and he controlled his next movement, despite the cold rain pouring down all over Gotham. He gunned it towards the truck.

The car flew up over the air and smashed through the truck trailer with a vicious speed. The driver was completely rocked and the truck rolled over, flipping over at least three times.

It landed on the ground and the driver was upside down. The shipment was completely annihilated without a trace and Batman pulled away, his job completely done.

"So tell me sir, was it necessary to be so violent and strike the vehicle with your Batmobile?" Alfred asked over the radio system and the detective checked to make sure no one followed him before he responded.

"I calculated the most probable path to ensure that I would not cause much damage, Alfred," Batman said without missing a beat. "The driver and his passenger might be in traction for a while but he'd survive. And I ensured that the shipment would not survive."

"Naturally, sir, you are the Batman," Alfred said in his usual dry voice.

"Yes, I can assure you that the shipment would not survive," Batman said but while the information indicated that the shipment would be only on one truck, he did not want to go under the assumption that this criminal placed all of his eggs into one basket, so it was onward and forward into the night.

* * *

' _So, you're his magically created dupe?'_ Dinah questioned as she made her way towards the club, with Harry in toe. The deal was to go down.

' _Yes,'_ Harrison said and he had heard a few of the rumors, some of them were quite absurd, with what he was. Of course none of them came from the idiots in magical Britain because as far as they were concerned and Harrison did not bother to correct them, all but a select few thought that he was the Harry Potter who attended Hogwarts. _'So….which rumor did you hear?'_

' _Actually there have been several, haven't there been?'_ Rose asked.

' _All too many,'_ Lily said dryly and there were a couple of idiots were started certain rumors years ago that had been spread in certain circles of high society. Despite the fact that she made Lionel pay for kick starting that one, the legacy of the rumor that was being said, it lived on, there was no doubt about that whatsoever.

Dinah chose her next words extremely carefully as Harry and her continued to scope out the security around the outside of the lab. _'Well, some of us thought that Harrison was….the younger brother of the Evans sisters….'_

' _Yes, I've heard that rumor as well,'_ Lily commented after a brief moment. There was no telling who started that one but it was far better than some of the other rumors that were floating around.

' _There are some variations of that one floating around, aren't there?'_ Rose asked.

' _Yes, Mom was cheating on Dad with Thomas Wayne, Mom was cheating on Dad with Lionel Luthor, Dad had a bastard child with the house keeper, he was found in a cave in Kansas by our parents during a vaction,'_ Lily rattled off without missing a beat.

' _Technically didn't….'_ Kara started in but she was shushed.

' _I have a feeling this is going to be something else that I'm going to get educated on in time,'_ Dinah said.

' _Sooner than you think,'_ Harry told her as he squeezed her hand.

' _Still I didn't figure that you were another version of Harry….but I guess that's not a point we should delve into right now,'_ Dinah thought as the saw the cars, about six of them that they could see. About three of them were visible, three were well hidden but by the trained eye, it was easy to spot them.

' _No, not really, and see those goons,,'_ Harry thought to her as he craned his neck half of an inch to the side and the his eyes snapped back off to face the blonde woman as she crossed her arms over her chest.

' _Yes, I see them,'_ Dinah agreed as she surveyed them. _'Must be about ten of them at least.'_

' _Yes at least,'_ Harry said as he leaned his neck back for a second and he was about to drop down because they were following a pattern. Everything was done for a reason, for a purpose and he was this close to figuring out what they are doing.

The club was originally a small warehouse that had been converted. The two of them made their way through the skylight. Both of them were in the rafters, swooping down, and looking over everything, preparing to make their next move.

Time stood still but they knew that sooner or later they were going to have to make their move.

"Remember, this deal has to go through," Alberto Falcone said as he stared forward, his eyes peered over the pair of glasses that he wore. He looked around. Black Mask would do nothing to touch him, he was not that stupid. Falcone was a weedy young man, with coke bottle glasses and jet black hair, dressed in a frayed three piece suit.

Black Mask thought Falcone's brat was nothing but a spineless whelp but he had his uses, as long as the little fucker didn't do anything stupid. He didn't care if his old man was the Roman, his days of Gotham City were wrapping to a close and Black Mask was the one who would reign supreme.

"I understand that your boys have been having a bit of trouble," Alberto said and Black Mask stared at him through his mask.

"I don't think you even understand trouble, your old man, he understood trouble, but you're nothing but…."

"We have a deal and….I swear I'm not afraid of you," Alberto said, as he looked at them. The bravado was there but extremely false.

"Didn't Gordon's daughter hand you your ass in private school?" one of Black Mask's gang members asked and there was a lot of amusement given by the gang about Alberto Falcone getting his ass kicked by a member of the female sex.

"I….I didn't want to cause any trouble, my father advised me to keep my head low, but you better have the goods…because he'll be out one day and….well the Roman shows respect for those who respect him and his family," Alberto said as he tried to act a bit tougher than he was.

"Look kid, respect's something you haven't quite earned yet, but I tell you what, I've got the goods if you got the scratch," Black Mask told him and his goons nodded.

He was not going to tell the Roman's punk kid that a lot of the shipment had been eighty sixed by his incompetent driver and his passenger. He could hardly figure out why that happened. The fucker was likely drunk and wasn't watching where he was going in one of the worst rain storms that Gotham City has been ever seen.

"Do you have the stuff or not," Alberto said as he got up in Black Mask's face and his goons stepped in front of him. The mob boss shook his head ,calling off the dogs.

"Relax, let the kid grow a little hair on his sac, I'm sure it'd make him feel valued," Black Mask said and his goons stepped back into line, their heads nodding.

In an instant, Nightwing flew down from the rafters, nailed one of the enemies in the back of the head with a double stomp and caused him to crack face first into the ground.

"AHHH!" Alberto yelled as he frailed around and nearly tripped as he went for the nearest exit. He fell back and his breathing became completely frantic. "No, no, no, THIS WASN'T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!"

His own bodyguards went down with a sickening crack as Nightwing took them out. The movements were quick and fluid, they barely had any chance to comprehend this.

"What the fuck is that?" one of the goons asked as he disappeared into the shadows.

"Well why don't you find out," Black Mask said as he shoved the goon into the shadows. He was dragged into the shadows and severely beaten. At least that's what Black Mask figured for there were the sounds and the strains of cracking punches and kicks.

Suddenly, another figure dropped down from the ceiling and she aimed a kick at the face of Black Mask, sending down to the ground.

"You just made a mistake, you dumb broad," Black Mask said as he tried to nail her with a crowbar but it was a swing and a miss as the one that ducked.

Gangsters had guns and gangsters started shooting at anything that moved on both sides.

"No, you idiots….NO!" Alberto cried as he went into the corner to duck and hide. They were not hitting the people that they were supposed to be hitting and they came close to hitting him.

This allowed Dinah to boost up Harry and cause him to flip down onto the ground. He went from gangster to gangster, disarming them and sending them flying the wall.

"You fucking idiots can't get anything done right, fucking useless!" Black Mask swore as he massaged his jaw. His mask protected enough of the kick where his jaw did not snap from the force of the kick.

Alberto whimpered like a cornered school girl as he walked back and forth on his hands towards the nearest exit in a crab walk.

"NO, NO, NO, GET AWAY FROM ME, DEMON, GET AWAY FROM ME!" Alberto cried as his glasses were broken and he saw a black shape moving around. It terrified the daylights out of him.

Black Mask was taken out once again and there was another round of fire. Harry grabbed Dinah and teleported her back behind the counter of the club.

Shattered glass flew and the breaking of booze bottles echoed throughout the bar. While it was rather obvious that some of the gangsters were taken down.

Harry was getting sick and tired of Falcone's screaming and babbling, so he was about ready to do something about it.

He rushed up and saw him. Falcone nearly shit himself when he saw the mysterious ninja coming close to him. A running knee to the head knocked Falcone out of the way.

Nightwing had taken down the man but a couple of gunmen were still there. Dinah nodded as Harry braced himself. One huge canary cry rocked the man and disarmed him.

Harry flew the throwing knife out of nowhere while the other man was disoriented and the explosive charge knocked him back. The man slid dropped on his back, down from the count.

Black Mask scrambled like a demented monkey and went for the nearest gun on the floor. He was going fucking blow them away. Time almost stood still as he prepared to pull the trigger.

Harry could see that he was there but the problem with Harry was that he was pretty fast. He zoomed forward at the speed of light and Black Mask could not react fast enough.

Sionis saw the super powerful blur that was his fist as it connected him in the mask. The force of it shattered the mask like glass. He breathed in and out and the whites of his eyes.

Sionis could barely react as Dinah nailed him right in the face with a huge roundhouse kick. The mob boss dropped down to the ground, his nose shattered from the impact.

The final tally was Harry and Dinah were the victories and there were several gangsters that were down on the ground because of injuries of their own doing. Falcone was sleeping like a baby in the corner and Black Mask was in a bad state.

Black Canary and Nightwing would have to agree that this team up resulted in a satisfactory result.

The problem was that Nightwing did not like the hissing sound that was coming from behind him. He was pretty sure that they struck something that was flammable, at least that's what he was going to assume. His eyes peeled as he turned to his partner and she nodded.

Black Mask, Falcone, and their goons were down for the count, although they were bleeding quite severe in many cases.

The groups were wrapped up as the hissing of the night club continued. The emerald eyed wizard and his blue eyed partner had them all gift wrapped for the police.

An explosion would have gotten the attention of those outside but they moved quickly, with the gang all wrapped up and ready to be taken downtown.

Sionis and Falcone would be held for a little bit but they knew that in the back of their heads, that the two of them would be on the streets before too long.

* * *

The next day arrived and Diana stood spotting Dinah as she worked out. She was using the weight room set to test the physical limitations that she had. She was doing pretty well all things considered but naturally Harry blew things out of the water but being a bit weaker than Harry was nothing to be ashamed by. Both females wore tight sports bras and even tighter black workout shorts that strained over their amazing asses. It was a visual buffet but Harry would be the only occupant for this treat.

"You know, you still don't have powers," Diana remarked nonchalantly but then she corrected herself. "Well reduced powers never the less."

"I know," Harry said as he worked on the benchpress. His muscles felt the burn but he actually thought that he would be a lot better off in this situation. The day would come when he would be able to shed the watch.

"For someone that doesn't have any….enhanced strength right now, you're still using a lot of it," Dinah said as she felt the sweat go down her brow. Then again, as Wildcat once told her, if you're not sweating, then you're not really trying. The blonde strained her shoulders as she kept rocking the weight up an down. The blonde felt the burn as she worked her body and her arms as she kept going up and down.

Diana smiled as she watched Harry work out, seeing how strong he was and she could tell that Dinah spent her time on him during her breaks.

"Oh, I think a little more," Dinah whispered as she placed her hands onto the bar, lifting it up and down. She was not going to beat Harry's weight any time soon, she could tell that.

Harry's arms felt a bit of a burn which meant that the working out was working out. Even with reduced powers, his stamina was as high as ever.

He breathed once more and pushed out. He was not quite done with his workout until he hit three hours and he still had about seven minutes and seven seconds left in his work out. He could see the appreciative eyes that were locked on him so naturally Harry was going to milk it for it was worth.

His long slightly messy hair was even more slightly messy as it matted to his forehead. The sweat showed that he was working out, rather than hardly working as many people who would be in his position. He thought that his reflexes were a half of a step too slow during the events of last night.

He got to his feet and moved towards the cooler, slowly peeling off the sweat stained shirt that he was wearing.

Both Dinah and Diana eyed his muscular body in an appreciative manner. Their eyes locked onto him as he took the bottle of water and slowly placed it to his lips. Harry slowly drank the water, smiling as he was refreshed by the cool taste. His eyes flashed for a second as he kept gulping down the water as he looked at both of them.

Knowing fully well of what he was doing, Harry tipped the water down on the top of his head, emptying the water bottle on his head, to fully refresh himself.

For a brief second, he thought that Dinah and Diana might in fact fight to see who would get to jump him first. He was proven wrong as Diana was the one that speared him into the wall. His back hit as her lips was on his and his arms wrapped around her body.

Dinah dove down between Diana's legs immediately and things were going to get really intense rather quickly.

* * *

Diana's hand wrapped around Harry's engorged pole firmly as she stroked him up and down. She felt a warm tongue go between her legs as she stroked Harry's cock.

Dinah's tongue brushed against the Amazon's pink slit and she enjoyed the taste. It was quite heaveningly, almost as much as Harry's seed. Her might was rocked with further sensations as she brushed her thumb back and forth against Diana's hot clit.

Harry watched this erotic display as Dinah switched for a second, her mouth still dripping hot with the Amazon's pussy juices and planted a slight kiss on the edge of Harry's balls. The wizard closed his eyes and felt Dinah's tongue brush against his balls. She snaked her tongue around them and Harry felt his pleasure increase by about tenfold.

Diana felt Dinah's fingers between her cunt lips and the blonde skillfully stroked the Amazon princess into an orgasmic state and it caused her pleasure to spike by a few degrees. The Amazon kept pushing her hips.

"Mmm," Dinah moaned as she made sure she hand eye contact with Harry. Slowly she licked Diana's juices from her hand and fondled his balls skillfully. The blonde kept working her hand around him, squeezing him.

"So…oh fucking hot," Harry grunted as he worked Diana's mouth over with his hard rod and she rewarded him with sensual sucking.

Her lips manipulated his pole with a series of hard thrusts. He was going to rock her hard and the Amazon slurped around him, she kept up the strides, the sucking, the hungry sucking which would make a normal man burst from his nuts.

Harry was not a normal man by any means but even he had his limits, which were being pushed to the bring as Diana groped his balls and fondled them as he watched Dinah furiously finger the Amazon. She moaned as she pushed her cunt into Dinah's waiting embrace.

He grabbed Diana around the side of the face and pumped his rod into her mouth at super speed. He kept assaulting her mouth with a rapid fire series of thrusts, her mouth felt like it was going to suck up every drop of cum possible.

The woman's lips wrapped around his shaft as she kept working her lips around him and his rod pumped all the way down her throat, sending several rapid fire streams of cum down her throat.

Diana felt Harry's cum drip from her lips although she swallowed most of it. She hungrily licked her lips and turned back around to stare lovingly into Dinah's eyes.

Dinah took the next action, wrapping her hands around Diana's waist and helping her up. Their lips hotly smashed together, their tongues danced with each other.

Harry viewed the erotic actions, their tongues went together as they licked his seed from their lips. The two of them swapped the spit.

Harry saw Diana's pussy bared for him and he quickly removed her top. He squeezed her breasts and as always they molded perfectly in his hand.

"Ready," Harry whispered and Diana wiggled her ass in his face to ensure that he was in fact ready. He used his finger to pleasure her and caused sparks of pleasure to erupt through her body. The green eyed wizard brushed his tool against her hot entrance and he was this close to entering her.

He paused and kept his rod at the edge of her hot hole. It pulsed for him and he rammed it into her.

Dinah rested back on the bench and her pussy was bared. Diana bit down on her clit causing an eruption of pleasure to explode through the body of the blonde beauty. Then her tongue delved deeper into the dripping quim of her.

"Damn," Dinah moaned as she gripped onto the edged of Diana's hair and yanked on it to encourage the Amazon to delve even deeper.

Diana happily munched on the delicious pussy. It made her so hot that she could barely keep her head above the water. She licked and slurped Dinah until she could not handle it any more.

Harry hung onto Diana's waist and speared into her from behind. His hands cupped her delicious breasts as he sawed into her from behind. His rock hard phallus stretched out her walls as Harry continued to work into her with a rapid fire series of thrusts.

Diana felt his rod invade her. Each thrust of his warmth sent chills up her smile and a boiling desire spread from head to toe. She closed her eyes and felt the amazing pleasure explode all through her body.

The wizard kept working over the breasts of his Amazon wife, causing more pleasure to burst all through her being. She closed her eyes tightly and she bit down on her lip. The woman's pleasure exploded through her mind as she felt her breasts be pleasured and groped as he explored every last inch of her body. The exploration got even more frantic.

Diana's tongue left Dinah's pussy and she whined at the lost but then she felt the pleasure as his cock was this close to being inserted into her dripping hot quim. The woman's cunt pushed up.

"No Dinah, good things come to those who wait," Harry breathed as he grabbed her ass and brushed his thick rod against her hot quim.

Dinah's pussy was about to devour his meet and Harry pushed it inside her. Her walls parted and allowed him to enter her with one fluid movement. His balls struck her thighs as he rocked in and out of her at a rapid fire motion. She clenched his rod as he inserted it into her super heated quim. The wizard kept pumping her full of his cock and she accepted it, lifting her hips up and down to meet him at the speed of light.

She moaned as he inserted his rod into her as deeply as he could manage and she held onto him.

Diana was plowed down onto the ground as she saw the pleasure on Dinah's face. The wizard wrapped his hands around her tits and he slammed into Diana again and again. The woman's walls clutched him as Harry rocked in and out of her over and over again at the speed of light.

Diana closed her eyes and there was a very prominent "oh fuck" that escaped from her lips.

"WRECK MY PUSSY HARRY, WRECK IT!"

Harry was not one to let a lady down and he plowed Diana with the force of a plane into her pussy. The Amazon's shrieks escalated to another level as Harry gripped her gorgeous breasts and kept pumping himself into her.

"Oh fuck, fuck me," Diana moaned at the top of her lungs as Harry plowed into her over and over again.

Harry pumped himself into Dinah, riding her body into a moaning stupor. The blonde returned fire as her hips went up to meet his over and over again. Her pleasurable gaze was one that could not be matched by any means.

"Oh, Harry, oh, oh, oh," she moaned as she dug her nails into the back of his shoulder. "Give it to me."

"Sing for me my beautiful canary, sing to me," Harry breathed as he tweaked her nipples and it should have been a surprise to no one that Dinah was a screamer.

Her pussy engulfed his rod as he pumped into her a few more times, working into her tight center.

Diana was not to be outdone as Harry inserted his huge prick into her gaping asshole. The woman screamed out loud as Harry pumped into her with a rapid fire series of thrusts into her hole. The woman's eyes closed tightly in pleasure, with Harry working her hard.

She grabbed onto where she was as Harry kept working her over. The dark haired Amazon was nearly becoming undone with what Harry did to him and he was not letting up which made what he did even more amazing and wonderful.

"More, oh fuck more," Diana begged him as she gripped where she was hard as Harry plunged into her even harder.

The wizard drilled her snatch and now Dinah was on her hands and knees.

Her lips were pressed to Diana's as Harry took turns drilling both girls in both sides. A Harry was on both sides and it rocked both of them. His rod kept pummeling both of them, working them over and over again. The woman's hands clutched onto where she was as she bit down furiously on her lip, leaving an indent where it was. She mewled like a kitten in heat as Harry plunged into her center.

His balls were loaded with cum and Harry fired a series of rapid fire loads into her.

Dinah and Diana was both pumped full of cum. His balls drained into them as he sent ropes of the thick stuff spilling into their pussies.

They were ready to go to the next round and this time, Dinah prepared herself to ride another round of cum out of Harry's balls.

* * *

Sex was rather amazing as Harry had both Dinah and Diana draped over each side of him. Both of the beauties snuggled into his body as there were a couple of moments where they just remained silent. It was all about basking in the afterglow of some really amazing sex that all three of them shared. He took the blonde into his right side and the dark haired Amazon into his left side. He grabbed both of their asses playfully which they smiled about.

"Fucking amazing," Diana breathed but she was not telling them anything that they did not really know. The dark haired woman allowed a smile to herself. She ran her hand down Harry's abs, playfully playing with him as she basked in the moment.

"I'd have to agree," Dinah said as she nuzzled her face into Harry's neck and Harry held her body into his very nicely.

' _Yes, that was fucking hot,'_ Nym said and there were many agreements between the group. _'But I kind of got a question….'_

' _I think we all got that question,'_ Fleur chimed in through the bond link.

' _And that's….what the hell happened to Sionis and Falcone?'_ Amanda wondered and there were a second where Dinah and Harry exchanged knowing smiles.

' _Well, I'm pretty sure that any second now, they'll be turning up somewhere in the right hands,'_ Harry thought to himself as he paused and kept his arm wrapped around Dinah's waist, pressing the youthful blonde's body against his.

The Alphas had a pretty clear idea but naturally Harry and Dinah had the best idea given that they were the ones that were there in the first place but that was beside the point.

* * *

"So, I left the rookie to keep an eye on Lance," Bullock said in a rough grunt as he walked with Gordon and Jones to the best donut shop in Gotham City. It was the best donut shop by their own recommendation and given that their profession, they would be the experts.

Bullock thought that a bad donut should be punishable by law but that was just him. They were going to pick up some coffee and donuts.

"Did you hear the rumors of what happened last night?" Jones asked both of them but Bullock shrugged.

"Hear a lot of shit in this town, all I know is Montoya's keeping a nice eye on Lance, and I need to get something to eat, I'm withering away to nothing," Bullock said. He heard the rumors about the Bat as well but he put it down to the criminals he heard talking sniffing glue.

The three of them made their way back out from the donut shop when they were paid up with the squad car and the trio stopped, nearly skidding to a stop as they saw the sight before them. None of them could believe their eyes but it was there.

Alberto Falcone and Roman Sionis were tied up, practically gift wrapped for them. There was evidence attached them, along with several of their men.

Gordon was the first to recover and he lifted his hand. "Yes, we've got a situation….you're not going to believe this one."

Gordon said that statement because he was pretty sure that he did not believe what he was seeing but yet it was right there in front of him. His mouth hung open as he got over the shock.

**To Be Continued In the Next Chapter.**


	20. Cry for Justice Part Four

**Chapter Twenty: Cry for Justice Part Four.**

The news the next morning brought Harry some interesting tidbits, although they were sprinkled in between the usual amount of fluff that was common place in the Gotham City news. He intently listened to the news from where he sat at the table while eating breakfast with Dinah and Diana.

Last night had been eventful with Dinah and Harry getting the lion share of the action. One interesting point was the fact that Dinah jumped from life debt to primary status pretty quick, the group had their theories as to why, but sometimes magic defied all explanation.

All and all though, things were good, but they would have to wait and see what the media made of the last night's events. It was most likely that the GCPD had already staged a cover up of some kind.

There were a few people in the penthouse at the moment, but a couple of the female residents were quite notifiable by their absence.

' _Just checking in to let you know that we landed safely in Smallville,'_ Lily thought to him.

' _Right, you were flying down there to pick up Martha, Nell, and Lana for a girl's weekend in Metropolis,'_ Harry thought back to her, he thought he might join them, but there were things he needed to deal with in Gotham first.

' _Yep, Yep!'_ Amanda agreed, she was fidgeting to the point that she was nearly bouncing up and down in her excitement, but she managed to reign herself in and act mostly mature. Although this was mainly due to the stern looks her Mother and Aunt were directing at her. _'And I swear I won't blow my entire budget on shoes, well, this time anyway.'_

' _I'll hold you to that,'_ Emily thought with a frown and a wrinkled nose that she directed at her twin. Well, she could drag Amanda away by her ear if worse came to worse, it had happened before, it would happen again, thankfully her Aunt and Mother were both here to back her up.

' _Wish you were here Harry,_ _I'll be thinking of you….mostly naked,'_ Amanda offered him with a saucy tone to her voice, while licking her lips.

' _Amanda Lily Potter!'_ Lily reprimanded her daughter, but she was grinning in spite of herself. Still she figured that she should try and act like the voice of reason, although given the fact it was her younger sister, her twin daughters, and Kara, on the trip with her. That would be a hard thing to do without back up, good thing Martha would be there to help her out.

' _Oh come on, mother! It's not like you haven't done the same thing,'_ Amanda thought back to her while rolling her eyes.

' _Even if I do, that's not the point,'_ Lily commented while flexing her fingers. _'But really Harry, you should fly down here….'_

' _I'll make sure to do so when I'm done here,'_ Harry thought back to her as he saw Pamela stagger into the kitchen. She looked to be half asleep so he gently grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into a kiss which his wife returned eagerly. Karen stepped into the room shortly after, with Patricia and Jaime filing in behind her.

' _Don't think you're going to leave us yet,'_ Patricia replied, the three of them were in Gotham for business, so they were staying at the Penthouse.

' _I wouldn't dream_ _of it,'_ Harry said as he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into a kiss, which she returned with glee. Their lips pressed together for a long moment, then Karen and Jaime took their turns, although they were not too patient about waiting.

Nym, despite not being a morning person, had managed to drag herself out of bed. So she staggered into the kitchen like one of the living dead and parked herself in a chair across from Harry.

"Hello, Har," Faora said to her brother as she wrapped her arms around him as soon as he'd detached himself from Karen. The siblings exchanged an extremely heated kiss, to the point it was almost as if they were trying to strangle each other with their tongues.

"Just take your time, yeah, don't wait for me," Nym grumbled, only for Jaime to grab her and kiss her hungrily on the lips.

Technically, she wanted a kiss from Harry and she got it in a fashion, their lips molded together as they thoroughly enjoyed roaming their hands over each other's bodies. Barbara and Zatanna turned up at that exact moment and both raised their eyebrows at the display, although neither of them were surprised by it.

"So, busy day ahead of you?" Barbara asked without missing a beat as soon as Harry broke away from Faora.

Dinah was the one who answered with a smile on her face as another puff piece about the Gotham's rich and famous aired in the background, so there was no need for them to really pay too much attention to it. "Well, we need to head over to the hospital and see how dad's doing."

"Then I have lunch with Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent," Harry added as he mentally ticked off the things that he had to do today, only for Barbara to suddenly snap her fingers.

"Oh, yeah! Dad wanted to have a word with you, so when you have the time could you go talk to him? It was about something really important," Barbara informed, although she bit down on her lip as she pondered what it could be about. A girl's father wanting to talk to her boyfriend was never a good sign.

"Well, that should be interesting, I'll just add your father to the list of people that I have to meet up with today," Harry said as Faora sat down next to him, Diana having already taken the other seat next to him. Karen planted herself firmly in his lap while the other girls sat themselves down as well.

"This just in, a night club belonging to Gotham City millionaire Roman Sionis caught fire early this morning. We've been informed by the GCPD that it was a result of two gangs going at it over a drug deal that went south," a news anchor stated over the television.

Harry waited for the other shoe to drop, perhaps a few words about what happened, who Roman Sionis was, and whether the son of the Roman was involved. But there was absolutely nothing about any of it, it just proved that there was a cover up already in place.

Of course, he knew exactly what happened, but it was nice to hear the official word that the media was peddling. He hadn't expected Sionis and Falcone to remain in jail for long.

 _'Well, that's about what we expected,'_ Karen said over the bond for benefit of the group, and there was agreement from all sides.

Harry was already thinking about something else and he turned to look at Nym, who scarfing down her breakfast at a quick pace. "Nym, after you get done with Breakfast, could I speak with you for a couple of minutes?"

Nym said something that was unintelligible, but Harry was pretty sure he mostly understood it. Ginny was happy to translate for him though. After all, she'd become well versed in unintelligible gibberish after growing up with Ron for thirteen years.

' _Sure, Harry, I'll be with you as soon as I'm done,'_ Ginny chimed in with a grin. _'I didn't know you were a graduate of the Ronald Weasley memorial school of table etiquette, Nymphadora,'_

' _HEY!'_ Nym yelled back at her to the laughter of Astoria, Ginny, the Twins, Kara, and Donna over the bond. The laughter spread when Nym's arms folded underneath her chest and she pouted, which quite frankly was an adorable look on her.

* * *

Harry made his way towards the Master Bedroom after eating breakfast, which was the room that he and Pamela shared. He stepped into it, slowly removing his shirt to expose his muscled physique in the process, he stretched for a moment, then slipped his pants off next.

Nym closely watched as Harry stripped off his clothes, taking in every inch of his body and projecting the image to the other girls within the bond in glorious high definition Perv-O-Vision. The younger Metamorphmagus tracked every inch of his body with her eyes and she felt her nipples stiffen due to her arousal.

"So, tell me something, Nym?" Harry asked as he slowly turned around to face, his burning gaze locking onto her body, he took note of her stiff nipples behind the fabric of her black t-shirt and he could smell her arousal as well. "Are you going to just stand there and gawk at me? Or are you going to join me."

Nym bit down on her lower lip as she tried to appear innocent of any wrong doing, then the woman turned towards him and smiled seductively. She slowly reached towards the bottom of her shirt, before pulling it up over her head, inch by glorious inch, her skin was revealed as she swayed her hips. She was clad in a blue bra that contained her generous bust snugly. She placed her fingers down her shorts then slow edged them down her legs to reveal a matching blue thong. Turning, she bent forwards at the waist to show off her amazing ass causing Harry to grin at the sight of it. The shape changing witch looked over her shoulder with a smoldering grin towards him.

With another movement, she unclipped her bra, allowing her beautiful breasts with rosy pink nipples to bounce free of it, she was currently sporting a D-Cup size. She followed that up by pealing her panties down slowly, although it took her a bit of effort since they were currently plastered to her womanhood. Harry smiled as he took in the sight of her glistening arousal.

"Well, when you join me, you join me in style," Harry said as he pulled Nym's naked body into the shower with him and quickly turned it on.

The woman pressed against him as she kissed him hard on the lips. She broke it shortly after to nibble on his lower lip, then she reached behind him to grab the shower gel and spray it onto his back. She slowly worked on his back, washing it thoroughly.

Grasping hold of his hips, Nym turned him around then used her breasts to wash him, causing suds to rise up everywhere within the shower.

"You'll get your turn, soon enough," she breathed hotly into his ear as she kept rubbing her breasts up and down his back, causing Harry to smile.

"That's something that I have no...doubt about," Harry panted out with a grin as he leaned into her touch.

Nym continued to wash his back with her breasts firmly into it. She smiled at him brightly as she reached forwards to run her hands along his pectorals, before trailing them downwards along his abs to tease the most intimate area of his body and then pulling back when she got him worked up enough.

"Sooo, what was it you wanted to talk to me about?" Nym whispered into his ear, her lips brushing along the edge of it, but she pulled back after playfully nipping on his ear. Her fingers trailed back down along Harry's body, getting the both of them worked up.

Harry closed his eyes and shook his head. "Actually….I was…."

He spun her around and pressed her against the wall as he started to wash her body. He paid special attention to her breasts and ass, although he did give the rest of her a thorough going over.

"What is it…. _oh!_...don't leave me hanging," Nym breathed out with a whimper as he pulled his fingers away from her center.

"I was wondering if you ever got a chance to continue your mundane education," Harry said as he teased her muscles with several subtle strokes of his fingers, while gently emitting a soft pulse of magical energy from the tips of them.

Nym managed to keep herself from exploding from the sensations as she craned her neck back, and bit down on her lip to stifle her a particularly loud moan.

"Not…formally," she managed to let out after a moment's pause to collect herself. She was able to keep her tone even and professional, although all things considered, it was a very hard thing to do. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she leaned her head against his shoulder. "But, I do know….actually, I know a lot due to the way Mom brought me up, but with me being Amelia's bodyguard, I didn't have the time to do so formally. I know enough….more than most people do."

"That I don't doubt," Harry said as he kneeled down between her legs and she hitched in her breath at the sight. "Do you think that you could shift into a sixteen year old version of yourself?"

"Yes….I think I can do that," Nym said as she closed her eyes. It had been a long time, but she was managed to shift her body into a younger form. It was only a matter of knocking a few inches off of her height really.

Unfortunately, all of that mass had to go to somewhere, and it went straight to her chest. She could have tried to reduce it, but that would have shot her up in height. She nearly lost her equilibrium because of the weight she now had on top. She carefully held onto the wall, breathing heavily.

Harry whistled at her after taking her younger form in. "Nice…..very nice."

"I aim to please," Nym said as she placed her hands underneath her breasts, which gave off the added appeal of enhancing her breasts. "Holding this form….should be pretty easy, although sometimes when I dream, my mind wanders and my body goes along for the ride."

Harry recalled that fairly well. There was one time where Nym went to bed resembling Fleur and obviously had a dream about Harry that caused her to shift forms so that she looked like him, equipment and all. It just proved that concentration was needed, and that the subconscious mind could play havoc on a Metamorphmagus and their shifting ability.

"We should test your concentration then," Harry said as he cupped her soapy breasts, causing Nym to smile, before biting down on her lower lip.

"Yes, we should," Nym whimpered as he traced his finger around her stiffing nipple and the games began.

**X-X-X**

Harry's finger slowly traced around her stiffing nipple and she moaned as Harry cupped her breast, slowly playing with it. His right hand played with her breasts and the emerald eyed wizard pushed his hand down and cupped her pussy, which caused her to whimper in even more pleasure.

"Y-yes," Nym panted as Harry's fingers teased her opening. She pushed her hips forward as the wizard slid his fingers in between her smoldering hot thighs.

Harry worked his fingers into her dripping hot snatch. The wizard pushed his fingers into her and it caused her to whimper.

"Please," Nym breathed and Harry nipped the side of her neck which caused her pleasure.

His touches were really driving her completely nuts. He played with her smoldering hot folds as he cubbed her clit. The woman's hand moved up and she grabbed his throbbing hard cock.

"Oh, yes, Nym," Harry grunted as she started to stroke his tool with her hand.

The wizard closed his eyes and he teased her. She eased his cock closer to her dripping hot mound. He grabbed a double handful of her magnificent ass and prepared to insert inside her.

The wizard pushed his tool into her tight box and pressed her against the wall and grabbed her nice breasts. Nym screamed out in pleasure as he worked into her. His strokes were slow and they built up the anticipation in her mind for something greater.

Harry bit down on her nipple and that caused even more pleasure. He licked around the side of the nipple and clenched her.

"Yes, oh yes, more!" Nym panted as the wizard worked her center.

Harry smiled as he gripped her hips and sawed into her cunt. Each thrust caused her hips to thrust and twitch.

"Such a dirty girl, and we just cleaned you up again," Harry said as he rubbed her breasts, and she wrapped her arms around his neck and his legs around his waist.

Harry's face was placed between her breasts and he happily lapped up her breasts. He licked and suckled her tits as he pushed himself into her over and over again.

Nym felt her body stir with excitement as he sought her heat. The water had stopped a long time again after Harry had shut it off. Not that she cared about that. The only thing she focused on was his probing thrusts. She wrapped her arms tightly around him as he sought her over and over again.

Pleasure burst through her body as Harry sucked on her large breasts and heaven, heaven was really amazing. The woman's nipples were lavished by the tongue of Harry Potter as he kept working her over. His super powered thrusts rocked her mind and Harry pumped his tool into her. She wrapped her arms around his neck as he kept working into her as hard as he could.

"Oh yes, oh fuck, oh yes," Nym panted at the top of her lungs as Harry kept sawing into her from the front. Her walls clamped around him tightly as he grabbed her breast. Her whimpering whines got even more amazing as Harry pumped himself into her. His balls slapped against her thighs.

Harry licked her nipples and that caused her pleasure to explode through her body. Nym's slick walls lubricated his rod as it pushed into her body. They got even tighter to clamp around his super hard shaft.

"Fuck, so hot," Nym whimpered as she felt small bolts of energy flowing through her body. His thrusts picked up even more speed. Her legs wrapped around his body even tighter.

Harry pulled out of her and this caused disappointment.

"Harry!" Nym whined but Harry placed a finger on her lips to silence her. She looked back up at him with imploring eyes.

He wanted to explore this from a different angle and Nym got the message loud and clear. Her hands were placed on the wall, her breasts hanging down, and her legs spread. Harry cupped her dripping hot pussy and that caused her to moan.

His mouth kissed the back of her neck and Harry held her hips.

"Ready?" Harry asked and Nym nodded.

"Born that….WAY!" she said, shrieking the last word as Harry plunged into her from behind. The green eyed wizard cupped her nice breasts, pulling all the way out of her, and he kept plunging in and out of her.

He grabbed her around the waist and kept sawing into her from behind. Her slick walls hugged his amazing rod as he pumped in and out of her from behind.

"Oh, ah, oh, mmm, ah, yes, yes" Nym panted as he kept pumping into her from behind. The wizard's tool penetrated her womanly depths and caused explosions to resound through her mind.

Harry merely smiled and worked on her tits, grabbing her tit flesh. Her ass was amazing and he pulled out of her pussy.

"Harry," Nym whined at the top of her lungs.

The woman's tight ass wrapped around his tool and he slammed between her tight hot buns. The woman's ass clenched his rod as he fucked her against the shower.

"Oh, take it, take my slutty ass," she purred and Harry cupped her tits and caused her to scream.

"You didn't even have to save pleased," Harry grunted as he pulled his prick out from her ass and paused, resting it against her anal cavity. Nym grabbed onto the wall and looked over her shoulder at him, an extremely smoldering gaze burning through her eyes.

"Oh, please, oh please, please," Nym panted as Harry groped her from behind.

He rammed her ass once again from behind and he made sure to signify his ownership of her breasts, squeezing them.

Rapid fire thrusts blew her mind and Nym could not wait for Harry to finish in her.

"Faster, faster, oh fucking faster, I don't want to be able to sit!" she begged him as she grabbed the edge of the wall and grinded her ass back into his tool.

She was pretty sure that she felt something else warm into her pussy as well, as his fingers probed her. They were so thick that it caused her to exploded in hormonal desire. Nym's mind was being rocked and she chewed on her lips.

"Sooooo, good," she whined in pleasure as her heart pumped up as her juices pooled into his finger.

Harry stuffed his cum covered digits into her mouth and the steam rose from the shower as she sucked her own essence off of his digit. His rod slammed her ass as he pulled out of her.

He rammed his cum soaked fingers down her ass and she moaned as his rod went back into her pussy where he was about ready to finish off.

Thrust, thrust, thrust and Nym bit down hard on her lip to the point where she nearly drew blood. Her hair grew so Harry could hold onto it. His tool probed her insides as his balls tightened.

Harry felt his balls grow heavy with cum and he pinched her nipples which caused her whimpering to escalate to another level.

"Oh, fuck, me hard," Nym panted as he hammered her over and over again from behind.

"Cumming," Harry whispered as he nibbled the side of her ear and she moaned in response to his actions.

"Finish, need it, bad," Nym murmured as her walls clenched around him.

His tool rammed deep into her woman's tightened around his rod and it milked his thrusts.

With a grunt, he finished into her, clenching her breasts tightly, squeezing them.

"YESSSSSSSSSSSS!" Nym screamed as he pumped his rod into her dripping hot snatch.

He spurted several splashes of ropes into her cum and rammed into her hot snatch. Her walls clamped around him as he drained the contents of his balls into her.

She nearly collapsed against the wall and panted in pleasure as her eyes were glazed over, as soak, water, and cum circled around the drain.

**X-X-X  
**

The two of them got dressed after finishing up. Harry turned to Nym with a smile on his face. "So as you might have guessed, I didn't have you change into your sixteen year old self for my health."

"But that was an excellent bonus, wasn't it?" Nym asked with a flirty grin and Harry's smile widened into a grin.

"Yes, yes it was," Harry agreed as he locked his eyes on hers. "However, the reason I asked was because I was wondering if you could act as a bodyguard for the girls while they're attending Gotham Private Academy. I have no question that they'd be able to take care of themselves, but….you know, it's Gotham."

Nym nodded in agreement and Harry didn't need to say anymore then that, she also thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to finish her schooling so she was all for it. "Yeah, I'll do it Harry, will there be anything else?"

"Could you please get Hermione for me, I'd like a word with her?" Harry asked her and Nym complied with a smile on her face. She was walking a little crooked in the aftermath, but it was well worth it.

* * *

Diana walked alongside Harry and Dinah closely as they made their way into the hospital to check on Dinah's father. She figured that since she had the day off, she would hang out with the two of them. Plus, it gave her a chance to score some semi-private time with Harry, which never was a bad thing in her mind.

"I wonder if there's been any improvement," Dinah whispered to Harry, but then she paused.

' _And I'm still getting the hang of the talking through the bond thing, I guess I don't have to say much out loud now,'_ Dinah thought to him, while trying to keep her thoughts even. This was an entirely new world for her.

Kara proceeded to offer her a warning. _'_ _You really don't need to say that much out loud, but at the same time, you should speak up in public. If you remain silent in a room for a long time with other people present, they start to give you a lot of weird looks since they don't know about the bond link.'_

' _Yes, indeed, it also gives you a chance to brush up on your multi-tasking,'_ Faora said with a smile and Dinah responded with one word.

' _Gotcha."_

Harry smiled as he stood with Diana's arm draped over his shoulder. Anyone who tried anything with him would have to think twice as she looked fit enough to teach anyone a lesson who looked at either her or Harry cross eyed. That fact alone caused him to smile.

"So, I'm here to see Larry Lance," Dinah said, making eye contact with the guards at the front desk, who made sure to check that she was on the list. After what nearly happened yesterday, they weren't taking any chances with security and honestly, that was the way Dinah preferred things to be. "I'm…."

"Yes, we know Miss Lance," the guard said in a rough voice as he escorted the group upstairs. Harry spied two more undercover cops that were disguised as paramedics making their way down to the elevator. From what he understood, they switched off at random intervals.

Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya were the ones currently guarding Larry. Dinah looked over her shoulder towards Harry, before she raised her hand and knocked on the door.

Montoya was the one who opened the door, Harry could make out a few snatches of conversation, before they got there, but he overheard nothing that was too incriminating.

"Miss Lance," the woman said to Dinah. She was a Hispanic woman with dark eyes, rosy lips and dark hair that went down to her shoulders. She was wearing a standard issue police uniform so it didn't really show any skin, although it was obvious that she had a fairly decent figure. "And…."

"...Harry Potter," he said to her. "And this is my bodyguard, Diana Prince."

Montoya shook hands with the two of them, naturally she'd heard of Harry Potter before, but he was much more imposing and larger than life in person. She never really took much interest in the opposite sex, but personal preferences aside, one would have to be blind not to notice someone like him. "Officer Renee Montoya."

"A pleasure," Harry said as he and Diana shook the police woman's hand. She was a bit wet behind **the** ears, but she had potential.

"Given the scare yesterday, we wanted to ensure that no further harm came to him," Renee explained as she looked out the window. There was nothing out there, but a sniper was always a concern.

"I'm sure with you on the job, nothing's going to happen, so you and….Detective Bullock wasn't it? The two of you switch in and out?" Harry asked her as he sat down in a chair, which was the one across form were she'd been sitting.

"That's right, I'm not sure how much longer Mr. Lance is going to be in...this condition though," Renee said as she tried to choose the right words.

"Hopefully not too much longer," Harry said, before switching topics. "There are a lot of rumors going around that the police got a delivery this morning."

Renee had heard about it from Bullock earlier, but she couldn't help but shake her head at the fact that what was supposed to be confidential information, had apparently been leaked to the public so soon. "Rumors spread far and wide in Gotham City. I'm sure you're no stranger to them."

"True, but I'd figure that someone as resourceful as yourself would have heard a few things," Harry said in a calm voice. "Although, I don't know if you would….after all, you're new to the force…."

"Well, there have been….things...that have happened, yes. It's hard to get a conviction to stick to certain people," Renee said. She loathed to admit it, but she had very little idea what was going on.

"What!…My father's medical bills have been paid? Well…..thank you," Dinah said to the doctor as she'd been inquiring about payment options for his care on the other side of the room.

' _Remember, you're a beneficiary of the RAO health insurance plan. You do work for me as my personal trainer after all,'_ Harry explained to Dinah, who nodded, that made a lot of sense and it had slipped her mind. _'You know, it won't be too long before your father can be moved.'_

' _Yeah, but….'_

"It's a shame about what happened downtown, that accident at Sionis's nightclub," Harry said as he tried to lead Renee in a certain direction. He was more then capable of carrying on a conversation with two people at once so he was talking to her and Dinah at the same time.

"Well….accident...might not be the right word, but….you have to understand that I don't know what really happened," Renne said, although she did know that Sionis, Alberto Falcone, alongside several of Gotham's most armed and dangerous were found hog tied in her bosses squad car.

"I'm sure you've overheard something, I mean, you strike me as perceptive, Officer," Harry said with an encouraging smile on his face, trying to get her to say more then she should. He knew that she was going to be a tough one to crack, but Harry was someone who got a real thrill out of the chase.

' _We can move him into the Mansion, any medical care can be covered through your health plan….'_

' _...We have the best dental and health care plan in the nation,'_ Faora chimed in, she couldn't help herself, she'd worked hard to make sure that RAO provided their employee's the most competitive benefits package in the world. _'Everything should work out well.'_

' _If you say so,'_ Dinah said back to her dryly as she thought about the merits of moving her father to the mansion. She honestly couldn't think of anything wrong with that plan, maybe there was a flaw somewhere, but Penny had the medical knowledge to look after him and security would be tight.

Her father was improving little by little, but he was still in a coma and the doctors weren't certain when he'd come out of it.

* * *

Harry and Diana were on their way to lunch, they'd left Dinah behind at the hospital to visit with her father and Diana would pick her up in a couple of hours.

Right now, the two of them were here to have lunch with Bruce Wayne and Harvey Dent. The two of them walked forward as they made their way into the rather exclusive restaurant to see Bruce sitting at the corner table. After taking notice of them, he hailed them over with a wave of his hand.

"Harry, and...Diana as well," Bruce said as he got up to give both of them a strong handshake. He couldn't help, but be surprised at just how strong the two of them seemed to be. "How are you doing?"

"Pretty well given the circumstances," Harry said as he sat down in a chair across from Bruce, after pulling one out for Diana.

"I heard you were caught in the explosion at Larry Lance's home," Bruce said and Harry nodded in confirmation. "Must have been pretty nasty."

"It was pretty nasty," Harry agreed, although he was healed, he had to give the impression his back was still sore. It was best to maintain appearances in public.

"Harvey called to say that he should be here soon, but he got caught up in work at the office," Bruce explained to him. He could tell that Harry had a good idea what the nature of the work in question was, and he did as well. The two of them eyed each other for a few seconds, before smiling. "But he'll be joining us as soon as he can."

"So, I hear that you've been keeping yourself busy?" Bruce asked shifting topics, and the question that lingered in between the lines hung in the air.

"There are rumors that you have been pretty busy as well, if your very active night life is any indication," Harry stated as counter and given the nature of the rumors surrounding Bruce as a result of his playboy act, anyone eavesdropping on the conversation would end up thinking that he was referring to that extremely active night life.

"Some might say the same about you, but you do live a productive life," Bruce commented to him and Harry raised an eyebrow at that.

"Yes, I do indeed," Harry said to the billionaire as he ordered his food. He leaned back in his chair for a moment as he considered something. "Did you hear about explosion at Sionis's nightclub has hit the news and the truck that was run off of the road?"

"I heard the rumors, yes," Bruce agreed, pretty much confirming his role in it, without even saying a word. The two of them pretty much knew that the other knew about their nocturnal activities, but they weren't going to outright say it. "Although, you do have a busy schedule…."

"Yes, I'm fairly busy. I'm also heading back to university this autumn," Harry said and Bruce raised an eyebrow in his direction.

"You have a doctorate under your belt already, and yet you're returning…."

"I have three actually, but I try not to brag about my accomplishments," Harry said and Diana decided to speak up.

"His accomplishments pretty much speak for themselves," Diana said and Bruce wasn't going to argue that point. The billionaire playboy took a sip of the coffee that had been delivered to him.

Harvey Dent walked in at that point, looking rather frazzled. He looked to be in quite the mood and anyone who knew him well, would know he wasn't of the soundest mind when he was feeling like this.

"Sorry I'm late," Dent said in a hurried voice as he parked himself down across from them. "It's been a bad morning since it's looking like those two are going to walk."

It was due to just how frazzled he was, that he decided to tell people that he really shouldn't be, what was going on at work. Although, it would only cause trouble for some of the corrupt cops in Gotham so he didn't feeling like holding his tongue. "Sionis and Falcone are going to walk."

"So the rumors about what happened at the Nightclub were true, it was a fight between their two sides," Bruce said, he knew Roman Sionis and the man always had a temper. It had gotten even worse as he grew older.

"He calls himself Black Mask," Dent said out loud, the restaurant was full of the Gotham Elite. So while he might not legally be able to put those two away, he could ruin their reputation. "Alberto on the other hand is no where near as bright as his father. He's the least intelligent of the three siblings."

"The other two might be a problem then?" Harry questioned him and Dent nodded roughly as he held a silver dollar in his hand, and played with it in between his fingers. It appeared that the repetitive action quickly helped him to calm down. "What exactly would it take to put them away for good?"

Dent chose his next words carefully, although there was a hint of acid on the tip of his tongue. His eyes narrowed dangerously as he tapped his fingers against the top of the table. "The evidence was conveniently lost, go figure. It'd take someone who wasn't on the take, a prosecutor who doesn't have his nuts in the hands of the mob and a judge who isn't on the take."

Harry smiled, if that wasn't a statement that said everything about what was wrong with the justice system in Gotham City, he didn't know what was. Dent pinched the bridge of his nose. Harry wasn't about to stop him ranting, especially when he was on a roll.

' _Oh, this is getting interesting,'_ Zatanna thought out loud to the agreement of anyone else listening at the moment through the bond. While Harry was keeping an ear out for any interesting comments from the girls, he had his attention focused mostly on Dent.

"The District Attorney's office is cleaner than most in Gotham, but they can only do so much," Dent continued as he helped himself to the stew that had been brought to the table. "It doesn't really help that the DA himself is a bit of a coward who's afraid of rocking boats."

Harry nodded, he figured as much, although it was quite interesting to hear about the internal politics at work.

"Would Rachel be up for it?" Bruce asked and Dent eyed him closely.

"She would be normally, but she's after Maroni like a dog chasing a car, and her little near death experience has caused her to become a lot more….intense," Dent said and there was a sense that he decided to go with intense rather than a different word at the last second, perhaps Harry was just imagining things though. "She's working on the Maroni case currently, and Loeb….well, Loeb's done protecting his ass, I think."

Dent took a pause to take a sip of his drink. "Rumor has it that Maroni said something to Loeb in public that really pissed him off, and now….well, he's going to let Maroni sink for it."

Harry found that information to be quite interesting. The Police Commissioner had done a lot for the different crime bosses and crooked businessmen within the city as long as they paid the bills, but now that he was done protecting Maroni, things were going to change quickly.

The four of them continued their meal, only for his attention to be grabbed by a rather rude individual who had showed up to eat there.

"I can't believe this! Of all of the restaurants in Gotham we had to land in! We have to land in this one! It's just all the fucking luck that we had to walk into the one with Bloody Bruce Wayne and Harry Fucking Potter!"

' _What's this guy's problem?'_ Ginny wondered and Harry was about ready to find out as he turned to look towards the person in question. He was short, fat, and rude, it looked like he was trying to wear stylish outfit, but he overdressed and his garb was almost Victorian in some ways.

"But Ozzie…."

"But, nothing Tracey," the man interrupted the woman with him in a rough Cockney accent. He narrowed his eyes at the woman who stared back at him and her mouth fell open halfway as if she was going to say something, but he cut her off with a shake of his head.

It looked like she was trying to look like a high class woman, but the dress she wore was a bit too low cut for that. She also spoke in a rather pronounced accent that made one wonder how legit it was. Then again, very little about her seemed legit given her attire.

' _Not very high class at all, more like high school hooker,'_ Lavender stated to the group after looking her over critically through Harry's eyes, and Parvati chimed in with an opinion of her own.

' _Definitely high school hooker,'_ Parvati agreed as she placed her hand on the edge of her chin and pushed her head back with a sigh.

' _Well, I'll defer to your judgment and damn, she does look….a bit tarty,'_ Daphne thought delicately after she took a long look of her own. She might be a fairly good looking blonde, but it was hard to tell under the twenty pounds of makeup.

"Oswald Cobbblepot," Bruce stated to Harry, causing him to raise an eyebrow. "And his plus one is Tracey Buxton."

"So why is he looking at you like he wants to stab you?" Harry asked him and Diana didn't say anything out loud, although she mentally relayed something to Harry.

' _And why is he giving you the same look as well,'_ Diana asked him and he shrugged his shoulders in response.

' _I don't really know what his problem was,'_ Harry stated as he threw his head back with a sigh. He had several ideas, but there was nothing that stood out to him.

* * *

"Thanks for the ride," Harry said to Harvey as he got out of his car.

"Don't worry about it, I was headed here after lunch anyways," Harvey said as he got out of the car himself. He would normally question why someone like Harry Potter was meeting with James Gordon, but given the fact that it was pretty much common knowledge that he was dating Barbara Gordon. You could put two and two together, and figure out that it was probably something related to that. "So, Gordon wants to meet with you, does he?"

"Yes," Harry said without missing a beat. Diana had left to go pick up Dinah from the hospital and they mentioned something about heading out to do some shopping in order to pick up some things for her room at the Penthouse.

"HARRY!"

Harry figured that Barbara might have be here, he could tell that she was nervous after relaying the message to him his morning. Of course there was also the fact she worked here part time so he might have just caught her on her lunch break. She greeted him with a tight hug, which was more of a flying tackle really, as Dent slipped off with a nod towards the two of them.

"Dad's going to meet us down here in a minute," Barbara said after breaking the hug, she proceeded to bounce up and down on her heels nervously. In her mind, this was every teenage girl's worst nightmare come true.

Harry spent a few minutes talking with her about his day so far, well generally. She seemed rather interested about Oswald Cobblepot.

"Cobblepot was supposed to be one of the beloved sons of Gotham City, I mean you saw it in the papers and on the news right? There must have been half a dozen puff pieces about him possibly returning home," Barbara rambled without taking a breath. Harry smiled as he held her hand, and just listened to her talk, her enthusiasm was infection. "Seems to me like you might have a bit of…."

"...Bruce said that their families have a past, so maybe he's ran into mine in the past as well."

"He wouldn't have any dealings with the Potters, because…." Barbara started, but then she and Harry got to the same conclusion at pretty much the same time. "...Maybe with the Evans?"

"Maybe with the Evans, I don't know for certain. Mum or Aunt Rose probably do though," Harry said, it was bothering him that the name Cobblepot did have some sort of significance to him, but it wasn't coming to him as to why. He had assumed that it was the first time he ran into the man, but he had a pretty vehement reaction to him. That made Harry want to figure out why.

"So is Dinah doing alright?" Barbara asked. "I mean….I talked to her the other day...and she said she was….but..."

"...She's doing fine," Harry informed the redhead as he squeezed her hand, while gently stroking his thumb along the top of her hand to keep her steady. "Actually, she's more than fine when you think about it. Once her father's stable we'll make arrangements to move him to the mansion."

"That's….that's a good idea," Barbara said as she had a sudden burst of the hiccups. Harry, without missing a beat, got her a glass of water. Taking it from him, she hiccuped again, before gulping it down. "...Thanks, but it's a good idea, because even though Black Mask was put away, he'll be back on the street any moment now."

"According to Dent, he is, but….you do realize that this is all off the record?" Harry asked as he looked at Barbara and she shifted nervously before nodding. "Your old classmate, Alberto Falcone was one of the people caught last night as well."

"Little weasel doesn't have the brains to get himself out of trouble, so I guess his Daddy's high priced lawyers sorted it out for him," Barbara said in disgust and Harry grinned at her tone.

Their conversation was cut short as the doors swung open and James Gordon entered the lobby. He turned to see Barbara and Harry standing there. "Barbara, Harry, I'm sorry that it took so long, I'm running a little bit behind today."

Gordon looked rather frazzled as walked forward to join them. The older man looked like he hadn't slept in a few days and he most likely hadn't. He was carrying a large package underneath his arm that appeared to be hastily gift wrapped in a hurry.

"Barbara, I need a word with Harry," Gordon said and Barbara was about to open her mouth to comment, but there was a look on her Father's face that told her everything she needed to know. She nodded her head in agreement, then gave Harry a quick peck, before slipping off. "We should be able to talk in the donut shop across the street, hardly anybody there at this time of day."

Harry nodded as he followed Gordon across the street. Once the two of them were seated, he turned towards Gordon with a light smile on his face. "So, has it been a busy night for you?"

"Busy last couple of days actually, maybe a week, come to think about it," Gordon said as he placed the the package down on the table in front and ordered himself some coffee. Even though it was midday, he felt like he needed it.

' _Seems like you're not_ _the only one with a caffeine addiction,'_ Pamela thought to him.

' _It's not an addiction,_ _it's a way of life,'_ Karen corrected her gently.

' _Okay,_ _fine,'_ Pamela thought, playfully humoring both Karen and Harry for the moment.

"I'd been meaning to give you something for your birthday, but a lot came up and the chance was lost in the chaos," Gordon said as he offered the package to Harry. "And given recent events, I think that both of us can agree that this would be more appropriate."

Harry looked at him curiously as he slowly opened the package. Looking inside, he saw a permit to legally carry a concealed weapon, along with a handgun and a bullet proof vest meant to be worn under a person's clothing.

"So what's the occasion?" Harry asked calmly as he looked it over.

Gordon was prompt to explain. "Given all that's happened, I thought that you need alled of the help that you could get. You've already had a couple of scares, and given how much of a high profile you're gaining in Gotham, there might be a few more people who would be willing to take a shot at you."

Harry thought that it made a lot of sense and he was honestly grateful, although the extra protection wasn't really needed. He wasn't particularly fond of guns either, but the thought was appreciated. He supposed that he would be better off having something and never using it, then not having it available if he did.

"Given the laws of fatherhood, I should automatically disapprove of you by default," Gordon stated, slowly lowering his coffee cup after so he could look at Harry in the eye."But for some reason I don't, although I do have my misgivings, but I'd have misgivings with anyone and I have less with you than I really should. Regardless, it would be a shame if something happened to you, so there you go."

Harry smiled. "It's appreciated."

"I figured that you would understand the value of protection, especially in Gotham City, and it most certainly wouldn't hurt to have a bit extra," Gordon explained, he understood Harry's misgivings from the start by the look on his face. "A few strings had to be pulled, but it was nothing illegal. Just used a few favors I was owed to push you ahead of the line."

Harry didn't say anything, because he understood completely.

* * *

"So, do you have any idea what Harry wants?" Hermione asked nervously as Nym lead her towards Harry's study later that day.

"Sort of, but I'll let the man tell you himself," Nym told the girl and Hermione nodded as she was led to the office. Nym knocked on the door and both of them waited for the okay to come in.

"Come in," Harry stated to them as the door opened, the two girls walked into to see Harry sitting behind his desk and finishing up some paperwork. He looked up toward the two of them. "Sit down Hermione. You can as well if you'd like to Nym."

Hermione sat down across from him and Nym chose to do so as well. The dark haired woman watched him carefully, after the lesson she learned a while back, she was still a bit nervous around him. Most frustratingly, she was having her movements monitored and the library had locked her out.

"So, what do you want, Harry?" Hermione asked him, only for Nym to give her a stern look due to her tone. She managed to dial it down her attitude to a more respective manner. "What do you require of me, master?"

"No need to call me that, Hermione, relax," Harry said to her and she nodded, although she nervously raised to the side of her face. "I actually got you a position that you'll enjoy."

Hermione half raised an eyebrow towards him as she waited for him to explain. Harry was good at, although some might say he was bad at, building up unneeded anticipation in a person's mind.

"I've gotten you a position at the Gotham City public library," Harry informed her and Hermione raised her eyebrows in surprise. "However, it's under one condition, it's the only library that you're allowed to step foot into, until further notice, the Mansion and the Castle are off limits. You're not to step one foot into a library before the start of your shift or stay one minute past the end of your shift."

Hermione nodded, although she did have a question. "You do know that I wanted to go for my Masters in Information Sciences this year?"

"I know you did, and there will be more than sufficient time to do so later, but you need another cooling off period," Harry said gently as he surveyed Hermione carefully. "You were doing so well after Hogwarts, but you've really backslid as of late. I think that you need to understand that your obsession with knowledge is your greatest flaw and could be your downfall. Knowledge is something that should be sought, but if you allow it get away from you, you'll be in trouble."

"I understand, Harry," Hermione said as she realized that she would either get the time spent during her shift at the library, or not get any time in one at all. She was submissive to Harry's wishes and really, it was a wonderful opportunity for her. "And I accept your terms."

"I know you would," Harry said as he turned around. "Is there anything else that you need?"

Hermione shook her head, Harry had given her plenty to think about today.

* * *

Astoria stepped inside of Harrison's office to see him leaning against his desk as he read a large file on the surface below him, and she couldn't help but raise her eyebrows at the sight. She was currently wearing a black tank top that wrapped around tightly around her breasts, along with a tight pair of black pants and knee high black leather boots. She parked herself on the desk across from Harrison, waiting patiently to be addressed.

"Hello, Astoria," Harrison said as he continued to read through the file and tried to figure out what he was going to do next. After a moment, he sat down in his chair and looked towards the blonde. "So how are you doing?"

"Fine," Astoria told Harrison with a shrug of her shoulders, and there was a few seconds where Harrison looked at her closely. She looked at back at him for a moment, before tilting her head to the side in confusion.

"You know what I mean," Harrison told her as he surveyed her over the top of his glasses and the blonde bit down on her lower lip. "The itch, I want to know how it's doing."

Astoria nodded at that, she had been alone with her father when he died and spent several hours in the room alone with his dead body except for a Harry Potter book, before her Mother found her there later on that day. Some would say that experience warped her just a tiny bit. "It's….alright, it isn't to the point where I have to scratch it and sex helps a lot."

"I figured that it would, but there's still the urge every now and then, isn't there?" Harrison asked Astoria and the blonde watched him carefully, before biting down on her lower lip nervously. "It's not really a problem right now, is it?"

"No, but….."

"I think I'm going to help you deal with it, this individual….well, I doubt that many would miss him after what he's done," Harrison said as he slid the file towards her. Astoria's eyes widened as she noticed how thick the file was and she was about to find out that it was for a good reason. She read over it carefully, the man in question was involved in heinous crimes involving children, he was also a pureblood wizard who'd managed to avoid prosecution due to a technicality.

"You know what to do," Harrison told the blonde and she leaned forward to kiss him on the lips.

"Thanks, Daddy," she giggled as she got up to her feet then started to skip out of his office merrily.

She skipped right past Daphne and Nyssa was following behind her, who looked at her younger sister with a raised eyebrow. The older blonde stepped into the office, but not before she turned to look back at her sister departing form once more, shaking her head she turned around to see Harrison sitting there, casually leaning back in his office chair. She stole one more look at Astoria, then turned her full attention back to Harrison.

"Do I really want to know?"

"No, you don't," Harrison stated firmly and Daphne knew from his tone not to pursue the matter further. "Nyssa, welcome back, please sit down, we need to discuss….certain...matters."

"The League is in a state of...hibernation...right now, although my Father's return will need to wait until the stars to align properly so it may be a while off," Nyssa informed him "He'll be back eventually, I'm just uncertain as to when it will happen."

"And Zombie?" Harrison questioned her and she was prompt to answer him.

"He barely survived the encounter with Nightwing in Gotham," Nyssa stated to him and Harrison nodded at that, the injuries the man suffered were pretty severe. "He was fortunate to survive, but his back was messed up to the point that he required reconstructive surgery, and his lungs were damaged to the point he needs a respirator to even breath properly."

"I see," Harrison said as he poured several three glass of wine, then offered one to the two girls, who took it from him properly.

"Why didn't he kill him?" Nyssa questioned him.

"He figured that Zombie was going to die from his injuries," Harrison said tapping his finger along the edge of his glass.

Due to the difference caused between them when Harry merged with the hallows and the length of time Harrison had existed, the two could keep things from each other. So, while the bond and the girls thought of them as the same person, at this point in time they were two separate people.

Either way, it was easy enough for him to connect the dots. "There really was no way of know that he'd be able to survive them."

Nyssa nodded her head in agreement, while keeping her gaze steady on the floor. Harrison placed his left hand on her shoulder then slowly reached up with his right to cup her chin between the fingers and the thumb of his hand, then he tilted her head up so she was looking him in the eyes.

"Now we just need to figure out what to do with you," Harrison whispered into her ear and Nyssa flinched for a second as Daphne carefully sipped on her wine, before she rolled her shoulders back. "You promised me….swore to me...that no one important was going to be hurt. Yet, Neville is dead. So we have a very real problem."

"We do and I should be punished for this mistake,' Nyssa stated to him, causing Daphne and Harrison to smile at her words.

"Don't worry my dear, you will be," Harrison said as he motioned for her to remove her clothes and she quickly jumped to do as she was told.

Daphne looked towards Harry with a wicked grin on her face. "Shall I remove your belt?"

"If you wish," Harrison said to her with a smile.

* * *

**X-X-X**

Nyssa was stripped naked on her hands and knees on the desk. Her delicious ass wiggled out before him as Harry saw her naked body. Daphne conjured some chains and kept her down on the desk. A ball gag added to the atmosphere.

"This bitch is getting off on this," Daphne suggested as she worked her fingers in Nyssa's dripping snatch and she took the juices over, pressing them to Harrison's lips and allowing him to taste them.

"Yep, she is," Harrison said as he had the belt in his hand and he doubled it over. Playfully, Daphne slapped her ass and that caused her pussy to twitch in pleasure.

"Take her, my lord," Daphne said as she gave Nyssa one last smack to the ass with the belt.

He doubled over the belt and CRACKED her on the arse. That caused the woman to scream out in pleasure. The enticing beauty felt her pleasure rack through her body as Harrison doubled over the belt one more time and cracked it against her backside once again.

"Oh, fuck, oh yes, oh more, more, more!" Daphne chanted lustfully as she fingered herself and made sure Nyssa watched her as she did so. She teased the woman, offering a taste of her cum but pulled back immediately and slipped the finger in her mouth.

Daphne rubbed her breasts and her nipples as Harrison continued to crack away at Nyssa's backside.

"You're to eat Daphne's pussy to several orgasms, while I fuck your beaten ass, until I'm satisfied," Harrison whispered and Nyssa nodded as Daphne removed the bar gag.

The woman got onto the desk, stripping off her skirt and panties to reveal her smooth, shaven mound. The woman's face was above it and Harrison hovered over her backside.

He cupped her pussy from behind but paused.

"No, maybe later," Harrison said as he aimed his huge cock over her tight hole.

His tool was a few inches away from entering her tight bum and he brushed his length against her, making her feel the pleasure.

Then he rammed her ass hard and Nyssa about screamed but Daphne grabbed her around the hair and forced her face onto her dripping cunt.

"Don't forget your duty, Nyssa," Daphne said to her coldly as she grabbed her hair and scissored her legs around her head.

Nyssa got her duty and she delved her tongue into Daphne's nice hot cunt. The woman's tongue worked into her as the dripping juices were sucked up.

"Suck me dry," Daphne demanded as she watched her lord and Harrisons' cock penetrating her deep asshole as he rammed into her.

Nyssa was in heaven as Harrison grabbed onto her tits and rammed her from behind. The woman's tight rectum snapped around his tool as he continued to penetrate her over and over again. Her ass kept working into her from behind.

"Such a tight ass, and you're going to not be able to sit when I'm done with you, I'm going to wreck you," Harrison said as he cupped the woman's nice delicious tits as he rammed into her from behind over and over again.

"Do it, my lord," Daphne encouraged him as she panted as Nyssa continued to explore her pussy. Her eating of the juicy cunt beneath her got even more frantic. "Such….such….a good fucking mouth, oh yes!"

Daphne clenched the side of the desk until her knuckles were light as Nyssa munched on her cunt. She watched the progress of Harrison's thick tool as he entered her over and over again. His rod entered her over and over again. His balls slapped into her over and over again as the wizard kept going into her tight ass.

"Take me," Nyssa moaned but Daphne pushed her face down on her mound. She had to open her mouth to breath and that caused her to suck up cum into her mouth.

"Fill her ass up, take it," Daphne whined as the woman's ass clenched around him as he pulled all the way out of her and rammed her ass.

His thrusts buried even deeper into her and the woman's ass clenched him.

"Cumming," Harrison grunted as he pushed deep into her tight ass.

Nyssa braced herself with the explosion that would end up filling her up. She clutched onto the edge of the desk and moaned at the top of her lungs.

He pushed into her and he milked the last few thrusts, making them the hardest and he finished in her ass.

Daphne was invited to join them as Nyssa was gagged again. Slowly, with an alluring smirk, she licked Nyssa's ass.

"Oh, delicious," Daphne moaned as she licked the woman's ass and there was a second where her moans got even deeper.

"Yes, it is," Harrison agreed as he cupped Daphne's pussy.

"My lord, please," Daphne begged as he had her against the desk and she begged him. Her dripping hot cunt was begging for his meat and he brushed his cock against her entrance.

"Just one minute," Harrison breathed as he cupped Daphne's luscious breasts and speared into her, making sure Nyssa was watching.

Harrison grabbed her hips and pumped her dripping hot pussy with his rod. The woman wrapped her legs around him and he pushed into her at the speed of light. Her walls tightened around his tool as he kept working into her, thrust by thrust.

Nyssa watched, wishing that she was Daphne as the blonde woman was plowed into the desk. Her arms wrapped around him tightly as his cock appeared and disappeared within her dripping folds.

Passions, that's what exploded in her minds, passions. The woman panted as twelve inches of prime Potter penis penetrated her walls. She clamped her walls around him and he pumped into her as hard as he could manage.

"OHHH!" Daphne moaned as she held on as Harry rode her into the desk and he could go hard. Harder than hard, to the point where he fucked her brains out and hard. Drool dribbled from her chin at his actions as she felt more pleasure than should be allowed by law.

Harrison grinned triumphantly as he cupped her breasts and this was the real punishment. Nyssa was being forced to watch Daphne being plowed into the desk. The woman hung onto him, grabbing his arm.

"Damn, you're so hot," Harrison breathed as she grabbed his forearm and Harrison plowed into her.

"SO…..BIG!" Daphne managed, although it hurt her to say that much. The blonde clenched his rod as he went into her a few more thrusts.

She pumped her hips up to meet him and there were a couple more thrusts that he could have given her. His balls tightened and with another thrust, he lost his load in her.

Daphne blacked out from the pleasure as he pumped his juices into her, filling her up to the brim with a few hard thrusts that wrecked her body.

**X-X-X  
**

* * *

"Just who is Harry Potter? Despite being one of the most beloved figures in all of Gotham City, despite how public a figure he is, how well known he is, there is still so much that we don't know about him."

Vicki Vale held a tape recorder in her hand as she looked out the window towards Gotham City. Her red hair fell down past her shoulders. Her sensual face looked delicious in this light, but that was not the best part of her on display. At the moment she was only wearing a tight red bra that wrapped tightly around her amazing breasts, they were round and extremely high, very firm and unlike some in her business, they were very real. They were a D-Cup in size. She had a trim stomach and a body that she worked form. Her abs were sensual and stunning, a token of how well she worked out.

She stretched her calves, mostly to give herself something to do, it wasn't like anyone would be able to see this. She had a lacy pair of panties on that displayed her amazing ass perfectly. Her legs stretched on for miles and she had beautiful feet with very high and elegant arches.

No one would have been able to see this treat, unless you were Nightwing and happened to swinging by to drop off the file that he found on Black Mask's desk where the reporter could see it.

Naturally he got side tracked for obvious reasons and he couldn't help but watch her closely.

' _Well, isn't this quite the show,'_ Kara thought to him, she was about ready to start drooling herself at the sight of this beauty who was essentially strutting around her apartment in only her bra and panties.

"He's the hot thing today, and I don't really blame people for that, that hair, those alluring green eyes, and that body. Even when it's hidden under a suit, you can tell that it's amazing. He obviously works hard for it and he deserves the praise that he gets for it," Vicki said as she continued to speak into the tape recorder. "He's like the Beatles were during their time."

' _Well, you are bigger than the Beatles, so I guess that would mean that your bigger than Jesus,'_ Amanda thought through the bond.

' _So you have said_ _many times before,'_ Donna commented, although it wasn't a necessarily something that she really disagreed with, one would be stupid to disagree with it. _'But hey, I agree with you.'_

' _We do as_ _well,'_ Kara said and there was a second where Zatanna paused.

' _I've obviously missing out on something,'_ Zatanna thought as Harry prepared to make his move while Vicki was distracted.

' _Wasn't she blonde on the television?'_ Karen asked after she took in the sight of the redhead. Not that she was complaining, but she was rather curious.

' _Must dye her hair,'_ Diana suggested, but she really had no idea.

' _Well, you'll be able to find out if the carpet matches the drapes if you play your cards right,'_ Amanda suggested suggestively.

' _Perhaps, unless she dyed that as well,'_ Zatanna commented and there was a moment where Dinah paused to consider it.

' _Kinky, but give that she's someone who struts around her penthouse in nothing but her bra and panties, why would she not be anything but?,'_ Dinah thought back, and there was no arguments on that front.

"He's the new British Invasion and what an invasion he is, I'd like him to invade me," she muttered to herself, before she grinned widely at the thought of it. The very thought of which might as well have sent her running for a cold shower. "I can't help but imagine what I'd do to him, if I had him with me here, right now. I would be able to get under his skin, and see what makes him tick. And I know he knows how to handle a woman, because I see him in the company of several beautiful women everyday. Line them up one at a time and they'd pay money to get a taste of the Harry Potter experience."

Vicki licked her lips as she thought about the Harry Potter experience.

"If I had a chance, oh the things that I'd do to him," Vickie commented to herself as she looked in the mirror with a smile on her face.

Despite the fact that she was looking in a mirror, Harry was still able to slip past her.

"I'd give him a good going over, a one on one intimate interview, I'd milk everything from him and then some," Vickie said. "I wouldn't let up on him either, until I got everything that he had, and then I'd let him do anything that he'd wanted to me. I'd ride this one out, until I get all of the hard answers. He wouldn't go soft on me either, I'll tell you that much."

Vickie felt a warmth rise up from between her thighs as she breathed out huskily with her heart beat rapidly against her chest. She imagined what she would be able to do with him. She visualized him sitting down on the couch in the apartment, while she had a certain piece of him going down her throat. That vision alone made her completely flushed.

"It'd be an interview that would be too hot for television," she whispered to herself as she brushed her fingers down her body closing her eyes as she did so, before snapping them open. "In all seriousness, it would be interesting to meet him, but he must have a million requests for media appearances every day."

She paused suddenly as she felt a gust of wind and then there was sound of something dropping onto her table. Vicki stood up straight as she carefully scanned her apartment. There was one statement that escaped her mouth next. "What the fuck?"

She would have screamed, but there was no one there. In fact, all that was there, was a very tantalizing file laying on her coffee table that diverted her attention and kept her from freaking out.

' _What do we have here?'_ she thought to herself as she scanned the file and her smile got even wider as she started to flip through it further. Her curiosity growing even more prominent to the point where it was bubbling with delight.

She moved to shut the sliding glass down, because there was a bit of a draft coming in. She was pretty sure that she heard something rustle out there. However, she chalked it up to being a figment of her imagination.

She must have forgotten to lock her balcony door, which was a must in Gotham City. She checked it and the windows closely. Once she was sure that she was locked up as tight as she could, she returned her attention back to other matters.

Vicki went for the file and she wondered who got their hands on this, it was pure journalistic dynamite.

* * *

"I'm so glad that you were able to make it up here!"

Harry smiled widely at those words. To be honest, he really didn't need to have his arm twisted that hard to be convinced that he should fly down to Metropolis and join the girls there. Kara couldn't help but grin at the antics of the person who said them as well.

"Well, I figured that since I had a couple of days off that I might as well join you and the rest of the girls," Harry said to Lana who'd greeted him with a bright smile, then promptly attached herself to his right arm and hadn't let go since.

Harry thought that there would be a bit of awkwardness between, given what happened the last time that he saw her, but everything seemed to be turning out for the best. While, he wasn't sure that Lana forgot about what happened, it was obvious that she'd either been able to come to terms with it, or she blocked it out of her mind enough to function normally around him.

"Now, Lana, don't take Harry's arm off," Nell said, causing the eleven year old girl looked at her aunt briefly, before turning her adoring gaze back to Harry with a precarious smile on her face.

"Don't worry, Aunt Nell! I won't," Lana said with a smile, she felt like she'd the best day ever, after essentially dragging Harry all over Metropolis.

' _You know, I can't figure out if she has you wrapped around her little finger or vice versa,'_ Karen thought through the bond link.

Lana tried to stifle a yawn, but she had been running around the city for most of the day. Given all of the energy she had, Harry was wondering when she would hit her limit and it seemed like she hit it right at this moment. Leaning forwards, he scooped her up into his arms and she quickly snuggled against his chest.

"Lana, do you need to go to bed?" Martha asked the younger girl.

"N-no Mrs. Kent," Lana said as she tried to stifle another yawn by placing her hand over her mouth.

"Are you sure you're not tired?" Amanda asked her, which caused Emily to smile, before she added her own two cents into mix.

"...Because you're about as convincing as Mandy here was when she stayed up half of the night, and pretty much fell asleep in her porridge the next morning," Emily said with a wide grin.

"Shut it Emmy!" Amanda snapped at her, causing Lily to level a stern gaze at her twin daughters, and they clammed up under the watchful eyes of their mother. They weren't about to occur the wrath of their mother if they could help it.

Patricia chuckled as she turned to Harry with a question. "So did you enjoy what you saw of Metropolis?"

"A fair amount, yes," Harry offered her and she nodded in response. "We've got a few more things to take care of while I'm in town."

"Yes, we do," Kara said in agreement and she was sure that Faora would as well if she was there.

' _Yes, I would,'_ Faora chimed in as if right on cue.

' _You know we could probably set our watches by how often you two agree with each other,'_ Ginny commented through the link.

' _It is fairly amusing,'_ Penny stated to the agreement of several other girls within the bond

"So how's the tractor?" Harry asked Martha, but before she could answer the question, Lana dozed off completely against his shoulder. He smiled, he was pretty sure that she was dragging her feet towards the end there. Although, he also had a sense that she was trying to keep herself awake to make the most of the day she had with him.

Nell offered a smile in spite herself and she turned to Martha. "Martha, if it wouldn't be too much trouble could carry Lana up to bed? I need to speak with Harry about something."

Martha shook her head with a smile. "No, it's not a problem at all."

With a flash, the redhead woman walked over and gently detached Lana's sleeping form from Harry's chest, she couldn't help but notice that the girl had a vice like grip on him that would have hurt anyone without his gifts. With one swift movement, Martha scooped Lana into her arms and carried the sleeping young girl off to bed.

Several of the other girls followed along behind her as they head of to their own respective rooms.

Nell turned towards Harry with a smoldering grin on her face as she looked at her cousin and lover. "You know, Lana pretty much hogged you all day, I don't think that I had any time with you to myself."

She moved forwards to straddle Harry and pinned him playfully to the couch in the side room that she was sharing with Patricia. It was obvious that Nell wasn't going to make it to the bedroom.

"And I fully intend on making up for lost time, here and now," Nell said as she stroked his chest and slowly teased him.

Patricia watched both of them in amusement, she hadn't left the room herself yet. "That's a pity, because if I'm not mistaken and I rarely am, it's my turn to get some time alone with Harry."

"Well you're going to have to wait your turn," Nell said as she already had Harry half stripped and was running her hands all over his muscles, slowly feeling them up. She liked what she felt and a heat built slowly within her body.

Patricia did not seem like the type of person who would consent to wait but Harry turned towards both of them with a raised eyebrow.

"You do realize that there is more than enough of me to go around," Harry said as he pulled Patricia over and worked his hand down underneath her skirt and caused her to become rather aroused suddenly by his lightest touch.

Nell gave him a frown as if she was left out but Harry ran his hand up her thighs and nearly parted her thighs. That caused her to breath in and out in pleasure and Harry was going to tempt her.

"Harry," they begged as he teased him.

"Relax, good things come to those who wait," Harry said and he leaned over and planted a searing kiss on Nell's lips which she returned, forcing her tongue into his mouth. He captured her in a burning kiss as he roamed his hands down her body and caused her to whimper as he kept exploring her body. He ran his hands all the way down her and there was a lustful moaning that went through her body as she shuddered.

Patricia decided to be less patient than Nell was and she got down to her knees. She tugged Harry's pants down and decided to smile as she saw the treat that he offered before her.

**X-X-X  
**

Harry's twelve inch cock sprang out and Patricia caught it in her hand. The woman's lips wrapped around his tool and she hummed as she rammed her mouth around his rod. The redhead beauty's hand wrapped around his ball and she rocked up and down him.

Nell whimpered with pleasure as his fingers stroked up and down her slit, causing more juices. She lifted her hips up and met Harry's fingers. He worked his probing thrusts into her.

"Yes, yes," Nell whimpered as Harry pushed his fingers deep into her smoldering womanhood. The wizard stroked her tender moist folds.

Patricia gripped the base of his cock, the part that she could not fit in her mouth. She took him as deeply as he could. Nell and Patricia both played with Harry's balls.

"Oh so hot, hot, oh so fucking hot," Harry grunted and the smacking of Patricia's lips could be felt around him as he leaned back on the couch.

"You've seen nothing yet," Nell said as she stroked his sac and he felt more pleasure that rose from his balls.

Patricia felt her jaw a bit weaken so she backed off.

"Come here, I'll take care of you, honey," Harry waved as Patricia's mouth was replaced by Nell's. The hot older woman wrapped her lips around his tool and looked up at him with a smoldering gaze. She looked so fucking hot with his cock in her mouth as she bobbed up and down with it.

Patricia dragged her hips onto his mouth and he wrapped his hands around her thighs. He stuck his tongue deep down into her hot pussy.

"SHIT!" Patricia moaned as Harry worked his magical tongue in between her thighs and there was a slight rattling. She grabbed onto Harry's shoulders, breaking her nails onto his strong arms. The redhead bit down on her lip.

Nell rubbed one out as she went up and down his throbbing length. Her throat pushed halfway down his throat. The woman tilted her head back and smacked her lips on him. She reached up and rubbed her balls, trying to get him to cum for her.

Patricia's thighs tightened and she sprayed his face with her cum.

Harry held onto the couch and pumped into Nell's tight mouth. He was about ready to pump into her dripping hot.

The wizard's balls throbbed as he rammed into her hot mouth. Harry pumped her mouth full of cum and Nell sucked him down.

Her lips were stained with cum and Patricia slid down. The two of them exchanged a smoldering kiss, making sure that Harry kept his eyes on them. Then Patricia and Nell rose up to the couch.

"Oh, we should clean that up," Nell whispered as the two of them licked Patricia's cum off of Harry's face.

"YES!" Harry grunted as Patricia pumped his hard rod and she smiled.

She straddled his lap and then pushed her hips up. She gyrated her hips and speared herself down onto his cock.

"Shit, you're splitting me in half!" Patricia howled at the top of her lungs but never the less she pulled herself up and impaled herself on him. She was feeling stretched out.

Harry kissed Patricia, slipping her one of the potions because she was about to pass out from her first orgasm. He cupped Nell's breasts and switched to her, giving her a kiss and slipping her a motion.

When Nell and Harry were kissing each other, another Harry showed up behind Nell. Harry stroked her smoldering hot pussy.

' _Take me,'_ Nell thought with smoldering desperation and Harry held her hips, about ready to plant his rod into her.

Harry slammed himself into Nell, working himself into her smoldering hot cunt. The wizard's hands grabbed her swinging breasts. The wizard pushed his nose against her neck and explored her body.

Nell felt pleasure burst through her body. Her heat was being sought by his rod. The wizard rocked her body as she sank into the couch, her mind being driven absolutely wild.

Patricia pulled herself up against him and brought her tight walls around his rod. Her slick juices lubricated around his rod as she rod him up and down.

"Shit, you're amazing, fuck, fuck!" Patricia moaned at the top for her lungs and Harry groped her breasts. She threw her head back and screamed out loud.

So much pleasure rocked her mind and Patricia rolled her hips around his tool. Her slick center wrapped around his rod. He pumped deep into her wet center as the wizard kept pummeling her walls. She rode him.

"My sexy redhead, oh so good," Harry grunted as Patricia gyrated her hips around her rod and he grabbed her shapely breasts.

Nell meanwhile was being brought to the edge of passions by the spearing tool that went into her. The woman's tight walls enveloped his rod.

"Cum in me, oh cum me," Nell panted as she bit down on her lip. The wizard pulled all the way out of her and rammed into her. His balls slapped against her thighs.

"Just wait," Harry told her and he roamed her body. He put his fingers in her mouth and she greedily sucked on them. He rocked into her tightening quim.

Nell's moans got louder as Patricia watched Harry fuck her from behind. She watched his cock appear and disappear into the dripping hot mound of the older woman constantly.

"Oh that's really fucking hot," Patricia pulled herself up and sank her cunt down onto his rod, pressing her ass down onto his balls.

"Focus," Harry breathed as he reversed the position but kept his cock in her.

He pummeled her over and over again as Patricia was down on her back. She captured his lips in a smoldering kiss, tasting herself on him from earlier. That got her even hotter and Harry rammed in and out of her.

"FUCK!" she moaned as he sought her dripping hot as her back pressed against the couch.

"Yes, indeed," Harry grunted as he worked his rod into her again and again.

Both women were getting an amazing work out and they pushed back. This was a practical test of the potions and Harry thought they were being stretched to the edge of their limits.

His limits were pretty good although he could control when his climax was.

Patricia was the first one to get a burst of cum fired up into her vagina. She grabbed onto his shoulder as his tool slammed into her tightness. She moaned as she passed out.

Nell grabbed onto the edge of the couch, the fact that she was looking over the edge as Harry plowed her from behind, that was so erotic. She hoped that Harry would remember the silencing charms, she did not bother to ask.

Mostly because she did not really bother to think about it. All she wanted to think about was Harry's hard length buried between her thighs over and over again. Her moans escalated to a new degree as he slammed hard into her.

Her mind was rocked as he pumped himself into her. She hung onto the side of the couch and bit down on her lip.

"Hanging on," Harry whispered to Nell and she nodded furiously as he once again rammed into her.

"About, done," she whimpered as she tried to hold herself up. His hands exploring her body caused miniature orgasms to flow through her body.

Harry groped her tits as he rammed into her from behind. His balls were about ready to be drained into her quim as he rammed her into the edge of the couch.

"Oh….oh…oh yes!" Nell screamed and his balls tightened.

She saw an explosion of white as Harry hammered her dripping hot pussy from behind with a series of deep thrusts that went into her. His balls drained into her hot quim as she moaned.

Nell collapsed down on the couch, her moans escalating even greater as his balls were drained and he sprayed her body full of his cum.

Nell collapsed with Harry catching her before she slid off the couch. With one fluid moment, the dupe disappeared and left Harry snugly nestled between Patricia and Nell.

**X-X-X**

Harry could hear a pair of annoyed voices on the other side of the door after he was completely done ravishing Nell and Patricia.

"I don't believe it….she talks in her sleep," Amanda muttered.

"Well it's your fault for not putting the silencing charms up," Emily argued her sister.

"It's not my fault that I didn't put the charms up, you should have put the charms up," Amanda protested.

"She talks in her sleep," Emily complained as now the charms were now up.

' _Yeah, I can't believe she talks about Harry in that way,'_ Emily mentally added.

' _Well, the seed is planted young but I don't think we needed to hear it,'_ Amanda chimed in.

Harry was trying not to be too amused by the potential discomfort of the twins.

**To Be Continued.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21: A Kryptonian Gentleman in Metropolis.**

If Harry had gone to bed in the penthouse in Gotham and woke up in the one in Metropolis, he wouldn't have noticed much of a difference beyond the fact Pamela wasn't sleeping there naked beside him when he woke up. On the inside, they were a carbon copy of each other, on the outside, the only difference between them was the scenery.

Making his way out of the shower, Harry toweled himself off and slipped on a pair of pants. Grabbing a shirt which he slipped under his arm as he headed in the direction of the kitchen to get a pot of coffee started, while drying off his dripping wet hair.

Stepping into the kitchen he saw that Martha was rummaging through the pantry with a cup of coffee in hand. She was wearing a white t-shirt that was obviously made for casual wear and was a bit worn, along with a pair of blue jeans.

"I'm sorry that the kitchen hasn't been properly stocked yet. Considering the fact that the Penthouse was the last part of the Metropolis tower that was finished and only recently, the girls haven't gotten around to it yet. Although I suspect that's on the to do list in the next day or so," Harry said and Martha stood up straight due to her surprise, before she turned around to face Harry.

She looked as if she was going to respond to what he'd just said, but any sense of what she was going to say was lost as she caught sight of a shirtless Harry Potter standing before her. Married woman or not, it was a sight that distracted her completely. Shaking her head, she was able to regain her mental faculties, but not before her half finished cup of coffee had slipped from her hands.

Without missing a beat, Harry used his lightning fast reflexes to catch it with a quick levitation spell before it hit the ground. Smirking at Martha playfully, he brought it up to his lips and took a long drink from the mug.

"Oh, that's good," Harry offered Martha after draining her cup dry. He poured her another and placed it carefully in her in hand, then clutched his own around her's briefly to make sure that her grip on it was firm. "Anyway, food should be coming in today, but it wasn't a high priority when the girls were living at Karen's condo and this place was a ghost town."

"Well….that...that explains a lot," Martha said as she managed to collect her wits the rest of the way. The woman's eyes locked onto him as she took a sip of her coffee. "That doesn't explain way there's so coffee here though…."

"Given how hard some of the girls work, they pretty much live off of coffee and take out," Harry explained to the woman and she nodded in response, before smiling at him.

"I figured as much. Physiologically if they weren't who they were, they would have probably died due to a caffeine related brain aneurysm by now," Martha offered playfully, causing Harry to grin back at her.

"Isn't that the truth?" Harry asked, then he started to chuckle softly for a moment. "I really don't have any room to talk though."

Martha smiled back at him while keeping her eyes locked onto him. After all, he still hadn't put his shirt on and given Jonathan's performance issues, she was getting any thrill were she could find it. Not that she was reading too much into this interaction or allowing herself to become too distracted.

"I think you already have plenty of energy, even without the coffee," Martha said as she sat down across from Harry at the kitchen table. "You know with all of you do…."

"Oh, I know," Harry said as the two of them enjoyed a cup of coffee together at the table. "It's more of a sanity thing to be honest. With some of the things that I deal with during the day, well, I might be super powered, but there are limits even to my patient."

Harry smiled, Karen and Faora could barely make toast. Jaime could cook very well, but she refused to do so after her time at the Dursleys and Harry couldn't blame her for that. Kara was a walking kitchen disaster that could burn water and actually had once in an attempt to make him breakfast in bed. Patricia actually was halfway passable, but she admitted that cooking wasn't her forte, still, when she cooked it was more edible than what Karen and Faora could accomplish.

"How are things back home?" Harry asked her.

Martha smiled, it was a good question, but at the same time, it was a loaded question. The woman's eyes remained fixed on him. "The farm is doing well, it looks like it's going to be a good harvest this year...and Clark….he's doing well in school."

"That's good," Harry said, he knew that Clark's first maturity was a few years off at this point and that's when his powers would start to grow.

"You'll be able to recoup the loan that you gave us on the farm if we have a couple more years like this. I'm sure Jonathan will feel a lot better about things once that happened," Martha said. Before she thought back to something that Harry asked her last night. "As for the tractor….the tractor is beginning to piss me off, I've got to give Jonathan this though, he's stubborn to a fault and loyal as a fault to that thing."

"Jonathan spends most of his time working on it," Martha said as she shook her head. "Granted, a man's got to have a hobby…."

From the way she was talking Harry got a sense that Martha didn't consider this to be her husband's best trait, but she said nothing further and choose to peer over her coffee cup at him instead.

"You'd almost get the impression that he would rather work on that bloody tractor than spend any time with his lovely wife," Harry offered her and Martha flushed for a second, before shaking her head. From the way she was reacting, it was obvious that his word struck a bit too close to home so he decided to change the subject slightly. "I brought the paperwork regarding the account were I've been investing the money that you've been paying back the loan with for you."

"We've just about broken even, but…..Jonathan is still under the impression we're paying you back for the loan you gave us," Martha said to Harry.

"Given the way that the farm's set up, you might be just breaking even, barely making a profit, or taking a loss for at least the next ten to fifteen years, but what little profit you are making, you can make more money off of the back end," Harry said. "I'm correct in my assumption that Sersi explained this to you already?"

"Yes, that's correct," Martha confirmed as she raised her eyebrows at him for a moment and Harry explained what he was up to.

"It's up to you what you want to do with it, if you want to keep it invested where it is or move it elsewhere. Morning Mum," Harry said as Lily casually sank down onto his lap and stole a drink from the cup of coffee that was resting on the table. She grinned at him for a moment, before leaning in to steal a kiss from him as well.

"Morning, Martha, Harry," Lily said from where she sat on her son's lap dressed in nothing but a lacy red bra and panties.

"Hello, Lily," Martha said without missing a beat as she finished up the conversation with Harry.

"Anyway, regardless of anything else, we are getting a new tractor for the farm, therefore making it a non-issue. There's also the fact that farm land on the Potter property is just sitting there," Harry explained as Martha placed her elbow on the table and cupped her chin while listening to him intently. "I talked to Nell and she's agreed to let Jonathan mind it, it might give him something constructive to do."

Martha thought that Jonathan would appreciate something like that as she looked over the folder that Harry slid towards her. Ideas began to form in the back of her head as she thought about what she wanted to do with the investments.

* * *

Harry had been dragged pretty much by the arm into one of the largest shopping malls in Metropolis by the girls, who had wanted to do some more shopping. He had actually made an excuse to slip away, right before Amanda went hog wild at a nearby shoe store, although Lily, Emily, and Rose kept a close eye on her.

' _You dodged a bullet there,'_ Faora admitted as Harry made his way through the mall. _'Not one for clothes shopping, are you?'_

' _No, not really, Lavender usually does it for me. When I do go to the mall it's to spend time with someone, then to do any kind of shopping of my own,'_ Harry thought back to her and Faora smiled at him through the bond.

' _That's true,'_ Faora agreed, after thinking about it for a moment. She saw Harry pause to look at a sign in the window of one of the biggest bookstores in Metropolis. There was a line up about a mile long and Harry quickly saw the reason why.

It was a line up for a book signing by respected history professor Milton Fine. Granted, history wasn't the only thing he was an expert of, but that was his current occupation at Metropolis University. The green eyed Kryptonian wizard curiously made his way into line.

' _Oh, yes, that's right I heard Fine's new book was supposed to be coming out, I didn't realize it would be this soon,'_ Harry thought to himself and anyone else listening in through the bond. After a moment of consideration he decided that since he was here, he might as well pick up a copy and get it signed.

There were a lot of social misfits who followed Fine's work in the line, but there were also a lot of well-respected businessmen and women. Harry slowly made his way towards the front of it as more people got their copies signed.

He got a good look at Fine as he approached the table. He was a well-dressed man who was just a few years away from being middle age, his dark hair was parted to one side and a pair of thick glasses rested on the bridge of his nose. His dark gray suit was similar to what your average college professor would wear while teaching class. He was extremely knowledgeable individual, but there was nothing dramatic about him at all.

"You're the last person I'd have expected at one of my book signings, Doctor Potter," Fine said as he noticed the young man approaching, although he spoke in a low voice as to not draw any undue attention to him.

"I saw the sign on the window and it made me curious," Harry explained as he looked towards Fine. "That said, I have read all of your books, so I guess that makes me a fan of your work."

"I'm happy to have such a high profile fan, I'll also looking forward to the big announcement that rumors say the RAO Corporation is planning to make," Fine said, before he paused for moment to consider something, before adding onto his comment. "Given the stranglehold LuthorCorp has on Metropolis, it's been able to set the market standard here so far. You're company is going to change the entire landscape when your work becomes known to the public."

Fine carefully signed the book that Harry had purchased. "I must put out one of these books a year and the sales keep going up….."

"I'm not surprised, you're highly sought out as a lecturer at some of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the world after all. I still remember the one you gave at Cambridge two years back," Harry said to him.

"I do recall meeting you then, although it was too brief for my liking," Fine agreed, the people at Cambridge had been the most accommodating of all the universities that he guest lectured at during his world tour.

"In any event, after your lecture I sought out your first book, so you did leave an impression," Harry informed him.

"If there were more men in the world like you and less like Lionel Luthor, it would be a far better place," Fine said as he reached forward to give Harry a surprisingly strong handshake. "It was a pleasure meeting you Doctor Potter, but I should probably get back to the signing as the line doesn't appear to be getting any short. That said, I hope that we can meet up again in the future I would love to pick your brain about some projects I'm working on."

"Don't worry, Doctor Fine," Harry said as he shook Fine's hand and took the book from him. "I look forward to reading any more books that you put out, and I'm sure we can arrange something in the future."

"I'm looking forward to it then and who knows, someday I might the one standing in line to have you sign a book that you've written," Fine said as he moved on to the next person on the line.

Harry walked away from the table with the book in hand and nearly ran head on into an attractive older woman. She had blonde hair with a hint of grey in it, but only a small hint. She had piercing set of brown eyes and a pair of thick glasses. She was wearing a grey business suit that wrapped around her frame rather smartly, along with a pair of stockings and high heels.

"Doctor Potter…..I….I hope I'm not disturbing you?" she asked him and he couldn't help but notice that she seemed to rather nervous at the moment.

"No, you're not," Harry answered her, rather curious about her reaction to him. He also couldn't help but ammend his earlier thought, she didn't seem to just be rather nervous. She was nervous around him to the point that she nearly dropped the notebook that she held in her hands.

"Oh...that's good, that's very, very…good," she babbled at him, having seemingly lost all sense of herself, although she was able to recover from being flustered fairly quickly. "I was wondering if my client could have a few minutes of your time? She's been wanting to meet you for the longest time, I understand if you're too busy...but my client, she's particularly insistent that she meets you."

Harry couldn't help but be intrigued by her words, even though she just rambled off the run on sentence to end all run on sentences. To the point that he couldn't help but think that that even Hermione would be impressed by her ability to talk so quickly, and for so long without taking a breath. "Of course, lead the way."

"I will...thank you...follow me please," she said, after taking a deep breath she led Harry to another table within the store that had an ever longer line trailing up to it then the one for Milton Fine. "Here he is, Miss Jones."

Harry was able to catch a good look at the woman as she turned around to flash a dazzling smile. Her dark hair was tied back into an elaborate looking bun. A pair of thick, but stylish glasses rested on the bridge of her nose, behind which an alluring pair of blue eyes shone at him. She wore a stylish black jacket jacket over a blue blouse that fit finely nicely around her upper body, doing a good job of highlighting her obvious curves, but not putting them on display for the world to see. A skirt extended down past her knees, and she completed the look with a pair of black leather boots that ended just below her knees.

"Thank you Samantha," the woman said with a smile, before turning her full attention to Harry and the attractive brunette motioned to the chair next to her in clear invitation for Harry to sit down with her. "Doctor Potter, I have been wanting to meet you for some time, it literally seems like forever in fact, I'm Juno Jones."

Harry knew that much obviously. She was only one of the most famous talk show hosts in the entire world, although her show was geared mostly towards women.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Miss. Jones," Harry said to her and the woman shook her head at his words.

"Please, darling, call me Juno," she said in an upbeat and energetic tone.

"Then it's Harry," Harry responded with a smile, which caused her whole face to light up in delight.

"Alright then, Harry," she said with smile, before turning back to look at the line leading up to her table, it was nowhere near as crowded as it'd been before and Doctor Fine had given her a fair amount of competition. He was attractive and single, so a few women were going to be interested in him, even if his personality was the same as dishwater.

"I've been watching your exploits with a great deal of interest for a very long time now," Juno explained as she leaned in close to him, which offered him a very enticing view of her cleavage. "And I'm very impressed by what I've seen so far."

"Oh?" Harry asked her with an intrigued smile on his face and she smiled brightly at him in response, before offering an explanation.

"The RAO Corporation, It's….really making great strides towards making the world a better place, but given the man behind it, who could be surprised by that fact?" she asked, before leaning in even closer towards him so that she was nearly whispering into his ear. "There are a lot of people who want a piece of you, you know that right?"

"I might have an inkling, yes," Harry responded with a playful smile.

"And you've been hiring the best and the brightest woman in the world to work for you, some other corporations wouldn't even give them a chance, but their true potential is being brought out while working under you. As it should be," Juno added as her hand lingered ever so briefly on Harry's after she handed him a copy of her book. "It just goes to show you that with just a little belief in yourself, you can accomplish anything."

"I'm sure," Harry agreed with a grin, which caused the woman in front of him to respond with one of her own.

"Amazing, your truly amazing," Juno said, and it seemed like she was going to say more, but she was interrupted by her manager moving over towards them and placing her hand on her shoulder. "Oh, Samantha, what is it?"

"You're needed, Miss Jones, it's urgent," Samantha explained to her in an apologetic tone.

"Well, that figures," Juno said and she looked extremely annoyed by the interruption, never the less, she scrawled out a signature on the inside of the book she'd slipped into Harry's hand earlier. "There are you are, honey, I'll see you later."

She winked at him, then lead in briefly to give him a lingering kiss on the cheek, which caught the attention of some of the press that had been standing nearby, before turning and walking away to deal with whatever situation had popped up.

Harry looked at the autograph within the book and he couldn't help but raise his eyebrow at what was written there.

_I'll be seeing more of you very soon,_

_Juno Jones._

_'What the hell just happened?,' Harry questioned the girls within the bond._

' _Your guess is as good as mine,'_ Diana thought back to him with a momentary shrug and the two of them could have sworn they heard a certain trio of goddesses giggling in the back of their minds.

* * *

A short while later Harry found himself sitting on a bench outside of the bookshop with Milton Fine's book propped up on his lap. He didn't expect to get too far in it as he was mostly reading to kill time while the girls did their shopping.

"Harry, I wanted to talk to you about something if you're not too busy," Lily said as she sat down next to Harry on one side and Rose sat down next to him on the other. He raised his eyebrow at her curiously and Lily hastily amended her statement. "And by me, I mean we, you know the two of us."

"I understand," Harry said, pausing for a moment he closed his book after marking his page, then gestured for them to continue.

The two woman took quick advantage of that fact, and Rose was the one chosen to speak first after a brief non-verbal conversation between the two sisters. "Most of the preparation work is done for the Shining Light School For Gifted Females."

"Right, you wanted to stay at Hogwarts until the Twins graduated, then the two of you were going to see about getting that off of the ground. I suppose that means Lucretia and Vega are likely to be joining us soon?" Harry said and sure enough the two girls chimed in.

' _Ready when you are,'_ Vega thought through the bond link to him and Lucretia quickly added a comment of her own.

' _More than ready in fact,'_ Lucretia inform him, she was getting sick of Hogwarts. Even though things changed when Minerva took over as Headmistress and even more changes were happening as the years passed. There were still a lot of things that would never really change as long as a lot of the old Purebloods were still lingering around, while they were no were near as bad as Riddle's followers they were still stuck firmly in the past.

 _'That's nice,'_ Harry stated through the bond to the two younger woman, before turning his attention back to Lily and Rose. "The plans for the school are coming along well then?"

"Yes, they are," Lily agreed with a smile, but it was a rather worn out one as she'd been staying up late the past couple of nights to plann things out with her sister. Reaching her arms up into the sky the redhead stretched for a moment, then leaned forward to face Harry with a grin. "Although there's still a lot of work to do yet."

"More than a lot actually, but the work is its own reward," Rose added with a slight smile of her own and her next thought seemed to make her dazzling green eyes shine all the brighter. "It would give some of the most gifted young woman in the world a chance to achieve their fullest potential."

They had already talked about a lot of different things regarding the school in the past. One of those previous discussions was about how a lot of members of the collective would be able to fill teaching positions, the previously mentioned Black daughters being two of them. However, that was something that was still a fair distance in the future.

Seemingly out of nowhere, since the last time he checked she was supposed to still be in Gotham, Karen showed up in front of Harry with a smile on her face as he was talking to Lily and Rose about some of his future plans.

"I'm thinking about getting a couple more Ph.D's," Harry informed them and the girls raised their eyebrows at that, although they weren't that surprised.

"Well, you do shoot for the stars," Karen said as she planted herself firmly on Harry's lap and pressed her forehead against his shoulder.

"Yeah, plus there's no way I'm going to allow Michael Holt to beat me on that level," Harry said, it was no less that his ego demanded, he wasn't going to let anyone beat him.

Karen smiled at that, although it was rather forced. "Oh yes, he's terrific, the last time I encountered him at a conference, he spent about five minutes staring at my breasts. Not that I blame him, they are rather spectacular, but five minutes is rather excessive."

"I heard," Harry said as Karen scooted off of his lap and grabbing him by the hand, the blonde leading him off in a certain direction or rather, he allowed her to lead him off in a certain direction. "So, where precisely are we going?"

"It's a surprise, Har," Karen explained to him and she was barely able to rein in her excitement. Lily and Rose had been following behind them, but they soon became lost in the sea of insanity. Eventually Karen led him to a store with a very familiar sign.

"So, this is the most exclusive lingerie store in Metropolis," Harry said, recalling that Karen and some of the other girls had mentioned it once and twice.

Karen smiled at him and nodded in confirmation. "And by exclusive, we mean exclusive, because everything here is custom made."

"And we're some of their best customers," Amanda added from where she sat in a comfortable looking chair, while examining a rather slinky set of lingerie with a smile. Sitting next to her sister, Emily was doing the same and she couldn't help but add. "They love us here, or rather they love Karen and Diana as well, not to mention Faora and well, you get the picture."

"And they value our privacy," Karen said as she dragged Harry into a private fitting room, not that he offered much resistance. Especially, when he had inkling about what was to come next.

A second later, Karen had changed into a slinky set of white lingerie. Even though they were custom made, the cups of the bra were barely able to contain her large mountainous breasts. She wore a pair of white thong panties that barely covered what needed to be covered. She topped the look off with slinky white stockings that covered her toned legs and her delicious toes.

"So, Harry, what do you think?" Karen asked with a purr as she saw Amanda, Emily, and Rose enter the changing room. The twins were wearing matching set of the same lingerie, only in green and several sizes smaller naturally. Still, their budding breasts were nearly spilling out of their outfits.

Harry felt Rose wrap herself around him from behind, looking in the mirror he was able to see that she was dressed in a slinky black number that was the same as Karen's and left very little to the imagination. He felt her breasts press tightly against him from behind as Karen pressed against him from the front.

"So, I think that you're a bit, overdressed for this situation, aren't you?" Karen asked, stroking his chest she worked the buttons of his shirt open.

"We'll take care of his pants, won't we Mandy?" Emily asked and Amanda grinned as she got down on her knees and slowly unbuckled his belt.

Lily had slipped off, although whether or not she would join them, it was hard to say. Right now, Amanda's mouth drove any further questions from Harry's mind.

* * *

Amanda closed her mouth around Harry's hard rod and brought it into her tight little mouth. She worked him up into a fever pitch as his cock slammed in and out of her mouth.

Rose and Emily took turns licking his balls but it was Amanda who got the real main attraction. Harry did felt the rush of pleasure and Karen slowly did a swaying dance as she stood across from the green eyed wizard. She slid the white material off from her body as she exposed a little more of her skin with each passing motion. She was going to allow it to all come off.

Harry watched her breasts, which were not really all that covered up anyway, become more exposed. Her rosy nipples were exposed to him and Harry wrapped his mouth around her nipple. She closed her eyes as Harry suckled the pert nipple in his mouth.

"Oh…yes," Karen mewled as Harry wrapped his hot lips around her nipple and sucked them. He always caused such great pleasure.

"My turn," Emily said as Amanda had removed her mouth and she hip checked her twin out of the way.

"I was just taking a breath," Amanda protested but Emily already took her brother's twelve inches down her throat.

' _Sorry, Mandy, you snooze you lose,'_ Emily thought to her in a taunting tone and Rose cast her eyes over towards the twins in warning.

' _You keep that up and neither of you will get anything, other than a spanking,'_ Rose thought and for emphasis, the redhead smacked both of the twins bottoms which caused them to mewl in delight. She figured that the two of them would get off on it but not to that extent.

Rose was the next one to take a taste of Harry and he rested back on the bench which had been magically spent. That's because his tongue and lips had found Karen's dripping hot pussy. Her walls were assaulted by pleasurable attacks and his hands grabbed around her.

"OH FUCK!" Karen shouted at the top of her lungs as Harry delved into her over and over.

"Not a bad suggestion, Karen," Rose cooed as she stroked Harry's cock and there was a second where she hovered over his throbbing hard cock.

Her dripping slit pressed over his monster cock and she held his waist. She began to ride his erect pole like a cowgirl.

Emily and Amanda sat on the floor, patiently waiting their turn, although after that display, they might be waiting for a long time. Bored, Amanda dug her fingers her twin sister's quim and she moaned out loud as she bucked her hips into Amanda's waiting hand.

"Mmm," Emily moaned as she watched their aunt ride their brother's hard rock solid cock. The two girls took turns feeding each other their own cum. Amanda pinned her sister against the wall and started to take out her aggressions on not getting her brother's cock on Emily's snatch.

Emily was enveloped in pure heaven there was no two ways to describe this. Her hips bucked up as Amanda munched on her.

Eventually Harry turned up and teased Amanda.

"I wonder if she should get fucked or I should make her wait," Harry commented as he stroked his sister's tender pussy folds, slowly, surely.

' _Please….don't….MAKE ME WAIT!'_ Amanda screamed, she would have opened her mouth to do it but Emily forced her sister's mouth into her cunt and caused her to suck in the juices.

"Oh, that's so fucking hot, ram her with that big cock," Emily encouraged her brother and Harry made sure Amanda's face was still in Emily's snatch.

He entered her, stretching out her quim and made her pussy his. He could feel his sister's tightness wrap around him and he plowed into her.

"YES!" Amanda yelled.

"YES!" Rose screamed matching her niece's tone.

Karen shifted her wait and exposed her delicious asshole to another Harry dupe that had turned up while the prime model ate her pussy.

"You know where to stick that cock, big guy," Karen begged him and it brushed against her asshole. She breathed in and out, her nipples feeling stiffening and pleasure, pleasure was this close to being fulfilled. She could almost taste it and his cock speared into her ass.

"DAMN!" Rose yelled, an explosion of lust going through her body.

The very sight of Harry's cock going into Karen's ass had caused her pussy to clench the member of the one that she was riding. She saw the twins, they may or may not of switched out by now, she could not tell. The haze of lust made it extremely hard as his cock pressed between her tight buns. He hammered her ass, making it stretch around his tool.

"Oh, that's good…oh that's really fucking good," Harry grunted as he worked his aunt's hot cunt, as Karen had slid away down across the expanded changing bench. Her breasts were hanging down by his face and that was always a lovely sight.

The other Harry plowed into her tight pussy, working into her from behind. His thrusts buried as far into her body as he could go. Her moans escalated to an entirely different level as he picked up the pace.

"Take me, oh take me, fuck me, take me!" Karen yelled, moaning as he touched her in spots that drove her wild.

Much like Rose suspected, Emily was now being plowed from behind and Amanda was getting her pussy eaten out by her sister. Although she laid down on the ground in a cross eyed drooling mess and she lifted her hips up and down to meet her sister's tongue probes.

Emily whimpered as Harry explored her body with his hands. He was not passing her over, he brushed his hands over every nook and cranny. He alternated between small thrusts and fast long thrusts, never breaking things up. Her tightness clamped his rod as he nearly pulled out of her all of the way and then pushed deep into her body, winding her up with pleasure as she clenched the side of the bed. Her moans got even more wanton.

Rose rode her nephew's rod, wrapping her hips around him as she worked up and down upon him. Her moans got even more pleasurable, especially given that he used his hands on her breasts and caused her whimpering to become even more prominent. Her juices gushed and lubricated his tool as she fitted it around him. The whines echoed throughout her being.

"FUCK!" Karen yelled as Harry rammed her as hard as he could from behind. Her tight center enveloped him as her eyes lit up with the passionate pleasure. Her lip was bit down upon and she screamed even louder as Harry plowed her center from behind. His balls slapped against her thighs as he continued to pick up the pace.

"Yes, that's what….we're fucking doing," Harry grunted as he cupped her breasts and channeled power through them.

Her super tight Kryptonian cunt muscles wrapping around him caused even more pleasure to be channeled through his tool as she worked around it. The blonde cried out in pleasure, as Harry drilled her as hard as he could from behind. The feelings of pleasure around his tool felt extremely amazing and he never wanted it to stop.

Harry could not get enough of any of these girls and three different versions of Harry Potter explored four different girls from various positions. Rose blacked out, as did the twins, leaving Karen alone with all three of them.

"Oh fuck please," Karen shrieked as she felt the cock head enter her backside and she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Another cock was placed in her mouth as she was being face fucked when a cock rammed into her vagina and another one rammed into her ass from behind. The blonde screamed, she could take it but damn, that was hot.

Rose was down for the count and the two twins shakily got up. They took turns licking out their aunt's pussy, taking the sweet nectar from it.

Karen was going to be bathing in seed and she did not care. Harry pummeled into her from several different angles and once his balls tightened, he was locked and ready to unload into her.

The blonde cried for mercy as his balls tightened and he sent the flood of cum into every crevice of her body, filling her up.

Karen collapsed just like the rest of them, cum leaking from her pussy but in the end, she felt completely and totally satisfied.

* * *

Kara arrived at the store moments later, having missed all of the action. The blonde, along with several of the other collective members, had gotten quite a show through the bond link. She saw every taboo, sultry moment of what happened and it took every bit of her willpower not to rub one out in public.

She was caught in the crowd and unable to join them as a result. That made her pout angrily, she was not going to take that one lying down. Unless Harry was on top of her, that was the only thing that she would take lying down.

* * *

"Oh, I can't believe it, it was unfair," Kara said with a pout as she folded her arms, acting like a five year old who didn't get her way at the grocery store.

"Now, Kara, this isn't going to fly, Alpha or not," Harry told her as he stared her down. The blonde matched his glare challengingly. "Remember what happened to Fleur. When she was acting like a tart and I spanked her ass and left her hanging for a week."

Kara's mouth hung half open as she watched Harry, her shoulders shrugging as she stared Harry down. The blonde took half of a second to look at him. "You….you wouldn't dare?"

Kara said that statement with a distinct lack of conviction. In fact it was more of a question than a statement.

' _I wouldn't try him, if I were you, Kara,'_ Karen warned her younger counterpart through the bond link and the blonde placed her arms over her chest with a pouty expression on her face.

"However, if you're a good girl and you behave yourself, then you'll be rewarded," Harry said as he scooped Kara in a one armed hug and she looked at him understanding.

Kara bounced up and down in excitement like a five year old on a sugar high.

' _She's acting unbelievably hyper,'_ Amanda thought as she wanted to reach her hand up and slap herself in her face.

' _If that isn't the pot calling the kettle black, I don't know what is,'_ Emily thought and that got a lot of amusement from the people through the bond link.

Harry turned around with a smile on his face but before he could proceed through the tower Patricia popped in through the bond link.

' _Lex Luthor is waiting for you in the lobby, he just got here in fact,'_ the redhead told him and Harry smiled.

He was right down to the elevator and in seconds, he got there, seeing the young man standing there.

"Good to see you again," Lex said as he looked around the tower and the two men shook hands. Lex took a look around, whistling. He was impressed and that didn't happen easily. "I must say, my father would kill to be here at RAO."

' _Knowing Lionel Luthor, that's a bit more literally than we'd like to think,'_ Pamela chimed in and there was a lot of nods.

"I'm sure many people will, Lex," Harry told him and he smiled. "But I'm sure that you'd like the grand tour….although most of the tower is restricted towards visitors."

Lex nodded, he understood, even he couldn't get into certain levels at LuthorCorp but that was just his father being his father.

"Impressive," Lex said with a whistle as he looked around the tour. And it went without saying that the things that he did not see were far more impressive than the things that he was allowed to see.

' _Just wait….just wait,'_ Faora thought to Harry. They had a lot of projects even though some of them were just in the early stages of development. _'So much on the back burner….micro-processor is giving us a bit of a headache.'_

' _The only thing we need to do is keep it from overheating, without losing any of its power, once we figure out that flaw, we'll beat everything else out in the market,'_ Karen said and there was no denying the amount of confidence that she had.

"So you are keeping yourself busy," Lex said with a smile and he had to say that the tower itself was fairly impressive. He was sure that his father would get some kind of envy regarding the tower.

"One could say that, yes," Harry agreed as offered Lex a seat in one of the offices to the side. A cup of coffee was quickly taken by the young man. "So, you'd be heading back to school soon, am I right?"

"Yes, the final year at Excelsior Academy," Lex said without missing a beat and Harry looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"And you'd be there with the charming Oliver Queen," Harry said and Lex gave a full body shudder. That name did not come with a great personal recommendation for him.

"Please don't remind me," Lex said as he shook his head. Oliver acted like he was the big man on campus and he was the typical upper class douchebag, which was strange because he was in the same year as Lex, despite being slightly older. Then again, he was the epitome of the rich and the useless. He seemed like someone who would blow his money on something really stupid.

"I'm heading back to GCU myself," Harry told Lex and Lex drained the cup of coffee that he had.

"Suspect, you're going to break a few records," Lex said to Harry and he smiled before rattling them off.

"Yes, there's Biochemical Engineering, Psychology, and Criminology."

Lex blinked and stared at Harry. Despite his rather prodigal intellect, it did really catch Lex mostly off guard. "Are you serious?"

"Pretty much," Harry said and Lex let out a whistle, he did appreciate someone who worked hard and did not rest on his laurels, despite having the resources to buy and sell the world.

"You don't do anything halfway," Lex said as he shook his head. "Of course, it doesn't matter what I do because living up to the expectations of my father….it's fairly difficult."

"I can see that," Harry said after not saying much of anything.

"Do you have the same problem?" Lex asked Harry, and there was only a split second of silence.

Harry decided to cut to the chase. "Well my mother was in a coma for most of my life, it was only during the last few years that she came out of it. My father, he died when I was rather young. So I wouldn't know what they expected of me for at least half of my life. While my parents were respected in the community that we were from, I didn't really want to be them. Especially given that they had big shoes to fill."

"Well their shoes wouldn't fit you given all that you accomplished," Lex added, although the metaphor was pretty much lost.

"Yes, although we shouldn't really worry about what our parents thing, but rather we should worry about what we think," Harry said as he stared at Lex. "You make your own legacy and the world will judge you. Although with some people, they'll never you think that you'd measure up to their expectations."

"If that isn't the truth," Lex said, as he thought of his father and what he was up to.

* * *

After Lex was set on his way, Faora and Harry were up in Faora's office. They were currently working on a long term project.

"It isn't a project that you want to rush, is it?" Harry asked the woman and she shook her head.

"No, not if I can help it, I don't want to really rush it at all," Faora commented after a brief second as she shuffled through the papers that she had in front of them. "And I'll be honest, it didn't really take high priority until now, although it should."

"Given that you have been working on the pregnancy thing, that's understandable," Harry said and she looked at the notes.

"Yes, although Hippolyta managing to give birth successfully to Lyta managed to get things moving in the right direction," the woman added as she scanned the notes. "So the solution might be closer to hand than we think but…..I don't want to do anything halfway."

"And you know that I won't let you, when it's something like that which is on the line," Harry commented to the woman and she nodded, gripping her brother's hand. "But the cloning project…."

"I wish to restore Alura and Lara to their bodies, although that's not something that is done lightly," Faora said as she cupped her chin. "There was a way….an experiment that got lost. By all reports, Jor-El undertaking it but that died with Krypton."

"I'm sure," Harry agreed to her. "But you're far smarter than Jor-El is."

"I know I am and so are you, as is Lara, Alura, and Peve, and all of us are working together but we want a durable body without any genetic flaws," Faora said as she showed Harry her notes. "If we screw this up, the clones….well with cloning a Kryptonian, they might go a bit bizarre if you catch my drift."

"I see," Harry said as he closed his hand around hers, both of them thinking about the long term effects of this project.

"Long term project, and one I'm just getting back to, as I'm closer than ever before with getting the baby project down, but yet, I'm so far," she said as these two projects, they were her pet project.

' _Harry, Miss Mercer is here to see you,'_ Patricia thought to him.

' _Well, this should be interesting,'_ Karen commented, as she took a moment to rest in her office. It was one of their moments where the knowledge Karen and Jaime had of their world came in handy.

' _It will be interesting,'_ Jaime corrected her friend, barely able to keep the smile off her face.

"Patricia, thanks, send her up," Harry called as she repeated the same statement over the intercom for Miss Mercer's benefit.

"So, she should be an interesting one," Faora said, checking the files that she had on the young female.

"She has a lot of potential, much of which she's fulfilling but we'll get to that when we interview her," Harry said, if Faora was impressed with someone, that was a pretty good start. It was not that she was picky, she just had high standards.

"Some people might think that it's odd that the CEO of the company takes a meeting with someone who is seeking a scholarship," Harry told her and Faora smiled as she shrugged her shoulders.

"I prefer to take a hands on approach, as you well know," Faora stated as a soft knock on the door was heard. "Come in, please."

The door creaked open and they were greeted by a girl of sixteen years of age. She had nice crimson red hair and vibrant green eyes, although a slightly different shade that the Evans-Potters shared. She wore a nice black blouse that was buttoned on and a jacket. She wore a long black skirt that stretched down past her knees. She wore a pair of silky and expensive stockings and a pair of high heel boots.

"Doctor P…." the redhead said and she stopped and staring at Harry.

"You must be Tess Mercer," Harry said and he reached forward to shake her hand.

"And you're….Doctor Harry Potter," Tess said as she lost all sense of being bold and daring for a brief second. She did recover rather quickly. "I was meeting with….well the other Doctor Potter….but….it's a surprise and an honor as well."

She looked him over for a brief second, trying to check him out discreetly. Harry did not call any attention to himself or what she was doing.

"The honor is mine, given how hard that you've been working, it's amazing," Harry said and Tess looked at him.

"Well, I….I didn't want to hold myself back, I wish I could have accomplished more, but….there didn't seem to be enough time in the day and besides, it's not as much as you accomplished, what you did, you're amazing, the standard that everyone should strive to achieve," Tess said without taking a breath.

"I'm glad that you think so highly of me, but we're not here to discuss my accomplishments, we're here to discuss yours," Harry told the redhead and she nodded up and down.

"Yes, well I've got everything in order," Tess said as she slid it onto her desk. Everything was prepared, even though if most of the information was a duplicate of what Faora already researched.

"You were very through, well done," Faora said, she had taken a special interest in this one and she was not disappointing. "And you've done most of the work possible to get your Doctorate as well, at Harvard."

"Yes, in Marine Biology," Tess confirmed as she nodded her head. The environment was a passion of hers and she was impressed with RAO's attempts to make a world a better place. "I….just think we can make the world a better place, and I'm going to do my part."

' _Oh, can we please keep this one?'_ Pam asked, trying not to sound too eager. Something that she failed at. _'Please?'_

' _Down, Pam,'_ Harry said firmly but slightly amused.

"And you will with the work that you've doing, impression, it's nice to see such passion," Harry told her with a smile on his face. "Well this is all in order and I can tell you that there will be a spot here at RAO for you, once you've completed your studies."

"It would be an honor, sir," Tess said, finally acting a bit more business like and a lot less fangirl. It took her a few minutes to recover.

The group went over a few more things and Harry proceeded to explain the program that they offered.

"While you do have a good scholarship, it won't cover all your expenses, but here at RAO, we believe giving the youth of the world all of the tools that they need to accomplish their dreams and that includes funding," Harry remarked to her and she nodded in agreement.

"That would be great," Tess said as she was still somewhat in awe but she shook off those thoughts.

"And then when you receive your Doctorate and graduate, the grant will be generous as you can tell," Harry told her and Tess's eyes widened briefly as she looked it over. She whistled.

"Yes, you….you really know how to take care of people, don't you, Doctor Potter?" Tess asked as she watched him. "And this….will be more than enough for me to explore….and to take a look at what to do when I can explore the world."

"She is as great as you said, Alex," Harry said to Faora and she nodded with a smile, maintaining eye contact with him. Then he turned his attention to Tess. "And if there's anything that you need from us, don't be hesitate to ask. Our offices in Metropolis are always opened and Miss Starr and Miss Swann will pass on the message to me if I'm in my Gotham Office and I'll get to you as soon as possible."

"I'll take you up on that," Tess said, trying not to look too pleased with herself. "I hope to be seeing a lot more of you, Doctor Potter, sir."

"I'm looking forward to it, Miss Mercer," Harry said to her as she shook their hands. Despite her bold demeanor, she was still in awe. "Is there anything else?"

"Not today, no," Tess said after she racked her brain for anything but found nothing.

' _So, she's one of the brightest prospects we have,'_ Harry thought to Faora, who nodded.

' _Yes, although Miss Fairchild has potential, although she's a bit too young,'_ Faora thought back to him.

' _She'd be perfect when the Academy gets off the ground,'_ Harry thought, already planning ahead, and Faora had to agree.

* * *

Harrison stood on the balcony, peering over London when suddenly he heard something rush him from behind.

He turned around and saw Astoria throw her arms around him, pulling him into a long and tight hug. The blonde held him rather closely against him.

"So you finished your hunt," Harrison said as he saw Astoria soaked from head to toe in the blood of the monster that she put down.

"Given what I caught the bastard doing, I don't think that I drew out his suffering long enough," Astoria said as she looked in Harrison's eyes. The two of them locked into a tender embrace, standing on the balcony. "But I'm sure that it was brutal, I'll give you the rundown later, but right now I want to run you down."

Harrison said nothing although her lips found his in a kiss. She would have knocked him off of the balcony had he not had good balance. He ran his hands through her blood soaked hair, using a few scouring charms to make her somewhat hygienic, although she was biting down fiercely on his lips and she ripped open his dress shirt.

She stroked his chest and nibbled down on the side of his neck.

"Well you're ready," Harrison whispered as he skimmed the edge of her skirt and she closed her eyes.

"Less talk, more action," Astoria said sharply and in response, Harrison pinned her against the wall.

"Remember, I lead this dance," he growled at her and Astoria nodded as Harrison's hands roamed her body. He pinned her roughly against the wall and she loved every moment of this.

"Take me anyway you want, just fucking take me!" Astoria begged him, biting down on her lip with the perfect combination of mischief and innocence. "Please, Daddy, punish your little girl for being naughty!"

Harrison stroked her hair and moved down her body. The woman's eyes closed as Harrison prepared to invade her although he was damn good at building up the anticipation.

Good things did come to those who waited however.

* * *

Astoria found her center invaded by Harry's fingers. Her nerves lit up, she had been worked up from the hunt, so this was something that got her motor running.

Her bare breasts were exposed with Harrison attacking them. Her back was up against the wall, quite literally. The woman whimpered in thinly veiled pleasure as he stroked her center. She lifted her hips up and down to meet his thrusts.

"Daddy, please, want you," Astoria moaned as Harrison took his free hand and smacked her ass which caused her to scream out loud in an orgasmic fury. That hit the shot as far as she was concerned and he kept stroking her heated mound, bringing even more pleasure to her body.

"And you'll have it," Harrison grunted as he stroked her heated center, the ministrations driving her to the edge of pleasure.

Her thighs spread apart and she was naked. Lust burned through her eyes as Harrison had his throbbing member out.

"Wreck my pussy!" she screamed and he rammed it into her at her demand, spearing her into the wall.

Her back hit the wall as her legs wrapped tightly around him. The blonde screamed at the top of her lungs as she dug her nails into the back of his neck.

"Oh give me your cock, Daddy, such a big cock, fills up your little girl, oh nicely," Astoria mewled as she grabbed onto his shoulder and sunk her nails into it.

Astoria lifted her hips to meet the thrusts of his cock, it speared into her body. Her mind exploded into so many amazing sensations that she could not have enough. Her back pressed against the wall accepted his rapid fire thrusts which stretched her out over and over again. She was experiencing every pleasurable sensation she ever remembered feeling and then some more.

"OHHHH!" Astoria shrieked at the top of her lungs as Harrison plowed her hard against the wall, her back cracking against it.

Harrison smiled as he explored her super tight cunt. It enveloped his cock so nicely, he felt her velvety walls rubbing against him as he held her up against the wall. His thrusts….they explored every nook and cranny of her body. The woman's eyes closed tightly and she whimpered in pleasure, so much pleasure, more pleasure than one could ever realized.

He was pretty sure that he heard a moan to do her harder and he roughly speared her center. He felt the woman contract around him and Astoria bit down on his shoulder to encourage him. His spears went deeper into her smoldering hot cunt and he kept it up, he kept working her over. She lifted her hips up and down, moaning at the top of her lungs, sinking her nails into his neck as he sawed away at her.

"Need this, want this," Astoria breathed as Harrison stopped his thrusts.

She whined but then was excited. She was handcuffed and shackled to the wall, made to go spread eagle. Harrison grabbed her ass and ran his hand down it, causing juices to pool between her lovely young thighs.

"More, more, in me, I can't handle it!" Astoria shrieked at the top of her lungs and Harrison teased her.

He sure knew how to get her all worked up. His cock was at the edge of her anal cavity and he grabbed her hips. He was this close to spearing himself into her ass. The woman's tight hole was this close to being enveloped and he rammed deep into her!

"YES!" Astoria screamed, feeling the pleasure explode and cause every nerve ending of her body to set on fire.

The fact that Harrison had her chained against the wall and was having his way with her, that was more amazing. Her hot juices pooled against the ground and Harrison rammed her ass hard as he could. Each thrust into her hot anal cavity mentally lit her up.

Harrison groped her delicious C-Cup breasts with his hands and he pummeled her ass from behind. His rod rammed her ass as hard as he could from behind. Her whimpering pleasure escalated as he had his way with her ass.

"TAKE ME, TAKE ME DADDY!"

Astoria screamed as she felt the pleasure explode through her body. Drool splashed all the way down her chin as she was this close to losing her mind.

One could say that Astoria Greengrass lost her mind many years ago but that was beside the point. He kept at her, hammering her ass with thrusts. He buried his member as far into her ass as it could go.

Harrison was fully intent to wreck her ass. He also played with her clit as he buried his cock into her tight buns against the wall.

Astoria chewed hotly on her lip as she felt more pleasure escalate from her, from head to toe. It made her feel this tingly sensation that could not be beaten. His cock explored her body and she whimpered hotly as he kept working his length deep between her buns.

Harrison sped himself up and rocked her ass. He was not going to quite finish that up and he felt Astoria's hand slip from the chain. It was a time dilation spell by his own design, where the chains would only hold for a moment.

That was so he could have her on the ground, pressing her face first into the ground. He roughly hammered her tightening bum.

"YES!" Astoria shrieked, once again feeling him go deep into her. She could not get enough of this.

"You want this, don't you, you love my cock in your tight bum?" Harrison growled as he rubbed her clit furiously.

"Yes, Daddy, yes, oh pull my arms back and fuck me silly like the little anal slut that I am!" she managed hungrily and Harrison marveled at her ability to say so much with what he did to her.

His balls slapped against her ass as he speared her tight rectum from behind. Her walls clenched him and he cupped her young breast, squeezing it. He bit down on the back of her neck and more pleasure exploded from her head down to her toes.

"HARDER, FUCK ME HARDER!" she begged him and Harrison kept up the hard fucking for sure.

"Such a dirty, dirty, little girl," Harrison breathed in her ear as he nibbled on her ear lobe and Astoria shrieked out in pleasure.

"YES, I'M YOUR DIRTY GIRL, FUCK THIS SILLY SLUT!" she yelled at him as Harrison plowed her deep from behind.

He had ravished her ass to the point where she was pretty sure that she would not be able to sit for a week. Harrison made her roll over, making her sit on that bare ass.

Astoria winced in pain but at the same time, her pussy dripped with hot juices. He marveled at it's wetness and Astoria was now down on the balcony, her back pressing against the cool stone.

Harrison had her pinned down against the ground and his cock slammed into her. Her hips bucked up with each thrust.

"More, more, oh sweet Circe, more!" Astoria whined as he hammered her into the ground. Her damp center was rubbing his tool fiercely and she thought that she was going to come undone with these amazing thrusts.

The dance was escalating in passion, every thrust, every ram, it drove Astoria to the point of pure erotic amazement, one thrust at a time.

"I know you love my cock, take it in you, take it all," Harrison grunted as he squeezed her ass and her center invitingly clamped around him.

"YES, GIVE IT TO ME!" Astoria shrieked as she felt her lover's cock spear deep into her center. The woman's hot walls were being brought to the brink of fulfillment, each thrust, it brought her closer and closer to the edge of where she wanted to be.

She could fall down to Earth right now and not even be bothered by it. As long as she experienced another more powerful orgasm, she was going to be happy. His twelve inches buried deep into her with the force of a jackhammer as he plowed her.

Astoria grabbed his arm and whimpered in pleasure as he rocked her center with his cock spearing as far into her as he could go.

"Cum, I need….please, I need it," Astoria whimpered as she felt so empty, so alone without his cum.

Good things came in those who waited, as Harrison gripped her thighs and pushed down into her. His balls tightened, never once breaking his stride.

Astoria screamed as Harrison emptied the contents of his balls down into her tight quim. She screamed out loud as Harrison roughly unloaded into her.

"GIVE ME ALL YOUR SEED, YOUR DIRTY GIRL NEEDS ALL OF IT, DADDY!" Astoria begged as she was about to pass out but she roughly bucked her hips up.

Her filthy words pushed him all the way to the edge. Harrison drained every drop of cum into her center, spilling his essence into her.

* * *

Astoria was laid out on the balcony, liquids pouring from every one of her holes. She was drooling mess but she still played with herself. Although that was about as much as she could lift her arm. The wizard lifted the blanket that that he had and covered her up. She would be able to find her way in. It must have been several hours before things wound down, at least that's what Harrison figured out.

He had put her through the paces, and Harrison walked forward. He noticed that there was something that was set up on his office desk. He took half of a step forward and held the card up in his hand. It flashed in the light and it took him a few seconds to recognize it.

It was a tarot card of some sort.

Morgaine and Circe appeared at that second, dressed in thin bathrobes. Morgaine was wearing black and Circe was wearing a purple robe but never the less, it clung to their bodies.

"Well that's interesting," Circe whispered as she eyed the card for a second and that got Harrison intrigued.

* * *

Gotham City was no stranger to mysterious ships turning up in the dead of the night for no reason. That's why this rickety ship showing up was not something that raised many eyebrows. Men dressed in casual business attire combed the upper decks of the ship but there was something that was far sinister in the offing.

The ship had the words "The Final Offer" sketched on the edge of the ship. And it was now anchored straight in the Amusement Mile side of Old Gotham. It was pretty much a ghost town right now and that was what the occupants of the ships liked. No one could bother.

"Blimey, I wonder what's taking the boss so long," one of the young men stated in an English accent. He had dark hair, obviously dyed, not that it would be admitted. He was around six foot two inches tall and built like a boxer. He carried a cricket bat in his hand and many people who had crossed the boss had gotten a bit too up close and personal with his little friend. His most distinguishable feature was his mustache, it made him like quite the ugly walrus.

"Relax, relax, we'll figure this out," the man beside him said as he showed up. He was rail thing, of about six foot and four inches tall. He was dressed for success with a tool belt on. He lit up a cigarette and paused before he continued in a quite stereotypical Boston accent. "Mr. Walrus, you know the boss, he'll take good care of us."

"Yes, Mr. Carpenter," the man known as Mr. Walrus did clutching his cricket bat in his hand. He had been taken in by the boss after what happened to his father. He had put that behind him and he swung the bat in his hand, carefully holding it. "Here he comes right now."

A helicopter flew over their heads and skidded to a stop, landing on the deck of the ship. The wind from the helicopter blades moved them as the men stared at what just landed on the Final Offer. Anticipation built up for the gentleman that was about ready to exit the helicopter.

A man exited the helicopter, he was dressed for success in a three piece suit with a nice stylish top hat. Despite the fact that it was not raining, he held an umbrella in his hand. Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot was there and he looked at his two main men who rubbed their hands together.

The other men buggered off leaving Cobblepot along with Mr. Carperter and Mr. Walrus. He looked at them through his beady little eyes, a wide and sharp grin spreading over his face. "Gentlemen, Gotham City, it's ours and ripe for the taking."

With Falcone having one off of the deep end and Maroni having been put in the clink, the Penguin was going to pick up the pieces and take control over Gotham City.

The men on the docks nodded as the crates were rolled out. They understand one thing. The Battle for Old Gotham was at hand.

**To Be Continued in the Next Arc.**


	22. Battle for Old Gotham Part One

**Chapter Twenty Two: Battle for Old Gotham Part One.**

Harrison clutched the tarot card in his hand just as Morgaine and Circe showed up. He twirled it in his hand absent mindedly before the silence was breaking.

"And what, pray tell, is interesting?" Harrison asked calmly, finally breaking his silence with the two of them. "You two, you obviously teleported straight into my office, past the wards, which means that you obviously notice the magical signature on the card."

The two witches stared him down, trying to gauge his reaction. He was not made but such curiosity was something that he would not hold back for long.

"I could not believe it, I thought that she was gone…." Morgaine muttered but Circe jumped in with her.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I ran into her about once or twice…." Circe continued and she barely had time to pause to take a breath before Morgaine jumped in with her.

"Well, it's obvious that I didn't but you did?..." Morgaine asked trailing off as Circe jumped in with an answer, Harrison watching them back and forth like they were playing some kind of tennis match. He was kind of amused, at least for now.

"No, but she….well there were rumors of what she did….but I didn't believe them…."

"She was into….well there is no telling…."

Harrison's amusement faded and he slapped his hand on the desk to get their attention. Their eyes locked onto his, knowing that the time for fun and games was over. "Please explain because I'm lost."

"Okay, where to begin," Morgaine said and Circe piped in cheerfully with the obvious response.

"The beginning might be a good place," Circe said and Morgaine folded her arms but she conceded that she had a point. Harrison drummed his fingers absent mindedly on the desk and Morgaine drew in a deep breath.

"I've had two sisters," Morgaine admitted as she threw her head back for a few seconds and Harrison corked his eyebrow , motioning for her to continue. So she did. "One of the sisters, named Vivienne, was known as the Lady of the Lake. You may have heard of her. And there was the youngest of my sisters, Nimue."

Harrison watched her as he poured himself a cup of coffee and tipped the contents into his mouth. He offered the two girls a drink which they accepted. "I wasn't under the impression that you had any family outside of the Collective."

Morgaine had a pensive look on her face as she tipped the contents of the cup and drank it. The cup lowered as she gave her candid and honest answer. "There was never the right opportunity to bring it up."

"Okay, fair enough," Harrison said as he shook his head, willing to let this go, at least for the moment. "But there must have been a reason why you have never brought it up to me during any of our conversations."

Morgaine cupped her hand on her chin and she was going down memory lane and it was not a very good trip down memory lane. "Vivienne and I….we had a falling out and Nimue….well I assumed that she was dead but this is a point where she is alive.

Harrison found himself stare at her and then it hit him. "So this is the same Nimue that is a huge part of history? The one where Merlin taught her magic and she would not give him her love until he gave her all of his secrets. Secrets which she used to entrap him forever once she learned enough to do so."

Morgaine's head inclined in confirmation. "The story is a bit deeper than that, but in it's essence, it is pretty much correct."

Harrison smiled as he wondered. "Well how about that?"

' _How about that indeed?'_ Charlotte asked as she closed her eyes and she was amused. _'Hermione, please get ahold of herself.'_

' _I'm not doing anything,'_ Hermione squeaked but she tried to hide her excitement, failing at doing so.

' _Sure you aren't, sure you aren't,'_ Kara said as she shook her head, the blonde throwing her head back for a second corking a smile. _'You aren't hitting a gusher at the thought of….that particular young woman. You acted the same way when you met the Founders, or it was only worse.'_

' _The girl has a point,'_ Rowena thought in amusement through the bond link, as she was nearly amused by Hermione's….passions. The girl would have fit Godric's house more than hers however, despite what people might have think. Deductive reasoning ended when the pages of the book did.

' _That she does,'_ Helga thought as she thought it was kind of adorable how much Hermione was pouting a lot of the time. She cupped her hand on the side of her face.

' _Okay fine, but…seriously, you can't admit how….well….how interesting it is,'_ Hermione said as she had been caught in her hand in the cookie jar, quite literally.

Harrison smiled as he turned to the two women who stood there, and he motioned for them to continue. After their amusement passed, Morgaine did.

"Well that was quite the reaction," Morgaine said but then again, if she recalled correctly, young Miss Granger experienced a similar reaction to her. Mirth twinkled from her eyes.

"Yes, but we need to figure out what her game is," Harrison said and Morgaine shrugged.

"I didn't know that she was alive but I think that a family reunion might be in order before too long," the witch suggested and Harrison got the point loud and clear. Where to go next was next on the agenda.

"Yes, that would be prudent," Harrison agreed, cupping his chin thoughtfully. Plans already began to form, upon plans.

* * *

Harry smiled as he sat on the plane along with Karen. The normal blonde was dressed in her disguise, wearing a red wig, along with glasses and brown colored contacts as she shifted her weight. She was dressed in a blue blouse that wrapped around her breasts and a skirt that went down to her legs. They were making their way to a meeting at Wayne Industries.

"Plane's landing," Harry whispered to her and Karen smiled as she waited a few seconds for the plane to land. They supposed that they could have just flew back in another sense but given that he was spotted by a few people in a public book sighting in Metropolis, that might have not been the best good idea. Plus, Harry was looking for an excuse to catch up on his reading.

"Good," Karen said as she made sure her case was attached as Harry collected the books that she was reading.

The two of them left the airport where they were waiting for the limo to pick them up.

"It should be here in about five minutes, providing the traffic isn't too bad," Harry informed Karen who shrugged.

"Well we might as well take a seat now," Karen said and she saw Harry seeing the television that was on. The guard was only half watching it and the sound was completely down to a dull hum. Although both Harry and Karen could hear it with their enhanced hearing, with Vicki Vale coming on the television with the latest report and the news would be interesting.

"This just in, Roman Sionis and Alberto Falcone have been released on bail despite the accusations of their many crimes and the rumors of the deal going down between the two of them," Vicki reported. "The GCPD has once again refused comment about accusations levied about their roll in letting them walk and rumors regarding the new mob boss known as Black Mask and his connection to Roman Sionis."

Harry listened as he snapped his fingers, not surprised in the slightest.

' _Figures,'_ Dinah thought, she was not too sure what she expected but this aligned with that nicely.

' _He's….well he's out now,'_ Zatanna thought as she wished she should be surprised but given that this was Gotham City, she was not.

' _Oh this is interesting,'_ Harry thought as he saw Summer Gleeson pop up the screen.

"Could love be blossoming in the air?" Summer reported as she stood out with a wide smile on her face. "Yesterday, Harry Potter showed up at a book signing for the famous Juno Jones and the two of them had gotten on rather well. In fact, the popular talk show host was extremely friendly with him. Could there be something to them? Both Miss Jones's people and Mr. Potter's have declined to comment, on anything, but I will have more after the commercial break."

' _Oh, puff piece alert,'_ Faora thought as she shook her head. _'Did you ever find out what her deal was, by the way?'_

' _I really wish that I had,'_ Harry thought and Donna chimed in at that point.

' _Diana and I are baffled, although I could have sworn I heard the goddesses laughing like a bunch of school girls on a sugar high,'_ Donna suggested and Hippolyta decided to jump in after a second.

' _Well I'm not sure that the goddesses have ever been referred to in such a matter….but that is extremely accurate,'_ Hippolyta thought and once again, she was out of the loop. Then again, there was a reason for everything.

Karen and Harry were both jolted out of their thoughts and all thoughts of what happened with Juno Jones. Vicki was back and she was speaking rather quickly.

"This just in….Salvatore Maroni has been sentenced to five years based off of the crimes that he committed in violation of the RICO act and a conspiracy," Vicki said and Harry sat up for a second.

Hermione chimed in with an explanation for those who were not in the know. _'The RICO act is a United States Federal Law is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering, and it allows the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes which they ordered others to do or assisted them, closing a perceived loophole that allowed someone who told a man to, for example, murder, to be exempt from the trial because he did not actually commit the crime personally.'_

She said all of that without really taking a breath.

' _So you read that off the Internet pretty much,'_ Amanda thought to her but Hermione ignored that slight at her.

' _It doesn't really matter, it really just tells you that Maroni has gotten in the stew right now,'_ Pamela thought and that was one thing.

Harry and Karen were now in the limo as it was driving its way to the Wayne Enterprises building. Karen wrapped her arms around Harry and her breasts pressed into her back.

' _Guess he wasn't as bullet proof as he thought that he was,'_ Harrison thought to them.

' _Well yeah,'_ Jaime thought, as all three versions of Harry Potter felt the need to chime in on the bond. _'But you've got your own adventures to think about, don't you?'_

' _That's putting it mildly,'_ Harrison thought but that was beside the point.

"We'll be there in fifteen minutes," Karen whispered hotly in Harry's ear and Harry nodded. "We should really do something to keep ourselves occupied."

Harry turned towards the blonde with a smile and made sure the privacy charms were up and stayed strong. "Don't worry, I know exactly how to pass the time."

Karen squealed as Harry's lips found hers with a kiss. She was pulled onto his lap in no time, her arms wrapping around his neck as she leaned onto his mouth and kissed him madly. The two of them indulged themselves into each other's bodies, with Karen pressing herself down upon Harry's lap.

He cupped her ass and the fun was about ready to escalate to another level.

* * *

"Harry," Karen moaned as Harry grabbed her ass and spanked it hungrily. The blonde squealed in delight as Harry gave her ass some attention. Her skirt was pulled down and then her extremely expensive panties were exposed. "Please."

"Oh, I think you're going to like this," Harry breathed as he stuck a finger up her ass and Karen moaned in delight.

She did in fact like it, this was so dirty, and she loved it. The blonde stuck her ass out. People did not notice that her ass was just as amazing as her breasts. Well maybe not, but she thought she had a pretty great ass, if she may say so herself.

And Harry had his tongue inside her asshole, licking it, causing the proper amount of lubrication to be delivered to her.

Karen held onto the seat and felt his warm tongue probe her anal cavity. There was one thought that went in her head.

' _Oh your ass tastes good,'_ Harry mentally thought to her and Karen thought that she was about to come undone with everything that he was doing.

' _Oh god,'_ Karen thought to him as she felt his tongue rammed up her ass. She played with her pussy, and her breasts ached with desire as well.

' _How about I fuck that cute little ass,'_ Harry mentally thought to her as he continued to lick her ass and this caused Karen to whimper in delight as he kept digging his tongue deep into her tight anus.

"PLEASE!" Karen moaned as she gripped onto the edge of the seat and Harry smacked her on the ass, and slowly ran his hands down his legs.

Her ass was well lubricated and Harry's cock was super hard. The blonde braced herself as Harry was this close to entering inside her. The intrusion was going to happen; the head of his cock was at the edge of her rectum.

Harry rammed it up her ass and Karen moaned but Harry conjured a ball gag for her mouth. That added to the atmosphere and it was not Harry could not feel her moans going through the bond link. Harry saw Karen's pleasure reflected in the mirror of the limo as he hammered into her from behind. The blonde grabbed against the edge of the seat as Harry plowed her anew, over and over again, speeding up his thrusts the longer that he went.

Karen's mind was about to melt from the amazing sensations she felt with this god's cock plowing into her from behind.

Harry explored her hot and warm anus with his cock, never once straying from his purpose. He rammed her hard from behind. The woman's ass kept working around him and Harry pumped into her. His thrusts got deeper and his exploration of her body became more heated.

Much to her chagrin, Harry managed to pass over Karen's breasts, which was something that filled her with shock and awe. His fingers brushed lovingly against her pussy and the blonde whimpered as Harry sawed into her ass, hanging onto her waist.

"So good," Harry grunted as he slammed into her. Her anal cavity pressed tightly against his pole.

Karen lost her mind as he sawed into her from behind. His balls slapped against her and he sent bolts of energy through her pussy. That doubled the pleasure and doubled her fun. The blonde was this close to mentally exploding as Harry continued to explore her tight ass with his engorged pole. His thrusts buried his cock into her as deep as he could go. The blonde whimpered as she closed tightly around his ass.

He finished in her ass after several moments of intense anal sex. The blonde screamed out loud and the cum oozed in her ass. It was that point where she realized that the ball gag had been removed and her moans could be heard far and wide.

Harry brushed his cum into her ass, still coated with her juices as well as his. The blonde greedily took his fingers into her mouth and suckled on them, her eyes growing wide with the pleasure as she moaned and sucked the contents off of it.

"Dirty girl, eating cum that's been in your ass," Harry breathed as he picked up her stocking clad foot and removed the stocking from it. He licked the soles of her foot.

"Oh, Rao," Karen moaned as he licked the soles of her foot. He placed her toes in his mouth and sucked on them, which brought her even more steamy pleasure.

Harry worshipped her feet and her juices stained the seat as he continued to feed her the combined cum between the two of them. The blonde placed her left foot on his balls and rubbed them with her sole.

"Let me give you a foot job, honey," Karen whispered to him and Harry ran his hands down her legs. She whimpered in delight, as he touched all of the spots that drove her wild.

"I would be disappointed if you didn't," Harry grunted as Karen's feet rubbed up against either side of his cock and the pleasure, well it could not be measured by any means. The blonde kept working his prick over and rubbed him up and down.

"Oh yes," Karen moaned as she felt his cock between her feet. She slowly teased him with her soles, her feet going up and down him. He massaged her legs and that caused her to grow wet. His fingers inched their way inch by inch up her legs and then in one fluid motion, jammed between her legs, which caused her to become pleasured.

Harry pumped his fingers in and out of her pussy as she worked him up to an orgasm just using her feet. The blonde mewled with pleasure as she worked him up and down. Her soft and perfect soles rubbed him until his balls tightened a long time later.

He held on for a long time, enjoying her feet working him over, lubricated with his own salvia. His balls were tightening and he felt the rush that was about ready to occur.

His cock exploded, coating her feet with heavenly juices. Her feet were coated with his spunk and Karen saw it spray onto her feet and her legs.

The blonde with expert skill lifted up one of her feet and licked the edge of it, lapping the cum from her feet and her toes. The blonde sucked the juices from her foot and watched as Harry's prick stood at attention.

"Still hard, huh?" Karen asked as she grinned widely. "I'll take care of that, honey."

Karen straddled Harry and kissed him, her body pressing against his. She sank onto his engorged pole, her walls hugging his tool completely tightly.

Harry grunted as he felt her tightness envelope her as he filled and emptied her anew. The blonde rode on him as he played with her ass.

"Oh, yes, oh yes," Karen whined as his tool buried deep into her cunt, it being stretched. She rocked her hips back onto his tool, as it stretched her out.

"Yes, that feels good, doesn't it?" Harry asked her and he explored her body. The blonde whimpered as she bit down on her lip and kept riding her.

Her snug tightness rubbed his cock and the wizard pushed up and down. His cock buried deep into her and she leaned down, mewling with pleasure as Harry worked his hips up to meet her. The blonde clamped her tight walls down onto him.

Karen worked his cock, milking his thrusts, and the blonde panted with pleasure as Harry kept pumping into her.

"In me, cum in me, I need it," Karen moaned as she rocked her hips down onto him. The blonde clamped herself down onto him and she kept working him, his thrusts burying deeper into her and Harry held her.

"Be patient, honey," Harry told her and Karen thought she was patient enough. She brought the full force of her power to her inner muscles and clenched him. She was determined to milk his balls dry and the blonde kept working him hard, pumping him up and down between her smoldering hot thighs.

"Patient…done…need cum," Karen whimpered as she moaned loudly.

Harry reversed the positions and plowed the blonde into the seat. There might be a permanent imprint of her back but she was squealing beneath him. Her arms held him tightly, fearful that he might pull away if she left him.

Harry pumped down into her, her hips rising up and lowering as his length plunged deep into her. The blonde held onto him, a whimpering moan going through her body as she shuddered. Her hips rocked up and he plunged down into her.

"MORE!" Karen begged him and Harry smiled as he ran his hands all over her body.

"If you insist," Harry whispered to the blonde as she whimpered with pleasure. She rocked her hips up and it plunged as far into her as she could.

Her walls clenched him as he fired a rapid fire volley of seed deep into her inner chambers. Her walls clenched him as Harry rocked into her body. The blonde tightened around him and he grabbed her hips, sinking into her.

* * *

"Well, we're almost there," Harry whispered as he basked in the afterglow along with Karen and the two of them scrambled to find their clothes and clean up the mess that they caused in the backseat of Harry's limo.

"I'm ready," Karen said as she fit herself snugly on Harry's lap for the rest of the trip there.

* * *

Karen and Harry made it there about twenty minutes later and they were about ready to meet Faora who stood there in her Alexandra Potter disguise.

"So a corner office, eh?" Karen asked to him as the two of them walked up the stairs. "Very nice."

"One of the perks of owning about fifty percent of this company," Harry said to her as the two of them walked forward. He was about to knock on the door but Faora swung the door open to face Harry. The dark haired woman craned her neck towards Harry and smiled at him.

"I saw you coming," she said as she closed the distance between herself and her brother. "So we're working on this business deal, and…."

"Wayne is a very big piece of the puzzle to help our plans for the Red Sun," Harry said to her and Faora nodded with a smile on her face. "The distribution deal that they have is amazing, and it's more than generous. We don't have the credibility that this company does but with the Wayne machine behind us, we should get the Red Sun out there."

"Five year deal isn't it?" Karen asked him and Harry nodded with a smile.

"That's correct," Harry informed both of them. "The Waynes and Potters have a long standing history but both sides….well we're going to stand to make the best out of the business arrangement. It is a situation where both companies are only going to benefit each other and grow from here."

Karen, Harry, and Faora made their way down the hallway and Lucius Fox greeted them as soon as they reached them.

"Dr. Potter, Dr. Potter, Dr. Starr," Lucius said as he was completely all business like and he shook their hands with the man himself.

"Hopefully we're not running late," Karen said to him and Lucius smiled.

"Actually you're ahead of schedule, Mr. Wayne had to postpone the meeting for about five minutes, it appears that his nocturnal activities might be getting in his way," Lucius told him and Harry smiled at him. Of course, given Bruce Wayne, there were two different ways that the term "nocturnal activities" could imply. "Ah here he comes right now.

"That's good," Harry said but then he made his way down the hallway. He was business like as usual but Harry, eagle-eyed as he was, caught the hint of a haggard expression on his face.

' _Looks like he heard the rumors about Sionis and Falcone and that's weighing on him,'_ Karen thought, but there was no time to elaborate on this conversation.

"So the board meeting awaits?" Bruce asked and Lucius nodded in confirmation. "So, let's knock them dead."

' _There's a term that can mean something a bit more literally in Gotham City if you're not careful,'_ Karen thought and there were amused chuckles from all of the people throughout the bond link.

"Gentlemen, ladies, good afternoon," Lucius said as he entered the room, leading in Bruce, Harry, Karen, and Alex into the next room, with the four sitting down to face the Board. "Today, we are hear to talk about the distribution of the deal between the RAO Corporation and Wayne, over the release of their products. RAO will make the products and Wayne will distribute them. All profits will be split fairly and I can assure you that this will be a project that is going to take on a life of its own."

"Mr. Fox, the deal does seem sound," Phillip Kane agreed and Harry was not really surprised that he made himself heard. "I'm sure the deal between the RAO Corporation and Wayne Enterprises will bare fruit for both of our companies but if you do not mind, I think that for such an unproven company, there should be a bit of collateral that is thrown in."

' _Here we go,'_ Karen thought as she sighed and Patricia and Jaime both groaned. Patricia, Jaime, Harry, Faora, and Karen actually had a conversation along these lines recently, figuring that Phillip Kane was trying to get his hands on a bigger chunk of the pie than he deserved.

"So, exactly what do you have in mind?" Karen asked as she tried to get things in with a cordial manner.

"Nothing….too serious, Doctor Starr," Phillip said as he looked at the redhead stared firmly back with a razor sharp focus. "In fact, I feel that there should be an additional provision…."

"We are here to vote on the deal as it stands, Mr. Kane," Lucius said as he narrowed his eyes and Phillip stood back, with a frown on his face. He was cowed by the intimidating gentleman that was before him. "I trust you've all had an opportunity to look over the documentation of the agreement between Wayne Enterprises and the RAO Corporation."

There were nods with the entire group as both sides looked at each other. Harry leaned back, he was going to abstain from voting, because quite frankly for obvious reasons, he might be inclined to be just a tiny bit biased for this deal. Patiently, he waited for the vote.

"If I may make a suggestion, before we vote," Phillip said and Harry was pretty amused that he would try something like that again. "I believe that a small accusation of stock from the RAO Corporation would be an act of good faith…."

"I don't think that is necessary," Bruce said swiftly, cutting him off. "My father believed in deals like this, it might seem like a calculated risk at first, but a risk is worth the rewards. If my father would approve of such a deal, than I would as well."

"Well said, Mr. Wayne," Lucius agreed as he surveyed the members of the board with a steely gaze. "Now, gentlemen and ladies, if we could get on with the voting process."

' _Okay, it's now more obvious than ever before, who he gets his marching orders from,'_ Patricia thought to Harry and there was a small grunt of confirmation.

' _Yes, he's been trying to stick his nose into what I'm doing ever since the merger with STARR,'_ Harry said as he leaned back. _'Oh boy, he might be a tight one to shake off, I think.'_

' _We'll see,'_ Karen thought, there was no question about it, Lionel Luthor was going to be one that they were going to have to keep an eye on for obvious reasons. Although the friendship that Harry had with the younger Luthor might give him a better insight to what the elder Luthor was thinking.

At that point however the distribution deal was a go and Harry smiled.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you, and it will be a pleasure doing further business with you, I'm sure," Harry concluded as there was a general applause from the board. Even Kane applauded, with his applause being rather halfhearted.

* * *

Harry arrived back home and he just barely caught his breath. In fact, Karen and Faora were rather amused with what happened, they could really blink with what happened.

A blond dressed in a black tank top and a stylish skirt along with knee high boots rushed in and tackled Harry with a huge hug. She kissed him hungrily pressing him against the wall before she threw her head back and shook her head.

"Hi, La…."

"Sorry, Harry, can't talk, fashion emergency, we're talking about a Code Three Red, like a bloody nightmare," Lavender babbled at Harry and Harry shook his head as he looked at her incredulously. When she was finally done freaking out, she managed to keep her thoughts together. "I mean….I'm sure that was a stylish costume twenty years ago but it could be a bloody nightmare. The golden age….well it wasn't as golden as people thought it would."

Karen raised an eyebrow at Harry who shrugged. Faora was smiling, barely hiding any amusement she had.

"Take me to her, please" Lavender said with a pleading look in her eyes and she bit down on her lip and watched Harry. "I….need to rescue her, before it was too late."

"What's to….."

"Playboy bunny ring a bell!" Lavender snapped as she shook her head.

' _Lavender would have said something when you first noticed her, but she didn't because she went catatonic,'_ Parvati said as she tried to keep her amusement to a bare minimum, although she was completely amused. The dark haired Indian witch placed her hand on the side of her face.

"Oh, yes, Dinah, of course, if you insist," Harry said and judging by the look on Lavender's face, she looked extremely insistent as she grabbed Harry's arm.

' _I got to say, if nothing else, you got to admire the girl for her passion,'_ Kara thought and there was agreement all throughout the bond.

Lavender was making her way down the gym, like a bloodhound after a rather pesky rabbit. Harry was trying hard not to laugh and Faora was following behind her, trying rather hard to say the day.

' _Don't worry, Lavender's here to save the day,'_ Ginny said in the over the top and overly dramatic manner.

' _Your sugar intake, you're either taking in too much or not enough,'_ Astoria thought as she folded her hands over her lap and sighed.

' _Or both,'_ Bellatrix said and no one was going to bother to say anything about how that can be possible. Bellatrix lived in her own world, where logic happened to take a backseat to the wonderful world of her mind.

Barbara was tossed down to the ground. The redhead was going to try and get back into learning martial arts, after having dropped it for a little bit. As it turned out she was a bit rusty or Dinah was that good or both. Then again, given that Dinah was pretty good, she figured that she should really have no shame to get knocked on her ass. Repeatedly. Never the less, the redhead scrambled to her feet.

"That bad huh?" Barbara asked and Dinah watched her with a half of a smile.

"There's lots of room for improvement," Dinah suggested as she snapped her fingers and she was about ready to get up. "Lavender, Harry…um…."

"Can't talk, there's an emergency, completely serious, it's like an apocalypse," Lavender babbled as she looked completely mad. "We're talking about real hysteria, dogs and cats living together, gerbils mating with rabbits, chocolate tasting like brussel sprouts, it's madness, madness I tell you!"

"Um, yeah," Barbara said as she was starting to question this girl's sanity. "Lavender isn't it…."

"Yes, Lavender Brown, and you're Barbara Gordon, we might have run into each other briefly, but we didn't have that much of a chance to talk and there's not much time to talk, I need to rescue Dinah before it's too late," Lavender said as she was not really taking that much of a breath. The woman placed her hands on the back of her head.

"So, I'll be borrowing Dinah from you, it seems," Harry said to Barbara and Barbara crossed her arms and looked at him with a challenging look. Her hands placed firmly upon her hips as she stared her down.

"Not without a bit of a payment you're not," Barbara said with a challenging glint in her eyes and Harry wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a deep kiss. The redhead's eyes bugged halfway out of her head in amazement.

"Will that do?" Harry asked her as Faora had slipped out at that moment.

"Um….that will be fine," Barbara stammered as she tried to pop a few words out. The redhead closed her eyes as she shook her head. "So, I'll see you later, Dinah, Harry, Lavender."

Dinah made her way behind them, she was completely curious about what was happening so she decided to ask. Her eyebrow was half raised as she viewed Lavender's expression. She was almost amused by it or she would have been if it was not so serious. "What's this about?"

"Your costume," Lavender said in a serious voice and Dinah raised an eyebrow towards him. "It makes you look like you're dressed up like a Playboy Bunny."

Dinah opened her mouth halfway open as Zatanna turned up, leaning against the wall as she looked amused. The look on Dinah's face, well it was entertaining, there was no question about it. Her mouth opened and shut and she looked at Harry who shrugged his shoulders.

"But, I'm willing to give you options, because a look is about seventy five percent of how people perceive you," Lavender said as she snapped her fingers. "Some might say about sixty nine percent, others might say seventy six percent, but I disagree, your look is precisely seventy five percent."

"You put a lot of thought into this," Zatanna said with a smile and Lavender shook her head wildly as she snapped her fingers.

"Maybe all you need is a bit of an upgrade, something….not too much of a change, something that emphasized the Black Canary spirit but is a bit less tacky and a bit more modern," Lavender said as she spoke without taking a breath.

' _Hermione, are you still alive?'_ Harry asked without missing a beat.

' _Yes,'_ Hermione said, wondering why Harry asked this question.

' _Oh good, because Lavender seems to have challenged your ability to speak without taking a breath, only it's about fashion and not her studies,'_ Harry said and Hermione shook her head.

' _I am not that bad,'_ Hermione said in agitation.

' _Oh yes, you are!'_ Ginny, Parvati, and Charlotte cried in unison but Harry hushed the peanut gallery so he could focus at the task at hand.

Dinah frowned as she looked at the outfit. She was not going to lie, she was not sure if they spoke to her. Lavender watched for her assessment. She was a bit out of her depth and now she really understood how some people felt during a sparring session at her.

"Well….I'm not sure, but I'm really not feeling that one," Dinah said as she cupped her hand on her chin.

Zatanna smiled. "Yeah, I agree, they aren't really you when you think about it."

"Oh, don't worry….those were just if you wanted something a bit less tacky than what your mother wore, but I've got more, I've got plenty more," Lavender said as she took Lavender to the outfit designs that were tacked on the wall.

Dinah was overwhelmed by the options and she looked at it. She was not sure….the mask part was something that annoyed her a fair amount. Did it suit a lot of people, yes it did? She was not that much of a public figure like Harry was, so she figured that wearing a mask might not have been the best idea. If she ever got more famous, then maybe that would be something that she would revisit. Some way to conceal her civilian identity with her super hero one.

"Some of them, they can be treated by protective spells," Zatanna explained as she brushed her hair out of her face and Dinah raised her eyebrows. "The fishnet material….they are both stylish and practical."

Dinah looked at it and Harry watched it. As arousal inducing as her costume was, it was really not all that practical there. The blonde ran her hands through her chin.

"I like this one," Dinah said as she saw the suit. It was a one piece that would fit around her body. It had a black jacket as well and the fishnet material looked to fit around her necks.

"I do as well," Harry said as Dinah looked over it. "It's a classic looking costume. It still exhibits enough of the Black Canary spirit and less of the Playboy Bunny spirit."

"I'm not going to ever live that one down, you know," Dinah said as she shook her head.

"Likely not, but it's a sign of the times," Zatanna said in a consoling voice as they all agreed.

"Excellent, I thought that you might really like this one, I'm going to get that one ready for you, and the finished product is right in my bag, we need to see how you look in it, and any modifications, well that's why they invented extension or contraction charms, Dinah, honey," Lavender babbled and Harry placed a finger on her lips.

"Calm down, Lav, or I'm going to gag you," Harry said and Lavender offered him a saucy smile as she placed her hands on her hips for a brief second.

"What are you going to gag me with?"

Harry smiled for a few seconds as he allowed things to be mysterious as they prepared to give Dinah's costume a test run.

Of course, that might have to wait because Harry saw that his phone was ringing. He had a sense that this was an urgent call and he had to pick it up. He snapped it up into his hand and he put it up to his ear.

"Hello….oh….interesting….yeah we'll be there before you can know it," Harry said as he looked at Diana who showed up. "I'll explain on the way."

"Right," Diana said as she was pretty sure that she would realize what this interesting phone call would lead to in a matter of moments.

* * *

"So as interesting and useful as the information is that you gave me, the two of you….you still disobeyed the rules. And the rules were you are not supposed to teleport into my office without my permission. You know….that's something that I cannot forgive, without any punishment."

Circe and Morgaine nodded as they stripped off the clothes that they were wearing and they waited for the punishment. Harrison looked over his shoulder.

"My two assistants, they'll be joining me momentarily," Harrison said, those two in particular knew better than to be late.

"Yes, my Lord, we forgot ourselves," Morgaine said as she shifted her wait and she whimpered at the thought. "Please….forgive us."

"Forgiveness is earned, Morgaine, as you will find out soon enough."

The soft and sensual voice of Daphne Greengrass could be heard and she turned up dressed in style. Her blonde hair was parted nicely. She was wearing a tight white corset that her breasts were squeezed into. In fact, they were completely spilling out. Her firm and fit stomach was showcased by this outfit. She had white gloves that covered her hands and she turned around, to show the thong that stretched over her ass. She wore thigh high boots that covered her sensual legs.

"Of course, Mistress, forgive us," Morgaine said and Daphne waved her hand, as a table appeared before them. There were shackles on the table and the woman responded with a bright grin.

"Naughty girls should be punished," Daphne said as she licked her lips.

"I do agree my dear, Daphne," Bellatrix said as she turned up. She was dressed to kill in more ways than one. She was wearing an even tighter black corset that wrapped around her breasts. Her nipples were about ready to poke out through the other side. It gave her quite the alluring look. She had a black whip in her hand as she snapped. She had thigh high black boots that covered her legs quite alluring as well, they were high heeled. Her lips had a deep shade of dark lipstick, while Daphne preferred a more bluish shade of lipstick. "These naughty bitches ,well they broke a rule. And it is a simple rule that they should have adhered to. We expected better."

Bellatrix cracked the whip and Morgaine nodded, she was getting wet.

"Get on the table, Morgaine," Bellatrix ordered her forcefully and Morgaine did as she was told. "No, lie on your front, a bitch like you should not get the right to look ups in the eyes."

"Mistress…."

"Circe, you do as well, make sure your ass is presented in the air," Daphne said as she shifted to see the bag that she had to involved. "That's it, that's a good girl."

Daphne slapped Circe on the ass for emphasis and the woman whimpered as she was sprawled out on the table. Daphne smiled as she pulled out the toy that was in the back. She slowly ran her hand all across the toy that was in her hand.

"Harry, we're ready when you are," Daphne said to him and Harrison smiled as he saw the two women next to him. There were muffled sounds in the closet as he smiled.

"I see the two of you were busy earlier," Harrison said after a few seconds and he could see Lindsey who was tied up in the closet and she was given quite the great going over, that much was for sure.

* * *

Daphne prepped Circe's dripping hot cunt and she held the toy right over the edge of her pussy. She paused and considered something for a second. "No, you haven't earned this yet, I'm afraid."

"Please Mistress," Circe begged but she got a sharp slap to her backside which caused shivers to explode down every point of her body, from head to toe. The woman whimpered as more pleasure spread through her body.

Bellatrix teased Morgaine's hot folds, but she also tightened the straps holding her down. She could still breath but any movement would be at Bellatrix's discretion.

"Master, if you will do the honors," Bellatrix said and Harrison raised his strong hand and smacked Morgaine hard on the ass.

She whimpered as the punishment continued. Bellatrix walked to the front of her and pulled her material off to the side, exploring her dripping wet pussy.

"Eat me, bitch," Bellatrix demanded and Morgaine buried her face into Bellatrix's dripping snatch, going to town to her.

"Oh fuck, that's hot," Harrison grunted as he took turns fingering both Circe and Morgaine's cunts, but he did so briefly. Daphne was now in front of Circe, copying Bellatrix's actions.

Daphne closed her eyes with pleasure as she felt Circe's hot tongue bury into her hot quim. The woman's tongue worked into her and Daphne panted hungrily. Circe kept licking her out, bringing more bursts of pleasure.

Harrison rammed a magical vibrator up Circe's ass and he grabbed her around the hips. His throbbing length brushed against the edge of her hot quim. He paused and then rammed into her.

Circe could not voice her pleasure, with her mouth being muzzled by Daphne's pussy, only being allowed to come up with air for a few seconds, before she was pushed back down. She was made to eat Daphne's dripping hot cunt again and again. The blonde was being pleasured beyond all measure.

"Eat me, oh yes, eat me," Daphne whimpered but Harrison had decided to increase the punishment.

A gag appeared around Circe's mouth as Harrison walked over and grabbed Daphne around her waist. The blonde closed her eyes as the two of them made sure they were in front of Circe's eyes, making her watch. The blonde's tight walls enveloped around Harry's prick as she tightened herself around him.

"Oh, yes, that's so good," Harrison grunted as Daphne's super tight pussy wrapped around him.

Bellatrix was now on the other side of Morgaine and she roughly fondled the dark witch's pussy which caused her to whimper in pleasure. Than Bellatrix swatted the woman's delicious rump and caused pleasure to explode through her mind.

"Watch that, watch Harry fuck Daphne, oh that's so hot," Bellatrix said as she buried the toys into both of the pussies of the dark witches.

Daphne's tight hints wrapped around Harry's tool and the blonde working him over caused even more pleasure. She rocked her hips up and down on his rod.

Harrison rested back, the pleasure, it was brought into his body and the fact that these two powerful dark witches were choking for this, well it caused him even more pleasure. The top half of her outfit was ripped off and her breasts were jiggling out in front of her face.

The blonde's breasts bounced and Harrison buried his face between them. Then he suckled on them. The blonde threw her head back and Harrison pushed into her body. The blonde's arms tightened around his neck as she worked around him. She mewled with pleasure as Harrison kept going into her, going deeper, deeper, the blonde's explosion of pleasure continued to kick things up a notch.

Bellatrix was now bent over the table and she was looking in Morgaine's eyes with a really smoldering gaze. Harrison dug his fingers deep into her hot cunt and he was about ready to bury himself into her hot cunt.

"Take me!" Bellatrix moaned and Harrison decided to accept that invitation and buried himself into her. The tight walls closed around him and it secured his cock deep pinto her. She bit down onto her lip, clutching around on the edge of the table that she was getting fucked.

Morgaine could not say anything, she was begging for it, her eyes were locked onto Bellatrix's and she could see the pleasure that exploded through it. Harrison combed her body and made sure Morgaine watched her tease every inch of it. A spanking charm was delivered and the super powerful smacks caused juices to spill from Morgaine's quim.

"I don't think that she's….ah….quite learned her lesson," Daphne mewled as she speared Harrison's member deep into her cunt. She rocked her hips back up and down against his rod, causing the proper amount of friction.

"No, I'm not sure….if she has," Harrison grunted as he cupped the woman's beautiful breasts and made sure Circe watched Harrison explore every single inch of the gorgeous tits. The blonde rocked her walls against his rod as Harrison pumped into her.

Daphne kept working him deep into her, she was getting off on the lust that burned through the eyes of Circe. She could not break free from the bindings, because she was somewhat submissive, no matter how much she wanted to.

That caused her pussy to drip down onto her. The blonde's walls clamped around his rod and in response, he pumped into her hot wet center as it squeezed his tool.

"OHHHH!" Daphne moaned as she felt an explosive orgasm that blew her mind and the minds of everyone.

"That was….oh fucking amazing," Bellatrix whimpered as Daphne's orgasm gave her an orgasm and her orgasm appeared to give Daphne an orgasm. Which in turn gave Bellatrix an orgasm and it was that endless loop of orgasms that all of them experienced.

"YES….IT….IS!" Daphne moaned as she collapsed and Circe looked up at him with imploring eyes.

Harrison's hard rod speared deep into her and took her hard. Circe experienced the orgasmic joy that blasted into her body.

She could not moan due to being gagged but her eyes said it all. He roughly hammered her pussy, never allowing her mind to come down from the orgasms. No matter how much she could not handle it, it was still intense and intensely hot. The woman's walls clamped against his rod and she rocked into her from behind.

"Like that, you're mine," Harrison grunted as he cupped Circe's tits and rammed deep into her from behind. The woman's eyes closed tight as Harrison kept burying as deep into her as he could go. His balls slapped against her thighs.

Morgaine received a few hard thrusts into her dripping hot quim and he explored every inch of her body. Her body felt like it was on fire as he explored her heated loins.

"Oh, fuck that bitch hard, fuck her like you own her," Bellatrix encouraged Harrison as she stroked her pussy and there was a few seconds where she closed her eyes. Harrison speared into her and Bellatrix was getting hotter and hotter, with each passing movement.

Harrison plunged his rod into her and then went into her ass. Morgaine was being split apart as Bellatrix conjured a pair of clamps that roughly pinched down onto her tits. The woman moaned in erotic fulfillment as Harrison plunged so far into her that his balls slammed firmly against her ass.

"AHHH, OHHH, YES!" Morgaine screamed the moment she was allowed to speak but Bellatrix slapped her hard in the face.

"No speaking, you're being punished," Bellatrix said firmly.

Daphne was furiously fingering herself, her pussy dripping and she tasted her cum. The next thing she knew, Bellatrix was draped over her, with a whip.

"Oh, you want some of this," Bellatrix said as she shoved a dildo between Daphne's legs, it was double sided and she inserted the other one in it. The two girls grinded their cunts together, with the large dildo pressed between their hot and smoldering centers.

"YES, YES, OH YES, OH FUCK!" Circe screamed as she collapsed, her ass and her pussy being ravished. Harrison had gave her such a going over.

It was to the point where Harrison was not quite sure what lesson was learned. The welts on their backside from Bellatrix's tender actions might show something however.

His balls grew heavy with fluid and Harrison plowed into both females from behind. With a few more thrusts, he came undone, pumping his hot seed into their pussies.

Circe and Morgaine were visited by an explosion of white, their minds being ravished by Harrison. He kept going into them again.

Morgaine was determined not to black out before Circe did but so was Circe. It was an interesting battle of wills between both sides.

* * *

Harrison, Bellatrix, Daphne, Morgaine, and Circe all came down from their respective highs and that was a productive meeting between the five of them all things considered. Daphne was not sure, but she was pretty sure that the lesson of what Morgaine and Circe did, it was sunk in. Although perhaps they should try a few more lessons to ensure that the lesson was sunk in.

' _I think we better do a bit more just to make sure everything sink is in,'_ Bella thought.

Daphne managed to pull herself up and rub the magical vibrator that she wrecked Circe with. _'Well, I was just thinking along the same lines, oddly enough.'_

' _Great minds think a lot and ours apparently do as well,'_ Bellatrix thought as she widely grinned, rocking back on her hips, the smile growing on her face for a moment.

' _Apparently yes,'_ Daphne agreed as she shook her head a tiny bit. The blonde was really trying to return back to a state of coherence but a round with Harrison had made that mostly difficult. Still she had to really try to get herself back into a mood and it wasn't as hard as it would.

* * *

"So, as you know, the papers got signed this morning," Selina said to Harry and Diana after greeting the pair of them. The trio met at a rather exclusive night club in the edge of Park Row in Gotham City. It was extremely exclusive in the fact that it catered to mostly lesbian couples, even though it was an unofficial thing, but it was only well known with them all.

Not that it mattered with Harry because women would be compelled to be attracted to him and his mates regardless of sexual preferences. It was a gift that he had and his ability to coax women towards bisexuality worked both ways.

"That's excellent," Harry said to Selina with a smile on his face. The Cat's Cradle Gentleman's Club would be the first step to their business partnership and one that would be a completely lucrative venture, if all of the stars aligned in a certain order and there should be no reason why they would be.

The three of them were about to sit down to enjoy a drink with each other. Harry got a few looks from the patrons being a guy but they said nothing.

"And I should say that it's good to see you, along with your friend," Selina said as she leaned forward and offered Harry a teasing kiss on the lips. She pulled back at the last second where she did not linger for too often. It was a bit of a tease, a bit of a taunt and it left the door opened for even more. Selina looked Diana down from head to toe for a second. "And you always have the best taste."

"Diana, she's my bodyguard," Harry said to Selina and she nodded with a smile on her face.

"Well, you do give someone the proper motivation in guarding your body," Selina said as she figured that Harry might need a little extra help. Of course, there was a sense looking at his physique that Diana was mostly there to protect people from trying to do something stupid with Harry. In other words, she protected other people from Harry and not vice versa. "Of course, I doubt that many would mind guarding her body either….the deal's sealed….."

"And that means that I should buy you a drink," Harry said to her with a smile.

"It is customary, yes," Selina agreed as she sat down at the table. They got a decent table but she expected no less. "Now that we've got the deal sealed, we should be able to go higher with the club, higher than ever before…."

"Yes, yes, we should," Harry agreed, looking into her eyes with a smile on her face.

"I never thought that getting in bed with someone would be so simulating, but I guess that proves that we need to open ourselves up to new experiences," Selina said, shifting her glance towards Diana quite hungrily. "Although with the company that you keep, I'm pretty sure that….."

"I can assure you, I've experience more than what many men have dreamed about," Harry said and Selina placed one finger on the side of her mouth, offering him a smoldering grin.

"Oh, do tell?" Selina asked as she watched him, her gaze in her eyes growing even hungrier by each passing moment.

"Now, a gentleman never kisses and tells, although I'm sure that you might have a vivid imagination," Harry said, quite suggestively but not too suggestively.

"I might," Selina replied, looking towards him with a simmering gaze. "But, I'm sure that your friend might be able to part with some information for….the right motivation."

"Depends on what you mean with the right kind of motivation," Diana said as she looked at her. "You might find me a bit steeper of a challenge than normal."

"Oh, I hoped so," Selina practically purred as she looked towards the Amazon of a woman right across her.

"The hunt is really that much more thrilling when the prey is harder to pin down," Harry said to her and Selina smiled, impressed about how perceptive that statement was.

"You are a thief because you stole the words straight out of my mouth," Selina said to him although there was an approving air to what she said. The dark haired woman shifted and watched him. "Seriously though, the business deal….I thought for a moment that the deal would not go through. The owner….the old owner….he can be a bit flakey at times, but I guess that there's something where he understood the leverage that you had."

"That would be the case," Harry agreed as he noticed two ladies enter the club. One was Kate Kane and the other was Renee Montoya. The woman that got their order was hailed by Harry. "Make sure you put their drinks on my tab."

"Are you sure, sir?" the woman asked and Harry smiled at her.

"Yes, I'm sure, please do it," Harry said and the woman shrugged her shoulders.

"So another two ladies that you know," Selina whispered as she smiled. "Actually you know…."

"I do know," Harry replied and Selina's mouth hung open. "I know a lot and I can be very observant as you might have figured."

"Yes, I've noticed," Selina agreed, cupping her hand to her chin deep in thought. "So I've got a few plans for the club."

"I do as well, so perhaps if we can combined our ideas, we can really make something worthwhile," Harry said to Selina and the woman leaned back, placing her hand underneath her chin and she only said one further sentence.

"I'm all ears, believe me, it's your money," Selina said but she was pretty sure that Harry would not do anything that would jeopardize the club.

"Be that as it may, your ideas are equally appreciated as well," Harry told the woman and she smiled as the three of them prepared to talk shop, as another round of drinks found their way to the table.

Harry could see both Kate and Renee staring at him curiously but Harry shrugged his shoulders. Given that Renee had kept such a careful eye over Dinah's father, he figured that he owed her a bit of something for her troubles and Kate seemed to be a fairly interesting girl from the few interactions at the yhad at the party a couple of weeks back.

* * *

Roman Sionis, better known as Black Mask, returned on bail and to say that he was in a towering temper would be a gross understatement to end all gross understatements. The limo he was in had just pulled up to the front entrance of Sionis Steel Works and he exited it, he was dressed to kill and fit to kill.

He wore a brand new mask after Nightwing had destroyed it during their last encounter. He only had a couple of days to stew in the clink but that had given him a far greater resolve to take Gotham City. With Maroni and Falcone out of the way, it would be his.

Goons were around the building, making sure it was sealed up rather tightly. Snipers were on the roof, poised to shoot anything that resembled a do-gooder. Sionis took all precautions, not leaving anything to chance.

He entered the steel mill and walked down the hallway, hand clutched on a gun. He opened the office door where a woman was waiting for it. She had dark hair and a darker complexion, obviously coming from Asian descent. She was wearing a very sophisticated three piece business suit and then she held a file in her hand.

"Okay, don't shoot the messenger," the woman said calmly, knowing with Black Mask, that term could mean something quite literally. "But I have this information."

"Ms. Li, I hope that it's worth your while," Black Mask said as he snatched the information from her hands. The woman handed him the information and the crime boss took it. He peered it over for several anxious moments. "I trust you can confirm this."

"I can," Ms. Li said to him without missing a beat. She knew better than to defy Black Mask in a situation like this. "It has been confirmed through very reliable sources."

No sooner did she say that was that she reached over to hand her boss a phone and he snatched it into his hands. With swift precision, he started to dial up a number.

"That's right, give the order," Black Mask said as he dropped the file onto the desk. "Yes, you heard me."

Without another word, he handed the phone back to his assistant. He started to laugh; he loved it when a plan came together.

Ms. Li wordlessly walked over and made herself a cup of coffee, stirring it nonchalantly as she put it up to her lips and drank it slowly as she allowed her boss to get it out of his system.

* * *

"I think the stage has been set for an extremely fruitful partnership," Selina said as she walked with Harry and Diana back to Park Row where her apartment was located.

"As long as the rules that I laid down are followed, they should be," Harry reminded her and she nodded.

"Yes, well I'll be sure to de-claw anyone that gets out of line," Selina said as she made her way up to the steps to her apartment. It was an amazing apartment. "One of the best in town, although given what happened in this area of Gotham, you do want to keep your doors locked and windows as well. Bullet proof glass is a must buy, you know."

"You did invest in some?" Diana inquired and Selina smiled at the Amazon Princess. "I figured….nice place that you have here."

"Thank you, you'll too kind," Selina said to her and she surveyed Harry and Diana for a few more minutes before she spoke. "I better get inside, it's unwise to really be out here for too long, you know."

"Yes, I figured," Harry said to the woman who smiled and wrapped her arms around him. She leaned forward and gave him a brief and teasing kiss on the lips. She pulled back for a moment and looked at Diana.

"Don't want to think that you're left out."

Diana was caught mostly off guard as Selina captured her lips with a stunning kiss. It was pure electricity as the two females enjoyed the kiss with each other. Harry enjoyed every second of something that he was sure was for his benefit.

"I'll see you both later," Selina said as she slinked into her apartment, her tight ass swaying from one side to the next as she made her way back inside to the apartment, leaving Diana and Harry in her wake. Both of them smiled.

"Whoa," Diana muttered and that was a statement that could be agreed by every single person that was through the bond.

' _Well she's going to be a tough one to nail down,'_ Faora thought to herself through the bond as she crossed her arms over her chest. _'Which isn't going to a bad thing to itself, but….it does make the hunt most thrilling.'_

' _Agreed,'_ Harry thought, given that most of the time women fell at his feet. It was amazing to mix things up every now and again. Perhaps that was just him but he thought that variety was in fact the spice of life.

' _Yes, for sure,'_ Kara confirmed with a smile.

Any further thoughts that went through this bond, well they were something that would have to wait until later, much later as it turned out, as there was a loud bang. At first, Harry thought nothing of it, at least not too much. This was Gotham City after all; it would not suit him well if he got more nervous than a cat under a rocking chair every time that he heard gunshots.

A few more gunshots however caused Harry to stand up and he heard something in the distance. More loud shots went off, followed by something that sounded like a grenade.

' _Well, looks like Nightwing will have a very busy night,'_ Harry thought to himself as Diana stood up. Given the fact that she was an Amazon, she was pretty ready to fight at a moment's notice or less than a moment's notice depending on how things well.

**To Be Continued.**


	23. Battle for Old Gotham Part Two

**Chapter 23: Battle For Old Gotham Part Two.**

The Penguin stood on the deck of the Final Offer. Plans flashed through his mind. His crew was the mixed lot. Mostly European mobsters, some of the most rough and tumble chaps that money could buy. Given that his ship was officially registered in Somalia, there were many Africans on the ship. It didn't matter to the Penguin.

"A bunch of degenerates, but the lads are hungry," Cobblepot muttered to himself as he looked down the rag tag crew. A wild toothy grin manifested on his face. "Every one of them has a mother and they'd kill the dotty bitch if the price was right."

There was really no question about it, Oswald Cobblepot was someone who had always tried to get the most out of his crew. He turned to them as Mr. Walrus and Mr. Carpenter took their spots center stage in front of the crew. In front of Cobblepot, there was the motley crew of gentlemen and The Penguin used that term in the loosest sense of the word. There were crates, containing weapons beyond the imaginings of many and those weapons would bring forth his domination.

Both Mr. Carpenter and Mr. Walrus, they were well armed to say the very least. Walrus was packing a shotgun and Carpenter as a light machine gun, the LMG something that he was an expert in handling. Penguin looked over them, satisfied.

"Alright, you lads are here, and you're ready, I can see it, you're pretty hungry, but being hungry ain't going to mean shit if you're incompetent," The Penguin said as he laughed. "Alright, I'm going to explain what I want from you boys and I'm going to explain this nice and slowly. If you have a beef with this plan, well I'm sure Mr. Walrus and Mr. Carpenter will straighten the lot of you out."

The two gentlemen in question nodded as the Penguin cracked his knuckles and responded. "We're here at the docks, in Amusement Mile, and it's time to step our foot into Gotham. Maroni's been put away, the Roman's lost his mind and is in the nuthouse, so that means this city, is ours for the taking, and believe me, son, we're going to take it right now."

There was a raucous round of cheers as Cobblepot prepared for his next round. He was not going to mince his words, with this lot, they needed key direction. The weapons that they had, well it would get them only so far but it was his leadership that would lead them to an entirely different direction in life.

"Boys, these are not your ordinary toys, and they'll take out these fuckers who think that they can step on our turf," The Penguin continued as he clutched the handle of his Umbrella. Inside was a concealed blade that he would cut anyone up with, that was if he didn't shoot them down first. He did like him some variety however. "So if you seem any one of Maroni's men, or the Roman's men, sniffing around where we set up shop, make sure they bugger off, permanently."

There was no denying what the Penguin was trying to say to them right now, one didn't need to be a genius to be able to read between the lines, as cruel as his statement was and his statement could be extremely cruel.

"Gotham is ours for the taking, it's just a matter of having the right….tools to take it," the cagey bird continued with an insidious laugh. "Now, it's time to separate the men form the boys here, and it's time to take the city by storm."

The Final Offer was docked into town and the Penguin leaned to survey his city.

"Boys, you know what to do, it's your play now, don't bugger this up," The Penguin informed them and his men cheered before they made their way into Gotham City. "And shoot first and ask questions later if anyone you don't know steps one foot near Amusement Mile!"

Walrus pointed to the crate that was off to the side and he kicked it open with a grunt, revealing the goodies that were inside. The group cheered loudly as they scrambled to get themselves a piece of the action. There were assault rifles that people would give their left arms to even hold for a night.

"Everyone step forward, and get yourself one," Walrus said as he looked at them, a wide and brutish grin on his face. Three years ago, he suffered a traumatic event that humiliated him. Things changed and no one would get the better of him again.

He would have power and it was through the Penguin's gang that would allow him to stand tall, as someone like him would do.

"Those bastards won't know what hit them!" one of the thugs bellowed, bumping his fist into the air.

"Yeah, death to the Roman, death to Maroni!" another goon cheered as they armed themselves, ready to walk forward. They were ready to go and ready to wipe out anyone who was not a part of their group.

The Penguin clutched the handle of his umbrella and gave a grin as he turned to his two main men. "Gentlemen, if they wanted a battle, well I'll give 'em a bloody war."

* * *

Sionis Steel Mill was the scene, just seconds after Black Mask got the news and the order was made. His men were a higher class of the usual common mobster or even those thugs that the Penguin had at his disposal. They were walking around in groups, arriving, armed to the teeth. They waited to the room to strike their enemies.

"So, where's the boss?" one of the men wondered and another chuckled.

"Patience, the man will be here, just be patient," another man said. They were all dressed to the tee in suits, wearing masks. They were similar to those of which Black Mask wore, equally gaunt, but no near as elaborate. Still it gave them the appearance that they were men that were not willing to fuck with. A storm cloud rolled into Gotham City, perhaps an ominous sign of things to come.

An older gentlemen, weedy looking, ushered them around. He was a butler of Black Mask's for all intents and purposes and not a man to be fucked with. "Okay, you lot know what to expect, budge up there, get into the groups, exactly as we planned."

The men were divided into groups, each for their own distinct purpose.

"Memorize this information, down to the last period, the boss will not be happy if you do not," the butler said urgently and with his own neck on the line, he was inclined to ensure that these gentlemen managed to memorize all of this information, right down to the last punctuation mark. After double checking it to make sure everyone had their own copy. "And if you don't memorize this information, it will be on your own heads."

Seconds letter, the phone rang, the signal that he needed to pick up.

"Yes," the butler said in a crisp voice and he nodded his head. The phone that was in his hand, it was almost like a bomb about ready to go off. "Indeed….well I'll tell them, yes, of course sir, they're all here, they're all ready."

The butler turned as the men in the parking lot waited. They were armed and ready to go. It was time.

"Gentlemen, he's given the order, you all know what to do," the butler said as he ensured that all eyes were on him.

There was a movement of them all to get into position. They moved into the pre-made groups and soon Black Mask would have Gotham City bow before him.

* * *

Gunfire, it was loud and Diana heard it just as well as Harry as the two of them tried to move to the source of the explosions.

' _Who do you think set it off?'_ Diana thought to Harry and he thought that was a fair enough question. Looking around, Harry got a good look around.

' _Could be another dispute between the pockets of Maroni's and Falcone's forces that are still out there,'_ Harry suggested.

They figured that it was something much more when they arrived to their destination. There were bodies, mangled and bloodied bodies, as far as the eye could see. There was a moment where Diana watched, she had heard some rumors about how violent the gang battles in Gotham City could get but they had to believe what they saw.

Harry recognized a few faces as men who were associated with both Maroni and Falcone.

' _We might have trouble….no scratch that, we do have trouble,'_ Harry said as he saw a particularly famous hot spot that the Gotham City's elite hung out at. He saw a group of familiar faces march in. They were wearing suits and carrying high class weapons, all wearing masks that covered their faces. And with some of those faces, the masks were a welcome addition.

' _Black Mask….figures,'_ Dinah thought grimly but she kept herself calm and neutral other than that one outburst.

A barrage of bullets was sent towards Harry and Diana, the orders were to shoot anyone who was not a part of their gang.

Instinctively, Diana lifted up her bracelets and deflected the bullets with them. The bullets harmlessly bounced off with a loud ping as she struck a badass pose, to general applause to those who were in the bond link.

There was one person who questioned the fact that this was possible. Hermione felt the need to chime in with her two cents, stammering all of the way. _'How….how….how….'_

' _Very easily, they're made to deflect bullets,'_ Diana commented without missing a beat as she grabbed one of the thugs and slammed him up against the wall. It was only a fraction of the strength that she could have used however it did knock the wind out of him.

' _But logically speaking, it shouldn't be possible,'_ Hermione thought to the other members of the group.

' _Yes, because magic and anything regarding it is the utter epitome of all things logical,'_ Donna thought to Hermione, with a sigh. Having Hermione in her head sometimes caused her head to work.

Diana blocked out the banter, she took them down one at a time, sending them crashing down to the ground with a thunderous thump.

' _A few of Falcone's men are still in the fray, a few of Maroni's, but about eighty percent of this is Black Mask's,'_ Harry thought to her as he sent the guns ripping from their hands. It was hard to lock onto more than a couple of targets at once and since that there were so many of them, it was doubly hard to say the very least, but naturally, they were going to try their best to take them down.

Diana disabled the men with a fraction of her strength. She felt the rush that spread through her body that was unlike anything else. One of them tried to get her from behind but Harry caused his gun to weigh about five times more. He lost his balance and Harry jumped into the air, grabbed him around the neck, and slammed him down on the back of his neck.

It was not a pretty attack but it did the best that it could. At least the goons were down once again. Diana once again stuck her stance and blocked a second barrage of bullets, from impacting her and Harry. This second amazing display caused applause to resound through the bond once more.

When Donna and Lyta both realized that they were in agreement, both of them huffed and crossed their arms.

' _Proves that you were just following my lead,'_ Donna thought, curling her lip with a sneer.

' _Could you please remove the stick from your ass?'_ Lyta asked in a biting tone and she could almost feel her father give a stern look towards her as he took down some bad guys. Their heads bounced off of the pavement as he manipulated their attacks against each other. _'Sorry, Daddy.'_

' _We will be having a talk about your choice of language, although I do fear that you get it from your older sister, both of them actually,'_ Hippolyta thought to her older daughters, both of them were pouting.

The goons went down hard and Harry pulled Diana in a one armed hug, and she smiled. The two of them shared a heated kiss and Harry pulled away, finally able to catch his breath.

"You did great, honestly you did," Harry told her and Diana nodded, pleased at his praise but she thought that she should have done much letter.

More gunfire could be heard out in the distance and Harry knew that this was just the teaser, the preliminary bout of the evening. The main event was still to come. Harry stepped out and he saw a group of thugs, belonging to a gang of a British mobster known as the Penguin. He had seen the man's name come up in the papers a couple times.

They engaged in a fight with Maroni and Falcone's men but the only difference was that these men, they had more sophisticated weapons than the mobsters did. In fact, their weapons were military grade weapons. . Harry made a decision of what he wanted to in a snap.

' _Diana, I need you back to the Penthouse, to run Mission Control, and find Faora, both of you have tactical experience that will help big time,'_ Harry thought as it was only a small favor that civilians were not caught on the crossfire, at least not yet. _'Teleport back and….'_

' _I understand,'_ Diana thought as she stole a quick kiss and made her way off into the night.

' _I should be there in a little bit, all I need to do is suit up,'_ Dinah informed Harry and Harry nodded.

' _Good, I better raise the right alarms, because we're in a tight situation,'_ Harry thought as he prepared to dial up someone who might be able to help with this situation, at least he hoped that the individual could do so.

' _I'll get her there, just….'_ Diana thought and she paused as Harry had already made her a Portkey to bring her back easily. _'Quick on your feet.'_

' _It's almost like I planned ahead,'_ Harry thought and there was not another word other than that. He had a quick call to make.

"Gordon, there's gunfire, Maroni and Falcone's men are shooting up the street, but they're not the only ones, there's a new party in town, he calls himself the Penguin, he's a British Mobster, and his men have docked in Gotham City and Black Mask may be involved," Harry said in his Nightwing voice as he slipped into the shadows, preparing to suit up.

He allowed Gordon to get the message loud and clear but he couldn't stick around for chit-chat. Once he switched into full costume, he held a grenade in his hand and flung it.

Smoke covered the street and Harry could still hear the gunfire and the explosions, it seemed like everyone was shooting because if they let up, that would be the end. He kept himself covered, the smoke had allowed for a bit of confusion and there was the yells of many people in the smoke and the fog.

Harry looked up and sure enough Dinah was there, suited up with her gear on. Harry would have to say that the new suit, suited her, but he was going to have to worry about fashion later. Right now, the two of them locked eyes.

Dinah stood up, there was more gun fire, even greater explosions, and smoke that flew into the air. The blonde understood better than anyone else that she was in for a long night and she joined Harry. Another smoke grenade hurled into the air and gave the two crime fighters the cover they needed.

The two of us used the cloud cover so they could pick their spots wisely. Thugs fell down, some of them having been maneuvered into taking each other out.

' _Well this will be a long evening,'_ Harry thought and that statement could be agreed with by all.

* * *

James Gordon had just got the call and he was not quite sure what he could make of it. He was pretty sure that the call, it was from the other one. The one not known as Batman, he had never got the young man's name, but it was the mysterious ninja.

He took such calls extremely seriously. Even though the GCPD had a strong policy against vigilantes where they would to be brought in either dead or alive, he had to take the news that he received extremely seriously. He prepared to radio his men about the situation.

However, he didn't have to do so for someone had beaten him to the punch. Which was a relief in a way because Gordon did not want to be the one to have to pull the trigger, but never the less, he listened to what was happening over his Police Radio.

"All Units, All Units, please be advised of reports of multiple shots fired in Amusement Mile, Park Row, the Bowery, and the Industrial District of Old Gotham."

Gordon walked over to the trunk of the car, popping it open. He pulled out a bullet proof vest.

"Well, this may prove to be a long evening."

The even tempered voice of John Jones could be heard as he walked over, suiting up himself. He had heard the gunshots; many of them did and while the radio message was given in a casual tone, there was a sense of urgency. Things could get really ugly really quickly.

"Yes," Gordon said but he was completely ready and they were about to head towards the nearest bridge in their attempt to figure out how to stop this entire mess.

"All SWAT units within the sound of my voice, listen up," a sharp voice snapped over the police radio and Gordon paused.

' _Branden,'_ Gordon said as he shook his head. _'I wonder what he wants.'_

Howard Branden was the Lieutenant of the GCPD SWAT team and needless to say, Gordon was not the man's biggest fan.

"I want all SWAT units to report to the bridges that connect Old Gotham to the rest of the city," Branden barked over the radio. "No one is to get in, no one is to leave, without my say so, is that understood?"

There was a pause as he allowed the first set of orders to sink in before he gave a follow up set of orders to them. Gordon and Jones, along with several others no doubt, listen politely.

"Restrict all access leading out from the area and you have orders to shoot to kill anything that looks like a criminal, identify the body later, I repeat, shoot to kill anything in a costume that you see," Branden said roughly and Gordon looked over his shoulder.

While it was policy not to mention Batman, Gordon could read between the lines of that order. And as for the other one, well Gordon was pretty sure that the order had a certain undercurrent of taking out the other one as well.

' _What the hell is your game, Branden?'_ Gordon thought to himself.

Jones stopped and smiled, almost as if he read Gordon's thoughts. "Last I heard, he was talking to Commissioner Loeb and Rupert Thorne."

Those two names were something that did not improve Gordon's mood. There had been all sorts of ugly rumors about the SWAT team to begin with in Gotham City.

"We better move."

Gordon was caught off guard from what this man said and he lifted his head up. "Oh….yes…agreed…of course."

It was going to be a long night, for sure.

* * *

James Gordon and John Jones were not the only ones who heard Branden's transmission, not at all. In fact, there was a certain brooding bat of the night who picked up on it. He heard the orders to shoot and frowned, as he sat perched on top of a gargoyle on old Gotham.

He read between the lines, one would have to be a fool not to figure out what the game was and Branden's game was to take him down and hard. Batman stayed still and accessed a binocular function that was built into his cowl to get a closer look. The SWAT team was being deployed at the edge of the bridge, as promised.

He looked up and he saw something else that was getting into position.

' _Snipers,'_ he thought as the cowled crusader turned his head from one side to the next. _'Looks like Branden isn't doing things half way when he gave these orders.'_

The ugly implications set in as it pertained to these orders. Anyone who looked like a criminal, anyone who looked like a gang member, and given how colorfully dressed some of the Gotham City criminal elite was, that had a rather wide definition, would be struck down by the snipers. It was best that anyone would stick to the shadows and that was what Batman did. He discreetly moved around, trying to get a full scope of the snipers that were moving around in the area of old Gotham.

The wind blew which actually worked to his favor. It was background noise that he would be able to utilize to mask his movements.

He saw smoke out of the corners of his eye but while he kept mindful of it, that was not what he was after. What he was after was the snipers that had set up shop on the roofs.

"So, what are you planning on doing exactly?" Alfred asked as he piped in over the communication link.

Batman didn't hesitate in answering the questions. "While the SWAT team is a problem, I need to focus on dealing with the gang violence in Old Gotham. It's going to get much worse before it gets better."

"Especially with that shipment that you found weeks back," Alfred replied in his usual dry tone.

"Exactly," Batman said without missing a beat. He was a man of few words and decisive action as well. He was certain by this point that he had scoped out where all of the snipers were holed up. It was now a matter of quick and decisive movement as he made his way around the edge of the building on Gotham City.

"And while you're taking out them, I suspect you'll be waiting for your friend to show up and lend you a hand," Alfred said and a long pause was given before this question was answered.

"If he shows," Batman said, he was fully willing to take this on himself, if need be. However, there was a hint that the mysterious ninja would know by now. "I don't need the help, I don't need any allies…."

"Respectfully speaking sir, as talented as you may be, even the Batman can use an ally or two," Alfred argued and Batman paused for a second but the dutiful butler was not done putting in his two cents, at least not yet. "And let's face facts, you need all of the help that you can get."

There was no question about what was said, Batman remained silent. He understood, a part of him believed what Alfred was saying.

"Shall I consider that lack of argument as a sign you agree with me, sir," Alfred said and there was a few more seconds of silence.

"I'll accept his help if he offers it but I'm not waiting around," Batman said, he had to move quickly.

"I wonder if he's not going to wait around for you then," Alfred quipped but Batman remained silent. The caped crusader was ready to strike, stalking the night like a predator.

He took another few moments to observe the SWAT team that crowded around. He clutched his hand around the grapnel and prepared to shoot it up, as he swung into Old Gotham proper.

* * *

' _So, you're give me constant updates with what's happening, right?'_ Kara thought as she folded her arms together and she threw her head back. She was still at the Farm, visiting her cousin, with Rose, Lily, and the twins. The blonde tapped her foot where she sat and she could hear enough through the bond link.

' _We will, Kara, please relax,'_ Zatanna thought to her, although she was amused by the blonde and her antics.

Hermione bit down on her lip in frustration as she was down in the sub-basement. Hacking was something that she could never get her head around because it was something that she couldn't do by the book.

"Okay, let's take a deep breath and not get frustrated," Karen said gently as she sat right by Hermione's side and they tried to get into the GCPD Network.

"They seem to have protocols on top of protocols on top of protocols, whoever designed this, they knew what they were doing," Jaime said as she looked over but she was working on something herself so she left the hacking of the GCPD network in Karen and Hermione's hands.

"Okay, I think that it's ready," Zatanna said, their project blinking to life. "Granted, it's really a bit….primitive given what we can do…."

"But it will do for now," Jaime said as the diagnostic spells built into the costumes of Nightwing and Black Canary lead to the base of what they were doing. The Lair's Holographic interface gave it the teeth that it needed, and as a result, it lead to what for lack of a better term could be described as a completely Ghetto Marauder's Map.

"It lacks details," Faora said as she crossed her arms and then she added. "But it will do….for now."

"Names are not there, but it should work," Diana said to her and she placed her hand on the edge of her chin. The dark haired Amazon watched it and she voiced the thought that went through her head. "I do wish that I could be out there."

' _Well to be fair, you don't have a costume and even with your intimidating presence….'_ Kara thought but Diana jumped in for a second as she shrugged her shoulders.

' _I know, it's not worth the risk,'_ Diana thought to herself as she slumped down on her shoulders as she reared her head back for a few seconds. The woman smiled as she thought about it. _'Although I'm sure that with Harry out there, things are going to work out pretty well.'_

' _Hey!'_ Dinah thought.

' _Well you're pretty good as well Dinah, I didn't mean to count you out,'_ Diana thought with a smile and Dinah nodded, although she could not really focus on that point all that much. Rather she needed to focus. _'How are you handling the bond chatter?'_

' _It was a bit overwhelming at first but I'm getting the hand of it,'_ Dinah admitted, but it was something that she got used to. _'Harry….Harry is working through this pretty well. I think that it comes as naturally as breathing to him.'_

' _That's because it does,'_ Kara chimed in without another word as she waited. She was currently talking with Clark and Martha and she was just as easily multi-tasking what happened. She did not want to turn on the television to get a bird's eye view on what was happening in Gotham City, although she could get a good enough idea.

"Are you almost in?" Faora asked to Karen and Hermione, and there was a second where the two of them exchanged a frustrated look. They figured that with the Map, alongside the GCPD com system, they could get a good enough assessment of what Harry had to deal with out there. "Keep in mind….."

"Time is of the essence, gotcha," Karen said as she was keeping a close eye on Hermione to ensure that she did not lose her head.

"Think I might am almost in….the security's good, but it's not foolproof," Hermione said as she chewed on her lip. She almost drew blood as she bit down on her lip but she stayed the course and made her way into the system.

' _Keep your cool, Hermione,'_ Charlotte warned her from afar. She was eagerly listening in as some of the girls from Britain were, although Harrison was locked up in his office, contemplating something or other. They had no idea what but they were sure that they would all find out before too long.

' _Well, keep me posted,'_ Kara reminded him. Meanwhile she enjoyed the country atmosphere of Smallville and it was a nice change from Gotham City.

' _We're slowly getting in position,'_ Harry told the girls, giving them an update. _'We see him, he's here.'_

' _Of course he is,'_ Faora thought with a half of smile. There was no need to tell who was here and what he was doing. She would be even more shocked if Batman did not at least put in an appearance on this night. _'There are potential hostiles to your right.'_

' _We see them, but thanks for the heads up,'_ Dinah thought as the gunfire had only ceased long enough for her to take a breath before it kicked back up.

' _The SWAT's after you, you realize that, don't you?'_ Hermione thought to them.

' _Yes we know, but it's kind of a matter of them catching us first, you know,'_ Harry responded and Hermione threw her arms together.

' _We've got ninety three percent of the way of getting in, I think, we're working on getting a hundred percent of the way in,'_ Karen said, it went without saying that missing even seven percent would mean a pivotal part of their offensive plan would be cut out.

Dinah chimed in her two cents. _'Well just do what you can do down there on your end, Harry and I….we'll figure out what we have to down on this end, and we'll check in if we ned any back up and you check in if you see anything that might pose a problem.'_

' _That's the plan,'_ Jaime said speaking for them all. She would wish them luck but luck might not be something that they would need given the circumstances. The world was waiting and watching to see what would transpire next.

The game that no one liked to play, the waiting game, was in effect.

* * *

Dinah unleashed her Canary cry and as a result, a car flipped over, crashing into several unsuspecting enemies that were foolish enough to be in the proximity. It had been the same case that it had been all night, with Black Canary and Nightwing having to run all over Gotham City, putting out all kinds of fires.

This time, the two of them stood back to back and faced their adversaries, all of them moving in towards the heroic duo. Nightwing and Black Canary, they fought fiercely against their enemies.

' _So, business as usual,'_ Dinah thought as she waited for the other shoe to drop.

Harry did not respond, although he was not going to wait, at least not that much. His green eyes flashed as he scanned the area where he was. The two of them stood at the border between Park Row and Amusement Mile where a true battle was starting to rear its ugly head.

So this battle was between Black Mask's men, it was really not hard to pick them out of the crowd, due to the unique appearance of their the mask they had. That was far from it, as Harry now had the confirmation that he needed that the Penguin's men were involved.

Being overseas, Harry had heard rumors about the Penguin but the fact that he showed up in Gotham City of all places, well surprising did not even begin to cover it.

The group was mostly down for the count, after some strategy employed by the two. It was a rather chaotic night.

' _To your right,'_ Faora suggested as there was some definite hostiles that were going to pop up and cause trouble.

Harry and Dinah both could not help but notice a trend as they were moving through. Maroni and Falcone had several men stationed throughout the city but they all dropped like nine pins. That proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were dealing with a higher class of mobster, with the higher grade weapons they utilized.

' _Seems like without their leadership, their men are just scrambling around,'_ Karen thought to them.

' _About what I was thinking,'_ Harry agreed as he kept moving forward, just waiting for the hostiles that Faora had mentioned to present themselves.

The firefight between the Penguin's men and Black Mask's men indicated that they were pretty close.

"Look!" one of Black Mask's men yelled and they turned their attention from the Penguin's men briefly, who had been backing up, and started to fire on the two vigilantes who gave them trouble a while back.

The two dodged as Harry made a decision of what he was going to do.

' _Dinah, gas mask,'_ Harry thought to her and there was no question about it, she understood.

Once it was secured on both of them, Harry reached into his belt and pulled out three gas grenades. He hurled them into the air and they shattered.

The gas released caused the thugs on the ground to be blinded but that was not the only thing. The moment that they inhaled the gas, they dropped to the ground, down for the count. A head count showed that this particular group was disabled.

Some of them had the presence of mind to have gas masks of their own ready but Harry had a counter attack ready for that. He pulled out a pair of throwing knives and charged them. With an arching overhand throw, he hurled them into the mist and the knives impacted the ground.

Dinah could see another two behind her out of the reflection of the car mirror. She kicked his leg out from underneath him, jumped up and grabbed him around the head, before smashing him to the ground. She obliterated another enemy with a vicious kick to the jaw.

' _I think that all of them are down….your vitals are good, they're not,'_ Diana chimed in as the fallen bodies were around.

Harry could have sworn that he saw SWAT mobilizing in the distance and he would have preferred to avoid a confrontation with them. The duo moved into the night, leaving the scene of this particular battle.

They saw another car pulling out and likely there were more men in it, about ready to attack anything that was not on their side.

No sooner did the doors open, did a large swooping figure come down from the sky and land on the back of their heads. There was a huge crunch with a certain dark bat of the night, impacting the back of the thug. He kept bouncing back and forth as Black Canary and Nightwing watched his progress.

He did move quickly and this was the first time that Black Canary had seen him in action in an extremely long time.

A second car pulled up and Batman was gone but then he was back, as he landed the top of the car and caused the people to be rendered unconscious inside the car from the impact. He looked up and went around as Harry watched in amusement and Dinah raised an eyebrow.

Batman stopped at that moment and turned to the two who stood in the shadows. He gave a really penetrating glare to Black Canary but to her credit, she did not back up. She glared back at him, unblinking.

Harry sighed, he was pretty sure that this could turn ugly really quickly. "Batman this is Black Canary, Black Canary this is Batman, or have the two of you already met each other?"

**To Be Continued In the Next Chapter.**


	24. Battle for Old Gotham Part Three

A large rotund individual sat in a lavish office, behind a big desk that was mostly clean with only a couple of folders on one side and a phone on the other side. He was sitting in a big chair with a high back and in front of him were several smaller chairs that he forced his guests to sit in, to show that they were of lesser importance than he was. His office had a large set of doors on the other side of it and there was an even larger window that looked out all over Gotham City.

In short, everything in the office seemed so large that one would think that he was compensating for something.

He was dressed in a sleek suit, with evenly parted grey hair. He had dark eyes and a darker complexion. He was currently talking to a larger pale individual, who was a few good meals overweight. He made this individual look like a lightweight.

The man behind the desk was Rupert Thorne and he puffed up an imported cigar as he stared down the man.

"So….is that all, Steven?" Thorne asked in his most crisp voice, almost dismissive and the man in front of him, nodded. "We'll hold off on it for now. If anything changes, I'll be sure to inform your contact."

Thorne took another large puff of the cigar and poured himself a cup of vodka, before taking a swig of it as he stared at the man. Cigar smoke filled the office as he puffed away.

"But it is unwise for us to keep meeting face to face like this," Thorne said as he took another swig of his vodka and he put down his cigar, to light another one. "It'd look fairly suspicious."

"Understood," Steven said in a weedy voice as he made his way out of the office, waddling all of the way and Thorne heard his intercom buzzing.

"Yes, Candace, what is it?" Thorne asked as he answered his secretary on the intercom.

"Howard Brandan wishes to speak with you," Candace said to him. "Shall I?"

"Put him on, see what he wants," Thorne said as he drummed his fingers and he figured that he could use an update about what was transpiring over in Old Gotham. "Yes, Brenden, what is it?"

"Black Mask and the Penguin sent their men to attack Falcone's men, Maroni's as well, and….they were sighted," Branden said to Thorne.

"I believe I've made my orders perfectly clear, Brenden," Thorne said as he swigged his vodka and paused. "No one gets in, no one gets out, is that understand."

"I think…."

"Well I'm not paying you to think!" Thorne snapped harshly. "I paid good money to ensure that the SWAT team does their job and don't forget that cushy position can get pulled out of your hands as quick as I put it there. Is that understood?"

Branden's response dripped with agitation but never the less, he answered. "Understand."

The GCPD SWAT was run like mercenaries, at least that's how Branden set it up. The highest bidder controlled the spoils and Rupert Thorne was able to manipulate everything to his liking, as much as he liked.

"No one gets in, no one gets out," Thorne repeated to him. "I want Old Gotham secured and I don't want anyone stepping on my toes."

"Yes, Mr. Thorne, sir," Branden said, it was obvious that the man knew where his bread was buttered or at least Thorne thought so.

Rupert Thorne reclined back as he was only mildly concerned about a couple of urban legends. He was pretty sure that their abilities were greatly exaggerated.

"Mr. Thorne, Councilman Hill and Mr. Schreck are here for their meeting," Candace chimed in and Thorne paused and he gave her the word.

"Send them in," Thorne said firmly and he waited. This was going to be a productive evening, providing Branden didn't screw up.

* * *

Despite his initial reluctance to accept help, Batman decided to grudgingly do so. As much as he hated to admit it, this was a situation where he was pretty much in over his head. He had seen plenty of gang violence, it went with the territory in Gotham City, there was no question about that. And there was no question that this was far worse than anything he had ever run across during his short time under the cowl.

He was on the roof, joined quickly by Black Canary and Nightwing. The trio waited for their next move. The gunfire had died down, at least for a few seconds but they could all agree that was not going to last for any substantial amount of time. Nightwing brought up a holographic copy of the map that was down in the lair.

Batman did not say anything but he was impressed.

"It's a rather crude copy, I wish to have something a bit more sophisticated later on," Nightwing said without even looking at Batman although he could sense a few impressed thoughts and the obvious fact that Batman might have wanted one.

' _We've got a problem,'_ Karen popped in through the bond link.

' _Yes, what kind of a problem?'_ Harry asked and Hermione was the one who chimed in. To say she was frustrated might have been putting things mildly.

' _Well….remember how we said that we were only seven percent of the way from getting in?'_ Hermione asked as she sighed. She took her lack of success as a personal insult to her. The brunette tried not to lose her head, even if it was the easiest thing in the world for her to do. She shook her head as she decided to spit it out. _'Well now we're zero percent of the way in, the guy booted us out, and I think that whoever put this program in, he was toying with us.'_

' _Obviously,'_ Donna added but she could almost see Harry give her a look through the bond that now was not the time. The Amazon clammed up for a second as she shook her head. _'So do you have any idea who might be brazen enough to do something like that?'_

Karen was only too happy to chime in with an answer of her own. _'Well the man who created the GCPD's encryption, he's called Edward Nashton. Don't know too much about that guy, except for the fact that he's….well he's pretty good at what he does. And he's created the encryption to some of the top companies in Gotham City. Except for RAO and Wayne obviously because we have our own private networks but never the less, Nashton is trying to ensure that no one gets in.'_

"We have a problem," Harry said as he got the feed to the computers in the lair and he looked over his shoulder where Batman watched him. It appeared that this cowled crusader of the night was all ears, so Nightwing decided to fill him in. "Well….for lack of a matter term, I can't break into the GCPD communication feeds, came close though but he booted us out."

Batman did not even need to be a great detective to realize that he would have some support.

"I believe I may have a solution," he said calmly as he started to upload a program in the system. He purchased it off of a hacker online known as Oracle. Whoever was behind it, they seemed to be pretty reputable so Batman was banking on it working. Not that he could beat the price.

With the GCPD communications network now compromised, Harry was able to get remote access.

"Orders are that no one is able to get into Old Gotham," a gruff voice said over the communication link.

"There have been…."

"Branden's orders are that we keep everyone out, take it up with him," another member of the SWAT team said as there was more squabble over the radio.

Black Canary let out a prominent sigh; she thought that there was a distinct lack of police coming around Old Gotham, especially based on the levels of violence. Only the police that regularly patrolled the area and from what they could tell over the radio, they were boxed inside.

"Locked out to the outside world, anyone in here, they're a sitting duck," Nightwing said as he confirmed. He wondered what the SWAT was playing at but then it hit him, someone was giving the SWAT team their marching orders.

"We've got a problem," Batman said and there was a moment where Black Canary and Nightwing stared at him but then they nodded.

' _Master of the obvious award goes to Batman!'_ Amanda cheered over the bond link but she remained silent over the bond after she got a stern reprimand from her mother, aunt, and Faora who for all intents and purposes was her older sister.

"Problem, puts things mildly, it's a crisis waiting to happen," Harry said as he pinched the bridge of the nose. "Old Gotham is in the crux of a three way gang war, there's the Penguin, there's Black Mask, and there's the mob."

"The mob is fractured, though," Batman reminded them.

"We could take down the leadership of the gangs that we do know, and hope that they call the goons off," Harry said as he threw his head back. "The problem is, the Penguin is a mystery, isn't he? Unless you know who he is."

"No," Batman said, the Penguin was this mysterious gangster from London. This was the first time that he operated in Gotham City to the best of his knowledge. "We do know who Black Mask is."

"Yes, and if you know who Black Mask is, he's going to be a tricky one for us to get our hands around," Harry said without missing a beat. He was not going to mince his words. "He could be functioning out of Sionis Steel Works, which is a fortress or Janus Cosmetics, which is in Old Gotham, but that may be his two main bases of operations."

"And after he got taken down before, he will be doubly careful," Batman said and Nightwing nodded, there was really no more to say other than that.

Black Canary chirped up with an obvious statement. "Well, there isn't too much that we can do until the situation with the SWAT on the bridge is resolved is to put out as many fires as we can. Because….."

She was cut off by some more gunfire off in the distance and there was a second where they could not hear each other. Judging by the yells down below, things were just heating up now.

"And we need to get access to the communication networks of the three main parties as well," Black Canary said as she looked at the dark crusader in the shadows. "Batman may be the best person for that, while Nightwing and I put out as many fires as we can."

"I'm not so sure….."

"She's right," Nightwing said in a voice that left no room for argument as he cast Batman a glare that left even less room.

"Fine," Batman said and Nightwing held up a hand before placed an access card in Batman's hand.

"This should allow you to do what you need to do, although it will short out if you try and fiddle with it to work beyond your intended purpose," Nightwing said and Batman did not even need to respond with that he knew.

Rather the bat-themed vigilante slipped off in one direction, while Black Canary and Nightwing popped off into the other direction.

' _Two blocks,'_ Faora chimed in helpfully and her two cents were appreciated as they kept their eyes pealed and their ears pealed. As it turned out, they did not have to look too hard.

Black Canary and Nightwing dropped down, preparing to engage in battle, but keeping mindful of the SWAT that were prowling in the night as well. While they seemed to be keeping to the bridge, they did not want to take any chances.

* * *

A stylish gentlemen turned up, with long parted dark hair and a mustache. He had the demeanor of your average businessman, in fact, if he was a face in the crowd, he would be pretty much mistaken for a banker. In fact, compared to the rest of his family, he had far fewer issues indeed. He tapped his hand on the table. His name was Mario Falcone and he turned to his brother, Alberto. Alberto had his jaw wired shut after his encounter with the demon, or at least that's what Mario was being told.

Mario did not believe in demons but there was someone that he was keeping a close eye out for. He never was all that comfortable with the family business, although he was willing to play along into lessen some of the brutality that the Falcones had done. He was good at what he did, with less issues than his brother or his sister.

He currently sat trying to get news in what was happening in Old Gotham at the beautiful Carmine Hotel, in the Bowery. It functioned as his base of operations, temporary as it would have been. Although it technically was considered to be Maroni territory but his hold on the Bowery was slipping rather quickly due to his incarceration.

It was a hotel that was built by his great grandfather Vito Falcone, sometime during the 1920s and it was a huge part of the Falcone Family history.

The phone, which had been ringing off the hook for the past hour, rang again and as tired as he might have been, Mario picked it up once again.

"You lost….you lost….calm down," Mario said firmly over the phone.

Alberto wordlessly listened to the conversation, not saying a blasted word due to his inability to speak due to his jaw being busted up. He drummed his fingers across the table.

"They've been pushed out, of the Industrial Districts, the Amusement Mile, and the Docks," Mario said to Alberto and Alberto picked up a pad of paper and a pen, before scrawling a message.

' _By who?'_

"The Penguin, Black Mask, maybe it's that Bat for all I know, he could be involved knee deep in this shit as well," Mario said trying to keep himself calm although his calmness failed him at the moment. His men waited for the order. "Go down….."

The sound of automatic gunfire could be heard from the lobby and that caused both Falcones to stand up straight and nearly trip over their own feet. Mario was the only one who could voice exactly what he was thinking. "What the fuck was that?"

The door was kicked up and Mario got up to his feet, to see one of his bodyguards. He had his hand on a gun that he had concealed on him.

"It's Zucco," one of the bodyguard said to him.

"What….what is he doing here?" Mario asked as he looked over his shoulder. "Fat" Tony Zucco was Maroni's right hand man and the most likely individual to take control of the mob in the man's absence.

"The guy in the lobby, he radioed up here, the line went dead," the bodyguard said swiftly without missing a beat and there was no question about it, Mario was sweating at the pressure he was feeling.

"That opportunist son of a bitch!" he swore, he realized what was happening. He was taking advantage of the chaos to gain complete control of the Bowery and in the center of that was the hotel.

He was even more pissed off when he saw the security camera footage. He saw Zucco and his men storm into the lobby and open fire on everyone there. They were trying to break into the top floor, likely to get out of the Falcones.

"We need to get you out there, sir," his bodyguard said to him urgently, grabbing him by the arm and Alberto scrambled to follow his brother and his bodyguard.

Mario was not about to argue with that point and the group made their way to the elevator leading to the parking garage. Where it was their hope that they would bypass any problems, with things now breaking down further now that the top lead bosses on both side were no in prison.

' _Come on, come on,'_ Alberto said, he could not verbally freak out for obvious reasons but never the less his eyes darted around like a spaz. He was not in the most sound of mind after his encounter with the demon which traumatized him.

"We're almost there," the bodyguard said and no sooner did he step out of the elevator, he was shot down.

A barrage of gunfire met them in the parking garage with Falcone's men pouring out to respond. It was a chaotic scene with both sides shooting at each other, with blood being shed. The loud bang of shattering glass could be heard, with the remaining bodyguards forming a shield around the two Falcones.

"This way, sir, we're almost there," a bodyguard whispered as he saw a glimpse of a rotund figure in the shadows.

"Blow the brains of that son of a bitch out!" grunted a voice from the shadows, but the Falcones were already in the limo and the driver pealed out as fast as he could go, nearly blowing through the door and running over everyone who had been foolish enough to step into the ring.

The large and imposing figure of Tony Zucco stepped out. He was a middle aged gentleman with a bald spot, dressed in a suit. He had piercing eyes that ensured that he meant the business.

"We ran all of the rats out of the Bowery," he told his men. "It's now ours."

Maroni's remaining men cheered although they could not grow too comfortable for they still had to deal with Black Mask and this Penguin. Not to mention the Bat and the ninja, although some of them were skeptical about their existence.

* * *

"Finally," Hermione said, there was no mistaking the amount of relief that popped into her voice as she managed to get into the network. Karen smiled as she shared her joy.

"There have been shots at the Carmine Hotel…..I repeat….there have been shots at the Carmine Hotel…."

"I don't care, I given my orders, and those orders that no one gets inside Old Gotham, no matter what, unless Commissioner Loeb or Chief O'Hara contradict them," Branden barked.

"And I thought some of the Ministry employees where idiots,' Nym whispered as she just joined the fun. The girl stood there, dressed in a white top and jeans, with her hair long and dark and she was ready to help in any way that she could. "Situation's getting intense, isn't it?"

"Yes," Diana said briskly, she did not want to say much more than she did.

"Make sure you get the Carmine Hotel on the map, I want a fix on what's going on there," Karen said to Zatanna and Jaime and they nodded, that was something that was a key priority of what they wanted to get up on that map.

"We need to try and cut off the people in charge, but this isn't working out as well as I hoped," Hermione said as she tried to focus and not spaz out when she was trying to get everything in order. Karen stood right beside her to keep her focused.

' _We should be getting a fix onto the comm networks of the major parties involved,'_ Harry informed them all.

' _Standing by for that one,'_ Faora agreed as she and Diana had divided their responsibilities to who kept an eye on what and Nym.

"I just really hope that there's something on our end soon because we're running around in circles," Hermione said as she placed her hand on her head but Karen grabbed her arm warningly. Just when she was about to bemoan how long this was taking, something popped up.

"I want you to get it done," Black Mask grunted over the communication network.

"We'll get it done boss, don't worry," one of the goons said. "Alright, you boys heard him, any of those bastards, start shooting them."

"Yeah, well you heard what happened, some of Maroni's men started going after some of Falcone's or maybe it was the other way around," the goon said as he coughed. "Anyway, the dumb bastards are going to take themselves out."

"Good," one of the goons stated savagely as there was more such chatter over the communication networks.

"Well, shit's gotten far worse, now it's gone from a three way to a four way," Hermione said as she sighed. "This complicates things."

"Yes, it does," Karen agreed.

' _Just stay focused, as the other communication links should be popping in shortly, and keep us posted on anything that's happening at the Hotel,'_ Harry said as he had stomped on the head of another goon, after him and Dinah had put out another fight against some goons.

' _You know, the best thing to go in there would be to strike fast and get the hell out of dodge before moving onto the next cluster,'_ Nym suggested and there were nods of agreement.

' _She's got the right idea,'_ Faora said. _'It's going to be Guerrilla tactics all of the way, you've got to keep getting in there, before they have a chance to see you."_

' _And try to manipulate your enemies against each other, and just keep moving….to your right,'_ Diana said and they could see that an intense battle was this close to brewing.

' _Yeah, it does make my life easier when they take each other out, but the SWAT kind of evens that out with what they're doing,'_ Harry said as he watched Dinah knock on of them out.

' _There's something going on above you,'_ Zatanna thought as she chimed in helpfully.

' _I don't think they'd see you from your vantage point but at the same time, you should be very careful,'_ Faora warned them and Harry smiled.

' _I'm being careful,'_ Harry said.

The girls could see a large cluster being knocked down, whether it was from another Canary Cry or from Harry taking them down, it was a lot to figure out.

"Who the hell is doing this, SOMEONE REPORT!" Black Mask yelled over the radio but he calmed himself down after taking a few deep breaths. "Whoever's doing it, I don't care, just shoot those sons of bitches and make sure they stay in the fucking ground."

Black Mask's flustered statement could in fact be heard by all and there were a lot of fires to be put out.

' _That's high priority right there,'_ Diana said as she could see that one would be easier to take out. _'A block west.'_

They continued to put out as many fires as they could but there always seemed to be something to do. Especially considering a three way fight had spun into a four way fight when the Maroni and Falcone factions turned against each other.

' _The Battle For Old Gotham is heating up,'_ Hermione thought to herself as she shook her head.

' _So, things have really gotten nuts,'_ Kara said as she jumped onto the bond link.

' _More than usual, Harry and Dinah are handling it and then Batman's there, so….hopefully things will be fine,'_ Hermione said, she was half distracted most of the time.

' _I hope that you're right,'_ Kara said, she was sitting in the fields of Smallville right now, where she could be alone with her thoughts. The Kents had long since been to bed although given that it was past midnight, she suspected that Jonathan Kent at least would be up soon to start his farm chores.

' _Harry's got it under control,'_ Lily said, she was actually as curious as Kara was, perhaps a bit more so and trying to check things out on the bond. The twins had crashed already, after they had taken Lana to the mall earlier for a day out that evening but they would be popping in as needed.

* * *

Batman swooped down after managing to get his hooks into Black Mask's radio network. That was one party down but he had a big fish to get his hook into. The Penguin was next up and there was something that told him that it would be a bit harder to get the Penguin's radio network.

The first step was to track down some of the Penguin's gang which was easier said than done. They would be among the stylish lot, although some of them were mercenaries. There was a crackle in the air and more gunshots.

Batman kept moving and dodged up as a couple of men stepped from the shadows.

"Did you hear anything?" one of them whispered his partner and his partner shook his head.

"Not a god damn thing, just keep moving, we've got to be imagining it," one of the thugs suggested and Batman looked down before there was one thought that went through his head.

' _They'll lead me to where I want to go,'_ Batman thought as he moved from lamppost to lamppost, careful not to stay in one spot for too long. He could hear the sounds of combat in the very distance, but he had to keep going towards his target.

He had hit the jackpot with a group of Penguin's men standing around, just talking with each other.

"The boss gives the orders, and we take out any of the Roman's guys who are dumb enough to show their ugly mugs," one of the goons said and there was a lot of nodding.

"Did you see what happened….bunch of guys went down about three blocks from here?" one of them asked.

"Nah, they were being fucking careless, you wouldn't see me taken down that easily," the goon said and no sooner did these words leave his mouth, the back of a knee struck him in the back of the head. He went down and a dark figure went into the shadows.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" one of the goons asked and suddenly, another goon as dragged into the shadows and slowly beaten.

He stepped into the shadows, nervously. "I ain't fucking around, you better come out…."

A pair of hands muffled his mouth and his head bounced off the edge of a lightpost outside. The clang took him down.

Most frustratingly, this was not the group that Batman wanted to go after but he heard the snatches of a conversation off to the side.

"You guys, still haven't got the casino yet…."

"No, not yet, son of a bitches are holed in there tight," the goon protested, as they held the military grade equipment that they had. The grunts they sent ahead on a scouting mission were not equipped as they were. "They got, must be about four or five guys, or something, guarding all of the entrances."

The first thug shook his head, dread being present in his voice. "Man the boss is going to be fucking pissed."

"Boss is always pissed about something, ain't nothing new," another goon chimed in as he checked the shadows. Their men had been taken down all night.

"Yeah, heard because it because I can't get it up no more, but that's not the fucking point," the first thug said to the other two. "You fuck this up, and he'll send them after you, You know, the Walrus or Mr. Carpenter, and you shitheads want to know what happen the last time he sent them after a person."

There was a pause and the goon continued.

"Tell you want happened, the Walrus beat the ever living piss out of that guy who fucked up with that bat of his. I saw it happen, a bunch of us saw it happen."

"No way, that thing he has, it's a bat?"

"Yeah, for cricket or rugby, or one of those sports they play over there, you need to know what a crumpet is to understand it," the thug said but then he shook off those thoughts. "But that's not the fucking point, the point is you need to take over that Casino and take it over soon."

"How are we supposed to do that?"

"Well, dumbass, the boss sent us over some party favors, so just take a look in the crate, and get your ass over there with some guys, pronto."

' _Too well armed for generic thugs, got to take them out,'_ Batman thought as he swooped down.

The two guards did not stand a chance, one of the weapons that they had was an automatic combat shotgun, but they were knocked unconscious before the thugs got a chance to use it. Two heads clonked together as they slumped to the ground.

Batman had the radio that he needed to patch things through but he saw the crates on the ground, curiosity got the better of him.

Before he got straight to business with that, Batman opened up the crates. What he saw in one of the five crates, it was shopping.

There were four M72 LAW's inside each create. Batman mentally pieced together the math in his head and sure enough, if the contents of the crate were the same, there would be twenty of these dangerous weapons and it was enough to suit the Penguin's gang.

He made plans to destroy the contraband, even if these two would not be able to use it, there were too many gang members that were prowling around. More thugs, no matter on what side, would be able to grab onto them.

Miniature explosive devices were attached to the side of the crates, ready to detonate in the next sixty seconds.

Batman hurled the two goons safely into a dumpster, where they could be protected and also be along with the rest of the garbage.

With another movement, Batman repelled up onto a gargoyle and had the radio. He paused and waited for the telltale signs of an explosion to go off. The explosion went off seconds later and the contraband was destroyed.

Batman had the radio and it did not take him too long to find his way into the Penguin's network.

"Get to the casino, I don't care if it's fifty below zero out there, just get the job done," a garbled voice squawked over the communications link and Batman thought that it could deal with being a little bit clearer but he had an in.

"Alright, we're in the Penguin's network," Batman said to Nightwing. "And I've found something that you might be interested in."

* * *

"Boss isn't happy that we haven't gotten into Amusement Mile yet," one of the members of Black Mask's gang stated.

"Yeah, that's the boss for you, we got to go through this creepy fucking place to meet with the others," another thug said as there was shivers that went down his smile. "He'd gut us if we don't do it."

A group of about seven or eight of Black Mask's men were walking through Sheldon Park. There was an eerie fog and since it was a dark night already, that did not improve their nervous moods.

"I've seen horror movies that started like this, I tell you man, there's some messed up shit," one of them said.

"You're just imagining things, can't be that bad, not as bad as what the boss'll do to us, if we fuck this one up," the leader of the pack said as he looked over his shoulder to the men. "We've got to take Sheldon Park or he'll cut someone open…..straight the stomach….and rip his intestines out and skip rope with them."

"That's some fucked up shit," one of the thugs said.

"Hey, you fuck this up, being sick to your stomach will be the least of your worries," one of the men said as he stepped into the chilling mist.

"Fucking freezing as fuck out here," the thug grumbled.

"Ah, you want a bottle and a binky, you big baby?" another thug said but he shivered at the fog and things were getting a bit more chilling and foggy as well as they kept going deeper into Sheldon Park. They were heading in the direction of a large tower. "You want to bitch, take it up with the boss, might be the last worthless breath that you take. He's been pissy ever since Black Canary and that other guy….Wingnut wasn't it?"

"Nightwing?" one of the thugs corrected.

"Whatever, anyway those two fucked up one of his business deal, along with the Roman's little fruit of a son," the thug grumbled as he walked into the mist and they stood outside the tower.

The rustling of leaves kicked up and all of them were on a hair trigger now. They fuck up because they were paranoid, and Black Mask would have their heads. But there was that very real fear in the back of their minds that someone else could have their heads, it was one of those real lose-lose type of situations. The thug closed his hand together and kept moving, but then the leader stopped.

"WHAT?" he yelled a bit too loudly for his own good.

"Thought I heard something, must have been just the wind," the leader said. He heard something but there were no visuals.

"Fuck, we're all going to die lost in the fog if we don't keep moving, likely a cat or something stupid like this," one of them grumbled but he could not disguise how much his heart had been racing, drumming across his chest with a rapid fire beat.

They kept moving but suddenly there was a blur in the shadows, moving faster than anyone could even imagine.

There was a violent slash as an unfortunate thug dropped to the ground. They barely had time to register what happened, their fellow gang member having been cut from ear to ear, his throat sliced open and blood splashing out of his throat.

They barely had any time to register, for they had barely any time to breath because they soon met the same fate. The sword slashed the hand of the man holding a gun off and then plunged into his ribs as the person kept moving through the fog.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?" one of them yelled, losing his head, before that statement became a bit more literally. His head was sliced off, hanging by his shoulder with several gruesome sliced strands of flesh and blood oozing.

The leader of the gang backed off, really wishing he had not brushed the sign off as nothing. He fired two shots into the distance but the third was stopped due to the weapon being kicked from his hand.

His panicked mind made out the figure in the shadows. She was a woman with dark hair and had the eyes of a cold blooded killer, black and lifeless. She had a green cloak on and red and black attire. He could not make out too many more details, because he suffered a series of fatal stab wounds.

The leader fell to the ground, sliced to ribbons and he knew no more as the mysterious figure disappeared into the fog, as suddenly as she appeared.

* * *

"The weapons that he had, I'm not surprised, given who we're dealing with," Harry told Batman when he had checked in with the report. "The Penguin, he was always a problem across the pond. One of the most brutal gangsters in the entire United Kingdom, and he's been smuggling weapons for years. Police can't touch him from what I could tell. And he's now deciding to expand his empire overseas and it's no coincidence that with the power vacuum over here, he's seen Gotham City is ripe for the plucking."

Batman's suspicious mind kicked up. "How do you…."

"I know this, because I keep my eye on the news and believe me, the activities that the Penguin gets up to are news," Harry said as he sighed. "Some of us shouldn't have tunnel vision just because it's not happening where we are. And it could crawl onto your doorstep so many times, it isn't even funny. Of course, there are some governments out there who should have understood that."

' _Indeed,'_ Amelia thought as she managed to pop briefly onto the bond to see what was happening but she had jumped right onto quite the situation.

"I should have a fairly good idea why he wants to jump onto Gotham City, although exactly how he's getting the weapons into the country, that's something that we're going to have to figure out," Harry said as he shifted his stance backwards. The wizard's green eyes shifted as his arms closed over his chest and he pondered what was happening. He decided to let Batman in on the good news. "The three way gang fight that we had to deal with, well it was more complicated than that."

Batman decided to ask the dreaded question. "How so?"

"Maroni's men has turned on Falcone's," Harry said to Batman. "So their factions are now shooting at each other, with Black Mask and the Penguin. This is going to get pretty bad really quickly if we don't find a way to mitigate these problems."

"And that's not all," Dinah picked up and she invited Harry to continue with what he was saying.

"The police that are trapped in Old Gotham….well overwhelmed might not adequately describe what they are feeling," Harry said as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Dinah and I are doing what we can but we can't be everywhere at once."

' _Well technically you could,'_ Karen suggested.

' _Yes, but in a high pressured situation, the dupes aren't the best idea, especially when I'm being shot out, my focus can't be spread too thin,'_ Harry explained to them and there was some agreement.

' _From what we've been able to tell, the Falcones have gone MIA,'_ Hermione thought to him. _'Tony Zucco and his men are holed up in the Carmine Hotel as well.'_

Harry relayed the message to Batman. "Mario and Alberto Falcone are not there, Zucco has taken over the hotel that they were rumored to be holed up. I won't mince words, things are getting bad. It's getting to the point where there are too many fires to be putting out and at the rate they're shooting at each other, we can't afford to intervene too much. So pretty much, it will do jack shit to keep doing anything, but….the fact of the matter is that if we can get the police on the bridge into Old Gotham, we might have a shot."

Batman, who was now standing on the roof next to them, had a brief look of skepticism etched in his eyes. "And how are you going to manage that…."

Dinah decided to break this down for Batman as nicely and clearly as she could. "Well it's actually kind of simple. The lack of cops means that the criminals have pretty much free run of old Gotham. If we mitigate that problem, and send more cops in there, then they will be fighting cops on a grand scale. Such a scale will get the National Guard involved and that's not something that could be exactly ignored. It won't stop the violence completely but it will bring it down to a manageable level."

"So in the end, it won't end well for any of them involved," Harry concluded and Batman nodded, he conceded that despite his initial misgivings, those were some extremely sound points that this plan had.

"So, how are you going to manage to do that?" Batman asked and he waited for the answer. He only had to wait mere seconds to get one.

"Actually it's fairly simple really, all I need to do is make a few phone calls," Harry said and there was no question about that, Batman blinked.

* * *

It was well past Midnight but Harvey Dent was busy at work, pouring over files. His wife was out of town, visiting family. Her sister had a baby, which was just fine with him, because he had a lot of work to get done after some recent events in Gotham City. He had the phone in one hand and a file folder in the other hand.

"So what exactly are you working on?" Rachel Dawes asked over the phone. After the scare some time back, she was back to work and ready to go, more determined at her job than ever before.

He saw pictures, pictures of Harry Potter and James Gordon, their recent meeting at a donut shop, along with transcripts.

"A meeting between James Gordon and Harry Potter, extremely curious," Harvey said as he flipped through the transcript.

"Which one are you investigating?" Rachel asked.

"Gordon, he's….he's the newest golden boy of Gotham City after what he did during the riots, but….no one can be this squeaky clean, something's up," Harvey mused as he continued. "Although….the conversation we had…..Wayne and Potter, they keep coming up in it, even though I'm looking at Gordon closely."

"Well they are two of the most popular figures in the news in Gotham City," Rachel suggested but there was a sigh. "Bruce has changed a lot…."

"Yeah, he disappears for almost a decade, half of the people in the city think he died, and returns and takes control of Wayne Industries," Harvey mused as he shook his head. "Don't know what the hell he was doing for the past seven years. He graduated and left town as soon as he could."

"Well, a different man almost has come back in his place," Rachel said and she decided to switch tracks to another point. "Now Harry Potter….he's interesting….."

"Yes he is," Harvey said as he continued to comb through the file that he had on Gordon. There was just something about this meeting that made him interested. There was some oddity to it, something that he could not put behind him. He had to keep looking through it.

"He seems to never be anywhere outside of the company of beautiful women, several at once," Rachel mused and she brought up the next point. "And he leaves them all with smiles on their faces."

"Yes," Harvey grunted in a distracted voice. He was not really that concerned about the personal life of Harry Potter, in fact he was only concerned about what Gordon may or may not be up to. And if Wayne or Potter or both were up to something nefarious, then he would have to deal with them in due time. However while their whereabouts at several points were clouded in mystery, that was not the point of Dent's investigation. "Interesting but mysterious at that."

He could not help but make that observation and Rachel could not help making one of her own.

"Would not mind having him brought in and investigating him thoroughly," Rachel said in a knowing voice. "Given that he seems to leave a smile on the face of every woman that he's with, I'd like to see how he operates."

Harvey scowled as he read between the lines of that statement but there was a call on the other line. "Rachel, I have to go, there's a call on the other line."

"Right, talk to you later," Rachel said in a chipper voice and Harvey picked up the phone on the other end.

"Speak," Harvey said.

"You know who this is," the voice of the mysterious ninja stated. "Listen carefully, we don't have much time. Bring Chief O'Hara to the Gotham Pioneers Bridge. A situation has developed with Braden and the SWAT team that's causing things to escalate out of control."

' _Son of a bitch,'_ Dent thought to himself, Branden and the SWAT team had been a problem for him. Internal Affairs wanted to investigate them but he was being blocked. He was up there with Loeb as far as it goes with dirty cops.

He realized that he was hung up on and he switched back over to Rachel. "Rachel, I have to go, completely, something's come up."

* * *

"So, anyway, the story is taking a life of its of its own," Vicki said to one of her fellow reporters. "I don't even know what's going on with this Black Mask thing half of the time, but the GCPD knows something and they aren't saying what they know."

Vicki stopped and stared as a very unflattering person walked in. She had red hair, although there were rumors about it being dyed. She had this false sense of being nice and polite, but she was in it for the ratings and those puff pieces that she did, got ratings.

"Hello, Summer," Vicki said casually to Summer Gleeson. "So another puff piece about some rich spoiled brat who ended up throwing his life away on drugs three weeks later?"

"You're amusing, Vicki," Summer said with a high and fake laugh. "You know, you've been in the middle of things, you better be careful, we'd hate to lose such an irreplaceable part of the team such as yourself."

"I'm sure that you'd be broken up that the person who was closest to getting your top spot is closing in on you," Vicki said as she casually took a cup of coffee and sipped her coffee. "So tell me, what about the Sionis piece, considering that he was caught with his pants down and his black mask on?"

Summer's response was forever left in the wind as a phone rang and Vicki picked it up. The redhead's eyes widened as she listened to the person on the other end.

"Another one of your ninja sightings?" Summer asked to Vicki, skeptical about the ninja and she was even more skeptical about his bat that was lurking around. She would not be surprised at all if Vicki fabricated the entire thing in an attempt to get some attention in the news.

Vicki decided to brush off the words of Summer Gleeson, at least for right now and she turned to a man standing to side. "Get a film crew to The Gotham Pioneers Bridge. There's smoke to all of the fires. If this is true, this could turn out to be the story of the week, maybe even of the year."

Vicki scrambled to her feet but she stopped. "Oh, Summer, don't want to leave without saying goodbye to you, honey!"

Summer looked up as Vicki gave her the middle finger and then turned around to cover a real story and not some latest puff piece mandated by the higher ups to distract the people of Gotham City from the real issues.

Things were about to get hot.

**To Be Continued.**


	25. Battle for Old Gotham Part Two

**Chapter Twenty Five: Battle for Old Gotham Part Four.**

"So, now, it's a matter of the waiting game," Harry said after he made the two phone calls that he did. He understood that there might be a huge problem. "The GCPD and the press, they should be able to, when combined, force enough pressure to all the police into Old Gotham."

Batman nodded, although he pretty much figured out which reporter Harry called. She would be the only reporter in Gotham City that would be brazen enough to step into the line of fire. As for the person in the GCPD, well he had no idea, although he had his guesses. Whether or not they were right, well he was not saying.

"Fog's getting pretty bad," Harry mused as he looked forward. In addition to his natural X-Ray vision, he had enhanced vision built into his mask. Dinah had the same thing at his disposal and he would be shocked beyond all shock if Batman did not have something built into his mask as well. In fact, he would be willing to stake his life on the fact that the dark avenger of the night had something like that built into his mask.

Before this conversation could go any further, there was a nasty and quite British voice that popped up on the Penguin's channel. "Listen up you fucks. I hear that you bloody wankers haven't gotten your hands on the casino like I told you lot. So I'm going to make things crystal clear. I want you to take the fucking casino and I want you to take the fucking casino yesterday. It ain't even that hard of a thought to wrap your heads around it. I ain't paying you fucks and equipping you with the latest state of the art equipment and weapons just for you sit there with your thumb up your asses. Now get it done, or don't bloody think you'd be coming home any time soon."

Batman and Nightwing exchanged a glance; they could not help but think that there was something a bit familiar about that voice. Granted it was a bit garbled from the way it was coming in, Nightwing managed to get a bit of a clearer feed off of the Penguin's transmission.

' _Curious,'_ Harry thought as he wondered what was going to happen next. Never the less, he clicked it through his mind.

Of course, there was barely a moment to rest as the radio chatter of Black Mask tended to pick up.

"Yeah, the Penguin's men….the fucker thinks he's so slick, thinking that he can pull one over on the boss, but the boss, he thinks three, four, five, steps ahead of all of those assholes," the goon said in a gruff voice.

"Well, that's the boss for ya," a goon said as he cracked his knuckles. He was getting ready to get to work and then soon. "So, if we get to the casino first…."

"I heard you the first time, we'd cut off the Penguin's men at the knee, fucking puffed up bird, thinks he's the king shit in Gotham City," the thug said as he walked forward.

"Man, fog's rolling in fast….."

"Which is all the more reason to get this done and get this done soon," the goon stated as he drummed his fingers, nervously clutching a pipe in his hand. He was not going to mince words, this could potentially get ugly and he did not want to be there if the boss got failed.

"So, let's go, what are we waiting for?"

"Nothing, don't get your panties in a knot," one of them grumbled as they kept walking forward. Things were heating up in the worst way.

Black Mask's men were planning an ambush on the Penguin's men and the rest of the mob would no doubt be involved as well.

In fact, a group of them was holed up on a corner, some of them bleeding. The trio was about ready to deal with these problems but there was a large crack of what sounded like thunder in the distance. Then the police radio kicked in immediately with the frantic sound of chatter and the even more frantic voice of James Gordon.

"What the fuck are your men doing?" Gordon demanded hotly.

"Just following orders, Gordon, as I told you," Branden replied harshly. "No one gets in, no one gets out, until I get word from high up that says otherwise."

"There are….."

"Are you deaf Gordon or just stupid?" Branden asked as his snipers were in position. "Everyone stays in Old Gotham until the orders are given."

Harry was not going to say much of anything. The Casino situation was a ticking time bomb and he was pretty sure that Branden's men might also be taking some shots at innocent civilians in the distance as well. The powder keg got more heated and it was ready to explode.

"Batman, you and Black Canary can take care of the situation at the Casino," Harry said to them and there was an unasked question that Harry answered. "As for me, I'm going to take at the snipers."

People who shouldn't have been killed likely have been killed. Harry would have to play this game carefully not to throw himself into the line of fire. With that thought, the green eyed wizard vanished into the night, along with the Canary and the Bat.

* * *

"This is Vicki Vale, live on the scene in one of the most chaotic incidents to hit Gotham City in a while, right outside of the Gotham Pioneer Bridge," Vicki said breathlessly as her camera man stepped perilously close to the line of fine. "While the situation has blown up between three, perhaps four of the rival gang factions, the area around the bridge has been quarantined off due to the Gotham City SWAT. Why this is….well I'll try and find out the answer to…."

A gunshot echoed in the distance could be heard but Vicki never once broke her stride, she kept pressing on.

The shouting voices of Howard Branden and James Gordon could be heard and the argument between these two gentlemen was escalating in sheer intensity. Vicki watched it, her eyes going as wide as saucers and her mouth hanging open halfway. There was one word that slipped from her mouth as the two men went back and forth and that was "wow".

"Wow" continued to be the word of the day.

"Your men can't even tell the difference between civilians and thugs!" Gordon yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Anyone who gets in the way of the protection of the city, will be mowed down," Branden said, a crazed expression in his eyes.

"Is that a threat, Branden?" Gordon demanded him and Branden grunted, calmly enlightening Gordon on the facts of the matter.

"I don't make threats, I make promises, so step off and let me do my job," Branden said as he made sure to keep his gaze on the snipers. Until the orders changed, these men knew what to do.

Vicki watched the battle, thankful that the two of them were so focused on each other, that they did not notice he reporting. She was hidden mostly behind a van but at the same time, she had a bird's eye view.

"Branden's SWAT may have attacked civilians in their zeal to quell the gang violence, we need to wonder if common sense has not prevailed in this situation," Vicki whispered intensely as she stood in the shadows as she saw more bodies arrive. The sounds of gunshots in the distance masked her movement. The fog that she could also see in the distance, added to the eerie atmosphere. That being said, it gave more cover. "We're going to try and get a close shot at the situation on the bridge."

"You need to let people through, there are innocent lives on the line," John said, as it was becoming obvious that Branden's orders to shoot anyone coming out of Old Gotham was preventing people from fleeing when they had a chance. Park Row was a particularly nasty location.

"Listen up here, Jones, I don't have to do anything, and you need to back off….all of you and let me do my job," Branden said quite nastily as he stood there, staring them down, challenging them to do anything.

Vicki whistled but she tried not to allow herself to be seen. She could have sworn that they were about to come her way. She motioned for her crew to be quiet.

"Maybe we should get out of here," one of them whispered but the arguing on the bridge got even more intense between Gordon and Branden.

"Don't you….."

"All I'm trying to tell you….."

"Innocent people are….."

"It's been a problem spot for years, if anything….."

Vicki continued to report. "The GCPD is trying to reach a peaceful resolution, although how many will die? One must wonder what is the stance of Commissioner Loeb or Chief O'Hara is during this situation or even where they are at this tension filled hour. I will stick with you, no matter how long it takes, to get you the live and on the spot coverage for this breaking event, but for right now…."

"Montoya, what's your status!" the loud and very prominent voice of Harvey Bullock bellowed. "We're on the bridge, where are you, I thought that you said that you were in Park Row…."

"I am in Park Row," Renee said patiently. "In a bar, there were explosions, I'm holed up inside, we got a few injured, we're trying to get in touch with medical personnel but….."

"Son of bitch Branden wouldn't let any in the city, rookie," Bullock said gruffly. "Do what you can for these people, Jimbo's trying to get it sorted out but he might as well be banging his head into a brick wall."

"Understood," Renee said tensely, thinking that things were going to get a lot better before they were going to get a lot worse.

Vicki let that all sink in for only a second. "If you hadn't managed to pick that up, then allow me to repeat, Gotham City SWAT is taking their orders not to allow anyone in or out of the city to the letter, and that includes people who are in desperate need of medical attention. One must wonder what the game is with these people, if there is a game at all. I will hopefully have the answers before too long, as this powder keg threatens to explode. This is Vicki Vale live on the scene and if more breaks, you'll be the first to know it."

* * *

Dinah would have to admit, the new costume that Harry created for her, it was working like a charm, pun sort of intended. Never the less, it was a lot easier to move around in this costume as there were a lot fewer problems from where she stood. She shifted her weight as the material wrapped around her and she continued to step forward.

The gadgets were secondary to the costume, because gadgets did not make the crime fighter. But damn if they sure helped. She had a grapnel gun that allowed her to travel seamlessly from roof top to roof top about as well as Batman did.

The utility grenades were multipurpose and she utilized them to great effect as she hurled them. There were smoke grenades, flashbang grenades, and grenades that packed quite the concussive blow to knock out her enemies. All and all, any way that you sliced it, they were effective.

She held the escrima sticks in her hands, ready for action. Both of them could be locked together to form a staff which to take her opponents down with, or they can be utilized as a pair of nunchaku, to bludgeon her opponents. They were made with the same material as Harry's throwing daggers which seemed to work well.

As she thought, gear did not make the hero, but damn sure if it did not help. Harry was packed with a lot of gadgets despite having the infinite abilities of magic at his disposal. His reasoning was sound, not wanting to rely on his powers unless it was an emergency. She was sure that he kept them trained for such an emergency and she did not want to fall back on the trap of relying on her Canary Cry too much or too often.

Swiftly, Dinah joined Batman as they approached the sounds of gunfire calmly.

The four way battle for Old Gotham was getting intense, but their eyes were on the prize and the Gotham City Casino was nearly within reach.

"Maroni's men wiped out the Roman's, many I tell you, it was brutal, no one in there survived," a man on the radio stated in a completely somber voice.

"Yeah, shit's nuts in there, isn't it?" the man asked as he shook his head.

"You can say that again," the thug said as Black Mask's gang were making their way there. The Penguin's men were also on their way there, and the gunshots tapered off for barely enough time to get them to think.

Maroni's men were covering all of the windows and all of the doors. Anyone who was not of their gang had been ordered to be killed by Zucco, who was not taking any shit. The blood spilled in the Casino was immense and Falcone's men lost their shit.

Mario Falcone managed to recoup, likely scrambling up whatever reinforcements that he could get on such short notice. It was hard to take a head count when things were becoming more like a body count. Shots had been fired.

Penguin's men were on the roof top, knowing that their boss's patience ran fairly thin and they knew that there was going to be little to no time that should have been wasted with what was occurring.

"Keep it up, don't…."

"We know," the man said as Black Mask's men moved in. It was obvious that they were using roof tops as cover and alleyways right there.

Batman saw them looking right at them and Black Canary's eyes widened as they came under gunfire. This forced the two crime fighters to take cover.

' _Should be obvious then, if they saw you, you should assume that the others know that you're there and act accordingly,'_ Harry thought to her.

' _Just worry about what you're doing on the Bridge, we'll figure out how to help those two,'_ Faora thought as the gunfire was loud and they made an honest attempt to do Black Canary and Batman in with one fell swoop. _'There are hostiles….well on all sides….'_

' _Feels like we're in the middle of a war zone,'_ Black Canary thought as she shook her head and there was a second where Diana offered him the grimmest conclusion.

' _That's because you are in a war zone,'_ Diana said.

' _And the Penguin's men, they are pretty well equipped,'_ Dinah thought, she was almost sure that they had some sensors on that could track any movement, even in the darkness.

She was about ready to consult Batman for his input but he had slipped into the night, without so much as a warning and without consulting her. Dinah would have sighed and face palmed if she had not wanted to give her position away. For right now, they stopped shooting at where she was, she was well hidden, of course maybe that was because they were shooting at each other.

' _So, if my guess is right, Batman is going to go over that cluster of Penguin thugs on the roof top, because they pose the most immediately danger,'_ Dinah thought and she pulled out an EMP device, it was untested in a large group. Now was as good of a time as any to run a field test.

She considered a smoke grenade as well but with the thick fog, it was quite of redundant.

The EMP device was hurled across to the roof top. She waited, a few seconds which seemed like many minutes, until a loud pop went off.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!" someone screamed at the top of their lungs. The goggles that Penguin's men wore shorted out and caused them to become rather disoriented as the lights flashed in their faces.

Batman swooped down and with swift precision, he took them down. The sound of cracking bones could be heard, as the goons were too preoccupied with their lost of vision to notice that they were being knocked around on the roof, at least until they were rendered completely and utterly unconscious. The pavement broke with a series of large cracks as they hit the ground.

The Penguin's goons suffered broken bones, and more than their fair share of bumps and bruises.

Diana created a staff with her sticks, darting towards the nearest pocket of Black Mask's men. Taking advantage of the distraction by the chaos, she swiped it. There was a huge thunderous smack as she nailed him in the face. A series of blunt forces rocked them.

"Let's go!" Mario Falcone yelled as he led his men away from the line of fire. Now that they were not pinned down by the gunfire in the parking lot, they could get out of there, regroup, and figure out their next move.

Several downed thugs were taken out as Batman and Black Canary met in the middle.

She held her tongue about reprimanding him about the running off, feeling that it would not do much good anyway, and the result was the same anyway.

* * *

Nightwing kept to the shadows, scoping out all of the snipers.

' _Eight of them,'_ Harry thought to Faora, as he waited for confirmation of what she had on that end.

' _Yes, eight of them,'_ Faora agreed, ensuring Har-Zod's movements were as smooth as they could be. With generous help from Diana, Nym, Jaime, and Zatanna.

' _It would be a lot easier if the SWAT weren't for sale at every turn,'_ Karen thought, there were a lot of rumors that the SWAT were up to the highest bidder, naturally it was hard to do anything.

' _Well, I think that the luxury of an easy life has long since passed, don't you agree?'_ Harry thought as he snuck up on the closest sniper. He had to time his movements right, hoping to isolate him. He had a feeling that one dropped to the ground, the others could potentially notice. It was all about that proper timing as he snuck up on this man.

His arms wrapped around the throat of the sniper and a rear naked choke put him down to the ground. He blacked out and Harry quickly disappeared into the shadows before he was noticed.

' _One on your right would be the easiest to take out, I think,'_ Nym suggested.

' _Great minds think alike,'_ Harry said, it was a sound suggestion and one that he was about to undertake himself. However the fact that Nym thought that would be the best action, really showed things up. The green eyed wizard went down underneath the man.

Suddenly, the man was kicked in the face hard and then rammed off of the wall. Harry bounced back off and nailed the second sniper before he could blink with a huge hammer blow like elbow. He jumped into the shadows, holding the line as three of the eight snipers were taken down.

"There's someone here!" one of the men shouted, finally noticing the three downed men.

A flash bang was thrown into the distance and two of the snipers walked forward, leaving the third very exposed.

A large flying punch, enhanced my magic, nailed the sniper in the back of his head. The bullets were sent back into the shadows where Harry was ten seconds ago.

The snipers that were on the roof were nervous, they had seen their fellow snipers go down. There was another one parked behind the car and then seconds later, he was knocked down, like a blunt force drama blasted him across the back of the neck.

' _Those two near the bridge are going to be a problem,'_ Faora thought to him. _'There's a lot of light there and it's hard to really get through there.'_

' _A lot of light, a lot of fog as well,'_ Kara suggested as she reminded Faora of that fact. Just because she was in Smallville, it did not mean that she could not take control of the festivities and that was what she did, from where she was.

' _She does have a point,'_ Karen said as she tried to get on the police radio to see what was going on. There seemed to be a lot of frantic chatter regarding what Braden was doing getting out.

' _And they haven't figured out that Miss Vale has been reporting on what's been happening?'_ Zatanna asked.

' _To the best of my knowledge, they haven't put two and two together,'_ Harry said as he jumped high into the air and caused the sniper to shoot in what he perceived as a threat in the mist.

He turned around enough, allowed him with a punch to the back of the sniper's head. He thumped down just like that and Harry moved.

Then there was one and Harry was about ready to put him down as well. He zipped and went around the shadows, keeping his eyes locked on the prize of the sniper.

"What the hell is going on here?" he asked, losing his head and suddenly, he was roped up from behind. His ankles clenched together and he landed face first onto the ground. He was grabbed around the head and planted face first into the ground.

Harry double checked what was happening and took a sigh of relief. He was pretty sure that he took them all out and waited to see the shit storm that was about ready to kick off.

' _Snipers are taken care of, although I'm going to make one last sweep just to make sure they're all taken care of,'_ Harry thought to the girls and there were nods. _'So, Dinah, how are things heading off towards the area of the Casino?'_

' _Batman and I have taken care of most of the problem areas,'_ Dinah thought as she placed her hands on the back of her head and brushed her hair out or her face. She had a bad feeling of foreboding that she had to share with the rest of the group. _'It might be one of those calm before the storm type situations, though.'_

' _Yes, I would have to agree,'_ Jaime said, as she checked the police radio. _'Some gang violence but not as insane as it was about an hour ago. Your plan seems to have worked.'_

' _Let's hope it stays working,'_ Harry said and that was a sentiment that could be agreed by with all of them. He had a couple of close shaves but it was all in the name of drawing those snipers out.

* * *

Harvey arrived and as suggested, he was not alone. The news that he heard, both over the radio and the television, was grim and the gunshots, while not as prominent as they were about an hour ago, could still be heard often enough to cause a concern. He opened the car door and the individual stepped out.

He was an imposing individual with the hints of an Irish accent, but no one could mistake him for a walking Irish stereotype. His younger brother Miles, that was another story entirely, one half expected him to come with a pack of leprechauns in tow every time he showed up.

The man was a middle aged man, with white hair and a mustache. He had a couple of scars, indicating that he was a grizzled cop and not one that someone wanted to fuck with. He took an intense step forward and his teeth gritted. He walked up and saw Gordon, Branden, Bullock, and Jones on the bridge. His name was Chief Clancy O'Hara of the Gotham City police force.

"Wish you would have found me sooner Dent, but guess it couldn't be helped," O'Hara said as he marched towards the scene on the bridge. "What's going on?"

"Chief O'Hara, there's no reason for you to be here, I have the matter under control," Branden said and O'Hara stared him down as he turned to Gordon.

"Gordon, explain to me what the hell is going on," O'Hara said to him but Branden side stepped Gordon before he had a chance to even draw breath.

"Chief…."

"Did I stutter?" O'Hara asked as he stared down Branden with intimidation. The SWAT leader stepped back, cowed. "I asked for Gordon to give me the status report, you don't look like Gordon. So, Gordon, what is it?"

Gordon prepared to describe what happened in detail. "There are people who are trapped inside, and they are unable to get out and no medical personnel is allowed to get in. Branden refuses to allow us inside the city and the gang violence is going to continue."

O'Hara knew that was just the Cliff's notes of what was happening but he turned towards Branden, given him an ugly and quite pointed scowl. "Just who the fuck are you working for, Branden?

"No one, sir…..the GCPD Swat is under my complete jurisdiction and I felt that it was the best course of action," Branden said, smoothly, hoping that he could minimize the damage.

O'Hara gazed upon Branden with a raised eyebrow and he was not satisfied with Braden's answers. Especially given that the man hesitated before giving him a straight answer and there was something about his tone that indicated he was going to dig his heels in getting things done. Unless of course O'Hara gave him the swift boot he needed.

"I did what I thought was the best course of action for this situation, sir," Branden persisted but O'Hara was not too happy with that statement.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that load of shit?" O'Hara asked as he rose up to his full height and stared Branden, backing him down further. "I'll tell you what the best course of action is and I want you to do it."

Branden braced himself for orders that he knew would put his head on the chopping block with certain people but if Loeb or O'Hara gave him orders, he could not really deny them.

"I'm going to tell you what you need to do," O'Hara continued, his Irish accent sharp and brutal, showing that he was not a man to piss with and he had a bit of a temper as well. "I'm ordering you to get your snipers off of the bridge. I'm ordering you to stop blockading the police from doing their job. And I'm ordering you to get your fucking ass into gear and get the SWAT into old Gotham and do your job."

Branden stepped back and stomped his feet on the ground, not unlike a three year old. He grumbled underneath his breath in a slightly biting tone towards O'Hara. "Yes, sir."

He practically spat this words out as he stormed off and no sooner did Branden leave, Dent turned to Gordon and O'Hara.

"You do realize that he's spewing bullshit," Dent said to them but Gordon was the one who answered the question.

"Legally, we can't do anything," Gordon said and there was an instant where he looked up to where the snipers were supposed to be as of five minutes ago but they were taken out, just like that in one shot. The group exchanged tense looks and wondered what happened. Granted, they had their hunches but none of them could prove it.

* * *

It was almost three thirty in the morning and the scene was the Ace Chemical Plant, where Batman and Black Canary were already waiting. It was calm, a bit too calm for their liking but they were waiting for the third of their number to make his return.

"Long night," Black Canary said and Batman nodded, but then again, both of them had the same night. They were fatigued and given that they were used to going in for the long haul, that said a lot.

The two of them were a bit out of it and then the third individual showed up, Nightwing dropped down from the sky. Despite the fact that he should and was the best off out of the three of them, he still looked like he was running a marathon.

"Now, with the hand of the GCPD forced, things should cool down, but…..this isn't really over, yet," Nightwing stated and Batman gave his own two cents as only Batman could.

"It's merely the calm before another storm," Batman said as he looked around and while the violence was done, the aftershock of the causalities, well it was just picking up. "The four sides….they're not going to let this go, they've already divided up the area in old Gotham."

"Just a battle in a war," Harry said as he looked at him. "So, have you come to the conclusion that you may in fact need some help from time to time?"

There was a pregnant pause before Batman stated one thing, firmly as he could be. "Yes."

"Fair enough," Harry said as he held his hands out. "I know the reason why you do what you do, but you could become obsessed as the people that you're fighting if you don't find a way to walk that tightrope carefully."

Batman nodded grimly, he understood more than ever before about this. His eyes were fixed forward but Nightwing was not done.

"Although you do need to work on your communication skills," Nightwing said and Black Canary nodded in agreement. "We got lucky tonight but if we're not all the same page again, things could turn ugly, in a hurry."

"I'll keep that in mind," Batman said but he did not say anything else other than that.

"So, you decided to give up on the voice," Nightwing said and that statement came so out of the blue that Batman had to hesitate. There was a few seconds where he stared other vigilante of the night in Gotham down before he responded in the most honest tone that he could muster.

"It was hurting my throat," Batman admitted and Nightwing nodded, his jaw set.

"Fair enough," Nightwing replied crisply.

The group took a few seconds to enjoy the calmness of the night air in Gotham City. Batman turned his attention off of the two of them for a second and was about to turn back towards them. There was one problem however, both Nightwing and Black Canary vanished into the night without a trace.

"That's beginning to get annoying."

* * *

"Tonight, was a very fruitful night for success. Go ahead, drink up, drink up."

Oswald Cobblepot was in a good mood, and while many people thought that he would have been in a bad mood, they would be wrong. Those people were not looking at the big picture and the Penguin's plot to gain a foothold in the city bore some excellent fruit. And the grin on his face was quite terrifying to say the very least.

Mr. Carpenter, The Walrus, and Tracey Buxton all stood there, as glasses of champagne were pulled.

"It's like a dream, you got control of all Amusement Mile," Tracey said as she tipped back the champagne glass and stood, her arm wrapped around his.

"Yes, I would have been pleased pink with the docks, but this, well this is just bloody fucking excellent," the Penguin said as he tipped his drink back and saluted the skies. The Police showed up and kind of cut the night short but it didn't really matter in the end because he got the territory that he wanted and then some more.

"And some of the dumber members of our gang….well we thinned them out," Mr. Carpenter said as he took a swig of the wine, pleased with himself.

"Yeah, that was the perfect opportunity to trim the fat," The Walrus said as he let out a loud belch and dug into the food that had been applied, obviously not carrying that he got nothing on the floor. That's why they had hired help.

Not that the Penguin's table manners were any better, he acted like a walking garbage disposal as he filled his mouth up, nearly choking on the food as he slipped it into his mouth.

Tracey calmly drank her drink, wondering if table manners were lost among the three.

The phone rang and the Penguin leaned over, a jovial expression on his face. He knew that things were going to happen and they were going to happen well.

"Rupert!" The Penguin said in a jovial voice. "No….no, it worked like a charm my old boy, I have everything that I needed and more. Got a good foot in the city. Sure all of the cockroaches aren't completely exterminated but the fuckers are running scared. And I've got nothing but my best men left, so I'm on the top of the world. So worked well, Rupert, my old boy, yes, of course, I'll talk to you later, you have a good morning yourself, I know I am."

The Penguin was not even concerned about the loss of the high class weapons because the Roman had already purchased them before he got sent off to the land of craziness, so all he cared about was the cool profit that he made.

Sure those dumbfucks shot up the Casino but that was just a minor problem. And Falcone's and Maroni's men shot up each other just as much which it would have left the Penguin less issues to deal with. The cagey criminal smiled widely as he took another drink and toasted his success.

"Dudley, my old boy, things are looking up for us, and it's only going to get better from here," the Penguin said as he looked at the Walrus who smiled.

It was only the first phase of a long term plan and the Gotham City Crime Boss allowed his inner circle to drink and be merry. Why shouldn't they celebrate, they all did well?"

* * *

Harry and Dinah returned to the Lair in a Stupor and they were greeted but Faora, Diana, Jaime, and Zatanna greeted them at the edge of the Lair, practically pouncing them.

"You know if you're not careful, we're going to suffer more injuries from you girls jumping us than we do out there," Dinah said lightly and the two of them made their way down to the beds that were set up at the medical area.

"That was a stressful situation," Jaime said as she closed her fist together and she shook her head. She was on Mission Control and it was tension filled. Needless to say, she did have a good enough idea of what it was like to be out there.

"But you're back in one piece," Diana said as the group was helping Harry and Dinah get out of their clothes as the doors of the lairs slid open, allowing Penny to get to them, baring bandages and food and she walked towards them.

"Knew the moment that you got back," Penny said as she walked over and there was a few seconds where she tried to figure out everything that she had to do. The dark haired witch prepared to perform diagnosis to see what the damage was. First, she started with Harry.

Sure enough, there didn't need to be much of a worry for Harry, granted that he had a few bumps and bruises, but there was really nothing that was too alarming. Except for one of the bruises on Harry's side that was nasty looking.

"Did you….did you get shot?" Jaime asked him.

"Well, if I did, I don't exactly remember it," Harry said in a fairly dismissive voice, as he thought about what happened. The adrenaline must have been pumping very high.

Faora tried to go through the armor to see if the bullet that might have pierced Harry's side might have been left there so she could figure out what they had to deal with but sure enough, there was really nothing there.

Zatanna healed Harry quickly as Diana walked behind him. Her hands were on his bare shoulders, seeing how tense that he was. Her hands ran up and down his back and the green eyed wizard felt the pleasure that coursed through him. Her talented hands rubbed up and down his back.

Now it was Dinah's turn to get the going over on Penny. She sat there in a pair of bra and panties, waiting for her turn to get the nice going over.

"Pretty banged up, but it could be worse, much worse," Penny said as she performed the necessary healing magic as Diana continued to massage Harry as Zatanna curled up on Harry's lap. Harry's strong arms wrapped around her body and held the dark haired sorceress onto his lap. She closed her eyes and there was a few seconds where she took a long breath.

"Yes, it could be," Dinah agreed as she felt Faora's skilled hands on her shoulders. She slowly succumbed to the motions with the blonde offering a sigh as she kept massaging her shoulders. "That was a pretty fucked up situation out there."

Jaime looked at her with a raised eyebrow and there was one statement that went out of her mouth. "You don't say."

"I do say," Dinah said as she went over the events of the evening through his mind. The blonde's mind was going over the entire night's events and Harry jumped in with a few words of his own.

"Yes, fucked up, that might not be scratching the surfaces," Harry said as he placed his hands together. He paused and soaked in the actions that his Alpha was doing, running her hands down his shoulders. "We were put in a no-win situation and it was lucky that we minimized all of the causalities we could."

"And there were some likely in the opening stages of the incident," Faora said and that was true. She ran her hands down Dinah's soft shoulders and paused. "But you did deal with the situation the best you could."

"Yes….but we all thought that it could have been better," Dinah agreed as she swallowed and felt the heat rise through her body as Faora's talented hands worked over her shoulders.

"If we could figure out what most of their game is, we might have done something sooner, but we stopped them from getting their hands on the Casino," Harry said as he felt Diana's hands run up and down his back. He could feel something twitch in his shorts as Zatanna ran her hands down his abs, and smiled at him, giving him a smoldering gaze as she leaned forward, showcasing a little bit of her cleavage.

She grinded her ass onto his cock to tease him just a little bit.

"It was a bad night for some, but I guess it turned out," Jaime said as she leaned back for a second. "Although we proved that we have a good set up down here."

"That's for sure," Harry agreed, while he thought that there could be a lot of changes to make, he thought that they were doing pretty well all things considered.

Harry decided that it was now time to take some drastic action and he decided that he could have a choice between Diana, who was working over his back, or Zatanna, who was working over his front. It was times like this where Harry was glad that he had the options and he was also glad that he could split in half.

Harry wrapped his arms around Zatanna and kissed her madly, with a second Harry going at Diana and tackling her firmly to the bed, working his hands underneath her undergarments.

Dinah did the same thing, spun around and kissed Faora firmly on the lips. Naturally Faora returned the kiss passionately on her own and the two of them had their tongues tangled together in the supreme amount of passion, with Faora being tipped back onto the bed as Dinah assaulted the Kryptonian female's mouth with her tongue.

* * *

Zatanna closed her eyes as Harry kissed her madly and explored her body, slowly and sexually cupping her breasts. The girl's mind was running wild as her mate worked her over. His hands explored her breasts, reaching down her hips, and running down her legs and cupping her ass. The dark haired girl felt the pleasure and Harry cupped her dripping hot pussy, rubbing her lips and causing her to pant with pleasure.

Zatanna was not in the mood to wait around however, as she grabbed Harry's cock and pumped it a few times until it was to full hardness. Then with the greatest of ease, she turned Harry around, straddling his lap and allowed it to slide into her pussy as she sank down onto it.

"Yes," Zatanna breathed as her wet walls expanded to accommodate Harry's throbbing tool as it pushed in and out of the woman. Her tightness snugly wrapped around him as she started to bounce herself up and down.

Harry grabbed her breasts which were exposed and ready for him. He marveled at the horniness of this young girl and he squeezed a tit once again. Her walls clenched around him and his cock was squeezed with her orgasm.

"Oh, that feels so good," Harry whispered as he kissed and licked her breasts, actions which drove the girl completely wild. His tool buried into her snatch.

Diana had been brought down onto the bed by Harry and his cock had sunk into her from behind. She felt the welcome intrusion of her husband's actions as he pumped in and out of her, and she watched Dinah on her hands and knees between Faora's legs.

Dinah's tongue was between Faora's moist thighs. The Kryptonian woman reacted rather hotly to her ministrations and her hips bucked up.

"That's it, oh that's so it," Faora moaned as suddenly Jaime's pussy was placed her face as she was laid out. The woman licked out her sister's pussy and she grinded her dripping hot cunt over her face.

"Such a good fucking mouth," Jaime moaned as she watched Dinah eat Faora's pussy.

Diana, with a mischievous glint on her face, stuck her tongue up Dinah's ass as she ate Faora's pussy. Harry continued to plow into Diana's hot pussy from behind.

"Oh….that's really fucking hot," Harry grunted as he hung onto her breasts and roamed up to paw her breasts. His touches channeled magical energy and sexual energy through her.

Penny was backed against the wall, quite literally, by another Harry dupe. She gave a whimper as Harry kissed her neck, touching all of the sensitive spots and his hand explored down, cupping her tender and moist womanhood. She breathed in and out as Harry reached between her legs, fondling her hot center and sticking his fingers between her thighs, which caused her mind to go completely wild with what happened.

"Yes," Penny moaned as Harry pumped his fingers in and out of her and his mouth latched around her nipple, sucking it. Her mind was being bombarded with all of the pleasurable sensations. "PLEASE, Harry, I don't think that I could take it any more."

"Good things come to those who wait, Penny," Harry breathed as his fingers skimmed her stomach and the hot brunette shivered. His cock head was this close to being placed inside her and her dripping hot slit eagerly drooled for the moment where he would ravish her just like that. Her hips lifted up and down, trying to push his member inside of him.

"Don't….wait….don't want to wait," Penny breathed as her hot slit beckoned for his hard rod and Harry smiled as he grabbed her hips.

She screamed in pure pleasure as he rammed himself inside her. All twelve inches of his cock sank into her really tight pussy and the resistance made it a pleasurable experience for both. He pinned her against the wall and nailed her, with her hips working back against him.

"Oh, that pussy feels so fucking good, take me with it," Harry grunted.

"Yes, yes, my lord," Penny moaned as she grabbed his shoulder, sinking her nails into it and she clamped down onto his hard rod as she milked his incoming thrusts.

Harry took her alright, each thrust caused pure sexual fire to explode through her loins and it set her mind on the most pleasurable journey. Her walls clamped around him as Harry kept pumping into that delightfully tight cunt. She moaned as she sank her fingers into his shoulder and he kept spearing into her, bringing her mind to even more lust filled scenarios. She had a half lidded grin as Harry worked her pussy over and it was so amazing to feel what she had to offer.

Zatanna was hanging on, bouncing up and down upon him, riding him but Harry decided to pull out which caused her to whine.

"I want to fuck this beautiful thing," Harry said as he slapped her ass which caused Zee to squeal.

"Yes, please," Zatanna said as she got on her hands and knees and wiggled her ass towards Harry. "WRECK ME!"

Harry brushed his length against the edge of her asshole and was this close to entering her. Her ass cheeks was tight and he could not wait to ruin her. His rod was this close to entering her and he then plunged into her, stretching out her ass.

"YES!" Zatanna screamed as he plunged his rod deep between her tight buns. He worked his fingers into her pussy, channeling sexual magic through them which added to her stimulation.

Jaime felt Faora's suction and she nearly was coming undone. Her mind was being bombarded with so much pleasure that it could hardly be described.

"Yes, wreck that bitch!" Jaime begged as he saw Harry hammering around against Penny against the wall. She was hanging on but that was beside the point because she pretty much figured that Penny had the foresight to take one of those potions beforehand.

Although Harry managed to keep things to the test as he worked Penny's pussy, expanding it with his rod. He saw the situation with Faora eating Jaime's pussy as Dinah ate Faora's and Diana licked out Dinah from behind.

The hot situation caused him to pound Penny into the wall and she hung on. She had a couple more good orgasms left in her.

"Don't hold back, give me everything!" Penny moaned as she clamped around Harry's rod and Harry smiled at her.

"Everything is a lot," Harry warned her and she gave him a smoldering grin.

"I know, so do it," she whimpered as she hung onto Harry's grabbing onto his forearm and squeezing him.

He did give her everything and Penny hung on for far longer than anyone could expect but she had met her match. Her pussy was pounded into jelly and the orgasm that exploded through her body caused drool to fly out of her mouth.

"My turn," Jaime whimpered as she left Faora's mouth and flew over, sinking herself down onto Harry's cock.

His hard cock entered her extremely wet and very willing pussy. Her hips pumped down onto him as she had Harry pressed against the wall and her lips kissed him madly. There was a moment where Harry lost his mind but he stayed the course. He cupped her breasts.

Faora's mouth was feeling very vacated but Dinah decided to swing things around.

' _Time to return the favor,'_ Dinah told her and Faora was most agreeable to that as two girls laid in an amazing sixty nine position with each other.

That left Dinah's ass primed and ready for the taking and another Harry dupe appeared, hovering over her. He was ready to take that ass, as amazing as it was.

' _Are you going to look or are you going to do?'_ Dinah asked cocking and his throbbing head was against the edge of her ass. The wizard grabbed her hips and speared deep into her ass.

She moaned into Faora's pussy, which caused the girl to cum on her face. Harry's rock hard cock spearing her ass felt so good and she was about ready to come undone. His rod went deep into her ass, rocking back into her.

"That's very tight, I like it," Harry grunted as he felt her tight ass as the rod continued to work against his ass cheeks. There was a moment where he paused and allowed her to savor the moment and savor his cock deep into her ass.

Zatanna was fucked into a drooling stupor, with her cunt clamping down around him and Harry pulled out of her and rolled her over.

"Still there," Harry whispered to her and Zee nodded her head, as she presented her hot and pink pussy, ready for him.

"Yes, ready, ready forever," Zatanna whimpered and Harry's member slid into her one more time. His balls were about ready to drain into her and she was determined to get every drop of his cum before she drifted to sleep.

Harry pumped his rod into her pussy and her walls clamped around him. He held onto her hips and she closed her legs around him and tried to bring every last drop of cum deep out of her lover's balls.

"Cum for me, oh cum for me," Zatanna begged him as she grabbed her arms around him and her walls pumped right up against his rod. She was milking each thrust, seeing stars as another orgasm went through her, with Harry drawing it out and kissing her lips. She bit down on his lower lip in encouragement.

His balls throbbed and were about ready to drain into him. There appeared to be several explosions, with the prime version leading it off.

His hard rod explored her center and his balls throbbed as he brought himself deep into her. The first spurt of cum came off as Harry finished, emptying his load in all of the girls that he fucked.

Their minds exploded with pleasure but Harry had not completely wrecked all of the girls as of yet, so the games were just about to continue.

* * *

Several moments later, there were several girls that were trashed in the aftermath. There was one Harry, laying there with Dinah draping over one side of him, a content smile on her face. Faora rested near his lap, Diana was off on the floor, still tied up from the events, and Zatanna was also curled up towards Harry's opposite side.

Dinah's peaceful and cute snoring managed to lull him to sleep, where Harry would be able to crash for a couple of hours, after the amazing events that just occurred. He was sure that he could use a bit of shut eye after the night that was, at any rate.

* * *

Howard Branden walked from the central entrance of the GCPD headquarters where the SWAT was stationed. He was not too happy that O'Hara cracked the whip and forced him to comply with his orders. Orders that he had no choice but to obey for as they would ask too many questions. Loeb was not about to contradict what he was doing but O'Hara was and now Dent was nosing around in a place where she did not belong.

Branden heard about that fucking news report as well. The nosy bitch better watch herself, unless she wanted to have an accident. After all accidents could and did in fact happen in Gotham City, especially amongst reporters who got in the way of his job.

"SON OF A BITCH!"

Those words spilled out of Branden's mouth as he was now hung upside down by the ankles, dangling from the edge of a gargoyle. Someone had plucked him off of the street and it happened so fast that he did not have a chance to rationalize it in his mind.

Seconds later, he came face to face with the one and only Nightwing.

"Son of a…..you made a mistake," Branden growled as he reached behind his back and tried to stab him with a concealed blade.

This action turned out to be a huge mistake as Harry caught his hand and twisted his arm around. There was a huge pop as his wrist was broken and then the man was draped over the side of the building. The knife fell to the ground, most certainly unable to be used.

He was grabbed by the throat and Nightwing dangled him from the edge of the building, his teeth gritting immediately.

"I'm going to make one thing perfectly clear to you and I want you to listen to me closely," Nightwing said as he stared down Branden who was refusing to back down, which was going to be a problem.

"I don't know who you think you are but you're not going to do anything to me, you no good son of a bitch," Branden spat back at him but the grip tightened around his throat as Nightwing pulled him closer, so they were nose to nose with each other. Then he spoke in the most blunt voice one could imagine a person speak to another.

"Listen to me very closely. I might not have enough evidence to throw you into Blackgate and have them throw away the key like an animal like you belongs. I will one day. However, I will tell you one thing and I hope that this haunts you for the rest of your fucking life. If you ever put any more innocent lives in danger, I will hunt you down and I will kill you. Is that understood?"

Branden nodded his head up and down fearfully and Nightwing left him hanging there to think about what he just did.

' _You scare me sometimes, Harry, I did mention that before, didn't I?'_ Emily asked and there were several cheers from the bond.

' _I know, it's amazing,'_ Ginny, Astoria, Amanda, Lyta, and Bellatrix all said in unison.

Harry swung off into the night, leaving Branden hanging like the scum he was.

**To Be Continued.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter Twenty Six: Summer's Over Part One.**

It was bright and early in the morning in Gotham City, with a certain redhead bouncing up and down, with a set of headphones on her ear. She was still dressed in her sleepwear, a black ragged t-shirt that extended down to her knees. Borrowed from Harry come to think of it. She was absent mindedly bouncing around to the music as she tried to coax herself up into a state of being awake. With school starting soon, she could not afford to sleep in too late, so it was time to get herself back into the morning routine.

Barbara Gordon hummed along to the music, only half paying attention to what she was doing as she pranced over to the counter of the Penthouse. She walked over and took out a piece of toast that she had made. Thankfully this time she did not burn it. She had a nasty habit of getting into what she was doing and burning her toast.

Then the redhead got a knife, and added some honey to it. She sat herself down, with a fresh cup of hot coffee as she ate breakfast. The news was half on in the background, she could see a ticker scrolling on the news from the events of Old Gotham last night and the rumors of potential corruption of the Gotham City SWAT.

Given that there were times where her father let some rather cross comments slip about Howard Branden, that was not surprising.

After a nice round of breakfast, she took off her headphones and prepared to get to work. Her laptop was placed out on the table and she smiled, she could get an Internet Connection anywhere in the Tower which was pretty nice. Her blue yes shined with hope that she could get this figured out. She had only been plugging away at this for weeks.

It was the device that Nightwing had left behind weeks back. Frowning, she reminded herself how much of a nightmare the encryption was to break through.

' _Let's see if I can have any better luck with you today,'_ she thought to herself. Perhaps a fresh mind and some breakfast, and the bright sunshine would give her a lot better luck. It was a project to challenge her mind and she appreciated that much.

She hooked up the device and she got some preliminary work, about twenty or so minutes before she heard the sound of voices. Barbara got up to her feet and she spun around, to take a look at the party that was making their way into the Kitchen from what appeared to be the Bathroom.

Diana lead the way, dressed in a white tank top and blue cut off shorts, with no shoes. Her hair was still soaking wet from the bath. Barbara saw that she was not wearing a bra underneath the top, a fact that she and anyone else who might have been looking appreciated.

Dinah was wearing a tight black top along with a black skirt. Her lovely legs were on display and much like Diana, she was not wearing any shoes.

Harry joined them next, he did not have a shirt on, at least not yet, although he had one in his hand. He had a pair of shorts on and was currently drying off of his hair. Barbara kept her eyes locked on the muscular physique of one Harry Potter, to say that she was distracted might be putting things a bit mildly.

Pamela was next, which was not surprising. Barbara knew for a fact that Pamela slept in the Master Bedroom, which was officially Harry's bedroom as well although given that he owned the Penthouse, he could sleep wherever he chose. Never the less, Pamela was wearing a green top that showed off her budding breasts and she also had a pair of tight shorts.

Barbara was standing there; spell bound at the look and suddenly, Pamela's lips found hers with a seering kiss. Her eyes widened as she could not believe what just happened and Pamela gave her a nice slap on her tight ass.

Before she had a chance to recover, Dinah swooped down and gave her another kiss on the lips. Barbara was still in a daze from the first one and she really was being brought into a tender territory. She yelped as Dinah smacked her hard on her tight ass.

Then Diana swooped in on Barbara, which in some ways was a comical sight, given how tall Diana was compared to Barbara. She shook her head casually as the Amazon leaned down and gave Barbara a nice and long kiss on the lips, giving her some tongue. Then her hand groped Barbara's ass which was starting to become a trend, the redhead noticed.

Last, but certainly not least, Harry captured her lips into a burning kiss. He still had his shirt off so that caused Barbara's mind to escalate to complete meltdown mode. She placed her hands on his waist and leaned back, feeling the pleasure of the kiss.

She closed her eyes and smirked but Pamela gave her a raised eyebrow as much regrettably, Harry slipped his shirt back on. She managed to hang her mouth halfway open and stammered out a few words. "So…um….what was that all about."

Pamela managed to smile and Dinah also had a grin on her face as Harry decided to be the one to break the news to her. "Well you are a part of things now and that means kisses….from all of us."

"Which should not be anything new for you," Dinah said with a wink and Pamela had the same knowing smile on her face.

"Details, I must have them," Harry said eagerly and Pamela waved it off.

"Maybe later," she said with a small smile, helping herself to some cereal as she sat down and smiled.

Harry could see that Barbara was on the laptop and she was now muttering to herself. "Okay, you've got to….you've got to work somehow."

"What are you working on?" Harry asked Barbara and the redhead raised half of an eyebrow as she turned towards Harry.

She decided to invent some sort of story, she had no idea why she should, but she momentarily lost her train of thought. Perhaps that was because of Harry wrapping his arm around her waist and kissing the back of her neck. The redhead closed her eyes. "Just a project that I'm working on, the encryption on this….it's incredible, even worse than that asshole Enygma's….something on the Internet, just a hobby."

She slid the device back into her bag, along with her laptop. Whether or not Harry believed her, well that was something that she did not quite get but he did leave the matter to drop, at least for now which she was kind of grateful for. The redhead let out one breath and then let out another breath.

If she had turned around, she could have seen a knowing smile on Harry's face. However all she heard was the next three words. "Well, good luck."

"Thanks," Barbara said, although she thought that she would need more than luck to crack the encryption of that device.

Barbara got up and slipped off into the next room to get dressed the rest of the way. It did not take her more than a moment.

"So, I've got something to show you," Harry said no sooner than Barbara caught her breath and he grabbed her by the hand.

"Well lead the way then," Barbara said as the redhead looked curious. She could never tell half of the time what Harry was up to but she was pretty sure that it would be something amazing. Exactly how amazing it would be, well that was one of those things where she was just going to have to wait and see about.

They were in the elevator and made their way down to the lowest levels of the house. She buzzed with curiosity along with a little bit of excitement.

The next thing Barbara knew, they were at the Parking Garage and what she saw, well that both shocked and excited her at the same time. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw it in the garage and she looked at it, eyes widened.

"And it's all yours."

Barbara opened her mouth as she saw it, it was a shiny purple 1997 Volkswagon New Beetle. She hung her mouth open and words failed her for a few seconds. It took her a few seconds and then she spun around to face Harry, finally taking her eyes away from the car.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously," Harry said with a chuckle as he handed her the knees. "I talked to your father and he agrees that this is the best solution, given that you are taking classes at the University, that will allow you to get from there and to Gotham Academy rather quickly."

Barbara threw her arms around Harry at that moment and this time, she initiated a passionate kiss to thank him.

"Oh, you're quite welcome," Harry said after she broke the kiss which caused Barbara to playfully bop him on the side of the arm.

* * *

' _So, what did Jonathan think of the new tractor?'_ Harry thought to Lily. Presently, Lily, Kara, Rose, and the twins were flying back from Smallville.

' _Well surprised might not be a word that would describe it,'_ Lily said casually with a grin _'I think though that a part of him was grateful but it threw him off guard a lot but….you know, I think that there was a part of him who appreciated it, although he's going to have to find a new hobby.'_

' _Well to be fair, the times that thing was breaking down, I guess that it was long overdue,'_ Kara said in amusement. Even Clark was wondering why his father didn't give up on the tractor, which really said something. It seemed like everyone but Jonathan agreed that it was time for a change and it was time for a new tractor to be entered into the equation.

Rose had drifted off to sleep and had her head rested on her older sister's lap. Lily had a lap top on the tray of the seat in front of her and was currently making some notes about the school. It was slowly coming together but it was not going to be the easiest thing in the world to mark together, but that was beside the point. The redhead bit down on her lip nervously.

' _Another amazing victory for Nightwing the other night,'_ Amanda said. Quite frankly, she was disappointed that she had burned herself out having taken Lana shopping. Still Kara had managed to fill her in on enough of the details to satisfy herself.

' _It was one for the record books,'_ Faora agreed after a moment as she placed her hands on the side of her head.

' _From what I was able to tell, it really was,'_ Donna concluded with a wide grin on her face.

' _It was,'_ Diana confirmed as she decided that she would fill them in on the blow by blow account, with Dinah contributing where she could.

' _Wow, just wow,'_ Amanda said after a moment when the story was concluded and that was a statement that was appreciated.

' _Wish that I had not been preoccupied, although there's a lot of work left to do,"_ Astoria said as she crossed her arms over her chest and was disappointed.

' _I'm sure that there's going to be plenty of other opportunities,'_ Ginny thought to Astoria and the blonde could appreciate that point one hundred percent of the way. She crossed her arms and prepared for the next step in her plans.

' _So, I think that word of Nightwing reaching far and wide would be a good thing, as Harry would have plenty more fans,'_ Gabrielle said and Fleur chimed in.

' _Exactly what I was going to say,'_ Fleur said and there was much agreement.

The group on the plane arrived at the Airport and they were surprised to see two separate groups of individuals that were waiting for them.

The first group contained Harry, Diana, Karen, Faora, and Jaime, which did make some sense, because they needed to fly back to Metropolis to conduct some business and they would be met there.

The second group of individuals was Harrison, Nyssa, Lavender, Bella, Circe, and Morgaine.

' _So what brings you lot here?'_ Rose asked, curious, she had not known anything about this and there was a lot of things that the other group did not know about.

' _Got some business to take care of,'_ Harrison thought to them. _'Figured that we would meet you here. We've got to head off to New York anyway, and then we got to pick Mari up on the way back to England. Figured that we would conduct some business on the plane.'_

' _Or an orgy,'_ Bellatrix chimed in helpfully.

' _Or both,'_ Lavender concluded, she could in fact multi task and sometimes it was good to mix things up.

The moment that she saw Harry, Kara zoomed towards him at the force of a speeding bullet and knocked him against the limo, nearly tipping the limo over when he hit it, and she gave him a rather energetic kiss, much to the amusement of the assembled group involved.

"No, bad, Kara, bad," Harry said as he blocked her further attempts to kiss him and Kara had a pouty expression on her face. Thankfully Jaime and Karen had the presence of mind to perform a handy charm to keep the limo from tipping although the situation would have bad. He looked Kara firmly in the eye and gave her a nice slap across the ass which caused her to yelp. "When we get back, you're going to get a proper spanking."

Perhaps this did not give Kara the proper motivation against his for there was a bit too much eagerness in her eyes for Harry's liking but the twins edged over, pouting and looking at their brother.

' _Hey no fair….'_ Emily thought.

' _Save some for us…'_ Amanda continued as she rushed over but Lily had side stepped her daughters, essentially cock blocking them and she smashed her lips onto Harry's with a searing kiss.

The kiss was so hot that they were momentarily distracted and it was something that aroused by all. Rose decided to take Lily's place which caused the twins to fold their arms and they made pouty faces, stamping their feet for a moment.

' _Oh that's really fucking mature,'_ Ginny thought.

' _Oh look who's talking,'_ Astoria thought back to her.

' _Silence!"_ Ginny snapped and there was laughter from all of who listened in.

Amanda and Emily figured out that Harrison was there. Of course, the fact that he was Harry, with a slightly different coat of paint, was something that they reminded themselves of.

Harrison caught Amanda in his arms and he gave her a deep kiss, which the girl returned eagerly. The original dupe dug his tongue in her mouth and it was a battle between the two.

Emily was not going to wait long for her turn as she threw her arms around Harrison. While she could not match her sister's actions for sheer intensity, she thought that she pretty much gave it as good of a go as she could all things considered. Harrison lifted her off of the ground and gave her a toe curling kiss that caused sensations that were very pleasurable to blast through her mind.

Amanda and Emily finally got their turn with the Prime model of Harry and they felt that they were just getting warmed up, saving the best for him. Not that they did not half ass the efforts with Harrison, but now that they were with Harry, that gave them a chance to step up their game.

Harrison greeted Lily and Rose and it was a fairly energetic greeting to say the least, with both sides enjoying the time that was spent with each other.

After some small talk, Karen and Faora joined Harrison's group on heading onto the plane, while Harry and the others made their way to the limo, ready to go out, with Harry giving Kara the eye that indicated that he was not going to forget what happened.

Kara was both equal parts excited and scared, which was exactly the reaction that Harry was going to accomplish. She wondered if he would follow through on his threats and she was not going to lay, the thought of it…..well it was arousing.

* * *

"So, you've got business in the States?" Faora asked as she sat down on the jet with Harrison who smiled. "Best, I can tell, it's been a very interesting couple of weeks for you, well on both sides of the Pond."

Faora knew what Harrison was and she knew what Har-Zod was. Well they were essentially both Har-Zod, but Harrison had been apart from the Prime Model for long enough that he lived a life of his own. The fact of the matter was that they would always be the same but they would also have enough differences that would be different.

In other words, it was a confusing paradox.

Plus Harrison never merged with the Hallows, so he was different in that way. Although that might not have been the smartest move in hindsight but as Peve mentioned, they did not know until it happened, what would happen.

"From what I could tell, it's hard to figure out which of the two of us are living the more interesting life," Harrison said and there was no question about what he was saying. Faora nodded in agreement. "And Prime does have a head start being in the center of Gotham City, where weird shit is the fact of life."

"He does indeed," Nyssa agreed as she had stuck to the shadows. She understood that there was going to be some fallout from her father's plans.

"So how are your projects coming along over here?" Harrison asked.

"Funnily enough I was wanting to get an update on your end as well," Faora stated and Harrison just smiled. "But I'll go first."

"It would be an honor," Harrison said as he casually waved things through. While they worked on different projects in different areas, it was still a good thing to meet up with each other and compare notes because sometimes the projects completely overlapped.

"The Red Sun is looking about ready to launch," Faora told Harrison and he smiled. "November is the targeted date but a press conference is coming soon, maybe on the 15th."

"Figured that things would be starting soon," Harrison said

"Yes," Karen picked up with a smile on her face. "The Laptop and the Tablet are also on schedule, a bit head actually but we figure, we just let the Red Sun pick up the necessary buzz. Get the name out there, get people talking, get people actually wanting to buy our product."

"Do you still have the problem with the CPU overheating?" Harrison asked, not that he was any closer to figuring out that one himself but he wanted to see how close they were to figuring out the situation.

Harry actually chimed in through the link. _'I read a paper by Victor and Nora Fries, they might hold the situation but the problem is….they work with GothCorp.'_

' _Say no more,'_ Harrison said, he shared Harry's mutual discussion for GothCorp and their business practices.

' _So, I guess that unless we can muster together some solution and make it look like it's not based on what they are doing, it's a no go,'_ Jaime thought in a despondent voice and that was something that was agreed by all.

' _About figured as much,'_ Harrison thought once again. _Charlotte and Lucretia, they are still working on the project. We can't really throw it out on the market until we have a good idea of the long term side effects that there are.'_

' _Yes, there are potential liability issues that we have to hash out and we need to run some more tests to see if they have any negative reactions to established medication,'_ Charlotte thought. Even though it was a magical solution to a very common Muggle problem, they have to keep with the legal implications.

"I also got some designs that I want some feedback on," Lavender said as she rummaged through her bag, which was charmed to hold far more than it should. Then again, that was the magic of magic. "Especially given that some of these designs are to fit the well-endowed."

"So you're going to use me as a test dummy, aren't you?" Karen asked and Lavender nodded.

"Well you are the poster girl for the well-endowed," Lavender said as she shamelessly stared at Karen's cleavage. "We also should stop at the lingerie store…..you know….for some inspiration, although…."

Lavender gave Harrison a gaze and he understood fully what that meant. She had often hinted that Harrison should just go with it and buy the store and he wondered if she had a good point. Actually it was obvious she did.

"Well, if you be good," Harrison said as he leaned forward and gave Lavender a quick kiss to the lips which she returned hungrily.

Harrison looked over his shoulder and gave Faora a smile as he motioned for her to follow him into the cockpit.

"Put the plane on autopilot," Harrison told Zinda.

"At once, sir," Zinda agreed as she did as she was told and Harrison grabbed Faora and kissed her, the gesture which the woman returned.

As she mentioned, it was still Har-Zod, albeit one that lived an alternate life. His hands were just as talented, as he cupped her breasts and felt around her body. Her pussy heated up and Zinda watched this erotic display, and she was sure that she was not the only one who would want to join in.

* * *

Faora felt her back pressed against the wall, quite literally. Her mind was rocked as Har's mouth clamped against hers with a searing kiss. It was an action that she returned quite hungrily, running her hands down his back. He was really causing tingles to fill her body, go all the way down her spine and hit the tip of her toes.

Har's actions continued to escalate, he kissed her deeply and she returned fire with the kiss. Zinda was on the chair, watching, as he slid off Faora's jacket. Her top was pushed off to reveal her breasts encased in a magnificent green bra that showed everything that she had to offer.

Harrison smiled as his sister hungered for him and immediately, she dropped to one knee. Not wanting to have Zinda left out, Harrison scooped her into his strong arms. The duplicate kissed her on the lips and she returned with pure sexual fire.

"Well this should be fun as always, " Faora said as she groped his balls and ran her hand up and down him, causing pleasure to tingle through his loins. She continued to work him over, building up anticipation. "I suspect that you're enjoying this, a more direct approach than normal."

Harrison nodded as her lips were down onto his cock, sticking down her throat. He pulled off Zinda's uniform and exposed her bare and soft looking breasts. She closed her eyes and reared her head back with the pleasure as he dove deep between her breasts.

Zinda moaned as he attacked her breasts, sucking on them. His actions became intense and she was becoming undone. She whimpered "Oh, that was more, suck my breasts, suck them, suck them like you own them!"

Needless to say Harrison, Harry, Har-Zod, whatever name one might call him, he was not about to turn down a pretty lady. He grabbed his hands upon her stomach and it caused the actions to increase. His tongue licked around her nipples and he captured one into his mouth, sucking on it.

She moaned and that caused Faora's efforts on his rod to increase. She rocked her mouth back and forth down him. His balls slapped against her chin as she sped up her actions. He grabbed onto her face and kept burying his length all the way down her throat.

Faora tightened her throat around him, rocking it back. She was determined to slurp every drop of seed from his balls.

She hit the jack pot as his balls exploded. He shot a load of spunk down her throat and spilled the white hot seed down her gullet. Hungrily she slurped it up, her eyes glazed over with pleasure that could not be defeated by any means. She hummed, sucked, slurped, and brought every last drop into her mouth, licking her lips hungrily.

With his balls emptied, Faora had another action to do next and she walked over, giving Zinda a searing kiss, which the girl returned.

Harrison bared both of their pussies and fingered them. The pleasure escalated as he continued to pump his thick fingers into their juicy snatches. His fingers expertly pumped in and out of their gushing cunts, bringing them an alarming amount of pleasure that blew their minds and completely rocked their bodies to the core.

Splitting off a dupe, Harrison grabbed Zinda around the waist and guided her onto the pilot's chair as the plane kept flying in autopilot.

The blonde's loins tingled in appreciation as she saw his length about ready to go inside her. All twelve inches and thick, it was about to penetrate her.

Faora floated into the air and Har came up to join her. His arms wrapped around her and he brushed against her dripping hot slit.

"Oh, don't tease me, give it to me, please, I need it, " Faora begged him and if anything else, Harrison was accommodating, he slid inside Faora, stretching out her tight cunt and causing her mind to be blown amazingly. He felt that his prick was so deep into her that she was about ready to come undone.

Both lovers rocked back and forth, their heads brushing against the ceiling. His prick slammed deep into her to the point where it nearly caused the pleasure in her loins to explode.

Zinda slid up and down onto Harry, as her tight walls connected around him. The blonde clamped herself down onto him and his rod pushed deep into her center. Her moist center was being pummeled and she mewled in pleasure.

Outside, Nyssa watched and she was getting excited. That was to the point where Lavender dove between her legs and pulled off her skirt and then her panties.

"Well seems like a party was started and our invitations were lost in the mail " Lavender quipped as she squeezed the dark haired woman's pussy and then Karen was behind Lavender. "And more guests, that's nice, oh your pussy tastes so good, OH SWEET MORGANA!"

Lavender started to eat out Nyssa's pussy as Karen dove between Lavender's legs and ate her out. The blonde panted heavily as they all took turns eating each other out.

Zinda lowered and raised her hips on Harrison's throbbing manhood. The blonde closed her eyes as he cupped her breasts and he kept working himself into her. The blonde squeezed his rod between her thighs and reared her bed back.

The sound of hot and young flesh smacking together was not something that could be denied with how good it felt. Harrison buried into her. "Are we still in there?"

She nodded equally as he kept going into her. She was not about to burn out any time soon, not with this amazing rod burying into her body. Her tightness was unbelievable and he was stretching her to the edge of insanity.

Faora had her back up against the ceiling of the plan and Har-Zod plowed into her from behind. She squealed….well technically above him, but technically beneath him as well. Never the less, as messed up as her sense of direction was, she felt him really work her over.

"DEEPER!" she mewled at the top of her lungs and she sank her nails into the side of his neck. He kept bringing himself into her, deeper and harder. His balls struck her hot thighs and she bit down onto her shoulder.

"Oh, that's so good, that pussy is so fucking hot, I can fuck it all day long," Harrison whispered and she continued to snugly tighten around him.

Karen was now between Lavender's legs and ate her pussy. The blonde was powerless against the efforts of the Kryptonian female. She wrapped her legs around Karen's head and arched her hips up. The blonde kept eating her immediately.

Nyssa was now on Lavender's mouth.

"Go ahead, do it," Nyssa breathed as she shifted so her ass was bared for a dupe and the wizard walked over. His cock brushed against her tightest hole and she tingled with even more excitement. The dark haired woman could feel the tingles that spread through her body. He was nearly almost into her and he rammed into her just like that.

The dark haired woman felt her anal cavity being stretched out and he kept rocking into her. His balls slammed against her ass as he kept working so far into her that it almost hurt. Her anal walls kept being worked over and Harry draped his hands over her and cupped her breasts.

Zinda kept riding him and she slid his cock so deep between her walls that the slick juices continued to roll. She was about ready to lose her sense and she shuddered with pleasure.

Karen was beckoned over to him once Zinda was finished and the busty blonde caught the pilot in her arms. Her face pressed against her breasts and Karen watched her.

The blonde squeezed Harrison's balls playfully and placed his face between her breasts. She whimpered as he sucked her breasts

' _Damn, she is so fucking tight, love it, '_ Harrison thought as he dug his fingers between Karen's thighs and she got up to him. Then, his fingers were replaced by her hot smoldering cunt.

"TAKE ME HAR!" Karen shrieked at the top of her lungs as she started bouncing up and down on him, his cock pushing her thighs apart as she rode him like a bucking bronco.

Lavender was now being eaten out and she loved every last moment of what she was doing. Nyssa had her mouth directly on her snatch.

Bellatrix turned and smiled her smoldering smile as she draped her pussy over Lavender's mouth. A wide grin spread over her face. "Well Morgaine and I have been having our own competition, and…..well I would be remiss if I didn't show up and join the fun."

Lavender could not argue with that as her hot and shaven pussy was placed her face. Bellatrix felt something slide into her ass from behind and knew that another dupe was here. She had her ass fucked hard by her lover as a busty young blonde eat out her pussy, as she was getting her pussy eaten by the beautiful mixed race woman.

The sound of hot flesh smacking against each other was amazing, as Harrison came in Faora as her hips rocked down onto them. The entire group was lost in the lust of the bond and the orgy continued for the entire way back.

* * *

Fleur and Harry hung out in what was dubbed as the Gate Room in the Sub-Basement of the Manor. This was the one point in Gotham City that connected the Castle with Gotham City. As Peve pointed out, it was not a good idea to have too many gates in the same general area. They could all conflict with each other, and boom time and space just collapses upon itself just like that.

It wasn't that much of a problem, they could drive from the Penthouse to Blackgate Manor or teleport from both places. It did not really matter all that much. Given that Harry and many of the girls divided their time, it was not that big of a problem.

"I still think people are baffled why I'm your maid," Fleur said and Harry smiled. Both of them were speaking in French to each other. "I mean, I was a Triwizard Champion, one of the top students in my school, and….."

"Yes, I'm sure that has raised a few eyebrows for some people, but you know what, fuck some people," Harry said and Fleur smiled.

"Charming as always but true, very true," Fleur said as she shook her head. "Besides, it is something that I want to do."

"And you're a kinky witch who has fantasized about this for ages," Harry whispered to her and Fleur smiled as she wrapped her arms around Harry.

"That too, that too," Fleur said with a grin and she had one of those guilty as charged type expressions on her face. "Plus, it gives me something to do and everyone needs a hobby and I have to say, I wear the skirt so well."

"That is something that I don't think anyone in their right mind would disagree with," Harry told Fleur and her bright smile got even brighter.

"I could do a lot of other things but the pressure is on," she concluded as she smiled. "I don't know, being your maid….it's just so liberating."

Fleur was not going to deny that she got off being submissive to the only man in the world that dominated her. Every other man who had been near her, they had been intimidated. Even with her allure dialed back to like a three or whatever they wanted to measure it, there was still some amount of intimidation that could be given.

The gate slowly opened up and the sight that they saw was amazing. A gorgeous sixteen year old blonde popped out of the gate. She had long blonde hair that was silvery and extended past her shoulders to her ass and quite the ass she had on her as well. She wore a white dress that clung tightly to every curve of her body, which she had filled out. She looked like Fleur's twin more or less, maybe about a head shorter, but all of the amazing curves, the tight ass was there. She had bags in her arms but they dropped down to the ground.

The next thing Harry knew, her arms wrapped around his neck and she planted a searing kiss on his lips, a gesture which Harry returned. Their tongues battled together with each other as Harry nearly lifted her a few inches off of the ground. She hungrily sucked on his lower lip and ran her hands down his back as she broke away.

"Oh, marvelous, marvelous as always," she purred and she turned around, to lock eyes with her sister. "Fleur, I think that I need to freshen up a little bit, would you care to join me?"

Fleur smiled knowingly and sauntered off, swaying her ass all of the way and Gabrielle shook her head. Locking eyes with Harry, she raised her hand and smacked her sister hard on her tight ass which caused the blonde to yelp a little bit.

There was a moan that escaped her lips and Harry wondered what they were up to. He suspected that he would figure out in a short amount of time but right now he had to sit down and take a nice look at what was in the paper today.

As he suspected, Branden was found on the GCPD building. He looked shook up, although being a hard ass that he was, he tried to maintain the illusion that he was not out of his mind. Harry smiled in amusement, that was something that he was amused by.

Then there were more sightings throughout the night during the gang violence of Batman and the Ninja. The Nightwing name had not caught on completely full scale to the press, although some reports dubbed him as Nightwing and others had just dubbed him as the ninja. This particular paper was adamant that the sightings were that of the mysterious ninja. Then Harry noticed something extremely interesting.

' _Hey, Dinah, looks like they know the Black Canary is back in business,'_ Harry thought.

' _Well took me a couple of missions to fully make an impact, but I guess it was hard to avoid with all of those eye witness accounts,'_ Dinah thought, she could not really help being all that pleased with herself, the grin coming from ear to ear on her face.

Harry flipped through the paper and he got more information regarding the events of that night. It was a fairly interesting little lead up to say the least and he could see two figures that were standing there in the bedroom. The sight was something that was purely magical to say the least and he could not keep his eyes off of what he saw.

Fleur stood there, making sure she presented herself front and center. She was in a skimpy set of blue lingerie that barely covered her amazing body. And she had the works on. The blue bra could barely contain her massive breasts, with a garter belt adding to the allure. She had a pair of blue thong panties that adhered to her skin, and then she wore a pair of stockings. In fact, the lingerie appeared to be about a size too small, not that Harry was complaining about that fact at all.

Gabrielle looked equally as beautiful as her sister, standing there in blue lingerie that also did a wonderful job of covering her body, alongside a bright smile.

"Harry," she purred and Harry walked over, taking a girl on each arm and ushering them into the bedroom. It did take a couple more moments than it normally might have, given the fact that the Veela sisters took turns kissing Harry and trying to outdo each other, along with stripping off his clothes, revealing his muscular body and something else as well.

Fleur was in Harry's arms as he pushed her back on the bed, and Gabrielle dove down between Harry's legs.

* * *

Gabrielle's hot young mouth wrapped around Harry's engorged pole and she brought him down her throat as she watched Harry grope Fleur's tits. This caused the younger French bombshell to push halfway down his rod and to suction the rod deep into her mouth.

Harry grabbed onto Gabrielle's face and pumped into her face. The blonde closed her eyes as she felt him work into her mouth and that caused him to give her throat everything that she needed and then more. She kept slurping his rod, bringing it deep between her hot lips and she came down onto him, hunger etched into her eyes.

" Oh, that feels so fucking good," Fleur moaned as Harry delved into the area between her thighs and licked and slurped her even more hungrily. The fun was just beginning and the blonde felt her pleasure flow through her mind and between her thighs.

Fleur's moans were magic to Harry's ears and he groped her delicious tits which inspired even more moans. He then skimmed down her body.

The moan got even louder as Harry dug his fingers into her hot snatch. He pushed in and out of her at super speed and that caused her mind to be driven wild.

"Damn baby, that feels so good, "Harry grunted, marveling at the tightness of her cunt as he explored it with his finger, pumping it in and out of her. The blonde closed her eyes and she went absolutely wild as he kept stroking her insides and brought her into a moment of pure sexual bliss.

Gabrielle sped up her movements as she kept bobbing up and down on his thick rod, pushing it deep into her throat. Her mind was driven wild with the sensations that were going into the back of her throat and she used her tongue to stimulate the base of his rod, lavishing him with spit.

Eventually, Harry's cum splattered into her mouth. Very eagerly and very hungrily, she slurped up all of the spunk, bringing it deep into her mouth and all the way down her throat. The Veela pumped her mouth up and down him and brought his member deep into her throat cavity. The blonde licked out the outer areas around her lips and smile.

"Oh, that is so fucking good" she said, licking her lips after that declaration and she saw Harry's tongue buried between Fleur's legs and he ate her out to loud pleasurable moans. Gabrielle started to finger herself to these actions and Fleur was bucking her hips up into Harry's mouth.

The wizard dove between her legs and Fleur grabbed the back of his head. She arched her back and mewled at the top of her lungs. His tongue buried into her pussy.

Harry lapped up the delicious dripping honey from her moist snatch. She leaned back onto the bed and he reached up, grabbing her tit. The woman whimpered and he grinned, especially as he saw what Gabrielle was going to get into position before.

Gabrielle pushed her dripping hot cunt over her sister's mouth and she grabbed her tit, before giving her a firm order. "Eat me, eat my fucking pussy! Eat it like you worship it, bitch! "

Fleur obeyed her sister's words, although she was not sure why. Her Veela Allure was extremely strong and it ensnared even her mind. Her face was buried between Fleur's hot and smoldering thighs as he dove in and out between her legs.

Harry ate her to an orgasm and then a second one. Her hips thrashed as she smashed into his face and he kept munching on her. The pleasure of her explosion could be felt for miles around.

His cock was hard and ready to go and he pulled his tongue out of her. He shared some of Fleur's juices with Gabrielle, who happily took them in a kiss.

Then with a fluid motion, Harry hovered over Fleur's dripping hot snatch. His hard rod brushed across her slit and she was about ready to accept his hunk of meat inside her. He sensed the whimpering that escaped her lips and he was this close to entering her.

With one fluid motion after a long tease, Harry slid into her. Her eyes bugged out and he grabbed onto her hips. Controlling the temper, Harry rocked into her.

Gabrielle kept grinding her pussy on her sister's face, her heavily lidded eyes filled with pleasure. She watched with eager anticipation as Harry's cock appeared and disappeared from inside her sister's pussy. "Damn, fuck that tight cunt, it's yours, fucking wreck it, POUND IT!"

Harry did not need any further instructions. Pound her he did and Fleur's screaming escalated as he rocked into her. She managed to lift her arms up and placed them onto his shoulders. Encouragingly, she sunk her nails deep into his shoulder blades, an action which very nearly drew an excessive amount of blood.

This added to the erotic atmosphere to the situation and he held onto her hips as he rocked deep into her super tight pussy. The woman's walls snugly fit around him as he kept pumping so deep into her body. The blonde bit down on her lip and she panted heavily as Harry continued to go deep into her, as far as he could go.

Gabrielle threw her head back and the moan that escaped her mouth told the story. She encouraged Harry to go onto her sister, and wreck her.

"More, faster, oh, oh, ah, mmm, ah, hmmm! " Fleur managed the moment that Gabrielle left her mouth but it was because she wanted her turn as well.

Harry pulled out of Fleur's dripping hot snatch which caused the French Veela to give a slight whine as the prime piece of meat was pulled out of her.

Gabrielle yelped as Harry slapped her on her tight ass. The blonde looked over her shoulder with a smoldering gaze and got on her hands and knees.

Her pussy was bared completely and her breasts were there for Harry. His cock brushed against her entrance.

Harry grabbed her by the hair with one hand and placed the other hand underneath her breast, cupping it, as he whispered in her ear. "I'm going to fuck your brains out so badly. You won't be able to ever think straight when I'm done with you"

"Please, can't wait, please, I don't want to think with your cock," Gabrielle whimpered, nodding eagerly with a thinly veiled smile crossing her face.

He entered her with ease and stretched her out. The blonde moaned in delight as he sank his cock deep into her body.

The tempo was slow and steady at first, but slow and steady often won the race. Harry picked up the pace and caused the pleasure between the blonde's thighs to escalate.

She soaked his cock with her juices as he pumped deep into her tight canal with a few hard thrusts. The blonde was being wrecked by his hard thrusts and she clutched onto the side of the bed. She bit down hard onto her lip and she nearly drew some blood from her lips.

Fleur panted as her sister took her aggressions out on the area between her thighs. She came really hard and whimpered in pleasure. The tongue continued to pass between her nubile and hot thighs. They jerked up and she continued to be rode out. The whimpering increased as she lifted her hips up and down and met her sisters probes. She channeled pure sexual energy through her tongue and drove Fleur further to the brink of madness.

Harry continued to saw into her, his arms wrapped around her waist as he pushed himself as deep into her as he could manage. The blonde closed her eyes tightly and felt a rush escalate through her.

Gabrielle was getting closer to the edge and time ticked by. Hours, days, weeks…..well in the time dilation field, it didn't matter? The wizard plowed into her from behind, his balls slapping against her thighs as she clamped down onto him. The sixteen year old Veela bombshell felt herself submerged into pure heaven.

Fleur's simpering moans could be heard as Gabrielle munched on Fleur. "GABBY, OOOH, YES, SO GOOD! "

Harry stayed the course and rocked Gabrielle's body, never once breaking his stride. His cock throbbed inside her inner chambers and she was determined to milk every last drop of cum from him.

"Cum, oh, please, cum, need it, soooo, bad! " she begged him in a cooing moan and Harry sped up his thrusts which caused her mind to nearly break from the pleasure. "Fill me up with so much that I can't even fucking take it."

Fleur locked her legs around her head to remind the younger blonde of her duty and Gabrielle attacked her older sister's pussy, using her tongue to draw Fleur to the brink and beyond.

Harry kept burying his rod into Gabrielle's tight cunt and kept hammering into her from behind. The blonde clenched him hard and Harry rode her into the bed.

"I'm going to fill you up with so much….be careful what you wish it"

His balls tightened at his warning and he spurted several loads of spunk deep into her center. Her pussy twitched with each thrust and her pussy was filled up. She whined as he finished up in her.

Now it was time to switch positions and continue the fun which they did long into the night.

* * *

Vicki Vale was one to always pounce upon a potential story like a shark smelling blood and she edged forward, trying to find out what was happening. The woman stepped forward and had a meeting with a certain Harvey Dent. If anyone knew where the bodies were buried in the GCPD, Dent could at least point her in the right direction. Or at least towards where she could stick her nose towards some incriminating information.

He was a respected member of Internal Affairs and none of the potential shady rumors that trailed some of the other members of the GCPD stalked around Mr. Dent.

Vicki stood in the elevator, humming underneath her breath as she was nearly on her way up to where she was going. The reporter checked herself out in the pocket mirror that she had, making sure that her hair and makeup was just right. She was dressed in a blouse that was not tacky enough to be considered trampy but at the same time, it gave people a hint of what she had to offer. She wore a jacket that fit snugly around her shoulders and the skirt….well the skirt added to things, that was for sure. The skirt stretched down an inch past her stocking clad legs.

' _Okay, do or die time,'_ she thought to herself and she hoped that with the GCPD and the way it was, the next story about her would not be about her potential obituary.

The next moment, Vicki ran face to face with Harvey Dent.

"You know, after the events last night, I would think that you would not be brazen enough to be up here," Dent said as he looked at her. There was an unsaid statement that there were many in the department that would have liked to see Vicki at the bottom of a river, with Branden at the top of the list.

"Actually, I was just hoping for a few quick words with you, if you don't mind," Vicki said and there was a moment where Dent looked at her and Vicki decided to press on. "Just five minutes of your time, I swear, then I'll leave and let the matter drop."

She could almost see Dent mulling over the options in his mind and he eyed her, swallowing the lump in his throat and he nodded his head, speaking in the gruffest tone that he could imagine. He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded.

"Five minutes, I'll be back in ten, but wait outside of my office," Dent told her firmly and Vicki nodded.

No sooner did Dent leave, Vicki made her way towards the area of his office, a brilliant stroke of inspiration visiting her as she stopped in front of the office in front of a very haggard looking secretary.

"Hello, I'm Vicki Vale," she told the secretary on the outside. The girl looked like she was only half awake and had barely shaken the cobwebs after a long night.

"Oh, yes, the news reporter," the secretary said and Vicki could sense the disinterest rolling off of the girl's voice. Be that as it may, she pressed onward and smiled.

"So….I'm looking to speak to Mr. Dent, he actually agreed to answer a few questions and he told me that I should stay out of everyone's way, if I just waited in his office," Vicki said and the secretary nodded as she unlocked Mr. Dent's office and decided to back to her computer and continue to play mindsweeper in a mind numbed state.

Vicki entered the office, it was practical, nothing really too extraordinary or personal, except for the photo of Dent and his wife that was on the corner of his desk. However, after the events of the previous evening, it appeared that Dent had not put away certain files.

' _Hmmm, what do we have here?'_ Vicki thought as she plopped herself into Dent's office chair and saw the files on his desk.

She saw the file on Branden that was displayed in the most prominence and given what she learned last night, Vicki was not surprised what happened. Branden was as dirty as they came and just by listening to him, that much was proven.

Then there was James Arnold Flass, who had had rumored to been in some shady dealings himself. Vicki was really not surprised to see him on Dent's radar either. She would have to look into him a bit closer herself but his name did come up in several investigations.

Then there was Commissioner Gillian Loeb and Vicki could not help but have a smirk visit her face. Naturally this guy would be on the radar for everyone and he was the biggest enabler to police corruption that she could ever imagine.

Harvey Bullock was another one and he looked like a dirty cop, although there were conflicting reports about him. He was a cop that looked dirty but was actually on the level and then there were those who accused him of being on the take just like everyone else. If there were any smoke to those fires, well Vicki could see why they would investigate Bullock.

Then the final file, well shocking would not even begin to describe what she discovered in that file. It was a police file regarding James Gordon. Vicki could tell with her own eyes that Gordon had hero cop written all over him and in fact, he was the golden boy to the media.

' _Then again, the brighter the photo, the darker the negative,'_ she thought to herself and wished that she had some more time to nose around but the door creaked open and Harvey Dent looked at Vicki.

"I thought I told you to wait outside," he said gruffly and Vicki gave one of her winning smiles but Dent did not buy it for a second.

"I guess I must have misheard you," Vicki said, shrugging with a nonchalant smile on her face. "So, you told me that I could have five minutes, right?"

* * *

Kara swallowed rather nervously as Harry had let anticipation build up in her for a while. She understood that she might have taken things one step too far but one could not really fault her for being passionate. Still the fact that Harry did not do something right away might have been a tad bit worse if he had done something right away. The blonde nervously shifted, hoping that Harry would turn up and all…..well most, would have been forgiven. She waited patiently, wondering what was going to happen next.

' _Okay, this is far worse than waiting, perhaps he's just messing with my head, it's not going to end up that bad, everything's just going to be just fine, '_ Kara thought nervously and a bit sheepishly as she watched the door carefully. _'I didn't do anything that bad, and maybe if I apologize….maybe things would be fine….but it really depends on what he does. I'm not sure if it's going to be that much of a punishment if I enjoy it. '_

That was something that might have given her a bit more hope, that gave her strength, that gave her the determination necessary.

She looked out the window, with her legs crossed and then the door opened. Harry arrived and he was carrying a black bag in his hand. The blonde tried to scan it with her X-Ray vision, curiosity getting the better of her but she found herself stone walled, unable to lock onto what was in the bag.

Maybe that was for the best, the blonde let out one sigh as she waited to see what Harry would do next. His green eyes fixed onto hers and she gulped….she was not going to lie, she did feel a tiny bit….maybe more than a tiny bit, she felt completely intimidated by what Harry could do to her and that was something that excited her.

"So, thank you for waiting for me. "

That casual statement could surely not help her mood. Kara half raised an eyebrow and she looked at him. "Um, hi Harry, how are you doing? "

Harry nodded in response as he sat down next to her "Pretty good actually, productive day, and I can see that you're doing well yourself. That's never a bad thing, isn't it? "

Dare she hope?

There was no feedback from the bond traffic to reassure her, so Kara felt that things became a bit more eerie and fairly more unsettling.

"So the summer is almost over, "Harry told her and Kara started to laugh, feeling a bit more at ease. "I'm sure that you're looking forward to getting back to school. "

"Yes, so much to do, not a lot of time to do it," Kara said nodding in agreement. "Media relations, it's very interesting and I swear you almost have to be super powered to keep up with everything that's happening. "

"Well, you would be more than up for the task, "Harry agreed with her as he leaned back and he casually placed his arm around her waist. "And you are a valuable member of this Collective and you have a lot to contribute, as your strengths are many. But I don't need to tell you that. "

Kara smiled, she was looking forward to contributing to the empire that Har-Zod was building. The world would be a better place. It might not be ready for all of the gifts that he would give them just yet.

"They really are abundant, aren't they? "

Harry smiled "As they always are, but then again, I know something about having skills that are pretty abundant"

' _Well we are the epitome of all things that are modest, aren't we? '_ Faora chimed in briefly from the bond link.

' _You would know better than anyone else when someone has a lack of modesty, wouldn't you?_ ' Karen suggested coyly.

' _I would have to concur,_ ' Diana remarked in a dry voice.

' _Yes, she does really tend to be one that is not that modest when it all boils down to things,_ ' Rose agreed.

' _Absolutely,_ ' The twins chimed in, in unison.

Faora just raised one hand to the side of her face and gave an epic palm to it.

Kara bit down on her lip but she turned towards Harry. "So….what's in the bag? "

Kara regretted asking this question almost immediately after it spilled out of her mouth but she could tell help herself. There was a type of natural curiosity that burned through her eyes.

"I'm so glad that you asked, " Harry said to her and he locked eyes onto her. The type of gaze that Harry gave her, well it was one to cause a little bit of nervousness in this particular female. She wondered…..in some events she dreaded what was going to happen.

Yet, her time was not about to come yet, in fact, Harry was doing a remarkable job in dragging out her torment a little bit more. The blonde could feel frustrating burning through her eyes.

"I believe you recall what I promised you earlier, " Harry said to her with a smile. Kara's eyes widened and he placed a hand firmly on her thigh. "And as you know, I'm a man that always keeps my promises, no matter what."

Kara gulped at the thought, and she also got excited. It was almost time, she could feel it. The time for small talk was over. Harry very nearly let her think that he had forgotten about it, but Harry was blessed with the extraordinary ability to recall a lot. There was no way whatsoever that he would have forgotten about something like that.

"Remove your skirt, "Harry told her and Kara, nervously reached towards the back of her skirt, pulling it down. There was something in his eyes that indicated that he was going to enjoy this and Kara was not going to lie, she was going to enjoy it as well. "And the panties as well, I don't want you to wear anything from the waist up."

Kara pulled her panties down as well, revealing her shapely ass and smooth sex. The blonde blinked for a moment and Harry reached into the mystery black bag. She felt something stir in her.

' _Well, now you're going to know how it feels on the other end,_ 'Donna crowed as she saw the paddle that was in his hands.

' _Donna, there is no need to be cruel,_ 'Diana said to her sister.

' _Oh yes there is,_ 'Donna chirped in and there was a long sigh by all. 'Kara _, my love, you're about to get a mark on your ass._ '

Kara laid herself on Harry's lap as the paddle was reinforced by magical energy. There was something that tingled within her and Harry raised the paddle.

CRACK!

The paddle connected with Kara's backside, causing her to whimper in a combination of pleasure and pain. She could tell that the paddle was magically reinforced and it let the message sink in just a little bit.

CRACK!

The paddle once again bounced off of her tight ass and Kara bit down on her lip. She could barely let the pleasure escape her mouth but Harry rubbed her ass a little bit. She could feel it grow sore.

"One would almost think that you're getting off on that, "Harry whispered in her ear and that caused juices to drip from Kara, staining the carpet.

She was paddled unmercifully and it hit her ass. The blonde tried to finger herself to get some relief but found that her hands were also bound, she was unable to move.

"I think that you might have learned your lesson, " Harry said and Kara nodded eagerly. Her nods were a bit too eager for Harry's liking, so he frowned. "Well, I disagree. It's time for step two of your punishment. Step one is now over. "

Kara grew nervous, if that was step one, what was step two of her punishment. He gave her one final whack on the ass for good measure and then she was set up on the bed, her reddened ass bared into the air. Her hands were still tied.

Harry whispered in her ear. "You won't be able to pleasure your pussy and I won't touch it either, I'm going to continue to take it out on your pretty little ass. "

He empathized that last word with a sharp smack on it which caused her pussy to twitch but no one was touching it. Kara's hands were still bound and unable to pleasure herself. Her ass was there and ready for Harry to take out all of his aggressions on.

* * *

Kara's tender red ass cheeks were parted and she closed her eyes. She was excited but at the same time very nervous. Harry's hand slowly ran down her ass and his hips were at the edge of her ass. For a second, she thought that he was not going to take the plunge, in more ways than one.

Although the plunge was something that he was going to take and it was going to be right into her ass. His cock slid into her ass inch by inch and Kara bit down on her lip. Her ass was not healing as it should with her super powers but yet, her pussy moistened.

"Please, Harry, ease, please, "she begged him hoping for mercy but Harry leaned towards her ear and there was something that was said to her.

"You did the crime, "Harry whispered as he slapped her ass before he concluded in an even more husky whisper. You do the time."

That nearly caused Kara to become even more undone than usual. Her tight cunt clamped shut and she panted heavily. The blonde nearly licked the underside of her lips, her breathing becoming extremely harsh and ragged. She was this close to losing all semblance of her mind and suddenly she lost all control of herself when his cock pushed deep between her supple butt cheeks.

Kara lost it as he placed his hands on her raw ass. She could tell that Harry got off on this control and she got off on Harry controlling like that. The thrusts into her anal region were slow at first, kind of agonizing but at the same time, they were something that brought her to the edge of her pleasure. Her nipples got stiffer as Harry worked her over.

"That's it, you dirty girl, you like being fucked on your ass, "Harry whispered to her hotly and the blonde felt her lips drip with pleasure and he thrust into her. She thought for a minute that this was going to be the end of her torment but it just really began. His thrust got so deep into her anal region that it caused her to pant.

Kara nodded eagerly, biting down on her lip. He slowed his thrusts and that drew out her torment to an intense level. There was passion that burned through her eyes.

Then Harry kept up with the thrusts and pounded Kara's ass hard. The blonde screamed as he wrecked her ass. Her tightening hole seemed to feel even tighter around his massive rod. And then things turned extremely interesting as he lifted his hand.

He rattled her with a huge slap to her rump and that caused her ass to burn out with pleasure along with a little bit of pain. He sped up his thrusts and each thrust was punctuated with a huge slap to the rear. The blonde panted as Harry buried himself into her.

Kara thought that she was going to die not being able to pleasure herself. He grabbed her hair and pulled it. That caused her to moan in pleasure, although a gag appeared on her mouth. The moans were muffled as he speared into her.

The blonde whimpered with even more pleasure and Harry smiled. His cock felt snug in her ass and he rocked her, wrecking her tight anal cavity. The blonde was this close to coming undone and Harry was about ready to pound her into a drooling mess.

Kara whimpered hotly as he continued and then slowed down. He slowed down to such a pace that she thought for a brief minute that her torment was over and that she was free. The blonde closed her eyes tightly as he kept the pace rather calm and cool, slowing down. His rod went between her ass and he buried himself into her tight bowels.

The blonde's whimpering increased as he nearly pulled all the way out of her and he brushed his hot tip against the edge of her puckered hole. Then with increasing intensity, he jabbed into her. The blonde could not reach for her moist center and the wizard sped up his thrusts.

"That isn't so bad, take it up your ass, you deserve this, you understand how much you deserve this, "Harry said and all Kara could do was nod, as she hungered for some kind of relief. The blonde was this close to feeling it all go into her. His prick dug deep into her ass and the blonde lost herself in blissful pleasure.

Kara bit down on the gag and his hands lightly brushed against her breasts. It was a teasing and lingering moment.

Then he slapped her ass hard and once again the super powered thrusts continued. The woman's hips rocked back and her ass was being pummeled like it owed Harry money.

Harry continued to hold onto her back and he was going to get the most out of this fun. He could see her desperation reflected through the side mirror, the desperation to be allowed to cum. However, he was not done having his fun. He grabbed onto Kara's hair and continued to work her ass over. The blonde grinded her tight rear end back, with Harry gaining some intense momentum as he rocked between her anal cheeks.

His balls tightened and she was this close to getting some cream to put on that raw ass so to speak. For the last stretch, Harry once again buried into her and the blonde rocked her head back and screamed out loud. The blonde's excitement escalated through the gag.

A few more pumps and he shot his load into her ass, burying several thick juice spurts of cum into her. Her ass was completely covered in his spunk and it flowed out of her anal cavity as Harry hung onto her, picking up more momentum.

* * *

Kara was left on the bed, frustrated, still unable to touch herself and then Harry was about at the door and then he turned around.

"Well that was fun, "Harry told her and she nodded. "I'd suggest getting some cream in the cupboard….when the charms wear off. Otherwise you might not be able to sit for a long time. "

"No kidding, "Kara agreed as she could not even sit down properly without wincing. She would need a nice long soak in the bathtub to alleviate what happened.

* * *

Selina left the Cat's Cradle Club close to midnight at night. The truth was that things had grown pretty quiet, and that was fine. After the Battle For Old Gotham, she could use some downtime.

Holly joined her and walked off to her side behind her. "So, everything is going smoothly. But I wonder if the goods will still be delivered….and you know it's too quiet out here. You think that there would be something up."

Selina shrugged her shoulders and kept moving next to Holly. The two women were going to make their way to the train which was going to take them home. It was pretty much a straight shot on the way back, no question about it.

On the train, they rode in silence, not making any eye contact with the unsavory people on the train. Selina thought that the renovations of the club were going well then again she trusted that Harry would know what he was doing. The thought of him put a bit of a smile on her face that was not going off pretty soon.

"Let's try and get home without incident, "Selina said and Holly nodded. "I don't want anyone think that we're easy targets but….given all the shit that went down the other night, I don't want to be someone who is going to be pushed around. Keep your eyes peeled."

She agreed as she had her eyes opened and her head up, ready to defend herself at a moment's notice. In Gotham City, a seemingly innocent sound could in fact be the death knell that could cause horror to reign supreme in their eyes. So the two females were keeping rather calm as they made their way home. Their hearts beat a steady beat as they kept walking, taking the beaten path on the way home.

So far so good, and Holly and Selina both were happy that they were about ready to get home without any problems or at least very few problems.

Well that was until they ran smack dab into a group of thugs. The two females raised their eyebrows. They were some greasy looking motherfuckers and not too bright at all. The leader of the pack decided to make the crude remark to Selina.

"Hello baby, you look like you're someone who is in need of a good time," he said with an ugly leer in his eyes and Selina scoffed as she folded her arms, shaking her head in abject disgust. "And I can show you a really good time….both of you…for a price."

"You don't want to go down that road," Selina warned them, as she was about ready to bare her claws out them.

"Come on, baby, just a little bit, you don't know what you're missing," the thug said as he made a lewd gesture with his hand and his buddies laughed. Selina stepped back along with Holly, hoping that they would be smart enough to take the hint. However, the group stepped forward. "Or we could have this one, she looks like she has a lot of spunk in her. And she'll have even more spunk in her after I'm done with her."

Holly crossed her arms with a frown and being a former boxer, she prepared to assume the position to defend herself. The thug reached forward to Selina which in turn was a mistake as she kicked him in the face hard. The heel on her shoe sliced open a large cut underneath his eye and caused blood to splatter in every direction possible.

"YOU STUPID CUNT! I DON'T NEED TO TAKE YOU ALIVE!'

Needless to say, this gentleman was pissed off and he did not care who knew it right about now. He scrambled to his feet and he motioned for his men to go for the two girls. Their wallets would have done nicely, but now these bitches needed to be taught a lesson.

Holly managed to punch one of them out before they grabbed her.

Selina went over, fighting through them, scratching, biting, doing whatever she could but she was grabbed.

The click of the gun could be heard and Selina thought that they were just going to blow her head off right there. If she was going to go down, she was going to go down swinging.

It turned out that she did not really need to as there was the sound of the gun being yanked from the hand of the thug. The thug went spiraling down to the ground, going head over heels.

Holly blinked for a few seconds and she saw the same thing that Selina did. The razor sharp focus of the individual took out the thugs before they had any chance to blink.

Like many gangs did, Selina knew that they went for quantity over quality and this figure in the shadows, she could see him move with expert ability. Her mind did take a bit of time to process what was occurring off to the distance. The goons did not stand a chance against him as he moved with fluid ability.

' _Well this was unexpected, 'she_ thought and then she saw Holly's mouth hang halfway open, which kind of amused her for numerous reasons. The woman placed her hands on her hips and kept her stance steady.

"Damn, "Holly murmured and if that was not a sentiment that was shared by Selina, she did not know what was. The woman watched as the mysterious ninja finished off in the shadows.

The woman kept her eyes locked onto him, and she would have to say, that he was fairly inspiring. The glimpse that she caught of him in those tight leather pants was something that was even more awe inspiring as well. He took them out like they were nothing and he looked pretty good at doing it.

"Meow," Selina murmured to herself but she blinked and seconds later, she realized that Nightwing was in fact gone without a trace.

The thugs would remember their….encounter with the vigilante, even long after the broken bones and nasty cuts healed. Selina was about ready to call the GCPD but found out that was not entirely needed. They were on the scene now.

**To Be Continued.**


	27. Summer's Over Part Two

**Chapter Twenty Seven: Summer's Over Part Two.**

' _So, do you have any idea what this is about?'_ Harry asked to Diana as they arrived at the edge of the island paradise known as Themiscryria. It was a duplicate that he sent for the process, in fact, it seemed to be a bit of a "well duh" moment not to have sent over a dupe onto the island. He looked to his Amazon wife who shrugged.

' _I have no clue, but I'm sure that we'll both find out about the same time,'_ Diana thought to Harry and she looked at him with a smile. _'If my mother….if she says that it's urgent, then it's urgent. She isn't the type of person to lend herself to hyperbole.'_

' _No, I guess she wouldn't be,'_ Harry agreed as he stopped at the edge of the island after exiting the gate. They walked a little ways from where they were before they were greeted by a very lovely party of six.

"Har-Zod, it is good to see you once again," Artemis said, barely suppressing the smile that she had on her face as she stared Harry down. The royal guard stood there, all of them tall and beautiful, two of them had dark hair, one of them was a redhead, two others was blonde, and one was a chocolate skinned beauty with dark hair. Harry greeted Artemis with an extremely passionate embrace and kissed her deeply on the lips, a gesture which she returned hungrily. Her lips against his were quite the tasty treat.

"DADDY!"

Before Harry and Diana could even begin to talk to Artemis, the Kryptonian/Amazon hybrid missile known as Lyta rushed Harry and tackled him in a hug. Her arms wrapped around him and Harry smiled despite himself.

' _Well, I'd give that top marks for execution,'_ Ginny thought.

' _Ten out of ten!'_ Amanda cheered and Emily picked up where Ginny had left off.

' _Most certainly,'_ Emily said and she passed the ball to Kara.

' _Yes, it was pretty excellent,'_ the blonde added with a smile across her face that was a mile wide. She could not help but appreciate it and she could tell that even Donna was grudgingly impressed about the same thing. _'Wouldn't you agree Donna?'_

' _Not that….not that bad,'_ Donna murmured as she shook her head. Her sister just had to make a spectacle of herself, kind of like she did at that age. Not that she would admit out loud that she made a spectacle of herself at that age.

By this point, Lyta had finished assaulting Harry's rib cage and then moved on to her older sister. This allowed Harry room to breath and also time to turn to Artemis. She had a raised eyebrow and a rather amused expression on her face. Although it took her time to clear her throat and she said one thing. "Now that the Princess is finished with her attempts to drive the lungs from her father and her sister, we do have some urgent business to attend to. At the throne room, the queen is waiting for us there."

"Lead the way," Harry said, he was all business and even more smiles, his smile grew even wider as the woman lead him up towards where Hippolyta was waiting. "Any luck on Aresia?"

Artemis frowned at this question. "No, and it is most certainly strange. There is one development that I find most perplexing however."

Harry pressed forward. "How so?"

Artemis decided to explain to him about the situation. "There was a boat that we found in South Africa, it went missing around the same time."

Diana let out a rather prominent whistle, something that caused Harry to raise his eyebrow and he decided to ask the question that practically burned the tip of his tongue. "Am I missing something?"

"Well this island is exactly in the center of the Bermuda Triangle," Diana explained. "So you would have to pass through mists and sea monsters to get through it. Unless you directly bypass that and….well nothing short of divine intervention is going to allow anyone to bypass that."

Harry smiled, to say the very least, that was news to him. "Well….that's fascinating, I did not know that and I feel like I should. I read all of the books in the library."

"Well, it is passed on through the orally through the years from the Amazons."

Lyla turned up that second, her blonde hair tied back and she was wearing a baby blue set of robes which wrapped around him. The woman greeted Harry with a tight embrace and a kiss, which he returned. Their lips pressed together and their tongues tried to fight each other for domination but Harry overwhelmed her, backing her off for a second.

It was off to the throne room and already Hippolyta was standing there. She was talking to a gorgeous blonde that was tall. Her hair stretched down passed her shoulders and she was wearing a white robe that wrapped around her still developing breasts. Her piercing blue eyes were something that people could get lost to. The robes parted at the bottom to show a dazzling set of legs. She was around Lyta's age.

"So….that's the plan," Hippolyta said to the blonde and there was a second where she nodded, although her face looked rather fixed as she did so. She noticed that her daughter and husband was there.

Without another word, Hippolyta descended from the steps with all of the grace that the Queen of the Amazons could be expected of. She wrapped her arms around Harry with a tight hug, her breasts pressing against his chest as she pulled him in and then the kiss continued things, with their tongues battling together for domination as well. He was pulled into her body and he closed his eyes, feeling her tongue wrap around his.

Diana got more of the same treatment as the girl looked at him curiously. There was a slightly chilling vibe that she was giving, although it was directed to Diana more so.

"I believe that introductions are in order," Hippolyta said as she looked at Harry who nodded. "As you may have noticed, there is a new arrival on the island. This is Eris Jackson; her mother died some time back and her father….is absent."

Perhaps it was Harry's imagination running wild with the rest of him, but he could tell that Hippolyta did not approve of who Eris's father was.

"She has been granted favor by the goddesses," Hippolyta said to Harry. "Until the moment that they felt she was ready to commence with her training and today, she will be joining Lyta in her lessons, under Diana's tutelage."

Hippolyta cast Eris a look and the girl took a deep breath. She walked up to Harry, very politely. "Harry Potter….it's a pleasure to meet you, I've been told so much about you."

The truth was that there was an undercurrent of agitation in her voice given the fact that Hera had talked him up so much to the point where her ears were bleeding from Harry Potter overload.

"Nice to meet you as well Eris, and I hope to get to know you better soon," Harry told her with his usual charming smile.

"Yes, I'm sure," Eris said as she had already gotten her share of….uneasiness around people given who her father was. And given that her father had recently given Harry some grief, she supposed that things could get rather tricky. "It would be my honor, I'm sure."

Hippolyta frowned, they had a nice discussion about her attitude and how no one was going to judge her.

"Well, there will be plenty of opportunities for us to get to know each other," Harry said with a smile.

"Yes, I'm sure that I'll be dazzled with your greatness," she replied in a dry voice as she watched him and Lyta looked at her, she could sense something.

' _Lyta,'_ Hippolyta mentally warned her daughter.

Harry smiled as Hippolyta turned to Diana. "Diana, do take the two girls out to the court yard and their training could commence."

"Of course, mother," Diana said with a grin and there was a moment where Lyta was bouncing up and down, much to the agitation of Eris. Needless to say she had a run in with Diana in the past and…..well one could say that she was not the girl's biggest fan.

"Don't be like that," Lyta told Eris as she glared at the girl.

"I'm not being like anything," Eris said, she was going to train to be the best that she could be. She had enough issues with her father that she wanted to be great besides him.

"You do realize who her father is," Hippolyta said and Harry nodded. "And you do realize that she has many issues with him…..even more than some of the Amazons do and that's cause a bit of a chip to form on her shoulder."

"Believe me, I understand," Harry said perfectly.

"Hera believes that the training will give her the needed discipline to let go of her bitterness," Hippolyta said and she turned to the Royal Guard. "Meet us in an hour."

The Royal Guard nodded and Hippolyta turned towards Harry, a knowing smile crossing her face. "So, Harry, if you could do be the honor of accompanying me to my private chambers."

"It would be one," Harry said as he locked arms with the Queen of the Amazons and Lyta and Artemis followed her. Harry was about ready to ask what was up.

"So, you have learned a lot from your training from others, but I think that I still have much to teach you," Hippolyta told Harry and Harry smiled. "It was not difficult to get permission from the goddesses to teach you some more….restricted methods of Amazon fighting. Of course, the implication that you would be close by more often and they would have easier access to you, it sweetened the pot a little bit."

"I see," Harry said with a smile and Hippolyta continued.

"Be that as it may," Hippolyta said to him as she took in a deep breath. "I believe that it would be beneficial for me to train you, and the knowledge would benefit you given that….well in Gotham City, I think that we can agree that you'll need all of the help that you can get."

"Very true," Harry said agreeing with his wife and there were similar murmurs of agreement throughout the bond although a bit jumbled so Harry could not really make out any distinctive voices.

"But as you might have expected, I did not merely call you here for training," Hippolyta said and Harry's smile got even wider. She pushed him down onto a chair with another fluid motion, straddled his lap and tightened her arms around his neck.

"Well that is something that goes without saying," Harry said as he wrapped his arms around Hippolyta as well and pulled his wife into a kiss, as Lyla and Artemis waited patiently for their turn.

Then Artemis grabbed Lyla around the waist and pushed her against the wall, giving her a deep and alluring kiss. The blonde returned the kiss as things were about to get hot and heavy in the private bed chambers of the Queen of the Amazons.

Harry's shirt was pulled off and he returned fire, pulling the top of her toga down, exposing her massive breasts, ready for him to play with and make his own once more. .

* * *

Hippolyta mewled underneath the efforts of Harry's strong hands as he cupped her breasts. Her pussy hungered for his meat and she was not going to lie, she lusted after what he could do to her. Her whimpers increased in intensity as he ran his hands over her breasts.

Lyla felt her legs parted and Artemis dove between her legs with practiced ease. It was all about getting her warmed up for her husband to work his magic.

The slurping of Artemis's lips on Lyla's pussy spurred Hippolyta to grab Harry's rod.

"I'm wet already," Hippolyta whispered to him and Harry could tell, his rod was brushed up against her dripping wet slit. Teasingly, she brushed her hole against his rod and was about ready to impale herself down onto his rod. Her hips scissor around his rod as she pushed all the way down onto him, her walls clamped around him.

"Yes," Harry grunted as she teased his cock with a squeeze of her walls, bouncing herself back and forth, her breasts swaying with increased movement. He cupped her tit in his hand and squeezed it, causing her tightness to clamp around him as she went up and down upon him.

"That's….it," she whined as she felt him push into her.

Artemis's molten thighs were now wrapped around Lyla's face and the blonde dug her tongue deep into her walls.

Eventually Artemis was lifted off of her partner around the waist and with one fluid motion, she was backed against the wall. His thick spear was a few inches away from penetrating her and excitement rose forth between her thighs. A smoldering gaze flashed through her eyes and he grabbed her around the shoulders.

"I'm ready," Harry whispered and he was inches away from entering her.

"Make love to me, I need it," Artemis begged him, her arms wrapped around his neck and her pussy about ready to touch his throbbing rod.

It entered her, sliding into her, as Artemis watched out of the corner of her eye, her queen bouncing up and down on Harry's throbbing tool. He grabbed her ass and directed her back to the situation. Her legs snaked up and Harry kissed her on the lips.

The smoldering kiss got even hotter when Harry slowly kissed down her neck and took control of her breasts, taking them. He licked her nipples and caused her to pant as her walls clenched him, having the first orgasm with Harry inside her. She had experienced his tender love so many times…..it was hard to focus.

"Don't think that I forgot you," Harry whispered as he ran his finger down between Lyla's legs and she panted as he cupped her tight pussy. She felt the rush of him go between her legs.

"Deeper, take me, take me!" Lyla moaned as she arched her hips back up and she met Harry's thrusts as he worked into her. She wrapped her arms around him, tightening her vice like grip around his thick cock.

"Give them….give them everything," Hippolyta moaned as she rocked her pussy around his rod and she squeezed his hard rod. Her butt cheeks rammed down onto his balls as she continued to fuck him on the chair.

Harry buried his faces between her breasts and lavished them, which caused her moans to increase and her walls to tighten around his rod. He sank himself deep into her and she squeezed him with her walls as she continued to bury himself up and down on him. She continued to ride him.

Artemis was once again against the wall, she must have been driven to about three or four orgasms by now. She faced Harry for a while but then he pulled out.

"No, please, don't," Artemis whispered, the Amazon feeling her pleasure yanked out from underneath her nose.

She was bound against the wall, her legs spread, and Harry brushed his throbbing dick against her dripping hot hole. She whimpered as he was this close to entering her and he held onto her waist. The leverage as fine as he rammed deep into her, stretching her out.

"That's hot," Diana whispered as she just returned and she walked in, making sure the door was shut behind her. She pulled down her clothes, exposing the top of her breasts and then slipping it down, revealing her smooth and toned stomach.

"Why don't we give your mother a break?" Harry asked and he pulled out of Hippolyta.

Hippolyta breathed heavily and Harry grabbed Diana, the bed expanding. The Queen of the Amazons was about ready to see her husband ravish her daughter.

Harry's hard rod was brushing over her dripping hot slit and she lifted her hips up, in an attempt to have his throbbing hard cock buried deep into her.

"YES!" Diana screamed as she felt his cock bury deep into her. Her hips rocked up as he speared into her. She grabbed onto his neck and allowed him to sink into her, expanding her and emptying her over and over again. Her walls contracted around him as he pushed his rod so far into her center that she was about ready to come undone.

Hippolyta watched, she was struggling to figure out which one of her husbands to watch. All versions of Harry ravished her partners and she made a split decision.

Harry cupped Diana's breasts and speared into her tight center. The woman returned fire, lifting her hips up, as he pushed down. With a grin on his face, he looked to the princess. "Why don't you be a good daughter and eat your mother's pussy?"

"Yes, Diana, be a good girl," Hippolyta whispered and Diana dug her tongue into her mother's pussy. She was always so talented and Hippolyta could not even….she felt her mind completely explode as her thighs tightened around her face.

Artemis was fucked hard against the wall but she held on, her nails digging into the wall. The wizard was pushing into her and her walls stretched apart as he rammed into her as hard as he could. His thrusts were fast and furious and his groping of her breasts caused her eyes to burn brightly with more lust and passion that she could ever realize. Her panting escalated to another level as he rocked into her from behind, her tightness enveloping his throbbing hard prick.

"Oh, oh, oh," Lyla moaned as she held onto Harry. She was about to black out from the force of the latest orgasm that he gave her but she wanted to hang on. She was going to give him this and her tightness hugged his rod. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she pumped her hips up, meeting his throbbing thrusts deep into her.

"Yes, cum for me, I'm going to make you pass out," Harry whispered.

Diana grabbed her mother's thighs and kept digging into her hot cunt, licking her walls and she kept slurping her.

"Oh, so, fucking hot," Harry grunted as he buried himself into Diana. He switched his hands groping Hippolyta's breasts and then switching to Diana's, varying things up as good as he could. He pushed so far into her and her walls stretched apart.

He held onto her hips and rocked deep between her walls. She clenched him as he pushed in and out of her with rapid fire fury. She hoisted her hips up and Harry held onto her breasts. There was a moan that escalated.

The foursome increased, with Lyla and Artemis having been fucked into a stupor. They were left drooling.

Hippolyta slid off and exposed her pussy to one of the dupes. She could feel that his fingers shifted between her thighs, and he was about ready to enter her. He inserted himself into her and kept pushing into her, rocking her mind as he rocked into her.

He rode out his orgasm in Hippolyta's pussy.

"Take me, take me, my husband!" Hippolyta moaned as Harry cupped her breasts and she came along with him. His balls drained his fluids into her and that caused her to experience another orgasm with how prolific he was.

Diana arched her back and his spunk was deposited between her legs as he injected her with the fluid, filling her up.

The Amazon Royal Guard showed up and the fun was just getting started.

"Clothing is only optional, and in fact not recommended," Diana said and the Amazons stripped their uniforms at that word.

* * *

The memories from the duplicate came flooding in to the prime version of Harry Potter as he leaned back outside of Gotham City. Needless to say, he had felt a combination of being interested and being aroused, although he should have figured that something was up. But naturally something was up in more ways than one.

That was beside the point for the moment, now, Harry was sipping on a cup of coffee, in the donut shop outside of the building where Barbara was transcribing for the GCPD, and he had the paper in front of him. The coffee had an interesting Oreo flavor mix and the scent to match.

The newspaper really was not anything to write home about, at least not today. There were a few words regarding the mysterious ninja and his misadventures of the night, although nothing out of the ordinary. Harry was amused by the notion that various police officials refused to comment, especially Branden who was reported to have stormed out when he was pressed by the press. Needless to say, Harry was sure that Braden understood that the ninja was extremely real to put things bluntly.

' _Slow news day?'_ Pamela thought to him.

' _For Gotham City, yes,'_ Harry said as he flipped through the paper and he got some memories from Harrison, regarding the misadventures on the plane. Of course, he had held quite a few business meetings in the air that ended that way, so his longest lasting dupe getting up to something like that was not strange. _'Well isn't that….something?'_

' _What's something?'_ Donna asked curiously.

' _Rupert Thorne has bought the Gotham City Casino….you know the one that was…..wrecked by mob warfare just recently,'_ Harry said to his bond mates and Dinah scoffed, folding her arms across her chest as she leaned back.

' _I don't believe it, his timing….he must either have the best timing in the world, or something is up,'_ Dinah said as she frowned and Harry nodded in agreement. That timing was almost too perfect to be a coincidence, not that Harry believed in coincidences.

There was a lot of fluff pieces in the paper as there was on a slow news day. One other point of note was that Councilman Hamilton Hill was trying to encourage the passing of a new zoning law in Gotham City. If passed, it would allow a new Power Plant to be built, which the previous laws would not allow.

Footsteps had caused Harry's looking over of the early morning to look over the paper to be cut short. He looked up and saw the imposing figure of John Jones approaching him. "Mr. Potter….good day to you."

"Detective Jones, good day to you as well," Harry said with a bright smile across his face and he looked at the good detective. "So, what brings you here?"

The Detective elaborated on why he had turned up to visit Harry. "I was on break, and….I decided that it would be best to partake in a change of surroundings. And I must admit, that mix is quite catching. What precisely is it?"

"It's a blend of coffee, with an Oreo flavor mixed," Harry said to him and he nodded. "If you would like to partake in it, I would be happy to order you a cup."

"It would be much appreciated," Jones said and he looked at Harry as he ordered it. There was a moment of a pause as the waitress brought over the cup. Jones took a drink of it and Harry could see a look on his face that was along the eyes of most men when they had sex with an attractive female.

"I take it you enjoy it," Harry said to him.

"Very much so yes," Jones said as he had drained most of the cup without realizing he did so. "I think that I may order another."

' _Oreos, the real gateway drug,'_ Kara said in a somber tone of voice.

' _It's a little known fact that four out of every five people will succumb to an Oreo addiction every year,'_ Amanda continued chiming in.

' _It is an extremely serious issue,'_ Lily added as there was much laughter throughout the bond.

"The case of Mr. Longbottom….you've been dropped of all charges as you will know, but it is extremely baffling," Jones said to him. "I wish to extend my apologies for my initial suspicions regarding you….."

"You were only doing your job," Harry said to him calmly and Jones nodded.

"Yes, well your alibi did check out on several accounts and I have to admit, it is one of the odder cases that I have investigated," Jones said as he left the implication that was saying something for Gotham. "We have been….preoccupied with other matters, but I can assure you that it's still being investigated…."

"Best we could figure, it might be the same terrorists that killed my father, he was an associate of Neville's father in a top secret branch of the British government, some kind of special investigator of British Intelligence, not even the Prime Minister knew anything about it, I myself only know the basics and none of the particulars," Harry said and Jones nodded. "However, it was the same attack by put my mother in a coma for thirteen years. They foiled their plans and I guess some of his followers just don't know when to give up."

"Yes," Jones agreed calmly.

"So where are you from originally?" Harry asked and Jones looked at him. "No offense meant, but I've seen nothing like your mannerisms or heard nothing like your accent."

"I was originally from South Africa until I left to America when I was six, I ended up being a Detective in Star City, and then I transferred over to Gotham City," Jones told Harry and the green eyed wizard smiled.

Barbara and James Gordon arrived. The younger female Gordon rushed over to Harry and threw her arms around him with a hug and when she knew her father was not looking or perhaps that her father was pretending not to look, she stole a kiss.

"James, Barbara, what brings you here?" Harry asked and James smiled, he was about ready to say.

"So, we're celebrating with me….getting put into university with a nice dinner tonight, and I was wondering if you would come with us," Barbara said as she looked equally eager as she crossed her arms and looked at Harry. She gave him the puppy dog eyes although they were not needed.

"Barbara, my schedule is pretty cleared up, I'll be delighted to join you," Harry told Barbara and she eagerly greeted him.

"So, I take it that it's settled then," James said, his voice rather amused.

"Pretty much, yes," Harry said as he turned to Detective Jones.

"I will be leaving right now," Jones said, although he took another cup of the flavored coffee for the road, paying for it out of his pocket. He reached over and shook hands with Harry. "It was a pleasure speaking to you, Mr. Potter."

"Likewise Detective Jones," Harry told him with a smile on his face as he noticed his strong handshake and it made him wonder.

* * *

New York City was the city that never slept and Harry could not help but keep the smile off of his face as Lavender lead him all over the town. She was checking out the sights, with Mari acting as their tour guide. Harrison was not going to complain about it, at least too much, as the perks at the end were going to be more than a sufficient amount of payment and he was going to collect with interest.

"I don't think that it would be too bad, given that the payment is taking things out on my breasts and my ass," Lavender said as she cupped the first body part and bent over in her skirt to reveal the second.

Nyssa shook her head, she had to tag along with Harrison and Bellatrix was there, although she was getting ideas more than anything else. And a Bellatrix with ideas meant that there was something that was happening and there was going to be some big problems for all involved.

"Not to mention the money for all involved, so naturally their designs….whilst adequate, can always be improved upon," Lavender said as she browsed up and down the racks. "Custom made lingerie is not something that is done often enough and with the….size of the assets of some of our women, we need to be able to treat them something special.

"I agree," Harrison said, this was his first time in New York City himself, given that he had spent a great deal of his time across the pond. Although Harry had been here with Jaime and Karen several times on matters of business related purposes, but that was really beside the point.

"So what do you think?"

Mari walked out, strutting herself. It was not anything too scandalous that she was wearing but at the same time, it provided an ample tease of what rested underneath those thing clothes. She wore a nice pair of bra and panties that adhered to her body. The woman kept walking forward after a second, as she wore a skimpy bra that wrapped around her tight breasts and a pair of panties that fit snugly around her ass. Nothing too bad, nothing see through, nothing where she was spilling out but she did not have the body imagine issues.

"Magnificent," Harry said and Mari looked rather pleased with the review.

"Glad you approve," Mari said with a smile as she looked at Lavender.

"Naturally you make anything look better, as always," Lavender said and that was a vital component to her campaign, girls that made what they wore look really good.

Mari nodded with a wide grin as slowly and silkily, she edged her way over to Harrison. She took his drink and took a sip from it. Unfortunately, it was a bit stronger than she intended and she coughed, her eyes watering from the taste of it.

"Are we alright?" Harrison asked her and Mari nodded immediately.

"Yeah, I'm good," Mari said as she looked at the emerald eyed wizard. She was not ready for such a drink like that. "But you know that I'm the adaptable sort."

"Well, it's good to know that you can adapt to any situation," Harrison replied to her with a knowing grin as she shook her head.

"I believe I have a few more outfits to try on before I'm ready to call it a day, and then there are other things to do," Mari said and Lavender's wide grin got even wider.

"Yes, lovely, lovely, yes you do," Lavender said with a bright grin and Harrison knew that today's little trip would be just a little bit longer.

"So, Mari, do tell me a little bit about yourself?" Harrison asked as she jumped behind the curtain and got changed into a sleek red number. There was a hint of flesh although being the gentleman he was, he did not peak using his X-Ray vision. The temptation would always be there and it would have grabbed upon by lesser mortals.

"Oh, where to begin," Mari said as she sighed, as she slipped out, dressed in her bra and panties and she slipped on a sharp robe. Her legs crossed and she wiggled her bare feet towards Harrison. She smiled as her hand subtly brushed across her toned stomach, seeing that his eyes were on it.

"Beginning is usually a good spot," Bellatrix said and the dark skinned beauty offered a prominent sigh.

"Yes, a village in Africa, I believe I mentioned this briefly, but it was attacked by a warlord," Mari said to him as she crossed her arms underneath her chest. She was taking one of these trips down memory lane. She bent down slightly to pick up some of the discarded pieces of clothing and made sure that her street clothes were in my bag. "My father….I don't know what he did to upset this guy but….he must have done something. Never the less, he was put down hard, killed."

Harrison reached forward and placed his hand on her bare knee, which served as the dual purpose to calm her down and also to reassure the dark skinned beauty that there was nothing to worry about. Her lips went into a frown as her chest inhaled and exhaled.

"Continue," Harrison whispered to her and she did in fact continue.

"Yes, well, I'm sure that you know how I escaped and I got here in New York, started my new life," Mari said as she got into her. "And then, I ran into Lavender and Parvati in a Fashion Show and I must say, they are two hard girls to say no to."

"We aim to please," Lavender said and Parvati, who was not there, offered her assession through the bond link.

"And when I heard about you, I just had to meet you, and the pictures that I saw don't do you as much justice," Mari said as she was caught in his eyes.

"Well, that's one thing that we do have in common, your beauty is much more stunning in person, it's a wonder that you don't melt the camera," Harrison said and she laughed.

"Well, thankfully I know when to cool it down and when to keep it hot," Mari said to him as her arms folded together and she continued to watch him, her eyes never once leaving his face.

Lavender showed up, if that was not an apt description of Mari, she did not know what was. Never less, the blonde showed up, wearing a slinky white number that was pretty much extremely similar to Mari's.

The trio made their way out onto the balcony railing as Lavender leaned back, showcasing her breasts and legs to Harry.

"So, I think that might be my cue to leave," Mari said and Harrison smiled at her.

"Yes, things could get a bit intense…."

"I think that I packed in a long day," Mari said as she leaned forward and kissed Harrison on the cheek. The green eyed wizard was smiling as she walked away.

Lavender could see that she was the only one near Harrison and his grin got even wider.

"Okay, I'm here to take my payment," Harrison said, as he had been wound up all day with females in lingerie and now he was about ready to burst.

"Of course," Lavender said as her hair framed her face seductively as she smiled and prepared to pay her debt, with interest.

* * *

Harrison cupped her breasts and she moaned in an appreciative manner. The blonde closed her eyes and her breasts were slowly uncovered and at his disposal.

He took a minute to admire the amazing peaks and he squeezed them. She moaned softly and he squeezed them once more and she moaned really loudly. The area between her legs pulsed and he scrapped his fingers between her legs. That caused her to whimper slightly, but he came back up.

"First, I'm going to take these tits," Harrison said as he unbuckled his belt.

Lavender tingled with anticipation, she could hardly wait. In fact, she was this close to becoming undone. His throbbing length was about ready to slide between her amazing breasts and it was at the edge of her tits.

"Yes, tit fuck me," Lavender moaned. "Fuck them, I don't think….MMMMM!"

Lavender moaned as Harrison grabbed onto her tits, sliding his rod in and out between them. His rod slid in and out between her breasts as she whimpered with pleasure.

Her large melons squeezed around his rod as he speared in and out between them. She leaned up, her eyes flushed over and she kissed the top of her head. There was a moment where she wrapped her lips around him, hungrily sucking the tip of his head and there was a moment where she rocked her head back. She slid all the way down his rod and it stuck deep into her mouth, as she sucked hard on him.

"Oh….ohhh…oh…." Lavender moaned as he grabbed onto her tremendous tits and rocked back and forth on her. His balls slapped against her chest as he continued rock back and forth against her. The blonde whimpered heavily as he kept going between her heavenly orbs. Both sets of lips moistened and Harry worked her over.

Harrison was going to take his aggressions out on her tits and they were such lovely tits.

"Coat them, coat them," Lavender begged as she squeezed her ample breasts together and she pumped him, the head of his cock hitting her chin. She wanted her tits and face covered in his spunk, it would feel so good.

His balls started to throb but he stayed the course, working between her heavenly orbs. They were about ready to tighten.

"I'm going to cum, are you ready to get a load on your face, like the whore you are?" Harrison growled and Lavender nodded.

"Yes, make me your cum dumpster, oh…..I don't think that I could handle it….YES!" Lavender yelled as her tits were coated by the thick seed that spurted out of his balls and landed on her chest.

Lavender laid back and the next thing she knew, the young man edged her panties down, exposing her wet snatch, which he fingers.

She moaned as Harrison dug his fingers deep into her dripping hot twat and she lifted her hips up towards his fingers.

"OOOH," Lavender moaned as Harrison pushed his fingers in and out of her as she whimpered with pleasure.

He was only fingering her pussy briefly and then he turned her around, bending her over the railing. Her tight ass was exposed, with Harrison smiling as he ran his fingers down the inside of her anal cavity which caused her to shiver in pleasure. The woman whimpered as his fingers brushed against the inside of her anus.

The blonde panted as Har-Zod was this close to entering the inside of her. Her ass was exposed to Harry and he swatted her on the ass immediately.

He grabbed her breasts from behind and he brushed his cock against her ass. His thick throbbing tool was inches away from entering her ass and she was bent over the side of the railing, her breasts against the railing.

He was this close to entering her just like that and her ass was about ready to be violated.

"Don't tease me," Lavender begged as she bit down on her lip and Harry cupped her breasts from behind, about ready to slide into her.

He pushed deep into her anus and she whined at the top of her lungs as Harry slammed deep into her tight anal core.

The woman moaned and groaned as he fucked her in the ass over the railing. She looked down on New York City but charms had thankfully made sure that no one would see anything peculiar as they looked up. Harry stayed the course and took Lavender's ass for everything that it was worth.

Harrison smiled as he ran his fingers down her supple stomach and then cupped her snatch. He delivered a slight vibrating charm to his fingers, which offered the same quality of love making that Parseltongue would have.

She shrieked at the top of her lungs, biting down on her lips. Her ears rang with pleasure as Harry sawed into her from behind. His cock was halfway up her tight ass and he continued to mow into her from behind, drilling her over the balcony railing, her eyes going cross, and drool dripping down her chin. The moaning escalated.

"Still with me," Harrison breathed and Lavender nodded as he pounded her ass from behind. He entered and exited her one hundred percent of the way. His green eyes flooded with unmistakable lust and he cupped her breasts with one hand, alternating between her right tit and her left tit, as he went down between her legs and fingered her smoldering snatch.

Lavender lost herself with his actions and her ass was being beaten in such a way that she might not be able to sit down and that was the way she liked it. His thick rod speared between her tight ass cheeks as he hammered into her.

"OOOOH," Lavender moaned hotly as Harrison bit down on the back of her neck. That caused him to hit some amazing pleasure spots as his rod kept entering her ass.

Eventually, with her ass fully taken, Harrison decided to switch gears. He gave her one sharper slap to her ass and she whined at the top of her lungs.

"Please," Lavender whispered and Harrison cupped her breasts, brushing the tip of his mighty spear against her needy pussy.

Lavender's walls gushed with juices and there was a second where she wondered if Harrison was going to take her in her pussy. His thick throbbing cock shoved deep into her pussy, and he cupped her breasts from behind.

"YESSS!" Lavender moaned at the top of her lungs and the green eyed wizard hammered into her from behind. His throbbing length pushed in and out of her body, as he rocked into her body from behind. She was hanging onto the edge, so tightly that her knuckles were growing white.

Harrison squeezed her ass as he drilled into her tightening pussy milked his probing pole. She milked him amazingly, with Harrison going deep into her. His balls slammed against her ass as he kept pushing in and out of her.

"Take me, oh take me," Lavender moaned.

"Consider yourself taken," Harrison breathed as he slapped her ass every time that he entered and exited her pussy. Her center was hot and warm, with her pussy hugging him, and offered a tremendous amount of resistance for his invasion. "Such nice tits but you already knew that."

The sorcerer squeezed them and Lavender agreed his ownership, as his throbbing length slid as far into her as he could manage. His rod was wrapped up against her tight walls as they milked him, with her breasts being squeezed.

"YES!" she moaned.

"So close," Harrison breathed.

Lavender eagerly anticipated his explosion into her, his cock slid in and out between her thighs, rocking into her. The woman whimpered with pleasure as he rocked deep into her. She was held on by the waist as he gave her a few more hard thrusts.

Her eyes hung half open as he came inside her, filling her up with his seed which pumped between her thighs, rocking her with the pleasure. Her whimpering increased as he finished inside her.

* * *

Lavender slid down and Harrison smiled at her.

"Well, we're even now, aren't we?" Harrison asked and she whined as hit bare ass first on the concrete.

He slipped a potion out of his cloak and placed it in Lavender's hand, before he calmly walked off.

* * *

Labor Day, the day before most children in the United States went back to school, was upon them. Summer, while technically still a couple more weeks before autumn officially hit, was sent off in style, with parties, barbeques, and just excuses for people to consume a lot of booze, burgers, and salty snacks, not that anyone needed it.

It was nearly time for the ten o'clock news as the girls and Harry got their way back from the party at Wayne Manor. Harry was almost obligated to put in an appearance and mingle with some of the high society of Gotham City….although some of them, he felt like he needed to take a shower after he came into contact with some of them. Regardless of that fact, there were some extremely attractive women that were there and Harry could not help but smile at the thought of that.

"So, you were the popular guy at the party, not that's any surprise," Amanda said as she filed in with the motely crew of girls, Harry leading the way. It was a party, with Emily joining her of course, then Lily, Rose, Kara, Pamela, Jaime, Faora, Penny, Fleur, Gabrielle, Dinah, and Donna.

"Although some of them, tarting themselves in front of Har," Faora said as she shook her head. She was not lying, she was scouting some potential talent at that party but some of them, and they were so blatant that she wanted to shake them, ask what was wrong with them. Of course, the dark haired Kryptonian had to admire their tastes if nothing else.

"They were just trying to be….."

"We all know what they were trying to do," Kara said in amusement on her face as she sat herself down to Harry's side. Karen sat herself on the other side, with Diana taking the seat next to Kara, and Jaime sitting next to Karen on her other side. Faora side stepped Lily and planted herself in Harry's lap.

"You snooze, you lose," Faora said to Lily who folded her arms.

"Ah, Lily, are you pouting?" Rose asked to her and Lily turned to her.

"You know, I'm not beneath giving you a spanking either," Lily said as she sat down and Rose placed herself onto Lily's lap.

"Oh, is that a threat or a promise?" Rose asked as the twins parked themselves down on either side of their mother and across from their brother.

"Amanda, back, you make a better door than a window," Emily said as she tugged on her sister's hair.

Pamela took the first chair that was off to the right. Dinah sat herself down on the floor, where her head was resting against Harry's legs. Fleur conjured a beanbag chair for her to sit down on and Gabrielle rested her head in her older sister's lap as she sat down.

Penny stepped into the kitchen to check on something as Kara turned on the news.

"Well, hey look, Summer's back…..surprised she is able to go on with how much she struck out tonight," Kara said and Jaime smiled.

"It isn't for any lack of trying," Jaime said to Harry. "You know…."

"Well, she's….going to have to try a bit harder, I think she was after a news story for her latest puff piece, but getting in my pants, also a secondary objective," Harry told Jaime.

"But she was really trying on both ends," Jaime said with a bright grin on her face. "Although I can tell why you're a bit…apprehensive around her."

"And young Miss Vreeland was equally….trying to get into your pants," Kara said with a bright smile.

"Well, she's….she's not someone who I would mind all that much, she's far deeper than the party girl façade would have you see," Harry told the girls and they all nodded. "And she is one hundred percent behind her causes. Sometimes she surrounds herself with people who might not have her best interests in mind and want a piece of her fortune but….she has a good heart and she's trying to make up for the checkered past of her family."

"Yes, they hunted big game into extinction," Pamela remembered. "And poisoned the environment as well…."

"Two causes that she's hitting hard, she's trying to protect endangered species and trying to work to get greater environmental awareness, although her grandfather must be rolling over in his grave, given that he only cared about one thing, the bottom line," Harry said to them.

"Well, she does seem genuine," Diana admitted and there were nods.

"And then there was Sapphire Stagg as well….." Kara started but there was something that was on the news that caused them to turn their attention away from the conversation. Their bright and cheery night was going to reach its end soon.

"This is Jack Ryder, and today, a shocking tragic struck," the reporter said somberly as he showed up in front of the Gotham General Hospital. "Today, nine women in Gotham General Hospital and St. Luke's hospital, they tragically passed away. They were all expecting mothers. Eighteen women were exposed in all, although half of these women and their babies were able to be saved with only minor complications. Four of the babies of the expected mothers that perished were able to be saved, but they will live with more severe complications and doctors consider them to be in critical condition. The other five babies died alongside with their mothers. Authorities believe that the Epidural Anesthesia shipment. This tragic event ended Labor Day and this summer in tragedy."

Shock could not even begin what they were thinking, in fact, they were not just shocked, some of them were sickened beyond relief.

As a mother, Lily was the most sickened and the most in need to kill someone. It was obvious that this was not an accident. Kara, Emily, and Penny all rushed to the area of the bathroom, with Diana looking sickened.

' _Those bastards,'_ Hippolyta swore through the bond link, finally breaking the silence. They had no idea if there was a person or people behind it, but given that the life of children were sacred, all, whether mothers or not, were pissed off. There were some lines not to cross.

Harry got up to his feet, calmly, as the names of the mothers that died were flashed across the screen. He would have put his fist through the television if he stayed much longer. Tonight started so innocently and ended like this.

Faora could not even begin to fathom what happened, and she did not notice that Harry had pushed her off of his lap and onto her feet, until he was halfway down the steps.

Her eyes started to glow and she made her way into one of the training rooms.

The smell of burning practice targets told the story more than any words.

* * *

Batman showed up in the Morgue of the Gotham City Hospital and was reading through the reports of the deceased mothers to be. He could not even begin to fathom someone doing anything like this. He had heard about it along with the rest of the world at the ten o'clock news and to think that he was worrying about how to entertain the highest of high society in Gotham City.

So far the story that was told to the news media and by the police checked out. The pain killer that was to ease the pain of childbirth was the cause of death. There had to be something else to it.

Batman saw something shift over to his side, barely looking over his shoulder. However, he inclined his head with the barest of acknowledgements to the guest over to the side. "I expected that you would show up sooner than you did."

"Sorry to dash your expectations," Nightwing said. "But I'm here now and…..I figured that you would go here, so I went to St. Luke's first and tried to see if I could find anything, here are my findings."

Batman took the memory card that was given and handed the reports to Nightwing in turn. The vigilante turned around.

Harry used the HUD in his mask to scan the report, sending the data to the computer. Then it was time to delve deeper into what was around him.

It was time to first take a look at the anesthesia that was used in the attacks. His green eyes glowed as he kept his eyes locked onto it. With help from a program that Lara helped him create, he scanned it up and down. There was a beep as it gave him the information that he needed. He frowned as he turned himself down and walked off to the side. His green eyes were locked on what he needed to do next.

Then it was the sample of blood and that would give him even more information. It was taken from one of the woman that died. He was pretty sure that he was going to find out something and he was not going to like what he found.

"It may have come from Wayne Industries, at least it was sent here, and someone tampered with it, if it was done at a production level, it would have had a higher mortality rate," Batman said grimly.

"Bupivacaine," Harry said to him and Batman stood up. "It was added…..and there's a good reason as to why. Bupivacaine is markedly toxic if inadvertently given intravenously, causing excitation, nervousness, tingling around the mouth, tinnitus, tremor, dizziness, blurred vision, or seizures, followed by depression: drowsiness, loss of consciousness, respiratory depression and apnea. Bupivacaine has caused several deaths by cardiac arrest when epidural anesthetic has been accidentally inserted into a vein instead of the epidural space."

He read that off of the data that he received without taking a breath and Batman concluded the obvious. "And fatal when the two were combined."

"It caused them to go into overdose, and then it was followed by a cardiac arrest," Harry concluded in his most grim tone.

"It's too precise to be an accident, nineteen bags were tampered with over two hospitals, nine or more ensuring the death of the expecting mothers," Batman said grimly and Harry nodded as he was getting it immediately. "It wasn't an accident, it was deliberate."

* * *

' _So dead end in other words,'_ Faora thought.

"Everything is in order, Mr. Potter, and you have a request to be a student mentor," the administrator stated. She was a fairly attractive blonde woman with piercing green eyes that was in her early to mid thirties. She was dressed conservatively. "Actually two requests."

' _Yes, a very dead end,'_ Harry thought. _'I went over the security tapes but someone was one step ahead of me. Last seventy two hours, wiped out, completely, just like that."_

"Oh, two requests?" Harry asked.

' _So, that gains further credence to the fact that this little murder spree was deliberate,'_ Faora said, not that there was a shadow of a doubt in her mind. Still it was nice to determine these things with clarity.

' _Pretty much yes,'_ Harry thought to her.

"You have been approved for Barbara Gordon's student mentor and given that she is one of the more prodigal young ladies to come out of this school, I think we can all agree that is a lofty position to be in," the advisor said.

"Yes, it is," Harry said to her in agreement. He smiled one of those charming smiles and he decided to cut to the chase as only he could. "As for the second…..?"

The woman smiled back at him. "Her father…..well to put things mildly, he was persistent and he donated a great deal of money to the school. He pushed for you, well not as hard as she did. But still, he's not the kind of guy that you exactly say no too."

"I see," Harry said, pondering things over ever so briefly in his mind. He gave an answer. "Well, I don't see a reason to argue against this arrangement."

"We figured that you would not mind, a lot of your required courses are completed," the student advisor said and Harry shook his head with a smile on his face, indicating that there would be no trouble at all. "Excellent….they are both ready to meet with you outside."

Harry smiled a bright smile across his face and he walked outside. Sure enough, he saw Barbara standing out there, a bright and sunny expression on her face. Harry greeted her with a tight hug and a kiss.

"Barbara, good to see you," Harry told her and Barbara nodded up and down eagerly.

"So, guess that you're my student mentor," Barbara said breathlessly and Harry gave her a sharp smile.

"Are you looking forward to it?" Harry asked her and she nodded, she was excited, more than excited as things turned out.

Harry turned around to see the other girl there, eighteen years old, blonde, and really beautiful, with blazing blue eyes. She was wearing a black blouse that had all but the top button buttoned up. She was wearing a skirt that met regulation length although it did show her legs quite well, with a pair of high heel boots that she wore.

"Harry, hi!" she said in a bubbly voice as she looked at him.

Harry came face to face with young Miss Sapphire Stagg, which reminded him of a conversation that she had with him last night, where she knowingly said that she would see him extremely soon.

' _Well that explains a lot,'_ Kara thought with a wide grin.

"So, I guess that explains pretty much everything, doesn't it?" Harry asked and Sapphire nodded her head.

"Well, to be fair, I did say that I would see you before too long," Sapphire said to him, pleased that she left that statement of mystery in Harry's mind after kissing him firmly on the cheek. That did leave that air of mystery behind.

There was a young wellbuilt man who stood beside Sapphire, it was a wonder that Harry did not notice him until now. He stood there, arms folded, giving him the eye. Sapphire noticed this, frowning.

"Rex, you successfully dropped me off, great, you can now leave," Sapphire said and when he just stood there, she decided that she might need to take a firmer hand in telling him off. "Seriously, work done, scram, get out, I'll let you know when you need to pick me up."

He looked from Sapphire to Harry but the look on her face was not to be argued. Barbara looked amused, although she tried not to show it. Sadly she did not hide it that well.

The man gave one more looked and then he turned on his feet, before he scurried off or perhaps stomped off might have been worth it.

Harry slowly raised an eyebrow towards Sapphire, asking for an explanation. She jumped in quickly with one. "Oh that's….that's Rex Mason! Daddy hired him, you know, to be my bodyguard. Unfortunately he lingers around much too long. Not a bad guy otherwise. So! How are you doing?"

Harry smiled. "You mean since the last twelve or so hours since I last saw you."

She nodded up and down eagerly and Harry could not help but smile. "Oh pretty good."

"So, you're my student mentor, and given your credentials, I don't think that I could have asked for anything better, I convinced Daddy that it would be in his best interest and therefore in mine to swing the deal," Sapphire said and Harry smiled, he wondered how she pulled this off.

"So what are you planning to study?" Harry asked.

A logical question, one that Harry would have to know as someone's student mentor. She jumped in immediately. "A dual major in business…..and oh environmental engineering as well."

Barbara held her mouth open, business was a surprise, but given the rumors of what Stagg was into, the environmental angle was not something that she considered.

"I understand that Stagg Industries….has a very spotty reputation with the environmentalists, something that I'd like to fix, I mean, my father, he won't be around forever, now will he?" Sapphire asked. "Although, I respect you and your cousin….I read about RAO, they seem to be the talk of the business world, and I think a lot of the other companies are sweating, because they might have found the fine balance between making a profit and actually not poisoning the environment….so….good thing…very good thing and all that."

' _Well she's nothing like her father,'_ Pamela thought as she was pleased.

' _Looking at her, I would have to agree,'_ Kara thought to her. Then again, in her own biased opinion, there was nothing better than a cute perky blonde.

' _Of course you would,'_ Faora thought and there was a pause. _'Of course, it's obvious that she worships the ground that Har-Zod walks on, so the girl does have some brains.'_

' _Don't let the rich heiress thing fool you, I've seen the marks that she had on her entry exams,'_ Harry told them and there were nods all around.

Harry led Sapphire and Barbara off to talk to them about their aims and to answer any questions that they would. He wanted both of them to succeed and bring out their very best potential, which he could see was limitless with these two girls.

* * *

Amanda, Donna, and Nym exited the bathroom after taking their classes at the Gotham Metro Academy. Nym stood behind them, it took a while to get used to the balance because of her new editions.

' _Well, I'm not sure if we're really achieving the goal of you not standing out in a crowd,'_ Amanda thought to Nym and the girl gave her a smoldering gaze behind her back. _'I know…..believe me, I know.'_

' _Don't see why they are larger now than they were before,'_ Donna thought although she could not keep her eyes off of Nym's tremendous set of tits. Her Hufflepuffs, for lack of a better term, had to be contained with a shirt that was a size larger than what she normally wore.

' _Well, there are theories as to why, when I was this age, I didn't go through my third maturity, so the boost of power that I did then,'_ Nym thought as she folded her arms underneath her chest, which had the added attribute of making her already large breasts look larger than they even were. _'And….yes….there are a lot of theories for sure as to why this happens, mainly because…..well I'll be perfectly honest, large breasts tend to be an attribute of those of great magical power. So the theory is.'_

' _Well, it's a nice theory,'_ Karen commented as she could not help but look smug. Susan and Amelia felt rather smug as well.

' _One that I would have to jump on board with myself,'_ Amelia added, with a wide smirk on her face and that was something that caused Nym's head. _'Although that would explain your power and as we discussed, that added mass has to go somewhere.'_

' _Well, it's as good of theory as any,'_ Donna said as she shamelessly stared at Nym's breasts.

' _Hey, my eyes up are here,'_ Nym told the Amazon Princess and she saw a shadow of a smirk across young Donna Troy's face.

' _I know,'_ Donna thought, still shamelessly staring at her chest, and Nym shook her head, there was only one response to what Donna was doing that could float out of her mouth.

' _You are impossible, both of you actually,'_ Nym said as she shook her head, which caused Amanda to shrug her shoulders and give an innocent look or what passed as an innocent look.

' _What, I wasn't staring at your tits, don't give me that, Nymphadora,'_ Amanda thought brazenly and Nym gave her a death filled glare for using the forbidden game. Amanda's smile was not one that was about to get wiped off of her face any time soon. _'I was staring at your ass, which does have an interesting shape now that you sized down. Although to be fair, most of the weight has gone to your tits. Although I do kind of admire the fact that you are able to keep somewhat of a balance.'_

The trio of girls walked and they heard voices, loud voices, voices that it was hard not to hear. Amanda craned her neck slightly and Donna and Nym joined her as they looked forward.

They saw a twelve year old female, about, and she stood there, her eyes narrowed and her arms crossed over her chest. She had long black hair and striking violet eyes that were filled with agitation at that moment. There was a redhead female who had the term Alpha Bitch written all over her and she did not go anywhere without her Alpha Bitch pack.

The girl responded hotly, as she pretty much got in the face of the Alpha Bitch, who was at least three years older than her. "Listen to me you stupid bitch, I never said that Batman was real. I said that the Ninja was real because I saw him crouched on the railing of my balcony about five feet away. So maybe you couldn't figure that much out, but if he's real, then Batman is real. You…..stupid…..bitch, uh oh."

She did the "you….stupid….bitch" poking the girl in the chest and then the Alpha Bitch grabbed her by the wrist and backed her off. The girl pulled herself away but the posse was now behind her, preventing any kind of easy retreat. They towered over her with the Alpha Bitch leading advancing on her with a raised fist.

' _Well, there's a graduate from the Kara Potter school of diplomacy,'_ Amanda thought which got a scoff from the girl in question.

' _Like you have room to fucking talk,'_ Kara thought shaking her head but Amanda was already on the move.

The fist was reared back but Amanda caught the fist of the Alpha Bitch. She was slightly intimidated by a girl that was not three years her junior, but rather a girl that was around her age group and also towered over her, with green eyes that burned with passion and anger.

The look was enough but the words that followed were more than enough. "PISS OFF!"

Needless to say, the girl and her pack pissed off, with the girl saying. "She's not worth it anyway, in a desperate attempt to save face. They left into the shadows of the night."

Amanda let out a breath once more, as Emily turned up and she looked from her sister, to the retreating pack of girls and she threw her hands down across her waist and sighed.

' _I really can't leave you alone for about five minutes,'_ Emily thought as Gabrielle and Bette Kane followed her out of the corner of her eye. _'So what happened?'_

' _Well, a lot happened as it turned out, but long story short, a bunch of Alpha bitches thought that they would be tough shit, I sent them packing with their tail between their legs,'_ Amanda said and she averted her eyes towards the girl who hung her mouth open.

The brunette realized that she appeared to be catching flies with how wide her mouth was open. Shaking her head, she returned herself…..well not back to reality. She knew that she stuck her foot in her mouth numerous times, but tact was not something that was taught to her at a young age and it stuck with her. Still that could have ended badly.

"So are you okay?" Amanda asked and she felt that introductions would be in order. "Amanda Potter…..and this is my evil twin, Emily."

"You know that you're the evil twin," Emily argued.

"Gabrielle Delacour," Gabi said with a smile that was radiant.

"Dora Black," Nym said as she crossed her arms.

"Bette Kane," Bette said as she looked at the girl.

"Donna Troy," Donna concluded after a second. "So, you might want to learn a bit more tact, but I doubt that many of us have room to talk."

"Um….thanks….for that," the girl said sheepishly. "I'm Lois Joanne Lane."

**To Be Continued.**


	28. Summer's Over Part Three

**Chapter Twenty Eight: Summer's Over Part Three.**

"So are you sure this is the place?"

Morgaine locked her eyes upon the edge of the building, committing it to her memory. There was only one statement that followed with a bright smile on her face. "How could it be anything else but the place?"

Circe looked at the building which was wooden and tall, kind of an old fashioned style building really. There was a sign on it that was blue and had the words "Madam Xanadu: Enter Freely and Being Unafraid" etched upon it. The goddess snorted as she looked at it and there was only one question that flowed out of her mouth as she looked towards Harrison and Morgaine. "You know, Nimue has always been one to be dramatic…..she was the dramatic one. Although maybe that was Vivienne, she might have been worse, it was a long time ago."

Harrison was never one to be too patient for many reasons and he threw his shoulders back with a prominent sigh. He locked eyes on both of the females. "So, I think that it would be a good idea if we should enter."

The door swung open to make that choice for that and if that was not foreboding, Harry had no idea what was. His green eyes were locked forward and he took half of a step forward. He walked up to the counter and appreciated the work that was done to it. The runic work was second to none and he looked at all of the lay lines that was put into it. In the center rested a crystal ball that was silent, although he did detect a focusing array put into it. His arms folded over his chest and he watched it, curiosity getting the better of him.

"So….."

"Hello Morgana, it has been a long time, hasn't it?"

The woman was still in the shadows and Morgaine looked at her, eyes narrowed. "It's Morgaine now, you know this, Nimue."

She stepped out of the shadows. Obviously beauty, a sinister type of beauty at that, ran swiftly through Morgaine's bloodline. She wore a jeweled crown and her silky black hair extended down to her back. Gorgeous green eyes burned brightly as she stared at them and she had a soft face. She wore robes of a purple material that stretched around her supple breasts, with a hole to show her cleavage. The material parted at the mid thighs to reveal shapely legs that seemed to stretch on for miles. She turned, placing one hand on her hip and she looked at them.

"It is true, I do as well," the woman known known as Madam Xanadu said as she peered at them. "And most have forgotten Vivienne's name by now."

"Naturally," Morgaine said as Nimue shifted her attention to Harrison.

"Black King, I had expected you sooner," Nimue said as it was apparent now that she had a vision about what brought them here. Morgaine warned Harrison about as much. She arranged the Tarot cards and showing that she had not lost her flair for the dramatic had begun to speak. "In nearly all of the realities, the same story appears to have been true. There were three of us that played a role in the downfall of Camelot, three sisters."

When she was sure that the group had their rapt attention on her, she continued with her statement. "The first sister and the oldest enabled what would have been a golden age, albeit brief, by granting him her favor and a sword. The second sister, whether it be through jealous anger at her half-brother from stealing the birthright of her and her sisters, hatred, desire, for her weak willed-bastard son to be King, to avenge an insult by it's king towards her, and to prove herself, or by mere whimsy destroyed it. The third sister due to her own reasons due to a vision that she had seen, advice from a stranger, jealous anger for him showing his attention to another, hatred for him aiding Uther in the rape of her Mother, and the murder of her father, or simply because it was her nature, bewitched the king's half demon councilor and then bound and sealed him to remain prisoner for the rest of his natural life."

Morgaine, Circe, and Harry allowed this to settle in. However, there was one part that gave Morgaine a pause. "A son?"

Nimue waved her hand and a young man with blonde hair, a pale face, who looked like the walking definition of a brat scowled. He was wearing a combination of blue and purple robes and Harrison could not help but be amused and disgusted at the same time how he looked like a spitting image of Draco Malfoy, albeit younger. "A spoiled wicked brat of a king which was born out of an ill-fated union between you and our half brother Arthur, or he would have, had Harrison not appeared when he did. That future is lost in the mist."

Morgaine seemed thankful for that, although her disgust was hidden at the thought of….well the thought of her doing anything like that with Arthur. Harrison and Circe were amused although Harrison had one question.

"Just how drunk would you have been to sleep with Arthur?" Harrison inquired her and she curled her lips into a nasty smile before she responded as only she could.

"I would have been several times over the legal limit," Morgaine said and she amended. "Drunk enough where I was close to death….BUT….do get it over with and get it out of your systems, the both of you."

Circe was the first one to burst out into laughter at the sheer absurdity, mostly because of the resemblance of Draco and she patted Morgaine on the head. Harrison laughed, although it was more subdued.

Nimue cleared her throat, although amused, she had business to get on with. "Merlin…..well his tale took a turn for the interesting after Harrison's departure. He may have seemed rather scatter brained, absent minded, and….Lovegoodish, but he took a far different and darker path, to try and cement his legacy. And it was not a pretty one at all."

Nimue shook her head. "He was trafficking the worst of the worst, demons, he bonded his familiar Etrigan to him. I would have lied if I said that I did not become fond of him for a time, in fact I learned magic. We would have become lovers, if someone had not opened my eyes, and showed me the depths of what Merlin sank to. I managed to seal him away but he had the last laugh, as I used a spell to strip away my immortality. I was more resourceful than he thought, there were potions that I utilized to keep myself alive for a time."

Harry whistled at the thought of that. "Interesting….but what does that have to do with me?"

Nimue placed her cup of tea up to her lips and drank it slowly before she informed Harrison of what her game was. "Over the years, after Camelot, I have worked as a seer and advisor to countless rulers and kings. As unlike Harry, who will rule from the shadows one day, you are destined to rule openly as a King. As a result, I wish to bind myself to you, as my sister has done. And by doing so, the spell that he placed on me will be broken because your magic supersedes his. Besides, you decided to pursue me the moment that you laid eyes on my and you're destined to have all three sisters."

Harrison, needless to say, was intrigued.

* * *

 

"It really isn't any trouble at all, although we don't think that it's a good idea for you to be home alone at all, given some of the things that can happen in Gotham City," Nym said as she folded her arms together underneath her waist.

"I suppose you're right," Lois said as she was in the back of a limo. She was trying not to look too impressed but honestly she could not help herself.

"Don't worry, it is that amazing," Amanda said with a grin towards Lois who slumped her shoulders.

"So, I think that….well I think that we can get back and call my father," Lois said and Gabrielle nodded.

"Shouldn't be too much of a problem, we have plenty of room here?" Gabrielle asked and Lois could not help but say the one question that was burning on the tip of her tongue.

"Just how many of you girls are staying there?" Lois asked and there was a moment where Amanda paused and she gave her the absolutely honest answer.

"Many," Amanda said in a mysterious voice and Lois whistled, she supposed that could have been the case.

"We're almost there," Penny informed them, knowing that Harry could catch a ride back with Diana or Kara and he would be catching a ride back in style. Although she did not know which of the many cars that they had, that they would be taking.

"So, we're here," Emily said as she started rocking back and forth, although it would be more subdued than Amanda would have been.

' _Would it help if I told you to have some decorum?'_ Donna thought as she folded her arms across her chest but Emily and Amanda both stuck their tongues out slightly before they mentally responded in amusement.

' _No it really wouldn't, trust us,'_ Amanda whispered after a few seconds as she brushed her hair back out of her face.

Gabrielle, Bette, Amanda, Emily, and Nym got out of the limo. Lois followed as she looked around.

Another car had just pulled up immediately and Lois was already in awe of the penthouse, her eyes as wide as saucers. She did not even notice the Red Jaguar Coupe, a 1976 model, show up at the side. Kara was the first one that exited the car. She was dressed in a nice jean jacket, with a black top, and a long flowing blue skirt that fit her dazzling legs. She was wearing a pair of sunglasses which added to the allure of her.

Diana was next, she was wearing a white top that strained around her massive bust. She wore a pair of nice shorts that extended down to her knees and a pair of boots made out of expensive material.

Harry was there, dressed in a rather expensive suit jacket, and a dress shirt, although it was nothing too flashy. He was wearing a pair of nice pressed dress pants, and he had a pair of sunglasses on as well, with a smile on his face.

Lois, not watching where she was going yet again, nearly ran smack dab into him in her attempts to follow the other girls into the penthouse.

' _Well she's 0-2,'_ Harry thought when he recognized the girl as he caught her before she fell back on her ass.

"Um, thanks," Lois managed and there was a moment where she saw him and was staring right at his jaw line. "Hey, I know you!"

There was a lot of amusement that was being hidden by the situation, as to not embarrass young Miss Lane. All Harry did was raise his eyebrow and ask her one thing. "Do you really?"

"Yes, I do!" she said sharply and there was a few seconds where she rocked back and forth on her heels. "You're….you're him aren't you? Harry Potter, yes, of course, everyone knows you, I mean, it's like that you're in the paper everything. Everyone's talking about you, and obviously I met you before and by met you, I think that I ran into you before. I was running after my sister Lucy, she's a spoiled brat, always a handful. Not that it matters now because the General sent her off to a boarding school in Sweden so she's out of the way. He can't really be assed because Mom died, and he doesn't know anything about raising two daughters, he would have preferred sons, not that he would have done any better than that. But I had to look over her and me but that doesn't matter, and oh, hi, I'm Lois Joanne Lane by the way."

She only stopped because eventually she had to draw breath and the twins looked rather amused.

' _Bloody hell…..how could anyone talk for that long without breathing?"_ Hermione asked as she shook her head.

' _I don't know Hermione, you tell me,'_ Daphne said in amusement.

She looked a bit despondent and much to her surprise, Harry pulled her into a comforting hug. That caused her to go a bit red, especially since he was starting to rub her back.

Diana cleared her throat and she looked at Harry, Lois, and the girls. She gave her sister a firm glare and Donna slowly but surely and quite reluctantly, wiped the smirk that she would have off of her face. Understanding the annoyance that young girls could have, she decided to have some tact and take some control. "Maybe it would be for the best, if we would go up to the Penthouse."

' _I'd concur and would you two knock it off?'_ Lily asked the twins who adopted a stance of innocence.

' _What did we do?'_ Amanda asked but even she knew not to incur the wrath of her mother. She knew that spankings were coming and knowing Lily, she would have a charm ready where they would hurt and not give her any pleasure whatsoever.

With that word, Lois and the rest of the group was lead into the Penthouse.

* * *

 

Homework all things considered was rather light, as it was just an overview of the course aims today for the girls at the Private Academy. Kara and Diana, on the other hand, were continuing their studies from the previous year, so they were up to their ears in homework to the point where they felt like they were drowning.

"Just wait, you'll get some of it," Kara said to Donna and Donna shrugged.

"Not today," Donna said although she did have some assigned reading to get through, as did the other girls. It was not much, thankfully, so she was able to relax a little bit.

Lois sat herself down on one of the couches next to the twins. To be honest, she did not know what to expect when she arrived at the residence of Harry Potter….but actually this Penthouse was pretty close to what she might have expected, had she taken more than a couple of minutes to think about what was happening.

"It can be a lot to sink in," Harry whispered to Lois and she nodded.

"Yes, it can," she agreed as she looked around.

"Well, you'd get used to it," Bette said, she had made friends with the twins the night of the party where she, Kathy, and Kate showed up to the party.

Little did Bette know that the twins were trying to convert her to the cult of Har-Zod, but they were doing a slow and subtle process of doing so, or at least what passed as slow and subtle for the twins.

Harry stood in the background, he was there to help them but it seemed to be a day for them to take it easy. There was some work but he doubted that they needed much help, although not for a while until the course load was going to hit them hot and heavy this week.

"So how are you doing lately, Bette?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I've been doing well, busy as usual for you?" Bette asked him as her bright eyes.

"Yes, pretty much," Harry said with a smile as Penny brought in some sandwiches and drinks for them, which was something that was appreciated to say the very least.

The ding of the elevator popped up and Barbara exited, with a worn expression on her face, and Pamela followed her immediately.

"Bette, how are you doing?" Barbara asked as she rushed over, perking up at the sight of her frined.

"Actually, I've been doing pretty well," Bette said as she greeted her friend with a hug. "Busy day?"

"Yes," Barbara said as she hugged Harry and gave him a slight kiss. Kara decided to take one as well, as she planted herself into Harry's lap and all were sure that others would have gone for Harry, had the opportunity presented itself. "So how are you?"

"Oh you know, I'm actually glad to be back in school, means that I won't have to be dragged to a bunch of high society parties where I'd be bored out of my skull," Bette said.

"Oh, there are some benefits, I'm sure," Amanda said to her.

"Well, I wouldn't have met you two, although given that I know Barbara and Zee, I would have ran into the infamous Potter twins before too long," Bette said with a wide smile. And obviously it was their brother that was a person of interest as well, but she knew that he was a person of interest for many women.

Pamela chuckled in amusement but she chuckled even more at the look on Lois's face. The poor girl's mouth hung halfway open and she was unable to process what happened.

"So it was a long day for you?" Harry asked, as Barbara sighed.

"As you well know," Barbara said as she discussed what happened. "Classes at the GPA, introductory course at the GCU, and I had to work half of a shift at the GCPD, which…..that's a lot of letters I have to keep straight come and think of it."

"Indeed," Bette said in amusement. "Careful, Babs, you don't want to burn yourself out…."

"Think it might be a bit too late for that," Barbara said but she saw Pamela gently, although firmly push Harry out of the way and sink herself down on Harry's lap. Kara threw her arms over her shoulders but she decided to park herself on Diana's lap as a consolation prize and it was a great consolation prize.

' _I think we made her head explode….who is she anyway?'_ Pamela asked her husband.

' _Lois Lane, apparently Amanda saved her from getting pummeled by a couple of older girls,'_ Harry thought as Amanda filled him in on all of the details.

' _More than a couple, like about five and they were at least three years older than she was,'_ Amanda thought. _'I told them to piss off. I think that they got the message.'_

' _I would have to agree,'_ Gabrielle said as she got herself a sandwich and gave the twins each a light kiss, although that might have been enough to stir some thoughts in Lois's head.

Lois Lane was watching the situation, her mouth was hanging open. It was so rare to words failed the young girl, given that she was always ready to voice her opinion, even though it got in trouble. The fact that all of the girls were touchy-feely with each other, and she looked to them all, no one seemed to be surprised with that.

She did read the rumors that he was a notorious playboy, but….to be honest most of the time, Lois thought that the newspapers were full of shit. So she took them with a grain of salt.

"So….what's going on?" Lois asked as she finally found her tongue and there was many looks of amusement.

Bette was not part of it, although given that she was friends with Barbara and Zatanna, she had a good enough idea to know what was going on.

Harry did not say anything, he merely smiled, which made Lois more determined than ever to figure this out. Although a part of her thought that she would find out soon enough, she was not patient enough to wait.

* * *

Harry Potter was sitting in style in a nice corner office on the top floor of Wayne Industries. While it was not the biggest, that honor belonged to Bruce who took up Earle's old obnoxiously huge office; Harry thought that he was sitting in style.

He decided that it would be worth his while to check in about once a week to go through some papers that he had. The green eyed wizard jumped onto the office computer. He thought about all of the offices that were in the building, a very sleek and ultra modern building that had been pushed through years ago. Bruce had taken Earle's old office, Lucius had decided to take a more modest office; the one he had before in fact, and well there was another obnoxiously large office that Phillip Kane had commissioned. Harry suspected that but he was never around.

Other than those times where he decided to make a nuisance of himself at board meetings, which was fairly often all things considered.

Presently, Harry was going over the various projects, to see where everyone stood in various instances. It was nothing too out of the ordinary, he flipped through medical, electronic, and the research and development division.

' _Well seems to be nothing out of the ordinary,'_ Harry thought to himself, as he thought that this was just going to be a routine inspection. At least until he hit something juicy. _'Well guess I spoke too soon.'_

' _What?'_ Karen asked curiously.

' _Just that R & D and Medical might need a bit more funding, but given what they're working on, that's naturally to be expected,' _Harry thought.

' _Oh, I thought that it was something out of the ordinary,'_ Faora thought as she crossed her arms.

' _Maybe you found something?'_ Kara asked and she could sense a slight gasp that went throughout the bond link. _'Oh….did the big, bad, Nightwing actually find something?'_

' _Yes….yes, I have,'_ Harry thought in a distracted manner as he shook his head. He wanted to read through this to make sure that he was not jumping to the wrong conclusion. However, after reading through it for a few seconds, there was really no conclusion that he could jump to. His green eyes were locked on it and he got up, just a moment and he nearly ran head long into Lucius Fox.

"Is there something that I can help you with, Mr. Potter?" Lucius asked, taking the near meeting of the minds in his good stoic grace.

Lucius and Harry walked into the next office.

' _Have to say, he did redeem the first name Lucius,'_ Ginny commented with a smile and there were a lot of mutterings of agreement from those in the know, with Lucretia's being among the loudest of them all.

"Yes, there is…..I was under the impression that Bruce and I locked down all of orders of the firearm contracts for defense," Harry told him and Lucius half raised an eyebrow, before he told him in a calm and stoic voice.

"As far as I know, we did. Why?"

"Well, someone shipped the firearms out of the office, under the guise of other shipments," Harry told Lucius as he pointed to the invoice order. "On this case, electronics, DVDs…..they might have shipped them out but they weren't intelligent enough to change the serial numbers. I recognized this from an old list from a while back….the master list that was passed around at a meeting that we had."

Harry, Bruce, and Lucius, along with some of the old guard, the holdouts from the Thomas Wayne days, were not too comfortable with the production of firearms with the company. Even for the government, especially for the government.

"So, this is not just for the government," Harry continued as he had some more bad news. "This has been going on for about six months, maybe longer."

"Well that's a problem," Lucius said calmly, trying not to get rattled, even though it would be a very easy thing for him to do.

"Only someone high up would have the credentials to authorize this," Harry said to Lucius and he nodded.

He prepared to access the shipments from his computer and he frowned.

"Whoever did this, even though they might not have been smart enough to erase the serial numbers, they were smart enough to take their name off of the list," Lucius said but he was not about to give up that easily. He kept digging around. "Let's see what I can….find out. The authorization number is here….let's see….well I'll be damned."

Harry saw him enter the employee authorization number and he was about to ask but as it was said by Lucius.

"Earle….William Earle," he said frowning as he slapped his palm down on the desk. "That doesn't make that much sense."

"Yes, I agree, Earle might be as greedy as hell and obviously taking orders from someone under the table, but…he's not a secret arm's dealer," Fox said and Harry slowly slipped off his glasses, and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Not to mention that the last order was sent after Earle's dismissal and he's not been on the premises."

"Could you see whose computer these orders were accessed from?" Harry asked and Lucius was on that promptly.

"Earle's….and…..a recent one has been entered in from Mr. Wayne's," Lucius said as his voice jumped in surprise.

"Well, I know that Bruce has been making use of Applied Sciences like it's his own personal armory," Harry said crisply. "But he's not an arm's dealer."

Lucius, without missing a beat, responded as cool as ice. "If you'd like, I could take you down there, maybe you could find something useful for yourself."

"Well….there may be one person who could be capable of doing this, although I very much doubt that she's doing it on her own accord, but…..have security meet me at the lobby, and then call James Gordon of the GCPD," Harry said to Lucius in a quick snappy voice.

' _Karen, Faora, make sure to check the computers at RAO and STARR for any potential activity, I know we have the best security on the planet, but I'm not leaving anything to chance,'_ Harry thought to them.

' _Already ahead of you,'_ Karen said.

' _Myself as well,'_ Faora thought as Harry folded his arms together and took a few strides forward where security would meet him at the lobby.

"We're heading to Mr. Wayne's office," Harry told the security guards sharply and they did not really disagree with this statement.

In little time flat, they were down to the lobby, and on their way to Mr. Wayne's office. They reached the office door and saw a rather attractive black woman, Bruce's secretary, formally Earle's, who was talking on the phone. She stopped what she was doing and looked up, seeing Harry approaching. She could not even speak, especially given that he had security with him.

"Carol, I think we need to have a chat."

* * *

 

' _So she's being blackmailed?'_ Dinah asked Harry, as Black Canary and Nightwing were out on the town tonight after the news that they got.

' _Well Carol….she sang like a canary when she realized what was on the line and how I was not too thrilled with what she was doing,'_ Harry thought to the golden haired crime fighter who nodded. _'Apparently in her younger years, she did some nude photos and they fell into the wrong hands.'_

' _So….that was a poor judgment that came back to haunt her, so she's being blackmailed with them coming out in public,'_ Dinah thought.

' _And if she….grows a brain, as they told her, they'll publish the photos and…..knowing the people behind this, they'd likely ensure that she has a nice little accident that leads to her end,'_ Harry thought and Dinah breathed in once and out a second time. _'I know….but….'_

' _Damn, things are getting pretty serious then,'_ Dinah thought. _'And if she went to the police….'_

' _More of the same,'_ Harry thought and Dinah did not need him to say any more. The police could be paid long enough to look the other way, if the right scratch was thrown underneath their nose. Like it or not, that was the way things just simply went. _'She went along with what she was told, the woman was scared out of her mind, she did not know what to do and who to trust. Gordon arrived, as did Bruce, she repeated her story and Gordon is going to make sure that she is protected by cops that he can trust."_

' _So you were let off?'_ Dinah asked and Harry nodded.

' _I gave my statement to Gordon, there was really no reason for me to stick around there for much longer, so I'm here, right now,'_ Harry thought to Dinah as the blonde threw her hair back and a long sigh escaped his mouth. _'As the owner and CEO, Bruce and Lucius had to stick around.'_

' _Just got done checking the computers, there has been no compromising on our end,'_ Karen thought to him.

' _Same here,'_ Faora thought.

' _I figured not but….'_

' _Say no more, security is the lifeblood of our company, better be safe now and sorry later, and we're monitoring the systems, in case they try something later,'_ Patricia added, as she assisted Karen and Faora with the sweep of the computer systems.

Never the less, earlier tonight Harry had a hunch and he called Dinah. After a quick change out of the costume that she brought him, Harry was ready and willing to go or at least as ready and willing to go as he ever might have been.

' _So this is the place?'_ Dinah thought as she braced herself for action. They were under the assumption that this might be mob activity, so they were going into it carefully.

The store that they slipped into seemed rather unassuming. It was pretty much a store for all of someone's gaming needs. He took a moment to look around, and he noticed the backroom.

Carefully popping the locks on the door, Harry slipped inside, and then Dinah followed him inside. They made sure to close the locks on the door and continue to keep through the shadows. The store shelves seemed rather unassuming, games, DVDs, consoles, cell phones, pretty much nothing that would be scandalous or out of the ordinary. There was even a magazine stand in the back of the room that would get people up to date on the latest trends in the industry.

' _Back room,'_ Harry thought as they left the back room unlocked, probably feeling that the locks on the door, state of the art that they were.

Black Canary looked over her shoulder; she had kept on full alert, just like she was taught. It would take a modern miracle for someone to sneak up on her and do anything.

There were crates, they were small, and there was no room in this room to hold assault rifles, along with all of the trimmings that would expect from a small arsenal. The blonde ran her hands across the wall and Harry looked through the crates.

DVDs and games, but there were no records there.

' _Look,'_ Dinah thought, grabbing Harry by the sleeve even though he "heard" her through the bond link. Turning his head swiftly, Harry in fact looked.

They found what they were looking for, the invoices that detailed what they needed.

"This doesn't make any sense," Harry whispered as he flipped through the invoice, and where it was being shipped to. Whoever was doing that, obviously was brazen or had help or both. Dinah raised an eyebrow. "Not to an abandoned warehouse but….they're being shipped to a very active factory in the business district of Gotham."

' _So what did you find out?'_ Zatanna asked as Dinah and Harry opened up the bond link further, to Zatanna and Kara, who were acting as mission support.

' _We found out that a gentleman named Jeff Albertson is behind the shipping….do you think that you could look him up?'_ Harry asked.

' _Just one moment,'_ Kara said as she was already hopping online to look him up.

The two crime fighters made their way, making sure that the store was locked up behind them. The warehouse was not that long of a walk away from there, so they took it.

' _It must be easy to get from the warehouse to the store,'_ Dinah thought as they quickened their steps and their strides to gain some momentum as they kept walking.

' _Okay, Albertson….well the guy is a rather….unassuming man in his mid-20s,'_ Kara thought as she went through the records. _'However, what he did….well it just proved that he had some savvy in his head, just not enough to get away with it.'_

' _How so?'_ Hermione asked, she was intrigued by this thing.

' _Well he had a bright future ahead of him, but now he has to work two shifts just to make ends meet, one at the electronics store that you just came from and one from the factory that you're just heading to right now,'_ Kara explained and Zatanna picked up where Kara had left off.

' _And…..he was given a full ride through college by the Thomas Wayne Scholarship, including a job, which he blew by embezzling funds,'_ Zatanna thought to them.

' _He was prosecuted by the full extent of the law by William Earle….and made to pay back everything he stole from the company, including the money that he had from the scholarship, which bankrupted him,'_ Kara continued. _'To add insult to injury, he was sent to Blackgate….not a white collar prison like you would think.'_

' _Here's a picture of the guy,'_ Zatanna thought, as she projected an image to them all, and also a more visual one towards Harry's computer.

A rotund individual with brown hair turned up. He had a goatee and dark black eyes. He wore a black shirt that stretched over his ample gut and a pair of red shorts that showed way too much of his stubby legs. He had the demeanor of someone who one could easily see trolling around various websites on the Internet.

' _I can't help but notice that he resembles Comic Book Guy….you know from the Simpsons,'_ Hermione said.

' _The resemblance is uncanny, yes,'_ Emily chimed in.

' _Worst….criminal…ever,'_ Amanda dead panned, unable to help herself but Harry and Dinah focused on the business at hand. They stepped towards the warehouse gates.

* * *

 

Needless to say they arrived at a crime scene and they might have been far too late to do anything of value. The two crime fighters stood at the edge of the gates, and there was a pile up of bodies. Dinah noticed that they were both factory workers caught in the crossfire and also some of Black Mask's gang. The garb that they were wearing was a dead giveaway.

Dinah took special note of how the bodies were positioned. Her training with Wesley Dodds had allowed her to pick up on certain things that others might have missed and she was picking up on something interesting as she surveyed the downed bodies, with raised eyebrows.

' _They didn't have a chance to draw their guns before they were killed and whoever attacked….well they're gone now,'_ Dinah whispered as she looked at them. _'Whoever did this, they ambushed them from behind, along with the workers. They didn't want any witnesses to the crimes.'_

Dinah and Harry stepped into the shadows when the coast was clear. Whoever did this, well they were long gone.

Harry nodded his head but he had one….interesting conclusion to draw from all of this. _'You know, I'm pretty much surprised that the GCPD wasn't drawn here….the sound of gunshots, they're not that far away.'_

As if on cue, a rather loud train rolled past. There were a couple of minutes worth of noise, more than enough for anyone to pull off what was pulled off here and make a clean enough getaway.

' _The trains behind the factory, they go off at infrequent intervals,'_ Kara chimed in as she folded her arms across her chest. _'Therefore…..well let's just put it this way, they must have been casing the place to attempt to find out when the right time to sneak in and do their business.'_

' _So if they timed things right with the train tracks rolling here and the GCPD building….they would have been able to get in,'_ Harry thought to her. _'Thanks Kara, for your help, you too Zatanna.'_

' _No problem,'_ Kara said.

' _Yes, it was no problem,'_ Zatanna agreed with a smile. Kara was multi-tasking at the moment, doing some of her coursework even though it was the dead of the night. She tended to sleep in intervals anyway, therefore she was no stranger in getting about four to five hours of sleep and functioning. Coffee did help a little bit, without the negative side effects that it might have on humans.

Harry and Dinah edged forward and they saw that there was a light on, along with a cracked window. That was a huge smoking gun as far as they were concerned. The door had been hastily shut, although not locked and Harry could smell blood. It turned his stomach.

Sure enough, they found Jeff Albertson, he was slumped onto the ground, casings of bullets down on the ground. The blood flowing from the back of his head indicated that someone shot him from behind and then pumped in a couple more just to be sure. They really ripped him up with a shotgun never the less and he never had a chance.

' _He's long since left this plane,'_ Harry thought to Dinah as he scanned the crime scene for anything. He turned around and saw a smashed computer monitor. Someone looked to have taken a blunt object to the monitor, smashing it to pieces.

The tower on the other hand, the actual part of the computer that would contain in the incriminating data on it, was left untouched.

' _We're dealing with a real mind here,'_ Kara dead panned somberly as she shook her head and Harry was about ready to lift his hand to face palm himself hard but he somehow resisted the temptation to do so. He had no idea how but he did.

' _Okay….fine….okay,'_ Harry thought as he hooked the device up to the computer. It was similar to the one that he used at the GCPD, only this time he was a lot more adept in using it.

The data was transferred from one spot to the other as Harry would be able to pursue at his leisure.

' _All we can do now is call 911, unless you want to play necromancer and find out what happened,'_ Dinah thought to Harry and he cast her one of those narrowed eyed glances that indicated that might not be the best idea.

' _Trust me when I say, given the way he died, that's not a good idea on many accounts, or even at all,'_ Harry thought, it was something that he could do given the powers of the Hallows. Given that he was not at his full powers due to the merger, it would be a pretty dumb idea and so much could go wrong with it.

The last thing he needed was to raise every dead person that ever lived in Gotham City and have some zombie rampage. The people that were alive were more than enough.

"It's me," Harry said over the phone to Gordon in his Nightwing voice. "There are several bodies down in the warehouse, other side of the tracks from the GCPD. There's been several murders"

Harry dialed up the ambulance next, really there was nothing more than he could do. After doing that, Black Canary and Nightwing disappeared into the night.

* * *

 

Back in the Lair, Harry was sitting back and scanning through the information in the computer that was in front of him. Namely the information from Albertson's hard drive or hard drives rather since there were three of them. He frowned as he combed over all of the information, it was going to be interesting.

Zatanna turned to Dinah and unknowing to Harry, at least at the second, she gave her a knowing smile and lead her off by the hand in the direction of the exit.

"It's taking a while, isn't it?" Kara asked Harry, raising her eyebrow, looking fairly curious as she did.

"Well there is a lot of data to go through," Harry said and Kara shook her head.

"Good luck….got to head off to bed, class first thing in the morning," Kara said with a smile as she leaned forward and gave Harry a searing kiss on the lips which he returned.

Without another word, Kara directed herself to the elevator, swaying her tight young ass from one side to the next as she made her way there. The blonde was making a show out of what she was doing and there was a moment where Harry let her had her moment but it was only for a moment.

Without another word, Harry got back up to his feet and then smacked Kara hard on the ass. He gave her one last stern statement. "Get up to bed, then."

Kara, with a smug smirk on her face, scurried up to bed and Harry walked back to the computer, placing himself down on the chair. With a tired expression he said one last thing. "Progress report."

"Sixty five percent done," the computer said to Harry and he smiled.

"Well this is taking a while, but do keep me posted," Harry said as he leaned forward, crossing his arms. He let in one breath and let out another breath, sighing.

With that in mind, Harry turned his attention to the gas grenade project, it was merely an on and off thing really, with him just really trying to work on everything when he had a bit more time. His green eyes were focused on the project.

' _Could use a more streamlined design than I got, it would make things easier,'_ Harry thought to himself but he knew that he would have to test it out first.

The good thing is that he had a prototype about assembled and then after a few seconds, he did. He decided that now it would be the best time to test it. With a flick, he hurled it off into an empty area of the lair.

There was a sound of a light bulb popping and gas was released. Harry grinned, was it pretty good? He would have to say so himself. Could it have been better? Well, there was always room for improvement, but then again, he was the type of person who would like to improve upon perfection, despite more unenlightened people thinking that was impossible.

There was the second of clapping behind him and Harry turned around. Dinah was back wearing her mother's version of the Black Canary costume, in all of its busty and ass riding glory. While it was not practical for crime fighting purposes, it was practical for other purposes. She had a slinky set of fishnet stockings on which did a good job in emphasizing her legs and she had a lustful smile on her face. Her arms were crossed over her chest.

Zatanna in the meantime was wearing a top hat and a tight white shirt that stretched over her firm breasts. She had a thong on underneath that wrapped snugly around her great ass and to top things off, she had a pair of fishnet stockings on as well. It was a slight variation of her mother's costume, which Zatanna wore when she performed with her father on stage. However, she made some alterations to it.

"Harry," Dinah purred as she motioned for him to come forward.

"It's been a long night, why don't you join us?" Zatanna asked him as she gave him bedroom eyes from the corner of the room.

Harry smiled in spite of himself, this was one of the best solutions that could have been given. He pretty much joined Dinah and Zatanna, ushering them into a bed chamber.

Zatanna took her place on Harry's lap, wrapping her fishnet clad legs around his waist and sticking her tongue down his throat. Their tongues battled together for domination with each other but Harry was going to be the one to win the war.

Dinah meanwhile was behind him, kissing the back of his neck, having her breasts pressed against the back of his neck and she kissed him.

"Fun," Zatanna whispered as she grinned, unbuckling his pants and she motioned for Dinah to be placed on the other side of Harry. Both sensually wiggled their toes and feet as they prepared to pleasure Harry.

* * *

Harry's stiff iron like cock was pulled from his pants and Zatanna looked at it, with a predatory smile etched onto her face. She held one of her feet over the edge of his thick tool and slowly ran the bottom of her fishnet clad foot over his cock.

"Oh, Zee," Harry grunted as she subtly teased him.

"That looks like fun," Dinah said lustfully as she ran her own foot over Harry's cock. Both of them took turns teasing his cock with their fishnet clad feet, rubbing him up and down. Harry placed his hands on Dinah's legs and she sat in front of him.

One foot was placed on one side of his cock, and then the other foot was briefly teasing the underside of his balls with her toes.

Zatanna fingered herself at this erotic sight, as Dinah pulled down the top slightly, to expose her breasts.

Harry placed his hands on her soft legs and ran his hands down them. Dinah cooed as her lips were curled in a lustful smile as she jerked Harry's cock up and down with her amazing feet. The blonde was really having the time of her life as she pleasured Harry.

"Oh, that's it Harry, it feels so good between my feet," Dinah breathed as she used her feet to rub Harry's cock, giving him an amazing foot job and Harry ran his hands up her legs in response. He stopped short of touching her pussy, which caused Dinah to moan.

Zatanna took off her top, to reveal her firm breasts and she leaned over, grabbing Harry in a tight hug and pressed his faces between her breasts.

Harry gave Zee more than she bargained for as he attacked her breasts, vibrating between her breasts. She held onto his head and she moaned as he sunk one set of fingers into her pussy.

"That's fucking it," Zatanna moaned as she felt him attack her breasts hungrily and he switched from her pussy to her ass, cupping it lovingly.

"I'm sure that it is," Harry muttered as he attacked her breasts with more reckless abandon. She threw her head back with a long mewling moan as he cupped her ass. The dark haired woman whimpered in pleasure as he cupped her ass in his hand.

Zatanna closed her eyes tightly as Harry kept working her over but Dinah, Dinah was about ready to get an amazing treat.

She moaned as her pussy hungered for his meat but she was determined to finish him off with her feet. Her sensual feet with their high arches rubbed him up and down, as she ached for him. She continued to jerk him up and down, until his balls tightened.

He sent a rocket blast of cum all over the soles of her feet. Dinah threw her head back, moaning lustfully at the top of her lungs as he finished off on her feet.

Her stockings and legs were splattered with cum and Zatanna detached herself from Harry, and started to lick his cum off of Dinah's feet. She turned around for a few seconds and smiled.

She then saw that Dinah was distracted and with a grin, she jumped on his now erect cock, scissoring her legs around his body. With one movement, Zatanna worked her hips down around him slowly, pumping his cock with her tight center.

"Damn," Harry grunted as he cupped his lover's ass and she smiled, as he worked up into him. He hit a spot that caused pure sexual pleasure to explode through her mind.

Dinah pouted at the moment but Harry was behind her as well. Her ass was arched in the air and Harry grabbed it.

She turned to give him a lust ridden kiss as his cock was positioned at the edge of her entrance. She braced herself with the intrusion, getting wetter by each second as she sensed Harry moving closer. The god was about ready to insert himself into her.

Dinah screamed as he entered her body, his cock touching the edge of her womb as he worked into her from behind. The blonde closed her eyes as she clamped around his tool and worked into her from behind.

His hands clutched around her breasts, groping them and she threw her head back.

"Whatever you don't…don't Canary cry in my ear," Zatanna moaned as she could barely articulate her thoughts.

"Don't worry…good control," Dinah panted as Harry hammered into her.

"I'm willing to test that," Harry whispered which caused her to clench his rod as he kept spearing into her. He cupped her amazing breasts and kept up the action. The blonde milked his incoming thrusts as he worked into her, picking up a steadier pace as he kept working into her.

The blonde held onto the edge of the sheets, biting down onto her lip. The beautiful blonde crime fighter felt her senses being taken to the brink. Harry's hands roamed every inch of her body and she gave as good as she could receive. She was determined to squeeze his cock into submission.

"Not until you've earned it," Harry whispered hotly in her ear as Dinah clamped around his invading tool and she whined for more and Harry gave her more, he gave her more than enough even.

Zatanna was riding Harry and she was brought to another mind numbing orgasm. Her hips were getting a little sore but she had great stamina. Adrenaline allowed her to roll on through, gyrating her pink box on Harry's thick hot tool.

Harry rolled over the girl onto the bed, her back was pressed against it, and Harry cupped her breasts, which caused her mewls to get louder.

Her legs were thrown into the air and Zatanna looked up at him, lust burning from her bright blue eyes as drool came down from her lips.

"Wreck me," she begged him hotly panting and his rod speared deep into her center. He used the leverage that he had to caused Zatanna's orgasms to shoot up amazingly. She had barely enough time to register it as his stamina was second to none.

Dinah was pulled out of and she whined but Harry held her up by the waist.

"Want to see the pleasure in your eyes," Harry whispered and he could feel her juices drip onto his cock as he slowly lifted her up into the air and then lowered her right onto his erect pole.

Dinah bit down on her lip but she felt the pleasure that burst through her loins as Harry stretched out her walls. She rocked back with her hips onto his rod as she kept bouncing up and down onto him. The blonde rotated her hips back onto him.

"That feels so good," Dinah moaned as she grabbed onto his shoulder and Harry sat up, to allow him to feast upon her breasts.

He licked and bit her nipples which caused her to throw her head back with a musical moan as she sunk her finger nails into Harry's shoulders.

"Oh yes, YES!" Zatanna screamed at the top of her lungs as she was speared so deep into her body and the woman hoisted her hips up and down. Her walls wrapped around his throbbing hard cock as she pumped him hard.

"Almost there," Harry whispered in her ear and that gave her a renewing ability to push herself forward. She was determined not to pass out before he finished inside her.

"Give me it, I can't live without it," she begged him as she summoned all of the strength she could towards her inner muscles, pumping him.

Eventually she got the reward that he thought, after what seemed like hours of intense fucking. Her mind was being blown with his throbbing cock. The contents of his balls were drained into Zatanna's pussy and she whined out loud as he finished inside her.

Then she blacked out after he drove her to one last mind numbing orgasm.

Dinah continued to roll her hips over Harry's throbbing stick as she worked herself up and down. She was brought to a closer edge as Harry held her breasts. She whimpered in pleasure as his rod buried so far deep into her that she was stretched out. The blonde's walls clamped around him as he kept pumping his rod deep into her, she whined at the top of her lungs and sure enough, she was brought to an orgasm.

Her clamping walls were just enough to bring Harry over the edge as he pumped his thick load into her. He spurted load after load of cum into her, which caused her to throw her head back and collapse onto his chest, her breasts in his face.

Smiling, Harry pulled out and rolled her over onto the bed. The blonde blacked out with a grin on her face, as Harry placed a blanket over her.

* * *

Both Zatanna and Dinah were knocked out on the bed, drooling, with vapid stares in their eyes. After making sure to tuck them in and kiss them goodnight, Harry grinned as he made his way over the computer.

"One hundred percent complete," the computer concluded.

"Well that was perfect timing," Harry said with a wide smile on his face as he walked over and prepared to shift through the information that was on the hard drive in front of him. He was rather curious to see what was happening.

' _Hmm, Albertson was working with someone named Enigma,'_ Harry thought.

' _There's a name that seems to be popping up all over the place lately,'_ Faora suggested and Harry nodded.

' _There have been e-mails sent back and forth between the two, for months now, detailing the shipments, he was the man who helped Albertson all the way through,'_ Harry thought as he kept moving through the e-mails. _'It was an interesting process, Albertson would send the information to Enigma, and then Enigma would sell the information about what was on auction to the highest bidder. Most of these auctions were won by the Penguin….well Rupert Thorne won the first few. Penguin started edging him out.'_

' _And then…..'_ Karen prompted him.

' _Sionis edged him out and the Penguin was not very happy,'_ Harry thought and that was the understatement that might have ended all understatements.

"There is also video of the security feed on the third drive," the computer helpfully informed Harry.

"Excellent," Harry whispered, he was going to piece together this entire mystery, well to the best of his abilities.

It appeared that Albertson was wiping the hard drive on certain dates but that was to be expected given what he was up to. Harry carefully accessed it.

Black Mask's gang and the unfortunate security guards fell down at least the same way that Dinah said, however there was a bit more.

Harry saw Albertson plugged with a doubled barreled shot gun through the window. Both barrels were emptied into him, one barrel was emptied into his head through the window. Then he emptied the second barrel into him.

"Lock onto him, and get a better shot of him if at all possible," Harry told the computer and the computer complied with these thoughts. The image of the individual popped up onto the screen and Harry's smile….well it was rather fixed for the moment but he could see that the man had an ugly Walrus like mustache and he looked like a younger carbon copy of Vernon Dursley.

He had a theory pop into his head but as of yet, he was not going to jump to conclusions. However, he did watch in amusement as he took another round into the monitor, after reloading the gun. Then he took a cricket bat to the destroyed monitor for good measure.

' _Well, there's no kill like overkill,'_ Karen thought in amusement as the individual walked out of the room, leaving the tower untouched.

They saw the images of the Penguin's goons loading the guns that Black Mask had won in a bid onto a truck and then driving them off into the distance.

"Send all of this information to Batman, as well as Harvey Dent, I'll hand deliver a physical copy to Gordon personally," Harry told the computer.

"Sending."

Harry thought that a long night was going to get even longer.

* * *

 

Psychology class at Gotham City University was just wrapping up and Harry was sitting the class, taught by Doctor Bethanie Ravencroft. She was a gorgeous woman with blonde hair that went down to her shoulders and she wore a pair of glasses that were framed on her nose. She was wearing a smart looking business suit that never less emphasized the curves that they did, although her air of professionalism could not be denied. Her legs were crossed as she sat in the chair.

"This will be all for today, class," she concluded at the end of the lecture. "I hope that you have a very productive semester and I look forward to working with each and every one of you. Doctor Potter, could you please stay back for a moment?"

The class filed out as Harry smiled for a second and the group filed out for a second. It took a couple of moments for everyone to file back and he walked up to the desk, waiting to be addressed.

Doctor Ravencroft took precious few seconds stowing away her papers in a briefcase and looked up at him. "Thank you for waiting, Doctor Potter."

"It wasn't a problem," Harry said with his usual charming smile and demeanor. "And please, no need to be so formal, call me Harry."

"Well then outside of class hours, it's Bethanie, then," she told him with a smile on her face as surveyed them. She had to admit, she was excited to see that the infamous Doctor Harry Potter was going to take her class. She was sure that there would be many teachers, most of them female, who would give their right arm and perhaps other parts of their body as well for a chance to increase teacher-student relations with him. "Follow me to my office, mind if we talk along the way?"

Harry smiled to show that he in fact did not mind and he allowed Doctor Ravencroft to lead the way. He was once again curious to see what was going on.

"I have looked over your tests, and I must say I am impressed," she told him and there was no sugar coating in her voice, she was extremely impressed by his efforts. "Most people would not have tested up to this level, but I think that it would be best if you have no problems."

"Well, I'm sure that you would know better than anyone else," Harry said with a smile and she nodded in response.

"So, I have arranged for a couple of tutors?" Bethanie continued to Harry and he nodded in response. "They are currently waiting in my office. They are two of the top students in my class, and….they will be able to properly help you should you have any problems."

"No problem, not at all," Harry said, and he had even less problems when he found that those students were in fact female.

The first was a brunette with her hair tied back in a ponytail. She had brown eyes and an angelic face. She was wearing a red top that curved around her breasts and she also had a nice skirt on that wrapped around her tight ass. She was wearing a pair of boots as she looked at him.

The second was a blonde with alluring blue eyes. She had large D-Cup breasts that were wrapped in a black top that shifted up just an inch but only on certain movements. She had slender and soft looking legs and a tight ass in the red skirt that she was wearing. She wore a pair of boots as well and she was looking at Harry with interesting. Actually both of them were, although the blonde's interest was not that subtle.

"Harry, I'd like to introduce you to Penelope Young and Harleen Quinzel."

**To Be Continued in the Next Chapter.**


	29. First Rule of.....

**Chapter 29: The First Rule Of….Part One.**

"GET THE BAT!"

That was a common rallying cry for the various gangs of Gotham City, to get the bat and to keep the bat down. It was unfortunate that the bat in question was a bit savvier than any of them thought. He dodged the attempts for them to take his head off, his breathing becoming extremely labored as he dodged the attacks.

He was in the middle of a gang fight between Black Mask's gang and the Penguin's gang, and the war for turf in Old Gotham heated up after a brief cool down period. The Dark Knight craned his neck back as he perched on top of a gargoyle, waiting for his next move. They were all placed over Gotham City, so they gave him some convenient cover, at least until the time was right to pounce.

"WHERE IS HE, WHERE IS HE?" one of the goons asked as he looked around wildly and coughed.

"How should I know?" another goon said as he shot something in the shadows but Batman came down from above, wrapping his feet around his head and pulled him up. The thug dangled from the gargoyle and a huge punch knocked him out.

Batman dropped down but suddenly, he could see something show up in the shadows. As expected, Nightwing turned up, and with one fluid motion, he knocked both of the thugs out for the count. They clattered upon the ground and he held them up by the hair.

A noggin knocker put them down and Nightwing dodged a cattle prod that a thug tried to jab him with. A spinning back fist knocked the thug out and he jumped behind him. A jab to the back of the throat and another thug was down on the count.

"These geniuses really are cruising for one," Nightwing said but Batman did not say anything. To be honest, it was because he was focused on trying to figure out what they were doing. "Did you hear, we're number one with a bullet? Considered first tier on the Gotham City gangster system from the GCPD, don't you feel so special?"

"Thrilled," Batman said without missing a beat as he scaled up the edge of the building and they continued to cut through the mobsters.

They were only tier one because they did not play by the rules that were set down for the GCPD, or most importantly, they did not play their games of bribery and corruption. Also they had to get more than rough with a few members of the police force a handful of times, so there was that.

Then there was one and he brandished a knife, waving it dangerously at the two. He was babbling in Russian but Harry managed to disarm him, just in time for Batman to swoop up around him, and take him up.

Nightwing watched as Batman was about ready to do is Batman thing. Black Canary was taking care of the patrol efforts elsewhere and that allowed him to go into Old Gotham.

Both of them knew who the other was beneath their mask, but it was not something that they admitted it. It gave their civilians aliases and their masked ones a case of plausible deniability.

"Talk!" Batman growled as he hung the goon by his ankles from a Gargoyle but he started to babble in Russian at him.

It was obvious that he was not speaking to Batman in English and even if he did, he was not going to tell him much of anything other than some inflammatory words. Not even a few brutal attacks to the ribs were able to get the man to break. He was laughing, through bloodied teeth as he looked at Batman and said something extremely inflammatory to him in Russian.

Best Harry could understood, it roughly translated into, I'm not telling you anything, comrade, so you can go fuck yourself. At least that was what he could piece together from where he was.

"May I?" Nightwing asked Batman and Batman nodded. The young Kryptonian vigilante grabbed him around the throat. "Okay, you and I are going to have some words….and I don't need to tell you how rough I can get."

He said that last part in Russian which caused the thug's eyes to bulge out. Now with the translation field on his suit activated, he could talk turkey with this guy. Harry knew enough Russian to know enough, but he was not fluent in it. However, he would have to have somewhat of a working knowledge of the language for the translation field of the suit to even work.

"You, my friend, can go fuck yourself," the goon said as it was obvious why the Penguin put him in charge of the operations right about now. "I have spent ten years in Butyrka and there is nothing that you can do to break me….."

"Have it your way," Nightwing said as he gave him a slight wave of his fingers and prepared to hurl him down from their point onto a hard glass roof below.

The Russian's heart sped up as he was flying in the air but Harry slowed his descent and then latched onto his ankle. His face lightly cracked the glass and he was pulled up.

"Okay….I don't think you quiet understood me," Harry said to him.

' _So, do you think that Boris there is about ready to talk?'_ Karen asked blandly through the bond link.

' _I think so,'_ Harry said and Faora smiled with glee, as the fish was reeled back in so to speak.

' _Well he would be utterly stupid if he didn't,'_ Faora thought to them all.

"Yes….yes….of course…I'll talk," he said when he stared in the face of the ninja and he was staring in the face of the devil when he was looking at him.

"Do you think you can take it over from here?" Nightwing asked and Batman nodded stoically. Putting his hands up as the man dropped ass first onto the roof top, he smiled. "He's all yours."

Those were the words that the goon said and Batman bent down as the thug was spilling his guts in Russian rather quickly.

"He says that there are guns nearby, still in a truck, no guards as far as he knows, but the Penguin is going to pick up the shipment," Harry said and sparks flew a few inches away from the thugs face. "Where are they?"

The thug babbled once again and Harry turned around to Batman. "About a block from here."

"Anything else that we should know?" Harry asked calmly and the thug nodded up and down as he spat it out. "So, the Penguin had the van spray painted and put in a garage, thinking that would be enough to deter anyone….thank you for the information."

Nightwing concluded that thank you for the information with knocking him out with a thunderous thump. The goon slid to the ground, nearly cracking his skull as he landed on the ground, but he would live. Not in luxury, but he would live. It was more than he deserved.

Without another word, Batman and Nightwing repelled down to the street level. After dropping down, they started to nose around to see what they could find. Two goons were there, exiting a car.

It was fortunate they still had a link to the communications of the Penguin's network. It would allow them to zero in and find out exactly what they needed to know, for better or for worse. They locked into it never the less.

"Okay….you listen up," Tracey said over the communications link in her accent. Harry really hoped that it was overly done caricature. "The boss knows that no one is going to mess with the van but at the same time, the boss wants you to check things out."

"Yeah, whatever," one of the goons said and he muttered when he was sure that she was not listening in. "Naggy bitch."

"Let's just do it, less we have to do later, and he'd skin both of us alive, if something happens to the van," the goon said as he coughed.

"Better lay down on the cigarettes man, they're bad for you," the first goon said and the goon looked over his shoulder.

"So is bitching at me, it's bad for you," the second goon said. "What are you, my mother or something?"

"No, I just read…."

"That's the problem, you shouldn't read, you'd learn things you don't want to know," the first goon said.

"Are you checking the truck?" Tracey demanded to them, she had jumped off of the network briefly to check on something.

"Yeah, yeah, don't see why we don't move everything in there, including the cash…."

"I told you, the Penguin wants it to sit there for now, are you doubting his orders?" Tracey said and there was a second where the goons shook their heads.

In the conversation, Batman and Nightwing slipped behind them. It was a swift and easy process, to render the goons unconscious. Nightwing banged the first goon's head off of the ground and then the goon was choked out by Batman.

When they slumped down onto the ground, Nightwing opened the back end of the van, trying to get it open.

They saw it in the van, the crates, with the Wayne Logo stamped over, with the symbol of the Penguin. There were also four metal briefcases sitting in the back of the truck.

' _Wow, cliché much,'_ Amanda thought to them.

' _Do you realize that it's even more cliché to say that things are cliché?'_ Emily piped in and there was a moment where Amanda hushed her.

There was a sound of gunshots and Batman and Nightwing slipped off into the night, there night was never done and at this rate, it seemed as if it would never be done at all.

It was just another night in Gotham City for them all.

* * *

 

"Well if nothing else, I think that it would be a spectacle."

"I figured as much, and I figured that's why you would have been invited along," Faora said as sat in the limo. She was wearing a stunning red dress that clung to every inch of her body and showcased her hips and ass quite nicely. It stopped at her mid knee point and she wore high heels. She was not the only one who showed up,

Harry was there as well. His hair was straightened for the evening, although it seemed to be getting straighter with each passing year naturally although there was still some residual messiness. Something that Kara and Diana both agreed that it added to his charm. Never the less, he was dressed in a three piece suit, that was among the most expensive.

Speaking of Diana, she sat on the other side of Harry, wearing a white dress that clung to her body quite nicely. It still looked classy but at the same time, it emphasized her positive attributes, of which there were many that she had.

The Amazon Princess sat on one side than Harry and Kara sat on the right side of Harry, with her head resting on his shoulder with a smile on her face. She wore a similar red dress to Faora's, although it was only similar at first glance. It was made out of different materials. She wore a pair of stockings that sensually clung to her legs and a pair of high heel shoes.

The guest of honor was Miss Selina Kyle, who sat across from Harry. She wore a jade dress that wrapped around her firm and high breasts, and showed only the barest hints of her legs. She wore a jade cat pendant as always and had her hair tied back slightly. She wore a pair of high heel boots, that were good for stomping people and also looked rather stylish.

Dinah was there as well, she sat beside Diana on her other side, with Faora sitting beside Kara's other side. The blonde haired crime fighter was wearing a sleek black dress that really empathized what she had, it clung to her body amazingly, and tightly as well. Yet it somehow looked classy as well.

"I'm sure it will be an interesting night as well," Harry said and Selina nodded as she sat right across from Harry, taking a few seconds to gaze into his green eyes before she pulled himself away.

"Gotham's elite are out in full force tonight, not to mention Gotham's elite scum as well," Selina said as she looked over her shoulder. "So this is the new protégée of Wildcat, isn't it?"

"Yes," Dinah said and she knew that her mentor took it as a blow when he did not get back into the ring after his heart condition. The commission refused to clear him so he decided to train this new individual. Fill his shoes would be quite the daunting task.

It was big news that the former Heavyweight Champion of the world was there and had trained someone, who was challenging for the light heavyweight championship.

"It should be interesting to see what Grant's done," Faora said, she had been following the situation closely. She did appreciate someone who had a warrior spirit, although his heart had shelved his body for the future.

"Yes, it should be," Kara agreed as they arrived at the arena. Penny circled around but they found a decent enough parking spot.

"Looks to be a packed house tonight," Selina said and she smiled knowingly at Harry. "And you got us the best seats in the house."

Outside of the arena, they saw him, a gruff looking man who was dressed in a sports jacket and a rather clean white top with jeans. He had sandy hair with the hints of grey, and leather pants, and he was smoking a cigar. He was Ted Grant, better known as the Wildcat, the former Heavyweight Champion of the world.

"Dinah, glad to see that you made it and….ah, Harry Potter, well this is interesting," Ted said as he surveyed them, keeping his gruff demeanor.

"Ted, it's good to see you as well," Dinah said as she gave him a slight hug which he returned gruffly although he shook his head. "So how are you doing?"

"Oh, I've been good enough," Ted said as he looked at the group who filed their way inside. "Been getting the new kid ready for action, kid's a bit rough around the edges you see, but he's….well he's pretty good otherwise. So how's the old man?"

"He's recovering," Dinah said, although after what happened to her father, he was lucky to be alive.

"Ah, that's a shame, that son of a bitch Sionis walked free too after what he did," Grant said but he tried to keep himself calm. "The kid's around here somewhere….ah there he is….."

There was a young African American gentleman in his early twenties, who was pounding away at a bag.

"Watch your technique there kid, you're going to burn yourself out before you even get to the first round," Ted said to him. "Why don't you take five?"

"Can't do….got to win," the young man said as he continued to pound on the bag.

"Ain't going to win shit if you get burned out before the first round's even over," Ted said as he threw the kid a water bottle, who caught it. He turned to them. "This is….David Bradley Norton….my newest protégée….Norton, this is Dinah Lance….you remember me telling you about her….and this is Harry Potter….see that's what you should strive to get into shape like…."

"Nah, nah, man, I'm cool, I got this in the bad, but a pleasure to meet you Doctor Potter, and….." Norton said as he nodded and shook Harry's hand, although there was a sense that he did have a bit of an attitude. Something that Grant had been working on.

"Kara, Alexandra, Diana, and Selina," Harry said helpfully.

"Yeah, good to meet you as well, I must say, you travel in some style," Norton said as he shook his head. "But seriously, you ever want to go a few rounds, I want to see if you're as good as the old Wildcat says you are."

"Believe me, son, he is," Grant said to the young man. "But you've got something out there tonight, the champ, he's not going to be like those tomato cans you fought before. He's undefeated and he's looking to knock you off, you're another notch on his belt, but if you don't beat him, you'll be a bum. Because that's what he thinks about you, you're a bum to him."

"I'm not a bum!" Norton said to him fiercely.

"Aren't you?" Grant asked. "I want you to go out there and win, because if you beat him, you'll shock the world."

"Don't worry about it, Wildcat, I've got this one in the bag," Norton said as he waved his hands from one side to the other. "Got to go now, big fight, nice meeting you at all, but got to go, let me know if you want to spar some time, Doctor Potter. Maybe have a fight for charity, it would be good!"

"Good kid, hope he doesn't get his brains smashed out," Wildcat said, he had serious misgivings about this fight, but Norton had taken it when it was given it to him. His first few opponents….they had been nothing like Ben Turner, who was a fighter of the highest caliber.

"Well, he's ready," Kara said and Dinah sighed.

"That's the problem, he thinks he's ready," Dinah said, she had followed a bit of his career in the paper and his previous victories had been against scrubs, tomato cans, and the only reason he was even challenging for the light heavyweight title was because he was the protégée of the Wildcat.

Harry's group made their way over to their seats, but they ran into Bruce Wayne, who had the air of someone who was being dragged here against his will. Or at least that was the impression that he was going to get? Then Harry ran into someone more appealing on the eyes for sure than young Bruce Wayne.

"Harry, it's good to see you!" Veronica Vreeland said. Her red hair extended past her shoulders and she had a deep shade of brown eyes. The black dress that she wore showed the outline of her body, as it clung to her curvy frame. "I mean….I just saw you a few days ago at the party, but it's good to see you again."

"Hello, Ronnie," Harry said the young socialite as she pulled him into a tight hug as she pressed her breasts against his back, with a shameless smile on her face.

' _Subtly is not something that is taught in high society, apparently,'_ Faora thought to herself in amusement and Veronica continued with a searing kiss on the lips.

"Well, I figured that I'd come here, I mean, after Bruce here, was sent tickets by Grant to attend the fight, it would be a shame to let them go to waste, besides anyone who is anyone is out here tonight," Veronica said.

"You know all of the girls," Harry said to her and she nodded, having met them at the Labor Day party. "And Selina Kyle…."

"Miss Vreeland," Selina said with a calm demeanor as she shook hands with her delicately. They were all filing into the top boxes of the arena. She saw Bruce Wayne, she had heard of him, and with the playboy billionaire air that he gave, she was not really impressed with him. Harry seemed to have more poise and as far as Selina concerned, he was likely deep into the closet anyway.

"Looks like a packed house….well there's some bad news," Kara whispered and there was a nod as Rupert Thorne made his way there with a woman half of his age on his arm.

"Some kind of high class escort, although I'm not sure how high class," Selina said as she looked at the slightly trashy look at the young woman around him. Then there was Oswald Cobblepot, who noticed both Harry and Bruce and gave them a look at deepest disgust, but continued there with Tracey.

' _Still can't pull off the high class act, still more high school hooker,'_ Lavender thought appraisingly as she shook her head.

Harry noticed two women in the distance. One of them had a sleek red dress on, with a slit parting down her dress showing her left leg which showed part of a dragon tattoo. Her association was a dark haired woman who had dark eyes that were calm. She was dressed in a high class female business suit that had a combination of red and black and she did not look like one that should have been trifled with.

Harry noticed Selina stopped halfway up the steps and she held her hand up and turned around. She descended the steps and saw Mario Falcone out the foot of the stairs. He muttered one thing to her.

"Potter?" he asked and she nodded. He returned with his bodyguards and sat down for the fight.

"We all went to school together," Selina said to Bruce and Harry, mostly to Harry, but since Bruce happened to be in ear shot. "Fight should be starting soon."

Harry could also see William Earle there, but he had his back turned and was talking to both Lionel Luthor and Phillip Kane. They were talking about the fight and also LuthorCorp business.

' _Earle was made the COO of LuthorCorp apparently, funny how after all of the shit he did, he came out smelling like a rose,'_ Karen thought as there was a moment.

' _Some kind of deal between Kane Chemicals and LuthorCorp….given that Earle and Luthor are both involved, we better keep a closer eye on Phillip Kane,'_ Harry said.

"Better keep an eye on Phillip," Bruce said, pretty much coming to the same conclusion that Harry did.

' _So the fight's about to start?'_ Lily asked curiously. She was currently working, otherwise she would have showed up with them.

The bell rang and the fight began.

' _Well the kid is good,'_ Diana admitted as she saw him stick and move and manage to frustrate Ben Turner, an imposing individual who towered over him by at least a head.

' _Ted does get the best out of people,'_ Dinah thought and she watched things. _'The odd's makers say that he's not going to make it past the end of the first round. There's a lot of people betting against that fact, from what I've been able to find out.'_

' _Please tell me how you….'_

' _Barbara hears things, a lot of the GCPD are gambling on the fight,'_ Dinah thought to Amanda and that did make any sense. _'They're gambling that he gets knocked out in the first round.'_

' _Well so far so good,'_ Harry thought as the first round drew to the close and Norton was still standing. _'And they just lost a lot of money.'_

' _Well people will be pissed off about that,'_ Amanda thought as she looked nervous.

' _I don't….something is up,'_ Kara thought as she looked at Harry and Harry noticed it as well, there was something about Turner's demeanor that he did not like.

Thorne kept his eyes firmly locked on the fight and made eye contact with Turner. His head nodded immediately.

The bell rang and the second round began. The second round ended maybe about thirty seconds later as Norton was plowed down like he was nothing and Turner stood over him.

"The winner by knock out and still light heavyweight champion, Ben Turner!"

Bruce frowned and Dinah and Harry could tell why. The fight was fixed big time but people were too busy about the buzz of Turner knocking out the protégée of the legendary Wildcat.

Thorne smiled, it was obvious for the very few people who caught it that he cashed in, big time, on the results of this fight.

"Kid made it past the first round, who would have thought it?" Thorne asked to his bodyguard in the top box and he nodded.

* * *

 

Hedwig sat on her perch in Harrison's study as he combed over some of the books.

"Some of these are really rare, and I might be the only living person who has even combed through them that much," Harrison said to Hedwig and she nodded. "That being said, it might be beyond the comprehension of some but these tombs are lost to the annals of time."

Harrison had his hands on Dumbledore's journals, which had been willed to him. Prime had a copy of his own but these were his copies. Although it was up for a lot of debate how much of this magic was of Dumbledore's invention, he did speak to some of the most known magical figures who had long since passed on and recorded their work for future reference. So Harrison was inclined to accept it as a valid reference point.

"And I'm sure that he hoarded this knowledge until his dying day, as many who did before him, well he did have the charisma to get it out of the wizards and witches of his day, Hedwig," Harrison said to the owl and she hooted in agreement. She was now on his shoulder and if most people would not have dismissed the notion as crazy, it was almost like she was reading the rare and ancient texts along with him.

He was currently looking through the texts.

' _It is a treasure trove of knowledge,'_ Lily said, as she had skimmed through some of it although a multitude of responsibilities that she said, she really did not have as much time to delve through the amazing books as she would have liked. That being said, she was interested. _'So what are you looking for?'_

' _Something that will alter a potion into a more potent version, high end alchemy I know, but if I can find the properties…'_ Harrison thought and he came across a Potions Textbook with a very familiar writing. It had "Property of the Half-Blood Prince" etched on it.

Lily noticed it as well and she exclaimed with a heated scream. "THAT THIEVING BASTARD!"

' _Well thanks for the headache,'_ Rose thought as no doubt she was not the only one through the bond that cringed from that outburst from Lily.

' _Who….what….where….how….?'_ Lucrieta thought as she shook things off.

' _Snape…..Snape…..you know Severus Snape,'_ Lily thought to him. _'That motherfucker….THAT MOTHERFUCKING BASTARD! He stole my bloody notes….years of hard work, and tried to pass them off as his own. The moment that I was in the ground, he likely took the rest of them as well, and he does have quite of the reputation of being a world class potion master….but it's my reputation….my legacy…..that son of a bitch…..I swear…..I'm fucking cut off his head and use it as a soccer ball…..no that might be too good for him. I will grind his fucking remains up in a wood chipper…..no…..I'll fucking feed him to Hagrid's three headed dog…..but I might give the poor thing indigestion and I wouldn't want to abuse it….'_

' _Mum, would it help you if I asked you to calm down?'_ Harrison thought.

' _His fucking Potions mastery was based off of my work, and YOU EXPECT ME TO BE FUCKING CALM!'_ Lily howled at the top of the lungs.

' _Oh my head, my head, my head,'_ Amanda thought as she clapped her hands onto the top of her head and shook it.

Harrison let his mother rant all that she wanted, for he was distracted, but Nimue standing in the doorway. The woman smiled as she approached Harrison and she had an extremely large tome held against her chest.

Understanding what the situation us, Hedwig vacated the premises, getting up on her perch and she landed, with good grace.

"So, what can I do for you Nimue?" Harrison asked to her.

"This is the first of seven volumes that are collectively known as the Books of Magic," she informed him softly and there was a smile that went across his face. "This one deals with Bindings. Merlin found it when it was young and it served him well. That was how that he was able to bind the demon Etrigan to Jason Blood and this is the book that I used to find an enchantment in which to bind Merlin. I took it as I fled and I now offer it to you as a gift and one to be used without restriction."

The Books were a legend, almost like the Three Keys of the Endless, or the Deathly Hallows if you were a foolish wand waver, were amongst Homo-Magi. "I accept this gift freely and without restriction."

The deal was sealed and he gently removed the book from her arms, to place it down upon the table immediately. "Well, the next thing you know, you'll tell me the Helmet of Nabu is real."

Nimue just smiled mysteriously and she walked out of the room, swaying her lithe ass all of the way from where he stood. Harrison shook his head.

"Well, shit," Harrison whispered as Minerva had popped up over the bond. She did not have a chance to check in often due to her many responsibilities at Hogwarts, because being the Head was an all assuming task. Well actually being the Head and doing the job right was an all-consuming task, Dumbledore tried to jungle a lot of other balls in the air and they ended up crushing him in the end.

' _Harry, it's done, Astoria Greengrass and Ginny Weasley have been made Headboy and Headgirl,'_ she told him as Harry made his way to the bedroom.

' _Seriously?'_ Harrison asked to her. _'Don't you….'_

' _If Dumbledore could have promoted fourth years to that position, then I can promote a female to the Headboy position….especially when all of the males in that year lack leadership qualities,'_ Minerva thought. _'I will leave it up to them to decide which official title the others take, although…..I will say that it's just a matter of formality.'_

Harrison nodded, he did recall that the Headboy and Headgirl position were really nothing but a fancy title and a few added perks to begin with, although Dumbledore had also lost another point that it required real leaders in the position. He did get it right during the last year Prime was at Hogwarts. The Head Girl position would have brought the worst out of Hermione, and Kara performed better than she could have in that position.

Minerva did seem over the moon when the Rowena Ravenclaw and Helga Hufflepuff came to Hogwarts to help her with the renovations of the school. She couldn't hope for anyone better..

Things were pretty quiet, with Astoria and Ginny back at Hogwarts for their final year. Nyssa was off directing an operation. Lucretia and Vega were at Hogwarts, teaching. Daphne and Charlotte were off at a business conference. Morgaine and Circe were off whatever they were doing in their spare time, and Harrison did not ask for the full details because plausible deniability was a good thing. Angelina, Katie, and Alicia were at camp, ready for a new season of Quidditch.

He reached the room and he could see Bellatrix standing there. She was wearing a slinky set of black lingerie, that barely covered the bits that needed to be covered. Narcissa and Andromeda were now on the bed, bound and gagged, really unable to move from the position that they were in.

Narcissa was on the bed, wearing a skimpy set of white lingerie, her ankles bound, her wrists bound, and duct tape was over her face. Her perfect body was on displace. Andromeda was wearing more of the same, but she wore green that matched Harry's eyes.

Harrison wondered why Bellatrix tied up her sisters, but then again, it was Bellatrix seemed like a good enough response. She leaned forward and captured his lips in a searing kiss, which he returned, their tongues dancing together with each other.

She pushed Harrison back on the bed and practically tore his pants off, making her sisters watch the show as she got straight to work.

* * *

"Ready as always, that's good," Bellatrix whispered as she squeezed his package, preparing to stroke his length up and down. The dark haired witch smiled as her sisters watched hungrily, brimming with sexual frustration.

Harry could feel her wet mouth inch down his pole, one inch at a time, until it pressed against his pelvic bone. The green eyes of the wizard closed as she sucked him hungrily. She wrapped around him, pumping his rod up and down to the point where it went into the back of his throat, to the fact where she nearly choked on it as it went into her throat.

Bellatrix smiled as she fondled his balls and the material was pulled back, to reveal her nice tits, as he squeezed them. She moaned out loud as Harry pumped his rod deep into her mouth at superfast speed and she took it into her mouth and stuffed it nearly halfway down her throat. She was bobbing up and down upon him at the speed of light, taking his thick pole deep down into her throat as she could take him.

Narcissa and Andromeda were completely trapped and unable to move, the restraints were good, Bellatrix was a master at charm work and it kept both of the females in place. That much was clear as Harry's rod kept jack hammering into Bellatrix's tight mouth as he gave them an evil glare.

' _That's it Harry, give me all your cum,'_ Bellatrix thought as Harrison's pole was being worked around with her hot juicy lips and he rocked into her, his hands placed on the side of her face. He rocked back and forth, keeping up with the momentum that he had. His green eyes flooded with lust, tinted with desire and the wizard, well there was no question about it, he was this close to exploding.

She squeezed him and he sent a rocket blast of cum down her throat. He kept pumping his seed deep into her throat and she swallowed it up, hungrily, lustfully.

Bellatrix pulled back and licked her lips, making sure to get in Andromeda's face and then Narcissa's face. She pulled the material to the side, exposing her dripping slit.

Harrison did not even need a verbal cue, all he needed was a second's notice to enter her and enter her is what he did, he slammed into her hard from behind.

Bellatrix's face was across from the faces of her sisters, and there was a moment where she had pleasure explode through her face. Harry held onto her waist and pumped into her from behind, hard. His thick rod speared deep into her dripping hot quim as stretching her out. In and out he went, working her over hard.

"Oh, take me, take me, HARD!" Bellatrix screamed at the top of her lungs and her sisters were getting all worked up to the point where they were choking on it.

Harrison cupped her breasts as Narcissa and Andromeda looked at them, mouths still gagged, as they could not voice their displeasure that they were not being buggered like this.

"When I cum….release them," Harrison whispered to Bellatrix and he grabbed onto her hair, rocking into his thick cock, to stretch out her walls.

The green eyed wizard speared into her walls, which snugly hugged him. He held onto her breasts, working into her, rocking into her dripping hot cunt. She lubricated his cock as he worked into her, with a few rapid fire thrusts, working her over. The woman's tight cunt clamped him, with him grabbing her.

Narcissa and Andromeda both whined, it would be a long time before Harrison came, given the stamina that he had.

He stayed the course, ramming deep into Bellatrix's perfect pussy, as he kept ramming so deep into her that it caused her mind to explode with even more pleasure. He cupped her breasts, hammering her from behind with thrust after thrust as he continued to work her over.

"Take me, take me, oh make those bitches drool for it!" Bella whined as he worked into her from behind. He cupped her breasts from behind, rocking his thick length so deep into her. The woman tightened around him, using her walls to milk him a few times and he kept hanging onto her, pumping his rod into her.

The first flood of cum was fired from Harrison's balls after over an hour and Bellatrix was rendered to a state of drooling. There was a launch of cum was injected into her.

The moment Bellatrix blacked out, Narcissa and Andromeda were released.

"Finally," Narcissa said as she threw herself over Harry's lap and started to rub her dripping hot quim against his throbbing cock. The woman was working him up and down, and worked into her. The blonde was this close to going down against his cock.

The blonde pushed her juicy center down onto him, her breasts pressed against his chest and she rocked up and down, with the blonde's tight walls closed around him. She kept riding him up and down, her moaning getting even louder as she pumped him.

Andromeda was pinned down onto the bed with a dupe and his throbbing cock was against her opening.

"Don't….tease me," Andromeda whimpered but Harry kept brushing his rod against her center.

"Half the fun," he whispered and her legs locked around his ribs. As he lowered down onto her, he kissed her hard on the mouth to stifle her moans. She shoved her tongue into his mouth to encourage him and she brushed herself against his cock as she prepared to sink her walls down onto him, her soft mound about to go down onto him.

Harry groaned as Andromeda squeezed him with her inner thigh muscles. He held onto him as she looked at her, with a sweaty face and a lustful grin on her face. The green eyed wizard kept pumping down into her, working her tight center, as he pumped in and out of her. The woman clamped his throbbing rod as he worked in and out of her, punishing her tight cunt.

"Take….take me, hard," Andromeda whimpered as her walls lifted up and down as he pounded her tight center as she bit down onto her lips.

The woman continued to pump his cock with her walls as she watched what Narcissa was doing.

Harrison's face was pushed between her breasts and he sucked them. Narcissa threw her head back and moaned as her breasts were treated with pleasure.

"Damn," Bellatrix breathed, she was only strong enough to finger herself and then suck the combined essence of the juices of her and Harrison. She sucked her finger, licking around it, and caused her eyes, hungrily slurping it.

Andromeda moaned as Harrison hammered her into the bed. She pumped her hips back up in response, matching his motions.

Harrison held her breasts with the green eyed wizard kept pumping into her. The woman whined as Harrison kept going into her and she tightened around her. The woman's walls tightened around him, with the wizard working into her. The woman kissed him hungrily back.

Bellatrix felt another cock slide into her, and she whined in pleasure. Her eyes closed as she whimpered and bit down onto her lip. He grabbed onto her waist and kept rocking into her tight body. Her walls clamped around him hard, milking his throbs.

Narcissa bounced higher and harder.

"Careful," Harrison warned her as he grabbed her ass tightly, he wanted both of them to cum together and he bit down on her nipple to get her to slow down. Of course that just worked her up even more and the blonde tightened her walls around him.

Narcissa stroked him with her walls and Harry kept pumping into her. Her mind exploded with even more pleasure as he groped her breast and sucked it, causing her to feel even more pleasure.

Harrison continued to fuck all three of the Black Sisters in different ways, the ropes returned around two of the three.

Bellatrix's pussy got even more went when she realized that she was bound and Harrison now hammered her ass like he owned it and believe her, he did. He groped her breasts and worked into her.

Pleasure was about ready to strike them in the most amazing way.

Andromeda was the first to black out, his cock slid in and out of her center. The woman's walls tightened around her, with Harry punishing into her and she arched her back, with his hands on her ass.

Then Narcissa passed out, but not before Harrison came inside her and he pumped into her, rocketing his load of cum into her womb. His sticky fluids splashed into her, with his rod pumping so far deep into her and his rod was clenched with her pussy.

Then Bellatrix got a load in her ass and she exploded into a loud cataclysm of pleasure as he kept pumping her ass full of his baby juices.

* * *

 

"So, that's how that theory is presented," Harleen explained to Harry as she was molded to his back, her arms wrapped around him, as she kept her eyes on the text. "Do you understand that now Harry?"

"It does make perfect sense when you look at it from that way, yes," Harry agreed with a smile on his face as he continued to plug away on the textbook that rested in front of him. It was a full crew in in the library at this point, although they were pretty much the only ones there. Never the less, they were sitting at a table, with Kara, Diana, Barbara, Pamela, Sapphire, and Penelope Young joining them.

"Oh that's good, well if you need any more help, just let me know," Harleen said in a bright and chipper tone of voice but she stepped back, fixing her face in a more reserved expression.

In the corner, Harry could see Barbara being helped along with her work by Penelope and Pamela, both of them having their doctorates in Chemistry. Since she was taking that as a minor, she was being helped along with. Barbara frowned for a second as the girls seemed to be explaining something that she was struggling with again.

"So, how is your work with Doctor Woodrue?" Sapphire asked Pamela, she was curious about this. Although she thought that there was something about Woodrue that was a bit off, the man's intelligence could not be denied. Although she kind of knew the type of people that were a bit shifty, given some of her father's business contacts, but she had no time to think about that as Harry leaned forward.

"You might want to rephrase that a little bit," Harry told Sapphire and the woman nodded as she frowned for a second. "It can have a bit more depth to it."

Harry might have not been an Environmental Engineer in training, but he was a Mechanical and Electronic Engineer, so he was well versed in many things.

"It does look pretty good other than that one point, doesn't it, Harry?" Diana asked Harry and Harry nodded with a smile on his face.

"It looks more than good, it looks excellent, you should be pleased with the work that you put together, Sapphire," Harry said and the girl looked pleased with herself as she went to make the revisions that Harry made.

"So back to Woodrue?" Kara asked Pamela.

"We're working on a big presentation that hopefully will be ready by the end of the next year," Pamela said. "It is going to open some doors for me."

"Let's hope that it will work out well," Harry said neutrally as he went back to his work.

"Well, I think that we all hope….so how does this conclusion look?" Barbara asked Pamela and the redhead looked at her.

"There are five minerals, not four," Pamela said without missing a beat and she guided Barbara, in an attempt to go through the book.

Diana smiled; she was half paying attention to the conversation at hand and half paying attention to doing her work. She was nearly done, well at least to the point where she was comfortable enough to take a bit of a breath. Actually being done, that would be a while before she reached that point.

"Actually I just thought of something," Kara chimed in with a smile on her face and there was a second where everyone turned their attention to the blonde Kryptonian. "Shouldn't…..Harry have about four doctorates from now?"

"I thought so as well," Barbara said and those who had not been completely figured into the group as of yet, looked up.

"So, that's really an odd….didn't something happen there? Pamela asked as everyone looked at him with interest in their eyes. "So, what's the deal here?"

"Well, I'm averaging about one a year," Harry said to them as he reared his head back. "First year, I headed off to Cambridge, I got my doctorate in theoretical physics, whilst minoring in Mechanical Engineering."

"Right, and….you finished up Mechanical Engineering, getting your doctorate there and…."

"Minor in Mechanical Engineering yes," Harry concluded as he did not like to toot his own horn, okay that was a lie, but he did it in style, because he had something to toot his horn about. "Then….moving over here to Gotham, I got mine in Chemistry….but I've got all of the credits in Electrical, just haven't had a chance to present my thesis yet?"

Harleen let out a low whistle and Sapphire looked at them with wide eyes, which Kara smiled about.

"It's possible to do that work, it's just a lot of work," Penelope said, getting her doctorate in chemistry.

' _So, when are we working on her anyway?'_ Kara thought to Pamela.

' _When she ditches the jackass that she's engaged to,'_ Pamela thought to her.

' _So you met the guy?'_ Diana asked. _'Or are you just calling him a jackass on the basis that he's not Harry.'_

' _I met him, yes,'_ Pamela said without missing a beat. And there was really no more than needed to be said about that.

"So, the work is nearly done, it's just the presentation that needs to be done," Sapphire said when she finally found her tongue.

"That is very impressive Harry," Bethanie said as she turned up, having just walked into the library a moment ago. She could not help but hear the conversation. "So if I understand correctly, you will be getting the work done on one, and starting on the next in a year?"

"Yes, although I'm feeling a bit ambitious this year," Harry told her and she nodded in agreement. "And like I said, the work on Electrical Engineering is all but done for about two years. Have not had the chance to present my final thesis but I'll do so before the end of the year."

She smiled. "Mind if I sit down?"

"Be my guest," Harry said as he presented her a chair and the teacher joined them without a second thought.

"It is down to how you present yourself to the world at large," she told Harry.

"Indeed, and while we all wear masks, some are better fitted than others, and it is how they perceive you that is the key to your success," Harry told her.

"I couldn't put it better myself," Bethanie said. "And you never have a second chance to make a first impression and if you are unable to make a proper first impression, then the opportunity has been missed. The first image that people perceive of you is the one that sticks with them forever."

Harry nodded, he understood this to be true, hence why he always put his first foot forward. Harleen remained against his back for the entirety of the conversation but she was calm and did not contribute that much, unless it was to explain a concept to Harry, should he not grasp it.

* * *

 

With Barbara having been dropped off at the GCPD for her work shift, Harry, Pamela, Kara, and Diana had gotten out of the car after a long day at college. Their study session wrapped up a bit.

' _Seems to be a quiet scene there,'_ Pamela thought and Harry was the one who jumped in with a few words of his own.

' _Yeah, with Fleur, Penny, Rose, and Lily at the Manor, things are quiet, although there should be a troupe of teenage girls about ready to flock in any second now,'_ Harry thought as Diana and Pamela made their way to the kitchen. Sure enough the sounds of the group could be heard. _'Or maybe they are already here, and they were actually being subtle.'_

' _That would be a first,'_ Karen thought from afar in amusement as she shook her head.

Kara was kept out of the Kitchen at all costs for reasons of safety, as Harry made his way into the room, to do a quick head count of all of the girls that were hanging around the area of the sitting room, all sitting, some working on homework, some of them just relaxing and trying to keep cool all things considered.

' _So, Amanda, Emily, Lois, Nym, Donna, Gabi, Bette, Lois…..and some redhead that looks really familiar but I've not been properly acquainted with yet,'_ Harry thought as he saw the young redhead who looked a bit younger than the twins. She had red hair that was tied in a ponytail and gorgeous brown eyes. She was wearing a white t-shirt that strained around her developing bust and a modest skirt, although she did have a nice set of legs. She wore a pair of high heel boots that were extremely fashionable as well, which really topped off the ensemble.

"Oh yeah, hi Harry, this is….," Amanda started and then she stopped for dramatic effect and also to stop herself from snickering. There were a lot of that going around, especially with Lois, who had to hastily bite her hand and then duck behind a book to hide her face. "Bunny Vreeland, Bunny, this is Harry…."

' _Right, Ronnie's younger sister, almost forgot she was going to GPA,'_ Harry thought as there was one thought that went through his mind before the air went out of his lungs, with the young heiress hugging him hard, practically glomping him, so yes, that was Ronnie's sister alright.

Bunny was speaking at a rapid fire flurry, but thankfully Harry had plenty of experience of deciphering the words of girls that spoke without taking a breath. "It's so nice to meet you, Ronnie talks about you all of the time. She doesn't want me to meet you for some reason, I think that might because she likes you though. But she doesn't really want to admit it, even though she says that you're the hottest piece of ass that she's ever seen and she has a poster of you on her wall."

She stopped suddenly, as Lois, Bette, and Amanda barely hid their amusement, at least the others were less than subtle about it.

Bunny shook her head. "Um…sorry about that, but seriously, it's nice to meet you, I hope that I get to know you really well."

"Subtle as a track coming down the tracks," Bette whispered to Amanda who nodded, although Bunny was so flustered that she did not seem to hear what they were saying. Shaking her head, she managed to get back on track or at least as much on track as she was going to allow herself to get.

"No problem, no problem," Harry said as he gave Amanda a stern look as she patted her on the shoulder. "Happens to the best of us."

Lois nodded knowingly, given the first two times she met Harry, she ran into him, literally.

It was at this point where Lois's cell phone rang. The brunette young girl held the phone up to her ear as it rang and a frown crossed her face as she picked it up, nodding, with a sour look on her face as she began to talk on the phone.

"So, you're working over again…again….yes and Caulson can't pick me up either….because he's…..yes I understand, he's helping you….well that's always the case, yes, get home, I understand, before dark, yes, okay Dad, bye," Lois said as she placed down the cell phone and she looked at them. "I got to get going, the General wants me home before dark and he can't…..he can't pick me up or his aide can't either. He wants me home before dark, so I got to catch the train. So I guess I'll see you guys at school."

Harry knew that a twelve year old, almost thirteen year old girl, taking the train in Gotham City alone might be asking for trouble, so he decided to come to rescue. "No need to take the train Lois, I'll take you home…."

"Oh I don't want to be a bother," Lois said although she smiled as she looked at him.

"Not a bother at all, just let me get my jacket," Harry said and he walked over ,picking it off. He quickly gave Kara and Diana a kiss goodbye and he placed the jacket on as he stepped forward to her.

Lois followed him, she could not help the beaming smile that she had on her face, along with the fact that she was bouncing up and down. She realized how absurd that was making her look, so she stopped really short of doing so, shaking her head, as she followed Harry towards the elevator.

The two of them made their way down to the garage in no time flat and Lois's eyes widened as she smiled at the amazing collection. She heard the twins mention it, but seeing was in fact believing. That being said, the young brunette could barely believe what she saw.

"So pick one," Harry said.

Lois thought that was a loaded choice and it took her a few seconds to regain her bearings, and that was extremely hard to do. She finally settled on a sleek looking motorcycle, a Harley Davidson, she knew that Harry would have a sweet ride.

"It's custom made, I had to get several state of the art parts," Harry told her and Lois nodded, she was impressed, her mouth hanging open. Harry shrugged as she had her eyes fixated on the bike in all of it black glory, it was light weight and extremely efficient. He climbed onto the bike and Lois grabbed onto him, as Harry handed her a helmet which she put on. Harry prepared to go for a ride but he looked over his shoulder. "Hang on."

"Got it," Lois said as she placed her arms around Harry's waist, appreciating the fact that he had to face front otherwise he would have seen the subtle blush that appeared on her cheeks. Never the less, they were roaring down the street.

Lois could feel a rumbling in her stomach and given that Harry pulled over, she could pretty much guess that he could feel it over.

"Figure that we have some time to eat….before I have to take you home," Harry said and Lois looked at him. "I think I could hear your stomach over the roar of the engines."

"Well….I am hungry," Lois admitted as they were at a café. It was actually a pretty nice place given the standards of Gotham City, at least it could pass a health inspection, which was a good thing. Lois followed Harry.

The two of them sat down and ordered some food.

"So your father got tied up?" Harry asked as Lois looked at him.

"Yeah, but he seems to be always busy, I'm used to it by now, believe me," Lois said as she shook her head. The General was never the same since her mother died, Lois was only just barely old enough to remember her mother, her sister, Lucy, was not. It seemed from her few scattered recollections that he was a far different man, although perhaps not completely different, but that was really beside the point and everything.

Hamburgers and shakes were delivered and Lois ravishingly took a bite.

"I didn't say that I was sorry….for running into you that one time, did I?" Lois asked as she frowned and Harry waved it off. She smiled.

"No, problem, if you're the worst thing that ran into me in Gotham City, I think that I would be living a very peaceful existence," Harry said and Lois nodded. "So, you got my number, right?"

"Yeah," Lois said to him as she showed him and Harry smiled.

"So if you need to be picked up, just call me, I'll either come get you or if I can't, one of my girls would," Harry said.

"You have a lot of girls, don't you?" Lois asked, before she could really realize what she said. "I mean….well….there seem to be…..you just have a lot of females that hang around you and….."

"Lois, breathing is conductive to speaking you know," Harry told her and she smiled, as she decided to take a drink to slowly regain her composure, although it was easier said than done. The dark haired girl shook her head as her stomach twisted a little bit. She managed to keep her breath in and allow it out with a couple of fluid motions.

"Yes….breathing….need to speak to breath…got it," Lois said as she smiled. "So….anyway, I read somewhere that RAO hires a lot of female employees….."

"The best and the brightest," Harry said as he smiled at her.

"Okay, fair enough, you would have to have good taste," Lois said, although all of the girls around Harry seemed to be smiling. And she was beginning to piece together why they were smiling.

"Yes…but enough about me, I think that people talk about me more than enough," Harry told Lois and Lois nodded up and down, barely suppressing the smile that was on her face. She managed to shake her head and keep her head up straight, as hard as that might be. "How about we talk about you? How are you doing in school?"

Lois decided to tell Harry about that as they enjoyed the meal, which was a bit too short lived for Lois's liking, but there was still plenty of daylight left in Gotham City.

* * *

 

The Day that many in Gotham City, in the business world and in the press had been waiting for had finally come and there was buzzing; one could cut the excitement with a knife. There was people who were all excited and they would not become silent any time soon.

The Red Sun was about ready to be brought out today and Harry was coming here in style, him and his Alphas as well. Diana stood by him as a bodyguard, in a snappy business suit, with a blue blouse, black jacket, and modest skirt with long stockings that covered her legs. She wore a pair of high heels and her hair was tied back, with a pair of glasses resting on the bridge of her nose.

Faora showed up right now in her Alexandra Potter disguise and she smiled. She saw Kara walk up next to her. Her hair was tied up in a ponytail as well. She wore a pair of nice glasses that emphasized her blue eyes. She wore a red blouse, with a blue jacket, and a long skirt, that showcased her stocking covered legs. She was acting in the role of Faora's personal assistant and there was a bright smile that went across her face.

' _You know we should hire someone officially for this role,'_ Kara thought, as she knew that Karen would be here officially in a few seconds, and she could already see Jaime and Patricia in the crowd. There were a few other members of the Collective there, and also a few members of the press and the business world, some of them unsavory and some of them rather interesting parties. _'I think that Ginny might be fit for the job if she ever comes to the States.'_

' _And if she isn't inclined to any time soon, I might have someone who would be ready for the job and she is extremely competent,'_ Nyssa said to Harry and she could tell that he was intrigued and so was she. The woman threw her hair back and placed her hands on her hips.

Karen turned up immediately, her red wig covering her, and she was dressed in a blue business suit. It was actually not something that she would wear normally, but even she made it look rather nice. Then again, she was the type of person who might be able to make a burlap sack look somewhat fashionable because the figure that she had. Although the charm work on the clothing downplayed it a little bit, much to her dismay, but she figured that people would not focus on business otherwise.

Bruce Wayne arrived in his limo and made the long walk to the platform, with a grand applause. He would prepare to give a speech for this combined RAO Corporation-Wayne Enterprises venture as Harry smiled.

When the clock struck eleven, he would start the speech but naturally one of Gotham's most eligible bachelors would get a lot of fanfare immediately as he made his way up the steps immediately and he turned his head, waiting for the applause to die down.

"Thank you, thank you for coming out today, for this press conference," Bruce said with a smile on his face, the charming billionaire playboy façade was showing through as he waved to the crowd. "For years, Wayne Industries has been the industry leader in technological achievement and we hope to bring even more technological innovations as we go into the 21st Century. Today, I am personally proud to announce, along with the Wayne Industry family, that we have had a ground breaking deal with the RAO Corporation, to bring you a new piece of technology that will revolutionize the market."

Bruce allowed those first few statements to sink in and then he continued to speak. "Thanks to the business deal with the RAO Corporation, we are able to put together a revolutionary new product that will be unlike anything that the market has ever seen. Over the next five years, the business deal between the RAO Corporation and Wayne will continue to innovate the market and now with that in mind, I am proud to introduce to you the owner of the RAO Corporation, Dr. Harry Potter!"

There was a loud round of applause, some respectful, some of them genuine as Harry took the stage, shaking hands with Bruce before the baton was officially passed to him.

Harry waited for the applause to die down to a moment where he would be able to be heard easily. Although that took a bit longer than he thought but he was patient and he could wait.

"The RAO Corporation was founded on a singular vision and that is a vision that our friends at Wayne Industries will help us realize," Harry told the group who excitedly watched. "I know that I'm not alone with the fact that I want to take technology boldly where it has never gone before. Things that are common place these days were considered to be science fiction just mere decades ago. The RAO Corporation will break down those barriers, over the next few years, decades. Cutting edge research, whether it be through technological achievements that you only thought were the things are dreams, cutting edge medical research that will take you past the peak of physical perfection, and state of the art urban development like the towers that have gone up in Gotham City."

Harry kept himself silent for a few seconds and allowed everyone to mentally catch up for where he was before he continued. "Revitalization of abandoned farm land for fresh crops, the development of a clean energy source that will cut fossil fuels at least in half and reduce pollution but despite those noble projects, that is not what I'm here to talk about. As you may have guessed, if you had been listening to Mr. Wayne here, my name is Harry Potter and this is the Red Sun and this my friends, is the future."

Harry smiled immediately as there was an image of the phone and there were many sounds of excitement in the crowd.

"This state of the art cell phone is unlike nothing you have ever seen in your life, as there will be no more frustration once you drive through tunnels and drop an important call, I trust many of you know how annoying that is," Harry said and there was a bit of laughter at that, along with some nods. "You can also access the Internet from the comfort of your own phone, to check your e-mail and are able to text your friends and family if they are on the Red Sun Network."

Harry paused for a second, allowing them to sink in that fact. When he was done, he paused, talking to them some more.

"The cell phone will be the first of many products coming out, with the tablet, the lap top, and the personal computer coming out within the next year. And along with the sharper signals, longer lasting battery charge, it can also store a hundred songs. This is made with you the consumer in mind, with a hope that you will be satisfied and will ensure that you will buy future products, and it won't be last year's model with a fresh coat of paint slapped on it and a couple more options either. We will revolutionize the way you think of electronics and who benefits the most as you the consumer."

Harry smiled as he stepped back and they were hanging on his ear. "And Dr. Alexandra Potter will now discuss with you the plans and options that you will get when you purchase your Red Sun."

Harry stepped back and passed the baton to Faora, who spent the next twenty minutes going over the options. He could tell that people were impressed with what they had to sell. RAO would make the phones and Wayne would distribute them which seemed like a winning combination.

' _The future begins now,'_ Harry thought to the Alphas and they all nodded in agreement.

* * *

 

As Faora was introduced, Harry left the stage, knowing that she would wrap up things quite nicely. The green eyed wizard walked down the stairs and made his way to the limo.

He had seen a certain reporter waiting there with a smile on her face.

"Miss Vale," Harry told her in a calm voice.

"Doctor Potter….I was wondering if you could spend a few moments for an interview," Vicki said as she looked him straight in the eye. It was an opportunity that she had been relishing for quite a long time.

"Well, since that you're here waiting outside by my limo, how can I say no?" Harry asked as he opened the door and invited Vicki inside.

' _It likely wouldn't be the first time that he had a female in this backseat,'_ Vicki thought before she could help herself and Harry sat inside.

"Figured that we'd have plenty of room back here to conduct business without being bothered," Harry said to her. "And no need to be so formal, Miss Vale, I want you to feel at ease when you conduct this interview, so it's Harry."

"Right, then it's Vicki," Vicki said as she managed to shake her head, her tongue nearly getting tied from where it was but Harry sat next to her. Their legs were not quite touching. "It seems like the RAO Corporation has some big aims."

"We feel that the consumer market deserves the best possible, and we have some very long term plans, this is not so fly by night operation," Harry told her and from what Vicki was able to delve into, she believed that with a smile on her face. "But I'm sure that an intelligent young woman such as yourself would have already figured that out before long."

"Yes….yes I have," Vicki managed. "You have an impressive list of accomplishments….."

"Well, I don't mean to brag, but it wasn't easy, a lot of hard work was done into anything that I've done," Harry said as he made sure to lock eyes with Vicki.

"Oh, I'm sure that you work really hard to get where you were," Vicki whispered to him immediately. "This deal with Wayne Industries….it's raised some eyebrows and there's the merger with STARR….there were a lot of rumors that Lionel Luthor was trying to broker a deal."

"Far from rumors Vicki, I have it on good authority that he was trying to make a deal, I just made a better one, and…..well I think that everyone's going to benefit in the end," Harry told her and the blonde reporter smiled. "I'm sure you can see the benefits."

"From an arrangement with you, I would imagine," Vicki said as she looked at him for a few seconds, raising an eyebrow as she looked at him. She felt her pulse quicken immediately.

"Well yes, many of…..assessed the benefits of a relationship and have felt that their expectations have been met and then exceeded," Harry said as he reached towards her but he casually adjusted the curtain, before pulling back. "I take it you've been working hard….you were in the middle of a situation a few nights ago."

"Yes….yes I was," Vicki said in agreement, the gang war thing…..and the story about the SWAT had been blown open.

"Well, most wouldn't have the spine to go in that war zone and do what needed to be done, but you told the people what they needed to know, and I think that we can all appreciate that," Harry whispered to her and Vicki nodded in affirmation.

"So…..how successful have your plans been so far….for RAO?" Vicki asked as she tried to get herself back on the subject at hand.

"Very successful….we're on schedule, and there are many things on the table but many projects are a work in progress," Harry said as he looked at her, with a knowing glint in his eye. "But then again…..I'm sure that you know about something being a work in progress, as a reporter."

Vicki was nearly visited by a wild impulse, but she never had the chance to act upon it, as there was a knock on the door of the limo.

"I think that the press conference has wrapped up," Harry told her and Vicki slumped her shoulders.

"Well….I guess that concludes our interview," Vicki said and just as it was getting good. She exited the limo, passing Alexandra Potter. "I'll look forward to seeing much more of you, Harry."

"Absolutely," Harry said as he reached forward and shook hands. Once again, their eyes were locked but Vicki pulled away.

"So thank you," Vicki said breathlessly.

"No, thank you," Harry said as Kara, Karen, and Diana also filed in, all three trying to hide some obvious amusement that they have.

' _So, you have that one on the hook, don't you?'_ Kara thought as she smiled brightly. _'Exactly when are you going to reel her in?'_

' _When the time is right,'_ Harry said and there was no more than needed to be said other than that.

* * *

 

The crowd at one of the premier underground Fight Clubs in Gotham City was a rowdy one. There were a lot less respectable businessmen and more mobster types in the crowd. There was a loud round of cheers as Norton stepped into the ring. After his performance against Ben Turner, this was a chance to redeem himself, in his own eyes.

Wildcat warned him not to deal with these underground fight clubs, but the man was past it. Norton smile, he was going with it, and he was going to step into the ring with his enemy.

"Ladies and gentlemen, his opponent, he stands over seven feet tall, and he weighs in tonight at a scale shattering three hundred and eighty five pounds. He is the one, the only, Waylon "Killer Croc" Jones!"

Norton watched the man advance on the ring, looking at him like he was breakfast, lunch, and dinner combined. He could see the individual had scaly grey skin and beady yellow eyes as he entered the ring.

"No problem, don't sweat him, don't sweat him at all, the bigger they come, the harder they fall," Norton said as he rocked himself back and forth, firing himself up. The man who the underground fight circle dubbed as Killer Croc stepped into the cage to fight his latest victim.

Norton was ready for the defining fight of his life. He stared down the beast.

Truthfully he had no idea what he was about to get into.

**To Be Continued on May 30** **th** **2014.**


	30. First Rule Of....Part Two

**Chapter Thirty: First Rule of…..Part Two.**

Harry sensed that there was some kind of calm before the storm but he shook his head, returning home. Gotham City had its periods of quiet, or at least quiet for Gotham City, maybe not quiet by the standards of a normal person. The fact is that it being this quiet…..well it was strange, Harry was not going to say any more other than it being strange. The green eyed wizard popped back home, with his head bent back and a smile on his face.

Some jerk tried to rip off an ATM machine. Harry noticed, he was not going to do a good job at doing so. And then there was a jewelry store robbery as well that added to the problems. That was a bit more major.

Other than that, it was a silent night in Gotham City, which actually made Harry wonder if this was just the prelude to something extremely dangerous. Gotham was interesting as there would be periods of calm that was proceeded by periods of extreme and utter violence.

' _So nothing too much tonight,'_ Dinah concluded to him. She headed in a bit early, mostly because it was a quiet night in Gotham City.

' _No nothing too troubling, I could have done this blindfolded,'_ Harry thought and that was the honest truth really. Never the less, he returned to a position where he could change out of his costume. He did not even receive any injuries, whether they be serious or even minor.

That's what one would consider to be a good night, but perhaps Harry was getting ahead of himself. The green eyed wizard took a breath in and then took a breath out seriously. He rolled his shoulders back and popped his neck back.

It was well after midnight, at least close to two in the morning. Harry wondered if anyone was up and about, he did not really have his full attention on the bond link.

Harry had his gear stripped off completely in the Lair and put away for tonight. The wizard made his way into the shower, to a small bathroom that he had built adjacent to the Lair.

As much as he was happy with how things really went, he understood that this might in fact just have been the calm before the storm. All he had to do is take a shower, clean up, and it would be time to really consider any challenges ahead.

Granted, any challenge, he would accept it full on, that was for sure. The green eyed wizard dried off his hair and got dressed in a standard black shirt and pair of jeans. He walked up, and took a look at the map display, still a bit primitive, but they were working the bugs out. Harry was not about to pass off those works in progress for sure.

In no time flat, Harry was in the Penthouse.

"Hi, Harry!" Karen said in a pleased voice and Harry caught a glimpse of her. She was wearing some extremely lacy and skimpy white lingerie. The cups of the bra were about to burst because of her extremely large breasts. Her flat and juicy looking stomach was displayed fully for him and she gripped him by the wrist, as he saw the full on garter belt and white thong that caused her ass to be displayed. The white stockings empathized her legs fairly nicely.

"Good evening Karen….well technically morning," Harry said as he saw the outline of her breasts sticking out from behind the lingerie and he was….fairly distracted. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, we were just having a nice little meal, waiting up for you, feel free to join us," Karen said as she linked arms with Harry and how was he going to turn down an invitation that was that enticing. The blonde played her role in helping Harry make that decision.

He was greeted by an interesting sight. He could tell that the first girl was Nym based on her demeanor. He knew her all too well. She had long blonde hair and blue eyes, from the neck up, she looked more like Kara's twin sister, although her assets were rather close to Karen's, although perhaps a midway point between the two to be more accurate. She wore a pair of lacy red panties, and a barely there red bra, with the straps going down. Harry saw her fit and firm stomach there and she had her legs crossed, where there was a pair of stockings.

"Harry, sit down, relax," Kara purred, as she wore a matching outfit, although hers was black. It looked absolutely seductive on her and she reached over to the tray, getting a sandwich and casually feeding it to Harry.

Harry bit the sandwich that Kara fed him as Nym and Karen worked over his shoulders. He quite liked the direction that this was going.

' _Oh, I like where this was going,'_ Faora thought, she would join them but there were two problems. She had a bit of late night work to finish, and it was not like she was going to be someone who was going to spoil the motif that was going on.

Kara dipped a cherry into a bowl of cream and then slowly licked the cream off of the cherry and popped it into her mouth. She slowly ate it, making sure Harry had his eyes locked onto what she was doing. Nym and Karen shared a banana, running their tongues down it, and popping it in each their mouths. The girls both took a small bite of it, and rolled their tongues around it.

"Damn," Harry breathed as Kara placed her hand on his shoulder, running her fingers down his now bare chest. She had torn his shirt with a subtle little spell.

"Eat up, honey," Kara purred lustfully in his ear and she ran her hand down towards his belt line, playing with him. The three girls took turns feeding Harry strawberries, some of them, dipping them in certain parts of their body.

"Eat up," Karen said as she put the whip cream covered strawberry in her cleavage and Harry happily sank in, eating strawberries out of his wives cleavage.

"I think we're ready for the main course," Nym said as she shamelessly squeezed Harry's package, no sense of being subtle whatsoever but that was how Nymphadora "Don't Call Me Nymphadora" Tonks rolled.

"Yummy," Kara said as she shoved a strawberry down Harry's pants and then fished it out, popping it into her mouth and chewed on it lustfully. She wrapped her hands around the back of Harry's neck next and kissed him hard after shifting her weight. Her breasts were now uncovered and pressed against Harry's back.

* * *

Nym made sure her breasts were exposed, the creamy delicious orbs, with juicy nipples as she was now on her knees before Harry. His cock was presented to her and without any hesitation or thought, she took his cock in between her breasts, starting to pump them between her orbs.

"I think we can make this better," Karen whispered as she licked her lips lustfully and the blonde slid down to her knees, pressing her breasts on one side of Harry's cock.

The two girls sandwiched Harry's cock between their ample tit flesh and started to rub him furiously. The green eyed wizard felt pleasure course through his body as the two busty blondes worked him over, stroking his cock between their mountains of tit flesh. They really felt good.

Kara licked and sucked the back of his neck and she decided to get some of the action, hovering over off to his side. She licked her tongue against his cock as they were being assaulted.

"Damn, so good," Harry grunted, as the three girls took turns licking and playing with his cock and balls as it came out from between the gorgeous mountains of tit flesh that were assaulting Harry. His balls throbbed with delight.

"Just wait, just relax, it's going to be even better," Kara whispered as she kissed him on the head.

They were going to work him to completion and immediately, Harry's cock exploded, coating their faces and breasts with his delicious creamy delight. The spunk shot into the air like a rocket, coating the girls, covering their faces and breasts with creamy goodness that blew their minds. Immediately, things were going to heat up in the best way possible, and they could not even wait.

"Oh, I think I better clean up that mess," Kara said as she grabbed Nym by the face and started to lick her breasts clean.

Nym threw her head back in pleasure as Kara continued to feast upon her gorgeous breasts, sucking her nipples. She twirled her tongue skillfully around her.

"Oh, hard already," Karen said with a wide grin on her face and she got on her hands and knees, wiggling her rump at Harry.

Harry really had no hesitation on what to do, rather he brushed his throbbing length against the edge of her pussy.

The blonde whimpered as he teased her slit and was this close to entering her just like that. The green eyed wizard cupped her breasts from behind and speared into her so deep that she was about ready to scream out loud.

Nym suddenly felt herself pushed down onto the bed by Kara who buried her face between the dripping thighs of the shape changing witch.

' _Oh, it seems like your tits aren't the only thing that's dirty and needs cleaning out,'_ Kara cooed as she drove her tongue in and out of her hot snatch.

"Oh, oh, oh, yes, yes, yes!" Nym shouted as she bucked her hips up as fast as she could go and Kara munched hungrily on her cunt, sucking the juices from them.

Kara continued to munch away at Nym's dripping hot pussy, as she licked her immediately. The blonde was really going to town.

"Damn, that's really so hot," Harry grunted as the green eyed wizard pushed so hard into her. The blonde's walls tightened around him.

"Yes….yes it is," Karen whimpered as Harry cupped her breasts. The energy pulsed through her amazing tits as Harry plowed so far deep into her from behind that the female was this close to losing all sense of her emotions.

He licked the back of her neck as he continued to work into her. The blonde clutched onto the bed as she tightened.

"I think….oh, I think that she wants some of that," Kara whispered as she placed her finger inside of Nym's heated core and pumped in and out of her.

"Yes….FUCK YES!" Nym yelled at the top of her lungs as Kara stuck one finger up her ass and fingered her rectum at super speed, which caused her to explode with pleasure.

Harry smiled as a dupe was split off. He was this close to having her, with the wizard sliding over, and he cupped her dripping hot pussy.

"I wonder how much she wants it," Harry whispered and Nym looked at him, her eyes burning with hunger and passion as she licked her lips.

"Yes….I need it….all of the way," Nym whimpered in pleasure as Harry held his cock against the edge of her entrance.

A few inches were pushed inside and juices spilled down her thighs, with the green eyed wizard grabbed her. The wizard slammed deep into her juicy cunt, hammering her.

"TAKE ME!" Nym shrieked and sure enough Harry hung onto her, working in and out of her hot pussy. The tightening walls continued to clamp around him as Harry worked her hard. She lifted her pussy up, to squeeze them.

"FUCK" Karen yelled as Harry grabbed onto her breasts from behind as he speared so deep into her that her walls were completely stretched apart.

It did feel so good with the blonde feeling sensations that exploded through her mind. His cock also stretched out her hot core, as he jack hammered into her at super speed. The green eyed wizard grabbed her nice tits and kissed her on the back of the neck.

Every sensation spilled through her body, the blonde's tightening cunt wrapped around his stiff pole of a cock.

Harry smiled, it was always good to be in this amazing sheath of womanhood as he kept picking up the pace and brought her further and further to the edge.

Nym looked up and saw Kara's glistening pussy hovering over her face. Her tender, moist womanhood was right there in her face and the blonde grabbed her around the hips, forcing her mouth down onto her dripping hot slit.

She extended her tongue using her powers which caused Kara's head to tilt back and her to scream towards the heavens as she was licked out, hard and fast.

"Damn, so….so fucking good," Kara whined as she could feel that tongue go into her so hard and return the favor from earlier.

Nym could not say anything, she was focused on the beautiful pussy that hovered above her face and also the super thick cock that speared between her legs. The woman's walls clamped around him and brought him deep into her with several strokes. There was no question about it, she was about to mentally lose it, and her hips weakly lifted up as she felt him go deeper into her.

Deeper yet and her mind was blown as he speared so far into her. The shape changer's walls clamped around his throbbing hard cock immediately speared deep into her.

Harry groaned, she could make herself so tight that it would have hurt a normal man but he enjoyed her pussy, as it got wetter. The green eyed wizard kept going so far deep into her that her cunt gushed with the juices.

"OOOH!" Kara screamed at the top of her lungs as Nym used her tongue to go even deeper in the female's dripping cunt. She lapped up the juices like it was no one's business and she continued to hump the tongue as it pumped in between her legs.

Karen could watch her double being pleasured and Harry blew her mind with another orgasm. He channeled energy through her tits and that caused her mind to explode.

"Careful, we're almost there," Harry whispered and Karen floated off of the bed, although her knees were still bent.

Holding her around the hips, Harry speared so far deep into her that it caused her moans to increase in intensity. The blonde's tightening walls pushed around him, as his balls were this close to unloading into her. A few more thrusts and she would in fact have all that he had inside her.

Karen could not hold it back, she wanted his cum to swim around on the inside of her, injecting her with the creamy goodness as only Harry could. His hands hung onto her breasts as he quickened his rapid fire thrusts deep into her.

His balls smacked against her thighs and he picked up a steadier pace as she whined. Her walls enclosed around him as the green eyed wizard picked up a steadier pace and pushed himself into her.

Now that the Harry dupe filled Nym's pussy up with his juices, Kara was on it like a ravenous animal. She smiled as she dug into Nym's hot cunt.

The dupe was at full hardness again and the only decision he had was between Kara's pussy and her ass, both that looked enticing.

Of course, for someone could duplicate himself, it was an easy situation. He could take them both right away.

Kara squealed, biting down on Nym's clit which caused her to explode. The thick length that went up her ass was good and Harry managed to insert himself into her pussy. She was assaulted on both sides, being double teamed by two Harry dupes.

"Feels….so fucking good!" Kara screamed as Nym laid back on the bed, completely drooling and wrecked from the actions.

Karen was being brought to the edge and then even further as Harry continued to bury himself into her. He sped up his actions.

"Please, please," Karen moaned as her pussy clenched and she milked his incoming thrusts.

Harry smiled, he was going to cum with her together so the explosion was extremely memorable. The green eyed wizard pumped himself into her pussy as he fingered her ass.

That caused her juices to coat his cock which allowed the lubrication to piston in and out of her as they hovered in the air at ease, with Harry biting on the back of her neck. That caused her to squeal in pleasure.

"Dirty, dirty, girl," Karen moaned as she clenched his rod between her thighs and the blonde once again felt him as he implanted his thick tool into her. She breathed in and breathed out, biting down onto him immediately.

The green eyed wizard finished off in her, sending several white hot spurts of cum deep into her vaginal channel. She felt the creamy white fluid inject into her as she was rocked, milking his prick again and again as he continued to work into her.

Cum oozed out of her pussy as she sank down onto the bed and Harry finished in Kara's ass and pussy some time later.

Nym and Karen worked their way over to feast on Kara and the dance continued anew.

* * *

The sun was barely up in the morning in Gotham City, in fact it was a calm seven o'clock in the morning in Gotham City. One could say that all was clear, all was calm, but that was not an indication of what was happening.

"A dead body washed up on the shore, what a fucking way to start off the morning," Bullock grumbled as he made his way down the cliffs, with Renee Montoya following him with good grace. The woman kept following behind him, and she kept herself extremely calm all things considered.

"It's not exactly the best way to start off the day," Renee said as she kept walking. "Bit of a treck down there."

"Well obviously, no one wanted us to find it, but someone saw it, somewhere," Bullock said but since the person who called in the tip called it in from a payphone, it would be rather difficult. "So, the city's been all a buzz about that Potter, you know from RAO….."

"Yes, Harry Potter, I know," Renee said, she did meet Harry, although the meeting was not brief enough to scratch the surface.

"Kid went back after the press conference last night and did an interview with Vale…..although one of the guys said that they thought they saw her go into the back of the limo in the afternoon with Potter and come out about an hour later or so," Bullock said as he nearly tripped over a discarded beer bottle and cursed, kicking it down the mountain. "If you ask me, he hit it right there in the back of the limo, can't say I blame him either. Vale's such a…"

Bullock stopped when he realized he said too much and Renee's gaze was on him.

"A what, precisely?" Renee asked.

"Body should be down here somewhere," Bullock said as he switched tracks hastily. "Likely a homicide, that's what we got to treat it as."

Renee nodded, she knew how things worked in Gotham City, or rather she learned pretty quickly. It was always a homicide, even if a guy was found hanging by his neck in his own closet, there was always a chance that it would be foul play.

"So, did you see the fight last night?" Renee asked as they were nearly at the bottom of the cliff, about ready to reach their destination. She could hear Bullock grumbling underneath his breath. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Lost an entire month's paycheck betting on the fight, thought the kid might pull one off," Bullock said as Renee raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, odd's makers said that he wouldn't last past the first round but….fuck Grant's training him, the guy was the…."

Bullock paused as he stepped in something quite sticky on the beach.

"Son of a bitch, there are anti-littering laws in this city, lazy motherfuckers!" Bullock cursed as he nearly slipped on a used condom that had washed up on the beach. "I don't want to be standing in your fucking jizz, do you hear me?"

Renee was not going to say anything, but given that all of the laws that were broken in Gotham City, someone breaking a littering ordinance would be the least of their worries.

It was a long and winding trip down to the bottom of the cliff but they reached there, immediately.

"Body should be down here somewhere, just got to find it," Bullock grumbled as he looked around. Of course, with the way the tide was, that was going to be easier said than done. Someone might have come down and swiped the body before they got here.

"Look," Renee said pointing towards the ghastly sight that was half submerged in the water, of a black skinned male lying face down.

"Well I'll be damned," Bullock said as his blood ran could from some reason. Mostly because of the nasty purplish discoloring and the fact that the individual laying in the water appeared to be mauled by someone, looking over his shoulder, he locked eyes with Renee. He took a few steps forward and realized something. Other than the fact that the person was missing an arm, with a huge bite mark where it could be attached.

It was Norton who was the one who was lying in the shallow waters, and he had been long dead.

"Well shit, call it in rookie," Bullock said as he could barely even say anything.

Harvey Bullock thought that he had seen it all during his time on the GCPD but this….well this was beyond everything that he had seen. It was a hideous outcome to a young man who had been cut down in the prime of his life.

Questions had gone through his mind, who had done it although judging by those teeth marks, he wondered what had done it.

He could barely hear Montoya in the distance calling it in. It was far from the first time he came across a dismembered body.

* * *

"Gentlemen, we're about to make art."

A van pulled up in front of the Gotham National Bank and a gaggle of henchmen walked from the car, all of them wearing the masks of the ex-Presidents of the United States. They were all armed to the teeth, and walked two at a time. Reagan and Carter walked side by side, followed by Nixon and Johnson, and then Roosevelt and Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Kennedy were bringing up the pack.

The leader of the pack was pack was an individual wearing a blinding red tie on, along with green gloves, and a purple jacket, although he was wearing the mask of Abraham Lincoln.

"Four score and seven years ago, we made this plan to rob these motherfuckers blind," "Lincoln" stated as he stepped forward. "I cannot tell a lie, this plan is going to go off without a hitch."

"Yeah, let's do this," "Carter" said as the group made their way into the Bank and proceeded to blow down the doors.

"Hands in the fucking air!" "Regan" growled at the top of his lungs. "We're the mother fucking ex-presidents, and….ON THE GROUND NOW!"

"Yeah, it's time for you to bend over and give us all your money, just like you fucks have been doing for years," "Kennedy" said as he pointed a Magnum at them. "Put your asses on the ground right now….NOW!"

The Presidents cycled through the building and all of the bank costumers and employees got down to the ground.

"It's a New Deal with you all, on the ground now and stay there until we let you up!" "Roosevelt" yelled and the other "Roosevelt" stomped on onto the ground. "Hey LBJ, heads up."

"Thank you very much," "LBJ" said as he took the package and stuffed it into the drawer as his fellow presidents began to frisk them.

It was happening so quickly, two security guards were shot when they tried to intervene and they dropped onto the ground.

"Hands….on your knees, on your knees," "Reagan" said.

"Too bad Willie didn't come along with us for the ride, he's good at getting people to drop to their knees," "Carter" quipped.

"Hey, Jimmy Boy, keep an eye on it, that one's packing," "Reagan" said.

"I have a state of a union for this one, the people in this bank are about to experience a plummeting recession," "LBJ" said as he shoved him down.

"Boys, we need a minute alone, careful, careful, careful with that Dicky," "Abe" said with a slightly sinister laughter that echoed through his voice.

"Hey, no need to keep an eye on me, I'm not a crook!" "Nixon" said as they were wrapping up the bank robbery just like that. There was no question about it, things were about ready to get insane.

"Well you sure act like one," "Roosevelt" said as he bowled over another security guard, standing his ground.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" "Abe" yelled, they had what they wanted, having cleared out the bank and he turned. "Your country thanks you for your service and remember it's your civic duty to vote, even though we're all criminals."

The Ex-Presidents laughed as they moved off into the distance, as quickly as they returned, leaving those who were still on the ground in the bank, quiet bamboozled. They really had no idea what in the hell just happened, but if they lived through this, they would have quite the story to tell.

However, the night was far from over as the squeals of several cars pulling up could be heard and they came to an abrupt stop.

Several cars pulled up to the bank to block their getaway car. There were several Mafia types that spilled out of the cars and they were packing guns big time.

"Okay, gentlemen, I think we need to have a movement to cool down," "Abe" said as he and his gang stared down them down.

Then he pressed a button on the remote and the package that they stashed in the drawer of one of the desks, it was a bomb and it went off. A huge explosion went off inside the bank and caused the windows to shatter.

The mafia types were startled, and the Ex-Presidents made their way to the vehicle, with the man in the mask smiling, as he slipped something from his sleeve, allowing it to fall to the ground as he entered the vehicle.

"Ah, why the glum face, why so serious?" "Abe" asked, as he held his head down as the driver drove off. No one could have gotten a clear shot of any of their faces.

The mob bolted immediately, leaving the police to have more questions than they did answers, which never was a good thing at all. The car pulled up, as the bank was totaled.

"Everyone, get back, send in the bomb squad and then medical personnel, in case….in case there are bodies in there!" one of the cops said, brushing past a piece of paper that laid on the ground, a playing card of some sort.

It was all about the people who were in the bank still, although much to their surprise, no one was harmed, at least too much, other than from the smoke inhalation.

It was just another day in Gotham City for them in many ways as they nearly choked on the smoke and several of them walked into the bank, seeing the debris. They had to move carefully for there might have been another bomb in there for all they knew.

The big question was who was leading this little operation, given that witnesses who phoned in saw them having a standoff with some mobsters outside, so it might not be any of the normal parties. No, it was something else entirely, and they were not sure if they liked that at all.

* * *

It was a quiet morning in the Penthouse, in fact there were a few parties that were sitting firmly in the kitchen. Lily was the first of these parties as she sat firmly in Harry's lap. She looked to be in there for the long haul without any intention of leaving any time soon, at least that's what the plan was.

Not that Harry was complaining about his mother in that position. Especially as she was wearing a transparent white night dress that showed the outlines of her breasts and it was obvious that she was wearing little if anything in the way of underwear underneath.

Rose made her way around to serve breakfast, she was dressed in a black night shirt that extended past her knees, and the outlines of her amazing legs could be shown.

"So, are we about to come down to a decision of where we're going to put the school?" Rose asked Lily and Harry and the two of them smiled but it was Harry who answered.

"Well there are a few good locations that we had," Harry said as Lily helped herself to a piece of toast and slowly chewed on it with a smile on her face as she shifted her weight across Harry's lap. He held her firmly on his lap. "One of them would be in Westchester, Massachusetts, another would potentially be in Central City, and there's always Metropolis."

"What about Gotham City?" Rose asked as she frowned immediately and crossed her arms underneath her chest.

It was Lily who fielded that one, taking a moment to sip on a cup of coffee. "Well as much as we live it here in Gotham City, I think that it's out, with the GPA and the GCU here, good schools, given that they put out some good students like Pamela and Barbara."

' _Thank you, you're too kind,'_ Pamela said with a bow.

' _Just don't let it get to your head,'_ Faora thought to her and Karen snickered. _'What, what's so funny?'_

' _Nothing, just nothing,'_ Karen said as she was in Metropolis and had helped herself to a giant pot of coffee as she went through the task that no one wanted to go through, mountains and mountains of paperwork.

"Everything is on schedule as it should have been," Rose said as Lily smiled and shifted her taut ass against Harry's groin, causing a small amount of friction to work him up. He tightened his grip around Lily, holding her in place, but she looked back, a lustful gaze in her eyes.

"Behave," Harry whispered as he slapped his mother on the ass and Lily gave a mocking pout immediately but she resumed eating the breakfast, licking her lips clean.

The news was going on in the background there was nothing of note, at least nothing out of the ordinary for a place like Gotham City. Regardless, Lily sucked the syrup off of her fingers and threw her head back immediately.

The redhead watched as someone else came down the stairs immediately and there was Dinah. She dried off her hair as she just got out of the shower, twisting her hips from one side to the next as she kept walking. She slid it a stop immediately, frowning as she saw Harry sitting there with Lily and Rose at the table. Dressed in one of Harry's shirts and a tight pair of blue jeans, she moved forward immediately.

"I thought that you were in class today," Dinah said to Harry but never the less she leaned forward and gave Harry a lingering kiss this morning.

Rose and Lily, so they were not left out, got kisses as well. Lily in particular shoved her tongue halfway down Dinah's throat, not that she minded.

Harry waited for his mother to get it out of her system although she was in quite the mood this morning. She backed off and Harry decided to tell her.

"Yes, I have class today, but it's scheduled for later this afternoon, both of them," Harry said to Dinah and she nodded. "Then I have a tutoring session with the University girls after the fact."

Rose finally sat down and helped herself to a stack of pancakes with a smile on her face as she dug in. "Well, you always have a productive day, don't you?"

"Always," Harry agreed with a smile as Lily downed the cup of coffee that she had poured for the time. "I don't know, it's quiet….too quiet."

' _Must you tempt fate,'_ Zatanna thought with a groan and there were a lot of females who agreed.

"I understand where you're coming from," Dinah agreed as she tapped her finger against the side of the coffee cup that she had and then downed it all in one gulp. "Ever since the fight happened…..well everything has been a bit too quiet, hasn't it?"

"Yes….yes it has," Harry said for a second as he nodded. "That was the biggest news that came out of Gotham City in a while, I mean, you flip on the news, and really nothing has been happening out of the ordinary."

' _Makes you think something big is going to happen,'_ Penny said, although she could only begin to guess what.

"Well, we better enjoy the vacation why we can," Dinah said as she continued to drink from the cup of coffee she had. She shook her head, smiling. "All downhill from here really."

"I'd imagine so," Harry said and Lily slid off of his lap. Given that she had been firmly planted there over the last hour, Harry wondered about the change of her demeanor.

Suddenly, the green eyed witch leaned forward and gave Harry one lingering kiss on the cheek. She pulled away.

"I've got to check up with Fleur, about a project that we're working on," Lily said and Harry raised an eyebrow, to say that he was curious about this, well that would be putting things mildly. Regardless Lily moved off, swaying her ass, and Rose followed her, both to follow her and also to shamelessly check out her older sister's ass.

' _So, what do you think that was about?'_ Gabrielle thought and Amanda and Emily had no answers, they were much in the dark.

Dinah shrugged, as she went back to her Breakfast until a special news report popped on screen.

"This is Jack Ryder, in for a special news report. Shocking news today, as the body of Lightheavyweight contender David Bradley Norton was found dead this morning."

The pictures of the body were shown on the television, in all of their ghastly details, which made Dinah's eyes widen in shock, and she suddenly figured that breakfast was not something that she had the appetite for anymore.

* * *

Harry had about an hour before classes started and he was about ready to head up to take a shower but he heard something on his way to his room that gave him a moment of pause. He heard a muffled scream and he wondered if he should get involved. He knew that his girls had some interesting fetishes sometimes and he wondered if he should get involved.

The sound of the whip cracking against flesh caused him to stand up at attention and he made his way, locating the source of the sound. As it turned out, the sound was located in Rose's and Lily's room. Harry corked an eyebrow, looking extremely curious as he took a couple of swift steps to the room. He wondered what he was getting into now.

The door opened and what Harry saw blew him away. He saw Lily standing there with her hair tied back in a ponytail. Her green eyes were dancing with malicious naughtiness and she wore a spiked black collar around her neck. She wore a leather black corset that caused her breasts to look rather larger than they were and were about ready to fall out of the top. Black fingerless gloves added to the appeal of the whip in her hand. She wore a black thong that barely covered the areas of her body that needed to be covered. There were thigh high black boots that covered her legs that added to the allure of the situation.

Harry once again followed them with a hungry gaze, he was not quite sure what to make of this situation, other than the fact that he enjoyed what he was seeing one hundred percent of the way.

Presently, Fleur was bound and gagged on the bed as Lily whipped her thong clad ass. She wore white lingerie where she was practically spilling out of the top of it. She wore a white thong that showcased her amazing ass and her face had a look of eternal lust on it. Thigh high white stockings added to the appeal of her extremely alluring legs.

Rose was behind Harry and she cupped his growing arousal as she kissed him firmly on the back of the neck, squeezing him from behind.

Lily's lust danced in her eyes, as she turned to face Harry. She commented to him in a chirpy tone of voice. "Hello Harry, so nice of you to join us."

Harry had many questions although Rose was slowly working over the buttons of his shirt and then his pants. Her soft hands ran over his muscular chest as she kissed him on the back of the neck.

"Miss Delacour has been a very naughty girl, and she's in need for some punishment," Lily said as she cracked Fleur right on her thong clad ass. The Veela was positioned at the moment where the arousal soaked right through her white thong. "If you will like, you can have Rose attend to you, as I complete the lesson."

Rose already backed up Harry towards a chair, there was a thinly veiled look of lust in her eyes as she squeezed and played with his member and his balls, trying to bring him to full hardness, as hunger danced through her eyes.

"It will be my pleasure," Rose purred as she pulled down his boxer shorts and carefully inspected the merchandise that she had to deal with. She licked her lips, as always, she was going to enjoy this.

* * *

Rose did in fact drop down to her knees and wrapped her lips around his large tool. She took her nephew deep into her mouth and then pulled out. She held onto his hips and slammed him deep into her throat, as Harry hung onto the back of her head.

"See that," Lily whispered to Fleur as she cracked the whip down onto her tight backside and caused her to explode into some whimpering. "Is that what you want? Is that what you want, sweetheart?"

Fleur nodded but she could not say anything through the gag.

"We'll see how good you treat me, and we'll see if you get some of that cock, you dirty whore," Lily said as she watched her younger sister blow her son hungrily.

Rose looked up at Harry, her top was now shredded and her breasts were bared. The green eyed wizard pawed her nice breasts and caused her to whimper as the nipples hardened in his hands.

The wizard speared deep into her throat immediately and the woman continued to slurp and wrap her lips around him.

His hands traveled down her body, cupping and pinching her lovely breasts and it caused her mouth to wrap around him as her mouth speared all the way down her throat. The woman's throat cavity closed around him and she titled her head back, with a lustful moan that came through her throat.

"Oh yes," Harry grunted as he could feel her mouth spear down all the way down onto him and his balls throbbed with desire as they slapped against her chin. He speared himself deep into her mouth.

Fleur's mouth was released from the gag and Lily replaced it with a new gag, her pussy. She arched her back and moaned as Fleur dove between her legs.

"Oh, eat me out you dirty girl, that's it, don't displease your mistress, or you'll be….very dry and very empty," Lily moaned and Fleur channeled a bit of the allure through her tongue as she kept digging into her.

"Damn, so fucking hot," Harry groaned and it was hard to not to with the woman's mouth slamming down onto his throbbing cock as it went down on the back of her throat. The woman's tight mouth continued to wrap around him as he slammed into her face.

Rose slurped and sucked, her super tight mouth going around his cock and her hand stroking his balls back and forth, trying to coax the cum out of it. Eventually Harry plowed his rod into her mouth and sent an insane level of cum.

She nearly choked on his seed as Harry exploded like a fire hose in her mouth.

"Rose, give Fleur a treat, she's earned it," Lily whimpered and Rose sauntered over immediately.

Rose stuck out her tongue as Harry's seed was dripping from it.

"Say aww," Rose whispered and Fleur opened her mouth, allowing Rose to shove her cum soaked tongue into Fleur's mouth.

"Good girl," Lily whispered as she spanked Fleur's ass as Rose shared Harry's cum. She turned around and saw Harry's rod standing at attention and he rushed over.

He slammed Lily against the wall, her breasts bared as he kissed her. Lily returned the kiss as his thick rod speared into her exposed pussy, the dripping core wrapped around his really thick rod. The woman was whining as she held onto Harry's shoulder and the wizard kept working into her, speeding up the pace as he rocked her tight pussy.

"That's it, oh that's it," Lily whined as she wrapped her legs around him and he captured one of her glorious nipples in his mouth and sucked it.

Rose was determined to get relief as she shoved Fleur's face into her pussy and made her eat the juice. With a look in her eyes that made her look like a wanton whore, she sucked the juices from the young Veela's pussy.

"Oh….oh…so good," Lily moaned.

She was seeing stars from the orgasm as Harry held onto her hips and kept ramming her against the wall. She pumped her hips around his rod, milking his thrusts and her legs tightened around him. The woman's nails sunk into his neck and she sucked on his earlobe.

Harry was spurred through more lust as he felt her walls lustfully hug him and his balls slap against her thighs as she pumped herself into him.

Rose was prepared on the bed as she shoved her tongue down Fleur's throat. The woman's dripping cunt was exposed and a Harry dupe slid behind her.

"Take that bitch up the ass," Lily whimpered as she came down from an amazing orgasm, at least one that blew her mind, as her eyes were averted towards Fleur.

"Got it, Mum," Harry grunted as he kept spearing his thick length deep into his mother's pussy.

Fleur felt his thick cock against her ass and her anal region was about ready to be invaded. A ball gag was now in her mouth.

"Dirty girl, like being fucked up the ass," Harry whispered and he rammed deep into Fleur's tight anal cavity and rammed so far into her that she nearly exploded in pleasure.

Fleur was being rammed into the ground and Harry rode into her and sure enough another Harry slid into Rose, stretching out her dripping hot cunt.

Rose tightened around Harry's tool and the wizard kept going into her so hard that she was about to explode with even more pleasure. Her eyes screwed shut as she moaned and threw her head back, whining with pleasure.

Harry nearly pulled all the way out of her, teasing the edge of her pussy and she whined as the juices dripped from her. She wanted him, she wanted him badly. He could smell it, he could taste it.

He was going to give it to her as he speared his cock into her, long and fast, with amazing strokes that stretched out her delightful cunt. The woman's walls tightened around him as he kept working around him. There was a moment where Harry cupped her breasts immediately and then nailed his aunt hard from behind.

She moaned lustfully as Harry kept going back and forth into her, picking up the pace immediately. The green eyes of Harry Potter exploded with even more lust than ever before as her wet center hugged him.

Lily felt her back press against the wall as Harry pumped in and out of her, causing her mind to lose itself immediately. He cupped her breasts and she panted as he worked into her, going deeper into her, so deep that she was pretty close to losing it.

She tightly clenched his rod as he nearly pulled all the way out of her, touching his cock against her slit.

"Take me, hard," Lily encouraged him, biting down on his neck in encouragement and Harry was nearly out of her, the tip was brushed against her.

He gave his mother everything that she desired and then some as he plunged himself really deep into her. His rod took itself into her, burying into her dripping wetness. He hung onto her and she whined, as she pushed her hips back and forth, to work herself against him.

"Yes, yes, oh yes," Rose whined but she was also screaming because of what Harry was doing to Fleur, that was equally enticing.

Fleur squealed loudly as his thick rod speared deep into her anal cavity and the woman clutched against the side of the bed. His balls kept slapping against her ass as he buried himself deeper and deeper into her. His rod went into her ass and he caused her great pleasure, to the point where her mind almost exploded as he went deeper into her. He picked up a steadier pace as well.

"Just keep on it, hang on, I think you deserve a bit of a treat," Harry whispered and he conjured a magical vibrator before sticking it in Fleur's tight cunt.

The woman screamed out loud immediately as the dildo was rammed into her dripping hot cunt and he dug it deep into her pussy. The explosive whines could be heard from her as he continued to drill Fleur's ass like he owned it and he did in fact own it.

Lily meanwhile was being fucked cross eyed against the wall. Her legs tightened around him and she drooled as the pleasure of her son's hard rod went into her. Then he pulled out, leaving her hungry for more.

He now spun her around and he slapped her on the ass. She looked over at him with a "take me" look in her eyes. Harry grabbed onto Lily's hips and speared into her tight ass, taking her completely.

Lily squealed in delight as Harry hammered into her, his throbbing length going so far into her that she thought that she was going to explode with the pleasure. His balls slapped against her thighs and the woman was really losing it.

Rose was also going to join her sister in losing it as Harry passed her, working so far into her that her walls were going to be stretched out. She was about ready to mentally go down and her whining continued to escalate to a loud squeal.

Fleur was going to lose it; in fact, she almost passed out from the intensity of his pumping thrusts into her tight ass.

"Almost there, we're almost there," Harry whispered and Fleur nodded up and down, her hunger barely even sated.

She got her treat, as did the other two females. There was a huge blast of cum that rocked their bodies collectively. They were brought to the edge of their passions and their minds exploded from everything that they felt.

* * *

James Gordon was summoned by Chief O'Hara and he wondered exactly why, although if he had to hazard a guess, it was about the events over the last couple of weeks. He made his way down the hallway and he heard a frantic argument from the other side of O'Hara's office door. As he made his way closer, he could hear just enough to get the picture.

"Loeb seems to think that I did the best thing I could do given the situation," Branden said and O'Hara popped off with another response.

"Yeah, well, do something like that again, that puts people's lives in danger, and not even Loeb will be able to save you, he used up a lot of political capital to get you off the hook, boy, and don't think that you can get away with another stunt like this as long as I'm breathing."

"Yes well…."

"Just don't say anything, you're on thin ice as it is, pal, fuck up like that again, and you'll be busted down so far that you won't even get a job cleaning the toilets at the GCPD," O'Hara said as he showed some of that fiery temper.

Gordon knew that Branden got raked over the coals because of something like this and if he was perfectly honest, there was a lot of that which just had to make him smile immediately. He had seen a female that he had never seen before in his life. She lit up a cigarette and appeared to be waiting for O'Hara just like he was. She had long blonde hair that framed her face and piercing bluish-green eyes. She was dressed in a regulation black shirt and blue jeans as she waited.

He was interested in a professional manner why she was here but before he could investigate the situation any further, the doors burst open and Braden stormed out in a tizzy, obviously not happy about how this occurred.

Gordon and Braden stopped at each other, staring each other down. It was obvious to Gordon that Braden blamed him somewhat for the situation at hand, despite the fact that he was trying to do his job and nothing else.

"Essen, Gordon, in my office, now!" O'Hara yelled immediately and Branden cast him one more dirty look but Gordon refused to back down, he was not about to let him continue.

The woman, apparently known as Essen, gave Gordon a dirty look of her own and she looked at him. "Continue your Macho pissing bullshit later."

Gordon turned, although he did not really turn his back on Branden, not until he was completely out of range. He was that type of individual that no one in their right mind would ever turn their backs off and Gordon was someone who had a lot more sense than most in the GCPD.

O'Hara sat behind his desk; he had a lot of work to do, as Braden was raked over the coals of Internal Affairs, although he was injured for most of his suspension from leading the SWAT team. Exactly how much of those injuries were something that he milked in a ploy to get sympathy was something that was up for a lot of debate but it was there.

"Essen, Gordon, sit down," O'Hara ordered the two of them. "Sarah Essen, this is James Gordon, he is one of the chief members of the Gotham City Police Department. Gordon, Essen is being transferred in to work with the GCPD."

"A pleasure to meet you," Gordon said in his most cordial voice and she shook his hand, keeping a calm and professional demeanor as she looked him in the eye.

"Likewise," Sarah said as she turned to O'Hara but it was O'Hara who addressed Gordon.

"What do you know about the bank robbery?" O'Hara asked.

"The bombs….weren't bombs in the traditional sense, more like it was someone who was sending a message," Gordon said as he folded his arms and strained his neck back as he considered all of the options. "I don't know what that message might be….."

"Without a motive, there is no clue whatsoever," O'Hara concluded and Gordon stiffly nodded his head.

"There's no motive, at least none that I can see," Gordon said to O'Hara and he decided to jump in with more of his explanation. "Some of the equipment we recovered from the blast sight, it was the military grade weaponry and they might be tied back to the Penguin."

O'Hara nodded gruffly, the Penguin had been introducing an entirely new class of gangster into Gotham City the moment where he set up shop. It was not like the old goons of the days of old, these men had weapons unlike which that the GCPD had ever dealt with. They had often said that they were going to war, and that was not something that was said lightly, unlike it was in years past.

"No clue if the problem will dry up now that the crates that have been stolen from Wayne had been recovered," O'Hara said and there was the opportunity that there was something was missed. "We do know that group of gangsters that were seen leaving the scene belonged to Falcone."

"Caught them trying to flee the scene of the crime about a block away, although what they had to do with the Ex-President Gang, I don't know," Gordon said to O'Hara.

"Well, it's an ongoing investigation," O'Hara said as he swung things back to the situation at hand. "But enough about this case, as I mentioned, this is Detective Sarah Essen, she transferred in from New York. I want you to show the works and makes sure she learns her way around Gotham."

"Well it will be a pleasure meeting you," Gordon said and Essen nodded crisply to him with a smile.

Before this conversation could get any further there was a knock on the door that brought them out of their thoughts. O'Hara craned his neck and he quickly stated in a gruff voice. "The door's unlocked."

Right on cue, Harvey Dent stuck his neck into the office and he looked at O'Hara, and then acknowledge Gordon and Essen with the briefest of nods. "You got a minute?"

"Yes," O'Hara replied gruffly, Harvey Dent rarely bothered him for trivial purposes and he walked out of the office to meet with him.

* * *

Dinah waited outside of Ted Grant's gym, the creatively titled "Grant's." Given what happened to Norton earlier today, she could tell that her old mentor was not going to be in the best sense of mind a lot of the time. Therefore she was going to proceed with this matter calmly and with utter caution, hoping that he would not blow up at her or anything like that.

That being said, she was waiting for Harry, he was not late per say, she was early. If she had to guess correctly, he would be on his way right soon.

' _I'm coming right now,'_ Harry told Dinah and that was one of those statements that indicated that he was about there.

' _So did you think about it?'_ Diana thought immediately and Dinah knew what she was talking about immediately.

' _Taking a trip to the island, I thought about it, I did more than think about it, just need to figure out a time,'_ Dinah thought as she placed her hands on the back of her head. _'Guess, we'll find out sooner, rather than later.'_

' _Yes, we would be glad to see you when you come by,'_ Hippolyta said as she had seen what Dinah was capable from afar but naturally seeing something from afar and experiencing something on the island were two different things. She was rather intrigued to see what she was capable of.

' _Here,'_ Harry said to Dinah. _'Sorry….'_

' _Oh no need to apologize, you weren't supposed to be here for another twenty three seconds anyway,'_ Dinah thought as she looked over her shoulder and smiled at Harry

Amanda, being Amanda, could not really help but chime in. _'She had it timed.'_

' _Estimated actually, I'm not like some people who are that anal retentive,'_ Dinah thought with a smile. Although her mother used to be like that, always had to be punctual to the last second and if she was not, she threw a tizzy. Of course, she was nowhere near as bad as some people turned out to be and she mellowed out a bit towards the end of her life.

Then again, being a hero meant that people had some issues. Never the less, Dinah shook her head and turned to Harry.

"So shall we?" Dinah asked him.

"Let's go," Harry said firmly as he locked arms around the golden haired hero immediately and the two of them made their way into the gym.

It was a rather standard gym, with mats on the ground, and punching bags that swung from the ceiling. There was a ring in the middle, and weight lifting equipment in the corner. There were posters advertising a few past fights that Grant was in but they really did seem more like an afterthought.

They spotted Grant in the corner of the gym as he was pounding the hell out of a punching bag to the point where he was knocking the stuffing out of it. His arm was curved up as he kept nailing it immediately.

He spotted Harry and Dinah make their way into the gym and they were holding hands. He chuckled and this was something that amused me. And given the day that he had, Grant needed some amusement. "Well, I guess that your old man owes me fifty bucks when he wakes up."

Dinah's eyes bugged out and Harry tried not to look too amused. "Wait….wait….what?...No wait, you actually betted….on my love life."

"Just a friendly little wager really, nothing too serious," Grant said as he looked at the two of them but he could tell that there was no use dancing around the Elephant in the Room. "I suppose that you're here to check up on me after what happened with the kid."

"That was the idea," Harry said and Grant nodded gruffly as he lead them forward.

"Kid's come from the wrong side of the tracks, although I thought he finally got his life back together," Grant told him. "Norton was…..well he grew up in the Bowery, in the bad part of town, both of his parents were dead by the time he got into High School, but he dropped out of that. He got into some shit with the mob and on the underground, got into some underground fighting, bare knuckle brawling, questionable legality, you see."

Yes Harry could see.

"It's some of the things that you might have seen when….well which one were you?" Grant asked and there was a moment where Harry looked at him. "I'm guessing you're the one that's not Batman."

Harry only offered the briefest of nods but that was more than enough.

"Which mean's he's Batman, figured that one was the other, although I wasn't sure which," Grant said but he returned for his trip down memory lane. "I had to come into the GCPD to identify the body, and it's far worse than they said. Which is a shame, with a bit more time and a bit more patience, he would have been a damn good fighter. He was getting there."

"So what did he do with the mob?" Harry asked him.

"He was a mob enforcer for Rupert Thorne, but he left when I got ahold of him, told the old tub of goo where to stick it as well, of course the man holds a grudge, given how he set him up the other night," Grant said gruffly. "Thorne's running the gambling and fighting racket in Gotham at the very least, other things to. Guy's got his finger in a lot of dirty shit."

Harry figured as much regarding Thorne. He had been working with it since the days of the Roman running Gotham City. However since Falcone was committed, Thorne decided to go from second in command to the man in charge.

"So….so do you think Thorne got him killed?" Dinah asked seriously and Grant shrugged, this did not really make any sense to him.

"Not sure, but it just doesn't seem like Thorne's style to get someone like that killed," Grant offered them both. "If you ask me, he wouldn't go out of his way to make someone look like a joke, and then kill him. He would want him to stick around to….you know make it stick."

"Yes, I know," Harry agreed without missing a beat.

"Thorne's nightclub, I'd check that out if I were you, you might be able to figure that out for sure," Grant said as he turned around. "Want to get back to this before I get too cooled down."

Dinah nodded, she understood that Ted was coping in his own way.

"Well, we'll see you around," Dinah said.

"Yeah, nice seeing the both of you, a lot better than those vultures in the press that swung buy, trying to shove a camera and a microphone underneath my face earlier," Grant said as he pounded the bag, thinking of their ugly faces.

Dinah and Harry were on their way off.

* * *

Two females rested in bed after a sparring session between the two of them got very intense.

The first woman shifted from the bed, as she walked towards the rumor. The Asian Woman with dark silky hair made her way over to the window. She was bare ass naked as she walked towards the window. Her name was Lady Shiva, or that was she was known amongst the League of Shadows. She was the foremost martial artist in the world, with her skills that could be matched by few.

The second woman, the stirring woman from the fight club with the dragon tattoo on her leg, pulled herself out of bed. She cupped her hand onto her chin and she could tell that based on the attitude of her partner, the fun was over.

She pulled herself out of bed, finding a silky pair of black bra and panties, and then she added a pair of stockings, there was really no time to take a shower. A robe was quickly pulled over her body. Given their sparring session, her hair was in disarray, so she made her way over to the mirror, preparing to detangle it.

"You do realize that Norton's death….is going to bring him to our front door," the woman said after a few moments, breaking the silence. Shiva nodded her head immediately, she was fairly aware of that.

"Given how much he keeps attentive to his surroundings, I would assume that he would," Shiva said as she grabbed the brush from the woman who called herself Roulette and casually combed her hair with a smile on her face. "The Batman might have also been a threat, but he has his focus elsewhere, on other matters, that…..his laser guided focus would not be distracted. Batman is distracted by the mob and gang violence. And if he starts looking in the wrong connection, there is a contingency."

"I would imagine that you would," Roulette said as she barely suppressed the smile that was on her face.

"So how are you going to proceed….when he arrives?" Shiva asked as she calmly brushed Roulette's hair but before she could answer, there was a knock on her door.

She was about ready to tell Shiva that she should go but the woman was on the ball and she was pretty much gone.

"Roulette, are you in there?" the voice of Rupert Thorne asked and Roulette sighed, she figured that this situation would have to resolve itself.

"Just one second," Roulette said as she slipped on her dress, and then her heels. She made her way to the door which Thorne was already trying to get inside.

' _Impatient son of a bitch,'_ Roulette thought but she managed to be professional and she unlocked the door immediately.

Thorne made his way into the room, looking over his shoulder as he saw the woman. There was something in his demeanor that indicated that he was sticking his nose in a place where it did not belong.

Roulette decided to cut to the chase. "May I help you?"

"I thought I heard voices," Thorne said in his usual gruff voice and Roulette tapped to the phone that was on the desk.

"So what do you want Rupert?" Roulette asked in a crisp and casual voice and he managed to get down to business.

"It's about the card tonight," Thorne said and Roulette nodded, ready for business.

* * *

After patrol, it was late at night and it was best to try and do this when no one was around. So Nightwing and Black Canary slipped there way inside and made their way through the hallways of the GCPD Morgue, where the body of Norton was going to held.

There was an eerie quality to this building that might freak out those who were of weaker constitutions than those two.

' _Lovely, all we need is eerie music,'_ Kara thought but there was a moment where she could tell that things were tense enough without it, so she promptly shut up.

They knew that Norton was murdered, because it was obvious that this was a homicide. And it was going to be treated like one but exactly how, that would have been something that they were going to determine pretty soon.

It actually did work to their advantage that they were walking in there a little late. They had to break up another scuffle between the Falcone and Maroni mob factions that took place at a bank. The Maroni faction owned the bank, the Falcone faction was the ones that wanted it. It was just an ugly little reminder that there was mob warfare.

' _I'm not sure what we're going to find,'_ Harry informed Dinah and she nodded.

' _Won't be good, I can tell you that much,'_ the blonde suggested, taking a tentative step forward.

' _Well that goes without saying,'_ Harry thought to her as he could see the body.

To say Norton got mauled might require a brand new definition of that word to be created. He was pretty mangled as well. His body already looked like someone beat him to death and the beating was constant to someone who had been struck to over and over again with a heavy object, like a sledgehammer.

' _Neck was snapped, although before or after that was before something or someone took a bite out of him, I can't tell,'_ Harry thought and Dinah wondered what would be even better. Harry frowned as he thought about this more. _'But the bruising….it doesn't quite match up, there's something else.'_

The bite mark on the body's shoulders really told the tail. Given that they were right around the area of Slaughter Swamp, there could be any number of things that could have done. The coroner's report indicated that a big cat, some kind of alligator, and even the Jersey Devil, which was underlined, with a question mark scratched next to it.

He scanned the wound, although he wondered how much good that would have done. He needed to get a saliva sample from the gaping wound but so far there was nothing.

' _Look,'_ Dinah said as she turned around and they saw a fang that was in a jar. It must have been pulled from the wound.

He did scan the fang and the readings on the equipment in his mask caused him to get to a shocking revelation.

"It….it can't be right," Harry whispered.

"What can't be right?" Dinah asked.

"The scanner says that the fang is from a human, not an animal."

**To Be Continued on June 5** **th** **2014.**

**Director's Notes: http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/2014/05/ascension-book-2-chapter-30-directors.html  
**


	31. First Rule of.....Part Three

**Chapter 31: The First Rule of….Part Three.**

Gotham City even got cold in the summertime but now that autumn weather was upon them, it was getting downright frigid at night. There was no rain at night although storm clouds threatened to burst through and ruin the evening.

James Gordon and Sarah Essen made their way as their shift from the GCPD concluded. And the GCPD had some extremely long shifts all things considered. Ten hours was more than norm as the days were long and the nights were worse.

Sarah looked at Gordon immediately and there was a moment where irritation flowed freely onto her face. "You don't have escort me to my car…."

"I know, I was heading that way myself," Gordon said without missing a beat and Sarah nodded, made a lot of sense. "The bank case is one of the weirdest that I've seen and you think you'd seen them all, being in Gotham City for as long as I have been and Chicago before that."

"New York is just as bad," Sarah said without even missing a beat as she walked next to him. "You figure…you figure that you've seen it all and then there's something else that comes up. And then you go home to someone, but it's just a break until you're real life begins….that is, if you go home to someone….you do go home to someone, don't you?"

"Yes, I'm married if that's what you're asking," James said gruffly. "Officially, on the books, separated right now. Just better that way, my wife Barbara, she moved to Chicago with my son, James Junior, and then there's my daughter Barbara…."

"So you and Barbara named your son and daughter…."

"I hear that one a lot actually," James said and Sarah opened her mouth to apology but he cut her off. "Yeah….Barbara's adopted, although she's just as good as my daughter, and that's what matters. My brother and his wife they died in a car accident when she was six. It was hard on everyone."

"Yes….I can see," Sarah said and James looked at her.

"Do you….."

"I was married to an undercover cop, not really for that long though," Sarah told him and she decided that it was best to get this information on the table. "Drug bust went bad you see and….he got shot, three times in the back of the head."

"I'm sorry," James said in a sympathetic voice.

"He understood the risks, I did too, I decided to make my work my full time commitment, and it's been a rocky enough relationship as is," Sarah said as she looked over her shoulder. "So my car's across the parking lot, I'll see you tomorrow Gordon, maybe something new will break in the case."

"Yes, see you tomorrow Essen," Gordon said without another word and he turned around after a second.

He saw an unappealing sight standing next to his car and he walked up to the man. He was dripping of sleaze, the typical textbook definition of what it meant to be a corrupt cop. Gordon frowned and he locked his eyes on the man there. "Flass, what are you doing here?"

"Jimbo, Jimbo, we need to talk," Arnold Flass stated, he gave the air of a corrupt cup and you could judge a book by his cover well in this case. "You still don't understand how the game is played after all of this time."

"I don't know….."

"Braden and Loeb, both of them see that a cop like you, you seem someone like you, he's valuable, if you play the game," Flass whispered as he looked at Gordon and there was a second where Gordon shifted through his pocket. Flass, without preamble, grabbed Gordon's hand, blocking his attempts to go through his pocket. "And you haven't been playing the game, Jimbo. You don't know what you're doing, but you're putting people at risk."

Gordon looked at this foul waste of humanity. Harvey Bullock might have been a good cop that looked slimy but Flass he was a bad cop who did not look as bad as he was. No he was far worse.

"You're running that wave of popularity as a hero cop but the wave's going to dry out pretty soon, and people are going to get bored of you, then what are you going to do?" Flass asked as Gordon smelled the foulness of his breath. "Jimmy, there have been people like you, people who haven't played the game. You think that you are a hero, but you know what, you aren't nothing. All you are is someone who is a media darling. And when cops don't play by the rules, bad things are going to happen. What's going to happen when something happens to your pretty little daughter and no one is around to protect her?"

A gun was pulled out, but Gordon angrily disarmed him before he could even fire.

' _You son of a bitch,'_ Gordon thought as he grabbed Flass around the throat and knocked him down immediately.

"Just delivering a message, ain't nothing personal, you might be O'Hara's heir apparent, but he's not in charge, not as much as he…."

CLICK.

Gordon looked about ready to murder Flass, the guy was like nails on a chalkboard and he was worse. Sarah was there, quickly and she had him down on the ground, the handcuffs snapped onto him.

"You won't be able to hold me past the evening," Flass said scathingly as he pulled up.

"You have the right to remain silent, I'm sure you haven't forgotten that," Sarah said as she looked at Flass, who knew that he was not going to forget this.

James Gordon in particular knew that he was not going to see the last of Flass or Braden. He could take care of himself, his loved ones was another matter entirely. That being said, James Gordon was not someone who would cave into blackmail.

* * *

Batman dodged the attacks of a very persistent foe. He was dressed in a red outfit and wore a silver mask that looked like a monkey. He threw a pair of daggers at Batman who arched back to dodge them. They sailed harmlessly over the top of his head.

His outfit had been damaged and scratch marks ran down both of his cheeks. Other than that, he was doing pretty well all things considered. He shook his head, coughing just a little bit as he held his head up.

' _Not one of my better days,'_ Batman thought but that was about all he did as he nearly was stabbed. He blocked the attacks with his feet and sprung up to nail him right in the face.

Silver Monkey was his name and despite his rather unassuming name, he was a fairly dangerous assassin. Batman knew by now not to judge people by their names for they would take them down. His hand to hand combat went against the monkey, who was as quick and resourceful as mind.

He mentally went back to why he was here and what brought him to this intense fight with this individual.

* * *

Batman was keeping close behind one of the associates of Falcone and the rumors of what this man was involved in, turned his stomach as he kept moving forward. He refused to let him out of his sight, because of what this man was involved in, the human trafficking elements and also a child slavery ring. Both of those offered a redundant one.

Of course, there was something that he found as he managed to track down the person to their hiding place, actually he found several things out. He was unable to put it all completely out of his mind, what he learned tonight.

For one, the man he thought was there was a woman. Whether this actually made what he discovered regarding the slavery ring better or worse was up for a lot of debate. Never the less, he followed the trail of blood and he saw the head of the woman first.

Then there was a body that matched it halfway across the room. Activating the HUD on his mask, Batman managed to get a good look at something, following a trail. He thought that he could see something in the shadows that he could lock into and perhaps follow to bring them down.

Suddenly there was a blitzing of ninjas that went against Batman. It was so fast that he was nearly thrown off guard.

There should be a special emphasis on the world nearly for he was not completely thrown off guard. In fact, he avoided every single attack, blocking the blades of one of his enemy and kicking an adversary hard on the back of the leg. He slid back and landed with a huge crack and then his leg crunched out from underneath it.

A second ninja tried to nail Batman with a spinning back fist but he caught the arm, turned it around, and drilled him down to the ground with one swift motion.

The ninjas were trying to surround Batman but being ninjas, they were attacking him one at a time, instead of ganging up on him. That allowed the Dark Knight to block their shots, catching a back hand punch and bringing an elbow to the side of the head of his enemy.

The final tally was a group of ninjas who had been knocked down in a cloud of smoke and there was someone who was clapping slowly, loudly, and psychotically.

"That's merely a warm up."

Batman was caught off guard when more ninjas poured in through the roof. He could feel the cold steel slice against his costume and the wind got knocked out of his lungs. He had caught the first group off guard but the second one, they were another matter entirely.

He could feel the bumps, the bruises, and the broken bones but he held his own with him. He might have been one man, one Batman, but he held his own as good as one could expect. Although there was a thought that he was being herded into position.

Silver Monkey made his move and that's where the fight began.

* * *

Batman favored an injured wrist, halfway bent over, and wincing as he gritted his teeth. To say he was not in the best spirits would be putting things mildly. In fact, he was agitated and his elbow being as sore as it was made fighting an enemy like this worse.

The Cowled Detective decided to switch up his tactics to see if that would bare even more fruit. He repelled up and then threw down a pair of pellets against the ground.

They broke open but the Silver Monkey was already at his side. He dropped up and flung a pair of brown capsules at Batman. The Detective ducked the capsules as they hit the wall, burning through it with an acidic substance.

"Who sent you?" Batman growled as the Silver Monkey drew his sword and tried to impale Batman with it. It clung against the tracks, causing sparks to fly into the air.

The Monkey paused for a moment and he said with a twisted grin, although it was only scantly visible beneath his mask. "Paper Monkey and the Daughters of the Demon send their regards."

No sooner did that statement even leave his mouth did Batman grab him around the waist and spear him as hard as they could be. They landed on the tracks and were about ready to continue their struggle but there was the sound of a train.

The Silver Monkey reached into his cloak and blinded Batman temporarily with something and tried to nail him with the sword. The sword connected with the third rail and needless to say, it was a shocking experience for Silver Monkey as he was rattled. He gave a scream of agony as he was electrocuted.

Batman immediately grabbed Silver Monkey and pulled him away but he experienced a shock of his own.

With that shock of his own, that was all that Silver Monkey needed to slip into the distance. Batman slipped himself away with minimal damage.

The train already had gotten away and Silver Monkey disappeared into the night, likely having either caught the train or slipped inside.

There was static on his radio system from the shock but when it came back to life there was a frantic voice that came over it.

"MASTER WAYNE? MASTER WAYNE? MASTER BRUCE? BRUCE!"

"I'm fine Alfred," Batman said stoically as he looked around, although he was sure that his enemy had gotten away, he had to check to see if he had left anything behind.

Although someone told the detective that this was far from the last time that he would be seeing the Silver Monkey.

* * *

"Now it makes perfect sense now that you explained it to me," Sapphire said as she looked at the paper that Harry had out in front of her that he was walking through. While the engineering aspect was his forte, he knew a fair amount about the environmental and business aspects.

"Most things are, if you need any other help, just ask me," Harry said and she nodded, as he went to see how Barbara was doing or more importantly what she was doing. The three of them, along with Kara were sitting at the library of the Universe working on some work.

This allowed Kara and Sapphire to get in close and talk about something. Even though Harry could listen in, he chose not to out of respect of their privacy. Plus he figured that they were discussing what would be considered to be girl stuff, so he did not want to pry on that degree.

"So, how are you coming along on that?" Barbara asked as she edged closer to Harry, as the two of them were working on a hacking lesson on his laptop, which was specifically engineered for RAO employees.

It was amusing that Harry had pretty much build this model based on her suggestions.

"You're still not pouting about this, are you?" Harry asked, almost as if he could sense what thoughts were coming out of her mind.

"Well I thought that you were fishing for suggestions for my birthday, that's all," Barbara said as she folded her arms across her chest immediately and Harry reminded her of something.

"I got you a car, didn't I?" Harry asked.

Barbara sighed, undisputable logic like that was really not something that she could argue, especially given that yes Harry did give her a car.

"You're actually doing far better than you've done the first time, with your completely noobish attempt trying to hack," Barbara said and Harry smiled at her.

"Well, I do try."

Barbara just wished that she was doing better on the project that she had given herself. It was the device that Nightwing had dropped and she was trying to still crack it after all of these times. The problem was that she had to break through each individual gateway. She had been able to crack three of the gateways but there being seven in total, there were a few problems with trying to get the rest open.

If she messed up with the next gateway, she had to reset her work from square one, which was a bitch and a half to say the least. She had to get down all seven gateways to access the program and that was a trying and long process.

"So….I think that it might be a good idea," Kara whispered to Sapphire after a few seconds.

' _Oh, they're plotting,'_ Karen thought as she paused. _'If I knew myself and I do, I would be pretty afraid.'_

' _I don't know what you're implying,'_ Kara said with a would be innocent smile although there was a certain amount of faux innocence to the look on her face.

' _Kara, you really aren't fooling anyone with that act,'_ Donna thought and Kara just remained cool, casually speaking to Sapphire.

Harry smiled as he thought that he was making some progress. He actually was done with his homework, although he slowly went over it to make sure it was better than perfect. That was the level that he strived for and he could do it without working himself into a psychotic meltdown which was more than he could say about some people who worked themselves hard.

"So what are you doing on Saturday night?"

Harry smiled as Sapphire had asked that question, directly. "Nothing off hand, why?"

"Actually, you're taking me to dinner on Saturday night," Sapphire said and Harry smiled at her.

"Oh is that so?" Harry asked her and she nodded eagerly with a smile on her face.

"Yes, that's so," Sapphire said in a bubbly voice as she stepped over so Harry could see her completely, they were face to face, almost touching and her shirt shifted to show a tiny bit of cleavage. "You can pick me up at seven, you know where my apartment is, right?"

"Yes, I can find it," Harry told her.

"Great, I'll see you then," Sapphire said in a bubbly tone of voice and she made her way off, making sure to sway her ass.

Kara smiled at Harry and Harry turned to her.

"Well you got to admire a girl who takes control of the situation and asserts herself," Kara told Harry and Harry looked at the blonde, half raising the eyebrow.

"I'm sure you do," Harry told her and Kara smiled as she made a few more notes from the book that she had checked out, before she walked over. Her skirt rode up, to give Harry a slight hint of the black thong that she was wearing.

Kara excused herself after she gave Harry a kiss good night which left Barbara sitting there in the library alone with Harry.

When something like that was about to take place, there was impulsive thoughts that came in a person's mind, but Barbara shook off those thoughts as she said to Harry in her calmest, coolest voice. "So I guess you have a date?"

"Looks like it," Harry said to the redhead with a wide smile on her face as he looked at her.

Barbara made a decision; she got some advice from Zatanna due to making the wait for the actual good stuff to happen. Zatanna reminded her that just because she could not have sex, did not mean that she could not do other things and Barbara was going to take that to heart.

Harry could feel Barbara's hand tentatively but at the same time excitedly unzipping his pants. They were all alone in the library and Harry wondered how daring she was going to be.

' _Take a deep breath Babs, and relax, this isn't that hard, well he might get hard, but this isn't hard,'_ she thought.

* * *

Barbara Gordon wondered for a brief second if she had bitten off a bit more than she could chew. Never the less, she eyed the prime piece of meat in front of her and she could not help but lick around the inside of her lips, moistening them as she prepared to do what she needed to do.

"Just grab it and start stroking, spit on your hand a little bit if you need to," Harry told her and Barbara nodded, as she gripped the base of Harry's cock.

Her strokes were completely tentative at first and she knew that she was far past the point of backing out now. However, she gained more momentum and dare she say it, more courage with each stroke.

"That's it Barbara, just work….ah just work a steady pace," Harry breathed as her handjob was a bit raw, but the more she gained confidence, the better that it felt for both of them. His hips twitched up as Barbara kept working him over.

Barbara wondered if this little cheat was the best idea, seeing Harry's cock up close had not gotten close to quell any potential fire in her belly regarding wanting him inside her. In fact, it just increased it.

Barbara could feel him twitch in her hand and Harry whispered in her ear. "Go ahead, play with my balls, that's it."

Barbara groped his balls and started to stroke him, and she could tell by the pleasure on his face that something she was doing was working. She kept stroking him up and down, working his cock up and down.

Harry leaned his hips up and Barbara kept stroking him, building him up to a climax. He could see the pleasure in the eyes of the redhead as she stroked him up and down, working him over.

Harry could feel his balls loading up with cum and Barbara kept pumping him up and down, the wide eyed adoration dancing in her eyes, burning in them as she kept up a steady pace, stroking him up an down.

"Oh, about to cum," Harry breathed and Barbara tingled nervously, wondering what this would bring. All she had to do was wait as Harry's balls throbbed and tightened.

She was caught off guard by the immense blast of white hot fluids that blasted into the air. They hit Barbara in the face and coated the underside of the table. The redhead smiled as the fluid dripped off of her cheeks and she licked her face clean. The redhead watched him completely, hungrily as Harry used a charm to scour the fluid off of the table.

The wizard wrapped his arms around her and pulled Barbara into a deep kiss and pushed her back onto the table slightly, to allow him movement. She moaned as Harry's tongue probed the inside of her mouth and the green eyed wizard cupped her ass as she moaned.

Harry worked down her jeans and Barbara stiffened immediately, but Harry kissed her, causing her to relax immediately. The redhead teenager could feel his hands move down to her lower half and her panties were pulled down, exposing her dripping mound.

"So wet, maybe we should take care of that, return the favor," Harry whispered hotly in her ear and Barbara nodded eagerly, biting down on her lip and there was a solitary moan that escaped her mouth.

"YES!" Barbara agreed as his fingers inserted into her and he pumped her delightful young twat, working her over. The redhead bit down on her lip, with fire burning through her eyes as Harry kept working her over.

Harry's fingers probed inside her and the redhead bit down on her lip fiercely to block out the screams. She managed to lean forward and bit down on Harry's shoulder to stifle the screams.

Harry smiled, he explored the inside of her pussy with his fingers and it caused her pleasure. He kept stroking her back and forth, marveling how good she felt around his finger. It was obvious by how wet and hot she was getting that her seventeenth birthday could not come soon enough.

Barbara started to buck her hips up and down. The redhead's mind exploded with pleasure and Harry pulled his fingers out of her briefly and then plunged him back into her.

' _Oh, imagine how good his dick would feel in me,'_ Barbara thought as burning lust flashed through her eyes. Her heart was skipping several beats as Harry kept working into her. His fingers probed her insides and it picked up an amazing pace.

Harry kept pumping his fingers deep into her and she was hoisting her hips up, meeting his probing thrusts. His fingers buried deep into her honey pot and it caused her to bite down on her lips, bucking and moaning as he kept going into her. The redhead was screaming mentally, and she would have screamed verbally.

She kept her mouth on his shoulder, she really lost her mind, as the green eyed wizard continued to work her over.

The orgasm that she had was beyond all words. It was really fucking great, and there was no other way to describe that.

Barbara sunk down forward and Harry pulled her into his arms, kissing her madly as she straddled his lap, her legs wrapped around him as they hotly kissed.

* * *

Needless to say Barbara's thirst was not completely quenched but rather it was increased. Her seventeenth birthday could not come soon enough.

* * *

Ted Grant was taking out his aggressions on a punching bag, not even backing off from what he was doing. His arm reared back as he smacked into the back, once, twice, and three times, never backing up. It was to the point where he was in the zone.

He could see a figure walking into Grant's over his shoulder. He kept punching on the bag, waiting for the person to walk into the gym completely before acknowledging him. "You know, I'm actually surprised to see you here, thought you forgot where the place was after all your nocturnal activities."

Bruce Wayne stood in the doorway, wearing a suit. He was wearing a suit during a lot of his activities, but today it was a Turtle Neck shirt and a pair of slacks. "I heard about what happened to David Norton…..I'm sorry."

"I know, I got the flowers," Grant grunted in his usual gruff voice. "Kid could have been something but….."

"You're broken up, I can tell," Bruce said to him. "You should head home, get some rest."

"What are you, my mother now, Wayne?" Grant asked as he kept pummeling the bag. "You just brush yourself off and you do it, that's how we did things. We don't bemoan our tragedies, although I'm sure you cope with yours in your own way."

Grant continued to pound on the bag and Bruce stepped forward. He could tell that he was not about to leave straight away. The wizened old man picked up a pair of gloves and looked at them, considering something but he nodded.

"I hope you still know how to use these," Grant said gruffly as he held the gloves out.

"Well, I should hope that your lessons sunk in," Bruce said as the grizzled old man tossed the young playboy billionaire a pair of well-worn gloves. He caught them in his hands and slipped them on without hesitation.

"We'll see, climb into the ring and we'll see," Grant said, as the man known as Wildcat slipped on a pair of well worn gloves.

Both of them stepped into the middle of the ring, facing off at each other, neither of them blinked at each other. They touched gloves and then they got into a sparring session. It was nothing out of the ordinary as both men traded punch for punch, but Grant could tell that there was something about Bruce who was holding back.

He was going to let it slide, but not long. He reared back with fire in his eyes and he smacked Bruce right in the mush, which caused him to take a step back in surprised.

"Knock that shit off and fight me like a man," Grant barked at him and there was another punch to the nose as he nailed Bruce. "Don't hold back, doesn't matter the age, you're get your ass kicked."

Bruce decided to return fire and knock Grant in the mouth a little bit. He smiled as the two of them kept going back and forth against each other, punches being swung back and forth.

Now that Bruce had been called out on the fact that he was holding back, this was beginning to become one for the ages as far as sparring sessions were shown. Both of them went back and forth against each other, going one punch at a time.

When Wildcat thought that Bruce was holding back, he gave him one for it and the punch rocked him back, causing him to stagger.

"Take it like a man, Bruce!" Wildcat yelled as the two of them were winding down to the last few seconds of the sparring session.

Grant was someone who despite doctor's orders, was not going to lie down and let old age take its course. The man had the fire of a younger man although his body did not match it.

"Not slowing down, this old body still has one more fight left in it," Grant said and Bruce backed off, but Grant nearly took his head off. He dodged it. "Don't take your eye off the ball."

"Don't worry, I didn't intend to," Bruce said as he stepped back. "Good time for old time's sake?"

"Yeah, thanks Wayne, and…..just thinking about what happened with the kid," Grant said and there was a second where Bruce Wayne and Ted Grant locked eye to eye with each other. "I've got something to take care of and I'm sure you got obligations of your own as well."

"Yes, I do," Bruce said as he gave his old mentor one last look. "If you need anything, you still got my number….."

"Yeah, I got it written down around here somewhere," Grant commented gruffly as he turned his neck back and watched as Bruce disappeared.

He was standing in the ring, contemplating something. It was one of those things where a man has to do, what a man has to do. He turned his shoulder around and started to climb out of the ring.

The next thing he knew he was at his office. His hand was on the phone, with hesitation but only a brief second. Not even long enough to be worthy mentioning. The number was on his mind first and foremost and he dialed it up.

There was a prompt answer on the other side.

"Yeah, tell Thorne that I'll fight," Grant said without missing a beat. "I'll be there."

* * *

' _You know that he won't let things lie,'_ Dinah thought and Harry squeezed her hand in comfort as the two of them watched Grant's on a stakeout. He did seem pretty docile all things considered, but that meant nothing.

Harry watched things intently, there was a hood pulled over his face and he waited for any more information. Dinah was dressed in casual business attire and she was keeping calm, cool, tranquil, not even backing down for a moment as she waited to see what was happening. Inside the car was bags that they could easily grab.

They were now in the warmth of the café as they could see Bruce exit from the gym across the street. There was an obviously assumed thought that he would be joining them.

The café door opened and there was hardly anyone around. Bruce slipped into the shadows, where he was facing them and sat down.

"You can speak freely," Harry said without missing a beat and Bruce spoke freely.

"You both know Norton was murdered, don't you?" Bruce told them.

"Yes," Dinah agreed swiftly. "The bite marks almost indicate a something, if the scans did not come from an animal."

"And it's directed by Thorne, can't prove it off hand, but it's more circumstantial evidence than anything, and I'm guessing that the old man can't let anything go that well," Harry said and Bruce nodded. He winched a little bit, as he favored his shoulder. "Something the matter?"

"Just to let you know that the League of Shadows have returned to Gotham City," Bruce said as he turned his shoulder slightly.

"You mean they're back after Al Ghul was done for," Harry said. "Or is he back?"

"No, I don't think so, there's something else, the League has fractured before, as you well know, and without their leader, they are building different fashions," Bruce said as he continued to try and keep his head up. "I ran into one of their men earlier….calls himself Silver Monkey."

"The name rings a bell," Dinah muttered and Harry nodded, he could have heard it somewhere, or maybe Harrison did, it was hard to tell half of the time.

"Their attacks are focused on Batman," Bruce added immediately and Harry went in.

"After what happened with Al Ghul….."

"Yes, partially, along with a bad parting of the ways, amongst other things," Bruce said. "The League is not someone who is going to take defeat laying down, just figured that you would be able to keep an eye out and….."

"Say no more," Harry said to him immediately. "We'll take care of the Norton case, you figure out what you need to do with the League."

"Yes…although the people who they took out this time, they were part of a child slavery ring, there were three of them, two men and a woman, and I found the woman, and after a search, I found a part of one of the men," Bruce said to him. "Why the League would be targeting them, I don't know."

"They don't seem the type to go noble crusader now," Dinah said but there was some kind of puzzle piece that was missing despite their best attempts to solve it. Until they found the missing thread, it was going around in circles.

Speaking of which, there was something that added to the mystery and there was a limo that pulled out in front of Grant's Gym. A normal person was not going to question that, but Harry, Dinah, and Bruce were far from normal people.

' _Now what,'_ Dinah thought as she watched him and she could see Ted exit the gym. She recognized that look, that was the look of the Wildcat, the Former Heavyweight Champion of the world, a man who was sparring for a fight.

' _Looks like we're going to get our answer,'_ Harry told her as they watched the door of the limo swing open.

He could barely see who was in the limo but he could see enough to be concerned. Grant entered the limo, and he was sitting side by side with one of Thorne's right hand people. He recognized the man; he was with Thorne at the fight the other night.

Bruce watched, he was thinking about the same thing that Harry and Dinah were thinking, business was about to pick up.

' _I can't believe it,'_ Dinah thought and Harry wished he could say that he did not believe it but at the same time he did believe it.

Harry looked out of the window and managed to catch the bumper at range with a tracking spell. If he could track it, he would be able to be in a lot better position. Exactly what Grant intended to do, he did not know.

"I have a lead to follow up, so do what you need to do," Bruce told them and there was a pair of nods.

"We will," Harry said as they made their way to the car. The night had barely begun, and things were going to get even more insane.

* * *

Lily Evans Potter was someone who did not care for having her intellectual property that was swiped out from underneath her nose. Especially given the fact that it was that greasy piece of slime who decided to steal her property just like that, with the redhead woman crossing her arms as she stepped forward, making her way to the elevator. She made her way up to the top of the tower, a few minutes going by.

Lily was dressed in style with a tight black t-shirt that went across her chest and rode up as she lifted her arms to showcase her fit and toned midriff. The tight leather pants wrapped around her like a second layer of skin.

' _I'm on my way up, hopefully we'll be able to put this matter to bed,'_ Lily thought and it was going to be Snape's head, although that was about the only thing he had left right about now.

Daphne showed up in front of the elevator with a smile on her face. She wore a nice white corset that enhanced her breasts and a white jacket that added to the allure. She wore a white skirt that flowed freely to show off her legs. The white boots topped off the habit.

"Lily, it's good to see you again," Daphne whispered and she gave Lily a kiss. The blonde was overwhelmed when the taller and older redhead pushed her back against the wall. Shivers tingled down her spine as Lily explored her young fit body. "Harrison and I were just working on something, new spells, it could be useful, for a multitude of purposes."

Harrison smiled as he looked up at the table. He did not even have time to greet his mother as she walked over to him and threw her arms around him, kissing him on the lips. The green eyed wizard returned the kiss and he cupped her ass immediately.

"So what are you working on?" Lily asked as she pulled away and decided to prop herself onto Harry's lap, the best seat in the house as far as she was concerned.

"A binding spell but….I don't know, it looks like it could hold an enemy, but…." Harrison said and Lily looked at the spell, especially the areas where the ropes were concentrated. She enjoyed a good charm when she saw it and this was in fact a good charm.

"Well yes it can hold an enemy, but it had other purposes in mind," Lily said with a smile. "I don't think that whoever created this charm was that naïve when you really think about it."

"I don't know I mean….you know wand wavers tend not to be all that self-aware," Daphne said and Lily conceded that this was true with a nod of her head. Never the less, her green eyes traced over the paper as they looked them over.

"We should be having some guests coming back up any time soon, to collect Snape's old journals," Harrison told her as he stroked his mother's hair immediately.

"Good, wouldn't put it past that bastard to ransack Godric's Hollow either," Lily said acidly. Given that there were people who could come and go from the house at well, who knew how many personal belongings had been stolen.

"Snape didn't get off nearly as bad as he could have, although I'm at a loss to think how his punishment could have gotten a lot worse," Daphne said as she jotted down some notes from the book.

"Give me time," Lily replied savagely and all bond mates could agree, being on Lily's bad side was a bad place to be.

As if on cue, the two Black daughters made their way into the Penthouse, carrying boxes of Snape's belongings from Hogwarts. Lucretia stepped forward, wearing a white shirt that strained around with her bust and a black skirt along with knee high boots, whilst Vega wore a black shirt along with a flowing black skirt.

"There, we managed to get everything through Snape's quarters at Hogwarts, it was like it was before he left," Vega said breathlessly as they were careful not to damage anything. They scanned them for any hexes, knowing that Snape might be spiteful enough but they did not pick up anything.

' _Strange, I thought that the DMLE would have picked anything that Snape would have had left on the back end,'_ Harrison thought and it was Amelia who jumped in.

' _We would have, had Dumbledore not intervened, and sealed down Snape's office to preserve his dignity,'_ Amelia said.

' _What dignity?'_ Bellatrix asked, she wrinkled her nose at the thought of Snape deserving any dignity and respect.

' _This happened when Harry was consoling Rose after her ordeal, but Dumbledore took us both aside, saying that this was all a big misunderstanding, and Severus Snape was just a beautiful man who….well I don't think that any of you need a look into the psyche of Albus Dumbledore,'_ Andromeda thought to them.

' _Psyche, more like psychosis,'_ Astoria thought and she thought that she was completely and utterly nuts but that took the cake.

' _Yes, we spent about an hour going back and forth with Dumbledore, although I finally put my foot down,'_ Amelia thought as she sighed immediately. _'He sealed the room, but he could not overturn the charges against Snape. Therefore he was a fugitive against the law and the rest you all know."_

' _I'm sorry for the record that you were all put through that on my account,'_ Rose thought.

' _Don't be, it was nothing more than a memory, as Andromeda and I went to the Hog's Head afterwards to take care of business,'_ Amelia thought and she did not drink too much but when she did, it was rather worth it.

' _Reason why we didn't bring it up is because we wanted to forget the whole bloody thing,'_ Andromeda thought and that was understandable.

"And Minerva decided to break the enchantments around it when she became Headmistress, pack things up and put them into storage," Vega explained as she picked up. "So….there it is, does any of those things look familiar to you?"

"Yes, very much," Lily said after flipping through the books and she leaned forward. "So Harry, do you think that these girls deserve a reward?"

Harrison smiled in agreement and he flicked his hand. The ropes wrapped around Vega, who squealed in a mixture of surprise and delight as she was tied up. However, her clothes were shredded off, leaving her standing there in all of her glory.

The same thing was done to Lucretia, as her bare body was exposed. The blonde felt a rush of air and Lily smiled, that was an interesting effect if there ever was one.

Harrison prepared to reward both females who had looks of adoration in their eyes.

* * *

Harrison smiled as he gave Vega a deep and simmering kiss, as he grabbed her breasts, cupping them in his hands. The Black Daughter melted in his embrace and the embrace of the ropes which tightened around her in the most erotic way imaginable and caused fire to burn through her body, pure sexual enjoyment.

Not wanting Lucretia to be left out, Harrison switched over to her, running his hands down her sexy body and kissed her. He reached one of his hands forward and then stuck his fingers down Vega's snatch.

Lucretia watched eagerly as her cousin was fingered by Harrison as he used his tongue to clean out her tonsils. She felt the pleasure burst through her body all the way through. He kept working her over and then switched, doing so to Vega with the kissing and he fingered Lucretia into a stupor of pleasure.

After the pleasure burned through her loins, Lucretia could feel his cock brush against the edge of her entrance.

"Ready," Harrison whispered and she nodded.

"Take me," Lucretia whispered as he ran his cock against her entrance, to give her just a little tease. He steadied her against the wall and plunged into her.

Lucretia could feel him slide into her inch by inch. Her mind was being brought to the peak of pleasure as his tool stretched out her insides. She clenched him hard with her master working his way into her as deeply as he could manage. Her soft walls tightened around him slightly.

Vega in the meantime had her pussy cupped and Harrison massaged it.

Lily breathed in hotly as she straddled Daphne. The blonde could feel spikes of pleasure go through her, as Lily did a charm that made their panties vanish. Their hot pussies rubbed together, with Daphne throwing her head back with a passionate moan as Lily was getting her warmed up for some actions later on.

Lucretia came hard onto Harry's cock and the he slid out of her.

"Please!" Vega squealed as Harrison's thick tool was at the edge of her moist hot mound, about ready to be inserted into her. She lifted her hips up, she could feel the pleasure and she wanted him inside her.

Harrison plunged his way into Vega's moist womanhood, grabbing her around the hips and Lucretia was whining, being left hanging as Harrison worked into her cousin over and over again.

Lily guided Lucretia over towards a table which had been concerted into a bed.

"Daphne," Lily whispered and Daphne smiled as she climbed onto Lucretia's face and put her pussy over the older girl's mouth.

Daphne felt the pleasure as the Black daughter licked and slurped, sucking the juices out of her. She was drinking it up like she was a starving woman and she watched Lily's skilled fingers work over Lucretia before she dropped down.

"Damn," Vega moaned as she would have wrapped her arms around Harrison's neck had they not been tied behind her back. She settled for getting buggered silly against the wall, his cock passing between her legs and thighs over and over again, spiking her passions to an entirely new level.

"Hang in there with me," Harrison whispered as he grabbed her around the hips and sawed into her. Vega mewled in pleasure as he hammered her tight cunt and kept going into her. He buried all twelve inches into her and pulled out, as she nearly passed out against the wall. However the ropes held her up into place.

Harrison scooped up Vega in his arms and then carried her across the room. He was almost there and he threw her down.

With a wide grin on his face, he split into two.

"Mum, Daphne, I think that we're not done thanking them," Harrison whispered and both girls were set up immediately.

Daphne smiled as she kept on Lucretia's face and Lily decided to move her position where she draped her thighs over Vega's. Vega's tongue attacked Lily's pussy and managed to bury it so deep into her that she felt it was on fire.

"Such a good girl!" Lily moaned as she rubbed her pussy against Vega's face and then there was a second where she lost it.

Lucretia could feel the all too familiar and welcome sensation of Harry ramming his tool into her sopping wet pussy. The green eyed wizard plunged down into her, stretching out her walls. She tightened around him as he hung onto her hips, pumping up and down into her.

Daphne could feel Lucretia moan into her pussy and she saw stars with the orgasm that blew through her mind. She nearly forced herself up as the talented tongue of the older female slurped the tender nectar.

She turned her head and Lily gave her a sensual kiss, capturing her mouth immediately.

"Damn, that's so fucking hot," Harrison grunted, referring to both Vega's sweet pussy and also the action between his mother and one of his primary wives.

It was so true, Vega's cunt clamped him like a velvety vice and he hung onto her hips, sawing into her tender young pussy from up above. She whined in pleasure as Harry kept going deep into her. His balls slapped against her thighs with explosive fury.

The woman caused moans to explode through her body and her tongue buried into Lily's pussy.

"Oh such a good fucking mouth," Lily whined at the top of her lungs as she tried to rub her heated mound onto Vega's mouth and she kept things up, working her over. Her tongue probed so deep into her pussy that she was about to lose it.

Lucretia panted as she was driven to orgasms that she was sure was about ready to come undone. The thick spear worked deep into her with Harrison plowing into her. Her pussy gushed juices immediately with the green eyed wizard went into her, and he held onto her hips, sawing into her juicy cunt. She clenched him as he speared into her.

' _Oh cum for me, I need it,'_ Lucretia thought as she whimpered in absolute pleasure. Her mind was this close to exploding with the orgasmic pleasure that came along with what was happening to her.

The wizard's balls tightened and he held onto her hips, about ready to pump into her. The blonde's walls closed around him as he speared into her. She whimpered as she lifted her hips up and Harry kept going into her.

Both Black Daughters were filled with an explosive dose of cum and Harrison slowly pulled out of both of them. Cum flooded from their pussies and there were dazed looks in their eyes.

"Come on," Lily whispered as Daphne made her way in front of Lucretia, as did Lily. Now that their pussies were tended to, their spread the thighs of both of the Black Daughters that were in front of them.

Daphne kneeled down between Lucretia's legs and she inhaled the scent of her delicious pussy. The woman was up against her mound and about ready to go beneath her.

The blonde's snatch was being eaten out by the younger blonde and she looked up to see Harrison's massive tool rub up and down her hot snatch. He was inches away from entering her and Daphne hitched in a breath, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Lily was doing the same thing to Vega, with Vega's arms still being tied and the ropes hugging her nipples tightly. With great suction, Lily brought more of the juices out of Vega's pussy.

Harrison plunged into his mother's dripping hot cunt from behind, holding onto her waist. He could feel how sweet she was as she lovingly enveloped his cock with her tight and warm center.

Lily was in heaven, no she was better than in heaven as this monster of a cock plunged throughout her body. She was being stretched out and her tightness continued to hug Harrison snugly as he worked into her.

Daphne felt more of the same, her mind was burning with desire and she kept indulging herself in the sweet tender pussy beneath her. She kept licking what was beneath her, knowing that it was the best thing in the world. She could taste Harrison's seed along with Lucretia's and it was the best taste in the world.

Harrison held onto Daphne's sweet ass and then cupped her breasts, which caused her center to clench him tightly. He worked her over, pushing his rod nearly all the way out of her. Then he plunged deep into her slow and fast immediately. Her walls wrapped around his cock and she lost it as he was fully sheathed inside her hot molten center.

He never once stalled what he was doing, in fact he sped up and continued to work her over, pulling nearly out of her and plunging back into her as her tightness expanded against his thick pole as he kept working her over. Her mind was nearly about to explode from the pleasure.

' _Oh cum in me,'_ Lily managed as she tightened around him and Harrison could feel his balls tighten up as he was about ready to bury himself balls deep into his mother as he kept plunging into her.

He held onto her breasts and both versions of Har-Zod came, as they injected Lily and Daphne with his cum. Both girls came as well as their minds exploded with deep rooted pleasure and finally Lucretia and Vega passed out as well.

The orgy was not done but merely it was just a temporary rest stop.

* * *

Getting into the Fight Club was perhaps one of the easiest things in the world. In fact, there was really no need to sneak inside where there was an area where they could get inside as easily as "one, two, three." Harry and Dinah crept in the shadows immediately. It was a four story building, about half of it was a casino and the other half was the Fight Club.

The cage was down at the first floor and the two of them made their way down a set of steps. Harry ensured that he was disguised. His hair was blonde, which did not suit him at all quite frankly but that was the idea. The hair spiked upwards and his eyes were completely blue, another thing that he did not suit him. The suit was a bit uglier than he would wore, it was a dull grey, with a red tie. The last person most people would expect was Harry Potter when they had looked at this man. He topped it off with a pair of tinted glasses, and he carried a briefcase. He looked like a shady and fairly slimy businessman.

Dinah walked around him, her normal blonde hair was covered with a dark wig and she was wearing a pair of sunglasses to hide her eyes. The little black dress was something that was getting her a fair share of stares but she also made sure that the stun gun she had was completely visible and ready go to. She wore a pair of black stockings and she wore thigh high boots that showed everything.

' _So, I wonder when the fight's starting,'_ Harry thought.

' _Wildcat would be a main event attraction, if he's coming out,'_ Dinah thought as she folded her arms underneath her chest and shifted herself.

In the center ring, the Walrus battled the Rhino, as in a thug named Charles Daley, who was one of the toughs in Gotham City. He was about as dumb as a sack of rocks but nothing could be denied about his toughness. He was going back and forth against the Walrus as Harry looked around.

Some of the slimiest people in Gotham City were standing there and Harry watched them, there were a few gangsters. Much to his surprise, Sionis was not there, but he did recognize Mario Falcone keeping on an eye on the spectacle.

The Walrus slugged away on Rhino but Harry kept his eye only half on the cage as he looked around. He could see Selina there, talking with Mario Falcone, although it seemed to be nothing serious, the two of them were hanging out.

The other Falcone was missing but there were a couple of members of Maroni's gang who were huddled in conversation. Zucco was not present, as he had been at the legit fight the other night and Sionis was not there, although Harry saw a few enforcers linked into them.

He kept moving around and seeing his surroundings as Dinah looked at some of the mobsters.

' _Patrick Sullivan, small time mobster, my father mentioned him one time, he has a bit of a drinking problem as you can see,'_ Dinah thought and Harry could see him putting them away, looking a bit tipsy and he was about ready to fall over onto his date, who looked rather paid for and well worn in.

' _Yes just a bit,'_ Harry thought as he could see a sleazy man who was looking at Selina.

' _Not surprised, that's Gentlemen Jim Jansen, he runs the prostitution racket here and…..I'd call him a low class pimp but that would be an insult to low class pimps everywhere,'_ Dinah thought as the battle in the ring was winding down. The Gentleman had a group of sleazy looking girls who looked to be the types that you would not want to meet in a dark alley or anywhere at all. _'And Edward and Jefferson Skeevers, hustling….scum that grows on scum that grows on scum.'_

Meanwhile in the ring, the fight ended with Rhino going down in a heap and Walrus stood over him, pulling him up. In the top box, Cobblepot sat with Tracey, along with Thorne and Roulette. The box was obscured from public view and he slid into the shadows a little bit on his own.

"Pay up Thorne, you know the deal," Cobblepot said in his boisterous voice. "That's what good breeding will get you and he overcame half of the bad breeding he got as well, so that's even better."

Thorne handled Cobblepot his winnings, he had made out like a bandit, particularly because Rhino was one of the favorites in the fight club and also someone who had never tasted defeat. Well up until now because he was counting stars.

Roulette stood up on her feet and made her way out to address the crowd, looking at them immediately.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is now time for the main event of the evening, and in this bout, it will be an old favorite," Roulette said as she looked at the crowd with a smile on her face. "Coming down to the ring, coming out of retirement to prove that he still has it, in this corner, he is Ted "The Wildcat" Grant, and his opponent is Ben Turner. You have one final opportunity to place all of your bets, but remember, the winner of this fight will square off against the champion tomorrow evening."

Harry and Dinah kept their eyes forward, and things began to tense up as Wildcat entered the cage, against Ben Turner. Turner was in fact that good, he had shown that in the fight the other night. It was plainly obvious that he allowed Norton to get as far as he did to give the illusion that it was not going to be a drubbing.

Turner was sticking and moving immediately, showing how agile he was and there was abilities that came with youth. He had the style that dazzled everyone around him.

Grant stood there and he caught Turner with a huge punch that rocked him off balance. A couple of body shots and his attacks were meant for power. It was something that backed Turner off, despite being the much younger man, he was not quite adept of limited movement.

Dinah watched as her mentor was in the zone and Harry put his hand on hers as she watched. The blonde could feel time really stand still as she watched the back and forth battle, with Wildcat trying to back his adversary off but he came back at him.

He did have a fair bit of stamina and Turner, used to short and explosive fights, was not able to stand up for that much longer. The Wildcat plowed him down after a close battle.

"And the winner of this match, Wildcat!"

Ted Grant took a second to look around, the fight went on for quite some time but he had felt younger than he did in years.

' _Oh shit, he's got the bug,'_ Dinah thought with a groan.

' _It's hard to walk away, from the roar of the crowd, isn't it?'_ Zatanna asked.

' _Yes, it's like a mania with some fighters,'_ Karen chimed in, and it looked like Ted Grant had got it.

' _I better see if he gets home alright, talk to you later,'_ Dinah thought to Harry as the two of them shared a kiss and went their separate ways.

Harry stopped as spotted a curious sight. It was Vicki Vale who was slinking around in the shadows, obviously she was up to something, which meant that someone else was up to something, as they would not have been speaking her unless a news story was in the making.

Of course, she joined a scuzzy guy and they were moving off in the direction of the cars but there was someone who was tailing her.

Harry figured he better keep an eye on her, just in case. Best case scenario, he was being paranoid and he could be safe. Worst case scenario, well he was pretty sure that one of her recent stories might have pissed someone off something fierce.

* * *

"Roulette, it's been a great night," Thorne said with a leering grin as he looked at Roulette who had her back turned him, barely acknowledging the fact that he was there. She was busy counting the profits in the club tonight.

"Yes, a great night," Roulette said, only half paying attention to Thorne. That was the way that she liked him the best when she had an excuse to barely acknowledge his existence.

"Why don't we go out and celebrate, the two of us, I'm sure that we can make this arrangement worthwile," Thorne said as he looked at her. "And after all of what you've been through, I think you deserve a night where you don't have to think about any of your problems. A night on the town….."

"I have more important things to take care of than being your arm candy, Rupert," Roulette said and Thorne had an ugly scowl on his face. Immediately, he grabbed her around the wrist and Roulette, having it with his attitude as of late, managed to knock him to the ground with one swift action.

Rupert Thorne flew down to the ground with a thud and she stood at his face, with her stiletto a few inches away from going into his face. He was almost against the wall and pressed hard. The woman's boot was this close to cutting in his throat.

"Let's make one thing perfectly clear, we're in this as a business partnership, and if things start getting personal, then things get ugly, so I'd suggest that you back off and remember that someone like you is a dime a dozen in this city," Roulette said and Thorne looked up at her with a grumbling tone.

"You're making a mistake…."

"I've made my response to your advances extremely clear, you have to be a completely dumbass not to be able to read between the lines," she told him harshly as she looked him right in the eye. "Remember, Thorne, there are bigger monsters than you in this city, and they will chew you up and spit you out."

Roulette got up to her feet and allowed Thorne to leave or just sit in the ground, she honestly did not give a fuck. She made her way up a set of stairs towards an office.

"That fool, he thinks that he can get under my skin, and in my panties, well it wasn't like he would have lasted all that long to begin with, likely would have dropped dead of a heart attack before I even finished," Roulette said as she made her way to the office and saw Shiva there, although she was on a roll. "That son of a bitch thinks that because he gave me minimal support…he's going to dictate how I do things. No, he might be able to buy off the SWAT and put them under his thumb and he might be able to impress women with the size of his desk but he doesn't amuse me at all. And don't even get be started on Cobblepot, fucker can't even get it up if he was thrown into an entire room full of naked models having an orgy."

Shiva inclined her head and there was a shadow of an amused smirk but she got down to business. "I spotted Black Canary and Nightwing at the Club this evening."

"I didn't recognize them, I was too preoccupied with Thorne being an asshole and Cobblepot being worse to take too much notice," Roulette said and Shiva nodded.

"They were incognito but one could tell from their body movements it was them," Shiva said to her.

"So how should we proceed tomorrow night?" Roulette asked.

"Stick to the plan, along as Grant enters the cage with Jones, things will reach their logical conclusion."

* * *

' _Joe Hopkins,'_ Karen told Harry after he had given her the information and she ran a search on him. _'Apparently, he's a former undercover cop, but he got caught selling the drugs that he was supposed to be getting off of the street. He's fallen on some hard times, but he sells information to whoever the highest bidder is, whether it be the cops or the mob. It's a wonder that he hasn't got his head blown off in revenge by someone.'_

' _Lovely,'_ Harry said as he was perched high above Gotham City, watching to see what Vicki and this man would talk about.

Hopkins received a huge wad of bills and he took it, and he looked at Vicki with a leering expression that would cause most women to scream for the nearest alleyway. That being said, she did not back down. "What do you need to know, sweetheart?"

"Tell me what you know about Arnold Flass," Vicki replied calmly.

"Well word is on the street that he tried to get in Jim Gordon's face, but the fucker got his ass kicked, serves the scumbag right if you ask me," Hopkins said as he chewed on the tobacco that was in his mouth and nastily spit his chaw on the sidewalk.

"Oh what happened there exactly?" Vicki asked, curiously.

"Gordon's getting a bit too popular for his own good and that makes people very nervous when a straight arrow like him is moving up in the world, he might be O'Hara's successor when he retires in a couple of years, and that would shake up the force, so Loeb decided to give Jimbo a fair warning to play ball," Hopkins said as he continued to chew. "Guy's not the sharpest tool in the shed, so I guess you can imagine that dumb fuck bit off more than he can chew."

Hopkins looked at her for a second and Vicki pressed on. "What about Harvey Bullock?"

"Bullock's an interesting case, he's corrupt sure, but he doesn't mess with civilians, because he has standards, all he does is spy on others for the Commish and report back in them, blackmail material and all that," Hopkins said.

"Oh and could you elaborate a bit further?" Vicki asked.

"Oh he sabotages evidence sometimes, makes it disappear," Hopkins said and he looked at Vicki with a half knowing smile on his face. "Someone had to do the dirty deed in making the evidence disappear and let Sionis and Falcone walk free. From what I can tell that is an airtight case, especially with what Dent found out."

"What about Branden, Howard Branden?" Vicki asked, pressing on and Hopkins looked like he had paled.

"Not saying anything about him, toots," Hopkins whispered as he looked around nervously and Vicki handed him a wad of cash. He seemed hesitant to say anything but he took the money. He also expected to drop dead where he stood the moment he took the moment. "Works for Loeb, but he runs the SWAT like they're mercenaries. You got the scratch, well the men are yours."

Hopkins voice dropped to a very scratchy whisper, almost inaudible but Vicki could pick up what he said next.

"Branden took a hit after being suspended, and then that guy put in in the hospital. The SWAT went down with him and…..well Branden's out for that ninja guy and Gordon, who got him in trouble, and anyone else who tries to uncover what he's doing. And he'll be out for you too if you're not too careful, I'd stick out of it, if I were you, sweetheart, just keep your nose out of it. Leave him alone and forgot you ever heard of Howard Branden."

Hopkins knew for a fact that he was going to sleep with one eye open.

Harry watched and saw the goons moving around. Quickly, before the other two even noticed they were closing in, Harry jumped down in a flash to take them out.

Hopkins could hear nothing which in this city was worse than hearing something. Silence was always what happened before gunshots. "I….I don't like this, I don't want to deal with this anymore."

Hopkins ran off into the night, to whatever hole he crawled back out from underneath.

Vicki could sense that something was off and she stuck her head into the alleyway off to the side and she saw about seven or eight bodies knocked unconscious. Somehow, she did not hear what had happened behind her which was completely surprising.

She could see a fallen wallet on the ground. She picked it up and opened it. Vicki's mouth hung open in shock and there was a SWAT identification card in it. She suspected that if she poked around, she would discover the same thing on the other goons.

There was no question about it; it was time for her to go.

**To Be Continued on June 10** **th** **2014.**

Director's Notes-http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/2014/06/ascension-book-2-chapter-31-directors.html


	32. First Rule of....Part Four

**Chapter Thirty Two: The First Rule of…..Part Four.**

Batman arrived back to the scene of the crime. He had been cut off thanks to an impromptu run in against ninjas.

"And just what pray tell, are you hoping to find when you nose around there this time, sir?" Alfred asked Batman over the radio.

"A clue, anything that might point me in the right direction," Batman said as he looked around. He half expected the League to case the place but so far, nothing. He knew the League all too well just because they did not seem to be here right now, it did not mean that they were not going to pop out from the shadows before too long and ruin things.

"Well that is actually very vague….."

"I'll know when I see something, Alfred," Batman said and the calmness in his voice indicated that he knew precisely what he was looking for.

There were splatters of blood on the floor still and the scene was something that gave the air of being extremely eerie. One almost was completely chilled to the bone as Batman looked around and he paused for a moment.

"I'm guessing that's a good thing then or are you just going silent because it is the style of the time?" Alfred asked.

"The police missed something, they're treating this as a murder, that might have connections to the rumored child smuggling ring," Batman said as he reached up and held up the business card and scanned it.

"The Haberdasheria: Owned and Operated by Milly Tetch," Alfred said and there was a moment. "So what…."

"I'll know in a minute," Batman said, he saw the photo on the corner of the desk that had been slightly overturned. Getting the frame back up, he recognized the woman in the picture and then he saw that there was an older man with her that he did not recognize.

Batman walked around the area of the apartment, searching, and he noticed a wardrobe of both female and male clothes immediately, which indicated that there was at least two people living here, like his earlier suspicions were. Given the rumors on the street, it had to be at least two but this was the first physical evidence that he had other than hearsay.

Activating the Detective Mode, he had continued to look around to see what he could find.

"Interesting," Batman said as he bent over and reached underneath the bed to pull out a locked box. It was not going to be hard to open, on account that he was Batman.

"What?"

Alfred inquired this and Batman decided to let him in. "I'll find out more once I open the box."

"Well, I don't think you need a high tech gadget for that, sir, a simple hairpin would suffice," Alfred suggested blandly.

Batman did not say anything, although he was going to assume that Alfred was right. A hair pin laid on the side of the dresser and he picked it up. It took mere seconds to break open the lock and unravel the treasure that was inside.

There were pictures of multiple young female girls and the addresses. Batman had to run a scan on each of them but he was willing to lay down money that some of them matched missing children's cases throughout Gotham City. The Dark Knight looked at the addresses and whoever had written down as quite prolific and there were notes about the girls, some of them fairly disturbed and yet at the same time, almost childish.

He knew right away that this was part of some sick game, as those who preyed on children were the sickest and Batman could see the full scope of the crimes the further he dug deep into the evidence that had been presented.

* * *

Vicki Vale might have been nosy but stupid was something that she was not. When she dropped the badge on the ground and saw the SWAT members down on the ground.

' _Time to go,'_ she mentally repeated to herself, as she backed off immediately and decided to run in the other direction immediately. The rat had bolted ,perhaps she should have been able to take a hint from his playbook.

She saw a figure in the shadows the moment she turned around and Vicki did the only thing that she thought was sensible in her current shell shocked state of mind. She screamed bloody murder at the top of her lungs and kept screaming.

"Vicki, it's me, calm down," Harry whispered to her and Vicki was caught off guard but she calmed down enough to see that it was in fact Harry Fucking Potter standing there in front of her, in the flesh.

Vicki was completely done freaking out and her natural reporter's curiosity got ahold of her. She saw Harry standing before her in the alleyway, he was wearing a stylish, but at the same time casual, black shirt, along with a pair of fashionable jeans, and a pair of boots, along with a jacket as he stood there completely.

He had made use of the time bubble to change, so seconds had passed for Vicki, where it had been a minute for Harry. It was outside of the pull of time so no one was the wiser.

Vicki looked at Harry, practically stammering but she grew calmer by the second. "W-what are you doing here?"

Harry had a story ready to go immediately. "I was escorting a friend of mine home from university, when I came across this scene, it's getting pretty dangerous being out here in Gotham at this time of the night, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it is," Vicki agreed as her eyes flickered to the fallen figures on the ground. "Maybe we should…."

"I think that you want to catch a train back, don't you?" Harry asked her and Vicki nodded as she kept looking over her shoulder as Harry lead her off towards the train. She was not going to disagree. "So if you don't mind me for asking…..exactly what are you working on?"

Vicki paused for a moment and Harry offered her a suggestion with a smile on his face.

"How about this, I escort you home and you tell me what you're working on, on the way there?" Harry asked as they were about to board a train, a rather late one.

"Well, if you insist," Vicki told him as she gripped him by the arm and lead him off into the direction of the train, ready to climb on board.

The two of them paid their admission and they walked forward. Harry made sure that he could find a compartment for the two of them. There were a few dregs of society on this train but given that it was Gotham City, Harry was not surprised.

He walked with confidence and an air that if anyone fucked with him, they would get fucked up seriously. At least that was the vibe that Vicki got, perhaps it had been a long night and she was seeing things that were not really there. Never the less, she sat down next to Harry on the train.

"I'm working on a story about corruption in the GCPD," Vicki whispered to Harry and Harry raised an eyebrow.

"An interesting story, I'm sure that you're going to find a lot of smoke to some of those fires," Harry told her and Vicki nodded in agreement.

"Yes, although people turned up missing when they were about to blow the whistle, especially when Branden's name gets mentioned," Vicki said to Harry and he looked at her. "Although someone must have taken out the SWAT in the alleyway."

"Wait…they were SWAT?" Harry asked, deciding to play naïve for a little bit.

"Yes, although they were disguised as civilians, to make it look like that it was a random gang mugging, or….I guess that was the intention," Vicki said as she trailed off and Harry gave her a smile.

"That makes sense, after the incident of Old Gotham, business contacts of mine have said that they were told that medical personnel was not allowed in the city," Harry said. "I've heard that the SWAT is for sale….."

"Because they are," Vicki said as she placed her arms on the back of her head and leaned back.

"For every good cop in the GCPD, there are twelve more that are on the take or at best, going through the motions, they don't care about corruption," Harry said to her. "Keep in mind though, this is hearsay, but I'm sure that you could back this up if you go poking around."

"Well, it does line up with a lot of what my contacts have told me, and what I've found out," Vicki said to him immediately and Harry nodded.

"So, I know that you did your homework about me before you interviewed me," Harry told her and Vicki paused and looked at her. There was a pure "guilty as charged" type expression on her face. "The question is, what have you found out about me?"

"Well, I have found out much about you," Vicki said as she smiled. "You blasted through private school in a couple of years, shattering all records and expectations. You scored the highest scores possible on test after test, setting even more records that I don't think will be broken any time soon."

"Well, hopefully someone might strive to my level someday," Harry said.

' _Doubtful, but it would give you something to break if someone could beat you,'_ Faora admitted grudgingly.

"Let's see, you got a scholarship to multiple universities and ever since the age of eleven, you've always been seen in the company of a beautiful woman or two or ten," Vicki said with a knowing smile and Harry smirked back at her, his green eyes flickering immediately. "You decided to wait until the age of fourteen, until you attended Cambridge. Where you got your doctorate in Theoretical Physics, and then Mechanical Engineering and then for some reason….you moved to Gotham."

Harry waited for her to continue, she was on a roll now and he hated for her to stop in her tracks.

"You built a company that is on track to be one of the biggest in the world in the next five years, at the very least," Vicki concluded.

"Well, it seems like you've done your homework, Vicki," Harry concluded, which she smiled at him.

"Well, you don't get to be a top reporter without being prepared," Vicki said as she looked at him. "I find your relationships to be most interesting, especially given that most of the women appear to be fine with it and in cordial relationships with each other."

"Well, that might be interesting to an outside observer," Harry said to her and he smiled at Vicki. "Tell me, what's your opinion on that?"

Vicki decided to offer her candid viewpoint on the entire situation. "Well….it's kind of like a pride of lions, one strong male, a bunch of females, and able to pay them the appropriate attention. I mean, as long as the same attention is paid, then why should I complain?"

"Oh?" Harry asked as he wanted to see if she would dig herself into a hole or not. Never the less, he waited to see what she would say.

"Yes….I mean…..if someone takes control of me, and pays me the proper attention, it shouldn't really be a problem, should it?" Vicki asked.

"So what do you mean about someone controlling you?" Harry asked, deciding to take her question, spin it around and give a question of his own.

"Well um, I was just hypothetically speaking, you know off of the top of my head, about a potential situation," Vicki said, she seemed flustered. Her tongue had gotten ahead of her brain and not for the first time either.

Harry smiled at her and there was much laughter through the bond from the usual parties although the emerald eyed wizard locked eyes towards her.

"Are you sure it was a slip of the tongue?" Harry asked to her as he slid a bit closer. Vicki watched him and decided to make a decision, snap as it might be.

"Well, I've been known to be impulsive at times, you know me," Vicki whispered to Harry and the green eyed wizard placed his hands on her legs as he looked at her. "I guess I just need someone to take control of me."

Vicki draped one leg over his thigh and then straddled him slightly as she looked him in the eye. "Do you think that you would be up for that?"

Harry smiled as he turned the position and pinned her down against the seat, which caused her to squeal in surprise and pleasure.

"I don't know Vicki, do you think that I can do it?" Harry asked her and Vicki's heart started to race as Harry slowly planted a hungry kiss on her lips which she returned, wrapping her arms around him.

* * *

Vicki's arms wrapped around Harry's neck as she grinded her crotch up and down upon his, as Harry slid his hand up her leg.

She could feel his talented hands move all over her legs and shivers went down her spine as he edged up her skirt. She found herself straddled upon his lap and the green eyed wizard deepened the kiss.

Harry slowly unbuttoned Vicki's blouse to reveal her amazing bra clad breasts. There was a purple bra pushing them up.

"So are you going to do it, or are you just going to look?" Vicki asked with a taunting smile on her face and Harry smiled.

He released her breasts out into the world and they were nice and firm. Her nipples were juicy and begged to be sucked. So sucked Harry did as her legs scissored around his waist. He took the right nipple in his mouth and then suckled on the left nipple, all while alternating and causing Vicki's mind to go wild with the pleasure.

His hand slid up her skirt and started to diddle her, which caused pleasure to course down her spine immediately. The woman closed her eyes as Harry explored her body.

She slid off of him, her nipples stiff and erect, as she unbuckled his pants feverishly, looking him in the eye.

"Well you're as gifted as the rumors tell me," Vicki said as she squeezed his package through his underwear.

"Who, prey tell is telling you these things?" Harry asked but Vicki did not respond, rather she pulled down his pants and then engulfed his cock deep into her throat with one fell swoop. The woman went down on him like there was no tomorrow, his cock buried down her throat, and her eyes locked onto him.

Hungrily, she squeezed his balls, working him over as she made quick strides, working his member all the way down her throat. She almost gagged on his massive pole but somehow she stayed the course and kept working him over, pumping his thick length so deep into her mouth that she almost choked on it. The woman was hanging on, fondling his balls with expert ability, and her lips smacked around his cock.

Vicki loved the taste of this cock, it was so juicy, that he caused her to drool.

"Oh, that mouth is good," Harry grunted as he put his hands on her head, and continued to work into her.

He pulled out of her mouth immediately and Vicki whined but Harry pulled him up and then removed her panties.

Harry saw a smooth shaven snatch, as he traced her lips and clit. He looked in her eyes. "So, no hint of whether the carpet matches the drapes? A shame, but still nice."

Harry lifted up Vicki and then she saw his cock hovering beneath her. It was so huge from her vantage point and she never thought that she would see anything so beautiful.

"Please, please, please," Vicki begged as she held onto Harry's neck as her pussy dripped juices down onto the tip of his cock.

The redhead closed her eyes and waited her lips to part. The green eyed wizard sunk his tool deep between her legs and stretched her out, which caused her moans to increase.

"Fuck, such a nice pussy," Harry whispered as he explored Vicki's body.

Vicki was given a first class education of why he was with so many females, because he explored all of her body and hit her pleasure spots.

"Oh, fuck, more," Vicki moaned as she felt her pussy clench harder than ever around his tool. He was touching her and cupped her breasts. He paid special attention to her nipples and made her purr like an absolute sex kitten.

"Don't rush, we have plenty of time before you get off," Harry whispered in her ear but Vicki nipped his neck.

"Getting off, right now," Vicki moaned as his cock struck her G-Spot. She could not even begin to gauge how long it took before her senses were met with unmistakable pleasure. The mind was something that was being wrecked immediately.

How many orgasms did she experience? Four, Five, Six? She lost count of what she felt but all she knew was she was riding this prime cock as it buried deep into her ass.

Harry squeezed her ass and she threw her head back with a moan. Her eyes flooded with an amazing amount of lust as he kept working deep into her.

His balls were so heavy that she could imagine what she would feel. She rode him on the bench like there was no tomorrow.

Harry's hands shimmed over her delicious legs and then moved around to cup her sensual rear which caused her to shriek at the top of her longs.

"MORE!" Vicki screamed as she hung onto her neck.

Harry marveled at the woman's stamina but he slowed down her pace, so she did not burn herself out. Never the less, she kept going up and down on Harry, riding him, trying to milk every last drop out of him.

"You're almost there," Harry whispered hotly in her ear.

Vicki had no idea whether he was talking about her stop or her being completed for the night. Her mind was fairly shattered as well as he kissed the side of her neck some more and then licked her neck.

Shivers went down her spine as his cock buried into her body. The world had stopped around her, there was nothing but this sex god and his amazing cock.

His finger crooked and went up her ass. She wondered how his cock would feel up there but she thought that something that big could split her in half. That would be half of the fun as well as her tightness enveloped him, rocking back and forth, picking up speed, as her breasts swayed in front of his face.

"So close," Vicki moaned as her walls clenched in. "Cum, do it in me, please."

Harry obliged as they had reached her stop. The moment that they did, after about an hour of intense love making, which seemed like longer in some respects, mostly because it was, his balls tightened.

Vicki's entire world exploded into a delicious and delirious shade of white, her mind exploding as his balls emptied its thick load deep into her insides. He fired load after load of cum into her, unleashing his thick ropes into her.

* * *

She held onto his neck as he gently slid her off and captured one more kiss, as it was time now to get dressed. Vicki could barely walk but somehow she thought that it was worth it and she could hardly wait for even more.

* * *

Salvatore Maroni was living a far better life in prison. Sure he might have been put in solitary confinement, but solitary confinement was looking pretty good right about now. The bed was comfortable, he had three warm meals a day, and a gym as well. He pretty much had many of the comforts of home, which made him resented by a lot of people in the prison.

When you're made, you're made for life, and when you put the children of many powerful people through college, you were pretty made.

Maroni, despite being in solitary, was expecting a guest. He had gotten a few snatches from the media but he knew by now to take that with several grains of salt. Especially with the GCPD's spin machine in full effect. He leaned back on the luxury seat as the guard led the one and only Tony Zucco.

"Good morning, Phil, how are ya doing?" Maroni asked cordially and the guard returned his smile.

"Doing pretty good, Mr. Maroni, sir," the guard said as he reached out a hand and shook it with the mobster.

"So how's your daughter?" Maroni asked.

"She got into the college that she wanted, she's so happy," Phil said.

"That's good, tell her that Uncle Sal said hi," Maroni said as the guard walked off, leaving Zucco alone in the cell with Maroni. "So, it's been a while, hasn't it, Tony?"

"Yes, since you've been arrested, boss," Zucco agreed.

"So what the fuck's been happening out there?" Maroni asked and Zucco immediately dove into his explanation regarding what has been going on.

"Well, Gotham City is a fucking War Zone, even more than usual," Zucco told him. "Five or six factions, at least, are fighting for each other, gobbling up territory like it's no tomorrow. The Roman's still locked in the Arkham Ward."

"Good, bastard had it coming," Maroni grumbled.

"Fucking Sionis has got it in his head that he's top shit, some kind of big time gangster," Zucco continued immediately and Maroni nodded. "And what's worse, the Fat Fucking Bird immigrated over here and taken over the arms and the smuggling trade. Rupert Thorne, has fucking got into his head that he's top shit in Gotham City. Then the GCPD is getting into it with each other, and Loeb and O'Hara are butting heads."

Maroni waited for Zucco to finish but he was just now hitting his stride.

"Everyone except the mafia is running around with fucking guns that the army would love to get their hands on," Zucco said as he looked at Maroni. He sighed immediately and then he added. "And there's three fruits in suits, armed to the teeth, that's fucking a lot of us up and causing us trouble."

Maroni poured himself a glass of wine and tipped it into his mouth, drinking it.

"On the bright side, we got our hands on the Carmine Hotel, and that means we have the Bowery," Zucco said as he took the second glass of wine that Maroni offered him. He sipped it. "And there's an alliance coming down the pike that will help us turn shit around."

"Anything else?" Maroni asked calmly, his temper was already rather calm.

Zucco nodded. "Yeah of course….Carmine's bitch sister is setting a bunch of guys up from Chicago to help the Roman's bastard brats and Gazzo is supposed to be sending an equal number of guys up from Metropolis but he's dragging his feet until Sofia gets back to Italy. So Mario's pissed off at him. Guys from Chicago are coming in today but we found out about it, so we've arranged a suitable welcome. The bastards won't see it coming."

Maroni was silent as he had listened to most of that without input. The wheels were turning around. He set down the glass of wine and decided what he was going to do.

"First of all, get in touch with Manheim, and tell him that Sal told you that he's cashing in one of his favors. Get us some hardware and none of that high tech shit, more mid-level shit. I don't want anything out of fucking Star Wars. If it's more complicated than slap a Mag in it and blow some fuck's head off, I don't want anything to do with it."

Maroni held up his hand to cut off any other protests that Zucco might have.

"Second, don't worry about Thorne. That fat fuck's a politician, he isn't going to do anything, if his nuts are on the line. Worry about getting enough of Falcone's territory, before the Roman gets out and believe me the Roman will get out. As for that bird and the ugly fuck in the mask, don't worry about either of them. Bit players, nothing but freaks, everyone's making moves, they might get something, but this is fucking Gotham City."

Maroni took a drink and then made his third point.

"Third, get in touch with Bob the Goon and tell him I want to talk to his boss. I've got a job for him."

Zucco nodded, letting it sink all in.

"Got all that?" Maroni asked and Zucco nodded. "Good."

"So when are you getting out?" Zucco asked and Maroni looked thoughtful.

"'Bout a Year tops, that's Gotham's Legal System for you but I'll enjoy the vacation in the meantime," Maroni said and at that statement, both mobsters shared a hearty laugh.

* * *

Vicki woke up the next morning, shaking her head as she tried to get up to her feet. She was pretty sure that she came home last night, although she was not sure how she made it there. The last moment she remembered was that she had the best fucking of her life and she was pretty sure it continued into the night when he brought her here, after she had a chance to recharge after getting off of the train.

For a brief moment, she thought that he was long gone. Looking at the clock, it was seven o'clock in the morning. She pulled herself out of the bed, adjusting her eyes to the sunlight as she got up.

She was completely naked and she stepped forward, taking a couple of ginger steps. Seeing his shirt on the floor, she smiled in spite herself. He was not completely gone as she thought that he was and she could hear the shower running.

Vicki entered the room and saw Harry finishing up the shower in all of his glory. She decided to not say anything for a couple of moments but appreciate the view. There was a cup of coffee sitting on the counter, and without preamble she took a cup of coffee.

"So good morning," Vicki said in a half dazed voice, as she did not function well without a cup of coffee in the morning. Some people said the caffeine was the devil's drug but she found herself bowing before the Prince of Darkness, if it meant that she would be getting work done.

"Good morning yourself," Harry said as Vicki sipped on the coffee.

"Ooooh, good stuff," Vicki moaned and then Harry stuck his head out of the shower, surveying her with a raised eyebrow. Her face fell into a sheepish grin. "The coffee I mean….the coffee."

"I know what you meant," Harry said as he pulled her into the shower. "Figured that you were coming this way anyway."

Vicki relaxed as Harry washed her body. The truth being told, she was mostly surprised that she was this able to move and this coherent giving that Harry fucked her brains out.

"You know….keep this up, and we might have an encore from last night," Vicki whispered as Harry ran his fingers down her body and caused her to shiver.

"I think that after last night, after I fucked you into a drooling stupor, you would want a bit of a break, don't worry, you're get your chance soon enough," Harry whispered into her ear as he washed her. "So, legs aren't the only thing that you shave, but I see….I see the wig….."

Vicki realized that the wig must have come off sometime last night.

"Yeah….she….the puff piece queen….I just wear the wig to make sure that I'm different from her," Vicki told Harry as she slipped from the shower, swaying her tight ass all of the way and Harry smiled as he watched the progress of it. She dried her hair and moved over to the dresser. "The funny thing is, that I'm a natural red and she isn't….but she's been around longer than Vanna White, so people would think that I'm a copycat. Despite us being in two different professions."

"I see, well still hot," Harry told her and Vicki smiled.

"I know, you have to be to last in this profession," Vicki said as she pulled on her panties and put on a bra as well, before finding herself some business attire. She found the wig on the floor, knocked off in the throes of passion and forgotten. "So, you fucked my brains out last night, the least I can do is have you for breakfast."

"Well, I'm sure that you would love to have me for breakfast," Harry whispered to her.

' _Smooth Harry,'_ Karen thought with a smile. _'The wig thing is a good idea for a disguise, as you well know.'_

' _Yeah, that might be pretty good,'_ Dinah thought, now that Black Canary was becoming more known, Dinah Lance might need to have a change of appearance in the public eye. She decided that it would be prudent to wear a dark wig of some sort immediately. Some of the girls wore glasses.

Vicki reached over to her wardrobe, pulled on a pair of glasses and tied her hair back into a ponytail and the two of them made their way down the stairs.

Breakfast was served in the matter of moments, where Vicki took a look at the paper that Harry must have brought in when she was asleep.

"Still nothing about the Norton kid in here, police don't know what happened," Vicki muttered as she skimmed the headlines. Then again, she could detect a fair amount of spin being put in the paper.

"Well, Ted Grant thinks that he was murdered," Harry commented and Vicki raised an eyebrow halfway. She whistled and nodded.

"I'd believe it," she agreed and then she saw another headline that caught her eye. In fact, it more than caught her eye, it caused her to break out in a loud round of laughter.

"What's so funny?" Harry asked her and Vicki, wordlessly placed the headline under Harry's eyes.

"What if Harry Potter's Bat-Man?" it read.

' _Oh, how can someone come so close, yet get so fucking far?'_ Amanda thought as she shook her head, causing her mind to go numb with amusement.

"Impossible," Vicki said as she took a piece of toast and sat down with Harry looking at her. "I mean…..well you do so many….so much, how can you be the Bat-Man on top of that?"

"You have a point," Harry conceded with a smile.

"Unless you are Batman?" Vicki asked curiously and Harry smiled. "Yeah, I know, dumb."

Harry said nothing, mostly because Vicki's phone went off. She answered it immediately, because she smelled a news story so hot that it would burn her hands something fierce.

"Knox….no…..you're kidding me right? Well….I'll get over there immediately, and sent a competent camera man this time, for the love of god."

Vicki turned to Harry immediately when she hung up. "My producer, someone decided to blow up a toll booth and then empty a machine gun into a pair of cars."

' _In Gotham City, seriously?'_ Amanda thought dryly.

Vicki paused immediately and she handed Harry a key. "For my apartment…..come over if you have the chance at any time. But don't try and force it if you don't have the time, I'm not a needy bitch like some women."

"Believe me, I know," Harry said with a smile.

' _HEY!'_ Kara, Amanda, Astoria, Bella, and Ginny all chimed in through the bond link and Harry was pretty sure they might not have been the only ones, but Harry could only make out their voices.

* * *

Harry was on his way back to the Penthouse to get suited up, meeting with Dinah as he did. It was pretty much go time.

"Ready?" Harry asked Dinah as he turned up and Dinah locked eyes with him, with a smile on her face.

"Let's do this," Dinah replied to Harry as the two of them turned around to walk off, going side by side with each other.

' _We're into place,'_ Diana thought. Jaime was there to back her up on mission support, and Hermione was going to chime in whenever she could, although she was not feeling too chatty tonight. That being said, she had her eyes locked onto the map with a razor sharp focus that was nearly terrifying.

Harry and Dinah made their way to the club in pretty much no time flat and they were able to slip their way inside past security unseen. Then again, given that these people were not the brightest bulbs in the bunch.

' _Might want to set up a series of safe houses in the area, to make sure I can get around easier,'_ Harry thought.

' _So you can get from point to point to point?'_ Peve asked.

' _So one in every district in Gotham?'_ Lily asked.

' _Pretty much yes,'_ Harry said as he had thought about it. _'And Hermione, yes I realize that I could teleport.'_

' _I wasn't going to bloody say anything!'_ Hermione protested.

' _Of course,'_ Faora said dryly.

' _Anyway, I realize that I could teleport, I refuse to call it what those moronic stick brandishers have dubbed it,'_ Harry thought.

' _Besides, it does roll off the tongue a tad bit easier,'_ Daphne chimed in from afar. _'Come to think about it, we do come up with some really stupid names for some really silly concepts, you know what I mean?'_

' _Just figuring this out now?'_ Ginny asked and Daphne shook her head immediately.

' _So, it's actually a sound plan,'_ Alura stated for after a few seconds.

' _Getting from Point A to Point B, without being see, impressive, and…..well it's not like you're in any danger of being seen,'_ Lara thought.

' _I know, not by the average person at least, but the government, don't know what the monitor, would prefer not to let them know that Harry Potter is Nightwing,'_ Harry thought. _'Otherwise they'd start asking other questions, questions about my origins, questions that I prefer not to be asked.'_

' _Fair enough,'_ Lily added, she could see where her son was coming from with this one and she sympathsized with his thoughts, believe me.

' _I think we might have a good idea of how to set this up, Sersi and I,'_ Jaime thought and Sersi, who was in the same room as Jaime, Hermione, and Diana chimed in.

' _All we need to do is broker the proper deal,'_ Sersi thought. _'Don't worry, I'll be able to get it done.'_

' _So are you at the fight club?'_ Diana asked.

' _Yes, we are,'_ Dinah chimed in, as they just slipped into the crowd undetected. _'The preliminaries are still going on, not quite time for the main event yet.'_

They could see a fight that was just in the process of wrapping up. There was a tall tattoed woman with red hair, dressed in a tight red top with black pants. She had a look of a killer in her eyes as she kept hammering away at her enemy, with a series of fluid jab punches. They were chained together one after another and she kept poking away to the best of her abilities. There was no question about it, she was double tough but her skills were a bit raw.

' _She seems to fight like an untrained Amazon, all of the strength without the sense of style,'_ Diana piped in and that was a statement that was agreed by.

Her opponent was dressed in white, the material stretching over her body. She had dark eyes and silky hair although her eyes were just visible and they were focused. She dodged every attack in an attempt to tire her opponent out and it was swift skill.

' _She fights like Nightshade's Elite Guard,'_ Harry commented. _'Although better trained but the same core mechanics are right there.'_

' _It's like a blunt instrument against a dancer, and she's wearing her opponent out, strength against style,'_ Jaime thought.

' _Pretty much, yes,'_ Dinah agreed as she watched the battle wind down immediately. It seemed like the fight was hitting its stride.

Pulling themselves away from the combat, Black Canary and Nightwing slipped down to the basement, and he pulled out a device to set things up.

' _This should blow the power if things get out of hand,'_ Harry informed her and she nodded.

' _Yes, we don't want pretty much every thug in Gotham City to get a good view of us if things to get out of hand,'_ Dinah thought with a shudder as she watched Harry set up the device.

' _I'll be able to access it at any time now,'_ Harry thought as he joined Dinah up at the top of the stairs right away. _'It will blow all of the electronics in the room….except for our equipment.'_

' _Clever,'_ Dinah thought with a smile as she joined Harry at the top of the stairs, which was winding and the blonde kept her eyes locked forward onto everything.

The fight wrapped up and Roulette was now at the podium, ready to introduction the action.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it's the main event. Continuing his comeback trail, an old favorite, he is Ted "Wildcat" Grant!"

Wildcat entered the ring to some fanfare although it was of the type that the regulars in the club knew that he was going to be stuck into the ring and sentenced to die. He walked his walk to the ring, not even blinking. His gaze was razor sharp and steady and his arms crossed together. The look on his face showed that he was ready.

"And his opponent, he stands over seven feet tall, he weighs in tonight at a scale shattering three hundred and ninety two pounds, he is the one, the only, Waylon "Killer Croc" Jones!"

Ted looked up at this large man, with scaly skin, and a murderous look in his sickening yellow eyes. There were two words that he could speak when he realized what happened to his protégé and he realized what was about to happen to him.

"Oh shit."

Black Canary and Nightwing scoped things out from above, and needless to say they waited for the right moment although the right moment might have to come soon. This could go badly very quickly.

Grant was going to give it his all and he started to punch away at the Croc. His punches had no effect on Jones who laughed.

"Tickles," Jones taunted him as Wildcat dodged his outstretched arms and kicked him in the back of the legs several times.

It was a wise strategy, take down the legs, and every man was the same size as you, when flat on his back. It was something that anyone in a fight with a bigger man should employ. His legs were the weak spot.

At least that was the theory, but it was not sound. Croc nailed him with a huge punch to the face that rattled him. Grant's kneels buckled out from underneath him as Croc reared back and hammered him once again.

It was like getting hit full force with a sledgehammer. Croc bent down and wrapped his arms around Grant's waist with a massive bearhug and laughed before slamming him down to the ground.

Harry moved in right now, disabling the lights and then with the next movement, Nightwing and Black Canary repelled from the ceiling, landing gracefully on platforms on the top of the cage.

They bounced off to the ground and Harry could hear the footsteps that were approaching behind him. Ben Turner was up on his neck.

A haymaker punch was dodged as there was a panicked scramble as people tried to use their electronics but they were dead. Harry crouched down to avoid another punch and then reared back. He plucked one jab to the throat and knocked him out.

Roulette turned to Shiva, who watched unblinkingly from the shadows.

"Get Turner out of there, the Master has plans for him," Shiva whispered in her most deadly whisper and Roulette nodded.

* * *

Killer Croc looked away from the downed form of Wildcat with disinterest. He had seen the two entering the cage and they were much better prey than that old man.

"Spoiled anyway," Croc grunted as he punted the man into the side of the cage and caused him to fly into the cage.

Harry already broke up the cage and rushed at Jones with super speed. He reared his arm back and fired a rocket buster of a punch to his face. Magic might not work well with the quality of his hide.

It was much like a dragon, which Har-Zod did punch out once, before he messed up his CORE with the Hallows and had to wear the inhibitor watch. So, with his limited powers, he prepared to strike.

Croc flew back and landed on the ground. For a second, Harry thought that he was done but then Croc bounced back up. The creature gave an annoyed growl and back handed Harry, sending him crashing to the ground.

Harry winced; it hurt and with the watch on, it hurt even more. He once again got to his feet as Dinah joined him. She used momentum and physics to nail Croc with a blistering round house kick, rocking his head backwards.

The green eyed vigilante rushed in and kicked Croc in the back and Dinah nailed him with a dropkick from the front. It sent the large Croc man into the cage hard with a huge thunderous thump.

Dinah prepared to attack again but Shiva dropped down and tried to kick her head cleanly off. Black Canary dodged the attack, her heart pumping blood heavily as she looked around, twisting her gaze around as she looked over her shoulder.

She landed onto her feet sticking the attack perfectly and Shiva and Black Canary tried to attack each other. Both of them blocked their attacks and then Shiva tried to kick Dinah's leg out from underneath her but she ducked and slid behind her. A roundhouse kick was ducked by Canary and another one evaded with equal precision.

Dinah thought that she was in pretty good shape but this woman….well there was no question about it, she was just about as good as they came. She caught her with a couple of glancing blows to the ribs and staggered her.

Shiva moved in but Black Canary elbowed her in the face, grabbed her around the arm and tossed her to the ground. Shiva used her feet to block another assault from Canary and kicked her back.

The next thing Canary knew, Shiva's arm was wrapped around her throat and a knife was nearly at it. Canary decided to run up the cage to free herself from the grip and the momentum sent Shiva flying head over heels. She skillfully rolled to her feet and dodged a kick that would have sandwiched her head between Dinah's foot and the mesh of the cage.

She switched to Amazon fighting techniques that she picked up from Diana and this was something that threw her adversary off guard. She was grabbed in a half nelson and plowed down into the ground hard, as Dinah applied a leg scissors but Shiva managed to power out before she did too much damage.

Harry kept dodging Croc's sledgehammer like punches, he knew that if he got a direct hit on him, it would be trouble. Having been back handed once, Harry came to the conclusion that was not something that he would willingly want to repeat in the future. He kept dodging and weaving, and kept working around the attacks. His green eyes flowed with determination that few could ever match.

His glove was now turned on to the point where he would give Croc a shocking surprise. He reared back his hand and planted it in Croc's abdomen, doubling him over. The Croc Man was doubled over and pain filled through his eyes. He gave a howling yell as he tried to smash his hands down on the top of Harry's head but Harry dodged the attack.

"Son of a bitch," Croc yelled as Harry punched him in the kidneys. It was a sensitive spot for him and it made him agitated. "Stay still!"

It stung Croc, annoying the piss out of him. Harry wished he could adjust it to be a bit more long lasting but unfortunately, to avoid having his head bitten off, literally, he would have to make do with what he had to.

' _Float like a butterfly…..'_ Amanda chimed in.

' _Sting like a bee…..'_ Emily thought as she could see Harry nail Croc with a shot that was below the belt which enraged the beast even more.

' _You can't touch him…..'_ Amanda continued.

' _For he's Harry!'_ the twins continued to chime in.

' _Well, hate to….bother you, but this one…..she's deadlier than I thought that she was,'_ Dinah thought as she was flung in the cage but she dodged the attempt that she was going to be taken out by.

' _Same with the Croc, wonder how he would hold up to sonic attacks?'_ Harry thought as he jumped up onto the Croc's back and did a bell clapper to the ears, also while sending volts through his gloves.

Croc screamed out in agony.

' _Don't know, might be something to test out but….'_ Dinah thought as she managed to use her opponent's hair to flip her over although she kipped back up and threw a pair of daggers at Dinah which she dodged. They flew through the cage and likely some bystander got a very deadly souvenir.

' _She knows a lot of fighting styles, including several styles that Batman and I know, fighting styles like those used from the League of Shadows,'_ Dinah said. _'So how do you know it?'_

' _Nyssa taught Harrison, she was a former League Member,'_ Harry said, at least that was the official story that he got. _'But I know a couple of fighting styles really well that she doesn't, Amazon Fighting and Horu-Kanu so it might be…"_

' _Switch?'_ Dinah suggested.

' _Yes, switch on three,'_ Harry agreed as they were back to back immediately. _'One, two, three.'_

Harry flipped over Dinah and came face to face with Lady Shiva. The kicks and punches flew at a rapid fire flurry and Harry could tell that she stepped up her game to an entirely new level. The action was fast and furious as each fired a rapid fire barrage of punches and kicks but Shiva was thrown off from the new tweaks in combat that was thrown against her. She thought that she had seen every fighting style known to man.

She was wrong.

The woman went for a punch immediately but Harry dodged it and held it off to the side.

She still had fight left in her as Harry held her arm, clutching it in an armbar. He then hooked the other arm, and forced her to the ground. This caused the dagger that she had tried to withdraw to slide from her hand and land onto the ground with a clatter.

Harry could sense Dinah go in and it was Canary Cry time. Fortunately, Harry appropriated ear protection in the form of invisible earplugs.

Croc dropped to his knees and for the briefest second, it appeared to work. That was until Croc reared his head back and howled to the heavens, his growls becoming more prominent as he flew into a blinding bezerker style rage. His arms flew around dangerously as he went on the attack.

Harry dropped Shiva and then he took a huge punch from Croc that obviously would have hit her full on. He suffered a nasty gash as Croc impacted the side of his armor.

' _Harry!'_ Diana yelled and there were several more yells. _'Are you….'_

' _Fine, at least fine enough to still walk,'_ Harry grunted as he watched Croc go after Dinah, all sense of reason, what little there has been, having been lost. Croc tried to grab onto her, but Dinah ran up the cage and then leapfrogged over him. He rattled the arena as he hit the cage hard.

Dinah looked at Harry, who was staggered from the attack.

Shiva, seeing the potential threat, decided to intercede.

Croc screamed as he felt six attacks in blinding fury before his brain could even process the first. Something stabbed into his body, slicing through his tendons. The beast dropped to the ground, completely disabled.

' _There, I think that we're done,'_ Harry thought as Wildcat half staggered to his feet, although he collapsed down on the ground. _'I can walk, help….SON OF A BITCH!'_

Gunshots could be heard from coming outside the club as the doors burst open. A group of masked thugs took advantage of the cover of darkness to enter the arena and pick off some potential competition. Gunshots were fired into the crowd and Molotov Cocktails flew through the air.

"BLOODY HELL!"

There was an explosion as a squat fat man ran for cover, with his bodyguards covering his body as he made his way out of the box. Rupert Thorne was left there to hold the bag so to speak.

One of the cocktails hit the bar and it exploded, with Patrick Sullivan combusting right before everyone's very eyes. He gave a hideous scream of agony at the flames as they attacked him.

Black Mask walked into the arena and directed traffic but then he looked to the center of the ring, Black Canary and Nightwing were in his crosshairs, right in the middle of everything.

"Kill those fucking bastards!" Black Mask barked and his men began to fire on the cage.

Black Canary and Nightwing knew that this could be an ugly situation as everyone would notice their position now that Black Mask pointed it out. Croc actually proved to be a halfway decent shield although he was not even harmed by the bullets.

"You son of a bitch, I'll eat you!" Croc grunted as he ripped apart the cage in his attempt to get at those bastards who were fighting him. He was still staggered by that woman disabling him.

' _We better leave,'_ Dinah thought, although to be honest, that was a statement that pretty much went without saying.

Shiva was gone and Croc was escaping into the chaos, which actually gave Black Canary and Nightwing a pretty good cover.

Harry threw a smoke bomb up into the air, which gave them cover. They could see through the smoke.

"Bring down the house," Harry told her and Dinah did not need any telling twice. She unleashed her Canary Cry, it was ear shattering to say the very least and it brought the entire Fight Club down, at least enough where they could escape.

Grabbing Wildcat, they repelled up to the ceiling as it was crumbling down. They could see that Black Mask was ordering his men not to let them escape.

"IF YOU DON'T KILL THEM, I'LL FUCKING PUT YOU UNDERNEATH A PARKING LOT!"

They were long gone, having reached a roof top across the way.

* * *

The insanity had died down as Dinah and Harry brought Wildcat back to Grant's Gym and he was a bit surly.

"Could have handled myself in there well enough," Grant grumbled but that was more than an attempt to save face more than anything else.

Diana, Penny, and Alfred were brought along and the significance of Alfred was explained to Harry the moment that he got in the door.

' _Even though I have magical training with healing and some mundane, Uncle Alfred's a trained combat medic and a surgeon so I figured that it would be the best to bring him along,'_ Penny thought.

"Are you sure….."

"Don't worry Mr. Grant, I'm used to discretion," Alfred said without another word. He had more secrets than every government agency combined it seemed and he walked over, to try and see what he could do for the surly Wildcat, who was hunched over, his injuries extremely prominent all things considered.

Grant pulled himself away, he grumbled that he could walk on his own two feet and Harry was more than inclined to let him, just to get it out of his system. He only grudgingly accepted the fact that he might need some medical attention after what happened, so he slumped himself down onto the chair and allowed Alfred to take a prompt look at him, with Penny offering her input.

Diana joined Dinah and Harry to give them a quick going over, helping them out of their armor and changing them into their street clothes in a changing room off to the side.

' _Get that diagnostic spell running so I can take a look at them when I'm done over here,'_ Penny told Diana and Diana got right to work, agreeable to that fact. She started to scan Harry and Dinah.

' _That's very curious…metas are registered as squibs on the spell,'_ Diana thought.

' _Harrison is looking into that by the way, but it's not that high on the list of the hundreds of projects that he's working on,'_ Daphne chimed in.

' _Fair enough,'_ Harry said as he groaned and allowed Diana to give him a pretty good going over. There was a few seconds where the wizard kept looking on.

' _I think we're all as busy as hell anyway,'_ Jaime thought and there was no reason not to agree with that point.

"So tonight…..?" Dinah asked.

"Left us with far more questions than answers I think," Harry said as he was not too happy about being left in the dark for any reason.

' _Yes, I'd imagine so,'_ Karen thought, her head was buzzing as she tried to piece together everything that happened but she was honestly grasping at straws just as much as everyone else was.

' _Well at least we put a stop to things and brought the house down,'_ Dinah suggested, trying to put a positive spin onto things. _'Even though…..yeah even though everything kind of got FUBARed afterwards.'_

' _That's just what happens, I guess,'_ Harry thought as he thought about it. _'Black Mask showing up again, Croc leaving up into the night, and that woman….'_

' _Lady Shiva,'_ Nyssa piped in carefully as she jumped into the bond link. _'She heads up one of the factions of the League, it splintered after the timely death of the Demon Head. Shiva and the Monkey Clan are one of the top factions out there and…..well I'll be honest, she's a woman that's shrouded in mystery. I doubt that even Ra's Al Ghul knew any more than what she allowed him to know and what she allowed him to know may have been a fairly accurate fabrication never the less.'_

' _Well at least we know that she's out there, and to be on the look out for her,'_ Dinah concluded.

' _There will be other clubs even though we took this one down,'_ Harry thought and there was a smile. _'Of course, I think that I can make their lives a bit harder, all it takes is leaking the right story to the press. With the cops involved, it shouldn't be too hard to put the pressure on them.'_

' _Seems to be like you've got something in mind,'_ Diana thought but Harry smiled one of his mysterious smiles.

* * *

The next evening arrived, and Harry never was late for a date, especially when that date was with a beautiful woman.

He went to Sapphire's apartment to pick her up and he knocked on the door. It only took a moment for her to answer but Harry thought that it was really worth the wait. The door pushed open to reveal her standing there in a tight form fitting white dress that hugged every single curve that she had to offer. Her blonde hair was tied back to show her beautiful face. Her shining blue eyes looked at him and her lips were done up with the right shade of lipstick. Her plunging neckline showed a decent amount of cleavage, and the dress stopped at the mid-thigh area. It showed her lovely legs, along with a pair of high heel shoes.

"You look beautiful, Sapphire," Harry told her.

Sapphire smiled as she saw the stylish tuxedo, custom made, that Harry was wearing. She gave him a good looking over, although if she was honest, that tuxedo would look a lot better laying on the floor while she was on top of Harry in bed but that time was come.

"You don't look too bad yourself," Sapphire said with a smile as she offered her arm and Harry took it. "Shall we?"

"We shall," Harry replied as he lead the young socialite outside, where they descended the steps to Harry's waiting car, a snazzy looking convertible.

"Very nice," Sapphire said and whether or not she was talking about the car or something else, Harry did not know.

"Found a nice place ,really close by," Harry said.

Sapphire smiled, if Harry was talking about the place she thought that he was talking about, than the service here did not come cheap. Believe her, she did appreciate all of the effort he went to in bringing her here.

The happy couple drove up and made their way to the restaurant, and then sat down, as they waited to be served. Some light conversation was made in the car and on their way up.

"So, I get that impression that your father doesn't like me," Harry commented idly.

Sapphire smiled at him. "Well….he doesn't care about you personally, it's just your politics….it resembles a threat to the way he does business. And I'll be honest, that's the reason why I got the apartment away from him. There are some things that he gets up to that I'm pretty much better off not knowing."

"I'm sure," Harry replied to the blonde as she leaned back, putting her arms around the back of her head and turned her head from one side to the next. She blew her hair from her face.

"Besides, the way you brought the RAO Corporation into the forefront, becoming one of the top new companies in years, and how you used your power in Wayne Industries to bring it to the forefront with a public offering, it's hard not to admire it, or even be scared about it," Sapphire said as she smiled at Harry. "And the way you undercut Earle, Kane, and that bastard Luthor….well my father might be a bit concerned and I think at the same time, grudgingly impressed that you have gone so far so soon. You're an actual real threat and you've changed the game, but are we really going to talk about Daddy all night?"

"Well, no, I don't think that's a subject worthy of much more conversation than what we had," Harry said and Sapphire smiled as she licked her soft pink lips. "So what was your childhood like?"

"Well given who I am, I got into one of the most premier academies for girls in the country, although I proved when I got there that I deserved to be there, getting some of the top marks in my year," Sapphire said. "I actually spent a fair bit of my years outside of Gotham City, believe it or not, but I was born here. I think that after my mother died, my father had become more married to his business, and decided to send me off. If I was out of sight and out of mind most of the time, he could focus, but that made me cherish the place that I was born even more. And I knew that I was always going to come back to Gotham City."

"It does grow on you in some way," Harry said.

"Yes, it's not the cleanest place in the world, crime wise, but I think that it's home to a lot of people and they'd love it in spite of the fact that it's a hazard sometimes to live in," Sapphire said and she smiled. "I think that you know that better than anyone."

"Yes," Harry agreed.

"One day, Stagg Industries will be in my hands and I want to be ready, there have been so many rich heirs and heiresses who get the family company and tank it within years, I won't be one of them," Sapphire said firmly with a bold inflection to her face. "That's why I went to GCU….well that and who wouldn't pass up an opportunity to study alongside Harry Fucking Potter?"

"Well, I can't argue any of those points," Harry said as the two of them laughed.

"You're someone who makes an impression on most people who you meet, and certainly most females," Sapphire said with a smile as they were served. The food here was top of the line, and given the price that people had to pay to get served, it better have been.

They ate their meal, making some more light talk and Sapphire tried some of the wine. She thought that she would do something daring tonight and after a couple of sips, she smiled and leaned over towards Harry, whispering to him in his ear hotly.

"I'm not wearing any panties tonight, by the way."

Harry was intrigued by that and Sapphire held her fork up but it slipped out of her hand.

"Oops," Sapphire said with a saucy smile and she slowly bent over immediately, as Harry could see a small, but sadly all too brief, hint of what laid underneath her dress. It offered enough mystery where he wanted to see more.

"So, did you have enough to eat?" Harry asked with a smile.

"Well, I could always go for some dessert, but I'm sure that we can handle that when you take me back home," Sapphire said with a bright smile on her face and Harry got the hint loud and clear, he would be pretty dense if he didn't.

Harry paid the meal, leaving them a handsome tip for the excellent service. Sapphire lead the way, swaying her ass all of the way as the material rode up.

He opened the door and Sapphire slunk inside immediately. She looked at Harry who joined her on the driver's side.

"Soooo….how good are you at multi-tasking?" Sapphire asked.

"I think I'm an expert at it," Harry said as she placed her hand on his lap with a smoldering gaze in her eyes.

"Just start driving," Sapphire said as she started to unbuckle Harry's pants.

* * *

Harry kept his eyes firmly on the steering wheel as he felt Sapphire's hand grip around his tool.

Sapphire's eyes widened as she saw his huge tool and she slowly stroked it. It grew in her hand. Her lithe hand struggled to wrap around it, so she used both of her hands to stroke him up and down, as Harry managed to concentrate enough to drive down the road.

' _I'm obviously not making it hard enough on him,'_ she thought and without another thought, she bent her head down.

Harry closed his eyes for a brief second, although he snapped back in reality. Sapphire's hot mouth went down onto the base of his cock as she slowly bobbed up and down, working up an intense amount of momentum.

Sapphire gagged for a brief second as she brought the tip of his huge cock into the back of her mouth. Determined, she grabbed onto his hips, sinking her nails into them and she bobbed her head again. She took him deep into her throat and reached one of her hands down, firmly clenching his balls.

She had never thought that sucking cock would be so good but she would have to do it every day and twice on Sundays with Harry. The blonde kept bobbing her head up and down, her head looking like an extremely prominent blur as she went down on him. She had her eyes closed tightly as she brought his length so far down into her throat that she thought that she was going to choke on him for a moment.

Hanging onto his balls, Sapphire kept working him over, and the blonde's throat tightened around him. Her lips smacked against the base of him hard and she slowly brought her tongue around, licking up and down his amazing shaft.

Her chin rested on his balls as she rocked herself back and forth, up and down, and continued to bring his massive length so far deep into her throat that she thought that she was going to choke on him.

"Mmm," Sapphire moaned.

Harry was that good that he was able to drive straight, and he managed to get to her parking lot immediately.

"We're….here," Harry grunted immediately and Sapphire gave Harry a few more bobs of his cock, and then pulled away.

"I know, just getting warmed up," Sapphire breathed as she tucked Harry back in, although the prominent bulge was obvious.

With a swift movement, Harry scooped the luscious blonde up and then marched her into her apartment. Sapphire was so burning with lust that she did not question the apartment door swinging open on its own accord as he marched her up to the stairs.

"My bedroom's to the right," she said saucily as she licked her lips, savoring the taste of his cock and she imagined it inside her. That got her wetter yet.

Harry walked her over to the bed and placed her down. She closed her eyes and he pulled her dress up.

"Well, you're right," Harry said as he saw her shaven mound, which dripped with arousal for him. The green eyed wizard grinned widely, as he placed his finger in her dripping slit and started to rub her.

Sapphire closed her eyes to coo with delight as Harry worked her over. She had never felt this good and she could imagine his tongue in her.

Imagination gave way to reality as Harry's tongue entered her pussy and she moaned as he buried himself deep into her. The blonde closed her eyes immediately as she lifted her hips, so he could get better access.

"HARRY!" Sapphire shrieked as it was almost like his tongue was growing inside her and burying deep into her insides.

That's because it was, thanks to the gifts that he had from bonding with Nym. His tongue was so long that it was up against her and Sapphire grabbed onto the back of his head.

He was sucking up her amazing juices and she squealed beneath him. The blonde was a sex kitten to the highest degree and Harry looked up to see her nipples poking out from the top part of her dress.

"Oh, fuck," Sapphire squealed once more and Harry licked her insides as he brought her to an orgasm, the first of many.

Harry looked up and Sapphire dove onto Harry, wrapping her arms and her legs around him. Grinning, the green eyed wizard turned around, and Sapphire kissed Harry firmly on the lips, her tongue ramming into his mouth.

She tasted herself and she tasted pretty damn good if she had to admit that. Harry's hands explored her body as she straddled him.

Sapphire pulled away as she pulled his shirt off and admired his sculpted muscles. The blonde socialite traced her fingers across them and started to slowly kiss the side of his neck and then go down to his nipples, sucking on them hard.

She traced her efforts down to his abdomen immediately, and then slowly unbuckled his belt, and once again pulled out his cock.

Sapphire stroked it a couple more times, it felt like an iron bar that was growing on her hand.

"May I ride you?" Sapphire asked, with a kind of sweet politeness that was almost endearing. This was her first time, so she did not want to mess it up for both of them.

"By all means, here let me get you started," Harry said as he held her up by his strong hands and her arousal drips.

She didn't have any resistance from horseback riding but she never had anything this powerful between her legs. The blonde temptress felt Harry's cock enter her body.

She felt a few seconds of pain as her walls accommodated his girth entering her and then more pleasure then she could ever realize. The blonde's mind was completely blown as she sank down onto Harry's cock, his balls resting against her backside.

Now that she was used to the monster inside her, Sapphire prepared to ride Harry like there was no tomorrow. The blonde rocked up onto his cock and then slammed down onto her. The blonde was really going to town on him now.

"Keep it up, oh yes," Harry grunted as she worked around her.

"Feels so good," she panted, as she got wetter each time his cock slid out of her and then slid back into her. She was seeing stars and Harry reached up.

He cupped her breasts and she gave a light whimper. The moment that he cupped them harder, her whimper got even louder. The moment that he buried his face between then and started sucking them, she screamed out loud.

"YES, YES, OH FUCK YES!" Sapphire moaned as Harry's tongue lavished her breasts. She swore that he was so talented that it was almost illegal. Not that the blonde was complaining.

Harry felt her slick walls hug him tightly. When the girl orgasmed, she orgasmed hard, and it was like a warm velvet vice around his cock as it tugged on him. She sunk her hips down onto him once again.

Her breasts tasted lovely as well. Harry savored the taste as he licked them.

"Oh….ah….that's the spot," Sapphire breathed as he nibbled on her breast and that caused erotic energy to explode through her body. The blonde never thought that she would feel this good, as she clamped down onto him.

"I know how to hit the right buttons of my girls, am I right?" Harry asked as he slowly went behind her and cupped her ass, pinching it lightly. That caused her to clench his rod.

"YES!" Sapphire screamed in response as his cock slid in and out of her as she rode him rather hard.

His balls tightened after a time and it sent a volley of cum into her tight chambers. He rocketed cum so far into her body that it leaked from her.

"I want this," Sapphire moaned as she slid off, getting on her hands and knees. Harry smiled as she gave him the invite. "I want you to take me in my ass."

She wiggled her rump at Harry and it swayed, very hypnotically from one side to the next. That caused Harry's cock to get extremely hard and he was up against her ass, about ready to enter her. The blonde's eyes closed shut.

"I'm going to take you in your ass, are you ready?" Harry asked her.

"YES!" Sapphire yelled as she bit down on her lip.

Harry buried his cock into her, holding onto her sweaty back, and she screamed as his cock entered her ass. His magical powers made it a more pleasurable experience than it would be normally and she was squealing at the top of her lungs as he pounded her ass.

"I….I….fuck me….harder!" she moaned immediately and Harry rammed her, taking her from behind harder and harder. The blonde was squealing underneath him.

"Damn, you like it hard, don't you?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I like it very rough," she agreed as she fingered her pussy as Harry worked on her .Soon she was replaced by Harry's fingers and immediately, she screamed as it felt like he sent jolts of energy into her body which caused her to come harder each time.

"Like me pounding your ass?" Harry asked and she whimpered as Harry drilled her from behind, his cock buried between her tight cheeks.

Sapphire nodded furiously, she felt like she could do this all night long, his cock in her ass, sometimes in her pussy, in her mouth, between her tits, between her feet, anywhere Harry wanted to stick it, she would take it.

She was a slave to this cock and she did not want to give it up.

"Oh pound me like the whore I am," Sapphire yelled at the top of her lungs as Harry continued to saw away in her ass like he owned it and she just said that he did.

"Whose whore are you?" Harry asked.

"HARRY FUCKING POTTER!" she shrieked as she came on the sheets. Her entire body heated up as he alternated between rubbing her tits and rubbing her pussy.

It did not matter where he put his hands because it felt amazing all the way around.

"Oh, oh, take me, oh yes baby," Sapphire moaned as her cum kept leaking, staining her sheets but she didn't care. She was having the time of her life. "Daddy would have a fucking stroke if he could see me now, being fucked in my ass with suck a large….oh fuck….oh keep it up."

She had her mind so blown that she thought that she was going to explode. Harry clutched onto her waist, going to town around her. The blonde's tight anal cavity went around his cock as he pushed deep into her ass.

Harry's balls tightened and he came into her. He sent a load of cum into her ass.

Sapphire collapsed down onto the bed, and cuddled into Harry's chest, with a lust ridden smile on her face. It was obvious that she was ready for another round as soon as Harry could accommodate her.

* * *

Sapphire rode Harry over and over again long into the night, sometimes he rode her, until he left her in bed wet and sore, but it was worth it.

* * *

"So Rachel, are you doing anything….."

Carl Finch, the District Attorney in Gotham City, had continued his unsuccessful crusade to try and hit on DA Rachel Dawes. Unfortunately for him, she was not so easy to get interested in him, in fact, she was not interested in him at all.

"I'm busy, Carl," Rachel said as she walked forward, she had a razor sharp focus of her job, and several other factors. Ever since her experience with the fear gas, she had been an entirely new woman, and the names Bruce Wayne, Harvey Dent, and Harry Potter had been on her mind, as she had been taken a closer look at them, before she made her decision on how to proceed next.

There was also another thing that distracted her and she knew that evidence did not grow legs and walk away, as it seemed to be the case with the Falcone and Sionis evidence. Both of them should have been put away for an extremely long time but they kept walking the streets, scum that they were.

"Right, busy," Carl muttered as he decided to return to his desk, the midnight oils were being burned and he barely even had time to register what happened as Rachel got her things and made her way out just like that.

' _Long fucking night,'_ Carl thought to himself as he clung onto the side of his desk and decided to walk off to pour himself a cup of coffee. He was going to need it if he wanted to survive through the evening.

He picked up the cup and there was a sinister whistling that caused him to perk up, or rather the hairs on his neck were going to stand up. He turned his head and he looked into the shadows and muttered one thing off into the distance.

"Hello?"

There was nothing there and one thing was for sure, if there was nothing there, than he might have been paranoid.

Carl decided to leave the area, heading down the stairs to City Hall proper. After the night he had, he might as well pack it in, as the cup of coffee did not even

He exited toward a set of doors as his heart thumped against the back of his chest. He walked out and there was a foreboding scene out in Gotham City, even for Gotham City, and that was saying something. He placed his hand on the edge of the door and paused as he could hear something behind him.

There was a figure in the shadows and Carl Finch slowly turned on his spot, looking at his adversary. There were a pair of beady looking eyes that looked at him like he was a particularly big steak.

"Who's there?" Carl demanded as he stared down the enemy in the shadows.

"Tell me, Mr. Finch, have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

Sickening grin was the last thing that Finch saw before the man fired several shots. One pierced his heart, the other pierced his head.

The sound of gunshots alerted people nearby, the caretaker of a nearby school being the first on the scene but by the time he reached there, the gunman had gone off into the night, without a trace.

* * *

"Just make sure to cover everything, I don't want anything getting traced back to me!" Rupert barked over the phone and then he felt a draft behind him. "Just get it done and I'll call you back."

Thorne had assumed that he had shut the window and he got up on his feet.

A gloved hand grabbed Thorne around the arm and roughly pulled him up immediately. The large man tried to reach for the button to call security, but he could not quite reach it.

"Did you really think that you would get away with that?"

Thorne was going to take a long trip up and a very short hard trip down as he smashed onto his obnoxiously large desk. His back cracked against the desk as it collapsed underneath his girth with a grimace and he grunted as he looked up but the figure appeared to be gone.

"You can't do this to me!"

"Given what you tried to pull tonight, you're pretty lucky that you're just getting off this easily," the figure in the shadows said as Thorne had seen him, a slight glimpse of him. He had the glowing green eyes of a demon and Thorne came precious inches away from having heart failure because his eyes was all that Thorne saw despite a distinct black shape.

"LET ME GO!" Thorne demanded as he was marched outside of the balcony outside of his office, after being slammed through the closed window even though there was one perfectly opened window. It was a long way down and Thorne half expected that he would be making a completely nasty splat on the sidewalk below. "You won't get away with this!"

There was no answer and no answer chilled Thorne's bones more so than any answer might have. He was hooked from a gargoyle, a rope suspending him up by his belt. The gargoyle and the rope strained underneath his weight as the wind blew Thorne back and forth like a grotesque pendulum.

Thorne did not look down, he knew better, he knew that his heart would not be able to take it. The glowing eyes of the person looked at him.

"You better hope that holds until morning. I wouldn't move much if I were you. Your next move could be your last."

Thorne's fat ass hung there until the custodian found him in the morning.

**To Be Continued on June 15th 2014.**

**Director's Notes- http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/2014/06/ascension-book-2-chapter-32-directors.html  
**


	33. Oracle Of....Part One

**Chapter Thirty Three: Oracle Of Delphi….Part One.**

The murder of the district Attorney had reached the GCPD office the following morning and there were a lot of rumors that reached everyone. Until the facts in the case were sorted out, no one was speaking on the record. It was like that elephant in the room feeling that they were all talking about but very few of them were really going to address.

"Flass, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. The choice is yours, but I've got all day," Rachel said as she tapped on her watch as she paced back and forth around the room. She stopped at a certain point and looked Flass dead on in the eye. "Don't think that I know what you're up to. You can make this a lot easier on yourself if you give names."

"And you can make it a lot easier on yourself, sweetheart, if you know where not to stick your nose," Flass said as he looked back at Rachel with fear but she stood back, her eyes burning into his.

"I'm not about to play games with you, Flass, and don't insult my intelligence," Rachel said as she peered down. "Nice car you've been driving lately, well beyond your means. And you think that you can get away with assaulting someone."

"Hey, Gordon was asking for it….."

"That I doubt," Rachel interrupted as she looked at him. "You can tell me who put you up to this and you'd get a lighter sentence. Don't tell me, and…..well you're going up the river hard and fast."

She was hoping that he would implicate Loeb or Branden or both, because that would be the tangible piece of evidence that she needed to nail some kind of investigation on those two dodgy departments. Any mob connections, she wouldn't really complain that much about those either.

"Not budging," Gordon muttered as he looked at Flass. He acted like he had did nothing wrong at all and in his demented mind, he didn't do a damn thing wrong. Harvey Dent, Sarah Essen, John Jones, and Clancy O'Hara all watched.

"Two hours and he isn't slipping up," O'Hara said as he turned around. "Nothing happening, Gordon, I'd like a word with you briefly."

"Oh?" Gordon asked as he raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"My office, it shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes," O'Hara said, it was obvious that he wanted this conversation that happen away from prying eyes and prying ears. "I'm sure the three of you can keep me up to date if Flass sings."

"Of course, Chief O'Hara," Jones said in his calm voice.

Harvey looked at O'Hara with a questioning look, but O'Hara's stern expression pretty much told Dent to knock it off and focus on other things.

"I'll let you know if anything breaks," Sarah whispered to James and James nodded as he turned around to follow O'Hara in the opposite direction, away from the interrogation room to his office.

Both men sat down, with Gordon looking at O'Hara but the Chief of Police was all too quick to tell him what was going on.

"You've turned a few heads here, Gordon, I won't mince words, it's not all good," O'Hara said gruffly. "But you've done about as good of a job as you could, and your work under pressure in the last couple of crisises that we've had to deal with are top of the line. There are people who are going to see you fall but I wouldn't have made the decision that I did, if you weren't good enough for this."

"Chief?" Gordon asked as he was curious to see where this was going, his intrigue grew immediately after a few seconds.

"The Special Crimes Unit that I'm starting up, to handle….sensitive issues," O'Hara said and Gordon nodded. The gang warfare in Gotham City was getting out of hand. Before, when it was just the Maroni and Falcone factions, things were rather calm, but now with the Penguin and Black Mask put their name into the hat, everything spiraled out of control. "I want you to lead the Special Crimes Unit. You are receiving unprecedented jurisdiction, because….some people feel it's a necessity to have such a department in place."

O'Hara looked at Gordon as he questioned it.

"Who else will be in this department?" Gordon asked.

"You'd be with Essen, Jones, Bullock, Montoya, Allen, and MacDonald, among others," O'Hara informed him and Gordon looked at the Chief, questioning at least one of the choices.

"Bullock…."

"I know what you're thinking," O'Hara said as he cut off the assumed question. "Bullock has had his shady dealings and he is somewhat corrupt in some ways. However, deep down, he's a stand up man. I think that he'll work out well and may bring out his best tendencies."

Gordon mulled this over in his mind, four rookies, three experienced detectives; it seemed to be an interesting arrangement and O'Hara looked at him.

"So if you accept this promotion, you will now be division head," O'Hara said and he leaned forward. "And Gordon, just for the record, there are others that Loeb wants to insert in your spot….that might not be best for Gotham City. But that is strictly off the record."

"Of course," Gordon replied, he understand that immediately as he leaned back half of an inch and shook his head. To say that he could not believe it, well that would be putting things mildly to say the very least.

"So do we have a deal?" O'Hara asked and Gordon nodded his hand. The two men shook hands with each other and parted their separate ways.

James Gordon made his way from the office, in a bit of a daze, and he had went down, passing Sarah.

"Hasn't cracked yet," she informed him and Gordon nodded as he turned around to mull this over but nearly bumped into his daughter.

"Jeez, Dad, where's the fire?" Barbara asked in her usual manner but she could see the fact that her father's mind appeared to be somewhere else. "Actually is there something wrong?"

"No nothing wrong, in fact I just got promoted, head of a Special Crimes Unit," James told her and Barbara smiled.

"Really, that's great," Barbara said as she gave her Dad a tight hug, she was pleased for him and she could tell that he was pleased for himself.

* * *

"Well this is fascinating," Vicki commented as she looked over the file that Harry had given her while the both of them set up shop in her office.

"Isn't it, though?" Harry asked her and Vicki smiled.

Harry was sitting on her desk right now, as she was sitting in the chair. Her glasses were on and her hair was tied back in a ponytail. She was wearing a sweater dress, although the fashion choice might be something that she would have regretted in due time due to the fact that it is itchy. The thigh high boots that she wore was something that added to the outfit.

"Don't know how you got your hands on something like this, but it's pure dynamite," Vicki said as she absent mindedly stroked her hands off of Harry's bare feet as his shoes and socks were on the floor.

"Well I got my sources but I found this one attached to an e-mail," Harry told her. "And I think that you may agree that its worth both of our times to pursue."

"Yes, yes, for sure," Vicki agreed as she nodded up and down intensely, to the point where she resembled an overgrown bobble-head.

Harry held her portfolio in his hand and he was looking over it, hemming and hawing immediately. "Well a very nice body of work you have here, television media, along with radio media…..and not to mention the fact that you're a photojournalist, very nice."

"Well I have an eye for talent, although there are a lot of people in this city that don't seem to take much pride in their work," Vicki remarked in a somber voice and Harry suspected that might have been a tip of a hat to something.

"Hence why….oh that's a good spot," Harry managed as Vicki slowly rubbed his feet, looking over the file immediately. "Anyway, that's why you were so insistent that you had a halfway decent camera crew."

"Pretty much, I've gotten some shit ones that have made some good stories be unfit for air," Vicki informed him and she brushed her hair out of her face. "It's one of those presentation type things as well. If you can't present it well, people aren't going to give you a time a day. That's why all of those puff pieces get eyes, production values. That and people are dazzled by the shiny."

"Of course," Harry agreed.

' _That does seem to be a commonly recurring problem,'_ Faora chimed in as Vicki and Harry continued to make some light conversation.

' _Yes, but it's one that we could exploit to our advantage,'_ Kara chimed in with a wicked and calculating smile on her face.

' _Well, I can see that we've got some plans in the works now,'_ Zatanna said.

' _Just thinking ahead to the future, that's all,'_ Kara agreed, and they had plenty of time to think ahead to the future because of the nature of their life span.

Harry stopped immediately and smiled as he saw something. Vicki looked up immediately to catch the smile on his face. "What's that?"

"Seems like you have an interesting item snuck in here, Miss Vale," Harry told her and Vicki raised an eyebrow at what he saw and then she leaned over to look at them.

There was a completely nonplussed look on her face. "Oh those….well it isn't exactly a secret that I did those and….they're tastefully done….and done in an artistic manner. Some might debate that nudes can be done artistically or tastefully but….."

"No, I agree, they're pretty tastefully done all things considered," Harry said immediately as he looked them over.

"Yeah, something I did when I was younger, almost regret it now but it's not that big of a skeleton to throw in my closet, at least not as big as some of the skeletons that are going around here," Vicki admitted as she looked at Harry. "Nothing confirmed though…."

"It rarely is," Harry replied as Vickie continued to rub his foot attentive.

"Soooo, back to the e-mail, what was the source….."

"You know that's a pretty good question," Harry told her and Vickie raised her eyebrow. She wanted elaboration which Harry picked up on. She was not officially on the network, at least not yet, but Harry knew enough to know enough. "I tried to trace everything back to the source, but got a big four zero four on the thing."

"So, someone covering their ass," Vicki muttered and Harry smiled back at her.

"My thoughts exactly," Harry told her as she continued to give him the foot rub on the desk. "Not as good in real life."

"Oh?" Vicki asked and she took a second to realize that he was speaking about the nudes.

"But, naturally I'm up for a reminder to compare about how much that you've matured," Harry told her and Vicki looked at him with a smug expression.

"Well, small world, isn't it?" Vicki asked him and Harry smiled as she rose from her chair. Her dress was short and it showed a hint of the flesh that was to come. "You know, I'm in for a reminder that last night, well that it wasn't a really erotic dream."

"Well, I think that I might be up with it," Harry told her and Vicki climbed onto the desk and straddled Harry, her legs resting over his hips, her hands around the back of her neck, and a smoldering grin on her face.

"Well, let's see how much you're up for it," Vicki whispered in his ear as her fingers brushed down the side of his hair and she leaned forward with a kiss that deepened with the pair of them, and Harry cupping her tender rear in his hands.

* * *

Harry cupped her rear tighter as the kiss continued. She slid back from it after a few seconds.

With a saucy grin, she slowly slid off her panties and spread her legs. Harry was able to see up her dress and see her very aroused, pink snatch waiting for him. It beckoned for him and naturally Harry was going to take it. He pushed one finger inside her, then two fingers, pumping his way into her.

"Oh yes," Vicki moaned as he worked his fingers in and out of her. The emerald eyed wizard kept working her over as he picked up the momentum. Harry really was going to town on her delicious snatch.

"That feel good?" Harry asked but Vicki reached forward and tried to unbutton his pants. She had a moment where her mind went numb due to the amazing orgasm that Harry gave her but she was there.

His boxers were pulled down and his dick stood at attention on the desk. The reporter looked at it, with a grin on her face as she slowly started at the base.

She trailed a series of hot tender kisses down it, and Harry's cock jumped every time she kissed it. She locked her lips on the head of it and she slid her hand slowly down the base, to grope his balls.

"Don't just wait," Harry breathed but Vicki pulled herself up.

"I got a better place to stick that huge cock, honey," Vicki said with a saucy grin on her face and her hips swayed. Harry watched as they hypnotically gyrated from one side to the next and her pink snatch was slowly revealed to him.

Her wetness pushed up and slid down onto his thick rod. Harry closed his eyes as he felt her clamp down onto him.

"That's so good," Harry groaned as Vicki slid down onto his pole. "Slow down, not a race."

"Sorry," Vicki apologized as Harry groped her ass roughly and held onto her hips. She rocked her hips up and down on him and he worked his cock speared up between her hips. The woman clamped down onto him as she worked him up and down. The reporter's momentum increased with each thrust.

She speared herself down onto him as he groped her breasts through her dress. That caused her to whimper with desire and lust as she tightened her pussy's grip around him. The woman rode him up and down, she was going to have her way with him and then some more. Her pussy squeezed him as she picked up the pace.

He groped her tits some more and she felt the rush go through her body.

An orgasm blew her mind as she kept working Harry over. He allowed her to ride him a little faster to pick up some momentum and that was she did.

"I love this inside me," Vicki moaned.

"You feel so good," Harry agreed as he kissed her heatedly, both trying to choke each other out with their tongue. He held onto her, controlling the pace, although it was all about building up that momentum for the big ending.

Vicki picked up the tempo because she was allowed to, her tight walls closing around Harry. Her body heated up with the orgasmic pleasure and joy as her heated loins were rubbed with Harry's cock. It was like having a massage on the inside of her body and her nipples grew harder against the fabric of her dress.

Harry could see how horny this woman was and he could feel it. Her pussy walls were slick and they rubbed his prick in the most pleasurable way as he cupped her ass.

"Oh Harry," Vicki yelled as Harry shoved a finger up her ass and diddled it. "HARRY!"

"That feel good, honey?" Harry whispered hotly in her ear and Vicki tightened her dripping hot twat tightening against him as they tested the structural integrity of her desk. Thankfully, it held up. Her dripping hot walls slid up and down against her, as he cupped her ass from behind.

"Yes….yes…the best….better than the rest," Vicki stammered through her orgasm as she closed her walls around him and Harry clenched her ass once again. The woman's eyes screwed shut and she bit down on her lip. Her walls slid up and down to lubricate his pole and the juices coated it as he slid in and out of her with ease.

How many orgasms did she go through? She lost count but all she knew was that she had to hang onto her. Her stamina was amazing and after the previous encounters, she was prepping herself up for more. The woman panted lustfully as her walls slid up and down against him. The woman rode him down hard, working her hips against him, gyrating against his body. All twelve inches of him pushed in and out of her body.

"Almost there?" Vicki inqiuried but Harry sucked on her neck which caused her to shiver. He could mark her as his own, although he already had in different ways.

"Why, trying to rush me?" Harry asked but his balls were getting heavy with cum as they had been going at it for well over an hour without any pause and he sped up. This tight temptress was going to get every single drop of cum and then some.

"Oooh….ahhh….fuck," Vicki managed as she had devolved to that point, with her slick walls riding him up and down. He rocked inside her body and the woman kept pushing herself up and down on him.

"Yes, oh fuck," Harry whispered in her ear and Vicki's walls tightened around him, as she felt the rush of the orgasm burn through her body.

"That's….the ticket," Vicki whimpered as she hung onto his neck and she kept riding him, working herself up and down onto him.

The woman was this close to losing her mind and Vicki held on for the ride.

His balls tightened and he blew his load inside her. Vicki screamed as his sticky seed injected its way deep into her love canal and caused her to scream as he blew his essence into her, filling her completely up.

She collapsed onto his chest, feeling the rush of a completed orgasm.

* * *

The two of them finished up their activities and Vicki slid back, with Harry putting his pants on. The reporter pulled her panties up just like that and shook her head to clear the cobwebs that had been forming in her mind.

"Simply amazing," she said with a smile and Harry retorted with a smirk of his own.

"Aim to please," Harry said to her as he managed to discreetly use an air freshening charm to remove the odor of sex from around the office. It was likely one of the most useful charms that he ever had to learn.

A knock on the door and Vicki looked up.

"It's open!" Vicki yelled as she made sure that she was decent.

A medium sized build man with dark hair slipped into the office and Vicki looked at him. He looked surprised to see that Harry Potter was there.

"Hello, my name is Harry Potter," Harry commented in a would be casual voice without missing a beat, shaking the man's hand.

"So….so I've heard," he muttered, shock did not even begin to describe what he thought. "Elliot Knox."

Harry smiled and he turned to Vicki. "Something's come up, I'll catch you later."

He kissed her on the cheek and left without another word other than that.

"So what did you want to speak to me about?" Vicki asked casually to her producer as if Harry Fucking Potter had not just been in her office.

* * *

Harrison left his London office at a brisk pace and was making his way to the Ministry. Granted, he could teleport there but it was a short enough walk not even to bother wasting any of his energy. Besides, it allowed him to mentally conduct some business in the back of his mind.

' _So, on your way to the Ministry?'_ Jaime asked as she popped in on the bond link.

' _Got to have lunch with Amy and the Black Sisters,'_ Harrison told her and there was an implication that it was the after lunch related activities that he was more interested in but duty called.

' _Better you than me,'_ Jaime answered immediately. She was glad that she did not have to ever step one foot into that crap hole of a world ever again. Although she got it far worse than Harry or Harrison did for that matter, for reasons that she had gone over constantly in her head.

' _I would say that it wasn't that bad, but there are still a lot of people here that make me wonder how they remember to breath, but sadly if we only kept people who had a few braincells, we'd be understaffed,'_ Harrison thought. _'Plus as Amelia reminds me, it's better to keep them at the Ministry where they can do minimal damage and think that they are actually something than to unleash them in the real world.'_

Jaime and Harrison shuddered at the thought of that.

' _So you do have an office there?'_ Jaime asked.

' _Hasn't been opened in ages, not sure if I ever have been in there,'_ Harrison thought as he smiled. _'Maybe one time, I fucked Nym on the desk but that was about the extent to how I used that office.'_

' _You did,'_ Nym chimed in without missing a beat.

' _Well there you go,'_ Harrison commented with a smile as he stepped inside immediately.

' _One good thing about Britain is that they do have good tea, no one in the states could make a halfway decent cup of tea to save their lives,'_ Jaime told him.

' _Hence why you and Prime are coffee addicts,'_ Harrison said with a chuckle.

' _It's not an addiction, it is a way of life,'_ Jaime replied and there were a few more protests.

' _If you insist, although denial is something that you've excelled at,'_ Harrison said as he sat down himself to have a brief cup of tea before he made his way to the Ministry.

There was something in the air but he brushed it off right away, putting it off as the fact that he was working too hard.

' _What's up?'_ Jaime asked.

' _Long days, that's what's up,'_ Harrison told her without skipping a beat and Jaime accepted that fact, with a smile on her face.

' _Well, yes, pretty much,'_ Jaime agreed as she frowned but she could sense that Harrison sensed something else and neither liked it.

Harrison plugged away drinking the tea swiftly.

' _I figure that it was time for me to put an appearance, to remind them that I exist, and hey, I'm having lunch anyway, so kill two birds with one stone,'_ Harrison concluded. _'Bellatrix, Morgaine, and Circe are up to something, some kind of project, don't really quite know the particulars of it now, they're busy at work.'_

He paused and he could pretty much sense Jaime's question coming in so he jumped in to cut her off.

' _For the record, I could listen in but after a while, the three of them going back and forth would be like a three way tennis match, it's kind of amusing but at the same time….it might give me a little bit of a headache,'_ Harrison thought as he got to his feet.

After the pitstop, he was on his way to the Ministry and his initial thoughts that he brushed off returned to him.

There was something a tad bit wrong with what was going on around him and Harrison paused, looking around.

The further he made it from Mundane London to Magical London, the more reality seemed to be shifting into each other for lack of a better term. In fact, there was almost like that there were two realms bleeding together.

Harrison placed his hands forward and he could feel something….a bit off for sure for lack of a better term.

' _Feyworld is bleeding into the real world,'_ Harrison thought to himself and he managed to cut off any thoughts before they started on the other end.

Harrison recalled his history and recalled that the world of the Fey, the Faerie, whatever, had closed itself off from the Mundane World. They sealed it off immediately.

His green eyes looked up and the further he ventured forward, the darker and wilder things began to come. It was almost like something out of a completely twisted and tormented fairytale.

He ventured further and he was most certainly not in London any more. In fact he was in a forest that was completely twisted and in fact made the Forbidden Forest at Hogwarts look like an enchanted land of wonder and excitement.

The young wizard heard something, his ear perking up, and then there was an axe that nearly parted the back of his head.

Harrison crouched down to duck it and he saw a hideous creature, red, with an ugly deformed face. It had sharp claws and sharp teeth, and glowing red eyes. Blood dripped from the blade. The chattering of the creature continued.

' _Red Caps,'_ Harrison thought in recognition.

The creature went for him again and once again Harrison dodged. Then he sprang up and rocked his enemy with a roundhouse kick to send him flying into the tree, hitting it like a ping pong ball as it bounced off.

The moment it hit the tree, the wood started to crack and an entire score of the critters burst out, in an attempt to bury Harrison underneath their sheer mass.

He was ready for them, erecting a shield that was part of a two pronged assault. Some of the creatures were set on fire, and others were knocked backwards, depending on the position where they attacked him.

Harrison continued to go on the attack and them, being quite dense, tried to attack him once again. He had a shield completely up and he scrunched them into a ball before banishing them off to parts unknown.

The few stragglers that were off had scattered.

Harrison kept walking forward, wondering what was happening. He was not certain if he would like the answer if someone told him. Never the less, by lifting one hand he figured the source of the problem and also a way to return to the Mundane World.

He crossed back over and saw that there was a rift in the veil of reality that caused him to temporary cross over. Harrison studied it and managed to find a way to seal it, although time would only tell whether this was a quick fix or not.

' _What the hell just happened?'_ Ginny asked as she hopped in.

' _Something extremely wrong,'_ Harrison thought as he was thrown off his game just a little bit.

* * *

' _So do you need me to come up there and help you?'_ Harry asked as Harrison wrapped up his conversation and told him of the very strange situation that he had to deal with. Zinda dropped Harry off at the front entrance of Wayne Industries.

' _Don't worry about it, no offense, but I can do pretty much anything that you could do and things would be complicated,'_ Harrison said and it went without saying that they were already complicated enough without things being more complicated. _'Between Circe, Morgaine, and Nimue, I got plenty of back up.'_

' _Fair enough,'_ Harry thought as he entered Wayne Industries and made his way up the stairs. He had no clue what was really happening and to be honest, he had his own business to take care off.

He reached his office and saw the mountain of paperwork that waited for him on his desk. It was the bane of the existence of any businessman and he sighed.

' _Well, let's get started then,'_ Harry thought as he split off a dupe and the dupe prepared to work on things. This would be his secretary's desk right now. _'Could really use a personal assistant right about now.'_

' _Well if you can't find anyone off hand, I can do the job,'_ Narcissa thought, she had plenty of experience dealing with paperwork off hand so it would not be too much of a departure from what she was doing already.

' _Really you do need two,'_ Karen reminded him.

' _Yes, a social secretary and a personal assistant,'_ Harry said as he left the dupe to do the dirty paperwork as he walked into his office and sank down. _'Cissa, you can take either job, just get back to me later, and we'll sort things out.'_

Harry had one of the files in his hand, it was a project that he was planning to start, but he got caught up in the arms theft case.

' _Sersi, Karen, and Faora, could the three of you spare a few moments of your time, because I need to talk?'_ Harry inquired.

' _Okay,'_ Sersi said, she had moved up to the CFO of RAO. Honestly though it was just an extension of her regular role of Harry's account manager. She had a team of girl goblins that were tackling every aspect of the situation.

' _Yeah we're here,'_ Karen replied and Faora jumped in immediately.

' _Is this about the project?'_ she inquired and the tone indicated that it was.

' _Yes, Faora, it's about the project,'_ Harry confirmed to her and the dark haired Kryptonian insisted that he would continue. _'I want to know the feasibility of RAO co-developing it with Wayne Industries.'_

' _You seem insistent on this project getting off the ground,'_ Karen said, not that she blamed him per say. It did in fact seem like a pretty damn good idea. _'Just…..'_

' _Well there are three reasons,'_ Harry said as he ticked them off for them. _'First of all, it will help people in the long run. Second of all, it's an amazing achievement in the field of medicine. Third of all, it will show people that RAO is not some fly by night company that is only devoted to making the best smart phone available.'_

' _Well it's hard to argue with that point,'_ Faora said to Harry in amusement but Sersi reminded him of something.

' _As the owner of RAO and the co-owner of Wayne Industries, you do have access to a rather generous special projects budget,'_ Sersi said, she had managed to keep this in order with her team and she thought that it allowed Harry a very substantial allowance.

' _Perhaps you should tap into it, like Wayne does during his Nocturnal activities?'_ Faora asked but before they could go forward on that line of thought, a dupe knocked on the door.

The dupe slipped inside and dropped a file on Harry's desk.

' _Well I better address this with Fox, because this is a stupid fucking idea,'_ Harry thought as he allowed the dupe to get some more work done.

He made his way towards Lucius Fox's office and his secretary looked up, blinking and she smiled.

"Right inside, Dr. Potter," Lucius's secretary said and Harry nodded.

"Thanks," Harry told her graciously with a smile as he made his way into the office, determination in them.

He could see Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox were bent over a blueprint of some sort, although Harry did not have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what they were working on. That being said, that was on his list of things to accomplish.

He entered the office and locked the door over as both men waved him over. Obviously they were asking for some input on some sort and he looked down, looking at the model. It was extremely streamlined and it looked better than the previous model in some ways but there were other ways where it could be improved on.

He sketched down on the piece of paper but his eyes were locked on them. When he was sure that he had their full and undivided attention, he spoke. "First of all, absolutely not to making applied sciences disappear. I don't know what brain surgeon came up with that idea, but it's fucking stupid."

Bruce and Lucius looked up in surprise, they were surprised about how blunt he was but it was honestly refreshing when he did not beat around the bush.

"Exactly why are you so adamant against this?" Bruce asked calmly.

"It would be pretty much impossible for an entire division to disappear and people who looked into the books would be looking into other things, things that could be inconvenient for Wayne Industries as a whole," Harry told both of them and they nodded. "Just because Earle turned it into an archive, it doesn't mean it should stay that way. This is Wayne Industries, we should be in the cutting edge of technology, of all technology, no matter what."

It was hard to argue with Harry as he made an interestingly compelling point. He slid a file for both of them to look over and both men looked impressed.

"So what is this?" Lucius asked, he inquired this and Harry was glad that he asked.

"RAO has been working on this tech but I think that it would be a lot smoother process if both companies are splitting the bill," Harry replied as they looked it over.

"I see no reason not to," Bruce muttered and Lucius nodded.

"Well, looks like we've got quite the interesting project to work on," Lucius agreed and Harry continued to look over the sketches.

"What happened to the old one, if this is a new model?" Harry asked.

Bruce paused for a second and it was almost like he was thinking something over. "There's a mobility issue, lack of movement and it wasn't that durable."

That and his latest encounter with Silver Monkey sent him into a storm drain. It took eight showers for him to get the stink off of him but the circuitry was fucked on the suit.

* * *

"So, you followed up my advice?" Zatanna asked and Barbara nodded with a grin as she had a conference call set up, with Kara, Zatanna, Pamela, and Dinah all joining her over the video feed. "So, how was it?"

"Better than I expected, and believe me, it was pretty good," Barbara said with a smile but there was somewhat of an annoyed expression on her face which Pamela caught onto really quickly.

"Of course, because you got a taste, now you want even more, don't you?" Pamela asked and Barbara nodded up and down immediately, flushed immediately.

"Well I think that we can all attest for the fact that it is more than worth the wait," Dinah said and Kara picked up with a wide grin on her face.

"Yeah, if you thought that the appetizer was good, you should experience the main course," Kara said and Barbara grimaced, the appetizer made her extremely hungry for more and these females were feeding her lust.

"Not helping, guys," Barbara said as she wrinkled her nose up with a frown crossing her face.

"Sorry," Kara piped in an apologetic voice, although there was something about her that did not sound all that sorry at all. "So, working the late shift?"

"Yeah, GCPD's IT guy disappeared about a week or so ago," Barbara said and the four girls knew exactly all that needed to be said right now. The guy disappeared, which mean he likely turned up dead. "So I've been putting in the extra hours here, not that I mind, pay is pretty good and hey, my Dad got promoted."

"You've been bursting to tell us that, haven't you?" Pamela asked and Barbara looked sheepish as she replied back.

"Pretty much, yeah," Barbara retorted as she continued to go through the files, while she talked to them. "Can you blame me though?"

"Not at all," Pamela said and she frowned. "It's a nice autumn night in Gotham City….."

"That's the thing, isn't it?" Barbara asked as she frowned absent mindedly. She had her project out in front of her, six of the seven gates were down. She was this far a while back but a misstep had screwed things over. She was determined to accomplish this goal.

"What's the thing?" Dinah asked and she cleared her throat when she saw that Barbara drifted mentally into never-never land.

"Oh….well it's the thing, I think that something is happening now," Barbara said as she got up halfway and she could hear something. "I just got to get something….I'll call the four of you back in a little bit."

"Is something wrong?" Kara asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No, just got a lot of work to do, talk to you all later, bye," Barbara said as she turned around, peering over her shoulder as she stepped off to the side, nervously shifting as she heard something.

She looked up in the open vent above her and she could get a bird's eye view. The redhead shifted over and set up the rolling chair which gave her a boost. It was a tight fit even from someone like her slim figure as she tried to make her way through.

She could hear gruff voices and she reached the end of the vent. There were two men dressed in SWAT uniforms. One of them was Howard Branden, there was no mistaking that ugly mug. The other one had his back to her, so she could not really get a good enough view of his face.

"Did you hear about Flass?" Braden asked to him.

"Yeah, stupid goon got himself beating up trying to fuck with Gordon," the SWAT member said as he looked at his supervisor. "Didn't you put him up to it?"

"Yeah, didn't think the dumb bastard would go through it, especially alone," Branden said, more surprised than anything. "Thought he'd take a couple of goons and get Jimbo all alone where they could work him over."

Barbara lifted her hand over her mouth to stifle the astonished gasp. Given what these men were capable of, she did not want to get caught by them.

"Thought he could handle it, I mean, Flass used to be a Green Beret, wasn't he?"

"So?" Braden asked as if he waved off this piece of information with the same air of someone waving off a bad weather forecast. "Gordon's special forces and worked homicide in the worse precinct in Chicago for fifteen years. It wasn't exactly an even fight. "

"Yeah, but what are you going to do if he talks?"

"Flass won't talk," the SWAT leader said, confident, some might say arrogant about this fact. "The man knows where his bread is buttered. If he does….he'll find himself at the bottom of the harbor. But enough about that, you remember the plan for tonight?"

"Yeah, yeah, take the guns out of lock up and load them up, got them," the goon said. "Then take them all to a different part of Gotham. Don't understand why we're splitting 'em up like this, though."

"Because it's not going to the same place or the same buyer," Braden said swiftly. "Figure we make offers to everyone that can pay. Say the guns are in limited supply since we were able to get so many crates out of lock up. That way, they can pay it at a premium, and get the most guns. If the Bird pays the most, then the Bird gets the most. If Sionis pays the most, they go to him, and you get the picture, so on and so forth."

"Yeah, but what are you going to do about Vale?" the goon asked and Braden looked at the goon like he grew a second head.

"What do you mean, what am I going to do about Vale?" Braden questioned, agitated at the very question. "I already sent some of the boys to sort that bitch out."

"Oh man, didn't you hear?" the goon asked and Braden's attention was grabbed. "Someone got to them, before they got to her, left them laying."

"Shit!" Braden cursed angrily, he wondered if it was the Bat or the Ninja, either one was a pain in his side. "Well…..we'll send some more, get her to show something….show her why a bad idea to be a nosy bitch!"

The goon nodded but he stiffened.

"Did you hear that?" the goon asked him and Braden looked around. "There's something in the vents."

"It's nothing, rat likely," Braden said as he tapped on the vent. "Lot of those in this building."

Barbara already was out of the vent and on her way to find her father but she could not find him. She searched frantically for several minutes and almost ran head long into Renee Montoya.

"Whoa, where's the fire?" Renee asked with a frown as she looked at Barbara.

"Renee…have you seen my father?" Barbara asked and she looked at him.

"Sorry, he's gone, Barbara," the woman said in an apologetic voice. "He's out of the office….he didn't say when he would be back."

"Okay, thanks," Barbara said as she made her excuses and scrambled off. She was quick as a flash as she tried to dial up voice mail but there was nothing.

Now she was worried, well more than normally that was for sure.

* * *

The jewelry store windows had been shattered which was a blinking signal for Black Canary and Nightwing that something was in fact up in Gotham City.

' _Just another night,'_ Harry thought with a slight sigh as he leaned his neck back. They were ready to go in to see what they had to deal with. It was likely a couple of hoods who tried to knock off the goodies inside, they should be home free once they got inside.

' _Look,'_ Dinah thought to Harry and Harry looked, seeing a fairly attractive Asian woman. Facepaint covered her face and she wore a skin tight brown and gold suit that wrapped around her features. Her snug ass was turned away from them but they noticed that she had a crossbow. And she might have been the look out. _'I'll go for her, why don't you go inside and check to see what's happening.'_

' _Right,'_ Harry thought as he edged past Dinah and picked up an amazing pace.

The woman saw Harry and she loaded her bow and began to fire. Dinah was moving into position and Harry's actions were doing a wonderful job in giving her the cover that she needed. Harry slipped inside immediately.

Dinah was perched and ready to pounce which gave Harry the chance to go inside. He came face to face with a bulky looking fellow, dressed in a blue shirt and slacks, with a white mask covering his face. His blonde hair was tied back in a ponytail and a baseball bat was clutched in his hand.

He noticed Harry and rifled through his bag before he pulled out three baseballs and threw them at Harry.

The emerald eyed sorcerer dodged the tossed balls which was a good thing as they impacted the side of the wall. Miniature explosions rang out as Harry shook his head, clearing the cobwebs. The wall was shattered when they impacted.

He was knocked forward by the resulting impact and the thug rushed forward, before he swung the baseball bat. He did not hit a homerun on Harry's skull do to the fact that he crouched down and ducked.

Outside, Dinah jumped onto the woman on the outside. She landed down onto the ground, having been caught off guard.

She returned fire quickly with a vicious roundhouse kick to the face. Dinah was caught off guard and that blow allowed the woman to reclaim her crossbow, loading it up.

She ducked into the shadows and Black Canary looked around.

There was a flash of the woman and an arrow fired at her. She dodged it and a few more rapid fire arrow shots, some of them coming rather close to connecting her. The woman almost put an arrow between her eyes but Dinah bounced back, avoiding the attacks.

Back inside, Nightwing perched himself on the countertop but a javelin flew through the air at him. He dodged the attack and it impacted the wall with a sickening crunch and he propelled himself through the air, to land behind his enemy.

His adversary turned around as another javelin was pulled out and he tried to run Nightwing through with it.

"Stand still!" he growled but Nightwing said nothing, rather he caused the man to fly head over heels. His chin cracked up against the counter with a solid thud and he rolled over. Despite his jaw being dislocated, he pulled himself to his feet.

He once again went after him with the Javelin but Nightwing was ready, catching the javelin in his hands. With another swift attack, he activated an electrical charge, sending it through the javelin and frying the man as he dropped down to the ground.

Fifty thousand volts but he would live. This Sportsmaster was down for the count and Nightwing slipped off into the night, after tying him up.

Black Canary felt frustration hit her as she realized that her enemy had got clear of her. Not before nearly hitting her a few times but that was beside the point.

Nightwing joined her, a slumped and tied up criminal over his shoulder. It was time for a quick drop off and then the hunt would be on.

* * *

Barbara Gordon was trying not to get frustrated although she found that frustration and desperation visited her extremely easily. There was a frantic attempt to get ahold of her father, in an attempt to warn him what she overheard. Much to her obvious dismay, none of her attempts to get through bared fruit.

So it was back to an attempt to hack into the device. She felt she was so close but yet so far. This was the most complicated piece of technology she ever had the fortune of looking at and her mind stirred with many thoughts as she locked eyes onto it.

' _The last one,'_ Barbara thought as she felt herself backed against the wall. Her back was pretty much up against it as she wondered what she was up against.

One small misstep and weeks of work was down the toilet. She could not even understate how much pleasure she was under and she tried. The redhead bit down on the side of her mouth, feeling frustration burn through her eyes.

The final lock of the seventh gate, the last step that she needed to go through, before she was free and clear on her way in, and to say that Barbara Gordon was nervous would be the understatement to end all understatements. She felt petrification going through her mind as she tried to work on the gate. The device was in front of her immediately as sweat rolled down her face.

All of the stars were aligned but it could be plucked out from underneath her. Sweat rolled down her face and her stomach lurched a tiny bit.

' _Focus,'_ she reprimanded herself as she was at the edge of the gate. It would be just her luck for everything to snap back and her to how to start from scratch.

No, she could not think about failing. She had to do this, so she went out and did it.

She felt her sweat roll down her face, and to the side of her neck.

Pressure cooker much?

She recalled how close she came a few weeks ago but she screwed up big time and it set her back to the beginning. One would think that just because she got so far, things would be far easier. They wouldn't be necessarily wrong but they wouldn't really be right either.

Barbara would have to disagree with some people who thought that pressure was something that was a good thing. Then again, it was something that she thought could make her make this final breakthrough.

Moment of truth, seconds felt like minutes, everything along this lines.

BEEP!

BEEP!

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

"Oh shit," Barbara grumbled underneath her breath as she could hear the beeping and the device began to flash red. Then her computer started to blink to life in a crazed and uneven matter, beeping all to life. The blipping continued, blinking back and forth.

Her computer lights were blinking red and it was starting to hang up for a second. Barbara frantically tried to get her way back in, her agitation getting more prominent by every second.

"No, No, NO!" Barbara screamed at the computer as she thought for a second that she was going to lose both her computer and the progress that she made on the device. "You stupid piece of shit, WORK!"

Barbara thought that if technology could flip someone off, it was doing just that right now.

Her heart almost stopped as she hung her head for a second. All progress had lost, she had screwed up big time and she was pretty much back to square one.

BING!

Barbara's head snapped up as she was surprised by the sudden bing and the voice that followed.

"Access granted."

Barbara bounced up out of her seat, her head snapping back immediately. Glee filled her eyes as she pumped her fist up into the air and started to dance triumphantly, shaking her ass right in front of the blinking communication device.

She could not believe it, she could not believe it, oh this was so awesome, she could not believe it, oh finally.

"Finally," Barbara whispered, triumph filling her eyes but she shook her head, she had to stop geeking out like a geek and focus on what she had to do.

She cleared her throat immediately and picked up the communication device and she held it up to her hand. It nearly trembled in her hand but she held it steadily. It was hard to keep herself calm because she was so pleased with herself.

That being said, she said one word tentatively at it. "Nightwing?"

**To Be Continued on June 20th 2014.**

**Director's Notes: http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/2014/06/ascension-book-2-chapter-33-directors.html  
**

 


	34. Oracle Of....Part Two

**Chapter Thirty Four: Oracle Of….Part Two.**

"Nightwing?"

Nightwing smiled, he had been expecting this to come up, almost since the moment where he left the device at the GCPD headquarters. Actually, he was almost surprised that she did not unlock the object before now.

He smiled as he watched the male of the dastardly duo be brought in, with Black Canary going off in the other direction in an attempt to bring down the female of the species.

"Well, I was expecting this call," he stated and she was completely thrown off guard by these words.

"You…you were?"

"Someone like you, you needs to be challenged," Harry told her and there was a second where there was a pause. "It took you a long time but you hacked your way past the gates and I could not be more pleased with what you did."

"Um….thanks," Barbara said as she was caught completely off guard. She had no idea what to make of this but she should have known he wouldn't have dropped the object without a good reason.

"I doubt this is a social call, you wanted to tell me something. What is it?"

Barbara took a few moments to regain her bearings, it was hard to shake her head from where she sat.

"Well….yes it isn't a social call, I heard something….Braden and the SWAT Team, they are selling the guns from lock up back to the criminal underworld, the major factions….all of them…."

"If the Mafia gets their hands on the fire power, it will put them on even keel with others," Nightwing whispered.

"Right, right, they would be, that does make a lot of sense," Barbara said excitedly as she was going a mile a moment. It was a modern miracle.

' _Eager, isn't she?'_ Zatanna chuckled in amusement.

' _Well she wouldn't be Barbara if she wasn't,'_ Pamela said as she decided to ask the question. _'So are you going to tell her….'_

' _Don't want to ruin the fun,'_ Harry said to Pamela and there was some laughter from all of the girls on the bond network.

' _Still think the look on her face will be priceless when she figures out Harry Potter and Nightwing are one and the same,'_ Kara giggled and there was plenty of agreement.

' _So priceless that you might be able to make a MasterCard commercial out of it,'_ Amanda chimed in and there was plenty of nodding on all sides.

' _Well it will be interesting,'_ Lily admitted as she figured that sooner or later, Barbara would put things together. And perhaps she already had, but she was denying what she knew. The reason was that she didn't want to admit that she had been fooled, even if it was for a short time.

Denial was an extremely powerful thing. Someone like Barbara Gordon was bound to have it in spades. A genius was going to be like that way and there was no denying that Barbara was a genius, a prodigy even.

"So, tell me exactly what Branden had to say," Nightwing invited Barbara and that was something that caused Barbara to jump in.

"Well, I told you about how he is trying to fence the weapons from lock up onto the open market," Barbara said as she stopped only long enough to catch her breath. It almost amused Harry with what he heard. "And he's targeting Vicki Vale….he said something about teaching her a lesson about snooping around."

"Of course," Harry said, trying to keep his voice neutral. He never knew a fool like Braden to give up after the first failure. And this was only the beginning.

He pieced together what he learned in his mind and the little incident that he ran into was only the tip of the iceberg of crazy.

' _A fanatic is one that re-doubles his efforts, even when all has failed,'_ Lily chimed in.

' _My thoughts exactly,'_ Harry thought, he knew that the little message he sent to the SWAT and then the one he sent directly to Branden was not going to sink in.

' _So, we should get ready, shouldn't we?'_ Kara asked him.

' _Yes,'_ Harry confirmed as he pieced together what Barbara had given him and she had given him a lot. Of course, he always suspected that there was more than a few pieces of the puzzle missing. _'Get anyone available and get the Map ready. Not sure how much we're going to need it but it couldn't hurt to have some extra eyes out.'_

"I'm coordinating some efforts on my end, please stand by," Harry told Barbara and she grew all excited.

"Oooh are you talking too….."

"Remember, even the most secure channels can be hacked by a sufficient mind, as you demonstrated," Harry warned her before she could say anything.

"Right….right….I'll let you do what you need to do, and I'll be standing by," Barbara replied as her voice rose

"Do that, I'll be back, I swear," Harry told her as he leaned over and looked over into Gotham City, his city. And he was not going to let some group of thugs change that by making the already violent situation even more so.

He knew one thing, he was in for a long time. Mist rose from his breath as he coordinated his efforts to strike and strike hard.

* * *

Gotham City was not the place to be for many people after dark, because there were many people who vanished underneath the cover of darkness. And the police honestly did not care about the people who were kidnapped, not at all.

If those people were homeless, then they cared even less. A pair of homeless men were backed in the alleyway by a gang.

"Hey, man, we don't want any trouble…."

"Well you've got trouble now," one of the gang bangers said as he looked at the hobo. His unkempt expression was a source of great disgust to him. "You know, you didn't really pay the toll, did you? This is our turf."

"What the hell are we going to pay with, our movie star looks?" the second one of the homeless man said but he was shoved against the trash can in response for his insolence.

"Mind your tongue, or we'll cut it out, this is our territory, you either get with the program, or you get out," the gang member said as he flicked the hair against the homeless man. He grinned, showing three gold teeth, which were paid for by the protection money that they commanded. "You see, we don't like any filthy freeloaders, and if you people aren't going to pay the toll, maybe you're better off at the bottom of the river."

"It's people like you who are the reason why people like us are on the street anyway!" the mouthy hobo said but two of the other members of the gang grabbed him from behind and held him against the wall.

"Doesn't seem to be worth much?" the gang member asked as he looked at him and flickered the switch blade. "Doubt that your blood will fetch much, at the blood bank. I mean, who knows what you've got in it?"

The gang member sliced open the shirt of the hobo, revealing his pale and hairy flesh. He placed a hand upon it, scratching it.

"Got to pay the toll, my friend, and maybe we should show what happens to freeloaders that mooch off of us in Gotham City," he whispered through gritted teeth. "We're going to show you what happens to people like you, teach you a nice lesson. I don't think any of you will be forgetting it any time soon."

"No please, he didn't mean it, did you?" the other hobo asked as his pale and flabby skin got even paler but the other members of the gang decided to grab him and hold him back.

"Oh he didn't mean it, he didn't mean to step onto my land without my permission?" he asked as he slapped the hobo so hard in the face. The homeless man shuddered immediately. "You see…..I don't believe that it. You should have thought about that when you couldn't get the money to pay the toll. Spent all of it on cheap hooch….."

CRUNCH!

The leader of the pack slumped down to the ground, the side of his skull squashed like an overripe melon like he dropped to the ground and his neck was snapped back immediately.

"Who is there?"

The two gang members walked forward and they were plucked into the shadows. The two homeless men could not see what happened but the sounds of crunching bones and the screams could be heard as the gang was pulled into the shadows.

Their eyes widened, their mouths hung open, they could not believe it. What just happened? Did they stumble into something worse?

"Guy got it because of some alligator man on the East Side, I say we beat it," the man whispered out of the side of his mouth and his friend nodded on the side.

However, they saw two men in the shadows, they were over seven feet tall and would tower over most men. The two homeless men were intimidating as they were in the looming spectator of these two gentlemen.

The first man looked like he had a scruffy beard and wide eyes, the eyes of someone that you did not want to meet in a dark alleyway. He had stringy black hair that went down past his shoulders. His broad shoulders were covered by a jacket, which underneath it he had a white wife beater top. He wore grimy blue jeans and a pair of spiked cowboy boots. He held in his hands something, a pipe of some sort, that had blood splatters on it.

The second man was even taller than the first one if that was possible. His head was shaved bald, although he was wearing a knit cap of some sort. He had a massive red beard that extended down past his chest. His broad shoulders were covered by a jacket as well, as his bulky physique could be seen. Seven feet tall and dangerous looking, at least from the perspective of the man. He wore a green shirt and green bottoms although it was hard to make out in the darkness.

The two homeless man were steered in the right direction, although they could not fight it immediately.

They saw a third man step out of the shadows. He had black hair that extended to his shoulders, along with a black beard. A white priest collar topped off his outfit, which was a black top, a black jacket, and black pants. He was a large man but he could not be by any means called husky. His name was Deacon Blackfire.

"So, Brother tell me, have you heard the word?"

* * *

Dinah Lance enjoyed a good hunt but she was pretty sure that she was given the slip. She had to admit that she was stepping in there with a worthy adversary.

' _You can't have gotten far,'_ Dinah thought as she looked around every corner. The woman managed to blend into the shadows quite nicely.

That caused Dinah to throw herself into the other side, to think what she might have done had she been in the woman's shoes. That was a curious thought but never the less, she looked around. Her neck arched from one side and then arched to the next side.

' _This way,'_ she thought as she looked around. She had to be careful because her archery skills pretty good.

Far better than Oliver Queen, who had some raw talent but as far as she knew, he had not managed to train them up properly as of yet. He did have potential to do something great with his skills, if he decided to hone them. That was a big "if" however. He had to focus on something else other than being a jackass. Never the less, Dinah kept herself perched on her heels.

' _Hmmm,'_ Dinah thought as she had a theory but it remained to be seen whether that theory would bare any substantial amount of fruit.

Around the corner but there was nothing. Dinah's eyes averted up, she would not be surprised if the woman was standing up above her.

Still nothing but then Dinah got a door slammed towards her face. She managed to block it as the woman popped up.

Dinah found herself flying head over heels. It was not trash day, otherwise this would be completely more messy than it was. An arrow fluttered down on the top of her head but she blocked it, rolling back, and wincing.

She nearly got caught with that one and she jumped up. It was done, she was done playing games.

Kick connected right in the bridge of the woman's nose but she blocked another attack. It was a game of punch, deflect, punch, deflect as they backed each other off. Both woman circled each other, neither wanting to be the one to give up any quarter.

The mysterious woman did a back flip and landed on her face. She gave a slight smirk as she forced Dinah to take some cover behind a parked car. Otherwise she would have been turned into a human pincushion.

' _Son of a bitch,'_ Dinah thought as she closed her eyes. The arrows fired into the side of the car and the woman had to look around. It was time to take her toy away from her and try to even the fight.

The blonde's ankle was grabbed and then seconds later she was slammed down onto the hood of a car. She bounced up and turned her head around, closing her eyes, and gritting down her teeth. She was playing hard to get for sure.

"Face me!" Dinah called in the shadows but she disappeared immediately.

An arrow impacted the side of the fire extinguisher which it exploded and caused an explosion of dust. Dinah hurled her arms around and that allowed the woman to disappear into the night. It was not before she got one more shot immediately.

Dinah was not about ready to give up the chase that easily. Even though she got some pretty good distance between the two of them. The blonde scrambled forward, about to deal with her prey.

A subtle buzzing in her ear caused Dinah to stop in her tracks. It was a telltale sign that there was some transmission coming through. She stood, hand on her hip, and winced at the bruised rib. She stood up straighter and focused for what Harry said.

' _Dinah, we've got a situation,'_ Harry thought to her and Dinah placed her hands on the back of her head and frowned.

' _What kind of situation?'_ Dinah asked as she was extremely curious.

' _Meet me back, and I'll fill you in, I swear,'_ Harry told her and Dinah was not about to delay, she scrambled there to join Harry. _'Let's just say that the SWAT stuck their hands into the cookie jar and are trying to give the proceeds to the fine criminal underworld of Gotham City.'_

Dinah whistled as she climbed up to join Harry. Already she was loving this, but she was pretty sure that this was only the tip of the iceberg of insanity.

* * *

Black Canary and Nightwing were not the only two people who were on the hunt tonight, a certain detective loomed in the shadows. He was keeping a careful eye on everything; he needed to track them down.

The human trafficking ring, Batman needed to find them. He had many leads and all of them were turning up cold. He felt like he was banging his head against the wall often. He hoped this latest lead was going to bare fruit because if he did not find anything, they might have slipped under ground.

The people behind it were turning on dead and by the time he turned up, the bodies were days old. There was nothing for them, it was a cold lead. He was way too late to the party although he had this indication that he was getting really closer to pinpointing the people it.

Well he was clearer to finding out the people, it went without saying that the League was behind this and he was pretty sure that they were covering their tracks. Whoever was behind this mad it their business was to skip town.

The bodies were days old and the latest one he found had enough decomposition for Batman to know that this was completely useless.

Another wrinkle was added to the fun as the homeless of Gotham City turned up missing. Batman had no idea what happened but he was pretty sure that this might be tied together. At least that was the easiest explanation to what was a baffling case.

It was not that prominent of an event, the number of homeless missing but Batman noticed it. Although he was sure that many people weren't going to notice because it was the homeless and they were less than nothing in Gotham City. And they disappeared all of the time, either moving onto another city or turning into John or Jane Does, ending up in a Gotham City Morgue.

The crime scene he stood at was a lot fresher. He pulled his scanner from the belt and prepared to see if there was any physical evidence that he could use to help piece these things together.

' _The ring leader?'_ he thought but it was extremely hard to tell due to the victim in question was missing his head and his hands. The person behind this murders took things increasingly personally.

Batman stepped forward and prepared to investigate.

CRACK!

Some kind of blur came out of the shadows and nailed Batman with increasing fury. The Detective felt all of the air leave his lungs as this woman attack him with about three or four blows before Batman could even register them. And what he registered hurt.

Batman ducked his head and rolled underneath the attack. He flung a series of gas balls into the air to even up the battle. The balls busted open on the floor and caused a cloud of cover to manifest around them.

A dagger flung from out of nowhere but Batman caught it in his hand. The dagger was a distraction, as his legs were cracked back. This action caused him to briefly close his eyes. The second that he did this turned out to be a mistake.

Then another kick knocked him through the window. His back connected with the glass that shattered as he flew backstage. The Detective flew down onto the dumpster beneath the apartment, landing with a thud.

The attack happened so fast that he could not use the grapnel to hold himself up. She caught him off guard and was likely gone.

Batman pretty much realized that she could have killed him had she chose to. This was not a death, it was a message.

The good thing was that he bounced off of the side of the dumpster. His elbows were sore, his knees were sore, back was a bit dinged but he walked it off. The Cowled Crusader turned his head around and swallowed the lump in his throat.

A transmission fired up and Batman shook things off, to promptly answer.

"Yes," Batman said as he shook off the injuries.

"It's me, there's a situation," Nightwing said and Batman paused and nodded.

"I'm listening," Batman said gruffly as he gave him the opening to explain and needless to say this was pretty bad.

* * *

Vicki Vale was bored out of her skull, to the point where her skull was bored out of her skull. Sometimes, in Gotham City, one could go from reporting on the biggest gang war in the city history to some little fundraiser where a bunch of douchebag parents put things together to make to celebrate their children's accomplishments. It made their children feel better about their own sense of self-worth and also, it also made their parents look better even though they were completely awful people.

So it was one of those win-win situations, as far as Vicki could figure it out anyway. The intrepid reporter saw a group of children, sons and daughters of some most rich and famous. This time, they were here to give out awards to the boy and girl scout of the year, but this was just a publicity piece.

' _Oooh, I'm sure there's got to be something else more interesting going on in Gotham City,'_ Vicki thought, this was not the happening place to be.

On the bright side, if Vicki ever developed insomnia, all she would have to do was get a tape of this guy's speech and allow herself to be lulled to sleep by it. That would in fact be the ticket.

The children were happy, so there was that. Vicki was not happy, so there was that as well.

They were talking about the donations that were sent by some of the rich and famous in Gotham City, it was Luthor, Stagg, Wayne, all of the usual suspects. Harry Potter also put in a sizeable donation even if he was not present, but that did not surprise Vicki at all.

It was good public relations for him and also a task write off. Vicki kept her eyes peeled to see if Harry was here in personal but she slapped herself. He would have far better things to do than put in an appearance tonight.

Speaking of people who looked like they thought that they had far better things to do, the two guards nodded off.

BANG!

Vicki was taken completely off guard from the thunderous bang that echoed from outside. The reporter nearly jumped out of her skin.

A man in the Richard Nixon mask from the report bank heist a while back showed up, and Kennedy, Johnson, and a fourth perp, with a red bandana over his face showed up. All of them were packing.

"Alright, boys and girls, listen up, today you're all here for a very charitable donation," the man in the red bandana said as he looked around. "Namely, the adding of more money, to my bank account, so why don't you all pony up the cash, and come on, it's your for your children's future."

"After all, Children are our most precious resource," "Nixon" said as he held the gun on them and the rich bastards looked about ready to protest what they were going to do but the Ex President Gang meant business. They began to shoot up the displays with the rewards, causing people to scream.

"Well that was the money well spent at WalMart," "LBJ" quipped as the red bandana man surveyed the awestruck crowd.

"That just proves that these rich bastards are going to want to watch all of Gotham City burn underneath their feet," the red bandanna man said as he looked over his shoulder. "So…..are you going to do this, or are we going to make you do this?"

There was a loud round of laughter from them all and he grabbed one of them around the throat. The guards tried to interfere but they were zapped from behind by a fifth perp, with a stun gun.

"Well that's shocking," one of the masked men stated, his mask hiding the grin, as they gave it all up, gold, jewelry, you name it.

Vicki made her way, shielded behind another display but they seemed to be interested in cleaning out the people there. The shell shocked children would be in therapy for some time after this.

"Hey, hey, sweetheart, hey you back there!" "Nixon" yelled as he looked at Vicki who had come up to get a closer look.

"She's a reporter," "Kennedy" said as he looked at her with a leering sneer.

"Well, make sure you get our good side, honey," the red bandanna man said as he looked around, making sure the hood was secure. "We're misunderstood; we're not like these people."

The display blew up and Vicki staggered around, right into the waiting arms of the ex-president gang.

"I can tell ya our biography, right we take you for a little ride," the red bandanna man stated with a leer as they grabbed her, Vicki struggling against their grip.

He put a gun at her head and dragged her off, to where she didn't know.

* * *

"So, we really don't have enough information to deal with the problem," Barbara said and that was a huge problem that the redhead was not too happy about. It was like trying to batter one head's into a brick wall. There seemed to be no way around the situation.

"Well, it's up to find out more information so we can go after it," Nighwing told her and the redhead nodded.

"Right, right, I'll see what I can do," Barbara said as she braced herself to do just that. "Can you find anything on your end….."

"I have monitoring all around Gotham City but the problem is that it's a big area, it's going to be like finding a needle in a haystack," Nightwing said and Barbara chewed on the side of her mouth, muttering underneath her breath.

"Right, right, let's see what we got here," Barbara whispered as she tried to make the trail a little bit clearer.

She was going to go straight to the source and there was Branden's computer that was the place to be. He did have some rather heavy encryption, so she was going to have to work doubly hard to try and break through the network.

' _No sweat, I like a challenge,'_ Barbara thought to herself as she cracked her knuckles and went to work. _'And….his computer isn't connected….'_

"We have a problem," Barbara said after she picked up the communication device once again after trying to access it for about fifteen minutes.

"What kind of problem?" Nightwing asked and Barbara was only too happy to elaborate about the entire situation.

"Branden's computer, it got disconnected from the Network," Barbara explained to him and Nightwing was silent. "Nightwing?"

"That does constitute as a problem and we're running low on time if he plans to sell the guns tonight," Nightwing said after he thought things over. "You're going to have to break into his office and see if you get hop onto his computer but you must not be seen."

"Don't worry, I've got an idea," Barbara said as she had the communication device in her hand and she walked forward.

She could see that Branden's office door was locked as it should be. A hair pin managed to take care of that and allow her entrance into the man's office.

Barbara slipped inside, stopping as she saw his computer there.

"I'll need a password but I'm sure someone this high up changes it often," Barbara said as she prepared to hook it into the computer. "I'm going to see what I can do to get into it….."

"Now that we've got an uplink to the network, we should be able to ease your way open the best that we can," Nightwing said. "Just let the device do its thing."

"Okay but we kind of got eight minutes before the shift change and I got to get out of here," Barbara warned him.

"Don't worry, trust me," Nightwing said in a soothing voice and Barbara could feel that she could. There was something about him that she could tell that he could.

While the computer was being linked back up to the network, she decided to snoop around the old fashion way. Perhaps he had thought that people would not be looking for the obvious pen and paper approach.

A page had been ripped from the notepad on the desk, there was something up immediately. Perhaps Barbara was just being paranoid but that was sure. She picked up a pencil and another piece of paper.

She ran the pencil over it and there were a series of numbers appearing over them. The redhead frowned as she wondered…..she wondered but she was not going to be sure.

"Two, Nine, Eight, Seven, Three, and Four," Barbara muttered as she looked things over and her brain locked into placed. "They seem to be coordinates of some sort, but to what?"

"We'll find out soon," Nightwing said and he decided to give a good news. "Network permissions have been reestablished, you're good to go."

"Good, I'm glad," Barbara said and there were a few minutes to spare. Yet, she could hear two people talking down the hallway, so she best move quickly. She made her way down the hallway frantically.

Just as time as it turned down as there was a SWAT Team Member coming down the hallway.

* * *

' _So she hasn't been able to put together A and B or rather you're Black Canary?'_ Harry thought to the blonde crimefighter as they joined Batman who was on the roof, about ready to get the information relayed to them.

' _Well, I don't think the subject ever came up that my mother was the original,'_ Dinah thought as she crossed her arms across her chest and smiled. _'Then again, she hasn't figured out that Nightwing is Harry Fucking Potter.'_

' _Oh people and their blindspots,'_ Kara thought as her lips curled into a smile.

"Okay, we're all here," Nightwing said to the girl at the other end of the communication device.

"Right, I checked into those coordinates, and they're all major Gotham City landmarks, in fact, I'm sure that there might be more than I uncovered but those are the ones that I had," Barbara said in rapid fire fury as she was speaking fast and excitedly, not really unable. "I'm going to give you the locations right now."

Batman remained calm in the shadows as he had the locations. They were all around some rather major businesses in Gotham City.

"And the last one?" Harry asked the redhead over the other end of the link and she decided to double check it.

"The big one is behind the Monarch Theater," Barbara told him and Harry could see a visible moment of reaction from the Detective.

Eight years old, his innocence was lost forever, if they had just taken the pearls, he only wanted the pearls. Darkness, the beginning of something but the end of something else, it all flashed through his head.

"Six locations in all," Batman said as he chimed in business as usual.

"Yes, six locations," Harry agreed as he looked around. "We're going to need to coordinate our efforts but I think we got something. So, we're going to head in right…"

Harry left his words hanging, he did not want to call Barbara by her real name. Batman did not know who she was after all.

She paused after a moment of thought and she decided to offer a solution to that particular dilemma. "Call me Oracle."

**To Be Continued on June 25th 2014.**


	35. Oracle Of....Part Three

**Chapter 35: Oracle of Delphi Part Three.**

"Alright then, Oracle."

Nightwing was prompt and quick to get to work. He decided that it was prudent to tell her what he was doing. "Just….trying to get you onto the network with Black Canary and Batman, that way you could talk to them directly."

"Oh?" she asked, she thought about trying to break onto the network. He just saved her the trouble by giving her a direct hookup.

"I'm sure someone of your capabilities would be able to find a way onto the Network," Harry continued. He continued to patch her through. "So are we all linked up now?"

"Yes, testing, um hi," Oracle said, realizing how awkward and clunky she sounded.

Black Canary snickered but they grew seriously. "We can hear you loud and clear."

Batman only had one thing to say in his usual Batman manner. "Yes."

"Okay….now down to business," Oracle said and Nightwing wondered if she was rubbing her hands together with glee. He allowed her to get that out of her system. "There are some locations….that we have to take care of."

"Yes, and soon," Batman reminded her. Batman wanted to get this show on the road and right away.

"So the Train Graveyard in the Industrial District?" Dinah prompted, deciding to jump on to take things after the list of the locations was given. "I think that I'll take care of that one."

"If you think that will be for the best….."

Black Canary cut Oracle off, barely suppressing the smile. "Trust me, I think that I know my way around there well enough I'll be fine."

Oracle nodded as she consulted the list. "And then from there, there's a restaurant owned by one of the big time mafia bosses. They'd kill to get their hands on this hardware."

' _Literally,'_ Kara said. Even though that went without saying here in Gotham City, the blonde just had to say it. She could not resist saying it.

"Yes….so I'll take that one?" Black Canary inquired, ready for action and ready to bust some heads. Especially given that her fight with her mysterious pursuer was cut extremely short, she itched for some action.

She would be able to clear both sites with the greatest of ease. Without another word, Black Canary was ready to ride. Throwing herself over her bike, she made sure her communication was within an arm's length. Then she road off into the night.

"Monarch Theater and Solomon Wayne Courthouse….do you think that you can handle that one?' Nightwing asked Batman. He got the long Batman glare of discontent but there was a nod right after it. Both of them knew precisely why Harry suggested it.

"Yes."

One word, three letters, done shortly, bluntly, and it told them all that needed to know. Nightwing was one of the few that would not even blink due to the Batman glare. The man climbed down and landed on the Batmobile.

' _Say what you want about that guy, but he does have a sweet ride,'_ Donna commented idly through the bond link and there was a lot of nodding for everyone.

' _I'd say,'_ Diana whispered as she could see from Harry's point of view the Batmobile driving off.

' _Well we might need to get something like that in the future,'_ Harry said and he decided to return back to business.

"So that leaves me the Gotham City Opera House and the Clock Tower?"

"Correct," Oracle confirmed, double checking to ensure that nothing else. "We're clear to go."

' _Clock tower is fitting considering you do own it,'_ Sersi replied.

' _Oh do tell?'_

Harry was caught off guard by this sudden burst of news. Jaime decided to fill him in.

' _You recall how we were looking into safe houses?'_

Harry did recall, that was one of their big pet projects. _'Yes but….'_

' _Well that is one of our safe houses, it's been ready, just hadn't really been an opening to bring it up until now.'_

Harry was not going to lie, he was impressed by the work of his girls. Then again, he would be kind of a huge jerk if he was not impressed.

"Right," Harry said as he switched back to Oracle. "We're going to stay in touch…."

"I'll let you know if there is any more police traffic and….good luck….to all of you if you can hear me."

Nightwing was sure that sentiment was appreciated but never the less, it was time for him to head out into the night.

* * *

"Come….come with me my brothers, I'll show you the light. Walk upon my path for if you stray, you will get claimed by the buzzards of despair."

The two homeless gentlemen walked worthless beside the Deacon and his apostles for lack of a better term. They were walking through one of the poorest districts of Gotham City, a place where many people were left for dead, left at the side of the road.

"I see it around me, I see a world that people don't want to acknowledge, my friend. But you see, I'm not blinded. Rather, I've seen the light, and you look around you. Most people would see filth, despair, and the waste of society. Those who have been cast off….cast off, like an old pair of shoes. But….I see something differently my friends. I see it before me, I see the opportunity that life will bring forth. And just because the lambs have straggled off to the side, does not mean…."

He paused as his men dragged two of the beaten goons across the ground.

"Just because the lambs have straggled from the main herd, does not mean that a preacher….well he shouldn't be less responsible for him. No, he must show them the way. For this world, this world, man, it swallows up even the most righteous without a net."

They kept walking down the street, passed the graffiti tagged walls on the condemned buildings, past the smell of piss and shit. Past the condemned signs, past the broken bottles, stained streets, a place that was not going to get cleaned up any time soon.

"My Daddy….well my Daddy told me many things. He put the fear of God at me, he made me appreciate, he made me learn, my Daddy did. Because when I looked in his eyes, I saw Satan himself, and I saw the horror, the horror, my brothers."

The sermon continued as the two homeless men looked a bit terrified. The more vocal one seemed more disturbed. They were willing to follow along with the men and they noticed that there were some other homeless men who joined the progress. They recognized one of their friends who vanished a week ago, a bit better dressed than he was, wearing a brand new pair of shoes.

All of them were wearing new pairs of shoes and better clothes.

"It has been condemned and forgotten, just like you have been condemned and forgotten, my brothers."

A church that had recently been condemned stood before them all. It had been converted into a part church/part homeless shelter.

"Take them to the basement with the other sinners," the Deacon whispered in a cold and chilling voice and the gangsters were dragged off by the two large men to parts unknown.

"What's in the basement?" the more vocal of the two homeless men said.

"My brother, prey to the good lord above that you never find out," the Deacon said to the men as he took them to a cot. "This church was once a place of worship but it fell to the sins of Gotham City. And now it is a place of rebirth, and you will be reborn all of you. Gotham City thought that they could condemn you, like it condemned this church, but those who rise above, will be rewarded with the promise that I give you."

The Deacon turned towards them all and they were hanging on his every word.

"I have seen the Devil, and I know that he is out there, dressed in black. He preys upon those who cannot defend themselves. I have seen signs that there is a reckoning coming. Green fire rained before my very eyes. They call it a meteor shower but I call it a reckoning. I call it proof that the world will burn….and if I do not protect my herd, they will be the first to go. The righteous often get taken so the wicked could spare themselves."

This rambling monologue might have been lost on many people but the homeless sat there, completely spellbound.

"All will be relieved in due time."

The Deacon turned around to see his two men exit the basement. One of them had blood on his hands but the door shut behind him. They made their way to another wing of the church.

"For those who have forsaken, time is not on your side."

* * *

SWAT toppled to the ground like nine pins behind the Solomon Wayne Court House in Gotham City. The smoke cleared as the Dark Knight stepped out, the final one of Black Mask's goons falling down onto the ground with a thud.

The crates were forward and Batman made his next movement. After double checking the contraband, he saw that it was the guns. They were all here, to the letter.

Once he located all of the crates, he started to rig a demolition charge around them. He could not afford to leave one of them on the street.

Stepping back into the shadows, Batman pressed a bottom and he waited for that confirmation.

BOOM!

This would be one set of guns that the SWAT would not be cycling back into the underworld in Gotham City. Black Mask's goons were down for the count as far as he could see. He double checked to make sure they were secure and it was off into the night.

Back into the Batmobile he went, he stepped on the gas and gunned down the streets.

"So, did you get the first location?" Alfred asked.

"Yes," Batman replied, he did not have any humor to his voice, any emotion, it was short, sweet, and to the point everything he said. The Batmobile hurled down the street, which it was abandoned, for the most part. After the recent bout of Gang activity, people were heeding the warning to stay indoors after dark, at least for a short while.

That would not last that long.

"I've got the next location in your computer, sir."

"Thank you."

Batman said nothing more, he prepared his vehicle for this next location. He activated pacification mode on the Batmobile.

Once that was done, he tapped a button underneath the steering wheel. The hood slid open and another press of the button ejected him from the vehicle.

Reaching his trajectory, Batman activated a glider mode of sorts upon his cape. He followed above the Batmobile as it drove on the ground. If nothing else, it would give him the element of surprise and act as an amazing decoy to hopefully lure his adversaries into a trap.

The Batmobile stopped, was silent, then it launched its attack. Tear gas and flash bang grenades propelled themselves out of the top of the Batmobile, landing down onto the ground with a solid thump as it connected.

The SWAT and the armored goons looked up. They could see the bangs, the smoke, the gas, and they were there.

Batman came down from the heavens with a huge leaping attack, his arm extended. He clotheslined the goon down to the ground, his head bouncing off of the pavement.

The next goon barely shouted "it's the Bat" before he was knocked down in the back of the head and flung over the top of his head onto the hood of the parked car.

Two knifes stabbed towards him but he was gone, up into the air. The smoke had not quite cleared and the goons scrambled around like chicken's with their heads cut off.

The ropes were wrapped around their legs and they were hoisted up halfway from the ground. They hung from the lightpost, their buddies rushing in to cut them down. SWAT and goons, it didn't matter to anyone, for they were struck down with the force of vengeance.

Broken bones, spilled blood, cracked pavement, one could name a list of things that happened with this situation. Regardless they were all put down for the count, their skulls cracked as hard as could be down to the ground.

It was time to uncover the next set of weapons with all of them down.

"A bit on the rougher side, wouldn't you say sir?"

Alfred, being Alfred, could not help but input his commentary.

"They were wearing body armor," Batman said, rigging up more explosives to get this set of cracks. They wouldn't be waking up outside of the hospital. "And they would have killed me if I let up."

"Well you do have a good point," Alfred conceded, as he threw his head back and sighed. "I do in fact hope that the Gotham City Police Department does have decent dental along with whoever those hoods worked with."

"Time to move," Batman said, not really registering his butler's attempt at humor. The guns on the street had got him focused and it was rather disturbing how focused he could be.

The fact that these people would likely be back on the streets by the next weekend made him feel even less sorry about the beat down he preformed on them.

* * *

The final one dropped down to the ground, his throat gripped in a chokehold. The fact that his backup had been knocked out registered in his head, only seconds before his head hit the pavement.

The SWAT Team stationed around the area of the Clock Tower did not know what hit them. All of them were knocked out before they realized that something had struck them and struck them hard. Their weapons were first disabled carefully and then they were disabled as well.

The green eyed ninja in the shadows smiled as he checked to make sure they were unconscious, then he could proceed.

"Well, that was easier than I thought it would be," Oracle whispered and Nightwing smiled, clearing his throat. "Right….we're about half way there, all you need to do is deal with this and then….."

"Don't worry, I've got this one," Nightwing commented, looking over his shoulder and stepping forward. The buyers did not show up yet and it was obvious that the SWAT was here, spreading out, in an attempt to negate some kind of double cross.

The real double cross was when Harry took them out. He waited for potential back up or any of the buyers but he had nothing.

"They don't know that you're here," Oracle said but Nightwing did respond for a few seconds, seeing the crates there.

"I know, element of surprise, it's an amazing thing," Harry replied, carefully shifting through the crates.

"First sight has been dealt with," Black Canary chimed in and there was a sound of jubilation with all of them.

"Great that means that we're halfway there," Oracle said in a gushing voice and Black Canary and Nightwing were both amused but said anything. "Right….sorry, I'll be quiet….."

"We got about a few minutes before the buyers are due to arrive," Harry said, checking the message on the phone of one of the fallen SWAT officers. It was a confirmation made just before Harry arrived about the arrival and potential pick up.

"Wow, you are that amazing….well of course you are amazing, I mean, you already know that, I mean I already knew that," Oracle rambled with Black Canary and Nightwing snickering.

"Well, what do you know anyway?"

"Um…lots of things, trust me, loads of stuff," Oracle said, wondering if she should state any of the theories she had. If she was right, she was a genius but if she was wrong….well she wanted to crawl into a hole and die.

' _I wonder if she's put two and two together?'_ Dinah asked Harry and the green eyed wizard responded by snickering as he slowly set things up.

' _Let her admit it,'_ Harry said as he continued to shift things around.

' _You're just having too much fun watching her dance around her theories about you,'_ Kara suggested and Harry smiled, a true "guilty as charged" expression on his face. He didn't say any more words but there was nothing that needed to be said.

' _Well, it is amusing,'_ Zatanna chimed in and there was a lot of agreement between the two of them.

' _I'm off to the Train Graveyard now,'_ Dinah reported, and she did the same thing over the communication link.

"Keep us posted," Harry said as he continued to rig the trap. When the buyers showed up, they would have a nasty surprise.

They thought that just because the crates were laying there, they would get the freebies. Especially with the SWAT down on the ground but Harry was going to make them think twice about this.

The moment they opened the back of the truck with the guns, the stun grenades would go off. That would pack quite a punch and leave these particular gentlemen down for the rest of the evening.

Then when that was done, a thermite grenade would fry the guns, destroying them, burning them. He figured and his partners were in agreement, that if the police just confiscated them, the same thing could happen again. The weapons would once again be sold again and again.

Harry waited for the magic to happen. The buyers might be a little late but that allowed him to get a bird's eyes view. He perched on the light post, bent down ,and listened.

Sure enough a limo pulled up and he was magic time.

"They're here."

* * *

Dinah whistled as she looked around. This should be an easy enough opportunity in theory but things that were easy in theory and things that were easy in practice were two different things. That being said, she had plenty of cover. It was just figuring out a way to creatively use it. If she could avoid a direct fight with her adversaries, just take them out quickly, that would be for the best.

She watched and much to her surprise, she was pretty sure that this group of thugs worked with the Penguin. Perhaps the cagey bird made a last second outbid of Sionis or perhaps they had some misinformation. Regardless, that was what she had.

And they were armed, which told Dinah all she needed to know about taking them out quickly and quietly. She ambled around the train graveyard.

One thug got picked off rather quickly, pulled into the shadows. He was the easiest to pick off, being one of the stragglers from the group.

The SWAT or the goons did not notice anything right now, so Dinah kept to the shadows. A small party went to the truck, leaving about half of them standing around, shooting the shit.

"Hope the goods are worth it because I'm freezing my balls off."

"From what I heard, you don't have no balls, your old lady took those in the divorce, Frankie."

There was some laughter that quickly went silence when Dinah disabled the two nearest thugs. The other two went down off the ground, landing hard with a thud.

A fifth thug turned around and spotted her. Stealth was not going to work here, especially when he pointed that dangerous weapon in her general area. Thinking quickly, Dinah kicked back her leg and knocked it out of his hand. Then a second kick nailed him in the face.

The goons and the SWAT team members moved out into the light immediately and looked around.

"Something out here, this better not be a double cross," a man growled, getting into one of the SWAT teams face. "Because the boss will make sure that you wake up in the river the next morning….."

"Not a double cross," another thug stated as he turned his head around and looked into the shadows.

Black Canary darted out of the shadows, using an acrobatic attack to kick her adversary in the back of the head.

The enemy crashed down onto the ground, and they began to fire at her. Black Canary stopped and did a Canary Cry, which did an excellent job in disabling the weapons.

The SWAT team rushed her, swinging clubs at her, but Black Canary caught one of them in her hand. She slid underneath the leg and caused him to flop onto his back. It hit the pavement with a loud crack that echoed in every direction.

She cracked two of the SWAT members in the back of the head and caused them to get out.

One of the Penguin thugs reached for the gun. She did not want that to happen. Bending her knees, she leapt high into the air, and came down right onto the arm of the adversary, breaking it underneath her assault.

The majority of the goons both Penguin and SWAT were down onto the ground. Dinah took them out with lightning fast fury, before they could even fire upon her. That was never a bad sign.

One of the Penguin goons thought that he could get away, not only from her, but with the goods and without paying for them. He made his way behind the wheel of the truck, not even bothering to buckle up as he gunned it as far as he could go.

The truck began to speed as far away from her as possible and Dinah delivered a deliberating Canary Cry. This action caused the truck to flip over, causing the crates to fly out and the man to scream in terror as he was flipped over.

He survived but walking might be very difficult for a while, if ever.

Dinah checked to make sure that there was no one else coming.

"Okay, both down, as soon as I destroy them," Black Canary reported in to Oracle and sure enough, once the charges were set, the guns were destroyed. They went up in a fiery inferno.

"Great," Oracle said, jubilation dripping from her voice. "All we have to do is wait for Nightwing to get the last batch and these things will be off of the streets for good."

' _On route now,'_ Harry reported to his bond mates.

' _Seems to be easy,'_ Faora thought, but perhaps it was a bit too easy. Thankfully she did not have to tell Har-Zod to proceed with caution because he already knew.

* * *

Vicki Vale had no idea how she got herself into these fixes but the fact of the matter that she was in the van, her hands and feet were bound. The gun on her temple was not necessary but it did have that wonderful bonus of scaring her witless. The Ex-Presidents Gang had cashed in.

"Well, we got a bonus right here, we've got both a hostage and a witness and she can tell about our grand heist, and how we're going to rule Gotham City!"

The red bandana man said this statement in a completely jubilant voice with Vicki squirming and shaking.

She hoped that the police would catch up to the vehicle and the sirens were on them.

"Hey….hey, I'm the President of the United States, you can't do this to me!" one of the members of the gang yelled, the man in the Nixon mask. "I AM NOT A CROOK!"

He held up a gun at those words and began to fire on the police. The loud bang, bang, bang indicated that the police returned fire.

"Hang on, Tricky Dicky, this is going to be a bumpy ride," the driver of the car said, not quite buckled up. He had no idea how accurate those sentiments would be.

Vicki was trying to remain calm, even the gun was pressed against her head as her main captor was firing out of the building with another weapon.

A bullet came close to striking her. It was obvious that the police didn't know there was a hostage, didn't care, or knew it was her, and really didn't care. Regardless Vicki whimpered through her gag but she tried to remain calm.

The van skidded to a stop and it struck hard against a lightpost. There was the sound of shattering glass, with the driver flying head first.

"And that's why you always should wear a seat belt," the red bandanna man said as he kicked the door open and grabbed Vicki, using her as a shield. Four more men fired at the police as they got to a stop. The van was totaled but they had more than one plan on the offing.

Vicki thought that she was screwed being in the middle of this, in between both sets of bullets. She didn't believe in miracles until tonight but the fact that she did not get hit, that would classify as one.

The men were shaken and Vicki thought that she might be able to get away. The firm grip that the red bandana man and the man in the Nixon mask had on her, dragging her into the nearby apartment shot that plan in the ass.

Speaking of being shot in the ass, Vicki was very much aware of how close some of those shots got. She had the breath pretty much driven out of her as her eyes grew completely wide.

James Gordon turned up on the scene, seeing the hostage and the gang, who had forced their way inside an apartment. Gordon assumed that it must have belonged to one of the men in question and until he had information that was different, he would have to say that these men had the home field advantage.

"What do we do now….."

"Call in the SWAT," Gordon grumbled, he hated having to rely on them for something like this. But these men were a bit well organized and they had committed several crimes. This was one of those hostage situations that every cop knew that they were going to feel.

The fact that the windows were at a position where they were sitting ducks did not exactly make Gordon feel optimistic.

"SWAT said that they'll be on their way in about fifteen minutes, they're short handed tonight."

Gordon might have wondered why they were short handed tonight but that was something that he would hash out with Brandon when the time came. His teeth gritted as he looked over his shoulder.

"Behind the barricade, and try and not harm the hostage, take the other four now."

"I thought I saw a fifth perp!"

Gordon nodded, he was not sure if they were speaking of the driver who was currently laying on the pavement, his brain matter splattered everywhere or if there was five not including the driver. He waited for the SWAT, who took their sweet time to show up.

X-X-X

Five out of six sites were taken care of but it would soon be six out of six sites. The last goon dropped to the ground. It was a quiet night, which put the entire group on the edge that something was going to happen.

' _Looks like we're about to finish up at the same time,'_ Harry thought to Dinah, listening to make sure none of them were playing possum. When SWAT goons and mob goons alike were taken out, Harry had the crates out and ready to go. They were rigged and ready to explode.

' _Perfect timing,'_ Harry thought to her and the rest of the group. _'With one more move, that will be it and we'll be wrapping things up.'_

"So, any sign of trouble?" Nightwing reported to Batman.

"Both of my sites have been taken out."

"Both of mine are as well," Black Canary reported to clarification.

"And that leaves me to finish off this last sight….right about now."

There was a click, a second click, and a loud explosion that knocked the guns out. Harry was not going to lie, he felt some smug satisfaction at the fact that they kept these weapons off the street. He wondered if this had been going on before now. Well that didn't matter, he was going to keep this set of weapons off of the street.

"Great, good, we've got them all," Oracle said as she popped in in a cheerful voice. "Well….mostly it was you got them all but….I helped….."

"You did and we appreciate that," Harry replied and Oracle looked extremely flushed before she chirped up with one word.

"Thanks."

"Don't mention it, we wouldn't even have found out about this, I'm sure Black Canary and Batman would agree."

"Yes, you did well, Oracle," Black Canary replied and Batman inputted his own two cents in his usual gruff manner.

"Yes, thank you."

"So, you destroyed them all, right?" Oracle asked, she just wanted to confirm that one more time.

"Yes, something like that, it's just going to turn around and put right back on the street," Nightwing said and there were many nods.

' _Well, that wrapped up easier than expected,'_ Amanda chimed in and there was angry shushing by her sister, Donna, and Kara.

' _Do not under any circumstances ever say that something wrapped up easier than expected,'_ Nym said crossly. She got a three hour lecture from Moody about that once.

' _Sorry but you got to admit….'_

' _No we don't,'_ Emily said, cutting her sister off in a fretful voice, crossing her arms together with each other and folding her legs.

She half expected something to come in.

"Branden's going to find out about our handiwork pretty soon," Black Canary chimed in and one could not see anything but Oracle appeared slightly amused.

"Well, I'm sure he will but the three of you…"

Oracle stopped and she could hear something come in.

"Oracle, are you still there?" Nightwing asked after the silence went on for far too long for his comfort. His green eyes flushed with a tiny bit of concern but Oracle had her mouth opened and then she shut it once again.

"You guys…..well you might want to listen to this."

' _MANDY!'_ Emily shouted and Amanda crossed her arms.

' _Don't look at me I didn't do this….'_

' _Ladies,'_ Harry said in a stern reprimand.

"Oracle, put it on, I'm sure all three of us are going to need to know about this."

Right, just a second.

"The goons dressed up as former United States Presidents have knocked off the charity event for the Boys and Girl Scouts Club of Gotham City. Their van crashed, one was dead on route but the others, along with their hostage have fled into an abandoned parking lot, calling all available SWAT units to the area, we have a hostage crisis."

' _Maybe tonight didn't end as well as we thought,'_ Faora thought, crossing her hands together and she did hope that things would not end up so bad.

"The hostage is blonde, blue eyes….approximately between twenty two and twenty six years of age, hang on she dropped something….her press pass….it's Vale."

"I told you it was her," James Gordon's voice said to the other cop and there was an argument that was over the network.

' _Well, Miss Vale can't keep herself out of trouble tonight,'_ Amanda chimed in through the link.

Harry said nothing but he smelled a rat. He was not sure what that rat looked like yet though.

**To Be Continued.**


	36. Chapter 36

_Happy One Year and One Day Anniversary To This Series._

* * *

**Chapter Thirty Six: Oracle of Delphi Part Four.**

Three AM in the morning in Gotham City and all was not well. This was not the first Hostage situation that James Gordon had to deal with nor it would be the last.

"What's the situation?"

Branden arrived, business as usual as he walked forward, with the SWAT guards. Gordon, despite his personal problems with the man in the past, decided to get to the nitty gritty of the situation. "This gang of ex-presidents…..they've robbed a fundraiser tonight and they kidnapped a hostage, Vicki Vale, the reporter."

"Yes, I know who she is," Branden said, barely hiding his personal opinion on that bitch in his tone. It would be a real shame if she got shot up in there but he could not say that to Gordon. "Have you gotten any progress in getting her out of there?"

"It's part hostage crisis, part the leader of the gang wanting to make a name for themselves," Gordon replied and Branden pinched the bridge of his nose, tilted his head back, and sighed deeply.

"Typical, thugs with a vanity problem, we need to storm in….."

"Oh, the noble GCPD SWAT….good, good, I want you to hear this."

"Lock onto him," Brandan said as he saw the man in the shadows but the man snapped his fingers.

"If I don't report back to the boss, then….well things might get rough for young Miss Vale."

"Keep him in your crosshairs," Branden growled, wanting to take his chances with that but Gordon looked at Branden.

"What do you want?"

The man on the ledge stepped back, chuckling. "You know, there's a lot that we can take in Gotham City, but I'm not quite sure what we want. I have to check back with our glorious leader. Don't worry, your reporter is safe and snug, for the moment. I'd make sure she stays that way but if I don't come back in the next three minutes…..I can't vouch for the others."

The man disappeared and Branden looked at the SWAT members.

"You heard what he said, Vale dies if he doesn't report back to the rest of his men," Gordon said and Braden nodded. Gordon could not help but think that man would be taken out the next time the SWAT gets a shot.

"I've been through something like this before Gordon, the guy's playing hardball, they know if they kill the hostage, they have their only insurance policy against us coming in and taking them down is gone."

"Treating these guys like normal criminals….they aren't operating with a full deck, and their leader might be even worse," Gordon said to Branden but the two men remained cordial to each other. There was an undercurrent of hostility.

The man on the ledge returned and he looked down at them with a smile. "Just to let you know that the boss will think about your generous offer, and come back to you….hope you brought coffee and donuts, this might take a while."

Branden wanted to strangle that smug shit right now for making him wait out in the middle of the cold night.

"Go around, find a way in past them to take them down," Branden growled and the SWAT goons walked around, combing around the building.

The man sat on the ledge, drinking a cup of coffee, and he gave them a mock thumbs up. Gordon would not be surprised if he had given them another hand gesture to go along with that. He gave an insidious laugh as he disappeared into the shadows.

It was getting closer to sunrise than it was to sunset and it was a matter of the waiting game. Gordon clutched his hands.

"We'll resolve this, that's what we do," Branden said to Gordon. The building was rather a tricky one to get in. There weren't as many blind spots where he could stash snipers and the man on the ledge put himself in a position where he could see everything. He radioed his men. "Keep at your positions, and let me know if any of them step outside, find out if this is the building, or a false trail."

"Sir…we found the van, it's across the street."

"They're playing games with us," Gordon said, they had one of their associates stay at this building across the street. He was not even sure if it was a member of the same gang.

"Hold your positions there; see if anyone comes out, my team on the ground will keep an eye out for laughing boy on the roof."

Time ticked on by and the situation got even tenser.

* * *

Nightwing heard Branden's report at the end. He could read between the lines of what he was trying to do and he pieced together what he needed to do.

He was really pleased with Oracle's work. She hacked them together into the GCPD network. Nightwing, Black Canary, and Batman all were able to listen in on everything that was said. So when Branden gave his men the situation report, the same thing happened to Nightwing.

The black and red clad ninja smirked, thinking about that fact. His green eyes combed over the top of the building, seeing where he had to go to.

"Okay, I'm in," Oracle replied and she could hear the grunting that indicated that she was heard loud and clear. "And the building where she's being held and where that gang is holed up, I've got a detailed blueprint of it."

The blueprint popped up for Nightwing, who smiled at this. This would give him more time to plan than the cops, who had to wait for someone to bring them a blueprint. Otherwise, any way they try to get inside, they were just doing guess work.

"Excellent."

That was something that he meant and he went straight to work. Utilizing his wrist computer, he started to send it back to Oracle in a three dimensional design.

' _Okay, this should work,'_ Faora thought, double checking on her end what was being done, and there were other members of the bond who listened with rapt interest.

' _You do realize that she's going to lose her shit when you send her back a three dimensional model?'_ Zatanna asked and Kara, Donna, Amanda, and Emily all snickered.

' _We know, isn't it awesome?'_ Kara asked, impressed by how fluid this process was. It was something that was fine tuned down to a science.

Nightwing smiled, and he waited for it.

Three.

Two.

One.

Sure enough right on cue, Oracle yelped halfway and was caught completely off guard by this awesome sight that was sent to her.

' _Well, we all saw that one coming,'_ Donna said, barely able to suppress the snickering that she had. She was not the only one.

Harry acted absolutely cool and collected because that was pretty much how he rolled. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine….just didn't explain that," Oracle muttered, trying to keep her eyes on the three dimensional blue print. When the initial "WTF" factor escaped her, she was interested in seeing it. "This is amazing."

"You're too kind but is that going to allow you to…."

"Yeah, this is perfect, it should be able to have us pinpoint some of the closer blindspots." Oracle said, it took her a couple of minutes to return herself to some kind of sanity. "Are you….."

"Better to have all of our spots covered."

Nightwing turned his head around and peered down into the building. Sure enough there weren't that many blind spots but there were some. Never the less, it was enough to slip in carefully where he could. He just had to time it right, something that many people would fail to think about doing.

' _So should I ask the question….'_

' _You're going to anyway,'_ Faora thought to the person who asked it and she sighed.

' _I'm not going to ask it because I don't want to get my bloody head chewed off but…why not…'_

' _Because that would be a huge blipping beacon if I used magic, as you know I'm trying to avoid it as Nightwing unless I absolutely can't help it,'_ Harry thought and he decided to clarify that point. _'Besides, Barbara knows that Harry Potter is magical and I don't want to make it too easy on her.'_

' _I wonder if she already has figured it out, and is just in deep denial?'_ Pamela asked and Harry smiled but it was Zatanna who answered.

' _Didn't we already bring up that point….'_

' _Well it does bear repeating,'_ Dinah thought but she was about ready to ask something.

' _I know, I have to keep an eye on the SWAT just as much.'_

Harry placed the HUD display on and he prepared to pinpoint the location of everyone on the roof. The first was the SWAT, he wanted to see what they were doing. Especially Branden, he was always someone. He also spotted Gordon and other cops.

Then there were the Ex-Presidents gang, they were spread around, and he would need to know where they are. He wanted to see what they were guarding. He was going to assume that they had some deent weapons.

Last but certainly not least, there was the lovely Miss Vale.

Harry knew that he had his work cut out for him and the night was still young.

* * *

The entire heist, Vicki's adrenaline was to the point where she was freaking out all too badly. At least not overtly, but her mind was running a hundred miles a minute. Mostly because there was a lot of curiosity burning through her mind and the woman twisted her head around to get a better look.

Not really to her surprise, she was in the boiler room of the building. Her vision was shielded when she was brought in, so she could not really figure out which way she got brought in. Her hands were bound behind a chair, her feet were bound, and she was gagged. The chair she was on was not very comfortable although she suspected that comfort was a low priority for those people.

She tried to turn her head but she snapped back. Vicki tried to push herself out of where she was.

"SWAT's going to do something stupid….."

"Well just keep our little insurance policy straight…."

"Don't worry, nothing's going to happen to her, the bitch isn't going anywhere," the man said as he tugged at the mask.

"Stop doing that man….."

"Starting to stink, beside the boss lost his so….."

"Are we sure that he's the boss?" a third member of the gang asked.

"A guy like that, are you going to question whether or not he's the boss?" the first gang member asked as he looked at Vicki. "Not too bad of a piece of ass that we got out of there, we could have grabbed some old bag or some old man or a bunch of brats but…..we worked out good."

One of the gang members shook his head. "Hey, aren't you married?"

"My wife's married, not me," the man in question said as he waited. "So when's LBJ coming back anyway?"

"Don't know, he's supposed to be the go between, between the cops and the boss man," the gang member said as he could see Vicki. "Ah, don't be mad, toots, you're just insurance….we're going to let you go nice and easier. The boss wants you to keep calm. Just play it cool and we'll take really good care of you."

Vicki was not too reassured by this fact, surprisingly enough. In fact, the full horror of the situation was beginning to slowly sink in.

The fact that she nearly got shot tonight on her way here, just barely getting missed, was something that was a grim reminder of what she had to deal with Often, Vicki did not believe in miracles but she was going to chalk this one up as one.

Her heart raced, she did not have too much stock in the SWAT and their ability to get her out of here safely.

She could not think straight as well which was a problem. Her heart raced, she thought that a little danger was a good thing.

"They're going to move in, just watch," "LBJ" said as he reported back and he whispered to the other men around there. "The boss man hasn't made up his mind what we want."

"I'm not sure how much we can get for a snoopy reporter…."

"She's more valuable if she lives to tell the tale, everyone will know about it. The boss wants people to know we're out there and causing a stir."

"Is the boss some kind of nut or something?"

"Hey….don't be calling him that, he's knifed a guy for calling him less," the man in the Kennedy mask said as he leaned back into the shadows. He smoked a cigarette, quite a feat considering the mask.

Vicki was too distressed to really think of what was happening. She reported on the news and while the recent riot in Gotham was close to being a part of it, this was a bit up close and personal.

She heard a noise outside and voices nearby. Likely the SWAT trying to make their way inside, which did not do any wonders for her blood pressure, but it was not like she was going anywhere.

"Hey chuckles, go stand watch, make sure no one gets a bright idea of being heroic."

He had a shotgun in his hand ,making his way into the shadows with a twisted smirk on his face.

* * *

Nightwing found all of his ex-President gang members; they were all patrolling around the building. And more importantly, he found Vicki. He was not sure if this was going to make things any easier but there he was, he was perched up at the top of the building and ready to slide in.

"And now, they're in the crosshairs."

Oracel gave that report to Nightwing, who barely kept the smile off of his face.

"Good, good," he said, the tagging them with HUD allowed them to track their movements.

"One of them is taking a tunnel of some sort and giving regular reports to the SWAT guys," Oracle reported to him and Harry did not say anything but he smiled. "Nightwing?"

"Well, he's stalling for time, I think that it was a coincidence that they stumbled upon Miss Vale," Nightwing said, trying to keep his comments rather neutral despite how pissed off that one of his girls was trapped in the line of fire. "The leader of the pack, he seems to be the one who is the best armed, isn't he?"

"Yeah," Oracle agreed as Nightwing did a quick scan of what he saw with these goons.

"They have some of those ear pieces….very secret service like in make. Not sure if it's the same people but they're high tech."

"Jamming them might not be a good idea," Oracle suggested, not sure if she can but never the less, enjoying the potential challenge of the situation.

"Right, because if they don't report back, then things are going to get rough," Nightwing said, slipping into one of the blind spots and creeping in the shadows. "The problem is that I've got to do this without taking out any of the goons with guns."

' _If one of them doesn't check in with the others or SWAT, who can tell what's going to happen?'_ Faora asked and Harry gave half of a smile, but it was a strained half of a smile.

' _I've got an idea,'_ Harry commented, keeping himself from going underneath ground. His heart kicked up another intense beat.

When the going got tough, that was where he flourished. He wanted to avoid any combat and if he took them down, gunshots would be fired. And if gunshots would be fired, that meant that the SWAT would be in there like a dog on a bone.

Reminding himself of how perilous this situation was, Harry moved decisively and discreetly.

He stopped, seeing the men walked past. An anxious few seconds later, after one briefly stopped and looked in his general direction, they turned around.

Harry recalled how easier it would be if he could just teleport but as he said, too many questions. Plus he did not want to make the connection.

They were in a cluster really close to the basement and after tracking their movements, they seemed to be looking in on Vicki every five to seven minutes, like clockwork. If that proved one thing, it proved that Harry would need to work quickly.

His green eyes kept forward with laser guided focus, he had another near miss but he kept towards the path.

He could see the group move around from the room which meant that Harry made his way inside.

Nightwing could see Vicki tied to the chair and he moved forward to free her. He should have known that nothing would be that simple.

Click.

There was a shotgun pointed at his midsection and the man in the Kennedy mask stood next to him, and fired without any preamble.

BANG!

The gunshot hit Harry's armor and absorbed most of the impact. He reached forward and disarmed him, but not before he got another shot off.

The Kennedy masked man whipped back against the wall and landed with a huge impact.

"Oh shit."

' _You don't say, Babs,'_ Dinah thought she heard her swear over the communication link.

Nightwing would have to agree as the pitter patter of footsteps nearby indicated that he would not be alone. His armor held up and the man who shot him was worse for wear.

* * *

Around the time this was happening, the GPCD was standing around, waiting to see what their next move. Branden and Gordon were about to butt heads and Harvey Bullock stood there.

"So, what are we going to do?" Bullock asked, he couldn't believe that he of all people had to play the peacemaker. That was something that blew his mind for numerous reasons.

Gordon's gaze slowly turned towards him and Bullock remained crisp and calm. "We wait….."

"These are just run of the mill goons, we get in there and take them out, we're just playing into their hand."

In some ways Branden had a point, which was something that Gordon would have to grudgingly concede. It was nights like this where he felt like he was on the outside looking in but he was not about to back down without a fight.

"That guy hasn't come back lately, has he?" Bullock asked, trying to cut the tension. He was getting chills between Gordon and Branden that had nothing to do with the cold night in Gotham City.

"No."

Gordon's response was short and clipped, not to mention fairly irritated. He wondered why Brandon's SWAT was so short handed. The half hearted response that they were all busy did not resound with Gordon but this was not a war that he was going to fight in a middle of a hostage crisis.

"Your men are short-handed and they have the home field advantage," Gordon warned Brandon and Brandon gave Gordon a look. If looks had the capacity to kill, all of them would be dead.

Bullock shuddered once again. "So….."

"There he is," Gordon said and there was a second where he was being mocked, and Brandon took a step forward.

"We can get in there and take him out…..do it your way," Brandon said, knowing that the moment that they fired gunshots, he would get in and take them down.

BANG!

Gordon, Bullock, and Brandon all jerked their expressions towards the door and their liaison at the top even scrambled inside at the sound of the gunshot.

"Get ready….."

BANG!

"NOW!" Branden yelled as the SWAT team members scrambled in as quickly as they could. Gordon and Bullock both looked at each other, with agitation in their eyes.

This was going to get better before it got worse but who fired the shots? Neither man could have an answer to that.

"He was going to find an excuse to get in there," Bullock suggested gruffly. He figured out how Branden worked by now. The doors flung open and the SWAT guards stampeded indoors, ready for action.

Gordon gritted his teeth, that was the problem, they all figured out how Branden worked and now he was indoors. And there would be more shots that would be fired. With a hostage inside, this was a perilous situation.

Perhaps he should give the man the benefit of the doubt, perhaps he knew what he was doing. He was a professional after all.

The sounds of chaos inside did not reassure Gordon that much on that point. He wondered who caused the shots to be fired. Was it a dispute between the gang members? Someone deciding to lure the SWAT in to see if they were react? Or something else?

"So did those fuckers get shell shocked by a big rat or something? Place like that, I wouldn't be that surprised."

Gordon wouldn't be surprised either, but he somehow doubted it. Despite their rather weird and erratic demeanor, they wouldn't break things this easily.

"Gordon, what do you think happened?"

Gordon paused for a second and offered his opinion. "Your guess is as good as mine, Bullock."

He took a half of a step forward, and he could hear the chaotic things inside. Things were beginning to heat up, as this was a hostage crisis in every sense of the world.

Little did he know that this night was just beginning.

* * *

Barbara's "oh shit" declaration was surprisingly accurate and Harry cringed about how frustrating this was going to be. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Nightwing made his way over towards Vicki and tried to free her from her ropes.

The sound of doors breaking open indicated that the gun shots brought the SWAT inside. Talk about having an even bigger problem and those trigger happy idiots were going to be the type to shoot first and ask questions later. If they asked questions at all but that was beside the point. Harry steadied Vicki and focused.

"You do realize that they have the nearest exit blocked, don't you?" Oracle asked and Harry gave a half of a smile.

"Yes, I realize that, but….."

"Already finding you an alternate way out, but the rest of them will be on your ass in about five minutes," Oracle said and there was an instance where the red and black ninja took a breath.

"Don't worry, I've got a plan," Nightwing said, as he held Vicki. She seemed to be coherent enough not to scream or perhaps too freaked out to scream. Either way, he was not about to take a gift horse in the map.

One of the man dropped behind a wall, which Harry could see using his X-Ray vision. The SWAT stormed in, rattling up the steps.

Three glass balls shot into the air and smashed against the ground. It released a gas which gave Nightwing and Vicki the necessary cover. If they could make their way there.

He could not be found, he could not be seen. Not by the Ex-Presidents, not by the SWAT, but that was okay. The green eyed wizard pressed on as he made his way to the hallway.

He had another set of stairs and a back entrance, a back entrance that was guarded by the SWAT guards. That could be just a tiny bit of a problem, so he would have to maneuver this carefully. The shotgun damaged his armor and he wasn't sure if he could take another hit.

' _Take them down that hallway,'_ Faora suggested, and reaching into his sleeve, he released a flash grenade into the air.

It was a ugly prototype model, and in fact it flamed out faster than he wanted. That being said, it did the job. The blinding light caused anyone who did not have the eye protection that Harry had to duck for cover.

What was left of the SWAT and the Ex-President gang was shooting each other. What causalities there were, Harry didn't know. He had to keep moving, avoiding a fight. A fight would mean that he would get shot at, or Vicki would get shot out.

His armor should block the shots, so he made sure his body covered most of her. Teleporting once again was out and Harry knew that flying out of here would also get him spotted very quickly, especially when he was trying to direct a shell shocked person out of there.

The good news was the door was blown open to the most probable exit.

"We're almost there, trust me."

All Vicki could do was take his word for it. This mysterious ninja swooped in, got shot, shrugged it off, and then she heard gunshots. There appeared to be eight or nine different things happening at once.

The emerald eyed young man could see the GCPD on the outside, crowding around the building. It was a miracle that neither of them got shot ,other than the two shots that pierced his armor. And Vicki had the air of someone who had an all too close call, Harry could tell. He wanted to make this as painless for her as possible.

He shuttled her out the door, the SWAT was yelling and his final diversion, which he planted on his way in on the off chance that he needed, had things done.

The trash cans rattled and Bullock turned around, to see the shell shocked Vicki Vale down on the ground. There were the sounds of gunshots inside.

Bullock turned his head from one side to the other and then he turned back to Vicki on the ground.

"Looks like we got her," Bullock said and he looked towards a shadowed alleyway. Gordon and several other cops crowded around. "Things got quiet inside."

"Report," Branden said but they were at a loss to how Vicki escaped her containment. And he would be lying if he was not a bit disappointed. In front of these witnesses, he could not say anything.

"We're seeing if there are any runners but we've got two of them and….there's a third one injured in the boiler room, looks like he got a nasty concussion….he's the one who fired the shot."

* * *

All was quiet in the wee morning hours at the Church. Most of the homeless people at the shelter had been tucked into their beds, sleeping, untroubled dreams now that they were safe, safe, and not in the world that would eat them up. They were no longer living in fear that the moment they slept, a bullet would be in the back of their heads.

The more opinionated of the two homeless men shifted in his bed, a couple hours of sleep, a shower, a good meal, and some shoes, and he was a bit more at ease. But despite how much more he was at ease, there was many unanswered questions.

Like the basement, the basement was the biggest unanswered question of them all. One might say that curiosity killed the cat but never the less, this man was curious.

The door of the basement clicked open and the homeless man watched the two apostles of the Deacon once again make their way up the stairs.

"A miracle has happened, my brothers, for they have seen the error of their ways. They have seen the path of damnation they were lead down. Do you feel the change, do you feel it in the air?"

Some of the homeless men remained awake, some had not been used to such shelter and sanctuary. Many had been cast upon the street thanks to an uncaring world.

The mouthier of the two homeless men saw the Deacon lead the two gangsters they dragged downstairs earlier. He would have to admit, he would have put even money, had he had any money, on never seeing them again. The fact that one of the men came upstairs, the one with the filthier dark beard.

"They understand, and they comprehend," the darker beard cohort said to the Deacon.

"Yes, my brothers, but the road to the light is a treacherous one," the Deacon said as the men walked out behind him. The former hardened gangsters followed the Deacon across the Church in an obedient manner.

"They just….they just fell into line like that," the more vocal of the two homeless men said, there was something about that statement where he wondered if he was overstepping his bounds.

"Yes…..they converted, after I had a discussion about them, and they saw the error of their ways," The Deacon said, his hearing sharp as ever and he turned towards him. "I do not expect all to see the light right away, but ignorance….some might say it is bliss. All will turn their backs upon the world that will eat them up. They only have themselves to blame, as the Devil dances in the moonlight, and drags them in, taking them down to temptation. It is my holy crusade to save them from the devil."

The man's jaw was set and he nodded.

"Brother, I can tell that this is much to take in, as you nearly were dragged into the darkness but I can assure you that all will make sense, and there are already signs of the virtues that I bring before you."

The mouthier hobo looked at him and his mouth opened.

"The Lord's work is never done but I am his vessel and I will deliver them all. Including the specter of Darkness who is haunting Gotham City."

"I'd like to apologize for any inconvenience that I caused," one of the former gangsters said in a cordial voice.

"I would like to apologize as well."

"This is proof that they are not beyond hope, for they require someone to ease them into the lord's guiding hand."

It was not for reassurance and the Deacon was going to work to convert them. He could see that this man was a bit more at ease now he's fed, bathed, and showered but there was always be doubt.

Doubt he would remove, as if he made these non-believers fall into line, he could do it. The Deacon was not afraid of the darkness and he was most certainly not a one of a superstitious and cowardly lot.

* * *

"I should've known."

Harvey Dent thought that he heard rustling coming into his office that morning. He saw the mysterious ninja known as Nightwing drop down, favoring his ribs. He was trying not to show it but it was obvious to someone as sharp eyed as Dent.

"Are you….."

"I'll survive," Nightwing said, getting a shotgun blast to the ribs was not a picnic, even with the armor holding him. Until his CORE repaired itself completely, the watch was a necessary thing. Plus, the less magic that he used until that point, the better off he was.

If anything, he had a challenge and if there was anything that Harry enjoyed was a challenge. He flourished on it in fact.

"What do we need to do?"

Dent raised an eyebrow and Nightwing decided to elaborate, despite the fact that he did not ask the question. "The police corruption….its getting out of hand. Tonight, the SWAT was selling guns that they were supposed to keep off of the street."

Dent was silent but the fact that he said nothing told Nightwing all that he needed to do about not being surprised.

"Things are getting worse."

One gruff voice responded to Nightwing's statement. "I know."

He knew and Nightwing decided to cut to the chase. "What are we going to do about it?"

Dent decided to give the frank answer that he could. "It's not going to be easy at all. Flass is the one who is knee deep in everything but the problem is, he's taking his marching orders from someone higher up. And he's not going to back down even if you scare him shitless. After what happened to Gordon, you thought that would have been enough, where he intended to murder the guy. Flass got cocky once, that won't happen again. If he gets another chance like that, Gordon's a dead man."

The statement might have seemed to be blunt and mean but it was one that was entirely accurate.

"So, that brings us down to the originally point, what are we going to have to do?" Nightwing asked and Dent filed over through some papers.

"Flass's bosses are more terrifying to him than either of us could be. Branden for starters ,than there's Loeb, he's always in the middle of it, but the mob, and things are getting more crazy out there. If we can get Flass and his associates to back up somehow, things will be a lot easier."

"I see," Nightwing commented, trying to figure out what he was going to need to do. He had somewhat of an idea in his head what he was going to have to do or rather what he was going to have to lift.

"We do have him on an attempted murder charge but having the necessary charge and getting it to stick, that's two different things."

Dent said something else or was going to say something else rather but Nightwing vanished right from underneath his nose.

"One day, I'll find out how he does that," Dent said, deciding to get back to the late night work he was working on before Nightwing turned up for his meeting.

On the roof, Nightwing dropped down next to Batman, who was waiting.

"Flass is the key to this all."

One statement, it was said without preamble, saying pretty much nothing but at the same time, saying pretty much everything.

Batman said in his most stoic manner. "Leave him to me."

Batman slipped off into the night and Nightwing nodded. He figured about as much. His ribs still bothered him, but things could in fact be worse. The armor did its job, even though it was damaged.

Seeing as how Batman slipped off into the night, it was Nightwing's cue to do the same.

' _Everything's calming down, for now,'_ Nightwing thought but calm was before the storm.

**To Be Continued on 7/5/2014.**


	37. Oracle Of....Part Five

The thug in the red hoodie staggered after the last battle, dragging his feet behind him. He has seen better days, one could say that much. His heart sped up as he tried to push himself forward but he nearly collapsed.

Just barely, he missed being grabbed by the SWAT on their way out. It was just barely, he knew that for a fact. They got the other members of the gang, but they did not get him. It was a nice ride, they had some laughs, many laughs, but it was over.

' _Bastards got me though in another way,'_ he thought, very humorlessly.

He held his arm to his body, grimacing as he continued to stagger forward. The blood dripped from his arm and he could barely hold it together.

"Fuck," he grumbled, nearly collapsing from the blood loss. He did not want to attract any attention now. At least not until he got patched up, but the blood dripping from him was a heavy amount.

What the thug needed to do was get to a place that wouldn't ask too many questions. That's what he needed now more than anything.

The hood came down and he removed the hoodie, knowing that the SWAT would identify him with it. Face still submerged in the shadows, he crept, moving from alleyway, to alleyway. He stepped over a limp cat and ambled forward.

The SWAT thought they were pretty tough, well the last laugh would be his. He started giggling at what happened.

His giggling descended to full blown laughter at the thought of what happened. It was kind of funny, actually it was pretty hilarious.

The man knew that there was a place around here that wouldn't ask any questions, that would patch up his injuries. Then it would be off to the races once again. He cradled his bleeding arm very closely to his chest.

He had a mental list of things that he would need to do but he needed medical attention. Thankfully this was Gotham City, people got shot all of the time, especially in the area of Park Row, where he managed to find his way.

' _Crime Alley, home sweet home,'_ the man stated, his bloody arm dripping, the gash opened on it really spilling blood from him.

Destination, it was there, and his laughter finally subsided. Just in the nick of time because he needed to be conspicuous.

A sign that said "Leslie Thompkins Medical Clinic" told him exactly where he needed to go. He slipped inside, barely keeping his head up.

No questions asked, no questions asked, that was the way he liked it.

* * *

Harry Potter had far better days but as he reminded himself, he sustained a lot worse.

' _Still glad that the armor has held, really,'_ Faora said and Karen chimed in over the link, as Kara and Diana were on their way to meet him in the physical world.

' _Yeah, sometimes, I think that it's easy to forget that you have that watch on, and you have a few limitations,'_ Karen said but then she sighed before adding thoughtfully. _'Thankfully you've never been someone who had relied on his powers as a crutch.'_

' _Yes, well that's a good thing, and not a bad thing, and this might be an interesting tool in the long run,'_ Harry said and Kara and Diana arrived, they looked subdued.

"So, how are you feeling?" Kara asked and Harry smiled.

"Sore, but bending, thankfully the bullet didn't strike me hard," Harry whispered so only Kara could hear him. Gordon was down the hallway he could see, so he had to play it casual and calm.

"Most like the armor hit most of the attack," Kara said and Harry wrapped his arm around her tightly. "So how's Vicki doing?"

"I'm sure that she's doing…..well better than could be expected, she went through a horrible, dreadful ordeal in there, you know," Harry told Kara and the blonde waved off these words, she had no need to be reminded, for sure knew. "But she'll be on the mend and everything will be great."

"Yeah, I hope so too, I really hope so," Kara said and she could hear James Gordon approaching.

' _So truthfully, how are you feeling?'_ Lily asked, as the door opened.

' _Like I took a sledgehammer to the ribs, but time to put my game face on,'_ Harry thought as he saw Gordon approach.

"Oh, Harry, hello," Gordon said and he stopped, surveying Harry quite curiously. "What are you doing here?"

"I am here to see Vicki, I heard what happened," Harry said and Gordon once again surveyed him calmly. "She doesn't have any family here nearby in Gotham City, and I figured that I would see how she was doing, after what happened."

"How did you….."

"Barbara told me or rather gave me a general idea of the situation," Harry said and Gordon relaxed his line of questioning. "Exactly what happened out there?"

"Your usual gang of thugs, it was those guys….well they've been in the news, they were wearing the masks of ex-Presidents," Gordon said and Harry looked for more of an explanation. Gordon was about to give it to them. "Well, they decided to snatch Vale…..I think that it was spur of the moment, because it doesn't fit their motive. She just happened to be there….."

"And they seized the opportunity," Harry said, and he was trying to play like he didn't know anything. How much Gordon believed, he could not really say. That being said, Harry would have liked to think that he was becoming an extremely convincing liar. "So, the GCPD took them in?"

"With considerable help," Gordon said and Harry, Kara, and Diana feigned curiosity. "Nothing that we can prove but this person is pretty adept at not being side."

"I'd figure as much, yes," Harry commented to him. "If we're talking about the same guy, he's got a price on his head, because he's technically a vigilante."

' _Yeah, and Branden would love nothing better to ring his neck, along with half of the force for making them look bad,'_ Gordon said, but never the less he tried not to smile.

"I think we are, but….better not talk about it too much, but I'm sure Vale could tell you something," Gordon said. "Or would, if she wasn't in too much shock, she said that it all happened so fast that she couldn't really process what happened."

' _Not really too strange, she was through an ordeal,'_ Kara thought, keeping close to Harry. She marveled the fact that he was able to keep so calm and stoic despite his injuries. Despite the handicap of not being able to sustain as much damage thanks to the solar filtering radiation watch.

"Yeah, I figured about as much," Harry said. "But I don't know that much, and it's not like it hasn't hit the media….."

"No, but I'm sure it will, because the media got involved," Gordon said to Harry and he decided to cut to the chase. "She's in Room 3, down the hall. I'm going to get a cup of coffee, it's been a long night. Holler if you need anything."

"Thanks," Harry said as he moved forward. The moment that Gordon was gone, he allowed the pain that he was feeling to show on his face.

' _You are a lot stronger than I would be,'_ Rose commented.

' _Well, given that you're a big baby when you stub your toe, I should think so,'_ Lily said, and Rose crossed her arms and pouted.

' _Oh, that's adorable,'_ Nym cooed over the bond link as Harry, Diana, and Kara made their way there.

' _Yes, because you're a joy when you're ill, Nymphadora,'_ Andromeda said, which shut Tonks up straight away. _'Seriously, she's really not all that much of a joy, she's…."_

" _MUM!"_ Nym whined at the top of her lungs.

' _Don't worry, Nym, Amanda is worse,'_ Emily said, with a wicked grin on her face and in response, her sister gave her a dirty look. _'I only speak the truth, you know.'_

' _You are a little brat, you know that,'_ Amanda said and Lily decided to interject before things could get a bit uglier. Her daughters could act extremely spirited.

Harry smiled as he half heard his mother's reprimand. He was half distracted by another source, as Vicki bounced up to her feet, with a bright eyed expression.

The good news was that Harry was only going to mostly brace himself from what was coming. His ribs did take a nice pounding from her glomp hug, but even with the few seconds of agitation that flashed through his eyes, he remained rather calm.

"Harry….oh….it's so good to see you," Vicki said, she wasn't letting go, and Kara and Diana looked kind of amused as they lingered off by Harry's side, waiting to be introduced properly.

' _I have to say, you have an iron will that most won't have in your situation,'_ Kara said, and she could sense that Harry was holding in pain.

' _Believe me, I have a lot of experience hiding my emotions, because of what I do,'_ Harry said with a smile, as Vicki relaxed her grip oh so slightly.

"So, this is Kara Kent," Harry said, pointing out to Kara and Kara smiled.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Vale," Kara said with a smile on her face, greeting the reporter energetically.

"Please, Vicki, any….friend of Harry's, is a friend of mine," Vicki said with a smile and Harry looked at the Amazon who was standing in the shadows. She was an imposing presence, one could really see that if she guarded someone's body, it would be guarded quite nicely.

"And this is Diana Prince."

"A pleasure to meet you," Diana said, said shaking hands with Vicki. "Sorry to hear about the ordeal that you went through tonight…"

"Well, I'll be honest, kind of comes with the territory," Vicki said, letting a deep breath out of her body. "I've been so close to getting shot at more times than I care to count. I was in the middle of that stand off with the SWAT and the GCPD a while back."

"I think we all recall that," Harry said, wondering if Vicki knew how close she came to getting sniped a while back by the SWAT in retaliation.

"Yeah, well, this Dead Presidents, Ex-Presidents gang, the ring leader sounds like he has a few screws loose, someone like that has to have a past," Vicki commented, looking at the trio. "And that past is rather….messed up, wouldn't you think?"

"Oh, I would think that, Vicki," Harry said and she was guided into a chair. Harry pulled out two chairs for Diana and Kara, and they sat down.

"I thought the SWAT would just come in there firing, but….guess he came in there and saved me, just like that," Vicki said, clapping her hands together. "I barely had time to register it, and next thing I knew, I was safely out of there and they were mostly apprehended."

"Mostly," Harry said, trying to keep himself calm. He figured that one or two might slip through the cracks, his prime motive was getting Vicki out of there.

"Well, I think I saw someone running, he did get clipped, so…" Vicki said with a long sigh.

' _Maybe he'll turn up dead,'_ Dinah thought but somehow she doubted it.

' _That easily, hardly,'_ Zatanna thought to herself, and there were murmurings of agreement throughout the bond network.

"So, I have to say that I admire what you do out there," Kara said to Vicki.

"It isn't easy," Vicki said to her and Kara smiled.

"So, I noticed," Kara said, placing her hand up to her cheek and staring down the redhead reporter, "I'm studying Media Relations and there's a lot of work going into it."

"Well there's a lot that goes into this field that they can't even teach you in school," Vicki said and she sighed. "Three years of my life studying, and no amount of theory can prepare you with Gotham City. You either swim with the sharks or get eaten by them."

' _An interestingly accurate assessment,'_ Penelope said, something that she figured out to be true in Gotham City.

"Tonight was the epitome of that…"

"I'd say," Diana said, she had experienced every moment. Harry still stood there, a stoic look on his face, not acting like the injuries he suffered bothered him. Vicki was still hanging onto him, but she didn't really notice anything that was wrong. "Guess it's an interesting story if you live long enough to tell it."

"Well you lived long enough tonight," Harry told her and Vicki smiled. "Lucky to do so."

"Yes, hopefully my luck will hold out," Vicki said in response.

* * *

At the Gotham City library, Hermione carefully balanced a stack of antique books. The Gotham City Central library had one of the biggest and most prolific collections in all of Gotham City. She closed her eyes as she nearly took half of a step back but stopped and stared, holding the books.

She wore her hair clipped back, along with a pair of glasses that rested on the top of her nose. It was more about the look than anything. She wore a white blouse that was buttoned up, along with a skirt that modestly stretched down past her knees, and high heel shoes.

' _Okay, keep it calm, you don't want to blow this,'_ Hermione thought, the chatterbox brigade was silent in her mind. That was moments that she cherished. She owed Harry everything, up to and including her life. But that didn't mean that silence was not really golden and Hermione enjoyed that whole heartedly.

Hermione made her way to the Head Librarian, someone who was well respected through the Gotham City community and the fact that he was respected for all of the right reasons, instead of all of the wrong reasons like a lot of people in Gotham City was. He was a man by the name of Anthony Roderick McDowell. He had his hair parted back in a neat cut, and he wore a pair of glasses over his face. He was middle age, dressed in a neat suit.

The brunette bookworm saw a man that she recognized as the esteemed Deacon Blackfire.

' _When you join us, you have the whole world in your hands,'_ Hermione thought, noticing that he was having a subdued conversation with the good Deacon. She didn't really listen into what they were saying and hoped that she would be noticed. The brunette waited a few minutes.

McDowell turned his head forwards and looked at Hermione with a smile on his face. "Miss Granger, sorry for making you wait."

"No, it's okay, sir," Hermione said in a respectful voice, surveying the two older men nervously. "I didn't….I didn't want to interfere."

"No need to be bothered, my child, I'm just leaving," The Deacon said in a soft voice. "May the good lord be with you."

"Yes," Hermione said, respectfully, even though given some really bad experiences with religion when she was younger, she was rather soured about it. And that was not counting how her paternal grandparents acted when she was discovered to be a witch. They were extremely religious.

"I'll see our friend out, and I'll be with you in a moment, Miss Granger," McDowell said in a soft spoken voice and he saw Deacon Blackfire out the door.

Hermione allowed herself to drop down into one of the comfortable chairs, a smile on her face. Then again, there was something about being surrounded by so much exotic literature that was just arousing. She shook her head, the brunette bookworm sighed.

' _Better not get used to this too much, remember, you're on probation for a good reason,'_ Hermione thought, and her master's lecture burned into her head.

Hermione suddenly saw an open book up the desk; it must have been something that the two gentlemen discussed. She knew that she shouldn't snoop, because snooping was something that lead down the road to trouble. That being said, she shushed that mental voice in the back of her head. It was a book that she had never seen before her entire life, so naturally, she was going to be rather interested by it.

"There have been many origins regarding Solomon Grundy but the most common one is that of a wealthy merchant known as Cyrus Gold. Much like many of those who had been afflicted by the disease that swept through Gotham City, Gold had gone greedy and he had been seduced by a life of crime. This ill-fated career choice had got Gold many enemies. Legend states that he was shot and dumped in the harsh area that is known as Slaughter Swamp. And legend further straights, that Grundy will rise again to seek revenge on those who have allowed for to be buried in such a matter."

There was more, but Hermione was brought out of the state by someone clearing her brought. She nearly jumped halfway off of her seat but she managed to become focused, even if it was a focused front.

"That's a very rare tome, very few are in existence," McDowell told her. "I was fortunate enough to acquire one of the only intact copies for my personal collection and it's quite a fascinating legend."

"But a swamp zombie…."

"There are many legends that might consider to be outlandish, Miss Granger," McDowell warned her. "But all legends start with some basis in reality. Gotham does have its own urban legend as of now after all. Whether it's real or a tale concocted by the GCPD to spook the Gotham City underworld, that's up for much conjecture."

Hermione nodded, she figured she was speaking of one of two legends but it was best to keep her mouth shut. She was on extremely thin ice with the Alpha council to begin with. They left her to her business today, likely because they were discussing something extremely important that did not concern her.

"But I'm not here to discuss old Gotham City legends, Miss Granger," McDowell said and the brunette bookworm's eyes were on him. "My research assistant has taken notice; she has gotten an amazing opportunity on the other side of the country. And whilst it would be a shame to let her go, it would also be selfish to allow this opportunity to slip by. The opening filled up and I was wondering whether or not you would consent to filling it."

Hermione smiled, without hesitation, thinking that it would be better to ask for forgiveness than permission anyway answered. "Yes, I'd do it."

"Excellent, I have a feeling that this will be a very fruitful relationship."

* * *

"So, another night," Diana muttered, as she re-taped Harry's ribs. "You should be good to go in a couple of days."

"The armor took most of it, and I'm glad," Harry concluded.

"With the watch, you still have those limitations for another….five years, isn't it?" Diana asked and Harry smiled.

"Yes, and I'm counting down the days as much as the next person."

' _Again, no one could really know what the Hallows could do to a person's CORE, they are untapped, untested magic,'_ Karen thought, and she knew that Harry, despite the situation, was extremely adaptable. He would have to be in Gotham City.

' _If we could improve the armor anymore….'_ Donna suggested but then she sighed. _'But we would have to decrease mobility as well and that's important.'_

' _We've got the best happy medium possible, I think,'_ Kara thought, she was about ready to head off to sleep for the night. She had a big day tomorrow at school, an important project was due, so she needed to be in the soundest mind possible. _'Good night everyone.'_

' _Sleep well, Kara,'_ Harry said, as Diana double checked the ribs that she taped. With a smile on her face, the Amazon Princess looked at them.

"I'll be glad when I can safely get this watch off in some ways, but in other ways, I think I'm much stronger for it," Harry said as he reclined back on the bed, with Diana wrapping her arm around him, pulling her husband in tightly. "Now that Vicki is safe, I think we have some room to breathe."

"Until the next crisis brings itself forward," Diana said, she knew that there were going to be more issues than they can shake a stick at.

"And I wish the SWAT wouldn't come out of this smelling like a rose," Harry added, closing his eyes with a grimace. There were some things that he guessed couldn't be helped, no matter how much could be tried. "Branden does get some hero points, even though we did the heavy lifting."

' _He'll get his soon enough,'_ Dinah thought and there was no questioning the determination that was in her voice when she said that. She was scary determined and that was something that they could take to the bank.

"Well I'm convinced," Harry said, there was really no more to be said other than that, as he leaned back, his head resting on Diana's clothes covered breasts.

Suddenly, as it had been forgotten in the night's festivities, Diana had remembered something. "Harry, if it's not too much trouble, I want to ask a favor of you…"

"Of course," Harry said promptly without any hesitation whatsoever. His wife smiled as she began to describe what she wanted from him.

"Well, Doctor Sandsmark, I'm meeting her tomorrow, and I want to know if you'd like to come along to meet her. I'm sure it would make her day if you met her, given your accomplishments."

"Of course Diana, of course," Harry said with a smile, as the Amazon Princess slowly stroked his head. "I've got a pretty clear schedule tomorrow but if I didn't, you know I'd find a way to make time."

"I knew you would," Diana said beaming. "It's just that the work at the museum is getting really interesting and I figured that you'd want to meet her. I think that she'd be….."

"You did make your point rather well," Harry said, as he could see that Diana was getting flustered, something that was extremely rare from the likes of her. "But I'd enjoy the meeting."

"Great, great," Diana said, without even missing a beat and she smiled. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Sore," Harry said with a smile. "But mending."

"Well that's good, so…" Diana said and Harry could sense what she was trying to say a mile a way. He liked to think that he could read all of his wives that well, especially his Alphas.

"If you want….."

"I do want," Diana replied to him and she smiled once more at him. "But only if you want to….I know that you're not up for anything too rough, but…..there will be plenty of time to do that in the future."

"Well not all of me is out of commission," Harry told her and Diana smirked, as she placed her hand on the bulge of his pants, rubbing in gently. Her smile got even wider as she touched him, her eyes widening as she could feel the pleasure pulse in her hand.

"Yes, I can see that," Diana said and she looked at him. "You know, you're pretty much half naked anyway…..so we don't have that far to go."

Diana slowly removed the tank top that she was wearing and Harry could see that she was wearing absolutely nothing underneath it.

' _I think it's safe to say that the lady was planning on getting some tonight,'_ Amanda said, and the twins snickered, as they watched Diana undress, pulling her leather pants off to reveal the bottom half of her nude body. There was much drooling from the female members in the bond link.

' _Well that much is obvious, very obvious,'_ Hippolyta said, but then again, she had her own Harry duplicate on the island, so it was not obvious.

"I think that you do have some residual swelling from tonight," Diana said, pulling down Harry's pants. "And you might need to improve the circulation just a little bit."

"Well you know best, Diana….oooh."

* * *

Diana's hot lips wrapped around his tool and she looked at him, with wide eyes, as she brought herself up and down on his rod. She brought the hardness deep into her throat, careful not to go too fast, drawing out the pleasure as she made him get harder.

With a smile, she felt Harry's hands on the back of her hair, stroking her locks, as he encouraged her. She briefly sucked him, her lips wrapped around him. Her salvia lubricated his member and she pulled back.

"I think that it's time to return the favor," Diana whispered, leaning back and pushing her finger back, exposing her hot box to Harry.

"Oh, I think that I'd have to agree," Harry commented, pushing his finger into her and slowly giving her pleasure.

A tiny bit of magic was channeled through her and he added a second finger, followed by a third finger, pumping him into her body. The woman pumped her hips up and Harry pushed her lips back and placed his tongue into her.

Diana closed her eyes and arched her back, allowing his tongue to lubricate her. After he performed his oral talents on her, Harry pushed up and smiled.

His hands roamed over his body, as he kissed the side of her neck and then peppered her entire body with kisses. The Amazon Princess felt everything get heated up, as Harry touched her body. She returned fire, exploring his muscular body, treating him gently when she reached close to the area around the ribs.

His lips lingered on her right nipple and she whined, as Harry flicked his tongue around her. He had her back against the bed and her hot slit was exposed

"Take me, oh that feels good, make love for to me Har," Diana begged him and she could feel his throbbing manhood against her entrance. It taunted her, teased her, made her hotter and caused her nipples to grow stiffer.

"At once, my lady," Harry grunted and he placed his hands on her hips.

Harry slipped his large prick into her tight center and the Amazon's center stretched to accommodate his trip into her center. The Amazon arched her back up and Harry pushed into her body, working himself into her body. The Amazon continued to pump her way up towards him.

"That's it, that's it," Diana breathed, placing her hands gently on the back of Harry and encouraging him to push into her. Her wet center hugged his manhood as it buried it deeply into her.

Harry pushed himself into her and he slowly kissed her body, licking her nipples and sucking on the side of the neck. This caused Diana's moans to escalate. She was wet and Harry could bury himself into her completely.

Her legs kicked up and Harry ran his hands over her legs, cupping her ass as she bridged up to meet his incoming thrusts into her.

Diana could not believe it, her man pushed into her and her husband was really bringing her pleasure to another degree. The Amazon continued to pump her hips up and Harry cupped her from behind, working his hands all over her.

"Still there," Harry whispered as he could see the pleasure flood through Diana's eyes.

"Always, always for you," Diana panted, her walls closed around him, with Harry pumping his length deep into her tight body.

The dance was passionate but not nearly as intense as it would have been. Harry's adrenaline kicked up and Diana continued to bring her hips up towards him.

The tip of his member was at the edge of her smoldering hot entrance and Diana whined, as Harry teased her. He brushed against her smoldering woman hood and once again, drew it in, after kissing all the way down the side of the neck once again.

Her fit body underneath him caused his balls to throb. The Amazon's hips pumped up to meet him and Harry continued to pick up the pace.

"Oooooh, yes," Diana whined at the top of her lungs, with Harry pushing his length deep into her quim. The Amazon thought that Har-Zod never ceased to amaze her, with nothing really feeling this good. But he was always full of surprises.

He filled her completely and Diana's sweaty body was explored by Harry's hands. Returning fire, the dance got about as intense it would have, considering the circumstances.

Harry slowed down, allowing Diana to savor the moment of her latest climax. His rod was in her.

"Continue, please."

Harry continued alright and he continued to pump into her, hanging onto the Amazon's hips.

The dance continued as Diana leaned up and kissed Harry's lips. He allowed her to reverse the position.

Diana placed her hands gently on Harry's chest, running her hands gently all over him.

"Let me know if it hurts," Diana whispered, kissing the side of his neck, as her hips rotated down onto his pole.

"Oh it's fine, it's fine, it's really good," Harry grunted with Diana's slick walls closing in on her and she bounced a tiny bit harder.

Diana had a good idea of what Harry's current limits were because of the messages he was sending from his mind. The dance of love continued, with Harry reaching up and cupping her ample breast one more.

Diana smiled as Harry played with her hips and the next orgasm left the path open for Harry to inject his hot seed into her.

She grinded herself down onto him, and his balls shot its hot load into her. Diana came once again as Harry injected his fluids into her.

She moaned and squeezed him, milking his orgasm with a few more tugs. The Amazon embraced Harry.

"Oh, that feels good, but I think I'm ready for more," Diana said, getting on her hands and knees and Harry smiled.

"With an invitation like that, I don't think I can say no," Harry said and he teased his wife for a few seconds, and then explored a different position as the love making continued.

Diana moaned, they didn't go on for too much longer but it was a respectable time.

* * *

The esteemed Deacon Blackfire, along with his two disciples were standing next two of his homeless friends.

"All God's children have a story," Blackfire said to the two homeless individuals. His voice was low, but at the same time, powerful. Like one would regret it if they did not speak up. "Do feel free to open up my brothers and tell me why you have been forsaken so. You were not always like this, but you have been broken from the herd. The chain has been annihilated, for you have lost your way."

"We weren't always this way, Deacon Blackfire," the more vocal of the two homeless men stated. "Back in the 1980s, we were part of the Gotham City smuggling ring."

"Yeah, but eventually, we got caught," the other homeless man said, as he broke in with a few words of his own, and they stood in the middle of a graveyard, the dark haired disciple holding a lantern in his hand to illuminate the path. "You see, we got sent up the river to Blackgate, a lot of the small time outfits were getting busted. The big guns didn't want us muscling in on their racket."

"Yeah, that son of a bitch Falcone, he had the ear of the cops, and he sent us up the river, by the time we got out, the GCPD seized our assets, and the assets of a lot of other people," the more vocal homeless man said and the Deacon nodded, motioning for him to continue. "We had no where to go. A lot of us moved on, some of us were never seen today."

"Yet, you are here now," Deacon said as he looked up with a wicked smile on his face. "The Lord's plan tried you through adversity, my brothers. You could have been swallowed up by a corrupt system like so many others have, destroying your lives. Annihilation, my brothers, that is what Gotham City brings to you."

He motioned for them to follow him forward.

"Back a long time ago, my granddaddy was indicted by the government. These weasels print out paper like it's water and then hoard it from the lambs of society. But despite the fact that my granddaddy did the same thing that they did, he was considered the villain. The world has been wrought with corruption and we see them both in the light and in the darkness."

The Deacon smiled widely as he motioned for the larger of his two disciples to remove the gate from where they were.

"Are you sure it's…"

"All of these poor little lambs have been rounded up and then directed back into society, once their herd has long since been left. The shepherd has returned to protect you. They have picked many of your brothers and sisters off, and they will not stop. It's always the big dogs, the one's with the loudest bark, that try and go after the straggling lambs. They know that if they go after the big herd, they will be backed off. It's strength, strength my brothers, strength in numbers."

They walked into an area that was a swamp and there was a sign that was ahead of them but not completely in view.

"But you see, we see, an honest man can be turned into a monster because he has been separated from the herd. Just like my granddaddy was."

"Is this…..why are we here?"

"Patience, my brother, patience, we will get to the point," Blackfire said as the lantern was held in his hand. "I have seen the future and I have seen the fear in the eyes of those who have tried to pick off the straggling little lambs. There are those who believe in their own hype, believe that they are the guardians of Gotham City. But the only thing they guard is the entitled and the rich, those who believe in their own hubris and delusions."

Deacon Blackfire looked into the distance and the entire group got a good look at Slaughter Swamp. There was no life.

"See that, it is the epitome of the disease in Gotham City, the epitome of the corruption, the disdain that all will feel," Blackfire said, waving his hand around and his mouth curled wide toothy grin. "You see this….you see this don't you?"

The two homeless men nodded up and down. The trees were rendered completely dead, from what little light they were allowed, the grass was lifeless, brown. Nothing could live in this Swamp.

"So, creatures of the night, they hide beneath a mask, but they are no different than the liars who have led to the corruption infecting this city," the Deacon said in a low voice. His voice was captivating and all who listened hung on every world, almost like they were underneath some kind of trance. "For I've seen it, and I've seen how much they fear these marauders. But they hold no power over me, do not fear them. I do not fear what goes bump in the night, because the good lord and all of his children are on my side."

The Deacon ramped up the anticipation and dropped his voice a tiny bit lower, but it was no less captivating.

"I've seen meteors rain from the sign and was spared, while others perished, it is a sign that I have been touched, I have been blessed. And the crusaders of the night have not seen what I have seen, felt what I have felt."

The four men with him had begun to dig into the ground at the spot that had been marked. The Deacon returned with fire.

"They don't have the power over me, that they have with powers. They don't have the power of fear that they have over me…give me your hand, my brother."

A hand stuck out, barely illuminated by the lantern light.

"You see, those wicked, those wild sinners, they thought that they had me, but I see it, I feel it, and soon they will experience someone worthy of their fear. The big bad monster who has been unleashed on them, created by Gotham City!"

Blood splashed on the grave site and Deacon Blackfire looked on, with a wide grin on his face.

"Soon the demons will be purged and the righteous will be spared."

The group stepped back.

"Give him some room, give him some room, let him roam free. You are free my brother, rise up, and return."

SMASH.

SMASH.

SMASH.

SMASH.

He blew out the lantern and seconds later, the party heard a low gravelly voice.

"Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday."

**To Be Continued on July 10th 2014.**


	38. Solomon Grundy...

**Chapter 38: Time Not On Your Side.**

Flass sighed, this was a long evening, but at least he was out on bail. He didn't know how many strings Loeb had to pull to even get this much. There were many corrupt judges in Gotham City and this was just one of many.

He was a lucky son of a bitch, as Loeb pointed out to him. He was suspended from the force indefinitely. Lucky also in the sense that the story involving Gordon didn't find its way into the papers.

' _Half of the force is corrupt but….guess the fuckers don't like it rubbed into their face,'_ Flass said, as a crisp autumn wind blew into his face.

They really didn't like it being rubbed in their faces, it would be a long time before Flass forgot the ass chewing that Loeb gave him. He fished his key to the front of his house out of his pocket and opened the door.

Absent mindedly, he pushed the switch on but nothing happened. At least nothing of note happened and Flass frowned.

' _Place is always falling apart, fuse must be blown or something,'_ Flass thought as he stepped inside. His house was in disarray, but he made his way towards the basement and opened the door.

He paused and knew that something was up. He always kept a revolver close to him at all times, just because he was paranoid like that. And in Gotham City, that paranoia was somewhat justified to be honest.

Pulling it out, he prepared to fire it at anything that moved, even if it was a rat.

He never got the chance to pull the trigger, as it was ripped from his hands. Flass felt his entire life flashing before him, as he was held upside down by his ankles above the basement stares.

He came face to face with the Legendary Batman. He tried to remain calm but it was an imposing experience.

"You know why I'm here," Batman growled at him and Flass nodded his head.

"Yeah…..well…..you're not going to get shit from me," Flass said, trying to regain some semblance of control over the situation but he dangled from the edge of the steps. He was one solid drop away from splatting down onto the pavement below.

"You know where the bodies are buried, you know what Branden and Loeb are up you….."

"Yeah, I might hear shit, I might not, but you won't be around for much longer anyway," Flass said as Batman continued to dangle him above the ground. He was a very bold man despite being dangled high above the ground.

"You know that Loeb and Branden would throw you underneath the bus, once you've outlived their usefulness," Batman reminded him and Flass's eyes snapped open as he was hit with a dose of reality.

He was not going to give the Bat pleasure in admitting that those sons of bitches would throw him underneath the bus if given half of the chance.

"Eventually, it's going to come out what they were up to and the entire Gordon mess is going to come out," Batman told him. "They're already sweeping you underneath the rug."

"Yeah, well if they fuck with me, I'm bringing them down with me!" Flass yelled, practically losing his mind as Batman nearly dropped him. "Those sons of bitches are in bed with someone, and they want to throw me under the bus just because I did a few favors for the Roman and now he's yesterday's…"

Flass stopped immediately, realizing what he said but it was too late, the damage was already done. Batman's wrist relaxed slightly and he about dropped him.

"Put a bullet in my head, I'll put a bullet in their head," Flass growled and Batman said nothing, leaving him hanging. "Hey, let me down, LET ME DOWN TO YOU HEAR ME!"

There was no answer and it was obvious why.

Flass, Loeb, and Branden were very likely to turn on themselves and Batman prepared to take advantage of that fact. The Dark Knight went off into the night, leaving Flass there, to contemplate what his fate was.

"So, do you think the plan will work, sir?" Alfred asked.

"Flass already was beginning to believe that he was disposable," Batman remarked as he disappeared into the night. "I just gave him that added incentive to do so."

"If you say so but…"

"I'm sure Loeb is going to make his move soon enough and Branden is going to jump on it, he won't take what happened the other night well," Batman said, but he said no more, as it was off into the night and into Gotham City.

The sound of an alarm reminded him once more that crime never took a rest break and neither did Batman.

The goons were moving around, and Batman decided to give them the proper greeting, snatching one of them into the shadows.

The others followed sooner rather than later, it was just business as usual.

* * *

 

The Gotham City Museum was an elegant building, recently having been rebuilt about two years prior. It was big news when it did, but never the less, Harry thought that they did a great job with it. The artifacts inside might be ancient but the museum looked brand new.

"I just wish more people would take time to visit it," Diana said as she allowed herself a good look around before diverting her entrance towards the steps.

"Well, I'm sure it's just having a dry spell of interest, it will heighten before too long, trust me….."

"Don't worry, I do," Diana said as the two of them walked upstairs. Doctor Sandsmark was waiting for them in her office.

Harry felt much better than he did the previous day, although his sufferings weren't minimized.

' _The museum has added some interesting, exhibits, nothing that was tied in from Krypton in any way through,'_ Faora thought and she added for those not in the know. _'I visited it before….you never could be too careful. As Peve mentioned, we have had a tendency to visit the Earth and leave our things behind.'_

' _But the museum hasn't picked them up,'_ Karen thought but then she added something as Harry and Diana made light conversation as the bond chatter continued. _'But wouldn't it start working…..'_

"So, very Roman inspired," Diana said as she passed through the exhibit. "While our designs are rather Greek in inspiration, the Greeks did inspire the Romans, so we're kindred spirits."

"I'm well aware," Harry said.

' _So while I don't think much of the technology would work right, half busted Kryptonian technology is still dangerous to be left lying about,'_ Faora reminded them.

Diana and Harry stopped and they saw someone barreling down the hall at hyper speed. Or what seemed like hyper speed, they were nearly run into the approaching figure. It took a few seconds for them to register she was coming.

"Out of my way!"

The blonde girl who rushed by them wore her shorter hair in a ponytail. A longer t-shirt, along with jean shorts, and sneakers topped off the outfit. Braced underneath her arm, she was carrying a skateboard and seemed to be rushing off as fast as she could go. Looked to be about eight to ten years old or somewhere around that area by Harry's best guest.

' _Well, she's in a hurry to get somewhere,'_ Emily piped up through the bond.

' _Given Harry's past track record with Lois, I'm surprised that she didn't run head long into him,'_ Amanda said and Kara, Donna, and Astoria all sounded very amused as they laughed through the bond.

' _No kidding, yes no kidding,'_ Donna thought, shaking his head. _'So, Diana was that….'_

' _That was Doctor Sandsmark's daughter, Cassandra,'_ Diana confirmed for her sister and the rest of the group.

' _Well, she's spirited, I'll give her that,'_ Donna said with a smile.

' _Just remember how you were at that age,'_ Diana reminded her sister.

' _Yes, I know, don't remind me, I'm getting karmic payback from it all of the time, you know,'_ Donna thought with a long sigh, as she crossed her arms together.

' _Glad to see you understand that,'_ Hippolyta chimed in with her two cents and Harry and Diana smiled.

They only had one more hallway to navigate and Doctor Sandsmark's was there. Harry stopped and he motioned for Diana to stop as well. The Amazon Princess half raised her eyebrows, her mouth opened and there was a "what?" that escaped her mouth.

' _Someone's having a spirited discussion,'_ Harry thought, as he heard voices from inside Doctor Sandsmark's office.

"…..I swear, you're not making this any better with what you've done…"

"You need to stop being so uptight…I'm doing my job, I can't help it if the artifacts that you bring in…"

"By touching them, you're going to….deplete the value of them…"

"Ladies, I'm sure that cooler heads can prevail."

' _So what's with the bicker session?'_ Zatanna asked, as she could hear the argument and sense a silent debate going on between Harry and Diana about whether or not they should get involved with this. If cooler heads did not prevail, they might have to jump in.

' _Doctor Sandsmark….is having another discussing with Margaret Sarrow, the curator of the museum,'_ Diana thought and Amanda and Emily snickered, along with Donna, who decided to enlighten her sister in on the fact of why they were snickering.

' _Well, if that doesn't sound like a super villain name, I don't know what is,'_ Emily said, in between her giggles.

' _Yeah, in a place like Gotham City, you can never be too careful with something like that,'_ Amanda thought. _'It's just some ugly self fulfilling prophecy, just waiting to unfold you know….'_

' _I'm sure it's not that bad,'_ Diana protested and the Potter twins folded their arms against each other.

Harry stepped forward to get a closer look at the situation, as Helena Sandsmark's office door was partially open to begin with during the bickering session. He saw his first look at Margaret Sarrow with her shoulder length black hair, along with green eyes, and she wore a nice female business suit that hinted that she had a fit body, but did not bring it out there.

There was a stylish dressed man who was fairly rotund standing by them as well, it was obvious that he was being the peacemaker between the two ladies. He was dressed in a nice white suit that stretched over his frame, and he had brown hair with a slight hint of grey, along with a goatee. He carried a briefcase which hung by his arm.

' _Professor William McElroy, famed Egyptologist,'_ Harry said to anyone who was listening in.

' _I remember him, we visited an exhibit by him a few years ago,'_ Amanda said excitedly.

' _We know, we don't have the attention span of a lobotomized flea,'_ Emily said, rolling her eyes.

' _I wasn't explaining it to you, I was explaining it to anyone new who might know or people who might have forgotten,'_ Amanda replied huffily.

' _Reminds you kind of a less slimy Horace Slughorn, doesn't he?'_ Lily asked.

' _Yes,'_ the sisters Black chimed in, all in unison.

' _Not sure if that's really a ringing endearment, or not,'_ Narcissa said and the other females could talk amongst themselves about that fact.

Helena noticed Harry and Diana approach and she sighed. "We'll talk about this later, but right now I have an appointment that I'd like to keep, so Margaret, Professor McElroy…."

"No need, I'll see myself out," McElroy said and he paused. "Doctor Potter, I presume?"

"Professor McElroy, it's a pleasure to meet you, I've followed your work," Harry said and the rotund ex-Yale Professor shook his hand.

"Likewise…..well I better run."

' _Guy that size, doubt he's going to run that far without being winded,'_ Amanda said.

' _AMANDA!'_ Lily snapped and her daughter fell back in line, as Harry turned his attention back to the scene at hand. For few seconds, it looked like the woman was not going to budge for an instant. Then she showed herself away for a brief second.

"Yes, may I help you?"

She got lost in his eyes and shook her head, trying to return herself back to some level of coherency, which was difficult to do.

"Sorry, your eyes….they're so shiny."

' _Never heard that one before,'_ Lily said and Rose did not know what to make either of the situation.

' _Does remind you of a shorter Selina, doesn't she?'_ Faora asked and there were some nods of agreement.

"I'm Margaret Sorrow, the curator of the museum," she replied to him with a smile on her face. "And surely….you're Harry Potter….and….hello Diana."

Harry almost sensed some kind of undercurrent of uneasiness coming out of her mouth but he said nothing never the less.

"Hello, Margaret," Diana said, keeping her voice calm and cordial as she looked at the young female. The tension between the two of them could be cut with a knife.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, but I must get going."

"The pleasure is mine."

' _She's a bit scatterbrained as I told you,'_ Diana thought, and Donna chimed in.

' _That's putting it quite nicely,'_ Donna thought but never the less, Helena Sandsmark stood them.

"Diana, sit down, would you like a cup of coffee?" Helena asked, feeling like she needed one with the headache that was coming on.

"Yes, that would be nice, and this is Harry Potter…."

"Doctor Potter, it's a pleasure to meet you," Helena said, and she looked him over. The pictures in the paper honestly did not do him justice, and she looked him over. Then again, her luck with men was not the best, with Cassie's father being a deadbeat, who had up and left, never to be seen again.

"The pleasure is all mine, Doctor Sandsmark," Harry told her with a smile on his face, shaking hands with her. "And it's Harry."

' _If I had a Galleon for every time he said that, I'd be sufficiently richer,'_ Daphne commented in her usual crisp voice through the bond length.

"And then it's Helena," she replied, shaking his hand and Harry planted a light kiss on the top of it.

' _And if I had one every time a woman said that, I'd be even richer,'_ Daphne thought, and there was much laughing, mostly from Ginny, Astoria, the twins, and Donna.

"So, Helena, I trust you've been keeping yourself busy, lately?" Harry asked her and the woman smiled.

"Fairly, yes, there are a lot of projects going on," she admitted and Harry's grin got even wider. "But you know all about that, don't you?"

"All too well, all too well," Harry agreed with her, as they had some notes to compare he was sure. "Better help myself to a cup of coffee."

"Well, by all means," Helena said, as she relaxed, now that she was a less stressful situation. "One of your grants helped me out…..it was hard to get one for a while."

"A lot of people don't understand where to put their money," Harry said, slowly sipping on the cup of coffee. "But I find that it works best for me and my reputation if I put it towards someone who gets….results."

Helena was glad that he put such faith in her, and smiled, as she drank the coffee of her own.

"Well, I thought for a while that I wasn't going to accomplish much," Helena replied and there was a brief flicker of a smile on her face as she looked at Harry and Diana. "But, it was right underneath my nose the entire time."

Diana smiled, she had heard this story before, but Harry hadn't. And Doctor Sandsmark was into her work and more than likely into telling someone who could appreciate the nature of her work.

"The artifacts…..I thought that they would be too fragile to bring back, but despite the fact that they don't have any unique properties, they still held, they'll be on exhibit next Spring, hopefully," Sandsmark said to him.

' _No apparent unique properties, anyway,'_ Harry thought with a smile.

"Would you might if I took a look at them?"

Helena smiled and looked rather pleased with the offer. "It would be an honor."

She had been looking forward to meeting him for a long time and any attempt to prolong the conversation would be a good one.

* * *

 

"Whoa, what a day," Barbara said, letting out a breath from her body, as she joined the group for lunch.

"That bad, huh?" Amanda asked, and Barbara nodded eagerly.

There was quite a roll call as the group at the Gotham City Private Academy joined each other for lunch, to catch up. Amanda, Emily, Bunny, Donna, Gabrielle, and Bette sat around with each other.

"Well, I know the course load that she's taking, and I'd have to concur it's that bad," Bette said with a sympathetic smile towards her friend. Then again, Barbara was a workaholic even during the best of times, so…..well that's what she was doing. "But…..I guess she'll just have to….."

"And you even take classes at the GCU," Amanda said and she smiled. "Harry is the only person with a more insane schedule than Barbara has."

"And that isn't for any lack of trying," Barbara said with a smile on her face. She shook her head in half amusement. "Don't know how he does it sometimes."

"Well, Harry has plenty of experience….multi-tasking," Gabrielle said, and the twins snickered, getting the innuendo right away.

"Yes, subtle," Barbara said, with a smile on her face, as she ate the sandwhich and Bette and Bunny caught onto the inside joke.

"So…..he was seen last night, I just know it," Lois said as she sat down next to the group, with Nym following, looking barely amused. "And if I didn't go to sleep…..I might have seen him again."

"Who is she talking about?" Bunny asked and Gabrielle enlightened her on this matter.

"Nightwing, the current ninja protector of Gotham City," Gabrielle said.

"Well, it could have been Batman….."

"Batman, yeah, he was around too, he's Nightwing's sidekick, isn't he?" Amanda asked and Lois shook her head.

"No, he's not…..well I guess it's more of a co-partnership really, they work together, but they don't work together, if it makes any sense," Lois said, nearly tripping over her words as she got fairly excited.

"She does do that when she gets worked up," Amanda whispered to Bunny.

"I understand," Bunny said, knowing how she tripped over her words as well when she got excited. Which was far more often than she would have liked to admit. Never the less, she steered the conversation elsewhere. "So anyway….are we still on for this weekend….."

"Oh yeah, we're still on, it's going to be amazing….."

"Yeah, we're going to have a lot of fun, it's going to be great…."

Barbara liked the twins but when they did the entire, finishing each other's sentences thing, it was time to tune them out. It was almost like they had a mental link with each other or something. Which she read somewhere that twins did but it didn't make it any less creepy when they did what they did, shivers went down her spine at the thought of it.

Bette smiled, nudging Barbara to get her attention. The blonde leaned in towards her.

"I don't know how they keep it up either, don't feel bad," Bette whispered to Barbara and the two finished their lunches.

"Lots of practice more than likely," Barbara said.

"Yeah," Bette agreed, something like that, they had down to a science.

When finished, Barbara said her good byes and made her way off. She had to switch out some books for her afternoon classes anyway. And since her locker was far from the first class period that she had during the afternoon, she figured that it would be for the best if she had some kind of head start.

The redhead female did the combination on her locker and opened it. There was something inside her locker that made her jump about ten feet back. Barely, she held onto her bearings, and leaned in for a closer look.

Thankfully, no one was around, it was a package, and the redhead, making sure no one was looking, discreetly stowed it in her bag. She wondered who could have got inside her locker, without knowing the combination.

That being said, she made her way to the car, her curiosity getting the better of her. While she was sure that she could open the package safely and discreetly after school, she wanted it now, and she was going to open it right now.

With trembling hands, she opened up the package, and looked at it with a smile. It was a state of the art laptop, custom made from the ground up.

Custom made for her from the ground up as she figured out. She looked at it, with the note attached to it. She had been so enthralled with the laptop that she nearly missed the note attached. Correctly that error, Barbara took the note in her hand.

**Thought you might find this useful, the device you have already functions as a modem for it.**

**N.**

Barbara smiled, looking as giddy as a school girl.

Nym spied the scene from the shadows, a smile crossing her face.

' _Well that was an interesting reaction,'_ Nym thought, barely able to keep a straight face, as she snickered.

' _So did she get it?'_ Harry asked her.

' _Well, thrilled wouldn't even begin to describe how she's acting,'_ Nym thought to Harry and Harry had no other actions but smiling.

' _So, it's just as I expected, then.'_

* * *

 

"I won't mince words, ladies and gentlemen, the status of crime in Gotham City has changed, and now, your jobs are going to be tougher than ever before, but…..I wouldn't have chosen you, if I didn't think that any of you were up to it."

Chief O'Hara was conducting a briefing to the new Major Crimes Unit in Gotham City. The MCU was created with the recent rush of gang violence in mind, with these new mobsters such as Black Mask and the Penguin being the obvious reason as to why it was created.

James Gordon sat front in center, with John Jones nearby. Harvey Bullock sat amongst the crowd, with Renee Montoya and Sarah Essen there as well. There were many other faces in the crowd, like an attractive dark skinned female named Josephine MacDonald, who sat in the back. A dark haired grizzled name named Jim Corrigan also sat, but he was keeping away from the rest of the group for the most part, listening to O'Hara's every word intently. There were also many seat warmers there, but they all served the purpose of the necessary manpower.

"We're going to tackle some of the most dangerous threats you've ever faced during your times, so it's not for the weak at heart, either man up or you can turn in your badge," O'Hara said and he looked over them through a grizzled stare. "It's best if we…"

Before O'Hara could proceed any further in his speech, Howard Branden let himself in and before O'Hara could speak to him, to question why he was here, Loeb followed him into the office.

"A stirring speech, Chief O'Hara, I'm sure that you picked the cream of the crop, and I'm certain the Major Crimes Unit will be a rousing success," Branden said as there was a note of sarcasm in his voice, but not enough where he can be called out upon it. "Commissioner Loeb and I have been having a discussing with each other and I'll let the good Commissioner tell you what threats we've accessed in this department."

Gordon's eyes narrowed. It went without saying that this was going to be highly political.

"Thank you, gentlemen, ladies, we've noticed a few concerns with recent events in Gotham City," Loeb told the entire assembled group. "They appear to have a certain common denominator in who was involved, threats who could put the Gotham City population in grave danger."

Some of the assembled members of the force had a good idea where this one was going. They had a pretty good idea that they might be in for something dangerous now.

"There's these two vigilantes," Loeb said, slapping his hand down on the pedestal in front of them for emphasis. "They have their supporters, although I hope that none are sitting in this room. This Bat-Man and this Nightwing have been attacking the accused, causing several injuries. Whether they deserve it or not, that point is irrelevant. Your top priority is to bring these two vigilantes in to ensure the safety of the Gotham City populace."

The group all nodded, even if it was just the path of least resistance.

"Remember, they make you all look bad by comparison and they make the entire force look bad. It might be just criminals right now that they're attacking, but where do they draw the line? We need to draw the line for them, or we will all fall with them."

There was more nodding throughout the room.

"The prime priority of the Major Crimes Unit is taking down the criminal element and that includes this Bat-Man and Nightwing. This so called Dynamic Duo will not terrorize the citizens of Gotham City any longer."

Gordon could not help but think that Loeb was practicing a speech that he was going to give for the public consumption eventually and he was not the only one who said that. Never mind the fact, the rest of the group listened attentively.

"Our Major Crimes Unit will ensure that Gotham City is a safe place, a place where children will be allowed to roam without fear, and a place where their parents can sleep sound."

That got nods, and looks of disbelief as well.

* * *

"So, Spinner's End, it's been a long time since I've been here," Lily said and she smiled. It was a nice trip down memory lane. "Some good memories, some bad memories, but I have to admit, it has some sentimental value here. Then again the Evans family took up residence here for years and years."

"I know and…..all of the other families of the Privileged Nine, were around the same general area," Harrison commented with a smile.

"Many families have, actually, although many have either moved on, lost touch, it was a different time and culture that my parents were part of," Lily said, as she leaned against the same playground that she once played on. "I can't believe that it remained restored. It might has well have been a moment just trapped in time."

"So the Evans….."

"They were very liberal about what sex meant to them," Lily informed Harrison, grabbing her son's hand with a smile on her face. "There was a lot of swapping…..a lot of things that many people would…..question. And I'm sure that many things that even you would question."

The only person that Har-Zod in any form would trust his girls with, was another version of himself and even then it was a tentative arrangement at best. Harrison figured that he had gotten a different set of experiences than Prime and that really worked to him living a fulfilling life. That being said, he was fully aware that as long as he kept to the plan, everything will be okay.

Which was fine, because Prime and Harrison, two sides of Har-Zod had the same ambitions, just different ways in getting there and based in different locations in the same world. Perhaps a duplicate should not be allowed to live this long apart from the prime copy, but it would be folly for the duplicate to try and usurp the prime for various reasons.

"We've been part of that culture for at least four hundred years, maybe a lot longer, a lot of our lineage has been lost through time, and the further we get back through history, the more vague things become," Lily added, and she smiled. "Well this place brings back some memories."

"Is this the field….."

"Yes, that I flew for the first time, although I don't think I quite appreciated the significance until now," Lily said with a wide grin over her face. "So, shall we…..?"

"After, you," Harry replied and Lily closed her eyes, feeling the rush of air through the air and she held her arms out, before she just let go.

Lily flew halfway across the field, kicking up. She saw that Harrison was halfway on her tail and quite the tail it was, if she had to say so herself. Then again, she was a little bit biased to be honest with herself.

"So, I don't think that there is many things that are better," Harrison said and Lily laughed at that. "Well, there's a few but….."

"I get you," Lily said with a smile, and she floated in mid air. "So, we're in an interesting position aren't we?"

Har-Zod reached forward and pulled his mother in tight to him, her breasts pressing against his chest and his hands exploring her perfect body.

"I think that I have a few ideas of how to make this amazing experience even better," Harrison whispered, brushing his mother's hair and tipping her back, looking at her cleavage. It beckoned to him, teasing him.

"Oh, well I'm sure that I can think of….a few interesting ideas as well," Lily said and the two met in a heated embrace and an even more searing kiss.

Har's hands roamed freely all over her smoldering hot thighs, and he roamed even further through her body.

* * *

Lily's blouse was torn open and Har-Zod's hands reached up and cupped her bra covered breasts. Then her bra came off and revealed her amazing breasts, firm and large as they ever were.

The redhead closed her eyes, as he squeezed her breasts and she threw her head back, with a loud whine as Harrison brushed his fingers against her hot thigh. The redhead's eyes flickered open and shut as she panted, his fingers in her.

He tilted her back and his tongue brushed against her smoldering hot lips, sticking deep into her body.

"Harry," Lily whispered in a heated voice, feeling herself heat up even more as his tongue pushed deep into her inner lips.

Harrison smiled as he pushed his tongue into his mother's pussy and caused it to vibrate. The two rocked back and forth, as they shifted positions.

His pants came off with one quick spell and his erect cock was fished out of his pants. Feeling the pulse of magic energy, Lily wrapped her lips around Harry's throbbing cock, her soft lips tightening around him.

"Damn," Harrison whispered briefly but he returned to eating his mother's hot pussy, and Lily returned fire, sucking his cock with reckless abandon. Her slurping got amazed, as her nose touched his pelvic bone.

"That's right, oh that's right, that feels really good," Lily managed, coming up for air for a brief second and she speared her mouth down his throbbing manhood in air.

They could cum at the same time in mid air and they swayed back and forth in mid air. But they wanted more than this sexually charged sixty nine position, no matter how hot and horny that this made both of them.

Lily pulled away from Harrison smiled, her arms outstretched, and she threw herself against Harry, wrapping her legs around him and then she pushed her hot tight box around his throbbing pole.

"Oh….yes, Mum," Harrison whispered, as the two swayed back and forth in mid air. He cupped her breasts with the two of them working against each other and he placed his hands on her ass, cupping it.

"That feels good, doesn't it baby?" Lily whispered, clamping her tight center down on him.

"Yes, like….like a dream," Harrison said, squeezing his mother's breasts and she closed her eyes, as the two of them worked back and forth at each other at rapid fire fury, their loins connecting with each other.

They already worked each other over in midair and the high altitude friction was causing their loins to meet together. Lily pressed her hot lips on top of Har's and forced her tongue into his mouth, grabbing her ass. His balls slapped against her thighs as he speared deeper into her in mid air.

"OOOOH, YES!" Lily moaned at the top of her lungs and Harry beat a path into her. Her tight walls got together around him.

Harrison smiled, his mother was very vocal, that was pretty much in his ear. Not that he minded, sheathed balls deep into her hot wet pussy.

"Harder, Harry….oooh….harder!" Lily screamed as he buried himself into her and her hot legs wrapped around him in mid air, the two rocking back and forth against her. She pulled out so the tip of his throbbing cock was almost out of her, and then she pushed him into her.

Harrison grunted, and he gave his mother a passionate kiss as they met each other thrust for thrust in midair.

"OH YES!" Lily screamed.

"Pretty vocal, aren't you?" Harrison asked, as he pounded his mother's perfect pussy with another series of rapid fire thrusts. Lily's nails dug into her son's shoulder blade and she whined, as Harrison continued to work over her.

Harrison pulled out and for a second, Lily whined, feeling the loss. She was about ready to register a more vocal complaint but then he thrust into her body hard from behind.

"YES!" Lily shrieked at the top of her lungs and Harrison grabbed her around her breasts, working into her from behind.

To anyone watching, they wouldn't get too much a show, just a very frantic blur moving back and forth with each other. Although if someone could see things at super speed, they would see something really amazing.

Lily's moans got more frantic, her orgasms got more rapid fire, and it was just feeling even better together. Harrison thrust deeper into her, and the deeper he went, the better she felt. Her body felt like every bit of it was being stimulated and that was likely because his hands roamed her, touching her sensitive bits as much as she could.

"OOOOH!" Lily screamed once more, feeling the pleasure course through her body.

"Yes, I got that the first time, oh getting so close," Harrison grunted, holding Lily firmly in mid air and her tight walls clamped even tighter around him.

Sensing that her son's seed was near, they picked up the tempo. Sweet rolled down Lily's body, but that just added to the allure. Her lips bit the side of Harrison's neck and he pushed his fingers up her anal cavity as he fucked her.

Their hands went all over each other's body and Harrison bent Lily, to the point where they almost flew hard into the ground fucking. He pulled up and thrust into her hard in mid air.

"Closer, closer, please tell me you're getting closer," Lily panted, whining practically in a rapid fire heat. Her body was on auto pilot and she craved Harry's release so badly that she could taste it. Her hand ensnared his bicep and he smiled at her.

"Oh, I'm pretty….fucking close," Harrison said, punctuating these two words. He could feel her velvety walls grow tighter around him and there was little time to really think. The rush of cum was about to be shot into her was making her hotter and hornier.

She was so wet that it wouldn't be too hard to slide effortlessly out of her and Har-Zod's balls throbbed as they were about ready to expel their hot sticky load inside her.

"Don't hold back, oh don't hold back, that's it," Lily panted, tightening her grip on him, in more ways than one.

A white hot fury went over both of them, as Harrison injected his seed into Lily. Lily came harder from her son cumming into her hard.

"Oh yeah, oh, that feels so good."

Harrison would have to agree as he relieved himself, shooting his hot seed directly into his mother's womb. Lily arched her back, panting, as she collapsed on his chest, but he was still inside her and there was a potential for him to get harder.

Getting her second wind, Lily grinned and Harrison was brought back to life.

* * *

After their sweaty fun ended, Lily wordlessly summoned their clothes. It was second nature to her to do something next.

"And now for a destination that is…..less appealing," Lily said, wrinkling her nose. "It's just beyond the hill…"

"So this is where Snape lived?" Harrison asked and he could see the rather prominent eye sore on the hill. That was not the only thing, he saw that there was enchantments around it.

Lily raised her eyebrows at the cottage, it looked a bit run down, even though the protections were held. "Oh, how quaint….still protected….."

"Well Snape is still alive….if one can call the state that he is in alive….."

Harrison watched his mother tear down the protections like they were tissue paper. They were gold, she was better, that was really the only thing that one could say about something like that. Lily smirked as she saw them fall down on three huge knocks.

"So, we're in, and it's safe," Lily said as she stood at the edge of the protections or what were the protections rather.

"So let's go?"

Lily did not need to take more than a dozen steps to find some evidence that Snape swiped some of her research from Godric's Hallow. She was rather calm but Harrison knew better than to say anything.

"So this is the proof that Snape's reputation is based on my work, for the most part," Lily said, as the green embers of her eyes flared quite dangerously. It was a journal and her hand writing was there clear as day.

"Why didn't Snape destroy that?"

"He's a sick man, he wanted a trophy to remind himself of me," Lily said, feeling her stomach turn in disgust. "But, I'll give him something to remember, something that he'll never forget for the rest of his miserable days."

Lily's aura started to pulse and Harrison was even slightly intimidated by it, which was saying a lot. He was intimidated by very little but he would have to admit that his mother had a scary aura about her.

* * *

 

Oracle had sent the report about the missing homeless in Gotham City. At first, Batman had put it on the backburner a little bit, given that the homeless has disappeared in Gotham City every single day. Therefore it wasn't really a news flash to him.

The Dark Knight dropped down and he looked around. There was something unsettling with what he saw but it was hard to put his finger on exactly what.

"There could be some smoke to this fire?"

"Are you sure you aren't being paranoid, sir?" Alfred questioned him and there was no answer from Batman. "With all due respect, the homeless vanish….."

"And no one notices and cares hardly, I know," Batman said, peering over the edge of the building. "And the gang violence against them has increased."

Easy targets by the superstitious and cowardly lot and people getting very territorial because of the gang wars going on, it was hard not to see why this was happening. Despite the fact that the GCPD did not really treat this matter seriously, Batman did and he was ready to stalk, like the avenger of the night that he was.

"So anything, yet….."

"Not yet, and it's troubling that nothing has shown up given that how prolific the reports have gotten," Batman said.

"Maybe they have proven their point, sir?" Alfred suggested and Batman nodded.

"Maybe, but doubtful," Batman said, dropping down to the ground and he could see some thugs moving around.

Batman stopped and he could see a group of gang members going against a homeless man, several of them. He could not believe what he was seeing and even the mysterious Batman saw something every now and again that caused him to pause and lean in more closely. There was a series of punches being traded and the homeless men gave as well as he received, backing off the gang member.

"You fucks, you want to be difficult, get the fuck away from our territory!" the thug yelled as he pulled a gun on the homeless men and pointed it at them. Now they looked a bit more fearful in the face.

"Don't know what got into them….SHIT….it's him!"

Batman dragged one of them into the shadows and threw a smoke pellet onto the ground. The choking smoke surrounded the alleyway.

The Dark Knight bounced off of the wall and he took one of the goons down with a sickening fury. Bouncing off once again, he sunk his fist into the chest of his enemy and bounced off, using his grapnel gun to take his enemy's legs out from underneath him.

The homeless men looked around, watching, as the Dark Knight was finishing the goons one at a time.

The gang dropped to the ground and he made sure that they were tied.

CRACK!

A punch knocked Batman in the ribs. Batman turned around and it took him a few seconds to register the homeless men that he protected from the gang members were now attacking him. He tried to fight them off, although they had two distinct advantages.

This was not something that Batman expected, with the gaggle of homeless men jumping on him just as he got here. And the fact that there was the sheer amount of numbers that jumped down on him.

Batman kicked, fought, and squirmed, trying to go against his adversaries but the numbers were overwhelming him. He needed to get the hire ground because there was a swarm of fists and feet bouncing onto him. He threw a canister of tear gas into the air, backing them off.

Then the gang members were in on the battle and Batman was fighting against them, it must have been tremendous odds, at least twenty or thirty on one. He didn't really have the ability to fight him off.

CRACK!

A sledgehammer nailed Batman in the side of his head, dropping him to his knees.

He began to fade from life but he saw the smiling face of Deacon Blackfire, as the good Deacon stood above him.

"Give him some room my friends, give him some room."

The Dark Knight faded, this face the last thing he saw before he blacked out.

**To Be Continued.**


	39. Born on a Monday

Harry and Diana had to agree with each other, Helena Sandsmark recommended an amazing place for them to go. Club Olympus was an amazing place to eat.

"Hope you like it," Helena said to them and she could see Harry and Diana watch her with smiles on her face. The Archeologist looked at them. "I know that…"

"Well it has a great atmosphere," Diana said and Harry nodded, he would have to concur.

"Yes, it does, but all we have to do is wait to be waited on?" Harry asked and Helena gave him a bright smile in response. They were a bit earlier than normal but their reservation would get them in at the designated time.

It was the type of places, you need to know someone here to show up but Helena got them in and Harry appreciated it. He looked forward to what else she had to say to him.

Their conversation just barely scratched the surface from earlier and she had to really discuss certain matters.

"So, I wish to ask a question about Professor MacElroy," Harry said and Helena smiled, she could sense where this one was going. That being said, she allowed Harry to ask it regardless. "In one of my classes, his name came up….."

"Well his is a curiosity, but I haven't had any problems with him yet," Helena said as she smiled at him. She thought of the rumors that circulated from him, when he came from Yale. There was a bit of a Scandal there and he spent a few years in a hospital because of what happened.

"Doctor Ravencroft discussed him, so I was wondering if…"

"Well, so far he's kept his nose clean for the most part, let's hope he stays that way," Helena said, she was keeping a close eye on him for those reasons. That being said, he really gave her no reason to panic yet. "I didn't ask, he didn't tell…."

"So, it's one of those things where he honestly doesn't want to talk about it," Diana replied and Helena smiled in response.

"Precisely," Helena said and there was really no more to be said other than that. If someone was not willing to say anything, than she was not going to force the issue at all.

Harry took his attention off of that matter, because there was a man approaching them. He stopped and saw Helena, before speaking in recognition. "Helena!"

Harry and Diana got their first good look at this man, he looked middle aged, but at the same time he kept himself in fairly good shape. The snug blue suit that he wore was stylish but at the same time, it make him come across with the air of someone who wanted to intimidate anyone. He had a prominent beard as well, one that would stand out even at a distance.

"Maxie, it's been a long time, hasn't it?" Helena asked and the man looked at him. "This is Maximillian Zeus."

"Right, Mr. Zeus," Harry said as he looked at the man. "I've heard a lot about you, how you've done fairly well for yourself."

"Yes, I've rebounded back quite nicely from my divorce," Zeus said, it was obvious that his ego had gotten a huge pump up but why wouldn't it have been? "I've opened up this chain of restaurants, and night clubs, and business has been booming."

"Well it's always good to see someone that is proud of his success," Harry said, there was a certain vibe.

' _Well, he's a bit too confident if you ask me,'_ Faora thought.

' _You know you of all people saying that….'_ Karen thought and Jaime chimed in.

' _Well, I'm getting the same vibe as well,'_ Jaime thought but Harry offered the man a polite handshake which he took, he had a strong grip.

"Maximillian was my history professor at GCU, but he's moved on from other things," Helena said. "This is Harry Potter, and Diana Prince."

"Doctor Harry Potter, I presume," Zeus said, there was a jovial tone to his voice, but it was almost forced as he looked at Harry, almost as if trying to figure out what he was all about. The two men locked all eyes.

"The very same," Harry replied and Zeus shook hands with Diana, looking her over.

"Let me show you to your table, and you can get on with your meal," Zeus said in a calm and crisp voice, leading the trio over to the table.

When Helena, Diana, and Harry were sitting down, they ordered their food.

"So where does your next expedition, lead you?" Harry asked, as the group waited patiently for the food that they were told would be there in about fifteen minutes.

Helena smiled, looking extremely thought about the matter. "Well, there are a few options but Egypt seems to be where I want to go. I have a feeling that there's a lot of potential there."

"Well, with you leading the trip, I don't doubt that," Harry said as he leaned back and he could have sworn that he saw something behind him but there was nothing.

"Yes, I can't wait to see what treasures you were unearth," Diana said, she was interested in seeing if Doctor Sandsmark would find any hint about any splinter Amazons being in the area. The rumor that Aresia might have taken refuge there was fresh in Diana's mind and she was looking forward to seeing if any future news broke.

The group made light conversation about their plans and Harry paused for a second, he had a feeling that there was something there.

For the briefest second, he could have sworn that he spotted someone looking out of the window. In fact, Maxie Zeus was staring at them from the Manager's office.

For a brief second that was, and he returned to where he was. They continued the discussion, at least until dinner was served a few moments later.

* * *

Without any pause, Harrison blasted the door of the Hospital Wing open. The guard was taken care of with a slight misdirection spell, as was the healer. It was easy to get inside.

"You know this is a long time coming," Lily whispered as she stood over Snape, malice flashing through her green eyes. Anyone who knew her and what she was capable of would be terrified beyond all belief.

This was Lily Evans-Potter, the smartest witch in her generation, and someone who had a good reason and a bone to pick of Snape. And she would insure that he paid for what he did, with added interest.

What he tried to do to Rose was also very fresh in Lily's mind, so that gave her an added incentive.

"So….the lights are on, but no one's home," Harison told Lily and Lily smiled.

"He's lucky that he survived this long, but it's obvious that he got off light," Lily said and she stared at the sedated Snape. She figured that he was just aware enough to know that she and Harry were here and he hoped that he was having another night terror. "I know you can hear me."

Snape was staring off into space and Lily advanced upon him, malice flickering through her eyes for the next moment.

"But, I don't care if you can hear me or not, because I want you to listen to me, and listen to me good," Lily whispered as she leaned down and Harrison would once again hate to be anyone who would incur her wrath.

' _What is she going to do now?'_ Ginny asked, feeling a bit nervous.

' _Something horrible, awful, something that's going to make his short life full of misery and woe,'_ Rose said as she did not want to watch but at the same time, she could not turn away. It was one of those train wreck moments where it was difficult to look away no matter what.

' _Oh that's excellent,'_ Astoria said as she was about ready to rub her hands together in sheer glee and Daphne smiled at the thought of her sister's antics, as cruel as they might seem to another person.

' _You would think that, wouldn't you?'_ Daphne thought to her.

' _Yes, I would,'_ Astoria agreed, as she folded her arms together and waited to see what was going to happen.

"I was going to smother you with a pillow, it would be quick, it would be painless, and more importantly, you would be dead," Lily whispered to Snape and whether or not there was any signs of recognition flashing through his eyes, that was up for some serious, serious debate. Regardless he was mentally down on the bed, unable to move. "Hence, why I'm not going to do it, it's too easy."

It became more obvious now than ever before that Snape was on borrowed time.

"And the only reason that you're not getting off worse than you are is because I can't prove that you've done certain other crimes to me, and you know what I'm referring to," Lily whispered, her voice dripping with acid and venom. "And you're very lucky that I'm not nailing you to the cross for that one. But, you see, I'm not about to let you off that easily as well. No far from it, you're going to suffer. And once your heart gives out from the torment, you're getting dragged straight to a place where you belong. You'll be next to your old masters, where all three of you can spend all eternity tormenting each other."

Lily reached into the bag and pulled out a syringe, which was filled up with a nasty purple, almost black liquid. It gave itself a foul aura that might in fact turn the stomach of anyone who had seen it.

"So, that's….."

"Yes, it is," Lily whispered as she leaned down further so she could whisper in Snape's ear on last time. She would send him on a trip to the land of the surreal and terror. "No foolish wand waving, no silly incantations needed for this one Snape. Just chemicals, and I've modified it just with you in mind. You want to cement your reputation based on mine? Well, I can make sure that the only memories you have of me are those that are tearing you apart."

Lily was angered beyond all belief that he stole her hard work. The only solace was that eventually his reputation was damaged beyond all belief but that was only a small amount of solace.

She picked up the syringe and jabbed it into the side of Snape's neck, which caused his pupils to dilate, along with the drool to come out of the side of his mouth.

Then, it was hell.

The toxin that Scarecrow used in Gotham City some time ago, it had been modified. It would slowly strip away any of Snape's good memories, which he didn't deserve, and show him his absolute worst torments.

Snape screamed out loud and Harrison smiled. There was no one but the three people in this room, along with all of the people hanging around in the bond that would hear his screams.

The few cherished memories that Snape had with Lily during their brief time as friends decayed, Lily peered into his psyche and smiled as they faded away.

"The potion causes your worst nightmares to come to light, I guess the best way to describe it would be essence of a Dementor," Lily whispered and Harrison stood back.

Snape's screams got more frantic and he would have clawed his eyes out if he had any hands to do so. That might have prolonged his suffering. The show that Harry and Lily gave him in the graveyard on that night was amplified.

The sands of time expired and Harrison almost had this sixth sense through Prime that both sides of Death anticipated that they would get to drag Snape to his eternal torment. His death would be sweet, that much was for sure.

"No, no, no, Potter, no, no, no, Lily, no," Snape stammered as his body shook and the pain sedation potions was burning through.

He could see it once again, the failures, his arms having been taken off, then his legs, and then being reduced to a shell. His memories were destroyed, with no sense of self. All he was left with was the horror of what Lily and Potter did.

"Please, no more, no more," Snape whispered as he could feel himself blocked from the gates of death.

"Sounds like what your victims said, didn't they, Sev?" Lily asked coldly and she was not about to let Snape get the better of her.

' _So, going, going…..'_ Amanda thought.

' _Gone,'_ Emily said and Snape drew his last breath, the last image he saw before being dragged straight to his internal torment was the pleasure on Lily's face as Potter fucked her from behind.

Severus Snape was finally dead and he didn't have a fun time getting to that point. Nor would have a fun time in the afterlife. There was a special place in hell reserved for scum like him.

Lily smiled and wrapped her arms around Harrison and the two exchanged a searing kiss of triumph. While she thought that Snape might have gotten off a bit easy, something that she was sure that Astoria, Bella, and Ginny amongst others would agree with, she would along it.

The moment that they left with a pop, the doors flung open and the healers entered the Hospital, frantic.

They were two late, Snape had fallen, he was dead. A scan of his body indicated that he had a bad reaction to one of the sedative potions.

It was fortunate that he did not have an estate to sue the fine Healers of St. Mungos; otherwise they would have been in hot water.

* * *

"I appreciate you coming over, but I'm fine," Vicki protested but Kara sat herself down on the couch next to Vicki with a smile on her face.

"Are you really fine?" Kara asked and the reporter looked back at the blonde. Vicki was dressed in a jean skirt and a faded t-shirt. She was made to take the week off due to her dreadful ordeal, but she really hated that fact. It was just something about the fact that those vultures in the media are going to claw themselves back up and take her spot.

"Look, I know that Harry wanted you to look after me, but I'm fine, seriously, completely fine," Vicki protested and Kara looked at her. "You don't believe me, do you?"

"No, let's watch some television, it might get your mind off of things," Kara said with a bright smile and Vicki could not help but be sucked in by Kara's personality. The blonde was dressed in a black tank top that stretched over her ample curves. The jean skirt and pair of thigh high boots added to the allure, and then her hair was clipped back in a ponytail. The pair of glasses gave Kara an air of sophistication.

"Just as long as it's not the news."

"Well, no, you're on break," Kara said, as she stretched out. "I ordered a pizza, it should be here in about thirty minutes or less, or it's free."

"Yeah, they try and get out of that every time, good luck," Vicki said.

' _Girl has a point,'_ Dinah added, and there was a loophole that if the pizza was late because of a gang war, they charged extra. Which might seem like a stupid stipulation but it was Gotham city and gang wars broke out with an alarming regularity. So they actually made a fair profit.

"So, you're studying media relations?" Vicki asked.

"Yeah, things are getting very intense, there's a lot of work in it," Kara said and she smiled. "But, naturally, I'm sure that you know better than anyone how hard of a game it is out there."

"No kidding, it's been a male dominated profession….well in the legit jobs anyway, things are getting far better than they were but it's still a long and winding road," Vicki said to Kara with a sigh to her, as she got up.

She supposed that she could wait for the pizza, but she wanted to make some popcorn.

"Yes, I noticed that a lot of the females…"

"Are in the middle of the puff piece crowd, yes I know," Vicki agreed, as she decided to ensure that the microwave was timed correctly. "The problem is, I wouldn't really want to recommend people going into the line of fire, unless they're up for it and are not easily freaked out."

"I think that I'm one of the people who want to succeed….."

"Well if you really do want to succeed, you're going to have to make sure you're further and higher above the rest of the pack," Vicki said, as she sat down and Kara took a piece of the popcorn that she was offered. "Otherwise, you get to be someone doing those puff pieces at best, about what billionaire has the prettiest eyes…"

"Which is a waste of time, because we all know the answer to that…."

' _Harry Fucking Potter,'_ several girls in the bond chanted in unison and Kara smiled, even though Vicki didn't really get the significance of that.

"Yes, well….puff piece at best, or maybe worse, depending on how you look at it," Vicki said, slowly chewing on the piece of the popcorn. "Then there are a lot of weather girls or you get stuck doing gossip. Celebrity gossip, which is you talking about a lot of people who are only famous for being famous and didn't do much of anything. Just a bunch of spoiled rich kids living off a trust fund, and likely got themselves in hot water by being on an entire mess of drugs."

"That is a problem," Kara said and Vicki smiled, as she looked at her.

"Would you like something to drink, with that? Sorry, I forgot to ask….."

"Yeah, milk would be good," Kara said, after munching on a piece of popcorn.

"Surprised you didn't flinch, it was a little hot," Vicki said and Kara smiled.

"Really, I didn't notice," Kara said and she smiled. "I guess different tastes, for different people, and all that."

"Yes, I guess," Vicki said and she smiled. The company was enjoyed because it was normally a boring night around here. "So….I really think that if you put some good hard work and graduate the top of your class, you're on the right path. Of course, one could say that's where the real education begin once you get your foot in the door."

"Well, I enjoy a challenge," Kara said and she sipped her drink calmly, watching the swell of Vicki's breast as she breathed.

Vicki noticed where Kara's eyes were heading and she wondered if there was a good reason why she was this excited.

A knock on the door had stopped Vicki from going down that road, at least for now.

"Oh that must be the pizza, I'll get it," Kara said, balling up her fist. "And he's five minutes early from being late."

"Well maybe we should applaud that efficiency," Vicki said.

' _I don't know how you got an early pizza, we never get an early pizza,'_ Amanda thought, balling her fists up immediately in frustration.

Vicki smiled, she knew that she really shouldn't. The popcorn was pushing it but after her cardio sessions with Harry, she was feeling more daring than ever before.

She took the piece of pizza that Kara offered her and slowly ate it. She savored the taste, the flavor in her mouth was rather good and her heart beat faster.

"Tastes good, doesn't it?" Kara asked, as she ate the piece of pizza.

Perhaps it was her, but Vicki thought that it was pretty hot the way that Kara was eating this piece of pizza. How she savored the taste, with an erotic look dancing in her eyes.

"Oh that's hot," Vicki said and she recovered quickly, thinking on her feet, as any reporter would. "The pizza, the pizza, of course, it's the pizza."

"I know what you meant, Miss Vale," Kara said with a smoldering smile on her face. "So, you've been figured in, haven't you?"

"Is that code for….."

"It's code for what you think it is, honey," Kara said, slowly licking the cheese off of her fingers, sucking it. Her hand rested on Vicki's bare thigh and the reporter felt a rush of pleasure flow through her body. "You know about the arrangement, that Harry has with various women."

"Yes….I know about that, all too well, I mean you have to be blind not to put two and two together," Vicki said, feeling her throat dry up as Kara looked at her with a smoldering grin on her face. Vicki felt shivers go down her spine and Kara licked her lips, staring Vicki down.

"An intelligent reporter, I would figure, but you know that our girls…..they have to be comfortable with each other," Kara said and Vicki raised her eyebrows at the blonde. Her hand snaked up Vicki's leg, and stopped short of going underneath her skirt. "And by comfortable, I mean…."

"I know what you mean," Vicki whispered as she could feel her body heat up and her nipples poked against her top. It became uncomfortable and kind of hard.

"As one of Harry's Alphas, I figure that you need to understand your responsibilities as a member of this pack," Kara whispered in Vicki's ear and the woman closed her eyes. "Do you understand?"

"Yes….wait one of his Alphas?" Vicki asked and she decided to ask what would be an obvious question. Her reporter's instincts dictated no less. "Isn't an Alpha by definition….."

"Yes, normally, but Harry exceeds and destroys all expectations, he is a strong male that will have many strong females," Kara whispered and she was almost on top of Vicki. The reporter realized that Kara's strong grip was on her and her lips were inches away from hers, in both senses of the word.

"Well…..um….yeah," Vicki managed, she wondered what she was getting herself into. Her heart once again sped up and the blonde smirked at her. It was one of those smirks, the type that caused females to lose their mind.

"Not much for talking, are we?" Kara whispered in her ear. "That's fine, neither am I."

Without another word, Kara's lips planted onto Vicki's and she closed her eyes, enjoying the mind blowing kiss. It was obvious that she knew what she was doing and Vicki kissed her back, her adrenaline pumping. She placed her hands on Kara's hips, which she encouraged.

Things were about to get extremely heated between the two women.

* * *

Vicki whimpered as Kara placed her hand down her panties, and her talented fingers pumped between her thighs.

"Just relax, it will feel good," Kara whispered and she bent down, going between Vicki's legs and the reporter closed her eyes, as Kara shoved her talented tongue deep into Vicki's smoldering hot snatch.

Vicki was not going to lie, that did in fact feel good. So good in fact, her legs locked around Kara's head and her mouth went to town on her hot, wet snatch. The blonde drove her tongue into Vicki.

"Please, want to taste you," Vicki begged and she laid back on the couch, and the two got into a charged sixty nine position.

She was up close and personal with Kara's sweet snatch. Grabbing her hips, the reporter dug into her, licking and slurping her. Her tongue explored her inner walls and she got even hotter the more that she worked herself into Kara's hot chambers.

"Ooooh, yes," Kara panted, she could feel Vicki work into her. The blonde closed her eyes, and returned to the hot snatch beneath her.

The two tasted each other for a few more minutes, just enjoying the feel and the rush that this arrangement gave them. It was then that Kara decided to call the next play.

The blonde grabbed Vicki's shirt and removed it. She wore a blue bra from the waist up and Kara drank in the delicious flesh. She squeezed her breasts and this caused Vicki to close her eyes, moaning loudly.

"So, you want this, don't you?" Kara whispered and Vicki bit down on her lip, nodding eagerly. Kara was not about to deny a female something that she wanted. Her hands roamed the woman's tight body and she could feel the pleasure that spiked up to another level.

"Yes, I want this, please give it to me, oh," Vicki mewled, as Kara's lips wrapped around her nipple and she sucked it with practiced eased.

Seeing Kara's cleavage this close to her face, Vicki wondered what they would be like. They looked so large, firm, and they bounced. Oh god, did they ever bounce!

"Go ahead, honey, taste them, touch them, make them yours," Kara encouraged Vicki and Vicki took that encouragement, nearly ripping Kara's shirt off.

She was about to comment about no bra, but she could not bring herself to think that. Vicki was pulled on Kara's lap and her face buried between her breasts.

Kara smiled, working her fingers into Vicki's pussy and the redhead panted, as Kara bit down on her shoulder. That caused her cunt to clamp down onto her fingers and Kara dug deeper into her. The redhead bucked her hips, her juices dripping onto Kara's fingers.

"Mmm, you taste so good," Kara whispered, placing her fingers into her mouth, dripping from Vicki's cunt juices. "That tastes so good, so really good, doesn't it?"

Vicki's eyes flooded with the lust and Kara continued to work into her at super speed. Her loud whine could be heard.

"Let's step this one up," Kara said, pushing Vicki on her hands and knees and pulling out a strap on with a long dildo. "Now, it might be small comparable to Harry, but I know how to use it."

Vicki's eyes widened as Kara plunged into her from behind with the strap on and her eyes closed.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," Vicki whimpered, with Kara nailing her from behind with the strap on.

Kara rammed into Vicki from behind, touching her breasts and causing her to moan. The strap on made her feel the insides of young Miss Vale, like a real cock might. Magic was a wonderful thing.

Vicki never thought that this would feel so good, being bent over the crouch, being nailed hard. It felt almost as good as Harry, but not quite. Kara's lips kissed the back of her neck and licked behind her ear.

"Shit," Vicki said, she came by that touch, as she heard the door open.

"Hello, Harry," Kara whispered, as he rammed into her hard from behind. "We'll be with you in a minute."

Harry smiled and waved his hands. "Take your time, it will be good, I'm sure."

"Oh, it's fucking great actually," Vicki moaned, as she could see Harry watching one of his Alpha's nail her and hard. He slowly got undressed, making sure she saw the reflection of his body in the mirror and that got her hotter and wetter.

Kara smiled, rocking into Vicki, but moments later, the desire to see Harry ram into her hard really heated her up.

"She's all yours, honey," Kara whispered and she pulled back, allowing Harry to go to work.

Vicki could feel her face on top of Kara's lap and Harry's hand on her waist. There was a second where she waited for him. The anticipation made things even more heated. She could feel him brush against her slit, teasing her.

"Oh, Harry, please, I need you," Vicki whispered and the green eyed wizard pushed into her from behind.

Her pussy stretched out, filling his cock, and she closed onto him.

Harry held his hands onto her back, sawing into her tight pussy. The redhead's nipples became stiffened and Kara bit down on one of them, which caused her to squeal.

Vicki was being double teamed by Kara and Harry and she loved it. His hands on her ass, teasing her like that, along with him keeping up a steady tone. Her body grew entirely sweaty, as Harry continued to explore every tantalizing inch of it.

"Oooh, so good," Vicki moaned as she felt an orgasm blow her mind and Kara smiled.

"I think she needs a gag," Kara said, adjusting the strap on and she shoved it in Vicki's mouth, pumping it into her.

Vicki wondered how advanced this particular sex toy was, because it moved in her mouth. There was no time to really think about that, as Harry went into her from behind and he teased going into her ass.

She wondered if she would mind that all that much, it did feel hot.

Harry grinned, building up the anticipation and he could see Vicki had already been worn down a fair bit by Kara. He wondered if she would last long enough to finish her. She sucked the dildo from Kara like a champ and the blonde closed her eyes.

She magically channeled her cum through her mouth and Vicki nearly passed out from the sheer intensity.

"Time for me to return the favor, honey," Kara whispered and she pulled out of her. "Plus it looks like you're about spent."

Kara slapped Vicki on the ass and that caused her to yelp. The blonde took her place between Vicki's thighs and Harry was behind her.

Harry grabbed onto her hips and pushed himself into her from behind. The blonde's walls tightened around him, as he speared into her. The blonde whimpered in absolute pleasure, with Harry pushing into her from behind.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck," Kara whispered as Harry slapped into her from behind.

"Yes, indeed," Harry said, their organs meeting with a supersonic blur.

Kara could see that Harry's injuries were mostly healed, but he was not as strong as he was. That being said, this was pretty pleasurable right there, so the blonde was not going to deny that what she feeling wasn't good. Amazing indeed.

Vicki laid back, enjoyed the thrill of Kara's tongue pushing its way into her. Her hands rested on the back of Vicki's head and the reporter was enjoying her tongue pushing into her.

"Damn good, oh damn good," Vicki panted, Kara's tongue was going to finish the job that Harry started.

She blacked out and Kara buried her tongue into Vicki's hot snatch. Harry's hands were placed on her hips and then he roamed his way around her body. The blonde closed her eyes tightly as Harry speared himself into her.

"Take, oh take me, that's good," Kara whined at the top of her lungs.

"I know it is," Harry whispered, kissing the back of her neck and he continued to bring her through new heights of passion.

Harry kissed the back of her neck, now that Vicki was out of it. His balls throbbed and he was about ready to finish in Kara. His hands cupped her breasts, with Harry working into her as fast as he could go.

His balls tightened once more and he sent his juices into her inviting womb. The blonde reared back her head, giving an inviting scream of delight with Harry finishing up in her.

The two lovers collapsed in a sweaty heap, in a tender loving embrace.

* * *

"You just had to go there, didn't you?" Harry asked, as a naked Kara reclined on his lap. An equally naked Vicki was on the floor, drooling, having been fucked hard and fast.

"Well, she needs to be trained, sooner rather than later," Kara whispered, with a smile, a grin, and a shrug, which was a feat as it was done all at once.

' _But she's not figured into the Network, yet, is she?'_ Amanda asked.

' _Yeah, that's weird, I got in pretty quick, but she didn't?'_ Dinah asked and it was Faora who fielded an explanation.

' _Well, some go in quicker than others, that's just the nature of the game,'_ Faora thought. _'Har-Zod could sleep with them several times before they are ready to accept the bond. Some are ready to accept it after the first one. Give them time, everyone works at their own pace.'_

' _Couldn't have explained that better myself,'_ Harry thought.

' _So it varies…..'_

' _It's on a subconscious level,'_ Karen chimed in. _'The door is there for them eventually, it's just when they're ready to open it. It's a huge commitment ,essentially marriage, hence why things aren't forced too much.'_

' _But Harry does give a pretty compelling argument,'_ Penelope chimed in and there was numerous murmurs of agreement.

"Well she's out for the night," Kara said and she smiled. "Still breathing, even after the working over we gave her."

"Well, I should hope so, but I slipped her a potion just to make sure, not that she doesn't have good stamina to begin with."

"Well, that means that she fits in pretty well," Kara said and the smile on her face was pretty infectious.

"And speaking of good energy…."

He could tell that Kara still had another round into her, the lust in her eyes was easily readable, so Harry pulled her into a tight embrace, and the blonde squealed as he had her pinned back against the couch.

She begged for him to take her and take her was what he did. The dance picked up anew, with a well-practiced rhythm that they got down to a science.

* * *

Batman could feel the throbbing headache return to him as he returned to consciousness. He had no idea how long he had been out, but there was one thing that was for certain. Well actually several things that were for sure, as Batman mentally broke them down in his mind. His vision was blurred and his mind felt like it had been sent on a trip to the other side.

His headset was cracked when he was hit, so any way to communication was down. His gloves were removed, along with his belt. Much to his agitation, he was bound to the chair. He tried to find a way out, but he still felt the after effects of a concussion, so his thought process was spotty at best.

He could see two men playing cards at the table. One of them had long scraggly black hair, along with a long black beard, wearing a white top, black jacket, and black pants. He looked like he could run someone down with the force of a big rig.

The other was taller than the other man, which was saying something. He was bald, with a large red beard and piecing dangerous eyes. He wore a green suit, and there was a crowbar lying on a crate next to him, with a bit of blood on it.

Batman spotted the blood splatters on the wall and smelled the decaying smell.

' _I'm not the first person to be down in this basement,'_ Batman thought, coming to one horrifying conclusion.

One of the heavies grunted and nudged the other. They spoke silently, although Batman could not hear what they said.

His cowl was still on, and he figured that there was a reason why they didn't remove it. Then again, he had fail safes in it, but there was no sense that it had been tampered with.

One of them went up the stairs, leaving Batman to contemplate his fate. He had answers, but remained silent. It would be too much of a risk to try and get through, even with the damage.

' _Where is he going?'_ Batman asked, he saw an old pipe organ stowed in the back. He was in a church, one of the abandoned ones. It had been shut down by budget concerns and had been bought by the esteemed Deacon Blackfire.

Speaking of which, the Deacon made his way down the stairs followed by his acolyte. Batman looked at him and there was a grimace on his face.

"Please allow me to introduce myself," the Deacon whispered in a low growl. "I'm a man of wealth a taste…..I've been around for many of long years, stole a man's soul and faith, and around when our savior, Christ the Lord, had his moment of pain."

The Deacon's wide grin got even wider.

"My friend, I've had a storied past, I was born in Layfette Louisiana, my Daddy from the day that I was born, he was a wicked man, a sinner, you see he was the Captain of his own Shrimp Boat, I hated my Daddy, but I learned to sympathy with him," the Deacon said. "One day, that wicked, wicked man, he pulled me out of school. But then, in the darkness, he succumbed to his own hubris, his shrimp boat, it sank down to the sea."

The Deacon chuckled and grew serious, looking at the Dark Knight Detective.

"He was delusional, he thought that he was a man of great power, but through his delusions, grew a great monster, and that monster is something that reflects in the eyes of all of us," The Deacon said in a whisper and the Dark Knight once again tried to free himself but he found that he was trapped with nowhere to go. "My dear baby brother, he was one who is also trapped in his own delusions and hubris. He thinks that he is beloved and fancies himself as some motivational speaker, but it can be nothing but the truth. Nothing further from the truth, but he would fit in well, wouldn't he? Fit in with those who are deluded to think that their own sins don't matter, because they are a face in the crowd. Or a face behind a mask, thinking that the good lord's eyes will be averted from them."

Batman could tell that he was dealing with a dangerous man.

"I have seen the fire, I have see it, and I have seen death burn through my eyes, and signs that would stop the hearts of the most hardened men," the Deacon whispered. "As for me, I am someone who has seen the light, and see the power, that rounding up the lost lambs before they can get consumed by the same monster that consumed my Daddy and my Granddaddy. The same monster that will consume all of Gotham City in the end. You see, I have seen it, and I have seen clarity. I am not afraid to look certain to look certain death in the eye, for I understand that I have been shielded by the good lord's embrace. I am strong, some might call me an Army Tank with a Ferrari engine, but brother, you have no idea."

Batman could see both of this man's disciples, acolytes, henchmen, whatever you wish to call them, they were on either side of him. It was obvious that they remained like statues, because that was the type of people they were.

"From the ashes of my blood family, I have created a new family, in the name of spiritual guidance. For I have looked the Devil in the eye and saw the pull he has over the lost little lambs who have been forsaken by the wicked herds, and you my friend are not the Devil. But I'm sure you're wondering where you fit in with this."

Batman had nothing to say, which was fine because the Deacon had plenty to say.

"You and I, well, we're going to be good friends. But tell me, brother, have you heard the word?"

* * *

Jefferson Skeevers returned to his Gentlemen's Club, feeling that he had a productive night so far. After a booty call, he returned. Standing outside of Crime Alley, right around Ghost Town, he paused.

He looked around, some of his men should be lingering around somewhere. He had a bad feeling about this, he couldn't put his finger on it, but he really had a bad feeling about this.

"Hello?" Skeevers asked, he was a small time pimp and drug dealer, not someone who would be able to fight anyone.

He feared that the Bat or that Ninja or someone like that might have discovered one of his operations. He turned around and then entered the clock.

His heart beat against his ribs and he could see a scene that was directly out of a horror movie. Numb struck in shock the small time criminal looked around and his heart quickened a bit more, picking up the pace.

"DAMN IT!" Skeevers yelled and he bolted for the wall. He could hear something lumbering towards him and then he came face to face with it.

Horror did not even begin to describe what he was feeling. The lights in the club blew out, as he went crashing through the wall.

Everything happened too fast, and then nothing else happened at all. The question of what happened to his men was answered, in the most horrifying way possible.

"CHRISTENED ON A TUESDAY."

Screams of terror followed seconds later.

**To Be Continued on July 20th 2014.**


	40. Christened on a Tuesday

The first hints of early morning light presented themselves in Gotham City. Harry Potter was in a restful state and in quite the position. After last night's activities, which had a couple of rounds, he was not really certain how he found himself in this position. As for whether or not he was questioning it, of course not.

Harry's arms wrapped around the sleeping form of Vicki Vale as he spooned against her. It was a comfortable position that neither of them wanted to break up soon. Her red hair framed her face, as he shifted against her. It was a comforting position to be in, so naturally Harry got the most of it.

On his other side, Kara rested lazily up next to Harry, a big smile on her face. The blonde felt the warmth go through her body as she was behind Harry, spooning against him. She was not completely awake, but not completely asleep.

She was in that state for only a few seconds, and she managed to jar herself awake. The blonde smile as the empowering rays of sunshine hit her face. She could see Harry awake and he dislodged himself from Vicki, as the blonde dislodged herself from her mate.

"Morning," Kara whispered and Harry smile.

"It's a good morning, and a really good evening last night," Harry said and Kara lazily rested her head on Harry's shoulder, her leg half draped over him.

"You can say it again."

"I'm pretty sure that you got what I meant already," Harry said, reaching over and slowly stroking Kara's hair. The blonde relaxed against him, a hungry look dancing in her eyes and Harry draped his arm over her.

"Well, I got a pretty good idea, yes," Kara agreed with a smile on her face, and once again, after last night, most girls would have considered sleeping in. Kara was not what you would classify as most girls, however.

That one was for sure and Kara looked rather smug, as the blonde leaned in and planted a light kiss on Harry's lips. He returned the kiss with more fever and fury than she could have expected. It caused Kara's mind to go wild, and Harry held the beautiful blonde in close to him.

"So….wow," Kara managed, feeling her heart skip several beats as that kiss never once failed to get her going in the morning. Not that she wasn't getting going in the morning. Her body was draped over his and she didn't really feel the need to move from her position in the not so distant future. "So…..what are your plans for today?"

Harry still was positioned underneath Vicki, well his arm was to be honest, but he could hopefully dislodge that before too long without stirring her.

"Well, I got a lot to do today," Harry admitted to Kara and the blonde smiled at him, before he began to list the things that he was planning on doing today. "Well I've got to go home and work out, have breakfast, and then I have paperwork to do at Wayne….."

Harry smiled at the look on Kara's face but he would have to agree with her that some responsibilities were less desirable than others. But that was just the nature of his life.

"Then at Ten O' Clock I have a meeting with Fox," Harry admitted and he was mentally running down all of what he had to do. There was a lot, so much to do, with so little time. Kara's expression brightened as Harry continued to go over his plans. "And then….well I'm sure that something will come up from there. It never fails"

Harry pulled his arm out from underneath Vicki, managing not to disturb her, which was a feat amongst itself. He locked eyes with Kara, who gave him a smoldering smile and grin, the two getting close to each other.

"It always does," Kara agreed, and Harry picked her up off of the bed, and wrapped his arms around her.

The blonde melted into her lover's embrace, with Harry's tongue pushing deep into her mouth. Kara was met with an passionate and great kiss, her mind nearly melting underneath his strong grip. She straddled his lap, her legs draped firmly over his thighs.

The kiss got rather heated and Kara's hands freely explored his body. His hands were cupped on her naked ass and they were about ready to head towards a particularly interesting position.

Then the kiss broke and Kara whined, as Harry gave her a half of a shadow of a grin. Just when things were getting interesting.

' _Fucking tease,'_ Kara thought, as she watched Harry make his way towards the direction of the living room to find where his clothes went. They got kicked around after last night quite a lot. The twins, Faora, and Karen all seemed rather amused by this.

' _Well, Kara, the money is in the chase or something like that,'_ Karen lectured her younger twin and Kara crossed her arms, with a matching scowl on her face. _'Oh, I forgot how I used to do that when I was younger, that's amazing.'_

' _Ah, precious again,'_ Faora said and Kara shook her head, with Harry getting dressed and bidding his goodbyes.

' _You do realize that he played you for his own amusement and you allowed him too,'_ Diana commented in an even voice. She wasn't trying to make fun of Kara, but she was stating what she thought to be an obvious fact.

' _Ah, I'm sure that it will be worth it later, plus it's not like you didn't get hours of mind blowing sex last night,'_ Donna suggested and there was some mutterings of agreement.

' _Please stop making sense,'_ Kara argued but she saw the alluring red head on the bed and devious thoughts crept into the blonde's mind.

' _Well if it makes you feel any better, I sense a delightful consolation prize,'_ Amanda added to Kara.

Kara smiled, breakfast was served and the delightful Miss Vale was pretty much at her mercy. Given how much she had been worked up, it was time to release some of those emotions.

With a bright and bubbly "good morning, Vicki", Kara dove in for the kill, her tongue trailing over her lip and she set her sights on a completely different set of lips.

* * *

The spring in his mother's step amused Harrison to no end, as he watched Lily practically skip all the way down the street, after their meeting with Snape. The fact that he should have been put out of everyone's misery a long time ago was something that he reminded himself of. But now he was.

' _Well, why shouldn't she be happy?'_ Rose asked and that was a statement that absolutely nobody in the bond link could disagree with. The fact was that Lily had every reason in the world to be happy.

The truth was that Lily was as giddy as a school girl, but that might not be giving her a sufficient amount of credit of what happened. The things that Snape saw on his way to the afterlife, he was tortured by. And he would only have more torture. While Harrison did not have the direct pipeline to that side as Prime did, he knew enough to figure out what was going on.

"Well, amazing, finally, should have done it at the Graveyard…"

"Well, he's gone now, better late than never," Harrison said and Lily planted a kiss on his lips, burning and hot. That really got both of them going.

Unfortunately, there would have to be business that came way before pleasure. The hairs on the back of Harrison's neck prickled up, and that was not because of his mother's kiss. He stopped short and Lily stopped.

Lily wasn't the smartest witch of her age or any other because she had a lack of perception. She saw things flittering in and out amongst the other side of reality. Frowning, she asked the question. "Is that…."

"It's another one of those reality tears, and this one….well it's more pronounced," Harrison said and Morgaine decided to pop in with her two cents.

' _It's getting more prominent, I can feel them, but….'_

She was cut off momentarily which indicated that Harrison and Lily stepped into something. Any state of being happy, well that was down the commode right away, as they found themselves in a demented land of sheer crazy.

' _What the fuck?'_ Harrison thought.

There were demented looking trees, gnarled, and weird multi-colored creatures going around. An eerie kind of chanting filled their ears, as they looked to be in an area where it looked like the result of an affair between the Forbidden Forest and Wonderland.

' _It's fleeting, sometimes open for seconds, sometimes mere minutes, but the effects on reality are getting worst, as Faerie World bleeds into this realm,'_ Morgaine continued, as she finally managed to use her nature to establish the link between Harrison and Lily, with Circe hopping on as well.

A winged creature zipped back at them and Lily clenched her fist. Something was going to break but the real question was what and how?

"I'll stay on my toes," Harrison whispered to Lily and she nodded, her jaw set and determination flooding through her eyes.

"Right, on my toes," Lily agreed, but that went without saying. This was a place where if you blinked too often, it lead down a road paved with madness.

"We need to find the nearest exit, and fast," Harrison said, keeping on his toes. "And Fay….well they're not exactly cordial with guests."

The last time Harrison stepped into this realm, his head was nearly split open by some Red Caps. It was a dangerous place and not one that he was looking forward to visiting again.

"Not the friendly sort…."

' _Not at all,'_ Morgaine thought and she knew that reality had to bleed into the Fay World pretty badly for them to be able to pass through again. _'It seems to be attracted to you more, as this is the second time that you've passed through.'_

' _Oh, well consider myself lucky then,'_ Harrison thought in a dull voice.

' _I wouldn't say that luck had much to do about it, with magic, things rarely happen without a reason, or a purpose,'_ Circe thought and once again, she noticed that everything was getting weirder by the second. _'The corruption is more intense than I thought, if that forest is any indication. If you find your way back into the real world…..'_

' _Sooner, the better,'_ Lily thought, her anxiety crept up on her. She didn't often become anxious but this realm seemed like a death trap and got more surreal the further they walked. The sky was not a healthy color, it seemed to be a glowing purple, pretty and sinister at the same time. More sinister the more the further they walked come to think about it.

"Looks like someone was watching us," Harrison whispered and Lily stopped, her mouth hanging open.

Most humans were predisposed to two reactions, fight or flight. Given their Kryptonian heritage, they were a bit different. That being said, they continued their journey in the mist and they could see a glowing pair of golden eyes stare at them.

Lily and Harrison stopped and they saw a woman of unmistakable beauty. She was so beautiful that one's heart would ache by looking at her. Purple hair hung limply down her shoulders, framing her angelic face and golden glowing eyes. Her rich, plump lips were full, and her white robe hung down, wrapping around her curves. She had a slender build, which made her breasts look all that much the larger compared to her frame.

Both sides stared at each other for ten seconds and the female lifted her hand, turning it and motioned for the two of them to follow her further on.

' _So….should we?'_ Lily asked.

' _She's not attacking yet,'_ Harrison thought to her.

' _That's the key word, but is she luring….'_

' _Well, we're just going to have to follow her and see, because if we don't, that could very well provoke a violent reaction,'_ Harrison thought, keeping his eyes on the exotic girl. What was her game, he wondered. She had to be playing a good one to be honest.

They would just have to wait and see but for now, they remained firmly and completely standing in the dark. It was a game that they would have to play, at least for now.

* * *

"So this is the shit, that Ugly sent over, is it?"

"Yeah, say what you want about the guy and how he earns that moniker, but when he owes you a favor, he pays up with interest," Tony Zucco said as he was discussing matters with Eddie Skeevers, the older brother of Jefferson. Whilst Jefferson was a small time pimp and drug dealer, Eddie was further up the food chain. He was a major smuggler, a high end pimp, and drug dealer along with the right hand man of Zucco. Right now he looked like a kid in a crackhouse with his eyes lingering on the equipment. "Take a look at this shit."

"Very nice," Skeevers said as he looked over the guns, cradling one of them like he would have a precious child. The fact of the matter is this weapon should tip the scales over to their side.

Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim, who ran Intergang over in Metropolis, had sent them over some more advanced weapons. Nothing too advanced and Zucco didn't know how the fuck he got his hands on some of the shit he did. A lot of people on the underworld whispered that Mannheim sold his soul to the devil but none of them were willing to confirm that fact by asking the man himself.

That being said, this high tech weapon could pierce most armor and also have several more rounds in them. And not be damaged as easily which was a plus. Zucco looked like a kid on Christmas morning.

"Yeah, lost a lot a ground with those freaks Penguin and Black Mask, well we're going to get it back and we're getting it back with interest," Zucco said with a grin and glee dancing in his eyes, as he held one of the weapons, pointing it towards a large practice dummy that was hanging against the wall.

With a trigger shot, he impacted the dummy with expert precious, tearing it up.

"And it's something that a third grader can fire, which given the education of some of these mooks, that's about what we could expect, going to have to send Ugly a Christmas card about the good haul."

With all of the crates secured, things were about to be different. This new style of mobsters thought that they were something, but the Maroni family was going to take control of Gotham. The Roman's brats couldn't do anything about it, and neither could these freaks, whether they be these new mob bosses or those punks in Halloween costumes.

"So, I've been meaning to ask you about your little project, to get our hands on some more territory," Zucco remarked. "You are….."

"Yes, clear out all the trash out of Ghost Town, yes, I know," Skeevers replied, cracking his knuckles with a wide grin on his face. "Bunch of low lives, some of them used to be hot shit but now….."

"Yeah, they're just taking up space, no one's going to miss them when they're gone, to keep our house clean got to take out the trash," Zucco added, cracking his knuckles. "So, what's the progress update on that, anyway?"

"So, best I can tell, everything is going on schedule," Eddie told Zucco, and he looked really pleased with himself.

"Best, you can tell….either you know or you don't….."

"Some other operations have…..took up my time," Eddie said and he waved his hand, before he told Zucco what was going on. "But don't worry, Jefferson, he's the one who is doing it. He's handling it, besides, what are a bunch of bums going to do against us?"

"Well, you got a point, but I'd still be happy if they're gone," Zucco whispered, placing his hands over each other and cracking his knuckles. "Nothing's going to go wrong, it can't go wrong, we got the gear, but without the territory….."

At that second, his cell phone rang. Grumbling at being interrupted, Zucco held up his hand, telling Eddie to wait one minute. "Yes….it's your time, but you better have a damn fucking good reason for calling me….oh….shit….."

Zucco was listening to every word and Eddie read the expression on his face. It was getting grimmer, darker…and then he nodded. "Yeah….yeah….yes….I….shit, well it's something out of a horror movie…..well no shit you ran…yeah that bad….fuck….he's here….I'll tell him."

Zucco put down the phone and there was a long sigh that he was given.

"Well….some….I don't even know what to say it….something out of a horror movie struck the club last night….and he killed a bunch of guys, and dragged Jefferson off into the night," Zucco whispered, and he looked oddly somber and serious for the moment. Eddie blinked. "Well….he never had a chance, blood was splattered all over the alleyway, and they found…..well they found enough of him to make a positive ID."

"That….who did this?" Eddie demanded. He was in not shock right there and Zucco looked at him, the man did have a temper on him. He was just waiting for the dam to broke and him to explode. "That fucker….that fucker, HE'S DEAD, I DON'T CARE WHO HE IS, HE'S FUCKING DEAD!"

Eddie looked about ready to strangle someone and soon.

"I know, I know, but I'll help," Zucco said, someone attacking his associates, that could put a damper on things. "Likely someone fucking around with something….but we'll figure it out, it could be a lot of smoke and mirrors and shit….but I'll help you track him down."

"You better find him soon, or someone's going to die," Eddie grumbled, as he wanted to pick up one of the new weapons that Ugly got them and plug this fucker that killed his brother, until his brains splattered on the sidewalk.

Zucco decided to spare Eddie the details of the grisly sight. Saying what he said filled in the blanks.

He wanted to see the scene of the crime himself, because he had no idea how bad it was. But it couldn't be as bad as they said it was, could it?

That's what he wanted to find out. He leaned forward and whispered to his driver. "Head to Ghost Town…."

"Are you sure…."

"Do you think I'm blowing smoke out of my ass?" Zucco asked him and the man nodded. "I want to see what the fuck is going on there, do you hear me?"

The driver did his job and drove, because he knew better to argue in a situation like this.

* * *

' _So, they got….sent to another realm again,'_ Harry thought to the group over there, he and a dupe was working diligently on the paperwork at Wayne Industries. That was a task that Harry would trust no one other than himself to get accomplished at the moment. _'Because we're cutting in and out.'_

' _And by that you mean, you can get a moment of it here, and then nothing for several minutes or even an hour,'_ Morgaine thought and Daphne piped in.

' _Yes, you're not the only one,'_ Daphne said.

' _I'll second that,'_ Astoria agreed, oddly serious and somber at this point and for good reason.

' _So what exactly is going on, do they….'_

' _They've been joined by two more women, along the lines of the first one that I described,'_ Morgaine chimed in and Harry let out the breath that he had been holding in his body. _'You know the type, so beautiful, but so sinister at the same time. You would think that they were up to something.'_

' _They're going to try and ride it out for as long as they can go,'_ Circe inputted and Harry was about to ask the obvious question but she cut him off. _'While all of your help is appreciated, it's just for the best that…..well it's just for the best that you allow this to ride through on their own. Don't worry, everything will be fine.'_

' _That's the problem, I do worry,'_ Harry replied, and it was his mother who had brought into this which caused him to monitor the situation closely.

' _Well we're keeping an eye on the situation, don't worry, once we find out more, you'll be the first to know,'_ Morgaine thought to him. _'I can shift in easily thanks to my duel nature, so if things get rough…..'_

' _Even though they can handle themselves,'_ Rose thought, chiming in and Morgaine smiled at the antics of the youngest Evans sister.

' _Yes, even though they can handle themselves,'_ Morgaine thought to herself and she just let Harry and the duplicate in his office get back to work, keeping the channel open for any updates.

Harry got a fleeting moment occasionally like one of those echoes that passed into the night. He could barely hold onto it.

Gathering up the finished paperwork, two versions of Har-Zod became one, and he made his way to Lucius Fox's office, where he was meeting with the man himself, along with Bruce Wayne in a few minutes. It would reflect badly on him if he was late for such an important meeting.

Harry made the trip down to Fox's office, stopping briefly at the office to see the man's secretary. When she spotted Harry, never once breaking the conversation she was having on the phone, she quickly waved Harry into the office, never once breaking tone.

With a smile on his face, he entered the office and nearly stopped at the sight that greeted him on the desk.

It was an attractive young black female who appeared to be in her late teens, maybe early twenties, sitting on the desk, her legs crossed. Her black hair was tied back neatly and a pair of deep brown eyes flickered. She dressed conservatively but there was a hint of something else that lingered underneath.

Harry was momentarily distracted by the fact that Bruce did not arrive. Which was odd, because he normally showed up fashionably early to meetings like this, even when taking his nocturnal activities into account.

The young wizard cleared his throat and the young woman nearly jumped off of the desk. It was obvious that she was deep in thought about something.

"Oh…um….hello," she said as she looked at him, recognizing him immediately and why he was a very important person. She was flustered but gained a bit of confidence as she spoke. "My name is Tamara Fox….I'm Lucius's daughter…..I was supposed to tell you that my father had to run out but he'd be back in about five minutes, Doctor Potter….."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Fox, and I suppose that an introduction would be redundant at this point," Harry said, greeting her in his friendly matter and she managed a smile, a bit dazed before she snapped back, looking fairly professional.

"But his secretary….she kind of was supposed to inform you of this fact….you know….."

"She was on the phone when I came in," Harry said to her and she nodded. "So, tell me about yourself a little bit while we wait….Miss Fox."

"Please, call me Tamara," she said to him with a smile.

' _One galleon!'_ Amanda cheered through the bond link.

' _And please call me Harry,'_ Donna chimed in, tapping her hand an imaginary wrist watch.

"Then I should insist that you call me Harry," he said, ignoring the obvious comments from the peanut gallery, along with them setting up a pool for this one.

"Okay….Harry," Tamara said, it felt weird to call such a living legend around Gotham City by his given name, but she supposed that it was a lot formal. Plus he was technically a bit younger than her, which was shocking. She would have pegged him for mid twenties at the youngest, until her father told him differently. His accomplishments made other people his age look quite inadequate. "Graduated Gotham Private academy with honors, then I moved onto Harvard, and I got my Masters in business management before I was nineteen years old. It was hard work but I managed to do it"

Harry loved how he surrounded himself with prodigies as far as the eye could see.

"Well you have brains and beauty, that's an attractive combination," Harry told her and she smiled at him.

"Well, I'm sure many are turned on…..well many appreciate your accomplishments as well, aren't you going for another Doctorate?" she asked him in awe.

"Yes, and it's a balancing act, but I think that you'll find that I can balance a lot at once," Harry said.

"Oh, so you're good at multi-tasking," she replied, not quite realizing the implications of what she said or maybe she did.

It was at this moment, Lucius arrived, with a befuddled. "Mr. Wayne isn't here yet?"

Both turned and face him but before either could response, he offered a rather rough. "I'm sure that he'll turn up soon.'

' _Maybe,'_ Harry thought, Bruce's disappearance was bound to get noticed by someone, and it made him really wonder if he hadn't run into something during his nocturnal activities.

Fox sat behind the desk and he decided to get straight to a point that he had been meaning to ask Harry. "So, did you find a personal assistant yet?"

"No, I found someone who can act as a social secretary, but a personal assistant, no," Harry said to him.

"Well, I was hoping that you would consider Tamara for the role," Lucius said, thinking that it would be a good way for his daughter to get her feet in the front door. And she was qualified unlike the children of a lot of other high ranking executives who got their roles because of who their parents were and then blew the opportunity that had been handed to them on a silver platter.

' _Well, I'm beginning to think that this meeting was not a coincidence,'_ Kara thought with a wide smile on her face.

' _Obvious set up is in fact very obvious,'_ Amanda said and there was an agreement.

' _Not necessarily a bad thing though, is it?'_ Gabrielle asked and there were a lot of nods in agreement about that point.

Tamara was momentarily shocked at the set up and she could see Harry consider her briefly. It seemed like their innocent little meeting was a stealth job interview.

"Well that's up to her isn't it?" Harry asked with a smile. "From what she's told me, she's qualified and it will allow her to get her foot in the door…..so what do you think."

"Yes," Tamara said without hesitation.

"Welcome then," Harry said with a smile at her and there was much rejoicing throughout the bond network and he could see how interesting she was.

This would prove to be a fruitful partnership.

* * *

"Surely if you open your eyes, you will see the own lies that you have blinded yourself with and that mask you wear….it's fully representative to all that."

Batman had been getting drilled by the Deacon's words for some time. It was like a never ending sledgehammer to the head. The man stood there, wearing nothing but a wife beater top and pants, his hair going around rather wild, dripping with sweat.

"The power that you think you hold over these people, nothing but a world of delusion that you have created for yourself my brother, and that delusion will cause you to descend further into the world of brimstone and molten madness. But I will deliver you, my brother, and I will allow Gotham City to be a haven for those who deserve it, for the wicked to be purged."

He could see that Batman was slumped forward and the man cupped Batman roughly by the chin and pushed him up. He could see the blood shot eyes, and a nasty smirk spread over his face.

"It appears that we will have to finish this at another time," he chuckled as he let go of Batman's head, allowing him to slump forward. Trying to make those who were the wicked saw the light took time and he had plenty of that time on his hands.

Walking forward, with determination and fire blazing through his eyes, the Deacon made the trip to the next room. The Dark Knight would not move, his acolytes would ensure that, and without his toys, he was just as useless as the next man.

Walking into a gymnasium, he saw his converted at work, doing the lord's word. The Deacon smiled, as they were busy at work making Molotov cocktails and bundling sticks of dynamite together. A holy war was waged with the proper tools. He could see one of his newest friends supervising the efforts, given his past time; he was used to something like this.

So far everything was going ahead of schedule, better than he could have hoped to be honest. A wide and wicked grin spread across his face as he looked at his men. "So, what's the good word, my brother….."

"Fine….good….but I'm curious about something," the man said and the Deacon waved him over, walking forward. The two were almost face to face. "What is all this for?"

"I'm a simple man, with simple tastes," he replied in a calm and cool voice.

He cleared his throat and all of the workers locked their gaze onto him.

"You have done well my brothers, and you need to realize that time is not on their side, but on our side. You see, the further we work the more that we do the good lord's work, the more we are delivered to the promise land. And this city is full of sinners, sinners that are going to burn. Once we have cleansed the city, Gotham City, and the rest of them….the rest of this cruel world will be restored."

They were hanging on his every word, that was the kind of power that he said.

"Some have embraced the demons, but…..we will rage a war that will deliver us to the promise land," he continued. "Once all of the sinners have been destroyed, once they have been brought to Gotham City…..then…..we will be able to return. All of you have suffered for their sins but now the balance has been restored. I wish for you to follow me, and to follow me into this new era. Men, women, and children are brought forth to be judged, wondering if the reaper will come and bring them off to the other side, to either their reward or their torment."

They still hung on every word and he was just getting warmed up. The plan, his crusade, his mission, it was on schedule. Soon it would be on schedule.

"Gotham City will burn, dragging all the sinners into the ashes and the righteous will be spared once we are born anew."

The men got back to work, understanding this perfectly now, each word resounded to them. They understood what it was like to suffer for the sins of a city that did not respect them at all.

* * *

Harrison and Lily reached their destination, as foreboding as it would. The closest comparison they could make was it was a set of stones that resembled Stonehedge, and there was this strange glowing vortex that resounded in the middle of it.

Three more women had joined them sooner, bringing the grand total of the females making this journey with them to six.

' _So….this is smelling more obvious of a trap the longer we're here, isn't it?'_ Lily asked and Harrison nodded.

' _Goes without saying, but the longer we're here, the less of a chance we might have of finding our way out,'_ Harrison thought, hoping that they could play their cards and quick. Either way, something was bound to happen.

' _Not really in our best intention to spring it, though,'_ Lily thought and it was Harrison who chimed in with a few words of his own.

' _Yes, it might not be in our best intention to spring it but at the same time, it's the only way we can figure things out,'_ Harrison thought and Morgaine let out the breath that she was holding.

' _Shall I say that it's likely not the best idea to trust a Fay,"_ Morgaine asked and she paused, before adding her next few words on top of the statement. _'Or is that one of those things that really goes without saying as well?'_

' _No, don't trust them, unless they give an oath, an airtight oath without any wiggle room,'_ Circe advised both of them as well, both her and Morgaine were monitoring the entire situation. Acting as a go between form both sides of the realms because of their nature.

' _And even then…..well they don't like to give those types of oaths,'_ Morgaine warned them, it was a lot easier to force blood from a turnip. _'You really have to force them to do that and good luck in doing that.'_

Harrison and Lily smiled at each other, they knew what was coming, so now it was up for them to make it happen.

The women had been silent up until this point, which was suspicious at their own right. The two stepped into the stone circle and sprung the trap.

The second that the trap was sprung, the women's beauty became less prominent and it was obviously an illusion to lure anyone down there into a false sense of security.

They transformed into wraith like versions of themselves and one of them opened her mouth, letting out a sonic scream.

Lily and Harrison dropped to their knees, their enhanced hearing being played havoc with. The shriek of the banshee was something that very few people could sustain.

**To Be Continued on July 25** **th** **2014.**


	41. Married on Wednesday

From the point of view of the banshees, Harrison and Lily dropped down to their hands and knees. The sextet of magical creatures surrounded them, going in for the kill.

Harrison and Lily watched from the shadows, barely suppressed grins over their faces. The illusions held up well. Lily was able to do the charm work and Harrison was able to hide their images from the senses of the banshees.

Standing ten yards behind the banshees, as opposed to right behind them, Harrison and Lily exchanged smirks with each other and prepared to spring their trap. The two were ready and willing to go.

Lily was the one who started the cycle, rearing her arm back. A blast of fire caught one of the banshees in the face, causing them to be inconvenienced severely.

The creature gave a surprised noise, as it was essentially burned. They had been tricked, but this fact was not allowed to go through their heads that easily. Because Harrison was also on the attack, lifting his hand up into the air, and there was a loud sonic boom that rocked them down.

One of them flew through the air, arms outstretched, but a gag wrapped around the mouth of the creature. Its power was subdued and Lily lifted her hand into the air, with a delicate slash of her wrist.

She created a whip made of flame and knocked it off of the face of the banshee. Her red hair flowed freely around her face, as her green eyes burned with the personification of power. Even the creatures around them were rather horrified at what they saw.

The redhead whipped her fist back and sent the balls of fire. They managed to recover from the initial attacks but Harrison did not allow them to perform a counter strike.

He transfigured the ground, causing several spiked vines to wrap around them, and Harrison bounced off the back of their heads, clonking them together. One of the creatures was caught in a ring of fire.

' _Do not let them open their mouths, whatever you do!'_ Morgaine advised them and Harrison smiled, not saying anything. He threw a capsule into the air.

A green liquid wrapped around the head of one of the creatures, and she viciously clawed her way out.

"I think we better find a way out of here, and fast, before they call more of their sisters," Lily panted, twisting her wrist and once again causing the fire to fly.

The ground was scorched underneath them but Lily and Harrison were able to hover high above the scorched ground. The banshees craned their necks up and pointed themselves towards them.

The first shield was already up, and the second one was being worked on. The cry of the banshee hit the shield and cracked it like glass.

' _Already, ready,'_ Harrison thought as he performed and reflecting spell, hoping that this would work.

Sure enough it did work, like a charm, pardon the horrible pun. The sonic scream caught the banshee off guard, dropping the creatures all the way to their knees.

"Good, they're suffering, the bitches deserve it," Lily said once again, causing fire to wrap around the creature.

Three of them were pretty much taken down for the count but there were three more left hanging around. These stragglers were something that they would either have to keep at bay or taken out.

"Back!" Lily commanded and Harrison flicked three more pellets, causing them to detonate them onto the faces of the banshees. Once again, they tried to scratch and claw at the two interlopers but their shields did a remarkable job in holding it back.

Now that their enemies have been kept at bay, Lily looked over her shoulder, and they could see reality start to shift once again.

"Now's our chance!" Lily called and Harrison followed her behind, but not before they left their friends one last parting gift as they made their way through the portal.

Both of them managed to land gracefully on their feet where the exit point was. Reality seemed to be settling back to normal or what passed as normal. The two of them looked at each other.

"So, we're here, where is here actually?"

Harrison didn't quite recognize the place but Lily did. Lily smiled, she would recognize this place pretty much any time.

"We're closed to Wales, Godric's Hallow to be precise."

* * *

From the meeting with Lucius after that finished, Harry had a class at GCU. It was rather enlightening as usual.

From there, Harry, being Harry, found himself in the company of beautiful women, two of them in fact, when he was having lunch at a café close to GCU.

"It's been a long time, since I've been able to get a chance to talk to you," Sapphire said, one of the women who was sitting down with him. She decided to keep an iron like grip on his right arm, with a smile on her face that could light up a room.

"Your classes have been busy….."

"Yes, barely able to keep my breathe here," Sapphire said with a smile on her face and there was a grin. "But now that I'm with you….well I'm going to have to be breathless for another reason, won't I?"

' _Very subtle, aren't we?'_ Zatanna thought and Donna chimed in.

' _Well subtle isn't exactly something that is a trademark for a lot of girls in the circle or even on the outside looking in,'_ Donna thought.

' _Speaking from experience, are we?'_ Lyta asked, with an innocent smile and grin.

' _Quiet,'_ Donna said, crossing her arms.

' _Ladies,'_ Hippolyta said, with the regal air that caused her girls to fall in line, as Sapphire finished telling Harry about the work that she was doing as of late.

"Well, you've been busy, and how about you, Harley?"

Harleen Quinzell smiled. Her blonde hair was tied back in a professional manner, or what she thought was a professional manner anyway. She wore a nice pair of eye glasses that showed her shimmering blue eyes. She wore a white blouse and a black skirt that went down past her knees.

"Well….I got some good news," Harley said, basically hanging on the back of Harry's neck and she casually nudged Sapphire out of the way. The woman pouted and shot Harley a death glare but the girl did not really notice it all that. "You know my internship that I put through….well Doctor Ravencroft gave me the good news…..I'm on my way to Blackgate."

Harry smiled, happy for her.

"Well, you deserve it."

"Thanks," Harley said in a bubbly voice. She was rather happy for herself and the only reason she was bouncing up and down was that she actually managed some level of restraint. "I mean with all of the people with records in Gotham City, there are going to be a lot of interesting people out there, to really take a close look at."

"Careful, you don't want to run into someone who is too interesting," Harry warned her and Harley smiled.

"It's just an Internship, what's the worst that could happen?" Harley asked and Sapphire cringed, as she caught Harry's eye and she sighed.

"That's the worst thing that you can say, you know," Sapphire argued but she decided to go back to her soup, as Harley chatted away happily about it.

"Well, you do know everything, you were able to help me through some tight spots," Harry told her and she smiled at him.

"Well, I wouldn't have been able to do anything if you didn't really….well if you didn't have a few brain cells rattling around in your head," Harley said and she rested her back against Harry but slowly pulled away suddenly. She didn't want to be too obvious after all.

The group talked idly for a little bit longer and finished up lunch, preparing to go their separate ways.

"Have a nice afternoon, I'll talk to both of you later," Harry said and he bid them goodbye, but Sapphire stopped him, her grip on his arm not really slacking.

"You know, I don't think that I'll let you get away that easily, I mean…..after what happened last time, you owe me another date," Sapphire said and Harry smiled at her. He did enjoy a girl who knew what she wanted and more importantly how to get it.

"Oh, do you think that?" Harry asked and she smiled at him knowingly.

"Yes, yes, I do," Sapphire said as her grin was barely able to hold up. "So, what do you think of this weekend?"

"I think that it would be amazing, although we're going to have to work hard to top how wonderful last time was," Harry said and Sapphire threw her arms around him, pressing him into a hug. The young woman leaned forward, and whispered into his ear.

"Well, I'm sure that you're going to have a find a way to step up your game, won't you?"

"I do try, you know that," Harry said and she smiled with a brief nod in agreement, and then she kissed him fiercely on the lips in response.

' _Well, sometimes those girls do have you wrapped around their tightly, don't they?'_ Gabrielle asked and there were some nods in agreement.

' _It's not like I don't get anything out of it, you know,'_ Harry said and there was many moments of muttering in agreement between all the girls who were listening in on the conversation.

His cell phone rang and right away, Harry picked it up, answering it without a second thought.

"Hey, Harry, are you busy?" Veronica Vreeland asked over the phone.

"Hi Veronica, no I don't have anything planned," Harry confirmed over the phone and he frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I was wondering if you would like to join me for a game of tennis at the Gotham City Country Club," Veronica said. "Bruce was going to join me but Alfred, he called, telling me that he had to cancel at the last minute."

' _Mmm,'_ Harry thought but he decided not let the woman know that he suspected that something was going on. He just couldn't really put his thumb on what was going on to be honest.

"Well, I'd be happy to join you, I'll meet you in about a half of an hour," Harry said, after all.

"Seriously…..oh….that would be great, if it isn't really too much trouble?" Veronica asked there was a tentative tone in her voice. It was almost like she didn't want to see too eager at meeting with Harry.

"No, no, no trouble at all," Harry said in one of his reassuring voices, with a smile on his face. "You know how much I enjoy your company…..well I better leave now so I don't be late."

"Yeah, sorry for talking your ear off….you know how I can get," Veronica said in an excited tone and the two said their goodbyes with each other.

' _Penny, could you do me a favor?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes?'_ Penny asked.

' _See if you can get ahold of your uncle,'_ Harry told her and Penny needed no further instruction than that.

He smelled a rat but where or who, he didn't know.

* * *

When you were held captive in a basement, time tended to pass weirdly. Batman once again was trapped onto the chair, unable to move from his current position. He deflated, the fact that he had not had a good solid meal or water after being in this sweltering hot church basement started to wear on him.

The Dark Knight Detective tried to crane his neck up, there were some comings and goings from the Deacon and his two main Acolytes. The Deacon disappeared for periods at a time, allowing the words to sink in. Batman tried to get a good look around but his will power slowly waned.

It felt like a sledgehammer was being rammed in the back of his head constantly, pounding the Deacon's words deeper into his head. He took a breath once more and tried to be mindful of his surroundings.

One of the Deacon's Acolytes sat at his table, with a book in front of him. At first glance, one might be able to think that it was a bible in front of him. He had his head bowed, his eyes bloodshot, and he was muttering something underneath his breath.

Batman strained to listen but it was not in a language that he recognized. He coughed and tried to push his wrist up.

"Gotham City, Gotham City is full with a plague, full of sinners, and these sinners will hunt down those true believers unless we lead to a revolution."

Even though the Deacon was not here, those words hammered through the back of Batman's head. His congregation was massive, his power of words sunk into the back of his head, digging into his mind.

He did manage to catch a few words from the Acolyte as he was hunched over at the table.

"….The cries of children will be extinguished, for those who bring them to damnation will be burned. The darkness that surrounds this sordid land will be extinguished."

He delved back into his tongues, and once again Batman tried to keep his head up. The words burned into his head.

"My brother, I am in your mind, even when I'm not here. My words, you know them to be true, they're penetrating your mind, like little bitty razor blades."

Batman tried to shake these words out of his mind and he could see the light at the top of the steps. Speaking of the good Deacon, he descended his way down the stairs. He carefully balanced two plates of food, approaching the table.

He sat the plates of food in front of Batman, where they were in his line of sight. The Dark Knight's burning gaze was set on him, although it had less fire.

"Are you hungry, my brother?"

The Dark Knight did not even respond so the man shrugged.

"Fair enough then," Deacon Blackfire said as he looked at the plate and dug into the bounty, ravenously. "My friend, you must understand what I'm saying and why you believe it. Because it's not me saying it. I'm used as a vessel to reflect the thoughts that you would already reflect in the back of your mind. You see, it's all about perception and I'm not really speaking. It's just your mind….your mind, my brother, it has told you what you wanted to know."

Once again Batman remained silent, that was his default state at this time and the good deacon chuckled as he continued to stare his prey down.

"You know that, about as well as I do, even though you're not one for speaking."

There was silence for a moment, as the Deacon slowly ate his meal, savoring every last bite. Batman wasn't about to break the silence.

"There are men, women, children….little bitty babies sitting down around this time for their supper, but could it be that last meal?"

The question was rhetorical, not that Batman was going to really answer it to begin with.

"Those who have put a thrall underneath Gotham City will be responsible for this. You know it as well as I do…..but don't take my word for it. Listen to your own thoughts. Somewhere, there is a little boy crying because his parents will never come home."

The Deacon didn't know that, but that struck home with Batman closer than he would ever know.

"Darkness, full of darkness, but those sinners fear the consequences."

Batman's eyes were on the Deacon but his lips weren't moving. Blackfire finished his meal and there was little more conversation to be said.

But he had said plenty already.

* * *

"I can't believe we won."

Harry chuckled as he was driving Veronica home in the aftermath of their tennis match, a very successful one at that point.

"Did you….did you really have any doubt that I would?" Harry asked and the woman looked at him, her eyes widened and she started to shake her head.

"Well no….but you got to admit….."

"I know, I know what you're saying, really, I do," Harry replied to her, with a smile on his face. She looked kind of sheepish but recovered fairly quickly.

"It's just that….well as far as I know, you've never played a game of tennis in your life but you seemed like a natural out there, you know," Veronica said, the crisp autumn air blowing over the top of their heads, as Harry turned a corner in one of his many cars.

"Veronica…..I know….it seems like it, but it's been a long time."

"How long?" she asked, curiosity getting the better of her. She should have learned by now not to be too curious for her own good but she couldn't really help herself.

Harry gave her one of those smiles and said smile caught her completely off guard. She managed to recover quickly from him. "Oh it's been several years, but certain skills…..I guess I retain them, and I don't go out of practice."

"Well, I'm sure that they thought that they would be in for an easy ride, but….that's all on them, isn't it?" Veronica asked, as Harry pulled up towards the long drive. The gates were already opened to allow them admission. "So….that was actually nice to let my hair down….got a big charity ball next week that I got to prepare for. I'm sure a lot of Gotham's most respected citizens will show up."

"Was that a hint?" Harry asked her, as he parked the car and the woman smiled.

"If you could put in an appearance sometime….but then again, I don't have to ask, you seem to pop into a lot of charity events," Veronica told her. "Then again, I know that you're good at multi-tasking, so I wonder how you have any time to sleep….."

"I really have it down to a science to be honest," Harry said, pleased with the smile on her face. "And you know that we keep running into each other with fair regularity, despite some of the things that you've been doing."

"Yes, I hope to undo some of the damage that….other less forward thinking members of the upper echelon do and I know that RAO is doing what it can to preserve the lands used for farming out in the Midwest," Veronica said and she smiled. "And I agree with you….I know that Luthor is trying to muscle his way in there but….."

"I've got my eye on Luthor, don't worry," Harry said, and that was rather true.

"The newest preserve should be a sanctuary for some of the endangered species as well, "Veronica said excitedly, as they make their way to the door. "I know….I might have just as much to do as you do but…..I think that this is all important, wouldn't you agree?"

"Oh yes, I agree," Harry said, as he reached the front door.

"So, would you like to have a drink before you go off on your way?" Veronica asked, essentially out of the blue and Harry smiled at her.

"I would be honored."

' _She's more subtle than a lot of them, I think, come to think about it,'_ Daphne thought and it was Astoria who chimed in as well.

' _Given that all of them have all of the subtly of a runaway train,'_ Astoria commented to the entire group.

' _Nothing like her sister, she redefines the term…..well she redefines the term not being subtle,'_ Gabrielle thought, her mind failed her.

' _Hmmm, you would know about that, wouldn't you, Gabi?'_ Fleur asked and the sisterly bickering started through the bond link.

Harry chuckled in amusement but he allowed Veronica to lead him towards the area of the bar to mix his drink. That left him pretty much to run into the clutches of Bette Kane and Bunny Vreeland.

"Hi, Harry," Bette said in an excited voice, as she was dressed to kill in a little black desk that hugged her curves. She wore an exquisite pair of high heel shoes as well.

"Fancy meeting you here, how are you?" Bunny asked, wearing a tight purple number of the same thing. Her body was displayed rather nicely for him and Harry found his eyes lingering on her for a little bit. He shook his head and managed to keep himself calm, at least for the most part.

"I'm fine….looks like you two girls are going out," Harry said.

' _No Harry, it's a trap, don't do it,'_ Amanda warned him, knowing where this one was going and she had a pretty good idea that Harry knew where it was going.

"Well yeah, I figure that since there's nothing else better to do tonight, the two of us should go to the club, and you know, just hang out, we're meeting some friends there, do you want to come with us, we would be really happy if you came with us," Bunny said in an excited voice without taking a breath. "It's just that….well Ronnie here…..I think that she would be a lot more at ease if you were with us and….we know that we wouldn't get in too much trouble with you around and….."

"I think what she's meaning to say is, would you like to come with us?" Bette asked.

' _Oh boy, here we go,'_ Fleur thought, shaking her head in thinly veiled amusement.

' _They're going to rope you into this, aren't they?'_ Nym asked, as she was torn between amusement and annoyance.

' _Nymphadora, not now,'_ Harry told her in a warning voice, and the woman fell into line.

"I'll….."

"Please, Harry, it would mean a lot to us," Bette said giving him a bright set of puppy dog eyes, with a smile on her face.

"Of course."

' _You don't really know what you're getting yourself into, you know,'_ Emily thought.

' _Well, I think he does,'_ Kara interjected, ignoring the girls who were trying to protest with what he was doing but Harry smiled.

"Great, we can go a little bit," Bunny said, bouncing up and down in excitement, as her dress clung to her body.

' _And of course she makes a spectacle out of herself,'_ Gabrielle thought.

' _Yes, she's acting like you do sometimes,'_ Fleur said and Gabrielle stuck her tongue out at her sister. _'Love you too Gabi.'_

* * *

Lily and Harrison thought that because they were in the neighborhood, they might as well take a stop by to see what everything was going on.

"Hasn't changed all that much, has it?" Andromeda asked, as she popped up by their sides, followed by Amelia.

"It's been the first time that I've back here…."

"Surprising, given that you inherited property here," Amelia commented idly with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, I know that, of course," Harrison said, Dumbledore willed a piece of property here. "Why did you and Dad move here in the first place?"

"Well it was just….it just had a unique heritage and you know how I am about researching the mysteries of magic, that was what lead to me in that cave," Lily said and she smiled. "Godric was said to have left any number of treasures here….but that might have been a myth. But it does lead a few unsavory figures swing by town in an attempt to see if that is true."

"Oh of course it would," Harrison replied, as the group made their way to the graveyard, to pay their respects.

"There's really not much to do here, other than the historical significance aspect," Lily added, with a smile on her face. "Then again, you could say that about a lot of magical villages. Sometimes there's a library, and then there's a graveyard while you might find some figures from history buried. A few shops….but really nothing major."

"Yes, Godric's Hallow was a place that many families have called home for years, but Riddle kind of drove many of them away," Amelia said, recalling the reports. "A few historians lived here….because of the historical significance."

"It's not too bad of a place, really," Andromeda said and Lily smiled, as they made their way towards the graveyard.

Lily was starting to get a foreboding chill through her spine, because let's face it, there wasn't any day where you visited your own grave.

"The last enemy that should be destroyed is death," Lily muttered, reading the inscription on the grave and she shook her head.

"You don't approve, I take it," Andromeda said and Lily gave a long and poignant sigh.

"Not at the slightest, not at the slightest," Lily replied, throwing her head back. This was going to be a long road ahead to be honest. "I don't know what….well I have a good idea what people were thinking when they put something like that on a grave, but….."

"I get the point, Mum," Harrison replied quietly, and Lily shook her head once again, mouthing the words on the grave.

After the group paid their respects, they made their way up the hill towards the cottage.

"The Ministry is in a state of panic," Amelia said, she figured that this statement would come up sooner rather than later. The redhead woman turned herself around and sighed.

"Oh….?" Harry asked her and Amelia nodded.

"Yes, it's all about…..well it's all about those rifts that are opening up," Andromeda said, chiming in right at that moment.

"It's really bad," Amelia said, to say that there was a shit storm would not even begin to adequately describe things. "The rift's breaking open and it's just for a minute. Some of the areas aren't inhabited, but all plant life has been killed. And if it is inhabited, all of the life force is gone from the area."

"Seems to me it's almost like being kissed by a Dementor," Harrison said and Amelia nodded firmly.

"That would be…..well that would be the most elegant explanation, yes," Amelia answered, not liking this and Lily and Harrison locked eyes. They were both thinking along the same lines. This was going to really get a bit worse before it really gets any better.

' _I think that we better figure out how to deal with this, and soon,'_ Morgaine thought, anxiety really brimming through her eyes.

' _Yes, understood,'_ Harrison thought, he didn't really need to be told twice about something like this. His hands folded over his chest and he hoped that he could sort this out before too long. It might seem like a cliché, but time was in fact of the essence.

* * *

"You should come with us more often, it would give you a chance to unwind a bit more," Bette said with a smile on her face. "Plus, we both know how dull all of that charity work can be….."

"Even though it's important," Bunny added, nudging Bette to remind her of this fact.

"It's very important," Bette agreed with a smile on her face as she looked at the woman. "You're higher strung than Kathy is sometimes. And let's not think of the issues that Kate has….how repressed she is."

"Oh, you got that figured that out, don't you?" Harry asked Bette with a smile.

"Well, I think we….I think we better have this dance," Bette said, barely keeping the grin off of her face. She wasn't going to let him get the better of her, even though she had Harry in his crosshairs since the party.

"Hey, I was going to ask Harry to dance," Bunny said, crossing her arms and staring him down.

"Sorry, Bunny, snooze, you loose," Bette said with him. "So, shall we hit the dance floor, handsome?"

"Lead the way, my lady," Harry commented with a wide smile, as he took her hand. Bette pulled him in tightly, with glee dancing in her eyes, and there should be no reason why she was not happy. "Well….."

"Yeah, it's kind of high beat, but I'm sure that you can handle it, with all of the girls that you hang around," Bette said and she whispered in Harry's ears. "I love Amanda and Emily….but do you think you can answer a question for me about them?"

' _Oh this should be good,'_ Amanda thought but Emily shushed her sister, wanting to listen.

' _The two of you eavesdropping on what's supposed to be a private conversation about you two….actually I'm not sure who I'm supposed to reprimand,'_ Nym thought.

' _Just go with it, Nymmy, just go with it,'_ Fleur thought, amusing dancing from her tone of voice, as she could see Bette and Harry finish their dance. Bunny was getting more and more impatient as she waited for her turn, to the point that she was tapping on her foot on the ground.

"So, are the twins on a sugar high all of the time or they just act that way…"

"They're high strung, with a lot of energy," Harry said rather calmly all things considered and Bette smiled.

"That's a really interesting way of putting things," Bette said, smiling as she shook her head, but she continued her dance with Harry. She could tell Bunny was getting more and more agitated over in the corner, not to mention impatient, very impatient, so she was going to milk this one for all it was worth.

Eventually, the moment Bette pulled away from Harry, Bunny slammed herself into Harry's grip, and started to dance.

"Someone's eager, isn't she?" Harry asked and Bunny smiled.

"You should know, that, shouldn't you?" Bunny asked as she looked at him, and she got the envious stares from more than a few onlookers. She gave them back a look that indicated "that's right, I'm with the hottest guy in Gotham City, what are you bitches going to do about it?"

After some time, the girls slipped back to the bathroom.

' _So it's safe to talk to you now, isn't it?'_ Penny asked.

' _Yes, Penny, it is did you talk to your Uncle?'_ Harry asked her and the woman sighed.

' _Bruce has been missing from the night before, according to Uncle Alfred, he was tracking down the missing homeless in Gotham City, and….he ran into something….and he hasn't been heard since last night,'_ Penny thought with a sigh. _'He isn't sure what happened, other than he isn't dead….you know because of the life support systems that are built into his suit.'_

' _Yes, I'm well aware of those,'_ Harry thought, bringing his hand up to the bridge of his nose, and sighing long. _'So, guess I'm going to have to cut this one short….'_

' _Actually, you can't, because you're still on the injured list,'_ Dinah thought.

Harry sighed, that was true. For all of the benefits that watch gave and the reasons why he wore it, to heal the damage to his CORE, it could still be a bloody drawback sometimes.

' _And your suit isn't completely repaired yet,'_ Faora chimed in to him. _'Underarmor is fine….rest of it….the upper layer….well not so much.'_

' _I get the picture,'_ Harry sighed, and he saw the girls returning from the bathroom.

' _I can just as easily see what happened, I'll keep you posted,'_ Dinah thought.

* * *

"So, Eddie's got a hair up his ass….."

"Can you blame the guy, I mean….his brother, he got butchered….it was like some Jason type thing….you should have seen it….."

"Were you there…."

"Nah, but my cousin knows a dame who saw the aftermath."

A trio of thugs played cards at the table, and talking about what is happening.

"There are a lot of weird things in this city, I mean there's this Batman and there's this Nightwing and then there's….there's….do you really think that one of them are behind this?"

"Could be, you never know, but Eddie….he's throwing a fucking fit, I wouldn't want to be the guy who comes back and doesn't plug this asshole," one of the thugs said and then his phone rang. He picked it up. "Yeah, yeah, if you got the cash, I got the goods already…..I'll meet you there."

"Who was that?" one of the thugs asked.

"Oh you know, it's just some junky wanting a hit, you know how they are, but if they pay, they can do whatever they want," one of the thugs said as he looked at the other two. There was a knock on the door.

"Who the hell is here at this hour?"

One of the thugs made their way forward and held the door, opening it up a crack, to see who was there.

BOOM!

The door flew off and smacked the thug hard in the face. It was sent flying, smashing him hard in the head, and there was a looming figure that stood in the shadows.

The thugs lost their shit and scrambled so fast, but the problem was that they tripped over their feet and were not able to escape any time soon.

The imposing figure of Solomon Grundy lumbered forward. "Married on a Wednesday."

The lights went out and there were screams, as the swamp monster lumbered forward towards them. Some of them begged for mercy, but there was none.

**To Be Continued.**


	42. Took Ill on a Thursday

Gotham City always had an atmosphere that something was amiss and that was no less true when Black Canary was on the hunt on this night.

"So wait….he's been missing for twenty four hours?"

Oracle has popped in on the call. There was some information that she suspected that Nightwing and perhaps Black Canary had that she wasn't completely privy to. That being said, it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Batman being gone for this long was a cause for concern.

"Yes, twenty four hours," Nightwing confirmed, he was sitting back tonight due to his recent injuries, playing that mission control role that normally one of the Alphas would be. His injuries were such that he didn't want to be out on the field.

"The fact that you're so serious means that the big bad bat bit off a bit more than he could chew," Oracle said but then she tried to look on the bright side of the situation. "But you say that you have some way to track him down, don't you?"

"I do, but nothing like this is really foolproof," Harry said, trying to remain calm, despite the obvious fact that things could go pear shaped in a hurry. "His signal….it's in an area where there's a lot of homeless people that are around."

"I've looked into that, not just your standard homeless, basically there have been a lot of people who have done time, whether innocent and guilty, I don't know, but they get put back onto the street," Oracle said to him. "Word around the GCPD is that the gangs are getting very hostile towards the homeless. Not that they're going to expand any resources trying to deal with anyone who is messing with homeless people. The opinion of the mob and the opinion of a lot of the GCPD are about the same, the homeless is considered human garbage"

"And this says that Batman should be around here just about anywhere," Black Canary said, dropping down from the perch. The fact that things were kind of quiet did nothing to ease her tensions. If anything, it unsettled her even more.

Oracle wished that she could access more of this network that Nightwing had set up but the encryption was heavy and it was designed to really do nasty things to anyone's computers who tried to hack it. Plus she had been given an unprecedented level of trust and access right now, so it was unwise not to squander it.

The easiest way to track down Batman would be to track the hardwire in his suit. Which Black Canary was doing, with the guidance of Nightwing and Oracle from afar. Much to her surprise, this actually lead her into a nicer part of town, as opposed to one of the crime ridden parts of town.

"That's really odd," Oracle said, she suspected the tracker to lead to them in one of the slummiest parts of Gotham City. But it was in this area instead.

Black Canary pulled up her bike, making sure to park it safely and secure it. She walked forward.

"About a block east from here," Nightwing chimed in through the link and Black Canary nodded in agreement.

Black Canary showed up under the Solomon Wayne courthouse. The irony of this situation was interesting. She was getting close but this case was getting more baffling by each tick of the clock.

' _So any theories?'_ Black Canary asked, wanting to get some feedback on the matter.

' _A few, but I'd like to back them up by concrete evidence,'_ Harry thought and Faora jumped in for her two cents.

' _He could have gotten caught in the middle of something and got wounded, and went somewhere for medical attention….where I don't know,'_ Faora thought and Karen reminded her of something.

' _Well there are places in Gotham City that are discrete, no questions asked,'_ Karen thought and Black Canary edged forward.

She could have heard sworn that she heard something but it was nothing that she should be concerned with, at least not yet.

"Just stay sharp, there have been some of the homeless who have been hanging around in the alleyway near the courthouse," Oracle advised her. "Which means that some of the mobsters are hanging around….."

"The question is which ones?" Nightwing asked and Oracle remained silent.

"I'll be sure to let you know when I find that out."

Black Canary stopped and stared, the tracker lead her right to the edge of the garbage can. Picking up the trash can lid, she pulled it off.

With a determined look in her eyes, she shifted through the garbage. It was only moments before she found what she was looking for. In the case, it was his belt and his gloves.

"Well, we just hit a dead end," Black Canary said, holding up the belt and the gloves. It was a miracle that no one found them.

"You know, I'm honestly surprised about something," Oracle said and there was a pause in her voice before she continued to chime in. "Well…..you know, someone like him, I'm honestly surprised that they didn't try and pick up the belt. All of the hardware inside…that would be a gangster's wet dream."

"Maybe," Nightwing said, taking her suggestion into account. "Black Canary, is there any indication that the belt was tampered with?"

"Not that I can see, no," Black Canary said, if she knew Bruce, he would have all kinds of automated defenses on the belt that would discourage any would be robbers from tampering with it. "Better take this with me….because….."

"Yeah, it might be a miracle that no one else found it," Oracle said and she turned around, checking for any sightings of Batman, whether confirmed or otherwise. "And nothing….he was sighted twenty four hours ago, around the time he disappeared, but nothing since."

"So, we're back to square one," Nightwing said, hoping that Batman was not found floating in a river or buried underneath a cement parking lot a week from now.

' _I think that he could be alive though,'_ Jaime suggested to him.

' _Perhaps, but it's baffling…who planted the belt and the gloves there?'_ Harry asked and there were many questions and not a sufficient amount of answers. Which re-defined the term of going back to square one.

"Let's see if we can retrace his steps then."

* * *

Crime Alley was quiet at this time of the evening but the man approaching was not one of the usual residents. He looked homeless by his demeanor but one would not be able to guess that he was homeless by the type of clothes that he wore. A knit cap covered the top of his head. He wore a flannel jacket, a white top, and a pair of faded blue jeans, along with a new pair of shoes. His eyes were widened and there was a smile on his face.

"A blessed day," he said to a couple who had passed them and they nodded, before moving on.

He had just left the church of Deacon Blackfire, and stopped in front of one of the police stations in Crime Alley. It was not one of great significance but at the same time, it was significant enough for him to make a statement. Crossing his arms, his grin got larger over his face as he prepared for his next move.

He committed the building to memory, there were so many memories that he had of this area. They were strong in his mind.

"The house of lies is strong," he commented as he looked it over. He dropped to his knee in front of the building. "Those who are true to the cause, they will be spared. Those who are sinned, deliver them to the arms of those who will make them pay for the sins. Fire should spread over Gotham City, my lord. Please deliver this bounty and please deliver them to your arms, while shielding those who have believed. All who choose not to believe will be cast out, for they have not been devoted to the cause, and then….the world will become a holy place where those who deserve it will get a second chance. Amen."

The man took half of a step back and looked at the nice building that stood in front of him. There were people going inside.

"A blessed day to you officer," the man commented with a smile.

"Yeah, get out of my way, trash," the officer said, roughly, shoving the homeless man.

The man stepped forward, shaking his head, and he walked further off from the building. He made his way down Crime alley, greeting anyone who had come up to him. His demeanor was friendly, but it got more twisted the further that it got away from the police station.

BOOM!

The police station went up in flames, and fire shot up. The screams of terror were heard and he paused long enough to watch it. There was a loud panic and the sounds of sirens followed soon after.

"That's what…..that's what you get, for not believing, children," he whispered, his wicked grin spreading over his face. The man was solemn for a second but as the Deacon told him; they brought it upon themselves by enabling the lies.

At one point, he was a demolitions expert for the Roman, he blew up buildings with people inside it when they didn't pay up. But the Roman sent him up the river when the heat got on him and he needed a patsy. This man was his patsy and when he got out, he was put on the street, cast out like last week's trash.

Now he was putting his talents to good use because he had been saved. He continued the long walk, pleased that he was doing the lord's work. The corrupt institution was being burned out in the flash of an eye.

They panicked but perhaps that would give some who had seen and witnessed what had occurred the necessary wake up call.

He walked forward, past another group of the Deacon's followers who had been waiting for him.

"Let's go home my brothers; the lord's work is done."

The police station continued to burn in the distance, but they walked away with it. More sinners had been punished and it was a sign, a beacon, that righteousness would once again reign supreme in Gotham City.

* * *

Black Canary remained on the hunt but she just felt like she was going around in circles, hitting one dead end after another. She stopped for a brief moment in time at the edge of where she stood and there was a long sigh that escaped her lips.

The police radio cackled to life. "This just in….the 509 at Crime Alley has been hit by an explosion…..I repeat the 509 at Crime Alley has been hit by an explosion."

"Well, that's…..that was a surprise," Nightwing commented in an idle voice as he waited for further information.

"Several dead bodies have been removed from the area but the device that caused the blast has not been liberated from the building…..stand by for further information and requesting assistance."

"Well, I guess they don't have too much information, so we have even less to go off of," Black Canary said, stopping at the edge. So far, nothing.

"I don't think it's the Mob…..because normally they don't go against the cops like this," Oracle told them.

"Right, they know too much incriminating information on the various crime syndicates in this city," Nightwing said and the green eyed young man sighed. "But…..I'm looking to see if I can find anything that is not making its way through the radio. Perhaps an eye witness account, a news story, something."

"Right….I'll do likewise, the two of us can cover more ground," Oracle said and then she shifted through everything.

The story hadn't quite hit the press yet, but she wondered if any eye witnesses that were close enough to see anything had not been hit in the blast and taken down.

' _So, it's not the Mob, we've figured that out,'_ Faora said and Kara added her two cents.

' _Yes…..but if it isn't….then who is it…..who would be brazen enough to essentially declare war on the GCPD?'_ Kara asked.

' _Your guess is as good as mine,'_ Harry replied, once again searching. There were a few initial reports chiming in, just breaking news that there was an explosion.

"There's speculation that it could be a revenge for a drug bust that happened a week ago," Nightwing said, pulling up the news article.

"They could stand to be more specific…"

"I think that now people are just grasping at straws," Black Canary said and she looked around, she was close to the area.

"Oh, I found something, actually," Oracle said chiming in and it was the fact that she found something tangible that made her so giddy. She tried not to…..well she tried not to lose her shit for lack of a better term.

Black Canary and Nightwing, despite not being in the same area, were rather amused because of this aspect of Barbara getting more excited than she really should. Never the less, Nightwing chimed in with a few words of his own. "Well, don't leave us in suspense, you know."

"Right, right, I won't," Oracle said and she cleared her throat. "So, you've heard of the name, Jefferson Skeevers, right?"

"Yeah, guy is alleged to be a pimp, a drug dealer, and just a general all around low life," Nightwing said, and Black Canary jumped in after he finished off.

"Yes, I think that describes Skeevers to a tee."

Oracle chimed in with the information. "Well, the police station attack in Crime Alley is only the third such attack. Skeevers's night club last night was the first attack. And the scene was nasty, it looked like something out of a horror movie. You know after the movie monster had been through and killed everyone."

Nightwing paused, he didn't even want to know what that entailed to be honest. His green eyes flashed as he went through.

"They found Skeevers nearby, or what was left of him," Oracle said and she looked at the police pictures. "Yeah, I wouldn't recommend looking at the pictures of what they found on a full stomach of food."

' _Yes, I would have to agree,'_ Karen chimed in through the link, as she had found about the same thing.

' _Nothing human could have given him that beating,'_ Diana thought, aghast, as Karen mentally projected a picture of them.

' _HEY, I WAS EATING!'_ Amanda yelled as she felt her stomach.

' _Ah poor thing,'_ Donna thought with a smile, but she was sure that Amanda was just being dramatic, because that was what she did.

"Okay….what was the second place that there was a bombing?" Nightwing asked, trying to steer this conversation back into this intended purpose.

"The second was a pizzeria," Oracle said and that got a sound of surprise with Black Canary and Nightwing for a few seconds.

"That's…..that's an odd place to attack," Black Canary said, as she approached the location where Alfred last had contact with Batman. This would be the next place where they would have a look around.

"Well, it is….until you figure out pizza is not the only thing that they're selling," Oracle commented. "The police believe the same person is behind the first two attacks, so we should assume that they believe that the other attack is made by the same person."

"Makes perfect sense," Nightwing agreed. "Even though it seems to be relatively tame….compared to the other two attacks."

It was a really dark thought to think that the explosion would have been the tamest attack of the three but given the images he caught of the other two attacks, it was. It looked like some force of nature went through the nightclub in particular.

Black Canary showed up and she gave her observations. "Well I'm here…..and there was certainly been a fight."

"Any kind of evidence there you can see?" Oracle asked.

"There are a lot of footprints but I can't really tell if they were here before Batman was here or after," Black Canary said and she paused. "And some dried up blood strains, nothing too substantial."

"Could be from Batman, could be from the homeless fighting over scraps," Nightwing mused, putting his hand underneath his chin and thinking about it. "Is there anything that you can get, a scan, anything?"

"No, sorry," Black Canary replied as she sighed long and hard. She really wished that she could help.

"We'll have to look into the bombings later, but our number one priority is tracking down Batman, let's not forget that," Nightwing said, but there was no clue there.

These dried up blood stains were inconclusive and it was hard to figure out who they belonged to at all.

* * *

Harrison could tell that he was at the edge of something interesting, but what he was at, he had no clue at all. He had a few people here, some of them because he valued their input and others who could give him input on what the hell was going on. There was Circe, Nimue, Morgaine, Lily, Bella, and Andi, and they were all sitting around.

Nimue drew breath. "Well it all started during the time of the witch hunts around the end of the seventeenth century. The Faerie thought that things were too dangerous so…..they sealed the gateways between the two realms and cut off all contact to the mundane world."

"There were other circumstances," Morgaine reminded her sister.

"Yes, there were other circumstances," Nimue agreed. "The Witch Hunt was one straw, but the Statute of Secrecy was the straw that broke the camel's back, for lack of a better term. Titania and Oberon, this was the last straw for them, the Ministry was getting quite uppity."

"The more things change in other words, the more they stay the same," Lily said with a sigh and Amelia, Bellatrix, and Andromeda could not really disagree with that statement.

"Yes, pretty much," Amelia said and she sighed at that. The Ministry had been reformed a lot but the problem was, put a wand in someone's hand and the problem remained the same. She couldn't help but think sometimes that the wand wavers should be sealed away from the normal world for everyone's sanity.

"Now, the Gateways are still sealed, I checked," Morgaine said and they were all sensing a but in the offing. "But yet, these rifts are still coming open at random, it doesn't make much sense, unless you come to the sad conclusion that Faerie World is breaking down."

"Then what do you propose we do," Harrison commented, speaking up for the first time in a long time. Sealing themselves away from the world had caused more problems, then good and Harrison was going to blame the Ministry for this, for their stupidity all of those years ago. It might have taken several centuries for the consequences to happen.

"I propose that we head into Faerie World and take care of the problem ourselves," Morgaine said and there was a smile on Harrison's face. Bellatrix spoke for all of them, he thought.

"Oh, that easy, is it?"

"Well it's not going to be easy, but I think that Morgaine and Harrison could be up it better than most," Circe said.

"Perhaps," Harrison conceded, but what options did they have? Unless this was fixed, it was going to get better before it got worse, much worse before it got even the slightest amount better.

"It's simply a matter of seeking an audience with Titania," Morgaine commented icily and there was a sense that she was trying to underplay how difficult that this would be normally. "She's essentially ruling Faerie World now with Oberon having fucked off to God only knows where."

"So, do you think that we can appease her to do what needs to be done, if she's even aware of what is happening….."

"Well, if she's aware…."

"We're going to make her aware soon enough, if she isn't, but I have a feeling that she has to get an inkling what is going on," Morgaine replied and there was no argument that they could have from that one. "The fact that I'm the daughter of Igraine, a member of one of the Fair Folk, that should give us _**some**_ degree of leverage."

Harrison noticed that the word some had actually emphasis placed on that and already, he was loving this.

"We do know that…"

"I know you know that, but I'm clarifying for anyone who might not be aware of that fact," Morgaine said in a haughty voice.

Nimue smiled, moments like this, it was borderline difficult to argue with her sister. Perhaps diving into the side of absolutely impossible.

* * *

"The darkness is something that you have embraced, but join me, join me in the light, join me in returning Gotham City to its glory, bring it to the promise land, bring it to the promise land where all of the children can be delivered from the darkness and saved from a life of sin."

The man's hand was cupped underneath his chin, holding his captive's head up. Batman looked glassy eyed.

"I'm still in your head, aren't I, Batman? But it's not completely me, it's you….you know what's to be done. They're targeting the forgotten sons of Gotham City, aren't they my brother?"

Batman blinked, his eyes were completely bloodshot. The Deacon continued to hold him in place.

"Understand it Batman, understand what I say. And my words are only gospel, my brother. You look up at me, and you see that I am the one who brings the truth to you, while others in Gotham City enable the lies. But those lies…..they will collapse around them….they will feel true horror, horror that the forsaken, the one's that have cast out as trash have felt in their time."

The Deacon's voice dropped to a hoarse whisper. "You can understand the horror that they feel. The men, the women, and the children, all swept over, and poisoned mentally by the sinners, abused physically. I do the good lord's work, my brother, and time is not on their side, it's not on your side, it's on my side. But if you embrace the words of truth….it will be yours completely. I will deliver them from darkness, and you can be the reaper that deliver the sinners from this cruel, cruel, world."

His words bored into Batman's head and drool dribbled down his chin.

"I believe that you're almost there my brother, just one more step, remember….remember, it's better to spread the winds of change then go up against it, to rip down the machine instead propping it up."

He paused and gave a low laugh that might have caused anyone who was in any state to hear it the collywobbles.

"You're nearly ready."

He dropped Batman's chin and caused his head to slump forward.

Deacon Blackfire allowed his message to sink in just a little bit more, leaving Batman there hanging. He put his hands around a metal door and with a solid clang, pushed it open.

He descended a set of stairs, meeting the large Acolyte with the dark hair and beard.

"He's seen the light?" the Acolyte inquired to him gruffly.

"Yes, he's seen the light, my brother," The Deacon whispered harshly. "My largest new friend waits, doesn't he?"

The Acolyte smiled an insidious smile. "He's an interesting plaything. He amuses us."

"Yes, he does serve our purposes quite well," The Deacon agreed in a crisp voice and he motioned for his Acolyte to follow him down the beaten tunnel.

The two men walked in silence, moving further and deeper into the sewer system. This was a location that was mostly lost to Gotham City for many years. Then again, there were many sewer systems that were completely forgot about it.

The Deacon stopped and he saw him standing there before him. The crown jewel of his holy crusade, the man that he unearthed. The epitome of the sacred mission that he had been undergoing, to deliver those who had been undercut by the corrupted force of Gotham City.

Solomon Grundy had struck and would strike again. All he needed was the proper motivation. The book from the Gotham City library told the Deacon all he needed to know about the swamp zombie.

"How are you, my friend?"

Grundy growled and the Deacon could sense that he would need further motivation to keep him underneath control. Looking over his shoulder, he turned to his large Acolyte friend, who was primed and ready to do his master's bidding.

"Knife."

The large man took the knife, and prepared for the word. The monster was in a dazed and the Deacon looked transfixed for a second.

"Do it."

The knife nicked the Deacon's hand and he held the fist up. The blood splashed in Grundy's face, bringing the monster back to state of obedience.

"Today is the day we hold it, may the lord smile down upon our sacred mission, and may the lord understand what we must do. May the lord know that we are doing this, to bring the stragglers from the flock back to his shepherd. All be saved, all be praised, amen."

The Deacon looked up, and waited for the grumbling response to come.

"Took ill on a Thursday."

"Lead him on my brother, I will tend them," Deacon Blackfire said this acolyte and said acolyte inclined his head with a stiff nod.

"Forward," The Acolyte grunted, leading Grundy on for his next action. The two of them made their way forward.

Deacon Blackfire watched and he needed to attend to the herd. It was getting closer to the moment of reckoning.

* * *

"The good news is that the repairs on your suit are nearly finished," Faora commented to him, as she worked on it. "It didn't take nearly as much damage as I initially believed it did."

"Well that's fortunate," Harry said as he sat back and things were cooling down in Gotham City. So far, there was nothing on the front that they were investigating, both the primary investigation and the secondary investigation.

Harry thought that matters were going to get really insane rather quickly. The green eyed wizard looked forward at the screen.

"The bad news is….."

"We haven't been able to figure out where Bruce has gone," Dinah commented, as she came in through the door. She gave a full body shudder as she sat herself down next to Harry. "It's very odd….."

"The trail runs cold, doesn't it?" Faora asked, as she did a primary test on the diagnostics of Harry's suit. So far, so good. The suit might be ready to go. Har-Zod on the other hand, was another matter entirely. He was still on the injury reserve list. It reminded her how the watch was necessary, but it runs into more than its few problems.

Dinah gave a grimace. "Yeah….it's kind of frustrating, if you really think about it….."

"Yes, very frustrating," Faora said, she smiled as she looked at the suit. It blinked back to life.

"All is good there?" Harry asked her and Faora nodded.

"Nearly," she confirmed towards him. She didn't want to jinx it by being too positive about the entire situation but at the same time, everything was looking very favorable.

"He was investigating the homeless and the gang angle, with the gangs getting very violent against the homeless….it was a grab for territory as you well know," Dinah said as she got up, putting her gear away and sighing. "He could have gotten caught in the crossfire….."

"Well, I think we could figure out that's a possibility," Faora said, as she gave another check of the suit. She wanted to be completely sure, but the good news is that physically it looked as good as new.

"The real question is….where is he?"

"I don't know, without that other bit of information, I don't think that we're going to find him tonight," Dinah said in an exasperated voice, as she looked out, pretty much absent mindedly.

"After a cool down, gang activity is up to another level," Harry said, looking over the information on the police reports that Barbara sent him about the recent attacks. He was actually trying to figure out if he could find out if Batman's disappearance and these attacks were connected.

He had a feeling that the two of them were connected, but exactly how they were connected, he had no clue whatsoever.

' _All we need is one more piece of evidence,'_ Karen said and she sounded optimistic about doing so.

' _Well, this is about all what we have right now, Alfred didn't know any more,'_ Penny reminded them. _'And he was trying to comb through the last transmissions trying to find out something but so far nothing.'_

' _We'll deal with it, though,'_ Karen thought to them and everyone was agreement through the bond link.

Dinah sat down, she didn't really run into any trouble. She was just running around, completely frustrated.

"Don't worry, Dinah, we'll find something," Harry told her, placing his strong hands against her shoulders and massaging them.

Dinah opened her mouth but she closed it. It was hard not to get relaxed by what Harry was doing to her. His circular motions went around and around her shoulders, causing her mind to go completely numb with pleasure.

She whimpered with pleasure but Harry was giving her a good working over.

"Yeah, I'm sure that you're right," Dinah said and she could see Faora at her feet, hand placed on it with a smile.

"You did as well as you could do….we're all confused with what happened," Faora said and she removed Dinah's boot, slowly slipping it off. Her fishnet clad legs and feet were exposed. She reached around and removed her left boot as well.

Dinah closed her eyes, Faora's tender attention on her foot caused her to feel a warmth spread through her body. Smirking at her success, Faora continued to massage her foot.

The blonde heroine felt things heating up, in more ways than one. Her nipples stuck out on the other side of her shirt as she inhaled and exhaled.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked her, as if he didn't know.

Faora grinned, as she ran her hands up her legs and she could feel her heat up. Faora's hands teased her center for the briefest of seconds. Actually it was a blink it and you missed it time of moment.

Harry rubbed her shoulders even harder, and then he slipped his hands forward.

"Nothing….oh feels good," Dinah moaned as his hands cupped her front and slowly worked around circles.

Harry grinned, undoing her top as he slowly dove in for the kill.

Faora grabbed the tip of Dinah's toe and planted a kiss on it, before she slowly kissed up her leg.

"Well, you're ready," Faora commented as she pushed her costume off, removing it the rest of her leg. Her vagina was exposed, her slit dripping and pink. The woman kissed Dinah on the inside of her thighs.

Dinah found herself brought into heaven and Harry grabbed her breasts and squeezed them. He kissed the back of her neck, licking her behind the ear.

"HARRY!" she shrieked but Faora rubbed her slit, inserting one finger inside her. Her tender motions were slow at first, but Faora increased speed, and then decreased as needed, causing the woman's pleasure to increase.

Faora then kissed Dinah's belly button, working her way up her body and finding her lips with a solid kiss.

Dinah found her mouth, working her tongue against Faora's. The two worked against each other, dancing with passion and their pleasure increased the more that they fought each other. Their moans increased alongside their pleasure.

She nearly lost herself in the pleasure of their tongues tangling together with each other and Harry took her right breast and squeezed it, before latching his mouth around it and sucking on it. Faora did the same thing to her left breast.

Brother and sister were sucking on her tits and Dinah closed her eyes, as their hands trailed down slowly. Her body heated up, she needed something inside her. They barely skimmed over her pussy, and that caused things to heat up even further.

"Please….I can't stand this…..I need this," she whimpered, practically begging. The heat increased through her body.

"I know that you can't stand this," Harry replied, with a grin over his face, as he brushed his fingers against her dripping hot slit and that caused her to increase with pleasure.

Faora stripped Harry of his clothing, his naked body a treasure to her. Harry did the same thing to Faora, her full breasts coming out first, followed by her flat stomach, then her ample ass, and long delicious legs to be honest. Her triangle was exposed to him and Harry smiled as he looked her over.

"Absolutely amazing," Harry told her and Faora gave him a sharp smile, and she ran over him, grabbing his cock.

She motioned and Dinah slid to her knees before Har-Zod. Faora stroked her brother and then Dinah was prepared to get his cock in her mouth.

Dinah accepted Harry's blessing, wrapping her lips around him, pushing him deep into her mouth. She grasped the part of him that could not fit in her mouth with her hand, her lips forming the delicious amount of suction.

Faora smiled, he saw that her pussy was wet. Getting down to the ground, Faora spread Dinah's legs and dove in, getting her further ready for Har-Zod.

"Don't…..don't stop," Harry grunted and Dinah worked her mouth around him again, pumping his length into her mouth. Her juicy lips wrapped around his tool as she continued to pump him in and out of her mouth.

Dinah had no intention of stopping, in fact, she sped up the effort, in an attempt to drive Harry completely wild. Not that she wasn't being driven wild herself, Faora's talented tongue working into her snatch.

Faora slurped the juices from Dinah, getting more and more excited the more she delved into her pretty young pussy. The blonde woman closed her eyes and felt Faora continue to delve deeper into her.

Just a little bit closer and she would have had it. Dinah felt like her legs were on fire as Faora continued to dig her tongue deep into her molten snatch.

She panted heavily, with Harry about ready to unleash his load into her. His cock really was about ready to explode, his muscles tightened.

His load unleashed down her throat but Dinah held onto him, tipping her mouth back and sucking him down. She brought every last single drop of cum down her throat that the heroine could spare.

He pulled out of her mouth, his cum rolling down her face and cheeks. Dinah pulled away from him.

Dinah's mouth was still full of Harry's juices and Faora's mouth was still full of Dinah's, so the two met in the center for a hot kiss, their breasts pressed together. Their arms wrapped tightly around each other as well, pushing themselves together, and rubbing their hot pussies together.

That caused Harry great pleasure and now Dinah grabbed his cock, hard.

"I'm ready for you," Dinah whispered, giving him a teasing kiss on the head as she then put herself in position.

"Well, you know I'm ready for you," Harry grunted and Faora rested on the bed, her nipples hard from the teasing.

A Harry dupe appeared with a pop behind her and she closed her eyes, as he teased her pussy and breasts.

"Oh Har, don't tease me like that," Faora whined, rubbing her dripping hot slit.

"It's fun," Harry told her, kissing his way down her back from the back of her neck.

Dinah pushed herself down onto Harry, sheathing his manhood in that sinfully lovely flesh. She tightened around him, like a vice, clamping down onto him hard.

"Oooh, that's amazing," Harry grunted, as Dinah used her vaginal muscles to pump him up and down. He marveled how tight and toned her body was, but then again, she kept herself in good shape. The blonde sped up, working her tight walls around his large cock, and pushing herself up and down against him, his prick shoved hard into her.

"Oh, you're amazing, you know that," Dinah said and she hugged him into her, with a grin on her face. His face was pressed against her breast and Dinah threw her head back, screaming in pleasure as his mouth treated her to its talents.

Speaking of screams of pleasure, Faora was pushed into the bed, and Harry slammed into her over and over again.

"Oh rougher, treat me rougher, oh that's it!" Faora screamed at the top of her lungs. She knew that Har-Zod could only go at a reduced rate but he still worked well with what he really had to work with.

His hands roamed her body and channeled energy through them, stopping at her breasts, which he massaged them.

Faora groaned as he pushed himself deeper into her body, stretching her out. This action gave her even more pleasure than she could handle. Her eyes closed as Harry pushed himself into her body, working his large length into her body.

"Fuck," Faora whispered as all twelve inches pushed deeper into her body then ever before.

It was at that moment, where Dinah quickened her stride. She had Harry trapped between her hot thighs and she loved every single moment of it. The blonde squeezed his member with her hot package, and worked him up and down.

Her slick center allowed Harry to work into her with the greatest of ease and his balls throbbed as he worked even further into her. The wonderful snatch beneath him squeezed him, working him over.

"Fuck," Dinah moaned and Harry grabbed those glorious breasts, squeezing them. She tightened herself down onto him once more and bounced up and down, going higher and faster. The blonde quickened an intense pace, and both of them were hitting a certain stride.

"Yes, that's what we're doing, Dinah," Harry told her, grabbing her ass and forcing it down onto his tool. She wiggled her hot center around his pole as she bounced higher and higher.

"Fuck me….oh harder, that's it, harder," Dinah moaned at the top of her lungs, as she continued to ride him with reckless abandon. Her tight center squeezing him, and milking his manhood

Harry pushed up into her body, her slick walls squeezing him. The action was getting hot and heavy as they reached the final stretch on the first round.

The duplicate, being a weaker version of Harry, pushed into Faora a few more times. Her tight center proved to be his undoing, with Harry's balls clenching as he pushed into her from behind. He unleashed a flood of cum into her body, splattering the inside of her walls with his hot sticky seed as he injected his way into her body.

Dinah wrapped her tight walls around him and milked Harry, he was getting closer to reaching completion.

His balls tightened, and his brought his seed into her body. All three parties and many others who had been watching in on the bond link and diddling themselves to their sinful display to flesh, felt the climax of pleasure.

The three indulged themselves further as the night pressed on.

**To Be Continued.**


	43. Grew Worse on a Friday

4:00 AM in the morning, all was not well in Gotham City. The words of the GCPD precinct bombing spread like wildfire and the GCPD mobilized. While it was one of the lesser used buildings, it was serious business. It caused many to stand there, and take notice.

Harvey Bullock stood in the midst of the burned out wreck. He smoked a stoogie and looked around, it had been like the aftermath of some grisly occurrence. The hard boiled cop looked around. As far as he could tell, the emergency medical team had come and went, to get the survivors out. Many died on route to the hospital from what he was hearing, others didn't even make it that far. Those who survived could potentially never be the same again.

"What a fucking mess."

Bullock looked around, the aftermath was far worse than the actual event as far as he could tell. The hard boiled Gotham City cop stood around and he saw Montoya doing her job, interrogating witnesses.

"Yeah, he was a bit scruffy, looks like he hadn't had a shower in a couple of weeks, and he was talking about the good lord's work, but…one of the cops said something, I didn't hear anything," the witness said. She was a middle aged woman. "Don't know how he could have pulled it off. He talked about the lord but I tell you, he had the devil in his eyes."

"Looks like we're dealing with some kind of messed up cult," Montoya muttered, taking notes. There had been rumors that there have been a gang of homeless men, between eight and twelve. And with the violence against the homeless and the disappearance of them reaching a fever pitch, it only began to underline how awful this was becoming.

"I tell you again, looks like a fucking mess," Bullock said, as whatever nutjob did this, he was long gone by now.

It was not exactly a secret that some of the homeless in this part of town were ex-cons from Blackgate, having been sent up the river. They were human garbage that was thrown out by the various crime syndicates and then further stomped on.

"What I want to know is how a bunch of bums got their hand on an explosion device and blew this place to Kingdom Come," Bullock growled underneath his breath.

"We don't know it was the homeless," Renee said in a patient voice.

"Yeah, you're right, some kind of frame job, maybe, whoever does this is one sick fuck," Bullock said and he saw. "Well Jimbo and Jones are here right on schedule."

Sure enough James Gordon and John Jones showed up. They swept into the area, business as usual. They had seen some disasters in their time. Sarah Essen followed a short time later.

"They're saying some scruffy man was involved, guy looks like an unmade bed," Bullock said.

It was due to the matter of professionalism that these three professionals had that they didn't say that some gave that comparison of Bullock during his bad days.

"The gangs could be using the homeless as pawns," John said in his reassuring voice.

"Or there is some kind of angle that we're not looking at," Sarah said and Renee sighed.

"I'm getting conflicting eye witness accounts, where it was just one guy, to an army of about a dozen men and women, maybe more," Renee said to her.

"Yeah, there will be devil worshipping rituals and black cats involved any minute now," Sarah said, trying to keep herself even. "We know someone's pulling the strings somewhere."

"Could it be a member of the Mob?" Jim asked.

"I think we can rule it out, the device is rather crude and homemade for one thing," Renee said. "Mobsters would not let themselves be seen by anyone…."

"Seems to me like they wanted to be seen," Sarah said, which meant that they were trying to prove a point.

"So, is it connected to the attack at the Skeevers's night club….."

"If you ask me, the scummy fuck had it coming," Bullock grumbled.

"Bullock," Gordon said in a calm voice and Bullock fell into line.

"And the attack at the pizza palace," Renee said, ticking it off on her fingers.

"Different MO, and different style of attack," Sarah replied but John shook his head.

"We shouldn't rule out them being by the same party," John said.

"And the mob wouldn't be this brazen because they don't want to declare war on the cops, because….." Gordon said and he left that hanging.

"It'd make their lives more inconvenient," Sarah interjected, and she searched around one more time. The smell of decayed flesh still filled the air.

The mob wouldn't do anything like that, because they enjoyed a cordial relationship with the cops. It they broke that arrangement up, then the cops would bring down vengeance upon them with the force of a mighty hammer.

They did understand one thing, war was coming. They couldn't tell when the next shot would be fired but this was the eerie calm before the storm.

* * *

Barbara Gordon had classes this morning at GCU and she was on her way to school. She would worry about what she had to do earlier this morning, but she had a hot tip that she had to give to Nightwing.

The computer was pretty awesome, to the point where she almost neglected the other things that came along with it.

The wireless headset for instant, that really was of use for her. It allowed her to drive to school and inform him of some information that she obtained on her way there.

"So….it looks like our mysterious assailant has struck again," Barbara informed him. She whipped up a nice little program that allowed her to keep track of some of the movements of a lot of the big names in Gotham City. Batman and Nightwing were high up, but Black Mask, the Penguin, Maroni, and Falcone were also of great priority as well.

The serial mass murderer who has been plaguing Gotham City hit the news.

"I didn't even hear it this morning, you're on the ball," Nightwing replied and Barbara tried not to look too entirely smug.

"Well, I've been busy, Maroni, Falcone, Black Mask, and Penguin, I'm also monitoring anything the GCPD does involving them, and they seem to turn out fairly early enough, so….this mass murderer was able to get into the program without too many problems," she said excitedly without missing a beat. "He hit a small diner, nothing too major…. Unless you count the low level criminal elements that have been known to frequent around those parts."

"Well, I'd count it well," Nightwing told her and Barbara whistled.

"Right, right….so I'd figured that I'd get this information to you, and I'd figure that I'd get it to you first thing in the morning, you know because I feel that it isn't early enough," Oracle said without missing a beat. "But then again, it's rather late for you."

Nightwing could not resist. "What do you think that I stay up all night fighting crime and then go bed in the morning and sleep all day."

"Well that's what I assumed," Oracle said sheepishly.

"You know what people say about assumptions, Oracle," Nightwing cautioned her and that caused her to go a bit pink around the area of the cheeks. "I do have a light outside of this costume, you know."

"Right, I know, I know," she replied and she could see Harry where she was a bit away. "A friend of mine is nearby…..I have to go….talk to you if something breaks."

'Okay, I'll try not to jumpstart my nocturnal slumber in case you do," Nightwing said and Barbara smiled, as she pulled into a parking place.

Barbara made sure everything that she needed for class was packed in a bag and she exited the car. Keeping her doors locked firmly, Barbara turned around, seeing Harry just getting off of his cell phone from where she was standing.

"Harry!" Barbara cried in an excited voice and she ambled forward, throwing her arms around Harry, pulling him into a tight hug, which got even tighter. Their lips brushed against each other briefly and then they went one step further, sharing a sense shattering kiss.

When they had come down from the passions of that, both pulled apart from each other.

"So, I take it you're doing well this morning, Barbara," Harry said and Barbara sighed. "You got a few minutes before class, don't you?"

"Yes," Barbara responded, both excitedly and quite eagerly as well, as she followed Harry. The two made their way into the café.

After ordering their breakfast and waiting for it, Barbara excitedly told Harry what she was doing.

"Well, you've got a lot on your plate, don't you?" Harry asked.

"Hey, I'm balancing it out, without going insane," Barbara said, ticking things off. "Between finishing up at GPA, classes at GCU, and work at the GCPD…..okay it's a lot of letters still, but you get the idea."

"I have an inkling," Harry replied, with a dry chuckle, drinking his coffee, watching the redhead in front of him. "And your work has increased in the GCPD after the person who you covered for went missing."

"Yeah, I'm kind of an indefinite fill in there," Barbara agreed. "But never mind that fact, you're pretty busy."

Harry smiled, with one of those guilty as charged looks on his face. The fact of the matter was that he was pretty busy.

"I can't argue with that….."

"Busier than I am in fact," Barbara said, with a mock accusatory point. "Speaking of which, did you ever find a personal assistant to ease a little bit of the load?"

"Actually, I did," Harry told her and Barbara corked her eyebrow in a bit of surprise and she smiled. "Tamara Fox."

"Oh….I know her….well actually I kind of know her through Pam, they were in the same year, had some of the same classes together," Barbara said, excitement dancing through her eyes. "Graduated the same year, very different circles outside of class, but I suppose that got along rather well….nice girl, bit of a Type-A personality really, but pretty nice."

"Well, I think that she's more than qualified for the job," Harry told Barbara and she nodded up and down eagerly.

"I don't think that there's any question about how qualified that she is," Barbara replied and the two continued to make light conversation as they stalled for time before they had to go their separate ways.

The truth was Harry had a lot to do, and a fair bit of that was the lot to do that Barbara undertook. This latest attack made things even more baffling and just when he thought he had an answer, someone kept changing all of the questions.

* * *

"It's been a long time," Morgaine commented as she and Harrison entered their castle. It gave them some eerie vibes to be honest. "Much like Peve-Rell's invention, this castle exists between two worlds, the world of the Mundane and Faerie World, therefore I can come and go as I please, often as I wish."

"Fascinating," Harrison said and he could feel the strange and mysterious magical energies flow around him. He would have liked to say it was extremely intoxicating, mostly because he knew that it was. The young man shook his head and cleared his throat.

"I figured that you'd might find it as such," Morgaine commented idly and she got strictly down to business. "We can take one of these paths to the realm, which should bring us close to the palace that Titania resides."

"Would I be wrong in saying that there were more direct paths?" Harrison asked and Morgaine's lips twisted into a smirk.

"Yes, but those paths had been sealed some time ago," she told him. "Never the less, this should hopefully work out nicely."

She pulled open one of the doorways, and the glowing light bathed them, surrounding them. Harrison leaned forward and looked into the light.

One could call it a garden, he supposed, but he decided to call it a wild and untamed hedge maze. That was a more fitting distinction.

"I had forgotten how poorly the upkeep on this place had gotten over the centuries," Morgaine whispered, and Harrison nodded. "The human help had perished a long time ago, and I didn't see the point in replacing them….well let us go…..I do recall the way."

The twisted maze radiated magic; the leaves were a brown dead color. It looked dry and dismal inside the maze.

"Not exactly well upkept like the maze during the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament," Harrison said and Morgaine had half of a smile go across her face.

"Well not precisely for theater like that maze was, but it had a more practical purpose," Morgaine said.

The two walked forward for a little bit until they nearly ran smack dab against a gateway. Said gateway was sealed off and Morgaine smiled as she looked it over.

"Only a small problem, nothing that cannot be solved," Morgaine commented, pricking her finger.

Harrison watched with wide eyes, the blood splashing off against the gate. The blood looked like it had caught fire for a second. It wasn't mundane flames either, it was purely magical fire and it nearly caused him to get spellbound by it.

The gateway swung open and there was a chilling wind that rattled him completely to the bones That was always an ominous sign if he had to say so himself.

"Shall we?"

* * *

Harry Potter always had dinner in the company of the finest women imaginable and this was an evening where there was no exception. On this evening, Amanda and Emily were there and for once in their life that they were behaving themselves. At least in a fashion Of course, Rose was keeping a close eye on them, but also she had a few things to discuss to Harry about ongoing projects.

Then there was Lois Lane, sitting there, and if Harry knew her by now, he knew that she had a lot to say.

' _She does spend a lot more time at the Penthouse than she does at home, you know,'_ Kara commented, and she was still sleeping over at Vicki's, half keeping an eye on her.

' _Yes, she does seem to do so, but…..having her wander about in Gotham City with all of the trouble that she can get into isn't a good idea,'_ Karen commented, shaking her head. _'By the way, Faora and I are back in Metropolis, should be back in a couple of days or so.'_

With Diana currently working at the Museum, taking a later shift than normal, that was all of the Alphas that were accounted for.

"So, Harry, you know there is a very important event coming up, don't you?" Amanda asked him.

"Yes, the launch of the Red Sun phone on November 5th, for official public consumption, we all know that, don't we, Lois?" Harry asked her.

"Yes, it's going to be awesome," Lois agreed, she was sick of having a crap cell phone that she couldn't get a good reception on when the winded shifted the wrong way.

"Well, there are other events going on there, you know, a bit sooner than that," Amanda said to her.

"Oh right, Zatanna and I are getting married, on Halloween, she's pretty excited about it actually, even though this only makes it official, official," Harry commented and Amanda was exasperated once again.

Rose was in on the joke, so she decided to stir the embers just a little bit more. "Yes, it really should be fun, you know, the two of you. It'll be a beautiful ceremony."

"I'm sure that it will be," Amanda commented and Emily reached over, patting her counterpart on the arm. She was certain that Harry didn't forget, at least not intentionally.

Rather Amanda Potter was the victim of a very successful trolling effort by her brother and that was really something that was amusing.

Really amusing come to think about it, but that was beside the point.

"Did you hear about the bombing?" Rose asked and that got the rest of the group excited, with Lois being one of them to get the most excited.

"Yes….it's insane….and it's not a coincidence, but I'm sure that Nightwing can really stop whoever is behind this…..when he finds out that is," Lois said and she looked at Harry in an excited manner. "And I've been thinking about Nightwing and I've got some ideas on who he might be, you know."

"Oh, do tell?" Harry asked her, he was always curious to hearing theories, but he acted calm, cool, and rather collected all things considered.

"Well, he might be one guy, but what if there's more than one person under there, because…..well someone who is that active, you got to have people swap out, because you have to have a life outside of the costume," Lois said as she looked at Harry with a smile. "But I think that he's closing in on whoever is behind this."

The twins smiled a knowing smile.

"And I guess Batman is there too….but a lot of people still don't think he's real, Nightwing as well, even though I've seen Nightwing, so if he's real, then Batman has to be real as well," Lois commented without really taking a breath. "And….he'll figure out who is behind this. I'm sure he has some super secret cool lair somewhere, something out of some sci-fi movie."

"Well, he does seem like the type, doesn't he?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, he does," Lois agreed, as she managed to calm down long enough and take a bite of her food. She chewed it up calmly and swallowed it. "But, I guess we're going to be guessing for a long time because he's not going to tell us. What's the point in having a secret identity, if it's not secret?"

"Doesn't seem to be a point, does it?" Rose asked and Lois shook her head.

' _I wonder how amusing it will be when she finds out that she's talking to the man himself right there,'_ Kara thought.

' _About as amusing as when Barbara finds out the same thing?'_ Donna asked her.

' _Pretty much,'_ Kara agreed with a smile.

Harry smiled, it was easy to have a mental conversation with his girls when Lois was going a mile a minute like the chatterbox that she was.

The conversation went in a fairly interesting direction, and they were finishing up dinner before too long. Amanda decided that she would make it her mission to drop some hints that were not so subtle. Harry brushed these hints off like he did, that would build up anticipation quite nicely.

"Look at the time, I've got to go….early class in the morning," Harry told them and he walked over to Rose. "Rose, do you think you can see to Lois?"

"Of course, I will Harry," Rose said, as she gave her nephew and tight hug and a kiss on the cheek.

This allowed Harry to make his way back home.

* * *

Harry wasn't home for two seconds and heading to the direction of his bedroom, when a pair of soft hands clasped him around the shoulder and steered him towards the room with determination.

He turned around and saw Zatanna standing there. Her luscious black hair hung down, alluringly covering her breasts. Her flat and toned stomach was on full display for him, and she was completely naked save for a pair of thigh high stockings. Her center glittered with arousal and she backed Harry towards the bed.

Before Harry could question this, not that he would really question it, there was one phrase that popped out of her mouth "pu mih eit dna pirts!"

Harry was stripped completely naked and tied up. Zatanna sauntered forward and placed her hand on his lap, before she began to get to work.

Zatanna wrapped her hand around Harry's thick pole and started to slowly stroke him up and down. Her glowing eyes locked onto him and she smiled, giving him a nice good working over. Harry grunted, pushing his pole up into her grip.

"That's it, oh that's it," Zatanna whispered, using her hand to bring Harry to further pleasure. She kept stroking his manhood which twitched underneath her grip. "I want all of this…..give it to me, honey."

Zatanna used her tongue to pleasure Harry and he twitched as she continued to work him over. Her hot mouth wrapped around his tool oh so briefly.

The young magic user looked at Harry. He was hard, she was wet, there really didn't seem to be any point in waiting to see what would happen next.

"I'm ready, Harry," Zatanna whispered, pulling himself up. Her dripping slit was prepared and she grabbed his hips.

"Well there's no need to….oooh wait," Harry grunted, as Zatanna rubbed her hot slit over his engorged tool.

His length was this close to entering her and his cock throbbed continuously at her entrance. Harry closed his eyes, allowing her to slide into him, her flesh sheathed around his tool as she worked around him.

"Fuck," Harry grunted, with Zatanna working her hips around him and she started to slowly ride up and down on him.

"Yes, oh yes," Zatanna whispered, she rubbed her breasts, teasing her husband to be as she bounced up and down, higher and higher. Slick walls caressed Harry's engorged tool as she rode him, slowly at first. She brought herself down onto his balls, bouncing her way up and down onto him.

Harry groaned as her tight center wrapped around him, as she bounced up and down, going higher on him.

She paused for a second, building up the anticipation for both her and him. She was sure that this would normally be the point where Harry grabbed her. And the truth was that he could break the bindings. She was pretty sure that he could but he didn't, because what's the fun in that?

Zatanna slipped herself down onto him, squeezing his massive member between her thighs with one solid push.

"Oh yes, what a ride."

"Let's see if we can speed things up," Harry said, vibrating his cock slightly within her, but not too fast.

"Oh, now that's a fucking good ride."

Zatanna nearly cried out as his large cock stretched her center, and she continued to ride him like there was no tomorrow. She cupped one of her breasts and with a lust ridden grin, she offered him one of her breasts, cupping it teasingly.

Harry took the initiative, wrapping his lips around her nipple, and sucking on it. He closed his eyes, and continued to wrap his mouth around her nipple. Suckling it, he felt a stirring within his body.

"Oh that's it, that's fucking it, more, more," Zatanna whispered, as her lover's tender affections really pleasured her. She almost released his arms.

Almost but she prevented herself from doing so. She rode up and down on him, to the point where she was sure that her thighs would be a little sore in the morning after the adrenaline wore off.

Did she care, not in the slightest? No she just rode Harry for everything that he was worth and his balls slapped against her thighs. The green eyed wizard beneath her was a great prize and she was determined to milk him for everything that he was worth, in every sense of the word.

Harry was not done yet, and that was the way she liked it, that was the way that she preferred it really.

He groaned, longing to touch her body, and sure enough, the ropes relaxed and it allowed his hands free movement.

"Cheater," Zatanna whispered, as Harry ran his hands down her soft face, and then continued his travels around her body, reaching her breasts and squeezing them.

"Well, judging by the sounds that you're making, I don't think that you're complaining about it too much."

Zatanna whimpered in pleasure, she hated it really when Harry was right but that was the truth to be honest.

His hands brushed all over her body and the dark haired magical user continued to pick up her stride. Her slick juices lubricated his journey into her center just a little bit more. She panted heavily, lustfully, hungrily as she came down onto him.

"Ooooh, yeah," Zatanna groaned as she felt him bury himself into her once again and his hands cupped her breasts. She was at the mercy of his tender pleasures.

She felt pleased that she was allowed a dominant position, the juices flowing freely between her legs. If she didn't….if she couldn't…..oh she felt so fucking good that she thought that she was going to explode. His member pushed deep into her insides once again.

Zatanna really lost count of the amount of times that she came from Harry's actions, the fact that he was doing such wonderful things to her nipples using his hands and mouth did not help her predicament any.

She just had to ride him faster, her slick center squeezing him, hugging him. She was this close to coaxing his cum out of him.

"Yes," Zatanna whimpered, and Harry groped her breasts, bringing her hot body down upon him once again.

"Faster," Harry ordered her and she nodded through blurred vision, her lips curled into a smile.

"YESSS!" she yelled, drawing out that moan as she continued to bounce even more, her slick center squeezing him once more.

"I know, I think you've made that point clear," Harry said, as her breasts pressed against his bare chest and she hugged her arms around his neck.

The two exchanged a searing kiss, grinding their hot private parts against each other.

Zatanna thought that she could feel him twitch inside her. She was about to go for the kill, channeling her magic power into her organs.

"Determined to really work for this one, aren't we?" Harry groaned, as she felt her apply the pressure on him. That lead to more pleasure than he ever could experience.

"Oh yes," Zatanna moaned as she continued to pump his length deep into her and she closed her eyes.

There was a sense that they were going at it extremely hard, and Zatanna was going to burn herself out. But to her credit, she stayed with the course.

Persistence paid off, as sweaty sticky flesh clashed against each other. Her soft walls hugged his massive manhood, bringing him deep into her tight body.

Harry's balls tightened and she bit down on his neck to add to the erotic enjoyment. The two had a very powerful climax together that resounded through the bond and everyone had the bond link open had to dart away to the nearest bathroom or bedroom or just private room for some relief.

Zatanna's pussy milked his gift, as she collapsed on his chest, feeling fulfilled at least for the moment.

"So amazing as usual," Zatanna commented, wrapping her arms around Harry's waist as she rested his head on his chest.

"Yes….I think that it was," Harry told her, stroking his lover's hair and he smiled. "So….you know that I'm not complaining or anything, right?"

"I know," Zatanna agreed with a smile on her face.

"So what brought this up?"

Zatanna responded in what she thought was a blunt and simple manner. "Well, to be honest, I just wanted to have sex."

Harry cracked a smile and it was obvious that sometimes the most simple explanations were amount the most obvious. He held the woman into his chest, wrapping his arms around her tightly as the two drifted off together. There would likely be another round soon, there always was.

* * *

Tony Zucco was disgusted by what happened and it was time to show some people where the pecking order lied in Gotham City. Eddie Skeevers stood by his side, as a group of old time gangsters made their way insides.

It was just before sunset, a time where a lot of the mob activity has heightened.

"The trash thinks that they can rise up and take us out," Zucco grunted and the mobsters turned towards him, knowing that if anything but their full attention was him, they were going to be screwed. "Are you going to let them do that?"

The gangsters shook their heads.

"Someone's got them riled up, thinking that they can take back what they assume is theirs," Zucco commented. "But if these fuckers want a battle, then we'll give them a war."

"They sent several of ours to the morgue, I think it's time to return the favor," Skeevers said, after his brother was shot, he wanted revenge. Revenge of the most foul, he smelled the blood, he tasted the blood, but at the same time it was out of reach.

There was a grumbling growl with the entire group of monsters.

"They think they can scare us into compliance, don't they?" Zucco asked and that was a rheortical question. None of them were willing to answer, none of them had the guts to do so. They all shook their heads. "No…..they won't….they can't….we won't let them, now will we?"

The mobsters rustled around and shook their heads. Some of them looked fit to put the screws to other people. This served Zucco fairly well, he had learned a few things from Maroni over the years.

"We've got our new toys, time to put them to good use," Zucco said and he snapped his fingers. "Time to take out the trash boys."

The mobsters clapped and they looked fixing to go. The mobsters weren't the only one, there were a lot of gang bangers, people who were really bad men who were looking for an excuse to kill someone. Zucco thought that this would be the prominent opportunity to give them what they want.

"Let's do this," Zucco whispered, harshness dripping from his voice and they all prepared to gear up for war.

Zucco wanted to get the homeless out of Gotham City. If they pushed him, well he would trample them. He didn't know who would be stupid enough to rile all of those bums up but he was going to find out.

"Ready for this one, Eddie?" Zucco asked and the man in question nodded eagerly.

"Yeah, ready to make some fuck pay," Eddie said. One thing was true in Gotham City, you don't fuck with family.

"Well, don't get ahead of yourself, we got to find the guy who did this….something's going down here….but we got to just keep our wits amongst ourselves," Zucco said, taking a weapon around it. He had two bullets, both in the head, for the mook that did this. "Alright, you know what to do, let's show them that the freaks don't own Gotham City."

Old school mobsters were a dying art but Zucco was intent to make those bums pay.

The only thing that was annoying him is he felt that he was missing one piece to the puzzle. But he'd have the information beaten out of that trash.

"Let's go….."

They all piled into three limos, with Zucco and Skeevers, along with some of their best men, taking the most extravagant one.

There was really nothing more to say about this, they were just going to get out and do.

* * *

Black Canary and Nightwing prowled the streets of Gotham City. Both of them had their plans for tonight. Black Canary was going to pick up the trail that Batman left behind and she hoped that they would have a hot lead. Nightwing on the other hand was going to try and figure out who was behind the attacks. It did seem probable that both attacks could be connected. Maybe it was a coincidence, but it was too weird to be a coincidence.

Right now they had to investigate the source of the explosion at the police station. Hopefully there could be something there that would help them with either investigation, at least that's what they were crossing their fingers for.

"Okay, we're here," Nightwing said as he looked over his shoulder.

"Right, you're here," Oracle said, trying to get her information in order, with a floor plan popping up. "It's guarded, but not too guarded, at least not as guarded as you'd think. There's just a patrol car nearby, it shouldn't be too hard to slip on past it."

"No, it shouldn't, the cop just looks like a clock puncher type," Black Canary said, the two of them moving forward.

They were inside the police station.

"Police have a good idea what happened, some kind of crude explosion device, here's what I dialed up," Oracle said, transporting the information for both of their disposals.

Harry noticed that and he used the HUD device. The gunpowder trails on the floor indicated that there was dynamite that was used.

' _A man of simple tastes by the looks of things,'_ Harry thought, scanning the trail very carefully.

"Dynamite, likely something else homemade for the hell of it as well, but over half of the explosion had to do with dynamite," Nightwing informed Oracle who corked her eyebrow in surprise. That made a lot of sense to her.

"MCU report is accurate then….." Black Canary said but Nightwing decided to cut in.

"It is, but I can't think that we're missing something," Nightwing responded, as he tried to rack his brain for what that might have been. Then in hit him in a burst of divine inspiration. "There should be some security camera footage around here."

"Give me a minute to see if I can bring it up," Oracle said, biting on her lips. She was in a position. The video footage archived from each prescient at a rather regular interval, she just hoped that it archived from this one fairly quickly. The redhead closed her eyes. "And it hasn't been transferred over yet."

"Great," Nightwing commented, dryly. That might have sunk their hopes in accomplishing what they wanted to get done.

"Well, all of the hope isn't lost yet," Oracle commented. "Each place has a server room until things can be transferred over to Gotham Central…..let me bring out the blue prints."

Black Canary shook her head. "That's providing that the hard drive is still intact."

"Let's hope that it is then," Nightwing said and he waited for Oracle to get them the information for the blueprints.

"You're going to have to hope that downstairs isn't blocked off and the blast damage hasn't reached down there," Oracle said, biting down onto her lip nervously and fiercely.

"Okay, we'll do that," Nightwing said and they made their way through the halfway open door. It had been blasted off of the hinges. They made their way carefully down the rickety set of steps and stopped.

Black Canary looked like a deer in the headlights and she mouthed that someone was coming. Right at that second, Nightwing pulled her into the shadows, holding her close against him.

The police officer stood at the top of the stairs, shining his flashlight downwards. Time ticked on by ominously as both of them stood there.

It was almost like he was standing there for several minutes, hoping that someone would slip up, if anyone was there.

"Guess I was hearing things," the officer said, turning around and walking off, sparing one more backwards glance.

' _Wait a little bit,'_ Harry thought to Dinah who nodded. This could have been some kind of swerve to get them to come out of the shadows a bit too prematurely.

When they were sure that the police completely cleared out, Nightwing let his grip go prematurely on Black Canary. She stepped into the dim light of the room.

"Server room is right across the way, behind those doors," Black Canary said, grabbing onto the door handle and pulling at it.

"Problem?"

"Jammed," Black Canary said and Harry didn't want to do anything to trigger a part of the roof to come down. Especially given that the guard might have been upstairs.

He looked through the floor, so far there was nothing up there, so he relaxed himself, at least slightly.

With one fluid motion, Harry carefully opened the door ,allowing them access into the server room.

"Look," Harry said as he pointed it out, seeing the hard discs on a rack. The latest one must have been placed in the archives just before the explosion took place. That was what he would have called the lucky break. He set up his wrist computer and hooked the disc to it. Dinah looked at him enviously.

"I don't have anything like that," Black Canary said, eying him with a smirk.

"Well, do you want something like this?" Nightwing asked in an absent minded voice and the images flickered to the life. He saw someone approach the station.

"Let me guess, you hit the jackpot," Oracle said, and the feed was being fed to her. "Homeless man, late 30s, maybe mid 40s, if I'd have to guess, although I can't really get a good look at his face."

"The shoes look brand new, though," Black Canary said, pointing them out. "Well, less worn then the rest of the outfit."

That did look curious and it struck him. Something that Veronica told him came to mind. "Deacon Blackfire opened up a church for the homeless of Gotham City and gave them brand new shoes."

"Deacon Blackfire, the name rings a bell," Oracle said, frowning. She heard it somewhere, or read it somewhere.

Nightwing rewatched the footage, seeing the homeless man walking into the lobby, taking off a backpack and walking out. The explosion must have been some time later.

* * *

"My brothers, lend me your ear, for I will tell you a tale of the vision that I see. The vision that I have seen after fire fell from the sky. I could have been sacrificed for the lord's vision but I was saved, saved as a prophet. It was on that day that I saw my calling."

He spoke this tone in a low whisper, one had to really listen to what he was saying but they were captivated enough to listen to him.

"You see, people talk often about experiences where they were saved, well the touch of the lord blessed me on that day, and I have begun that crusade," The Deacon continued as he looked at them. "But you see, my brothers, you don't need to experience the hellfire and brimstone, the fact that you almost, nearly die, to be saved. No, to be saved means that you just open your eyes. And all around you, you see kindred spirits, you see kind souls. You see the type of people who you should embrace as your brothers and sisters, and you should never be beyond hope."

The Deacon was gaining fever as his words burned into the minds of all who had hung onto it.

"You see, none of you are beyond hope, none of you are beyond enlightening. All of you need to realize, my brothers that it will take more time. But you see, even that lamb who has stayed from the herd, who thinks he's a wolf, can be brought back home, returned to the herd. And this is my promise to you. Gotham City was once a haven for some of you, but it has become a hell, a hell. The demon from the skies breathes unholy fire down onto you. He has come from a world not known to you, for what he has spawned is truly wicked."

Deacon Blackfire rose his voice a little bit. "And wicked is what will sweep us down. But there is one amongst us that has seen the light. I have been speaking with him, but the truth was that I'm only the vessel. The vessel for him to realize that these truths that he realized a long time ago. He sees my mouth moving, but I'm only a guide to bright enlightening. The entire world, man, has been bathed in fear. But when the fear washes away, there is promise, where the righteous will rise above and all shall be blessed in a new age."

Deacon Blackfire remained silent, dropping to one knee and he made his way into a silent prayer as his two acolytes brought in someone underneath a red blanket.

"Behold, for he has been reborn!"

The congregation looked stunned, as Batman was revealed for them. There were a few difference, his gloves had been replaced with spiked gauntlets and his utility belt had been replaced by a tactical belt.

Silence for a moment, and the Deacon nodded his head once, before they broke out into an applause. Truly, they were willing to welcome Batman into their fold, for the great Deacon Blackfire had got him to see the light.

One of Deacon's recruits, the more vocal of the homeless, burst through the doors. "It's Zucco, he and his men are marching through the streets, taking out the homeless."

Deacon Blackfire was ready to fan the embers of anger that they were stirred up. They were ready to take on the entire world after his speech; all it would take is one more push.

"Do not delay then, go forth and assist your brothers."

His congregation marched out and it left Deacon Blackfire standing alone. A grin spread across his face. All went according to plan.

**To Be Continued.**


	44. Died on a Saturday

"The realm that we're in has many different names, depending on who you asked," Morgaine explained to Harrison as the two of the made their way into this realm. "Some individuals call it The Otherplace, some the NeverNever, others the Ways, and the Between. It honestly depends on the culture."

Harrison smiled and nodded, as he allowed her to explain. Given that she had the knowledge and became familiar with this realm. Sure enough, she was not done enlightening him on what he had to deal with.

"The Between seems to be the most accurate of them, considering we rest between all realities."

Harrison understood what she meant as well, as he looked around. His eyes focused as there were shadows combing around the area, in harsh whispers, that indicated that they were out for blood.

"And you can see the shadows of the creatures."

"Yes," Harrison answered gruffly, he could see the shadows. Some of them looked rather horrendous, like they were capable of some vile and nasty intentions if they were given half of the chance. It was not something that was for the weak of heart. "They look like different creatures, people…..they actually resemble what the Phantom Zone Wraiths look like."

"Similar principles exist, yes," Morgaine confirmed, pleased to see that he was getting the message. "That's why we tread lightly. They may not even attack us if we don't present a threat but at the same time, I wouldn't be too confident in that fact."

"Right," Harrison said, nodding. He also saw some of the creatures resemble the shadow creatures that Harry encountered in the land of the dead. They could have been considered a bit more twisted but never the less, the same general principles applied.

Was what he heard the wind or were they the cold chilling voices of hounds of hell? Either way, Harrison could feel a sense of foreboding shoot down his spine. The more he looked at them, the nastier then seemed. That proved to be extremely foreboding in its own way, but Harrison was not about to succumb to that torment if he could help it.

A little bit of a magical shield was put up to prevent the chilling effects but it wouldn't be a good idea to utilize too much magic in this realm.

"I doubt that I need any further explanation," Morgaine commented and Harrison gave a swift nod, the significant nod that he followed that up with indicated that he got the message loud and clear. "Okay, that's good, which brings us to our next point….the real problem that we might encounter in here."

Harrison was hit by it immediately.

"That being the Sidhe."

"Yes," Morgaine said as she drew breath into her body, about ready to give an extremely long and drawn out explanation. "Now whilst the Sidhe cannot tell a direct lie, they are masters in twisting their words to convey falsehoods. Technically it could be considered the truth to an extent. They are concerned more with the wording, rather than intent and thus they will place loopholes in agreements which they can exploit."

Harrison understood that and Morgaine concluded her explanation.

"It goes without saying that any mortal who makes a deal with the Sidhe will get the short end of the stick, without fail."

"So, it's wise to beware of what they say, because it's not what they mean," Harrison concluded, knowing by now that many kinds of magical creatures dealt with falsehoods. Human wand wavers being the highest on the list sometimes.

"Yes, but thankfully, given that I'm here, you should have some protection," Morgaine commented and Harrison smiled. "And obviously, you are fairly equipped to handling yourself in these high pressure situations."

High pressure, that put things mildly, but that was what he had to deal with. He was riding a wave of confidence, that he could pull things together on his own, without the looming specter of his other half there. His confidence, some might say arrogance and recklessness, was at an all time high.

The help that was offered was appreciated, but Harrison had to do this on his own. The further he got away from being divided from the prime copy, the more independent that he wished to be. That could be chalked up to having different life experiences.

Did that make him reckless at times? Well, one could say that, but he preferred that he was ambitious, and he was cut from the same cloth as Prime was.

"We're here."

Morgaine and Harrison arrived a magnificent castle. It was a silver looking castle, with golden gates, and an awe inspiring architecture. There looked to be numerous rooms and it was so large.

It made Hogwarts look like an outhouse by comparison.

* * *

"Don't you dare give any of them any quarter!" Zucco bellowed, as the shots continued to fire around them, pushing the homeless further on. Zucco was out for blood and he didn't care whose he had to spill.

The target was anything that looked remotely like a homeless person. One could assume that Zucco had gone completely and utterly mad and they would be right with that assumption.

The mob led the charge into Ghost Town, firing pretty much at everything that moved or looked homeless. It was the sense of someone who had lost their mind due to recent misfortunes. It didn't matter if they were innocent or guilty, Zucco would have them sorted out later, much later as it turned out.

Then there was Eddie Skeevers, with determination on his face. For Zucco this was mostly business, but for Eddie, it was personal. Which was something that suited Zucco's business very, very, well, he had to admit.

"What do you want, we didn't….."

BANG! One of them dropped down onto the ground. A group of men huddled together, and one of the goons smiled.

"Just like shooting ducks in a gallery, isn't it?" one of the mobsters asked.

"Thought it was like pigeons in a barrel?" the other mobster asked, not caring really if he hit. Making some piece of trash shit his pants was his own reward for this lovely little game. The smile on his face got wider, and more sinister.

"Well whatever it is….should be fun," the first mobster said, cracking his knuckles and getting ready for action.

"Focus, boys, we're not quite done yet."

The men got the orders from Zucco from the top and they were rounding up the homeless like the rats that they were. Some fled but they didn't get very far. And if they weren't targeted, then they would have been.

"Don't know why some of the boys got any shit, look at them," Zucco said as he viewed them. He smiled as he could have had a cigar to celebrate what happened. "Look at them run….Eddie, I think we can sit this one out the rest of the night, our boys have got it together."

"Sure thing," Eddie said, and it was just beginning, they would flush out the weasel that did this his brother and made him pay.

They sat in the back of the limo, now that they didn't need to personally oversee what was happening. Zucco reached into his wine cabinet and pulled out some of his finest, about ready to pop a cork in celebration and why shouldn't he be celebrating? Why shouldn't he be smiling? Life seemed pretty fucking great right about now, didn't it?

"Here's a toast to revenge…."

THUMP!

That caused both of the mobsters to jolt up as they heard something on the roof.

"What's that?" his driver asked.

The Dark Knight crashed through the roof and grabbed the driver around the throat, before slamming him hard into the windshield.

"Let's get the fuck out of here," Zucco growled, slamming his way through the limo. The Bat would have to get involved but perhaps it was just him, but he seemed a bit different. Then again, his men gave him so many different accounts of him that he wasn't sure if it was not one person.

A blunt force blow to the back of the head caused Zucco to land hard on his ass on the ground.

Eddie Skeevers crashed head long into a set of trash can and scrambled away. Suddenly a group of the homeless marched forward.

"What the fuck….."

"Get out of there you idiots!"

Molotov cocktails flew in the air and explosions went off. The gangsters were thrown off about this sudden act of aggression, this was not the homeless that they breezed through and had taken down.

"Take those sinners down."

They began to return fire with the guns that Manheim had given them. It was a chaotic scene, as more explosions and gunfire than one could account for came off.

"Oh, you think that we're sinners, well you're going to be sent straight to whoever your god is….in pieces!"

Two large hands grabbed one of the mobsters and dragged him into the shadows.

The smoke slowly dissipated and Batman lurked into the shadows. He had been told to help where the fighting was the worst. The Deacon insisted that he should not stick to one spot for too long.

There was further fighting and Batman slumped out into the night, not saying a thing. The equipment he received was useful and while it wouldn't work as well as the equipment he lost, he would make it work.

The sounds of fighting lured him further on; there was still much work to be done.

* * *

The sounds of gunfire took higher priority than anything else for Black Canary and Nightwing. The two of them were on their way to the Church where Deacon had made his base of operations. It was run down for a time, and then restored, best they could tell.

' _So what do you expect?'_ Kara asked, deciding to cut to the chase.

' _He might be able to shed some light on who bombed the GPCD precinct,'_ Harry thought.

"I don't necessary thing he is guilty," Nightwing confirmed to Oracle but there was an obvious but hanging in the air. "That being said, he could know something or at least be able to identify the man in the picture."

"Plus he might know some more information about the increase gang violence against the homeless," Black Canary said and she drew breath before she asked her friend the question. "What do we know about Blackfire?"

Oracle whistled when she brought the information that they needed up. "Well…..I'm not sure if this is actually reassuring."

"Well, we must hear it then," Nightwing said and Oracle collected her bearings before she laid it down upon them.

"His father wasn't exactly the most savory of people, a gambler to the highest caliber and a drunk, even though he was a self-styled preacher and also owned a shrimp boat," Oracle said. "His mother….was a tailor in her day job but at night, she had a more unsavory profession, she was a prostitute. His grandfather was a well-respected rancher who got busted for counterfeiting and set up the river. His grandmother was a VooDoo Queen. Not sure about any other family, but that was the most interesting thing that popped out."

"Continue," Nightwing said, things were getting interesting, but perhaps not in a good way.

"His father, in a fit of drunken rage, bit his mother to death," Oracle whispered somberly. "Blackfire retaliated, sinking him to the bottom of the sea in his own shrimp boat…..not sure if he intended to make it look like an accident or not. But when he was put before the judge, he was unrepentant."

"There's more, isn't there?" Black Canary asked.

Oracle had no humor in her voice as she responded. "There always is, isn't there….anyway Deacon Blackfire was on the Prison Bus on the way to Smallville when the meteor shower hit. The bus was caught in the middle."

Nightwing let out a breath from his body. Perhaps he was jumping to the world's biggest conclusion but he doubted so very much.

"And after that, he found religion in a big way, said he was saved on that night," Oracle commented idly, in a neutral voice. It was almost like she was trying to determine how big of a BS fest this little being saved explanation was. "And he convinced the parole board to let him off the hook early."

"I bet he did," Nightwing said, but their attention was first and foremost kept on the smoke and the gunshots.

They had to be getting closer, actually scratch that, they were there, in the house, and…..well that was an interesting sight if he had to say so himself. The two of them stared at each other, and they saw it.

It was chaos first of all, more than anyone of sane mind could keep track. The Mob and Homeless were running at each other.

So much bloodshed, so much carnage, it was completely and utterly insane to the tenth degree. Harry opened his mouth, watching it.

On the one hand, it looked like the mob had the fire power on their side but on the other hand, the homeless were determined.

At first he thought that they were determined to protect all that they had, to keep themselves from losing it once again. But there was something else that they were doing; he couldn't put his finger on it.

"And that seems to be the worst of it," Black Canary said, and it went without saying that the worst of it could be pretty bad.

There were bodies strewn across the ground of the mobsters and the homeless alike, plenty of bloodshed, and smoke continued to fill the air, choking anyone who dared get close enough.

' _It's going to get worse before it gets better,'_ Faora grimly commented and some of the other girls nodded in confirmation.

Meanwhile Nightwing stood at the edge of the chaos, devising a way to temper the situation.

* * *

The GCPD put themselves on high alert after the latest bombing. If it happened there, it could potentially happen to them, but they wanted to know why someone would do this. When they did a direct attack like this, it got pretty personal and when something got pretty personal, that's when things got extremely ugly.

Gordon paced around, with the other members of the Major Crimes Unit equally as tense. They had a lot of work to do in the short time that they had gotten together. This entire situation dropped down right on their heads. His eyes averted briefly to a bulletin board with all of the potential cases that they had to deal with.

Identities of several of Gotham's most infamous were trying to be figured. Batman and Nightwing sat as a very high priority, along with the Penguin who was up there. The Ex-President Gang member who escaped during the Vale hostage crisis was also at large and a looming threat. Then there was the nutcase who killed the nine mothers on Labor Day.

Then there was the Bombing, which Gordon and the MCU agreed without hesitation was the key to this all.

"Some sicko is playing games," Bullock grunted, taking one of the donuts from the box and eating it. He took many of the donuts from the box actually during this meeting.

"Could be one of the potentials…."

Eyes averted to the black board, one of the people they were investigating could be on there.

"Doesn't fit the MO of any of them though," Sarah reminded them, but to be honest, she didn't really have any idea or close to one really.

Yeah, the entire case, it really had her baffled beyond all comprehension, period, end of story.

"Can't be the mob, they know where their bread is buttered," she continued. "A disgruntled former mobster who got kicked out…"

"A possibility," John agreed in a stoic voice.

"But not exactly the most likely one," Gordon said, but he was completely baffled, not something that he liked.

They could not discount the homeless angle but that didn't make any sense. Or did it?

"If we could ID the perp that was scene outside of the police station just moments before it went off, then we could figure out a motive," Gordon said and he sighed. "The problem is, we only have vague details and not a clear shot of his face."

"Do you think that he might be…well someone who worked with explosives before?"

"I don't know, he knew where and when to plant the bomb, without getting himself blown up," Gordon commented. "He either got instructions so simple that a five year old could carry them out or he knew what he was doing."

That seemed to be another likely avenue to take but all they were doing was going around in circles, trying to figure out who was behind this latest set of attacks.

"So, potential demolition expert, but if he was homeless, he would have flown under the radar, it wasn't like he was filing for income tax," Sarah said and there were nods. "But someone had to stir him up."

"Yeah, wouldn't surprise me anyway," Bullock said, reclining back on the chair and suddenly, something cackled to life.

An All Points Bulletin kicked on over the radio and the MCU leaned in, seeing what they had to say.

"Call all police in the area, there is a riot in progress."

"Another one," Bullock grumbled; they were still reeling from the last one they had in Gotham City. The rest of the MCU shushed him, and there were more details.

"There is a riot in progress; I repeat there is a riot in progress. The homeless population of Gotham City has been attacked by the mob, believing to be working for Salvatore Maroni. We need back up."

Things got interesting and business just about picked up. Gordon didn't really need to say anything more, the look that he gave the men and women there was more than enough to tell them that they had to get moving.

* * *

Kara continued to hang out on Vicki's apartment, going through various things. The sleepover was nice, even though there wasn't too much sleeping. Something that Kara had to grin about the more that she thought about.

They had a few of the more high profile stories that she was working on.

"Some of these….well they don't age well," Vicki said and she almost grimaced at the thought of that. A police scanner sat on the table, perched and ready to bring them news.

"So, how do you find stories?" Kara asked.

"Well, sometimes they're lucky enough to fall in your lap," Vicki said, and she was kind of referring to her own recent abduction at the hands of the Ex-President gang. Although one would really not consider what happened to be entirely lucky. "But other times you have to be more proactive. You have to go into avenues before they're common knowledge."

"You snooze, you lose, right?" Kara asked and Vicki smiled and nodded.

"Yes, and you don't really want to get stuck with the fluffy gossip, although those do balance out things, because you don't want the people who watch the news to stop watching because they get too depressed," Vicki said with a sigh. "But you don't want to go too much down that road, because you get typecast and stuck in that role for years."

"Yeah, don't think that I would want to be in something like that," Kara said, her long term plans called for something else entirely.

"This police scanner is well worth its weight I think, with the investment that I put into it," Vicki said. "It tends to get me to the stories faster, even though the grapevine can really be slow here in Gotham City. You have to lead the pack or it will run you over."

"Oh, that makes sense," Kara commented, her head nodding up and down eagerly. "But a lot of the more interesting stories around this city, have a lot of gossipy elements?"

"Yes, and Harry seems to be the center of that, but then again he's one of the Gotham City elite," Vicki said. "But someone who has been connected to several attractive women, they're always going to wonder."

"Yeah, they are," Kara agreed with a smile. But this kind of press for Har-Zod was not a bad thing, it's a good thing.

"So one day you could report on the latest new invention from one of the top companies in Gotham City, and the next day, it could be some kind of chaotic gangwar," Vicki replied as she leaned back in her chair, with a thoughtful gaze off. "It can go from zero to insane in a moment."

"Especially in Gotham City."

"Gotham City is the greatest extreme for this, that's why you need to be ready to throw yourself in the thick of things at a moment's notice," Vicki commented eagerly. So far there was just the normal police chatter. "A lot of these tapes are…..well you can tell that they are well watched. You want to get copies of some of your stories, but don't get too obsessed by them. Otherwise you find yourself forever going back trying to nitpick what you did wrong, what you did right, and everything along those lines."

Vicki forget that stupid haircut that she for a short time. Sadly, she never did hear the end of it from certain people.

"Never quite lived that one down."

Kara was trying not to look too entirely amused by what she saw on the screen but the fact was that it was hard not to really look amused.

"It's okay, I laugh at it, although I didn't find it funny at the time," Vicki said, placing her hand on Kara's.

The police scanner started to crackle to life and the attention of both females turned towards it, interest flashing through their eyes.

"There is a riot in progress, I repeat there is a riot in progress. The homeless population of Gotham City has been attacked by the mob, believing to be working for Salvatore Maroni. We need back up."

"Maroni?" Kara thought and Vicki looked at her. "I thought that he was….."

"He might have been, but his men weren't," Vicki said as she could feel the hot scoop just coming at her. The woman prepared to get her things and she would be off to see what was happening.

' _Well you can't fault her for ambition,'_ Donna chimed in.

' _Even if it's the type that could get her killed,'_ Zatanna added with a brief wince.

' _Yeah, that's for sure, but….'_

Kara sighed, there were sometimes where she had to be the responsible one, as much as she hated it and that was one of these times. She got up, facing Vicki and stopped her from leaving.

"Kara, I've got to….."

"No, you really don't," Kara said, firmly staring down at her, her jaw completely set.

"It's a chance to hit something big, I told you that opportunities like this don't knock very often," Vicki said, and it was obvious that there was no force on Heaven or Earth that could stop Vicki Vale from getting her story.

Vicki was in her bedroom even quicker than Kara could blink. That really caught her off guard and really impressed her. She pulled a coat on and had a large case underneath her arm.

Kara placed her hand on her hip, staring her down, and the blonde's glowing eyes looked at her.

"You know that I'm going stir crazy in here," Vicki told her, challenging her to respond to her. Kara bit down on her lip and shook her head.

"Well, I guess that I'm going to have to give you that," Kara conceded grudgingly, someone like Vicki wouldn't stay cooped up for too long. The blonde clapped her hands to her side, frowning, biting down on her lip, everything else.

"Yeah, but don't worry…..if you want to come along with me, be my guest."

Kara had to, because Harry requested for her to keep an eye on Vicki. And she was going to take that seriously.

* * *

Deacon Blackfire could see this scene coming together, just like he envisioned.

"The corrupt, they have arrived, claimed that they have come here to protect us, but all they bring us, not a blanket to shield us from cold, but a blanket full of lies," The Deacon said, surveying the scene around them. "They are going to interfere with the faithful's attempt to interfere with what happened to those who have sinned."

The Deacon stepped back and forth, the Church was essentially a ghost town at least the moment. Everyone had their part to play and he watched. He would be stepping out into the line of battle, his holy war momentarily.

"The lord's work is taking place, the guidance he gave me….I'm finally carrying it out, and I do not care whether I fall within the fire, as long as I bring the corrupt and the sinners down with me," The Deacon said, approaching his two Acolytes who stood at the edge, their arms crossed with each other. They were not wearing their holy garb, rather normal street clothes. They might be able to blend in the crowd, but their massive size allowed them to stand out. They would be the type that would be noticed walking through an airport.

"They're here," the dark haired Acolyte said, pointing a gnarled figure out the window, at Black Canary and Nightwing, who were standing on a building across from the church.

"Yes, yes, I see, I see my brothers," the Deacon said, but he did not get apprehensive. "They say he fights for virtue, they say he fights for the people in Gotham City, but he is nothing but a demon, who does not belong in this world, man."

The Deacon stepped forward, using his immense strength to remove a manhole cover, allowing himself passage downwards. He dropped to the ground with a sickening grunt and continued to step forward.

There was Grundy standing there before him, and the Deacon smiled. The zombie was waiting for his instructions and the Deacon leaned forward, dripping blood in his face.

Grundy's eyes snapped as the Deacon muttered underneath his breath in a strangled tongue, the full attention of the Swamp Zombie on him.

"I request of you another task, my brother," The Deacon whispered underneath his breath and Grundy nodded his head slowly, looking rather transfixed. He was underneath the spell of the man.

He always had a way with words, ever since the incident that he was saved when those who had been obliterated by the fire from the sky, the so called meteor shower, while he was spared.

"I wish for you to obliterate the dragon in human flesh. This devil…..he ruins my plans, and you cannot….allow him to do so. I can sense it, he is not at the power that he should be. Finish the job that others have started."

Deacon Blackfire stood so he was nose to nose with the monster and the swamp monster's eyes flashed with fury, as he gave a low rumbling growl.

"Died on a Saturday."

Grundy ambled off to do the Lord's work and the Deacon's wide grin went from ear to ear. He walked off and made his way back into the Church.

There was a guest who had arrived sometime after he sent Grundy off to do the Lord's work. It was the fabled Bat Man, down on one knee.

"Rise," the Deacon ordered and Batman rose to his feet, robotic motions in him as he was on his feet. The Deacon sauntered forward, closing the distance, so he was face to face with Batman. "Steady yourself my brother, as we have guests ready for key. It would be a shame if we didn't give them the proper hospitality, would it?"

The Deacons low laughter went out in a rumble and Batman inclined his head with a slow nod.

"No, I thought not, remember, time is not on their side, it is on my side."

Batman was in the shadows, ready and the Deacon checked his watch, the time of reckoning was coming down. He had preparations to make.

* * *

Black Canary and Nightwing split in half, not out of any desire to split in half but because it was a necessity for them to do so. The anarchy had spread throughout Gotham City. Flames, choking fire, everything, with the riots getting far worse. So they needed to put out all of the fires but it was an increasingly violent situation.

"If we get the Church, we should get some answers," Nightwing said, after taking care of a pair of the homeless. It was becoming clearer that the homeless were more violent than the mob was in this situation. He made sure to gently render them unconscious, but they were being stirred up like a nest of angry hornets.

"If….."

"We will get to the Church," Black Canary said but her voce was garbled. She could see something in the distance. "Gordon and his crew are in, but it seems like both sides are muddled."

An obvious mobster made his way out of the shadows, but Harry, not wasting any time whatsoever, grabbed him around the head, and essentially punted him off of the wall. Harry pulled his hand away, with a long sigh.

The mobster was knocked down to the ground, a running knee cracking him in the back of the head. Two more made their way down the alleyway.

Harry hovered in the shadows, waiting, and the moment they turned around, he reached up. Grabbing them by their hair, he cracked their skulls together, causing them to hit the ground with a solid double thump.

Nightwing was about ready to go forward but he got a call on his cell phone. It was his number for emergencies, so he couldn't exactly ignore this one.

Moving off a bit to the side, trying to shield the gunshots, Harry whipped out the phone.

"Hello," Harry said, trying not to seem out of breath or too frustrated.

"Harry, are you busy?" Tamara asked and Harry paused but she wasn't done. "It's just that you gave me this number in case of an emergency and this would be an emergency, wouldn't it? You know it's about Bruce….Bruce Wayne."

"Yes," Harry said as she remained calm.

"The Board has a meeting, first thing in the morning," Tamara said and Harry could see a group of gangsters coming up.

He sent a blast of heat vision forward, and caused a tarp with paint cans to fall, knocking out the mobsters.

"First thing in the morning," Harry said, switching to the headset, diving into the air, and taking out the mobsters with swift precision, without alerting Tamera to what he was doing. "Who was the one who called it…."

"My father, and he's concerned that something bad has happened, I mean Wayne is a playboy, but he's not a flake," Tamara said and Harry once again took out one of the mobsters. He used his sleeve to block the smoke that was coming close to blinding his face. "There are these protocols in place in case someone high ranking goes MIA. For Wayne, for my father, for you….."

"Yes," Harry agreed, slamming the mobster onto the ground. "I'll be there."

"I know you will, just relaying the message," Tamara said, disconnecting the call and allowing Harry to catch his breath.

He was still a bit sore, and likely shouldn't have been out here, but he hand no choice. He was about ready to move forward.

Two things impeded his movement. The first one was the sound of a crash behind him. The wall crumbled behind him.

Before he could properly turn around, a pair of large arms grabbed him, and forcefully yanked him into the shadows.

**To Be Continued on August 15th 2014.**


	45. Buried on a Sunday

Harry Potter just wanted to get the number of the bus that just reached out and hit him because he had a feeling that it was very powerful. Never the less, he was pulled through the busted wall and came face to face with a horror that would mortify many people out there. The green eyed wizard tried not to back down from the evil that he faced but never the less, even he had to take pause.

There was no time to be taken off guard, a lesson that he learned an extremely hard and painful way, as he was slammed down to the ground hard.

That hurt, even without the watch that he had to wear, the watch that blocked most of his super human gifts. That watch that he needed to ware, so his CORE did not reach critical mass and reach a really big boom, that hurt, a lot, more than he could ever think.

He shook his head, the breath knocked out of his body, and he could see the looming figure over him.

' _Is that….OH SHIT!'_ Karen yelled, when she registered who Harry was dealing with. Even at full power and even without the lingering injuries that he had, this was not going to be a picnic to say the least. It's really going to bad times, considering the watch that he had to wear to prevent his magical CORE from exploding because of the unintended effects of him bonding with the Deathly Hallows. If he was at his full power, he could have died, because of the side effects that he experienced with being merged from the Deathly Hallows.

Hermione in particular was struck dumb beyond all words. The brunette bookworm had long since passed the point where she could logically freak out, but the fact of the matter was, this was the thing that she was just literally reading about.

Now the fact that her master came face to face with Grundy, that did not improve her mood any.

The breath was driven from Harry's body and he was pretty sure something loose was rattled from his head. He felt something wrap around his throat as the monster tugged Harry to his feet with a fierce force.

Harry struggled against the grip and he could see that Grundy had a large chain wrapped around his throat. The wizard struggled, trying to break free.

He had to summon some strength within him. Taking off the watch was an idea that he considered, but he already did that way too recently. Plus, given the energy he could feel from this creature, he wasn't sure if it would make that much of a difference.

The creature gave a grunt, as Harry went straight for the eyes with a conjunctvitus curse. He didn't normally use magic as Nightwing unless it was an emergency. This qualified as an emergency.

Of course, he only loosened his grip with the chain, he did not completely break it. That was not good times for him. He struggled against the titanic grip of the monster as he was dragged around, the air was loosened from his lungs. The next growl just underlined how problematic this entire situation was.

"BORN ON A MONDAY!"

Crash went Harry, at least he let go of the chain somewhat. But his large foot was put down on Harry's recently bruised ribs and that added to his agony.

The zombie was backed off slightly, after Harry gave him a hot foot but he received a chain to the face for his troubles.

That really smacked him back to life and Harry shook his head, trying in vain to clear the cobwebs. He figured that a concussion was inevitable and his blurred vision added to the pain. Grundy continued to move forward, knocking him around.

"CHRISTENED ON A TUESDAY!"

' _The poem, of course, someone might be controlling him,'_ Hermione whispered, shaking her head, finally regaining the ability to talk.

' _Yes, I figured that out about a minute ago, bloody good lot of help that's doing me,'_ Harry said, maneuvering a crate into his path so Grundy could punch the crate instead of his face.

Unfortunately, that only gave Harry a momentary moment of relief. Grundy was really attached that that chain which wouldn't be that much of a problem if said chain wasn't really attached to Harry's throat and the wind was knocked from his lungs. Closing his eyes, Harry was dragged around like a dog by Grundy.

"MARRIED ON A WEDNESDAY!"

Harry was hurled through the wall with reckless abandon, leaving a second identical hole.

Harry could hear bond chatter but he could not make out words. Thankfully his skull wasn't crushed. Although he should move out of the way of Grundy's foot to prevent that from happening once again.

His large oven pan like hands squeezed around Harry's head and he slammed into the ground once again, the wind blown out of his body. Harry struggled and he could see Grundy's face up against his again. There were a few warbling words that followed what the man said next.

"TOOK ILL A THURSDAY!"

Harry avoided getting his face stomped in and winced, his previous injures from the battle with the Ex-President Gang being aggravated. He bit on his lip, trying to soldier through the pain and get back into the swing of things. It wasn't going to be easy.

Things moved so quickly, it must not have been five minutes, even though it felt like five hours where he was standing. He ignored the throbbing that resounded through his head, the loud thump, thump, thump.

It was time to formulate a battle plan and he cleared his head, with Grundy looming over him like an ever present force of nature, ready and willing to go in for the kill.

' _For the record, I'm open to suggestions,'_ Harry thought to the girls over the bond, trying not to sound too desperate but if that wasn't a folly, he didn't know what was.

* * *

Black Canary quickened her footsteps, she knew that the fighting had gotten intense. The police were handling it. She had her mission to do, and mostly blocked off her thoughts for the rest of the world.

She had seen the Church after it had been torn down, it used to be a nice place and now it was once again. Deacon Blackfire was inside; it was time for the blonde heroine to pay the man himself her respects.

She had to deal with a few problems with both the mobsters and the homeless. After taking care of those, she was here and the doors were wide open. Black Canary ascended to the roof and she could hear some frantic bond chatter but she knew by now to focus on the mission at hand. And this was an intense one. Perhaps this was a weird sixth sense type of thing, but she had a feeling of foreboding.

A feeling that something was completely and utterly wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what that was. The blonde was crouched on the rooftop of the Church, ready to make her move, ready to jump down into action.

As loud and insane as it was outside of the Church it was quiet inside. It was about quite as one would think that a Church might have been. In fact, one could argue that it was kind of unsettling with how quiet the church was.

Dinah shuddered despite herself, and slowly made her way inside. She could almost see why someone had took sanctuary in here. It would give someone out in the cold and harsh Gotham City streets a sense of home.

Nothing was too overtly sinister looking at first glance, but Dinah could really get the sense that something entirely was not as it should have been.

' _Harry is fighting Solomon Grundy,'_ Karen informed Dinah and Dinah stopped short, nearly hitting her head from the fact that it jerked up.

' _No, shit, the Solomon Grundy,'_ Dinah thought, this was a name that shook her to the bone and for good reason. It would drive chills down the spine of anyone, sane or otherwise.

' _Yes, and the Deacon you're visiting, he was at the library, reading a book about Grundy,'_ Hermione informed them all, keeping herself together after the initial freak out.

' _Why weren't we informed of this?'_ Faora demanded in an accusatory voice towards Hermione.

' _Don't jump down my bloody throat, I didn't think it was important at the time,'_ Hermione said.

' _A person of interest, that you knew was of interest for several hours, looking at a book about a mystical swamp zombie, is important, and you had time to warn us,'_ Faora said and Hermione was about ready to return fire with another biting comment of her own.

' _Enough, please,'_ Diana said shaking her head. _'Harry is handling the situation, and if this Deacon is controlling Grundy…..'_

' _Assume that he's dangerous and act accordingly,'_ Faora said. It was a good thing that she wasn't there or this head of the Church would be without a head.

' _So if I take him out, then I remove his hold over the zombie,'_ Dinah said.

' _Har-Zod's holding his own but even he is capable of only so much,'_ Faora said and it was obvious how she was still agitated by Hermione about holding vital information from the Alphas for so long. Har-Zod gave her a little bit of freedom and this is what she did. If she was in the Kryptonian military, she would be executed for such high treason.

Dinah whistled, the fighting in Ghost Town, Old Gotham, and the surrounding areas continuing off in the distance. Never the less, she had to keep her head up and focused on this particular issue.

' _Harry can handle himself,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Well that goes without saying,'_ Faora said, but she was staring daggers at Hermione through the link.

She stopped at the Chapel area and she had two really big roadblocks ahead of her. One of them had long messy black hair with a beard. He was built like a tank and his companion was even taller. He was bald with a red beard. There was a middle aged man next to him as he stared her down. His appearance gave off the air of someone who was homeless, but he had brand new shoes which ruined that illusion.

"So, the rumors are true, the Black Canary lives in Gotham City," he said with a wide smile. "Either you age pretty well or someone else has taken up that mantle. Which is it?"

The man with the dark beard looked at her. "Looks like we're going to have a new caged canary to play with boys."

Dinah got the implications of what he was saying, but she would not back them from them, not at all.

"And we're done playing, we're going to leave her for the buzzards."

"This is your only warning, let me pass."

"No, you better run for the hills," the larger bald man with the red beard said and he swung his large fist at her preparing to knock her block off.

She dodged the attack and grabbed his arm, twisting it behind his back. Her foot kicked him in the back of the leg. It was always the case with the bigger men, take out the legs, and they were the same size as anyone else when on their back.

The large man was next, trying to take her head off with a big kick to the head. It would have nailed her hard but Dinah dodged him, grabbing him, and hurled him into the wall.

The smallest of the three was dropped to the ground and Dinah stepped forward. An eerie chill was in his body.

"Yes, come closer, enter, behold the power that I hold."

Dinah could see him kneeling in the center of the chapel, in the midst of a pentagram drawn in blood. Five dead bodies laid at each point, they looked to be young children, between the ages of five and eight years old, runaways most likely who had been swept into Deacon Blackfire's little game.

"I told you, I told you, I told you, that if you send your children to me, they will be saved. I delivered them from this cruel world, into the arms of our lord and savor….into the arms of someone who will save them. But you see…"

The Deacon smiled, kneeling in the midst of the Pentgram, wearing a wife beater top that was stained in blood, the blood of the children that had rested there. There was an eerie glow around him.

"I have sent them onto a better place, delivered them. I have given them to the lord, and in death, they will help lead us to the promise land!"

Dinah was revolted by the sight and she moved forward to put a stop of it, even though nothing was bringing the lives that he extinguished back. He continued his sickening sermon, the words assaulting her brain like well-placed razor blades.

He landed on the back of her head, nearly taking it off. Dinah was rocked by the attack, and she tried to shake it off.

It was Batman, but he was not himself.

"Batman?"

The punch indicated that he, much like Grundy, was under Blackfire's spell.

"And so it begins, I've got the whole world in my hand."

* * *

Vicki Vale had to admit that running head long into the thick of things…..well that was an interesting way to arrive at the scene of the chaos. Kara stood by her side, the blonde watching the chaotic scene intently.

"Well, that puts the riot a while back to shame," Vicki whispered, staring things down with wide eyes and Kara nodded, her mouth snapping open as she agreed solemnly.

They were back a fair distance, give them some credit for utilizing the common sense that they were born with. Hunched behind the cars that the MCU brought it, they were watching the scens of the battle.

The Homeless went down in a heap, as did the Mob.

"Just keep your focus on everything, and point that camera, and get a good shot, as good as you can without getting your head blown off," Vicki told her without taking a breath.

"Right, got it," Kara said, excitement brimming from her voice. They made their way closer, careful not to be seen by anyone. That was the measure of a good reporter. Get the scoop without being seen.

The blonde crouched in the shadows, with Vicki looking at her, and she could hear the voices off in the distance.

"I want them divided off, do you hear me? If they get off out of this area, it will be all of your necks on the line!"

Gordon was taking charge of the scene as swiftly and decisively as he could, directing all of the traffic that he could. Kara watched the scene.

"Focus on keeping the camera steady," Vicki reminded her out of the corner of her eye. Vicki was about ready to go on reporting mode. "And the scene here is intense…..it appears that the GCPD has joined Gotham City and the mob, and this is Vicki Vale on the scene, bringing you exclusive footage of the scene as it unfolds. It's hard to tell what started it, but from the most reliable reports, mob involvement kick off this scene, and it was followed by the homeless defending themselves."

Vicki paused and she could hear the angry voice of Branden and he was arguing with the angry voice of James Gordon. Both were going back and forth about something. Vicki wished that she could get a bit closer to make it out.

"GCPD, despite some problems, is appearing to get the situation under order, thanks to James Gordon," Vicki said, watching as John Jones made his way into the scene to somewhat appease the situation. She could have sworn that John looked at her briefly but he looked away. Perhaps she was seeing things but there was no time to really think about that. Remaining professional, Vicki pressed on with the news report. "I'm live at the scene still, and if you're with me…."

The loud screams of two homeless men could be heard and they barreled towards the barricade, swinging torches like the madmen that they were.

James Gordon was in there quickly, with a shotgun in his hand. He unloaded the ammo, a beanbag at them. It hit both of them in the stomach with two fluid shots before they could make their moves.

"James Gordon manages to subdue two homeless men who have gotten their hands on torches to use as welcomes, they appear to be underneath some mystical spell," Vicki said, biting down on her lip and watching the battle, and Gordon continued to cement his bad ass status after the last riot by diving head long into this one.

Up on the top, Branden was watching, taking a vantage point, a sniper rifle in his hand. He was about to take out anyone who moved wrong. SWAT really was taking advantage of the situation to take all of the pot shots that they needed.

This was a time where Branden was doing his job and people should be reminded that he was good at what he did, if he wasn't a corrupt asshole.

A crack could be heard and he saw that Gordon took out a couple of pieces of Gotham City trash. Good for him, although Branden would have personally used something a little bit more lethal than a beanbag shot gun. It would have point them into line quite nicely.

Then his eyes twisted on the position and he saw her standing there by the barricade. Clear as day, in the light, Branden could see it and he got excited, this was too good to be true.

Vicki Vale was there and he would never get another opportunity like this. Especially considering he could make it look like an accident, and there would never be another opportunity like this.

A malicious smirk went over his face, as he lined up the shot, ready to remove a rather prominent pain from his ass.

Kara smiled. _'Well I'm sure that it should be obvious now….'_

' _What, that Barbara's Dad is a bad ass?'_ Zatanna asked.

' _Yes, we're really not trending too much new ground with that one but yes….he is one,'_ Pamela said with a smile.

' _Most wouldn't have even stuck their heads into the fire,'_ Faora said but it appeared that things were getting a bit more intense.

Kara steadily kept the camera on Vicki but she noticed that there was a dot on Vicki's head.

' _Sniper,'_ she thought, and she could see Vicki in the midst of reporting and her mind was on the scene that was around her, as opposed to what was going on behind her.

There was no time to think about this, she had her instincts, knocking Vicki to the ground.

The sniper shot collide off of the police car, ricocheting off of it.

Before Vicki could even catch her breath, Kara looked around, searching for the source and she was not surprised with what she found.

' _Branden, of course, of fucking course,'_ Kara thought, and she decided to take advantage of an opening to deal with this situation. He would not see this one coming, she was confident about that one.

Kara picked up a tiny pebble, balancing it between her hands. Taking a careful aim, she nailed Branden in the head in a flash.

It bounce doff of his tactical helmet but added the nice bonus of knocking him the fuck out.

' _Bullseye!'_ the twins cheered, and they were not the only ones that they were amused by that attack.

"What was….we were shot at weren't we?' Vicki asked and she could see the fighting die down a little bit.

"Yeah," Kara confirmed and Vicki smiled.

"It's a good thing that you were able to see what was happening around us," Vicki said, as she could see Kara steady the camera. "As you can see, and as this reporter has experienced, it's a war zone in Gotham City….."

Kara had to admire Vicki getting back on track from where she was, but that was just what it was like to be a reporter.

* * *

Harrison and Morgaine turned up, both of them having smiles on their face. Morgaine turned her attention towards Harrison and there was only one thing that she had to say as they approached the royal palace.

"We're here," Morgaine told him.

This was where Titania held Royal Court. One would have to have pretty high expectations that were almost unattainable not to be blown away by such an amazing location.

"Wow," Harrison said, he rarely let his emotions get away from him but this was one of those times where he was going to have to make an exception.

There were different types of magical creatures fluttering around in the air. The Sidhe in particular looked very breath taking, although there was some kind of sinister looking aura to them. That being said, it still was borderline difficult for them to look away.

"Well, you would obvious turn a few heads," Morgaine said to Harrison, trying to keep her expression neutral. Sure enough, the various creatures looked at Harrison with interest. But naturally they were not going to move too terribly close to him because Morgaine's presence was something that made them think twice for me.

It was kind of how a lot of the wand wavers acted when Bellatrix just casually walked down Diagon Alley or Hogsmeade as she pleased. Her reputation did proceed her rather well. Or Harry come to think about it as well. They knew not to get too close to him.

He would normally be amused by this but he could not forget the reason why he came here.

At the front gates, they made their way into the palace, which gave off a shining light that was so amazing that it almost burned.

"Well, wow wouldn't begin to cover this place, would it?" Morgaine asked Harrison and he shook his head in negative.

They came across a sight that they most certainly wouldn't see every day. There was a dwarf standing at the gate, dressed as a butler for lack of a better term. Harry raised his eyebrow and Morgaine's mouth twitched into a smile.

The dwarf bowed towards Morgaine. "My lady, it is a pleasure to see you once again. It is not every day that the first born daughter of Ingraine has returned to the land of her Mother's birth. The news has spread quickly to the Court of the Queen of the Fae."

The dwarf paused and his beady eyes looked on that of Harrison's. "And Harry Potter, the news of your legend has spread all across the land. She awaits the presence of both of you in the throne room."

Morgaine nodded swiftly and she joined Harrison, walking next to him, making their way up to the court to see the Queen of the Fae.

"Enter, I've been expecting you."

Harrison and Morgaine entered the palace and saw an extremely beautiful woman that blew their mind. From what Morgaine told him, Harrison knew that she took many different forms during her time. It depended on the season that they were in. Today, she had light green skin, along with hazel eyes that burned brightly. Her burnt golden hair stretched down past her body. She wore bright colors, made of the most extravagant material that fit around her tight body. She was well endowed, especially for the lithe frame.

Her beauty was stunning, if not a bit alien.

Morgaine smiled, she could sense that despite her regal appearance, she had somewhat of a distressful time. "It's been a long time, hasn't it, Auntie?"

* * *

Nightwing was hanging in the battle, Grundy's iron grip wrapped around his head. It was not a picnic, not at the slightest. He could hear the chatter of the bond calling out to him but there was kind of a problem. It was really hard to focus with a swamp zombie attempting to crush his skull.

Of course Grundy seemed to be contemplating his options and thought was not exactly a prime concept for an ancient swamp zombie. This allowed Harry to close his eyes and catch his breath. He began to lash out, nailing Grundy with a hard shot to the ribs, dropping him down to his knees.

Grundy gave a mighty bellow, a loud growl if you will, throwing his arms into the air. Harry watched his progress, seeing Grundy go for him.

Now that Harry had a chance to, he activated the spines on his gauntlets. Since he was attached to that chain, he was going to make Grundy regret that one, every single step of the way if he could help it.

Grundy gave a loud and pained howl as he was shocked and backed off. Electrocution was something that even affected Solomon Grundy and the monster was launched back with a thunderous explosion.

He dropped Harry and he snapped the chains binding him, freeing himself.

Just in time though as Grundy swung for the fences trying to take Harry's head off with a huge haymaker punch. It could have destroyed concrete if it connected. Harry crouched down to dodge that and Grundy punched the wall. Did not deter him at the slightest but Harry had the added bonus of not having his head taken off.

Harry jumped on Grundy's back and aimed for a spot on his neck. He jabbed him in the neck hard. Grundy growled, flailing around madly. This allowed Harry to swoop in and start to take some pot shots to Grundy's ribs, doubling him over. Each punch caused Grundy to stagger back, grunting and Harry managed to find a sensitive spot.

The swamp zombie doubled over in great agony, and Harry had to move in now, it was now or never.

Harry sprung up and nailed Grundy with a huge curb stomp like blow to the back of his head, bringing him down. Grundy's face collided hard with the pavement.

' _So did that take him out?'_ Diana asked, clenching her hands together quite nervously.

Grundy got up to his feet and Faora offered her own personal assessment of the matter.

' _Not enough.'_

Harry was able to dodge Grundy. He might not have full access to his powers due to the inhibitor watch he wore, to prevent the damage of his CORE from overloading his body and causing a big explosion, but he still did have full power of his reflexes and more importantly his mind. That was a more dangerous weapon then any of his powers. And he still had a dangerous weapon in the suit.

He closed his eyes and used the gauntlets once again, sticking them in a puddle on the ground that Grundy stepped into.

ZAP! Grundy's hair stood up on end and Harry nailed him with a shot to the ribs, doubling him over in pain. An upper cut punch enhanced with brass knuckles nailed him in the jaw and would have put him on dream street if he was not a mindless swamp zombie.

Grundy looked damaged and Harry slashed at his arm with a violent cutting curse. The swamp zombie, looking enraged, ran towards Harry.

The Swamp Monster hit a field goal like shot to Harry's ribs, punting him like a soccer ball.

Harry winced, he would have to hit the one spot where he was nursing an injury from a previous bout. Healing magic was good but it was really just a super powered pain killer. It didn't prevent the injury from getting re-aggravated until it was healing naturally.

"GREW WORSE ON A FRIDAY."

' _And I think he's pissed now,'_ Donna thought, anxiously clutching the pillow on her bed.

' _You think?'_ Lyta asked, but she nervously watched. She could feel her mother's tension as her father fought Grundy.

Another Grundy kick caused Harry crashing through another wall. He closed his eyes, wincing in agony as he landed on the ground right by the docks. Shaking off the pain, Harry tried to pull himself to his feet.

Grundy wielded a huge butcher knife out and raised it. He slashed at Nightwing with a mighty below.

Nightwing dodged the attack. A second attack was only partially dodged, as the knife sliced through his suit.

Harry winced, as there was blood tricking from a red line on his chest and he staggered back.

' _OH COME ON!'_ Faora yelled, losing her head, a rarity for her. She took a deep breath but her anger completely bubbling to the surface. _'I just fixed that fucking suit, and he damaged it again!'_

' _Damaged me as well,'_ Harry grunted, but thankfully the suit hit most of the brunt.

He could see the fire surrounding them. It was consuming the area around Ghost Town and now reached the fight scene between Nightwing and Grundy on the docks. Things were about to get hot in more ways than once.

Crouching down to dodge the butcher knife, an idea formed slowing in Nightwing's mind. He had to time this one right but if he did….he would have him. He really would have him. Blood poured from his mouth as Nightwing took half of a step back.

He had to be careful, the knife cut through his suit. It could not sustain another hit like that.

Harry saw his maneuver, and tangled up Grundy's legs, sending him into the fire.

Grundy got to his feet, set on fire, and Harry smiled at him. He was near the water. Harry fired up the gauntlets on his suit and gave a grim declaration of, "Died on a Saturday!"

BAM!

Grundy was nailed hard and then Harry pulled out two explosive throwing knives. He took careful aim, launching them at the dock by Grundy's feet.

The exploded on impact, seeing the flaming Zombie, along with a ton of the debris down onto the murky depths below. The pained growl could be heard as hit bottom.

Grundy did not resurface and that allowed Harry to take one step forward, sinking down to his knees, the agony of the battle hitting him. That wasn't easy, but it was a satisfying battle.

' _Buried on a Sunday,'_ Amanda, Emily, Lyta, and Donna chanted, before they paused. _'And that's the end of Solomon Grundy!'_

Harry could breathe easily but he was sore from head to toe. And it kind of hurt to breath.

* * *

"So you deliver your children to me, dressed in rags, and I will deliver them to the arms of the good lord, just like all of the sinners in Gotham City will be delivered to the good lord, for their judgment!"

Deacon Blackfire still knelt in the center of the church, dripping in the blood of dead children, an absolutely horrifying sight. His sermon became more demented, more crazed.

Dinah shook her head, the situation that was around her was grisly, but she had the worry about the Dark Knight Detective that was attacking her. Batman moved forward and tried to punch her.

Black Canary dodged the attacks, she was training her whole life, and Batman was not completely himself, which was a good thing. Because he didn't have full access to his abilities. That being said, getting hit by him would still hurt so she was going to avoid the attacks when she could do it.

"The devil in dragon skin will perish through the flames in Gotham City, and with it, the caged bird will perish at the hands of the bat, who has been brought to the darkness."

Black Canary once again avoided the attacks, and Batman grabbed her around the throat, his fingers clenching around her neck. She gasped with his grip pushing onto her neck.

She grabbed him around the arm and flipped him to the ground. He looked to be out of it, and Black Canary had been training hard each day, every day with some extremely skilled people. The heroine jumped up in the air, going for a punch but she dodged the attack, grabbing Batman from behind and bending his shoulder behind his back.

"Focus," Black Canary told him, trying to bring him to his knees. "Snap out of it!"

Batman didn't seem to be willing to snap out of it, instead he elbowed her.

"I can feel it, I can smell it….burn…..give them a preview straight to the hell that they deserve, from the actions caused by their own….."

A wind blew outside and Black Canary speared Batman hard into the wall. He grabbed her by the ankle but she flipped out of his grip and nailed him with a running kick.

Suddenly, above their heads, the Church Roof suddenly was set ablaze and was starting to crack.

' _The fire outside….it must have spread into the church,'_ Faora thought, as Dinah dodged Batman's attempts to take her out.

"Yes, bring them, for I have protected by the fire once, and the fire will protect me again!"

His words got even more crazed and manic but there were far bigger problems than that. The fire started to spread even more and Black Canary slowly gained the upperhand.

Batman was hungry and drugged, so he was not working to an optimal fighting style. She took him hard with a shot to the ribs.

"Sorry about this, but this has to be done," Black Canary said, grabbing Batman and nailing him with a huge kick to the side of the head.

Batman landed on his back, dazed, and confused, but he got to his feet. Walking right into another kick to the face that knocked him completely out.

' _Well that was entertaining,'_ Zatanna thought, she doubted many people would have bragging rights to knocking Batman out. Even if you had to stick a huge asterisk next to that point.

"Come closer to me, my child."

Black Canary turned around and saw Deacon Blackfire kneeling, not moving. Still dripping in the blood of the children that he slaughtered that was down on the ground.

It was time for her to end this, and she approached him.

A loud creak was heard slightly above her head and she leapt back. He heard it as well, but he didn't move.

The roof started to cave in, the flaming debris flying down all around them, with Blackfire still kneeling in the center of it.

"I will be shielded once again…..the power…I can feel that, the knowledge that I have saved the believers and taken the sinners from this cruel Earth!" Blackfire yelled, as he leaned his head back and rolled his eyes into the back of his head, his arms in a crucifix. "So it is written, so it shall come to pass, the children will flock from this world, and I will be the….."

' _Dinah!'_ Faora yelled urgently and Dinah turned away, as the roof caved in. Moving quickly, she picked up Batman.

"I do not run, I do not blink, for what happens in this next world, my actions in this one will be vindicated.'

Black Canary had Batman over her shoulders, ignoring the last words of Deacon Blackfire as she sprinted from the church. His insidious laughter filled her ears as she made her way, dodging the pieces of flaming roof as she went, managing not to drop Batman.

She barely cleared the church, as she made her way into Gotham City. The sound of fire engines coming out to put out the flames could be heard, and she could see several people, mobsters and homeless, some cuffed, and some on the ground.

A crackle of lightning could be heard and it started to rain. The laughter inside finally stopped and there was only the wind.

Black Canary made sure to get Batman's limp form to a safe place, it had been a long night.

**To Be Continued on August 20th 2014.**


	46. That Was the End Of....

Wayne Manor had an interior designer that stressed the excessive and the extravagant. One could go no further than the bedroom to get this point. The master Bedroom in Wayne Manor was extremely large, with far more room than anyone would need. But one could argue that would give off the allure of something extravagant and old fashioned. The antique furniture that was all over the room would lend credence to that fact.

Bruce Wayne had seen better days. His body was sore, battered, and broken, with the man feeling like he went through a major battle. Which wasn't that far away from the truth to really be honest. His memories were a patchwork of what happened and there was still a ringing sensation in his head. The taunting words of Deacon Blackfire that attacked his mind and brainwashed him faded for the most part.

There would still be echoing for some time that much was for sure. He stretched, feeling the soreness in his body. He could not really hold his head up for long. A little effort and his head slumped back onto the pillows.

Through his scrambled thought process, he mused that it almost felt like someone took a jackhammer to his skull.

The playboy millionaire briefly checked out his surroundings, but at the same time feigned sleep. He was not ready to face anyone, especially this anyone quite yet.

Of course, as Bruce well knew, the feigning sleep trick might not work with this individual very well. He was not easily gullible as some.

The person sitting there just hummed casually, but lowly enough not to be obnoxious. Bruce sneaked a look out of the corner of his eye, and he could see him raise an eyebrow.

Casually, Harry picked up the book that he had on the bedside table and began to read, just waiting for Bruce to meet him on his own accord. He had a couple of hours to kill, so he could sit back and read, while waiting for him to come to on his own terms.

Given the ordeal that he went through, it was just as well.

Time ticked by, and sands passed through the hour glass. More of the sunlight flowed from the outside, but once again time kept ticking on by.

Finally, it seemed like a sufficient amount of time had passed, which seemed like an eternity, even though it was fifteen minutes, Bruce acted like he was going to stir to life, even though he had been back up. Granted, his jaw still hurt, no matter if it was healed.

"So, are you finally awake?"

Bruce gave a grumbling and prominent. "Yes."

"Excellent," Harry said with a smile as he waited for the occupant of the bedroom to stir himself completely back to life.

The man managed to adjust to the light, taking a look at his fellow crimefighter, and there was an obvious question that burned on the tip of his tongue.

"What happened to you?" Bruce asked as he could see a lot of bruising on Harry's face and his right arm. And he doubted that it was the end to the injuries that he suffered. A rather pained grimace filled the emerald-eyed man's face.

"Well, an eight foot tall swamp zombie that was born on a Monday happened," he replied, as he winced. Grundy really pounded him. Bruce raised his eyebrow and Harry could tell that this was news to him. "The official story though is that I was in a motorcycle accident, some jackass trucker had too much to drink apparently."

Bruce looked stoic and nodded at him. "I never came face to face with Grundy, but I should have known that he had heavy muscle to do his bidding and to stir up Zucco and Skeevers."

There was this long moment of silence between the two of them and Harry decided to bring up the eight hundred pound elephant in the room.

"So how much do you remember?" he asked and this was a question that caused Bruce to give him a certain glare of death. Not really phased by this glare as some might be, Harry pressed on. "It must be difficult…"

"I remember enough to know that I was sloppy," Bruce said and there was a grumbling tone to his voice as he recalled what happened or flashes of what happened rather.

Bruce made his way to his feet, he was sore, but able to move. He shook his head.

"You've been sleeping for a long time," Harry informed him. "Last couple of days….."

"That long?" Bruce asked, as he quickened the pace, and he could see that Harry wasn't up to picking up the load due to the injuries that he had.

"Dinah's doing a wonderful job in keeping on an eye on Gotham City, and let's be fair, she has considerable help," Harry said and there was no more than needed to be said other than that. Bruce got the message loud and clear. "Let's just say that Nightwing's not completely out of commission."

Whether or not Bruce got the implied meaning of this statement, he didn't say, Harry didn't ask, and there was really no chance to verify anything that may or may not have been said.

"Did Black Canary see his body?" he asked sharply.

"No," Harry replied curtly.

"Well, I don't need to tell you what that may mean," Bruce replied stiffly and Harry smiled.

"No, I don't need a flashing cue card, I know perfectly what it means," Harry said, he wished that it didn't mean that, but since it did, he would have to just go with it. "You should take a shower and get dressed, we have a meeting at Wayne Enterprises in an hour, and they're going to want some answers about where the hell you've been."

"I'd figured as much."

"Looks like you woke up just in time, sir," Alfred said, joining the conversation about halfway through, even though there was a hint that he been lingering in the hallway for some time.

"Yes," Bruce said, slipping off to take a shower, which would hopefully bring him back to life, at least that was his intention.

It would be a long time before he recovered from this ordeal.

"The body heals sooner than the mind," Harry muttered to Alfred and he nodded in response.

"Master Bruce's mind had been already not in the fit state due to his childhood traumas," Alfred said with a long sigh. As much as he loathed to admit it, there were some wounds that were too mortally deep to even contemplate healing. "Best keep an eye on him."

* * *

The smoldering wreckage of the church filled the Gotham City air and James Gordon, Sarah Essen, and Harvey Bullock were beneficiaries to the aftermath. The smoldered and burned bodies of five children were the first visual that they could see. By all indications they were dead even before the fire.

All of them were likely runaways or maybe kicked out by their parents, unwanted, abandoned, any number of things. They would be identified, maybe in the coming days. But given the state that they were in, it was unlikely.

If they had family out there, they would get closure, even though their closure would be the haunting knowledge that this madman used their children as tools.

"And there's the piece of shit right there," Bullock grumbled, pointing at the charred remains of Deacon Blackfire. "Always thought that he was a kook."

"Yes, well he was responsible for a lot of lives lost," Gordon said, remaining objective, but the deaths of children were always a bitter pill to swallow. He just hoped for their sake that they didn't suffer, but there was a sense of something foreboding there. So he was thinking about the worst, and the worst could be pretty bad.

"More than that, a lot of people believed his words, and even after death, I'm sure his message stuck with a lot of people," Essen remarked.

"People…. some people really need to open their eyes," Bullock grumbled, as he could see people going in to remove the body of Deacon Blackfire. The burned rubble buried Blackfire's body which they had sifted through for the past couple of days it seems like.

His body was being placed in a body bag, and Jim Corrigan and his forensic team made his way inside, allowing Bullock, Essen, and Gordon to back off and allow the man some room to do his work.

"Not much other than the charred remains of these children to go off on," Corrigan said as he surveyed the scene through narrowed eyes. "Best, I could tell, he was trying a complex ritual but it didn't work out as well as he thought that it would.

"That's for sure," Bullock said, the man was safely in the body bag but he still shivered. Even though he tried not to show it, he shivered.

"Some of his followers might still be in the Church, but their bodies were consumed," Corrigan continued.

"I want to know what he was trying to accomplish….. I mean….. obviously he wasn't all there mentally….."

"You mean he was fucking nuts, Essen," Bullock said to her, being blunt, but at the same time, rather accurate.

"Yes, very much," Sarah replied, but she waved off Bullock's crisp language. She was used to what the man said, and his own blunt way of saying things. It was oddly refreshing, but it could take some time to grow on him. "He tried to stir up a gang war, between the mob and the homeless and…. there was eye-witness accounts that described what was seen around the area at the time.

"Yes, Batman, do you think…"

"The Bat could have bit the dust if he was in here," Bullock said, he wasn't the biggest fan of that pointed ear rodent and his ninja friend to be honest. They made the GCPD look bad due to taking care of problems that they couldn't really address. Sure, they might have done some good, he'd admit that if they put a gun to his head, but someone really had to have some issues if they played dress up to fight crime.

"Maybe," Sarah said, but she was doubtful as the three made their way outside, past the Church and into Ghost Town.

The fire engines pulled into town and they were still putting out fires, which it looked like they would be doing for some time.

"Homeless are saying that Blackfire was the one that was responsible, he promised them shelter and a purpose," Gordon reported.

"Yeah, aren't there a bunch of ex-cons around this part of town?" the hard-boiled detective asked.

"Not all of them, but enough of them to be a concern, without going through the records, we don't know who is likely a suspect and who was just being misled," Gordon said to both Sarah and Bullock. "And as for the mob….."

"They don't have the slightest clue why they were here," Sarah replied grimly. "Or if they do, they're not saying a word to anyone."

"Not that they'd talk anyway and a lot of them are going to walk anyway," Bullock said, this wasn't said as a theory, just a matter of a fact.

Especially when they could claim the brainwashing just as easily as the homeless, and they would have an awful time proving it. No money or favors would even have to change hands this time, they would just really have to claim the brainwashing, and they would be good to good.

The smoke damage in the surrounding areas was obvious and there was debris that littered the streets. The downed bodies of more homeless, mobsters, and citizens were being packed up and hauled away. Some of them breathed their last breath a long time ago.

James Gordon looked around, as bad as the damage was around Ghost Town, things could have gotten much, much worse. At least the fires didn't spread into Gotham City, which would have been an even bigger problem.

"So, there's really not that much more we can do here," Sarah replied and Gordon nodded wistfully.

"Yeah, even Branden took a hell of a shot from the rioting, could you believe it?" Bullock told them. "He's going to be okay…. got a mild concussion, will get about a week vacation out of it. Paid, so he came off lucky."

Sarah frowned, she doubted very much that it was an accidental shot on him. Nothing that she could prove, but it was a curiosity to say the very least. There was something really interesting going on here and she was beginning to fit the pieces together, fragmented as they might have been.

The more questions they had, the more answers they didn't.

"I want to know why he did this," Gordon said gruffly.

Those were questions that were going to remain obviously unanswered, even though they would have their theories about it.

Nevertheless, it was a good thing that the fires didn't spread further than the area, outside of this particular area of Gotham City. A damn good thing actually, because had it done so, there would have been problems.

Not that the damage could be understated, and it did make the riots of this past Summer look like a cakewalk. It would be a long time before anyone forgot about this particular incident, that was for certain.

* * *

Titania knew that this conversation was coming and she hoped that they would hear her out before making any judgments with what happened. She led Harrison and Morgaine over to the gardens. Naturally, someone of her stature deserved the utmost respect.

Harrison noted that they had this out of this world type of quality to it and there was a spell that prevented him from seeing what was truly going on around him. He frowned, he didn't like to be lied to and he felt like he was being lied to.

Morgaine had not visited this area for quite some time but it had a majesty that grew on her. Garden related pun intended of course, as the exotic looking plants, made of bright purples, blues, and greens danced before their eyes.

Harrison noticed something else, he would have to say quite peculiar, but that might not have been the right word for it. But at the same time, that might have been the perfect word for it, at least what he was seeing.

"Why is it happening?"

"That's a question that I've expected you to ask."

"And it's a question that I expect you to answer rather soon."

"It's complicated."

"Then make it simpler."

There was a haze going on around Harrison as Morgaine and Titania went back and forth with each other. That was one thing that kind of gave Harrison a headache quite frankly, but not as much as trying to figure out what exactly was going on around here and what extent this illusion went towards.

Faerie World always gave off a weird aura; anyone who visited it would be able to tell you that. But the aura had been punched up from about an eight to a fifteen.

"Well, it's like this….. actually it's far more complicated than I thought…."

Harrison could feel something, the pull and he saw the illusion grow stronger the more he tried to force it. There was no question about it now. It was hiding something and he blocked out the bickering of Morgaine and Titania

"Why is it bleeding into the Mundane World? You were locked off, it shouldn't be….."

Once again, Harrison locked onto the barrier, gathering up his magic. It was much harder than he thought it would be or perhaps it was much harder than it really should be. He thought that this could potentially leave him sore and winded by the time it was all said and done.

The illusion shattered line a pane of glass and this got Morgaine's attention, followed by Titania's, and also any nearby servants.

The Faeries, they were withering away and angrily, Titania replied the illusion, but the damage had already been done.

"You shouldn't have done that," Titania said, wiping the mind of her servants to prevent the truth from being retained in their minds. "You dare do that…. you dare…"

"Oh, I dare prevent you from hiding the truth to us," Harrison said, standing up to face her and stare her right in the eye. He went up against a Basilisk, and other things, he wasn't about ready to back down from the likes of her. He respected her power, but he would be damned if he feared her.

Titania looked fit to tie and she practically snarled with anger.

"I back down from no one, not even the God of War, not dragons, not a Basilisk, not anyone," Harrison said and one could feel his power filling the air. It was an alarming and quite scary scene.

"Now see…."

"The truth," Morgaine said, placing a hand on Harrison's shoulder, but she looked at her aunt.

"You want the truth, do you?" Titania asked them and Harrison's next statement was just about as caustic as the last.

It would be a long time before he forgot what he saw, the majesty of Faerie World eliminated, them dying, decaying, suffering.

"They're slowing dying," she admitted, there was really no use beating around the bush now. Harrison and Morgaine looked upon her. "Sealing Faerie World off from the mundane world had serious ramifications even if they were more long term than anything else."

"I can see that," Harrison said to her stiffly.

"Something is expediting the process," she admitted to both of them. "I can't be certain what, no one who has been sent through has made it back, alive at least."

"Give us one moment," Morgaine told Titania and the Faerie Queen nodded, wondering what they were going to say. Her niece was being very secretive, but that was her nature.

' _So what do you suspect that we should do?'_ Harrison asked, deciding that Morgaine knew best.

' _Well, this situation is affecting the Mortal World, so it's a problem that we have to deal with,'_ Morgaine thought to him. _'If we don't do so now, then it would have problems for later.'_

' _So, then you expect we help her?'_ Harrison thought and Morgaine looked thoughtful. She was mulling something over in her mind.

' _It might be an adequate idea to help her, yes,'_ Morgaine agreed, deciding to cut to the chase and she saw Titania's eyes on her. _'If nothing else, that means she owes us a favor and that will be beneficial.'_

Titania watched, she couldn't hear the conversation, but it did not take someone of high intelligence to figure out what they were having a conference about.

"We've decided to offer our help."

* * *

It was time for the meeting of Wayne Industries. Bruce Wayne was standing there, business as usual. Then there was Harry, he was still rather battered from the injuries that he sustained at the hands of Grundy, that he was passing off as a motorcycle accident. They would have to heal naturally for a little bit before his natural healing properties kicked in.

As long as he had to wear the watch, to prevent the overload of his CORE, injuries were going to be far worse than they would be normally. To be fair, someone like Grundy would not have been a picnic to have to deal with in any event.

Diana joined the two men, acting as Harry's role as bodyguard. She was keeping close to him, not allowing Harry at of her sight for a second.

' _Most people would take it easy, send a proxy their way,'_ Karen thought, shaking her head. She admired Harry's passion in keeping his head up, but there were times where she questioned what he was doing.

' _You should know that I'm not most people,'_ Harry told her firmly and that was obvious. The normal chatter in the bond link could be heard, but Harry decided to put his role in it on passive for now, because there was business to attend to.

When the Board of Directors at Wayne called an emergency meeting about such a serious subject, Harry knew that he would have to show up. He knew that since Kane was still on the board, he would stir up a lot of things. It was best to keep your potential foes as close as possible and that's what Harry did.

His knee buckled a tiny bit underneath him, the injuries were more prolific than he thought that they were. But he was dealing them.

The doors opened up and Harry put on his game face, walking next to them. Bruce followed him and Diana stuck closely to Harry's side. She knew that under most circumstances, Harry could handle himself, but the beating that he suffered at the hands of everyone's favorite eight foot tall swamp zombie was not most things.

Tamara stood waiting at the end of the hallway, giving Bruce the most courtesy of courtesy nod, then she looked at Harry, her mouth hanging open agape.

"What happened?" she asked, looking at him, a bit mortified by how he looked.

"I don't look that bad, do I?" Harry asked, trying to lighten the mood. "Did you hear what happened?"

"I've heard some things, but I'd better let you tell me," Tamara said, walking over so he can tell her in confidence if he wanted to.

"Motorcycle accident, it was quite nasty, I was lucky that I had quick reflexes, don't know what happened to the driver that knocked me off of the road," Harry said, flexing his fingers, which were still bruised from the battering they got.

"How did you walk away under your own power?" Tamara asked, astonished and awe struck.

Harry closed his eyes, he almost didn't to be honest. He was pretty sure that he came closer to being stomped into oblivion than even he would care to admit.

"Well, if I landed a bit differently, we wouldn't be having this conversation," Harry said, walking into the board room, and the sight that greeted him was fairly fascinating. "So why exactly are we having this meeting?"

"Well, it was because Mr. Wayne was missing," Tamara said to her and Harry smiled as he pointed at him. "Which the point is moot by but they still want to have a meeting about it. Both of you understand the protocols, don't you?"

"Yes, all too well," Harry said, he figured that this was going to be one of those days, but he didn't know why.

"Well, we better not keep them waiting," Bruce said, despite his voice being cheery, he looked to be a tiny bit annoyed by the process.

Of course they were set up just for a situation like this, but when he was found, perhaps the meeting should have been called.

"The story of your itinerary, it checks out," Tamara told Bruce in a businesslike voice. "But that being said, the Board is concerned."

"Of course, we should alleviate their concerns," Bruce said, but he took his strides and slipped inside the board room.

Bruce made his way inside and looked towards the Board. They were your usual collection of stuffed suits, all of them fixing their steely gaze upon him.

"Mr. Wayne, it's good to see you back," Lucius said in his usual inviting tone.

"I do apologize for being a no-show, an out of town trip caused me to be delayed," Bruce said and he looked at them. "A miscue with the flights caused me to get sent to Central City instead of Gotham on the return trip home."

Proof that he was where he said he was in front of them. They already knew this, but hearing him verify it put them at ease, well for the most part at least.

"It's good to verify this, Mr. Wayne," Phillip Kane said, but he was not done. "We were concerned that we would have to vote about how that we would run the company going forward if something had happened to you."

' _I bet you were just hoping that Wayne would be out of the picture,'_ Faora thought.

' _His own nephew, you think?'_ Zatanna asked.

' _Business trumps personal for some people,'_ Lily chimed in wisely.

"However, the fact that your disappearance could have meant that you met with foul play gives us a real concern," Phillip said, and there were a few nods. They agreed with this. "Therefore, I'd highly recommend that a bodyguard join you at all times to ensure no more difficulties happen."

Bruce couldn't say anything without revealing a lot. All he could do was nod.

' _Sounds to me like they're looking for a minder for him,'_ Karen thought.

' _Well, obviously, I'm sure that they wanted to do this for a long time,'_ Jaime thought chiming in. _'It's just the perfect excuse now to do it.'_

It was put to a vote, and Harry had a pretty good idea the winds were blowing this way.

It was best to allow them to earn this small victory so they could use it to fight even grander battles later. Harry knew it, and Bruce knew it as well. There would be other battles in the future where they could win as well.

"That being settled, I think that I have a perfect man in mind for the job," Phillip said and Bruce smiled, even though it appeared forced and extremely fake.

"I'm sure you know best."

* * *

"Still think that you're pretty lucky."

Penny said this as she looked over him. There were some injuries that could not be helped, could not be healed with magic. Plus the Inhibitor watch that he wore that would help heal his CORE, caused any healing magic not to jive well with his body. And taking it off was completely out of the question.

"Really lucky, really?" Harry asked, Penny dressed his wounds carefully. Pamela hung by himself, hanging onto him. Just enough where she was obviously not letting go any time soon, but also not too much where Penny can still tend to his wounds. She did give her enough room to do that.

"Well, none of that should scar," Penny said, shaking her head. That was a dangerous fight. "And…. you almost healed from the last one."

"Yes, I know, it set me back, although I was expecting a bunch of gun toting mobsters and insane homeless people," Harry replied to her.

' _Well, you might have expected Grundy if someone remembered her duty and told you,'_ Faora thought.

' _Yeah, well, I'll remember that next time,'_ Hermione said, her voice very flat and she was in hot water with the rest of the Alphas with her little faux pus, so she was toeing the line.

Harry didn't say anything one way or another, which really made her worried.

"Cleaning these very carefully, Grundy is a zombie, raised from the swamp….Morgana only knows what's down there," Penny whispered, but there didn't seem to be any infection. Thank god for some favors at least.

"Yeah, thanks, noted," Harry whispered with a smile.

"So, are you going to be okay?" Pamela asked him.

"I've had much worse….. although I've also had full access to my powers when I've had the worse," Harry said with a smile, trying to keep everything on the bright side of life.

"Magic will help expedite the process, but… it takes time, especially in your condition," Penny said but so far she was pleased.

He would have been dead had Grundy laid on him too much longer. Well, maybe not dead, but his sufferings would have been far worse than they were right now.

Just as Penny wrapped things up to a level that she considered to be acceptable, they were joined by two more guests. Kara slunk into the room and Vicki followed closely behind her, in conversation with the blonde.

"Just wrapped up the story and filed it….. of course, I don't even know what happened," Vicki said giving Kara a bright and warm smile. "You did great out there."

"Thanks, I try," Kara said, bouncing up and down in excitement. To be honest, she was pretty hyped up. There was that small problem with Branden trying to blow Vicki's head cleanly off of her shoulders but she dealt with that. She wondered if he learned his lesson, but there was something that told her that he doubted it. That being said, she brought herself out of her excitement, seeing Vicki's amused gaze locked onto her. "So, what do you think that people will make of that story?"

"I don't know, but hopefully it will warn them that there's a real problem with trying to discount the homeless as human trash," Vicki said and the rumors that she heard this morning were immense. "And how people like Blackfire are going to take advantage of that and manipulate them for their own gains."

Kara smiled and offered Vicki a cup of coffee, which she took happily.

"See, we did the right thing going out there, even after what happened."

Kara grinned, shaking her head, barely hiding what she thinks, but she would have to concede to it.

"Fine, but…. that was dangerous," Kara said. Granted, she could handle anything but still….. well the fact that Vicki was so fearless.

"Can't worry about that word when there's a news story breaking," Vicki said and she was so wrapped up in her conversation with Kara that she didn't really register that Harry was there.

Her mouth hung open, practically gasping.

"That bad, isn't it?" Harry asked her, smiling in spite of himself and Vicki opened her mouth halfway and the nodded, looking at him.

Vicki's coffee cup slipped out of her hand and it clattered to the ground. She looked at Harry, mouth still open.

"What….."

"It's worse than I thought," Kara said, frowning, even after Penny worked her magic, he still had some residual bruising on him. The woman took half of a step towards him, frowning.

"What…. what happened?"

"Motorcycle accident," Harry said, looking at her. "That's why they recommend that you wear your helmet…. you know for reasons like this."

Vicki let out a whistle and nod. "I see."

"Sideswiped, lucky it wasn't far worse than it was," Harry said and he turned to the two girls because a formal introduction should be in order. "I don't believe you've met Penelope Clearwater and Pamela Isley, girls, this is Vicki Vale."

"A pleasure to meet you," Vicki said, shaking hands with Pamela and Penny. There were smiles and handshakes all around.

Girls came and girls went in the Penthouse. Kara told Vicki enough about that, not that she didn't pick it up on her own well enough. So she wasn't surprised.

After things settled down a little bit, Harry took his cell phone and answered it.

"Harry, it's Selina…. did you hear about the fire's in Old Gotham last night and Ghost Town?" she asked him and Harry tried to disguise the thinly veiled sigh that he let out of his mouth on this statement.

"Yes…. I heard something about it, although they're not quite sure what caused it, something about a fight between crazed homeless men and mobsters…"

"Yeah, that about covers it, anyway, my apartment's completely inhabitable because of smoke damage. Would you mind if I crash at your place for a little while?"

"No problem, Kara could you make sure….."

"Yes, I will," Kara said, preparing to make her way downstairs.

"Good, that would have been embarrassing….. the homeless shelters are overcrowded today… and….. well the mobsters might want to finish the job that they started last night if they get half of a chance, not caring who they hit in the process."

The Elevator Door dinged before Kara could quite reach it and Selina exited the elevator. She was dressed with her dark hair tied back, along with a white top that was buttoned up. A pair of white shorts completed the outfit.

"Well, good thing Harry was willing to let you stay," Kara said and Selina smiled.

"Well, there wasn't a doubt in my mind, honey," Selina told the blonde with a grin, after letting herself in.

* * *

The scene was the Penguin's office upon the Final Offer. Mr. Carpenter held a heavy bag up for Mr. Walrus, who punched away on it.

His punches were getting rougher and more violent the more that he bopped away on the bag.

"Easy now, you'd tear that one up like you did the last one," Mr. Carpenter warned him.

"Ah, with all of the scratch, we're making, we can just buy a new bloody bag," Mr. Walrus said, pummeling the bag and it managed to hold up underneath his attacks.

Tracy Buxton sat on the side of the Penguins' desk, not really interested in the conversation but half listening to it nevertheless. She shuffled through a set of reports, with an ear piece in her ear, as the two gentlemen bopped on the bag that they were working on.

"We've got a lot of territory, got a lot of gold, but I don't have what I really want," Walrus grunted, and Mr. Carpenter steadied the bag so he could pummel at the bag.

"Yes, he's in pretty good shape, the fat has turned into muscle quite nicely," she muttered and she nodded. "Yes, yes, yes, I agree."

Of course, he looked like an old time strongman with that stupid mustache, but she supposed that beggars couldn't be choosy. He managed to coordinate his end of the bargain all too nicely and really that was all that they could ask for.

The doors open and here walked the Penguin. He was in a completely jovial mood today and they were going to find out why soon enough. He puffed on a cigar, stepping forward, into the office, motioning for his inner circle to gather around.

Then again, he should be in a bloody good mood given the headway that he had over the last couple of days.

"We've done a bloody good job so far, we have," the Penguin said with a wide grin on his face. "Sure, we've had some setbacks, lost a few skirmishes, but in the bigger picture, we're well on our way of achieving our goals."

The Penguin motioned for Mr. Walrus and Mr. Carpenter to come closer to him. Reaching into the cabinet, he removed a bottle of scotch from it, and poured them all glasses.

"Gentlemen, a toast…. and lady," Penguin added with a smile as Tracy maneuvered her way into the fray with the rest of the group.

"So, we're about ready to open up the Iceberg Lounge, aren't we?"

"Yes, it will increase the scope of my business ventures, and make all kinds of new friends, and get in good with the cops," Penguin said, puffing his cigar with a smile on his face. "We're going to own this city."

"Yeah, and Maroni just got a bunch of his territory burned to the ground," Tracy reminded him and the Penguin laughed at the misfortune of one of his chief rivals.

"Never thought I'd be a huge fan of Gotham City trash, but I might have to comp them a fruit basket, too bad old Deacon Blackfire gone up in smoke," Penguin said and there was a wicked grin that crossed his face. "I guess time wasn't on his side."

There was loud snorting laughter from the Walrus, sounding more like a pig, but at a pointed look by his comrades, he stopped.

"So, when are we going to go after the Freak?" The Walrus asked and the Penguin stopped and stared at him.

"Soon my lad, really soon," the Penguin told him with a wide smile on his face. "You just got to calm down, but we'll get to them, we'll get the Waynes and the Evans, we'll get our revenge on them. I promised you as your Godfather that we'd get them back for good old Vernon."

The Walrus's smile was one that was kind of terrifying to be honest.

* * *

It was a full moon in Gotham City, the type of night that was typecast with eeriness. There was something stirring if one wanted to look closer.

The fires had been put out on the areas of the Docks some time ago. There was a lighthouse that shined out brightly, the only spot of light on the murky depths in addition to the moonlight that shined brightly.

The ocean was calm, there was a gentle breeze that blew and it appeared to be a beautiful night out for all.

Suddenly, as if on cue, a large white arm stuck its way out of the water, before sinking to the depths beneath.

**To Be Continued on August 25th 2014.**


	47. Solomon Grundy

It was deep into the realm of Faeries that Harrison and Morgaine went, preparing themselves for the very worst that they needed to take care of. Needless to say, the very worst could be extremely bad indeed.

"So, warning you in advance, even though we fix this, there's a chance that….."

"I know," Harrison said, he resigned himself to that point. That was the sacrifice he might have to make. Plus, he figured that he could only have a certain shelf life as well. The reason why Prime kept him around past his use as to slowly phase his presence out of that accursed and backwards world and they had other problems than keeping the Boy-Who-Lived fad alive.

The problem was that Harry threw a bit too much of himself into the making of Harrison, a mistake that he never made again, and he had become a bit more of a magical duplicate. Plus the fact that he was made before the merger of the Hallows have him certain interesting quirks towards him.

"But, I don't go in here to die," Morgaine said and Harrison smiled.

"Yes, that should be avoided when possible," he agreed with her and Morgaine placed her hand on his shoulder.

He was ready and there were cracks in the ground, pretty much spitting out magic, leaking it at an accelerated rate. It looked like some multi-colored landfill the moment that they pressed on.

"Well, this could be trouble," Harrison commented and he scanned his surroundings, this was where the magic pulled them along the most. Therefore this was where they were heading next.

Harrison walked amongst the cracks; he could hear the strangled voices. They were getting more frantic and he was pretty sure that they were getting more threatening.

Okay, shake being pretty sure; he was almost certain that they were being fairly threatening. His heart skipped a beat, pressing forward into the distance.

"Well, there are the consequences of being in here."

They came across a body that had been turned to stone and Harrison raised his eyebrow, giving a whistle.

Then there was a decimated husk on the ground. The ground was littered with them, which made the journey quite a disgusting one. And added to the atmosphere of foreboding that had been created on their path there.

"Heads up," Morgaine whispered to him and Harrison smiled, noting that he had been planning to do just that as he kept walking forward.

The breeze blew around them which drew Harrison's attention towards the skull. It had reverted to a dismal slate grey and it seemed to be getting greyer the deeper in they got. Trees have gotten the life sucked out of them as well. Overall, this looked like a miserable and depressing place to be where no life could really exist or even flourish.

Morgaine stopped, holding her hand up but shook her head. It was nothing.

Then Harrison looked up into the sky and sure enough, he did feel a slight bit weaker. Not as much as he shook but it was unsettling, very unsettling.

Red Sun was hanging up in the sky above his head but that was actually the tamest of the problems here.

The fact that the heat was stifling him was far worse than the actual Read Sun. Harrison gritted his teeth and Morgaine noticed his discomfort, mostly because she was feeling a little bit of it herself.

"Why do I get a feeling that things are about to heat up in more ways than one?" Harrison asked her and Morgaine gave him a shadow of a smile.

"Well, mostly because it's fairly likely that they are," Morgaine admitted, keeping her hand forward and ready to shoot down anything and she meant anything that would attack her at a second's notice. She was not fucking around in here. "So, someone's watching us, I can feel it."

"Can you?" Harrison asked her, he did have that sense the same thing around him.

"Which makes it the lovely hot spot," Morgaine said and the further they got it, the more garbled any bond chatter talked.

It was like listening to the bond link on a very bad cell phone reception. The type of cell phone that made them want to chuck said cell phone out of the window and watch it gleefully as it shattered into hundreds of tiny little pieces.

There was a whisper in the wind and they were on edge. The two continued to edge closer.

"Something is on the edge of our perception….it was like….."

There was something that rose in the corner of their eye and something that was hovering around them. Harrison turned, Morgaine turned, and both of them saw two statues in front of them that were most certainly not there moments ago.

They looked like white creatures with wide teeth and they two of them locked their eyes towards the statute.

The two turned away and they sensed movement. When they turned back, the statues remained immobile, still, calm, unable to even shift for the briefest second.

"Oh, that's wonderful," Morgaine commented lightly.

"Sick and twisted spell…..isn't it?" Harrison whispered to her.

"Yes, some kind of necromantic spell to turn these things into….well these things," Morgaine whispered to Harrison, it twisted the victims of whatever killed innocents into those things and it was twisted, crazed even.

The two kept themselves moving forward and then reached a maze.

"Inside," Harrison said, the maze was fairly twisted and there was no doubt it was designed where anyone who went in would not come out, at least not alive.

Morgaine, fearlessly, took the plunge inside, and Harrison followed. The fact that nothing attacked them might have been perhaps the most unsettling thing of all there.

Harrison performed a spell that would block off and deter their pursuers, although that would make them increasingly mad.

There were the whispers that were strained, in tongues that had been long since lost to human knowledge, and it was almost like the specter of death loomed over Harrison's head.

They caught their breath, eeriness filled the air and they continued their pursuit what appeared to be a tower amidst the desert.

It looked like an oasis, at least it was an oasis and streams of magic shot off of it, drawing the two of them in there.

This was foreboding to say the very least and Morgaine raised her eyebrow. The magic washed off of their bodies.

"I think we're very close."

Harrison was intrigued by this, especially considering that he could feel the magic stinging his skin as it rolled off of it and Morgaine felt the same sensations.

The bond traffic appeared to be completely gone or at least muted on his end, the deeper in that they got. And the deeper in they got, the more strong their sense of foreboding got.

* * *

Selina Kyle always made her presence made in a big way and Harry would be lying if he didn't slowly go over the memories of the occasion and her arrival last night in a big way.

She was a hit with several of the girls in the tower, the twins, Kara, and Donna. Then there was an information about some of the sorrid details of the job that she had. Needless to say, she was not all that shy about the details and did not skimp out on asking any questions.

It left Donna with a full body blush and a desire to relieve herself between her legs. She tried to pass it off as something else but Harry smiled and knew better. The twins and Kara would never let her here the end of it, this might have finally replaced the time that Harry marked her on a very private area.

That being said, those were details that Harry wanted to commit to memory. Then again, he did see Selina in her natural environment up close and person for his birthday. And it was something that he would not really forget as well.

Harry made his way reading the paper. In the midst of the various fluff pieces and filler news, there were some interesting pieces of information. And by information, Harry meant increasingly distressing.

' _And Deacon Blackfire's body had been swiped from the Gotham City Morgue,'_ Harry thought and he figured that someone like this could happen. Although he really didn't expect them to be so brazen about it.

' _Oh, they found the body?'_ Dinah asked, her interest piquing.

' _Yes, for a short time but…..not too much we can do about that right now,'_ Harry thought. A cult leader would have any number of followers who were so devoted and twisted that they would steal a man's corpse. It shouldn't have been that big of a shock.

Hopefully it was just for being stuffed and mounted in a place in honor, as twisted and sickening as it sounds. Because that was better than several depraved alternatives that popped into Harry's mind.

The new Major Crimes Unit ran by James Gordon was officially announced to the press. Harry personally hoped that it would work well but they had their work cut out for them. Especially with the city ripe for the picking at recent events, which Harry shook his head, recalling. It would be a long time before his body forgot them, that was for sure.

Ben Turner was still missing, that was a curiosity in itself but what could one do about that?

Then there were whispers of the fire damage that was done to the city. Followed by an interesting piece about Ferris Boyle, the new CEO of GothCorp.

Harry was intrigued about the peace that he read. It talked about how GothCorp was hoping to rebuild the old areas of Gotham to be a place where the citizens of Gotham could appreciate and live in harmony.

Harry pursed his lips and gave a momentary hmm as he read it over. He considered what he was reading.

' _So do you think that we're going to have to reconsider the hands off approach regarding GothCorp, since Daggett's gone,'_ Faora thought to him, coming to a similar conclusion that Har-Zod came to, come to think of it.

' _Daggett's gone, left with his tail tucked between his legs,'_ Harry thought with a smile. _'We're just going to have to keep an eye on this one, see where it goes.'_

He saw a bit of an article regarding Oswald Cobblepot. He shifted a bit where he sat, his shoulder was still kind of killing him. That was the reason why he couldn't sleep, because he was still sore from the fight with Grundy.

Never the less, he delved into the Cobblepot article. It was a puff piece mostly but in the puff, there was some valuable information about how he returned to Gotham City, after rebuilding his family's fortune. After being bankrupted from his family's attempt to outdo the Wayne's. Harry figured there may have been a slightly more interesting story than what the article delved into, there always was when you looked into the Gotham City elite.

Then there were his plans to open a casino/club that would be the talk of Gotham City. That being said, Harry read the article, sipping on the coffee slowly. He only half heard the sound of the door opening and the footsteps approaching.

"So, early riser are we?"

Harry looked at her and he saw Selina walking towards him. The fact that she was completely naked was not lost on him. He blinked and verified that she stood there without a stitch of clothing on her. All of her assets were on full display, her breasts firm and high. It was almost like they had a life of their own. Her flat stomach and long shapely legs was also in prominence, along with her center with a small strip of dark hair.

She sat down, looking at him with a smile on her face, as if she was not completely naked.

"Well most of the time, yes," Harry admitted, as the woman in question shifted in front of him, eyes completely focused. "But, really couldn't sleep last night…..my body is still sore all over….."

"Oh, that makes sense, with what you've been through," Selina said, she nearly gotten ran off the road by an idiot once or twice in her life. She wasn't sure if it was an accident half of the time to be honest, people in Gotham City could try to kill you over some rather trivial things.

Harry played things calm and cool, but then again, he was more than used to seeing beautiful women in a state of undress by now. She slowly looked across at him, sipping the glass of orange juice that she had.

Though to be fair, Selina did have a body that many would kill to have. Or at least seriously maim, actually kill would be a better word. Actually kill would the best word.

"Well, yes, I've been through a lot, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," Harry said and Selina smiled, pursing her lips.

"That's for sure."

"But I don't know too much about you, which is a shame considering that we're busy partners," Harry said, fully aware how Selina subconsciously spread her legs as she situated herself on the chair.

"Well, my past could be a made for TV Lifetime movie," Selina said, trying to lighten the mood a little bit. Harry raised his eyebrow, no reason why he wasn't going to be curious after a statement like that. So Selina decided to press forward with an explanation. "The man my mother said was my father…..well he drank himself to death at a very early age….and my mother….she wasn't exactly neglectful or abusive, but cold, indifferent, that is a pretty good description of her."

Selina was calm, almost too calm when she relayed this information.

"I was raised by my older sister, Maggie for a short time, but she took off, last I heard she became a Nun," Selina said, amused almost by the separate paths that the two sisters seemed to take in their lives. "My mother did die though around that time, thirteen years old, and…..I got sent out to live on the streets, getting whatever I could."

Harry attentively listened to her and she was glad that he did, so she pressed on. She was getting to a tricky part of the story.

"And I was caught pickpocketing someone….and wouldn't you know it, it would have to be James Gordon," Selina said, nearly smiling at the memory.

"Small world, isn't it?" Harry asked her and Selina nodded, that was for sure.

"No kidding, but things are about to get even stranger," Selina said, catching her bearings and she continued to speak. "I was picked up, sent to Juvie for about a year. That was an interesting experience, and you'd never guess who I was picked up by when my time was done."

The question was in fact rhetorical and Selina smiled before she revealed that tantalizing piece of information . "Carmine Falcone."

"The Roman?" Harry asked, that was interesting.

"The very same," Selina confirmed to him. "He had a favor for my mother, never quite found out why for sure."

It was left unsaid that she had her suspicions about what, but she wasn't going to say things because she didn't have any proof. There would always be rumors and she wondered if some of them were true.

"He provided me with the apartment and I guess the means to get myself back on my feet," Selina admitted and Harry nodded attentively. "As a result, I became a stripper and a dominatrix, but never a prostitute, contrary to rumors."

"You don't seem like the type anyway," Harry said.

"Yeah, you'd be surprised what the type would be in this city, but that's neither here nor there," Selina said with a grimace and she looked over her shoulder. It was an odd habit that she developed but she needed to be alert in case someone tried something with her.

It was amusing that they were just talking about Jim Gordon and how she pick pocketed him because his daughter sauntered in a few seconds later, looking rather tired.

"She's been hitting things hard, between all of her classes and her jobs," Harry said, deciding not to bring up her other activities. Because Barbara didn't know that he knew anyway.

"Right, I can tell," Selina said with a smile to him. "So, I guess I'll be heading out now…..but is it okay if I use the gym?"

"Knock yourself out."

Selina smiled and sauntered off, her hips swaying and she passed Barbara. Miss Gordon was jerked out of her state of being half awake by Selina passing her.

Harry, without missing a beat, greeted her with a very cheerful and somewhat nonchalant, "Good morning, Barbara."

* * *

Morgaine and Harrison made their way to the direction of the tower and things got even more unsettling the further they got. Harrison got a slight headache, it wasn't so bad that it was deliberating but it was a dull buzz that really interfered with his ability to think, which wasn't a really good thing to say the least.

Harrison shook his head, trying to pull himself back to reality, at least the most he could anyway. His green eyes flashed with fury, pushing himself forward, his heart beat heavily into his chest, continuing his movements closer into the tower.

"We're reaching a place this is responsible for the Faerie's slow and withering death," Morgaine said and she could feel the magic there. The dark haired woman made her way forward and the two of them slipped inside of the tower, for better or for worse.

One set of stairs later, they were reaching their destination but Harrison paused. Slowly he peered over his shoulder.

"We're not alone."

There were more statues leading the way, which was foreboding on their own. That was just the tip to the insane iceberg.

Then there were books littering the floor, looking like they had been bitten and mauled by something. The tower was much larger on the outside than it was the inside.

The uneasy that they were feeling only increased as they made their way further up the stairs towards a library.

"Good evening," a low voice said and Harrison turned around, seeing a very distinct figure on the top of the stairs, peering down upon them.

He had glowing yellow eyes and appeared to be a man with grey hair. His presence was very foreboding to say the very least. He gave off an aura, dressed in a stylish black suit, with a silver tipped cane in his hand.

' _Stay alert,'_ Morgaine thought, the bond link only working now when they were shoulder to shoulder. Not even the garbled noise could be heard now the further they entered the tower.

Harrison saw the literal mane of hair, he looked like he could pass off for Rufus Scrimgeour's father he did. He moved a bit clunky as well, almost as if he had a bad leg or something.

' _Something is wrong,'_ Harrison thought, nudging Morgaine and her eyes locked onto him. _'Do you feel it….it's not right.'_

' _Yes, I can see it too,'_ Morgaine thought, she couldn't quite put her finger on it, but he was moving like his internals were way too large for his body.

His movements were very off and it seemed like he was sizing up Harrison and Morgaine for the kill. The woman stood at the top of the stairs, her burning eyes locked onto him, her mouth curled into a frown.

' _Something really off about him,'_ Morgaine thought to Harrison and Harrison nodded in response. _'Prepare to jump him when he's ready…..at the moment of truth, we attack.'_

' _Right,'_ Harrison told Morgaine, his knuckles white from the pressure that he put on them, his movements were so sound, so fluid, that when Riddle was alive, he would want to take lessons from him.

He said something to the two of them and Harrison paused, he was speaking in Greek, a very ancient Greek.

Was he just speaking English a moment ago? He managed to get a general gist of what he was saying, but still it was hard to make it out.

"He wants us to come with him," Harrison whispered to Morgaine underneath his breath, so he could not hear.

"He does, of course….."

Both of them knew that was not going to be a good idea.

"Follow me."

He turned around and finally Circe broke through the bond link.

' _I'm trying to relay this best I can…Hippolyta correct me if I'm wrong,'_ Circe said, she was breaking up a little bit, like she stood at the end of a very large tunnel. _'Something about how….all sentient creatures have a spark of magic in it…..'_

' _And some have a larger spark than others, but without that spark, all will perish,'_ Harrison continued, picking up the narration right where she left off. His green eyes flashed and they arrived at their destination, finally.

It was a large library and things got a bit more uneasy. Especially with the sight that Harrison saw at the edge of the library. It was giving off a pulse of energy so strong that you would have to be dead to the world not to notice it.

It was one of the books of magic like Nimue showed him. It was shooting weird streams of magic out of it. Then the streams of magic got solid for a few seconds, and then more magic appeared to be sucked straight into the book.

Harrison saw it, he saw the light.

"Do you see it now?"

The book was drawing magic but Harrison could not be preoccupied to that. Sure enough, the man began to shift forms, his skin ripping off of his body. It tore off, showing that it was in fact a suit over his real form.

Morgaine took a step back and she eyed Harrison. It looked like a ravenous beast that snarled at him. It was a far cry from the deep seductive growl that he had before.

Two bolts of magic nailed the creature but it didn't do much damage other than sent him back into a shelf.

Really, really, really pissing him off in the process. His eyes grew yellow and he made his way to his feet, before he whipped a tail towards Harrison.

Harrison was the one that was sent flying this time. Morgaine blocked the attack.

' _Manticore,'_ Harrison thought, he could see the creature advance on him.

Harrison was knocked around by the creature. He managed to put the shield up, using his abilities to block some of the more brutal attacks.

He could hear a frantic buzzing, he was pretty sure that the girls that flittered in and out of the bond were freaking out something fierce but the noise was still garbled.

Harrison slid underneath his attack and sent furniture flying at the Manticore but he smashed through them.

"He's been drawing off of the magic here, he's more powerful than he should be."

"Yes, I figured that."

His frantic scrambles to deal with the Manticore, but it was obvious that magic was not going to do any good. That was fine, he pulled out an exploding throwing dagger.

The creature caught it and it exploded in it's hand, causing him to back off.

"You'll pay for that."

"Hardly," Morgaine said, rushing forward with an enchanted sword and clanging it against the creature's arms, trying to wound him. The magic added an additional layer of armor.

Harrison ignored the very grievous wound she suffered and picked up what appeared to be a black egg like device.

It caused large waves of sonic energy to emit out, scrambling the creatures brains. If it could not think straight, then it would be a lot easier for it to go.

Harrison saw it's wings as it took flight, and he could see at the joint, it was particularly vulnerable. At least it was a weaker spot than the rest of him.

' _Distract it,'_ Harrison hissed mentally to Morgaine and she nodded.

' _Of course,'_ she agreed, and she dodged out in front of it.

It was a game of cat and mouse, with both sides trying to lure the other into a false sense of thinking that the other had the advantage. It flapped its wings, with a menacing look on its face.

They were outside, which gave them more room. On the negative side, it gave it more room as well.

The Manticore circled them, essentially spitting fire and Harrison had two throwing daggers. Wincing as he took aim with a severely cut up pair of hands, he flung the daggers with an overhand throw towards the creature.

He hit the mark, damaging the creature's wings and causing it to howl. It went down hard, crashing into the spiral of the tower.

Harrison slumped forward, his wounds would have to wait. Blood gushed and the strange energies caused them to worsen further but he had no choice but to press on.

* * *

Harrison stood over the book, looking at it, and he turned to Morgaine. They figured that this was the case before now but it really didn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together.

"One of the Books of Magic, I should have known," Harrison said and he looked at the title to see what precisely he was dealing wiht. "Rituals."

They assumed that this problem would have ended with the death of the Manticore but they were completely and utterly wrong. All of the surrounding magical energy was still being drawn into the book and if things did not get settled, they were going to have a huge problem.

"Well there's only one thing that we can do to stop this," Harrison said, trying to figure out what he had to do. "We need to remove the book from the pedestal that it rests on, hopefully that will disrupt the spell."

"Is that really the safest thing to do?" Morgaine asked and Harrison's eyes turned towards her.

"Likely it isn't, but do we have a choice?" Harrison asked her and Morgaine hung her mouth halfway.

"Do you have any idea what's going to happen when you do that?"

Harrison had to answer that question honestly. "Not in the slightest."

"Oh, this should be interesting then, are you….."

"I'm going to have to be the one, I'm a duplicate of Prime, therefore, it doesn't matter what happens to me," Harrison said and Morgaine opened her mouth to protest. "Trust me, this is the best option, and we don't have much time to come up with another."

Times were getting far worse. Harrison knew the risks, and he embraced them. That was what he did.

"You don't have to do this….."

"I have to," Harrison said firmly. "Another duplicate can take my place, although I think Prime is a bit better in making them so they don't start living lives of their own and run the risk of becoming unstable."

It was believed that it was kind of dangerous to allow the dupes to live separately, for it caused them to grow in different ways. And the diversion point was one that would lead to some of the more interesting and dare they say it, unplanned changes.

"Morgaine, please stand back, this could get ugly."

After an attempted protest, she did as she was requested. Harrison walked over the book and already he could feel his hands blister the closer that they got close to the book. He had a high tolerance for pain and knew that nothing in the world was going to numb what he was about to do.

His hands pressed upon the book and Harrison groaned, with the energy flowing from his hands into the book. He gave a pained grunt, with the energy swirling around his arms, drawing more power into him.

Morgaine took a step back, watching the highly impressive light show, and seeing Harrison roll his head back. She could feel the pain that he experienced but if she pulled him away, reality could crack in half even worse than it was right now.

All of the stored up magic slowly returned where it came from and Harrison flickered out of reality for a second, which freaked Morgaine out. Thankfully she was able to keep her cool and watch with Harrison returning back to reality from where he stood. His hands pressed on the book were being burned and the power spread up to his elbows.

Morgaine could feel the backlash of the magical power that was shooting in every single direction. She could see Harrison at the pedestal, it was almost like he was being shocked, electrocuted, burned at the same time.

Harrison felt like his blood boiled and his arms were completely burned. His heart was speeding up and it was almost like he was having a heart attack. His head was ringing and he lifted up the book. It might as well have been a thousand pounds, almost like it was glued to the table. His fingers dripped with energy.

"Harrison?" Morgaine asked and suddenly, he ripped the book from the pedestal, the magic drawing within him.

He glowed like a neon light and for a few seconds, Morgaine thought that he was going to spontaneously combust into an explosion of blood, guts, and magic before her very eyes.

The book flew through the air and landed in Morgaine's hands. She instinctively caught it in her hands and bent down, seeing Harrison. There was a state of perpetual pain etched within Harrison's eyes, with the visible skin on his arms and hands completely charred.

' _Morgaine!'_ one of them yelled, maybe it was Lily, actually it was Lily.

Things were going on and Morgaine finally was brought back to reality. Things were stirring back to normal but at what cost?

He was still alive, for what it was worth. It would be a long time before she forgot what she saw.

' _Just get him back to the castle, we'll see if we can do anything about the damage,'_ Peve said, trying to keep her voice calm and evening.

Morgaine could not touch Harrison directly, due to the fact that he was literally humming with magical energy. It could potentially be lethal to do so, so she levitated him into the air.

That strained her magical powers, but she managed to lift him up and go through the portal.

* * *

Harry joined Kara, Karen, Diana, and Faora in making their way to the castle. Despite the injuries that he suffered, the state of emergency that he heard of was too grievous for him to really ignore.

The group made their way in silence, where Jaime, Circe, Morgaine, and Lily were about to join them.

"Things look bad," Lily summarized and Harry winced. That was a fact that he knew about was bad as anyone else.

"Yes, I felt it, I thought I was having a stroke,' Harry said, looking rather flushed in the face.

"That's impossible," Faora reminded him.

"Yes, I know, but I still felt like I had one," Harry said, and he had to shut down the bond link completely to prevent it from effecting the girls.

So he took the brunt of it, which was a mind rattling experience to be put things bluntly.

"So Peve, Alura, and Lara are running tests?" Diana asked, her voice oddly somber.

"You better see it for yourself, but it's not for the weak at heart," Lily said and if that was foreboding. "He will live, but he's not quite alive."

That statement was morbid and quite frankly kind of foreboding as well. Hippolyta walked over, greeting her daughter silently, throwing her arm around her waist and pulling her in.

The magical energy coursed through his body, Harry could feel it, even though he was shielded. Even though Alura, Lara, and Peve did their tests, from a safe distance to see what went wrong.

"He should have never tried to do that….."

"He knew the risks," Harry said, and now the cross would be the duplicate's to bare. "What I want to know is….."

"Why he didn't just disintegrate because of the overload of power?" Karen asked, deciding to spell things out, or at least what she thought that things were.

"Well it would have been a lot less painful if he would have," Harry said, morbid as that sounded, that was a good question.

Lara's diagnosis proved to show how screwed up Harrison became.

"His blood burned through three containers before we found something strong enough to hold it long enough to take a test, it was overloaded by magic," Lara said.

' _So, do you think that you can recall him….and then create a fresh copy,'_ Daphne thought to Harry, thinking that this would be the most logical conclusion.

' _No, recalling him at this point would destroy Harry,'_ Kara said, clinging onto Harry. He did suffer, although not as the duplicate did but on top of the injuries he suffered against Grundy.

' _She's right, maybe if I was at full power, but watch or no watch, recalling him at this time would cause…..well it would make the Big Bang look like a wet firecracker,'_ Harry said, he really wished that he could, because a small part of himself would be feeling pain as long as his dupe was.

He couldn't even get close enough to put him down because of the magical energy flowing through his body. Nothing could ever be easy.

' _Well, it isn't like he didn't know the risk, once he was given life for that long, it was a choice that he made, '_ Faora thought. _'But from what I can tell, it was a no win scenario.'_

That much was true for sure, and Harry sighed, drawing in the breath that he was holding in.

"So, what's the damage?" Harry asked, seeing that the tests on Harrison were done.

"Immense," Alura said grimly. "His CORE might be more battered than yours was after you absorbed the Hallows."

"It is, his arms are burned even beyond third degree, severely, the nerve endings have been damaged as well," Peve said, frowning. "He could be healed, in time, but all of the excessive magic will be siphoned from his body for the healing process to even be considered. A process that will take time, because done too fast, and it will degrade him further and cause you even more pain."

Harry could see the perpetual state of pain in his double's face and it was the thing that nightmares were made of.

"You already know the reasons why it would be ill-advised to recall him, even though it could repair him and heal him…."

"But if it destroyed you, then it would be irrelevant because there would be no way to bring him back with the prime being gone," Lara said, keeping her eyes locked on the downed form of Harrison. It looked like he aged at least twenty years. The body was not meant to absorb magic.

"Yes, it would be for the same reason why, no matter how independent he got, he could never kill me, because that would mean his end," Harry said.

"The slave cannot live without the master," Lily agreed, looking down towards the duplicate. There was absolutely nothing that any of them could do.

"All we can do is make him as comfortable as possible, and time is the best healer," Peve said and she smiled. "Thankfully in the castle, we had plenty of it."

Morgaine looked grim but Circe turned to her.

"You took a great risk bringing him back here and your quick thinking might have been the difference between life and death."

"But is there truly life, when one is not alive?" Morgaine said and that was a question that had no logical response.

Harry knew the response but the barrier flickered.

"You better get some rest, there's nothing that you can do."

"I'll stay here, report back if anything happens, good or bad," Lily said and Jaime looked at him, with a smile.

The two of them needed to have a discussion anyway.

"I bet you didn't expect him to live that much of a life of his own,' Jaime whispered to him, with the two of them walking off.

"Well, I didn't expect the Hallows to have the impact that they did on me either," Harry told her, steadying himself, with Kara making sure he didn't go down. "That's where the real diversion point began but he's got his own handicap to overcome now."

"What does not kill you, makes you stronger," Jaime said and Harry smiled.

Time healed most wounds but not all of them. Only time would tell with this one.

**To Be Continued on August 29th 2014.**


	48. Chapter 48

**Chapter Forty-Eight: Recovery.**

Most cities would have grinded to a halt after an event like the fires and riots that swept through a good portion of Gotham City. It would have been big news, and there would have been outcry about how bad things were. The citizens would be milking tales of woe and trying to expand the horror of what was going on around them.

For the people in Gotham City, this was just another day at the office. It was just another Wednesday. Especially for the Criminal Element of the city, who would not ever let up, no matter what the reason was.

In fact, it might have been worse given the various opportunities that were presented from the aftermath. Maroni's faction was perhaps the worse because after what happened last night, they had something to prove and they didn't really care who knew it. Even though their boss was in the clink, Zucco made sure that they continued with operations as usual, even with all of the ground they lost and it was a fair bit. Not to mention they were sure that the fat bird squawked all the way to the bank as they swooped in.

That being said, there was another faction that was trying to reap from the benefits that Gotham City offered at this point in time and that was Black Mask's gang.

One of the gang members, who drawn the short straw pretty much, had been tasked, with keeping watch out on the street corner, that was not a job that he relished in doing. In fact, shivers blew down his spine as he looked around.

A very busy transaction was about to go on, that would put them on the map and more importantly, it would put more money in their pocket that they knew to do with.

One of the chief members of Black Mask's gang leaned in, talking to a person in the limo. The window was half open where it could block the view of it. It was the man that many assumed was Black Man's butler, an older gentleman who was stoic and really didn't show that much emotion in his voice and tone.

The conversation could not really be heard from the basic grunts in the gang. One of them nudged the other.

"So what do you think they're talking about?" one of them asked and another, more senior member of the gang, gave him a nasty scowl.

"If you were meant to know, you would be told, wouldn't you?" the senior member of the gang asked. Rhetorical question was in fact rhetorical and there was no need for an answer. "Now, just keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. Best way to survive out of here."

"Yeah, wouldn't want any psycho hobos to come after us?" one of the other members joked, but he got a look that indicated that he best shut up while he was ahead. For a couple of gang members, that hit a little too closely to home.

A transaction was taking place, where the older man slipped the younger gentleman a file into his hand. Details of what was on the agenda for this evening with the two gangs. The older gentleman nodded his head and slipped off into the dark of the night.

The man on the corner playing look out felt a shiver go down his spine. He had the strongest feeling that he was being watched but by who, he didn't know. But there was no one there.

The man who was handed the file nodded in response. That was all that they needed for a go ahead.

Black Mask's men were dressed rather nicely and equipped with some extremely powerful weapons, able to even any odds that would come their way. The highest ranking members obviously got the best, but no one was left out in the glory.

Black Mask had the scratch, so he was willing to invest a lot in maintaining his control in Gotham City.

"So, the boss is about to make a play," one of the gang members whispered, passing a group of three low ranking thugs who were on the corner having a smoke.

"Hey, man, do you have….."

"Man, all you do is bum smokes off of me. Are you a lazy bastard that you can't buy your own?"

"The old lady wants me to invest the money the boss makes me into the kid's college fund," one of the thugs said.

"Are you even sure the kid's yours, I mean…..you heard about your old lady….."

"Hey, she'd never cheat on me again, why would she lie to me….."

"Do you want a list?"

The lower level thugs turned to the higher ranker thug as he cleared his throat.

"So, did you get the information?"

"Yeah, I did," he confirmed to them, his beady eyes locked onto the three thugs.

"So, did you hear about Fat Tony?" another one of the low level thugs commented to him and the higher ranking gang member looked at him, shaking his head. "Yeah apparently the Bat trashed his limo something fierce. From what I heard, he and Skeevers shit themselves. Then the Bat beat the shit out of them."

"Well, good for the Bat," the high ranking gang member commented. There was something entirely condescending about the tone of his voice.

"Yeah, the funny thing is that he got knocked out for most of the night but he still got away, smelling like a rose," the thug commented, that was just like Zucco though. The bastard was as slippery as an eel riding on a wet banana.

"How…." the highest ranking member gang asked, wanting information. On one hand he didn't care, but on the other hand, one needed to know something like that.

"Damned if I know…..guess he managed to slip off in the confusion, he can move pretty fast for someone that size," the lower ranking gang member chuckled.

The leader of this particular operation looked at them, his eyes locked onto them.

"Well how fucking lucky for Fat Fucking Tony Zucco, now shut the fuck up and get in the car, we've got a lot to do, and not enough fucking time to really get it done."

The men prepared to get their orders of what they were doing , but they figured out that there was some serious shit going on tonight.

* * *

 

After a long ride with them getting into the car, they reached their destination.

"Did he just send us out to the middle of bumfuck nowhere?" one of the gang members asked.

"No, this is a drop point, a good one, now keep your yap shut," the leader of this particular faction said. It was an abandoned parking lot that was a part of a closed grocery store. Things were being sold here despite the place being officially closed but they certainly weren't groceries.

The parking lot was adjacent to a nearby subway. In fact, all you had to do was walk across the street, and you'd be there.

The leader of the pack waited, tapping his fingers on the car, and sure enough there were two more arrivals making their way there. The cars pulled up, casually. It was a good thing that people were distracted in other parts of the city, most importantly the GCPD. Not that it mattered given the influence that Black Mask paid for but there were always a few do-gooder cops that would screw things up.

The two cars pulled up and four men exited from each car. They were dressed like secret service agents, carrying black briefcases that dangled from their hands. The group approached, walking forward.

Anyone who knew the Gotham City criminal underworld, would have recognized these men as working for Rupert Thorne, or at least his associate Carlton Dusquesne.

"So do you got the goods?"

"Depends," the representative from Black Mask's gang said coolly. "Do you have the money?"

"Yes we have the money," the leader of the other faction said.

"Show us the money ,and you'll see the goods."

It was a tense business like atmosphere between both sides but they were professionals. They knew what to do to protect themselves in case of a double cross. The gentlemen on both sides wouldn't dare pull such an act on each other, but it was obvious that none of them were taking any chances on each other.

"Here's the money," one of the men said, opening up the briefcase and sure enough, it checked out as legit.

"Now where's our goods?" one of the men asked, he was getting extremely testy about this fact.

"Relax, relax, we've got yourself, it's in the back of the van," one of Black Mask's goons said, he was calm and extremely chill.

The goons moved their way to the gang and they prepared to receive the drugs that had been promised as per the deal.

The back of the van opened but there were not the drugs that they had been promised. Rather a group of armed men spilled out of the back of the van, their guns aimed on the men as they exited the van.

"We've been double…"

They had no time to finish this sentence because they had been fired on. The goon squad was relentless in their attacks, firing on them.

The street lamps outside went off before this could escalate too far and they were plunged into darkness.

The sounds of fists smacking faces could be heard but nothing could be seen. That was putting everyone around on edge.

"It's the bat….or the ninja….or….argh!"

One of them was dragged off into the darkness, his mouth muffled. It was hard for any of them to see in the darkness. The sounds of gunfire in the distance could be heard, but one couldn't be for sure whether or not it was an enemy or a friend that was hit.

There were a few flashes of red and blue light that was in the distance. They could see something in the shadows, it was most certainly Nightwing.

"I'm out of here," the leader of the pack said, making his way into the getaway vehicle. When one of the bodies hit the ground and convulsed like it got zapped by a tazer, enough was enough.

The car wouldn't start, and he cursed his luck. At that moment, he scrambled to his feet, rushing off into the distance, ignoring the sounds of fighting in the distance.

"Okay, keep it together, keep it together, don't lose your shit, for the love of…..just fucking keep it together," he was telling himself, grumbling and mumbling under his breath.

The briefcase was clutched firmly in his hands and he stood up, to his full height but he saw something in the shadows.

"Show yourself, show yourself, I warn you I'm armed, show yourself, SHOW YOUR FUCKNIG SELF!" he yelled, his voice rising in tone. He hoped to call over someone but then he realized that there was no one there.

There was something that moved in the shadows and he jumped like a cat caught underneath a rocking chair.

"That's can't be happening, get it together, get out of here….."

But something caused his knees to not move right and he was frozen in sight. The person in the shadows became in greater clarity.

The person in the shadows was wearing a high tech black suit with a red insignia shaped like a dragon. Her hair….yes her hair, was tied back in a ponytail. It looked like a skinsuit but it was mostly armored. At least the best that he could tell, the details were hard to make out, he strained himself in the light.

"Stay back, stay back," he said, but he realized that he dropped his gun in his haste to scramble away.

This wasn't happening, his heart hammered to his chest but that was not the only pain that hammered into his chest.

A leaping roundhouse kick caught him in the chest and he was knocked back into the ground. The wind was completely knocked out of him.

He was dazed and confused, and then with a point of an elbow driven down onto the top of his head, he was taken completely out for the count.

The gang violence toned down, at least in this area but all of the members on both sides were tied and secured.

* * *

 

Jaime Lily Potter smiled in triumph, this was a pretty good field test all things considered. The criminal that she just took out was left tied up to a light post, and the briefcases rested at his feet. The GCPD would be there sooner rather than later.

' _So how did you think things went?'_ Harry thought to her. _'And by that I mean, exactly how well did the suit work for you?'_

' _Well, for an initial field test, I thought that things did nice,'_ Jaime thought and she could feel really pleased with herself. _'You on mission control and me out on the field…..well that's an interesting change of things, isn't it?"_

' _Well, it's an interesting experience to look at things from the other end of the fence,'_ Harry thought.

' _So when do you think you'll be back out on the field?'_ Jaime asked and it was Dinah, who was taking care of another pocket of gang activity elsewhere, who responded.

' _When he's cleared to go and not a second before,'_ Dinah thought to them.

' _Well I'm not going to complain about that,'_ Harry thought to him.

' _Yeah, it did take a lot of convincing, but the Grundy incident…..well we don't need to go down with what happened there,'_ Kara added, keeping the worry out of her tone but anyone who listened closely could hear it.

' _Yeah, no kidding,'_ Harry thought, his bruises had bruises. Things were healing quite nicely all things considered but not enough for him to go back onto the field. _'But back to the suit, you haven't run into any difficulties with it?'_

Jaime answered in the negative. _'No I haven't run into any difficulties with it, it's actually running pretty smooth.'_

' _That's good to know,'_ Faora chimed in. _'It was a suit that I had been working on in my free time, kind of a prototype. But if it works well for you, it should do well for its purpose. That being said, we can always improve upon perfection.'_

' _Wouldn't it be….'_

' _Not now,'_ Harry warned the person chiming in and she remained silent. _'The good thing is that it's working. The bad thing it's going to be messed up for the time being.'_

' _Messed up is saying mildly, it's like when the Roman got committed all over again, only it's from Maroni's side, his men, scattered as they are, are like wounded animals,'_ Dinah explained and Harry jumped in.

' _Yes, and all of his men are like a pack of rabid wolves,'_ Harry added to her. _'It's also a good thing that Dinah came out of this mostly unscathed.'_

' _What about our associate?'_

' _Well you know him, he won't stay quiet for long,'_ Harry thought. _'That being said, Dinah is going to really need all of the help that she can get and then some. This is the calm before the storm, something is going to break before long.'_

' _And since you're on the injured reserve list, you're pretty much out of things,'_ Kara thought.

' _Yes, I'm out, according to Lara, for some time, and what happened with Harrison, taking the brunt of the backlash of that didn't really help but I'm mending quicker than I thought that I was.'_

' _But nearly not quick enough for you to be off the injured reserve list,'_ Faora reminded him and Harry smiled.

' _Well my body agrees with you on that one, believe me,'_ Harry said, barely able to keep the amusement out of his tone. _'I suppose that it will be an educational experience for to me to be on the other side of the monitor, you know the mission control side of it.'_

' _Well, you made it out better than Harrison did,'_ Jaime thought.

' _Yes, I know, but there's nothing we can do but wait,'_ Harry thought. His hands were pretty much tied in that situation in any way of the world. No magic could heal him, until all of the excessive was siphoned off and there was no natural healing methods that would work either. _'But regardless, we got to move forward, and here I am in this role, so I better make the most of it.'_

' _Well knowing you, you'll be the very best at what you are, no matter what role you're in,'_ Jaime commented with a smile.

' _You know me all too well, don't you?'_ Harry asked her and that was something that went without saying. _'He may not be able to perform magic for a long time, if ever, due to the damage in the nerves in his arms, but that's just a minor issue right now.'_

' _So is the event still on for tonight?'_ Jaime asked her.

' _Naturally, although I'm driving Amanda up a wall by playing dumb about it,'_ Harry thought and Jaime laughed.

' _Well she's been hinting heavily at it, it's kind of amusing, and half annoying,'_ Jaime thought, shaking her head.

' _More than half,'_ Kara chimed in, and it was hard to tell whether it was more than half amusing or more than half annoying to be honest. _'Emily wasn't as bad, but she's more subtle than Amanda.'_

' _And both can be as subtle as a runaway train when they want to be,'_ Diana thought. _'Then again, I got a lot of room to talk with my sisters.'_

' _Well yes,'_ Kara said with a smile.

' _Subtle really isn't your middle name, you know,'_ Karen said with a smile on her face, and there was laughter from the girls who had been allowed into the bond conference call.

' _So, this should be an interesting evening coming up, so try and get in as early as you can,'_ Harry thought to Jaime and there was a gunshot in the distance.

That jolted her and that allowed her to go forward. She gritted her teeth, it was just a mugger, but it could have been worse.

She took care of it and she heard something more serious coming along the way.

' _So, remind me again how I got roped into this?'_ she asked.

' _It was because you volunteered of course,'_ Harry thought and Jaime crossed her arms.

' _Bloody brilliant of me,'_ Jaime said bitingly, but she would be lying if she didn't get some thrill out of this.

Plus Nightwing still needed to be out there. Black Canary did her share but it wasn't enough.

* * *

 

"It's all about technique, and focus," Faora explained to Barbara and Amanda, who she and Dinah were training.

"And getting knocked on your ass and pulling yourself back up," Amanda added and Dinah, who was helping, smiled at her.

"Well, that's pretty much the idea, isn't it?" Dinah asked the Potter twin, with a wry grin on her face. "Assume the position and do anything that you can do to take me down."

Amanda had gotten some training with Harry but it was a lot of training onto how to get your ass kicked.

Lyta and Donna were also here, given that they wanted some one on one time with her sister and their training continued. Plus, Lyta couldn't really stay away for too long, when she learned that her father was injured.

As far as the other girls not in the know knew, she was just the girl's younger sister.

"Lyta, you can do it, just focus," Diana said and Donna smiled.

"Okay, I can do this," she said, taking a long breath, trying to focus herself, and do this. She could do this, really she could do this.

"So, who do you think is going to get knocked around more?" Lois asked, looking at Bette, Emily, and Bunny, as the interaction happened in the background.

"Amanda will get up more times, I think," Emily said. "Then again, Lyta is just as stubborn."

"Yes, I've never seen a girl that stubborn," Lois agreed with a smile on her face.

"Do they have any mirrors in your house?" Bunny asked cheerfully and Lois threw her arms over her chest, curled out her lip and pouted, which caused the other girls to roar with laughter.

"So….did you hear about Nightwing?"

"What about Nightwing?" Emily asked, deciding to indulge herself in Lois's little obsession. She supposed everyone needed a hobby. She watched her sister and Barbara engage in a sparring session out of the corner of her eye.

"Well, I mean he's back in action, although there's a lot of weird rumors about him, but I think that people need to get their eyes checked," Lois said and Bette raised an eyebrow. "I mean, they're talking about how he's a female now…..can you believe that?"

"Get out of here," Emily said, waving her hand, acting as if she was outraged by the rumor.

"I know right."

' _I'm sure a lot of people are going to be confused if Harry and I ever start rotating as Nightwing,'_ Jaime chimed in and there was much laughter throughout the bond link about this news.

' _Well, that's kind of amusing, isn't it?'_ Harry asked, deciding to give his two cents about the entire situation.

' _Yeah it kind of is,'_ Emily agreed, her lips curled into an amused smile.

"Well, that's just what they're saying, I mean, you can't really believe everything you hear," Lois said and she was hitting her stride pretty nicely all things considered.

"No, you can't, you're right," Bette said, just smiling and nodding. The sparring session between Barbara and Amanda was getting interesting but the girls were indulging themselves in their gossip.

Amanda and Barbara finished up their spar after a few moments and they saw Lyta and Donna continuing their spar. Diana turned towards them and nodded.

"Time, and take five," Diana said and she locked eyes with Dinah and Faora.

"Well it looks like things are going to get interesting," Barbara said as she walked over to join the group, with Donna, Lyta, and Amanda joining them.

"Yeah, that should be good," Donna said with a smile. Normally she would put good money down on Diana to really come away with the win. But given that she was going up against Dinah and Faora, things would be a lot more interesting.

"Wow," Bunny said, she wasn't one much for watching a sparring session but her eyes followed the battle. The young female was excited by watching the action that transpired around her.

"So, I think that I should cut my hair," Amanda said, catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and Emily turned towards her with a smile.

"It isn't that bad," Emily said her.

"No, it isn't that bad," Amanda greed with her sister. "But it's really getting a bit long, so it's going to need a trim."

"Well, I'm sure that you'd look good with it," Bette said with a smile, looking over Amanda.

"Plus, it'd get in my face when I start playing Football," Amanda said and the girls looked towards her. "You know, the GPA Football tryouts are next week….."

"Weren't the Football tryouts just last week?" Lois asked and Emily made a very distinct, "shut up" motion with her hands but Lois was kind of slow up the uptake.

"No, not that stupid overhyped American version, I mean real Football, what you call soccer."

"Soccer," Lois said rolling her eyes. That was such a lame sport.

"Lois, no," Emily whispered urgently, tugging on the younger brunette's sleeve to prevent what she thought might be an incoming headache.

"Yeah, I mean sure, there's that one game a year, that's a spectacle but is it really important….no, this is real Football, not that game, not American Football, and it doesn't get enough attention at the school."

"Well to be fair, Soccer isn't that big….fine Football isn't that big of a thing here," Bette said, wilting underneath Amanda's gaze.

"You're not going to let this go, are you?"

"Of course not, Donna, of course not," Amanda said, stubbornly pressing on, persistence being a key part of her. One almost had to admire that, if they weren't so frustrated by it "I want to try out, and you know that I'll do well."

"Oh, I'm sure that you will, you're tenacious enough," Donna said.

"Well, that's a good word if there ever was one, tenacious," Emily added and there were a lot of agreements.

At that point, Harry arrived at the gym and all of the girls greeted him with smiles. The emerald eyed wizard walked forward.

"So, Harry, tonight's a special night," Amanda said and Donna shook her head, before whispering to Barbara.

"Subtle, that's her middle name," Donna whispered in sarcasm and Barbara just replied with a grin.

"Hi, Lyta, how are you?" Harry asked and she greeted him with a tight hug. Then she stopped when she remembered the ribs and saw the wince of pain dancing through his eyes.

"Sorry," she told him with a sheepish little smile.

"That's alright," Harry said and he was fully aware that Amanda and Emily were giving him puppy dog eyes. He was willing to milk this just a little bit longer to be honest. "Oh, and by the way, we're going out tonight."

The girls did a dance which was something that was extremely amusing to say the very least. Harry smiled, he wondered what he inspired. His doom sense was going off.

* * *

 

Amanda was dressed in a sleek black dress that showed off all of her curves, while Emily was dressed in a nice white dress that showed off all of her curves. They made their way to the club, both of them smiling, having a good idea where this one was going and they were excited to say the very least.

"Naturally you'd get inside," Amanda said with a smile, standing on either side of Harry.

"Well, being me has its privileges," Harry told both of them and they smiled as they entered the club. He would be lying though if he said that he did this on his own because he had plenty of help.

"SURPRISE!"

The twins smiled, they thought that Harry had almost forgotten. Their sixteenth birthday was tomorrow and…..well it was more of a surprise than it happened today, as opposed to tomorrow. There was quite a collection of familiar faces around the area of the club.

"Go ahead, take some cake," Harry told them with a smile on his face.

"Well, I should hope that we get some cake, it is our birthday," Amanda said haughtily, it was almost like Harry had rented the entire club out for their use.

Which was a good thing for sure; because it was a party and Amanda could hardly keep the huge grin off of her face. It re-defined the term shit eating grin.

"So, we're on for Saturday?" Veronica asked, talking to Kathy Kane in the corner. The woman nodded.

"It's for a good cause, I wouldn't miss it for the world," the dark haired woman commented, shaking her head with a wide grin across her face. "But this is a pretty good cause."

"Well, when I was invited to a party put together by Harry Potter, how could I say no?" Veronica asked and that was a rhetorical question because for something like this, you really couldn't say no.

"You couldn't, you really couldn't," Kathy said and Veronica smiled in response, before saw him.

"Bruce Wayne, where did you disappear off to?"

Bruce dropped by, carrying a present into the party.

"Sorry, Ronnie, I missed our tennis match….."

"Oh, that's water under the bridge right now, besides I think that I traded up, didn't know that Harry was that good, but….." she said with a smile.

"Well, he does have more than a few surprises," Bruce said, and he could see everyone over in the corner, with Harry and the twins smiling, they were amused by something. "I can't stay for long, but I wanted to drop by and wish the twins a happy birthday."

"I remember how wild my sixteen birthday party was," Veronica said wistfully, going down a trip down memory lane. "I'm just glad Daddy managed to get them to drop the charges."

There was a brief moment of conversation between Harry and Bruce, along with the twins.

"Well, I think we did a good job in helping Harry make sure things were set up nicely," Kathy said, she saw Kate who had joined the party. Bette had arrived with that group of girls, she spent a lot of time hanging around the group of girls at the penthouse. "And speaking of the man himself…"

"Harry!" Veronica said, smiling as she greeted him quite cheerfully. "Are you surprised that Bruce actually stopped by?"

"Well he's a man of his word, even though he couldn't say that long," Harry said and Veronica pursed her lips with a slight "hmmm. Other than that, she said nothing. " "His plane being delayed when it was, that was a freak accident."

"But you did say it worked out for the better," Kathy reminded Veronica as she folded her hands in her lap and decided to concede that fact.

"Yeah, it worked out pretty well, great in fact, we should do that more often," Veronica said with a smile. "Of course it doesn't have to be playing tennis….it can be anything."

"Well thank you for helping me get everything set up."

"Well Kathy here did most of the work," Veronica said, trying to modestly deflect all of the praise over towards Kathy.

"Don't try….you know I've never known you to be all that modest, you did a fair amount of the leg work," Kathy said, waving off the praise but she did look fairly pleased with herself.

"How about I thank you both, and call it a day?" Harry asked and both females smiled at this thought.

"Fair enough," Kathy agreed with a grin on her face.

"So, you wanted to talk to me about something important, didn't you?"

"Yeah, yeah we did," Veronica agreed, but it was Kathy who jumped in.

"Well the Gotham City Country Club would like someone like you around and let's face it, you're one of the elite," Kathy said to him with a smile. She got lost in his eyes rather momentarily but shook her head, returning back to some sense of decorum.

"It's a shame, and a crime that you're not a part of it," Veronica said. "I'm willing to sponsor you and I'm sure that Kathy will be willing to back me up, not that you need the clout to get in but still….."

"Believe me, it's an honor that the two of you are willing to go to bat with me," Harry said.

"Well given your age, it's quite an honor and that might stir a few people up, but they're just going to have to deal with it," Kathy said, eagerness dancing from her eyes.

"But, no need to thank us, in fact you can take me out on a date, and we'll be even," Veronica said and Kathy could not help but keep the grin off of her face.

' _Well that was the most direct coaxing a date of someone that I've ever seen in my life,'_ Kathy thought to herself in amusement, barely keeping her laughter at bay.

"I'll take you up on that offer, don't worry, Veronica," Harry told her with a smile.

"Good, I was hoping that you were."

Harry continued to smile and he shifted his gaze, seeing Hippolyta standing there in the distance. She wore an extravagant purple dress, looking like the queen that she was. Given that she stood out in a room full of beautiful women, that really just showed how great that she looked.

"It's a culture that never should be forgotten or overlooked," Helena said to Hippolyta and the woman smiled.

"Well, you're work on it should be appreciated, Doctor Sandsmark and you're on your way to another trip, my daughter informs me…"

"Diana is right, and I can see where your daughter gets her beauty and her intelligence," Helena said with a smile. "But I'm looking forward to seeing what further treasures that I can uncover."

"I'm certain that you'll find something that is more than worth your time," Hippolyta agreed. She was interested, because there was a chance that Doctor Sandsmark could run into evidence of other Amazon establishments. It was rumored where they went but she didn't know if they further splintered.

Cassie Sandmark was sitting in the corner, although talking to Lois, and much to Harry's surprise, General Sam Lane arrived at the party as well. He stuck out like a really mangled sore thumb. The again, he didn't seem to be the kind that would stick around for cake and party games and dancing.

The image amused Harry for a brief second, as well as Kara who only responded to it by having to dodge into a corner and start giggling madly.

"Potter, a word with you," Lane said and Harry nodded.

"Of course, General," Harry said, seeing the man's daughter and Doctor Sandsmark's daughter in conversation.

He could hear snatches of it, but it was the talk that two girls around that age group might get into. Although less about shoes and more about their mutual hatred for their lessons and how boring school could get at times, but that was really beside the point.

"So, my daughter, she can be a handful at times, and things haven't been easy since my wife died," Sam said somberly to Harry and he nodded.

"Well, Lois can be spirited, but I'm sure that she's just coping with things in her own way."

"Never thought that I would have two daughters," Sam replied bluntly. "At least she's not as bad as her cousin, she's into conspiracy theories about all of the meteor mutants that are roaming around in Metropolis."

"Well, that's young girls for you, I'm sure it's just a phase," Harry said with a smile.

"It's not often that I do this, but I want to thank you for making sure she's okay, relocating to Gotham City at this time…..well all you need to know is to turn on the news," Lane said. He's seen wars and there were days where Gotham City really put a lot of those battles to shame.

"Well, you're welcome and if Lois needs a place to stay, there is plenty of room."

"I may take you up on that offer," Sam said gruffly, shaking Harry's hand firmly.

He could hear the laughing and gossip of teenage girls, which included Kara, who had the mentality of one sometimes, despite being much beyond that point.

"So, are you staying for long?"

"Just wanted to meet you, if it's not too much to ask, I'd have you make sure Lois gets home fine," Sam said to him.

"I always do."

The two men parted ways. Harry could see Kate and Diana talking in the corner, but Kate's gaze was on Faora.

"She's kind of repressed," Bette whispered to Harry, turning up at his elbow.

"Is she…"

"Mostly females, but I'm sure that she'll take a male if the right offer comes along," Bette informed him.

' _Yeah, for what it's worth, she seems very interested,'_ Diana commented.

' _Not so subtle, but she's trying to be, bless the poor girl's heart,'_ Faora thought with a smile.

Harry made his way around the club, it was a party after all. But eventually he knew that he would run into the ladies of the hour.

"Sixteen years old, it's not every day someone hits that mark," Amanda commented with a grin of her face.

"Are you celebrating that you survived that long?" Rose asked, making her way over from the corner.

"Aunt Rose," Amanda said in a mock reprimanding tone as she shook her head. "But seriously, a good haul this year."

"It's the thought that counts, and people actually listened to my advice, and didn't get you any more shoes," Emily said and Amanda shrugged her shoulders, her lips pursed in a very pouty expression. "Which is a good thing as we didn't need to get attacked by shoe mountain."

' _Yeah, don't go in her closet without protective gear,'_ Kara thought, she made the mistake one time to doing that, and she could see shoes as far as the eye could see. One could argue that it would be the Shoe-Pocalypse or something along those lines.

"But, I think that the best present that we have to unwrap is to come," Amanda said, with a slight smile, which she diverted towards Harry.

Harry smiled and allowed his sisters to lead the way. He knew that the party would end with a bang, and they would not settle for anything else.

There was a private room that they could use for certain nefarious purposes.

"Don't worry, Harry, we'll take good care of you," Emily said with a smile and she looked at Amanda. "Won't we, Amanda?"

Amanda got one of those looks that told her that if she was anything but gentle towards her brother, she would find herself tied up.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she has the message," Harry said, wrapping his arms around Amanda and giving her a strong and powerful kiss.

The redhead melted into her brother's arms, with Harry running his hands all over her body.

She felt the rush of power go over her body, with him running his hands all over her breasts, down her stomach, and slowly the dress was removed.

Emily got more of the time, and both of the redhead twins stood there completely naked, in all of their glory.

Amanda felt Harry's tongue go down her pussy suddenly, licking her out. She felt that familiar tongue do its magic around her, oh god, that felt so good. She thought that she was going to explode from the pleasure that she felt coursing between her thighs.

Not to be outdone, Emily could feel Harry's hands roam over her smoldering hot thighs, and his fingers dipped down between her.

Harry didn't split in half, he really wanted to make both of them feel good. He alternated between licking Amanda out and fingering Emily, then he switched things off a little bit to keep both girls guessing.

Both of the girls felt weak with their desire and lust but things were only just beginning to kick up a little bit.

Amanda was now on her hands and knees, eagerly waiting for the pleasure Harry was about to give her.

"Please."

"I think it's time for your birthday spanking," Harry said, watching his sister's tight ass, primed and ready.

Emily watched with glee and Harry locked eyes with her. "Don't worry, you'll be getting your turn soon enough."

"But age before beauty," Emily said, Amanda was older by a little bit. By like a minute but still she was older by a little bit.

Amanda could feel her brother's strong hands run down her buttock, teasing her.

SPANK!

The first loud spank of the evening caused fluids to pool from her pussy, sticking to the bed. Harry raised his hand once again and smacked her hard on the rear one more time.

"OOOH," Amanda begged, feeling his strong hand drill the top of her rear, over and over again spanking her.

She was so wet, and Emily ran her fingers down her.

"Tastes good, sis," Emily said, sucking her fingers dry and she nearly got hotter and hornier while eating her sister.

"Your turn."

Emily could feel a tingling through her loins as Harry prepped her for a spanking. Her pussy leaked its fluids, and she was about ready to be drilled by his strong hand.

He spanked Emily and now it was Amanda's turn to watch but she wasn't just watching for long, as Harry fingered her with his free hands.

She could feel his fingers manipulating her core, but she wanted his cock inside her. It took every bit of her self-control not to jump him, knowing that if she did, she wouldn't be getting anything tonight.

Good things came to good girls who waited, as Harry made his way over her. She watched his large cock hover over her. There was still some bruising on his body but Amanda was distracted by her own lust.

Plus not everything was out of commission, with Harry sliding between Amanda's thighs.

"Now time for your real birthday present," Harry said, nibbling on his sister's neck, with her sister diddling herself on the edge of the bed. "Do you think that you can sustain sixteen orgasms to go with your sixteen spankings?"

"If anyone is capable of it, you are," Amanda whispered, feeling Harry's large cock enter her. "Does anything before your cock is in me count?"

"No, only after," Harry confirmed and she could feel him clench him. "Easy, easy."

"Sorry," Amanda whimpered, she could get out of control when she had been bombarded with such pleasure.

Emily waited patiently, perhaps a little bit impatiently, for her turn. She ran her finger across her clit. She closed her eyes, her nipples got stiff and hard. Her breathing continued to heighten.

She got even hornier with Amanda's very vocal orgasm and then seconds later, Harry was inside her.

He grabbed her hips and Emily lifted herself off of the bed, to allow him better access to her pussy. Her center lubricated his tool as he pushed deeply into her. The redhead tightened around him, and her fingers dug into the back of his neck.

"Please, more," Emily whimpered, her walls clenching, his cock buried into her pussy. Her hips continued to push up towards him and she felt him rammed hard into her.

Amanda's turn was next, after Emily came down to her peak and the green eyed wizard hovered over her, slipping his throbbing hard cock between her thighs.

"A good look for you," Harry whispered, pushing into Amanda as she was down on her hands and knees, her breasts pressed against the bed. Harry explored her body and she moaned, as his hands combed over her body.

"Yes, oh yes, oh fuck," Amanda whimpered, the pleasure exploding through her body.

Another orgasm, he switched off. He seemed to be drawing out their pleasure the more. He worked at a pace that was good for him.

Both of the twins were driven absolutely wild by Harry's actions and neither seemed to want to give up any group.

"More, please," Amanda whimpered, her pussy completely soaked and Harry slid back into her.

She nearly felt fireworks in her eyes, but she managed to hold on. Their loins clashed together, with Harry holding onto his sister's hips. She pushed herself up towards him, feeling his member into her.

Had she reached the double digits? Honestly, Amanda lost count and quite frankly she didn't care. She was leaking so much but she was hanging in there. She didn't want to go before her sister did.

That was the competitive spirit that both of them felt. Her hips pushed up towards his large cock, pushing her dripping core up towards his probing tool.

"YES!" she moaned out loud, with Harry ramming his tool into her pussy. Her center hugged him as he worked himself into her, going deep into her.

He was pretty much balls deep into her.

Emily now felt him inside her, he was switching back and forth.

Harry smiled, he was feeling much better than he was, plus the adrenaline was really pumping from him. He could see his sisters covered in sweat, and their bodies completely sticky. Harry smiled, the grin over his face getting more prominent.

"I wonder who will get the reward."

"Oh, Harry, please, I'll be so happy," Amanda panted, and she squealed with Harry feasting on her breasts.

She was now flipped back over and Harry had Emily flipped over next to. Her entered her from behind and lifted up his fingers, palming Amanda's pussy, along with nailing Emily.

The more even tempered Potter female moaned, and there was a burst of hormones that flowed through the air.

Then he switched, hammering away at Amanda, his balls slapped against her thighs, and he pushed himself deeper into her into her. The redhead vixen could feel him bury deeper into her. His thrusts worked in between her hot thighs and he continued to pour himself into her.

"Fuck," Amanda panted, her mouth covered in a tiny bit of drool and Harry kept working her over.

Eventually something was about to give and all three saw stars.

Harry ensured that both girls got an equal load, with what was stored up in him. This was the final push that he needed to put them into a state of blissful catatonic joy.

"Happy birthday."

The girls would have to agree, it was a very happy one.

**To Be Continued on September 2** **nd** **2014.**

* * *

 

**Director's Notes are back, kind of. And we're back after the extremely long Solomon Grundy/Deacon Blackfire story arc that spanned ten chapters. We're also going to having the wait between chapters be every four days as opposed to five. Then come November, we're going to have static days where you get chapters twice a week. It will make sense when it happens. Then throughout December and early January there will be a hiatus.**

**Jaime Potter officially hitting the streets and taking up the slack for her inter-dimensional twin as he recovered from his Grundy caused injuries. This was a direction that likely was something that should have happened a long time ago. Her role will thankfully get more prominent from this point on, which I'm sure a lot of people will be pleased by. One could argue that she should have been the only alternate version of Harry Potter in this series, and…..I'm not really going to necessarily argue with you too much. Hindsight is what it is, with the lessons learned in the past year, not being learned a year ago.**

**A certain someone gets a backhanded mention in this chapter, even though it will be a while before we see her in the flesh. Won't say who if you didn't catch it.**

**Football-soccer versus football-American football, the never ending debate, and can't I just say that I care about neither and move on with my life?**

**The ground breaking event in this chapter was the birthday party for the twins. Party scenes can be interesting to write, given that they allow certain parties who might not get time to interact with each to interact each other. They can also be a royal pain in the ass to write, for the fact that they take a life on their own and go long.**


	49. All Hallows Eve

**Chapter Forty Nine: All Hallow's Eve.**

* * *

 

It was the day before Halloween, October 30th, and there was the sense that something big was in the air.

"So, that brings us to your mission tonight, the Gotham Arms Hotel," Harry said, taking his role on mission control once again. Dinah and Jaime were dressed in full costume tonight, looking down at the building in question. "I won't mince words, it used to be one of the most classiest establishments in town. But now it's gone the way of a bad hooker, classy on the outside, but it's become completely and utterly rotten on the inside."

"And swarming with thugs as far as the eye can see," Dinah said and she whistled, surveying the scene. "Must be big."

"Dressed like guards," Jaime said, but there was no coat of paint that could hide what they truly were.

Despite the way they were dressed, pretty much anyone with the slightest amount of comprehension could see them for what they really were and that was some high class thugs. Likely somewhat top dollar but perhaps maybe not, judging by the fact that some of them chose not to bathe for quite some time.

They were on the roofs, covering all of the entrances, and then they were in the lobby.

Jaime listened in to what they were talking about, and it was such stimulating conversation.

"Stop doing that."

"What?" one of the thugs grunted, his hand over his crotch.

"Stop scratching your nuts, it's disgusting."

"Ah….can't help it man, I thought that I caught something nasty from my date last night, then again she looked a little off."

"Well why did you sleep with her then?"

"Man, get off me, you take what you can get these days," the thug grunted, shaking his head.

Jaime listened in closely. They were here because Oracle picked up a transmission that Mario Falcone was taking this place up as his new residence after Zucco kicked him out of the Carmine Hotel.

"A lot of people have been coming in, so he's still in business," Harry told the girls.

"Wonderful," Jaime replied. "But what?"

"Well he's still making some deals apparently, and from what Oracle has said, the real juicy bit is this," Harry told both of the crime fighters and they were eagerly anticipating what he was going to say next. "She heard that a member of the GCPD said that there's a rumor that Falcone is going to meet with the chief lieutenant of Rupert Thorne and he wants to hire some extra security."

Both girls gave long and labored sighs. To say that was not good would be putting things extremely mildly.

"So alliance between Thorne and Falcone?"

Black Canary jumped in with some words of her own. "Well it makes sense, doesn't it, I mean, there's just a lot going on in Gotham City? The other parties are running in on their territory, with the Penguin and Black Mask. You almost got to cut a deal to survive out there."

"My thoughts exactly," Harry replied, and he was keeping a close eye from afar. He decided to drop this particular bombshell. "But there's one little thing that Mario Falcone might not know."

"What is it?" Dinah asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"I think there's every indication that Thorne and the Penguin have already struck a deal and the Falcones are about to lose out big time," Harry said. "There's just enough evidence to point to that direction."

"You really think so?"

"Yes, Jaime, I really think so," he confirmed. "Thorne's men are going in there to hit up the Falcones for any interesting material."

Which was kind of ironic because that was precisely what they were going to plan.

"Well that's about as cutthroat as the mob scene ever was."

"Things are getting worse."

The Gotham Arms Hotel was still swarming with goons, the deal was big, there could be no room for any foul ups. The two heroines on the roof top watched the proceedings, going unnoticed.

"So the best way inside is….."

"Well, I think that the roof through the building is the most unguarded point," Jaime said, and she smiled. She would think that they would learn to guard that point of the roof by now but then again, that would require them to be intelligent, something that was a failing with many criminals.

It went without saying that Jaime could just teleport into the building. That presented one problem, it could disrupt the electrical systems in the building, causing them to be alerted to their presence prematurely.

They didn't want anyone to know that they were there, until after they sent the message.

"You're really poking them in the eye with this one," Black Canary said, but never the less she was smiling.

"If anyone deserves to be poked in the eye, it's this lot," Harry said, he was not going to pull his punches, at least not that much. His green eyes flashed with amusement from afar. "We've got the patrol routes carefully times, and a shift change should be coming along within the next eight minutes and twelve seconds."

"Wow that is timed," Jaime said.

' _Anything if not meticulous,'_ Faora added mentally.

' _Would you expect anything else?'_ Amanda piped up.

' _No, we really wouldn't,'_ Donna commented and there was much amusement from all parties throughout the bond.

"And Oracle's hacked into the security, she seems kind of disappointed by it, well actually she's very disappointed."

Black Canary's curiosity was really piqued. "Why is that disappointing?"

"Well, it was way too easy to hack," Harry said and there was much amusement from Dinah and Jaime. Harry waited for the laughter to die down before he proceeded. "Mario Falcone paid for a good security system but he didn't pay the people to install it right. There were a few back doors that were left in."

"Well, that plays into our hands quite nicely," Jaime said and they all agreed.

"And we'll be ready to go ahead in about a minute, so you know the plan, so no need to tell you again."

Jaime and Dinah nodded, this was something that was planned to the detail before they even suited up tonight. It didn't have much room for error but they supposed that they were just going to have to make do with what they had.

The two moved quickly, making their way to the roof top with the door leading into the building.

It was locked but that wasn't a problem. Jaime prepared to use one of the tricks that she learned in her life. A localized electric charge was sent through the lock. It was sufficient to cause a brief system error, but not enough to short out the power and put a blinking beacon for their presence.

The two made their way inside.

' _Hold on,'_ Harry thought urgently to them and they stopped. _'Oracle says that she detected someone walking on through the other side, so hold tight.'_

The two girls did in fact hold tight. There was someone passing through by the door but he didn't linger for too long.

When Harry gave them the go ahead, they moved down the hallway, until they reached Mario Falcone's office.

Before they could open it up, the door knob clicked open and the two had to scatter in two different directions and stick to the shadows.

"Do this Alberto, do that Alberto, you'd think that I was one of his hired goons, one of his lackies even. I swear, he doesn't respect me. Is that because I got spooked by the ninja? He thinks that he's so clever, thinks he's in charge, while my father is away. Well…..he doesn't…..he doesn't have any right to treat me like this."

The young Falcone paused and took several deep breaths.

"Don't let things get to me…..remember what Doctor Strange said…..yes, I remember."

He left the area, and Black Canary and Nightwing both made their way into his office, slipping inside.

' _Well, his jaw healed nicely, unfortunately,'_ Kara said, she kind of thought that he was better off not talking at all.

' _I don't believe this,'_ Dinah thought.

Sure enough, this had to win the award for the most idiotic move this week.

' _He left the safe out there in the open, of course he did!'_ Harry yelled but he was very amused. _'And he left it unlocked.'_

' _Right, he…..right,'_ Jaime thought, her brain managing to reboot just a little bit from the abject stupidity that she had to deal with. _'I'll get the documents in the safe, you get the documents on the desk.'_

' _Right,'_ Dinah thought, this was one of the most boneheaded moves in the history of boneheaded moves.

Never the less, there was some interesting documents on the desk, including photos of the who's who in the Gotham Underworld, people like the Walrus, Sionis, Thorne, and Zucco. Then there were also photos of some of the most well-known names in Gotham City, like Oswald Cobblepot, Bruce Wayne, Rachel Dawes, Harvey Dent, and more.

' _Seems to be a few photos of Selina here,'_ Jaime thought and then she paused. _'And there's you.'_

Harry "zoomed in" for a closer look and he could see it.

' _Well, you've caught the interest of the mob, and not even in costume anyway,'_ Kara thought, but she shook her head. She supposed that since Harry was the Gotham City elite to end all Gotham City elite, it would only be obvious.

The words "What's his angle?" were scrawled on the bottom of the photo. Which was a question that made Harry smirk.

* * *

 

Alberto Falcone joined his brother Mario and their cousin Johnny Vitti, a rather rotund young man with a Moe Howard hair cut, dressed in a fairly nice looking suit. They stared down an imposing and quite angry black man, who looked like he could crack some skulls without the use of weapons. He was Carlton Duquesne and another black man stood to the side of him, with an imposing but at the same time unreadable look etched on his face. That was Gambol, his chief lieutenant. There were armed bodyguards and goons standing on both sides of the room.

"Gentlemen, relax, we're here to conduct business," Mario said, looking to the other two with a pointed expression that told him to allow him to do most of the talking. "I must say that I'm disappointed that Mr. Thorne can't show up."

"Mr. Thorne had a prior engagement that he could not back out of," Duquesne informed him crisply and there was a wicked hint in his voice which told him to drop the matter to be honest.

"Fair enough, we can still proceed without him," Mario said. "It can be possible for both of our sides to do business together and mutually beneficial."

"It might be," Duquesne grunted, looking at the young man. He didn't quite have the stones that his father did, neither of his brats did. The daughter had bigger stones than both of them but that was neither here nor there.

"We have many problems, mutual…..a couple of thorns in our side even," Mario continued. "It's bad for business."

"Bad for your business maybe…"

"If they go after us, it's obvious that they're go after Thorne, and we've got a lot in common," Mario said to them and Duquesne looked at him with imploring eyes, his beady gaze fixed on the mobster. "Haven't you been butting heads with Zucco and Skeevers?"

"Yeah, but seems to me that those two have their own problems after what happened last month," Duquesne said.

"Yes, they might be scrambling to get their empire back together but…..they will return, and Maroni won't be in prison forever….." Mario said, letting things hang. "And there's the other problem…..the ninja problem."

"That seems to be more of a Falcone problem than anything."

"Well as I said, it could and will become your problem, just give it time," Mario replied and he warned Alberto not to say anything, a simmering gaze that locked onto him that kept him in line without any words.

"The boss does want to feel you out," Duquesne said, and he added. "And he doesn't like how Sionis is trying to muscle in on his territory."

"That's another thing that we have in common," Mario said, with a smile. "And then there's the Penguin, he's upsetting the whole apple cart. Anyone who buys his hardware, as long as they have the scratch….but it would be in your benefit to join up with him."

"What do you mean it's going to be in your benefit?"

"Well my father will return any day now, and anyone who isn't with him, is against him, "Mario commented with a smile.

"Seems to me like you're using a veiled threat about your father, kid, when you should worry about what could happen to you if you run your mouth off at the wrong fucking person."

Gambol locked eyes with Duquesne and gestured something, and the two seemed to be communicating without words, or at least whispering.

"….yes we're going to have to play ball, you're right."

Duquesne sat back down, his eyes once again fixed on him.

"We shouldn't be at each other's throats, because it would be best for business if we weren't," Mario said, his gaze rather poignant on the man.

"Just quit beating around the bush….."

"See, you better be taking notes Alberto, because that's how you take care of business," Johnny whispered to his cousin and Alberto watched, ignoring his cousin's barbs towards him.

"Believe me, Johnny, I know how to take care of business."

"Was that before or after you got your ass handled to you by that one dame?"

"Gordon, that was in the past…"

"I was talking about Nightwing," Johnny whispered, ignoring the posturing.

"Nightwing…..he is most certainly….."

"Nah, it's a she, it has to be," Johnny replied, as if he knew something that Alberto didn't. "That's what I've been hearing."

Alberto refused to acknowledge this line of conversation any more. He saw the demon up close and personal and he was most certainly a man.

Just about when they were finally getting to the point of this meeting, boom out went the lights and there was a loud rumbling.

"What the fuck is going on?"

There were the sounds of combat in the shadows and when they came back on, only Johnny, Mario, Alberto, Carlton, and Gambol were sitting at the table. All of their bodyguards and goons were knocked out.

"It's him, it's him," Alberto muttered underneath his breath, looking over his shoulder nervously, but Duquesne glared at Mario from the other side of the table.

"What the fuck was that supposed to be about?"

"How should I know….in case you couldn't tell, my men were…..put that down, that won't solve anything," Mario said, as Gambol pointed a handgun at him.

Alberto watched the spectacle but he kept nervously flickering towards the shadow. His previously broken jaw ached, almost as the memory of the last time he saw that visited him.

The entire atmosphere of the meeting changed and things got exceedingly more tense.

It was obvious that there was some kind of message sent and that message was that neither side was untouchable.

* * *

 

"Well I've got some interesting news for you," Oracle commented to Nightwing.

"Oh what is it?" he asked, curious about that.

"Well, it appears that the GPCD has created a Cyber Crimes Unit, and is looking to hire someone to front it, because the recent increase of hacking over Gotham City over the past couple of months," she informed him.

"Oh, that's interesting, I suppose we wouldn't know anything about that, now would we?" Nightwing asked and she fired back, amusement dripping from her voice.

"Well what do you think?" she asked and Harry smiled.

"I about figured as much, I should have known," Harry replied, shaking his head. It seemed like that was just par for the course in Gotham City. That being said, he peered over his shoulder, and saw Dinah and Jaime returning. "Mission was a success, by the way."

"That's really good to know, I'll be sighing off now," Oracle said. "Let me know if you need anything."

"I always do."

Harry watched over his back, and saw Jaime and Dinah slowly strip out of their costumes. They didn't have a chance to work out that much but never the less, the more glorious skin they exposed. The tops of their breasts were the first thing that Harry saw, as they stripped off the armor and made their way to the shower, swaying their hips, giving him a nice little show on the way off.

Their bare backs were exposed the further that they walked closer, and Dinah looked over her shoulder, with a smoldering look over her shoulder, her blonde hair framing her face, and her lips pursed together.

"We'll be going to take a shower after tonight," Dinah commented, her blonde curls following down and her tantalizing ass was swaying the more that she moved. The blonde kept walking forward.

"Yes, Harry, feel free to join us if you're so inclined," Jaime said, blowing her a nice kiss, her ass swaying before him once again.

Harry smiled, only a foolish person was going to turn down a request like that. He removed his shirt, pulling it off of him. The injuries had healed a lot, with a bit of residual bruising. His pants followed suit, and then his underwear, socks and shoes.

He made his way into the showers and things were getting rather steamy and it wasn't just because of the steam that was in the showers to be honest. He could see Dinah and Jaime scrubbing each other, their tight bodies exposed, dripping with water. Their breasts were bared, along with their juicy centers and asses.

"Harry, why don't you wash our backs?"

Harry took the example, walking forward, and Jaime was against the shower, her hands placed on the wall, her ass jutting out. He took some of the shower gel on his hands, and started to rub her, soaping up her back.

Jaime moaned a little bit, with Harry's hands running rather close to her breasts, and he could feel Dinah going down between his legs, rubbing the back of his legs, and her hand started to brush close to him.

Harry's hands ran over Jaime's ass, and the woman breathed heavily.

"I think it's Dinah's turn."

Jaime gave a lustful whine but she had to turn around.

"Have at it," Dinah said, her ass wiggling before him and Harry placed his hands on either side of her ass, causing the pleasure to explode through her body, with his hands running over each ounce of her curves of her body.

The blonde closed her eyes, whimpering in great pleasure, with Harry stroking his way down her back. His manhood was close to the area between her legs which was spread and hungry before him.

He teased her and things were about to heat up a little more. Harry's hands roamed over her body.

It was time to take things to the next level.

Jaime smiled, wrapping her arms around Harry, and their lips pressed together. His hands found their way, exploring her body, and she tingled as he knew what she liked.

Dinah slid down to her knees, under the pretext of washing both of their legs, but her fingers slipped between Jaime's legs, causing the Potter female to tingle with desire.

One finger slipped inside her, for a brief moment, but she was too distracted by the kiss and Harry running his hands down her back.

She instinctively pushed her pussy lips towards Dinah's fingers, as she cupped her hands.

"Dinah," Jaime moaned, her wetness sticking to the woman's fingers.

"Just relax, I'll take care of you," Dinah commented and she had her fingers lubricated with Jaime's wetness.

Slowly she grabbed Harry's member and pumped it with her hand, while switching things with her other hand.

"Oh, damn, I think that he's back in business," Jaime said, eying his cock hungrily and her pussy heated up. She wanted more of him, and she wasn't going to give up. Her pussy longed for his meat, begging for it.

"Why don't you have the first taste then?" Dinah invited Jaime and Jaime slid to her knees.

Harry grabbed his double's breasts and played with them, with her sliding down onto her knees, wrapping her mouth around his took. Her soapy breasts offered a great lubricant, and she wrapped them around Harry's phallus, working him up and down.

Dinah returned the favor from earlier, washing Harry's back with her breasts, her center pressed up against his ass. Her fingers roamed over his body, lust burning through her eyes and she could tell that the lust was returned.

Harry groaned, Jaime's breasts squeezed his cock and her tongue licked the top of it. He felt pleasure burst through his loins.

"Oh, it feels so fucking good to have your large cock against my breasts," Jaime moaned, thrusting him into the valley again and again, with them working him over.

"Feels really good to be between your nice tits," Harry groaned, placing his hands on them and working himself between her amazing globes.

Dinah went down further, her breasts rubbing up and down his body. She wanted to ride Harry and soon.

She watched gleefully, her pussy heating up, his balls tightened and his cum spurted out of his cock.

The added lubricant caused Jaime's breasts to be splattered with his cum and the woman threw her head back, his cum splashing against her tits and face. It rolled down her face.

"Oh let me clean you up," Dinah said, pulling Jaime up, their wet hot bodies pressing together. They rubbed their pussies together as the two exchanged a heated kiss.

Harry felt himself get harder by each second, and Dinah grabbed one of Jaime's breasts, groping it, and pressing her lip on the nipple, sucking his cream off of it.

The two girls continued their erotic show and Dinah turned over, seeing Harry's cock.

"Well, I think we should take care of this, shouldn't we?" she asked, her arms wrapped around him, her breasts pressing against his chest, and her wet vagina just seconds away from impaling itself on his huge manhood.

"I think we should," Harry agreed, her tight vice grip of a pussy wrapping around him, with her impaling down onto him.

Her legs were wrapped around him, their tongues tangled with a searing kiss. Dinah could feel him work into her, slowly building up her orgasm. It was never too fast, but it wasn't too slow either. He allowed the right tempo.

Dinah pumped herself around his member and she panted heavily, with her working herself around him. His dick pushed itself into her depths.

Suddenly she saw Jaime hovering above her face, her legs spread. Her shaven smooth pussy was an invitation and with shaky hands, Dinah took it.

Dinah grabbed Jaime's thighs and delved her tongue deep into her. Jaime threw her head back and moaned loud, she could feel the woman's tongue bury into her.

Then she could feel Harry's tongue brush into her asshole and her pleasure got doubled. She was getting it from both ends.

Dinah closed her eyes, her walls clamped around his large tool, with her working him up and down. Her panting increased with her walls clenching him. She tried her best to work him up to a greater climax, but her mind was completely blown by what he was doing to her.

She clenched his large cock, burying him deep into her body.

Harry could feel how hot and horny Dinah was and he hit all of her pleasure spots. The backlash gave him pleasure as well.

The blonde could feel him bury deep into her. He was balls deep into her body and she clenched him, working him towards the end of an orgasm.

"Going to make you work with it," Harry grunted, her walls closed around him.

"Don't worry, I intend to," Dinah panted, her walls sliding around his tight cock, the blonde rubbing his manhood.

His balls throbbed and they were about ready to release their gift. He pushed himself up against her as she speared herself against him. The blonde bombshell was impaled on his cock and she spread her legs as far as she could.

Jaime orgasmed all over Dinah's face, hovering in mid air and that caused her cunt to clench Harry. In turn, that caused his explosion to happen.

The first spurt blew Dinah's mind, she was barely coherent enough to feel the rest of it. His seed splattered into her.

She held on for dear life, her eyes blinking as fireworks went off into her mind. She kept pumping him, determined to milk every last drop out of him.

The blonde beauty slid down onto the ground, his cum draining out of her. It was thick and juicy, bubbling out of her.

Jaime flew down to the ground, kneeling down between Dinah's legs. The brunette ravenously devoured Dinah's womanhood.

His sister's wet pussy and ass exposed for him caused Harry to grow increasingly hard. He looked at the woman, rubbing his thumb against her slit and her ass, it seemed like he was trying to determine which hole she took first.

Jaime looked at him with a smoldering look, with her faces dripping from the combined juices that she sucked from Dinah's pussy. "Do whatever you want, just take me."

Harry grabbed her thighs, pushing himself into her body. Her tight pussy gripped his large tool, and she closed her eyes, feeling the pleasure as he pushed himself deep into her body.

Jaime wasn't going to lie, she felt an increasing burst of pleasure coursing through her loins. Harry penetrated her, going extremely deep into her body and he kept hanging on, bringing himself into her.

Harry struck all of her pleasure spots and while her moans were muffled by Dinah's pussy, it was the sentiment that mattered.

His hand smacked Jaime on her rear, a red mark left on her ass. The woman screamed as he spanked and thrust into her.

Harry eventually decided that a change of venue was in order.

"Such a beautiful ass, and it belongs to me," Harry hissed in her ear, his tongue brushing against it, and he groped her breast, causing her pussy to shiver.

Harry worked his cock into her ass, her tight buns tightening more around him. The woman thought that she had just died and went to heaven with his cum filled balls resting against her ass.

Jaime clenched onto Dinah, having eaten her into another orgasm and she was driven completely unconscious.

Dinah lifted her hips up, she was in a state of bliss, and she watched Harry's manhood work into Jaime.

Jaime could feel the pleasure points being struck, her entire body warmed up, and her mind focused on the pleasure. The pleasure, oh Morgana, the pleasure, the woman's drool splashed from her mouth, with Harry penetrating himself deep into her ass.

His full balls emptied their load into her tight ass. Jaime thrashed and groaned, with Harry picking up a steady pace, ejaculating his cum into her.

The woman collapsed on Dinah's pussy, and Harry had more plans as their night of continued.

* * *

 

"For the past few years, GothCorp's previous management has gotten it a bad rap, and I'm well aware of that, there is no use in hiding it, but that's the past, and this is the future. We're going to reverse the damage that GothCorp has done, even if we can only do it one step at a time but I'll be with you every step of the way as we fix the damage that has been done from the management in the past."

A charming dark haired man, dressed in a nice custom made suit addressed the crowd at the top of the stage. The crowd was hanging on his every word and it should be obvious why. He was the type of man who knew how to say all of the right words and convince everyone that what he was saying were in fact the right words.

"Some say the future is tomorrow, but I disagree, the future is right now, and GothCorp will help lead Gotham City into the future but we can't do it alone. But as many hours as me and my staff put in, this is not completely our company, no it's your company. You will know GothCorp as the People's Company."

The press was out in full force for this press conference between GothCorp and the RAO Corporation. Both sides had been getting a feel for each other for a long time.

"I don't think that my words can justify what we do but you can judge for yourself only by the actions and how we help each and every one of you. And all I can ask is for your support as we go forward through this brave new age."

Faora, Harry, and Karen sat side by side, listening to his speech quite eagerly and with interest. Diana stood a bit behind him, acting in her role as Harry's bodyguard, watching rather intently, all of the proceedings. Kara sat on Faora's other side and Jaime sat on Karen's. All of them were dressed and ready for business.

"The first step in this is to turn Ghost Town, which has been ravished to the recent riots, into a place where Gotham City can be proud of and extend a helping hand to those who have been affected the most. Our partnership with the RAO Corporation will…."

' _So, he does seem to have passion and plans,'_ Faora summarized to them as the man went on with his speech.

' _And his story does check out, there's nothing shady in his past, which is always a plus,'_ Karen thought. _'And this never would have been possible had Daggett been in control.'_

' _What happened to him anyway?'_ Kara wondered.

' _Classified, although he got caught doing something that he shouldn't, and the board of director's forced his resignation, best that I can tell,'_ Jaime thought.

' _So, it wasn't really the problem of him doing something, it was more or less the problem that he got caught doing something that he shouldn't,'_ Kara offered and Harry nodded.

' _Precisely, but I think that this partnership should and will work out, he's given me no indication that it won't,'_ Harry answered them all. _'But then again, we just have to deal with Boyle to get what we want.'_

' _Well he's not a borderline sociopath like Daggett comes across as,'_ Jaime thought with a shudder.

' _He's that bad,'_ Diana agreed, there were some none too flattering things that were coming across from his former employees and staff. Now he had been kicked out the door, some of them were taking it as an opportunity to grind their axe with him and for some people, it was a really big axe to grind.

' _But we couldn't get access to Victor and Nora Fries without this partnership, so it all works out in the end,'_ Harry told them all and there was much agreement.

' _Yes, but you can't deny that he was eager to accept the deal and didn't make any outlandish demands,'_ Faora said to them.

' _And we got some generous shares in the deal, so I think we got a good end of the deal,'_ Karen thought.

' _The best,'_ Faora confirmed, she was actually surprised how well this deal panned out but she was not about to question it in the slightest.

' _Well he did get some good PR, that's one thing that GothCorp does have going for it now,'_ Harry thought.

' _After Daggett sunk their PR down, I'm sure he appreciated that one,'_ Faora thought and then she added. _'And by the way, after the press conference, everything is set up for you to fly up to Vegas with Zatanna for your official marriage.'_

' _Yes, my father will meet you there as well for the ceremony,'_ Zatanna said, bubbling with excitement, but then again, what woman wouldn't when her wedding day was looming around the corner.

Sure enough the speech was wrapping up and it was obvious that Harry was going to be expected to give a speech. Giving speeches like this tended to be monotonous to him at times but it was for good public relations and kept his name rather visible.

The world was watching, but there was another man who was watching, a bit in the back of the crowd.

' _He thinks he's so clever, but soon, he won't be sitting so pretty.'_

The fat man was dressed in stylish garb, trying to blend in with the rest of the crowd, even though he very much stuck out like a sore thumb from where he stood. That being said, he crossed his arms over himself. The umbrella dangled from his hand, innocent enough, unless you knew what was really going on here.

That being said, Oswald Cobblepot listened closely to what he had to say, or at least enough to get the gist of it.

"Feh," he said in thinly disguised disgust, but soon enough, soon enough, he would settle a couple of old family debts.

* * *

 

October 31st was known by many names depending on how you celebrated it. All Hallow's Eve was a popular one, also commonly referred as Halloween. It was a day that was eagerly anticipated by children, candy manufacturers and dentists the world over. By same, it was also referred to Samhain.

It was the day that Zatanna Zatara chose to marry Harry Potter. Despite the fact that they were already bonded, this would strengthen the bonds between the two of them.

Zatanna was dressed in an extremely beautiful dress that shimmered in the light, adding to her already natural beauty. Harry was dressed up as well, the two of them standing in the middle of the desert with a bonfire surrounding them.

Harry had to be honest, he was pretty vague on the details on how this work, Zatanna assured him that everything should be left to her. So he agreed. A Priestess made her way into the circle, the marriage ceremony was about to begin.

There was a certain aura that made things seem rather enchanting, Harry would have to say, for lack of a better term. The veil fluttering over Zatanna's face enhanced her beauty, not that she needed much help on that front. Still it was more a visual image thing than anything else and she approved of it all.

Giovanni was naturally present, both to serve as a witness and to give his daughter way.

"So, we are all ready, allow the ceremony to begin," the priestess said and when there was no argument to be given, there were flashes from the bond fire were sent in the air.

They were underneath the moonlight tonight, which gave it a romantic aura for tonight's event.

"Tonight we are blessed on the night of Samhein for the union of Harry Potter and Zatanna Zatara, underneath the moonlight, these two souls will be joined in an everlasting bond that will not be broken."

There was a pedestal with a runestone set up in the middle of it. The obvious sensation of extremely powerful magic flashed towards it and it would cause goosebumps to anyone who was nearby, except for those who were of the most powerful magic who could fight off such sensations.

Which thankfully the bride and groom were in fact among those who did have the power to fight things off.

"Harry Potter, please step forward."

Harry stepped forward, seeing the runic symbols for love and union upon it. The magic that pulsed from it spurred certain images of things to come but that would have to wait until after the official ceremony concluded.

"Place your hand, and do you, Harry Potter, accept Zatanna Zatara as your bonded, cementing your union in the eyes of magic and the highest laws of the universe."

"I, Harry Potter, accept Zatanna Zatara as my bonded, welcome into her family, and agree to cement our union amongst the highest laws of the universe, to cement our bond without question."

A flash of light indicated Harry's acceptance of the thread and the priestess turned towards Zatanna.

"Place your hand upon Harry's, and do you Zatanna Zatara, accept Harry Potter as your bonding, cementing your union in the eyes of magic and the highest laws of the universe?"

Zatanna's hand placed upon Harry's. She decided that what she intended to say would not be considered acceptable.

"Yes, I, Zatanna Zatara, accept Harry Potter as my bonded, cementing our union in the eyes of magic, and within the highest laws of the universe, to forever be faithful to him and accept my role in his family, without question."

There was a blinding golden flash that was awestruck to be honest, and the two of them stared at each other, smiles on their faces.

"The energy around you is favorable, your union is official, and your bond has been officially recognized…..you are truly blessed on this day."

' _No kidding,'_ Zatanna thought but Harry lifted the veil back and pressed his lips against hers with a searing kiss, with the energy surrounding them. It was nearly intimidating to be around these two when their auras were pulsing like that.

That being said, the real fun was about to begin, even though their bond had been officially cemented. Harry scooped up Zatanna in his arms, and smiled. The two of them disappeared with a pop.

"And now the main event begins," Zatanna said, smiling, with Harry sitting her down. That allowed her to get a nice and long look at the lay of the room around her.

The scented candles that surrounded in there gave the room a certain erotic atmosphere that made Zatanna willing to go again and again, not that she had much problem doing that because it was her wedding night.

"We're not going to waste any time, are we?" Zatanna asked, with a smile on her face. Being in the circle with the ritual caused her body to tingle and she briefly ran her hand under the silk sheets.

"Well, I would be rude to deprive a woman on her wedding day," Harry told her and Zatanna smiled.

Harry's clothes slowly melted from his body and reappeared in a neatly stacked pile on a chair sitting in the corner.

"You look beautiful in that dress," Harry said and she responded with a mind blowing smile and gave him a kiss that would match.

Pulling back, Zatanna wondered how much longer she could keep her inhibitions at bay because they were burning away quickly.

"You said as much when you first saw me in it, but the compliment is appreciated," Zatanna said, allowing him to sit back on the bed. She sat across from him, slowly and seductively inching closer to him, her hand placed on his chest, and she ran it all over his body. "But I'd think that it would look even better on the floor, wouldn't you agree?"

Harry wasn't about ready to argue with that one and her seductive grin was strong as her dress slowly faded.

It was time to do what all couples did on their wedding night and with the time dilation spells in place, it was going to be a really long wedding night.

Zatanna straddled Harry's body and he would have to agree with her about something. As nice as the wedding dress she was wearing looked on her, it looked even nicer on the floor.

A saucy grin appeared on her face, as the young sorceress was dressed in slinky lingerie that she had on, held onto her body purely by magic. There was a black corset that made her nice sized tits look even larger. She turned around, to allow Harry to see her black thong which adhered to her ass quite nicely, along with her garter belt and fishnet stockings.

"Come on Harry," Zatanna whispered, shaking her ass at Harry and the green eyed wizard hovered over her, with a smile on his face.

He cupped her breasts through the material; he would hate to destroy something so amazing, so he gently cupped her breasts through it. He worked his hands down, crossing her flat stomach and she whimpered when he inched closer to her womanhood.

"Well, you've been ready for this babe."

Now that they were married, officially, the connection between the two of them strengthened. Harry worked his fingers down between her pussy lips, pushing them inside her.

"Harry!" Zatanna whined, as his hands roamed her body. "Don't….don't tease me!"

"I don't see you stopping me," Harry whispered, kissing the side of her neck and pumping himself into her.

Eventually Zatanna mentally snapped due to her lust. She stripped her thong off, her fishnet stockings and garter belt still on. Her breasts spilled out of the corset. Her pussy was willing and ready for Harry.

She jumped onto his lap, lathering his faces with kisses. He was hard, she was wet, and this was their honeymoon, it was time to get onto the fun stuff.

With all of the expert grace that she could manage, Zatanna sank herself down onto Harry's cock. She teased herself inch by inch, and he held her hips, making sure that she did not burn herself up.

"Don't worry, we have all night," Harry whispered, running his finger over her nipple, her right breast now spilling out of her corset.

"Believe me, that's what I'm going to take," she said, feeling her walls stretch to accommodate them.

She nearly lost it with his hands placed on her. Her walls got a bit tighter around him, the spell pleasing her.

Harry held back her orgasm a little bit, causing her to whine.

"You'll get it when you earn it," Harry told her, playing with her nipples, causing her to squeal.

"But I want it….now," she panted, her walls rubbing his manhood in between her hot thighs.

Harry smiled, allowing his lover to ride him. Her walls had moisture in him, which allowed his journey to the center of her womb to be more pleasurable for him.

Zatanna bit down on her lip, she was allowed a moment of pleasure, his hand placed on her ass. It was building up for something, building up for the dam about ready to burst.

The dark haired woman tightened her walls around his manhood, her pussy stuffed with him. Harry buried his face between her breasts as she continued to ride him.

"Deeper, deeper, I want it all, please, give it all to me!" Zatanna moaned, throwing her head back. She was this close to coming unglued and Harry was giving her everything that she ever wanted.

The thrusts into her increased, got more intense. He slowed down for a moment, and then tilted her back.

Her breasts completely spilled out of her corset, hanging over it. Her nipples grew hard and Harry rolled his tongue over it, giving her unmistakable pleasure.

He held onto her hips, rocking himself into her body. He buried himself deeper into her and she closed her eyes.

He could sense the pleasure into her body and the magical energy swirled into them. Their meeting became intense, as they mutually agreed to hold back a bit more of their orgasm.

"Take me, keep taking me, I can handle it."

Zatanna worked her hips towards him, meeting his engorged rod. She was trying to earn his cum and her orgasm. To her credit, she gave as good as she received.

"That's good, that's really good, you're almost there," Harry said and she smiled, as she clenched his cock, holding back his release.

"Turn about is fair play," Zatanna whispered, he twisted her nipples, her breasts heaving as he took his mouth onto them, licking and nipping at them.

She thought that she was going to lose it, with the intense orgasm that passed through her. Her pussy hit a gusher as she lubricated his cock and he pushed into her.

Zatanna rolled him over this time and took her spot hovering on top of him. She spread his arms back and kissed him, rocking herself onto him.

She grinded on him, and Harry returned fire. Both were experiencing the pleasure with each other, her pussy rubbing against his thick throbbing cock. The woman panted, riding him once more, and the orgasm once again flowed through her body.

Zatanna experienced a really powerful orgasm that put her through a daze. The next thing she knew, she was on her hands and knees, her pussy exposed, dripping. She was tied to the bed.

"It's our wedding night, we better have some fun."

"Yes," Zatanna added, she could feel the horniness explode through her, with Harry's fingers teasing her.

The torture was almost too much and Harry ran down her body, cupping her breasts once more. She whined, begged, and pleaded. His cock was large and his balls were stored full of cum that she was just waiting to get inside her.

"I saved a very big load for you, do you want it?" Harry asked her and Zatanna nodded.

"Yes, yes, yes," Zatanna whimpered, his cock head tip was against her dripping womanhood and he smiled.

"Yes, honey?" Harry asked her.

"FUCK ME AND FUCK ME HARD!"

Zatanna screamed when he decided to indulge her in her request, his manhood penetrating her. The woman cried in pleasure when he continued to hammer her with intensity and she returned fire, her hips rolling up to meet his thrusts.

His hands placed on her hair and he pulled it back, allowing himself a proper amount of leverage. His balls slammed across her as her wet, slick, and tight walls hugged him with him sliding into her.

Zatanna closed her eyes, feeling his manhood penetrate her deeper. She wanted this so bad, she wanted his cum into her. His hands brushed across her breasts, squeezing and tweaking her nipples.

She was so soaked that Harry thought that there wasn't anything that could not be pushed into her.

"Here it comes."

"Please, faster, I need it, I need you cum," Zatanna begged him, her walls contracting tight around him. She tried to milk his cum from his balls, and she was growing weaker with even more desire the more that he tortured her body.

The explosion was coming soon and Harry sped up into her. Her loins were heated with the super friction she introduced into them. His hands explored her body, giving her a thousand touches and several miniature orgasms, her walls pressed around him.

A gusher was hit in her and a gusher exploded in him. His balls injected their gift into her pussy. The woman thrashed her hips up, tightening around him. Harry rammed himself into her, emptying his balls into her.

Zatanna thrashed, her walls closed around him, with him pumping her full of his cum. The woman trashed her way up, walls wrapped tight around him, her whimpers increased.

A heavy load of cum drained from her pussy and the woman fell down completely, the breath fucked out of her.

"Hope you're not done after that, it's our wedding night after all."

* * *

 

Despite the fact that the people in Gotham City had their issues, it did not stop them from living their lives. Halloween was one day of the year that they did so, allowing their children to go out and trick or treat.

There was a rule that all children should be back before 8:00 PM but it was not really enforced. And in this affluent neighborhood that was far from the rougher parts of Gotham City, therefore there were a lot of carefree people running around, not really bothered by the insanity that was happening elsewhere in the city, and all around them.

Just because they lived in a dangerous city, it does not mean that they are going to stop living their lives.

A man dressed in a Hannibal Lector mask slowly walked down the street. He was dressed in a plastic suit and gloves on his hand, the mask covering his facial features.

The children were dressed in various costumes, running around on the street. The usual monsters, ghouls, and movie characters that was popular during this past year.

The man walked forward, past a young boy dressed like a pirate. He passed astronauts, cowboys, fairy princesses, the usual fair, along with the ghouls and ghosts associated with hallyway.

The children moved from house to house, some observed by their parents, others by younger siblings, some of them on their own because their parents were either too trusting or taking candy of a different kind, this one up their nose.

The man in the mask walked past the children, stopping on the last house on the left. He walked his way down the gnarled pathway, it illuminated with Jack-O-Lanterns. The sun was long since set but there were hedges that obscured this house from the street above, even though the gates were wide upon.

Assuming innocent children were coming up the door. He lifted one finger, and touched the door bell, a buzz could be heard.

The door opened, and a kindly looking woman, middle aged, poked her head out the door, with a bucket of Halloween candy underneath her arm.

Before she could react, there was a pistol with a silencer shot at her, and he caught her, falling to the ground, along with the candy bucket.

The door slowly closed behind him and the lights were turned off.

* * *

 

The man walked down the sidewalk an hour later, proceeding forward.

"One down, nine to go. Thirty one days has October, after midnight comes November."

On the sidewalk sandwiched in between two of the Jack O' Lantern's was the decapitated head of the woman with a lit candle on her head.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 6** **th** **2014.**

**Mob warfare, there's a lot of it going on, because we're in Gotham City. And obviously our heroes are in the middle of it. Although some of them are not quite to hero mode yet, because they're busy with school like Diana is and Kara as well. And Karen and Faora are busy with the big Red Sun Launch over in Metropolis.**

**And yes Harry is busy with school as well, but he's insane. So we'll just ignore that fact.**

**Alberto is a few bricks short of a load as you might have been able to figure out.**

**Zatanna and Harry finally get officially married(even though they've been bond-married for a while now, which is perfectly legal in the eyes of magic. But you know tradition and shit).**

**Another murder on Halloween, and this one has the feel of something a bit twisted and demented. Naturally people may be able to put two and two together if you know your Batman rogues.**

**So next chapter kicks off another story arc(for reals this time). Thought that it was this chapter, but it starts the next chapter. Then again, I first wrote these chapters months ago.**


	50. Matter of Family Part One

**Chapter Fifty: A Matter of Family Part One.**

* * *

 

Jaime smiled, she pretty much figured out by this point that if she was going to be Nightwing, then she was going to be Nightwing all of the way. The woman slipped out of the bathroom, with a long sigh as she shook her head, clearing the cobwebs from it.

Diana and Dinah were in the midst of a work out. And both of those women could go for a long time in every sense of the world. Both of them were sparring with each other and while Jaime wanted to watch them because of the elegant grace that both women had in their movements, she also wished to join them.

So the dark haired woman stepped forward, her hair pulled back, dressed in a tight black top and even tighter black pants.

"Just a second, Jaime," Diana said, eagerness shining through her eyes. She missed her early morning sparring session with Harry, but the fact was that he was on his honeymoon and hopefully enjoying it.

"Yeah, just let Diana finish kicking my ass," Dinah joked, her attempt to be taken down was avoided and blocked.

' _I don't know, you're holding your own pretty well,'_ Donna said and there were some other girls who looked fairly amused about the situation.

' _Yes, Donna, you've been in there with your sister, you should know how intense she could be,'_ Kara said with a smile on her face. Some of these sparring sessions were better than anything that she could hear on television.

Dinah dodged another attack and Diana called for time. The blonde crime fighter knew by now not to take her eye off of the ball.

"Why don't you take five?" Diana asked Dinah and Dinah looked back her.

"Are you kidding, I'm just warming up."

Then again, she just needed a breath and a drink of water. The blonde made her way over and sat down. Despite the fact that she had got knocked around, she was feeling pretty good about herself.

"Are you ready for this?" Diana asked and Jaime smiled, sauntering her way towards the Amazon. She was ready.

"Yes, I think that I'm getting much better," Jaime said and she went for the initial attack.

Diana caught her arm and twisted it behind her back. Jaime grunted, with Diana holding her arm out behind her back. The young female closed her eyes, feeling the pressure on her arm. It very nearly was popped behind her back.

"Not bad," Diana agreed, once again hyper extending Jaime's elbow and pushing it behind her back, forcing her back.

Jaime would hate to hear Diana's definition of bad, if this was not bad, and she was getting her ass kicked.

"Glad you approve," Jaime said, and she grabbed Diana's legs and scissor swept them out from underneath her.

The Amazon was fairly quick and Jaime went for a forearm smash, but she blocked it. Another block and Diana went behind her, grabbing her in a reverse bearhug, but Jaime countered with a nice throwing move that tossed her down.

' _I taught her that one,'_ Faora said and there was some laughter throughout the bond from all of the parties present.

' _I'm sure you must be very proud of yourself then,'_ Kara agreed and there was a moment where everyone was amused, laughing.

The sparring session continued for a little bit, with Jaime going the distance.

"Okay, that's time, why don't we hit the showers?" Diana asked.

' _Oooh, hit the showers, interesting,'_ Kara said with a smile.

' _Are you just waiting for a free show?'_ Amanda asked and Kara fired with a smile of her own.

' _Why aren't you?'_ Kara asked her and Amanda shook her head.

' _Yes, yes, I am, but that's not really the point, and you know it,'_ Amanda thought to the blonde through the bond link, shaking her head in bemusement.

Jaime smiled at the banter, it really was entertaining to start up her morning. Given that she was late to the sparring session, she didn't really feel the need to join in on the shower.

' _Ah,'_ Kara commented, sounding a little bit disappointed. _'I guess you're not adopting all of Harry's habits.'_

' _Well, I had a private session last night, sorry you missed it,'_ Jaime thought to them.

' _Damn it, I was working on homework, the one night that something is interesting happening, and Harry decided to block off the bond link from the honeymoon,'_ Kara said, folding her arms and biting down on her lip with an adorable little pout.

' _Aww,'_ Donna cooed in a mocking sweet manner with Kara crossing her arms and pouting.

' _I didn't ever act like that, did I?'_ Karen asked and Jaime gave her a brief flicker of a smile.

' _Once or twice maybe, but it was a long time ago, don't worry,'_ Jaime thought, sitting down and leaning back in the chair to relax, stretching her hands to the heaven, and then dropping them down.

She sipped the coffee and decided that it would be a good time to check the newspaper to see what was happening.

She stopped and paused at something that was front page news. The stomach turning news got Jaime's day off to a shitty start.

Dinah and Diana walked into the room, sensing her distress and the urgency of it. The paper held loosely in her hands.

The blonde leaned over and looked at the paper, her mouth hanging open and pretty much matching Jaime's expression full on. It was news that would turn anyone's stomach, especially this early in the morning.

So say that she was disgusted would be putting it mildly.

"Ten severed heads were found near ten houses, numbered 1001 through 1010, at 31st and Park," Jaime whispered and there were sounds of disgust resounding throughout the entire bond link. "It says here that the decapitated bodies were found in the house, and a nine millimeter handgun was found near the body, there were no witnesses, and no suspicious activity reported."

They allowed the sickening details of this news to really sink in. To say that there were problems with this entire mess would be putting things extremely mildly.

"So…..this has to be the same sicko that attacked on Labor Day, wasn't it?" Dinah asked, slowly coming to that conclusion.

' _The MO lines up pretty nicely,'_ Harry mentally chimed in from afar.

' _So do you want us to come back early from the honeymoon?'_ Zatanna asked them.

' _No,'_ Jaime said firmly, not wanting them to think that she couldn't handle this. _'Enjoy your time…..we'll deal with this, not like we can really do much of anything regardless to begin with.'_

' _If you say so,'_ Harry said, not arguing too much but he supposed that he should leave the offer hanging out there just in case

' _Although I think it might be a good idea for our Oracle to do some snooping,'_ Jaime added and that seemed like a sound enough plan.

* * *

 

Gotham City was always a buzz when something was on the verge of opening and the one thing that many people were buzzing about was the Iceberg Lounge. It was opened by the return of one of Gotham's favorite sons, the one and only, Oswald Cobblepot.

Cobblepot was smiling, looking like the cat that ate the canary and why wouldn't he be smiling? Everything was going on rather swimmingly. The entire world rested in the palm of his hand and he continued to become excited for a big event that would occur sooner and he wasn't just talking about the opening of the night club either. Rather there was something that was a bit more personal that was coming down the pike.

He stood outside with Summer Gleeson who was on the scene to report on the historical opening of the Iceberg Lounge. It was decorated like its name sake, with the guards dressed up in their best winter apparel. Some of them were hired help but others were legit. You could still never really be too careful about such a thing.

"So, Gotham City is looking forward to the opening the Iceberg Lounge, which has a potential to be one of the most exclusive clubs in all of Gotham City," Summer said, trying to keep her voice professional. "Anyone who is anyone is here…"

"You'd got that right," Cobblepot said with a toothy grin on his face and Tracey nodded next to his side. "All of the stars are going to be out tonight in Gotham City. There's been a lot of bad things going down this summer and into the autumn, but I'm going to bring some class and dignity back to Gotham City."

He was a bit too up close and personal for Summer and she could feel his fish breath almost in her face. It smelled like he ate a can of sardines before he turned up tonight.

"If you'd like, I'd give you the grand tour, I'm sure that I can make it worth your while," Cobblepot said, with what he thought was a charming smile, but it resembled more of an unsettling leer.

Summer tried not to crack underneath the pressure and be anything less than professional.

"Well, the Iceberg Lounge is shaping up to be one of the spots in Gotham that the world is watching, and no doubt a place where many high rollers will be out for its grand opening, reservations are filling up fast…" Summer said and she casually side stepped Cobblepot.

"Yes, so get on down here, if you want to be a part of it, we might find a space for you," Cobblepot said, continuing what he thought was a charming smile but once again, it was still a rather disturbing looking leer.

"Right, right, this is Summer Gleeson signing off, don't forget to attend the Grand opening of the Iceberg Lounge tomorrow night and thank you, Mr. Cobblepot for your time," she said, adopting her television voice and just blocking out the smell around her.

"Twas a pleasure, Summer," Cobblepot commented and he saw her and her cameraman move out.

That was all well a good, now that he got his name and club out there, it was down to business and quite some nasty business as well.

Cobblepot waddled into the club, and made his way into the backroom. Tracey followed him like an obedient puppy dog.

"Shut the door behind you, don't want anyone listening in that don't need to be, better for their health, you see," Cobblepot said and Tracey nodded in agreement, doing as he said.

"Right," she said, making sure the door shut behind her and then slowly backing up.

Cobblepot turned, seeing Walrus and Mr. Carpenter, along with a half dozen of his best men. And his best men could be pretty rotten sons of bitches to be honest.

"So this is been something that I've been waiting for, for a long time," Cobblepot said, holding the hand of his trick umbrella. "I've been scratching, biting, and clawing my way up from the sewer that they forced me to go into. But I'm not going to take it anymore. Those bastards, they'll pay for what they did to my family."

Cobblepot slammed his umbrella down on the table and the loud crack got the attention of everyone who was watching the festivities.

"The Club opens tomorrow, and it's going to be a bash, but I figure that the real party starts tonight, by sticking it to them all," Cobblepot said, his eyes fixed on the men. "You see, our little billionaire boys, they think that they're so snug and secure, but….time for them to realize that they're going to get some good old fashioned revenge, just the way we used to do things before everyone became soft little bitches that needed their pussy powdered"

Cobblepot picked up his umbrella and broke the locks on it. The crate top flipped open, revealing some impressive weaponry and armor inside.

"I don't need to hold the hands of you lot, when you go to the bathroom, now do I?"

They all shook their head in negative.

"Good, you all know what to do, after what their bloody families did to me, they're going to pay, and you wouldn't want to disappoint me, would you? After all I've done for you lot."

They shook their heads furiously in tandem, they wouldn't want to disappoint him, no way, not in the slightest.

"Then get to work, time for a few debts to be squared away. And it's time to collect with a little bit of interest, tonight"

* * *

 

Alfred sat in the Driver's Seat of the limo, waiting as patiently as he possibly could. Obviously, anyone with a Kindergarten education could figure out who this limo belonged to, that being one Bruce Wayne.

He was pulled up to the front entrance of the tower waiting for Bruce and his new minder to come on through. Alfred cursed who Kane picked because he was going to cause more problems than he was going to help.

' _He's picked quite a winner for that one, he did,'_ Alfred said, shaking his head. The truth was that while the thought of a bodyguard was practical, this one was a rather obnoxious man in his mid-30s, Alfred shook his head. _'Used to be the member of the Secret Service…..so not saying that he's incompetent, but he can be fairly annoying, that one can. Then again, what do you expect from a person like Phillip Kane being the person who chose him'_

Alfred crossed his arms, patiently waiting, and sure enough Bruce's minder poked his head out of the front door, looking around.

The bodyguard made his way into the backseat of the limo. There was a stoic look on his face and it seemed to be annoyed about something.

"Where is Master Wayne?"

"Pull the limo around to the back, he will be meeting us there," the bodyguard said, looking over his shoulder. He seemed very annoyed that he was being told how to do his job.

Alfred decided not to question this, really having no reason to. Buckling up, he put the limo into drive and started to bring it around to that destination. He pulled the limo down around the curb.

He made the turn around, going a bit down the block so he could make the turn needed to reach the backdoor of the building.

Alfred backed up a little bit, preparing to make the turn but suddenly, something drove at the back of the limo at a fast speed.

It was a large truck, slamming into the back of the limo. The limo skidded, starting to spin with the full force, with it being slammed into the wall.

Alfred was lucky to be buckled into place, because if he wasn't, he could be dead from being sent through the windshield at such a rate.

The van backed off and the doors clicked open. Footsteps could be heard of the men exiting the limo.

"Alright men, let's move, we don't have much time before someone calls the cops, reporting an accident."

It was another vehicle and Mr. Carpenter lead the charge, bringing his henchmen around from the back. All of them were armed to the teeth with guns. The back of the limo was completely crushed from the back.

Carpenter snapped his finger and a barrage of bullets fired on the back of the limo, causing glass to fly everywhere.

There was a figure from their vantage point that was dropped in the limo and they could see the back of his head, it had dark hair. From their vantage point, they struck their target and not only that, but struck him hard.

Carpenter motioned for the goons to make their way away from the scene of the crime, before they were missed. The damage had been done, or so they assumed.

Alfred could hear the truck pull out and voices. He managed to use his instincts to get out of the limo, forcing the door of the limo to open. It took a tiny bit of effort on his part but adrenaline kicked in and inspired him to push on forward. The butler was motivated by the survival instincts that were built into every arm, to pull himself out of the limo, just seconds before the first round of bullets would have shattered the window in the back seat.

He had a broken arm, several cracked ribs, and some severe lacerations, but he had the presence of mind to roll, pulling himself behind a dumpster where the limo crashed into.

He realized that the bodyguard was still trapped in the back of the limo and Alfred feared that the man might have been dead upon impact. Given how hard that they were hit and how jarring it was, and the fact that Alfred was not sure if the man had his seatbelt on, that was likely going to be the case.

The loss of blood caused him to slowly black out, but not before he heard the barrage of bullets hit the back of the limo. He just barely got out of there by the skin of his nuts.

"Alright, we've got him, let's go, phase one is complete."

Peering around the back of the dumpster with shaky hands, Alfred tried to get a good look at what was happening. They pretty much emptied their guns into the back of the limo. The sounds of sirens could be heard, although perhaps that might have been his head just ringing.

He finally succumbed to his injures, passing out from the pain. His head hit the pavement once again but they had long since pealed rubber out of there, long before the cops arrived.

Medics were on the scene anyway, it would be determined the bodyguard was killed on impact, even though he wasn't really the target that was intended to be struck down.

That being said, Alfred Pennyworth was being hauled off for medical attention, his injuries not fatal but at the same they, they were fairly severe and needed treatment immediately.

* * *

 

At this time in Gotham City, Amanda and Emily were standing outside of the GPA, saying goodbye to some friends.

"See you tomorrow," Amanda said with a smile on her face, facing Bette and Bunny, who waved at them with identical grins.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow, try and stay out of trouble," Bette said and Bunny looked at Bette, with amusement, with Bunny giving the obvious answer. "We'd join you but…."

"Shopping awaits," Bunny said in an excited voice, bouncing up and down in excitement. "Too bad that you can't join us with that…."

"Yeah, we got to get out of here, got things to do, hopefully we can get together sometime, especially since Gabi and Dora are both giving us the evil eye," Amanda said in a completely breathless voice, looking at the two girls in question.

' _I'm not giving you the evil eye,'_ Gabrielle thought and Donna chimed in, joining the group outside.

' _Well you could have fooled them, couldn't you?'_ Donna asked, nudging the part Veela but she glared at Donna, in fact giving her the evil eye.

After a clearing of a person's throat brought her back to focus, she racked her brain.

' _Anyway, with Lois having been picked up by her father, I think that's everyone,'_ Gabrielle added, trying to really to keep the mood light.

' _Well not necessarily her father, but her father's aide,'_ Nym reminded them. _'I guess he's trying to be a father somewhat now, or perhaps he's less busy. I really don't know what's going on there.'_

' _I don't think it's really our business to know something like that,'_ Penny said, with Nym joining her in the front seat of the limo.

' _I guess you're right, but what's the fun in that?'_ Amanda asked, making her way into the back seat, with Emily sitting next to her, Gabrielle taking her seat next to Emily, and Donna filling out the row on Gabrielle's other side.

The limo was locked and the security protocols were in place.

"Traffic is going to be a nightmare this afternoon, so hopefully we can get home," Penny muttered, backing out of the GPA parking lot.

' _Well, we might have missed out on an amazing shopping trip,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Do you think that you're going to get a prize if you get one hundred pairs of shoes?'_ Donna asked her.

Amanda folded her arms over her chest and her lip stuck out with a little bit of a pouty expression on her face, giving a strong and powerful sigh. "Of course not, I passed that mark a long time ago."

"She did," Emily confirmed without missing a beat.

"And how many of those shoes do you actually wear?" Gabrielle asked.

"I want to be prepared for any occasion," Amanda argued, wondering why they would doubt her opinion on such serious and important business. The redhead threw her head back and gave a long sigh.

' _You do realize that van has been following us since we pulled out of the GPA, don't you?'_ Nym thought urgently towards Penny.

' _Yes, it's very odd, I'm trying to get to a point…..'_ Penny thought but she could see a van abruptly pull in front of her when she was on a side street.

The van that was behind her was almost right up on her ass.

"What the hell was that, are they nuts?" Amanda yelled, as the van nearly rammed them from behind. The limo didn't sustain that bad of a hit as it was not damaged behind some paint damage, but it was jarring to feel it ram into them from behind.

"Do you really want an answer to that question?" Donna asked and suddenly a third van pulled up towards the left side of them.

Penny looked around, trying not to lose her head. They were up against the side walk, with a van in front of them, a van on the side of them towards the road, and a van right behind it. She saw a shady looking individual nodding.

Nym lifted her hand to defend that but Penny shook her head. Before they jumped the gun, they wanted to see where this one was going.

Another van pulled out of the truck and a large man who looked like an old time strongman with an absurd mustache, having a large shotgun underneath his arm. He was pointing towards Amanda and Emily who exchanged a look of surprise. There were a few other armored goons near him as well.

He approached them, swinging his arms around, with a nasty look on his face, holding the shotgun right at them.

"Get out of the bloody limo!"

Penny stared at him, like he was the biggest idiot ever. Which judging by the looks of him was fairly likely. The automated defenses around the limo were activated and the man pointed his shotgun at the front window of the limo.

The shotgun blast the windshield of the limo, the glass didn't crack, but seeing the impact up close and personal was a harrowing experience.

' _We better fucking get out of here, those guys are insane,'_ Nym thought, and her Auror instincts wanted to get out of the car and take them down but they were in a residential neighborhood and she didn't want to injure anyone in a firefight.

' _Alright, hang on, stay calm,'_ Penny thought, and she put the limo into reverse and floored it, slamming into the van behind her.

She then clicked it into drive and slammed into the vehicle in front of her.

The mustached man in the street looked on with a dumbstruck look on his face and the limo darted off forward as fast as it could manage.

' _So did we run him over?'_ Nym asked, she couldn't tend to shake the thought that she should have known that guy from somewhere but in her high adrenaline state, she couldn't think.

Penny didn't answer, she could see that the remaining van was on them but the limo could outrun them. She might have just blown every speed law in Gotham but that was just a small price to pay for staying alive.

' _We're going to have to get back to the Penthouse, then…..we're going to have to tell Harry,'_ Nym thought but she figured that he would be finding out soon enough.

She would hate to be the person behind this when Harry found out about this. She hated to be the one that would have to tell him this but she really hated to be the person that was behind this.

* * *

It was only a short break in between sessions but Harry and Zatanna managed to rise to the occasion rather well after a short pause to catch their breath.

Zatanna had a smoldering smile on her face and she knew that Harry wanted her to initiate the play when she was ready for it.

The sorceress gave a smoldering smirk, to say that she was ready, that would be putting things mildly. The woman rolled herself onto Harry, straddling hips.

"I see someone's ready," Harry whispered to her and Zatanna smiled, slowly kissing her way up his body.

"Always," Zatanna said, running her hands down his body, her center aligned with his manhood but the penetration has not happened, at least not right yet.

She could feel the heat generated from both of their bodies. After that break earlier, both were more energized than every before. Then again with their stamina, they kicked things in pretty quickly.

Zatanna brushed her dripping hot entrance over his manhood, with a smile on her face, when she teased her folds with his cock.

"Ready for another round, aren't we?" Zatanna asked him and Harry smiled, grabbing into her breasts, causing her to moan as he explored her sweaty globes.

"What do you think?" Harry asked her and Zatanna smiled, biting down on his lip. His manhood brushed against her sopping hot lips and she worked herself around his tool, pushing all the way down onto him.

She thought that he filled her up so nicely as always. The dark haired woman closed her eyes and felt her come down onto him.

Zatanna gained a fair amount of momentum, rocking her dripping hot center around his massive tool as he went into her body. She closed her eyes, biting down on her lip. Her nipples were erect and ready.

"Harry," Zatanna whispered, and Harry groped her breast.

There was a lot of pleasure flowing through her and she practically gushed with his manhood continuing its journey to her smoldering hot center. His lips pressed against her hot nipple and he sucked on it.

The pleasure increased and the young sorceress felt him bury himself into her. She wrapped herself tightly around his tool, him nestled into her thighs.

"Faster," Harry told her and Zatanna nodded, riding Harry for all that he was worth. His hands placed on her breasts caused a proper amount of magic to be channeled through her.

Zatanna threw her head back, now she got her second wind, okay by now it was more like a fifth wind. Never the less, she marveled at her entranced stamina.

"I'm going to make you cum a few times before you get your reward."

'Of course, worth the wait," Zatanna agreed, her thighs smacking against his balls as her legs spread.

His manhood pushed so far into her body and she could feel her be stretched apart. Thanks to her powers, it seemed that no matter how deep he went into her, and how hard he was, she didn't stay stretched out for long.

Harry could feel the power coursing through her and she bent down, kissing him firmly on the lips. She bit on the lip and in response, his hand snaked behind her, pushing one of his fingers into her tight rectum.

A rush of magical energy flowed between them when their hot loins meet together.

' _Oh, I'm reaching the edge again, deeper, deep as you can,"_ Zatanna mentally moaned, deepening the kiss, as their tongues wrapped together.

Her firm large breasts pressed against his chest and he slapped her on the ass lightly, which encouraged her to grind herself a bit more.

She pulled away from them, balancing one hand on his chest, and throwing her head back with a gleeful shriek of passion. She clenched him, the deeper that he was buried into her, and the more her nerve endings flowed with immense pleasure.

"Just wait, you haven't felt anything yet," Harry told her, pinching her nipple and that increased the excitement.

"Can't wait, if we were just warming up, yes, oh yes," she moaned loudly.

Harry smiled, grabbing onto her breasts, squeezing them hard. She panted heavily, with her smoldering hot thighs coming down onto him.

"Cumming….oh yes….ooh….ah, yes," Zatanna moaned out loud and she could feel him go so far into her that she thought that she was going to be split nearly in half with the pleasure. The dark haired woman could feel the pleasure that spiked through her body.

She bounced up down a little bit higher, coming down from the orgasm. Harry's strong hands worked over her body and her head threw back with a pleasurable moan.

The orgasm went through her body, her thighs twitching with his prick between her thighs. Her hips grinded down onto him, the moist core squeezing his throbbing hard prick. Harry managed to give her a bit of a boost to encourage her back to life.

Her dark hair stuck to her feet, sweat adding to the allure of the situation and she thought that she was going for the big one.

Harry pumped himself into her, and his hands continued to explore the warm hot flesh. The dark haired woman bounced, it seemed like she was getting him to thrust in and out of her at least once every second.

The rate of her orgasms sped up and then they slowed down. Harry made sure to keep her guessing.

Harry grunted, he was holding himself back, he wanted to see how far he could take his wife before she took matters into her own hands. Her pussy tensed up around his tool, and she kept stroking him, trying to cause him to reach completion.

"Fuck….fuck Harry," Zatanna panted, and her slick thighs continued to caress his throbbing manhood. She thought that everything turned out rather well, bouncing higher, her breasts swaying and he played with her nipples. That drove her to an amazing orgasm.

His hands squeezed her breasts and her walls go tighter around his penis, caressing him with her slick, hot center.

"Please, I need it…"

"Good things come to those who wait, and good girls who wait for them," Harry whispered to her and Zatanna smiled, working her hips down onto him a little bit more, grinding onto him, and bringing him into her body.

"But what if I don't want to wait?" Zatanna asked, her pussy closing onto his tool tightly. "What if I've been a very bad girl?"

"Then I'll give you a reward anyway."

Her spells bound his wrists to the bend and she rode him with a hyper quick activity. Her slick walls rubbed him hard, his manhood going into her body.

Both of them thought they were reaching an amazing orgasm, and it was going to be together. That was going to really be the ultimate rush between both of them.

Harry's balls got extremely heavy with cum that was stored in his balls. He panted with his lover working him over, bouncing higher, moving quicker.

The rush of power over both of them, heightened their pleasure as both of them were slowly and swiftly reaching their collective peaks.

"Oh, I think it's coming," Harry grunted to her.

"Then let it come," she said, a smoldering grin crossing her face, and she had one, the big one, the one that she had been waiting for.

That was followed by Harry's balls tightening and him shooting his heavy load deep into her pussy. Spurt after spurt of his cum fired between her legs and caused her to throw her head back.

Zatanna experienced the joy of their shared orgasm, but she managed to hang on, milking every last single drop from him, not allowing a single drop to be wasted. She panted but she was ready to go for more.

* * *

After that intense round of sex between the two of them, both of them were prepared to keep this Honeymoon going but suddenly, they were shocked out of what happened. What happened was completely jarring and shocked them to the bone with how chilling it was but they couldn't really deny what they saw.

It was a group of thugs trying to stop a limo that had several of Harry's girls in it, girls that included his sisters. He saw a foul Walrus looking man shoot the windshield, which thankfully was shielded but that was not the point.

Zatanna's mouth hung open, seeing what Harry saw and her hands were shaking a little bit but that was nothing compared to what Harry was about to say.

"THAT SON OF A BITCH!"

Zatanna could see the windows rattle from Harry's outburst and she got absolutely nervous about the damage that he could cause if he got really upset.

"Harry, calm down," Zatanna whispered, grabbing on the shoulder roughly and holding him into place. "We'll….have Zinda fuel the jet, and we'll get back to Gotham."

Harry shook his head, managing to calm down, or rather become calmer to the point where he could think rationally because he was very pissed right now.

' _No kidding…..I'd calm down if I were you,'_ Kara thought, she was nervous and she could sense what Harry did up close and personal.

' _Yes, save the rage for when you get your hands on the bastards that were responsible for this, and don't take out your aggression on the fine builders of your honeymoon suite,'_ Faora reminded urgently. She knew better than anyone else that Har-Zod had a good hold of his emotions but when he was pissed, oh boy he could get pissed.

Kara understood this as well, his meltdown regarding the Triwizard Tournament was a scary one, because he was kept in that awful wretched place far longer than he wanted to be.

' _And remember, they did arrive back home safely, no harm done to them, even though everyone's a bit shaken up,'_ Jaime added in, trying to put the best positive spin that she could on the situation.

Harry kept the calming exercises and he knew that it would be in his instincts to fly back right now and track down who was doing this but it would be impractical for some reasons.

Plus Zinda flying him back would give him a chance to calm down and not do anything that would be considered irrational. Which would be likely if he popped right back there in some of the quicker ways.

' _I suppose that it's for the best, to allow me to get back to Gotham City in a way that people wouldn't see as suspicious,'_ Harry thought, managing to keep his sanity and his mind in check. The young man could feel the frustration brimming through his mind.

There was a couple of issues with him just teleporting back, and being a very public figure, his movements were kind of kept track of by the various people in the media. Which could sometimes make doing what was necessary a bitch and a half.

' _Inform Gordon about what happened,'_ Harry thought. _'He's one of the few males who has had access to the Penthouse, but I suppose that if you can't make it there, use the conference room next to my office, it's not like I use it that often. I'll be back as soon as Zinda flies us back.'_

' _We'll keep you posted on anything then,'_ Jaime thought and she could see Harry calming down or again, he was getting a bit calmer than he was. One could count on one hand the number of times that he really exploded. _'So are you….'_

' _I'll deal with it when I get home,'_ Harry said in a crisp and blunt voice, getting dressed and Zatanna did likewise, never once leaving his side as well.

' _Sorry that you had to deal with this,'_ Faora apologized and Harry waved his hand.

' _It's something that I need to know, don't worry about it,'_ Harry told her, stepping up and determination flashed through his eyes. They would pay for what they did.

' _Penny said that the man with the mustache seemed familiar, and Nym swears that he does as well, but neither could place him.'_

Harry thought about it, he wondered, but he would figure things out.

' _We'll be ready to go in about ten minutes,'_ Zinda thought to them nervously.

' _Thank you,'_ Harry said graciously, his temper even, at least for now.

* * *

 

Six hours was the time that it took to get from Las Vegas to New York. Which was more than plenty of time to Harry to cool completely down or to at least store his rage for someone who was a more worthy target.

Zinda, Zatanna, and Harry returned back home to Gotham City, and there was more news that they received on their way home.

Alfred Pennyworth had been hospitalized by an attack that was very similar to the one, only they were not as lucky to get away unscathed. And the bodyguard didn't get that lucky.

' _Dead on the scene,'_ Penny thought, trying to keep herself under a calm tone although she was kind of shaken all the way around. _'Although it should really be obvious that I think Bruce Wayne was the intended target.'_

' _Didn't you say that the bodyguard Kane picked from him looked kind of like Wayne from the back?'_ Jaime thought.

' _He did, so obviously it was a hit job where no one did their homework,'_ Faora thought. _'But the fact that he went after the twins…'_

' _Well, it's obvious that someone might have it out for Wayne Industries which means…..'_

' _There's been no attack on Lucius Fox, if that's what you're wondering,'_ Karen thought and Harry discarded that theory right away, but there was a connection where the same person tried to attack him and Bruce like that. He just couldn't really figure out what that was all about.

' _Sarah Essen told us that, she wanted to get our statement at the Penthouse, whoever was behind it, they managed to make a getaway,'_ Nym thought.

' _Good, and none of ours was hurt, which meant I didn't have to send any of theirs to the morgue, whoever they are,'_ Harry thought, and that was something that vexed him completely.

' _Well from what I've been able to find out, one of the men getting away has been IDed as someone working for the Penguin,'_ Dinah thought.

' _That doesn't really make all that much sense when you really think about it,'_ Harry told them and the girls listened in. _'The Penguin doesn't have any beef with the Potters or the Waynes.'_

' _As far as we know,'_ Faora reminded him.

' _As far as we know, it would help if we know who the Penguin is.'_

Harry noticed James Gordon making his way up the stairs adjacent to where he was standing, and then darting off to the side briefly It only made sense that the MCU would get so heavily involved in such a high profile crime, even though in the case of the twins, it could be chalked up as a kidnapping and ransom attempt that was botched big time.

He approached Penny, seeing her in person for the first time. Walking over towards her, he wrapped his arms around her and held her in tight, pulling her towards her.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked Penny and Penny nodded.

"It was terrifying at first, but I think that I'm dealing with it nice enough," Penny said, and if she was honest, that was not going to be an experience that she wanted to repeat any time soon. It might have knocked a good five years off of her life but she supposed to getting out of it alive was good. If nothing else, it allowed her to keep many more years.

Harry noticed who Gordon was talking with, he figured that it would only make sense that Bruce was here, although Harry must have missed him on his way in. It was now that Gordon noticed Harry and slowly, the man turned to Harry and spoke in his usual blunt manner.

"You know, we got to stop meeting like this."

Despite the situation, Harry had a shadow of a smile, even though it was mostly a put on.

"So, what the hell is going on?" Harry asked, he wanted to hear this from the horse's mouth even though he pretty much pieced things together. But Harry knew better than anything what happened when people assumed.

"It appears that they were trying to get at Wayne, and the bodyguard was collateral, and as for your sisters…..kidnapping and ransom," Gordon told him, but he had a feeling that there was some puzzle piece missing. One defining string that would tie the reason for these two kidnappings together, but for right now that piece of evidence remained absent. He knew that he knew and he knew that Harry knew that he knew, but everything was not coming together "But we don't really know much, only what's going on in the preliminary investigation."

The door opened and Sarah Essen walked into the room, and she was not alone. She lead the way for Amanda and Emily. After what happened, they were not completely their usual selves but that ordeal would have shocked anyone and lead them to act just a little bit out of character.

The spirits of the twins grew when they saw their brother, and they made their beeline towards him, nearly dive bombing him when they approached him. It was through what little self control that they had that they did not put him through the wall.

"Well you already caused my heart to almost stop once before today, so why don't we try two for two?" Harry asked, with both of them on the other side of him.

' _Do keep in mind that we're in public,'_ Harry remind them, seeing Sarah's amusement from the side, even though she tried really not to show it.

The twins relaxed their efforts a little bit, both of them looking sheepish. Well one of them looked more sheepish than the other did.

"So, we're lucky to get out of there alive, that idiot with the mustache seemed to know that a kidnapping doesn't work out well when you try and shoot the people in question," Amanda said and Harry looked at her.

"An idiot with a mustache, you say?" Harry asked in a low tone and Amanda nodded feverishly before giving her commentary on the situation.

"Yeah, he looked like a retarded walrus."

Harry blinked, perhaps he was jumping to the world's biggest conclusion or perhaps he was actually grabbing onto something tangible. The gears were processing into his brain.

That being said, there was a certain person who had been trying to catch his eye, and Harry turned away from the twins.

"Sorry, about that, they can get rather…."

"It's fine, I understand, it's a pleasure to meet you," Sarah said, shaking hands with Harry in a business like manner. "I'm Sarah Essen of the Special Crimes Unit."

Harry was aware of this because he did his homework on various members of the GCPD but at the same time, he better allow the woman the courtesy of an introduction.

"Yes, I'm Harry Potter….."

"I'm aware," she said. "Your sister's seemed adamant that they wanted to talk to see. Do you have any idea what's going on?"

"No, I just flew back from Vegas, but whoever did this, they did a remarkable job in getting my attention."

Sarah didn't say anything but perhaps the fact that Harry had a six hour flight back to Vegas did a wonderful job in giving him time to cool down. Or perhaps plot a way to gain some kind of retribution without getting caught, she wasn't sure. The young man was an enigma and she was far from the only woman to be curious about him.

"Well they did," Sarah said and she could see Bruce lingering around the area of the stairway. "And when you get the chance, I'd like to talk to you privately, about something very important."

"Well, I think that we can arrange a meeting."

"Wonderful….it's not something that we can talk about in public, too many prying ears," she told him and he nodded.

Harry was intrigued to say the very least and he inclined his head towards Bruce, who seemed to be about ready to go into Detective Mode at this moment.

Business was about to pick up.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 10** **th** **, 2014.**

**The main part of this chapter is Cobblepot is a vindictive son of a bitch who is a rotten piece of work, given what he tried.**

**Dudley may be in better shape physically, mentally is another thing all together.**

**Don't mind me, just setting up several plot threads down the line.**

**Interaction scenes between the girls can go in some really odd and disturbing directions at times. Such will be the nature amongst teenage girls.**


	51. Matter of Family Part Two

**Chapter 51: Matter of Family Part Two.**

* * *

 

Bruce Wayne was on the roof and he knew who he would have had to wait for. This was about the only spot in the building that they would have to have any kind of private conversation and after what happened, both of them had a fair bit to talk about.

"I'm here."

Bruce turned his attention to Harry Potter, who stood before him on the rooftop. He almost snuck up on Bruce, but not quite.

"No one should be able to overhear any conversation up here," Bruce said and Harry smiled, even though the smile was rather strained given all he had been through tonight.

"Well, that much should be fairly obvious, I would think," Harry told Bruce and the two them had really no idea what to say at the moment. After everything that happened tonight, words were not something that came easy.

It did go without saying that they were pissed off beyond belief, even though they were doing a good job in keeping their tempers completely in check.

"You do realize that this can't stand."

Harry nodded, inclining his head, before answering crisply. "I'm aware."

"These attacks, they were meant to either get our attention or take either of us out," Bruce said and once again, he pretty much told him the blaringly obvious but it should be said, just in case some people didn't really get it.

Of course, without any leads, this was going to be a problem to get around, so Harry decided to try for another pressing issue, something that was prominent on the minds of everyone in Gotham City.

"Do you know anything about the murders last night?"

Bruce blinked for a second and answered honestly. "Not any more than you do, but I'm sure if the details would have been withheld from the press, your contact with the GCPD would have given you everything she could find, wouldn't she?"

"Well, I just got back, and what just happened takes high priority, but I'm sure that I'm going to have to get in touch with her soon enough to see what she knows," Harry said and Bruce nodded, still standing in the shadows.

He was at home in the shadows, he was comfortable in the shadows, it allowed him to control the elements around him fairly nicely.

"You know, you could really do a lot more if you had found your own contact within the GCPD, you know. Cultivating those kind of relationships would make something like this a lot easier, even if you rise to the rank of the world's greatest detective, all of the help that you can get is really possible."

Bruce's response to that one was short, sweet, and to the point. "I don't need any help."

Somehow, Harry shouldn't really have been surprised that was the answer that was coming. In fact, he would have been even more surprised if Bruce hadn't.

Harry's eyes met Bruce's in one of those looks, the looks that could burn a hole through molten steel. It was a look that indicated that he thought that Bruce was full of it.

"But perhaps despite that fact, you may have a point."

There was a second where Harry remained silent, he didn't need to say anything because he was completely sure that he had a point. Even if he wasn't about to admit it out loud and off hand.

"It's a work in progress if you most know."

Harry smiled once again and said nothing.

' _I wonder how long he's going to play the silent game,'_ Amanda thought and there was eager anticipation with all of the other girls, waiting for Bruce to make his next move.

' _I'm guessing that he doesn't like the one sided conversation shoe to be on the other foot,'_ Donna said and there was much amusement.

' _Well, a change of roles is always good, if nothing else, it keeps everyone on their toes,'_ Donna thought.

' _Amanda would lose at the silent game every time, she can't keep her mouth shut,'_ Emily said and Amanda glared at her.

' _Girls,'_ Lily said tensely, even though she was pleased that they were in good spirits despite what happened. She knew that Harry shared her belief.

Harry decided to break the ice or rather the silence. "Anyone in mind?"

Bruce promptly answered that one. "James Gordon, I've been keeping an eye on him."

Harry retorted with a slightly raised eyebrow and he waited for Bruce to elaborate on that statement, which he did, quite nicely.

"I know that Gordon is clean and not just Gotham City clean either, but I need to be certain about it, without any doubt"

Harry nodded, someone like Bruce, he plotted things to be honest. Once again, he stuck closer to the shadows.

"You know, people are going to start to wonder why you're up here for a long time, just taking a cell phone call," Harry said and Bruce responded with one of his glares. The green eyed youth was not really phased by it, because well he had seen far scarier things than the Batman glare of doom.

"So, when are you going to get back in action, or are you not cleared yet?"

They had come close to the reason why Harry was on the shelf but that little elephant in the room was danced around with all of the tact of a well-practiced politician.

"Oh, I've been cleared and ready to go for about three weeks now, but I've gotten a fair bit amount done as part of Mission Control, as you well know," Harry told Bruce and his response was fairly clipped.

"Yes, I'm aware."

There was a tense moment before Harry decided that this time he would be the one that would break the silence.

"We'll figure out what's going on, compare notes, get to the bottom of this, and the people who done this…..well they won't get away with it for much longer," Harry answered in his calmest voice.

Bruce did not disagree with that fact at all and the two were about ready to part ways but Kara was standing at the edge of the building. She didn't catch too much of the conversation, on the account that she just arrived here.

She decided to take the steps, even though it would be a lot easier to fly up there. But sometimes the easy way would be the lazy way.

"Alfred's awake, he wants to talk to you," Kara said calmly.

"Right," Bruce said and he stopped and turned to Harry, preparing to inquire about something. "So what….."

"I'm taking the girls, and heading home, let me know if he tells you anything that might help later," Harry told Bruce and he nodded in a stoic response.

Bruce made his way down the steps and Harry was left with Kara. All they had to do was meet Penny, Amanda, Emily, and Nym down stairs and join the rest on the trip home.

Tonight had been a long night but the next couple of days would be fascinating to deal with. Plans were beginning to form in Harry's mind about what he planned to do next.

* * *

 

Harvey Bullock and John Jones stood in the middle of a nice apartment, waiting patiently. It was well paid for but the problem was, that it was the scene of something grisly and disturbing that would twist anything.

"When is Corrigan and his boys going to get here?" Bullock asked, pacing back and forth, like a caged animal. He was getting some really bad vibes about all of this and the man didn't like it, at all.

"Speaking of the devil," John said and John Corrigan made his way into the room with his team and the entire group kept their eyes on the latest murder victim.

A member of the GCPD SWAT Unit went down hard, judging by the badge that was lying on the table, several feet away from where his body landed. And it was obvious that this was not any member of the GCPD SWAT Unit, rather it was Sergeant Frank Pratt. He was in rather close with Howard Branden and there were indications that he paid for that close association.

"So, I guess we have a reason why he didn't show into work today," Bullock said gruffly, looking down on the individual who had gone down on the ground.

The truth was the last time he was seen by anyone alive was on Halloween night and he didn't show up for his shift the day later. Several calls had been placed to his place of residence but upon the third call, they sent a squad car number.

Given the rumors about what the man indulged in, there was a belief that he might have been found passed out and drunk but this was not what they expected to see at all, not in the slightest, not at all. This was ghastly and horrifying.

The glass coffee table was an ugly sight as well, it had been smashed through and there were pieces of glass that were wedged in different parts of his body.

The body was currently placed in the middle of the living room and Corrigan was going through the room. He was the best at what he did, so Jones and Bullock stepped back, to allow him some room.

"Look at this," one of the members of the Forensic Team whispered. She bent down, seeing a piece of paper that was pinned to Pratt's front, in an ugly and crude manner, but they wanted it to stand out, whoever did this.

Corrigan bent down to pick it up, it was an article about police corruption in Gotham City. One of many because it was hard to keep track of all of the articles that were done on it, but this one was fairly fresh and detailed the SWAT's on role in that.

"Well, there's your motive right there," Bullock grunted and Corrigan gave him a look, and the Detective stepped back. His toothpick was wedged firmly in his mouth and he watched to see what was happening.

Corrigan took half of a step forward, and looked at the door where they entered.

"He answered the door, and it was not someone that he thought was a cause for concern or suspicion," Corrigan stated, that much was obvious. There would be signs of a struggle if it was an unknown party.

Corrigan followed the trail over, he was shot right by the door and he fell right through the coffee table. He may have been dead before the time that he landed.

"And there's the murder weapon," Corrigan said, his mind moving over the scene around him and there was a .22 caliber Glock that was half concealed underneath the couch. It had been discovered by Bullock earlier.

"Yeah, but good luck in trying to find anything off of that, look, they made sure that anything that could be traced back to them was removed."

There was a set of serial numbers that had been filed off of it. Whoever enacted this attack, they didn't do things halfway, that much was for sure.

"That doesn't really narrow things done though," Jones said and Bullock snorted.

"Yeah, with the fat bird giving them out like candy to anyone who has the scratch, could be any random kook off the street who decided that he had a grudge against Pratt," Bullock added and Corrigan turned towards him.

"No, this is too meticulous for an act of random violence," he added and there was a second where Bullock shuddered, those burning eyes locked onto him. Needless to say, it was something that would put a chill in the heart of even the most hardened of man. "An act of random violence would not leave an article that details potential corruption of the GCPD SWAT in broad daylight."

The motive was there, the means were there if anyone could really spend a little bit of money to get things done. But the puzzle pieces didn't really fit together in an organic manner to be honest.

"Looks like he bought it from the bird, but with the serial numbers filed off, we don't know who is behind this or how to track it, that is if we knew who the Penguin was anyway," Bullock said.

"There have been rumors about it."

"But, he left no fingerprints on it as well," Bullock added. "He, or she I guess, made sure that no one left anything to chance."

"It's strange, isn't it?"

Jones gave that statement and Corrigan looked at the Detective. "Not if the Killer was a professional, they knew what to do not to get caught."

"Yeah, this will be a shitstorm, when it gets out," Bullock said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "You know Branden, he'll be out for blood, and he doesn't care whose it is, right now."

"I'll call Gordon," Jones offered and Bullock nodded gruffly.

Bullock was left in the room with Corrigan, who continued his work. The normally hardboiled detective had one thing left to say under his breath, so the man didn't hear him.

'I don't know what it is, but there's something about that guy that gives me the creeps,'Bullock said but never the less he couldn't really worry about that now.

* * *

 

Selina Kyle wasn't going to lie; she was pretty pleased with how the renovations at the Cat's Cradle night club was turning out all the way around. It looked a bit more respectable or at least as respectable as a place like that ever was going to look. After the shifty reputation it had thanks to the previous owners, she knew in the back of her mind that it was going to be an uphill battle to get this place fixed up.

Still she would be lying if she said that she wasn't pleased, very pleased indeed.

Business was picking up, to the fact that it was it was booming. To the point where she no longer needed to be an active performer in there and the woman smiled at that thought. A small part of her missed that performance but a larger part of her didn't really miss it at all. Life really was pretty good right about now, her legs crossed and she threw her head back with a knowing smile on her face.

She was running the business end of things, with Holly helping as her assistant. She thought that might be a good thing because again she limited her exposure to the less ideal customers. Yet, there was always a chance that people from the wrong side of town would start sniffing around. But so far there had been no incidents, at least no incidents that she would have to report through for Harry.

Speaking of Harry, she thought about him, she was living at the Penthouse, which was kind of a real eye opening experience for her. That was neither here nor there, but until her Apartment was fixed from the smoke damage it caused from the fire thanks to the Deacon Blackfire riots.

The worst part of running any business was the paperwork. Harry being her silent partner did help a lot but there was still a lot to be done in the tedious end of paperwork.

' _At least he was able to help because I know that I wouldn't be able to get anything done otherwise,'_ Selina thought and a frown popped over her face.

She would have had enough done where she could take a break without any guilt shortly.

' _He's well respected in the business world, has a lot of contacts, it can open a lot of doors,'_ Selina thought, flipping through the papers in front of her. _'And, no one is going to really mess with him, at least too much. Even the gangs know that he has enough influence to bring the pressure down on them. You have to be pretty brazen to try something regarding him.'_

Selina finished up her paperwork, carefully making sure that it was in order. There was a quick and frantic knock on her office door that jerked her out of her thoughts.

"Yes, come in," Selina said and she could see Holly make her way into the office, nearly stumbling for a second. The girl managed to regain her composure but she still looked fairly unnerved. "Holly, what the hell is going on?"

She moved forward at this statement, and wrapped her into a tight hug. That allowed the girl to calm down for a few seconds and catch her breath.

"Jim Jansen is here, and he wants to talk, to you."

Selina's eyes blinked and she looked towards the younger girl. She could see why she was so unnerved.

"I see."

Jansen was someone who wasn't known to most people but to these two, he was well known. He was a rather prominent pimp in Gotham City. One could argue that he was in fact, the PIMP, something that should be capitalized and emphasized all of the way through.

Selina wasn't going to mince her words. The fact that he was here was not good news, not at the slightest. Especially given that she and Holly ran into Jansen when they were both younger and he tried to force Holly into prostitution.

"Let him into the room," Selina said with resolve, she didn't back down from many things, she didn't want to back down from this one. She figured that it would be better to handle Jansen, although the man had some brass balls sniffing around the club today especially given who was in charge.

Jansen made his way inside, dressed like an old time business man with a nice elegant suit, flanked by a pair of women. To be fair, they didn't look like they just crawled out of a gutter somewhere, they were very high end porn stars at best. He looked like a predator stalking his latest prey with the women that were on each arm. Every stitch of clothing on his body was costume made from head to toe.

"Selina, baby, it's good to finally see you again," Jansen said in his attempt to be a gentleman, which was what he was dubbed as, Gentleman Jim.

Selina could feel like that a shower was a necessity by sharing the same air space that he did. Never the less, she tried to act rather polite, or at least as polite as she could be. That being said, there was something stirring in the pit of her stomach the more that she stared him down.

"What do you want, Jansen?" Selina asked, she wanted to get to the point.

"Oh, the fire, I always knew you had it in you," Jansen said with a smile as the two woman smiled, but that seemed to be their ability, to smile and look pretty. They exited for essentially no other purpose. "But, since you asked nicely, then I'll tell you. I'm sure that you're aware of the business arrangement that I had with the previous owners of the club."

Selina nodded stiffly, she was aware of that arrangement.

"I wish to renew that business deal, have some of your girls perform certain considerations for me, if you get what I'm saying," Jansen said and he looked at her, with a smile on his face, showing his gold teeth. "And if you'd like to sweeten the pot a little bit, then I could give you a ride like you'd never forget."

' _So, the bastard is trying to get in my pants, that's not surprising,'_ Selina thought dryly. She could feel her lunch losing the race to her throat.

"No."

Jansen looked at her, almost like he was surprised by this answer, especially given that it was so blunt.

"I don't think you understand the perks and benefits that this deal could bring you," Jansen said to her, and he gave her a warning gaze. "You play ball and we leave you alone, but if you don't…..well life could be very difficult for you, if you get what I'm saying."

Jansen might have done something rather brutal to both Selina and Holly, had the door not opened, and revealed Faora and Diana, who stepped into this situation.

Diana stood six feet two inches tall, and Faora stood five foot, ten inches tall, which meant that both women towered over them. Diana wore a black tank top, along with jeans, and Faora wore a white top along with a black jean shirt. Both wore glasses, and had their hair tied back in a ponytail.

"Is there a problem here?"

Jansen might have been bold but there was no way that he was going deal with two bitches who could eat him for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and maybe some in between snacks as well.

"No, no, I'm just leaving, guess that you didn't want to play ball."

Faora turned to Selina who looked at her once Jansen and his floozies had left the building.

"I had it handled, you didn't need to get involved," Selina said and Faora smiled at her.

"Well we just stood there and he ran away, so really…" Faora commented with a smile crossing her face. "But that's not the reason why we're here."

"Oh?" Selina asked, curiosity getting the better of her and Faora prepared to fill her in on what was going on.

* * *

Harry had to think that Alura and Faora went above and beyond the call of duty with rebuilding his Nightwing costume from the ground up. The old one was fairly damaged, with Grundy giving it a going over. Therefore, this brand new costume was something that Harry would have liked to wear and he would wear it good.

The green eyed wizard dropped to the ground, testing out the armor. He was a sleek black costume, with parts of it being red on the chest plate area. The Nightwing symbol was still on it. The onboard computer system was wired into it and coming in clearer than ever before.

' _So, how is it working?'_ Faora asked him through the bond link. Harry was on the hunt tonight after what happened, along with Dinah and Jaime.

' _It works out rather well,'_ Harry thought, barely able to keep the grin off of his placed, but he was pleased, very pleased indeed.

' _I thought it might, I didn't want to sacrifice protection or movement, so I would try for the best of all worlds, I think,'_ Faora explained to him. _'Granted, it weighs a bit still, it's not completely streamlined but….'_

' _The benefits outweigh the negatives?'_

' _I couldn't have said it much better myself,'_ the green eyed wizard commented, dropping down off of the building.

The costume felt great, but not as great as it was being back in action. That was a feeling that could not be described by mere words, no matter how hard he tried.

' _So Oracle is standing by on contact,'_ Dinah chimed in from afar.

' _With you and Harry, yes, although I can listen in very easily,'_ Jaime told him after a few seconds. _'As you well know, Barbara doesn't have any idea that I've been disguised as Nightwing as of late, as you're relaying everything through her.'_

' _Surely she has heard some of the rumors about the fact that Nightwing might be a lot different…..'_ Kara thought, barely able to keep the obvious grin off of her face.

' _The thing is about rumors like that is not everything is completely clear and people can really just brush them off as not being accurate,'_ Dinah added, a smile crossing her face, her hair framing her face as she threw her head back.

They were in different areas in the city, with Jaime and Dinah taking one end, and Harry taking the other. Faora was in the lair, monitoring the progress of the costume, but so far, she was rather pleased with how it was working, quite pleased indeed.

The Penguin's men were the target for tonight and after what happened, Harry was out for blood.

' _This is going to be easier said than done,'_ Dinah thought to him. _'The chain of command is kind of difficult to figure out, there's a hierarchy there…..'_

' _He's an arm's smuggler, not a drug dealer,'_ Jaime added. _'Therefore it's going to be harder to figure out where his chain of command exactly goes.'_

"Well, I think that the Penguin got wise to the fact that we hacked into his channel," Oracle said and Nightwing sighed.

"Dead channel?"

"Yes, he abandoned it full stop, I'm sorry, I'll see what I can do, but his men are off of the frequency….."

Things just really kept getting better and better for Harry, but he supposed that things were really not going to get all that easy. Then again, he thrived on challenges, which was one of the reasons why he embraced not having full access to his powers. Flight was about the only thing that he missed.

' _Okay, new plan.'_

"Okay, new plan," Harry said, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was going to have to have to go after some people. "I'm going to have to go after the people who he pushed out, someone like the Penguin, he's bound to make some enemy's with the people who used to work in the arms and smuggling racket."

"Well, I've actually been looking into that," Oracle said, with Nightwing raising an eyebrow. "I've got a couple of promising leads, that you might be able to follow them."

"Proceed," Nightwing said and Oracle proceeded.

"Carlton Duquesne is a rumored arm's dealer who might know something….."

"Yeah, rumor is that he's working with Thorne who might be working with the Penguin," Nightwing chimed in. "Not saying that it's not a probable target but we should go towards other options."

"Okay, not Duquesne," Oracle said but she looked at him. "So, what about Skeevers?"

"He would be an easy target."

' _He would be the one who would be easy to spill,'_ Dinah thought. They weren't really getting very far to be honest.

Nightwing was perched across the way, it turned out that he was getting closer to the night club, it was called My Alibi, where Eddie Skeevers hung out. The man came here pretty much every day at the same time about on the clock and Nightwing thought that he was not going to disappoint him this time.

He looked at the information on Skeevers, he ran the importing, the exporting, and the traffic of stolen goods, formally for the Falcones. Then the Roman lost his mind and he worked for the Maronis after it, where he was Zucco's right hand man.

That being said, the green eyed wizard looked into the club, it was the sleaziest of sleazy strip clubs. It was officially called a Gentlemen's Club, but there were very few Gentlemen that were in there.

The green eyed wizard heard the gunshots nearby which was not something that normally would be a weird thing.

Harry came across a nasty gunfight, recognizing Skeevers and his gangsters, and the Penguin's thugs shooting at each other.

There was some high tech hardware on both sides. Nightwing noticed that there was some pretty advanced military grade tech on the side of the Penguin but Skeevers and his goons had some good weapons as well.

Skeevers screamed, taking a bullet to his knee from the impact. He tried to shake it off but there were some things that you just couldn't shake off.

Nightwing made his move, knowing that if something happened to Skeevers, his potential interrogation might have gone down. The emerald eyed hero threw several smoke bombs down onto the ground.

The smoke bombs broke open onto the ground and surrounded them with choking smoke. Nightwing moved through the shadows, not missing a step even after the long lay off. He disarmed them with quick precision, they didn't really see what was coming.

Nightwing took barely a minute to wipe all of them out, until Skeevers was the only one that was left. Nightwing's eyes flashed onto him, and disarmed the weapon that he held up.

The entire life of Edward Skeevers flashed before him with Nightwing repelling up the building, dangling him above the pavement.

"Okay, that's a nasty injury, and you know that you're going to bleed to death unless you get prompt medical attention," Nightwing told him. "And you're not leaving to get that, until you tell me what I need to know. So talk!"

"What….what do you want?" Skeevers asked, he felt kind of feverish and knew that it might not be long for him.

"The Penguin, tell me everything that you know about him."

"I don't know….I don't know where he's based out of, hell I don't even know who he is, not even his own guys," Skeevers trembled. "Mr. Walrus relays the orders from the Penguin to his men, and it goes back and forth like that….."

Mr. Walrus must have been the one that tried to kidnap the twins. Hearing that name did not improve Harry's mood.

"He's taken over Amusement Mile, and he keeps a stranglehold on that, and….oh yeah, he's involved with Cobblepot's new club," Skeevers said and he realized something. "You want to know something funny?"

Nightwing remained rather silent, and Skeevers assumed that he had the opening to say it.

"Stanley Cobblepot blew through the family fortune, but yet Ozzie returns richer than ever, that doesn't make any sense, doesn't it?"

Something slapped Nightwing with the full force of a freight train. The one puzzle piece that he was trying to do to figure out this Penguin thing.

' _Son of a bitch.'_

Nightwing rendered him completely unconscious with a sickening elbow strike to the side of the head.

' _What is it?'_ Jaime wondered, and Harry was blunt in his response.

' _We've got a grand opening to crash.'_

* * *

 

The next day around Ten O'clock in the morning, Harry sat in the conference room of the RAO Corporation. Now with the business arrangement with GothCorp, he had access to an extremely valuable asset that he could not wait to cultivate and use to its fullest extent, that being Victor and Nora Fries.

Faora and Karen joined him for this meeting, their expertise was always something that was wanted and quite frankly appreciated in a situation like this. Both of the females reclined back, waiting for the meeting.

The meeting was in a little bit so they had some time to kill.

' _The Fries will be a very interesting couple to pick their brains,'_ Harry thought to himself.

' _Given that the paper's that Nora released…..well it's interesting and could be something that I want to be able to take a closer look at,'_ Faora said, barely able to contain her eagerness.

' _The fact that certain diseases could be cured if a person is put in cryogenics for studying, it's very ground breaking research, and with Victor working on the science end of things and Nora taking the medicine, I'm sure that they have some very good ideas to be honest,'_ Karen thought and the blonde held her foot, slowly allowing her high heel shoe to slip off onto the ground, to fully reveal her stocking clad foot.

' _Shouldn't they be arriving at any second, though?'_ Faora asked.

' _Well you know how the traffic can be in Gotham City, at this time of the morning,'_ Harry thought and sure enough, as if right on cue, the buzzer on his desk fired up.

"Yes, Tamara, what is it?"

"Nora and Victor Fries called, they said that they should be here in about fifteen minutes or so, the traffic is running bad but they'll be here and they apologize for the inconvenience."

Harry smiled and Karen did so as well, leaning back in her chair oh so casually, brushing her foot against Harry's thigh a little bit. She slowly removed her stocking in the first place, slipping it off, leaving her leg and right foot bare.

Harry smiled, he could feel what Karen was doing and leaned back to accept it, the more that she brushed against him with her bare foot, teasing him and getting him worked up.

She was testing her boundaries to see what she could get away with it and Harry was playing it cool. The blonde intensified her rubbing of her foot against him.

Faora smiled, acting as if she was bending down to adjust her skirt but in reality, she was kicking her shoe off as well.

Then she added her foot to the mix, and the friction near his inner thigh started to get more heated. The rubbing between the two girls intensified and they were willing to take these actions to a brand new level.

Karen's smile got quite devious with her blouse buttons popped, revealing her cleavage to him and her foot slowly rubbed up the side of Harry's thigh.

Faora matched her motions, running her perfect foot across his cock and the woman smiled, with her foot running over the other side of his cock. Both of their feet enveloped his cock, his pants were worked off in the process.

He could feel Karen work her toes around his cock and Faora do the same to him. Harry grunted, feeling the pleasure of them jerking him off with their toes.

"What?" Karen asked, using her heel to apply a little bit of a teasing amount of pressure on his balls and there was a second where she paused.

Exchanging a smile with Faora, Karen decided to take over, putting Harry's large cock between her feet and working him up and down, with Faora slowly removing the jacket of her blouse, and then she unbuttoned it, revealing her breasts contained in a lacy white bra.

"Bit warm in here, isn't it?" Faora asked, not bothering to be subtle at all.

"Things…..are about to heat up," Harry grunted and Faora placed her foot onto his lap, running her toes against his cock head, with Karen using the soles of her feet to jerk off his base.

The blonde's soft, elegant feet were working him over and the green eyed wizard could feel the cum about ready to burst out, that Faora was about to collect with her toes as Karen slowly pumped him with her soles, working him closer towards an orgasm.

"Oh god, oh yes,' Harry grunted, feeling her work him over and Faora smiled.

"Just wait, you're going to really feel something now," Faora said, barely holding a thinly suppressed grin on her face, working Harry's cock with her toes even more. She could feel the heat that pulsed from him, and she grinned, rubbing her toes furiously against his crown.

Karen continued the amazing foot job and Harry could see that her panties vanished underneath her skirt. Her breasts were practically spilling out of her top, giving the added visual simulation to him.

The blonde continued to work him over, jerking off his cock at super speed with her feet. Her arches rubbed him over and Harry grunted, feeling his balls fill up with the pleasure. He pushed his hips up, working himself closer and more between her feet. He could feel the pleasure increase the more that the beautiful blonde worked him over.

Faora's toes were now blasted with a full stream of his cum. She managed to catch his hot spunk on her toes.

Then casually, Faora lifted her leg from underneath the table and showed her flexibility.

Harry could see what was happening next and he could feel his cock rapidly hard, with Faora licking his cum off of her toes like a cat. Her tongue slowly licked up and down her toes, managing to clean herself completely, making sure that Harry's eyes were locked onto his, and it was a sure cock hardening sight.

"Want a taste?" Faora asked Karen, and Karen took Faora's foot, making sure she kept her eyes locked onto Harry and saw her pop one of Faora's toes in her mouth, sucking her, with a look of pure bliss in her eyes.

Harry smiled, seeing Karen slowly suck on Faora's toes and feet. That was a cock stirring sensation if there ever was one and Harry could feel himself getting harder the more that he looked at the show that was to come.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Karen whispered but suddenly, the rest of their clothes shredded up.

"You've made your fun, now that I've had mine….."

Their clothes reappeared, not destroyed after all, they appeared in a neatly stacked pile on the chair.

Both of the females were bent over the table and Harry turned from one to the other. The green eyed wizard smiled, running his hands over Faora's ass, causing her great pleasure, and the green eyed wizard lifted up his hand and smacked her on the rear.

"Are you going to take my ass Har-Zod?"

"Hey I want some of….."

Faora kissed Karen which caused her to be rendered silent at least for a second and Harry to explore the curves of his sister's tasty ass.

When he was behind her, his cock was hardened and he was completely ready to go. Measuring her, he pushed into her ass, feeling her warmth slowly engulf him. It was almost like her ass was sucking his cock into her, and Harry approved of this for sure.

"FUCK, HARDER!"

Needless to say, he was having his fun, with her tight ass enveloping his manhood. The green eyed wizard closed his eyes, pushing into her from behind, feeling the pressure of her tight hot buns closing around on him.

"Fuck, oh fuck," Faora whispered, but Karen used her tongue to silence Faora, and Harry rested his hands on Karen's ass, rubbing her firm cheeks, which caused her to whimper in delight and in pleasure.

He slapped her on her rear which caused her to ooze juices from her rear and she watched Harry ram her fellow Kryptonian hard in the ass.

"Take….take….take me hard!" Faora moaned, and she could feel Harry channel magic through her pussy with his fingers.

Double the pleasure, double the fun, oh you really had to love it. Faora whimpered out in pleasure, and Harry slammed his length into her inviting ass, working himself as deep into her as he could manage.

Faora experienced the orgasm that rocked the mind of anyone who could feel it.

"Time for a change of venues," Harry whispered, deciding to position Karen so she was eating Faora's pussy while she was bent over the edge of the table. While she was doing this, Harry pushed into her hard from behind and the blonde shrieked in delight, with Harry's manhood taking her ass.

"So, are we having fun?" Harry growled in her ear and Karen nodded eagerly, biting down on her lip.

"Yes, yes, yes, we are," Karen agreed, her eagerness spiking a little bit, and Harry pushed his length into her once again.

The blonde could feel it, with every slap of his balls against her ass.

She nearly forgot her job, eating Faora's pussy, that was not something that she would neglect. Her tongue dug deep into her, licking the woman out.

Faora moaned with Karen's efforts escalating the more that she rolled her tongue deep between her legs.

It was time for a switch, with Faora having her face buried into Karen's pussy and Faora being fucked into the table.

' _Take me, oh take me,'_ Faora moaned, she indulged herself into the delicious taste of Karen's dripping mound that she could barely keep her head above the water.

Harry meanwhile pushed himself into her from behind, taking her ass as she requested, his balls really was rather loaded and ready to go and he manipulated Faora's pussy as well.

The woman closed her eyes, with his manhood pressed deep into her.

"I think you want me to take you hard, all of the way…..if you weren't Kryptonian, you wouldn't be able to sit down and if we didn't have a meeting that you would have to sit down, I would make sure you couldn't regardless."

Harry played with both sets of breasts, they were amazing in their own ways. Harry found himself giving them a good working over.

He then had them both side to side, and he contemplated firing off a dupe but he had a better idea.

"HARRY!" Karen screamed at the top of her lungs, feeling Harry's manhood bury deep into her tight ass.

The blonde closed her eyes, with Harry hammering into her hard from behind. The blonde breathed in an ultimate amount of pleasure, the more his cock pressed deep into her insides. Her bowels were stretched out and the blonde closed her eyes, with Harry's hands furiously exploring her. They sent bursts of magic all through her body and Karen whimpered in delight when he continued to work her into a frenzy.

Harry switched over to Faora and slammed himself into her ass with equal amounts of passion and intensity. His hands roamed over her body, and her tight buns clamped around him, wanting his cum, his reward to be deposited into her.

Faora's eyes told the story, and she wanted him, she wanted him badly.

"Give it to me Har-Zod, give me your cum, please," Faora begged.

"No, I want it, please," Karen whispered and Harry slapped her on the ass, which caused her pussy to drip with desire.

Harry switched over to the other side, pushing into her inviting bowels and the blonde could not feel anything but the pinnacle of pleasure once more.

He spent many hours, thanks to the bonus of time dilation spells, working over their tight asses and putting both of them through the paces.

Eventually even Harry was hitting his limit, even though one could argue that he might be hitting his stride. His balls throbbed and he was about ready to inject his juicy cream into the tight ass of the first female that would be lucky enough to have him balls deep into her when he came.

The woman who was lucky enough to have that gift was Karen, and she looked at Faora with a triumphant smirk, feeling Harry's cock bury its seed into her ass, as he channeled magic through her sizeable breasts.

' _Better luck next time.'_

That being said, Karen collapsed, his cum oozing out of her ass, and being the gracious loser that she was, Faora moved over to lick her clean with her tongue.

* * *

Thanks to the wonders of time dilation, they really were put through the paces and Karen and Faora got completely dressed, the three of them ready for business. Harry performed the necessary charms to get the sweet smell of sex out of the air, because it wouldn't be very professional to have that lingering in the air when their guests arrived.

' _Well that was eventful,'_ Diana thought, catching her breath as she had peaked into the thing.

' _No that was hot, very hot,'_ Donna said closing her eyes and her nipples grew uncomfortable and hard, with her breathing.

' _No one is going to deny that I think,'_ Hippolyta said once again, the Queen of the Amazons leaning back and smiling.

' _No, I think that many of us wished we could join in,'_ Diana said and there was much agreement, with Zatanna and Dinah in particular being beyond words.

' _Hey, you know, I wished that I was there,"_ Kara said and that was when Donna jumped into the fray.

' _You would.'_

' _Oh come on, don't say that you wouldn't,'_ Kara thought to her and Donna opened her mouth halfway before she stopped and nodded, looking like the little girl who got her hand caught in the cookie jar.

' _Never said that I wouldn't.'_

' _Ladies, that's enough,'_ Harry said with a smile.

"Sorry, we were delayed."

A man who looked to be into the latter half of his thirties made his way there. He had dark hair along with thick glasses, with the slightest hint of grey on his roots. That being said, he stepped forward, his motions as stiff as his voice was.

"Traffic was really bad," the woman agreed, she was an attractive blonde with a slender built. Currently her hair was tied up in a ponytail and she was dressed in a conservative dress, but she did have a fairly fit body. She blinked and sighed. "The weather was worst."

"I would have to concur," Victor said, the fact was this Gotham City autumn was not for him, because he really detested the cold. The less he had to deal with the cold, the better.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Fries, Doctor Fries," Harry said to her and Nora smiled at him, shaking hands with all.

"Pleased to meet you as well, Doctor Potter, Doctor Potter, Doctor Starr," Nora said, shaking hands with all of them. "And it's Victor and Nora, we find having two people answering to Doctor Fries to be very confusing."

"Then it's Harry, Alexandra, and Karen," Harry said, pointing towards him, Faora, and Karen.

Faora, using the human alias of Alexandra Potter as per usual, sat down in front of them, with a smile on her face. "Your work does speak for yourself."

"You are too kind," Victor commented, there were times where he had to work to get a lot of respect for his work, it had been considered to be a bit extreme.

"We've followed your work as well, especially you, Harry," Nora said and she looked at him. "A couple of your chemistry papers have caused me to be pointed in the right direction for some of my research."

"It's all about lending a helping hand to the world, we're all in this together," Harry said and Nora blinked, and then she smiled.

"There aren't too many people that would agree about that, sadly," Nora said but the woman decided to fix her gaze onto him. "I understand that you have a problem that you wanted to talk us about."

"Yes, our new computer processing chip, it's having a problem with severe overheating because of the processing power that it's using," Karen explained to them.

It was reverse engineered from a rather ancient form of Kryptonian technology, which was even rather advanced even by the standards of Earth technology. The crystal version worked out well because it was the crystal but when trying with processor chip, they would have a meltdown of anything that was around it.

"Would you like to give a demonstration?" Nora asked, her curiosity brimming through her eyes. She wanted to see if the problem was as they were describing.

"Will do," Karen said and she turned her eyes towards Harry and Faora, who were both ready. "This laptop, it has a chip inside it, and I will start it up."

The Fries watched the lap top boot up at the speed of light and then the laptop start to smoke before anything could be clicked on the desktop.

Then the laptop began to melt into a sticky pile of molten slag.

"Be careful, it will take a while to cool down, and it might melt the human hand," Harry warned them.

"Right…..there must be a way…..there must be away to cool the processor to prevent it from completing overloading, isn't it?"

"We could figure out something, I'm sure, and there are a couple more things that I'd like to run by you," Nora told Harry and Harry smiled, wondering what she had for him.

"I'm all ears."

* * *

 

"The Gotham City Elite is out in full force on the Iceberg Lounge, pretty much anyone, who was anyone, is showing up tonight for this amazing grand opening, and this is Summer Gleeson reporting on the stage," the reporter said, waiting with a smile, and sure enough, she looked around to see the sights and the sounds of some of Gotham's most famous and some of their most infamous showing up as well. "No doubt you'll be first to witness some of the fashionable choices along with some of the fashion nightmares, and no doubt this opening is one that Gotham City has been waiting for…..why is Bruce Wayne!"

Sure enough Bruce Wayne turned up, with a fashion model on each arm, who had the case of the giggles the more that they approached the club.

"Bruce, Bruce, a word with you, if you please," Summer said, waving him over, looking like an overgrown cartoon character the more that she waved her arms.

"Of course, Summer, anything for you," Bruce said, turning his bright and winning smile towards the reporter, who looked like she had just hit a great prize.

"What are you doing out here?"

"Well, I wanted to see the opening of the Iceberg Lounge, it isn't every day that one of Gotham City's favorite sons opens up what could be the hottest spot in town," Bruce said and he looked over his shoulder, and then he looked over towards the camera. "And you know that if there is a party, that Bruce Wayne is going to be invited."

"Bruce, what about the rumors of your mysterious disappearance over a month ago…"

"Summer, I hate to cut you off, but I've just seen an old friend of mine and I just want to catch up with them."

Normally Summer would have been a bit more miffed about getting a brush off but then her eagle eyes spotted something that was even more interesting than Bruce Wayne. The woman's mouth hung open, and the limo pulled out, with Harry Fucking Potter exiting the limo, dressed to the nines.

Harry wasn't the only one who was in the limo, Kara, Karen, Diana, Jaime, Dinah, and Faora all exited the limo.

Naturally, someone with Harry Potter showing up with a bevy of beauties dressed to the nines in expensive dresses was something of an eye turner. And there was not all, as Vicki Vale made her appearance, which caused a momentary frown going over the face of Summer, but she saw Sapphire Stagg and Veronica Vreeland walk in as well, trying to cater towards Harry's obvious attention.

Last, but obviously not least, there was Selina Kyle, who exited the limo. She was thinking about crashing the festivities, there were idiots that were bound to be parted with their valuables but the fact that Harry came here pretty much sealed the deal.

"Harry, Harry, a word…..before you come to the party…"

"Just a word?" Vicki asked, looking at Summer and the professional rivalry between those two bubbled to a surface.

"I think that I have time to spare just a word," Harry said to Summer, side stepping Vicki before she could say anything.

"Yes, I don't want to embarrass Miss Vale too much, because I know that she must be disheartened by the fact that she didn't get too up close and personal….."

"Oh, Summer, I've already gotten an exclusive word with the most important person tonight, not to correct you, honey," Vicki said with a smile on her face.

Kara followed the progress eagerly, along with the rest of the girls, but she suspected that there was going to be a headache.

' _So, do we have to get involved here, or not?'_ Faora asked her, and Kara inclined her shoulders, with a long sigh.

' _I doubt that it's going to descend past barbs being traded,'_ Harry thought to them and Faora frowned. _'That being said, we better…..just to be on the safe side…..'_

' _Right, I got you,'_ Diana thought, preparing to step in and do something if things got insane.

"Well, when Oswald Cobblepot decided to bring his new night club to Gotham City, I decided that I wanted a piece of the action, I mean, something like this, I wouldn't miss it for the world, would you?"

"Well anyone that is anyone is here, and you are the biggest anybody in all of Gotham City," Summer said, trying to butter Harry up but Vicki looked at her, shaking her head.

"Observations like that are why you are in the position that you're in," Vicki said.

"And I'm sure you've found yourself in an interesting position with Mr. Potter….."

"And I'm sure that it would be rude if I didn't really pay a visit to the opening of the Iceberg Lounge," Harry replied, he had this ability to get the attention back on him that he was going to utilize, some say that he was going to abuse to the fullest extent.

That being said, he wanted to wrap this up and pay his respects to Cobblepot and also to Mr. Walrus.

"With the Red Sun coming out pretty soon….."

"Tonight's not a night for business, it's a night for pleasure, and a night to let our hair down," Harry said, with a smile, not wanting to make this interview about his business success, because he thought that he covered those ground enough. "That being said, I'm sure that there are more people coming here…..and I better be going, I don't want to miss this one for the world."

Harry smiled, looking at that camera, because he knew that the owner of the club was watching. He was going to have some fun first, but there was other matters to attend to tonight.

' _So, I'm sure that he got the message,'_ Kara thought.

' _I don't think that Har-Zod's even begun to speak,'_ Faora thought and Harry smiled.

' _No, I've just begun, just wait, the show's only about to begin.'_

He could see Selina's eyes light up the further that she walked towards the club, and it was going to be an interesting night.

It would be one that the Penguin would never forget.

**To Be Continued on September 10th, 2014.**

* * *

 

**Oh, subplots and ongoing plots and all kinds of good stuff.**

**Harry gets that one final piece to put the obvious together.  
**

**It will be a night that the Penguin will never forget, obviously.**

**Thought this chapter may have went a bit long in areas, but all of the relevant bits are in. We're gearing towards a huge showdown pretty soon.**

**Sunday should be interesting, as there's nothing like a family reunion to bring smiles on people's faces.**

**Time dilation is an extremely wonderful thing as well. Then again the wait for meetings are agonizing so you got to keep occupied.**


	52. Matter of Family Part Three

**Chapter 52: Matter of Family Part Three.**

* * *

Oswald Cobblepot had a shit eating green on his face but why wouldn't he be in a good mood? There were way too many reasons not to be in a good mood after tonight. Tonight was the night that he had been waiting for, for an extremely long time. The grand opening of the Iceberg Longue was upon them and he could hardly wait.

There were a lot of things that amped up his anticipation with what was occurring and this was one of them. He took a good view at the club from his private booth, making a mental checklist of things, when he surveyed his very much packed private nightclub and casino.

Whether they be famous for all of the right reasons, or many of the wrong ones, they were hear full force tonight. Legitimate business men and not so legitimate business men, along with socialites and the less endearing members of society showed up as part of the festivities tonight.

Why wouldn't he be in a good mood? He was in a good mood, he was in a bloody good mood in fact. He surveyed some of the scenes around his club, a shit eating grin getting even more prominent.

"Not such a bad turn out so far," Cobblepot said, pretty much talking to himself a bit more than the others. There was a reason to smile.

The band was booming, the conversation was rather lively, and not to mention that there was a full house of people with disposal incomes, some of them willing to gamble it away. So this was going to be a night that he would remember for an extremely long time, to be perfectly honest.

Not to mention that the eye candy on the floor, in the form of the serving girls looked like a charm. But they were icing on the cakes. That being said, Cobblepot turned over his shoulder and prepared to greet the guest of honor, moving from the seat that he was sitting in, in between Mr. Carpenter and Tracey.

"Rupert, my dear boy, it's good to see you are here," Cobblepot said, seeing him enter the ring with his floozy of the week, a girl that was pretty much young enough to be his daughter.

"Oswald, I have to say, you sure know how to throw a party for the Gotham City elite," Rupert replied in a jovial voice, shaking hands with the man. Thorne looked over his shoulder before he continued in a booming voice. "It's quite the turn out tonight, isn't it?"

"Yeah, but the night's going on, here, have a drink….first one's on the house, but I can't make you any promises after the second one."

Thorne chuckled and took Cobblepot off on his offer. Tonight was not a night for business but rather a night where people could kick their feet back and relax.

Cobblepot looked around, tonight was a bloody good night for his return to high society and he hoped that by the end of the evening, he would be raking in the rewards for this amazing return.

Mr. Walrus was in the back room, conducting business, and obviously Mr. Carpenter and Tracey were there with him.

"Looks like there isn't a person in Gotham City that isn't out here," Thorne commented to Cobblepot.

"Rupert, my old boy, you have no idea, you have no idea," Cobblepot said, a smile on his face but suddenly he saw a very familiar figure that caused the entire mood to change.

"Is that Bruce Wayne?" Thorne's date asked, nearly spilling her drink in surprise.

"I believe that is," Thorne commented, folding his arms and looking. Things might become rather interesting tonight.

Cobblepot tried not to show it but his mood darkened as the Wayne heir made his way into the club. He sauntered in like he was entitled to be here with a pair of fashion models on every arm.

"Well, should have expected him to show up, shouldn't we, Oswald?" Thorne asked, pulling Cobblepot out of his thoughts.

"Should have, yes,' Cobblepot said, his voice more of an angry squawk then a response and he clutched the handle of his stylish umbrella, trying to calm down.

Wayne was there, chatting with some people on the dance floor and his hand tightened over the handle of his umbrella.

Things quickly escalated from bad to worse, when Harry Potter of all people walked in there. Cobblepot's mood went to pretty bad to really foul, his hand clutching underneath the umbrella. He managed to keep a lid on his temper long enough to calm down and not make a scene.

' _Don't lose your shit, it won't do well for you to do so,'_ Cobblepot thought to himself, shaking his head for a few seconds, trying in vain to keep his calm. Even though he had the urge to smash something and smash it hard.

Then suddenly, he wondered how he was willing to turn a negative into a positive. His family after they were disgraced, he had a pretty big handicap to overcome. Suddenly, a slight wicked grin appeared on his face, but faded after a second.

There was seconds where everyone had their attention on Harry Potter. Which saved Throne from seeing that momentary outburst, a blessing in disguise for Cobblepot really.

"Tracey."

There was no answer, her eyes were locked outside and Cobblepot looked at her, rapping his hand on the table very gently, but her eyes were still fairly averted forward, and it seemed like that she was spell bound by the presence of this young man arriving.

Cobblepot lifted up his umbrella and rapped it on the table and snapped. "TRACEY!"

Tracey turned around and she could see that her boss was rather steamed. She shook her head, acting like she wasn't looking at the eye candy.

"So the little golden boys want to show up, well, let's turn this one around into a positive," he whispered, beckoning her out of the room. He left under the pretext of looking around the club, leaving Thorne and his date to occupy themselves with another drink.

Turn a negative into a positive, that's what a Cobblepot would do in the end. The foul bird took a step forward and other than what entered the club, everything was going well.

"Sorry, no time to chat, got to make sure everything is smooth," Cobblepot said, brushing past a couple of his contacts and he saw Mr. Walrus peering out of the crowd.

Tracey and Mr. Carpenter followed at his heels.

* * *

Harry Potter was going to really admit that the club was rather nicely put together all things considered. Despite the fact that he was angry at the man, he was grudgingly impressed by everything.

' _He did put it together fairly nicely, and I'm sure that there were hours of work that he put into it,'_ Harry thought and Kara looked fairly amused.

' _It would be a real shame if something happened to it, wouldn't it?'_ Kara asked, with a knowing grin on her face.

' _Yeah, it really would be, a real shame,'_ Dinah thought, smiling at the thought of what was going to happen.

Never the less, some of the girls were dividing into groups. Harry watched with Faora pretty much literally dragging Selina off into the opposite direction, with potentially devious intentions in mind.

Then seconds later Kara nudged Vicki and she whispered something to her. Harry was too busy getting a look at the layout around the club to see what was happening. Karen made her way off into her own direction as well.

' _It's time,'_ Jaime thought, nodding towards Harry, and she took advantage of the hustle and bustle of the club to slip off into the midst of the club, with Dinah, Jaime, and Diana working their way towards the casino.

Harry smiled, he could see that he was left alone with Sapphire and Veronica. That being said, the two girls were huddled together with each other, something that caused Harry to raise an eyebrow.

As two girls would have done, they were huddled in a close conference with each other and Harry speculated that they were scheming for some reason or another. Exactly what they were plotting, Harry didn't really piece that much together. Their whispering got rather rapid with each other and Harry could not help but listen in, with his overly enhanced hearing.

' _So what are they saying?'_ Donna asked, her curiosity getting the better of her, and it appeared that Lyta was about ready to listen in as well.

' _You know, I don't know, might as well be Greek to me…..I understand some of the words….'_

Hippolyta of all people giggled in amusement, hearing a bit of it. _'Well, I'll tell you this much, and I can say this without a doubt from experience, Greek is a lot easier to comprehend then what they're saying.'_

' _Yeah, that's for sure,'_ Donna thought, placing her hands on her face and inclining her head, with a slight smile.

' _Well that puts me at ease,'_ Harry thought and he could hear the words coming from Sapphire.

"Okay, alright…..see you later…"

Harry raised an eyebrow at that statement from Sapphire and Veronica stepped forward, giving Harry a brief kiss on the cheek.

'I'll catch you later, Harry, I think that I'm going to steal a dance from Bruce….BRUCE!" Veronica said, calling the billionaire playboy over. The man in questioned turned and looked at her. "It's been a long time since I've seen you, one would think that you were avoiding me."

Sapphire smiled, catching Harry's eye in amusement, and she reached over to the side, gripping Harry's hand. With one swift motion, she lead Harry over.

"So what's up?" Harry asked and Sapphire gave him a bit of a bright smile in response.

"You'll see in a bit," she told him, an air of mystery filling her voice, but never the less she brought him over to where an interesting crew of people were holding court.

Harry recognized Simon Stagg right away, it would be hard not to do so, and he could hear the conversation between the three men that he was talking about. Commissioner Loeb was the most obvious individual that was there, but there was also Hamilton Hill, the Councilman who had aspirations for far higher and Maxmillion Shreck, a silver haired man who acted charming on the surface, but there was an oddity to him and a slight amount of sleaze as well.

"There are many changes in Gotham City, I don't think….."

"Just think about the business that the new power plant would bring in," Shreck said, looking at them. "It's all about helping Gotham City build its way to a bright tomorrow, isn't it?"

"Well, you drive some interesting points home," Loeb said in a voice that was non-committal at best. "We would need to look through all of the angles."

' _Or he's just trying not to make a decision that will cost him any political favor given that he's on some pretty shaky ground,'_ Harry thought to himself.

"Just think of what is best for business and best for Gotham City," Shreck argued once again, trying to curry some rather important favor and he turned towards Stagg. "Simon, I'm sure you would agree that….."

"Well, I'm not sure if it's really best for business, the safety concerns out way the potential profit," Stagg commented, looking at both of these men.

"Stagg, with all due respect, I never thought you to be one…."

"Times have changed, and I follow where the money is going to go," Stagg said and he looked at Shreck extremely carefully, choosing his words even more carefully. "Do not forget that sometimes the best business is the one that isn't going to land us in trouble with the general public."

Sapphire inclined her head, waiting patiently for this conversation to wrap up. It appeared that she was working on him but obviously she had to do so within a context of a language that he understood and that was dolars and senses.

"Just think about it…"

"Well it would bring new jobs to Gotham City," Hill commented, scratching underneath his chin. That was something that could endear him to the people if he wanted his plans to move forward.

"Just think about it, and think about the benefits, I would like the support of all of you, you could assume that we're going to do what we can to help make the world a better place," Shreck said and there was something shifty about what he was saying.

"We'll see, but I'm not willing to throw my support on it, until I see how much it benefits things, such a plant would have several safety concerns that would need to be addressed before we could properly deal with it," Stagg said and it looked like his jaw was set firmly.

"Well, I know that you might have a good grasp, as it was partly because of your donation where the Major Crimes Unit was established."

"Yes, some of the more seedy elements are taken care of…but tell me, what are we doing about this Nightwing and Batman?" Shreck asked. "I've been reading the most extraordinary rumors about how Batman lead an uprising of the homeless against the Gotham City Police Force, and his popularity is growing, like some kind of cult."

"Well, I do hope that something is done about Batman, if I'm elected Mayor, there will be no vigilantes in this town," Hill said in a firm voice and he turned to Loeb, as if looking for his feedback.

"Batman and Nightwing will be brought in, no one will be above the law as long as I'm Commissioner."

"Yes, Sapphire, what is it?" Simon asked, turning around and looking towards his daughter. "Mr. Shreck, Councilman Hill, and Commissioner Loeb, I believe that I've introduced you to my daughter Sapphire."

There were some light greetings but they were more formal than anything.

"Daddy, this is Harry Potter," Sapphire said, looking from Harry to her father.

"Yes, Doctor Potter, I have followed your work," Stagg remarked, shaking hands with the young man. It was diplomatic but there was a small amount of sincerity in his voice. "Gotham City's future hinges on driven people like you, and I'm glad that you are helping my daughter stay on the right path to complete her studies. The Stagg family legacy hinges on her."

"Doctor Potter, it's a pleasure to meet you as well," Shreck said, Harry had already met Loeb and Hill in passing, and they just nodded at him.

"Anyway, you have business, so I just wanted to introduce the two of you," Sapphire said, and she decided to steer Harry back towards the dance floor, because she doubted that she could stand listening to any more political posturing tonight.

"So, that was….."

"I think that you owe me a dance," Sapphire interrupted him, with a smile, and his hands were placed on her waist as the two of them did just that.

' _So she wants to be evasive, fair enough, fair enough,'_ Harry thought, allowing her to lead him onto the dance floor.

Faora Dru-Zod, alias Alexandra Potter, smiled, she always enjoyed a challenge and Selina Kyle was the epitome of a challenge if there ever was one. She had been courting her, waiting for him to bring her into the group.

"So, not a bad turn out today," Selina whispered to her and she was about ready to go shopping, but she was trying to be polite and not ditch Alexandra on the dance floor.

"No, it isn't," she commented with a smile on her face. "Summer Gleeson seems to be interested in getting more than a few words with Harry…"

"And I'm sure that young Miss Vale essentially cock blocking her was unintentional," Selina said with a shifty little grin and Alex just shook her head. "I don't know, she has some positive qualities but she comes across as…..what's the right word for her?"

"Artificial might be the word that you're looking for," Faora replied and Selina smiled, that was it. "So, about the Penguin's assistant…"

"She's not a bad looker, but her value goes up when she opens her mouth and that…..I don't even know what the fuck her accent is spills out of her mouth," Selina said and Alexandra smiled.

"Gags were invented for a purpose like that…"

"I'm beginning to think that gags were invented just for the purpose of someone like Tracey Buxton," Selina said with a swift smile and nod.

Faora was on the hunt for a target to seduce, to give them the insight to Penguin's organization, not that the more conventional approach of the communications network had been cut off but so far, there was really no dice at all.

"You know, whilst you're here, feel free to indulge in your hobby," she whispered to Selina, trying to encourage her to make use of her natural talents.

"Do you mean…"

"I mean exactly what you think that I would mean," Alex responded and Selina didn't say anything, but the wicked smirk on her face pretty much told the story and then some.

Meanwhile, Vicki and Kara were scoping out who was talking to who, because a club like this, there would be some shady backdoor dealings going on. Vicki was watching intently, trying to determine who was going to talk to who and exactly how that was going to happen exactly.

One of the parties that she saw was Roman Sionis and he was in intense talks with Tony Zucco although about what, they couldn't really say.

That being said, Kara looked around and could see Skeevers with a large cane, it looked like some kind of pimp cane by the looks of things. He walked fairly gingerly all things considered.

"Yeah, I'm surprised that he showed his face tonight, but I guess he has to maintain public appearances," Vicki said and she continued to look around.

' _If it isn't compensating for something with that, I'd eat Vicki's panties,'_ Kara commented but she should have known that a comment like of that would not go without a response.

' _I'd pay to see that,'_ Amanda thought and there was much agreement by the other members of the bond.

But perhaps the most interesting was Thorne and Cobblepot. Given the warning that Harry gave Thorne a while back, it appeared that he was back out doing some things that he shouldn't do. It just gave him some time to recover.

"Looks to be two businessmen who enjoy each other's company, at least for now," Vicki said, snapping some pictures and she would have to look to see if there was more than meets the eye. No money would exchange hands in a public venue.

The fact that a couple of supposed reputed business men were talking with some of the criminal elements in Gotham City. Kara leaned back against the wall, waiting for the show that was very unlikely to unfold.

Vicki had a sixth sense that something was about to go down tonight, that many combustible elements in one place was so dangerous. There was just one match that was going to ignite the powder keg. That being said, she continued to sharpen her reporter instincts and look out closely into the crowd. Just waiting for something to happen that would allow her curiosity to pay off.

* * *

Jaime made her way forward, looking over her shoulder to see her two companions that were moving behind her. Diana and Dinah followed her, the coast was in fact fairly clear.

' _If it is Cobblepot that is behind this, I think that he's using the back area of this place to conduct business, if you catch my drift,'_ Jaime thought, and she was taking an opportunity to get a better view of her surroundings. _'So what do you think?'_

' _I think that's pretty logical,'_ Dinah thought and Diana would have to concur just a little bit with that. They had the packages that were ready to deliver, the ones that Harry made for them on their way into the club.

Jaime raised her hand and the three of them slipped into the back room.

' _You know, I'm pretty sure that the waitresses are able to move around well…..give me a second to copy the details of their uniforms, and then we'll be off,'_ Jaime thought, looking over her shoulder, and then she looked forward.

She waved her hand and the three of them had the uniforms transferred. Obviously, the material around the uniform was very tight around them, but that could have been par for the course. They were one piece costumes, where their cleavage would have spilled out for, had Jaime not magically enhanced them to hold up a little bit. Then there were sheer stockings that covered their legs and nice boots. There were top hats on the top of their heads, along with a bow tie.

' _Not too bad of a likeness,'_ Diana thought, with a smile, she was pleased at how well the charm work held and she was certain that Jaime was.

' _Well, it does show you what Cobblepot thinks his women as,'_ Dinah thought, shaking her head and leaning back but Jaime corked an eyebrow and looked at her. _'What?'_

' _Well, it should be something that you should be used to wearing, given the old hand me down costume that your mother wore,'_ Jaime thought to her and the woman sighed.

' _Just because I'm used to wearing it, doesn't mean that I find the costume very comfortable, if at all,'_ Dinah thought, biting down on her lip hard and giving herself a sigh to recover.

' _Exactly why did the costume be set up that way anyway?'_ Diana asked, she was curious.

Dinah turned to both of her companions. _'Don't think that I haven't asked that question myself more than a few times.'_

' _Yes, I mean…it's an eye catching costume, and I'm sure that it would distract most men and more than a few women, but at the same time….you know, wouldn't that be a bitch and kind of cold in the winter time,'_ Jaime thought and Dinah placed her hand underneath her chin.

' _You know, that's never been a topic of conversation that came up,'_ Dinah said, and she saw that Jaime slipped one of the packages that Harry had given them. _'You know, I honestly really don't have the slightest idea possible. She originally started as a long line of police officers, but she couldn't join the force, never found out why, but she wanted to help, so she started to fight crime.'_

Diana slipped one of the packages, it was in the VIP area, right underneath the box where Cobblepot was, at least how he started out the night. They noticed he made his rounds around the club, doing business, both legal and otherwise.

' _You know, even with the modifications, the costume that you have now might always be cold,'_ Jaime thought to her.

' _Well, there are a lot of…..there are a lot of charms on it thanks to Lavender, so it's a lot more practical that the original version that my mother had,'_ Dinah explained to her and Jaime nodded with a smile on her face. The final package was in her hand, all that she had to do was make sure she planted it in the most strategic location. _'And there's a charm on my mask to prevent people from connecting Black Canary to Dinah Laurel Lance….but that's just really a precaution more so than anything else.'_

' _Right, right, figured as much,'_ Jaime thought, there was really no question as to what was in these packages because Harry was pissed. The night was prepped to end with a bang.

The Club was really starting to fill up throughout the night, the front was brimming with all kinds of business, and the back area was brimming with it as well.

' _Is that….a tank?'_ Dinah thought, looking at one of the more interesting items with curiosity.

' _Guess you can buy anything here, if you got the scratch,'_ Dinah thought, and she looked around. Obviously the further back they got into the club, the seedier the business got, at least that's what their assumption was.

Jaime got an interesting glance at a person, mostly because he was coming towards her, almost at the force of a tank, that knocked her over.

' _No way, no fucking way,'_ she thought to herself but the dark haired female shook her head. Despite the fact that she had not seen him in a long time, fortunately, there was no mistaken him, she should have known him.

' _What…..'_ Faora thought but then she was caught gobsmacked. The last time she saw him, he was down on his ass, having fallen back on his own accord.

He might have dropped about a hundred pounds of fat and put on about fifty pounds of muscle but then again…..he didn't really recognize her, not that he would. He never was that sharp on the uptake.

' _Petunia's precious Duddikins, grew up into the thug that I always thought that he'd be,'_ Lily said, shaking her head. That was her sister in a nutshell, to raise a mobster strong arm person. That being said, the redhead's mouth was hanging open.

That being said, that made things interesting and not to mention, far more personal than it should have been.

This news also got the reaction that they expected it would but it didn't change the plan in the slightest.

* * *

Veronica found herself on the dance floor with Harry, after Sapphire had her turn with the green eyed wizard. She looked rather pleased with herself all things considered, with his arm wrapped around her waist, and hers wrapped around his neck.

The two were having a conversation, before Harry saw the Walrus faced man up close. He was having a very back sense of Deja-Vu suddenly to be honest, as the song got lively, and in the ultimate twist of irony, it got pretty ominous, almost like something was fixing to happen.

Harry was caught completely off guard for a fraction of a second but he managed to recover from his reaction pretty fairly quickly. He spinned Veronica around and dipped her through the floor, catching her by surprise when she nearly touched the floor.

' _Close call,'_ Kara offered, as the realization of who Mr. Walrus was came to them.

Harry didn't say anything, in fact, he was maintaining a rather good poke face, when he brought Veronica back up. She was surprised but at the same time, she found herself quite pleased with what transpired.

"You know, you're not the type that I would consider to be one that would dance well, but you are," Veronica said, managing to catch her breath and she looked into his eyes. Needless to say, she was practically gushing and by that, in every single sense in the world.

"I've had a lot of practice," he said, keeping her eyes on him with a smile on his face.

She could not being to not be pleased, it was obvious why she was pleased. But she managed to replied with a slight grin on her face. "Well…is there really anything that you can't do?"

"Well, I haven't found anything yet that I haven't, but that doesn't mean that anything doesn't exist," Harry told her and Veronica blinked, her mouth hanging open for a second and she nodded.

"Okay, fair enough," Veronica said, with the song winding up to an end.

Harry was mentally plotting what his next move would be, as the dance was about ready to conclude. Things were getting rather heated in the club, and that was for more ways than one.

That being said, the solution rather came to him, as he saw Sapphire waiting there, with a smile on her face, waving him over. She was standing in front of the Casino and there was a mischievous grin on her face.

"I don't know about you two, but I'm feeling a little bit daring tonight," she stated, looking at both of them with a smile on her face.

"Oh, would the two of you be up for some gambling?" Harry asked the both of them.

"Actually that does sound like a little fun, I mean what's the harm in that?" Veronica asked.

' _Oh boy,'_ Donna, Amanda, and Emily chimed in through unison, before they were completely hushed.

' _And….suddenly I'm beginning to see what's going on here,'_ Jaime thought, granted she had a good idea but this threw the puzzle pieces together.

"Sure, I mean, it'd be fun spending time with you, and…..didn't you already beat the slots a lot tonight?' Sapphire asked, with a smile on her face. There didn't seem to be a lot of people who had a lot of luck there, although there were some winners. "I…..I guess I've never had that much luck with something like that, you know."

"Well it really does take a steady hand and a bit of patience."

' _You didn't….you did, didn't you?'_ Rose asked him and Harry smiled.

' _I don't have the slightest idea what you could be talking about,'_ Harry thought with a smile on his face, and he guided Sapphire over to demonstrate.

To be fair, the machines weren't nearly as rigged as the ones that were in Vegas, those were a special kind of rigged to be honest. But these required a lot more luck to be honest.

"Don't spend it all in one place now," Harry joked to Sapphire, who smiled like the cat that ate the canary as she hit the jackpot. "So, let's join these guys, because even though I've won a lot tonight, I'm looking forward to breaking the bank."

"Are you really?" Sapphire asked.

"What can I say, would you believe I feel lucky tonight?" Harry asked but then he paused. "Then again, I feel lucky every night."

The implied innuendo of that statement was not lost amongst the two females who giggled a little bit.

Harry edged his way over to the poker game, where the game was starting. He sat his way down to the game, with a smile on his face.

"Deal us in."

The dealer recognized him and nodded. There were a couple of men on the table with knowing grins on his face, and Veronica and Sapphire sat down next to him.

The first hand, they thought that he was a pushover, but sure enough, he did pretty well for himself.

That being said, the next round, they were beginning to think that the beginner's luck was something that was in greater abundance than he thought it was.

And after the third round, they were beginning to sweat just a little bit. It was obvious that he wasn't the pushover they thought he was.

"So, Gentlemen, I think that I'm doing fairly well," Harry said, looking at them with a smile on his face, sweeping the chips in. "So, are you still feeling lucky?"

"Not going to let you push me over, Potter," one of the men at the table said boldly.

"Yeah….let's keep playing, anyone can get lucky for a few hands."

'It's up to you, I'm game if you are," Harry said and there was a moment where the men looked at each other, and nodded. Their stubborn male pride was as such where they were not about to quit while they're ahead.

Which played into Harry's hand perfectly.

* * *

Harry Potter had a grin on his face, and that was not just because Sapphire was perched firmly on his lap, an interesting perk. The stack of chips had grown immensely in the last half hour and things were getting rather intense. All of the people who were there from the beginning had completely folded and had finally thrown in the towel for the evening. The last man standing from the original group looked to be considering throwing his car into the deal to get everything.

Veronica was pressed against his back with a smile on her face and she could see these formally cocky men sweating up a bit of a storm now. There was something oddly satisfying about all that. "And look, you've won again."

"Amazing the run of luck you've had tonight, isn't it?" Sapphire asked, squirming to see over the stack of poker chips that had been added. They were pretty much overflowing.

"Well, I said that I was feeling lucky tonight."

"So, you've been lucky tonight haven't you, feeling quite good about yourself?"

Oswald Cobblepot waddled over, he had one of his men keep an eye on the game, but much to his agitation, he couldn't get Potter booted from the club for cheating.

"Well tonight's a good night, isn't it, Ozzie?" Harry asked with a smile on his face, taking a drink. He could barely feel that much of a buzz, even if he suspected this might be fairly strong for normal people.

"Yeah, I guess, you've been doing pretty well for yourself tonight,' Cobblepot said grudgingly.

"Well, you should be impressed of all of what you've accomplished," Harry said with a smile on his face, and he was waiting for something to happen.

"Yeah, but this game right here, you see that, it's a kid's game, not too shabby if you want to be a novice, but you've done well, see your suit jacket's off, but I'll show you how a real man plays this game," Cobblepot said.

"Oh, and is he coming here soon?" Harry asked and Sapphire had to duck her head, to keep from laughing.

"Alright, you've obviously been feeling a little cocky, but now it's time to come to come back down to Earth and show you what happens when you go up against a pro," Cobblepot said, intensity flashing through his eyes.

Cobblepot was a man who was used to playing for the highest stakes and Harry admitted that he was likely more skilled than the people that he had been taking to the cleaners tonight.

That being said, the first hand was won by Harry.

"Anyway can win a hand, let's go for one more," Cobblepot said, not breaking his sweat.

"Be my guest," Harry motioned towards him and there was pretty much a glint in his eye which told the man to just bring it, more or less. That being said, Cobblepot was looking pretty good for himself. "Well done, but like you said, anyone can win a hand."

"Are you in or are you out for one more?"

Harry smiled, he could say that Cobblepot was trying to call his bluff but Harry wasn't going to be one that was going to give in that easily.

The third hand, well the result was interesting, given that Harry won that one handily. Given the stakes that were present, that looked like that it struck Cobblepot right where it hurt.

"Well, that was interesting."

Cobblepot managed to recover quickly. "Those were just pennies….there are a more high stakes game going on in the back, if you think that you're man enough for it."

Harry smiled at Sapphire and Veronica, waiting for their impact and their feedback.

"I'd say that you'd go for it," Sapphire said and Veronica detached herself from him, deciding to egg him on just a little bit.

"Most certainly, you're on a roll tonight," Veronica said to him, she figured that they could hang out with the other girls or bother Bruce, actually bother Bruce was a good idea.

"Sure thing, Ozzie, you're on, just let me cash in my um pennies," Harry said, holding out all of the chips and Cobblepot looked like he had been struck that.

"Doctor Potter, may I offer you a drink?' Tracey asked him, holding a bottle of wine and two glasses.

"Sure thing," Harry said, and he suspected a trap but one needed to bait it.

"Yes, drink up," Cobblepot said, not looking too eager.

Harry drank the wine.

"Is this imported?" Harry asked him.

"Yes, from a brewery in Germany, only get the very best here."

"Well it's well worthy of the Cobblepot name."

' _Most likely because it tastes like Horse piss,'_ Harry thought making a face at the wine he tasted.

' _Wait a minute, how do you know what Horse piss tastes like?'_ Amanda asked.

' _Figure of speech, duh,'_ Emily thought, shaking her head.

' _Well then…'_

Harry smiled and Cobblepot beckoned him over, and they made the journey there, he could see it coming, it was only a matter of time.

' _Good thing you took your vitamins today, isn't it Harry?'_ Lily asked him and he smiled.

Harry smiled and waited, seeing Cobblepot knock on the metal door.

Three times, in a certain rhythm and there was something that nailed him across the back of the head.

He slumped to one knee, and collapses down to the ground, his eye halfway open, and he could see the Penguin standing over the top of him. He saw Dudley standing over him with a splintered cricket bat, and the Penguin was rubbing his hands together, proud of the work that was done.

"Got you know freak."

Harry gave a shadow of a wink, and then he "passed out."

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 18th, 2014.**

**Oh that scene in the club, friends, enemies, douchebags alike ,coming together.**

**Cobblepot's night got ruined. His night will be more ruined.  
**

**Harry and Diddy Duddydums back together again. I nearly shed a tear of such a joyous family reunion. Or maybe that was just onions.**

**Oh, and in case you couldn't tell from winking, Harry may be playing possum.**

**See you on Thursday.**


	53. Matter of Family Part Four

**Chapter Fifty-Three: A Matter of Family Part Four.**

Selina Kyle's eyes lit up, needless to say that she looked like a kid on Christmas Morning. There were so many possibilities, she couldn't even begin to count them all.

"Sorry, excuse me….." Selina said, nearly bumping into the next man who had walked up to her. The man had been drinking a bit too much, Selina could smell it on his breath but that was just something that came with the territory. Never the less, she was able to snatch a few dollars from this somewhat charitable individuals.

Not exactly a good take from one man, she had caught him a bit too late, he had lost most of it tonight on gambling but overall, Selina was not going to really complain all that much.

Faora could tell that this woman was having the time of her life and how trusting people were for a pretty face, it was almost rather amusing. Some of these people deserved to have a bit taken off of the top and knowing Selina, she had a front row seat to all of the tricks of the trade.

' _Nine, actually it's ten now,'_ Faora thought, she decided to step back and watch the master at work, because it was amusing to see exactly what she was doing and how people weren't observant. Therefore they were falling for everything.

Sure enough, Selina just that she was just warming up. She saw a really big catch over there, given the size of him, the boy could afford to eat a little bit.

Faora watched her for a little bit longer and then she heard someone get in her ear.

' _Just thought to let you know, the fat man has taken the bait,'_ Kara thought, she was rather eager and kind of anxious as well. Given some of the situations that Harry managed to put himself in, despite him having limited access to his powers, it was hard not to worry.

Faora sensed Kara's anxiousness and gave her sister Alpha a reassuring smile through the bond. Then she turned to Selina.

Despite the fact that she didn't really want to deprive Selina of all of her fun, she had an enchantingly nasty idea flickering through the back of her mind. The grin that went across her face was something that she thought that would work.

She leaned over, and grabbed Selina by the shoulder. The woman wasn't in the middle of a heist so she wouldn't take the girl's hand off like normal. Turning on her heal, she went to face the female behind her.

Faora Dru-Zod, known to the human world as Alexandra Potter, the cousin of Harry Potter, had the tantalizing suggestion. "How would you like to have some real fun?"

Selina raised her eyebrow and she waited for Alexandra to continue to suggest what fun could be had.

"So, how do you propose we do that?" Selina asked her and Alexandra was only too happy to tell her.

"Well, the bird, he's going to be distracted with other business with Harry," Faora whispered into her ear quietly and the woman nodded. "His office is wide open, there's no one inside and I don't even need to tell you what that presents a perfect opportunity for."

Selina's eyes brightened up with malice flickering through then and she turned to Alexandra, wickedness dancing through her eyes. "Honey, I like the way that you think."

"I figured that you would," Faora said barely keeping the grin off of her face and the two of them leaned over.

Naturally the eye popping sight that was to follow got the attention of every straight male on the dance floor and most of the women as well. The two hot dark haired females locked their arms around each other and exchanged in a loin burning kiss with each other, their hands roaming all over each other.

The kiss was brief but it packed a punch and caused many to be light headed after they saw it.

Faora smiled, happy to see that she had drawn some attention and offered her hand for Selina to take. The woman took it firmly and the two slunk off into the night. The men were left there.

' _I think that you made an impression,'_ Diana thought in amusement, even though her mind was still half on Harry. Still anything to lighten the mood and not have them lose their minds, that was much appreciated.

The two females walked hand in hand, making their way to Cobblepot's office and for anyone who was observing casually, it would look like she was being lead off for an illicit tryst.

' _It's obvious that they've taken the bait,'_ Faora thought, she was trying to keep the worry out of her voice but never the less, it was hard not to allow it to creep in. That being said, security in this part of the Lounge became pretty much non existent.

Diana, almost sensing her sister Alpha's worry, swooped in. _'Don't worry, we're keeping our eye on Harry, so far nothing to be concerned about, besides you need to focus on your part of the operation for it to go seamlessly.'_

' _Right, right, right, I'm aware,'_ Faora said, trying not to lose her head, which was very easy to do in a situation like this.

' _Sapphire and Veronica have returned, carrying a very large briefcase full of money,'_ Kara said in amusement and it was Karen who chimed in.

' _Just how much money did he win?'_ Karen asked.

' _Hopefully more enough to take a huge chunk out of Cobblepot's ass,'_ Jaime thought, clasping her hand but it was that time, that Selina managed to pick the lock with an old stand by, a hair pin that she was using to hold her hair in place.

"Sure it's cliché, but I think that it works out pretty well," Selina said, more to herself than anyone else, and made her way to the office.

"Very well and clichés are clichés because they work," Alex said and Selina smiled.

"So, shall we, my dear?"

Selina lead the way. Faora followed and the second that the door was shut behind them, Selina grabbed her around the waist and pushed her back towards the kiss. She was half sitting, half leaning on Penguin's desk and her lips were met with a very aggressive and smoldering kiss.

The two of them broke apart with each other, and Faora was about to open her mouth but suddenly, Selina shushed her.

"Work later….." Selina commented, kissing her on the jaw line and the woman closed her eyes, feeling her tender affections against her jaw line. "Play now."

Faora grabbed Selina from behind and caused her to mewl in pleasure. If that was the case, then two of them could play that game.

Normally, Selina was a woman who was pretty much on top of things but she could feel Alex push her against this desk. Her chest raised and lowered the more that the woman pushed her back and there was a smoldering smile on her face.

"Just relax, I've got you honey," Alex whispered, running her hands over Selina's face and causing the woman to whimper, almost purr in delight.

The fact of the matter was she had Selina right where she wanted her and she was not going to let up. The top of her dress was coming undone.

Faora was very used to being dominant and if it was a woman who was used to being in control, that was so much the better. She eased the dress down and slowly began to slowly kissing down her neck and then down to her stomach.

Selina's fingernails digging into the side of her shoulder indicated that she wanted more and Faora stopped, using her tongue to work into her belly button and thus causing Selina to pant. Her hands were working Selina's panties down and exposing her smooth sex. Faora smiled, she could smell her arousal and was about ready to move in for the kill.

"Please," Selina begged her and suddenly, the tongue moved into her body.

Instinctively, Selina allowed her legs to wrap around The Potter Female's neck, fitting her in.

The daughter of Zod with well-practiced ease worked her tongue deep into the smoldering hot pussy that was beneath her. The woman whimpered beneath her and Faora continued to work her over, trying to coax the cum out from between her thighs.

Selina's fingers darted through her hair, giving her a rough tug, and the woman drove even deeper.

"Oh god," Selina moaned, and she was seeing stars as she came. Leaning back on Cobblepot's desk, she could see Alex slowly easing herself up, her face completely dripping with the honey that was rolling off of her cheeks.

"So, do you want to return the favor?"

Selina sat up, crooking her finger into a motion that told Faora to come towards her.

Faora perched herself onto Selina's face and she could feel Selina nibble on her clit, giving her pleasure.

Faora arched herself back, rubbing her nipples, with Selina's tongue working into her hot molten pussy. The woman's tongue twisted deeper into her like a corkscrew and she could feel absolutely pleasure to be honest.

"You do good, you're excellent honey, keep that up," Faora whispered, feeling her talented tongue continue to do that work. She grinded on Selina's face, sending more juices trickling deep into her mouth.

Selina bucked her hips up and continued to eat out her lover, her lips slurping and suckling every single last drop.

She wanted more, no she wanted it all, every last drop and she was going to have it all, oh god, she was going to have it all.

Her tongue once again twisted its way into that prime pussy and Alex was returning the favor. The two of them were trying to outdo the other, eating each other's pussies.

Both of them came, their juices spurting on the faces of the other.

Turning around, their bodies dripped with sex and seduction, both females depriving the other of their clothes, with a well-practiced dance.

Selina decided to straddle her lover's lap, grinding her sex against hers. Both of them collided with each other, establishing friction, and then their lips molded together, their hands roaming against each other's bodies.

Faora's fingers found Selina's honey pot, and she pushed them into her. The sweat continued to build up.

"Damn, I'm cumming," Selina moaned, biting down on Faora's shoulder a little bit to stifle the moan that she had.

Faora grinned, she knew that this was all because of her and she kept it up, pumping her fingers deep into her dripping twat.

She slowly lifted the fingers up, which were soaked with cum and Selina watched her, eagerly, hungrily following the progress of the fingers that were in front of her.

"Suck."

She did as she was told and her fingers were being sucked, Selina tasted her own cum and she could feel her lover's strong hand on her ass, massaging it.

Faora managed to summon what she wanted, a sleek vibrator and she set it on a high setting. Selina was doing good not screaming out.

' _Let's see how she handles this one,'_ Faora thought, a wicked grin crossing her face and she shoved the vibrator in Selina's pussy.

Selina moaned out loud and she could feel her juices coat the vibrator with Faora pushing it into her body. The woman's eyes closed tight and she felt herself shaking, her hips grinding together.

"Like that," she whispered and Selina nodded, but Selina managed to pull the vibrator out of her.

"Yes, I do," Selina said, taking the vibrator and slowly licking her own juices off of it like a cat that was licking a bowl. "But you know the saying, turnabout is fair play sweetheart."

Faora spread her legs and Selina pushed into her, grinding it against the vibrator, and the vibrator was set into a high setting.

The woman rolled her hips to the pleasure, her nipples rather hard and Selina bent forward, pushing her lips around the woman's nipples and slowly suckling on it. There was a great deal of pleasure that went through her loins the more that Selina treated her nipples.

The smell of their sex was all over the desk of the Penguin, not that any of them cared, they were lost in their arousal.

"Mmm, you taste divine, honey," Selina whispered, and Faora grabbed her, pulling her into a nice sharp kiss once again, rubbing their sexes together, creating friction.

Faora scissored their pussies together, rubbing both of them together and she thought that things were about to be interesting in a few minutes. Their nether lips stuck together, with both of them cumming with each other.

"Keep it cumming, oh keep it cumming," Selina moaned and Faora grabbed her nipple, pinching it rather hard.

The sexual thrills continued with both of their bodies increasingly in warmth. The two of them seemed determined to outdo the other.

Selina eventually deflated, Faora on top of her, dominating her with a series of powerful kisses, and making her orgasm over and over again. The woman gave a lustful moan once again, with Faora wrapping her hands around Selina's backside and squeezing it.

She moaned once again, she was really wet right now and the woman above her was putting her through all of the places. All she could do was sink her nails in and enjoy the ride and it was a hell of a ride. The best fucking ride she could ever experience. Her hips rolled up, meeting the pussy above her, with the two sides working against each other.

Eventually something had to break and Selina panted, knowing what was about to happen next.

The friction of their lower sexes running together caused both of them to explode with a fiery orgasm with each other. Both shivered and shuddered, and both collapsed in an embrace, their playtime winding down to an end.

Selina could have sworn that more time passed than it did but she was not going to really question it all that much.

After a few rounds, both of them got dressed, amazed by the fact that they got put through the paces, but they didn't really regret it in the slightest.

"Now it's time to go for the real prize," Selina said, her eyes averting to the Penguins' safe.

Faora moved her way towards the Penguin's computer and started to hack into it but found that it was well equipped with the latest encryption technology. He managed to make sure he got his money's worth and then some out of what he got. But given that he had incriminating data on this computer, it was just as well.

"Okay, so you want to be difficult, that's not a problem," Faora said, deciding to install a program in it. Not Kryptonian, because Kryptonian computer programs that might as well have been created thousands of years in the future and they most certainly did not play well with Earth technology that was Stone Age compared to Kryptonians.

Oracle could pick apart at it later at her leisure.

"Well, guess that's nothing but a lemon," Selina said with a suggestive wink. There was nothing in the vault but stacks of bills. Nothing for anything too incriminating, at least nothing that would have caught the eye of the woman, but at least it had not been a total bust going into that office.

* * *

 

It was time for Harry Potter to "wake up" and he saw that he was tied to a metal chair in the back of the club.

Naturally he had been awake the entire time, but he needed to feign being unconscious to get him in position for this plan of his to work. Faking taking a blow with a cricket bat was difficult but doable, it just was a matter of seeing it coming and taking a fall before it really hit you.

That being said, he was there and he was glad that he was in the sense, in the back room of the club. The Penguin seemed to be hit all of the marks to win cliché Bond Villain bingo or something like that.

' _And thank Rao they didn't strip me naked,'_ Harry said, he felt like he needed to shower in acid just from the thought, so he was glad that said thought did not turn into somewhat of a reality. That being said, he tried to shake the cobwebs from where he stood, as hard as it might have been. There were still a lot of goons around and there was Dudley. _'He's hit all of the Bond villain clichés, hasn't he?'_

' _Well if he comes in stroking a pussy, then I'm out of there,'_ Karen commented and Harry raised an eyebrow but nodded. That might be a step too far.

He looked up to see Dudley pacing back and forth like a caged animal, he was always someone who…..well he always was someone who wasn't patient at all. Then the Penguin turned towards Harry, his suit jacket completely off, looking like the cat that ate the canary.

Harry stirred away, and made sure that Dudley knew that he was awake.

"The Freak is waking up," Dudley grunted and the Penguin cackled in amusement. "Not so smug now, when we're about to finish you off."

"Please, popkin, the only thing you could ever finish off was an all you can eat buffet," Harry said dryly and Dudley looked at him, his eyes narrowing. Despite the fact that he lost a lot of weight, Harry still hit a nerve with him. "Ah, what's the matter Diddy Duddydums, did I touch a nerve? You know, I'll give you credit, you managed to come out from behind Mummy's skirt to become a man, well done, I'd clap for you if my hands weren't tied"

Dudley growled and his hand wrapped around the cricket bat, but the Penguin gave him a sharp look.

"Not yet," Penguin growled.

"You know, I really have no idea what you have against me, something could be slipping my mind, because I got whacked in the head, but could you do me the pleasure in refreshing my memory to see what's going on because I really have no idea. And you know, I'm kind of rambling so….."

"Shut up, you're giving me a headache," the Penguin growled.

"Funny, we're in a good company then," Harry said and he looked at him. "So what's the deal anyway?"

Cobblepot considered something before nodding.

"It's not completely on you, it is more about Wayne, but I'll get to him soon enough, the Waynes, they ran my family into the ground, do you realize how hard it took for me to build my empire back up to the point where I can be respectable?" Penguin asked and Harry didn't answer the question. The umbrella with the trick blade in it hung to his hand. "My old man died in shame, the Waynes undercut him at every opportunity. You see, he tried to keep up with them, but he couldn't hand it. They were entitled, and spoiled, and they ruined my family. I was someone who needed to pull the scratch together, and I learned about the economics and the criminal world, which really if you look into some of the white collar crime, the line is blurred."

He gave a sharp squawk off of a laugh, the smoke from his cigarette coming from him.

"I went to Smeltings, that's where I met good old Vern, Vernon Dursley, and we had some fun times together, drinking, shooting the shit, chasing some skirts," The Penguin said with a wicked grin. "But then he had to go and marry a fucking Evans bitch. And it wasn't even one of the good looking ones either. No accounting for taste. He ran his little business until you and your cunt of a cousin ruined that…you see, I lost a lot of money when Vernon went down, drills weren't the only thing that Grunnings shipped, if you catch my drift."

"Sorry that I'm not sorry," Harry said in a flat voice, staring back at him the Penguin.

"Just like an Evans, just like your mother, she never knew when to keep her mouth shut," Penguin said.

' _Thanks, Ozzie, I'll take that as a compliment,'_ Lily said, to much amusement and the Penguin was getting flustered.

"You see, I heard about Vernon's misfortune and well let's face it, Petunia, that cunt was just used to being nosy, that's all she was good for, for all I know she's in a gutter somewhere right about now."

Penguin gave another squawking cough but paused once again.

"So I stepped in, just like any good godfather would, and make sure, make sure I gain a good bit of old fashioned revenge against the man who stole his father away from him. You see, you were damn lucky that Vernon felt sorry for you, and took you in, because, hate to say it, but the old bird, she had the boy done whipped, she did."

Harry waited until he was done talking and he nodded. "Oookay, I get the deal with me, but you have an axe to grind with the Evans family? Might I ask why?"

"You see, the Waynes might have been responsible for ruining my family in Gotham but it was the bloody Evans family that was responsible for ruining my family across the pond."

' _Mum, Aunt Rose, um….were they?'_ Harry asked.

' _I don't have the slightest idea,'_ Rose said, racking her brain.

' _Maybe we did, I don't know,'_ Lily said with a shrug. She didn't know, that was all on her parents, maybe her grandparents, and considering that they were both dead, it wasn't like she could answer.

"So it makes it doubly personally for me," Penguin said. "That entire kidnapping thing….was to bait a trap, but the boys mucked it up. Would have been pissed off but your dumb fucking ass walks right here through the front door."

Penguin looked over towards the table and picked up the stone to show it to Harry.

"You see this, this might have cost me a pretty penny, but I picked it up from some guy named Faust ages ago."

That got the reaction that everyone expected from certain members of the bond link.

"You see it prevents you from doing any of that hocus pocus to get yourself out of here," Penguin said and Harry smiled.

"So what you're going to say, is that stone leeches all of the ambient magic out of the area?"

"Whatever you want to call it, it's been doing its thing that entire time, and you've been sitting pretty the entire time, just being softened up for the kill," Penguin said and he turned to Dudley, who cracked his knuckles. "You see, it's so my boy can beat you to death with his bare hands in a fair fight."

"Yeah, this is a fair fight, sure, Ozzie," Harry told to him, rolling his eyes slightly.

"But first since I got you hear, the boy has agreed to let me have the first hit," Penguin said, picking up a large cane. "This is what should have been coming to you a long time ago."

The cane swung towards him but Harry blocked it with his hands. He had been holding up the ropes this entire time and dropped it with that position. Harry ripped the cane from the Penguin's hand, violently, cracking his elbow in the process.

"Nice tactic, but you're doing it wrong," Harry said, and he swung the cane, shattering it over Cobblepot's head, causing him to land on the ground with a thud.

Dudley turned towards him, his mouth wide open.

"You know, I almost forgot how that look looked like but really I didn't miss it."

Dudley's brain finally booted up and a grim smile crossed over his face. He did a dance that looked like he was having a seizure, banging on his chest, and resembling an Albino Irish Gorilla. "Bring it Freak!"

Harry punched Dudley right in the face, shattering his jaw, and breaking him out with one punch.

"Oh and for the record, you hit like a wand waver."

Penguin managed to scramble up to his feet, blood dripping from his face and he looked at the thugs.

"Well don't just stand their with your thumbs up your bloody arses, a million dollars to the man who brings me his head."

The group of thugs were advancing on Harry, although many bolted, knowing that they needed to get why the getting was good.

A dark brooding figure appeared and the God damn Batman crashed through the skylight, shattering the glass and causing it to fly in every direction possible.

Harry saw, Jaime, Diana, and Dinah make their way in still dressed in their waitress uniforms, just as Batman was doing what Batman did best, and was about to engage the thugs in battle.

From an outside observer, all they were going to see was Harry Fucking Potter, the god damn Batman, and three waitresses about ready to rumble against a group of thugs.

* * *

 

It was much later into the evening and things quieted down. Batman showed up, broke some skulls, and disappeared into the night. After proving his point, Harry and his girls decided that they had overstayed their welcome.

The GCPD coming to potentially investigate the ruckus was likely, although money would be exchanging hands. Harry figured the Penguin would not be pressing charges out of pride.

That being said, Harry was escorting Veronica and Sapphire back to their apartment. Both women looked quite tipsy and giggly to be honest, they had a bit too much to drink. Penny had insisted on driving them home and she dropped them off here, before taking all of the girls completely back home.

That being said, Harry could tell that they were insist about spending more time with him and if he was to be honest, who was he to disagree with a beautiful woman?

"You know, you haven't let go of that thing all not," Veronica said, her eyes averted to Sapphire and the blonde gave a beautiful grin on her face, the trio was up in the elevator.

She was referring to the briefcase that Sapphire as holding, and the blonde leaned up against Harry. Mostly because she needed to be held up in her state of mind but also because that she just wanted to and who was Harry to argue with that situation to be honest.

"Well it's something that…..it's something that we should all be happy about," Sapphire said wit a hiccup, shaking her head a little bit.

In the past month, she had moved to a brand new place and come to think of it, it was much nicer than the previous place that she had been in. Harry had not really had a chance to check out her new place, so he was really looking forward to seeing what was going on here.

Then again, his eyebrow raised and he saw Roman Sionis of all people, heading to the direction of the elevator, passing Harry, Veronica, and Sapphire like two ships in the night, when they were stepping forward.

Harry averted his eyes towards Sapphire in a questioning manner and she smiled, waving off what he was saying. "Oh his girlfriend lives in the building, across the hallway in fact."

Harry smiled and Sapphire decided that there would need to be further elaboration needed.

"Well my father and him….he was friends with Roman's parents," Sapphire said and she smiled, waiting for Harry's reaction but given that there wasn't much of one, Sapphire took it as her opportunity to continue to press forward. She managed to fumble with her purse, looking for her keys.

It was by sheer force of will or perhaps sheer force of dumb luck that she didn't knock all of her things out of her purse onto the floor.

"So anyway…..he wouldn't do anything to hurt me…..even though he's Black Mask," Sapphire said, shaking her head.

' _Well, she seems confident about the fact,'_ Diana thought, her adrenaline was still at a heightened pace from the hunt and the fight earlier tonight. Then again, she wasn't the only one.

' _Can she be certain about that, though?'_ Faora thought and she watched Sapphire who was opening the door.

' _Well, to be fair, I'm sure that Roman might know that Sapphire's father would bury him alive if he even had a wrong thought about her,'_ Kara thought, he just seemed like the type to do so.

Sapphire managed to hold the door open and Veronica invited herself in.

"Well, honey, I've liked what you've done with the place," Veronica said, whistling when she looked around and Sapphire could not help but keep the smile that was spreading off of her face.

"Yeah, it's really great," Harry commented and Sapphire smiled, she took half of a step forward.

She could stand up straight, so she didn't drink as nearly as much she could. It just sudden movements caused her a great deal of discomfort. That being said, she ambled her way to the count, her heart drumming against her chest.

With good grace and better will, caught sight of Veronica making her move, grabbing Harry's shoulders and playfully pushing him into the direction of the couch.

She couldn't really aim completely right but that being said, Harry was able to hit the couch. It was at that moment that Sapphire made her way to the kitchen.

' _Points for effort, even though the execution is off,'_ Amanda added and the girls in the bond all nodded in agreement.

Veronica pushed herself onto Harry's lap, straddling it, and a grin filled her face, her eyes sparkling bright with delight.

Sapphire returned from her trip to the kitchen, carrying a bottle of champagne along with two glasses. She joined the group on the couch.

"So, I guess that I'd like to propose a toast,' Veronica said with a smile.

Harry naturally returned fire with a raised eyebrow and his mouth was half open. "A toast, to what, pray tell?"

The champagne was poured and Veronica said what it was, without missing a beat. "To making a lot of money."

Much laughter was shared following that and Harry wasn't going to lie, he really was not going to argue with that.

The moment that they got there, Harry figured out that something was going to happen, given the circumstances.

"And now, I think that tonight's fun should end with a real….bang," Veronica commented, whispering in Harry's ear and she could feel him against her. The smile crossed her face. "I think that you get my drift."

Veronica's warm hot lips met Harry's and the two shared a blistering kiss. It was the kind of kiss that curled toes, and she grinded herself against Harry's land, her dress riding up slightly. He placed his hands on her bare thighs to hold her into place as the passionate tango of tongues continued, both of them trying to outdo the other as they pressed on and forward.

Sapphire's whine cut the kiss rather short. Veronica slipped to the side, with a small grin appearing on her face and she turned straight towards her. "Oh, you poor dear."

Veronica grabbed Sapphire around the face and their lips met in a passionate tango, their tongues binding together in this moment.

Harry watched the erotic scene before him and things were getting hotter and they were just going to really heat up from there.

Veronica wrapped her arms around Harry, grinding her body against his and she made her way down to her knees in front of Harry.

Sapphire smiled, she was excited to see what Veronica's reaction would be when she unraveled Harry. Needless to say, she was going to be really excited with what she was about ready to see.

The woman's eyes widened, with a wide smile on her face, with the red head cupping Harry's manhood in her hands.

"And now we see why all of the girls are smiling?" she asked, her top was about ready to give way to unleash her amazing breasts to the world.

"Well aren't you going to touch, or are you going to do?" Sapphire asked, egging her on and Veronica blew a kiss towards her.

The redhead arched her mouth down and she caught Harry's manhood into her mouth, bringing him deep down into her throat. The green eyed wizard closed his eyes, and could feel her mouth tighten around his tool when it pushed into the back of her throat.

She looked up at him, her mouth full of his cock and sure enough, she pushed him into her mouth once again.

Harry's hand loomed underneath Sapphire's dress, with his other hand ensuring that Veronica's mouth stayed the course once again.

"So, are you feeling good about tonight?" Harry asked, working his talented fingers into Sapphire's pussy and causing the woman to close her eyes, with the rush of pleasure coursing between her thighs being evident.

"Yes….yes….feeling good, feeling really good," she whispered, her heart thumping against her chest, the more that Harry worked his fingers into her pussy, the better that she felt, and he was pleasuring her.

She watched with Veronica taking him as deep into her throat as she could. She pulled out, so she can lick his head with a sloppy and ravenous hunger, her eyes sparkling with lust the more that she serviced him. Her lips dripped with hunger, the moisture coating his manhood as she proceeded to work him over all of the way.

Her lips once again passed around him, taking him all the way down her throat, bringing him into the back of her throat. That caused him to close his eyes, and just relax, feeling her throat enclose around his manhood. That felt extremely good to be honest, and he wanted more of it, he wanted all of it in fact.

Veronica's lips popped around him and she was humming lightly, trying to coax Harry's seed down her throat. The heat between her legs escalated the more that she worked him over. Moisture dripped all over her lips when she pushed him deep into her mouth, her tongue wrapping around him.

Eventually his salvia coated cock was about ready to pop its load. Sapphire pushed her hand down between his legs, playing with his balls, and she was coaxing the man's cum out of his balls.

"Brace yourself," Sapphire warned and sure enough, the redhead socialite could feel a burst full of his cum splatter into the back of her throat.

She nearly gagged on his cum but Sapphire held Veronica's face steady, her pussy already dripping with need, as he splattered his cum into her mouth.

Sapphire got up to her feet and sauntered over, her dress pulled up so her ass and pussy was exposed. She made sure Harry's eyes locked onto hers and then she grabbed her hands, running them over Veronica's face, Harry's cum still trailing from her lips and her tongue. The blonde leaned forward, her tongue pushing between Veronica's lips and then pushing even further deep into her mouth.

Harry watched the kiss that the two of them shared and it was erotic. To the point where the blood grew steadily to the area around his crotch.

Sapphire grabbed his crotch in a reverse hold and slowly turned around, lust dancing from her eyes when she looked at him. Hunger dripped from them when she slowly rubbed Harry up and down, feeling his hardness grow in her hand. That hardness was nothing compared to the hunger that was stirring in her belly for him.

"Seems to me like you're ready," Sapphire whispered and she pushed herself onto Harry, her soft thighs enveloping his cock in one fell swoop.

Vernonica's lips curled up in a pouty expression, watching Harry's cock disappear underneath Sapphire's dress. She pulled herself up.

"You know, maybe I should return the favor from earlier," Harry said and Veronica raised an eyebrow.

She did hear some rumors about Harry's oral skills, perhaps they were just rumors or perhaps there was something to it. She was moments away from finding out for sure.

Harry removed her panties and the redhead pushed herself down onto his face, his tongue pushing between her thighs.

The second that he was now completely in there, the woman could feel herself get launched into a one way trip to pleasure land. She could see Sapphire's thighs enclose around Harry's cock when she pushed herself up and brought herself down, forming a steady motion when she bounced upon him.

"Harry, send her to heaven," Sapphire begged him, his hands roaming through her body. Her dress was slowly working its way off of her body, her firm tits were close to beginning.

' _You know, she does give some good suggestions,'_ Kara thought and there was a lot of people through the bond who would have to give their agreement and their consent. Harry's hands roamed all over Sapphire's thighs once again and then she could feel Sapphire lean forward.

Veronica's moans indicated that Sapphire was playing with the redhead's tits and she was loving every single moment of it. A grin spread over Harry's face, he decided to spike the pleasure that they all felt up to a brand new level. His tongue brushed up between her thighs, going even deeper into her.

The redhead moaned, her hips working downwards onto Harry's tongue, riding it, pushing it against him. The more that she offered him, the more he took from her. This was a combination of the ultimate thrill of pleasure and she whimpered with Harry bringing his tongue deep into her dripping hot pussy.

"More, that's it more, give me more!" Veronica moaned and she could feel his tongue working into her.

Sapphire bounced up and down, her pleasure heightening as she felt him.

"That's great, oh he stretches me out so much, makes me feel things that I never thought was possible," Sapphire moaned, her thighs enveloping him, with her pussy rubbing him up and down. She kept bouncing higher, higher yet. The woman was completely rocking her hips against him and Harry returned her fire stroke from stroke.

"Now, you're really making me fucking jealous," Veronica said but she had to recover from the orgasm Harry's tongue gave her. Her body was shaking all over and Sapphire kept bringing her thighs down onto him once again.

"Good things come to good little girls who wait," Sapphire said, moaning with Harry's meat stick pushing into her.

"Well what if I'm a naughty rich bitch who likes being spanked?" Veronica asked in a saucy tone and she moaned with Harry's hands now on her backside, her pussy grinding into her face.

"Well I'm sure…..that you'll get what you want soon enough then….as well," Sapphire panted, she felt Harry work his way into her. His manhood speared into her, to stretch her walls walls and that was an amazing feeling to have. She thought that she was going to burst from the orgasm she felt.

Her backside rested against his balls and she pushed herself almost all the way up and then she sank her way down onto him. Her soft thighs worked against his tool and she closed her eyes, the rush was almost spiking through her body.

"Fuck, fuck me."

Sapphire moaned and she could feel Harry about ready to give her reward, with a smile on her face.

His cock spurted its gift, sending it splashing between her. The blonde vixen writhed and moaned, with Harry pushing himself into her. She continued to milk his orgasm all the way to completion.

Sapphire could see Veronica's eyes traveling against the bear skin rug and she smiled.

"So is that….."

"Yes, it is," Sapphire said, almost as if he caught her thoughts right off at the past. "Sooo, you want to try it?"

"Yes, I'll….." Veronica said and she watched Sapphire saunter over, her hips swaying. Veronica's eyes locked onto the woman's nice firm ass and then Sapphire got down, her legs spread. She was almost beckoning Veronica to come and take a taste.

Needless to say, Veronica was more than bound to take a taste, her pussy and ass exposed to Harry. She kneeled down between Sapphire's legs and started to suck the cum hungrily out from behind her thighs.

"You've been waiting for this all night," Harry told her, his hands placed onto her hips and he caused her to shiver in pleasure, his hands once again roaming her body. "You said that you wanted this, well you're going to get it, you're going to get all of it."

She could feel things heat completely up between her thighs and Harry once again was about ready to slip behind her from behind. His manhood pushed deep between her thighs.

A bit of pain went with the territory of accommodating such a guest but Veronica was going to overlook that with the pleasure that she felt. His hands roamed her body, exploring every last curve, every single peak, every bit of her.

The woman felt his hands roam over her body and again, she could not help but get excited with what he was doing to her. His fingers roamed hungrily exploring her soft body, every last kook and cranny was his to do with as he pleased and she really hoped that he would do pretty much everything that he pleased with her body.

All of it, it was his, his, and his, oh yes, that was most certainly is. His hands roamed all over her body, bringing her lust up to a fever pitch and a nice peak.

"Just let me know, and I'll be here with you all of the way," Harry said, pushing into her and Sapphire could only slide back, so she could watch the show. Her blonde locks dropped down around her face, with her finger pushing between her legs, working into herself, her hips pushing up.

"Ohhh, yes," Sapphire moaned and she watched as Harry plunged into Veronica Vreeland from behind.

"Take me, take me all of the way, take me all night long, until I can't sit anymore," she pleaded with him and Harry grabbed onto both hands full of her hair, pushing himself into her from behind.

The green eyed wizard was going to oblige her desires, her begging for him. His hands worked over her body and the pleasure spiked over her body, his hands once again.

Veronica could feel herself being slowly fucked into a stupor and her mind was being brought to another level to be honest. Her hips twitched with Harry pushing himself into her. He took her all of the way to the edge and then brought her back. His thrusts pumped into her.

"I'm yours Harry, harder, fucker me harder, please," she begged, and he placed his hands on her breasts, feeling them and that caused her lustful moaning to increase even more.

He could see Sapphire lying off to the side of them, more on the carpet then the rug really, but her fingers pushed between her smoldering hot thighs, working them in and out. The blonde placed her fingers up but Veronica snatched them, licking Sapphire's cum off of the blonde vixen's fingers.

This erotic sight continued to push Harry further to the brink, his balls were getting really heavy and he was getting closer to his edge. The woman closed her eyes, and she reared her head back.

"In me, please, please, please Harry, I know you want to," Veronica begged him.

Another round was about to come to an end but Harry had lost track of how many orgasms she experienced but the thing was, he was pretty sure that she had. His hands roamed her backside, feeling it up in all of her supple glory. His thrusts pushed to the brink once more.

Heavy with cum, his balls deposited his seed into her garden. Veronica bit down on her lip and felt the rush of his hot cum spurting into her body, coating her insides. She reared her head back and he pushed himself into her further.

His cum was a treat to behold and she closed her eyes, rolling her hips back, accepting his gift, collapsing on the rug.

Sapphire slid over, her pussy open and wet and Harry smiled.

It was switching out like this throughout the night until both girls were fucked into a mindless stupor.

* * *

 

Tonight's night was a fucking mess. One could say that this was one of the worst nights in the life of Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot, and he kept cursing up a storm. His injuries from the night were bad, physically speaking but there was nothing more bad that the wounds that he had to his pride.

"Fucking son of a bitch brat, thinks he's better than me, thinks that he can do this to me, well he hasn't seen the last of me, no mark my words, I'm going to…..he's not going to ruin me, not now."

Oswald Cobblepot, better known as the Penguin, began to mutter furiously under his breath. His elbow was completely shattered, but that was nothing compared to the job that Potter did on Dudley's jaw. He aimed for the fences and struck hard, shattering the boy's jaw. That was an annoyance to say the least.

The Penguin returned to see the aftermath, the club was long since cleared out. This was supposed to be the greatest day of his life but yet it turned out to be bloody horrifying to put things bluntly.

His fist clenched together, along with his teeth, anger flashed through his eyes.

He made his way towards the club once again. Patrons cleared out, so did the police, but he was sure that the state of his back room was a mess. The god damn Batman showed up as well, which really added to his pain in the ass.

"Fucking hell," Penguin said, looking at one of the chairs that got busted. The tables that were overturned in the club and he groaned.

Mr. Walrus would be out of action once again and the Penguin stopped, seeing Tracey joining him someway there. All he wanted to do was get into his office, have a smoke, maybe a drink, and just pretend this fucking night never happened.

"Ozzie….."

"Tracey, not one word," he said shortly, his temper had a chance to cool down a little bit on his way back but all of what happened tonight was an ugly reminder of all that he lost and all that he would have had to rebuild once again.

One gruesome hand was placed on the door, he was caught off guard by a smell. Cobblepot paused and he sniffed.

Surely not….another sniff once again and the Penguin shook his head, he smelled something.

The smell of sex…..combined with smoke could be heard from the office door. That being said, Penguin turned around, and looked at Tracey, his eyes narrowing.

"What?" she asked, a look of surprise on her face at the sharp look that her boss was giving her and the female took half of a step back.

"I find it funny, that only two people can get in there is you and I and it sure as shit wasn't me who got it on in here," Cobblepot said, his eyes flashing towards her and her mouth opening in protest but Cobblepot caught him off. "And the smoke in here, it doesn't smell like the cigars that I normally favor….."

He followed his nose and looked around; the desk was completely and utterly destroyed to put things bluntly. That being said, his cough got even more prominent the more that he walked forward.

Tracey, in her own elegant way, summed up the situation quite nicely. "It smells like shit in here, Ozzie."

"No shit, it smells like shit," Cobblepot said and after some prodding he managed to see it was coming from his safe.

Cobblepot worked quickly, dialing up the combination and opened the safe up with a tug. No sooner did the safe open, did a blast of smoke nail him full on in the face. There was an ugly scowl that crossed his face, and he slowly shook his head, his teeth gritting in fury.

Someone torched the contents of the safe and he kicked the side of his desk, but that only did more to add more clutter to the office. He was not getting his way tonight to put things bluntly and things were getting from bad to worse, that being said.

Tracey didn't even recognize half of the words that were spoken underneath Ozzie's breath and she held her tongue, her arms crossed against each other. She waited for him to get it all out of his system, knowing that he was going to be a pill to deal with when he was like this.

His night was shot but he huffed and puffed, managing to get himself into a calm tone or at least as calm as he was going to be tonight. Teeth gritted, Cobblepot managed to speak one more ominous statement before he collapsed in his chair.

"If he thinks that I'm just going to let this shit go he's got another thing coming."

* * *

 

After the last night, Bruce Wayne decided that now was the proper time to wrap up his morning workout. It was the next morning; the sun was just beginning to bring its first rays of sunlight into the world. That being said, the man who was a bat by night made his way forward.

He picked the towel off of the work out bench and swiped it off of his forehead, wiping the sweat off of it. Now that he was done, he really was about in the mood for some breakfast. He thought that he could have a quick bite to eat and see if any of the news from what happened last night was heard.

It was quite the night and from he might to deduce, it was just beginning. Anyway, breakfast awaited but Bruce stopped and his keen instincts picked up something. He was about ready to make some himself, but he really caught the smell of something already being hooked.

Bruce further moved his way down the hallway from the gym area towards the kitchen and he most certainly head Alfred's voice in the midst. The other voice, well he could make out that it was female but he really couldn't make out anything further other than that. The key point was that it was someone that he was really comfortable talking with.

It might as well have been Penny come to think about, she could have swung by to help her Uncle after the ordeal that he went through.

Bruce opened the door and he stopped suddenly, his mouth opening. He was caught off guard.

Granted, Alfred was sitting at the table as he expected that much was not a surprise and you did not have to be even a great detective to deduce that one. That being said, the other party that was sitting at the table with Alfred caught him off guard.

It was a young Asian female, dressed in a sleek black bodysuit with silky dark hair that looked up from her conversation. She looked to be about Bruce's age and the young man turned towards Alfred, a questioning gaze penetrating the man's face.

Alfred thought that an introduction would most certainly be in order. "Master Bruce, this is Yamashiro Tatsu, Tatsu, this is Master Bruce."

"A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Wayne," Tatsu said in a respectful tone, shaking hands with Bruce and Alfred decided to get down to business. His elbow was in a sling.

"I've taken the liberty of hiring Tatsu as your new body guard," Alfred said and Bruce gave him one of those looks. "You'll find that she is extremely competent and Mr. Kane would take the liberty of hiring another bodyguard for you, someone who might be more…stifling then the last one."

Bruce nodded. "I was going to….."

"Knowing how busy you get, sir, you would procrastinate in doing so," Alfred said and Bruce would have to agree that he would procrastinate in the matter, thus there would be a choice that would be given to him that would be less than desirable.

Bruce conceded that fact and he nodded, a lump that was in his throat. "Very well, your qualifications….."

"I have done bodyguard work before, and I was trained in several disciplines and I've worked with the government, although I'm afraid the exact details of the matter are confidential," Tatsu told him.

"Well if Alfred says that you're qualified, then I believe you," Bruce said and he looked at her.

"I prefer to show not tell over time," she commented and there was a challenging tone to her voice to contradict her. There were other things that drew her to Gotham City, then essentially babysitting a billionaire, who apparently had more than a few people that were after his head.

"The best people don't talk about their accomplishments, that's something that's refreshing," Bruce said and Alfred nodded in agreement. "And the funeral of my former bodyguard, make sure it's paid for in full, I don't want his family to be left with any expenses."

Tatsu thought that the fact that he talked so casually about the funeral of her predecessor was kind of foreboding but never the less she enjoyed the challenge.

Bruce didn't say anything, but he thought that given what happened to Cobblepot, the fact that his elbow was shattered, it was only fair, given what he did to Alfred indirectly on his orders.

"So, what is it that you do have the clearance to tell me?" Bruce asked her, raising his eyebrow. She could tell that she had her secrets, as much as he had hers, but it wasn't really fun in spilling them out.

"Well Alfred, is my godfather," she admitted and Bruce turned towards him with a questioning gaze in his eyes.

"It never came up in casual conversation, sir," Alfred admitted and Bruce nodded, that was fair enough.

"He made sure that I was taken care of after my father….well after he died," Tatsu said. "When I was barely a year old."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Bruce said sincerely.

"Yes, I know that you know what it's like to lose your parents…."

"At least I got to know my father for eight years."

"Which might be even worse than not knowing him, that one taste," Tatsu argued but she shook her head. "I'm not really the type to get all sentimental. So are attempts on your life all that common?"

Bruce flashed back to the church basement. Truth be told, it was not the fact that Bruce Wayne was in danger that caused for the majority of his problems.

"There's a disgruntled employee and…The Penguin appears to have had it out for me," Bruce said and Alfred looked towards him.

"The Penguin, sir?" Alfred asked, acting like this was news to him.

"Yes, I've heard of him, I made sure to look into some of the more….unsavory characters before I came into Gotham City," Tatsu said, and it obviously confirmed that this was in the works for a bit longer than Alfred let on at first. "But perhaps you should have some breakfast, because you'd be a lot easier to protect if you had your strength."

Bruce was not about to argue with that point and it was time to have his proper amount of nourishment to start out the day.

* * *

 

Harry was an early riser, even after the work out that he had the previous night. After several rounds, he left both of the girls smiling. And breakfast was good as well, dessert might have been better.

Now after a trip back home to change, Harry was back in his official lab in the RAO tower, and ready to get back to work.

"Good morning, Harry," Tamara said, nearly passing by him on her way down but she put the breaks on and smiled to greet him.

"Good morning, Tamara, how are you this morning?" Harry asked her and the woman responded to him.

"I'm very good, I have some paperwork for you to take care of….whenever you're ready," Tamara said and Harry smiled. The woman was splitting her time between the Wayne Enterprises tower and the RAO tower. Harry flipped through it but the woman looked at him. "Do you want a summary of it?"

"Yes, please."

Tamara cleared her throat, taking a deep breath. "Well the building is going to be staffed soon, as it's finished."

"Right, right," Harry said, he wanted to figure this was all in order and it was good that she was summarizing it.

"You're going to have to conduct some interviews, at least until you'll able to hire a human resources manager," Tamara said and she smiled with Harry verifying some of what she said. "But I'd figure that you would want a hands on touch to things to make sure the right kind of people are staffed."

"Of course, it all seems to be in order," Harry said, signing off on the papers. He could read things in a fraction of a second. "So, how are things going for the launch on the fifth?"

Tamara shared Harry's excitement because this was going to be a big thing for both Wayne and RAO. "Things are good to go…..my father made a suggestion that you might be able to use. He thinks that more units should be made, because the demand is going to exceed the supply. You know, it's more than initially expected."

"That's a good idea," Harry agreed, he was mulling over the idea himself but it was good to have more feedback. "Will that be all?"

"That's all for now, I'll let you know if anything else breaks," Tamara told him and Harry smiled.

"Thank you very much, you have a good morning."

Harry turned around and heard the chatter; someone beat him to the lab already. He made his way towards the lab and saw Pamela speaking in an animated discussion with Nora Fries. She did mention that she wanted to stop by some time to see the facilities that RAO had to offer, and Pamela wanted to meet with her.

"So the cells would not die…..although you got to be careful not to overdo the process because if you overdo it too much, you'll kill them, just as much as you'd kill any human cells. But a similar process is applied to it."

Harry listened to them converse for another couple of moments more but it was time for him to get down to business.

"Doctor Potter, I didn't hear you come in," Nora said and she watched in amusement as Pamela greeted Harry with a tight hug and a warm kiss to the lips, which he returned.

"I just got here, had a couple things come up this morning….sorry if I was….."

"No it wasn't a problem, in fact I was running a little bit late," Nora told him and she smiled. "So, as I mentioned, there are a few things that I would have liked to run by you."

"Why don't you tell me all about it as I take you on a tour?" Harry asked and she smiled, she thought that was a good idea.

She smiled and motioned for him to lead the way.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on September 22** **nd** **2014.**

_A very rare, two lemon chapter. Granted one of them didn't feature Harry, but it featured one of the Alphas so there you go. Faora's busy recruiting.  
_

_Selina making assholes that deserve it will never get old._

_We see Cobblepot's vendetta against Harry, Bruce, and pretty much their entire families. Harry snarking Dudley by using the names his Mummy gave him might have been the key point in this scene. And Harry's casual escape worked well. Yeah, he was distracting Cobblepot while they fucked with his club, the ramifications haven't been fully felt.  
_

_Hi, Tatsu, fancy meeting you here._

_So see you on Monday as we continue this six part arc._


	54. Matter of Family Part Five

**Chapter Fifty Four: Matter of Family Part Five.**

* * *

Harry was about ready to have lunch with Tamara Fox. To be honest, they had a brief meeting in her father's office and worked with each other on work related matters on a fairly regular basis. Other than that, they had not enough time to deal with personal matters, rather business matters. Therefore, he was going to correct that situation.

That being said, he wanted to correct that matter, inviting her to lunch which she eagerly accepted. After his business meeting was done with Pamela and Nora, Harry gave his goodbyes and left both of them talking about a couple of projects that they were working on.

That being said, they had long since left the office, and they were in a restaurant in downtown Gotham.

Tamara whistled as she realized where she was. "I'm surprised we got in here so fast…..I mean this is a restaurant that you normally have to get a reservation days, if not a couple of weeks in advance."

Harry could not help but feel a little bit smug with himself, but he gave her the most accurate assessment of the situation. "Well the fact that I'm Gotham's Golden Boy that opens a lot of doors for me that normally wouldn't be open."

"Fair enough, fair enough," Tamara agreed with a smile, sitting down and the two of them waited for their food as it was ordered. "So…this is the first time that the two of them have had a chance to sit down and have a real conversation, we only know a little bit about each other and our families so….."

"Well there is my mother Lily, and my sisters Amanda and Emily," Harry said and Tamara smiled and nodded. In his mind's eye, he could almost see the twins taking a bow. "Then there is my mother's younger sister, my Aunt Rose, and I have a few cousins that are lingering around, most of them are living in the Smallville area. But you've already met Alexandra, haven't you?"

"Yes, I've already met her, in passing, but she does leave a presence wherever she goes, doesn't she?"

' _Guilty as changed,'_ Faora commented in amusement.

"Yes, she tends to not be forgotten," Harry agrees and he cleared his throat. "Then there's my cousin Martha, Clark, who is her son, and then Nell and her niece Lana…..so I've got a lot of family around."

"Right, well you know my father all too well, and then there's my mother Tanya," Tamara said and that really was something that jived well with her. "My little sister Tiffany…..and my brother Lucas…..who shares a lot of your interests with you come to think about it, so you'd get along well enough."

"Really?" Harry asked.

"His interests in Martial Arts especially," Tamara continued and she curled her lips into a smile. "I'm really surprised that someone like you hasn't been interested in competing. You might be able to do well."

Harry raised his eyebrow, to be honest, this wasn't the first time that something like this had come up, but he gave his honest answer.

"Well, I've thought about it, and decided not to go with it."

Tamara raised her eyebrow and pressed on. "Might I ask why?"

"I've been training for a long time," Harry told her and she nodded in response. "And it does seem like an interesting idea but it seems like I have a bit of an unfair advantage. I know that might seem arrogant to be honest."

"No, not really," she replied, shaking her head. "It just shows that you are confident in your abilities."

She gave a slight blush and shook her head. "That's too bad."

"Dinah did though, Dinah Lance," Harry told her and she nodded, she knew he was talking about. "I helped train her, and I had a pretty good idea what it was like when I helped train her."

Tamara raised her eyebrow and she was rather curious about something. Harry could tell that she almost wanted to ask a question but was mentally wrestling with herself trying not to spit it out. He had given her the opening if she was going to ask but she decided not to ask.

Perhaps there was a second where she paused and their food arrived. Both of them made small talk.

"Oh this is good stuff," Tamara managed and Harry smiled at her.

"Given some of the reputation this city has, it has a lot of great places to eat," Harry told her and Tamara nodded her head up and down, looking rather pleased.

"That's the best thing about Gotham City, if you can get past all of the crime and the insanity," Tamara told him and Harry smiled, taking his drink.

"So, you went to GPA with Pamela Isley?"

Tamara raised her eyebrow and nodded with a smile. "We met each other a couple of times in passing, and she seemed nice enough, but we ran in very different circles. I mean she was into the sciences and I was in business and history. She was fairly withdrawn, keeping to herself you know…..except for a few close friends, but I never had a problem with her."

"Well it's kind of hard to," Harry said, obviously one could see how Pamela was a little withdrawn and she was as such when he met her.

"But I know enough to know that she was one of the top students in her year there, so whatever worked for her," Tamara said, with a smile on her face. "And you must have left an impression with her."

Harry raised an eyebrow, looking at her. "Yes, I literally almost ran into her, it must have been a lifetime ago."

' _Sure seems like that sometime,'_ Pamela chimed in, briefly flittering into the bond link.

Tamara and Harry continued to have their lunch together.

"I have to say that RAO really is going to drive Gotham City's business for a long time…." Tamara said but she paused and blinked. "Actually more than Gotham City, perhaps the entire world."

"In time, that's the plan, but you're either going to go big or not go anywhere at all," Harry told her and Tamara nodded.

"You got to really be ambitious out there," Tamara commented lightly and Harry gave her a shadow of a smirk.

"You seem to be an ambitious sort….."

"Well I wanted to earn the spot that I did, and I think that given all of the work that you've given me, I've proven myself."

"Many times over," Harry said casually and she gave a smirk to him, dabbling her fish stick into the sauce and giving it another bite. The two continued their conversation while enjoying a nice leisurely lunch.

* * *

After their lunch had concluded, Harry drove Tamara back up to the Wayne Enterprises Tower. Given that she had been dividing her time between the two places and this was on his way to something that he wanted to do for a while, it was just as well that he found his way there.

Harry wanted to take a tour of the Archives in the bottom level of the building or what used to be Applied Sciences before Applied Sciences became an active division of the company. It was something that him, Bruce, and Lucius worked together and it was something that was well worth the work that they done.

Applied Sciences was exactly what it said on the tin and the former Applied Sciences were the Archives, although it would have had its own uses. That being said, Harry was making his way downwards and ready to take the tour.

Harry made his way down and he saw Lucius Fox was busy at work with an interesting little project, actually there was a few interesting projects. Harry personally thought that he could really get whip things up for a second.

"Yes, as you could have guessed, there is fair amount that would be useful around here," Lucius said looking up from his work with a smile on his face. "And I'm sure that there are many things that you have already thought of that could be extremely useful….."

"Those grenades look to be something that could be useful," Harry said and Lucius inclined his head to a nod.

"Pick up one of them, and hurl it at that target," Lucius commented lightly and Harry picked up the grenade and did so.

Upon impact, the glue burst out, creating a sticky net that very little would be able to burst out of.

"And I'm assuming that the discharge could be controlled remotely," Harry remarked lightly and Lucius's eyebrow rose up after a second.

"You know, that's an intriguing thought, I wouldn't know, but it would be something that would be well worth our time to check into," Lucius said and Harry could really say no more other than that.

Harry looked over the grapnel, to be honest, he snagged the blueprints for those a while back.

"So, the attachment that adds three different hooks?" Harry asked.

"Are you lost to see how practical something like that would be?" Lucius asked with a chuckle and Harry smiled in response, he kind of was to be honest.

' _Well, there's overkill and there's this,'_ Faora commented.

' _I suppose one could use it in certain circumstances,'_ Diana suggested and there was an agreement from all.

"Yes, I'm pretty much struggling where that might come in handy but everyone has their own tastes, I'm pretty sure that was an idea that came from Bruce himself."

"You would be correct," Lucius added, and there were a number of items that were littered around the area of Archives, including a fair few of them that caught Harry's interests.

To be honest, his mind went in a few different areas, and he had some ideas, but it was always good to get some inspiration, wherever he could find it."

"Ah this may be something that you might find interesting," Lucius said with an eyebrow raised towards Harry and his gaze averted a little bit to him.

' _That…..is that what I think it is?'_ Diana asked and there was a second where Harry came back through from the bond link, much the amusement of several parties.

"Ye…..is that what I think it is?"

"It's a prototype engine, something that is extremely powerful," Lucius said, amused by the fact that Harry was trying his best to keep his eyes from bugging out of the front of his head due to the excitement. To the young man's credit, he managed to maintain his composure for the most part.

"Fascinating."

"It's powerful for several reasons," Lucius continued, still fairly amused by the reaction that he was getting from the young man. "It's so powerful that we couldn't really design a vehicle that could hold it without breaking apart. It would go so fast that it would lift off the ground in some places or the tires would disintegrate. With the rest of the vehicle quickly following. It's made off of a jet engine, so I suppose that you would not be able to find a land based vehicle."

Lucius Fox had to say, that seeing Harry Potter in a state where his mouth was wide open, and he was rendered speechless was rather amusing. Not to mention a little bit unsettling but he actually found it to be a personal achievement that he was able to find something that would render him speechless.

"So, I take it that you're interested?"

Harry's lips curled into a smile and he managed to keep himself from drooling to keep the air of professional.

Diana on the other hand, did not have any such restrictions.

' _So, I guess you're not above it after all,'_ Donna teased her sister which caused Diana to snap back into reality.

' _I was caught off guard,'_ Diana said, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice and Harry had to turn his attention back, although he was looking over the engine to make his temporary distraction and amusement at Diana who was trying keep herself calm.

"Yes, I'm very interested."

Lucius decided to go right in for the appropriate follow up question. "So, I'm guessing that you can do something with it, if you're interested?"

Harry was really looking it over, it seemed so far and ahead from a lot but it presented an interesting challenge.

"I'd enjoy the challenge of trying," Harry replied, making sure that Lucius nodded in response.

"I'm certain that you would," Lucius answered, and the tour continued, although that was the main event. Still it would be rude to leave someone hanging after seeing something like that but that sure was something.

* * *

After the tour concluded, Harry mentally assessed his options. His plan to get his revenge on Cobblepot was put on hold for a little bit. At least until he was lured into a false sense of security and then Harry would take him out.

' _You know, after last night, you must have him sweating like…..well like an oversized bird…'_

' _Like a Penguin in an overcoat?'_ Amanda chimed in helpfully and Harry smiled.

' _I don't want to strike just yet, I want him to…..stew a little bit more, and then make him think that was my revenge,'_ Harry said and Jaime chimed in.

' _So you're making him play the waiting game,'_ she said and Harry once again smiled at her.

' _Exactly,'_ Harry told her, making his way towards his destination. _'That being said, there's something else that the Penguin diverted my attention from and I want to make sure that I give it the proper amount of attention.'_

' _The Halloween attacks?'_ Jaime asked, that had happened around the time of the botched kidnapping attempt so it was first and foremost on their mind.

' _Yes,'_ Harry said shortly and he made his way towards the area of Wayne Manor. He thought about going through the front door and asking for Bruce in that way, but that really didn't have enough style in his opinion.

He did have a chance to look over the information that Oracle sent him over about the murders on Halloween night, what she was able to track down through the GCPD. There were no real leads, which meant that the person who was behind this was not a known player in the game. Or at least he or she was playing a very dangerous game.

Being that it was Halloween, it was obvious that he or she was wearing a costume of some sort. Therefore it went without saying that finding a strange and mysterious figure would be trying to locate a needle in a haystack. It would be borderline impossible to do so, and Harry was going to potentially cut out the borderline part about it, it was going to be impossible, very impossible in fact.

That being said, Harry was on his way to see Bruce and see if he was able to dig up any further through some untraditional methods. He hoped that he held that one last piece.

' _And I'm going in through an untraditional way, funny enough.'_

He could see Bruce sitting in cave that was located underneath Wayne Manor, the aptly named "Batcave." The cave was a work in progress, and he was parked in an extravagant looking office chair in front of the computer.

He was wearing the clothes that he wore underneath his costume, so not the full costume entirely.

Harry cleared his throat to get the man's attention and Bruce slowly turned around to face Harry. There was a stiff and solemn tone to his voice when he spoke.

"May I help you?"

Bruce's cave was his comfort zone so the fact that he was visited in the cave, even by someone that he trusted, that was rather unsettling to say the least. The only visible cue that he showed based off of his annoyance, was the not so subtle eye twitch that flashed over him.

"So, I take it that you have a new guest staying up in the Manor House?" Harry asked and Bruce slowly turned away from the screen, so he could fully face him.

"I should have figured that nothing would escape your notes, but her name is Yamashiro Tatsu, she was hired by Alfred as my bodyguard," Bruce said and Harry smiled.

"It's for the best, given you know that Kane would saddle you with someone else and you wouldn't like who he would stick you with."

"Yes, I would concur," Bruce agreed and perhaps Harry was just hearing things, perhaps not but the hint that he got in the tone in Bruce's voice, one could see that he thought the last bodyguard was, to put things bluntly, a royal pain in the ass.

That being said, the name was something that Harry really heard before but Penny was quick to chime in with the assistance.

' _She's Alfred's goddaughter, I remember meeting her before I went to Hogwarts, the two of us were pretty close,'_ Penny added.

"She's Alfred's goddaughter."

Bruce gave him that Batman look but Harry didn't really become bothered by that. He was used to getting such looks and he might be one of the only people in the world who could be immune by the glare of doom and death directed by Bruce Wayne. All he responded with was a slightly arched eyebrow.

"So, anyway, I didn't come to the cave for idle chatter," Harry said and Bruce nodded.

"I figured as much, mind telling me why you're here," Bruce said and he gave Harry the necessary opening for him to chime in.

"I wanted to know what you found out, if anything, about the murders that took place on Halloween night."

"And I guess your phone was broken?"

Harry once again shook his head, pretty much avoiding that crisp statement. That was just the way that Bruce was and he would have to accept that.

Bruce managed to turn his attention and therefore divert Harry's attention to a tack board, where there were various articles and pictures posted. It was detective work, the old fashioned way. Harry was not completely lacking in knowledge there, but at the same time, it might be one of his weaker areas so it went without saying that there is room for improvement.

"It was the same individual that caused the death of the nine mothers on Labor Day, and it's uncertain whether it's a man or a woman, but I'm leaning towards a man," Bruce said, looking towards him. "But given that whoever it was, they were able to blend in with a costume on Halloween, it would be hard to tell. If there were any eyewitness accounts of something strange happening, they were not coming forward. And there are a lot of predators that roam on Halloween night as well."

' _A cheery thought,'_ Kara chimed in.

' _But unfortunately true,'_ Rose thought grimly.

"Once might be an isolated incident, but twice like this, it's becoming to be set up like a pattern of some sort," Harry explained and once again Bruce nodded.

"He may be picking a single holiday a month, because in September, he struck only on Labor Day, but not on Arbor Day," Bruce explained in his usual swift manner. "Nine mothers on Labor Day, and he skipped past Columbus Day and went straight to Halloween."

"With the ten different severed heads," Harry replied grimly, that was a statement that was sure. "So this month, it mean's Veteran's Day or Thanksgiving."

"It means one or another, but until we have a viable suspect, all we can do is prepare for a crime that may or may not happen on a certain day."

Harry thought that Bruce was pretty much on the same wavelength as he was. This Calendar Killer was going to strike again until they brought him or maybe her to justice. The problem was finding whoever was behind this because there were no suspects.

* * *

Arnold Flass clutched his hands together and he was sitting underneath the watchful gaze Rachel Dawes and Harvey Dent. He wasn't intimidated; no he was scared to fucking death. But he had really good reason to be.

The fact of the matter was that Frank Pratt's murder caused a lot of the more corrupt members of the force to lose their shit, in a figurative sense, and perhaps in a more literal sense. But Flass wasn't privy to such personal details, nor did he want to. Batman spooking him didn't help but the fact that some corrupt cops.

"So you came out of whatever hole you were hiding in, didn't you?" Harvey asked, his voice calm and crisp. But it was just as well, even a rat like Flass would have to come out to life sooner or rather than later.

"Dent, I'll handle this," Rachel said, peering at Flass. "You want to be in protective custody….."

"Hey, if someone was popping cops, they're come after me," Flass said and his hands were shaking once again. "I mean, you know Loeb and Branden want to throw me under the bus already, I'm sure you've figured that out."

"Maybe we have, maybe we haven't,' Rachel commented acidly, she was holding a folder in her hand, with a pen balanced on the top of it. Flass leaned forward but she stepped back. "Nothing that you need to concern yourself with."

The office was darkened, with the exception of the light that was focused on him. Flass felt like he was in one of those hard boiled gangster movies, and he was perched in the hot seat.

"You seem to be in an interesting position right now," Rachel said and she smiled. She had the man cornered and the more he sweated, the more pleased that he would be "You need protective custody and we need information."

Flass sweated even more, and neither of them was sure that was possible.

"So, either we cut a deal now, or you get thrown away, and we get them eventually….but either way, I'm getting information," Rachel said and there was a predatory smile on her face, that faded into a more business like tone before Harvey noticed.

Harvey had some strong moral objections to this entire mess but he was going to concede one thing. If you needed to catch the big fish, you needed to user some of the smaller fish to bait the trap. And given that some of those larger fish had a pretty nasty bite, the sooner that they were able to put them in the net, the better off they would all be.

"I want full protection against everything, I don't want some nutcase in a costume coming after me again, and I don't want some cop killer coming after me, and I'll tell you anything that you want to know, anything I know, anything about where some of the skeletons are buried."

"Rachel, can I have a word with you for a second?" Harvey asked her and Rachel raised her eyebrow, and then woman nodded after a second.

The two of them are out of earshot of Flass and it was here where Harvey decided to voice this objection that he had.

"You aren't going to let Flass walk free, aren't you?" Harvey asked her and there was a second where the questioning glint flashed through his eyes and directed completely at her.

"What would you have me do, Harvey?" Rachel asked him and Harvey could really see that the ball was out of his court. "We might have Maroni in time out for a little bit, but he's going to get out eventually. And we can use whatever Flass gives us to nail him to the wall, along with Loeb and anyone else."

"I don't like this," Harvey said and Rachel back at him, her jaw set and her expression looking fairly focused.

"We're playing a very dangerous game, we're going to have to do things that we don't like and Flass is a small time player who is expendable and if he knows something, anything, we should pounce on it," Rachel said and determination flashed through her eyes. It was almost terrifying how determined that she was. "Trust me on this."

"I trust you, I just don't trust him…"

"I'm giving him a pass right now, but it's not infinite and you know someone like him will try his luck again eventually," Rachel said and Harvey nodded.

"Fair enough, I'll back you on this one."

"That's all I'm asking you for, not asking you to like it, but I'm asking for you to help me get through this one," Rachel said and Harvey gave one of those non-committal grunts. Once again, he didn't like it, but he was going for it.

They walked far down the hallway where Flass couldn't hear them if he had his ear pressed to the door but that being said, the corrupt was not about to try his luck. He was perched on the chair, like a good little boy, who was waiting for Mommy and Daddy to come back and discuss what they were going to do with him.

"So, Flass, we've talked, and we're willing to give the immunity that you want, along with the protection," Rachel said and she paused, showing that there was a catch and this deal wasn't made for cheap. "Providing you tell us what we want to know."

Flass figured that something like this would not come cheap but given that he was in deep far enough, he was out of options.

"So, you better start spilling and hope that this is worth our time," Harvey told him and his gaze told Flass that he would sooner let him rot. And would if he didn't give him the information that he wanted. "Or, you're going out there, back with the sharks."

"Oh, it's worth your time, I swear to God."

"He might not be able to protect you for long," Rachel said and she cleared her throat. Her arms folded across her chest impatiently when she looked at him. "I'm waiting."

* * *

' _How could someone be that smart but yet be so blaringly stupid,_ Barbara thought, as she had a computer out in front of her. This took the award for something, although she was really not sure what exactly what kind of award it took. It caused her to put in a few more hours of work than she would have liked to, that much was for sure.

Abject stupidity maybe, actually it was fairly likely. The detective in question managed to bypass the firewalls on his computer and disable the security settings. Then he was jacked up with what seems to be thousands of computer viruses. Spyware was out the ass and Barbara could not help but shake her head in agitation.

' _So, you can bypass the security settings, good for you, although how you bypass them and why you bypass them, that's really not something that I'm not sure that I'm going to approve of,'_ Barbara thought to herself, her lips pursed together in complete agitation. _But you don't seem to think that you might need a good anti-virus protection….yeah, he was looking at porn. Nothing is this infected without hopping on porn sites.'_

That being said, Barbara thought that this man was a candidate for a Darwin Award and not a moment too soon. She was performing the absolutely laborious and most importantly frustrating process of installing the software on the computer.

She was so far into her work and so far in trying to wrap her head around that fact. She looked up and saw Chief O'Hara bring in a young man who looked like your average technical support employee. His hair was tied back and he was wearing a pair of glasses, along with a nice pressed shirt and pants. His gaze was on Barbara.

"Well, hello, fancy meeting you here," he commented and he saw Barbara get up to face him. Chief O'Hara slipped down the hallway.

"Yeah, you are…."

"The head of the Cyber Crimes Division," the young man commented and Chief O'Hara returned to the office.

"Barbara….it's good to see you again," Chief O'Hara said looking at her with a grin, surveying her like a favorite uncle.

"It's good to see you as well," she said, greeting Chief O'Hara with a warm hug, he was almost like an honorary uncle to her.

"So what's this all about?"

"Well, this is Edward Nashton, he's the head of newly created Cyber Crimes Division," O'Hara replied and he sighed, when he hit upon the sudden realization of the fate of the tech employee that went missing. "I don't think that the last guy is going to come back."

In fact, there was a betting pool for the former IT support guy and when he was going to turn up. Half of the force suspected to be fishing his body out of the water any day now. The other half…..well they bet that he would never turn up or that he already turned up as a John Doe in another city.

"There is a high level of cyber crime throughout Gotham City and Mr. Nashton comes to us highly recommended."

Barbara looked at him and he smiled.

"That's right, it's time to ensure that Gotham City is a more secure place, and there isn't a person on Earth who could hack through what I have created," Nashton said, sounding rather pompous and self assured.

"Well you seem to be pretty confident about yourself," Barbara said, there was something about the smug nature of his voice that rubbed her the absolutely wrong way. And it was in a really bad way.

Harry was confident but at least he didn't come off as a douchebag about it. And this guy just reeked of douchebag.

"It's time for the GCPD to have someone who could handle the responsibility and who couldn't crack underneath he pressure," he said and Barbara frowned.

She wasn't sure if he was actively trying to undermine what she did but the thinly veiled thought that the person who was doing the job was not worthy was not missed by her. Especially given that she was the person in question who was doing the job. Her fist clenched for a moment.

"You do have your work cut out for you," Barbara said, almost sympathetic for the guy. "Are you sure you're up for it?"

"Please, it's time for someone competent to show you how it's down," Edward said and he smiled. "A lot of the technology….well it isn't bad for a noob but a master hacker would be able to poke through all of the holes, and I will ensure that people in this city will think twice when competing Cyber Crimes. Some of these people, they must have fished their hardware out of a dumpster."

Edward smiled, he had her in his line of sight and he decided to move in for the kill.

"But this isn't the place to discuss something like this," he said with what he thought was a charming smile but it came across as more of a creepy leer than anything else. Barbara's gaze locked onto him and she frowned at him. "Perhaps we can discuss things over coffee, it would just be the two of us."

"I don't think so, I've got work to do," Barbara said, turning around and giving him the not so subtle brush off.

"A pity, " Edward said, annoyed at the rejection. People had been rejecting him all of his life and he had been sick of it.

They would be respecting him all too soon; his genius could not and would not be denied. It was time to take charge of this problem and demonstrate how useful he could be.

' _You still have an attitude, where you don't respect your superiors, do you, Barbara,'_ Nashton said, he remembered how she spurned him years back when they were classmates together. He was going to show her that he's not a misfit.

Barbara made her excuses to get as far away from him as possible. He really had this presence about him that made her feel extremely uneasy.

Her lips curled into a frown, perhaps she was imagining things, but something about him seemed rather familiar and that wasn't a good thing that was a bad thing. Although she frantically racked her brain to figure out what that might have been but she was feeling nothing.

* * *

Holly made her way from the Club, walking forward from it. The last few weeks had been a turbulent one. She was staying for a couple of friends, other dancers at the club, while Selina was staying with Harry's until her apartment was finished.

Normally she would have gone home with her friends but she didn't feel much like waiting around for them. She didn't really want the hassle of dealing with paying for the cab, especially when you consider some of the douchebag cabbies in Gotham City.

Taking the train, which was something that she normally didn't feel all that confident about doing, but then again, desperate times called for desperate measure.

Holly took the short train ride home, not making eye contact with anyone. Her hands were folded in her lap, and she was grateful that her apartment was a short walk from the train station.

The woman made her way from the train station and walked forward into the dark and depressing night. There was hardly anyone around, the silence was eerie and Holly could feel a breeze.

Then suddenly, a hand was clapped over her mouth and she struggled against the grip of the female who grabbed her. She tried to keep her hand on her mouth to silence her, but not to smother her.

She elbowed the woman in the face, and tried to pull herself away, but she ran into two other women. They were well built and dangerous looking, the type of females that would be able to curb stomp a would be bad ass male.

One of the girl's grabbed her arms and pinned them violently behind her back. She tried to kick away but another girl grabbed her feet, and forced the down. On the backlash, she caught them with a dangerous punch to the solarplexes, doubling her over. She was gasping for air and completely winded.

"Just stay and be a good girl and there's no reason for you to get hurt, much," one of the girls whispered, pressing a knife against her windpipe.

Holly closed her eyes, feeling the twisted hard steel pressed against her throat. She managed to relax, well as much as someone could in a situation like this.

Jim Jansen walked into the scene, peering at her. He stood at the edge of the alleyway, with a car waiting for him.

"Nothing personal, really nothing too personal at all, it's just merely in the name of business," Jansen said and one of his female companion's forced Holly's face up to look him right in the eyes. "And you're the one who is going to help me send the message, girl…..really a shame really."

Jansen shook his head.

"We could have become close personal friends if the situation had just been a bit differently, you see," Jansen replied, wringing his hands out. "But, you don't play ball well…..accidents happen….and we'll try not to mangle your pretty little face too badly but…"

He snapped his fingers and then turned away, walking out of the alleyway.

The brutal sound of a body getting hit and stomped on could be heard.

Even Jansen winced a tiny bit as he heard the sound of leather smacking against flesh again and again and again. He walked past, getting into the car. The ladies could take care of themselves.

Hell if he was a mugger, he would be scared of getting fucked up by them, real proper like.

**To Be Continued on September 27th** **2014.**

* * *

**Well, I think that this is one of those chapters that speaks for itself or future chapters will speak for it later on.**


	55. Matter of Family Part Six

**Chapter Fifty-Five: Matter of Family Part Six.**

* * *

Some said that being back in costume after a long time off was riding a bike and perhaps that was true. That being said, Harry was just trying to get back into the swing of things the best that he could after being mostly on the shelf for over a month or so.

That being said, Nightwing really made his way into the city, out on patrol once again. The grapnel gun that he had in his hand worked right a charm. It was really glad to be back into the swing of things, in more ways than one.

' _You whipped that thing up pretty fast, didn't you?'_ Amanda thought, watching in awe as Harry went from the building to building at the speed of light, gaining momentum and making up for the fact that he was limited in certain ways.

' _Remember, he has a manufacturing facility underneath the Lair and if he could get the blue prints, there's a chance that he could get it done,'_ Faora thought and sudden realization dawned upon Amanda.

' _Oh yeah,'_ Amanda thought with a smile on her face.

' _And my sister has her oh duh moment of the evening,'_ Emily thought and Amanda shook her head immediately, with the green eyed wizard moving his way from building to building.

' _It's not like you don't have them from time to time yourself, Emmy,'_ Amanda thought, folding her arms across her chest with a rather prominent scowl when she glared at her sister and there was a clearing of someone's throat to get them back into focus.

' _It really is the ultimate man cave though, isn't it?'_ Dinah asked and there was a moment of laughter from Harry.

' _If that's what we want to call it….'_

' _Truth be told, that's the truth,'_ Jaime thought in amusement and there was much laughter throughout the bond. When it had a chance to die down, she spoke once again _'We had to just only rework the casing and the components for it to be more inline with the tech that the rest of us use.'_

' _Yes, I knew that,'_ Harry replied, his lips curling in amusement but he said nothing else other than that. He thought that they all did a good job on that particular piece of equipment, and allowed them more solid movement.

' _Yes, after all of the time we spent on that, how couldn't we know that?'_ Faora asked Jaime and Jaime shook her head.

' _Just trying to explain it to everyone else, in case they didn't quite get it,'_ Jaime thought and she paused long enough to hear some grumblings through the bond link that they got it. _'So what are we dealing with tonight….you really think that he's going to return fire…..'_

' _I wouldn't put it past him, the bastard is spiteful to begin with, but I gave him a real reason to be pissed off.'_

"So, you really think that he's going to try something tonight?" Oracle asked and there was something akin to annoyance dripping from her voice when she spoke and it had nothing to do with the mission at hand. It had to do with the atmosphere at her workplace taking a turn for the worst with the newest addition to the work force.

"I'm pretty much betting on it."

' _So an offense on Blackgate Manor, Wayne Manor, or the tower?'_ Faora thought and there was a pause before she amended her statement.

' _We're standing by and we should really head it off at the source, before he has a chance to strike,'_ Dinah thought and Jaime nodded feverishly from her position. The fact of the matter was that she was a little bit away from Harry, but it would be better if they put some distance.

Two different Nightwings would add to the urban legend surrounding him and Harry could not help but be pleased about the mindfuck that he would be performing on certain criminals. Some of the rumors that he heard coming through the grapevine caused him great amusement.

"So, is there anything that I can do for you?" Nightwing asked Oracle and she gave a moment of surprised anguish. "Because you seem to be pretty out of it today, and you're not your usual self."

"It's not….well it's not really your fault," she replied, shaking her head to try and clear the cobwebs from her mind. "It's that new guy, he's starting to get on my tits and not in the good way, not that I'd want him on them in that way….his name is Nashton…..Edward Nashton…..and he's the sort of guy that you feel like you need to take a shower…..you know in acid, several times, just when he looks at you."

"Yes, I've met people like that before," Nightwing said and he maintained his momentum, swinging down to a lower rooftop, not once breaking his stride.

"He obviously…..well he has more issues than….." Oracle said, struggling to find the right words to describe him.

Harry decided to let her vent, it likely was something that she wanted to really get off her chest and Harry was going to let her go to town. He never met the Nashton guy really but he just had a feeling that he might not like him.

' _So, I think that if Harry's going to go back on the scene, I think that I should be developing my own unique identity and my own costume,'_ Jaime thought and there was a moment where she paused. _'As amusing as the double Nightwing thing is…..I really want to be my own person….'_

' _I was thinking about getting out there as well,'_ Diana thought and she smiled. _'Mission control is great and all but….'_

' _Action is where it's at,'_ Dinah commented, she was thinking more about her civilian identity than anything, given that Black Canary was being more prolific. While your average citizen might not put two and two together, there was an ever pressing chance that she would run into someone who had more than a few brain cells to rub together. Then there would be some trouble for her. _'You know there's nothing stopping you from helping out….'_

' _Well I'm busy at school and working with Doctor Sandsmark, but it's something that I would like to keep on the back burner for the future,'_ Diana thought. If only she had more time but then again there were a lot of people in the bond who could say the same thing.

' _It'd be awesome, you'd be great out there,'_ Lyta chimed in through the bond link, and Donna was more subdued but she would have to agree with her younger sister. As horrifying as that thought might have been to her that was.

' _We could use all of the help that we could get,'_ Harry told Diana and she smiled through the bond link at him. _'Especially when things are getting a lot worse out there.'_

' _Noted,'_ Diana replied to him, which was one of the reasons why she was thinking about it.

' _There's a storm coming, it seems like the Ocean is calm, but you can feel it,'_ Jaime thought and that's why she was going to stick with this longer than she intended to. But if she was doing some good then it was just as well. Plus it gave her something to do and ready made punching bags to take her aggression out on.

' _I think we all feel that, it's quiet, especially by Gotham City standards,'_ Dinah thought but not everyone had packed it in for the evening.

' _One thing that you might have noticed, there is a lot more activity around the area of Amusement Mile,'_ Faora chimed in.

"So, there seems to be a lot more activity around the area of Amusement mile?"

Oracle got straight down to business, instead of things that were personal and smiled. "That's something that goes without saying to be honest, the Penguin runs that place like a tight ship, and there's a lot of well-armed thugs down there, ready to shoot first and ask questions never."

"Won't be too well armed though," Nightwing said and he smiled, anything to make the Penguin's life just a little more inconvenient he was a fan of. "Myself and my associates are destroying the guns that we disarm from them, so they don't find their way back on the black market."

"That makes sense, given otherwise, Branden would just have his goons sell the guns, and we'd have the same mess we had last time."

Nightwing peered down and he could see Black Mask arrive, and unfortunately he wasn't alone.

"And tonight just got a bit more dangerous," Nightwing muttered and he could see Black Mask and several of his best men exit the limo. They all patrolled the industrial district, which bordered Amusement mile. "Seems like they're going to want to protect their territory."

' _That could be a problem,'_ Black Canary thought and Nightwing swiftly in agreement.

"Yes," Batman said over the radio. He was on the other side of Pioneer Bridge, patrolling.

"Black Mask's men are just outside of Amusement Mile…thought you might want to know in case they try something."

"Understood," Batman replied tensely and it was agreed by both of them it was going to be a very long night.

Which given the early morning that was to come, that could pose a problem but it couldn't be helped. That was just par for the course for the costumed crowd of Gotham City.

* * *

 

It was a morning that Harry had been waiting for, preparing for, for an extremely long time and he smiled despite the fact that he didn't really get enough sleep last night. But to be fair, he was used to functioning on less and he did feel revived after the big work out that he had this morning.

Today was the day that many people had been waiting for, the official launch of the Red Sun. That was going to kick off what should be a big day but that was just beginning. Later in the morning, he had an interview with Juno Jones in regards to the release of this cutting edge piece of technology and it was going to blow sales up to unprecedented levels. It just needed one last nudge to do so.

Harry was going to have to say that he was fairly pleased with the initial projections that were coming out, quite pleased as well. This was going to be a fascinating day for him, if all went well and he thought that the day would go rather well.

' _You should really be happy, we all are with this,'_ Faora said and she smiled, brimming with excitement.

' _It's really going to be amazing,"_ Karen commented, bouncing up and down, in excitement and she tried to keep herself calming down.

' _Well it's going to be really big,'_ Jaime said with a smile on her face and the Alphas were abuzz. Harry was heading off towards his morning shower after the work out just thinking about it.

The time for hype was over and Harry was confident with all of the testing that the Red Sun would live up to all of the hype that it had been given and then some. There were a lot of pundits who said that it would change the way that people look at communications.

' _Nothing like putting pressure on people,'_ Harry thought, more to himself than his fellow bond mates, but the fact of the matter was he agreed with them.

If he was going to change the world, he was going to have to start with a bang, and if it would inspire others, so be it. It would very much give him further competition to reach into that market even more.

That being said, Harry was mentally going over some last minute notes about what he needed to stay in his speech and he had a lot that he wanted to say and that he was going to say. He just wanted to make sure that he hit all of the necessary points because this was the future of his company that was on the line after all.

He barely could see that someone was standing there right before him, deciding to join him. He noticed that she was behind him after seconds and a pair of lips started to plant some tender kisses on his shoulder, and then hit the back of his neck, whilst she nipped him in an extremely affection manner.

"Hi, Rose,' Harry turned around and he saw Rose standing there in all of her naked glory, her red hair forming a curtain about the area of her face, when she looked at him with an adoring expression dancing in her eyes.

"Hello, Harry," Rose whispered in a seductive purr, licking her lips as she watched her nephew. With a well practice routine, both of them started to wash each other's bodies.

The contact was getting rather intimate really quickly and Harry could feel his aunt's skilled hands working him over, brushing against him a little bit and he returned fire, running his hands all over her tight ass with a smile.

Suddenly, perhaps brazenly, Rose backed Harry up against the wall and ran her hands over his body, giving him a massage.

"You seem rather tense, and why wouldn't you be?" Rose asked him, her lips pressed up against his ear and she whispered in it. "Today's a big day for you, isn't it?"

"The biggest," Harry said with a smile crossing his face, whilst her talented hands continued to heat things up, and the steam wasn't completely from the shower. They cupped him down low and Harry shifted against him, but she firmly pinched his thigh to get his attention.

"No, relax, I'll take care of you today, it's my job to ensure that you're relaxed for today," Rose said, her tongue trailing down on her lips, causing moisture to appear around them. "And I think we both know just how to do that, don't we?"

Harry groaned with Rose's hand tracing her way down his abs, and she was getting to work on him.

"I'm at your beck and call honey," Rose said and she smiled, her fingers brushing against him. "You seem to be the tensest down here."

Rose dropped down to her knees, her wet hair flipping back to showcase her beautiful face. She grabbed Harry's balls and slowly ran her hand all the way down him, stroking him rather nicely, and he groaned as her hand worked him over.

Harry smiled with the redhead vixen using her tongue to run her way down his cock and lick his balls. After she completely bathed his manhood in salvia, she eased it into her mouth, wrapping her tight lips around it and sucking him hungrily.

Harry closed his eyes, keeping her head in place, the more that she worked her mouth around him. His balls were aching with desire and the woman continued to pick up a steady pace, rocking her tight mouth around him.

"Oh, Auntie, that feels so good," Harry whispered, running his hands over the back of her head and her wet and wild mouth worked him over, sucking him like a Popsicle. She gave his cock a nice going over with her talented tongue and caused Harry's balls to tingle when she kept working him over.

Harry reached down, grabbing her wet breasts, fondling them, and things were beginning to heat up, in more ways than one. His balls ached with need the more that she worked him over.

She reached up, fondling his heavy balls and working them over, as her mouth worked him over a little bit more. Her hand placed on his hips as well and she moaned as Harry face fucked her. His manhood speared deep into her throat and she took more of him down into her throat, closing her eyes tightly.

That felt good, that felt amazing but she thought that there could be something that felt better. Her lips popped around him, her salvia coating his manhood the more that she worked him over, nice and easily.

Eventually she pushed herself back and allowed his cock to splatter its gift into her face. Rose cooed hungrily, catching his cum on her tongue, and she swallowed it greedily.

"You said that you were at my beck and call," Harry whispered, pulling Rose up to a standing position, his cock already hard once again.

She tingled with desire, with his manhood against her dripping slit once again.

"And I'm going to take you as hard as I can," Harry whispered, pressing her against the shower wall and he grabbed her breasts, scrubbing that. "But first, I think that this dirty slut needs to get cleaned first."

"Yes, Harry, I'm your dirty little slut, fuck your filthy aunt like the whore she is, fuck me so hard that I'm going to need to…."

Harry spun her around and she spread her legs, with his hands placed on her ass. His finger pushed into her puckered little hole, fingering her tight little asshole in and out. She moaned hungrily and his cock pushed against the edge of her hot slit. All she needed was him inside her, and that's what she wanted…

She wanted him, really badly, so badly that she could feel him. He was up against her walls, and he eased his way into her, stretching her hot slick walls apart, continuing the journey to the center of her body.

Rose arched her hips back, and moaned, his hands running down her breasts, and he kissed the back her neck, sparks of desire flowing through her body when his hands went to work on her.

His thrusts quickened their pace, pushing into her body, and his balls hammered over her ass. She was feeling good, really good even, and his manhood continued its journey into her. She closed her eyes, his hand running over her breasts, and he pinched her nipples. That really caused her to go completely and utterly nuts the more that he pounded away at her.

Harry thought that he established a nice tempo and he was driving her nuts.

"I think that this is relaxing, wouldn't you, Auntie?" Harry whispered, licking the back of her ear and Rose nodded, her legs spreading just that much more, to accommodating his full girth into her.

"You know how to stretch me out baby, fuck me."

' _Yes, fuck my baby sister make sure she doesn't remember how to walked,'_ Lily said, leaning back into the office chair that she was and she was fingering herself in time with Harry fucking Rose.

Rose could feel this stud dominating her once more and he pushed himself deep into her body. His balls rested against her asshole and he once again nearly pulled away the way out, before pushing back into her once again.

' _My god,'_ Rose moaned and Harry smiled, running his hand over her breast and causing pleasure to tingle through her body.

' _Yes, I'm your god,'_ Harry agreed, and he nipped the back of her ear once again and continued to push into him.

He pulled out of her and then Rose was spun back around. His manhood pushed against her slit once again.

He eased his way into her, telling her without words that he wanted to see her eyes, her face, when he fucked her.

Rose could feel him once again and she was cumming hard. His mouth wrapped around her wet nipple and he sucked it, slowly biting down on it.

The redhead vixen could feel the steam continue to rise from the shower, and her wet moist lips devoured Harry's manhood.

Harry smiled. "You can't wait….you're literally sucking my cock into your lips…."

Harry pulled almost all the way out and Rose panted. His lips were all over her body.

His cock was now out of her, brushing against her bare stomach. She felt the tip of his head against her smooth toned flesh and she flushed her eyes.

They were opened with heavy lidded desire and the obvious tone of "fuck me" eyes. Rose pushed her hips towards Harry, waiting for him, she wanted her master, her nephew to take her in every way possible.

His fingers dug into her hips once again and he brushed against her womanhood. Her dripping lips were this close to taking him in her and then he pushed into her.

Rose's legs kicked up, resting on Harry's shoulders and she moaned loudly, as Harry pumped his way into the wall.

"Are you still with me?" Harry whispered hotly into her ears, cupping her ass and that caused her to clench onto him.

"Yes, please, fuck me," Rose whispered and she pressed her lips on the side of Harry's neck, kissing it, leaving marks there. He returned the favor, doing likewise to her in response.

The redhead could feel him bury into her, as the two of them went at it in the shower like rabbits, matching stroke for stroke.

Rose's slick center was treated with the love and passion that she needed and her hips continued to roll up to meet his manhood stroking into her.

"I want….all of you, please don't leave me hanging," Rose begged him, her hand on his shoulder and she could feel Harry continue his journey into her center. Each thrust was bringing her close and closer to an ear splitting orgasm.

Harry pumped into her, her legs spread as far as they were going to go, her nails digging into the back of his neck.

Rose's eyes flashed with lust and she pumped her hips up, meeting Harry when he plowed into her tight and hot center. The two of them worked back against each other.

"Getting closer, hang on," Harry said and he had Rose's leg up by his shoulder, slowly bending to kiss his way down it, as he fucked her.

"Keep it up, keep it up, I'm here," Rose said, stroking her fingers through her nephew's hair quite lovingly when he pushed himself into her. His manhood parted her thighs when he pounded into her.

Harry grunted, he worked up a nice and steady tempo. Rose was rolling her hips, matching his thrusts move for move and eventually something had to give.

Rose saw stars, her pussy clenching Harry's magnificent rod and she nearly slid onto the ground but Harry kept her up, his hands cupped underneath her ass.

He thrust into her faster yet and Rose could feel his warm seed spilling into her body. Each thrust of his cock emptying his balls caused a miniature explosion in her. The glass around the shower cracked and they were bathed in a never ending cloud of steam.

Things were about to get hotter when Harry finished his path into her.

The Evans female felt her nephew finish in her, and she was the one who felt relaxed with pure bliss dancing through her eyes as he pumped the last load of seed in her.

She shuddered with delight, their mutual orgasm being quite delightful.

* * *

 

Selina made her way to Gotham General, walking with a purpose, her arms hung next to her side. She had just heard what happened with Holly and obviously that was a cause of concern so she rushed over instantly to check up on her.

She had been found beaten severely in the middle of an alleyway, with bumps and bruises and everything that went along with that. The GCPD had received an anonymous phone call that pointed her in the right direction.

Alexandra Potter was with her when she had got the phone call and had decided to tag along. She let her due to the fact that she didn't want to argue with her.

Selina was trying not to lose her composure, because she was not the type of woman who would do something like that. That being said, her mind was going completely wild at the thought of what happened.

"You know, you should go soon, I know today's an important day for you," Selina said, stroking Holly's hair when she sat by the chair, watching over her.

Faora calmly sat next to her, checking her watch. "I know…..but I wanted to make sure you got here okay…..we both know that this might have been a message for you."

Selina didn't say anything. "If it is, I can handle it."

Faora waved off her words rather calmly. "I know you can handle it, but I'm pretty sure that the people who did this might be able to handle themselves as well."

Selina didn't answer that statement right away, she just sat silently.

Faora could pretty much piece together what was happening, at least for the most part. There were a few blanks but she had got a pretty good idea on what was happening.

That being said, as much as she would like to stay here for a bit longer to give Selina the support that she needed, business called. She wasn't being interviewed on television for Juno Jones but at the same time, she needed to be there. She wanted to be close at hand.

The most important day in the short history of RAO and it could be the day that really put the company on the map hard.

Selina watched Holly stir, but she was pretty much out of it. She got a severe beating, but they didn't go too far, because her being dead would not serve the purpose of the person behind this. The pain killers did it.

The woman saw Alex's gaze on her and she tried not to be bothered by it. Both of them were not bringing up something.

' _You know it as well as I know it Selina, we both know who's behind this,'_ Faora thought to herself, and she looked at the woman, who was both making eye contact and avoiding it at the same time. That was an amazing feat in itself.

"So, what is the GCPD going to do about this?" Faora asked and Selina's eyes snapped towards hers. There was a look of intensity flashing through her eyes when she sighed.

"We both know the answer about how effective they're going to be about this."

The GCPD was going to look the other way, and the fact was considering Holly's colorful past and job history, she would be considered little better than a prostitute. And prostitutes were on about the same level as Gotham City trash as far as many in the GCPD were concerned, at least by those who were important enough to make the decisions.

"You know, Harry could really flex some of his capital and he could get someone to look into it."

That statement was thrown out there, and Selina took it back immediately. "Please don't go there, in fact…..I would prefer that you would not mention it at all to him, because….well just don't mention it to him."

Selina could see the expression on Alexandra's face darken several shades and the woman looked to be about ready to ask the question.

"I think that you should go to him, but that's your choice," Faora said to her and she decided to go in for the question. "Why?"

"Because it's my problem," Selina said swiftly and Alex's eyebrow corked up for a second. Selina felt like she was under interrogation and there was a bit more annoyance. "And I don't want to bring anyone into this, and besides, I can really deal with it."

"Do you have a problem with Harry being involved?"

That was a loaded question and Selina did not blink, even though she was giving a slight internal wince at what was said. That being said, her arms folded over her chest and she stared forward.

"It's just that, you have some kind of tension with him, and it would be considered sexual but at the same time, you are avoiding him for some reason," Faora said, deciding to drill her for information and to see exactly what her problem was.

Selina's mouth opened and shut, she doubted that the fact that this is complicated would get her out of trouble.

Perhaps she should explain things but she saw Holly stirring a little bit out of the corner of her eye. So she was partially glad that she was able to shift focus to her.

Faora decided to let this one go and she checked her watch again.

"I better go now," she told Selina and Selina turned to her, nodding swiftly. The two of them shared a brief but passionate kiss with each other. "I'll see you later ,and we'll pick things up later."

"Right," Selina commented, she was really expecting that and she really had no problem with that but she was going to be try to be evasive as possible.

* * *

 

Harry was sitting in the Green Room, now completely relaxed. He was waiting for Juno to bring him out on the stage but he decided to take care of some business.

"So are you sure everyone is out of the building at the same time?"

It would have seemed like a one sided question to anyone who might be listening in but the person on the other end of the phone was trying to keep their voice quiet.

"And he arrives at the same time every morning…..You're absolutely certain? It's like clockwork….accurate…..without any change every morning?"

Harry waited for the confirmation and a smile popped over his face. "Thank you, you've been a big help."

That being said, Harry smiled, he loved it when a plan came together. That being said, he tried not to look too bond villain and he should have been sitting here stroking a pussy.

That being said, there was a knock on his door.

"We're going to go on after the next commercial, Doctor Potter," the stage hand commented in a crisp voice and Harry got up from the Green Room. "I trust all of your accommodations were in order."

"Yes."

Harry smiled as the man sighed. He took that sigh as the fact that this particular man experienced some rather picky guests and he was the one who got the brunt of it if there was an uneven number of M and Ms. That being said, he looked more relieved than anything.

Outside on the stage, Juno Jones watched, her audience was a group of women in their twenties through their early fifties.

There were a few of Harry's females in the audience as well, with Rose, Faora, Kara, and Jaime all sitting around, enjoying the show to come. Diana wanted to come but it was unfortunate that there were a couple of classes that she just couldn't miss.

The younger girls might have showed up but they had to be at school. Not that half of them weren't considering playing hooky today to get their hands on the Red Sun fairly early, but in reality, they lived with Harry in the tower, so they could have gotten their hands on it before it even hit stores if they played their cards right.

"Communications is vital in this day, between man and woman, parent and child, employee and employer," Juno commented turning to address her audience with a smile on her face. "We need the means to help us communicate, and now there is no excuse to avoid that important element of our lives."

Juno held up the Red Sun and there was numerous oohs from the audience, and she looked around.

"This came out today, and initial projections are saying that they're going to sell lot hot cakes," she said with a smile. "Today, we've got a very special guest to tell you all about it, the genius behind the Red Sun and the RAO Corporation, I'd like to give you a warm welcome to Harry Potter."

Harry walked onto the stage and there was a loud round of applause with the green eyed wizard making his way to the stage. Juno made her way down to greet him and grabbed him into a tight hug, as they went to commercial briefly, and kissed on the cheek.

"Good to see you again, honey," Juno said with a nice wink with a smile on her face and she lead him up the area of the stage, with her leading him up by the hand.

The applause continued all through the commercial break and Juno watched for the light to blink. She and Harry were on the stage, sitting there. Her legs were crossed and she dangled her high heel from her foot a little bit.

"Thirty seconds," one of the stage hands said and Juno nodded; waiting as the seconds ticked on before they could officially come back onto the air.

Harry smiled in amusement, the applause only slightly died down and Juno watched, her arms crossed and she cleared her throat, before talking over the applause.

"Well, they're pretty excited to see the phone, I think," Harry replied and there was a loud round of laughter from those who managed to hear him.

"Doctor Harry Potter, Ladies and Gentlemen," Juno said in an excited tone and she laughed. "It seems like you've done it all and before the age of eighteen even. A childhood prodigy, with numerous doctorates, and correct me if I'm wrong, they're in Physics, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemistry, and you're working on another one in Electrical Engineering…"

"Not to correct you, Juno, but I have just completed my thesis in Electrical Engineering and I'm currently studying criminal psychology, I want to know how the more twisted minds out there work," Harry said and Juno whistled and there was a great applause from them. "And there are more that could be in the future."

"Well the sky is the limit for you, and the RAO Corporation, has really taken a foothold in Gotham City and Metropolis, and it's reach will be expanding all throughout the world," Juno commented.

"We feel that Gotham and Metropolis are two big technology sectors that we can lay our groundwork for expansion," Harry said and she nodded.

"There are people lining around the block, and it's not yet Black Friday, to get a look at the Red Sun, the new mobile phone put out by the RAO Corporation," Juno said and she held up the phone on the desk. "This is in front of me, the highest cell phone that's on the market and…..from what I'm understanding, the Red Sun outstrips it by a fair margin."

"Yes it does, I'm sure many cell phone conversations lead to a never ending stream of you asking a person if you can hear them now and having the battery burn out at the worst possible time…..we know that this will make talking over long distances easily. Also, there are hands free capabilities where you can keep your eyes firmly on the road where it belongs."

Juno gave Harry a bright smile but there was a ring on the cell phone.

"Hello, Karen," Harry replied and he smiled. "Yes, I can hear you perfectly, the reception is great. They're lining up around the block all over Metropolis are they…..well it's going to be a ground breaking day? Security is going to earn their money and then some."

The phone clicked off and smiled, as Harry turned to them.

"Yes, this is in fact not only a phone but it's the phone," Harry said a grin and he prepared to run down a list of all of the features.

Right after a word from their sponsors, one of them being the Red Sun from RAO. Just to hammer in a bit more of that last minute hard sell.

* * *

 

A limo pulled up in the parking lot of the Iceberg Lounge and the door flung open of the limbo. The Penguin exited the limo, he was in a foul mood. After what happened the other night, he was pretty pissed off and even his most trusted subordinates were giving him a wide and open space.

His plans for Potter were flushed down the toilet and what was worse, certain costumed rodents were getting involved in his business, and god only knows what other headaches would be coming. He was in a really foul fucking mood and Cobblepot being in a foul mood meant that he was even a less pleasant person to hang around than he normally was.

Tracey and Dudley exited the limo behind them, both of them keeping a distance and not really making eye contact with each other. And most certainly not saying a word about it but the Penguin was saying plenty and the fowl was in a really foul mood.

"I must have lost about fifty guns last night, those don't run cheap they don't," Penguin grumbled.

"We lost about as many men, you know," Dudley piped up but he turned towards the young man who was known as Mr. Walrus.

"I don't give a fuck about the men, they can be replaced, they're a bunch of dime a dozen thugs," Penguin said. "Someone is going through, dismantling all of the military grade weapons that I painstakingly rounded up."

"We did manage to keep hold of some of it, to be fair," Tracey replied to him and Penguin turned towards her, an ugly scowl on his face.

"Well pin a bloody medal on us, but we lost more than we gained," The Penguins said with a loud grunt and he turned around to check something in the limo. "And what's worse, Black Mask decided to get uppity and invading our territory. If isn't that just a kick in the nuts. He thinks that just because he's got that fancy suit and millions of dollars, he can just march in whenever he wants to….and take things. About as bad as the Waynes in my opinion, and he'd be bloody pissed if I compared him to that rich ponce but I don't give a fuck, do you see me giving a fuck?"

Cobblepot's rants went to grumbling and Dudley opened his mouth to ask, "what about Potter?" but wisely, Tracey placed her hand over his mouth and shook her head, mouthing "don't go there". After Harry Potter broke Penguins' arm, the last thing they needed was his name to be brought up.

Penguin turned around to face his Club and then it blew sky high right in front of his face.

"BLOODY HELL!" the Penguin yelled, being knocked on his ass from the explosion.

It was like the night club was there one second and it was gone completely the next. The smoke nearly choked him when he looked up at where the club once was, his eyes completely watering. There was no question about it.

He rolled over, onto his hands and knees ,overwhelmed with what was happening. This was his dream and his dream went up in smoke just like that. There was no one inside, but that wasn't a solace to him.

If people had been blown off, he hadn't been half as hacked off as he was right now.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" The Penguin screamed at the top of his lungs, smacking his umbrella over and over onto the ground, damaging some of the pavement. There was nothing that he could say.

Dudley's ears perked up at the wail of the sirens that could be heard and even someone of his somewhat substandard intelligence knew that something was happening.

"We better get you out of here," Dudley said, managing to haul Cobblepot back to his feet.

The Penguin allowed him to do, coming to his senses. If the police had found him around the wreckage, things would be made.

There would be some people who would quickly go to the conclusion that it was some kind of insurance fraud. Even though that was not really true, that was the obvious answer.

The Penguin was hauled back into the back of the limo, not even bothering to buckle up. The driver looked on and Tracey roughly nudged him in the shoulder.

"Do I need to stick a gun up your ass now to get you going, drive, just drive!" she yelled angrily, and they drove off completely.

The limo made its way there, and the police showed up moments later. Cobblepot's dream went up in smoke.

The fact was that he would and could rebuild like he did before but it was just really the principle of the matter more than anything else. The bird was angry, and his anger continued to bubble over to the surface and beyond said surface, that was for sure.

* * *

 

Harry Potter smiled, he was dealing with the press regarding the release of the Red Sun, but there was an even bigger news story that temporarily halted that. The Iceberg Lounge went up, the exact same time that Harry Potter was seen by millions of people live and in person on the Juno Jones show.

Perhaps one could consider that timing to be interesting, but it did give him an airtight alibi. Not that there was anything to connect him and if the Penguin wanted to squawk about him, then there would be a few uncomfortable questions that he would have to answer.

In other words, it would be kind of foolish for him to go there.

' _The demand is far outstripping the supply, just like we predicted,'_ Karen commented to them with a smile. _'People are lining up around the block and most of the major outlets in Metropolis are already selling out within the first hour.'_

' _Really, that's impressive,'_ Diana said in an awed voice. A lot of people in her class had taken a sick day, kind of suspicious that was the day that the Red Sun was going to come out on the market, live and in living color.

' _We're trying to get people to believe that they're in limited demand,'_ Harry thought and he smiled. _'Naturally we know that it's not true, because we've got a second shipment ready to go.'_

' _It will make everything seem more desirable and the demand will grow,'_ Patricia chimed and her smile bubbled onto her face but why shouldn't it have been? They were doing excellent out there.

' _That's actually some sound strategy,'_ Pamela replied, popping in for a second and Harry smiled.

' _As if you doubted me anyway.'_

There was no doubt at all and that was also something else that went without saying. That being said, Harry was walking up the driveway now towards a small quaint little home. It wasn't really that fancy but it looked like it was taken care of.

Harry remembered that night well after the attack on Alfred, where Sarah Essen told him that he wanted to talk one on one with him. The invitation got extended for a little bit of dinner. It took a while to get things arranged because of the busy schedule that both of them had.

Especially today of all days, especially today of all days, given the Press run that he had been on and the fact that she had been one of the GCPD that responded to the explosion at the Iceberg Lounge. So this went without saying that this was a later dinner than it might have normally been.

Harry thought that the Penguin's life was about to be get more difficult now. There was a package sent to the GCPD that connected Cobblepot to the Penguin. While he might be able to talk his way out of things for the time being, he was being watched and his less than legal activities were being furiously investigated.

Funnily enough, if he didn't make this person, Harry wouldn't have attacked him with such fury.

That being said, Harry was out of the suit that he was wearing and on his way for dinner. He was dressed fairly casually, with jeans, a nice shirt, and a comfortable looking coat, because quite frankly, it was getting kind of cold in Gotham City because they were deep into the month of November.

Gotham City was going all out for the next major holiday, with a lot of hoopla for Veteran's Day and a new monument being erected to pay tribute to those who had served their country who were born in Gotham City, but there were already some stores that were getting ready for Thanksgiving and obviously Christmas.

With those thoughts in his mind and there seemed to be many of them, Harry rang the doorbell to announce his arrival.

He only had to wait seconds for the door to swing open and he saw Sarah Essen standing there. She was close to thirty from what Harry could tell, around twenty nine or so, but she kept a figure that most women in their teens and early twenties would be envious of. Then again, that went with the territory and the job that she had.

That being said, she was wearing a tight sweater and a tight pair of jeans. She surveyed him for a second, a smile on her face. Her eyes looked at what he was wearing with interest and she smiled. "Harry, it's good to see you come in."

Harry invited himself in and it looked as nice as it did on the outside, on the inside, he would have to say that. That being said, she was checking him out, taking what he was wearing in with the greatest of interests.

"So, would you like something to drink?" Sarah asked, to be frank, after the day that she had, she needed at least a drink and then some more. It was one of those nerve racking days that would drive someone to have at least one drink.

"That would be nice."

Sarah turned around and walked over to the cabinet, with Harry taking a seat. When she returned, she had a glass of scotch.

Harry raised an eyebrow and looked towards her. "You know, I was expecting winne….."

She smiled at herself. "While wine is pretty nice, you seem like much of a scotch man and to be honest I prefer it myself."

She sank her way down on the chair and her nerves were relaxed after a nice long drink. She shook her head. "And besides, after the day that I figure we both had, you deserve a drink."

"Fair enough," Harry said with a smile taking a drink of the scotch and smiling at the taste of it.

' _Ah, I want some,'_ Amanda said but that was cut down instantly.

' _Absolutely not,'_ Lily replied shaking her head. She wanted to nip that particular problem in the bud.

' _Yeah, you're bad enough sober especially since….'_

' _It's not like you didn't either, Donna,'_ Amanda hissed through her teeth.

' _It's not like Donna didn't do what,'_ Hippolyta said, managing to give the Mom look through the bond.

Harry smiled and allowed this situation to play out although there were two females who were in trouble. Emily and Gabrielle seemed rather amused about the heat that Donna and Amanda were getting due to their parental units.

"So, you're on track for one of the greatest records imaginable with the Red Sun out there," Sarah said. "So, did you expect to sell them out that quickly?"

"Actually, I figured, the market is choking for something new."

Sarah couldn't deny. Her phone crapped out on her at the worst possible times and stranded out in the middle of the night in Gotham City with fucked up transmission in her car, cop or not, would qualify as the worst possible time.

"So, my day was pretty eventful, how was yours?"

"It was fine, not even a jay walker at least until someone decided to try and blow up Oswald Cobblepot's Club right in broad daylight," Sarah said and she looked at him with a pointed gaze. "In the middle of bright daylight, at the same time you were in the middle of an interview with Juno Jones."

Harry could not help but smile in spite himself. It was fairly true but the fact of the matter, how much did she know? She knew more than she was telling to be honest.

A timer went off thus causing that conversation.

"And that's the food," Sarah told him, the table had been set up ahead of time.

"Let me help."

She smiled, it was hard to get someone who would help out.

"I should insist that you don't do anything because you're a guest in my house, but I have a feeling that that's going to fall onto deaf ears," Sarah said to him and the two of them made their way around each other. "There's a lot about you that's public knowledge and a lot that's a mystery to be honest….."

"Well to be fair, I know that you're one of the most honest cops in Gotham City," Harry said and Sarah smiled at the thought of that. It might seem like a compliment but it wasn't that much to do that.

"Not that's hard to do but I try my best to be fair, even though half of the people around me aren't," Sarah replied. "Transferred in from New York and thought that was mess but Gotham City makes New York look like a playground….but I guess that we go about things rather different ways. You go about your business in the dark of the night, under a cloud of mystery. But we fight the same battle."

Harry smiled at her, he figured that she had put two and two together.

' _So she knows that you're Nightwing,'_ Black Canary said to Harry.

' _Not sure,'_ Harry replied. _'Let's see where this one goes and we'll find out.'_

"Well, so you've found out something but….."

"Very good detective, and very good at my job, although a lot of people aren't going to put together the puzzle pieces," Sarah said and she looked at him. "You haven't made it too obvious but I figure that the mysterious ninja was either you or Bruce Wayne."

Harry said nothing but she figured as much. His non reaction pretty much told her everything that she needed to know.

"Your resources pretty much put a blinking arrow on you," Sarah told him and she dropped the other piece of information. "And I figure that Bruce Wayne is Batman."

It was now that there was a long pause and Harry suspected that the ball was thrown back into his court. He was going to run with said ball for as far and long as he was able to.

"So you've figured it out, have you?" Harry asked her and she nodded. "You've got the information, so what you're going to do with it?"

The fact that she had this bombshell was pretty big but it was not as big as the next one she gave.

"I want to help you."

* * *

**To Be Continued On September 29th** **2014.**

**So the long awaited Red Sun Launch is finally at hand.**

**And that's why you don't fuck with Harry Fucking Potter, Mr. Cobblepot.**

**Things are proving to be interesting and we start a new arc this Monday.  
**


	56. And Now For Something Completely Different Part One

**Chapter 56:** **And Now For Something Completely Different Part One.**

* * *

 

"….And in other news tonight, plans to remake the classic horror film 'the Terror' are moving forward, with Matt Hagen in the lead role. This is not without controversy, especially from the protests of the lead star of the original film, Basil Karlo. Karlo, who's in Gotham currently performing a one man show at the Monarch theater, claims that a remake of 'the Terror' is unnecessary as it still holds up to this day."

A long pause followed these words and it was almost as if the man making the radio announcement found this point quite dubious. That being said, he returned soon enough with a professional demeanor.

"Regardless of Karlo's thoughts and feelings of the matter, producers have made the official announcement that production of the film will start in Gotham City within the next few days."

A very feminine hand reached forward and turned the radio off. Vicki Vale gave a sigh, as she walked forward. She was wearing a white man's dress shirt, that did a good job in covering a fair deal of her shapely ass but at the same time, showed a fair bit of her long alluring legs. She could feel someone's eyes on her.

That being said, she could see Harry Potter sitting there at the kitchen table, casually sipping a cup of coffee and reading the newspaper. Perhaps oh so casually, but that being said, she knew that he was staring at her ass and being more discrete then most would be at doing so. Not that she blamed him, but that being said, she slowly bounced over to Harry.

She leaned forward and gave him a long kiss on the lips, and pulled back with a sultry smile on her face. "So….do you want breakfast?"

Harry raised his eyebrow for a second. "Didn't know you can cook."

Vicki's lips curled into a smile that was dripping with some mischief and a great deal of seduction. She leaned in with a suggestive whisper. "Well, you know me, I'm just full of surprises."

"I can see that, Miss Vale," Harry told her but his stomach gave an involuntary glare.

"Well the state of you should answer that question more than anything," Vicki said, giving him one last kiss. It was brief but extremely passionate. She set herself upon making some waffles for the two of them to eat. "So, what's on your agenda for today?"

Harry didn't really have to think that much. "Well, I have classes for about half of the day, so really a lighter schedule than you might think that I have. Then I have a study session with a couple of the girls and….after that most of the day is free, although I might pop into the office for a little bit, to see if anything demands my immediate attention."

Vicki nodded and she was about to answer how Harry had a productive day as usual but the fact of the matter was that he was not done yet. That being said, she moved to the table.

"After I get back, got to get dressed, and I've got a date, with Veronica Vreeland, dinner, and then I'm going to see a show," Harry said and she smiled before Harry elaborate on what the show was about. "Veronica's got us tickets to Basil Karlo's new show."

Vicki placed the waffles down, nearly dropping them and her face contorted in disgust.

"Not a glowing recommendation, I take it?"

Vicki shook her head and placed the waffles down upon the table."Well, let's just say that the reviews on the show weren't every good."

Harry's lips curled into a frown and there were two words that emphasized what he thought. "I see."

He decided to take a bite of the waffles and believe him; they tasted about as delicious as they smelled. Then again, as far as he was concerned, waffles that tasted anything but delicious was the highest of high crime.

"The most charitable was from Summer," Vicki replied and she smiled. "And she called it a self-indulgent exercise in vanity. He's supposed to be doing different impressions of different people."

Vicki paused, taking a drink of orange juice and continued.

"But in reality, he's just relieving his fifteen minutes trying to do various impressions of the characters that he played in his movies," Vicki said and Harry smiled. "It's kind of sad because his time is long past and he's just riding the nostalgia wave."

"Veronica picked up the tickets, she got them from one of her high society friends, believe I might have mentioned this before," Harry said, in between ravenously attacking the plate of waffles that was stacked completely to the brim.

"So, curious about something?"

"Hmmm," Harry said, licking the maple syrup form his fingers which caused Vicki to shudder nevertheless. That being said, she pressed on, her desire for knowledge second to none.

"Everyone calls her Ronnie, but you call her Veronica, in what I guess could be called a sensual growl," Vicki said and Harry smiled.

"Interesting perspective," he said and he watched her lick the maple syrup from her lips once again, and it was obvious that she was imagining licking something else from her lips later. Two could play that game if push came to shove.

"Why?" Vicki asked, trying to stir the conversation back around and Harry smiled at her, the redhead shifting around once more, and she shoved another waffle in her mouth, causing the syrup to roll down. Harry reached forward, brushing it of her chin and taking his fingers into his mouth licking them before he responded.

"The mother of one of my classmates at the boarding school I attended in Britain, she redefined the world smother," Harry said and he could see Vicki shuddering at that statement.

' _Really Harry, tell me how you really feel about Mum,'_ Ginny said, interjecting herself in the bond.

"That being said, she had a son named Ron, and he called him, her little Ronnie-kins," Harry said and he smiled. "Oh, my little Ronnie-Kins, have you been eating enough? You have something on your nose, did you know that my little Ronnie-Kins?"

Vicki shuddered at the impression that she got. "That's pretty accurate….I don't doubt that it is."

' _Eleven out of ten,'_ Ginny replied and there was much laughter, mostly from the twins. That being said, Ginny decided to slip back into the abyss of the bond, she had some paperwork to do now. Since the other was out of commission for the not so distant future, she was helping Daphne not go insane.

"It is, and that's the scary part about it, but you can see why it's put me off of even uttering that name forever," Harry replied and Vicki blinked, with a smile crossing her face, once again messily eating her waffles, and he could see her nipples harden.

' _I'm sure she has dessert on her mind there,'_ Kara replied and Vicki decided to pull herself slowly up onto the table, so she could allow Harry to get a better view of her, slowly and sensually eating the waffles that she had put out for her.

Harry smiled, placing his hand upon her thigh and slowly ran his way up her leg and this caused Vicki to shiver.

"I wonder if you're sticky everywhere," Harry whispered to her, his hand resting on her inner thigh, teasing her, but not going completely forward, at least not just yet. Vicki's eyes fluttered open in lust and she responded in a low sensual voice.

"Why don't you find out?" Vicki asked, her nipples poking down hard from her shirt, that she inadvertently tipped a pitcher of eye cold water that she took a drink out of. It caused the white shirt that she wore become transparent, the outlines of her breasts pressed against it and her nipples poking out even harder.

"I shall."

His hand disappeared completely underneath her shirt and Vicki gave a lustful moan when Harry decided to get straight to work.

Harry slipped one finger inside of Vicki's pussy and sure enough, the redhead reporter felt as sticky as he assumed that she was. She was ready for some action, he could feel it.

Vicki closed her eyes, as he teased her. As much as she wanted to skip to the exciting part, there was a huge part of her that was getting off on this, in every single way of the word. That being said, another finger found its way into her, followed by a third one.

His pumping of her cunt with his fingers caused pleasure to fill her body. The redhead pushed her hips up and he lifted his hand, squeezing her breast through her shirt.

"How's this?" Harry asked her and Vicki nodded, once again, she wanted him.

"More, fuck me on the table, just fuck me senseless," Vicki whispered and Harry smiled, he wasn't about to deny the lady her request. His fingers slipped deeper into her womanhood and he pulled them out, covered in her sticky goodness.

Vicki watched Harry, as he tasted her cum and he made his way towards the table. His pants were tight and Vicki really thought that she would be a bad guest if she didn't correct it. With shaky, but talented hands, Vicki undid his pants and fished out his manhood, wrapping her finger around it.

She helped Harry remove her shirt from her body, exposing her toned and fit body, her breasts jiggling. Harry cupped one of them in his hand as she stroked his cock. Both of them exchanged a passionate kiss, as Harry crawled onto the table right on top of her.

Vicki grabbed onto his shirt, pulling it off and exposing his muscular chest. She smiled, feeling up his tight muscles, running her hands all over him and she felt a heat raise in between her legs.

"Fill me," Vicki begged him and Harry once again lined himself up for her.

Her back nearly pressed on top of a sticky plate, not that she really cared. His manhood slipped deep into her center and Vicki nearly lost her mind with him going deep into her body. His large cock stretched out her tight walls.

"Yes, more," Vicki said, and he grabbed her hips, pushing down onto her.

"Relax, we've got some time," Harry said, trailing his tongue against her nipple, flicking it over it.

"Hard….to fucking relax, when you're doing that," Vicki panted, but never the less, she could feel his manhood push deep into her depths and he pumped into her from behind. Each thrust brought her closer and closer to the edge of passion.

Harry roamed her body, touching her breasts and causing her pleasure to really be increased. He could see it in her eyes. He pulled all the way out of her and pushed into her.

He hit her G-spot with a fluid thrust in her and Vicki's hips spasmed up, meeting his manhood. The redhead was going to take him as deep into her as she could manage, her hips wrapping around him like a corkscrew as he continued to pump his way into her.

"Oooh, yeah, take me, please, harder," Vicki panted once again and Harry continued to hang onto her hips, working her into the table. Her legs wrapped around him, her hand running down his back. Her nails sunk into his shoulder.

He fucked into her dripping hot cunt and Vicki mewled, lifting her hips as she took more of him into her body.

Each thrust felt like pure magic coursing through her body. Her nerve endings felt like she was on fire, and Harry continued to push into her. His green eyes continued to pump into her body over and over again. Her legs spread, taking his manhood deep into her cavern.

"Yes, Harry, oh, yes, take me, harder, please," Vicki moaned.

"You crave this cock, you didn't get enough of it, you'll never get enough of it," Harry whispered to her and Vicki shook her head, her hair flipping up right next to her face, her lips licking as they moistened.

They weren't the only set of lips that were moistening. Harry slowed down his thrusts, making sure she begged for it more. She was almost choking for it, the more that he brought himself into her body.

"Don't stop, oh for the love of….don't stop," Vicki begged him, wiggling her hips up towards him and Harry continued to bring his manhood deep down into her body.

"I'm not going to stop, it's obvious that you haven't had enough," Harry told her and he sped up his thrusts into her body.

Vicki could feel him go deeper into her, the pleasure spiked through her mind. He took her breasts and buried his face into them. He fucked her like a well-oiled machine on the kitchen table.

Her pussy clenched his dick with her orgasm when he pushed himself deep into her and Vicki's hips quivered, the more that he slammed his way into her body. The redhead panted and she was this close to receiving his cum.

His heavy balls expelled his load and Vicki gave a shrieking orgasm, her hand clutching his shoulder when he pumped his load deep into her body. It splashed into her body, her legs spread as she pushed up, her inner muscles milking his cock.

Harry finished into her and both of them shuddered in the bliss, but then he pulled out of her.

"I'm going to make sure we make up for lost time, and there's a perfectly clean counter that needs to get dirtied," Harry said, lifting Vicki up by the waist and marching her over towards the corner.

"Yes, fuck me, fuck me against the counter," Vicki begged him, her pussy dripping with desire as his manhood lined up with her dripping hot hole. He was about ready to invade her one more time and take her as his own.

Harry smiled, lining her up against the counter, preparing to do just that. He could feel her legs part and he was this close to entering her.

Vicki once again could feel him up against her, and Harry was this close to slipping inside her. She parted her thighs a little bit more, and Harry slipped inside her body, his hands roaming all against her body.

The redhead could feel the pleasure that coursed through her body once again, and Harry was this close to entering her body. His manhood pushed against her smoldering hot lips and she parted her legs a little bit more and then after pulling all the way out, he slammed his way inside her body once again.

Vicki had never been fucked against the kitchen counter before, and the surface, well it felt nice to be honest. Her breasts pressed against the counter with Harry delving into her.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Harry asked her and Vicki nodded, a smoldering grin on his face.

She didn't want to say too much of anything, thinking that it would just disrupt the mood. That being said, Harry continued to push into her body and she hung onto the side of the counter, her legs being spread apart. This allowed him to push into her with greater intensity and caused her body to heat up even more.

The redhead female could feel him go deep into her, he was balls deep into her, and he could go even deeper than that. His thrusts buried their way into her body further and further.

Vicki could feel his hands caressing her body, giving her several excellent touches. She closed her eyes, with his fingers pushing against her nipples, twisting them, tweaking them, making every inch of her body his and his alone.

Eventually Harry kept thrusting in and out of her, slowing down for a moment and he gained momentum.

"Can you hang on for a little bit longer?" Harry whispered and Vicki nodded. He smiled, holding her up against the surface of the counter, her breasts pressing against it, as he rammed himself in between her legs. He sought her heat quite eagerly and her heat sought him.

"Yes, yes, I can," Vicki begged him, his thrusts going deeper into her body. She could feel the end being reached but she was sure that she could hold on at least long enough for him to have his fun.

He struck her g-spot and that caused her mind to be pushed to the edge. Once again, the reporter's nerve endings were on fire, and there was a sense that Harry had control of her orgasm.

Which was perfectly fine, but damn if he didn't push her to an entirely different level, his thrusts working her body over, the rapid fire motions keeping her from slipping over the edge, and keeping her in check. She craved as much as he could give her and then some more.

"Getting closer," Harry whispered to her and he could feel her hard nipples as he pressed his hands against them. He felt her breasts up and her pussy clenched him. The tight velvet vice milked him when he pushed himself into her hot depths.

Vicki nodded, closing her eyes rather tightly, feeling the pleasure against his loins when he pushed into her body, feeling his manhood plowing into her from behind at a quick, rapid fire rate when he went into her hard from behind.

Her mind was soundly blown and his thrusts got even more steady, when he bounced himself into her body. His balls slapped against her thighs and Vicki screwed her eyes shut, feeling him pound her into submission, the area between her legs getting rather sore.

But she was not sore enough to stop going with him. Therefore, he held his hands against her and pounded her.

Harry smiled, feeling her pussy clench him, she was going to milk as much of him out as she could. With a grunt, Harry warned her to brace herself.

Vicki's eyes fluttered open, giving him a look of lust towards him and there was a lust filled yell that followed. "Cum for me, give your slut all of her cum, you know how much she's choking for it."

With talk like that, how could Harry say no? He pushed himself deep into her inner walls, causing her to clamp down onto him, and he thrust away at her even harder. Eventually something had to break.

Both of them saw stars, with Vicki seeing more. She swore that he brought her to at least two more orgasms by the time that he was finished coating her insides. His rocket powered thrusts filled her up.

His cum finished its journey, and Vicki nearly slid to her knees to the floor once Harry pulled away but at the last second, he stopped and held her, preventing her from landing.

Somehow she found her way back into a chair, with considerable help form Harry, her mind flashing completely wildly at what occurred and she hoped that a repeat performance would be soon but for now she was out of it.

Her pussy was beaten raw, with cum leaking out of it, both hers and Harry's. And that meant that he fucked her well and good, so that satisfied her.

* * *

 

Selina and Dinah walked forward with Holly pressed between both of them. Dinah now had a slightly new look to her, she had a short brown wig that covered her hair, wearing a tight black jacket, a white t-shirt, and blue jeans, along with boots. She stepped forward, crossing the street, with Selina following her, and Holly going up behind her on the other way.

Holly got let out of the hospital a couple of days ago and instead of just feeling sorry for what happened, she wanted to learn how to defend herself.

Dinah was the first person who she asked and while Dinah thought that she could do it, upon second thought, she thought that Grant could be a better job at teaching her. At least with the basics, and Dinah could pick things up from there. She just knew far more about the advanced skills, but if you needed someone to give you a solid grounding on more advanced forms of fighting than Wildcat was your man.

Not really a slight against his abilities, but rather the fact that she knows a lot more than the basics. Still everyone had to start there and since that Grant's is closer to the apartment that Selina and Holly shared other than the tower, it was more practical for the short term. And since Dinah was functioning out of the tower, with a friend of Pamela's looking after the flower shop, she made the decision.

"So, are you really sure about this?" Selina whispered to her, as the three of them made their way up the stairs.

"I'm fine, yes I'm sure," Holly said, the determination obvious just through her tone of voice.

"I'm sure she's sure, and I'm sure that Ted will be up for it," Dinah commented and Selina shrugged, she knew the potential for this.

"You need to put less energy into that punch, you're going to end up spraining your wrist if you're not careful."

Ted was standing there, instructing a young prospect in the art of swinging a punch. He was kind of young, he might be a nice eventual prospect, but it was really too soon to tell. He was trying to get him to not jump the gun all too soon.

He had potential, but it was just a matter of making sure he tapped into it in all of the right ways as opposed to the wrong way.

"I'll check in later, I've got to take care of this, go over there to Stevens," Ted told him, putting to the other trainer, a former Mixed Martial Arts fighter who had gotten into a few scraps and had managed to pull himself back together after a drug problem, which Ted helped him get through.

All in all, he was wearing a tight t-shirt, along with a pair of baggy sweats, and he looked rather nice after what happened with his run in with Jones. Jones disappeared off of the map over the last couple of months. Come to think of it, so did Ben Turner.

' _People made a really big stink about that one, about Turner just vanishing, light heavyweight champion of the world,'_ Grant mused to himself and he turned towards the group, his eyes fixed on the group that made their way forward, catching on Dinah.

"Nice new look, kid, but it makes you look like more of a tom boy than usual," Grant said and Dinah responded with a swift punch to the stomach. Playfully, for the most part, but he did back off with an oof. "Seems to me you're losing your touch or I've gotten a lot harder skinned in my old age, haven't I?"

The two of them got into a scuffle, just like old times. He had taught her a fair bit about the basics, and they threw down completely. The two greeted each other with a hug, with both Selina and Holly looking kind of amused, shaking their heads never the less.

"So, how about your Dad, is he doing fine?" Grant asked and Dinah smiled.

"He was doing well, up and about and all that," Dinah commented with a smile on her face. "He really did make a remarkable recovery, but he's down in Seattle now, living to my sister, her husband died recently."

"Ah, can't say I blame Larry for wanting to get away from the old grind over here, might want to try that before you're too stubborn like me," Grant said and Dinah pressed forward.

"This is Holly Robinson and Selina Kyle," Dinah said, introducing both of them.

"A pleasure to meet you," he said, shaking their hands and he raised his eyebrow, so Dinah decided to explain things to him.

"Holly would like to pick up so training in the fundamentals and then in about six months or so, I can see if she can learn the more advanced techniques," Dinah replied.

Grant paused, and he was looking over Holly, like she was a prized thoroughbred and looked over her, to the point where she got rather short in her temper.

"Take a picture, it lasts longer," she said, she didn't really have any issues with her body but after what happened, her temper was short and explosive.

Grant didn't really looked fussed, because mostly because he was used to dealing with hot shot youngers, that had an attitude problem or two. Therefore, he just let it brush it off of his back.

"I can work with her," Grant replied gruffly and Holly folded her arms across her chest, and looked at him with a glare.

"Guess, I'm glad that I meet your lofty standards," she replied, glaring at him and there was a second where he smiled and turned to Selina.

"How about you, doll face, you want to learn how to defend yourself?"

Dinah tried not to be amused, especially given that Selina was given him one of those looks that could peel paint.

"I know how to fight," she said in an icy voice and Grant looked at her, amusement flickering in his eyes.

"Well, why don't you prove it?"

"Gladly," Selina said, climbing into the ring and he followed her into the ring, motioning for her to join him and they got into the center of the ring.

Both of them circled with each other, with Holly and Dinah, and a few of the trainers and students in the gym gathering around, to see it.

Grant went for a punch but she dodged the attack, crouching down and his punch hit the empty air. Then there was another punch and Selina dodged it, and then she snapped up her foot, before nailing him with a kick to the face.

She nailed him with a series of rapid fire kicks, he blocked some of them and he got a bloody lip in the battle. He caught her with a few punches, some of them blocked.

"Well, not too bad, guess you're more of a kickboxer, given that you favor your feet more than your hands," Grant commented and Selina's eyes narrowed, with a slight smirk flowing over her face.

"Figured that out, haven't you?" she fired back and Grant smiled, but then he decided to stop holding back, just a little bit, to see what he could bring out to her.

To her credit, she held her own and she could back up her words. Dinah in particular watched in interest.

' _She is pretty good, isn't she?'_ Faora asked through the bond link.

' _Perfect,'_ Dinah commented, watching her. _'Well not quite, there's always room for improvement.'_

' _Exactly, there's always room for improvement,'_ Faora commented but she wished that she could see the battle close up and personal, as opposed to it being second hand.

* * *

 

"Harry, thank you, thank you very much for picking me up, I mean….."

"Hey it's really not a problem, I know that Kara was supposed to take you home, but she forgot that she had another class, a blonde moment if there ever was one," Harry replied with a slight grin, but that comment didn't go without retaliation.

' _Hey!'_ Kara yelled and Donna and the twins laughed at her misfortune but she shook her head.

' _Don't worry honey, we have them, even at the best of times.'_

Harry and Barbara were in the car after a study session, in fact he was on his way to drive her home.

"So what's on your agenda for this afternoon, I think that you mentioned a bit about it this morning, but with everything….it's hard to keep track," Barbara said, looking more sheepish than anything else.

"Well I've got to help the younger girls with their homework," Harry said to Barbara and the redhead nodded. "And then I have to go home and get ready for my date with Veronica later on tonight."

"Right, Karlo's one man show…..well good luck, hope you survive the experience," Barbara said, wrinkling her nose. Needless to say, she heard the reviews, both the professional ones and ones that she overheard from other people. "Some of the members of the GCPD went; they were considering arresting Karlo for misrepresenting himself as an actor."

Harry whistled at this statement and he turned to Barbara. "That bad, huh?"

"That bad, yes, but I'm sure that it will be a good time, in spite him," Barbara replied, shaking her head. "You know, we haven't had a lot of time for ourselves lately, after all, you've been busy and you know for a fact that I've been busy."

Harry smiled, Barbara had been busy, to the point where he almost thought that she was overtaxing herself. But at the same time, he knew that she wouldn't have things any other way.

"So, do you want to change any of that?"

"If I could…..I would," Barbara commented with a lengthy sigh. "But like I've said, we've both bee really, really busy lately, and it's been out of our hands. Especially me but at the GCPD…."

Barbara once again sighed and Harry picked up at the sigh, along with her distaste and discomfort. His eyebrow corked towards her and he asked her calmly. "What about the GCPD?"

"Well it's about Nashton….he's the original creepy pain in the ass."

' _No, no, that title has always been and ever will belong to…'_

' _Snape, Snape, Severus Snape,'_ Rose sang, finishing Lily's statement. _'And I really have no idea where that came from or how it came out in song form.'_

' _But…..I have pleasant dreams about his entirely justified and warranted demise,'_ Lily commented with a bright smile crossing over her face and Harry raised his eyebrow at the thought but said nothing.

"He tends to hover around when he isn't working on something, so the trick is to find him things to do, so he leaves me alone," Barbara continued, kicking up a storm as she started to rant but she rained herself is. "Pretty smart, nowhere near as smart as me, or smart as you….but still pretty smart. And he realizes that he's intelligent, and that makes him all that much the more obnoxious."

Harry didn't say anything but he felt that he should keep a close eye on this Nashton. There was just some vibe that he was getting from the man that he couldn't place but the vibe unsettled Harry greatly.

That being said, he was almost back to the tower, driving his way down the final set of streets.

Barbara was struck with a daring burst of inspiration, but pulling it off, that would be something entirely different than what she was used to. Still, as they were at a stop light, she slowly made her move.

Slowly and almost subtly, but not quite, Barbara shifted her body so it was pressed against Harry's.

' _So you want to make some kind of brazen move, Miss Gordon, well played if so,'_ Harry thought, and he smiled, wrapping the arm that was not firmly locked onto the steering wheel around her waist and that caused her to shiver.

Barbara knew that this was her move and after a second, she placed his hand on her knee. Slowly, she worked it up towards his inner thigh with a bit of a purr, brushing against him.

The redhead thought that she was winding him up fairly nicely, at least to the point where he would be ready.

Barbara's hand lingered around the outside area of his pants and she was ready to swoop in for the kill. Her hand brushed against him.

Harry made the turn, keeping his mind focused enough on the road, feeling her hand slip further towards him.

Barbara was trying to get a bit more momentum and her heart beat against her chest, running her hand against his inner thigh, trying to work her way between his legs. After she reached his center quite daringly, the redhead decided to fish her hand into his pants.

Harry watched her, a smile on his face, and he could see what the redhead was doing, naturally, she pulled his cock out. He kept driving, despite the fact that her hand was on him.

Gaining a bit more confidence, even though there was a damp feeling between her legs that kind of threw off her momentum, the redhead placed her hand onto his balls and slowly ran her hand over them, before she grabbed onto his shaft. She decided to push her hand up and then spit on it, adding to the lubrication.

With the proper amount of lubrication, the redhead wrapped her lithe little hand around his manhood. Harry grunted and Barbara grinned, seeing what he was doing and how he was feeling it. She decided to be a bit more daring, to see how far she could trust herself to push on harder.

Her hand stroked him up and down, with Harry managing to make the turn, heading into the garage of the tower. The redhead stroked him up and down, her hand clasped around his manhood the more that she worked him over and she kept her momentum nice and fast, with some rapid fire strokes.

His manhood throbbed in her hand and Barbara could see that he finally parked the car. The redhead decided to take things the next level, by parking her face between his thighs, and leaned in, ready to move in for the attack.

Harry could feel her hot mouth and lips wrapping around his tool. The first time she did this, it was with not the most refined skill imaginable but he thought that he was getting better.

"That's it, take your time," Harry said and he reached onto the back of her head trying to guide her, but Barbara lightly pushed his hand away.

Harry shrugged, deciding to allow him to take him all the way into her mouth, deep as possible. The redhead continued to work her mouth around his rod and give the proper amount of suction.

' _Not too bad,'_ Dinah thought, what she lacked in experience, she made up in pure energy and excitement. Her lips popped around Harry's tool, working him up and down. Each thrust buried his manhood deep into her mouth.

The redhead vixen kept up her actions, sucking his tool hungrily and she threw her head back, before bringing herself down onto his manhood one more time. Her lips fit around him and sucked his tool hard, bringing it deep between her lips.

Harry went to stroke her hair but she once again pushed his hands away. Her nails dug into his stomach as now he was completely parked, and he grunted when her hot mouth continued to work him up to a fever pitch. He felt a twitch in his balls.

"Fair enough, finish me off, and you'll get a reward."

Barbara tried to take him deep into her throat but doing something that she saw on the Internet in real life was easier said than done. Her hot lips pushed around his manhood and she brought more of him into her mouth.

"Relax, that's it, that's it."

She braced herself; not wanting to spill a drop of Harry's cum or stain the seats of the car. The woman resolved to get it all in her mouth, and that being said, she wrapped her lips around his tool once again.

Her hot lips continued to lick around his manhood and suddenly, his crotch bucked into her mouth. His balls tightened and he sent the first splattering burst of cum deep down her throat.

Barbara hung on and braced herself to take her medicine. Another volley of cum shut down her throat, followed by a third, and then….to be honest she lost count after that. As she sucked all of his seed down, she could feel her…..well her birthday couldn't come soon enough.

That being said, she came up from air, when she was sure that she was done, but she was far from down, Harry pushed her back onto the seat of the car.

Her jeans were pealed from her body and her panties, already soaking with her arousal, clung to her legs. The redhead panted heavily and her hips nearly stuck together. She could see Harry hover over the top of her and his tongue prepared to brush its way into her from above.

The green eyed wizard pushed his tongue deep into her body and Barbara grabbed onto the side of his head, allowing his tongue to enter her. The redhead's hips rolled, and he slowly teased her. His nose brushed against her red pubic hair when he ate her out.

She gushed in more ways than one and her nipples got really hard. She wished that Harry could take them, take her right now but she was holding herself back.

That being said, he sucked on her clit and that was about when he lost her mind. Barbara wrapped her legs around his head and imagined what it would be like to have his cock inside her body, ruthlessly pounding her until she begged for his cum.

That being said, as nice as that fantasy was, his tongue was an amazing reality just as well. One that she decided to focus on now because anything else would drive her completely insane.

' _Just you wait,'_ Harry whispered, channeling a bit of magic through his hands which rested a little bit underneath her breasts. _'I have you, I have you now.'_

Barbara bucked her hips up, she didn't know what he was saying but the fact his tongue moved around in her like that, that caused her mind to be blown completely. His tongue rattled through her body, heating up her loins and she whined.

"Harry, please," Barbara screamed, with his tongue going into her and she bucked her hips up, allowing more and more of her juices to spill into her mouth.

Harry vibrated his tongue into her and he was not even using his cock, just his tongue, and she was feeling like that. Her body thrashed, she thought that if she died right now, she would be a really happy girl.

That being said, Harry was eating her into a pleasure coma, so she really hoped that she could survive this on the way to her birthday. It would be a very happy birthday to her if these tastes that she got were any indication.

Harry smiled, sucking up her sweet nectar, it was amazing that she didn't jump him and the moment that she turned seventeen, Harry didn't have a doubt in his mind that she would. It did show a great amount of self-control to her herself back.

Barbara could feel him in her, his tongue, and she nearly lost her mind. So much pleasure, he hit her g-spot with his tongue, which almost was like it grew in her body and maybe it did for all she knew. She had seen stranger, felt stranger, and knew stranger. Her hips shot up and Harry munched on her center once again, before her hips rocked up and sent another fresh load of her womanly juices into his mouth.

The redhead deflated on the seat and Harry smiled, the fact that he gave her unmistakable pleasure was obvious. That being said, with his work done, Harry grinned, and her shudder was music to his ears.

* * *

Once again, Barbara took a taste from the honey pot before it was time to do so and she had been a beneficiary of Harry's talented tongue.

' _It's going to make what wait you have even more agonizing, Miss Gordon,'_ Harry said with a smile, making sure to clean her panties the best he could. They would have to do for now, and he slipped them back on her, along with her pants.

"Are we still among the land of the living?" Harry asked her and Barbara shook her head, with a smile on her face.

"Yes, I am," Barbara replied, with a smile on her face but the truth was, she almost died and went to heaven. At least that felt like it, but it was more than worth it to reach that point if that was the case.

Barbara stood up on wobbling legs but she could still walk. Especially when she came down from her blissful state.

' _And just think, the wait is going to be even more agonizing, but to be fair, she's the one that initiated it,'_ Pamela thought to them, and everyone laughed at the thought of it.

' _Girl's going to jump your bones the second that she turns seventeen,'_ Dinah thought and Harry smiled.

' _I know.'_

* * *

 

Basil Karlo parked himself in front of the mirror out the make up take, preparing for his play later tonight. In his dressing room, he got into the proper mood, muttering underneath his breath.

"You've seen better days, my dear boy," Karlo muttered to himself, looking at his face. He lived a hard life and the stress of people bastardizing his work and corrupting it had caused him a great deal of agitation. It had been a hard life for him, and things just got worse with the bastardization of his greatest work.

Karlo thought about what he could do and perhaps what he needed to do. He picked up the makeup case and was about to apply it.

He kept himself in the mirror, carefully applying it. There was an art and a science to this, and he didn't want to mess up when he did this. He carefully worked away and paused for a second, before finishing.

When the dust cleared, he looked at his handy work and a wicked grin appeared on his face. Karlo's gaze lingered at the mirror.

To the naked eye, they wouldn't know too much different at a casual glance. To a sensitive artist like Karlo, it was something extremely different.

He looked like a completely new man, as if he had moved all of the wear and tear of his face. It looked like he removed about twenty years or so, making him look like he did during the prime of his career. Before those years where people mangled his genius work, and some ignorant fools thought that it was an improvement upon the original.

A disgrace, they soundly mocked him, but he still retained the acting talent that he had.

Karlo's gaze swept all over the room, his mouth twisted into a very malicious smirk and he smiled, taking a careful look at what was around him. His gaze in particular lingered on a very ornate looking dagger. It rested inside a display case and a rather ugly mask rested next to it.

They were props for the first movie that he ever starred in. He went down memory lane for a long time, at least until he heard a knock on his dressing room door.

"Enter," Karlo said in an overly dramatic voice, as if he was trying to establish some kind of creepy mood like he did in one of his play or movies.

An older gentleman entered the room, looking rather non-plussed as he slipped inside. His age hovered around the same that Karlo did.

"Oh, it's you," Karlo said, looking like there was a foul odor with the man entering the room. "You're the one who is involved in that gaudy remake."

The man, who was in fact the producer of the remake of 'The Terror', nodded. "I know how you must feel…"

"You have no idea, it was the movie that launched my career, and now you're disrespecting my hard word…"

"I'm sorry that you feel that way," the Producer said and he had been sent here by the studio to smooth over any bad feelings. If they had bad PR because Karlo kicked up too much of a stink, it might jeopardize the future of the movie. "I wish to invite you to lend your expertise to the movie, as I feel that your valued input could allow us to do much with moving the movie forward. I know you didn't want it to happen, but I was hoping that you would work with us, as a consultant."

"You want me, to work with you," Karlo replied, his tone sounding like he had been asked to swallow something completely and utterly rancid and his eyes flashing maliciously towards the producer who gulped and nodded, waiting for Karlo's reaction

There was a visible moment of anger on his face but it quickly adjusted for a few seconds and he turned towards him, a smile crossing his face. "I believe that we can work something out, after we got off on the wrong foot, don't we?"

"Yes, we're both professionals," the producer agreed, and he was put underneath a lot of pressure by the studio to make this deal happen.

"Then we should be able to work something out," Karlo answered and he extended his hand.

The producer looked at him and he took his hand into his, shaking it. Karlo smiled and the producer prepared to make his move and do what the movie studio requested of him regarding how to deal with Karlo.

* * *

 

Harry Potter and Veronica Vreeland went out on a date, something that seemed to be the norm over the last couple of weeks. The Gotham City public saw them at several high society events. In fact, at this point in time, Harry was helping her out of his seat, after paying the bill.

Would this be a shock to some people?

The answer was not really, because there were instances where people said that they had an equal amount of interest in each other and there were plenty of sparks of chemistry to be had with both sides of the equation. So it was not only considered to be inevitable, but also people expected it.

That being said, Harry relaxed a little bit more, acting closer to his age or at least closer to what his age might have been expected. There were times where seventeen year olds acted like they were spoiled three year olds but come to think of it, that might be an insult to toddlers the world over. Surely they were more composed then some of the rich party boys out there.

"So, you are connected with a lot of females," Veronica said oh so casually. They had been having this conversation over dinner about the number of females. "Not that I mind….because that means that you're worth someone's time if…..well if….."

"If there are a lot of females interested in me, and are willing to put up with me, that must mean that I'm a strong male," Harry offered, as she struggled to find the words.

' _Damn straight,'_ Kara said, and she was not alone in her agreement.

"Not that it really matters, how active you are, because…..well people tend to limit their imagination, you know," Veronica said with a smile on her face. "And I think that you have a good enough sense to separate the females that are worth your time, from the ones that aren't."

"Most of the time, yes, but thankfully I have a good support group that tells me when someone might be coming under my radar that shouldn't be," Harry replied to her and she smiled and nodded. "Nine times out of ten though, I pretty much have a good idea."

Veronica went to an all girl's Private Boarding School, and then joined a Sorority, so the multiple females thing was something that went off her back. Especially with someone who did her fair share of experimenting in her day.

"For someone as busy as you are, you do a good job in juggling all of your responsibilities, I mean most people…you know what would crack under the pressure," Veronica said and she smiled. "And you've been upping the charity work."

"Well it's for a good cause and anything to skip the universal scales of karma," Harry said, and she snickered, it was a reference to an article that was posted in one of the more questionable media outlets that anyone who was doing charity work must be concerned about their karma.

The two of them moved towards the press, and both of them were amused if anything else, they were yelling various inquiries about charity work and everything else that went along with that. It might be very difficult for them to get a word in edgewise.

"Sorry, I hate to cut you all off, but the arts in Gotham City await," Harry said and Veronica smiled as they slipped into the Limo, which drove off.

"So, should I wait for them to move or do you think we can get away with running them over?"

'Um….." Veronica said, she didn't know whether to be amused or mortified by that suggestion but it was Harry who smiled.

"Penny, they'll move, just….just lean on the horn a little bit," Harry said, the horn was surprisingly effective to making people move oddly enough. The assembled press moved out of the way, perhaps thinking that Harry Potter just might be crazy enough to have them ran over. He didn't really know.

"They can be like vultures sometime, even if they are a necessary evil," Veronica commented with a smile on her face, snuggling against Harry. She took several moments to bask in his presence and it was quite a presence. "And they like to spread all kinds of rumors, because of some gossip between high society say in a casual setting."

"Oh…..?"

"Well you know how certain people like to talk, jealous I think about how much others have accomplished," Veronica responded with a shrug of her shoulder and she smiled. "There are people who thought that I would be on my second husband by now…"

Veronica stopped, and Harry raised his eyebrow. "What?"

"It's nothing," she responded.

"What?" Harry asked and she shook her head. "Veronica."

"Just thinking how much I'm taking pleasure in proving those high society harpies wrong about all this," Veronica replied to him with a smile. "But, they're going to find a new topic of conversation, and Kathy seems to be ripe…..but I think that she can handle it."

Harry smiled and decided to switch topics.

"I talked to Vicki….she mentioned how the show….well the reviews weren't that good…."

"Harry," Veronica said with a giggle, slapping him on the shoulder, amusement dripping from her voice. "It isn't about how good the show is…..it's about setting a good example and supporting the arts."

She grew suddenly serious.

"But you're right, given that it's Karlo, he never was that good of an actor in the first place. No one really watched his movies for quality acting, just to get terrified out of their minds. There were too many roles where he ruled too much make up, and reduced to playing a monster."

She sighed and she continued.

"Most people don't even know what the guy really looks like, I mean, can you believe that?"

"Oh, I believe that," Harry answered her with a smile. "Surprised that…"

"Surprised, that I knew that?" Veronica asked him and she gave him a shifty little grin. "Well I took a couple of film study classes in the University, and he was a subject of interest."

That being said, they were on their way to the Theater. The Monarch Theater had been a subject to much controversy over the years and infamy as well.

It was once again the subject to a crime scene and also a mystery it appeared.

The sheer amount of police around the area indicated that it was not only a crime scene. Veronica's mouth widened in surprise and Harry's expression was one that was sharp but he kept himself fairly calm and even. He exited the limo, his legs swinging out of it, and he leaned in to get a closer look.

"Looks like the show's been cancelled," Harry whispered and there was a big sign on the theater that said about as much.

The sign gave no more information about why the show was cancelled only that it was cancelled. Harry gave a long smile over his face, that was not going to keep him from finding out or rather it was time for Nightwing to suit up once again.

' _So this would be an eventful night, and here I thought the only crime here would be Karlo's acting,'_ Harry thought to himself and he could see the police swarming in.

They were about ready to tell him and Veronica off, but Harry decided to beat them to the punch.

"Guess, that cuts our night short."

Harry nodded, he figured as much, and would like Veronica to know as much but for him, the night was just beginning.

* * *

 

James Gordon kneeled down beside the slain body of Basil Karlo, in Karlo's dressing room. He examined the body rather closely. This case might prove to be a baffling one, but he pieces together what he could know ahead of time.

He knew enough to realize that he had been stabbed repeatedly in the torso area, the most obvious stab wounds being in the heart, and the one in the liver.

That fact was not the most disturbing thing in there, even though it was pretty disturbing. No, the most disturbing thing was that except for the body, the rest of the dressing room was in pristine condition. There was no evidence that indicated a murder had took place; no blood splatters anywhere, no finger prints, no murder weapon. He couldn't identify even the slightest footprint on the ground.

It was a mystery about what happened and that being said, there was another mystery. The Dagger and the Mask Karlo wore in the terror was also missing and he didn't have the slightest idea where they could have run off to. Something like that just didn't grow legs and walk off.

' _So, I wonder what the hell just happened,'_ James thought to himself, a feeling sunk into the pit of his stomach that he missed one tangible piece of evidence that would tie this case together, but what he didn't know.

"So, you were the one that found his body?"

James half listened to Sarah, who was interrogating the stage manager, who found the body earlier in the evening. The woman looked rather distressed about the matter, and it was obvious that there was a more personal edge to this then most murders had.

"I tried to call him several times," Karlo's manager told Sarah and she nodded. "When he didn't answer after about the third time, I had to check up in person and that's…..that's when I found him like that."

Distress flowed through the female's voice and she swallowed a lump in her throat. It made it extremely difficult to talk.

"How long have you know him?"

"Since I was a little girl, my father used to be his manager," the manager commented, trying not to lose her senses or her head. "My father, anyway, he used to be his manager, and when Dad died, I took over as the position."

"Okay, just one more question," Sarah said in a business like tone. "Did he have any enemies, anyone who might want to do him harm?"

The manager paused for a second before shaking her head. "As far as I know….no one did. He was a sweet old man, really quiet, kept to himself, you know the type…..never would have had a bad word to say about anyone, really."

"I see, I understand," Sarah replied to him and she could hear two more arriving. She excused Karlo's manager, who looked like she needed to sit down or perhaps have a drink or a smoke or both.

Bullock made his way into the scene, followed by Montoya. As always, Harvey Bullock was someone who was going to get to the point. "Just interviewing the Theater Manager, asking if anyone saw anything suspicious or anyone came by to see the old man?"

"Did anyone?" Sarah asked and Bullock grunted.

"Some big shot movie producer who is involved in the making of the film."

Sarah felt her cell phone start to vibrate at this point and subtly, she checked it. Gordon left the dressing room at this point, walking up towards her.

**Meet Me in the Alleyway, or the Roof, Whatever is More Convenient, ASAP.**

She sent a quick response of **Alley, Five Minutes.**

Gordon looked at her curiously and she waved it off. "It's an important call that I need to make, it's about another case."

After making her excuses, she made her way down the hallways, taking the back exit, which thankfully was already open. That made things a bit easier for her.

With another movement, she landed smack dab into the middle of the rain. The weather took a turn for the worst rather quickly, she would have to say. It was a chilly but rather pleasant day, and then it went extremely stormy and bitterly cold. She almost cursed the necessity of this but business called.

Sarah sighed, and she fished a cigarette out of the carton. She went to search for her lighter but there was a lit finger in front of her, right in front of her face.

To her credit, she managed to not to react in a terrified manner, rather using the finger to light her cigarette.

"So, how much do you know?" Sarah asked, getting directly to the point.

"I found out that Karlo was the victim in question from one of my sources before I arrived," Harry told her bluntly.

"We don't know a whole lot ourselves, other than the fact that Karlo's dead," she replied to him. Then again that much was obvious. "He's been stabbed in the chest several times, once to the heart, the last person to see him alive was one of the producers of the remake. We don't know a lot about it…and it's a surprise that you heard about it, because we've been keeping things close to our vest right now."

"I did tell you that I had my sources."

Sarah raised her eyebrow that was fair enough to be honest.

"But, tomorrow is November the Eleventh, and something is likely to happen with our Calendar Criminal," Harry told her and she nodded, in the confusion she nearly forgot that date rolled around the corner. "Unless he strikes on Thanksgiving that is."

They won't know until the clock strikes midnight the day after. Every moment from Midnight to Midnight presented an agonizing waiting game, especially when they had no solid leads to follow.

Sarah responded with an affirmative nod, and was about to say something else.

"What are you doing out there?"

John Jones popped his head out the door and Nightwing was gone as quickly as he appeared. Sarah turned towards him for an explanation.

"Had to make a phone call, and decided to take a smoke when I'm out here."

John recalled that there were nods where it indicated that he understood. The man had his own addictions after all. "Ah."

**To Be Continued on 10/3/2014.**

* * *

 

**Brand New Arc and we begin with a bang, a couple of them really when you really think about it.**


	57. And Now for Something Completely Different Part Two

**Chapter Fifty-Seven: Now for Something Completely Different Part Two.**

* * *

 

"You're not considered a suspect in this investigation, at least not yet. We just wish to ask you a few questions."

The producer of the film was sitting, being interrogated by James Gordon and John Jones. His lawyer looked at him and shook her head, and signaled for him to be silent.

"Mr. Karlo was scene after my client vacated the premises of the building, didn't you say that?" the lawyer asked, and her smug look stared down both officers of the law.

"That's correct, we wish to say if he was acting rather odd," Jones said in his usual even tempered tone of voice.

The producer did not really say a word from where he was sitting, the man's arms crossed over his chest.

"Well, Karlo's… resentment of the remake of his movie indicated that he was fairly odd, and his own uniquely high opinion of his mediocre talent," the lawyer and the producer looked down at his hands sighing. "It could have been some overzealous fan trying to get too close to Karlo and things went too far."

"I told you, I don't do anything….."

"Mr. Caruthers, I'll take care of this," his lawyer said, her eyes peering over the top of her glasses.

Jones and Gordon settled themselves and could see that the producer was shocked by this as the rest of them were. His mouth hung open and Gordon offered him a drink of water.

"Don't," his lawyer warned him, stopping his hand from touching the water and thus leaving fingerprints. Just because they claimed that there were no fingerprints left at the scene of the crime, they were not taking any chances. She wouldn't put it past the GCPD to plant evidence there, to finger the murder on her client so they could say that they solved the crime.

"Show him the photos of the crime scene, see if he can tell us anything," Jones told Gordon and Gordon nodded in agreement, taking the photos out.

"Place them down on the table in front of my client," the lawyer demanded, once again, not wanting her client to directly touch anything that could be used against him at a later date.

"Do you notice anything different about the room, then when you were visiting?" Gordon asked and the producer leaned in to analyze the picture without touching them.

"The dagger and the mask from the original version of the Terror are missing," the producer said looking over it with a critical eye. "Other than that, there's nothing out of the ordinary."

"What was the nature of your meeting?" Gordon asked, but once again, and potentially most annoyingly, the producer's lawyer cut in.

"Mr. Caruthers is under no obligation to divulge the details of that meeting, as your placing of him near the crime scene is based upon circumstantial evidence at best," she replied, the challenging glare never leaving her eye.

"So you're saying that the crime scene is exactly the same, except for the dagger and the mask missing?" Jones asked, calmly and Caruthers nodded, his arms once again folded over his chest, his eyes narrowed.

"Yes, my client said that those gaudy relicts are the only thing that are gone," the lawyer said, shaking her head. As far as she was concerned, they were tokens of Karlo's vanity.

"Very well, you may go," Gordon commented, but he held up his hand and Caruthers looked at him, his eyebrow rising once again. "But, you may not be considered a suspect now, however, given that you were the last person to see Karlo alive, it would not be advised that you leave the city."

"Yes, I understand," Caruthers said, nearly choking out his next words but he shook his head.

His lawyer led him out once again and Jones and Gordon could agree that she was a piece of work, but obviously she had the same negative opinion that most did of the GCPD. That left both of the men in the interrogation room alone, pouring over the evidence that they had in front of them.

"We really don't have a lot to work with, in this case, do we?" Jones asked and Gordon looked over his shoulder and nodded. "You know, the overzealous fan theory might not be too far off the mark."

Gordon wasn't really ready to rule that one out for obvious reasons, but something about this unsettled him. What, he didn't know.

"A crime of passion would leave more evidence than it did," Gordon reminded Jones and Jones nodded, a few seconds later, they came with another theory. "The dagger and the mask…. those were from the original version of the Terror. With the remake coming up, the originals…. they would fetch millions and would be sought after by collectors."

The fact that they were stolen items did not really deter anyone, because there were a lot of people who would buy the items and then smuggle them out of the country, before selling them at a markup value elsewhere.

"Renewed interest, a theft gone wrong," Jones said and once again he was looking at the pictures of the crime scene. He couldn't help but think that there was some intangible fact that they missed. Exactly what, they didn't know. There was another fact that ate away at him. "What I want to know is why this murder of all things is getting so much attention?"

"Karlo is a celebrity, a minor one yes, but he's been in the news lately with all of the controversy of the remake of his film and his act….. well I don't wish to speak ill of the dead," Gordon replied, averting that topic.

"No need to my friend, no need to, I've read the reviews," Jones commented in a light voice.

"And the fact that he's friends with the Mayor also makes this investigation more high profile than it really needs to be," Gordon added and Jones raised his eyebrow. "We've got the Mayor breathing down our necks and if there's one wrong move well…"

"I understand," Jones said and this had all of the hallmarks of a baffling mystery, the motive was mostly unknown. There was no physical evidence, and the producer, despite the fact that one could make a circumstantial case against him, had a rock solid alibi going for him.

So once again back to square one they went with this investigation.

* * *

 

A sign that stated "Veteran's Day Special, all Veteran's get to eat free" was what greeted many of the guests in one of the top fast food chains in all of Gotham City. A lot of people gathered around, the place packed as far as the eye could see.

There were men, women, and children all around the area, all of them with bright smiles on their face. A man hobbled forward with a cane and leaned on it for some added support. He had the wounds of war, but the good spirits returned.

"Nice to see that they still respect all of what we do," he commented in a cheerful voice. "Shouldn't be eating this really, my doctor is getting on my ass about my eating habits, but….. I suppose that one day out of the year couldn't hurt."

"Well, we didn't fight to help protect this country, to listen to some quack in a lab coat tell us what to do," another man said, he was wearing an eye patch, with unruly looking hair and numerous scars on his right hand, there was a finger missing.

There was a loud chatter, men, women, children, they were all there, and there was something ticking.

It was rapidly reaching the eleventh minute, eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month of the year.

"See if you can get some more back there, we're fresh out," one of the cashiers said, looking over his shoulder, giving the man his change.

"Bet you didn't think that we would come out in droves…"

"No, it's one of the biggest days of business in all of Gotham City but I have to admit, there's been nothing like this in a very long time," the man at the cash register said. "You know, that's free…"

"I know, but I'd like to give you a little something for your troubles, you must have been on your feet all morning, and the lunch rush is coming," the man said with a kindly smile, taking his tray and parking himself out on the table.

The cashier smiled, it was rather worth it. His grandfather was one of them as well, although he could not make it out today. This was a reunion for some of these people, who had fought in the same division, the Gotham City 45th, in World War II.

"Do you smell that?" one of the other cashiers asked and the man paused, looking over his shoulder.

"Smell….."

He never really got out his next statement because there was something that was pouring from the kitchen. Something was planted in there, a bomb of some sort, maybe, that it was released.

Exactly the moment that the clock struck 11:11 on the eleventh of November, it happened. The gas caused the throat of the nearest cashier to close up and he dropped against the desk. The cashier's head thumped up against the desk and there was no chance.

More gas went through the bathroom, those who had been inside, dropping dead immediately from the choking gas.

Some of them screamed in a panic, in their attempts to scramble towards the exit, but much to their dismay and discomfort, they didn't make it in time.

The people who were closest to the explosion got zapped the worst, the top of their eyes, along with their mouths began to spill with blood. It was a nasty gas and even those who were furthest away did not really have much of a chance to escape. Some had health conditions that made it easier on the gas to kill them.

Some of them slumped on the ground, one of them clutching at his heart, struggling to keep a breath on. One of them fell on the door, his heart struggling to pump blood into his body, thus sealing the fate.

The back exits were too far away.

Who would do such a dastardly attack? There was the sound of sirens, someone managed to call the police, although the brave soul who had done so was dead.

There was a man who stepped from the shadows outdoors, wheeling a hamper down the alleyway. There was a van waiting, disguised as some kind of supply truck. Calmly, and casually he walked inside.

The moment the van pulled out of the alleyway and made its way down the street, the GCPD's finest arrive. There was already someone who was slumped against the wall, barely able to move, blocking the door.

"Some of them might still be alive in there, stand back, stand back!"

"We need to get inside, quickly, before the gas….."

"I know the procedure, don't worry, the gas can't spread, it's already burning itself out."

The crowd was down and out in a heap in the restaurant. There were men, women, and children, all whom perished in the nasty gas that had been pumped in there. Loud sirens echoed from outside as an ambulance arrived, but for some it was too late, much too late.

Lives were lost.

* * *

 

"This is Jack Ryder, horror struck Gotham City today, as eleven restaurants were the sites for a brutal and fatal chemical attack. This attack caused hundreds of people to drop dead, with very few survivors, and those who managed to survive the attack will be lucky to spend the night."

Ryder paced back and forth and stood outside of the scene of the crime with a grizzly expression on his face. He shook his head, looking rather disturbed, but he wiped any attempt of an expression off of his face and retained the aura of the professional that he was.

"The only silver lining to this cloud is that whoever was responsible for this attack only used enough gas to have an impact on the immediate area, thanks to the wind, some of it spread and we're trying to ascertain exactly how far it spread. Vapor trails from the gas may have been affected by the supply; therefore we encourage anyone to avoid drinking any water until the damage report can be assessed… and this just in….."

Ryder stopped, reading the report in the paper he had been handed and then he shook his head, before he continued. "It spread a bit beyond in two locations, where it was around a shopping center and a mall and the amount of casualties have not been counted up. I will be breaking in live when I get the official word from the Gotham City Police Department, along with any leads. The people in Gotham City continue to live in a gripping fear, where there is an attack that is guaranteed during the holiday season, they just do not know where or when."

The horror was something that could not be imagined or even described with mere words, but Ryder managed to give a little bit of a preview of what was happening the very least.

Harry sat quietly with Bruce in one of the offices at Wayne Enterprises and Bruce turned towards him with a darkening expression in his eyes. Both thought the same thing, and this was proof how dangerous and deranged this particular man was.

"We knew this was going to happen, something like this, we just didn't know what was going to happen, how, and when," Harry replied and there was a second where Bruce looked towards him.

"I know."

That voice was given in a more Batman way than Bruce Wayne way and Harry thought that he had a lot of points.

"The problem is that we didn't have enough information to deal with this, and we were left hanging in a lurch," Harry replied and Bruce's nodding got extremely stiff. "If we didn't put Emergency Services on high alert… well things would have been worse than they were to be honest."

And things looked pretty bad, deaths in the hundreds, that was a preliminary estimate, and Harry really crossed his fingers in hope that was just overinflation by the media, sensualistic journalism at it's finest.

His gut told him that it was about bad and while Bruce looked grim, he looked even more so. Felt that way as well, but all they could do was figure out their next move. And without any more information, they couldn't go far enough on that front.

They waited for more news to come up and Harry hoped that one of his contacts would come on through. Right now, the images of the attack could be heard, but there were no suspects.

That was the problem; there were no suspects, no one with a motive that was sane. Once again, Harry's eyes went blood shot when they were focused on the screen. He was trying to be calm, especially with his condition; his blood pressure hitting the roof would not be an ideal outcome.

No one was saying anything but they knew how rather angry that he was. Nevertheless, Harry's phone rang. He checked the caller ID and saw that it was Sarah. This was the news that he was waiting for, and he answered it immediately. Not before putting it on speaker phone so Bruce could hear the conversation.

"So, what do you know?" Harry asked her and she could tell the tension was flowing in his voice, so she decided to get to the point.

"Not much more than you do, but I did find something interesting," Sarah replied and she amended that statement, as Bruce listened in even though he didn't say a word. "Or rather the bomb squad found something."

Harry cleared his throat, to show her that he was all ears and thus she cut to the chase

"There were several devices in the kitchen, and the bathroom of each site, designed to spread a lot of the gas very quickly, in this particular version, a more potent version of one used during World War I," Sarah told him and Harry nodded in response. "It was kind of crude, but none the less, it was extremely effective."

"We can meet later if we need to go over any more," Harry replied to her and Sarah paused after a second and nodded in agreement.

"Yes….later, I'm sure that I'll find out more by then," Sarah told him but she sounded in a rush. Clearing throat and speaking quickly, she added, "I need to run right now, because the only way I could call you is ducking out for a cup of coffee."

"Talk to you later."

Harry digested the information that he had and he turned to Bruce, throwing the ball back into his court.

"I think that we need to see the device before we can figure out which direction we're going with this," Bruce told him, and Harry nodded in response.

"Like to try and get a sample of the chemical that I could, might be something that I recognize," Harry said, seeing the list of the effects of the chemical on the victim. "Might be a bit more potent."

Neither had to say anything else, it was settled, they were ready and willing to go off with each other.

"Time to head out to Gotham General, where our very own Vicki Vale is live and on location. Vicki, can you hear us?"

* * *

 

Caruthers the Producer walked his way across the set towards a lavish looking trailer on the edge of it. He held two glasses, along with a bottle of wine. He whistled merrily, although there was something off about his whistling.

After his lawyer worked her magic and managed to ensure that Gordon would get off of his back, he had business to take care of and the business he had was a long time coming. That being said, the producer passed by several crew members, people on the set, a couple of bit actors. They weren't part of the big money scene, so the producer would not have expected to really know their names.

The producer nearly ran head on with someone with an ooof and the bottle of wine nearly slipped from his hand, dropping to the ground. He managed to hold onto the bottle and keep it from connection to the ground, his expression rather calm all things considered.

He found out the man that he was nearly run over and really he should have expected this.

' _Hagen, of course,'_ the Producer thought, looking at the man who the star of the remake of the Terror and he was a huge headache to boot.

"There you are, Carlson, I've been meaning to talk to you about something, it's urgent," Matt Hagen said, the man who starred in the remake of the Terror and a man who acted like an overblown Diva to everyone on the set during that day.

Not only was his name gotten wrong, but it was obvious that there was some kind of complaint that he wanted to give. He wondered exactly what he had to talk about.

"What is it this time?" Caruthers asked, trying to keep his temper even, at this man.

"You see, they make up…. and the amount of it that I have to wear, it's absurd, I mean, look at this face, would you want to cover it up?" Hagen asked, running his hand over his face and showed his unblemished flesh to him. He made sure Caruthers got a good and long look at it. "I mean, you're just burning money in a barrel and that's what you might as well be….. but I guess that's the tone of the movie, and you could get something better in there, something that makes me look…. well it brings out the character in me."

"Noted," the Producer said, his hand clutching around the wine glass that was hovering in his hand, but he put that down and managed to hold the bottle more steadily in his hand.

"And you know, you could stand to give me a little more screen time," Hagen told the Producer and once again the Producer looked at him. "Yeah, yeah, I know we've been over this before, but we're remaking this movie, and we don't want to ride on the coattails of the original, so change things up. Plus, I'm your big time star; I should get as much face time as possible. My character might not have been on screen as much in the original, but you know…. you know what, times have changed."

Hagen stepped forward and he whispered with Caruthers in a stage whisper.

"And between you and me, I think that there's a reason why the guy in the original, Karloff wasn't his name…"

Karlo, Basil Karlo," the Producer harshly whispered, his hand tightening a little bit more around the step of the wine bottle.

"Yeah him, I can see why they didn't put him on screen, I mean he looked like a dog and he had the acting ability to match," Hagen said and the producer was now clutching the wine bottle so tightly that the stem cracked in his hand.

' _Pander to the title character, he sells the movie, let him believe that he's relevant for now,'_ the Producer reminded himself, wanting nothing better to stab Hagen in the throat with the wine bottle that he was holding.

"I'll take that under advisement, Mr. Hagen," the Producer said in a sunnier voice, albeit it was a bit snooty.

"Good, good, I'm glad that we can have this chat," Hagen said, slapping him on the shoulder and walking off.

The Producer took a few seconds to calm himself down before he marched towards a trailer. Raising his hand, he knocked on the door.

Waiting patiently for the door to open, it was down seconds later and with it, a fairly young attractive blonde poked her head out. She was dressed in a thin, tight bathrobe, and her hair dripped. It was obvious that she just got out of the shower.

"Oh….. I'm Mr. Caruthers, I'm… well, no offense, sir, but I was expecting someone else," the blonde said, her voice dripping with nervousness.

"No, no problem, I just wanted to celebrate how well you did today," the Producer said and she looked at him. "Considering that it was your first big role."

She was positively beaming, and stepped back. "Yes….. you thought I did well?"

"First time jitters, it's quite understandable, but yes, you did well," he said entering the room and he sat down on the couch.

"I was skeptical about the role at first when my agent brought it to me, but….. I guess you got to start somewhere," she said, with the wine being poured in her glass.

"It wasn't easy to find someone to play your role, given a rather famous actress played your role in the original, or rather she went on to being famous," the Producer said, pushing the glass of wine in front of her. "Go ahead, drink, drink, drink, it's a time to celebrate."

The young actress did in fact drink, and she did need one, because after today, her nerves had been shot.

"This could be my big break."

The Producer smiled, electing not to drink the wine himself, and there was another knock on the door.

"I'll get that, you just relax," the Producer said with a smile on his face and he stepped forward, clicking the door open.

Another young man entered the room, an actor in the movie. Someone who had a bit role and thus wasn't really important to the grand scheme of things.

"No need to be worried about me being here, I'll be leaving in a moment," the producer said in a swift voice and the actor in question raised his eyebrow, and then nodded in response. "But first, I thought that we might share a toast to our success."

The actor paused and a glass of wine was slipped into his hand. For such a bit part he had a long day on the set. And he needed a stiff drink after dealing with Hagen. "Good… good plan."

The producer smiled as the three held up their glasses of wine. It went unnoticed that he didn't drink from his, even though he made a show of the glass touching his lips.

* * *

 

Back down in the Lair, Harry and Diana were supposed to be working on the car. That being said, it was more like Diana was working on the engine, because Harry couldn't focus a lot of the time. In fact, he was pacing back and forth in the room. It was a good thing that she wasn't wearing a hole in the carpet.

Diana kept an eye on him as she worked and after today, she could tell that he was not in the best mood. The beautiful Amazon was wearing a tight black T-shirt that wrapped snugly around her breasts and showed her toned midsection, a pair of cut off jean shorts that covered her sensual legs and wrapped around her ass, along with a pair of black boots.

"Okay, if we figure this out, we should be able to come up with a design, but this engine, when they say it's powerful, they aren't kidding, it's extremely powerful," Diana said and Harry nodded, he was well aware of that. She could tell that he was not one for talking and the angry buzzing sound that could be heard from his thoughts resembled a group of hornets that were stirred up. "It's much too powerful right now if we only use modern day materials, to build anything that isn't a jet fighter or a tank."

Harry didn't say anything for the second.

"A tank would be a little too much, although I suppose that it would work, but still too much," Diana said and there was one thought that popped through his mind.

' _Yeah, well, I think that a tank might be necessary at some point, the rate things are going,'_ Harry said, his mind still buzzing angrily.

Diana saw that his anger was coming to a boiling point and festering. The number of innocent lives that perished today was astronomical and she watched Harry step forward. His eyes focused on the bag and he nailed it with a series of punches.

His rapid fire blows caused the bag to move and Harry kept wailing away on the back, not one letting up. It was giving a bit too much, so Diana pulled herself away from the engine.

"You know, you come across as way more optimistic than this normally, and not really prone to random fits of angst."

Diana placed her hands on the bag to brace it, so it didn't give that much, allowing his hands to brace it.

"Not angst, I'm just fucking pissed off about what happened today, and how this guy seems to be one step ahead of everything that we try," Harry said, punching the bag once again. He didn't have a face to imagine, which made him even angrier.

Harry continued to hammer away at the bag, doing a few breathing exercises to try and calm himself down.

There was another party who made her way inside. Karen walked into the room, wearing an extremely tight white shirt that looked to be only held together by the sheer force of will, and a really tight pair of blue jean shorts. Her bright blue eyes looked at him in concern.

' _He's….. well to be honest, it sounds like a hive of angry bees coming over the line,'_ Karen thought taking a step over, and she thought that the bag was going to be torn completely in half for as hard as Harry was hammering it.

' _That's pretty much a good assessment…..'_

' _I'm surprised that you don't have a headache Diana, you've been riding out the worst of it,'_ Karen said. She situated behind Harry.

The blonde placed her hands on the back of Harry's neck and he relaxed his arms, finishing hitting away at the bag. Her breasts pressed against his back, with the blonde slowly working her fingers down the area of his neck.

"It will all work out Harry," Karen whispered, and she guided him over to the couch, rubbing on the back of his neck slowly, running her hands all the way down, before taking his shoulders.

Diana assisted her in shoving him down onto the couch and Harry had a moment of protest, but Karen slowly stroked his shoulders, running through the tension nuts on him.

"It's okay, Harry, just take a calm breath, let it loose," Diana said, and she helped stroke his neck while Karen rubbed his shoulders slowly, surely, trying to get him to loosen up.

Harry felt their talented hands work their way all over his body and suddenly, he was feeling just a little bit better, at least to the point where he didn't want to strangle something.

Diana and Karen slowly worked the knots out of his neck.

"That better?" Karen whispered in his ear with a smile on her face and she moved her hands around, slowly unbuttoning his shirt, and flipped him over.

His bare back was exposed, and his injuries at the hands of Grundy were completely healed. Karen ran her hands down his back once again, and his pants were pulled off.

Diana ran her hands down his legs and his body, and Harry allowed her to work him over.

"Get the oil from the cabinet," Diana whispered to Karen and Karen nodded, before she shot over to the cabinet at super speed to pick up the oil.

Cupping some of it on her hand, she oiled Harry's back up and slowly rubbed it into his back. She lifted up her foot, and brushed it against the small of Harry's back, while Diana removed her top, and Karen returned the favor once again. The blonde switched back.

Harry felt so good and he could feel the final round of underwear being removed from his body. Their hands were roaming down him, going between his legs and he closed his eyes, when he felt their hands coming a few inches from him, but they were teasing him.

"Time to turn over Harry," Karen whispered, her fingers nudging him a little bit as she massaged his ass.

Harry turned over and he saw both Karen and Diana were naked, slathered in oil and that caused the blow flow to rush. Both girls stood before him in all of their glory, naked large breasts, flat stomachs, firm asses, wet vaginas, along with a small strip of hair, and long lust inducing legs. Karen hovered over his front, stroking his chest, her breasts pressed against his face.

"Let's take this up to the next level, and really make you relax," Karen whispered to him, with a smile, working her way up towards his crotch and Diana worked her way up, giving him a brief foot massage, before the two of them met, nearly chest to chest above his cock.

Needless to say, Harry was intrigued to take this one to the next level.

"Just relax a little bit more Harry, let us take care of you," Karen said, running her hands all over his body. Harry closed his eyes, feeling the pleasure course through his body.

"Yes, we'll take really good care of you," Diana commented, pressing her breasts down against his cheek, they were nice and oiled up.

"There's still a lot of tension, as you can see," Harry said, relaxing and Karen smiled, running her hands down his body as he rested on the couch, her hand wrapping around his manhood, and the blonde slowly stroked him up and down.

"Yes, I can see that, but we'll fix that right away," Karen said, her tongue trailing over her lips, hunger dripping from her eyes.

Karen stroked him up and down slowly, his hardening manhood growing in her hand but that was not enough. The blonde placed her tits around his member, and closed her eyes, before running it up and down.

Diana gave him a few kisses on the top of his forehead, and now she moved over.

"Let's see if we can, add to this pleasure," Diana whispered, a wicked grin over her face.

Harry grunted and then groaned in pleasure, with Diana's amazing breasts pressing down on either side of him. She was perched on one side, and Karen was on the other side of him.

Both of them rubbed their massive breasts up and down his shaft. The fact that he was all oiled up caused the lubrication to be nice and his manhood to flow seamlessly between them.

His penis encased in heaven that most men would give…. well their penis for. The soft, firm, oiled up tit flesh stroked him up and down, both of them gave him an amazing double boob job. Harry closed his eyes.

"Damn, oh damn," Harry grunted, both of them worked him over and Karen smiled, giving his head a kiss, licking the pre-cum that was going out of it.

"That tastes good, I think that I'll have some," Diana whispered, lust burning through her eyes, when her tongue brushed up against him.

Harry's hands roamed all over their bodies to return the favor for them. Whimpers of delight could be heard and Harry matched their delight with his penis smashed in between some of the best tits on the planet, actually in the universe. The universe would be pretty good. Harry closed his eyes, feeling himself slide between Karen's massive valley and Diana bent forward, giving him a light kiss on the head.

Eventually, even the strongest willed man in the world had something to give and while Harry was stronger than most, this double team assault was willing down his resistance.

"Don't hold back, we sure won't," Karen said, feeling Harry's hands on her, and her oiled up tits rubbed him even faster. Diana matched her motions, and both of them worked Harry into a frenzy, his manhood twitching between them.

"About ready to cum….."Harry groaned, and his balls bubbled with desire. It seemed the more they worked him over, the more pleasure he felt. His manhood was about ready to lose his load on them.

The first splatter of cum painted their faces and their chests. There was a moan as the oil caused an even greater volume of cum. Diana and Karen were dripping with Harry's spunk by the time that it was all over.

"Oh, that looks so good," Diana said, reaching over and grabbing Karen's firm breast, licking her lips and then she slowly licked cum off of Karen's breasts.

Karen threw her head back, feeling her sister wife eating her husband's cum off of her. It was a delight that she enjoyed and the added lubrication caused her juices to flow. Diana could see what was happening and she placed her fingers between Karen's hot thighs, slowly working her up to a frenzy.

"Oh, Rao, yes,' Karen moaned, Diana pumped her fingers up and out into her. Then the blonde could see Harry simulating himself behind Diana, his manhood brushing against her simmering hot entrance.

Diana closed her eyes, feeling her husband enter her from behind, his manhood pushing into her hot pussy.

"Yes, fuck me from behind, fuck me hard," Diana begged, but suddenly, her sounds of pleasure were stifled from Karen shoving the Amazon's face in between her breasts.

"Less talking, more sucking," Karen whispered and Diana decided to attack her nipples where they were the most sensitive, which caused Karen to have several miniature orgasms.

Harry kicked up a steady pace, getting turned on by Diana sucking Karen's nipples and Karen got off in response to it. His manhood was pushing into Diana from behind and he decided to pull almost out of her and tease her tight puckered asshole.

' _Do it, do it,'_ Diana begged him, she could feel a burning heat erupt between her legs.

With Harry's prick properly lubricated, he slid right into her from behind, working himself deep into her tight, tight hole. She pushed around him, and Karen's fingers moved around, to keep Diana's pussy at bay.

"She tastes so good," Karen moaned, with Diana worked over her breasts with added intensity once again.

"I know…. she does," Harry grunted, alternating between fucking her pussy, and her ass every couple of minutes, and then Diana's pussy clamped around his rod. Each thrust brought him deeper into her body and the Amazon Princess looked about ready to make him pop.

"More please, more," Diana whispered to him, managing to pull away from Karen's tits, but the blond hovered up and she had her pussy right in front of Diana's mouth.

Diana grabbed onto her hips and pushed her tongue deep into her, munching on Karen's pussy, her tongue digging into her.

The blonde thrust her hips up, and she closed her eyes, the dark haired woman munching away on her.

Harry's hands roamed over Diana's sweaty, oily body, with something having to give. He was fucking her into a stupor and he grabbed onto her raven locks, gaining a bit of leverage.

"I think she's earned your cum….at least she's earned mine," Karen panted, her hips rolling up and sending the juices splashing into Diana's mouth and she slurped them up like a starving woman in the desert.

"I know that she has," Harry grunted, hammering Diana from behind and his balls grew heavier, about ready to expel his load into her body. The green eyed wizard pumped his way between her thighs, working his way to a powerful orgasm.

The Amazon Princess tightened her grip upon his tool and Harry continued his journey into her center. The first splash of cum was fired into her and Harry quickly moved out, to pump a second load into her ass.

Diana's pussy clenched at the thought of that, she collapsed from the rapid fire orgasms that Harry gave her.

Harry's cum flowed from Diana's pussy and ass and Karen slid her way on her, deciding to taste a sample of it. Her long wet tongue trailed over her and the blonde's look was completely in bliss.

"Delicious," Karen whispered and she could see Harry's long cock throbbing. She placed her hand onto it and hovered herself up. "Just lay back, relax, and enjoy the ride, because I know that I'm going to."

"I'm sure you will," Harry said and he closed his eyes, Karen's tight walls sliding around his massive prick with ease.

The blonde's hips worked around him, and she slowly worked herself up and down his tool, kicking up an amazing amount of momentum. The green eyed wizard could feel her tighten around him and she kept bouncing up and down.

"Yes, I know that you are," Harry grunted and he lifted his hands up, touching her body.

Karen closed her eyes, his hands roamed all over every inch of her body, taunting her, teasing her and the blonde could feel an orgasm.

The blonde hummed in pleasure towards her husband's actions, her hips clenching around his rod and she worked up more momentum, working herself around his tool, bouncing just a little bit more as she hung on for what should be an amazing ride.

"Fuck, that feels so good," Karen whimpered, the pleasure exploding between her legs when she rode him like the stallion that she knew that he was. Her bouncing got more frenzied, her tits bouncing up and down behind his face. "Touch them, take them."

Harry smiled, he waited for what happened.

"You'd get off on that, wouldn't you, you little slut?" Harry whispered to her and Karen nodded her head, her hips once again scissoring around his tool when she bounced up and down just a little bit more, picking up some momentum. Her walls clenched him once more.

"Yes….. oh yes," Karen moaned at the top of her lungs, her tight vice like grip closing around him. "I get off on you torturing my tits, I'm a slut, you're little slut."

Diana was mostly out of it, but she managed to lift her arm enough to slowly start rubbing her pussy, the pleasure coursing between her legs. The dark haired woman worked her fingers deep between her thighs.

"FUCK, FUCK!" Karen moaned and suddenly her nipples were hardening when Harry played with them, channeling bursts of magic.

Her pussy tightened around his tool and she wanted all of him. The blonde wouldn't settle for anything less, than the best. Her hips continued to pump him all the way into her, and she continued to ride him.

Harry molested her breasts and caused her to twitch underneath him. Her tight cunt continued to pump her way around him, and his manhood sank between her.

The blonde braced herself, longing, coaxing her husband to cum without words. Mostly because the stupor he fucked her into being beyond all words. Nevertheless, she kept bouncing, higher, and faster, allowing super powered friction to fill her body. The blonde's hips clenched around him.

Harry's balls shot their load into Karen and she bent completely back, allowing her to receive his hot load into her pussy. His face was smashed between her breasts as he came hard and heavy, always a good feeling for sure.

* * *

 

The blonde actress's eyes flickered open and the moderate amount of light that was coming through her room at her apartment caused her a headache. There was also a cold chill that went through her body.

She couldn't really remember what happened last night, all she remembered was that she got over. The blonde staggered through the room.

She almost arrived there, about ready to close the sliding glass door, but suddenly in her mind numb state she tripped over something.

The blonde went ass over tea kettle and landed on the ground to bruise her backside. Running her hand over her ass, so it was bruised, she rolled over, pushing herself up to a standing position.

Giving a gasp, she caught a hold of a sight that saw her and saw the Producer or at least what was left of him. He was dead, dried up blood was on the carpet. The producer laid slain on the ground, stabbed several times in succession, without remorse.

The blonde's heart started to beat even more and the woman began to hyperventilate, nearly freaking out something fierce.

A blood curdling shriek followed when she finally regained her bearings.

**To Be Continued on October 6** **th** **2014.**

* * *

 

**The Calendar Killer continues his attack in the most brutal way possible. Obviously he's building his reputation in the worst way.**

**And a mystery ensares.**

**Har-Zod doesn't lose his cool often but when it does, it's spectacular.**


	58. And Now For Something Completely Different Part Three

**Chapter Fifty Eight: Now For Something Different Part Three.**

* * *

Sarah walked down the hallway, her arms swinging next to her. To say that this case was getting more baffling by the moment, that would be saying something to be honest. Right now, she was making her way to the apartment.

First it was Karlo and then it was Caruthers the Producer who they just found stabbed. The method of murder was close enough to raise a moment of concern. And the Actress…..her screams alerted the neighbors down the hall, who called the police. The girl was not really in any fit state to call the police or get involved herself.

Sarah made her way there and saw Bullock crouched over next to the Actress, who was wrapped in blanket and shaking in abject horror. Renee Montoya stood there, rather bemused when she looked at Bullock and as usual this looked like a train wreck waiting to happen.

"Essen, I don't know, she's pretty much scared to death…..did you see anything before you…..well before you passed out…..was he alive when you passed out?" Bullock asked, not really realizing that he was implying that there was a certain nature of the relationship between the Producer and the Actress. She wouldn't be the first one to get into a prominent role because of her performance in the bedroom as opposed to her performance on the screen. Renee's eyes were on him and she leaned her head down, shaking it calmly. "I mean, if he made a move on you, and was a little rough….these things happen…..I mean in Gotham City, but you got to tell us so we can figure it out….."

"Bullock, go get a donut, I'll take care of things from here or coffee or whatever," Renee said and she knelt down. "You woke up and you saw him like this….you can't even remember how you got home?"

"Yes," she said, nearly choking out the word as Sarah walked over with Renee and the two of them lead her into the apartment proper.

"Don't worry, he's been moved out," Renee whispered, and once again, the scene was strange.

Two identical murders in the same method, it was enough to make a person think that something was going on here, although it was hard to tell what that might be.

The actress blanched when she saw the body still there and James Gordon knelt over it once more. Renee gently steered her out of the apartment once again and there was an apology, and Gordon almost knew that.

"The Forensics team is late showing up," Gordon replied to all three of them and he could see the actress terrified but he was focusing on the body. He could barely see Sarah walking up next to him because he fixated on the body.

The murder was nearly the same in fact it was essentially identical to the first one. Her hand was placed on his shoulder and he turned around.

Startled for a moment but Gordon was rather….well he was more than calm. "What do we know about this so far, Essen?"

"We know about as much as we did about the last one, which isn't a lot," Sarah replied in an extremely crisp voice. "It's a similar MO used to Karlo's murder, isn't it?"

"Looks like it might have been the same weapon that might have been used," Gordon whispered, looking at her for a few seconds and thinking. "In fact, the fact that there have been both stabbing murders….it makes you think that the same weapon had been used, in the dagger that was stolen."

This statement caught Sarah completely off guard and her mouth opened for a few seconds and she shut it. "I thought that it was a prop, a souvenir, nothing that…"

A wry smile appeared on Gordon's face and he looked at her. "Well….after doing some digging, there were a couple of actual daggers that were there. They were said to have been lost to the annals of time."

Sarah raised her eyebrow once again and calmly stated. "Barbara?"

Gordon gave her a sheepish smile and nodded once again, with an embarrassing grin as he looked like someone who had his hand caught in the sweet jar. "Barbara."

Sarah thought as much but their focus returned completely to the body that had been the late Producer. This mystery kept adding new wrinkles to what proved to be an interesting situation.

"You know, for an older guy, he doesn't have that bad of a body, pretty good actually," Sarah said shaking her head but she smiled in amusement. "I guess that even the Producers have to look their best, so lots of healthy living, good eating, exercise?"

"Maybe," Gordon said, of course there could be other explanations as to why the older man had a good body but that was neither here nor there. That being said, he was dead and that's what mattered in terms of this investigation.

Bullock ambled his way into the room and he decided to give both Gordon and Essen a report.

"Well, Montoya got the kid to talk, I swear, don't know how she did it," Bullock said and the eyes of both cops were on him so Bullock decided to give his two cents on the situation. "Last thing she remembers, she had a drink the night before, with another member of the cast and the Producer. And the next thing, she woke up, naked, chilled to the bone. Think she knocked boots with the old man…"

That being said it appeared that Bullock seemed a bit skeptical about something but Gordon really didn't have time to consider it because the footsteps at the edge of the stairs indicated that the Forensic Team was on the way so he would have to hand things over to him.

* * *

Batman and Nightwing swooped down from the roof and entered discreetly through the windows to the building. Nightwing made his way inside first, with Batman following him into the GCPD building. It wasn't the Gotham Central building for one simple reason. Evidence from the various bombing sites during this latest wave of attacks were moved to the closest Precinct building, in preparation to being moved to Gotham Central in the morning so they can be investigated further.

' _So remind me again, what's the point in having something in an older building like this,'_ Jaime thought.

' _Really that's the best that they can do, and the security system is pretty much as old as the buildings themselves,'_ Harry thought and sure enough that access point was there and ready.

' _And they won't pay to have it upgraded out of their own pockets,'_ Dinah thought and she shook her head. Given that weeks ago, a homeless man with a backpack was able to cause some havoc in the GCPD building, they knew that security was in desperate need of reform.

"So, the blueprints were perfect," Batman said, slipping through the access point on the roof.

Nightwing smiled, averting his gaze to the Detective. "Well if they weren't, then I would have been a bit disappointed, wouldn't you?"

Batman couldn't deny that that yes he would have been a little bit disappointed but he supposed that it got them inside. The politicians lining their own pockets and refusing to spring for a better security system worked nicely to their advantage.

They had to stop the moment they got in and duck into a utility area, where a couple of officers walked through. They looked to be in a half asleep state, neither of them really wanting to be there.

Most of the force was out on patrol, with a skeleton crew at this particular station. All in the name of making the people in Gotham City feel safe or at least what passed for safe in this city. That being said, it's was a quiet night in Gotham City.

Batman was the first one to step forward and there was a portly guard who was looking things over at the door. He was slumped in a chair, with a box of donuts and a cup of coffee next to him, although he looked to be seconds away from nodding off. A radio rested on a bench next to him and he was barely nodding off to the music.

Nightwing mouthed "I got this" to Batman and the Detective backed off, allowing the vigilante to do what he did best. One tranquilizer dart to the shoulder of the guard dissolved instantly and gave the illusion that he merely drifted off in the course of doing his job.

He unlocked the door fairly easily or perhaps it was because it didn't lock properly that it allowed them inside rather easily. Regardless it swung open in seconds.

Batman stood there calmly, and looked over his shoulder to Nightwing. Wordlessly he saw what he was looking for, the device laid out on the table. It was right there in open sight, more or less.

"Likely because they want to send it off in the morning, therefore, there's no use in locking it up," Harry whispered and Batman nodded.

He gave the device a brief look over and recognized it after less than a moment's thought.

"It resembles the device that the League used a couple months back, "Batman said and Nightwing nodded, he was beginning to get the same thing. "So either someone stole then, SWAT sold them off to someone, or someone got ahold of the blueprints or they leaked online. "

Harry meanwhile was using the scanner in his HUD to run an analysis on the chemical that was used in the attack and his lips curled. It was a grim realization but never the less, it proved to be accurate.

"It was just like the initial reports, they were dead on, it was a gas used in World War I, but it was altered, to become much more potent than the original chemical effects were," Nightwing said and Batman nodded, the situation was as grim as they expected.

"There was no way that it would have been no way this potent."

"Exactly," Nightwing agreed, but then he decided to drop another bombshell. "The base form is pretty common and the list of sites capable of producing it are rather large as well."

Nightwing gave a sigh before he decided to list of the usual suspects. "The top providers that would be capable would be Ace Chemicals, Janus Cosmetics, Wayne Industries, and RAO."

Harry paused one again and stopped, hitching in a breath.

"It's also an extremely common chemical, used in a number of different products, most commonly plastics," Nightwing said and he gave a sigh. "It's a real needle in a haystack type situation to pinpoint the who and more importantly the why"

Nightwing smiled despite that fact and he added, in a potentially more optimistic tone of voice. "But we have an idea…and I know someone else who could find out."

The emerald eyed sorcerer dialed up Oracle. "Nightwing to Oracle, are you there?"

"Yes, Nightwing, what do you need?" she asked swiftly and Nightwing described the situation to her.

"The blueprints from the device that the League used a couple months back may have found their way online, could you see who might have leaked them to someone?"

"Just a second," Oracle said and there were a couple of minutes wait as she performed a search. Fortunately she had a pretty shrewd idea as to where to look and she got back to them in a matter of seconds. "Well, looks to be our old pal Enigma, he somehow got his greasy mits on the blueprints and had quite the little auction for them."

There was a second where Nightwing gave a grunt of agitation and sarcasm dripped from his voice. "Wonderful….do you know who…..do you know whom he sold them to?"

Oracle was able to answer that as well. "Humphry Dumpler was the man who purchased them from him."

Batman and Nightwing could both agree without any words that the trail was getting a bit warmer and they were closer to figuring out what they needed to figure out.

* * *

In the dark of the night, Selina and Holly were about to close up the club. They had to admit that they felt pretty good about how they were doing business wise since the club had been opened. One could argue that business had been booming since they reopened.

The fact that they cleaned up a lot of the problems brought in a lot of new clientele and Selina was pretty sure why a lot of people that you didn't really expect to come to a place like this did.

The former owners didn't really have the best reputation and that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

' _Plus the rumors that Harry Potter himself liked enough to invest in the club made this place seem more respectable,'_ Selina thought with a smile on her face.

And not that she wanted to profit off of a tragedy, but it was just sound business to remember that events of adversity caused people to just want to forget about how much their lives really sucked. Therefore some people went out and partied, getting stone cold drunk and they wanted to forget about the fact that they lived in a messed up place of Gotham City, especially with a tragedy like that.

Holly meanwhile was pacing around on the outside of Selina's office, waiting patiently for her to exit or maybe a bit impatiently to be honest. She was recovering rather nicely to be honest, although she was angry about how she got caught unaware in a situate that.

That being said, she thought that she recovered rather well and was looking good all things considered. Holly leaned against the wall in an absented minded way and waited Selina exit the office. Which she noticed seconds later.

What she saw, nearly took her breath away and despite being used to Selina, it really blew her away. There was no way to describe it, other than the fact that she looked like a million bucks, with the nice snug emerald green dress pressed around her body.

"Well, I guess that just because you stopped performing, that doesn't mean that you can't give people a thrill, now can you?" she asked her and Selina gave her one of those smiles.

"That's damn straight," Selina said, beckoning for the younger woman to follow after her, towards the front office.

The club was closed down for the evening so there was one of those tones that something might happen but perhaps it was just quiet. Only an hour previous, it bustled with activity and was packed to capacity. The remodel did help make things a bit more comfortable, because it was rather tight and constrained to be honest.

That being said, Holly was not too fond of the crippling silence that filled the factory, so she averted her eyes towards Selina. "I guess that your girlfriend isn't here to escort you home."

"She had to go home to Metropolis," Selina said, not even missing a beat when she shot back with her words. "Her work increased, because they need to get the production of the Red Sun up to meet demand. So I'm sure she'll be back soon enough….but business before pleasure, as you well know."

"Yes, I know, but it's just….it feels weird not to see her here, you know, to make sure that you…"

"Do you think that she needs to hold my hand to cross the street?" Selina asked and Holly opened her mouth up for a second but the woman's eyes flashed with mirth and amusement as well. "Guess you can dish it out, but you can't really take it, now can you?"

That being said, Selina pushed open the door and went out for the front entrance. Before she could lock up, she heard the squeal of fires as an old school Cadillac roared on past and a shout.

That was moments before the sound of glass hitting the wall and someone launched a firebomb directly right at the side of the club.

Instinctively the moment that she heard the shout, Selina grabbed Holly, and forced her down to the ground. The glass sprayed everywhere, jagged fragments flying in every direction, and cutting them both up.

"SON OF A BITCH, YOU'VE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!" Holly yelled once again, she wasn't really doing that well.

Selina could see the fire go up in the club and she needed to work past things. She grabbed the fire extinguisher and put on the flames before they could do that much damage.

The woman looked at what happened, the shatter glass all around her. Blood dripped from her arms, an unidentifiable look on her face.

The suggestion that she should head to the hospital to get the cuts checked out fell on mostly deaf ears.

* * *

"Sorry, I wasn't able to find out much about him," Oracle said in an apologetic voice, she really wished that she could help more sometimes and this was one of those times.

That being said, Nightwing waved off her apology. "You did help a lot, you got us to Dumpler's last known home address."

That being said, it was a small house, quaint, nothing that you would expect anything out of the ordinary to happen at. Which naturally made things look extremely suspicious, but maybe that was just Nightwing.

' _Lives with his grandmother according to the latest reports,'_ Nightwing said, when he made his way down the middle of the gnarled driveway.

"He got in some really big trouble for disassembling some pretty expensive mechanical devices, antique clocks, car engines, but this is the most dangerous of them all, he disassembled the motor that was responsible for raising and lowering a drawbridge," Oracle reported, and she sighed. "So he's got some problems but he was believed to be mentally ill, therefore he was remanded back to the custody of his grandmother."

Batman and Nightwing's brief look indicated that they believed that there was something else amiss in this place. Especially after those plans were bought, perhaps it was a strange coincidence, perhaps not but that being said, they were up on the front steps of the door, almost an hour after they had received the address in question in the first place.

The moment they arrived there, both of them could notice that something was off. The most glaring thing about this was that the house didn't seem to have been kept up in a very long time.

The outside of the house appeared to be falling apart and it looked like the paint was chipping off of the house. The grass around them was long, and didn't really seem to have been mowed in at least a couple of years, judging from the length.

Batman's eyes looked at Nightwing for a second, and Nightwing nodded. It was obvious that both of them were on the same page at this point and both of them slowly slipped inside the house.

The outside looked pretty bad, that was nothing that either of them could really ignore or dispute. That being said, they were shocked to what they came across on the inside.

The inside of the house, if anything, was far worse than the outside of the house. It resembled something like a scene out of a horror movie and there was a shuddering feeling from what they saw.

Several disassembled devices littered the floor, some in various states of disarray. Some completely were disassembled and others were only partially disassembled but they were a variety of different types of devices both mechanical and electrical that rested on the floor. There was a sour odor that was in the air.

Nightwing stopped and mouthed that only Batman could hear him, but he heard plenty. "A combination of the long dead and milk that's long since passed its expiration date."

That was something that turned his stomach and he felt like there should be some creepy music surrounding him but all he heard was the sweet sound of silence.

The silence was broken fairly suddenly by a jaunty little tune that was playing and Batman's ears averted back towards it. Batman looked like it was something that should be recognized upon first hearing.

That being said, Nightwing shook his head, he supposed that he wouldn't have heard it, growing up in England and more importantly with the Dursleys, which caused his cultural development to somewhat stop.

The two of them walked forward and they were greeted by the sight of a very large man sitting in front of a television on the couch, his back turned from them.

"The Grey Ghost will be back right after a word from our sponsors."

He eagerly fiddled with something on the ground in front of him. Nightwing took half of a step forward, in an attempt to take a closer look at what he was working with and needless to say, what the young man was working with was of the shock and awe variety, not to mention the stomach turning variety.

Nightwing noticed Dumpler's grandmother or rather what was left of her, since there was some kind of demented Frankenstein job that Dumpler did on her to put her back together. The old woman looked to have been dissected, and stuck back together again with boot laces. The smell of decomposition was more obvious.

Humphrey looked up, noticing the presence. "I tried to fix her, I really did. But it was a rather futile bid. No matter what, I could not reattach her head, alas, I'm afraid that she's dead. It was an experiment that I never should have begin, but all the kings horses and all the king's men could never have put her back together again."

Batman's patience was something that was nonexistent and he swooped in.

"Talk," Batman growled once more and Nightwing waited for a second. "The bomb at the Veteran's Day luncheons, how did you get it inside?"

Batman's anger was something that was flashing through his eyes and Humphrey looked scared witless, in fact the poor lad was about ready to shit himself as he trembled underneath the grip of the World's Greatest Detective. He closed his eyes, quivering.

"Please unhand me, I do not know, how this can be," the man whispered, in a childish voice and it may have bene obvious that his development had been stunted somewhat.

"I'll handle this," Nightwing said, convincing Batman to back off. After a cross look, Batman did so. "You bought the blue prints from some guy named Enigma."

"Yes, I did, I bought them, purchases them for a sizeable fee, but I only wanted to see whether they work them, can't you see," Humphrey said shaking his head. "But someone asked me to make them this guy…he would be willing to pay me enough if I did supply…"

"Exactly who was this guy?" Harry asked.

"Oh, he didn't give a name, in fact, it was almost like he was playing some twisted game," Humphrey said. "He wore sunglasses, a baseball cap, and a hood, along with being slender build and he worked with a bit of a limp."

Nightwing could tell that Batman was thinking along the lines of the same thing that he was thinking and that was not a description that could really narrow things all that well.

"There was one thing that I remember, he spoke in rhyme, but only at times," the young man said. "It was about months of the year, and by the way he was talking, anyone who disagreed with him had something to fear."

With those foreboding words, they had a lot to think about.

* * *

Barbara snorted in almost amusement but it was also kind of depressing the kind of work that she had to do. She wore the ear buds on as she was listening to the music, bopping her head back and forth, and she sat behind her desk at the GCPD, working on reformatting a hard drive and restore the operating system.

' _Bullock, not that good with computers,'_ Barbara said, it was child's play for her what she had to do to get this computer working.

That being said, there were a lot of cops who had been around since the days of hard copy, that hadn't made the transition the digital age. Unfortunately for them, it was not only here but it was here to stay and Barbara once again was working hard in transferring the reports from the hard copy over to the digital reports.

It was busy work but necessary as the new systems were up and running. Although the city should spring for some classes, because some of those people using the technology was a disaster that was waiting to happen.

Lightly, Barbara tapped her fingers, listening to the music and bopping her head back and forth, to the point where she could almost see someone out of the corner of her eye.

That being said, she was used to blocking out certain distractions when she was working and this distraction was one that she was making a more conscience effort to block out than most. That being said, she was preoccupied with her work, and the music that she was listening to.

Edward Nashton frowned in frustration, he didn't appreciate his genius not being acknowledge and he was pretty sure that she wasn't acknowledging it. It was an extremely honest mistake to be blunt with things. That being said, he wasn't about to be ignored for very long, not if he could help it.

Barbara felt the ear buds being yanked out of her ear and she turned around, trying to keep her temper her check. She wanted to take his arm off on sheer principle for interrupting him and given how creepily obsessive that he was being, it was even more so tempting to do so.

That being said, the redhead took a couple of deep breaths that would keep her temper him check. "I'm sorry, you were saying something?"

She could see Nashton's eye twitch a little bit and he tensed up. After a deep breath he managed to speak in a calm and rather eloquent tone of voice. "I was asking you if you were interested in going out some time."

Barbara blinked for a second unable to believe the man's gall after she blew him off previously, but Nashton mistook the reason for her abject silence.

"We do have a lot in common, you know, considering we are both rather well verse in computer and information systems, and between the two of us, well strictly speaking…."

"Thanks, but no thanks, if you bothered to listen to what was going on around you, and not the sound of your own accomplishments, you would have known that I'm already taken, and I have been in a committed relationship for the better part of a year, thank you very much," Barbara said in a crisp voice. "So, if I was interesting in dating you, which I'm not, I sure as hell am not going to break up with my boyfriend just to do so."

Nashton resembled someone who had swallowed rancid milk but before he could react to that obvious and rather clear shut down, his attention averted to someone else who entered the office.

Barbara's expression brightened, when she saw Harry being led into the office by her father, wearing a visitor's pass. She expected him to show up soon because they made plans to have dinner although she had been so engrossed her work that she really realized that it wasn't so late.

"Nashton," Gordon replied to the young man's greeting. Despite his arrogance, he was competent at his work, in fact more than competent, he was rather good, and that made him even more insufferable to be honest.

"I'll be ready to go in a minute," Barbara said with a smile towards Harry and Nashton turned towards him with a smile on his face.

"I'm afraid that we haven't been formally introduced…"

"This is Edward Nashton, Harry, Nashton, this is Harry Potter," Gordon said. The man decided to do the formal introduction.

Edward's eyes blinked and he looked as giddy as a schoolgirl.

"Mr. Potter….no wait, Doctor Potter," Nashton said, correcting himself with a chuckle as he looked at the young man. "It's a pleasure to meet someone whose accomplishments and intellect matches my own."

' _I think that you just got insulted,'_ Dinah thought, shaking her head.

' _No, like it or not, Nashton is well versed in his accomplishments,'_ Zatanna broke in with a sigh and Pamela was the one who decided to finish what he was.

' _He is however a world class douchebag,'_ Pamela thought, she heard Barbara mention enough about him to know that she didn't like him by proxy.

"The Red Sun just blew open the telecommunications industry, and…..you know, I have to say that I have some big ideas for the future, that will help change the world, perhaps the two of us could get together some time, and discuss business, we could change the way people talk even more, the two of us together," Nashton eagerly babbled with a bright smile on his face. "Just think about it, we can run all of these people off the map….Luthor, Wayne, Swann, you know, they're dinosaurs compared to us, we're the true revolutionaries."

"Well, it's good to have ambition," Harry said, but there was something about his demeanor that seemed creepy. Actually there was no seeming about it.

Barbara stepped in, and she didn't know whether to be amused or horrified that Nashton had went from hitting on her to hitting on Harry but Harry brushed it off with his usual casual indifference that he practiced towards…..well about ninety percent of the males he encountered. He wasn't rude, but at the same time, he wasn't about to indulge them.

She took a moment to greet her Dad with a hug and a kiss before she walked over with Harry.

"Come on, we don't want to be late," Barbara said to him and Harry smiled at her, allowing her to lead him off.

"Well have a good night, Edward, don't work too hard," Harry said, but it was more of a courtesy good bye than anything.

Barbara shook her head, wincing at the gaze Nashton gave her boyfriend, but she would fill Harry in on it a bit later.

Gordon watched his daughter and her boyfriend walked off but it appeared that Barbara wasn't the only one who was smitten with Harry tonight.

With a rather prominent groan, Gordon dropped his head and grumbled. "I'm getting way too old for this shit."

* * *

The young actor who was last seen with the Producer and the Actress was pulled in for questioning, being the prime suspect in the attack on the Producer. Given that the young actress slept with the old man, they were suspecting him for killing the producer in an act of jealous rage.

After being cleared of all charges, on an air tight alibi, he was seen in a rather popular club in the company of Matt Hagen around the same time of the murder in question. Therefore, the timing in question was off and it was almost impossible for him to take the murder in question.

The key witness statement was a drunken woman, who had more than a few drugs around in her system, so they were not going to take her word too seriously.

That being said, he was in the company of another producer, this one an attractive woman who was older but not quite old. She was about in her mid-forties, someone who had a fair amount of work done in her day but not enough to become ghastly and hideous looking like some people around her age group who had some work done and had overdid said work.

The two of them shared a nice drink together and they were stumbling away from the nice looking sports car that they managed to get from the bar to the hotel with, by a sheer miracle that didn't crash.

Now they were stumbling a little bit, in front of a high class hotel.

"Are you sure that you can make it to the front door?" the actor asked her and the producer looked towards him with a lopsided smile before speaking to him in a slurred tone of voice.

"Honey….honey….I think that I can get up there, I mean…well I've drank far longer than you have, so I think that we can get up there, and we can discuss the future direction of your role in your movie, you know, Hagen might be the star but you can steal the show from him," the producer said, and the two of them made their way into the room.

After checking in, the two of them ambled their way up the stairs, both of them looking rather giggly the more that they went up the stairs.

"Make sure to lock the door behind you," the actor said to her and the producer nodded.

"Yes, I will lock the door….after all, we wouldn't want anyone to interrupt us, but…..I think that we could have a cup of coffee first before we can get down to business, it helps with the headache, and we don't want anything distracting us,"

The door clicked open and the Producer waved him inside. With a knowing smile on her face, she shut the door behind them both.

**To Be Continued on October 10** **th** **2014.**

* * *

**We continue the mystery that has been occurring with the mysterious deaths. Can you figure out? Maybe someone out there holds the answer to this mystery. Perhaps…..it's you?**

**Selina's plot line continues to build, obvious direction is obvious.**

**Oh, Humprey Dumpler…..Humpty Dumpty, that's one of those real names that is just begging for someone to be twisted into a super villain. Not to mention an entire mess of issues, but obviously if you know your far less renown Batman villains, you'll figure out who is behind the attacks. Providing you haven't already. Then again, the Arkham games brought a few of these guys into greater prominence.**

**I enjoy writing Harvey Bullock for the simple reason for the reasons that he's such a fun politically incorrect jerk. I'm such a politically incorrect jerk sometimes.**

**Edward Nashton's creepy obsession of Harry Potter begins. Be afraid, he very afraid. Barbara trying to keep her temper, and only barely succeeding at doing so. That won't last for that much longer.**

**Until next time, I'm out.**


	59. And Now For Something Completely Different Part Four

**Chapter Fifty Nine: And Now for Something Completely Different Part Four.**

* * *

 

James Gordon busied himself with work and looked over various files relating to the murders so far. To say that this was a baffling case would be putting things mildly once again but the Autopsy report that was done on Karlo was something that was of particular incident and he was hunting for vital clues that would point him in the right direction.

So far, there was nothing out of the ordinary, at least nothing that he couldn't expected. Other than the obvious fact that he was dead, Karlo was in pretty good shape for a many of his age. Not really unexpected, given that he was an Actor and thus needed to look his best through whatever means be they fair or foul.

The cause of death was the stab wound to the heart, the others were really unnecessary, and done in a fit of rage. Or so he assumed to that was the case.

He would find out more information when the toxicology and blood work came out but until then, Gordon felt like he was grasping at straws, and chasing something, quite frankly he was chasing some kind of phantom if he wanted to be honest with himself. The motive was there he had a feeling but he didn't have that one defining piece that would jam the entire investigation together.

A knock on the door jarred Gordon out of his thoughts. "It's open."

The door swung open merely seconds later and Jones popped inside of the room. Straight down to business, the detective stated one thing. "There's been another murder."

Gordon pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Let me guess, the Actor that we interviewed earlier?"

"Yes," Jones confirmed and he paused before he decided to drop the other bombshell. "But that's not all."

Gordon waited to see what Jones would have to tell him and he waved on, to indicate that his full and undivided attention was on the case. Each wrinkle to this mystery added another complex layer.

"Another producer of the film, this time a female, she's been murdered as well," Jones reported and Gordon's mouth snapped in shock, but he quickly recovered, the time he took could be charted in mere seconds.

"What….what happened?" Gordon asked, managing to recover as quickly as one could expect from hearing news like this.

Jones grimly explained. "They were both found by a member of the hotel staff, they didn't arrive on set at the expected time. So someone called the front desk at the hotel and they sent someone up to check on them, and that was when the bodies were founded."

Gordon's glance grew grimmer.

"Emergency services were called, and dispatch sent a call out for a nearby unit to check things out, in this case it was McDonald and Allen, it was called in after realizing it was connected to the other murders," Jones further explained and he stepped forward, leaning in towards the desk. "The crime scene has been closed off until you can take a look at things."

Gordon nodded his head, this situation was picking up, but where it was going, he didn't really know what was going on. He pulled himself away from his desk; making sure to put all of the files of the investigation back into what he assumed was an orderly manner.

' _The more murders there are, you would think that it would be easier, but it was harder, someone must really have it out for that movie,'_ Gordon thought to himself and he shook his head. He couldn't begin to figure out exactly how but there was a missing piece to the puzzle and it bothered him to no end.

He casually grabbed his coat and hat from the nearby coat rack and turned to Jones who was waiting for him.

"Are you ready?" Gordon asked and Jones nodded. "Then let's go."

The two of them made their way from the office and they didn't even walk four feet before they were greeted by an interesting sight.

"Stupid machine, you think that you're smarter than me," Bullock grumbled, sitting down in front of the newly fixed computer, scaring down a doughnut and sending crumbs flying in every which direction on the keyboard.

Out of all of the cops that had not made the digital age with ease, Harvey Bullock was one of the top of the list not to meet the criteria. To say the man was pretty much old school would be putting things rather bluntly and easily. That being said, he kept shaking his head and grumbled.

Renee sat across the desk from him, trying to keep the exasperation on her face to a minimum. Bullock's side of the desk resembled the man himself, very unkempt, with donut crumbs and paper strewn across it. Right now her head was placed on the cleaner side of the desk, sighing completely.

She valiantly tried with every fiber of her being and every single amount of self-control that she had not to bash her head into said desk.

Thankfully she stopped him from using the CD-Rom as a drink cup holder….again.

Gordon cleared his throat and both Montoya and Bullock turned around. He was facing them, with a stoic look.

"Now what," Bullock grumbled, glad to get away from this demon machine, even if it was for just a few minutes.

"There's been another murder."

"Something else to do with the Terror?" Montoya asked and Gordon nodded in agreement, before he made his way towards the door.

That case so far ate up a lot of time and energy, and what seemed to many to be a random act of violence at the time was turning more sinister.

* * *

 

The clock tower was one of the prime areas of real estate that they were able to develop. It looked rather antique on the outside, because it was an older building, and one that had not had any use for many years.

That being said, it was looking more spacious and modern on the inside, as more of the equipment was being fitted. Harry, Dinah, Diana, and Jaime walked around the area of the Clock Tower, seeing how the construction of it went, pretty good. Roof for improvement mind you, but it looked pretty good.

"Not bad, we really fixed this place up, do you think that Barbara would find any use of it?" Dinah asked him and Harry smiled.

"I think that she would."

The friction between Barbara and Nashton was high and Harry was a perceptive person who picked up on it the moment that he was there. Therefore, it stood to reason that Oracle might need a space to call her own all too soon. Perhaps he was reading too much into this but something had to give all too soon.

"The Clock Tower would be the perfect place to expand the operation, wouldn't it?" Jaime asked with a smile.

They purchased it through the same holding company that they had been using to purchase up LuthorCorp stocks but it had been converted to another purpose, mostly because Harry didn't want it tracked back to him and that was buying up various forms of real estate all around Gotham City.

That being said, the Clocktower proved to be the prime purchase, he had a feeling and the Return on Investment would in fact be fairly high all things considered. His green eyes flickered into the distance, peering down all over Gotham City as he stood, arms folded, as he watched over the city.

"So, you approve of it?" Jaime asked, she was the operations manager, therefore she was responsible in converting it to usable living space. That being said, she wanted Harry's opinion on the situation.

His green eyes averted towards hers and Jaime could feel his large than life presence hover over her.

"I don't know about Harry, but in my opinion, it would work out rather well," Diana said and Dinah nodded in agreement, but they wanted Harry's opinion.

Harry was scoping things out and he smiled. "Well as I told you before, the Clock Tower hits several basic points, the feasibility being the one of them, since it's in a central location."

"That's why I thought of it to be honest," Jaime said, placing her hand on her hip. "It offers us to a different area of the city but…"

"There's a downside," Harry told her and Jaime whistled, she had knew that things would not be perfectly. Dinah and Diana looked at her, curiously, and the emerald eyed sorceress decided to explain to them what was the biggest fundamental problem of utilizing the Clock Tower, nothing that they couldn't work their way around mind you, but it was still kind of annoying.

Jaime sighed for a second and then went into the explanation. "The biggest downside is that we still have to wire the building up for electricity."

"It's an old building though, isn't it?" Diana asked and Jaime nodded in response.

"Old is putting things mildly, but yes, it is old, extremely old, like nineteenth century old," Jaime said without missing a beat. "It was one of the original buildings designed by Cyrus Pinkey, but nowhere near as famous as the courthouse."

"Surprised that it was acquired in the first place," Harry said and Jaime smiled.

"Well the building was bought during the depression rather cheaply, but the family who had it had fallen into some hard times, mostly because of their own doing," Jaime told him and Harry raised his eyebrow. "Bad business deals but good news for us, as I was able to pick it up fairly cheaply, in fact the same price that they were able to get it during the Depression."

"Impressive," Harry said and he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a deep kiss, pretty much kissing her breathless.

Jaime returned the kiss with equal fever, and she backed off, her brain taking a moment for her brain to reboot. Diana and Dinah watched in amusement from her but she recovered quicker than most would from it.

"Anyway, we're going to need a complete rewiring of this place to bring this up to the same standards that you expect from RAO tower," Jaime said, and she placed her hand on her chin in deep thought. There was so much to do, it was a good thing they had the talented staff that would be able to do it.

"Don't we have that construction company on retainer?" Harry asked her and Jaime nodded with a smile on her face.

"Yes, and I'm sure that they would be pretty eager to do the work, and very quietly given what we're paying them," Jaime said and all thought that it was acceptable.

"So, exactly what level of technology are going to have available for her?" Dinah asked and Harry turned towards her. "You know that Barbara's the embodiment of the entire, curiosity killed the cat expression, in fact she personifies it more than anyone else."

"Well that's a good explanation for her as ever," Diana said and Harry smiled at her.

"And extremely fitting to be honest," Jaime said but never the less, they waited for the answers.

"Five or so years above the current generation of Red Sun, I'd imagine," Harry said after a moment of thought. "That's putting the James Bond tech principal into play, I believe."

' _Well given that you are the living embodiment of him, that's pretty fitting,'_ Amanda thought.

' _You know, it is pretty hard to deny that,'_ Donna thought and Harry smiled.

' _I wasn't denying it,'_ Harry said swiftly.

"But be that as it may, I'll be able to provide her with everything that she needs and then some to do the best job that she can," Harry concluded, wrapping things up rather nicely.

"You know, it's surprising that she hasn't come to the conclusion that you're Nightwing or that Dinah is Black Canary," Diana said and Dinah snorted in amusement.

"Oh, really…..I'm pretty sure that she knows a lot more than she's letting on, but there's just the thing about plausible deniability," Dinah said shaking her head and Harry smiled.

"I'm pretty sure that James knows as well, but both of them are refusing to bring up that point, because like Dinah said, plausibility deniability," Harry said to them. He took breath and added, almost as if an afterthought. "And in Barbara's case, it would mean keeping it from her father."

' _There's actually a betting pool going on,'_ Kara popped in and Harry looked rather amused, or rather bemused by the fact that this information was popping up now. _'It's nothing too serious but…..there is just a question of whether her, Vicki, and Lois will be able to make the question first.'_

' _You know Lois is the front runner with me, she does seem a little obsessed with Nightwing, but then again, no one in this bond has really any room to judge,'_ Donna said and there was a lot of agreement from all of them on that fact.

"So, what about the Car?" Jaime asked, she was curious about the conclusion that Diana and Harry come up about.

"Well, I'm thinking that we're going to have to rebuild it with some of the materials that should be completely out of this world," Diana said and both of them raised their eyebrows at each other. "Both the engine and the cars itself, otherwise the simulation shows the same thing every time, the tires disintegrate and it's followed by the rest of the car."

' _I think that I might have something in mind,'_ Karen thought to herself, shaking her head with a smile on her face and she grew suddenly thoughtful. _'Got to check the feasibility of it myself and let's face it, it was even high tech by Kryptonian standards, and it would be really expensive.'_

It was here that Harry shrugged his shoulders. "If Bruce Wayne can use his discretionary budget to fund his nocturnal activities, I can do the same."

That was a fair enough assessment as far as everyone is concerned.

"Come on, there is another change that I want to show you," Jaime said, in a rather impatient voice.

She took Harry by the hand, and made their way to a bedroom.

"You mentioned a couple of safe houses," Jaime told him and Harry smiled and nodded.

"That I did," Harry replied, pleased to see that she was the ball with something like this and suddenly, she smiled, running her hand over his chest.

"But naturally, I think that the four of us can make sure that we can test the security of the bed," Jaime said, pushing Harry back and practically straddled him. Her blouse had a couple of buttons undone and things were about to become even more undone.

Jaime felt Harry's hands undress her, stripping down article after article of clothing, until she was down to an extremely lacy green pair of bra and panties and she was wet between the legs to boot.

"Nice," Harry whispered, and this caused her to shudder when he ran his hand down her legs she closed her eyes feeling the heat. "Very, very nice."

"Yes," Jaime whimpered and his mouth kissed all over her body, but she slowly stripped him using magic. His muscular chest was revealed, and then his pants came off, to reveal the growing tent.

As Jaime was being kissed, Dinah grabbed Harry's tool through his pants and began to pump it up and down. The blonde bombshell slowly worked him over, and then worked his pants off, allowing him room to breathe.

Diana used swift precisely, stripping Dinah naked and distracting her from this by kissing her body. Dinah's mouth was completely full at the moment, her very able lips wrapped around Harry's cock.

"Well, you seem to have been working out," Diana murmured, kissing her way down Dinah's body, and then she reached her very tender garden. The Amazon Princess crooked one of her fingers and pushed it between Dinah's legs, causing an explosion of lust to fill her body.

The Amazon worked her finger deep in between Dinah's legs and the blonde goddess panted the more that Diana worked her over. Her nipples got rather stiff and Diana placed her hand on them, squeezing them.

Dinah's motions of sucking Harry's cock were intense and Harry stripped Jaime completely of her clothes. He planted a series of kisses on her stomach.

"Don't tease me, Har, for the love of fucking god, don't tease me," Jaime whispered and Harry's able tongue snaked between her legs and worked it's divine magic.

Her juices were his reward, having been released in absolutely no time whatsoever.

That being said, Dinah was about ready to receive a nice little reward of her own. She kept pumping Harry's manhood between her legs, sucking him, slurping on him. She was determined to get the treat that waited within him.

Harry groaned, feeling her able lips work him up into a frenzy but he kept munching on Jaime's pussy.

Her work paid off quite nicely, as Harry's white hot seed sprayed in her mouth. Dinah kept sucking him, milking every single last drop of cum from his balls until her mouth was completely full.

She pulled away and Diana grabbed her, now stripped naked. Dinah groped Diana's breasts, returning the hot favor from earlier.

Jaime sprayed her vaginal juices on Harry's face, bucking her hips up and she looked up to see Dinah and Diana kissing each other, groping each other's asses and rubbing their breasts and vaginas together to create a bit of delicious friction.

"That's pretty fucking hot," Jaime managed and Harry turned her over on the bed, kissing her once again. She could feel goose bumps going down her body, filling each fiber of her being with indescribable pleasure.

Harry slid deep into her after working her up quite nicely and Jaime's pussy stretched to accommodate the welcome intruder to it. He managed to hit all of her right buttons, dripping her pussy hard.

"Oh fuck Harry, harder, come on harder, fucking wreck me," Jaime moaned, and Harry cupped her breasts. Her tight pussy gripped his tool and pumped it into her.

Meanwhile, Dinah draped over Diana, their pussies rubbing together. Dinah dipped her hand into Diana's pussy, making sure to collect the juices into it, rubbing her clit to allow further stimulation.

Then Dinah smeared Diana's own pussy juices over her heaving breasts and prepared to lick her completely dry.

"Oh great Hera," Diana moaned, she could feel the pleasure.

"That's so fucking hot," Jaime moaned once again and she could feel that her pussy was being pounded by Harry.

Soon he would have to cum, he really would have to cum and when he did, she would accept his juices into her tight pussy. Jaime closed her eyes, feeling Harry work her over.

The dark haired sorceress felt the sensation of him going into her and her nerve endings felt like they were on fire. What Diana and Dinah were doing had caused her to be heightened with even more pleasure.

His balls tightened and Harry plowed into her, her pussy squeezing him when he continued his journey into her center.

"Oh yes, yes, take me, harder, you know that," Jaime moaned, really getting into the moment.

Her milking of his prick ensured that his cumming would be intense as it always would be. His balls launched a heavy load of cum deep into her once again. Jaime closed her eyes and felt him injecting his white hot fluids into her.

The Potter female felt her walls painted white and she saw stars once again.

Dinah smiled, and she moved her way over to Harry, draping herself over his lap, her heated core lined up over him.

"Good, you're hard for me again," Dinah said and her breasts were dripping from the juices that she smeared over them from Diana's pussy.

"Always," Harry said, cupping one of her breasts and causing her to give a scream of excitement. "And always the screamer."

"Don't you know it, now shut up, and fuck me," Dinah said, grinding her hot and wet pussy over him and Harry was only too happy to accommodate, pushing himself deep into her depths and she clamped down onto him rather hard.

Jaime felt lonely once again, but not for long, she saw Diana on the bed and she crawled over between her legs. Her hot breath blowing against her dripping twat got her all wound up and excited for what was going to come next.

"Great, Hera!" Diana screamed and she could feel Jaime's tongue bury deep into her pussy, and she could have sworn that it extended deep into her, licking out the inside of her walls. That being said, the Amazon lost all sense of herself.

Jaime smiled, Diana tasted delicious as always, and she seemed to taste better every time that he worked her over.

Dinah's white hot pussy wrapped around Harry's tool and she bounced higher, riding Harry. She could feel him go into her body and as always, her really tight muscles squeezed him. His hands roamed all over her body and the blonde whimpered with pleasure, when he worked his hands all over her body.

"Yes, yes, just like that," Dinah encouraged him, bouncing even further up and down his tool, taking him deeper in between her hot thighs once again.

The blonde once again felt his hands roam her body and she squealed in delight the more that he brought his hands all over her. It seemed like this was causing sparks to fly all through her body and her tight vagina clamped around him, milking his tool when it went deeper in between her legs.

"Oh yes, oh fuck yes," Dinah whimpered once again and she could see Jaime now have Diana over on the bed, bound once again.

Diana could feel her pussy clench and she could see it brush over her dripping slit.

"I'm going to take you, Alpha or not," Jaime whispered with a smile on her face and Diana closed her eyes, with the Potter goddess ramming her strap up deep into Diana's hot pussy, stretching her out.

Diana could feel the pleasure and she allowed her to be taken, the strap on penetrating her walls and pushing deep into her. The Amazon Demi-Goddess felt the rush that continued between her thighs and everything was as it should be, pleasure, oh so much pleasure. Diana could not even begin to describe what she was feeling.

Dinah rocked herself up and down onto Harry, and she was enjoying the ride. His able lips treated her breasts nicely and the blonde reared her head back to the heavens to let out a scream of lustful pleasure the more that her tight walls closed around his probing tool. She kept riding him to the point where she was blinded by the remarkable amount of pleasure that exploded through her body.

"Want to switch, Harry?" Jaime whispered, eying off Dinah and Dinah could see what Jaime was doing to Diana and her pussy grew damper, there was no question about it, she wanted a piece of that and she was goingto get one, get a piece.

Harry nodded and Diana could feel Harry's hands roam her body. He had been building up quite a pace with Dinah and her wet walls closed around him when Harry slipped into her body.

"I bet you wanted this all night," Harry whispered her and his hands caressed her body.

"Take me, oh take me," Diana begged him, she was all for gentle but there was a time where they could be gentle and there was a time where Harry could take her and take her hard and this was one of the times where she wanted Harry to take her hard. Her body begged for nothing less.

Harry was not going to hold back, oh no, not in the slightest. He hammered Diana hard from behind and the Amazon Princess gave her screams of lust, feeling his manhood go deep into her body.

The dark haired princess felt him once again plow deep into her body and she whimpered, the more that he caused pleasure for her, the better things would be. Harry rammed himself as far into her body as he could go and she felt the rush of him striking her g-spot with a pleasurable impact once again. It spiked pleasure tremors all through her body.

Dinah could feel Jaime's strap on push into her.

"My brother left you wet for me, that's good, let's see if I can get you wetter," Jaime said, and she squeezed Dinah's breaths and once again, the blonde bombshell felt her breath being driven from her body, the more that she pushed herself deep between those smoldering hot thighs.

Once again, the blonde closed her eyes, rolling her hips up and Jaime was really plugging away at her from above. It seemed like each thrust was bringing her over the edge and then just a little bit further beyond.

Harry had been working up a pace and he could feel Diana's tight walls caress him in an attempt to bring him to an explosion. His balls ached with the need of release and he was about ready to go.

Diana's body tingled with excitement, sensing his release. He ran his hands over her body a little bit more.

He explored every nook and cranny of her body and held onto her hips, ramming her from behind. The Amazon could feel that pleasure coursing through her body and his balls throbbed with the greatest desire when he was this close to spilling his juices into her.

"Do it, cum, cum, please, paint my walls white, make me your personal…oh put that cum in my pussy," Diana begged and her whimpering increased.

"You know, since you asked so nicely," Harry grunted, working into her from behind and once again, his balls throbbed. He didn't slow down his pace, rather he sped it up and his thrusts got deeper into her.

Diana gave a squeal of delight when his manhood pushed into her and it launched a few splatters of cum into her body. The flood and rope after rope of cum launched between her hot thighs and Diana once again felt him, when he painted her insides completely white.

Harry pulled out of her completely and he eyed Jaime, and there was only one thing to do now.

"Switch."

Harry's hardness pushed back inside Dinah and Jaime's tongue was inside Diana's pussy, eating the combination of juices that were oozing out of her.

This arrangement continued throughout the night, with all four parties becoming greatly satisfied after things worn down.

* * *

 

Gordon showed up at the latest crime scene and things were rather different, at least somewhat. The Actor was strangled by a garrot of some sort, likely a cable and the producer was stabbed, repeatedly, once again.

The Actor's body faced in the direction of the bed and that seemed to Gordon that whoever did the killing, he trusted him enough to turn his back on him. The actor laid face down on ground, right between the door and the bed.

The female producer on the other hand, is lying naked on the bed. She had been stabbed numerous times, in the chest and abdomen. There was something that was different about this murder though.

This particular murder, it was extremely messy. The bed itself was used, and the murderer didn't bother to clean up after himself. It seemed exceedingly sloppy.

He could tell the bed was used before the murder even took place, but by who was a question that was outside the scope of the investigation.

Much like the male producer, the female one was stripped completely naked.

"It's a shame isn't it?" Bullock asked, chewing on his trademark toothpick as he looked down at the female producer who lingered on the ground. "I mean she had a pretty killer body for a dame her age."

Bullock was sure to get his fair share of looks at any other time but to be honest; Gordon was too preoccupied with the investigation to really care.

Gordon looked over things and that statement from Bullock clicked in his mind, remembering Sarah making pretty much the same observation at the other murder site and he turned around, looking at the Actor's corpse.

Slowly, Gordon scanned the body, and his eyes were narrowed. He was considering something, potentially a wild theory hitting him, almost wild enough to be true.

As if on cue, Sarah turned up right there into the hotel room. Needless to say that she was particularly pleased given that this was her day off and she had plans for later.

"So, what did you need me here for?" Sarah asked, her voice cool and business like as usual. That being said, Gordon stood up and faced her.

"I need you to take over the investigation, John can fill you in on the particulars," Gordon said in one breath and the female looked at him. "I need to check something out."

And without another word, Gordon walked off, leaving her standing there. James Gordon wasn't someone to take off randomly from an investigation like that, there was something up, and she didn't quite know what it was.

Meanwhile it was time for Jones to fill her in on the investigation.

* * *

 

Barbara Gordon sighed, there was sometimes where this schedule that she chose to undertake was more of a curse, than a blessing, but never the less, she wouldn't really want to have it any day.

On this day, she had classes at both GPA and GCU, but thankfully, thankfully, there was a fair amount of light at the end of the tunnel. It was going to be next month where she was going to finish up her course load at GPA.

Hell, the only reason that she was there would be to finish up a couple of extra credit courses. Which some people might consider strange, but those people really didn't have her dedication. Even though she had a full ride scholarship to GCU, she wanted to get the best out of everything that she had. Never settle for less than her very best.

That being said, Barbara went to the GCPD, pretty much ready for another day at work. The redhead stepped forward, shaking her head. She really needed a cup of coffee after the day that she had.

She was about ready to get started but it appeared that coffee and her work would have to wait, because her supervisor was waiting her.

"Miss Gordon, before you start, Chief O'Hara wants to speak with you briefly," he commented in a dull, dry, monotone. It was obvious that he was a paycheck zombie to be honest, and given some of the things that he had to deal with, he had long since given up passion for his work.

Barbara opened her mouth and then nodded, but to be honest, she was confused, wondering why Chief O'Hara would want to talk to her.

' _I better go find out, I guess,'_ Barbara replied, slipping off for that conversation once again.

She had to side step an approaching Branden, who was talking to Nashton in a low voice once again. Nashton's face had a sickening smirk on it, but Barbara just passed it off as his usual arrogance.

' _Likely too pleased about something that he did, again,'_ Barbara thought with a lengthy sigh.

Chief O'Hara's secretary noticed Barbara show up and waved her in with a smile.

"You can come right in, Barbara," the secretary told her with a smile and Barbara made her way into the office, her curiosity getting the better of her.

Hell there was too many times where her curiosity always got the better of her and she could heard Loeb's voice on the other end. At first, Barbara thought that it might be something of interest, but it was just politics and what have you. Something about their hunt to bring down Batman and Nightwing, but given the fact that was just standard course, Barbara wasn't concerning herself too much with that point.

Chief O'Hara looked up, noticing that she was standing right in his doorframe, patiently waiting.

"Loeb, I have to call you back, something important has come up, yes, I know, but I'll talk to you in about ten minutes," O'Hara said and he got to his feet once again, to see Barbara. His expression looked rather oddly somber. "Barbara, how are you doing?"

"Fine," Barbara commented, with him greeting her with a really big hug, to be honest, she grew up around the force, so she knew a lot of them, especially those who had survived all of these years.

Which might seemed like a grim assessment to take but given that this was Gotham City, it was an extremely accurate one to say the very least.

"So how is school going for you?" O'Hara asked and Barbara smiled.

"Good, I just got to finish up a couple of courses at the GCA, and then it's off to GCU…"

"James said you had a full scholarship," O'Hara said and Barbara nodded. "Good, you earned it, I remember when you were this high…"

O'Hara put his hand up as if to demonstrate, it barely coming up to his knee.

"That just shows you how fast the time goes," O'Hara said, he had to say goodbye to a few good men and a few bad men during that time as well, burying most of them. Among those whose bodies were actually found, there were many who would be missing forever more.

"So, exactly why did you want to see me?"

O'Hara frowned, he knew that this was going to come up, so he tried to soften the blow for some light conversation. "We've finally found someone to replace the Information Tech that went missing."

"Oh, that's good," Barbara said and she could sense that this wasn't all.

"It was also brought to the attention of human resources by someone….that you're working for us," O'Hara said with a long sigh. "I'm really sorry, Barbara, but that's against the rules, we have a strict policy, no one under the age of twenty-one can work here. It's just a liability thing really, it's nothing to do with your qualifications."

"Oh, I know," Barbara said, she wondered who would rat her out, although it was slowly coming to her who the rat was. It was so obvious.

"It just got lost in the shuffle due to the fact that we were understaffed and really no one was complaining at the time," O'Hara said and Barbara frowned once more. She could hear him saying something else underneath his breath. "In fact, we're still understaffed."

Barbara frowned, someone would have to complain and there was someone that had a reason to complain out of spite. She doubted very much that she was on the wrong track; in fact she was on the very right track, putting two and two together right now.

"So, I'm being let go?"

He nodded with a frown. "I wanted to be the one to explain this to you, because….well I didn't want you to take it in the wrong way and others might have made you think that it was because of your abilities, but it isn't your fault in any way."

Barbara opened her mouth she could not believe this, really she couldn't, this was kind of unbelievable. That being said, she was a bit loss, since she had been around the force since around the age of six.

There was a knock on the door and Barbara just barely noticed Rachel enter the room, with Harvey in toe.

"There's something important we have to talk to you about," Harvey told O'Hara and his eyes averted towards Barbara for a moment.

"It can't wait?" O'Hara asked.

"It can't wait," Rachel confirmed, wondering what was going on and she could see Barbara looking rather down in the dumps right now.

"I'm sorry," O'Hara said, giving her a brief hug and sending her on her way.

Barbara slipped out of the office, in a bit of a daze. Time almost seemed to slow down for her, likely because it did.

The first thing that she saw when she exited the office was Nashton, looking as smug as ever. That caused her eyes to narrow and her temper to reach its boiling point when she clenched her fists.

' _That smug….that…arrogant….that son of a bitch."_

He was about to say something to her but Barbara never gave him a chance to open his mouth and spout off what he was going to say.

Rather her punch did all of the talking and knocked him completely out. Nashton hit the ground, and was seeing more than stars.

Barbara walked off without another word, leaving Nashton down on the ground, hopefully with a broken jaw.

* * *

 

Selina sat in her apartment, having finally been able to move back there a couple of days ago. Thankfully most the damage was repaired, so she could get on with her life.

Right now, the woman sat with her legs crossed, bare naked with her hand cupping her chin in the tinker pose, and she could see the sun set outside of her window.

Eyes narrowed slightly, she was in deep contemplation about what her next move was. It was almost like she was trying to figure out the pluses and the negatives of what she was about to do.

After a moment or two of being in deep, deep thought, Selina made the decision what she was going to do. Sashaying over to the phone, she moved over to the phone table and picked it up.

Dialing the number, Selina waited fairly impatiently for the person on the other end to pick up.

"Hey, it's me," Selina said and she waited. "Yeah, no, their okay…..listen, I was hoping we could talk in private….."

There was a moment where there was a chatter at the other the line and Selina frowned.

"Obviously we're doing that right now, but I meant we should do so, fast to face, yes, it's that important, yes, I know, I don't need an appointment," Selina continued and shrugged. "But I don't know where you're holed up….yes….yes….security, I know…"

She paused once again.

"Okay, if you want to send a driver, you can send one, there's nothing stopping…..okay, fine, yes, thanks, Mario, I appreciate it, I'll see you soon," Selina said and she hung up the phone one again.

Wiping her hand across her brow with a sigh, Selina made her way towards her bedroom but suddenly, the phone rang once again.

She made her way promptly over and answered it.

"Hello….oh Alex…..hi," Selina said with a smile on her face, switching to Speaker Phone.

"Hello, Selina, I was stuck at the office, just doing paperwork, and bored out of my skull, so I thought that I'd call you, and see if you're doing rather well," Alexandra Potter said.

"I'm doing find, it was just a small cut, really," Selina said once again, she knew that Alex heard about what happened, so there was really no use in trying to deny it at all. That being said she sighed.

"Another attack, that's not a coincidence, there's someone who is after you," Alexandra responded in a firm voice and Selina knew that the hospital would not have been the last of this conversation, no far from it.

"Look, Alex, I told you that I could take care of it, and you didn't tell Harry, did you?" Selina asked, trying not to sound too accusing but at the same time, she couldn't really keep the tone of accusation out of her voice.

"I didn't tell him, I promised you that I wouldn't, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't," Alex said sternly and Selina frowned, looking at the woman who she was speaking to on the other end of the phone. "What exactly is your problem with my cousin anyway?"

"Nothing, I told you it was nothing, it's nothing on his end anyway, I actually like him a lot, but it's really complicate," Selina said in a distressed voice.

"Okay, fine, you don't want to talk about it, that's good," Alexandra said and Selina could almost sense the penetrating gaze that was coming over through the phone. It was alarming to feel.

"So, how is your work with the Red Sun over in Metropolis?" Selina asked, trying to switch tracts abruptly.

Selina listened intently, as Alex told her about everything that had been happening. To be honest, she had not been listening.

"So, anyway, I'll be busy burning the oils over here for a while now," Alexandra said with a smile. "But I should be back tomorrow, if you want to meet up."

"Yeah, that would be good," Selina said with a smile on her face. "We should meet up from tomorrow night at the club, if you want to."

"Sounds, great, I'll see you then."

"That's good then, I'll be there…"

"I know that you'll turn some heads honey," Alex said once again and there was a moment of laughter coming from her.

"Oh, like you don't have any room to talk," Selina said, shaking her head in amusement.

"You know that, I don't but anyway, I'll see you there, I miss you," Alex said about ready to hang up.

"I miss you too," Selina replied softly and she hung up once again.

This time it didn't ring and she was left alone with her thoughts.

* * *

 

The Production Assistant paced back and forth, and the woman was being stared down by Matt Hagen.

"This entire shoot has been unprofessional, it's been a fiasco, all of my best scenes are getting ruined because of all of this, and…..now you can't even guarantee me a safe working environment, because these actors keep turning up dead and the GCPD is roaming around, asking questions, and…." Hagen said looking at the production assistant once more and the woman glared at him. "You know, what kind of rinky dink operation are you running here anyway? This remake could blow that old version out of the water, I mean, that other guy, Carlson….."

"Karlo," the production assistant snapped through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, whatever, that guy, he doesn't hold a candle to me, both in looks and in acting ability, you know, I could be the next James Bond," Hagen said with a smile on his face and the production assistant looked at him with a dubious look at that claim.

Hagen ranted on and on and the production assistant was getting quite frankly sick of it.

"Is that a wrinkle?" the assistant asked casually and Hagen blinked.

"Where?" Hagen asked, looking like he had been informed that someone had run over his only child.

"Right there, around the area of your right eye," the Production Assistant whispered and Hagen moved off suddenly.

With Hagen out of the way, the Production Assistant moved on, on her way to see the Director. A few people asking questions along the way, although none monopolized the Production Assistant's time more than Hagen did but that was taken care of.

She rapped on the door and waited for the Director to answer. The door opened and the room was set up for a romantic night, with candles all around in the circle, and a table set for two.

The Director stepped forward and much to the Production Assistant's surprise, the two of the met for a kiss.

There was hesitation on the part of the Production Assistant, but the kiss was reported.

The two of them pulled away from each other. "So how was your day?"

The Director turned around for a second.

"Hagen was being a drama queen," the Production Assistant said through gritted teeth. It was obvious that there was a temper tantrum about to blow. "You know how he is, he thinks that he's god's gift to acting."

"Well, you know that we have to put up with him and his quirks, his agent got us a good deal with him and we can finally make a version of this film that will make people forget about Karlo's," the Director said, but he paused. "So, darling, I can't help but wonder, if you've gained weight?"

Eyes flashed open and the dagger was already out of the sleeve of the production assistant. The same dagger from the Terror remained cupped in his hand. The Director barely had a chance to react, before a hand cupped over his mouth and it was stabbed into the Director's chest.

The dagger stabbed into the director again and again, in an angry manner, and the voice or the production assistant became more masculine, the faux voice that he used having been dropped.

"No, darling, I didn't gain any fucking weight," he snarled, driving the dagger into him one more time for good measure.

**To Be Continued on October 13** **th** **2014.**

* * *

 

_Obviously it was only inevitable for Barbara to get turfed from her job at the GCPD and that swarmy little douche was the catalyst._

_So, I'm pretty sure that everyone has been able to figure out what precisely is going on with the murder mystery here. If you haven't, well it's going to be spelled out more explicitly in the next chapter._

_Selina's descent to the obvious continues as well, and obviously she has some issues. Then again, who doesn't?_

_I love writing Harvey Bullock. The CD Rom as a drink cup holder happened in real life. It is one of the most prominent tech support jokes. I didn't go with him grumbling about how he can't find "the any key" because that would be too obvious._

_Until next time….._


	60. And Now For Something Completely Different Part Five

**Chapter 60: And Now For Something Completely Different Part Five.**

* * *

 

As stoic as ever, James Gordon made his way to the GCPD morgue, he had a suspicion and he was determined to follow up on it.

If he was wrong, then no harm, no foul, he was wrong, and it was worth taking a look at. However, if he was right, then this had the potential to blow this entire case open and finally get that missing puzzle piece to the case where there had been too many coincidences. Coicidences rarely added up to a case like this.

Something was up, the question was what.

That being said, it was a 50-50 gamble but sometimes you just had to trust your gut and hope that it leads you in the right direction. he made his way up to the front desk, where a tired looking woman, a Receptionist for lack of a better term was sitting ,nodding off.

"Yes, may I help you….."

"James Gordon, of the Gotham City Police Department, I'm here to further investigate one of the bodies for a homicide," Gordon said and it was quiet other than that. "It's Basil Karlo."

"Right, Mr. Karlo, well you got here just in time, because he was to be cremated tomorrow," the woman said to him and Gordon blinked. "It's down the hallway, Refrigeration Unit number eight."

"And also, Simon Caruthers, the producer of the Terror…"

"Number nine, right next to him, also he will be cremated tomorrow, looks like you showed up just in time," the woman said, wondering what this was all about.

At least she wondered if she cared, which she honestly didn't.

Gordon nodded and thanked the woman, before he made his way off. He realized that this was the morgue, so the unsettling feeling where he was hit him hard on. Hell it wasn't even just a morgue that was the problem, it was the fact that he was inside a morgue in Gotham City, and there were fresh murder victims.

He saw a woman through the glass, stitched up after being ripped apart in the wrong way. There was really no amount to disguise what happened there, and now he walked down the hallway to number eight.

The door was unlocked and Gordon made his way inside, seeing Karlo's body, clearly marked. There was a creep factor that went up from an eight to about an eleven out of ten here. It laid on the table, in a body bag.

Gordon stepped over, and slowly, unzipped the bodybag. There it was, Karlo's body, stiched back together in the aftermath of the autopsy, and Gordon's eyes traveled over the body. At first glance, he found nothing of grave concern.

Except the area of the fact, which had taken off a rather odd and distinction coloration that caught Gordon completely off guard. His eyes continued to travel all around the body, in his attempt to piece together this.

His eyes went narrow, examining the body and he blinked.

There was something that was most certainly off and upon closer look; he was able to see what it was.

Gordon leaned forward, touching the area where the neck met at the collarbone, slowly and carefully running his finger around that area. He blinked suddenly, feeling it slowly again. Maybe he was seeing things. He certainly doubted it. Even though it was possible, maybe.

No, he most certainly wasn't seeing things, there was a seam for lack of the better term, connecting the two areas of skin. It was pretty much unnoticeable unless you knew that you were looking for something and you knew precisely what to look for.

Gordon went into his coat pocket and pulled out a pocket knife. Carefully, Gordon placed it in the seams, and pried up what was a mask.

It took some doing, and he was careful not to mangle what was underneath it. Gordon removed mask on Karlo's face to reveal the face of Simon Caruthers, the Producer that was murdered.

Needless to say, his suspicion was confirmed but he wanted to make sure that he was one hundred percent concerned.

He left the storage locker and made his way next door where the Producer's body was stored. Once again, he made his way inside.

A quick confirmation revealed that there was more of the same, and he used the knife to pry off the mask once again. He revealed the fact of the young Actor that was found today, "strangled" from behind.

Gordon looked at the body, disguised, to the fact that someone, very nearly got away from the perfect crime.

He slowly racked his brain for a second, remembering a plot from an old movie. It was called _False Face_ , where a serial killer killed his victims, taking on the identity of the next victim, all to get up to the final victim.

The final victim was the actor that took the starring role of the movie that the serial killer made famous. Because, the serial killer was a fallen actor, and he felt his legacy was being tarnished by them remaking his cinematic masterpiece.

Gordon didn't think of it until right now but then he recalled the person who had a part of the actor who had been cast in the remake, who was the final victim of the serial killer.

In some twisted ways, art did really imitate life.

' _Son of a bitch, it's obvious who the killer is, and it's really obvious who he is now,'_ Gordon thought.

Realization dawned on James and he realized that he knew who the next victim was, if he followed the plot of the movie.

And the investigation so far pointed to him following the plot of the movie very faithfully.

* * *

 

Barbara Gordon thought that despite everything else, she was able to make it out with her head held rather higher. Even if he cost her high paying job and a method to be productive, she still had her pride and that was what mattered.

That being said, she decided that since she had some homework to do, she might as well do it, because let's face it, she needed a way to keep her mind off of the disappointment of what happened.

' _Some good old fashioned busy work, that's the cure, and well…..it's not like you don't have plenty to do,'_ Barbara thought with a sigh.

She felt the overwhelming desire to punch something, but the fact was that she already did this, and could not help but feel a little bit smug at that fact. The only regret she had was to punch the bastard harder.

That being said, she was in the elevator, on her way to the penthouse, her mind buzzing about what happened but she needed to wind down and de-stress.

That being said, she entered the Penthouse. Upon her arrival she saw Harry sitting there on an extremely comfortable looking arm chair, basically reclining with his feet propped up on an ottoman, reading a book.

Much to Barbara's surprise, Harry appeared to be the only one who was around. This was kind of odd given that normally in the penthouse there were other people around.

Barbara decided to look around to make sure that no one was around for a moment or two, but she saw that no one was there. Placing her bag onto the floor, Barbara made her way over, and then positioned herself firmly onto his lap.

Harry was surprised by this sudden but very welcomed addition that was perched on his lap, but he sat down his book once again and wrapped his arms around her, to allow her to snuggle up against him. Which the redhead did quite eagerly, and writhed her backside against him when she pushed up against him.

Barbara took a position that she would consider to be comfortable and Harry leaned forward, briefly kissing the top of her head and nuzzling her hair for a second.

Both of them basked in each other's presence for a moment, and then she turned to turn herself, and push herself up suddenly, so she was facing him, looking down at him.

After she spent a moment or two staring down at him, he reached up to brush her hand against her cheek.

Then Barbara leaned down, wrapping her arms around his neck, and suddenly, she decided to kiss him breathless. This was a relaxing activity for the most obvious reasons. Barbara felt her nerves sooth just a little bit when his hands roamed around her body once again. Her arms wrapped around his neck and she closed her eyes once again, pulling away at him.

"So, something happened today," Harry told her the moment that she broke up and Barbara's mouth hung open.

"You could tell, couldn't you?" Barbara asked, sitting perched against him and shook her head. She practically straddling his lap and she shivered when he placed his hand on the small of her back, her shirt having ridden up to expose the flesh that was on her back.

"Yes, I can tell," Harry confirmed, his gaze locking onto hers in an extremely stern manner and once again that caused her breath to be driven from her.

"Oh, I got fired from the job at the GCPD…..well I don't really mean fired, fired, but I was let go passed on a technicality. You know, because someone brought it to the attention of human resources that an under twenty one was working, despite the fact that she was fairly more competent than the over twenty ones that they had in the department before," Barbara said and she paused, before letting out a lengthy sigh. She reigned in her babbling with a long sigh. "That didn't sound too arrogant, did it?"

"Not in the slightest," Harry said playing with her hair. There was really no need for him to ask who was the one that turned her in, because he knew and she knew that he knew. So it went pretty much without saying. "So, are you okay?"

Barbara's sigh was long and hard. His hand never left her hair.

"Do you want my honest answer?" Barbara asked him.

"Yes, Babs, your honest answer," Harry told her and she blinked for a second, shaking her head.

"No, I'm not okay, because…..well I practically grew up there and it's just about as bad as being kicked out of your own house," Barbara said with a lengthy sigh. "But I'll deal with it, really I will…..the problem is that what should I do for money?"

Harry smiled. "What if I told you that the answer is nothing if you don't want to?"

Barbara's attention was grabbed and she waved him on, she was kind of curious to see what he would be able to tell you.

"You're family after all, and thus that entitles you to certain privileges."

Her smile got even wider and she placed her hands upon her hips when she leaned back. "Oh yeah, like what."

"Each of the girls has a credit card, with a set limit, that they can use for whatever they want to, as long as it isn't too illegal," Harry told her and Barbara had a rather prominent concern that she would have liked to run by Harry.

"Doesn't that….you know with all of the girls, get expensive?"

"It doesn't even dent the interest to be perfectly honest with you," Harry responded, shrugging his shoulders. "But the real question is what do you want to do now?"

"Well, that's a good question, and I have to admit, really hadn't thought about that, because my head's still kind of reeling after what happened to be honest," Barbara said and Harry looked at her with a smile, that was most understandable. "Maybe I'll focus on school in the meantime, at least until I find a tech support job to do in my spare time."

Harry hid the knowing look on his face, and Barbara leaned in to kiss him once again, before that lead to another line of questions.

Right now, the best thing for her was to just enjoy his company and that was what the young woman did.

* * *

 

Edward Nashton was known by many names other than that, he was known by Edward Nigma, Edward Nygma, Enigma, and he had a few other names. People had mocked him in school, calling him Riddle boy. That mocking just meant that they were jealous of his superior intellect.

He was in the process of unlocking the door, leading to his apartment. It was not simple because he didn't really do simple. His door was covered with several locks that needed to be unlocked in a certain order. Then he needed to send a text message to an electric lock on the inside.

The building was run down on the wrong side of the tracks, but that was the way that he wanted it. Out here, no one would really bother him, because he needed his privacy.

He smiled, the front door opened and the man walked forward, his head slumped down. He had not gotten a good look at himself since waking up seconds after he had been sucker punched, so he would have to assess the damage.

The licks flickered on and he got a good look at himself, he had a rather sizeable bruise on the right side of his face.

' _A broken jaw, on top of everything else, she just had to do that, she just had to spurn me, I didn't want to do this, but she forced my hand, it's all her fault,'_ he thought to himself and he stepped inside the apartment.

Clarity visited him as he got a better look at the apartment with everything that flickered to life.

The apartment looked pretty much like you would expect an apartment of someone of Edward's obsessive compulsive nature to be. Computer screens were arranged in an even pattern. Any blank spot without the screens, it was covered

The vast majority of the newspaper articles had to do with Harry Potter and the RAO corporation, but there were a few newspaper articles that had to deal with the likes of Bruce Wayne, Oswald Cobblepot, Roman Sionis, Ferris Boyle, Rupert Thorne, Simon Stagg, and a few other Gotham City notables strewn about evenly.

The apartment also contained what would be considered to be an extremely creepy shrine once devoted to Barbara Gordon. At least it once did. The shrine had been destroyed, in a fit of rage after he rejected her. Also in the corner, there rested a creepy looking Fortune Telling Animatronic once again.

The floor was spotless and clean and the rugs were arranged perfectly, everything was in the order that it should be.

Edward sat himself down in front of the massive screen, which upon closer inspection would be revealed to be several different screens that were lashed together. Hitting a key, everything flickered to life.

He had a bird's eye view of various camera and security systems, one of which happened to be the Gotham Private Academy, a place that he spent many of his days watching intently and calmly.

Nashton brought up his e-mail and flicked through it, his interest rising and falling depending on who sent him the e-mail interest.

"Crap, useless crap, mildly interesting, well something interesting from Sionis, utter crap from the Penguine, pure garbage, spam, crap, spam, spam, interesting…..a news article from Vicki Vale."

Nashton saw nothing that demanded his attention or rather nothing that demanded his immediate attention. He seemed bored and needed to indulge himself with something. Therefore he turned his attention to the RAO Corporation's computer systems, which he had been trying to hack with little success.

He picked up the coffee mug and his agitation was growing by the moment, with the little success that he had been able to get through.

"WHAT IS WITH YOU?" Edward yelled and he held the coffee mug, hurling it at a picture of Harry Potter.

The sound of the mug shattering managed to snap him out of his rage and he shook his head.

"Oh, no, I didn't mean that, you see I've had a very stressful day, and I'm sorry…..but I'm sure that you know what it's like, don't you, don't you, Doctor Potter?" he asked the picture, taking a hand towel and drying the coffee from the picture. "You must be surrounded by idiots every day, hell none of those hussies surrounding you….they're not smart enough, but I'm sure that they must have their benefits, but I don't think that they are quite good enough…..you know what I'm going through, right?"

Nashton's voice had a creepy tone to it and the frame was cracked. He rummaged through the desk drawer.

"Just take some of this, and you'll be as good as new, you see, we are cut from the same cloth, and you know what it's like to be someone who is not understood because you think of an entirely different level," Nashton whispered, his voice dropping, when he tended to the picture frame and smoothed the creases of the picture out quite lovingly. "But…..Miss Gordon, she should have known to let it go, I have her a warning, and she had to put her hands on me…..she started the war, I didn't."

Nashton prepared to plot some further revenge against Barbara Gordon, carefully mending the picture and the frame around it.

* * *

 

"So, how many of the things did she tell us….how many of them did you think were true?"

Donna and Kara were sitting across each other on Kara's bed, dressed in casual clothing. Kara dressed in a tight black t-shirt that showed her belly, along with a black skirt, and her shoes were kicked off. Donna was wearing a long white shirt but she was wearing not much else underneath. Her legs were crossed over each other, and she placed her finger in her mouth, sucking on it.

"It was really vivid, I mean really vivid," Donna said and Kara smiled.

"I know because you were getting yourself off on it."

"Well, like you weren't," Donna said, crossing her arms over her chest and giving Kara one of those looks. "But she seems to be one who likes to take charge."

"Well there's nothing wrong with someone who takes charge, especially in that area, and I didn't say that I wasn't, Donna," Kara said and Donna smiled wickedly. "But, it's funny that you should bring up the subject of domination…."

"I know, we're getting to that really, really soon," Donna commented, spreading her legs and she was showing what she was wearing underneath or rather what she wasn't wearing underneath.

Kara gave her a wry smile, her burning gaze etched on the young Amazon Princess. "Well, I'm sure that you are prepared to be dominated by Harry at a moment's notice."

"You say that as if that's a bad thing," Donna replied and Kara grinned, placing a hand on her shoulders. "But you're one of his Alphas…"

"Yes, and don't you forget it," Kara said, with a predatory gaze.

She seriously though about taking Donna right here, more lack of having anything to do other than anything else.

"But, you do get dominated a fair bit by Harry," Donna said and Kara's eyes flickered onto her.

Kara thought about it, and realized that the young Amazon Princess had a point.

"You know that Harry has one of those dominating presences, that will settle for nothing less than being the best, and he will make sure to keep all of his women in line," Kara told her and Donna's grin grew increasingly wicked.

"And you know my sister, Faora, and your older sister, for lack of a better term; they can all dominate you…"

"Like I said, dominating presence, they're older, you know that," Kara told Donna and the dark haired Amazon nodded in agreement.

"Oh yes, I know that, I'm well aware," Donna answered, shifting her weight and arms folded over each was this amused grin etched on her face. "But you seem to be dominated by the Alphas a fair bit, even if Harry isn't the one that is doing the dominating."

"Well, Donna, at least I don't have Har-Zod's mark on my ass," Kara told her and Donna folded her arms, biting down extremely hard on her lip.

"You know that was a very long time ago, it might as well have been a life time ago, and I am so sick and tired of hearing about that," Donna said with a glare.

Kara grinned back at her.

"Well, you…"

"I've been a good girl since then," Donna protested, staring Kara down and there was a sudden clearing of someone's throat that caused both girls to sit up straight.

Turning around, both girls saw Harry standing right in the doorway and Kara and Donna acted like they weren't about to do anything in his presence. It was a façade Harry saw through right away. He leaned in and smiled.

"You know Kara, just because you don't have my mark on your ass, I can change that if you like," Harry told her swiftly.

The blonde slid back on the bed with a slight "eep" once again and she shut up immediately, obviously she knew better than to say anything.

Donna looked a bit smug at that statement, but a look from Harry threw her completely and utterly back onto line. Harry sat himself down on the bed, between both of the girls, just in case they needed a barrier naturally.

He could see Kara's brain reboot of the thought of being marked on her ass. He wasn't sure if she was afraid of that or being a kinky bitch, she was kind of getting off on the thought of it. That being said, he placed his hands on Donna's shoulders, lightly massaging her, and working her way on the back of her neck.

Donna closed her eyes; his magic hands were getting to work once again, and working on the top of her scalp once again, running his fingers down the top of her head.

"Don't you have something to say?" Harry asked Kara and the blonde managed to return herself back to reality, distracted for a moment by Donna's hard nipples popping out of the front of her shirt.

"Oh, I'm…..yeah I'm sorry," Kara replied hastily.

Harry gave her one of those looks. It made her wonder what he was going to do next and got her excited about what he might be able to do. She gave Donna an apologetic smile.

But at as it turned out, Harry was not done yet, far from it, far from it.

"It isn't as much to tell her, you should show her," Harry told her and he spun Donna around, with a knowing look.

Both of them got the message loud and clear.

Donna gave a predatory smile when she pushed Kara back onto the bed, the blonde giving a squeak in surprise as she was overpowered with the Amazon strength once again, her tongue pushing deep into her mouth.

The blonde could feel the Amazon forcefully assault her mouth and Harry's hands were running down her legs, and her skirt was stripped off and her panties followed in swift action.

"Do you want to take the first taste?" Harry asked Donna and the Amazon eagerly nodded.

Donna Troy gave a devious grin, pushing herself down where she was perched between Kara's legs, grabbing her hips roughly.

"It would be a pleasure," Donna said and she inhaled the scent that was rising up between her legs. She hungrily dove between Kara's legs, frantically eating her out.

Kara lifted her hips, giving Donna more access and she reached forward, her hand gripping right around Harry's tool as he was stripped naked. The blonde managed to keep herself stroking Harry, working him up to pleasure and she felt Donna's tongue continue to delve deeper into her pussy.

The blonde's hips rolled up once again and she kept stroking Harry. Harder and harder she stroked him, feeling the tool grow and harden. With a wide grin, Kara shifted her position, still allowing Donna to eat her out. She kept jacking Harry out while the Amazon delved deep between her pussy lips.

"That's it, I think that it's time to take this to the next level," Harry whispered and Donna smiled, before she used her strength to flip Kara over.

Her ass was exposed and Donna looked at it.

"A nice ass, I think that I'll mark it," Donna replied, smacking Kara's ass, which causing her to yelp. "Oh, you like that, don't you, you're the one who is the naughty girl, aren't you?"

Kara yelped once again, still stroking Harry once again but his cock was just several inches away from her lips, and growing closer. The blonde Kryptonian felt Donna's finger inch between her tight rear and the blonde was nearly losing her mind from the pleasure she felt.

Her tongue licked Harry's manhood, and it was inches away from going through her lips. She whimpered with the greatest pleasure and he was this much closer to her. The blonde felt him tease and tempt her.

Kara's hot mouth took his cock into her mouth and she sucked it. As Kara did this, Donna played with her ass, and alternated between fingering that and her pussy.

Donna stroked her pussy a little bit and she needed some relief. She wanted Kara suck Harry's cock, her eyes up towards him and Harry cupped her breasts. The beautiful blonde came down upon him, pushing her mouth down onto his cock.

Kara was hungrily working him over and Donna parted her thighs once more, and she had a strap on. She was nice and wet, and Donna slid inside her.

Donna placed her hands on Kara's hips and rammed her hard, driving the fake cock into her. The blonde moaned beneath her.

"Oh, yeah, I think that I'm going to the one that marks your ass," Donna said, slapping Kara on the ass, when he rammed into her. "That's it, suck Harry's cock."

"Yes, she's being a good girl, isn't she?" Harry grunted, feeling the wet heat around his mouth. Kara worked him over, attempting to coax every drop of cum out of him, his balls throbbing with desire.

"Yes, a good bitch, and believe me, I'm going to fuck her like one and hard," Donna whispered, her hands resting on her bitch's hips. The Amazon Princess rammed Kara hard, knowing that her turn would come next and she could not wait.

Donna decided that she wanted to shift a change of venue, as nice as Kara's pussy felt, she wanted something even more. She decided to remove herself from the wet hot organ.

Kara was about to protest, but Harry rammed his cock into her mouth, causing her to feel pleasure once again and to be distracted. Donna lubricated her fingers with Kara's juices and then slowly lubricated her ass.

The blonde was distracted by happily sucking on Harry's cock but she could feel her slit being pleasured once again. She was really this close to losing her mind once again, and she wanted Harry to lose his fluids in her mouth.

Suddenly, Donna drove deep into her ass from behind and pushed into her. A hard thrust caused Kara's sensors to go overloaded. Donna started into her and was barely just getting started when she rammed her.

"Huh, how do you like that, do you want me fucking your ass, and marking it?" Donna asked, ramming herself into Kara from behind.

Kara could feel her intense and rough motion, her hot rear clamping around the tool. Things were getting really intense. Thanks to the magical properties of the strap on, Donna really felt as much as it did.

"Oh your ass, it feels so fucking good," Donna whispered, and she licked Kara's body and nibbled on her back.

Continuing to hit her stride once again, Donna rammed her from behind and Kara squealed in delight once again. She kicked up her stride, hanging on, and Harry kept fucking her face.

"Oh she's going to make me cum," Harry whispered to Donna.

"Well, you should see how hard she's cumming," Donna said, deciding to dip her fingers into Kara's smoldering hot pussy, and then she lifted her fingers for Harry to taste.

Harry took her hand and locked his lips onto one of them. Donna filled with lust, her nipples growing even harder when Harry sucked Kara's cum off of her fingers.

Donna managed to hold on, ramming into Kara and she could see that her nipples were growing hard.

She released that Harry released her hand and she ram them, down, playing with Kara's nipples. That action caused her to squeal with delight.

Donna's cum channeled through the magic dildo and she blasted it into Kara's ass. The blonde closed her eyes, and savored the moment. There was a moment where Harry paused, her moaning causing a delightful vibration, and she brought him deep into her throat, as deep as possible.

His balls sized up once again and he launched his sticky seed into her throat. Burst after burst of cum launched his cum into her mouth and down her throat. Kara greedily swallowed each drop of cum as it sprayed down her throat.

"Well, it's time for you to get your reward, Donna," Harry said and he stalked her like a predator, eying her.

Donna was pushed down onto the bed, her lips still stained with Kara's arousal and Harry gave her a delicious kiss once again, and her legs spread, preparing to accommodate him.

He didn't really wait for that long. Harry never was one to play with his food for longer than he needed to. He rammed himself deep between her legs, stretching her out. Hands locked in and Harry gained the leverage that he needed to work into her body.

Donna found herself launched into heaven. The orgasm spiked through her body when he spiked himself into her.

"Harry, Harry, oh Harry," Donna moaned and Harry nibbled on her ample chest and that drove her completely wild. Her hot hips pushed up when he rammed into her.

The dark haired Amazon princess was driven into the bed and she hung on, her back arched, and she was feeling the pleasure that exploded through her body. Her loins felt pleasure by him and he rammed into her even harder from above. Her hips pushed up to meet his thrusts, with Harry squeezing and groping her.

"Oh god, oh god, more, deeper, oh god," Donna whispered once again and her hot pussy walls closed in onto him.

"You wanted this, you got it, and you got all of it," Harry said and he lavished her chest and she was screaming with pleasure.

After nearly driving her through the bed, Harry pulled out of her once again.

Donna felt her arms and legs bound together and she got excited with Harry taking her like this. She was on her front once again, her pussy exposed once again for him.

Harry speared into her when she was on her hands and knees from behind.

"You're nothing but a dirty Amazon who enjoys being dominated by a stronger man, aren't you?" Harry asked, spiking into her to emphasize his words.

Each thrust rammed her harder and Donna closed her eyes. She really felt this and increased her lust when she hugged around his tool.

"Uh huh, uh huh, oh more, oh great Hera, more," Donna moaned, and he felt his hands treat her tits nicely. His strong hands caressed and squeezed a pair of ample breasts. The Amazon closed her eyes and felt him go into her.

Her face was pushed into the bed, with her ass up in the air. Kara was starting to come back to life, and she spread her legs, rubbing on her clit.

Donna was rammed harder from behind. The tight young Amazon begged Harry to take her, and being the loving husband that he was, Harry wasn't about to let her down. The emerald eyed Kryptonian rammed into her as hard as he could from behind.

"I'm getting closer," Harry whispered and he could see Kara push herself underneath Donna, her dripping pussy exposed.

With a smile, the Kryptonian forced the Amazon to be shoved into her pussy, making her eat it. That caused Harry's balls to throb once again.

"Yes, that's right, eat my pussy, you know that you've been wanting to do it," Kara said with relish.

She would show Donna who the truly dominating person was, but naturally the fact that she had considerable help from Harry to do the dominating helped her.

Donna wasn't going to complain, driven by her pussy lust, she couldn't stop herself. The honey pot was out in front of her and the Amazon princess had to have it. Donna drove hers tongue deeper in between Kara's legs, as she was smothered between her lips once again.

Harry grunted, Donna's pussy gripped him from behind and he pushed himself into her, his balls throbbing.

All three of them experienced an explosive orgasm at once, with Harry injecting his seed into Donna. The Amazon shuddered with increasing pleasure, and Harry injecting him into her. The green eyed sorcerer emptied himself into Donna.

His juices drained from her pussy, and Kara slowly dragged over beneath Donna and prepared to taste her.

Kara shuddered with Harry's burning gaze locked onto her. He could do anything that he wanted to her and she was perfectly fine with that.

"It's your turn, don't worry."

* * *

 

"You're serious…all of the pieces…well that adds a new twist on things," Sarah whispered over the radio, but James Gordon was on his way onto the set of the Terror Remake.

"Yes, but if he is any trouble, I'm going to need back up," Gordon replied and Sarah did not say anything more. Gordon added as an afterthought. "But I think that I can handle him."

"Jones and I are on our way."

If his hunch was right, then he would nail Karlo right here and there. He was working his way through the studio, both as a revenge plot and also a remake of one of his films. He lived and died by films, his films, and it was the only thing that he knew. As many have said it was a personal vanity of Karlo.

He would have to go to the Director, that was the second to last victim, and then the main actor, the star of the production would be next.

Karlo was following a pattern, which proved that he had a plan but he was also predictable to be honest. After flashing his badge, Gordon made his way inside of the studio.

"Where is the Director?" Gordon asked him one of the guards and the guard turned around, pointing him out to the dressing room door.

He could see the Director's dressing room in his line of sight. The door was cracked open and Gordon suspected that someone left in a real hurry. The evidence just screamed a hasty exit was made. The GCPD officer rushed his way up the steps, if he had stayed with the Director, Karlo's game would uncover and become unravel.

He stepped inside and Gordon stopped and stared. The guard who lead him inside watched as well.

It was the body of the Production Assistant, lying on the floor. Gordon could see him on the ground and he looked down upon him. Turning around slowly, without even breaking his stride, Gordon turned to the guard.

"Radio in, and see where the guard has gone," Gordon said, he had his suspicions, whether or not they would become true. Whether they would become true, he would find out.

The guard radioed in and asked around before returning to Gordon in a few seconds. "He's heading in the direction of Matt Hagen's dressing room."

Gordon was afraid of that, because it was following the obvious pattern.

"Hagen might be in danger…the Director…..is not really the Director," Gordon said and he sprinted off into the direction of where the dressing room was.

The guard was asking questions about what was going on here but Gordon was walking at a brisk place. He blocked pretty much anything out of his mind other than the investigation at hand.

Arriving on the scene, he saw it, it was like a scene out of a horror movie, all it needed was some creepy music in the background to add to the atmosphere. The Director advanced on Hagen, a dagger drawn.

There was a foot in between the two of them and Hagen was oblivious to what was going on around him. He had headphones on and was reading a script, somewhat in disdain by the looks of things. If he actually looked in the mirror that was in front of him, he would see how close to death.

"PUT DOWN THE KNIFE, KARLO!"

Karlo stopped suddenly taken off guard and that shot even jarred Hagen back out of his stupor, seeing the "Director's" face.

Karlo lunged at Hagen and stabbed at him, but he only ripped into the chair with the stab.

He got one good shot and Gordon was damned if he was going to let him pull off a second. With trigger quick reflexes, Gordon fired him in the shoulder once. This shot hit on target and caused the dagger to clatter to the ground really hard. Another shot to the leg dropped the man himself down to the ground.

Hagen jumped completely out of his seat, and then fell backwards, in an overly dramatic fashion. He was screaming. "What the hell is going on?"

Hagen was down on the ground and Gordon advanced past him, ignoring that question for now. He could see Karlo make his way for the dagger once again but Gordon kicked it away.

"It's up Karlo, it's done, you've lost," Gordon told him and the actor cradled his shoulder and tried to pull himself up to his feet but he couldn't on account of being shot directly in the leg.

"No, it was perfect, it was…..how could you have….it was a fool proof plan!" Karlo bellowed in an overly dramatic manner. "They desiccated my legacy, so I was going to ruin them…"

It was that that point where Sarah Essen and John Jones turned up, to back him up. Slowly it dawned on the actor. Karlo realized that the odds were not in his favor, given that three of the GCPD's finest swarmed over him.

* * *

 

A rough looking man escorted Selina Kyle into a dimly lit office in a rather decrepit looking building in one of the rougher districts in Gotham. The Falcone family relocated here after the incident at the Gotham Arms Hotel at the start of the month.

It was a distinct down grade, to be honest. Selina walked forward, and saw Mario, that little weasel Alberto, and Johnny Vitti, who looked like Moe from the Three Stooges, if Moe had eaten Curly and consumed his body mass, that was.

They were hunched over, in a spirited discussion about something or other. Selina really couldn't bring herself to care. Alberto was looking more annoyed by the minute with what his cousin was telling him. Mario simply sat back and allowing the scene to play out, or really he didn't seem like there was any need to stop him at all.

Mario's eyes shifted and he saw Selina turn up right them. He turned to both his brother and his cousin. "The two of you go, now."

"But….."

"I said go," Mario said, cutting off any protests.

First, Alberto got to his feet and walked off, looking rather sullen and grumbling. Johnny followed off next to him, rather stoic as well and Mario waved off his two bodyguards, giving them the okay to leave.

Now that everyone was out of the way and they could not be disturbed, Mario walked over and greeted Selina with a hug.

"It's good to see you once again, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart," Mario told her and Selina smiled.

"I know, I know," Selina said, trying to be cordial but at the same time, not wanting him to get the wrong idea about her intentions.

"You needed to speak with me, you said it was urgent," Mario said with a smile on her face.

"Yes, it's urgent but…"

"We have plenty of time tonight, you should sit down, take a break, I'm sure that you've been working hard at the club…..running the business is harder than running the floor, isn't it?" Mario asked in a conversational tone.

"Yes, it is, but it isn't like I haven't had plenty of help," Selina said and Mario looked at her.

He knew better than to pry in personal business, because he knew that he would get shut down, so it was obvious that he wanted to get into her good graces.

"Sit down, have a drink, and then you can discuss why you needed to talk to me," Mario said and Selina smiled.

"Yes, a drink would be good," she told him, after all that she had been through, she really needed a drink.

"A toast then, to our good fortune, after a rough year," Mario said and it was obvious that he had been under a lot of pressure of his own, pouring the glass of wine and offering it to Selina, who took it. Then he took one of his own.

"So, how have you been?"

"Business has been difficult, with my father out of commission, they think that I'm a pushover, and don't get me started on the fat bird and what he's been up to," Mario said, taking a long swig of wine. "But you know….I'm glad to see that his night club went up in flames, serves him right for getting too big for his oversized britches, thinking that he could waddle back into Gotham City."

"Weren't you trying to make a deal with Thorne?"

"Everyone's trying to make a deal with Thorne, my father would have had a deal made by now, but Thorne is stringing us a long, I think he's trying to figure out exactly what the state is of the Falcone Family and how far my father is along for recovering," Mario commented once again. "God damn bastard is being stubborn if he isn't, and then there's Zucco….oh don't get me started on that son of a bitch, and there's a lot of pressure from the family, and Alberto sure isn't going to step up in any way possible."

Mario Falcone moved on wits edge to be honest and Selina could see that one little push would send him over the top. He might have been the point where there was no return. He had been drinking a little bit right now, and it seemed like what happened inspired him to drink just a little bit more.

"I didn't really think that things had gotten so bad," Selina said and Mario looked at her.

"Sorry, not your problem really, but it does help to get these things off my chest, because talking to Alberto about them…..well I'm sure what kind of response that you'd imagine that I'd get from that one," Mario replied once again. "What did you want to see me from?"

"You…..actually I'll handle this, because it seems like you have enough problems…."

"No, you came and saw me, you never call like that, unless something is really wrong, and let's face it, if you came to me, you can't handle it yourself," Mario said, downing the glass of wine with one more large swig.

"I've been having trouble with Gentleman Jim…..he wants to use some of the girls…well you know how he operates."

Mario listened intently and patiently at what Selina said once again and he was sympathetic to her problems, but it did present a rather interesting problem for him.

"So, I was hoping that you could either talk to him, or maybe get him to lay off…"

Mario looked rather sympathetic to her. "I'm sorry…..but I can't do that."

Selina was about ready to ask why he couldn't do it, but sure enough, Mario beat her to the punch.

"Jansen is one of the guys still loyal to the family, and while he's not exactly the most tolerable to be around, that gives him an allowance for a certain amount of loyalty as well."

Selina looked dismal to be honest and she wondered what she could do now.

"Are you sure that there isn't anything that you can do, after all we've been friends for a long time?"

Mario looked rather, thoughtful and he slowly reached over, putting his hand on her shoulder. He ran his hand over it, and looked into her deep eyes rather meaningful.

Selina knew that he had been drinking but this was getting rather uncomfortable.

"Perhaps if we cultivate a closer working relationship, I might be able to do something," Mario said and Selina pulled away from him.

A frown etched on her face and Mario glared at her through narrowed eyes. Selina felt extremely uncomfortable now.

"I can't believe this, we talked about this shit before, we talked about boundaries…."

"No," he growled, as Selina got up to her feet, but he got back up to her. "You said that nothing was going to happen, and then the Roman told me to lay off it but the Roman isn't around, I'm in charge, and now you need something to me, but you won't get anything in return."

He backed her off a little bit more and Selina prepared to defend herself. Her back was to the window, there was a hell of a rain storm raging outside. That was nothing to how stormy Mario's temper was getting, he was red in the face and it wasn't because of the alcohol either.

"If you want something from me, then it's going to cost you something in return," he whispered, quite harshly in fact, and there was malice dripping from his voice. "Or am I so disgusting to you that you won't even consider it?"

Mario reached forward, and grabbed her by the upper arm with both hands, and turned it, digging his thumbs into her skin so hard that it would breeze.

Selina wasn't going to take this, she slapped Mario so hard that she left a red mark on his cheek.

He responded by shoving her through the office window in a fiery temper.

Selina crashed through the window to the ground before, landing hard amidst the shards of broken glass and window frame.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 17** **th** **, 2014.**

**The ending of that chapter really speaks for itself. It says one thing and that's damn. If you didn't know where this was going by now, you should soon.**

**Karlo's little caper was unmasked and it allows Gordon a chance to shine I think. He doesn't need Batman or even Nightwing to do that.**

**Nashton's little game unravels a little bit more and…..he might have a bit of an obsession.**

**Some interesting interaction in this chapter involving Harry, and the scene involving Harry/Kara/Donna was a long time coming. Barbara is moving forward in a nice transitional period of her life.**


	61. Move Along Nothing to See Here

**Chapter 61: Move Along, Nothing To See.**

* * *

 

Selina Kyle should have figured out what was going to happen. The problem was that it happened fast that it was really hard to figure out. Mario pushed her out that window so fast that everything flashed before them.

Then again, who would have expected one of their most trusted friends to push them out of the window?

' _Well this worked out well,'_ Selina thought in a hazed manner.

It was amazing how quickly things sped up when you fell down towards the ground. But then again, she didn't really fall all the way down to the ground, at first. Her back was against the back of a platform, and there was some window waster platform that had been left there.

Fortunately, it had broken her fall, at least for the most part. However, there was just one problem, the wood that was underneath her back was extremely rotten, and it did an amazing job of slowing some of her momentum, at least a lot of it.

It arrested some of her momentum, that was sure, but she hit a mental awning, and then she flipped over, landing onto the ground with a solid thump.

Her body hit the ground once again, the rain splashing down onto her face. Some of the glass slid off of the platform, coming dangerously close to hitting her. That was the last thing that she knew before she was blacked out.

* * *

 

James Gordon thought that it was going to be nice to put this extremely long investigation behind him. Especially when one considered the fact that it was a relatively minor case that somehow turned major. It was a wonder that he managed not to put together all of the pieces until just recently. Karlo came inches away from killing Matt Hagen and finishing his crusade then and there.

Gordon apprehended him but to stop the crazed madman, he had to shoot Karlo in the shoulder and the back of his leg. So as for right now, the medics had arrived, to get him checked out.

Karlo stood quietly, but it seemed like he was seething right there. His shoulder was completely damaged in the impact from the bullet. With his hands cuffed above his head, it was extremely difficult for the medic to do his work.

"We need to work on his arm, but I can't quite get to it," one of the medics said, in a grumbling tone of voice.

"So, I found the bodies, with each of them having a mask on it, and Karlo very nearly got away with the perfect crime," Gordon said once again. If he didn't overplay his hand, he might have gotten away from it.

He wanted to ruin the remake of the Terror and he made a mistake of allowing the bodies to be easily found. Then again, he was an embittered actor and not a career criminal, therefore he was not someone who was really wise in committing any kind of crimes. There was also the case of maybe his vanity getting the better of him and letting the bodies be found on purpose.

"So, you're really saying that it was Karlo underneath that mask," Essen said, she was pretty sure that he was right, it would make sense.

But the evidence was kind of circumstantial, with a lot of guesswork being involved in the process. It was way too much guesswork. There was the very real possibility Karlo could walk.

"She does have a point," John said once again, the medics working slowly over Karlo's shoulder.

"It's a possibility that he could walk about this, we don't have anything, no finger prints or blood have been uncovered," Gordon said, much as he loathed to admit it, Karlo was good enough to keep his tracks covered.

Whether that was through sheer dumb luck or planning, that was another matter for debate for another time. Criminals had been able to walk with much more damning evidence flashing in front of the faces of those who convicted them. It was Gotham City.

"I mean, it's got to be Karlo, this circle started with him, didn't it?" Bullock asked once again, in his usual gruff and charming tone of voice.

Gordon turned to Bullock and gruffly responded, "The last two victims had masks on to disguise themselves as someone else…..but unless we remove the mask, we won't be able to determine who is under there, if anyone of relevance is."

"Oh, is that, all, well that's not a problem."

Bullock walked over, surprisingly fast for a man of his size. He ambled over towards Karlo. Karlo looked up, completely and utterly surprised. Grunting, Bullock reached over and grabbed the mask in his chubby hands.

"Bullock, wait….."

But it was in fact too late, the mask was ripped from Karlo's face. A blood curdling scream left Karlo's mouth when the mask ripped from his face.

It was obvious by this point that he had just finished the mask. The glue didn't have any time to dry. Gordon rushed over, seeing Bullock hold the mask in his hand, blood dripping from the mask. Pieces of Karlo's face may have been ripped off with the mask. His skin had been torn asunder.

Bullock finally came back to life, bringing himself back to some semblance of sense, dropping it on the ground.

"You….you….we got to stop the bleeding, and treat the wounds before they got infected, sit still….Mr. Karlo," the EMT said, urgency in his voice.

"You….ruffian…I won't let you get away with this, you won't….you haven't…." Karlo said,

The pain became too much and his screams grew increasingly incoherent. Gordon took decisive action and pushed Karlo down on a cot. He pushed the syringe into his shoulder to hopefully calm the man down.

The syringe pushed into his shoulder, stabilizing his body and causing his heart rate to slow down. His heart rate was manageable and they could treat him that way.

"I didn't know…..I didn't know that he just put a fresh one on his face, how was I supposed to know that was going to happen?" Bullock asked.

"Well, you really couldn't," Sarah agreed once again.

"No, you couldn't, but at least that confirms that it's Karlo….." John said grimly.

The blood curdling screams would be etched in their collective subconscious for quite some time.

"The ravages of time…."

"To be fair, the bastard wasn't that much of a looker in his day," Bullock grumbled, without any tact.

"Well he did have a certain appeal to some women," Sarah persisted, not to her, but for his time, he was considered a heart throb.

"Well, guess that his looks would have to be something, because the guy couldn't go on with his acting."

"Sequel, there's always a sequel," Karlo whispered before he was further sedated and treated for his injuries.

Matt Hagen watched this man closely. a man who obviously didn't have much going for him now that his looks faded. In Hollywood, that was all that was important. In this business, if you lost your looks, your career and future was down the toilet. Then what would you have for yourself?

Hagen turned towards the mirror, becoming rather self-conscious. His movie star good looks were still there and there was not a wrinkle in place. He checked, double checked, and triple checked again. Still no wrinkles, so he relaxed, at least for now.

The fact that one could potentially lose their looks struck him rather hard and it hit extremely close to home. He nearly hyperventilated at the thought of turning out like Karlo.

' _That can't happen to me, it won't happen to me.'_

Hagen repeated this statement in his head like a madness mantra.

* * *

 

A dark apartment on the outskirts of Gotham City was abandoned. The apartment looked fairly nice and tidy on the inside, maybe just a little bit dusty. The quiet and tranquil state was broken up by a person who stumbled about in the hallway. It seemed to be a miracle that she actually got there.

A shaky hand turned the door knob and it clicked open. With some effort, the person on the other end of the door pushed it open.

A hand moved around, with bruised fingers, and managed to fumble around before finding the light switch. The dark apartment illuminated to bring things to life.

Selina Kyle had seen better days, cradling a black cat with bright green eyes in her arms.

"Uh, I feel like something the cat dragged in," she muttered, and the cat looked up at her, with a questioning purr. "No offense, Isis, no offense."

She bent down; her back killing her when she did. Some of the pieces of scaffolding were lucky not to lodge into her back. Not to mention the glass and she was a total and utter wreck.

Isis was put down on the floor and Selina brushed her hair from her eyes. Gingerly, the woman turned around and locked the door.

Selina was visited with a strong coughing fit. It got so bad that she coughed blood out of her mouth. She had the presence of mind to lift her hand up and block it from splattering onto the carpet.

Slowly and almost absent mindedly, she lifted her fingers to her hand and licked the fresh blood off of it, slowly, and sensually.

Shaking her head and bringing herself to her senses. Looking punch drunk, the woman staggered over towards the kitchen.

"You must be starving, out there alone in this world, let's get you fixed up," Selina said, lifting her hand to her face and braced herself for another coughing fit.

Fortunately, the coughing fit subsided. She rummaged through her kitchen cabinet. The woman removed a can of tuna from it, and then grabbed a saucer along with some milk.

"Here, you go Isis, that's a good kitty, that's a good kitty, yes, you're a good kitty, someone must have been mean to abandon you out there," Selina practically purred, putting the tuna and saucer of milk down in front of the cat.

Now that the cat was taken care of, Selina had to take care of herself.

Gingerly, she made her way to the bathroom, stepping carefully with each movement. She shook her head, catching a look at her bruised face in the bathroom mirror. The woman slowly and delicately stripped off her bloodied clothes.

Black and blue to be honest; what wasn't black and blue; it had turned into a yellow.

Ignoring a voice in the back of her head, saying that she should have gone to the hospital, she stepped into the shower. Selina grudgingly admitted that the cuts could have been far worse. She would take care of them.

At least the ringing in her head had calmed down; she wouldn't have been surprised if she would have sustained a concussion on her way down.

Selina turned on the shower, making sure that it was really hot. She began to scrub at her skin, trying to remove the dirt and grime from it and cleaning the cuts. Selina scrubbed it so hard that it was reduced to a raw red. Closing her eyes, she bit down on her lip and slowly shut the pain out.

She stuck around underneath the shower for a long amount of time. It was so long that the shower water turned cold, causing the woman to shiver.

That snapped her back to life once again and she reached up, turning the water off. Selina was out of it so much that she was underneath the shower so long that she ran all of the hot water out.

Selina stepped out, feeling a little bit better but not completely. She dried herself off.

Looking up, she peered into the mirror and saw her face reflected in the mirror. That was the first time that she saw it there since she went through a glass window.

There was a vase of flowers sitting on the counter, ironically enough sent by Mario Falcone. Calmly, tranquilly she looked at the flowers. She gave a long sigh.

In a fit of rage, Selina picked up the flowers and hurled it at the mirror, shattering it.

The mirror was broken but there was still enough of the mirror remaining where she could see her reflection.

"This won't do at all," Selina said, thankfully all of the blood, glass, and grime had been washed out of her hair.

Reaching over to a drawer off to the side, she rummaged through it. She found a pair of scissors.

Selina diligently worked on her hair, cutting it slowly but surely, as it all fell to the ground. One strand at a time was snipped as she formed her new look.

She checked her progress, sure it wasn't a professional stylish level quality, but it would do. Selina didn't stop cutting her hair until it was super short.

It was cut into a pixie cut and Selina looked at it, with a smile on her face.

"Perfect."

Only that word came out in more of a purr, so it was purrfect. She walked over, feeling a bit better by herself, parking herself over by the window. It was an indictment of how long she was in the shower because the sun was rising.

The rain and the storm outside ceased once again. Selina lifted her hands up, still naked as the day that she was born, doing a full cat like stretch.

On the floor, Isis looked at her, given a very tentative. "Meow."

"Yes, I agree," Selina said, stretching carefully. Her skin was still raw red a little bit but she was on the mend. "Wait until they get a look at me."

The sun continued to rise over Gotham City, and it was a brand new day, a brand new day with some brand new potential for chaos.

* * *

 

Faora arrived home from Metropolis; in fact she just literally got back from the airport right now. She stopped and smiled at the sight that greeted her upon her arrival.

Harry was taking a nap or more likely he was just resting. The yellow sun's loving embraced caressed his face.

' _Soon you will be strong enough to enjoy the full benefits of what it has to offer, my brother,'_ Faora said, taking a good look at her brother. He sprawled out on the couch with a book laid out across his chest.

Faora really wished that she would have been back any sooner. Business came before pleasure and there was a lot of business to be had.

It was looking like her commutes would be far more often because of the success of the Red Sun's launch. To say that it met all expectations and then exceeded them would be putting things fairly nicely. It was really selling out, the stores could barely keep it on the shelves. The produce was that hot.

Faora smiled as she thought of future business. The model that Harry designed for the Spring launch would break the records they set. A more powerful model between a palm pilot and a phone were ready. That was not counting the tablet and the laptop.

This technology might not be possible for several more years without their innovation.

That being said, the larger model coming out in Spring would be the attractive halfway point and ease them into something more powerful. And if there is anything that she thought humans liked a lot of, it was more power. Faora was amused by the fact that they always needed the best and the biggest gadgets.

' _Well, good for them,'_ Faora thought placing her hands on her hips once again and she wondered if she should rouse Harry.

She decided to allow him to nap just a little bit longer.

The phone was a good thing in the sense that not only did it offer some ground breaking profits, but more importantly it allowed Harry to finish his Doctorate in Electrical Engineering. That knocked the total up to four, so needless to say she was pretty proud of him.

With a smile, she watched him sleep a little bit more. When she was bored with that, the Kryptonian sauntered over towards him. She saw him sprawled out of on the couch, and Faora's pride for her brother and how much that he was doing, she wanted to show him exactly how proud that she was of him.

Therefore the dark haired woman straddled his waist calmly, making sure not to rouse him just yet. She managed to perch herself onto him, looking down at him. She slowly but she surely lifted the book off of his chest.

Then without another word, Faora reached forward and started to slowly stroke Harry's hair. He slowly roused himself to a state of being awake.

He was stretching rather carefully, much like a cat, and he managed to look up at her.

"Good afternoon, Har," Faora said with a smile on her face, playing with a lock of his hair, and running her hand down to his cheek, slowly stroking it once again. Her bright blue eyes locked right onto his adoring green ones.

"Good afternoon, Faora, I see that you're back from Metropolis," he said.

She nodded in response with a bright smile on her face.

"Yes, and I see that you got your fourth doctorate, amazing, but then again, you are," Faora said, leaning in to close the gap between both of them.

Their lips met, with a passionate kiss once with each other. Their tongues performed the age old clash for domination.

"You know, we should…"

"Right here, anywhere, I don't care," Faora said once again but Harry scooped her up into his arms and made his way to the bedroom.

Even without the full scope of his powers, due to the red watch that Harry wore that blocked his powers, he still was quick. Faora was not one to left waiting.

They exchanged another passionate kiss with each other. They stripped each other slowly and sensually, leaving each other naked. From there things got really heated between the pair of them.

Faora pressed her lips onto Harry's, straddling his body, and slowly kissing all the way down it. Harry returned fire, caressing her naked body in response.

Each kiss brought her closer to him and she decided to hover over him, in the air, her nude body swaying. She gave him a sultry smile, dipping her head down. She engulfed his tool, adding warm and wet heat to it.

Her skilled mouth engulfed his tool in one movement and then she popped out, using her tongue once again. She licked his large phallus once again. Faora's hands stroked and lovingly caressed his huge balls.

"Just relax, Har, let me please you," Faora whispered and Harry looked at her with a smile on his face.

"You aren't going to get any argument out of me because of that," Harry grunted, with lust burning through his eyes.

Faora's lips locked onto him, his manhood popping between her lips once again. Harry held her around her face and pumped deep into her waiting and eager mouth. The woman came down onto him and speared him down her throat. She bobbed up and down onto him to make sure he got the most out of the pleasure she offered.

Faora wanted to taste her brother's seed, and grabbed him around the hips. The suction of her lips increased when she pushed herself down onto his tool. Harry groaned and lifted his hips up.

Faora rolled her head back and accepted his seed spilling into her mouth. The Kryptonian goddess sucked his seed into her mouth and she hummed hungrily, the more that he splattered down her throat. She brought herself down onto his tool once again, rocking her throat down onto him, and slowly she pulled off.

Harry smiled when she pulled off of him and his hands reached up, grabbing her hips.

"Time to return the favor," Harry whispered and she lowered herself closer onto him.

With one fell motion, she straddle his face and Harry pushed his tongue deep into her. Faora moaned loudly. His actions always served to wind her up and make her hot and horny. Harry's fingers teasing her asshole again, and she closed her eyes, his skilled tongue making her nice and wet.

There was electricity that struck her body and her hips rocked down onto him. His tongue spiked deep into her body once again. Faora panted, and her nectar spilled into his mouth forever more.

Each push of his tongue drove her wilder and Harry smiled, he was going to keep this one up as long as he could go. His hands groped her supple backside. He continued to manipulte his tongue further into her. Faora's snatch grinding and pulsing onto his tongue the more that he worked into her.

His hands cupped her tits, and she unleashed another gushing flood of juices.

Slowly, Faora slid off of Harry, seductive crawling backwards, her breasts sliding against his chest when she moved down.

She did the splits in mid-air, showing her flexibility and her hot cunt hovered over his erect and hard pole.

"Do you want it," she said, burning seduction coming from her eyes and voice, when she licked her lips. She could see how hard he was and that answered a question that answered many questions in fact.

Her tightness closed around him and she closed her eyes, feeling his manhood buried between her legs. Faora whimpered, grinding her center onto him. His tool pushed deep between her legs, and she rocked herself up and came down onto him. Their hips met together with a stunning amount of pleasure.

Grabbing her ass, Harry encouraged her to ride up and down. He sat up and she leaned forward.

"Yes, my love, yes, that's great," Faora whimpered, and she decided that a change of venue was in order.

Harry seemed to agree, and he rolled her over onto her back. Her legs closed around his waist, to make sure that he didn't venture too far from her body. Harry ran his hands all over her tight body, and continued to work her over. She closed her eyes, feeling another spike of pleasure through her body and cupped her breasts harder.

He drove deeper between her legs and Faora thrashed her hips up once again, spreading her legs far. As an added bonus, the sultry Kryptonian bent herself back as well. Her great flexibility caused Harry to work himself into her body, spearing into her body, and she trashed her hips up towards him.

Harry pummeled into her once again, her tight walls closing around his tool the more that he pressed into her.

His mouth lavished her nipples and Faora dug her fingers into his shoulder.

"Calm down, we've got all night," Harry whispered, licking her nipple a little bit more and causing her to shiver.

"Can't help it, want you so badly."

Harry slowed his thrusts to a crawl and it caused her pussy to ache with desire. It burned with need and he thrust himself deep into her. Each thrust quelled her inner most fire and she engulfed him hard.

"I know you want it," Harry whispered once again and he rammed himself deep into her center once again.

Her center struck with more pleasure than ever before and Faora was having the time of her life once again. She didn't want this to end and tried to draw it out as much as she could. Her legs wrapped around him, with his hands roaming all over her body.

"But I know what you really want," Harry whispered and he started to pull out but she stopped him.

"Finish here, take me elsewhere later," Faora whispered, she wanted him to take her ass and hard.

That being said, Harry was not going to complain, her tight hot center squeezed him, and her body jerked up, taking his manhood into her. She held him in tight, tugging on his cock, and the sensation that filled his balls indicated that he was getting closer. Her hands roamed his body.

"Cum, please," Faora begged once again, pumping her hips up to meet his thrusts, imagining his spurts of cum splashing into her and her slick walls hugged him.

Harry smiled, good things did come to those who waited for now. Her hands roamed his body, squeezing his biceps.

"Harder, harder," Faora begged him in a deep purr and she paused, with him rolling off of the bed, still sheathed inside her.

He pushed her up against the book case and fucked her even harder once again. Her back pressed against it. Faora tightened her hips against his throbbing tool, her hips grinding up and down him and he pushed into her.

The dark haired vixen wrapped her arms around him and she pumped her hips up, closing her eyes, and feeling his manhood buried into her. Her hips kept rolling up once again, and she closed her eyes, feeling the absolute pleasure that burned through her loins when he worked himself into her.

"That's it, oh that's it," Harry grunted and he was getting closer to injecting his seed into her.

Faora's box grew tighter around his tool, and Harry rammed into her hard. She closed her eyes, whimpering with pleasure once again, and she pushed up, meeting his manhood when he pumped into her.

His hot seed splashed into her body, entering her body at an increasing and rapid fire. She could feel him painting her insides, and making her pussy absolutely wet with desire.

"As promised."

Those two words were extremely simple but it worked, with Harry walking her over, and pushing her up against the wall. Her nipples hit the cool surface and he pushed into her pussy, and lubricated her surface again, her legs spreading nicely for him.

Faora floated a little bit off of the air, and Harry placed his hands onto her hips. He took aim for her tight and delicious rear.

Harry shoved his cock into her ass and she locked her fingers into the wall, slightly damaging it.

Her heat vision burned into the wall, writing the words "fuck me" into it. Harry wasn't going to be denied, he rammed into her hard from behind. Her rear closed around his tool. In response to this tight friction, Harry hammered her over and over again.

Faora closed her eyes, biting down onto her lip when he pushed into her from behind, and his hands combed over her breast once again.

The dark haired woman focused on the pleasure of him hammering her ass from behind over and over again. Each thrust into her brought her to greater forms of pleasure. He drilled her ass with increasing pleasure.

"Are you enjoying this?" Harry asked and Faora bit down on her lip, nodding her head in absolute pleasure in response.

Her ass was being drilled, as he pushed her against the wall. He expanded his domination into her. Both of them were working up a great sweat with each other, and Harry's hands were working over her once again.

His balls drilled into her thighs behind and Harry passed into her, with his hands continued to run over her, with the green eyed wizard kissing on the back of her neck. He sucked on it, driving all her sensitive spots.

His hand brushed his fingers against her smoldering hot snatch. She closed her eyes, once again the pleasure increased with a huge spike going through her body. He picked up the pace once again.

"Almost there," Harry whispered, licking her ear and Faora nodded.

His raging cock nearly knocked her into a pleasure coma. Her tight anus enveloped him and he pounded her into jelly. His fingers manipulated her vagina and clit which spiked her pleasure to new levels.

"Yes, yes, oh yes, please," Faora whimpered, his hands traveling over her body.

Her nipples grew harder and the Kryptonian goddess could feel the orgasm rush through her. She hungered for his cum as always. She could never get enough of it.

The hot rush of cum splattered into her buns from behind. Faora felt herself drilled into the wall hard from behind. Her ass closed around him with Harry injecting load after load of his cum into her tight ass.

Faora slid down against the wall, in pleasure. Harry forced her up by the hair, giving her a smoldering kiss, and he was hard again and she was ready.

He pressed her against the wall and started to fuck her, again and again, until they both had it out of their systems. Which with their combined libidos and the time dilation, it could be quite some time.

* * *

 

It was amazing how they came into the bedroom but they still ended up back into the living room area. Faora's head was placed on his shoulder once again.

"So, things are going rather well with the Red Sun," Harry said to her and she smiled.

"Well, well, that would be putting things mildly," she said once again.

' _That's for sure,'_ Karen said, it was hard to tell how long she had been on the bond link. She did have to nip into her private bathroom a little bit thanks to the private show. _'I mean, you can't put things on the shelf.'_

' _So, we're doing really good, but we've got more, plenty more,'_ Patricia added, chiming in on the call.

"And the larger model…..? Harry asked her.

"As always, it will be out in Spring, which will allow us to fill the need for someone who just needs something a bit more powerful, and it allows us to test the market fairly nicely," Faora explained breathlessly.

"There will be big things coming….."

"Well, you should know that better than anyone else, Har, when we put things out there that are bigger than big over the next couple of months," Faora answered once again but she looked around. "I don't know, but there's something up in the air."

"Really, you feel that as well?" Harry asked her and there was a smile on his face. "I don't know, there are changes in the air…"

"Exactly, and I can't figure out what, can you?" Faora asked and Harry shook his head. "I don't know, Har, if they're changes for the better or changes for the worse, but…..it should be interesting."

Harry had to agree that things would be interesting.

"All we can do is wait it out and see what is going to happen," Harry told her and Faora looked at him.

Swiftly and suddenly she nodded in agreement. Did anyone else feel the change? They didn't know but one thing was for certain, not only was change in the air, but there was some kind of calm before his storm.

All Harry had to do was see what his accomplishments would bring him. There would be nothing but good things happening.

"So, do you have any plans for today, for later?" Faora asked.

"Some," Harry admitted to her. "But I have some downtime, that's why I was just kicking back with a book."

"Enjoy that while that lasts," Faora told him with a smile once again, and she could see that her libido was this close to flaring up again. "So do you have one more round in you, Har?"

Harry gave her a grin once again and spun her around, so she straddled him. He could tell that she had another round in her and he met her lips with a brief and passionate kiss.

"Don't I always?"

Faora nodded, keeping a nice breath once again and allowed the magic to happen once again. Which is how they spent their afternoon and they enjoyed each other's company as they did so.

* * *

 

Barbara wanted to shake loose the cobwebs in frustration, she was pretty sure that she should have understood that, but there was just something that she couldn't bring herself to come to terms with.

She was leaving her last class of the day, a late lecture on Chemistry. Not her best subject, not her favorite subject. It was something that she normally excelled at, at least something that she should do pretty good with.

That being said, she might have get a little help from Harry or Pam. Despite being a genius in her own right, there were some things that were beyond her grasp. This little lecture was one of those things.

She supposed that it wasn't anyone's fault other than her own. her brain was completely and utterly rattled from everything that had been going on as of late. Despite her schedule being forcefully simplified due to the fact that she had been cut to the GCPD, thanks to the scheming of that all around creep Nashton, she still had a lot on her plate.

And it was unfortunate that his jaw would heal, in a time. He would be back to run his mouth to someone. Likely about how he was the one who got the better of her and not the other way around. Someone needed to put that smug little weasel in his place and fast.

That being said, the professor, bless him, was able to simplify it to the point where most of the class understood it. And Barbara went with the flow the best she could. That being said the moment that the girl really thought about it, she realized how messed up everything was. She couldn't really help but think that there were times where certain things could have been oversimplified.

' _Sometimes, it just complicates things by making it more simplified, or something like that once again,'_ Barbara thought with a lengthy sigh. It might as well have been ancient Greek to her, but she figured that she just might have a better grasp on Ancient Greek.

Barbara sighed and left the classroom and was about to leave for the day. However, she might have only made it twelve steps from the classroom when something caught her attention. Something stopped her in her tracks.

Said vibrations caused an extremely pleasurable tingle to spread through her body, and down her spine, which caused her to whimper. The pleasure distracted her from what she was thinking about.

One of the girls, likely named Amanda Potter, might have messed with her cell phone settings…..again.

' _I really need to find a way to keep those better locked,'_ Barbara thought and she checked to see what the message was all about.

There was an address on it, and only an address, with no further information. Barbara stared at it for several minutes, hoping, perhaps against hope, that another text message was going to go off. She stood there in the doorway, muttering underneath her breath.

"So, am I going to get a clue what the hell is going on here?" Barbara asked to herself. She couldn't help but be curious.

Even though curiosity did a wonderful job in killing the cat, but she shook her head and sighed.

That being said, she was going to check this out, there was no way that she was going to not check this out.

The moment that she stepped out of the classroom at GCU, she nearly ran head long into Pamela. She was in an intense conversation with Jason Woodrue.

"You got to give these things time to bond, Pamela," Woodrue said in a low tone, that caused shivers to go down her spine and not the good kind either.

"Maybe certain cells are being bonded that shouldn't be, maybe we should…"

"I thought that you wanted to change the world, and I thought that you wanted a change,' Woodrue said in a calm and almost disappointed voice.

Barbara thought that Harry was right; there was something about Woodrue's tone that kind of gave her the creeps. He was the type that would use his credentials to try and sleep with co-eds. Which was why Barbara kept a clear distance from him. She warned Pamela to be careful as well. Whether or not she listened was another matter entirely.

That being said, they were beginning to fire back and forth with the reasons why this wasn't happening, and the reasons of why this could happen. The conversation left Barbara's head swimming and she was in too deep over her head.

Now she knew how a lot of people felt when she was discussing things regarding computers. She was completely and utterly lost.

It was at that moment where Pamela stopped short and saw Barbara standing there. She waved at him dismissively. "We can talk about this later Jason, but I have go now."

"It's just as well, Pamela," he told her with a smile on her face. "I'm running late…I would hate to miss my next meeting."

Woodrue stopped and paused, his eyes lingering on Barbara for a brief second. "A good evening to you as well, Ms. Gordon."

Barbara could not help but think that if this guy asked her the time of day, she would have shuddered as well.

"Come on," Pamela said, grabbing Barbara gently by the hand to lead her away from Woodrue and they were walking towards the car. "So, how was your day, and how are you holding up after….after what happened?"

Barbara sighed with a smile on her face. "Better….well better than I was anyway….talking to Harry did help a little bit, I'll say that much, and then the twins found out about that, and they wouldn't leave it alone, and one of them took the liberty of messing with the settings of my phone."

Pamela chuckled in amusement. That sounded like something Amanda would do.

"So, how has your project been going?"

A prominent scowl crossed Pamela's face. "It's going….the cells aren't bonding properly together….Jason….Dr. Woodrue….."

Pamela sighed and it was obviously something that she had severe misgivings about, at least to the point where she wouldn't be sighing so much in frustration.

"Dr. Woodrue things he might know of a way to make it work, but it means messing around with Venom or at least reverse engineering it in order to see how it functions on a cellular level," Pamela said.

That didn't appeal to her on a moral level. A lot of people, she really didn't like them, but she would not really want to see them tortured. That would be cruel hearted.

"Hmm," Barbara said once again, and she leaned to kiss Pamela on the cheek. "Well, maybe you can convince him that's not a good idea."

"Maybe," Pamela said shaking her head, but there was something doubtful. Woodrue's intelligence was intact but a couple of his methods raised questions in her head. "I'll deal with it….you have a good night, Babs, I'll see you later."

Pamela made her way into her car, and Barbara once again walked her way to her car. "Good bye, Pamela, don't let these things get to you, really just don't."

Pamela scoffed and obviously was going to say something or so it seemed. Barbara was halfway to her car and didn't hear it. She forgot to clear out her locker at Gotham Central due to her abrupt leaving, so she better get around to doing it tonight.

She didn't think that she left anything of value in there, because she had more sense than that. Still it was better to be safe than sorry.

* * *

 

Tony Zucco and Eddie Skeevers were back at the dock, looking out onto the water. They were waiting for something, or rather someone, maybe. The details they got weren't exactly certain.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Skeevers asked.

"I told you, the boss said that what we're waiting for, would show up at any minute," Zucco said, cracking his knuckles. "Called me at dawn, before anyone with any sense was up, telling me to be here at a certain time. He sounded pissed off about the entire thing as well. So I didn't ask any questions, because I'm not stupid."

"Well, he probably heard what happened over in Ghost Town," Skeevers offered and Zucco turned to him.

"Of course he fucking heard about what happened," Zucco said and he looked around. "Come to think about it, this is a pretty convenient location to make both of us disappear, if Sal decided that we both outlived our usefulness….would be perfect to whack us here, dump us in the harbor. Let the sharks take a piece out of our ass."

Skeevers looked rather nervous but there was little that they could do about it. If Maroni wanted them dead, then they better get used to the idea of being fish bait.

"Yeah, the waters down there look pretty fucking disgusting, don't they?" Skeevers asked, looking at the water.

"Well, does it really fucking matter if we're dead?" Zucco asked with a sneer.

They did not take this conversation any further, when a roar of a boat could be heard in the distance. Both of the men went silent, it was an extremely powerful looking speed boat and it was approaching.

It grinded to a stop and both men waited to see if it was the welcoming committee or the execution crew. In their line of work, it could have been either.

An intimidating looking Italian gentleman exited the boat and helped an older man, a much older man off of the boat. He had silver hair, and a bit of a rotund figure. Something that one could not discount was the man's style. This gentleman wore an extremely nice grey suit.

Zucco stopped and his blood ran cold when he looked at the man who was leaving the boat. He adopts a respectful position once again but Skeevers looked at him in surprise.

"He looks like Fat Tony from the Simpsons….."

Zucco walloped him in the arm so hard that he may have left a permeate bruise.

"You better be respectful, this is Luigi Maroni, and he's Salvatore's father, and he's been around since before you should have been a wet spot left on your Daddy's trousers," Zucco whispered and he turned to face the big man. "Sir….what….."

"Zucco, I see you're always the same nutless weasel that you ever were," Luigi said in a rough voice, the kind that one had after years of intense chain smoking. Zucco inclined his head with a slight bow and looked up at him. "Sal….he had some concerns…..and he wants to make sure that you keep your shit together…..until he gets back, and I'm going to run this and run these things run."

Zucco nodded like an obedient puppy dog, because Luigi wasn't one to fuck around with and Skeevers got that right away.

He was the type that would cut someone's balls off and force feed them to you. Things were about ready to change around here, and maybe not for the better.

* * *

 

Barbara stood outside of a rather magnificent, but kind of antique looking clock tower, looking up.

"Well this is the place, and it's a magnificent looking place, but I'm not sure why they told me to be here," Barbara said and almost as if on cue, her phone started to vibrate again.

She jumped almost three feet in the air in shock.

' _Stupid, it's just your phone,'_ Barbara thought once again, taking it out of her pocket and answering it.

There was another text message on the phone.

**Come inside and then take the elevator to the top floor.**

Barbara considered what she had to do and she let out a bit of a sigh.

"Well you only live once, and I'm sure that Harry would avenge my death if I was murdered."

Barbara pushed open the door, and then made her way to the elevator. Much to her surprised, it worked rather well and took her to the top floor in no time.

' _Pretty zippy for an older elevator,'_ she thought to herself in amusement, and she reached the top floor in no time.

The interior of the clock area was much more modern than she would have thought at first glance, but a lot of the more classic architecture remained, with the four clocks on all sides, looking out into the city.

It was rather modern and she saw a really large chair, a comfortable looking computer chair, with Nightwing sitting there and…..a female in a Nightwing costume sitting next to him, or at least a very similar looking costume. There were differences that Barbara could spot right away. Then there was Black Canary.

They were pretty spread out, and Barbara nearly jumped high up when she saw what they were standing next to.

It was a state of the art computer system out of her wildest wet dream.

Nightwing smiled at her open mouth, wide eyed, and drooling reaction. He reached over with a chuckle and ran his hand over the touch screen, causing the map of Gotham City. It was modified to give a clear representation over the past three days over the surrounding area, to pull back any movements over that time period.

Barbara nearly hit the ground, but she opted to squeal with joy.

"Welcome to the Clock Tower."

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 20** **th** **2014.**

**The big thing in this transition chapter between the last arc and the next one, is the Clock Tower being established.**

**Also Fat Tony er I mean Big Lou rolls on into Gotham City to take care of some business.**

**Change is in the air but our stars really have no idea. That's all I'll say.**

**Selina takes one further step to her destiny and well we all knew that was going to happen.**

**Woodrue continues to be a creepy, creep. Barbara agrees with Harry, thus further cementing her intelligence. Then again, we you look like Lionel Luthor's more shady twin, that's going to set off some sleaze meters.**


	62. Chapter 62

**Chapter Sixty-Two: The More Things Change Part One.**

* * *

 

Batman lurked into the shadows of Gotham City on a chilly evening in the late part of November. As a prowler of the night, he took a long look around. If his sources were right, there was a big deal going down and it needed to be stopped immediately.

A fairly major arms deal was taking place. The people responsible for this deal taking place were the Maronis, who had upgraded their weapons. They hit the Falcones rather hard with their new weapons, like they owed them money.

Therefore, the Falcone family made what one might consider to be a deal with the devil, by purchasing the guns from Duquense, who was working with Rupert Thorne. It appeared to be a beneficial arrangement even if it was wrapped in a great deal of dirty Gotham City politics.

Of course, the sickening deal went another level deep when one realized who was supplying Thorne with the hardware, that being the Penguin. Batman found himself in the midst of an arm's race between some of Gotham's most notorious and there were bound to be people that were hurt, at least until he was putting a stop of it.

There was another matter that Batman heard about, but that was secondary to the entire gun scene. That being that there was a Cat Burglar prowling around. Normally something or someone like this wouldn't even hit Batman's radar head on. An interesting twist to this little crime wave piqued Batman's attention head on.

There were people who were being hit who were connected with the Falcone crime family. Perhaps not that well connected, but connected in the sense that they were taking some of the dirty money off of the top to do certain things.

This might not have been his primary concern to be honest, because his mind was on the Mob. This deal between two factions could prove to be a dangerous arrangement. Even if this was a tense deal that could break up at a moment's notice and both sides could turn on each other. Leaving innocent people to be caught in the crossfire.

Batman's laser like focus was on the potential consequences of this deal. Earlier this month, Nightwing made them paranoid as hell with his little cloak and dagger act. That was good, given that they were a superstitious and cowardly lot, they would also be of the jumpy sort.

Batman stood crouched upon a gargoyle on a building, lingering fairly close to the transaction sight. He was at a fairly good height up from the ground, getting a good view of the proceedings below.

The view was so good from where he stood that he didn't need to use the zoom feature built into his HUD.

There was something shocking that he saw and that caused him to wonder what kind of game was being played just now.

Nothing, there was not a single person who showed up here. Batman wondered what was going on. Were the rumors that he heard wrong? Did plans change? Any number of possible scenarios ran through Batman's head.

Normally with a deal like this, there would be someone who arrived fairly early. They needed to scope out the scene. There was always a chance for a double cross or some kind of sting operation.

Or a chance that someone like Batman or Nightwing could jump out of the shadows and they might never be seen again.

He did hear some of the urban legends of Gotham City about him and others.

If nothing else, they would have wanted some leverage, but there was nothing here, not even a single creature stirring.

Batman could hear a crash from above where he stood. His eyes averted from the rumored deal sight, and he noticed a figure in the shadows, who was breaking into a Penthouse apartment, right through a locked window.

That wasn't that uncommon of an occurrence, especially in Gotham City.

What was odd was it was fairly high up and by high, Batman meant high, and by high, he meant that they were on the twentieth floor high.

Batman zoomed in with the HUD and he was just barely able to make out the person who was there. She was a female wearing a form fitting catsuit.

Just right before Batman was going to make his move, that's when four cars pulled into the parking area where he was staking out. It was hard to miss them showing up. They were a little late. The doors flung open and eight burly men exited the cars.

Making a fairly careful snap decision, he decided that it was a higher priority to follow this lot, with the hardware they were carrying.

"It's me," Batman said to Oracle once again.

"Oh, it's…..what's the situation?" she asked and he prepared to explain the predicament that he was in to her, in hopes that she could radio Nightwing.

* * *

 

It turned out that Nightwing was fairly busy on this night. Real busy in fact. He was in the middle of a gun fight between the Maronis and the Falcones, who really had been going at it.

They were rewriting the definition of old school Mafia violence in the worst way possible, and it was getting worse. The Maronis had an edge, at least for now.

' _They've been hitting targets during the day for the most part, that's really unusual,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Unusual you say, I might have to say that's just a little bit desperate,'_ Harry thought and Dinah sighed.

' _Say what you want but….'_ Jaime thought once again and she stop and things were breaking down rather fast.

She was doing her role from afar, while he served as a distraction between the two gangs; she was disabling the more dangerous threats. There was no exaggeration that there were a fair amount of dangerous threats out there tonight. Especially given that a few of them packed automatic shotguns and light machine guns.

' _Third incident tonight, and the night isn't over,'_ Harry thought once again, swooping down to grab their attention. Now that it was, he drops a pair of flash bangs on the ground.

They stumbled around, trying to get their prize, and that was when Jaime swooped in. She moved so quickly, that she disabled several of the men in the shadows, leaving them with a couple of broken limbs in the process, but that left them unable to fire a gun for some time.

' _Don't forget to destroy them, and see if they have any more in the car, I don't want these going back on the street,'_ Harry told her and Jaime nodded.

' _On it,'_ Jaime replied once again, knowing that tonight was going to be a long night.

"Nightwing, are you there?" Oracle asked.

"Yes, I'm here," Nightwing said once again, managing to step on the wrist of one of the goons to stop him from grabbing a gun and kicking it away so Jaime can destroy it.

"Batman sighted the Cat Burglar….she broke into one of the high rise apartments once again…he needed to take care of something else, he suggested to me that I should tell you about it, and you can figure out what you need to do from there," Oracle said and there was a sense from her voice that she was being more patient than most would be with Batman's demands.

Jaime and Harry locked eyes with each other.

' _I'll take care of the mop up,'_ Jaime thought once again. _'You go after her, see if you can capture her, before she slips away again.'_

' _Right, good luck, Talon,'_ Harry said, calling her the codename that she had given herself, because it would be kind of confusing to have two Nightwings.

Even though that was kind of the idea to confuse the criminals with the two Nightwings but never mind, Harry had a cat to corner.

* * *

 

The Cat Bugler sauntered her way forward, dressed in a skin tight black cat suit. She was wearing a whip around her waist in such a way that it resembled a cat's tail, which she used for easy access. There was a cute cat backpack that contained this evening's haul.

And what a haul it was, she managed to snag some precious gems from a jeweler who was buying them from the mob, altering them, and putting them back on the market.

It wasn't the most damning thing in the world, but if it hurts him, then it hurts the mob. And if it hurts the mob, then it hurts Mario Falcone and that's what she wanted to do more than anything, she wanted to hurt Mario Falcone and make him pay for what he did.

She ensnared the whip onto a railing on the edge of the rooftop and swung across with agility, progressing to what may be her next target. She had one more stop before she called it an evening and she wanted to wrap this up before the sun went up.

The sound of gunshots in the distance really didn't faze her because she lived in Gotham City. She cleared another huge jump certain amount of acrobatic flair.

She landed on the other side, making it, crouched down on her hands and knees, and then slowly she pushed herself up.

Selina paused once again, her mouth opened, and she came face to face with Nightwing, who looked at her.

"So, are you going my way, handsome?" she asked, moving her way towards him and looking into his eyes. Slowly she lifted one of her hands, and she placed it on the dragon outfit of the front part of her suit, subtly tracing the material and his chest muscles underneath.

"Just trying to figure out why you're doing what you're doing," Nightwing said rather casually and she stopped smiling.

"Well, we all have our reasons for doing things and some of them are quite frankly mysterious…but…that's the rush of the thing, the unknown, you wouldn't want me to tell you that easily, now would you?" she asked him with a smile on her face, looking over at him.

"You do realize that you're dancing underneath the nose of some really dangerous people who could get hurt," Nightwing told her once again.

"Oh, I realize that….and I like it," she said once again. "You know what's been going on, I know you have, big boy. All of the danger in this city, and all of the times that I've been caught in the crossfire. I mean, there must be a big riot every other month here, after some nutcase religious freak stirs up the homeless. And then there's that freak with the calendar fetish, striking every single holiday, and…well all sorts of mayhem and mischief all through the city."

She threw her head back and added.

"It's enough to get a girl killed out there," she commented. "But there's always someone getting into trouble."

"You seem to be causing enough of it," Harry told her, causing her to step back and he grabbed her, placing his hands on the small of her back.

"Meow, we're feeling pretty frisky tonight, aren't we, let's see how much you can…push it," she whispered sensually, grinding against him a little bit.

"Seriously, why are you doing this?" Harry asked once again and she slid around him.

"You know….I would say that it isn't personal, but it kind of is, so….why bother lying?" she asked with a smile, slowly writhing up and down about his body.

Things fixed to grow rather heated extremely quick if she kept this up and she intended to keep it up.

' _She's purposely winding you up, playing with your head, you know,'_ Karen thought with a smile but Harry grinned.

' _I think that he knows,'_ Diana said, curious to see where this one was going to go.

"So, are you going to play games, or am I going to coax the information out of you?" Harry asked, pushing back against her once again, his hand now resting on the small of her back.

She shivered once again, his hand shifting ever so slightly, causing her skin to boil and her mind to grow completely numb.

"Well, I guess that it's my play, isn't it?" Selina asked and she leaned forward, kissing him passionately.

The kiss was very breath takin, and what happened next also took Harry's breath away, because she broke the kiss and shoved him off of the roof.

' _Well out of all the things that I saw coming, I didn't see that one coming,'_ Donna thought shaking her head.

Nightwing recovered in seconds, with the lighting quick reflexes that he prided himself for. He shot the grapnel gun up, latching onto the roof. When it was locked on, he pulled himself up on the roof.

Naturally, she was gone by then, which Harry figured as much, but he had to be completely for sure once again.

"Are you alright?" Oracle asked. "I can't believe that she got the drop on you like that."

"Not necessarily the drop, but she is playing a game of cat and mouse…."

' _But she'll find that the dragon is more precious in corning its pray than any cat,'_ Faora said, wondering precisely what Selina's game was.

Things were getting extremely interesting and she wasn't entirely certain that they were getting interesting in a good way. The night wasn't over yet and they would find out.

' _So now what?'_ Kara asked and Harry smiled.

' _Going after her, of course,'_ Harry replied and Kara got suddenly giddy, perhaps a bit too giddy for her own good.

' _Oh, are you going to go play with the pussy?'_ she asked and Harry smiled, with there was some groans.

' _I can't believe you went there,'_ Donna thought once again.

' _Are you just jealous that you didn't get there first?'_ Amanda asked in glee.

The younger girls then had a spirited discussion some trying to deny that they wouldn't go for the obvious cat related pun. Kara was smug that she beat them all by going directly for the throat.

Meanwhile, Harry had a cat to catch, and he wasn't going to let her get away, not yet, not by a longshot.

* * *

 

A young blonde woman made her way into a fairly nondescript apartment in one of the nicer, at least for Gotham City, middle class neighborhoods. Her name was Detective Laureen Wilcox, she was a newcomer on the force, brought in to fill a spot in the MCU.

She stepped forward, dropping her purse down onto the table with a lengthy sigh. She checked the phone for any messages that she might have.

There was nothing of any value, so she dialed a number on the phone. She waited for the person on the other end of the line to answer.

Before the person could answer, Wilcox heard a knock on the door. She was startled and wondering who could have come calling with her. She placed the phone down on the table.

A gruff sounding "Hello" went unanswered, when the newcomer detective made her way across the room with quick strides.

Wilcox looked her way through the peephole to see who came calling once again and she relaxed a little bit. It was a surprise of who was on the other side, but at the same time, she knew the person, and trusted them more importantly.

"Just a minute, I'll let you in," she said in recognition, opening the door. She looked at the person in question, greeting them with a relaxed manner. "What do you…."

She didn't have time to react; she really didn't have time to ask what her guest was doing.

For the next thing she knew, a bullet shot straight through her chest and then in her head for good measure with a 9mm silenced pistol. Wilcox didn't even have a chance, she was doomed from the moment she decided to open that door.

The look of surprise on Wilcox's face was obvious when she fell to the ground, blood splattering to the ground. The cop was dead in impact, there was no chance of survival.

The person slowly stepped forward towards her, a glove hand outstretched. The person leaned down, and pinned an article down onto her chest, with the blood staining the carpet.

The young detective died instantly and the murderer took quick strides out of the apartment, the phone still off the hanger once again.

The door shut behind the person who had committed the crime. It would be only hours later before Laureen Wilcox was found, a victim of justice of the harshest and most permanent kind.

The type of justice that people didn't have the stomach to do so, and the person behind this made a clean getaway from the apartment.

A huge wind kicked up in Gotham City, but that was nothing compared to the storm that was brewing. One by one, they would all pay for their corruption.

* * *

 

Nightwing wasn't going to let her slip away from him. He didn't give up that easily, especially after what she did to him so far tonight. She would get her receipt.

She nearly let him catch her a couple of times, but managed to slip away at the last moment.

' _Great, just what I wanted to play, Selina, tag, really want to know why you're doing this,'_ Harry thought, he had a hunch that something was going on.

He heard of the botched fire bombing at the club, it did hit the newspaper, even if it was buried under other things. That might have been part of the motivation but Harry sensed something deeper was at hand.

Harry didn't want to dig a little deeper but something happened to her. Something that caused her to freak out and prowl the night dressed in a skin tight cat suit.

Selina once again slipped forward once again. She was in good shape but people who were in the best shape needed to stop and catch their breath from time to time.

"Well, this is just great….time to stop playing…"

"Games," Nightwing said and he swopped down onto her. With grace and precision, Selina flipped onto her feet, sticking the landing permanently.

She cracked her whip once again but Nightwing dodged out of the way and he pulled it forward. He entangled her in her own whip.

Selina managed to wiggle out once again.

"So do you know how to use that on me?" Selina asked and she fired a kick towards him, but Nightwing dodged underneath it with swift precision.

His blows were at quick precision but her reflexes were pretty skilled as well. Swing, block, punch, and a few kicks were thrown in there as well.

Selina could tell that she was gaining some ground. Letting up on him was not an option. Some of her blows connected. Others missed by a fair amount when he dodged them.

' _Time to finish this,'_ she thought, swiping her claws at him, but Nightwing caught it.

He caught the other hand and trapped her arms in front of her. Selina could feel her heartbeat quicken when he pulled her in, pressing her up against him.

"Okay, this didn't really go as I planned," Selina whispered softly. She looked up at him through fluttering eyelashes.

"You know, you never did get around to answering my question," Nightwing said once again and he made sure to keep her in place.

"Oh, I guess you caught me, and I thought that I could cut and run, but I guess…..I guess I do owe you some answers," Selina said, biting down on her lip looking like a scared little girl had had her hand caught in the cookie jar. "You know, maybe you should punish me, I've been a bad little girl you know."

She closed her eyes once again and Nightwing stared back at her with absolute intensity. He wasn't taking the bait this time and this would require a bit more creative maneuvering. Which was fine, Selina knew all about getting herself out of a sticky situation.

Mostly by causing an even stickier situation, she reminded herself.

Selina grinded her crotch slowly, up and down, pressing against his groin once again. He returned fire a little bit. Nightwing made sure that she knew that there was always a chance that she was going to bite off a bit more than she could chew.

Nightwing wondered what her next play was going to be and one of her hands somehow got loose, her chest rising and falling against the tight hot suit. The dark haired woman placed her hand through her hair. She very gently started to run her hand through his hair, causing sparks to fly between the two of them.

She then pulled him right into a deep and breathless kiss, slowly working her zipper down with her over hand.

' _Really, again?'_ Kara asked once again, but she could see Harry return the kiss with equal heat once again.

Selina could feel her tongue brush against his and she could feel his tongue brush against her once again.

Taking the move while she had a chance and before she succumbed to him, she slowly managed to grab onto his tongue, biting it as hard as possible.

That backed him off half of the step and she sprung up, attempting a spinning back kick straight at his head, but he blocked it with a forearm.

Selina once again bit off slightly more than she could chew in this situation, and he took her down to the ground and suddenly he was on top of her in a blink of an eye.

"So, are you going to try something again, or do I have to prove my point?" he asked her once again and he was on top of her, with Selina slowly writhing beneath him. "You think that you can avoid my questions, but I guess that I won't get any answers out of you."

"Now you're….catching onto the game," she said, feeling heat pulse through her body as he pinned her back onto the ground and the heat continued to pulse through her body.

She was rather hot and bothered right now.

' _That's interesting, she's kind of submissive,'_ Faora thought. The more you knew, the less you understood.

' _She doesn't seem like the type though,'_ Karen thought but Faora smiled.

' _Guess that Har-Zod makes them the type,'_ Faora thought in amusement.

"So since you don't want to talk about why you're doing this, then perhaps we should talk about something else?" Nightwing asked and Selina slowly writhed underneath him, causing the friction in response.

Her crotch grinded against his and her cleavage flashed underneath his eyes.

"Oh, yeah, like what?" Selina purred once again and she rubbed against him, mewling beneath his body. His gaze went down towards her expansive cleavage. She wiggled her zipper down towards her belly button, in an attempt to act as a distraction.

He noticed but he was around so much female flesh that it wouldn't have the exact same effect as it would on a normal person.

That being said, he would be very blinded to not be affected by it. Especially by how hard that she grinded herself up and down his body.

"Really interesting outfit, can't help but wonder if you put it together yourself?" Nigthwing asked her firmly.

Selina smiled, slowly trailing her tongue down his lips, nodding her head once again. Her eyes burned with passion and her breasts rose and fell when she breathed.

She managed to catch him off guard, wrapping her legs around him, and rolling him over onto the rooftop once again.

She was pinning him down again by the wrists with a smile and could feel that things were going to pick up from where they left off earlier.

Suddenly over her shoulder, she saw that the sun was rising soon and she really needed to get out of there.

Leaning down, Selina pressed her lips down onto his, slowly letting his wrists down. She slowly kissed him, her tongue pressing deep into his mouth. he returned the favor with an increased fury. Their tongues wrestled together, with Selina opening her mouth to allow his to molest her tonsils.

Just as they were both getting into it, Selina reminded that she had to run, and quickly, she broke away. His head bounced off of the rooftop when she slammed him into it.

Nightwing was down on the rooftop, dazed and a bit out of it. He felt like he had just had some really rough sex on the roof for as hard as she slammed him down.

' _Are you okay?'_ Faora asked.

' _After everything that I've been through, that was almost pleasant, and having a hot female on top of you when she slams your head into a roof…..yeah I might have gotten scrambled a little bit,'_ Harry thought once again.

The hunt was not completely over but it would have to wait for another night. The sun was coming up, it would have to cease tonight. He would have to return back home, take a shower, and head over to class for the day.

* * *

After his class, Harry whistled, when he stood in the hallway in an extremely exclusive looking apartment building. He raised his hand once again, and slowly knocked on the door. He awaited for the person to answer it to answer it.

The door pushed open and a slender hand reached forward, leading him into an apartment with a deep and passionate kiss, almost like she was waiting for this for an extremely long time once again. The kiss deepened more fiercely, with Harry running his hands over her soft and eloquent body, when she was pushing him back towards an open door that lead completely to the bedroom.

The woman slowly stripped off her clothes. This action allowed Harry to see more and more of her skin as she slowly and seductively removed her clothes. He saw more of the amazing flesh once again, and Harry got a good look at her.

Her smooth creamy skin and flaming red hair was in great prominence, and she was wearing white lingerie that was fairly lacy, complete with stockings and a garter belt.

Before Harry had a chance to really react, he found himself pushed back onto the bed, with the woman in question pushing him back onto the bed, and wrapping her arms around him tightly . The weight of the female kissing him straddled his lap and slowly ran her hands down him, before she kissed him feverishly once again. She tried to push her tongue down his throat and Harry returned the favor eagerly.

He rested his hands on her legs once again, and she managed to slowly remove his shirt, exposing his muscled chest and ran her hands down it, with a lustful purr.

Harry caught a nice look at Veronica Vreeland, dressing in white lingerie that her nipples were poking through. To be honest, he wasn't really shocked that it was her. She did manage to catch him with a daring and quite welcomed attack.

It could have been Bunny and Harry was expecting that to happen any time soon, given that she was rather precocious. She also spent a lot of time with Amanda, which was always a cause for concern.

That being said, Veronica stripped his pants off and it was obvious what she wanted and Harry was willing to give her that.

Veronica took things the next level, freeing Harry's massive tool from his shorts. The heiress kissed all the way down his abs and chest, leaving salvia down them. She stroked his manhood to make sure it was completely hard and ready for her.

She could feel his hands roam freely on her breasts and she closed her eyes to feel this moment. Veronica's pussy ached, with only one thing that could fill it right now. She slid over his chest, leaving her dripping arousal down onto his chest, and Harry grabbed her around the hips. He set her up, ready for the kill.

The redhead could feel the pleasure and he pushed into her body.

"Not wasting any time, are you?" Harry asked and she shook her head, biting down on her lip when she worked him over.

She was not wasting any time, especially not when it was something that she wanted this much. A tingle of pleasure flowed down her spine, but that because his fingers were roaming slowly down her body. It drove Veronica completely wild about how he kept her guessing. How he never was predictable with how hard he fucked her.

"Oh, yes, you know how to drive me wild," Veronica purred, working her tight hips around him once more.

Harry grabbed her ass, with her slick walls wrapping around him, when she bounced up and down on him, working him over.

She rested herself down onto him, making sure to get as much into him as she could. She bit down on her lip, riding him cowgirl style and bouncing higher yet.

Needless to say, her breasts swaying before Harry's eyes gave him the needed invitation. His cock continued to throb into her tight center. Harry reached up, grabbing her, playing with her breasts. An inviting moan escaped through her throat when she continued to ride away on him, her slickness engulfing Harry when she worked herself up and down onto his body. A spike of pleasure filled her body. She forced her hips down onto it, feeling his hard cock stretch her sopping center.

"You enjoy all of this, but I think that we can make this a lot better," Harry whispered in her ear and he nipped her breasts, causing her to squeal.

He reached around, dragging his fingers down her spine once again. She purred lustfully with her tightness clamping around him once again with her walls pulling around him.

"Yes, much better, excellent in fact," she purred once again and bent down to capture his lips with a kiss. Playfully, the redhead heiress chewed on his lip.

She experienced and amazing orgasm. Harry was not done with her yet by a long shot. He pushed her down onto the bed once again. Her breasts danced for him, her pink nipples beckoning for him and Harry took one into his mouth to suck on it hard.

His tongue worked her slowly and Veronica closed her eyes once again, her hips grinding up against him once again.

"That's it, that's it, more, I want more, I can't stand this," Veronica whispered, digging her well-manicured nails into Harry's shoulder when he speared into her.

"Oh, you're getting more, you're getting everything that you want and everything that you'll ever need," Harry said, and she lifted her hips up, making sure that all of him was in her.

Every last inch of his engorged pole stretched her body out and Veronica panted once again, with his extremely able tongue working her body, and causing her pleasure to be more heightened the deeper that he buried himself into her.

Veronica lifted her hips a little bit more and felt him go into her with a few more swift strokes once again.

"Yes, oh yes," Veronica whispered, running her fingers down his neck and she could feel him slow down, allowing her to savor the orgasm again.

Her pussy clamped down onto him and Harry decided to treat her once again. The redhead purred when he continued to slam his throbbing cock into her eager and willing center. The heiress closed her eyes and continued to feel the pulsing rush that rose between her legs.

Veronica could not believe this, in fact she was getting close to losing her mind yet again. Her hand reached up, encouraging Harry to work into her once again.

"Take me, take me, make me your bitch," she begged him and Harry smiled at her.

"Well, bitches do it on all fours, so perhaps we should correct that," Harry said and he could feel her tight pussy get even tighter because it clenched him at the thought of this.

The wizard rolled her over, spreading her superhot thighs once again. Harry could sense her having a miniature orgasm when he played with her nipples.

So close, and Harry sunk himself into her eager body. Her willing core engulfed his manhood once again.

Harry slid into the silken walls, which caressed his manhood. His hands traveled all over her body, with the redhead giving him moans of encouragement. Moans that got even more vocal each second he hammered her tight pussy.

"Go ahead, pull my hair, really ram it into me, harder," Veronica begged him and not wanting to leave a lady to beg, Harry grabbed her hair and slammed into her from behind hard.

His manhood pushed into her from behind as he drilled her extremely hard.

"How about this?" Harry asked and she screamed out, her orgasm shaking her body all over, so Harry figured that he was doing something right once again.

Another massive orgasm struck her and Harry could feel her trying to milk his dick with each thrust.

"Not slowing down are you," Harry whispered, and he caressed her breasts, squeezing her nipples and she shook her head in response.

"No….no….no," Veronica whispered once again and Harry pulled out of her once again.

He picked her up, and propped her up on a little dresser that was on the side of the bed. Veronica's legs spread, in anticipation with what was come.

She thought that her back would be sore, but she figured that the soreness, satisfaction, and stickiness between her legs, that would make things more than worth it.

He speared her, hard.

"Take me, oh I want it all, please, fuck me, fuck me hard," Veronica whispered and his mouth pleasure her all over again.

Her pussy gushed with cum and he continued to ram his massive tool into her, bringing her further and further to the edge. Actually she might have been beyond the edge by now, Harry may have drilled her over the edge.

The redhead bucked her hips upwards, taking more of his tool in between her smoldering thighs and continued to pump him downwards. Her tongue licked around her mouth and she let out a shuddering breath, along with a scream.

"We're getting closer, aren't we?" Harry asked her and Veronica could not even keep her head up. She barely was keeping with it right now and Harry furiously pummeled her cunt again and again.

She wanted it rough and she got it, with his balls full of their load. Not to be outdone, Veronica dug her nails firmly into her lover's back, leaving scratch marks.

She stretched back until her legs were nearly touching her shoulders and Harry got the leverage to pound her unmercifully against the dresser.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god," she moaned, each smaller explosion was leading her up to the big one and her sweaty sexy body was being slowly teased.

His thrusts slowed and Veronica felt a feeling of emptiness course through her once again, as he slowed down once again.

Her mind only slightly rebooted before he picked back up. Her love picked back up in the worst way. Harry lifted up one of her legs and slowly trailed kisses down it as he fucked her unmercifully.

She shuddered once again and Veronica loved this, she loved every moment of it, and every inch of it.

That being said, she wanted his cum and would not rest until she got it. Her lover continued to work her over and she begged him.

"Please, please, I want….I want….."

"You know what you want, don't you?" Harry asked, leaning down to motor board her breasts, which caused her to squeal in absolutely pleasure.

"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!" she yelled drawing that world out and her voice might have carried on for miles, but she didn't care once again.

They ended back up on the bed, how her brain didn't really process, and Veronica was on her hands and knees once again. He slapped her on the ass with each thrust.

"Yes, mark me, make me your bitch, oh I need you to cum, why won't you cum?" she asked him, begging him, her hot walls caressing his large manhood when he pumped himself into her.

Harry felt her walls sticking to him, her silken center working him up to a peak, and he knew that no matter what, no matter his stamina, his orgasm was about here.

"Here it comes."

His sticky seed fired into her, spraying into her like a garden hose. Veronica would have to agree that it was more than worth the wait.

She must have had several orgasms before he came and most certainly a few after. She was on the bed, bent over, when he emptied his balls into her, completing his load.

* * *

 

Needless to say the fact that they got nice and extremely sweaty after that meeting, which meant it was extremely productive. Harry was due for a shower. He exited a rather lavish looking bathroom, that indicated that a female was here. He wore nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist.

He was greeted to another amazing sight, and he could see Veronica on a stood wearing an extremely short, and short by the standards of short because it was barely covering her ass, white silk robe that stretched down past her legs and she was in the midst of applying make up.

"I think that was the appetizer for tonight, wouldn't you agree?" she asked him with a smile, looking over her shoulder when she applied the make up once again.

"Yes, but you never did tell me where we were going and what we were doing tonight, all you said it was a big surprise, and to be here when I was," Harry said once again. The sex was spontaneous but never the less a huge part of Harry's life. He was not really concerned all that much by that. "And we're having dinner, but you never said with who."

"I told you, it's a surprise," she said with a smile, still being a bit coy about it but mostly because she was working up the nerve to tell him what her plans were.

Harry's hands were placed on her shoulders and slowly he ran his hands down them. The redhead socialite gave a shiver but managed to keep her cool none the less. She had to keep her hands occupied and reached for an ornate looking hair brush and handed it over to him.

Smiling, Harry knew how to comb a woman's hair, due to the fact that he lived around so many of them.

"So, what's up anyway?" Harry asked, making sure that her hair was combed nicely and perfectly. A woman of this level of breeding and sophistication would have nothing less than that.

"Hmmm," she said once again and she evaded the question with all of the tact of a well-practiced politician.

"Veronica," Harry told her firmly and that caused her to pout.

She stopped pouting and shook her head. "So, I guess that I better come clean shouldn't I?"

"Yes, what is this dinner all about?" Harry asked.

"Oh it's not that much, I just that I figured that we would meet up with a few people," Veronica said once again, rather evasively. "You know, Kathy Kane, her mother Jacob, and then Bruce maybe if he decides to show up this time, and….my father and his army friends."

She spurted out that last bit rather quickly and under her breath. Harry thought that he heard what she said but at the same time. He wasn't completely sure what she said, so he grabbed onto her hair and tugged it gently but firmly, which snapped her right back to reality.

"Could you please repeat that?"

"Well you know, Kathy, and…"

Another tug of her hair caused the pouting to return and Harry leaned up to her ear. "I know that part, the other part that you speed mumbled."

Harry could see her, and she pushed him onto the bed, where she was now curled up onto his lap.

"Daddy and his army friends," she said with a rather prominent sigh. "And…..well he heard about you and all of the rumors, you know how rumors float about. Eventually they're going to get back to the people that you don't want them to get back to, even though they're not really true but at the same time, it's annoying, very annoying once again, and the true stuff is worse and well you know how…."

Veronica sighed and realized that she was rambling.

"He saw the news and he wants to come and do the overprotective father thing," Veronica said and Harry raised his eyebrow.

"How overprotective?" Harry asked and she whistled.

"By overprotective, I mean overprotective," Veronica said with a smile. "Thought that I'd might soften the blow just a little bit."

' _Well that explains the ambush sex,'_ Harry thought in bemusement once again.

"Well, I guess it's just something that I'll have to deal with," Harry said with a sigh. It wasn't exactly an ordinary reaction but he isn't exactly an ordinary guy.

"Oh great, I'll do anything to make it up to you, for whatever Daddy puts you through, anything, anything," Veronica said in an overly excited tone of voice.

"You do realize that anything could mean a lot of things, don't you?" Harry asked her and Veronica hitched in her breath and she slowly and surely nodded.

"I know it can," Veronica added once again, and she wondered exactly what Harry had in mind for this.

"I'm going to have to mull that one over," he said and she figured as much.

* * *

 

Ben Turner hadn't been seen in a long time, but he had to be somewhere, and he was standing in the middle of a dimly lit arena. It resembled something out of a fight club movie. The fighter stood precisely in the center, breathing heavily, glistening with sweat.

He looked pretty rough for the exact reason as he was doing here. It was something that he was doing for ages that put him in this state.

An older looking man stood to the side in the shadows and snapped in a rough Asian accent. "Again!"

Several ninjas rushed from the shadows to attack Turner, and a brutal fight was about ready to take place. The ninjas had the sheer numbers over him. On the other hand, Turner had the skill, expertly weeving around their attacks.

The odds didn't matter when one could manipulate those odds against their attacks and that's what the man did, ducking and weaving around, bouncing up and coming down on the back of the head of his enemy. He blocked a wooden staff with his hand, and swung around, kicking him in the ribs.

His abilities were swift and he had picked up a few new tricks since he had disappeared, new fighting styles that he had a chance to perfect over the coming months.

The last warrior had no chance, he was rammed in the back hard and slumped to the ground. A loud crack echoed when he landed on the ground.

The man in the shadows nodded and turned to face what appeared to be a woman but she was obscured by the shadows.

She considered things and waited for the man to speak.

"He's ready," he said.

The woman in the shadows smiled but her smile grew rather dark when she spoke crisply. "I can see that."

Seeing was always believing and she stepped out of the shadows. It was the one and only Lady Shiva, who dressed herself in a rather revealing silk robe.

Shiva circled Turner, he stood, nearly crouching in the same position that he started, his hands in loose fists. He was shaking and she looked at him, but continued her pace walking around them.

"I'll do it," he said after a moment of deep contemplation.

**To Be Continued on October 23** **rd** **, 2014.**

* * *

 

**So, Catwoman is officially here and things are heating up. There's really nothing much more to say other than that.**


	63. Chapter 63

**Chapter Sixty-Three: The More Things Change Part Two.**

* * *

 

Salvatore "Sal" Maroni looked like the cat that had eaten the canary, for he was finally on his way out of Solitary Confinement. For his good behavior, the mob boss found himself perched in better accommodations. He sat in an extremely comfortable looking chair and wearing a very decent looking suit.

He wanted to know what was going down on the outside, because he had been hearing some rather absurd rumors. Some of them were almost absurd enough to be true, so he needed to hear them from the horse's mouth. And who better to fill him in was Luigi "Big Lou" Maroni and Tony Zucco. They were here to fill him in on what was going on.

"So, what's the story?" Salvatore asked both of them without preamable.

"We're regaining territory after the set back we had," Zucco said, trying to deflect the criticism off of him.

"Things are looking better," Big Lou said, looking at his son who nodded in a respectful manner. "We've got better equipment, and we've recovered nicely from the blunder that was made a couple of months ago."

"That's nice, but did we gain any territory?" Salvatore asked once again, crossing his arms together.

"We haven't been able to increase our territory," Big Lou said once again in a gruff voice. "But the good news is that none of our main competitors did so either."

"Well that's just as well," Salvatore said but then he paused. "Wait a minute…"

"GothCorp was the one that did, in a partnership with RAO," Zucco said, waiting anxiously for his boss's response to these words. He looked oddly chilled by the entire situation.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya, but that will lead to a lot better opportunities for us in the future," Salvatore said.

He knew that there were some screwiness going in with GothCorp. Then again, last he heard, Daggett got drummed out in pretty disgraceful fashion and now he got new management.

"Yeah, for the future," Big Lou said, pleasing to see that his son didn't have his head rammed completely up his ass. "And there's the alliance we have with Sionis….he's doing a good job in putting a lot of pressure on the Bird and Thorne."

Salvatore nodded, brushing his fingers through his hair once again and he was calm.

"You didn't mention about the Falcones though," Salvatore said and he could see his father's eye twitch, he knew the old man had a hair up his ass about Carmine Falcone.

Big Lou and the Roman went way back. Thanks to the Roman, Big Lou was banished from the country in the first place.

"We're pushing hard against them," Big Lou whispered rather harshly once again. "And we're taking new ground."

Salvatore smiled, he found himself in a fairly unique position. He's in the center of things, and there was a need for favors, so he could gain a lot of information that might not be easily available. There were people in Blackgate who heard things and he was able to coax the details out of them with a promise of a favor here and there.

"So, you're looking to take down the Falcones, I wouldn't worry about that, they're yesterday's news," Salvatore said and Zucco winced a little bit at that statement.

He had said about the same thing. It didn't go over

"Until the Roman is in the ground, burning to death, he's a pain in the ass, even if his brats aren't much of anything," Big Lou said to him and Sal smiled at him.

"Yeah, Mario's holding things together by the skin of his nuts, Alberto is useless, and Sofia is stuck in Italy," Salvatore commented briskly.

"But he'll be back, you know he'll be back, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but you know that you know that he'll be back," Lou said, his patience flaring up.

Zucco looked nervous, things could get a little hot here between father and son. Both had notorious tempers.

"I wouldn't rock the boat too much….."

"That's why you're in here where you are and I have to be out there to clean up the mess," Big Lou said with anger dancing through his eyes. "You know it was the Falcones that ran me out of the country in the first place and if it's the last thing that I do, I'll run them into the ground."

Salvatore didn't say anything. He valued his health above all else, so he wasn't about to say anything, even though he could see the fury burning through his father's eyes.

"I've got a score to settle, and you better fucking believe that I'm about to settle it," Big Lou said, the old man's temper getting even more fiery. "The rest of the Falcones need to be taken out….."

"Yeah, well, your issue is with the fucking Roman, and the fucking Roman….well guess what, he's a vegetable," Salvatore said, rising to his feet and getting his father's face. This action caused Zucco's comfort levels to spike down. "So you need to cool it off, before we screw it up. If we make this wrong move, someone else will swipe the territory that we worked so hard to gang and work so hard."

"Fine, but you're making a mistake if you think that the Roman should be counted out, even if he's a vegetable," Big Lou said and he could see Zucco get between them. He turned his attention to Zucco with a snarling sneer. "Sit the fuck down."

Zucco sat down like an obedient dog.

"Vitti's going to get her guys in from Chicago soon enough, and if Gazzo hadn't been preoccupied with Ugly all of this time, he would have sent some guys here," Salvatore said in a fury. "If Sofia ever gets back from Italy…the game is changing once again."

"We should make them a non-entity, before they…"

"Too many like the Bird are there, and he would chomp at the bit to jump in and take what we've worked so hard for," Salvatore said once again and he could see Zucco get up to his feet. "Get it through your thick head, the Falcones aren't going to do anything right now, they're just spinning their wheels. Thorne and the Penguin are far bigger concerns out there, but if we get in a piss fight with the Falcones, things will get worse. It will leave the door open for some shit to go down and you don't want that."

"Fine, see where you're coming from, but I really don't like it," Big Lou said looking at his son but there was a knock at the door that caused them all to become steady and still.

Zucco breathed a sigh of relief at this intrusion. That was way too fucking close.

"Visiting hours are over, Mr. Maroni," the man on the other end of the door said and Salvatore sat up suddenly, with a jovial tone, like he hadn't been pissed off seconds ago.

"Franklin, I told you to call me Sal!"

* * *

 

Harry made his way to the elevator, followed by a troupe of girls as usual. Veronica was in there first, along with Bette and Bunny. They were making their way up to the Penthouse apartment that Veronica shared with Bunny.

Bunny turned to her sister, with a smile on her face. "So, when are we going to move in with Harry?"

Veronica looked at her sister, with a bit of a smirk on her face and a sharp response to match. "Who says you're invited, you little brat?"

This caused her to break off in a huffy manner, crossing her arms together once again and she inclined her head in absolute frustration, shaking her head.

' _You know, I'm beginning to think that she spends too much time with Amanda,'_ Harry asked and Donna chimed in.

' _You're just beginning to think that?'_ Donna asked, resisting the urge to facepalm.

' _Should have really been obvious from the beginning,'_ Kara said, folding her arms together with a smile and Bette broke into a fit of giggles.

There was something else that was obvious from the situation, and that both her and Bunny likely snuck a glass of wine or two at dinner. Maybe more given the looks of the two of them because they looked pretty snockered.

That being said, the words that Bunny told her, Veronica placed her hand onto the palm of her chin and tilted her head back with a sigh suddenly. She turned towards Harry, considering the idea.

Harry responded with a careful shrug once again. "You know, you can move in tomorrow if you want to."

"Tomorrow, really?" Veronica asked and she waved her hand, ignoring the look of amusement on the face of her sister, along with Bette, who was about ready to break out in another amazing little giggle fit. She shook her head. "Um, yeah, thanks for the offer, maybe in a couple of months, but I'm not quite ready to live in a soronity house this soon."

Harry grinned but he wasn't denying it. The Penthouse really did have that vibe, especially given that half of the people in question had to come to school.

"So, how do you think dinner went?" Bette asked out of the blue, just as the elevator reached the top floor.

Harry thought about the dinner in question and offered his honest assessment of the situation. "I was offered to go golfing with them, so I think that it went pretty well."

' _Yeah, I didn't really see a potential assassination attempt in there, so I think that you're okay,'_ Amanda said and there was a reprimand coming her way, she was pretty sure.

"Well….I was really surprised that Sam Lane was there…"

"You shouldn't really be, Lane was my father's commanding officer," Veronica said once again and she really had a far off look in her face when she said this. "They knew each other for a long time….."

She paused once again and she knew that when she started, she couldn't really keep this from getting out of the bag.

"His wife was close friends with our mother," Veronica said, giving a look of significance to Bunny, who perked up in interesting. "They died around the same time, and well Sam changed after it."

"He was different after his wife died then," Harry said and Veronica responded with a swift nod in confirmation.

"He went from a family man to a workaholic yes," Veronica agreed and Harry looked thoughtful, turning to Bunny.

"So you knew Lois right before you attended GPA, then?" Harry asked her and Bunny shrugged her shoulders.

"Maybe, I met her, but I don't really remember if it I did," Bunny said, racking her brain. She thought that she would remember someone like Lois Lane for sure. Then again she was really young when she did it.

"They were both very young when it happened, in fact Lucy had just been born at the time," Veronica said and Harry nodded with a smile.

"Okay, fair enough," Harry said when they arrived at the door.

"So, you're not staying the night, are you?" Bunny asked, nearly tipping over and having to use Bette as support, which to the chagrin of the blonde in question. Veronica gave her a cross look at her rather forward question. The younger Vreeland sister placed her hands on her hips. "Oh come on, you're not going to get mad at me for asking the same thing that you were thinking about asking yourself.

"So, what are you….."

"Unfortunately no, I really have to run," Harry said with regret and Veronica sighed once again, but Harry wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into an extremely searing kiss.

The redhead returned the favor, kissing him deeply, rubbing up against him a little bit. The nice tight dress hugged her curves in an enticing manner.

She slid away from him and swayed her hips, trying to entice him to change his mind. That earned her a slap on the ass in response.

Bunny nudged Bette and both of the girls giggled. Seeing Harry's look, Bunny muttered something and then threw her arms around him, before pressing her lips to his and kissing him fiercely and hungrily, her tongue buried into his mouth.

She pulled herself back once again, with a triumphant grin on her face. Bette looked at her with a cross look on her face.

Bette, not to be outdone, decided to steal a swift kiss of her own, making sure to allow it to linger. Bunny prodded her into it but she didn't need too much prodding when it was all said and done.

The two of them ran off to Bunny's room, giggling, and Harry hung his head, shaking his head with a smile on his face.

"You know, they're most certainly spending too much time with Amanda," Harry said with a long sigh and the Potter female in question crossed her arms.

' _You say that, like it's a bad thing,'_ Amanda thought, biting down on her lip with a rather prominent pout.

' _We say it like it's a bad thing, because it really is a bad thing,'_ Emily thought, which earned her a rather cross look from her sister. She smiled and blew her a kiss in response.

Harry wasn't lying though, that he had business to attend to once again.

* * *

 

Harry made his way to the Cat's Cradle Club; it was late in the evening, either past closing time or around that way. That being said, after recent events, he was curious about a few things and maybe just maybe he could get a better perspective as Harry Potter than he did as Nightwing. Because after what happened, Harry wasn't sure.

' _For the record, you're just confirming to me what I already have figured out,'_ Harry told Faora and the dark haired female opened her mouth and closed it in a sudden surprise.

' _Dare I ask how you know, or are you going to leave me guessing?'_ Faora asked and Diana decided to give her two cents.

' _He's Harry, he has his ways,'_ Diana thought and really that told them pretty much all that needed to know.

' _She has been acting a bit strange, even when we're alone,'_ Faora thought, trying to regain her steam. _'Something has happened to her, I'm not sure what…..I might be able to figure that out if she's a part of the bond, but otherwise, I'm just guessing.'_

' _We don't know what happened to her, and you can't get her to open up,'_ Harry said, fishing for confirmation.

' _No, and it's weird, and she's seemed a lot more sensual and playful lately and…..well….'_ Faora thought as she fished through her mind for the best way to describe this. _'I guess one could describe her as positively catlike to be honest. We know a lot more than we did the other night but you know, still kind of curious….'_

' _You mean about how that she'd react to me after it all,'_ Harry thought and Faora nodded.

' _Exactly,'_ she responded in a delicate voice. _'There was an attraction there but she always held back around you.'_

Harry made his way through the club; it still hadn't closed up just yet. He was intrigued and his footsteps quickened, with the music going on with a steady beat.

Harry could see the door of the office and he was caught off guard with an extremely alluring sight. He was greeted being Selina leaning forward over the desk, shaking her ass back and forth, seemingly in time with the music that was playing over the speaker systems. She was looking over the pictures of various girls who applied recently.

Moving a bit closer into the office, Harry noticed Holly sitting on the desk, and she noticed him once again. "Harry!"

She positively beamed at the sight of him and then faster than a blink of an eye, Holly grabbed Harry and pulled him into the office by the hand.

"So, how are you doing?" she asked him and Harry looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"You know, I should be asking you the same question, but you look to be on the mend nicely," Harry said and Holly nodded in eagerness. "So what happened?"

"Well…..someone was trying to start some shit, and I wasn't really going for it," Holly said rather bluntly. It was a bare outline of what happened without saying what happened. "So…..they decided that they didn't like what they heard and tried to send a message."

"And that message left you in the hospital….."

"Only for a couple of days," Holly said with a shrug. "I think that if anything else, it was a wakeup call that I can't be so secure around here…..but hey it's Gotham City, so I should have known that all ready."

"Well even the best of us forget," Harry said, obviously referring to his "Motorcycle accident" a few months back. He wished he was in a motorcycle accident after what happened to him.

"Right, did you ever get the douchebag that side swiped you?" Holly asked and Harry leaned towards her.

"Looks like he might have been an out of towner, and he got away with it," Harry informed her and Holly snapped her fingers.

"That sucks then, but…"

"Do they have any leads on who attacked you?" Harry asked, he had actually been digging around on the side, with a little help from Oracle.

What really triggered his interest was the type of people that she had been targeting.

Yes, Catwoman, the name the press had dubbed her, well it was accurate, if not really original. Then again, he could see Selina the type of person just going for it.

"No, not really," Holly evasively, a bit nervous at this line of questioning.

Selina, who had been watching this interplay with slight interest, cleared her throat and the young girl spun around, nearly tripping over her feet.

"Shouldn't you be watching the floor right about now?" Selina asked her and Holly, with a slight eep, moved her way off, to do just that, but not before giving Harry a slight kiss on the cheek.

They waited until she was gone before Selina commented in amusement.

"She normally has the tough girl thing going on you know, but I guess she drops that when you're around," Selina said in amusement and she turned towards Harry, parking herself on the desk. The skirt that she wore showed off her beautiful legs. "So, what exactly are you doing here?"

She got up to her feet and stepped forwards Harry once again and looked at him, green eyes meeting green eyes, even if they were different shades, unique to themselves.

"I was in the neighborhood, so I thought that I'd stop by," Harry told her and Selina looked at him, biting down on her lip.

"Hmmm," Selina said but she stepped closer towards him, closing the distance between the two of them and in an intimate way as well.

She pressed herself against him and Harry reached around her back, ensnaring his arm onto her back. She responded with a seductive smile, her eyes looking at him with burning lust. She reached her hand and seductively ran her finger nail down his cheek and kept moving her way down there, until she stopped at his abdomen.

"It's good to see you regardless," Selina said, with a grin of mischief popping over her face and she trailed her tongue down around the edge of her lips, causing them to be moistened.

Harry could not help but grin at that statement. "It's good to see you as well."

"Hmmm, thought it might be," Selina said, making sure to drape her legs over his thighs when he was backed off onto her desk. She started to kiss him heatedly.

The kiss continued, with Harry's hands roaming over Selina's body, but she returned the favor, feeling up his body and grinding up against him once more.

Things were about ready to kick into high gear between the two of them, with Harry placing his hand on her thigh as she bit his lip.

Selina wasn't one to hold back when she wanted something. She shoved Harry back against the chair once again and straddled him, kissing him completely madly. Her tongue worked its way into his mouth once again and she grinded on top of him, trying to tease him.

"Oh, I think that it needs some air, let me see if I can help it out a little bit," Selina said and she ripped his pants off. She paused, and smiled. "Send me the bill."

Selina pulled his underwear off, nearly tearing through it with her fingers and she caught a sight of his throbbing manhood up clothes.

"Just sit back honey, and I'll make sure that you get everything that you deserve," Selina said before she brought her mouth around his tool, slurping him once again.

"Oh god," Harry grunted, her hot mouth bobbing up and down onto his tool.

It was almost unbearable to say the very least, but he managed to stave off any orgasm that he might have once again.

Her fingernails dug right into her hips when she speared her mouth down onto him. His manhood sank into the back of her throat, his balls hitting her chin when she deep throated him. The dark haired vixen was determined to coax his cum out of him.

Harry grunted once again, her nose brushing up against him when she took him deep into her throat once again and slurped on him, her saliva bathing his manhood when she brought him completely down her throat once again.

Selina waited for her prize to come. She wasn't disappointed when it did. His cum fired down her throat with a rocketed fury once again.

"Delicious," she said, some of it got on her hand and she put it up to her face, slowly and sensually licking it up like a cat.

Selina decided to unzip her skirt once again, making sure Harry's eyes were on her completely. She smiled, sitting on the desk and showing her flexibility for him once again, bending completely backward, and pulling her shirt off. She wasn't wearing anything underneath it and her tantalizing breasts bounced off, with dark nipples that begged for attention.

The dark haired vixen ran her finger down her dripping slit and then slowly rubbed her juices all over her body.

That was the invitation that Harry needed once again, his cock was completely at full mast.

"You like being a tease, don't you?" Harry asked and Selina smiled.

"Yes, I like being a tease, now fuck me, fuck me like a whore, that's it," Selina moaned as she forced herself down onto him.

His hard cock slid in perfectly between her legs once again and the dark haired vixen could feel his manhood spike into her.

It was long and thick and she wrapped her legs around him. Her hips pushed up and she grinded against him, matching his movements once again.

Her legs slunk around his waist, locking him into place once again. Selina ran her fingers down his back, scratching him just a little bit more.

Harry captured her nipple into her mouth, biting down on it.

"Yes, treat them rough, molest my fucking tits, they're yours to play with, do whatever you fucking want with them!" Selina screamed at the top of her lungs.

"I'm going to punish you, and you're going to deserve it for being a naughty girl," Harry said, allowing her to stretch back a little bit and she pulled out of him.

She got down on her hands and knees, prepping herself for him.

"Mmm, I think you should punish me and punish me hard," Selina whispered, her dark hair framing her face in an extremely seductive manner and she peered over her shoulder at him. "Fucking punish me, like the bitch that I am, nail me in the ass."

"In due time," Harry whispered, groping her breasts and he slid into her from behind, slamming into her over the desk.

She closed her eyes once again, with his fingers running all over her back and her spine once again. She shivered when he rammed into her hard, stretching her out.

Selina could not believe it but she kept up with him. Most women could have been reduced to jelly at this point.

"Most would be begging for me to slow down, you know that don't you?" Harry asked and Selina nodded, biting down on her lip, to the point where she tasted her own blood.

"I'm not most women, HARDER!" Selina screamed loudly and Harry pounded her pussy rather nicely, it gripped him tightly like a vice grip.

"Oh you're really not most women, are you, I know that you're not, I know that, god you're so tight."

Selina could feel his hands on the back of her neck once again and she had another shuddering orgasm. The woman clenched him in response, tugging on his manhood.

She released Harry, allowing him to slide out, and then she pounced him once again, causing the rollers on the chair to send it careening back into the wall.

Selina impaled herself once again on Harry's cock, testing the structural integrity of the office chair.

He took her breasts in his hand and squeezed them together, which caused her to come hard, when he started to play with her nipples. Her heated pleasure got even more heated when she brought herself down onto his tool and continued to ride him, bouncing higher, up and down, to the point where she was nearly screaming out in pleasure.

"Yeah, that's good…..oh that's so fucking good, harder Harry, really, harder, oh harder, oh fuck," Selina panted, grinding herself down onto him hard. Her tightness closed around him when she started to bounce once again.

She dug her nails into the back of Harry's shoulder.

"God damn it, don't you ever cum," Selina said, working herself onto his throbbing tool.

"When you earn it," Harry whispered, nipping her ear, running his hands all over her seat covered body. She wasn't slowing down, she rode him faster yet. Hell he wasn't even sure that if the chair busted underneath them, she would slow down, that was just the type of vixen that she was to keep going on.

"Guess I'm going to have to step up my game, then," Selina whispered once again and she continued to deeply kiss him, nearly tipping the chair back.

Her bouncing caused the chair to tip back and then to rest on the wheels once again, and suddenly, they rolled back onto the desk.

The chair tipped over, but Harry managed to steady himself, and pull himself onto the desk, all while not breaking his stride.

Selina blinked in shock and she nodded, the smile spreading across her face. "Well, we're a man of many talents, aren't we?"

Harry didn't say anything, other than groping her breasts. In response she clenched him with her thighs, bringing herself all the way off of his thighs, and then she rocked her full body weight down onto him.

Harry groaned when he was attached to this nice velvet vice that was rubbing his manhood and the lustful purr that filled her body was obvious. He reached around to grope her ass.

"I think we'll go there pretty soon, in fact, let me switch sides," Selina said once again and she turned around towards him. "I never done this before…but you know a lot of the men that I've ran with, I would never turn my back on them.

"Don't worry, just relax, I'll take care of you," Harry whispered, grabbing Selina firmly around the waist and her ass slid over his crotch.

Selina could feel a moment of pain but no pain, no gain. She was sitting, using his cock as a seat, facing the wall, her legs completely stretched out and she grinded onto him.

"Let's see if we can fit all of that in there," she said and she screamed in pleasure once again, with his hands reaching up to cup her breasts as she rode his cock nice and hard once again.

Selina could feel him drill into her and her fingers brushed against her pussy once again, she panted in pleasure.

"Deeper, harder, faster, oh yes, yes," Selina moaned and grinded onto his tool, pushing it deep into her tight anus even harder with each pleasurable strokes.

She never wanted this hard ass fucking to end. The way his throbbing manhood worked her ass over caused her spine to tingle with pleasure. His hands placed on her sweaty back when he nailed her increased her pleasure.

Harry's fingers found their way to her pussy, and he rubbed her once again, causing Selina to buck up and down onto him, using her ass to massage him.

He groaned. "You're as hot as a furnace."

"Thanks, but I think that I'm even hotter," she said, his fingers lifting up. She took them into her mouth once again, pushing her lover's fingers deep into her mouth. She slowly sucked on her digits, practically purring when she tasted her own cum on it.

Her cum tasted so fucking good she could barely stand it.

What a ride, what a fucking ride, she couldn't even begin to say how good this felt, and she could feel him building up once again.

She was torn between feeling his cum in her ass or her pussy.

Selina turned herself around once again, spreading her legs far and ride and she impaled herself down on him once again.

"Getting really close," Harry whispered, running his hands all over her breasts.

She turned and gave him a sultry grin in response. Harry's throbbing tool slammed into her ass.

"Oh believe me, I know how close you're getting, and I want to drive you over the edge, cum in me, cum for your little slut," Selina panted.

They switched positions seconds later. Selina was on top, trapping his cock in between her smoldering thighs. She rammed him deep between her legs and she rode his cock like it could cure cancer.

Something had to give sooner rather than later and Selina was going to allow him to inject his gift into her.

An explosion of cum rocketed into her body and she shuddered all over, when it impacted into her.

Harry painted her walls wet and Selina rode him even harder as he shot his spunk all into her.

He grew hard again once into her, and she smiled.

"Ready for more?" she asked in a sultry voice and Harry smiled at her.

"If you're up for it….."

"I am, but less talking, more fucking," Selina whispered when she scratched his neck.

The two of them continued their round of sweaty and sexy love making.

* * *

 

Ted Grant made his way home with his arms stiffly held by him. It was an extremely late night at the Gym and he was just closing up. He lived far away from the Gym where it was a nice walk. It was still within reasonable walking distance though.

"It's going to be one of those nights," Grant grumbled and he looked up, seeing the rain really come down hard, and a storm was brewing. It was the famous Gotham City weather, some nasty storms once again.

In the distance, Grant saw the water crashing off of the shore and watched intently, when it violently hit it in spurts. The man took another step forward and inclined his head, pretty much grumbling and shaking his head.

"I should have gotten a cab," he whispered to himself but it was too late to worry about that right now. Rather he kept walking forward, despite it being the type of night that you wanted to be indoors, snug in on a comfortable couch, in front of a roaring fire.

But he didn't become as tough as nails by worrying about a little bit of rain.

Grant stopped once again and he had the strangest thought that someone was following him and they didn't have the best intentions in mind. Hunching down, acting like he was trying to protect himself from the rain, Grant used the second to call Dinah, using the redial function on his phone.

He had no time for chatter, he slipped the phone into his jacket, and replaced it with a pair of good old fashioned knuckle dusters. The brass knuckles slipped onto his hand.

It was type to lead this individual on a bit of a chase, if he wanted him, well he was going to have to earn it.

He wasn't sure if it was some low life who was looking for a quick payday by mugging him in an alleyway or someone who angled for something that was a bit more personal but regardless, Grant slipped his way into the alleyway.

In the alleyway, he turned around, and saw the man who was standing there, he came face to face with Ben Turner. Turner's gaze was vapid and Grant knew for a fact that he didn't take that many hits to the head. The man stared him down, murderous intent in mind.

Which was funny because the last time Grant heard of Turner, he was missing in action. He was wearing an orange and gold outfit, wearing a pair of spiked gauntlets on his hands and he looked at Wildcat like he was a really juicy steak.

Turner was looking fairly healthy, at least physically but mentally that was another matter entirely. There was a maniacal glint in his eye. One could see that the brainwashing was fairly obvious, along with the part where he took a header into the Lazarus Pit. The two fighters stared each other down, preparing to stand off against each other.

"So, are you here to do something, or just stare me to death?" Wildcat asked and he charged forward but Turner avoided his attack.

Turner kicked his legs out from underneath him and with a sadistic glint dancing in his eyes, he slammed Wildcat hard in the ground, pinning him down and hard.

Wildcat tried to get to his feet but Turner continued to hit him slow and fast once again.

Last time they fought, Grant went the distance with this man. He learned a lot from his past mistakes. Turner's nostrils flared and his intensity doubled.

' _Obviously he wasn't on an island somewhere,'_ Grant thought to himself, hunched over, breathing rather heavily.

The grizzled fighter avoided the attack, with the man's claws swiping once again across his chest. The man dodged it again and again, and Grant caught him with a glancing blow with his brass knuckles.

Turner grimaced briefly from the attack. Not for long. Grant didn't have a chance to catch his breath. Rather a huge vicious swing of a punch nearly took his head off. Grant crouched down and dodged another shot once again.

He was going to be ripped apart if he wasn't careful.

' _Okay, the guy wants a fight, no problem, because I'm here to give him one,'_ Grant said, with another crack of thunder returning him back to life.

The two men clashed with each other again, but Grant was trying to goad him into attacking and leaving himself open for one.

"Learned a few tricks, haven't you kid, well, come on, one on the jaw, if you have it in you," Grant said and he dodged the punch.

Grant tagged Turner in the kidneys with a pair of rough punches but he got nothing, nothing.

Turner was running off of adrenaline or maybe running off of something, but never the less, he turned around, and grabbed him around the wrist. He was snapped down by his wrist and forced down to his knees.

* * *

 

Needless to say his meeting with Selina got really intense fairly quickly, and Harry wasn't sure how much time had passed. Needless to say, he found himself awake and he figured out that he was in a bed once more. He and Selina had put each other through the paces in pretty much every way possible. Along with a couple that he wasn't entirely sure was possible.

Turning his head around, Harry could see that she wasn't there.

' _Odd,'_ Harry thought to his bond mates.

' _Yes, I'm surprised that she slipped off, because it's very rare that does happen,'_ Faora thought, there were more tangled strands to this web than she could contemplate.

' _The Amazons and Krytonians are capable of it, every now and again,'_ Diana commented with a shake of her head.

He made his way from the bed and it was a short walk down the hallway, into the office.

Harry looked around quietly and it took him only seconds to find what he needed. There was a note that was pinned to the edge of the desk. It further drew his attention because his name was written on it.

**Harry,**

**Sorry to cut and run, but I have something that I need to take care of so, yeah, I got to run.**

**Had a wonderful time, we should do this again.**

**Selina.**

Harry frowned deeply when he looked at the note. It lead to more questions and not enough in the way of answers.

' _So, is there anything about her alter ego, any sightings?'_ Harry asked, grabbing onto that fairly desperately.

' _No, I'm busy tracking down Ted…..there was a weird phone call earlier…..and Oracle is trying to track me down,'_ Dinah thought and she shook her head. _'It sounds like he's in trouble, but…..not quite sure how much trouble. He sent a call and he wasn't on the other end.'_

' _Worry about that, that's more important, looks like I'm going to have to play tag,'_ Harry thought, making his way over to the hallway, making sure that there was no one around.

If someone was around, Harry might have looked a tad bit foolish, with him extending his arm outwards and he waited for something to arrive.

His suit came to him which was a relief. He had been looking for a way to be able to summon the suit to him for the longest time, without frying the electronics.

It was in one piece and the ease of the suit in his hand made him smile when he suited up and everything was in order.

' _So does it work?'_ Faora asked once again.

' _It works rather perfectly,'_ Harry told her and his sister beamed in amusement at him but there was no time for back patting. _'We've got a lot to do you know, and really not that much time to do it in.'_

' _Aware of this,'_ Faora confirmed with a smile crossing her face, waiting to see what Harry would say. _'So are you going to track her?'_

Harry nodded, now that they had been intimate; he had his ways of tracking her. The bond that was there…..or at least it should be.

' _There's a problem, isn't there?'_ Kara asked.

' _How can you tell?'_ Donna asked her and Kara responded with a very brisk smile.

' _Alpha Privileges,'_ Kara commented with a wide smile on her face once again but Harry shook his head. _'What is it anyway?'_

' _She's finding a way to fight the bond…..well it's obvious that if someone is strong willed enough, they would fight it,'_ Harry explained to them and Diana popped in with her own two cents.

' _That's sending some pretty mixed signals, isn't it, fighting the bond, after shagging you senseless,'_ Jaime said, shaking her head in bemusement.

' _There are some really mixed signals in her mind, I think after what happened, and…..you know we're still not getting any closer to finding out what caused this turnabout with her, and why she's adopted her alter ego,'_ Faora thought and Harry smiled.

' _Sorry, I got side tracked a little bit,'_ Harry thought to them.

' _Understandable,'_ Faora agreed once again, biting down on her tongue once again and Har-Zod was going to try to exert his will a bit to attempt to track her.

Even if she fought the bond, the imprint was still left there. Although her strong will was masking it and made it borderline impossible to track, so there was that.

If he couldn't, there always was the old fashioned way of doing things, through good old gritty detective work.

* * *

 

Grant staggered to the ground, he still had the moves. There was only one problem. The moves that he had wasn't enough. His face was scratched up something fierce, and he bled really badly. Turner got him with his claws at least twice.

He could feel the blood splash to the ground and he dodged the claws once again.

"You've been watching way too many Bruce Lee movies, son," Ted commented after he got a chance to catch his breath.

His arm was going even number than it was before, and he was only pulling himself around, through sheer determination.

"Come on, come on, hit me, hit me," Grant managed.

"The mind and the spirit is willing, but the body, just doesn't have it anymore," Turner said, grabbing Grant around the wrist. He nailed him with an open handed palm thrust to the chest.

He could feel his heart size up once again, it struggled to pump blood.

"Pathetic, I assumed that there was a challenge," Turner whispered in a low voice.

He noticed that they had company coming so he would have to wrap the old man up.

Black Canary showed up, just managing to drop down and see the grisly sight before her. She could see Wildcat on his hands and knees, barely hitching in the breath that he had. He coughed violently and looked on the verge of losing his ability to breath.

He was on his knees, and he couldn't move under his own accord.

Turner rushed forward and kicked him hard on the head for added emphasis.

Dinah watched in horror, as Ted Grant's head slammed into a brick wall, with a thickening thud, and he dropped down, completely motionless. Ben Turner stood over his battered body, his nostrils flaring and pupils dilating.

**To Be Continued on October 27** **th** **, 2014.**

* * *

 

**So this confirms that it is possible to fight the bonding, for whatever reason. It's just something that most girls don't. And Selina has her reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with Harry.**

**You almost got to feel with Zucco, being in the middle of a heated throwdown like that.**

**This chapter ending the way that one will get some people thinking I'm sure.**


	64. The More Things Change Part Three

**Chapter Sixty-Four: The More Things Change Part Three.**

* * *

 

A huge bolt of lightning whipped across the sky and a hell of a storm was brewing in Gotham City. That was nothing compared to the one storm that brewed in the mind of Dinah Lance, better known as the Black Canary. She quickened her footsteps, much too late to do anything.

Black Canary showed up just in time to see Bronze Tiger take down Wildcat. The blonde's hair flipped over the area of her face and she stared the situation down. Her mouth hung completely open and it took her a moment to reboot her brain. It was much too late for her to react to the situation.

She rushed forward, there was one thought in her mind. It was to get to Bed Turner and make him pay for what happened.

Bronze Tiger turned around and he was caught off guard, being smashed right into the wall, right next to where Grant hit just moments before.

Black Canary dropped down to her feet despite her knees feeling like they were made from cement. She could hear that Wildcat's breathing was still rather shallow. Her hands were shaking and she tried to pick him up, dragging him on the ground.

"Hang on, don't worry, you'll get medical attention, don't worry," Dinah whispered, trying to pull his dead weight across the ground, but he was rather solid. Even with the fact that she was in good shape, she still struggled.

Dinah only managed to drag Wildcat a short distance and slid him down onto the ground. She bent down once again.

"How is he?" Oracle asked nervously, she could feel the tension of the situation ramping up and things were getting serious.

"Not well," Black Canary confirmed, clutching her hands together, to the point where her knuckles grew white. "His ribs must have been broken, he's cut up, barely breathing…..are you passing this all on….."

"Yeah, I called the EMTs," Oracle confirmed, nervously, trying to keep her tone professional as possible. "They're on their way."

Before Dinah could respond, she looked down and heard Grant give a raspy cough once again, blood spilling from his mouth. She could feel that he was barely hanging in there once again.

"Looks so much like your mother….and she'd be proud of you kid," Ted managed, through a gasping breath. Blood dripped from his mouth when he spoke. His breathing was ragged even as he choked out more words of encouragement to her. "And I know that she knew that you'd be okay after she left…..just like you'd be okay…after she was gone….just like you'll be okay, after I'm gone."

"You can't go anywhere, not yet," Dinah said, leaning down towards him.

She tried not to break down; it was hard for her not to do so.

"I'll always be around, you don't understand that I will, but I will be, and no matter what, I'll be proud at you, you know that, kid, you really understand that," Grant said, and his breathing was more strained.

His eyes closed and Dinah looked at him, there was a smile on his face, when he drifted off into her arms. The inevitable hit, even though she refused to believe it.

"No," Dinah whispered, painfully welling up when he slumped in her arms.

She refused to believe it. The denial train hit her absolutely hard.

Ted Grant, better known as Wildcat, was dead. The blonde heroine bent down next to him, him cradled in her arms. Needless to say, Black Canary was knocked into numb shock.

She was snapped out of it, when she saw Bronze Tiger making his way to his feet, and she looked up. There was a smug look of satisfaction on his face. This look caused Dinah to see red and nothing else managed.

The look of murderous hatred caused him to back off take the slightest of steps back. The hatred radiating off of her was beyond intense. Narrowing her eyes, she set Grant gently down on the ground, before pulling herself to her full height.

"You think you're going to get away with this," Black Canary said and she aimed a kick at Bronze Tiger.

She came close to taking his head off with one brutal kick. Bronze Tiger crouched down and blocked it. She blocked his palm strike once again, and then she grabbed him by the arm. With a twist, Black Canary flipped him down onto the ground and caused him to crash down with an intense impact.

Bronze Tiger grimaced and pulled himself up to a standing position. Black Canary rushed in towards him and delivered a series of rapid fire punches. Each punch was harder than the last. She didn't want to beat him, she wanted to hurt him.

He fired back, but it wasn't in any kind of offensive flurry, rather a defensively furry.

He was kept on the defensive, and he tried to counter, slashing his claws at her stomach.

Black Canary backed off for half of a second, and thankfully she was armored underneath her suit. The blunt force of the attack allowed Bronze Tiger to pull himself up to his feet. He staggered around for a second and his breathing became heavy and ragged.

He could see her ready to attack him again and the warrior was not about to give her a chance.

He sliced towards her again, cutting the leather jacket that she was wearing. Black Canary blocked a second shot with a loud crack of thunder in the distance.

He sliced her costume once again, ripping the bathing suit part of the costume apart rather swiftly.

' _Okay, it's time to end this,'_ Dinah thought to herself and she was going to make the claws a non issue.

She drew out the escrima stick and swung them around, bashing them against his claws. Another clang against the claws and she backed him off.

Bronze Tiger grunted, not saying anything. He felt Black Canary push him back, and there was a clash of weapon upon weapon.

Black Canary could see him backing off. She prepped him for the moment where she would take him out and end this fight. Bronze Tiger still had plenty of snarl in him but she crouched down, to fake him out.

Then she slammed her leg into the back of his, and the bone cracking underneath her violent kick was like music to her ears. She slammed the sticks down into his midsection and doubled him over. This swift blow caused him to wheeze in agony and discomfort.

That being said, Bronze Tiger was not going to go down without a fight. His claws swiped against Dinah's cheek, slicing it. She grimaced but never the less, she stood, focused. It was obvious that Black Canary did not back down and she motioned for him. "Okay, first blood, round two, come on."

Bronze Tiger's weary look focused on her and he sneered.

"I took down Wildcat, what hope do you hope to have?" Bronze Tiger asked and Black Canary glared back at him.

"Just shut up and fight," Black Canary told him and she was not in the mood for any shit.

"Your funeral."

* * *

 

Catwoman launched herself skillfully from rooftop to rooftop. She amused herself with the predicament that she got herself into.

' _You always end up in one of the rougher neighborhoods of Gotham, guess you can't stay out of trouble,'_ Catwoman thought and she continued her trek through Gotham. _'Got that really classy hooker look, but no matter how much you dress things up, it's still pretty rotten on the inside."_

Then again, given that she was in one of the red light districts in Gotham City, it only made any sense. She was on the hunt for someone that she had a score to settle with. She intended to settle that score and take the payment with interest.

Gentleman Jim Jansen, that bastard couldn't hide forever.

' _Oh, we just made things even more complicated tonight, didn't we, Selina?'_ she thought to herself, her arms crossed underneath her chest, it heaving up and down when she stood. She wanted to put her hands on her hips and adopt a strong stance but it seemed like she was losing that battle.

She did want this, all of this, but there were a lot of things that she needed to sort out.

' _Damn it, you just had to go there, didn't you?'_ Selina thought to herself, she was teasing herself for months.

The woman never intended for it to go this far, even though she should have assumed that it did.

She wondered if she was mentally and emotionally mature for a relationship that serious. That being said, the woman ambled forward, and kept her eyes on the prize.

' _Oh for the love, snap out of it,'_ she thought to herself, and she turned her focus on an apartment building. She was almost certain that Jansen was sleazing around this area; all she had to do was slip inside and take care of business.

It was quite the eyesore, and it had been built a long time ago, seventies, maybe some time in the eighties at the earliest. Regardless, it was an ill fit for the surrounding architecture.

She made her way onto the roof, with all of the nimble precision of a cat. The name that she had been given through the grapevine, she thought that it fit her well. She referred to herself as Catwoman and that was the name that the media took to calling her.

When the shoe fit, why not wear it?

With swift precision, she slinked her way through the fire escape, and made her way down towards the kitchen.

' _Pretty sure that this is his apartment,'_ she thought to himself and she could hear a pounding bass rhythm.

She placed her hand on the glass and used one of her claws to cut a hole in the glass. Then she reached through the hole that she created to cut the door.

' _A party of some sort is going on,'_ she thought with a frown. Whether or not it would be between Jansen and his latest lady of the night or other people, she would find out rather soon.

If there were more people present, well they were merely accessories to the crime, but she would find out when she found out. Slowly, Selina slinked down the hallway.

Things were kind of quiet, unless one counted the loud music that thumped from the bedroom. It was drowning everything else at any rate.

' _Suspicious,'_ Selina thought and she kept moving.

The music blared extremely loudly. She was certain that it was done by design and that gave Selina an extremely bad feeling about all of this.

She slipped to the door and pressed herself against it, and she pushed it open carefully.

Then she was caught off with a sight that made her blood boil. A loud scream of a woman pierced Selina's ears when she entered and she saw Jansen over her. The pimp had a belt wrapped around his fist, and she was stripped naked, bruises and blood all over her body.

' _That son of a bitch, I don't think so,'_ Selina thought, gritting her teeth in anger.

* * *

 

Jansen slumped down onto the ground, and he had seen better days. He was stripped naked of all of his clothes and valuables, along with hanging from the ceiling. His dignity was already stripped from him.

"I wouldn't move if I were you," Selina said, and she almost hoped that he would try something that stupid because he would have broken more than a few bones if he would have tried.

He grumbled something, and she made sure he was secured to the ceiling fan, along with the piece of duct tape that was on his mouth.

"Now you just stay here, until the cops arrive, and they can pick up the trash," Selina said, her hand placed on her hip, and she held the phone back up to her ear. "Yes….that's right….yes that's the address, you'll be right over here…..well I wouldn't worry, I'm sure it's more than worth your while."

Selina smiled a wicked grin and she looked up to see Jansen who dangled like a puppet.

She found a few goodies, some money and jewels and she looked up at him.

"Oh, don't feel bad, you'll have less to keep track of, and I'm sure a big bad man like you, you'll find a way to recover quickly," Selina said, and she blew him a mocking kiss. "Until the police arrive, you should hang around and think about what you've done."

She smacked herself on the ass, placing the bag over her shoulder, and nimbly made her way onto the roof.

Selina felt she made some good time, making her way from rooftop to rooftop, with her haul. The sounds of sirens indicated that Jansen would be picked up, with the incriminating information helpfully laid out on his bed where the cops could find it.

Suddenly, Catwoman stopped and she nearly slid back and landed on her ass. She nimbly managed to keep from doing that and instead looked up where she came face to face with the god damn Batman.

' _Well fuck,'_ Selina thought to herself. This wasn't part of her plans tonight.

"Going somewhere?" Batman asked in his usual manner and Catwoman looked at him.

He was really more of an annoyance than anything for her.

"Yes, away from you," Catwoman said, and he went to attack her but she dodged behind him.

Catwoman nailed Batman with a full force blunt attack, doubled over from the impact. Her hand lifted up and she clawed at him but he dodged out of the way.

' _Okay, not bad,'_ Selina thought, and she could tell that Batman was going to take her down like she was every other criminal out there. _'But you're not the real deal.'_

She managed to trick him into sending a Batarang at her. It flew over the top of her head, and hit a cable, slicing it.

The cable snapped backward, and knocked Batman off guard. It sent several loosened bricks flying at him, which Batman had to nimbly dodge.

She picked up her ill gotten loot, and made her way off before Batman could recover.

"I would say that's fun, but that would kind of being lying," Selina said and she launched herself nimble and quick across the next rooftop like a cat and she landed firmly.

She only made it halfway across the block when she ran pretty much head long into Nightwing.

' _Well, things just got more interesting,'_ she thought, and he approached her, closing the distance a little bit more.

* * *

 

Black Canary tried to keep herself calm but she slowly was losing her cool.

Something that she could not afford to do, but Bronze Tiger was able to take full advantage of her agitation by smacking her around. Back and forth their battle went. Black Canary took more of a beating than she really should have.

It wasn't lack of skill on her part, or any kind of superior skill on his, but rather it was less focus.

' _Okay, keep it together Dinah, keep it together,'_ she thought, closing her eyes and she could feel his palm thrust come close to connecting to her chest.

It was a deadly death strike and the same one that took Wildcat out. She blocked him and pivoted, and slammed her kick into the back of her head.

She thought that she named him hard. She realized that she couldn't be even further tight. It was obvious that Turner had some enhancements after last time. From what she heard, the man was good but not that this good.

Combined with the fact that her emotions got the better of her, Dinah found herself in a dire fight.

Turner backed her off, winning that exchange, but Dinah blocked many of the blows, sweat rolling down her face when she breathed heavily. He kept wearing her down like the raging river against the steady and prominent boulder.

' _You know, you normally are a lot better than this,'_ Jaime thought, trying to snap Dinah's head back into the game.

Dinah shook her head, Jaime was correct, she was better than this. Something caused her to falter completely.

' _I know that you're upset, but this guy…there's something off with him yes, but he seems that he's for real so you got to get back up, focus, and more importantly kick his ass, and not only do that, but kick his ass hard,'_ Faora thought, firmly. _'I say it again, kick his ass hard, like you would kick anyone else's and don't take it personal."_

' _Too late for that,'_ Dinah thought, but she took their words of encouragement to heart.

Summoning the proper amount of fighting spirit from within her, the Black Canary pushed back. Dinah managed to back him off for a little bit but that was just a momentary set back for him. Turner's next move was a vicious kick that sent her flying and crashing through a window.

' _And that's not helping, not helping at all,'_ Diana thought and she could see Dinah pull herself up, wincing from her back hitting hard.

' _Okay, that's just a momentary set back,'_ Dinah thought, brushing her hair from her face once again and she took a step back.

She could see the Bronze Tiger in her crosshairs and like a tigress smelling blood, she pounced in an attempt to take him down.

Black Canary brutally kicked him as hard as she could. He landed down on the ground with a solid thud and then she returned with an even greater fire against him, brutally pounding away at him.

Her punches and kicks rocked him, and he was trying to fight back, but she wasn't about to give him the opportunity. She continued to hammer him, never backing off. He was just another opponent, someone that had his limits.

Once Dinah Lance hit her stride, it was something to behold. She annihilated her opponent and with the blonde martial artist locked into the zone, he faltered.

Bronze Tiger could feel the rush that he felt earlier wearing off which meant that he was not in a really good position to be in. He couldn't do any damage, he could only prevent himself from taking it.

She backed him up against the wall. Her strikes became even more violent and he winced when she had him backed up against the wall.

Once again, he tried to go for the same death blow that he wiped Wildcat out with, but Black Canary blocked the hand and forced him back.

"I don't think so," she said, her eyes flashing with determination and she slammed his elbow into the wall.

Bronze Tiger grimaced when the woman fired back on him, not letting up for an instant. She was a woman on a mission and not letting up. He really did appreciate the brutality of the fight because it gave him a bit of a challenge.

That being said, Black Canary was about ready to finish him off and she did, knocking him against the wall, and then she opened her mouth.

One Canary Cry sent him flying through one wall, and into the building below where he landed.

Black Canary scrambled to go after him, but suddenly, the one and only Lady Shiva dropped down next to her. The woman's arrival snapped Dinah's attention out of her tranquil fury and made her realize she was in a more dangerous situation nthan ever before.

There was no exchange of pleasantries, rather Shiva was inclined to go in straight for the kill and that was what she did. The deadly assassin fired a swift roundhouse kick to Dinah's head but the blonde dodged the attack, narrowly avoiding an attack where all of the wind might have gotten knocked out of her. She closed her eyes tight and another kick was avoided, followed by a third, and a fourth.

Lady Shiva smiled in spite of herself, she was not expecting Black Canary to give her this much of a fight. It did not annoy her. Rather it excited her and gave her self gratification. She relished a challenge.

That did not mean that she wouldn't go in for the kill when she could. The renewed fury that the Black Canary went after her with got Shiva's blood pumping.

' _She isn't expecting you to attack her with such fury, that's good,'_ Faora thought, and Dinah's progress after she fought this particular woman after the last time was amazing. The dark haired Kryptonian beamed with pride abut knew the battle was not over.

Shiva thought that she had her and she went for a spinning punch. Dinah crouched down underneath it and took Shiva's feet out from underneath her. The woman did a flip and stuck the perfect landing on her feet.

Dinah blasted Shiva with a huge punch to the mouth, causing her lip to split open, and blood to drip from it.

Shiva stopped the fight, and smirked. Black Canary was caught off guard by Shiva trailing her tongue against the bloodied lip, slowly and sensually licking the blood from it.

Then in a flash, faster than even Dinah's mind could process, Shiva was behind her, gripping her in an armbar. It was twisted behind her head and then she was slammed down to the ground really hard, it folded across the back of her head. Shiva humiliated her by pinning her down, without one word.

Dinah was left with wounded pride and she got a parting knee to the back of the head.

She wasn't going to go down that easily, but once she got up, Shiva disappeared into the night. The thunder crack that went through the sky brought Dinah out of her stupor of surprise.

Black Canary walked forward, shaking her head, and she moved into the building to continue her fight with Ben Turner.

There was only one small problem with that one and that was that he disappeared into the night as well. That caused her fists to ball together and her to look to the heavens, letting out a long heaving sigh.

She managed to calm herself down and prevent herself from punching anything hard.

' _Not my night,'_ Black Canary thought with a heaving sigh, but that being said, Shiva must have formulated whatever plan of escape she had.

Exactly what game she was playing, Dinah didn't know. She slipped off into the night and tried to find out if she would get any hint of what was happening.

* * *

 

The chase continued through Gotham City. The rain flashed on and off at all night. It seemed to match the thrill of the night. There were times where the rain came down extremely hard. Where it practically pissed down in Gotham City, to the point where it was extremely hard to navigate.

It had stopped presently, and the chase between Catwoman and Nightwing continued. It was a high impact and extremely sensual game of tag with the highest stakes involved.

Catwoman looked over her shoulder with a smile, her blood was pumping, her adrenaline was flowing, there was really no two ways about this. The chase caused her blood to pump and excitement to bubble between her legs. She enjoyed this very much, the closer he got to her.

He was very close to her, and there were many possibilities in her mind about what would happen next. Along with a multitude of questions like what would he do if he caught her. What would she allow him to do?

Those were just a couple of questions that popped into her mind and the dark haired temptress rushed forward, her pulse racing. She was so very close to running head long into his arms. Catwoman continued to lead him about the city for the chase.

' _He does love the chase, but then again, I do as well,'_ Catwoman thought, but this game of cat and mouse was turning into an extremely sensual game of tag.

She dodged out of the way when she saw him coming, and made her way down onto the rooftop. She wasn't going to get caught, at least not yet.

' _In the end, there are really no losers, I think,'_ Catwoman thought and her heartbeat kicked up a little bit when her excitement reached a greater fever pitch.

No sooner did she say this, she ran face to face with Nightwing. She looked at him, biting down on her lip, and then her grin increased.

"So you want to play, let's play," Catwoman said and she rushed forward, attempting to fire a kick at him.

Nightwing crouched down to dodge the kick. The precision of how he dodged that kick got her all excited.

Both of them engaged in a bout of hand to hand, neither really giving up any ground to the other.

"So you've got some good moves," Nightwing said with a smile on his face and she caught the rather intentional bit of innuendo that was tagged onto the end of that.

"Well, you haven't really seen my best moves yet, now have you?" Catwoman asked, looking over her shoulder and she slowly trailed her tongue over her lips. She made sure her eyes locked onto him when she fired off a kick.

Despite being fairly untrained, she could handle herself in the fight.

"You better not be holding back anything," she chided him, mockingly wagging her finger at him.

"You will learn quickly that I don't hold anything back," he said, grabbing her by the arm and spinning her, before pinning her against the wall. He pressed himself up against her, and looked her into the eyes. "Never."

"Noted," she managed, biting down on her lip and she pushed away from him, and swiped her claws at him, but he blocked the attack, turned around to pivot. He stuck the move on his foot with one quick and fluid motion.

That being said, she broke off to continue the chase.

' _Well she sure makes you work for it, doesn't she?'_ Kara asked.

' _Well, just wait until Harry catches her,'_ Zatanna said and she leaned back to enjoy the show, with her husband giving the chase.

Catwoman led Nightwing on a spirited chase throughout Gotham City, with the rain spitting down on the city. There were a couple of near hits, some very close misses, and Catwoman lead the chase.

She grappled up the building and maintained her balance on the ledges the best that she could. The ledges were slick because of the rain that was pouring down so she needed to be careful. There was a lot of danger out there.

Then again, danger might as well have been her middle name. The dark haired temptress continued to lead him on the chase, leading him around the city.

She nearly slipped once again but maintained her footing. She held on, even if she wobbled a little bit. One would think that they would just give up this dare defying set of moves after a near miss. They didn't know Catwoman.

The second attempt was not so lucky and Catwoman lost her balance, her arms and legs frailing to grab on when she slid on the side.

She didn't want to test the theory of whether or not she would land on her feet.

Thankfully, she didn't need to wait to test that theory, with Nightwing grabbing her by the hand, and pulling her back up onto the building.

He slid a little bit, her weight and the moisture causing him to be unable to stand up straight. That combination caused him to fall back, and she landed on him. The woman straddled his hips when they settled on the rooftop.

' _Nice landing,'_ Selina thought to herself and she draped herself over his body. Oddly enough she felt oddly content and comfortable where she landed.

They had a breath taking view of the city below, with the wind, the rain, and the thunder giving a rather primal beauty to it. As alluring as that was, Catwoman was focused on Nightwing who was pinned beneath her thighs.

Slowly, she moved her hand up her costume, running her hands down her curves. She was soaking wet, the water rolling down her skin tight suit, and another crack of thunder echoed in the distance.

Catwoman grabbed the zipper and slowly unzipped her costume, wiggling out of it. Slowly and sensually she exposed more of her alluring flesh.

"So, we always end up on this, but you don't seem to be the type of person that ends up underneath that often, you're always on top of things," she said to break the silence, the tab now was down to her belly button.

"You know, you can keep running, but I keep chasing you," Nightwing said and she only responded for a second by running her hand down his muscular chest.

"Oh, I'm aware," she purred, feeling the sensual heat rise over her body and she got excited, grinding herself down on him. "And it adds to the chase doesn't it? It adds to the thrill of the hunt."

"Yes, yes it does," Nightwing groaned and she grinded onto him just a little bit harder.

The reaction he gave her pleased her greatly. Her loins increased in heat when she ran them over his throbbing tool.

"Attracted to each other, two opposites at first at the very least, like the beauty, and the best," she said. She gave him a knowing and lustful grin. "But naturally that would make me the beast….given no one would dare discount your beauty, handsome."

She slowly ran her nail up and down the middle of her body, going all the way down her breasts and towards her belly button. It was here where the temptress found his hands were placed on her hips. That caused her to squirm and writhed over the top of him.

The dark haired temptress's hand continued to trail down, brushing it past her core, and then making it to his stomach, along it.

"You're the real deal, unlike the Bat," she purred, and she cupped his face in her hand and she leaned down, kissing him furiously.

The kiss was returned, and she ground down against him, but he sat up a little bit.

Suddenly, he managed to take advantage of her distraction and flip their positions so he was on top of her.

"You're right," Nightwing said and he kissed her even more, her hands greedily exploring his body. "And I ALWAYS end up on top."

It was obvious that they were going to head to the next level and take the next step in their relationship.

Catwoman found herself pinned underneath Nightwing and she grew more excited when he grinded his hardness on top of her core. She could feel him close to her once again and his hand brushed against her hair, running all the way down her body, down her cleavage once again. Her breasts spilled out of her costume, ready for him to take and make his.

His teasing hands worked her up something fierce and he pushed his tongue into her mouth, violating her tonsils and her hands roamed over his body, working up the tension. She could tell that the only barrier between them were their clothing, something that would be removed in due time.

"You're choking for it now," Nightwing whispered once again and she nodded, practically purring when his mouth worked down the side of her neck, kissing her over and over again and he caused her to close her eyes, the pleasure spiking all over her body. "I thought so."

"Please, please, I can't take it," she said and she managed to find the quick release on his pants and she could pull him out once again.

With a sensual manner, Catwoman looked at him with a burning gaze and slowly stroked him once again. His cock hardened once again and she rubbed his thick cock head against his stomach.

Nightwing pulled down her costume a little more, revealing her pink pussy. It dripped with arousal and beckoned for his manhood. Slowly, he worked his way over her body and he could feel her nipples poke up like precious points and he leaned down towards her, licking her nipples, causing her to mewl in pleasure once again.

"Please," she purred once again, her breathing increased and his manhood was getting closer to her and she whimpered in desire, her hips pushing up, trying to force him into her. "FUCK ME!"

Her face was framed with her wet dark hair. She inhaled with the tip inching across her hot slit. The dark haired woman was close to being penetrated by his huge cock and she closed her eyes, feeling the rush of the moment.

Just like that, Nightwing's hard prick slammed into her tight box and stretched her out. Selina closed her eyes, feeling the rush of their private parts slamming on each other. Her nerve endings exploded in an exhilarating rushed of pleasure.

She pushed her hips up, her tight walls working him over when the large intruder pounded into her body. She bit on her lip, biting off more than she could chew, in more than one way. That wasn't a criticism though, she embraced this into her.

It felt so good that she was about ready to die from the pleasure.

"Oh, oh, oh yes," Selina moaned once again, and she could feel Harry push himself into the depths of her. She thought that she was going to split in half on his large cock and the dark haired woman felt him buried into her yet again.

"That's great, you want this, you crave this cock, don't you," Nightwing asked and she nodded once again, looking up at him.

"Always….always honey," Catwoman said once again and she could feel his mouth all over her breasts. He tended to them, licking on them, biting on them, it drove her completely around the bend.

She was beginning to love the way that he worshipped her breasts and made them his. They were his, they belonged to him.

Slowly but surely, she regained some measure of control. Selina gripped his cock with her pussy, and managed to shift him over onto his back. Playfully but a bit forcefully, she pinned his hands behind his head, bent down, and gave him a smoldering kiss on the lips, biting down on his lip.

Rubbing her hot lips around the tip of his cock, the sexy woman spread her legs as far as they could go. The woman's next fluid motion brought his manhood deep into her. She pushed him hard against the building, with him grabbing the back of her costume, and squeezing her ample ass.

"Oh, you know how to show a woman a good time," Catwoman whispered once again and she bounced up and down on him, her breasts swaying. He reached up and groped them, handling them like they were his.

"Yes, oh you feel so good, so hot and tight," Nightwing grunted and the green eyed hero could feel him pressed between her thighs.

When her smoldering hot core rubbed his manhood up and down, he thought for a moment that he was going to lose it.

"Don't hold back, oh don't hold back," Catwoman begged him, not carrying if she fucked him through the rooftop.

That would be so hot it wouldn't even be funny.

His mouth attacked her breasts once again and he pushed hard into her body. The dark haired temptress could feel him inside her. She felt herself rocked to another orgasm. Her pussy clutched his pull when her orgasm was near.

Catwoman felt Nightwing get closer, she could tell it, she could sense him. He wasn't going to make her beg, was he?

He was going to make her beg, she knew it.

"Cum, please, cum," she whimpered, practically purring. Her breasts swayed in front of his face, bouncing in an extremely tantalizing way. He would have to reach out and touch them, play with them.

Eventually her thighs clenched together once again and he brought his cock into her. He spurted into her, sending his hot seed splashing into her body. She dug his nails into his chest, riding him all the way. Her warm and wet pussy milked each drop of cum out of him.

"Kitty needs more cream," Catwoman purred and she slid back.

The sexy woman crawled back and them crawled towards him on her hands and knees, her breasts hanging out and her hardened nipples brushed over the edge of Nightwing's cock, which oozed cum.

"Fuck," Nightwing groaned, when her hot lips wrapped around his cock and she licked off cum that coated his cock off of it, tasting her own juices as well.

The dark haired woman felt his hands on the back of her head, but she playfully pushed them away and continued to blow him, her lips smacking around him, until she brought him back up to an erect state.

Smiling, Selina pulled back once again and she was on her hands and knees, her pussy bared to him once again.

She licked her lips, looking over her shoulder and her body dripped with desire.

His cock slid into her from behind, stretching out her hot and tight walls. Closing her eyes, she could feel him go into her once more and that stretched out her body.

She gave a mewl of pleasure, when he worked himself into her, stretching out her womanhood. Holding onto her breasts, he got the proper amount of leverage.

Once again, with the rain kicking up, Nightwing hammered into her from behind. In response thi his frantic thrusts, her tight pussy rubbed him in the most pleasurable manner. It seemed like no matter how much he tried, she brought him deeper into her body.

"Yes, more, oh more, deeper, deeper, deeper," Catwoman chanted and she closed her eyes, with his fingers scraping down her body and her nice nipples poked out. He wrapped his fingers around them and pinched them, adding some excellent heat through her body.

He slammed into her even harder from behind and Selina could feel him settle once again. She pushed back into him, grinding against his crotch, encouraging him to ram into her.

' _She wants it rough, I have no problem with that,'_ Harry thought, grabbing her around the waist and slamming her into the pavement.

"Fuck, I want you, so bad, I can feel you inside me," Catwoman said and his grip tightened around her breasts when he slammed her into the pavement from behind.

Her pleasure increased, when he fucked her nice and rough. That was how she liked it, he really really fucked her.

"DAMN!" Catwoman yelled at the top of her lungs.

"You're my slut, aren't you?" Nightwing whispered, biting on her ear and she nodded.

"Yes, I'm a dirty filthy whore, why don't you pound me through the roof?" Catwoman asked once again and Nightwing worked into her from behind in response.

Harry could feel himself building up for a climax but he couldn't back off now, not when he was just hitting his stride.

The dark haired female felt him all the way inside her and her hips closed around his penis tightly, hugging him like a vice.

"YES!" she screamed, whimpering with pleasure when he hammered into her from behind. There was so much…..this felt so good she couldn't stand it, she wanted it. She wanted all of it.

Nightwing plunged himself between her legs and he was getting closer to the edge that he wanted, his balls slapped against her thighs when he worked her over, and he was getting close, so close in fact.

"Cum for me, please, I need it," Catwoman whimpered, his mouth pressed against the back of her neck and his manhood rammed deep between her legs.

The heat rose from her thighs and he worked himself so far between her that she thought that she would explode.

Each thrust brought her closer to the edge. Catwoman clutched him tight as she could when the muscles in his groin tensed up.

Selina closed her eyes, and hung on once again, his white hot seed shooting inside her. She squeezed him, milking each drop from his balls and rested with a shudder.

This round was down but she wasn't done.

* * *

 

Ted Grant, better known as Wildcat, laid motionless on the pavement, the lightning flashing on the sky.

"We might be able to save him, stand back…"

"We can't use the paddles in this weather," one of the EMTs said and they looked at him, he was clinging on Death's door.

They refused to allow him to slip away without a fight. Damn it they could save him.

They were not going to give up, but at the same time, the man's sufferings should not be minimalized where he was.

"We're losing this one, we're losing him!"

"One more time, keep it up, don't let him, don't let him," one of the EMTs said but he put his head towards his chest but there was nothing to be done. There was no pulse, not even a faint one. Any attempts to resituate him fell upon failure.

More lightning flashed through the sky from high above and they had to come to the conclusion.

"Dead upon arrival from a massive heart attack and severe head trauma," one of the EMTs said and they hung their heads down somberly, like they always did when they failed to save a person that was under their care.

This did not go their way at all and all they could do now was preparing to wrap things up and bring in the body.

Another lightning bolt whipped across the sky and a second more massive lightning bolt shot through the air.

Ted Grant's body went into convulsions and the EMT that was nearest to him nearly jumped halfway into the air when he gave a gasping breath, coming back to life. This shocked everyone, especially those who witnessed that he was in fact dead.

"How the…how did this happen?" the EMT asked, managing to find his voice to ask the question that had been plaguing all of them. He was honestly and completely dead, there was no two ways about it.

His condition had been amazingly upgraded to being alive and they all moved over towards him, wondering what the hell just happened.

"He's fine, I can't believe it, he's fine," one of the EMTs said, and he looked down at the man, who managed to speak in a weakened voice.

"Course I'm fine, going to take a lot more than that to keep me down," he said, coughing, and he was still a bit battered from the battle. "What the hell just happened?"

"Sir, you died," one of the EMTs said, a bit weirder out by the fact that he was talking to someone who was for all intents and purposes a corpse moments ago. To say that they were shocked, that would be putting things mildly.

They moved so far past shock that they were into completely mind fucked beyond all belief.

If they didn't believe in miracles, a few were starting to wonder about the possibility of them, especially since a man who was beyond dead returned back to life.

Black Canary watched from afar, her mouth fixed into an open manner. She was shocked beyond words, and she could hear people talking in her head, but she couldn't quite make out any of what was being said.

' _So, I asked, what happened?'_ Faora thought, managing to break through the bond link and Dinah opened her mouth and closed it.

To say that she wasn't too sure, well that would be putting things rather nicely. The fact of the matter was that she was confused as confused could be.

* * *

 

The storm finally subsided and it was replaced by sunshine in Gotham City, which was an oddity. Selina stirred herself awake, managing to find herself awake, and in bed in her apartment.

The mystery of how she got there might prove to be one of the greater mysteries in all of Gotham City. That would raise some interesting questions. She was sore but in a good way.

The dark haired female pushed herself on her hands and knees, stretching herself in a catlike manner. She lowered herself nearly to the surface of the bed, and pushed forward.

When that was done, she stood up to her feet, and shook her hand to clear all of the thoughts from her mind. She closed her eyes, reared her head back and sighed.

' _Oh what a night,'_ she thought, running her hand around the back of her head and she paused, rolling her shoulders back. _'What a night!'_

She pulled on a white silk robe and slowly slunk her way to the kitchen. A cup of coffee might be order and with that, a nice long soak in the tub. Both things appealed to her greatly right now come to think of it.

That being said, she sat down at the table, perched with a smile on her face, and she peered downwards. She corked her eyebrow, kind of surprised to see a package sitting there for her on the table, waiting for her.

She reached towards it, opening it.

**Figured that if you're going to run around in Gotham City in a costume, you might want to do something in a bit more stronger than pleather.**

**N.**

She pulled it out and there was a sleek black costume, made of some light material, and there were various pieces of equipment that could be fastened into the costume. She smiled, she would have to look it over later.

And there was a single rose lying in there.

"Perfect," Selina said, finding a place for the rose to be placed but in the meantime she had a costume that she would need to try on.

And maybe tonight, there would be a perfect opportunity for a test run as Catwoman rode again.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 30** **th** **, 2014.**

**That might have been a mean little swerve regarding Wildcat, but explanation forthcoming in the next chapter.**

**Oh yes, she knows, but she's in one of those states where she didn't want to admit as much.**

**Overall, this was an extremely intense chapter. I enjoyed writing it at least.**


	65. Chapter 65

**Chapter Sixty-Five: The More They Stay the Same.**

* * *

 

Last night was one that no one who lived it would ever forget. Actually the last couple of days were extremely intense. It was not every day where a person saw someone comes back to life and exactly why that happened remained a mystery.

Those were the questions that Dinah Lance wanted to find out. It seemed to be weird, even in the insane world that she lived in. It happened and she wanted to know why. She joined Harry at Grant's Gym to try and figure out what the hell was going on.

Grant's Gym was one of the more spacious areas in Gotham, which was curious considering that it's a gym. There was a good reason for that if one wanted to look into the history. It was an older building and everything in Gotham City was larger than life. So why would this be any different.

Dinah, Harry, and Ted were there later that morning. Harry decided to take his seat on an extremely comfortable armchair, and his arms wrapped around Dinah. In turn, Dinah took the extremely comfortable position that was in Harry's lap.

There was a sense of awkwardness in the air, for a couple of reasons. The most obvious one was that last night, there was no question about the fact that Ted Grant died. There was no two ways about it. Dinah could feel the life leave him when he was in her arms. Hours later he was up and about, and almost joking about what happened.

It was just another Wednesday for him, or so he said. They would get some kind of explanation regarding that and soon.

Harry was curious about this, because he was not one to believe in any kind of divine intervention or miracles. Something super natural was going on and he was determined to find out what. The only man who could give him a possible answer sat in front of him.

Grant was looking far better than he had seen him previously, in fact the man looked like he had about ten years shaved off of his life. Nothing was said, and it seemed like all parties in the room were waiting for someone else to be the one that broke the silence.

One could cut the tension in the air with a knife and Grant looked at Dinah and Harry, both of them staring back at him.

Finally, he decided to break the tension because things were getting awkward. "….I don't even know where to start to explain this."

Dinah's eyes flashed, looking towards her mentor. She carried on in an extremely confused voice "….I saw you die….."

"I know," Grant replied gruffly.

"That's it, you know," Dinah said and she felt almost exasperated. Harry tightened his grip on her. "I saw you…..I saw you die."

In response, Harry squeezed her reassuringly and she breathed heavily, leaning back against him, his arms snaking against her body. She was momentarily relaxed, but there was some tension still bubbling in her body. She didn't know what to say, she didn't want to know what to say.

"I know what you saw, kid," Grant said quietly and he could see how badly shaken up that Dinah was. "Yeah you did…and yes, I did die; only problem is that it doesn't ever seem to stick."

Harry blinked and he opened his mouth but sure enough Grant was able to explain, at least to the best of his abilities.

"The Wildcat possesses nine lives," he recited. "John altered a curse placed upon me…..some sorcerer named King Inferno put it on me, wanted to turn me into a cat. I refused to throw a boxing match to him. So he was a little bit peeved about it. Zatara altered the curse a little bit, so instead of turning me into a cat, I got nine lives."

"And just how many of those nine lives have you lost?" Harry asked, raising his eyebrow and Grant shifted with a sigh.

"More than what I care to remember," he admitted gruffly and grudgingly. "But, it was all worth it….back in the good old days of the JSA, and it's not like the first time I died."

' _Well that's news to me….my father never told me that he was actively involved in the JSA, I wonder if my mother was as well,'_ Zatanna thought, looking rather thoughtful.

"You act like this isn't a big deal," Dinah said, intensity flashing through her eyes.

To Wildcat it really wasn't, and in response, he waved her concerns off nonchalantly. Her eyes fixed on his with a burning fury.

"It isn't like this was the first time I died, kid, it won't be the last time I die either, I got a few more in the bag after this," Grant said gruffly. "But, every time, the funny thing is, I come back in better shape than I did before I died. Starting to feel like the fucking Highlander here."

Dinah and Harry looked at each other, and they were both thinking the same thing. With this curse, Ted was going to outlive pretty much everyone that he knew and cared about. At least with them and their longevity, they had their fellow bondmates as support.

Before anything else could be said, there is a knock on the door and Grant gave a gruff grunt to invite the person in.

The door pushed open and Holly pushed her head inside.

"I'm here for my lesson," Holly said and she looked a bit surprised. "You know, you're usually there out here waiting for me….."

She stopped and looked at Harry and Dinah, surprised to see them here. Especially Harry, because the last she checked, he was with Selina just a couple of hours ago.

"Had a rough night," Grant said, as if that explained everything and to him, it explained more than enough.

"And he did, so I'll be the one covering your lesson because the old man needs a break," Harry said, lifting Dinah off of his lap.

The crime fighter dropped to the ground. Dinah smiled, she was glad that Harry took charge. Mostly because she didn't want to deal with Ted's stubbornness which was legendary.

Grant scowled at the implication that he was an old man, especially since he felt about ten years younger after what happened last night. He picked up a nearby water bottle and tossed it towards Harry. He showed great reflexes by catching it in his hand.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it," Harry said, turning around and leading Holly out of the gym, leaving Ted and Dinah alone.

There was a lot that could not be said easily and Ted looked at her, intensity flashing through his eyes. "Look, I'm really sorry I put you through that….but it isn't something that you can exactly bring up in a daily conversation, you know."

Dinah would have to concede that it wasn't really possible for him to bring it up in an every day conversation.

"Plus, you know it's not something that I like to think about," Grant added and Dinah nodded.

"Fair enough," she said to him. "So….do you have any other powers?"

"Enhanced strength, reflexes, and stamina, but nothing on par with Harry, because I've seen that kid throw punches that can dent steal," Grant rattled off. "And I can heal just a little bit faster, although the body can still handle so much."

He walked over towards her and much to Dinah's surprise, he wrapped her up into a tight hug. That caused her to become surprised and wondered if his death caused him to be replaced by an entirely different person.

The fact that she returned it made him slightly uncomfortable a bit.

"Okay, enough of this….so are we all good?" Ted asked and Dinah punched him right in the face in response. "Just like your mother, I swear….."

Dinah once again caught him in the shoulder, which stung. It would have stung a bit more than it did if she didn't bother to pull her punch.

* * *

 

Faora and Harry made their way down to the Lair after Harry finished up his training session with Holly for the day. They were going to meet with Lara, to see if he recovered completely with his most recent set of injuries.

The recent set of injuries were alarming. Both siblings agreed that it would be a great day when Harry could function without the watch. Neither would deny though that the watch was useful in the sense that it allowed Harry to gain some valuable experience without his powers.

' _The shotgun blast was bad enough, but the beating you took at the hands of Grundy, that's pretty awful as well,'_ Kara thought with a grimace and she was not the only one that was not grimacing.

' _And we need to take another look at your CORE, because the sooner that the watch can be safely off, the better off that you'll be,'_ Faora thought, clinging tightly to her brother's arm.

She wasn't about to deny that the watch had done him some good. It was just as if she wasn't about to deny that there were some likely drawbacks from having the watch on her.

Lara did want Faora down there to assist with the check up, but Harry got this sense that she wanted to see Lara. Mostly because Faora had a bit of an attraction towards her.

Also, she had this sense of malicious satisfaction that she was able to satisfy the wife of Jor-El better than he ever could. Then again, one needed to wonder how Kal-El ever got born, because Jor-El seemed to be distracted by his work. As a consequence, he didn't pay his hot wife the attention she deserved.

That was a question for another time and Faora decided to share something with Harry.

"I've been talking to Kate Kane as of late….well on and off….." Faora told Harry and Harry turned towards her, encouraging his sister to continue, so she did continue. "She's not as deeply in the closet as everyone think she is…..but she does need to keep a lid on things."

Faora sighed and she added as an afterthought.

"The Kanes have that public image that they need to keep."

"I know," Harry said, raising an eyebrow and Faora opened her mouth and she was surprised.

"You know?" she asked and Harry nodded in response.

"Yes, I know," he concluded, and they made their way to the newly functional Medical facility that was a bit below the main part of the Lair.

It was something that Alura, Karen, and Peve have been working on recently, in secret, and they had just recently got it completely functional.

He turned around and he saw a very enthusiastic looking Lara wearing a nurse's uniform waiting for him. A bright smile on her face got even brighter when she saw Harry approach.

"Har-Zod, it's good to see you again," Lara said with a smile on her face. "We finally got Hard Light Holograms installed down here and in the Penthouse as well so…..well it would make things much easier."

"And the rest of the tower…"

"About ready to follow in a month or so," Lara said and she swept her lover into a hug.

She kicked things up another notch, giving him a blistering kiss. The two felt their tongues tangle together in sheer dominance with each other. Harry increased his kiss completely and tried to overwhelm the woman.

Not to be outdone, Faora gave Lara a brief kiss, that pretty much left the door open for even more in the future if they wanted to go down that road.

Now that they had that all out of their systems, it was time to get down to business.

"Doing the same for the tower in Metropolis, aren't you?" Faora asked and Lara nodded. "I thought so."

Between the two of them, Lara and Faora slowly stripped Harry's clothes off. They would have normally admired the merchandise. Business called before pleasure. There would be sufficient time for pleasure later.

"Okay, Har, please sit down on the examination table, and we can get started," Lara said, she could almost sense a lot of drooling from certain parties on the bond.

' _You know, some of you act like you haven't seen Harry naked,'_ Karen said, but never the less, she was drooling in her own way from both sets of lips.

Lara was making some observations on Harry, while Faora took notes of her findings on a tablet.

"So, how are you studies going?" Lara asked Faora and Faora's face shifted into a sheepish grin.

"They've taken a bit of a backseat unfortunately…..with all the work that I've had to do, I've become a part time student at best, but I'm sure that there will be plenty of time for them to pick back up," Faora said and she smiled, looking forward. "And my studies underneath you for Kryptonian medical sciences move along at a brisk pace…."

"I'm glad that they are, you are a very adept pupil," Lara said making a few more observations base on what she found out from Harry.

"Well they are helping me with my course load at Metropolis City University," Faora said and she looked at Lara who frowned. "What, what is it?"

"Yes, what is it?" Harry asked, he hated to be left in suspense, especially when it was his own health that was at stake.

"You're healing really well, actually all of your most recent injuries have been completely healed, and I've got some encouraging news on the scan that I did with your CORE," Lara said and she smiled. "Roughly speaking, and keep in mind, you know this is an estimate, don't you?"

Both siblings of Zod nodded their head in response.

"By the time that you're twenty one, it should be fully healed, and you should have a chance to take that watch off," Lara said and she looked at him. "And I'm sure that it's time to give you some news about your extension and…"

"It's a mixed bag, isn't it?" Harry asked her.

' _Very,'_ Morgaine chimed in through the bond link extremely grimly. The prognosis wasn't very good. _'We've got some good news after all of this, we've been able to siphon off enough of the magical energy, that we can start healing the burn damage to his hands and forearms, but it's a gradual process, and his CORE is more trashed than yours is."_

' _Wonderful,'_ Harry thought, he understood why it was so slow.

There was a chance that it could damage both the duplicate and the prime model as well.

' _I'm trying to research conducting a ritual that might bring him out of his coma, but there are so many variables,'_ Lily said, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. She knew the easy way to deal with this but she didn't want to go down that route.

Faora knew it as well.

' _It's not like we can get close enough to him with all of the magic that he's giving off,'_ Faora thought, she really was having the same misgivings that Harry was that a duplicate of him had lived that long and grown to be so independent.

The interesting thing is that the one that they put on Paradise was not growing so far in the other direction. He was Har-Zod and did not grow any further than that, into living his own life, and state of independence. That was what should have happened with this one but Harry had a slight miscalculation and now there was a boatload of headaches.

' _That was just a mistake, I put a little bit too much into that one,'_ Harry said and that was agreed by with all.

' _I, Nimue, and Circe are helping Lily conduct the research to see if it's even in the realm of being feasible,'_ Morgaine said and she would have to grudgingly agree that Harry did put a little too much into this one. Otherwise, he wouldn't have done what he did, and did something that would potentially endanger the master copy, not even himself.

Of course, when the master went, boom went the slaves.

' _Nyssa went over to Africa as well to see if she could find something to help him,'_ Daphne thought. There was no one would said that he was beyond help, especially since the duplicates weren't supposed to live a life of their own.

' _I'd dunk him in the Lazarus pit, if I didn't know that the consequences would be worse than leaving him be,'_ Nyssa said, she had a long and heated debate with Talia, who talked her down from that, reminding her that the short term and long term consequences would be catastrophic.

' _No, I wouldn't recommend that,'_ Lily thought, while those pits had healing properties, they were the tool of the devil.

Faora and Harry looked at each other, again, they both knew what the most humane thing to do was.

' _So, how are things going over there?'_ Harry asked, deflecting the conversation.

' _Reminding me why I got sick of this place in the first place,'_ Lily said, narrowly evading the question and she sighed long and hard. _'If he ever does wake up, then I think that it might not be the best for him to deal with the hell that the Wizarding World.'_

' _The possibility for brain damage from what happened is high, until he's out of the coma, we won't know,'_ Nyssa said and that was another reason why Talia told her that it was a stupid idea to hurl him into the pit.

A brain damaged super powered zombie that ruled on feral instincts would not be the best thing in the world. Especially with the fact that he would be nothing but chaotic and untamed energy that would attack anything and everyone and ask questions never.

"So, you're health is at the optimal state, which is the best thing possible," Lara said with a smile to Harry.

"I'm sure that you'll agree, but perhaps a further demonstration is in order," Harry said, not wanting to think of his duplicate, mostly because he put the blame entirely upon himself for what happened.

"Yes, a demonstration is in order," Faora said, wrapping her hands around the hard light hologram and the dark haired Kryptonian stripped herself naked in the meantime. "Perhaps a more through, physical examination is in order."

Lara leaned into the kiss that Harry gave her, and the green eyed wizard pushed her lips around hers. The kiss deepened even more, both experiencing great passion. The two of them indulged in each other and Harry's hands roamed over her body, causing the pleasure the spike through her.

"No panties," Harry said with a smile on his face and he brushed his fingers over her body, finding her dripping hot slit.

"No," Lara said and his fingers worked their way between her smoldering hot thighs and the blonde closed her eyes. "I find that they're too confining, especially when we just want to get to business."

Faora pressed against her back, her naked breasts against her and the dark haired goddess kept kissing her over and over again in the back of the neck, spiking her pleasure up to new levels. The dark haired woman moaned, feeling the pleasure increase with each kiss and she was being pushed closer to a brand new edge.

"Just relax, we have you," Harry smiled, and his cock was erect and ready to go.

"Oh, I think that everything is in working over," Lara breathed, and she draped one of her thighs over Harry's leg and then her other thigh, brushing her hot pussy over his throbbing manhood.

His hands roamed her body, her nipples growing erect and his hunger was sated when he wrapped his mouth around one of her sensitive buds. He drew her nipple into his mouth

Lara closed her eyes and allowed the pleasure to really soak in when Harry pushed into her body. Faora was pressed against her on the other end, and Lara found herself pressed between the two siblings of Zod.

Her breasts were exposed and she grinded against Harry in response to his actions. His hands were everywhere, and Faora's hands roamed down the back of her legs, and then met her ass.

"I think that she wants to be double stuffed, doesn't she?" Faora asked and she looked at Harry, who worked his cock into Lara's dripping core once again.

"Oh yes, oh please," Lara moaned, her warm grip hugging his manhood.

"First, I'll let Har-Zod play a little bit," Faora whispered sensually in her ear.

Lara was guided down onto the bed, her hot pussy tugging his tool and her wet walls grinding him once again. She pushed her hips up and met his throbbing tool when he worked himself into her body.

Lara was seeing stars and she felt his manhood push deeper into her body, so deep that it was nearly obscene what she felt. Her pleasure increased and spiked to a different level when he worked his way into her.

"Fuck me, fuck me until I'm not able to walk, I can't get enough of your cock."

"You're a nympho, aren't you?" Harry asked her and Lara nodded.

"Yours, now keep fucking me, until I can't take any more and fuck me even more," Lara pleased, stretching her thighs a bit to accommodate the new intruder in her.

Once he was sheathed inside her, her soft thighs closing around his tool. Harry wasn't about to deny someone like this, especially when her wet walls wrapped around him with such desire and he spiked himself through her hot and willing loins.

"Fuck I think we need to put that dirty mouth to more use."

Faora placed her pussy over Lara's mouth and the blonde took it into her mouth, sucking it. Her talented tongue drove Faora to an orgasm really quickly.

Harry placed his hands on Lara's hips, and she returned his fire thrust from thrust. His tool got a workout when her deliciously hot walls rubbed his manhood. The blonde breathed heavily when the other child of Zod rubbed her pussy down onto Lara's face and she took her tongue into her again.

"Damn she's so hot," Harry grunted, and she clenched him. These hard light holograms were completely accurate and he liked that, he liked that very much.

Eventually though Faora was going to make good on her promise and she smiled pulling her pussy off of her.

Faora raised her hand, summoning her trusty strap on and placing it on.

"A dirty slut like you needs to be fucked in the ass," Faora breathed and Faora strapped on a dildo.

She made some improvements to it, to increase the pleasure for all parties involved. It still didn't beat the real model attached to Har-Zod but perfection was hard to duplicate.

She pushed herself into Lara and the blonde cried out in pleasure when Faora worked herself into Lara from behind.

"How's that?" Faora asked Lara.

Lara could barely answer for a moment. All she could focus on was the pleasure that bombarded her from both sides.

"Excellent, oh really excellent," she whimpered and the pleasure continued to excite her body.

Faora smiled, she was glad that she could drive this intelligent, driven, and quite beautiful woman to such pleasure. It caused her to feel extremely good about what her potential was. She was wasted in a marriage with someone like Jor-El, granted he did provide for her and wasn't abusive, but that was only a small portion of the battle.

"Really good!" Lara squealed, perhaps she felt greedy, but she wanted even more.

"Yes, I would have to agree," Harry grunted, joining his sister in double teaming this woman, who squealed with pleasure.

"Oh god, oh fuck, you're my gods, both of you…..well goddess," Lara whined and she felt Faora's breasts pressed against her back and Harry fondled her own breasts.

"I know that you belong to us, and I'm sure that you enjoy these moments….."

"Oh, Rao, I'm going to overload," Lara whined, biting down on her lip.

She felt even more pleasure explode through her loins with Harry's hard dick continuing its journey into her. There was something that had to give sooner or later.

Their lips were all over her as well, stuffing her from either end.

Harry grunted, the recent tweaks to the system were paying off, this tight pussy hugged his probing tool and he continued to work her over. The blonde grinded back against him with lustful desire flowing within her body.

He felt her body heat up and he brushed his fingers against her nipples. They were hard and responsive to him. Harry tweaked them and her squeals increased after a few seconds.

"Harder, please," Lara closed her eyes, once again she thought that the pleasure sensors were heightened because the amount of pleasure that she felt was mind blowing.

Faora grinned, she could sense what Lara was thinking. Both siblings double teamed the blonde and gave her so much pleasure she couldn't stand what she felt.

"We might have made a few tweaks, yes," Faora whispered in Lara's ear, flickering her tongue over it.

"Oh god, it shows, it really shows," Lara whined and she could feel Faora saw into her from behind, her ass being treated.

That was nothing compared to what Har-Zod did to her and he really put her through the paces. She could feel him deep inside her, to the point where she was sure that she was gushing. There was a certainty about the fact she gushed hard.

Her hot juices spilled out of her, coating his cock, and that allowed his path to her sweet center to be of greater ease. He grabbed her breasts and played with them, her pleasure increasing when he pushed his way into her hard from above.

Her tightening walls wrapped around him, and he pushed down into her, the response to his actions increasing. In response to her response, he picked up the pace.

"Damn, oh fuck," Lara said, snaking her hand around his arm. The blonde MILF squeezed it and encouraged him to go even harder into her. She wanted to feel him all of the way in her, there was no question about it, that's what she wanted more than anything.

"Yes, indeed," Harry agreed, and she squeezed him.

It was obvious by the movements of her body, she wanted one thing and Harry was going to give it to her in a matter of moments.

"I'm getting close myself," Faora panted, biting down on her lip with immense pleasure.

"Don't hold back, just let it go," Lara begged her lover; her mind was growing heated with anticipation, her body being put through the paces.

"I think that this installation was a success, you are fully optimal," Harry said and Lara captured his lips in a heated kiss, rolling her tongue around his mouth, as he pushed his cock into her.

His balls grew heavy with their gift and something was getting close to having to give. All he had to do was push himself to the edge, a little bit further. He increased the tempo when he brought her over the edge. His thrusts grew frantic inside her body, pushing himself over and over again into her, and she closed her eyes.

"More, deeper, again," Lara breathed and suddenly the dam burst.

Harry's balls launched their fluids into her and Lara jerked his cock off, making sure that his seed spilled into her hot and waiting body. She grinded back on him, and the pleasure continued to flow through her body.

The three laid, in the afterglow of their fun, the love juices being spilled all over the bed where they laid.

* * *

 

Three gentlemen were sitting at a table at an upscale Italian Restaurant in the heart of Gotham City. The name on the marquee was "Sal's" and it should be obvious that it belonged to the Maroni Family. It was named after the recently incarcerated leader of the mob.

Big Lou, Tony Zucco, and Eddie Skeevers sat around the table, and they were mostly here to eat but there was a fair bit of discussion on the business moving forward.

"You know, we should help Sionis take it to Thorne," Zucco said, cutting up his steak and looking at the men right there. "Thorne's about up there with the Roman and Sal, even if the two are on the bench. Therefore, we need to make sure he doesn't muscle into too much of our territory."

Big Lou actually might have mistaken Zucco for dead if he wasn't yapping. He didn't have any activity going on between his brain most of the time. That being said a blind squirrel found an acorn every now and again.

"Got a point, for once," Big Lou grunted, helping himself to some of the spaghetti. He chowed on it.

Neither Skeevers nor Zucco were going to make commentary on Big Lou's eating habits because they weren't stupid.

"Someone took down Jansen last night," Skeevers said and the two gangsters turned to him. "Beat the shit out of him, left him hanging, and not in the way most intelligent women do either."

Skeevers laughed but when he realized that no one was playing ball, he continued.

"So, the skin trade is wide open."

Big Lou slammed his fist down on the table and turned towards Skeevers. "It's wide open? Then what the fuck are you waiting for, engraved invitation?"

The intense glare caused Skeevers to shudder and stammer. "I'll…..I'll get right on it."

"Damn right you will," Big Lou said, he wasn't dicking around with something like this. That was some big business in Gotham City.

Before things could progress further, things exploded around them. The three men managed to throw themselves down on the ground and two limos pulled up.

A bunch of machine gun toting men exited the limo and began to fire on the restaurant with reckless abandon. They took no prisoners in who they attacked, even if it looked as if they only intended to send a message.

Several people who were eating fell dead in their plates and it was pretty much a massacre and one other thing was certain, any thought of taking Sal's advice to ease up had been hurled out of the window.

These fuckers made it personal and the war was now on.

* * *

 

Vicki, Kara, and Harry exited the limo, with Diana in tow, making their way to a local café. It was pretty close to the tower. It was a nice place to visit and in fact, Harry and his girls frequented it very often. Even if it was extremely foreign to Vicki, she appreciated the trip there.

"So, this is your first time being here?" Harry asked and Vicki nodded in response.

"Do you come here pretty often?" Vicki asked him and Harry smiled.

"Yes, I have."

"I've had their coffee a couple of times, my Producer brought me some," Vicki said and she shook her head with a grimace. "I don't know, my Producer seems to be pretty hacked with me for some reason."

"Why?" Kara asked, curiosity getting the better of her and Vicki just shrugged in response.

"There's something about insurance rates, and paying out of the nose to get me any coverage, I didn't really get the gist of it, but that's along the lines of what he said," Vicki said with a shrug. "I wasn't really paying attention; he was kind of walking away and mumbling when he said that."

Vicki suddenly remembered something.

"Oh and Juno Jones might be relocating to Gotham City on a full time basis," Vicki said and wicked grin crossed her face. The reason why came to her and it was quite delicious "That's got Summer's panties in a knot quite nicely."

Diana frowned; she was bit out of the loop, so she didn't really know what Vicki's issues with the other woman was. She opened her mouth to ask. Before she could speak, a hand from Kara's direction clapped her on the mouth to prevent her from talking.

Kara could sense the confused thoughts swirling around in her fellow Alpha's head and the desire to ask questions. That was all well and good. There was just one problem. She really wasn't in the mood to hear another rant from Vicki about Summer Fucking Gleeson.

Suddenly, and surprisingly, Diana bit her hand in response and that caused her to give an involuntary shudder.

' _Some weird fucking kinks, that one,'_ Donna muttered, shaking her head in amusement.

' _You know, I'm her, and I didn't even know I had that one,'_ Karen said and Patricia, who was sitting with Karen smiled. The busty blonde turned to her friend, who threw her hands up in response. _'Don't even think about it.'_

Anyway, they were here to meet Sarah, and introduce her to Vicki. Harry thought that it would be just good business to have her have a contact within the GCPD. Not to mention one that was not trying to kill her.

Vicki made all kinds of new friends in the GCPD.

Speaking of the lovely Ms. Essen, she was waiting for them, sitting at the table and casually flipping through it. There was a news story about Jansen who was found in his apartment after the police were called in.

More seriously, there was the fear that Calendar Man will strike again on Thanksgiving.

"You know, he won't do it, but it's a good thing to be vigilant," Harry said and Sarah nodded.

"Yes, best to plan for an attack that might not happen, then be unprepared for an attack that does happen," Sarah said in agreement and she turned around to greet him with a smile.

"Sarah, this is Vicki Vale, Vicki this is Sarah Essen," Harry said and the two women shook hands with each other.

"There are a lot of people in the GCPD that are real fans of your work," Sarah said, with a knowing look. Obviously they knew that it was a thinly veiled warning that there are a lot people on the Force that wanted to see her dead.

Accident or otherwise, they weren't too fussed about how.

"Yes, I'm aware," Vicki said but she saw Diana sit down, with Kara sitting down next to her, and Vicki took the seat next to Harry, who had sat down next to Sarah. "So, exactly why don't you think that this Calendar Man will strike on Thanksgiving?"

"In Psychology class this year, there is a heavy emphasis on extremely personality disorders, and this guy is a walking example for those things if I've ever seen one," Harry said and Sarah nodded. "He is one for rituals and doing his crimes coinciding with a monthly holiday is right on that ally."

"Yes, that's the consensus of the Major Crimes Unit as well," Sarah replied briskly, but that being said, she agreed that they shouldn't take any chances, in case he deviated from the past pattern.

The five of them enjoyed their coffee in silence, a few recent events had been touched on but obviously the Calendar Man killings were first and foremost on their mind.

"That being said, it looks like that it's going to be a quiet Thanksgiving," Harry said and he used that opening to shift the topic of conversation into another area. "So, I'm having Thanksgiving dinner at the Manor, and I was wondering if you would like to come."

"It might be an interesting change of pace, so I'll be there," Sarah said, she could use the downtime.

A ring on her phone brought her out of this conversation.

The downtime was not something that she would appreciate today, for she got a call.

"There's been an attack….where….at Sal's?" Sarah asked and at the same time, Vicki got the same kind of call.

There was no rest for the wicked on this day in Gotham City. An attack at a place owned by the Maronis was the furthest thing for a coincidence that one could imagine.

* * *

 

Barbara made her way back to their base of operations, she was getting the hang of how things worked around the tower and getting used to the systems. The systems were a lot for anyone to take in. It was a good thing that she was a fast learner.

That being said, the Clocktower seemed to be her home away from home or rather a third home of sorts if one wanted to be technical. She had spent a lot of time here and Nightwing and Talon flittered out, with the occasional guest appearance from Black Canary, when she was around. Never the less, they spent a lot of time there when they were not on any kind of patrol.

' _Gotham City, where the rain happens about as much as the crime,'_ Barbara thought and she made her way from the elevator, dripping wet and soaked to the bone.

The most galling thing was that it decided to wait to rain until after she got out of the car and was on her way to the tower, so she was caught out in the middle of the rain, wearing nothing but a jacket.

She was soaking wet, and she entered the Tower, inside the loft area. She stopped short and what she saw caused her eyes to bulge when it caught her off guard.

She saw Nightwing pulling the shirt on that was part of the top part of his costume but she caught a nice glimpse of his body, and she grew red. He did have a body on par of Harry's.

Nightwing was turned around for a little bit and he didn't see her at first, his costume got bent out of alignment last night. Not the damage that it had in the past, but he spent some time fixing it up this morning.

He heard something behind him with his sharp hearing and turned around to see Barbara standing there, drenched to the bone. A frown was on his face. It was obvious that she was gobsmacked, so he did his duty and helped her out.

The next thing Barbara knew, she was led by the hand, towards the nearest bathroom and he helped her out of out of her clothes, and she could feel his hands brush against her body, when he slowly stripped her and the fact that she was backed up didn't help.

"Two more months, two more fucking months," she muttered underneath her breath and Nightwing turned towards her.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," she said, her cheeks reddening as she was standing here in a pair of bra and panties, which thankfully weren't that damp.

Although if she was not careful, the panties in particular would get that way. She shook the improper thoughts that she had out of her head.

"Are you sure?" he asked and she shook her head.

"Positive," she breathed, blinking when she shuddered. More shivers grew through her mind.

The mantra was becoming one that caused her to grow completely mad.

Barbara was handed a long t-shirt that was laid around. She was thankful for it because it caused things to be more decent.

"Always keep a spare change of clothes here, in case I need it, and I think that this will be pretty good to help you cover up," Nightwing said, the shirt stretched past her knees. "Your clothes will be dry by the time that you're ready to leave for now…"

"Yes, but this will do for now," Barbara confirmed, and the two of them made their way over to the mission control area, and sat down.

"So, what's on your agenda for tonight?"

"Nothing in particular anyway, unless something happens regarding the Calendar killings, but that's been quiet…..you sure that he's not going to strike on Thanksgiving?" Barbara asked and Nightwing smiled.

"He skipped over Columbus Day and went straight to Halloween this past October, and the same with Arbor Day and September after hitting Labor Day, so…..I think that he's a once in the month villain, Nightwing said and Oracle frowned. "Right now he's gearing up for December, and that could be a problem."

"Do you think that he might strike on Christmas or…..if he celebrates a different holiday that month?" Barbara asked and that was a good question.

"Well, we're going to be prepared for what happened all month, and with each crime, more information comes in," he said and someone like that might start slipping up and leaving little subconscious clues.

This criminal had some amount of vanity although he kept it under wraps at least for now.

"So, let me just check my network to see if I have any more information," Barbara said and she frowned, there was a fair amount of old news on here, but how fast information traveled, she wasn't surprised. "And this would have been useful about two months ago."

"What?" Nightwing asked.

Oracle barely kept a laugh down. She shook her head, bemusement rang threw in her.

"It says here that Deacon Blackfire might have developed powers from being exposed to the meteors that crashed into his prison bus," Barbara said with a sigh. "That's why he had that cult like thrall over people…where he could captivate them with a mere speech and stir them up into a frenzy."

It came from one of her younger contacts, who developed an interesting, some might say an obsession with the meteor infected. It was a shame that they didn't get this a couple months ago when it would have been more useful.

Barbara stopped and received information from a girl who was called herself Athena, about the most likely identities for Batman and Nightwing. She snorted in amusement.

"Well, she did a lot of research on this one."

"Yeah, she put in some research, and time and effort," Barbara confirmed, frowning and the information was detailed. "But, you know, I'd fucking know if my boyfriend was the god damn Batman."

She averted her eyes slightly at that moment, focusing on some of the more interesting conclusions, with "Athena" dismantling the theory about how Nightwing may be a female as the ramblings of crazed mobsters who got hit in the head one too many times. There was also a fascinating theory about how Nightwing was a shape shifting dragon from an alternate dimension who could take on a form of either a male or female that Barbara had to laugh at.

The things people on the Internet discussed, well they were humorous.

' _Oh, how can we get so close, but yet get so far,'_ Dinah thought.

"Oooh, this is interesting though," Barbara said, putting that fascinating reading away for something that really sparked his interest. "Enigma has been pretty busy online lately…vague stuff right now, but something that's a cause for concern."

"How so?" Nightwing asked and she reached over, helping herself to a cup of coffee before she answered the question.

"He's been trying to gain access codes to a couple of the most restricted communication networks, and he's gotten far along enough to raise some concern," Oracle said, sipping on the cup of coffee and she could feel Nightwing's hands resting on the back of her chair. Normally she would have snapped over someone hovering, but she really didn't mind now. "The most prominent would be from Wayne Tech."

That would have piqued the interest of anyone.

* * *

 

"Remember, Miss Quinzell, most fears are rooted in the theater of the mind, therefore it's your thoughts that make them real and your nightmares that you will consume you," the man in the shadows whispered, with Harleen making her rounds around the Arkham Wing at Blackgate, taking notes.

"Um, that's nice, Doctor Crane, and yeah, this has been a really enlightening discussion," she said, the man caused shivers to go down her spine and not the good time.

The next statement he gave didn't help matters.

"Please, Harleen, call me Scarecrow," he commented but she was already out of the cell. "She fears what could happen if she looks deep into her mind, for deep inside her mind lingers demons that will corrupt the soul even of the most hardened of men. Or in this case, women."

Harleen didn't really mind making her way around the area of the wing, there were a couple of prisoners were chatty, but for the most part, they were oddly tranquil. She spent a few minutes talking to them all. Sometimes they talked back. Other times, she might as well have talked to the wall.

She rested to a stop to the last person in the Wing and he would have to be the person that would have the nicest room. Then again, why wouldn't he be, because he was the most prominent prisoner.

"Guess, you're still out of it, aren't you, Mr. Falcone," Harleen said and she peered down next to the man.

He looked to be in good shape, but he was much thinner than he was when he got in here and his eyes were vapid.

"Gotham's going to be pretty quiet this holiday season, and I think we can use a break," Harleen continued, her words nervously picking up a steadier pace. "I mean…..I guess we really can after everything that happened…..but anyway, I guess you should have a Happy Thanksgiving."

Harleen walked off but the moment she left, the Roman's eyes flashed a bit with recognition and he spoke in a low whisper.

"You have a Happy Fucking Thanksgiving yourself, doll face."

**To Be Continued on November 3** **rd** **, 2014.**

* * *

 

**Sometimes canon is stranger than any fan fiction, let's just say.**

**So for those of you who want a time table of when the watch comes ooff, there you go.**

**Does Barbara know? Well we've discussed this before.**

**Mysterious younger contact who has an obsession with the meteor infected of Smallville. Well three guesses who that is, first two don't count.**

**The Roman is up and business is about ready to pick up as well. See you next time.**


	66. Family Business

**Chapter Sixty-Six: Family Business.**

* * *

 

Nightwing bounced back to his feet and saw his enemy circle him. He had no idea really what prompted this attack. All he could tell was she was ready to go in for the kill. The crime fighter wasn't going to make it that easy. He dodged the attack, as his enemy swung a large sword, a katana, much like the name sake of the person that was attacking him.

He started to rack his mind for reasons why he was attacked but he could figure out nothing. He was attacked out of nowhere when he patrolled one of the nicer areas of Gotham City. The reasons why he was attacked, they were really lost on Nightwing at the moment, right now, he had to avoid the attacks from Katana.

The sharp cold embrace of the steal very nearly came close to impaling right through him.

' _Okay, I get attacked out of nowhere, and I'm really at a loss to exactly why,'_ he thought to himself and he jumped into the air.

The second katana swipe nearly cut his arm but the third one, showed that Nightwing was not playing around. He shifted back slightly, gripped her around the wrist. He twisted her arm, enough to give her a firm warning and disarm her. And then with one more fluid motion, he whipped her off to the side.

She went flying several feet away from him and the wind was knocked out of her when she connected to the ground. That gave Nightwing ample enough to pull out one of the throwing knives, snatching it into his hand. He held it in a reverse grip, ready for the attack.

But just as Nightwing armed himself back up, Katana did the same thing. She stood there in a sleek black body suit, with a dark mask covering her eyes, which shifted in determination. She clutched the sword in her hand and didn't even speak. She didn't seem to be among the chatty type which suited Harry fine.

The only thing that was missing was a flash of lightning behind them but both warriors stood, squaring off with each other and they charged forward.

The clang of solid steal bounced both of them off a little bit. A second attack caused neither blade to meet resistance. They exchanged numerous rapid fire slashes.

Thanks to his training, Harry was quite adept with a blade. That was something that was showcased when he blocked all of the attacks of the skilled warrior, over and over again.

That being said, he wasn't denying her abilities either, she was rather skilled. She gave about as well as she received. He had to keep on his toes. He blocked what could have been a game ending swing with her sword, and then twisted her arm back, and kicked her hard once again.

With one fluid motion, she did a forward roll, landing on her back, and then nipped up, and swung at him once again.

Both blades clashed together and it was more of a clash of wills than a clash of blades that drove both of these warriors to push each other forward in battle. Katana felt sweat roll down her face, but her determination grew greater when she stared at him with a burning gaze.

"Not one for conversation are we, well that's fine, you started this, and I'm not going to go away until this is finished," Nightwing said, and he did wonder what Katana's angle in this entire mess was.

She swung her namesake at him, the two swords clanging together in a loud movement and sweat rolled down both of their faces.

"Are you going to yield?"

He decided that answer was a big and obvious no, but he couldn't do anything else. The fight continued. The harder he fought, the more determined she looked to take him down.

Suddenly, Katana backed off and ceased her attacks. Harry didn't really understand why she did this.

' _She may have learned what she wanted to,'_ Jaime suggested, soundly extremely wary.

She was right to be wary. Suddenly several shuriken flew in Harry's direction.

He deflected them all but their inclusion into the battle was just a diversion for what would happen next, and she jumped back, sending a second volley of shuriken at him. He deflected them one more time.

A smoke bomb was dropped to the ground and clouded the area. Nightwing moved forward but she was good at mastering her surroundings and disappeared into the night as suddenly and mysteriously as she appeared.

She didn't say one word when she arrived, one word as they fight, or one word when she left. So needless to say, there was a lot of confusion as to why she attacked him in the first place.

' _Okay, things have gotten rather strange tonight,'_ Nightwing thought and he was about ready to rush forward to see if he could find out what exactly was up.

That would have to wait. Suddenly, he was stopped cold by the phone ringing.

It was Sarah, speaking at the contact number that he gave her. Harry frowned, he knew that she wouldn't call him, unless it was important. So with one fluid motion, he took the phone into his hand.

"So, what's up?" Harry asked her and Sarah was surprised to hear that he was a bit out of breath.

"What…"

"Ran into someone but they got away," Harry said, answering the unasked question and he decided to cut to the chase. "So what do you need?"

"I need to speak to you, in person as soon as possible, information is too sensitive to be talked to over the phone," Sarah replied to him.

"Exactly where?"

She was prompt to answer right away. "On top of the Gotham Central Building."

"I'll be there," Nightwing said and he prepared to move off. He had questions and he was going to have them answered in a matter of seconds.

* * *

 

Sarah waited patiently on the top of the GCPD Gotham Central building, in the early hours of the morning. It wasn't quite night, but the sun had not risen up either. Peak hours of crime had been over for a long time. Things were oddly calm. So calm that she expected something would happen.

Of course, oddly calm in Gotham City meant that there was something dangerous on the horizon. She called him a while ago and waited. It wasn't too long ago, so she reminded herself to stay patient.

' _Wants to make sure the coast is clear, that's understandable,'_ she said and she shivered slightly, the late autumn weather was dipping into the winter weather. She should be used to the worst weather weather, but living on the East Coast proved to lead to some pretty bad winters.

She reached into the pocket of her coat, fumbling with the pack of cigarettes. She was nearly out of them, so she reminded herself to get a fresh one. It wasn't like she inhaled entire packs like some members of the force did.

That being said, the only light that was visible was the lighter, when she managed to get a spark. A nasty habit, but one she could not quite kick and one that kept her from strangling certain people in her day to day life.

She was so glad she didn't have to deal with Nashton directly for example. The brief times she encountered him had been sufficient. Branden tested every bit of her patience for example, but she supposed that was the case for a lot of people. That being said, the young female cop took a drag of her cigarette.

She barely heard the sound of footsteps next to her. The sudden voice that cut through the air caused Sarah to jump into the air just a little bit.

"You know, if you keep this up, it's likely going to kill you before you hit fifty."

She turned around and saw him standing there. "Maybe that's the point…..but then again, working as a cop in Gotham City is also likely to kill me before I'm fifty."

That was a point that Nightwing had to concede.

"And it isn't like half of the force has their vices, I mean, I smoke, so does Gordon, John has an addiction to a man name Christie who makes the best cookies in all of the East Coast, and Bullock is single handily keeping donut manufactures in Gotham City in business with his eating habits, that make a pig look civilized," Sarah rattled off. She only was catching her stride. "And Montoya has a lot of rough sex with anonymous women….and…that's not getting into the members of the force who take a little off the top from what we confiscate with the drug busts…..so I guess some of us have ways of coping and it's…..well some are less than ideal than others."

"Okay fair enough," Harry conceded and he went a bit into the shadows, leaning back against the wall. "What do you need to talk to me about?"

"I don't mean to ruin your night, but the Roman came out of his coma last night, and his lawyer pulled some legal bullshit," Sarah said and there was really no response for that one. Harry crisply nodded and she took that as the opportunity to press forward. "He's been held for too long, without going to trial, so he's going to walk first thing in the morning, no questions asked."

Harry whistled suddenly at that statement.

"A problem, but not surprising," Nightwing said after a few seconds thought.

' _Well to be fair, I think that we could kiss the calm before the storm good bye, because there's a storm coming, with the Roman back in town'_ Dinah thought and there was really no question about that one.

Harry figured out that much, the Roman was going to make up for lost time. Given what happened regarding the Carmine Hotel, the man lost a lot of time.

"You don't seem surprised that he got away without any trouble," Sarah said, bringing his attention back around to her.

"Not really," Harry replied in an honest and candid voice. He arched an eyebrow. "Are you?"

"Given what I've seen go on in Gotham City, I don't think that anyone could be too surprised," Sarah said.

From the shadows, Nightwing gave an extremely brief smile. "Very true, I'll keep in touch."

' _The entire game plan might have changed,'_ Harry thought, and it was not as if he had enough problems to deal with.

' _With the Roman back in town, it's only a matter of time before he returns to the territory that he lost,'_ Jaime thought, and she wondered how much of his condition was a put on to get some time off and how much of it was real.

It started real but she was sure that someone like that needed a break from the hustle and bustle of the Gotham City underworld.

' _We'll deal with this, just like we deal with anything else,'_ Nightwing thought.

He wondered if the Roman understood how much Gotham City changed since had been put out in a cationic state.

' _He might be in for a rude awakening,'_ Faora thought but they were all going to sit back and see how this show played out.

' _So do you have any idea why Katana attacked you?'_ Kara asked and Harry frowned.

' _A couple of theories, but nothing concrete, she wasn't parting too much for any information, but one problem at a time,'_ Harry thought tensely.

It went without saying that the Roman was a huge problem that they needed to deal with and soon before he spilled all over Gotham City.

* * *

 

Carmine Falcone exited Blackgate Prison, smooth and sophisticated, despite the fact that he was a bit thinner than he was before he went in. But nothing but a few good meals could fix.

He saw Alberto and Mario waiting for him, respectful as always, and his nephew Johnny Vitti, who tried to look sophisticated, but he was pulling off nothing more than a dopey look. Carmine didn't bother himself for it, he allowed himself a nice spring in his step.

"It's good to see you boys are all in healthy spirits," Carmine said in a jovial tone and he took half of a step forward. Despite the fact that there were differences in the family, just like there would be differences in any family, there was nothing that could ruin his good mood. He greeted both of his boys and then turned. "Johnny, it's been too long, hasn't it?"

Johnny nodded, focusing his eyes on his Uncle.

"How is your mother doing in Chicago?" Carmine asked and his bodyguard made his way over to his side. Carmine leaned over a very stylish looking cane, not quite gaudy enough to be classified as a pimp cane, but it was certainly something special.

"Good, I think," Johnny said in his usual dopey voice.

"Well that's decisive statement if there ever was one," Alberto said, keeping his voice high enough so he could take a careful jab on Johnny, but not high enough where his father could hear it.

"It's been a long time, and I want to know, what's going on with the business in Gotham City."

Mario and Alberto exchanged a tense look at each other, they knew this was coming but it didn't mean that they were going to like it.

"Well boys," Carmine said and he looked at both of his sons, with Johnny sitting down on the limo far away from the situation. Alberto and Mario took seats on either side of their father.

"There have been some problems…" Mario said and he drew a deep breath, talking about the situation. "There's some big shot that names Sionis….."

"Roman Sionis, one of Gotham's elite," Carmine said in recognition and Mario nodded in confirmation. He didn't see him to be the type that would have mob aspirations but that just went to show you.

His sons began to give him a full status report of what was happening, each piece of news more damning than the last.

"Don't forget to tell him about that chick Nightwing," Johnny said and Alberto gave him a look that indicated that he better just shut the fuck up while he was ahead. Never one to be quick witted, Johnny opened his mouth. "And then there was Zucco and his boys at the hotel and….."

"You lost the Carmine Hotel," Falcone whispered, managing to put two and two together.

"We were just getting to that," Mario said, shooting his cousin one of those looks before returning his gaze to his father. "It was Zucco, he ambushed us, we lost a lot of men on that day."

"That hotel was in our family for generations and you go and lose it," Carmine said and the man snapped his fingers. "Just where is your sister and Bobby Gazzo in all of this?"

"Gazzo's dealing with a turf war in Metropolis, Ugly Mannheim and the rest of Intergang is causing all kinds of shit," Mario commented and Falcone raised an eyebrow. "And Sofia is back in Sicily with her dying husband."

This was more news to Falcone and he looked at his son. "What is he dying of?"

It was Johnny who chimed in. "Stomach cancer or something."

All Carmine did was grunt in response and he turned to Mario. "Call Sofia and tell her that her father wants her ass to get back here, yesterday."

"Right right, I'll do it," Mario said, it wasn't as if he would be able to deny a request like that.

"So, what's up with Selina?" Carmine asked and he noticed that Mario grew rather uncomfortable at her name.

"Well, we had a falling out," he said delicately, choosing his words.

Carmine grunted in response. "That's too fucking bad, but that's not what I fucking asked…..what's her condition."

"She's alive," Alberto said, speaking up for the first time. "And she ended up getting into bed with Harry Fucking Potter of all people, they went into a partnership to buy out the Cat's Cradle from the previous owners."

Carmine didn't really have much to say about it, Harry Potter was an interesting player on the chess board in Gotham City. He would have to find out where this young man's angle was in due time.

* * *

 

The limo pulled up in front of the Gotham Royal Hotel. Carmine wasn't pleased about losing his grandfather's hotel to Maroni's faction.

That being said, the Roman, despite being on the shelf for some time, still had a great deal of pull in the city, and his hands in a lot of pies. He contacted the General Manager of the Royal, and had him clear out the Penthouse for his own personal use. Sure enough, there were a lot of members of the Press arriving.

Which the Roman was glad of, his return should have been documented for the world to see and he exited the limo, followed by Alberto, Mario, Johnny, and his bodyguards.

As it turned out, the Press weren't the only ones there. Alberto surveyed the scene and saw some of the Gotham's elite out in force. He saw Bruce Wayne and he smiled, the Falcones and the Waynes had history going way back. He was pretty sure that he got a glimpse of Harry Potter, and there was Vicki Vale. No doubt she would make a lot of it.

The Roman had been in this business a long time to know that any press was good press. There was another reason why he called this press conference. It would let his enemies and allies alike know that he was back in town and he wasn't taking any shit at all. He frowned, when he saw some potential rivals in Roman Sionis and Oswald Cobblepot.

He took note to see that Cobblepot was pissed off. Given how the opening of his club did not go as planned, the Roman summarized that he had a lot to be pissed off about in this day and age.

It was some time before the Roman fought his way through the various members of the Press and by that time, Harry Potter was standing on the roof of a building across the street, with Diana standing beside him. He peered down on the impromptu Press Conference below. He watched it, deep in thought.

' _I can't really help but compare this to a King holding Court after a long winter,'_ Harry thought, shaking his head in amusement.

He was giving a speech and doing the respectable businessman thing. A few people might buy it. For others it was some bullshit that sounded really good. As a result he came out smelling like roses, despite being completely and totally full of shit.

"On par with the Waynes, Cobblepots, and Potters, really," Diana muttered and Harry smiled.

"For what it's worth, the Falcones are resources wise, personality wise on the other hand, the Cobblepots more or less."

Harry caught a glimpse of Selina, who was standing in the midst of the crowd, keeping her eyes fixed on Carmine and Mario. He saw her eyes shift in malice. Her head turned around to fix on Harry, who was standing on the roof.

Their eyes met for a brief moment, before Selina turned her attention back to the scene of the Roman making his return to the public eye in Gotham City after being away for their health.

It angered her to see how some hailed him as a conquering hero.

* * *

 

While the Roman was holding court, this seemed to be the perfect opportunity to strike and strike hard. An individual with a Bozo the Clown mask, with a red hood pulled over his head, along with a hooded sweatshirt to match, sauntered onto the scene. He was outside of the bank.

"Okay, boys, get ready, because we're going to blow this one sky high," the man in the Bozo the Clown mask said and he scoped the entrance of the bank.

The Ex-President Gang had gained new life as the Red Hood Gang; well most of the original members were in prison. It was obvious that the lone member of the gang that had escaped custody after the incident that Vicki Vale got kidnapped was the one that was wearing the Bozo the Clown mask.

"Okay, Happy, Dopey, Chuckles, Grumpy, you boys know what to do," "Bozo" said and the four clowns exited the car, wearing masks with black suits, and they toted machine guns as well. There was a fifth clown that was driving the truck. "Krusty…"

"Krusty the Clown" turned towards him. "Yeah, boss?"

"Make sure you keep a nice eye on the truck, make sure no one else takes it for a ride," "Bozo" said and he led his men into the bank.

There were very few people inside. "Bozo" smiled, he would make these people remember what happened for the rest of his life.

"Krusty, I got a better idea, they say the Roman is back in town, well…..time for us to pay our proper respects," Bozo said and the other clowns turned around. "Okay, you goons, stand back….and let's break down the door of this bank."

The clowns backed off, the Red Hood Gang kept returning in new and more dangerous forms, like a really bad STD that would not go away.

Krusty moved over, seeing a garbage truck that belonged to Falcone's Garbage Sanitation service. He entered the truck.

"Gun that motherfucker," Bozo cheered and said motherfucker was gunned and it was gunned hard, smashing through the front entrance.

There were screams from the people who were piled up in the bank, and the tellers screamed in terror.

The clowns made their way into the bank, all of them laughing like mad people. The security guard fired his shotgun and blasted Chuckles away.

The Red Hood Gang responded by unloading their guns into the security guard. "Dopey" held a large chain in his hand and the other clowns put their guns on the bank employees.

"Alright, Krusty, gun that mother fucker!" "Bozo" yelled and the vault was ripped completely open.

Happy and Dopey moved into the vault, carrying four duffle bags between the two of them.

"Fill her up, Krusty get rid of that fucking truck, and bring the car back around," Bozo ordered and Krusty nodded, backing the garbage truck back over, not carrying who he hit.

Happy and Dopey filled the bags up with money, while Bozo and Grumpy ordered the door. Chuckles laid on the ground, dead.

"A moment of silence for Chuckles, a dumb bastard who got himself shot," Bozo muttered in a somber voice before he did a complete about face. "You got the loot, let's get out of there!"

The quartet of clowns made their way out of the building, where Krusty was waiting for them at the entrance with the getaway car.

"Did you get rid of that truck?" Bozo asked him and Krusty pointed one gnarled finger to the building across the street, where he had gotten rid of the truck. "Good, about time you fuckheads did something right, let's get the fuck out of here."

The Red Hood Gang escaped before the police had any idea what happened. They would be long gone, well most of them would be, before they would approach the scene of the crime.

* * *

 

Harry sit himself in the passenger seat of his car, with Diana doing the driving, and they were on their way to the Manor, where there would be an extremely large get together for Thanksgiving and it was going to be a family affair.

"There's going to be a lot of people coming by, aren't there?" Diana asked and Harry nodded.

"It's going to be a bit of a madhouse, yes," Harry agreed, reclining back in the seat of the limo. "Everyone is going to bring a Plus One but…..that's not the point, we kind of had a damper put on the holiday a little bit."

' _No kidding, with the Roman out and about,'_ Dinah thought and she sighed. _'Thought that he might never wake up, but you don't want to count someone like that out.'_

' _And we have another problem coming up with Christmas around the corner,'_ Jaime reminded them all.

' _Our nutcase Calendar Killer is just bound to strike again,'_ Kara added and she shook her head. _'What does he have up his sleeve this time?'_

' _I suspect for maximum impact, it might be Christmas themed,'_ Harry thought, in deep contemplation of that. _'And there is a possibility that he might have celebrated another holiday, but I'm not sure about that.'_

' _So some sick as hell rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas maybe?'_ Karen suggested and Lily and Rose turned to each other.

' _It looks to be that way, and that could have maximum casualties if the killer goes down that road,'_ Lily thought and she sighed. _'But with the Roman back in town, things are going to get heated.'_

' _We could get some extra eyes and ears in there, you know in the various different camps,'_ Faora suggested and she smiled in response.

' _Oh, do you think that something like that would work?'_ Pamela asked, chiming in response.

' _It's bound to work I think,'_ Hippolyta suggested. _'That way, we can collect information into different camps, if it's of particular importance.'_

' _It's a pretty good idea,'_ Diana said and Harry frowned.

' _Maybe, but it does seem like it's a good idea in theory, but really not so much in practice,'_ Harry thought and he brushed the strand of hair away from his face.

' _And after what happened last time, we should increase the security around the girls at GPA,'_ Kara thought and they all knew that she was referring to the Cobblepot incident.

The principals involved handled that situation well. It could have gone much worse.

' _Yeah, we got out of things nicely…..but you know now what's to stop the Penguin from trying something like that again?'_ Rose asked. She really wished she could ring the neck of that foul fowl, and if given half of a chance, she certainly would have.

' _We'll do it, a public bodyguard, in addition to the private one that we have, and as an added layer of security, we'll assign Penny as their full time driver,'_ Harry thought, which caused Penny to chime in.

' _What about…'_

' _Don't worry about me, I much prefer to drive myself around anyway,'_ Harry thought.

' _Granted, it's going to be odd, someone of your net worth driving yourself around,'_ Karen suggested and that was agreed by all.

Before they could get any further along this line of conversation, Harry's cell phone rings. He looked over, seeing the computer which told him who was calling. He was taken aback by who called. It was Sam Lane of all people.

' _Hmm, that's very interesting,'_ Harry thought, picking up the phone and then answering it.

"What can I do for you, General?" Harry asked in a respectful voice, and that caused the man on the other end of the phone to be put completely off guard.

Harry could tell that wasn't the response that he expected.

The General seemed to be rather put off, and it was obvious that he might not have expected Harry to answer the phone in such a way. "I have….a favor to ask you regarding Lois."

"What is it?" Harry asked him and the General proceeded to explain the situation to him.

"I'm being temporarily reassigned to Germany for several months, and I'd rather not uproot her," Lane said and Harry listened in closely. "I was hoping that you would look after her."

"Sure, I'd take her in," Harry said, without even thinking about it. "For about how long?"

"Anywhere, from about three to six months, it depends on a couple of factors," Lane responded gruffly. "And I can't go into those factors, unless you sign a confidentiality agreement."

Harry figured that it was big time. Something like that needed a confidential agreement would be serious.

"I'll sign whatever you need," Harry replied. "And I'll be happy to take her in regardless of the circumstances."

"Right, thank you for your help…..and….could you….."

"It's on my way there," Harry said with a smile, even though it could not be seen on the other end of the phone.

* * *

 

Sometime later, Harry and Diana pulled up to the Apartment complex, where Lois lives with her father. The moment arrived they found Lois waiting with her father's aide.

' _So what's Lane's aide's name again?'_ Lily asked.

' _Coulson, I think, Phil Coulson or something like that,'_ Diana commented.

' _Figures, I swear every single male aide in the government is named Coulson, they must mass produce them in a factory or something,'_ Rose thought shaking her head.

Diana and Harry got out of the car and saw Lois there. The twelve year old girl was packed and ready to go. She alternated with pacing back and forth, and then she bounced on one foot, to the other, looking rather hyperactive. There were several large bags that were packed up next to her.

"HARRY!" Lois yelled, seeing that he showed up and she nearly bombarded him with a hug in excitement. Diana arched an eyebrow and Lois continued as an afterthought. "And Diana, too!"

Diana could not help but be amused. Then again she had little sisters.

She greeted them both with a hug. "Oh this is going to be so awesome, I can't believe it, I mean, the General…normally he takes me off but I guess that he must really like you or something, to allow me to say with you, he doesn't like that many people."

"So, you're pretty excited to go there, aren't you, Lois?" Harry asked her and Lois nodded. She began to chatter away, much to the amusement of Diana, who cleared her throat. "Why don't you help Lois get her bags to the car?"

Diana did so, left alone with the overexcited twelve year old girl. Thankfully the fact that she had younger sisters caused Diana to be able to handle anything that Lois bombarded her way.

"So, do you have anything for me to sign?" Harry asked quietly and Coulson nodded in response.

"Just some papers to make you Lois's legal guardian in the General's absence," Coulson said and Harry nodded, that made sense, although that did raise an eyebrow.

That being said, he prepared to sign the legal documents. He noticed that if anything happened, Lois would have the choice with staying with Harry permanently, or going to live with her Uncle.

"Thank you," Coulson replied and Harry looked at him.

"Would that be all?" Harry asked and he nodded in affirmation.

"Yes, that would be all, I got to get going…I have to meet General Lane at the airport, we've got an early flight out," Coulson said and he moved in to a car that was waiting.

Lois was still eagerly chattering away, as Harry got into the car, with amusement dancing through his eyes.

* * *

 

An hour later, Harry and Diana made their way to the Mansion, with Lois bouncing in behind them, as happy as can be.

Trying to keep himself from being amused, Harry reached into his pocket, fishing his key out and opened the door, to push it open.

He looked forward and smiled, there was a sight that he didn't see every day, Bruce Wayne was in the living room, making animated conversation with Amanda and Emily.

' _Should I be concerned, or should I be intrigued,'_ Diana thought.

More people would be flittering in sooner rather than later.

"Perhaps we should thank Miss Vreeland for the idea to merge the Wayne and Potter thanksgiving festivities together," Alfred said turning up; he had been chatting with Penny in the corner, catching up on old times.

"Well thank you Alfred, I figured that would be a lot less stress on all sides, and besides, I think that the extended family of the Gotham City Elite should get together," Veronica said, turning up with Bunny in tow, who smiled. "Daddy couldn't make it…..you know how that is."

She went forward, and greeted Harry with a lengthy hug, and then she stole a quick kiss from him. Bunny looked at her, and tapped her foot impatiently.

Amanda looked up in amusement and gave the younger Vreeland sister a sympathetic look.

"So, the Kanes should be arriving momentarily, shouldn't they?" Amanda asked Bruce. "Bette mentioned something about it…"

"They should be swinging by…..unless there is….."

Kathy turned up just as if on cue, with Veronica finally detaching herself away from Harry to greet her, and Bette followed. Kate followed on in moments later.

Bunny was cut off at the pass, when there was a group of girls that had moved in front of her. Donna rushed over to greet Harry, after meeting her mother and Lyta at the front door. Lyta decided to greet her sister and Harry quite excitedly. The Sandsmarks joined the group sometime later.

Harry looked over the crowd, things were filing in pretty fast, so he decided to get Lois settled into an empty room that was right across from where the twins slept.

Obviously these kinds of get togethers could get extremely hectic and Harry was expecting a lot of people there.

He made his way back down after getting things situated, and showing Lois up to her room.

"You have a lot of people here, don't you?" Lois asked, the young girl was completely awestruck at the group of people, and she made her way over through the chaos into the corner, where Bette, Bunny, and Cassie were all hanging out.

"So, I didn't think that there would be these many people here," Kate said as she bumped into Harry when he made his way into the room.

"I guess you throw out an invitation and say that the Potters and the Waynes are hosting a get together, and there are a lot of people who come crawling out of the woodwork," Harry said and Kate looked him over with a smile on her face.

"Bette seems to want to get you cornered for some reason, but she keeps getting cock blocked," Kate said and she could see that there were too many people around. "So, Alex and I were talking over…..I have to say, the Red Sun is really hitting big."

"It's just the beginning."

Kate looked at him once again and it was obvious that she was trying to figure out something in her mind. Her sexual orientation was for the most part geared towards other women but yet she was attracted to him. It really confused her to some level.

"So, there are a lot of women who find themselves around you," Kate said, trying to look him over and sighing when she gazed into his eyes.

' _Guess she's trying to figure out where she really stands with you,'_ Faora thought, watching the show in amusement.

"Yes, they do," Harry said and he tried not to look too entirely smug about the situation, because really it was just business as usual for him anyway. "So, I hear that you're currently attending West Point?"

"Yes," she said, and she was caught off guard by how good in shape he was. "Sorry….it's just that…..well I'm kind of surprised that you're in good shape….no offense…..and Kathy told me about the Motorcycle accident you were in a while back."

"I've made a full recovery," Harry said and once again Kate smiled at him.

"Trust me, you're better off because of it it," Kate said and she looked over him.

"I work out fairly often, you got to keep on top of things if you want any kind of longevity," Harry said and Kate smiled despite herself. It was hard for her to keep any level of focus. "So, you're back from the holidays at West Point? How are you doing?"

Kate began to get into things but she couldn't get too far, when Faora made her way forward and pulled Kate off to continue a conversation that they were having earlier.

Helena and Hippolyta were talking with each other off in the corner, both women had been maintaining a correspondence with each other, given that they have a fair bit that they could talk about.

"So, you would like to do that?" Helena asked, surprised.

"It would be an onshore to fund your next field survey, I know that Harry has already offered to do so, but I figured that I would give him a little bit of a relief," Hippolyta said and she could see Lyta, Lois, and Cassie all in conversation about something or other. "Ah, they can be rather spirited at any age…"

"I'm sure that she gets it from me, but I can't recall, hopefully it doesn't come from her father's side of the family, the poor girl will be doomed," Helena said and Hippolyta raised an eyebrow in response.

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened to her….."

"Her father…..well it amounted to about a month or two of sub-par sex, really I found paint drying to be more interesting and maybe even more arousing," Helena said and Hippolyta nodded in a sympathetic matter. "And the moment that Cassie was born, he vanished into the night."

"Sounds like the relationship I had with Diana and Donna's father, all of the action, not good action, and none of the responsibility," Hippolyta and she smiled. "Lyta's father has been a lot better amount things, though he was rather young when it happened, and he turned out to be a good father despite that. Guess third time is the charm, isn't it?"

"I guess so," Helena said but her relationships had been such a disaster area that she didn't even want to think about.

Harry could see Lyta, Lois, and Cassie talk and incoming dread was about ready to hit him, when he realized that there would come a day where they would be about the same age as the twins would be.

' _Well, that won't be good,'_ Harry thought to himself with a grimace.

"Harry, you haven't met the rest of my family, have you?" Lucius asked, guiding him over, and pointed them all out. "There's Tanya, my wife….."

"A pleasure to meet you Doctor Potter, Lucius has told me so much about you," Tanya said and she shook hands away.

"And Lucas….."

"Luke, I've heard a great bit about you from Tamara," Harry said and he shook hands with the young boy.

"And I've heard a great deal likewise with you as well," Lucas said with a shake of his hand.

"And this little bundle of trouble is Tiffany," Lucius said, pointing out the six year old girl who was presently behind her mother's leg. "And my teenage son, Tim couldn't make it, and he had better things to do tonight."

Rebellious teenager phase, say no more, say no more. Harry made his way over from the hustle and bustle from of the party, making his way to the kitchen.

"Harry, you haven't met Tatsu, have you?" Penny asked and Harry smiled.

"I would have recalled if I would have met someone like that," Harry said with a smile and he walked over to greet the woman. "A pleasure to meet you, Tatsu."

"Likewise, Doctor Potter, you have an extraordinarily loud set of house guests," she commented and Harry smiled knowingly.

"We were just talking, getting caught up, and we haven't seen Julia in a while either," Penny said and suddenly there was a second where Harry turned towards her, a questioning glance on her face. "Uncle Alfred's daughter."

Kara, who had just shown up to cuddle with her Harry for a little bit stopped, surprised by the news that Alfred had a daughter. "Huh, I honestly thought that he was gay."

* * *

 

Harry and Bruce were settled down, about ready to have a nice conversation that didn't revolve around business for once, both the day job and the night job.

They were near the front door and Harry heard a knock on the door and he excused himself walking over to the door and pulling it open.

Selina was on the other side of the door, with Holly; she was fairly conspicuous by her absence so far today.

"I hope that I'm not too late," Selina said and she moved towards Harry, kissing him the cheek and they she slipped passed him, with Holly making her way to join the extended family.

**To Be Continued on November 6** **th** **2014.**

* * *

 

**The fight between Nightwing and Katana kicks off the chapter. What did Harry do? Well technically what happened wasn't Harry's fault, if you catch my drift.**

**So the Roman is back in town and taking names. Mario's response to what happened to Selina, talk about being in an uncomfortable position. The messed up Falcone family dynamic gets plenty of showcase, and well the insanity is just to come.**

**Lois moves in with Harry for a few months. Mind out of the gutter, please, she's only twelve. Give things a few more years.**

**In many ways this was a transitional chapter before a very big arc that is coming. Really a bridge between two big arcs, the origins of Catwoman and the next arc, which shit goes down big time.**

**Speaking of Selina, she knows how to make an entrance.**

**The Ex-President Gang(or what is left of them) resurrect as the Red Hood Gang. And they're now dressed as clowns. Curious, or red herring? You be the judge.**


	67. Mysterious Mystery Of....Part One

**Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Mysterious Mystery Of.....Part One.**

* * *

 

It was a bright and sunny day, which was a rarity in Gotham City. It was something to be enjoyed why it lasts.

"So, I take it that you're ready for this trip?"

Kara nodded away, looking extremely excited about the fact. She was bouncing up and down with a lot of energy that was nearly intoxicating when she swayed her hips back and forth before Harry. That caused him to raise his eyebrow and look at her.

Not that caused Kara to cease her actions, far from it in fact.

The two of them were going to catch an early flight out to Metropolis with Faora and Karen, and then after they got there, Harry and Kara were going to drive up to the Kent Farm.

"Yes, I can't say to see my cousin, to see how he's doing, see if his development is getting any better," Kara said and she frowned.

She didn't really want to talk about it but the means that he was sent to Earth was not the most ideal. Jor-El sending him in that small rocket ship could have had greater long term consequences to his potential then even Kara wanted to remember.

Granted, she couldn't even begin to think what her uncle was thinking. Only he was the one that knew.

"Well, that's good, I know that you were concerned about that," Harry said, taking a break from packing to throw his arm over his Alpha's shoulder and pull her in closer to him. "I want to check in with Nell and Lana, see how things are doing here, and…"

Harry managed to continue the laborious task of packing, with his arm around his wife's shoulder, and smiled.

"Also, going to need to spend some time with Patricia, it's been too long since we got together," Harry said, smiling.

The two of them had to pack, but Karen and Faora didn't, considering that they made the trip pretty much every day. Therefore it was just a bit more simpler to have clothes at both locations.

"Maybe we should think about what Faora and Karen do, and have clothes there," Kara suggested and Harry smiled.

"We don't make the trip nearly enough," Harry told her and Kara shrugged.

"I know that, but we could be someday…..but anyway, this is going to be awesome, you know that I love Gotham City," Kara said, crossing her arms over her chest with a wicked smile.

"I think despite all of its flaws, we all do love Gotham City in its weird ways," Harry stated calmly.

It was home in its own twisted way. At the same time when things got rough he wanted nothing better than to take a long vacation away from the city. It could get rather frustrating to deal with, even for a person who saw the finer things and qualities in the city.

"But it will be good for a change of scenery, a nice burst of country life, the good life," Kara said with a sigh, and she smiled. "Plus, we can get away from the insanity that has been happening, and I doubt that anything…..too dangerous will happen."

Kara's eyes averted to Harry suddenly and she managed to return to hitting her stride, chattering away.

"But anyway, I think that we're all packed, let me double check to make sure we have everything, sure I can get back here faster than a speeding bullet if I missed something but it's kind of the principle of the matter, you know," Kara answered and Harry smiled at his wife, she was really excited for this trip. "And you know you're looking forward to this trip almost as much as I am."

"Just almost?" Harry asked her with a raised eyebrow but he would have to concede that Kara did in fact have a point.

"And…..that does remind me of something, speaking of trips," Kara said and it hit her faster than a speeding bullet right to the fact. Which might have hurt if she wasn't Kryptonian. "You still owe Zatanna a proper honeymoon, you know, because the Penguin kind of ruined the last one with his kidnapping plot….okay he completely ruined it, and sure you blew up his club in retaliation….."

Harry chuckled in remembrance that was a day that he wouldn't forget.

"Believe me, I haven't forgotten," Harry said, he had it in the back of his mind and he wanted to surprise Zatanna with it, so he closed off her access to the loop temporarily. She was currently in bed from what he could feel, so it wasn't like she could patch into the bond link. "But it's going to have to wait until after Christmas. Rest assures, I have something planned."

"So, I'm to assume that we're not going to tell her," Kara said and Harry grinned at his youngest Alpha.

"You really got that one, but yes, that's the plan, it was supposed to a surprise."

Kara continued to pack but Karen made her way into the room, wearing an extremely tight white t-shirt and a pair of tight jean shorts to match, with no shoes.

"About packed up?" Karen asked.

"Nearly," Kara said and she sped through the process a little bit more, making sure that she had everything packed up. She beamed with excitement, with Karen grinning when she perched herself on the edge of the bed.

"I can see that you have a whole lot of added energy for this trip," Karen commented and she pulled Kara onto her lap.

At first the younger girl gave a scream of protest, but then she realized how comfortable that she felt and she just went with it. A shifty little grin appeared on her face and suddenly, she nuzzled her face between her older counterpart's breasts.

In one swift motion, Karen made Kara motor board her.

Harry looked amused at the sight, especially with Karen shivering but he cleared his head suddenly.

"So, do you have plans to meet with anyone other than Patricia, Lana, and Nell?" Karen asked, shifting her younger sister into her lap.

"You're talking about Lex, aren't you?" Harry asked her and Karen shifted with a nice little nod. "Perhaps, we've kept in touch, it depends on if our schedules align properly."

"I see," Karen said, that did make a lot of sense.

She wasn't really that fond of anyone with the last name of Luthor. For the reasons of what happened back in her world.

"In any event, I believe that Lex is still up at Excelsior, as far as I know, and I doubt very much that he'd be spending any kind of family get together with Lionel if he could help it," Harry said and he finished packing things up.

He could hear a moan on the bed, and he could see Karen's hands roaming underneath Kara's shirt. That was an alluring sight to say the very least and Harry, without any preamble, stepped to the side to join his beautiful blonde wives.

Kara closed her eyes and felt Karen's hands roam down her body, and her shirt was being pulled off. Her red bra was unsnapped to reveal her amazing and youthful breasts, with nice nipples that stuck out before her.

"Beautiful," Karen whispered, feeling up her younger double's breasts.

She smiled, licking her lips and making sure to get a nice good look at the blonde's smaller but still pretty sizeable breasts. She ran her hands all over Kara's body and caused her to whimper in pleasure.

"It feels so good," Kara panted and Karen grinned at her, working her hands all over the young blonde's body.

The older bustier blonde decided to work her younger counterpart up into a frenzy and make her feel completely good.

"I know it does," Karen said and she smiled, with Harry pulling Kara's skirt over her legs and her panties were soaked.

"Hold her for me Karen," Harry said and Kara was gushing with pleasure, and he pealed her panties back to reveal her dripping hot slit.

Harry slowly ran circles around her clit and Karen attacked her breasts, before deciding to push Kara back onto the bed.

"Time to eat," Karen said with a wicked grin.

She bent down, giving Kara a passionate kiss, which her younger sister returned, the blonde pushing her tongue against Karen's, and there was a second where she tried to force her tongue down Karen's throat. Karen returned fire with her own extremely heated kiss and her tongue pushed down the beautiful blonde's throat.

Karen could feel the pleasure rise through her body and she needed a tongue in her, her younger sister would do nicely.

Kara was nearly distracted by her older counterpart's pussy pushing onto her mouth, but Harry pumping his fingers in and out of her.

Harry smiled, watching Karen forcing her pussy onto Kara's mouth and causing the younger blonde to eat it, which she did with extreme intensity.

Kara moaned into Karen's pussy, when Harry pumped into her fingers. His intense motions increased the more he worked into her. The blonde panted when he continued to work into her.

"Fuck her, I can't wait," Karen breathed and Kara's legs spread hungrily and wantonly, his cock throbbing and ready for her.

The green eyed wizard placed his hands on his Alpha's thighs, and decided to reach forward and pull Karen's shirt open to reveal her amazing breasts, her nipples poking out for him.

Karen squealed when Harry squeezed them, applying an ample amount of pressure on her which drove her completely nuts and Harry's manhood pushed against Kara's walls.

Kara's legs parted to accommodate Harry's cock and she felt so full when he entered her as always. The blonde's legs wrapped around his thighs and he grabbed her by the legs, pumping himself into her juicy dripping cunt. Her core hugged his manhood when he pushed his way deep down between her hot thighs and he kept pumping his way into her, the blonde feeling the pleasure when he entered her, slamming his cock into her body over and over again.

"That's good, fuck her, fuck her hard," Karen encouraged Harry and she grinded her pussy on Kara's face, encouraging the younger blonde to lap up the juices.

The younger blonde rose to the challenge quite nicely. The blonde's tongue caressed Karen's dripping slit and she continued to suck down the juices, she was so hungry.

Karen moaned with Kara feasting on her juices like she was a dying woman. Her greedy eyes traveled to another central location She watched Harry's cock slam into Kara, making her his again and again. Greedily, the busty blonde watched the progress of her husband's cock inside her fellow Alpha, and Kara clenched him when she worked down onto him.

' _Fuck,'_ Kara moaned suddenly and she pushed her hips up, meeting his manhood and shoving him deep down into her.

The blonde clenched her walls around his throbbing tool. He worked himself into her, going harder and harder, the blonde tightening her walls around his tool and she worked him down into him.

"I think that she's had enough," Karen whispered.

' _What, no I haven't,'_ Kara said and she nearly bit her lips in pouted.

The pout was short lived. Suddenly she screamed in delight with Harry ramming himself into her even hard. Karen was feeding her with her juices and the blonde could feel herself pinned down and dominated, and she loved every single moment of it.

Harry groaned, her tight pussy was about ready to render him into cumming. Their loins clashing together was pure magic and he ran his hands all over her body, and then ran his hands over Karen's as well, stopping underneath her breasts and pulling back.

"Fucking tease," Karen moaned and suddenly, Harry could feel Kara tense up around him, her tight walls threatened to forcefully milk all of his cum out of his balls.

Harry placed his hands on either side of her legs, and nearly pulled all the way out of her, which caused Kara to whine.

"I think that she's addicted to my cock," Harry whispered.

He licked her lips, seeing Karen bend down and lick Kara's sweaty breasts, which was an erotic sight.

"I think that you might be right, honey," Karen said and she pushed her pussy down onto Kara's mouth and Kara took the juices into her mouth, sucking them all down as much as she could.

The blonde whimpered in absolute delight and Harry held onto her hips, pushing her hot walls down onto his throbbing tool. Her walls closed tightly around his manhood and he was this close to implanting his gift into her body.

The heat rose between the two young lovers. The blonde rolled her hips up, matching his actions, stroke by stroke. He pumped himself into her and something had to give.

His balls tightened and he fired a hot rush of cum deep into her body. Kara had another extremely mind shattering orgasm when he injected his gift into her body.

The blonde shuddered, dropping down with pleasure and Karen sauntered over.

"I think I better return the favor," Karen said, she was going absolutely damp watching Harry's cum dribble out from between Kara's thighs. The blonde looked delicious enough to eat, she could barely hold herself back.

The blonde licked her way around her lips and then she shoved her tongue deep between Kara's legs, causing her to squeal in delight.

Harry could see Karen's thighs spread invitingly and he wouldn't be one to turn down such a glorious invitation if he could say so himself. His green eyes traveled over her hips which spread deliciously for him, encouraging his cock.

Karen waited and sure enough Harry swallowed the bait, right when her pussy swallowed his cock. He rammed into her from behind. The young man made sure to touch every part of her body. His hands pushed all the way over her body, and her whimpering increasing when he continued to hammer into her.

' _Such a fucking good time,'_ Karen moaned, her mouth was too busy working over Kara's pussy. Harry slowed her orgasm to a crawl and then let it go when she least expected it, maximizing the pleasure for her body.

"Clean my dirty pussy out, please, oh that feels good, the best kind of masturbation," Kara moaned, rubbing her tits. She felt a spark when Karen used her tongue furiously on Kara's twat, licking her and drawing more of her juices into her mouth.

"Well the lady knows what she wants," Harry said, pushing his hands all over Karen's breasts and the blonde closed her eyes, with Harry dribbling into her from behind.

Karen cooed hungrily, with his manhood drilling into her from behind and the blonde was feeling her nerve endings escalate. The green eyed wizard plowed into her from behind, ramming his cock into her body.

She gripped onto Kara's thighs and continued to suck the combined juices of her and Harry out of her. The blonde really was enjoying the pleasure.

"Great Rao, yes, oh yes," Kara moaned suddenly, with her hands cupping Karen's breasts and fondling them.

Her greedy eyes watched Harry's throbbing manhood work into Karen from behind. She envisioned herself taking that cock again and got wet just thinking about it.

Kara was getting wanton and she wanted his manhood deep inside her body. She pleaded and begged, her body heating up but Karen gave her more attention, licking out her cunt.

Harry pushed himself into the home stretch, working over his busty blonde wife and her walls squeezed his tool, when he worked into her body from behind. She whimpered with Harry ramming into her body over and over again from behind.

Karen's excitement increased with Harry's engorged prick working into her, and driving her to a greater orgasm yet.

She panted harder and she was suddenly about ready to explode, she was already gushing with pleasure with Harry drilling himself into her.

Something had to give and her tight cunt worked around him, milking him, and Harry groaned, his balls tightening.

He injected his seed into her body, splashing his hot load into her. He splashed his seed into her body and Karen whined when he injected himself into her.

"So, are you ready for more?" Harry asked Kara, allowing Karen to slide out of  him.

* * *

 

At the Kent residence in Rural Kansas, young Clark Kent was in the process of doing his chores. Granted, he was just about done and he could accomplish them fairly quickly, especially with his blossoming powers.

That was one of the perks of having powers, he supposed, he would be able to get his chores done far faster than a normal person.

That being said, Clark looked up in time from cleaning out the barn to see the mailman drop off some mail in the box.

He finished up in the barn and the young man sped over. He unlatched the mail box and took out the mail. He took in a stack of envelopes, along with a moderately sized rectangular brown package that sparked the young man's curiosity just a tiny bit.

Clark made his way towards the main house, and he pretty much saw what he expected.

' _Bills, bills, bills, guess Ma and Pa will have to sort those out, better leave things where they can find it,'_ Clark thought and he had his hands on the package, he was curious to say the least and he frowned, holding the package in his hand and looking it over.

It was more curious that the package was addressed to him. Clark didn't remember ordering anything off hand. Someone sent this package to him and his natural curiosity overwhelmed him and he wanted to open it.

He was on the doorstep almost inside the house and he thought about showing it to his mother before he opened it, but the natural curiosity of Clark Kent, Age Eleven, overwhelmed any common sense he might have had.

Besides, it was addressed to him and he had super powers, so it wasn't like it would hurt it.

Opening the door, his mother wasn't around just yet, and Clark dropped the bills down on the side table, before looking at the package curiously.

' _I wonder what this is,'_ he thought and he tore through the package, opening it up.

He was intrigued to see what he found. It was a rather ornate looking wooden box, with some pretty heavy engraving on it. It was unique, he had never seen pretty much anything like this in his life and that was something given some of the weird things that rumored to be happening in Smallville.

Clark's curiosity increased, bubbling over just a little bit more and he saw that the box had a note attached to it so he took it off and frowned. It was unlike any other note that he read in his life, although it did resemble something that Kara showed him once. It was written in hieroglyphics regardless and he frowned when his gaze brushed over the box.

' _Maybe she can tell me what it says when she gets here,'_ Clark thought and he closed his eyes, opening the box.

Inside the box, he found a thin looking mirror. That might have been one of the last things that he expected to see but never the less, Clark picked up the mirror, completely enthralled by it.

Had he been a bit more careful, he would have noticed that the allure of the mirror is pulling himself towards it.

Clark stared and frowned. He could have almost sworn that he saw what appeared to be a blurry image of a girl with blue eyes that looked identical to his.

The reflection captivated him and slowly, Clark pressed his hand to the mirror, at the same time that the girl did likewise on the end.

There was a blinding flash that lit up the room, and the mirror spun in midair.

When the flash stopped, there was a chair. A girl wearing a white shirt, and blue jeans popped up, her hair tied back in a ponytail, and her blue eyes blinking, when she shook her disoriented head.

Clark Kent, Age Eleven of Smallville, Kansas, born Kal-El of Krypton, switched places with Clair Kent Age Eleven of Smallville, Kansas, born Clara Jor-El of Krypton.

While this happened, the mystic energies from the mirror swept out, seeking the most disposal source of power which just happened to be the weak wand waving witches and wizards across the world, the most disposable of magic users. Many disappeared, it was like they never existed at all, most likely because they didn't.

A select few remained, but most did not, and those that did, their memories were rewritten and new ones were replaced.

The mirror crumbled into dust. It's job had been done.

Claire Kent stood in the middle of the hallway, awestruck and confused. She managed to return to senses, everything finally settling around her.

Martha popped her head in from the Kitchen and looked at her daughter. "Go watch up for lunch now young lady."

Claire smiled when her mother approached her. "Okay, Mom."

* * *

 

Around this time in the air, Kara, Karen, Faora, and Harry were in the air. Zinda was sitting in the cockpit, flying the plane.

"So, we're going to be there in about an hour, won't it be great to see Clark?" Kara asked.

No sooner did she say this, was a wave of magic energy struck the plane. All of them felt extreme warmth and none of them in the plane were any the wiser with their memories being rewritten.

Harry felt something slap into the side of his face with a blunt force, the tendrils of new memories trying to supersede and override the ones that were more familiar to him. His mind was running wild with this foreign information that tried to work his mind over.

Things were changing and he could feel a few strands of the bond link snapping, like they might if one of his bond mates had died. But he couldn't follow them back, because it was like they never existed.

He closed his eyes, refusing to let go of his old memories, and managed to use his Occlumency skills to shift them into another compartment of his brain. This process allowed new memories to almost seamlessly seep in. The newer memories were more vivid, almost like they were trying to remind Harry what was real, and what wasn't really.

He sat there, his eyes wide and bloodshot when he tried to rationalize what happened, there were people who were there a moment ago, that weren't there any more.

"Won't it be great to see Claire?" Kara asked, as if nothing out of the ordinary was wrong. "Harry?"

Harry shook his head, and he disappeared from the bond completely, almost like he was thrown down a tunnel, all of the strands being detached from him for ten seconds.

Then the strands returned to him, well a good portion of them is. There were some that were missing, most of them from the world of wand wavers, which didn't seem to exist anymore.

"Harry!" Kara yelled, shaking him madly and this caught Faora's attention, she could feel Harry disconnect from the bond network for the briefest of instances.

Faora darted over next to her brother, placing a hand over his forehead, and using a diagnostic spell on him. The glow illuminated and Harry was coming back to life.

"I'm fine….I don't know what happened," Harry grumbled and Faora shook her head, running her hand down his forehead. Something really hard struck Harry.

He looked a bit shaken but better than expected, or at least better than people might expect that he would look given the circumstances.

"So are you sure that you're okay?"

"Head hurts a little bit but….."

"Let me finish," Faora said gently but firmly.

"So, I think that I'll finally be able to introduce Karen to Claire, you know as my big sister and….."

"Claire?" Harry asked suddenly, his mind completely rattled. He did know a Claire Kent come to think about it but there were other memories that were filed away, that made him wonder what was going on. "Don't you mean Clark?"

"No, I mean Claire Kent, also my cousin Clara Jor-El, you know Aunt Lara's daughter," Kara said and her eyes snapped towards Faora. "I thought you and Aunt Lara said that he was perfectly fine now, except for his CORE."

Faora didn't answer for a second and Kara cleared her throat impatiently. She checked over Harry and wondered what the problem could be.

"Yes, he should be, all of the tests said that he did, but he suffered a concussion…..Har, take a nap while I'll try and work this out, and it's a fair amount of time before we land," Faora said, gently rubbing his temples and causing him to drift back into a state of rest.

He was burned out anyway so he eagerly took the suggestion to make himself sleep, and Faora continued the massage, using her fingers to heal any damage.

Faora didn't want to say anything but Kara and Karen looked at her.

"He suffered a brain hemorrhage a few moments ago…..and don't freak out," Faora whispered, she was freaking out badly enough for the three of them. "The damage is being healed….."

When Harry was in a state of being restful, he was still cycling through numerous new memories, or perhaps memories that were here the entire time. It was hard to determine. Perhaps those past memories were ones that were an illusion, spending time in that fucked up world that was something out of a Dickens wet dream. There were a few people that he knew that just weren't anymore but there were a lot of things that came back to him.

Harry stirred back away some time later at Faora's insistence, the memories settled, although he managed to compartment all of the old memories.

"The plane has landed," she informed him gently and Harry nodded in response, still a bit disoriented but he was coming back to life.

Harry got up to his feet, he actually now was thinking more clearly than ever before and he took a step forward, looking for that long leather coat that he was wearing thanks to the cold weather in Gotham City. He smiled and found out that Kara had already slipped it on and she looked at him, with worry bubbling into her eyes.

"Don't worry, I'm okay," Harry said, walking over and sweeping her into a nice hug.

There was a moment of indecision but his certainty caused the blonde to relax. Kara relaxed in his embrace and took this moment to snuggle into him, her face buried into his shoulder and Harry tightened the embrace.

Karen decided to join the party and swept them into a tight hug, and there was much amusement when Kara was the meat in a Karen and Harry sandwich.

Unfortunately, this party would have to be broken up, as the plane door clicked open and the three of them broken apart.

"Come on," Faora said and she was the first one to leave the plane, and Harry followed, Kara clinging by his arm and looking as if she would not let go any time soon.

They were greeted by the sight of a beautiful redhead woman, with long hair and bright blue eyes that shined brightly. Even with the severe look that was on her face, she looked absolutely gorgeous, and she had a fit body that was wrapped in a business suit. The tight black skirt did wonders in showcasing her amazing ass.

Her severe look turned into a bright grin and Harry's memories recognized her as Alexandria "Alexa" Luthor, who Harry remembered meeting at the same party as Lex last summer. She was good friends with Sapphire, having gone to boarding school with her, and Tamara as well. In fact, she went to Harvard with her, and is still attending, alongside Tess. The two of them have been maintaining a correspondence ever since the party.

"Harry," Alexa said and she walked forward, to greet him, sweeping him into a warm hug and smiling at him. "I thought that you'd appreciate a familiar face to greet you here."

That made things pretty clear to Harry that a few things had changed, but perhaps they changed for the better.

* * *

 

Faora decided to stay in Metropolis for the time being, but she was not ruling out the very obvious possibility that she might be staying there later. In the meantime, Harry, Kara, Karen, and Alexa arrived at the Kent Residence.

Helping the girls out of the limo, Harry turned his attention towards the Kent Residence.

"Don't worry, I've got my luggage, are you going to be okay?" Kara asked and Harry smiled and nodding her.

"Well, if I'm not going to be okay, at least you're going to be there to catch me, so I have that much going for me," Harry said and there was no question about it, a little grin appeared on Kara's face, despite the seriousness of the situation.

Harry smiled and walked over, knocking on the front door. He only had seconds before the door opened and there was a loud duel squeal of "Harry!"

It was yelled in unison by a pair of overly excited brunette twelve year old girls. Said girls nearly promptly pounced him, nearly backing him off and sending him down to the pavement. It was a small favor that Harry was able to maintain his balance and not go crashing to the ground.

Lana was recognized immediately from both sets of memories, and his memories were telling him that the other girl was Claire.

"How are you…?"

"What time did you get there….?"

"You didn't run into any trouble, here….?"

"Are you better after your motorcycle accident….?"

"Whoa, whoa, slow down," Harry said, his hand was still spinning and he smiled at both of them. "I'm fine, I got here just now obviously, I didn't run into any trouble, and I'm much better after my motorcycle accident."

Obviously two girls who asked a million questions obviously would have a million more to ask but that have to wait. Kara swooped down and scooped her baby cousin up in her arms.

"Hi Kara," Claire said with a smile on her face and she looked towards an older version of Kara who was standing there with a smile on her face. "So who is…"

"That's Karen, she's my older sister," Kara said, and Claire smiled.

"So, I guess that would make her my older cousin then," Claire answered and Kara smiled and nodded in response, before setting her down.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Claire, Kara has told me so much about you," Karen said and she pulled her cousin into a nice warm hug.

Claire blushed slightly when her face pressed against Karen's breasts but she shook it off. That did not go unnoticed by her cousins, either of them to be honest.

"Well, now that we're introduced….." Lana started and she grabbed Harry by one hand and Claire grabbed him by the other hand and both girls marched Harry into the kitchen, where an amused looking Martha was sitting around, having tea with Nell.

"You better be careful Claire, you'll take Harry's arm off if you're not," Martha said in amusement.

Harry saw the portraits that were there, there was nothing out of the ordinary, Claire was there, she looked pretty happy but he remembered many of those same portraits from his other set of memories and he shook his head with a long sigh.

' _May have experienced both sets,'_ Harry said and he walked over, greeting Martha with a kiss on the forehead and he turned towards Nell, giving her a swift kiss on the lips. With that Harry helped himself to a cup of coffee.

Harry made a split second decision to ask a question and he slowly turned to Claire.

"So, Claire, has anything out of the ordinary happened to you today?"

Claire thought about it, cutely biting down on her lip, but she nodded. "Well, kind of…..I mean, I got this package today, but it turned out to be a prank since there was nothing in it but a weird note that I couldn't read."

Harry narrowed his eyes in response and he calmly stated to her. "Could you please go and get it?"

To Claire's credit, she moved as fast as she could without using her powers, which brought up a really interesting point.

' _You know, maybe it's time to let Lana in on the secret, since it's going to be harder to keep this from her the further Claire's powers expand,'_ Kara thought and Harry smiled in response.

' _Funnily enough, I was thinking just about the same thing,'_ Harry said. _'And it would take care of any unnecessary drama that they might have when they're teenagers.'_

' _And there's also the fact that Lana might have developed powers due to exposure to the meteors,'_ Karen thought but that was a discussion that they would hit later.

"Here it is," Claire said, folding her arms over and handing Harry the note.

It was interesting, the note was written by what appeared to be the Kryptonian version of Captain Ahab.

' _From hell's heart I stab at thee, for hate's sake I spit my final breath at thee,'_ Harry recited and he acted like nothing out of the ordinary was the matter.

There was no doubt he would have to determine what was going on here.

* * *

 

After going to sleep, Harry woke up and he wasn't really surprised to find out where he woke up, in the temple with the Goddesses. He could see Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis, Circe, and Hestia all around, but that wasn't all. Didi and Hope stood there, dressed in attire that made them blend in quite nicely with all of the goddesses, wearing tight white togas and sandals and the two sides of Death greeted Harry with a smile.

He could see another goddess that had long flowing brown hair and bright blue eyes and it took him a moment to realize that it was Hera.

Then, Hippolyta, Diana, and Morgaine turned up. Harry knew that they were here for a reason.

"So, you may have noticed that something was amiss," Morgaine commented and there was no doubt in her mind or the minds of the fair few who had not been affected by the changes that they were extremely drastic.

"So, I'm not going crazy?"

"No, but…..I have a feeling that you were more disoriented with it than the others," Diana said and she had a bit of a headache for a while but that was nothing compared to what Harry felt she was sure.

"Jor-El had a lot of enemies in his life, both on Krypton and he also spent some time on Earth where he ruffled more than a few favors and I'm sure elsewhere in the universe," Athena commented. "This enemy decided to strike back with Jor-El, and did it through his son."

Athena waited for them to have that sink in, before she continued.

"It was a mirror, the same mirror that gave Lewis Carrol inspiration for 'Through the Looking Glass' and if all of you feel that way, it is for good reason," Athena continued. "The mirror is an interesting little object, for it replaced Kal-El of Krypton with Clara Jor-El of Krypton. From both of their perspectives, they are in the world that they should have been in. Nothing has changed, but in this world, Clark has never existed but Claire has and in Claire's former world, she has never existed, but Clark has."

Harry could feel his head spin for a second but he got the vast majority of that, at least enough where his brain didn't implode upon itself when trying to piece together certain details.

"So, I'm guessing that it is because that I am the Master of Death that protected my memories."

"Yes, if you call what happened to you, protected," Hope said with a sad smile on her face and she shook her head, in response. "But there were some benefits that came out of this entire mess…..even if your CORE got dinged in response."

"Many of your bonded survived, due to their nature of being closely knitted with you, although there were some that did not," Artemis said and Harry nodded, he figured that. "Morgaine, Hippolyta, and Diana are demi-goddesses in their own right, so they were immune to the changes, although the new memories are filtering in….."

"Yes, so says my throbbing head," Diana commented and there was some amusement from all parties at that. "So Donna….."

"She'll pick up on the changes, yes, but only so many people can be brought here at once," Athena said with a sigh. "Regardless, the mirror was overwhelmed, and it took out the entire society of wand wavers with it…"

"Very little of value will be lost there," Circe muttered underneath her breath but no one else said anything either positive or negative in response.

"Some found new life, but those who didn't, perished as casualties when the mirror was destroyed."

Harry frowned and shook his head, clearing the cobwebs. That was true, considering that he went to a boarding school for the gifted, after moving to Smallville with his mother, aunt, and twin sisters when he was very young. He still met some of the same people, others he didn't. He met Faora and Kara at age eleven and began his training with them at that time.

He still obtained the Hallows which damaged his CORE, so he couldn't get that lucky. There were a few things that were missing that he couldn't reconcile. There used to be two of him and now there wasn't.

He had a company out in Britain that was an offshoot branch for RAO, that was run by two members of the same Society that Lily and Rose were a part of, and he was as well, along with several of his mistresses. It was run by Charlotte Edwards, who never married, and Lindsey Preston, who was Harry Potter's student mentor when he went to Cambridge.

Everyone had faded, which Harry was not surprised by, it was extremely taxing to stand up here, all with the exception of Hera.

"I think that it is long overdue for the two of us to speak face to face," Hera said and Harry turned towards her with a smile. "Considering the last several times you've been here, actually every time that you've been here, I seemed to have missed out on talking to you…..but you know, I have a busy schedule."

"It's not a problem….."

Hera placed her finger on Harry's lips to silence him.

"But it would be a good time to talk to each other," she whispered to him, excitement brimming in her eyes.

"Well, who am I to deny a beautiful woman?" Harry asked and Hera gave him a radiant smile.

She offered her hand and he took him, leading him out into an extremely beautiful garden. Harry's eyes traveled, seeing an impressive view of the world below.

It struck Harry, slowly but surely where they were. It took his brain a moment to reboot to see the sight that they were graced by.

To put things bluntly, he stood on Mount Freaking Olympus.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Hera asked him and Harry nodded in response. She gave an uncharacteristic giggle before leading onward.

They were not standing in an extremely beautiful area of the garden and it radiated, but it paled to the woman that was near him.

"I feel like I've wasted an entire eternity, or more, putting up with the bullshit of someone who has grown lazy," Hera said and Harry looked at her, raising his eyebrow in surprise before he got the message loud and clear.

"You're talking about your ex-husband aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm talking about my ex-husband, Zeus…..it took me long enough to drop him like a bad habit, after all of the bullshit he's put me through the past eternity," Hera said and she twirled her fingers through her hair in frustration. "He decides to play a slacker…..which really isn't playing that much to be honest, hanging around California either bowling, surfing, or sleeping with sexually frustrated house wives and soccer moms. Given them the most lackluster five minutes of their life no doubt."

Harry couldn't help but grin at that statement.

Hera sighed. "Guess it causes the rest of the gods to pick up the slack and actually do their jobs but…..really turn about is fair play, isn't it?"

Hera's eyes locked onto Harry's and she was looking him up and down with a smile on her face, the grin appearing on her face getting even more wanton.

"If I want to find some young stud of my own, after playing the faithful wife for so long, then is there anything really stopping me?" she asked him nonchalantly and Harry smiled at her.

"Not a thing," Harry said.

"See, that's what I like about you, and you are a god in the making, and not yesterday's trash," Hera said and she stepped towards him closing the gap. "But as the Goddess of Woman and Marriage, you do realize that it would set a bad example to just jump into bed…so I expect you to court me properly, to really make me wet in the panties, and really make me want it, until the point where I have no choice."

Harry smiled and she cupped her face into her hands and leaned forward, giving him an extremely electrifying kiss. Their lips mashed together in the most primal of desire for a good period of time.

Long after she parted, Harry still felt her taste lingering on his lips.

"It was nice talking to you, and I think that it will be wonderful to do it again sooner than you think," she replied with a wink.

Harry got the impression that they may have met before but that wasn't possible, because as far as he knew, it was the first time they ever met.

Still it was one of those things that made him think, even though there were a lot of things that made him thing today.

* * *

 

Jonathan Kent was on his way back from town, he had to head into the city to do some banking, and to pick up a couple of things that he couldn't get in a small town like Smallville.

He realized that he could have asked Harry when he was in town but it slipped his mind that he was coming to visit until he was already in the city. So Jonathan went about the business as usual.

He was on the home stretch getting home, running a bit beyond schedule, but he was on his way home.

Suddenly, he felt a pain in his chest, something that had been happening on and off most of the day, ever since he had lunch in town earlier.

"Guess I shouldn't have had those chilly fries earlier," Jonathan muttered, rubbing his aching chest and the pain started to spread.

He tried to shake it off but the pain spread up to his shoulder and then it went down slowly, his arm growing a bit numb. He broke into a cold sweat and started to cough madly.

He could barely catch his breath, and then suddenly he could feel a bright light flash around him.

That was the last thing that Jonathan Kent saw right before his truck swerved off of the road and slammed into a really large tree.

**To Be Continued on November 10** **th** **, 2014.**

* * *

 

**Well, I told you shit was going to change this chapter. Let's break it down. Forgive me if I hammer in some obvious points.**

**-Clark Kent/Kal-El is now Claire Kent/Clara Jor-El of Krypton. Although from their perspectives nothing has changed and they live happy lives.**

**-Harrison no longer exists, because since Harry didn't go to Hogwarts, it would be redundant. And let us never speak of it again.**

**-Some of the magical people are gone. The most obvious being She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named when Charlotte Edwards didn't marry David Granger in this reality. And let us never speak of it again.  
**

**-Some of them went to a private boarding school for the gifted.**

**-Lily didn't get put in a coma. The Voldemort equivalent killed James, and Lily and Rose raised the twins and Harry.**

**-Kara and Faora came out of the box much earlier.**

**-Harry still got boned CORE wise by the Hallows. Only until he's twenty one. (Seventeen right now).**

**-Lex has a female twin sister. She still has her hair. At least on her head.**

**Hindsight being what it is, this should have been the first arc, after that first chapter that was a day in the life of Har-Zod(along with more lemons than there should be). But, what's done is done.**

**Oh, I may have taken a jab at something in Smallville, but for as good as that show could be, the romantic melodrama could drive me bonkers.**

**Hera, I wonder if anyone's figured out what's going on there. It's a wonder we don't have more bastard children of Zeus running around. Some of them bitter villains due to Daddy issues.**

**And the end of that chapter…..tune in next time!**


	68. Mysterious Mystery of....Part Two

**Chapter Sixty Eight: The Mysterious Mystery of Claire Kent Part Two.**

* * *

 

It was either really late at night or really early in the morning, depending on your perspective. Regardless of the perspective it was not the most ideal time to get a phone call. Which the phone was ringing in the Kent Residence, and Martha Kent shut the door behind her when she heard the phone.

She had been up for many hours due to the fact that her husband had not returned from being in town. That wasn't like him, unless he was stuck in an extremely bad snow storm which was possible at this time of the year. The only problem was that the sky was extremely clear without a cloud in the sky.

Martha allowed a sigh to escape her lips. She could normally set her watch by his comings and goings, which told her that something was wrong. The fact was that she was already on edge by the time that the phone rang.

She actually had to call the sheriff because her husband didn't have a cell phone. Not when he left, not ever really.

Despite the state of their marriage not being the most ideal these days, they got along well enough, more like friends than anything. They stuck together for Claire's sake and the fact that if they split up, there would be some really bad complications regarding her adoption. Someone like Lionel Luthor would pounce on that to take advantage of the situation. Martha would prefer that man not be in her daughter's life.

That being said, despite only taking six steps towards the phone and answered it in less than three rings. It felt like more rings.

"Hello," she said over the phone.

"Mrs. Kent?" a young man asked over the side of the phone.

"Yes….."

"I'm the sheriff's deputy. We found your husband, his truck wrecked on the side of the road," the man said in an apologetic tone over the phone.

It was numb shock at first that struck her. That numb shock was completely replaced by an abject amount of horror.

"Oh my god is he…"

Martha couldn't bare to complete the question. It hung on the tip of her tongue. The deputy jumped in with an answer that gave her somewhat a peace of mind somewhat.

"His truck is pretty damaged, and he's not the best, good thing he was wearing his seat belt or it would have gotten a lot worse, the paramedics said that he had a heart attack, along with a crushed lung and some broken ribs… but other than that he got off pretty mild, other than some contusions and bruises."

"So he's going to pull through," Martha said, struggling to keep things together. This was a scenario that she had thought about in the past.

Jonathan told her that his grandfather and father had both died before the age of forty of a heart attack and heart problems were abundant in his family. Given how hard Jonathan worked himself, Martha feared the inevitable. They dodged a bullet tonight, but for how long.

"We're doing all that we can for him, it was pretty bad without the heart attack, he's in critical condition, he's been taken to Metropolis General," the deputy said over the phone. "We're going to have the truck towed in the morning, but looks like it's pretty damaged beyond all repair."

Martha closed her eyes. It was a bad situation to find out about. She was better knowing than not knowing though.

"Okay…. thank you…"

"Not a problem, Mrs. Kent," the deputy said in a gentle voice. "You try and take care now, despite the circumstances…."

The circumstances were pretty bad and Martha turned around. This was a nightmare situation come to life. She was jarred something fierce. Now that she knew exactly what happened, she could recover and quickly.

She took a few seconds to compose her thoughts together and shakily moved up the stairs. The woman nearly tripped over he feet and she didn't pay attention to where she was going.

She reached outside of the door of the room that Kara and Harry shared together. Martha raised her hand and lightly knocked on it.

If someone was up, they would hear it. If not, she felt bad about waking them up. Especially considering the fact that Kara mentioned that Harry wasn't feeling that well.

"It's open," Kara whispered and Martha opened the door, entering with her hands shaking slightly.

The light was cast gently into the room and Kara sat up against the headboard, wearing a transparent white nightgown. A tablet rested in one hand and she played with a still sleeping Harry's hair with another. Karen crashed next to him, snuggling against his body, when they were sleeping.

Alexandria had gone home for the evening, although she made plans to meet up with Harry later in the day, tomorrow.

Kara frowned, seeing Martha's unexpected arrival. One look at her face said that she might dread what she learned.

"What happened, you look awful," Kara whispered deciding to cut to the chase but seriously, Martha felt awful as well.

"Jonathan….he got into a very bad wreck, he had a heart attack beyond the wheel, thankfully they found him in time," Martha said in a shaky voice, managing to work through the haze that she felt, even though she was not feeling her best right now.

Kara frowned when she looked at the woman, who epitomized strength as far as she was concerned.

"Is he going to be alright?"

"He's in critical condition," Martha informed the blonde and Kara regretfully detached herself from Harry, to get up to her feet and face Martha.

"What do you want to do?" Kara asked and Martha decided to mull it over in her mind, before coming to a decision.

"I need to drive up to the hospital in Metropolis in order to be with him in case….." Martha said and there was a sigh and she managed to collect her thoughts. "In case the worst happens."

"So do you want me to wake up Harry so he can…."

Martha cut that one off instant, placing her finger on Kara's lips to shush her and stow that line of talk.

"No, if what you told me earlier about Harry not really feeling well is true, then we should really let him sleep," Martha said with a frown on her face and Kara paused and nodded in agreement.

"Okay, that's for the best I think, I should leave a note to tell him in the morning….."

"I'll do it, in the morning," Karen whispered and Kara smiled.

"Really, thanks," Kara said without another word and she was completely grateful about that. She kept herself calm and walked over, kissing Karen on the forehead.

After stealing a kiss from Harry, Kara walked over to change into something more fitting. Martha stumbled across the hallway to do the same.

* * *

 

Martha waited outside for Kara to join her, pacing around back and forth. Now that both of them were dressed, going to the car that she traded it for the old junker. It wasn't really high end to be honest, but it was practical and more importantly it ran

"I'm ready, sorry for making you wait," Kara said, making her way out the door.

"No, no, it's not a problem at all," Martha said, once again trying to hold herself together.

Despite the fact that their marriage didn't have the same spark that it did when they were first married, she did loved her husband. It was difficult to keep her sanity even though she did more than most.

Kara, sensing Martha's discomfort, walked over towards the Kent female and wrapped her up tightly in a hug. Martha closed her eyes, relaxing into Kara's embrace, and held Martha into her closely, giving herself time to compose herself.

Martha tried not to let out the sob that she let out but given the circumstances it was unavoidable. She needed to put herself together, for Claire's sake if anything else. She took a deep breath and readied herself to make the trip.

"Okay, I'm okay, really I am," Martha whispered in a quiet voice and she slowly pulled away from Kara, brushing her hand against the blonde's cheek with a smile on her face.

"I'll drive," Kara said firmly., opening up the door on the passenger's side. Martha opened her mouth to protest this but Kara was having none of that. "In the state that you're in, I don't think that it's really a good idea if you drive."

Martha wasn't going to say much of anything else. She came to an agreement.

"Thank you dear," Martha whispered, and Kara made sure that she was in the passenger side. "Are you…"

"I'm fine, I can handle it, I've had plenty of practice now," Kara said and she smiled despite herself, after a very shaky start, she managed to get a hang of driving all kinds of cars. But then again, when your husband collected said cars, it was kind of difficult not to really get the hang of it.

There were no shortage of opportunities to practice.

Kara placed herself behind the wheel of the car, buckling up and starting the ignition. Her next movement was backing out of the driveway and driving down the lonely country road. There was barely a soul to be seen on the road for miles when they made their way out past the corn fields.

The two women sat in silence for a lengthy amount of time with Kara driving and it was obvious that both of them were thinking about the day that was.

Martha hated the silence because of how unnerving that it could be. To break the silence she jumped in to ask a question that she had been meaning to ask for a while. "How has Harry been doing?"

Kara frowned for a second but her face brightened up with a smile. "He's doing well."

Martha made a noise that got Kara's attention and she sighed, frowning. She could see the woman's eyebrow raised even though she really should be keeping her eyes on the road.

She could see a Semi Truck blow down past them as she stopped at the stop light.

"I mean it….he's….fine…..but….."

"But what?" Martha asked and Kara looked at the road, her eyes glowing in frustration but she shook her head to clear the thought of it.

"I don't know," Kara growled underneath her breath and finally there was a damn that burst on him. "Well, I mean other than the fact that he keeps getting hurt, despite everything that he's been through and my best efforts to protect him, and Faora's as well, and how….well I'm be honest it scares the hell out of me to think about what could happen if he deals with something that he might not be able to walk away from and until his CORE heals properly."

Kara gave a long sigh and to her credit Martha was an attentive listener, not once speaking when Kara really was hitting her stride and she could hit her stride and hard.

"And his hobbies…..well I'll be perfectly honest, they aren't what you call safe," Kara said and she gained an even greater stride when she smoke. "And he's so squishy right now, and I was that way once, but it seems like an entire lifetime ago, and…..yeah he has magic, but he can barely use it at the best of times because of his CORE and the restrictions that he has. If he exhausts it, he could die, and if he uses too much…..he will explode."

Kara clutched the steering wheel tightly and took a deep breath before calming down and mentally counting down from ten.

"And I mean it, he will literally explode and he will go boom and everything within a twelve mile radius will go up with him."

Martha didn't know it was that bad. She had a an inkling but she didn't to know the extent of it. Kara was just hitting her stride now.

"And despite all of that…..he likes to dress up in a suit of body suit, and try and go back Gotham Fucking City into a better place, even though it's like missing in the wind," Kara whispered and she shook her head. "And he has this knack of attracting all of these women…..who are nearly as crazy as he is…like Vicki, Selina, and Lois as well and it's just…..well it's completely nuts."

She smacked the dash hard to emphasize that point and she managed to calm down just a little bit.

"So, are you feeling better now?" Martha asked in a tentative voice and Kara paused and she nodded in response.

"Yeah," Kara said, chuckling softly.

Her eyes returned to the road like she didn't launch it a tirade. It felt extremely good to get that off her chest.

* * *

 

When the cat was away, the mice would play. As far as Catwoman was concerned, there was a lot of rats that toiled in Gotham City that would allow her to play quite nicely. It was time for her to get to work.

On most nights, this would be a heavily guarded warehouse, and from what the sources that she had on the underworld said, it belonged to the Falcones. A name that just rose her blood pressure up at the very thought of them. It was a place where those bastards stored their ill gotten gains before they sold them to God only knows who at what price.

' _Okay Selina, time to take advantage of a very bad situation,'_ she thought to herself, running her finger down the side of her neck and sighing instantly.

The renewed gang activity in Gotham City increased over the past few nights. On this particular night, hostilities reached a fever pitch between various factions of the mob.

The Penguin snapped out of whatever funk he was in and then he took out his frustration on the nearest goon that he could find. The foul bird beat him to death with his umbrella or so the story went. Then he decided to drive his goons into Black Mask's land and down his throat by having them storm into the industrial district.

Then pretty much all of the shit hit the fan from there and what would normally be watched by guards, it was pretty much barren. They were too busy dealing with more important things than what basically amounted to a massive storehouse.

Most cases that wouldn't even register a blip on the radar. There was only one problem They were not dealing with most cases. Catwoman didn't deal with the conventional rules of the Gotham City underworld, because she wasn't affiliated with any of the gangs in the city. She played her own game and that upset the plans of a lot of people.

Despite that she did have her sources and those sources told her that something that she wants happens to be inside. Therefore, she was going to get inside while the Falcones were distracted by the little slap fight between Penguin and Black Mask. She would take what she needed and sort it out later.

She dropped down through the open skylight from the roof and she could hear that there was a hell of a rain storm that began to brew. That was a typical evening for Gotham City. Add that to the wind that was brewing and it was not going to be a night outdoors that was fit for man for beast.

She cut a hole through the glass and created herself an exit point. She dropped down nicely onto the metal beam below and slowly but surely lowered herself onto the ground.

Stepping forward, Selina sauntered her way towards the office where she thought that her item in question might have been lying around. Well maybe not lying around because she was pretty sure that it would not be in any place where any old thug could get their hands on it. Rather it would be nice and safe inside a safe.

Therefore it was off to the manager's office where she figured that would be the most likely location.

Selina then tensed up a little bit, perhaps she was insane, or perhaps there was something to all of this. After what happened to her with Mario and also her encounter with Batboy and Nightwing, she developed some kind of sense for danger. It was being tweaked badly at this present moment.

Stretching her neck out and looking around, Selina looked to see if they did station a guard here. She didn't see anything but at the same time, she had to remain still just in case something was going on.

When there was nothing going on, the dark haired female slipped from her spot, and then made her way into the office.

Frowning, she noticed that something was off, the floor rug in front of her seemed to have been shifted recently. Triumph filled her eyes, when she leaned down. She shifted the rather heavy carpet out of place. They thought it hid her from her prize. They were wrong.

"Jackpot," Catwoman muttered and she saw a heavy duty looking safe that had been set into the floor.

She moved through the necessary steps that it took to get the safe open, she had very little time to work with it. The cat burglar moved quickly. She wretched it open, before she found a heavy looking leather satchel. It was just what she watched.

With more triumph dancing through her eyes, she snatched it into her hands and stretched herself back up to her full height, with a purr. Then suddenly, she tensed up, dropping to the ground in response and looking around.

There was someone who was here and she avoided having her head taken off by a vicious spin kick. In response Catwoman ducked and rolled to the side, and then popped up to face an interesting new adversary.

She had short platinum blonde hair, along with a tight black short top that strained over her breasts, and a black skirt. Thigh high boots added to her outfit. She had a grin on her face, when she raised her claws.

"I seem to have inspired a few imitations, haven't I?" Selina asked, barely keeping the grin off of her face.

"Oh, please, don't flatter yourself," she said and she charged Catwoman.

The razor sharp claws nearly sliced into Catwoman. She dodged out of the way to avoid an attack.

"So, what do you call yourself, honey?" Catwoman asked, avoiding her attack once again and then she knocked her back hard into the wall.

"Call me Magpie," she said and she charged Catwoman once again.

"You know, sweetie, this time in Gotham City, you could catch a dreadful cold in that get up," Catwoman said in a mock motherly voice.

Magpie's only response was to rush her again and try and move in for the kill.

"That's nothing compared to what I'm going to do with you," Magpie said and the two women circled each other. Both looked to do anything necessary. "You have something very shiny and I want it, or rather I know someone who does."

"Really, who would want something like this?" Catwoman asked, but she did have her suspicious.

"Calls himself Enigma, says that he's willing to pay a lot of money, and with that kind of money, I can get a lot of shinies," she whispered and she charged Catwoman, preparing to carve her up but once gain she ducked. "So hand it over, if you know what's good for you!"

Catwoman grinned, and she motioned for Magpie to bring it or rather come and take it.

The two of them went into an acrobatic fight, with Catwoman grabbing Magpie by the hair and flinging her down to the ground. She crashed down hard, but Magpie grabbed the satchel.

"Mine," Magpie said but Catwoman did an acrobatic flip, before snatching it out of her hands with one fluid moment.

"Don't be so childish," Catwoman whispered, shaking her head. She rushed her way towards the exit, with Magpie howling in agony when she followed Catwoman. The two of them were about ready to make their way to the main warehouse area.

The satchel had changed hands several times before the time that they got there and it was a spirited round of hand to hand come back.

"Freeze!"

"Oh look they do have guards, how nice," Catwoman muttered underneath their breath.

Suddenly, a large truck smashed through the gates.

"And who called for the clowns?" Catwoman muttered in despaire.

Magpie took advantage of that distraction to swipe the satchel from her. She slipped out of the exit, avoiding being shot.

"Oh no you don't, that's mine," Catwoman said and she chased her from the warehouse, both of them going out into the pouring rain in Gotham City.

Things were about to heat up, and Catwoman was not going to let some little upstart steal what she had worked so hard to acquire.

* * *

 

Claire Kent, Age Eleven, of Smallville Kansas, known as Clara Jor-El of Krypton, stirred awake because of the smell of breakfast and the signs of the sun rising. That combination allowed her to stumble in the direction of the kitchen, like all children who were raised on a farm had been conditioned to do.

She shook her head and pulled on a pair of blue jeans, and made sure that her shirt was properly on. Then she made her way down the steps, in a half asleep mode. She was stumbling down the steps, resembling a Kryptonian zombie to be honest.

Claire stopped on the door and was greeted with a very odd sight. The young pre-teen girl spotted Harry cooking breakfast. Okay, that wasn't weird since he's cooked for them before, but normally he was helping her mother there. And her mother wasn't there.

This hardly registered with her given her state of being half awake. Claire shuffled into the kitchen, because it was one of her chores to help her mother with breakfast, so she decided to help Harry.

A cute little yawn was barely stifled, and she was a bit dazed and half asleep at the moment.

' _Guess I'll wake up when I have something to eat,'_ she thought to herself and she reached in, taking the bowl that Harry handed her, and she began to stir the mixture it was.

It slowly sunk in completely that her mother wasn't cooking breakfast. It was the young man who had visited her in her dreams and she blushed slightly when she thought about the nature of said dreams.

"So, where's Ma and Pa?" Claire asked managing to shake her head. "I mean, my mother's….she's normally down here…cooking breakfast, even though you help and Pa….you can usually see him outside about this time, he's up even before the roosters, doing chores."

Claire looked out the window to verify this and sure enough, there was no Jonathan Kent outside, which was a fairly worrying sight and she shook her head, biting down on her lip in response.

"You know, I don't know where your father is exactly," Harry said and he looked at her. "As for your mother, she got a phone call late last night and she needed to drive into town…and Kara went with her. Don't know where…..because Karen didn't mention it."

Claire nodded in response.

"As for your father…..don't know," he responded to her and Claire nodded in response. "Maybe his business ran long, so he had to stay in town instead of making the drive home so late."

Claire nodded slowly, she supposed that made a little bit of sense. Something hit her instantly; that seemed to be out of character for her father. Normally her father was stubborn enough to drive home in the dark. Regardless, she decided to let it be by now, because it was time for her to eat and just in time as well.

Karen joined them, fresh out of the shower, wearing little more than a tight bathrobe, her hair still dripping wet. Claire stopped and stared at her older cousin, dropping the silverware onto the floor, with a startled squeak.

It was all that they could do not to say anything because they didn't want to embarrass the poor girl after all. Karen sauntered over, leaning down on the floor, to help Claire pick up the silverware.

' _So what exactly happened?'_ Harry asked.

' _Jonathan had a heart attack last night and got in a wreck, Martha and Kara went to the hospital,'_ Karen said when she helped her cousin pick up the silverware.

' _He's in critical condition, but he's out of surgery, he broke his arm pretty badly, some ribs, and punctured lung,'_ Kara thought and she shuddered as she thought about it. _'It was a damn good thing he wore his seatbelt.'_

"So, how are things doing at school?" Karen asked Claire and Claire shifted before she answered in an honest manner.

"Fine, I guess," the young girl said, shifting rather nervously.

"So, are there any boys you like?" Karen asked and Claire went slightly red at the thought.

Harry could not help himself from amending that statement. "Are there any girls that you like?"

If anything else, Claire went slightly redder and Harry thought that was the perfect opportunity to serve up some breakfast, where the three sat.

Now it was time for them to explain to the young girl, now that everyone was fed and watered about the status of her father's condition.

"He's going to be okay, isn't he?" Claire asked, and she seemed distressed about what happened, as Harry pulled her onto his lap, allowing her to snuggle into his chest.

"He's just out of surgery, I'm sure that he should be fine," Harry told Claire and she nodded in response. "Do you want to go and see him in the hospital?"

After considering it for a moment, she responded with a shaky nod.

* * *

 

Harry and Claire finished the chores on the farm in fairly decent time and they did them right as well. That needed to be done because the last thing that someone wanted to do was get behind on the chores on a farm the size of the Kents.

After the drive from Smallville to Metropolis, which took longer than expected thanks to running into some unfortunate traffic, Harry, Claire, and Karen got there. Or maybe it seemed longer.

Karen's face had an expression like she swallowed some rancid milk when she ran into an extremely unfavorable person.

' _Well, well, of all of the people that you would have run into, it would have to be the Prince of Darkness himself,'_ Karen thought with a look of disgust dancing in her eyes.

' _You have to be kidding me, you really, really have to be kidding me,'_ Lily said and her stomach pulled in disgust.

There was only one person that she hated more than Lionel Luthor and it was obvious a close race between the two.

Harry wondered why Lionel was lurking around in the hospital, and this was the first time that they came face to face since the party that they had met this past summer.

At first glance he seemed to be sniffing around, at second glance, Harry wasn't really too sure and at third glance, he was cradling his left arm, which was bleeding a little bit.

' _Whatever it is, he deserved it,'_ Karen said, holding Claire off to the side, almost as if she was shielding her from Lionel Luthor.

"Doctor Potter…..well this is an interesting surprise," Lionel said and he leaned forward, wincing at the sudden movement.

"Not as interesting to see you here, Mr. Luthor," Harry said in a respectful and cordial voice. "What….."

"One of my employees decided not to take his termination well," Lionel said and he took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "He decided that it would be a logical and sane reaction to stab me. Thankfully my security caught him before he could get even further."

' _I'm sure that you were an innocent little angel in that, Luthor,'_ Karen thought with a scowl but she managed to turn it away from it.

It would be a long time before she forgot what happened to her in the alternate universe and what Lionel was capable of it. There were some scars that never really healed.

' _He did deserve it, and….'_ Lily thought but Harry walked forward, deciding to be the bigger man in this situation.

"Go on up, while I make sure that Mr. Luthor is taken care of."

Karen opened her mouth to protest. In response Harry silenced her with one of those looks. This really wasn't the time or the place to stir up shit, especially when Claire was with them.

' _Just take Claire up, it's best if you two aren't in the same room anyway, and thankfully Mum isn't here,'_ Harry thought.

' _Believe me, any time that I'm not anywhere close to Lionel I'm thanking anyone who will listen,'_ Lily thought to herself.

"So Mr. Luthor….."

"Call me Lionel, given the relationship that you have with Lexi, it's quite possible that you will become family soon enough if your relationship continues at the rate it's going," Lionel said and he smiled.

He was glad that one of his children seemed to have their head on straight and had some level of ambition. Alexandria's twin on the other hand…..well he needed to learn some valuable and painful lessons if he wanted to get on by. He got himself in a fair amount of trouble that was unbecoming of a Luthor.

"You know, she doesn't quite like being called that," Harry said and Lionel only had a shadow of a smile in response. "And I wasn't aware that any relationship that we may have is public knowledge….."

"Now, Harry…you and I both know that there is no such thing as privacy for men of our stature," Lionel said and he looked over the young man before him. "But that just gives us a challenge to make sure that our actions are looked in on the right way and not looked in the right way…and I understand that you're going for your fifth doctorate soon?"

"It's a work in progress, but yes I am," Harry confirmed and Lionel smile in response, as he made his way to the emergency check in.

"Well you're progression is well, it's a shame that we had to meet under such circumstances once more, given the nature of my condition," Lionel said and he was left in the very able hands of the doctors.

Harry turned to say his goodbyes. The young man didn't take more than a few steps he ran into Lex and Alexa who was standing in the distance. Lex looked rather unimpressed with his father but that wasn't really a newsflash. Alexa on the other hand looked quite bored by the entire situation.

"Thank you for your assistance," Lionel said and Lex left to join him, after a brief nod of acknowledgement towards Harry, leaving Harry and Alexa alone.

"So, I'm sorry to hear what happened to Jonathan Kent," Alexa whispered to him and she walked towards him.

"So you….."

"Yes, I did," she said, pleased that he was able to put that together.

"I guess that I owe you a favor….."

"No," she said with a smile on her face and she walked close towards him, closing the gap between the two of them. "You, owe me a date. We can talk about that later."

She smiled and there looked like she was going to say more. Alexa's thoughts was dashed by both her brother and her father's words to each other.

"Now if you excuse me, I have to keep Alexander and Lionel from killing each other."

Alexa walked off, leaving Harry alone in the hospital lobby for a moment, to consider his thoughts.

* * *

 

Thanks to Jonathan's work of taking care of the farming of the Potter property on Smallville, he had some pretty good medical insurance. Officially on the books he was an employee of the RAO corporation, legally speaking. Therefore all of his medical bills should have been taken care of promptly.

He made his way into the room and could see that Faora had joined them, not really that surprised to see her. Kara was there around, and Karen looked at him, with a curious expression. Questions burned the tip of her tongue. She held them back.

While she wasn't too happy that he acted too cordially with Lionel Luthor, she understood the long game that they were playing more than anyone else. It would last until they got majority share.

Faora moved over and pulled him into a hug, and checked him over. The good news was that the vast majority of the residual brain damage was fixed.

"Well you're doing well," Faora said and that was not a moment too soon, as they had more than enough problems to deal with. The woman shook her head and sauntered off, she needed to speak with Jonathan's doctor anyway.

Harry sat himself down onto a chair, and a sleepy looking Kara sauntered over to him not even two seconds later and parked herself into his lap and seconds later drifted off to sleep.

Claire was standing with her mother and she could see Jonathan's eyes flicker open.

"You gave us a heck of a scare," Martha whispered and Jonathan nodded.

"I'll be fine….just got to rest this off," he managed and he could feel that he had been through something fierce.

That being said that he drifted off to sleep, all was well for now.

**To Be Continued on November 13** **th** **, 2014.**

* * *

 

**Bit for subdued than the last chapter because that was a big one. Kara's little venting spree was a long time coming. It is frustrating for others(Harry more so), that he's so injury prone right now.**

**Magpie against Catwoman, that should be a fun chase. And who the hell sent for the clowns?**

**That messed up Luthor family dynamic, you got to love it.**

**Ah poor Claire, she's so adorkable.**

**See you next time.**


	69. Mysterious Mystery Part Three

**Chapter Sixty-Nine: Mysterious Mystery of Claire Kent Part Three.**

 

* * *

 

Visiting hours were over and they returned to Metropolis to crash at the Penthouse there. The group trooped into the Penthouse, with Harry leading the way, giving Claire a piggy back ride. She was tired and also kind of stressed out after the day that was. Harry, Kara, Karen, Faora, and Martha all followed. Alexa brought up the rear behind her.

Most surprisingly, Karen invited her along, which might have seemed strange at first glance given the blonde's tiff with the Luthors. It seemed less strange considering the fact that she didn't exist on the old Earth.

' _Don't really hold anything against her, it's not her fault that Lionel was her father, and she's turned out fairly well despite him,'_ Karen thought and Kara smiled mentally in response.

' _That makes perfect sense,'_ Kara thought and she shook her head. _'But she does seem like of cold most of the time, to everyone, but well, to everyone other than…'_

' _But her brother and me,'_ Harry thought and that being said, this had been a long day, especially given what he learned. He decided that it was best not to spill those particular beans, given that mostly everyone was accepting of what happened.

The other memories faded to the deepest part of his subconscious, Harry could see a few similarities, but even more differences. One thing that didn't chance as he reminded himself was that his CORE was still damaged. He would still have to wear the inhibitor watch.

Guess you couldn't have everything in life.

The group had gotten take out, due to the fact that none of them really felt up to cooking really much. Karen slipped into the kitchen to get the cutlery and the rest of the group sat around the living room as needed.

Martha was about ready to walk off to join her. Harry shook his head. The woman was about to protest and Faora cleared her throat to cut her off.

"I wanted to help," she muttered underneath her breath and both of the siblings of Zod made sure Martha sat down, practically pinning her between the both of them.

"Your offer to help, much like your offer earlier to cook dinner is appreciated, but…you know that you're our guest and it's our duty to treat you," Faora said and she made sure that Martha was sat firmly down.

Harry chuckled, making sure that Claire was settled on the couch, or at least as settled as an eleven year old girl with super powers was going to be. She sat on his other side, with Kara squeezing herself between Martha and Harry, leaving her between Faora and Kara.

"I'll go see if Karen needs any help," Kara whispered and Martha got up to her feet. "No, don't worry Martha, I've got this….."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I've got this," Kara said in a more firm voice than ever before.

The moment that they were settled, Faora got up to her feet and helped Alexa spread out the food on the coffee table. Then the woman sat herself on the arm chair when the food was delivered and Alexa saw that the arm chair was big enough to hold the both of them. She sat her way next to Faora.

Okay it was a tight fit but one could argue that it was extremely cozy never the less.

Kara and Karen returned with the utensils.

"Still don't see why we couldn't use chopsticks, because this is Chinese food," Kara said and Harry turned to his wife.

"You should know by now that you and chopsticks is a disaster," Harry said and Kara folded her arms over her chest.

Claire looked from her cousin to Harry fairly curiously. "What happened…?"

"Let's eat," Kara said, evasively and they sat down, with Kara parking herself at Harry's legs and Karen settling herself on the other couch.

"So, Jonathan had to have surgery on his heart and his arm?" Faora asked, to confirm what happened.

"Yes, broke in three places," Martha said, leaning in, while Claire was busy with her food. Although she had a sense that her daughter was listening anyway. "At the wrist, the elbow, and forearm…..good thing that he's covered by the new medical policy."

Martha sighed, that was a blessing. She didn't think that they would be covered without that new medical policy.

"He'll be on the bench for a while though," Karen said, helping herself to something to eat and Martha nodded.

"You should eat, you look dead on your feet," Harry said, nudging her.

At Harry's insistence, Martha helped herself to something to eat, before she answered that question. "Yes, he'll be out for about six months. I can call a friend of Jonathan's, Joe Clark, and ask him if he can work on the farm for the next couple of days. He's out of work, so he should be able to."

"Is he dependable?" Harry asked Martha and Martha looked at him.

"A bit of a drinking problem, but don't worry, it's not to the point where it will affect his work." Martha said and she sighed. "The reason that he's out of the job in the first place is that the owner of the farm that he worked for sold out to Lionel."

Alexa was indifferent to the mention of her father, at least at first, and Karen watched her for her reaction. The Luthor heiress turned her eyes towards Karen and she snapped a little bit. "Am I supposed to be apologetic for the fact that some random landowner decided to sell out for Lionel that was for less than the land was worth? I wasn't involved in the deal, and in case you might have not noticed, one of his employees stabbed him today, so it's obvious that he's a bit of an asshole."

Karen smiled in response, she was more approving and she could see Kara and Claire interact out of the corner of her eye.

"Your powers will come at your own pace, and you shouldn't rush it, and…it would be better off to master them, it's different from me because I was already grown when I was on Earth," Kara said to her and Claire nodded.

She was half really paying attention to what Kara was telling her but then again, she was worrying about what happened to her Pa.

"I guess….but you know there are those stories about other people….."

"Some of them are affected by the meteors but…..a lot of their powers haven't cropped up," Kara said and she looked at Claire. "You didn't ask for half of the planet to be sent down with you when Krypton exploded."

And to be honest, Kara thought that Jor-El using the method that he did to bring her cousin to Earth lead to more unintended consequences then she thought.

Harry gathered up the dishes after the meal that was over and went to wash them. He could have fit them in the dishwasher and not have worried about it. There was just one problem. they would have to deal with them later, because they would sit and fester for all time.

"I'm going to talk to Harry, about the farm," Martha said, excusing herself and following Harry into the kitchen. She allowed him to lead her on the way there.

Harry washed the dishes in silence and then Martha dried them. The two of them stood in silence untilt hey were done.

After that was done, Martha took him by the hand, leading him out onto the deck. When they arrived there, she wrapped him into a tight hug, and Harry responded when he wrapped her arms around her extremely tightly.

She closed her eyes and leaned forward to rest her head onto his chest.

"Thank you, for being so wonderful about everything and helping us," Martha said and she smiled, resting her head onto his chest. "You know, for everything."

"Well of course I would help you, you're family," Harry said to her but this caused her to snort.

"Yeah, try telling that to my father," Martha muttered in response but Harry raised his eyebrow.

"What was that?"

Martha reached upwards, and wrapped her arms around his head in response and kissed him firmly and fully on the lips. Something inside her pushed her to the side and Harry was surprised for a moment.

He did the only thing that made sense in these circumstances, and it seemed to last for a good amount of time.

"MOM!"

Martha backed off and she looked flushed, shaking her head in response. "I better….I better go see what Claire wants."

"Right," Harry said and he waved Martha off, and he stood there, processing what happened in the back of his mind.

It was only inevitable but he didn't expect it to happen now of all times.

* * *

 

Black Canary was on the prowl in one of the rougher districts in Gotham City. Actually it was rough and at the same time very nice in its own strange way.

In fact, this was the one that Dinah grew up in, and her shop is near-bye as well. She crashed at her apartment after a long day of running while.

' _So, you've had a lot to do, haven't you?'_ Diana asked over the bond link and Dinah nodded in response.

' _Yes, I've been asking under the role of the girls' private bodyguard until we can find someone else to do the job,'_ Dinah thought and she stepped forward, and she looked around, things were quiet, at least at first.

' _You know, if we can get her up to speed, Artemis might be up for it,'_ Diana thought and Donna sighed before she chimed in on her response.

' _Yeah, the hunt for Aresia has gotten her frustrated especially with how cold the trail's gotten,'_ Donna commented in response. _'But she'd be good…no one would fuck with her.'_

' _That's the idea,'_ Diana answered in response.

"So, we've got a problem, don't we?" Oracle asked, chiming in.

"What kind of problem?" Talon asked. She ran mostly solo tonight, and most nights she fought next to Black Canary but she was going out on her own. Being a costumed vigilante was far different than being the Girl-Who-Lived, that's for sure.

"Well when the Iceberg Lounge blew up, that stirred up a hornet's nest," she answered and she shook her head. "And when the Penguin came out of his stupor, he attacked the person closest to him and beat him senseless"

"No kidding," Jaime said with a sigh. That was a huge problem and she spent most of her evening putting out as many fires as she could. The dark haired woman crossed her arms and peered downwards.

"And I've got some more interesting news that….might make things more dangerous," Oracle added and sighed. "There's a rumor that Enigma is trying to get his hands on a flash drive that contains access codes to the Gotham City radio network."

"Do you know exactly why he wants it?" Black Canary asked, chiming in on the network and looked over her shoulder.

"No one can really tell, but he's offering a massive bounty for it," Oracle said and she checked what came in from her contact. "It's believed that the Falcons were the ones who had it last for some reason, with the Roman being either a major investor in the company or they'd bought it off a disgruntled employee who snatched it out of the door of GRC after he quit."

"Oh, that's….."

"Yeah that's about as bad as you would say," Oracle said and she sighed. "And there's a bunch of rumors that the Red Hood Gang took it from them when they hit a warehouse last night and…there's also a rumor that a woman dressed like Madonna or Catwoman did it…."

"That's interesting," Jaime muttered underneath her breath.

"Yeah, I would have to agree," Oracle said and she placed her hand underneath her chin and tilted her head back. "The Roman has placed a bounty on whoever stole it from it."

Dinah stopped suddenly, as interesting as that would be, she looked and saw something interesting. She saw Tigress down on the ground and she frowned.

The last time she ran into Tigress, they didn't have a chance to finish their fight, and now she slipped herself down onto the roof. Both women were firmly on their feet, adopting a battle stance.

Tigress lurked in the shadows, holding her crossbow, and she looked up. She watched with Magpie making her way down and aimed once again.

She fired an arrow at her and caught her off guard. Tigress prepared to rush in for the kill.

Unfortunately for her, Black Canary dropped down in front of her, pouncing down onto her in response. It caused her cross bow to fly out of her hands from the impact.

Tigress closed her eyes and dodged the Black Canary's kick when it fired at her. She twisted around and kicked her hard in the face. The kick sent her flying backwards.

The woman continued her pursuit with Magpie but Black Canary used her grapnel on Tigress and was pulled along for the ride.

The ride was quite intense when both of them landed down next to Magpie. The woman watched them, with a feral glare in her eyes. She rushed towards them and tried to take them out just like they were nothing.

Black Canary dodged Magpie's attacks but she hung up and tried to swipe her claws at her. Tigress rushed in, drawing a pair of knives and backed the other two women away from her.

"Stay back," Tigress said and Magpie looked at her, and gave Black Canary a back kick and send her forward. "Hand it to me."

"Why don't you take it from me?" Magpie asked and she narrowed her eyes in response, charging her and Tigress took her legs out from underneath her.

Dinah pulled herself back and bent over, taking out her encrima sticks and swung them around and hurled them. The sticks smashed them into their mid-sections and bounced back, where she caught them in response. She snapped them together into a short staff.

She rushed towards them, and Tigress slid underneath her legs and took them out from underneath, but Black Canary jumped into the air.

She engaged her in an intense battle, both giving as well as receiving. Both of them brawled with each other and exchanged punches and kicks with each other, and both backed off.

She sent Black Canary back and struck to knock down Tigress onto her back. With another fluid motion she snatched the satchel from her and dropped down.

' _Oh no you don't,'_ Black Canary thought and went after her, perusing her all the way across Gotham City.

Magpie decided to slip out, tasting her own blood, taking it off as a lost cause.

"I lost my shiny," she whispered and she slammed her fist into a wall in rage.

With all of the well-practiced ease of a small child throwing a massive tantrum, she left.

* * *

 

Tigress stopped, the dark haired woman hitting a dead end and Black Canary dropped down, having caught up with her.

Unfortunately for Dinah, she doubled back and picked up her crossbow. A series of shots fired at her caused Black Canary to back off, with Tigress jumping into the air, with the satchel in her hands.

Black Canary took cover and Tigress was on the run.

She rushed towards her and she dodged a shot around the corner and Black Canary had to withdraw to avoid another trap.

' _She's not giving that thing up willingly,'_ Jaime commented and Dinah nodded.

' _About figured as much,'_ Dinah said and she sprung into the air.

' _I'm on my way,'_ Talon thought and she shook her head.

' _Same for Batman, but you're both a good distance away,'_ Black Canary said. As much as she detested playing hide and seek, she had no choice. Especially when the woman kept giving her the slip.

Black Canary looked around, she knew that she was pretty close to finding who she needed to find. All she needed was a little bit of creativity to maneuver herself around and she rushed in, to see that Tigress standing before her.

She rushed Tigress and she tried to fire back but this time, Black Canary was ready for her. She knocked Tigress around and a short but extremely brutal exchanged occurred between these two fighters. Neither backed off and neither gave the other any quarter.

Unfortunately, there was another problem that they ran into, and Tigress knocked Black Canary down but they couldn't worry about that right now.

They were in the middle of a hot zone, a raging fight between the Red Hood and a couple of other gangs and things were heating up.

"And I don't know if you've noticed, but more parties are in the hunt," Oracle said and Black Canary tried not to lose sight of Tigress, even though she needed to cover her own ass. "It's heading towards the rumor mill now that the Red Hood might have picked up the disc drive…..and he's nuts enough to not care who knows…a bit of an adrenaline junkie and he's got a few screws loose."

"He is pretty daring, isn't he?" Black Canary asked and much to her obvious agitation, she lost sight of Tigress once more.

"Yeah…he's been recruiting a lot more people, and among the more talented homeless…the ones that Blackfire got his hooks into a while ago," Oracle explained. "Some of them were criminals once before and others are just hungry for a chance at a better life…..so it's obvious why they jumped off of the opportunity when they did the first time around"

Black Canary came to the conclusion that some might not be that brainwashed but she wasn't going to deny Blackfire his credit for stocking the flames.

That being said, she recognized some from the Falcone side and the Maronis as well. She spotted Tigress, who had somehow slipped onto the other end with the satchel that contained the disc drive.

Black Canary tried to discreetly rush over but unfortunately, there could be nothing discreet about that.

"Look, that bitch has the drive!" one of the mobsters yelled and Tigress kicked free several pieces of debris and caused it to land on the head of one of her enemies.

Black Canary went after her, but she spotted the Red Hood standing there, directing his men against the various mob factions of Gotham City.

It was then that Batman turned up on the scene and about four mobsters were knocked down to the ground. They hit the ground before they registered anyone being there.

The Red Hood looked angry that the Bat had interfered in his operations so he pulled out a large hand cannon and pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

The cannon nailed Batman hard, his armor taking the shot. That knocked the wind out of him and Black Canary rushed over to help.

That would allow Tigress to complete her clean and clear getaway in all of the confusion, and she held it close to her chest. She slipped off. The last sight she had were the two vigilantes fighting the various gangs who were after the prize that she had in her hand.

A whip cracked and a bull whip wrapped around her ankle, and then the next thing she knew, Tigress dangled over a horizontal flag mount.

"So, I guess you're after it too," Tigress said and she prepared to make her move.

"The drive, I don't really care about," Catwoman answered bluntly and that caused Tigress to blink in surprise in response. "But the other items in the case….yes I'm interested in them. Now I'm sure that we can play nice and work out a deal. But you should know that if you double cross me, this kitten has bigger claws than you do. But if you play nice…..I don't bite….."

Catwoman dropped down and whispered into her ear, whilst hanging upside down. "Unless you want me to."

Tigress weighed her options and came to a realization.

"Fine, I didn't even know there was anything else other than the drive, that's what my….benefactor is after," Tigress said and Catwoman smiled. "And no, you're not getting her name."

"Well, we all keep our secrets tight to our chest and you know as much as I'd like to play…..I'm on a deadline, and some of those gunshots are getting too close," Catwoman mused and a wicked smile crossed her face. "I'd rather not lose any of my nine lives tonight if I can help it."

She let Tigress down and she opened up the Satchel, pulling the drive out, and then she handed the rest to Catwoman.

"You better leave, so I guess that I'll see you around," Catwoman said and she sauntered off into the night, the Satchel.

Tigress drifted off, fully aware that Catwoman might be targeted now that she had the Satchel in her hands.

* * *

 

"So we got to get these done until Mom has a chance to talk to Mr. Clark, right?" Claire asked and Harry nodded.

"It shouldn't be too long but I think that between the two of us, we should be able to cover your father's chores along with yours fairly easily," Harry answered and she nodded up and down eagerly in response. "And we can start your training into using your powers….."

She nodded trying not to look too excited and Harry smirked at the look on her face. He made some mental notes about what had to be done. Her potential was to be about as strong and fast as he was, after he returned to his full potential, but his heat vision would be stronger and he would be some mild intelligence.

' _There's also the possibility that she suffered some minor brain damage when she touched down due to Jor-El sending her on that dinky ship,'_ Faora commented.

' _Yes, I know, hopefully it's something that we can fixed when she gets a bit older, but it doesn't seem to be as bad as it could be,'_ Harry reminded Faora who nodded in agreement.

' _Yes, but I wouldn't bring it up to Kara, given how bitchy she gets when it is,'_ Faora thought, both siblings of Zod being in agreement.

"A couple of tests have been done on the other girls, along with me as regards to their powers, and there is a bit of a difference between them," Harry said and Claire blinked and asked the obvious question.

"They're different in what way?"

"Karen is strong physically and stamina wise, and can go longer than Faora and Kara, thanks to her massive solar tanks and age," Harry commented and Claire placed her hand underneath her chin and nodded. "Faora is a bit faster and agile then Kara and Karen….and her intelligence is on par with mine."

"What about Kara?" Claire asked with interest.

"She's developing along the same path as Karen is, and obviously she's well-rounded," Harry explained to her. "As for the twins, Amanda is stronger and Emily is faster. And Lyta, has her Amazon hertitage on top of her Kryptonian heritage so we're not too sure how she's going to develop, but I think that it will be interesting to see."

Harry smiled and allowed Claire to sink it all in.

"But that's them and this is you," Harry told her and Claire waited to see what he had in store for her. "Right now we're going to learn how to moderate your strength, so you can be physically restrained or strong as you want to be."

Claire blinked and about opened her mouth but Harry cut her off.

"I know that your father has to handed everything with kid's gloves but that's a disservice to your powers," Harry said and he conjured a sheet of metal in front of both of them. "This is an exercise Hippolyta and I developed for Lyta, based on one that she created for Donna and Diana."

To demonstrate what he wanted to be done, Harry swung for the fences and punched the sheet of metal which caused Claire to blink. It left a physical fist impression in the metal and Harry pulled back.

"This is a mental discipline more than a physical one," Harry said and he swung his arm back but stopped his fist short from making contact with the sheet. "It's all about using the proper amount of strength for the situation…and knowing when exactly to pull back."

"Okay," Claire said and she sighed.

"Now, you try it."

She slammed her fist against the sheet when he held it steady but it swayed from one side to the next.

"Not bad, but you should not hold back that much, try again, use the most amount of force, with the least amount of swing if you can," Harry told her, steadying the sheet.

Claire did as she was asked and swung for the fences.

Once again her fist connected hard and this time it was a little bit better. Harry had her do it two more times and he smiled.

"So, we're going to take a walk over to Lana's, because we've got something to explain to her," Harry said and Claire turned towards Harry.

"I know."

They had this discussion in the past and they both agreed that Lana would need to know about this sooner.

They took the short walk up the road to the Potter property and knocked on the door.

"Harry, Claire, come in," Nell said after she opened the door and invited the pair of them inside, with Claire smiling.

Kara greeted her cousin with a smile, as breakfast waited for them as well. The blonde Kryptonian found herself determined to be less of a kitchen disaster and learn to cook, so she had been taking lessons. She thought that she approached passable at a steady rate.

"So, where's Lana?" Harry asked Nell and Lana came down the stairs, smiling and seeing both of them.

"Does that answer your question?" Nell asked, looking amused at the look on her overexcited niece's face when she bounded up and down the stairs, bouncing up and down. "Lana, sit down…..Claire and Harry want to tell you about something."

"Oh?" Lana asked, she wondered what this was going to be alike.

"Well….I'm different than other girls," Claire said and Lana jumped in once more.

"Oh, do you mean you used to be a boy?" Lana asked innocently, breaking the ice.

"What….no!" Claire yelled suddenly and Lana smiled.

"Just kidding," Lana said with a grin on her face and she could see her friend's distressed face so she leaned in. "So what's up?"

"I'm an alien….from the planet known as Krypton," Claire said and Lana blinked. This was a difficult part. "I came down….with the meteor shower."

Claire stopped when she said that. She waited for Lana's reaction for better or for worse.

"I…..well thank you for telling me," Lana said and she wrapped her arms around Claire in a tight hug. "I always thought that something was a bit off about you….and I'm sure that there is more to tell me."

"There is," Harry said and Lana nodded.

"So, you're not mad about the meteor shower?" Claire asked nervously and Lana looked at her, hands placed firmly on her hips. "I mean your parents….."

Lana placed her fingers on Claire's lips to shush her.

"Why would I be mad, you were just a baby, it isn't your fault," Lana said with a smile.

Harry and Kara looked at each other, they couldn't help but think that they averted an entire mess of drama. They weren't exactly sure how they knew that.

* * *

 

After visiting Jonathan, Martha joined Harry, to meet Joe Clark. He lived on a small home on a small bit of land. The two of them approached the house, with Martha knocking on the door to announce her arrival.

A solidly build older man opened the door with a jovial look on his face. "Martha….Martha Kent, it's been too long….I heard about Jonathan, and I'm really sorry to see what happened."

"Thank you," she said graciously at the condolences.

"But if I know the stubborn guy, he'll be back up his feet, before he should," Joe said and he gave a jovial chuckle in response.

Martha sighed, that hit a bit too close to home. Jonathan would be back on his feet or try to as soon as he was let out.

"That might be the problem," Martha said and she turned towards Harry. "This is my cousin Harry Potter, he's the one that gave Jonathan the loan to keep the farm afloat."

"A pleasure to meet you, young man," Joe said and he extended his hand forward and gripped Harry, with a tight grip, but Harry held his grip onto him tightly, and caused him to back off.

"Likewise," Harry said, passing the strength of character test or really the strength of handshake test with the group entering the kitchen.

Martha explained the job to them as the group shifted in.

"It's just for about the next six months, although it could be longer, but I want to know if I can rely on you for the next six months," she concluded and Joe turned towards her, before swiftly nodding.

"Yeah, Martha, you could rely on me, but I really hope that it won't cause any friction with Jonathan," Joe said and Martha shook her head.

"It won't be, his arm was broken in three places and his heart could take even longer to heal than that," Martha said and Joe responded with a long and prominent whistle. "I spoke to him this morning about it."

"Bet anything he hemmed and hawed about it," Joe said, with a chuckle. If he knew Jonathan Kent, he could predict exactly how that stubborn fool reacted to being benched.

"Yes," she agreed, but then she dropped the bombshell. "He agreed to let you do the job."

"And also, once he heals up enough, he can be transferred into a supervisory position easily enough in the future if he wants to keep busy, but physically he can't take it," Harry said and Joe nodded in response. "It's a lot of land to work on with his own….even with the help of his daughter."

"Well it might be a bit much between those two pieces of property," Joe said but then he snapped his fingers. "I know a couple of guys, John Benet, Robert Laurier, and Mackenzie King, who might be interested in coming in if the pay is good."

"The pay is good," Harry said and Martha could not help but add in her own way.

"And the food will be even better," Martha said which caused Joe to chuckle in response.

"Ain't that the truth," Joe said, he had a taste of the famous Martha Kent cooking, so he knew that she was telling the truth.

"So, do we have an agreement?" Harry asked and Joe nodded, offering his hand once again.

"Yes, we have an agreement," Joe said and he shook hands with Harry.

The three of them parted ways, with Martha and Harry leaving.

"So, I'm going to back to fix dinner….and….."

"Lex is in town, so I'm going to catch cup of coffee with him to get caught up," Harry said and Martha looked at him before deciding to bring up a point that she had been avoiding.

"And after you get back, I'd like to talk later," Martha said and Harry nodded.

"I figured we might."

* * *

 

Harry returned back to the Kent Residence after his coffee with Lex. The moment he arrived he found dinner waiting for him in the dining room.

The house seemed rather quiet and he realized that Martha and him were the only ones there.

"Claire and Kara are over at the Potter Residence, having a sleepover with Lana," Martha said and Harry smiled, with a bit of a chuckle, before he sat down.

There was a moment of silence.

"Seems just like yesterday that I was Claire's age…..and…..I really suppose that I can't throw any stones at some of the misadventures that I got into," Martha said and she smiled. "And Lily was right there with me, and Rose right there as well."

"But you had your share of the action, didn't you?" Harry asked her and Martha nodded with a smile on her face.

"Yes, and I didn't really need magic to get into trouble but they didn't either," Martha commented and she launched into some light hearted stories.

"Really, how did Mum think she was going to get away with it?"

' _I didn't,'_ Lily thought and Rose laughed in response. _'My father was amused….my mother tried not to be, and Tuney….well she was Tuney.'_

' _That really says all that needs to be said, I think,'_ Rose thought, grimacing at the thought of her oldest sister.

The less said about her, the better.

"So, I guess that you want to talk about what happened yesterday," Harry said and Martha turned towards him.

There was really not that much talk about the situation, rather Martha calmly got up, and straddled his lap, which surprised Harry.

Then her next action proved to be interesting when she kissed the ever living daylights out of Harry. Harry returned the kiss once again and the two of them roamed over each other's body.

"You know, we could talk about this later," Martha said after pulling apart from the kiss. "Right now, I just want you to love me."

Harry could tell that this had been a very stressful day and the look of lust in her eyes showed that it was hard to say no.

"It's been a long time since I've been truly satisfied, remind me, Harry," Martha whispered and the two of them exchanged a kiss together, which caused things to get heated after a few more moments.

Martha leaned back when she straddled Harry and he pulled her shirt off, to reveal her firm breasts incased in a lacy white bra. She gave him a sultry grin when she looked at him and licked her lips. After doing that, she leaned in and kissed him, really hard.

His hands roamed on the other side of her body, skimming her body and he touched her ass. The redhead grinded onto him and then she made her way down her body.

"I wanted this for a long time," Martha said, lustfully groping his manhood and she squeezed it.

"I noticed," Harry grunted and Martha kissed her way up him, rubbing his manhood.

She made her way out of her extremely tight jeans, revealing a white thong that matched her lac white bra. She wiggled her way over towards him and pulled Harry's clothes off of his body.

His manhood stuck out and the redhead wrapped her hand around his tool. The redhead gave him a sexy look and she pumped his manhood up and down. She stroked him, feeling his thick manhood pulse in her hand.

Harry smiled and grabbed her and spun her around, before pushing her back onto the kitchen table.

"I'm ready," Martha whispered and Harry roamed his hands over her body, the heat rising from his body.

"Yes," Harry said, pulling her panties back to reveal her shaven pussy, it swollen with desire towards him. He kissed his way all the way down her body and smiled again, stopping short of her pussy. His thumb touched lightly against her clit and caused another blast of pleasure to fill her body. He did it numerous tights, getting her set up for the kill. "I've noticed."

"I'm glad that you noticed," Martha whimpered and she pushed her hips up and she begged him, she wanted him, she needed him.

She got what she wanted and Harry worked himself between her legs. She groaned when she went into her.

"God, you're really tight," Harry whispered and Martha smiled, wrapping her legs around him and her arms around his neck.

"It's been a long time," Martha said and she managed to arch her back and she could feel Harry pull out of her and then placed his manhood at the edge of her pussy. With one fluid motion, he slipped inside her. The redhead nympho closed her eyes and her wet cunt gushed when he worked his way into her.

"I can tell," Harry grunted and he unclipped her bra, releasing her breasts. Then he attacked him, tasting their sweetness.

Martha ran her hands over her body and she dug her nails into the back of his neck, encouraging him and Harry pulled all the way out of her. And then he worked into her up and down, ramming into her again.

"Yes, yes, more, harder, take me and make me yours," Martha said and she could feel her cousin hammer her from behind. There was something wanton that spiked through her body right when his cock spiked into her.

Harry grunted when he worked his way between her hot pussy and the green eyed wizard pushed deep into her, and she mewled.

Her orgasm released and coated her hot juices, allowing him to slide into her center. The redhead's legs tightened around him.

Harry pushed her leg up and slowly kissed up and down on it which caused Martha's pleasure to increase the more. He tormented her with this teasing. The redhead closed her eyes and felt more pleasure to rush through her.

"Harry, through me down on the steps and have your way with me," Martha encouraged him and her womanhood tightened around him.

In response he pushed into her tight pussy so hard that she thought that she was going to explode.

Harry thrust into her and she was really wet and hot, not to mention tight. She had been backed up for many, many years, and it was easy to see why.

He brought her over off of the table, with a brief stop against the wall to fuck her against it. The two of them ended up the stairs.

Martha closed her eyes and she could feel Harry push her back onto the stairs. His manhood pushed against her dripping hot lips and he ran his hands over her body.

"Yes, oh yes," Martha whimpered and she could feel Harry's hands roam her body, touching every inch of it. He paid ample amount of attention to her body and she felt so alive. The young man pulled almost all the way out of her, and she felt an aching void between her thighs.

He teased her and she begged him for her, her hot center wanted even more. Harry worked into her from behind. He ran his hands all over her body and stopped against her and ran himself all over her body.

His mouth pressed onto the back of her neck and he cupped her breast. Harry liked the sounds that she made. After plowing into her, he almost pulled all the way out of her.

"Don't you dare," Martha whispered and Harry smiled and licked her behind the ear. Her dripping hot lips ached for his manhood to go between her legs and Harry didn't really wait all that long to add it back into her.

The redhead whimpered and Harry eased his way into her. He pushed her breasts up and they continued to ease their way a bit up the stairs. Martha used the steps for added leverage, causing Harry to fuck her even harder.

She thought that she would be a little bit sore in the morning but damned if it wouldn't be worth it. Her hot vice pussy clamped around him, with Harry running down her ample breasts once again.

"Here it comes," Harry grunted and Martha could not believe what was about to happen. Harry pumped his hard rod deep between her thighs and pushed hard into her body. The redhead pushed herself onto the stairs. His balls tightened and he fired into her with a steady explosion.

He fired his hot seed into her body and Martha closed her eyes. she felt her pussy accommodate his load. He fired into her.

Martha shuddered with pleasure when his seed sprayed into her womb and the redhead turned around when he pulled out of her.

"I don't think that we're done yet," Martha said and she gripped him around the manhood and lead him to her bedroom.

Harry leaned in and kissed her hard. The two of them managed to make their way into Martha's bedroom and she smiled when she saw the bed.

"I'm ready," Martha whispered and she pounced upon Harry, bringing him back onto the bed and rubbed her dripping hot mound onto his throbbing meat.

Harry groaned when he hardened and the redhead prepared herself to ride him. She played with his balls a little bit but Harry reached up towards her and pulled her up, before sinking the redhead down onto him and she closed her eyes.

"Yes," Martha moaned and her walls tightened harder around him, with her riding him down hard.

She bounced up and down on his manhood and pushed herself to the limit. His thumbs rolled around her nipples and caused them to get harder.

Harry sat up and Martha locked her arm around him and pushed his face into her breasts. Her ample tits pressed against his face and he responded by sucking on them.

"Suck them, please suck them," Martha said, she never felt her breasts had that much attention. The attention he gave her only encouraged the woman to ride him faster.

Martha rode Harry for all that he was worth and she took her pent out sexual frustration on his manhood. The fact that he could stand up to her really caused her body to heat up and her pussy to get extremely dampen.

Harry smiled, feeling her legs spread nice and far when she worked herself down onto him and she kept working his manhood into deep between her hot thighs.

"Harry, further, oh that's it, keep it up, I can take it," Martha moaned and she could feel Harry go stroke to stroke with her.

The redhead rammed herself down onto his rod and the woman kept going on, even though her pussy hit a gusher.

Harry roamed her sweaty mature body, feeling the heat and his cousin kept bouncing onto her. He cupped her ass and she squealed, and pushed his face between her tits.

"Yes, lick them, suck them, they're yours," Martha said and she could feel his manhood go deep into her. She felt him inside her and her pussy gushed with increasing pleasure.

Her orgasm slowed but that would not do, she rode him again. He got harder yet when she used her walls to rub him something fierce.

Harry groaned, he could feel her tighten around him and massage his tool with her inner walls. She spiked herself down onto him and closed her eyes.

"Still there?" Harry whispered and Martha kept bouncing down onto him again and again, her hips caressing him.

"Always," Martha whispered and she picked up the pace.

Harry groaned and her tight box wrapped around him even harder. He got closer to her and she rode him down onto the bed.

The mattress creaked beneath them when their coupling continued and Harry's hands cupped her and that caused her to grow more snug around him.

His fingers pushed into her ass and pumped into them like he would her pussy.

"Oh, I like that Harry, play with me, cumming so hard," Martha groaned and she took him down onto him.

His balls ached and he prepared for his release. His burning seed was close to injecting into her and he pushed his hands all over her body.

"YES!" Martha moaned and she pushed herself back onto his cock. She bounced up and down, her red hair seductively framed her face when she continued to work him over.

She rode him down all the way to the end and she stopped, grinding herself onto him. Harry felt her milk him and his balls ached, the release was coming, there was no way to stop.

Both came at the same time and saw a white hot blast of energy when both collided down onto each other.

Martha collapsed on Harry's chest and soaked in the bliss of this sexual exchange.

"So I'm sure you figured that this wasn't a spur of the moment thing," Martha said, wrapping her arms around his neck and snuggling into it. "My relationship with Jonathan…..well it's not a bad one per say, but I think that the best thing you would have to call it would be cordial….maybe formal. Which I guess that might have worked for his parents but…"

"You want something different out of your life," Harry said and the redhead rested on his shoulder.

"He really never had that much interest in the bedroom, but everything stopped cold about fifteen years ago," Martha said and Harry looked at her. "With his upbringing, he was really not that comfortable with the entire sex for pleasure thing…..and it got worse the further that we got along…which left him really unable to perform what little he did…and all of the times had been us trying to conceive but…when Claire came along…"

"I know that you're staying together mostly for her sake, at least until she turns eighteen….."

Harry's voice trailed off.

"We discussed something like this happening," Martha said and Harry almost wanted to be a fly on the wall for that particular conversation but on the other hand, he almost didn't want to know the details. "That being said, we sleep in separate beds, as you can tell…..if he sleeps indoors at all, most of the time he camps out in the barn or sleeps on the couch…..what little he sleeps it all."

Harry was pretty sure that this might be sketchy from a moral level for some people. However, he figured that Martha wouldn't go in for it unless she knew what she was getting herself into. "So, if it makes you happy."

"You know it does," Martha said and she could tell how this situation would be awkward to all parties.

"Then I accept it."

"Good," she muttered underneath her breath, the feisty redhead leaning in and giving him another passionate kiss.

**To Be Continued On November 21st 2014.**

* * *

 

**Gotham City is an absolute nightmare no matter how you cut it. Tigress and Catwoman have a catty conversation(see what I did there), and they come to terms. And someone give Magpie a hug.**

**Oh boy, I'm sure that this is going to be a choice that's going to be more polarizing than the entire status quo change a few chapters back. Except it's been building up since Book One very slowly. Plus I explained the reasons why. Marriage just staying together for the sake of a child, that's a very real life thing. And it being open because why make people suffer.**

**Hey everyone, I just averted eight years of drama involving Lana with one scene. Then again given the self loathing tween/teen girl demographic that Smallville seemed to be tapping into at times(or the Twilight demographic, before Twilight even was a thing), it was just as well.**

**We continue with more fun and games next time.**


	70. Mysterious Mystery of....Part Four

**Chapter Seventy: The Mysterious Mystery of Claire Kent Part Four.**

* * *

 

A couple of hours passed and Black Canary remained on the hunt for Tigress. With the storm clouds brewing over her head, rain poured down from the skies of Gotham City. To add to the fun and games, a thick cloud of fog obscured her vision slightly, which did not play well into her plans.

If there were two things people knew Gotham City for it was bad weather and crime way.

"So, she can't have gotten far," Oracle suggested, hoping to create some kind of silver lining to the dark clouds in Gotham City.

"I know that she hadn't," Black Canary said, she used a device built into her mask and walked a couple of inches forward and stopped and stared. "I slipped a tracking device on her during the confusion."

"Ah, I take it that's the reason why you didn't go after her, even after getting away from the gang fight," Oracle said and Black Canary nodded.

"Yes, and there's some things that take priority over others, a gang fight being one of them," Black Canary said, back on the hunt now and ready to go.

"Given the civilian factor, I would have to agree," Oracle said, and despite herself, she bit down onto her lip. "Most people should know how to stay out of the way by now, shouldn't they?"

"They should," Black Canary agreed, and she really wished that she could do this journey on her bike, but there were two problems. The weather was the big one and also the dense population of this particular area of Gotham City presented another problem.

"So why do you do what you do?" Oracle asked calmly and Black Canary stopped. The situation reached a lull, therefore there might be time for idle chatter. "I mean, I don't think that you have to tell me but at the same time it would be interesting to know…"

Black Canary had no reason to lie to her friend and smiled. "It's a legacy, my mother was the original Black Canary, she did this during her time, and….now it's my time to do it. Someone important to me got hurt and it forced me into action."

"So, what about Nightwing?" Oracle asked, allowing it to sink all in.

She had her theories, but she wanted to keep them neutral, if nothing else then to have a state of plausible deniability. Just in case, someone found out what she was doing. If she got in trouble, at least she could cover her own ass.

"Complicated, there are many reasons you know regarding him," Black Canary answered and Oracle nodded, she got the message straight away. "But, to put it bluntly, someone close to him was killed right in front of it, and he wants to make Gotham City a better place."

"Talk about the never ending battle," Oracle muttered, shaking her head. "And Talon and Batman….."

"Talon does it because Nightwing does it, and she doesn't want to see him get hurt as badly as he did when fighting Grundy."

Oracle once again allowed that to sink in and she sensed that Black Canary got closer. There was one more person in their little super hero party to touch base on.

"And what about Batman?"

"Not really my place to say," Black Canary said, standing hunched over against the railing.

"Because you don't really know?" Oracle asked. She couldn't help it, her natural curiosity beckoned for her to fish for information.

"I know he made a promise a long time ago, and that's all I know," Black Canary said, closing in on her destination.

She stood on the rooftop and took a quick peak in the window, she saw Tigress take her mask off. She was a fairly fit woman in her mid-30s, with dark hair, and the next sight that she saw shocked her and caused her to hesitate. It was a situation that might prove to make any attempt to go inside to be problematic.

The unmasked woman walked over and a girl with dark hair that resembled a younger carbon copy of her mother stepped over towards her. She said something to her mother and the two walked over towards the television that was flipped on. A blonde girl with brown eyes, dressed in a white t-shirt and jeans, who looked a couple of years younger than her sister pulled herself onto her mother's lap.

Dinah watched from the window.

"She has two children," Dinah whispered and Oracle paused.

"That could complicate things," Oracle said and Black Canary watched, she really hoped that she could resolve this, slip in there and get the drive undetected. The fact that there were children involved caused Dinah to think twice about doing anything.

After the program was over, the woman led her youngest daughter to bed, who looked to be drifting to sleep and protesting the fact that she wasn't. There was a moment of protest but the battle was lost by the daughter.

The older one remained sitting on the couch and Black Canary waited. Something else caught her eye and she turned over, to see Talon turn up at the door.

' _What are you doing here?'_ Black Canary asked Talon and Talon smiled in response.

' _Just hold tight,'_ Jaime thought, she felt bad about leaving Dinah out of the loop about what they were up to. This had to be done to accomplish Harry's goals.

Jaime dropped down from where she was and knocked on the drawer, and waited for it to be answered. The oldest daughter answered the door.

"Is your mother home?" Jaime asked her and she nodded in response and shut the door.

Seconds later, Paula Crock, better known as Tigress, stepped out of the drawer a couple of moments later and held a large envelope.

"You know, we shouldn't be having these meetings at home," Jaime whispered to her and she shook her head.

"Couldn't find a sitter on such short notice, especially with the circumstances," Paula answered in an apologetic voice and Jaime shrugged.

"Fair enough," Jaime said and she reached forward to take the envelope and took a look inside. The drive was inside. "Very good, you held up your end of the bargain, as promised…."

Talon reached behind her and handed the woman a smaller but still rather bulging envelope in response. It should have been obvious what was inside.

Once the woman was inside her house, Talon turned around and looked Black Canary right in the eye.

Dinah nearly leapt ten feet in the air when she realized that Talon teleported behind her. The crime fighter managed to reboot her brain. She turned around and went face to face with Talon.

"I didn't know that you could do that," Black Canary whispered and Jaime smiled at her.

"It's a trick that I learned a long time, come on, we can't stay around," Talon said and she lead Black Canary off away from the apartment. She could tell that the woman wanted answers, and she would give them when she was safely away.

' _So, Harry's been playing some cards closely to his chest, hasn't he?'_ Black Canary asked, and she paused to answer to Oracle that she got it, before she returned to the mental conversation with Talon.

' _That's one way of putting it, but just look at it this way, getting ahold of the drive is a good way to slip a worm onto Enigma's network and cause some real damage,"_ Talon communicated with her.

' _That's all well and good, but I don't know how Tigress fits into this situation,'_ Black Canary said, and Talon smiled.

' _Well her real name is Paula Crock, she has two children, Jade is twelve and Artemis is ten,'_ Jaime informed her and Dinah nodded in response. _'When Harry found out that she had two small children, he made her a deal that she couldn't refuse to act as his agent in certain situations.'_

Black Canary began to see how everything tied together and she smiled at how Harry's plan worked. He figured to take the best and the brightest of females and use them as his assets whenever he can. She had to admire how brilliant that he was.

' _We'll have Oracle look at it, and make sure it gets back into Enigma's hands, make it look like what he wants, but he'll find out that it's useless….'_

"And not before we install a worm into his network," Oracle said, the two female crime fighters had previously gone over the plans with Oracle. "And I'll finally be able to get access to his network, to see what he's up to."

' _Why did Harry tell anyone else about what was going on?'_ Dinah asked, rather confused about the entire situation, but that prompted the man himself to jump in on the network.

' _I think Enigma might have hacked into a couple of the camera and security systems around the city, so we needed to make the fight look legit,'_ Harry thought to them and both girls thought the same thing.

' _Nothing more legit than a fight where we're really trying to kick the hell out of each other….because she didn't seem to be play acting…..'_

' _I told her not to go easy on you,'_ Harry told Dinah and she smiled.

She appreciated that fact. She wasn't playing around because otherwise the fight would have seemed less legit than it was. The bruises were worth it if there was a deeper plan.

' _I see,'_ she replied, knowing where that situation stood. _'But the less people know the better.'_

' _Precisely,'_ Harry thought, and he sighed. He knew that he was playing a dangerous game. _'I don't make it too much of a habit to keep things from my bond mates but…..'_

' _Sometimes it's a necessary evil,'_ Dinah thought, she understood properly some of the ways to play the game.

The next stop was the Clocktower now that they had the device in hand.

* * *

 

Harry stirred awake from the conversation that he heard Dinah and Jaime having. When he returned to the real world completely, he felt Martha draped over his chest when he woke up. One of her legs intertwined with his and currently he was in a state of being half awake but half asleep as well. His arms wrapped around her and the comfortable pulled up around them because it was rather cold this time a year.

He slowly and absent mindedly ran his fingers through her hair, and smiled, when he did so. This did an amazing thing of stirring her awake.

Physically starved for attention, Martha leaned in towards him and started to kiss his chest, and made her way slowly up towards his lips.

Their lips met with steamy passion with each other and Harry roamed all over her body and cupped her rear end and she straddled him.

Things were about ready to get really heated, really quickly, and both prepared to pick up from where they left off last night.

Martha smiled, and straddled Harry's hips, her core pulsing and hungry for him. She slid down across his body and draped herself over him. She pushed herself down onto him and brought his manhood deeply into her smoldering hot lips.

Harry groaned when his prick passed between her wet and willing lips. The woman seemed determined to push him into the depths of her and Harry hung on, allowing her to ride him up and then come back down.

Martha wasted no time starting and slowly bounced down upon him. The woman closed her eyes tightly and continued to work her hips down onto his manhood. The green-eyed sorcerer roamed his hands.

"Yes," Martha whispered and she worked her hips up and down him again and kept riding him.

The bed creaked underneath both of them and both kept a steady pace. He ran his hands against her and pumped into her.

"Take me," Martha whispered and he took advantage of this orgasm to roll her back onto the bed.

He slipped almost out of her, the tip against her dripping hole and her pussy moistened when he slowly kissed his way down her neck. With his motions, he went between her breasts, licking and sucking on them, which caused her whimpering to increase.

"You just couldn't have enough of that, could you?" Harry asked her and Martha shook her head, lust burning through her eyes when she looked up at her young lover.

"Never, back in me, now," Martha said and Harry was not one to deny a lady.

He groaned when her pussy tightened around him and hugged him. Her sweaty body pushed up, with Harry running his hands over her chest and leaning forward a bit. He slid almost out of her. When her body whined, Harry pushed himself into her depths.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck,' Martha whispered and Harry grabbed her hips and slammed his stiff prick between her legs.

The two continued their coupling and Harry brought her over against the wall and pushed her against the dresser. He spread her legs and pushed deep between her legs and penetrated her.

The two of them made love to each other against the dresser, with Martha closing her eyes with Harry working into her, reducing her cunt into a smoldering gushing wreck. The more Harry worked into her, the more she excited she got. His nerve endings lit up when he touched her in new places. Her hot lips closed in against him and Harry pummeled her from behind, and kept working into her.

After finding their way onto the stairs one more time, they made their way where this entire coupling began, into the kitchen.

He pushed her against the fridge and bit on the back of her neck, nipples getting hard when he pressed her against the cold surface. Harry slid himself deep between her hot thighs and she clamped down onto him, when he pushed his hands around her breasts and pinched her nipples.

"Yes, oh yes," Martha whispered, and Harry worked into her. Her legs trembled but Harry held her up to keep them from collapsing down onto the floor.

"You like that?" Harry asked her and Martha nodded eagerly when Harry continued to push himself deep between her legs, and fucked her something fierce.

"Love it, love it," she begged him and she wanted more, and he continued to drive her into the refrigerator. Her legs spread as far as possible to accommodate him when he buried into her.

Her tight cunt enveloped his massive prick and Harry felt himself drawn into her. The sex starved female continued to enjoy him go into her.

Pulling out and allowing her to come down from her orgasm, Harry lifted one of Martha's legs up, and slowly started to kiss up and down her leg. She whimpered with the pleasure and Harry stopped, when he switched from the right leg, to the left leg.

He kissed down her body, and stopped, giving her belly button extra attention and lavished her breasts. With the woman all hot and bothered, Harry brushed his manhood against her dripping slit and they made their way over to the corner.

Martha leaned back onto the corner, and sank herself onto Harry when he fucked her up against it. The redhead was careful not to bump her head, with Harry going into her.

"Faster?" he whispered hotly into her ear and she dug her nails into the back of his neck and nodded in affirmation.

"Yes, faster, faster, all the way," Martha whispered and her hot thighs hugged him when she pushed herself all the way down upon him.

The redhead's moans deepened and her pussy gushed. Harry worked into her like a well-oiled machine and pumped himself between her legs.

"Still hanging in?" Harry asked.

Martha nodded, biting his nipples in encouragement and Harry continued to pump his way between her smoldering hot thighs. He sped up his thrusts and crammed himself as hard into her as he could go, causing her pleasure to explode even more.

They made their way over to the kitchen table and Martha pushed herself down onto him, with him laying back on the table. She pushed her hot center again around him and bounced up and down onto him. He laid back on the table and allowed her to have her fun.

Harry groaned ,laying back and allowing her to ride him. Her slick center caressed his manhood and gripped him.

Martha closed her eyes, she could feel everything flow free, without any restrictions. She couldn't quite keep track of everything, but they must have christened every surface of the house over the past twelve or so hours.

Not that she complained, Harry's hands roamed over her body and she closed her hips around him, tugging on his manhood when she bounced herself up and down onto him. The redhead kept working him into a fever pitch and Harry kept exploring her body. She bounced a little bit higher and brought her hot hips down onto him, working him over something fierce.

She could feel him getting closer, and he held back a load for her.

Harry grunted, glad for the resistance that he held and Martha continued to pump onto him. She looked determined to finish what she started and after a long rest, her intensity renewed with a brand vigor. Her red hair framed her face when she looked down at him in a sultry manner and she brushed her fingernail down his chest, smiling when she kept bouncing.

She bounced even harder and Harry gripped her ass.

"Behind," she whispered and Harry nodded, pulling completely out of her and setting her up on the table. His manhood brushed against her lips and they dripped with arousal, about ready to take him in.

Harry grunted and pushed his hard rod between her soft thighs, holding his hand on her breast when he pumped into her from behind. Green eyes flowed with passion when he worked himself into her. He connected into her and caused pure electricity to spread between her hot thighs when he rammed into her even harder from behind.

Martha felt his hands roam her body, the woman rested on her hands and knees on the table and Harry continued to pick things up. Never breaking his stride, never slowing down.

Moments went by, but however much time went by, it was not long enough for Martha, and she felt Harry's hands over her.

Harry indulged himself in her sweaty mature body and treated every inch of it with the attention that he thought it deserved, worshipping her. His manhood spiked so far between her thighs. Her hips closed around him and clamped around him. She tugged him when he worked his tool over.

She felt excited by what he did and wanted to be pushed to the edge and then over it with his rapid fire thrusts. The thrusts entered her even harder.

"Closer."

Harry's whisper caused her thighs to tingle with desire and she enclosed on him, he pumped into her soft center. The woman felt her face pressed down onto the table, his hands skimmed her body. Each thrust into her brought her closer to the edge of her pleasure. The greatest pleasure, and she felt nothing else beyond that.

His balls tightened and she tightened around him. She looked over her shoulder and stared at him with a sexy look. He responded by capturing her tongue into a passionate kiss, the two of them feeling their tongues wrapped around the other.

Harry grunted and he could feel her walls tighten around him when he pumped into her even deeper.

She shuddered beneath him and his balls constricted. Her lustful moan and tightened pussy encouraged him to spill his seed deep into her depths which he did. Harry gripped her and forced her down, pumping his entire load into her. Stars could be seen through their eyes, when Harry crammed himself into her.

Harry held her hardened nipples and pumped into her, emptying his balls into her womb, and caused her pleasure to increase when they collapsed in a shuddering mess on the table.

After they were done, Martha slipped on the shirt and panties that she wore last night and smiled at Harry, who grinned back at her.

"I think that you may be determined to make love on every single surface of your house," Harry said and Martha smiled.

"Let's see, the dining room table, the stairs, the bed, the hallway, dresser, fridge, and that did a good job of hardening my nipples into pebbles, the counter, the table again, you might be right," Martha said and she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek. "And I thank you for not calling it fucking."

Even though she had no problems with a good hard fucking every now and again and she may have called it that in the heat of her lust. She couldn't quite recall off hand. Her mind was driven completely mad with her lust.

"I'll be perfectly honest, I had a pretty unsatisfying sex life until now," Martha said with a sigh and last night, it awakened something in her that she suppressed, mostly because of out necessity not to drive herself nuts. "And it consisted on the bed, in the missionary position for purposes of conception….."

"And it stopped when Claire arrived," Harry said, and he fixed a cup of coffee for the both of them.

"Yes, exactly," Martha said and she shook her head. "So, I'm sure that you could figure out that I'm making up for lost time."

' _That's for sure,'_ Lily thought, she wondered if Martha would get on the Network soon, but she guessed it would be sooner rather than later.

"Plus according to some magazines I've read, I'm just entering my sexual prime."

Harry chuckled with a smile on his face, but to be honest, he was not about to argue that point. He made sure she was settled, and made his way into the kitchen to make breakfast. Needless to say, this was a reversal of circumstances that normally happened, but in her current state of mind, Martha could not even bare to argue.

"So what are you going to tell Claire?"

Martha didn't take too much time to answer that.

"I'm not going to rally tell her anything, at least not yet," Martha replied to him and Harry arched his eyebrow in response, when he went about to find the eggs. "Claire is almost twelve, Harry, and despite the fact that being around you probably makes her panties sticky and her bed sheets damp, and believe me, I should know as how I do her laundry."

' _Yeah, so did not need to hear that,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Didn't we when we were twelve…..'_

' _Things were different then, we were twelve, and Harry was only thirteen then, times have changed,'_ Amanda commented idly. _'Even if it's different, but that's not the point…it's kind of hard to explain.'_

' _Lana might be just as bad,'_ Nell chimed in, realizing that she might embarrass her niece if she knew that she jumped onto this conversation.

"That being said, she doesn't need to know about her mother's sex life," Martha said. "The plan that Jonathan and I've got worked out is to tell her when she's sixteen….if she finds out before then, we'll cross that little bridge if we have to come to it."

She smiled and paused.

"Until then, you're my dirty little secret," Martha said and she could not resist adding the next point. "Less emphasis on the little part though."

He chuckled and whipped up eggs into a big ass omelet that they should share.

"So was this always your plan for this visit?"

Martha returned the favor from earlier, getting up to fix Harry a cup of coffee.

"It was….." Martha admitted, looking like a little girl who was caught with her hand in the sweet jar, almost sorry, but really not sorry at all. "The venue was going to be very different and I wanted you to take me up to Metropolis for it happening…I admit Jonathan having a heart attack was some really bad timing, but I really was sick of waiting."

She finished the coffee and paused, not handing him the cup just yet. Instead, she stole another extremely heated kiss from him.

Then she sat down and drank her own coffee, whilst she waited for breakfast to be completed. Once it was done, Harry sat across from her with a plate and the omelet on it, along with some toast and some cereal as well, along with other various breakfast bits.

' _You know, wish I was there right now,'_ Lily thought with a smile on her face and Martha jarred her head up, hearing Lily's voice in her head. _'And judging by the fact that you heard my voice, you're settled in right now.'_

' _Don't worry, it can be extremely jarring at first,'_ Rose thought in a consoling voice and Martha shook her head.

' _Just got to get used to it that's all.'_

She smiled and she could get used to this cooking, her taste bloods exploding. Martha chewed on her meal and decided to bring up a point. "Did you know that Jonathan was married once?"

"Yes, Mum mentioned that," Harry said and Martha smiled.

"I don't think Lily never cared all that much for Jonathan, but then again, neither did my father," Martha answered and that allowed Lily to jump in through the bond to defend herself.

' _I have no problems with the guy on a personal manner, he seems nice enough, it's just that I think that you could do better and he is ten years older than you,'_ Lily chimed in and she shook her head. _'I don't have the slightest idea why my Uncle had anything against him.'_

Martha got used to the bond slowly, but she was always a fast study.

"Jonathan was married before me, to his high school sweetheart more or less, but there was a really bad winter, where the two of them were trapped, with very little supplies, and no medical aide," Martha replied and Harry waved her to go on. "She died of the fever, Jonathan got really sick….but we married despite the fact that I knew that he might not love me as much as his first wife."

Martha didn't completely regret it. Sometimes she wondered but she didn't regret it.

"No one would ever be the same after something like that," Harry replied to her and Martha nodded in agreement.

"No, they wouldn't, but I don't regret marrying him, there are a few things that I do regret, but not that, most certainly because I got Claire out of it," Martha said, and she wouldn't trade her daughter for anything in the world. "Not exactly the life that I imagined for when I got married, but…..I got along well enough despite the difficulties. At least for the most part, I guess that I couldn't really live with it much longer…"

She trailed off, realizing that she rambled on a little bit too much.

"I really don't know where I'm going with this one," Martha admitted to him and Harry smiled, brushing his thumb across her lip to remove some stray cheese from it.

"I understand."

He responded by kissing her deeply, something that she returned without hesitation.

* * *

 

The Penthouse Suite of the Gotham Royal Hotel hosted some self-proclaimed royalty, in the form of Carmine Falcone, better known to the criminal underworld as the Roman. It was a family reunion of sorts, partially a business meeting. His two sons, Alberto and Mario sat in comfortable looking chairs in a conference room, and his nephew, Johnny Viti sat off to the side a little bit from the two Falcone boys.

Despite being casually dressed, the Roman still wore the finest casual clothes, because the man always dressed to impress. It was a rare meeting during the day, and one could pass it off as a family gathering, even though there was plenty of business to discuss.

"So, let me ask you something Mario," Carmine said and his son turned towards him. "Just how did you lose my grandfather's hotel to Tony Zucco of all people?"

"They blindsided us, sir," Mario said in a respectful tone, but he did not back down from his father. He looked him in the eye when he spoke. Something told him that his father respected that. "We weren't expecting to be hit from all sides right then, especially from guys that were supposed to be our side. That was the first hint that Maroni got a bit too big for his britches, and the start of trouble, they were supposed to be our side."

Mario heaved in a sight and continued.

"We lost some really good men on that day, in both senses…"

"Very well then, but did you think that it would be a smart enough to hit a place like Sal's in the middle of the fucking day?" Carmine asked, his hot temper bubbling to the surface and Mario blinked.

"That….that wasn't us, Father," Mario said, he managed to keep his tongue from going in the back of his throat.

Johnny managed to look away from needling Alberto long enough to choke on his drink when he heard that exchange. He gagged and he thought that it might have went down the wrong pipe.

Alberto enjoyed the sight of his cousin choking. He took pity on him and slapped him hard on the back to dislodge the drink from his throat.

The Roman's eyes locked onto Johnny. "So, have you recovered enough to talk?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Uncle Carmine, I have," Johnny said, stammering over his words.

"Then, is there anything that you'd like to share with me?" the Roman asked, sometimes his nephew came off as dumb as a box of rocks and about twice as thick.

"You see…..I was the one who ordered the hit."

The Roman thought that his initial assessment of his nephew was correct. "What made you think that was a good idea?"

"Well, I thought that was justified, with how much the Maroni family really took a hit into us, and that's what Ma would have done."

"Yeah, because you're a fucking Momma's boy," Mario whispered, but there was a knock on the door.

The door opened and revealed Bobby "The Don" Gazzo, a grizzled dark haired middle aged man who stepped into the room, and was followed by a dark haired and tall and imposing looking women, who might have seemed attractive in a certain light, but one could argue that her imposing demeanor put off many from looking past that. Sofia Falcone Gigante ran the New York operation, previously with her now deceased husband, and now she ran things alone and with quite the iron fist. Men feared her, women feared her, life was good as far as she was concerned.

"Daddy!" she squealed, and she didn't care what anyone said about her. Those who called her a Daddy's girl, no matter how true, she would cut off their nuts and force-feed to them raw, and laugh about doing it.

"Sofia, it's good to see you," Carmine said, engulfing his daughter into a tight hug in response.

A stout blonde woman entered the room, dressed in a formal business suit entered. The Roman's sister Carla Viti ran the mob operation in Chicago. The Falcone's might have one of the more progressive crime families in the world, due to the fact that they had females in high positions of power.

Carla sauntered over to her son.

"Johnny, Johnny, you look terrible, have you been eating right?" she asked and Alberto snorted at his aunt.

Johnny could go without eating for several weeks quite nicely. It was a running joke within the mob that he looked like Moe from the Three Stooges if Moe ate Curly and had Larry and Shemp for dessert.

"You know, I think that you might be a bit too thin, you should come home more often, for some more home cooked meals, a boy like you needs to eat properly," Carla said, making sure Johnny's hair and shirt was straight.

Once she got that bit of business taken care of, her gaze turned onto that of her brother's. "So, you're not bug fuck nuts anymore?"

The Roman's gaze could cut through solid steal. "How, would you like to find out how a lethal dose of fear toxin to the face feels? Because, Carla, I can easily arrange that to happen if you'd like a first hand experience."

It wasn't an idle threat and Johnny piped up. "Hey, you can't talk like that to my, Ma!"

"The fuck he can't," Sofia said and she stepped in. Johnny backed off and the entire situation descended into shouting.

Bobby Gazzo, used to being the moderator in situations where grown adults acted like school children, angrily cleared his throat and he spoke. He spoke softly, and people listened, because you did not want to ask the Don to repeat himself. "Alright, calm down, the two of you are supposed to be grown adults, and what's more important, you're family, so act like it."

The Don's gaze swept over them and Sofia nodded in response. She respected her godfather's authority and fell into line Johnny did the same thing, at a smack on his shoulder from his smother.

Alberto broke into giggles and his sister's gaze turned on him. "What's your problem, Spaz?"

A knock on the door cut any argument out of place and Eddie Skeevers of all people limped into the room, leaning on a cane.

Johnny, being the master of tact he was, shouted. "What the fuck is that traitor doing here?"

Carmine ignored this little outburst, and walked over towards him. He swept Skeevers into a hug.

"I'm sorry to hear of the death of your brother," the Roman said him sincerely and Skeevers nodded. "But what happened to your knee?"

"One of the bird's thugs shot me," he grunted and the Roman responded with a swift nod.

The Roman turned to the family. "Alright, Eddie and I, we grew up together, so you'd treat him like you'd treat any other member of the family, is that understood?"

"How can we respect someone who…"

"Just do as I say," the Roman said crisply and even Johnny knew now it was time to shut up and cool his jets, before someone cooled them for him.

Mario looked unsurprised, mostly because Skeevers passed him what information that he could have.

"I'm not impressed by the current state of this family, but some of it was unavoidable," the Roman said with a grunt. Between Bobby being in the middle of Metropolis fighting a gang war with Ugly Mannheim and Sofia burying her husband in Sicily, shit went to pot when he was in his catatonic state. "And Carla, thank you for sending what men you could, along with Johnny, and sorry about what happened about the guys on the bridge….."

The Roman placed his hand on his chin.

"What exactly do you mean by Bruno's men using shit that's outta Star Wars?" The Roman asked and the Don quickly answered that question.

"It means exactly what you think it means, it's shit out of Star Wars," Gazzo said.

The Roman gave a long sweeping sigh, and he looked at the members of his family. "There's going to be a few changes around here for how I do business, Gotham is my territory, and I'm not about to have every Tom, Dick, and Harry take it from me without a fight."

The Roman paused and added.

"And it's time to put some of these factions back into line and you better believe I know that they're not about to come back under heel without a little incentive."

* * *

 

Harry, Lana, and Claire returned after a nice day of riding horses. Currently they were at the stable of the Potter Property, doing routine maintenance on Lana's horse, and also the one that Harry purchased for Nell as a birthday present. Although Claire rode it a bit more then Nell did these days.

Harry would normally help out but there was an instance that he shouldn't. So he opted to supervise.

' _You know, it's their responsibility to take care of the Horse that they rode,'_ Martha said.

' _Lana knows this, and so does Claire,'_ Nell thought and Harry nodded in agreement, not about to argue about the law being laid down by the two girl's respective parental figures.

He leaned against one of the pillars, and the girls when they had a chance, started to fire a million questions a minute at him.

' _You know, they asked me a lot of these questions the other day,'_ Kara chimed in and Harry smiled.

' _Well blame the curiosity of the young girls,'_ Harry thought, but considering that he had a daughter around their age, he knew to indulge their curiosity quite well.

"So, do you have any horses of your own?" Lana asked.

"Actually I don't," Harry said and both girls looked surprised at this bit of news. "At least not directly, but in a fashion I guess that I do. There are whole herds of them on Themyscira, and since I'm married to Hippolyta, and they're hers…..there might be a case for them to be might as well."

Lana thought about it for a second and she cupped her chin underneath her head. She pushed a strand of dark hair out of her face. "You know, I don't think that counts."

Harry chuckled and he wrapped his arm around Lana's shoulder, lightly ruffling her hair. "You know, it likely doesn't."

Claire piped instantly with a smile on her face. "But you got a lot of cars, right?"

"You could say that, but Diana would argue that it's our cars, since she bought just as many as I had," Harry said and Claire and Lana looked surprised. And for good reason because pretty much every single time they ran into Diana, she did the elegant lady thing. Harry chuckled.

"I didn't…" Lana said and she struggled to fight the right words, and Claire jumped in.

"She didn't seem like the type to me," Claire said and she tried to wrap this around her head.

' _Oh dear, Diana, I think that you may have confused them,'_ Donna thought and she shifted her shoulders with a smile.

"Diana has her moments where she can be quite the Tomboy, and she does like that, about as much as I do," Harry explained to both of the girls, who smiled in response. "And she also likes to restore them…..after all a really fast car or motorcycle is about as close as you can get to flying when you have to be on the ground."

Claire frowned when she finished tending to her horse. "But you can fly, right? If you can fly, why don't you do just that?"

Harry sighed; he wished that he had the capabilities to do so. As much as he enjoyed the challenge, there were some instances where he really hated that inhibitor watch. This was one of them.

Lana noticed the reaction and frowned, before she pinched Claire pretty hard. She supposed that it wouldn't hurt her due being a Kryptonian, but the thought was there. "He's sick remember, so he can't fly."

Claire frowned, a sheepish look on her face. "Oh….sorry if I upset you."

She shifted her feet, and looked kind of uncomfortable.

"Don't worry about it, you forgot, it happens to the best of us," Harry said and he ruffled her hair playfully in response. He hauled her up and gave her a piggy back ride, and then he took Lana underneath his arm.

The three of them exited the barn and Claire thought about something. "All I've seen my Pa drive is the truck, but he said that he used to have a really nice Charger once…..he had to sell it, I don't know, he never said why, but I guess that he had to pay a bill or something."

Harry hmmed in response, but thankfully Lana saved him from having to elaborate on this situation.

"Mr. Kent was in a car accident, wasn't he?" Lana asked and Claire nodded.

"Yeah, he was," Claire told the girl.

"But what happened to the truck?"

Claire gave a pointed gasp in response, she didn't think about what happened to his truck.

"It was pretty much totaled, so we're going to have to replace it," Harry said and both girls remained silent. "The Insurance money should cover it."

Of course, Harry decided to buy Jonathan a brand new truck before he got released from the hospital. One that was released within the last five years, and he could say that it got covered by the insurance money.

* * *

 

Talon swept her way back to the Clock Tower, to meet with Oracle and also she ranted to Harry about a point that she wanted to bring up.

' _You know, it might be a good idea to come out and say it to Barbara already,"_ Jaime suggested without taking a breath or pausing. She was on a roll and her rant only increase in typical Evans fashion. _'Because if Dinah is any indication, she'll just hop onto the bond after her birthday, and…she'll be kind of pissed that we're keeping things from her.'_

' _You know, I'm not really lying to her, none of us are, there's enough clues out there in front of here, she's just not putting them together, either she's too busy, or she just doesn't want to do it just yet,'_ Harry said and Kara popped in.

' _It might be out of loyalty to her father,'_ Kara thought, and she smiled. _'You know, if your psychology class is any indication, she's a bit of a Daddy's girl, and she'd feel obligated to tell Jim, since he's pretty much on the Order side of Law and Order. So she might want to bring him in to help.'_

' _Providing he hasn't already figured it out,'_ Jaime thought. _'You know, if Sarah was able to figure it out, he should have been able to as well.'_

' _Well then it's the same deal with Barbara, but in reverse, he loves his daughter, and she loves Harry, so he's looking the other way.'_

Jaime shook her head, she thought that she left the tangled web she weaved behind after her teenage days, but there were just more strands that popped up. The Elevator dinged up and she got into serious mode.

Talon exited the Elevator into the Clock Tower, and found Oracle leaned back into a big comfy office chair. She peered onto the ceiling and had ear buds locked into her ears.

"You know, I seem to think that he's one of those meteor mutants…..I mean timeline wise, it makes perfect sense, he might have been really young, no older than about five or six when he got infected," a voice that Jaime didn't recognize said over the line.

"Please," Lois said, a voice that Jaime did recognize. "He might be one of those super-soldier experiments, you know that the government's always talking about…."

"That's real conspiracy level stuff right there," the girl said and Lois piped back in.

"Well, you think that these Meteor Mutants aren't conspiracy theory stuff?" Lois asked and she sighed, and tapped the side of her head. "I heard Dad talking to his aide and a woman who seemed to redefine the term loud and proud."

Barbara snorted in response, but shook her head, with her two contacts squabbling over each other. "You know, I don't think you mean what it thinks it means."

"What does it mean?"

"Never mind," Lois said quickly, and she shook her head. "But you know, it's more sense for him to be a super soldier than a meteor mutant…"

"Wait, wait, are you sure that they're conducting experiments?" Barbara asked, alarmed by this, but why wouldn't she be alarmed? The government creating experiments to build super soldiers was just a recipe for some kind of fucked up disaster. "Do you remember the name of the woman that her father was talking to?"

"Um….let's see, well I remember her calling her the ball busting bitch once," Lois said, she hemmed and hawed when she racked her brain. "Oh, I think that her name was Doctor Monica Gellar….."

"Lois, you dunce, Miranda Gellar….."

"Monica Gellar?" Lois hissed and her cousin sighed.

"Whatever?" she asked the sound of her face palming audible. "She's the name of that neurotic chick on Friends."

Barbara slipped on a pair of glasses on the bridge of her nose and typed up something in the search engine, and waited.

It hit pay dirt a moment later and the profile of Doctor Miranda Waller popped up. It was a public profile, so it listed some extremely public accomplishments, a Doctor of Political Science and a former Congressional Aide, and then she was appointed Warden of Belle Reve Prison. Her mother had a storied history as well but that was beside the point.

She read it out loud.

"Sounds like her…..well parts of her," Lois muttered.

"And I can see what you mean by loud and proud," Barbara said, and she took a look at the picture, even though it wasn't really a good one.

It was then, where Barbara noticed Talon standing beside her out of the corner of her eye.

"I gotta to go," Oracle said suddenly.

"Right, Athena out," Lois said with a mock salute.

"Indigo out," the second girl answered, and they vanished from the network.

"And Oracle out," Barbara continued and she got up to her feet to see Talon standing there, a sheepish expression on her face.

Jaime made a split second decision not to embarrass her any further. Rather, she took a quick stride across the room, reached in, and pulled out the Disc Drive.

Barbara whistled and stared back at the woman. "Is that what I think it is?"

"It is," Talon confirmed, and Oracle took the drive from her. "Nightwing wants you to find out what Enigma wants on it."

Eagerly, Oracle nodded, and she hooked it up to the computer, using a USB cable. Much to her surprise, she hacked into it quite easily and kind of disappointed on that front to be honest. Leaned in, she pressed her hands upon the screen.

Her mouth hung open in surprise and saw the information pour in front of her eyes. Oracle pressed a few keys and allowed a holographic display of the information to be mounted before them so Talon could take a look at it.

"Still so fucking cool," she muttered, but she shook herself back to life. "Um this is….well this is big, and I think that it's easy to figure out why he wanted this. It's the access codes to the entire Gotham City Radio Network communication grid."

Talon nodded and Oracle tried to keep her excitement down to a lower level, but she could not help herself.

"Technically speaking, he couldn't do anything with this directly, but he could piggy back off the signal," Oracle explained. She calmed herself down and continued. "If he were to piggy back off of the signal, he could access a lot of sensitive information, since a couple of the telecommunication networks aren't Wayne pay GNR to use the radio towers, since the infrastructure is already in place."

She took a deep breath.

"Wayne Entertainment uses Satellites so it's really hard to hack into them…..well I could do it with the equipment here…..but I don't think that he could," Oracle said and she shook her head. "But with all of this information, still not sure what he really wants, because it would be a lot easier just to hack the person's phone records."

Talon smiled. "How would you like to find out?"

Oracle wasn't going to lie, she thought that was extremely tantalizing information.

* * *

 

Roman Sionis, better known to the underworld as the mobster Black Mask, exited a limo and stood himself in front of a rather high class restaurant, especially for this neighborhood. Given that it belonged to Maxie Zeus, he expected nothing less.

He received a mysterious phone call a couple of hours, and was told that if he was at this particular location, at this particular time, he wouldn't regret it.

He manned up and rolled the dice, a couple of bodyguards backing him up in case this was an ambush. They sat in a car in a parking lot, Black Mask felt really good about this meeting. It was just a vibe that he had.

Sionis walked forward, dressed in his best ,and he stopped with the head server. "I'm here to meet someone….."

"Right this way, sir," the head server said, she had been told by the other guest that this man would be arriving soon.

Sionis stopped in surprise, and spotted Oswald Cobblepot sitting at a nearby table, eating.

"Sit down, my friend," Oswald said calmly, and he pulled out a chair to have his potential rival take a seat.

Needless to say that Black Mask was intrigued by why the Penguin offered him to come here for dinner.

He remained calm and even, and stared the bird down. He figured that it would be best to hear him out.

"So what's the deal?" Sionis asked and Cobblpeot smiled.

"We should work together, both of our families are Gotham Institutions, and with the Roman back from Wonderland, there's no telling what people like Thorne, or the other factions are going to do," Cobblepot said and he smiled. "Scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, that's the deal. You supply the drugs, and I'll supply the guns, along with a few nastier surprises."

Cobblepot and Sionis locked eyes with each other and their hands met in the center of the table with a crisp handshake. A match made in hell was just made and the ramifications would rock Gotham City.

* * *

 

Enigma's grin widened and he looked like a kid on Christmas morning, and it had come early for him too.

His handler transmitted the data to him and the man leaned back, with a wide grin on his face, but the grin slowly faltered when he realized that wasn't what he was looking for all.

"All that work, all that time, wasted, I can't believe it!" he howled at the top of his lungs and he tapped a button on his cell phone.

He zapped his handler through a device that he installed on the specialized cell phone that he gave him. It came in handy if someone failed him or tried to give up for information.

He seethed in anger, not knowing that a tricky little worm implanted on the drive slipped into his network and began to cause havoc.

* * *

 

A pair of elegant hands, like one would expect to have attached to a musician or a surgeon was in the process of placing together an extremely large bomb.

"On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree," he sang at the top of his lungs. "On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree."

With each verse, he got closer to assembling yet another bomb, this one nearly completed, and he laid it down next to nine others, and then began work on another one.

A calendar rested on desk and the date was December 1st.

**To Be Continued on December 2nd, 2014.** **  
**

**Gotham City is heading into another war, and things are going to get even more dangerous here in this city. Especially with the Roman back and the Penguin and Black Mask.**

**Cameos galore in this chapter for characters that might prove to be useful in the future.**


	71. Set Fire to the Rain Part One

**Chapter Seventy-One: Set Fire to the Rain Part One.**

* * *

 

Elsewhere in Gotham, Black Mask and Penguin concluded their little meeting, but other things were afoot as well on this night. Rupert Thorne was in the process of meeting with several gentlemen. He stood to look down on all of them and appeared as some kind of Kingpin of all crime in Gotham City.

These men were low tier gangsters that joined this "Commission of Crime" in an attempt to allow everyone to be protected, or Businessmen who decided to play crime lord in their spare time.

An interesting little thing about them was that most of them were based out of New Gotham as opposed to Old Gotham. The Maronis and the Falcones based most of their operations out of there, since they had been their longer than many of these men have been even born.

The game changed a lot in recent months, with Black Mask and Penguin sticking their mark together, and they carved out a lot of territory. Black Mask especially dove into the Gotham City underworld with great fury, and did his best to hammer out a territory of his own in old Gotham.

His guys roamed all over the city, making sure to show anyone who thought twice who they thought was the number one man in town. Even though Black Mask had quite the pecking order to navigate before he reached that point, he did make a splash in the drug market. That lead to some big, big money.

Rupert Thorne on the other hand, this man was an obvious number three behind Maroni and Falcone. He vowed to move up in the world. While he was still a bit behind the Roman and Maroni, he still forged his connections. The thing was that unlike the old-school class of mobsters, he treated crime like it was his own personal business.

This Commission of Crime was proof of that, but really this was just a gathering of some of the low level Crime Lords in Gotham City. He perched himself at the head of an obnoxiously large table, in an obnoxiously large conference room. The window was also obnoxiously large, as well.

Thorne kept peering through the window nervously at times, because after what happened in recent months, you could never be too careful.

Carl Grissom and Jack Napier spoke with each other in low tones. There was also a who's who of the lower level crime lords. Antoine "Tony" Rotelli, Vincent 'Vinnie' Ricorso, Salvatore 'Sal' Valestra, Arnold Stromwell were in attendance just name a few of the more notable names there. Carlton Duqeensne sat closest to Thorne, next to Gambol, but even he sat a ways away.

Not present was a number of businessmen who directly associated with the commission like Max Shreck and Roland Dagget, but they didn't want to get their hands dirty. Therefore they were more behind the scenes, as opposed to hands on.

Thorne cleared his throat to get the attention of this crew of misfits in attendance.

"Gentlemen, as you know we have a problem," Thorne said, and he got to the meat and the potatoes of this meeting so he could get to the actual meat and potatoes later on. "The Roman is back and town, and…well he's going to pick up where he left off before."

"So, what's the deal Thorne, are you going to join up with him, now that he's back from wonderland?"

"While it's true that I had a working relationship with the Roman in the past, that was another time," Thorne said and he took a large swig from a towering glass of wine. "The day of the older crime lords like the Roman and Big Lou Maroni, they're done, finished. This is not some kind of old school operation, this should be run like a business. There's nothing personal and no old family grudges in our new world."

Thorne made sure they got his full attention before he proceeded onward.

"The biggest problem as I see it is Black Mask, because he's hellbent in sniffing around in our territory in New Gotham," Thorne said and there were a few people who grumbled. It was extremely easy to see who had their share of run ins with Black Mask and his men.

"What about the rumors that he's trying to strike a deal with the Bird or the Bird wants to strike a deal with him?" Duquesne demanded.

"Carlton, don't worry about it," Thorne said with a chuckle.

"And don't forget about the Ninja, and Batman…"

No one at this table has," Thorne said and there was loud muttering in response. Some of them had encounters with one or both like he did. No one had the balls to speak up, mostly because the fact that they might get branded as a coward.

Jack Napier cleared his throat and all of the attention gravitated towards him. "You know…..this would be a lot easier if do one simple thing. I mean, why don't you just kill them? Or at least pay someone like Branden and his boys to kill them for you."

Grisson's eyes fixed on Napier and angrily glared at him. The man spoke out of term and they needed to work with the Kingpin of Gotham City Crime if they hoped to move things forward.

Thorne looked thoughtful and maybe he could explore that in the future. Business beckoned first.

"How is business going with the Falcones?" Thorne asked Duquesne.

The mobster promptly responded with the status report. "My boys have been able to arrange a couple of small deals with Mario Falcone. You know, usually by setting up a distraction in the form of goods we don't mind losing, so for every big deal that seems to get fucked up by the Bat and the Ninja, three or four smaller ones go through.

He poured himself a drink, something that he thought he might need to go through with this meeting.

"The problem is that with the Roman back in the picture, everything's up in the air," Carlton said and Thorne nodded. "I've been able to keep from committing too much information with Mario…..but…"

"The Roman might be a tougher egg to crack," Gambol said and everyone was on edge every time the Roman got brought up. The few months without him in the picture allowed some opportunities or they would have if the Bird and Black Mask didn't shit all over the pecking order.

There was a system in Gotham City. Those who fucked with the system presented a problem.

"What's the plan with Black Mask?"

Thorne answered that question after a moment of thought. "You know, I'll have to have a conversation with our friend in Amusement Mile, to see if some pressure can be applied."

Tempers flared, but Thorne knew how to pacify this situations. He wouldn't be half of the businessman that he was if he didn't know how to mediate and more importantly, if he didn't know how to babysit.

* * *

 

A brand new Lincoln Navigator flew down the road, and Harry drove it down, with a smile on his face. He sat in the company of the extremely lovely Alexandria Luthor. She sat in the passenger seat off to the side, on their way to Luthor Mansion.

"No, I don't have any clue where Lionel or my brother could have went off to," Alexa admitted, and that might be concerning. Especially when one considered what her father got up to on a day to day basis. "If I had to guess, Lionel has fucked off to one of his properties in Metropolis, and Lex flew back to Excelsior."

Alexa smiled at him and decided to run something past him.

"Did you hear about Ray Palmer's particle string theory?" Alexa asked and Harry smiled at her.

"You mean how he believes electron-degenerate matter can be used to change an object's size, to shrink and lower it at will."

' _Headache inducing conversation of science coming, hit the deck!'_ Amanda thought, and Kara shushed her.

' _I want to hear this,'_ Kara said with interest, and Amanda and Donna in particular looked rather lost. Emily was lost as well, and she looked rather amused.

The two had an animated conversation, that might have been a foreign language to another person who happened to be listening in.

"Well, I'm sure if anyone can make it work, it would be Palmer…..'

' _He has a lot of ambition, although it might be a bit beyond most people on Earth,'_ Kara thought and Faora chimed in.

' _Child's play on Krypton?'_ Faora asked her and Kara nodded with a smile.

' _Child's play on Krypton which you should know, it's a concept my mother could work with in her sleep, when she was two,'_ Kara answered.

' _For some of us, it's like you speaking Ancient Greek,'_ Amanda thought, and Alexa and Harry continued their conversation around them.

Harry paused and mentally chimed in. _'You know, I can understand Ancient Greek, thanks to Hippolyta.'_

' _Well, I can understand Ancient Greek, and it's just a little bit beyond me,'_ Donna thought, and she held across her palm and her forefinger.

' _Ah, poor dear,'_ Lyta cooed when she jumped over the bond link and Donna glared at her baby sister.

' _Don't even pretend you know what's going on, brat,'_ Donna thought crossly.

' _Mother, Donna's being mean to me,'_ Lyta whined. It was at that moment where Hippolyta popped into the bond link sternly.

' _Girls, tone it down,'_ Hippolyta said and she gave them those Mom eyes that caused many girls to shudder underneath them.

"Really all Palmer's theory has proven is that the process is capable of causing things to explode spectacularly," Harry concluded. "Given the fact that he's currently on his third lab and counting."

Alexa chuckled in amusement and shifted from where she sat. She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, whilst murmuring. "…..and my friends wonder why I'm in love with you."

That was new information with Harry, but he did keep his eyes on the road. He did catch a glimpse of her blushing in the top rearview mirror.

"You won't supposed to hear that."

"Hear, what?" Harry asked and Alexa folded her arms across her chest and pouted. "Well, I guess that you shouldn't have said that out loud, since I got pretty good hearing."

"Guess the secret is out then," Alexa said with a grumbling tone to her voice and she sighed and wrapped her arm around his free one.

She remained silent and decided to add another thought that she supposed that he wasn't supposed to hear.

"You're the only person that can keep up with me on an intellectual level," Alexa told him and Harry smiled. "Other than Lex…."

Harry kept his eyes on the road, and resolved not to say anything.

"And it doesn't hurt that I've heard that you're a fantastic fuck."

It was a good thing that he was almost to Luthor Manor, because he just might have crashed the car because of that blunt statement. That being said, he could not help, but be impressed by the sight of the place; before him stood a castle in the middle of Kansas. That just wasn't something that you prepared to see every day.

Granted he had two of his own, or maybe it was three, he couldn't really recall. That being said, he gave out an impressive whistle.

Alexa responded with a cheeky grin and decided to gave him the Cliff's notes version of the history of the mansion. "Lionel wanted to prove his worth and his wealth to the point where it was obscene, and apparently the mansion we already lived in wasn't big enough already. Therefore, he had an ancestral castle transported from Scotland to Smallville, where it was painstakingly reconstructed stone by stone."

She took a deep breath and said the rest in one breath. "The main residence is 200 feet and 86 feet wide with an 82-foot high turrent. The Luthor ancestral home boasts a library, an armory with medieval weaponry, an excise room, several servant quarters, a wine cellar, a full basement storey about two full stories high, a grand ballroom ,a formal dining room, and a natorium. The interior of the mansion is adorned with priceless art pieces, paintings, and ancient artifacts collected from around the world. Many of the rooms have oak and rosewood panels on the walls and tweak floors, along with antiques and tapestries."

There was much clapping through the bond and Harry smiled when Alexa finally, finally took a break. "And before you ask, I did some checking, and yes, the Blackgate Estate is bigger than it."

With a chuckle, she took him by the hand and lead him into the castle proper, winding her way through it to a living room. This was part of a suite of rooms.

Once they reached the inside area, she pushed him back onto the couch.

One thing was for sure, the girl knew what she wanted, and knew that she was going to get it.

"Place is so big, the place is so big, that you can roam around for weeks without running into someone else," Alexa said, with a playful grin on her face and she approached him. "Except for the servants, they might be mulling around here somewhere."

"So, about dinner….."

Alexa placed her finger on his lips. "Arranged it already, and the cook is quite good. The best, and with people like us, why settle for all the rest?"

With that point, it was hard to argue. She obviously was used to the best of everything. She parked herself down next to him, and placed her hand on the top of his head and started to thread her fingers playfully through her hair. She stared into his eyes, and pushed herself towards him.

Their foreheads practically rested on top of each other and she continued to play with his hair. "I have to tell you something…..?"

"Oh?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Alexa agreed. "I overheard Lionel talking to one of his underlings about the current state of Queen Industries stock, and how close it is sinking into the toilet. Investor confidence went down after Oliver's…less that socially acceptable behavior came to light. In fact, did you know it was reported in the news that he was arrested for drunk driving and disorderly conduct?"

Harry whistled, the Queen heir just knew how to make his bad situation even worse. "No, I didn't."

"Well it didn't help matters really," Alexa answered, absent-mindedly twirling her fingers through his hair. "Lionel is more than likely to make a grab for it….if he gets a chance…..unless someone beats him to it."

Harry smiled, and Alexa pressed on now that she got his full interest.

"Eventually, I figure, along with most of the world, that RAO and Wayne will break away from each other, it's only a marriage of convenience right now," Alexa explained to him and Harry neither would confirm nor deny her theory. Which was fine enough with her. "It makes sense for you to acquire it, since you can transfigure the company into manufacturing technology, instead of development. You know, since RAO already has that handled."

She paused and added as an afterthought. "And you do seem bound and determined to make Lionel's life a little bit more difficult."

Harry grinned at her.

"So, are you happy with me?" Alexa asked and all that he did was lean forward.

Their lips met passionately when he kissed her deeply. She returned the kiss with equal fire, their tongues dancing together with passion and drive. Neither wanted to be the one who would break this meeting of lips and mouths, but eventually Alexa did.

She pulled away and smiled. "So, do I get a reward for being such a good girl?"

Harry arched his eyebrow. It was a struggle to imagine someone like her being good, but he decided to roll with it. "…..and what does the good girl want for her reward."

She leaned in close, and kissed him on the lip. Hungrily, she nibbled away at his lower lip, and then she kissed her way up to his neck. She reached his ear and kissed that. Then she whispered in his ear in a husky voice. "I want you to spank me, and spank me hard, until my ass is red and raw."

Harry blinked, didn't really expect that, but given the kinky girls he attracted, he should have figured it.

That being said, he did what she asked, and laid her down across his lap. He shifted her and raised his hand.

She braced herself eagerly and his hand clashed with her panty clad bottom. Once and he paused, and then he did it again.

' _Oh this is hot,'_ Karen chimed in, with an eager smile on her face, and Harry's strong hand slapped over Alexa's tight bottom over and over again, drilling her.

"Yes, harder, oh, harder, more, please Daddy, make your little girl feel so good," Alexa begged him and Harry did what she asked and spanked him.

He rubbed her ass after the tenth spank on her and then smiled, and pulled her panties down.

Alexa felt her ass bare and his hand rested on it. She waited for a moment and then.

WHACK!

Alexa's pussy twitched when she felt his hand connect with her rear end.

"Harder Daddy, harder, spank me harder!"

He spanked her harder again and again, and the redhead's eyes closed when she continued to feel the rush.

"Spank me harder Daddy, really make me feel it!"

' _Yes, Daddy, harder, spank that spoiled bitch harder,'_ Karen chimed in, egging on Harry through the bond link.

Harry spanked her ass again and again, and then he shifted over.

She closed her eyes, his fingers….oh she already had one right away, a screaming orgasm. He slowly worked her over, making her pleasure increase and boil over. She could not…

He didn't get much further and she didn't reach her peak, when there was a knock on the door. Alexa looked up, biting down on her lip.

"Dinner is ready."

Alexa pulled her panties on in disappointment, and pulled away from Harry.

' _Oh, cock blocked by the help,'_ Kara said, but she looked thoughtful at something.

Kara was plotting about something, which never ended up well.

* * *

 

Batman swooped down, on patrol and read in one of the rougher areas of Gotham City. It was undergoing a bit of urban renewal in an attempt to provide low incoming housing. This would be a good thing if there wasn't one problem.

The buildings caught fire recently. The obvious speculation was that the fire was an attempt to commit insurance fraud.

This was a sound theory at first, but again there was only one problem with that. The police found the man who owned the properties dead in his car due to a case of carbon monoxide poisoning. The police ruled in a suicide, but in Gotham City, murder was always a possibility.

It caught Oracle's interest, and when she sent it out, Batman picked up with it. It caught his interest due to the fact that he went to the Gotham Private Academy with the person. As far as he knew, the man in question had no political ties. In fact, quite the contrary given that he were a political activate, and nearly involved in Charity work as much as Ronnie was.

In other words, he was a real heal all of societies type.

"So, in other words, it doesn't make any sense, because the motive is not there?" Alfred asked.

"As far as I know, he didn't make any enemies, and…..this could be a crime of opportunity," Batman continued and he paused, and added onto it. "The fact that his rental properties burned up showed that there was something there."

"Perhaps he had incriminating information to somewhere there and the person who hired the arsonist wanted to get rid of it?" Alfred suggested.

"Maybe," Batman said, and he checked the information that Oracle gave him. "This information that Oracle gave me….you checked to ensure that it's complete."

"For the fifth time, yes I did, sir," Alfred said in his usual extremely dry voice. "Do you have any clue as to who she might be?"

Batman grunted. "Only my suspicions, but I don't trust…"

"With all due respect, Master Bruce, you hardly even trust yourself on your bad days."

Batman said nothing, he supposed that he could give Oracle the benefit of the doubt at least for this time. That being said, Alfred worked as his main mission support still and Oracle chimed in with some information when she had it.

That being said, Batman, with new technology to equip an ever changing scene in the never ending war, made his way into the direction of the neighborhood where the fires took place. That would be the earliest indicator for any kind of foul play, if he was willing to look around.

"So, can you hear me?"

"You sound like a cell phone commercial, sir, but yes I can hear you despite being on the other end of Gotham City," Alfred said with his usual dry British wit. "All jesting aside, the comm signal in your new headset works well."

"It's better than the one that Blackfire destroyed," Batman admitted, and Alfred was caught unaware by that particular adventure being brought up so casually.

He looked around to see if anyone was around. There would be barely any police or security, due to the fact that this was a rougher neighborhood. That being said, it would be a bad enough risk to be spotted by the criminal element when he moved around.

Also, some of the Homeless population lurked around, with a lot of them finding new shelter into the City proper after the fires that ravaged a lot of Ghost Town.

He activated a display in his cowl, and the initial reports already preloaded into it, what was done by the Arson Investigator.

' _Man is corrupt, likely,'_ Batman thought to himself. This was the same man after all who investigated the fire that Sionis's parents were killed and he ruled it to be an accident. Therefore he took the man's words with a huge chunk of salt.

That being said, it was still useful information for him to acquire, but he stopped at the place that the fire originated.

Batman kneeled down and slowly ran his finger along one of the scorch marks. He sniffed it. It was gasoline, and there were several metal barrels of it. Then there was something else that he didn't recognize upon sniffing it.

Utilizing his scanner, something popped up. It was just as he suspected, which gave the scanner a sense of being omnipresent.

It was a chemical accelerant mixed in with the gasoline. This dangerous cocktail would cause it to burn hotter and faster.

That lined up with the reports, but what didn't line up with the reports was another discovery that Batman made upon his scan. It may have been a detonator of some sort, but it had too much damage from the fire to really tell.

' _Perhaps I'll be able to find more information on the other sights,'_ Batman thought, and he turned on his heel to do just that.

He glided in the direction of the next property, and slowly the pieces fit together. But in what way, he couldn't tell.

* * *

 

The dinner with the alluring Ms. Luthor was great for many reasons, and good as promised. Alexa gave him the invitation to stay the night, but unfortunately and really reluctantly, Harry turned that invite down, mostly because he had to catch an early flight back to Gotham.

A late business meeting he had to be present for took greater priority. And their fun never really kicked back up. They had a good dinner together and watched a movie, with Alexa nodding off.

' _I swear, the Luthors either have some plans to cock block or kill you, it's really something else,'_ Jaime thought and Karen nodded in agreement.

Harry chuckled, one of the more helpful servants at the Luthor Manor offered him a ride back to the Potter Property. Harry walked up the driveway, listening intently to the conspiracy theories that Jaime and Karen came up with regarding the Luthors and their evil plans.

' _You know, I think the two of you could be overreacting.'_

' _Maybe,'_ Karen admitted grudgingly and everyone laughed.

Harry chuckled himself and opened the door and stepped inside the Potter Estate. He frowned, things were rather quiet.

More interestingly, Kara did not seem to be up and about at all. She became a bit of a Night Owl thanks to Vicki's influence. He expected to find her reading on her tablet in the living room, but she was nowhere to be found.

Shrugging his coat off, Harry caught it in his hands, and walked over to hang on the handrail.

Then with that out of the way, he made his way upstairs to the bedroom where he usually slept when he spent the night.

He paused and heard a curious sound. There was a slapping sound that aroused his curiosity.

He stepped into the bedroom, and that aroused more than his curiosity. Honestly, he was not surprised what happened, at least who was doing it. One of the people who it was being done to, well he was only surprised because the last he knew, she wasn't in Smallville.

Harry figured that she arrived and got drafted into this nice and devious game. He stepped into the room to get a closer look.

Kara stood before them. She held a riding crop and all she wore on her body was the tiniest leather thong that she could find.

Patricia and Nell on the other hand were tied up on the bed, with their hands behind their backs, and they presented their asses where they could get the proper attention. And Kara made sure to give both women the ample amount of attention.

Harry reached behind him and closed the door behind him.

His Alpha made eye contact with him and slowly and sensually ran her tongue around her lips. She teased one of the girls.

She looked at Patricia for a moment and whispered in her ear. "You and I, we're going to play…."

Kara turned over and fixed her eyes towards Nell and slowly cut the restraints, using her heat vision.

"Time for a little family bonding."

Kara cracked the whip towards the woman, not that Nell needed much incentive. She was worked up with the promise of things to come.

Nell dropped down to her knees and slowly unbuckled Harry's pants. It was much like opening a present on Christmas day, and what was inside would be well worth the wait.

Harry felt her amble hands on his cock and she fondled his balls. She rubbed him up and down with a smile on her face.

Nell didn't give Harry a chance to respond to her, rather she pushed his cock deep into her mouth, and sucked him. With talent and skill, she deep-throated Harry and he groaned, with her hot lips colliding around his tool.

She sucked him extremely hungrily, and licked her way around his tool. She brought him into her mouth again and again. Each time she tried to suckle him a little bit deeper to give her the pleasure she thought that he deserved.

Harry latched his hand around the back of her head, and grunted. Her mouth eagerly worked him over and made up for any lost time. He leaned against the wall.

"Don't you dare forget to play with his balls," Kara whispered, and Nell obeyed her request. With a smile, Kara brushed her finger from the back of Patricia's neck, all the way down her spine and she stopped at her ass crack.

Patricia closed her eyes, with Kara having worked her up. The blonde traced her finger up and down her back, and then teased her pussy.

"Don't worry, I've got a better idea," Kara whispered, and she felt the moisture collect on the palm of her hand. She enjoyed the thrill of the hunt and her body burned with the desire that was about to be brought.

Patricia wondered what that idea was, but she knew that Kara would have complete control. She saw Kara hover over her. A ball gag in her mouth and restraints around her hands prevented her from saying anything.

Kara smiled, the state of her body was more than enough and she made eye contact with her Harry, and then pushed the dildo into Patricia. She felt the woman's tight pussy thanks to it being hooked into her nervous system.

"Yes, you're so good," Kara whispered, and she ran her hands down the redhead's sweaty body. "How about we give your god a show that he'll never forget…as I fuck you in a way that you'll never forget?"

Patricia encouraged these actions, and she felt Kara's hands on her hips. The redhead tightened her eyes and allowed herself pleasure.

"You belong to us, don't you?"

Nell felt herself backed up against the wall, and Harry explored her body. He bit down on her neck hungrily and spread her legs.

"Take me…"

"I will when I'm ready," Harry said and he pinched his cousin's ass roughly. Her pussy tightened together and Harry ran his hand down her body. He collected the juices on his fingers and lifted them up. "Taste yourself."

Nell did as she was told. She tasted herself and that made her extremely horny. She tasted so good, her pussy ached even more. The dark haired woman's nipples stiffened just a little bit more and she breathed in and out heavily.

"You get off on that?"

"Of course the horny little bitch gets off on it," Kara said and she held onto Patricia's hips and rammed into her. "Just like this horny little bitch gets off on this, don't you?"

Patricia nodded and Kara dominated her again and again.

Harry smiled and he pinned Nell's hands behind the back of her head. Her legs were spread and her dripping wet pussy bared for him.

It was here that he noticed that Nell's pubic hair was shaved into a "Z" and he looked at it, with Kara smiling.

"Have at it."

Harry didn't need any further encouragement over than the encouragement that he got from his Alpha. He rested his hands on either side of Nell's hips and he felt that he worked her up almost enough. It was time to collect what he felt belonged him.

Needless to say he was right and he did work up Nell enough. Harry's manhood spiked its way between her hot thighs and she closed her eyes. The dark haired vixen felt him pump into her.

She moaned, but his cum stained fingers were in her mouth. She stained them with her cum, which she now sucked when he fucked her pussy against the wall.

Her pussy juices allowed his cock proper lubrication, and Harry smiled. She felt so tight, and wet and hot that he couldn't really hold off too much longer.

Well he couldn't if he didn't have any self-control.

"So, I think that it's time to switch pussies," Kara whispered and she smiled.

Harry pulled out of Nell and left her panting against the wall. She already came multiple times, and she felt spent.

Kara smiled and kissed Harry long and hard. She gave his cock one final caress and pointed him to Patricia, who laid on the bed. She was in quite the state of mind.

"You don't have to wait for long, I'll take good care of you," Kara said and she brushed her finger against Nell's pubic hair. "Just a little reminder of whom you belong to."

Nell didn't say anything, she wanted fucked and in the worst way. While Kara's strap on was not as good as Harry's cock, it still drove her wild.

Kara held her arms back and forced her down onto her knees on the floor. She smiled, her cock still lubricated by Patricia's pussy juices remained over Nell's love hole. She pushed into her.

The scream of delight heard made Harry's ears flutter and he saw Patricia down on the bed. The pubic hair indicated that she was a natural redhead. In addition to that alluring fact, Kara groomed her up to remind her who her pussy belonged to.

"Poor, sweet, Patricia, you aren't looking too hot…"

"She needs a good solid injection of Vitamin D," Kara encouraged him, when she roughly fucked Nell onto the floor. Nell moaned when Kara rode her pussy into a raw mess.

Patricia's body spasmed and her pussy clenched. The thought of Harry's cock inside of her allowed her to release a miniature orgasm. Her juices stained the sheets when she shook all over and sighed.

The action act of Harry's cock sliding inside her on the other hand, that caused her to have another orgasm.

Patricia's wonderful sheath of flesh caressed Harry, and he pumped into her. The resistance between their two organs caused explosive sexual magic to occur.

"I don't think that I'm doing my job in fucking you hard enough….."

"Mistress please, harder, I've been a bad girl," Nell moaned, and she felt the domination that she got off on with Kara exerting it over her.

Kara smiled, she got off on this a hundred times over, and the strap on channeled her cum into Nell's pussy. The mixing of two different sets of juices was a sight to unfold for sure.

Nell felt herself drop down to the ground and Kara continuously fucked her.

Patricia on the other hand, wished to convey her thoughts through words, but then she remembered the mental link. Kara, and later Harry, fucked her so hard that she lost all ability to think.

' _Fuck me, please fuck me, Har-Zod, take me and take me hard,'_ she moaned and Harry rammed into her from behind hard.

Nell rested on the floor and Kara smiled, she was fucked, and it looked like Har-Zod was about ready to finish the deed in Patricia.

Patricia's lust increased and Harry pounded into her hard from behind. He drove her to more orgasms that she thought the human body could be have been possible in sustaining, but she loved each and every one of them.

His balls boiled and he was close. Harry pumped himself into her for a little bit more, and with a growl unleashed himself into her.

Patricia thought she might collapse on the bed if she had not been held up by the restraints that she did. Harry pumped his sticky load between her thighs and she felt him deposit rush after rush of his hot sticky cum inside her.

Harry removed his manhood from her center and that caused Patricia's hips to twitch when he pulled all the way out of her.

"I think that she might need another injection later."

Kara smiled and walked over. It pleased her to see Harry's cock hard and ready for her. She pulled down her thong and exposed her bare sex.

"You know what to do."

Harry grunted and Kara pushed herself down onto him. He held his Alpha in tightly when she worked herself around his tool and prepared to give them quite the show to get their motors running all over again.

* * *

 

Everything appeared to be going more than fine, despite the initial scares that their trip to Smallville had.

Now Harry returned home with Karen, due to the fact that he needed to attend a meeting at Wayne Enterprises. This was a meeting that was pretty much out of the blue.

' _So, are you kind of annoyed that you had to go back to Gotham City early?'_ Karen asked him and Harry frowned.

' _Not entirely, at least not completely,'_ Harry thought to her and he shook her head. _'It's likely Kane making a nuisance out of himself, but it wouldn't be Kane if he didn't make a nuisance out of himself.'_

Karen laughed in response. If that wasn't for sure, she didn't know what was.

A third party joined them when they did the long walk. She was short, around five feet tall, with piercing violet eyes, and her ears pointed. She looked like a normal human woman except with the exotic features of the pointed ears.

In fact, it was this particular woman who picked her up, due to Penny moved on to taking the younger girls around full time.

"So, what did Alexandria Luthor tell you about Queen?"

"Sersi," Harry said and she acknowledge his presence with a smile. "Alexa told me that Queen's last drunk and disorderly charge caused the investors to lose faith in him and the stock in Queen is….."

"Well, I figured out that much, and I didn't have anything else better to do last night," Sersi said with a smile on her face. "Do you think that I sit around my office playing minesweeper all day?"

Harry smiled at her. "Well, no, but….what did you find out?"

"That with the amount of money that we're taking in through the Red Sun, it's a piece of cake to purchase the stock," Sersi said and she snapped her fingers in response. "In fact, if the plans are still on for the larger version this spring…..well we'll have enough money to invest any purchases, with some left over for a rainy day."

Sersi paused and grinned.

"And you know, you said that Lionel sniffed around with that stock?" she asked and Harry nodded in response. "Well, with the recent rumor on Lionel's life, there's a rumor that Investor confidence in LuthorCorp is down as well."

Karen whistled and her eyes twinkled. "That was interesting."

The long term plan was, as it always was to get ahold of much stock in the company as possible.

"So, we continue forward with our plans, and do the same with Queen Industries," Harry whispered.

Sersi nodded in response. "I figured that you would agree….."

"I do agree," he confirmed and she grinned in response and swept through the files she had. "But use one of the smaller companies so the wrong people don't sniff around."

"Say no more," she agreed, she didn't want this tracked back to RAO, the Evans, or the Potters.

' _Standard LuthorCorp procedure then,'_ Sersi mentally added and Lily chimed in.

' _Yes, use an untraceable company, unless you know what you look for,'_ Lily added and Kara piped in response.

' _Or you're Barbara….'_

' _Well she's a class to herself,'_ Sersi thought and she prepared to do what needed to be done.

Karen walked in with Harry. She attended this meeting due to the fact that she functioned as the liaison between RAO/STARR and Wayne Enterprises. Technically speaking, she was the Chief Operating Officer, and Faora was the Chief Executive Officer.

That being said, she smiled. _'Oh, and by the way, I looked into the material that I thought that could be used in construction for the car…..but it isn't feasible with the current technology that we have.'_

Harry nodded, he thought that was a possibility. They needed to make sure.

' _Maybe in twenty five years it could be,'_ Karen added. _'There's a material that's a step down, that it's possible to creature using what we have available to us, but….that shouldn't really be feasible for about ten or so years either.'_

Faora, who listened in, added her two cents. _'Well, that's better than twenty five years.'_

' _Very well what…'_

' _It's going to be expensive, but that shouldn't be a problem with you,'_ Karen told him and Harry smiled. _'Especially with the pretty decent sized discretionary budget you have available to you, and the material can be used for a lot more than making a really powerful car.'_

Harry's interest was piqued. _'What is it called?'_

' _It's called Carbon Nanotubes.'_

With that response, Karen, Harry, and Sersi made their way into Wayne Enterprises for the meeting.

* * *

 

Jonathan Kent took his first tentative steps back onto the Kent Farm, his first time back on it after being released from the hospital. Martha and Claire followed him. There were a few changes that happened on the farm.

The first and most obvious one hit him right in the face the moment that he exited the truck. There was a brand new truck parked where his old one used to be. In fact, it was a 1998 F-350, which offered a striking balance between comfort and efficiently.

He also spotted Joe Clark and a couple of other men that he knew mulling around the farm and doing the work.

"John, it's been too long," Joe said with a jovial wave and he walked over, to give Jonathan a firm handshake.

"How's it going Joe?"

"Well, I've been working on this property, along with the Potter Residence that you took care of, you did a good job, so there wasn't much for us to do just yet," Joe said and Jonathan nodded. "Nothing, other than your routine work, but the winter season is coming around the corner, so that's important."

"Yes, looks like you boys have been hard at work," Jonathan said, pleased that they worked so efficiently and well.

"Yeah, and I saw that you got that new tractor," Joe said and Jonathan smiled. "We, that's to say Doctor Potter and I took a look at the older one and we got it running."

That news caused Jonathan's face to split with an ear to ear grin.

"Well, looks like you're a please customer, now if you excuse me, I have something to take care of over at the Potter Property."

Martha joined her husband when she was sure that he was finished, and Claire stood in the background. "Harry told me before he left that there was something in the barn that you might be interesting in seeing when you got back."

Jonathan allowed Martha to lead the way, curious as to what waited for him on the other side of the bar.

He smiled and walked over, and pulled the tarp off the item, to reveal the Dodge Charger his Father bought him when he was Sixteen. Along with a note from Harry that wished him a Merry Christmas.

Martha shook her head, when Jonathan was left their speechless. The only thing left to do to wrap him up in a hug.

Jonathan finally returned with the ability to speak. "Well, isn't that something?"

**To Be Continued on December 6th 2014.**

* * *

 

**Rupert Thorne is essentially positioning himself to Gotham City to what Wilson Fisk is to New York in the Marvel universe.**

**So, Alexa and Harry have some interaction scenes. Amanda's brain does what mine does anytime someone talks about math or I try to do it. Also Alexa is a kinky little bitch, in other words the sun rises in the morning.**

**So Sersi shows up, although she's less goblin, more interdimensional fey who poses as a human banker.**

**Kara gets her Alpha on, and Nell and Patricia get some attention. What more do you want?**

**Alfred is really fun to write in some respects. And we're leading into another arc.**


	72. Set Fire to the Rain Part Two

**Chapter Seventy Two: Set Fire to the Rain Part Two.**

* * *

 

Paula Crock dressed in the very best clothes that she had, along with her oldest daughter Jade. Given the circumstances of the meeting that they were having, they would need to dress their very best. Although, it was curious to why they were here at all places, especially given that they had no reason to be here. They most certainly didn't apply for such a place.

They sat in the middle of the waiting room of the Gotham City Private Academy. Jade turned towards her mother, with an inquisitive look. "So, why did they invite us here of all places?"

Paula had no really good answer for her daughter. She opted for an honest answer. "I don't know."

She got the call from the Gotham City Private Academy of all places, telling her to bring Jade after she finished school. The meeting was scheduled for around Four O'clock, and it was five minutes until that point. The call threw her for a loop, because to be honest, she didn't expect it at all.

The clothes they dressed in were nice ones that rarely got any use. Jade bounced to her feet and she paced back and forth, hands on her hips. This caught her completely off guard. She recalled the situation, her Mom picked her up form school, and then they rushed to get change into the nice clothes that they only seemed to wear about less than a handful of times a year. Artemis was dropped off at the house of one of her friend's mothers.

Jade's curiosity spiked and got the better of her. She didn't know why GPA would come call for her of all people.

Paula really didn't have any idea why they wanted her daughter either. Granted, Jade's grades were pretty good and she was an excellent. The biggest problem that came in for them was money, they didn't apply for her, and she couldn't really afford it.

The wait was long and the door opened. An older looking black woman walked out, with a warm smile on her place.

"I'm Paula Crock, this is my daughter Jade," she told the woman who nodded in response.

"We've been expecting both of you," the woman commented and she lead Paula and Jade forward.

Paula's eyes raised and she asked the question. "What's this all about?"

"We'll explain it to you inside of the office."

Paula accepted soon enough and she lead her daughter inside. A redhead woman waited for him in a rather stylishly cut female business suit. She had a rather fit body and a long pair of legs that Paula felt her eyes linger on a second too long.

"This is Rose Evans," the woman told Paula and she nodded. "She's here on behalf of the Lily Evans Foundation and the Shining Light Foundation."

Needless to say, Paula found herself intrigued by this bit of news, but she didn't say anything. Rather she extended a hand towards her.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Crock," Rose said with a smile on her face.

"Likewise, Ms. Evans," Paula said and she parked herself down, with Jade taking the final empty seat. The young girl brimmed with some level of curiosity in her eyes.

Rose smiled and prepared to explain. "You're daughter has been selected based on a select criteria for a Scholarship to attend GPA by the Shining Light Foundation. Namely she's a good student, an excellent athlete, and we find based on these things that she has an extremely tremendous amount of potential."

To say that Paula and Jade were stunned by this news would be putting matters mildly. Paula raised her eyebrow and she asked on question. "Exactly what does this Scholarship entail?"

Rose smiled and promptly answered this inquiry. "It would cover anything involved with schooling. And by everything, I mean everything. School supplies, uniform, a transit pass to and from school, and a small allowance. Basically everything that you need to be achieve your fullest potential."

' _Good job, Auntie, I think you covered it all,'_ Harry thought and he could not help but see that Rose became increasingly smug by his praise.

Lily could see that as well and she snorted.

' _Now, don't let it go to your head whatever you do,'_ Lily warned her sister and Rose didn't react.

Then again, any reaction would have been unnoticed mostly because Jade and Paula looked completely blown away.

"And the offer extends to Artemis as well, because she meets the same criteria," Rose said and there was a smile on her face before she added. "When she's old enough to attend GPA."

Paula mulled it over. The only thing left to do was turn to her daughter. "So, is this what you want?"

"Yeah, I think that would be great," Jade said without hesitation. After all, anything that she could use to serve her full potential would be a good thing. The girl wanted to be the best at what she did. Having such a scholarship would help her accomplish that.

' _You figured that she would jump on the scholarship right away,'_ Kara said.

Harry only responded with a grin. _'Call it a great hunch.'_

' _Well, sometimes your hunch's are greater than most, you know,'_ Karen said and she shifted herself back from where she was.

"So, we have a deal, don't we?" Rose asked and Jade and Paula looked at each other.

Paula piped in with an obvious overwhelmed response. "I don't think we have any complaints about this, either of us."

"Well, that's great," Rose said and she produced a set of papers to make everything all legal. "Just look over everything, standard legality, but given your daughter's past performance, I think that she'll be able to maintain the grades and performance that she will be able to be all that she can be at the GPA."

Jade's grin increased when her mother signed the papers. Things were official.

"So welcome to the Gotham Private Academy, we're looking forward to having you."

' _I'm sure this should be an interesting and fruitful endeavor,'_ Harry said and that was something that all parties in the bond agreed with.

' _Just proves that the SLF will have a knack of catching those that will be the future years before anyone else can,'_ Lily concluded.

* * *

 

It was later that evening, about six or so. Harry Potter and Barbara Gordon enjoyed each other's company in a fairly nice restaurant in Gotham City. It was an extremely nice place, granted it was not high class, but at the same time, it was not entirely low class either. Both of them were waiting for a third party, Barbara's father, for dinner.

Harry dressed nicely, wearing a tight heavy knit grey sweater, along with a leather jacket, a pair of jeans and boots. He gazed across the table at Barbara, who wore a white silk blouse that was conservative enough to show her body, but at the same time, showed that she had a fit body. She wore a longer skirt that normal and it extended down to a pair of knee high boots. There was a couple of dangling pieces of jewelry that added to her apparel quite nicely.

She grew a bit lately, so the two of them came back from going clothes shopping, to replace some clothes. She daringly decided to model the clothes for her boyfriend. That included the underwear, especially the underwear.

That being said, they were here in the restaurant, a bit wet because they got caught out in a pretty heavy rainstorm.

Barbara decided to change the venues a little bit. Instead of taking over her seat, she lightly and discreetly walked forward and sat herself into Harry's lap.

' _The best seat in the house,'_ Kara commented with a light grin on her face.

The twins chimed in unison. _'Absolutely.'_

Her mood was a bit subdued, and she snuggled up against Harry, to relax a little bit while they waited to be waited on.

"So, what's up?" Harry asked her and he gave her a light back rub. Slowly her worked circles around her upper back area, and the redhead sighed.

Barbara allowed herself to relax under her grip a little bit.

"Well it's that new support tech job that I have," Barbara said and Harry continued to rub on the back of her neck. "It's part time, but the guy, he was just being an asshole about something, so I kind of lost my temper."

Harry continued to work his magical hands all over her, and she sighed and allowed him to continue to get to work.

"I lost my temper, big time," she added, and Barbara paused before she emphasized the words. " **BIG TIME**. So, I lost my temper, and told him that I wasn't his bitch, and he could go fuck off until he apologized for taking the attitude with me."

Barbara rested herself on his shoulder for a moment, and sighed from where she sat. She situated herself where she straddled his lap.

"So did he?"

Barbara rested her forehead on Harry's shoulder and nodded in response. "Um, yeah, he did, eventually…"

She sighed in response, her growth spurt obvious from where she sat. Harry continued to rub her back and she relaxed into his actions again.

"I could have handled the situation a bit better, but he caught me at a bad time."

' _Bruce radioed her, he used the Bat voice, and told her to drop everything that she was doing,'_ Dinah informed him. She was at the Tower during the time, so she was front row and center to the entire glorious, glorious spectacle.

' _Oh boy,'_ Harry thought, and Dinah chuckled in response. _'I bet that went over well.'_

Dinah tapped her finger against her face. _'Yeah, she was doing something important, monitoring the Police radios and also using the Map to prevent Jaime from running the SWAT, it was a very delicate hostage situation that we were dealing with.'_

Harry blinked and nodded in response. _'Okay, so I see.'_

He made sure to brush Barbara's hair out of her face. "Well, I'm sure that you were justified in your response."

' _Justified, I would have to say so,'_ Dinah thought and she crossed her arms and grinned. _'If anything, she might have been a bit more restrained than some of us would be.'_

Harry kissed the top of her head, and leaned in close to her. "You wouldn't have reacted the way that you did if it wasn't justified. You have your moments where you lose your temper, but it's usually only when you're really stressed out, and…..there are other girls that are far worse than you."

' _Hmm, I wonder who he could be referring to,'_ Rose thought and she coughed her sister's name underneath her tone.

' _As if you have any room to talk, Rose,'_ Lily said.

' _Donna's worse,'_ Lyta chimed in happily.

Donna glared daggers at her sister. _'Only when I'm dealing with you, brat.'_

' _Donna,'_ Harry said warningly, before Hippolyta could jump into line, although a strict reprimand of her middle and youngest daughter was in order.

Barbara gave him a beaming smile in response and leaned in to kiss him in response.

It was that moment that Jim decided to join both of them. He looked at them for the briefest of seconds and cleared his throat.

That caused Barbara to jump out of his lap, nearly flying into the air. It was fortunate that she didn't fall over and land on her ass because that would be an embarrassment.

"Dad!" Barbara said, recovering quickly, and she wrapped him up in a tight hug. Granted, it hadn't been that long, but it was longer than it had been in a couple of years since she worked at the GCPD.

"You seem to have shot up overnight since the last time I saw you," Jim said, and he turned to Harry, shaking hands with them. "So, how have you all been?"

"Well, I've got the new tech support job that's going well for me," Barbara said and Jim nodded, he seemed pleased as punch that his daughter bounced back onto her feet despite it all.

"Everything's going well as it could," Harry said and he gave a long sigh. "There's been some family drama in Kansas, but it's all settled for right now."

Harry wasn't going to elaborate and Jim respected that. Personal business best remained as such, that being personal.

"So, how are things going for you?"

Jim gave a long sigh. It was obvious that he had been through a lot since the last time Harry talked to him.

"Where do I start?"

"Figured that you'd be putting in some overtime, given that the Roman is back in town."

Jim didn't forget that, but the fact was that Gotham's version of Caesar went to the back of his mind. "Well, Falcone being back in line, the headaches involving Black Mask, the Penguin, and the like, that's only one problem. But that's not the biggest problem…..this Red Hood Gang really stirred up the pot in Gotham City, and then there's the Calendar Killer."

Jim took his drink and sipped on it. Then he tilted it and drained it into his mouth.

"One of them refuses to play by the rules, and people are terrified that the other will strike at any moment," Jim said and he offered them a grim statistic. "One hundred and thirty seven people died instantly at the last attack."

Barbara blanched suddenly, and she could have sworn that she saw something akin to anger flash through Harry's eyes, but he cooled down instantly.

"And that's not counting the people who died after getting admitted from the hospital from complications," Harry said, and he looked chillingly calm, almost like he tried not to freak out. Even though it might be the most obvious thing in the world to freak out.

"The only good news out of this is that Karlo got brought in before he could kill more people," Jim said and to be honest, he wanted to look for the silver lining in the dark storm cloud that was Gotham City.

Almost as if in cue, Gordon's cell rang.

"Just a second," Jim said, he hoped that no one would bother him when he was off duty. That might be the impossible dream.

Harry's sharp hearing picked up the conversation, and Barbara leaned in as far as she could manage while being discreet. His eyes averted to her and Barbara slid back, an extremely sheepish expression dancing in her eyes.

"It's me," the unmistakable voice of John Jones said. "Sarah and I just got the call, Karlo escaped from his room at Gotham General."

* * *

 

Bruce parked himself in front of the bat computer and was heavily at work. He didn't wear the full Bat Costume while in the cave. He looked through the investigation reports from the past six months that he insisted that Oracle looked up for him and to flag for any similarities in the attacks that occurred as of late.

In particular, the brooding detective combed over each report in meticulous detail, to see if there were any similarities from the four buildings that belonged to the burning victim.

Needless to say, his request might have been a little bit hard headed lead to an argument between the two of them. She already had the reports, but the fact that he demanded the request set off her temper.

Needless to say, Alfred had already given him a few choice words about how his choice of language might not work to inspire some people. That was beside the point right now.

Even after her anger, Oracle filtered through the reports, and a lot of fluff that he didn't need was removed, and with it, it left about seven or eight.

Out of those seven or eight, there was a couple that matched the pattern established by the four recent fires. There were similarities for certain, but also many differences.

' _Some are cases of Arson, obvious,'_ Bruce thought to himself. He thumbed through the reports, it baffled him more with every single moment. _'And some could have easily become an accident.'_

He pinpointed the ones that were the obvious case of Arson, and given their sloppy demeanor, he deduced that it was a test run by the same person who caused the last four partiers.

"Your dinner is getting quite cold, sir, so I took the liberty of bring it down for you so you don't miss it again."

Alfred came off the elevator. He carried a tray of food, along with a thermos of coffee.

"I heard you coming, Alfred, set it down," Bruce said, without looking up from the reports that he combed over.

"I do wonder how young Harry managed to get into the Cave, at first I thought that you slipped or had a bad day, but you rarely have such a bad day," Alfred said. It gave him hours of amusement about how Harry slipped past the security defenses of the Manor and also into the Cave. And it was obvious that he didn't even use his special gifts to do so.

Bruce decided that he should eat, as he had been skipping out on it.

Alfred quietly considered what he was going to say right now. "You know, Batman could stand being a less of a pill to his Allies."

Bruce looked up calmly at that statement, blunt and dry, but Alfred decided to strike while the iron was hot again.

"And Bruce Wayne could stand to come off as less of a rich idiot with no day job to the world at large," Alfred said and he was only getting started with what he was saying. "If their public appearances are any indication than Mr. Potter and Ms. Vreeland….although perhaps it's Mrs. Potter now?"

That statement really didn't get any answer from Bruce. Alfred returned like his master didn't say anything. "No matter, but since they're able to balance both business and play well enough, it shouldn't be well beyond your capabilities, should it?"

Bruce gave him one of those narrowed eye glares, but it didn't really prove to be much of anything. Alfred was immune to them by now and he only responded with a wry chuckle and excused himself.

Now that he was fed and watered, Bruce returned to the work at hand. A couple of these, it could be the work of the same Arsonist, but there's not enough of a strong connection to them to make that conclusion off hand.

It looked like Batman needed to head off to the office of the murder victim to see if he can find anything there to point in the right direction.

Suiting up, Batman figured that this was going to be an extremely long night. And it was proving to be so, so far at least.

* * *

 

Thunder rolled over the skies of Gotham City. The weather was pretty much typical of most days; given the fact it pissed down ran. It was honestly surprising that the harbor didn't overflow and cause flooding.

A corpulent figure dressed like a private investigator from a forties film-noir movie stood out in the rain. He dressed in a shabbily fitting suit, along with a fedora and trench coat. He moved over the streets with a purpose, as fast as his frame could allow someone of his girth to move that is.

The back streets of Gotham City and the alleys were surprisingly spacious. He reached his destination without little pause. It was at a three-way junction between the alley that he walked down and another side street. He stopped on the corner and wheezed because of the exertion and he caught his breath.

He let out an extremely ragged smoker's cough and shook his head. He fumbled around his trenchcoat to pull out a cigar. He further fumbled and then had a zippo in his hand. His hand shook and shivered because of the rain.

He grumbled and he misfired at the cigar. He fumbled again and met it for little success.

The figure in the shadows reached forward. He was dressed far more stylishly than the corpulent man in the shadows. He wore black that covered his body.

"Allow me," the sharp dressed man whispered in the shadows. He pulled into his jacket and pulled out a match. "You never, ever, light a cigar that way. Use a wooden match, it keeps the flavor intact. Trust me on that."

He lit the match, and it revealed their faces. The fat face of GCPD Lieutenant Max Ekhardt was revealed and the modest frame of Jack Napier.

"You know, shit's going down, and the game is changing, and we don't like it," Napier said to the man in the shadows. "The rules of Gotham City, there's a bunch of people that don't seem to want to play with them, on both sides of the law."

"Never pegged you as the sort of guy who play by the rules," Ekhardt grumbled and Napier looked at him and sighed.

This guy didn't get it and didn't get how dangerous the changing climate in this city was city could be for business.

"You know, these people don't get it, and it's all about Dent, he's sniffing around where he shouldn't be sniffing around, in a place that could put all our necks in the gallows," Napier said and a crack of lightning echoed. It was something out of a film noir. "And there's Black Mask, he's pushing into Duquesne's territory."

Napier's face contorted into a humorless expression and he leaned forward.

"What will it take to get some police attention focused to get the rats out of where they don't belong?" Napier asked him and Ekhardt blinked at him.

He gave another cough. "I'll have a word with a couple of the guys, but you do realize that none of this will come cheaply."

"Help in this city rarely does," Napier said through gritted teeth and he leaned back. "You ought to think about the future, times are changing in this city. You think nuts like Penguin and Black Mask are going to play by all of the old rules. You should get a room right next to them if you do…our mutual friends don't like it, and neither should you, if your chickens ever come to roost."

Eckhardt glared at Napier with one of those piercing looks that could burn through wood, but he nodded.

"Here, have this, bite down on it."

Napier patted Eckhardt on the head as the light from the cigar faded when he finished it. Something else slipped in his hand that wasn't something to chew on. "Just think about the future, your future. I'll be around, you know that."

Napier disappeared into the light and that allowed Eckhardt to go their separate ways.

"He thinks that…." Eckhardt said and he gave another cough. "See what I can do, but the man scratches the back pretty good so maybe I can call in something."

He didn't even stumble about five steps from where he was.

"Eckhardt," a low voice whispered.

He stopped and turned around. That was the last thing that he did before he was shot in the head. Then he was blasted once in the heart. That second shot knocked him onto his back and he fell like an extremely fat sack of bricks.

The shooter stepped forward. A 9mm Glock with the serial number filed off dropped to the ground in front of him.

Then a hand reached forward and pinned a picture of Eckhardt and Napier meeting on his coat. With that, the corpulent cop laid dead in the middle of the streets, the perfect end, to the not so perfect life that he led.

* * *

 

Harry left Barbara with her father, she since wanted to spend more time with her. Therefore, she spent the night in her old room at Jim's place.

Now that she was safely home, Harry had other business to attend to. He walked up a decrepit looking staircase in an older looking apartment building. It was in one of the rougher neighborhoods in Gotham City.

' _Things have been pretty quiet tonight,'_ Harry thought.

Dinah smiled in response. _'That's really not a good thing half of the time, especially in Gotham City.'_

' _It almost makes you think that there's something that's going to happen, but are any of you really sure what?'_ Kara asked in response. She was doing the night owl thing right now as she was on mission control. Not that there was that much to do right now.

It's a really quiet evening tonight and nothing really happened. Harry could not help, but put together that fact in his mind again. To the point where he worked himself up for a storm that might be brewing but he didn't know.

Then again, with the weather, the real storm brewing was outside. Criminals could only stand up so much because of the rain and it started to rain pretty heavily. Then to add to the fun and games, it got windy and cold. It was a typical night in Gotham City when autumn slowly turned to winter.

' _You know, I'd head on in if I was a criminal tonight, I don't think that anything is going on,'_ Harry thought and he paused and added. _'Unless you count one of the worst storms to ever rage down on Gotham City as something happening, which I wouldn't really argue with you that much.'_

Dinah jumped in on the bond and spoke with him. _'So, are you really sure about this?'_

' _Yes, I'm pretty sure about this,'_ Harry agreed with her and he sighed. _'Batman should be out for a moment later, and we know nothing is going to stop him from patrolling in this weather.'_

' _The charms on the armor keep us warm, but it is getting pretty wet,'_ Jaime grudgingly admitted from her side.

Harry smiled, that was for sure. Water repelling charms worked like a charm, but they could only go so far. It didn't help for instance that the water didn't have anywhere to repel when it bounced all about Gotham City.

He realized that during the moment of his conversation he was here where he needed to go. Harry reached the very top of the stairs that he climbed up and stepped out into the hallway. He walked a short distance and reached into his pocket. He pulled a key ring out of his pocket.

Without any further pause, he leaned forward and unlocked the door. He stepped inside, but before he closed the door fully, something attacked him.

This something pounced on him the moment that he entered the room, almost as if she lied in wait for him. He managed to get the door closed before they could get too busy.

And they did get very busy, with the person in question deciding to shove her tongue down his throat. Harry paused and decided to snake his arm around her slim waist and pulled her in.

' _She seems wet as I am, must have just gotten here,'_ Harry thought, and he caught a hint of cigarette taste on her breath. Not really as prominent as it would have been, but still it was present and visible.

That being said, the kiss continued for several moments and their hands ran over each other's body. She stepped back and took a long look at him and came into greater prominence.

The mystery woman was Sarah Essen, who broke the kiss in order to catch her breath. She wore a red silk shirt, along with black slacks. Underneath it she wore an extremely sexy lack black set of bra and panties.

Whilst she caught her breath, Harry leaned in to suck on her neck and she closed her eyes, to allow his talented mouth and tongue to work their magic. Both actions were extremely divine to be honest, and she felt her breath get taken away.

Harry sucked on her neck and shifted his hold, so both of his hands grasped her ass. He lifted her up off of the ground.

Never one to be denied, Sarah shifted her legs around and then buried his head into her cleavage. She grew excited and wet, and not because of the rain storm, about what he could potentially do to her when he had her like that.

He started to undo her blouse with his teeth, and Harry felt her heated gasp to response.

The lady knew precisely what she wanted and who was Harry to deny what she wanted. Especially when a gaze so wanton was directed at him. It was obvious that she didn't want to wait until they got to the bedroom.

They ended their way over by a heated couch and prepared to begin the dance.

Sarah watched excitedly as Harry pealed her jeans off of her, to reveal her panties that matched her black bra. She inhaled and exhaled excitedly and continued to run his hands down her face and all the way down her body, to touch her breasts.

She jolted for once and Harry stood naked before her. His hand traveled all the way around and reached between the center of her legs. He rubbed circles around her dripping hot hole and increased the pleasure that she felt. His circular motions increased the heat rising from her body when he dipped his hand in her.

Harry felt her juices collect on his fingers and slowly pumped between her legs.

"Take me," Sarah begged him and she wanted him so badly that she could feel it boiling between her thighs.

Harry teased her and decided to skip all of the preliminaries. Rather he pushed back her panties, and aimed himself towards her.

Sarah closed her eyes and felt his cock slam into her tight pussy. She wrapped her legs around him and made sure that hunk of meat didn't drift far between her legs. Her bra removed seconds later.

Harry smiled as she moaned when he bit down on her nipple. He tugged at it with his teeth and increased her pleasure when he licked and suckled her.

His hands roamed underneath her ass, and he caressed her. Harry increased the pleasure that she received and he pumped himself deep between her hot legs.

Her dripping hot center pulsed around him, and Harry continued to work over her body. She pumped her hips up.

His momentum was slow at first, and Sarah dug her fingernails into his shoulder in response when he went into her.

The next thing she knew, he flipped her over onto the couch and she was pinned down face first. Her legs spread for him, and she felt him slide into her from behind, filling her anew once again. His rapid fire thrusts increased her desire for him, and he rocked himself deep between her hot legs to continue to pound her.

The woman panted the more that he pleasured her from behind and Harry smiled.

"Oooh," Sarah moaned, and Harry roamed his hands all over her body. She captured his fingers in her mouth and bit down onto them. Harry smiled and used his free set of hands to run up and down over her breasts.

Harry felt her cum from his actions, but she didn't beg him to slow down. Rather, the contrary, her encouraging moans beneath him caused him to work into her body.

"I bet you got more than you bargained for…."

"No, I'm just getting started, harder, take me harder," she moaned and Harry nipped the back of her neck and that increased his thrusts deep into her. He buried himself between her toned thighs.

He nearly fucked her through the bed, not that Sarah gave a fuck. All that mattered was this pinnacle of manhood speared into her over and over again and took her to greater heights yet.

She came down from an explosive orgasm and Harry again pinned her against the wall.

"You have the right to fuck me all night long," Sarah whispered and Harry pulled back and played with her clit, teasing her.

"I can't believe you went there."

"Just stick your cock in me, I don't even want to ever to be able to walk the next day," she encouraged him, and her dripping thighs hungered for his man meat.

He nestled his face between her breasts and started sucking them. The pleasure he caused her to have was second to none, and Harry wanted to keep working her over until she lost her mind.

Then he plunged himself into her, his manhood rocked its way between her walls. She tightened her hot walls around him.

The wall's integrity held through, and Harry held her back against the wall. He pumped into her and Sarah pushed back. Their loins met together in an extremely passionate dance. The young police officer closed her eyes and savored the moment.

Harry smiled, her hot hips clenched around him, and squeezed his tool when he battered her tight young pussy.

"We're getting closer, you know."

"Oh, I know," Sarah said and she balanced herself onto the wall. She squeezed her tight center around him again.

Each thrust he brought into her brought her to even more places ever before. If she didn't know why he left many of the girls that he was with smiling, Sarah learned this all. The lesson reinforced with each and every thrust.

Harry felt her tight walls wrapped around her, and her back arched against the wall. She hung onto the back of his neck, and felt his manhood rammed deep into her body. The woman's thighs caressed and tugged at his manhood and created a lovely sheath for his manhood. He closed his eyes and pushed further into her.

"Ooh, that's it….."

"Do you think that you have one more round in you?" Harry asked. He gripped her ass firmly and she nodded, biting down on her lip.

"For you, I'd follow you to the ends of the world, you know," Sarah said and with encouragement, she dug her fingers deep into the back of his neck.

Harry pushed back into her, his manhood striking a cord deep into her body. She closed her eyes and the pleasure increased the more that he drove himself inside her. He fucked her hard against the wall again and again.

How many times did Sarah cum? All the count that she had of that had been lost. All she knew was that his hands roamed her body, along with his mouth, and this large hunk of manhood battered her dripping cunt.

Heaven this was, pure heaven. They made their way around the living room area. Pretty sure that they hit the bed at one point as well, before they made their way back to the heated sofa. They were too busy with the actual act of sex to worry about the particulars of where it was happening.

And she ended up on top for the finale, which she appreciated. She roughly kissed him, biting down on his lip so hard that she almost, but not quite drew blood. Then she slip her dripping hot hips around him.

Grinding her tool box down onto him, Sarah's determination shined through her eyes when she attempted to make him cum hard.

Then she stopped and decided that that wasn't the way that she wanted to finish, not at all.

She walked across the living room area of the apartment and got down onto the chair, her ass in the air. Sarah looked over her shoulder and beckoned Harry to come forward.

"Finish in my ass, and fuck me hard as you do. I want to think about you tomorrow when I sit down."

Harry walked over towards her and smiled when he sauntered over to her. His hands placed on either side of her hips.

His rod squeezed into her ass and Sarah bit down on her lip. At first, she did wonder if she bit off a little more than she could chew, but after a few seconds, she really got into it. Harry held onto her waist and pumped into her hard, and rammed deep into her ass.

Sarah closed her eyes and felt the pleasure of her anus closing around him. Harry's able hands also made sure to stimulate her pussy, which she appreciated.

Harry grunted hard. "Damn, has this ever been fucked?"

"Never trusted anyone to get behind me like that," Sarah whispered and Harry pinned her arms back behind her. That gave him the necessary leverage to hammer her tight rear. "Guess there's a first time for everything."

She wasn't kidding when she wanted to think of Harry every time she tried to sit down for the next week. And she knew that Harry wouldn't hold back out of some pathetic gentlemanly obligation.

Harry worked deep into her anal region and continued to hammer her. His thick rod pushed deep into her hot tight hole.

All good things reached their climax and Harry was about ready to reach his. He rested his hands on either side of her hips and he came deep inside her with a shuddering splash.

His cum splattered into her anus, and Harry hung onto her, pumping his way deep into her body. Thrust after thrust caused her body to quiver with pleasure when he wrapped up in her.

Both of them collapsed, extremely pleased, but they weren't quite done yet.

After their heated little exchange wrapped around each other, having found their way over to the couch and she smiled in response.

"Amazing, and that just proves the first time wasn't a fluke," Sarah said when she wrapped her legs around him and snuggled in tightly to him. "Then again, that was when I offered you my help, and you pounced on it, in more ways than one."

"And I passed whatever standards that you had…..but you know…"

"We all have our good nights, we have our bad nights, but for you, I guess your good nights are every single night you could imagine," Sarah said and she took a breath. "And…I suppose that with that on the way, we need to get to more serious things. There's been another murder."

"Again?"

"Eckhardt…..not exactly the guy with the sunniest reputation in the world, so you know that he was into something really nasty," Sarah informed him and Harry responded with a nod.

"Third time, right?"

"Exactly, there was Frank Pratt, the first victim, then it was Laureen Wilcox, and the third was Max Eckhardt," Sarah recited to him. "All of them were members of the GCPD, who were found to be on the take."

Harry whistled. "Knew about Pratt and Eckhardt, but Wilcox….didn't really….."

Sarah placed a finger on his lips and smiled. "She was on the phone with Mario Falcone of all people around the time that she was murdered. No real leads, but whoever is behind this, they're picking their shots wisely."

"So, what's happening with Karlo?" Harry asked.

Sarah didn't waste any time in explaining. "Apparently, he took advantage of the Janitor who went in there during a shift change. He knocked the man out, switched their clothes, and bandaged the Janitor's face up. Nobody was the wiser until a Nurse went in there to check his bandages."

She sighed and shifted herself against him. Leaning in for a kiss, she made it clear that it was just an intermission from their activities. Rather they just got warned up.

Harry agreed with that and prepared to move in for the kill.

* * *

 

Batman slipped his way into the top floor office that belonged to the recent murder victim who owned the four buildings he investigated the night before. All of them burned down with the signs of arson.

It was extremely easy for him to slip inside the building. One of the windows was left open for some time after all, where anyone could slip inside the building. There's that wet damp smell in the air, the kind that you would find outside.

The dead of the night, it's extremely quiet, so quite that it's unsettling. No one has been here for awhile.

' _The GCPD must not be able to obtain a warrant to search the Office properly,'_ Batman thought to himself. Then again, they might not be tripping over themselves to get that all important warrant. It leads some credence to the fact that the fire and the murders was part of a conspiracy theory of some sort.

Of course, unless someone from the GCPD was sent here off of the clock, there could be some evidence lingering around. Batman had to check the area around the office.

That being said, there didn't appear to be anything of particular interest in this part of the office. He spotted a couple of real estate deals to buy a couple more run-down apartment buildings, some construction supply lists, and some progress reports on the status of each sight. Nothing that was too suspicious for what was being in the office building.

Batman approached the private office of the man who was murdered and the smell filled his nostrils. The window in there was wide open.

He pushed himself into the office and searched around. The office was extremely orderly to the point where it was obsessively so. That matched up nicely with the memories that he had of the victim and how he was an extreme neat freak. Everything was in order, everything needed to be in its proper place.

He slipped across the room and searched around. He wanted to find the safe and he had a good idea where the safe was, given the fact that he had been extensively trained in this sort of thing.

He moved the picture that covered the mantle and could not help, but notice that it moved with a hiss that indicated that it needed to be oiled.

At least that's what he assumed. He revealed the safe.

That literally blew up in his face.

His cowl absorbed most of the impact and the fire bomb exploded into the room. He slammed hard into a large oak desk.

As Batman faded from consciousness, he couldn't help and notice that the room around him started to go up in flames due to the explosion.

**To Be Continued On December 9th 2014.**

* * *

 

**So the Lily Evans Foundation/Shining Light Foundation is up and running and not a bad recruit.**

**Alfred is right, Batman really has to work on his people skills. Barbara essentially told him to fuck off in no uncertain terms. Unlike some other words, she won't take any shit.**

**So the cop killer continues and we have the one and only Jack Napier appear. It's only one potential candidate though for everyone's favorite homicidal clown. Because as we know the Joker's origin story is multiple choice. It could be someone we know or some nobody, but no one knows, not even The Joker.**

**That chapter ended with a bang and not the good kind of bang that the previous one is. Harry and Sarah have been in bed for a while with each other, ever since the night they have dinner together. I spelled that out.**

**Lynns is a bit too in love with his work, isn't he? Almost creepily so.**


	73. Set Fire to the Rain Part Three

**Chapter Seventy-Three: Set Fire to the Rain Part Three.**

* * *

 

A mysterious individual swept down the Gotham City streets. Granted, that wasn't a big deal in Gotham City given that there were an abundant number of mysterious shady folks who were up to something. He stood to a stop at a street corner and waited by an office building for his contact.

A couple of homeless men walked by past him, but they decided to keep a swift distance. Mostly they did not approach him because the fact that he wore nice clothes, and he also had that sort of intimidating appearance that they should not approach him under any means.

The weather shifted within the past few minutes after a sudden and unfortunate drop of the temperature. The snow blew down and the wind continued. The type of wind which bit the skin of anyone who dared to get up close and personal with it.

The mysterious individual wore a set of clothes that was more appropriate for the weather. He rubbed his hands together over a metal oil drum, a fire lit over it.

His hands looked pristine, without a blemish on them.

His eyes turned towards the office building that was across the street from the one that he stood. It was almost like he waited impatiently for something to happen, but it wasn't apparent what would happen.

His cell phone rang once and then went dead. After that happened, he slipped a pair of comfortable looking leather gloves from his pocket and onto his hands. Then with one swift motion, he fished his cell phone out of his pocket.

The send button was hit. He waited for the sound of his contact speaking over the phone.

"So, is it done?"

The gruff voice over the phone sounded impatient. The mysterious man answered in affirmation in the calmest voice that he could muster. "The office building is done already. I'm just waiting for it to go off so I can hit the next target."

"Good, Lynns, it's about time you did something right for once, but you should do something right every time," the gruff voice continued to speak.

Garfield Lynns frowned, but his eyes looked at the flicker of fire in the barrel. He watched it, transfixed. He waited for his benefactor to speak, and his voice drew him away from the fire.

"Keep me informed," the man on the other end of the phone responded gruffly.

Lynn shook his head and grunted in affirmation. "I will."

This man paid big bucks to get this job done and allowed Garfield to indulge himself in his nice little hobby, the one that got him off. Fire always excited him. The guy was a little abrasive, but the ends were justified when he got to play.

Then again, that was the price anyone paid when they worked for Black Mask. The ruthless crime lord already made more than a name for himself in Gotham City, and it would be a terrifying ordeal for anyone who would cross him to be sure.

He snapped the phone shut and turned to look up towards the office building. He now noticed smoke coming from the top floor. A wide grin slowly filled his face at the sight of it.

' _Beautiful,'_ he thought anxiously, and his body heated up, deriving pleasure from the wild and untamed fury of the fire.

His greedy eyes watched the fire spread for a moment of two. The sight of the flames caused a tingle to go down to his body. So much power, so much destruction, people were helpless, fire discriminated against nothing. It was nature's ultimate destroyer.

Such power terrified most to the bone, but Garfield decided to grow even more excited by the flames as they consumed the building. He took several minutes to watch the flames do their nasty words.

"Oh, so good," he whispered, and he swore that he got a brief look from one of the homeless men as if he was nuts, before he moved on in the other direction as fast as he could go.

Lynn's voice dropped to a whisper again. "Beautiful."

That being said, as much time as he liked to spend indulging himself in the fruits of his labor, he really needed to get moving. The next target was at hand.

He was being paid big money to burn buildings to the ground. If this didn't describe a person's dream job, he didn't know what was.

He laughed underneath his breath, as the snow storm and the wind kicked up. Thoughts of the warm and loving embrace of fire caused a tingle to spread down his body and kept him totally warm on this chilling winter evening.

* * *

 

Fire didn't care who you were, fire didn't care what status you held. It consumed anything and everyone in its path. It was unrelenting and unforgiveable with what it destroyed.

The fire surrounded the downed body of Batman. Batman took a header into a very sturdy wooden desk thanks to the explosion. While his cowl absorbed a great deal of the impact from the explosion to the face, it still was damaged. That was not saying that he didn't have a very serious concussion.

The concussion wasn't the problem though, at least not the immediate problem. Rather, he had an extremely serious concussion that made him completely and utterly conscious.

' _You see this Batman, you see this, welcome to my world…..welcome to my world, man, the world you created, the world of brimstone,'_ the distant and strangled voice of Deacon Blackfire echoed through his head. He couldn't shake off these demented echoes from a deranged man. _'It is just like I said, Gotham City will burn in flames thanks to you.'_

Batman shrugged off the hallucination, reminding himself that Blackfire was dead, he wasn't here.

' _You might ignore my words, but….you know them to be true, you know that to be true,'_ Blackfire whispered intensely and suddenly something else entirely popped up.

This was something that Batman could not hallucinate because it had been something that he wrestled with for years and years.

' _Bruce, you don't have to fight it anymore,'_ Martha Wayne whispered gently and she reached forward, almost as if helping her son up. Helping him out of this bad situation that was his own creation, like a mother should.

It was an ideal situation, almost too ideal at this point.

' _Yes, son, you don't have to be alone any more in this world, join us, join us in the light,'_ Thomas said. _'It is okay, the world will stand, we will be with you.'_

The two angels were threatened to be drowned out by the demon in his mind from the past. Then again, for Batman, they were all demons, flickers of something that he knew in his subconscious that were not real.

' _That's it Bruce, it's over, you should be with us, we can be together again. No more pain, the mission is over.'_

"No, I made a promise," Batman slurred in a voice.

' _And you've kept it, son, to the best of your abilities, but Gotham City is beyond repair…..'_ Thomas Wayne said, and then Deacon Blackfire stepped next to the Waynes and put his arms around them.

' _Have to see the light, my brother, you can't win this battle, I tried to enlighten you, but…just follow the light, step away from this world, before you get consumed by the fire,'_ Deacon Blackfire whispered.

Batman groaned and he heard his parents voices continue to encourage him to get to the fire.

' _Bruce…..Bruce….come with us…..'_

" **MASTER BRUCE SNAP OUT OF IT!"**

The firmer and extremely real voice of Alfred cut in through the communication link. Having served as Bruce's mission support tonight, he noticed his vitals spike erratically. He had been trying for the last few minutes to get a response for him.

After about the fourth attempt, Alfred decided to take matters into his own hands.

"Forgive me, Master Bruce, this will end up hurting me, far more than it hurts you," Alfred said in his most apologetic voice possible.

He utilized the crash cart that's built into his suit to shock him back to wakefulness. It would hurt but leaving him there to burn would hurt more.

That did the trick, Bruce Wayne returned to the real world and Batman along with him. He gave a ragged cough thanks to the smoke in the air. The fire that started spread during the time that he was unconscious and a moment sooner, he really would have been in the light.

"Um, I hacked into the buildings security records," Oracle piped in, after she gave him a moment to recover. When Batman grunted to let her know that she had his full and undivided attention, she pressed on. "There's a cleaning staff still in the building, but they're on the ninth floor."

Batman knew that to be a problem, continue he was three floors above that. He made a mental note of what he needed to do.

He needed to get three floors beneath him, and then track down the cleaning person. This might normally be a problem, but the explosion did a wonderful job in damaging the HUD in his cowl. Not to mention the fire played all kinds of havoc with the thermal imaging aspect of it as well.

He moved quickly, or as quickly as he could. The concussion caused an overwhelming amount of dizziness. To the point where he nearly stumbled and fell over the first time that he stood up. He managed to stand up straight through sheer determination and an insane amount of will power.

After shaking his head, he moved his way quickly. He shielded his face the best that he could from the smoke and burning embers, because he didn't know how much damage had exactly be done.

Batman roughly pried open the elevator and staggered. He plummeted down the shaft to the floor below, just barely grabbing onto something, before he hit bottom with a sickening splat.

He repelled up to the twelfth floor and he gagged. With a great burst of strength, he just managed to pry the door open. Sparks flew everywhere when he settled down and he shook his head.

"She's certainly close," Oracle said to him.

Batman searched the floor and tried to find the cleaning staff. After a couple of minutes of hurried searching he found her.

The larger Hispanic woman pointed at him, eyes widened when he walked out of the flames. To say that she freaked out would be a mild description of what she was doing. Her finger twitched and she screamed at the top of her lungs. "DEMON, DEMON, STAY BACK, STAY BACK!"

Batman didn't have any time to deal with this.

"Come on," Batman growled, and once she didn't response, he grabbed her roughly around the waist and pulled her away.

He was used to dealing with people who might not want to go with him, because of his appearance. He had to admit that this woman put up quite the fight in her attempt not to be taken by "the demon."

More good news, the fire spread throughout the building and blocked the exit of the floor. The cleaning lady watched the fire with widened eyes, and it was almost like if she wondered that more demons would spawn from it.

He had to escape through the window, and thankfully, there was another rooftop beneath them where he could drop down easily.

The problem was that he had to hold onto the cleaning woman, and he couldn't really fire his grapnel in time so he could break his fall. He decided to do the best that he could with the situation.

He managed to break the fall and slammed hard onto the wall back first, breaking the woman's fall.

The wind got knocked out of him, but the fact that he felt pain showed that he was alive.

' _Great,'_ Batman thought and he felt the roof crumble underneath him.

The roof completely disintegrated and landed them in the abandoned apartment below. Thankfully they managed to land in the pool and not splatter their bodies on the concrete.

It allowed a shock to hit Batman's system, and he shook himself back away. He pulled himself out of the water, and then did the same to the unconscious cleaning lady.

With is mission done, now he allowed himself a moment to collapse on the deck and slowly, but surely catch his breath. That was extremely close, too close, as far as he was concerned.

* * *

 

Lynns hoisted a fire ax over his hand and slammed it into the door. He busted his way through the door, to the point where he could place his hand through the wooden part, and unlock the door from the inside.

He broke into the building, what once was a club, although the building was abandoned for quite some time. He shook his head and saw the tarps that covered the furniture all over the club and smiled when he walked forward.

Taking in the atmosphere of the club, he saw a huge dance floor and stage. This club once featured live music. His eyes narrowed, when he saw the poster of what appeared to be the last live singer here at the club, Cassidy.

That being said, he was going to renew his love with an old flame, the oldest flame, that being fire. A flame who always was there for him when he needed it.

' _The fuse box should be around here some place,'_ Garfield thought and he felt anxious, like he was going through withdrawel symptoms of some sort. Never the less, the man pulled himself together, just in time to locate what he needed to find. _'Found it.'_

There was the fuse box, it waited for him, and the images of fire danced through his mind. He lifted the fire ax that he used to bust his way through the building and smashed it into the fuse box and busted open the lock with one fluid motion.

Reaching behind him, he removed the backpack from his back. After he rummaged through it for a moment, he found what he needed. A brick of what appeared to be semi-clear gel. He used it to shape his explosive charge.

He removed another item from his back pack in the form of a gas canister. He proceeded to form a trail from the fuse box to the front entrance of the club.

His grin got extremely wicked and more prominent the moment that he was done. He stood at the front edge of the club and savored the moment.

Then he lit a match and dropped it into the liquid.

Garfield walked off to a safe distance, where he could savor the pleasure of a long hard night's work. He watched the fire spread and spread quickly. The entire building resembled the match that he dropped into the liquid and it went up hard and fast.

He gave a full body shudder.

"So good, so good, so good," he whispered and he looked at the flame. "Oh, you never know how to disappoint me, see this….this this! Oh burn baby, burn. Yes, yes, yes!"

His moans got more prominent when the fire consumed more of the club. The loving embrace of the flames was a harsh mistress and something that he was willing to submit to. He shuddered again and stepped back slowly with a smile on his face. It was explosive and intense, just the way that he liked it.

His laughter was unsettling when he watched it burn and it burned badly. The embers danced out of the corner of his eye and he continued to give that long and unsettling laugh that would terrify.

It was better than sex. Much better than sex.

* * *

 

After leaving Sarah alone to get some sleep, given the fact that her next shift took place in a couple of hours, Harry headed out as Nightwing to get some work done.

' _So what do you expect to see?'_ Diana asked, acting as mission control because she got up early.

The wind and the snow would have caused most to get knocked off guard, but Nightwing really wasn't someone who was bothered too much by that.

' _Hopefully the criminals will be smart enough to fuck off because of the storm, I don't fancy their chances out in this,'_ Harry thought, and he shook his head.

' _Well, I think most of us want to slap the weatherman today, because he promised a clear night,'_ Jaime thought crossly.

' _That's why I always go for the foolproof weather forecast of sticking your head outside the window and seeing what's happening,'_ Lily answered dryly.

It was a foolproof method that many would have to agree with.

Harry did keep in mind that he had a business meeting to attend to in the morning, an actually honest to god business meeting with Veronica in the morning. There was some charity work that she wanted to discuss with him. Also some talk was on the table to see if they could aligned their foundation's goals to work together.

' _You know, it's extremely feasible,'_ Rose said and as the current chair of the SLF, she would know. _'Kathy is going to be there as well.'_

' _Makes sense considering that she does a lot of the work in the same area,'_ Harry replied swiftly when he stood on a gargoyle. If he didn't have such balance, he might have slipped.

Then again, someone who didn't have balance wouldn't and shouldn't be standing on a gargoyle.

The sounds of gunfire jerked him out of his thoughts, and slowly, he turned his head. Before he could investigate the sounds of the gunfire, it suddenly and extremely abruptly cut off.

Then it was followed by some terrified screams. That just got from odd, to extremely and completely weird and Nightwing propelled himself carefully across the city. He didn't want to take any chances. He might need to. Nightwing needed to investigate the source of the disturbance to see what was going on.

He landed with a thud, and he saw a lot of dead bodies strewn across the ground. They stained the ground they landed on with snow. Upon closer inspection, they were the bodies of various members of the Black Mask's gang, along with the Penguin's. That thing might not seem so odd, but what did seem odd was what Harry saw upon closer inspection.

' _Judging by the ways the bodies are laid, the two groups are working together.'_

Jaime popped in on the link and shook her head. _'You know I thought…..'_

' _That they had pretty much been at each other's throats over the past couple of months and they don't know who knows it,'_ Diana thought, and she could see the carnage and the bloodshed through Harry's eyes.

The news that Black Mask and Penguin or at least their gang members worked together paled in comparison to the next discovery Nightwing found.

' _In most cases, the gang members have been killed with a blade of some sort,'_ Harry thought and he paused and amended that statement. _'One or two might have been caught in the crossfire, used as a human shield most likely.'_

' _But most have been stabbed,'_ Diana thought and she was visited by the same thought. _'Do you think that it was the same woman you caught a glimpse of a while back?'_

' _Could be, or it could be a member of League like Shiva,'_ Harry thought, but his contact within the League was off the line. Therefore he could not verify that, and there was a lot of splintering within the League, so it might be someone doing the attacks off of the clocks.

Or it might not be a member of the League of Shadows involved at all, Harry was not going to discount that thought. They could be someone who had their own style.

Diana viewed the grisly images through Harry's eyes and came to her own obvious conclusion. Given that she knew all about weapons thanks to her training. _'Well, I can tell you that the wounds that they have indicates that there's some piercing weapon of some sort that has been used.'_

Harry had to agree with Diana's assessment and he mulled over a few options that he had in his mind.

' _Could track the person down who is responsible for this,'_ Harry thought and he frowned. _'But that might be a moot point, because they're long gone. Even if I use the thermal imaging in my HUD to track them down, using their foot prints, the winter weather will cause the trail to go extremely cold before too long.'_

The snow could be a cover, but it could also be a hindrance. Especially when Harry wanted to track down certain people in it, but he came so close yet so far.

' _Time to pack in and call it a night.'_

* * *

 

"Gentlemen, regardless of what, I won't mince word, this has not been a favorable year for any of you, myself included."

Lionel Luthor sat in his elegant office at LuthorCorp in Metropolis and leaned back. He was in the midst of a conversation with Phillip Kane, William Earle, and Ronald Daggett, who recently established Daggett Industries after being shown the door from GothCorp.

"We've just had a bad year, I'm sure that we can rebound…"

Lionel said, this passed far beyond bad years for all of them. Things really hadn't been able to hold tight for their plans and their respective companies, along with a part of their reputation for some of them. Mentally, he decided to count the ways.

The first major thing was the establishment of RAO and Lionel recalled how that tied into many of their problems, through RAO and their management. In particular, Harry and Alexandra Potter and the fact that they swooped in and merged with STARR labs, that was something that Lionel was after for years. Then they snuck in the back door and took control of things.

Then Harry, Bruce Wayne, and Lucius Fox managed to outmaneuver Luthor, Kane, and Earle in their bid to take control of Wayne Enterprises and as a bonus, they ousted Earle in the process. Kane just managed to get control of enough stock to keep his place on the Board, although it was a tenacious grip as always.

They had been unable to get their foothold with RAO, due to its status as a private company. Kane's attempt to get it as part of a distribution deal was unsuccessful.

He also considered the newest member of their little business syndicate, Roland Daggett. Formally the acting CEO of GothCorp, the board of directors drummed him out of the company in fairly disgraceful fashion. Lionel was civil with the man, mostly because they had business dealings in the past. And Lionel Luthor was always what was best for business, despite the fact that personal vendettas could get in the way for some.

Daggett approached Lionel, and after the initial meeting went well, several subsequent meetings led to Daggett industries being established. Daggett provided the majority of the capital to get it up and running, whilst Lionel provided enough capital to purchase a thirty-five percent share of the company. The two of them were majority shareolders in the new company.

"So, how exactly are things going overall, Roland?" Kane asked.

"It's going well enough," Daggett replied, optimism brimming in his voice.

The truth was with a fairly new company who established a focus on Pharmaceuticals which had a lot of business, both for clean reasons and for dirty reasons.

"The problem is, your reputation precedes yourself, so we're going to have to rebuild that," Lionel said and it wasn't a criticism, well for the most part. Although the way that Lionel framed it, it might as well have been one. "There are more established companies on the market and with the scandal, you have your work cut out for you."

"I'll build it, we'll build it, I'm down, but not out," Daggett said.

"And how do you expect to get back into the game?" Earle asked in his usual charming way, which wasn't too charming at all.

"We're going to have a press campaign to erase some of the bad press and replace it with good press," Daggett said and he smiled. "I've got a project in the works that will help revolutionize the makeup industry, but it's a year or two where we can test it on humans."

"Let us know if you need any subjects," Earle said crisply.

"I do have a question, Lionel," Kane said and Lionel grunted to ensure that Kane knew that his attention was fully on him. "What exactly happened to the plan to buy on Queen Industries Stock in the wake of investors losing confidence due to Oliver's recent actions."

Lionel's response was crisp and to the point. "That should be obvious, someone beat us to the punch yet again. But that doesn't matter, we were able to acquire some stock, just not all that we wanted to."

Lionel paused and he added.

"Given the rate that Oliver Queen continues to build up his reputation, it won't be too long before we have another opportunity. He's only barely hanging onto the position that he is and with him at the helm, it's a matter of time."

"We seem to be in a holding pattern right now," Earle said. "And Wayne Industries stocks are holding high, especially with the sale of the Red Sun."

"No one is going to be selling Wayne Industries stock any time soon," Kane added.

"Yes, I'm well aware of the success that they're having," Lionel said and if he sounded impressed, that was because he was. "RAO remains a private company, so it's going to be a challenge to get ahold of that."

"We could try and get someone on the inside," Earle said.

Lionel shot that idea around. "The idea might have merit, but it's near impossible given how heavily they look into a person's background before they even give them an interview."

"I think that we'll have a better year ahead, next time around, gentlemen," Roland said and excitement danced in his voice. "My company will edge out Janus Cosmetics in the near future based on our projections."

"We'll see where we are this time next month, and come back to it, unless something else breaks that needs our immediate attention before then," Lionel said and they all disappeared from the call.

Lionel turned out to the window, and took a moment to look at Metropolis which all blanked with snow. He was pulled out of his gaze by the sound of slow clapping. It was almost mocking in its cadence and rhythm.

The businessman turned around and looked for who entered his office without asking his permission first. He should have known.

Alexandria walked across the office, dressed to kill, and made herself at home in front of the chair. She acted like she owned the office.

"May I help you?" Lionel asked his daughter calmly.

"Well, actually I think that I can help you, if you listen to what I have to say," Alexa said and she looked at Lionel. "If you want to actually achieve your goal by establishing a presence on the East Coast within the next five years, you should give me control of that branch of the company."

Lionel looked bemused at how bold that she was. His eyes narrowed and eyebrow was arched when he replied. "And why should I do that?"

"Well, there are a few reasons," she promptly answered. "The first reason is that unlike most of the idiots you work with, I am capable of actually getting things done. And I actually have a good relationship with Harry, so he's more inclined to work with me instead of against me."

Alexa placed her hands on the desk and smiled.

"Let's face it, Harry, Wayne, or really any number of businesses might reject anything if you send one of your usual cronies to do the job," Alexa whispered to him calmly. "They don't like the way that Earle or Daggert or whoever does business. They'll do something stupid that will set back LuthorCorp's future and where would that leave you?"

Lionel was intrigued. Her look towards him was cold and collected and she laid down the facts without sugarcoating them just because he was Lionel Luthor. Just because she thought that he wanted to hear something.

The stone cold truth, that was something that Lionel appreciated grudgingly.

"What happens to your schooling if you move to the East Coast?" Lionel asked.

Alexa gave a calculating smile. "Well, Harvard isn't that far away from Gotham. And besides, I'm between subjects at the moment and can transfer to GCU."

If it was good enough for Harry, then it was good enough for her. She wondered if Lionel even saw her true intentions or if he was so blinded by other obsessions that he overlooked what agenda she might have.

Lionel remained silent and built up anticipation in her mind.

"What exactly do you need?"

* * *

 

The meeting between Harry, Veronica, and Kathy Kane went admirable and fairly well, at least that's what he thought.

In the aftermath of that meeting, Harry, Veronica, Rose, and Kara, who served as Harry's personal assistant due to Tamara being unavailable because of some unexpected business, sat in the room, making some light talk. Kathy already had to dash to go shopping with Bette. She left with her apologies.

Presently, Harry removed his suit jacket and tie because the heat in the building was cranked up a little bit too much. Of course, one could argue that things were about to get a bit steamy in here to begin with.

Veronica slipped off her jacket and her shoes kicked off, and the first couple of buttons of her blouse was already undone.

Kara sat dressed completely in smart business attire and she perched on the arm of the chair next to Harry. Rose decided to sit with her legs folded over each other on the conference table.

"So, I thought that the meeting went pretty well all things considered," Rose concluded.

Veronica nodded in agreement. "We caught all of the standard areas I think….."

Kara chimed in and checked them off. "Women, Education, the Environment, and Children….."

"And not to mention that Kathy and I champion a few causes that are specific to Gotham City," Veronica said and she sighed. "That was an area that was overlooked for too often, for too long. We should sponsor a couple of shelters, I mean, deranged nutcase, or not, Deacon Blackfire did try and make a difference."

' _It was just the way that he went on about it, that left a lot to be desired,'_ Harry thought.

Veronica, never one to stay on the same topic for too long, and mostly because she was bored, switched over to something else. "So, Christmas and New Year's are coming up, so I'm curious if we have anything planned?"

Subtle to be honest, although maybe not. That being said, Kara jumped in, extremely excited and prepared to enlighten her on what they had planned. "We usually go on vacation in the Carribean, since Harry owns an island out there."

Rose piped in with clarification. "We usually leave the day after school gets out for the Winter holidays and return the day before New Years Eve."

Veronica's face fell in a bit of disappointment. "Oh."

She tried not to show it, since she hoped that they would do Christmas and New Year's Day together. Perhaps they could have a joint party as well since it was kind of expected of them as the Gotham City Elite who just recently started dating over the past year.

Not that she was going to say anything, because she didn't want to feel like an ass who dashed some well-planned plans on Harry's part.

She felt Harry's hand clasp around hers. "So, what's wrong?"

Veronica sighed in response; there was honestly no use in hiding if he already figured out something. "Well, I thought that we might do a join Christmas and New Year's Eve party this year…but…"

"I figured as much," Harry told Veronica and she suddenly looked at him. She looked to be completely caught off guard, like the wind had been knocked out of her. "I've went over things with a couple of the girls, and we've decided that we can afford to push things back a week."

"So, we'll be leaving after the New Year this year?"

Veronica beamed at him with response, and leaned in towards him. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him passionately. The kiss was returned.

The two of them tangled their tongues against each other and indulged themselves into each other for a good long moment. They felt the passionate and the excitement built up with them.

Veronica broke and seconds later, Kara swopped in for the kill. She wanted a peace of the redhead heiress as well.

Not that she complained, and she felt Kara's talented tongue jam into her mouth. The blonde's fingers ran down the back of her head, and pulled her deeper into the kiss.

Rose folded her arms and Harry saw that she felt left out. He smiled and pulled himself up next to her and then pulled her onto his lap.

Their kiss got extremely passionate as well, and Rose explored her nephew's fit body with her hands, and roamed over every last inch of him.

' _So, are you ready to make a redhead sandwich?'_ Kara asked and she eased her hand up Veronica's skirt and slowly felt the fabric underneath her roaming hand. It was extremely intense the heat that she felt.

Harry smiled, there was only one answer to that. He slowly stripped his aunt's clothing off and kissed her, which Rose returned the favor.

Then it was off to the races.

Rose closed her eyes tightly and felt Harry's mouth kiss down the side of her neck. He struck her pulse point hard and slowly kissed his way down even further. Harry's hands continued to explore every inch of her body.

Harry smiled and felt the area between her legs. Slowly he teased and taunted his aunt with a smile.

"Harry, I'm so wet," Rose whispered and Harry pushed his finger into her, and then switched tactics.

He tasted her heavenly nectar with his tongue and Rose thought that she would die with his tongue pushing deep into her smoking hot twat. She needed more, she wanted more.

Harry flipped her over after he gave her pussy the taste test and lined himself up with her, ready to penetrate her and hard.

Veronica closed her eyes and arched herself back and allowed Kara's mouth to play with her hotly. The blonde removed her blouse and her bra came up next. Kara's hot mouth teased her a little bit more.

Kara's little tongue scraped against the redhead's pussy.

"Always wanted to have a taste of you," Kara said and she spread Veronica's thighs and pushed her tongue deep into her and scrapped it against her inner walls.

Veronica felt her talented tongue brush deep into her and Kara vibrated her tongue into her. She didn't know where she learned such a talented trick but bless her for that because Veronica felt extremely faint. There was one thing that was for certain. She needed more of that tongue inside her pussy.

Harry grabbed onto Rose's hips and slammed into her hard. He felt his aunt's tight snatch clench around him and he roamed all over her body.

"I think that you've been waiting for this all day, haven't you?" Harry asked and Rose nodded in response.

"Yes, Harry, I've been waiting for this all day, fuck me, and fuck me hard," Rose whispered to him and Harry smiled when he ran his hands all over her breasts.

Her nipples ached with desire and she wanted his hands all over her. There was no question about it, she lived for moments like this, and that was the bottom life. He pumped his large hard prick between her smoldering hot thighs.

"Yes, oh yes, oh take me," Rose begged him, her body sucked his manhood deep between her legs and he made an extremely powerful attempt to take her.

"You know what you want, and why would I be one to deny it?"

Veronica found herself on her hands and knees and Kara's pussy rubbed against hers briefly from behind. That type of super powered friction caused her excitement to hit a boiling that she couldn't even imagine.

The blonde's fingers brushed against her thigh and pumped in and out of her at super speed. Then she reached into her back and pulled on a strap on.

Veronica closed her eyes, and felt it penetrate her body. Her thighs pushed apart and they hungrily gobbled up the toy. That being said, the sensations overwhelmed her. Kara's hands were everywhere. On her face, her breasts, her hips, her stomach, her ass, each and every inch. She always kept her kissing and drove her wild.

Kara rammed herself into Veronica, the nerve impulses of the strap on causing her to feel the tightness of her pussy. The blonde closed her eyes and the juices that Veronica gushed out stained the table.

Easing the redhead vixen closer, Kara pressed Veronica into Rose.

Veronica went face to face with Rose up close, and could see Harry pound her from behind. Her pussy leaked even more cum if possible.

"Time to make that sandwich you promised me, Har," Kara whispered and she gave Veronica a seductive little lick behind her earlobe and that caused even more pleasure to explode from her loins.

Rose and Veronica met in the middle with a deep and passionate kiss, and their respective partners fucked them and fucked them hard.

Harry grunted, this was a hot erotic sight. The hottest part of it was one of his Alphas exerting her dominance over Veronica.

It was just as well, he would exert his dominance over her later, and she could take that one to the bank.

Kara groaned and felt Veronica's tightness grip her. She could tell that the woman was still with her, so she had no choice, but to continue to fuck her. Which she did, all of her nerve endings exploded with pleasure.

Her hands combed every single inch of her body and she squeezed her tit with pleasure. Veronica's superhot pussy closed down around her and Kara groaned.

Harry's manhood prepared to bust, his nuts grew extremely heavy with his juices. All he needed was one more intense push and he would have Rose right where he wanted to. His hands cupped underneath her tits and he used the leverage that was needed to push into her. He pushed his balls deep into her tight and fit core.

Rose closed her eyes and savored the moment, while her tongue tangled with Veronica's. The two of them felt the heat and the burn.

Her nephew's cum splattered inside her pussy. Shot after shot coated her inner walls and he groaned when he filled up every inch of her.

Pulling out, Harry smiled with satisfaction brimming in his eyes, and he watched Kara finish up.

Boy did Kara ever finish up, she channeled her girl cum through the dildo and splattered it into Veronica. The redhead sized up in pleasure.

Harry walked over towards Veronica and tasted his Alpha from her pussy. Kara did the same and tasted Harry's gift from Rose's.

This did the trick of getting both of them hot and horny and ready to go once again. Kara grinned and tried to be the one to catch Harry off guard this time.

She threw herself at her, but Harry caught her with one swift and elegant movement. She felt a tremor go down her body when he pushed her back against the wall.

He spread her lips and sank his throbbing cock hard between her legs. Kara closed her eyes and tightened her grip around his shoulder.

Harry made sure to really push himself into her, and then he slowed down the attacks for a little bit. Kara's legs wrapped around him and he kissed his way down her neck and nuzzled his face in the valley between her breasts.

"Oh yes," Kara moaned hungrily, and he pulled almost all the way out of her. His tip rubbed against her. "Harry….."

Her pleading of him by screaming his name didn't even get finished, when Harry held onto her hips and pounded her against the wall hard. His manhood sunk deep between her hot thighs when he hammered into her.

Kara closed her eyes tight, his thick slab of meat drilled into her over and over again. He pushed her up and held her in tightly to her.

Harry groaned when her tightness wrapped around him. Her super heated Kryptonian pussy milked him again, and he smiled when Rose and Veronica decided to indulge themselves in each other.

"That's so hot," Harry grunted, and he ran one finger down Kara's leg.

She shivered in response, and lifted him up, using her legs. She rested on her back in the air, floating gently.

Harry held onto her hips and maintained leverage when he hammered into her. Her wet pussy clenched him tightly. It tugged at him and really worked his manhood over when he kept working over her.

"Yes, oh yes," Harry groaned.

"Yes, fuck me, fuck me in the air, there's nothing better," Kara said, and she balanced Harry, keeping him locked between her legs. Both to keep him from falling and also because she didn't want that nice piece of meat to sway from her dripping pussy any time soon.

Harry ran his hands all over her body and leaned forward, licking her collarbone. He slammed himself into her and her wetness coated his cock.

This allowed for him to continue his path into her nice and heavily. His finger pushed between her anus region and he pumped into her from behind.

"Yes, oh yes, fuck me hard," Kara moaned, and she rocked her hips up. She sucked Harry in, her hungry pussy lips couldn't have anything more than that piece of cock that went between her legs.

Harry speared his rod into her sheath. The blonde's hips rolled up in response and her pussy enhanced with the pleasure when she pushed him deep into her.

"So close, need more, need it all," Kara whispered and she grabbed his forearm and squeezed him, to encourage him to bury himself deeply into her.

Hot thighs clenched down onto him and Harry felt her, he was so close he could feel it.

Harry pushed her towards the ground and rammed her hard down. Kara squealed in delight, when he bend her legs back and really used the leverage that he had.

"That's what someone like you gets off on, don't you?" Harry groaned and Kara nodded eagerly, lust flashed through her eyes.

Her pussy sucked his rod deep between her thighs, and Rose and Veronica played with each other in the distance.

They would have to join them for another round in a moment, right now, Harry closed his eyes, and his balls grew heavy with cum.

He shot his load deep into her waiting and eager pussy. He fired several hot shots into her and coated her inner walls with his spunk.

Kara sighed and leaned back, makings sure to milk every last drop from his aching balls and she rolled him over, and pulled him into a kiss.

"Don't worry ladies, we'll join you momentarily."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on December 13** **th** **2014.**

**So, we take an interesting look of the psyche of Batman and also Lynns, who might be a bit too in love with the fire.**

**The League of Douchebag Businessmen(all rights reserved). Alexa has her own plans, but that's a Luthor for you.**

**Final chapter of 2014 is coming up next.**


	74. Set Fire to the Rain Part Four

**Chapter Seventy Four: Set Fire to the Rain Part Four.  
**

* * *

Diana busied herself at the Gotham City Museum of Antiquities. This was part of her work for Doctor Helena Sandsmark. Her internship offered her the opportunity to work at a place like this. It actually was an amazing little job when one thought about it. It gave her a lot of opportunities she never would have had otherwise.

Right now, she divided her attention in between paperwork and also an exhibit that was being constructed. This exhibit would hit the museum come January. It was supposed to be a big attraction that would bring in all kinds of new eyeballs. The type of eyeballs the investors would be happy with seeing because of the simple fact that that it would exceed their return on investment.

The two of them busied themselves with the creation of this exhibit when they weren't both busy with other work. For Diana it was her class load and for Doctor Sandsmark it was teaching her classes. School had just gotten out for the day a little bit ago, so she really hadn't been at work for too long.

That being said, Diana's ears perked up when she heard someone arriving. Speaking of someone fresh out of school, Cassie Sandsmark stumbled into the room in a daze. The young ten year old girl shook her head. She was covered from head to toe with snow and shivered at her predicament.

Diana looked up and smiled, she would have to say that the snow poured down something fierce outside. She wouldn't envy anyone who had no choice to be out in it right now. There was plenty of talk that a lot of businesses and schools might have closed if the snow didn't cease any time soon. The tormenting weather didn't seem to want to give up right yet.

Cassie looked around at her surroundings. She dressed for the weather, not that it did her much good with how bitter it was. The young ten year old wore a heavy jacket and jeans. Frowning, she turned around and tried to find her mother. A brief search didn't bare any fruit for her.

Her face snapped into a grin when she saw who was there. Cassie's eyes widened when she looked at the woman before her. It was hard to hide the adoration in her eyes. The girl kicked herself for not noticing Diana straight away.

"Hi Diana," Cassie called. The girl's tone was both breathless and completely excited.

Diana turned around and smiled. She watched Cassie walk on in and slowly peel off her coat and take off her boots. Both were drenched because of the snow and ice she had to walk through in her attempts to get to where they were right now.

"Hi, Cassie, how are you?" Diana asked. Her warm voice was a contrast to the chill outside.

"Fine…" Cassie said. She shook her head almost like she was trying to clear water out of her ears. Maybe Diana could help her. It was worth a try. "So where is my mother?"

Diana smiled at the girl. "She's with Margaret…that saying Curator Sorrow."

The Amazon Princess almost forgot herself. She decided to set a good example. Whether Cassie noticed or not, she really couldn't say with any kind of clarity.

"She's with Curator Sorrow and Professor McElroy talking about something, likely the budget."

"Oh," Cassie replied. Her tone was soft and she should have figured her mother was off doing business.

The girl moved in one fell swoop and plopped herself down on a bench that was in front of the exhibit.

"So, how was your day at school?"

"Well, it was fine," Cassie said. Diana raised her eyebrow. It was obvious she didn't buy that statement for a second. "I mean, I'm pretty sure that the teachers were trying to kill us, with the amount of work that they assigned us. And we thought for a while that we could have been snowed in the school, that would have sucked…"

Cassie corrected herself underneath Diana's reproachful gaze.

"I mean that wouldn't have been good," Cassie said. The girl's voice was soft and apologetic. "But we got out the door. And that wasn't even before Jenny punched Tommy when he tried to rip her book bag in half, that wasn't good."

"No, it wasn't," Diana said. She allowed Cassie continue to chatter about school when she checked something.

"But, I'm sure that you have more interesting things to do than to talk about my day," Cassie said. The girl was crossing her arms and frowning at Diana. Diana's eyes shifted slightly and fixated on Cassie. The blonde wondered if she took things a step too far. "I mean, you were busy with that….."

"You thought that you were going to get snowed in," Diana said with a smile. "And the teacher called into work today because he got sick and there was a substitute that a few of the boys in the class nearly made cry."

"Yeah, that," Cassie said. She was excited that Diana actually paid attention when she talked. Adoration grew even stronger in her eyes.

"And you have a lot of homework now because of that," Diana said with a smile.

"Well not a lot," Cassie said with a frown.

Diana detached herself away from the exhibit to walk over towards Cassie. "Exactly what do you have?"

Cassie pulled a face. "Well I got history, that's a cool subject. Then I got math which…"

"Your mother mentioned math wasn't your favorite subject," Diana said. At this gentle statement, she parked herself down next to Cassie to try and help her out.

' _Better you than me,'_ Amanda thought. _'Just wait until a couple of years, kid. If you think the teachers are trying to kill you now. Just wait until you move up.'_

' _You do realize that she can't hear you,'_ Emily said. She could almost see her sister pulling a face at her being a killjoy.

Amanda shook her head. _'Give her about five years.'_

Diana shook her head but before they could really get started, something distracted her. Helena Sandsmark exited her office, which was expected. Someone else followed her outside her office though and that was Maxmillion Zeus.

It didn't take Diana too long to realize that the two of them were in the midst of an extremely heated conversation. She didn't want to say an argument. It hadn't escalated quite to that point where tempers flare.

"Maxmillion, this is Diana, you remember meeting her, don't you?" Helena asked. It was abrupt. It was as if she tried to divert the conversation elsewhere. "And you know my daughter Cassandra."

Cassie frowned, she didn't like Mr. Zeus. Something about him gave her the creeps. Then again, Zeus was her least favorite god. He seemed like a real dork.

"Diana, it's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance," Maxie said. He gave Diana a light and crisp handshake. He let go in seconds. "Helena and I were discussing a very important manner, but it appears that we have a few issues to work out over that…"

"I told you, I had the expedition well in hand," Helena replied crossly. Her attention diverted to Diana. "Mr. Zeus here has offered to fund part of the upcoming expedition."

Diana frowned. "Harry and my mother already agreed to provide funding for this."

"You did….."

Maxie interjected himself into the conversation. "I don't think that additional funding could hinder the effort."

Helena sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "That isn't the point."

She escorted Zeus off to the side and had a conversation with him. Diana picked up enough of it with her enhanced senses.

"….No, it wouldn't hurt in theory. But the more chefs in the kitchen, the more amiss this could go. Archaeological expeditions are delicate enough ventures as it is and the more hands involved, the more delicate it could be.

Maxie waved off her words. "Perhaps we should discuss this more, over dinner perhaps?"

Helena's tone indicated she couldn't believe the man. She didn't say anything other than the flat response she gave. "No."

She turned around and walked back towards Diana and Cassie. Diana looked forward and saw that Zeus's hands curled into fists.

When he noticed that Diana's eyes fixed on him, he did an about face and turned away. He walked off into the night.

It would be an extremely long time before Diana forgot that gaze.

Diana moved over towards Helena and placed an arm around her. "Are you okay?"

Her voice was soft spoken and Helena snapped out of her agitation. She nodded in response.

"It isn't the first time that he asked me out, and it won't be the last," Helena said. "I suppose he's a nice enough guy. But in small doses. And he's a notorious playboy and not the good kind either."

She leaned in towards Diana to whisper in her ear. "In a way, she reminds me of Cassie's father on top of that."

Diana frowned and asked what she thought was a logical question. "So, have you dated recently?"

She shook her head in response. "Most men aren't interested in the kind of baggage that I have. That's their words, not mine."

Diana meanwhile looked thoughtful and turned back towards Cassie who looked about ready to hurl her math homework halfway across the room.

* * *

"So, it was amazing."

"Yeah, I'm sure it was."

Barbara reclined on the couch in the Clocktower. She currently was busy with the homework that she had been assigned. She only half paid attention to the storm that raged outside. When you lived in Gotham, a storm raging wasn't even half of the problem. That being said this was one of those days that made a person tired and not want to do anything too overtly productive.

She divided her time between working on her homework and having a conversation with both Donna and Kara. Both of them were in the same room and on the speaker phone when they talked to her.

Kara decided to describe in full detail the little adventure she had with Harry, Rose, and Veronica after the meeting they had this morning. It wouldn't be Kara if she didn't try and build up anticipation in Barbara's mind. She knew how much Barbara choked for a more intimate encounter with Harry.

' _I don't even know how much more I can want it to be honest,'_ Barbara thought. She tried her hardest not to distract herself with such things.

It would happen soon enough and it would be well than worth the wait. The small taste that she had was more than sufficient to make her pretty much choke for it.

Kara frowned. "You're not listening a word I say, are you?"

"Got a lot of work to do, although I got the general gist of it," Barbara said. She grinned. "And I'm sure that you had a lot of fun when you were there."

Barbara knew by now that Kara was trying to wind her up. She did it about one time too many so Barbara became savvy to it.

"Oh and for the record, she's sticking her tongue out at you now," Donna commented. Barbara laughed, committing the visual fully to mind. "The gesture was lost since we are over the phone. But I suppose that it's really the thought that counts."

Kara said something that Barbara couldn't quite pick up.

"Yeah, love you too, honey," Donna said. After that little interplay, she turned her attention fully to Barbara. "So, how is your work going?"

"It's really quiet at the moment," Barbara said. Her frown deepened when she realized that that meant. "That's not good, I know. But I'm doing my homework while I can, while I'm able to have downtime."

Barbara smiled and added as an afterthought. "Also I'm running a search for one of my….employers."

She didn't know what the right word to use was so she used the first word that came to her mind.

"Anyway, he wanted me to find something extremely important," Barbara said. Her excitement grew because this work was her passion. "So, I got to run a pretty detailed search."

Donna sighed in a wistful tone of voice. "I really wish I was as good with computers as you were."

"Why, what happened?" Barbara asked curiously.

"Nothing, nothing…."

Kara broke out into hysterical laughter, finally breaking her silence of the last couple of minutes. The blonde took a few seconds where she could catch her breath and suddenly shook her head. "Oh, something is nothing alright."

"What?" Barbara asked.

"So, did you hear about what happened to Donna in Computer Science Class at GCU today?" Kara asked. She cheerfully ignored Donna's grumbles.

Barbara shook her head. She was torn between not embarrassing the girl and her curiosity getting the better of her. Her curiosity getting the better of her won out over everything else.

"No, what happened?" Barbara asked with interest.

"I really don't want to get in it," Donna said. She practically was pleading.

"Oookay," Barbara said.

Kara, being Kara, didn't want to let the matter drop. It was a hilarious story and honestly could have happened to anyone. "Donna actually caused the computer she was using in class to explode. You know because she channeled way too much energy through her body. And when that happens, things go boom. "

There was an oof and the unmistakable sound of Donna hurling a pillow directly at Kara's head and hard.

"So, how did you manage to pull that one off?" Barbara asked.

Donna sighed and answered in a small voice. "I must be in the middle of a growth spurt of some sort. Amazons are normally in better control of their powers. We're trained from the very beginning, almost since the time that we are created."

Barbara soaked in that bit of information but her search concluded and she needed to go. She left them alone to an intense sounding pillow fight/tickle fight.

The sounds of her caused her to blush but that being said she needed to focus. The redhead placed her homework down and walked towards the computer chair. She slipped on a pair of glasses and a headset.

Biting her lip firmly, she brought up the search results. "Okay, let's see what you got there"

The results were extremely eye opening and very disturbing. Barbara frowned when she sorted through them. The tangible bits slapped her straight in the face. She could have hacked on through and found some more information.

That being said, she decided to ring up someone who could help.

After about two or three rings, she got through on the other end. The tired sounding voice responded to her. "Hello?"

"Is this Sersi?" Barbara asked.

"Yes, it is," Harry's accountant responded. She recognized who she spoke with immediately."Oracle, is that correct?"

Barbara stopped and stared, she thought that she knew something. Perhaps she should have known that she knew. That being said there was hardly any time to determine that.

"I need you to get be the bank records of someone….if you can…"

The situation was explained and Barbara waited now for Sersi to e-mail the information back to her.

Time passed by over the next half of an hour and Barbara looked at everything. She just needed one more piece of the puzzle to solve this. When she got the e-mail, then she would know.

Barbara's patience and persistence paid off when a solid bing came up over the e-mail system. The redhead gazed upon what she saw and she couldn't keep that smug expression off of her face.

"Batman, are you there?" Oracle asked. Her voice was tentative. They had some tense meetings over the communication network in recent history.

"Yes," he responded gruffly.

She dove into the explanation without any further prompt. "All of the buildings have something in common. They belong to the same owner who had to file bankruptcy after a fire hit one of the properties during a concert. Several people, including the singer, died as a result. A lot of them had rich relatives who sued and he settled out of court for a huge amount."

Barbara paused and allowed all of this information to sink in. When she was pretty sure that it did, she continued.

"It was believed to be caused by the negligence of one of his employees. A pyro-technician by the name of Garfield Lynns was the man. It's believed that he had to sell and Roman Sionis tried to buy them out from underneath him. Only the victim and his business partner tried to buy them out. And there's something peculiar about this all."

Batman didn't answer, Barbara sighed and pressed on with more information.

"The man's business partner was his wife," Oracle continued. She began to see the light "They divorced months later. He believed that she was cheating on him but the properties they ended up being divided as a result of their divorce."

She stopped again to allow that to process.

"So, she sold it to Sionis. He didn't have a chance to change his will, so all of the properties that he still had went to her. Not sure why the Arsonist is targeting them. Maybe for insurance. According to the bank records, there's only four left."

* * *

"I'm coming into Gotham for the holidays."

Harry smiled when he was busy talking to Alexa on the phone. "So, I'm guessing that you need a ride when you head to the airport?"

"Yes, if you're willing to pick me up," she said. It was hard to tell but he was pretty sure that excitement dripped from her voice.

"You don't even need to ask, I'll be there," Harry said. He pressed on with a question that he had for her. "So did you read Palmer's minor revision?"

Alexa laughed. It was obvious she had. "Yeah, I think that he's closer to where he wants to go, but at the same time, he has an extremely long way before he actually gets there."

The two of them proceeded to have an animated conversation about the theory. They picked up exactly where they left off the last time. Alexa had a Doctorate in Theoretical Physics. This allowed the two of them to have certain conversations to flew up and above the heads of anyone who heard them.

A knock on the door temporary brought Harry out of his conversation.

' _Yes, Diana, come in,'_ Harry thought to her.

The door opened and Diana walked in, dressed in a nice black button up blouse and a pair of jeans.

"You know, I wonder if a filter of some sort might be able to do the trick to stop an object from getting compressed?" Alexa asked him.

Harry smiled. "It's very possible that it could do so. And I think that it's only a matter of time before we reach that point. Delicate science we're dealing with but if it works, it could change the world."

"That's why we're keeping an eye on it," Alexa said. She opted to switch topics. "Anyway, I'm certainly coming into Gotham City for the holidays so if you want to…"

"I do want to," Harry confirmed. "I'll call you back later and hash out some of the finer details."

"Great," Alexa chirped back. She had to get going as much as she wanted to talk to Harry. "I'll talk to you later…"

"Yes, I'm looking forward to it."

Harry made his way back to his homework. He didn't have too much to do to be honest. He could sense Diana about to say something. Turning towards her, he spoke in a commanding voice. "Could you please stand over there and wait for a moment?"

His tone caused a full body shiver to expand through her body. Walking over, Diana did as she was told.

Harry smiled and finished making a few notations. He read over things rather carefully to ensure that he didn't miss anything. He was pretty sure that he didn't. That being said, it was good to keep a close knit watch on such things and make sure you left absolutely nothing to chance.

When Harry finished his work, he turned towards Diana. Following his order to the letter, she remained still the entire time. It might have been close to ten minutes before he finished work. He amused himself by the fact that the Amazon Princess fidgeted when she stood in the corner. Really attempting to stay still, she found it a more difficult endeavor than one could potentially have realized.

His eyes narrowed and he rose from his chair. Swiftly, Harry walked over and took her by the hand. Without another word, he lead her towards a door.

This just wasn't any door, far from it. It was only accessible from his study and only accessible if he opened the door. Which he did right now.

He led Diana into the room. For lack of a better term, it was a sex dungeon. A wide selection of toys and devices spread unevenly across the room. Including a lush bed that had restraints on it, and in the corner, there was a music player.

He reached over and turned the music player on. A tune that one might find in a strip club could be heard. Reaching over to a cabinet, Harry pulled out a bottle and a glass. He poured himself a glass of scotch.

He relaxed in an arm chair, amused by the fact that Diana still stood there. She remained still as a statue. Despite the fact Harry lead her into this place, this was the last thing that he asked of her. So she did as the leader of the Collective declared.

"Take off all of your clothes, slowly, and follow the rhythm of the music."

Diana lightly moaned and gave him a look that burned pure and unbridled sex. She slowly slipped off her jacket, allowing it to drop down to the ground on her shoulder. She ran her hands all over her body. The Amazon Princess took the buttons of her shirt and unfastened them.

Harry watched her when she revealed more and more flesh. Her bra clad breasts were exposed and she allowed the blouse to drop to the ground.

Sauntering over towards him, Diana had a smile on her face. She undid her pants slowly. She pulled them down her legs. It was a tight fit to get them off but it was quite frankly doable. She gazed into Harry's eyes, the grin not one leaving her face.

The pants dropped to the ground and she stood there in a full lingerie set. She wore a lacy black bra, thong panties to match, along with a garter belt and lacy black stockings.

Diana placed her foot on Harry's crotch and slowly ran her hand up her right leg. She unfastened the garter belt from the stockings and pulled them down to expose her flesh. She placed her leg down and got down. She did the same with the other leg, slowly easing down her other stocking.

Slowly, Diana dropped to her knees and got on the ground. She spread her legs with great flexibility. She reached down and exposed her dripping wet center. She pulled off the panties and swung them around on her finger.

She launched them right into Harry's face. He caught the sweet scent of them and smiled.

Diana arched her back and unclipped her bra. She allowed her bountiful breasts to be exposed to the world. Her nipples exposed for him and she ran her hands down her body. She coated herself with her own juices.

The Amazon Princess turned around, perched firmly on her hands and knees. She wiggled her ass at Harry. Then, to the tune of the music, she turned herself around. Slowly, Diana crawled towards Harry and placed her hands on his thighs.

"Good girl," Harry whispered and he reached forward and patted Diana on the top of her head like she was a dog.

The Amazon Princess shivered and Harry beckoned her to her feet. She obediently rose and Harry led her over.

He led her over to restraints dangling from the ceiling with a smile on his face. He gazed into her eyes and fastened her inside.

Diana's excitement increased when Harry took a step back.

"Don't worry, you're cum, but not until I tell you to," Harry whispered. The smile on his face was wide and extremely wicked.

He reached behind his back and pulled out a whip. He cracked it and that caused a full body shudder to erupt over her.

"Shall we begin?"

"Yes," Diana whisper and she smiled. She added with another whimper. "Master."

Harry cracked the whip one more time and looked at the goddess dangling from the ceiling with no place to go. He added one more thing, a ball gag and then he was ready to go.

Harry lifted the whip and cracked it against her rear end. He held her orgasm back when he cracked it against her.

"One."

Harry aimed the whip once again and cracked it against her rear once again. He counted off another whip again and again.

Diana closed her eyes and savored the feeling. Her pleasure would increase and would come out if he didn't hold it out. Her muffled moans of measure stopped due to the ball bag in her mouth.

Another crack of the whip and Harry focused his attention on her lower back and rear end. The Amazon felt the feel of leather against her. The domination build up something heated inside her loins.

"Twenty three."

Another smack against her and Diana felt her eyes water. The pleasure built up within her loins threatened to burst out.

"Twenty four."

His voice got lower and more sensual the more that he whipped her. The Amazon Princess felt her nipples harden when she hung from the ceiling in her restraints.

He drew out the final one. It was the strongest one yet. His power flowed when he smacked her hard.

"Twenty five."

After he was done, Harry placed his finger between her butt cheeks. He could see her reddened ass and he slowly traced his finger up her back. He felt her shudder underneath his grip and he ran his hand down her back several more times

When he felt that he wound her up more than enough, Harry leaned in towards her. One hot word whispered in her ear. "Cum."

Diana came alright. It was an explosive orgasm that rocked her body. She swung back and force from the ceiling in the restraints.

Harry climbed up behind her, his pants off. His throbbing cock exposed to her and he shoved into her from behind.

Diana closed her eyes when he rammed into her from behind. His throbbing balls struck her reddened ass for a second. Then he shifted himself and pounded into her. The restraints moved a little bit so she hovered spread eagled.

"Don't think I don't know that you're getting off on all of this," Harry whispered. He gripped Diana by the hair and pulled her back.

The Amazon shook her head. She wouldn't dare deny the fact that she got off from this. His cock roughly hammering her heated loins pleased her.

Persistence was what he had and he pounded into her from behind.

"Don't you think about cumming until I tell you to cum."

Diana wouldn't dare defy her master. Her legs spread as far as they could go. They accommodated his entire cock when he pushed into her. His hands firmly rested on her back, the reminder of how he dominated her. The reminder of how he continued to dominate her.

Her pussy gushed off when he bound her from the ceiling. They were no more than ten feet off of the ground but the feeling of having no earthly barriers caused her pussy to clench him.

"Good girl, I'll treat you to something special if you keep this up," Harry whispered and he bit down on Diana's neck.

It was a shame that she had the ball gag on, almost at least. The fact of the matter her tightness continued to hug him.

"I think you want more, such a good girl."

Diana felt the term of endearment, normally a humiliation, cause her pussy to crush him with the force that would destroy a normal human cock. She relented a little bit more, when Harry stretched her apart and sank into her.

Her orgasm held back, she knew when he let it out, it would have the relentless fury of three or four extremely powerful orgasms in succession.

His hand cupped underneath her breast and he tightened his grip underneath her tasty tit. He squeezed it hard in response.

Diana lost every sense of sanity that she had. His cock was too powerful when it continued its path between her molten hot thighs. The Amazon panted when he worked her over something fierce.

Each thrust caused her wildest dreams and her wettest desire to come true.

Harry smiled and he dominated her. The restraints lowered a little bit. The bed was right underneath where they were now.

His hands tweaked her nipples and he ran up her body. He touched the parts of her body that drove her the wildest.

Harry rested and he waved his hands. The explosive pleasure released through her. Her super wet pussy allowed him to continue his path to her center.

Diana mentally thanked her god for his blessing.

' _Oh master, thank you, I'm so wet,'_ she managed to think through the strangled fury of her lust.

Her pussy cummed explosively, clenching his tool hard.

"It's time to receive your gift."

Diana blinked intensely and Harry touched her rear end when he buried himself deeper into her. The Amazon Princess milked his thrusts.

His excessive load caused her body to light up with pleasure and he pumped what seemed to be an endless supply of cum. Each spurt of cum inside her body and Harry forced her to have another orgasm.

Diana felt like she just got saturated after a draught. The restraints completely brought her down on the bed.

Harry unlatched the restraints and he removed the ball gag out of her mouth. He replaced it with something else.

Diana felt Harry's fingers dig into her cheeks and he forced her to look up at her with adoring blue eyes.

"Make me hard," Harry whispered. She did and he force fucked Diana's face.

Diana didn't just lay there and take it. She used her tongue and her mouth to bring Harry's manhood up to full mast. She sucked him deeper down her throat and titled her head back. The hunger that danced through her eyes grew even more wanton.

Harry smiled, he felt her hot tongue brush on his throbbing manhood. Her hands reached around and asked for commission.

He worked her mouth over, grabbing onto her face. The Amazon slurped his manhood down and closed her eyes. She brought him deep into her mouth and hungrily brought him down deep down her throat.

She closed her eyes when she sucked him as deep as she could have gone into her mouth. Hunger flashed through her eyes.

He grabbed her breasts and switched venues. He pushed his huge manhood deep between her cavernous tits. The Amazon closed her eyes when he rammed between her valley.

Harry took his aggression down on her large globes. Diana looked at him and he allowed her to sit up.

The Amazon Goddess sucked the head when it pushed out of her breasts. Her determination flooded from her body when he rammed his tool deep between her delicious tits. She closed her breasts down onto him.

Her tits worked him nicely. They would have caused a normal man to reach his breaking point. Harry was far from done and he hadn't reached his breaking point yet.

He pulled back from her and Diana groaned at the loss that she felt. His hands wrapped around her waist, turning her over onto her front.

Diana paused and shivered with his hands squeezing her ass cheeks roughly. His cock approached her tightest hole.

Harry smiled, it was still raw-red from the time that he whipped her city.

Diana felt a combination of pleasure and pain. He denied he orgasm again and his fingers brushed against her clit.

It was almost like she could feel the pleasure and at the same time he denied her the pleasure. It increased tenfold when he hammered into her. Her tight anal hole collapsed around him when he continued to pick up the pace.

Harry groaned and he felt her squeeze him. He didn't allow her to be the dominant force. He fucked her ass and hard.

Diana felt the desire of her orgasm being held back. His hands pushed onto her breasts hard and squeezed them tightly. The Amazon closed her eyes and he dominated every last inch of her body.

Harry pumped himself into her and drew himself into her. He saved up a huge load to send straight into his ass. His fingers dug deep into her. One command later showed her what she needed to do.

"Cum."

She obeyed his command. Cum gushed out of her pussy like a leak. Harry lifted his fingers up and placed them deep into her mouth.

The Amazon closed her eyes when he plowed deep into her body. His thick balls pounded into her from behind and prepared slowly unload into her. He grabbed onto her hair and pulled back on it roughly for the finale and slammed into her with excessive force.

The gush of cum caused Diana's orgasm to explode deep within her body, and the pleasure spiked in her body in response.

She collapsed on the bed and the gushing flood of cum rolled out of her ass. Harry pulled out of her.

"Not done yet."

Harry grabbed Diana's ass and reminded her who it belonged to. He slid into her with greater ease. Harry worked her harder and harder throughout the night.

That intense and nerve racking round of sex continued. Harry thoroughly dominated Diana in every way and she appreciated it one hundred percent. Eventually they were done, when Harry declared they were done.

"Thank you," Diana said. In response to what he did, she wrapped her arms around Harry's head and brought it down onto her breasts. "I needed that, I really….really needed that."

"Happy to help as always," Harry replied. He ran his hands through her silky dark hair. "So, what did you want to talk to me about anyway?"

"It's about Doctor Sandsmark," Diana said. This was out of the blue so it caused Harry to raise an eyebrow. When she saw that she had his full attention, she pressed on. "I was hoping that you could ask her out sometime."

Diana added, not really as an afterthought, but mostly because her brain didn't function as it should after that mind blowing sex. "It's been a long time and I'd have a feeling that she'd appreciate the attention."

Harry kissed her on the top of the head. "I'd be happy to."

* * *

It was late for some people in Gotham City. Not for Batman, it was rather early. He moved on forward in the city, when the clock struck Eleven. He was on the hunt for the arsonist that had plagued him recently.

Oracle compiled a list of targets that the arsonist might have struck next. Carefully, Batman narrowed it down. It was at a point where he knew what would happen next and he was ready to strike.

He stood on the rooftop across the street from a large looking store. The fire roared impressively and chillingly as well. It was a large department store. By first glance, it appeared that the arsonist used flammable materials from the building. It was the next logical location but Batman came to one conclusion.

The first location he decided to investigate, he was much too late. Never one to be deterred, Batman continued his trek all the way across Gotham City to the next location that he needed to show up at.

The good news was the location wasn't that far away. Batman activated his grapnel and swung across the street to the next location.

This didn't have the glamor of the last location. It looked like a fairly run down and dilapidated looking apartment building. That being said, it was close by, so one could reason that the Arsonist might have thought the same thing that Batman did.

It was pretty much abandoned with the possible exception of some homeless people. Batman unsheathed a laser cutter from his belt and began to cut the chain. It was the one barrier that prevented him from heading inside using the rooftop.

He entered the building which was so decrepit that it resembled something out of a horror movie. It didn't really help that it was so cold inside the building that he could see his breath. He couldn't find anything on the top floor so he moved onto the next floor.

The wet damp smell in the air he remembered from the office building filled his nostrils when he approached the new location. He was getting close.

At first he didn't notice anything too peculiar. That changed when an ax swung directly at his head. Batman dodged the ax. The threatening weapon smacked against the wall with a thud.

He swung low from another ax swing and it kept smacking up against the wall again and again. The savage ax swings proved to put him on the defensive.

The Arsonist seemed determine to take his head off. Batman managed to get him into a corner. He caught the ax and pulled him in. An uppercut punch followed and knocked him backwards.

That attack would do an ideal job if disarming a more sane man. The problem was that Batman was not dealing with someone who was ideally sane. His adversary kept ahold of his ax.

The man was in close quarters. Batman took advantage of this situation and nailed him with a huge kick to rock him backwards. The man flew through a rather flimsy looking wall and that also caused him to drop the ax to the ground with a clatter.

The arsonist shook scrambled to his feet.

Several orbs flew through the air. This might not have been the best plan in hind sight. When the orbs busted open, they set anything that was remotely flammable on fire.

Lynns rushed forward to try and grab his ax. With the fires, most people felt uncomfortable. With him on the other hand, he never felt so alive when surrounded by fire. The warm embrace they gave was far better than sex.

Batman slammed his fist into the jaw of his opponent. A brief but intense struggle continued. A series of punches knocked him around.

Lynns set up something before the battle to consume the building. He was outclassed in battle and he knew it.

"You're finished."

He laughed at Batman. To say that he was mad might be understating things a slight bit. "I don't need to outlast you. I just need to make sure that you don't outlast the fire."

More of those firebombs were to come and all he needed to do was to take out Batman just like that. That allowed him to tip the advantage. The fact the fire fueled him increased his abilities.

He picked up the fire ax from the ground, and slashed at Batman with it in a flurry. The fire continued to rage around them.

Batman dodged the attack and ran at him. A running kick sent Lynns flying into a part of the building that long since burst into flames.

The flammable material in his backpack came under contact with the fire and he went up like a lit match.

Batman rushed over to give him a hand. The bits of roof flew down, flames spitting in every direction. The burning off came on top of him and landed hard on the ground.

The weight of the floor buckled and the fire started to rage out of control. There was no choice but for Batman to escape out of the nearest exit of the building. Which he did and allowed everything to fall in a fiery pile of wreckage.

Lynns was trapped inside and there was no way that Batman could return to rescue him.

* * *

Nightwing was on the prowl in Gotham City. He returned to the area of where the massacre was last night. Despite the fact that it was a brutal crime, he didn't have a lot to go for. Other than the fact the victims were members of both the Penguin's gang along with Black Mask's. Much to his surprise, both sides worked together when it happened.

The best place to start with any crime is the location of the crime. Then he would work his way through the city.

"The firefighters are still fighting the fire, the arsonist might have gotten into it with Batman," Oracle informed him.

"Well, did he tell you?" Black Canary asked.

"He didn't tell me much of anything, but that's just how the man is," Oracle concluded with a sigh. "Anyway, they kept fighting the fire, but there was no body yet."

Talon sighed. She spoke her next cynical but accurate statement. "Well if there's no body than there's nobody."

That statement might have seemed simplistic due to the nature of what happened but never the less, Harry would have to agree. The crime scene was taped off due to the nature of being a crime scene.

He moved off and he didn't even go a few feet before he heard the sounds of gunfight. Black Mask's gang worked with the Penguins again, and they fought against some other mobsters. Some of them, he recognized as working with Rupert Thorne.

' _There's a rumor that Thorne has his own ambitions,'_ Jaime chimed in.

' _And if that's the case, than Black Mask and Penguin are going to be in the way.'_

Nightwing wasn't in a mood to screw around, not tonight at least. He decided now was the best time to test out a couple of new gadgets he was working on.

He threw a flash bang onto the ground. It was a lot brighter than normal and did an excellent job in disabling the vision of the gangsters.

The masks that he and the girls where filtered out the effect. The effect burned out a moment or two later regardless. This gave him plenty of time to hurl some throwing knives into the battle.

The knives disarmed them. Those who he didn't hit, Nightwing swooped in with expert precision.

A few broken bones later, they were down on the ground. It might have seemed brutal but it had results. He made sure all of the weapons were dismantled as well beyond all repair.

The sounds of fighting coming nearby caused Harry's ears to perk up over to the side. He wondered what the hell was going on now.

Nightwing stopped in surprise and Dinah's interjection through the bond link said it all. _'Whoa.'_

He saw a woman clad in white, with a mask over her face clinging from the top post of the building. Her dark eyes shined out and she kept her gaze focused on the enemy.

Harry recognized her from the incident involving the fight club many months back. It was who did battle with her that caught his attention. Fighting her was the one and only Lady Shiva.

The two skilled martial arts fighters battled with each other, doing battle in the upper floor of a building that is still under construction. There were a fair number of pillars and obstructions for them to use to their advantage.

These were two women who mastered their surroundings. A lot of debris littered across the ground, which they used to their advantage.

Both women were well armed as well. Lady Shiva welded a katana and the mysterious Woman dressed in white used a chain whip. Harry's gazed hurriedly followed the fighting. It was fast and furious and it was hard to keep up.

' _Shiva's the better fighter, obviously,'_ Talon thought.

' _That much is without saying,'_ Black Canary thought. She observed the fight to give her own commentary on the matter. _'But the woman in White is pretty good.'_

Harry noticed the fact that she used a range weapon gave her an advantage. At least temporarily it gave her an advantage. Shiva dove forward at her and headbutted her. With brutality, the assassin disarmed her.

The woman in white groaned when her legs were kicked out from underneath her. She laid upon the cold ground stunned.

Shiva raised the blade over her head and braced herself to deliver a killing blow.

A grapnel shot out and she spun around, just in time to see Nightwing pull her arm. He yanked her into one vicious clothesline. That attack knocked her back first onto the ground with a sickening thud.

Nightwing moved forward. He was surprised when the Woman in White attacked him.

"You shouldn't have got involved," she said. Her statement was given in Mandarian, a language he could speak.

"Oh, well you were doing a wonderful job with nearly getting your head taken off," Nightwing dryly replied in the same language. She stopped for a brief second and returned to the fight once she stopped being thrown off guard.

The two way fight shifted into a three way and it wasn't the good kind of three-way kind of fight either.

Shiva in particular was hacked off by the humiliation and determined to redeem herself. If she had the chance, she was willing to kill.

Harry armed herself with a knife and protected himself, along with both of them. The knife negated the weapon advantage that both of these of women held.

After an intense fight with much brutality, Shiva decided that it was time to end this. She pulled White Canary into her closely. Then she snapped off a kick on the woman and caused her to hurl off of the building.

Harry armed himself with a modified Glue Grenade and fired it. It was modified in the sense that the glue lasts longer and the casing is lighter.

The glue grenade burst open and the glue splattered Shiva. She was stuck in place, unable to move. The sticky white material exploded on her face and completely coated it. Lady Shiva resembled something out of a Bukkake movie.

With another flash, Nightwing dove off of the building and tried to save the woman before she took a huge plunge twenty feet into the ground. He slowed his descent with the grapnel and carefully swooped in, slowly hers as well.

He managed to mostly stop it but the stop was extremely jarring. Both of them crashed through the window of the building closest to them.

Nightwing shook of the impact, dazed. It took him a few seconds to return back to some semblance of thought. When he did, he realized the Woman in White disappeared into the night.

Annoyed, Nightwing pulled himself to the top of the building.

' _Two for two,'_ he thought. His fist curled up in frustration.

Shiva vanished into the night. Nightwing stood there slightly annoyed. Not to mention the fact that it left him with more questions than he started tonight's mission with.

Any temptation to track down the women in the distance was stopped by the sounds of gunfire and sirens a distance away.

Oracle chimed in with the news. "Another hostage situation has developed."

Nightwing left to deal with that, one last thought entering his mind. _'Another night in motherfucking Gotham City.'_

* * *

A statuesque blonde sat in the kitchen, dressed in a silk blue robe that just came above her knees. She stood in a very modern kitchen in an extremely expensive condo.

The woman flipped through the pages of the newspaper, reading it with a frown. She came upon an article regarding the fires last night. A wide smile popped across her face because of that fact.

Before she could turn the page, her doorbell rang.

Standing to her feet, the blonde made her way casually over to the door. She looked through the peep hole in the door and tried to see who was standing outside. After all of what happened in Gotham City, she could never be too careful.

"Who's there?"

"Renee Montoya and John Jones of the Gotham City Police Department," the woman said. Both of them showed their badges.

She paused for a moment and nodded. She had nothing to fear after all. Opening the door, she let them in.

"What seems to be the trouble?" she asked.

"Are you Rochelle Smythe?" Jones asked.

She nodded in confirmation. "Yes, I am."

Renee held up the warrant. "Then you're under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder and insurance fraud."

The anonymous tip that they got last night pretty much signed, sealed, and delivered this investigation.

The woman grew pale but there was nothing to be done.

"You have the right to remain silent….."

* * *

Harry sat in a doughnut shop right across the street from Gotham Central. He dressed casually since he had a class that he needed to attend in two hours.

' _So what's this all about?'_ Kara asked.

' _I'm planning on having breakfast with Sarah, but she's running a little bit late,'_ Harry thought. He casually sipped on his coffee. _'So are you girls ready for the holidays.'_

Lyta bounded in on the bond. _'Yeah, that means I'll be able to come by to visit, and that you'll be able to come home to visit.'_

Donna was hit with a huge logic bomb. _'Wait a minute, isn't there…..'_

' _It was a cheap copy of the original, duh,'_ Lyta said. She shook her head. Her older sister didn't get it.

' _Well technically…'_

' _It's the same but it isn't the same,'_ Lyta sang. This was before Donna could get in two words edgewise.

The middle Amazon princess inclined her head and sighed long and hard. There was a second where she felt a headache.

It didn't make a lot of sense granted where this one was going. It did serve to amuse Harry like nothing else.

That being said, Sarah entered the café moments later and she was not along. She was followed by a woman who looked to be of Chinese descent based off of her look. She dressed in a red jacket, a black shirt, and red pants, along with black boots.

"Harry, this is my new partner, Ellen Yin," Sarah informed him.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Potter," she said. She reached forward for a hand to shake.

**To Be Continued on January 4** **th** **, 2015.**

* * *

**And see you after the first of the year for more.**


	75. Twelve Days of Christmas Part One

**Chapter Seventy Five: Twelve Days of Christmas Part One.**

* * *

 

A slim individual sat with his back against the window in an extremely comfortable arm chair. There was a television flickered on in the corner. At this point, it was doing a commercial about all of the sales at the Gotham City Mall.

The man in the armchair was half submerged within the shadows. He was an extremely well dressed man. His dark grey suit was tailor made just for him. He also wore an extremely nice pair of shoes although the sole of one shoe was much wider than the other. He kept his eyes on the television while the commercial went off.

His eyes shifted down towards a rather expensive pocket watch. He started humming the twelve days of Christmas under his breath. It was gaining momentum as he reached one certain part of the song.

"And on the first day of Christmas…"

That song was cut off when the news flickered on. Jack Ryder appeared. The first bits of the news were pretty much business as usual for the morning news in Gotham City. There was nothing of the gentleman's interest as he continued to work steadily at the table.

Finally, his ears perked up with interest. This was what he waited for.

"In other news, the Gotham City Police Department Major Crimes Unit and Bomb Squad were called out to a local department store early this morning," Ryder commented. "Vicki Vale is live on the scene and will be bringing more information to us. Vicki?"

The individual watching the television grabbed a rather tight hold around his pocket watch. There was no further reaction other than that. He watched to see and hear what the one and only Vicki Vale would report.

"The GCPD MCU and the Bomb Squad were called in early this morning," Vicki said. She leaned against the wall. "It was a result of a security guard noticing something suspicious about the night shift janitor who was working at the Department Store building. It put him on edge. Furthermore the security guard noticed a strange noise when he was doing an early morning patrol. As it turns out, he found a package about the size of a shoe box in a location where it raised an alarm bell."

Vicki paused and the individual clutched the pocket watch. He loosened his grip when he remembered it was an antique that couldn't be replaced.

"He contacted the police and sent a patrol car to check out the situation," Vicki said. "Further details are sketchy but the officer contacted the MCU and the Bomb Squad from there. Back to, you Jack."

The scene on the television screen switched from Vicki to Ryder. "Thank you Vicki, we'll be back later when we know more."

The individual in question gripped his pocket watch tightly. This time it broke in his hand.

"Thirty one days, comes December, but there are twelve days of Christmas," he muttered. The now useless time piece dropped on the table with a clatter. "For January, for March, for May, for July, for August, for October, and for December there are but thirty one days. All the rest have thirty. Except for February for it has twenty eight. Except on leap year, for it has twenty nine."

He took a moment to keep his temper on check and he started to hum the twelve days of Christmas.

"On the second day of Christmas, my true love gave to me. Two turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree."

* * *

 

"Thanks Jack," Vicki said. She stopped and paused.

"And you're off the air," her cameraman commented.

"You asshole," Vicki muttered underneath her breath. That got an interesting reaction from the less than handful of people who were within an earshot.

Alexander Knox, her producer, chuckled in the background. "Vicki, can I ask you a question?"

He didn't wait for any answer to that even though Vicki's eyes were firmly locked onto his.

"Is there anyone who you work with that you actually like?" Knox asked. He was just honestly curious.

She responded with a cheeky grin directed towards him. "I sort of like you."

She sighed and she had a late morning and skipped breakfast. Vicki pretty much was thrown straight out of bed and into the chaotic and wild Gotham City winter.

"Look, do you mind getting me something to eat or at least a coffee?" Vicki asked. She tried to bundle up because she was shivering madly. "You know, because it's cold as fuck out here."

Knox wasn't about to argue. He was cold and hungry as well. He nodded and turned around to do just that.

Never one to not keep her nose out of a situation, Vicki edged closer towards the GCPD. She was really curious to hear what they were saying. She spotted Gordon and a couple of other members of the MCU there. They were in heated conversation with the GCPD bomb squad.

"It's a pretty crude device," one of the members of the bomb squad said. He looked at it and amended his statement. "It was crude but effectively. Whoever did it, they had a pretty good idea what they were doing. And they put it in the right place to do damage."

"Lucky the security guard showed up when he did," another bomb squad member said.

"Is it the Calendar Killer?"

That was a statement which caught Vicki's interest. She had to move herself into position to hear more because the group moved off.

Vicki bumped into someone when she moved back. She groaned. Out of all the people that she would have to bump in, it would have to be him.

She turned around and faced Howard Branden and a couple of members of the GCPD SWAT.

"Well, Miss Vale, fancy meeting you here," Branden commented. He spoke in a voice that was threatening. His men closed ranks around her. It was time to teach the bitch a nice little lesson.

"BRANDEN!"

Sarah turned up and the SWAT leader turned around to face her.

"You've got the order to clear off, didn't you?" Sarah asked. "You're no longer needed here."

Branden's face contorted into a grimace. He was about ready to argue this point. He stopped when he realized too many witnesses were around. He turned towards his men.

"You heard the order, to clear off," Branden growled. His men all nodded and they did what they were told.

Vicki realized that she was that close to getting herself into a very bad situation. She had that knack for getting herself into trouble. She leaned forward towards Sarah, quite graciously and kind of humbled for her.

"Thank you for saving me," Vicki said. Sarah looked at her seriously.

"You need to be more careful, because there might not be someone around all of the time," Sarah answered her. Vicki nodded in response. "Have a good day, Miss Vale."

She walked off, just as Knox returned. He looked confused and a little bit late to the party. He shook his head.

"What was that all about?" Knox asked her. Vicki shook her head and took the coffee.

"Thanks," she said. She evasively stepped over the question. Branden was gone but the stench of Gotham City corruption remained.

In other words, it was just business as usual.

* * *

 

Kathy Kane wondered what she was getting herself into. It was close to nine forty in the morning. She was dressed in the usual stylish and fashionable clothes one would expect someone of her stature to wear. The office looked extremely comfortable on first glance, through an untrained eye at least. There was something extremely off putting about it.

There were a lot of curious and completely strange nicknacks on the shelves and the walls. There was something else that didn't inspire a lot of confidence in her. That was the receptionist. She was in the middle of doing her nails. The woman looked disinterested and she wished she was anywhere in the world but here.

"Yeah, Ronnie, not exactly the place that I want to be right now, but I suppose that it has to be done," Kathy said. She was talking to Veronica over the phone. "Yeah, I'm here to meet with my new Psychiatrist, the one that my doctor recommended me to. I don't really know all that much about him. He's taught at GCU and did some consulting work at Blackgate."

Veronica sounded surprised the moment she spoke back to her over the phone.

"Why would you need a Psychiatrist with those kind of credentials?" she asked. She didn't mean to pry but it was a question that had her baffled.

Kathy sighed. She didn't really want to side step the question. At the same time, she didn't feel too entirely comfortable answering it.

"He also does a lot of work with different people," Kathy commented. She was extremely uncomfortable with this line of conversation.

Veronica got the message loud and clear and decided to switch tracks. "What exactly are you up to later?"

Kathy thought about it for a moment. Something was tentative but really not for certain. "I really don't have anything planned in particular. I was talking to Bette about maybe going Christmas shopping after she gets out of class. But there's nothing for sure one way or another."

The Kane heiress frowned and grew curious.

"Exactly why do you ask?" Kathy asked. She diverted herself more into the conversation. The receptionist was locked in her own little world still and that unnerved Kathy just a tiny bit. She shook her head to reboot her brain.

"I have a late lunch planned with a couple others," Veronica said. She sounded excited about it, if not a bit tense. "I was wondering if you wanted to come."

Kathy didn't get a chance to really answer. The door of the doctor's office swung open. It flew open with a creepy creek that caused her to jump up.

She was surprised to see Alberto Falcone walking out of the office. He seemed to be distracted by something. He didn't make any eye contact with anyone. He was muttering underneath his breath when he exited the office. Kathy couldn't quite make out what he was saying.

She wondered if she even wanted to. The young man continued to mutter frantically and then under his own accord left the room. There was a look in his eyes that Kathy frowned at.

The Receptionist snapped back to life. It was almost as if someone plugged her in. "The Doctor will see you now, Miss Kane."

"Right, I've got to go, I'll talk to you after I'm done," Kathy said. She got to her feet and passed the Receptionist.

The Receptionist didn't even make any eye contact with her. Kathy stepped inside the office.

From the outside, all someone could see was the door being closed behind her. There was an odd moment in the office where everything grew suddenly silence.

* * *

 

It was rapidly approaching lunch time, in around an hour so. Across Gotham City, Harry was hard at work in his office. Faora joined him. Currently their objective was a couple of side projects that were on the table for a long time. It wouldn't directly affect the five year plan they had in place but it would be something interesting on the side.

The first phase of the plan was completely successfully. They merged with STARR, control of Wayne Enterprises was taken, there was a distribution deal that was put in place, and the release of the Red Sun was completely successfully. That allowed them to focus their attention elsewhere.

' _So there's a lot for us to do going forward now that you got everything in order with phase one of the grand plan,'_ Kara jumped in through the bond link.

' _Pretty much, the Eclipse is on the way,'_ Harry confirmed.

' _You know, the larger screened and slightly more powerful version of the Red Sun?'_ Faora asked.

' _Yes,'_ Amanda piped up over the bond link. _'We do in fact recall that.'_

' _Just making sure that everyone is on the same page as it regards to that,'_ Faora thought. _'But we've got a lot of places where we can focus our attention.'_

' _Yes, Queen Industries, the deal with GothCorp, the Cat's Cradle, and development of the car, just to name a couple,'_ Karen recapped. Her grin grew wider on her face. _'But you know that's just pretty much scratching the surface, isn't it?'_

Karen would have joined them physically but her flight was delayed due to the weather. She needed to maintain appearances instead of just flying back the standard way. So she was marooned at the airport and the only way she could talk through the bond.

' _The most pressing matter was buying up what we can from Queen,'_ Harry mused.

' _That is a pretty good idea,'_ Karen commented. Given the rate that the heir was spiraling out of control with his many run-ins with the law, there was a lot with that company that will be up for grabs.

' _There's a lot of overlap of what they develop now and what RAO will look to develop in the not so distant future,'_ Harry said. He made a couple more notes. _'So we can make use of the facilities that Queen already has.'_

Karen had a point that she wanted to get brought up. She was glad that Harry reminded her of it, at least in an indirect way.

' _We might need to consider getting a few more satellites into orbit,'_ Karen thought. She frowned and waited impatiently at the airport. _'I know we inherited a few from STARR but they're getting at the older end of the spectrum. So we should really consider taking a look for something else.'_

Faora and Harry briefly discussed something along those lines before. It was Harry who had an idea.

' _We have a couple of ideas, but the most obvious option was with Ferris Air,'_ Harry thought. _'There's a couple of other options out there but I like the quality of their products.'_

' _Well, if you approve on it, I'm onboard with it as well,'_ Karen said.

Before they could discuss potential alternatives, the intercom buzzed to life. Harry wondered what this was all about. Tamara was over at RAO today as opposed to Wayne Enterprises.

"Yes, Tamara, what is it?" Harry asked her.

"Harry, there's a Ms. Kyle to see you," Tamara said.

Harry raised his eyebrow. That proved to be interesting. He shifted his gaze over towards Faora. She shrugged her shoulders.

' _So, she didn't mention coming over today?'_ Harry asked.

It only took Faora off of the second. _'No, I don't remember her saying anything. This is about as big of a surprise as it is to me than it is to you.'_

Harry smiled. They were pretty much wrapping up anyway. "Tamara, send her on in, please."

He took a moment to clear everything away so he had his full and undivided attention on Selina. A couple of moments was all it took for Selina to enter the office. She was always one to make an entrance and to make sure all eyes on the room were on her.

She wore a cute looking knit hat. A heavy looking black leather winter coat that came down to her mid-calf and underneath that she wore high heeled thigh leather boots. She greeted them with a wicked grin when she saw him sitting before her.

Selina's grin got wider when she spotted Alex sitting there. She advanced across the room.

With one movement, she swept her finger against Alex's cheek. There was a smile that spread over her face.

Selina closed the gap between them and kissed her on the lips. Alex returned the kiss in an extremely heated manner. She reached up and grabbed Selina around her ass, pulling her onto her lip.

Harry smiled when he watched the show. His sister really pushed herself into the kiss and Selina responded by working her hands down her body.

' _And now, I really wish that I was there to enjoy the show,'_ Karen responded in a forlorn voice. She frowned deeply. She really wished that she was present there. That was sentiments that were expressed all throughout the bond.

The two of them made out for a couple of moments. Slowly, seductively, Selina detached herself from Alex. She brushed her finger down her chin.

Harry already stood up to greet her properly. Selina smiled before he could say anything. She pressed her lips on his.

He returned the kiss with equal fury. He slipped his arm around her slim waist and pulled her deep into her. He pressed her body into his. The kiss lasted for a while, treating Alex to the same show.

Selina broke the kiss and pushed him back onto the comfortable chair. She placed her hand around her coat and undid it.

She allowed her coat to drop to the ground and revealed the only thing she wore underneath was a thong and her boots. Selina placed her hands on his desk and looked over her shoulder with a sultry smile. She didn't say one word. She didn't need to say one word because her actions said pretty much anything.

Selina crawled onto Harry's desk. She crawled across the desk slowly and allowed a soft purr to escape from her lips.

With one agile move, she leaned forward towards Alex and hauled her onto the desk. The two of them pressed side by side with each other. Selina slowly stripped off her clothes, to reveal her lacy black undergarments.

Selina pressed herself against Alex. The two of them gave each other a heated kiss. It might have been cold outside but it was about ready to be warm and passionate.

Harry was going to see a taste of what they got up to in the Iceberg Longue. Only he was going to be the guest of honor this time.

Selina stripped Alex clean of her clothes. She slowly started to kiss down the side of her neck and went lower until she reached the promise land.

Selina dipped her tongue into Alex's white hot snatch. Faora whined, closing her eyes. She could feel Selina's talented tongue scraping against her nice pussy lips. There was a second where she delved her tongue into her and taste tested her over and over again.

"Yes," Alex moaned.

There were a few moments where Selina decided to treat her girlfriend to something special. She kissed all the way up the body and then returned to her pussy.

She felt Harry behind her, just as she thought would happen. His hands scraped against her breasts and caused her nipples to grow stiff. He skimmed over her breasts.

"Take her, Harry" Alex breathed. She felt her hips push up and Selina's tongue lapped her juices up like a cat lapping up milk out of a bowl.

Harry grimed. He didn't need to be told twice. He parted Selina's soft and silky lips. He pushed his manhood into the depths of her body.

Selina moaned into Alex's pussy. Harry's hands worked over her body. Alex in response held her face into her pussy.

"Keep eating that pussy, and I'll fuck you hard," Harry groaned. He bit the back of her neck in encouragement.

Harry's cum loaded balls slapped against Selina's thighs. Over and over again when he rammed into her pussy, her dripping hot slit grinded against his throbbing cock.

"Oh god," Selina moaned. She went back to Alex's pussy at her encouragement.

The sexual desire continued. Harry slowed down his thrusts when he brought her to the edge of the orgasm. She groaned when she lost her chance to have him. Her slick walls closed around him when he pumped into her.

"I'm taking you, but on my terms," Harry said, whispering to her.

He played with Alex's nipples from afar. That caused her to whimper in pleasure. Selina moaning deep into her pussy caused her to thrash her hips up at a rapid fire rate.

Harry rammed his throbbing manhood into her wet pussy over and over again. Her tight walls caressed him.

"I think this bitch wants it," Alex whispered. Selina placed her talented mouth on Alex and sucked on her clit. "Oh god, I want it."

"Is this what happened when you were….."

"Well in a matter of….oh god, speaking."

Harry's balls continued to drill over Selina's thighs. Her wet pussy closed around him. It felt like an extremely tight vice around him.

"You're going to cum, aren't you?" Harry asked her. He licked Selina behind her ear. His manhood spiked into her dripping hot cunt. "And I'm going to drill you until you go numb."

Selina's pussy spasmed. She drew his manhood into her body. Her wet snatch hugged him when he entered him.

"I think that she might have earned a reward," Alex whispered to him.

Harry grunted when he speared his thick manhood into Selina's body.

"Yes, please," Selina begged.

"You know, my pussy is being neglected."

Selina was pushed back into her. Harry grabbed his hands on her hips and pushed her up. His hands touched her body each moment.

Her wet pussy clamped around him and drew him deep into her wet snatch. Each thrust caused his balls to ache when he rammed himself into her.

"And now, you're going to get your reward."

Her reward was Selina cumming hard. She collapsed on Alex's pussy, inhaling the juices from her. Then Harry grunted when he pushed into her.

His balls loaded up and he unleashed his cum deep into her body. He sent several large ropes of cum deep into her body. His balls drained into her body.

He pulled out of her body and Selina collapsed with the pleasure.

"Oh, what a mess," Alex said with a wicked grin. "Let's clean her up, shall we."

Alex placed her face between Selina's dripping hot thighs. She licked the combined juices from between her thighs. It tasted extremely divine.

She could feel Harry's talented hands at the edge of her pussy. She whimpered when his finger pushed his way into her. The dark haired woman felt his finger tease her and tempt her even further. Her nipples grew increasingly hard when he worked her over from behind.

His massive cock pushed into her lips and parted them. Faora's dripping wet pussy clamped around him.

"Ram that huge cock into her tight pussy and drill her hard," Selina begged. She was distracted by something else.

Alex's mouth latched onto her lips. She devoured her pussy. Just when she thought that she met her quota of orgasms for this day, she felt even more. This felt extremely good and she couldn't have enough.

Selina's eyes closed and she panted even more heavily.

Faora inhaled the delicious aroma coming from her lover's pussy. She didn't ignore Harry. There was no way that she could.

Harry plunged his throbbing cock deep into her womanly depths. She snugly wrapped her hot thighs around him when he pounded into her. Several thrusts later and it caused her pussy to snugly tighten around him.

Harry worked his way into her dripping hot center. He slowed down his thrusts to increased her pleasure. Also it had the combined action of putting a show on for Selina. Her eyes watched him eagerly when his cock appeared and disappeared into the dark haired girl's pussy.

"Don't worry, there's plenty more for you," Harry said. He allowed his sister to have a nerve racking orgasm that caused her body to spiral out of control in pleasure.

"Oh, I'm sure that there's more than enough," Selina begged. She felt Alex's face pressed against her thighs.

She forgot how good Alex's oral skills were. This was a day where she was reminded anew. Then again, it was a trait that ran in the family.

Harry's massive rod spiked deep into her body. His balls loaded up with their cum but he must not, at least not yet.

Alex's moans increased. Harry pinched her nipples.

Time continued to tick on by. It seemed like Harry was bound and determined to drive both girls absolutely nuts.

Selina felt a void grow inside of her. Alex was doing an excellent job of filling it with her tongue. She did want even more. She was extremely horny and she wasn't about ready to give up. Not without a fight. Not without that amazing mouth pressed against her pussy. The juices sucked deep into Alex's mouth.

"God, so good!" Selina begged.

Harry's manhood speared into Faora's tight walls. She contracted around him and allowed his thrusts to bury into her. She squeezed him with an immense force. It felt really good when he worked into her.

"Fuck!" Harry groaned. His balls were about ready to burst when he went into her.

"Just let it out, the sooner I have another round," Selina whispered. She licked her lips and looked like she was starved for sex. Which in some ways she was because with Harry, you can never have enough.

He spiked himself deep into her. Her wet sex snaked around him.

"Closer, closer, please," Selina begged him. She was begging on Alex's behalf.

His balls loaded up with cum and they were about ready to launch their load into her. Harry grabbed onto Alex's waist and pumped himself into her.

The tabooness of their actions caused Selina's skin to feel like it was on fire. She panted with pleasure.

"Cum in her, paint her walls white," Selina begged.

"You know, I'm not doing my job if you can still talk."

Alex grabbed her firmly by the thighs and ate her out. Selina's moans racked even higher. She ate her out so much she might have overdid it and made the woman pass out.

Harry's thick rod found its destination. He allowed his sister to cum. It felt like heaven to feel her clamp down on him. She was so wet, so hot, so tight, so very tight. He grunted when he could no longer hold back what bubbled in his balls.

Selina looked up. It was obvious that she wasn't about ready to throw in the towel yet. She watched Harry's cock slip in and out of Alex's wet and willing folds.

He grunted when he held his hands around Alex's waist. He pumped his rod into her dripping hot cunt. Each thrust brought him closer to the edge.

"Fuck," Harry grunted. He slammed himself into her again. "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

"Yes, fuck," Selina cheered. She watched his cum heavy balls and they were about ready to pop.

Harry slammed himself into Alex. Her hot snug pussy tightened around him. He launched his heavy load into his sister. She twitched and wrapped around his cock. He continued to fill her up until there was no more cum.

"Oh, I bet the two of you together will taste delicious," Selina said with a sultry look on her face.

She pushed herself between Alex's legs and spread her thighs. It was time for her to get another taste.

And it was time for Harry to have more fun. That was how the three of them intended to spend their morning.

* * *

 

Much time had passed. Selina showed her way out after her escapades with Harry and Faora were over. The three of them had their chance to bask in the afterglow. She was never one to stick around for too long after their business was over.

Right now, they were in the middle of a big black SUV. Faora was the one that was driving for a change. Veronica joined them. They weren't the only ones that were being picked up by her today.

"So what about the Bomb being found in the department store?" Veronica asked.

"I think that was a nasty shock for the GCPD and the MCU," Harry commented. He could see her eyes on him. "But there's the Calendar Killer to worry about."

Veronica figured that he would come around to the main point sooner or later. The snow was coming down in Gotham City really heavily. Then again, it always came down in Gotham City. It was going to be extremely bad tonight or so she heard.

"Do you think that it has anything to do with the Calendar Killer?" Veronica asked. She bit down on her lip. The Killer was a terrifying thought to even fathom discussing.

"All clues point to it being him," Harry replied. He reached around and grabbed Veronica's head, squeezing it.

"I would have to agree," Faora muttered.

Seconds later, they reached their destination fairly handily. The snow continued to fly down in Gotham City and left the ground a blanket of white terror. Harry slipped out of the passenger's seat. He opened up the umbrella. After doing that, he reached into the car and helped Veronica out of the vehicle.

"Be careful, it's slick," Harry muttered to her.

"Well, good thing I had the foresight to wear boots," Veronica said, in good humor. She nearly slipped and tripped on the ground beneath her.

"Good thing you did," Harry confirmed to her with a chuckle.

Veronica looked at Faora for a second. She raised her eyebrow. "Aren't you going to pull out an umbrella of your own or something?"

Faora waved her off. "I don't really mind getting wet hair."

"You know, you look hotter with wet hair anyway," Harry commented.

Veronica shook her head at that statement. Both of them grinned. She thought that Alexandra and Harry would be the death of her sometimes.

"Both of them are horrible….oooh Bruce," Veronica said. This was out of the blue and very jarring but she almost literally ran into him.

They ran straight into Bruce and Tatsu. Both of them exited a car themselves.

"So, how are you doing?" Tatsu asked. "I thought that we weren't going to get here. The weather is murder."

"It's Gotham City, trust me, you get used to it," Harry said. She shook her head in disbelief.

Bruce smiled and leaned over. "Trust me, some of us live in Gotham City our entire lives, and it still catches us off guard. So, how are you all doing?"

The group began to discuss certain small details. Obviously there were other details that were best left unsaid. As they were doing that, the group decided that now was the best time to head on side.

"Ah, it's the Potter-Wayne-Vreeland party," the headwaiter said. The warmness of the restaurant contrasted to the murderous cold that assaulted Gotham City. He smiled and waved them in. "Right his way, please."

The group slipped inside, anything to get out of the bitter and stifling could that nearly murdered them. The headwaiter led them all in.

"I'll sit at the bar," Tatsu muttered. Bruce nodded. It had a good view of the table and it would be the best vantage point to spot for trouble.

Something that her client had an uncanny knack for attracting.

"So, we're just waiting for Harvey Dent and Rachel Dawes, right?" Veronica asked.

"Correct," Harry confirmed. The group all sat down and figured that the two of them would be here in a few minutes. It had been an extremely long time since everyone had got together.

Seconds later, Rachel and Harvey made their way inside.

"Sorry, snow storm and my car hates me," Harvey commented, and the two of them sat down. "Plus we were already running late talking about the dirtiest business of all."

"Politics, just politics, trust me, it's really cutthroat, especially with this upcoming election,' Rachel said. She looked across at the table at Harry and Bruce with a smile.

"There's going to be a city wide election in six months, isn't there?" Harry asked.

"Mmm, hmm," Rachel commented. She ordered a glass of wine and was rather impatient for it getting there. "Marion Grange isn't up to be elected because he's served his two terms. And he was on record commenting that he needs a break from Gotham City anyway."

"Well, I can't say that I blame the guy," Bruce commented in his usual airy tone.

"And then there's the matter of the District Attorney," Harvey said. He spoke in a calm voice. "We managed to fish what was left out of him out of the river."

The group grimaced at that statement and for good reason.

"Too bad Mayor Grange can't run again, he's been pretty good, especially with what he has to work with," Veronica said. She didn't envy anyone who was the Mayor of Gotham City, especially after recent events. The incident in Ghost Town with Blackfire, the riot this summer, and the gang war.

"Hamilton Hill has been doing some heavy politicking as of late," Rachel commented. She looked like she didn't approve of that but she kept her face neutral. "He's been hoping to run for Mayor."

"Someone would have to be backing him though," Harvey said.

"Well a while back, I noticed him speaking to a couple of noticeable pillars of the community like Stagg, Shreck, and Loeb, at the opening of the Iceberg Lounge," Harry commented.

Dent snorted out with a "great" but he remained professional otherwise.

"It might be worth keeping an eye on him," Bruce piped up out of the blue and that was agreed on by all parties. He looked over at Rachel. "Are you interesting in running for District Attorney?"

There was a moment of indignation that spread over Rachel's face. She shook her head.

"A lot of politics involving the job that I don't like," Rachel said. She decided to take a drink of the wine, more of an exercise to give herself time to collect her thoughts more than anything. "I won't really get into it because I don't want to bore you with the details."

She decided, without really realizing it.

"Also anyone who becomes the DA has to deal with the Mayor, the GCPD, along with a much of other people," Rachel said. "Not to mention it's a whole lot of BS, and I'd rather not deal with that much trauma if I can help it. I'll stick with doing something actually important and useful for this city thank you very much."

"Maybe you should run, Harvey."

Veronica's statement caused Harvey nearly to choke on what he was eating. Perhaps she shouldn't have dropped that bombshell.

You could hear a pin drop at this moment where Veronica spoke. Harry thought for a brief moment he had gone deaf.

He turned towards Faora. Both of them exchanged a long look as if they were trying to hash out the pluses and the minuses of the entire mess. He then turned to Bruce.

Bruce nodded. It was subtle but it was there.

"You know, that sounds like a wonderful idea," Bruce said. His tone was concise and enthusiastic.

"And if you run, we'll be more than willing to back such an endeavor," Faora responded.

"I don't know," Harvey muttered. He would be lying if he didn't say that he considered it. But he just didn't know.

"You know, you won't deal with the crap that some of the people in this city do and you're respected enough by a lot of people, both on the street and in power," Harry said. He decided to hammer hard the reasons why the iron was hot. "Harvey, after what's happened, the people in Gotham need to believe in someone who can get things done."

"And I believe in Harvey Dent," Veronica concluded.

* * *

 

After their meeting, Harry found himself in the driver's seat of the SUV this time. Sapphire joined him in the passenger's seat.

"So, was he shocked that it got sprung on him?" Sapphire asked.

"I'd say that he didn't expect it, but I'd be lying if he wasn't giving it some serious consideration," Harry said. "But, you know, politics in Gotham City are going to get a bit ugly. Hill's…"

"Hill's been feeling out some of the more morally flexible businessmen to see if he'd back their campaign," Sapphire responded. She took a second and smiled. "He seems to be hinting to Shreck that he'd back his effort to get the Power Plant built. And what's more, he's talking to my father. Who as you know doesn't have the best reputation around."

Sapphire gave him a sigh. Harry placed his arm around her.

"And you know that I'd be the first one to admit that, even more so than anyone else."

Sapphire decided to change the subject to something else. "But that's not the reason why we're here."

"No," Harry agreed with her. "We're here to pick up Alexa, because of the fact that her flight is going to be here shortly."

"Well shortly, if it doesn't get delayed on account of the weather," Sapphire reminded him. Harry snickered.

"Yes, shortly if it doesn't get delayed on account of the weather," Harry agreed with her. He held her in tight towards him.

"It will be good to see Alexa again," Sapphire said in a bubbly voice. She rocked back and forth. "We went to Boarding School together. I don't know if I mentioned that before. We shared a dorm room, although not that long, only a couple of years."

Harry's lips curled into a knowing smile.

"But when you spend every day with someone for about ten months from the age of twelve to the age of fourteen, you end up becoming pretty close to that person," Sapphire added. Throughout her excited speech, she slipped closer towards him.

She was basically pressed into his side when she spoke.

"I know what you mean," Harry said. "Are you sure you want to put Alexa up? You know there's plenty of room in the Penthouse."

"It will be fine, I've got plenty of room," Sapphire said. She chose her next few words carefully. She let a breath out of her body. "But it seems like some of the girls…..they have issues with her for some reason. I'm not sure why that is."

"Not a problem with Alexa," Harry said. Sapphire blinked. "More like Lionel."

"The sins of the Father often visited on the daughter," Sapphire commented with a smile. "Oh, God, I know the feeling, believe me."

Sapphire looked thoughtful about something. She could feel Harry's green eyes burning on him.

"She can be pretty abrasive until you get to know her," Sapphire admitted. She slowly ran her hand on the inside of his thigh.

It was obvious what she wanted and Harry decided to sweep her in. He pressed his lips onto hers with a sudden and sultry kiss.

Sapphire felt Harry's lips press up against hers. The blonde shifted herself where she was on top of Harry's lap.

She straddled his lap and his hands ran down her legs. Things were about ready to grow extremely heated and very quickly as well.

Sapphire closed her eyes and felt Harry unbutton her blouse. Her lacy blue bra was exposed for him. Harry unclipped her bra and revealed her firm tits.

"Harry," Sapphire begged him. She panted him. Her lust increased when he ran his hands all over her breasts.

"Yes," Harry told her. He latched his mouth around her nipple. He took it into his mouth and sucked on it, hard.

Her hard nipple felt like heaven in his mouth. He ran his hands underneath her skirt and felt the growing soaked area between her legs.

She shifted her panties off to the side. She undid his pants suddenly and fished him out. Sapphire saw his rock hard rock spring out for her.

The blonde looked at him hungrily. His throbbing manhood beckoned for her. The drool formed down both sets of lips.

"I'm ready for you," Sapphire whimpered. She spread her legs over him and brought herself down onto his cock.

She hung onto his neck when she spiked herself down onto him. Harry played with her nipples and encouraged her to work herself down onto his throbbing tool.

"God," Sapphire moaned. She bounced herself up and down on Harry. She felt him submerge his manhood deep into her dripping hot snatch.

The blonde heiress slid herself up and down on him. He played with her nipples.

"And you're a slave to my touch," Harry whispered in her ear. She responded by nibbling on his neck when she kept riding him.

Sapphire felt an intense orgasm fire through her body. Her hips fired at a rapid fire fashion. His cock drove deep into her body.

The first orgasm was a treat and that caused her to go even harder down on him. Harry felt her slick walls contrast around him. He touched her sexy ass, squeezing it and pinching it nicely.

"Yes, oh yes," Sapphire moaned. She kept working herself up and down on him. It seemed like she wanted to bring him into her depths as deep as she was able to.

"Harder!" Harry grunted.

Sapphire obeyed her master when she kept bouncing up and down. Her hot thighs continued to close around Harry's manhood. She was determined to have him buried deep between her legs, one way or another.

"More!" she whined at the top of her lungs. She felt him into her.

"I think that we need another change of venue."

Harry slid out of Sapphire and she whined. He pushed her down on the seat and exerted his dominance over her.

"Take me Harry, take me, and wreck me like the bitch I am!" Sapphire screamed at the top of her lungs.

Harry plowed into her from behind. Her spoiled cunt was being drilled with his throbbing manhood. His balls bounced against the area of her thighs. He continued to pump himself into her.

"Getting closer, aren't we, honey?" Harry whispered to her. He licked her around the back of her ear.

He nipped the back of her ear. He allowed her orgasm to flow freely.

He placed his finger in Sapphire's mouth. She licked and sucked on it, to get it nice and lubricated for the finale.

"You're not going to, are you?" Sapphire asked. She couldn't believe it. The heat rising from her pussy increased.

Harry stuck his lubricated finger in her ass. She screamed when he pumped her ass with his finger and he pumped his cock inside her. The blonde felt him drill her.

"I'd bet you'd like that cock in your ass, wouldn't you?"

Sapphire didn't say anything. She moaned and gripped her tight cunt around Harry. He plowed down into her. Her slick pussy caressed him. She demanded his cum. That was a treat that wouldn't be denied for her.

"Later, later," Sapphire panted.

"Very well, it will build up the anticipation in your mind," Harry said. He pressed his lips on the back of her neck and started to suck on it. It drew even more pleasure from her body.

He plunged himself into her wet and willing cunt. It seemed the deeper he drove himself, the more he drove her even wilder.

Sapphire was seconds away from being pushed past the point of no return. Her slick walls closed down around him.

"God, you're so tight, I'm going to love this," Harry said. He reached down and tweaked her nipples. That caused her to squeal in pleasure the more he played with her.

She enjoyed Harry's hands over her breasts. She enjoyed him playing with her. She enjoyed pretty much everything about what he had to offer to her.

"Harder, oh god, harder."

Harry plunged himself deep into her wet cunt. He pushed her down when he slammed into her. He explored her soft body. Her sweaty firm body belonged to him.

"You belong to me," Harry whispered in her ear.

"Yes, harder, harder, I want to walk funny when I meet Alexa."

Harry rocked her back and slammed her hard. He fucked her from behind a few more times and got her off with an amazing orgasm.

Sapphire was panting and she could feel Harry turn her over.

"Want to see the look in your face next time you cum."

He kissed down her body. Each kiss caused a miniature orgasm to rock her entire body. The blonde goddess locked her legs around Harry's body and pulled his throbbing cock closer to her dripping cunt. He hovered over the top of her and went into her in a second.

Sapphire closed her eyes and her legs parted when she brought his manhood deep between her thighs. She cranked him when she pushed her hips up. The thrusts of pleasure blew her mind and caused her body to shake all over.

"And you will cum and cum hard."

Sapphire couldn't deny this. Harry's prediction came true. Her cunt thrashed underneath him when he plowed into her hard from above her.

"Ooooh, god," Sapphire moaned. Her cunt continued to caress him. It felt really good to feel him deep inside her. She wanted more than she could handle. His manhood spiked her body and caused her senses to be rocked.

He plowed into her one more time. Her pussy lips devoured him. It sucked him in and coaxed the cum out of him.

"Please, Harry," Sapphire whined. "Cum in my filthy rich spoiled pussy. I want you to fill me with your cum. Do it, please, treat me like the high class whore that I am!"

Sapphire's legs wrapped around him and kept him locked into place. Her back arched and she grabbed Harry's bicep. She encouraged him to cum inside her. The blonde felt her pussy ache with greater pleasure.

She grinded herself up onto him. She milked him.

Sapphire's orgasm fired explosively. Harry held down onto her hips and rammed into her body hard. The blonde felt her body heat up when his balls fired their load into her.

Harry groaned when he planted cum into Sapphire's overstuffed pussy. His cock hammered into her when he fired his heavy load into her womb.

His face rested on her breasts and Sapphire sighed when she basked in the afterglow of their mutual orgasm.

Sapphire found her clothes, pulling them back on. It was just in time to be honest. They spotted the plan with Alexa arriving and seconds later, she made her way off of the plane.

The two took a few seconds to bask in the afterglow of their actions. Harry and Sapphire exited the limo to greet Alexa

"Sapphire, Harry!" Alexa said in a cheerful voice. She walked forward to greet them and to get caught up with them.

* * *

 

A smaller, more discreet vehicle was across the street. It could not be seen, especially during the snow storm. The blizzard continued to come down in Gotham City. The man held up a camera and snapped a series of photos of Harry and Sapphire greeting Alexa.

There were several other rolls of film on the passenger seat of the car. The person who was in the car had been at this for a long time. He finished off that roll in the camera and put in another to continue his voyeuristic activity.

* * *

 

Carmine Falcone stood, watching the snow come down from outside of the window. He stood in his Penthouse office that he was renting at the Royal Hotel. He lit up a cigarette and took a drag from it. He was waiting for something to happen. In the meantime he looked out in Gotham City. He looked out into his city.

Sofia and Mario seated themselves nearby and watched their father closely. They were playing a similar waiting game that he was. He took another drag of his cigarette.

He finished it instantly. He drove the cigarette down into the ash tray.

He turned outside and waited. In five seconds, it would be right on schedule.

A fireball lights up in the night as something exploded in the distance. It did so on the other side of the city. He could see it from his window, given his vantage point.

The Falcone children stood and waited for their father to conclude basking in his triumph. He slowly turned around with a dark smile on his face.

"Send the word," Carmine said. His voice dropped to a whisper which caused Mario and Sofia to have to listen in carefully. "It's time for the Falcones to strike back. It's time for those in Gotham City to realize that we're pretty much in the game."

The two of the nodded respectfully to their father, it was time to strike back. It was time to strike back extremely hard.

"We'll send the word."

* * *

**To Be Continued on January 7** **th** **, 2015.**


	76. Twelve Days of Christmas Part Two

**Chapter Seventy-Six: Twelve Days of Christmas Part Two.**

* * *

 

In the Clocktower, Oracle was perched in her chair. She had things set up in such a way where she could lean forwards to work on some homework and check her e-mail. She also had a headset on so she could monitor the Police Band for any sign of trouble.

' _It's oddly quiet tonight,'_ she thought. She barely heard a peep. Not even some petty thug, never mind the usual gang activity that happened during this time of year in Gotham City. She shrugged. _'But it is the middle of winter time, so I guess that could be the reason.'_

No matter how she tried to convince herself of numerous reasons why it would be quiet out there, she couldn't be unsettled. Black Canary, Talon, and Batman were all on patrol out there. They were pretty spread out though. All of them decided that it was best to take a different island tonight. All of them appeared to be quiet, at least nothing that demanded immediate attention. There was this unsettling calm before the storm feeling that Barbara couldn't shake. It unsettled her greatly.

' _Well, I guess nothing is going to distract me from this,'_ Barbara said. She put the edge of her pen in her mouth and sighed.

She was looking at her chemistry homework. There was something about the thermodynamic effect cell division has on a chemical reaction or something like that. Barbara's head was spinning on the thought of it. Her chemistry professor wasn't that good and she was getting a slight headache just thinking about what she had to do.

There was this thought that she could call Harry to help out. And honestly, given how bored she felt right now, it was too hard to resist the temptation to do so. Taking a moment to pick up her phone, Barbara did just that, she called Harry.

She waited patiently for a moment or two. It might have seemed like longer.

"Barbara?" Harry's sleepy voice answered.

"Oh, shit, I woke you up, didn't I?" Barbara asked. She sounded sheepish.

"No need, you wouldn't have woken me up if there wasn't something important," Harry said. He took a moment to shake himself away but he sounded more alert than ever before. "So, what is it?"

Barbara bit on her lower lip. "Well you know my Chemistry professor, I don't know what the hell he's talking about. There's something on here about themodynamic effect of cell division, you know what it has on a chemical reaction, and I feel like I'm learning Greek here. Actually it might be easier to learn Greek here."

"For many people, it will be," Harry said. "Just take a deep breath and tell me to the best of your abilities what the problem is."

Barbara took a deep breath and tried it again. She heard Harry sigh over the phone.

"Am I am idiot for not grasping an obvious concept?" Barbara asked.

"No, your professor is an idiot for oversimplifying it and thus confusing you," Harry said. He frowned deeply. "Okay, just forget pretty much everything that you've ever learned about that."

"It shouldn't be too hard," Barbara grumbled underneath her breath.

Harry went into detail about the process. More detail than the Professor did anyway. When he finished, Barbara sighed deeply. She understood it out even though it was far wordier than what her Professor said.

"You know, I wish you were the one who taught the class," Barbara responded.

"If that's what the professor was teaching you, I almost wish that I was teaching the class as well," Harry answered. She could sense that he sounded amused. "But I'm a little too busy to teach a full class, you know."

"Oh yeah, right, of course," Barbara said, shaking her head. She figured that Harry would have an extremely full schedule. His schedule was far more insane than many people's after all.

"But if you'd like, I could arrange regular tutoring sessions."

Barbara chimed in with excitement. "Oh that would be really great!"

"Great, then it's settled then," Harry said. He was amused by her passion.

"Oh, great, that's great," Barbara said. She bit down on her lower lip for a moment. "So, what are you wearing right now?"

Harry chuckled and there was much amusement coming through the various girls in the bond link.

' _Oh she has some real balls,'_ Donna commented. That was a statement that was agreed to by all of them. There was much amusement.

Before Harry had a chance to respond, the sound of the elevator going off in the Clock Tower echoed. She jumped up halfway.

"Um, I got to go," Barbara said. "Goodbye Harry, talk to your later."

She turned around and came face to face with Sarah Essen. That caused Barbara to go extremely pale and she was afraid that the jig was up.

"Please don't tell my Dad," Barbara said. The redhead bit down on her lip. She reacted like any teenage girl would in her situation.

Sarah chuckled and Barbara frowned. She wondered what was so funny. Sarah leaned in towards Barbara. "Well, I would have to bust myself."

Barbara wondered what she was talking about.

"Nightwing sent me here," she confirmed.

"Oh that means you're in bed with him, and I mean, that you're working with him, not actually in bed, in bed with him, unless you are in bed with him, which I don't blame you. Not that I'm accusing you if you're not but…" Barbara said and she trailed off. "Oh god, I'm babbling aren't I?"

"Yes, you are," Sarah said. "He told me to meet him here and…..I suppose that it shouldn't be much of a surprise that you're Oracle."

Barbara conceded that she had a point. It was a wonder that more people didn't put too and too together.

"But you would have to know the person really well before you could come up to that conclusion," she responded.

"Right, right, yeah," Barbara said. She was looking at Sarah extremely curiously for a moment, almost trying to feel her out. "Why exactly are you helping Nightwing? No offense, but isn't that a conflict of interest with your job?"

Sarah didn't say anything. She walked over towards the coffee pot that hung over to the side. She poured herself a cup of coffee. The woman sipped on it, looking thoughtful.

"I wanted to make a difference," Sarah explained. She casually sipped on the cup of coffee. "That's why I wanted to become a cop in the first place. I've been trying to do so through the legal means and by following the law. This is Gotham City though, where the law is morally flexible and favors those who are able to call in favors. So, in some instances, it's not possible."

Sarah looked thoughtful some more when she drained her cup of coffee. It was almost like she chose her next few words carefully and that's what she was doing.

"If I can do that by helping Nightwing, I will," Sarah said. She drummed her finger carefully against the cup in her hand. "Even if that means going outside the law, then so be it. That's what I'm going to have to do. But I'm sure I could ask you the same question, about what drives you?"

"Long story," Barbara commented.

"I've got an idea," Sarah said. She drained the rest of the coffee with one more drink and smiled.

Speaking of Nightwing, he made his way out of the shadows just a moment later. This was an action that would cause most people to jump in surprise. Both Sarah and Barbara were used to his arrival, suddenly and out of the shadows.

After he gave them a nice nod in response, he decided to get down to the point. "Did you bring what I asked for?"

"It took some doing," Sarah said. She gave a long sigh. "But I was able to get it."

Barbara looked at both of them in confusion. What the two of them were talking about might as well have Greek to her.

She decided to jump in bluntly as possible. "So what exactly is going on?"

Nightwing smiled when he turned towards her. "I asked Sarah to bring me a sample of the explosive device that was found earlier this morning."

"Oh," Barbara said. That made a lot of sense.

"We can use a program here on the Clock Tower to analyze the chemical composition of the explosive and then the information could be fed into the map,' Nightwing said.

Barbara, being quick on the draw, was able to figure out where they were going. "In theory…we should be able to track the bombs."

"But are you seeing the same problem I'm seeing?" Nightwing asked her.

Barbara snapped her fingers. "The scanning software for the map is connected to the suit. We need to be in close enough proximity to the location of the bomb so that it shows up on tour radar."

Barbara paused and added as an afterthought. "You know that's a pretty severe limitation."

"Yeah, I'm hoping that I can fix that in the future," Nightwing agreed. He held the box Sarah gave him. "Right now, it's the best option we have right now.

He finished setting things up. Everything was slowly coming together and that was a good thing. He frowned deeply.

"Very impressive," Sarah commented. She meant that honestly.

Out of the blue, a loud explosion could be heard. Nightwing dropped whatever he was doing and made his way over to the window.

Barbara and Sarah were jarred by the bomb and the explosion that went off. Both of them looked on in confusion and there was an extremely loud ringing sound that continued to echo.

"What the hell is going on?" Barbara asked.

That was a good question. The only problem was that Nightwing was gone. Both of them sighed, they got used to him doing that. That didn't mean that they had to like it.

* * *

 

Johnny Viti sat in the passenger seat of a Cadillac SUV with three other guys. If Johnny resembled Moe of the Three Stooges after a eating binge, then the other three henchmen looked like they could be dead ringers of Shemp, Curly, and Larry. There were some differences but in general, the idea was there.

"So, Sofia, she's really being a bitch, isn't she?" "Shemp" asked.

"Yeah, that's just how she is, she's just some uptight dyke," "Curly" commented.

"No, you're fucking kidding me right?" the one that resembled Larry asked. "You know, she was married."

"Yeah, but the guy was just a beard, you know, because that wouldn't be proper for the family business," "Curly" said.

"I don't know, maybe she could be bi, you know, she could swing both ways," "Shemp" commented. "I'd take a shot at her…"

"Please, it's not like you have a shot at her," "Larry" said.

"Yeah," "Curly" commented. "Because she likes the clam."

"Larry" shook his head. "I can't believe that you said that….."

"Look, I don't get a fuck, my cousin's being a bitch, and she better watch how she talks around my Ma, or she'll be in trouble," Johnny said. The three goons rolled their eyes.

"Right, of course boss, yeah what's the next play….."

No sooner than Johnny said something, his cell phone rang. He got on the phone.

"Yeah, it's me," Johnny said. "Mario….it's a go? Good, ready for it."

Johnny motioned for his men to leave the SUV. They followed him.

"Alright, you know that little operation we talked about earlier," Johnny told them. "Well, people aren't respecting this family that much. So we're going to have to learn them all some respect."

He ripped open the hood of the SUV and reached into the trunk. He pulled out an impressive looking shotgun. He motioned for his men her suit.

The quartet walked across the street to their destination. It was basically a dive bar but it was a dive bar that belonged to an extremely important member of the Irish Mob.

"The two of you go around the back of the building," Johnny said to the two thugs that resembled Curly and Shemp went around to the back of the building.

Johnny was left with the thug that remained. "Five, for, three, two, One."

The door was kicked open. A grenade hurled into the building. They ducked for cover right before the grenades went off.

The grenades took out most of the people inside. Whoever wasn't taken out was dusted off with some shotgun blasts.

By the time the mobsters were done, no one was left standing in the building. All of them met in the middle of the pub. It was done so they walked out of the building.

They made their way to the direction of the car. Only for the god damn Batman to take out Shemp and Larry with a double flying clothesline knocking them out.

Curly looked up with a slack jawed expression. Batman drilled a knee into his solar plexes and doubled him over. Another one to the groin took him down.

That left Batman standing face to face with Johnny. Johnny's mouth hung open and he looked like someone who was slack jawed and stunned. That didn't last when his brain finally rebooted and he realized that he had a shotgun in his hand.

He fired a series of pot shots at Batman. Batman dodged them by weaving back and forth diagonally in Johnny's direction. He couldn't get in a shot. He flung a trio of Batarangs at him. This attack caused him to drop the gun to the ground.

Batman delivered a huge punch and knocked Johnny on his back with one fluid motion. With an audible grimace, he strung up the other three thugs. They didn't know what hit them. None of them had a chance to defend themselves.

The half dazed Johnny was grabbed by the ankle and pulled into the shadows for some one on one interrogation.

* * *

 

The sight of the explosion was not far from the Clocktower. That was where Nightwing took his perch and he suddenly swooped down. He got a good look at what was the intended target.

"Okay, this is quite interesting and a bit odd," Nightwing said.

Oracle jumped on it right away. "Why is it odd?"

Nightwing was only too happy to explain. "It's a distribution that belongs to a subsidiary of Wayne Shipping."

There were many questions that were left unanswered. Exactly why did this person attack something like this?"

"I'll look into it, see if I can dig up anything else," Oracle commented. She was about as baffled as he wasl.

Nightwing moved around to see if he could see anything else. At first, there was nothing too out of the ordinary. At least until he reached a certain area that stood out like a really disgusting sore thumb. The explosion was restricted mostly to the office areas of the building. The damage was extensive and that area of the building was now pretty much gone.

It was reduced to a huge gaping wound in the middle of the building and nothing else. He searched for the location.

He may have hit the jackpot. There was what appeared to be a Cargo Van parked right against the building or at least whatever was left of it. He flicked his scanner in his HUD.

' _Okay,'_ Harry thought. He was speaking this information both out loud to Barbara and also talking to anyone who was listening in the bond link. _'It's an explosion that was caused by a mixture of semtex, C4, and ammonium nitrate fertilizer.'_

' _That sounds extremely similar to what the IRA used in Manchester last year,'_ Rose commented.

"Yes, it sounds like something similar to what the IRA used in Manchester last year, same mixture and everything," Oracle said. She cross referenced what she was doing. "I'm curious about why this place of all places was targeted."

"You and I both," Nightwing said. The distribution center had trucks drive in to drop off cargo and then drive out with cargo that was supposed to. "And as I mentioned, it's parent company is a subsidiary of Wayne Shipping."

"What organization in Gotham would want to attack it?" Oracle asked.

"That's the thing, I don't know," Nightwing said. "It's bad business for anyone to attack any major companies. It's like the GCPD. It's a war that most of the major mob outfits would like to avoid. Wayne, GothCorp, RAO, the like, they're off the table."

"Unless someone else is trying to start a war, some kind of third party," Oracle commented.

Nightwing did one more sweep around. There weren't many clues there. Whoever did this explosion did their work.

"They're only after the office area and it was gutted," Nightwing said. He frowned when there were more pieces to this mystery. "The warehouse section wasn't badly damaged, and most of the cargo appears to be intact."

It was in the floor's manager's office in the back of the warehouse. That was about as good of a place as any to start. Nightwing made his way over in that direction.

He opened up the office door and made his way inside. It was a pretty messy place.

' _Not one for cleaning, is he?'_ Donna asked.

' _Well likely a slob in his day to day job then,'_ Faora thought.

Harry searched the room carefully. He saw the clipboard that included details of various shipments that were in and out of the building.

"Well that's interesting," Harry muttered. "This places ships in and out various Wayne Enterprises sub-companies, LuthorCorp, Queen Industries, AmerTek, Dagget Industries, and Janus Cosmetics. In fact, this is one of the company's major distribution centers."

Perhaps Harry was reading too much into it but that was a red flag if there ever was one. He didn't have a chance to investigate things further. The sound of wailing sirens were heading in his direction.

It was time for him to exit. He pretty much had all that he had here anyway. Nightwing slipped out of the backdoor just as emergency services came by. There were many more questions than answers and that proved to be interesting.

* * *

 

Johnny Viti's eyes flickered open. He realized that he was in a world of shit when he was strung up like a side of beef. If he was in a better frame of mind, he would have realized the irony of the situation. Given that he weighed just as much.

His arms were tied up nice and tightly behind his backs. His ankles were as well and he was dangling over an extremely busy street. His heart started to rush when he saw the traffic rushing past. There was one of those situations where they would tell you, they would remind you not to look down.

The one problem was that he did look down. Oh god, he did look down. His heart kept racing when he swung like an extremely ugly pendulum high above Gotham City.

There was also another problem. When he looked up, he came face to face with the god damn Batman. The freak looked down at him, like he was judging him. And he found him absolutely guilty without an object.

Johnny waited and shivered. Batman didn't say anything. That was more unnerving than anything as far as the mobster was concerned. A hard punch cracked him across the area of the floating ribs. He screamed out loud. It was pain beyond anything he ever felt in his life.

Then without preamable, Batman let him drop towards the traffic. He kept screaming but the traffic drowned him out. He was about ready to fly towards the direction of the street below.

He stops suddenly and smashed hard into the wall. A couple more ribs were likely to have broken from the impact. Johnny realized how close he was to becoming street pizza.

Batman hauled him up.

"You're going to tell me everything you know about Carmine Falcone and what you know about his plans," Batman said. His voice was low and it left absolutely no room for argument. "Do, you understand me?"

Johnny felt sweat go down his face and he feigned passing out. That was one of the worst mistakes he could have made. That sent him almost hurling into traffic again. Then Batman pulled him back up.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, sure," Johnny said. He was whimpering. "But….you….see….I don't….um know much of anything."

"Tell me what you do know now," Batman growled. He could see that Johnny would do anything to save his own skin. Especially if someone persuaded him to do so.

Johnny was going to sing like a canary.

"Well, the Roman, he's keeping things close to his chest, and I got my marching orders from Mario Falcone earlier this evening," Johnny whimpered. He looked down fretfully for a moment, which was a mistake. His head jerked up suddenly. "I didn't even know what I was supposed to do, until I an hour before I was going to do it. And….there's going to be more attacks tonight, but I'm really not sure where they're supposed to be….all I know is that they're going to happen, sometime, somewhere."

Batman didn't say anything. Johnny was doing all of the talking.

"The Roman wants to send a message to all of the facts and why it's a bad idea to mess with the Falcones," Johnny whispered.

Batman cupped him by the face hard and pulled him up to face him. "What was killing innocent people in that Pub earlier supposed to accomplish?"

"It's what I said earlier….all about sending a message," Johnny said. His breath grew even more heavy. "In this case, it's the Commission, since the Irish gangsters who operated out of that location are affiliated with them. They need to get told that they don't belong here in Gotham City. About all they're good for is picking potatoes anyway."

Batman allowed himself to soak in all of the information.

"You better drop me, my Ma is going to hear about this, and the Roman, and then you're going to be dead, do you hear me, Batman, dead?" Johnny asked. He thought that he had his balls back. Batman raised his eyebrow. "DROP ME DO YOU HEAR ME!"

"If you insist."

Johnny screamed like a little girl and Batman released him once again. He hurtled until he reached twenty feet above the ground.

The rope held and he started to breath. Then it snapped and he fell crashing onto a police car that belonged to Harvey Bullock.

Speaking of Bullock, he was sitting in a diner, eating dinner with Montoya. He chowed down on a large greasy hamburger that was about was nearly big as his head. Montoya opted for something a bit more modest and to be honest, sitting there with Bullock was doing wonders at destroying her appetite.

They were in the midst of having a debate about the news.

"If you ask me, this Calendar Killer is just some punk, who doesn't have the balls to face anyway straight up," Bullock said. He took a big bite out of the hamburger and caused crumbs and grease to drop everywhere on the table.

"I wouldn't write him off, he's stayed one step ahead of the police," Montoya said. She decided that she was done eating.

Suddenly, she saw something out of the corner of her eye.

"Yeah, well the GCPD's spread awful thin…..if he's like that Blackfire nut, he might be someone of prominence, he has a day job, he might be a respected member of the community," Bullock said. "Could be even a cop for all I know. Or someone in the force. That Nashton kid looks a bit shifty, if you ask me."

"Is that because….." Renee said. She never finished that sentence and saw something slam against the squad car.

The impact of the car caused the alarm to start blaring. That caused Montoya to drop what she was eating out of shock. She rushed out, past the door.

"Hey, hey, you're not skimping out on…." Bullock said. He saw it, it was someone who was slumped against the hood. Sweaty and bloody but somehow still moving. "Well, I'll be a son of a bitch."

Bullock finished up his burger and headed out to check out what happened.

"Damn it, I hope our insurance covers this."

* * *

 

Elsewhere in Gotham City, Talon made her way through Gotham City. So far, it was a quiet night for her. There was nothing that was out of the ordinary that she ran out of at least. At least nothing as severe was Batman and Nightwing ran into. It was only a matter of time before she ran into something that she figured.

' _Then again, I'm in one of the nicer areas of the city,'_ Jaime thought. She stopped at the edge of the building and looked down. _'So far, so good, it looks like….'_

She trailed off. The crippling quiet was extremely eerie when she looked around. The quiet meant normally in Gotham City that something was going to break. And given that this was Gotham City, that something could in fact be anything.

She was proven right. There was a ping on her HUD. It was synced up to search out what was on the device that was found in the Department story earlier on that day.

' _I think that I have something,'_ Talon thought.

The woman dropped herself down and swung forward. She was crossing her fingers and she hoped that she would find something.

' _Any luck,'_ Faora thought.

Talon frowned deeply. _'I'm heading in the direction of…the Gotham City zoo.'_

' _That doesn't make any sense,'_ Harry thought. He snapped his fingers. _'Then again, it would fit into this entire mess perfectly of things that weren't making sense.'_

Jaime dropped down and became extremely mindful of her surroundings. She noticed an extremely expensive sedan pulling out of a parking lot just as she arrived. That ragged a rather interesting red flag in the back of her head.

The park was closed for a while. Then again, it would be an ideal location for someone to meet up with a prostitute to partake in their services.

Jaime frowned, she had to keep moving forward. She convinced herself that it was likely nothing when she kept moving on in. There were more important things that she had to deal with presently.

She made her way through the Zoo. There was one of those eerie as hell vibes that you would get only when going through a place in the middle of the night.

Talon stopped and found her way in front of the Ornithological exhibit. She frowned. It was beginning to click what she was looking for.

She found herself in front of a display of two mated Turtle doves. Talon quickly swept around the area. She had to find it. Her HUD display was going nuts and she was getting extremely close.

She found it, stuck underneath a nearby bench. There was a bomb stuck to it.

"Some people take things way too fucking literally," Jaime grumbled. She did a quick scan of it using her wrist computer.

Without another word, she disabled the bomb and sent it vanished.

"The suspect as fled the area," Talon said, checking in with mission support. She slapped her hand down onto the side of her hip. She shook her head. "But we know more about what the Calendar Killer is using."

"The more we know the better, hopefully can nail down a suspect," Oracle said. "But there's more going on tonight than that."

* * *

 

Black Canary dodged behind a corner, trying to get an advantage in the fight. She was in the middle of dealing with a four way gun fight involving Falcone's men, the combined forces of Penguin and Black Mask, and various other mobsters who fought, who were part of the crime commission.

She slowly worked through the situation in her mind. The fact Black Mask and Penguin worked together at any point was not an ideal situation. They took it to the commission. When the forces of the Falcone Family arrived, they started firing on both groups. Then it slowly shifted into a dangerous free for all.

The dangerous hardware on the street added to the mess. The Commission was the first group taken out of the fight, with most of the lucky ones getting while the getting was good. Black Canary scoped out the situation, in both man power and fire power. The gangs of Penguin and Black Mask looked like a potent one-two combination. And it was obvious that the Roman was out for blood, the blood of any of their enemies."

"We've got a problem, I could really use some back up," Black Canary said. She heard the cackling over the communication network.

"I'll get over there as soon as I can, but I need to wrap up something here," Nightwing said. "Just hang on tight."

"I'll see you when you get there, but I have to act right now," Black Canary said. She pulled herself to feet.

She hoped that Harry would arrive in time or at least arrive in time to help her mop up. She took a clear inventory of everything around her. It was really obvious that the stealth approach was going to be bext for her.

Black Canary fired the first shot. A flash bang caused everyone to be blinded.

She swooped around and took two of the nearest out. She jammed her elbow down onto the back of her enemies neck.

Black Canary swooped into the shadows and hurled an EMP grenade. There was a loud pop and their weapons were disabled.

"Get her, she's around here, get her!"

Black Canary was not going to go down that easily. She swooped into the shadows. She took out a smoke grenade and hurled it to the ground. It busted open on the ground and released a cloud of choking smoke. The thugs scrambled around in an attempt to get her.

That didn't end well for them, given that they were blind and deaf because of the attacks. Those who didn't get their guns fried by the EMP device started to fire in random directions but they didn't hit their intended target. They hit their fellow men.

Black Canary swooped down and knocked one of her enemies down with a solid crack. She was cutting through the numbers of the Thugs on both sides. Some of them slowly regained their senses.

She didn't need to worry about that, for Nightwing arrived to give her relief. Nightwing grabbed two of the thugs around the back of the head and clonked their heads together. He flipped back the back of the thug and drilled a running knee to the back.

The costumed crime fighter disarmed one of the thugs and snapped his arm. He moved around. They thought that they surrounded him. In reality, they only fed into his attacks. Nightwing slammed his fist into the side of their faces.

The remaining enemies decided to focus their attention on one enemy and that was him. That played right into Nightwing's hands. He swooped into the shadows, disappearing suddenly.

"Get him, get him, he can't have gotten far!"

That allowed Black Canary to move in for the attack. Their numbers were split in half, so it was pretty easy to take them down. Both sides appeared to form a tentative alliance with the other but it was obvious they didn't trust each other at all.

She unleashed one of her Canary cries. That caused the thugs to stagger back. Some of them covered their ears and others knocked into each other. The thugs toppled over like they were bowling ball pills.

She took out some of the remaining thugs with a swift attack. She knocked the final thug out with a roundhouse kick.

"Well, this was far easier than I thought it would be," Black Canary said with a sigh.

"You keep moving the goal posts on what your definition of easy is," Nightwing commented. "But they had to be here for a reason."

Black Canary looked around and smiled. "I think that was the reason."

There was a cargo van which the Penguin's men were protecting. At least they were protecting it before all hell broke loose.

"This is what we have right now," Nightwing said. He sighed. He kind of wished that he didn't knock all of the goons out now.

The goons were down on the ground and Black Canary walked over the back of the van. It was unlocked which seemed to mean to her it was a drop off point of some sort.

She clicked open the door. A second click indicated the van exploded with Black Canary and Nightwing right in the crosshairs.

* * *

**To Be Continued on January 11** **th** **, 2015.**


	77. Twelve Days of Christmas Part Three

**Chapter Seventy-Seven: Twelve Days of Christmas Part Three.**

* * *

 

Catwoman looked around Gotham City. From her vantage point, she crouched on the roof of a really tall building. This building allowed her to look down upon the roof of the Carmine Hotel. That was quite a tall building for the simple fact that the Carmine is a ten story building. The one she stood on was about sixteen feet or so.

She carefully took in everything around her. There was a surprise that the Maroni's didn't have anyone guarding the area of the roof. That struck her as slightly peculiar given the fact that the hotel is their current base of operations after they took it from the Falcones during the initial stages of the current gang war.

' _Overconfident,'_ she thought. She shook her head. The fact that they were overconfident played into her hand fairly nicely. _'Obvious that they're not going to expect anyone to get to the hotel on the roof.'_

Selina sighed. She wasn't about ready to look a gift horse in the mouth. The Maroni family wanted to not cover their base, that was fine for her. It allowed her to sweep in and take what she wanted.

She carefully did her reconnaissance. She would have to admit that the goggles a part of her new costume were a treat. She used them to great effect in an attempt to scan for any security systems that might potentially trip her up.

She stretched out to her full height with a purr. Her next movement was to leap off of the roof in a dive.

It looked for a few seconds that she was going to plummet to the ground. Catwoman cracked out her whip with expert skill. It snagged a hold of a flag pole and allowed her to maintain her balance. It did the duel job of breaking her fall. It also caused her to swing onto the roof of the hotel.

If this didn't go well, it would have been a mess. Fortunately it did go well. She landed in a three point stance. Catwoman slunk forward, quick as her namesake.

The woman flipped and stuck the landing on a balcony just below her. Making sure the coast was clear, Selina made her next move. She stood up to her full height and cracked open a sliding glass door. This lead inside of what was once the Roman's office.

She prepared to unlock the door. A moment of pause indicated that it already was. That caused Selina to frown deeply when she leaned over.

Selina shook her head for a brief moment to clear her head. Tutting to herself, Selina slid the door opened. The woman dropped into the office, landing gracefully on both feet.

This wasn't the first time she had been in here. An entire truckload of memories washed over her when she slunk forward. Selina's body became tense.

' _Okay, Selina, calm down, business, business first, nothing personal,'_ Selina thought when she adjusted her stance on the ground.

She got a handle on her emotions really quickly. Once she did that, she slunk over towards the desk. The woman reached around on the other side. There was nothing. She reached underneath it for a moment and then she found a button. She pressed it.

She turned to the direction of the portrait of the Falcone Family, with Carmine, his wife, Mario, Alberto, and Sofia. Selina walked forward with a stoic expression in her eyes and slid it out of the way to reveal a heavy duty safe behind it.

' _Jackpot,'_ she thought. She looked really pleased with herself and felt that way as well.

She moved in to crack the safe. It would have seemed to be tricky on the first look. However, she was able to make her adjustments and get inside. It opened with a click.

Then there was a second click behind her. Selina's eyes opened wide open in shock. The next thing, there was something metallic pressing against her temple.

Big Lou pressed a gun up against her head.

"Don't move, bitch!" Big Lou growled. He had the gun pressed against her head.

He didn't have a chance to say anything else. Selina drove her elbow up into her arm. She hooked his arm and pulled it back. This caused him to drop the gun onto the ground.

He lost feeling in the arm that he used to hold the gun. Big Lou cursed out loud and was about ready to grab onto her.

She drilled him with a knee to the side of the head and caused him to lose consciousness. He dropped to the ground like a big lead weight and smashed down hard onto the ground.

Selina's breath was let out in relief. She took a second to check her bearings. The woman kicked the gun off to the side carefully. She looked down at him with a scowl over her face. It turned into an evil smile.

"So, I think you can see what this bitch can do to you."

* * *

 

Fat Tony Zucco entered the office. He was caught off guard by a mortifying sight. It was mortifying for numerous reasons.

Big Lou was left in the middle of the room. He was hog tied and stripped naked so he could be utterly humiliated.

Zucco could see that he was bound, gagged, and in all of his glory. Said glory wasn't that glorious to be honest.

The man rushed forward to untie his boss. Most surprisingly, he tripped over the top of a wire and was sent flying.

He landed face first into Big Lou's old, hairy, big naked ass. His face was pressed in the most humiliating way.

"The bitch that did this, she's dead, she's fucking dead!" Big Lou ranted. "Just don't lay there like a jackass and get me untied. Don't fucking wait or I'll gut you."

"Yeah, right, sure boss…..where are you clothes?"

"Bitch tossed them out the window before she left," Big Lou raged. The man was pissed off and Zucco wasn't about to be at the wrong end of his rage.

* * *

 

The door clicked open and Dinah opened it up. She could see the explosion coming right after her. She reacted completely on pure instinct. That was all she could really do with the seconds that she had to react.

She did something desperate that she hoped was worked. The blonde heroine unleashed a full force Canary Cry. She really hoped that it would redirect a huge part of the explosion.

It worked for the most part. It caused her to smack back first into a metal garbage can. She could see Nightwing rush over towards her and stand over her. She was fading in and out from the position that she was in.

Nightwing was down in front of her. He reached down towards her gently and scooped her up. Dinah was only half conscious with where she was.

She blacked out before she could see where that was going. The blonde passed out in his arms.

Some time later, Dinah's eyes flickered open. Her head was still ringing a little bit. It took her a couple of moments before she stirred back to life. She was down on a bed in the medical room beneath the lair. Someone stripped her out of her costume. Judging by the fact that Harry was sitting at her beside, talking to Lara and Faora, it was likely him. He was the last person that she saw before she woke up.

Dinah continued to figure out where she was. A lot of time had passed, she knew that much. Her ribs were taped up pretty heavily. Her body felt pretty tender all over, and her head hurt. The only thing that she had going for her is that it might have ended up a lot worse for her. She was standing point blank next to a bomb where it went off after all.

Her desperate move had allowed her to survive and to live another day. Dinah wished that she could move but the sudden shift caused her a bit of misery. It worked but she resolved to be more careful.

Her sudden movement and her wince caused them to notice that she was awake.

"Hey, sleeping beauty," Harry muttered. He leaned towards Dinah with a smile.

"Hey," she commented in a dazed voice. She winced ever so slightly in her attempt to return herself back to reality. "What's the damage?"

"Not as bad as you'd expect considering what happened," Lara answered. "You did deflect a lot of the damage and your body armor absorbed a fair bit as well."

"Good, at least I only feel like hell," Dinah told him. She shifted herself, with Harry gently holding her hand when she was in bed.

"Your ribs and back were pretty banged up, and there was some internal damage as well, but we were able to heal that," Lara said. She allowed Dinah to process what she told her. "The good news is that we should be able to give you a clean bill of health after you're checked out a little bit."

"We need to make sure that you don't have signs for a concussion," Faora said.

Dinah thought that made a lot of sense in her hazed brain. Her mind was still ringing loud. The hand held scanner was doing a wonderful job in checking her for the biggest tell tale symptoms of a concussion.

"I can tell you I felt like something rang a bell in my head," Dinah grumbled. Harry smiled and squeezed her hand gently.

Jaime turned up at the door to check on Dinah. She already was stripped out of her costume. She was only wearing a pair of tight rather stretchy boy cut panties and a black sports bra. Quietly, she slipped into the room.

She leaned down towards Dinah and kissed her on the top of her head. She took her position in Harry's lap next to her. That caused Faora's lips to curl up in a sudden pout.

"I should have thought of it," Faora grumbled. Jaime raised her eyebrow.

"You should have thought about it, but you didn't," Jaime told her cockily. She tried to keep the smugness out of her voice and off of her face. The saying went that if you snoozed you lost or however it went. But I've got some good news and some bad news, if you want to hear it."

"Yes, you might as well," Harry commented to her.

"Very well, I was able to find the second bomb at a completely popular Chocolatier's of all places," Jaime said. She frowned deeply. Harry maintained his grip on Dinah's hand and kept his other grip around Jaime's waist. "And for the record, I have no idea what the connection to Turtle Doves is."

Harry thought about it for a minute. It struck him a moment later and that caused him to let out a sudden groan.

The girls in the room all got it. Through the bond link, Kara, being Kara, couldn't resist to hum some of the Turtles chocolate jingle. Amanda and Donna joined in.

' _That's not helping,'_ Harry thought. That caused the girls to be silent.

"Okay, there's good news in here at least," Jaime concluded. She would like to get a somewhat positive spin back on things if she could. "The Calendar Killer has been symied twice."

"Good, we only need to do it about ten more times, unless we can catch the guy between now and Christmas," Harry said. "Thankfully we have a better advantage now than we have before."

"The scanner and the map," Faora said. She would have liked to walk on the sunny side here but there was a bit of a problem. "Unfortunately Gotham is a big city and there's a lot of places that a bomb can be stashed."

"Way too many actually," Harry confirmed. That would have to wait as a ding came off.

"Well, it's just as we expected, Dinah has a concussion," Lara commented grimly. "But it's a minor one and the Medical facility has been upgraded. So there are a few advantages that we have that we didn't have all those months ago when Harry was hurt. But Dinah will be woozy for a few days."

"Figured as much," Dinah said. The ringing her head subsided just a little bit.

"No, it isn't as bad as it could have been but you should still get some rest," Harry said. "And I guess that now it's okay, time to switch back out. I'll have my eyes and ears here, in case you need anything."

* * *

 

Harry sent a duplicate out on patrol last night because he was spending time at Sapphire's. Once the duplicate sent word to the master copy that Dinah was hurt, he switched out, under the pretext of heading to the bathroom. When he was done there and when he was sure Dinah was there, he switched out.

The master copy of Harry Potter stood out on Sapphire's balcony. He looked out into the city below. Finally, by some miracle, it stopped snowing, at least for a little bit. It was shaping up to be a pretty clear day. Harry wasn't going to lie that it looked beautiful up there and Sapphire had quite the view of one of the nicer parts of the city.

Harry casually sipped a cup of coffee and he replayed the events of the previous evening in his mind. There were a number of questions that he would have liked answered. Namely, why would someone bomb a distribution center?

There was one pressing theory in his mind.

' _The Falcone's are striking back at Black Mask,'_ Harry thought. _'Or that would be the simplest explanation. Which means that I doubt very much that it's the explanation I need right now. There's something else here, and I can't put my finger on what.'_

Harry came up with another theory. Falcone Shipping was one of the Roman's major companies. Damaging the distribution center was a key way to divert business over towards his direction. To put things bluntly, it wasn't really personal, it was merely just business. Harry did know that business had an ugly chance of getting personal if they weren't careful.

He sighed and there was another question that bugged him for some time. He narrowed his eyes for some time.

How was the Maroni family getting their hands on the weapons they used? That was something that despite the fact that he checked into a couple of leads, he came out for a dead end. The Penguin's arrival in Gotham City really did jump start something. Harry thought that once that Pandora's Box was opened, there was no way that they could close it. The military grade weapons were different from the usual fare that was on the street, prior to the Penguin setting up shop.

Now there were the Maroni family and what they had. They had to be getting those weapons from somewhere and they were far beyond what the military was using. He only had to look into things just a little bit further. He just hadn't had the time. Now given the situation, he was going to have to make the time.

A pair of slim arms wrapped around his waist from behind. The next second was a pair of soft lips kissing him on the side of the neck. The woman behind him continued to kiss him on the side of the neck a few times before her head rested on the back of his shoulder.

Harry smiled and rested his free hand on the person's arm. He left it there for a moment before he turned around. He came face to face with Sapphire where she leaned up and kissed him deeply.

Sapphire felt Harry's tongue probe her mouth when he deepened the kiss. The two of them continued to indulge themselves in the kiss. The kiss seemed to last for a long time, even though it only olasted for a couple of months.

She brushed her hand down on the side of his neck and nipped it slightly. There was a coy look on her face where she looked at him.

Suddenly, she got down on her knees before him. There was a sultry gaze dancing in her eyes when the blonde goddess licked her lips. She kneeled before him which was extremely impressive in the cold weather.

She reached around and unbuckled his pants. She yanked it down to the floor along with her.

Sapphire prepared to worship him like he was her personal god.

Sapphire's hot mouth engulfed his throbbing rod into it. Her lips smacked together when she brought her mouth onto him.

Harry groaned when she worshipped him. Her hot tongue and mouth worked over his cock. He placed his hands on the top of her head. She bobbed herself up and down at him with a rapid fire fury. Her tongue manipulated at him.

"Yes, worship me," Harry groaned. He felt her tongue work him over.

Her tongue snaked around him. Sapphire tasted his cock and she hungered for more of him. She hungered for all of him. She wanted to coax his cream into her mouth. The blonde drove herself down onto his throbbing manhood.

It went down into her throat and the blonde took him deep into her throat as she could go. Her hand wrapped around the base of his cock. Her hand pumped in and stroked him. Her soft hand continued to work him over. Her hot lips smacked around him and brought him deep into her throat.

Sapphire sucked his manhood deep into her throat. Her lips continued to work around him and she sucked him down.

His cock burst and fired a dose of cum deep into her throat. Sapphire closed her eyes and hungrily sucked him down.

When she was done, Sapphire made sure not to let a drop of cum to be wasted. That would be bad.

She squealed when Harry pulled her up to her feet. She was pushed back onto a bench. The coolness pressed against her back. Suddenly things warmed up just a little bit or at least her body did.

Her panties pulled down and revealed her dripping wet cunt for Harry. He smiled when he leaned down towards her.

"Well, it would be a shame to leave this neglected," Harry whispered. He leaned down towards her and scraped his tongue against her dripping hot cunt.

Sapphire would have to agree. His tongue brushed against her moist slip. Harry lapped up her juices and got her warmed up.

She wanted him, she wanted more. His tongue drove into her. Sapphire placed her hands on the top of his head. She encouraged him to delve deep into her dripping cunt. He rose to the challenge when he continued to work her over.

Harry smiled and shifted his tongue into her. It started to vibrate deep into her inner core. Sapphire moaned when she worked him over.

He decided to deny her orgasm, at least for the moment. He leaned forward and scrapped his cock against her entrance.

"Please Harry, I'm burning up!" Sapphire screamed. She needed a cock, his cock, in her in the worst way.

"Good things come to good girls that wait," Harry whispered. He ran his hands down her stocking clad legs.

"Harry, I told you, I' m a spoiled rich bitch and I need to be fucked hard," Sapphire begged him. She looked at him with imploring eyes and lust burning in them, dancing in her eyes. "So, fuck me, fuck me hard."

She lifted her hips up and a few inches of Harry's cock entered her dripping wet folds. He shoved himself into her without preamble.

She screamed at the top of her lungs when he spiked his thick manhood into her smoldering hot depths. Sapphire panted when she lifted her hips and drove his manhood into her body. She grabbed his back and he pumped her into her.

He thrust himself into her over and over again. Her hot legs wrapped around him. The blonde's pussy engulfed his throbbing hard prick inside her willing body.

Sapphire felt so good, she felt so good. The cold outside was not going to be beat by the heat inside her body. She felt his cum loaded balls slap into her.

"You're going to cum right now," Harry ordered her. He bent down and nipped at her breasts when he thrust deep into her.

Sapphire would have had to agree. Her hips shifted up and she clenched his rod. He rammed his manhood down into her smoldering hot depths. Each thrust brought her further to the edge. The blonde goddess shifted herself underneath him.

She came back down to life and Harry continued to pump her down onto the heated bench. Her wet pussy rubbed onto his manhood. Her hot legs tightened around him. He brushed his hands down her silky, smooth legs.

His touch drove her wild. She purred underneath him and then screamed. Her cunt was being battered when he pushed himself deep into her smoldering hot depths.

Sapphire mewled underneath his thrusts. She lifted her hips up and allowed him to push into her body.

"Oh, harder, harder, please, harder!" Sapphire begged him. Lust burned through her blue eyes. She bit down on her lip and hunger danced in her body. Harry pushed his hands onto her breasts.

Sapphire was allowed to maintain the position on top. Her dripping hot pussy grinded against his throbbing manhood. He gripped her ass in response.

"You're going to cum as many times as I want you too," Harry whispered. He grabbed her and she sank herself down onto his cock.

Sapphire felt the warmth course through her body. She kept rocking her hips up and down on him. Her slick walls caressed him.

She was brought balls deep into her body. The blonde rocked herself up and down when she continued to impact her hot walls down onto him. She moaned deeply at the top of her lungs when she kept working herself over. Up and down on him, she grinded herself on his cock.

His balls slapped against her thighs when she continued to work herself on him. Harry's hands explored her body.

Sapphire panted when she spiked herself down onto his manhood. Each thrust brought her closer to the edge. His hands combed all over her body.

"Cum my spoiled princess," Harry whispered on her.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed him to taste her breasts. That caused her to whimper when she kept working her hips up and down on him. She panted and worked herself onto him. Over and over again, she was pushed to the edge.

Her dripping cunt wrapped around him. Harry's finger pushed deep into her ass and pumped into her. Sapphire panted when she grinded her womanhood deep onto his manhood.

He slapped her on the rear and that caused Sapphire to pant. She worked herself down onto him. Se continued to work hard onto him.

"Getting closer."

Sapphire felt her insides gush. His manhood drove up into her. His balls slapped against her ass when she grinded down onto him.

She prepared to receive her god's gift. Sapphire whimpered and breathed. His cock tightened and he shot a load of cum deep into her body.

Sapphire reared her head back and screamed. She nibbled down on Harry's shoulder and he pumped his manhood into her body.

The blonde heiress came down from her pleasure. Sapphire was leaned against his body and panted, coming down from her pleasure.

This was amazing but then again, there were few times where Harry wasn't amazing.

After their heated actions in the balcony, Sapphire and Harry made their way inside of the kitchen. She was wrapped up in a nice comforter. The sweet smell of food being cooked enticed Sapphire's senses and inspired her to want to actually move. She smiled when she sat down at the table while Harry was in the middle of cooking breakfast.

"My father has decided to try and do the clean energy thing," Sapphire said. There was a note in her voice that indicated that this was a big obvious step for her father and she would just have to wait and see what he would do next. "So he ended up building a bunch of Zepplins. There's a plan to offer flights between New York and Gotham and also Gotham and Metropolis."

Harry turned away from the breakfast that he was making and paused. "That's kind of brilliant actually."

There was a moment where he paused and considered something.

"Was it your father who came up with the idea?" Harry asked. Sapphire looked up, arching her eyebrow suddenly. "Or were you the one who came up with the idea?"

Sapphire suddenly looked sheepish. It was amazing how much she resembled that little girl who had her hand caught in the cookie jar. The look was complete with the nice added fact that she bit down on her lower lip.

This discussion didn't have a chance to escalate much further, for the simple reason Alexa made her way into the kitchen. She wore an extremely short white silk robe that pretty much redefined absolute cleavage. It was short enough where it barely covered her ass. It went without saying her sudden arrival got the attention of both Harry and Sapphire.

She slunk over to Harry and greeted him with a good morning kiss. It was a really searing kiss and Harry returned fire kissing her back.

She moved over and gave Harry a fantastic view of her ass. It was an alluring and extremely tempting sight.

Alexa leaned forward and not so shockingly grabbed Sapphire around the hair. She pressed her lips onto Sapphire's mouth and kissed her in a heated manner. That was a show that Harry would commit for memory for a long time.

When the Luthor heiress was done with her fun, she gently grabbed Harry by the hand and lead him over to a chair. Swiftly and firmly, she pushed him down onto it.

Harry was about ready to protest but Alexa shook her head. She walked over, swaying her hips, to continue to make breakfast right where Harry left off.

"So, I've been meaning to ask a question," Sapphire said. This came so out of the blue that it caused Alexa to jump up and take notice at her. "Exactly why are you here in Gotham?"

"We're looking for a new LuthorCopr Director of Operations for the East Coast Branch of the Company," Alexa said. There was a grin on her face like the cat that ate the canary.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware that there was an East coast branch of LuthorCorp."

Alexa's grin shifted into a full blown smirk. She figured that explanations were in order and she better give them.

"Technically speaking, there isn't really," Alexa commented. She placed her hand on the side of her face. "But there's a very small presence here. Mostly our attention is focused on the Midwest. I'm here to change the fact."

Harry nodded but Alexa was far from over.

"And Lionel figured that you'd be more willing to do business with me than any of his League of Douchebag businessmen," Alexa concluded.

Harry nodded. "Well, I can't argue with that."

The three of them settled in for what would be a nice breakfast and conversation to match.

* * *

 

There was positioned across the street from Sapphire's which had a pretty good view of her. This apartment contained what could be adequately described as a stalker shrine. There were pictures of her. Some of them contained Harry Potter and some of them didn't. They ran from the innocent and the tasteful to the not so innocent. Regardless, they were tacked onto the wall and set up like a stalker shrine. It was an unnerving quality for numerous reasons.

What was unnerving was the mysterious stalker continued to snap picture after picture. It was in a mechanical and stoic looking quality. He stared forward and focused on one thing.

* * *

 

Many hours had passed with breakfast being passed and lunch being over. The scene was an unremarkable and rather mundane office building in the midst of Gotham City. Julian Gregory Day stood within his office. He held a golf club tightly within his hand. He slowly and deliberately practiced his putting.

He was a businessman with sandy hair and glasses, dressed in a suit. One would not be able to pick his face out of a crowd. All of his movements had a deliberate movement to them. They had a rhythm. One could argue these movements were almost ritualistic, at least the ones done from his arms. One leg was a bit longer than the other and he walked with a limp. Other than that, that would have been the only thing that people would have noticed that was off for him.

Day looked extremely calm and stoic. It was extremely unnerving. It was even more unnerving by the fact that he seemed to be missing more putts than he actually sunk.

Not to be deterred, Day carefully lined up a shot. It was all about focus. It was all about routine. It was all about timing.

An intercom buzzing threw his timing completely off. He stopped mid motion. Day walked over towards his desk. He leaned forward slowly and pushed the button.

"Yes," Day said. His voice was extremely soft spoken, extremely calm. He was in control and nothing was going to get out of his control.

"You wanted to be informed when it was five minutes to three o'clock," the personal assistant reminded him. "And it's five minutes to three o'clock."

"Thank you," Day said graciously. He meticulously turned on the nearby radio. He slowly raised his wristwatch and waited patiently for the news to take place at the top of the hour.

There was a long beat and he waited for the clock to tick to three. When it was three o'clock on the dot, he reached over to turn the volume of the radio up. The news was out of sync, it started precisely three seconds after three which disrupted his entire routine.

There was no breaking news. Day waited patiently as they gave the weather report. That wasn't to be so. That shouldn't be so. Mayhem and tragedy took precedence over everything. The seconds ticked by and the situation became more dire.

He was being ignored and that was unacceptable.

For a brief and wild moment, it looked like he was going to lose his cool. He reached for the golf club. A scowl of rage appeared over Day's face. His hands began to twitch and he swung the golf club towards the clock.

Day stopped it abruptly, he stopped it in mid swing. He took a deep breath and started to mutter angrily underneath his breath.

"Thirty days has September. Of twenty eight is but one. And the rest are thirty one. Of course leap year comes and slays. Every four years it got it right. And twenty eight turns into twenty nine."

His attempt to calm himself down didn't work. He held the club and began to smash it over the clock, repeatedly. He hammered the clock over and over again with the golf club. His hands shook when he continued to smash it with the golf club. The clock was pretty much reduced to a fine and disgusting looking powder.

Day struggled vainly to get himself back into control. The man looked and eyed the clock. His breathing became more labored when he tried to return himself to life.

"On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a Pair Tree," Day sang. His voice sounded to be extremely stoic and really scratchy.

He was saying it to himself over and over again. He tried to keep himself calm and block out the fact that he was being ignored. The fact he was being ignored was unacceptable.

The Calendar Man must not be ignored, that was unacceptable.

"On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a Pair Tree," he sang, when he carefully swept up the broken and busted up remains of the clock he smashed in a bit of a sudden rage. "On the third day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, Three French Hens, Two Turtle Doves, and a Partridge in a Pair Tree."

He kept breathing in and out and repeating that same verse over and over again like it was stuck in an infinite loop. No matter what it was a loop that he couldn't break out of no matter how much he tried. Not that he tried all that hard.

* * *

 

It was later in the evening. Harry returned back to the living room in the Penthouse. Barbara, Kara, Karen, Diana, Donna, Lois, Amanda, Emily, and Pamela were with him.

Karen sat on the floor with Kara up against her. Kara sat in front of Karen so Karen was taking the time and playing with her hair. Amanda and Emily parked themselves on the couch to the left side of him. Diana and Donna sat on the arm chair that Harry currently occupied off to the side of the couch. On the right side of the couch, Barbara and Pamela occupied the love seat.

Meanwhile Lois was parked in front of the couch, with Harry calmly helping her with the homework that she was doing, in her case English. Or really he was trying to prevent Lois from mangling the English language.

He really came to that conclusion that she was just a touch dyslexic. At least that was the opinion Harry was under, he could be wrong. Pamela was off to the side, helping Barbara not go insane because of her Chemistry homework. She amused herself by playing footsies with Harry.

Karen continued to play with her sister's hair, and worked with helping the twins. They were honor students but they did need a little help with their math homework.

As for Donna and Diana, they were looking over some photos Donna took with her new and rather expensive camera.

"Looks like you got your money's worth on that new camera, didn't you?" Diana asked.

"I'd say that she did, she got more than her money's worth," Amanda said, looking over from her homework for a moment.

"Most of those photos are of Harry, though," Lois commented. Not that she blamed her but that was a point that she had to state. "When he crashed in his armchair the other day and some of them are him….working out without a shirt on."

Lois turned around and buried herself back into her English homework, as hard as it was to focus on something she didn't enjoy. That being said, she was getting the hang of it, at least as much as she would with Harry helping her.

"So, did your father get back to you about how you're going to spend your holidays?" Amanda asked Lois.

"Well…..he didn't say any way or another," Lois admitted. "There's a possibility that I can fly out to German to spend it with my father and Lucy. But it's just a possibility, and I wouldn't put much stock into it."

Young Miss Lane gave a heavy sigh. "You know though, it's just going to be a load of crap anyway, if it depends on certain variables. I'd rather not go at all, because I'd end up being alone or worse I'd be stuck with Lucy."

There was a bit of amused laughter at that statement. The group all remained serious.

"I'd rather stay here if I had the choice," Lois said. "It wouldn't be the first time that I was alone."

Harry smiled and reached forward to ruffle Lois's hair in response. That caused her face to cross into a momentary scowl but at the same time, she thinks about it.

"Why would you think you would be staying here, when the rest of us would be going on a trip?" Harry asked.

"Because," Lois said. She gave a long sighed but she saw several warning eyes on her. "It's because I'm not family."

Karen looked towards her, her burning gaze placed onto Lois. She crumpled into Karen's look.

"It's already been decided that you're coming with us," Karen told her firmly. "If you don't end to Germany and spending time with your father and Lucy for Christmas."

Lois wasn't going to deny that she was beaming brightly at that statement.

"Did you hear what was happening in the news?" Kara asked. "The explosion last night, what do you think about that?"

"That's a really odd place to attack, even for the Calendar Killer," Barbara chimed in, she returned away from her Chemistry homework. "It isn't like his or her other attacks."

"The Calendar Killer's plan was foiled last night, so it wasn't," Harry said.

That caused Lois to look at him with a curious look dancing in her eyes. "And how do you know that?"

"Well you know that I have my connections all over the place," Harry commented to her. Lois frowned deeply.

"Yeah, that makes sense," Lois agreed with a smile. It was a statement that pacified her.

Amanda was playing with her phone on the couch after the conversation and she just finished what she was doing. She wrapped up what she was doing on her phone and hit send.

A moment later, Lois and Barbara both jumped upright with a surprised squeak since their phones just started to vibrate like crazy. They had just been electronically goose. Barbara and Lois both picked up their pillows and hurled them at her triumphantly grinning face.

"I thought I told you to stop doing that," Barbara said in annoyance.

Lois turned around and hid her flaming red place by pressing it against Harry's outer thigh. Harry turned to Amanda, narrowing his eyes at her.

Mandy gulped when she found herself placed underneath her brother's steely eyed gaze.

"And exactly how did you do that?" Harry asked. His voice was firm and left absolutely no room for any type of argument whatsoever.

Mandy gulped and launched into a frantic explanation. "The Red Sun has an auto accept download feature for emails and stuff. So you can prank people from a distance by writing a program to do stuff like turn their ringer to vibrate and set it to maximum."

Harry looked at her. He gave a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. He slowly turned to Karen.

"Did you know that?" Harry asked Karen.

Karen shook her head. "No, I didn't."

Kara's tone and expression got suddenly sheepish. "I did. You actually have to know what you're doing in order to do it. Most people wouldn't know how to do it."

Harry's burning gaze locked onto Kara's eyes. She continued to speak in a small voice.

"And the only reason Mandy knows how to do it is because I showed her how to do it."

Harry slipped his glasses back on. He was trying to rack his brain to come up with a good reason why Kara taught that to Amanda of all things.

It was then which a wonderful awful idea smacked him in the face. Harry took a moment to untangle himself from Lois and lifted her up off of the ground. He placed her in the position he was sitting.

"There's a few things that I need to take care," Harry said. "Just popped up, I'll see you in a little bit."

Harry made his way down to the elevator and pressed the button that indicated that he needed to go down to the Lair. Someone was already on their way up, he figured.

That theory proved to be correct, when the door opened. Lily stood there, dressed in a nice tight black sweat shirt and an even tighter pair of black pants. There was a sexy smirk on her face that inspired some extremely interesting thoughts.

Lily stared at him lovingly for a moment. She then reached forward and pulled him inside the elevator. Without any preamble, or greeting, she threw her arms around Harry's neck. She kissed him rather aggressively.

Somehow, by some sheer miracle, Harry had the presence of mind to hit the button to send him back down to the lair.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Pamela slip inside the elevator. Things were about to get heated up really quickly. Lily was in quite the mood and worked up. Pamela on the other end was just extremely horny and was glad to join in.

Harry found himself pressed in between two hot redheads and the fun was about ready to begin.

Lily slowly worked her hands through the buttons of his shirt and pulled it open. She kissed the side of his neck and worked her way down his chest and abs. Her able mouth hungrily nipped him while she cupped his cock.

Pamela on the other hand opted for a different approach. She slowly began to undo Harry's pants and pull them down over his ankles. She revealed the treat that laid on the other side. She slowly rubbed him through the other side of his pants.

Harry groaned when her extremely able hand slowly worked him over from the other side of his pants.

"Time to give you the attention you deserve," Pamela whispered. She started to stroke him. Her pussy was burning with desire.

Lily decided to help her out. She shifted Pamela's skirt out of the way. Her fingers brushed against Pamela's dripping slit and she pumped the inside of her cunt. Pamela happily shifted her hips towards Lily's probing digits. The response was that she coated Lily's fingers with cum.

Lily used her free hand to stroke Harry and slowly eased herself down to her knees. The redhead MILF wrapped her hot mouth around Harry and went down on her son.

"God," Harry groaned.

Lily smiled when she bobbed her head up and down on him. His cock was lavished with her mouth.

Pamela closed her eyes. Her pussy was geared up for Harry. Lily really brought her to an amazing orgasm over and over again.

Suddenly after Lily worked Harry's cock up to the edge, she retracted her mouth and it left it with a solid pop.

"After you my dear," Lily said. There was a sultry tone to her voice.

Pamela got to her feet with shaky legs. She could feel her breath labored when it entered her body.

Her pussy hungered for the throbbing stick of meat that rested between Harry's legs. That was something she wanted. Pamela shook her head when she realized something. That wasn't something she wanted, it was something that he needed.

She straddled her legs over Harry and he pulled off her top. His face pressed between her breasts when he devoured them.

His iron rod poked her in the thigh. Pamela closed her eyes. Her dripping cunt lips speared over him.

"Very nice," Lily said. She caused Pamela to yelp when she pumped her finger into Pamela's anus. It was well lubricated from her own cum.

Pamela wasn't sure about this but she allowed her husband's mother to really work into her ass with her talented finger. She channeled just the right amount of magic through her finger through her anal core.

"More, oh please more," Pamela begged. She bit down hard on her lip and she closed her eyes.

Harry smiled when he watched his mother molest his wife from behind. That was so hot. Lily's breasts pressed against Pamela's back. He was using his own mother as a surface to fuck Pamela against. Lily backed up against the edge of the elevator.

Pamela allowed her orgasms to flow free.

"You're going to cum so hard, but you've needed to cum for a long time," Harry whispered.

"Yes, I wanted to jump you when we were in there, couldn't you tell?" Pamela asked. She closed her eyes when her hips closed around Harry's tool.

"I had an idea that you wanted to, but one could never be sure about such things," Harry grunted. He speared his throbbing manhood into her smoldering depths. She clenched down on him when she worked him over.

"Well, you can be sure about this, you can be so fucking sure about this," Pamela said. So much lust burned through her eyes. It was more lust than a body could handle. It was so much lust that it absolutely and completely hurt.

Lily smiled and prepared to cause Pamela even more pleasure. A magical dildo was now strapped between her legs. She pushed it into Pamela's ass.

Pamela closed her eyes. She was now getting violated with two cocks from either side of her. Given that one of them belonged to a woman, that felt even better.

Lily moaned when she pushed herself into Pamela. Thanks to the magic she could really feel her. And it really felt good. She wasn't going to lie. Her hands continued to molest Pamela from one side of her.

Not to be outdone, Harry grinded his throbbing manhood into her. He pulled out of her and caused her to whine. He teased her.

Seconds later, Pamela felt the rush when Harry speared back into her. Lily also speared back into her from behind. She was being double stuffed in the elevator and she loved pretty much every single moment of what she was feeling.

"Oh god, yes, oh god that feels so good," Pamela breathed. Her moans escalated.

"And now you're going to feel even better when you get to cum," Harry said. He snapped his fingers. "And now you're going to cum and you're going to cum hard."

Pamela agreed she was going to cum hard. Her tight walls caressed around Harry's tool and he responded by pumping into her.

The redhead slid to her knees and Lily took her position next to Harry. A sultry smile crossed over the face of the foxy redhead. She was stripped naked and she looked beautiful.

"Time for me to finish the job, I think," Lily said.

She saw Harry hover in the middle of the air, his cock outstretched. It begged to be touched, it begged to be taken. She was going to accept her actions and accept what it could do to her. Her breath heightened and she hitched in one steady breath.

Lily moaned when she wrapped her hot pussy around Harry. Her son's cock speared into her and it felt like a treat. The two of them molded together in air.

Harry sucked the same nipples that he sucked when he was a babe. His cock speared into her precious pussy and stretched her out. Lily tightened her arms around his neck and panted. The pleasure escalated when he worked himself between her smoldering hot thighs.

"Oh yes, oh fuck yes," Lily moaned. She grinded her dripping hot cunt onto him, and drew his manhood deep between her legs. Lily reared her neck back and moaned. She gripped onto his shoulder when she spiked herself down onto him.

His mother's pussy touched him in the most amazing ways. Harry couldn't wait to feel it caress his manhood over and over again.

"Yes," Harry replied.

Pamela was starting to come back to life. Her fingers just wouldn't do. Fortunately a magical construct spiked between her legs. She lifted them to meet Harry's psychic thrusts. That caused her body to thrash violently.

It felt like Harry's manhood was working into her. It caused her body to become flushed and pleased at the same time.

She came so hard. Harry, Lily, and anyone who had been keyed into the bond felt the force of her cumming and hard.

Speaking of cumming, Lily's dripping hot pussy was about ready to finish off Harry. She squeezed him between her tight walls.

His mother's wet, warm, and delightful pussy felt like heaven to Harry. He didn't want to leave it.

"Let it go, baby," Lily whispered. She nibbled on her little boy's ear and he pumped himself into her hard from beneath.

Lily continued to wrap her dripping tight cunt around him. She speared her womanhood onto her son's engorged manhood. She caused herself to nearly lose her mind when she spiked herself down onto him. The redhead closed her eyes and allowed her pleasure to flow between her thighs.

"Oh, let it go, please, in me, cum for Mummy," Lily breathed.

Pamela wasn't going to deny that, that was so hot. That was extremely hot. The three of them cumming at the same time was extremely hot.

It was a mind blowing activity and Pamela's eyes nearly rolled into the back of her head as her body shook with an absolute explosion of pleasure.

The trio managed to make it down into the Lair, and they collapse down onto the couch.

Seconds later, Harry stood in a realm of pure white as far as the eye could see. There was no sights, no sounds other than that.

At least not until he heard a screech that was extremely familiar to something he heard before. He couldn't quite place it but he most certainly heard.

Harry took a bold step forward. There was a flash of flames and the pure white diverted into an explosion of weird colors and insanity. It resembled something out of an extreme acid trip.

Harry wondered if Pam drugged him for some reason. There was no time for him to figure that out. Now he turned around and saw a ten year old. At first glance, she seemed to be a bit like Lily, enough to look like a younger version of his mother. Unless he took a closer look past that.

The two of them looked at each other for a moment and the girl took ten steps for him. There was a flash of flames suddenly. She turned from a ten year old girl to that of a sixteen year old girl. The girl smiled and looked at Harry adoringly.

There was a hazy image of something behind her. Harry couldn't make heads nor tales of what exactly that was. The girl took a moment to close the distance between the two of them. He made her features out a bit more quickly. The flaming red hair, the green eyes, she wore loose red robes.

She reached her hand out to him. Her mouth was about open and she was about to say something.

Harry's eyes popped up and he woke up confused as hell. He wondered what the hell just happened. This was a similar situation of what happened before he met Didi and Hope for the first time. At the same time, there appeared to be something different he couldn't put his finger on.

* * *

 

Batman repelled from one rooftop to the next when he was on patrol. Even though it's a quiet night, he was alert. He was pretty focused and rather pissed off about what happened the night before. He was paying close attention to what was going around him.

A scuffling in the distance followed by a scratching sound caught his attention. He was curious about the source of it.

Batman made his way in the direction towards a completely major grocery store. The Dark Knight Detective looked down from the rooftop. He noticed a janitor that was standing at the backdoor and seemingly trying to unlock it.

The Detective spotted something that was off. He could see two problems for this situation. For one thing, it was taking way too long for him to open the door. The other problem was that his hands were not the type of someone who did regular menial labor. They resembled surgeon hands and the person even had a manicure.

His suspicion was at a new heightened level. He dropped down from the rooftop to loom behind the person who was trying to pick the lock. He clears his throat.

This startled this "Janitor". The janitor responded quickly by hurling the package in the hands of Batman. He bolted down the alleyway quickly.

Batman had other problems. He noticed what he had in his hands and his eyes widened for a moment. He carefully placed it down on the ground.

He sprinted down the alleyway. He was pretty sure that he was going after what he suspected to be the Calendar Man.

Despite a limp, he got a head start. Batman reached the mouth of the alleyway and he was greeted by a seemingly deserted street.

Batman was about to go after him. He ran into a problem quite literally. Or rather a problem ran into him. A squad car plowed into him. He managed to avoid most of the impact and flipped to the ground instinctively.

Dazed and confused, Batman looked up in a moment and saw two of the patrol men standing over the top of him. Their guns were drawn and they pointed them.

"Freeze!" one of them yelled.

Batman wasn't going to go with that. He threw a smoke bomb down onto the ground. One of the cops tried to grab him but he was already gone. He went to the next rooftop with the grapnel.

The problem was thanks to that little encounter the Calendar Killer was gone. What was worse it was dark in the alleyway. All he could see was a general height and weight of the man involved. There was a rather noticeable deformity that was rather noticeable.

Batman shook his head and made his way to dispose of the package before it was a problem.

* * *

**To Be Continued on January 14** **th** **, 2015.**


	78. Twelve Days of Christmas Part Four

**Chapter-Seventy Eight: The Twelve Days of Christmas Part Four.**

* * *

 

At first glance, the man looked like an unassuming everyday businessman but that was just merely at the first the glance. When a person took a closer look, one could notice that he had a fair number of tattoos running up his arms quite clearly. Anyone who was in the know would not mistake who he was and those tattoos clearly marked him as a member of the Russian Mafia.

The Russian Mafia had been working loosely with Penguin although that was the extent of their presence in Gotham City.

This particular gentleman on the other hand was tied up to a metal chair in an abandoned bathhouse. At least the white tiled floors, walls, and the drains on the floor underneath him, along with the multiple showerheads indicated that.

He wondered what the reason for this was. That was the only thought that had a chance to go through his had before a wooden baseball bat cracked against the back of the guy's skull. He gave a wounded howl.

Big Lou stood behind him in a towering fury. After his encounter with Catwoman, he was looking for someone to take his aggressions out on. This man just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He dressed in a pair of slacks and a white beater, and looked to keep himself in pretty good shape for an older gentleman. That was beside the point though; he was beyond pissed off about what happened to him earlier.

He needed to take out that aggression on someone. This poor unfortunate soul was just the nearest outlet for that aggression.

Zucco and Eddie Skeevers stood off to the side. Zucco looked like he was in a towering temper as well but Skeevers looked fairly indifferent to the entire mess.

Big Lou slammed his knuckles into the face. "And people like you just don't get it. The Russian mob isn't allowed in Gotham City. There are rules, there are limits, and there are certain things that the mob won't do. But the Russians, you have no limits, do you? You don't belong in this city, you don't belong in our city."

Zucco watched with widened eyes when Big Lou pounded the ever living snot out of this guy. He came precious short inches of killing the man. He pulled back at the last second.

"You're not worth dirtying my knuckles with your blood," Big Lou whispered. He turned to one of the lackeys. "Drop him off outside of town."

The man responded with a large gulp. "Um sure thing boss."

The beaten and battered Russian mobster was taken off. Big Lou watched the trash being disposed handily before he turned towards Zuccos and Skeevers.

"Five hundred thousand to the person who brings me the bitch's body," Big Lou spat. He was in a nasty towering temper. "And one million if they bring me back her alive so I can personally deadl with her."

Zucco and Skeevers knew one thing. Either way, that bitch was dead.

* * *

 

Back in the Lair, Harry was trying, potentially in vain, to make sense of the extremely weird dream. In the meantime, he got ahold of Kara over the bond and asked her to come down here. The two of them sat in the area around the super computer. Harry was sitting in the computer chair while Kara parked enticingly on the counter.

"So, I think that I've got this idea as to how to capture the Calendar Killer," Harry remarked. His green eyes met Kara's vibrant blue eyes. The two of them stared each other down for a couple of seconds. "But there's just one problem…"

"You don't know how to get to the next step, do you?" Kara asked.

Harry smiled. "You got that much right. And I'm going to need your help. And I'm going to need you to show me what you showed Amanda. When I tried to do it myself, it was a bit trickier than I thought it was."

Kara laughed. "Well it's not like it's something that someone can figure out when they're just randomly fucking around on the phone. It requires some extremely specific steps to do so."

There were a couple of questions that went through Harry's mind. He settled with going for the most obvious.

"Exactly where did you learn to do that?" Harry asked.

Kara pondered the best way to answer that for a brief second. "The OS the Red Sun uses is something my mother developed when she was four. It's literally something that a pre-school child on Krypton could design. It's pretty simplistic when you think about it, when compared to other similar Kryptonian programs. But it's far more advanced than you'd expect it to be in other ways."

Harry nodded, processing all of that information she gave him.

"My mother showed me how to do that," Kara said.

Harry raised his eyebrow towards her. "And why on Earth would you think that it was a good idea to show that to my sister?"

"I….well I did it to Amanda first," Kara informed him sheepishly. She looked like the little girl who got her hand caught in the cookie jar. "I didn't think that there wasn't a reason for me to show her."

"Oh really," Harry muttered with a frown on his face.

Kara shrugged at him in response. "You know, I wasn't thinking really clearly about the consequences at the time."

Harry smiled. He figured that admitting something was the first step. With that fact out of the way, there was something else that he needed to discuss.

"So, there's just this dream that I had earlier," Harry said. Kara turned towards him with a frown. She thought that she sensed something odd. "Things got a bit trippy. It started out normal enough."

Harry launched into a brief explanation for what happened in the dream. Kara frowned when he discussed that.

"And just about when she was going to say something, you woke up?" Kara asked for clarification. Harry nodded.

"And she looked a little bit like my mother, there were some eerie similarities," Harry replied. "That was my first thought but…..there were too many differences for it to be her. The things that you notice. But from a distance, I can see how they could be mistaken to be twins."

Kara nodded. She figured that Harry had more than a couple of theories regarding this.

"And I thought for a moment that it might be the result of a new aphrodisiac that Pamela tested on me," Harry said. He leaned towards Kara who smiled. "It wouldn't be the first time that she did that, because she likes to experiment with what works on our unique physiology."

Kara shivered at that but smiled. "They can be fun most of the time, though."

Their conversational was cut short when Lily joined them, walking over in a bare-ass naked sight. Lily decided to take her place on Harry's lap.

"So, what have you been up to in England?" Kara asked suddenly.

"Oh, you know, business with the society," Lily replied. "There are a lot of things in Europe that have been changed. I can't put my finger on it, but a lot more has changed overnight."

Harry raised his eyebrow. He had been keeping the fact that the world had changed firmly in the back of his mind. For one, he did like the fact that there never was a Hogwarts for him to waste four years of his life in and there were other changes as well that he quite frankly liked. He couldn't put his finger on all of them though.

However, Lily didn't elaborate further. So if she didn't, then Harry didn't. His hand rested underneath her bare breasts when she shifted in his lap.

"I've been doing a lot of research with Circe and Morgaine," Lily said. She gave a nice a subtle grin. "They've honestly forgotten more Ancient Magicks over their life time than most people will ever learn in there's"

' _That's for sure,'_ Rose agreed with a smile crossing her face.

Lily smiled, there was another fact that she neglected to mention but it was kind of important. "The Red Sun launched successfully in the EU on December Eleventh. And as usual, you can't keep them on the shelves. There's going to be an amazing holiday rush. That was some perfect timing."

"It really was," Kara admitted. There was a smile on her face.

"So, what are you two working on?" Lily asked.

Before they could explain what happened, Lily got to her feet with one quick movement. She turned around and planted her lips on Harry. He returned, kissing her deeply. Their tongues brushed together in a passionate explosion.

Lily worked her hand behind and pulled Kara over. Kara took Lily's place on Harry's lap. The blonde smiled and things were about ready to get heated.

Extremely heated, heated enough to burn the snow off of the ground. Lily pulled away from Harry and then leaned towards Kara, giving her a passionate kiss. Kara returned it, pushing her tongue into Lily's mouth.

Lily slowly stripped Kara's clothes off of her. She fondled the girl's bra clad breasts briefly and caused moans to erupt from her body. Then she stripped her skirt off to reveal a lacy red thong, stockings, and a garter belt.

With a devious smile on her face, Lily shifted one of her fingers into Kara's dripping pussy. The redhead explored Kara's pussy walls. She made sure her son's eyes were on the situation. She smiled when his erect cock stood up and started to pulse.

Lily reached over and gave Harry a brief pump. She returned to her activities with Kara, stripping her until she was naked as Lily was. The blonde's breasts pushed against Lily's. They weren't Karen level yet but they were quite lovely in their own right.

Both girls pushed apart and allowed Harry to push his fingers on in, deep between their legs. He started pumping his fingers rapidly, causing them a lot of pleasure when he played with their dripping pussies. He worked them over and caused their moans to deepen.

Kara turned towards Harry and got down, licking his cock briefly. She engulfed his cock with her mouth briefly but stood up.

"I need you in me," Kara replied, and she mounted Harry's lap suddenly. Her dripping slit brushed against his rock hard cock.

"And now a new challenger enters the ring," Lily whispered. She would have had her fun later, but she did have enough earlier.

She grabbed Kara and practically impaled her upon Harry's cock. The green eyed wizard felt bliss and so did the blonde Kryptonian when she came down onto Harry.

"Oh fuck yes," Kara moaned. Her hot hips clenched around Harry when she pushed him up and brought herself down onto him.

Harry reached towards her and grabbed her breasts. He gave them a nice little squeeze and her eyes closed tightly in response.

"Take me, more, take me," Kara begged him. He placed his face in between her tits and started to suck them. The blonde was slowly losing her mind when he played with her.

The fun continued when Lily pushed two fingers into Kara's ass and started to pump them. The redhead encouraged Kara to ride Harry.

The blonde felt an orgasm that rocked her mind.

Harry smiled and got an idea.

"Mum, get on the desk," Harry ordered her.

Lily obeyed, slowly crawling backwards onto the desk. Her soaked pussy showed before Harry. Spreading her legs, Lily showed a tiny strip of red hair near her cunt. Her lips begged to be devoured and Kara smiled when she decided to take a taste of the redhead goddess before her.

Kara kneeled between Lily's legs and licked her lips. There was a hunger that couldn't be sated.

She felt Harry's cock pushed against her and he grabbed her from behind. Harry pushed himself deep into Kara.

He went balls deep into her tight pussy. She clenched him in response, with Harry pushing forward. His hand cupped the underside of her breast. She moaned when he treated her to a new kind of pleasure.

Kara decided that Lily wasn't to be neglected. She used her tongue to pleasure the redhead MILF that was beneath her.

Lily closed her eyes and Kara treated her pussy with expert ease. Her tongue vibrated at a rapid fire fury deep into her body. Lily reached up and grabbed her hands on the back of Kara's head. She closed her eyes and felt her pleasure spike.

Harry grabbed Kara's hips and continued to plunge himself into her. She watched Kara's hands toy with Lily's breasts while she at her out. This was a nice combination if Harry had to say so himself. He ran his hands all over her body.

"I think you're going to make me cum soon," Harry whispered.

It was obvious now that he already made Kara cum. He did so again and again and he did so constantly. Her hot hips clamped down onto him and Harry plowed into her hot body. The blonde felt him rocked deep within her depths.

Kara begged him to continue to work her over. Her hot thighs engulfed his manhood when he plunged into her body. Over and over again to the point where she was driven completely and utterly mad. Harry's hand placed on the underside of her breast and he squeezed it.

Harry plunged himself into her. Her tight, wet, hot pussy closed around him. There were seconds before his balls were about ready to burst.

Lily nearly blacked out but she kept herself wet at the promise of her son's cock deep inside her. Harry rammed himself into Kara harder.

Harry grunted and he pushed himself into Kara's hot, wet depths. The blonde closed her hips down onto him and he plunged deep into her in response.

Kara moaned when she got a series of miniature orgasms. The big one was coming and she knew that Harry would come along with her. His cum loaded balls smacked against her thighs.

Harry closed his eyes and nibbled on Kara's ear. That caused her to moan deep into Lily's pussy which was an erotic sight to say the very least.

His balls grew heavy with his cum and he shot his load into Kara. The blonde could feel him plant his seed deep into her womb.

Harry pulled out and allowed his cum to flow from Kara's pussy. Lily slid off the desk and onto the floor, beneath her spread legs. She held out her tongue and collected the overflowing juices onto it.

With her mouth pointed underneath Kara's dripping snatch, she spread her legs. Harry got down onto the floor and he inserted his re hardened cock into her.

"Take me Harry, oh god, take me!" Lily screamed at the top of her lungs. She felt Harry plow into her dripping hot snatch.

Harry grabbed his mother's hips and plowed into her. His throbbing cock entered her body over and over again. He slammed into her body at a rapid fire rate.

Lily sampled the sweet combined nectar that spilled from Kara, along with her son's hard cock entering her body. He pushed into her hot depths over and over again.

"Fuck me, oh fuck me all night long," Lily begged him. She wished she could do more in this position.

Harry's manhood plowed into her needy pussy several times. Lily returned fire, her hot thighs capturing Harry's manhood when he went into her.

Kara somehow sauntered her way down to the floor. Her snatch draped over Lily's mouth and she sampled her oral talents.

Harry reached over when he slammed into his mother. He rubbed Kara's clit, causing his fingers to extend so he could get over there completely.

"Oh, nice trick,' Kara whimpered. She felt her love button being pushed with the combined combination of both of them.

Harry felt his mother's back arch and her hot hips closed around him. The redhead's womanhood clutched around his tool. The woman's breathing heightened when Harry worked deep inside her.

"Fuck, fuck, oh fuck," Lily begged him.

"I don't think that I'm muffling you enough,' Kara whispered.

Lily did a trick with her tongue which caused Kara to be driven wild. She nearly passed out from the pleasure.

And speaking of nearly passing out, Harry's thick manhood plunging into Lily's dripping hot snatch nearly did the trick on her. The redhead's hips lifted and raised, engulfing his manhood deep into her body.

"Oh, you're so close," Harry informed her. He allowed his mother her orgasm and it was like pure magic.

One thing was for sure, she could orgasm beyond what anyone could do. Lily's hips thrashed up and down when Harry's manhood plowed into her.

She felt her god spike himself into her. She was so close to being undone.

"Stay with me," Harry informed Lily.

Lily nodded. They were reaching closer to the end. It might have sounded tacky but it was going to be like pure magic when they finished.

Kara slumped over Lily's face. Harry caught her before she collapsed completely and smothered Lily to death with her snatch. There could have been far worse ways to go.

"Oh, cum in me, please," Lily moaned. Her hot tight pussy held onto Harry's throbbing rod when he impacted her down hard on the ground. Her hips crushed against him when she squeezed his rod even harder.

Harry allowed himself to get free. He spilled his load into Lily. His beautiful mother thrashed and spasmed beneath him, shoving more of his cock deep inside her.

Her tight cunt milked him. Lily thought that she was backed up and she was proven correctly when Harry impacted his cum into her over and over again. He spilled his thick load into her amazingly tight body.

Lily collapsed in a shuddering wreck. Her son's cum draining from her body.

Kara and Lily situated themselves into a nice little sixty nine position. Harry turned and saw that Pamela was there.

"And how long have you been waiting there?" Harry asked.

"Long enough to be horny," she whispered, walking over to him. The two of them closed the gap and the fun was just beginning again.

Harry turned his attention to with Lily and Kara pretty much being wrecked.

* * *

 

Julian Day, the Calendar Man, shakily opened the door to his rather expensive apartment. Despite the fact that it was rather expensive, it was tastefully done. It was done in a certain order, where things were placed where he felt they should be. It gave off the impression of an eighties yuppie businessman. He wanted to project that imagine of refinement and class.

It would hide the darkness that lurked in his mind. Everything looked so normal. It was so unassuming. He walked forward and reached towards the couch. He calmly straightened a cushion so it would be properly aligned with the rest of the couch.

Day walked back to the door and shut the door. He bolted the three locks in a way that was rhymatic and almost creepy.

He slumped against the door, his back against it. The encounter he had tonight, it had shaken him. It upset him even more. When things did not go his way, he was upset.

"Thirty one days comes January, March, May, July, August, October, and December," he muttered underneath his breath. He flexed his hand, trying to prevent the instinct to bust something in frustration. "All the rest have thirty. But for February is a misfit in the sense that has twenty eight. Every four years though, it's seen in a different light. Every four years, leap year comes, and sets it all right."

He did a breathing exercise and repeated this mantra constantly. Over and over again he speaks. It took him several minutes to reach a sense of calm and tranquility.

He flickered on the light in the apartment so he did not stand completely to the dark. He casually limped over and turned on the stereo. He frowned and looked at it. He turned the dial down one decibel and nodded. It was just right.

He limped down the hallway. It took him only a matter of moments before he reached his destination, a locked door. He carefully unlocked it and pushed the door opened with a surprising and scary amount of count.

One might expect something extremely disturbing inside. While it did not lack that unsettling vibe, it did not come across as bad as things could be. There was a variety of calendars that rested on the walls, each of them turned to a different month of the year. There were dates crossed out and neatly written notes made to them.

There were also desk calendars, with neatly stacked dates ripped off. He sauntered over and casually removed today's date, because it had just passed midnight by his clock.

Some of the calendar's had pictures pinned it. One was the calendar for February 1998 which had a picture of Vicki Vale attached to it.

Day limped across the room and sit down at a desk where a December 1997 calendar was featured prominently. There were a couple of dates that were marked. Some of them have passed already.

The main date would lead all the way up to the Christmas season.

He casually picked up the calendar and lifted it up to his face. He glared at it with a great deal of intensity. His eyes didn't move. One could argue they were unblinking, and they would grow bloodshot because of how hard he stared at it.

His mantra remained silent. It didn't pass his lips in more than a whisper. He started to hum the Twelve Days of Christmas underneath his breath.

His eyes looked to a row of similar packages much like the one he threw at Batman. They all had been placed underneath his desk, carefully.

He looked at his package, they were all there, all organized. Day looked back to the calendar. His eyes diverted back to one sole and solitary date, of December Twenty-Fifth.

Christmas was coming and it was going to be the day where everything would be leading up. If Gotham thought that his Veteran's Day celebration was something amazing, they hadn't really seen anything yet.

"On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, four birds a calling, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a Partridge in a pair tree."

He placed the calendar down on the table. There was a solemn smile on his face when he ensured the calendar was completely straight on the desk.

* * *

 

It was the next day. Kara joined Amanda and Emily standing in line at the bank. They needed to make a withdrawal. Normally the three of them would use their credit. There was just only one problem. They wanted to buy Harry a Christmas present without it showing up in the records.

They couldn't very well go to an ATM because the amount they needed was a little more than that. The twins needed Kara to be with them because she had Alpha privileges and she was one of the few people who could authorize such a purpose.

Kara waited impatiently. She was dressed in a black outfit, except for the fact that her jacket at silver trim. Amanda wore a green jacket, with a black shirt, and a tight pair of blue jeans. Emily wore the same thing, only the colors of the shirt and jacket were released.

"So, do you know what anyone is getting Harry?" Amanda asked.

"You know, the less people who know the better, because of your inability to keep a secret, and you better keep this one, unless you want the contents of your diary becoming public," Emily commented to her.

"Hey, I'm getting better at keeping secrets, and I didn't tell them about the time where you….." Amanda said. She trailed off when she realized that she was coming close to saying something that she shouldn't. "See, I didn't say anything."

Kara was curious at one point. At the same time, she didn't really need to know. Actually, she didn't want to know.

"Diana, Faora, and Karen are going together on their gift for him," Kara said, with a smile. "I don't know what. And a few of the other girls are doing something similar."

"I'd like the gift of a faster moving line myself," Amanda said. She tapped her foot impatiently and Emily reached forward in response, to pat her sister on the end.

"Maybe we can get you the gift of patience this holiday season, Mandy," Emily commented with a cheeky grin on her face.

"Maybe I should give you the gift of a spanking this holiday season, Emmy," Amanda bit back. Emily frowned and Kara stared at both of them.

"Ladies, don't make me give both of you that gift," Kara said. "So how's school for both of you?"

Amanda shrugged in response. "Oh, you know, school is school. It seems like no matter what tax bracket you're in, you're going to have a lot of drama."

"Yeah and you see a lot of people sniping at each other because of what their parents did," Emily added. "Good thing we have our own social circle that's above a lot of things."

"But we still have to deal with the soap opera crap from a distance," Amanda said with a shrug. "We don't really concern ourselves that much with it, you know."

"The less drama the better," Kara commented with a smile.

"I'm just glad that we survived this term," Amanda said. She turned towards Kara with a questioning look in her eyes. "Is university kind of like that?"

"Oh, well it's worse, almost," Kara admitted. She frowned deeply when she looked at the twin. "Everyone is trying to get in favor with the top people in class. Maybe they're trying to score some ass or get some help with their academics so they don't get kicked off the sports team. There's a lot of gossip. And it's weirder in some ways, isn't it?"

"Exactly how so?" Amanda asked.

"Well you have a wider variety of people coming in, from different parts of the country and in a couple of cases from different parts of the world," Kara said, shaking her head. "That would be a mess, if you didn't even factor in the fact that some of them act like horny teenagers."

"And what about the professors?" Emily asked.

"Well they're not too different from a lot of the students, and I'm sure there's a lot of drama going on behind the scenes with them, too," Kara admitted. "And yes, a lot of them act like horny teenagers as well."

"Good place to scout talent though, isn't it?" Amanda asked.

Kara bit down on her lip deep in thought. She was trying to figure out a way how to choose her words carefully.

"It's not bad, but you know that Harry has his own ways of scouting talent," Kara said. "And he's more selective these days. And it's all about the thrill of the hunt for him. Cornering his prey and make them want it."

The twins didn't have a chance to respond to that. There was a sound of shattering glass, followed by the alarm going off. Several men scrambled into the bank with guns drawn at them.

The most peculiar thing about these men was that all of them wore suits but they wore animal masks. The one who stood out the most wore a Frog mask, with a red hoody pulled up over her face.

One of the security guards made a movement towards the gang. That didn't end too well for him. He was plugged by two of the gang members.

"Alright, on the ground, everyone get on the ground!" one of them yelled. He was wearing a Lemur mask and he looked absolutely intend to kill.

' _Just follow his orders for now,'_ Kara thought urgently to the twins. _'There's too many witnesses to do anything right now….just get down, it will be okay.'_

The twins looked like they were about ready to protest. Kara was right though, they couldn't do anything with this many people around.

The security wasn't that useful either. Everyone got on the ground as intended. Now that the crowd was under control, the man in the frog mask gave orders.

"Get to the vault!" he said. A pig, a gorilla, and a devil masked men all nodded.

The three split off from the group and the other three of them stayed with the leader of the gang. They were going to keep the main area of the bank in check.

It didn't take too long for them to liberate what they wanted from the vault. The robbers efficiently went about what they wanted to do.

"All of you, keep it to the ground, and you can go home to your families this holiday season!" the Red Hooded man yelled. "Anyone who tries to be a hero…..well this city isn't any place for heroes. This city is the type of place that watches heroes burn. And we're set the fire!"

Kara's ear picked up the sound of gunfire from the back of the bank. She was sure that Amanda and Emily also picked up these hideous sounds of gunfire as well. There was shouting that came next and almost a whooping cheer that followed things. Another round of gunfire was followed.

Things grew deathly quiet. Those who were still in the lobby of the Bank thought for a mere second they had gone deaf.

The robbers left the back of the bank. Each carried three duffel bags between them.

"Where the fuck is the Devil?" Red Hood asked.

Pig responded with a solemn voice. "There was a guard hiding in the back, trying to be a hero. He shot Devil. We capped his ass."

"Good, I'm glad," Red Hood commented. The sounds of sirens blared outside to show that the GCPD SWAT team arrived on the scene.

Someone must have tipped them off. Red Hood cursed his luck when he saw that the SWAT arrived on the scene, well before the other members of the GCPD.

There was a huge bounty on his head from all of the people he stole from and he pissed off. The SWAT, being the mercenaries they were, were ready to collect themselves a little Christmas bonus at his expense.

"Get your ass forward, or we will shoot!"

Red Hood saw Snipers on the roof across the street from the bank and they were on the ground. He frowned. He doubted very much that he would accept their surrender.

"You know, I don't think that you have the balls to shoot with all of these people here!" Red Hood taunted them.

The SWAT responded by opening fire on the bank , not caring that they could hit innocent people in response. Their bullets came just short of hitting anyone but that wasn't the point.

The Red Hood gang prepared to fire back and SWAT was going to launch tear gas canisters into the building.

Suddenly, in the midst of the chaos, a bright black and silver blur shot forward. It moved faster than a speeding bullet.

One second both sides fired at each other. The next moment, the SWAT and the Red Hood gang were all taken out. There was a series of cracks that could be heard.

Both sides were disarmed instantly and the dust finally cleared. Whoever did this was completely gone.

The bank robbers and the cops fell to the ground to the ground. It seemed like an eternity passed but it was only several seconds.

Amanda and Emily turned to Kara, who had a cheeky grin on her face. She slowly pulled her hair from her ponytail.

The three of them straightened up before anyone could catch on to their silent conversation.

* * *

 

The actual Red Hood walked forward, wearing a Bill Clinton mask, and his actual crew walked side by side with him. They were just wrapping up a successful robbery of a Money Launderer who worked for the Commission of Crime.

"Worked like a charm boys, worked like a charm," The Red Hood said, excitement brimming from his voice when he spoke. "That dummy gang kept the SWAT off of us, and that tip I called in diverted them away from us."

This was what they called a banner day. The real Red Hood gang walked away. You throw enough scratch at anyone and they'd help you move the world.

* * *

 

Harry decided that now was the perfect time to head to the Museum where Diana worked with Helena Sandsmark. This was the perfect opportunity he had been waiting for, to make good on the favor Diana asked him of a short while back.

"Doctor Sandsmark is this way, Doctor Potter," Margaret Sorrow told him when she walked next to him. She casually eyed him up, but was rather subtle for her.

Harry appreciated the assistance. Helena wasn't up in her office when he got there and he literally, almost, ran into Margaret when he was there. She was showing him the way there and also giving him a tour.

"There have been a lot of changes recently with the museum, there should be an upswing of business when Spring comes,' Margaret told him. "Thanks to our mysterious benefactor."

"A lot has changed," Harry admitted to her. She looked towards him with a knowing grin on her face. "It's been a long time since I've been to the museum properly."

"Oh, well that's a shame, isn't it?" Margaret asked. She tried not to get lost in his eyes, even though they were so shiny. "It's a really shame."

She cleared her throat and also her head shaking it.

"Here's the new exhibit that Doctor Sandsmark is working on," Margaret said. Harry followed her to the location where it was beings et up.

No sooner did he see there, he saw Cassie Sandsmark sitting on a bench. She was quiet for the most part, doing her homework. Every now and then, Harry could see a frown cross her face, like she had swallowed something sour and rancid.

He spotted Helena off in the distance, she was setting up a display.

"Thank you for something me the way," Harry told her. He was going to wait for Doctor Sandsmark to finish.

Margaret took her leave. In the meantime, Harry decided to park himself down to Cassie on the bench. She nearly jumped about three feet in the air. It was obvious whilst she was doing her homework, she was also enamored in listing to music on a disc-man.

' _Obviously why she didn't notice you until you pretty much came into her line of sight,'_ Diana replied in amusement.

"Oh, Doctor Potter, I didn't see you come," Cassie muttered in a sheepish voice. "You're here to see my mother, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," Harry confirmed to her. "But I saw that she's busy supervising the set up for another display, so I'm going to wait."

"Yeah, it's best that you do, you don't want to bother Mom when she's working on her old crap," Cassie said. Harry raised his eyebrow at her. "Sorry."

"I couldn't help but notice that you were making a face like you swallowed sour milk when you were working on your homework," Harry said. Cassie looked at him, folding her arms. She gave him a swift nod. "I'd help you if you'd like."

"Oh that'd be great, I'm dying over here," Cassie said graciously. Her frown deepened when she leaned in closer to him. "It's my math homework, and I don't quite get the concept to be honest with you."

"Well a lot of people don't get math, so don't worry," Harry said. Magic and math didn't really mix too fluidly from what he recalled.

"And I do pretty good in everything else, especially history," Cassie said.

"I wonder why that is," Harry replied.

"Well, I guess that my mother's lectures are good for something," Cassie admitted, folding her arms over her chest. "I guess that's the case, because she knows what she's talking about."

"Let's see if I can help you there," Harry said. "And it says show your work."

"I wonder if I can get away with showing a teacher a calculator," Cassie said frowning.

"I wouldn't recommend that," Harry said, raising his eyebrow.

' _You know, she doesn't seem so hung up on you like most women are,'_ Donna commented. _'That must be a change.'_

' _Only ten, give her time,'_ Amanda reminded her without taking a breath. _'And as you might have noticed, she's kind of distracted by someone else.'_

' _Diana!'_ Lyta chimed in, without any amount of subtly.

' _What did I do?'_ Diana asked. She felt she came into the conversation late to the party.

Donna really wished that she could mute her younger sister. She didn't have Alpha privileges, so she couldn't. She might abuse that power just a tad.

The homework was finished up just in time for Helena to pop up. She looked kind of surprised but really happy to see him there.

"Harry, this is a pleasant surprise," she said, bubbling over with excitement as she said it.

Harry stood up so he could greet her properly. "I was in the area, so I'd figure that I'd stop by. And I've been meaning to take a look at the new exhibits. Diana mentioned that I would be interesting in seeing the exhibit that you were working on."

She smile brightly in response. She appreciated the fact he showed an interesting.

"I'll show it to you," Helena commented with a momentary smile on her face. She lead him over towards the most recent display.

Harry walked by a display that had some pieces of jewelry that was discovered during her last dig. As interesting as that was, that was not the thing that caught Harry's attention.

' _Is that what I think that it is?'_ Kara asked.

' _Yes, that's exactly what you think it is,'_ Karen commented. She could not believe it.

' _Well, you're right in the sense that's going to prove to be interesting,'_ Faora thought.

There was a pair of mannequins wearing an extremely exquisite gold armor. It looked like humanoid hawks for lack of a better term. Harry blinked for a second in genuine shock. There was numerous banter by those who were in the know and for those who weren't, they would get filled in pretty suit.

There was a male and a female. Harry frowned.

"Do you might if I take a closer look?" Harry asked.

Helena nodded. She looked a little impulsive, which was strange considering the fact that she was most of the time fairly reserved.

Harry was able to sense a strange level of energy coming off of them after she lead him closer to the display.

' _Nth metal,'_ Faora confirmed. _'It's long since gone inert though. It's lost a lot of it's inherent power due to how old it is.'_

Harry let out an impressed whistle, with Helena giving him the eye.

"Where exactly did you find this?" Harry asked.

"Egypt….well it's obvious that it's Egypt," Helena said. "It was in the middle of nowhere basically, it was an undiscovered temple, and inside it was a tomb. It was pretty much out of the way. You had to be pretty much searching for something to discover it."

Helena's voice dropped into a shocked whisper. Harry leaned in to discuss further matters with her.

"It was far off the beaten path," she added with a frown. "It was a bit of a gamble to get in there actually, since all I had was a couple of very old scrolls that all seemed to point to the same location. It was way up the Nile."

"I see," Harry said, impressed.

"There may have been settlements there, and I'm planning on returning this Spring to see what I else I can uncover," Helena remarked. She seemed to be in a pretty good mood to be honest.

Her good mood was infectious. Harry decided to strike while the iron was pretty hot. "I have to admit, seeing the exhibits wasn't the only reason that I was here."

Helena raised her eyebrow.

"I was wondering if you would like to join me for dinner sometime after Christmas," Harry said. He gave this statement so bluntly that it caught Helena off guard.

It took her a couple of moments to catch her bearings, before she answered. "Yes, I'd like to"

"Are you hungry now?" Harry asked. Helena paused and looked at him. She nodded slowly. "There's a get together tonight with a couple of other girls from the university this evening. Cassie and you are welcomed to join."

* * *

 

The scene was an abandoned parking garage in one of the nicer parts of Gotham City. It was pretty quiet there at the moment, almost tranquil come to think about it. One wouldn't consider it to be so odd when they considered that it was later in the evening. The weather continued to assault the city.

The squeal of tires indicated that several vehicles pulled up and parked across from each other. There were two big black SUVs. They were large almost to the point of absurd overcompensation for something.

A limo pulled to the other side and a much smaller SUV pulled up alongside that. A moment passed, before several men exited from their cars.

Black Mask and his men exited the SUV. The Penguin exited the limo, along with Mr. Walrus and several thugs. The two sides stared each other down like a pair of gunslingers in the old west.

"Down to business then," Black Mask said.

"To business," Penguin agreed. There would always be a tension between these two but it was a marriage of convenience. "How are things going as of late?"

"I think it's been going well, but that's just my opinion," Black Mask told him. His voice came off in a hoarse whisper. "Thorne doesn't even realize that we're both working against him. And the Commission has been getting it really hard."

"There's one little problem though, and we both know it," The Penguin said. He clutched the handle of his umbrella. As long as Black Man's men didn't move from their position, they didn't have a problem.

"The Package, Falcone's men got in our way, so it didn't reach the right location," Black Mask said. He cracked his knuckles.

"How much damage did the explosion at the Distribution Center do to your side of the business?" Penguin asked. Black Mask stared back at him. "I heard it fucked things up really nicely."

"It did fuck all to it," Black Mask said. He looked at him. "At least fuck all to the criminal side of my operation. The Distribution Center is used for the legitimate side of my business. Nothing at all to do with the criminal side, that's all done in house, since I don't want some random asshole to fuck things up."

Penguin nodded. One looking into his face might have speculated that he just got a bad case of indigestion. The reason was that he paid good money for some information that turned out to be wrong.

"Zucco's been making some overtures on Maroni's half," Black Mask informed him. "He says that he might be willing to do more to take it to Thonre, if I'm willing to help take it to Falcone."

Penguin looked thoughtful. "Hmm, there's an idea that has some potential. We might need to look it that one."

* * *

 

A little bit later, Harry, Helena, and Cassie arrived at the restaurant. It was far more relaxed, not too much like the high class places that Harry and his wives sometimes frequented.

There was quite a motley crew there. Harry noticed Barbara first of all, who picked up Lois from school. Harleen and Pamela were there as well. Sapphire showed up, inviting Alexa along with the ride. Diana brought Donna and also Bethanie showed up.

Harry spotted Rex Mason sitting at the bar with a stoic expression on his face. He didn't really make eye contact. It appeared that he was just here as the designated driver for Alexa and Sapphire.

Harry pulled out seats for the Sandsmarks to sit down. They did so and that allowed Harry to take his seat next to Pamela and Harley.

Pamela leaned in close to her. "Kara and the Twins called earlier to say that they'd be running late. There was some kind of incident that happened at the bank."

"Nothing serious, I hope," Harry said. He frowned, this was the first that he heard of this. Then again, there had been a busy afternoon.

"They need to give a statement at the GCPD," Pam said, shrugging her shoulder. "They will be here with Sarah and Vicki in a little bit."

Barbara heard Sarah's name and she looked on with surprise. "Exactly how do you know Detective Essen?"

"We met during the kidnapping attempt on the twins and she asked me out," Harry said. Barbara frowned for a brief second and nodded.

"In your world, that makes sense," Barbara said. "I guess that you have the weirdest luck when it comes to things like that."

"You better believe it," Harry commented to her. He saw Harleen staring out of him out of the corner of her eyes.

Staring might have been too strong of a word but she was intently looking at him. One could argue she paid him a great deal of attention.

"How are you doing?" Harry asked. "It's been while since I've had a chance to ask."

Harley beamed at having his undivided attention on her. "Oh, I've been busy as well, not as busy as you, but I've been busy. And you know that I got the internship at Blackgate. Talking to most of those people….not exactly the most interesting people in the world. Some of them threatened to stab me if I didn't shut the fuck up and Jonathan Carne, well he's pretty creepy."

"I can only imagine," Harry muttered dryly with a chuckle. He could feel someone's hand brush against his lap. He didn't have a chance to see who it was due to being preoccupied a little bit.

Harley continued to rattle on about what she was going. That was cut short due to the fact that Harry's phone, a prototype of the next version of the Red Sun, dinged. He carefully fished it out of his pocket. He smiled at the puppy dog eyes Barbara was giving him. He would have let out a light chuckle as well.

He carefully read the message and he hit send in response.

"Sorry about that, had to take care of something," Harry said. He put his phone away like nothing else was the matter. "So, how are the rest of you doing?"

* * *

 

Jaime was down in the Lair, looking at the map. She waited patiently. It became clear what she was doing a moment later when the map suddenly went off line.

It rebooted itself. The fairly detailed, but still limited by range, map that Nightwing, Talon, and Black Canary used faded away. It was now replaced by a super detailed three dimensional holographic mp of Gotham City.

It was no longer limited by range or location since Harry just hacked into every Red Sun in Gotham to act like their suit was.

Jamie wasn't really surprised when a location popped up on the map. It should the current whereabout of the Calendar Killer or what she assumed it to be. She tried not to look too smug when she contacted Batman.

"Yes," Batman said, in his usual Batman voice.

"I think we have him."

* * *

**To Be Continued On 1/18/2015.**


	79. Twelve Days of Christmas Part Five

**Chapter Seventy-Nine: Twelve Days of Christmas Part Five.**

* * *

 

The location of the Calendar Man was finally pinpointed. That left Batman in position to arrive at the location that they indicated where the Calendar Man was supposed to be. It was believed, perhaps foolishly by some, that this could be wrapped up before Christmas.

Batman staked out the apartment where the Calendar Killer was supposed to take up residence in. It was a pretty expensive, very exclusive apartment complex in one of the nicer districts of Gotham. Batman deduced that either the Calendar Man was pretty well off or at least he was well off enough someone who was.

"A closer address would be ideal," Batman commented.

"We can't have everything that we want," Talon reported. She was dry when she worked on her mission support role. "But I've been able to isolate everything down to a general area. Narrowed down to an apartment on the seventeenth floor. And no need to thank me, I can already sense your appreciation."

Batman made his way up to the rooftop and adjusted his HUD so it functioned in line with how the map was. That allowed him to better pinpoint the general location. The detective was in position, all he would need to do is find a way inside and he would have it.

He slipped carefully through the rooftop access point. Dropping down to the ground, he positioned himself and followed the display.

Batman reached what he wanted. It was a corner apartment which he promptly picked the lock. He slipped into the apartment quietly.

The apartment was empty. There wasn't any trace of anyone inside. And it appeared at first glance that the person who owned the apartment had not been inside for quite some time.

Batman, ever the detective, wasn't about to give up without a closer look around the apartment. He searched it from top to bottom for several minutes until he came to one grim conclusion.

There was no clue as to who the Calendar Killer's truly was.

"No fingerprints or anything that indicates any kind of person every lived here," Batman said. "And it almost seems like no one has lived here. I'm going to pass you alone the unit number and the dress before searching the apartment more carefully."

"Right," Talon commented. The information was transferred for her. "Got it."

Batman continued to search the apartment. It appeared to be a futile search at first.

There was a door that was at the end of the hallway. He looked closely and there were signs that it was recently accessed, even though there were no finger prints.

He pushed the door open and walked inside what appeared to be some kind of shrine or perhaps a Stalker Cave would be a better description. He took notice of all of the calendars that was on the wall. Most of them featured dates prominently that have already passed. A great number of them went back an extremely long way and were an interesting look into the psychosis of this madman. A quick search saw the calendars went back as far as Nineteen-Eighty.

Significant dates marked off on the calendar and there were newspaper articles clipped to them regarding the day in question. This also included some crimes he committed in the past. Those stretched out all the way to last spring, although they were on the smaller end of things scale wise. It was as if the Calendar Killer tested the water.

There was no location regarding future crimes though. That portion of the investigating was completely lacking. He frowned and looked underneath the desk for anything that would be available.

He noticed a very familiar bomb that was underneath the desk. They resembled the ones the suspect turned up at him.

"I found something," Batman said.

"I wondering if you did, you got quiet, even for you," Talon replied. She decided to get straight to the point. "What did you find?"

"The killer took a lot of information with him, anything that might hint to what he's planning," Batman told her. "It's more of an archive to his past crimes, a shrine to what happened in the past, and a shrine to the past."

Jaime took a few seconds to sink that information in.

"He left the bombs here, but they were all disarmed," Batman continued. "And he has several calendars here."

"Do they tell you anything?" Talon asked.

Batman's voice became slightly annoyed by this line of questioning. "It dates back to a couple of days ago but it's an archive more than anything. The calendars were all made by the same company."

He scanned the room to get the information that was needed back to Talon. They hadn't been able to find any information about future crimes but if there was one scrap of evidence here, they would be able to locate what was going on.

"No closer to capturing our target," Batman said. "It's best if with contact the GCPD, and inform them what they'll find here."

Talon sounded smug. "I guess great minds thing alike, because that's exactly what I'm doing."

Batman gave one last sweep around the area. He was searching for something, anything. The fact there wasn't a fingerprint, a trace of hair, a fingernail, or anything else indicated that the killer was extremely meticulous.

If his order got removed, then he would lose it. He would be sloppy and make mistakes. He already very nearly slipped up the other night.

* * *

 

Another group worked busily at the Clocktower. Nightwing, Talon ,Black Canary, and Oracle spread themselves throughout the control room. Information was the name of the game. They had a lot of information but it didn't really fit together in any conceivable way.

"If there's any luck, we can use some of this to put together a profile of the Calendar Killer," Nightwing said. He knew that they were one vital piece away from cracking the case. For all he knew, he had it right now, they just didn't know it. "And with any luck, we should find out exactly who he is."

"I don't suppose that having his address would help," Oracle commented dryly.

"In theory, it would be pretty easy, but nothing is this easy, especially in Gotham City," Talon answered back.

Oracle did some digging. Her frown grew even deeper when she ran through the information that she have.

"The person who owns that address, he doesn't match the profile of the person found in the alleyway," Oracle continued. Her frown got deeper when she got more information. "Most likely because the he is a she and it's an old woman who has been dead for ten years."

"That just makes things even more messed up," Nightwing added. "Maybe you can see if you can find anymore….."

"Well I've been able to find out that there's someone who has been making payments for about ten years or so," she commented. She wished that she had more information than she did. "I'll see if I can dig up information."

While she was doing that, Black Canary, Nightwing, and Talon went back to getting together a profile of the Calendar Killer. They needed to find out exactly who he was. They got a lot of information available to them but there was also a lot of questions that needed to be answered.

"Figure he's got to be an older male in his mid-thirties, maybe up to his mid-forties," Black Canary muttered. "It's unlikely he's any younger and older than that. He's short, around the area of about two hundred, two hundred twenty pounds or so."

"But the limp is the most obvious telltale sign of him," Harry commented. He snapped his fingers. "He's suffering from some kind of physical deformity. His right leg is shorter than his left leg and that's causing him to limp."

"And obviously, he's obsessed with dates and calendars," Talon said. "He's a man of routine, he's going to commit his crimes on certain dates of the month."

"And he won't deviate from that pattern," Nightwing replied. His frown got deeper. "And if there's something that causes him to deviate from that pattern, it's going to cause him to lose control."

"And that's when you think that he'll become desperate?" Black Canary asked. Nightwing responded by nodding in affirmation.

"And that's when I think he'll become desperate, once that routine is shaken," Nightwing responded. There was more than this that met the eye, they were sure.

"Don't forget the information Batman dug up," Talon reminded him. "There's plenty of evidence his past crimes are taking a lot longer than we thought at first. There were a couple of missing person cases filed last spring but it was mostly people who weren't going to be missed in the first place."

"And considering it's Gotham, it's not strange for people to go missing mysteriously," Black Canary added.

"He started on a smaller scale, but the scope of his crimes increased," Nightwing responded. "When he decided to start getting fixated on the dates, the urge to become bigger and more grandiose increased."

"The nine mothers on the nine month for labor day," Black Canary whispered. Nightwing nodded in response.

"Exactly."

Barbara looked at something and suddenly out of the blue she piped up.

"Ah ha!" she cheered. She would have pumped her fist up in the air in celebration if she didn't look too absurd about it. The three heroes turned towards her, looking at her strangely. She looked rather calm and collected. "Oh, I did some digging and I found out that a series of payments were made to the woman's bank account that matched the payments to the house."

Oracle continued to speak, trying not to look too smug and self assured with herself because no one liked that.

"I tracked those accounts back to a different bank, where it was a lot harder to track," Oracle stated. "There were a series of small payments that were being made into it that worked out to the amount that was transferred into the woman's bank account. I tracked them back to a single account belonging to one man."

Oracle decided to leave the information hanging. Nightwing leaned into her, with an imploring eyebrow raised when he looked at her.

"Well don't leave us in suspense."

"His name is Julian Gregory Day and he is suffering from a severe form of a leg length inequality," Oracle said.

The gazes of Black Canary, Talon, and Nightwing met each other. It was becoming obvious that this was their man.

"And what's more, he's a fairly skilled inventor," Oracle continued. She was getting more excited when she described the information she found. She was almost like an overexcited second grader giving a book report about their favorite book. "He created a very sleek combination of calendar clocks."

"So why exactly did he have Dumpler work on the devices that were used in the Veteran's Day bombing?" Talon asked.

"Not sure," Oracle commented. "He's now the sole owner of a business that provides office supplies. And it should be no surprise that there's a focus on calendars and clocks of various sorts. And he used to be partner with a man named William Temple Fugate."

"What happened to Fugate?" Nightwing asked.

"He ended up getting bought out," Oracle informed him.

Talon was surprised about something and she was bound to say about that much. "Day, now that the name rings a bell."

"How does it ring a bell?" Black Canary asked.

"I had a meeting for him for an office supply contract," Talon said. It was obvious that there was something about Day she considered to be a poor recommendation. "I ended up going with a different company since there was something about him that didn't sit right with me."

Nightwing looked grim. "I guess we now know what it is."

"And we found that missing puzzle piece that we've been searching for," Oracle commented. "I guess it's time to compare notes with the big bad Bat."

Nightwing was on that already.

"It's me," Nightwing stated without preamble. "We have information for you."

"I'm listening," Batman said. He already was in the process of putting together a profile of the man but he obviously didn't have as much time to research it as the crew at the Clocktower did.

Nightwing launched into an explanation of what he found. Batman intently listened to every single word that he said. The Detective was surprised.

"You sure, it's Day?" Batman asked.

"The evidence sends a big blinking arrow pointing in his face," Nightwing responded. "We're going to make sure all of the relevant evidence gets to the MCU of the GCPD. A physical copy should be given to my contact at the GCPD, along with Gordon. And also, Vicki Vale will be told."

"Not to bury it," Batman answered.

"Correct."

* * *

Depending on what kind of person that you were, it was either later that night or extremely early the next morning. Regardless, Selina was in her office at the Cat's Cradle. She was doing the absolutely tedious and mind numbing task of late night paperwork. She normally did this first thing in the evening but she wanted to get it done right now.

Harry and Alex were supposed to arrive shortly to pick her up. She wasn't sure when that was going to be but it was in a little bit. In the meantime, she distracted herself with the tedious nature of paperwork.

Slowly, perhaps instinctively, she bent over the desk. She preferred to stand when she worked, rather than sit down. It was just a lot easier to get things done this way. Some club music played in the background over the speaker system. It was far quieter than the usual fare that played during the peak hours of business.

A knock on the door announced someone was arriving. That caused her to stand up a bit straighter in surprise. The Club was empty at the last time she checked. That prompted Selina to stand up straight. She was alert much like a cat preparing to corner its prey.

Her eyes narrowed when she saw Carmine Falcone of all people standing there. The more she focused on him, the more her eyes narrowed into slits. Selina took a calming breath.

"What are you doing here?" Selina asked. She tried not to hiss but it was hard to keep the contempt out of her voice.

"It's been a while since we've had a chance to see each other," Carmine commented in his usual soft voice. "Mario said that the two of you had a falling out and I wanted to make sure that you were coping."

Selina wondered what his angle was. He came across cold, distant father, who hadn't spoken to his child in ages because of the distance he purposely put between them. She wasn't too happy to see anyone with the last name Falcone because of what happened Mario.

He didn't know what exactly happened regarding Mario, she figured. That would prove to be interesting.

"I'm fine," Selina said coolly.

"I see you've moved up in the world at this club, how's that going for you?" Carmine asked.

"Good," Selina said in a chipped voice.

"You've been taking care of yourself alright, haven't you?" Carmine asked her. "You haven't been getting any problems from anyone?"

"No one has given me any problems that I can't handle," Selina responded swiftly. She was pretty frigid in her response.

Carmine Falcone wasn't an idiot. He got where he was in life by being an extremely smart man. He was smart enough to pick up an undercurrent of hostility. He decided to move in for something that he was thinking about.

"It seems like your business has been going well," Carmine replied. Selina nodded crisply. She didn't have a chance to answer that question because Carmine pressed forward. "I was surprised that you recently got in bed, that's to say into business, with Harry Potter of all people."

Selina wondered how he found that out.

"My old man always used to say that the Potters always had an eye for talent," Carmine continued, eying her up as he spoke.

"As I said the business has been going well so far," Selina commented.

"Selina, I know how independent you are," Carmine replied. "And I also know that when you say that there weren't any problems that you couldn't handle yourself, that means that there were problems and you thought that you could handle it yourself."

"It was fine until Jansen got himself involved in my business," Selina said rather bitingly. "I asked Mario for help but he said no. He's not a problem anymore."

"No, I heard someone decided to take him out," Carmine said briskly. He wasn't going to shed tears for Gentleman Jim Jansen. That was how business went in Gotham City.

Sometimes you just had to take someone out because no one else was going to do it for you.

"He's not a problem anymore," Selina said. She hoped that he was suffering right now. He deserved far worse than the worst she could do.

"No, he's not, but this is the third time that I've heard that there was this falling out between you and Mario," Carmine commented. The quotation marks could almost be heard on the falling out. "What the hell happened between the two of you?"

"Why do you even care?" Selina asked, evading the question calmly and casually.

"I made a promise to your mother….."

Carmine was cut short of completing that statement by the arrival of two people. Harry and Faora turned up right there.

Selina thought that Harry and Alex couldn't have been more prompt with their timing. Carmine turned his attention away from her and locked eye to eye with Harry Potter.

"Well, the famous Doctor Potter, I've been meaning to introduce myself to you for some time now," Carmine commented. "Carmine Falcone."

"Yes, I've heard of you, and what you've done for Gotham City," Harry responded. There was a stoic look on his face. There was a tense moment between the two of them. "A pleasure to meet you Mr. Falcone."

"It would be an honor if the two of us could do business one day," Carmine continued. "I think that it would be in the best interest of the future of Gotham City if we worked together. Otherwise, chaos will consume the city."

Carmine stared Harry straight in the eyes.

"Well, your homecoming has gotten you to be ambitious, Mr. Falcone," Harry said to him. "But, I think that ambition comes in many forms, as you might as well have figured out. And sometimes, things need to change. That's what the RAO corporation is all about. It's all about change and I'm all about working to change the future of Gotham City."

The Roman stared down what appeared to be a green eyed dragon, at least from his perspective. There was a friendly tone to his statement, but there was something about what he said that made him uneasy.

"I can see that you have business here and I respect that," Carmine commented. "The two of us, we will meet again, I'm certain."

"Yes, we will, and watch your back, Mr. Falcone," Harry said. He smirked obviously when he stared him down. His burning eyes met Falcone's. "It's a dark and dismal world out there."

Carmine nodded and took his leave.

Selina made sure that she was gone. She had one of those looks into her eyes, locking the office door.

Then without preamble, she rushed Harry and pounced him, slamming him into the desk. She wasn't in the mood for any kind of foreplay, she needed release and now. 

Selina groped Harry's cock roughly in her hand. She slowly stroked him up and down and allowed him to grow in her hand.

Harry could feel her rip his clothes away. Her dress was pulled away for a moment. He saw Faora sitting in the chair beside them, with a smile.

' _Better to let her let out her aggressions, trust me on that one,'_ Faora mentally stated to him. She gave Harry a knowing smile.

Selina's panties were pulled out and she grabbed his hardened cock. She impaled herself down onto his manhood.

The woman felt completely better when his thick cock parted her walls. She pulled herself up and down.

"I don't supposed that it would do any good to tell you to slow down," Harry said. She responded by roughly grabbing his face, digging her nails into his face. Selina closed her eyes and shoved her tongue down his mouth with a kiss.

The two of them battled for extreme fury. Selina won for a moment due to sheer determination. Not to be out done, Harry reached underneath her dress and roughly grabbed her ass. He moved that two could play this game.

Harry pulled out of her, rolled her back onto the desk and slammed her down hard. He tore down the top half of her dress and exposed her nice breasts.

Selina moaned when Harry leaned down and bit on them.

"Do it, do it, I swear to fucking god, you better be back inside of me before I….."

Selina's bravado was cut short because Harry slammed into her. She spread her legs to allow him to go into her. She wanted all of him into her and she wasn't going to hold back for any reason whatsoever. She kept pumping herself up towards him. Her panting escalated when he kept working into her body.

The dark haired woman lifted her hips up and met with Harry's thrusts. He speared inside her constantly. So many times Selina thought that she was going to be split open with his throbbing hard cock.

She realized that was what he wanted. His thigh balls slammed against her. The sound of flesh slapping on flesh was intense. He groped her breasts and she moaned, arching her back. She wanted him to treat her like a whore, she wanted him to treat him like his whore.

"You know, we're going to wake up half of the neighborhood if you're not careful," Alex told her with a smile.

"Gag me then!" Selina yelled. She knew of the means that her girlfriend would use to gag her and she was excited about it.

"If you insist," she commented.

Selina grabbed her roughly by the thighs and pushed her pussy down onto her mouth. She pressed her lips to her and pretty much inhaled her pussy juices.

Harry could see is sister's lust boiling through her eyes. He took this moment to balance Selina's legs up by his shoulders. He pushed himself into her and spread her molten lips out. Her silken caress brought him closer into her.

Selina pushed up towards him and pumped his manhood into her body. The dark haired woman was feeling the burst of pleasure. Her nipples poked out and looked tempting. Harry alternated between one and Alex took the other.

Both children of Zod wanted to help her take out her aggressions. Faora grinded her pussy over and over again on Selina's face, making the hot woman work her for her treat.

"I think she wants it a little rougher," she whispered. She groped Selina's chest while she grinded onto her face.

"I think that I can make her scream for more," Harry said. His fingers pushed into either side of her thighs and he got her screaming and howling in pleasure. Harry understood what bringing a woman to the edge was all about and he was going to make her beg for more.

He was going to make her beg for absolutely everything. His throbbing cock parted her silken walls when he went down between her legs. She thrust her hips up and caused him to slip inside her again. He was this close to causing her to scream twice as nice.

Selina bucked her hips up and felt the burning sensation rise through her thighs. She was trying to coax his cum out of him, using every single trick she knew.

Her white hot cunt closed around him and started to milk his prick. She squeezed it, needing his cum now.

As it turned out he made her cum hard on her own. Alex also came hard in her mouth and Selina shifted her head so she could properly nibble on Alex's clit.

Harry was the only one out of the trio that was yet to cum. He molested Selina's tits and pumped her pussy with his twelve inch manhood.

"I think she wants your cum," Alex added. There was almost a taunting to her voice when she casually played with Selina's tits. "Do you want him to cum, do you want him to cum?"

"Yes, oh yes, oh fuck yes," Selina begged. She wanted even more.

Harry's thick manhood speared into her dripping quim.

"CUM DAMN YOU!" Selina yelled, losing all sense of her patience. She felt Harry's nails dig into the side of her legs and he scraped against it.

"Since you asked so nicely."

Selina came hard at the thought of him treating her so roughly. She was losing herself to the lust and even more pleasure than ever before. He pumped down into her and she returned fire by rocking her hips up to meet his incoming thrusts. The dark haired vixen tightened her pussy around his incoming tool when he continued to slam down into her.

She bit down on her lip hard and she felt the rush of pussy juices shoot out of her, coating his manhood.

She collapsed down onto her desk and Harry finally allowed himself to flow free. He pumped his thick cum into her.

It poured into her like a flood. Selina couldn't believe it but it was true and extremely amazing as well. Her hips pumped up to devour his rod when it entered her body. Several thrusts pushed her pussy apart when he came down into her.

The dark haired vixen could feel a rush explode through her body. His cum coated her inner walls, slick as they were. She breathed in heavily when he kept injecting dose after dose into her.

Harry pulled out of her. Selina barely had time to register that it was over. Alex was inside her pussy and ravenously devouring it. She sucked up the combined juices from her.

The tender attentions were amazing and Selina thought that she was going to lose her mind. Harry smiled when he enjoyed this erotic sight.

Faora's not so subtle spreading of her thighs showed that she wasn't going to wait around for that long. His manhood inched closer to her dripping pussy and he was about ready to part her legs. He slipped inside of her.

Selina roughly wrapped her legs around Alex's head.

' _If she kills you like that, that's not the worst way to go out,'_ Harry said. He groped Faora's tits when he rammed into her and she moaned in agreement. Harry's thick rod parted her legs when he pushed inside her several times, impacting her core with his massive rod that kept parting her legs.

The dark haired vixen brought herself to the edge of another orgasm. Harry really brought the lust through her body and she burned for more.

Selina watched Harry's large cock slide into Alex to the point where he was balls deep into her. It got her wet to see him violate and dominate another woman. It almost got her as wet when he violated and dominated her.

She craned her neck and looked up to encourage him.

"Fuck her, fuck her, slam into that hard cunt!" Selina encouraged him. Her pussy squirted more juices into Alex's open and waiting mouth.

Alex sucked every single drop down and Selina was growing rather weak. Her tongue was really skilled and it almost was like it vibrated into her cunt. That must be a family trick because it happened when Harry serviced her orally as well.

She had a few trade secrets of her own so he was she to judge.

Harry grabbed his hands around her hips and pumped his way into his sister's body. Her cunt clamped down onto him. He leaned towards her and licked his tongue behind her ear. He worked around her body and touched her breasts.

Her core heated up immensely and Harry kept fucking her hard.

Selina waited for her turn. She knew that it would happen soon. Her pussy craved his cock.

"Cum in her, and then fuck me, fuck me until I pass out!" Selina begged. She wondered if Alex intended to do that with her tongue. Her tongue curled into her deep pussy and it almost felt like it touched her deep into her womb, sucking Harry's cum out from the utter depths of her.

Harry grunted. This erotic and steamy action really was making his balls want to burst. He kept his hands perched on Alex's thighs when he kept pushing into her from behind.

Harry's balls released a roaring rush of cum. He implanted his seed into his sister's superhot pussy, drenching her.

He shuddered to a stop, collapsing on her back and smiling.

"Open for business," Selina purred. She pushed apart her pussy lips.

Harry's re-hardened cock slammed into her without any warning. He fucked Selina roughly, testing the structural integrity of the desk beneath her. Her legs wrapped around his waist and he pushed into her deeply from behind.

Alex rested on the side of the desk, her pussy soaked and aching but it was really worth it.

* * *

 

Harry was at the conference room of the RAO building and he had quite the group with him. They were working on something extremely important and he needed the input of several people who he trusted.

Jaime stood right by his side, joining him. Veronica, Tamara, and Kathy Kane joined him as well. Lily turned up, along with Narcissa Black. The Black sisters and their daughters were some of the lucky few to survive the time jump. Although Draco Malfoy never existed in the new time stream, because Lucius died in a tragic accident after Lucretia's birth, and Narcissa got a huge windfall of inheritance.

Nym's father still died around the same time, in a mugging gone extremely bad. Vega's father….well Harry was willing to put even odds that it was Sirius still, even though that had never been officially confirmed by Bellatrix in this timeline or any other.

The group was planning a joint Christmas party, including the Wayne get together into it. Bruce left it in their capable hands to plan out the event.

And Narcissa was used to helping planning overblown get togethers due to her role in the Society that the Evans, Black, Greengrass, and Delacour families were all apart of, among several others naturally that held no relevance in the world that didn't exist anymore.

"We're going to hold the Christmas party on the twenty-first, it's just best for everyone," Veronica stated. "It will be nice to have everyone have one night where we forget about the details of what's happening and just have a good time."

"Well hopefully that insanity will be wrapped up by the time Christmas happens," Jaime commented. She was optimistic with the new information that has come to life.

"Yes, here's hoping," Kathy agreed. The Calendar Killings caused them all a great amount of stress.

Jaime and Harry were here to sign off on anything, give their suggestions as needed. Tamara was here as her role of Harry's assistant.

"A location has been booked though, so that's done, and catering is being taken care of," Veronica replied. She looked for Kathy for confirmation of that and the woman started to nod her head.

"Right, now all we have to worry about is getting out all of the information," Kathy said.

"Doesn't it seem like short notice?" Narcissa asked. The events the Society organized were meticulous affairs, months in the making.

"It is short notice," Veronica agreed in an excited voice. "But as a combined entity, we've got about enough pull with pretty much everyone in Gotham to do whatever we want."

"And since there's no way I'm letting some of these people into the Manor or the Tower, what do you got for me?" Harry asked.

"We've rented the ballroom and the great hall of the Royal Hotel," Veronica said. She got her share of cross looks at this news but she waved them off fairly handily. "I know this isn't anyone's first choice for obvious reasons."

"The Roman," Lily replied dryly.

"But it's the biggest and most elegant space available for all of Gotham," Kathy said. There was a moment where Harry and Jaime looked at each other.

' _So, what do you think?'_ Jaime asked.

' _Falcone knows how to play the game well,'_ Harry thought.

It was almost like Vernoica knew exactly what Harry was thinking.

"Falcone knows how to play the game well," she confirmed. "He will keep his goons out of sight, because it would be bad for his public image if they're caught roaming around an event like this."

"Yes, exactly what I was thinking," Harry added in an extremely dry voice. He knew Falcone would be carefully monitoring his public image and he wanted to prop himself back up. He'd stay out of trouble. "And it's good that we're going with my suggestion to hold it on the twenty-first."

"Close enough to Christmas that it doesn't seem way too soon, but it doesn't get in the way of anyone's vacation plans they have for the holiday," Veronica commented.

' _And hopefully that will help lure Day out of the rock he put himself underneath,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Providing we don't find him before then,'_ Karen said.

' _We can only hope,'_ Diana agreed. She wished for the end of this to come soon, because they murders were getting brutal.

' _It's a big enough event to lure him out if he's not captured by then,'_ Harry agreed. They were taking every step to make sure that he was brought there. _'And it's the type of impact that he's been building up for.'_

' _Flip the number twenty one and it's twelve,'_ Kara commented.

' _Exactly,'_ Jaime thought. _'That's the idea. That's going to be a big day. He's going to go out with a bang. Enough of his plans have been disrupted where he needs to make up for lost time. He can't help himself, he's obsessed with this, you know.'_

' _And all of us will be there and waiting, so no one should get hurt, and we have a good idea what to look for,'_ Harry concluded. Security was going to be tight as Harry was going to pull in a few favors.

He didn't want anything to obvious because he wanted to trap Day, not scare him away. Still he was taking pretty much every step imaginable to lure him into his trap.

"We also have invitations, which means that some of the more…..shifty members of society have to be invited," Narcissa added. It was obvious she didn't improve that.

"Yes, all of Gotham's society will get a chance to be invited, people like the Falcone's, Roman Sionis, Lionel Luthor, and Oswald Cobblepot just to name a few," Veronica said. There was a second where a calculating grin shifted over her face. "Naturally though, this party doubles as a charity event."

"So, they're the ones that are going to look bad if they don't show up," Lily said.

Kathy smiled when she looked at her. "Exactly. They might be criminals but they're not convicted of anything. And they won't cause any problems if they want to stay that way."

"And Cobblepot was the one who committed huge social faux pas by not inviting you or Bruce to the opening of the Iceberg Lounge," Veronica said. There was a moment where her nose shifted and wrinkled. "But no one accused him of being too civilized."

"That's for sure," Jaime offered blandly, which got some snickers from everyone involved.

* * *

 

Harry joined Alexa, Tamara, and Sapphire out on what basically amounted as a date later that day. Needless to say, that had the young Miss Fox rather excited and Harry recalled what happened in the back of his mind with the greatest amusement.

Alexa asked Harry out on a date and Sapphire was within hearing range. She decided that sounded like a great idea and invited herself along. Harry also mentioned it to Tamara earlier in the day, and she asked to tag along on the account that she hadn't seen Alexa in a while. Harry thought that it wouldn't be the worst idea. Originally he was under the impression that Alexa just wanted it to be the two of them but since Sapphire decided to invite herself along anyway, he might as well.

He wanted to spend some time with Tamara anyway outside of the office to get to know her better. So the prospect of that opportunity gave Harry an excuse to invite her along. She seemed pretty excited about the day out and Harry wasn't about to disappoint her.

' _Sometimes, I wonder how you get yourself into these situations,'_ Kara commented.

' _I don't think that I have to describe how he gets into these situations, do I?'_ Donna asked through the bond link.

' _Oh, that's obvious, he's Harry,'_ Amanda cheered in an excited fashion through the bond link. She was going up and down, bouncing back and forth.

' _Obviously,'_ Emily replied. Her tone was dry and amused as it tended to be the default towards her twins antics this day or many days.

Harry chuckled in amusement. The group end up at a popular Comedy Club in Gotham City, even though he wasn't quite sure how that ended up that way. The only thing Harry knew was they ended up here.

' _Might be Sapphire and Tamara's fault, come to think of it,'_ Harry thought to his bond mates. _'Sapphire got talking to Tamara.'_

Alexa frowned. "How did we get here, per say?"

"Well, you know they got to talking about how a famous comedian was going to be here tonight, and one thing lead to another, and the next thing you know, boom we're here," Harry told her. The Luthor Heiress corked her eyebrow and frowned.

"That makes perfect sense," Alexa commented. She turned her attention to Tamara. "So, how have you been?"

"Oh, I've been good, thank you for asking," Tamara commented in an excited voice. "I'm just glad that I got out on the ground floor of something amazing. There's been a lot of work to be done, but if you're up to it, it's not a bad thing."

"Well, the world is changing," Alexa said. She gave a knowing grin at the prospect of it. "You really want to get in on the ground floor."

"For sure, everything has changed, the good old boys club is losing their grip on Gotham," Sapphire said.

"Don't you mean the Douchebag Business Association," Alexa said. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head.

"Well, one might consider my father to be a part of that," Sapphire whispered. She sighed. "Well he's getting a bit better….."

"You have been working on him," Alexa said.

"Maybe you could convince your father to see the light?" Tamara asked.

Alexa scoffed at this. "Lionel, miracles I don't do. At least your father started on the straight and narrow."

"Yes, he would have to be to deal with what Wayne was before the prodigal son decided to roll back into Gotham City," she commented dryly. "But things are getting a lot better, wouldn't you agree, Harry?"

"The sky is the limit," Harry said. It was almost like he wasn't listening to their conversation but he was.

Har-Zod was the master of multi-tasking, it was one of his more able skill. His green eyes flashed with amusement when the girls continued their conversation.

The show was about to start thought. The first person who was about ready to perform on stage made his way to the stage. He was a thin young man with dark hair dressed in a suit that looked like was found in the bargain bin at Walmart. They didn't quite catch his name because there was a technical snafu with the microphone.

"So, how about that Gotham City weather?" he asked. "The only thing more corrupt than the police force is this weather, I swear it doesn't play ball, am I right?"

There was a loud booing from the crowd. The comedian tried to get out another joke in an attempt to save face but they kept booing. They booed more and more again.

' _Wow, this is a tough room, isn't it?'_ Harry asked. He was almost amused by what he was hearing. The loud boos continued to escalate.

The comedian tried to open his mouth and get out his next words. There was even more booing that continued to escalate louder. He was practically booed off the stage.

' _He swung three times and struck out on the stage,'_ Amanda commented.

"Well, that was not good," Alexa said. She was amused and she saw a few people throwing shoes and tomatoes at the stage where the man ducked his head and went into the darkness. "And…I guess that his night's over."

"Hopefully the follow up acts will be better," Sapphire said. She reclined back, wrapping her arm around Harry, and relaxing against him.

"We'll see in a minute."

Outside the club in a car, Sapphire's stalker was sitting, and watching carefully. One could not make out his features in the crowd. He was parked right outside the window so he could get a clear shot at Sapphire and her friends.

One would wonder why he wasn't setting off Harry's danger sense. It was obvious that he was someone that Harry knew.

There were several photos of Sapphire, both with herself and with Alexa and Harry, popping up on the phone.

He waited and watched his objection of his obsession, calmly stalking his prey like a predator in the night.

* * *

 

Catwoman hoped across one building all the way over to the next. She landed with swift precision on one of the rooftops. She looked over her shoulder with a wicked grin on her face.

She watched Nightwing follow her. They were playing a nice little game of Predator and Prey within the Diamond District in Gotham City. It all started where he came across her when she exited an office building which belonged to a diamond broker. This diamond broker just happened to be one of Carmine Falcone's oldest friends.

He just happened to be a friend but he didn't really have anything to do with the family business. So she only really picked him as a target due to that relationship. She exited the premise when Nightwing came across her.

They stopped and both of them exchanged a rapid fire set of blows. The freezing rain spit down in Gotham City.

The rooftops and the ledges were particularly treacherous to navigate, even though she was able to rush forward and lead him on through the chase in Gotham City. He was right on top of her, not that Selina would expect anything less.

There was a lull to the chase and there was a quick hand to hand fight between both of them. Then the chase picked up again.

They weren't trying to hurt each other, at least that was the assumption that Nightwing had. One might be proven wrong. He caught her with a quick shot that caused her to escalate with a slight moan and that made him thing that she had a slight masochistic side to her.

' _That would explain so very much,'_ Faora thought.

Harry closed in closer of her. There was a slide when he nearly caught up to her. He adjusted her footing when she carefully navigated the ledge and swayed her ass, when she waited for him to catch up.

Then she slipped away just when he was just this close in capturing her.

The last few times they had sex, it had been pretty rough. Not that Harry was making any kind of complaint; he was just making some kind of observation. The two of them ended up on the rooftop of an apartment building. There were two skylights that looked down from it.

Catwoman paused and she grinned like a cat who was corning her prey. She reached for her hip and pulled out the whip. She whipped it out and sent it flying towards him. This forced him to expertly dodge out of the way. He rolled out of the way.

She whipped it really good a couple of times. He kept moving, ducking and dodging. He also was slowly getting close to her.

Then out of the blue, he blocked the whip instead of dodging it. It wrapped around his forearm. Nightwing smiled when he looked into her eyes. He yanked back on it hard and sent her flying towards him.

She ended up crashing into him pretty hard. She crashed into him so hard that he began to lose his footing. The two of them staggered backwards. The two of them crashed through the skylight of the apartment below.

The two of them landed onto a king sized bed.

' _It's almost like this was planned,'_ Kara replied dryly.

Harry still had the whip in his hand and slowly began to tie her up with it. He pushed her back onto the bed.

"Now I have you," he said to her, holding her in place.

"But the question is, can you hold me, handsome?" Catwoman asked. He slowly undid the front of her suit and smiled.

"You're worked up, let's see what we can do about that."

Nightwing cupped her breast roughly with his right hand and did the same with her pussy with his left hand. His tongue pushed deep into her mouth.

Catwoman moaned underneath him. His fingers roughly pushed into her pussy and he fingered her at a rapid fire rate.

His hand molested her breasts and he caused the bottom of his costume to come off. His throbbing manhood was released.

"Fuck my tits, fuck them!" Catwoman begged him.

Harry pushed his throbbing hard cock between her breasts. The dark haired woman breathed when he pushed his manhood between the valley of her breasts. She leaned up and kissed the head of his throbbing cock. He pushed himself in and out between her breasts. His balls slapped against her chest when he kept working her tits over.

He grunted when he worked between her breasts. The dark haired woman felt his cock between her breasts.

He worked her over and then slowly slid his cock down her body. He spread her legs.

"Ram it in me!" Catwoman begged him. She saw Nightwing's throbbing hard manhood into her.

He pushed himself deep into her body. His throbbing cock sought her delightful heat and she closed around him. She pumped her hips up, squeezing him.

Her hand loosened a little bit from the whip. She placed her hand onto his bicep and she squeezed it.

She pumped her hips up and allowed his manhood to spike into her dripping hot center. The costume hung loosely from her body. He leaned down and kissed her nipples, slowly sucking on them.

"Fuck, oh fuck my pussy!" Catwoman begged.

He slowed down and allowed her orgasm to flow free. Her pussy slid around him when she pumped him. He leaned down and cupped her breasts. He squeezed her tits and leaned down towards her. He bit her nipples.

He grunted when his balls slapped against her thighs. Nightwing pulled almost all the way out of her. He then slammed down into her dripping hot cunt. The woman shuddered when he came down between her thighs. She shook all over when he came down into her dripping hot pussy.

He rolled her over, and she pressed down onto the bed. Her ass was presented for him. Nightwing slapped his strong hand onto her ass. He sent a minor jolt through her and that caused her to shake, staining the bed sheets.

"Oh, take my dirty, ass, take it!" Catwoman encouraged him. She closed her eyes and felt his manhood brushed against her ass.

He spiked himself into her tight ass from behind. His throbbing manhood stretched out her ass. He reached forward and roughly treated her tits.

"You like your pain, don't you?" Nightwing asked. He dominated her ass and her breasts. He rammed into her.

"Yes, yes, fuck me, make me your whore like you always do!" Catwoman yelled. She grabbed her breast and pumped into her tight ass.

The woman's tight ass clamped around his tool when he worked into her and the hero took her ass extremely hard.

He grabbed the back of her head and pushed her head forward. He bit on the back of her neck and slowed her pleasure to a crawl.

"Your dirty ass is mine, I'm going to fuck it," Nightwing grunted. He slapped her breasts and caused her to close her eyes.

Catwoman could feel that pleasure explode through her body. His hands pushed between her legs and he pushed his fingers between her legs. The young man kept pumping into her body. He twisted his fingers into her and assaulted her insides.

His fingers pumping into her pussy and his cock pumping into her ass was a double dose of pleasure. Her torment continued when he teased her. He did any number of tricks, both subtle and not so subtle to slow her orgasm down. That caused the pleasure to pump between her legs. Her breathing escalated to an extremely new level.

"Fuck yes, oh yes, fuck me!" she moaned at the top of her lungs.

Nightwing held back again. She closed her eyes. He grabbed the back of her hair and pulled it. He smacked her ass when he slammed into it.

His balls slapped against her when he speared into her from behind. He pushed his fingers into her and made her cum repeatedly. Her clear cum started to coat his fingers. It stuck to her and he lifted his fingers up.

He pushed his fingers into her mouth and forced her to suck her cum off of them. Her tongue trailed against him. She hungrily sucked the juices off of his fingers when he speared his throbbing manhood into her tight ass.

Her moans increased when he drilled into her ass. He was reaching the edge and there was more pleasure. His balls loaded up with cum.

Selina could feel the bed get stained. Someone was going to come back here and have a nasty and quite sticky surprise. And that just got her wetter when her lover continued to violate her ass.

"Cum, cum hard," he growled in her ear. She agreed to cum hard, her hips thrashing violently when the clear juices spilled out of her and landed onto the bed. She was shaking extremely hard. "And cum, keep cumming, and you'll get your reward."

Nightwing molested her breasts. A spike of pleasure went through her body and his balls drilled against her thighs.

"Yes, reward me, take me, take me, TAKE ME!" she screamed. She really needed this. She really needed to be dominate about this.

His throbbing manhood spiked deep within her ass and he slowed down. It was obvious he wanted to draw out the pleasure. He cupped her breasts

She moaned when she rocked back against him. The vigilante slammed his throbbing manhood into her hot ass when he kept spiking into her from behind. He worked into her deeper and further into her. The woman's hot ass tightened around him when he worked into her hard from behind. The pleasure escalated through her body when he kept working her over to the edge and gave her more pleasure.

"It's almost done, you're almost there, cum for me one more time," Nightwing whispered.

She came extremely hard when he rammed his manhood deep into her. His throbbing manhood continued to impact into her from behind. He planted his manhood deep inside her when he thrust into her.

He injected his white hot dosage of cum into her body. He splattered his cum into her ass. She closed her eyes when he shot a heavy load into her ass.

"I needed that," she whispered, collapsing back on the bed. Her dominated body ached and she really felt good.

* * *

A rundown and extremely dilapidated roadside diner was where Julian Gregory Day was in the midst of finishing up breakfast. He had the newspaper folded neatly in front of him where he was reading an article about his own manhood. It was the second day of the manhunt with no luck for so far. There was speculation about where he could be, with a lot of people thinking that he could move.

He switched to the society page. His interest caught a glimpse of an article talking about a joint Christmas party on the twenty-first. The Vreeland, Potter, and Wayne parties were the most prominent discussed but there were others. His curiosity piqued and he still needed to make his impact.

The Calendar Man couldn't be ignored. That was unacceptable.

"Here you go, hon," the waitress commented, handing him a bill.

Day wore a baseball cap over his face so he wasn't recognized. "Thank you."

He pays the bill and turns to exit the diner. He passed Sarah Essen and James Gordon when he left the diner.

Seconds later, Gordon stood up straight and he realized exactly who passed him. He could have sworn.

"You realize who that was, don't you?" Gordon asked.

Sarah blinked and she could have slapped herself for being that oblivious. She rushed outside with Gordon to capture him.

There was only problem. He was gone.

* * *

**To Be Continued On January 22** **nd** **, 2015.**


	80. Twelve Days of Christmas Part Six

**Chapter Eight: Twelve Days of Christmas Part Six.**

* * *

 

It was around six o'clock in the evening, on the day of December 20th. The lobby of the Royal hotel was a rather lush location. There was an atmosphere of gold, marble, and rich looking wood. It was for the elite of Gotham City which made all kinds of sense. It's rather quiet at this point, there was a minimum of activity going around. That made a perfect amount of sense given that other people were busy doing other things.

It should be rather busy one would assume but one might realize that it was dinner time. So there were a lot of people who were busy doing that.

Things were quiet, the only sense of movement was an older man who slowly walked his way into the lobby. He had short brown hair and a goatee. He wore a fairly decent business suit but one could see that it had that off the rack feel. It did absolutely nothing to hide that he was more on the heavyset side. The most noticeable people was that he leaned upon the simple black cane he held.

He carefully walked towards the front desk.

"Reservation for Daniel Johnson," he commented to her.

The receptionist, a rather attractive middle aged woman, looked towards it. She resembled the type of person who worked there for years. She was fairly jaded but at the same time, she was able to fake her interest rather well.

"Yes, Mr. Johnson, I have your reservation right here," she confirmed for him. "I hope that you'll find your stay at the Royal Hotel to be fulfilling. If you need anything, anything at all, don't hesitate to ask."

"Yes, I won't," the man replied. A bellboy man his way over and he smiled. He looked to be rather fresh out of high school, if not still in high school with his acne ridden complexion.

"Jones, show him to his hotel room please," the receptionist said. She gave the man an artificial and rather fake looking smile. It was obvious that she pretended.

"Right this way, sir," the bellboy responded. The man walked forward as he watched his suitcase be carried up to the room.

"What's your name, young man?" the man asked.

"Dave Jones, sir," he commented.

"Mr. Jones, I thank you for getting my bags up there," he stated. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope. He placed the envelope in his hand. There was a sizeable tip in it. "Here's something for your troubles, Mr. Jones."

"Thank you Mr. Johnson!" the bellboy cried in a sunny voice. It was obvious that his balls just recently dropped.

Daniel Johnson walked forward and closed the door behind him. The man waited for the bellboy to get down the hall and ensured that he was all alone. He walked towards the bathroom and used the toilet.

When he returned from the toilet, he looked at the mirror. Daniel Johnson meticulously removed the goatee and also the hair. He revealed the face of Julian Gregory Day.

* * *

 

Back in the Penthouse, Harry, Veronica, Karen, and Diana sat around the living room. Harry leaned back in his armchair with his feet resting on the ottoman. Veronica dressed on top of him, sitting in his lap. Her back pressed against his chest and he placed his arms around her.

Across from them, Diana sat on the couch. She was leaning forward and working on some last minute paperwork on the coffee table.

Karen was at work at the laptop on the loveseat. She could see others fluttering in and out as they were needed. Kara and Faora were the two most notable people. They popped in for a little bit but they went out because they were working on something. The younger girls had to go up into bed given that they still had school. Barbara was the only exception since she had her "tech support" job.

The group was having a relaxing evening. Harry was half reading and half watching the news. Veronica with her position on his lap was completely watching the news. Karen was busy at work with something that couldn't really wait but she felt the need to get done.

"The city is in a state of anxiety given the recent upswing of gang activity and the inability of the GCPD to capture the Calendar Killer," the news reported. It wasn't Vicki, it was another reporter, so Harry didn't really pay much mind. Veronica was watching the news extremely carefully. "Crime in Gotham City is at an all time high. But there are those who have taken up vigilante activities in response for the upswing of crime. Here's Vicki Vale for more."

Harry's interest perked up and Vicki was here.

"There have been numerous vigilantes who have taken the battle to the various gangs in Gotham City," Vicki reported. "Officially Batman, Catwoman, Nightwing, and Black Canary are urban legends. There has even been some contention with Nightwing whether this costumed crusader is male or female. There have been a couple of eye witness reports."

"Yeah, I saw him and it was so cool man, Batman just swooped down from space, and bam, pow, kaboom!" a young man said, looking like he was stoned out of his mind.

"About time someone does something in Gotham City, the cops are more interested in going in the little guy, than the big picture," a wide eyed black man said. "I saw it, it was Nightwing. There were two of them, two of them man! There might be an entire army of them and they've done better than the GCPD has. But the GCPD doesn't care about the common man, they just care about the people that they're in bed with."

"There has been a great amount of contention about the vigilantes, whether they're real and whether or not they're a good thing to Gotham City or escalating the crime wave that has been crippling this city," Vicki said. "And we swing things over to Summer Gleeson, who is at the Royal Hotel. Take it away Summer."

Harry smiled at the slight amount of condescending tone that Vicki had.

"Thank you, Vicki, a good job as always," Summer replied. She spoke in a condescending tone but went into her professional tone. "The Christmas party being hosted at the Royal Hotel is the talk out of the town. This party is being hosted by Kathy Kane, Bruce Wayne, Harry Potter, and Veronica Vreeland….or should it be Potter, now?"

Kara just slipped into the room and heard that particular tone. She frowned.

"You know, she makes a good point for once," Kara mused. "What do you think that your name would be if you and Harry ended up marrying Harry?"

Veronica frowned and she thought about it. That was actually a good question. It was one that caught her off guard somewhat.

' _You know, it might be Potter-Vreeland or Vreeland-Potter, depends really,'_ she thought. They did hear that thought in their heads.

' _Okay, did you all hear what I heard?'_ Karen asked.

' _Yes, we heard what you did hear,'_ Diana said. She was honestly surprised and she was caught off guard. _'You know it's a surprise that she got bond access a bit before Sapphire.'_

' _Maybe,'_ Faora offered to her. She pushed her arms underneath her chest and thought about it. _'But, you know, she and Harry have been hovering around each other for a little bit before they finally hooked up. So the length of time does play into things.'_

Veronica founded. She could hear their voices alright but her lips weren't moving.

' _And the poor girl is completely confused,'_ Kara chimed in. She almost looked amused by this.

' _Please tell me I'm not insane,'_ Veronica told them.

"Don't worry, Veronica, you're not insane, you are hearing our voices inside your head, and we are hearing yours," Harry said to her.

Veronica blinked completely. She could feel Harry's magical hands work her over for a moment.

"Please, explain," Veronica said slowly.

"It's a long story," Kara said. She sat herself down on the ottoman. It was one that they explained a few times in the past.

"Well there's something going on right now," Veronica said. "And you could start from the beginning. Wouldn't that be the best place for you to start?"

The group all looked at each other. They were all thinking about the same thing. Between all of them, they were able to explain everything. The bond link network was something that was somewhat easy to explain. Aliens and Amazons were a bit trickier, not that magic wasn't tricky to explain.

The five members of the collective pitched in for a moment. Veronica looked at all of them. Kara continued to rub her feet and Harry kept rubbing her shoulders.

"So?" Harry asked.

"A lot to take it," Veronica concluded after a moment's pause. She was used to some weirdness, being in Gotham City. "But given that this is Gotham City, I figured that I should be used to something like this. And that explains more than you think."

"Well if you have some tension to work out," Faora added to her. She leaned towards Veronica and whispered in her ear. "The bedroom is just a little bit away."

Veronica allowed the rest of the group to lead her to the bedroom. She was at the mercy of Harry and his Alphas. Which wasn't really a bad place for her to be, all things considered.

Harry pushed her on the bed, with Kara and Karen holding her. He stripped her over her clothes and ran his hand down her body.

Veronica pushed her hips up and moaned at the top of what Harry would do to her.

"Take me right now," she begged him.

Harry grabbed her breasts through her shirt and squeezed them. Veronica's dripping hot pussy ached for his manhood. He scraped his manhood against her dripping hot lips over and over again.

His cock slammed into her and that caused Veronica to pump her hips up to take him. Diana kneeled down before her and kissed her on the lips. Veronica relaxed and felt Harry's massive manhood spearing into her pussy.

Kara was trapped between Faora and Karen which was an interesting place to be. The younger blonde was stripped of her clothes. She returned fire, stripping both sides of their clothes. She ran her hands down their supple bodies.

Kara's fingers pushed deep into Faora's pussy and she did the same thing to Karen. She fingered both of them at super speed. The two of them closed their eyes with Kara pumping into them.

Diana's pants pulled down and her dripping hot pussy was exposed. She leaned down and smiled at Veronica. She squeezed her breast in response.

' _You look hungry dear,'_ Diana suggested. Her mind was connected with the pleasure that the other members of the bond felt. _'Just relax, the first time is always the most intense.'_

Veronica felt the spike of pleasure through her body. That caused Harry's throbbing manhood to go into her body. Her dripping hot cunt closed around him.

She could really get used to this. Her breasts got lavished by Harry's tongue and mouth. He suckled on her breasts and she arched her back up. He played with her stiff nipples and started to lick and suck on them.

Veronica panted when Harry made her cum. Diana's pussy draped over her mouth.

"Oh that's good," Diana begged. Veronica's tongue pushed into her pussy and she licked it. "Treat my pussy like yours wants to be treated. More, oh more, oh god, I want even more. Take it, use my pussy, use it!"

Veronica's tongue continued to brush into her dripping hot cunt when he worked her over constantly. Her pleasure exploded when the Amazon Princess was being eaten out.

The woman rubbed her dripping hot lips on her.

Karen moaned when Kara's lips ate her pussy. She indulged herself in this act of self masturbation which felt so alluring. She placed her hands on the back of Kara's head and forced her face deep into her snatch.

Veronica shook when Harry rammed his throbbing cock into her dripping hot snatch. She felt his manhood spike into her body. She shook completely when he rammed into her body. The redhead socialite tried to lifted her legs up and snake them around her body. Her body kept shaking all over when Harry worked himself into her body. Her legs parted to accommodate his manhood when he speared it into her.

She shook in pleasure. Her wet pussy slid around his tool when he kept going into her. Each thrust brought her to new levels of pleasure. She thought that her loins would explode.

Harry took great pleasure in driving her nuts. His manhood spiked deep into her pussy. She lifted her hips up in response and rocked them up against his throbbing tool. Veronica caused her eyes and just felt the amazing pleasure when he continued to spike through her again.

She couldn't forget Diana's pussy. No one could forget that wonderful pussy. Veronica took it with her tongue.

Harry flipped her over suddenly after an orgasm. His mighty rod speared into her midsection.

"Oh, what else could you do?" Veronica begged him.

Harry decided to divide himself. Veronica's eyes widened when Harry sauntered over. Karen, Kara, and Faora joined him. The three of them took turns stroking his flesh and his cock until it grew hard in Kara's hand. Karen dropped to her knees and kissed Harry's balls. Kara took his cock into her mouth and Faora walked behind Harry and kissed him on the neck, pressing her breasts against his back.

Veronica felt Harry drill into her. Her body exploded with excitement when he assaulted her loins from behind. Her dripping hot snatch took his manhood deep into her. Diana was set up in front of her and Veronica continued to eat her pussy.

The redhead socialite felt increasing pleasure rippled through her body when Harry took her with his cock over and over again. That caused her mind to melt with increasing pleasure.

Harry the duplicate had Kara pinned against the wall. He brushed his manhood against her dripping hot slit and pushed it inside her. There was a scream of pleasure and Faora and Karen also slumped against the wall.

For now, Harry focused on Kara and pounded her perfect wet pussy. She clutched around him like a vice when he continued to work her over. The blonde pumped herself back towards him. Kara's tight snatch clutched him when he worked into her. The blonde kept hotly pumping her hips back at him. Her eyes closed when he worked her body over. Each thrust increased her pleasure and he kept pumping into her.

"Take me, oh, take me, harder!" Kara yelled.

"YES FUCK ME LIKE I'M YOUR BITCH!" Veronica screamed loudly. She suddenly lost all sense of properness and degraded right into a slut before their very eyes.

"You are his bitch, and you're neglected something," Diana said. She forced her face back in her pussy.

Veronica happily lapped up her pussy juices in response. She felt the combined pleasure of all of the Alphas explode through her body and she felt good, so very good that she thought that she was going to lose her mind.

The other Harry switched between Faora, Karen, and Kara. He rammed his cock into Faora's cunt at super speed. He slowed down for a minute and then let the orgasm go, causing her to slump against the wall panting. He switched to Kara, doing the same thing. Karen felt the same treatment.

All three girls were driven nuts because they were backed up just a little bit from Harry's actions and driven absolutely mad.

Veronica felt this pleasure increase when he spiked through her body. Her dripping cunt hugged his manhood when he worked into her from behind. The woman felt the increase of pleasure explode through her body.

"YES, oh, yes, oh god, yes," Veronica breathed. She could feel him drill into her body.

She returned to Diana's pussy and Harry spiked into her. It was getting close. She felt blessed for being a part of this sinful display of flesh and lust. That excited her beyond any degree.

Harry kept working her over. Her dripping hot cunt inhaled his manhood when he worked into her body. Veronica held her hands onto Diana's hips.

"Are you sure you can handle it?" Harry asked. "Diana's right here to finish me off if you can't."

There was a new fire that spread through Veronica. "I can handle it. Cum, I need your cum in me!"

Harry grunted when he pussy contracted against its invader. He held onto her hips when he kept pumping into her body from behind. The young socialite kept working his throbbing tool when he connected with her womanhood.

The spikes of pleasure brought her to the edge. Veronica thought that she was going to lose her mind with what Harry was doing to her. Or perhaps her mind had already been lost. His balls appeared to tighten.

The feeling of more super powered orgasms when connected to the bond network rocked Veronica's body. She shook all over when Harry rammed his manhood into her. Veronica's dripping cunt lips inhaled his cock when he continued to fuck her from behind.

Harry worked up quite an orgasm and now that he had her nice and sweaty, he was about ready to unload it.

Veronica grabbed onto the bed and Harry rammed his throbbing manhood into her body. The redhead felt his throbbing cock push deep into her body. She was feeling the pleasure of his cock going into her body.

The redhead could feel herself brought closer to the edge. Harry's manhood spiked into her body and her cunt closed around him.

He allowed his juices to flow. The juices of all of the other girls flowed and led to an amazing combined orgasm when the first leg of this sinfully delightfully orgy wrapped up to its most logical conclusion.

In the afterglow, Veronica cuddled close to Harry. She had her mind blown but in a good way. She leaned towards him, with an imploring look dancing in her eyes. There was more than enough mischief dancing in her eyes.

"So, is there anything else that you'd like to tell me?" Veronica asked her.

"I'm also Nightwing," Harry said out of the blue. That caused Kara to show signs of life by breaking out into a fit of intense giggles. These giggles wouldn't cease no matter how hard she tried.

Veronica sighed and she reached up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Of course you are….but that's easier to believe than the fact that you're a magical alien. But I swear, I don't think that I can take any more of these surprises today."

She paused and took a deep breath, before she commented in what she thought was a facetious tone of voice.

"I mean, the next thing that you're going to tell me is that Brucie is Batman."

Harry raised his eyebrow and smiled but said nothing.

"He isn't, is he?"

"Wellllll…."

* * *

The next evening was here and Summer Gleeson was out on the red carpet.

"My name is Summer Gleeson and I'm outside the Gotham Royal hotel, where the best and the very brightest are making their way out tonight," Summer reported. There was a buzz that she talked over. The reporter seemed to be in one of those moods where she could get the average viewing public excited for the reading of a phone book or something along those lines. "We're waiting to see some of the stars coming out tonight. You never know who is going to show up at a gathering like this."

Neither the best nor the brightest showed up. Rather, Oswald Cobblepot turned up, along with Tracey Buxton. That caused Summer to give a look like she swallowed something rancid but she managed to pick up her stride back on camera.

"Mr. Cobblepot," Summer said in a cordial tone.

"A good evening to you as well, my dear," Cobblepot commented. He gave an expression where he was sure that he came off as charming but it came off more than creeping. "I must say that you're looking positively divine this evening. And it's going to be a hell of an evening, isn't it?"

"Mr. Cobblepot, there have been rumors that you've been a part of some illegal activities," Summer stated. She actually hoped to offend in with this one.

"I don't know who has been spreading those rumors, but I can tell you that all business that I do is completely on the level," Cobblepot answered. He was talking to Summer's plunging neckline when he spoke.

"Well, there's a rumor that these illegal activities were the reason why someone blew up your club," Summer commented.

Cobblepot let out his breath in an angry squawk. He took a deep breath and several seconds to compose himself. Tracey gave Summer a death glare, because she knew that this was a sore subject for her boss.

"Harry Fucking Potter was the one that blew up my club!" Cobblepot raged. He clutched the handle of his umbrella and took a heaving breath.

Summer rolled her eyes at him. "Rrrright….."

Cobblepot stormed off suddenly. The destruction of his club continued to be a sore spot for him and he walked off.

Summer sighed and shook her head. That left her there to calm herself down. She turned her head slightly and saw the one and only Hamilton Hill, Mayor hopeful, standing there.

He was about ready to say something but Summer saw something else. This was a person of greater interest than Hill, with all due respect to him. She brushed past him, ignoring him and left the man hanging with his mouth wide open.

The person which caught her interest was the one and only Lionel Luthor. His twin children, Alexander and Alexandria, flanked him. They were businesslike as usual.

"Mr. Luthor, do you mind if I have a quick word with you?" Summer asked.

"Not at all, Miss Gleeson," Lionel replied in his usual slick voice.

"Is there any truth to the rumors that the King of Metropolis is looking to expand his operations into Gotham City?" Summer asked. That caused Lex to snort but he quickly disguised that moment of disgust behind a cough.

Lionel smiled. "I will address those rumors right now. LuthorCorp operations are being expanded to the East Coast as a whole and not just Gotham City. My daughter, Alexandria, has been named the Director of Operations for this part of the country."

Summer nodded politely and turned to Alexandria.

"Do you have any comments about your new position?" Summer asked.

"I hope to continue LuthorCorp's growth into a presence that people can respect," Alexa commented.

"Is there any truth to the rumors about the relationship between you and Harry Potter?" Summer asked suddenly.

Alexa brushed past her without saying anything. Lex shook his head and followed his sister.

"A good day, Miss Gleeson, but I think that this interview is over," Lionel remarked.

Harry Potter arrived at this very moment. Diana followed him, wearing a striking gold dress. Karen wore red, Kara came out next wearing blue, and Faora wore green. They weren't the only ones that were attending the party though. Thanks to security concerns, a lot of the other girls came in the back entrance.

Or in the case of women like Veronica, Kathy, Bette, and Bunny, arrived earlier in the day and got dressed within a room they booked earlier today. The place was locked up pretty tight security wise.

' _Then again, pretty much every place in town is locked up secure and tight,'_ Harry thought. _'Everyone and their mother wants the best security with the Calendar Killer still out there on the loose. And that's not even considering the Roman's using the Royal as his base of operations.'_

' _Our intelligence states that he's keeping to the Penthouse level and there's a private elevator that leads up there,'_ Jaime thought. She was already inside, with Lily and Rose.

' _Well, no matter what, it is the biggest part of the season, at least until New Year's party,'_ Kara commented. That was for sure.

The group barely got that far when they ran into Juno. Or to be more accurate, she almost glided into Harry with a bright smile on her face when she saw that he show up with his entourage in toe.

"Harry, it's good to see you," Juno stated in an excited voice. She wrapped him tightly into a hug in greeting and then she leaned across to give him a slight kiss on the cheek.

Much to the surprise of the group, Diana was greeted in the same fashion.

' _You don't know her that well, do you?'_ Donna asked.

' _I've only met her briefly during the interview last month,'_ Diana thought in confusion. She could have sworn that she heard goddesses snickering in the background but when she focused on it, they stopped.

That had to be her imagination. It had been an extremely long day.

Juno attached herself to Harry's arm. He turned towards her, raising his eyebrow. She spoke to him in a matter of fact voice.

"It wouldn't look right if I walked in there without an escort," she offered him. She gave him a bright smile and he looked her over. He accepted this. "I hope you don't mind."

He checked the peanut gallery for confirmation. They gave it the okay.

"It's fine," Harry said. She turned slightly towards him with a knowing smile and a slightly devious wink.

* * *

 

A member of the Hotel Maintenance Staff made his way up the stairs. He got a call that the front desk got a call that the toilet was backed up in one of the rooms. He got his toolbox ready which he was pushing on a janitor's cart.

He knocked on the door.

"I'm here to repair the toilet," he said in a gruff voice.

"Yes, the toilet was backed up after I flushed it," the man said from the other side of the room.

"Yes, that happens sometimes," the worker commented. He was actually surprised that it didn't happen more often given some of the things that people tried to flush in this place.

He was allowed inside and made his way towards the bathroom. Sure enough, as the occupant of the room described, the toilet was overflow it.

He moved over towards it to work on it. He blinked and realized that someone stuffed a towel inside it.

Before he could say anything, something pressed up against the back of his head. There was a hiss of escaping air.

That was all that knew until he knew no more. The janitor dropped to the ground, dead when he hit the ground.

* * *

 

"I'm pretty impressed how you dealt with Summer back there," Harry said. He was in the middle of wrapping up a conversation with Juno.

Juno gave him a wide grin. "Well, you get used to these sort of people when you have a lot of experience dealing with the press. I got started around ten years ago, so it's just something that comes with the territory."

The two of them wrapped up their light conversation. She took some time to point out some of the notable celebrities from around Gotham City that made their way into the party. He might want to work with them in the future to advertise in the future.

"Although, you're going to be a brand name yourself, darling," she replied in a gushing voice. She saw someone. "And there's someone that I'd like to catch up with. Talk to you later, hopefully real soon."

She gave him another parting kiss, this one on the lips. Harry raised an eyebrow. There was something else that raised his eyebrow when she passed him a slip of paper that she had her phone number on it.

He shook his head and returned his attention to the party. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Faora slipping off with Kate Kane. That proved to be a point of interest as far as he was concerned.

He saw Lionel Luthor in the process of having a conversation with Simon Stagg, Ronald Daggett, Phillip Kane, and Max Shreck. He smiled when he saw Karen kept close by, but not close enough where she was making the fact that she was eavesdropping on the conversation obvious. It was clear though that she listened closely enough to the conference of the council of evil middle-aged businessman.

' _Not really that much of note,'_ Karen thought to him, deciding to give him the benefit of the conversation she was eavesdropping on. _'All they're talking about is the power plant Shreck wants to build and he's trying to get everyone else on board.'_

Harry spotted Hamilton Hill and Rupert Thorne show up as well. That conversation shifted gears to a more politically inclined one. That was something that Harry didn't want anything to do with if he could help it.

Harry turned around and nearly ran into Selina and Holly. True to form, both women were dressed to the nines. Selina wore a slinky green dress that matched her eyes and Holly was wearing a little red number.

Harry's excellent skills of observation picked up the fact that both women appeared to distracted, albeit for different reasons.

"Hey," Harry commented to them.

"Oh, hi, Harry," Holly muttered. There was a second where she snapped back into life.

"Don't mind her, she's a bit out of touch thanks to her upbringing," Selina responded. She gave a swift smile and sauntered forward. She wrapped her arms around Harry and pulled him into a kiss. He returned fire. "It's good to see you, handsome."

She turned her head in a direction where her eyes averted a fair amount in another direction. Harry could see exactly why she was distracted. They could observe the Roman holding court in a corner of the room.

He spotted every so often someone came up to him and exchanged a few words to him.

"It really has a day of my daughter's wedding from the Godfather feel of it," Harry commented. His statement broke the silence and Selina turned towards him.

"That's exactly what it is," Selina said. Essentially the nobles were begging Caesar for a favor. "You know, we should get away from this. It's enough to make your head hurt."

She took Harry out to the dance floor and they enjoyed a quick dance together. Selina didn't seem to be in the mood to talk.

' _I think she's still in a right mood about Falcone bursting into her office the other day,'_ Faora commented. Harry could sense that there was something up.

' _What are you up to?'_ Harry asked her

Faora broke through the bond link with a calculating grin on her face. _'I'm multi-tasking.'_

Harry knew that he was able to put two and two together. After their dance, Selina gave him a kiss and excused herself. She head off in the direction of the bathroom.

"Doctor Potter, I was hoping to run into you," a voice said. Harry turned around and saw Harvey Dent. His wife Gilda was there, after being out of town to help he sister. "Gilda, you remember Harry Potter, don't you?"

"Yes, I do, please to meet you again," she commented. She was quiet and could have easily blended into the atmosphere if Harry wasn't pointed out to her.

Harry di notice Bruce and Rachel there.

"I was just telling Bruce and Rachel the good news, but I suppose that you should hear it straight from my mouth, as it will be all over the news," Harvey informed him. "After talking with Gilda about it, I decided that it would be best that I would run for District Attorney."

"Well, you have my full support," Harry stated in response. Harvey responded with a brisk nod.

"Thank you," Harvey replied graciously and he meant that. He could hear his cellphone ring. It did often pick the most inappropriate times to go off. With a sigh, Harvey picked up the phone and answered it. "It's important, excuse me for a moment."

Harry turned and saw Rachel sitting there. She was looking at him, calmly. There was no emotion in her face. She seemed to be doing a good job in keeping her face blank with motion tonight.

"Corruption rots away at all things, wouldn't you agree?" Rachel asked. "And this city….you can see what's happening here. People fear what they don't understand."

"Yes, they do," Harry said slowly. He wondered where this line of conversation.

"But, given what the two of us have been through, you should know that, and you should know what needs to be done to help this city," Rachel continued. She stared at him, unblinkingly. Seconds passed where Harry wondered what the game was. "And, I hope that I can get to know you better…..but now if you excuse me, I'm going to talk to Bruce."

She edged over to talk to him.

Harry was confused a little bit by that sudden and brief conversation. The way that she was talking, it was almost like that she thought that they were in a relationship.

He took several moments when he turned around and saw Sofia Falcone of all people. Harry had to admit, she cleaned up fairly decently when she didn't want to be the baddest bitch in the room. She carefully balanced two glasses of wine when she approached him.

"You may not know me, Doctor Potter, but I'm Sofia Falcone,' she said.

"Pleased to meet you, Miss Falcone," Harry said in a diplomatic and polite voice.

"Please, Sofia," she commented. She was oddly soft spoken.

"Then, Harry," Harry offered her. There was a moment where she was trying to figure him out.

"Would you mind joining me for a glass of wine?" she asked him.

"Not a problem, thanks," Harry told her.

She handed him the spare glass of wine.

"I'm not one to mince words, I've wanted to meet you for a very long time," she replied. "Your arrival in Gotham, it turned some heads. It made an impact and you hit the ground running."

She took a sip of wine under the pretext of collecting her thoughts.

"It's very impressive, you even made an impression on my father," she added in a soft spoke voice. She leaned closer towards him. "That take's some doing."

"Well, I'm glad that your father has been impressed, given all that he's done for Gotham City," Harry commented.

"Yes, not many men are willing to look him in the eye, but not many men are willing to shoulder the burdens that he had as well," Sofia said briskly.

' _Actually civil conversation, given her reputation,'_ Karen commented.

' _Well, you know that she has some kind of angle,'_ Rose offered. The conversation continued and the talk was rather polite. _'It might not be strictly professional.'_

' _Isn't she….you know, lesbian?'_ Daphne asked. _'I've kept up on all of the rumors in Europe, and she's been over there quite a bit in Italy. Sure she had a husband…but….that's more of a beard of anything. And that's common in high society.'_

' _Well, it will prove to be interesting,'_ Harry answered.

"It's a pleasure meeting you," Harry offered to her.

"The pleasure is all mine and I thank you for giving me a few moments of your time," Sofia said. Her father respected the young man which didn't come lightly.

Harry took a moment to take a breather. This night was getting to be fairly strange. That was the problem with high society, you invite them all and they all come.

Harry made his way out of the ballroom and onto the balcony which was designed for the purpose of getting some fresh air.

Or at least he didn't get too far. He could feel a slim hand drag him into a nearby room.

Harry took a mere moment to catch his bearings to see who exactly dragged him into the room. He was surprised, but at the same time, he wasn't really surprised that it was Sarah. She looked stunning in a red dress that has a slit up the side of her leg.

He was the one that invited her but he was amused about how she made her presence known. He was about ready to ask her what was going on.

Only the opportunity never presented itself for she jumped him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She essentially shoved her tongue down his throat in a passionate kiss.

Harry was in desperate need for some stress release, given the fucked up nature of the night that he was having so far. His hands explored her body and leaned into her kiss.

Harry pulled down her dress and cupped her bra clad breasts. Sarah moaned in response when he worked her over. He reached around and unclipped her bra to allow them to roam free. She closed her eyes when he slowly worked her over. He was going to make her scream for it, beg for it. He worked her over for a fever pitch when he kept working his hands down lower down her body.

He pulled back her panties. She was wet and ready to go. There was no reason to stave off what was going to happen. He pulled down his pants and his shorts.

He jammed his hard cock into her, fucking her against the wall. She moaned when he spiked into her.

"Guess, you've got more than you've bargained for," Harry grunted. He could feel her tight pussy clamp down onto him.

She dug her nails into the back of his neck when he thrust into her. She looked at him with a smoldering look in her eyes. "We'll see….oh we'll see….."

Harry bit on the side of her neck. She bit down on his shoulder in response when he was done. She somehow stifled the moans that passed through her body. His throbbing manhood assaulted her pussy.

Sarah could feel him go into her. She could feel her back ache when he pounded her up against the wall. She gripped him when he slipped into her.

He slid out of her and denied her an orgasm. Sarah panted but things were about ready to get rough.

He brought her over to the glass door looking over to the balcony. She felt like she should give a feeble protest.

"Harry, anyone can see us," she managed.

"You know, anyone can walk in and see us right now," Harry said. He fingered her from behind when he held her against the door. That caused her to moan deeply when he played with her. "But, I guess you love living on the edge, don't you?"

"Yes," she panted. Harry's finger rotated into her dripping hot hole and he drove her to an orgasm.

As fun as this was, Harry had a far different hole in mind that he could have some fun with. His throbbing hard cock situated at the edge of her anus. He pushed deep inside her and caused her to moan when he went balls deep into her ass.

"Yes, fuck me, fuck me hard," Sarah begged.

He grabbed her hips and roughly pumped into her ass when he pressed her against the glass door. His hands reached around and he cupped her breasts roughly. Her tight ass clamped around him when he pounded into her.

He made sure that her pussy got the proper amount of stimulation as well. He roughly fingered it. In response to these actions, she was gushing. Her hot juices spilled out onto his fingers when Harry kept working her over to a fever pitch. He thrust deep into her tight hole and the juices stuck to his fingers when he kept working her over.

"Yes, oh yes," Sarah moaned. He placed his fingers up towards her mouth. They stained with her cum.

She greedily sucked on his fingers in response. His throbbing manhood in her ass and his fingers soaked in her cum began to push her to a delicious edge. Her nipples grew harder.

"You're going to cum so hard, but you enjoy having my cock up your ass, being fucked like a slut against this door, knowing anyone can see it, don't you?" Harry asked. He punctuated those last few words with a series of rapid fire thrusts that really got her going.

"Yes, yes, yes, I do," she moaned. She barely was able to hold on when he planted his throbbing rod into her tight anal cavity. It seemed the deeper he went, the more pleasure she received.

"I bet you like me pulling your hair, don't you?" Harry asked. She squealed in response when he grabbed onto her strawberry blonde hair and yanked it.

Sarah closed her eyes and enjoyed the orgasm flowing into her. Harry's rough cock kept plowing into her ass.

Her pussy tightened again and it almost felt like there was a second cock in there, the way that Harry manipulated it. She was too racked by the sex to really care.

Harry smiled when he kept working her over. His finger pushed deep into her body and he slid deep into her depths. He expanded his finger with a nice little trip and pumped it into her. The thickness stretched her dripping hot cunt out.

Sarah gave one last needy moan when his finger slid in and out of her.

"Take it out, take it out on my ass," she begged him. She felt his heavy cum loaded balls slap against him.

The end was near and she was bringing him to a greater depth of pleasure. He slid himself deep into her tight ass when he rammed into her.

She could feel his cum loaded balls spiked against her tight ass. He worked up a fever pitch against her and she knew that the edge was here.

His probing finger made her cum over and over again. One hand dug into her pussy and the other hand alternated between pulling her hair and playing with her tits. Sarah was beyond words, but why go with words when moans would do. His throbbing hard cock impacted her tight ass when he went into her depths. She gave a mewling moan when he kept plowing her.

Harry groaned. The end was here. He impacted his load of cum into her tight, hot ass. His balls emptied the load out into her, splattering into her tight bowels.

She slumped down, satisfied. Harry pulled her up to her feet and they engaged in a heated kiss, before both of them got dressed.

"We'll pick this up later," she remarked, walking a bit awkwardly. She did cover it well though.

* * *

 

A hotel room pushed open to reveal Julian Gregory Day, the Calendar Man. He was dressed in the clothes from the maintenance worker than met his end, and he wore a baseball bat over his head. He pushed the cart out of his room and headed towards the direction of a nearby elevator. The hallway was pretty much cleared, leaving his path completely clear.

He reached the elevator and hit the call button. He mentally counted down the seconds in his head but he didn't have to wait too long before the elevator opened. The doors slid open.

Two females exited the elevator. He recognized them as Alexandra Potter and Kate Kane. Their clothes were rumpled along with their hair.

Day didn't pay them much mind. A couple of socialites didn't matter to the grand scheme of his vision. He pushed back away from her.

Faora noticed him right away when he walked out of the elevator. She couldn't do anything because Kate was right there.

' _Har, he's here, dressed as a maintenance man, he's heading on down, he's got a cart,'_ Faora thought to him.

' _I'll contact Bruce and let him know, and then I'm heading on down with Sarah to deal with him,'_ Harry responded.

Faora nodded and she offered a crisp smile. _'Right.'_

They might have just had the bastard. They'll see.

* * *

 

Catwoman ducked the charging fist of one of the mobsters. She jumped up into the air and nailed one of them in the face with a sickening roundhouse like kick. She was really taking it to Falcone's faction of mob. In fact, this particular fight took place in the penthouse apartment that he decided to take over at the Royal Hotel.

She didn't really mean to engage the thugs in battle. It was just one of those things that happened. One of them stumbled upon her slipping into the place. He managed to raise the alarm before she could knock him out.

Selina took advantage of the close quarters and the fact they couldn't shoot her if they didn't want to hit their allies. They rushed her, and she disarmed them. She took them out one at a time.

Anyone who pulled a gun on her, she utilized her claws across their forearm or blinded them with her claws with a quick swipe across the forehead.

She had to admit all of the hand to hand that she got into with Nightwing during her games was doing her rather good. Also, the few run ins with Batman also helped raise her to a new level, although if she was honest, those weren't nearly as fun as her games with Nightwing.

She finished it up, making sure that there was no me in the shadows. She saw one lurking there and cracked her whip, forcing him to move. She nailed him with a kick, sending him flying into an overturned cart.

Now it was off to Falcone's study, where she was going before she was rudely interrupted. Selina stopped and frowned when she heard the sound of a loud hurried conversation. The person inside sounded like he was trying to keep quiet yet at the same time, he was far too agitated to keep completely quiet.

Selina's eyes averted towards a hefty looking vase by the side of the door. She quietly picked it up and edged towards the door. She was able to make out some of the conversation, along with who's talking.

"Yes, yes, yes, I understand….I am calm!" Alberto Falcone said. He was doing deep breathing exercises in and out. He appeared to be in the midst of a panic attack and he called up his psychiatrist to help out.

As she opened the door, Catwoman wondered who his doctor was. You'd have to be a bit strange to deal with an oddball like that. Never the less, she took aim and fired. The vase hurled across the room and nailed Alberto across the back of the head.

He slid to the floor with a thump, completely knocked out. Slowly, she slinked over to the phone and picked it up. She rather teasingly purred into it.

"Little Alberto can't come to the phone right now, please leave a message after the click."

She let the phone rest with a decisive click. Now that little weasel was knocked out, that gave her time to scan the room extremely carefully. Selina was on the hunt to find what she was looking for. Carefully she slunk over to the side towards a painting on the left side of the wall.

She pulled it open to reveal a safe. It didn't take her that long to crack it, given that it was pretty generic and one that the Hotel provides for their patron's use. Selina practically purred when she cracked the safe open.

It was not a surprise when she found documents within the safe. The felonious feline snapped photos with her phone.

She spotted jewelry locked in three safe boxes within it that belonged to Carmine's mother, wife, and grandmother. Apparently, Sofia decided to have brought it with her to Gotham. She decided, since it was Christmas, she left the jewelry belonging to Sofia's mother in tact.

She did however take the jewelry belonging to Carmine's mother and grandmother. She carefully closed the safe, getting what she came for. Now that she was down, Catwoman moved carefully towards the door.

The woman was caught off guard to see the door of the study slowly open. Recovering instantly, she threw herself up against the wall next to the door and carefully flicked off the lights.

Carmine Falcone entered the room carefully. He was confused. A little bit ago, he got a call from his son's doctor who warned him something happened to his youngest son. Like the concerned father he is, even though Alberto turned out to be a disappointed, he left the party. He returned to the apartment to check on his son.

He was surprised with how quiet it was but he chalked it all to all of his men going out. It was rather dark inside. Carmine reached around to flick on the lights.

Before he could do that, he saw a flash of light. He screamed in absolute agony when a pair of razor sharp claws slashed open the right side of his face. To be precise, they catch him high up on the edge of his face right next to his nose. They cut downwards towards his jawbone.

Before he had a chance to really register what happened, someone kneed him really hard in the stomach. This someone grabbed him by the hair and forced him down to his hands and knees.

He could hear a sultry female voice purr in his ear. "Something to remember me by, Carmine."

She knocked him unconscious with a stomp to the back of his head. Carmine didn't even look at his attacker before he blacked out.

* * *

 

Harry and Sarah were both fully dressed, even if their clothes were rumpled. They made their way down the stairwell leading to the basement.

"He's most likely in the generator room since that's where an explosion would do the most damage to this Hotel," Harry said.

Sarah frowned when she walked down the steps with him. "Wouldn't it be the Boiler room?"

"Traditionally, yes," Harry agreed. He quickened him steps. "Day is smarter than that and as an inventor he would whip up something that would do a lot of damage. Then he would plant it where it would do the most damage."

They step out of the stairwell and reached the generator room. The moment they reached the door, it looked like it had been broken into.

' _Whoever Day rolled over for that outfit didn't have anything that would allow him to access the room,'_ Harry thought.

He stepped inside the room. It was fairly jarring how quiet it was. Normally a generator room would be noisy as hell. The machines must have been maintained well but nothing was maintained that well.

Both of them shared a quick glance with each other. Both decided that it would be best to stick together since all it took was a single moment for Day to get the drop on one of them. He was perfectly willing to kill with very little hesitation.

They searched the room high and low but it didn't take too long for them to find what they were searching for. They ran across a kneeling Day, who bent over a big object that was most certainly a bomb of some sort and one that he was in the process of rigging to explode.

Sarah aimed her gun at him and approached him. "Freeze, GCPD MCU!"

Day remained still and oddly calm. It seemed like a good long eternity when he didn't move.

"Put your hands in the air slowly."

Day turned around and swung the wrench at her. He slammed it at her at a force. The wrench flew from his hand seconds later but it did a good a job of disarming Sarah. She flew into Harry, who managed to catch her.

This momentary distraction caused Day to slip out of the room and made surprisingly good time despite his deformity.

"I'll get him, can you disable the bomb?" Sarah asked. She favored her arm slightly.

"Yes I can, but are you okay?" Harry asked her.

"I've had worse," she said.

Sarah made her way outside. She could see Day who had disarmed his gun from his side arm. He was a surprisingly good shot and Sarah had to duck and roll to avoid being hit by the bullet. She fired at him but he somehow avoided the attack. He moved fairly quickly or perhaps he was able to adapt with what he had.

Her arm stung from the impact of the wrench going into it. She took careful aim with the gun. Both of them continued their gunfight. Neither of them got very far.

Day was slowly backing off towards an exit, which lead onto the street above. Day turned and shot a fire extinguisher. It exploded and sent the contents spraying in every direction.

Day bolted towards the direction of the doorway when she was distracted. He slammed through it and rushed his way up the stairs.

He didn't get that far. A punch nailed him right in the face and he crumpled to the ground, knocked unconscious with a broken jaw. The Calendar Killer was knocked out by one punch.

The god damn Batman stood over Day, finally having caught him. He wasn't holding back out of anger for all of the deaths this man caused.

A groggy Calendar Man came too, to realize that he had been handcuffed. Sarah placed the gun at him until back up was arriving.

A pair of patrolman arrived, with Gordon and Bullock following.

"Finally got the scumbag!" Bullock cheered. He didn't take care not to step on Day when he walked forward.

As for Batman, he had disappeared into the night, as quickly as he appeared. The Calendar Killer was captured and the people of Gotham City could sleep a little bit better tonight.

* * *

**To Be Continued On February 5** **th** **, 2015.**


	81. The Night Before Christmas

**Chapter Eighty One: the Night Before Christmas.**

* * *

 

Harry Potter wondered how got himself into the predicaments that he got in sometimes. He was surrounded by a bunch of Christmas shopping procrastinators. He was in one of the biggest and most exclusive malls in Gotham City. Harley followed him close behind and she was joined by Pamela. Lyta stuck close to Harry and Diana followed the both of them. She looked fairly amused at the expression on Harry's face.

He recalled how they got into this position. It all started when they all got together for breakfast this morning and they discussed plans that they had for the holidays. Sapphire, who was with them this morning, said that she was going skiing with her father in Aspen. She left for the Airport straight from breakfast.

As for Harry, and the others, they were heading to the Blackgate Manor until Boxing Day. When they were done there, they were heading off to vacation until just before New Year's.

"So, where are you going for the holidays?" Pamela asked Harley.

Harley spoke in her obviously bubbly tone. "I'm going home to my family, to visit them. With both my mother and sister, you know, they live in Brooklyn."

' _That's really not a big surprise,'_ Pamela thought to herself and any bond mates that happened to be listening into the conversation.

"But it's not after Christmas, because it's murder to get a flight out of Gotham City this time a year," Harley explained. "Unless of course you have a private jet or something. And I can't get the time off until after, because we're short staffed. But thank you for inviting me along."

Harley decided to milk the moment, she was given an invitation to join them on this shopping trip. She was also invited to join them for Christmas and that was something that she was excited about.

The only problem was she hadn't purchased any gifts for them or anyone else until the last minute.

"Always the same every year, I wait until the last minute," Harley said. She shook her head. "And you thought Blackgate was a madhouse. Well some of the guys in the Arkham ward look pretty sane compared to these people here."

"I agree," Diana mused. She really was regretting this trip, maybe not as much as Harry did. She did have to pick up one or two more things, but she had the vast majority of her shopping done. Well before the aptly named Black Friday, she should note.

Pamela crinkled her nose. She was pretty sure that she had everything in order. Diana leaned over towards Pamela and gave her a slight smile.

' _Just grin and bare it, honey,'_ Diana thought to her.

' _Figures that Harley would be someone who would wait until the very last minute,'_ Pamela thought.

Emily piped in on the conversation after a few seconds. _'Amanda's just as bad.'_

' _I so am not,'_ Amanda said. _'I got my shopping done a full two days before Christmas this year."_

" _Good for you,'_ Kara commented, applauding and Donna joined in.

' _I'm being triple teamed and not in the good way,'_ Amanda sighed. She clutched her hands and lowered her head.

Harry held Lyta on his back since she wanted to be up there. Harley had a death grip on his hand that she thought was subtle. Given that it was Harley, it wasn't all that subtle at all. Pamela and Diana looked kind of amused, even though the crowds were getting to them.

' _Figures, you'd draw a crowd wherever you went,'_ Donna interjected. She looked amused, as did the twins.

Harry shook his head and he knew that kind of attention was a blessing and a curse. He saw Diana in particular keeping her eyes on some people who were looking at Harry quite shiftily. If they tried anything, she would take them down quickly. It was a well-known fact that she was his bodyguard.

' _Do you think that anyone is going to try anything?'_ Karen asked.

' _Always a chance, we are in Gotham City,'_ Harry replied. He was on a hair trigger to be honest.

"So, you were the one who had the interview with Day?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I conducted the initial Psychiatric interview with Julian," Harley confirmed. She spoke with a passion that many should have with their chosen career field. Then again it was hard to tell and when it wasn't just Harley being Harley. "You could kind of tell it by the crimes that he committed, but he's really insane. He is obsessed with dates, months, and days to an obsessive memory. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of them."

Harley collected her thoughts.

"Insisted on him calling me Calendar Man when I talked to him, he's embraced the name fully," Harley added. "He's frightenly intelligent and well spoken, but very OCD. It's almost hard to believe that he committed these crimes and you'd never guess it if you didn't know."

She shook her head. It was obvious that she was recalling something.

"Come to think of it though, Doctor Crane was like that as well," Harley said. "He was well respected, well spoken, intelligent. But it wasn't until after he was caught that it was obvious what was wrong with him."

"Day is locked up where he can get the help that he needs though," Harry said.

"Yeah, but he's an interesting case, about how a mild mannered man can just snap," Harley added. Her lips tugged into a brief smile. "Something went really wrong up there. It went really wrong all in his head, he's….well you know."

The group couldn't continue this conversation. They made their way to an extremely expensive jewelry store.

"I think we should take a look inside," Harry said.

Pamela nodded in agreement. She wanted to see if they had any crystal perfume bottles. She made some perfume for each of the girls. The redhead was on the hunt for something nicer to put it in.

"I thought that you got your shopping done months ago," Diana replied.

"I did," Harry said.

The group saw a woman who looked to be in her fifties stare at them fairly disdainfully.

"Man, she looks like she hasn't gotten laid in decades," Harley murmured underneath her breath.

It was a statement that was meant to be muttered, but it was obvious from the woman's gaze that she overheard Harley.

Her attitude did shift when she saw the one and only Harry Potter.

"We'll meet back at the front of the store," Harry told them. Pamela, Harley, and Diana all went off.

Harry nudged Lyta and caused her to get off of his back.

' _Well it looks like you're getting a bit fat, aren't you, Lyta?'_ Donna teased her.

' _Actually, I can carry her on my back for the entire day and not really notice,'_ Harry reminded Donna.

' _Which you have,'_ Donna replied with a snort.

Lyta gave Donna a wicked smirk until she could hear some warnings to behave by Hippolyta and Lily. The girl folded her arms and gave a slight scowl. Harry lead her over with a smile through their face.

Harry reached the rings. He was looking for inspiration for ideas. He could make something along those lines with his own skills and magic. The young emerald eyed man was just taking a nice close look at what they had to offer.

A loud "oooh" erupted from Lyta. Harry slowly turned towards her and raised his eyebrow. Lyta clapped her hand over her mouth suddenly. He saw a rather understated emerald bracelet.

"It's so pretty," Lyta whispered. Her expression danced when she looked at it with pure awe etched in her eyes.

Harry cleared his throat and got the attention of one of the attendants. "Could you bring that out please, so my daughter can try it on?"

"Certainly, sir," the attendant said in one of those overly posh accents that might as well have been fake.

The bracelet was on Lyta and it matched the color of her eyes. The girl didn't bother to ask him to buy it, after all, she figured that he would have purchased a pretty good gift already.

Harry was always able to pick up on what was said, as much as what was unsaid. He could tell how much his daughter wanted it.

Harry fished his wallet out and pulled out his credit card. He turned to the attendant with a smile. "Ring it up."

She looked at it in surprise. "At once, sir."

Lyta squealed in delight. She was too wired to really say anything, so she settled for hugging Harry tight. He bent down to pull her up into a hug. Lyta gave him a slight kiss.

Harry smiled and gave her a slightly reprimanding smile. He kissed her on the top of the head, fully realizing where they are.

The attendant handed Harry a receipt. No sooner did this happen, did Pamela, Harley, and Diana join them. They just finished up their business on the other side of the store.

"So, are you all ready to go?" Harry asked. He got nods of confirmation.

The group was about ready to go and leave through the front exit of the store. Unfortunately, they ran into someone.

They were interrupted by a six foot six musclebound African-American male with gold teeth, who is dressed like Santa Claus. There were three others that were dressed like Santa's Elves. All of them were armed with weapons. It was nothing fancy, rather there was a shotgun, a couple of handguns, and a m16. It was obvious that they were armed and dangerous no matter how you sliced it. They were here to rob the store.

"Alright, every one of you freeze and step back, and none of you get hurt," one of the elves said gruffly. "None of you bitches want to be on Santa's naughty list, don't you?"

The leader of the gang pointed a gun in the direction of Lyta. Harry reacted about as well as one would expect. Harry stepped close to him.

Before the man could respond, he was lifted off the ground and thrown into the man beside him. Diana rushed over and nailed one of them with a clothesline to the man closest to her. He did a three sixty flip and landed right on his face.

There was chaos and screaming. No one seemed to know what happened. Lyta took advantage of this distraction and punched Santa in the face as hard she could. He was sent crashing through the door, taking the door frame with him.

The dust settled and the only thing Harley saw was someone crashing through the door and breaking it. She saw the members of the gang down and in a lot of pain.

"I think we're done here," Harry said, leading the group out of the side exit.

* * *

 

The scene shifted to locations to a very exclusive restaurant that was part of a hotel. The hotel was owned by the one and only Rupert Thorne, which meant that was fairly large and looked extremely over the top. It was something that even Donald Trump would shake his head at regarding how excessive and over the top it was.

The man himself seated down at a table. Carlton Duquesne sat on his right side and Carl Grissom sat on his left at a table towards the back of the establishment. It was a place that was private enough to ensure that your conversation wasn't overheard. At the same time though, it's in plain view of everyone who happens to come in.

The reason for this was extremely obvious, given the company that Thorne found himself in. On the left side of the table was Luigi "Big Lou" Maroni and to Maroni's left were "Fat" Tony Zucco and Eddie Skeevers.

On the right side of the table is Carmine "the Roman" Falcone, who had stitches in the side of his face. His daughter Sofia sat to the left of him and his son Mario sat to the right.

The reason these members of "polite" society have gathered at this particular place, at this particular time, and on this particular day would become clear soon.

"Everyone look a bit happier, Christmas is coming, isn't it time to put all of this nonsense behind us?" Thorne asked. "Time to remember the reason for the season and know that we'd be a lot better off if we worked together."

Thorne got the attention of both sides. Whether or not they were going to listen to what he said was another matter entirely.

"The current gang war is bad for business for all three of us," Thorne warned them.

He hoped that he could mediate a truth between both of the Maroni and Falcone sides. This wasn't the first time he did this. It was about all he did when he wasn't running the illegal gambling and sports rackets for the Roman and Maroni. At least that's what he did before the shift in the political landscape.

Thorne thought that he was perfectly capable of mediating things between both sides.

There was just one problem that Thorne didn't see. Big Lou wasn't Sal and it was obvious that he was carrying a massive grudge towards the Falcone camp.

"So, you're telling me that you just want to let it go, let go what happened," Big Lou said. His hair trigger temper as on the surface. "After the Falcones run me out of the country, you want me to play nice with."

The Roman's eyes narrowed. He didn't say anything. His body language could be read though and he was just as irritated with this situation.

"I think that you more than made up for it, Luigi," Carmine replied. He took a large sip of wine. "Given that your son decided to take the Carmine hotel. But that's just like you Maronis, slipping in the back door and taking what doesn't belong to you."

Big Lou stared into Carmine's eyes. His hand wrapped around the spoon. He looked like he was about ready to dive across the table and stab Carmine to death with a spoon.

Carmine and Sofia were both upset about what happened on the twenty first. The stitches on the side of Carmine's face proved this fact.

"Gentlemen, we're going around in circles," Thorne said. He knew that they returned to this same particular argument a couple of times already. "For the good of Gotham City, you need to…"

"Rupert, I know what's good for Gotham City," Carmine warned him. His mouth shifted into a slight and not so subtle sneer. His glare went across the table towards Big Lou. "And I'll make deals with him, once he gives me back my grandfather's hotel."

"Ah, you can't take the heat, can you, Carmine?" Big Lou asked. His tone was mocking. He enjoyed any chance to stick it to the Falcones.

"I'm not willing to make any deals with him until he returns my property to me," Carmine said.

"Let me help the two of you," Thorne said. He could see the eyes of both Big Lou and the Roman on him.

The two men rarely agreed on anything, but it was obvious they both thought that Thorne was getting too big for his britches. It was almost like he thought that he was a bigger player.

"Thorne, I hope you're not telling me what I'm to do," Big Lou whispered. He wanted to slap Thorne across the back of his head.

The Roman nodded. A part of him respected Thorne from trying to move up in the world, but the way he was doing it left something to be desired.

One could also see that Sofia and Zucco glared at each other like they were trying to set fire to each other with their minds. It was a good thing that there was a large table in between both sides.

Mario shifted on the table, and he didn't want to be here.

The only thing which kept them coming to blows and guns is that they were in public and they were on Thorne's turf. So to attack here would be a problem, at least today.

"Don't you think that we should work together against the other factions?" Thorne asked. "Both Cobblepot and Sionis…"

"I'd take my chances with those freaks alone than work with a Falcone," Big Lou whispered.

"Until he returns my grandfather's hotel, we have nothing else to say to each other," the Roman said shortly.

"It's a shame, but if that's how you feel," Thorne replied. This meeting was not going his way. This petty war between the Falcones and the Maronis caused him to grow extremely uncomfortable and nervous.

"Enjoy Christmas, Falcone," Big Lou whispered. His grin grew completely wide.

There were threats that were implied, but unspoken. Both sides were unable to come to any form of agreement. Even the threat of other factions did not get to work together.

The groups all went their separate ways. There were no more threats, but this entire dinner showed that there were more than a few underlined threats between all members of the group.

* * *

 

A pair of gentlemen sat in a car parked behind a van across from the street of a large condo, dressed exactly like one would expect a pair of gangsters from the nineteen-thirties to wear. Their business suits looked like something that was straight off the rack. One of them had a pair of binoculars and the other had a camera.

"So, the Cat's been busy, hasn't she?" one of the thugs asked. His partner nodded with a wide grin on his face.

"Yeah, after what she did to Big Lou and Zucco, along with the Roman and his idiot kid," the second gangster agreed.

"Sofia's pretty pissed off" the first gangster commented. "She was swearing up and down that she was going to skin the bitch. You know, because the Cat was the one that ripped her off."

The second gangster nodded and shivered as well. He turned the man beside him. "So what the hell are we doing out here anyway?"

"Grissom was told by Eckhardt that his mistress was stepping out on him with Napier," the first gangster said. "You know, before the dickhead got himself shot?"

"Who do you think is doing it?" the gangster asked.

"Hey, as long as we're not the ones getting shot, then who the fuck cares," the first gangster said. He shrugged and shook his head. "But Eckhardt got his fat ass killed before he can confirm that Napier's been doing the nasty with the boss's mistress. There's no way to prove it, at least not yet."

The first gangster lit up a cigarette and took a long drag off of it.

"If those two are fucking around with each other, there's no way that they're going to resist getting together when Grissom is preoccupied with something else," the first gangster said. Smoke blew into the alleyway. The second gangster had a dumb look on his face. "He's going to take advantage of the fact that the Boss is in a meeting to fuck his bitch."

The look of comprehension spread over the thug's face. "Oh, why didn't you say that in the first place?"

The first gangster lifted his hand up and slapped himself on the face with a sigh.

"Hey, did you know that smoking's bad for you?" the second gangster asked.

"So, is running your mouth at me," the first gangster grumbled. "Some quack doctor said that, what do they know? You're about as bad as my mother."

"I thought your mother was….."

This conversation was cut short by the front entrance of the condo swinging open. Napier stepped out, with Grissom's mistress following him. She was an extremely attractive blonde that used to be a model. He wore an extremely expensive looking tailored suit, while she was just in the process of doing up a white silk robe.

The two thugs watched from afar, out of sight. The lead thug nudged the second thug in the side. The second gangster smacked his hand around and pulled out a camera.

The very intimate conversation showed them in an extremely compromising position. The thug continued to snap pictures. The conversation ended with the blonde kissing Jack on the cheek and she closed the door behind her.

Jack got into his car and drove off.

"So, we should go and get these developed…."

This thug conversation was cut off by a rapping outside of the window. The lead thug rolled the window down and looked towards the person responsible. "What the fuck do you want?"

The person responded by shooting both gangsters in the head with a silenced colt-45. The two men slumped down onto the car seat, bleeding from the wounds that killed them instantly.

The man reached into the car and picked up the camera.

Bob the Goon, Jack's number one man, scurried away from the car as quickly as his legs could carry him. The incriminating evidence was in his hand and no one would be the wiser.

* * *

 

It was around two in the afternoon. Harry split off with Diana, Harley, Lyta, and Pamela, standing in front of the corner apartment where Sapphire lived. She already just left to spend Christmas in Aspent with her father.

He arrived at the apartment to drop off his gift for Alex, who was currently sharing the apartment with Sapphire. He invited her to the manor already for Christmas, but she turned it down, saying that she already made plans for the holidays. She did make it perfectly clear that she wasn't spending the holidays with Lionel and Alexander.

Harry knocked on the door and waited for an answer. The door opened and Harry was caught momentarily off guard. It was answered by Tess of all people.

' _That's right, Alexa is her student mentor at Harvard,'_ Harry thought, shaking his head. _'And I wouldn't be shocked if she reveals that she knows that Tess is her younger sister."_

"Harry, it's good to see you!" Tess said in an excited tone. She maintained her composure in seconds. "How are you doing, how's school been, what have you been up to…well I know what you've been up to, but I mean other things that you've been up to."

Harry smiled, that was certainly a mouthful that she said.

"I've been doing well," Harry informed her with a chuckle. "School's been going pretty good. And I've been just settling in for the holidays, preparing for the new launches that are going to happen in the first quarter of the year."

It was at this point that Alexa came into the living room from the direction of the kitchen. She noticed that Harry was standing in the hallway still. She took a moment to clear her throat.

Alexa shook her head and gave Tess a slight smile.

"Tess, why don't you let Harry in already?" Alexa asked. Tess stepped back as gracefully as she could with the circumstances and allowed Harry to enter the room. "Would you like to join us for coffee and pie?"

Harry was a caffeine addict at heart, so he would never turn down a cup of coffee and he was never one to say no to pie.

"I think that would be a good idea," Harry replied.

"Oh, that's great," Tess commented in a bubbly voice. She grabbed Harry by the hand and lead him into the living room, much to Alexa's obvious amusement.

While Tess and Harry got comfortable in the living room, Alexa moved off to the kitchen. Harry turned towards him with an inquiring eyebrow.

"So, how have you been doing with your studies?" Harry inquired. Tess looked at in with a quizzical look in her eyes. "I do have access for how you're doing accamedemically due to the fact that it's my company providing the scholarship. But it's great to hear these things from the horse's mouth sometimes."

"I'm in the middle of getting my doctorate in Marine biology," Tess said. It was impressive, given that she was only sixteen years of age. "But, it's nothing compared on what you're doing. You got another one since the last time we talked. I can't believe that you can do enough work to get one done in a year considering how busy you are."

Alexa entered the room, carrying the coffee and pie. The interesting thing was that she wore an apron and looked quite domestic.

"You know, Harry was asking you about your accomplishments and not his own," Alexa commented. Tess looked rather sheepish.

Harry waved off the statement. "Well the conversation got sidetracked a little bit, but it is a valid question never the less."

Tess looked a bit vindicated and she didn't hesitate to show Alexa this.

"And to answer your question, I've got a system down, where I minor in the next subject that I'm going to major in," Harry said. "This year was a bit of an exception to that rule, since originally I was going to do Biology and not Psychology. So I'm doing a bit more work than I do normally."

"It does sound like a pretty good system," Alexa said. She turned towards Tess. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"If it works, I wouldn't change it," Tess conceded.

Both of them were obvious geniuses in their own right. If both were willing to put in the work, they were easily capable of doing the same. As a matter of fact, Alexa has already done something quite similar.

"So, what are you doing in Gotham?" Harry asked.

Alexa answered the question. "Plan was always for Tess to join me for Christmas."

She smiled and added. "It just was supposed to happen in Metropolis and not in Gotham City."

"I see," Harry replied with a nod. "And the invitation is still open to join us at the Manor, there's enough room for everyone. And I drove over so I can leave straight here."

"Well who can pass up an offer like that," Tess said. Alexa looked at Tess and raised her eyebrow. Tess responded by giving her a pair of the big puppy dog eyes.

Alexa could not believe that she was being manipulated so handily .She threw her hands back into the air and gave an exasperated sigh. "Fine."

The trio finished up their coffee at that moment, along with some really good pie.

"I made it myself," Alexa told him with a smile. She reached over to gather up the dishes, but Harry's hand brushed against hers since he was about to do the same. Alexa smirked widely. "Well, if you want to help me with the dishes, you can."

Harry nodded his head in response. The two of them entered the kitchen to let Tess do whatever.

The moment they entered the kitchen, Alexa threw her arms around Harry's neck. She kissed him deeply, practically shoving her tongue down his throat.

Harry responded accordingly, their tongues battled for domination. She wasn't easily dominated, but she succumbed to his tender actions in a matter of moments. He reached around and groped her ass, she he knew that she got off on that.

An eternity seemed to pass. Alexa backed up against the counter when she pulled away from him. Her red hair clung down against her face. She smirked sexily at him, licking her lips.

"You know, I never got to return the favor from the last time that we were alone together."

With that said, she slunk downwards to unzip his fly using her teeth.

Alexa saw his cock spring out. She cooed when she looked at it. Her hand traced down the edge of it, feeling its hardness grew within her grip.

"I think I'm going to enjoy returning the favor," Alexa whispered. She leaned forward and gave him a long and lingering kiss with her tongue. She raked her tongue against his hole.

Alexa's tongue slowly brushed all over his throbbing manhood. She lathered his cock in her salvia, all while playing with his balls all the way.

She leaned back and placed her lips around him. Slowly, she made her way down on Harry. She teased him when she inched his throbbing manhood deep into her mouth.

Harry groaned when he felt her hot mouth tighten around him. He placed his hands on the top of her head and allowed her to come down onto her. Her lips pressed against him.

She came all the way off of him, slowly, but surely. His cock lathered in her salvia when she backed off.

Without warning or preamable, Alexa pushed her lips down onto his throbbing manhood again. She hummed a tune when she worked over his cock.

"Alexa, oh god," Harry grunted. He felt her sexy mouth work him over. Her nose rubbed against his pelvic bone.

She continued to work him over. Things proved to be getting a bit heated, although they had to be careful because Tess was in the next room.

Alexa looked up into his eyes. His cock inside her mouth was an erotic sight for sure. He pumped into her mouth when she deep throated him.

She reared her head back and allowed his manhood to unleash a shower of seed into her. Alexa drank up Harry's load really good. Her eyes glazed over when she smiled.

She got to her feet, her nipples poking out from behind the edge of her apron. Harry removed the apron and unbuttoned her blouse.

"Harry," she whined. Her breasts were encased in a nice lacy purple bra. Harry squeezed them and caused her to whimper.

He trailed a series of kisses all the way down her stomach, until he reached the crown jewel that was her center.

"If you're going to scream, I will gag you," Harry whispered. Harry pulled down her skirt and her panties, to reveal her smooth hairless snatch. He slowly rubbed her slit.

Alexa could feel his manhood push against her entrance. The only thing that prevented him from going inside of her was her lifting her hips.

She lifted her hips slightly and allowed him to enter inside of her body. She felt so soft and slick. Alexa sexily bit down on her lip when he entered her. He slowly pushed into her. He worked her up to an orgasm.

"One quick one," Alexa begged him. She didn't know whether or not Tess could hear them where they were. She bit down on Harry's shoulder which stifled her moan.

His large tool stretched out her dripping hot snatch. Harry's hands traveled over her body when he pushed into her. His hand reached around when he groped her ass.

Alexa bit down on his shoulder even harder in response. Her hand went into his other shoulder, digging her nails inside.

The door was swung open a crack momentarily and a pair of eyes looked out. They grew widen from the show.

"Cumming," Alexa whispered. She bit his ear in response.

Harry pushed into her snug snatch. She tightened around him and she came down onto the counter.

"Need to finish you off," Alexa whimpered. Harry pulled out of her. "And soon."

Alexa kicked her high heel shoe off and exposed her stocking clad foot. She slowly pulled her stocking off. She used her right foot to stroke Harry's large cock, when she placed her hands up against the counter to maintain her momentum.

She did the same with her left foot as well. Alexa rocked herself back and forth against the counter, working Harry's cock with her feet. She gave him an amazing footjob.

Harry felt the skin of her legs. She never had to shave her legs, the hair only grew on the top of her hand thanks to the meteor shower.

He felt her elegant arches rub him into completion. He groaned when his balls ached.

A shower of cum erupted from his cock and splattered Alexa's feet from her efforts. She fingered herself into an orgasm and relaxed against the counter.

After Alexa and Harry "did the dishes", the two of them exited the kitchen. They heard a scramble back towards the couch and Tess sitting there.

She tried to act a bit casual, which caused both Alexa and Harry to smile at her.

"So, what are you waiting for?" Alexa asked her. "Why don't you go up and pack so we can get over to the Manor by nightfall?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Tess said in a breathless voice. She scrambled to get up and pack.

Alexa thought about slapping Tess on the ass to get her to going. Given the free show she got, common sense prevailed.

"Merry Christmas, Harry," Alexa said, giving him a kiss on the cheek, acting casual.

* * *

 

Bitter weather was just the cause of the day for Gotham City. That was nothing compared to the reception that this particular comedian got when he performed earlier this month in Gotham City. The sidewalks and streets were mostly clear, but the snow was coming down. Fortunately for him, the worst of the worst would happen when he came home.

He made his way through the front entrance of the small apartment that he owned. Nothing fancy, just some little place that he hung his hat where he built his future. After his performance last month and the bad reviews, he wasn't sure if he had much of a future. The people in Gotham City could be extremely unforgiving.

The comedian, Joseph Kerr, shared the apartment with his wife Jeannie. Who he ran into when she was just getting back from a shift. She was an okay looking blonde, not supermodel looking, but pretty enough.

"Oh, Joe, I didn't see you there," Jeannie said. She shook her head. "I was just getting off from my shift."

"I was as well, darling," Joe answered, shaking his head.

He went to get the bills. It didn't seem to be anything too expensive. They did work some halfway decent jobs.

The couple made their way into their small apartment. When they were settled in, Joe put a kettle onto boil. Jeannie made her way into the bathroom.

When she returned, Joe gave a sigh. "I was thinking, maybe I can make it as a comedian."

Jeannie looked at him, with a raised eyebrow.

"I have to quit my job at Ace Chemicals to do it, but…..I know it sounds silly," Joe continued. He leaned back onto the chair and closed his eyes. "But, if I work at it, I can do it. I know they skewed my debut and last night, I bombed, but…..we have enough money saved up where we'll be fine for a while. And your job pays very well."

Jeannie looked into his eyes. "You got to do what you got to do."

Joe nodded, grateful that she was the supportive spouse that she was. He didn't know what he would do without her. He took a cup of tea into his hands.

A timer dinged in the bathroom and she rushed off to check on something. He just casually drank the cup of tea, watching the nasty snow storm that was taking place in Gotham City.

"Joe, I'm pregnant!"

That statement caused him to drop the cup of coffee on the ground in shock. It shattered to the ground, but he didn't really notice.

* * *

 

Elsewhere in Gotham City, a young raven haired girl with blue eyes sat in a rat-hole apartment in one of the rougher areas of Gotham City. It was near enough Crime Alley to be a cause of concern. The wail of sirens and the sounds of gunfire could be heard in the background.

The girl, ten year old Jessica Todd, sat on a dilapidated couch watching television. She scowled at the sounds coming from the neighborhood and her only response was to turn up the television.

A commercial ended and the evening news popped up. Jessica's eyes blinked and she scrambled to her feet.

She came to a stop in the direction of her Father's bedroom. The girl knocked loudly on the door. Several times in fact, but she got no response. She pushed the door open.

Inside, she found her father, Willis Todd, a dark haired middle aged man with dark eyes, sprawled out on a dirty looking bed, with some woman Jessie never met in her life. Her nose wrinkled in response and she marched over towards her father.

Jessie poked him roughly in the back of the head, until his eyes opened. He turned towards her with a scowl. "What do you want?"

"You told me to wake me up at six," Jessie replied. She frowned. "And you also told me that you weren't going to bring any more of these sluts you found home."

Willis turned towards the woman in the bed, he looked honestly surprised. "Must have gotten really fucking drunk last night."

Jessie turned around, shaking her head in disgust. With one scowl on her face, she walked out of the room, leaving her father to get changed.

Willis joined her in a couple of moments, stumbling in the Apartment proper in a pair of cargo pants and a tight fitting black t-shirt.

"Actually surprised that you're home for once," Jessie muttered underneath her breath.

"It was the closest place to crash," Willis grunted. "And I wanted to check up on you."

Jessie blinked in surprise. She sank down on a chair on the kitchen table.

"And now I've got to go."

She wasn't surprised about that. She frowned. He slipped on a red hoodie and then a black leather jacket that he needed to wear on account of the weather.

"It's Christmas Eve," Jessie said to him.

Willis stopped when he was about three steps away from the door. He fished into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket.

"Buy yourself something nice, kiddo."

He placed the wad of cash on the table. "I'll be back in the morning."

Willis left, leaving Jessie sitting all alone at the kitchen table on Christmas Eve.

* * *

 

It was nine o'clock on the evening of Christmas eve and there was a Family Gathering at the Manor. People were spread out in the estate talking quietly, or in the case of some of the girls, playing video games on the Playstation.

Harry cradled a sleeping Lyta in his arms and walked her up to bed she conked out on his lap a little while ago. It was odd since she was normally so full of energy, but she had a busy day, including the incident at the mall and a sparring session with her sisters.

When Lyta was safely in her bed and tucked in, Harry made his way downstairs. He made his way towards a group of girls who were chatting.

"Have any of you seen James Gordon?" Harry asked them.

Kara was helpful in pointing things out. "He's out smoking on the deck by the kitchen."

"Thanks," Harry said. He leaned forward and kissed Kara. She looked pleased and rather gloating towards the other girls.

As Harry made his way out to the deck, he noticed the girls were broken up into groups. Alexa was in a conversation with Faora and Karen. He just left Kara, Barbara, and Donna, who were sprawled out on the couches. Barbara in particular was sitting on the side of it with her legs crossed and her laptop perched on her lap. Donna was sprawled out on the couch and now that Kara had finished speaking to Harry, she was back to laying on top of her.

Amanda and Emily were playing video games, with Harley right beside them. Harry caught snatches of an animated conversation with Pamela and Tess.

"I think that Shreck things that he has good intentions with that power plant…"

Pamela shook her head. "Well, he might think that, but it's not good for the environment at all."

They kept their voices down because not too many people shared their passion about what they were talking about.

Eventually, Harry tracked down Gordon, who was just finishing up his smoke.

"So, how are you doing?" Harry asked, when Gordon acknowledged his presence. "It's been a couple of weeks since we had a chance to really speak."

That much was obvious given the fact that Gordon was the head of a major department in the GCPD.

"Been pretty busy, crime doesn't sleep in this city," Gordon said. He shook his head. "I was lucky to get the night off. In fact, I was ordered by Chief O'Hara to take it off."

Harry raised his eyebrow with interest. "So, who is supervising the MCU?"

This question caused Gordon to wince momentarily.

"Bullock, it's Bullock," Gordon said.

That caused Harry to wince in response as well. Bullock might have been a good cop. Bullock's biggest flaw was that he was, well he was Bullock.

"So, as you might have guess, I didn't come out here to talk to you about work entirely," Harry replied, after he allowed the image of Harvey Bullock being in charge to fade from his brain. "I've come here to seek your blessing to ask Barbara to marry me."

Gordon was surprised. That was the last question he expected. If nothing else for the fact that Barbara was sixteen, going on seventeen.

"I didn't take you for the type of person that would care about traditions like that," James said frankly. Harry looked at him with a smile. "No offense meant, naturally."

"No offense taken," Harry agreed. "Normally, I wouldn't care, but I respect the fact that you're a traditional guy. And you're a person that I actually respect enough to try and do things the right way."

Harry stopped and thought about that. "I'm not sure if there is a right way in this day and age, considering how much traditions change and all that."

Gordon wouldn't argue with him about that point. He considered it carefully.

"You have been more or less together since you met when Barbara was twelve and you were thirteen," Gordon replied. He mused regarding something. "I'll give you my approval, although I like you to wait until after she graduates university."

Harry chuckled. "Knowing Barbara, if she's anything like me, she's not going to stop studying any time soon."

"True," Gordon admitted. He did agree with Harry about that point regarding his daughter. He didn't see her stop studying any time soon. "When she gets her first major or Doctorate then."

Harry noticed that they had a visitor in the form of the one and only Bruce Wayne.

"Bruce," Gordon commented. "I'll let the two of you speak."

Harry and Bruce walked off. They moved a short distance before he asked one question. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you before it got too late," Bruce said. "Not sure when I'd have a chance to do so again, due to the holidays."

Harry nodded in response and lead Bruce in the direction of one of the studies.

"Not sure whose study this is," Harry said. "Might belong to my Mum or Kara….."

' _It's mine,'_ Kara said happily. _'So feel free to make yourself at home.'_

"Actually, now that I see it, it's Kara's," Harry answered with a smile.

The two of them sat into arm chairs in the middle of the study.

"A Merry Christmas to you then," Bruce told him. "I wanted to give you a gift in person."

He handed Harry the neatly wrapped present.

"As I said, I didn't want to do a joint Christmas dinner, because I wasn't really into the ritual of the holiday," Bruce replied. "And I haven't been since I was eight years old."

Harry got the message loud and clear.

"I do try and put on a good face for Alfred's sake, but this time of year is a reminder of what I've lost," Bruce commented.

"I understand," Harry said. "I mostly do it to see the smiles on the girl's faces, and they do spoil me during it, to thank me for what I've done for them over the year."

Bruce nodded. Harry opened the present that he was given. He raised his eyebrow, it was a complete Grey Ghost collection on DVD.

"Hmm, well this is an interesting gift," Harry muttered.

"You didn't seem to recognize the them when we were at Dumpler's and that's not something I can let stand," Bruce commented. "It's a classic, a bit over the top sometimes, but a classic."

"The actor does tend to have his moments of overreacting," Harry commented.

"Yes, well that was really his career, the Grey Ghost," Bruce replied. He looked at the DVD.

"I'm surprised that these came out on DVD. Wasn't there an entire minefield with rights issues and all that?"

"Yes, it was a nightmare, but thankfully they were finally able to sort it out," Bruce said. "The fans of the show deserved a complete release and not reruns chopped up in syndication."

He did hope that the remake movie was just a bad rumor. Not only was it not going to be in the same spirit of the series, being darker and grittier because it was the 1990s, but Matt Hagen was the front runner to get the role of the Grey Ghost.

* * *

 

Howard Branden faced off with Officer Jordan Rich. To say that Branden had seen better days would be putting things extremely mildly.

"You got too fucking greedy for you own good, Rich," Branden lectured him. He was busy poking the officer in the chest. "And you ended up getting caught on camera taking a bribe by that mother fucking Vicki Vale, of all fucking people. And now you're under investigation by Harvey Dent, of all fucking people."

Branden finished poking Rich roughly in the chest. He calmed his nerves down.

"That's going to cause trouble for everyone involved, Rich," Branden whispered dangerously. He looked like a demented bulldog when he stared the man down. "So keep your fucking head clear, and don't do anything fucking stupid, and this will smooth over after some time has passed just like it always does. Do you understand?"

Branden was in a short temper after Frank Pratt was killed in his own house. He was finished being poked in the chest.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it," Rich said. He wanted to give Branden a piece of his mind, but he knew that it wasn't going to be a battle that he was going to win.

"Then go, get out of here," Branden whispered. He practically grabbed Rich around the shoulder and shoved him away.

Rich grumbled when he departed from the area. He made his way to a patrol car where he could start his shift.

"Oh, Branden thinks that he's a big shot, thinks he can tell me what to do…."

He stopped in mid-sentence and fell backwards onto the ground. Blood spurted from the back of his hand.

A high heeled boot walked towards the slain body of Rich. A slim hand pinned a picture of him taking a bribe, along with a Polaroid of him talking to Branden.

The serial killer struck again on Christmas Eve and right in the middle of the Gotham Central parking lot as well.

* * *

**To Be Continued on February 8** **th** **, 2015.**


	82. Fall of Olympus Part One

**Chapter Eighty-Two: Fall of Olympus Part One.**

* * *

 

It was the middle of January and it has been a fairly quiet month so far. That was if you can call the day to day life in Gotham City quiet. One could argue that it was pretty quiet in the sense that nothing entirely earth shattering had happened. No major players have either died or made any moves.

That fact might not have been the best news in the world though. There was almost a quiet before the storm quality. It did gave the various factions time to lick their wounds and wait to see who would make the next move right now.

The trips with Harry and his girls went off without a hitch. Both the yearly trip to Themyscira in between Christmas and New Year's Day was nice. Then there was the trip they took to Black Island, a trip where a bunch of girls not on the bond joined in with them. There was a great deal of fun to be had and everyone came back more relaxed with an extremely nice tan.

Now, they were back on drab and dreary Gotham City in the middle of winter, which was a shocking blast back to reality.

' _So what are we doing again?'_ Jaime asked. She was dressed up as Talon and it was later in the evening in Gotham City. She dropped down onto the rooftop and prepared to get the answers to this question.

She turned to Harry, who was dressed up as Nightwing. _'Investigating the bombing of the Shipping Center. You know, the subsidiary of Wayne Enterprises?'_

' _Right…..but it's been a month since it happened,'_ Jaime thought. Harry turned towards her with a narrowed eye glare.

' _The nature of the crime seems so pretty random,'_ Harry replied. Jaime nodded her head up and down in surprise. _'That's been bugging me and the Roman isn't the type to pick his targets at random.'_

' _So the fact this particular location of all places has been targeted has made you pretty curious?'_ Jaime asked him.

' _Exactly,'_ Harry answered in response. _'Would have done it sooner, but things got pretty hectic and security at this place is pretty tight.'_

It went without saying that now things calmed down a little bit, they had a chance to look into things without too much trouble. That's what they did, with Nightwing and Talon scouting the place so they didn't go in blind.

"I would have hacked into the security system," Oracle piped in through the communication network. "But we've got a slight problem with that."

"Yeah, the security office got annihilated in the blast, I know," Nightwing replied. "So that's not really an option."

"Which really sucks," Oracle put bluntly. "We can't really access any digital records because they ended up getting wiped out in the blast."

"Electro-Magnetic pulses, aren't they a bitch?" Talon asked.

"I know, tell me about it," Oracle agreed. That was making things far harder on themselves then things really needed to be.

The good news is that Nightwing and Talon were able to figure out the pattern the guards were taking and it was a pretty basic one.

' _They seem like they're pretty complacent as a result of nothing really happening,'_ Kara thought.

' _It does seem like they're falling into a set routine,'_ Karen answered. There were more than a few girls that piped in through the bond that agreed with that fact.

The two of them saw the opening and they took it to slip into the warehouse area of the shipping center, to the point where they can look into the records easily.

In particular, they wanted to look at the shipping records of two particular companies. Those were two names that jumped up, both being Janus Cosmetics and AmerTek.

' _What are you looking for?'_ Jaime asked with a frown.

' _Not quite certain, but those two companies jump out when I was looking at the shipping manifest,'_ Harry thought.

Talon was only half confused with what she heard. _'Obvious with Janus Cosmetics, because it's owned by Black Mask, but this is the first time that I heard of AmerTek.'_

' _Not really surprising, it's all the smaller end of the spectrum,'_ Harry explained. _'It does a lot of private contractor work for the military.'_

Harry smiled and added something else. _'You might not have heard the company, but you heard of the owner.'_

' _It belongs to Luthor, doesn't it?'_ Jaime thought. She figured that someone like that would be a cause of concern.

' _Not exactly, pretty close, in about the same social circles though,'_ Harry thought. Jaime looked at him with a quizzical look dancing through her eyes. She wondered exactly what Harry was driving at. _'His name is Morgan Edge.'_

Morgan Edge was well known by many as a successful Media Mogul to the world at large.

' _As in Metropolis's answer to Ted Turner, Morgan Edge?'_ Karen asked.

' _Yes, that guy, only minus the wrestling company and the environmentally friendly PSA cartoon,'_ Harry confirmed.

' _He's presented himself as a Media Mogul to the world at large, but he's been working on some other things, apparently,'_ Dinah thought. _'There have been a lot of rumors that he has been involved in some of the seedier elements of society.'_

' _Nothing has been proven and everything is pretty circumstantial for now,'_ Harry thought.

' _So, it's not really common knowledge, is it?'_ Jaime asked. Harry turned towards her and shook his head.

' _No, not common knowledge, and you have to dig pretty deep to find the information and call in a couple of favors if you want to find out,'_ Harry thought.

' _Which you did,'_ Kara replied.

' _Which I did,'_ Harry agreed. It was at this point that they reached the shipping containers.

Harry crouched down and prepared to pick the lock. That was stopped by Jaime waving her hand and a soft click coming up. The lock flung open a moment later, and Jaime stood there with a grin.

In this particular instance, the crates appear to be nothing more than women's make up that's being shipped out through the city. That was completely useless, so they closed it. The next container yielded man of the same results, although it was the chemicals used to make the makeup. The chemical analyzer inside their masks confirmed that simple fact.

They moved from those containers towards the ones belong to AmerTek, or they would if they didn't have to hop to the rafters briefly to avoid a passing patrol on the way.

' _It might be a bit harder accessing these containers than the other ones,'_ Harry commented. The duo dropped down from the rafters.

' _Maybe,'_ Jaime admitted. She waved her hand and her little electrical charge trick worked on these supposed state of the art locks as well.

' _Show up,'_ Harry grumbled towards her. She just flashed him with another cheeky grin, but that stopped when they saw the cargo that they had to deal with.

They weren't too surprised to see guns not too unlike the ones used by Maroni's men. These seemed to be slightly more advanced models of the same weapons.

Harry scanned the container carefully and found what he was looking for. He picked up the manifest and read it.

' _It says here that it was sent from Gotham to Metropolis by one Bruno Mannheim,'_ Harry thought. This proved to be pretty compelling evidence that Bruno might be in bed with Edge. Harry hung his arms by his waist and sighed. _'I guess we have been neglecting things in Metropolis more than we should.'_

' _Things haven't been quite as bad as they were in Gotham,'_ Amanda admitted. She frowned in response. _'But it still is something worth taking a closer look at. There is something really rotten in the state of Denmark.'_

' _Isn't Denmark a country?'_ Emily asked innocently.

' _Stop sounding like one of my fan fiction reviewers,'_ Amanda snapped a bit shortly.

Harry shook his head and walked over. He knew better to leave an arsenal like this lying around, because there was a pretty decent chance that it just might fall into the wrong hands. Harry and Jaime rigged up a fairly powerful EMP charge.

It was set to go off shortly after they leave the building. It was going to fry the weapons along with any surprises that might be nearby.

* * *

 

It was ten-thirty the next morning. Two older gentlemen in their early fifties stood in line inside of the Gotham City Museum. Both men were dressed rather stylishly, with older style casual suits that have been tailored to fit both of their tall and rather thin frames quite nicely. The first gentleman wore an eggshell white suit and was of Caucasian descent with his brown hair stylishly cut and a well trimmed mustache. The most distinctive thing about him was that he boasted of a larger cranium that usual.

The second gentleman wore a midnight black suit and was of Asian descent. That appeared to be more prevalent by the style of that he wore his mustache.

At first glance, it seemed as if that there was no relationship whatsoever between these two men, but looking at them more closely, one would be able to pick up the similar features the two of them share.

The man wearing the eggshell white suit went by the name of Edgar Prince, but he was also known underneath the codename Egghead. The next man was his cousin Chang Tzu, who was underneath the codename Egg-Fu.

Collectively, both dubbed themselves as the genius Masterminds of Crime, and they were frequent enemies of the Justice Society of American in the Nineteen Sixties and to a lesser extent the early Nineteen seventies. They disappeared into retirement earlier in the decade.

The reason why the dastardly duo was here should be very obvious.

"An obscenely rich collector is displaying his priceless collection throughout the country on a whirlwind tour," Edgar recited. His grin grew pretty wicked and also extremely calculating. "And it just happened that he took a stop in Gotham City."

It normally wouldn't be enough to draw the two out of retirement.

"And normally, it wouldn't be something for us to take notice, but his priceless collection of Faberge Eggs are on display," Chang whispered. His excitement boiled from the tip of his tongue.

"Yes, our comfortable retirement can become even more comfortable if we acquire one particular item of interest," Edgar said, taking care to keep his voice down. "The Crysal Egg of Y'ggphu-Soggoth is intriguing."

"Although some think of it as a way to open up a gateway to another dimension," Chang replied. Edgar turned towards him and smiled.

"If it were only to be true, but I have my doubts," Edgar commented. He chuckled lightly. "Regardless, this is the type of opportunity that we would be fools not to eggspolit."

The World's Foremost Criminal Masterminds scoped out the collection, to ascertain the validity of the rumor the Crystal Egg is part of the collection. A tour of the museum seemed to be the order.

Edgar's smile grew wicked. It was just as he suspected, the egg was there.

The two of them nearly ran into a young woman. The gentlemen they were, they backed off. Prince cleared his throat when he looked at the woman.

"Excuse me, miss," Edgar answered. The woman turned towards her. She appeared to be distracted for some reason. "I was just admiring that particular display over there, and if I can ask you a few questions regarding it, Miss….."

"Curator Margaret Sorrow," she commented in a crisp voice. "It just came in on its tour, but it will only be here for a couple of weeks. The collector was insistent that the security would be tight."

"Yes, I'm sure that he was insistent, and I'm certain that he was insistent that the Museum would put their tightest security on this particular object," Prince commented very lightly. That caused Sorrow to look at Prince. "Well, something that shiny, it will be bound to attract attention."

"Yes, so shiny and a lot of attention," Sorrow said, her eyes shifting towards the egg.

"So the security is around the clock," Chang popped up.

"Yes, yes, around the clock," Sorrow whispered. The glint of the egg attracted her eye.

"And I'm certain that anyone who tried to tamper with the display will attract any guards soon, wouldn't they?" Edgar asked.

"Mmm, hmmm," Sorrow whispered, sounding a bit distracted.

"And there's a guard sitting right about there at all times, isn't there?" Edgar asked. Sorrow nodded. "Good man, he should keep a close eye on the prize. It would be a shame if he dropped the ball because the guard might be the best and only line of defense at night."

There was far going on here that met the eye, although everyone seemed too distracted by the egg to figure out that point.

* * *

 

The sound stage was buzzing and there was applause. The rumors were all true and she was in Gotham City.

"And now, for the first time, live in Gotham City, it's the Juno Jones show."

The camera cut into a rather stylishly dressed Juno. She smiled when she greeted the audience. The applause died down enough to hear herself thing.

"A lot of people are asking me, why did I make the move to Gotham City?" Juno replied. She smiled. "That's a pretty fair question, but you know how well my last appearance in this city went. And on top of that, Gotham is poised to become something excitement in the near future."

There was more applause from the studio audience. Juno picked up a big cup of coffee and she sipped it with a slight on her face.

"Some of the best and brightest in the city have made their homes in Gotham City," Juno continued. "People who are known to the world have called Gotham City their home. Individuals like Bruce Wayne, Harry Potter, and Alexandria Luthor. They are the future and they have made Gotham their home in recent years. And I feel like I would be doing the world at large a disservice if I wasn't here in the midst of the action. So for the near future, my show will be based and live right out of Gotham City."

That explanation was out of the way.

"And now, on that note, I bring you one of my most requested guests, back to more," Juno answered. "You all wanted him, I've seen your letters, your e-mails, and I've heard your calls. When are you going to get Harry Potter back on? Well, today, we have him on this program."

The audience of the Juno Jones show had been clamoring for Harry to make his long awaited return since his previous appearance on the show in November when the Red Sun was launched.

She took a brief moment to recap all of Harry's accomplishments.

"For long time viewers, you know that, but he's added a fourth doctorate to his list and stands to add a fifth to that list before the end of the year," Juno said. She bounced up and down, beaming practically in excitement. "And his contributions to various charities, with a focus on women and children speak for themselves."

Juno drew in a deep breath and smiled.

"The creation of the Red Sun, while a team effort, is one of the hottest items on the market,' Juno continued. "And he's one of America's newest billionaires, having recouped his company's initial investment on its creation with the Red Sun. I can go on all day, and I need a special extended broadcast to even scratch the surface of all this man has done. But let's bring him out right now, Doctor Harry Potter, ladies and gentlemen!"

The applause was deafening when Harry made his way out onto the stage, dressed to thrill in a custom made suit that fit him like a glove. He also wore an extremely stylish pair of glasses that his twin sisters got him for Christmas. The handsome watch was what Kara bought him. The crowd continued to go wild and there was a standing ovation.

' _You think that the Beatles landed in America all over again,'_ Lily piped in over the bond link.

' _No this is more insane,'_ Rose agreed and there was a lot of agreement with that for sure.

Juno appeared to be just as enthusiastic about Harry's arrival as her audience was. She greeted him when he came onto the stage with a huge hug. He returned the hug and leaned forward to give her a kiss on the cheek.

The two of them sat down. Harry turned to Juno. "Maybe if we go to a commercial, they'll be mostly calmed down."

It appeared that Juno was going to have a chance to speak. She gave her audience a chance to calm down, but they continued to applaud over and over again.

"You know what, my director is telling me that we should go to commercial, so we'll be right back with Doctor Harry Potter, if I can even hear myself think," Juno said with mirth dancing in her eyes.

The cameras went off and they went to commercial. Harry leaned towards Juno and smiled. "So, how are you adjusting to Gotham City? It can be a bit of a learning curve living here."

"Yes, I know," Juno replied. She shook her head in bemusement. "It's been fine so far, the Studio has sprung for some pretty heavy duty security for me, and I have to admit, it's a bit stifling."

"Well, they want to make sure no one takes offense to you and tries to take you out," Harry commented. Juno smiled, and shook her head. "If you'd like, I give you a tour, I know the city pretty well, both the good and the bad."

"I'd like that," she commented. Juno paused and lightly snapped her fingers when she realized something. "That reminds me, I need an escort for the opening of the new Club belonging to Maxmillion Zeus. That is if you're interested."

"Yes, I would be interested," Harry said.

Juno beamed at him and leaned in towards him, giving him a slight kiss on the cheek.

No sooner she did that to Harry, they came back from the commercial. Juno turned back into her professional mode and looked forward.

"Now, we're back," Juno said. "And, for those of you just tuning in, we have the return of one of our most requested guests, Doctor Harry Potter. After we scratched the surface this past November, I've been wanting to do for a long time. The most important question is, how are you doing?"

Harry gave her a brisk smile and leaned towards her, looking straight into her eyes. "To answer your question, I'm doing pretty well. I just got back from a really long vacation."

"Far away from Gotham, given the state of your tan," Juno said. She looked over Harry approvingly. "And we understand that your mother is doing a lot of work with the gifted due to the Shining Light Organization that she and your aunt founded."

"My mother spent several years of her adult life in a coma," Harry informed them. Juno raised her eyebrow. "And her recovery can only be classified as a miracle. She has decided to make the most of this second chance to give back to the world."

"And that is a quality that you have inherited," Juno added. "Your work with various charities have focused on children and women. And speaking of women, rumors have linked you to several prominent female members of Gotham City society…."

Harry addressed the rumors. He gave enough information to not seem evasive, but at the same time, he gave so little information that people would be frustrated. The two of them launched into a nice little conversation and that made for an extremely enthralling exchange for the people watching. Given that Harry Potter gave so few public interviews, he was a bit of an enigma.

' _And somehow, this might end up raising more questions than it does answers,'_ Jaime piped in through the bond link.

' _That's just the nature of how things go, I think,'_ Harry replied. She nodded her head eagerly and cast a brief smile.

' _Indeed,'_ Jaime thought to him.

"And now, we have something that will be of interest," Juno said. "Rumors of the Red Sun Eclipse have been running wild, along with the fact that it's coming out of March of this year."

The audience went wild about that point, as Harry turned to address those rumors as only he could.

* * *

 

The interview was long over and it was around six or so that evening. Diana and Harry pulled up to the curb in front of the Sandsmark residence. In this particular case, it was a rather small house where Helena lived with Cassie.

Harry was there to pick up Helena for a date, while Diana offered to babysit Cassie while her mother was out for the night. Her usual babysitter ended up flacking out for some reason. They weren't quite sure why she did. Helena left her a message, but the woman never responded back.

Rather than have them cancel the date, Diana offered to fill in instead.

"So, what did you think of the interview earlier?" Harry asked.

Diana smiled; she wondered when they would get around to that topic. They had been dancing around on that soon.

"It went fine, I think, I honestly thought that you weren't going to get to the interview in the midst of all of that applause," Diana said. She closed her eyes. "I don't know, Juno reminds me of someone."

"Who?" Harry asked with interest. He wondered what triggered that particular thought in Diana's mind.

Diana inclined her head and shook her head. "I'm not sure, and I think that's the point."

Diana figured that they would find out everything about Juno Jones before too long. She decided that it was best to shift subjects to something else entirely.

"So, what are your plans for tonight?" Diana asked.

"As you know, this isn't the first time that Helena and I have been out on a date," Harry replied. Diana nodded as well.

"Yes, it's the fifth, but things are going pretty steadily," Diana said. They slowed down their walk so they could prolong their conversation before they could get inside. "She is a bit gun-shy after her whirlwind romance with Cassie's father and her disastrous dating experience."

"I know, she keeps telling me, and she keeps apologizing for it," Harry said, his lips curling into a momentary smile. "I'm taking her out for dinner and then play it from ear for there. After that, we can go and see a movie or go clubbing or something like that."

"Well that's something," Diana agreed. She figured that the sky would be the limit. "You know, Gotham is a lot like Vegas. Perhaps a bit dirtier, but…..the similarities are obvious."

Harry would have to agree. He walked towards the door and hit the doorbell.

There was an excited sound of footsteps on the other side of the door, and Cassie swung the door open. "Oh my, you're here, I really can't believe it, I saw you on the Tv today, and that's all that anyone is talking about. That must have been exciting, to be with Juno Jones, and the entire world was watching. I thought that people would never stop clapping for you."

Cassie rattled on a mile a moment. Diana looked at her, in bemusement. Harry smiled. He was used to his sisters when they were younger, although a bit older than Cassie was.

' _I will confirm that those two were about as bad at that age,'_ Rose commented. She ignored the glares from Amanda and Emily that they were giving her through the bond link.

"And I can't believe that you're coming here to babysit me, that's going to be so awesome," Cassie said, finally turning her attention to Diana. She looked up at the woman, both figuratively and literally. She stared into her eyes. "And you're really early, which is fine, but Mom's getting ready. Well maybe not too early, but I mean, Mom is taking forever to get ready, so she's not ready that."

Cassie finally ran out of steam. Harry thought that Helena would have been finished by now. Cassie sank down on the couch.

"So, how is school going for you?" Harry asked.

Cassie frowned and thought about it. "Oh, it's good, even though my teacher gave me way too much homework. And she got something wrong in class and she got upset that I corrected her."

"Cassie, just a word of advice, people in authority don't take too kindly to getting corrected," Diana replied. "Although, you might have been a bit more tactful."

Cassie shook her head. She was tactful right until the teacher started to be a bit snooty with her. Then Cassie got snooty back and it was just then going back and forth with how snooty they were.

Helena joined them instantly, she was dressed casually, but the clothes fit her frame quite nicely.

"You look beautiful, Helena," Harry said, greeting her with a smile. Helena turned towards him, corking her eyebrow when she stared at him.

"She does," Diana agreed.

"Thank you, Harry, you look quite nice yourself," Helena said. Cassie turned away, pulling a slight face. "Cassie, you keep that up, and your face will freeze like that."

She walked over to her daughter. She bent down to look her in the eyes.

"You behave for Diana now, alright," Helena said. There was a brief glint of warning flashing through her eyes when she looked at Cassie.

Cassie folded her arms and sighed. "Don't worry, I will."

"Good night, Cassie," Harry said. "Good night, Diana."

Diana kissed Harry goodbye and Harry walked out of the door with her and made their way to the SUV that Harry drove during the winter months of the year.

"So, how's work been?" Harry asked. It had been a week since they had last had a chance to really talk.

"It's been a zoo since the tour has arrived," Helena replied. She shrugged her shoulders. Harry opened up the passenger's door and helped her inside. "Everyone and their mother have been wanting to check out this rich guy's collection. But, at least my own exhibits get some traffic as a result."

The two of them were inside with Harry starting up the car. Helena frowned when she placed her hand on her face after buckling up.

"Not sure if that's a good thing, but Professor McElroy is lapping up the attention though," Helena said. She looked torn between being amused and slightly irritated.

Harry laughed softly at what she was saying.

"Isn't any attention at this point a good thing?" Harry asked her. "After all, your own exhibit is going to be opening soon and seeing that part of the museum is under construction for it, it's bound to make people curious about what's going to be in there."

"Hmmm," Helena muttered in response. "I suppose that there's both positive and negatives to both approaches. I'd really prefer that people would come because they want to come by and learn how the past effects the present."

Helena collected her thoughts.

"Others like Margaret and some of the Board of Directors, they disagree," Helena added. "They want people to come because of more publicity and word of mouth. It leads to increased interest which will lead to increased donations and funding. And it's all extremely political and quite frankly, I hate it."

Harry listened to Helena. He had a feeling that this was a rant that she wanted to get off her chest for a very long time. Being the sympathetic ear that he was, he let her do so.

"I'm really glad that you and Hippolyta are funding the next expedition," Helena said. Harry reached off to the side and squeezed her hand.

"If you'd like, I'm happy to help," Harry told her. Helena's eyes edged towards them. "I was talking to Diana earlier, and we can join you on the trip if you're interested in having company. And I know someone else who is familiar with the area who might be willing to lend is expertise."

She blinked in response and shook her head to clear it. Helena paused to consider what Harry offered her after an extremely long beat. She smiled when she thought about it.

"You know, I'd really enjoy having the company," Helena answered. "Professor McElroy is coming along, but it might be nice to have two, or is it three, others along?"

Their conversation was wrapping up when they pulled into the parking lot for the restaurant. The two of them got out of the SUV and from there, they headed into the lobby.

They ran head long into Maxie Zeus, who owned the place in question that they were eating at. His eyes narrowed briefly when he looked at them, before he spoke.

"What are you two doing here?" he asked them. His eyes narrowed when he looked over them.

"Doctor Potter and I are out on the date," Helena told him.

Maxie's eyes shifted for a moment. An eagle eyed person could pick up on the rage that was about ready to fill them.

"Well, enjoy your dinner, I have places to be," Maxie commented. His tone was of forced politeness.

Harry waited until he was completely out of sight. There was something unsettling about Maxie Zeus but he couldn't put his finger on it.

* * *

 

Later in the evening, Edgar Prince and Chang Tzu returned to the museum and strolled through it like they practically owned the place. They broke in in order to get their hands on the Crystal Egg of Y'ggphu-Soggoth, along with the rest of the Faberge Egg collection.

They might as well get them all at the same time if they're here.

"Yes, this is an opportunity that we need to take, and we should eggstract the entire collection," Prince replied. "It never hurts to be eggficient and eggfective."

Tzu nodded in response, too used to his cousin's odd verbal tic with certain words to really care all that much. The duo arrived at the location of the display. All they needed to do was turn the corner and it would be right in front of them.

Chang and Edgar pressed themselves against the wall. Just as expected, there were two security guards standing next to the display. They were well armed and alert. That wasn't going to stop Prince and Tzu from getting their hands on what they came to get.

Edgar reached down into a satchel off to his side and pulled out two orbs. He crouched low to the ground and rolled them across the room like he wound a bowling ball.

The moment the orbs came near the two guards, the busted open and a great deal of gas poured out. It knocked out the guards instantly.

The two cousins exchanged one of those looks of smug superiority as they sauntered inside the room without a care in the world.

Chang Tzu decided to give his contribution to this criminal caper. He pulled out a technological device of his own creation to disable and disarm the security system that restricted the access to the Crystal egg, along with the Faberge eggs.

Prince stepped forward with a container in his hand. He carefully placed all of the eggs into a crystal container. It resembled a carton that you would expect to find a dozen eggs within.

When he is doing that, Chang Tzu reached over towards the Crystal Egg. A gleeful expression spread over his face when he slowly lifted up the egg. It flashed underneath the light and caused an electrical tingle to roll up his spine.

"It's real," Chang whispered in excitement.

Edgar's eyes shifted over and he really smiled. He pulled out a separate container to contain the egg and to hold it safely.

Their goal was completed and their ill-gotten gains were well in hand, two men turned to leave the building.

"Gotham City has a lot of so called do gooders, even more since the glory days of the original Black Canary," Edgar replied. "The new one appears to be quite as fetching as the original model is."

"And there is Batman and Nightwing as well," Chang answered him. "They would have to be a civilian identity that has great means to fund their expeditions."

"Do you think that the rumors that Doctor Harry Potter is Batman to hold any merit?" Edgar asked. He gave a shifty smile. "Naturally, it could be only as I can eggspect, that Harry Potter is Batman and his cousin Alexandra is Nightwing. So it is a family operation."

"In some instances, Nightwing has been reported to be a male though," Chang reminded them.

Edgar inclined his head downwards and nodded. "Yes, that does put a flaw in the theory. There is one piece missing to the puzzle though."

Before they could expand on this conversation any further, a figure attacked both of them. Edgar and Chang were knocked down instantly.

"MY SHINY!"

Magpie scooped up the collection and rushed into the darkness with the collections.

"That wench has stolen our rightfully earned gains," Edgar said through gritted teeth. Both of them were caught off guard, otherwise they wouldn't have been attacked by such an outlandishly dressed figure.

Chang got to his feet, and shook his head. To say this wasn't over would be putting things mildly.

* * *

 

Maximilian "Maxie" Zeus was in a towering temper when she made her way up towards the top of his new rooftop Club Olympus in an extremely towering and exceedingly foul temper. He found out that his 'Hera" otherwise known to the mortal world as Helena Sandsmark was dating Harry Potter.

The club was not open just yet, but it promised to be quite the occasion when it did. Zeus's eyes flashed with anger. He couldn't fully enjoy the three hundred and sixty view that his new night club offered.

A couple of his lackies look at him. One of the braver, or perhaps more stupid, lackeys stared at him. "What's the matter boss?"

Zeus turned towards the lackey, his lips curling into a sneer when he looked at the man. The lackey backed off a slight bit and his breathing grew heavier.

"I stand on the top of New Olympus, looking down at all of the mortals down there, all will pay tribute to Zeus," Maxie said. "But I must have my queen by my side and she must rule with me. Hades comes up from beneath and snatches what is truthfully mine. She belongs to me. And now I have concrete proof that he is flaunting it. He will be smited under my power."

The other lackeys wished that this first one didn't nudge the sleeping dragon. Their boss paid well, but it was not worth it.

He could not go too far, while his current female companion approached him. She had dark hair and alluring eyes. She wore a nice toga that wrapped around her fit body. She wore sandals and had her hair done it. She looked to be old enough to be Zeus's daughter.

"Calm yourself Maxie, you can have all of this, but you need to calm down."

A calming effect washed over his mind. She smiled.

"Now relax and let the images of all of this being yours," she whispered. She stroked his cheek calmly. "All of this can be yours."

Lorelei Circe, better known as the Siren, was one of the most persistent enemies of the Justice Society of America. The Black Canary was her personal arch nemesis. Both of those women were gone, but there was a new Siren, just like there was a new Black Canary. Lorelei was named after her mother.

She could use her powers so that Maxie can think calmly, enough to help her fulfill her goals. And if he fulfilled his, that was fine, but she honestly didn't care about that.

"You need to kidnap her, undo the brainwashing that has caused her to lose her way," Lorelei whispered in his ear. Her soothing voice continued to wash over his mind. "Zeus needs his Hera, but I require a favor of you"

"If you give me this favor, then you will have my blessing for anything that you wish," Maxie said. He shook his head and he was in a calm mood.

"I should get Apollo," Lorelei said. She caused Zeus's mind to swim over with numerous thoughts.

She had observed Harry Potter just like the rest of the world. She observed that he shined brightly in the sun. Lorelei thought that the young man was adequate enough compensation for having deal with Maxie's boorish behavior.

A group of Maxie's goons entered before this conversation could go any further. They left the elevator carrying a long thin crate that was about as tall as Maxie was, although it stopped short of his shoulder.

"We've got it, boss," one of the men said proudly.

"Good!" Maxie bellowed in his booming voice.

He stepped over and watched his goons place the crate down on the table. He held out his hand and was handed a crowbar. Maxie held the crowbar in his hand and pried the lid off of the box.

The box pried open and his eyes widened eagerly at the sight of what was inside the box. It was a spear with a wavy head that was shaped not too unlike a lightning bolt.

"What the hell is that supposed to be?" one of the goons asked.

"It's an artifact of great power beyond the comprehension of mortals like you," Maxie replied in his usual bold voice. He removed it from the box and examined it. "It is known as the Thunderbolt of Zeus, which was used to rule Olympus in the past. Now it is in my possession once more, there's nothing that will stop me from ascending to my proper place as the King of the Gods."

"You really don't believe that, do you?" one of the thugs asked. The other thugs stepped back from him like he had contracted leprosy.

All Maxie did was point the spear in the direction of the thug. An electrical hum cracked through the air and a lightning bolt shot through the air to disintegrate the nonbeliever where he stood.

Not even the most hardened skeptics could argue with those results.

* * *

 

Helena Sandsmark thought that the date went rather well as far as she was concerned. It was a rather nice night and she hoped that it could end.

Her date and her relationship with Harry was both going as well as one could expect. She wondered if it would be best for her to take the plunge. The two of them right now stood in the midst of an elevator that led their way to an apartment that Harry owned.

She wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and leaned in towards them. She decided to take the plunge, over a decade of sexual frustration boiling into her.

Harry was almost caught off guard from Helena's passionate actions. He wasn't going to deny her, not at this time. The two of them were in the midst of an extremely passionate makeout session. She tried to shove her tongue down his throat.

He reached around and firmly gripped her ass. She wrapped her legs around him and she rubbed her crotch against his groin.

A loud ding echoed and Helena pulled away. She looked completely breathless and she smiled.

"Let's continue this elsewhere," Harry whispered to her. Helena nodded.

She was about ready to lead Harry to the apartment, but there was one problem. The frustration flowed through Helena's mind and she curled her fists up in frustration.

"What is it?" Harry asked her. Helena turned towards him.

"I'm not sure exactly where your apartment is here," Helena said. She sounded extremely embarrassed for obvious reasons.

Harry chuckled in amusement and led her down the hallway. To be fair, this was not an apartment that he used all that often.

The door swung open and not a second too soon. Helena shut the door once again and pounced him one more time.

The two of them settled back down onto a nearby couch. It was obvious that they were not going to make it into a bedroom right now.

Harry's hand snaked up her skirt and reached closer down to the paradise. Helena slid back slightly and allowed him access.

Harry pulled her panties back and pushed his fingers into her. Helena moaned loudly when his talented fingers entered her. He pumped in and out of her. She breathed heavily and bit down on her lip when she grinded against his fingers.

"Taste yourself," Harry ordered her.

He pushed the fingers into her mouth and she wrapped her lips around him. Helena sucked on his fingers and used her hands to remove his shirt.

She gave him a series of sloppy kisses down his chest. Helena Sandsmark slowly kissed down his abs and left some saliva.

Helena undid his belt and tore his pants off. Harry had to be extremely interested by her passions. She grabbed his cock when she pulled off her underwear.

She closed her eyes and she slammed her hips down onto his throbbing tool. Helena grinded herself down onto him. The woman spread down her legs. Harry reached around and she cupped her ass from behind.

Harry ripped open her blouse and then tore her bra off. Helena moaned when Harry's tongue lavished her breasts.

Helena's tightness hugged around his throbbing cock. Harry reached around her and pushed his finger into her ass, teasing her.

"Oh, you know what I like," Helena said. Her love box tightened around him when she fucked him furiously.

All of the pent up sexual frustration boiled through her hips. Her walls closed around him when she bounced up and down on him. Helena's arms wrapped around Harry's neck when she fucked her way down onto his pole, her hips clamped down upon him. The woman's eyes glazed over when she came her way down onto his tool and bounced even higher down onto him. She clenched him.

Helena allowed herself to come to an orgasm. When she was done, she pulled off of him. She got on her hands and knees on the couch.

"Fuck me, fuck me from behind," Helena begged him.

Harry leaned towards him and kissed her on the back of the neck. That caused shivers to blow down her spine. Harry ran his hands all over her body.

He slowly slid into her when he got her body excited. Harry touched her breasts. He slowly rolled his thumbs over her nipples.

"Take me, take me, harder!" she begged him. Harry placed his hands on her and agreed with her.

"You've wanted this for a very long time, I can tell," Harry grunted. He touched her nipples, barely. His fingers brushed against them and really got her squealing at the merest touch that she had with her.

Helena's hips closed around him and Harry plowed into her womanhood extremely hard from behind. His balls bounced against her. Helena grabbed onto the side of the bed and felt his manhood slide deep into her.

She bit down on her lip hard and Helena closed her eyes. Her breathing increased when Harry plowed into her from behind.

"Here it comes," Harry whispered to her after some time.

Harry played with her swinging tits and that caused her moaning to increase. He toyed with her nipples and plowed into her from behind.

His balls tightened. Harry plowed into her from behind. He spurted a load of cum into her body. Helena grabbed onto the side of the bedsheets and reared her head back when she moaned. Harry's hands brushed against the underside of her nipples when he kept firing into her from behind.

A large dosage of cum entered into her body from behind. Harry planted his seed into her body, splattering the inside of her walls.

Helena collapsed. Harry pressed his mouth against her and cradled her, before bringing her up to the bedroom.

The moment that the two of them were in the bedroom, Helena started to stroke his cock slowly and lovingly with her hand.

"You want more, don't you?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Helena whispered. She wanted more and she spread her legs for him. "I want more, please take him."

Harry placed his hands on either side of her hips when he hovered over her. Helena's pussy ached for him and she wanted nothing but his cock. Her hips rose up to meet the edge of his throbbing head.

He slid into her again after touching and playing with her body. Harry stepped back and looked at her body.

Her dark hair hung down her face, framing it quite beautifully. Her pouty lips curled into a smile of pleasure. She kept herself into good shape, with a pair of nice breasts with erect nipples, a fit stomach, and a wet pussy with a patch of dark hair. She had shapely legs and a nice ass.

"Make love to me, Harry," Helena begged him.

He started at the tip of her ear and slowly kissed down the side of her neck. He toyed with her breasts and got her driving wild.

Helena felt his hot lips going down her body. He was between her legs. Helena lifted her hips up and closed her eyes. She felt Harry's hot breath get even closer to her. Her womanhood dripped with the thoughts of pleasure. He ran his hand down her thighs.

"I want you inside me," Helena begged him.

"It feels really good to be inside you."

Harry slid into her and Helena lifted her hips up. She felt Harry's cock rest between her slick walls.

"So, tight, so juicy," Harry grunted.

"Your bigger than anything else that's been inside me," Helena whispered. She wrapped her legs around him when he pumped into her. She matched his movements. "More satisfying, you know….oh god."

She was really sensitive right there. Harry knew it and toyed with that spot. Helena's chest rose and fell when Harry kept working her over.

Helena's wet walls clenched around him when Harry continued to work into her. His thrusts were slow and long. He could slow them down and speed them up just as much as her hips slid down around him. Harry planted his manhood deep into her and caused her nerve endings to tingle with desire.

The two of them continued their sweaty and sticky fun. Harry pushed into her. He held back her orgasm a little bit, allowing it to flow when he was ready to get to his feet.

Helena felt a fucking great orgasm. It was beyond all words how good this felt. He played with her breasts and that got her moaning wild.

Another orgasm rocked her body next and a third. There might have been several miniature ones.

Helena got herself a second wind. She might feel sore and tired when the adrenaline wore off. It was really work it to be honest. Her walls clenched around him

She didn't worry about Harry cumming in her. She knew how this night was likely to end, so she took steps to prevent any surprises.

Harry pumped into her from above. The load in his balls were about to burst. He closed his eyes and planted into her.

Harry's balls erupted and launched a load of cum into her. Helena lifted her hips up and allowed Harry to finish into her. Her walls caressed him and she pumped him in response.

The two of them rested in their juices, they felt extremely satisfied and things were good, great even.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on February 11** **th** **, 2015.**


	83. Fall of Olympus Part Two

_**And here we have a chapter where we see how much the universe really has changed due to the misadventures with the Mirror Box.** _

* * *

 

**Chapter Eighty-Three: The Fall of Olympus Part Two.**

* * *

 

It was later that next morning and it was the aftermath of the night together between Doctor Helena Sandsmark and Doctor Harry Potter. Both of them decided to have a small and intimate breakfast in a small restaurant. This was a halfway point between the apartment where their tryst occurred and the house that she lived with Cassie.

They got a both that was out of the way in the corner so their pressed in tight with each other. Harry looked fairly amused when an actress waitress left them in a bit of a daze. He had to repeat his order a couple of times, because she was distracted by him. She was lost in his eyes.

She went off to fill it and Harry looked towards Helena. She was taking the matter in great stride. He looked kind of amused by her gaze.

"Well, you seem to be taking this pretty well," Harry replied to her.

Helena shrugged in response. "Well, you did make sure that I had a great night last night and I know that you attract a lot of attention. Plus, Diana has been working on me for a while time and she's explained a lot to me."

' _How much?'_ Harry asked Diana.

' _Enough where she is able to comprehend the fact that you are with numerous women,'_ Diana responded. She crossed her arms together and she sighed calmly. _'That waitress was being rather rude though.'_

"I suppose that you get that a lot, so you take it in stride more than enough," Helena said. Harry turned towards her and gave her a smile. "She had a large amount of jealousy in her eyes, when she realized that I was with you."

Helena shook her head in amusement. She looked towards Harry and offered him a crisp statement.

"You know, I can almost write a paper about it, since your relationship dynamics are quite different what you'd normally see in a day to day society," Helena added.

"Well, Vicki once told me that it reminded her of a pride of Lions," Harry offered her.

Helena placed her hand underneath her chin and went "hmmm."

"Yeah, I can pretty much see that," Helena agreed. She leaned back a little bit on the chair. "It's also similar to a lot of ancient royal dynasties, where the Chieftain, King, Pharaoh, or those of high status had a large number of wives or concubines. They would be only limited by their wealth, their ability to support them, and their religion."

Helena looked thoughtful about the point.

"Those practices tended to be fairly common for a long time and it still is in a lot of cultures," Helena added. "But, I guess that organized religion changed a lot of things. In fact, organized religion has changed a lot of things."

Harry responded with a brisk nod. "I was studying history back in school and noticed that, although I figured that there were a lot of reasons for the change."

Helena gave another poignant, hmm. She thought about things for a moment. "There have been many reasons, but the overall values of society have changed. It has to do with religion, since they shape the roles that society as a whole has held dear. It's very similar with you in some ways, considering there's a bit of a cult like atmosphere that has surrounded around you."

Helena paused for a moment and thought about something else.

"It does make me wonder about the relationship you hold with your family," Helena said. That caused Harry to raise an eyebrow. "Such taboos are not help in certain societies, after all."

Harry blinked again. This pretty much seemed like a brazen question. It came at him out of nowhere. If nothing else, it seemed like it was a pretty blunt statement that she knew pretty much more that was going on.

His face shifted into a grin. He leaned closer towards her. "So, does that mean that you want to study me?"

Helena grinned and leaned in close to him halfway. She pressed her lips onto his with a searing kiss. She pulled away from him. "I'd like to do a long, in-depth, through study, to make sure that I see what really makes you tick. See all of your secrets bear."

"Now that sounds interesting," Harry whispered. He was a spoke in a nice and suggestive voice. He leaned into her. "Although I'm pretty curious about when you'd like to start."

Helena's lips curled into a slight smile and she leaned in towards him. She kissed him lightly on the jaw. Her gaze pointed towards him. "Who says that I haven't started already?"

She paused and added something, almost as an afterthought. "There's just something about being around you that makes me want to act as naughty as possible."

' _Wow, never thought she had it in her,'_ Donna commented through the bond link with pride. It was obvious that Diana was going to say the same thing.

Harry raised his eyebrow at her. "Really?"

Helena licked her lips slightly and she slowly slipped beneath the table. She wanted to show him how exactly naughty she made her feel.

Harry could feel her undo his pants and fish him out. Her hot tongue could be felt underneath the table and her mouth slowly worshipped him. Her lips wrapped around him.

Harry placed his hands on the edge of the table and kept a mostly straight face. Helena's mouth worked on him and worshipped him. Her hand stroked him when she managed to just fit him all into his mouth.

' _I don't know how you're keeping a straight face during all of this,'_ Kara chimed in. Her amusement brimmed from her voice.

' _Plenty and plenty of experience,'_ Harry added. The girls seemed to have this habit of trying to get him to break his concentration.

Helena was giving a good go at doing this herself. It was during the part of this.

"Where did your date go, handsome?" the waitress asked.

Helena redoubled her efforts in an attempt to make Harry slip up. He did have an iron will of steel and she kept working him over.

"She had to use the restroom, I'm sure that she'll be back soon," Harry groaned. She felt her go all the way down on him.

She made sounds that were subtle, but at the same time, not so subtle. Helena's mouth came down onto him and she worked him down to the edge. His pleasure was about ready to give way.

Helena sucked his treat into her mouth. She slowly made her way out from underneath the table and made sure to lick her lips to show the fruits of what she did. She looked at him.

"I wonder if this is how this is how our study is going to entail," Helena said. She got to her feet and smiled. She saw the waitress approaching and she gave her a grin. "Bag it up honey, since I'm fuller than I thought."

* * *

 

Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu were still dressed as stylishly as they always were. Chang-Tzu's suit has a more oriental styling to it. The two of the made their way down to a dark and dreary hallway, which was all kinds of dismal.

Edgar turned to his cousin, raising his eyebrow. He allowed himself a moment to sigh. "This couldn't be any more cliché if we tried."

Chang nodded in response. "Yes, I agree…..but we have to deal with the minor annoyance that got in our way last night."

"Yes, this Magpie, aptly named given her attraction to shininess," Edgar responded.

"It was an unforeseen variable that we had no way of accounting for, and our plan was perfect, "Chang replied. He paused and stopped against the wall against one of the walls. "It was perfect except for this one frustrating favor."

"That's true, but we should have accounted for the fact that no plan survives the first contact with the enemy," Edgar said. "Despite the fact that the attack was uneggspected, we should have known better. But, we should have considered all of the angles."

"Yes," Chang agreed after a long pause. "We know better now and we won't make the same mistake in the future. For now though, we must track down the wayward dove…"

"Who absconded with our property," Edgar answered. He shifted his stance and looked calm. "And to do so, we need information, and here we are."

It was at that particular point where they arrived at the location that they were heading towards. In this particular case, it was a door that had several different locks on it of various types and makes. The most prominent one was an extremely elaborate electronic lock.

The two gentlemen eyed it disdainfully for a moment. Edgar tutted loudly and reached into his pocket before he pulled out a device that looked like a simple remote control. He turned it on.

While he did that, Chang-Tzu leaned in and proceeded to skillfully pick each of the more mundane looking locks in turn. It took a moment or two later, before they heard a pair of clicks. One of them sounded like a bolt lock, the other sound was from an electronic lock. The door swings open.

The two of them took their steps inside the apartment.

"I sense obsession," Edgar said as he looked around the stalker-cave. He looked around the cave, with a look of disdain, as his eyes rested on a large picture of the one and only Doctor Harry Potter.

"The day has changed for the worst," Edgar commented. "The good old days have passed a long time ago. Criminals were people of class and refinement and their enemies were about as much so as well."

"I'm not certain how a woman who dresses up like she's a Playboy bunny could be considered refined," Chang said, with a raised eyebrow.

Edgar swiftly answered his cousin's question. "I remember back in the day, that the Playboy Club was the epitome of both class and refinement. Of course, I don't expect a communist to understand the fact."

I guess that I will never understand a bunch of tarts baring their goods," Chang answered. He shook his head in bemusement.

The two of them made their way through the apartment, their discussion was pretty brief. The two of them came across the man that he was looking for. It was Edward Nashton, who had fallen asleep at his desk, drooling his keyboard when he snoozed.

"It is hard to find adequate help in this day and age," Edgar commented. Chang turned towards him and gave his cousin a slight frown.

"Are you certain this is the man that we're looking for?" Chang asked. "The one that we need to move forward with our grand plan."

"He might lack…..certain qualities," Edgar answered. "He lacks that certain, jena se qua that we look for in a contemporary, but the man is pretty uniquely qualified to help us in that particular instance."

Edgar shook a deep breath and shook his head. There was another thing that he wanted to discuss.

"Besides, we've been out of this game for nearly twenty five years by this point and the people we relied on in the past have either retired, incarcerated, or have died," Edgar explained. "Our options are limited and beggars can't be choosers."

Chang sighed. "You do have a point, as much as I loath to admit it. But I can't help but to think that we're scrapping at the bottom of the barrel."

He reached forward casually and upends the chair. That caused Edward to fall backwards in a yelp of shock at the rather sudden and rather rude wake-up call. "What the devil was that?"

He looked up and at him. "Oh my, oh my, oh my, you're….you're them. You're Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu!"

"Please get a hold of yourself," Edgar said. He was regretting this already.

"But, surely you're two of the greatest criminal masterminds in your time or any other, you befuddled the JSA and eluded capture for years," Edward said. He bounced up and down in excitement.

* * *

 

It was a bit late in the morning to the Gotham academy. An Asian Schoolgirl by the name of Jade Crock was at the school. She just finished with the school administration in order to go over her records and plan her extra-curricular activities. She had been transferred out of a public school in one of the rougher districts. She would have started earlier in the year, but the Gotham Private Academy starts back a bit later after the holidays than the public school system does.

She had to admit that things got fairly smoothly. Jade sighed and she stood around looking bored while she waited for the student who was supposed to be showing her around the campus and to her classes. To pass the time, Jade started to fiddle with her skirt.

"I swear, this looks like something out of a hentai fan boy's wet dream," Jade groaned. She tilted her head back and allowed herself to sigh.

It turned out that she didn't have to wait too much longer for her student advisor to arrive. She saw a tall redhead girl with shorter, shoulder length hair that framed her face, along with a fit and athletic body approach her. It was far shorter than it was, but long enough where she can pull it back into a ponytail.

"Are you Jade Crock?" the girl asked.

"Yes," Jade answered. She noticed that there was a young brunette girl around her age following her. She seemed to be in some kind of indepth discussion with the girl on her way here.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting," the redhead said. She gave the brunette with her a warning look, as it appeared that she was just going to keep on rambling if she was allowed to go on unchecked. "Homeroom went a bit longer than it was supposed to, since we're just coming back from Winter Break and there's a lot that we needed to go over."

"No, problem," Jade said.

"I'm Amanda Potter, and this is Lois Lane," the redhead said.

That caused Jade to be off guard. Given that the person that was responsible for her coming to Gotham Academy was Amanda's aunt, that was something that caught her a bit off guard. She wasn't one that would stay off guard for long at all. Especially given how much Amanda seemed to be relaxed by the whole affair.

"Thank you for agreeing to show me around," Jade answered. She leaned forward and decided that it was best to be polite.

"It's my pleasure," Amanda said. "I wanted to meet you ever since I found out that she played football, and I became the Captain of the team this year, since the former one just graduated."

Jade's eyebrow rose. Lois, sensing danger, slowly started to wave her off. "I wasn't aware that GPA had a football team."

"Oh, they call it soccer, but believe me, its football, that's what it is."

Jade stepped back and she allowed Amanda to fly in a passionate rant. She took an amused look at the face of one Lois Lane and it seemed like this was a rant that Lois encountered many times. So she just took things in stride.

"Um, I'm sorry," Jade said. It was more of a question than a statement.

Lois jumped in shrugging. "Amanda is a bit obsessed with soc….fine, Mandy, Football, because she's British and they seem to be just a little bit obsessed with the entire game as a whole. That and tea and crumpets, but mostly soc…okay, football! But she takes things to an entirely new level."

Amanda chuckled in amusement. "Well, laugh it up smart ass and see how you like it when I make you run wind sprints at the next practice."

That caused the one and only Lois Lane to be cowered. She gulped a little bit in response and Amanda shifted her way back a little bit from her. She slowly turned around to see Jade.

"Come on, we'll give you the grand tour around the campus," Amanda said. Lois, Jade, and Amanda all walked off.

"Shouldn't you be in class?" Jade asked. Lois placed her hands on her hips, but Amanda side stepped her before she could say something really cutting.

"She shares a couple of classes with you," Amanda explained. That caused Jade to nod in response. "Plus, Lois is getting tested to see if she's dyslexic in the afternoon so she's got time to kill."

Jade nodded in response.

"So, what's your family like?" Amanda asked her.

"Well, I live at home with my mother and my sister as well," Jade said. She decided not to mention where her father was. Thankfully Amanda didn't press the issue and she looked towards Lois to warn her not to press the issue either. She noticed Lois's eye.

"Oh, me, well…I live with my Harr….my guardian," Lois said. She nearly had a slip of the tongue.

Jade might not have notice if, if Amanda's amusement broke through and she started to laugh like a madwoman.

Amanda finally caught her breath when the two of them made their way towards the cafeteria area. They were right outside as the tour was wrapping up. "Sorry, Lois lives with my family, since her father is in Germany. My older brother, Harry is currently her Guardian at the moment."

Jade heard of Harry Potter, naturally. He was all over the news. She decided not to say anything regarding him right now.

The three of them arrived at the cafeteria.

"And that's my twin sister, Emily," Amanda said. Emily looked identical to Amanda, or she would have, if she didn't have the longer hair. There was another group of girls. "Why don't you join us and I can answer any questions you might have?"

"That'd be nice," Jade said. She thought that she had a few, but they were kind of personal. So she would stick with school for now.

* * *

 

The snow came down hard in Kansas on the road that ran from Smallville all the way to Metropolis. It looked to be the type of weather that gave nightmares to anyone who wasn't used to driving it. It was a huge stretch of road that lead from the small town to the big city.

Martha Kent was sitting in the driver's street of her SUV, driving. "So, are you coming down to visit since you've got time off school?"

"I might, I'm not sure what's happening really now, my professor has just got up and disappeared," Kara replied. She seemed to be rather confused. "But I think regardless of what happened, I've got a couple of weeks off at the very least."

"What do you think happened?" Martha asked. She focused on the road and took a particularly tricky turn.

There had been so many wrecks down this particular stretch of road due to the fact that there were so many inattentive drivers during the winter weather. Martha focused on the road for a moment and then when she was safely back on a cleaner section of road, she focused on what Kara was saying.

"Considering the fact that this is Gotham, it's a good chance that he'll be found in the river somewhere," Kara said. She gave a sigh. "I don't know if it's because he pissed off the wrong person or not. He could have been at the wrong place at the wrong time. And the GCPD has their hands full with the rash of gang activity as well."

"So, do you think that they'll find a replacement?" Martha asked her.

Kara shook her head after a second and spoke honestly. "Eventually, I'm sure. Until then, we're just spinning our wheels."

Kara closed her eyes and thought about it.

"I've also been talking to Karen and Patricia about some information that Alexa gave us, regarding some business she could do for RAO," Kara said. She was speaking more off the top of her head of anything.

"Seems to me that she's fitting in well," Martha added. She stopped and hoped that the snow didn't kick up too bad before she got home.

The entire town of Smallville can close down for the winter if a snow storm got particularly bad. She was glad that she and Jonathan had a lot of supplies for the winter.

"So, how are things going at the farm?" Kara asked. "Now that you have a couple of new farm hands that are helping you out with everything. There are no major problems, are there?"

"No, things are going pretty good," Martha confirmed. "It's the winter though, so they really can't do too much. It's mostly maintenance so they can get everything all ready for the spring."

Martha snapped her fingers as if something came to her suddenly. "There is a rumor that the Widow who owns the property next to ours is looking to sell. Things have been pretty rough since her husband died a couple of years back. And her son decided that he wasn't cut out for the farm life. She wants to get out while she can. This is Smallville and there's a good chance that Lionel will try and scare off any interested parties that aren't LuthorCorp."

"Then he'll try to lowball her, won't he?" Kara asked in disgust.

Martha sighed. "Yes, that's really how things have worked since the Meteor storm in the eighties."

Martha could almost visualize Kara scowling over the other end of the phone. Most certainly, she got the visual image of the girl crushing her fist together with a nasty look on her face and a prominent scowl on it.

"Well that son of a bitch," Kara murmured to herself.

"Kara," Martha said reproachfully.

"Sorry, you weren't supposed to hear that," Kara said nonchalantly. "I'm going to talk to Harry, Faora, and Karen to see what they can do. It's quite likely considering the location they might be willing to make a woman a fair offer. But, it really depends on the timing factor more than anything."

Martha could hear Kara's prominent sign over the other end of the phone.

"Things are budgeted pretty tight right now, so we really got to pick and choose are spots wisely," Kara said. She seemed a bit flustered in having admitted this. That would be akin to the blonde to admitting defeat.

"Kara, I understand, believe me," Martha replied. "That would seem to make sense with all of the projects that RAO has going on at any point in time."

"Yeah, a number of projects," Kara said. She lightly snapped her fingers. "Also, we're more or less in a subtle takeover of Queen Industries, so that can eat into a lot of time and resources. But one of our major focuses is the environment and revitalizing farmland, so it would make sense and be best for business to snatch that land up."

Kara decided to shift focus at that point. "How is Claire doing?"

"She's doing fine, dear," Martha replied with a chuckle. The woman smiled. "She was doing just as fine as when you asked me at the start of the conversation."

Kara sounded sheepish when she responded with a light sigh. "Oh….yeah."

The conversation couldn't go much further, when Martha noticed a peculiar sight at the side of the road. She looked to be fifteen or sixteen years of age and she was walking on the side of the road. She was pretty tall for her age, even though Martha could not make out her features completely.

Martha also could not help noticing, with all of her maternal instincts, she was shivering badly. Mostly because she was underdressed because of the weather and wore only a thin men's flannel shirt, which was over a white t-shirt, along with a pair of jeans, and to be frank, the only thing that she wore that suited the weather is a pair of hiking boots that looked pretty beaten up.

It was also noticeable that she was caring a backpack with her and didn't seem to be going in any place in particular.

"Something came up, Kara," Martha said in a half distracted voice. "I'll call you back when I get home."

"Yeah, okay," Kara replied. She frowned and wondered what that could be.

Martha pulled up beside the door and slipped down the car window. "Would you like a ride, sweetie?"

The girl turned around and it was at this point that Martha could make out a pretty distinctive white stripe that's running through the girl's hair. She was also an extremely pretty girl, although a bit of a waif at the moment since she's looking like she hasn't eaten in a while.

The teenage girl looked hesitate for a second. She fretfully looked over to the left and over to the right, as if checking to see if the coast was cleared. Then, when she responded, it was in a thick Southern accent. "If it isn't too much trouble?"

Martha shook her head and opened the door, so the girl could climb inside. "I wouldn't have offered if it wasn't too much trouble. My name is Martha Kent….I live down just down the road here."

The girl slowly slipped off her leather gloves and took a minute to warm her hands. She turned towards Martha, and shook her head. She responded with a soft. "Marie."

* * *

 

Siren sauntered her way through the Gotham museum like she owned the place. Security was tightened due to the break in last night and the collection that was being shown had been blocked off so that the GCPD can investigate things properly. The rest of the museum was left open though, so the museum can come and go.

"Yes, that would be wonderful, darling, if you can take me to him at once," she said in a soothing voice.

The guard nodded, enthralled by this particular woman. "As you command."

"Yes, as I command," Lorelei whispered. The guard was completely and utterly underneath her thrall.

There was an artifact being stored here that he boss wanted, or more likely needed in order to use his new toy properly. Otherwise, the delusional idiot might likely would end up being his hands off. The woman decided to take advantage of the fact that the museum was broken into last night to further Maxie's goals and by extension her own. She needed to acquire the artifact for him in order to do this.

"Yes, my mistress, anything for you, so beautiful, so perfect," the guard said.

"Yes, I know that you are devoted, now Professor McElroy's office if you please," Siren said in a dull and bored voice. It was almost like she was disinterested in what this man had to say.

Professor William Omaha McElroy was one of the three people in the building who knew exactly where what she was looking for was being stored. The other two were Helena Sandsmark and Margaret Sorrow. One of which isn't in the Museum right now and the other being tied up with the police currently in the building.

They reached the door and the guard turned his head to the Siren in an adoring manner.

"Well what are you waiting for, knock on the door and announce us to McElroy?" Siren asked. She paused and added. "And then after you're done, go jump off the nearest tall building that you can find."

The guard eagerly nodded his head and knocked on the door. "Professor McElroy, this young lady wishes to see you. She says that it's current."

The guard scurried off to go find that tall building to jump off of. Lorelei turned and saw McElroy, who was dressed down for him. He was in his normal attire, with his suit jacket hung on a coat rack.

"Professor McElroy, my name is Lorelei, I wish to speak to you about a problem…and only someone of your great intelligence would be able to help me solve it," she whispered in a breathy voice.

Lorelei smiled when she was lead into the man's office. The door was shut behind him.

"You are the only person that can help me, sir," she said. She said this like she sounded like a devoted fangirl. "No one is more knowledge about history than you are, sir."

At first, McElroy was a bit suspect about this young woman. But she seemed to be someone really eager to learn. His discomfort disappeared immediately and he was swept underneath the sincerity of her voice when she spoke.

"I'll do whatever I can to help you with your problems," McElroy said.

She had in perfectly relaxed. Lorelei thought that this was going to be more difficult than it really was. She used her voice.

"Yes, that's it, you are the great Pharaoh Tutankhamen," Lorelei whispered. Her powers washed over his mind and waved an illusion over him that was disconnected from the real world. "And I am your beautiful Nefertiti."

"Yes, I am, I am the great pharaoh and you are my queen," McElroy whispered. The woman's voice caused him to see the reality that she wanted him to see.

"And I need you to help me find an artifact that will prevent an insurrection on your Thebes," Lorelei continued. She pulled him on in, hook, line, and sinker. The man grabbed the bait, all she had to do was real him in. "The gauntlets of the sky god, I wish for you to tell me where they are. Tell me."

"They are currently located in a room in the back," McElroy whispered. "The inscription needs to be read properly so they can be researched and put on display properly."

There was a mixture of Tutankhamen and McElroy with the man. Lorelei reinforced the spell that she put on the man. She wanted to really make sure that she continued to hold him underneath her thrall.

"Yes, darling, yes, darling, tell me more," Lorelei whispered. She reached forward and lightly stroked his cheek. "Tell your dear Queen everything that you know."

"It was to be on display for Helena….Doctor Sandsmark's exhibit," the man whispered. His tone sounded rather raw when he spoke.

"Yes, yes, take me to them please," Lorelei commented.

"As you wish, my lady," McElroy said.

He walked forward. There were no guards there. Lorelei told the other guards to take a nap. The GCPD was tied up elsewhere in the museum so they shouldn't be a problem.

He did move rather quickly for a man his size and stature. McElroy reached into his pocket and pulled out a ring of keys. When he found the proper key that he was looking for, he unlocked the room, which lead them inside.

"Yes, yes, brilliant," Lorelei whispered. She was smiling at the thought of what these things could do.

Sitting on the table in the midst of the room was an open metal case and resting within them is a pair of black metal gauntlets which would come up to a man's forearm. They were trimmed in electrum and heavily etched with a scene of Olympus. It depicted Zeus throwing his lightning bolt from the heavens.

Her eyes widened and a dazzling smile crossed her face. Lorelei turned towards McElroy. "Pick up the case and follow me."

* * *

 

Harry and Barbara stood at the Gotham City airport. His back was against the pillar, where Barbara was snuggled tightly up against him. Her head rested on her chest. His arm wrapped around her snugly.

Resting in his hand was a prototype of the Red Sun Eclipse, which he was reading from currently. This would be the point where he would normally have a conversation with Barbara. There was one problem with that, she was sleeping quietly at the moment. The girl had a fairly long night.

They both did actually but Harry was able to function without a whole lot of sleep with a long period of time. Both of them were waiting for a flight for a very long time. It was evident by this point that the flight ended up getting delayed.

Harry was just finishing up the report, when a rather loud announcement jolted Barbara out from her state of sleep. Thankfully for her, his arm wrapped firmly around her waist and kept her from falling backwards on her butt.

His lips shifted into an amused smile, but that was the extent of what he said. He wanted to keep her from feeling embarrassed as much as he could.

"So, has she arrived yet?" Barbara asked. She yawned.

"No, she hasn't," Harry confirmed. He slipped the phone that he was on in his jacket pocket. "The weather is pretty bad at the moment since a plane blew in rather suddenly."

Barbara scoffed. "Well that's not too surprising considering the weather is pretty bad in Gotham this time of a year. She would have been better off flying into New York."

Harry looked surprised and leaned towards her. "I thought that you wanted to see your friend for a visit."

Barbara smiled when she looked around at him. "I do, especially since I haven't seen her for like about six months since she was in England. But we could have driven to New York rather then having her fly into Gotham in the middle of the winter."

Harry responded with a nod. That did make a lot of sense. "So, remind me again who are we waiting for?"

Barbara figured to enlighten Harry, even though he knew. It was likely just a means to have some kind of conversation to pass the time. It might be dead useful if someone was listening into their conversation that wasn't in the know.

"Do you remember my friend, Gwen?" Barbara asked him. "You two met once….that's who we're waiting for, by the way. You know, short blonde hair, glasses, a questionable sense of fashion…..not my words, but….yeah."

"Well, she is the type that was more into academics than fashion," Harry answered. Barbara nodded in response. "She did seem like a nice, pretty girl, if a bit nerdy. But that really isn't a problem, is it?"

They did meet pretty briefly many years back. Harry's new set of memories that happened after the crisis event did remind him of that. There were a few more alterations that he didn't have a chance to reconcile.

"What was she doing in England, anyway?" Harry asked her.

"Well, Gwen graduated early like I did, and she was either going to go to ESU or GCU," Barbara explained. "But her girlfriend's Aunt and Uncle were killed in a home invasion, so Gwen decided to go with her to Oxford for about six months in order to attend a prestigious course on Molecular biology. That ended though very recently, so now they're coming back home ended two of them wanted to check out GCU for themselves. And I offered to put them up, since she wanted to visit."

Harry smiled and had a question. "That makes sense. So what is the name of Gwen's girlfriend?"

"Theresa," Gwen replied. "But everyone calls her Reilly because her full name is Theresa Reilly Parker."

Harry looked thoughtful, there was something about the name that sounds familiar.

"Name does ring a bell, but I don't think that I've met her before," Harry admitted. Barbara raised her eyebrow curiously at him.

"Well she's pretty mousy by nature, and got bullied a lot until she met Gwen as a freshman," Barbara explained. Harry placed his hand underneath his chin and nodded. "It really wasn't that big of a surprise when the two of them had started to date."

Barbara thought of something and she frowned deeply. "Where exactly would you have heard Reilly's name, if you didn't meet her?"

Harry considered this question for a moment. "I remember the name from a biochemistry paper that I read recently."

Before Harry could get into that fact too much, they were interrupted by a loud and excited scream of "Barbara!"

Harry and Barbara both turned around. It was obvious how much Gwen had changed since the last time he saw her. The change she went through was rather stunning. She wore a black skirt that fell just above her knees, black leather boots that just cam below the hem of her skirt, and he could make out the stockings. She wore a tight black shirt that stretched across her ample chest and a black leather jacket that matched her boots. Her hair is pulled back with a headband.

An excited Barbara rushed over to greet Gwen with a hug, nearly running her over. This gave Harry a chance to come to his senses. He was mostly paying attention to a conversation between a rambling Barbara and Gwen.

"Okay, Babs, slow down, the human brain can't comprehend that many questions at once," Gwen replied. She looked extremely amused. Barbara's eyes averted downwards and she looked rather sheepish in the process.

"Seriously, how have you been, really how was England, were the classes at Oxford any good?" Barbara asked.

Barbara realized that she hadn't properly introduced Gwen to Harry just yet. That seemed kind of rude to her.

"Gwen, you remember Harry Potter, don't you?" Barbara asked.

"I remember him, are you kidding me, Barbara?" Gwen asked. She tried to keep herself in check, but she was prone to fangirl moments as much as the next person. "It's a pleasure to meet you again, Doctor Potter, it's a real honor."

Harry smiled.

"Gwen, it's Harry," Harry said.

"Right, right, of course," Gwen answered. She shook her head and tried not to make a babbling fool out of herself. "But, it's just that you've got so many doctorates in such a short time and the Red Sun….it's been a life saver for a lot of people, and it's going to be bigger. You're going to be even bigger than Microsoft."

"Well, let's hope so," Harry replied, with a chuckle. "But, I hope to only put out the very best products."

Gwen managed to fire off a series of questions. She seemed to be intrigued to learn more about him and Harry indulged her with a little bit of interaction. He seemed amused, but not as amused as Barbara was.

"So where is Reilly in all of this?" Barbara asked, when Gwen finally calmed down enough to allow her to get in a word edgewise.

Gwen had been so enraptured with her conversation with Harry that it took Barbara clearing her throat and repeating her question to knock her back to reality.

"She went to get the bags."

On cue, a rather stunning dark auburn hair girl approached them. She wore a pair of blue jeans which tucked into a pair of high heel boots that end just below the knee, along with a dark blue shirt and leather jacket. A pair of stylish glasses rested on the bridge of her nose. She held a backpack on her back and carried a bag in each hand.

"Harry, this is Theresa Reilly Parker," Gwen remarked. "Reilly, this is Harry Potter."

Reilly gave Harry a going over and smiled. She could see Harry doing the same thing. "Face it Tiger, you just hit the jackpot."

* * *

**To Be Continued On February 18th, 2015.**


	84. Fall of Olympus Part Three

**Chapter Eighty-Four: The Fall of Olympus Part three.**

* * *

 

Enigma could scarcely believe his good fortune. He tried to keep himself calm after his moment earlier. A couple of hours had passed, so he was able to keep his cool regarding the fact that he was sitting here in the presence of two living legends of crime. The duo of Edgar Prince and Chang Tzu were with him.

The trio was sitting in Edward's living room with a couple of tea.

"So, what brings you two to Gotham City?" Edward asked.

"Finally, you ask a practical question, perhaps there is hope for you yet," Chang-Tzu said dryly. He sipped on the tea. It tasted extremely adequate and he was calm.

Edward looked like he was in the process of being about ready to cream his pants. He tried not to embarrass himself when he was in front of the vision of these virtual masters of all things crime. He could hardly hold back his excitement. Edward enjoyed being in the presence of these gentlemen and his excitement increased.

"Get a hold of yourself, young man, for both of our sakes," Edgar said dryly. "We acquired one of the biggest scores that any criminal could even dream. But the wench known as Magpie decided to steal something of great value and importance to us. And we'd like to see it be returned into our hands sooner than later."

Edward snapped his fingers and grinned. He read an article just earlier this evening and he was able to put two and two together thanks to his great intellect. "You two are responsible for the theft of the Crystal Egg of Y'ggphu-Soggoth from the museum and them Magpie stole it from you."

"Well, so that's the case," Edgar commented in amusement.

"Yes," Chang replied. He looked at the young man, still not completely impressed. "Well, done…..you were able to put that theory together based on information so obvious that a child could deduce. Well done."

Edward's excitement increased when he impressed the one and only Edgar Prince. Chang's criticism did not fly over his head and he looked like a sad puppy dog. He would show them though, he would show them how useful he could be.

"So, why did you want to visit me of all people?" Edward asked. "Many people think that you were dead, but…"

"We went deep underneath ground to avoid the heat from our final and greatest heist," Edgar commented. "And many of our old cohorts have either passed on from this world, are in prison, or are in retirement. We wish to see how this current generation stands up to the old one. One thing is constant tough, there are do-gooders in the world."

"But, there's no one that can match your intellect," Edward said. He looked like a fanboy who was excited to meet his heroes.

Edgar allowed himself a dry chuckle in response. "This much is true, my dear boy. But, while I am technologically savvy, I'm afraid that there are some areas that I lack the certain traits that you'd eggspect from a criminal mastermind. And one of them is usage of the Internet."

It was a common tactic to pump up a man's ego to get what they want. Chang played his part in ripping down Edward Nashton's ego, for Edgar to pipe in and pump it back up. He was eating out of their hands, and soon they would get what they want.

"And we heard that you are a rather savvy information broker who's able to make use of the Internet to great effect," Edgar commented. Edward's eyes went wide. "So, we were hoping to utilize your knowledge, along with your skill in an attempt to track down Magpie so we can retrieve what is rightfully ours from her."

It was obvious to Edward that they believed that the egg was there's by divine right, regardless of the fact that they were the ones that stole it first from their rightful owner. He wasn't about to dispute that fact from a pair of living legends.

Obviously, he wasn't going to argue with that. He jumped halfway off of the couch and scrambled halfway towards his computer about as fast as his legs could take him. He almost tripped over his feet in his haste to reach his computer.

The moment Edgar was at his computer, he started to type up a storm. Edgar looked up with interest and Chang-Tzu looked on with disdain.

"Obviously, tonight you've verified your own intelligence by coming to me, because I have my ear in several areas, where I am going to be able to lift a prominent amount of information," Edward said smugly. "People tend to make deals and there isn't a deal in Gotham City that I don't at least go about."

Edward looked excited, he sounded as giddy as a schoolgirl.

"And all I have to do is find out whether or not Magpie intends to sell the egg and to who," Edward replied. His interest piqued when he typed up a storm on the computer. "Well, this is interesting, well this should be expected."

Edgar raised his eyebrow and cast Chang a warning. "What do you find so interesting, young man?"

"Magpie is going to have a meeting, or maybe is in a meeting right now, or maybe she has concluded a meeting," Edward whispered. He sounded like he had the clues to the riddle of the ancient sitting in the palm of his hand, or at least that's what he thought in his deluded little mind.

"With whom?" Edgar asked. His patience might be infinite, but it was wearing thin.

"The Penguin intends to purchase the Crystal Egg from her to place within his own collection," Edward said. He looked rather pleased with himself. "And whilst I'm not certain whether or not this meeting has concluded as of yet, I am able to provide the two of you with a concrete location of where the meeting is going to happen."

* * *

 

After Harry and Barbara picked up Reilly and Gwen from the airport, the group decided to go out to a trendy restaurant, so Harry could get to get to know Reilly and Gwen. It was the case of it was normally regarding Harry. They were so beyond pleased to meet the Harry Potter that they were completely spellbound.

Harry was glad to be recognized based on accomplishments of things that he did do, as opposed to things that he didn't do. It was really good to appreciate it.

"And, I'm sure that you could tell that both of us have been following your work for a very long time," Reilly said. She actually managed to jump in after Gwen finally managed to stop long enough to hold her back.

"Yeah, we've really….well I've met you briefly, but that seems like ages ago," Gwen said. She turned to Reilly and smiled. "And this is the first time that Reilly has had the chance to meet you. And just how much Babs talked you up, well, you can only tell how much that I was looking forward to having this meeting."

Gwen wanted to smack herself in the face.

"Normally she's a bit more coherent," Reilly added. She smiled and Gwen gave her a look before pinching her underneath the table.

Barbara shifted her face into a grin. Sometimes these things almost became a bit too easy.

The two girls relished a chance to get to pick the brain of the one and only Harry Potter.

"I'm sure with as much questions as I get asked, I should just write a book and get it over with," Harry replied.

"Ah, that's nowhere near as fun as bombarding you with questions in person," Reilly said.

"Yeah, Harry, what were you thinking?" Barbara asked him. Her expression grew thoughtful and she crinkled up her nose. "It would sell a lot, you know, it would."

Harry didn't do anything, but cast the three girls a smile each. It was the type of smile that could break hearts. Reilly and Gwen looked excited to meet him as Tess did and Harry and his wives had had their eyes on the girls and how well they are doing.

"So, I was looking at your Chemistry thesis, it was utterly brilliant by the way," Gwen stated, swaying back and forth on her chair with a shit eating grin on her face. Her tone sounded like it was positively gushing. And her tone might not be the only thing that was positively gushing about her, but that was neither here nor there. "And I was wondering….well I was wondering if it was possible to create a serum that would bring a normal human, even a sickly one, to the peak of physical perfection without causing any side effects like brain damage."

Gwen managed to say all of that at once.

"Don't worry, Gwen, I got all of that," Harry said. He was amused.

"Well, you know that Venom is an example of one that causes damage, brain damage especially to a person," Gwen said. Her excitement brimmed when she wanted to hear Harry's question.

"It's really possible, but it's a ways off," Harry told them. The interest of both of the girls was grabbed. "Mostly because that I haven't worked out the formal and it's going to take a lot of testing before it's anywhere near perfect."

Reilly piped in with a thought of her own. "I remember my father working something similar based off of the mythical super solider serum from World War II, when I was a little girl before I died."

Harry blinked and he put the pieces together. He honestly didn't realize that Richard Parker was Reilly's father.

"I didn't realize that Richard Parker was your father," Harry replied. Reilly nodded in response. Harry gave her a brief smile. "Although it does make a lot of sense given how intelligent that you are."

"It isn't really common knowledge," Reilly admitted. "The government, along with my aunt and uncle went out of their way to keep it that way…..even from me."

Reilly said that last bit with a long and depressing sigh.

"Sorry to hear about what happened to them," Barbara said. Reilly nodded swiftly. "Did they ever catch the guy that did that, by the way?"

That caused Reilly to frown and Gwen to smack Barbara about the area of the shoulder for being insensitive.

"I'm okay now," Reilly admitted. She gave Gwen a warning look and Gwen nodded in response. "It was really hard for me to deal with this at first and without Gwen and her father, I wasn't certain that I would even do it."

Reilly responded with a swift sigh to herself.

"And no, they didn't find him," Reilly admitted. There was a sour tone to what she was saying. "He seems to have fallen off of the grid."

"Sooo, I'm curious about something," Harry said. He decided to switch topics to another area, seeing how uncomfortable Barbara was. He turned his attention to Gwen. "So, how exactly is it that you and Barbara met in the first place?"

"Our fathers went to the Chicago Police Academy together and then worked together as partners," Gwen explained. "They ended up being quite close friends, although they were separated when our fathers ended up being transferred to New York and Gotham, respectfully."

"How about you and Reilly?" Harry asked.

Gwen whistled. "Well, that's a bit of a story. Reilly was a bit of a wallflower in Junior High school when I met her. She was being picked on by a couple of girls, until I stepped in to defend her."

She shook her head.

"We've been dating ever since we started high school," Gwen added. "That's not to say that we don't like guys, but nothing so far as interested us."

"Or maybe the right offer hasn't come along," Reilly said.

Harry smiled, suggestive statement was a bit suggestive, but he managed to figure out precisely where they were coming from on that degree.

"So, what do you two do for fun?" Harry asked.

"I'm really into mechanical engineering and chemistry, so I hope to study in those two areas," Reilly explained. "And for a hobby, well I've always been into photography, whether it be photographs or video. I hope one day to capture a photo of Nightwing or Batman or both, because you know that there are a lot of papers offering good money for a shot and…..well things are a bit tight."

"Yes, that is one shot that has been eluding a lot of people," Harry commented in his calmest tone of voice.

"Academically, I'm interested in Bio-Chemistry, Genetics, and Electrical Engineering, and a focus on computers," Gwen said in a breathless voice.

Barbara turned towards Gwen and raised her eyebrow. Her tone was fairly amused. "You know, you were always an overachiever."

"Excuse me, I don't think that you're one to talk," Gwen replied. She smirked across her face and dared Barbara to refute this claim. There was no way for her to do so.

"And Gwen is really creative as well, in fact she was the drummer in a band that our friend Mary Jane was the lead singer for a while," Reilly said. There was one point that she recalled that she should have spoken of offhand. "We also both like to invent things and work on science projects for fun."

Harry learned a lot about both of the girls in this conversation. He decided to do what he had been considering since the moment that he walked into here.

"If the two of you are interested, there might be a couple of intern spots available at RAO for both of you," Harry said. He looked at the expressions on Gwen and Reilly's faces. They both seemed fairly interested to say the least. "I am looking for a research/lab assistant, although you might have to move to Gotham since this company doesn't have a presence in New York, just yet anyway."

Both of the girls looked at him and Harry added.

"We're focusing strictly on Gotham and Metropolis until we grow a little bit more," Harry explained to them. Both girls nodded, that did make a lot of sense. "But the plan is to expand into New York in five years."

' _And tell them about the scholarship offer,'_ Rose reminded him through the bond link.

"And also, I have it on very good authority that the two of you are already on a short list to receive the same scholarship offer that Barbara has currently," Harry added.

The response to that was all three girls squealing in pleasure, and hug him. Gwen daringly leaned forward at first to kiss on the lips because she was so excited.

Spurred on by her daring move, Reilly leaned forward and gave him a nice little kiss. She was surprised and she pulled away. She was about to apologize, but Gwen shut her up with a kiss of her own that turned some heads.

Barbara leaned on in towards Harry and kissed him once more. He could tell that all of the girls were rather pleased by this development and he couldn't blame them at all.

* * *

 

Across the city, William Earle sat in his extremely posh looking office at the LuthorCorp building in Gotham City. The building itself was nowhere near as large as the RAO or Wayne Enterprises towers. That was more due to the fact that LuthorCorp didn't have as big of a presence on the east coast as it did in the Midwest.

Regardless of that fact, it was still a fairly nice, if old, building. It was proven by the nice and office that Earle was given.

He was just wrapping up a conversation with Roland Daggett. "Yes, Roland, I agree, the explosion of the Distribution Center has set back…."

A knock on the door has interrupted him. Earle pulled a face. "Just one second….come in."

His personal assistant stepped inside. She knew better not to disturb him unless there was something important going on. Earle peered over the edge of his glasses towards her. "What's wrong?"

"Ms. Luthor is here to speak with you," the personal assistant told him. "And she doesn't seem rather inclined to wait."

Earle looked like someone punched him in the stomach. He got on the phone to continue the conversation with Daggett. "I need to run, but we're still on for dinner a couple of nights from now."

"Yes," Roland agreed. "We can further talk business there."

It was right as he hung up the phone with a click that Alexa stepped into the room dressed in a female business suit that fit her like a glove. A smartly dressed Tess followed her in tow. Most interesting is that behind the two of them was an attractive six foot tall blonde built like an Amazon. She wore a pair of sunglasses and dressed in a black dress suit that you would expect a bodyguard to have on.

Earle was rather annoyed by the disruption, although he was savvy enough not to let it show. Especially considering the last time someone pissed Alexa off, she ripped into him so badly that he went home crying like a little bitch. She emasculated that person in front of the entire office staff and made him feel worthless.

"I wasn't expecting to see you today, Ms. Luthor," Earle said in a polite voice. "So what can I do for you?"

Alexa raised her eyebrow. She was blunt in her response. "You can start by clearing your stuff out of this office and from this point forward, I'll be taking it over so I can function properly as Director of East Coast Operation."

Earle responded to this by looking like he sucked down an extreme sour lemon. "I thought….I thought that you were going to work from your apartment."

Tess couldn't help but respond with a brief snort. Alexa crossed her arms underneath her breasts and stared forward. "Things have changed and when I first came to Gotham, I merely wanted to get a look at the lay of the land. My apartment served my purposes just fine in that regard."

Alexa allowed that to sink in. Earle didn't look too happy about not getting his way. Quite frankly, Alexa didn't care about this man not being happy. His happiness was meaningless to her as far as she was concerned.

"Now that I've done so, I'm ready to move on and in order to do my job properly, I need to work out of this building," Alexa informed Earle. "To do that, I need an office and I need a space big enough for me and my staff to work out of. After looking at the building's layout closely, I've come to the conclusion that your former office suits my purpose."

Earle couldn't do anything other than nod and act extremely sour. His lips pursed together in frustration.

"I'm taking over this entire floor and you and your staff will be moved down to the floor below," Alexa said. She finished her statement in a matter of fact matter, as if she expected this to be done and be done straight away. It was if she expected this to be a foregone conclusion, since in her mind, it was.

She didn't let him get a word in edgewise. Earle looked about ready to respond.

"And if you don't like it, feel free to bring it up with Lionel," Alexa said. Her arms remained folded underneath her breasts. "Although, I would highly advise not doing that, because it makes you look like a whiny bitch and if there's one thing he doesn't like, it's people who bitch and moan about things."

Earle nodded his head in response, practically swallowing his protest. He had no choice, but to gather up his things and move on in his life.

* * *

 

Outside of the Kent Farm in Smallville, Martha and Marie sat in the front seat of Martha's vehicle as she pulled up towards the drive. The environment looked very much like a winter blunderland, although things could get far worse.

There were a couple of farmhands that were puttering around the area of the far, although they were mostly doing some kind of maintenance work as they were getting prepared to the stretch.

Martha noticed that Jonathan's truck appeared to be missing and Joe Clark was there. He was showing a very large, and rather intimidating, young man in his late teens. He was most certainly a young man that would stand out in a crowd easily. She shrugged her shoulders and shook things off. She wasn't going to be one that was going to judge a person until she honestly gets to know them.

She pulled her way into her parking spot, turned off the car, and stepped out. Both of them were a bit more relaxed now that they were warm and had something to eat.

Martha left the car and a bit tentatively, Marie followed her. She was a bit wary, but the teenage girl looked around to see how nice everything looked around these parts. She couldn't really help but be impressed; no one could really when you thought about it.

Martha moved the trunk to the vehicle and went to get the groceries out. She stopped and paused and her gaze fell on a distracted Marie. "Do you think that you could give me a hand, dear, please?"

Marie shook herself out of her daze and gave her a soft smile. "I'd be happy to give you a hand."

Marie walked over and Martha handed her the groceries that had already been taken out of the car. She stopped when they almost made contact.

"Is there something wrong, dear?" Martha asked.

Marie shook her head. "No, you didn't do anything wrong, it's just….I don't like being touched."

The girl casually slipped on a pair of leather gloves onto each hand. Martha looked at her with a concerned look. "It's fine."

Martha took the rest of the bags out of the car and closed the trunk. After she locked it, she made sure to lead Marie all the way towards the house.

The two of them got inside safely, and just in time, given that there seemed to be another snow storm kicking up.

"Where are you from, Marie?" Martha asked, trying to make conversation with the girl.

"I….I grew up in a Hippie Commune in Mississippi with my parents, until my Mother disappeared," Marie replied. She frowned when she went down memory lane. Once the groceries were put away, Martha offered her a seat, which Marie graciously took. "After my mother left, we moved into my aunt's house."

Marie sighed and shook her head, before she returned to her own thoughts.

"I…didn't really get along with my Aunt and my father was never around," Marie admitted. "So, I ran away….and then there was some trouble with a boy, and I ended up running again."

Marie was happy that Martha didn't really question things too much. Rather she spoke in an extremely calm tone. She just listened to her.

"And you never stopped running, did you?" Martha asked.

Marie swallowed the lump in her throat and nodded her head. "Yes, I never stopped running."

Martha had the distinct impression that the girl was hiding something. It was one of those things that as a mother, she just had to figure that out. She wasn't about to call the girl out on that, at least not there.

"Just found my way here, I guess, drifted onto this place," Marie said. "Seems like a nice town."

"It really is," Martha said. She gave the girl a warm smile which she nervously returned.

Marie slowly slipped off her jacket and gave a long sigh. Martha frowned when she looked at the jacket and couldn't help but notice how threadbare and beat up it looks. In actuality, all over her clothes pretty much looked like the same lines. They looked like as if they were barely holding together.

Martha frowned. She knew that Claire's clothes wouldn't be big enough for her. However, she's around the same size that Martha is at this point in time and she's got some old clothes that she was going to give to good will, but hadn't gotten around to doing so just yet.

"Would you mind chopping up these vegetables, while I rush upstairs for a moment?" Martha asked.

Not wanting to be rude, Marie nodded in response. "Yeah, I'd be happy to."

She did help her mother and aunt cook in the past. Martha turned around and left the rogue girl briefly to her own devices.

It turned out that Marie was not alone for that long. An out of breath Claire stumbled her way into the kitchen, fresh after running home after school through the snow. She stopped short of the kitchen. "Mom, I'm home!"

That sound caused Marie to jump up and nearly cut her finger since she wasn't expecting it.

Claire was equally surprised by her yelp, as the girl was by her yell. The dark haired girl's eyes shifted and things slowly descended into an awkward silence between the two of them.

"Hello," Claire said with a polite smile. "My name is Claire Kent, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"My name's Marie," Marie said.

"Do you know where my mother is?" Claire asked her.

"Yeah, she had to go upstairs for something, she should come down any minute," Marie informed Claire. "She asked me to help her get some things ready for dinner."

"Do you want any help with that?" Claire asked.

Marie looked at the younger girl and shrugged nonchalantly. "Sure, that sounds find, if you want to."

The two girls set about cutting the vegetables when they waited for Martha to join them.

"So, you must be Martha's daughter," Marie said.

"Yeah, I am," Claire said. She frowned and looked at the girl's clothes. "You sure you aren't cold in that?"

"I'm fine," Marie said, but she shivered.

"Okay, if you say so," Claire stated. She helped Marie finishing chopping up the vegetables. "How did you end up meeting my Mom, anyway?"

"I was walking….I was walking across the side of the road…when your mother pulled up and asked me if I needed a ride," Marie said. Her tone was a bit nervous for some reason. Claire's sunny personality threw her off as well. She seemed like a real girl scout. "She got me something to eat and everything."

Marie didn't want to say anything, but it was way too long since she had a chance to eat a good, square meal.

"Yeah, my mom is great like that," Claire said with pride dripping from her voice.

Martha came back downstairs at this point, carrying an armful of her old clothes, along with a beat up looking jacket that used to belong to Jonathan. All things considered, it was pretty good shape. She stopped and smiled at the sight of the two girls getting along well.

"What's with the clothes, Mom?' Claire asked her.

Martha smiled. "I noticed that Marie's clothes were looking beaten up, and I had a couple of old things that I thought that would fit her sitting in the closet, so I dug them out."

Marie's eyes looked at her. "It is…"

"No trouble at all," Martha replied with a smile towards the girl.

Marie's lips curled into a smile and she made her way over to see what she could make of the clothes and try them on.

* * *

 

A limo just pulled up at an abandoned warehouse within the Amusement Mile area of Gotham, an area that was firmly in front of the Penguin's control. The foul bird himself stood in front of the limo, with Tracey to his right and Dudley to his left. Several of his goons were spread about around the area to provide security.

He waited for someone, and not too patiently. Cobblepot fiddled with the handle of his umbrella. Tracey was talking to someone on a headset about business, while Dudley is sending several text messages back and forth in a rapid fire fashion over the phone.

Cobblepot was getting more and more impatient with every tick of the clock. He slapped the phone out of Dudley's hand.

"What did you do that for?" Dudley asked.

"Because, I felt like it," Cobblepot snapped. He was getting extremely agitated and for good reason. Dudley had been around long enough know not to question this any further than he did. "Are you going to do something about it?"

Dudley kept his jaw set and he didn't speak at all.

"Now, that I've got your attention, what's the status of the new Iceberg Lounge?" Oswald demanded.

Dudley bent over to pick the phone. "It's moving forward, we've got a new sight, and the building supplies have been bought out of Joseph Dagget's construction company. It's all ready to go, but we're just waiting for the insurance payment to come through. Until it does, we're on a standby."

"Tracey, what's going on with that?" Cobblepot asked.

He was left waiting and waiting and waiting some more for her to finish her conversation on the headset.

"TRACEY!" Cobblepot yelled more forcefully.

"Yes, what is it, Ozzie," she commented in a business like tone.

"What is the status of the insurance…?"

He was stopped by the arrival of their guest. A little late to be honest, but she was there in the flesh and a lot of flesh at that.

Magpie stood there dressed in her usual outfit, although with the weather, she added a leather trench coat complete with a feathered.

"Well, well, such a fetching young woman here tonight," Oswald commented, with a leer over the woman. He gave her a nice visual undressing with his eyes. "Why don't you come into my limo and you can warm up a tad? After all, you don't want to catch a…chest cold."

Oswald's gaze leered to a certain part when he stated this. Tracey wrinkled her nose up in response and Dudley looked fairly amused.

"I prefer to conduct my business, you did promise me payments," Magpie said. Her attention span was not unlimited and the promise of her shiny not being delivered promptly made her very agitated.

"If you insist, darling," Cobblepot commented. "Do you have the item in question?"

"Yes, I have it," Magpie said. She held her hands on the case and seductively ran her fingers down the case.

"Then show me the goods, sweetheart," Cobblepot squawked.

Magpie walked over and placed the case containing the egg down upon the hood of the limo. She slowly snapped it open and stepped back with a flourish akin to a Vegas showgirl.

Cobblepot's eyes widened and seeing was believing as he saw the Crystal Egg of Y'ggphu Soggoth resting there in front of him.

"Now, I've shown you mine, it's time to show me yours," Magpie demanded. Her tone was breathy, but at the same time, it was dangerous.

"One moment, I need to make sure that it's not a forgery," Cobblepot said.

"How dare you assume that…?"

"Wasn't talking about you darling, if the collector put a fake on display, than this entire transaction is useless," Cobblepot said. He fished out a jeweler's eye lope to scan over the properly. He inspected in calmly. "Yes, yes, it's real, it's very real."

Cobblepot's lips curled into a smile.

"I do wonder why you would even sell it," Cobblepot replied. "I was under the impression that you were a collector of shiny things and this is very shiny."

"It is rather shiny," Magpie admitted in a wistful tone. "But considering who that I took it from, it isn't really too smart for me to hold it on any longer."

She gave the egg one last parting glance. It glinted in her eyes.

"Besides, with the amount of money that you're giving to me, I can buy a whole lot of shiny things to replace it," Magpie continued in her most excited manner. Her eyes glinted with intrigued and excitement.

Penguin laughed, he had to admit that he liked the woman's rather mercenary attitude. He turned to the Walrus. "Get the case out of the trunk, my old boy."

The Walrus obeyed his godfather's words and placed a large metal briefcase down next to the egg. Tracey moved forward to do her duty and unlock it to reveal the stacks of bills inside.

Magpie looked at the bills. While they weren't nowhere near as shiny as the egg, that was still a lot of cash. She let out a rather excited sound of approval.

The deal was not sealed, as the lights in the warehouse where they entered went completely out. There is a sound of a scuffle in the background and the sound fall silent.

The lights came back and Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu stood across from the Penguin and the Walrus. The Penguin's men were down on the ground and that caused the foul bird to let out a surprised squawk.

"What can I do for your?" the Penguin asked, being the master of bullshit that he was. He sounded pissed off.

"You can start by returning our property to us and hand over the trollop that had the audacity to steal it," Edgar responded.

Penguin was about ready to respond. He was interrupted by Tracey tapping him on the shoulder.

"Sir, Magpie, is gone, sir," Tracey stated urgently. "And the egg and the money are both gone."

Needless to say, that piece of news sparked a shit storm when they realized what Magpie had done.

* * *

 

Helena Sandsmark leaned over her desk, finishing some paperwork in her office at Gotham University, fresh off of her class that afternoon. Diana was with her. Not only did she do the work in the Museum, but also, Diana served as her teaching assistant.

"The exhibit we want to put out is in question," Helena informed Diana. "The theft has caused the museum to be stalled and we're not sure if we can get it ready for the end of the month regardless."

"I'm sure that it could be fine," Diana said. She spoke to Helena in a reassuring tone of voice. She helped Helena mark her papers. This tedious process went a lot faster when two people worked on it. "Once the police complete their initial investigation, things should go smoothly. And beside the exhibit is on the separate end of the museum for the one that is stolen, and we could be quite comfortable and hopefully not get in the way."

"I'm sure that you're right, Diana," Helena said. It was a shame, a couple of greedy thieves wanted to get their hands on the exhibits that they worked so hard to get out.

The two of them sat and marked some more papers in silence. Helena decided to shift topics to her new favorite subject.

"What's Harry up to tonight?" Helena asked.

"I'm not completely certain," Diana muttered. She racked her brain and it then came to her in a flourish of inspiration. "I think that he's out with Barbara and a couple of her friends that came to visit from out of town. As far as I know anyway, but even though that I act as his bodyguard from time to time, I'm not his keeper."

"Oh, yes, right," Helena said. Her cheeks grew a bit flushed when she looked embarrassed. She shook her head and calmed down.

"But it would be easy enough to check in any event, because he never ignores a call from me," Diana added. "Or Kara or Karen or Faora for that matter…but you seem to be pretty obsessed with what he gets up to lately."

Helena was about to sputter out something indignantly, but she never quite found the means to do so.

"This isn't the first time you asked this question, and in fact you act like a love stuck teenager with a crush."

That particular statement caused Helena to grow a bit red. "I can't really help it….it's been a long time since I was romantically involved with someone and now that I'm involved with Harry….it makes me feel like I'm a teenager again."

Diana closed the distance between her and Helena. "I understand….believe me I do."

"You do?"

Helena was embraced in a hug by her and that caused her to return the hug. Taking things a step further, Diana pressed her lips lightly onto Helena's and that caused her mind to start racing.

"Yes, and I'm happy to call you sister," Diana said. Helena looked at her and smiled, trying not to look too pleased with herself, even though it was hard not to. "So, I'm finished with my paperwork. If you want me to stick around, I can….."

"Actually, I'm pretty much done myself as well," Helena said. "And now, I'm just done, so I won't be staying too much longer."

"Do you want me to escort you to your parking spot?" Diana asked her.

"Thoughtful of you, but your parking spot is on the other side of the building and besides….I wanted to call Cassie first to let her know that I'm on my way home," Helena informed her. Diana nodded in response and slipped on her leather jacket and bid her a goodnight.

Helena walked over to make a quick phone call. "Cassie…..I'm on my way home, I'll be there soon, love you, bye."

Helena gathered up her things and locked her office. She prepared to go down the hallway to her car, but her cellphone rang.

Frowning, Helena fished it out of her purse. "Hello?"

"Helena, it's me," Professor McElroy said. "Something's come up and it's rather important."

"Are you okay, William?" Helena asked. "You sound a bit off…..is everything alright?"

"It's not something that I can safely talk about over the phone," he replied after a long pause. There was a long pause when he spoke. "I swear I'll explain everything when I get there."

"Okay, I'll see you in a little bit."

* * *

**To Be Continued on 2/22/2015.**


	85. Chapter 85

**Chapter Eighty-Five: Fall of Olympus Part Four.**

* * *

 

Doctor Helena Sandsmark sat behind of the wheel of her rather nice nineteen ninety-seven BMW 750i. She was just pulling out of the parking lot and head off to the location that Professor McElroy told her to meet her.

Once she was safely out of the parking lot and onto the road, Helena picked out her cell phone and dialed the number. She placed it to her ear and waited.

"Hello?" Diana asked over the other end of the phone.

"Hello, Diana," Helena said with a smile. "Something came up suddenly, and I need to meet Professor McElroy. I'm not sure how long it's going to take, but could you do me a favor and head over to my place to look after Cassie until I can get home? If that isn't too much of a problem, that is."

Diana waved that off with her tone of voice. "No trouble at all. Is everything okay?"

Helena racked her brain for some thoughts and she shook her head. She thought long and hard about the conversation that she had with Professor McElroy for a long moment. "I'm not quite certain. He seemed a bit shaky on the other end of the line."

Diana was about to say something, but Helena stepped over her words calmly.

"That really isn't that too uncommon of behavior because of him, he's always had a sharp mind," Helena mused. She made a sharp turn and continued to talk to Diana. "But after the accident, it's just him fitting into the absent minded professor category. He's just acting pretty much in character."

"Yes," Diana said, nodding. She worked with Helena for the past year and a half, and she was in close proximity with Professor McElroy. So she understood what he was saying. "I understand what you're saying. I'm on my way to pick up Donna from the mall and when I get there, I'll head over to your place."

"Thank you," Helena said graciously. "When I'm done, I'll meet you over there, but I'm really not sure how long that this is going to take."

Now that Diana was taken care of, Helena switched tracts and call Cassie. She figured that it would be best to let her know that Diana and Donna were coming over to look after her so she didn't have any nasty surprises. Helena dialed the number and waited.

The phone rang and rang and rang and rang. Helena was starting to get a bit impatient by the entire process of waiting. She tried not to lose her patience, especially when she was driving. "Come on, Cassie, pick up."

After another ring, Cassie finally answered the found. "Hello."

She sounded distinctly out of breathe when she picked up the phone.

"Why do you sound so out of breath?" Helena asked.

"Well, I just got out of the shower, and since it's so cold out and I didn't want to track the water out of the house, I needed to dry off first, and when I was done doing that, I went to get the phone upstairs," Cassie rambled without catching her breath. "I found out that the handset wasn't in the cradle, so I had to run downstairs to do it, but I ended up tripping into the counter and then….."

"Are you okay?" Helena asked in a concerned voice, cutting her daughter off.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Cassie said. The girl seemed to catch her breath long enough to answer the question. "Where are you anyway? You should be home by now."

"Something came up and I need to meet someone from work," Helena informed her daughter. That caused Cassie to let out an extremely disappointed whine and it was obvious why. Helena had been rather busy lately and she hadn't had nearly as much time to spend with her daughter as she would have liked. "I'm sorry, baby."

"I know," Cassie muttered. Her voice was shaky, but even at the same time. "You…you have responsibilities, I know."

"Donna and Diana are coming over to look after you until I get home," Helena informed her daughter.

Helena could almost hear the indistinct tone in her daughter's voice when she spoke. "Mom, I don't need a babysitter….wait did you say Donna and Diana?"

"Yes, I did," Helena said. She sounded almost amused by the words that her daughter spoke.

"I guess that would be fine," Cassie said, trying to play it cool. She failed, but at least she tried. "I mean, I don't really need a babysitter, but given that Diana and Donna will come over, I think that is kind of cool."

Helena chuckled in amused exasperation and shook her head. "Behave, I love you, and I'll be home as soon as my business wraps up."

"Okay, love you too," Cassie said. She was trying to play it cool and not act too overwhelmed that Diana and Donna were coming over. Even if her excitement was about ready to burst over and she was bouncing up and down on her heels.

Helena reached the location where she was supposed to meet Professor McElroy. It was a small office building near one of the bridges that lead from New Gotham into Old Gotham.

She saw the Professor standing near the front entrance of the building. Helena parked her car near the entrance nearby and got out.

He did seem to be a bit out of it.

"Is everything okay?" she called over towards him.

He shook his head when he looked over her with a smile. "Everything's fine, it's just that the break in, in the museum disrupted my work and it's going to take several days to break up the lost momentum."

Helena nodded, she was discussing the same thing with Diana a bit earlier. She decided that it would be best to get down to business.

"What did you want to see me about?" she asked him.

He paused long enough to consider her question for a moment. "I had a meeting with a private collector to do a consulting regarding an artifact that had been in his family's possession for several years. It's quite the marvelous piece, but the owner thought that it was Egyptian."

"You disagree, then," Helena said. McElroy nodded in response.

"I think that it may be Greek or Roman, but I cannot be for certain, since neither of my areas are of my particular expertise," he informed her. "I thought that it might be prudent to bring you in to take a look at it and we can split the consultation feel."

Helena nodded her head. So far this made a lot of sense.

"Lead the way," Helena replied.

He did so, leading the way, but stopped. "We're going to have to go to the back entrance since the front doors are locked tightly at five."

They made their way around to the back entrance. He unlocked it and lead her inside.

The moment Helena Sandsmark stepped inside; it felt like a wave of complete serenity washed over her body. Seconds later, she faded completely unconscious.

* * *

 

In the Arkham Ward at Black Gate Prison, Harleen Quinzel was having a conversation with Doctor Jonathan Crane.

Harley frowned, this was not going the way that she intended, but that was just how things went. She was trying to interview him, but it ended up her giving her a lecture.

"Fear doesn't discriminate, my dear, it knows no master, even the boldest, strongest man, knows fear," Crane whispered. He had one of those voices that was creepy and Harley suspected that it was done to add that effect. "There is no such thing as a man without fear. And anyone who claims to be without fear is deluding themselves and is deeply afraid with one thing. It will just take the right moment for that façade to crack. Even beyond the point of a person who acknowledges and strives to deal with their fear."

"Why don't you tell me a bit about your childhood?" Harleen asked. She was trying to stick to the questions on the board. "Most…"

"Yes, most psychosis is derived from some traumatic event a person has had in their childhood and normally within the first ten years of their life," Crane answered. "If you wish to know about my childhood, you might find that I knew fear from an early age. And I learned the effects that it can have on other people. How fear can bring the biggest bully on the block to his knees and turn him into a whimpering little girl."

"You're not having any problems with people who might…"

"They fear what I might do to them," Crane answered. "And fear is what drives me, it motivates them."

Harley continued to go through the checklist. He did answer the questions, in a roundabout way.

"And we're done for this evening," Harleen said.

"Are you afraid of what you might learn?" Crane asked.

"No, we're just done with the checklist, that's all," she informed him. She tried not to lose her cool, but if she was trying not to lose her cool, then why was she sweating so badly.

"The greatest fear of all is what we learn about ourselves," Crane commented wistfully. The woman was gone, but Crane was still in analytical mode. "Such a lovely girl, can't help, but be curious to see what will happen when her mind snaps."

Crane stretched his legs on the cot in his cell and after a long beat, the door of his cell opened. An intimidating African American guard stepped into the cell. Crane looked up at him with mild indifference.

"Alberto Falcone sends his regards."

* * *

 

Across the town in the Amusement Mile district of Old Gotham, there was a very odd, if not distinguished group of individuals. Oswald Cobblepot, better known as the Penguin was there. Dudley Dursley, better known as the Walrus, joined them and Tracey Buxton sat with them. The duo of Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu spread out through the office, sitting on the chairs calmly.

Things were a bit tense earlier. Edgar leaned towards to the Penguin and his crew. "I think that we all got off on the wrong foot."

The Walrus snorted, but the Penguin gave him one of those looks and that caused him to shut up immediately.

"Yes, we all got off on the wrong foot," the Penguin answered. "We had guns pointed at each other, but that is all in the past yet. We should all focus on a common goal, namely that trollop that stole from both of our sides."

Magpie took off with the Crystal Egg of Y'gphu-Soggoth and the Penguin's money.

"Since we're all in a bind, there's no need for us to be bitter with each other," Penguin informed both sides. "Would you care for a drink or a cigar, perhaps? Only the finest imported here, you see."

The Penguin saw himself as a man of high class and sophistication. Edgar and Chang-Tzu exchanged a look with each other that indicated that no matter what image that he projected, he was not turning out too favorable.

"Yes, I would have a drink," Chang-Tzu agreed. It would be unwise to not be polite, given that they needed to work together.

"A cigar," Edgar confirmed. "I'm trying to cut back on the drinks."

Both of them had to admit that they were both good and it was a result of money well spent on the item.

"Let's cut to the chase," Edgar said. "That trollop has something that we both want. I eggspect that we can come to an agreement."

"I wish to offer you men a deal, to purchase the egg from you when we reacquire it," Penguin replied. "I will pay three times the price that I was going to pay Magpie."

"A generous offer, my friend, but one that I'm going to have to decline," Edgar said. His cousin nodded in response.

"Yes, we do have our own plans for the egg, it's far more valuable than to just give it away," Chang-Tzu continued. "It's not about the money though, it's about something that we've craved for an extremely long time."

Dudley was playing with his Gameboy and not really paying too much attention to the conversation at hand. He couldn't help but notice that particular tidbit and butted his way into the conversation. "What plans?"

"Yes, I'm curious as well what plans you have regarding this," Tracey added. "I'm not sure if we should trust him, continuing you might try and pull a fast one on the boss."

Chang-Tzu was in the opinion that women should be seen in the kitchen and in the bedroom, and not heard. Therefore, this particular intrusion did not go over so well for him. "Shut your mouth you insipid little girl."

Oyyy, you can't talk to me like that!" Tracey yelled. She turned to the Penguin. "You can't talk to me like that! Ozzie, tell him that he can't talk to me like that!"

Dudley became upset. He did have a bit of a thing for Tracey and was more upset because she was upset. Like the thug that he was, he bounced up to his feet and rushed Chang-Tzu.

What happened next was done in a blur. Chang-Tzu did the Kung-Fu that he does so well and ended up nailing him right in several pressure points in order to disable him. The Martial Artist then threw Dudley through an extremely expensive coffee table with a take down.

He maintained the grip on his arm and squeezed it. Before he could go in for any kind of kill, there was a large click of a gun being cocked behind him. "Back off!"

Chang looked up and saw that Cobblepot had an extremely large gun pointed at him from where he sat on a nearby desk. He blinked at the sight. He was well aware that despite his numerous flaws that the Penguin is a very good shot and there is no way he could miss from this short of distance.

He released the Walrus and threw his hands up in response. He stepped back.

Edgar watched in the shadows, keeping away from the action. He watched it with a look of glee in his eyes, and had to stop short of egging pretty much everyone on for his own entertainment.

Now, that bit of drama was out of the way, Cobblepot spun around. His ugly stare turned towards Tracey, who was helping Dudley off of the floor. "Shut up, the both of you!" I don't want to hear another peep out of you for the rest of the evening."

She let out another whine, but otherwise did what they told.

"Despite their boneheaded way of making their point, they do have a point," Cobblepot said. He stroked his chin. "I'm a bit curious about what you're planning to do with the egg."

He looked serious and the two cousins exchanged a searching look with each other.

"It wouldn't hurt to offer him a bit of reassurance, now would it?" Edgar asked. Chang shook his head in response. "It's nothing that will have a negative effect on your operations. But, until we have the egg and another item we cannot move on with our plan."

Cobblepot nodded slowly. That made a lot of sense.

"And now we should get along with the business of reacquiring our stolen property," Edgar concluded.

* * *

 

Harry returned home after he finished having dinner with Reilly, Gwen, and Barbara. Gwen and Reilly were going to stay in the Penthouse during their time in Gotham.

It had been an extremely long day for Harry so far. He headed off to bed after making out with Barbara and making her cum. Reilly and Gwen were staying in Barbara's room for the evening and Barbara crashed out in his.

The moment Harry's head hit the pillow he was out like the light. He woke up in what appeared to be some kind of Limbo dimension or Astral Plane. It wasn't where he needed to be right now. It threw him completely off.

Harry stood on a large floating rock that seemed to be defying gravity, along with several other floating rocks of various sizes, shapes, and forms. This was a rather interesting and new experience for him, or so it seemed.

He looked for the mysterious dream girl from a while back, but didn't find her. The goddesses or Ladies Death weren't around either. That meant that he wasn't brought here for a Booty Call, which did happen a fair bit.

Harry listened and he heard a very familiar sound. He couldn't identify it at first, but the further he got towards it, the more that he recognized it. The Phoenix Song rang in the distance. He headed off in the direction where it was coming from.

His sense of direction seemed to be off. Harry shook his head trying to keep his head on his shoulders. The more he traveled across plane, he could see some more flashes in the distance. It settled on several different women with bright red hair and green eyes. All of whom that looked like they could be twins and a couple resembled his mother.

At least they resembled Lily at first glance, although there were numerous differences between them that caught him off guard. It becomes quickly clear though that they were several different versions of the same woman.

The details were extremely hard to make out as well.

Harry arrived at the end of the road. He saw a girl with red hair and green eyes that appeared to be eight years old. She was not alone, as there was a sixteen year old version of the girl and a twenty one year old version standing next to her.

The eight year old version of the girl stepped forward to meet him with a morose expression dancing on her face.

"Things have changed."

The sixteen year old version of the girl stepped forward and smiled. "Everything has changed."

The sixteen year old version stepped towards the eight year old girl and they merged with each other.

"You must help you, you're the only one that can," the twenty year old version of the girl said, and she merged with the other two.

She stared at Harry and smiled.

With this message delivered, Harry woke up with a start, back in his bed. It was almost like he had never left. He took a moment to clear his head. To say his head was buzzing would be an understatement.

Several hours had passed, which was odd given that he was in that place for a short time.

With great difficulty, Harry untangled himself from Barbara. This was not done easily, and she let out a great whine of protest, before finally and reluctantly letting him go.

While it was pretty early, Harry didn't feel too particularly tired. He sat on the edge of his bed and contemplated what he wanted to do. He decided that it would be the best to get a head start on his day. A shower seemed like a pretty good idea and he headed to the bathroom to do exactly that.

He turned it to high, to a temperature that would scald most people, and then stepped inside. He closed his eyes and stuck his head under the faucet. He let out a sigh of relief since the water felt pretty good and he was pretty tense.

Harry let out a sigh of pleasure when a pair of soft, but fairly strong, hands started to wash and massage his neck and shoulders.

A pair of slender hands started to wash his legs as well, starting with his ankles. Another pair of hands started to wash his abdominal region. Their efforts felt heavenly and they worked over Harry's body.

Harry opened his eyes to see who decided to step into the shower with him. Harry is rather surprised to see that it was a trio of goddesses. Athena was blonde at the moment. Aphrodite had taken on the form of the red haired and green eyed girl from his dreams, and Artemis looked to be a sixteen year old version of Diana or maybe a slightly older Lyta. It was pretty hard to tell from this angle.

"Hello, my love," Aphrodite purred when she ran her hands all over her. It was obvious that even through the steam, the three beautiful goddesses were nude. "It's a shame that we got you so clean first, because we're just going to have to get you dirty again."

Her hands worked down his abdominal region and cupped his crotch lovingly. The other two pressed against his back.

"I'm certain that you're okay with this, aren't you?" Aphrodite whispered in his ear.

"Yes," Harry agreed. She got up to her feet and kissed Harry firmly on the lips, her tongue invading his mouth.

Things proved to get a bit more intense by each tick of the clock, as the three goddesses pampered their high priest. It was about to get steamy and it wasn't directly from the shower either.

Aphrodite ran her hands down Harry's wet body. Her slick hand made her way down his body. She felt the muscles of their high breast and she smiled. Her hand wrapped around his throbbing tool.

Harry groaned, Aprhodite's slick hand felt sinfully good wrapped around his tool and pumping it greedily. He could feel his cum churn to the base of his cock when she kept working him over. He closed his eyes and just enjoyed the ride. Her slick hand continued to work him over pumping her hand up and down on him.

Athena licked him from behind the air and then stepped forward. She pushed Artemis against the shower and playfully pushed her tongue into her mouth, kissing her in the most intense away.

"Take me, lover," Aphrodite demanded hotly. Her soft pussy lips wrapped around Harry's tool. "I've had all of the foreplay that I want and…..oh yes, like that."

She moaned when his tool went deep into her body. Every single nerve ending on her body exploded into a flurry of pleasure. His hands ran through her hair and caused her to close her eyes.

"Yes, I always love this body," Harry said lustfully.

The love goddess felt Harry's tool going into her. She felt him pump into her when he pushed her against the shower. Her perfect firm thighs wrapped around him.

"Yes, oh yes," she whimpered. She ran her hands around his neck.

Aphrodite could feel her hips push towards him. Her orgasm was about ready to burst forward. His tool buried deep in between her hot thighs when he continued to work into her.

She squealed when he pinched her ass.

"You like that, my goddess," Harry commented hungrily. He licked her nipples.

She nodded when she felt his hands run over her legs. "Touch me in all of the right places, that's it."

She allowed an orgasm to flow through. Harry held her back and kissed her hard. Her tongue wrestled with his.

Harry loved how much her soft, tight pussy worked him over. She heated up just enough. Her pussy grew snug the more that he worked into her.

"Going to make you pop, yet," she told him cockily. His tongue brushed against her stiff nipple and he played with it.

"Working on it right about now," Harry groaned. He felt her slick walls continue to caress him when he worked in and out of her.

Athena knew that she was next. She rubbed her clit and allowed her fellow goddess to pass Harry off to her.

Harry grabbed her breasts and squeezed them. The Goddess of wisdom moaned, when Artemis got between Aphrodite's legs and licked her.

"That's good spot," the love goddess moaned.

"How about it?" Harry asked. His cock was slick with Aphrodite's juices. His rod slid against her dripping slit. "How do you want it?"

"Inside me," Athena begged him. He rubbed her thighs and teased her. His hands grabbed her ass and he pushed his tongue into her mouth with a sensational kiss.

Harry pushed into her tight cunt. She spread her legs out. Her wet and wild center clamped down onto him.

The goddess grabbed onto Harry's shoulder and wrapped her legs around him to make sure that she didn't slip on the shoulder. He allowed her to spread her legs onto him and bring down her cunt onto him.

Harry groaned when Athena's tight walls closed around him.

"How do you stay so tight?" Harry whispered.

"Perk of being a goddess," she informed him. She brought herself down onto his tool.

Her nerve endings exploded when his cock pushed into her. It touched all of those spots that drove her completely wild. He grabbed onto her ass and clenched it tightly.

Artemis licked the love goddess, paying tribute to her, waiting for her turn. The thought of Har-Zod inside her got her about as wet as it one could get.

"Such an able tongue," Aphrodite mewled. "Lick deeper, take it deep inside me."

Harry plowed himself into Athena one more time. She clenched her hand around his shoulder and held on for the amazing ride.

Athena thought that she would feel her limit right now. He was slowly easing her towards an orgasm. She bit down on her lip.

"No, I want to hear you scream when you have my cock in you," Harry said. He firmly grabbed her hair and looked into her eyes, his forceful stare blasting into her eyes.

Athena's dripping hot cunt clamped around him. She screamed and she was a good screamer. Her orgasm fired through her body. Her tight cunt slid around him when she pushed herself down.

Harry felt her cunt wrap around him like a hot glove. She was made breathless.

"My turn," Artemis said eagerly. She walked towards Harry, swaying her hips when she faced him. She grabbed his throbbing tool and played with him. "Please, I need this, I need you inside me."

"No problem," Harry informed her. He held her hips when he aimed his tool towards her dripping hot opening.

Artemis bit down on her lip. Her virginally tight walls stretched out when Harry entered her. Each inch that entered her tight body caused her body to flow with an orgasmic joy. Her hand wrapped around his arm.

"Yes, that's it," she moaned.

"I'm sure that it is, such a nice and tight body," Harry said. He pumped himself into her. Her tightness clamped around him and milked him.

"I want it all," she begged him.

Aphrodite made her way behind Artemis and inserted her tongue into her ass. That caused the goddess to scream.

Athena crawled her way between Aphrodite's legs and started to lick her. This spurred the love goddess on to higher heights.

Harry held onto her Artemis and pulled almost all the way out of her. He could see her hips push closer towards him.

"Aren't we eager?" Harry asked her. He rubbed his finger and pleasured her pussy. He slid hard into her.

Artemis's wet and eager cunt caressed him. She moaned when he entered her body again. He held her around the hair and forced his tongue into the mouth.

Harry pumped his throbbing tool into her tight cunt. The woman's legs wrapped around his body when she pulled him closer to be inside her and her nails dug into his shoulder. He kept hammering into her.

Artemis was at the edge and she felt immense pleasure. Her dripping hot cunt slid around his tool.

She finally lost her balance and was guided gently down to the ground.

Aphrodite got to her feet with a cocky smirk on her face. She walked over and grabbed Harry around his still throbbing cock.

"Well," she stated, allowing her hair to flip over her face. "I guess that I'm going to have to pick up the slack for these two yet again."

She ran her hand up and down his cock and smiled. She allowed him to enter her.

Harry grabbed Aphrodite and the two of them now sunk onto a bed which appeared in their midst. Her hot lips engulfed his throbbing tool. It felt like pure heaven to be engulfed in this nice sheath of womanhood.

"Just relax, baby, and let me have my fun," Aphrodite informed him. She started to ride him hard.

"Oh, I think that we're going to have plenty of fun," Harry said. He reached around and grabbed her breasts. He started to squeeze and fondle them. "Both of us."

"Oh yes, yes, we're both going to have a lot of fun," Aphrodite agreed when she kept bouncing up and down on his mighty rod. Her hot lips caressed around him when she nearly pulled herself up. She made sure that her hot lips wrapped around his tool.

The goddess balanced herself on Harry's chest and rode him hard. Her nice breasts swayed before him. He touched her nipples and got her squealing. The love goddess bit down on her lip when she pushed herself deep down onto him. Her walls clenched when she kept riding him. Her hot wetness tightened around him when she kept rocking herself up and down on him.

"Make me feel that, oh yes, baby, make me feel that," she told him.

Aphrodite could feel him into her. She felt his throbbing cock enter her body. His hands touched pretty much every inch of her body. She was about ready to feel him finish her off. Her wet walls caressed his manhood when he entered her from beneath.

"Yes, oh yes, oh baby," she whimpered.

"I'm about ready to cum," Harry warned her. Her hips tightened around him when she rocked herself up and down.

"Yes, give me your gift," she begged him.

The other two goddesses were about to join them in the bedroom that Aphrodite teleported them into. Aphrodite rode Harry's cock like a cowgirl. Her hot pussy clenched him when she brought herself down onto them.

Both of them came together. It felt extremely blissful when the explosion of pleasure struck both of them.

Aphrodite wrapped her legs around Harry's waist and laid her head on his shoulder when she relaxed. Athena's head was rested in Harry's lap and Artemis placed herself on the other side.

"This has been an interesting night," Athena concluded. She could feel Harry's hands slowly playing with her blonde hair.

"Your dreams seem to be a harbinger of things to come," Aphrodite said.

Harry nodded in response, that always did seem to be the case. His dreams showed a lot about the future that was to come.

"So, I wonder what this was a sign for," Harry said.

"You'll find out too soon," Aphrodite informed him. "There's still plenty of time, and I think that I want another helping."

She nudged Athena out of the way and the Goddess of Wisdom pouted. Aphrodite slunk her way down towards Harry.

Her hot mouth brought Harry straight to heaven one more time. He closed his eyes and enjoyed her.

* * *

 

Magpie arrived in one of the rougher parts of Old Gotham, lugging two large cases in tow. Despite the extra weight, she was able to move quickly from roof top to roof top, away from her meeting with Cobblepot.

She didn't regret her impulsive decision to take both the shiny and the money. It was an opportunity that was presented for her, so she would be a fool not to take it.

But, despite the fact that she was of questionable sanity, it was likely that she pissed off the Penguin as a result.

' _Going to need to make myself scarce,'_ Magpie thought to herself. _'Or find and buy myself some protection.'_

That was readily available in Gotham if you knew the right people. The problem with that line of thought is that mafia like factions like the Falcones, Maronis, and the Commission did not particularly like the costume set. That left the Red Hood and Black Mask. One of whom was an adrenaline junkie that was too stupid to be afraid of people like the Penguin and the Masterminds of Crime. The other one was currently in an alliance with the Penguin.

There was a chance that he might not give her up if the money was right, but she didn't want to risk the chance he would.

Magpie came to a conclusion. It was best to take a third option, which was to sell the Egg to the other party that was interested in buying it from her. With that done, her costume identity could go into hiding until the heat blows over.

The person wasn't willing to pay her nearly as much as the Penguin did. It was still a nice amount of money, and when you add that onto the money that was already stolen from the Penguin, it was a nice windfall to begin with.

She came to a decision about how to proceed from there and halted her momentum on a roof, with ample amount of cover.

Magpie slipped into the shadows and prepared to make the call without being seen. Reaching into her coat pocket, she pulled out a disposable cell phone and quickly dialed the number.

The phone rang several times. A refined sounding and well-mannered older gentleman answered the phone. "Yes?"

He spoke in a soft spoken and very precise English accent.

"I changed my mind about selling the item to you, and I wonder if you're still interested in it," Magpie commented. "If you are interested in it, it's still available for purchase."

There was a long pause and the person on the other end of the phone offered one word. "Wonderful."

"Where can I meet you for the drop off of the goods?" she asked.

"If it's to your liking, I can meet you at a parking garage close to the old Gotham City library building," the man offered her.

Magpie considered that for a moment. "Hmmm…that would be fine."

She hung up the phone, dropped to the ground, and crushed it underneath her heal. She made her way into the night.

The man on the other end of the room stood in a dimly lit room. There were books upon books on the shelves, it redefined the term stalker cave or man cave. That was if said cave was owned by some insufferable know-it all.

The individual in question sat in an extremely comfortable arm chair. It sat behind a desk that was literally stacked with books, nearly reaching through the ceilings. He was dressed in a manner that would not look out of place in the 19th century, with a brown suit and a hat with thick spectacles. He was a middle aged man and obviously not one that would hold in a fight.

He rose from the chair and made his way carefully to the bookcase from across the room and to the left of him. He reached up to adjust the light on his hat carefully. He quickly scanned the title of the book that he was looking for.

It was an extremely thick and old tome. It was titled The History of Vicente Christoples, the High Priest of Y'ggphu-Soggoth. With a satisfied smirk on his face, the Bookworm pulled the tome off of the shelf and moved back to his desk.

* * *

 

It was around three AM in the morning. Diana was still at the Sandsmark residence with Donna. She frowned, Helena hadn't arrived yet from her meeting with Professor McElroy. That wasn't entirely too uncommon for her though to remain at a location overnight.

What was out of character for her was not to call and inform the person that was looking after Cassie about that fact beforehand.

Diana woke up and was sitting up after feeling the same jolt that Harry felt. After confirming that Harry was okay, she tried to get in touch with Helena several times.

The bond indicated Helena was still alive, but since she was rather new to it, there was no way that she could contact her over it or pinpoint her exact location. Plus, if she was unconscious, it would be hard for her to response.

Diana paced back and forth after she got off of the couch. She carefully considered her options and frowned when she thought about the problem.

' _Jaime,'_ Diana said through the bond.

Jaime was acting as mission support for this evening since both Harry and Barbara took the night off. _'Yes, Diana, how can I help you?'_

' _Can you do me a favor and give me Helena's location based off of the GPS build into her cell phone?'_ Diana asked her.

Jaime already had a pretty good idea what was going through Diana's mind, since she's been pretty active since the moment she woke up. The Potter woman punched the information into the cell phone.

' _This can't be right,'_ Jamie stated in shock.

Diana jumped in, her curiosity getting the better of her. _'What is it, what can't be right?'_

' _Helena's phone says that it's showing her at Arkham,'_ Jaime said. She said it, she saw it, and she honestly didn't believe it.

' _That's far from where she should be though,'_ Kara interjected.

' _Yes, wasn't Arkham closed for about thirty years?'_ Pamela added.

' _Yes, it was,'_ Jaime commented on through the bond link. She frowned when she thought about that. _'Let me check to see if that isn't an error in the tracking somehow.'_

Jaime jumped into looking through the information and she frowned.

' _No, it says the same thing, she's in Arkham island or rather her phone seems to be on Arkham Island,'_ Jaime informed them.

Dinah jumped onto the bond link. _'I'll check things out, but it might take me a while to get there. I'm clear on the other end of the city and I just got caught up in a rash of renewed gang violence. All of the factions are out of hand and I'm neck deep in all of that.'_

' _No, that's fine,'_ Diana said. _'I'll check things out anyway, since I'm closer anyway.'_

Diana got up. She wore only a pair of panties and a t-shirt, which was not really good for her to go out. She moved upstairs to Helena's bedroom and slipped on some clothes.

After she got on a pair of extremely tight leather pants that molded to her ass, Diana moved towards Cassie's bedroom.

Cassie was sleeping on her bed, peacefully. Donna was crashed out on the sleeping bag on the floor.

"Donna, wake up," Diana said gently, stroking her sister's hair.

"Five more minutes, mother," Donna grumbled in a sleepy voice.

Diana leaned down towards her. "I'm not your mother and we don't have five more minutes."

She cupped her hand over Donna's mouth with her left hand and pinched her rear with her right hand. That caused Donna to wake up with a start.

"What is it?" Donna grumbled when she spoke to her sister.

"Helena hasn't called in and she's not answering her cell phone," Diana told her. Donna looked at her and grew somber. "Make sure Cassie gets to school on time."

"Right," Donna said in a groggy voice.

"I'm going to go out and look for her," Diana said.

"Be….be careful then," Donna said. She slipped back into the sleeping back and got back to bed.

Diana shook her head with a smile on her face and an exasperated look to match. She bent down and gave Donna a nice kiss on the top of her head.

She did the same to Cassie, who didn't stir. She crashed into dream land.

With that done, Diana slipped back down stairs. She slipped on the black jacket that Harry had custom made for her as a Christmas present.

The Amazon Princess smiled when she wore a nice black leather jacket, a tight red top, and a pair of extremely tight leather pants that formed around her muscular legs and ass.

' _Could you try to track Helena's movements over the past couple of hours?'_ Diana asked Jaime.

Jaime frowned when she popped on through the bond link. _'I'll see what I can do.'_

* * *

 

A passed out Professor William Omaha McElroy was propped against a wall in Crime Alley. An empty bottle of scotch was resting on the ground next to him and he smelled of scotch as well. It gave off the impression that he was drunk.

He slowly woke up with a groan and a frown appeared on his face. "Where the devil am I?"

McElroy tried to piece together what happened in the back of his mind. There was one thing that he could remember with clarity and that was a knock on his office door before one of the Security guards let inside a very attractive young woman. He could barely remember her features, but if he recalled correctly, her facial features resembled one Helena Sandsmark's. Her hair was blonde, but the distinctive features were there.

A loud thumping passed into the back of the head. He pulled himself to his feet, using the closest wall. A groan passed through his body when he tried to recall the night that was. Apparently the young woman….he couldn't quite remember her name, but it was Greek or Egyptian sounding In origin, wanted him to look over the artifact that he had in his possession.

He did and they had dinner and both had a bit too much to drink. The fractured recollection indicated that things got pretty steamy.

McElroy recalled that he had to beat a hasty retreat when her boyfriend or maybe husband or roommate come home unexpectedly, thus causing him to beat a hasty retreat. He isn't quite certain how he came to be passed out in an alleyway.

Little did he know, those memories were planted in his head, but they were real enough for him to fill in the plants.

McElroy shook off the cobwebs and he smiled when he walked out of the alleyway with a bit of a spring to his steps, humming the "King Tut" tune as done by Steve Martin.

* * *

**To Be Continued February 25th, 2015.**


	86. Fall of Olympus Part Five

**Chapter Eighty-Six: Fall of Olympus Part Five.**

* * *

It was early the next morning, around about four AM or so. Diana recently left the Sandsmark Residence and was on her way to check things with Helena Sandsmark. She was driving her car, the 1969 Dodge Charger that she and Harry restored under this past summer.

She pulled up outside of the locked gate which lead into Arkham Asylum. She encountered a patchy fog, but that wasn't really needed to add to the eerie atmosphere around the hospital. It had a creepy atmosphere in general, after being abandoned after a fire in Nineteen Seventy-Five.

It didn't really help things that Gotham was currently rocked by a storm. And things were made even worse that Arkham was located on a small island between Old and New Gotham, which leaves things pretty exposed to the elements. It was cold, wet, and rather miserable.

Diana didn't want to alert anyone to her presence. She killed the engine and walked the rest of the way. That resulted in her getting soaked by the rain. Thankfully, her leather jacket and pants kept her from becoming too wet, but she did develop a rather nice sheen. She stepped nervously towards the Asylum.

She whipped out her phone and brought up the coordinates that the system was saying that Helena, or at least her phone, was located at currently.

' _That looks to be pretty far in the building,'_ Harry thought to her. After his encounter with the goddesses, he was feeling both out of it at sorts and strangely energized at the same time.

' _I wonder why,'_ Diana thought. She frowned. Perhaps it was just the atmosphere that was around her, but she had a really bad feeling about everything that was going around her. She shivered a couple of times.

' _I guess we'll find out one way or another before too long,'_ Jaime said with a shrug. She was working mission control and trying to run up the blue prints to the building. _'Damn it, these are going to be a lot tougher than I thought they would.'_

' _Why?'_ Diana asked.

Jaime took her calming breath and prepared to inform her. _'They haven't been scanned into any electronic database at this point in time.'_

' _And this place is bad enough as it is, without the storm going on,'_ Diana inputted. She was normally fearless, so you knew that things were insane when the Amazon Princess was starting to feel extremely unnerved when she crossed over the threshold.

' _Yes, and no one has really been around here since things were closed down with a fire back in Seventy Five,'_ Harry reminded them. He paused. _'That's nineteen seventy-five, because with the architecture in Gotham City, you never know. But a lot of patients died because it hadn't been brought properly up to code.'_

' _So what happened to the patients that did survive?'_ Diana asked.

' _The ones that weren't of the violent sort were sent to Gotham General, until they were sent to Ravencroft,'_ Jaime informed them. She chimed on in. _'Was Bethanie's family anyway involved with that particular institution?'_

' _I believe so,'_ Harry confirmed for them. _'And the violent ones were moved to Blackgate and the Arkham Ward was created to house them.'_

' _I want to know something,'_ Jaime said. Harry's response told her that he was all ears, so she dove on in. _'Why didn't they never try and rebuild the place?'_

' _Thomas and Martha Wayne were spearheading a project to do so, but they were murdered before they could really go anywhere,'_ Harry thought. _'The project died with them.'_

Diana frowned. _'I'm honestly surprised that no one tried to pick the project back up.'_

' _Actually, I remember Vicki telling me something,'_ Harry answered. _'There was a political activist by the name of Quincy Sharpe who has been making comments to various people about rebuilding and reopening the place in hopes to be able to drum up some support. But it really isn't going anywhere since people just aren't interested.'_

' _And they likely won't be until it's starting them right in the face,'_ Jaime added. She let out her breath in a long and heaving sigh. _'Well that figures.'_

Diana was paying half attention to the conversation, but she was more focused with tracking down Helena, than she was listening to the conversation. Diana was also on edge since the inside of Arkham was just as creepy as the outside. The fact that most of it was gutted by a fire didn't really help things all that much either.

And when you add in the rain and the wind that was kicking up outside, there was an entirely new creepy factor.

' _I'm surprised that no homeless have taken up shelter here,'_ Diana thought.

' _They'd rather brave the streets of Gotham than Arkham,'_ Harry thought to her.

Jaime chimed in with a couple of words of her own. _'Yes, they believe that it's haunted.'_

Harry gave a long and heaving sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose. _'All things considered and when you factor magic into the equation, it likely is.'_

This was a statement that didn't make Diana feel too much better about the situation that she was currently facing. She shook her head and ignored the gut feeling that something was very wrong.

By this point, she was rather close to where the GPS was saying that Helena's phone was located. She made her way forward extremely carefully in the next room.

She was rather surprised to find herself entering what appeared to be an old chapel. At least that's what she assumed when she sauntered forward. It was extremely hard to tell what was actually here given the state of the face.

There was one thing that was for certain and that Helena and her phone weren't immediately visible. She did notice what appeared to be a slumped over homeless person. His back was slumped against an altar and he was immobile.

Diana took a tentative step forward. She noticed that one of his arms was vexposed and there was needled sticking out of it.

"Hello?" Diana asked him. He didn't respond to the sound of her voice. "Hello?"

She kneeled down to check his vital signs. There were no signs of life coming from this particular individual.

' _Likely, he died of a heroin overdose,'_ Harry thought.

Diana did a quick search of his body and frowned. She located Helena's phone sticking out of his pocket.

This was the evidence that she needed to conclude that Helena was in a lot of trouble. It was obvious why it was being shown as Arkham.

' _If you want, I can come and help you look for her,'_ Harry offered her.

' _Actually, you have an important meeting with Carl Ferris's daughter, Carol, that you can't afford to miss, especially since she flew into Gotham to meet you for it,'_ Karen reminded him. _'And then tonight, you're escorting Juno to the grand opening of Maximilian Zeus's new club.'_

' _It's fine Harry,'_ Diana said, waving off his apologies. She thought that she was perfectly capable of doing this on her own.

It turned out to be a dead end and it put her back to square one.

' _We should try and use the GPS to try and find the last location that Helena spent any length of time at,'_ Diana suggested to them.

' _Yeah, and we should also contact Sarah and let her know about the body,'_ Harry informed her.

' _Already on it,'_ Jaime commented in a dutiful voice.

* * *

On the other end of Gotham, there was a guard with a name tag that read Phil B. on it. He was a scruffy looking man with dark hair that looked like a bit of a punk. He was making his way around the Arkham Wing of Blackgate prison to ensure that things are still all kosher.

He was going escort one of the more lucid patients to the showers. In this case, the person in question just happens to be one Jonathan Crane. Phil the security guard made his way to the door and wrapped on it heavily.

"Time to wake up Crane!" he yelled. There was no answer after a long beat. "Crane, get your ass up!"

There was no response again, other than a high pitched groan from the man in the cell.

"I'm going into the cell ," Phil said, after he radioed for control.

He opened the cell and he was in a foul mood when he entered inside. He made his way over to the bed and rather forcefully tried to shove Crane in an attempt to jolt him away. The person in the bed started to shriek in terror which caused Phil to fall backwards in shock.

"What is it?" another guard entered. He was a bulky guard and he smelled of alcohol.

"Doug, take a look at this," Phil stated.

He pulled back the blanket to reveal an African American Gentleman who was one of the guards. He was normally an intimidating man, but he was shaking on the bed in a gibbering wreck.

It went without saying the reason that they looked very grim. Doctor Jonathan Crane, also known as the Scarecrow, escaped from the Arkham Wing at Blackgate Prison.

X-X-X

Helena Sandsmark came to the world of consciousness slowly, but surely. She looked around a lavish looking room. From her vantage point, it looked like something that was out of an ancient Greek temple. It was all marble, gold, and incense.

The really interesting thing was that it was so over the top. Helena would have to see that it felt more like a caricature than an accurate representation. The marble was the wrong type, the gold was gaudy, and the incense stinks. Helena looked around the room, a shocked expression on her face.

Her bewilderment switched to alarm when she realized that she was chain to a bed, and changed out of her clothes and into a Chiton. The only good thing for her nerves was that there was no one in this room when she woke up.

This didn't stay that way for long. Maxie Zeus entered the room, wearing a toga along with a pair of gauntlets. He held the Spear of Zeus in his hand and the Siren followed him in tow.

"Behold before you, the reincarnation of the greatest god of them all, the most powerful of them all, the great and powerful Zeus stands right before you," Maxie declared pompously. His voice was bold, to the point of it being over the top and quite gaudy. He looked down at the woman chained in the bed. "Hera! It is a relief for me to see you and my servant was able to snatch you away from the depths that vile Hades."

Lorelei rolled her eyes and it wasn't just because of Zeus's monologue. The fact that he dared call her a servant caused her great agony, but she needed to keep herself calm. If she wanted to get what she deserved, she needed to stick to the plan.

"We have finally been reunited after so much time has passed," Maxie said. His bold voice continued to boom out his insane monologue and it was obvious that he had lost his mind. "And now that we're finally back together, we can bring together a brand new age of the gods. It's as it should be, with the King of all Gods right next to Hera! What do you have to say to that?"

"I think you're completely crazy and delusional," Helena said. She was terrified out of her mind and even more so because Maxie appeared to be sucking down the crazy pills.

"YOU DARE SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH A BRAZEN MANNER!" Zeus bellowed at the top of his lungs. His guards cowered in the background. "Your words displease me."

Maxie Zeus's gaze locked onto the face of Lorelei. "Fix this, fix this using your powers."

"But, Maxie, I told you that my powers don't work well on women," Lorelei said. "I've explained this to you, several times."

"YOU ARE TO REFER TO ME AS THE GREAT AND POWERFUL ZEUS AND YOU WILL NOT DENY ME!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

Lorelei opened her mouth and was about ready to protest. He clutched the Spear of Zeus in his hands and gritted teeth. He turned towards one of the hapless guards and fired him with the Spear.

Another guard was reduced into ashen remains. Zeus's nostrils flared when he stared down Lorelei.

"Either you fix this or you die," Maxie Zeus stated in a dramatic whisper. He leaned towards her and snarled, his voice raising. "Do it or you die! The choice is yours!"

Lorelei looked fearful at his madness. Her powers do work on him, have in the past. However, they only worked to a certain extent and were inconsistent due to his mental instability and his obsession with Helena. They didn't work perfectly on him as a result.

She was never quite certain the effect that they were going to have. They either work perfectly, he acts befuddled, and he flies into a murderous rage. So, she didn't really want to risk it any more than she had to.

Lorelei chanced a look at Maxie Zeus. It was clear that he made himself clear and he stormed out. That allowed her alone in the room with Helena.

"Why are you working for Zeus?" Helena asked when the younger woman approached her.

Lorelei frowned, as if considering the question. "Maxie saved my life by getting me off of the streets after my mother died of cancer. I owe him big time."

"But is it really worth it?" Helena asked.

"The big oaf is rich and money causes a lot of sins to be forgiven," Lorelei explained to her. "My powers do work on him most of the time, so I can live a life of luxury and ease with very little effort on my part."

She walked over and placed her hand on Helena's hair.

"What happens to you, it doesn't matter to me," she whispered. "You're just a means to the end and my end is to get closer to Harry Potter."

Helena realized that she was dealing with a woman who didn't care about what happened to anyone or who Zeus hurt. She only wanted to get what she wanted. Maxie Zeus's insanity was stirred by her, not that it needed much stalling.

"And now, we're going to have to work together," Lorelei said softly. "And I would order you to stop breathing if you weren't necessary for me to get what I want."

"You said that your powers don't work on women," Helena said.

"I'm going to have to try harder," she whispered in a soothing voice. She stroked Helena's hair, almost mockingly. "For both of our sakes."

Lorelei tried to figure out a way to make this work. It was going to take some doing for her to put Helena underneath her thrall. If she wanted her life of luxury and her life in general to continue, she would have to play ball.

* * *

Donna slowly stripped off her clothes when she made her way into the bathroom. Her panties hit the floor, exposing her smooth center with a strip of black hair. Her firm ass wiggled when she made her way towards the bathroom and her perfect breasts bounced when she swayed.

She stepped underneath the shower head and turned it on. She activated the scorching water and really felt it come down onto her body. Donna hummed underneath her breath when she ran the soap over, washing her breasts along with the rest of her body.

It was just a nice relaxing morning shower, her fingers slowly rubbing herself down. The moment she was done, she turned off the shower and prepared to driver herself off.

Donna exited the shower and dried off her hair. With another swift move, she pulled on her clothes, a tight black shirt and a pair of jeans. She put her hair back into a ponytail and stepped forward with a calm smile.

She walked down the hallway and decided to peak in to see how Cassie was doing. Donna stuck her head inside the door and saw that Cassie was still soundly asleep. She was snoring rather cutely at the moment and seemed to be submerged firmly into dream land.

Donna shook her head in bemusement and walked over. It was getting closer to the time where Cassie would need to wake up and head off to school. She reached on and nudged her.

"Cassie, Cassie, it's time to wake up," Donna whispered in her ear. Cassie was not waking up all that easily. "Cassie, it's time for you to get up, you'll be late for school if you don't get up right now!"

Cassie shook her head awake. She was in a sleep addled state, but she was more than aware enough that it wasn't her mother or Diana that was trying to wake her up.

"Where's Diana?" Cassie asked. "Where's my mother?"

Donna figured that it would be best not to alarm Cassie with the information about how serious it was. She assumed that Diana would resolve this by the time that Cassie got back to school. "Your mother got in really late last night, and Diana had to go into work at the museum earlier due to Curator Sorrow calling an early meeting. Your mother got straight up and went in after her and I agreed to make sure that you went off to school."

Cassie pondered the situation. The young blonde girl nodded her head, that made a lot of sense.

"You should get out of bed and take a shower," Donna suggested to her. Having had a younger sister herself, close enough to Cassie's age, she knew exactly what tone to take with the girl. "And while you're doing that, I'll cook you some breakfast."

"Wait, you can cook?" Cassie asked in a surprised tone.

' _I'm as shocked as she is,'_ Kara replied.

' _And you have any room to talk?'_ Donna asked her.

Donna walked over and poked Cassie gently by the side. That caused her to giggle and Donna saw that Cassie was rather ticklish. "Yes, I can cook. Now go get to the shower."

Cassie got up to her feet and made her way to the exit of the room. Donna did catch the sound of her grumbling underneath her breath. "You're not my mom, I don't have to listen to you."

She did make her way to the bathroom and since Donna was not in the mood for backtalk, she gave Cassie a light rap on the ass. That caused her stand up straight and as a result the tomboy hastened her steps towards the bathroom.

' _Well, that was interesting, now that's settled, we can watch you go and cook,'_ Amanda thought.

' _I told you that I can really cook, and I'm really glad that you're not here to encourage her,'_ Donna thought, frowning deeply.

' _Ah, but you should encourage children that age,'_ Amanda said with a pout.

Donna groaned and she made her way to the kitchen to prepare breakfast. She managed to learn how to cook without burning the house down which was an achievement for her. Her mother was really patient and it seemed like it took an eternity for her to teach her, but Donna thought that she was a lot better off for the lessons.

* * *

The trio of Oswald Cobblepot, Edgar Prince, and Chang-Tzu sat in the back of the Penguin's limo. The trio of them decided to stick together while they waited for Enigma to return to contact them with information for locations where Magpie could be.

"Yes, it was the good old days," Edgar commented in a tone that indicated that he was glad that he was going down a nostalgic road. "I remember this one time when we broke into the Star City First National bank."

"Yes, I remember that quite well," Chang-Tzu agreed.

"Yes, we broke into the Star City First National bank due to the fact that there was a rumor going around that there were several priceless matryoshka dollas being kept in a lockbox there," Edgar said. There was a glint in his eyes and a smile on his face.

Cobblepot raised his eyebrow and he came to a certain point. He squawked in surprise. "I thought that you only did egg related crime sprees."

Edgar's eyebrows furrowed and he shook his head. "They tend to be egg-shaped, and it's the thought that counts.'

The egg obsessed criminal shook his head and took a deep breath. "In any event, we successfully entered the event. With swift ability, we circumvented the security, and broke into the vault. We were nearly at the end of the finish line and were about to retrieve the items without any trouble."

"And then we stepped out of the vault and walked head long into Hawkwoman's mace," Chang said.

That caused Cobblepot's face to grimace at the description of that.

"Yes, it's unfortunately true, or fortunately, depending on your vantage point of things," Edgar commented. "It turns out as we were about to eggstract the cargo from the vault, Black Canary and Hawkwoman arrived on the scene. They got into a brawl with our henchmen and while we were busy looking for the cargo. They were beating our men while we were eggstracting the cargo."

Edgar looked on with a smile.

"Black Canary stepped forward, she stood before me, an angry look on her face," Edgar said. "Her figure was filled into that outfit, tight against her. Not as tight as it might have been had she been a bit more gifted, but various nights. But naturally, you didn't look at the top half of her, when you saw her legs. Her fishnets fit snugly against her calves. It was a distraction. It was almost as if you wished to be humiliated underneath her boots, to see her crush her underneath her feet. And Hawkwoman….well….that was an interesting one."

"Do tell," Penguin whispered. He looked excited.

"She had a figure that was alluring, and the way those tight pants wrapped around her was quite distracting," Edgar said. "The front side wasn't that bad either, in fact the front sight was all we saw….before she attacked."

"You got caught, then," Oswald concluded.

Edgar shook his head. "Not necessarily. We managed to escape in the confusion, even though Chang got a concussion."

Chang nodded, he looked dismissive about Edgar's story.

"So, I'm sure that you have some interesting stories to tell," Edgar said. He threw the ball into Oswald's court.

"Yes, as you know, I'm new to Gotham City, but I made my bones during the late seventies and the early eighties in London," Cobblepot narrated. He smiled at this trip down memory lane. "It was a different time, things have gone downhill."

"Yes, I would have to agree, no one has the respect and culture that they did back in the good old days," Edgar answered. "You must have had some big scores."

Oswald looked on and smiled. "One of the bigger scores was a pair of antique shotguns that I took from an English lord. The bloke was an avid hunter. It was real top of the line stuff, custom made as all get out, engravings, mother of pearl handles, the works. You get what I'm talking about?"

Edgar and Chang exchanged a gaze with each other and both nodded in agreement.

"Yes, we do," Edgar replied. He motioned for Oswald to continue his story.

"I paid a second story man to break into the guy's apartment for dirt cheap, the poor bastard, he didn't know what they were," Oswald said. He laughed in amusement. "Made the Lord wait a couple of days so he was really sweating, and then I called him, I called the Lord. I said that for the right price, I could track them down for me. He was willing to pay me, the money."

Oswald took a puff of his cigar. He paused, more to build up anticipation more than anything when he was wrapping up his story.

"The Lord agreed to do this, and it turns out that I liked the guns so much, I choked the bastard in response," Cobblepot said. "One of my bosses like my ambitions, so it moved me up in the world."

Chang-Tzu nodded. "I was under the impression that you used to be married, and it was your wife who was largely responsible for many of your early successes."

Cobblepot inhaled a mouth full of smoke, but before he could respond, there was a ring of the phone.

"I'll get that," Edgar said. He answered the phone. "Yes, what is it?"

The eager voice of Enigma piped up on the other end. "One of my informants informed me that there was another buyer who was interested in picking up the egg. But he made a lower offer to Magpie then the Penguin did, so Magpie decided to sell it to him, other than the mysterious buyer."

"That's your information?" Edgar asked.

"Yes, but there's more," Enigma said. "In the aftermath of the deal going south and Magpie having decided to cut and run with both the money and the egg, there's a rumor that's going around that she tried to make contact with him. She is going to try and sell it to him tonight at the old Gotham City Public Library. But it's a rumor. There's another rumor that Black Mask or Rupert Thorne might be picking up the item."

The trio sat and allowed this information to sink in.

"So, now what?" Edgar asked them.

Cobblepot was the first one to answer. "We head to the library and stake it out, see if we can find out if she's there or not."

This was the only solid lead they had tonight, so they had to go for it.

* * *

Harry, Karen, Faora, and Jaime joined Tamara and Andromeda. After the recent reality shift, Andromeda was part of the same society that the Evans family grew up in and she was the Chief Legal Counsel. The entire group waited for Carol Ferris in a meeting room within RAO tower.

It was their hope that they were able to get some satellites into the air when they eventually broke away from Wayne Enterprises. Several feelers were put out and they came back with a couple of different proposals from a couple of different aerospace companies. Out of all of the proposals, the most interesting and potentially lucrative one came back from Ferris Air.

They responded to it by trying to arrange a meeting and Carl Ferris agreed to it. Since he's rather busy lately, he asked if he could send his daughter, Carol, to attend the meeting in his place. The meeting was scheduled as a result of that.

"The RAO Eclipse is about ready to go into production," Andromeda reminded them. She got into the nasty details that no company liked to get into, but they had to. "But there are a couple of legal documents that need to be worked on."

"Nothing too major though, just standard things?" Harry asked.

"Yes, just so we can get our simultaneous world wide release out there," Andromeda said.

Faora jumped into the conversation. "The initial run of the Red Sun worked as well for the staggered release process. But now, we really need to get this out all at the same time. And I'm sure Andromeda has figured out all of the legal hoops that we have to jump through."

"One of the major problems is that something like this is unprecedented," Andromeda reminded her.

"Yes, that's right," Tamara agreed. "Most of the time there's a staggered release for Electronics."

"Most of the time, Japan is the first to see things, followed by America, and Europe," Karen said. She took off her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose with a sigh. "The amount of work we need to do is staggering."

"So, it's a good thing that Charlotte and Daphne are both up to the task, then," Harry told them. Andromeda handed him the paperwork for him to sign.

' _We are, we went over what needs to be done,'_ Daphne said. _'If there's anything that I can say about you, that is that you are pretty ambiguous.'_

' _You really have to be ambitious if you want anything to get done,'_ Charlotte said. That was one point that all of them could agree with.

Harry signed on the paperwork and Andromeda was on her way. Not before she stole a quick little kiss, that was fairly heated. It held the promise for something much more later on.

After Andromeda departed, there was a call from the Lobby. "Ms. Ferris is here."

"I'll show her on up," Tamara said. Without another word, she slipped off.

Once she was done, Karen looked around the room. Now that she was alone with the group and had some time and some privacy, she could bring up one point.

"The project that I've been moving around has been moving along rather smoothly," Karen said.

"Oh, that's good," Jaime confirmed. "I trust you didn't have any snags."

"No, the machines capable of making the material have been completed to my satisfaction," she confirmed. The blonde held her arms out and snorted. With something like this, there was always a catch. "But there's been a slight and rather annoying delay."

Faora's eyebrow corked and she looked at Karen with an inquisitive glance. "What kind of problem did you have?"

"The usual," Karen said with a sigh. She felt Harry's arm snake around her shoulders. "You know how it goes. Trying to design and build Earth technology capable of replicating Kryptonian technology is never a walk in the park. Realistically, the technology in question that we're trying to build is still around ten years off from being a consideration and…..well it goes without saying that not everyone is intelligent as we are."

"Modestly spoken," Faora said dryly. Karen gave her a shifty glance. "But rather accurate."

"We could use magic to create what we need," Karen pondered. "But as we all know, that might cause another headache. So, a couple of setbacks, not least of which was the first batch of material being rather brittle. It didn't really handle the strain that we wanted it to. The problem has been fixed now so the next attempt should be much better."

Harry gave her a gentle smile, moving his hand to her thigh. He could tell that Karen was about ready to lose her mind if she didn't calm down. Harry eased on in and kissed her. Karen closed her eyes and accepted the kiss.

"Keep at it," Harry whispered when he pulled away from her. "You have my full confidence."

Harry gave Karen another heated kiss, which she returned quite eagerly. It was at this point where Tamara and Carol both entered the conference room. Both women stopped at the door.

Jaime waited, humming underneath her breath. She smiled and was glad to see that both women were rendered a bit speechless and looked kind of hot under the collar as a result.

She cleared her throat to get their attention.

"And you must be Carol," Harry said with a smile, as if nothing happened.

"Yes, I am," she said boldly. Harry and the girls had to admit that she did a pretty good job in hiding just how hot under the collar she was.

Carol Ferris was a beautiful dark haired woman in her early twenties. Her bright blue eyes looked towards Harry, giving him a once over. She wore a nice form fitting female business suit. It looked professional, but at the same time it also showed that she had an extremely fit and firm body.

Introductions were now down and business was about ready to be done. Tamara got into position to do her job in taking notes.

"I think that the best way to start this meeting is to tell you why we approached Ferris Air in the first place," Harry started.

Carol nodded in agreement. She knew a lot of this from the briefing that was prepared for her, but she wanted to hear it from there.

"We're looking to expand forward and we're looking to get our infrastructure in place for when our contract with Wayne Enterprises ends," Harry informed her. "And we want to bring our telecommunications projects in house, so to speak."

Carol was as sharp as a tack and she responded. "So, that means that you're going to get satellites in orbit."

"That's correct, we're going to need to get satellites in orbit and we like the quality of Ferris Air's products," Harry confirmed for her. "We expect that it will be a lot of work and it may take a while to get things going. Which is why we're approaching you know."

Carol nodded. There was one point that jumped out at her straight away.

"So, do you want to use one of Ferris's designs or do you have something in mind?" she asked.

"We do have something in mind," Faora admitted. "But we're not sure about the feasibility of using it, so we're curious to see what Ferris Air can do with the plans, if they can do anything."

Carol was really curious to see what they uncovered. Harry brought out the blueprint of what they had in mind.

Needless to say, the sight of it left Carol Ferris sitting there in shock and awe. She was speechless.

* * *

Diana continued the hunt for Helena Sandsmark, which she had been doing for the better part of the day. She was able to follow the last known GPS coordinates logged back to the last location. It was a location that Helena spent the longest stretch of time in before her phone mysterious ended up in Arkham.

There was just a small problem was that all it did was lead her back to Helena's car in the parking lot in a small office building that sold mostly paper. It led to a dead end, but there was one thing that did come up.

She did find Helena's purse in a back alleyway nearby, so there was that and noticed a rather distinctive perfume. Diana couldn't make heads or tails of what that was all about.

Her next hope was to track down Professor McElroy and see if he knows anything about what happened. While it was unlikely the he was involved, he was the last person that Helena was supposed to be meeting with. There was a small chance that he might not know something.

The Museum was a dead end, and since he didn't have a cell-phone, that option was out. This lead to Diana slipping into his office to see if she could track down his address and much to her surprise, inside that office, Diana noticed the same kind of perfume. That was odd, but she did manage to get her hands on his address.

That lead her to where she was at this point, standing outside of the front door to McElroy's condo, waiting for him to respond to her ringing the front door bell. She waited patiently, but she didn't have to wait for long.

"Hello, Professor McElroy, I want to speak with you," Diana said in a cordial voice.

McElroy opened the door and he looked at her, in shocked. He appeared to be a bit out of it. "Diana…..this is a surprise…I wasn't aware you knew where I lived."

He cleared his throat and stepped back to allow her movement.

"Come in, come in," he replied in a jovial voice. He took a step backwards. "And…it's a really different attire than I'm used to seeing you dress, normally you come across as a librarian more so than a biker…..but never mind that. What can I do to you?"

"Doctor Sandsmark has gone missing," Diana answered. McElroy's expression was surprised. "She never returned home last night and her purse was found in the abandoned alleyway."

"Well, that's awful," McElroy said. "If there's anything that I can do to help…"

"She told me that she was going to visit you," Diana said, when McElroy allowed her inside.

Diana looked around and saw that he lived like a bachelor. That much was obvious because of the mess inside.

"You know, there's something funny about this," McElroy said. "I can't recall meeting with Helena yesterday at all."

"Are you sure?" Diana asked. Her expression turned into a frown.

"I'm quite positive that I would have remembered such a meeting," McElroy commented. He looked at her and frowned deeply. "One thing I do recall is that I met with a delightful young woman about an artifact belonging to her family. She wanted me to take a closer look at it, and so I did."

' _Something here isn't adding up,'_ Donna thought.

' _I could have sworn that Doctor Sandsmark was clear that she was meeting with him last night,'_ Kara said.

' _She was,'_ Diana answered. There was something extremely odd there.

"Now, Professor McElroy, Helena was clear that she was to meet with you last night," Diana told him.

McElroy paused and he looked at her. A look of confusion passed over his face and his pupils dilated.

"I think that you're much mistaken, my dear lady!" McElory said, almost in a shout. He took great offense. "I didn't meet with Helena last evening; rather, I met with this young woman who asked me to look at one of her family heirlooms. Well, the meeting grew a bit more professional, it seemed that history wasn't the only thing that the woman was interested in, and one thing lead to another….."

He descended into a rambling monologue and to be honest, Diana didn't want to hear a single word about it. It was obvious that someone did something to the Professor.

Taking a moment to summon her lasso to herself, Diana got into position. She wrapped the lasso around him.

' _And now we're resorting to bondage to get answers,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Really, we're going there?'_ Donna asked. It was beside the point that she would have went there.

"What happened with Doctor Sandsmark last night?" Diana asked. Now that he was ensnared in the lasso, there would be questions.

"Last night the women, she convinced me to….she convinced me to call Doctor Sandsmark and tell her to meet me…..everything between then and there is a total blank, but I do recall she intended to take Helena…yes….that's it," McElroy said in a dazed manner. "I don't quite know what happened, between then and the point where I woke up in the alleyway."

"Who is this woman, Professor McElroy?" Diana asked.

"I can't recall….off hand, if she gave me her true name, but she did go under the name of Lorelei at least one point," McElroy said. "If you want to find the answers to what happened to Doctor Sandsmark, then that's the name you have to go off of. I have no further information."

Diana looked despondent. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm quite certain that I told you everything that was to the best of my recollection, young lady," Diana said.

It was Dinah who popped in through the bond link. _'Lorelei is a name that seems familiar, I just cannot place it off hand.'_

* * *

**To Be Continued On March 4** **th** **, 2015.**


	87. Fall of Olympus Part Six

**Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Fall of Olympus Part Six.**

* * *

 

Carol got over her initial shock from seeing the blueprints. That caused them to talk with each over for several more hours about the possibility of the two companies working together. Right now, they were still in the feeling out process, so it was nothing definite just yet.

"You'd still need to meet with my father before anything can be signed off at the very least," Carol told them. She frowned before she added as an afterthough. "And I need to look at a couple of points regarding the logistics back at Ferris Air."

"But, it looks like things are moving forward?" Harry asked her.

Carol nodded in response. "Yes, it looks like things are moving over quite nicely. Like I said, I'm going to have to take things back to Ferris Air and look it over with my father, but….I think that we're on the right track. And it's a pleasure doing business with you..

"Karen and I will meet with your father, if that's needed," Faora informed Carol.

Carol nodded in response and agreed with a smile. "That idea would be for the best I think."

"We would have normally invited you out for dinner to help celebrate the business deal," Harry added. "But, unfortunately we have to attend that entire grand opening thing at the Olympus tonight."

"The PR work is never done, I take it?" Carol asked him. She knew the feeling. Harry nodded and smiled at her. "Well, it's just as well because I am feeling a little tired tonight. But, I'll be in town for a couple more days, so if you have any concerns, I'll be sure to find the time to hear them. And I might take you up on that dinner offer as well."

Harry couldn't help but notice that last part was added a little wistfully, perhaps a little hopefully.

"Well, I'm sure that something can be arranged," Harry said with a chuckle. He was amused by the hopeful look dancing in her eyes. "Tamara, could you please show Carol out of the building?"

Tamara nodded and she led Carol out of the office, after one last handshake. Harry, Faora, and Karen were left with each other, with Jaime having slipped out right behind them.

"So, how about we head to the penthouse and pick up something to eat before we go out later?" Harry asked them.

Faora smiled and nodded. "That would be a pretty good idea….and there's something that I wanted to bring up as well."

"What is it?" Harry asked, when the two packed up their things and made their way outside of the office to the penthouse.

"Well, I was looking through a couple of the General's flies," Faora informed him. Harry nodded. "And I came across the blueprints for a solar powered fuel cell that's actually quite clever for something that appears to be of his own designs; as a matter of fact…..it's clever enough that it might be possible for us to make use of it in the near future. Considering, that we've been looking towards the creation of some clean energy sources."

Harry nodded in response. Karen's eyes averted towards Faora in surprise and honestly a bit of shock.

"I wasn't….well I'm kind of surprised that Dru-Zod was capable of something like that," Karen said. She frowned. "Guess, that he was capable of doing more than destroying things like Kandor and Krypton."

' _Ouch,'_ Kara thought. She braced herself for some kind of impact.

"You know, he was capable of much more, much like Zor-El was capable of doing more than destroying things as well," Faora said in an icy tone when she glared at Karen with narrowed eyes. She crossed her arms over her chest with an icy stare and gave Karen the look.

' _Double ouch,'_ Donna thought.

' _Well, it was well warranted on both accounts,'_ Kara thought. _'My father was a bit of a brilliant idiot and Faora's father…..yes let's not go there and dig up old skeletons.'_

' _There's one in every family,'_ Lily thought.

' _That's for damn sure,'_ Rose muttered. _'A couple in ours.'_

" _Unfortunately, there's a couple in ours,'_ Lily agreed with a dry tone.

Karen grew rather sheepish for a moment. Harry stood back, not wanting to get involved in this argument between the two Alphas.

"I guess that I get what you're saying," Karen told her. She raised her eyebrow. "But, I guess that he was known more for his military efforts than his scientific ones."

"You do have a point there," Faora conceded grudgingly. "But, he was known to be a contemporary of Jor-El and Alura for a reason. And in his own way, he was just as brilliant as the two of them. Case in point."

Faora paused and pointed her finger back towards Harry.

"Har-Zod's was the greatest example of the General's brilliance," Faora said.

"His greatest work," Karen said. She smiled at it.

"That I won't argue with you at all," Faora agreed. "But the fact that he went insane in his later days didn't really diminish his brilliance in any way. Unfortunately, people do remember their last impressions."

Faora sighed and shook her head. She was getting off of the subject. "Back to the matter at hand, there's a lot of potential in the fuel cell. So Har, do you want me to look into developing it any further? It will be a long time project, and we do have a fair bit on our plates."

"It doesn't hurt to think of the future though, now," Karen said. She and Faora waited for Harry's reaction. The young man was deep in thought.

He had his arms crossed and leaned back against the wall, largely staying silent for most of the conversation. Harry gestured in the direction of the elevator. Both of the girls followed him inside.

"It doesn't sound like a horrible idea," Harry informed her. Faora nodded. "But the three of us cannot give it the focus that is necessary right now. Because, as you mentioned, we have a lot on our plates."

Faora nodded, that made sense. She figured that Harry had a solution for that.

"I'd like you to give the files to Alura to look over, to see if there are any changes that she can make to them, or alternatively, make sure that the fuel cell isn't some sort of clean energy bomb that the General was messing around with," Harry said. "And then after that, I can look at them personally.

Faora nodded in response. Karen piped in. "That sounds like a good idea. If anyone can do something with it, it's my mother."

It was at that point where the elevator reached the penthouse. The trio stepped out into the chaos that is the Penthouse.

Or to be more particular, they stepped into the scene of Vicki being in the middle of being interrogated by Reilly. Harry caught snatches of the conversation, regarding some of the photos that Vicki published back when she was a photo journalist, along with the fact that she used to be roommates at university with a woman named Betty Brant.

Harry caught the eye of Gwen and Barbara, who looked on in amusement. They smiled, and had to duck their heads to keep the straight face on.

From that point, Harry, Faora, and Karen were able to make out several of the younger girls in the living room. They were doing homework and watching television. Two of them happened to be both Donna and Cassie. Cassie's presence in the penthouse caused Harry to raise his eyebrow curiously.

' _Diana, what's your current location?'_ Harry asked her through the bond link.

Diana was able to answer promptly, but she was distracted. _'I'm in the lair with Dinah, we're trying to figure out information about this woman that Professor McElroy met.'_

Harry made his excuses. "I forgot something in my office, I'll be right back in a minute."

He said that loudly so that everyone was able to hear that. In another flash, Harry was able to slip inside the Elevator and make his way down to the Lair.

* * *

 

The elevator might have been fast, but it was still an elevator. No matter how fast it was, it still took some time for Harry to get from point a to point b. Harry slowly stepped off of the elevator and stopped to find Dinah sitting on the couch looking through a box of files belong to her mother. They pertained to some of the cases she was involved with and some of the people she encountered back when she was a vigilante. Dinah knew that she had to find that one missing piece of information and she would have it.

The name Lorelei kept popping into her mind as well. Dinah was missing that bridging gap. When she found the concrete information, she would know for sure.

Diana, on the other hand, was hard at work putting together some gear of her own. It was done just in case it was needed tonight. The Amazon Princess handily converted some of her armor for a specific purpose.

It would be a bit obvious if she started running around in a full-suit of Amazon armor, but she could use some of it for usage. She used mostly her breastplate, her tiara, and a pair of gauntlets to go with her bracers. Other than that, she's continuing to wear her leather jacket along with a pair of leather pants.

She thought that she was pretty good on the way of weapons. Her bracers could change into a sword and a shield. She also had a longbow and a quiver of arrows she could summon as it was needed.

Harry frowned when he looked at her. He could tell exactly how tightly wound the disappearance of her mentor had left his wife. He slowly moved over and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed the top of her head, burying his face in her hair.

Diana tensed up for a moment, but she melted backwards into her. He squeezed around her harder in response. He considered asking if she was okay, but it was obvious enough that she wasn't. It would be for the best if held her just a little bit longer.

The Amazon Princess was about ready to say something. She was interrupted by a slight "aha" from Dinah.

"Sorry, I finally found the file that I was looking for," Dinah said. She looked a bit sheepish at the sudden outburst, but recovered fairly nicely.

Harry gently let go of Diana. He was stalled from pulling away from Diana fully and grabbed his hand to hold it. She intertwined her fingers into his. He responded by squeezing her hand in response.

With their hands connected, Harry leaned forward to Dinah. "What did you find?"

"My mother encountered a woman who was named the Siren, and her real name was Lorlei Circe," Dinah explained to him. Harry looked at her, with a pondering expression etched on his face. "She encountered her several times during her career as Black Canary. And she had some sort of gift that allowed her to ensnare the minds of men and got them to do what she wanted to do."

"So, she normally did the seductress routine," Harry concluded and Dinah responded in affirmation.

"Basically, she found a wealthy influential man, bent them to her will, and used them until they were no longer useful to her, and then she moved on," Dinah informed both of them. "That's how my mother encounter in her the first place. The Siren went for my father, although she was just my mother's boyfriend at that time. After he gained a bit of fame for solving a difficult case, that put him in the Siren's crosshairs."

She smiled and shook her head when she took that trip back down memory lane.

"That lead to the two of them coming to blows for the first time, although it was the first of many," Dinah added. "In any case, with her powers, it would have been easy for her to befuddle and amuse McElroy, especially with his head injury."

"So we have a suspect," Harry said.

"But, there's one problem, Circe died several years back of cancer a couple of years before my mother did," Dinah replied. She frowned. "So unless she came back from the dead or has a daughter we don't know about, we're back to square one again."

This caused Diana to scowl and grit her teeth in response. Diana detached herself from Harry and slammed her fist through the closest surface. In this case, it was the table next to her. Time stood still before the rest of the table ended up shattering in the aftermath of that particular reaction.

Dinah took a step back in surprise, getting far away from the situation. An angry Diana is not something that she saw pretty often, so it was a formidable look.

Harry stepped forward, knowing that he had to take decisive action before things got too out of hand. He grabbed Diana firmly by the hair and pulled her into a deep and hungry kiss.

For a brief second, Diana resisted for a moment. She actually growled in warning when she didn't roll away.

Harry was a persistent individual no matter what. He kept deepening the kiss between the two of them. She decided to return fire with an added fury.

Diana kissed Harry hard, using the force that would bruise a normal man's lips. Harry allowed her to gain a bit of leverage over him.

Dinah frowned and didn't want to be left out of the fun. She situated herself behind the two of them. The blonde woman pressed herself against Diana's back and planted a hungry kiss to the back of her neck.

Diana closed her eyes and felt Dinah slowly start to suck the skin off of the back of her neck. She felt herself pressed between the two of them.

Harry's strong hands explored every single inch of her body and that really felt great. Things were about ready to get really amazing from here and was about to heat up fast.

Dinah detached herself from Diana after a second and Harry took Diana down to the couch in the lair.

She was pressed down beneath him, ready for him to take her. Her hips lifted eagerly for him to enter her and take her forcefully.

Harry slowly teased Diana. She was so tense and she deserved the loving care that he could give her. His hands played with her breasts when he kept squeezing them.

Diana felt Harry's hands work over her body. Her soul mate was playing with her. He touched her nipples and caused a pleasurable fire to explode through her body.

Dinah played her part in the fun and games. Slowly she unraveled Harry. She made sure Diana had her eyes on Harry.

"Good things come to those who wait," Dinah whispered. She reached around and grabbed Harry's cock, slowly stroking it. She placed her lips to the side of Harry's ear and stroked it. "Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes," Harry grunted. He felt Dinah's soft hand work him to a full erection.

"I need it," Diana begged him.

Harry smiled. He could smell her desire grow for him. The young man stepped forward and placed his thumb at the edge her entrance. Dinah leaned down and played with Diana's tits as well.

This duel assault was driving Diana absolutely nuts. The Amazon Princess couldn't help the double team assault. She wanted more, she wanted so much more.

Harry's finger entered her. Diana panted when Harry roughly fingered her at super speed. That caused her hips to rise and lower when Harry pushed his finger into her body.

Eventually, Harry released everything Diana's juices saturated onto his finger. Slowly, Harry pulled out and offered Dinah a taste.

Dinah greedily took his finger. Her hot mouth wrapped around his finger. The blonde closed her eyes when she slowly sucked.

"Enjoying yourself?" Harry inquired. Dinah nodded eagerly with Harry's finger still submerged in her mouth.

Her tongue traced over his finger and she withdrew the juices from them. The blonde goddess pulled away from him and hunger danced from her eyes. Harry turned around and looked at Diana.

Diana raised her legs and wrapped them around Harry's body. She rolled him over onto the bed.

"The time for teasing is over," Diana moaned. She grabbed Harry around the chest and pushed herself down onto him.

Her tight cunt muscles contracted around his tool. Harry groaned when he felt the Amazon Goddess work her way up and down his pole. He felt her wrapped tightly around him when she kept bouncing up and down.

"Feels good, doesn't it?" Diana asked him. She cooed when she came down onto the base of his cock. She buried his thick and throbbing tool deep into her womanhood.

"You tell me, and we'll both know," Harry informed her.

Diana felt his throbbing cock spear into her. It pulsed inside her and she kept working herself down onto him. She was glad that her mate allowed her this gift to rise herself up onto Harry's throbbing manhood and pushed herself down onto him.

Harry reached around and Diana wrapped her arms around him. She pushed her face into her breasts, burying his face in between her cleavage. Diana hugged around his head when she kept moaning.

Dinah was now stripped down to a pair of bra and panties. She sat on the chair, watching the two connect and unconnect with each other. The blonde goddess inserted one finger into her dripping hot vagina and pumped into herself. She was not going to say anything. She bit down on her lip and realized that no matter what, that felt so hot and she had to have even more of it.

Diana thought that she was going to come undone. She thanked herself for this blessing.

Harry took control before she knew it. The next thing Diana knew was she was face down. Harry's hands grabbed onto the back of her head.

"Time for you to feel how dominating I can be," Harry whispered into her ear. He spiked his throbbing manhood into her.

Diana's walls spread to accommodate him. "Yes, fuck me, harder."

"Yes, fuck her, harder," Dinah agreed. She diddled herself working onto her hand.

Dinah shivered from head to toe when she saw that Harry's gaze came onto hers. He gave her a shifty little smile.

"Don't worry, Dinah, your turn will be pretty soon," Harry grunted. He pushed into her.

Dinah could feel her anticipation raise when Harry shoved himself into Diana and pulled out of her.

Diana was still with Harry and enjoying every moment where she was still with him. Harry rocked into her. He fucked her hard.

All good things had to wrap up to a close eventually. The duel sensations of Harry fingering Diana's anus and plowing her pussy with his cock caused Diana to lose her mind. The young man drilled himself into her as hard as he could from his vantage point. His rapid fire thrusts caused the dark haired goddess to lose her mind when he worked into her.

Diana closed her eyes tightly. "Cum for me, please, I need it.

"Don't worry, you have it," Harry stated.

He plowed into her with one more thrust. His balls released their tribute into Diana. A load of seed splattered into her pussy. It coated her walls with some amazing juices. She clenched down onto him when he plowed into her fields. Diana's slick walls collapsed around him when he rocked back and forth inside her body.

Diana's eyes grew heavily lidded with pleasure the more that Harry planted his load inside her body. Several thrusts brought her to the edge of her passion.

Harry pulled out of her and Diana collapsed down onto the bed. The juices flooded from her body.

Dinah crawled over towards the Amazon sexily. The blonde haired woman crawled between Diana's legs and slowly began to suck the juices from between her legs.

Harry watched her and his cock grew erect, Dinah looked at him, her hair draping over his face.

"All for me," Dinah breathed. Her legs draped over his lap. She was still clad in fishnets, but not much else.

Her soft, tight cunt speared down onto Harry's tool.

"All for you, if you can handle it," Harry said.

Dinah closed her eyes to allow herself to immerse herself into the sensations the beautiful crime fighter was about to feel. She liked it how Harry's hands played with her ass. The beautiful blonde raised herself high into the air and dropped herself down onto his massive cock. The blonde felt her tight cunt wrap around him.

Harry's balls felt rather heavy and she lowered herself down onto them.

Diana managed to come to her senses. She was greeted by the increasingly erotic and lovely sight of Dinah bouncing her way up and down on Harry's tool. She kept pushing herself up and down onto him, riding Harry. She rocked herself backward and arched her back. Dinah allowed a soft and sensational moan to escape from the back of her throat.

She kept coming up and down onto Harry. Her riding increased.

"Diana, you dirty bitch," Dinah mewled.

"Don't pretend you don't like it," Harry informed her.

Diana finger fucked Dinah's ass while she rode Harry. The Amazon Princess wasn't about ready to get knocked out of the ring for long.

Dinah felt Harry's talented mouth lavish her breasts. The blonde whimpered the more that he played with her.

Her gushing cunt allowed his throbbing tool to effortlessly slide into her body. Dinah felt him touch her in some many amazing ways.

Harry paid attention to the soft, firm flesh of her tits. He really started playing with her. His hunger grew the more that he sucked her nipples. He wrapped his mouth around her tit and closed his eyes.

Dinah mewled when she came down onto Harry's tool. Her soft walls collapsed around him and she kept riding him over and over again. She allowed herself to work up a frenzy the more that she continued to have a go at him.

The deeper he pushed into her, the better things felt. Dinah closed around him.

"Finish her off, and it's time for another round," Diana begged him.

"Don't count me out yet….princess,' Dinah moaned. She spread her legs when her tight walls closed around him.

Dinah allowed Harry to plow into her. Her hot thighs came down onto her hips. Dinah grinded against him, reading to bring herself down onto his tool.

Harry could feel the friction. The dripping hot cunt of Dinah pushed down onto his throbbing tool. Harry grunted when he felt her inside him.

"Close enough," Harry informed her. He held Dinah, her tight pussy gripping him.

Dinah and Harry both came at the same time and it felt so good. The blonde heroine pumped herself up and down Harry's tool, milking him of every single last drop of his cum.

The blonde collapsed onto him, feeling pretty good.

Diana was seconds away from taking her spot. She was on her hands and knees still which allowed Harry to swoop in perfectly.

* * *

 

Harry arrived out on the town, dressed to kill in a custom made tailored suit. It was along the lines of a tuxedo, but it was not quite that way. It did fit him like a glove. He was in the company of the lovely Juno Jones. She was dressed in a lovely golden dress. There was a very long slit coming down the left side which comes to about mid-thigh. Further up her right side, there was a slit on the right side just coming before her ribs. It had an extremely classy toga like feel with it.

The two of them dressed out of the elevator and into Maxie Zeus's new club known as Olympus. It was at the tip top of the tallest building in Gotham City.

"The building itself belongs to Rupert Thorne," Juno informed Harry when they made their way around.

The two of them were here at the grand opening, and the entire place had an entire Greek Temple feel to it. It offered an extremely nice view of Gotham City beneath.

' _I can't help, but think that this place pales in comparison to the real Olympus,'_ Harry thought to himself.

Maxmilian Zeus developed into a bit of a power house in the Restaurant and Club Scene. Therefore, the rest of the Gotham City Elite were out in full force. Several of the girls were there, and Harry was sure that there were too much to count. He noticed Alexa, Sapphire, and Tamara when he and Juno made their way into the club.

Veronica, Kathy kane, Kate Kane, Kara, Karen, Selina, and Faora were all there. Harry noticed his mother and aunt there. Rose and Lily acted a bit like the twins, although slightly more subdued. It was not subdued enough not to see where they got it from.

' _All of the stars out tonight, aren't they?'_ Rose asked.

' _Both good and bad, '_ Lily confirmed. She noticed a couple of the lower end members of the Gotham City elite as well.

Harry noticed Mario Falcone in particular there, with a pair of bodyguards. Selina was regarding him fairly coolly from halfway across the room, but she slipped into the distance.

His gaze fell on Bruce Wayne, who had two famous models attached to each arm, keeping up the Billionaire Playboy image. Harry noticed that one of them is eying him up like a piece of meat.

' _Well, that's not surprising,'_ Kara thought.

He noticed that Sofia joined Mario. Mario looked at Selina, but his sister grabbed his arm. Roman Sionis was sitting in the background, with his flavor of the week, looking on with a smile. Rupert Thorne naturally was there due to the fact that he owned the building.

Tony Zucco and Jefferson Skeevers also turned up. Harry frowned and he noticed that Dudley was there, along with Tracey.

' _Guess that Cobblepot couldn't attend the meeting, so they showed up to represent him,'_ Lily thought. She viewed her nephew's sad attempt of sophistication with great disdain, but didn't say much of anything. _'It does seem like a collection of the best and the brightest.'_

' _In addition to the not so best and brightest,'_ Rose added. She looked around, and smiled.

' _Don't even think about it,'_ Lily warned her sister.

' _I wasn't going to think about it,'_ Rose said, letting out a low and obvious whine.

There was a variety of people that came in and out. Juno seemed a bit bored.

"It can get rather…..redundant to talk to all of these people," Juno informed him in a low voice.

Harry could see that it was a strain for her to play nice with a lot of these people.

"Oh, Marie!" Juno shouted, as she caught sight of a rather fetching looking red head, who was famous in certain circles. She was wearing an extremely fetching red dress that fit her quite nicely. "Harry, this is Marie Logan, Marie, this is Dr. Harry Potter."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Dr. Potter, "Marie said with a smile when she walked towards him. "I've followed your work and with all that you've done, I have to say that I'm impressed and a bit overwhelmed. How do you find the time in the day to do all that you do, anyway?"

Harry dryly chuckled and gave her a smile. "It isn't easy. And you've become famous in certain circles."

"Oh, yes, that," Marie said. She closed her eyes. "It was a one season wonder that seems to have gotten a cult following. It wasn't even that big of a part."

Harry took note of her expression and her tone. It was obvious what she was considering.

"I was referring to the fact that I'm a fan of your charitable work with animals, in fact it was one of the charities that the SLF decided to contribute a sizeable portion with this year," Harry said. He paused and waited for the expression to flow over Megan's face.

Needless to say, she blushed rather brightly and started to stammer out a little bit. "Sorry, sorry, I just thought….."

Marie decided to shut up right now, before she stuck her foot even more firmly in her mouth. She had a really bad habit of doing that at the worst possible times.

"And I'm a fan of your movie work and you should not be defined by that one part," Harry informed her. Marie nodded. "And I have to admit, Hello Megan is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine."

It was at that point, Rose and Selina joined them.

"Miss Logan, my name is Selina Kyle, and I have to say that I'm a big fan of your charitable work, more people should take an interest in what you're doing," Selina said with a smile.

Marie looked at her and nodded. "And I'm glad to say that I share that belief."

"My name is Rose Evans, I work for the Shining Light Foundation, and I was wondering if our charities might be able to do some work together," Rose said to her.

Marie looked at the other redhead and gave a bit of a bright smile. "I think that there might be a chance that the both of us could do some work together."

Harry and Juno said their quick goodbyes and allowed the two of them to talk about their nearby business.

"Do you mind if we head out to the balcony?" Juno asked him. Harry raised his eyebrow in response. "I think that some fresh air will do well in clearing my head."

"I think after all we've seen so far, some fresh air will do both of us rather good," Harry said.

Juno gave a round of musical laughter and smiled. "Lovely."

The two of them decided to swipe a glass of wine from a waiter that happened to be passing by. Unfortunately, they didn't make it out to the balcony, when they also ran into a drunk out of his mind Oliver Queen.

Oliver looked like he seen better days. He stopped his progress at the party and sized Harry up.

' _Oh, no,'_ Dinah said. She lowered her head into her hands and sighed.

"Harry Potter, I've wanted to meet you for some time," Oliver said, and he staggered forward. He grabbed onto a startled party guest to try and prevent himself from collapsing. He extended his hand for Harry to shake.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Queen," Harry said. He acted polite.

' _Well, maybe this wasn't….maybe this won't be so bad,'_ Karen suggested in a consoling manner to Dinah.

' _Yeah, fucking right, rich idiot with a high blood alcohol content,'_ Daphne chimed in. _'There's no fucking way that this doesn't end really badly.'_

Oliver removed his hand from Harry's hand and jabbed him in the chest. "You know, I suspect you think that you're clever."

"I don't know what you're referring to," Harry said to him.

"Oh, you've just decided to swoop in and snatch up my sloppy seconds!" Oliver yelled.

' _Oh you mother fucker!'_ Dinah snapped through the bond link. It was a good thing that she wasn't there, because she would have knocked him the fuck out.

Harry was reigning in all of his self-control. He reminded himself that the fucker was drunk, although breaking his jaw might have given him a wake up call. He balled up his fist, mentally counted to one hundred.

It was hard to keep his cool when he had Oliver Queen's drunken breath all up in his face. "Dinah and I, we're destined for each other…..and you know, another thing….you know another thing."

Harry stepped back and it was through some sheer miracle of silence that Oliver didn't fall flat on his face. "You better stay away from my little sister."

Oliver nearly slumped against the table.

' _Huh, I didn't know that he had a younger sister,'_ Harry muttered.

' _Yeah, Thea, I ran into her a couple of times, when our families met for….Veritas related things,'_ Patricia explained.

"We should hang out sometime," Oliver slurred. He staggered off to get another drink, not like he needed to.

A very annoyed and confused Harry was standing there. He kept his cool.

"You know, you did a good job in keeping your cool back there," Juno muttered in her ear.

' _More than I would have,'_ Dinah thought. She was still seething. It was a damn good thing that she wasn't there.

Before Harry could discuss this situation any further, the music grinded to a stop. The lights slowly dimmed and there was the type of environment that lead to immense fanfare. It was the type of atmosphere that was pretty much all showed.

An amount of armed thugs walked into place, forming a circle around the crowd. Maximilian Zeus stepped out onto the stage wearing a toga, a pair of gauntlets, and he carried a spear that head a head that looked like a lightning built. A beautiful young brunette stood beside him that was dressed in a toga and looked to be around the same age of Dinah.

The most shocking that was Maxie stood hand in hand with Helena Sandsmark, who dressed in a toga of her own. That caused everyone to start buzzing loudly and many to wonder what the hell was going on.

* * *

The old Gotham City Public Library was abandoned after a new building was constructed as a part of Mayor Grange's efforts to improve the city. Much like a lot of the other older buildings in Gotham City, this building had a rather gothic atmosphere to it, so it looked fairly imposing with a lot of elaborate architecture, a lot of stone, and heavy looking wood spread out throughout the place. The building was fairly big, with a lot of open space inside.

A lot of furniture and shelving was left behind due it being heavy wood and bolted to the ground in many instances. There were more than a lot of places to hide.

That proved why this would be an ideal location to hold a meeting where some illicitly gained goods were traded.

Oswald Cobblepot, Edgar Prince, and Chang-Tzu entered their building. Their men swarmed the place earlier to secure it, so they could lay an ambush for Magpie and her mysterious buyer.

There was only one problem with this entire mess. There was no sign of her or her mysterious buyer. And the night wasn't getting any younger.

Oswald gritted his teeth in a particularly fierce manner. "Your boy promised that we could find them here and I had to meet the opening of Maxie Zeus's club for this."

It was obvious why he was pissed off. Not showing up at a big event would result in a loss of prestige in the eyes of certain status conscious people. It was an even bigger kick to the nuts because the reason why he decided to return to Gotham City in the first place was to regain the prestige and influence his father squandered to undo the Waynes.

"Yes, prestige is very important, and I'm sure that you're going to have to work hard to regain a lot of it now," Edgar said dryly. "It seems like no matter what you try to do, the Cobblepots are always considered to be second best."

"Third best, you forgot about the Evans family," Chang-Tzu reminded him. "They have gotten the better of you in the past, have they not?"

Oswald gripped his umbrella firmly. He did not need to be reminded about the Waynes or the Evans. Especially the Evans, because reminding him about that reminded him about Harry Fucking Potter and if he ever thought about that smug little shit ever again, it will be all too soon. The loss of his Iceberg Longue was still a sore subject.

He clutched the handle of his umbrella so hard that one might swear that it would crack underneath the force that he exerted.

The trio stepped into a room with several long heavy oak wood tables. Three large windows gave them a view of a wild looking court yard. On top of the greenery, the windows once gave anyone who looked out them a spectacular view of the ocean. That was before a parking garage blocked them.

Oswald was sick of having the piss taken out of him. He snapped his fingers and his men pulled their weapons on Chang-Tzu and Edgar. Both of them didn't look too surprised at this.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, what are your plans for the egg?" Cobblepot asked. Both of them looked at him. "You see, it's not that I don't believe you when you see they won't have any effect on my business. But I honestly don't believe ya when I hear you say that it won't have any effect on my business. So right here, right now, you're going to tell me what you're up to, and if I like the tale you're going to be telling me, we keep doing business."

Cobblepot took a calming breath.

"If not, my boys are going to pump you so full of lead, that Swiss cheese will look air tight in comparison."

Edgar adjusted his gloves, in a bored and almost lazy manner. It was obvious what he was doing instantly. He held a small egg shaped grenade in his hands.

"GET YOU'RE HANDS UP!" one of the thugs yelled.

"Of course," Edgar commented. He slowly complied.

That caused the thug to get hit in the head by Oswald with a silenced pistol. The man fell to the ground and Oswald looked at the other men. "While I like the lad's initiative, we're trying to have a civil discussion, and there's no need to be rude now. Talk it out amongst yourselves boys, but be quick about it. We do have a schedule to keep tonight, don't we?"

Cobblepot stepped back and allowed Chang and Edgar to go into a bit of a huddle and they were speaking in hushed voices.

"It wouldn't hurt to tell him that it wouldn't cut into his bottom line," Chang-Tzu whispered.

"Yes, we should have eggspected that it would come to this," Edgar said. He slowly lifted his head up after a long beat later. "The Crystal Egg is a very old artifact….."

"You're just spitting out a bunch of old news, lad," Cobblepot warned him.

"It's a very old, very powerful magical artifact that when used in a certain ritual it is supposed to bring great fortune to the people who have it in their position," Edgar replied.

"We thought give that you're well known disdain for the arcane, it wouldn't be something that you would be interested in," Chang-Tzu stated. He looked into Cobblepot's eyes. "Either way, it will have a minimal effect on your bottom line."

The mere mention of magic caused the Penguin's face to curl up into absolute disgust. The mention of a fortune caused him to overlook that dislike for magic. His curiosity bubbled to the surface.

The end result gave the impression that he looked more like he was constipated than anything else. He leaned forward with a greedy glint dancing in his eyes.

"So, what kind of fortune are we talking about?" Cobblepot asked.

"Boss, look!" one of his men yelled, pointing out a light in the parking garage.

That allowed Edgar to launch his secret weapon, the egg in his hand. It smashed open and explodes. A choking smoke screen was sent throughout the group.

That brought the Penguin and his men into an immense coughing fit. The two Masterminds of Crime slipped into the distance.

The Penguin coughed with an angry squawk before turning towards his men. "What are you lazy arses fucking waiting for? GO GET THEM!"

* * *

 

This particular parking garage was a parking garage that was typical of the parking garages in all of the worst parts of Gotham. Half of the cars have already been broken into and the only reason why the other half of the cars haven't been broken into was that they didn't hold anything of particular value.

Magpie slunk into the scene towards one of the stairwells towards the level where she was supposed to meet with her mysterious buyer.

To be honest, she wasn't expecting any trouble because nobody was supposed to know that this deal is going down, but she was still wary because something caused her to be edge.

She got some rest in the past day, stashed the money she stole from Penguin somewhere safe, and moved the Egg into a much more portable container. A sturdy looking leather satchel was the container she used to be exact.

Magpie reached her desired level, the fourth floor, instead of the top floor. She stepped out of the stairwell and onto the deck area. She slinked past several cars and made out a person standing in the shadows.

The thief closed the distance between the two of them, but stopped about ten feet. Magpie was going to wait for the buyer to meet her half-way, since she wasn't about to be the one to come to him.

The buyer shook his head and stepped from the shadows to reveal himself fully. It could be seen quite plainly that he was dressed rather oddly, in an old-timey manner.

"That's really odd," Magpie muttered. "The way you're dressed…."

"Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones," the man told her briskly. The woman's eyebrows rose. "Do you have the goods?"

She was about to open her mouth.

"Do not be a stereotype," the Bookworm said, almost as if he plucked her own words from her mouth. "I wouldn't have even bothered to show up if I did not have my part of this transaction."

This statement caused Magpie to narrow her eyes. She slowly gazed at him, her eyebrow raised.

Slowly, she reached into the Satchel and pulled out a small object about the size of a child's fist wrapped in a cloth. She revealed it to him.

He nodded his head at the sight of it. A small bag was thrown at her feet. Magpie stooped down and saw that the money was there, intact.

Magpie slowly counted the stack of bills. When she was sure that all of the money was there, the woman forked the money over towards him.

The transaction was now completed and both were about ready to move on with their lives. Or at least they were had they not been interrupted by the sound of people who rushed up the stairs in their general direction.

* * *

 

Maxie Zeus made quite the entrance, revealing himself to the club. He stood next to both the Siren and Helena Sandsmark. The three of them were dressed up like one might imagine a Greek God to be.

His men took time to strip his guests of their various weapons and herded his guests into what basically amounted into the ball room. He could preside better over his worshippers in that way.

Some of the personalities involved were not willing to play ball. One of his guards smacked some of them in the back of the head with the butt of his rifle.

"Come before me, and kneel before me, kneel before me, for your god!" Maxie bellowed.

' _Please tell me he's joking,'_ Faora thought. She wished that she and the other girls could do something, but things were too crowded and there were way too many witnesses.

They had to wait for the moment. Harry thought that if he could have a clear shot at Zeus, he could take him out. Any of the girls might have but the problem was causing his men to return fire and harming any of the civilians.

"Zeus, the King of the Gods, has returned to preside over you and I have brought forth with me, Hera, my Queen!" Maxie bellowed. He clasped the hand of Helena Sandsmark. Her eyes looked like she was glazed over.

Juno let out the slightest and most subtle of all snorts. That caused Harry to look at her with a bemused expression.

"I have granted you the honor to come here before me on Olympus, to usher in a new age of the gods," Maxie continued. His bellowing got even more prominent. "I will preside over Gotham City and I will rule over all through a great and glorious future!"

Maxie's eyes shifted around. Everyone seemed to be too shocked to say anything or too terrified.

"But, alas, there are some undesirables who infest my kingdom, and they seek to undermine my authority!" Maxie yelled. "They will be controlled or they will be destroyed."

One of Mario Falcone's mouthier associates popped off. "Yeah, how are you going to do that, oh great Zeus?"

Maxie raised the spear and annihilated him with a blast of lightning right before the eyes of everyone.

Juno looked on with widened eyes. Harry caught her muttering out of the side of her mouth. "I can't believe someone found it."

' _And we found Helena, and she's underneath some kind of spell,'_ Harry said to the girls through the bond link. _'We don't know exactly how this happened, but none of us can reach her through the bond.'_

' _Yeah, that does pose a problem,'_ Kara said. _'What I wouldn't give to smack that smug asshole in the face and shove that spear straight up his…..'_

' _Yes, Kara, thank you, darling,'_ Harry interrupted dryly. _'But remember, there are civilians and his men look to be the type to shoot first and ask questions….well maybe never.'_

"Fear of power is a good means to control the subject, but only the truly unimportant and rebellious will suffer that fate!" Maxie bellowed. "There are other ways, more pleasurable ones….but first I must deal with the snake within the kingdom."

Maxie turned his spear towards Harry Potter and he began to charge it. Faora was about to step in, but Harry shook his head. It was likely that Kara and Karen were both behind her as well.

"NO!" the woman by Zeus's side yelled. She freaked out at what Zeus was about to do.

The bonded were freaking out and frustrated. They couldn't intervene no matter what.

Maxie turned towards Lorelei with narrowed eyes.

"You promised me that I could have Potter, if I got you your prize and I did, several times over," she told him. Some of her power ensnared him to get him to comply a bit more.

"Very well, then, take Hades then," Maxie said in a dry voice. His tone grew rather amused when he added one more caveat as an afterthought. "If you think that you can hold him, that is."

Lorelei reached over and grabbed Harry by the hand. "Come with me, and leave….leave and be free, be with me forever."

Harry looked at her body. It was hard to deny that she was an attractive young woman.

"Yes, you want all of this," she sang. She stroked the side of his cheek. "And you can have it, all of it, and more."

Harry smiled as she leaned forward for a kiss. A Veela's allure didn't work on him, so this Siren song that she was using didn't work as well. He stepped back and commented without a rather dry. "No thanks, I don't know where you've been."

The woman's eyes widened. No one had broken her spell. The fact he was able to resist her made her want him even more.

"I don't think that you understand!" she yelled, losing her temper and increasing her allure. "You can be with me forever, you can be mine forever, and I will make you feel so good…..let Zeus have Gotham City….it's just going to collapse under its own corruption anyway."

She put so much power into her voice that it ensnared other males and most of the other females with the exception of Juno and the bonded.

"Well, honey….." Harry said, leaning forward, a goofy grin on his face. Lorelei looked triumphant and braced herself for her reward. Harry leaned forward, acting like he was going to kiss her. At the very last second he stopped and grew serious. "No."

Lorelei curled her lips up and stammered. "But….but….but…..!"

Maxie bellowed at the top of his lungs. "It's time to end this charade…..if Hades can't be controlled and I am not allowed to kill him, then history will be repeated and he will be cast out of Olympus once again!"

The demented man kicked Harry backwards hard and sent him crashing through the plate glass window. Harry hurled towards the Gotham City streets below.

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 11** **th** **, 2015.**


	88. Fall of Olympus Part Seven

**Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Fall of Olympus Part Seven.**

* * *

 

It was mere seconds ago that Harry was literally sent falling from the top of Club Olympus when Maxie Zeus kicked him through the plate window. The club was on the top three floors of the tallest building in Gotham and he was falling fast.

Harry Potter's life pretty much sucked right now and he was cut up because of all of the glass. He swore mentally to himself for the need of the watch and the fact that his powers weren't completely gone. He really needed them, especially the durability and the flight powers. They might have been extremely useful all things considered.

He was in a lot of pain, but thankfully was able to think straight.

' _I can't teleport out of danger due to the momentum,'_ Harry thought. He did a few mental calculations where he was able to slow his descent slightly. _'If I did, I would just end up hitting the ground with the same amount of force and velocity that I'm going at currently. It would just be a much shorter trip. It'd fucking hurt all of the same though.'_

Harry wasn't about to fall to his death though, because that was simply not the way that he rolled. If only he could fly at the moment or summon a broom. With those options out, Harry knew precisely what he needed to do.

Shifting in mid-air, Harry managed to make it so it was a controlled dive, whether than a free fall. When he was in the perfect position, he could see clearly about where he was going and now he was hurtling towards the ground at terminal velocity.

He was somehow able to make out the fact that the building he was falling from has a wider base than the tower part of the building it sits upon. It was basically an extremely long tower that sat on the top of a squatter twelve story building.

It came to him that this wider base just happened to have a pool. He was pretty far up, but his excellent eyesight was able to make that much. Even then though, he was just barely able to make it out.

Harry angled himself in that particular direction. No matter what this was going to suck, but this was going to suck even more if he would hit solid ground. Harry placed his hands down at the side in order to cut down on wind resistance.

From that point, it didn't take too long for him to reach his destination.

There was glass, but before Harry was able to end up going through it, he used his heat vision to shatter it. With that done, he used a shield spell to absorb most of the impact.

With the shield spell into place, he makes a huge impact into the pool landing into it with a huge crack. Regardless of whether he had superhuman durability, or not, Harry could sense he was going to feel like he got hit straight on by a mack truck.

Harry nearly passed out from the pain when he connected. He fought it off and a burst of adrenaline blasted through his body. His arms felt like they were weighed down, but he swam through the pool.

Shaking off the overwhelming numbness that he felt, Harry managed to pull himself out of the water and onto the deck.

Harry could feel the world spinning around him as he tried to push himself to his feet. A sudden onset of dizziness, combined with a dull ringing in his ears brought Harry to his knees.

Despite the shield spell, Harry still had a concussion. The ringing in his head made it hard to concentrate. The cut up back he had, gave him something else to focus on other than the ringing sensation that was in the back of his head.

Other than that, he was perfectly fine. If nothing else, the pain indicated that he was still alive, even though it took every single fiber of his well-being and his will power to stay conscious.

It was a struggle also that Harry was rapidly losing.

' _Can anyone hear me?'_ Harry asked. He had to focus on the bond link because it was his lifeline to the outside world. The thumping got even louder in the back of his head.

' _Yes, I hear you, what the hell happened?'_ Amanda asked.

' _Zeus kicked me from Olympus, I'm currently beside a pool beneath his night club, and he's….well he's gone completely nuts,'_ Harry thought. He concentrated on the location that he was at, basically feeding it to Amanda through the bond. _'Do you have all of that?'_

' _Yeah, I have all of that,'_ Amanda said.

' _Good, then you need to tell Sarah what's happened, along with the current location,'_ Harry replied.

' _Wait, why don't you just teleport back to the tower for medical aid?'_ she asked.

' _Too many people saw me kicked off of the building and too many people will ask questions if I'm go and turn up later completely healed,'_ Harry thought. He kept struggling in his attempt to stay awake. There was a loud ringing that continued to pass through his ears. He tried to keep his head up, but he failed. _'Someone from the GCPD has to investigate it…..rather it be Sarah than anyone else.'_

Harry could feel his body finally given out. After all of the information was out of the way, he gave into unconsciousness.

* * *

 

The sounds of gunfire could be heard from afar in Gotham City. Magpie and Bookworm had just been in the midst of making a fairly successful and peaceful transaction.

Bookworm rushed towards the nearest stairwell. He had no reason to stick around right now, especially now that the transaction was complete. All he needed to do was find his way out of the building and go from there.

Magpie had slipped off in an entirely different direction all together. He didn't really see what direction she was going, but it was at this point that he honestly didn't care because he had what he was looking for.

Bookworm scrambled his way safely into the stairwell and made his way down several flights of stairs. His destination was to the deck on the third floor.

He stopped and it was obvious that the sounds of gunfire were coming far closer than he thought. There were two sides fighting with each other. The minions of Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu fought the henchmen of the Penguin.

Bookworm carefully navigated his way on through. The man was not much of a fighter and that much was obvious. He nearly took a stray round to the shoulder and that caused him to wince and make his way around.

He could see Edgar from across the way. He pulled an egg shaped device of some sort out of his pocket.

Bookworm had a working familiarity of Egghead's methods, given that they worked together in the past. He blinked in surprise and ducked for cover, whilst covering his ears.

That was a timely maneuver as seconds later the device was thrown into the air and exploded with a cacophony of light and sound. It sent everyone but himself down to the ground, causing them to grow blind, deaf, and dumb.

Bookworm shook his head, pretty sure that he just got away with something impressive. He turned around and went around the corner.

He went face to face with Egghead. He blinked in surprise at the sight of Bookworm stand before him.

* * *

 

The group inside Club Olympus was trying to process what the hell had just happened. They were pretty sure that Maxie just fried a guy with a spear and then he kicked Harry Potter out of the window.

The crowd had fallen into a silent hush at that point. Maxie, being as pompous as he was, had mistaken that look for one of reverence, but that was the furthest from the fact.

The girls on the other hand were really pissed of the situation. Kara turned to the side, and saw Faora, Karen, and Lily shooting Zeus one of those looks like they would set them on fire with their minds.

' _I think I can get him from here, I'll make him light up like a roman candle,'_ Kara said, balling her fists up. She wanted nothing better than to wrap her hands around Zeus's neck and snap it like a twig.

' _We can't,'_ Karen thought fretfully. There were too many people around, even if they were underneath the Siren's thrall. There were too many chances for causalities. _'But I'm right here with you, if only we can…..'_

' _That bastard would burn,'_ Faora said. She closed her eyes and mentally counted to a hundred. She didn't trust herself not to accidentally heat vision the bastard's head off and she kept a pretty close hold on Kara and Karen as well, not trusting them to do pretty much the same thing.

Faora turned around and her gaze met Selina's. She was looking borderline catatonic at this point. She was in the middle of reliving what happened to her and that was a really bad trip down memory lane. To see someone she cared about go through that and potentially not survive, it was an awful thing to remember.

"And now, I will stand before you, with Hera, and we will bring rule and order back to new Olympus!" Zeus yelled in a booming tone of voice.

His voice echoed loudly and if one was watching Juno Jones closely, they could see how impressed she was with him, and that was to say that she wasn't really impressed at all.

Bruce looked about as put off by the situation as the rest of the girls. He was looking for the perfect opportunity to slip away and suit up. Anyone who was able to see past the mask could tell off hand that he was close enough to losing his temper, and he was looking for a chance to slip out.

Unfortunately, one of the models he brought with him was proving rather clingy. She was really terrified and there was not a chance to do so.

Maxie Zeus was in the middle of holding court. He sat upon a big, rather impressive, and extremely gaudy marble thrown that had been brought in for him to sit upon.

"You mortals before me should be glad that I am here before you and you should play homage to my divine power," Maxie said. His eyes swept about the crowd.

' _And I wonder how his ego fits in the room with the rest of him,'_ Lily thought. She was looking around for an opening of some sort to strike Zeus down. The only problem was that artifact he had with him was making an attempt to shoot him down with some spells a crapshoot.

' _I think that I'm going to throw up,'_ Karen thought. She folded her arms underneath her chest and waited to see what was going to happen next.

Maxie's eyes fixed on Mario Falcone. "Mario Falcone, you are the son of one of the pretenders to the throne of Gotham City, the so called Roman, Carmine Falcone. And you have not allowed your men the opportunity to show the rest that I deserve, which leads to inferior breeding. I'm afraid that cannot be allowed any longer."

Two of Zeus's men walked behind Mario and held him.

"You are going to kneel before me and kiss my foot, and you may be offered forgiveness," Maxie replied. "Do so, and all of the crimes of your demented followers will be forgiven. Fail me, and you will experience my displeasure and that is not something that you will enjoy experiencing."

Mario Falcone stood fast and he caught the smirk on the face of his sister, Sofia.

"I don't think….."

Maxie lifted the spear and he sent another bolt of lightning towards the second bodyguard for this evening. He reduced the man to ashes.

"And here is a reminder of what your lack of compliance has caused," Maxie said. "Your father considers himself a worth ruler, calls himself the Roman, but he is nothing but a flawed ruler, who assumes that he as a grand conqueror. He might be the king among mortals, but you sweet prince, are nothing compared to a god."

Maxie snapped his fingers and two of his guards grabbed Mario. Mario proved that he was more than capable of pushing an unsuspecting woman out of the window. He punched one of the thugs in the face and got in a brief hand to hand struggle with another thug.

The thug was picked up and launched into a serving cart, which knocked him out.

The second thug pointed a weapon at him, but Mario was able to disarm him and take him down to the ground. He folded his arm behind his back and cracked his arm behind his back.

"We'll see how much a god you are now, Zeus," Mario said. He turned the gun towards Zeus and held it on him. "Just back off, nice and easy."

"Oh, this should be amusing," Zeus muttered, chuckling. He turned his eyes towards Lorelei.

"You're going to want to put down the gun and come forward," Lorelei sang. The sound of the Siren overwhelmed him. Maria dropped the gun in seconds and Lorelei thought that she could have made him jump out of the window if she allowed him to do so. "And you're to come forward, come before your lord."

Mario's legs moved forward against his will. He couldn't stop himself from moving forward if he wanted to and he didn't really want to. Lorelei smiled when the thug walked forward and there was excitement going through her eyes.

"And now kneel before him just like he intended you to," Lorelei said. Her voice was soft and soothing. "Come on, kneel before him."

Zeus's foot was a bit dirty and there were a few callouses on it, along with something growing on it. It looked like he had been walking through a horse stall in bare feet without washing it for several weeks.

"Yes, you enjoy worshiping your master's foot, you want to do that, kiss his foot," Lorelei sang.

Mario's eyes glazed over when he kissed the dirty, filthy foot of Maximillion Zeus. The crowd looked on this disgust at this blatant display of power porn.

Sofia looked on at her brother in distaste of the fact that he was debasing himself like this. It was coming off as rather creepy.

Mario's body shuddered, it was almost like he was getting some kind of sexual gratification and fulfillment out of kissing the filthy foot of Zeus. He continued to lavish his foot with worship.

"Don't forget the toes," Lorelei ordered him. Pure malice danced from her eyes. This pathetic fool was being humiliated. It was nearly adequate compensation for her losing Harry Potter tonight thanks to this fool. And the fact that Zeus was getting fulfillment out of a man sucking his toes would be run with by the Gotham City gossip rags when this is over.

"Yes, that's what you need to do, but you enjoy worshiping your king, don't you?" Maxie asked with relish.

' _And they're both getting into this way too much,'_ Karen thought. She had a desire to bleach her brain after witnessing all this.

Juno was watching, and she gave a soft tut. Only those who were the closest o her realize that they got up.

"You have done sufficiently good work, you may rise," Zeus said. Mario continued to kiss his foot. "I said that you may rise."

"Rise," Lorelei repeated and Mario got to his feet. She smiled and approached him. "Look at the crowd as you licked your lips."

This disgusting act was concluded and Maxie slipped his boot back up to get to his feet. "Tell him to return to his seat."

"You may return to your seat," Lorelei said. She grew excited about this and excited that both men would end up humiliated after this night is over.

Maxie was sat upon the throne and his eyes narrowed with pure malice. He looked down at all of them.

' _Oh great, another grand standing speech is coming,'_ Kara said. Strangling him seemed to be more rewarding by each and every single moment.

It seemed as if Juno didn't look too particularly impressed by him either.

"You will learn that pleasing me, pleasing your god, and doing as he commands, will lead nothing to nothing but great things," Maxie ranted. His tone grew bolder and his voice echoed. He could really protect. "And not doing so will lead to your destruction. You will all learn to appreciate a god like me, and you will all learn that when I say kneel before me, you will do so. It will be much more rewarding if you do as I say. You saw what happened when Hades had been cast from Olympus. You saw what happened when this fool's bodyguards….."

Maxie paused and pointed at Mario Falcone. Falcone looked rather gazed over. His humiliation had not properly set in.

"You saw what happened when this fool sent his bodyguards at me, and no one is going to stand in me way," Maxie said. "Who dares stand up to the great god known as Zeus!"

He bellowed loudly, his tone getting bolder. With each word he spoke, Juno looked less impressed and her eyebrow started to furrow. This was the best indication of how agitated she was regarding this entire situation.

"And now, it's time for the next subject to kneel before me."

Maxie's eyes cast over the crowd and his eyes fell upon Karen.

' _Oh shit,'_ Karen thought to herself.

"APHRODITE!" he bellowed, looking straight at her large breasts. He was distracted for a brief second, but he reigned himself in. "How nice to see you attend my coronation."

Maxie rose to his feet and made strides towards her. Karen looked at him and wondered how she got herself into these messes.

' _Well shit, this isn't going to be good,'_ Jaime thought frantically. She wondered if they could get a clear enough shot of him if they got close enough.

Lorelei sighed, he forced the crowd from his way. There was a much simpler way to do this, then to deal with any bullshit. "Move aside, move aside, allow your king to pass on through."

The crowd parted like the Red Sea and did allow the king to move forward. Maxie moved forward and closed the distance between himself and Karen.

' _Do you think that you can stall for time, until Diana and I can get there?'_ Dinah asked her.

' _Yes, but you two owe me big time, and I mean it, you owe me big fucking time,'_ Karen thought. She turned around and offered a smile. That was the best thing she could do at this point.

"Hello, Zeus, it's good to see that you have made it here today and have made your presence known," Karen said.

"Yes, it is not as wonderful as it is to see you, my dear Aphrodite," Zeus commented. He reached on and grasped her hand. He planted a light kiss on her hand and pulled her in close. "And I trust that you have been waiting for this as long as I have."

"Oh yes, yes, for longer than you can imagine," Karen said. She closed her eyes, giving a shudder, which Zeus mistook the reason for.

' _Oh Rao, give me strength for this,'_ Karen thought. She wanted so hard to punch this tool in the mouth, but it would blow her cover.

Helena, playing the role of Hera, thanks to the thrall that the Siren had her other was glaring at both of them with utter contempt.

"Let's say we abandon these peasants and we can get reacquainted."

"What about Hera?" Karen asked.

"She will learn to understand that Zeus cannot be tied down with one mere woman, it just cannot be done," Zeus answered.

' _And there's something that he does have in common with the real Zeus, imagine that,'_ Donna thought. _'At least you got to get him points for getting into character there.'_

Fortunately for Karen's ability to keep her dinner down, she didn't have to play this charade for much longer. There was a loud crash from the skylight above them. It shattered from the impact.

A dark haired woman dressed in a tight red top, with a choker and bracelets, a black jacket, and tight leather pants appeared. She wore a hood on the top that obscured her face.

Diana, or rather the Huntress, stood up to her full height. The crowd got a nice look of her new costume and she was ready for battle.

* * *

 

Magpie had separated from the Bookworm with her money just around the time that the fighting started. She slipped into the shadows of the parking garage.

From that point, she worked her way up towards the top deck of the parking garage. There was a group of the Penguin's thugs that were keeping her from reaching her destination. At least they thought that they did, she would make them pay for it.

Magpie opened up and grabbed one of them from behind. With a brutal attack, she slammed his head pretty hard into the concrete support pillar. It bounced off against the support pillar with a resounding crack.

From there, Magpie proceeded to take the rest of them out quite brutally. Her fists and feet kept swinging around, knocking them around one at a time.

Magpie looked down at the group of her adversaries. She looked down at them and turned around.

She turned around, just in time to duck an extremely fast kick. It was launched at her head by an extremely irritated Chang-Tzu.

Magpie didn't have much time to recover that. There was a very fast and furious round of blows. She was able to block, counter, or dodge around them. Some of them, the moment she dodged them, it put her in line for another attack.

She might have been crazy, but Magpie could hold her own in a fight.

"Oh you want to play rough, do you?" she asked. She fired back and tried to nail her enemy with one of the vicious kicks, the same type that rocked her back.

Chang-Tzu backed off, he had only begun to fight and the savage battle between the two of them continued.

Magpie was forced to back flip in order to avoid a rather sudden spear hand strike from her adversary. The thief got into a low crouch and then she heard a loud crack. It was something akin to a hammer hitting a sack of meat. That was followed by the sound of a body falling effortlessly to the ground.

The thief looked up and saw a very large gun pointing at her face. It might have been shiny, but it was going to kill her. The man behind the extremely large gun was Oswald Cobblepot, better known as the Penguin. He joined the party between herself and Chang-Tzu, who Oswald pretty much ended up pistol whipping from behind.

Magpie also realized that she was surrounded by Penguin's men. And there was no way out.

The woman might have been a bit eccentric, but she knew just enough to realize that she was in a really dangerous situation. The woman slowly lifted her hand up in a token of surrender and slowly began to stand up.

The class act he was, Cobblepot nailed her in the stomach and smacked her right in the eye. "How dare you do it, how dare you steal from me? Did you really think that you would get away with this, you stupid, bitch?"

He punched her in the mouth hard, splitting her lip.

"How dare you steal from me, Oswald Cobblepot?" he asked her. Her breath had been drilled from her body.

"Wait, wait, I didn't do anything that you wouldn't have done, if you didn't have the chance, it was so shiny, and I got distracted by it," Magpie said, talking fast. She managed not to trip over her words and make things worse. "I'll pay you back the money, all of it, including the extra I got from Bookworm from selling the egg to him. You can have it, you can have it all."

Penguin listened to her spiel with narrowed eyes. He gave a short squawking like laugh. "Well, I guess I can afford to be generous, especially because you're such a hot piece of ass."

He slipped his gun back into the holster. Magpie smiled in relief in response and then slipped the bag with the money off of her shoulder.

She went to hand it to the Penguin and then suddenly drives it into his stomach. Then she followed that up by kicking him straight in the balls so hard that his eyes almost appeared to pop out of his socket.

The three guards took a moment to reboot their brains, just in time to see Magpie leap up into the air and take them out with a spin kick.

Now she's free, she could escape. Magpie looked down, but unfortunately the money that she handed Oswald was gripped in a bearhug. She wasn't going to pull it out without the help of the jaws of life.

Chang-Tzu also slipped off some point during the conversation with the Penguin, but Magpie really paid that little mind when she disappeared into the darkness.

* * *

 

Har-Zod was left lying unconscious with a concussion on the pool room floor. He was slipping further underneath the madness of what happened to him. The recent trend of Harry's rather disturbing dreams was about ready to continue as he slipped underneath.

Harry frowned, even he was having a weird dream, or he was pulled into the spirit realm. There were shadowy figures, humming and things were really getting more screwed up as the time passed.

The chorus of demonic sounding children chanting "he's got the whole world, in his hands" resounded over and over again. Harry kept making his strides forward and things were just getting creepier.

Harry leaned forward and saw a spectral figure dressed in a dark robe. The chanting got louder and louder.

The hood of the spectral figure came down and Harry came face to face with an individual that he had only saw in the papers, and never met. He came face to face with the demonic face of Deacon Blackfire. There was something unsettling about them.

Was he a ghost? Harry couldn't be quite certain. It was one of those points where he really wished his powers over Death were working about as properly, but those had been settled until his CORE had been properly healed.

The next thing Harry knew, he was face to face with Blackfire in the burnt out wreck of the Church. It was the same church where the good Deacon died.

"It's one of the grand regrets that I have, that I've never had a chance to meet you face to face, my brother," the Deacon remarked. "If you've never heard of me, my name is Deacon Blackfire, and my friend, I am the Reaper that will deliver the world from the blanket of lies that it has been wrapped within."

"Oh, I've heard of you already," Harry said. He had not met face to face with Blackfire, because he was fighting against Grundy.

"It is with a great regret that we didn't have a chance to meet when you were fighting my brother, Solomon," Blackfire preached. "Right now, you're hovering in between the realm of life and death, we have a chance to talk and we have a lot in common."

Harry raised his eyebrow, but said absolutely nothing about this.

"We both came to Gotham City from out of town to spread our message to the people," the Deacon preached. "But that's where the similarities end for we went about it in different ways. You tried to win the love of the people by making them fall in love with you. Whilst I have won the hearts and the minds of the downtrodden, the desperate unwashed masses that people like you and your fellow high society types who look up in their towers, looking upon the unwashed masses forget. You might think that you care, but all you see them as a potential tax write off and a business opportunity!"

Harry got up and turned around. He was not in the mood being lectured by the ghost of a dead preacher. He turned around and walked out of the church. He walked into a city on fire.

Deacon Blackfire calmly walked out with them, and Gotham was on fire as far as the eye could see. That might have been disturbing enough in its own right, but the ghosts of various Gothamites continue to go about their day to day as if nothing out of the ordinary is happening.

"You might not like the message that I'm trying to spread, but that doesn't mean that I'm wrong," the Deacon whispered with excitement. "You are the one with everything to lose, you are the one who has deluded themselves into thinking that they are the hero this world needs. Well, you are no less delusional than the other sinners who have put Gotham City into the place that they are in. You have already been pushed from heaven to the streets beneath by another false prophet."

The Deacon looked into his eyes with a crazed look.

"You've got an end game planned, but you don't have any idea how to reach it," Blackfire whispered. "Right now, you're as effective as a dog chasing his tail."

Harry paused after an extremely long beat and he looked Blackfire dead on in the eyes. "Those are some pretty impressive words from a dead man."

The Deacon smirked, lowered his head towards the ground so his hair has fallen in front of his face. He held his hands out to the side, during a pretty good impression on Christ on the cross. The bell of the church rang six times, followed by a crash of thunder, as Deacon Blackfire rolled his eyes into the back of his head.

He spoke in an unearthly voice. "Didn't you hear the news, Brother? I'm coming back."

Harry looked at him.

"Harry?"

"And don't you hear? They're calling your name!"

"HARRY!"

After a long beat passed, Harry woke up to the sound of a concerned Sarah. Her voice was extremely frantic as she tried to wake him up. Harry jerked out of his state and his hands frailed along with his legs.

"Oh, thank God, you're awake," Sarah said. Harry looked around frantically, and she pulled him into a hug. "Oh calm down, please calm down, it's fine, you're here, you're….I thought that you actually died for a moment."

"No, not yet," Harry muttered. He wasn't sure if he could, but he wasn't about ready to test that theory. Dying might be the easy part; the coming back from the dead part was something else entirely. "I just had the most fucked up dream in the world."

Sarah waited patiently for Harry to describe the dream that he had to her. Moments passed where Harry finished.

"That's really fucked up," she admitted when he finished. "But, it's impossible for him to come back, Blackfire's dead, I saw the body myself, there's no way possible that he can return."

Harry looked at her with one of those looks. "You know, it's not as impossible as you might think it might be."

It was at this point that Harry noticed his clothes had been cut off and he was wrapped into a blanket. At this sight, he turned to Sarah with a raised eyebrow.

"You were soaking wet and you were on the verge of catching hypothermia," Sarah explained to him. "And I wasn't quite sure about how your system will handle it."

Harry slowly nodded his head when he came back. In his addled mind, it made too much sense.

"So how is the GCPD handling the situation with the hostages up in the Club?" he asked her.

"The lobby is locked down tight, and we can't get up there without using a helicopter," Sarah explained to him. "The only other way up there is the elevator."

Harry knew one thing was for certain, it was now up to Diana and Dinah to get this situation resolved.

* * *

 

Diana just made a dramatic entrance into Club Olympus from the rooftop above. Maxie Zeus on the other hand responded to that little intrusion just about how you would expect. He shot a bolt of lightning directly at her from the Spear of Zeus.

She dodged the attack with expert precision. It was something that she saw coming a mile away.

"Grab this interloper!" Zeus bellowed, waving his goons over towards her. "Make sure she pays for her interference!"

One of the goons tried to nail Diana with a champagne bottle. She blocked it and kicked him hard in the ribs. Another goon tried to jump on her back, but she flipped him down onto the ground.

' _So, is this the perfect time to jump in or not?'_ Kara asked. She watched Diana lay the smack down on these goons, very impressed.

Karen shook her head, seeing Bruce off out of the corner of her eye. She had pulled herself far away from Zeus as possible in the chaos and he had other things in mind. _'We don't want anyone knowing the extent of our abilities. Even if they know about some of them…..'_

' _Even if the person in question as a pretty good idea what those abilities are in the first place?'_ Lily asked.

Karen nodded in response. _'Exactly.'_

Juno closed her eyes. It was through a sheer stroke of luck that she managed to keep Maxie unaware of the crowd and his goons as well, so they couldn't be used for live cover. And the crowd continued to be blissfully unaware of a fight of any sort that was going on.

Meanwhile, the Huntress was doing battle with Maxie's thugs. She was doing a pretty good job in taking them down. The Amazon ducked behind a pillar and armed herself with a long bow. Her enemies had guns now and with expert precision she disarmed most of them before they could get a lock on her.

While not of her shots were completely lethal, they did hurt like hell, as you would imagine being shot with a bunch of razor sharp arrows. Diana was pretty pleased with the progress that she was making in thinning out the numbers of the enemy.

Unfortunately, a lot of that process was ruined when Maxie lifted the Spear of Zeus and fired a lightning bolt to destroy her cover with a blast of lightning.

Given the situation, and doing all that she could with the bow, she decided to go hand to hand with her enemy. She knocked one of them back with a series of rapid fire shots sending her enemy back.

Her largest enemy tried to swing a large pole towards her. Diana ducked it and then went into a roll. She jumped up high into the air and nailed her with a rising knee to the jaw.

The enemy landed hard onto the ground.

More thugs went after her. She wondered how many of them were put under the Siren's thrall as added muscle and how many of them were Zeus's regular thugs. Diana was going to have to worry about that later.

Diana tore through the thugs. One of them grabbed her from behind, but she flipped out of his attack and kicked him in the face. Another thug tried to smack her, but she ducked it and took them down.

When the dust cleared, Diana was face to face with Maxie Zeus. Who once again lifted the Spear of Zeus and fired another blast of lightning before she could close in on them.

Diana dodged to the side, landing in a low couch, and she darted forward towards him. She lifted a shield that she had on her and hurled it like a discus towards Maxie.

That caught him by surprise and sent the Spear of Zeus flying from his hand. Now that he was disarmed.

"You will pay for that…"

The Huntress jumped forward and buried her fist into the jaw of Zeus. It cracked hard and sent the man lifting off of the ground and flying backwards. He smashed into the thrown behind him.

With that out of the way, Diana turned her attention towards the Siren.

The Siren had an ace up her sleeve, not wanting to get nabbed that easily. She grabbed Helena from behind.

It turned out that the Siren wasn't the only person who had an ace up her sleeve on this night. The Black Canary made her way from the shadows. She had been stealthily sending any thugs down that the Huntress might have not gotten on the backswing.

Black Canary snuck up on the Siren and tapped her on the shoulder. In surprise, the Siren let go of Helena and turned around right into a punch from the Black Canary. The Siren wasn't much of a fighter outside of her powers, so Lorelei was down for the count and taken care of.

The hostage crisis had been dealt with, but there was another problem. The gauntlets Zeus wore had protected him from getting his head smacked in by an Amazon. He recovered a little too quickly and while they were preoccupied by Helena and the Siren, he reclaimed the Spear of Zeus.

"Zeus claims Olympus and I will never be struck down by lightning!"

Maxie sent a burst of lightning from the Spear of Zeus at them. Thinking quickly, Diana used her bracers to deflect the bolt of lightning straight back at Zeus. He reacted that this counterattack accordingly by dancing in place like he stuck his tongue in a socket.

"Well, he wasn't struck down," Black Canary remarked. It looked rather painful and his night was about ready to get worse. Black Canary threw her head back and released a supersonic canary cry that sent him flying backwards into the throne once more.

It cracked as a result of Diana smashing him into it the first time. Therefore the top half of the throne broke off and smacked Maxie on the top of the head. This had the bonus of knocking him out and more importantly finally shutting him up.

With that, Maxie faded to black.

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 18** **th** **, 2015.**


	89. Olympus Has Fallen Part One

**Chapter Eighty-Nine: Olympus Has Fallen Part One.  
**

* * *

 

When the dust settled, one could take a deep breath and realize that the hostage situation involving Maxie Zeus had been defused by Black Canary and the Huntress. In the aftermath of that, the GCPD SWAT finally stormed the place and got some kind of order in place. They had arrived a little too late to the party, finding out that any storming of the gates of Olympus was really not necessary.

The rest of the bonded were now joined by Diana, who was wearing a little red dress and gold jewelry, and Dinah, who wore a little black dress with silver jewelry. It made perfect sense for them to all slip into the crowd for added security.

"So, you don't remember whatever voodoo that Siren chick put you underneath?" Bullock asked.

"No, I think that everyone was confused, and by the time a lot of us snapped out if it, Zeus, his thugs, and the Siren already had been taken out," Karen said. She spoke the official story that they all agreed upon. There was no one there that would be able to confirm any differently after all. "For most of the people here, looks like it's going to be a bad dream."

"Yeah, well, why do I have a feeling that if some of them ever remember that shit going down, they're going to wish they have a nightmare."

Bullock asked a few more questions. Faora was glad that Karen was handling it just as well.

"It's been a long night for all of us, and it must have been an even longer night for the GCPD getting in," she told Renee.

"Long night, that's putting it mildly," Renee said. She sighed. At least the chaos was mostly out of the way. "Well, the MCU is earning their pay and then some this year."

"One can't fault the hard work and dedication you're all putting in," Faora told her.

Renee couldn't help, but that thought. Bruce was giving a statement to Gordon, that pretty much tallied what the girls were doing.

"So, tonight is going to be one that people might talk about for a long time, providing people who remember it," Juno said. She was talking to the members of the press and they were eating out of the palm of their hand. "And I'm sure that Maxie Zeus isn't going to want to remember how it ended. But it served him right, I wonder what happened."

Vicki smiled and looked to Summer, who was looking like she swallowed something extremely sour. That made Vicki smile even more.

' _And suddenly, this night gets a lot better,'_ Vicki thought. She was half paying attention to the other conversations that were going around her.

"But, what happened with Harry Potter?" Vicki asked suddenly. She was able to allow her professional demeanor to slip a little bit. "I seem to remember something happening to him and….he wasn't really put under the thrall like everyone else, wasn't he?"

"Darling, your guess is as good as mine," Juno told Vicki. She kept her answer cool and casually.

"They're saying that he was kicked out of a window by Zeus," Bullock was saying, even though he wasn't having the conversation directly with them.

"Sarah said that she would take a look into those claims," Renee said.

' _Looks like the fact that Harry went through a window didn't escape it,'_ Karen thought. She was being grilled by Bullock.

"Now that you mention it, I do remember something about that, I remember Harry and Zeus having a confrontation,' Karen said frantically. She put on the distressed act, even though she was sure that Harry was okay. Sure she was a bit worried, but she was honestly sure that Harry was fine.

Bullock thought that he was going to lose his mind. Dealing with emotional women had never been his forte.

Renee sighed, and she decided to make a save from the paragon of sensitivity himself. "There is a lot confusion out there. Most of the stories match up, but there are a lot of confusion."

"Yes, we've established that," the woman known to the world as Alexandra Potter declared. Her tone might have been amused had the situation not been so seriously.

"Yeah, I think we want to know what the fuck happened," Bullock said.

Karen sighed. "Well as I told you about three times already, we saw Zeus enter the room with the Siren and also Helena Sandsmark. They were dressed as Zeus and Hera, and Doctor Sandsmark was put underneath some kind of thrall, mind control."

"What, is this Siren chick one of those meteor freaks from hickville or something?" Bullock asked. All of those rumors of some of the weird shit going on there made him glad that he was in Gotham City. Although he got a bit of an up close and personal experience with how their type worked because that Blackfire freak.

"I don't know, why don't you ask her when she wakes up," Karen said. Her tone was patient, but there was a sense that she didn't appreciate being interrupted at all. "Zeus and Harry had a confrontation, while the Siren tried to put him underneath her thrall. It didn't work that well, strong will power."

"Great, kind of guy that makes us all look bad," Bullock grumbled.

"And Zeus kicked him out of the window and then…..well a lot of it's a blank from there," Karen continued. "He did snatch me out of the crowd and tried to get fresh with me. Nothing really happened when Black Canary and the Huntress showed up."

"The Huntress?" Bullock asked. "That's new…hang on, that isn't that chick that hoods are claiming Nightwing is, are they?"

"I don't know, everything happened so fast, I just want to find out whether or not Harry is okay," Karen said.

' _You know that he's okay, you realize that, right?'_ Diana asked.

' _He's alive, there's a difference,'_ Kara said, clasping her hands together nervously.

"Yeah, we sent Essen out there to see if she can find any of him out there, hope that he didn't go all the way down," Bullock said. "Going to suck even if went halfway down."

"So, the Siren was able to hypnotize people?" Renee asked.

"Yes, she introduced some kind of light headed feeling and it was almost like her voice was your subconscious, telling you what to do," Faora said. "But I don't think anyone remembers what happened when they were under their direct control."

"And everyone just snapped out of it," Renee said. She had a theory that the moment Black Canary turned up and knocked Siren out, her control was broken. "Do you think that her control was broken when she was knocked out, Miss Potter?"

"It's possible," she mused in response. She tucked her hand underneath her chin and closed her eyes. "Without knowing the full extent of the Siren's powers, all I can do is guess. They seem to be pheromone based, although the Siren does believe that her voice is the source of her powers."

"So, without running a few tests, you can't really be certain?" Renee asked.

"No, but I'm confident that I'm right about it," Faora responded. She frowned. There was all this strong possibility that she was correct.

"But her powers didn't have any effect over Harry."

Alexandra Potter, Faora-Dru-Zod, whatever you call her, she really knew that this was going to be asked. She already had an answer ready.

"They didn't have any effect on him and that lead him to getting kicked out to the window from Zeus," Renee continued.

"Yes, that did happen," Faora agreed.

"Is there any particular reason why?" Renee asked her.

"Well, it's a combination that she had a fairly strong well, but also that his mind functions differently from a lot of people," Faora said. She could have figured that they went over this. "He is capable of several different thought processes going at once. And that's the reason for his genius level intellect. And his mother is pretty much as intelligent as Harry."

Renee nodded in response, accepting that.

"And you know that he's been recovered as well, don't you?" Faora asked her. Renee frowned at her. "And you know that he's waiting in an ambulance."

Renee continued deny either of these points. All she could do was nod in response.

"If we're finished here, I'd like to check up on my cousin," she continued. "But if you have any more questions or need clarification about anything, or if you just want to talk, please call me, and I'll see what I can do after getting bac to her."

Renee could have sworn that there was a slight wink. The woman walked off into the direction and turned the corner, reaching the nearby ambulance where Harry was being checked out.

Harry was with Sarah, who located him in the pool room. She saw Maxie Zeus being wheeled out on a stretcher along the way.

Faora saw one of the paramedics in the middle of bandaging Harry's back. She made her way over towards him.

"Please stand back," the paramedic replied. The paramedic was shing a pen light in his eye, checking to see if he had a concussion or any type of brain injury.

"What did you find?" Faora asked. She spoke extremely bluntly.

The more senior of the two took charge with answering her questions. "It's quite odd and he was fortunate with how he landed. There are no broken bones, no signs of internal bleeding. There are cuts on his back, but they could be far worse. A couple of them could stand to be stitched up and he has a slight concussion."

Faora nodded in confirmation.

"We should really get him to a hospital."

She shook her head. "No, that won't really be necessary; we have a trained doctor at home that can take a look at him."

Sarah was briefly in a conversation with Bullock and Montoya, checking up on their status. Faora walked over towards her and got her attention. "So, do you need anything else or can we go home now?"

She turned around, looking straight into the woman's eyes and nodded. "I don't think that we need anything else. We'll let you know if anything else pops up though."

* * *

 

Lorelei was handcuffed in the back of a squad car and she was in the midst of recovering from having been knocked out by Black Canary. She was still fairly groggy, but she was slowly coming to. And when she was coming to, she was able to plot.

To the officers, it seemed like she was still knocked out by Black Canary. On the other hand, she had been awake for an extremely long time and playing possum. She was waiting for a good opportunity to act so she can escape. It was a matter of timing and the fools didn't take any means to gag her. That worked out rather well with her plans.

"So, Potter had a lot of hot bitches in his party," one of the officers said. "The blonde, I swear, she had those nice jugs."

"Yeah, they were pretty good, but his mother, damn, she's one MILF isn't he," the officer commented. "If she was my mother, I would into the incest."

"You're a bit sick, you know that," the second officer said, shaking his head. "You're pretty damn sick, you know that."

"Don't even say that you aren't thinking it, because you were thinking it," the first officer said, with a chuckle. He looked over his shoulder to the woman that was currently in the back seat of the car. "You know, for some stuck up bitch, she's a pretty hot piece of ass. Maybe we should go into the backseat and give her a nice little going over. Make sure that she doesn't have any concealed weapons. Go deep inside her to make sure she's completely cleaned. Bitch has got a nice ass, that has to be considered a weapon. We should investigate it thoroughly."

The other officer grunted and turned to his partner. "Couldn't that be considered sexual harassment?"

His partner responded. "Who the fuck cares? It's not like we're going to tell anyone else what we're talking about, and that bitch in the back seat is unconscious anyway. Besides, not going to really do it, even though we should, and we could. Who is going to stop us anyway?"

The officers made some light conversation, but hunger soon visited them. They pulled into a donut shop that was on the way back to the precinct.

"So, what the hell do you want in there?"

The cop in the passenger's seat shook his head and thought about it. "A regular coffee with two cream and two sugar. And just grab a box, you cheap ass."

The other officer stepped out of the vehicle, leaving his keys in the ignition after he turned off the vehicle. He wasn't going to be long in there anyway.

The moment the officer left the vehicle, Lorelei sat up and was ready to pounce.

"Get in the driver's seat, turn off the radio, start the engine, and start driving," Lorelei whispered in a soothing voice.

The officer in the passenger side didn't question it. He did all of those things that the woman asked.

"And keep driving until I tell you to stop," Lorelei ordered him.

The officer nodded as he drove them out of there, making their way a couple of blocks.

"Stop here," Lorelei said. "Unlock the handcuffs and let me out. When I'm away from the car, keep driving until you run out of gas. Don't stop for anything until you're out."

The officer nodded and he slowly unlocked Lorelei. The woman slid out of the passenger's seat.

Lorelei slipped around, she figured that these clothes that she was wearing would be a bit conspicuous. She looked around and saw a well dressed woman around her size.

Casually, the temptress moved over, sliding towards the woman. She bumped into her, to get her attention directly on her. Lorelei's powers worked the best that way.

"Excuse me," Lorelei said. She grabbed onto her neck and got close to her. "You know, you're fairly attractive. And I'm lost, do you think you could show me the way to the bathroom?"

The woman was about ready to protest this, but Lorelei whispered into her ear. "I will be forever in your gratitude, if you do this for me."

The woman nodded, for some reason, and the two slipped off into the crowd to the nearest bathroom.

"Thank you, darling, it's hard to find good help these days," Lorelei said. She smiled when she looked at the woman. "You're getting a bit hot, aren't you?"

Lorelei made sure the door was locked behind her when she did this.

"Yes, I'm getting a bit hot," the woman confirmed. She could feel some overwhelming force grab onto her.

"Yes, go ahead, take your clothes off, no one is around, and you can cool off," Lorelei said.

The woman slowly unbuttoned the extremely expensive silk blouse that she was wearing, exposing even more skin on the way. Lorelei hungrily watched every last inch of the woman being unveiled before her. To say that there was excitement dancing in her eyes would be putting the matter nicely.

The woman undid her boots and slid them off of her elegant feet.

"Beautiful," Lorelei said, once the skirt was dropped to the ground. Lorelei was slowly undoing her toga, exposing her firm and fit body.

The fact this woman was under her power and excited to be so got excited. Lorelei was wearing absolutely nothing underneath that toga. Her tanned fit body was shown. Her dark hair fit around her face.

"And make sure you take off your underwear as well, honey," Lorelei commented. There was hunger that was dancing from her eyes. More and more of the woman's sexy skin got revealed and Lorelei's excitement reached a fever pitch. "And hand over your clothes."

The woman scooped up her clothes, without any question and handed them over to Lorelei. The beautiful woman smiled and placed the clothes on.

"Thank you darling, you have been a big help," Lorelei said. She leaned over and placed a steamy kiss on the lips of the woman.

Lorelei folded up her outfit to dispose of it later. She left the bathroom without any thought to the woman she just robbed.

She disposed of the elegant toga that she wore in the bushes. The woman finally had room to breathe and also a chance to look around.

It was time for her to find out some sap, or rather helpful soul to assist her in making her get away. Lorelei's gaze raked over the area and she was seeking out fresh meat.

Lorelei found the man that she was looking for, in the form of an older well-dressed businessman. Deducing by the quality of his clothing, and watch, he was well off. Although, he was a bit frugal and driving a car was beneath him.

' _Perfect,'_ she thought to herself. The target was grabbed.

Lorelei saw a rock near his feet and she made her move. She faked a stumble and bumble, falling onto the ground with a yelp of surprise.

The man looked over and seeing that there was a pretty young woman in need, there was really no reason not to help her up.

"Let me help you," the man said, pleased to see such a pretty young thing in distress. "What's your name?"

"Chloe," she said, saying the first name that came into her mind. .

"Where are you heading anyway?" the man said. He could feel a light headed feeling coming over her head. She gave him an innocent, but seductive, smile in response.

"Anywhere you are, handsome," she said in a low purr. Her powers enthralled him. She casually grabbed his wrist and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "But we need to move quickly."

"That's no problem, the train is coming," he said in a low tone. He felt like pretty much punch drunk.

Lorelei followed her latest meal ticket onto the train, without another word. She was glad to get out of here. The woman's calculating smile increased. By the time she was discovered missing, they would be gone.

* * *

 

Chang-Tzu slipped away pretty much intact after his fight with the Penguin, after he was distracted by Magpie. He was not having a good day and he recounted the reasons why.

When Magpie didn't appear to have the Crystal Egg of Y'ggphu-Soggoth in her possession any longer, he decided to bolt while the getting was good. That was added to the head injury that he received and he was really not having a good day. It was best for him to cut his losses and retreat while he could.

There was a pretty good chance that his cousin could have gotten his hands on the egg. Chang-Tzu made his way to a medical clinic owned by Leslie Tompkins, posing as a victim of an armed robbery.

He returned to the large penthouse apartment, which also doubled as his current hideout. It was shared between him and his cousin.

No sooner did he arrive there, he saw Edgar sitting in an extremely comfortable looking armchair and he changed out of his suit. Now the man was wearing a rather expensive looking pair of silk pajamas and a smoking jacket. It looked like something out of Hugh Hefner's personal collection.

To add to this image of sophistication, he was having a smoke and sipping from a glass of brandy. Chang stood in the archway that led into the living room for a few moments, staring at his cousin impassively for a long moment. He raised his eyebrow in an inquisitive manner since he was in an unreasonably good mood about something.

Chang deduced something. Could it be at all possible that he got his hands on the egg? There was only one way to find out. He crossed the threshold into the living room and made a cutting comment. "You seem to be unbearably pleased with yourself."

Edgar took a moment to look up from the book and he took a nice long look at his cousin. "And you look like hell. Dare I ask what lead to you arriving home in such a state?"

Chang-Tzu grumbled at that question. It took him a few seconds to figure out where he wanted to go. "Magpie is a far better fighter then she appears to be, granted, but it was the Penguin who is responsible for my injuries. After he pistol-whipped me from behind."

That response caused Edgar to release a rather firm tut in response. "You know, normally you're far more careful than that."

Chang-Tzu responded with a scowl. "I underestimated both Penguin and Magpie, it won't happen a second time."

Edgar just nodded and he could see the look in his cousin's eyes. The man decided to milk the moment for a few more seconds. If it looked like he was trying to make his cousin sweat, he was indeed trying to do just that.

The smirk continued to rise on his face and it was accompanied by a rather cheeky grin. Chang-Tzu eyed him back with a stoic look on his face. This game went back and forth for a moment, before Edgar scowled.

"You're no fun," Edgar grumbled. Chang-Tzu folded his arms and deepened his scowl. "And yes, I got it."

With a flourish of moment, Edgar stood up out of his chair and with a snap, he moved over to a nearby bookshelf. It was at this point that Change noticed a heavy looking metal box rested.

Edgar snapped it open after a second and took the egg out, holding it up to the light. One could see that there was an eerie glow across the room for a moment. Chang-Tzu raised his eyebrow.

"How did you re-acquire it so quickly?" Chang-Tzu wondered. There were so many questions and not enough answers for his liking.

Edgar responded with a slight hmm. "You know, I've had some help along the way from an old friend."

It was at that point where the Bookworm stepped out of the shadow with a large tome in his hand. That caused Chang-Tzu's eyes to widen in surprise. Out of all of the things he could potentially be expecting, that was pretty low on the list.

"The last I heard about you, you were dead," Chang-Tzu said, looking at one of his former partners in crime from the glory days of their battles against the former JSA.

"The rumors of my demise have been greatly exaggerated," the Bookwrom responded. "A lot of people thought that I was dead, because I wanted them to think that I was dead. And after Carmine Falcone had Louie the Lilac killed, things became a bit uncomfortable for criminals of our caliber. So I fake my death and retired to a quiet life that suited me greatly."

The Bookworm raised his hand and he continued to speak.

"But the recent changes in the power structure within the Gotham City Underworld makes the time ripe for the old crowd to step out of the shadows, so to speak, and match wits with a brand new generation of heroes," he continued. "And I knew that the Crystal Egg would be too much of a temptation and you wouldn't stay in your comfortable little retirement. It turned out, I was right."

Chang-Tzu sneered. He didn't like being called predictable. He decided to turn to his cousin. "We have it in possession, so the plan can move forward."

Edgar rubbed his hands together. "Excellent. All we need is the book."

Bookworm's face turned into an extremely sheepish look. "Well, the book, that's a problem."

The two master criminals looked at the Bookworm, wondering why that could be a problem.

"I don't have the book that you need, but what I do have is the History of Vicente Christophles, the High Priest of Y'ggphu-Soggoth in my possession," Bookworm continued. "But the ritual we need to make use of the egg is contained within his journal, which as you know we don't have."

Edgar and Chang-Tzu looked rather disappointed.

"But, my friends, I do know of a way to get it," Bookworm added. "But I'm a bit hesitant to make the Faustian bargain required."

The two cousins looked concerned, having a pretty good idea where this one was going and the a bargain worthy of Faust was quite accurate, literally as well.

* * *

 

After the adventure that was, Harry, Diana, and Helena returned to the Penthouse, sitting in Diana's room. Harry had been treated for lingering injuries in the infirmary and Helena had been checked over as well.

All things considered, Harry was feeling much better. One could see how much his quick thinking saved himself. He was mostly recovered from the concussion, since they had the ability to treat things like that.

Helena had to be scanned so thoroughly by Alura to make certain that there was no lingering effects caused by whatever the Siren did to her that changed her personality so completely. Her scans up clear, but Harry wanted to make sure. He planned to dive into her mind when his head was feeling a bit better. It was hard to delve into the minds of other people with the headache he experienced.

He was currently relaxed, lying face down on the bed. Diana gave him a massage. Those who were able to look in closely might notice that Diana was using a bit of her natural healing factor to enhance Harry's.

Helena was sitting on the bed and needless to say, she had a lot to take in. The two of them just wrapped up with bringing her up to date with the more secretive aspects of their lives.

Normally the two of them would hold off on doing such a thing, given the fact she just joined recently. However, they did know her for a while and in the aftermath of tonight, the Alpha Council made an executive decision that there were some things needed to do.

"So, I don't even know where to begin," Helena said. She was completely flummoxed regarding everything that she learned.

"Just take your time," Diana said. She slowly ran her hands over Harry's bare back.

"The fact the Greek Gods actually exist and did most of the things that are attributed to them for starters," Helena commented. She was in awe of that and as an archeologist, why wouldn't she be in awe of such a thing? Her mouth hung open and she was completely flummoxed with what she learned.

Harry snickered slightly and then he shivered when he felt Diana's hands work over her.

"Trust me when I say, a lot of the stories that you hear are not nowhere near as interesting as the stories that you don't hear," Diana told her.

Helena could believe that. "And magic is real….but that's something that I figured out."

Diana raised her eyebrow and Helena decided to continue.

"Cassie's father used to do things at times that really couldn't be explained, but I just really wrote it off as random oddness," Helena said. She frowned deeply. "And come to think of it, Cassie has done something similar at times. She broke off a couple of door knobs when she got agitated for starters."

That caused both Diana and Harry to blink in surprise. That sounded more along the lines of something that a young Amazon or Kryptonian without magic would do. It wouldn't most certainly be a young magical because their powers seemed less refined in general.

Harry spoke slowly when he tried to figure this out. "Has Cassie every done anything else along the lines of weirdness?"

Helena paused and thought about it. "Come to think about it, she does have a lot more energy than other children around her age. But, it's nothing too out of the ordinary."

' _It does sound like a lot like we were when we that age, doesn't it?'_ Diana thought. She was thinking intently about this. It would most certainly be a situation that they were going to have to keep a closer eye on.

' _It does,'_ Harry agreed, frowning deeply.

"It's something for both of us to keep an eye on," Harry informed her. "But I think that if it was magic, her outbursts would be a far lot more chaotic than what you're saying."

He added as an afterthought.

"On the other hand, she's pretty young, and if she does have powers, they won't be that much of an issue until she hits puberty," Harry informed her.

Diana gave an hmm in agreement and slowly started to work on his neck. She moved down his body and slowly started to work his shoulders as well.

Helena was momentarily distracted. The woman shook her head, to consider what they were saying and she nodded her head. "That really does make perfect sense."

There was a second where she had another question on the tip of her tongue.

"What about Nightwing?" Helena asked. Harry looked up at her, with Diana never breaking her stride. "No offense meant, but it doesn't make sense to me what you're doing."

"Don't worry, you aren't the only one," Harry mused.

"Considering that all of the things that are capable of doing, by just being yourself, I really have to question what you hope to accomplish by running around Gotham City, dressed in a suit of armor, and beating the hell out of criminals."

She said all of this in one breath, just as Diana worked a fairly difficult knot in his shoulder. Harry groaned for a moment when her magic hands eased the tension that he was feeling.

"That really isn't the point of why I'm doing what I do," Harry said. "There are people out there, good people that can't defend themselves. And as long as I can help it, I'm not going to see them be treated like prey by bastards who would sooner take everything from them."

Harry closed his eyes, intensely thinking of all the shit that he had to deal with in recent months.

"On top of that, the League of Shadows, Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Deacon Blackfire, Solomon Grundy and the Siren have all proven one thing," Harry responded. "And that is there are some threats out there that the police really can't deal with, but I can. So I'm going to go out there and do this as long as I can do it. Gotham City is my home and I'm going to defend it."

Helena narrowed her eyes. She cupped her hand underneath her chin and grew very thoughtful at the moment.

"That does make a lot of sense," Helena murmured to herself. She chuckled when she realized that there were a lot of things that made a lot of sense today. Then again, there was a lot messed up about her life. "You see Gotham City as your territory, so it's perfectly within your personality to want to keep other predators from preying on….well your prey, I guess, for lack of a better term."

That caused both Diana and Harry to look at her, with cross looks. That caused Helena to blink in response. She gnawed on her lower lip and decided to amend her statement. "I guess…..well I guess subjects would be better."

Diana smirked when she shook her head at Helena. She pulled herself at Harry and rose herself to her feet. She leaned on. "Don't ever change."

The next thing Diana did was kiss her deeply on the lips. That left Helena completely speechless and Diana pulled away with a smirk.

Leaving the lovely Miss Sandsmark completely spellbound, Diana resumed her activities on Harry. She continued her half massaging and half healing activities on him.

It was obvious by this point, she was thinking about doing something else. She slowly and gently moved Harry so he was on his back. Without another word, she moved so she could straddle him.

Diana leaned down and kissed Harry in a heated manner. Harry eagerly returned the favor and slowly reached up towards Diana, smiling.

It was time for things to get really heated, really quickly. And that was the way Harry preferred it.

Harry groaned and Diana wrapped her hand around Harry's tool. She slowly pumped him up and down and felt his hardness rise underneath her grip.

"Delicious as usual," Diana said. She leaned down and started to lick Harry's cock, like a little girl licking her first fudge-sickled.

Harry groaned when Diana's talented tongue worked his throbbing tool. She kept licking him up and down. There was a hunger burning through her eyes that was pretty insatiable. He grunted when she gave him a good looking over, not to mention a good licking over.

Helena took a moment to reboot her brain. She closed her eyes. The woman wore nothing, but a long shirt and panties. Panties that were getting more soaked by the moment, especially after that kiss Diana gave her.

She took advantage of Diana's silent invitation. Helena slunk over and she grabbed Harry's balls and started to lick his cock. There was hunger that danced through her eyes. Helena took turns with Diana, licking his cock from either side.

"Go ahead, get me ready for Harry," Diana begged her. Helena reached over and undid the clasp of her costume.

That caused Diana's nice breasts bounce out. Helena could see her delicious melons. It was causing her to drool in every sense of the world.

"Go ahead, squeeze them," Diana encouraged her. Helena reached forward and grabbed Diana's chest, squeezing her tits.

Diana smiled and pushed Helena's face into her breasts and started to make her motor board her tits. That caused the woman to close her eyes when she started to motor-board her breasts. Her mouth was completely full of tit.

The Amazon Princess turned around and smiled. She could see Harry's cock completely at attention. Diana made her way over, spreading herself wide.

She expertly lowered herself down on Harry's throbbing hard pole. Harry groaned when he felt her soft, hot pussy wrap around him. Diana held onto his chest and slowly pumped herself up and down on him, riding him hard and fast.

"Yes, this is a ride," Diana mewled. She clenched him when she rocked herself up and came down onto him. Her tight snatch clamped around him when Diana pushed herself up and down on him. She kept rocking herself against him.

Harry reached up and grabbed her breasts. She closed her eyes and Harry worked her breasts over.

"Yes, no kidding," Harry groaned in response. He kept rolling his hands over her breasts, increasing her pleasure by tenfold.

Helena watched these pinnacles of male and female attraction fuck each other. Her panties were slid off and her fingers were pushed down her gushing cunt. She worked herself over.

"Go ahead, lick Diana's ass, you know you want to," Harry suggested to Helena.

That thought crossed her mind and Helena grew red in the face. That caused her to get over, all thoughts of inhibitions lost.

Helena placed her tongue in Diana's ass and she started to slowly lick her. The woman worshiped the beautiful ass.

"Yes, get me warmed up for my husband's cock to fuck me, and then I'll eat your pussy," Diana begged. She could feel Helena's tongue her ass and Harry's cock in her snatch. It was a double team effort.

Diana's walls slid around him. She pumped around him.

Harry grunted when his balls unloaded their fury of cum into Diana's pussy. Diana drove herself up and down on Harry's hard rod. She rode him like there was no tomorrow. She was more and more excited the more she brought herself to a pure orgasmic bliss.

The moment she slid off of Harry, Diana was now on her hands and knees before him. Her ass bared for him and Harry smiled at the sight of it.

True to form, Diana's tongue was now in Helena's pussy. Helena closed her eyes. She never thought that this would happen in her life. She might have dreams about it, but she never thought that it would happen.

This delicious action caused Harry's rod to get even harder. He could see Diana's perfect ass. He placed his cock against her tightest hole.

Diana moaned into Helena's pussy when her husband entered her ass. Harry grunted in response, feeling Diana's hot, tight hole smash around his throbbing tool.

"Damn it, that's so good," Harry commented in agreement. He felt Diana's ass clench him. Harry placed his hands on her hips and rocked her. His balls slapped her clit when he pushed into her from behind.

Diana would have to agree, that really did feel so fucking good.

Helena closed her eyes and felt Diana's tongue bury into her pussy. She really felt this moment and felt Diana go into her far and deeper. The Amazon Princess was really having her way with Helena. Helena reached up and grabbed onto the back of Diana's hair to hold her into place.

Helena's hips bucked up and Diana continued to eat her out.

Harry grunted when he plowed himself into Diana's tight ass. He could feel her depths. It was a hole that he was extremely familiar with, but it felt good never the less.

He cupped Diana's breasts and rocked into her over. Over and over again, Harry spiked into her body with increasing frequency.

The dance wrapped to a conclusion. His balls ached and they were about ready to explode.

"I think that she wants you to cum in her ass," Helena breathed. She could feel Diana moan some half muttered words into her pussy. This caused her hips to buck up. She continued to tighten her hands in the back of Diana's head when the Amazon Princess kept delving into her pussy.

Harry thought that he could give Diana that fact. Her ass felt so good around him. His balls were this close to exploding into her.

He grunted and gave one more push into her. His balls launched his cum deep into her ass. Spurt after spurt of his cum landed into her ass. Harry held onto her waist and kept pumping into her from behind. He shot his heavy load into her ass, draining his balls into her depths.

Harry clung onto her waist and kept firing his thick manhood into her tight rectum. His balls drained completely in her ass.

He leaned down, closing her eyes and pulled out of her. Diana pulled her way from Helena and got on her knees, licking Harry clean.

Helena moaned at the loss, but the loss of Diana's tongue was about ready to be replaced by something grander.

"Time to return the favor," Diana said. She parked herself at the edge of the bed, legs spread. Her hair flipped over her face and she had one of those "come hither" type of looks on her face.

Eagerly, Helena crawled over to serve her. She was inches away from paradise. Diana grabbed Helena's face and pushed her down into her cunt.

Helena nearly choked, but managed to recover nicely. She swallowed a mouth full of Diana's sweetest juices.

' _Harry, take that cock and violate that cunt,'_ Diana mentally encouraged him.

Harry's stiff iron pole was erect and he was ready to play. He placed himself at the edge of Diana's pussy and slowly stroked her from behind. His cock head pushed against the edge of her opening.

The Amazon Princess felt Harry part her thighs when he entered her and he slipped inside her with ease. He grunted when he entered her tight body, feeling her wrap around his hard pole with her wet walls.

Harry grabbed onto her hips and pushed into her. Her pussy tightened around his throbbing pole. He pounded into her extremely hard from behind, working her over.

"Yes, oh yes, take her, take her hard!" Diana encouraged him. "Violate that cunt!"

Diana's encouragement of Harry's domination of her only served to get Helena wetter by the thrust. Her walls expanded to accommodate Harry's massive rod, when he spiked into her over and over again.

Helena could feel the rush of pleasure. She was pretty sure that Harry was going to fuck her until she passed out.

"Yes, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Diana whispered into Helena's ear. There was a hunger that danced through the Amazon's eyes, a hunger that grew even wider. "You would like it if Harry took that big cock and fucked you and kept fucking you until you passed out, wouldn't you?"

Helena's wet pussy closed around his tool when Harry spiked into her. It was obvious by the sensations going through her body that she would like that very much.

"Well," Harry said. He continued to rut into her, breathing into her ear. "I guess that I'm going to have to make all of your dreams come true."

"I bet you like how wet that pussy can get," Diana said Helena, working her finger slowly into this dripping cunt. "And I'm sure that his cock was much better than Cassie's father's was."

Diana lifted Helena's face from her pussy. The erotic sight of Diana's pussy juices rolling off of Helena's face was a sight to see.

"Yes, yes, yes," Helena panted. Her tone was excited. Her nipples grew even harder when Diana played with them. She tweaked and twisted them.

"Isn't it?" Diana asked. She made sure that Helena's mouth was wide open. "It's about time you put that mouth to use for something other than your informational lectures….oh Hera, that was quiet the spot."

Harry grunted when he pressed himself against Helena's sweaty back. He picked up the pace, fucking her as hard as he would dare. His throbbing balls rocketed against her. Harry was going to wreck her for all time if he had his way and he would have his way. He was having his way with her and he was going to destroy her cunt.

"You're mine now," Harry breathed.

Helena's walls tightened and she begged for his cum. Harry really had no reason to deny her such a great treat. He rested his hands on her back and kept pumping into her. His balls were about ready to release their great treat into her molten hot center.

He closed his eyes, feeling the rush when his balls tightened. Harry grunted.

"Yes, you're going to be filled with so much cum, that you're going to be overflowing," Diana gloated. "My husband really packs a punch, doesn't it?"

That question was answered by Helena's shrieking moan. It was followed by Harry shooting a big load into Helena's pussy. He must have pumped into her a dozen times before he drained his cum into her. It was already flowing out by the time that Harry finished.

Diana waited until Harry pulled out and she decided to sample the taste of some of the delicious juices. "Yummy."

The dance would continue again and again throughout the night, with Diana and Harry putting Helena through the paces until she was worn out from the fun.

After Helena had been put completely through the paces, Diana and Harry stayed awake with each other and cuddled closely together.

"After last night, I don't think that I can stay on the sidelines much longer," Diana admitted.

"Some might say that's a long time coming," Harry informed her. Diana smiled, but didn't say anything. "I would be happy to have you out there with me. In the end though, it's your prerogative so I'm not going to try and talk you out of it."

Diana was glad of that. Harry had a question.

"So, what are you going to call yourself?" Harry asked. While he personally wasn't that fond of code names, it was better to create your own identity, than all the media to do that.

"Were you aware that I was named after Artemis?" Diana asked. Harry smiled. "The goddess, not the Amazon, because apparently the two do get confused with an alarming amount of regularity."

"I'm sure Artemis is flattered because of that," Harry said, giving no indication whatsoever of which Artemis he was referring to.

"Well, maybe," Diana agreed. "But as you should know, and I'm sure you do…..my mother used the Roman name for Artemis, in Diana. So it would be rather fitting if I used the code name Huntress."

Harry smiled and turned her towards him. He planted a searing kiss on her lips. "It's really obvious, and really fitting to be honest."

It was at that point where Harry's eyes widened when he realized something extremely obvious.

* * *

 

It was early the next morning in the city of Smallville. The lovely Martha Kent woke up rather early, and it was early even for her. While she was used to getting up early due to having lived on a farm for the better part of the last twelve years, the woman found herself up for an entirely different reason.

Martha found herself early in the morning due to being worried about the crisis that Harry and the girls found themselves in last night.

' _It's funny,'_ Martha mused, more to herself than anyone else. _'At times the Collective can be the best support network in the world….but other times…..'_

' _You have to stand by and be helpless and watch events unfold,'_ Lily added, sleepily when she popped in. _'Yes, I can hear you. If you were even closer, you would be more worried, but I'm sure that being far away was no picnic.'_

' _I bet you wanted to blast off that smug bastard's head if you got the chance,'_ Martha answered her.

' _The thought was extremely tempting,'_ Lily agreed.

Martha thought that a double edged sword was a pretty good indicator with what was happening. Aware of the fact that your loved ones were in danger, but you really couldn't do anything about it.

She did get a bit of rest, but it did keep her up fairly late. She chalked it up as a bad job and decided that this would be the best time for her to get jump started on the day ahead.

After she stopped to take a shower and get dressed, putting a comfortable pair of blue jeans and a thick fluffy sweater, Martha made her way down the stairs.

She was about to get coffee, followed by breakfast. The woman was stopped by a sight at the bottom of the stairs. Marie stood at the bottom of the stairs dressed in the warmest of clothes that they pulled out of the attic for her. The older well-worn leather bomber jacket of Jonathan's was the most noticeable.

"Marie?" Martha asked. She was a bit surprised to see her dressed like that this early in the morning. The note of surprise continued when she saw a duffel bag sitting there on the floor next to her. Martha took a few seconds to blink in shock.

"Thanks for everything, Mrs. Kent, but I have to be getting going," Marie said. There was a tone that was quick and apologetic in her tone.

"Why?" Martha asked. She was thrown off by the girl's action. "Did we do something to upset you?"

"No, no, no, you didn't do anything to upset me," Marie said really quickly. She was surprised that Martha caught her before she took off. She thought that she left early enough to avoid any kind of conversation. "It's not your fault, it's nothing that you've done. You've been good, great actually. It's just time for me to move on."

Marie paused, taking a deep breath. She concluded in a soft voice. "I don't want to overstay my welcome."

"No, you haven't overstayed your welcome at all," Martha informed her. "In fact, I was talking to both Jonathan and Claire about the possibility of you staying here for the time being."

"Really?" Marie asked. She couldn't help but be slightly cynical and a bit skeptical. That just was her nature.

"For as long as you wish, full time if you want to," Martha said. "Jonathan and I always did want to have one more child, but things didn't work out that well. And Claire likes having another girl around her own age around."

Marie ended up blinking. This was not what she was used to be honest. She was really used to having people turn on her like her Aunt did. Or like the people in town, after she kissed the boy. Where her powers kicked in the first time.

There was also the issue of her being hunted by what appeared to be some kind of shadowy government organization. Marie couldn't tell the Kents all of this. She bit down on her lip.

"I would like to stay," Marie said slowly.

Martha, being Martha, jumped onto the opportunity and seized it. "Then why don't you stay then? At least for now and we'll see how things go."

Marie seemed a bit hesitant about it. She didn't really want to bring them any trouble, because they seemed like a nice family. She did nod her head thought because Martha Kent was the kind of woman that it was difficult to say no.

"I'd like that, but I don't know how this is going to work," Marie replied.

Martha beamed at her because she agreed to stage. She wrapped up the girl in hug. This hug caused the girl to flinch in response.

That caused the woman to frown. It furthered the belief that Martha had that the younger girl was physically abused in the past.

"So, what's going to happen?" Marie asked in a tentative voice. She tried to act like she hadn't flinched.

"Things will be pretty similar to how they are now," Martha informed her. "You're going to have to help Claire out with the chores, but that isn't an issue since you've been doing that already. And you're going to have to go to school and gain at least an above average grade point average. If you do that, we'll be willing to pay you an allowance as well. It won't be a lot of money, but it will still be enough that it will be worth it."

Marie nodded her head slowly. Nothing that she was told right there seemed too unreasonable at all and she inhaled and exhaled.

"I guess I can give it a shot," she said. There was no reason not to take her up on this offer. "If it doesn't work out, please don't try to stop me if I leave."

Martha frowned. "Well, I won't, but I don't think that there isn't any problems. But, I don't think that there is anything that we might not be able to work out if we can talk things out."

Marie hoped that Martha was correct about this assessment, for her sake if anything else.

* * *

 

Juno Jones loved living in style, just like it was reported. She currently took up residence in an extremely tastefully decorated penthouse apartment in Gotham City. It wasn't anything too outlandish or over the top. With that being said, you could see easily that a woman of elegant taste resided at this place.

She sat at the table at the kitchen, flipping through the newspaper whilst sipping a cup of coffee. The beautiful brunette wore nothing more than a comfortable looking silk robe that did a fairly decent job of covering off her considerable assets yet at the same time, it was extremely familiar.

Juno flipped through the paper, sipping on her coffee. Her eyes darted towards a rather scathing article regarding the fact that the criminal known as the Siren escaped custody. The paper stated that it was due to police incompetence.

She snorted when she read it and her gaze traveled to another article where it described that notable restaurant and club owner Maximilian Zeus had been placed within the Arkham Ward at Blackgate Penitentiary where he was currently awaiting psychiatric review. He experienced a psychotic break last night, which resulted him in holding several prominent members of society hostage.

That caused her to scoff in response. _'That's putting it mildly to be honest.'_

Before Juno could move her attention to another article, one of the maids made her way into the room.

"Please forgive the intrusion, Miss Jones, but Harry Potter is here to see you, miss," the maid replied.

"Inform Doctor Potter that I will be with him in a moment, I need to get dressed," Juno said. She got to her feet. "And could you also please escort him into the living room?"

The maid nodded in response and scurried off to rely the message.

With that out of the way, Juno got herself up from the table, putting down the newspaper when she left. To the right of the newspaper was the Spear of Zeus was lying on her kitchen table.

* * *

 

Harry stood at the front entrance of Juno's lobby. The maid was already out.

"She will be with you after a second, sir," the maid was telling him. "She just needs a second to get dressed, and she would like me to escort you into the living room."

Harry nodded his head in acceptance and allowed her to lead the way. He followed her further into the apartment.

"Right here, sir, she'll be with you shortly," the maid told him.

"Thank you," Harry informed her. That caused the maid to blush a slight red, at being addressed by such a man.

Harry took an opportunity to look the place over. He figured that the place had a very distinct Grecian feel to it. Unlike the Club last night though, it was rather tastefully done and not extremely gaudy at all. He thought it was a wonderful looking place.

Harry decided to make himself comfortable on the love seat and waited for Juno. No sooner did he get comfortable, his cell phone came to life.

"Hello?" Harry asked.

"Harry, it's me," an extremely tense Sarah declared on the other end. "I've got bad news; you might have heard that the Siren escaped custody."

"No, I didn't hear that," Harry replied.

"Well, she wasn't the only one that escaped, Jonathan Crane managed to get out, a couple of days ago at fact," Sarah said. She frowned and agitation swam in her eyes. "I'm just finding out about it right now."

"Why didn't you find out about it sooner?" Harry asked.

"Warden Joseph contacted Commissioner Loeb directly about it after he found out, but the information was buried in order not to incite a panic," Sarah informed him. "The MCU only found out because Chief O'Hara informed us it happened after Loeb informed him. By that point, it became a huge mess and any trail Crane might have left gone cold."

"I take it there's more," Harry said.

"There's more, we searched Zeus's club high and low, but we haven't been able to find any sign of the Spear of Zeus," Sarah said. "We were able to find the gloves, but someone must have snagged the Spear in the chaos."

Harry could have sworn, but somehow he kept his tone calm and even.

Harry took a second to slip off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. "That's another thing that we're going to have to keep an eye out for then. It was bad enough that it already fell into the wrong hands once. I don't even want to think about what might happen if someone worse than Maxie got their hands onto it."

"I was thinking the same thing," Sarah muttered. "I have to run, because Gordon wants to speak to me about something."

"Are we still on for lunch?" Harry asked her.

"Yes, I wouldn't miss it for the world," she confirmed. "Ellen Yin might join us, if you don't mind?"

"That shouldn't be a problem, I'll talk to you later," Harry said.

It was at this point where Juno finished getting dressed and joined him in the living room. She was dressed casually by her standards, although it was pretty classy based on the standards of other people.

Harry gave a wide smile at the sight of her.

"Well, well, well, Harry Potter, I wasn't expecting to see you so soon," she commented, giving him a short looking over with her eyes. "I assumed that you would be in bed recovering from your injuries for a few more days. I even sent flowers."

Harry smiled. "I received then and they were quite lovely. They paled in comparison to your beauty, but they are still lovely."

Juno couldn't help, but smile.

"I've always been a fast healer, but you would know that already, wouldn't you, Juno?" Harry asked. He paused. "Or should I call you, Hera?"

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 25** **th** **, 2015.**


	90. Olympus Has Fallen Part Two

**Chapter Ninety: Olympus Has Fallen Part Two.**

* * *

A rather grizzled dark haired homeless man with a beard stepped from the shadows. He was dressed in rags that he cobbled together from various sources. They weren't exactly too bad, and given the quality that had been out here before, not that bad at all. He called himself Joe to those on the street and given the fact he had nothing to lose, people never thought of him as any type of liar.

He was standing behind a restaurant that belonged to Salvatore Maroni, shifting through the trash. It wasn't really the best location for him to be. The mob really had it out for the homeless after Deacon Blackfire's cultists attacked them.

It was hard to worry about such concerns when you were hungry and this place threw out fairly decent leftover portions. It had the type of fat cats who had their eyes that were far bigger than her stomach. Joe banked on the fact that despite the danger factor, he was able to locate something that wasn't too rotten or too old.

The man was living dangerous. Some people could admire the set of balls that he had, but this was Gotham City. Having balls might get you a long way, but having connections got you even further. The people who owned this restaurant had some good connections, and being a faction of the mob that didn't care for the homeless all that much, they had some rather dangerous connection.

The other problem was they were paying the Gotham City Police Department to protect their interests, which actually covered a lot of things. That was up to and included the harassment of people that they don't like.

Joe looked up, having managed to find a portion of food. He turned around and nearly ran smack dab into the middle of two of Gotham Cities finest.

The two patrol men walked in. One of them smacked the food out of Joe's hand, causing it to fly down onto the pavement. The patrol man turned to his partner. "Just as they reported, trash digging through the trash."

"Hey, I've got to…"

The homeless man's protest was cut off when he was grabbed by the back of the jacket violently and shoved into the closest wall. He winced when he connected hard into the wall. His body really hit when he slammed hard into the wall.

Joe winced when the air had been knocked out of him fairly violently. The manager of the restaurant walked out. The cop that hadn't been holding onto Joe walked up towards the manager.

"So, is this the guy?" the cop asked.

The manager looked over Joe with a critical eye and he nodded in response. "Yeah, that's the guy. I warned him what would happen if he would come around him."

"So remind me again," the cop holding Joe stated. "What do you want me to do to him again?"

"Teach him a lesson, maybe he'll get the hint," the manager said. He wrinkled his nose and added, almost as an afterthought. "Considering how badly he smells, the harbor might be a good idea. He's in need of a bath."

The cop nearest to the manager turned towards his partner, who was still holding the homeless man. "You heard the man."

The cop roughly yanked Joe off of the wall, dragging him away by his jacket. He hauled the man further into the alleyway.

"It's people like you who make it really rougher for civilized people," the cop said, burying his fist into the gut of the homeless man.

"I just needed something to eat…."

"You have the right to remain silent," the second cop said. He nailed Joe hard in the gut and doubled him over. Blood poured from his mouth, and he got punched in the ribs hard. "Because you flapping your yap has gotten you in trouble before. If people like you just disappeared off the street, Gotham City would be a much better place."

One of the men stood back and allowed his partner to get to work. Joe was slammed and thrown around.

"No, please, no," Joe begged. He was kicked in the ribs hard by the cop. "What did I do to deserve this?"

"Scurrying through the dumpster like some filthy rat might have something to do with it," the cop said, with a shit eating grin. He inclined his head back, turning towards his partner. "So, do you think that a broken rib is enough, or should we go break one of his arms as well?"

The second cop, the one who hung back and enjoyed the show, pondered it. "I say you should first break the forearm in order to make sure our little lesson has really sunk in."

His partner shrugged and turned to the homeless man, preparing to do just that.

He was interrupted by a loud whoomp, followed by his partner careening into the brick wall next to him. This caused the cop to stand bolt upright in surprise. His partner was no small man, in fact he was a pretty big man.

One of this bum's friends must have done the deed. The man reached into his sidearm, and turned to make the person responsible pay for this.

Only for the individual in question that sent his partner flying into the wall to punch him in the face so hard that he ended up smacking into it with a crack.

That caused Joe to give a raspy chuckle. He was on the ground, watching the same cop that took it out on him now in misery. He got a fair amount of amusement in seeing the cops in misery.

Joe struggled to his feet. A racking sensation filled his body, and the pain of a broken rib caused it very hard to hand.

Suddenly the man who had assaulted the cops offered him a big pale hand in order to help him stand up.

* * *

Juno gave Harry a really blinding smile at that response and then clapped her hands excitedly at him.

' _And somehow, do we get the impression that might be a mocking slow clap?'_ Kara asked.

' _Maybe a little bit,'_ Harry offered with a shrug.

The blinding smile on her face was still attached to it and she grabbed him by the hand, leading him towards the love seat. With another movement, Juno pushed him onto it and shifted to sit rather closely next to him.

The moment that they were comfortable, Juno finally responded to his question. "Well done, Harry. You finally figured it out. I have to admit that I expected you to figured it out much sooner, considering the fact we met during the summer, and that was almost nearly six months ago."

Harry had an inkling about something, but it wasn't until today he put the pieces together. It was funny how a death experience could give you a certain amount of clarity. Harry would say it was near death, but he wondered exactly about the near part of that. That would be something to deduce at another time.

"And to answer your question," she continued. "I go by both Juno and Hera. As you know, both names are mine, depending on who was worshipping me at the time. Hera for the Greeks and Juno for the Romans. But you are well aware of that."

"Very much well aware of it, thanks," Harry said.

"Lovely," she added. "I prefer to go by Juno in this form and then I go by Hera in my other form."

"And it all is much clearer to me now," Harry said with a smile. "And I think that I likely would have figured it out sooner, but I was a bit busy and didn't give it the proper amount of attention that I should. And there really should have been a red flag when Aphrodite, Artemis, and Athena giggled whenever you popped up over the bond."

' _Subtle, those three aren't,'_ Diana thought. She wondered why she hadn't figured it out either and was slightly embarrassed that she didn't.

"Subtle, those three are not," Hera agreed.

Harry smiled at the irony of that statement. "I didn't really think that anything would be off and you didn't give me any indication that you weren't anyone, but who you said you were. At least until last night."

"Yeah, I did give that away, didn't I?" she asked.

Harry nodded. "Your reaction to Helena being called Hera by Maxie Zeus was rather telling. And there was a fair bit of other weirdness last night that didn't add up. The vast majority of the people present have a hazy memory of what happened beyond the fact that something did happen, you know."

Juno laughed in amusement, smiling. "You know, I may have had something to do about that. And I know your desire to remain secret, at least for now. It wouldn't do well for the girls to make their debut until they were ready for the world at large to know who they are. Or rather, until the world at large was ready for them."

She pondered another point and smiled. "And as for you not being able to figure out my true identity until now due to being too busy, it does make sense. Given how active you are during the day, I wonder sometimes how you even find the time to sleep."

Harry grinned at her. Juno shook her head at that smile that went through her face.

"Off the top of my head, an average day for you involves your schooling, helping run a multi-million dollar business empire, a variety of special projects, the time you spend with your girls, and those nocturnal activities," Juno rattled off. "It's more than what most would be capable, and there are some people in similar situations who aren't capable of dealing with how much half as much. Which in turn causes them to intake in some of the more pleasurable aspects of life, and in all of the wrong ways as well."

Harry had a pretty good idea of what Juno was referring to. "It might be a bit too much for some people, but I make it work. And it keeps me from getting bored."

Juno had to concede that point to him. Harry wasn't really done talking to her.

"And you don't really have that much room to talk, given that your day is essentially as busy as my own," he told her.

She shrugged. "You have a point. But, you know, I like to keep busy as well. And the projects that I get up to allow me to oversee my domains in a hands on manner. You know, rather than watching things unfold as a distance."

"That answers my question about you being a talk show host," Harry answered her lightly.

Juno looked a bit insulted. "I do more than being a mere talk show host."

She took a deep breath, because she was going to need it in describing all that she was up to.

"I'm a producer, director, head of a budding media empire which includes television shows, movies, magazines, and variety of charities," Juno said. She spit it out in one breath which was impressive in its own right.

"Well, that's impressive," Harry said, letting out his breath in a whistle. "But, I'm rather curious to how you do it all in the first place."

That declaration caused Juno to blink in surprise. "The others didn't let you know?"

Harry was caught off guard with this response. Juno shook her head, he honestly had no idea what she was talking about.

"Huh, that's a surprise," Juno murmured. She was half talking to herself and half talking to Harry when she said this. "I thought that Athena at the very least would have explained things to you."

Harry waited for her to explain what was happening.

"Well, it was decided a long time ago, that each of the gods took on a human form to better relate to their subjects," Juno said. "You already know what I do as well. Aphrodite is a rather famous actress, and by that I mean an actual actress, and not a porn star. Not that she couldn't do well at it, if she chose to."

Harry didn't say anything, but he had no doubt in his mind that Hera spoke the truth.

"Apollo is a famous actor," Juno said. "Athena alternates between working as a university Professor and also a Librarian. It depends on her mood really. And she did work for the Library of Congress for a number of years, but she switched jobs and is currently a Professor at West Point."

"What about Artemis?" Harry asked her.

"I'm getting there, honey," Juno responded with a smile. "She runs a couple of woman and children shelters, alongside a couple of Orphanages. As you might have guessed, the job in question relates to the gods domain. So Dionysus currently works as a wine maker out of the Napa Valley and Poseidon is a crab fisherman out in Alaska. You get the idea, don't you?"

"Absolutely," Harry informed her.

"Lovely," Juno said. "But not all of them take roles pertaining to my domain. My ex-husband is a good example, because he poses as a slacker in the San Fernando valley who spends most of his time bowling and when he isn't bowling, he's picking up soccer moms."

Harry allowed this extremely important information to soak in. This wasn't the first time that he heard about the current status of Hera and Zeus's relationship.

"So what precisely happened between the two of you?" Harry asked.

"It wasn't the case for an extremely long time, but time has changed, divorce is an aspect of marriage, as well as infidelity," she informed him. There was a tone of bitterness in her voice. "Of course, in my case, my ex-husband got a jump start on that trend, and while I was loyal to my husband from the start, he was never truthfully loyal to me. And his many, many, bastard children were an obvious reminder of each time he cheated on me."

Juno closed her eyes and shook her head.

"After putting up for it for a very long time, it had to give, and I got sick of it," Juno ranted. She was practically fuming. "And since it became an aspect of my domain, I divorced him in the late seventies. That left us free to pursue whoever we wanted to, but that really just meant it was business as usual for Zeus. In my case on the other hand, well it makes all the difference."

Her hands had placed into his at some point and the two of them had gotten rather cuddly in the chair. Harry instinctively held her in close.

"And it should be rather obvious who I wish to pursue," she added, closing her eyes. She now calmed down, but Harry had a calming presence on women as well.

Harry looked honestly flattered. The Queen of the Gods took an interest in him, and really that was a boost to his already extravagant ego. He squeezed her hand.

"The real question is where do you want to go from here?" he asked her.

She didn't really need to ponder this matter. "I want you to court me properly. Which, as you know, means taking me out and spending time together. No matter how tempting it is, I'm not going to jump straight into bed with you at the top of the hat. I want you to earn it, but….I don't think that's going to be too much of a problem."

"No, it won't," Harry said. "Do you want to go out to dinner sometime in the future?"

The Queen of the Gods beamed. "I'd really like that….but just because we aren't going to jump straight into bed doesn't mean that that we can't fool around just a little bit.

With that, Hera turned around and pressed her lips onto Harry's with a rather heated kiss. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and the two of them made out for a long and heated time, with her nibbling on his lips.

The two of them broke apart.

"Just merely a teaser for the future," she replied with a wink.

"Well, I for one am looking forward to seeing what happens next," he told her. Hera's mouth curled into a smile. "And do you know what happened to the Spear of Zeus?"

Hera raised an eyebrow at the sound of that odd question.

"It did go missing in the chaos."

Hera piped up rather nonchalantly. "Oh….it's sitting on my kitchen table."

* * *

Gotham City's notorious weather really was causing all kind of havoc in the worst way. A thunderstorm started to rage on outside. It gave one person an ominous sense.

In the Park Row District of Old Gotham, there was a psychiatric practice appropriately titled Strange Minds. It was in honor of its owner, one Professor Hugo Strange. One could see the professor, and they could see that he kept himself in pretty good shape physically. He was slightly intimidating to some people. The Abraham Lincoln beard, bald head, and Scary Shiny Glasses he wore was not helping at all lessen the intimidation factor in any way whatsoever.

At this present moment, the good Professor seated himself in a comfortable and classical looking armchair as he spoke with his patient.

The patient in question was Kathy Kane, who after the events of last night contacted him early this morning to see if he would be willing to see her. Given how another patient canceled, she was able to get booked in. Presently, they were in the tail end of their situation.

They had just finished talking about the events of last night, in great detail, and they shifted to another topic.

"I didn't have a particular good relationship with my parents," Kathy admitted. "I think that it was because I was born later in their lives."

"And that is why there is such a huge age difference between yourself and your two brothers, yes?" Hugo asked, looking at the notes.

"Yes, Jacob and Phillip are much older than me, in fact, I'm not that much older than Kate, and the two of us grew up together," Kathy said, shaking her head. "As a result, I've never felt like I've been good enough for my parents. Especially who compared me to my golden older sister Martha. After she was killed so tragically, it raised her to saint like status in our parents eyes."

"Ah, yes, Martha Kane, married Thomas Wayne," Hugo added, curiosity brimming in his eyes. The Wayne Murders had been a source of interest to many, himself included. Especially the potential traumatic effect it had on their young son who witnessed it.

"Yes, and then they ended up dying less than a year after she was killed," Kathy continued in a woeful and slightly better tone of voice. "I grew up feeling neglected by my parents, not good enough compared to my siblings, and raised primary by the staff. My brothers were around, but one was in the army at the time and other was running Wayne Enterprises."

"So, that caused you to feel an inferiority complex and think that you were not good enough to match up with their standards," Hugo commented. He was extremely interested in studying this young woman and seeing what made her trick. "Well, our time is up for today. I'd like for us to make an appointment in two weeks' time."

The Professor paused and spoke in a lower tone in voice when he started up. "I would like if you could reconsider the suggestion of hypnosis that I made earlier, as I feel like it could really help you."

She frowned for a second. Kathy honestly thought that she was making a breakthrough. Reluctantly, the socialite nodded in response. "I'll think about it."

"Then, I will see you in two week's time," the Professor said.

Strange escorted Kathy out of the office and with that done, the man returned to his desk where he set about working on some paper work. It wasn't at it very long when a flash of lightning from the storm outside illuminated the room. The crack of thunder added to the atmosphere.

The Professor looked up and realized that he was no longer in his office. Strange came face to face with the infamous Doctor Jonathan Crane. He took a moment to take in Crane's fairly ragged looking appearance. A ragged looking leather long coat over the top of a zipped up hoody, with the hoody pulled up was part of the outfit. Crane wore a pair of faded jeans, and some work boots.

"You have fallen from grace, haven't you, Doctor Crane?" Hugo asked with a chuckle. He reached towards a cabinet by his desk. "You look like a homeless person."

Crane didn't say anything straight away.

"Would you like a drink?"

Crane corked his eyebrow and nodded in response. Strange poured a drink for Crane, but he elected not to do so himself. The Professor greatly disliked the lack of discipline that drinking implied. Other people did have that discipline and some of his patients were very distressed, so he kept a collection of good spirits in a cabinet.

It was much easier to work with people who had a few drinks. It allowed his studies of them to go far more smoothly. He allowed Crane to pour himself a drink.

"You know, Doctor Crane, I expected to see you much sooner than this," Strange informed him.

"I needed to lay low for a while since I'm supposed to be a fugitive on the run," Crane answered. "But the exciting events of last night have allowed me the ability to come here."

"Yes, but how was your extended stay at Blackgate?" Strange asked.

"It was dreadfully boring," Crane said. He had the sense that Strange was trying to study him like he was one of his patients, rather than an equal. He would play the game for now. "The delightful young intern who was attending to me was about the only thing worthwhile. And it will be a treasure when she finally does break."

"I'm sure you are looking forward to seeing the day that occurs," Strange said. He switched to business. "I have met with several victims who were exposed to your Fear Toxin over the past several months and it has proven to be rather effective."

Crane looked like a kid on Christmas morning after receiving this news.

"I have several pages worth of notes about the subject if you're curious about looking them over," Strange continued.

"Yes, I most certainly am," Crane agreed. "If only to use them as a way to make the next attempt even more effective."

Crane was very much disturbed by the fact that some people were proven to be immune and the fact that a cure was able to be synthesized easily. That couldn't do at all.

"I am in need of a workspace," Crane informed him. "And I was hoping that you would be able to help me in that regard, Hugo."

"Of course," Strange said. The Professor reached into his desk drawer with great reflexes. It was almost like he was expecting this request. He removed a pair of keys from the drawer and tossed them over to Crane. He snatched them out of the air. "They are the keys to a cabin in the countryside that I inherited from my grandfather when he died. It might not be the most ideal location, but it's well out of the way of public eye. It should prove to be sufficient for you to continue your work."

Strange paused for a long moment and moved over towards a filing cabinet. He looked through it for something.

"Aha," he added, and he found what he was looking forward. "I received reports from a colleague at Ravencroft about a young girl that you might find interesting."

The Professor handed the reports to the devious Doctor Crane. Crane found himself motivated by the curiosity of what was in the file. He flipped through it quickly and then started to chuckle fairly eerily.

There was a flash of lightning that highlighted the grin on Crane's face. It unsettled even one Hugo Strange.

* * *

Dinah joined Harry in the role of bodyguard today. Diana would normally be with him, but she was staying with Cassie and Helena until things blew over. So, Dinah was going to be with him for the time being. And she did want to spend some time with Harry before she went up to Seattle to spend some time with her sister and her father, since her father's birthday was coming up.

' _You know, I almost forgot that you had a sister,'_ Harry thought. _'You don't really bring her up that often.'_

' _Well, Sara and I, we've had some problems,'_ Dinah thought with a frown. _'There are a lot of problems with us, and Sara blames me for our parents getting divorced, since I was the one that introduced Ollie to our mother. And that lead to the two of them having an affair. And then things got rougher when Mom died. And Sara has had a bit of a soft spot for that idiot as well, go figure.'_

' _No accounting for taste then,'_ Karen thought, shaking her head.

' _Well, I was the one not accounting for taste at one point,'_ Dinah thought. She still couldn't believe how blissfully stupid she was at one point.

Okay, that was a bit hard on herself, but her point still stood.

' _You were younger, more naïve,'_ Faora interjected calmly.

' _Well, that's one way of putting it, not exactly how I would put it,'_ Dinah thought. She could feel Harry's hand. _'Still, she's still my younger sister, so I should try and start mending some fences and I do miss seeing her. And it's been a while since I've seen my father, you know.'_

It was at this point of their mental conversation where Harry and Dinah made their way to the destination they were. They were going to meet with Sarah Essen in order to have lunch. That was actually planned before the events of last night, but in this particular instance, they can combine business and pleasure at the same time.

Harry smiled, the two of them arrived before the two that they were supposed to be meeting. That didn't stay that way long for long, for Sarah and Ellen arrived.

"Oh, we're not late, are we?" Ellen asked, turning to her partner.

"No, Harry just has this tendency of being early for everything that he goes to," Sarah said with a smile.

"Ellen Yin and Sarah Essen," Harry told Dinah and she smiled and shook hands. "This is Dinah Lance."

"A pleasure to meet you," Sarah said with a smile on her face.

"Yes, a pleasure to meet you, or re-meet you as the case might be," Ellen answered with as mile on her face.

With introductions out of the way, the four of them were led over towards a table.

"Oh, you're Harry Potter," the waitress said, when she looked at him.

"Yes, yes, I am," Harry answered. He had amusement where this was going.

"Oh, well, I have a Red Sun, and it's such an honor to meet the person behind it, and my life would be so boring, it would be so boring without it, you know what I mean," she said, practically babbling. "Could you sign my phone?"

Dinah ducked her head and looked rather amused.

Now that they dealt with the babbling waitress, they ordered their food and sat down to have a conversation.

"It's really surprising that you aren't in bed currently," Ellen said.

"Well, sky diving is one of my hobbies," Harry told her. "It was an instinct of me breaking that fall and I was wearing a vest. I'm a bit bruised, but nowhere as badly as hurt as a lot of people think that I am."

He smiled and added, almost as an afterthought. "The flowers people keep sending are lovely through."

That caused Ellen to chuckle despite the situation, and Sarah and Dinah to lock eyes and shake their heads.

"Well, it should be interesting to find out that Maximilian Zeus is confined to a bed within the Arkham Ward of Blackgate," Sarah said.

"Not surprising at all," Harry said. "Will this ever go to trial?"

"Not sure, but….." Sarah said and she paused. "Lorelei Circe also escaped, so the GCPD are hunting for her. She seems to have disappeared. The police officer that helped her escape on the other hand was found on the side of the road halfway to DC when her vehicle ran out of gas."

' _And those brain surgeons didn't think to gag her or knock her out further,'_ Dinah thought. She resisted the urge to face palm.

"So, what about your background?" Harry asked Ellen. She raised her eyebrow when she looked at him. "It isn't that common to meet an Asian Woman with an English accent in America."

"It's a true conversation starter," she agreed. "But, I was born in Hong Kong, having been born and raised there. I went to boarding school and then university in England, where I studied criminology. And then I moved to the United States, San Francisco to be exact. I ended up following in my father's footsteps and joined the police when I turned twenty-one. I worked for a number of years undercover, until some things went down. It caused me to want a transfer and I ended up turning up in Gotham as a result."

"You live an interesting life," Harry replied.

"You have no idea," Ellen muttered underneath her breath.

They were fed and watered, but in Gotham City, business called at the worst possible time.

"Well, at least they waited until after the meal," Sarah said. She took out her phone and accepted the call. "Yes?"

There was a pause. Sarah sighed.

"A pair of cops have been found in a back alley, and he wants us to check it out," Sarah said.

"So, I guess that we need to go," Ellen said.

"It's fine," Harry informed them. Dinah looked towards him. "I need to get going anyway. I'm planning to go to New York for a couple of days, and I still haven't had a chance to pack just yet."

"Ah, New York, I used to be stationed there," Sarah said. "And I'm still in touch with my former partner, Jean DeWolff."

"Well, maybe I'll get a chance to meet your friend someday," Harry said.

"Maybe," Sarah agreed, with a smile. "But, we really should get going and I know you should be as well."

Sarah gave him a brief kiss on the cheek. With that done, she and Ellen were off pretty fast. The meeting might have been short, but it was very interesting, as usual.

* * *

Harry returned to the tower sometime later. He was in the presence of Reilly, Barbara, and Gwen. They were heading off to New York, although in the case of Gwen and Reilly, it's more like they were going to return home.

Barbara and Harry on the other hand, combined business with pleasure since while they're going to New York in order to celebrate her birthday and Harry had a couple of business meetings. He also had an interview or two that he needed to attend while he was there.

As for Gwen and Reilly, both of them looked really happy to visit some of their friends, pick up their belongings, and visit Gwen's dad.

"So, I think that we've got a pretty productive trip," Gwen was saying. The girls were in various states of undress with each other. None of them were shy at all about their bodies and they were all attempting to tempt Harry.

Gwen in particular wore little more than a lacy pair of black panties, a matching bra, along with stockings, and a head band. Reilly wore a pair of tight blue jeans and a bra. Barbara on the other hand was wearing the most clothes.

"Yes, this is a trip that I've been looking forward to for a long time," Barbara answered, shucking off her shirt and pants quite shamelessly.

"I know that you were," Harry said. He watched Barbara strut in a rather confident manner, wearing little more than a lacy red bra and a nice thong that fit nice and firmly around her ass.

"So, what business do you have to do?" Gwen asked. She looked rather tantalizing in the pose that she struck with him, her hand clasping down against her lips.

"Don't you have to meet with Lavender?" Barbara asked. "She was another girl that Harry met at Boarding School."

"One of many," Harry confirmed to the group. "And Mari McCabe as well, and many a couple of other girls about a clothing line they want to launch later in the screen. All of the girls want my opinion on them."

"And I'm sure that they want to give you a detailed show," Gwen said with a smile.

"You know, we mentioned our friend, Mary Jane, you do remember us mentioning MJ, right?' Reilly asked. Harry smiled when he looked into her eyes. "She's looking to become a model…..actually, she's looking to become an actress and a model really."

"And she's the leader singer of a band that I was a part of," Gwen responded. "But we ended up breaking up because everyone graduated high school."

"She is a really fun girl," Reilly added. She added a suggestive smile and finally managed to slowly pull on a tight shirt as well. "You'd really like her."

Harry chuckled in response. Gwen shook her head and playfully smacked her girlfriend on the arm.

"Was, I rambling a little bit?" Reilly asked.

"Yeah, just a little bit," Gwen said, shaking her head. "But, we'll all end up meeting up in New York, since she's one of the friends that we want to visit."

"Looking forward to it," Harry answered.

"What else do you have planned?" Gwen asked suddenly. Harry raised his eyebrow at this question she asked. "It's just that I was curious, you said that you had a couple of interviews, along with a couple of meetings."

"Yes, I'm supposed to do a print interview with a reporter from the Daily Bugle, and then a one on one with the man in charge himself," Harry said. "J. Jonah Jameson."

Reilly groaned in response and that caused Gwen to snicker. Gwen adjusted her head band and smiled at him. "So, Harry, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead," Harry replied to her.

"Did you by any chance ever watch J.J.'s show?" Gwen asked him.

Harry shook his head in the negative. That caused Reilly to both groan and face palm at the same time.

"Well, I did hear that he was not the type to really mince words," Harry answered her.

"That's putting it one way," Gwen said. She moved over towards the bed, looking for the remote on Barbara's television. She found it on a bedside table.

Gwen pretty much dove onto the bed when she found it, which gave Harry an extremely nice view of her backside in the process. Without another word, Gwen flipped on the Daily Bugle Communication Network.

The man himself, John Jonah Jameson, the second, popped up on screen. Barbara looked at him. "Nice mustache."

"Yeah, right out of the Reich," Reilly answered shaking her head.

"And once again, Gotham City is in the news for all of the reason. If you ask me, and you did if you're watching this, there's something in the water there. Another man went completely nuts and held the rich and famous hostage. You would think that some people would remember not to go into Gotham City or not go to any parties in Gotham City!"

They allowed the man to rant.

"You know, it's almost like he's lacking that one thing that defines him and his rants," Gwen responded.

"Oh, give him a greater purpose, that's what we need," Reilly answered.

Harry watched the spectacle. He allowed a soft chuckle in response. "It should be fine."

"You are a brave, brave, man," Reilly said to him, with relevance flashing through her eyes.

"So, what do you girls have planned anyway?" Harry asked her, switching the subject.

"Well, we're going to visit my father, and then meet up with a couple of friends and go clubbing," Gwen said.

"Obviously, the two of you are invited along," Reilly piped in an extremely excited voice.

"And then there's Barbara's birthday," Gwen said. She switched topics around suddenly. "What do you have planned for her birthday?"

"It's a secret," Harry said, fully aware that Babs was listening intently. "But, I think that she'll like it."

"I will be happy if it's the two of us alone, for a short time," Barbara added. "It doesn't happen often enough with everything that happens, but since it's my birthday, I'd really like it to end up that way."

"Well, it just turns out that I have the entire day pretty much mapped out for you, except for a couple of meetings in the morning," Harry informed her. "Including with the meeting with the head of Hardy Consolidated."

"Oh, why would you be meeting with Felicia's mother?" Gwen asked.

' _Felicia Hardy, the daughter of Anastasia Hardy, and the heir to the company,'_ Patricia thought. _'But she really hasn't had any interest in doing so and is more of a party girl. You might have seen her a few times as a result of that.'_

"Felicia is a friend of ours," Reilly explained. She thought how awkward that statement might be when driven out of context. "From high school, but she was a bit older than the two of us through."

"She was the head cheerleader and Queen Bitch, for lack of a better word at Midtown," Gwen said. She smiled. "Despite that, she took us underneath her wing for a while."

"She's responsible for Gwen's charming attitude since the last time you two met," Reilly said. Gwen playfully bopped her with a pillow in response.

"But, it's very likely that we're going to run into her, and if you want, we can introduce the two of you," Gwen answered.

"Yes, that would be nice," Harry said. Barbara nodded feverishly off to the side in agreement.

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to meeting your other friends even more now," Barbara added. She looked gleeful at the thought.

* * *

In one of the older and rougher districts in Old Gotham, there was a rough looking homeless man who walked around, actually looking in far better spirits. He got a nice meal at one of the homeless shelters that the combined Potter-Vreeland charities are sponsoring, beginning in the early part of December.

He stepped out, but there was a fairly healthy looking young woman.

"Would you want some extra food?" she asked, holding out a bag.

"Thank you," the homeless man said, taking the food.

"Are you sure you don't want to spend the night?" the woman asked. "The storm is getting very bad."

The man frowned, thinking about it. If he stayed, he might not be able to get drunk tonight. He shook his head.

"No thank you, I'll be fine, but thank you," the homeless man said. Not all of the people in Gotham City were all that bad.

The woman smiled and shook her head. There was really no use in arguing with someone like this because it was always the stubborn type. "Be careful out there."

The homeless man brushed off the warning, making his way off into the bitter streets of Gotham. He heard rumors, whispers, about homeless people going missing, but the man disregarded it.

The man pulled a brown paper bag out of his inside jacket pocket. Without another word, he took a long hard swig of the contents in the model.

A noise could be heard from a nearby alleyway. The homeless man ignored at first, if you jumped at every noise in Gotham, you'd be forever jumping.

Another sound could be heard, and curiosity got the better of him. He stopped walking around and turned around. Taking another swig out of his bottle, he stepped into the alleyway in order to look around.

The homeless man stepped several feet further into it.

There was nothing. The man turned around and that proved to be his undoing. A pair of large arms reached out of the shadows, grabbed him into a chokehold, and yanked him further into the alleyway.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 8** **th** **, 2015.**


	91. Chapter 91

**Chapter Ninety-One: What Lays Beneath Part One.**

* * *

 

It was extremely early in the morning for many people in Gotham City. For Ellen Yin and Sarah Essen, it was fairly late for them for they were reaching the tail end of their shift. The night only proved to grow a bit longer when the two of them got a call regarding a particular double murder.

The two of them were inside their vehicle as they pulled up towards the scene of the crime.

"Well, this is about right," Sarah grumbled underneath her breath. That caused Ellen to look over towards her with a raised eyebrow. "There's someone inside the GCPD that's looking to make a quick buck and they've already contacted the media."

Ellen figured as much. There were just a lot of people inside the GCPD who didn't know the definition of the word discreet if it slapped them in the face.

"Well, to be honest, we don't have any leads, and we told you everything that we know, and we told you more than you should know at this point," Harvey Bullock was saying. He was trying to ride herd on the media, but his luck was up. "I mean it, you vultures can keep pecking at the carcass as much as you want, but you're not going to get too much more meat off of the bones than you've already gotten."

The media circus was not something that any cop was prepared to deal with, even if they should. And given Bullock's already charming personality, he was making a fairly troublesome situation even worse.

"But, surely the GCPD must have some leads?" Vicki asked. "Homeless people are dropping down like flies, and after the Blackfire incident, aren't you afraid this might spark another war?"

"Yeah, that was an isolated incident, Blackfire's just some kook, he tried to stir up a bunch of a people," Bullock said. "Best, I can tell, he drank his own Kool-aide one time too many."

"What about the rumors that the GCPD has been enabling the abuse of homeless people by the mobsters and are looking the other way because it's the convenient thing to do?" Vicki asked.

"Hey, people say things, and you'd have to ask each and every single member of the GCPD, but that has nothing to do with anything right now," Bullock said. He spoke in one extremely gruff breath. "All we know is a particularly brutal murder has been caused, and we don't have much more information than that. None of us know anything other than the guy got slaughtered by something."

"But, he isn't the first homeless person who has been found, has he?" Vicki asked.

Montoya intercepted Sarah and Ellen.

"Renee, who gave Bullock permission to talk to the press?" Sarah asked.

"Well, no one gave him permission, he just got ambushed when he came out of the GCPD and he was under a lot of pressure from some people higher up to say the right things," Renee said. "The sad thing is that he's telling the truth, but…..it's just the way that he's saying it is making us all look bad."

"What about the body?" Ellen asked.

"Not pretty," Renee said, but at the same time, she lead the other two cops into the alleyway to see the grisly details. "The person who came across the body was bar-hopping, had too much to drink and well….he needed to relieve himself."

"And that's how he came across the body," Sarah answered calmly.

"Yes, that's how he came across the body," Renee said in agreement. "It was a very good thing that he found the body, and dispatch sent a patrol car to take a look at the supposed body. And upon seeing how bad it was, they had to call in the MCU. Josie Mac and Crispus Allen were nearest, so they were first on the scene. Myself and Bullock were the next ones on the scene."

"But that doesn't explain how the media got involved in this entire mess," Ellen inquired.

That caused Renee to pinch her nose in frustration. "Well, the press showed up around the same time that myself and Bullock did. And since Bullock was the senior officer on the site, he was the one that had to deal with them."

"So, who do you think contacted them?" Sarah asked.

"I don't have an idea, maybe some patrolman wanting to make a quick buck," Renee said. "The thing is that the state of this body is similar to that of the Norton kid that Bullock and I found a couple of months back. It's a lot less bloated and fresher though."

The group came across the body. It was ghastly to say the very least. Sarah took half of a step back in surprise. She had seen some gruesome crime scenes in her day, but this took her a bit off guard. It didn't disturb her as much as she did.

The victim's right rib cage was completely missing. Sarah and Renee looked over the body. There were several other bite marks. It was obvious that the corpse might be a bit more mangled because there was a struggle.

"Do you think that it's the same guy?" Sarah asked quietly when she looked him over.

"Same guy, because the alternative is really bad, that there's more than one of these monsters out there eating up people," Renee said. She didn't even want to think of that potentially dark alternative, but perhaps she should consider it when given enough time.

Sarah and Renee looked over the body. The disgusting discoloration of the corpse was unique, but it was something that they had grown almost useful to considering that they spent a fair amount of time in Gotham City.

Ellen, meanwhile, was not taking so kindly to it. It took her a while to get her head on straight and more importantly, resist the urge to lose her lunch at the sight of this fresh corpse. Her stomach felt like it was tied in multiple knots when she looked over the body.

* * *

 

Harry had some business to take care of before he left New York later that evening. He joined Faora, Jaime, and Karen for their planned dinner with Carol Ferris.

The quartet made their way inside a small highly exclusive restaurant in the swanky Diamond Distract of New Gotham. All of them were dressed rather nicely, but at the same time, they were dressed extremely casually. Harry and Faora were both wearing suits. Karen was wearing a nice long white dress that fit into her body quiet snugly, filling all of her curves. Jaime was wearing a nice little dress that had the same shade of green matching her eyes.

"So, reservations are out of the way, we're inside," Faora said, she made her way into the lobby.

"Doctor Potter, it's an honor," the head waiter said. He had a posh accent, although it wasn't as refined as he might have thought it would be. In fact, he was practically gushing. "It's an honor to serve one of Gotham's most elite."

"Well, I've heard good reviews about this establishment, so the honor is all mine," Harry replied.

"Yes, yes, absolutely, sir, right this way, a nice private room, I hope that you have everything that you need, anything at all," the waiter said. His accent slipped a bit, but he managed to recover his dignity after a second.

' _Figured that the accent would be a front,'_ Faora thought, shaking her head.

' _Well, he could be a walking stereotype, but that's the type of people that we expect from people like that, in a place like that,'_ Karen chimed in.

Jaime sounded a bit exasperated in her thoughts when she spoke. _'And we wonder why Har is the one that does all of the talking.'_

Harry was rather polite with the entire affair and he gave the waiter a little bit of something for his trouble.

"Thank you sir, and the other member of your party is already waiting for you as you can see," the waiter replied.

Sure enough, Carol was there already. The moment that she saw Harry and his group, she stood up to her full height at the sight of them. She was dressed in an elegant purple dress which had a shimmer to it, almost like stars. There was a very long slit up the right side of the dress. It also did a wonderful job in showing a nice amount of cleavage.

Harry smiled at the sight of her. "You look beautiful, Carol."

"Thank you, you look rather nice yourself," Carol said.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting, traffic got a little bit bad," Harry said. Carol shook her head, when Harry took his hand and kissed her on the lips.

The waiter gritted his teeth at the sight, and muttered "lucky bitch." Granted it wasn't something that you could hear without some super powered hearing.

There was a slight blush to raised up Carol's cheeks.

"The dress was something that I picked up today," Carol said. "Because when I packed for this trip, I didn't think that I would be going out for dinner."

Carol shook her head for a second and added with a smile.

"The sales assistant was rather insistent that I take this particular dress when I told her who I was having dinner with," Carol said.

"Well, it suits you well, so you have some good taste," Harry said. He turned to them. "you remember, Jaime, Alex, and Karen don't you?"

Carol nodded in response where the group of five sat down at the table. Harry ordered a bottle of wine, going with a fairly understated, but an excellent white wine.

"We'll order in a little bit," Harry said to the waiter. The waiter nodded and shuffled off with a spring in his step.

Carol decided to jump to the obvious part of the conversation. "So, I heard about what happened at the grand opening of Zeus's new club."

"Yeah, a lot of people heard about that one," Harry confirmed.

"Are you okay?" Carol asked, looking him over.

"Yes, I'm fine," Harry replied in a nonchalant voice, perhaps a bit too nonchalant because that caused Carol to give him one of those looks. This particular look could be classified as the look to be exact.

' _Well, she doesn't fall for the act that you're putting on,'_ Kara said with a smirk. _'I pretty much like her already.'_

"Well, to be fair, given what could have happened, things could have been much worse," Harry amended with his statement. That was something that Carol was going to accept, or at least put up with. "I'm pretty sore and I've got a headache, but other than that, I'm doing fine."

"Given where he landed, Harry was very lucky," Alex pointed out. "Had he not hit the water beneath him, things might have gotten worse."

"They might have gotten much worse," Harry confirmed and Carol looked at him for a couple of moments. "But truthfully, I'm not as badly hurt as a lot of people seem to think that I would be, and for that I'm glad."

"Well, if you're glad, then I'm glad as well," Carol replied. She decided that now that topic was out of the way she could shift to something else. "I had a chance to speak to my father in regards to what we talked about at the meeting."

"What did he have to say?" Harry asked her.

"Well, he was even more interested in working with you after he heard what you had to say," Carol said. She looked on with a smile. "And he would like it if you were able to join us for the next meeting in California. Apparently there are a couple of things that he would like to speak to you about."

"When I am able to find the time, that should be fine," Harry said. Carol was about ready to ask for clarification. "With the spring coming up, I'm actually going to be a bit busier than normal since it tends to be crunch time for me. And I have a lot of work to do for the university courses that I'm doing this year."

"And we have a new product launching in March," Karen added.

"I was just getting to that," Harry told her. Karen just smiled. "In reality, I've got a lot of work to do, but it should be doable, if I'm creative enough, and you better believe that I am."

"After all that I've heard about you, I'm not surprised," Carol said. "I can say that I'm personally looking forward to it myself."

It was that point that the bottle of wine turned up and also they needed to take their orders. It was a necessary bit of interruption out of the way.

"You know, I'm impressed," Jaime said to Carol in a low voice. Carol caused her eyebrow to get extended. "You were able to get Harry talking with just a look and that takes talent. He can be very stubborn regarding his pain."

' _Not that I have any room to talk,'_ Jaime replied, before the obvious retorts came in through the bond network.

' _Well, we weren't going to say it, since you were so nicely able to say so yourself,'_ Patricia said and Amanda and Emily cackled in the background.

"Well it has to deal with having a lot of practicing dealing with military types from a young age," Carol said. She sighed. "And there's a lot of that going in the business world as well. You'd think that it was a bit of an old boys club with how things are now. And it's really even worse if you work for a company that does work for the military. You know, because most of the people who make the decision there have known each other for years. Anyone outside of their little club, who aren't men and old tend to look down on anyone."

"And they look the most down on woman," Alex said with a frown.

"Exactly," Carol said. She realized that she said a bit more than she intended to, but it was a bit too late to put the cat back in the bag now. "That's one of the reasons why I ended up leaving the Air Force to come and work for my father."

She took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

"Sorry for losing my temper like that, it's just…" Carol said. She was struggling to find the right word.

"Frustrating," Karen offered.

"That's about the most diplomatic way to put it, yes," Carol said.

"Well, those people won't be around forever," Harry told her. "And it's time for a new generation to take hold and bring the world into the 21st century."

Carol nodded, he did have a point. She whistled when she looked into his eyes.

"You know, I'm rather impressed."

Before Harry could elaborate on that, the group saw that their food was ready and the waiter was busy bringing it in. It was time to eat.

* * *

 

The homeless man known as Joe looked back towards his new friend with a wide smile on his face.

"Well, I'd think that I'd see someone like you around here, but I guess that you like to keep out of the way," Joe said. "Can't say I blame you, but you know, no one's going to really fuck with you all that much."

The man in the shadows kept stuck into the background. His features were mostly hidden and it was difficult to see anything.

"Yeah, things are pretty rough for us who are left out on the street," Joe informed him. "Especially in the aftermath of what happened with Deacon Blackfire. He really did say a lot of things that got a lot of people hoping that things would be different, but…..he was just another guy with an agenda. Never really was one for those preacher types anyway. Always shoving the bible down your throat, as if some book can be the answer to anything."

Joe coughed and shook his head.

"But, he did shield us from harm for a little while," Joe commented to his mostly silent friend. "And after that, things got really bad for a while. Although they did cool down in recent months. Things got pretty bad because we lost Ghost Town because of the fires, and after that GothCorp moved in so we really don't have that much of a place to go."

There was a moment where Joe looked a bit reflective before he continued. "The Wayne Foundation and Potter-Vreeland charities, they try to help out, but there's only so much that they can do in the end. There's a lot of homeless, and most people don't care about what happens to us, we're nothing but garbage. The mob, the cops, normal people, pretty much anyone, we got stepped on. Even if a couple of rich kids help us, that isn't going to solve the problem. A few might have gotten a second chance, but there are hundreds of homeless people and more growing every day."

Joe looked on and he took a breath. The man in the shadows grunted.

"Things are getting really rough out there for the homeless in Gotham, either way," Joe said. "Help or no help, things are a pain in the ass out there. We try to help each other when we can, but we don't get along all of the time and we fight for what little we have out there. Sometimes, we work together, but it's a dog eat dog world out there."

Joe made his way to the trash can and shifted through it, something that would be of interest.

"Have to compete with the raccoons out here half of the time," Joe said.

His friend grabbed him the shoulder and turned him around. Joe turned around the man held out a basket full of biscuits. They looked a little stale, but they weren't covered in trash and grime like his dinner was most nights.

"Thanks," Joe said gratefully. "Thanks for sticking with me as well, we're almost there. It's a shanty town underneath the Pioneer Bridge on the Old Gotham side of the river. It just happens to be right next to the Industrial Distract of Gotham. Right in the middle of Black Mask's territory."

Joe's companion gave an angry grunt in response and Joe nodded in confirmation.

"I hear what you're saying, but there's a lot of people there."

Sure enough, there were a lot of people there of different varieties, ages, and genders. The vast majority of the homeless people around this area were older men.

"Yeah, the charities and shelters are more willing to provide room and board for down on their luck women and children," Joe said, but then he stopped. "Or rather, they're the ones that don't have enough pride to turn it down."

Joe looked towards an older man who looked like he could play Santa Claus, if he didn't look so grungy and disgusting.

"Here it is, right here, as promised," Joe said, handing the man the basket full of biscuits, along with a couple other bags of baked goods that he liberated. He turned the man in the shadows to ask something. "This is Parker, he helps organize some of us so we can stick together."

"Joe, what the fuck happened to you?" Parker asked. He looked over Joe. "Looks like you got worked over."

He looked at the larger man in the shadows and seemed a bit nervous.

"This is Tiny, he saved me from a couple of the GCPD thugs," Joe informed him.

Parker looked at "Tiny" critically for a couple of moments. He took a second to sigh. "You better be careful because things are bad enough for us already. Especially when Black Mask isn't too happy about us being so close to his territory, but the last thing we need is the attention of the cops as well."

Joe nodded in response; he got what the older man was saying. Parker switched to another question.

"So, did you see Karl tonight?" Parker asked him. "He was supposed to be back from getting a meal at the shelter hours ago."

"Haven't seen him," Joe said, shaking his head. "He's likely unconscious somewhere in the gutter, or maybe that cute volunteer was able to convince his stubborn ass to finally take a bed."

Parker looked a bit worried, because even though the homeless were at each other's throats, they were the closest thing to family that many of them had left at this point.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," Joe replied. "Karl, he's like a bad penny. He'll turn up somewhere, in a few days. He always does."

* * *

 

It was later in the evening and Batman was out, being Batman. To be more specific, he was investigating the GCPD and any potential connections that they would have with the mob. It was always an open secret that the two sides were in bed with each other, even if the proof was hearsay and there was no tangible evidence out there.

Tonight, he prepared to investigate and perhaps interrogate a detective by the name of Mark O'Connor, who was rumored to do work as a freelance assassin for both Carmine Falcone and Sal Maroni.

"So, what exactly has the detective done to get your knickers in a twist, sir?" Alfred asked.

Batman prepared to explain. "And he used to be a Sniper for the Navy Seals. Apparently he served from nineteen eighty-seven until about nineteen ninety-three, and upon leaving, he became a member of the GCPD SWU. Ad from there, he became a detective."

"Well, if you judge him strictly on what's file, he's a good cop with an exemplary record," Alfred commented.

"It does seem that way at first glance," Batman agreed. "But there's more to this than meets the eye. If that's the case, why does Internal Affairs have a three inch file on the detective linking him to several unsolved murders, along with several photos of him eating in a restaurant that used to belong to both Carmine Falcone and Sal Maroni."

"Ahh," Alfred added. "Well, if you look at the situation from that angle, the entire affair seems rather open and shut."

"It might seem that way," Batman replied in a grudging voice. "Internal Affairs has no real evidence that links him to the murders, and quite a few people ate at that particular restaurant during the time period when it was open. Including several judges, cops, city councilmen, businessmen, and two Mayors."

"Ahh, it's all becoming more clearly now," Alfred added. "Hence the decision to investigate the good detective yourself?"

"Yes, exactly," Batman replied. "I've arrived at the location where O' Connor is supposed to live, so I'll be going into radio silence."

"Understood," Alfred said, going quiet.

Now left alone to his own devices, Batman used the HUD display in his cowl. He was quickly able to locate the apartment belong to the detective. He was able to land on the balcony and slip through the glass sliding door.

Given that he arrived so late at night, Batman hoped to have caught O' Connor sleeping or off guard. Instead, he found the Detective lying face down in the middle of his living room floor.

Batman took a step back in shock. There was a pool of blood that was growing underneath him. Surprised by the sight, Batman stood there, staring at the body for a moment. He edged over and swiftly kneeled down beside it.

' _He was shot in the back of the head and in the back where the heart would be,'_ Batman thought to himself. _'Judging by the blood pooling underneath the body, the round was powerful enough to punch clean through.'_

Batman noticed that there was a photo pinned to his back, the photo showed O'Connor meeting with Sofia Falcone. Off to the side, there was a discarded Glock pistol with the serial numbers filed off.

He came to one realization, this person was the same person who was responsible for killing Frank Pratt, Laureen Wilcox, Max Eckhardt, and most recently, Jordan Rich. There was a surreal killer who was killing the corrupt cops of Gotham City.

Batman moved from the corpse of the detective and made sure to look at the gun more closely.

"MARK!"

Batman was caught off guard by the yell.

"Mark, you better get your ass up and in gear, because it's time to go to work!" a voice bellowed, knocking on the door from the other end.

Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, Batman slipped out the same way that he slipped in.

No sooner did Batman leave; O'Connor's partner made his way through the front door and was greeted by the ghastly sight that was his partner on the floor.

* * *

 

In New York, Harry, Barbara, Gwen, and Reilly had arrived after a brief flight much later that evening. Pamela had decided to join them for the last minute, tagging along on her way to New York.

They could have very well driven down there, and it might have been a lot easier that they did, but RAO did own a private jet for a reason. Besides that, after the dinner with Carol Ferris earlier this evening, it was easier for everyone involved to fly down rather than drive, so fly to New York they did.

The group found themselves in the backseat of a Limo. This was something that Gwen and Reilly looked rather pleased by. They were joined by Barbara, Pamela, and Harry.

"Been living as university students so long and taking the subway, this is a nice change," Gwen remarked in an off handed manner.

Harry took the middle seat of the limo. Pamela had pretty much taken a place right by his side, pretty much molding into his right side. Barbara had passed out a little bit after they had gotten there. Therefore, she was currently using him as a pillow.

Gwen and Reilly situated themselves in the seats across from those three. In particular, Gwen was sitting perched upon the lap of the much taller Reilly.

"So that paper that you wrote about a year or so ago?" Reilly asked. That caused Harry to lock his eyes on her.

"You're going to have to be more specific, I wrote quite a few papers," Harry answered. That caused Reilly to shake her head and Gwen to reply with a grin.

"Well the one that says that there's a possibility of an ordinary person reaching the peak of physical perfection through the use of chemistry," Reilly said. Harry smiled. "It just show happens that I found research that belonged to my father that was based on a similar idea. Although his was more focused on the idea of replacing defective genetic sequences with DNA sequences from animals."

That got Harry's attention.

"The best example is the idea of using Lizard DNA on a person missing a limb," Reilly commented.

"Well, if that was the case, why is your father so obsessed with spiders," Gwen murmured in a low voice with a shudder.

"The project that I'm working on with Doctor Woodrue is very similar, the only difference is that we're working towards using plants rather than animals," Pamela said. "After all, most plants can be regrown if they are exposed to the proper conditions. All it takes in most cases is the proper soil, sunlight, and water."

Harry was able to pick up what Gwen said with his super hearing. "What does that mean?"

That caused Gwen to grit her teeth in response and that caused Reilly to giggle. She grew suddenly serious when she looked at Gwen.

"Well, the place we found Richard Parker's notes was an out of the way lab that was literally swarming with dead spiders and it seemed like most of the experiments he performed was on them," Reilly said. Gwen frowned deeper and Reilly continued in a more serious voice. "Gwen had a close encounter of the arachnid kind when she was in grade school thanks to a bully. It left her with a strong dislike of them."

"Was your idea similar that of Reilly's father or were you intending to go in a completely different direction?" Gwen asked, deciding to divert the conversation from this alarming topic.

"Well, through a lot of hard work, dedication, and the right diet, it is possible for a person to come close to the peak of physical perfection," Harry said. "I believe that, and Hourman proved it back in the day, it's very much possible to push a person past that point."

Gwen nodded in response.

"The trick is finding that right combination, and I haven't just yet," Harry said. He cupped his hand underneath his chin and was deep in thought. "But, it's something that I'm going to work on, even if it takes some doing."

Gwen and Reilly were looking at Harry extremely eagerly. There was a smile crossing Gwen's face. "Well, it's something that I'd like to help you work on if I get a chance."

"There's a pretty good chance that you'll get to do that, because it's one of the projects that you may end up working on me with," Harry informed her. That caused Gwen to look at him in surprise.

It was the point that the Limo arrived at the parking garage of the building where the apartment Harry owned through the Evans Family in New York. Whilst Harry hadn't had a chance to use it much, Lavender, Parvati, Mari, Katie, Angelina, and Alicia made use of it. It was a good place for them to stay when they are New York.

While Reilly and Gwen said that it wasn't much of a problem to stay with Gwen's dad, Harry waved those words off. While it wasn't as big as the Penthouse in Gotham or Metropolis, the Penthouse was big enough for its own right.

* * *

 

It was earlier the next morning. Harry helped put Barbara, Gwen, Pamela, and Reilly up into the penthouse proper, and helped them get settled in to rooms of their own.

Lavender and the others weren't home yet. Knowing them, Harry suspected that they were out clubbing. Harry decided to call it a night and get some sleep. He made his way to the master bedroom and stripped down and prepared to crash for the night.

That's where he was right now, but he didn't stay asleep from long. A pair of extremely soft, but firm hands worked their way down slowly from his shoulders towards his hips. They dug in a little bit.

This is followed by another person who laid a series of extremely soft kisses along his jawline, and then along his lips to suck softly on his neck. The female in question nibbled on it lightly.

Having been stirred awake, and in a rather pleasurable manner at that, Harry rolls onto his back to find Lavender.

Lavender had gone through a bit of a growth spurt as of late. Her blonde hair hung down nicely. She had a fairly round pair of breasts with perky nipples that stuck out. The girl had the perfect hourglass figure, with her slender waist giving way to some wide hips. She had a fair amount of muscle on her body, with her long beautiful legs showcased.

Pamela had also shown up. Seeing the fact that Lavender was on her way to the room.

"It's been way too long," Lavender said. Harry grabbed her and pushed her onto the bed. "Oh, I've missed this."

Harry kissed her on the side of the neck and started to suck on her pulse point. That caused Lavender to close her eyes tightly when Harry made his way down her, kissing her breasts nicely.

Pamela took her spot next to them. She was wearing nothing, but an extremely transparent green nightie that showed her nice curves. She leaned down in front of Lavender and crawled up towards her.

"Oh, I'm sure that we can make up for lost time," Pamela said breathlessly. She took Lavender's hungry mouth into a kiss, while Harry slowly worked his way down the blonde bombshell's body, before he stopped between her legs.

Harry inhaled the juices that were pumping from Lavender's slick center. To say that the girl was ready to go would be an understatement. His tongue brushed against her outer lips with a nice tease. He licked the area around her thighs and caused her hips to buck up in response.

He grabbed her thighs and drove right into her pussy.

Lavender moaned deeply into the kiss that Pamela was giving her. Harry's tongue did some really amazing things to her pussy as she was reminded anew time and time again. His tongue brushed against her outer lips and kept drinking the delightful juices.

Harry got her to cum in no time. He smiled when he pulled himself away from her. Her pussy was bared for him.

"Pam, roll her over," Harry said. "If she's going to act like a bitch in heat, then I'm going to fuck her like one."

"That sounds pretty good," Pamela said.

"Yes, just fuck me in any way that you want to," Lavender begged him. Pamela rolled her over, making sure to have her panties down in the process. "Take your huge fucking cock and nail me like I'm nothing more than a common whore!"

"You know, with that mouth, you should put it to better use," Pamela commented. She spread her thighs.

Lavender pressed her face in between Pamela's thighs. Her legs wrapped around her head and Lavender slowly sucked the juices from between her legs.

The jolt of pleasure she felt next was because of Harry's cock impacting her juicy pussy. She slid around him like a tight vice and felt him enter her from behind. The burst of pleasure that entered her body was second to none.

Harry rested his hands on either side of her hips and kept rocking into her body. He plowed his manhood deep into her body, punishing her pussy.

"Damn, so tight, need to wreck this more often," Harry said. He kept drilling her from behind.

Lavender was mewling underneath his actions. She couldn't say that much, on the account of her mouth being extremely busy when she was munching on Pamela's sweet and savory cunt.

Harry rocked himself into her body. He stopped suddenly, which caused Lavender to reply with a moan.

"Get her up and put her on me," Harry told Pamela. "I want to see her face when she cums."

Lavender got excited about the possibility of being forcefully impaled on Harry's throbbing cock. It caused her thighs to moisten.

She was on the top of him. Her large breasts smashed against his chest when she came down onto his throbbing tool.

"Fuck me," Lavender moaned. She came down onto Harry's massive rod. She bounced up and down on him.

"That's it, ride me, you know you want to," Harry informed her. His hands grabbed onto her breasts. "Who do those breasts belong to?"

"You, Harry Fucking Potter, you," Lavender panted. She worked her hips up and down his tool rocking against him. Lavender's dripping hot walls slid down on him.

She felt more and more of her delightful juices pump out from between her thighs. The sinful delight showed that it was only a matter of time before something was going to break and she was going to have it. She rocked her head back, biting down on her lip when she came down on him, constantly.

Lavender wanted his seed inside her as well. She was determined to have it.

Harry could tell what she was doing, and wanted to make her earn it. He watched Pamela diddle herself on the bed, and that caused him to ram into Lavender harder.

Lavender could feel Harry's hand go off her breast and start grabbing her ass. He let go and kept allowing her ass to bounce off of his balls. His balls was loaded with so much cum that she could not wait to have it in her.

"Please, Harry, I need it," Lavender whined. She wrapped her arms around him and kept rocking her body up and down him.

"Good things come to those who wait," Harry responded.

Lavender's juicy hot walls pushed up against him. She pumped him hard and Harry could feel that something was bound to break in her.

Something did break and Lavender squealed in delight. The force of his orgasm ramming into her caused her to cum hard on her own. Her slick walls milked him for everything that she was worth.

Lavender fell forward, still mounted on Harry's lap. She smashed her breasts into Harry's face, before Harry eased her out.

Her pussy drained with some nice juices and Pamela was over the top of her suddenly. Her tongue licked up all of the juices.

The moment that was done, Pamela grabbed his cock and eased it into her.

She gave a moan of pleasure when Harry rammed his throbbing hard penis into her tight center. His manhood was already slick with Lavender's juices so it caused her to tingle the moment that he drove himself into her.

Pamela dug her nails into his shoulder and he rocked down into her extremely hard. She felt his manhood into her.

"It turned you on to see me dominate her like that, didn't it?" Harry asked her. He cupped her breast to emphasize this fact. "I bet that you'd like me to do that to you;wouldn't you?"

"Yes," Pamela agreed. She closed her eyes when she felt his throbbing manhood against her entrance. It was inches away from her.

Her pussy pumped with an immense amount of heat. All she needed was for Harry to take her. His throbbing cock made a swift swipe deep inside her body and stretched her out. Pamela felt her walls close down onto him. She felt him inside her and that caused her walls to clench him extremely hard with delight and pleasure.

"Yes, yes," Pamela breathed. She could feel him inside her and she couldn't even begin to describe how amazing that he felt inside her.

Harry held onto her hips and slowly pushed into her. The thrusts felt extremely amazing when he impacted into her body.

"Fuck me, harder," Pamela moaned at the top of her lungs.

Her legs kicked up and they were perched on the top of Harry's shoulders. He decided to give her pretty much what she wanted. He aimed himself into her and rocked into her body extremely hard. A few more pleasurable spikes into her body and that caused Pamela to be brought closer and closer into dream land.

Her wet walls clenched around him very hard. Pamela's slick surface felt like heaven around his throbbing tool. He couldn't even describe how wonderful she felt around him, there were not words that were fit to describe how good he felt.

"Damn, you really wanted this about as badly as she wanted it," Harry said. Her walls clenched him when he lifted her halfway off the bed.

He slowed down a little bit and that caused Pamela to want it more.

Harry allowed the feeling to rise within him. He savored the moment of this dripping hot pussy snugly fit around his tool. He cupped her breasts and slowly rocked himself into her body. The thrusts grew even deeper when he impacted his throbbing tool deep into her body. He rose up into her and fell deep into her body. He could feel her slick walls envelope him when Harry shoved his throbbing rod into her body.

The end was about to reach, at least for this round. Harry allowed Pamela to reach the edge of her orgasm, before yanking her over the edge. Her dripping hot pussy clutched around him.

"About done," Harry told her. Pamela closed her eyes and savored the moment. She savored every single moment of his cock inside her.

The two of them met their mutual peaks together. Their organs met with an explosion. Pamela's walls clenched him.

Harry felt the great sensations around his tool when he launched his dripping seed into her sweet and savory center, launching every single drop of cum he had into her body. He fired an immense load into her sweet and savory center.

The two of them collapsed, ready for another round with the other. All they needed is a moment to recover.

Reilly swore to the high heavens that she was going to get up to get something to drink. She ended up walking past Harry's bedroom door. Due to that fact, she heard moaning come within the room. She couldn't help herself; her curiosity really did get the better of her. She ended up peaking inside, which caused her to be treated to an amazing show.

She caught Harry in the midst of finishing off Lavender and then he moved right onto Pamela. She couldn't help herself. Reilly knew that she shouldn't watch, but at the same time she couldn't help herself.

Reilly also realized what she was doing. Her fingers were pressed between her legs and she was getting rather sticky.

The poor girl found herself in desperate need of a cold shower, or at least some extremely kinky sex with her girlfriend. One or the other, it honestly didn't matter at this point.

**To Be Continued on April 15** **th** **, 2015.**


	92. What Lays Beneath Part Two

**Chapter Ninety-Two: What Lays Beneath Part Two.**

* * *

Kara was sitting in the driver's seat of Karen's SUV. She made a decision to go and visit Claire for a while. As a result, she went to the tower in Metropolis and then drove down there. Granted, she could have honestly flown down here without too many problems, if it wasn't for the fact that it had been snowing a fair bit lately. Therefore, she decided to play things safe.

All things considered, the weather isn't too bad at the moment. It was a nice sunny day, but it was still as cold as fucking hell. The only good thing was that the snow was not coming down at an excessive rate, to the point where Kara might be getting fits.

Kara shook her head, the cold didn't really bother her, so it didn't matter all too much to her. The snow and the ice was annoying, especially with the idiots who tried to drive on the main road like it was nice and sunny day.

Kara pulled her way into a parking spot near the front of the Kent Residence. She took a moment to rub her hands together and reached over, turning off the car.

She took her keys out, making sure not to accidentally lock them into the car again. Making sure the car was off and the doors were locked, the youthful blonde made her way around. She was now by the trunk, and she got inside. She pulled out the her backs from the trunk and slung them over her shoulder.

Kara stepped over towards the front door, almost floating over the ground to avoid the slightly slick path. It was extremely subtle and no one would honestly notice it. She raised her hand and knocked a couple of times on the front door.

She paused and knocked on the front door again. There was no answer. That caused Kara to frown deeply.

Kara looked around, craning her neck and decided to put her bags down right by the front of the door.

The next step was to see if there was anyone around the back area of the house, if not, there was a spare key.

' _It would be dreadfully boring if I came all this way for a visit and no one was around,'_ Kara thought. She knew that the Kents weren't that way, so she put that particular idea out of her mind.

' _A bit of a waste of time as well, wouldn't you agree?'_ Amanda asked.

' _Yes, that too,'_ Kara thought. Suddenly her eyes perked over.

As it turned out, she didn't have to be alone on the farm. She could see some figures moving around and Kara eased her way over to get a better look. She could see a brief glimpse of Jonathan Kent, who was working on his car in the area of the bar.

Kara also saw a glimpse of a younger girl, who looked to be a bit older than Claire by a couple of years, who was helping him out.

' _That must be the one that she and Jonathan decided to take in,'_ Kara mused to herself, more so than the other girls in the bond link. _'Marie, I think her name was.'_

' _Either that, or Pa Kent is into much younger women,'_ Amanda fired back.

Kara paused and shook her head. The thought was too absurd to even contemplate for a second. _'Somehow I doubt that.'_

' _Yeah, he doesn't seem like he would be the type,'_ Donna agreed. She was right with Kara on that one of that particular theory being among the absurd of the absurd.

Kara shook her head, allowing the bond banter to play itself out to a logical and natural conclusion. Kara walked her way towards the barn. Once she reached the door, she raised her hand and knocks on it lightly.

Light for someone like Kara was pretty strong. It did do the trick of getting the attention of the two people involved. That caused Marie in particular to let out a gasp of surprise at the sound and caused her to jump up into the air a bit.

A startled Jonathan jerked up his head and nearly banged his head on the hood in the process. He had his head in the hood working on the engine.

' _Smooth one, Kara,'_ Donna thought, shaking her head.

He scowled a little bit and he turned to give the person crap. However, he saw that it was a sheepish looking Kara standing there. Therefore, he greeted her with a smile, although he rubbed his head in response.

"Sorry about that," Kara answered in a sheepish tone. "Nobody answered when I knocked on the front door, so I had to go around and make sure that someone was home."

Jonathan nodded in response. "Martha went into town to pick up groceries, and Claire tagged along with her."

"Right," Kara said.

"What about your bags?" Jonathan asked her.

"I left them outside the front door," Kara replied.

"I'll go get them for you," Jonathan said and he turned around, walking off. Kara was about to protest, but he was off before she had any chance to protest.

' _I could have gotten them easily, it was no big deal,'_ Kara thought, with a sigh in exasperation.

Martha, after finally paying attention to the bond after being distracted by other matters, piped on in. _'That's Jonathan for you.'_

Kara turned to the girl who was standing in the barn. She bit down on her lip, looking rather nervous at her. The Kryptonian woman looked her over with an appraising eye.

' _She's fairly attractive, if not a bit waifish,'_ Kara thought.

' _You better believe that she won't stay that way for long under Martha's roof,'_ Lily chimed in, which caused her cousin to chuckle in response.

' _Well, she'll grow into something nice, she'll be worthy of keeping an eye on for down the line,'_ Faora thought. It never did hurt to plan ahead.

"My name is Kara," Kara told the girl, finally breaking the ice. "And you must be Marie."

"Yeah, I am," Marie confirmed with a frown when she looked over Kara.

Kara reached over to shake her hand and without thinking about it, Marie took it. She realized a few seconds too late that she didn't wear her gloves.

That fact alone caused the young blonde to feel a slight draw on herself. The feeling was very brief and it passed immediately, after Marie let go of her hand. All she was left with was a slight dazed feeling and a headache as a result of what just occurred.

Marie quickly pulled on the thin leather gloves that she was almost always wearing. She thanked herself that the contact was not long enough to make any really big difference. The girl was surprised that she was feeling really good for a moment. It felt like she could take anything on in the world and kick its ass.

Kara noticed the smile on the girl's face and cleared her throat. That caused Marie to turn towards her and the sheepish smile crossed her face.

"So, what just happened?" Kara asked.

Marie shrugged her shoulders. "What do you mean?"

Before this conversation could get any further, the car pulled up and Martha and Claire were back from the grocery store. Kara moved over to help them, knowing that they likely had a big load in the back of the car to weather the oncoming storm, with Marie following her from behind.

* * *

Harry was enjoying the finer sights of New York City and he had a pretty fine sight in tow with him, namely Reilly. He was dressed pretty casually all things considered, but if one looked at Harry, they would think that his suit would be extremely extravagant. He was dressed in a extremely stylish grey suit.

Reilly on the other hand was wearing a pair of tight jeans, a zipped up leather jacket, a stylish pair of glasses (not the contacts she normally wore), black leather boots, and her hair was done up in a loose pony tail.

The reason the two of them were out and about was that Harry was meeting with Betty Brant for breakfast this morning before the interview that he was going to have with her the next day. He wished to get a feel of what she was like as a person and get an idea of the questions that she was going to ask of him.

' _And really, this is just a bit of a scouting mission on your own behalf, isn't it?'_ Faora asked him.

' _Well, in some ways yes, but also, I want to make sure I know what to expect with Jameson later that day,'_ Harry thought. _'Betty has been working for him since she was about sixteen years old, moving from an intern to a reporter, and a pretty good one. At least that's what Vicki and Reilly mentioned to me about her.'_

The pair made their way to a small restaurant, where he was supposed to be a meeting between Harry and Betty.

' _Could have sworn that this was supposed to be a one on one meeting,'_ Karen commented.

' _It was, but Reilly decided to tag along and who am I to say no to such a request,'_ Harry thought. The rhetorical question was in fact very rhetorical. _'She became friends with Betty during the time that she worked at the Bugle, even if it's been a long time since they had a chance to see each other. I guess Reilly figured that the best she could do was introduce me to Betty properly.'_

' _Well, when you put it that way, it does seem like a good idea,'_ Karen thought. _'And the collective grows.'_

"So, why did you mention Hourman last night?" Reilly asked, deciding to pick up their conversation from last night regarding Harry's thesis.

"Well, Hourman's a good example of what I'm hoping to achieve because he was able to achieve it, if only for an hour at a time," Harry answered.

That caused Reilly to tilt her head rather cutely as she considered her head. "So, what do you exactly mean?"

Harry was only too happy to explain. "Through the right combination of vitamins and hormone supplements, Hourman was capable of giving himself superhuman abilities. Sure the effects only lasted for an hour at a time, but the fact that he was able to do it in the first place does speak wonders about him. In theory, it should be possible to achieve those same effects on a permanent basis."

Reilly considered that thought for a moment and had another question.

"Well, if that was the case, then why don't you use Miraclo as the basis for your own project?" Reilly inquired. "Wasn't it supposed to achieve about the same thing and for a more permanent basis?"

"It was a massive achievement for it's time, yes," Harry agreed, after stroking his chin. "But from what I understand, there was a lot of unforeseen side effects that weren't worth the risk. They couldn't be extended past the hour, another being that extended usage basically started to rip the person's muscles to shreds. And the fact that it could potentially make a person addicted to it. And the fact that I don't have access to the formula."

Reilly had a sheepish grin on her face. "Well, if nothing else, it proves that its pretty possible."

There was something else that came into her mind.

"In a lot of ways Venom is very similar to Miraclo," she piped up out of the blue.

Harry nodded in response. "Well, in theory, the two of them are pretty similar, but at the same time there are differences."

"How so?" Reilly asked.

"Venom causes a great deal of psychosis and brain damage for long term usage," Harry informed her. She nodded as she listened to his lecture. "And it's more addictive as well. And how the two drugs are administered is another key reason. Venom constantly needs to be pumped into the user's blood stream to have an effect and as far as I know, Miraclo is taken in pill form."

Reilly nodded and waited for Harry to continue.

"They increase a person's strength and stamina in ways, but they're drastically different," Harry told her. "Venom is a negative example of what I think is possible. And while Miraclo isn't much better, it is a much cleaner alternative then Venom."

Reilly commented about something. "I remember reading something in my father's notebooks about a super-soldier serum that both the Nazis and the Americans were working on during World War II. Apparently, it was one of the things that was responsible for inspiring my father."

Harry whistled with a smile, as the two were almost to their destination. "So, you're curious if I've heard anything about that?"

"Pretty much yes," Reilly agreed.

Harry placed his hand underneath his chin and frowned. "I've heard about it in passing, but the government buried the information that was available really deep. So there isn't a whole lot to go about it. I think that there was a single successful test subject, but the formula was lost in the explosion."

"Bet that hasn't stopped anyone from trying to recreate it," Reilly said and Harry shook his head with a smile.

It was around this point where the two of them reached the restaurant that Harry was supposed to be meeting with Betty Brant at. They made a silent agreement that it would be best to table the conversation for right now.

Stepping inside, Harry went face to face with the Maitre'd, who thankfully wasn't gushing over him.

"Doctor Potter, sir, your guest hasn't arrived yet," he told them. "If you would like, I would show you to a nearby table."

The two of them were escorted over towards a nearby table and settled in. Harry turned to Reilly. "So, how did you come to work for the Bugle in the first place?"

Reilly paused for the briefest of moments to consider that question. "Well, I was always interested in photography, so I worked on the Midtown High school paper and I was a member of the photography club there. The Bugle ended up hosting a contest for a highly powered camera that only students could enter. So I entered and I won."

She took a deep breath and smiled when she continued her story.

"And when I went to the Bugle, I ended up having to pose with the Jolly One himself for a public relations photograph, and I got talking to Betty in the process," Reilly continued. "Things sort of spiraled into me getting an internship at the Bugle from there."

Harry was about to ask her a question, only he was interrupted by the arrival of a very attractive brunette. It was Betty Brant. She stood there wearing a red silk shirt with a tasteful amount of buttons undone, a leather skirt that ends just above her knees, and a pair of high heel boots that come up to just below her knees. Her hair is cut into a rather attractive bob that comes down to her shoulders.

He was about ready to get to his feet to introduce herself, but Reilly beat him to the punch. She more or less bounced to her feet and wrapped a surprised Betty up into a hug.

"Oh, Reilly, hi!" Betty exclaimed. She was caught off guard. "What are you doing here? Actually how have you been since you left for Oxford?"

"Oh, Oxford was good," Reilly informed her. "And Harry here, is Gwen's friend's Barbara's boyfriend. So, when I heard that the two of you were going to be meeting, I figured that I could come along."

"That's great, you can….well you can act as a photographer for me," Betty informed her. Reilly raised her eyebrow, wondering why. "The new guy….well it be frank, the new guy sucks and there are times where I can't help, but wonder if he's just a shave, high functioning gorilla."

"Well, this is Harry Potter, Harry this is Betty Brant," Reilly said in a rapid fire rate, introducing the pair of them to each other with excitement dancing in her eyes.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Brant," Harry told her.

"Please, Betty, Doctor Potter," Betty said.

"Then, I insist you call me, Harry," Harry informed her. He leaned in to kiss her on the back of her hand. "I've heard a lot about you from Reilly and from Vicki Vale."

Betty blinked. She didn't think that Harry knew Vicki personally.

Harry could sense her surprise, but given the fact that outside of the press conference announcing the Red Sun, the two of them haven't been seen in public together all that much. That being said, introductions were pretty much out of the way and the three of them sat down.

"So, I'm sure that you want to know why I really wanted to meet you before the actual interview," Betty said. Harry smiled in response. "I really do want to run a list of questions by you."

She paused for a moment and added in a sheepish voice.

"Well actually, it's more like the legal department insisted that I do so, because you're becoming known as a very powerful business man," Betty informed him. "And they don't want me to ask anything that might rub you the wrong way and get us in a lot of legal hot water. And it works for a case of us getting a feel for each other, so the interview doesn't have any awkwardness."

"That's fine with me, I'm pretty open about most things," Harry said. Betty smiled when she looked at him. "But, naturally there are certain things that I want to keep to myself. Certain aspects of my personal life and some of the projects that I'm working are the two that come to mine."

"That's fine…..I prepared a list of questions," Betty said. "So, if you could look them over at your leisure and scan them, that would be great."

Harry took the questions and read them over. "I've heard that you've worked for Jameson for a long time."

That caught Betty off guard, but she nodded. "Yes, I've been working with him since I was his personal assistant at about sixteen."

Harry arched an eyebrow, with an intrigued expression. "That's quite young and not exactly all that common."

"Well, my mother was Jonah's personal assistant before I was, but she had cancer and became too sick to work," Betty said somberly. "I managed to convince him to take me on, so that we would have enough money to cover her medical expenses. Eventually, I became a reporter from there."

"Well, then you must have gotten to known him pretty well," Harry offered and Betty shrugged in response.

Betty shrugged in response. "That's true, I know Jonah better than his wife and kids, sometimes."

"So, what's he like in person?" Harry asked her. "No offense, but his television show doesn't paint him in the best picture."

"That's for damn sure," Reilly muttered underneath her breath.

"Well, he does give people a chance," Betty admitted. "And he's not someone who is going to back up underneath a threat, no matter how much it puts him in danger. He's tough as nails, but he's pretty cheap at times, and a skin flit, and when he can get obsessed about something, oh boy, does he drive to the ground."

Harry blinked and he spoke slowly. "So, in other words, he's exactly like he appears on his television show?"

Reilly and Betty both nodded, before Betty smiled. "Yes, exactly like that."

* * *

In Gotham City, there was a lot of movement going around the office of Roman Sionis in Janus Cosmetics. The man himself, Roman Sionis just left his office with his personal assistant. She was a fairly attractive Asian woman who was in her early twenties and went by the name Ms. Li. She wore a female business suit and she wore a pair of glasses that rested on her nose.

She had a clipboard in her hand and was going over some information with her boss as the two made on the elevator. "The first order of business is the fact we've been having trouble finding alternate shipping solutions that aren't with Falcone. In the aftermath of the explosion…"

"What are our options right now?"Sionis asked.

She scanned her clipboard. "We could technically stick with our current option, although it will be in a reduced capacity until we can finish recovering from the damage that was done. We have enough trucks within Gotham available so we can take things in house for the time being."

Li paused and added something.

"Although the problem was that it would reduce our capabilities to ship our other off the books items," Li said. She was reluctantly to speak the next option, but she figured that she was going to have to swing for the fences. "Or, we could just bite the bullet and work with Falcone for the time being."

Sionis looked towards her for a good long moment.

"We will take things in house for now," Sionis said. "Falcone isn't even an option with how things are currently."

Ms. Li nodded and made a note of the choice on the clipboard. It was at this point the elevator arrived in the parking garage and the two found Sionis's limo. His butler, Walter, was holding the door open.

Sionis walked across the parking garage and slid in the back seat of the limo, followed by Ms. Li who sits next to him.

A moment later, Walter followed him inside and offered his employee a box that contains the infamous black mask. Sionis slipped the mask on and became Black Mask. He slowly turned to Walter and spoke. "So, how are our plans going forward to expand the territory within Old Gotham?"

While he was able to gain a pretty solid footing in New Gotham, in particular the area around the Janus Cosmetics building, he wanted even more. He was sick of being confined to the Industrial District of Old Gotham. He had his eyes pretty much set on the territory that currently belongs to the Falcone's faction of the mob.

"The plans are moving forward, sir," Walter said. He hesitated before he continued. "But there are complications."

"What exactly are these complications?" Sionis asked. He looked extremely dangerous when he spoke.

It was obvious for anyone with eyes he didn't like these complications.

"The most pressing of these problems is the fact that anyone who we sent into Sheldon Park ends up disappearing," Walter explained to him. "And if the rumors are true, all that stands to happen if we continue to pursue that avenue is that more of our men will end up end. And we'll following them in death."

Black Mask grunted in response. He grudgingly accepted that, even though he honestly didn't like it at all.

"The other way into Falcone's territory is to go through the territory that currently belongs to our friend, the bird," Walter continued.

"Could be an option," Black Mask said. "But to do that, we would include him in what we have planned, and that would cause us to lose more than we are going to gain."

"So, that plan is certainly out," Walter said. He paused. "There is one other option though."

Black Mask paused for a second and he was all ears.

"The other and best option is to go through a route underneath the Pioneer bridge that's currently being used as a camp by the homeless that was displayed by the destruction of Ghost Town," Walter explained. "To do that, it means to clear them out."

"If that's the best option, then clean the trash out already," Black Mask said without a thought.

His butler's response is to furrow his brow. "We're trying, but they are proving to be extremely difficult. We need to be careful, the GCPD is watching them carefully after recent events. It's going to take some time, unless you want to grease some rather expensive hands."

Black Mask narrowed his eyes and he looked at Walter straight in the eyes. He swallowed a lump in his throat. "I don't care what the fuck you need to do to get things done, but you should make sure that you get it done. By any means necessary."

* * *

James Gordon was in the middle of a staff meeting of the Major Crimes Unit of the Gotham City Police Department, to discuss several ongoing cases, along with several newer ones. There were several notable members there. John Jones, Sarah Essen, Ellen Yin, Harvey Bullock, Renee Montoya, Crispus Allen, Josephine MacDonald, Michael Wuertz, Anna Ramirez, and Jim Corrigan were all there, and there might have been several others as well.

Bullock took the center stage and cleared his throat. "Things have been a bit rough on the gang wars front. After they got quiet a little bit over the holidays, things are picking back up in a big way. The different factions of the criminal underworld are trying to scramble for any territory. The Falcone faction of the mob seems to have a hair up their collective ass. Many have defected sides, going back to the Roman now that he's back in the picture."

Everyone understood what was happening. They understood that the Roman, Maroni, and Thorne wee the big picture.

"Thorne, Maroni, and the Roman, they're all making power plays, but Black Mask seems to be running up on their ass," Bullock said.

"What about the Penguin?"

"Yeah, he's cooling his heels for a while and relaxing, but the bastard is just waiting for the right moment," Bullock informed.

"What about the rumors that Oswald Cobblepot is the Penguin?" Allen asked.

"Don't know, but it's pretty likely, the bastard is foul enough," Bullock commented. They found some rather incriminating evidence in the wreckage of the club. "And then we got the god damn Red Hood tearing up things like some kind of crazed nutball. We don't have any idea who the fuck he is, but there's a rumor going around that it could be different people under the mask."

Bullock had said his piece and decided to sit down, to relieve the world of a donut population, one at a time.

"Thank you, Harvey, for that," Gordon said. He was very informative. He turned towards John Jones. "Detective Jones, what do you have to say about the ongoing investigation regarding Basil Karlo?"

"He's still at large despite our best efforts to find him," Jones said. "He could be another face in a crowd and we don't know it."

"So, it's best to assume that he's back to his old tricks again," Sarah answered.

"Agreed," John remarked. "The confusion caused by the aftermath of the Calendar Man attacks, and Day's games distracting us gave the perfect cover for Karlo to slip into the shadows. Unless he seeks medical attention, we won't have much to go on."

John remembered something else.

"And Jonathan Crane is also missing," John said.

"Yeah, Crane's still out there," Bullock agreed. "Didn't we find some drug dealer bare ass naked and screaming his head off."

"Other than that, we don't have much, but yes, that's the question," John agreed. "Then there are more cops that are falling by the day."

"While they're not the most honest members of the GCPD, it's still a problem," Gordon answered.

"We're dealing with a serial killer of some sort and someone who has a lot of information regarding how this force works," John said.

That was a statement that got the entire group whispering within each other.

"You think it was some kind of inside job?" Bullock asked. Leave it to Harvey Bullock to say what they were thinking.

"Yes," Jones answered. He took a moment to allow them to calm down. "All of the murders were the same. Victims of the GCPD police force, were corrupt in some form, usually with ties to the mob. All of them were killed by a silenced 9mm Glock with the serial numbers filed off. And they were disgraced in death by a note that detailed their corruption pinned to them."

"And there's a chance that the cop killer could cross the line," Gordon added. "We better do all that we can to bring him in."

"And if that isn't enough, the Siren is still at large," Sarah said. She gave Ellen the chance to speak about that.

"Right, we've got a weird report regarding a woman being found naked in a subway station bathroom with no memory of how she got there," Ellen explained to them. "We took a look at the camera footage and a woman matching the Siren's description approached her and then led her into the bathroom. Moments later, she came out of the bathroom, and got on a train with a middle aged men."

Everyone was allowed a moment for that to sink in.

"That was the last place she was seen, there are any number of places she could have gotten off from that train, and there's no way of telling how she did so," Ellen added. "There are several people who said that she appeared to be obsessed with Harry Potter. There's a pretty strong chance that she's still in Gotham."

Everyone nodded. There really wasn't much they could do until there was another sighting of the Siren. Someone like her, it wouldn't be too long before she popped up.

"The body we found yesterday has finally been identified," Sarah explained to them. "His name was Karl Dumas. He was a former marine who fought in Vietnam. He had a history of mental issues and PTSD being the main one. He had a psychotic break in the middle of a shift, which led him to lose his job. And afterwards, he ended up on the street."

"So who would have killed him?" Bullock asked. There was a lot of confusion. "Guy like that…..who could have killed him?"

"He didn't have any known enemies," Sarah replied. It would be a long time before anyone would forget what they found. "He didn't have any known enemies, and considering the state of his body, it looks like he had been mauled, by a large dog."

It was that point where Corrigan piped up. He had remained silent throughout the meeting. "Given the nature of the wounds, there's an obvious connection between the recent murder and the murder of Bradley Edward Norton."

* * *

The day of Harry Potter was very productive. After meeting with Betty Brant earlier in the day, he split up with Reilly, who had went off with Betty so they could catch up. He had to attend a pair of rather boring, if not necessary, business meetings. He figured it was best to get those out of the way, because he needed to get them done.

He met with Pamela for a late lunch and a tour of the New York Botanical Gardens which was quiet interesting. He returned to the apartment to have sex with Pamela and he followed that up with a quick nap. After that was over, he had a shower and got changed. He headed out to meet up with Barbara, Gwen, and Reilly. They just returned from visiting Gwen's father, and they were heading off to a rather swanky apartment building where they were supposed to pick up Gwen and Reilly's friends Felicia, Liz, and Mary Jane.

Barbara and Gwen were wearing some nice dresses, dressed for clubbing. Reilly was wearing a nice top, with a pair of ass hugging leather pants. Harry on the other hand, dressed in something a fair bit more practical, namely a pair of jeans, boots, and a buttoned up shirt.

Harry had just finished up explaining to them just exactly what had happened after he split up with Reilly earlier in the day.

Reilly and Gwen looked pretty impressed with how much he got accomplished. Barbara seemed to take the matters in stride, almost as if she was all too used to it. Gwen did let out a whistle in response.

"Well, you do like to keep busy," Gwen concluded with a whistle.

"What were the business meetings about?" Reilly asked. That caused Harry to turn towards her with a raised eyebrow. "That is if they are not too personal."

Harry ran over the ideas in his head. He couldn't really see the harm of telling them about it. "The Potter and Evans family business holdings are pretty varied. We have our hands in a lot of different pies and some of which are in businesses based out New York. So I was dealing with things involving that."

It was at this point, they had arrived at their destination. The group slipped out of the limo, to see a blonde female and a redhead respectfully. The blonde was wearing a little black dress that fit snugly to her body, along with stockings and high heel shoes. The redhead was wearing a silver dress.

"This is Liz Allan," Gwen introduced pointing to the blonde and she then pointed to the redhead. "And this is Mary Jane Watson. This is Harry Potter."

The two girls knew that already, obviously, because Harry Potter was well known in various circles.

"A pleasure to meet you," Mary Jane said with a smile on her face. She was sizing up Harry with her eyes like a hungry lioness and Liz was looking at her.

"You are as gorgeous as Gwen said," Harry informed her.

Mary Jane smiled in response. "You're no slouch yourself, you know that."

Harry was well aware that, as his girls kept telling him. He directed his attention over towards Liz, who kept her arms folded and her eyes locked onto Harry' "And you look beautiful yourself, Liz."

Liz shook her head, and smiled. She had allowed herself to be caught up in Harry's eyes for the briefest of seconds. She didn't want that to happen again.

"Where's Felicia?" Gwen asked Mary Jane. She expected to see Felicia out here, but she was conspicuous by her absence and she was the type of girl to make her presence known.

"She called to tell us that she was running behind, since something came up, she didn't exactly say what though," Mary Jane. That caused Gwen to frown. "She just told us to go ahead to the club, and she'll meet us there."

Harry led the five girls into the limo and they were there. Since this was supposed to be a celebration, Harry broke out a bottle of champagne and decided to pour each of the girls a glass. There was plenty of rapid fire conversations.

"Yes, England was fine," Reilly was telling Liz, as she took a sip of the champagne. "It rained all the damn time."

"It tends to do that," Harry said wisely.

"So, what have you been up to?" Reilly asked Liz.

"Well, I'm taking courses at Empire State currently and I'm working for my step-brother at Raxton Chemical," Liz informed the group.

"And I'm working a couple of odd jobs here there," Mary Jane said. She drank the champagne, it was natural for her, but that was the type of party girl vibe she gave off. "And I've been auditioning for a few modeling gigs here and there, along with some acting gigs. Nothing's come out of it so far beyond a couple of commercials."

"How did those go?" Gwen asked.

Mary Jane shook her head and informed Gwen. "It has gone on a one way trip to nowhere. And a couple of producers tried the whole casting couch thing, but I've got more respect than to fall for that."

"Well, who can blame them?" Reilly asked. Harry just smiled and that caused Mary Jane to get quite giggly.

"Well, I wouldn't….I wouldn't blame them, but there are standards, tigress," Mary Jane told her, with a smile when she had her eyes situated on Reilly's cleavage and she didn't bother to pull back. She turned to Barbara. "So, what have you been up to?"

"Well, I've got a schedule that's almost as busy as Harry's, with courses and all, although he seems to be making sure to beat me at any term," Barbara said. "It was rough when I lost my job because of some jackass in the GCPD, but I've bounced back in a pretty big way."

"Yeah, the mysterious tech support job," Gwen answered.

"So, you seem to have a lot of girls around you at all times," Mary Jane said, with a smile. "Guess, that you can't really blame them."

"I wouldn't blame them," Liz said, with a smile on her face. "I think that anyone who is hereto would want hang around Harry."

"I'm sure Harry can make even a lesbian bi-curious," Mary Jane responded, with a hiccup when she looked at her. "So, did you turn anyone?"

"Well, that would telling," Harry informed her, with a grin on his face. That caused Mary Jane to fold her arms and give a slightly pouty expression. Harry leaned towards her with a smile.

Gwen suddenly remembered something and she felt the need to tell Mary Jane. "Harry's working with one of the girls that he went to Boarding School with overseas on some kind of clothing line. And they're working with Mari McCabe."

"No, seriously, get out of here," Mary Jane. She raised a suggestive eyebrow. "She's a real vixen. I wonder how you wangled her."

"Lavender is a very persuasive negotiator," Harry informed Mary Jane and she smiled.

"Well, the plot thickens there then," Mary Jane commented suggestively.

"Not sure on the details though," Gwen said. She led the rest of the girls to turn to Harry in confirmation.

"Well, Lavender always has an eye for fashion and a gift for it, so the best I could do is provide her with the funding and give her the ball to run with it," Harry informed them all. "Mari is going to be the face of her line and it's one of the reasons why I'm here. If you'd like, I can introduce you to Lavender."

That caused Mary Jane to beam in response at him in delight. There was no time to talk because they reached their destination.

The group piled out of the limo and it was time to go for a party.

* * *

A group of Black Man's men were sitting in an older model of a four door vehicle. There wre three of them to be exact.

"So this Catperson….."

"Catwoman," one of them commented, correcting them.

"Well, whatever that bitch is calling herself, she's racking up quite the bounty," one of the thugs commented, shaking his head. "You know, Luigi Maroni, Carmine Falcone, and Sofia Falcone, they all want her ass bad after what she did to them."

"Yeah, well what about Jim Jansen?" one of the goons asked. That caused all of them to turn around in shock. "Last I heard, she was responsible for having his ass sent up the river."

"Well, no one gets a fuck about Jim Jansen now that he's been put away," one of the goons said. "They all want her, badly, so the bounty is about three million. You mooks might have all failed math, but that's a lot of fucking money. The only problem is that she might not exist."

"Oh, I'm sure that she exists," one of the goons commented. "I heard that she kicked the Penguin in the balls. So the fat bird is after her head as well."

"That chick really has some balls, pissing off the Roman, Big Lu, the Roman's dyke daughter, and the Penguin," the third goon chimed in.

The conversation couldn't get much further beyond this point, because the driver's side door opened up and another member of Black Mask's gang get into the driver's seat.

"So, what's the deal with this?" the goon in the passenger's seat asked.

"The rumor is that the boss is looking to expand his territory," the goon in the driver's seat responded briskly. "I'm not exactly sure what's going on with that. But what I do know is that the boss isn't happy that Gotham is leaving their trash so close to their territory."

"Meaning?" one of the thugs asked.

"Meaning a bunch of fucking bums are camped out in the boss's territory," the goon commented. "So, it's in our best interest to make sure the boss is happy. Because when the boss isn't happy, he's going to take his unhappiness out on all of us, and then we're all going to be fucked."

The other three thugs shrugged and the one in the passenger seat shrugged. "Guess that sounds like a good idea."

The driver started the engine and made his way to the general direction of where the homeless are known to be camped out.

After some searching, they came across a small group of homeless. In this case, it was a young woman who had been on the streets due to a string of bad luck. There were two older men who had taken it upon themselves to protect her anyway they can.

Black Mask's men exited the car. The man was driving got out. "Looks like you were in the wrong part of town."

One of the older men turned towards him. "We don't want any trouble."

"Yeah, well trouble is going to get where you try and steal from our boss," one of the goons said. He punched the older man in the stomach.

The woman tried to get away, with the second older man shielding her. She couldn't run fast enough and she was grabbed and roughly pushed through the ground.

"Hey, you're not running anywhere, bitch," the goon said. He slapped her across the face when he was on the ground. "Oh, are you going to beg?"

"Please don't, please don't, what did I do to deserve this?" the woman asked. She was trembling in terror. "I'll do anything that you want."

"Well, anything, you aren't half bad looking for some Gotham City trash," one of the goons said with a leer. His voice utterly dripped with sleaze. "Perhaps, we can make you earn your keep."

One of the homeless men got to his feet and ended up being shot in the stomach as a result. Blood splattered everywhere when he slumped down onto the ground.

"That's what you get for being a hero," one of the goons said, standing over the man in question.

The homeless woman trembled in fear, her situation got from completely bad, to much worse. One of the goons, the larger one, held her back, and the three remaining goons prepared to beat down the other older man.

They were sending a message and that message rang loud and clear with that much brutality. One of the goons took a lit cigar and the other two held the homeless man down. The lit cigar lowered towards his eyeball as the woman, still held back, watched fearfully.

* * *

The older homeless man by the name of Parker walked down the street. It was one of those evenings.

It was funny due to his habit of looking after and helping the other homeless in the area over the past couple of months, he found himself in a position of leadership over them. Whether he likes it or not, that was the position that he found himself in.

He was doing his rounds and checking in on a couple of people who lay their heads further away from the camp site under the bridge. In this particular instance, it's an old black woman by the name of Maybelle that he was checking up on. Maybelle lived in an old van down by the river near a sewer access pipe that dumped water into the river.

The moment he approached the van, he noticed a pretty nasty smell that caught him off the guard. Since the van was down by the river, it never smells that great. This was something else, it made Parker want to retch. And he was used to really awful smells being homeless.

"MAYBELLE!" he bellowed at the top of his lungs.

There was no answer. There was no sign of Maybelle when he reached the van and the back doors were pulled wide open.

Parker gasped when he noticed the signs of a scuffle and it seemed like something was dragged from the van in the direction of the pipe.

He headed towards the direction of the pipe. The further that he got along, the lot worse the smell got. It would normally make perfect sense given how it was connected to the sewers, but this was much worse than normal.

Parker gave a strangled gasp of shock at what he found.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 22** **nd** **, 2015.**


	93. What Lays Beneath Part Three

**Chapter Ninety-Three: What Lays Beneath Part Three.**

* * *

 

It had been a couple of hours since Harry had arrived at the club with the girls. He would have say that it was over an hour, at least two. He couldn't really say, because time does fly when you're having fun.

Regardless, he was having a nice dance with Gwen. Things were wrapping up, and while Harry could keep going, his current partner can't. She tried her best to keep going on, but Harry smiled.

"Think it's time to wrap up this dance," Harry told her with a smile flashing on his face. Gwen tried to protest that she was just warming up, but Harry would have none of that. He slowly marched Gwen over towards the VIP table where the girls were camped out currently. Barbara, Mary Jane, Liz, and Reilly were all sitting there.

"And she was hogging Harry half of the time," Mary Jane said with a giggle. Gwen gave her one of those looks, potentially, the Look, and sat herself down.

"What any of you girls like a drink?" Harry asked them. They all nodded in response and Harry decided to slip away into the night to tend to the girls and their needs.

On his way there, he decided to slip away to use the facilities. Since he was currently occupied with any female attention, he figured that this was really the best time to do something like that, at least in his opinion.

Before, Harry could completely move in that direction, a slim hand reached on in and grasped Harry, just in time to yank him into a shadowy alcove. He didn't have a chance to react to that, a rather voluptuous body wrapped itself around his body. A firm leg was draped around his hip and a pair of ruby red lips attached themselves to his own.

A tongue brushed against his lips begging for entrance. Harry Fucking Potter being Harry Fucking Potter, decided to roll with it. He opened her mouth, allowing her tongue to enter. His tongue danced with the woman's, in a battle for pure and complete domination. His arms wrapped around her back and slid down, to firmly grasp the woman by the ass. This caused her to gasp in response.

This allowed Harry to get a good look at the woman. She was gorgeous, really gorgeous. She was completely stacked. She was wearing a tight black shirt that caused her breasts to burst out, showing an immense amount of cleavage. Her figure was the perfect hour glass, with a nice ass, which was currently wrapped in a tight leather skirt and she wore high heel leather boots as well.

It was a bit difficult to make her out in the darkness, but one thing Harry could see was that she had platinum blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes to rival his own green ones. He could also see that her panties had been pulled down a little bit.

"I've been waiting a long time for this, handsome," she breathed.

"What's your name?" Harry asked.

"Oh, it doesn't matter, because I won't remember it after a while when you fuck the hell out of me," she said, squeezing the bulge in his pants. She gave him a sultry smile and she shoved his hand in his pants.

The fact anyone could walk in made things all that much more exciting for both of them. Harry wasn't about to complain that this extremely hot woman wanted sex with him, not at all.

The mystery woman shoved her hand down his pants and wrapped her hand around his tool. "My, you're big, no wonder the girls are running at you, throwing their panties down anywhere you walk by."

Harry groaned when he felt her hand run up and down his massive rod. He could feel it grow.

"Let's free that monster, shall we?" she commented. Her lips widened into a grin when she slowly removed his belt and pulled his pants down, to reveal his huge, throbbing cock. It bounced out to face her.

She grinned and wrapped her hand around him, giving him a nice handjob. Her other hand stimulated his balls.

The mystery woman then dropped to her knees, with grace and sophistication. She touched her red lips at the tip of his cock and then shoved her mouth down on his throbbing hard rod. Her mouth wrapped around him, when she placed her hand on his ass, digging her nails into them.

Harry thought that turnabout was in fact fair play. She looked like quite the sophisticated whore on her knees, with his cock buried in her mouth. She slowly rocked herself back and forth, ramming his manhood deep down her throat. She was getting closer to gagging on him. Somehow, she managed to stay the course.

He placed both hands on the back of her head and slowly slammed his manhood deep down her throat. She looked delightful.

"I bet you like that, me fucking your tight little throat like that," Harry breathed. She had her mouth full of his cock. Salvia bathed him when she gave him a messy blowjob.

She reached around and squeezed his balls, fondling them. He breathed heavily when she kept fondling his balls and moved her hand down his manhood as well.

Harry thought that he was about ready to pop. The mystery woman moved her mouth up and down, taking him down. Her lips sealed about the area of the base of his cock, bringing him into the depths of her throat.

It felt like heaven, having that wonderful mouth wrapped around him. His tool was rammed down her throat again. Her hot breath tickled his tip when he entered the back of his throat.

"I'm going to cum," Harry warned her.

The mystery woman didn't break her stride. She kept blowing Harry hard from her knees. She kept rocking him up and down.

Harry held onto her head and fucked her mouth. She moaned in pleasure at the rough face fucking. His balls tightened and he was ready to launch into her mouth.

His thick load fired deep into her throat. Harry sent a seemingly never ending dose of cum into her mouth.

The mystery woman swallowed it all, not wasting a drop. She sucked down his cum like it was her last meal.

"We're not done yet," the mystery woman said. She got to her feet and turned around. Her leather skirt rode up, showing Harry a full view of her tight ass. Her rear was sculpted and extremely firm.

She grinded her ass against Harry's crotch, causing his cock to grow. The teasing lasted for less than a minute, but she made the most of it. The mystery woman grinded her ass up and down Harry's throbbing manhood.

"Oh, you're ready alright," she said, practically purring when she spoke. She spread her legs, allowing Harry to see her pussy and the arousal that dripped from it. "Take me, take me hard, take me as hard as you can."

"If you insist," Harry commented with a smile on his face. He grabbed her thighs and aimed his throbbing manhood up against her slit. "Miss….."

"Just call me your cum dumpster, because that's what you're going to make me," she replied with a sultry smile.

Her breasts practically spilled out of her shirt and Harry groped one of them. She moaned when Harry was inches away from penetrating her dripping womanhood. His cock was this close to spreading her lips.

"Yes, baby, take me hard like that," she moaned. She felt his cock up against her entrance and there were only seconds away before he would be inside her, just like that.

Harry gripped onto her ass and slammed into her. He felt her walls eagerly tighten up against him. This girl was tight with a toned body and she felt extremely good when he entered from behind her. He pushed her up against the wall and roughly fucked into her pussy.

"Yes, fuck my pussy, fuck it like it's your job," the mystery woman moaned. She spread her legs as far as she could so she could take all of him. "That's it, baby, give me your whole cock. I want it all."

Harry squeezed her breasts and that caused her to have a miniature orgasm. "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it."

"Oh, I do want this," she begged him.

Harry pulled all the way out of her, so the tip of him was resting on her dripping slit. He shoved himself into her, stretching out her moist and waiting womanhood. His balls ached with desire when he slammed into her constantly. Over and over again, with rapid fire thrusts Harry penetrated her.

The woman dug her nails against the wall. She felt Harry suck the back of her neck and run his hands over her breasts.

"Yes, fucking harder," she begged him.

"Your dirty whore, jumping me like that, I'm going to batter your pussy," Harry growled at her. He pistoned into her at a rapid fire, rocking her body

"YES!" she moaned.

The sound of the music in the club was able to stifle a lot of what she was saying. Almost everything, but no one investigated the sounds. His hands groped her ass when he penetrated her again. His massive rod speared into her, causing her nerve endings to tingle.

"Are you ready to pop?" she asked him.

"In a minute, but I want to feel you flow first, before I give you something," Harry said.

"Oh, almost there," the mystery woman breathed lustfully. She could feel him spear deep into her body and her tight walls clamped around him, when he grabbed onto her hips. "Take me all the way to the edge, baby!"

Harry decided that he was going to make her regret those words. He held onto her hips and slowly rocked her. She moaned when she felt his throbbing rod enter her body being stretched out and pushed to the limits.

"God, oh god, this feels so fucking good!" she moaned when he speared into her body. It was a series of rapid fire thrusts that drilled her to the edge.

Harry hit all of her hot spots and that caused her to scream. Her pussy clenched him and caused her juices to flow. That pushed Harry to the edge.

"Ready?" Harry asked.

"You better cum inside me, make me your cum dumpster," she begged him. She was on the pill, so she didn't care, and with a cock this could, she wouldn't care anyway.

Harry rammed hard into her body and pushed into her snug pussy. The woman's wet walls pushed against him and his balls really were about ready to explode and coat her center with his juices.

"Fucking hell," Harry breathed. "Cumming."

Harry fired his load into her tight body. He slammed his throbbing tool into her body. He launched dose after dose of his cum into her body. Her body was really being filled up with every drop of his dripping seed.

He finished up inside her, twisting her nipples, which got her to cum again.

The mystery woman rested against the wall, coming down from a hell of an orgasm.

The mystery woman pulled herself up to the ground. Her panties were around here somewhere, oh yes, there they were. She pulled them back on and turned towards Harry with a wicked grin on her face.

"Thanks for the sex, I really needed that, put me in a good mood," she offered him. Harry was about ready to protest that he didn't know her name. She leaned closer towards him and gave him an extremely passionate kiss.

Harry realized that he didn't know her name, but she slipped on her panties and disappeared back into the shadows, as quickly as he arrived. It was time for Harry to get himself cleaned up and to move on.

* * *

 

A bout of steamy anonymous sex did wonders in clearing a guy's head and Harry returned the table with the drinks. The girls were waiting him and he did a double take when he saw who was with them. It was the platinum blonde that he just finished ravishing in the alcove.

The sight of her caused Harry to smirk widely. The woman blinked in shock at him, although she was able to hide it well. Not well enough as it turned out for Gwen and Barbara not to take notice of it. Harry moved forward and set the drinks on the table. He sat down.

Mary Jane slid over with a grin, practically attaching herself to Harry in the process. She spoke in a practically bubbly voice. "Harry, this is Felicia Hardy. Felicia, this is Doctor Harry Potter."

"We've met," Harry said with a smile on his face. "It's a pleasure to meet you again, Felicia."

Harry could have sworn that he heard the tone of giggling twins through the bond link at the entirely blasé way that he said this. He wasn't about to call anyone out on it though. He just allowed them all to get it out of their system.

Barbara and Gwen was looking at Felicia, rather curiously. Gwen decided to break the ice. "Where did you meet him?"

Felicia responded rather bluntly. "We actually ran into each other."

"Literally, we ran into each other," Harry said. Felicia was nodding in response. "She was rushing in, rather late outside of the bar, when I was rushing to get the drinks."

"I wasn't really watching where I was going," Felicia agreed, nodding her head up and down. "I ended up bumping into him, and whoosh, things went flying everywhere. It was really lucky for both of us that we didn't end up with it getting on us. There was a sticky mess otherwise."

"We didn't have a chance to exchange names though," Harry replied.

"To be fair, we were a tad bit preoccupied," Felicia added, with a smile. It was like she gave a shadow of a wink to Harry when no one was looking.

"And I had to head to the bar and reorder anything anyway," Harry informed them all.

"And I'm really sorry about what happened," Felicia said. Although if Harry was looking closely enough, it was obvious that she didn't seem sorry for what really happened. "I was running a bit late to meet my friends. If I wasn't so late, I would have stayed around to introduce myself properly.

Harry waved her off. "It's fine, I know what it's like to have to be somewhere by a certain time and have to be running against the club. And no one got hurt by it, and it really was fun to have someone attractive as you."

Gwen's eyes snapped open for a second and then she muttered underneath her breath. "Yeah, I'll bet."

It was still loud enough for everyone to hear her and most certainly Felicia heard her. Felicia turned to Gwen, giving her an extremely sharp look when she does.

"Oh," Reilly muttered underneath her breath. It just hit her with a not so subtle force what just happened. She just figured things out right then and there and that caused her to descend into an extremely sharp fit of giggles. She tried in vain to hide that underneath a pretext of a cough, but it was not working.

Liz and Mary Jane turned towards her, looking rather confused. Harry decided that it was the best time to steer these conversations about of some really uncomfortable waters.

' _You're a lot better than I would be at this point,'_ Amanda thought, and there were a lot of girls in the bond link that would have to agree right now.

"Tell me about yourself," Harry said to Felicia. He had heard a fair bit about her from Gwen, Reilly, Liz, and Mary Jane, but at the same time, you tend to learn more about a person when they spoke for themselves.

"Well, what is to tell about me," Felicia mused. "I suspect that it's better to hear it from me, then it is from the tabloids. My mother is the head of Hardy Consolidated and I'm the heir apparent to that. She's a businesswoman, and my father…well I don't really know what he got up to, to be honest. He hasn't been in my life for a really long time. But I guess that I'm your run of the mill rich bitch, well a socialite to be technical. But I do some modeling on the side as well, when I have some free time."

That comment caused Mary Jane to pipe up in response. "Harry is working for a fashion designer that is looking for models."

That caused a rather surprised look to manifest on Felicia's face. It was pretty well known that he's a major player in the technological sector, along with a couple of other fields. "You know, as far as I knew, your main area was technology, this was the first time that I heard anything about a fashion line."

Harry simply shrugged in response. "I have my finger in a lot of different pies to be honest."

That caused a rather tipsy Barbara to snort upon hearing that. As a result, Felicia turned to Barbara, with a surprised look on her face. The young female recovered quickly, shaking her head. "Well, you know what it's like, I mean, you are the heir apparent to a major company."

That caused Felicia to hum for a moment in response to that. "Yes, that's true. Although my interests were apparently more in line with my father's….well what little I know about him anyway. The business side is more of my mother's line of interests."

"Well, you got to go with what interests you," Harry said.

Felicia shook her head. "Try telling my mother that, it's about as productive as talking to that brick wall over there."

She pointed out the wall in front of her for an added amount of emphasis. It seemed to be difficult to get her mother to understand anything and what she wanted.

"Well some people do have their blind spots for what others want around them, and they think that other people want what they want," Harry said.

"Oh, I think that there's no confusion what why I want," Felicia said. Her blue eyes met Harry's green eyes.

"You've always not been one to waste time, as long as I've known you," Reilly answered her and Felicia smiled in response.

"You're too smart for your own good sometimes, Reilly, although it does work out rather well on your behalf," Felicia informed her. She could see by the look on Reilly's face that she was going to take it as a compliment. "You and Gwen both sometimes."

"Well, that's the problem with many of us," Harry said. He decided to cut to the chase "And if any of you would like to join me for the modeling auditions, feel free."

* * *

 

It was just another day for the almighty janitors of the Gotham City Major Crimes unit, there was another body, and another mauling. It was a fairly gruesome sight and thankfully only a few would get to bear witness to full glory of the horror they found.

Sarah Essen shook her head. She thought that she might as well have an IV drip entirely made of coffee hooked to her body at this point. That much coffee might not be healthy, in fact there was no might not about it, it was not healthy. She was in the middle of interviewing the homeless man, who introduced himself as Parker. He was wrapped up in a warm blanket.

Unlike some of the other homeless people, he seemed to realize that nothing was worth antagonizing the GCPD over a matter like this, especially the portion of the department that was willing to help him. So he was pretty forthcoming about what he was doing here in the first place and how he found the body.

"I was just trying to keep an eye on the other homeless," Parker admitted. "Someone has to, after all. I hadn't seen Maybelle in a couple of days and considering that she doesn't take care of herself….all that well, I figured that I'd check up on her to make sure everything was okay and bring her something to eat."

"And when you checked up on her, that's when you found that something was wrong," Sarah said, waiting for confirmation.

"Yes, I noticed that something was wrong, it was so obvious that only a blind person could miss it," Parker confirmed. "I followed the trail and then I saw her body…..well, I assume it was her body. It was in pretty bad shape. That's when I made my way to the pay phone and called the police."

Sarah jotted down his responses on a pad of paper.

"Is that everything?" Parker asked her. "Or do you need me for anything else?"

Sarah took one look at him and saw that he was badly affected by what was done here. He didn't seem like the type that was capable of doing anything like this, although she couldn't see how anyone was capable of doing this.

"No, that's everything right now," Sarah informed him. She had to ask him this next question, because it was protocol. "Is there any way that I can get in touch with you if we need to ask any more questions."

"I can be found around this area on most days," Parker said, gesturing to the area around him. "And if I'm not there, I'm usually at one of the shelters nearby. I'm not hard to find."

Sarah nodded, but before this conversation could go any further, her phone started to vibrate. She got a message that said to meet her nearby.

"You can go for now," she informed Parker. "If you want, a patrolman will give you a ride wherever you need to go."

Sarah made her way over towards Ellen, who raised her eyebrow. "You seem to be going somewhere in a real hurry, aren't you?"

"I've got to make a phone call about another case," Sarah informed her. "It shouldn't be too long."

Ellen nodded, seeming to buy this explanation. She stepped back, allowing Sarah to make her way towards a secluded corner in Sheldon Park. It was close enough to see the crime scene, but she was far enough away where she couldn't.

Once she was there, she prepared to light up a cigarette. She was joined by Huntress and Talon.

"Busy, last couple of days, I take it," Talon said.

"You're understating that point quite nicely," Sarah told both of them. She was surprised for a second night to see Nightwing there, but then again, as far as many of the people in Gotham City were concerned, Talon and Nightwing was one and the same. "The second homeless attack within the last couple of days. And they were mauled by what appeared to be a large animal at first."

"At first?" Huntress asked.

"Yes, at first," Sarah confirmed. "There is no way that a large animal would be capable of this, although the similarities between these deaths and the death of that Norton kid are pretty eerie."

"We think that a man by the name of Waylon Jones was responsible for Norton's death," Talons aid. That caused Sarah to raise her eyebrow in surprise at this. "He disappeared in the chaos that was caused by Black Mask attacking Roulette's fight club. We thought that he was gone."

That was a big mistake.

"Well, it was a good assumption to make at the time," Huntress said. "From what Nightwing and Black Canary said, he suffered several deep knife wounds and he was shot a couple of times. We thought that he would have bled out. There was really no sign that he was capable of this, but he's obviously stronger than we thought."

Sarah shook her head in response. She was mulling over things in her mind. "It is really good information to know and it's likely that Jones is back in business after laying low. She's got to be the suspect that we're looking for."

She sighed and added as an afterthought. Sarah took a long drag of her cigarette and it was about finished off. It was more to occupy herself than anything else, because her mind was going a million miles a minute.

"There's just one problem going forward with this," Sarah informed them. "There is no way that I can do anything with this information, at least legally. I need more to go off on."

Huntress replied swiftly. "Do, what you need to do on our end and we'll try and find Jones."

"Do you think that you can do that?" Sarah asked.

The Huntress smiled. "I appreciate the thrill of the hunt."

She nodded in response, and she allowed her butt to fall to the ground after she finished her smoke. She bent down so she could put it in the recycling bin properly.

The next thing she knew, Talon and Huntress were gone. Sarah shook her head. Vigilantes did have a pretty bad habit of doing that in Gotham City.

' _One of these days, I swear that I'm going to catch them at doing one of their little tricks,'_ she thought with frustration. She was bound and determined to do so, if she could help it.

* * *

 

Speaking of vigilantes who were a master at pulling disappearing acts, one of the masters was alive and well in Gotham City. He was an urban legend, a man dressed like a bat. He was currently on the prowl on the streets of Gotham City, late in the dark of the night.

The Batman was on the hunt and searching for the superstitious and cowardly lot.

He was in the process of following an interesting lead that he overheard early this evening. It involved an exchange between Black Mask's men and the Penguin's thugs. The exact details of were not exactly know to him.

If the rumors were true, it was very likely that they were going to be trading drugs produced by Black Mask in his factories within the industrial district for the high tech weapons and ammunition that were being provided by the Penguin, that he had smuggled in from out of the country.

It might be surprising that some of this was common knowledge, except the criminal underworld of Gotham City tended to exchange gossip in ways that were not too much unlike a bunch of old spinsters playing bridge when they get together. Granted, you need to know the right place to look for this information. It could be found with the right amount of digging and considering this was Batman, he knew all of the best places to dig to find everything.

This was too tempting of a target for him to ignore. The young detective made his way quietly to the location. He found himself a perch point and spotted one of Black Mask's men doing a deal.

The thug in question was one of the men who helped rough up the homeless earlier. He had split off from the rest of the boys in order to supervise the deal and make sure everything goes down smoothly and without any incident.

He arrived early to make sure everything is kosher and that they aren't walking into a trap. The business was in good faith. He was currently chatting from his counterpart on the Penguin side of the operation, who he figured was there for similar reasons. They were currently chatting about how they got involved with their respective criminal outfits.

"Yeah, I got into work with the boss, after I was done in the army," the thug commented. "I decided to go work for a Private Military Company after that. I didn't really go anywhere, didn't have any purpose, but Black Mask bought out the company. Instead of fighting wars in some third world shithole, I'm in Gotham City. Which I guess is a first world shithole."

The thug chuckled in response.

"I have to say that it's not that bad, some interesting people to meet," the thug said. He turned to the Penguins' thug. "So, how about you?"

"Funnily enough, a pretty similar story," the thug commented in a gruff voice. "I used to be part of the Bosnian Military, ended up fighting in the war as a result. But, most of my unit got caught in an ambush and died. Couldn't find work to save my life after the war, so that's when I became a criminal, and I did a stint in a shitty prison. After that was over, I became a smuggler and that got me working with the Penguin."

"Yeah, life's really fucking strange like that sometimes," the goon commented and his counterpart nodded in agreement.

It was at this point where the trucks with the shipments in the back of them arrive. The two vehicles pulled up.

It was supposed to be a simple switch and the easiest way might have been just to switch the two trucks and go on with business that way, but they wouldn't be doing their jobs properly if they didn't inspect their job properly.

The rest of the men piled out of the trucks or cars as the case escorting the goods. They made their way to the back of their respective vehicles, where they prepare to inspect the merchandise, hauling out a random crate.

In the case of Black Mask, the crates were packed with ecstasy, while in the case of the Penguin, the contents of the crates were packed with brand new M4's.

Impressed by the sight, Black Mask's minion picked up assault rifle. He prepared to test it in a wall.

He let out a whistle of appreciation. It was more than perfect. He thought that tonight was a good night and they were going to get the better end of the deal.

Things went to hell literally when several batarangs flew out of nowhere, and that was followed by a sudden sonic whine. Several flash bangs went off all at once, followed by a cloud of smoke blanketing the area.

The minion would have used the assault rifle that he was holding, if it wasn't for the fact that it sank into his wrist and it caused him to drop it to the ground.

Discretion was the better part of value for this particular goon and he ran off, deciding to get as far as away from Batman as possible. He bolted from the scene and ran right towards a nearby safe house where some of his fellow thugs were holed up.

It might have been a bit of a hike on foot, but he was making good time. He could hear the sounds of thugs falling behind him, so that really inspired him to pick up a steadier pace.

The man flung open the door ahead of him and he threw open the door, rushing down the steps.

"Fuck," the thug said when he saw the sight from the bottom of the steps. The people inside, the other three thugs that assaulted the homeless people, were knocked down onto the ground. They were completely wrecked and badly broken.

They were really, badly, broken. Still alive, if not barely, and they might not be that long without any medical attention.

The terrified goon stepped forward to call out who did this to them. The only problem was that he suffered a crunching blow to the back of his head and he slumped down to the ground. He went flying and was knocked completely unconscious.

* * *

 

Batman was able to slip a tracker on the minion of Black Mask that ran. He was able to use him as bait to sniff one particular location.

The only problem was that he wasn't really expecting to find this when he arrived. The broken and battered bodies of four minions were down on the ground. He was trying to figure out exactly what happened by examining the status of the body.

"Alfred," Batman said.

"Already on it, sir, Emergency Medical services have been contacted," Alfred said. Batman had already described to him the condition of the men in question. "Who could have done something like this?"

"They took a metal door off its hinges," Batman informed him.

"Then was it some kind of breaching charge?" Alfred asked him.

"Maybe," Batman said. "It looks as if someone punched it off of its hinges, judging by the indentation on the door. It was done with so much more force than a normal human is capable of and the injuries are consistent with some kind of blunt force trauma."

The sirens echoed into the night and that was Batman's cue to disappear into the shadows as quickly as he arrived. The images of what he saw and more importantly what could do this reflected in his mind.

* * *

 

Jack Napier was in the middle of playing craps at a club belonging to Rupert Thorne. The dice was pretty hot and he was feeling lucky. That might have to do with the stack of chips that was piling up around him and the loose women surrounding him.

Jack turned, his eyebrow raised and he shook his head. Bob the Goon, his number one man, was chatting to a woman, although she didn't seem too interested in buying what Bob was selling to be honest.

"And will you look at that, I won another one," Jack said. He clapped his hands together and there was a wide ear to ear grin going on his face. "Guess that I'm pretty hot tonight, but do you blame me?"

The women fawned on him and they were practically hanging off of them.

"Then again, I'm going to score again, in a big way," Jack said. His grin got even wider. This horrible purple suit that he was wearing might be an eyesore to some, but it was bringing in the goods tonight, in one way or another. "And no whammies for me tonight!"

The crowd was caught up in the energy of his winning streak. There was a pretty colorful crowd there at Thorne's club.

They were so colorful that a pair of men dressed in suits with sunglasses standing off to the side stood out a little bit more than they should have at this point. One could assume that they were security, at least they would be. There was only one problem. The lack of secret service style headsets made it seem that wasn't really the case.

Jack's winning hand was beginning to pile up and he barely stifled an extremely obvious yawn. It was obvious to anyone who was really paying attention that he was getting bored with things.

"Well, I know when I've overstayed my welcome and why quit when you start going cold, when you can quit when you're hot," Jack informed the dealer. "Cash me out, babe; I have to take a leak."

Jack tipped her with a hundred dollar chip. It might be against the rules, but he didn't care. He pulled his way from the two women that were hanging off of him, and made his way towards the direction of the bathroom. He passed his way by the two individuals dressed in suits.

There was a long pause and he was followed into the bathroom by the individuals in question.

Jack was inside the bathroom. The dapper man that he was, he slipped off his suit jacket and rolled up sleeves.

He went about his business, whistling a merry tune on his breath. By the time that he was finished, both men were standing on either side of him.

"So, how's it hanging?" Jack asked them. The two men stood on either side of him and they didn't say anything. They were glaring at Jack from behind their glasses. "Wow, tough crowd….so I guess it's just going to be you two boys that are joining me tonight?"

Jack took that as his cue to get started and he turned around, shanking one of the goons with the switch blade that he had hidden in the palm of his hand. He dodged with expert ability to avoid the haymaker that was coming around from the other goon.

The goon rushed Jack, but Jack nailed him right in the groin. Despite being stabbed, the other goon was back for more. Jack dodged his attempt to nail him, and grabbed his tie, choking him completely out.

"And here's a move that can get you banned from certain professional wrestling leagues," Jack said, throttling the goon with his tie. He kicked him in the back of his head, and dodged the attack.

Jack was a better fighter than his outlandish appearance might have went on. He got a good shot to the goon, dazing him.

"Time to take five," Jack said. He slammed one of the goon's head right into the urinal that he just used, choking him out from behind.

After the deed was done, he stepped back, seeing their broken bodies. He made his way over to the mirror and saw that a little blood from his face. He washed them off, and casually combed his hair.

"You know, after all that, I should have known, I should have known that Grissom was going to send some goons out to kill me," Jack commented. "You don't stick your dick in another man's rhubarb and not expect him to retaliate at some point. But you really should have sent more guys to do it."

He laughed when he looked down at their broken bodies.

"After all, you don't get convicted with assault with a deadly weapon unless you know what the fuck you're doing," Jack said, washing his hands. After he was done, he rolled his sleeves back up and calmly slipped his jacket back on. "Good thing you didn't get your blood on my jacket. I like this jacket. I would have been pissed if you ruined this jacket."

It was at this point that Bob made his way into the bathroom. He had noticed Jack had been gone for a long time, only to stand in shock at the sheer chaos that he saw.

"Yes, Bob, always standing there, running your mouth," Jack said with a chuckle.

"Are you…are you alright boss?" Bob asked.

Jack gave him one of those charming "are you fucking stupid?" looks and he commented in a sunny voice when he recovered. "Oh, you know, I'm just peachy."

Bob nodded in response, but Jack was not done.

"Now go get my fucking money, so we can get out of here, and I've got to speak with Carl Grissom about a girl."

* * *

 

Underneath a sealed manhole cover, there was an extremely extensive looking sewer system that ran underneath pretty much the entirety of Old Gotham. It didn't say sealed for all that long, because it is pushed off where it's sealed. A large clawed scaly hand pushed it off from the side.

A large massive body pushed his way out of the sewers to reveal the imposing form of Waylon "Killer Croc" Jones, in all of his massive glory. He was an imposing and impressive sight and most certainly not someone that anyone wished to meet in a dark alley.

He reached back down into the sewers and lifted out a large burlap sack that was about the same size as a human. When that was done, he pushed the manhole cover back into place and proceeded to make his way towards his destination, dragging the sack behind him all of the way.

He was inside an abandoned amusement park, or to be more specific, he was inside the Amusement park which Amusement Mile derives its name from originally. It had been abandoned due to years of violent murders that had been caused.

He walked towards a gruesome freak show exhibit. There was a stuffed statue of Siamese twins and it wasn't a replica either, at least not any more. This used to be a rather popular attraction and there were more oddities here.

At this point, whatever was inside the burlap sap began to squirm. Croc let go of the bag and prepared to punt whatever is inside it at point blank range. There was a loud crack as a result as whatever was inside it went promptly still.

He passed the exhibit of a bird man and an exhibit of a frozen caveman, although the ice was cracked. There were other more horrifying exhibits as well, but Croc didn't have time for an extensive tour.

Turning around at the hunchback statue, with a bite out of the hunch, Croc made his way towards the manager's office, carefully stepping around a blood splattered human skull that had been left on the floor.

It was good to be home amongst friends.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 29** **th** **, 2015.**


	94. What Lays Beneath Part Four

**Chapter Ninety-Four: What Lays Beneath Part Four:**

* * *

 

Jessica Todd was in the process of getting ready for school. Her father didn't really give a flying fuck whether she went to school or not, in fact, he had told her pretty much that much several times.

She stepped out of the shower. It was a crapshoot some days whether or not they would have warm water or hell water at all. Thankfully, the bills were paid this month, so they were good to go. The young female went through the motions of getting dressed, pulling on a white pair of panties and a bra, along with thick fluffy socks. She covered herself in a pair of jeans and a sweater. All of these articles of clothing were really worn, not in the best condition, but they would do the job nicely enough.

The final article of clothing was a new pair of shoes that she purchases with her Christmas money. She went over to make breakfast and that had a bit of a problem.

The cupboards were pretty barren, so she didn't have all that much to work with. The reason for this is that her father hadn't shown up in days and what little money left over from Christmas was not sufficient enough to purchase groceries.

There were some days where Jessie have expected a GCPD officer to come to the door, telling her that her father was fished out of a river somewhere.

It was fortunate that she was part of a social service program that provided her lunch at school. That was a good enough reason for her to go to school as well. It also helped that her best friend's mother is willing to cook enough dinner so she could eat as well.

Lunch and dinner were covered mostly, the only thing that she had to worry about is breakfast and on the weekends. That was a lot to worry about for a growing girl such as herself, but life pretty much sucks like that.

Jessie finished scarfing down a piece of toast with some peanut butter on it. She gave her homework one last looking over, before stuffing it into her bag.

There was really no point in sticking around here, so she headed for the door. Jessie stopped and almost collided head on with her father. Literally, and Jessie flew backwards onto her ass hard since her father pushed open the door just about when she was going to go out the door.

Jessie was surprised due to her fall, but she glared up at her obviously drunk father when she noticed who was there.

"Where the fuck have you been?" Jessie asked.

Her father grunted and went past her in response. He walked forward and pulled off his red hoodie, letting it fall to the floor. He proceeded to open the fridge door to look inside.

There was a pause and he poked his head out of the fridge. "Where is all of the fucking food?"

Jessie replied back in a most scathing manner. "There aren't any fucking groceries in the house because you haven't given me any money to get fucking groceries. So maybe, I don't know, you can try and get some, now that you're home for one."

In abject disgust, the young girl exited the door, slamming it behind her. She caused the entire house to rattle when she left.

Jessie wasn't running late, per say, but she was delayed. She made her way quickly down the street towards her friend's house.

Artemis Crock was standing there, dressed like an ordinary preteen who was going to school wearing a pair of jeans and a fairly ragged green hoodie. Her sister, Jade, was wearing the GPA uniform.

"So?" Jade asked as she caught sight of Jessie and how pissed off she looked. "Your father finally came home, didn't he?"

Jessie nodded in affirmative. Artemis was about to open her mouth in response, but she cut off the response. "I'm fine."

Jessie ruffled the younger girl's hair, which caused her to scowl in response. The three girls took off towards the train station, since Artemis and Jessie had to take one to get to their school. Jade had to take the same train even further to get to GPA.

"Where the hell does your father disappear to all the time?" Artemis asked.

"More of a matter of who he's working for," Jessie said. It wasn't a secret that Willis Todd was a criminal of some sort.

"Well, he might be working for the Penguin," Jade suggested. "He's too small time to be working for Maroni or Falcone."

"Well, he could be working for Thorne," Jessie suggested. The two sisters looked towards her and Jessie shrugged. "I heard him get mentioned a couple of times in passing when he had some of his buddies over."

"Well, he's wearing that red hoodie all of the time," Artemis suggested. That caused Jade and Jessie to look over her. "Maybe that means that he's the Red Hood?"

The two older girls looked towards her in response.

"Nah, that couldn't be the case," Jade said. Jessie nodded in agreement, which caused Artemis to pout in response.

"So, how about your father?" Jessie asked. "When is he getting out of Blackgate?"

"I don't really give a shit," Jade replied. "We're better off without him around. But it's something like six to eight months."

"And there's our stop," Artemis said. Talking about their father was such an awkward subject and it made Jade into such a moody bitch, for lack of a better term, when he got brought up.

"Yeah," Jessie said. The shit at school, she could put up with. The shit with her father, that was an entirely other matter entirely.

The two girls bid their goodbyes to Jade and they exited the train. Jade had a little bit longer of a journey to GPA. Thankfully, their day started and ended a bit later than the public school system, so she would get there, with plenty of time to spare.

* * *

 

At the Lair, Diana and Jaime were wearing the clothes, what little they had anyway, that was underneath their armor. Jaime was wearing a pair of boy cut panties and a short white cotton t-shirt which supports her breasts quite nicely. It ended before it reached her toned midriff.

Diana wore a black Lycra thong, as if she could wear anything else underneath those tight leather pants, and a sports bra of the same material. Given Diana's measurements, it should be obvious that what she was wearing was custom made.

Currently though, Diana was in the middle of giving Jaime some medical attention. To be exact, Diana examined Jaime's left shoulder to determine how bad the injury was. Her shoulder was injured as a result of a bad bump that she took having to dive out of the way of the grenade.

"The Red Hood Gang, they're beginning to piss me off," Jaime groaned when Diana was working over her shoulder.

They had encountered the Red Hood Gang, or rather a couple of its members, after their meeting with Sarah. Her armor would protect her from the brunt of the injury, but a bad bump was a bad bump. The good thing was that the injury she sustained could have been far worse than the large bruise that seemed to be forming.

It was a lucky thing for Jaime that Diana was well versed in how to heal.

"Good thing you know a thing or two about healing," Jaime informed Diana. "I hadn't gone much more beyond emergency first aid."

"It's a part of my training as much as fighting," Diana said. She applied a soothing and rather warm oil to the injury on the site, which did the job. Now, she started to absent mindedly massage the back of Jaime's neck, which caused her to shiver. "Now, how exactly are we going to go about tracking down Waylon Jones?"

"Given our combined experience hunting in the past, it shouldn't be too difficult for us to do so," Diana reminded her.

"Yeah…..my hunting experience, that's something that should have a big honking asterisk next to it," Jaime said. Diana's fingers worked the back of her neck and that caused her to shiver. It caused a pleasurable stimulation to roll down her nerve endings, and all the way down her spine. "You know, some twinkling old idiot causing us to walk around England without a fucking plan. The fact that I was saddled with who I was saddled with is almost excusable. It was a good thing that I managed to ditch them when the going got tough."

Diana's hands ran over the back of her neck and Jaime paused.

"Still, walking around for a few months with some ginger haired walking garbage disposal who wanted to get in my pants because Mummy told him that we were destined to be together, I don't think that's experience," Jaime said. "And a cunt that was a walking, talking, Encyclopedia Britannica, as my only company…do you really think that could qualify as hunting?"

Diana squeezed the back of Jaime's neck to get her to calm down. "Yes, you're tense."

"What gave it away?" Jaime asked with a slight smile on her face. Diana kept massaging the back of her neck.

' _What the fucking hell is she talking about?'_ Kara asked.

' _Damned if I know, that was a weird random tangent to go on,'_ Amanda said. Emily nodded feverishly.

' _Well, she does come from a different timeline, so there will be some differences to what happened,'_ Zatanna thought.

' _Yeah, but something that came out of a Dickens wet dream,'_ Ginny replied, shaking her head. Come to think of it, that was a good description of her youngest brother. Whose stomach was turned into a black hole thanks to meteors, he couldn't be sated, and he ate everything in sight, including their mother. He had to be put down.

' _Jaime, we'll talk later,'_ Harry thought.

Diana shook her head to clear it. "So, despite the handicap, did you end up finding what you were hunting for successfully?"

"Yes," Jaime said.

"Then it could be considered valuable experience hunting," Diana reminded her. Jaime responded with a sheepish nod and an even more sheepish grin.

"We should really try and figure out the area that Jones has been hunting within, and then confine our search to that," Jaime suggested. Diana paused for a second.

"We also should figure how he's moving around," Diana said. The Amazon Princess was frowning deeply. "A man who looks like and is built like Jones, he will stand out despite the fact that he's trying not to."

Jaime looked thoughtful and conceded that Diana had a pretty good point. She frowned in response. "We're going to have to try and learn more about him then, if at all possible."

Diana raised her eyebrow and Jaime continued.

"I mean, we honestly don't know that much more about him, outside of his name and alias," Jaime reminded Diana who nodded in response. "There's really nothing about his past history out there."

Diana blinked. "Usually, aren't the four of you a lot better in putting files together of the people you encounter?"

Jaime shrugged in response. "We honestly thought that he was dead, so Harry didn't put anything together."

Diana raised her eyebrow. "That doesn't sound like Harry at all. Come to think of it, that doesn't sound like Barbara either."

"Well, Barbara wasn't working for us at the time," Jaime reminded her. "So it was Harry who was doing a lot of work regarding that side of things at the time and he was more concerned with the fact that Lady Shiva was active in Gotham."

"Fair enough," Diana agreed. "I can cover some of the ground work tonight, since I got some time off due to Helena being on leave. Although that will have to wait until after I get some sleep and attend my courses this afternoon."

Jaime nodded in response and Diana's massages picked up. "So, that means…..I'll have to be the one that will have to delve into Jones and his history."

She let out a breathing little moan when Diana's attentions slowly started to get to her. Diana shifted over in front of her, placing her hands on her legs and massaging up her thighs. It was starting to become almost unbearable, but in a good way.

Diana made sure that she was in close enough for the kill. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against Jaime's, preparing to kiss her breathless, or at least attempt to.

Jaime grabbed Diana by the hair and kisses her back forcefully. Her tongue was jammed into Diana's throat, when Jaime got up to her feet and pushed Diana back onto the bed.

Diana wasn't getting pinned down onto the bed without a fight. She was greeted with quite the paradox. Diana only bottomed for her husband, otherwise she was submissive. Jaime on the other hand, was an alternate version of Harry, and she was submissive only to Har-Zod.

It was time for a battle of wills between these two ladies.

"I won't make this hurt, too much," Jaime said. She was grinning and she pulled back Diana's thong, revealing her dripping hot pussy.

Diana closed her eyes and felt Jaime's fingers shove between her dripping hot lips. She groaned when she hit a sensitive spot.

"Do you like me finger fucking you, you spoiled Amazon bitch?" Jaime asked.

"Just wait, your time will come," Diana breathed.

"Looks like you're hitting your peak," Jaime commented. She reached forward with her other hand and revealed Diana's breasts to the world. The Potter female looked at her nipples and smiled when she forced her fingers deep into Diana's dripping hot snatch. "How do you like that? I bet you like that a lot, don't you?"

Jaime used her fingers to flicker her nipples. Her right hand played with Diana's breasts and her left hand played with her pussy.

"Eat me," Diana said. She pushed herself off of the bed, and Jaime crawled onto her stomach, removing her fingers from Diana's pussy.

Jaime shimmied down her panties and presented herself from Diana. The scent that was coming off of the Potter female's pussy was quite intoxicating indeed and Diana could feel weak I nthe head because of it.

She grabbed Jaime's thighs, roughly, digging her finger nails in and pushed Jaime's pussy down onto her mouth. Diana jammed her tongue into her, in a way that would turn the Potter female onto butter.

Two could play that game and Jaime forced her tongue into Diana's dripping hot pussy. The woman's tongue brushed against her pussy. Diana wrapped her legs around Jaime's head, trapping it.

The only way for her to get out, was to eat Diana to an orgasm.

"Okay, cunt, two can play that game," Jaime hissed. Her tongue rattled in her pussy.

Diana screamed and she was only forced to keep eating Jaime out frantically. Her tongue lapped the juices and Jaime's Parseltongue assault caused Diana's cunt to pump her juices into mouth.

That caused Jaime to cum just as hard and just as fast. She was going to make Diana work for it though. She used her magic to slow down her cumming.

Diana, wanting more of her juices, sensed what Jaime was doing. She assaulted the girl's clit, fairly violently, in an attempt to return her orgasm.

Jaime breathed heavily with Diana's tender efforts that were focused on her all of the way. The dark haired vixen could feel Diana go to town between her legs.

She was determined to be the one to make Diana cum first. Diana was trying to hold herself back, but Jaime was not going to have any of that.

' _Oh no you don't, you're going to cum, and you're going to cum hard,'_ Jaime thought. She could feel Diana's hands grope her ass and her tongue was back inside her.

Jaime returned fire, channeling a bit of magic through Diana's clit while she ate her pussy out. "That's right, you're going to cum in my mouth."

Diana could feel herself tense up and she knew that she was not going to hold up underneath this oral assault for very long. Jaime's able tongue assaulted her to an amazing finish. In response, Diana's hips bucked up in response, spilling juices into Jaime's mouth.

Jaime responded by grinding her cunt down onto Diana's mouth. Diana finished her up.

' _Do you like my gift, princess?'_ Jaime asked her, practically taunting Diana when she unleashed the flood of juices into Diana's able and willing mouth.

Diana nearly gagged on the heavy explosion of juices that came into her mouth. She experienced another orgasm that rattled her mind.

Jaime now rolled over and straddled Diana's hips. She crawled up her body and bit her hard on the neck. That caused Diana to gasp.

Diana tried to wrap her legs around her and roll Jaime over onto the bed. It was a struggle and they were practically wrestling on the bed for domination. There was a fair amount of hair pulling and breast groping.

Jaime managed to get Diana onto her chest on the bed and tie her up on the bed. She was spread eagled and ready to go.

"All worship the bondage princess," Jaime commented. She teased Diana's hole.

"If you're going to fuck me, then fuck me, and fuck me hard," Diana breathed. Jaime responded by blistering her ass with a series of slaps.

Each time Jaime spanked Diana's tight bottom, that caused juices to spill out of her gushing center. Diana groaned and hated the fact that Jaime was assaulting all of these weak spots on her.

Jaime put on a strap on. It molded to her body, allowing her to feel the same sensations a normal cock would. She moved her way over towards Diana, pulling her face up, so she could see her.

"Get my cock nice and wet," Jaime demanded of her.

The fake phallus wiggled in front of Diana's face. It was ten inches long and extremely thick. Diana was about to protest this, but Jaime grabbed her by the side of the face and forced her mouth open, before forcing the tool down into her throat.

Diana nearly gagged on it when it slammed down her throat. Her spit lubricated the tool when it entered her mouth.

She could feel tears rolling down her cheeks when she felt this go into her throat. Diana almost gagged when her throat expanded. It seemed to be growing a little bit inside her.

Jaime grabbed Diana by the hair, and force fucked her face. She kept ramming herself down into Diana's mouth.

Diana was struggling a little bit. Jaime sank her nails into Diana's cheeks and kept ramming her tool into the Amazon Princess's mouth, gagging her in the process. Diana couldn't believe what she was feeling and more importantly how much she was enjoying it.

"Oh, do you want it inside you know?" Jaime asked.

Mercifully, Jaime removed her cock from Diana's mouth. Jaime crawled over behind Diana and gripped her ass from behind, squeezing it in response. That caused Diana to gasp.

"Maybe later," Jaime informed the Amazon Princess. Her throbbing penis was inches away from Diana's womanhood.

Diana closed her eyes and thanked Hera for the blessings that she was offered so she could accept this gift. While Harry's manhood was more magnificent, this was amazing in its own right, this felt really amazing as well. It was pushed deep into her body and Diana groaned when she felt this cock fill her up to the brim.

It filled her up and Jaime grabbed onto her hips.

"Are you my bondage princess?" Jaime asked.

"No, Harry's," Diana managed. She was trying to regain control of her body and exert as much domination as she can.

Jaime smiled when she grabbed Diana's breasts and plowed into her body. The woman kept working herself into her. A jolt of magic struck Diana's clit the more that she pounded her perfect pussy.

"You're getting off on being dominated by another woman, aren't you?" Jaime asked her. She pushed her fingers into Diana's mouth and Diana bit down onto them hard in response. "You dirty bitch, you're getting off on that, hoping for a taste of cum on your fingers, aren't you?"

Jaime pulled her hand from Diana's mouth and grabbed the back of her hair. She yanked it back when she kept fucking her hard.

"Fuck, fuck," Diana panted.

"Answer me, you're getting off on this," Jaime said. "Your sister, the other Amazons, you're on top of them all of the time. It doesn't matter though, because I always come on top, and now you're going to cum on the bottom."

"Yes, please, let me cum," Diana said. She could feel her nipples get so hard that they could cut through glass.

The bed beneath them started to creak and the ground underneath them shook a little bit. Jaime rocked herself into Diana's snug pussy, feeling it clamped down hard around her cock. The sensations caused her body an amazing rush of pleasure.

"I think that you've heard it, you've earned the right to cum, for being such a good pussy," Jaime said. "But first, say it."

"Say what?" Diana groaned. She could feel her body tense up and she was denied her orgasm. It was driving her so crazy.

"Say, that you're my whore, that you're my bottom Amazon bitch!" Jaime yelled. She spanked Diana's ass when she fucked it.

"I….I….I won't," Diana breathed. She tried to pull herself free, but Jaime dominated her.

"Guess, you're going to have to wait until I'm ready for you to cum," Jaime commented. She was practically taunting Diana and dangling the promise of an orgasm in front of her.

Diana's hair was sweaty and matted against her forehead. Jaime was going to make her do it.

"Fine," Diana growled. "I'm your whore. I'm your bottom Amazon bitch! I'm your bondage princess! Now let me fucking cum, please!"

"Well, since you asked some nicely," Jaime said.

She let Diana cum, along with increasing the intensity of the orgasm.

Diana should have been prepared for that one. It was not like Harry hadn't done the same thing to her countless times. Her body screamed with the release and it felt like she was on fire when her orgasm. That was ten times more intense than a normal orgasm would be. She thanked Hera and any other goddesses that were listening, and they might be watching her humiliation with glee, that she was able to handle such a gift.

"Good girl, a really good girl," Jaime said. She bit Diana on the neck, sucking on it in response. She pinched her nipples. "And you've earned a treat."

Jaime channeled her cum through her cock. She fired the load into Diana's pussy. An immense amount of cum shot into her and caused Diana's nerve endings to explode with an immense mouth of pleasure. Diana collapsed down onto the bed, panting heavily. That was intense, but she realized one thing, her hands were free and she was untied.

"You've actually been untied for a long time," Jaime informed her, with a cocky smirk on her face.

"You bitch, now that you're going to get it," Diana swore. She dove herself towards Jaime, and grabbed her breast, biting down on her nipple.

She managed to get the strap on away from her, but Jaime wasn't going down without a fight. Diana struggled with Jaime, but she managed to pin her down.

"Now, who is the bondage princess?" Diana practically taunted her. "I think you need a spanking, you conniving little whore."

Diana spanked Jaime hard. With each slap, Jaime's pussy gave a jolt from Diana's tender loving care. "Oh, no, please, don't….stop!"

That caused the Amazon Princess to spank Jaime even harder and she came just as roughly. Diana was going to give her the same treatment that she just received.

Jaime grinned; she was really playing Diana like a fiddle to get what she wanted. Just because you were on top, did not necessary mean that you were in control. She could feel her pussy expand thanks to her abilities when Diana shoved the bulging cock deep within her twat.

The dance would continue, until both women worked out some aggressions. They switched roles all night and were dripping with cum and sweat before the night was over.

* * *

Harry was standing in the middle of a very nice office that used to belong to his grandfather, Herbert Evans. As a matter of act, the entire building that he was standing in was a part of the Evans family business holdings. Even though Harry was the heir, Lily was running the company now that she was out of her coma, with help from Rose and the Board of Directors that helped her ran the company in Lily's absence. Harry was more than fine with this, he had enough things on his plate without having to worry about the responsibility of running a business.

The office had an extremely classy feel to it, it was rather warm and inviting, with a lot of older looking wooden furniture which did a good job in tying the room together. Harry had just returned from a meeting with the board of directors, which Lily and Rose would have attended themselves had they not been in London dealing with Society business.

Harry found himself standing in front of the desk, looking over some paperwork related to it. It was nothing really major to be honest, just a general report of how the different division performed over the past year or so.

"So, that was how my morning went," Harry said over the speaker phone to Kara. "There wasn't too much for me to do there. It was just a general report of how productive everyone was being. Pretty much everyone patting themselves on the back and smiling, there is really nothing more than there is to that."

"That's great, Harry," Kara answered. "Sounds like you had a productive morning."

"I did, but the day's just starting," Harry reminded her. "So, how have things been going on your trip so far?"

"Well things at the Kent Farm are going well," Kara commented. "I mean, Claire is Claire, Martha is Martha, Jonathan is Jonathan is Jonathan, Lana is Lana, Nell is Nell, and my repetition is pretty much repetitive."

That caused the two of them to laugh.

"The most interesting thing on the farm is the new girl, Marie," Kara said. "But, since we're still in the dead of the winter, there's not that much to do. So, in between catching up on school work and paperwork, I've been trying to unravel the mystery regarding Marie further."

"How's that going?" Harry asked her.

He could hear Kara sigh over the phone. "Well, to be honest, I haven't had much luck. I've been doing some checking into her backstory to see if it checks out, but so far, there's nothing that concerns me. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to keep looking, just, so far, I haven't found anything."

"So, how is she, personality wise?" Harry asked.

"Well, I haven't spent that much time with her, but she does seem like a sweet girl," Kara informed Harry. "Claire, Martha, and Jonathan all seem to really like her. But….she can be a bit bipolar."

"Oh?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Kara confirmed, nodding her head. "She can alternate between rather timid and sweet, to being a bit prickly with a temper."

"So in other words, not much of a morning person then?" Harry asked.

"She isn't, but then who is," Kara said. "Other than you of course."

"Oh, of course," Harry said, snickering.

"Sometimes, I wonder how you find the time to sleep with everything else, but I know better," Kara said. She remembered something and it was amusing.

' _She does seem like a nice girl though, from what little I've seen of her,'_ Nell chimed in. _'A bit mysterious though, but she's pretty nice.'_

' _She is, and she's had a rough life, so she's entitled to her space,'_ Martha thought. Nell and Martha had this conversation. _'The new farm hand seems to be carrying a bit of a torch for her though.'_

"Oh yeah, Kara said, snorting in a fairly un-lady like manner. "He really seems to be into her, but it's like she could honestly care less."

"So, as interesting as things at the Farm are, how is your other business in Smallville going?" Harry asked her.

"Well," Kara said as she shuffled through some papers. "I spoke to the neighbor in question and she's most certainly interest in the offer. She just wanted to talk to her son and lawyer before signing off on anything."

"That seems fair enough," Harry concluded.

"Also, a couple of LuthorCorp employees were sniffing around the bank, but it doesn't seem like much of anything came of it," Kara said. "Because the husband's family owned the property outright, with the widow getting it signed into her name."

Harry nodded in response. "Stay on top of it."

Kara snorted in response. "Of course, I will, it's one of the reasons why I came to Smallville after all."

She decided to shift topics. "So, what are you wearing?"

Harry chuckled, despite himself. "I'm wearing a dark grey business jacket, grey slacks, a white silk t-shirt, a belt, and a tie."

"So in other words, typical businessman attire," Kara said.

"Yes, although it's custom made to fit me perfectly," Harry told her with a smile.

"I bet it looks good, knowing you," Kara answered. "I bet it looks even better when its lying on the floor."

Harry laughed. Before Kara could tell him what she was wearing, the intercom buzzes.

"Yes?" Harry asked.

"Doctor Potter, sir, your ten o'clock is here," the secretary who was manning the front desk commented.

Harry chuckled. "Right, thanks, Melody, send her in."

"Sorry, Kara, I have to go," Harry said. Kara was about ready to pout, but Harry cut that off in a moment. "I love you, talk to you later."

"I love you too," Kara said, her tone brighter than it would have been.

Harry's secretary, a rather attractive blonde with her hair done up in a bun and dressed in a nice looking female business suit, opened up the door to let in his ten o'clock appointment. Betty Brant entered his office, here about the interview that they meant about the other day. Betty was dressed rather nice for the occasion, wearing a black leather skirt that came up just above her knee, stockings, high heels, and a purple blouse with enough buttons left undone to be rather enticing. A leather jacket completed the look.

"Thank you, Melody, you can go now," Harry said.

"If you need anything, Doctor Potter, don't hesitate to ask," she commented with a smile and she left the office.

Harry turned his full attention to Betty. "So, would you like something to drink? Coffee, water, or…"

"You know what, I'd kill for a cup of coffee right now," Betty said. There was something about her tone when she spoke that indicate that might be slightly literal, but Harry couldn't be too certain.

Nodding his head in response, Harry ventured to the side of the room where there was a coffee pot and he poured them both a cup of coffee. He gestured towards a couch nearby. Betty took the seat and her cup of coffee. Harry parked himself on a leather armchair that was right next to the couch.

"So, how have things been going?" Betty asked. "Busy morning."

"Yes, pretty busy, but this was a business trip, so, had to get some necessary things done," Harry informed her. "So, how about you?"

"Let's just say that this morning was busy for me and leave it at that," Betty informed Harry, crossing her arms and giving him a smile.

Harry nodded in response. "Fair enough."

The two of them began to talk through the interview. It was just a recap of Harry's achievements, nothing that was too major. That was how many of his interviews started out.

"Well, we know all about your achievements," Betty answered. "But, what about your motivation? I mean, it's really not every day that someone blows through primary and secondary education before they turn eleven. So, I'm kind of curious about the motivating factors surrounding that."

"Well, I'm a bit of a genius and it's in my genetic makeup to try and do my best," Harry said. "And my aunt and my mother, along with my grandmother before them, were geniuses in their own right. I wanted to make them proud of me and what better way of doing that then breaking records and achieving my best education. I got into an exclusive school for the gifted and got my way through there, made some friends, made a couple of enemies, but that comes with the territory."

Betty laughed, that much was true.

"Then after that, I decided that it would be best for me to move to Gotham City, to further myself in my education," Harry said.

That lead Betty to what she considered to be the burning question of the interview. At least so far. "Why Gotham, though? I mean, no offense, but you have just as many business interests in New York as you do in Gotham and Metropolis is widely becoming regarded as the City of Tomorrow. Wouldn't you want to get on the ground floor of that?"

Harry grinned at her response. "Who says that I haven't?"

That caused Betty to stop directly in her tracks and wonder about that.

"As for me moving into Gotham City, my father's side of the family had several business injuries there being the major ones and I inherited a fair few to my grandfather," Harry said. "And there is some kind of charm to Gotham City, for all of it's flaws. It reminds me of the old private school that I attended and I made several friends that lived there already. And to put it bluntly, I enjoy living in the city. There's an energy that's can't be beat in anywhere outside of Vegas, New Orleans, and Rio. So it's a pretty good fit for me personality wise."

Betty nodded her head and shifted to another question.

"What are your reasons for going into the personal technology sector for your first release?" Betty asked. "With your background, the company could have gone into several different directions. So why a cell phone?"

Harry smiled. "Why not a cell phone?"

That caused Betty to blink a little bit. That was a question that caught her off guard.

"I saw that there was a market for a cell phone, although the Red Sun is more of a personal computer, with the capabilities that are offered," Harry said. "And continue the fact that the Red Sun continues to fly off the shelf, it looks like we made the decision that was best for business."

Harry decided to go on to clarify something.

"We've got more to follow, a lot more," Harry said. "The Red Sun was just the best jumping on point for us to start."

"Do you mind me asking what those things could be?" Betty asked her.

Harry decided to explain some things. It was pretty much second nature to him to explain about the Eclipse.

"The tablet, the laptop, and the personal computer, well you know that they've already been announced," Harry informed her. "But what I can tell you exclusively is that we're releasing a medical scanner that works fairly similarly to an MRI or X-Ray machine, but on a much smaller scale."

"Define what you mean by smaller scale?" Betty asked. After all both machines tended to be pretty large.

"It's the same size as the Eclipse, about 8.5 inches, and it will be connected to a fairly large unit about the same size of a small generator," Harry explained. "This does the heavy lifting. And that's just the short term projects. Longer terms, we're looking into alternate forms of energy like wind farms, solar energy, and cold fusion."

Harry smiled and chuckled.

"For the present though, that last one might seem like a bit of a pipe dream," Harry told her. "Still, shoot for the stars, or don't shoot at all."

"Wow, that's a lot for one company to take on," Betty remarked.

"And it's a lot of information for many people to take in at once," Harry reminded her and Betty smiled.

She took a long sip of her coffee to consider everything.

"So, now, I guess that it's time to ask some questions of a slightly more personal nature," Betty said. She bit down on her lip.

"And, I'll answer some of the questions that I vetoed," Harry said. That caused Betty to grow extremely curious. He slipped over towards the arm chair that he was sitting in, over to the couch next to Betty. "But only after you promise that the answers won't ever see print."

Betty had absolutely no problem with this.

"Yes, I promise, strictly off of the record," Betty said.

"Excellent," Harry said. He was about as close as he could get to her on the couch without really touching.

"So," Betty said. She realized how close she was to him and her heart was racing. She decided that she wanted to head for the end zone given that she was given the office to ask anything. "What do you have to say about the rumors that you're a sexual dominate who is into BDSM?"

Harry raised his eyebrow, that particular information wasn't exactly common knowledge. He did respond with a shrug in response. "I say it's true, I am."

Betty was surprised at his frank response, even though it was off of the record. "Why? What's the appeal to you?"

"I like to be in control for all aspects of my life," Harry said with a smile. "And that extends to the bedroom. There were times where I wasn't in control when I was younger, and I didn't like it. And now when I'm in control, it feels really good."

He looked Betty directly in the eyes when he said it. Harry couldn't help, but notice that she was biting down on her lower lip. Her nipples grew hard enough underneath her blouse. Betty rubbed her thighs together and her breathing was a bit heavy.

"Well…why…why do you believe that some women are willing to expose themselves to that kind of lifestyle?" Betty asked. She gathered herself long enough to take a breath.

"Some women just enjoy the fact that they can just let go and have someone else be in control," Harry informed her. "Not all mind you, but many. They rush through their day to day lives having to do and having to deal with so much that sometimes, they just need to let it go. And it's a rush for them to place their trust in someone else so completely."

Betty nodded. Her chest raised and lowered when Harry spoke.

"There are a lot of different reasons," Harry informed her. "But the best way to explain what it's like is to show you."

Betty blinked in response and bit down on her lower lip even harder.

"So, how would you go about doing that?" Betty asked her.

Harry smiled, he had her hooked. All he had to do was reel her in. She was a fairly attractive woman so there was no reason not to.

"Something might be lost in translation if I just told you," Harry explained to her. Betty raised her eyebrow in response. "After all, it's partially a trust exercise."

Betty closed her eyes and took several deep breaths before she nodded firmly. "Alright, show me."

Harry stood up to his full height and offered her his hand. Betty was helped up to her feet and he lead over towards the hard wood desk. He placed her right hand palm down on the desk and did the same exact thing with her left palm hand.

Harry moved behind her and he slipped over beside her. Betty couldn't really see what he was doing her. He brushed his hair around her, away from her shoulders. Harry, slipped a blindfold around her eyes.

"The safe word is Jonah," Harry informed her.

Harry grasped a hold of her shoulders and pushed her by the shoulders, until she was half bent over his desk with her palms still lying half across it. Once she assumed the position, he leaned in close enough to feel his breath on her neck.

Betty could feel him fiddling with her skirt. Then nothing, an antagonizing moment passed and then her skirt fell down towards her ankles. Not being told what she needed to do next, Betty stepped out of it and then moved back into position.

"Good pet," Harry murmured in her ear.

Harry rubbed her ass gently on her ass. He committed pretty much every inch of it to memory and then raised his hand.

He spanked her on the ass. It wasn't hard, but it was unexpected. Betty let out a slight gasp and she was nearly standing bolt upright. Harry pushed her back into position. Harry rubbed the spot where he just smacked.

Then he spanked the other cheek. It wasn't nearly as bad as it might have been if she wasn't wearing panties.

Harry spanked her five more five more times on the ass. He paid attention to each of her cheeks during the course of it.

Betty felt him kiss her under the ear lobe. "Good girl."

Harry followed that up by slipping a pair of panties off with almost agonizing slowness, slipping the panties off of her backside and drags them off of her body.

He reached into a bucket of ice and pulled out a cube, slowly running it across her bare skin. That caused her to let out a gasp of pleasure.

When he finished doing that, Harry stood up and whispered into her ear one more time. "And this time, I want you to count them out."

* * *

 

Jonathan Crane had a chance to clean up thanks to Hugo Strange. He was looking rather professional at the moment, wearing a pair of black slacks, a white button up shirt, and a white shirt.

He met with an attracting dark haired doctor with blue eyes. She was wearing a similar outfit, the only difference was that she had a skirt on, rather than slacks.

Doctor Ashley Kafka was confused by her arrival and said that much. "The last thing that I heard, you were a guest of the Arkham Ward of Blackgate Penitentiary."

It was obvious by Crane's observations that she didn't really know the details why. Jonathan Crane was so smart, so slick, he thought up a lie, and he though it up quick.

"It was as a result of my being inadvertently exposed to one of my experiments," Crane answered to her.

Ashley raised her eyebrow in response. "And what kind of experiment would be capable of causing such a strong reaction?"

He responded by looking at her with a creepily calm expression. "Tell me, what do you know about my area of expertise?"

"I know that you study fear in all of its forms," she commented. "To me more specific, the effects that the fear has on a person and their psyche."

Crane smiled at her. He was pleased because that was an accurate summary of his work that hit pretty much all of the major points.

"The project that I was working on was a way to help a person overcome their deepest fear by exposing them to it," Crane said.

Ashley tilted her head in response, when she looked at him. "What are you hoping to accomplish by doing that?"

"A person doesn't really know themselves, unless they know what they're most afraid of," Crane responded. "As medical professionals and in order to best help these people, it behooves us to know that information as well."

Ashley didn't notice the rather sinister glint that entered Crane's eyes at this moment. If she noticed it, she would be extremely worried.

"And your experiment will help you do this, how?" Doctor Kafka asked him.

Crane narrowed his eyes slightly and explained. "By stimulating certain neurological responses through the use of chemicals, I'm able to help my patients experience their greatest fears. It allows them to learn who they early are. Sadly though, people don't always come through completely intact?"

The female daughter said this. "And that's what happened to you?"

Crane offered a noncommittal nod in response to that question. "So, what can you tell me about your young charge…..Wanda, I believe that her name was?"

Ashley Kafka had no reason to doubt Crane's intentions because she believed him to be a respect member of her profession.

"We believe Wanda to be an orphan with no living family members," Kafka said. "Unfortunately, due to the nature of her powers and her lack of ability to control them, the medication we have her own to sedate her makes it extremely hard for her to think clearly. So she can't answer any questions which we might have as it regards to her past."

Crane looked at Doctor Kafka for a minute and considered what she was saying. His full and undivided attention was on the good doctor. "Is it true about her ability to manipulate reality all around her?"

Kafka nodded swiftly in response. She handed in a file that she was holding that listed several of the instances where Wanda's powers have flared up.

Crane's interest flared up even more. If he wasn't intrigued about Wanda before, he certainly was intrigued by her now. He looked carefully at it.

"It appears that most medications that you have Wanda on would render any normal person a vegetable," Crane said. "Yet, there are incidents where her powers keep flaring up."

Ashley Kafka sighed. They were going into a territory that was quite frankly a sensitive subject area and not exactly something she was proud of. "Despite the medication she is on, Wanda is still capable of using her powers. They come and they go. The medication used is to attempt to keep her on an even keel."

At this point, the two of them arrived at their destination. After a brief check in with the guards, Ashley and Crane were let into the secure wing where Wanda was being kept.

Only a moment later, they arrived in front of a glass observation window. Behind that window sat a fourteen year old brunette who was utilizing her powers to float several blocks in front of her.

She was using her hands to make the blocks "dance" for lack of a better term. The girl was focused on the blocks.

"Stand back," Ashley said to Crane. Crane did pretty much as he was told. Ashley got on the intercom. "Wanda, this is Doctor Kafka, I'm coming on in for a routine visit."

That caused Wanda to smash the blocks together and that caused them to change into a perfectly formed orb. Wanda's eyes flicked to the direction of the doctors and said eyes were glowing a nasty shade of red.

"Wanda, this is Doctor Jonathan Crane," Ashley said.

Crane was getting a little giddy when he observed the possibilities. "Oh, yes, this will do nicely."

Before Ashley could ask him what he meant by that, Crane reached into his lab coat pocket and took out a small aerosol spray can. He sprayed her directly in the face with it.

Seconds later, Ashley started screaming bloody murder.

* * *

 

After his encounter with Betty concluded, Harry headed straight over after his meeting with Betty, pretty much wearing the same clothes that he did, although he slipped off his jacket and tie. He had a business meeting with Lavender Brown and Mari McCabe.

Lavender was wearing a high quality blouse that fit around her breasts, along with a nice skirt made out of expensive material and boots that were top of the line. Mari wore a black top of similar vein and a pair of hip hugging black pants, along with an equally fashionable pair of boots.

"We all know that Mari here is going to be face of the fashion line here, and we know that Alicia, Angelina, and Katie are going to be there as well," Lavender said. She was just going over this point with Harry was a fact of formality.

Those three played on a female football team in this world, due to the fact that there was no Quidditch that existed in this world.

"But, we've got some other candidates here that are promising," Mari said. "With the first round of the auditions done, and that we've given the girls some room to breathe, we can talk about some finger points.

"Well, honey, you're the face of this line, so you would be the one that would know the best," Lavender said with a smile. That being said, she had a few candidates that she wanted to tick off. "I like Mary Jane though, she does have some potential."

"I figured that the two of you would get along," Harry informed her.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lavender said with a crisp smile on her face. "And she's a red head, with a killer body. You can really get lost in her blue eyes. She's got a really fun energy that will get you excited about the product that you want to buy. That's pretty infectious."

"It is," Mari agreed.

"The only downside is her inexperience, and the fact that she's only seventeen and one of the things she'll be modeling for us is lingerie," Lavender said.

"So, she's a very strong maybe," Harry said. Lavender and Mari both nodded in response. "What about Felicia?"

Mary Jane insisted that Felicia get a chance as well and who was going to argue with that.

"The bitch has a killer body," Lavender said. "She's the personification of pure voluptuous sex appeal. She has a body about on par with mine and Karen's."

"And you two are among the most stacked members of our group, so that's saying something," Harry told her.

"That's saying a lot," Lavender agreed.

"But, on the contrary, that might almost work against her," Mari said. "She's hot, but she's really porn star hot, rather than model hot. But…..she does have the experience in modeling, so she knows how to rock the runway."

"So, are you saying that she's a….." Lavender said.

"I'm leaning towards yes actually, because of experience reasons," Mari informed Lavender. "Providing she's into doing the runway stuff."

"And now we've got Beatriz Bonilla DaCosta," Harry said.

Beatriz was an attractive Brazilian model that was a showgirl as well.

"Well, she does seem like the best parts of Felicia and Mary Jane all rolled into one," Lavender said. "She has a body that most women would kill to achieve and an infectious amount of energy."

"That's because she was a dancer in addition to being a model, so she would know how to work her body," Mari said.

Lavender grinned when she brought up another point. "And let's not forget that she has a killer ass."

"And, oddly enough, the same thing could be said about the first two as well," Mari bantered back.

"I'm going to say that she's a yes," Lavender said.

"You're going to get no complaints out of me because of that," Harry said.

"No, are you with me," Mari said. "Then that brings us to her friend, Tora. She was kind of last minute, but I'm glad we gave her the chance to do so."

"Tora Olafsdotter, a beautiful Norwegian," Lavender said. "What made you convince her to model anyway?"

"Well, I liked her look," Mari suggested with a shrug of her shoulders. "It's unique and it reminds me of freshly fallen snow on the mountainside on a bright summer's day."

"And it doesn't hurt that she's five foot seven, has a spectacular body, and has that girl next door thing going on for her either," Harry added.

"No, it doesn't," Mari agreed. She turned to Lavender, who shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay, I'm just curious, but you know, the only real downside to using her is the fact that she doesn't have any experience," Lavender said. "That being said, those are four of our top contenders."

That would allow them to move on to the next phase of the audition. The four models would get to show off how they look in the lingerie that was part of the connection. They would also deal with Harry in a one on one setting.

Things were started with a bang, with Felicia making her way out. She was dressed in a stunning set of lacy black silk panties, a bra, a garter belt, and stockings. It went without saying that these items in question fit her rather well like a glove.

"So, do our products make you feel confident?" Mari asked her.

"Honey, I'm always confident," Felicia said with a smile. "But, this lingerie makes me feel like I can take on the entire world."

"Do you think that you can inspire others to do so?" Lavender asked.

"One look at my body, and they're realize that they need to be comfortable with who they are," Felicia said. She sat on the edge of the desk, her legs propped up fairly nicely in front of Harry.

"And they make you feel daring," Harry said.

"Yes, daring, so daring that I'm sure that I'll drive people speechless," Felicia said. "This is the type of lingerie that make the men want you and the women seriously consider switching teams."

"Beautiful," Harry replied.

"I knew that you would think so," Felicia said. She did a couple of poses.

"Tora, you're next."

There was a bit of a pause, but eventually a rather timid white haired beauty was brought out. She did give off a vibe like snow on the mountain top just like Mari had said. Cool, but she had her own charming contrast as well. Tora was a contrast to be honest. She offered something different to be honest. She wore icy blue boy cut panties and a white t-shirt that came across about her navel. Beatriz had to practically drag her out by the hand, in fact one could get the agreement that she had to practically drag in here. She felt herself eye to eye with Harry, Lavender, and Mari. All of them gave her encouraging smiles.

"Hello, Tora," Harry said to her. She walked forward. "Let us get a good look at you."

"Is this fine?" Tora asked, biting down on her lip when she looked at her.

"That's perfect," Lavender said. She turned to Mari. "Wouldn't you say that's perfect?"

"I'm just happy that you're pleased with what I've done, this is my first time doing this," Tora said. Harry looked towards her with a smile.

"Don't worry, Tora, we'll be here to help you," Harry said. He got to his feet, looking at the Norwegian beauty. "We want to make your first time as comfortable as possible. We wouldn't want you to feel the slightest bit awkward."

"Yes, thank you," Tora said in a sweet, innocent voice. She was the type of girl that you were both tempted to corrupt and almost felt bad for even thinking something like that at the same time.

"What would you like to do to promote this line?" Lavender asked.

"Anything….anything that you want," she commented to her.

"Oh, anything can mean a lot of things," Lavender answered. She could feel Harry's hand squeeze underneath her skirt, catching her thigh. That caused her to sit up straight. "Because you know….anything really can mean a lot of things."

"Well, I'm just happy to help when I can," Tora informed them both. It sounded like she meant this from the bottom of her heart when she spoke to them.

"Yes, you look good in the clothes that you wear, do they make you feel good?" Harry asked.

"Yes, they're not much but….." Tora said.

"Sometimes you got to go for a more innocent look," Mari reminded her. "You know, more of the good girl, the girl next door thing. And you fit that perfectly, honey."

"Would you be willing to show Harry how good of a girl that you are?" Lavender asked.

"Oh, I think that I can show Harry that I'm a very good girl," Tora said, bouncing up and down an excitement. She was unaware of how suggestive that statement could be taken.

Her eagerness, even if it was a bit subdued, was one of the things that were perfect.

"Thank you, Tora, we're looking forward to spending more time in the future," Lavender said. "Since Beatriz is already out here, we can have a look at her now."

The girl with brunette hair made her way out with a bit of a swagger, which allowed them to see all of her body. She wore an extremely skimpy green bra that barely covered her breasts. If anything, it did more of a job of highlighting them, then hiding them. Her ass was even more showcased and it was world class, contained in a nice green thong.

"It's a pleasure to be invited here today, Doctor Potter," Beatriz said with a smile on her face. She made her way onto the desk.

"I notice that you chose green, might I ask you why?" Lavender asked.

"I find that many of the most beautiful things in the world are green, and it's a color that can get you excited," Beatriz said. She placed her hand down on the table and pushed herself up. She leaned forward and allowed Harry a nice view of her cleavage.

"What is the first thing that lingerie makes you think of?" Lavender asked.

"It makes me feel empowered," Beatriz said to them. "It makes me feel like taking charge and taking what I want."

"And what do you want?" Harry asked.

"I want to take the very best, because why bother setting my standards for less?" Beatriz asked. Her accent was getting more prominent and husky. One could feel the temperature in the room raising. "The very best, Doctor Potter, I don't think that I should have to settle for anything less, wouldn't you agree?"

"I would have to agree, Beatriz," Harry commented to her. Beatriz leaned towards him and she was practically in his face, with a smile.

"Good, I know that you're a man of great taste and you can like what you see," Beatriz said. She made a point of turning around.

"What are you be willing to do to convince me that you're the woman for the job?" Harry asked her.

"I'm willing to go all the way in convincing you, if that's what it takes," Beatriz said.

"I like a woman with ambition," Harry said. He turned to both Mari and Lavender, who nodded.

"And, I'm very open with who I have to convince, if I need to spend some time with all three of you, separately, or all together, I will," Beatriz said. "Who would say no to a body like this?"

"It's a body that would catch a person's attention, whether it's covered or uncovered," Harry said.

Beatriz gave him a smoldering smile. "And it's all natural, Doctor Potter. It's proof that if a woman applies herself, she can do anything. And I eat three full meals a day, and a generous dessert and work myself to the max."

"I can see that," Harry said. He looked over her curved body and could see her fit frame. "A good cardio is important as you know."

"Yes," she agreed. Beatriz placed her hand underneath the table. Her hair dropped down her face. "I think that I can give a very fun, and very open vibe. And I'm willing to do anything that you ask of me."

"As I told your friend, anything can be a lot of things," Lavender said.

"And as I told you, I'm fairly open," Beatriz said. The thong panties only barely covered her decency. She pranced out of the room after she was dismissed.

"Well, that's a tough act to follow," Harry said.

Mary Jane showed up next, prepared to make an impression. She wore a pair of red bra and panties that goes along nicely with her hair. She proceeded to do a little twirl in order to show off the goodies.

The moment Harry shifted himself, she practically pounced Harry and wrapped him into a tight hug. It had been a couple of hours since they last saw each other after all.

She parked herself into Harry's lap. Mari and Lavender both looked amused at her boldness.

"Someone's trying to score points," Lavender muttered out of the corner of her mouth to Mari. Not that she didn't approve, because she did and she appreciated the initiative.

"So, what have you been up to, since I had a chance to see you last?" Mary Jane asked.

"Just some business meetings, nothing very memorable," Harry said. Well there was the aftermath of the interview that he had with Betty Brant that was extremely memorable.

It was question time and they were running a bit long, so they needed to cut to the chase.

"So, what do our products make you feel like?" Mari asked her.

"It makes me feel bold, confident, one of those, go get 'em tigress, type of attitudes," Mary Jane said. She shifted herself against Harry's lap. "Any man who doesn't see how good I can look in this is either blind or gay."

"Well, enough said really," Lavender said. "And it's the type of look that make women seriously consider switching teams."

"And I'm willing to do anything that you want me to, it's been my dream to be a model for a long time," Mary Jane said. She looked rather excited.

"I think that we enjoy the energy that you've put into this line," Harry informed her. Mary Jane nodded up and down in excitement. "Why don't you join the other girls and change, and we'll all call you back one in a time."

Harry waited for Mary Jane to leave. The three of them discussed all four of them rather briefly, more or less to give them time to change.

"Okay, I'm sold on all four," Lavender said. "Sure there might be some….concerns that we had, but all of them have their own style and that's what matters."

"We do want to cater to a wide variety of people," Mari agreed.

"So, should we call them all in?" Harry asked.

The girls were called back in seconds later by a personal assistant.

"Well, I hate to break this to you all, but we weighed your performance and there's only one thing to say," Harry said. Things went silent, when Mary Jane, Tora, Beatriz, and Felicia all wondered when the other shoe would drop.

Harry got up to his feet and took his glasses. He looked over all four of them and they wondered briefly if they struck out at home plate.

"You all have the job."

They all smiled and were excited. Mary Jane darted forward and pounced on Harry. She decided to go for broke and lay a kiss on him, tongue and all.

' _Well, I didn't see that coming,'_ Lavender thought in amusement. Again, she really liked this girl.

* * *

 

It was later in the evening in Gotham City. Crime Lord Carl Grissom was in desperate need of a hard drink after a long stressful day. Most of that stress was as a result of him wondering if the hit he had put out on Jack Napier went off without a hitch.

A call from the Roman, requesting that he spoke to him face to face didn't help matters either. Considering the fact that Grissom was currently allied with Rupert Thorne's Crime Commission, that didn't help at all.

He stepped out of his private elevator and walked into his office. He headed straight for the bar which was next to his desk. Dropping a couple of ice cubes in a glass, he poured himself a bottle of scotch and then he downed it with a gasp of relief.

He poured himself another and downed that. It was at that point that Grissom noticed that there was nothing off about his office. It was really a lot darker than it should be for this time of the evening, since he usually left the lights on. His desk chair is facing the direction of a large window that looked out onto Gotham City below.

Grissom chalked it up to his made having turned off the lights in the office. He moved his way over towards the desk and flicked open a lamp that was on his desk.

That caused him to come face to face with Jack Napier, who was sitting in Grissom's office chair and had a revolver pointed at him. That caused Grissom to blink in utter shock at the sight of Napier and stumble backwards away from the desk and into one of the chairs that sit in front of it.

"You tried to have me killed over a woman!" Jack yelled, finally breaking the silence.

"You've been out of control later and you're getting a bit too big for britches," Grissom responded. "If I didn't try and kill you, someone else would have and they wouldn't have been as civil about it. And the fact that you were fucking behind my back with my mistress."

The two of them stood up at this point and they were right in each other's faces. Grissom wouldn't dare try anything with the revolver still pointed at him.

"We're intelligent man, we can work something out, Jack," Grissom answered.

"Sure, we can work something out," Jack said. He relaxed his arm, taking his gun off of Grissom. He walked over to the bar and prepared to pour himself a drink.

Grissom let out a relieved smile and sat down behind his desk. He reached into his desk drawer, only to find out that the item that he was searching for in his desk was currently gone.

"You son of a bitch!" Grissom swore.

That was the last thing said before he was shot in the stomach with an immense force. That sent him backwards into the desk chair.

Jack unloaded the rest of the cylinder into Grissom with ruthless efficiency.

Most people would be content to leave things be. Jack was far from that. He proceeded to boot Grissom and the office chair through the window and sent him hurling to the ground below.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 6** **th** **, 2015.**


	95. What Lays Beneath Part Five

**Chapter Ninety-Five: What Lays Beneath Part Five.**

* * *

 

Barbara and Gwen, both dressed rather nicely, but at the same time, fairly casually, hung out in the Daily Planet communications building green room. They all waited for Harry's expected interview with one J. Jonah Jameson. It was to start later on in the night.

Reilly arrived with them, but slipped off to talk to a couple of her friends that are still working them. One of them was Robbie Robertson, who was talking about her continuing to work for them in some capacity.

Barbara passed the time looking through one of her old sketchbooks that she found. She accidentally left these behind at the apartment that Gwen and her father lived in. She flipped through it. It had been a long time since she had gotten a look at this thing.

Inside the book, Barbara flipped through and saw various sketches of various super hero costumes and personas that she drew when she was younger, starting from around the time she was six or seven, until around the time she met with and became involved with Harry for the first time.

There were a few different costume ideas in there and a lot of different notes about what hero would be like. Barbara shook her head at some of the grandiose ideas. She also looked through things with a more critical eye than she had a long time ago. Her nose crinkled when she flicked through the notebook. Most of them were crap, although a couple of them weren't half bad, if she had to honestly admit that.

She noticed at the end that there was a drawing that was most certainly not her own at the edge of the book. There are a couple of similar designs there, although they share a similar thing.

Barbara looked towards Gwen with a narrowed eyed gaze for about half of a moment. It didn't have the intended effect because Gwen was busy at her phone and facing away from her. Therefore her attention was far and wide away from Gwen as possible.

Barbara ended up shrugging in response. She reached into her purse and pulled out a pencil. She flipped to a new page and started to sketch inside of it.

"Oh, Gwen, it's so amazing, I got the job, I was nervous at first," Mary Jane babbled over the other end of the phone.

"That's something that I find hard believe," Gwen said. She shrugged in response. "You know, you're pretty good when you want to be."

"Well, the audition went good, we did some posing, they asked some questions, and I ended up kissing Harry," Mary Jane said. She said the last part rather quickly and firmly.

Gwen raised her eyebrow. "You ended up doing what?"

"I ended up kissing Harry ,complete with tongue," Mary Jane repeated. She sounded triumphant in response. There was not long enough of a pause so Gwen could end up getting a word in edgewise. "I need to run right now, so my break's over, bye Gwen, talk to you later!"

She spoke so quickly that Gwen's head pretty much was spinning. She shook her head.

Gwen was left standing there, blinking. Her cell phone held into her hand and she slowly started to blink. She hissed one prominent statement. "You little bitch."

That caused a nearby intern to jump. She was refreshing her coffee for a moment. "I'm sorry, if I did anything to offend you…"

"No, you didn't," Gwen said, when she realized what she said and more importantly how it could be taken out of context. "I wasn't talking about you, I was talking to one of my girlfriends and she was….well she said something that I'm pretty sure wasn't intentionally rubbing something in my face. But she said something that made it sound like she was rubbing something in my face."

The intern nodded sagely in response. "Yes, I know where you're coming from. I've had similar situations where I feel the same way with my own friends. I can't imagine that there's a girl who hasn't been in that situation."

The intern made her way over. Gwen moved over towards Barbara who was still sketching away in her sketchbook. It was almost like she was not really paying all that much attention. Gwen moved over towards Barbara, getting closer towards her.

She wrapped her arm around Barbara's shoulder and snuggled in really close to her. She could take a good look at what she's drawing in the sketch book.

"Wow, that's….I didn't think that I could go in that direction," Gwen replied. She looked towards it, raising an eyebrow.

"I figured that it was lacking in a few details and it needed some fleshing out," Barbara said. She continued to absent mindedly put a few additions on it, and she kept going through it, carefully working through every bit of the sketchbook.

Gwen had to admit that the design wasn't her most favorite thing in the world is. The spider web them added to them caused her to wince.

"Although, did you really need to make spiders a thing to that?" Gwen asked her. She shuddered for a moment.

There was nothing that Barbara said, at least for a moment. "Well, if spiders frighten you so much, then why not turn that around against your enemies? Make them suffer from it at as well, give them a little dose of arachnophobia."

Gwen nodded a little bit. She hated to admit it, but it did make a perfect amount of sense. The white part of the hooded shirt was starting to get even more details to her. "Well, it does make a lot of sense, but I still really don't like spiders."

"Well, I'm sure that they don't like you either," Barbara repeated in a cheeky tone of voice.

Gwen let out a high pitched whine. "Barbara."

Barbara chuckled in response and started to sketch the costume. It was a red, white, blue, and predominately black bodysuit with a fit in hoodie. She was starting to sketch in some of the details.

"So what's Reilly doing?" Barbara asked.

Gwen raised her eyebrow in response. "Weren't you paying attention to what I was saying earlier?"

"I must have missed what you were saying," Barbara said. "Could you refresh my memory?"

Gwen decided that she should refresh Barbara's memory the best that she could. "The assistant Editor-In-Chief of the Daily Bugle wanted to talk to her about something, and she wanted to track down Betty Brant about something or other."

"I wonder what Harry is doing right now," Barbara commented in an off handed manner, almost casually.

* * *

 

Harry leaned back against the desk in his dressing room and he was about to receive a blow job from the Daily Bugle's ace reporter Betty Brant. She was only wearing a lacy black bra, a lacy pair of panties, a pair of stockings along with her high heeled shoes. She was in the process of undoing his belt.

She followed by unzipping and pulling his pants down to his ankles. Harry watched her do this with a calm and careful eye. The moment she kneeled down in front of him, he proceeded to run his fingers through her hair.

He gripped her rather firmly and guided his throbbing manhood to the entrance of her mouth. Betty opened her mouth up and felt his cock slide deep into her mouth. She wrapped her hot lips into it.

"Slowly, that's it," Harry said.

Betty rocked her head up and down, working her mouth up and down his throbbing manhood. She bathed his massive manhood with her salvia when she kept working herself up and down on his manhood. Her hand wrapped around his balls when she fondled them skillfully at Harry's urging.

Harry guided Betty. He felt her warm mouth work over it. "Yes, suck that cock like it's your job, Miss Brant."

Betty shuddered at his words.

"That's it, a little bit more, a little slower, it's a marathon, not a race," Harry said to her. He looked up at her and pulled her cock out of her mouth. "Use your bra and use your breasts on my cock."

"Are you going to paint my face, sir?" Betty asked. She unhooked her bra and allowed it to fall to the ground. This caused her firm breasts to be out in front of Harry. He squeezed them with an approving smile on his face.

"If you've been good, Miss Brant," Harry informed her. She wrapped her breasts around his throbbing hard shaft.

Betty was determined to please her lover. She slowly worked her breasts up and down his tool, pumping him with him.

Harry closed his eyes and enjoyed the ride, feeling his cock encased in front of this glorious pillows of flesh that wrapped around his tool. He groaned in the back of his throat when Betty kept pumping him up and down, working him over with her glorious tits.

"That feels good ,keep it up," Harry told her.

Betty continued to work him over. She was determined to have his cum all over her in every which way pretty much. She reached one of her hands down.

"I'll take care of you when you earned this reward," Harry said. "Trust me, it will be worth the wait."

Betty removed her hands from herself, placing them on Harry's thighs instead. That allowed her to get the necessary friction she needed when she worked Harry over with her breasts.

"Good girl, very good girl, you like pleasing me, don't you?" Harry grunted.

"Yes, I like your cum over my face, sir," Betty asked. She could feel something tingle.

Betty closed her eyes and she could feel the first burst. She didn't back up or recoil, knowing that such things would not end too favorable for her. Harry painted her face, sending the cum off of it.

"Take my cum and eat it," Harry said. Betty did what she was told, scooping the cum off of her face and her tits.

Betty closed her eyes and slowly popped her fingers into her mouth. Her head rocked back and she slurped it from her fingers. She gave an erotic little show when she popped her fingers into her mouth, sucking them one at a time.

"Slowly Betty, savor it," Harry informed her. Betty closed her eyes. "Do you like my cum? Does that make you want to cum?"

"Yes, the taste makes me want to cum," Betty admitted. She closed her thighs together. "Can I please cum?"

"I want you to turn around," Harry told her. He placed his hands on her thighs. "Spread your thighs a little bit."

Betty spread her thighs and Harry reached down. He pulled her panties down and exposed her dripping pussy for him. His cock was at the side of her, about ready to penetrate her body. Betty closed her eyes.

"What do you want?" Harry asked. He flicked her hair, slowly playing with it. "Do you want me to fuck you?"

"Yes," Betty agreed in a breathy tone. She could feel her walls ache with need. She need him inside her and in the worst way. His cock was at her entrance.

"Yes, I'm sure that you do, but you need to tell me what you want," Harry informed her. He gripped her breasts.

"Fuck me, fuck me hard!" Betty yelled. "Please sir, fuck me like a whore against this desk, I want to cum so badly around your big cock."

"You got it, pet," Harry said. He nearly pulled all the way out of her and he slammed into her body.

Betty's wet walls clamped around his massive tool. He placed his hands on either side of her hips and pumped into her.

"Do you like to be fucked like this?" Harry growled in her ear.

"Yes, just like this, harder, harder, batter my pretty little pussy!" Betty yelled. She dug her knuckles into the side of her desk so much that the blood flow was cut off from them a little bit. '

"Oh you want your pussy battered like this, don't you?" Harry asked. Betty nodded and he thrust into her as hard as he could. He caused her to stagger when her knees were turned into jelly by his constant battering into her pussy. She breathed heavily through her nose when Harry slammed his massive rod into her tight pussy.

"Yes, I like this, I like this, oh I like this, I like your big cock in my pussy like that," Betty panted. She could feel a few thrusts into her.

Harry's hands touched all of the spots that drove her absolute wild. Her breasts, her ass, her thighs, pretty much everything. He also nibbled behind her ear which drove Betty to the point of pure bliss.

He could feel the fact that she was putty in his hands. Her slick center lubricated him when Harry plowed into her from behind as hard as he could. His balls ached with the need for an intense amount of release.

"A bit closer," Harry grunted. He held her breast and plowed into her body. "Just got to get a bit closer."

"Do it!" Betty shouted at the top of her lungs. She felt his manhood spike into her.

"Yes, I'm doing it and you're feeling it, aren't you?" Harry asked. He plowed himself into her fields and caused her body to stretch around his pole. He balanced his hands on either side of her and kept working himself into her, thrusting himself into her delightfully feeling depths.

"Yes, I feel it," Betty agreed. She closed her eyes.

"Now you may cum," Harry told her.

Betty felt like a switch had been hit in her body. Her walls closed down around Harry and she came harder than she ever felt before. Her walls milked him.

"Now it's my turn," Harry said. "Brace yourself."

Betty did as she was told. Her body heated up in anticipation of what happened next. Harry slammed into her, rocking her body.

Harry packed a heavy load of cum in his balls. He pushed himself to the limit. He closed his eyes and channeled his power through his flesh wand and slammed it through Betty.

He placed his hand over Betty's mouth and she screamed into her hand, allowing the orgasm to explode through her body. That was seconds after the sheer force of the contents of Harry's balls fired into her body. Both lovers shared an intense mutual organism with each other.

Betty had been slumped over the side of the desk, breathing heavily after her little encounter with Harry. Her face was drenched with sweat and at the same time, she looked to be very satisfied after what happened.

She finished up and she slowly pulled her panties up, staggering against the desk. There is a knock on the door.

Harry stood up, acting like he hadn't been nailing the Daily Bugle reporter over the edge of the desk. "Yes, what is it?"

"Just five minutes until you go on stage, Doctor Potter," the intern commented.

Harry smiled and responded in his usual charming manner. "Thank you."

* * *

 

The not so charming face of John Jonah Jameson, the second, could be seen by anyone who dared look in the dark. He was sitting behind a desk when he waited for his cue for his evening show to go live. Technically speaking, it was an extremely late night show. However, it shot earlier in the evening, so it was around six o'clock.

Jameson shuffled through some papers that he had in his hand which listed the various news stories of the day that he would have liked to make an effort to cover during the course of his monologue before he was to go to an interview with Harry.

"So, I tell you, things have gotten from bad to worse in Gotham City, as if that place can get much worse than it already is," Jameson said. He was gaining a fair amount of his stride already. "The gang violence in that city is going to enormous levels. It doesn't help that a lot of the cops there are on the take, and their children are being put through college by some high end mobsters like Carmine Falcone. A lot of people were outraged that Falcone got let out on an insanity plea. Yeah, he's insane alright, but for the reasons those so called health care professionals think. And furthermore, Gotham is poisoning other places with their inability to keep crime under control, as it's spilling into New York."

Jameson slammed his hand down onto the desk.

"As if we didn't have enough problems, between the Maggia, the Kingpin's organization, and the Big Man's Commission," Jameson said. He slammed his hand onto his desk and winced briefly. He flexed his fingers around for a moment and took a deep breath. "If you asked me, they should build a giant wall around Gotham City and just forget about all of them."

He barely gave himself a chance to catch his breath or give the audience a chance to catch their own breaths. He continued to throw himself into the next part of his monologue. "And, Norman Osborn, the famed billionaire industrialists for all of you who just woke up from a coma to watch this show, is still missing. His son Harold Osborn has been presumed to set the fire, and he has been committed to the Ravencroft Institute of the Mentally unstable. And speaking of Ravencroft!"

Jameson bellowed the next few words, and he continued his monologue there was no tomorrow. "And speaking of Ravencroft, apparently someone broke into the facility in order to break out a dangerous criminal. Someone mentally unstable who has lost her mind was broken out of the facility. There's no word of who broke out of the place or how dangerous the person was who broke into the place is, along with the person broken out. But we can assume that they can be pretty dangerous. The only thing we know is Doctor Ashley Kafka was apparently attacked and traumatized as a result. She has been confined to a hospital bed, screaming her head off. So lock your doors, your windows, and put your children, animals, and elders in a safe room!"

The man was hitting his stride with a rant.

"All of our local sports teams still suck, but on the bright side, at least we could be living in Gotham City!" Jameson piped up. "And in an attempt to change her image, pop starlet Amber Meadows has apparently got fifty thousand dollar breast implants and honestly she should sue for her money back!"

He was completely on his fact. He finally lost his breath and he had to take a long moment to catch it.

"And if that's not enough, we have Doctor Harry Potter right after the commercial break, so don't touch that dial!" Jameson said.

He sit back onto the desk and adjusted his papers. He took a long drink of water. Jameson took advantage of the time during the commercial break to really catch his breath.

One of his production assistants allowed a countdown from ten when the commercials were finishing. The second the commercials went off, J. Jonah Jameson was turned on like a flip of the switch.

"The man I'm going to talk to in a few minute has revolutionized an entire industry!" Jameson bellowed. "He has changed the way that we communicate, just ask his company, they'll be the first to tell you. He has acquired four Doctorates and is currently working on his fifth. And with the release of one product, he's revolutionized the cell phone industry and looks to be the same with the computer industry. And he is a man who is part of many different charities, regarding women, children, and the homeless among others."

One might assume that was a glowing endorsement from Jameson.

"He is also seen frequently with a different woman almost nightly and sometimes it's like he's playing musical chairs with women, since there are times where he's seen with several women at once," Jameson said. "And despite that genius, he's wasting it on technological toys. And for some reason that no one with half of a brain cell can figure out, he willingly lives in Gotham City for some God forsaken reason. Where he just got kicked out of a skyscraper by some mad man who thought that he was a god and lived to tell the tale."

Jameson bounced back to his feet one more time. One could tell that Jameson bounced back and forth to his feet more times than one could come. "Please welcome, Doctor Harry Potter!"

During the course of that spiel, Harry slipped off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. He put them back on, just in time to make his way over to the stage.

The moment he got over there, Jameson greeted him with an extremely aggressive handshake. Jameson seemed to be intent on squeezing his hand, not that it was going to do him much good. Jameson leaned forward, his teeth gritting when he spoke. "Smile for the camera."

Harry did as he was asked and smiled, right when he subtly altered his grip so Jameson was feeling the heat. It was not enough to hurt him at all, but it was enough to get him attention.

The interview part is there.

"So, you're in New York City for the Red Sun, surprised that you decided to make it here from Gotham City," Jonah said.

"I don't expect you to understand what Gotham City means to me, very few people do that are closer to me," Harry answered. "The technological toys that I have been wasting my life on have netted a huge chunk of change and has padded by already sizeable net worth, and the RAO corporation is one of the top organizations around the world."

"But what can you say….."

"Oh, I'm sure that you can talk about the women," Harry said. "That's one of the topics that everyone wants to talk about, my popularity with the fairer sex. Well, it just show happens that no hearts have been trampled on. Pretty much everyone knows what they're getting into and most of the girls involved know each other before they even knew me. And they're happy to have their base of friends extended. It's networking, to use a business term."

The collective network Harry formed had been one of the best.

Jameson was not to be deterred, but he wouldn't be the one and only J. Jonah Jameson if he was easily deterred.

"Why did you decide to base the RAO Corporation base of operation out of Metropolis and Gotham City rather than New York City?" Jameson demanded. He decided to go in for the throat. His tone sounded like he thought that Harry had a problem with New York.

"Okay, I'm sure people might assume that I have a problem with New York, but I don't," Harry said. "And there are a lot of people here that are good and we should be proud of. Your son, the astronaut, was a citizen of New York after all, so there are a lot of good people here and a lot of not so good people, but I have nothing against the good people of New York City."

Harry could see that Jameson was about ready to fly into a rant.

"I like New York City about as much as I like Metropolis, and even Gotham City," Harry said. He could see the priceless look fly over Jameson's face as he tried to reconcile the fact that anyone would like Gotham City. "My family has sizeable business assets in Gotham that needed my immediate attention and I also have family in Kansas so it made perfect sense for me to start there. Whilst the family businesses that I have in New York are under the watchful eye of several people that I know that I can trust."

Harry smiled.

"But, don't think that I've forgotten about New York," Harry said. "There are plans for RAO to start working out of New York within the next five years. In fact, I've been doing some looking around on some of the businesses that my mother's side of the family have and it turns out the Evans family is one of the key investors in the Daily Bugle Communications group. I found that interesting, wouldn't you, Mr. Jameson?"

For once in his life, J. Jonah Jameson was struck speechless and there was a frost warning in the depths of hell.

* * *

 

Beatriz Bonilla DaCosta showed up wearing a pair of black slacks, a very tight fitting sweater, and a leather jacket. She made her way through the parking garage towards the elevator access. Upon reaching the door, she used a key card to unlock the door.

The moment she stepped into the light, it was obvious that her hair was no longer brunette, rather it was an extremely vivid shade of green. It was obvious why it was brunette because it would be the type of image that would cause people to step back in surprise.

Before she could properly hit the call button, the door opened to reveal an attractive African American woman who wore a female business suit. She stood there with her arms crossed together.

Beatriz should be surprised that she saw her, but she wasn't surprised. She offered her a curt, " Miranda."

Miranda narrowed her eyes in response. Miranda Waller was the daughter of the Warren of Belle Reve Federal Penitentiary, Amanda Waller. As for her father, well that was a mystery. There were rumors that it was some guy who looked like Samuel L. Jackson, potentially with an eye patch. For all she knew, it could have been Samuel L. Jackson.

"Did you make contact with Potter?" Miranda asked her calmly.

"Yes, I did," Beatriz responded in affirmation. "I made contact with him and he offered me a job working as a model for the clothing line his company wasn't response. I think that we can both agree that it wasn't too hard considering my experience. But there was a complication."

"What kind of complication?" Miranda asked. One trait she picked up from her mother was that she didn't much care for complications of anything.

"Tora joined me and she ended up being talked into auditioning as well," Beatriz said. She shrugged as if it wasn't really big that much of a big deal. "It's nothing that I can't handle, although I'm rather curious exactly why we're moving forward in this direction."

Miranda placed her hand underneath her chin and considered very carefully about how she wanted to answer this question. She decided that the best approach would be to be as open with their intentions as possible.

"We haven't had much luck in inserting one of our agents into RAO directly," Miranda explained to her. "The company runs a very extensive background check, followed by several one on one interviews. These interviews are usually conducted by Jaime and Alexandra Potter. I don't have to tell you how unique that is, given that they are high up in the organization."

"Seems to me like they have as stringent security as this agency does when hiring their employees," Beatriz commented casually.

"Yes indeed," Miranda agreed. "That's why we need to take a different approach."

"And that's where I come in," Beatriz offered.

"Yes, and that's where you come in," Miranda agreed. The two women walked side by side. Miranda motioned for Beatriz to come closer towards her. "Your background as a model and a dancer serves us well, not to mention the fact that Potter collects women at the rate that most women collect shows. The powers that be within the Agency's command structure thought that this approach would work fairly well."

Beatriz paused to consider that for a moment.

"So, it's a honey trap situation?" Beatriz offered.

Miranda nodded in affirmation. "We may not have to go that far, but I don't think that you would have much problem with that aspect of the mission if push came to shove."

Beatriz shrugged in response. "I really don't, especially after meeting with him personally. But I'm curious why you want him."

Miranda raised her eyebrow and she continued.

"He's clean, a bit of a man whore with rich tastes, but clean," Beatriz commented.

Miranda answered that question as bluntly as possible. "The Agency just wants to put eyes on him for the moment. I think that they may be interested in recruiting him in the near future since he meets all of the criteria that we look for in an Agent. He might be an extremely public figure, but that can work to our advantage. And his scientific knowledge is second to none, so that is a positive."

Beatriz decided to shift topics to something else, after becoming completely satisfied with the answers she was given. "Are you aware that a public profile of the Wall has your name listed instead of hers?"

Miranda gave a loud groan in response. She slumped against the back of the elevator in response. "I know, don't remind me."

She shook her head. It was a disgusting bit of business if she was honest with herself.

"It's taken them forever, and they swear that they'd get it done, but the wheels of the government move painstakingly slowly, even during the best of times," Miranda said. She placed her hand on the top of her head and allowed herself a momentary sigh. "I'm getting a bit tired of people meeting me and thinking that I'm my mother. Even people who should know better have mentioned it to me. It's ceased being funny a long time ago."

Beatriz chuckled in response. She could feel Miranda's pain, she honestly could.

* * *

 

It was Gotham City, so naturally the weather was some of the worst in the entire country. This point, it was pissing down rain. A crackle of thunder resounded in the distance and it looked to be seconds away from turning into a hell of a thunderstorm. It headed in the direction of becoming a large thunderstorm as a matter of fact.

Talon perched herself on the rooftop, which looked down upon the alleyway where the first mutilated body was found the other night. At the moment, she used the holographic computer that is built into her gauntlets to look over some information she was able to collect earlier in that day. In this case, it had to do with Waylon Jones's past.

She looked over her shoulder, waiting for someone to come to join her. It became clear who she was waiting for when Huntress showed up at her shoulder.

Jaime wasn't one to play distracted. She looked over her shoulder where Diana turned up beside her. "What took you so long?"

"I got side tracked on my way here because I had to deal with an armed robbery involving a group of particular violent bikers," the Huntress said. She shook her head. "The less said about them the better though."

Jaime nodded in response. "So, are you okay?"

"It's going to take a lot more than a couple of foul mouthed bikers to put the hurt on me," Diana said. "If anything, it was a light workout skill wise and that's only if I'm being a bit generous."

It did go without saying that out of the four of them that were active at night, she was the most durable. She took a deep breath and looked at her. "You know, I'm not sure if anyone can hurt me, to be honest, out of the people that I'm fighting, I mean."

"You know, you're just asking for a visit from Murphy with talk like that," Jaime said.

' _And she has a point,'_ Donna piped up, shaking her head.

Diana bent her head and offered a brief prayer to Tyche which caused Donna to chuckle in response through the bond. Jaime did the same.

"Were you able to find out anything relevant to our current case during the day?" Jaime asked her.

"Yes, I did some digging," Diana informed her. "I was able to find out going off of the locations where all of the bodies were found that the murders appear to be restricted to Old Gotham. Which does make a lot of sense because it has the highest homeless population. Except for Bradley Norton all those months back, the killer is just preying on the homeless."

"But it's hard to say because there might be more murders than what has been discovered or reported," Jaime said. Diana slowly nodded, it was obvious she came to that assumption as well. "And I did some digging on my own and was able to find out some information about Jones, but I'm not sure exactly how much of it is true."

That caused Diana to give Jaime a questioning look. She heaved in her chest with a breathing sigh and prepared to explain. "It appears like Jones has a multiple choice past and there's a couple different versions floating around. The most likely one is that Jones was raised by his aunt after his parents abandoned him as a baby. His aunt was a drunk and grew to hate her nephew due to his appearance and behavior. She ended up abusing him."

"What happened to his aunt?" Diana asked.

"Jones killed her, before running away and joining the circus, where he became part of the Freak Show," Jaime said. "The circus he was part up ended up closing down due to either going bankrupt or due to a lot of bad publicity. He disappeared for a while in the aftermath and popped up again as a wrestler in the deep show. He did well until he killed his opponent in the middle of the ring."

"And what happened after that?" Diana asked.

"He fled again, until he showed up as a cage fighter working for Rupert Thorne," Jaime said. "After the night Black Canary and Nightwing crashed the club, he disappeared into the night."

Diana took a few moments to allow the story to settle in.

"That's just what I've been able to piece together from different sources," Jaime replied. "A lot of its hearsay and might not be true, but it seems like the most likely."

Now they knew the man that they were hunting for, they could proceed. They lowered themselves down into the crime scene in order to look things over. Diana dropped herself into a low crouch that looked very similar to a thinking position. She looked things over extremely carefully whilst Jaime used the heads up display in her mask to scan the crime scene and create a 3D overlay that she could manipulate.

"This should also allow us to scan the location for a variety of different light spectrums, if it works right," Jaime said.

A couple tweaks had been made to it recently, so this was a field test.

Diana frowned when she looked up into the sky, with the rain falling down. Jaime turned around after finishing her scan and could see pretty much how troubled Diana looked. She raised her eyebrow and decided to ask the obvious question.

"What's wrong?" Jaime asked.

Diana stood up to her full height, peering down at Jaime before responding. "A couple of days have passed, the police picked the scene dry, and with the rain, there's not much else we can do here."

Jaime paused, she hated to admit Diana was right, but she was right. It was at that point when he wrist computer chimed and brought up a 3D scan of the crime scene. She used the data from the MCU crime scene report, adding the elements back into the scene.

When that was done, Jaime protected the overlay into the crime scene, given them access to a three dimensional model of the crime scene that they can manipulate as they see fit.

"And here we go, we don't have to worry about the crime scene being several days old," Jaime said.

Diana kneeled down at the body and looked it over closely. Taking a few seconds to study, she frowned. "Could you shift the light spectrum over to Ultraviolet, Talon?"

Jaime did as Diana asked her. That caused the light spectrum to shift over towards ultraviolet. The light does it thing causing all of the blood splatter patterns to glow brightly, along with the door that leads back to the nearby bar.

Diana looked it over extremely carefully. She circled the body once more before she headed deeper into a dark party of the alley.

Jaime tilted her head curiously and followed Diana into the alleyway. "What are you looking for…"

"This," Diana said. She crouched near a rather beaten manhole cover. She ran her fingers along the edges of it and she looked at it. "Look."

Jaime looked and could see a series of very deep furrows in the concrete that resemble claw marks. It wasn't hard to put two and two together.

"No one has seen Jones or anyone resembling his description because he's using the extensive sewer systems and underground tunnels beneath Old Gotham," Jaime said. "And they can be pretty extensive."

Diana nodded wordlessly in agreement. She pried the lid off of the manhole and a stink that defied description wafted up from the sewers. This was one of those times where having enhanced senses was a curse rather a blessing.

Jaime struggled out her next statement in a strangled manner. "Well, that's really pleasant."

"No, it isn't," Diana said. She knew perfectly where that Jaime was being snarky.

"We're going to have to go down there, aren't we?" Jaime asked. "In the nasty sewer system, we're really going to have to go down there, aren't we?"

Diana paused and nodded reluctantly. "We're going to have to if we're going to track down Jones."

Jaime let a long sigh out. She was afraid of that. Her hand waved casually. "Well, you know how the saying goes. Ladies first."

Diana crumpled her nose up and held her head up. She managed to steel her resolve and she was going to need it because it honestly did smell pretty god awful down there.

She stood up to her full height and moved forward to drop into the sewer system below. Jaime followed her a few seconds later.

* * *

 

A group of Black Mask's men were in the middle of working over several of the homeless. A man tried to pull himself to his feet, but he was slammed down onto the ground and given a violent curb stomp.

"Ah, some precious little lambs just strayed from the heard," one of Black Mask's goons said. He slammed one of them face first into the ground.

"Yeah, I bet they wish they would have went wee, wee, wee, all the way home," another one of the goons said.

"That's pigs you idiot, not lambs," one of the goons said. He raised a baseball bat. "Step aside, and we'll really give this trash something to remember us."

Two more homeless men were sprawled out on the ground, beaten severely. The leader of the pack raised the baseball bat and swung for the fences, bringing it down onto the ribs of the homeless man with a sickening crack.

"And that was a homerun!" the mobster cheered to himself.

"Damn, why doesn't this fucking Gotham weather ease up?" one of the men groaned. "It's either fucking too hot, too wet, or….too fucking cold?"

"Hey, that's just what we got to deal with," another thug commented. "If you were smart, you would have worn something warmer."

"Hey, the weather man said that today would be a bright and sunny day," one of the goons protested.

"And that makes you an idiot, for listening to the fucking weatherman, don't you know they're always wrong?" the goon asked.

Another shot drilled into the arm of the homeless man. This final shot essentially snapped his arm.

"So, do you think that they got it, or do we have to send even more of a message?" the lead thug asked. He twirled the baseball bat stained in blood in his hand. "Or do we have to send a more final one?"

"You know, we only need one person alive to send a message," one of the thugs commented.

The lead thug nodded and reached into his suit jacket. He removed a custom .45 handgun and shot one of the unconscious homeless men in the head. He shot the homeless man who was just worked over.

That left a final homeless man who had an obviously broken leg.

"Hey, I didn't do anything wrong, please tell me what I did wrong," the homeless man begged.

The lead thug kicked his leg out from underneath his leg and caused him to crumple down onto the ground. "You did fuck all to us, chuckles. But our boss got a hair up his ass and he isn't too happy about Gotham's trash getting into his territory. And when the boss isn't happy, none of us are happy. Especially when the boss has this bad habit of taking out his anger out on us."

"Then why do you work with him," the injured homeless man stated.

The lead thug stood on the back of his leg. "Hey, don't get us wrong, normally the boss is a swell fucking guy, he pays well, the benefits are great, hell we even get dental, got my little girl braces and anything. Our work is interested and we get to meet interesting people and play with a lot of interesting toys. That's when the boss is happy. When he's angry, well you better watch out. He's got this bad habit of torturing people who fucked up."

The lead thug eased up on the man. He kneeled down and smiled.

"And if you've been tortured, and in fact you have, you know for a fact that it isn't a picnic," the lead thug. "Now as far as I'm aware, none of us have an issue with the homeless, so it's not personal, just business."

"I have a fucking problem with them," one of the men piped up.

"Okay fine, Donny here doesn't like you guys, but my point stands, business for most of us," the lead thug.

"Please, please, please, don't, please," the homeless man begged.

"Now this is the part where people beg me and tell me that they have a family, but since you're a fucking bum, you have no fucking family," the lead thug said. He slapped him in the face. "You aren't listening to me. I hate it when people don't listen to me. SO LISTEN TO ME!"

He slapped the homeless man across the face hard.

"This isn't about you, it's about sending a message to the rest of the trash in Gotham City, the homeless need to know their role and shut their mouth," the lead thug said. "You need to be alive to send the message we want you to send."

The lead thug moved away from the homeless laying on the ground and looks to the other three thugs.

"Let it sink in, but not too much. Remember, we need a message sent"

They looked at the homeless guy with menacing expressions on their faces.

Before they could even begin to work him over, there was a metallic crack that sounded very similar to a car hitting a lamp post. This was followed by a car flying out of nowhere.

It plowed into Donny the thug and literally knocked him right out of his boots. It crushed him in between the car and a wall the flying car crashed into.

The rest of the thugs stood in stunned disbelief for a good reason. One of them screamed and backed off.

The lead thug finally took control of the situation and pointed his gun in the direction of where the car came flying from. He emptied his clip into the general directions. His two buddies did the same thing a moment later.

They fired into darkness, emptying their clips. The silence followed and they clicked their now empty hand guns. All three of them shared anxious looks with each other.

"What the fuck was th…."

They were interrupted by a massive figure clotheslining the thug that smoke out of nowhere. The man's neck snapped from this vicious clothesline from Hell.

The two remaining thugs tried to make their way forward, but a large punch sent the man flying backwards a good ten feet.

The lead thug tried to scramble to his feet. He was the only one that was left. He saw his buddy laying in the carnage of broken glass and debris.

The lead thug tried to reload his thug. "WHAT ARE YOU?"

The figured grabbed his hand and forced him all the way to the ground. He stomped onto his arm and that caused all of the bones in his hand to break as a result of the weight.

The figure responded with a low rumbling. "Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday."

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 13** **th** **, 2015.**


	96. What Lays Beneath Part Six

**Chapter Ninety-Six: What Lays Beneath Part Six.**

* * *

 

The news about Doctor Ashley Kafka at Ravencroft Institute was jarring to Harry when he heard it during Jameson's opening rant on his talk show. Harry and Pamela were able to put two and two together quite nicely. It should be painfully obvious who was responsible for her current predicament.

' _It's Crane, it just has to be,'_ Harry thought.

Pamela nodded in response. _'That does fix the type of schemes that he is able to do. He's responsible for her current condition. And there's a pretty good chance that she could end up dying from a concentrated dose of Crane's fear toxin.'_

' _Unless we help them,'_ Harry thought.

It was settled, the two of them were heading over to Ravencroft to do exactly that. They were in the backseat of the limo with Gwen and Reilly in tow. It made perfect sense for them to tag along due to the fact the two had an interest in science. And there was no way that the two of them were going to allow Harry and Pamela to go on with them.

Harry sat in the middle of the backseat of the limo, with Pamela pressed up against him. Gwen and Reilly sat across from them.

"So, Bethanie, you heard what happened?" Harry asked.

Bethanie Ravencroft responded in an extremely grateful tone of voice. "Yes, we just got news regarding what happened, but….I'm glad you made sure that I knew what was going on."

"We're on our way to the Institute right now, and Pamela and I are willing to help in any way we can," Harry said. "If you have need of our services that is."

Bethanie gave a long and labored sigh. She knew that time was of the essence. She considered Ashley to be a close friend and she knew for a fact that Harry and Pamela were responsible for creating the fear toxin in the first place. "I think that it wouldn't make much sense at all if I didn't accept your help. I'll get in touch with my Uncle and inform him that you're willing to help us. I also got the toxicology report from the guard that Crane gassed before he escaped from Blackgate. If you would like, I'll forward that to you."

"Would you?" Harry asked.

"I'll be back in a few seconds, my uncle is on the other line," Bethanie said.

It was a long and quiet tone. While she said that it would be foolish not to accept their help, it still was not her call to make. Harry hummed casually underneath his breath and tapped his fingers.

The wait seemed like an eternity as they tended to be, but Bethanie came back onto the line. "My Uncle is willing to accept your help."

Pamela just received the toxicology report over her phone and had been looking over it in the meantime. She had a chemical compound of what Harry had been exposed to last summer. Pamela frowned when she looked at it.

' _It's different,'_ Pamela thought. She looked over it, analyzing the two pretty much side by side with each other. _'The most major difference is this version of the fear toxin looks like it's essentially synthetic, when compared next to the first version which had a much stronger biological element to it.'_

Pamela tapped the side of her nose and she closed her eyes, mentally going through each bit of the formula line by line.

' _Actually, when you really think about it, there aren't too many similarities between the two of them,'_ 'Pamela thought. She frowned even deeper. _'It looks like Crane slapped this one together using cleaning products, instead of using a hallucinogenic flower.'_

It really did go a long way to showing off Crane's skills but it was obvious that he was a pretty gifted chemist. Frowning deeply, Pamela turned towards a rather eager looking Gwen and Reilly.

"Best that you can look this over yourself," Pamela said. She didn't tell them her findings right away."

The two girls took the phone quite eagerly. Pamela turned her attention to Harry, who was still on the phone with Bethanie, although not for long. "Yes, we'll be there….thank you for this…oh you're welcome, always happy to help."

"So what happened?" Pamela asked him.

"We don't really know too much right now," Harry said. He tried to piece together the puzzles. "Even though Bethanie 's uncle runs the place, we don't know much more than your average person on the street. Best anyone can tell, Crane used his credentials to gain access to the Institute. From there, he had Doctor Kafka escorted him to one of the high security patients. The moment she did, she gassed her.

"So, pretty much what Jameson said?" Pamela asked him and Harry nodded.

Reilly and Gwen finished the toxicology report. Gwen turned towards Harry and handed it over to him. "Figured, that you need to look at this about as much as anything."

"It looks like he slapped a bunch of cleaning supplies together, if you ask me," Reilly said. She turned to Pamela. "The toxins are so different though, why are they different?"

"Yeah, it seems like the other one was more professionally made, and this one was a bit more unstable," Gwen said.

"Well, the other one was controlled," Pamela said. "You heard about the riot that happened in Gotham City, this summer?"

"You're going to have to be a bit more specific than that," Gwen said. It seemed like there was a riot of some sort happening in Gotham City constantly.

"Well, yes," Pamela said. She bit down on her lip and shook her head in bemusement. "The first fear toxin, the more structured one, was released this summer. Harry and I helped synthesize a cure. Jonathan Crane was sent to prison, but a lot of the city went mad in the process. This was derived from a potent flower that can caused hallucinations in the right circumstances. And Harry was exposed to it as well, which actually helped us formulate an antidote faster."

"Wait, you were exposed to it?" Gwen asked. She frowned when she looked at Harry. This was the first she really heard of it. "Barbara didn't tell me about that."

"Well Barbara doesn't know that it happened," Harry responded.

That caused Gwen's frown to grow even deeper. Pamela jumped in with a bit more of an explanations. "She was worried about her Father and the fact he was smack dab in the middle of a riot at the time. We didn't want to scare her any further."

Gwen paused and frowned. She slowly nodded in response. "I guess that makes sense."

It made more sense to her than another person given that her father was a police officer as well.

Harry finished looking over the file and frowned. "Well this version of the toxin is completely different than the one from this summer. It has the same effects, but different at the base form."

Gwen and Reilly nodded. Reilly shook her head. "We pretty much determined the same thing."

Pamela gave a long sigh and she leaned in so she could rest her forehead on Harry's shoulder. It took her a moment to collect her thoughts. "Which means we won't be able to use the cure that we already developed for this one."

"Which I'm sure that's what Crane was counting on," Harry chimed in. "We're going to need to synthesize a new cure."

Pamela picked up right where Harry left off. "And to do that, we're going to need to take a sample of Doctor Kafka's blood."

Harry responded by kissing Pamela on the top of her head in response. They had just arrived at the Institute and it was likely not a second too soon.

* * *

 

Batman snuck out of the shadows and grabbed one of Black Mask's thugs around the throat. He nailed one of them hard into the back of the head. He slipped into the shadows and more of these thugs made their way into the shadows. He was in the process of very stealthily taking them out one by one.

"I'll be back in a minute, just got to take a leak."

"Yeah, Mikey, go ahead, do it, or do you need me to hold your hand?"

Mikey the thug moved over with a scowl on his feet, making his way to the alleyway, unknowing that a group of thugs had already been taken out moments ago. Before he had a chance to unzip his pants, something gripped him hard. He was grabbed around the neck and popped on the back of his neck.

"The idiot might have gotten his dick stuck in his fly again," one of the thugs said, shaking his head. "Shouldn't have let him take a piss on the job."

"Oh come off of it Leo, just because the boss made you in charge….."

"Casey, not now, we got to stick together," Leo the thug said. Heh man looked over his shoulder. "Someone is around here, and it's something that shouldn't be."

Casey scratched the top of his head. "Well, we're going to meet with some more of the bosses boys aren't here, aren't we?"

"Yeah, that's right," Leo said. He tapped the top of his head. "But, if something screwy has been happening, maybe we should change the plan."

"What do you want to call the other group first, or something?" Casey asked. He spoke in a calm voice, almost mockingly as well.

"Yeah, that's about the only good idea that you've had all night," Leo said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a cellphone.

There was a long pause when he tried to shift through the cell phone in his head to find the number. After he finally found it, he dialed the number. He allowed it ring several times.

"No answer," Leo said. He responded with a shrug in response.

The sound of several guns being fired all at once caused Leo to jump halfway up into the air in surprise and drop his cell phone onto the ground in shock.

Casey grabbed his phone and dialed another number. The phone rang three times before a gravelling voice answered. "Yes."

"There's something going on here…..someone has been picking us off, and we can't get in touch with the other group," Casey said. "What the hell are we supposed to do know?"

Batman in the meantime moved away from Mikey and put himself into a better position. He hovered off to the side. He was able to listen on the phone conversation.

"It's likely they've run afoul of the Bat, Nightwing, or one of the others," the gravelly voice commented on the other side of the phone. "It could be the GCPD, but that's unlikely. Whoever is doing it though, whoever is responsible for taking our men out, they've been vicious. Some of them are even in the hospital right down with critical condition."

Casey paused and decided to ask the question." Should we check things out?"

The gravelly voice paused for a moment, considering the question. "You should get back to your safe house and await further orders. Black Mask has decided to push forward one of his operations to later that evening. Prepare for that, and prepare for information regarding the rendezvous point later."

The thugs looked at each other and both shrugged. If that's what the boss wants them to do, that's for the best. "Yes."

"I don't like it, Mikey just vanished into thin air like that," Leo said.

"Well where's the last place you saw him?" Casey asked.

"He went off to take a piss," Leo grunted.

Casey threw his hands up into the air. "Well, this is the longest piss you've ever heard of."

The two of them didn't have to walk far before they found him unconscious against the wall.

"Did he fucking good on a bender or something before he went to work?" Leo asked. He booted him in the head rather hard. "Hey numb nuts, get your ass up!"

Mikey woke up rather violently with a start and gasped in breath. He tried to stumble to his feet. He was confused and he shook ahead. "Hey, what the fuck was that for?"

"Well, you were the asshole that was drunk before you went to work," Casey told him.

Mikey blinked in response. "But, I swear, I only had a couple of beers."

Casey scowled in response. "I don't fucking care, but the boss wants us to get back to the safe house. There's something we need to do later tonight."

Mikey nodded, slowly scrambling up to his feet in response. He stumbled off of his feet. Casey grabbed him. "You feeling already?"

Mikey shook his head. "No, I've got a killer headache, dizzy, and all that shit."

That caused Casey to snort quite obviously in response to this. "Suck it up, Princess."

While the group moved off, Batman slipped a tracer on them. He needed to investigate the source of the gunshots while the trail was still hot.

* * *

 

"What a wonderful smell you've discovered Princess!"

Diana and Jaime were well into the old Gotham sewer system. The Amazon Princess turned towards Jaime with a raised eyebrow. "Really Jaime?"

Jaime shrugged in response, giving her a raised eyebrow and a smile. "I thought that it was accurate….you know, given the fact that it really, really stinks down here."

Diana crinkled her brow in response and nodded. "You have a point."

Emily piped in over the radio up-link. "You do have a gas mask on your utility belt. Well, at least Jaime does, Diana can use a spell if she doesn't have one."

Diana and Jaime both jumped up after hearing her voice. Jaime was looking more surprised than anyone. "Emily, what are you doing up so late?"

"Well, someone needs to be on mission control tonight," Emily said with a shrug. "Since Barbara and Harry are in New York, Dinah is in Seattle, Faora and Karen are in Metropolis, and my mother and Aunt Rose are in London, someone had to pick up the slack. And there's also the fact that I couldn't really sleep. And while I'm no Barbara, I am one of the few girls who seems to be able to use a computer without causing it to explode. So really, I think that I would do."

"It does make perfect sense," Jaime answered.

Diana nodded with a smile. "It does and it really would be nice to have the company down here if we can."

One could almost sense Emily beaming in response. She cleared her throat after a moment. "Well when they say that the Sewer system in Old Gotham is extensive, they really mean it's pretty extensive. There's an entire mess of tunnels down here, and you could get lost pretty easily. It's almost like someone built Old Gotham on top of another town."

Diana popped in, sounding extremely thoughtful. "Well to be fair, that's kind of accurate. Old Gotham was built on top of another location called Wonder City. I really don't know the exact details, but it was meant to be the City of Tomorrow. Something happened and Old Gotham ended up being built over the top of it's ruins. Wonder Tower is really the only part left of it that reaches the surfaces. So there are tunnels running all underneath Old Gotham as a result."

Jaime nodded. Emily whistled. "Well, that really does answer my question, but I really want to know how you know about it."

"I have an interest in history," Diana reminded her. "And Gotham does have some interesting history."

It was around this point where Jaime and Diana reached a junction in the sewer system. They paused to consider what they wanted to go next.

"Well, we can use the GPS in my suit so Emily can pin point where we are on the map," Jaime answered, shrugging.

"Sound idea in theory, yes," Emily agreed. She frowned and really hated to be the one to be the bearer of bad news. "But there's one problem, the reception that I'm getting is a little bit fuzzy. I can still talk to you clearly enough, but I can't pinpoint your exact location."

Emily knew that she could switch to the bond link if necessary. That would also bring in more voices than needed and it can be hectic once some girls really got going. Even though if they bothered to pay enough attention this late at night, they would know which direction they're going.

"You're in the middle of a tunnel that heads straight down towards the ocean, and the left tunnel heads in the direction of the Industrial District," she informed them. "And the right tunnel heads in the direction of the Bowery."

While she was relaying some rather scrambled instructions to them, Diana is carefully studying the junction. Her eyes narrowed when she noticed several claw marks similar to what she saw earlier at the crime scene.

The good news was that it was able to give them a pretty clear idea the direction where Croc headed off. So they were able to head off in that particular direction.

* * *

 

Solomon Grundy ambled his way through the Streets of Gotham City with a homeless man slumped over his shoulder. He made his way in the direction of the Leslie Thompkins Medical Clinic. The homeless person in question told Grundy to take him there immediately, right before he blacked out in the pain.

His intelligence had grown since his latest rebirth. Grundy was able to understand what the person was saying. So he made his way in that particular direction. He stuck to the shadows in order not to stand out too much. Given his overall size, that made a perfect amount of sense.

Grundy arrived at his destination in pretty much little time flat. He carefully placed the homeless man he was carrying near the backdoor.

He rapped on the door rather loudly to get the persons attention. With that out of the way, he stepped backwards into the alleyway. Grundy's eyes peered forward from the shadows when he was taking a close and able look at what was happening.

He did not wait too long before the back door opened and a security guard stepped out. The guard nearly tripped over the unconscious body in the process. The guard just barely managed to catch himself before he fell head over heels and landed on the ground.

The guard gasped and leaned over the body, kneeling down next to it to see if there was any kind of pulse. He found a very light one. "Doctor Thompkins, we need help!"

A few seconds passed before a rather attractive brunette woman who looked to be in her forties made her way out of the backdoor, startled by the frantic yell. She was wearing the standard attire that a female doctor might be wearing, complete with a white lab coat.

The woman stepped out of the backdoor and gasped the moment she saw what was wrong. "Is he….?"

"He still has a pulse, a rather faint one," the security guard commented. His tone was rather chilling. He could feel the burst of cold air smack into his face.

Leslie Thompkins frowned when she looked at him, raising her eyebrow. "Help me get him inside."

Grundy watched surprisingly calm and still for a large hulking swamp zombie. The monster would have looked like quite a sight indeed if anyone saw him holding his hands in his lap when he leaned against the wall like he was in church.

Once the door was closed, Grundy grunted in satisfaction, his job done. He took this as his cue to leave. He walked down the alleyway about a block or so. Things seemed to be rather quiet at this point when he made his way forward.

Grundy stopped at the edge of the alleyway. His eyes narrowed when ran straight on into Batman. Batman responded by narrowing his eyes towards Grundy the moment both of them essentially ran hard into each other.

Batman arrived at the scene of the Grundy altercation some time earlier. He noticed straight away that two people were shot, while three others were pretty badly broken. He investigated the crime scene pretty thoroughly and discovered a trail of blood that lead away from the crime scene.

He had to pick up the pace, knowing what that trail of blood. It lead him to the one and only Solomon Grundy. The hulking swamp zombie stared down Batman.

Batman could not believe this. Nightwing told him that he fought Grundy last year when Batman was under the control of Deacon Blackfire. His report of that entire mess didn't really do Grundy much credit, if at all.

Grundy looked forward, narrowing his eyes. He raised his hand with a roar and sent a blaringly fast punch towards Batman. This was a punch that Batman was just barely able to throw himself out of the way from. He was quick, despite the armor that he was wearing. The punch didn't take Batman's head off.

The wall behind Batman was nowhere near lucky at all. The wall was smashed in with a force that could be only described as sheer and utter brutality. It caused the wall to crumble inwards underneath Grundy's violence punch.

Batman nailed him in the side of the head. A series of rapid fire punches rocked Grundy. Grundy spun around with a loud growl. The Detective was surprised how much he was put on the defensive. Grundy came out a far bit stronger than many people expected him to be.

If any of these punches connected, it went without saying that Batman was going to feel them in the morning. He needed to keep moving.

The next time Grundy hurled a punch at him, Batman ended up flipping up over the top of him. He landed hard and faced the direction of Grundy's back. Putting himself behind Grundy gave him a sufficient amount of room to breathe.

Batman punched him hard in the kidneys in response. That caused Grundy to give a large agonizing howl. While the iron was hot, Batman nailed Grundy right in the face with a running dropkick. It sent him flying through the already weakened walls of what appeared to be an office building.

More accurately, it looked to be a location where they sold insurance.

Batman craned his neck in surprise. Grundy was gone. He took a moment to look around, and when Batman thought his guard was down, Grundy essentially punched him out of nowhere. That caused Batman to go flying backwards and slam hard into one of the plaster walls.

The White Zombie hoisted a desk over his head and sent it flying at Batman. Thankfully for the cowled crusader, he was able to recover from one of the punches. He dodged off to the side and pulled three circular flash bang grenades out of his utility belt.

He rose through his feet and hurled them in Grundy's direction. One of the grenades caught the hulking Zombie in the face and staggered him back. He was able to catch the other two with one of his arms.

The explosion hurt really badly, not to mention the attack blinded and deafened him. That threw Grundy into an extreme feral and dangerous amount of rage.

Batman took advantage of the fact that Grundy was blinded and nailed him with a series of staggering blows. The unfortunate part was that each and every single one of these shots did about as much damage to Batman as they did to Grundy. He grunted when his hands bounced off.

Grundy shook off the fact that he was deaf and dumb.

"Solomon Grundy born on a Monday!" Grundy bellowed. He slammed his fists right into Batman's back and caused him to stagger.

It occurred to Batman that he didn't hit him nearly as hard as he could have. Whether that was a comfort or not, he couldn't tell. Grundy threw Batman around when he recited his poem.

"DIED ON A SUNDAY!" Grundy concluded after some time and he finished the job off by sending Batman hurling through a plate glass window in front of the store.

It was very fortunate that the window was only on the first floor. It was not the most enjoyable experience, but at the same time, it wasn't as bad as it could have been.

Batman forced himself to his hands and knees and looked around. He brushed the glass off of his cape and struggled to get to his feet. He allowed himself a breath and coughed. He craned his neck and came to one unfortunate conclusion.

Grundy disappeared into the night. Batman got up to his feet and considered giving chase. There was one thing that stopped him from doing so. A beeping in his cowl stood him up straight.

"Sir, the tracer you placed earlier is on the move," Alfred informed Batman.

Batman was given a choice between following Grundy and looking at what Black Mask's men were up to. Considering his recent actions against the homeless, Black Mask's men were the highest priority and Grundy would have to wait.

* * *

 

Harry, Gwen, Reilly, and Pamela were working within the laboratory within Ravencroft Institute which was shown by Daniel James Ravnecroft, who currently ran the facility. This individual also happened to be Bethanie Ravencroft's paternal uncle. The four of them were all decked out in lab coats and they looked extremely serious.

Harry leaned over a Microsoft and examined the blood sample that was taken from Doctor Kafka extremely closely. Gwen stood beside him with a clipboard and a pen in order to take notes. Pamela and Reilly are a short distance away using a computer with internet access in order to access a private serve at ROA. This was in order to access a chemical analysis program that Pamela and Harry created with hem from Alura.

It was their belief that they can use this program to break down the chemicals used to create this version of the Fear Toxin Crane used on Doctor Kafka.

Harry looked closely at the blood sample. He turned to Gwen. "As far as I can tell, the toxin is affecting Doctor Kafka by hyper stimulating her adrenal gland. This is causing her body to go into shock as a result. And as a result of that, the toxin is taking advantage of the fact that she's in shock to cause her to see things. It's a very brutal force method of accomplishing precisely what the first version of the fear toxin did, even though the end goal is the same."

Gwen nodded and jotted down some nods. She frowned, chewing her pen cap. "What can we do to stop it?"

Harry sighed after he considered that fact. "At the moment, we honestly can't do anything to stop it until we know what was used to create the toxin in the first place."

Gwen frowned for a moment and she shook her head. "I don't get it."

Harry smiled. "The reason we can't do anything until we know the chemical make up of the toxin is that we don't know how exactly other chemicals will react to it. So once we can do that, there's a chance that we can safely sedate Doctor Kafka. Until then, we could just as easily killed her."

Gwen blinked and sighed. When Harry put it that way, everything looked more clearly now.

"So, how are you going to accomplish that?" Gwen asked.

Harry smiled and squeezed her shoulder. He leaned in towards Gwen. "It just so happens that we got the perfect application for that."

On the other side of the room, Pamela accessed the chemical program and now was uploading the specifications of the blood sample they took from Doctor Kafka. The program was doing it's thing and breaking down the toxin within her blood into it's component parts.

"The toxin is most certainly created from industrial strength cleaning chemicals," Pamela muttered to Reilly. "The kind you would expect to find in a prison. There is ammonia there, along with a couple of others. Some really strong acids and the final one is Methamphetamine as far as I can tell. It's a wonder that Doctor Kafka hasn't gone into toxic shock after all of this."

Reilly read the report over Pamela's shoulder and nodded in agreement.

"Is it safe to sedate Doctor Kafka now that we know what we're dealing with?" Reilly asked.

It was by this point that Gwen and Harry moved over to join them. He locked eyes with Pamela.

"Well, it wouldn't be a good idea at this point in time," Pamela offered.

"Right, if we put her in a medically induced coma, there's no telling what we might have to do to pull her out of it," Harry said. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "That being said, we've got a pretty good idea how to proceed from here."

Gwen and Reilly responded by a rather curious look. Harry took the plunge by explaining things.

"The biggest risk we have at the moment is Doctor Kafka going into toxic shock due to the strength of the chemicals used to create the toxins," Pamela said.

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose and added another point. "There's a very real chance of her suffering a heart attack due to the current strain the toxin is putting on her heart."

Pamela wrapped up things for Harry. "We're going to need to develop an agent that will neutralize the worst of the chemicals. Once we can do that, we can give her something that will cause her to sweat out the remainder from her sister."

* * *

 

Joe and Parker made the round around the homeless population in Gotham City. Parker turned to him. "The heat's getting pretty bad with Black Mask and his men. Been thinking that we need to get out of his territory and soon as possible. We should pack up and move on."

"Kind of hard to move a lot of homeless people at once, isn't it?" Joe asked him.

Parker responded with a shrug. "We've been scouting locations where we can go. The strongest contender is an abandoned Church a couple of blocks away from our current location. It's also a ways away from the Industrial District of Gotham. So we wouldn't be in Black Mask's territory. But there's a problem."

Joe gave him a toothless grin. "Isn't there always a problem?"

Parker nodded. "The biggest problem is that it's firmly in a place that belongs to the Maroni faction of the mob. It's not must better, but right now it's better than dealing with Black Mask. And we can also consider crossing the bridge into New Gotham. There's a couple of places there we could camp out."

"I don't know, just seems like the coward's way out," Joe said. "We should show them that we can't be pushed to the side….."

"Can't show them much of anything if we're dead," Parker answered. "A couple of us have been murdered already."

"Look, the reason they got themselves killed was that they got split off from the rest of the group," Joe argued. "Sure, it's pretty sad, but if we stick together, it's not likely to happen. And we got someone protecting us now."

Parker sighed deeply at that.

"I don't want to move as much as you do, but I think that it's best for the group as a whole," Parker said. "As good as the Protection as Tiny seems to be, there are a lot of us, and he can't be anywhere. And we don't want to poke this bear any more than we have to. If we do that, there's a pretty good chance that they'll just roll up over ups again."

Parker struggled to explain this in the best way that he could. He decided that the truth was about as good away as any.

"A lot of people in Gotham already blame us for what happened during the riots, so as far as your average citizen is concerned, not a lot of sympathy there," Parker told him.

Joe looked extremely disgruntled and stormed off in the direction of a side street.

Parker shook his head at the stubbornness of that man. He turned around and continued towards his destination.

He came face to face with Tiny. Parker was surprised about how banged up he looked.

"Tiny, just the man that I was looking for," Parker said. "We've been thinking that it's time to move on before Black Mask and his men hurt us really bad. Joe didn't like that and he stormed off. I was hoping that you would talk some sense into him.

Grundy grunted in response and head off into the direction that Parker pointed towards.

Meanwhile, Joe walked off. He had a load of questions on his mind. He figured that it would be just as well to get himself something to eat.

Checking his pockets, he scrapped together just enough to get himself a cup of coffee and a doughnut. That should hopefully allow him to think more clearly.

He headed off to one of those twenty four seven joins. He took a careful stock of all of his surroundings.

Once Joe had a pretty clear idea where he was, he headed in the direction of the nearest one. There was just one problem. He didn't get too far before a pair of hands grabbed him out of nowhere and slammed him hard into the closet wall.

This sudden and abrupt attack drove all of the air out of Joe's lungs. He struggled against the man's grip and he was slammed against the wall head first to the point where he couldn't even think straight. He was rendered barely conscious at this point.

He was dragged towards the closest entrance to the sewers and down into the depths beneath.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 20** **th** **, 2015.**


	97. What Lays Beneath Part Seven

**Chapter Ninety-Seven: What Lays Beneath Part Seven.**

* * *

Grundy ambled off to find Joe the homeless man that he made friends with. After Parker told him that Joe had walked off, Grundy decided to follow his friend to make sure that he was alright. He made his way through the back alleys of Gotham. He was muttering the poem that about his namesake to himself underneath his breath, and he paused occasionally to take a sniff of the air in order to catch his friend's rather pungent scent.

Eventually, Grundy came to the stop of a location where Joe was last. He paused at this point and quickly notices that something was wrong. It took him a few moments to process exactly what was wrong, but he knew that something was wrong.

Solomon Grundy stepped forward to close the distance between where Joe was standing last and where he was slammed into the wall. He noticed the blood stain pattern that's developed as a result of his friend's rough treatment.

"Grew ill on a Thursday," Grundy declared with a low growl. He reached forward and ran his thumb along with the blood stain. He brought it up to his finger and tasted it properly.

His nostrils flared when he confirmed that this was his friend's. Grundy took a much deeper breath and scowled. "Took worse on a Friday."

Grundy noticed the other scent in the air as well. It was a much more disgusting scent, it was almost an extremely rank and slimy scent. Grundy stepped back from the wall and analyzed the area rather carefully.

He spotted the blood trail leading away from the wall.

Grundy figured the blood trail belonged to his friend almost instantly. He followed the trail the short way to its destination. That destination turned out to be a nearby man hole. Grundy's brow furrowed when he realized that his friend had been dragged into the sewer system before.

Grundy also realized that there was no way he was going to be able to get down there the same way. He turned to look around the area. Grundy didn't notice anything bigger to fit someone of his stature that could get him down.

Grundy reached into his suit jacket and pulled out a very large, very wicked looking hunting knife. One could more accurately call it a machete thanks to the size of it.

The weapon was in hand and he ran it across the hand in a way that the blade is nice and wet looking with his blood. Grundy turned towards the darkest part of the alleyway and muttered an incantation underneath his breath.

Seconds later, the blade covered in Grundy's blood literally cut a hole through reality. Grundy peered into a hole. To an outside observer, that look into reality might be extremely terrifying. There were rather shadowy and skeletal arms attempting to reach out towards him. These arms were accompanied by horrific screaming.

Grundy shook his head and muttered to himself extremely softly. "Died on a Saturday."

He walked forward and stepped into the red vortex. The arms reached out and grabbed a hold of him.

Things went increasingly dark for a moment. There was a long pause.

Grundy stepped from the portal into the sewer system below. It wasn't done easily. Those arms held him back and Grundy ripped free completely.

They were trying to drag him back into the portal. Now they had him, they were being extremely clingy and they were not going to let go without any kind of fight. Grundy groaned when he ripped free completely.

Grundy staggered forward. He looked forward as the portal sealed up behind him. It was not the most ideal way to travel, but at the same time, it got the job done in a snap just like that.

He shook his head to clear the cobwebs. That travel method disoriented him greatly and he needed to pick up the trail soon if he didn't want to lose it.

Grundy strode over towards the nearby ladder which lead into the sewers from the manhood. He quickly picked up the trail of his friend thanks to the copious amount of blood on the ground. He did pick up the trail.

The great white swamp zombie, now that he was onto something, ambled off after Joe in an attempt to pick up his trail while it was still fresh.

* * *

Batman was shaking off the encounter he had with one Solomon Grundy. He couldn't believe it, even though Harry gave him a full report of his past encounter that he had with the great zombie last year. It was one of those things where you couldn't believe what happened unless you happened to be the one to see it with your own eyes. Despite the fact Batman saw it with his own eyes, he still struggled to wrap his head around everything he saw.

Batman took a deep breath when he recovered. He heard a conversation between one of Black Mask's men and one of his top ranking members.

"Sir, the tracer that you placed on the hoodlums is in motion," Alfred informed him.

The rather obvious fact was that Batman thought that he should have pursued Grundy. There was no telling what the swamp zombie might get up to when left underneath his own devices.

That being said, if an operation was important enough for Black Mask to dedicate a lot of resources and men, it was something that was extremely important for him to look into as well.

Despite the fact he was feeling a bit dazed mentally and like he went toe to toe with a tractor trailer, and lost physically, Batman was back on the hunt. He used the relay device in his cowl to follow the movements of the thug he tagged earlier. He was not particularly surprised that the thug was moving away from a warehouse instead of the Industrial District. He was rather surprised they don't seem to be moving particularly far.

The vehicle stopped outside a completely different warehouse.

Batman followed the beeping signal. It was a short distance where he reached the location the tracker has indicated.

He perched himself on a nearby chimney and utilized the image enhancement software in his hoods to carefully scan his surroundings. What he noticed from his surroundings was not the ideal situation.

There were a fair number of Black Mask's gang members mulling around. They were gathered in small groups of about four to six men and they stood around several vehicles. Generally, the vehicles were older style cars which allowed more than one person to sit inside them comfortably. There were a few of the newer SUV models around as well vans.

Most of the goons were casually talking to each other. Batman waited long enough and noticed a distinct pattern. One of them would walk over to speak with an older looking, but still quite fit gentleman who wore black cargo pants, a black turtle neck, black boots, and a black leather jacket which came down past his knees. He had a silver mullet and a pair of orange tinted glasses. It was obvious by the look of him that he was pretty high up on Black Mask's change of command.

Batman used the equipment in his cowl to pick up some information. He was able to make out various snippets of the conversations going on around him. It wasn't enough to make out a distinct picture. There was a lot of chatter, much of it was overlapping each other and there was some kind of electrical interference that blocked out it.

With the hardware Black Mask's men were packing, it was quite likely that that something that was being used was some sort of scrambler. While he could get closer in order to see and hear better, there was one problem.

Batman spotted several guards armed with high powered rifles roaming around the rooftops on this location. They utilized night vision headsets to make sure there was no trouble coming their way.

There was far more risk than a benefit for Batman going around and taking a closer look. He realized that and stayed put from where he was. At least for now, until Batman had a chance to make his move.

Batman strained his ears in an attempt to listen in closely to the conversation at hand.

"Make sure everyone knows that there's something big going on tonight," the leader told one of the men. "Black Mask wants everything to go off without a hitch. It's time for us to…."

Batman once again could not hear much more other than that. There was a scrambling sound that came through his head set. He raised his hand and thought about adjusting it. He looked at the sheer number of men and it should be obvious by the first look that this was a pretty big operation. They were all loaded for bear.

The Caped Crusader adjusted his headset. "Oracle?"

"Yes," a distorted voice came over the headset. It was always distorted as such. That way no one, not even Batman, that it wasn't who was normally Oracle over the communication. "What's the situation?"

"Black Mask and his men are moving around, and they're going to try something, they might continue their war against the homeless population of Gotham City," Batman continued. "I'm going to need back up."

Oracle gave an extremely long paused when she considered that. "That might not be all that possible at this point in time. Two of the team members are currently unavailable since they aren't even in Gotham at the moment."

"Yes, I'm aware of that," Batman told her. "What about Huntress or Talon?"

"They're currently in the sewer system underneath Old Gotham trying to track Killer Croc," Oracle said. "And they're deep enough underground where I can't track them at this point in time."

Batman scowled in response and he gave a gravely. "I understand."

"Good, because it's out of my hands," Oracle replied. Despite the fact her voice was distorted, one could almost pick up the dryness in it.

"Okay, let's roll out boys!" the leader of the gang said.

Batman figured that he would need the firepower if he had any hope of holding his own with this gang of hoodlums. Remotely, he activated the Batmobile and summoned it to his location. With that little thing out of the way, he could go after Black Mask without too many problems whatsoever.

* * *

Waylon Jones ambled through the Gotham City sewer system. He was intent of making a meal out of his latest prey. For Gotham trash, he had enough meat on his bones to excite the beast.

Joe the Homeless man was dragged, unconscious, by his ankle. If he knew what Croc had in store for him, he would be glad that he was unconscious. The sewer was rather quiet, unless one counted the constant sound of running water around them all. Of course, when one factored in Croc's deep animalistic breathing and a ragged sound of breathing from Joe, one could obviously see that there were other concerns down in the sewers as well.

He was badly injured when he was driven into the wall hard. It was pretty clear from anyone who took a close look at him that his head was bleeding. The gash left a trail of blood behind him. He was in pretty bad shape and it looked like he was not going to make it.

Being in Croc's tender loving care, the real question was whether he'll die from his injuries before they reach their destination, or would it be because Croc finished him off.

After the trip they had, Croc reached a junction point in the tunnels that lead off in different directions. He paused for an extremely long moment and took a deep sniff off in the air. He ran his tongue over his lips.

One almost amused that he was wetting his lips, but in reality, he was using them to taste anything in the air that his nose might have missed over. He stopped when he looked around.

Croc was put a bit off when he smells and tasted something rotten. And it wasn't homeless person rotten either. They always smelled and tasted a little bit like rotten meat, so it was a smell that he was used to. It might have been an acquired taste to eat them, but Croc was used to that one as well.

This was something that was different. It was something that had been dead for an extremely long time.

Croc shook his head. "Someone must have dumped a body in the sewer systems or something."

It wasn't uncommon for the mob to dispose of evidence in his sewers. Croc pretty much left them to it, because it allowed him to get some spoiled meat. The vast sewers of Gotham City were an ideal place to disappear someone and make sure they were never found again.

He paused suddenly and he caught a scent of something else entirely. It was something fresher, but it was far away. Far enough where it wasn't a concern right away and he could avoid it in needed.

With that out of the way, Croc dug his thump into the corner of the wall where two of the junction points came from. He etched a something into it.

He reached down and grabbed his kill by the ankle and dragged him further down into the tunnel. There was no wasted movement. He dragged the man behind him by the ankle almost as if this was a common event and for Croc it really was pretty common.

He reached a large metal door that looked like it had been locked shut at one more. The lock has since been broken. Pushing it open, he stepped inside the room.

The room barely had any lighting and what was, it was sinister, like almost like out of a horror show. There were crude red light bulbs illuminating only small parts of the room. Croc didn't even pay attention to the very human bones that he stepped on. They crunched underneath his feet, becoming music to his ears.

There were enough bones in this room of various shapes and sizes to account for ten different missing person reports.

Croc allowed the unconscious man go and stepped over towards the table that is pushed up against the wall. On the table, placed neatly, was a row of ten skulls sitting on the table. The skulls had been stripped completely bare and there was room for even more to be added to the pile.

He removed an extremely large hunting knife from the sheath on his hip. He ran his thumb down along the edge of it. Jones grimaced when he realized that the knife has gotten pretty dull. That was something that he would have to fix soon.

He sat himself down on a chair that was in front of the table. He picked up a whetstone and started to sharpen the knife. He concluded this process only when the knife was sharpened to a razor edge quality.

While Croc was doing this, Joe, who had been unconscious up until this point, started to stir himself awake. This was due to the persistent dropping of water which keeps falling on his face. To be more precise, some of it fell into his eye and some rolled out onto his mouth.

He jerked awake with a strangled, albeit wake gasp due to his physical condition. Joe, rattled as the man was, was able to roll over onto his stomach. Several quiet rasping coughs released the water from his lungs.

When his lungs were cleared, his head was cleared. His heart nearly jumped halfway up. The man had been knocked out and woke up out of something straight out of one of the worst horror shows one could imagine.

Joe held back the gasp that he was about to make. He realized that he was in the presence of what appeared to be a walking nightmare. This was the thing that these horrific nightmares were made of. His heart kept hammering against his chest at a rapid fire rate.

He just barely had the presence of mind not to alert Croc of the fact that he was awake. He bit down on his lip in abject terror.

The homeless man's fight or flight response flew in the direction of flight. He scrambled his way towards the door in an attempt to escape.

He didn't quite make it, a large hand gripped him around the ankle. It seemed like Croc was paying more attention to him then Joe believed in the first place.

The adrenaline flowing through Joe's body allowed him to put up more of a struggle than one would expect. He gripped onto the door frame quietly.

Croc let go for a few seconds and nailed Joe with a huge punch where his neck met the base of his spine.

There was a loud sounding crack that resounded. This was followed by a prominent scream of agony from Joe, which was followed by the nerves on his arms feeling like they had been set on fire before he went completely numb.

Joe's grip on the door was loosened by what was essentially a broken spine. As a result of that particular attack, he wasn't able to fight any more.

Croc reached down, as if this was inevitable and dragged the homeless man back into the room by the hair.

Joe's limp body was rolled over and Croc crouched over the top of him. He spoke in his low voice. "I like it how you tried to fight back against me. It makes me feel good, it makes me feel really excited. You see, the meat tastes better when it has a little bit more of a fight in it. It gives it some more flavor….most of the time. Sometimes when the meat fights back, it gives you more trouble than it's really worth."

It was at this point where Croc brought the point of the hunting knife at the edge of Joe's eye. If he brought it any closer, he would have ended up popping out the man's eyeball. He raked the knife down his cheek and neck until he reached the collar of Joe's jacket, along with his shirt. He gripped ahold of both of them tightly.

Croc used the knife to cut the clothes right off of Joe's body. In the process of making this cut, he gave him a pretty good cut off on the right on the center of his torso. The monster was delighted by the sheer terror that he sensed from the homeless man.

He leaned forward, giving the man a wicked grin. He licked his lips quite sinisterly when he leaned in. The kill was getting nearer. He could feel it in his bones and he grew with excitement. He gave him a hiss of pleasure.

The second where it looked like it would be curtains for Joe, a loud roar of outrage could be heard. This was followed seconds later by something nailing Croc so hard that he was sent flying across the room so hard.

He nailed the far wall so fast and so hard that he actually became embedded in it. He struggled in his attempt to pull himself to his feet.

Croc tried to gather his thoughts. He could hear a rather loud grow when the freight train of a swamp zombie approached him. "DIED ON A SATURDAY!"

The swamp zombie slammed into Croc with the force of a runaway train. Both of the made the already sizeable hole in the wall even larger, and business was about to pick up as the slobberknocker between these two fighters were about to take place.

* * *

Talon and Huntress continued their hunt in the sewer system in Old Gotham. Or to be more accurately, the two crime fighters had exited the sewer system and made their way through the tunnel system.

' _Okay, it's official, we lost radio contact, but good thing we have bond contact,'_ Emily thought. _'Diana, do you think that you could use your Alpha privilege thingy to tighten it up between three of us.'_

Emily, now sitting in the Oracle chair now that Barbara was in New York, tried to guide them the best that they could. There was a sense of unease and a sense that there was some kind of calm before a really awful storm.

Jaime used the scanning software in her mask to get a better look of where they were. She was extremely curious where they were. She added a spell or two in to get a better detail as well.

' _You know, we should really investigate these tunnels later, if we ever have any free time,'_ Jaime suggested.

' _We better have a lot of free time,'_ Diana thought. _'When I said that a lot of Old Gotham was built over the top of Wonder City, I wasn't kidding. As far as I can tell, a fair bit of the sewer system was created as a result of some of those tunnels being re-purposed to serve as such.'_

Jaime nodded, taking that all in. She investigated the tunnels much higher, using a combination of much higher tech along with magical methods. Diana on the other hand decided to use a more old school method to track down her prey.

Every so often, she stopped at one of the walls when they reached a junction point. She examined the wall carefully. It was the same story many times. There was something akin to a gash being curved into it.

' _It seems to me that this is how Croc is keeping himself from getting lost down in these tunnels,'_ Diana offered Jaime.

Jaime frowned. _'That makes perfect sense, it is a really insane labyrinth of tunnels down here. It makes sense that he would want to keep track of where he was been previously.'_

The two of them stepped down another tunnel and they came a water slicked stair well. It went in two directions, downwards and upwards. They looked at the stairwell and considered one extremely interesting fact.

It seems to have quite literally fallen apart at some point in the past.

' _I think that the right direction for us to go is upwards,'_ Diana informed her. Jaime raised her eyebrow and nodded wordlessly responded with a nod. There was enough of an unease in her to go with this, even though it seemed extremely insane.

They followed the staircase upwards. The moment the two of them reached the top of it, they were able to exit out back out into the tunnel system proper.

They took a moment to adjust to their surroundings. The air hitting them when they entered the tunnel wasn't exactly the cleanest or the freshest in the entire world. But, it was hard to argue that the air in the sewer system was all that better.

The two of them took a brief rest, which gave Diana an excuse to closely examine the wall. She looked for another mark on it.

' _Found it?'_ Jaime asked her.

' _Found it,'_ Diana confirmed.

The two of them made their way down the edge of another tunnel. They stopped instantly at the sound of a loud rumble. The rumble sounded like thunder and stopped both of them in their tracks.

This sound caused the tunnel to shake briefly. This also caused Huntress and Talon to lock eyes with each other in surprise.

Seconds later, something plowed through the wall beside Diana. This caused her and Jaime to go sprawling as a result.

Fortunately for Jaime, she was rather to get clear of whatever it was because she was slightly further back. Unfortunately for Diana, she was pretty much caught into it.

Jaime watched in absolute horror when she could see Diana crash into the water in the middle of a tunnel as a result. Her heart started to race quicker.

Jaime waited nervously. She wanted to look at what the hell just crashed through the wall. However, she wanted to make sure that Diana was okay.

She stepped forward and was about ready to dive in to see if she had been trapped underneath something. Super powers or not, that wouldn't be a good thing for her.

Fortunately for Jaime, she didn't have to worry about that. Diana popped her way from underneath the water a long and extremely tense moment later.

It was extremely lucky for her that the cannel wasn't deep enough. She could stand, but the water came up to her waist.

Seconds later, she was followed by the two people who were responsible for taking an unauthorized swim in the first place. Killer Croc rose from the water, looking rather beaten up thanks to Grundy. And Solomon Grundy rose, looking pretty clawed up.

Jaime's eyes widened in abject shock at the sight of these two men, needless to say, this was among the last two men that she expected to see. Her horror was more reserved from Grundy, given what he did to Harry the last time that they encountered.

Diana, on the other hand, is rather angry that she got sent at the water at first. She noticed the two people responsible. She let out an extremely prominent. "Great Hera!"

She also wished she didn't taunt the wrath of Murphy earlier in the evening. She collected her thoughts and realized she had to get over her shock pretty quickly if she wanted to survive down here.

Croc and Grundy picked up where they left off, rumbling with each other. And more to Diana's dismay, she was caught in the middle of this entire mess. She fired back with punches and kicks, essentially caught in the fight of her life.

Diana dropped down low in order to avoid being pounced on by a charging Croc. Diana hammered him in the midsection with a rapid fire punch. This shot ends up sending him flying into the ceiling.

She followed that up swiftly with a snap kick at Grundy. He didn't even register it. Another kick was blocked and he grabbed her ankle by his big meaty hand. He hosited her up by the ankle and throws her into the nearest wall.

Croc had just sunk beneath the water. An annoyed Grundy looked down at him, angry that his adversary slipped away into the night like this.

Jaime, on the other hand, scrambled over to help a dazed Diana. "Are you…."

Diana waved it off and she pulled herself up. Growling underneath her breath, Diana lifted up a large chunk of the wall. She hurled it towards Grundy's head with full strength and knocked him for a loop, sending him flying over the edge.

Croc slowly resurfaced from where he was underneath the water. He rose up from underneath the water like his namesake, giving an extremely primal roar, snapping his jaws. He tried to grab Diana by the calf.

Fortunately for her, she had the presence of mind by booting him hard in the face with her other foot. Unfortunately, for Diana, he seemed to be very attached to her leg. No matter what she did, he would hang on.

She was yanked backwards into the water.

Jaime was left face to face with Solomon Grundy. Her breath hit out of her body raggedly. She was never honestly scared when she went up against Riddle. Well she wasn't as scared as she was against Grundy. He was something that was absolutely horrific.

Grundy charged her like a mad bull. Jaime propelled herself out of the way of her attacks.

She kept some distance between the two of them by making excellent usage of some of her more lethal ranged attacks. Jaime highlighted her attack patterns by drilling Grundy with a throwing knife to the face, enhancing it with magic.

The explosive throwing knives she sent at Grundy packed a punch. Unfortunately, his skin seemed to be pretty damage resistance. For every three knives she threw, only one of them did the slightest bit of damage with any real depth. And she wasn't sure if that did damage as much as really piss the guy off. Jaime shook her head, she was in for it now.

Diana, on the other hand, is still snagged by Croc. He held onto her calf still and switched, so both of his arms wrapped around her legs. They were currently in the process of spinning underneath the water.

The Amazon Princess might have been pretty durable given many circumstances, but there was just one problem, she needed to breathe. And she had been underneath the water for a very long time. Her lungs were burning in her chest.

Diana knew that she had to act fast. She summoned her sword to her and she brought it down into Croc's arm with a fairly savage cut.

It did the job of nearly tearing Croc's arm right off his bone. Luckily for the beast, his thick scales and rather durable bones prevented Diana from making a complete cut. He was forced to release her with an extremely prominent howl though.

Diana took advantage of the fact that she had been released by throwing herself out of the water and letting out a series of rapid fire and ragged breaths in an attempt to calm herself down.

She took notice of a feral Grundy advancing on a desperate Jaime. She scrambled over, locked her arms around Grundy's waist, and took him to a one way trip all the way to Suplex City. She dumped him on the back of his head with an awkward German Suplex. She couldn't' get the grip that she wanted, but it did the job right.

An enraged, due to pain, Croc rose out from the water. He advanced towards Diana, ready to take her out.

Jaime responded by hurling a rapid fire series of micro grenades at Croc's face. Each grenade isn't enough to do a ton of damage, but several going off at once packed their punch.

Croc stopped and Jaime challenged all of the power through the gauntlet on her suit. A stunner on its own wouldn't do much good, but an enhanced stunner combined with a stun blast would do a good enough trick on Croc.

She nailed him with everything she got. Jaime staggered forward, dropping to her knees quite breathlessly. The wind had been knocked from her body because of that.

As for Croc, he was down to the ground and counting sheep in his own ugly way.

The fight between Grundy and Diana switched into a rapid fire slug fest. The pair of them regressed to hitting each other hard enough to do some damage to the surrounding area, more so than they were to each other.

It was at this point that Emily popped back onto the bond, and reestablished radio contact as well. _'Can you hear me now?'_

She repeated that statement both over the radio and the bond.

"Project a map of the sewer system, and then hack into the sewer control system," Jaime said. She could barely catch her breath. "And flood the tunnel by diverting the flow through here."

"But that idea's insane!" Emily piped up.

"Diana's fighting Grundy, and while she's holding her own, he's not going to go down easily," Jaime answered. "An insane idea is pretty much continuing to fight him without doing anything…so please do it."

Emily gulped in response and did precisely what her sister asked her to do.

Jaime, in the meantime, received a map, and noticed a room nearby. She grabbed firm hold of Croc and teleported the two of them over to Diana. Jaime followed that up by grabbing ahold of Diana and teleporting them over to the room that she noticed on the other map.

Grundy, on the other hand, looked up just in time to get caught up in a raging torrent of water. He struggles against the waves at first, but eventually, it ends up proving to be a bit too much for him. He raised his arms with a roar of protest and he gets swept violently and efficiently down the tunnel.

That was the end of Solomon Grundy.

* * *

A group of Black Mask's men were crowded around and Batman was getting himself in position. He knew that he was going to have to go it alone after he found out that both Huntress and Talon would be unable to provide backup because they were busy tangling with Killer Croc in the sewer systems underneath Old Gotham.

Batman remotely summoned the Batmobile to his location because he was pretty certain he was going to need the firepower it would offer. The arms Black Mask's men had on them proved that much.

He was presently gliding through the air on an interception path with the vehicle. The moment it passed underneath him, he did a controlled dive downwards.

With expert precision, Batman rammed himself inside the cockpit as it passed underneath it. The moment that he was safely inside the vehicle, Batman took manual control of the vehicle and put on an interception course towards Black Mask's men.

Parker, the current defector leader of the Homeless that lives underneath the Pioneer Bridge, was pacing back and forth. After the argument he had with Joe and sending their large friend off after him, he ran into a baker who was sympathetic for their plight because he was once a homeless man himself. He filled up a garbage bag full of day old baked goods and moved them across the homeless.

He was also in the process of tracking down all of the under eighteens and women to the homeless shelters that are being run by the Potter-Vreeland shelters. Mostly it was younger children and women, because there was really no arguing with some of the teenagers and their stubborn sense of pride. Regardless, they looked to be much safer places since both the charities were pretty good at looking after women and children.

Not to mention the Shining Light Foundation helped them get back on their feet, if at all possible.

It was at this moment though that Parker was concerned. Joe and Tiny hadn't gone yet, and it wasn't like Joe to be gone this long without saying something. They've argued before, but the younger man wasn't the type to stay angry for too long. He normally kept walking back in about an hour or so later.

The other problem was the fact that Tiny didn't return yet. That was a point that worried Joe a little bit as well. They're pretty distracted.

He turned to one of the homeless, who resembled a burned out Hippy type. He did a bit too much acid in the Seventies and ended up as a crazed conspiracy theorist. He said his conspiracy theories to pretty much anyone that would listen to him, even though there were a lot of people that really weren't listening to him too closely.

"That Harry Potter, I see his game," the man commented. "He's a dragon…a dragon from another dimension…..and that's the reason why he's opening up women shelters so he can steal all of the women in this world from us, man. That's the reason why he survived being kicked out of the building by Maxie Zeus, he turned into his real form, and flew away."

Parker listened to him with all of the patience of a saint. He was mercifully interrupted by the sound of several vehicles. The vehicles pulled up at the edge of the encampment.

Without any warning, a group of Black Mask's men exited the vehicles and began to fire on anything that moved without any discrimination whatsoever. Several of the homeless people got mowed down within the first several minutes as a result.

Before it could get too far though, several tear gas canisters and flash bangs crashed onto the ground, and they nailed Black Mask's men full on. This did a good job in disabling many of them and some of them were severely hampered as a result of the choking smoke in the air.

A moment later, there were several cracks like thunder. The men landed down onto the ground as a result of rubber bullets being fired from the Batmobile's main gun.

The silver haired leader of the gang looked at the remaining members of the Gang. "Open fire on the Batmobile!"

"Sure thing, Number One," one of the goon said, eager to please. Number One didn't even have to say please.

The goons took aim to it. Number One made his way to the trunk of the car and pulls out a missile launcher. He waited until the system informed him that he had a lock on it before he locked, loaded, and was ready to fire.

"Focus all of your fire on the Batmobile!" Number One ordered them.

The missile slammed into the Batmobile and it caused the vehicle to explode.

Thankfully for Batman, he was able to leap free of it before the missile slammed home thanks to the ejector seat. Batman was air born and flipped down, sending the Batmobile's chair flying right into the head of one of the goons.

He aimed himself downwards and slammed down onto them hard. Batman took them down hard, taking advantage of the height that he had.

A rather fierce fight was about ready to take place. Black Mask's thugs surrounded Batman. Batman just managed to fight them off.

He would normally slip into the shadows, but the problem was that they were equipped with the finest in night vision goggles to allow them to see where he was hiding.

There was a bang of smoke and Batman looked up. Apparently, someone had been keeping an eye on him. Katana darted out of the shadows and disabled a group of Black Mask's men with her weapon of choice. She did so with expert ability and quite fluidly in fact.

Batman wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, although he didn't expect Katana to be there. He took advantage of the momentary distraction to take out the gaggle of Black Mask's men that could see him through their enhanced vision.

The sirens stared to blare, so various members of Black Mask's gang scrambled out of there. Batman took out one final thug and decided that it was best if he did the same as well, slipping off into the night.

Not before he activated a system in what was left of the Batmobile that would finish the job that was started.

Despite the direct intervention of Batman, the homeless living under Pioneer bridge in Gotham City was left absolutely devastated.

* * *

In the infirmary of the Ravencroft hospital, Ashley Kafka is currently occupying a bad. It was not a pretty sight since the woman was thrashing bout as a result of the nightmares she was experiencing.

Under many normal circumstances, this woman would be heavily sedated. This wasn't an option here since it could quite easily kill her if the sedative has a negative reaction with the fear toxin. As a result, she was strapped to the bed. She was still thrashing around constantly, but it wasn't as bad as it could be.

Doctor Kafka had been like this for a while no so her nurses are carefully monitoring her vital signs pretty much every half hour on the hour.

Elsewhere in the room, there was a younger man who looked to be about Reilly and Gwen's age laying catatonic on the bed across from Doctor Kafka. He doesn't seem to be moving and its hard to tell whether or not he was conscious at times. Presently, his eyes averted upwards and stared at the ceiling. There were no signs of life. He was rail thin at the moment, even though there was hints of a handsome young man. However, his face was gaunt, thin, and not really full of life at all.

Harold Osborn was in the bed, not moving, not responding to anything.

The secured door leading to the infirmary swung open and an older looking gentleman with distinguished features made his way into the room. He was followed by Harry Potter and the two gentlemen were deep in conversation. Gwen Stacy, Pamela Isley, and Theresa Reilly Parker were in order.

"The cure should work on Doctor Kafka," Harry said, after he answered the man's questions.

"My only concern is what effects will the cure have on her?" the man asked. Doctor Daniel Ravencroft was concerned and for good reasons.

Harry launched into an explanation to hopefully alleviate some of the man's concerns. "Due to the nature of the chemicals Crane used to develop this version of the Fear Toxin, we had to develop at we had to develop a two part cure."

Pamela picked up where Harry left off; it was almost like she finished his thoughts. "The first part of the cure is being an injection that will neutralize the chemicals that are currently present in her system."

"And the second part will be an injection that will burn out the remainder of the chemicals in her system," Harry continued. "Her body is going to become extremely cold before becoming very hot."

"The first part will prevent her from going into toxic shock, and keep her liver, kidneys, and heart from failing," Pamela said. She raised her fingers and pinched the bridge of her nose. "It most certainly won't be the most pleasant of experiences for Doctor Kafka, but anything is better than what she's suffering through right about now."

Ravencroft nodded. "Did you test it?"

Gwen was the one that answered for them. "Yes, we exposed it to one of Doctor Kafka's blood samples, and then isolated the fear toxin from another sample of her blood. We injected it into a rant and exposed the same rat to the cure."

"We also ran several extremely advanced simulations on the RAO priority network, and they all checked out nicely," Reilly concluded.

It was at this point where Harold Osborn ended up blinking at the sound of the voices of the two girls. His fingers ended up twitching as well, but it went ignored for now.

"Yes, in all cases the results checked out," Pamela said. "The cure works and should neutralize this version of the fear toxin."

She offered Doctor Ravencroft a small file that contained the print out of the findings. He slipped on a pair of reading glasses and the good Doctor looked over things carefully. His questions pretty much was answered.

"Everything appears to be in order," Doctor Ravencroft said. "I would like to be the one to inject here, because she's currently under my care."

"I should assist you, because she won't have the best reaction until she is stabilized," Harry said.

The two men moved over to inject Ashley with the cure for the fear toxin. Reilly's attention was diverted to a young man on the bed and her mouth flung open in a classic response. She dropped the file that she was holding in response. It took Reilly a couple of moments to shake her head and to clear the cobwebs.

Gwen smirked at her girlfriend's clumsiness and bent down to scoop up the files. She lifted up and saw what Reilly saw. Gwen allowed a gasp to leave her mouth, but thankfully the files didn't make a repeat visit in the floor.

Pamela noticed the reactions of both of the girls. She leaned forward towards them. "What's wrong?"

Gwen was a bit more composed than Reilly was, so she proceeded to explain. "The person in that bed over there is a really good friend of ours, or at least he was a good friend until they had a falling out. We hadn't seen him in a while, at least until tonight. We thought that he gone missing until we found out what happened to him from Jameson's monologue."

Pamela nodded somberly; it was really fucked up to see someone like this. Gwen wrapped a distraught Reilly up in a hug. It was easy to notice that the young man in question was reacting to the sounds of the young girl's voices, but it was nothing overt. It could very well be wishful thinking or a trick of the light in face.

The red haired female gently lifted up Harold's chart. From across the room, Harry and Doctor Ravencroft administered the first part of the core. Harry was in the process of monitoring her temperature and pulse rate.

"When she's stable there, we should be able to inject the next part of the cure," Harry explained to Doctor Ravencroft, who nodded in confirmation.

It became obvious a few seconds later that everything was slowly taking hold. It was slowing down for her and it reached the point that they could administer the cure. Doctor Ravencroft looked towards Harry, who nodded in response.

The first part of the cure took around five minutes to take hold. The second part of the cure seems to take effect almost immediately.

For Doctor Kafka, it felt like molten lava had been injected straight into her veins. Her body started to thrash up and down and she screamed, thrashing around violently for a long moment. Her body finally settled down, although she was starting to sweat extremely hard.

Her sweating was so intense that it soaked the short night gown that she wore and made it transparent. Doctor Ravencroft turned to the nurse. "Take it off and wipe her down."

"Pamela, take over for me," Harry said. He decided to depart in order to protect her modesty.

Pamela nodded and she moved over to stand next to Gwen and Reilly. She stole a quick kiss from her husband and handed him the chart that she picked up.

Harry was surprised with what he ran into, since he was more focused with what was going on with Doctor Kafka. He looked over the chart and his eyebrow corked in surprise at just heavily medicated Harold appeared to be.

He looked over it and saw that it was more than double what should be safe.

Doctor Kafka looked in the clear and is being monitored by the nurse and Pamela. Doctor Ravencroft moved towards him.

"Should this dosage of medication be this high, Doctor?" Harry asked. The doctor raised his eyebrow in surprise. "It's for Harold Osborn."

Ravencroft was taken off guard by this sudden question directed at him by Harry and he took ahold of the chart. He frowned when he looked it over. "No, it shouldn't."

His look flashed to complete anger. "In fact, I didn't prescribe a dosage this high…and I prescribed a much lighter one and that of a different drug."

He was beginning to think that something was rotten in the state of Ravencroft.

"I need to go to check on something," Ravencroft muttered underneath his breath. He was fuming.

Harry nodded in understanding when the doctor made a quick and efficient exit.

He moved his way over to stand next to Gwen and Reilly and he wrapped his arms firmly around the pair of them, once he saw how distraught they were. He pulled them into a hug and caused both of the girls to snuggle into them.

He didn't see Harold Osborn noticing the actions and narrowing his eyes.

* * *

James Gordon was currently pulling a night shift at Gotham Central. To be more precise, he was currently sitting behind his desk, reviewing a couple of open files containing paperwork. There was a nice stack of paperwork sitting off to the side, but it was pretty organized. There was even more paperwork in the out box then there is the in box.

His current focus was information regarding the recent set of murders. In this particular instance, it's an autopsy report regarding a body that was found in a blood soaked canvas sack that was dropped next to a dumpster. The report was pretty gruesome, despite the fact it stuck right to the point.

He read how the perpetrator ended up taking several bites out of the victims and stripped his skin completely off the bones.

A disgusted look crossed over Gordon's face. He needed to come out of the office to grab a smoke and have a cup of coffee before he even though about going further. He stepped to his feet and slipped over to the side of the office, while slipping his jacket.

The phone rang and caused Gordon to stand up. "Oh…that's just some perfect timing."

Gordon walked over and picked up the phone. He answered it with a strangled. "Hello."

There was a long paused. Gordon wasn't in the mood for a prank and if this was one, it certainly wasn't really funny, especially with what's been going.

"If you're looking for the person responsible killing the homeless, then you should look in the deepest darkest cell of your own lock up." a distorted voice commented.

"Who the hell is this?" Gordon asked. There was a click and he knew that he wasn't getting any answers at all.

Gordon thought that he should have been used to shit like this because he was working the night shift and this was Gotham City.

He stormed out of his desk, hearing the tail end of the argument between Renee Montoya and Harvey Bullock.

"And that's how you make a good chili-dog, but you wouldn't know that, because you're Mexican."

"You know what, fuck off Bullock."

Gordon cleared his throat at the edge of the office. "Knock it off….I need the two of you to come with me."

Bullock stood up. "What for, Jim?"

"We'll find out in a moment," Gordon said, shaking his head. He lead the two of them down the stairwell to a lock up. "I had a phone call saying that whoever was killing the homeless is down in the deepest darkest cell in lockup."

"And you're going to believe some random crackpot, aren't you?" Bullock asked in his usual charming manner. He shrugged. "I've heard of weird shit."

Gordon reached the lock up and he paused.

"I need access," Gordon said to the guard. "There's something down there."

Gordon was let in by the guard and he drew is side arm. Bullock and Montoya were also pretty armed.

The three cops edged their way to the very last cell. It seemed like something out of a very unsettling horror movie. The trio of cops looked around.

Needless to say they were shaken off guard when they found Waylon "Killer Croc" Jones there with his arms wrapped in heavy duty looking chains.

Harvey, being Harvey, expressed what they were all thinking. "Well…shit!"

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 30** **th** **, 2015.**


	98. What Lays Beneath Part Eight

**Chapter Ninety-Eight: What Lays Beneath Part Eight.**

* * *

 

Gotham General Hospital had an extremely sterile feel. The emergency room was rather bright and the furniture in the area of that hospital was more of the older end of the spectrum. On the other hand, the medical equipment that was visible most certainly was not on the older end of the spectrum. It had a fairly modern feel to it. That was mostly due to a recent charitable donation from the Wayne Foundation that got them the top of the line equipment.

The weather outside was the usual insanity that was a trademark of Gotham City. It was pissing rain down outside and large whips of wind crashed against the outside. The doctors and nurses in Gotham General hospital were very glad to be inside, because it seemed to have all of the hallmarks of a fairly quiet night.

One of the doctors on the shift, a balding doctor in his mid-thirties who was a slight bit overweight turned to a nurse in her late twenties. "So, how about you and I go out for coffee on Saturday night?"

The nurse wrinkled her nose, unable to believe how much this man was shamelessly hitting on her. She turned around, was about ready to man the front desk.

It didn't help that one of the residents, a stick thin and kind of homely looking brunette was alternating between making cow eyes at the Doctor and glaring at the Nurse. It was a rather calm night all things considered, but the calmness was about ready to be disrupted.

The doors leading into the building burst open by a pair of EMTs, who was leading a man on a stretcher into the emergency room area. The doctor stood upright at the sudden intrusion and his coffee was sent flying everywhere. He dropped the burning hot coffee too close to an extremely sensitive place and that caused the nurse to be less than impressed with him.

"Was very lucky to survive that," a voice murmured underneath his breath.

The Resident on the other hand moved over to the EMT. "How is he lucky to be alive?"

"He has cracked ribs, a head injury, several lacerations, and a cervical spine injury," one of the EMTs said. He shook his head, it felt completely awful.

"What's his identity?"

"His name is Joseph Salvatore, and he was found like this near the entrance of the back alley, so we called it in," one of the EMTs said.

The Doctor finally recovered from his shock. He shook his head. "Wheel him to the emergency room."

It was at this point that the phone near the Nurse rang. She picked it up with an able hand. "Yes."

"There has been a shooting earlier this evening and several other ambulances on route as a result of the shooting earlier this evening," the man on the other end of the phone commented.

The Nurse nodded and relayed the information to the Doctor.

The Doctor pinched the bridge of his nose. He relayed what they were all thinking. "This looks like it's going to be a busy morning."

* * *

 

Elsewhere in Gotham City, Harvey Bullock turned up, wrinkling his nose when he entered the Sewer System in Gotham City. He was followed by Crispus Allen, Josie Mac, and Jim Corrigan, who went in tow with him.

"Not a pretty site, gentlemen, lady," one of the sewer maintenance workers who lead them down in the sewer stated. He worked down there and knew parts of the sewer better than he knew his own house.

The information they found pinned to Killer Croc's chest led them down here when they found him the cell at Gotham Central. They had no real option but to investigate due to the mysterious circumstances surrounding Jones appearing out of nowhere.

As a result of that, Bullock grabbed a couple of members of the Major Crime Unit and contacted the people responsible for maintaining the sewer system to guide them to the location listened.

"Can't we do something about the smell?" Bullock asked.

"Well, we are in a sewer," Josie Mac replied dryly.

Allen shook his head and directed his statement towards Bullock. "I don't know how you can tell the difference, and you should be used to the smell."

"Hey, I shower, a couple days a week," Bullock said. He stepped in it now. "Okay, Raphael….let's get this show on the road."

Raphael, the sewer Maintenance worker, was wearing a heavy duty gas mask and looking quite smug about it in the process. "Of course, your majesty, right this way, and watch your step princess."

Bullock stepped into a slimy puddle of sewage. His nose wrinkled in response. He reached over and attempted to light a cigar.

"I wouldn't do that," the worker said when he looked over his shoulder. "Well, unless you want to blow all of us to hell and back."

"So, what's the latest on Black Mask's men?" Josie Mac asked. "What I heard from Sarah earlier, the area where they attacked the homeless looks like something out of a warzone."

Corrigan nodded wordlessly. "A lot of people ended up badly injured on both sides, or ended up dead. There was something like over fifty people are dead."

"Situation could have been far worse if who got involved didn't end up getting himself involved," Allen said. He closed his eyes. "We really aren't sure who got involved."

There were numerous conflicting reports about who was involved and who stopped things. A few of them said that it was the Bat, others claimed until they were blue in the face that it was Nightwing, and the Penguin was also a name that was thrown about. That last name was said because he didn't like Black Mask making too many really close moves to their territory.

Regardless, it was a bit of a mess.

"Well, it's a good thing that the Mayor allowed us to use that abandoned school building until we get things sorted out," Josie Mac said. "It's honestly a shame that Mayor Grange is on her way out since she actually tried to make a difference in Gotham City."

"Well, maybe she'll run again later," Bullock said. He shook his head and inclined it down. "Not sure how happy I am about Hill running, but he's got the big guns in his pocket."

There were a lot of very powerful people who were backing Hill and they were the type of very powerful people who always got what they wanted.

As for the District Attorney, Harvey Dent seemed to be a lock to get elected. There were a lot of people who believed in Harvey Dent, so much so that was pretty much the tag line of his campaign.

Bullock hoped that the pretty boy knew what he was getting to. There were a couple of District Attorneys in recent memories that left their office in a bodybag. And that was if they were lucky. It seemed to be a saner job.

"Are we there yet?" Bullock asked. He sounded like a spoiled brat of a child who had been forced to the back seat of the car on the question.

Raphael the Sewer Worker directed at heart his gaze down the hallway. "I have to warn you, this isn't for the weak of heart. Couple of my buddies went down here, and they never came back."

"Yeah, spare us the lecture and just show us what you got in there," Bullock said. His gaze swiped over the man. "That is, unless you're not hard enough to do so."

"Have it your way," Raphael commented. There was a dry chuckle that came from underneath his breath.

He opened up the door and they walked into something straight into a horror show. Josie and Crispus blanched when they saw what they did.

"That son of a bitch, this is some really sick shit here," Bullock grumbled when his eyes scanned over the area around him. He couldn't believe the shit that he was seeing around him. And he had been in Gotham City for so long that nothing should have fucking bothered him. But this was something that fucking bothered him and turned his stomach.

Pissed him off too a whole lot by the looks of things.

Corrigan reached for his radio after a long pause. He took it out and got it. "Contact dispatch because I'm going to need a full forensics team down here."

One way or another, it was going to something that this entire group was not going to miss for a very long time.

* * *

 

Back at the Ravencroft Institute, Doctor Ashley Kafka rested in her bed. Her system had been finally purged of the Fear Toxin she was exposed to by one Doctor Jonathan Crane. She was fortunate that the crudely made, yet effect toxin did not kill her.

The long term effects were yet to be decided. It was a good thing that she didn't have to rest this one off alone. Harry was currently perched at her bedside, casually reading a book. Pamela was half asleep on his lap.

Gwen and Reilly were asleep in one of the beds close by. Neither of the girls were anywhere used to the sort of hours that Harry was used to walking. Harold Osborn was also present within the room and he occupied the bed.

From all indications, he appeared to be asleep as well. At least that's what one would assume from an initial glance.

One might think that there was no reason for them to stay with Doctor Kafka since she was pretty much in the clear. Harry and the girls wanted to make sure that they stuck around long enough to ensure that there were essentially no circumstances that were unforeseen.

So, they decided to stick around at least until she woke up. It was a good thing that Harry didn't have anywhere where he needed to be straight in the way. Later that day, he had plans to meet up with Anastasia Hardy with a business meeting. From there, he was planning to spend the rest of the day with Barbara.

Right now, in the early hours of the morning, prior to sunrise, Harry honestly didn't have anywhere else better to go. He was calmly in the middle of reading a psychology paper written by the woman in question.

' _And it seems like that I wasn't the only one with an eventful night,'_ Harry projected through the bond.

Jaime jumped up and her mouth hung open. She shook her head fairly wordlessly. _'That's one thing that's for sure.'_

' _Did you find out what happened to Grundy?'_ Harry asked.

' _The last thing we saw of him was that he got swept deeper into the sewers,'_ Diana informed him. She cringed a little bit.

' _Are you okay?'_ Harry asked her. He thought that might seem like a silly question, but the well -being of his wives was never a silly thing.

' _I'm fine….just a little banged up,'_ Diana admitted. She saw Faora direct a rather prominent raised eyebrow to her. Diana amended her latest statement with a lengthy sigh. _'Okay, I'm a lot banged up, but I did go toe to toe with Grundy and Croc.'_

' _That's better,'_ Faora said.

' _I'm just exhausted,'_ Jaime thought. _'A bit sore, but I'm mostly exhausted.'_

' _Well, that's what you get for trying to teleport a thousand pounds in the form of yourself, Diana, and Croc, through fifty feet of solid stone,'_ Faora thought.

' _Never done something quite like that before, granted I've done my fair share of things that would make a person cringe,'_ Jaime said. She pretty much rested.

' _I'm just glad that the two of you were able to manage to get out of there safely,'_ Harry thought.

Jaime sighed. _'Believe me, you're not the only one who was glad….well no more than us anyway.'_

' _You didn't really answer the question of what happened to Grundy though?'_ Harry asked.

' _Well he swept himself into the sewer system,'_ Jaime thought. _'But I guess that he wasn't too bad, all things considered.'_

' _Not too bad, I beg to differ,'_ Harry thought.

' _He seemed to be protecting some of the homeless men and women out there, in his own crude way,'_ Jaime thought.

Harry thought about that. Whether or not it was corrupted magic due to what Blackfire done or some quirk of Grundy in general, he honestly didn't know. He crossed his arms calmly and thought about it, flicking through the paper.

' _At least we're relatively intact,'_ Diana thought. _'I have a pretty strong healing factored, if I take a nap in mud and Jaime is able to take the edge off of it.'_

' _So, we've been good,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yeah, it's pretty good, more than we can say about the old man we ended up finding,'_ Jaime thought. _'It was a good thing that we were able to find in time and see that we got him medical attention. We're not sure if he can survive or not, but we gave him the chance.'_

The conversation was going in an excellent pace, but the door opened up. A very tired Doctor Daniel Ravencroft made his way into the room carrying a large pot of coffee about with several mugs. Harry looked up and greeted the doctor with a nod.

"Would you like a cup of coffee, Doctor Potter?" he asked in a cordial tone of voice.

"Yes, thank you," Harry responded. He was handed a cup of coffee. For a few seconds, Harry sipped on the cup of coffee and looked at Doctor Ravencroft. "Did you find out how upped the dosage for Harold Osborn?"

It was obvious that Doctor Ravencroft was calmly considering that matter. He poured himself a cup of coffee and drank it.

"I honestly don't have all of the answers yet," Ravencroft admitted. "But it looks like one of my employees decided he wasn't making enough money and decided to go into business for himself. Therefore, he accepted several sizeable payments. He sedated Mr. Osborn to the point where he can't function on his own."

He took a sip of coffee calmly. Harry had a few questions going on about and he was not the type of individual that was going to wait for answers.

"Who would do such a thing like that and why?" Harry asked.

The Doctor raised his eyebrow before he gave his own honest assessment of the situation. "It's more than likely due to the fact that Harold Osborn is the sole heir to the Oscorp business empire. With Norman Osborn missing and presumed dead, he stands to be the one that will be able to take control of his company in his father's absence. There can be any number of people who would like nothing better than to see that he will remain indisposed."

Harry figured something like that would have been the case. He checked his watch, careful not to jolt Pamela awake. When he looked at the watch, he noticed the time.

"Pamela, it's time to wake up," Harry whispered in her ear.

Pamela waked up gracefully and turned towards him with a small smile. "Just resting my eyes, really."

She leaned on in close enough to steal a little bit of a kiss from Harry along with a sip of coffee in the process of doing so.

Pamela jumped up to her feet, staggering a little bit. She stretched with a yawn, causing her shirt to ride up her body. It gave her husband a nice little view of her bare back and she bent forward to show him a hint of her ass, with a pair of green panties very lightly poking out from underneath her pants. It was extremely discreet and very visible at the same time.

"Would you like a cup of coffee as well?" Doctor Ravencroft asked her.

"Don't mind if I do," Pamela said. She took a cup of coffee from the good doctor and drank it rather casually.

"Should we wake up Doctor Kafka to go see how she's doing?" Doctor Ravencroft asked.

"That would be ideal, I think," Harry answered. Pamela nodded swiftly off to his side in response.

Harry moved his way over to wake up Gwen and Reilly. He smiled when he said that Reilly was snoring a little bin in response.

"I think that it's time for the two of your to get up," Harry said after clearing his throat.

"Five more minutes," Gwen grumbled in her sleep. That caused Reilly, who jolted up first to nudge her. Gwen popped up. "Fine, fine, I'm up, I'm up."

Harry nodded in response when she pulled herself up. He looked over towards Doctor Kafka who was taking a bit longer to force herself up than expected.

"What is going on here?" she grumbled.

Harry, Gwen, Reilly, and Pamela all exchanged glances with each other. It was going to be difficult to explain something like this, but they managed to do.

It was around the point where a nurse entered the room. She stopped and looked at Doctor Ravencroft. "Sir, the board of directors needs to speak with you, they said that it's urgent."

"Well, I better get on that then," Doctor Ravencroft said. He leaned forward and lightly patted Doctor Kafka on the head. He turned towards Harry and the girls. "I thank you all for your assistance."

The moment that he left the room, Harry leaned towards Doctor Kafka. "What was Crane after? We're kind of a bit uncertain about what he was trying to accomplish?"

"Well, Doctor Crane told me that he was visiting the Institute as a result of hearing about one of our patience and it caught our his interest," Doctor Kafka said. She looked weak and also she looked a fair bit guilty. "Since he's a noted expert in his field and as far as we know, his credentials were still good, we didn't think anything of it."

Ashley closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Apparently, he was after much more than sating his curiosity," Ashley said.

Harry raised his eyebrow and he leaned towards the Doctor. "What was he after? What makes this patient so important?"

"I'm sorry, I legally can't talk about this," she said. She seemed honestly sorry. "It's due to a confidentiality agreement that I signed. Doctor Ravencroft might be the only one that could clear me to talk about it if you're willing to answer it."

Harry sighed. Unfortunately he couldn't wait around much longer since his meeting is in a couple of hours and he needed to freshen up before it. There was no telling how long Doctor Ravencroft would be.

He would have to ask Oracle to hack into the Institute database later if he wanted to find out anything.

* * *

 

A couple of hours later, a showered, shaved, and changed Harry Potter stood outside of the waiting area outside of Anastasia Hardy's office within the Hardy Consolidated office building in New York.

He was current on the phone with Barbara as he was waiting for Mrs. Hardy in regards to the two companies continued to do business with each other. There was a business between the two companies.

It was from when his Grandparents were murdered or at least believed to be murdered. There were a couple of conflicting parts about that fact going around.

Reality almost settled around them and instead of the Death Eaters doing the deed, it was believed that they were done by a jealous business rival as a result of a business deal gone really bad. They wouldn't know for sure, since the bodies were never really found or at least confirmed to be found. There was a John Doe matching his Grandfather's description was fished out of the River Thames three months after they went missing. This happened three months before the attack that killed James Potter and wounded Lily, before she magically atomized the person who did it.

"So I'm going to pick you up at about five tonight," Harry told her.

"What exactly happened last night?" Barbara asked him.

Harry frowned when he looked on, leaning up against the wall. "Gwen and Reilly didn't tell you….."

"Figured that I should hear it from you, although they mentioned a couple of things," Barbara confirmed for him.

Harry explained what was happening to her. He was trying to get her intrigued regarding the information that he was unable to find out.

"So, she couldn't tell you anything?" Barbara asked.

"No, she couldn't tell me anything," Harry confirmed. "It must have been something important if she had to sign a confidentiality agreement."

Barbara's curiosity was in fact, grabbed completely and utterly.

Harry was continuing his conversation with Barbara, while also going over a few business details with her and Rose.

' _Yes, I think that this business deal should be reignited,'_ Lily thought. _'I know that you're the best one to do it though.'_

' _I agree,'_ Harry thought. He was barely able to keep his concentration on the bond link. It was only his great focus and ability to multi-task that he was able to keep his mind on several lines of conversation all at the same time. It was a struggle to keep his head up.

The reason was that there was a pretty heated conversation between two females and it was getting more heated at the moment.

"Happy seventeenth birthday, Babs," Harry said. He smiled knowingly. "I've got to let you go, but dress warmly for tonight because we're going to be outside for a little bit."

"Okay, Harry, talk to you later," Barbara said.

No sooner than a few seconds than Harry got off the phone, the office door swung open and someone was about ready to crash into Harry in the process. She nearly lost her balance, staggering backwards. Harry was able to catch the person in question before she was going to fall over backwards and land on her ass.

This left Harry's bright green eyes to meet Felicia's bright blue eyes. Harry pulled her up to a standing position.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked her.

Felicia waved off his words. "I'm fine…why are you here anyway?"

"I'm here for a meeting with your mother," Harry informed her.

Before this conversation could go much further, there was a sound of someone clearing their throat. Harry turned around and saw the woman in question standing in the background. Harry was still holding Felicia in his arms, Harry untangled himself from her rather gracefully.

The person in question was a rather amused Anastasia Hardy, but her amusement turned to the greatest level of annoyance when it didn't seem like her daughter wanted to let Harry got any time soon.

"Just making sure Harry isn't hurt in anyway," she commented shrewdly. Her hands slowly ran over her body and she looked him over. She frowned when she looked over him. She slowly ran her hands along him.

She was doing it rather thoroughly, the point of being completely absurd.

"Don' you have somewhere to go, Felicia?" Anastasia asked her daughter and Felicia slowly pulled away at her. She turned towards Harry. "I'm Anastasia Hardy."

"Harry Potter," Harry said. He gave her a polite smile and kissed her on the hand.

The woman smiled and she looked at her daughter. "Dare I ask how you and my daughter know each other?"

"We met through Gwen and Reilly," Felicia piped up. That caused the woman to smile fondly. She sighed. "I really need to go, hopefully the two of you need to play nicely with each other."

The younger Hardy woman practically skipped off, her ass swaying for a moment. Harry turned his attention to the older Hardy woman, who led him into her office. They passed a secretary who was busy tidying up a few papers.

"So, would you like a cup of coffee?" Anastasia asked him.

"Thank you," Harry told her.

She did the polite thing and poured it herself. Handing him a cup, Anastasia could feel a brief tingle of electricity coming up her arm.

"I have to say that I'm surprised that I'm meeting you," she said, breaking the silence. "I expected Lily or Rose to be the individual meeting me."

"Lily is busy in London dealing with a couple of things and Rose had a couple of things coming up at once," Harry said. "I had to be in New York to do a couple of interviews and since I stand to take over this side of the Evans family business when I turn twenty one, I thought that I should get comfortable and learn what I'm working with."

Anastasia nods slightly. It was obvious with the look on her face that she wished that her daughter took a more proactive approach with a situation like that.

"Hardy Consolidated owes a lot to the Evans family," the older Hardy woman explained to him. "Your grandparents helped myself and my late husband, Walter, get their start. And as a result of that start, the Evans family has a pretty sizeable interest."

"How sizeable?" Harry asked her.

"Not big enough to have a controlling interest, but sizeable," she confirmed. "The Evans family is also primarily responsible for the shipping of Hardy Consolidated goods across the world. So far, I think you might agree that it has been an extremely beneficial relationship. However, the shipping contracts among several others are coming due. And we need to renegotiate them."

Harry was intrigued with what she was saying.

"Also, we have a couple of projects that I'd like to see that you're interested in, because they are fairly lucrative," Anastasia commented. That caught Harry's attention. He raised his eyebrow and took a long sip of his coffee. "With Norman Osborn missing, and his son presently indisposed, OsCorp is pretty much rudderless. The current board of directors is under the leadership of Donald Menken, and they're trying to steer things forward."

She looked at Harry and there was a look of disapproval in her eyes.

"But it's pretty clear to the investors, that they don't have what it takes to get the job done," she commented. "Menken himself is a gloried yes men and he has no real idea how to run the company. So investor confidence is down as a result and people will be sharing their shares if the right offer is made."

"So, it's like the Queen Industries situation?" Harry asked.

"In a sense," Anastasia said. "Only instead of waiting for the heir apparent to self-destruct in an amazing fashion, the man in charge already exploded and took the heir apparent with him."

Harry nodded, that seemed to be the whole truth and nothing, but the truth.

"It's on the same level as Wayne Enterprises or Queen Industries, with OsCorp being one of the largest companies in America and it has their hands in a lot of different pies," she added. "If we're going to acquire it, we would gain access to its resources. And in Norman Osborn's hands, it was one of the leading Bio-Technology firms in the country. So imagine what we could do with this."

Needless to say, Harry was extremely intrigued. He took a long sip of his coffee and looked at Anastasia with a light smile. "So, how exactly will this work?"

* * *

 

A couple of hours later, the two sides were in the process of wrapping up their meeting and both liked how well it was going.

"Well, I think that it went well," Anastasia commented, after she wrapped things up. "Our lawyers will have to write the contacts up."

"And my mother needs to look over the agreements," Harry told her. "But overall, it looks like our two companies will continued to do business together moving forwards."

A tentative agreement was in place to start to take control of OsCorp. It went without saying that before they could go forward with that, Anastasia needed to speak with the other person who was involved in doing so.

Harry mused, he thought that it could have been Lionel for a moment, but he dismissed that thought from his head. He would have heard from Alexa if her father was making a move like that.

They were in the process of shaking hands together and wrapping up the meeting. A door swung open and Anastasia's eyes narrowed in distaste. A large and imposing man crossed the doorway without announcing himself.

The look of distaste could only be seen by the eagle eyed. She slowly schooled her features. "Wilson….I wasn't expecting you to show up."

"Yes, it was essential that I speak to you face to face, and it couldn't wait," the man known as Wilson commented. He noticed the young man who was in the process of finishing up the meeting with her. "But, I can assure you that I didn't know that you were in a meeting, and I apologize for interrupting it. Like I said though, it is essential that we speak together."

"So it is," she said.

"I'm afraid that I haven't had the pleasure," the man said. He moved over towards the young man. "My name is Wilson Fisk…"

"Harry Potter," Harry said. Perhaps it was just him, but he had a pretty good idea that Fisk new that who he was exactly.

"Yes, it's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Potter," Fisk commented. He extended his hand and gave Harry an extremely firm handshake in response. The two of them locked hands. "I knew your grandparents a long time ago. I respected their business acumen and it's a shame what happened to them, a real shame indeed."

"Thank you for that," Harry said. He turned to Anastasia. "If that's all that you need from me, I really should get going. So I can leave the two of you to your important business."

The older Hardy woman nodded. "Yes, we can speak again in the future."

She shook his hand and allowed Harry to take his leave, with him slipping out of the office.

He slipped out of the office and two of Fisk's bodyguards waited outside. They looked fairly large, although compared to Fisk, they were exceedingly small. They looked like gorilla's that had been stuffed in expensive business suits. Harry passed a scuzzy looking bald individual who was dressed in a pair of jeans, a tank top, and a leather jacket. This man sat on a chair and started to flip a coin.

Harry was getting some bad vibes about this gentleman. Perhaps it was nothing, but he was getting some extremely bad vibes.

Harry slipped past the obvious bodyguards and made his way to the elevator. Before he could make it all the way there, something grabs him by the wrist and yanked him into a nearby closet.

The moment Harry cleared the closet door, he was assaulted by a lush female body that he got previously well acquainted with. Ms. Felicia Hardy decided to kiss him breathless, by shoving her tongue completely down his throat.

Harry decided that turnabout was fair play and returned the kiss with an equal amount of intensity. He forced his tongue deep into the depths of her throat. He took control of the kiss and essentially turned it around on her. He forcefully pinned her back against the wall.

He was fully intent to get her to orgasm without even touching her. Harry pushed himself into the kiss.

Felicia's body shuddered and she got really wet between her legs. He had a magical mouth and that left her breathless.

"Now, you got more than you bargained for, I think."

Felicia could feel his extremely able hands brush against her tight ass. She closed her eyes, feeling his hands roam over her body. He felt every single inch of her body.

"You wanted some heat, didn't you?" Harry asked her.

He parted her panties and shoved his fingers inside her. Felicia bit down on his shoulder in response and he pumped in and out of her.

His fingers slowed up and sped down in alternating rhythms. He really wanted to put Felicia through the paces and make her earn her pleasure. Her head rearing back caused her to whimper.

"More, please," she begged him. Her shirt rolled up, and she showed Harry her firm breasts.

Harry dove between her breasts and started to suck on them. That caused her to be driven completely and utterly past madness. She placed her hands on the back of his head.

The moment he was done sucking on her tits, Harry continued to run his finger between her legs. He alternated between teasing her opening and rubbing her clit. The moisture from her pussy that stuck to his finger caused Harry to smile.

Felicia tried to lift her hips to force Harry's fingers inside her. Harry grabbed them.

"No, I lead this dance," Harry said to her. "Turn around and bend over."

Felicia did him one better. She turned around and bent over, before spreading her legs. His fingers teased her a little bit, with a series of slow strokes. He worked around her in a rapid fire motion.

The kitten was in a lot of heat and Harry was just turning it up on her. Her nails dug against the wall.

He squeezed her tight rear and smacked it. He left a red raw mark on her ass and he slapped her hard on the ass again.

"More," Harry said. His tongue licked against her ear and Felicia breathed in and she breathed out. Her heart started racing and it was obvious that Harry got her in a position where he wanted her to be.

"Yes," Felicia begged him. Harry kept stroking between her legs. "Give it to me!"

Harry smiled when he was creating a glorious amount of heat with his stroking. He caused her to whimper when he kept rotating his finger around her.

"If you're going to act like you're in heat, then I'm going to make you earn it," Harry said. He slowly unbuckled his pants.

The sound of his belt being pulled off and hitting the ground caused more glorious heat to rise from between Felicia's thighs. She wanted him so badly inside her and in the worst way possible. She would give anything to have this large slab of manhood inside her.

Harry rested his hands on her bare back and aimed himself towards her. The first couple of inches entered her.

"Please, oh god," Felicia panted. She whimpered the further that he was about ready to go into her.

Seconds later, Harry grinned and slid even further inside her. He pretty much was having his way with her and he was making her choke for this. A little more and he would be completely inside her. Harry was a few seconds away from filling her to the brim and slamming himself into her.

He nearly pulled completely out of her and then he pushed deep into her body with a huge thrust. Harry rammed his cock deep into her body. Her wet pussy walls contracted against him.

"Is this what you want?" Harry asked. His hands brushed underneath her tits and slowly tempted them and teased them. He leaned on in and nibbled on the back of her neck.

"Yes," she begged him.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked her.

"YES!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs, feeling his massive rod plow into her. Her wet cunt collapsed around him when he pushed almost all the way into her and pulled nearly all the way out of her.

Harry gained some delicious momentum when he explored her heat. He pushed her against the wall. Her pussy felt like it was practically inhaling his manhood and Harry was certain that he was going to put her through some amazing feeling paces. He rocked into her body like there was no tomorrow.

"Harder, oh harder, please!" she begged him. She clenched onto the wall, biting down firmly into her lip. Tears ran down her face when Harry kept working away at her with rapid fire thrusts that were as long as they were hard. "Harder, as hard as you can go into me."

"Be careful what you wish for," Harry said. He taunted her with a smile.

Felicia knew what she wanted and she was going to get it. She was going to get all of it. Harry slammed himself into her body. She whimpered when his thrusts got even harder and faster.

Harry sought her glorious heat and continued to slam into her constantly. Her body was something that he needed to explore and he did. His hands ran over her breasts, her taut stomach, and her amazing ass. He also spent a lot of time exploring her legs in all of their splendor, essentially pumping his way into her tight, ample rear. He grunted the more that he attacked her.

"Getting close," Harry said. He continued to work her over towards the edge. He could feel his balls aching, the need for release was growing strong.

Harry was able to hold himself back and ensure that he drew out his orgasm as well as hers.

Felicia's body prepared itself for the inevitable explosion. Harry's thrusts slowed down a little bit, which drew out her pleasure. She bit down on her lip fiercely and hungrily. Her breathing escalated when Harry continued to go deep inside her pussy.

Her wet pussy enveloped him and Harry had to hold her up to make sure she didn't fall down to the floor.

Felicia's cunt started gushing and Harry grunted hard when he slammed into her. He rocked her entire body, with a series of thrusts.

"Are you going to cum?" Felicia asked breathlessly.

"Ladies first," Harry said.

Felicia might not be arrogant enough to classify herself as a proper lady, despite her mother's best intentions, but she would allow it. Her pussy clenched his rod when he slammed into her constantly.

Harry felt her milk him and he couldn't hold back any more. Not that he did want to hold back, he just let himself go inside her. His aching balls released a steady amount of cum, shooting inside her at a rapid fire rate.

He grunted and launched the load from his balls into her. He shot into her, coating the insides of her walls.

Felicia felt her nerve endings bombarded when he finished off onto her. He finally stopped holding her back and allowed her to fall back onto the ground.

She shakily pulled herself up and pulled up her panties. Felicia leaned forward and gave Harry a kiss and adjusted her clothes.

"We're going to have to do this again sometime."

Harry was going to have to say that went without saying and he agreed. They were going to have to do that sometime again. He watched her adjust her skirt, leaving it ride up a little bit for his benefit, and teasing him with a showcase of her panties.

"Next time, you won't be walking out of here on your own accord."

Felicia stopped and looked over her shoulder with a prominent grin. "Oh, is that a challenge?"

Harry slapped her on her firm ass and that caused her to give a pleasurable shudder as she sauntered out of the closet.

' _You know, you have to like a girl who enjoys spontaneous sex,'_ Amanda thought and there were members of the bond link that would have to agree.

* * *

 

Bruce Wayne currently was standing in the Archives beneath Wayne Enterprises with Lucius Fox.

"I say that you need to take better care of your car, Bruce," Lucius said with a chuckle.

"Well, I didn't expect what happened, happened," Bruce said. "The gangs of Gotham City are packing heavier duty weaponry. We're going to need to fortify the car the best that we can."

"Which means that your next vehicle is going to be heavier duty than the one you had last time," Lucius said. "It was just a heavily modified car. This one should be more custom made."

"Yes, I'll need heavy armor, heavy duty weapons with a focus on urban control, a more powerful engine, and considering the environment, along with the weather in Gotham City, an all-terrain package," Bruce said.

Lucius whistled prominently as he shook his head.

"So essentially, you want a tank," Lucius commented.

"Yes, but something a bit less conspicuous, even in Gotham City, that would stand out," Bruce said.

The two of them walked over to a board. There was a fairly dark looking model that Lucius pointed out.

"That is codenamed the Tumbler, and it was designed for military applications," Lucius explained to him.

Bruce looked thoughtful for a moment. "It might be too easy for someone to figure out that it's a Wayne Enterprises project that we were working with the Military on. It also doesn't have quite the right aesthetic that I'm looking for."

He paused and added after another moment's thought.

"It wouldn't be the worst starting point for us to work off of, though," Bruce continued. He sounded thoughtful at that point.

Lucius nodded at that point. "If that's the case, then it's better off if we work on something in house since we can keep it buried. There are a couple of ideas to move forwards, and give me a month or two, and I can have something put together."

Lucius paused and he caught the obvious flaw in the situation.

"And if you're looking for something to use in the meantime, there's a special project that I was working on a while back," Lucius said. "It was a motorcycle that I was putting together simply to see if I could do it. It should fit your needs."

Bruce nodded. "Have it shipped to the manor and I'll have a look at it there."

The two men headed to the elevator which brought them up to the building proper.

"How has been business going so far this quarter?" Bruce asked.

"It's a bit hectic," Lucius admitted. "The Red Sun is still selling like hotcakes and it's hard to keep it on the shelves. We prepared for this by stockpiling several hundred units before launching it, but the demand is still out stripping the supply."

Bruce nodded and Lucius continued to speak to him.

"Thankfully though, the market has stabilized enough over the past couple of weeks, in time for us to shift over to focus on the Eclipse in anticipation of it's launch in March," Lucius said. "Only time will tell whether people would be interested in it as the Red Sun due it's larger format. But it's still looking to sell like hotcakes."

"Harry wouldn't settle for anything less," Bruce offered and Lucius nodded in response.

"Growth is up all across the board in other departments as well since there's a fair amount of good will towards the company," Lucius continued. "About the only negative is that the legal department has to go through any contracts Earle signed with a fine tooth comb so we don't come across any nasty surprises."

Bruce's eyes shifted.

"So far, nothing, but we want to be through, as you know better than anyone else," Lucius said. He chuckled at the next part of his statement. "And it gives something for the legal department to do so they are kept out of our hair."

Bruce nodded. "So, our defense contract with the military…..things are getting to their proper locations, and they are not being intercepted along the way, right?"

Lucius considered that statement for a moment and nodded. "Everything seems to be working out fine. We've tightened up security across the board and it's very hard for anyone to gain access that isn't cleared to gain access. Doctor Potter headed up that project and brought in several people he trusted to tighten up anything that might have shaken loose."

It was at that point in time where they reached the top floor where their offices are. The two gentlemen stepped out of the side of the elevator since they still had a few things to discuss just yet.

Bruce was surprised to find Tamara Fox along with an extremely beautiful brunette that he didn't recognize sitting behind the desk that lead into his office. It was obvious by first glance that Tam was instructing the brunette how to best utilize the company's computer system.

Bruce looked shocked, but shook it off. He turned to Lucius with a stoic look. The man looked fairly sheepish at the moment. "You've yet to replace your personal assistant after the incident involving the former one, and the board of directors decided to find someone for you. And they did."

Bruce nodded. "I forgot with everything that was happening, but I thought that I would be able to keep a handle on things."

Tamara's eyes snapped towards him and she looked towards him with narrowed eyes. "You really weren't, and I was actually taking it upon myself to take care of things when I was in the building."

She paused and added.

"Which mean that I was really busy as a result since I was working on things with Doctor Potter," she added.

"I didn't know," Bruce said. "With all that work, you deserve a raise."

She practically beamed at him, especially considering the fact her father looked rather proud as a result.

"Anyway this is….." Lucius said. He paused and drew a blank. Sheepishly, he spoke to the woman."I'm sorry, but I've never got your name."

The stunning brunette introduced herself. "Natalia Alianovna Romanova, but you can call me Talia, if you'd like, Mr. Wayne."

She spoke in a purr with an outstretched hand. Bruce took it and hoped that she would be up for the job.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 3** **rd** **, 2015.**


	99. Across the Nation Part One

**Chapter Ninety-Nine: Across the Nation Part One(New York)**

* * *

 

Harry was on the top floor office of a taller building which rents out office space from other business. He was deep in an animated conversation with an older man. He was balding, had on a nice pair of stylish glasses, and came off as a bit full of himself. For some reason, Harry almost thought that was justified because this gentleman was one of the best jewelers. Just ask him yourself, because he would tell you.

Although, after taking a nice look at the completed piece he had the jeweler make for him, Harry would have to agree with that.

"Hmm, the ten thousand dollar price tag, I have to say, I'm not sure about that fact," Harry said. He placed his hand underneath his chin and pondered things for a moment.

' _And let the haggling begin,'_ Daphne declared in a bored tone. There was amused laughter that followed through the bond from all of the parties that were interested in the process.

The jeweler looked at him, like he had been mortally wounded by Harry's words. "My dear man, it's an extremely rare piece."

"I think that it is worth a fair amount," Harry said. He smiled at the man. "Six thousand dollars is a good price for such work. It's more than I would normally pay."

"Ah, a man with taste and a man who knows what he likes," the jeweler said. He decided to see how far this could go. "I'm afraid that I can't part with this watch for any less than ninety-five hundred. It's because of who you are that I'm giving you the offer that I am."

"I'll give you a deal," Harry said. "Seven thousand dollars."

The man wasn't willing to part with his piece with such a price. "Nine thousand dollars."

"Seventy five thousand dollars," the man fired back. "It is an extravagant piece, a once in a lifetime deal. It's something that you may never see again."

Harry had to admit that the watch looked to be pretty amazing, but he wasn't going to go down without a price. "Eight thousand dollars, that's my final offer. And it's only because I like the craftsmanship."

"You drive a hard bargain, Doctor Potter," the jeweler said. "Very well, eight thousand dollars is the price."

"I'm glad that you see it my way," Harry said. He wanted to shoot low at first, knowing that he could get at least a couple thousand dollars knocked off if he worked at it. "I accept the deal."

The two gentlemen shook hands and Harry paid the man. With the piece nice and wrapped for him, Harry made his way down the hallway and towards the direction of the elevator.

Harry's cellphone ended up ringing the moment he made it the elevator. He fished his cell phone and when he considered the events which occurred during the previous evening, it wasn't surprised to find out it was Veronica on the other end of the line.

"Hey, Veronica, what can I do for you?" Harry asked.

"You don't seem too surprised, but I'm sure that the news has reached you by now," Veronica said. "The homeless were attacked last night and quite a few of them need long term medical care that they can't really afford due to…well the fact they're homeless."

"Yes, that could be a problem," Harry agreed. Things got in a mess because of the gang war and they were just going to get worse over time. "It would be a nice gesture if we covered the injured medical expenses….and I'm sure that Bruce would be willing to go in with us on this as well."

Harry paused and shook his head.

"A lot of them are currently staying in an abandoned school in Gotham City, right?" Harry asked. The elevator door was about to close, but a hand reached forward to stop it.

Harry watched four men who resembled secret service agents slip inside the elevator. They were wearing business suits and carrying briefcase. He frowned briefly, but stuck to the shadows so his face was obscured. He could hear Veronica talking in the background, but he knew one thing, these men were far too big to work here.

"It might be a good idea to provide them with a care package of some sort," Harry said when Veronica finished talking to him. "Blankets, food, warm clothes, shoes, things like that?"

"What about money?" Veronica asked.

"That might not be a good idea, because we could enable any drug and alcohol habits that they might have," Harry said. "A general assortment of goods would be the best thing for them, though."

"Hmm," Veronica murmured underneath her breath. "Maybe we can see what we can do to get them some medical attention as well."

It was at this point the elevator stopped again and three more men entered the elevator. These gentlemen were dressed different than the first four in the sense that they were wearing a black t-shirt and black slacks. It did a good job of making them look like bouncers.

Harry narrowed his eyes for a moment and tensed up for about half of a second. He relaxed and no one would have noticed that he was tensing.

"That sounds really good, Veronica," Harry informed her. He looked thoughtful. "You should really get ahold of Rose and Bruce in order to see if they want to get involved through. Considering the two of them, it's fairly likely that they will."

"I agree," Veronica said.

The elevator stopped once again and three more men entered. These men were dressed like a combination of the ones who have stepped on previously.

Harry carefully looked at each of the men in the elevator and he noticed they had similar builds and held each other in similar manners. They were a variety of different ethnicities though, but at first glance, they all were predominately Arabic, Asian, and Russian descent.

They all looked tense as well as well. Harry took a deep breath and relaxed after a moment.

"Thanks Veronica," Harry said. "Oh, and the minute I hang up, could you do me a favor, and call me 911."

Harry hung up the phone and put it away without another word.

The moment Harry hung up his phone, a rather vicious fight was prompted. Harry grabbed the arm of his nearest enemy and twisted it behind his back with a solid crack.

He flung himself up into the air and nailed one of the enemies in the back of his head. One of them tried to stab him from behind, but Harry reached behind him.

He hurled one of the adversaries up over his head and caused him to slam down onto two men he had knocked on the ground, knocking him completely out. The sound of their heads cracking together was fairly sickening.

A couple of them pulled knives on him. Harry allowed them to come forward a little bit. He ripped the knives from their hands and kicked one of them hard against the wall. He disarmed two of them men of the knives and used the knives he ripped from the hands of these men to disarm a third in the most expert manner.

Harry utilized his suit jacket as a rope to great effect, taking them down.

There were a couple more attempts, but Harry made, well he wouldn't want to call it short work, but he wanted to make it rather handy work. He could see one of them was about to stand.

Casually, or perhaps not so casually, Harry reached forward and nailed him right in the face with a violent kick to the head.

Harry shook his head. It went without saying that the League of Assassins decided to make a move on him, but it didn't go as well as they intended. The busted faces, cracked teeth, and broken bones pretty much told the story.

Harry looked down at the ten unconscious bodies which laid on the elevator. Casually, Harry slipped his jacket back on. He checked to see if his phone and his purchases were still intact. When he realized they were, he combed his hair and stepped out.

Casually, Harry exited the elevator, walking past the police on the way out. He would allow them to sort out the mess.

He disappeared into the night, like pretty much nothing happened. Even though something big did in fact go down.

* * *

 

"So, did you talk things over with your son, Mrs. Johnson?"

Kara Kent-Potter was in the process of finishing the business with Amy Johnson, the older widow who was looking to sell her property next to the Potter and Kent properties.

"Yes, I talked things over with him," Mrs. Johnson said with a smile towards the younger girl. "And you made me more than a fair offer. It's a relief that I'm getting it signed and secured right now."

Kara caught what she said and she frowned. "Why is it a relief, Mrs. Johnson?"

The older woman was hesitant to speak, but she decided to tell her. "Well, a couple of men who were working for Lionel Luthor have been bothering me. The insisted that Lionel could wait me out longer than I could and he could get the property for dirt cheap and I would be out of luck."

Kara nodded, but wisely didn't make any commentary to that. The shady business tactics of the elder Luthor was something that Kara pretty much expected.

The two of them met in a small office inside of the small bank where most of the people in Smallville did their banking. Since it was a high level transaction, the bank manager is having to oversee it personally since no one else could authorize the deal.

"Everything is in order, isn't it?" Kara asked. A young man showed up, who was Mrs. Johnson's son, Leroy.

"My mother agreed to this, I agree to this," Leroy Johnson said in response. "Whatever I need to sign, I'll sign."

"Yes of course, Mr. Johnson, everything that you need is right here," the bank manager said. He placed the paperwork in front of them. "Are you certain that all of you want to go through with this?"

"Yes," Kara answered. "We wouldn't be here if we weren't certain that we wanted to go through with this."

There was a slight amount of irritation which flowed through her voice. Kara, Mrs. Johnson, and her son had to sign all of the paperwork. They all took time to carefully read it over, but everything was up to specifications.

The bank manager could see that everything was signed, sealed, and demeanor.

"Thank you for everything," Kara said, when each party had a copy of the paperwork here. She hid her annoyance well. "And thank you, Mrs. Johnson."

"No, thank you, Mrs. Kent-Potter," Mrs. Johnson said. She reached forward and shook her head. "We can't appreciate the generous deal that you've given us enough."

"Yes, thank you for everything," Leroy said. It was much better than the deal Lionel Luthor was going to give them, which practically amounted to peanuts and nothing more.

The three of them left the bank. Kara was into the parking lot, only to stop short. On the account she nearly ran into Lionel Luthor.

Lionel was making his way through the parking lot from his limo with a purpose in his mind. He was stepping towards what looked to be your stereotypical yes man who was a career ass kissing. His bodyguard was a fairly homely female bodybuilder type with a square looking man jaw and looking like she was pissed off at the world.

Kara was figuring out things rather nicely. Given how the bank manager acted and what she was hearing from within the bank, she honestly wasn't surprised to see Lionel show up at the bank.

Lionel on the other hand, seemed surprised to see Kara there. "Ms. Kent, well this is an interesting meeting."

Kara decided that it would be the best to play it cool. "Mr. Luthor."

' _Oh that jackass is about to get a rude awakening, I can't wait,'_ Karen piped in eagerly.

' _You're enjoying this just a tad bit too much, you know that?'_ Jaime asked.

"So what are you doing here?" Lionel asked her.

"Merely on business," Kara said. "I trust that you're here for the same reasons."

"Yes, indeed, this is far from a pleasure trip," Lionel answered. "But, I do wonder why you have decided to come to town."

"Well, as I told you, I was on business, Harry told me to take care of a few loose ends," Kara said, shaking her head.

"Might I ask what those loose ends are?" Lionel asked.

"Legally, I can't say," Kara informed him. She smiled. "As a businessman, you know how tricky legal matters can be, don't you?"

Lionel nodded grimly in response. "Yes, it's unfortunate, when red tape and paperwork prevents us from properly achieving our goals. Try not to get too far over your head, Ms. Kent. You might find that you're swimming with sharks."

"Well, then I better do the best to keep my head above the water," Kara said politely. "It was nice talking to you, Mr. Luthor, but since you have business, I wouldn't want to keep you from it."

Kara slipped off into the distance, finally freeing herself from further conversation with Lionel. She headed over to her vehicle and got inside, preparing to drive over to the school so she could pick up Claire, Lana, and Marie. They were about ready to get out of school and since she was nearby, she offered to do it for Martha and Nell.

She was inside the vehicle. A part of her wanted to see Lionel's face when she realized that she took his business out from underneath him. Another part of Kara decided that she was almost glad that she didn't.

' _Again, anything that takes him down a peg or two is worth it, trust me on this one,'_ Karen answered.

Kara drove up to the school and saw Lana and Claire talking with an annoyed looking Marie. The three of them were making their way up the sidewalk.

She pulled over so they could get in. Marie got into the right side passenger seat being the oldest of the three, while Claire and Lana took the passenger seat.

When they were settled in and buckled up, Kara asked the question. "So, how as your day?"

"Well, it wasn't too bad," Lana said.

Claire picked up where Lana picked up. "I mean school was school after all. We did a lot of work, and the teacher sprung a pop quiz on us….and…."

"We played dodgeball in gym, "Claire picked up.

"And Claire broke some jerk's nose," Lana chimed in.

Kara gave Claire one of those looks in response. Claire folded her arms over her chest and gave her cousin the side long glare. "I didn't mean to break his nose…it was sort of an accident….I mean seriously…..I didn't mean to do that."

' _Oh boy, the twin speak thing, it makes our heads spin,'_ Amanda thought.

' _The two of you can get into that like that,'_ Rose reminded them.

' _Absolutely not, Amanda and I never talk like that,'_ Emily thought.

' _Yeah we never finish each other's sentences….'_ Amanda thought.

' _Like we are two halves of the same mind….'_ Emily thought.

' _Or that we're trying to creep people out,'_ Amanda picked up.

' _Okay, maybe we did it once,'_ Emily continued.

' _Or twice, but it's never happened too often,'_ Amanda continued, folding her arm.

Kara noticed how miffed Marie looked during the conversation. For a few moments she allowed Lana and Claire to both prattle on about their day before she turned to Marie. "Why does Marie look so upset?"

"Oh that," Lana piped in. Marie gave her a warning look, but Lana either didn't notice it or more likely, she didn't care. "There was some guy hitting on her and she said that she wasn't interested."

"She was about to tell him off," Claire said.

"But that new farm hand, Markos, ended up getting involved and punched him out of nowhere," Lana said. "I think that she almost got detention for it. At least that's what we heard, but we don't know for sure….I mean, Marie's in high school and we're in the seventh grade."

Claire Kent, Age Twelve, and Lana Lang, nearly Age Thirteen, both shook their heads and looked to Marie, who folded her arms. Kara turned towards Marie with a raised eyebrow.

Marie took a deep breath. "Yeah, that's kind of what happened. I was able to talk the teacher out of it, convince her that it wasn't happening, but it still happened. And it's not the first time it happened either."

Since she said that she wasn't interested in dating, a lot of the boys, and a couple of the girls kept hitting on her in order to see if she'll say yes.

"Some of them have been obnoxiously persistent," Marie continued. "And…a couple of the girls…they say I'm frigid or a lesbian…which I'm not, I like boys as much as the next girl."

"Oh, darn, you don't like girls," Lana said in teasing disappointment. Claire gave Lana one of those looks and she grinned for a moment, before growing serious. "Seriously, Marie, there really isn't anything wrong with that. And if they have a problem with that, f…it's their problem."

They reached a stop light right now. Kara reached over and squeezed Marie's shoulder. "It will be fine….just wait things out for a bit, everything works. Kids can be cruel at that age."

Kara could have stories to tell when she was around Marie's age, the boys tried to get with her on Kandor. They were lucky Faora didn't transport them to the Phantom Zone for moving in on Har-Zod's territory.

"So, are you okay now?" Kara asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Marie said with a smile and a nod.

"I think that Markos has a crush on Marie!" Claire piped up. "I mean, he's always tries to be around her and his eyes follow her whenever she's nearby."

Kara frowned upon hearing that, but Lana chimed in. "I keep telling Claire that stalking someone isn't romantic, it's creepy. Really creepy, like….going to be a subject on Unsolved Mysteries creepy, if you don't be careful."

"Markos isn't too bad," Marie said. "He's like a sweet dumb puppy at times. He doesn't seem like he understands what's happening around him a lot of time. He's helpful, too helpful at times. But he's pretty harmless."

Kara wasn't going to argue with that point. They were almost home.

* * *

 

Harry stood on the balcony of the apartment where he was currently staying while in the city. He changed out of his suit into a pair of jeans, along with a rather tight fitting sweater, and a leather jacket. He was currently waiting for Barbara to get properly changed, so they could go out for the first part of their planned activities to celebrate her seventeenth birthday.

He didn't stay alone for long, when Nyssa popped up out of nowhere. He turned around and saw her.

"Beloved, it has been too long," Nyssa said with a smile she crossed the distance and greeted him.

Her hair was done up in a loose bun, and she was wearing a leather jacket that fell down past her knees, along with a pair of leather boots that come up just before her knees.

"I was attacked by the League today, you know," Harry said. He framed this extremely casually when he said this, even though it wasn't a casual encounter at all.

"Yes, I know," Nyssa replied. "My father's faction of the League is active once more, and the attack was to get a feel for how you would react, as well to send a polite warning."

Harry turned towards her. It was almost like he was about ready to question her on why she didn't warn him ahead of time. Nyssa, obviously, anticipated this, and launched in with what she felt was the most adequate explanation she could.

"I felt as if your reaction would be more genuine if you didn't know ahead of them," Nyssa said. "There were only a handful of people who knew about this. Those being myself, my sister, who is leading my father's faction in the wake of his sabbatical, and Ubu, my father's loyal lap dog."

Harry nodded in response.

"I wouldn't have done things like this, if I didn't know that you could handle it for certain, my beloved," she added with a smile and a nod.

"What is your sister after?" Harry asked her.

Nyssa paused for a moment. She was spending a couple of moments trying to consider how she wanted to answer his question.

"There was an attack on the location where my father's body was being stored," Nyssa replied. "It ended up being repelled, but the body ended up missing in the aftermath. Talia and Ubu want it back, and there are a couple of clues that point to it being in Gotham."

Harry wondered what precisely this had to do with him. As it turned out, Nyssa was all too happy to explain this to him.

"They decided that it would be prudent for them to move forward with the next phase of Ra's Al Ghul's grand design," Nyssa concluded. "And you just happen to be part of that design?"

Harry allowed that information to sink in for a brief second. "The heir business, right?"

"Yes," Nyssa agreed. "It has something to do with that. And whilst I have made my choice, my sister hasn't. And much like our father, she's torn between you and another person. So she's going to test you both until she's certain."

Harry didn't have much more of a chance to say anything. Mostly because Gwen poked her head out through the doorway and peered at him.

"Barbara is ready," Gwen informed him.

Harry realized Nyssa took advantage of the time it took Gwen to open up the sliding glass door to disappear into the shadows. It was much easier that way as far as all parties were concerned, then for Harry to introduce her to the girls who don't know her just yet.

"Thank you Gwen," Harry said. Gwen beamed in response.

She grabbed him by the head and led him into the living room where Barbara was waiting. Needless to say, she was a sight that was eye catching.

Barbara Gordon honestly had that sexy librarian thing going on at the moment. She wore a leather skirt with a slit cut into it that comes up to about her knees. A pair of comfortable leather boots added to the appeal. She wore a white turtleneck sweater, a leather jacket, and instead of wearing her contacts, she wore her glasses instead. Her hair is also pulled back into a pony tail.

She was looking rather attractive, sexy even. Not dressed to kill sexy, but sexy never the less.

Harry smirked at the sight of her and reached forward, pulling her by the hand. His arms wrapped around her and he pulled her into a deep kiss which Barbara returned about as eagerly as Harry gave it.

The moment he broke it off, Barbara protested, but she was stopped by the reaction of Gwen and Reilly. The sight caused both Gwen and Reilly to let out a shocked gasp in response. Barbara looked at them and she fully acknowledged the added weight on her neck. She moved towards a nearby mirror, and gave a fully excited gasp.

There was an extremely gorgeous green diamond pendant on her neck. She looked at herself in the mirror in response.

She turned around and practically pounced Harry, kissing the hell out of him. Harry responded by returning the kiss of his own, showing that he could certainly give about as well as he could receive.

Harry took her by the hand and they said their goodbyes to Gwen and Reilly before they exited the apartment.

Sometime later, Harry and Barbara made their way through Central Park. Harry had never been here before, and this was one of Barbara's favorite places to go when she was visiting Gwen, so he thought that it would be a nice start to their day if they went for a walk through. So they were doing exactly that.

Harry grinned when he looked at Barbara. She looked like she was a million miles away. "So, how have you been doing the past couple of months?"

They were both pretty busy and they didn't have a chance to have a private, one on one conversation in quite some time, without a bunch of other people hovering around at least. In fact, it might not have been done since Barbara lost her job in the GCPD.

"Oh, you know that my job….well it causes me to give pretty constant tech support to the people that I'm working for," Barbara said. "I was glad that I was able to get away from it for a few days, even though I almost feel bad for it."

She was spending a lot of time showing Harry the sights and pretty much getting him caught up to speed what he was working for.

"I'm sure the people that you're working for will understand that you're taking a couple of nights off," Harry said. "And I'm pretty sure that they have good back up for you when you're gone…but then again, what you do, that's a constant, and never ending job, isn't it?"

"Yes," Barbara said.

"Then again, keeping Gotham City safe can never be an easy thing, you know that?" Harry asked her.

Barbara frowned. "I don't understand….."

"I know what you're up to, I know that you're helping Batman, Nightwing, and Black Canary, among others," Harry said.

Barbara frowned, looking at him. "How do you know?"

He leaned forward towards her and whispered in her ear. "Because, I'm Nightwing."

That caused Barbara to go completely still for a moment. She chose her next few words extremely carefully. "I really wish that you hadn't told me that….granted, I knew for a long time, it's kind of obvious if you put the pieces together."

Barbara looked thought, shaking her head.

"It couldn't have been anyone else, because you're not the type of person who would dress up like a giant bat," Barbara added. She frowned. "But by you not telling me, I could claim plausible deniability if anyone asked me about it, or more specifically, I could claim that I didn't know who was under the mask if my father asked me. So….I really wish that you hadn't told me."

Harry reached forward and grabbed her hands, squeezing them tightly. "Everything is going to work out perfectly."

He pulled her into a tight hug and Barbara leaned forward, kissing him deeply in response. The two of them stayed like that until they needed to catch their breath. Although neither broke the hug any time soon.

The two stood in each other's embrace, and Harry asked the question.

"So, how did you figure it out?"

Barbara shrugged. "It wasn't really hard….well it wasn't hard for me. I mean, Nightwing uses a lot of similar technology to what RAO has been developing. It might be a couple of generations from now, compared to what's on the market now, but the tech has a lot of similar origins."

Harry didn't say anything, he just allowed Barbara to keep talking.

"I also did some digging, and by I mean I really had to dig really deeply for a very long time, because I was honestly curious where the money was coming from to pay me for my work as Oracle," Barbara commented. "And eventually, I was able to figure it out….it belonged to a private account belonging to one of your subsidiary companies."

She took the briefest of breaths. Harry didn't break his embrace, if nothing else, he held her in tighter. Barbara appreciated that action from him, to be honest.

"You and Nightwing were of similar heights, and about the same built," Barbara continued. "Same hair color, and you even move similar. So why most people wouldn't figure it out, I had information that no one else did. And then I remembered who Dinah's mother was, and it was obvious she took up the family business. So that was a big enough clue."

Harry smiled when he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. "You're wonderful."

Barbara gave him a cheeky grin of her own. "I know."

He kissed her again in response, and broke the hug to step back a bit. He slipped something into her hand and got down on his bending knee.

She gasped when she noticed it. Being the smart girl she was, Barbara was able to figure out what direction he was going in straight away.

"Marry me?"

It was simple, to the point, and Harry was on a roll, so it would be unwise to stop that roll when the momentum was hot.

Barbara responded by a shaky nod and gave a "Yes!"

Little did she know that there were a lot of people who were cheering her action, even though she couldn't not hear them, not yet anyway.

Harry slipped the ring onto her finger and that caused Barbara to let out a scream of pleasure. She got to her feet and in response, more or less tackled Harry, so they landed in the snow.

* * *

 

In a cabin in the New Jersey Countryside, the notorious Doctor Jonathan Crane was looking shockingly domesticated at the moment. He stood in the kitchen, wearing a pink apron. He was putting the finishing touches on what appeared to be dinner. Although it could technically be breakfast despite being so late in the evening, but never the less he was whipping up an omelet. He was bopping back and forth, humming a tune that sounded surprisingly upbeat.

Crane finished preparing the item in question, and he cut it in half. He placed it upon a plate that had a couple of other items already on it. Then he slid both onto the tray.

He made his way out of the kitchen with the item in question in his hand. He turned and made his way down the flight of stairs and into a bedroom.

His guest was currently lying in bed and she was quite obviously going through some kind of withdrawal symptoms. The shaking, sweating, and pale color of her skin was the perfect indication that something really bad was going on. As a matter of fact, she was sweating so heavily that the thin white t-shirt she wore grew nearly transparent.

It would offer a rather enticing view of her body, if she wasn't currently in the condition she happened to be or she was painfully skinny from her stay at Ravencroft.

Normally, Wanda's powers would be going absolutely nuts as a result of her mental state, if they weren't suppressed. The sheer pain she found herself in, along with the added headache is keeping them fairly suppressed at the moment.

Crane sat himself down on a seat that had been moved to rest on the side of the bed. "I brought dinner!"

He practically sang in a chipper tone. Taking a good look at her, he frowned and added. "That is, of course, if you're feeling up to eating."

Considering her condition, it was highly likely she really wasn't. She groaned rather loudly and the smell caused her stomach to turn.

That caused Wanda to groan in response and she rolled over onto her stomach. She retched into a bucket that had been placed on the side of her bed for her to throw up. Her body shivered and she continued to throw up, only she was now undergoing in an extremely painful burst of dry heaves.

Crane made a brief, disgusted face at the sight. He casually put down the fork full of egg that he was about to eat and he took a sip of coffee instead.

"After my stay at Blackgate, you'd figure that I would be a lot less squeamish about these things," Crane said. He looked towards Wanda. "I have to ensure that I get all of the nasty drugs out of your system….and you will feel a lot better once they are….."

Crane could see her hanging over the bed, sweating rolling down her face. He paused when there was another round of dry heaves that rocked her body. He waited patiently for her to finish before he picked up speaking.

"I don't know what they're really thinking when they kept you drugged up like that, it's a wonder that you were able to string a coherent thought together," Crane said. "I'm going to say that it was will power or some such rot."

As he was saying that, he ate his dinner. The smell didn't help Wanda at all, so she ended up throwing in the bucket once more.

"Guess you're not up to eating dinner after all," Crane said. "Oh, just hang in there; if you're strong enough to survive that, then you're strong enough to survive this. When you're feeling better, only then you will be able to properly pay back all of the people that hurt you. It will be glorious."

Had Wanda not been too busy trying to heave her guts out, she would have heard the slightly insidious round of laughter that came from the mouth of one Doctor Jonathan Crane.

* * *

 

Dinah was in a gym in Seattle, where her sister, Sara, was teaching kickboxing on a part time basis, when she wasn't attending her classes.

The older Lance sister stepped forward, wearing a pair of stretchy gym shorts, a black sports bra, and a pair of MMA style gloves and shoes. Her hair was done up in a rather loose ponytail.

A younger blonde who looked to be around seventeen or eighteen, and would look like a mirror image of her sister stepped forward. At least if Dinah wasn't wearing a brunette wig at the current moment. Sara Lance stepped forward, wearing a similar outfit to her older sister.

"The new hair….it's….well you look much better as a blonde," Sara said.

The wig was secured nicely thanks to RAO tech and would only come off when Dinah gave it a proper password.

"So, you're a hair stylist in addition to being a kickboxing instructor, now?" Dinah asked. Harry did agree that she looked better as a blonde, but blondes were his preference, so there you went.

Sara stepped forward, wearing a similar outfit as her older sister. The major difference was she wore a tight pair of workout pants and her blonde hair is done up in a bun.

The two siblings were staring down each other for a moment. Sara launched a devastating kick at her sister's head, but Dinah blocked it with ease with her forearm.

She fired a counter attack off by throwing a punch at her sister's head. Sara dodged backwards and then used the momentum from her kick to throw another one at her sister. It did come across as more of a snap kick aimed at Dinah's midsection.

Dinah was able to block another attack and she avoided an attack.

She fired back with a high speed high knee at her. Sara avoided it and redirected a second shot back at her sister.

The two of them engaged in battle. The elbow fired towards Sara's head. She crouched down and swept Dinah's feet out from underneath her. Dinah hopped over it and threw a punch at her sister's chest when she came down. The punch connected lightly with Sara's chest and she stepped back.

Things got really intense with a rapid fire back and forth exchange, both women giving as well as they received. Sara was pretty competent in her own right, although Dinah had more experience with training.

Dinah eventually took her sister down and knocked her onto her back. "You've improved since the last time I've seen you."

"So have you," Sara said. She got to her feet. "You always have to be one step ahead of me, don't you?"

"I've got to keep you on your toes, that's the only way that you'll learn," Dinah said.

"Dinah, never change, just…never change," Sara said, shaking her head in bemusement.

* * *

 

The two of them showered and changed, and both Lance sisters were much relaxed. Sara drove them home to the house, where Sara lived with their father.

The two sisters spotted someone that made Dinah less relaxed. She shifted and saw one Oliver Queen sitting on the front step waiting for them.

' _Almost didn't recognize him without being drunk off his ass for once,'_ Dinah thought in disgust.

"Oh, it's you," Dinah muttered.

Oliver opened his mouth to say something, but Dinah smacked him right across the mouth. That caused Sara's eyebrow to raise in surprise.

"Hey, what in the hell was that for?" Oliver asked. He was racking his brain trying to figure out what warranted that.

"You got in Harry's face about me, and you called me your sloppy seconds!" Dinah yelled, practically fuming.

Sara glared at Oliver and slapped him in the face as well. "You better apologize for that!"

She might not have had the best relationship with her sister, but that was well out of line. She knew for a fact Dinah was a virgin until she hooked up with Harry.

Oliver rubbed his mouth and checked for all of his teeth. He sighed. "I'm sorry…if I offended you in any way…and if I offended Harry….and for anything that I might have done….but I had a few too many drinks."

"Just a few?" Dinah asked in her most frosty voice.

"Okay, more than a few," Oliver admitted.

"Which seems to be your default state lately," Dinah said. She folded her arms and gave him the death glare.

Sara placed herself in between the two of them casually, just in case. "Why are you here anyway, Ollie?"

Dinah was trying to act like she didn't care, but there was a certain morbid amount of curiosity.

"I was in town because Malcolm informed me that somebody or some company is buying up the company's stalk and I figured that I should check in on Sara to see how she's doing," Oliver said. "I didn't know that you were in town Dinah….but I wanted to ask you something."

"What?" Dinah asked coolly.

"Have you heard from Thea lately?" Oliver asked. That caused Sara and Dinah to look at him. "I was curious….because I haven't heard from her recently and neither has any of her friends. So I was really, really, hoping that she might be staying here."

Sara looked at her. "I don't think that I've seen her….maybe we should ask my Dad….."

"I don't think that's such a good idea," Dinah said. While Oliver was being a drunken rich jerk ass, she honestly didn't want to make him a drunken rich dead jerk ass.

"Yes, your father….well he's not my biggest fan," Oliver said.

"Understatement," Dinah said. "Given that….."

"Yes, I'm never going to live that down," Oliver said. "But have either of you seen Thea?"

"No, I haven't," Dinah said. "I'll keep an eye out to see if she pops up."

"Yeah I will too," Sara agreed. She was curious.

Thea could have gotten sick of Oliver being distracted by his party ways, which seemed to increase more over the past couple of years. Therefore, she might have told him where she was going, but he was too intoxicated to remember if she did.

* * *

 

Harry and Barbara returned after an extremely intimate encounter, and she was getting even more intimate with him. Namely, she straddled Harry and the two of them were making out rather heavily on the couch in the suite that Harry ended up renting for the evening. It was so they could have some private time for themselves.

She was able to get perfectly onto his lap, straddling him without breaking the kiss. Harry's hands roamed over, teasing the area underneath her skirt, giving her a sign of what was come.

Barbara nibbled his lower lip in an enticing manner, before she leaned back and pulled her shirt off. She revealed an extra lacy red bra that revealed her ample breasts.

The bra fell to the floor rather quickly and things were about to get extremely heated, very quickly, if Harry had anything to say about it and as a matter of fact, he did.

Barbara breathed heavily when she felt the sensation of Harry's mouth lavishing her breasts quite eagerly. The redhead seemed quite eager to feel the worshipping of Harry's mouth. He licked, kissed, and nipped at her breasts which caused her pleasure.

"Oh yes, yes, just like that, yes!" Barbara screamed at the top of her lungs. She could feel Harry's eager actions escalate to an entirely new level and she accepted what he was doing quite eagerly.

Barbara was pushed back slowly and she found her back pressed against the couch. Harry crawled over the top of her.

He started at her neck and kissed the side of her neck. That caused her to shiver when Harry slowly made his way down her body. He kept kissing all the way down.

He stopped, hovering over her midsection. Barbara panted when she felt Harry's tongue brush against her belly button, and it went a little bit lower.

"Harry, please," Barbara begged him. "Eat my pussy."

Harry smiled when he pulled her skirt all the way down. There was a pair of red panties which rested beneath her body.

It was the last frontier Harry had to take care of before he had his way with her. He smiled when he brushed his finger against the edge of her panties, slowly taking them down to reveal her smooth womanhood, beckoning for him.

Hunger flowed through Harry, when he saw her juices flow out from between her legs.

"Time for the birthday girl to get her reward," Harry said. He smiled and slowly kissed down between her legs.

Barbara could feel him getting closer. She tensed up when he got extremely close to her clit and there was a jolt of electricity that went through her body.

Harry's tongue slid inside her slowly. She had this happen to her many times, but for some reason, this was different. Perhaps it was the sense that they were going all of the way, or perhaps this time, Harry was giving her everything completely.

Regardless, his tongue drove into her, assaulting her pussy. Barbara placed her hands on the back of his head and pushed her hips up. He licked and slurped her pussy, bringing her juices out of her.

"So good, feels so fucking good!" Barbara breathed. She reached up and toyed with one of her nipples.

The heat increased when Harry munched on her center. He held her to the edge, but then didn't pull her off just yet.

Barbara realized Harry was drawing this all out. She felt a pleasurable feeling rise inside her.

Harry smiled, the more she wanted it, the better she tasted. She was oozing for him, she was choking for it. Harry kept munching on her pussy and he sucked her juices completely out of her.

' _You're going to cum even harder than you ever have before,'_ Harry whispered in her pussy, his tongue slithering deep inside her.

Barbara's hips jerked up in response to what Harry was doing to her. Needless to say she twitched rapidly, allowing his tongue to push deep into her body. He really was causing her an immense amount of pleasure.

He finished worshipping her and Harry smiled.

"Seventeen years old," Harry said with a smile. "Think that the birthday girl deserves seventeen spankings."

Barbara wanted his cock inside her right now, she felt the wait had been agonizing enough. But the excitement of being spanked by Harry was too much for her to resist. She was bent over his knee, her bare ass exposed.

Harry exposed her ass and spanked her tight ass. Every single slap caused Barbara to twitch. She counted them out, another miniature orgasm rushing through her body.

"We're almost there, think of this as the final countdown to officially becoming a woman," Harry said.

Barbara groaned when he drew out the last few slaps on her ass. It felt like that he was dragging out her grand arising even more. His slaps stung her ass when Harry spanked her harder and harder. His spanking increased when he continued to work her over.

Harry grinned. "Fifteen!"

Barbara's nipples hardened when she felt his hand linger on her rear, so warm. Her rear was red and completely raw. He lifted his hand up.

He really left it hanging there, teasing her. Barbara was panting. "Sixteen, come on sixteen!"

"Sixteen it is!" Harry called. He slapped his hand over her bum, causing a loud smack. Her juices dribbled down. Harry smiled and collected them on his fingers. He slowly ran his tongue down them. "Oh, you're really getting off on this Babs."

"Come on, come on, one more!" Barbara chanted. She shook when she felt him. His hand still rested on her ass from the last one.

"I'm not sure if you can take one more," Harry said.

"DAMN IT!" Barbara yelled. She realized the sooner that he finished spanking her ass raw, the sooner he would be inside.

Harry milked things about as much as she would milk his cock with her tight pussy in a few moments. The hand was up and time seemed to stand still. Barbara hated this, she was sure that only a few seconds had passed.

He spanked her even harder the final time. Barbara's hips twitched.

She could feel her entire body shake with the force of an amazing orgasm. Her body was rocked and Harry scooped her up in his arms bridal style.

He marched her over from the couch into the bedroom area. She whimpered when she realized what was next.

"I think that you need to return the favor before you get your final present," Harry said.

"Can I at least unwrap my present?" Barbara asked him. She unbuttoned his shirt, without waiting for his permission. His muscular chest was revealed for her consumption and needless to say, Barbara ate up the eye candy something fierce. Her heart raced.

His pants were next followed by his boxers. She could see his throbbing cock outside of her. Did it grow? She didn't know. Her excitement must have increased its size in her mind.

Barbara's eager mouth engulfed Harry's throbbing meat with one swift movement. She wrapped her mouth around his tool and slowly bobbed it up and down. The redhead brought her mouth up and down on him, sucking him.

She could feel him throb in her mouth. The redhead eagerly sucked him down and worked him into her mouth. The more pleasure she felt, the deeper he went into the back of her throat. Barbara enjoyed what he was doing, fucking her tight throat like he was. She couldn't get enough of him inside her throat.

She breathed when she wrapped her mouth around his tool and kept rocking herself up and down on him.

It was so close, she could practically feel him. She could practically feel him about ready to burst in her mouth.

"Good girl, you're about ready to get your just deserts," Harry said.

Barbara leaned back, taking him deep into her mouth. She used every trick to stimulate him. The redhead's hand eagerly worked around his balls.

Harry grunted when he felt his balls shoot their seed into her mouth. He impacted into her mouth, shooting load after load of his cum.

He pulled her up and her eyes looked at him lustfully. "And now, it's time for the main event."

"Finally," Barbara breathed in relief. Harry started to kiss down her body at her ear and kissed all the way down her body.

He neglected her nether lips, which ached in want for Harry's throbbing meat. She needed him between her legs in the worst way possible. Harry drew out her misery, and her wait, making sure she savored everything.

"Please, Harry" Barbara whimpered. She could feel him brush inside her.

His large cock pushed inside her and Barbara could feel her entire body warm over with pleasure. She could feel the pain when he broke her barrier and officially made her a woman, his woman.

Barbara could feel the pain slowly replaced by pleasure. Her nether regions were cleared and the blood was gone. She felt her legs spread and allow him inside her.

His throbbing balls pushed up against and her legs wrapped around him. He slowly worked into her body.

"Faster," Barbara breathed. "Take me faster."

"Savor it, Miss Gordon," Harry reminded her. He allowed her to roll him over with a smile on his face.

Barbara was hovering over him. It looked much more massive when she was on top then he was on the bottom, plowing into her. Barbara savored the moment, spreading her legs as far as they could go and she slammed herself down onto his throbbing manhood in one fluid moment.

"Yes, inside me, and it feels so good," Barbara panted. Her red hair flew to the side, giving her an extremely seductive quality.

Despite the fact she rode him, Barbara still felt like Harry's massive cock manipulated her pussy. Her muscles tensed when her insides were molded to fit his huge cock buried inside her. She tried to regain control of her inner muscles to ride him up and milk him hard. Her ass smacked against his massive balls when she brought herself up and down.

Barbara could feel him fill her up completely. His throbbing cock ached into her body.

"Ride me, harder," Harry said. He smiled when his hands rose up and slowly explored her body. He felt her up with each inch of her delicious skin.

Barbara rolled her hips up and down on him. She grinded herself up and down on his tool, riding Harry until she couldn't ride him anymore, with the soreness escalating in her body when she kept working him up and down.

His throbbing pole inside her body felt extremely amazing. Barbara couldn't get enough of him inside her.

"Good girl, now cum."

Barbara came for the first time with this huge cock inside her and needless to say, she hit an immense gusher. Her hips clamped down on him when she milked him.

She must have hit at least three or four miniature orgasms adding to the big one she felt. Her nipples ached with pleasure and Harry smiled, pinching them.

She gasped when his mouth sucked them hard. He worshiped her breasts again when Barbara kept riding him.

The first orgasm was magical, but the second one was pure insanity. Her walls closed up around Harry's pole when she rose herself all the way up and brought herself crashing down onto his tool with an amazing fury.

"Soon, Babs, soon," Harry said her.

She pulled herself almost all of the way off him and teased her lips with his massive cock. Then she spiked herself down onto his tool. Her love box stretched around his massive manhood when she rose up and came down onto him.

"I love you Harry!" Barbara moaned. She could feel him stretching her out in all of the ways that made life feel wonderful.

"I love you too," Harry grunted. Barbara brought herself down onto him, his manhood stretching out her core when she rocked herself up and down on him. She really worked him up over the edge. "Getting close."

"Please Harry, cum inside me," Barbara said. She could feel something tense up in her body. It was like her body prepared herself for a great change and she wasn't sure what it was. But whatever it was, she prepared to brace herself for it.

Harry grunted and his balls tightened up. Barbara's orgasm hit first and her wet and willing. He slid into her.

His balls tensed up and he shot his load into her. Barbara milked him, finished riding him up and down. His hands squeezed her breasts firmly, when she brought herself up and down on him.

Barbara pulled off on him and got onto her hands and knees. She could see Harry's cock return to life when she showed her ass to him. "Oh Harry, I think we're not done yet. My birthday isn't quite over."

Harry smiled and sunk into her once again. They continued their pleasurable exchange well into the night and throughout the next day.

Barbara Gordon would need some time to recover from her birthday present, but if you asked her, it was more than worth it. And the wait was most certainly worth it.

**To Be Continued on June 6** **th** **, 2015.**


	100. Across the Nation Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred: Across the Nation Part Two-Smallville.**

* * *

 

Kara still found herself hanging around Smallville. Her main Professor never did turn up, and it was unlikely that he was going to turn up, at least alive. Then again, there was dozens of unidentified John Does in Gotham City, so there was a chance that he could have been found, but he wasn't really identified. And no replacement had been found.

She decided to do her course work from the Kent Farm, remotely. It actually was a relaxing change of scenery for a couple of weeks. She enjoyed the time she spent with Claire, and she also enjoyed the time that she spent with Martha. Martha was teaching Kara how to cook, a skill that she hadn't quite mastered, or would master without assistance if Karen was any indication.

The two of them were in the process of fixing a meal. Kara was slicing up some vegetables, while Martha was in the process of doing the more complicated part of it.

'So, I'm thinking about taking a trip to Gotham to visit Harry for a couple of days,'Martha thought to herself. "The last time I really got a chance to see him is that when Claire and I took a trip to Black Island, and I'd like to spend some time with him."

"Oh, what's stopping you, then?"Kara asked her with a grin. 'Go and pack now….Harry is back in Gotham after finishing his business. Faora and Karen fly back and forth regularly and if you pack now, you can fly out with them.'

There was a moment where Martha looked like she was strongly considering this fact. Kara noticed Martha was close enough to cracking; all she needed was one more nudge. Kara decided to do her duty to give her that nudge.

"You know, if you leave earlier enough, Karen would be more than willing to take you shopping at the place where she gets her lingerie," Kara said. She gave Martha a smile. "And you can surprise Harry with a racy little number."

Martha was considering this. It was extremely tempting.

"It wouldn't really be that much trouble for Karen anyway, since she needs to get some new bras anyway," Kara answered. "And I'm going to be here for a while, so you don't have to worry about Claire and Marie."

Martha pondered what she wanted to do for a moment. She placed her hand underneath her chin and shook her head.

"You know what, I'll do it," Martha said. Kara hugged her in response. "I better tell Jonathan that I'm flying out."

Kara triumphantly smirked when Martha left. She set about to finish making dinner, only to realize that she doesn't know how to do so.

"Claire, can I see you for a minute?" Kara asked her.

Claire joined her a few seconds later, wearing a white cotton t-shirt with an open flannel top over it and a pair of blue jeans. Her hair was dripping wet which made it clear that she just got out of the shadow.

"What did you need, Kara?" Claire asked her.

"Your mother decided to go and visit Lily in Gotham, but she needs to pack right now if she's going to go," Kara said. "So, I need your help cooking dinner."

"Oh, yeah, I can help," Claire said.

She took over with the greatest of ease. She realized that it wasn't anything super complicated.

"Know how to use advanced technology, but you don't know how to cook," Claire said. She looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "Well, it makes sense….what did you do on Krypton?"

"We had servants to cook, my mother was even worse than I am at cooking," Kara answered with a shrug.

The two of them continued to finish working on the dinner, and they saw Jonathan and Martha out the window. Judging by the hug, it seemed like the conversation went rare.

Kara could listen in with her super hearing, but she thought that was pretty rude if she tried to do that. She noticed that Marie looked uncomfortable when Martha hugged her as well.

That caused Claire to frown. Her parents explained to her why Marie might be uncomfortable with physical attention and she was hoping that she'd relaxed around them by now. She only eased up slightly since being here, but not all the way.

Kara noticed the look, reached over, and squeezed Claire's shoulder. "It takes time, trust me."

"Yeah, I guess," Claire said, shaking her head in response. She frowned. "So do you think that Marie likes my father?"

Kara let out a choking gasp and had she not been super powered, she would have cut one of her fingers off in surprise. The knife, on the other end, broke. This caused Claire to let out a cute squeak in surprise.

That sounded like nails in chalkboard because of Kara's enhanced seconds. She shook her head in response and sighed.

"Sorry, sorry," Claire said in an apology.

"No need, I just got some crazy in my ear," Kara responded and she leaned back.

"Well, it's a valid question," Claire piped in, sounding very sullen at that. "Marie is around my dad a lot, and she likes spending time with the….so does it mean that she likes to spend time with him?"

Kara frowned in response. "Oh, Claire, why in the name of Rao did you have to take after my father….about how relationships work."

Claire frowned at that and turned away from Kara, crossing her arms over her chest in the process. Despite the fact Kara kept her voice low, she was able to hear what she was saying. Kara sighed, and she wrapped her cousin in a huge.

"Marie likes to work on engines because that's something that she liked to do with her own father," Kara said. "And thanks to Harry's Christmas present, that gives something for the two of them to work on together."

Claire looked at her. Somehow, this really made sense, so she had no real reason to argue with it.

"If I didn't know better, I say that you were a bit jealous," Kara told her.

"Okay, no way….no way, not at all," Claire said, shaking her head frantically.

Okay, maybe just a little bit.

Claire needed to pull herself away from Kara at this point and return to dinner. It was then where Martha had finished packing.

"I'm leaving now," Martha said. "Goodbye, Kara."

Martha wrapped her arms around Kara and gave her a warm hug. She pulled herself away from Kara and allowed herself a smile.

"Be good Claire, and listen to your father," Martha said. She wrapped her arms around her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

She shook her head in response. "Well, have fun, but be careful, because you're going to Gotham."

"I should be fine, because Harry and the girls will be there to look after me," Martha said. She smiled and patted her daughter on the shoulder. "But thanks for the sentiment."

* * *

 

Kara was now out for a walk on the grounds on the farm. She decided that she wanted to get some air, stretch her legs, and the best place to do that was to make her way to the half way between the Kent Property and the Potter property. There was a nice pond between them.

It's a quiet night and there isn't a cloud in sight. She was able to make out the stars out due to the lack of the cloud coverage. Unfortunately, that meant that it was extremely cold outside. Luckily for Kara, she wore an extremely warm winter jacket, which belonged to Harry. And smelled like him, more importantly. Kara wore a very nice wool scarf that Martha knitted for her. She was nice and warm despite the weather.

' _So do you think that there's a possibility of me getting an internship working under Vicki?'_ Kara asked Harry. She frowned and thought about it. _'It would be a good way to get some of the credits that I need to complete my communication major.'_

' _I don't see why it couldn't happen,'_ Harry thought in response.

' _Oh, I'm glad that you think that it's a good idea,'_ Kara said. She leaned back and looked at the stars. _'I just had a lot of fun when I covered a couple of stories with her before. And not to mention….it would give Vicki some extra protection.'_

Branden and the SWAT hadn't decided to cause any trouble for her in a little bit, but there was always a chance that she was going to rock the boat.

' _When you put it that way, it makes it an even better idea,'_ Harry responded. He frowned in response. _'I'm going to see if I can talk to Vicki in the morning. But….right now, I need to go, Martha just arrived, and I'm going to take her out for dinner.'_

' _Right, the two of you have fun,'_ Kara said. She responded a link. _'Don't do anything that I wouldn't do.'_

' _That gives them a pretty good license then,'_ Faora piped up.

' _Might as well tell him not to do anything that I wouldn't,'_ Amanda chimed in.

' _That would give him even less license,'_ Emily added. Amanda folded her arms and glared at her twin.

It was best left up to the imagination of what lines Kara wouldn't cross and that was just the way things had to go. It was around this point in time where she reached the pond.

She was surprised to see that Marie was there along with Markos, the big Russian farmhand who started working for the Kent's in the past two months. This was the first time Kara has seen him up close.

He did look much larger closer up then he was at a distance. He was well over seven feet tall, towering over the five foot five Marie who stood next to him.

Kara picked up snatches of conversation. They were talking about school, or at least making an attempt to talk about school. Despite the fact Markos lived in the country for a number of years, his English wasn't the best. He might be a tad bit slow, all things considered.

The conversation was a train wreck, with his lack of English and Marie's Southern accent causing a nasty breakdown in the language barrier.

Marie sounded a tad bit frustrated. "Okay, let's slow down…let me explain this one more time….perhaps I didn't explain it well enough."

She spoke a bit more slowly and smiled. He really should have a better grasp on English, especially considering he came to the country before the first meteor shower, along with his family.

The two of them made their way to the tree that sat on the edge of the pond and Marie learned to lean back against it. Markos leaned in close to her.

"I think that I'm getting where you're coming from," Markos said. He doesn't quite box her in, at least not yet.

Kara could see Marie was growing a bit flinchy, not that she could blame her. The guy was invading her personal space. She did stick in the background so she didn't get in the way too much.

"Why don't you like any of the boys who have been asking you out?" Markos asked. He spoke rather bluntly to her.

Marie frowned and shifted fairly nervously against the tree. She responded calmly and crisply. "You know something, I really don't want to talk about it."

Markos made a face in response and shifted his arm to the other side of Marie's head. Now she was boxed in.

"So, do you like girls then?" Markos asked.

Marie scowled in response and backed as far against the tree as she could. Despite that motion, he was pretty much in her face now. "I like boys just fine….I just don't like any of them. Now can you please back up?"

Markos grinned in triumph as something clicked in his head, or at least he thought that something clicked in his head.

"Oh, I see," Markos said. He took half of a step back, but he didn't back off completely. "You want man….not boy."

He leaned in to kiss her. Before he could seal the deal, Marie slapped him hard in the face.

"You shouldn't have done that," he said. He gripped her wrists in an attempt to pin them back her head.

Unfortunately for him, Marie was able to force her way out and nail him with a fairly efficient knee to the balls which doubled him over.

A few seconds later, a slim female hand hoisted him up off the ground by the shoulder and propelled him a good ten feet away from Marie.

This caused him to smack against the tree with a rather hard thump. Marie looked up and saw Kara standing there. A stunned set of disbelief flowed over her face.

Kara didn't bother to ask her whether or not she was okay. She moved over to check Marie over, while having a disapproving scowl towards Markos who was down on the ground.

Physically, Marie was fine. Mentally, she was an entire matter entirely. She shook her head when she looked at Kara. Markos attacking her and Kara throwing a guy the size of Markos in combination was something that gobsmacked Marie. She didn't know what to say, she didn't know if there was anything that she could say as matter of fact.

"My wrist hurts where he grabbed me, but I'm fine other than that," Marie said, deciding to be helpful when her shock left her body. Marie stepped away and she saw the passed out young man slumped against the ground.

Her mouth hung open fairly briefly and she turned to Kara. Her lips moved, but no words were coming out.

She finally strained for her throat to work and let out one word. "How?"

Kara shrugged in response. "I work out….a lot."

Marie snorted in response, and decided that she would humor Kara for now. "So, I guess that he's going to end up getting fired for this?"

Kara looked at her and Marie grew rather sheepish underneath her gaze. All and all, that was a pretty stupid question and Marie thought that she deserved the very look that Kara was viing her because of this.

"Guess we should just leave him there," Marie said. "Him losing his job and getting humiliated is punishment enough."

Marie moved over towards the direction of the Kent house and Kara followed her to make sure that she made it back okay.

Unknowingly to either woman, green blood dripped from the mouth of Markos as a result of the injuries Kara gave him by throwing him into a tree.

* * *

 

Kara was mostly alone for the day. Marie decided to call in sick from school, and Kara couldn't say that she blamed her after the events of the day. Jonathan had to go into the City to pick up some supplies that he couldn't get in town.

Joe Clark and the other farm hands were over at the Johnson property to see what needs to be done to prepare it for Spring. And obviously, Claire was in school because today was in fact a school day.

Kara decided to recline back in the living room, not having all that much to do. That was besides her schoolwork, which she admittedly procrastinated on just a little bit. However, she was now working on things. She typed on her laptop, to work on one of the longer term projects that was due to be finished before Spring break hit.

' _So, you're all ready for Fashion Week, aren't you?'_ Kara asked.

' _I'm sure that they are all, Lavender won't be quiet about it,'_ Lily responded in amusement.

' _Well, it's going to be a big event,'_ Lavender argued. _'The only thing that I'm worried about is if we should show some different styles or work on some of the classier ones for the show.'_

' _And you've been losing sleep over this,'_ Parvati said. She shook her head in bemusement. _'Because of course you are.'_

' _Well, I'm certain that whatever she chooses, it's going to be amazing, and the people who wear them will make them look even more enticing,'_ Fleur said.

' _And you're only saying that because you were one of the ones that was roped into wearing them,'_ Narcissa added in her driest tone of voice imaginable. _'And there's the little thing that we set up….that's more exclusive than for the general public.'_

' _Yes, the seedier affair….shows like that are too common in Gotham City, although they take an entirely different meaning there,'_ Veronica said. _'Not that I ever attended one…to be honest…..I was tempted to.'_

' _Yes, the after dark appeal is a bit lighter when compared to what goes on beyond closed doors in Gotham City,'_ Lily thought. _'You know, that's where we should show off the lingerie, because that's going to be not as public.'_

' _I get where you're going from,'_ Lavender said. She was busy sketching something or other, but then again, she was always busy sketching something. _'So classy at the public fashion show, scandalous lingerie afterwards, that seems like it makes a lot of sense.'_

' _And we can work on an advertising campaign that will get some of the more adverterous things out there,'_ Narcissa said. _'It goes without saying that our marketing department is second to none.'_

' _That's being rather…..modest about it, isn't it?'_ Daphne thought. No one could tell whether or not she was being sarcastic or serious. Knowing Daphne, it was some combination of both.

' _I agree,'_ Kara said. She thought that she could come up with a better conclusion, but unfortunately, the Writer's Block troll visited her at the worst possible time. _'You should show off the classier pieces at the show, and ad campaign for the other stuff.'_

' _Now, all we have to do is come up with an eye catching campaign,'_ Lavender said. _'Granted, we have eye catching females modeling it but still….we got to go all in or not at all.'_

' _I'm sure that something will come to you,'_ Amanda said. She grinned. _'Oh the very political world of fashion design.'_

' _Yeah, it can get that way,'_ Parvati agreed.

Kara finally finished. There was some light conversation. She saved and then made a back up to her work.

She bounced up to her feet and decided that now would be a pretty good time for her to get something to drink. She sauntered over in the direction of the kitchen to make some tea.

She moved to fill up the tea kettle and turned it on. She moved over to look out the window until the water boiled really hotly.

Kara frowned deeply. Markos was back on the property despite having been fired. He stood out near the barn looking in the direction of the house.

He was going to try something, Kara just knew it. So she headed him off to the pass.

Kara slipped on her jacket and headed outside. Markos noticed her, calmly turned around, and made his way back towards the barn. She decided to follow him.

The tractor the Kents kept from behind the barn ended up flying at her out of nowhere. It smacked her full on and ended up knocking the wind out of her.

It hit her hard enough that it caused Kara to fly backwards to crash through the Kent's kitchen window. The only thing that stopped her from flying any further is that she smacked hard into the refrigerator which buckled around her from the impact.

She ended up on the kitchen floor, wincing in slight pain. Kara was groggy and tried to pull herself up to her hands and knees.

She was assisted to her feet by an extremely frantic Marie who ended up running down the kitchen stairs after hearing the crash.

Kara looked out the window and was surprised by the sight of Markos, or at least who she thought to be Markos. If Markos was seven foot five, and made out of black granite that was. There was green Kryptonite running underneath his skin and through his veins. It was giving off a bright glow.

Marie was used to seeing some really messed up shit due to her time on the road. She let out a fairly understated all things considered "…Oh god" under her breath at the sight and tried not to panic.

Kara narrowed her eyes, and growled. She noticed Markos moving to lift up the tractor so he could throw it at her again. She shot forward like a blur in an attempt to tackle him down to the ground.

She caught him around the mid-section, her momentum ended up sending them both flying through one end of the barn and right through. The two of them crashed to the field behind.

Markos punched her in the face in response. Kara staggered back from his attack, and a brutal slug fest was about to take place. Kara kept nailing Markos extremely hard with each and every individual blow. Much to her agitation, her blows hurt her more than it hurt him. She felt like she punched into solid stone.

Not to mention each of his blows packed a punch, and she staggered back. His mutation gave him super strength on par to Kara's own, so when he did hurt her, it really hurt.

He back handed her hard and that caused Kara to crash backwards through several trees. She landed with a sickening crunch and rolled over in frustration, groaning.

There's no rest for the wicked. She pulled herself to her feet and he moved over towards her before she really got a chance to recover.

Kara landed four blows on him, but she wasn't sure if even one of them did them any good. The damage that she did was healing pretty quickly.

Diana gasped through the bond, which Kara wasn't really paying any attention to due to the ringing in her head. _'I wonder if he's has a similar power set to Anataeus.'_

Kara thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to test that theory. She summoned all of the strength she could and her eyes lit up.

She blasted him with heat vision with a concentrated blast from her eyes. Markos ended up howling as a result of this attack. Seconds later he was launched high up into the air.

The wound didn't heal instantly when he hit the ground and even then, it's taking it's time since the heat ended up cauterizing the wound. Kara responded with a grim smile and decide that it was now time to smack him around again.

Only, Markos grabbed her by the wrist and then smashed her down to the ground. Kara groaned when she hit the ground. Markos nailed her pretty heavily for a moment and tossed her away the second that he ran out of steam.

Kara hit the ground with a loud ooof.

Marie scrambled outside to catch up with the two of them. A banged up Kara essentially landed at her feet. She kneeled down and looked at Kara with a questioning look. She didn't look too banged up, but it was going to take her a bit of time before she could recover.

The best thing Marie could do in this situation was to buy her the time necessary. Marie hunched over Kara and impulsively kissed Kara right on the lips.

After a second's pause, Marie let out a long orgasmic gasp as Kara's powers poured into her body.

This was done just in time to hear Markos end up giving an enraged roar at the sight. He ended up charging at the two of them.

Thanks to Kara's memories, Marie had a pretty good idea how Kara's powers worked. She caught Markos flush in the face with a double handed hammer blow. This was an assault which stopped him dead in his tracks.

Time stood still from her perspective and suddenly, Markos went flying backwards. He bounced off of the ground several times.

Before he could hit the ground fully, Marie unleashed a blast of heat vision in order to keep the momentum going. He ended up landing on the edge of the pond before she hit the ground.

Marie collapsed to the ground, panting. That effort ended up draining her fairly nicely of the powers that she borrowed from Kara.

Kara recovered by this point and she was able to dart forward. She landed in front of Markos and punted him into the pond. He landed with a splash.

He landed in the pool and used her ice breath to freeze him into a solid block of ice. Kara closed her eyes and let out the breath that she was holding. That was pretty much the end of that.

* * *

 

Kara and Marie found themselves sitting at the kitchen table in the Kent Home, having a cup of tea, and Kara was helping Marie sort through the memories she absorbed from her. The two of them weren't alone either since Faora and Karen made their way from Metropolis to help out with the clean up process.

They really wished that they could during the fight, but unfortunately they were in the midst of a very important meeting when it happened so they couldn't very well leave. They were here now, with Karen using magic to fix the damage that was done to the house and Faora was patching up any lingering damage that Kara suffered that her healing factor didn't quite take care of.

"So, Markos is taken care of, right?" Kara asked.

"Yes, he is," Faora agreed. "He's sealed in a prisoner transfer crystal we grabbed from the caves. And that's where he'll stay until we can figure out what to do with him."

It might seem harsh, but that was what had to be done. He was frozen in time, so no time will pass for him between the time he was sealed and the time he's released. He also tried to murder Kara so he deserved much worse than he was getting.

The finishing touches on things were wrapped up.

"So, did you get all of that?" Kara asked.

"Yes, I get it….I can't believe that you're from another planet though," Marie said, shaking her head.

"And why is that so hard to believe?" Kara asked. "Is it hard to believe that there is intelligent life out there?"

"Well, there has to be somewhere, because sometimes, it doesn't seem like that there's intelligent life here on Earth with some of the people I've met," Marie said.

"Oh, that's harsh," Karen answered, shaking her head. "But it's true….unfortunately true….and I'm sure that you have a million questions."

"Understatement, but yes," Marie agreed. She didn't know what to make of what she found out.

"What you need to understand is that it's pretty important to a lot of different people's safety that this stays a secret," Karen told her.

"I understand, and I swear that I wasn't going to tell anyone anyway," Marie said. "You know….I have powers of my own that I want to keep under wraps."

"How long have you had your powers?" Kara asked Marie.

Marie shrugged in response. "I'm not sure, but they manifested around the time of my fourteenth birthday. It was a little bit after that I ran away from my aunt's house."

She took a deep breath and tried to collect her thoughts. When she was calm enough to do so, Marie pressed on.

"I went to a party and met a boy there," Marie said. "I guess I liked him well enough, well I must have. Because we kissed and then my powers kicked in. I ended up with him being stuck in my head for a long time and he ended up in a coma. As far as I know, he still is in a coma."

Marie closed her arms. She felt Kara's arm wrap around her and pull her in close.

"What happened next?" Kara encouraged. She was trying to encourage Marie to press on.

"I was run out of town by an angry mob, and the next thing I knew…." Marie said. She paused and allowed herself to sigh. "The next thing I knew, I was being chased by an army guy, who kind of looked like the main character from Major Dad."

It took them a moment to get the comparison. The moment things clicked in, Karen crossed her arms underneath her breasts with a sigh. Faora pinched the bridge of her nose and it was obvious that they recognized the person in question.

' _Major Wade Eiling,'_ Patricia piped in. She shook her head in response. _'Oh, and he might be a general now….my father did some business with him once or twice in the past. But he terminated that business relationship due to ethical reasons.'_

"Wade Eiling?" Faora chimed in. She shook her head.

"I don't know, I never heard his name," Marie said, shrugging.

"What happened next?" Karen asked, seeing that this line of questioning was getting them pretty much nowhere fast.

"Well, I was able to stay about one step ahead of the army due to the kindness of strangers, pretty much," Marie answered with a shrug. "People are more willing to give you a ride if you're a girl…..although that's not necessarily a good thing most of the time."

That opened you up to a lot of perverts that were trying to take advantage of her.

"We are getting a bit off track, you know," Faora answered Kara.

"Yes, I'm sorry about that," Kara said. She leaned forward towards Marie. "Is there anything else that you want to know?"

"So, you really are aliens, with superpowers?" Marie asked. She found it extremely hard to wrap her head around, but at the same time, easy at the same time.

"Yes, although the planet we all come from is no longer around," Faora said. "It blew up….a long time ago….a few of us made it to Earth. There are properties from the Earth's yellow sun that give us the extraordinary abilities we now possess."

"Yes, and some of us have magic as well, don't forget that," Kara said. "Not all of us."

"Is there anything else that you want to know?" Karen asked her.

"Yeah, you're all in the relationship with the same guy," Marie said. She picked that out from Kara's memories and she blushed when she recalled some of the really vivid points that she picked out. "How does that work anyway?"

* * *

 

Harry stood in his office at Wayne Enterprises.

"I swear, I am in New York for about a week and the paperwork just flows in," Harry commented.

Tamara laughed in response when she and Harry were going over the paperwork. "I swear, that's always how it goes. Take one sick day, and everything seems to multiply when you're gone. Guess it's best to split this in half, so we can do it in half of the time."

"Good idea," Harry said. He was agreeable to that point.

It was a good idea to go through the paperwork a little bit at a time, and to go through the most important parts of it.

He noticed the most pressing of which is a meeting with Doctor Shondra Kinsolving in the next couple of days.

"Well, I almost forgot this was coming up," Harry said. "Better tackle this one."

Tamara raised her eyebrow and Harry launched into an explanation at least the best that he could. "Doctor Kinsolving is widely regarded to be one of the best Physiotherapists and Orthopedic Surgeons in the country. Therefore, she would be perfect for consulting on this particular project for Wayne Biotech."

"So do you think that she'll accept?" Tamara asked.

"I'm pretty sure that she'll end up accepting, when she sees what we're developing, but I really do want to cover all my bases, just in case," Harry answered.

Tamara nodded in response and decided to ask him something, before she lost the nerve to do so. "What are you doing tonight?"

Harry paused for a moment. He was in the middle of writing something with a fountain pen and didn't really want to mess it up. After deciding it would be easier to finish up what he was in the middle of writing down what he was in the middle of writing, he did so and looked up at Tamara. Now that he wasn't in any danger of smudging the document, Harry decided to answer her question.

"I was planning on going out with Sapphire for dinner tonight," Harry said. "Since I was away on business for a while and her school work has been keeping her busy, I didn't have a chance to go there until now."

Tamara looked a tad bit disappointed, but she nodded in response. It did make perfect sense to her after all.

Harry being the perceptive type he was noticed the look on her face. "There isn't anything wrong, is there?"

She shook her head in response. "No, well not completely. I was just hoping that you might be interesting in getting dinner tonight or something. You can be pretty busy, and I can be pretty busy, so we don't have a lot of time to hang out. But when we do, I thought that we had a lot of fun together."

"We do," Harry said.

Tamara nodded. "Good….well, I was hoping that you would want to hang out…with me, alone….."

She tapered off for a second at the end. She started off pretty strong, but she lost the momentum when she went further along in the speech. Tamara's voice pretty much dropped to a whisper.

"I honestly didn't think that you were interested in me like that," Harry said. "I'm busy tonight and tomorrow, but I'm free Thursday if that will work for you."

Tamara responded with an eager nod, and it was at that time where she decided to beat a hasty retreat so she could recover or at least stop blushing like an infatuated schoolgirl.

She grabbed a stack of paperwork that was in the outbox and headed off to get it sorted.

She didn't exit the room completely when there was a knock on the door, and followed biy it opening.

"Are you busy?" a brunette woman asked, poking her head into the room. "There's something that Mr. Wayne wants you to take a look at."

"Oh, that's right, the two of you haven't been properly introduced yet," Tamara said. She turned towards the woman. "Harry, this is Natalia Romanova, she's Mr. Wayne's new personal assistant. Natalia, this is Doctor Harry Potter….he's the head of…well I guess special projects would be the best description. I'm actually not sure what his title in the company is….but I need to get this taken care of, so I'll see you both later."

Tamara slipped out of the room, businesslike as usual despite her little display earlier. That left Harry and Natalia alone for a moment. It was hard not to see that she was quite beautiful, her mixed Chinese and Middle Eastern ancestry having blended together to create a rather appealing package.

It was obviously that she kept herself fairly fit, but not to the point where she was overly muscled. She dressed enticing enough, but professionally enough where it was not overdone. And interestingly enough, her eyes appeared to be the same shade of his own, something that was extremely rare.

"So, Mr. Wayne wanted me to look over something?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Natalia said and she offered him a tablet that Bruce handed to her.

Once he had it in his hand, Harry brushed his thumb along the scanner so he could access the documents within.

Given what he heard of the events of the other evening, Harry wasn't all too surprised to find out that there was blueprints of what could be a next generation Batmobile.

"So, where are you from, Miss Romanova?" Harry asked her.

"Raised in Saudi Arabia, although I was born in the United States, and went to a private school in London," Natalia answered. "Then, I went to Oxford after I graduated."

"And what brings you to Wayne Enterprises?" Harry asked her.

"Underneath yourself and Mr. Wayne, with your leadership, the company looks to be on the cutting edge of innovation with everything that you've done," Natalia answered. "And I was hoping to get on the ground floor with that. Being Mr. Wayne's personal assistant appeared to be the most ideal way to do it."

Harry smiled and looked over the designs. He noticed straight away a couple of changes that he could make to it right off of the top of his head.

"Did Bruce need this back right away?" Harry asked her. "Because there are a couple of changes that I want to make."

"He didn't specify," Natalia answered. "He just said to make sure that you got them."

"Right," Harry answered in response. He turned the tablet off and moved over to his desk, scribbling a note. "Here, give this to him."

He placed the note in her hand. Their touch lingered for a moment and it was here where Harry caught a whiff of her perfume. It smelled familiar to him.

"Have we met before?" Harry asked her.

Natalia shook her head. "If we did, we would have remembered such a meeting."

She turned and made her way from the office. Her ass swayed extremely enticing as she left.

' _Oh, indeed,'_ Harry thought. He smiled. He never forgot an ass like that. Even if it attempted to kick his in the past.

* * *

 

A couple of hours later, Harry was out on his date with Sapphire Stagg. An individual was carefully watching the events from a safe distance, through a high powered camera lens.

He watched them finish dessert and the two of them were so close to each other that Sapphire might have been spilling over into Harry's lap. She was feeding him what looked to be some kind of sickening sweet chocolate mousse thing.

Every couple of moments, she leaned forward to plant soft kisses on his lips and then she licked her lips rather enticingly.

A few moments later, the couple finished their dessert and paid for it, with Harry leaving a fairly generous tip in response.

The person from afar continued to snap pictures with his camera. Harry stood up and helped Sapphire to her feet.

The man cursed when he lost sight of them for a second. He readjusted his stance, just in time to spot them coming out of the doors. They wore jackets due to the biting cold weather.

Sapphire shivered, but smiled when Harry pulled her in close to him and he wrapped his arm around her waist. The two of them stepped up to the curb.

They were perilously close to the person in the car. He put down his camera and picked up a newspaper to hide his face.

They didn't notice his quick movement. A limo pulled up beside the curb and Harry pulled away from Sapphire to help her inside

The limo pulled away about a minute later. The photographer put down the newspaper, made sure his camera was still in working order, and started the engine. He followed them at a discreet distance.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 10** **th** **, 2015.**


	101. Across the Nation Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and One: Across the Nation Part Three: Gotham.**

* * *

At Midnight, Batman dodged some flaming grenades that were hurled at him by a shadowed assassin, who was intent to working Batman over and finishing him off. They were members of the League of Assassins, in fact these were two different members of the League of Assassins. One of them was the Monkey Fist Clan being led by Silver Money, and the other was a group of the League that was loyal to Ra's Al Ghul, being led in battle by Ubu.

Katana dodged the attacks. She decided to use her trademark weapon to brutal efficiency. It flashed back in her mind how she got from where she was to right here.

Tatsu had been running around Gotham City, as Katana, for a couple of months now. She had pretty much figured out that Bruce Wayne and Batman was one and the same. Since the two of them had similar goals, it made too much sense for them to work together.

The two groups started out the evening occupied with each other, but Batman and Katana got the drop on them. At least so it seemed at first, but the battle turned around for the worst.

On the bright side, if one could call it a bright side, Katana and Batman had managed to stop the two League factions from fighting each other. On the extremely negative side of the situation, it caused Silver Monkey and Ubu to join forces with each other, at least for this particular moment in time.

Ubu was making a direct charge towards Batman. Batman dodged his huge sledgehammer like punches, avoiding him when he tried to take his head off. He flipped over the top of Ubu's head and slammed him down against the wall.

Katana had the pleasure, if that was even the right word to use, of going a few rounds with Silver Monkey. He tried to take her head off, but she blocked his attacks.

She utilized her weapon of choice for expert efficiency, knocking him down.

Batman frowned; he was not going to play their game. He hurled several Batarangs over his head, to try and take Silver Monkey out. Silver Monkey deflected them with a Jian that was tossed to him by one of his followers.

Ubu rushed forward, and Katana sighed. "I guess we're switching dance partners."

His bulk made any punches he would throw brutal, but Katana's speed and agility allowed herself to maneuver herself out of the way. She kept avoiding Ubu's attacks. He kept getting angrier the more that he tried to take her out.

Katana went as high as she could and attempted to cut Ubu from head to groin with an elegant overhead slash. Expertly, he blocked the blade with one of his bracers, and then tried to nail Katana with a vicious headbutt.

She avoided the attack, flipping out of the way and landing on her face. The good news was that she didn't get her nose busted by Ubu's attack. The bad news was she left herself open by an attack of assassins, of both factions of the League.

Batman shifted his footing, grabbed Silver Monkey by the arm, twisted, and sent Silver Monkey flying forwards to crash into a group that was attacking Katana.

Ubu looked over to Batman, raised his hand, and made the international sign to "just bring it."

Several members of Ubu's faction of the League made their way in front of him. Batman didn't move forward, rather he removed several micro-gas grenades in the direction of the League.

One of the League members used his sword to slice into one of the grenades, which was exactly what Batman was hoping for. The grenade burst open and sent a cloud of gas spraying in every direction.

With the opening available, Katana dodged forward, her sword sheathed. There was a sound of "snikt" followed by a flash of light. The group of League members hit the ground, put out of commission.

They were disabled where they weren't going to be making any noise tonight, but they weren't quite dead.

Batman was being double teamed by Silver Monkey and Ubu, who decided to work together. Both of these men were pretty good, equaling him in skill.

He dodged a slash from Silver Monkey's sword by taking a step backwards. The blade didn't hit him, at least not completely. It did a good job in cutting a furrow across the symbol of his chest.

It was also the most armored part of him, so it didn't do any damage. Unfortunately for Batman, that also left him pretty much open to being hammered from behind by Ubu. The vicious attack performed drove Batman down to his hands and knees, knocking the wind completely out of him.

Katana rushed forward in an attempt to assist her fellow warrior. She was forced to abort her momentum and dodge to the right, on the account of the large amount of shuriken that threatened to skewer her at a seconds notice.

The katana wielding warrior avoided or deflected more of the shuriken with her sword. Those of them she deflected, she launched them right back at the person that threw them towards her.

Batman continued the struggle with Silver monkey and Ubu for a little bit longer, because he had the air knocked out of his lungs when Ubu clobbered him from behind. And unfortunately for him, it didn't seem that either part was intent to let him get up any time soon.

Knowing what he must do know, Batman nailed Ubu with a vicious back elbow to the face, which staggered him back. Silver Monkey was grabbed by the ankle and it was twisted around. Batman slammed him hard knee first into the ground with a solid thump.

Batman pulled himself back to his feet, looking very much worse for wear. He dodged Ubu's attempts to take him out with a kick.

Katana continued her titanic struggle against the members of the League the best she could manage. Many were still on their feet and keeping her at range. They hurled weapons, along with long chains with weights at the end. She ducked down underneath the weights and they clang together.

The battle looked to be turning around in an ugly way and the League seemed fully intent to allow neither of them to leave here alive.

A sonic cry erupted from the shadows and crashed into the League with the force of a runaway truck.

Silver Monkey and Ubu paused in the middle of the fight with Batman. It was only for a few seconds, but it was the few seconds Batman needed to get into position. First, Ubu was drilled in the stomach by a rising knee from Batman. He then nailed him in the face with said knee to further send him back.

Silver Monkey, on the other hand, ended up getting snagged by a grapnel hook, which was yanked backwards so hard, and so suddenly that he ended up getting yanked off of the roof.

The members of the League noticed that their leaders were down for the count, so it was likely a good opportunity for them to get out of them.

The remaining members of the Ra's faction of the League rushed forward to attack Batman. This was done in a diversion tactic so they could grab Ubu and get out of there.

The remaining Monkey Fist Clan members don't even bother to do that. They simply disappear into the night.

Black Canary and Nightwing stepped out of the shadows, a potential crisis averted, but a storm was still brewing. And things were bound to get more chaotic the more that they planned for.

Nightwing made his way over to check on Batman, who looked battered from the battle. His medical training allowed him to check to make sure he was fine.

Black Canary slipped over to secure Silver Monkey with Katana.

"I can't believe this," Katana said. Her eyebrow corked up, in complete disbelief.

"I would believe it," Black Canary said.

Silver Monkey slipped out of his bonds by using a throwing knife to sever a wire and disappeared into the night. Both of them turned around to secure the other League members, only to see that Nightwing and Batman already did so.

The four shared a look, but they needed to disappear and fast, because the GCPD was coming here and they needed to discuss what was happening in a more secure location.

* * *

The secure location the group of them needed to go to turned out to be a very tall rooftop that's close enough to the scene of the fight that they could keep an eye on the tied up League members until the GCPD could properly arrive. However, it was far away enough from the scene of the crime where they wouldn't be noticed right away.

Nightwing spoke the obvious, figuring that he could get all of the cards out on the table. "Ra's Al Ghul's faction of the League is back in Gotham."

"Yes," Batman answered. "I noticed. The real question, is why?"

Harry responded with a shrug in response. He naturally knew thanks to the conversation he had with Nyssa. He was keeping the fact he had a source within the League of Assassins to his chest.

"Well, I think that it's obvious," Black Canary said. "They're out for revenge due to the events that happened last summer. After all, it was through Batman and Nightwing's direct actions that their plot was thwarted and Ra's Al Ghul ended up dead."

Batman narrowed his eyes for a moment and he nodded in response. "I don't think it's the only reason why, but it's as good of a reason as any. Why wait until now?"

Katana, who had been quiet up until this point, spoke up. "My sources informed me that the League fell due infighting in the aftermath of Ra's death. They may have not been capable of properly making a move until now."

Batman quickly shot that one done as only he could. "There's more than that to that, I know how the League functions. They never do anything without a reason."

There was a long beat that followed before Nightwing responded.

"You know how the League functions when Ra's is in charge of it," Nightwing responded. "With Ra's being dead, their methods of operations changed drastically."

"I agree," Black Canary answered. "As far as I can tell, there are three separate factions of the League currently active just in Gotham alone. Silver Monkeys, Ra's, and Lady Shiva's."

"Yes," Nightwing agreed. "And Ubu never does anything without his master's direct orders, and with Ra's dead, it means someone else is holding his leash. The real question is who?"

"You know, for someone who was never a member of the League, you seem to know a lot about their inner wokings, Nightwing," Katana said.

Nightwing didn't answer right away, and Batman raised his eyebrow, slowly turning his full attention to Nightwing.

"One of my trainers was a former member, and they were good enough to leave successfully," Nightwing responded. "If that doesn't tell you about the level of skill they have, I don't know what does. I ended up picking up a number of things about how the League functions from things that my training said. And you can always overhear things here and there, if you know where and when to listen and more importantly who to listen to."

Katana seemed rather satisfied by that answer. She turned around and looked out into the city. Batman nodded, it was pretty much what he expected to hear.

Nightwing paused when he looked at Batman.

"We can investigate further," Nightwing said. "But until we know for certain what the League is after, there just really isn't that much we can do."

Batman nodded grimly at that assessment. "There are a couple of places where we can do some digging, but there is no telling for certain if anything will turn up."

Black Canary chimed in. "The tunnel system underneath Old Gotham?"

Batman grunted. "It seems like a good of a place as any to start. There's a lot of ground to cover."

"So, it's best to leave it for a last resort," Harry said.

"Exactly," Batman confirmed.

The GCPD turned up, arriving to round up the members of the League that were captured. The four of them split off from each other. It was best to get one last minute patrol before dawn broke.

* * *

It was around five AM the next morning. Harry was in the process of finishing up a long shower, after a long night he had on the town. He had a meeting later on the morning, but that's not until eleven.

There was plenty of time for Harry to get some sleep. When he got back from patrol, it allowed him to get some time to work out, since that was not something that he wouldn't have a chance to do later in the morning with his normal meeting time.

His nocturnal activities were a workout for sure, but they were a workout of a different kind to be honest.

Harry turned off the water, with a sigh. He reached over to grab a towel to drive himself off.

He stepped towards the direction of the bed, but before he could reach him, two pairs of slim hands grabbed him by the waist. That was something that Harry should be expecting all things considered.

Both of the hands grabbed him and yanked him backwards, so Harry fell back onto the bed. He could feel a pair of lithe lingerie clad bodies join him on the bed a moment later.

Martha wrapped her legs around his body and leaned forward, kissing the hell out of him. She was wearing a lacy black corset and a thong, along with match lacy stockings. He placed his hands on her ass when she draped herself over her body.

The mature redhead practically stuck her tongue down Harry's throat and made out with him in a heated fashion.

The other woman was laying kisses against the side of his neck, slowly sucking the flesh on the side of his neck. Her mouth lingered on his neck, when Martha pushed her tongue deeper into his mouth.

The two of them exchanged a heated kiss with each other, with Harry pushing his way deeper into her mouth. Martha moaned when she felt Harry's talented tongue keep working into her mouth, right into the depths of it. She suckled on his tongue when it drove quicker and more expertly into her mouth.

Martha finally broke the kiss and the second woman took her place. Harry came face to face with Lily, who was wearing green lingerie that matched her eyes. Martha took Lily's place to the side, suckling the pulse point of Harry's neck.

Lily grinded herself up and down on his nude body, and her corset came down, revealing her breasts. She leaned back, keeping them out of reach.

"I think that since Martha is the guest, she should get the first round?" Lily asked. She crawled away from Harry, swaying her ass from one side to the other.

She received a heavy smack on her rear, which caused her to squeal in delight.

Lily waved her hand and caused Martha's panties to disappear and reappear. She slowly crawled her way onto Harry's lap.

"I see that you're really excited to see me," Martha breathed in a sultry voice. She was about to lower herself down onto Harry.

Harry smiled and kissed her fiercely. He moved closer down with kisses, until his face was buried in her chest.

Martha descended down on Harry, while his hand rested on Lily's shapely posterior.

**S-S-S**

Harry ran his hands down Martha's body when she straddled his lap. Her dripping hot pussy was inches away from descending down onto him.

She dropped down onto his cock, moaning when he stretched her out. Martha lifted her hips up and down.

"That's good," Harry grunted. His hands kept trailing down her body.

Her body bounced up and down on Harry's hard manhood. Her hot walls snugly fit around his tool when she kept working herself up and down with an amazing fury. She kept rocking him when she drove herself down onto him.

Lily, not to be let out, crawled onto Harry's face when he laid back. He reached over and grabbed her thighs. He buried his tongue deep into her dripping womanhood. A jolt of pleasure flowed from his tongue through her dripping hole.

"Yes, oh yes, Harry, that's the best spot!" Lily moaned. Harry's tongue swirled between her thighs and hit all of her pleasure spots.

Martha rocked herself up and down onto his massive manhood. It stretched her out in all of the best ways. She thought that she could not have any pleasure. Especially when Harry slowly guided her orgasm through her, reaching a fever pitch, but she was soon to be proven wrong.

"God Harry!" Martha moaned. He touched her breasts, squeezing them. That caused the mature redhead to bounce even further when she rode his tool. Harry channeled his power through her nipples, increasing her pleasure. "That's so…oh that feels…oh yes!"

Martha panted when she drove herself harder down upon Harry's tool. She kept squeezing him and working him over.

Eventually, Martha decided that she wanted some of the action that Lily was getting and vice versa. Lily decided to switch positions with Martha after she got an amazing orgasm.

Harry grunted, when he felt his mother's slick, hot, and warm pussy clench him when she drove herself down onto his rod. It felt like heaven. Harry drove up into the place that he was born from. Lily returned his actions, thrust to thrust. Their slick and warm flesh connected with each other, with Lily driving herself up and slamming herself down onto Harry's throbbing and probing tool when she kept riding him like there was no tomorrow.

"Fuck, Harry, you feel so good," Lily panted. She felt Harry's hands squeeze her breasts and that only encouraged her to drive herself further down onto his massive tool. Her nipples grew stiff when he fiddled with her nipples.

Harry wasn't about to neglect the pussy that hovered over his face. He drove his tongue into her. _'And both of you are mind, you realize that.'_

Harry spoke this thought out loud, which caused Martha to cum hard on his face. She grinded herself up and down on his tongue, riding him like there was no tomorrow. He pushed his tongue deeper into her pussy and licked her.

Lily had a shrieking orgasm at the same time, mostly because of the fact she was mind linked to her cousin when she had her shrieking orgasm at the same time.

"And you started without me."

Rose showed up in the room and she was pouting. She stepped over, slowly stripping off her shirt and jeans to reveal a lacy red pair of bra and panties. She made her way over to the bed.

"Don't worry," Harry said when he had eaten Martha into a pleasurable state of stupor. "I'll make it up for you."

Rose was on her hands and knees, her ass enticingly wiggling in front of him. There was no way that Harry was going to deny himself this treat, from what his aunt had to offer him. He sauntered over towards Rose and slowly prepped his cock for the invasion of her tight ass.

She groaned in pleasure when Harry slammed his cock into her tight ass in response. Rose could feel his throbbing manhood stick deep into her anus. His cock was lubricated with the combined juices of Lily and Martha.

"Yes, that's just right," Harry grunted. "I love fucking your ass, auntie."

"And I love…to have you fuck my ass," Rose whimpered. Harry's balls throbbed with pleasure when he entered her tight, hot hole.

Martha and Lily looked like they had been left out, although to be fair, they had gotten a jump start on things.

Lily, with a wicked smirk on her face, slowly crawled between Martha's thighs. Her tongue pushed deep between Martha's legs and she slowly started to eat Martha's pussy. She brought a more pleasurable sensation between her legs than ever before.

"Yes, that's a good spot," Martha moaned in an agreeable manner, feeling Lily's tongue push into her.

Harry smiled and reached over with each push into Rose's ass. He decided to finger his mother's pussy from behind when he hammered into her sister's ass.

"Oh, you dirty boy, you know what I like," Lily breathed lustfully. She returned to munching on Martha's pussy when Harry kept working her over like that.

"And you're just as dirty for liking the same thing, aren't you?" Harry asked. "Do you like watching your sister be fucked up the ass by me?"

"Yes," Lily whimpered. She felt Martha's legs wrap around her.

"Less talking, more eating," Martha said.

Harry smiled and he sent a bolt of pleasure through the air and channeled them through all of the women. He caused some pleasurable orgasms to flood through all of their bodies. They rocked on the bed.

"Kind of like that, isn't it?" Harry asked them. All of the women whimpered. Harry pretty much had them in the palm of his hands.

His balls loaded up with cum. Harry's self-control and abilities allowed him the ability to store up enough for a great conclusion.

Rose's hot ass clutched him. Harry pumped himself into her from behind and his balls groaned when they sunk into her from behind. Her warm ass clutched him when he pushed into a few times.

The pleasure of Harry's balls finally gave way. He launched his sticky load into Rose's ass. He fired burst after burst of cum into her.

Rose collapsed on the bed in response, cum bubbling out of her ass when she landed on the bed. She had an explosive groan of pleasure when she hit the bed.

Lily removed herself from Martha and crawled over towards Rose. Rose gave a jump of surprise when Lily slid her tongue into her sister's asshole.

Martha moved herself over, wrapping her mouth around Harry, and sucking his cock. Harry groaned when he felt Martha's mouth wrap around him. "That's it, oh god that's it, clean me up, like that."

His balls strained and protested when Martha was sucking him off with expert precision. She slid back, her thighs parted.

His cock slid deep into her hot pussy, and Harry proceeded to fuck his cousin, his aunt, and his mother in turns throughout the night, until they couldn't take any more.

Needless to say, he was rather pleasure with what he accomplished.

**S-S-S**

* * *

Harry sat in the conference room at Gotham General. He was dressed in a midnight blue custom made suit which fit him like a glove. That spoke quite well about his tailor's skill. He currently flipped through the papers.

The person in question he was visiting, she wasn't late. Harry just had this potentially annoying habit of being early to all of his meetings.

Nyssa sat by his side, acting as his bodyguard to the meeting. Harry leaned towards her. "So, perhaps you could enlighten me on exactly what Silver Monkey and Ubu hoped to accomplish last night?"

Silver Monkey's Monkey Fist clan members spent last night duking it out with Ra's loyalists. The only reason why the two groups ceased their battle was because Batman and Katana turned up. Had things ended up differently, or they hadn't shown, it was hard to say what happened.

"While there's infighting within the League, there are some instances that will unite the League," Nyssa said. "One of them is the fact that Batman has been declared to be an enemy of the League as a whole."

"Okay, what about Katana?" Harry asked her.

"Katana is considered to be a traitor to the cause of the League," Nyssa explained. "It made sense in Silver Monkey's eyes and Ubu's eyes to join forces to take out the two of them. And then they would have turned on each other just as soon as their blood had been spilled. Their training allowed them to switch tracts easily, and their men followed suit without question, because of their fealty."

Harry paused for a second. Knowing that particular piece of information, would be extremely interesting. "So, Katana is a former member of the League? That explains a fair amount regarding her."

"Yes, her real name is Yamashiro Tatsu," Nyssa said. Harry raised his eyebrow. "And judging by the expression on your face, I'm relaying old information to you, beloved."

"Continue," Harry said.

"Very well," Nyssa replied. "She was given the mission to infilitrate the League of Assassins by the Central Intelligence Agency. She was able to do so successfully, in fact she was able to do so successfully that she caught Lady Shiva's attention and became her protégée for a time."

It was very impressive, as far as Harry was concerned. It spoke very well of Katana's skill level if she was able to impress the dangerous and infamous Lady Shiva.

"In any case, there was a falling out of some sort," Nyssa said. "I can't be certain on the exact details, but either a mission went wrong, her handlers in the CIA pulled her out, or she accomplished her objective. Regardless of what the case was, she feld from the League in the aftermath. As a result, she is considered to be a traitor who abandoned the cause and there is a kill on sight order on her head."

Nyssa placed her hand underneath her chin and looked extremely thoughtful.

"It's rather interesting she ended up popping up in Gotham when she did," Nyssa concluded.

Before Harry could even comment on the fact, and the conversation can continue on much further, there was a rattling of a door handle being opened. A fairly attractive African woman, who was dressed up like you would expect a doctor to dress, entered the room. Harry smiled and rose to his feet.

"Doctor Kinsolving, it's an honor," Harry said. He reached forward and extended his hand to allow her to shake it.

"Believe me, Doctor Potter, the pleasure is all mine," Doctor Shondra Kinsolving said. "I must say, I was surprised that you wanted to meet me here. And if you don't mind, I have a great deal of professional curiosity."

Nyssa looked at Harry, trying not to say anything.

"What about?" Harry asked in cordial tone.

"How are you feeling in the aftermath of your recent fall?" she asked. "There may be a possibility of lingering injury you might have not noticed at the time."

Harry decided to answer things the best he could. "I'm feeling alright now. I had a bit of a headache for a period of time, and my ribs were pretty tender, but that cleared up several days ago. I didn't feel anything regarding those particular injuries since then."

"Those particular injuries?" Kinsolving asked.

"I have an extremely active lifestyle, and the general aches and pains come with the territory," he informed her.

"If you don't mind me for asking, what kind of activities do you undertake?" she asked him.

Harry ticked off a number of them. "Martial arts training, free-climbing, base jumping, free-climbing, base jumping, running, hang gliding…what can I say, I like to stay active?"

Nyssa's normally stoic demeanor nearly broke with a soft laugh, but she ducked her head to avoid being seen breaking her demeanor for too long.

"Oh, this is Nyssa, my bodyguard," Harry said. "In all of the excitement, I neglected to introduce the two of you."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Doctor Kinsolving said.

"Likewise," Nyssa said, shaking the woman's hand.

"So, now that my professional curiosity has been satisfied, we can get down to business," the good doctor said. Harry smiled in response.

"Yes, I wanted to speak to you regarding two things," Harry said. The two of them sat down. "The first project being the project I've taken control of at Wayne Biotech that deals with cybernetics. Specifically, cybernetics that can be used to replace damaged joints and offer the same range of movement as a natural one."

Shondra looked rather intrigued.

"Although, that's just a start," Harry continued. "Ideally, I wish to work towards creating a cybernetic implant that will be capable of repairing paralyzing spinal injuries. And that would require a…."

"Neural implant as well," she commented. She casually flipped through the file that he brought with him.

"Yes, but we've brought one of the best neurosurgeons in the world to help us with that," Harry commented. "We've gotten past the concept phase and are moving towards the prototype stage. And considering how you're one of the best Physiotherapists and Orthopedic surgeons in the country, we'd ideally like to bring you on in a consulting world."

"Well, I have a couple of questions," she responded. "But, I would like to wait to ask you about them until after I finish reading this file. So what's the second thing you wanted to discuss with me?"

Harry nodded. "In the aftermath of the attack on the homeless a couple of days ago, me and a couple of others, we decided to see what we could do to assist them in recovering from the attack. It was brought to our attention that a Joseph Salvatore ended up with a spinal cord injury. The surgeon was able to repair some of the damage, but he's going to need some Psysiotherapy."

Shondra nodded in response. "And you would be curious if I'm able to take him on?"

"It's already planned to cover the medical expenses of those who were attacked," Harry said. "It isn't a problem at all from covering Mr. Salvatore's medical bills as well."

Shondra smiled for a second. "Well, that's extremely kind of you. I need to take a look at his file and my schedule. But it shouldn't be too much trouble in accommodating the man."

* * *

A couple hours later after his meeting concluded, Harry was dressed in something more casual and he went to pick up Juno, who's dressed casual as well. The two of them went out for a late lunch, sitting in the back of the SUV that Harry drove when the weather in Gotham was shitty as it was during the winter time.

"Pretty busy day all things considered, but then again, you'd know all about having a full day, wouldn't you?" Juno asked him. "I got up around five this morning, worked out, had breakfast, looks through any paperwork that my personal assistant feels is relevant. Then I have to talk to my manager and put out any fires with that."

"Not the biggest fan of that, are you?" Harry asked.

She gave him a knowing smile. "What gave it away?"

"Just figured that might be the case," Harry answered.

"Right," Juno said. "I head off to the studio and I get my briefing from my producer, to go over the topics that are going to be covered on the show we're taping on that day. Then meet briefly with my guests, so they feel welcome, go into makeup, and tape the show…which brings me through about the end of my morning."

"It is a wonder that you were able to find time to have lunch with me in the first place," Harry informed her.

Juno shrugged in response. "Normally, I wouldn't be able to find the time to have lunch….but it's a Friday and I don't shoot an episode of the show on a Friday."

"And for that, I'm eternally grateful," Harry said cheekily.

Juno responded with a cheeky grin of her own. "As well you should be."

Speaking of lunch, they were going to reach their destination in pretty much no time. It was an out of the way restaurant which was developing an outstanding reputation for the quality of their food. It hadn't quite become one of their places that served the elite of the elite just yet, so it didn't pass its humble beginnings.

And the press had just beaten them here. Harry groaned when he slowly slipped the sunglasses had been wearing off of the bridge of his nose and reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose. He shared a tense look with Juno, who shook her head, and reached over to pat him on the hand.

"It will be fine," Juno said. "Although, I will be having words with a couple of members of my staff when I return to the office."

Harry nodded in response to that and casually slipped back on the sunglasses. He exited the vehicle and nearly ran head long to summer Gleeson, who was more or less circling around like a vulture waiting for her next meal.

"Summer, I'm sure whatever you have to say, as important it is, can wait until I've helped my passenger out of the vehicle like a proper gentlemen," Harry said.

Summer stepped back and nodded. The last thing that she wanted to do at this point was piss him off and judging by the tone in his voice, he was a few seconds away from being pissed off.

Harry took her silence as permission to do what he needed to do, not that he needed any of it. He moved over to the passenger side of the vehicle. On his way there, he noticed Vicki standing therein in the distance.

Vicki locked eyes with Harry and the lovely Ms. Vale mouthed. "Slow news day."

Harry shook his head and leaned forward to properly let Juno out. He offered his hand and she took ahold on it. The moment she got close enough to him. "You take Gleeson, I'll talk with Vicki."

Jumo hummed in response and leaned forward, to kiss him on the cheek. That spurred the photographers to start snapping photos.

Summer, smelling blood, took that as a sign that she should start asking personal questions left and right.

"Excuse me, any questions you might have for Miss Jones should be spoken to me."

Juno's personal assistant, who had drove behind Harry's SUV, exited the van behind her.

' _And something tells me that she really does need a can of mace, and maybe a cattle prod to really get through this situation,'_ Amanda chimed in.

' _At the very least, although running them over with her car does seem like a good idea right now,'_ Donna piped up. _'And a tad morbid, don't forget a tad morbid.'_

Vicki looked at Harry and Juno when both of them turned up. "So, would the two of you willing to answer a couple of questions?"

Juno and Harry looked at each other, before Juno responded. "How many is a few?"

"Six, three of them for each of you," Vicki said.

"Yes, that's fine, go ahead," Harry answered.

"Is there any truth to the rumor that you've agreed to cover the medical expenses of the homeless that were injured in the attack the other night?" Vicki asked. "And if so, why?"

"That counts as two questions, Miss Vale," Harry told her. She had an impish smile in response, obviously she hoped that he wouldn't pick up on that. "Yes, I agreed to pay their medical attentions. The reason I did so is because I can and because it's the right thing to do. I could make a speech filled with a lot of flowery public relation terms about how I wanted to give back to the community, this, that, or the other thing. Or that I want to help the downtrodden masses that couldn't help themselves."

Harry paused and considered something.

"I wouldn't consider the homeless to be helpless, many of them have delved a bad hand in life, and for many of them, it's a series of unfortunate events that they're still reeling from," Harry said. Vicki nodded, placing her hand underneath her chin and nodding. "If I didn't do it, there was a pretty good chance that someone else would step in."

"So, are you aware of the criticism that's been leveled against you recently regarding the fact that the various charitable organizations you support only focus on women?" Vicki asked after a moment's consideration.

Harry blinked in response. "Yes…I was aware, but it isn't true. It might seem that way, but that's due to the amount of attention those causes receive in the press. They focus about as much as men and other causes; it just doesn't pop up as often."

Vicki nodded and she slowly turned around to ask Juno her questions.

* * *

It was obvious that being able to eat at the restaurant wasn't going to work today, at least being able to eat in the restaurant. The press interrupted what was going to be a private and really private date.

The two of them got in the back seat of Harry's SUV and drove off, parked in a drive-in at a location that was half way between being a fast food place and an actual restaurant. The two of them decided they could go for something simple, like a hamburger.

"I didn't think that you ate beef," Harry said.

That caused Juno to look surprised. She gave him a questioning look. "And what made you think such a thing?"

"I thought that cows were sacred to you," Harry answered.

Juno responded by chuckling at the sound at that. "They are, but I still eat them. After all, they were sacrificed to me for a reason, and the Greeks used to sacrifice one hundred to me at the time."

At this point, she took a big bite out of her burger. Shrugging, Harry just simply nodded, and took a sip of his drink. "I don't even know why I thought that."

"You might have heard that cows were scared of me," Juno suggested. "Therefore, my cult treated them in a similar way as any other religion that revered a sacred animal did."

Harry swiped a couple of fries, since she wasn't eating hers, and he was done with his.

"Are you feeling okay?" Juno asked. "You were a bit close to losing your cool earlier. That really isn't like you, and I wonder if something's bothering you."

Harry took a long bite of his hamburger, calmly considering the matter. "It's just that I've been a bit stressed out lately. There have been a couple of times recently where the girls have been put in dangerous situations, and I wasn't able to take care of them."

He decided to make Juno's obvious point for her. "And yes, I know that they're perfectly capable of taking care of themselves, but at the same time, I don't like the fact that they were in danger and I couldn't come to their assistance if they ever needed it."

Juno smiled at him, before using her napkin to wipe her mouth, and leaned forward to kiss him on the lips. She leaned back and smiled. "That's sweet, Harry. It's stupid and overprotective, but sweet."

Harry was pleased by the kiss, but he honestly was pleased with being called stupid for wanting to protect the girls. "Why is it stupid that I want to protect my girls?"

"There's nothing wrong with that," Juno said. "It's just that both instances the girls got into trouble without you, the girls were more than capable of taking care of themselves. Although Kara could likely stand to get back into fighting shape, if the fight between herself and the third rate Anataeus wannabe is any indication. She's been slacking on her training."

' _I guess she's got a point,'_ Kara chimed in over the bond. _'I can't even make the same excuse as Faora and Karen can about being too busy lately.'_

Karen chimed in fairly smugly. _'Even though we're busier than you are lately, we still find the time to train, you know.'_

Kara sighed. _'You've got a point. I'll pick up on my training when I get home, maybe Harry can find a way to whip me back into shape.'_

It was Diana who chimed in through the bond. _'Well if he doesn't….I will.'_

' _I'm doomed,'_ Kara thought. _'Wait a minute…how does Hera know how I did against Markos….unless she was watching my fight?'_

Juno gave an extremely cheeky grin in response. "Well to be fair, I'm a goddess, we can see a lot, and that makes us the ultimate voyeurs."

"Point well taken," Harry said. "And I'm sure everyone on the bond agrees, but you already knew that."

Juno decided that it was best to shift the topic to another area. Since, they finished their food, Juno took ahold of Harry's arm, lifted it, and then adjusted herself so she could be properly pressed up against him the best that she could be in an SUV. More or less, she was basically sitting on his lap. Harry wrapped his arm around her waist in response, and she offered a pleased smile, pressing her chest against his head right where his heart was located.

"So, is there anything else bothering you?" Juno asked her.

"The League of Assassins has me on the edge," Harry commented. "Unlike Falcone or the other crime lords, who are predictable enough that I can usually plan for and subsequently counter their actions as a result, the League is a lot less predictable than the Mob, and there are certain factions that know Harry Potter and Nightwing are one and the same."

"So what's why you're more on edge as a result?" Juno asked. She absent mindedly ran her fingers through his hair and looked into his eyes. She pulled him into a heated kiss as a result.

Harry returned in response, until a lot of tension has left his body.

"As a Queen," Juno said, after pulling way. "I would advise to fight the battle of the League of Assassins the same way that a general would fight a war against the guerrilla forces would."

Harry smiled, but she pressed a finger to his lips to prevent him from saying something. "Or perhaps….as this may very well be more accurate, a shepherd protecting his flock against a pack of hungry wolves. It might be a role reversal but….the League isn't expecting it."

Harry could see where she was coming from. They would have to be careful, because the League had been at this game for some time. Then again, Harry and his allies had been at it at it for some time as well.

* * *

Outside of a used car dealership that was just on the edge of Columbus, Ohio, a dark blue Porsche pulled into the lot. An attractive brunette who wasn't much more than sixteen exited the car. It was obvious that she wasn't dressed for the cold weather since she wore a silver dress which barely covered her ass, high heel shoes, stockings, and a leather jacket. She resembled someone who had just come back from a night of club and the party.

An extremely rotund individual stepped out. He was wearing a white costume made suit, with dark hair and a goatee. The fabric strained against his ample frame and the only thing causing his suit to split was sheer faith. He caught sight of the woman who arrived and exited the portable that used as his office.

The owner of the used car dealership, Big Bob, leered at her in a way that would make any uncomfortable. "What, can I do for you, hot stuff?"

"I want to sell my car, for cash, if it's all that possible," the young woman answered.

"Brand new car, and you want to sell it?" Big Bob asked. "Hey, I'm not questioning ya, but I figured that a hot young thing such as yourself would want a hot young car for yourself."

"It's a nineteen ninety-eight, the best model that you're going to get on this car lot, I haven't even wrecked this one," she responded.

"The rear looks to be in pretty good shape," Big Bob said with a leer. "Fifteen thousand big ones."

"Thirty thousand for this car," the woman answered.

"Okay, fine, I'll give you twenty thousand dollars, but only because you've got such good taste," Big Bob. "So, why don't you step into my office, and we'll get some business done?"

He drew his tongue over the area of his lips in a grotesque manner. The woman followed into his office, and he pushed the paperwork out in front of her.

The name "Thea Queen" was sketched on the paperwork. Big Bob reached over to get the cash.

"So, if there's anything that I can do for you, Big Bob will take good care of you, little missy?" he asked.

"Yeah, is there a bus depot around here?" Thea asked.

"Who needs the bus, I'll drive you anywhere you want, honey," Big Bob said.

Thea responded with a disgusted face. "No thanks, I'll pass on that one."

"There's one on the other end of town, but it's going to be a hell of a walk in there in those heels," Big Bob said. He handed her the money.

"Whatever," she said. He stepped towards her and gripped her by the arm. "Get your hands off of me, your disgusting pig."

Thea responded by kicking him in the balls. Big Bob doubled over, giving an extremely prominent grunt of pain.

She made her way across the parking lot towards the street. The mechanic who worked for Big Bob whistled in response. "So, where are you heading anyway?"

Thea stopped and thought for a moment. "Gotham City seems like about as good of a place as any."

With those words, she made her way to the direction of the bus depot.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 13** **th** **, 2015.**


	102. Metamorpho Smash Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Two: Metamorpho Smash Part One.**

* * *

"Some of them might not be able to show it because of their stubborn pride….but they're pretty pleased and grateful of all that you've done to help us get back on their feet."

The recent attack from Black Mask's gangsters had been another blow to the homeless population of Gotham City. Valentine's Day was coming up, yet, many unfortunately did not feel the love after what happened. Many felt what little security they had become shaken thanks to the attack.

Parker, who after having been able to shower, shave, and get a clean change of clothes to look like a different man, was in the process of showing Harry, Veronica, and Rose around.

"We've been putting all of the goods that you've sent us to good use, and it's really inspired some of us to be united closer together," Parker continued as he showed the group around. "This abandoned elementary school was really an upgrade for a lot of the accommodations that we were under."

The cafeteria was used for its intended purpose. Rose, Veronica, and Harry walked past a gymnasium that served as a sleeping area.

"People have made use of sleeping bags if they have them, and if not, they make use of folded up wool blankets," Parker explained to them.

"We're going to have to donate more supplies," Harry answered. He thought that they weren't going to be completely short of sleeping bags.

"Hey, after all you've done, we've got plenty, and hopefully by the spring, some of us can get back on our feet," Parker said. It set a lot of the homeless back because they listened to a false prophet. "Doctor Thompkins has been by, to check some of the people out, to make sure they're taking care of themselves. And…we got some guy who used to be an engineer, he was able to rig up a generator that got us better power to the school."

Harry nodded.

"I guess what, I'm trying to say, is that I'm pretty thankful for all of what you've done, we all are," Parker added. "It will be a shame when we have to move on, but we're thankful for all of the help."

Veronica nodded with a warm smile crossing her face. "Is there anything that you're in desperate need of?"

"We could use some beds…not the best, but….we could use them," Parker admitted. It sounded like that he was a bit pained asking. His pride got the better of him sometime.

"We could double up on sleeping bags, it shouldn't be too hard to get some over here in the meantime," Veronica said. "And then after that….we should be able to get what we need over there."

"It'd just be a lot easier if we just buy the building," Harry commented.

"Actually, I've looked into the possibility," Rose said. Harry raised his eyebrow. "We can convert it into a full time shelter/community center. It's already halfway there, it wouldn't take too much effort."

"Right, I'd say we go for it," Harry answered. He turned to the man. "Seems like you have a pretty good head your shoulders and the other homeless respect you, so you would be a good person to run the place."

"Well, that's an idea, but I don't know," Parker said. He figured that he was already trying to guide them and it might be a good idea to become more official in that role.

"We can get people here to help out as well," Rose said. "We can hire teachers designed to teach classes to get the homeless back on their feet, maybe counselors as well."

Harry paused to consider that for a moment. "There might be a couple of logistics we need to work out first, the most important one would be whether or not the city would be willing to sell us the building in the first place, and if so, how much they're willing to part into it."

"That's something that we can look into later," Rose said.

The group reached the Gymnasium where the majority of the homeless were gathered. There were a couple of colorful figures there.

"So, admit it," one of the homeless figures said. "It's true that you're a dragon that's come from an alternate universe to take a form of a human and steal all of our women."

"Well, I haven't quite heard that theory," Harry said, shaking his head.

"You'd have to excuse Brian, he has some interesting theories," Parker said.

"Yea, well Deacon Blackfire was really possessed by some ancient demon entity called Wyatt, and you people didn't believe me then," Brian the conspiracy theorist said. "And there's also giant turtles lurking around in the sewer systems in New York, and they're really aliens, plotting to steal all of our pizza."

Harry shook his head and chuckled. Veronica shifted herself on her feet and stepped forward with him. He caught sight of someone that he had wanted to meet for a long while, but strangely never met until now.

"Excuse me for a minute," Harry said to Veronica and Rose and he detached himself.

He made his way towards a fairly attractive brunette woman in her forties, or there about. There was a makeshift medical clinic set up.

Harry waited until she finished jotting down what she was writing and then when she was down, he knocked on the door.

"Oh…come in," the woman said. She was surprised to see him.

"Hello, Doctor Leslie Thompkins isn't it?" Harry asked. She nodded. "I'm Doctor Harry Potter."

"I know….I was surprised to see you of all people standing outside of my office door," she replied. She sounded a little less flustered when she spoke.

"Well, I, along with a couple of others offered the homeless some assistance after they were attacked, "Harry said. "We figured that we'd swing by to make sure everything was doing alright, and if they needed any help, offer that."

"Yes, that's nice….most people would just leave it at the token assistance," Leslie said. She reached forward and shook his hand. "Although, you're not most people, are you?"

She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Is there anything that I could do for you while you're here?" she asked him.

"Well, I saw you working through your office window, and I've been looking to meet you for a while," Harry said. "And I thought it would be nice to properly introduce myself."

"Well, that's nice of you, and turns out that I've wanted to meet you for a while as well," she said. "I wanted to thank you in person for a couple of the donations you've made to my clinic over the years."

Harry smiled. "I'm happy to help if I can, and there were a couple of people whose opinion that I trust told me that you did good work."

"Well, it turns out that I've heard the same about you," Leslie said. She paused and added. "And I've likely heard it from the same people."

She moved around the area, scooping up various files and placing them in a box that sat on a chair nearby.

"Why don't I help you?" Harry asked. "I can tell that it's been a long day for you."

"Yes, thanks," Leslie said. "They seem to be piling up a little bit."

"Well, why don't I care them for you?" Harry asked. He scooped up the boxes so he could carry them to her vehicle. "It's pretty surprising that we haven't met for today….we likely should have at some point, given that I've been in Gotham City for years."

"Well, I don't tend to go to that many social gatherings, you know, I like my peace and quiet," she said. "And I avoid big events….so unless you deliberately sought me out, there really wouldn't be any reason we would have ran into each other."

"Looks like I'm going to have to correct that going forward, then," Harry said.

"Well, that would be interesting, wouldn't it?" she asked. The two of them walked the way out to Leslie's vehicle the rest of the way.

* * *

A couple of hours later, Harry was at a small club. He was on a date with Alexa Luthor and Sapphire Stagg, and both girls had their bodyguards in tow.

Thankfully, Mercy Graves, Alexa's bodyguard, kept a respectful distance out of respect of Alexa and Harry's ability to take care of themselves in a fight and also to allow them to maintain their personal space. Rex Mason, Sapphire's bodyguard, was staying fairly close to Harry, Alexa, and Sapphire, so close in fact that it almost seemed like he was interfering in their day. He hadn't come close to crossing the line just yet, but he was dancing over it.

Alexa and Harry were able to ignore his presence. Sapphire looked to be irritated however. She didn't really want a bodyguard in the first place, and only went along with it to give her father piece of mind. She tolerated him so far, but if he kept stepping on her toes, his tolerance was finally running out.

Somehow, she was able to keep herself in check and try and enjoy her date. Something which was becoming hard, since he was glaring at the back of Harry's head and she could see him doing it from where she's sitting.

"You really have your plate full, don't you?" Alexa asked Harry. Harry nodded in response.

"Yes, I've been having to write a brand new paper pretty much every day as a result of my course load," Harry said. "It makes a lot of sense considering the fact that I'm getting my Doctorate in Psychology over the course of a single school year."

Alexa nodded. She was just as intelligent as Harry, having her Doctorates in Bio-Chemistry, Theoretical Physics, and Business of all of her own. "You know, I can really see where you're coming from."

Sapphire looked at them. Granted she was smart, but she wasn't insane smart. To see the type of course load both of them worked on was insanity.

"And you've done that five times before this," Sapphire said with a whistle. "But that makes me curious about something…."

She turned to Alexa and looked at her. "Why do you only have three?"

Alexa casually took a sip of her drink and looked at Sapphire. "Because, I have nothing to prove to anyone. Harry, on the other hand, he seems resolved to set the world on fire. It's a pretty admirable quality for him, if I may say so myself."

"It's a fair point, "Harry agreed. "But you did also graduate from high school a bit later than I did. If you graduated at age elven, it would have been possible that you would have had more."

"But, it would have been a shame, because if I did, I wouldn't have been roommates with Sapphire at private school," Alexa said. "And that would be a shame, because you're one of the handful of people that I am really fond of."

Sapphire was going to take that as a compliment. She beamed in response and reached over the table to squeeze Alexa's hand.

Harry smiled at the interplay. He could sense the glaring from behind.

"Do, I have something on the back of my head?" Harry asked. He turned around and saw Rex looking at him.

The two men met eyes for a few minutes, at least until Rex looked away and looked at the ground.

Harry sighed, slipping off of his glasses. He pinched the bridge of nose. He turned to Sapphire who looked a slight bit embarrassed. He cleaned the lenses casually and leaned towards Sapphire. "What's Mason's problem?"

"He isn't a bad guy….he's mostly tolerable to be around when he isn't being my shadow," Sapphire said. "But, he developed a crush on me, or something. And since you're dating me, he doesn't like you as a result."

Sapphire sighed and she shook her head.

"Up until now, his behavior hadn't been too bad, but now it's pretty insufferable," Sapphire answered. She slowly slipped off her shoes and slowly ran her stocking clad foot up and down Harry's leg. "I've been thinking about talking to my father, having him reassigned to work to the Stagg Industries head office. He used to be a marine and they need a security director, so he would be a perfect fit."

"Well, if he doesn't ship up, I can have Mercy thump him," Alexa said.

"I don't think that you need to do that Alexa," Sapphire said.

"I think that would be the best idea, Sapphire," Harry said.

"What, having Mercy thump Mason over there?" Alexa asked.

"No, not that, I mean, having him reassigned," Harry said. That might be a good idea as well if he didn't check himself, but he wasn't about to say it out loud. "It would be awful to see the guy lose his job on my account."

Harry turned to Alexa. It was obvious that she wanted some attention of her own, even though Sapphire's soft toes were running their way on the inside of his thighs. "So, how are things going at LuthorCorp? Last you told me, you booted William Earle out of his office and his entire staff to the floor below the one that you're working at."

Alexa made a face at the mere mention of Earle's name. "Lionel likes surrounding himself with extremely intelligent idiots and Earle must have some incriminating blackmail on him. Those are the only two logical reasons I can think of him keeping Earle around and making him CEO after their plot to take over Wayne Enterprises ended up following apart."

Sapphire winced. That didn't seem like the most glowing of endorsement to be honest. "Really, that bad?"

Alexa paused and considered the answer to that question. "The man's a skilled enough businessman. That's been proven face if you consider his stewardship after he took over from Phillip Kane. Wayne Enterprises grew, but at the same time, he's a bureaucrat to the core, incapable of thinking outside of his very narrow box. Not to mention, he has that awful habit of shooting the messenger."

She turned her full attention to Harry. "What's your opinion on the man?"

She wanted to know this because Harry did work with the man briefly before he ended up being fired before Wayne went public. Sapphire raised her eyebrow when she surveyed Harry.

"There was a reason why Bruce and myself decided to fire Earle and bring in Lucius Fox on as CEO," Harry answered. "Well, there were a couple of reasons. The big one is that he was a part of a conspiracy to take over the company, but that was far from the only one. Alexa….well she said pretty much the others."

Alexa looked rather smug.

"So, Earle's been fighting you all the way?" Harry asked.

This look caused Alexa to look less smug. She offered him a wry smirk. "For about every little fucking thing like the passive aggressive bitch that he is. On the bright side, he's afraid to go to Lionel because while he doesn't like bad news particularly well, if there's one thing that Lionle hates, it's whiners. And there's no way that he can spin it without looking like a whiny bitch."

Alexa slowly worked her foot up Harry's leg, to join Sapphire's. The two of them seemed to be dueling for domination, right over the area of Harry's crotch.

Harry, on the other hand, was doing a very admirable job of showing self control, all things considered.

"How are you going to handle Earle?" Harry asked her.

Alexa shrugged. "I can handle Earle. He's the type of person who approaches and reacts to things a certain way. That makes him easy to counter. Well it makes it easy for me to counter…anyone else could have a little bit of trouble."

Harry had to admit, that was pretty much how they were able to outmaneuver him at Wayne Industries. "It's all about giving them enough rope to hang themselves."

Sapphire laughed softly. "The two of you are unbelievable, you know that."

"We try our hardest," Alexa said in a dry tone.

She shook her head. "So, are the two of you going to be attending the event that Stagg Industries is going to be hosting in a couple of days?"

"I spoke to the girls about it," Harry said. "Consider your father's company's history with the environment, they had their reservations. But….they did so in order to support you."

Sapphire couldn't help but smile.

"Lionel's going to be flying in to attend it, so I'll be attending it with him," Alexa said. "And there's a pretty good chance Lex will drag himself away from wherever to attend it as well."

It was at this point that what the girls were doing was slowly starting to work Harry off. They finished the bottle of wine the three of them had been sharing.

Harry closed his eyes. "So, are we going to head back now?"

"Yes, to my apartment, if you don't mind," Sapphire said. She giggled in response.

She had to admire Harry's ability to fight off the very obvious biological action that he might be having. He rose to his feet and offered his hand to the two girls.

They slipped their shoes back on and rose to their feet. Harry slapped a fifty dollar bill on the table, and then the three of them made their way out the door.

Mercy fell into place behind them. Mason on the other hand, walked alongside them.

Harry reached forward to open it for the girls. The only problem was Mason leaned forward to do it at the same time. That resulted in him shoulder checking Harry out of the way. It was hard enough, where he ended up falling backwards into Alexa and Sapphire.

His lightning fast reflexes allowed him to catch Sapphire before she hit the ground. She had a pained grimace on her face. Mercy did the same to Alexa before she hit the ground.

Rex Mason looked surprised what happened and he reached forward to help Harry hold Sapphire up right.

"THAT'S IT!" Sapphire snapped. She was at the end. She slapped his hand away. "Just, leave me the fuck alone, I wouldn't be hurt if it wasn't for you being like this….LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE, DON'T TOUCH ME! As far as I'm concerned, you're fired, and don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out either."

Rex stood there blinking and he growled in rage. "This is your fault, Potter!"

He aimed a punch towards Harry's head in all of his hot headed macho rage. Harry couldn't block the punch because he was carrying Sapphire bridal star.

He didn't have to, for Mercy blocked his punch. She stared down Mason and then waffled him over the arm with an extendable baton. She followed it up by nailing him in the thigh, and then swept him off his feet.

"Stay down," Mercy told him. "Until we're gone….try that again, and you will be leaving on a stretcher."

Without another word, the four left Rex Mason on the ground.

"We better get her some medical attention," Alexa said. She fumed a little bit, just a little bit. Mason really was a blowhard this time. "Good work, Mercy."

Sapphire smiled a little bit despite the situation.

* * *

Simon Stagg, billionaire industrialist, was currently in the process of burning the midnight oil. He stood over several blue prints and frowning when he was trying to make a decision.

A dark haired man of Samoan descent, with slicked back black hair, wearing sunglasses despite the fact that they were indoors at night, watched him. He looked like a rough and tumble individual, one that you didn't want to throw down with.

"I'm pretty sure that this will satisfy both business and environmental concerns, boss,' the man said when he looked over it.

"But, what I'm concerned of, Java, is security," Simon answered. "If you have any suggestions, I would be glad to hear them."

"One of them I could figure out offhand is cutting down the number of access points into the building, the factory area if we can," Java commented. "The second is restricting the number of people who can access different parts of the building."

"Yes, through keycards, I know," Simon replied.

"And posting security at the most traveled access points would be widely efficient," Java said. "And security cameras at the less traveled ones would work out just as well."

Java paused and placed his hand underneath his chin, looking at his boss thoughtfully.

"But, you know all of this already, boss, so what's really on your mind?" he asked.

Stagg spent a moment resting his head on his hand. He dug the sleep out of his eyes. He reached over and poured himself a drink.

"I'm not sure why," Stagg offered. "I'm just living on the edge for some reason. It's like something bad is going to happen, or is going to happen. Just not entirely sure what it is."

It was no sooner did those words leave Simon Stagg's mouth where there was a knock on the door. Java made his way over the door to answer it.

Simon decided to sit down on a rather comfortable looking chair.

Java opened the door and saw a rather banged up looking Rex Mason standing there.

"What happened to you?" Java asked.

"I'd like to speak with Mr. Stagg, and I can answer that question, but I'd prefer not to answer that question twice," Mason said. "I'd don't like to explain things twice."

Java shrugged and moved back to allow Mason inside the office. Mason limped forward, after that Luthor's bodyguard smacked him in the leg with a baton.

As Rex moved past him, Java's cell phone rang. He finished it out of his pocket. He listened to the person on the other end and left one comment statement. "Yes, go ahead."

"What the hell happened to you, Mason?" Stagg asked.

Rex scowled in response. "There was a misunderstanding earlier this evening. Harry Potter….he had been drinking, and things got a little heated. He thought that I was interfering on his date with your daughter…..and he assaulted me. Your daughter got hurt, when he tried to push me out of the way, she twisted her ankle."

Stagg looked at Rex Mason, raising an eyebrow. Java finished listened to the person on the other end of the line. "It's Sapphire, she wishes to speak with you."

After hearing that story from Mason at what happened tonight, Simon snatched the phone.

The moment, Simon Stagg had the phone, Java crossed his arms and stared at Rex Mason, looking like he wanted to set fire to the young man with his eyes. Mason gulped in response. He might be touch, but Java was a big guy and could eat him for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

"Yes, yes, thanks for setting me straight Sapphire," Simon said. He was oddly cool, or at least as cool as a person could be considering the circumstances. His teeth gritted and they started to grind together. "Is there anything else….yes…..it's a recurring thing….yes, I see…..no, no, you should have come to me sooner because of this. Are you sure that you're okay now? "

He paused in listened.

"Yes, I love you, and I'll see you tomorrow for lunch," Stagg said.

He hung up the phone and passed it wordlessly to Java. Java calmly took it from his employer.

Simon Stagg rose to his full height and slammed his hands on his desk. "You….are a deceitful fuck if you thought that you could pull the wool over my eyes. "

He stabbed Mason in the chest.

"You think that you could lie to me straight to my face about what happened to my daughter and then act like that you're not in the wrong," Simon said. "Think again, you bastard. My daughter was upset because of what you did. When I told you to be her bodyguard, I didn't mean to make her feel uncomfortable."

"Sir, I was…."

"I wasn't done speaking, Mason," Stagg said. He raised his finger and started poking it in his face. "She called me and told me everything, and then you tried to take a swing at the young man who was helping my daughter out of there! You could have hurt her even worse. I'm glad that Alexandria Luthor's bodyguard roughed you up. I would have had Java do much worse if I would have been there."

Java nodded gruffly, having his hands on the other side of Masons' chair.

"It was all his….."

"I don't fucking care!" Stagg snapped in response. He didn't want to hear it. "My daughter ended up injured because you're nothing but a fuck up! A glorified fuck up. I don't want to even see you using the restroom at a Stagg Industries building after tonight."

"What are you trying to say?" Mason asked.

"I'm saying that effect immediately, you're no longer an employee of Stagg Industries," Stagg said. "Java, escort him to his office so he can get his crap and then I want him out of my fucking building!"

Stagg slammed his fist down. Java grabbed Mason by the shoulder and wretched him up to a standing position. He marched him out of the office, where Mason's feeble protests fell on deaf ears.

Stagg reached down and took a deep breath. His doctor would not be happy with his blood pressure this evening.

* * *

Rex Mason didn't take too long to clear off the items from his desk. A camera laid on top of the box.

Java's gaze swept over him. "Is that everything?"

Rex considered the question for a moment. "I have some things in a locker near the gym on the first floor still."

"We can go collect the rest of your things from it before I escort you out of the building," Java said.

Rex Mason nodded fairly gratefully. While he isn't really pleased with what happened, Java was being reasonable all things considered. The two gentlemen headed towards the direction of the building, since Mason's former office was located towards the back of the building and the elevator was towards the front of it. Needless to say, it's a bit of a hike in order for the two of them to arrive.

At the corner, they ran into a black clad figure that was dressed similar to someone who you expected someone who was an expert in infiltration or stealth to dress. Mason was sent to the floor in surprise and the black clad figure was sent a foot or so back, but kept his footing.

He stood firmly on his foot and peered into Java's eyes. There was no more than a distance of five feet in between them.

Mason, while having been knocked on his ass, looked up. The stare down between the three parties seemed to last for an eternity, even though it was around a minute.

The black clad figure made his first move. He whipped his bag forward, catching Java in the midsection with it, in time to double him mover. He followed it up by sending a picture perfect spin kick to the head of the bigger man.

The bag bounced off of Java's chest, instead of him catching it. There was a rattle of glass, like several bottles hanging together as a result, and it fell right beside Mason.

The second kick was blocked by Java with his right forearm. He tossed a punch at the black clad figure. The black clad figure dodged the punch, by shifting backwards.

Mason swept his legs out from underneath him and in one fluid moment, drew his side arm from his holster. The black clad figure avoided falling on his ass.

Java charged at him. Both men exchanged blows, with the mysterious individual dodging most of Java's high impact attacks. He maneuvered him into place and drilled him right in a pressure point right below the elbow, and followed by hitting him in the torso hard. He finished him off by nailing him with a flip kick.

This attack caused Java to stagger backwards like he was a drunk.

Mason took advantage of being forgotten by shooting the Black Clad Figure in the right shoulder. The figure dressed in black grimaced rather briefly, but didn't allow that to phase him. Rather he ambled forward and ripped the gun from Mason's grip. He disarmed him fairly handily and caused him to be sent crashing down onto the ground.

Mason crashed down onto the leather bag that had been thrown down extremely hard. There was the loud sound of shattering glass as soon as Rex made contact.

Before the black clad figure could do anything else, Java grabbed him around the top of the head and his lower job. He twisted the man's head like he would turn a cork off of the bottle. There was a sickening crack when the black clad figure dropped down to his knees, the breath knocked out of him as a result. The Black Clad Figure dropped lifelessly to the ground a few seconds later.

Java let out a satisfied grunt and took his breath. It seemed like the situation was resolved.

Rex Mason started to scream bloody murder. Java turned and was caught with an awful sight.

The younger man literally started to melt into a puddle of goo before his very eyes.

Simon Stagg rushed up the hallway, just in time to be greeted by the fairly grisly sight before him. He stopped short at the edge of the hallway and looked on somberly.

"There's nothing that we can do," Stagg said. He grabbed Java's wrist, preventing him from going forward. "If we touch him, there's a good chance that whatever is happening to him, will happen as well."

Java stepped back. "We need to call the cops."

"Yes, and we need a hazardous materials team as well," Stagg said. He looked down at the smoking pile of goo that was once Rex Mason.

* * *

Sapphire walked with a purpose and with Harry in toe, the next day. Her ankle was still messed up, but that didn't stop her from making her way through the Stagg Industries office building with determination and purpose.

The lobby, which for some reason, was swarming with cops, and that seemed rather odd. It was wasn't much better outside, since the Press was pretty much swarming the front entrance. It was a stroke of luck that they were more concerned with what was happening inside, rather than the two of them when they arrived.

And when they noticed Harry and Sapphire were here, they had been ushered inside by cops. And left standing inside by the cops, without any clue whatsoever what's happening.

Harry spotted Sarah standing next to a couple of patrolman. He gripped Sapphire gently by the hand and steered her directly in her direction.

The two of them waited patiently for Sarah to finish up. She did and turned around, noticing the two of them standing there. She looked surprised to see the two of them standing there.

"What are you doing here?" Sarah asked.

"We were supposed to meet my father for lunch, but he never showed up," Sapphire said. "We called him, but there was no answer. I tried to call his bodyguard, and he didn't response. We decided to come to his office to check up on him, and when we got here….well we ran into this."

Sarah proceeded to explain. "There was a burglary last night, and two people ended up dead as a result."

Sapphire gasped.

"Your father is fine," Sarah explained. That caused Sapphire to relax at ease, at least a little bit. "He wasn't involved in the incident as it happened."

Sapphire was more relaxed than she was before. She was able to slump against Harry a bit in the process of doing so due to the strain of her ankle.

"Are you okay?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, I just need to sit down," Sapphire answered. Harry led her over to a chair and sit her down. "I just twisted my ankle last night, that's all."

"So, is it okay for us to go on up?" Harry asked. He came to the conclusion that Sapphire wanted to see her father. Despite the fact that he sat her down on the chair, she was still not letting go of his hand.

"I was heading back anyway," Sarah answered. "So, I can escort you up to Stagg's office, it should keep people from asking too many questions."

Sapphire nodded in relief and Harry helped her up. The three of them made their way over the radio.

The door opened and a group of officers stepped out. One of them spoke. "It's a real fucking mess up there, isn't it?"

They hushed up a moment later, seeing Sarah standing there alongside two civilians. Sarah was giving them a look for being unprofessional and that didn't really help them from keeping their composure.

The female detective let it pass without comment, as she led Harry and Sapphire into the elevator. She hit the floor number and the doors slid shut.

The moment the doors slid shut and there was no danger of them being overheard, Harry leaned forward towards Sarah. "So, what happened?"

"There was a break in last night, apparently somebody wanted something that was being kept in a high security vault on the top floor near where Simon Stagg's office is," Sarah explained to him. "We aren't sure what's taken beyond the fact. It's likely to be some kind of experimental serum that they were working on, but we don't know for certain. There were a couple of other items that could be taken."

Sarah paused for a second and allowed that to all set in, before she continued.

"Anyhow, the perpetrator who broke into the building ended up killing the Security Guard that posted as extra security near the vault," Sarah continued. "With that out of the way, he accessed the vault, acquired the item that he came for, and made his way to the nearest exit. He met Java, Simon Stagg's bodyguard, and another man….Rex Mason?"

Sapphire placed her hand over her mouth, but shook her head.

"He used to be your bodyguard, wasn't he?" she asked.

"Yes, but he was let go due to a conflict of interest," Sapphire confirmed.

"Two of the men were left dead," Sarah continued. "The perpetrator due to Java breaking his neck and Rex Mason, who ended up falling on the chemicals that were stolen. It didn't seem like a very nice way to die."

Sapphire let out a gasp, with Harry putting his arm around her. She might have been angry with Rex after what happened last night, but she most certainly wouldn't have wanted the man dead.

"It wasn't your fault," Harry said. He wrapped her into a hug. "You couldn't know that was going to happen. And it seemed like a freak accident."

He planted a kiss on the top of Sapphire's head and she nodded in response. By all indications, it was a freak accident.

The elevator finally reached their floor, and they got off, making their way to the direction of Stagg's office. It was obvious that due to the nature of the incident, there was quite a few people present on the floor. They needed to carefully wave their way through them.

It was unfortunate the most direct route to Simon's office is the one that passed directly past the crime scene. Harry and Sapphire were greeted with the fairly grisly slightly of the figure clad in black being lowered into a bodyguard.

Harry took note of the gear that the black clad figure was wearing and figured it to be state of the art. It was not quite the same level of his own suit, but it was on par of the same level, that Batman wore.

Sapphire, who was not as used to Harry as seeing dead bodies, let out a gasp of shock. She managed to bite it bad enough.

Things proved to go from bad to worse, where a group of individuals dressed in Hazmat gear more or less scooped up some sludge on the ground.

Sapphire realized what the sludge was, and she buried her face into Harry's shoulder. He reached over, rubbing the side of her neck. The sludge was put in the state of the art containment facility. It resembled a large metal refrigerator.

"Make sure you get it in there, we don't want anything left in the hallway," one of the men in the suits said. "The poor devil, hopefully he didn't suffer too much."

Harry would have liked to investigate things further, but he steered Sapphire away from it since she really didn't need to be near something like that. If he needed to access something, he could have Barbara access the GCPD database and have Sarah bring him in a sample later.

Sapphire clutched his hand fairly tightly. She almost was drawing blood due to the fact her finger nails are digging in.

The two of them made their way into Simon Stagg's office, and found the man himself sitting behind the desk. Java sat in a chair in front of it as well. Upon closer inspection, then two gentlemen were having a conversation with Jim Gordon, who was having them go over what happened.

"Sapphire?" Simon asked. He halted Gordon's investigation. He got to his feet. "What are you doing here?"

Sapphire detached from Harry and rushed over into a hug. "Daddy."

Simon hugged her back in response.

"We were….well we were supposed to meet for lunch, but you never showed up, and I got worried when I wasn't able to get ahold of you," Sapphire said when she managed to pull herself away.

"Yes, in all of the chaos, I forgot to inform you," Simon said. "Which is no excuse, and I'm sorry for it."

He turned to Harry and extended his hand. "Thank you for looking after my daughter when she's injured."

"It's fine, I'm more than happy to do it," Harry replied.

Simon nodded and slowly turned his attention back to his daughter. He honestly hoped that she didn't see any of the grisly scene that was on the most direct route to his office and took a different route.

* * *

An individual sat in a dark room that's only illuminated by the dim light of several computer monitors which line one of the room walls. A skinny individual sat in a comfortable chair in front of those monitor's. In the light, one could only make out the man's glasses since they were reflecting what is being shown on the monitors.

The individual's displeasure was obvious by the tutting sounds that he made when he typed away on the keyboard in front of him. Every so often, one of the displays on the computer monitors shifted over, to show a different view of the city. It was obvious that he hacked into several different camera systems throughout Gotham.

He muttered something underneath his breath in a fairly incomprehensible manner. The tone of his voice made it quite clear that he's annoyed though.

His phone rang and he answered it. A distorted voice, distorted in such a way that it sounded like a male and female voice overlayed with each other began to speak. "What's the status of the package?"

The mysterious individual leaned back in the chair, and reached up to push the glasses he was wearing black into place since they slipped down. He decided that he would answer the question.

"Unfortunately, there was an unforeseen complication with the matter," he replied. "The person sent in to retrieve the package was dead and the package was destroyed."

The distorted voice sounded very displeased. "That's unfortunate. I suppose that I'll just have to move forward with my plans in a different manner."

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 17** **th** **, 2015.**


	103. Metamorpho Smash Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Three: Metamorpho Smash Part Two.**

* * *

 

Late that evening, in one of the forensic labs that are connected to the GCPD, around the area of the morgue, there were two scientists that puttered around the area of the lab. One of them was an overweight man who was balding, but wore a baseball cap to hide it. There was a rather fairly attractive, if thin to the point where she was sickly, blonde that joined him. The most curious thing about her was that she towered over her partner by about a good foot.

The two of them came in from having either a late lunch, or an early dinner. They had dealt with the black clad figure earlier today.

The overweight man, named Ben, began to speak. "We can't quite determine the identity of the gentleman. The person in question lacked any identification marks, including fingerprints, and it just leaves his identity as a big question mark."

His partner, Jen, nodded in confirmation. She was chewing on a piece of gum, ever so casually.

"The Black Clad Figure must be some kind of special forces agent gone rogue, or maybe he's a meta-human who has abilities that were unique suited for infiltration," Ben said. Jen shrugged in response. "Or maybe he's an assassin working with a world-wide terrorist organization. Or alternatively….he could be an employee of Simon Stagg dressed up in that state of the art body armor. And Stagg might have dressed him up to break into the building for some reason of his own."

Jen gave him a deadpan look, blew, a bubble. She pointed towards the refrigeration unit where Rex Mason's melted body was being stored.

With a shrug of his shoulders, Ben moved over towards the unit, and attempted to lift it onto a metal table so they could take a look at it properly. The only problem was that it was a fair bit than it looked, so he was struggling to lift it up. Not that it was going to stop him from trying.

Jen shook her head, and resisted the urge to face palm. She walked over and helped him. Between the two of them, they lifted the containment unit up onto the table after a bit of a struggle.

Ben gasped to catch his breath. Jen walked over and slipped on a hazardous materials suit. There was no way to tell what is going to happen, if what happened to Mason was any indication. The same thing could happen to anyone who had come into contact with that sludge. So they needed to be careful with what they were doing.

Ben finally caught his breath and moved over towards Jen and helped her zip up her jump suit since it zipped up in the back. He then slipped on his own, with a bit of effort.

The two of them moved over towards the containment unit and cracked it open. The sight that they were greeted to isn't the exactly the most pleasant, but thankfully the two of them had been used to some pretty nasty looking sights by this point.

Be that as it may, Jen's mouth hung open and her gum nearly falls out of her mouth.

"Poor guy," Ben muttered. He shook his head after offering a brief prayer. "Maybe we should collect a couple of samples, before we do anything else."

Jen nodded solemnly in response. She made her way over to get several needles and attempted to take a couple of samples. Unfortunately, the needles wouldn't even scratch the surface.

Thanks to the refrigeration unit the sludge that used to be Rex Mason was frozen solid enough that they can't take a sample using a needle, at least until he was defrosted some.

Ben shook his head in response, and he reached into a nearby drawer. He pulled out a power drill designed to let them take a sample from bone. He stuck into the frozen sludge and did exactly that. He got six samples left inside of six test tubes. They got enough of a sample on hand.

With that done, he handed them over Jen. "We should cook them….so we have something to do before waiting for the rest of them to defrost…..not sure if it looks better or worse frozen."

Jen nodded in response and with a twist of the knob, turned off the refrigeration component of the container so nature could take its course. The two of them left the room.

They paused for a moment, hearing a hissing sensation coming. They didn't think anything of it, however.

If they had turned around, they most certainly would have thought something was wrong. Through the cracks, there was a transparent, but thick gas that was slowly leaking out of it.

* * *

 

Later that same evening in Gotham City, on a greyhound bus station on the outskirts of the city, right next to the bridges, a bus pulled up.

The door opened and a series of people streamed off of it. One of them was a young Ms. Thea Queen. A couple of days ago, she had sold her brand new Porsche at a used car dealership in Ohio. She was in pretty okay shape all things considered. She might be a bit skinnier, and she cut her hair short and died it blonde.

Thea also acquired a brand new set of clothes. She now wore a pair of black boots, a pair of tight jeans, and a sweater. She still had a leather jacket, but that didn't stop her from shivering when she was exposed to the Gotham City weather for the very first time.

She heard how notorious it was, but she never believed it until now. Ice daggers dug into her skin would be a good description for it and putting it almost mildly.

She stood by the curb and waited for the driver to open the cargo area so she could acquire her bag.

Thea looked over her shoulder, and frowned. It wasn't by her intention, not at the slightest, but she didn't end up in the nicest area of Gotham City. She noticed some ladies who looked a little sleazy, and scared at the same time. They walked with fine dressed men, wearing plenty of custom bling.

Their pimps, or what Thea assumed was their pimps.

"You better not be holding out me at the end of the night, or I'm going to slap your shit silly," one of the man said. His tooth glinted with the stereotypical gold teeth and he had several rings on his finger. "Do you understand me, baby girl?"

"No Daddy, I don't want that," the young woman said, shivering like a scared rabbit.

Something in the woman's tone caused the man to raise his hand and smack her in the face. She shivered. "Watch your mouth, girl."

Thea flinched when she looked at the scene before them and had to turn away from the two of them before a revolved feeling took over the pit of her stomach.

Thankfully for Thea and her sanity, the bus driver had unlocked the cargo bay of the van by this point. She took her bags and headed into the bus station as quickly as her legs could carry her.

She could see the guy on the information desk, a fairly cranky looking individual, about ready to close up for the night. He looked at her, with a raised eyebrow and he seemed rather pissed that she was bothering him.

"Excuse me, could you…."

"You know what, it's late, I haven't eaten in a while, I should have closed up five minutes ago," the man at the desk said in a surly tone of voice.

Thea frowned. He sounded rather rude, but she tried to press on the best that she could.

"I just want to ask where the nearest hotel is in Gotham City, and what bus goes there," Thea said.

"There's no bus that goes to any hotel this late at night and good luck getting a room," the man replied, shaking his head in response.

"You know, if you…."

He threw a transit map practically in her face. That caused Thea to stagger back and the map to fly down and land on the floor. "Fuck off, you nosy bitch, I'm off the clock!"

He slammed the metal divider between the two of them closed.

"Don't know what your problem is, maybe your girlfriend left you or something," Thea said. She sighed. "What a bastard."

There was silence and it was obvious that Thea figured that she shouldn't stick around. She reached down to pick up the transit map, and she rose up to meet a fairly good looking blonde, who looked to be in his mid-twenties bending down to pick up the map for her.

"Thank you," Thea said.

She took a few steps forward.

"You're new in Gotham aren't you?" he asked. Thea turned around, and looked at him, with a raised eyebrow.

"What gave it away?" Thea asked him.

"The fact you're out so late at night without an escort for one thing," the man answered. "My name's Stephen."

Thea paused for a moment, before she answered. "Mia, Mia Dearden….and yes, I'm new to Gotham City. But…perhaps that should be more obvious given where we are right now."

Stephen nodded in confirmation. "It is….but I'd be willing to show you around if you need any help."

She was conflicted by that.

"At least let me show you a good place to eat," he told her.

Thea decided that she should allow him that much, she nodded in response. He did resemble her brother, in some ways. She wasn't certain whether or not that was a good thing. Given that she snapped at her train wreck of a brother, just days before she left down, she wasn't in the best of moods regarding him.

Still, she figured that she should give this young man the benefit of the doubt. Besides, given what she'd saw, she would rather be with someone, then be out alone in the madness that was Gotham City.

"Sure," Thea, or Mia rather, responded with a grin.

She allowed the young man to lead her out of the bus depot and into the Gotham city night. After all, what could go wrong?

* * *

 

A pair of green eyes looked down from the skylight on a rooftop of an apartment that belonged to an associate and longtime friend of Salvatore Maroni. Catwoman crouched down on her hands and knees. She used a laser cutter that came with the enhanced costume that Nightwing gave her to cut open a particularly difficult lock.

Selina groaned. She wasn't too particularly fond about the blunt force approach that using the laser entails but she had no particular choice in the matter. This lock had been fairly resistant to her other approaches so far. She focused so intently what she was doing, that she gazed forward with narrowed eyes and slowly bit down on her lower lip.

The dark haired thief was about to finish up her job, when there was a sense of foreboding that went through her body. That particular sense of foreboding caused her to spring up to her hands and knees.

She bounced back just in time to avoid an arrow that was fired at her out of nowhere. Selina avoided the attack, but the laser cutter wasn't so lucky. It was pretty much cut in half.

Her shock caused her to bit down on her lip so hard that it drew blood. Her sense of danger was growing wild and she rolled backwards into a low crouch, then rolling over to the side.

This proved to be a prudent course of action. Several arrows ended up flying with the first arrow that connected with the laser cutter. It was very obvious that the person who took out her laser cutter was intend of taking her out.

She looked up and saw a woman dressed in a sleek black armor and heavily armed. Catwoman looked up. She would have figured out that if she saw this woman before, she would be the type of woman that she remembered.

The woman stood perched on the rooftop, heavily armed. Obviously, asking the woman who she was would be at terrible idea. All that would do would lead Selina to get shot.

She darted off to the side, taking cover. Unfortunately, that didn't work out really as planned. An arrow planted right to her side.

Luckily enough for Catwoman, her suit was heavy duty enough that the arrow didn't penetrate past the mess weave that it makes up. It did leave a nasty gash in it and that really showed how close it came to hurting her.

She winced when her side was nicked extremely badly. She let out a gasp of pain and dodged behind cover in time to avoid another arrow from taking her head off. She took a moment to take stock of the situation. To figure out she wasn't bleeding too badly.

When Catwoman figured out that she wasn't, she reached into one of the hidden pockets in her suit. She pulled out three micro-flash bang grenades, and primed them. She hurled them over her shoulder.

The grenades fly through the air before exploding at the height of their arc. Now she hopefully blinded the enemy, Catwoman darted out of the cover of the direction of the rooftop.

She made her way up to go against her attacker, and measured the distance between the two of them. She jumped off of the roof.

For a few seconds, it looked like Catwoman was about to miss her jump. At the last moment, she snapped her whip up to snag a flag pull and complete her jump.

Catwoman landed on the room in a three point stance. Unfortunately, she didn't have much time to catch her breath. Her enemy was bound and determined to keep taking fire at her with her bow.

A series of arrows kept firing at her. She was firing them three at a time, instead of one at a time. Catwoman winced, she was good, but she wasn't that good. She took another arrow, right in the same spot it hit earlier.

This time, her armor had been softened up enough that it ended up cutting a nice gash in her side. Since she's already hurting as a result of getting hit there earlier, she let out an anguished cry of shock.

The shock from the pain sent her stumbling and nearly sent her falling to the ground. Catwoman is able to fight off the brief wave of nausea.

The assassin flung five throwing knives at her, just as quickly as the three arrows had been tossed at her. She saw the knives flying at her, with it making difficult to dodge because of the way that she flung them.

Thankfully, she was able to avoid most of the knives, except for two of them. They caught her in the right shoulder and the abdomen respectfully. The knife that struck her in the abdomen didn't end up penetrating her, but the knife that hit the shoulder did.

The assassin known as Nightshade could see that her prey was down. She closed the distance between the two of them with a rather brutal spear hand strike at her throat. Catwoman dodged the attack.

It would have been an attack that would have left her dead about six months ago. Fortunately, it wasn't six months ago, and she spent most of her time playing games of hunter and prey with Nightwing. The fact she ran into Batman and various Gotham gangs did wonders in helping her abilities as well. That molded her into a much better fighter than she was before.

As a result, she dodged a blow, and then hooked her arm around her enemy's elbow. She followed it up by firing a brutal snap kick that drilled her in the side hard, so hard that she was force back several feet.

That caught Nightshade off guard. She didn't assume that Catwoman was this good at hand to hand. She wasn't going to go down easily though.

She fired a forward flip kick at her enemy and that put her in position to snatch up a pair of knives that were next to her.

Thankfully, despite being rattled, Catwoman was able to avoid Nightshade's follow up attack. She was glanced in the shoulder with one shot and the insane pain that rose through her shoulder made her wince horrifically.

She nailed her with a headbutt that rocked her. Catwoman launched herself up and nailed her with a flip kick. That sent the assassin reeling backwards and then she swept her feet out from underneath her.

Nightshade bounced up to her feet with an obvious grimace. She was very annoyed that the fight had gone on far longer than she felt that it needed to be and it was time to end it.

She proceeded to finish Catwoman off, by knocking her down to the ground, and pinning her arms to her side. She lifted up a knife in order to stab it straight into her stomach.

An arrow flew out and disarmed the knife from her hand. Nightshade turned around and saw a woman dressed in a red and black version of the costume she was wearing.

The woman let up Catwoman. She was surprised that this happened, given that she was dead to rights. And with the bounties on her head, it was obvious why she was here.

"What the fuck," Catwoman muttered underneath her breath. The arrival of this second woman raised more questions than it did with giving her answers.

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, Catwoman slipped away and got while the getting was good.

The two masked woman stared at each other for a sufficient amount of time. One might assume that they were able to throw down just as much as Catwoman and Nightshade did.

They both stepped back and went their separate directions, stepping back in the night in Gotham City. By the time anyone showed up, all three women vanished into the night, without a trace and without a sign of where they might have gone.

* * *

 

Mia was currently sitting with Stephen within a diner in the Park Row District of Old Gotham. She was currently eating a piece of pie and making light conversation with the man. She was slowly starting to get comfortable and letting her guard down, despite the uncomfortable first impression that she experimented.

Stephen was giving her a rundown of the various districts that make up Old Gotham since that's the island they're on currently. He also discussed with her which gangs controlled what territory. Thea thought that her head was spinning, but for the most part, she was able to keep her head up and about.

"Not knowing these things can easily get you killed," he explained. "But there's one man that you need to show respect of beyond all else. Carmine Falcone…you know, the Roman."

Mia thought that she might have heard the name Falcone somewhere. She responded by nodding in response.

"You need to show respect to his men above all else," Stephen explained to her. "Not that any of the other gangs are any less dangerous, but compared to them, he's the big boss."

"So, what does this have to do with me?" Mia asked.

Stephen laughed. "Who's in charge of the gang matters, since they're the ones in control of the city. Not the Mayor, not the police, not the rich millionaires, but the criminals. So if you're going to live in Gotham, you need to know and respect that fact, because it's just how the balance of power works around here. If you don't know what you're getting into, you're going to get into trouble real quick."

Mia frowned and nodded in response to what he's saying. Certainly, she heard and read things about Gotham, but she really didn't believe it until now. It was a lot different seeing the city up close and personal. And if anything, it might have been a little bit worse than she had heard.

"Excuse me, I need to go use the restroom," Mia said. She scooped up her purse, but left her backpack and leather jacket behind, since she did trust Stephen to a certain extent.

After she completed her business in the bathroom, she decided to freshen up a little bit. She washed her hands and her face.

After she was done, Mia exited the bathroom, and looked around. She moved towards her table, only to stop and her mouth hung open in surprise.

Stephen was gone, and her bag was as well and her jacket. Mia threw her head back, unable to believe it.

Mia shook her head. The last thing she wanted to do was jump to any kind of conclusions. She stepped over to the waitress standing at the cash register.

"Have you seen the man that I was dining with tonight?" Mia asked.

The waitress, looking rather bored. "Oh…the scruffy looking blond fellow?"

"Yes, him," Mia said in frustration.

"He left pretty much when you went into the bathroom, honey," the waitress said.

Mia really was frustrated and she turned around to leave.

"Excuse me, but you haven't paid for you meal yet," the waitress said.

Mia stopped and looked stunned. Not only did he leave, but he left her with the bill. She shook her head and decided that it was best if she paid. "How much?"

"Thirteen fifty," the waitress answered in a fairly bored and bland tone of voice.

Mia fished the money out of her purse and struggled not to break down and cry. She had to pay for herself and Stephen, who left her.

With that out of the way, she stepped outside of the Gotham City night. She regretted doing so almost immediately, due to how cold Gotham City was at night.

Mia looked from the left and to the right, and decided to head off. To where, she had no idea, because she needed to find a hotel for the night. She recalled passing one on her way to the diner. It wasn't the best looking in the world, but she couldn't really afford to be picky about it.

She grumbled and started to walk about a block until she came to an intersection. She stopped and waited for the light to turn.

"Come on," she grumbled.

Then, out of the blue, someone body checked her out of nowhere, snatching her purse. This caused Mia to fall down onto the sidewalk, landing right by a rather foul looking gutter.

The man was gone by the time that he got away and she couldn't identify his face.

Mia laid in the gutter and was about ready to have a break down. A pair of soft hands reached down to lift her up to her feet.

She flinched for a second at the touch, but adjusted her stance when she was back on her feet. She turned around to see a beautiful raven haired brunette with the greenest eyes that she ever seen.

The woman looked like she had been through a bit tonight, as Mia spotted the shiner on her eye. Mia took a step back from her, unsure. With the night that she had so far, she was slow to trust. But, she could see that this woman was having a far worse night that she did.

"Are you okay?" Mia asked her.

The woman frowned. "I thought that I was to be the one who was supposed to be asking that question."

"I'm fine….actually, no I'm not," Mia said. "I got into Gotham City, some guy was nice to me, and then left me hanging with the bill. The guy at the bus station was rude, and some jackass stole my purse. And now I'm out here in the middle of the street and I'm fucking freezing all to hell."

The woman looked at her with a smile. "So, do you feel a little bit better now?"

"Still shitty," Mia confirmed. "But, yes, I'm feeling better than I was before."

"What's your name, honey?" the woman asked.

"Mia Dearden," she said, without missing a beat.

The woman frowned, but said nothing. "Follow me."

After tonight, Mia was a bit hesitant, but she realized that she didn't have much left to lose.

The two of them made their way over to the apartment building. The green eyed brunette pressed the call button to call the elevator down.

"So, who are you?" Mia asked.

Her answer would have to wait, when there was a ding of the elevator opening up and she stepped inside. Slowly, the woman turned around to the young woman and invited her inside.

Mia took a step forward and raised her eyebrow, if to say "well?"

"It's Selina, Selina Kyle."

And with that word, the elevator closed on the two of them.

* * *

 

In the Crime Lab at Gotham Central, a couple of hours have passed and in that time, Rex Mason's body had a chance to thaw out further. It also had an ample amount of time to leak gas into the air.

It was at this point that the atmosphere of the lab is rather heavy with it. It grew rather quiet due to the time of the night it was. The lights were off since there was no body in the lab. That quickly changed since the lights flicked on.

A heavier looking Asian gentlemen entered the lab, wearing a lab coat, and having a cup of coffee in one hand. He stopped, and started to sniff the air.

He nearly gagged on the smell. It took him a few seconds to adjust his stance. He smelled far worse in his day after all, she he waved it off.

He made his way over to the metal table, and looked over Mason's remains closely to get a feel for what he was dealing with.

When that initial investigation process was over, he picked up a clipboard that contained the initial findings from the previous evening. Due to the fact the body was frozen, there wasn't a lot there for him to there for him to go off of.

Putting the clipboard down, he picked up his coffee and took a long sip of it. With that done, he shifted his attention to the counter where the samples were resting. He picked them up and loaded them into the centrifuge so the component parts could be separated.

While this was going on, he moved over to the side to put the Hazmat jump suit on.

Time passed and by the time he got that done, the machine stopped spinning. He eased his way over, and grabbed ahold of one of the test tubes. He moved over to the Bunson burner and placed the test tube over the top of it. He turned the burner on.

BOOM!

The lab promptly exploded as a result of the gas in air. The medical examiner was shredded into little bitty bloody chunks.

The explosion caused the power in the building to be knocked out. The lights flashed out of the building.

There was a sound of something cracking. Then there was a really loud roar that echoed all around the blacked out lab.

* * *

 

In the small cabin on the outskirts of Gotham City, Doctor Jonathan Crane was dressed in a pair of slacks and a white undershirt. He whistled a merry tune underneath his breath when he cut several logs in half with a fairly heavy looking and sharp ax.

"The test subject's powers and how potent her power is, seems to be extremely dependent upon her emotional state," Crane narrated. He paused for a moment, wiping the brow of sweat off of his face. "Her powers are focused by the adrenaline within her…."

There was a pause when he chopped another hunk of wound.

"In her system," Crane said. There was another thunk when he paused and gathered his thoughts. "What emotion she's experiencing doesn't seem to matter. Her powers are just as likely to active if she's experiencing anger."

He chopped away at the wood again with a loud thump and he continued his observations.

"Just the same as they would if she was experimenting fear," Crane continued. "The results are unpredictable at best, but at the same time, they are almost always destructive."

He recalled one episode when his test subject was going through withdrawal. She caused the objects in the room to levitate briefly, before fracturing like glass.

He chopped some more wood and added. "But, do not get me wrong, destruction isn't the sole limit of her abilities. Wanda has limited control of them when she is calm and was able to restore those items that she was shattered when she came to her senses."

He slammed the axe down onto the wood, splitting it.

"That being said, even when calm, her powers have a tendency to veer off into the unpredictable," Crane continued. "Regardless, for my purposes, her powers are ideal."

He finished chopping the logs. He made one final note.

"Bringing up the girl's family seems to be a good way to agitate her enough that her powers activate," Crane said. "Or to put matters in a more plebian way, she has serious daddy issues."

Crane cut enough fire wood now. He reached over to grab a towel to wipe himself down that he brought outside for that particular purpose.

He proceeded to head inside the cabin with a bundle of wood in his arms and promptly placed it down in front of the front door.

Moving swiftly into the kitchen after washing his hands, he whipped up a quick bowl of oat meal, sliced up a peach, and poured orange juice in a rather efficient manner.

Once the meal is ready, he reached into the pocket of his lab coat and pulled out a glass bottle which has a teardrop stopper cap and a watery yellow substance inside it. He placed three drops of the liquid on the oatmeal and a single drop of it in the orange juice.

With that done, he screwed the cap back onto the glass bottle. He made sure all of the items were balanced on the tray and made his way to the room where Wanda was resting.

He unlocked the door and stepped inside to find her watching the morning news. Vicki Vale's voice was prominent on the television. "There has been explosion that rocked Gotham Central this morning, details are sketchy, but the police are uncertain whether or not this was a terrorist attack, or something else."

Crane cleared his throat and got Wanda's attention. She looked up at him and he held out the tray for her.

She nodded in response. The brunette girl dug into the food.

Crane sat down in the arm chair that's in the room with a fairly amused expression on his face. He casually checked his watch, waiting for the moment.

"So, how are you feeling today?" Crane asked her.

Wanda looked up and replied with a tense. "Good."

Crane noticed that this is the first time that she spoke and it was obvious that she spoke with an Eastern European accent of some sort.

"What did I tell you before?" Crane asked her.

Wanda's eyes flashed red, and looked irritated. She took a deep breath and calmed herself down. "That you cannot help me, if I don't speak to you properly."

She paused to get full control of her emotions.

"I'm good, Doctor Crane. I'm feeling much better now that the drugs are out of my system."

Crane offered her a fairly charming in response. "Is there anything interesting on the news?"

"There was an explosion at one of the police stations in Gotham City," Wanda said. She suddenly blinked.

Crane casually collected her dishes. It was obvious that what he put in her food was about to take effect. He stepped back about fi feet.

She swayed in place and looked like she was drunk. She spat out a slurred. "What do you do?"

Then she started to scream bloody murder at the top of her lungs.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 20** **th** **, 2015.**


	104. Metamorpho Smash Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred Four: Metamorpho Smash Part Three.**

* * *

Harry, dressed under the guise of Nightwing, had just wrapped up checking in on Selina to make sure that she was okay after he encounter with Nightshade. He noticed that she took in a stray.

' _Could you please check up on her later this morning?'_ Harry asked Faora.

Faora smiled through the bond, _'No problem, it would be my pleasure.'_

Harry appreciated that. He was currently out on his final patrol of the evening. Things had been fairly quiet, even though the knowledge that the League was back in Gotham had put everyone on edge since it was difficult to predict their actions even at the best of times.

That being said, this was a quiet night, but more or less a quiet night for Gotham more than anything else. He had to deal with somebody who thought that it was a good idea to use dynamite to blow open some ATM, an armed robber sticking up a convenience store, and a souped up sports card that some idiot carjacker took on a joy ride throughout the streets of Gotham.

An early morning joyride, as it turned out, that turned into a high speed pursuit since the idiot driver decided that it would be wise to blow past a patrol car.

Speaking of which, that's where Harry was. He could see the car taking a sharp turn and nearly taking out some garbage cans that were on the curb. He frowned; today would have to be trash day.

He hopped on top of the vehicle in question, landing on top of it with a thud. Given that Harry could be pretty heavy when he wanted to be, that caused the vehicle to stop dead in its tracks.

Unfortunately for the idiot who was behind the wheel of the car, he neglected to put his seat belt on. As a result, he went flying through the front window with a shattering smash. Harry sighed, shaking his head.

' _Could you believe this guy?'_ Harry thought. He bent down to check the idiot's pulse. _'He's still alive, but barely.'_

He looked rather young, and didn't look much younger than sixteen. Harry thought that he would take pity on him and gave him some quick medical treatment. Hopefully, he would live to learn the mistake. It was enough where the Carjacker would survive and make it to the hospital and not end up paralyzed for the rest of his life. He would still remain in a great amount of pain until he healed, but hopefully that would give him enough time to think.

Nightwing heard the sirens closing in on him, and sighed. It was pretty much time for him to call it a night. He utilized his grapnel to wing his way onto a nearby rooftop.

The moment he landed on the rooftop, Harry teleported away to the sub-basement of the clocktower, which was far away that he wouldn't fry the rather delicate electronic gear that Barbara used to do her job. While most of it was shielded enough, Harry still felt that he shouldn't risk it.

With that in mind, Harry slipped out of his armor. He placed it inside a nearby storage locker. The locker lowered into the ground that he finished slipping it off.

He stepped inside to take a quick and refreshing shower. With that done, he was able to slip on a tight fitting cotton t-shirt and a pair of sweat pants. Harry eased his way towards the elevator after that is done.

He entered a password into the nearby keypad and swiped his thumb across it. There was a beep and then the elevator opened up. He stepped inside.

Harry took advantage of the time that it took for the elevator to reach the top floor to dry his hair with the towel. It was a more involved process than people would have assumed, given the circumstances.

Harry stepped out of the elevator, with the towel resting across his shoulders. He smiled when he saw that Oracle was wrapping up the night.

"I found it, the documentation that you wanted me to regarding the tunnels underneath Old Gotham," she informed him. "And by literally dig them up, I mean that I had to dig them up. They were buried completely deep in the Gotham City archives."

Harry smiled, while she was distracted with doing that, he slipped behind her. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and leaned forward to kiss her on the neck. She responded with a shudder, although somehow she was able to keep herself from gasping out loud.

Thankfully she was, considering the fact she was talking to Batman.

"Thanks to Huntress and Talon, I was able to match the maps that I dug up to the maps of the Old Gotham Sewer System since the overlap in some places," she continued.

"Yes, that will be helpful," he responded.

Harry responded with an evil grin, when he continued to kiss along Barbara's neck when she was saying this. He made sure to pay attention to the spots that he knew drove her wild. In this particular case, he paid attention to the pulse point on her neck, along with a spot right near her jawline. Barbara responded by biting back a moan.

"But, the maps look rather incomplete," Batman said.

"Yes, I thought that they did as well," Barbara informed him. "A lot of the information got lost in a fire about a hundred or so years back, though. What I found in the Archives was what I was able to get salvaged. And even then, I don't think that they're exactly complete. From what…."

She paused to give Harry one of those "looks" out of the corner of her eye, before she continued.

"From what Huntress and Talon told me, it looks like those tunnels go pretty deep," she explained. "So it's going to be a long shot to find pretty much anything down there, even though we can search in a flash."

Batman let out a grunt of acknowledgement at that.

Around this point, Harry moved up to suck softly on her earlobe. This caused Barbara to close her eyes for a moment and bite down hard on her lower lip. "Is that everything? Because if there is, I'm going to call it a night."

There was a moment where Batman paused to consider this point.

"No, that's everything for tonight," Batman said. "Sleep well."

Barbara turned her head in a triumphant manner and reached up with her hands. She grabbed Harry by the hair and pulled him into a hungry kiss. Harry responded to that completely eagerly.

The two enjoyed the kiss, even though it a broke a moment later. She broke the kiss a moment later and smiled, turning the chair completely, so she could face him.

She grabbed ahold of a towel, reaching up and pulled him back into the kiss. He rested his hands on her hips and the two of them upped the intensity of the already amazing kiss they were sharing.

The two of them had an intense make out session until the moment where Barbara had to catch her breath.

Harry didn't give her a chance to really recover, because he reached forward and grabbed ahold of her t-shirt. He pulled it upwards off of her body.

Barbara turned around, where Dinah was waiting. The blonde swooped down and captured Barbara's lips with her own, kissing the redhead completely breathless.

Harry decided to take advantage of Barbara's position to slowly kiss his way down her body and he unhooked her bra, releasing her ample breasts from her bra. He then slowly slid his way in front of her, so he could pull her jeans down off of her body, to reveal the fact that she was wearing a matching black thong.

Dinah ran her hands down Barbara's body and it was obvious. Everything was

Barbara was released from the kiss and she felt Harry behind her, cupping her breasts in his hands. She moaned when Harry kissed her. She grinded her thong clad ass against his bulge.

Dinah smiled when she ran her finger down. She smiled when she went down further.

"Relax, Babs, I'll take good care of you," Dinah breathed in her ear. She paused and added with a grin. "Well, we're going to take really good care of you."

The panties slipped down to reveal Barbara's dripping hot womanhood. Dinah slipped her finger inside of Barbara's pussy and started to pump it.

Barbara closed her eyes. She couldn't believe the pleasure she was feeling. She had kissed women for sure, but she never had one finger her. Now she thought that she was missing out on the fun.

Dinah pumped one finger inside her and then slipped a second finger deep inside of Barbara's moist core. Barbara lifted her hips up, making sure that she got all of Dinah. Dinah slipped a third finger.

She released her fingers out of her with a nice pop and she raised them, offering them as a gift to Harry. "Taste how wet she is."

Harry wrapped his mouth around Dinah's fingers and sucked them. The blonde gave a lustful moan when she threw her head back. She panted heavily when Harry's able lips went to work.

"Tastes good, maybe I should get more from the source," Dinah murmured. She allowed Barbara to sit down on the chair.

Barbara felt herself completely exposed. Dinah descended down between her thighs and met Barbara's pussy. Her tongue touched her lips with a little kiss that sent a jolt of pleasure erupting through Barbara's loins.

"Dinah, oh, god, Dinah," Barbara panted. She felt Dinah's tongue slip inside her and taste her juices.

She watched, greedily, when Harry undid his belt and pulled his pants down. His throbbing cock was released.

Barbara couldn't focus on that, she had to focus on what Dinah's tongue was doing to her. She felt Dinah dig her face into her pussy and worship her. Barbara lifted her hips up and down.

Dinah gave another moan, because Harry's hands squeezed her delicious rear. She yelped in pleasure when Harry ran his hands down her legs, pulling her costume to the side, exposing her dripping pussy.

"Watch closely, this is just a preview," Harry said.

He winked at her and that caused Barbara's hips to push up. She watched Harry's manhood slide into Dinah from behind with practice ease. That caused her hips to jump up. Barbara ran her fingers down and played with her nipples.

Harry did a few swift strokes inside Dinah. Barbara could not take her eyes off of his cock. She watched it appear and disappear with ease. She thought that she was about ready to pop and not in the good way either.

Dinah tasted the juices of her young friend and they tasted good. Her own juice's coated Harry's cock when he pleasured her pussy as well.

"Cum, Barbara," Harry grunted. "Do you like your older sister fucking you with her tongue, making you scream for more?"

"Yes, I dreamed about this!" Barbara screamed. She pumped her hips up and she felt herself flood.

Dinah came hard and Barbara could feel the vibrations coming from her throat causing a pleasurable rush through her body. She thought that she would melt into a pile of lust after Dinah was done with her.

Harry slowly slid out of her and Dinah was held to her feet. She gave Harry another pump.

Barbara gave a surprised scream when Dinah lifted up her onto her desk right to the side. Dinah made her way behind Barbara, and wrapped her legs around Barbara's waist, holding her in place.

She felt herself trapped, with Dinah's breasts pressing against the back of her neck. "And now I'm going to watch when our husband fucks your little brains out. And given how many brains you have, he's going to have to fuck you for a long time."

Harry teased Barbara a little bit, but he didn't take the plunge, at least not just yet.

"That sounds enticing," Harry said.

"Look at his cock, those are my juices he lubricated it to slide into your perfect little pussy," Dinah said. She nibbled on Barbara's earlobe and brought her to the edge.

Barbara moaned when she felt Harry slide into her. His massive manhood spiked deep into her body.

Harry groaned when Barbara hugged him with her tight pussy. He felt her hug him and he felt a roaring sensation rise from his balls when he lifted nearly all the way out of her. He plowed back into her like it was nothing to him.

"Fuck," Harry groaned. He nearly pulled almost all the way out of her.

Barbara panted when she felt her pussy being pleasured again. His massive manhood speared into her body. Dinah nibbled the back of her neck in response and sucked on the back of her neck.

"Fuck, fuck," Barbara responded. "Please, fuck me, harder!"

Harry answered that request and pounded into her. Her juices lubricated his manhood when he slid into her.

Barbara felt a rush of pleasure explode through her body. Her walls closed around him and Harry pulled nearly all the way out of her.

"Easy, good things come to those who wait," Dinah said. She watched when Harry pushed himself back into her. "See."

Barbara saw, and she felt, that was the more important thing. She felt. She felt Harry's throbbing hard cock impact her hot pussy. She was stretched out on his cock and she felt everything. The stars she saw caused her body to rise up intensely.

Harry worked her to the edge. Dinah brushed her thumb against her anus and that caused Barbara to whimper.

"Don't tell me that you don't like that," Dinah said. She pushed her thumb into Barbara's ass and slowly worked it inside.

"Yes," Barbara said. She grew weak and frustrated at Dinah's ministrations. They brought her closer to the edge than she thought that she could go.

Harry rose almost out of Barbara's pussy and brought into her. His balls slapped against her thighs.

She was getting put through the paces at either rend and loved every single moment. It was almost like Harry triggered switches in her mind.

Barbara's hips jerked up and Harry fired his load into her. Her hips lifted and rose, milking him all the way.

Harry pulled out of Barbara and Dinah walked over. She smiled when she saw the dribbling juices flowing from her friend's pussy.

"What a mess," Dinah said. She licked the combination of Barbara and Dinah's juices, slurping and sucking her.

She turned around, looking over her shoulder. She smiled when she looked at Harry's cock and walked over.

"Oh, still ready to go?" Dinah asked. She stripped off her costume and stood there in all of her glory.

She smiled and walked over with a sultry grin on her face. She perched herself with Harry's cock eagerly sticking up for her.

Dinah pushed her wet and eager cunt down onto Harry's throbbing manhood. He grabbed her hips and pushed her down.

"Yes, that's it, ride me," Harry groaned. He slapped her on the ass in response.

Dinah encouraged him. She bounced up and down on him higher, her breasts bounced for him in an enticing manner. He gripped her ass and worked his hands around them, running over the beautiful round cheeks.

She threw her head back with an encouraging moan. Her golden blonde hair flew in every single way, coming down on her face. Harry leaned forward and latched his mouth around her nipple. He sucked it, extremely hard.

His face buried between her breasts and Dinah moaned when she kept bouncing herself up and down. Her wet walls closed around him, and she brought up and down on him.

Harry enjoyed how her inner muscles worked his cock. He encouraged feasting on her tit flesh when his head buried into it.

Dinah whimpered she could feel herself brought up to an immense peak. She rose up onto Harry and brought herself down onto him hard. She kept riding him like there was no tomorrow. His hands roamed down her thighs.

"Cumming, so badly," Dinah panted. "Yes, baby, fuck my pussy extremely hard, fuck me, fuck me, hard!"

Dinah bounced up and down in response. She clenched him, bringing herself up and down onto him. Her wet hot pussy walls clenched him when she brought herself all the way down onto him.

Harry rose up and placed his finger into her mouth. She suckled it with a lustful look dancing into her eyes.

His wet finger brushed over and pushed into her ass. Dinah cooed with delight when Harry pushed his finger into her ass and then she drove herself down onto him.

Harry felt her orgasm escalate even more. He wanted to bring her to a certain point. His balls ached when she rose almost all the way up on him and brought herself down onto him, constantly. Her bouncing escalated when she bounced even higher. Her hips clenched him when she brought herself all the way down onto him.

"Close," Harry said.

"Together," Dinah said. Her eyes glazed over with lust.

He smiled and waved his hand as if to say ladies first. She bit down on her lip and brought herself down.

She felt a rush go through her body. Dinah's body shook when she brought herself down onto his manhood. Her juices moistened his prick.

When that was done, Harry's balls clenched and he felt his muscles tighten. Dinah reared her head back and bit onto her lip. She looked all that much sexier holding back her natural inclination to scream.

Harry shot his spunk into her willing womb. She slammed her hips down on him, milking every drop of cum out of him.

The two came down from their mutual orgasm, just in time to see Barbara, who was awake and fingering herself.

* * *

It was later the morning and Harry showed up to meet with Sarah. The two of them were going to have coffee at the small café across the building from the Gotham Central Police Department.

After he put Barbara and Dinah through the paces last night, he took a two hour nap and slipped on some casual clothes. He ran over there.

' _So, there's a lot to do, isn't there?'_ Donna thought.

' _You really have no idea, do you?'_ Veronica piped up. _'I live for these things and even I'm a bit overwhelmed with all of the insanity.'_

' _I agree,'_ Daphne thought.

Harry returned to the thoughts that were kicking around in his head. _'The gala that Stagg Industries is hosting, the after dark party that one of my mother's society plans is hosting in celebration to launch the clothing line, and….there's that party on Valentine's day that you want to host, isn't it, Veronica?'_

' _Yes, that's right,'_ Veronica commented to him. _'I figured that most of the girls can get together for a party….maybe we can cut back on the hurt feelings.'_

' _Well, that sounds like a good idea, maybe at Blackgate Manor or the Penthouse?'_ Harry asked. He didn't hear any words of discontent, so he was going to assume that everyone was on board with it.

' _So, are you planning to go to Marti Gras this year?'_ Amanda asked out of the blue. _'And if so, can I come with you?'_

Harry was thrown completely out of whack by her question. _'You're sixteen.'_

' _Yes, and you're seventeen,'_ Amanda said. _'Of course, magically speaking, you're twenty one and Emmy and I are nineteen. And that's before we throw in all of the weird variables that go along with our heritage and time travel, but we shouldn't split hairs over this any more than I have to.'_

' _No, that wouldn't be wise,'_ Zatanna chuckled in the bond link. Magic was complex enough without those problems.

There was a long pause where no one said anything.

' _So, are you going?'_ Amanda asked.

' _You do realize that she's going to end up bugging you about this for years, whether or not you go, don't you?'_ Rose chimed in. She knew her nieces all too well, after practicing raising them.

' _Well, to be honest, I wasn't planning on doing so….but there's nothing stopping us from flying down there either,'_ Harry conceded.

' _Well, it's better than nothing,'_ Emily thought with a shrug. _'What are you doing for Spring Break anyway?'_

Harry started in. _'I'm going to fly down to California to be with Faora, Jaime, and Karen, since we need to meet with Carl Ferris. So yes, business trip basically. And I wanted to see if Lyta can come….since Disney Land is down there.'_

' _We'll see, if she behaves herself between now and then,'_ Hippolyta chimed in. _'Although she is a bit better behaved than my older daughters were at that age, so that's good.'_

There was a moment of protest from the middle daughter, but the oldest daughter hushed her.

' _It's not the most exciting spring break,'_ Harry admitted. He frowned deeply. _'But that's kind of how the dice had fell.'_

' _You know, California could actually be a fun trip,'_ Amanda suggested.

' _Yeah, we haven't been there, much,'_ Emily answered.

' _Well, talk to the rest of the young girls, and see if they're interested in coming along,'_ Harry thought.

Harry pulled his way out of the conversation, with that settled. He spotted Sarah, just finishing up a smoke when she was waiting on the street corner.

He closed the kiss between the two of them. With that greeting established, the two of them made their way inside, heading over to the counter to get themselves a cup of coffee and something to eat.

"So, how as your night?" Sarah asked him.

Harry waved his hand. "Can never be too careful."

She nodded in understanding.

"I was pretty busy last night," he informed her. "Nothing too major, rather standard stuff, for Gotham City. I broke up a couple of drug deals up, stopped a rapist, beat the hell out of a pimp who decided to make an example out of one of his mouthier girls, dealt with the person breaking into the ATM machines with dynamite, stopped something from robbing a convenience store, and dealt with a joyrider."

Sarah raised her eyebrow.

"So in other words, it was a pretty quiet night all things considered," he informed her. "Everyone seemed to have a pretty similar night….well I can't really speak for Batman, because we only talk when something major comes up. And I know that Catwoman ran into Nightshade last night….because Nyssa informed me about it."

"That lines up with what I've read on the reports that I've read this morning," she responded. "Oh, and you might be interested to know that the joyrider you put into traction is the nephew of a City Councilman, specifically the Chair of the Transportation and the Infrastructure Committee."

Harry laughed in response. That was a bit amusing and he was sure that the press was having a field day with that one. Well, not so much the kid getting put into traction, but the irony in the situation was more the amusing thing.

"The Catwoman thing is news to me, though," she responded. "What do you think it's about?"

"Well, either Nightshade knows Catwoman has a connection to Nightwing, and decided to test her skill live," Harry commented. Sarah nodded in response. "Or she's after the bounty on her head, which is something like three million dollars the last I heard."

"I heard about the bounty," Sarah said after letting out her breath in a long whistle. "I didn't know that it was worth that much."

"Catwoman has made some enemies," Harry said. "I have it on good authority that the bounties on Nightwing, Black Canary, and Batman are much higher. But since, our status as urban legends, no one has seriously gone after us. And our reputation to strike anyone who tries shit hard tends to work in our favor."

"But it's only a matter of time before there's someone who is brazen enough to try anything," Sarah warned him.

"I suspect that you're right," Harry confirmed.

"And unlike Marion Grange, who is the least corrupt Mayor that Gotham has seen in years, Hamilton Hill is friends with people who want to see Batman, Nightwing, and the rest crash and burn," Sarah warned him.

Harry nodded in agreement at that point. He would have liked nothing better than to fight Hill against becoming Mayor, but the problem was that he had way too many friends in high places. The last time that he checked, Hill was being backed by Rupert Thorne, Roland Daggett, William Earle, Maxmillian Shreck, and Ferris Boyle. Mostly due to the fact that he liked to portray himself as a friend of big business and some people smelled a mayor that they could get into their back pocket easily.

"Lot of rather dangerous toes to step on, if you want to deal with Hill," Harry said. "It's a wonder that he doesn't get strangled by the strings of that many puppetmasters."

"Well, at least people still believe in Harvey Dent," Sarah confirmed.

Harry took a bite of his bagel and looked thoughtful, "So, is there any word on what happened to Rex Mason?"

Sarah shook her head and leaned forward to lick the cream cheese from the corner of his mouth. She leaned back after the broke a kiss. "The chief medical examiner hadn't gotten in yet. And the tech people had some problem getting any sort of sample."

She remembered something.

"But, we did have some potentially unsettling news," Sarah informed him. Harry leaned towards her and invited her to continue. "We found the body of Carl Grissom in the Gotham City landfill two days ago."

Harry raised his eyebrow in surprise at that. That was news to him. "Last I heard, Girssom was still alive."

"I heard the same thing," Sarah said. "But the state of his body showed that he was dead for a while. A couple of weeks at the very least."

"So, is anyone looking into it any further?" Harry asked.

"Homicide normally would," Sarah informed him. "But given that Grissom was such a major player in the mob, there most certainly would be some overlap with Organized Crime. I'm not sure who the Detective assigned to investigate it is yet."

Harry closed his eyes and went into deep thought, "I'll look into it, but the League of Assassins is my main focus. Grissom really isn't that important to the grand scheme of things."

He was basically a mid-level manager in the mob. He wasn't that important in the grand scheme of things. His death wasn't going to have any kind of ramifications or cause a power vacuum. There would be someone above him, or maybe even below him, trying to jockey for position, I order to fill it.

Harry finished up his coffee and his breakfast and gave a heaving sigh, "Need to catch a train or run to the penthouse so I can get changed for school. Got a couple of early morning classes."

"Yeah, I should get to work as well," Sarah said. If she wanted to get technical, her shift already started.

Harry offered his hand and helped her up to a standing position.

The two of them exited the café and were in front of the Gotham Central precinct building. A loud explosion resounded and knocked them backwards on their asses.

A loud roar echoed outwards. Harry looked around due to his enhanced vision and he could sort of make out something big moving in the smoke.

* * *

Selina stood in the shower with her head pretty much underneath the showerhead when she scrubbed herself down. She might have looked fairly flawless as ever if it wasn't for the stitches along her torso just above the bottom most rib and another on her right shoulder. They were souveniers of her encounter with Nightshade the night before.

She thought that she did a fairly good job of stitching them up and both wounds already seem to be healing, but there was a good chance that both will end up scarring. She also got a black eye and a bruise from where she headbutted Nightshade. And there was a couple of bruises as well, but it could have gone a fair deal worse.

Thankfully, for her, Selina's armor did a pretty good job of protecting her. She was thankful for that because things would have ended up a lot worse.

She turned the water off and proceeded to dry herself off. She slipped on her clothes and shook her head, being dressed.

Dressed to kill as usual, Selina headed in the direction of her kitchen, easing her way inside. She spotted Mia standing at the counter. She listened to the news while waiting for the news.

"Good morning," Selina said. "How did you sleep?"

Mia ended up standing bolt upright in surprise. Selina raised her eyebrow.

"You started me," she replied, shaking her head. "But, yes I pretty much slept fine. After the day that I had yesterday, I slept like a rock."

She paused for a moment and took a long look at the bruising on Selina's face. It was a lot worse than it looked last night. It could have because she was preoccupied with her own problems, but never the less, she let out a startled gasp, "Maybe I should be asking you if you're okay."

"I've been hurt worse out there," Selina commented with a shrug.

Mia offered a shaky nod and turned her attention back to the news.

"There is still no sign of Thea Queen, the daughter of billionaire industrialists Robert and Moira Queen. She was declared missing nearly three weeks ago. The Porsche she was given for her sixteenth birthday was found to have been sold nearly two weeks ago and her credit cards were found in a trash can. They have not been used since a month ago, where young Ms. Queen made a purchase at a department store. No cash was found within her purse, but identification was still intact. There is no sign of the girl in question, but Queen Industries is offering a reward for any information that leads to the safe return of Thea Queen."

Selina was paying attention to the news, but she noticed a great deal of tension go over Mia's body when she shifted. The younger girl relaxed when it was announced that there was no further information regarding Thea Queen's whereabouts.

The older woman did respect that whatever secrets Mia had was hers to keep, but she couldn't really help, but be curious, "Where are you from?"

"From Vancouver," she replied. She paused and thought that she better clarify. "The one in Portland…not the one in Canada."

Selina looked at her and nodded in response. It did fit her voice quite nicely. She watched when Mia moved over to butter her toast, "So, what brought you to Gotham City of all places?"

"You have to be somewhere," Mia suggested. She paused for a moment buttering her toast. She realized that wasn't an ideal answer at all, or at least it wasn't an answer that wouldn't upset her. "I wasn't happy living where I was….so I thought that I would try living somewhere else. Gotham seemed like about as good of a place as any."

Selina looked at her with an arched eyebrow. Normally, it seemed like people were doing their best to try to move away from Gotham and not move to it, "You know, most people try and do their best to move away from Gotham, not moving closer to it."

"Well, I'm not most people!" Mia fired back sharply.

A little too sharply if she had to be honest with herself.

Selina gave her a smile in response, "Obviously."

She paused for a second, "So, what are the state of your finances….after getting your purse stolen?"

Mia narrowed her eyes in response. She thought that particular question came across as a bit rude and a tad bit personal She didn't know if that was the intention when she asked that question, but it never the less came across as a bit rude.

There was also the fact that she wasn't entirely sure whether or not she could end up trusting Selina. Granted, she did give her a place to spend the night, "Well, I'm okay…..I wasn't keeping money in my purse or anything. "

That was one thing that the news reports got wrong. There was no money in her purse, not because it was stolen, but because it wasn't there.

Mia shook her head to clear it before she continued, "After buying new clothes….again, I should have enough to rent a small apartment. And after that….well things will be pretty tight until I'm able to find a job."

Selina paused to consider that point. While she was doing so, she reached into the fridge so she could pick up a jog of milk. She poured herself a glass, which she then proceeded to down in one gulp.

Slowly, she licked her lips and turned to face Mia, "So, how old are you?"

There was a moment of hesitation before she spoke. Despite the hesitation, her answer was firm when she gave it, "Eighteen."

"Eighteen, hmm," Selina said, looking over the young girl. "Do you have any identification in order to back that up?"

"Yes…yes, yes I do," she spoke in a firm voice.

"Well, that's good," Selina said. She placed her hand down on the table with a smile. "Then I might be able to help you out."

Before she had a chance to go into further detail on that, there was a knock on the door. She sighed and got up to her feet. That left Mia standing in the kitchen with a confused look on her face.

She was able to make out that there was a woman around Selina's age at the front door.

"I'm surprised that you're here," Mia heard Selina said. "I thought that you'd be halfway to Metropolis by now."

The woman at the door frowned, "That's one of the benefits of being the person in charge. You can decide whether or not you can take the day off. And since I took the day off, I decided to visit my girlfriend."

Selina thought that made about as much sense of everything. While she wasn't in too fit of a state to entertain visitors, she wasn't about to turn her down.

The woman at the door looked at her with a frown, "What the hell happened to your face?"

"Someone tried to mug me last night," Selina explained to her. "I'm fine now….but I ended up having to headbutt the mugger."

There was a long pause before the woman who was at the door nodded and allowed Selina to lead her in the kitchen.

When she entered the kitchen, something clicked in Mia's head.

"You're Alexandra Fucking Potter!" Mia explained in surprise. That caused something else to click into her mind when Alexandra referred to as her girlfriend. She turned to Selina slowly and added in a questioning manner, "You're fucking Alexandra Potter?"

* * *

A fairly well-built, if disoriented, young man who looked to be in his mid to late twenties is currently resting in the middle of a six foot deep crater with a pile of debris and rubble strewn around him. From the angle that the man is laying, he could make out that something seems to have crashed through the top part of the wall in front of him while taking out part of the roof in the process of doing something.

He was rather groggy. It felt as if he had gotten knocked on the head extremely hard. He tried to push himself up to a standing position. It took a lot of effort for him to do so, given that he felt the sensation like his entire body is being weighed down by something.

Eventually, through a great deal of effort, he was finally able to get to his feet. Once he rose to his feet, he stumbled around once or twice in the process of doing so. He went to move forward, only to put his foot through the ground. It settled further into the ground and caused him to slightly lose his balance. He would have fell over if his foot wasn't rammed into the ground.

The well-built young man gave a grimace when he tried to yank his foot out of the ground. He wrenched it up out of the ground when he struggled to be able to walk forwards. The grounded ended up buckling underneath his weight as a result.

He was able to somehow make his way out of the crater. Each step was a struggle like he was trying to walk through quick drying concrete.

The man stopped to catch his breath and he noticed that he was bare-ass naked. He reached around and felt the top of his head. Despite remembering that he had a full head of hair before now, he was bald.

In a result of a surprise, he ended up slamming his hands against a nearby wall angrily. It crumbled from the impact.

That gave the man a shock. It was made of the same substance of the wall now, it was either stone, brick, or concrete. The man was completely shocked by what he was seeing.

"This is wrong, oh this is wrong, this is so wrong," he said, muttering underneath his breath over and over again.

He fell over backwards onto his ass and kept looking at his hand. He kept muttering "this is wrong" constantly. Eventually, while focusing on how his hand was supposed to look, it reverted back to normal.

He took a deep and calming breath and pushed himself back to his feet. Eventually, he came up across a man who was dressed like a stereotypical nineteen-thirties gangster, at least that's what he assumed. He was dressed in a trench coat and fedora.

The man was distracted by trying to light up a cigarette using a lighter that didn't want to light.

"What the fuck do you want, freak show?" the surly man asked him.

The man narrowed his eyes and spoke in a rough voice, "Your clothes…give them to me."

The gangster responded to this man's request in a raspy voice by trying to shove him back, but he couldn't shove this weird looking man back.

The man responded by shoving him hard into the ground. The man jumped back, surprised at what he did, "Man….I didn't….I didn't mean…oh my God, I wasn't supposed to do that."

The man responded to this apology by drawing a switchblade and trying to shank the man. That didn't work out that well for the knife considering it ended up snapping like a twig when it came into contact with his skin.

The well-built young man narrowed his eyes at the thug and grabbed the man by the coat forcefully. He was pulled in close, until they were face to face.

The young man pursed his lips and blew in response. Black ash was fired into the other man's face. He ended up choking as a result, his eyes bulged out of his sockets, and he clenched his throat. The thug tried to vainly pull in air, struggling to do so. No matter how hard he pushed himself he couldn't.

The man fell to the ground, bleeding from his eyes, mouth, and ears. The young man looked down at the gangster, shaking his head in a solemn manner, "You should have really played nicely."

He pulled the trench coat and fedora off of him and placed them on, before lurching off into the night.

* * *

The Gotham Central precinct building was the sight of a major explosion about twenty minutes ago. Kara Kent-Potter joined Vicki Vale. Kara was interning underneath Vicki currently.

The two of them pulled up in Vicki's car and they pulled into something that was straight out of a war zone. The two women were joined a moment later by Vicki's cameraman and producer, Elliot Knox.

Dust and smoke flew in every direction. There was dust and smoke everywhere. Kara could scarcely make out the fact that there was the fire department and emergency medical support showing up.

The largest number of the injured people happened to be civilians and not police officers. The damage to the building looked to be pretty noticeable. A large gash was blown out of the building. Upon a closer look, the entire blast destroyed the area above and below the crime lab, along with the two rooms on either side. There was a large hole in the ground.

The smoke and flames continued to shoot out of it and did an excellent job of obstructing just how much damage was done. Glass and debris strewn over the ground.

Kara looked over, shocked at the carnage. Vicki sounded off by her with a brief and muttered "Oh God."

She brought her hand to her mouth and Kara agreed with those sentiments. Vicki turned around and prepared to talk to her camera guy.

He was slumped against the van due to the utter shock. Vicki shook her head and sighed, "You'd think that he'd be a little more useful…he used to be a war correspondent."

Vicki turned towards Kara, "Do you think that you could go and grab the camera?"

"Right," Kara agreed. She moved off to get the camera. Almost in a flash, but she held herself back.

While Kara grabbed the camera from the back of the van, Knox was busy getting the transmission set. He handed her a headset and a smaller, less visible one to give to Vicki.

"Can you hear me?" he asked.

"Yes, I can hear you, loud and clear," Kara said. She made her way over to take the headset over to Vicki.

Kara handed off the headset to Vicki and lifted up the camera to catch the picture. The smoke was interfering with the reception a little bit.

She was relieved when she made out Harry in the dust. He was a little banged up, but pretty good all things considered. He was in the middle of helping emergency services dig through the rubble, while also helping with emergency medical attention to anyone who needs help.

It was a pretty powerful shot to test the camera.

"Okay," Vicki said after slipping on her headset. "Open one me, then pan over to the scene, and finish up on Harry."

Kara nodded in response.

Knox looked over towards the two of them, "Ryder is doing an opening now, and we're going to live in, three, two, one…."

Vicki jumped right into things, "Thank you Jack. I'm live from the Gotham Central precinct building which was the location of a huge explosion early this evening."

While she was giving her rundown, Kara carefully scanned the camera around the scene. She was trying to remain dispassionate about it, which was harder then it looked. Thankfully, it was covered well in the Ethics course she had to take.

She panned across the scene of the explosion and then she came back around to Harry. She found him in the middle of offering a dazed looking blonde police officer a hand up. She had an impressive looking gash across her temple. The woman stood up, only to stumble due to the dizziness she was experiencing.

Before she could hit the ground, Harry caught her in his arms and carried her over towards the nearby ambulance.

He stopped for a moment to catch his breath; he had been at this for a while. Therefore, he was experiencing some wariness.

The EMTs move over to assist him. Harry waved them off and went back to helping the people.

It was at this point where Vicki finished giving her spiel, so Kara reluctantly panned the camera way from Harry and to Vicki.

"Right now, Jack, we don't have any more information, but hopefully we'll have more," Vicki was saying. "The situation is pretty new, but we'll hopefully have more information as the story breaks later. This is Vicki Vale, signing off."

* * *

The young man stumbled in, dressed in a fedora and a trench coat. He was making his way slowly up the flight of the stairs as a result of his widely fluctuating powers weighing him down. The random heaviness he felt on his limbs came and came. Sometimes he moved faster, and sometimes he moved slower.

He gripped into the staircase railing rather hard. His hand shifted into solid bronze and it ran all the way up of his arm to his elbow.

"Oh god, not again," he grumbled. He let go of the railing and it shifted to what appeared to be normal, at least for him currently.

His hand was a pale chalk white. He suspected that was the best that he could hope for. He shook his head and made his way up the stairs, finding the floor that he was looking for.

The gentleman pushed the door open and then headed down the hallway. He made his way to a corner apartment. Through his scrambled mind he recalled one thing. This was home.

Home he didn't have a key for. He placed his hand on the door and his hand shifted to match the material that the knob was made of. He broke the knob off with a grimace.

The man broke his way into the apartment. He was greeted to a stalker shrine that was plastered with pictures of Sapphire Stagg that was pinned up all over his walls. Most of the photos looked fairly tame, shots of Sapphire as she went about her day.

The further he made his way down the hallway to the master computer, they became a lot more risqué and sexually explicit. He brushed past them and stepped his way into the bathroom.

He pulled off his fedora and trench coat to take a long look into the mirror. Needless to say, the man wasn't exactly happy with what he saw in the mirror.

His facial features have become more brutish, resembling a caveman of sorts. His skin was chalk white and he was completely bald. He lacked hair on both his eyebrows and his hair. He moved down and noticed that part of his upper body and one of his arms appeared to be made of a rough orange stone.

The lower half of his body and his other arm is made of a smoother purple stone.

He reared his head back and let out a primal roar of frustration and anger. The sight of himself in the mirror, he looked back at himself and didn't recognize the reflection staring back.

"My name is Rex Mason," he murmured underneath his breath. "My name is Rex Mason."

He let out a primal roar of anger and put his fist through the mirror along with the mirror behind it due to his anger.

His body shifted from its normal shape to a much larger one that resembled a troll. He yanked his arm out of the wall and made a note that it resembled similar material from the mirror. That caused him to grin evilly.

He made his way to the bedroom and lifted up a photo of Sapphire that showed her hugging Harry Potter.

"So, that's it, the rich and the privileged always get what they want, they always get the girl," he ranted in a rough voice. "And Simon Stagg made sure that this happened to me. And Harry Fucking Potter stole Sapphire away from me."

He slammed his hand onto the bedside dresser and crushed it.

"And now, I'm going to crush both of them," he growled through gritted teeth. He smashed a mirror with his fist.

Glass flew everywhere from the monster's rage.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 24** **th** **, 2015.**


	105. Metamorpho Smash Part Four

**Chapter One Hundred Five: Metamorpho Smash Part Four.**

* * *

Harry was still at Gotham Central. He was in the process of working hard to assist Emergency Services since the explosion earlier this day. He looked fairly dishelved because of that, his hair was more of a mess than usual, he got a fair amount of dirt, grime, and blood, and not his own, running up his arms as a result of digging through the rubble and offering emergency medical attention as needed.

A couple of moments later, Harry currently sat on the curb across the street and drank from a bottle of the water. It was from here where he was able to pretty much clearly make out the extent of the damage done to the building. It looked like a big gorge was carved out of the building, but on the bright side, it looked nowhere as bad as it was when the smoke was obscuring people's view. It still looked pretty bad though.

The lab and the two rooms next to it are gone, the blast also did some damage to the room above it which caused part of the floor to collapse and it blew out the wall. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, so really it was a glass half-full, glass half-empty situation.

Harry took a long drag from the bottle of water. When he was done with that, he dumped whatever was left in it over his head in an attempt to get the dirt out of it hair. When that was done, he ran his dirt through it to get it out of his face.

He looked up and saw and annoyed looking Harvey Bullock moving towards him with a determination on his face. Considering as how Harry has seen Bullock making his rounds and talking to witnesses, Harry wasn't all that shocked to see the detective approaching him, but he wasn't sure whether Harvey looked that passed.

"Can I help you with anything?" Harry asked him.

Bullock looked at him and responded in a gruff tone, "Several witnesses saw you around the area before the explosion. So, can you tell me, what's up, Doc?"

Harry narrowed his eyes. He wasn't sure he appreciated Bullock's tone or the accusations coming from it. He didn't have anything to hide, so he prepared to answer the question.

"I was out on a run and I stopped by to have breakfast at the café across the street with a friend," Harry explained to him. He spoke extremely calmly and very patiently.

"Which friend?" Bullock asked.

Harry responded rather bluntly, "Sarah Essen."

That took Bullock pretty much off guard. He wasn't really expecting Harry to say that.

Harvey didn't have a chance to ask Harry any further questions about why he was meeting Sarah, because Jim Gordon was walking up to him and walking up for him with a purpose.

"Chief O'Hara wants to talk to you about what you've learned so far," Gordon said.

Bullock looked at Gordon and protested, "I'm in the middle of questioning a suspect here…."

That caused Harry to give him a look like he was seriously contemplating setting him on fire with his heat vision. There might have been several people in his head in the process of egging him on.

Gordon's gaze snapped to Harvey and he repeated himself in a firm tone, "Just go talk to O'Hara."

He spoke in a calm tone of voice and Harvey couldn't really have any reason to argue with it. He turned around and made his way back to the building.

"Sorry about that," Jim said in a gruff tone of voice. "It's just, Harvey being Harvey."

"This isn't the first time I've ran into Bullock, so I've got a pretty good idea what he's like," Harry said. "Personal experience….and needless to say, I've heard a lot of stories from a couple of different people that he's worked with in the past. Although, I can't help, but wonder why he's being kept around."

Gordon responded in the most diplomatic way that he could, "Harvey has his uses."

Harry nodded, that was really the best answer that he could hope for at this point.

"So, are you okay?" Gordon asked him.

"I'm fine," Harry said. "I was pretty well-protected from the blast where I was standing. I still got knocked around….but it honestly wasn't as bad as it could have been."

"Yes, and I heard back from Gotham Central that Detective Essen is going to be fine," he informed Harry. "She banged her head pretty badly due to getting knocked backwards by the explosion, but thankfully there was no sign of a concussion. They do want to keep her overnight for observation."

"Thank you for informing me," Harry said gratefully. "I was wondering."

"I know the two of you are friends, so it's the least that I can do to tell you," Gordon informed him.

"It's appreciated never the less," Harry told him. "So, how are you doing?"

Jim chuckled. "Would you believe that today was my day off?"

"I'm surprised that you're allowed days off in Gotham City," Harry said.

"Tell me about it," Gordon said gruffly. "It sure feels like that I'm personally not allowed to take a day off. I guess that just is fitting because crime never sleeps, does it?"

This conversation couldn't go much further, because an extremely frantic looking Barbara arrived. Harry got the sense she was concerned about her father after hearing from the explosion. She stood at the edge of the crime scene, looking around, frowning, and biting down on her lip.

She spotted her father, standing near Harry. Harry sat down on the curb. With that being said, Barbara darted forward before anyone could stop her and flung herself into her father's arms.

Gordon was a bit surprised at his daughter's actions, although to his credit, he rolled with the punches. "So, what are you doing here, Barbara?"

Barbara responded by giving her father a look. She looked at the hole in the building and the back to her father and gave him one final look as if to say "seriously."

"I heard about the explosion, so I tried to get ahold of you on a cellphone," Barbara said. "And when I couldn't do that, I tried to call dispatch, but I couldn't get through to them. So, I decided to come here and check out things myself."

"I was fine, I was at home when the explosion happened," Gordon said. Barbara looked at him. "It was my day off."

That caused Barbara's mouth to hang open in shock and surprise.

"You have days off?" Barbara asked. That caused Harry to crack a grin.

"Anyway, I heard about the explosion, and I came down to see what I could do to help," Gordon said. "I must have left my phone on the coffee table on my way out."

Barbara paused and gave her father a once over, to make sure that he was fine. When she was completely satisfied with how she looked, she stepped back from him.

She turned towards Harry and looked him over, before asking, "So, are you okay?"

"I've had much worse," Harry said.

' _He has,'_ Kara admitted. She sounded grumpy through the bond link when she said that, if she was relieving some extremely unfortunate memories.

' _I'll take your word for it,'_ Barbara thought.

She was still getting mostly used to the bond traffic and all of the quirks that went along with it. She thought that she got the hang of it, although she wasn't able to properly get the hang of it just yet.

* * *

Joe Kerr, a comedian, made his way to the Ace Chemical Plant where he worked at his day job as a chemical engineer. A lot had changed in the past two months. He thought that he could quit his job and focus on his budding career as a comedian. He had a conversation with his wife, Jeannie along those lines.

She encouraged him to do whatever he needed to do and then informed him that she was pregnant. That caused him to stall his plans a little bit, at least until now, after the two of them discussed things further.

Joe decided to go forward with his plan. He gave his boss, who he actually got along with and respected, his two week notice. Those two weeks were pretty much up and he was ready to call it in after an extremely long day at work.

He was in the middle of packing up his locker. He could see a dark haired, pale skinned, woman dressed in a conservative female business suit, with glasses and her hair tied back approach him.

"Yes?" Joe asked.

"The boss wants to speak to you before you leave, Mr. Kerr," the woman said with a hint of an English accent.

"Right, thank you, Paige," he answered. "Could you please tell Mr. Romero that I would be there shortly?"

"Sure," she answered with a shrug.

After he finished packing his things from the box, Joe made his way outside of Mr. Romero's office, not having to wait long before Paige stepped outside. She slid her skirt down, it was a bit shorter than work issue.

"Mr. Kerr will see you now," the woman said to her boss.

"Do you mind if I leave the box with my belongings on your desk?" he asked her.

She shook her head in negative and responded, "Not at all. I'm leaving for the day, anyway."

He made his way inside and saw his former supervisor, Ellison Romero, sitting at his desk. He was a forty year old Hispanic man with quite the mustache, he was quite the go getter and had a reputation of being a ladies man.

"Mr. Kerr, good to see you, good to see you," the supervisor said, extending his hand.

The two men sat down in his office.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" he asked him.

"It is your last day here," the supervisor said. It was phrased more of a comment rather than a question.

"Yes, it is, and…why did you want to see me, sir?" he asked him.

Ellison was looking for something on his desk and he found it, with a triumphant "aha in response to his triumph.

"Even though it's your last day…..your track record speaks for itself and I was talking to the people who were higher up, asking about what it would take to potentially keep you on," the man commented. "I talked to them about giving you a raise and promotion to supervisor."

Joe raised his eyebrow. He wanted to say that he was surprised by this. He wanted to say that he was a bit flattered. Actually, right now, he didn't know what he wanted to say. His supervisor handed him a stapled piece of paper.

"This will be your new contract, if you're willing to take the job," Ellison Romero replied.

Joe looked over it and he saw that it was a very good deal. There was a substantial pay raise listed on there, since he was taking a supervisory position. And that was not counting the benefit package which had both medical and dental attached to it as well.

On the other end of the spectrum, it would be a lot of extra responsibility and it would end up cutting into his time a great deal. Not to mention that if he wanted to spend time with his pregnant wife, he wouldn't really have time to focus on his comedy career at all.

"Do you think that I can have some time to think about this?" Joe asked. "And I wouldn't like to make an important decision without talking to my wife first."

"Yes, I know that's a big decision," his supervisor agreed. "And I would be worried if you didn't want to think it over first. So take some time ,talk to your wife, and let me know in a few days."

"Well, thank you, thank you for everything," Joe commented.

* * *

Mia took a little bit to recover from the shock of seeing Alexandra Potter there and also learning of the nature of her relationship with Selina. She found herself out shopping with the two older women and shopping for clothes at that. She was in desperate need to replace her clothes after having them stolen last night.

They were currently standing at a clothing store that was in the higher end of things. It seemed like Alex decided to be nice and spring for the younger girl's clothes. Mia protested for a while, but she was silenced when she couldn't….well she couldn't really change their minds. So there she was, right here and right now.

"You'll learn pretty quickly that when Alex has her mind made up about something, there's really no changing it," Selina informed her. Mia nodded in surprise. "Harry is about the only one that could get her to change it, and it isn't that often. And….you know your personal finances didn't really leave you in much of a position to argue."

Mia hated to admit that much, but they did have a point. That left the three of them looking at various shirts, before moving onto bras and panties. They had already gathered up a couple of pairs of jeans and skirts. Alex excused herself for a moment ,to make her way off to the side, to talk to someone about something. Mia and Selina couldn't really figure out the details.

"So, what about your living situation?" Selina asked her.

"Well, I haven't had a chance to look for an apartment yet, you know that," Mia said.

"Yes, I do," she agreed. "My apartment might not be the biggest place in the world, but I do have an extra room with a bed available that you can crash in until you get your own place. We might have to clean it out a little bit, because it's being used as a storage room."

Mia looked at her. She was a bit overwhelmed by the generosity, but she nodded in response, "Thank you."

The two of them continued their shopping for a little bit more. At least until Alex hung up the phone and shifted her way over to rejoin them.

"Sorry it took me so long," Alex answered in an apologetic voice. "But it was really important that I take that call."

Selina turned towards her girlfriend, eyebrow raised in curiosity, wondering what this was all about.

"I can't talk about it right now, even if I wanted to," Alex informed her.

Mia raised her eyebrow and nodded in response. She got precisely what Alex was talking about straight away.

Selina understood herself as well. If it would have affected her, Alex would have told her straight away.

"So, do you think that you have enough shirts?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, I think that I'm good," Mia said, grinning despite herself. Okay, maybe she was milking this just a little bit, but she needed variety after all.

Alex guided her over towards the lingerie section. She scanned over her carefully. Mia looked at her with a raised eyebrow in surprise.

She couldn't help, but think that Alex was doing a good job in undressing her with her eyes and that caused her to blush in response.

"I think that I have a pretty good idea what suits you," Alex said, pulling away from her.

"And I might have a job for you, that could really go a long way to helping you get back on your feet?" Selina asked.

Mia pulled herself a moment from looking away from the bras and raised her eyebrow. "You do?"

Selina nodded, "Yes, I do."

Mia wondered what this was all about and it looked like Selina was about ready to explain it to her.

"I own my own club," Selina continued to explain. That caused Alex to break out in a moderate chuckle, at least until Selina silenced her with a sharp look. "Well more technically speaking, I'm a co-owner of a club. Either way, I'm always looking for some new talent and it just so happens that I'm looking for a full time waitress on top of that."

Mia was all ears and listening in response at that.

"The pay is pretty good, and there would be tips on top of that and my patrons, they tip pretty well," Selina explained. "There's also medical and dental, but that doesn't take effect until three months later."

Both Alex and Mia looked surprised by that. The first part about the pay and tips were pretty standard for a waitress, but the medical benefits weren't.

"The girls get medical?" Alex asked in surprise.

"Yes, they do, why wouldn't they?" Selina asked. She decided to clarify another point. "It's a good way to stop them from seeking to pad their income from outside sources."

That caused Mia to stand there looking confused.

"The club is a Gentlemen's club," Alex clarified for her. "So, it really is surprising that the girls get benefits."

"Oh?" Mia asked. It hit her. "Harry Potter owns a strip club?"

Both Alex and Selina smirked in amusement since her reaction was really kind of amusement.

"So, is it really surprising he owns a Gentlemen's Club?" Alex asked.

Mia considered that question for a second, "Well, yeah…given how big of a champion for female empowerment Harry seems to be. And those places are…typically seen as objectifying women."

No sooner did that statement leave Mia's mouth, Selina started to burst out into laughter. She was bent over with laughing.

Casually, Alex had to reach over to prevent her girlfriend from falling over. Mia looked at her, a bit huffy.

"Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean to laugh at you, it's nothing personal," Selina said. She took a deep breath and counted to ten before returning herself back. "It's just that…..take it from me, the women are the ones in control there, not the customers…trust me on that one."

Mia was extremely surprised and she raised her eyebrow. Selina leaned towards her with a smile.

"You'd see that if you decide to come work at the Cat's Cradle," Selina informed her. "Trust me, you'll find out all about it."

Mia had to admit her curiosity had been piqued. She would give it some consideration.

* * *

Sal Maroni was being lead through Blackgate Penitentiary towards a room that was typically used for a lawyer to meet privately with his client. Considering that he wasn't expecting to meet with his lawyer, he was on his guard. While he was well protected in Blackgate, he wasn't about ready to take any chances.

"So, Brian, do you have any clue what this is all about?" Sal asked him.

Brian shook his head and responded, "I'm not sure for sure. All I know is that Warden Joseph told me to get you and escort him to this particular room."

Sal nodded. He pretty much chalked it up to the fact that his lawyer needed to talk to him about something suddenly.

"So, have you heard anything else about the explosion at the Gotham Central Precinct this morning?" he asked the guard.

"Haven't heard much of anything lately," he responded. "Heard some people kicking around the idea that there's some sort of gas line bursting or something, that caused the explosion. It could have been a terrorist attack for all we know."

Sal smirked in response, "So what you're saying is that no one knows what the fuck is going on?"

Brian chuckled, "That sounds about right, Mr. Maroni."

It was about this point where the two of them reached the room. He could see two other guards by the name of Ed and Gus standing on either side of the door.

"Gus, Ed, how are you boys doing?" he asked.

"Pretty good, Mr. Maroni," Gus said.

"Yeah, I'm doing pretty well," Ed said. He moved over to hold the door open and allow Maroni inside.

Maroni entered the room and he stopped in front of the last person that he expected to see. Needless to say, it was a bit of a shock to the system to see Carmine Faclone sitting there waiting for him, extremely calmly.

"What the fuck are you doing here, Falcone?" Maroni asked.

The Roman, having a bit more tact then that, spoke calmly. "It's good to see you too, Sal."

He gestured to the chair across from him. Maroni was doing some fairly quick thinking about what he wanted to do. He figured that he didn't have much to lose so he might as well listen and try and figure out what the man had to say. Especially given that Carmine was never the type of man who was able to stop by for a gloat.

Therefore in good grace, Maroni sat down in front of him.

"So, would you like something to eat, maybe something to eat, before we get down to business?" Carmine asked.

Sal gave him a look and considered what he had to do, "Yeah, I….could use a drink."

Nodding, Carmine slid his hand into the bag and pulled out a bottle of Grappa along with two glasses. He proceeded to pour the two of them a nice drink.

Sliding one of the glasses to Sal, Carmine decided to open up the floor, "So have you heard about Carl?"

"You hear a lot of things when you're in this joint," Sal replied. "But, yes I heard Carl. I'm not quite clear what happened to him…there are people in the outside who are looking into the situation further."

Carmine surveyed him with a casual expression, as if he was saying that he didn't doubt that at all. When Sal was pretty sure that he had the Roman lured into position, he kept pushing on.

"What I do know, is that a number of people swore up and down until they were blue in the face that they saw Grissom talking to you the night before they were whacked," Sal answered. He paused and waited for any kind of explanation that contradicted that, all while nursing his drink in the process.

Carmine narrowed his eyes in response to that. It was obvious that Maroni was trying to bait him, but the Roman was not going to take the bait. "Yes, I met with Grissom that day to discuss, business."

"And that's why you're sitting in front of me, today," Sal said. He was calm when he put his drink down.

"Yes, I'm here to discuss business with you," Carmine said. "We're here to discuss business because business isn't doing so well now. With all the freaks running around causing trouble, I think that we can both agree how much that screws up business for everyone involved."

Sal nodded. He might not see eye to eye with the Roman a lot these days, but he would be able to agree about that.

"And it seems like everyone and their mother is coming out of the woodwork in order to get a piece of the pie," Carmine continued. "Roman Sionis got delusions of grandeur and started to call himself Black Mask and figured that he could get in on the drug racket. Cobblepot came back from exile from England then started selling military grade hardware to anyone who had the money to pay. And Thorne….he gathered together any two-bit crime lord who wasn't a member of one of the families in an attempt to make him look like he was the Kingpin of Gotham City. And then…what's worse, you've got freaks running around in costumes interrupting business, some of whom who are stealing shit from me, and even worse, attacking the two of us….attacking me…."

"So, that's where you got those beauty marks on your face, huh?" Sal asked, referring to the facial scars.

Carmine narrowed his eyes, but took a deep breath and stopped from losing his temper. "Yes, Sal, that's where I got these scars from. Some psychotic bitch that dressed up like a cat broke into my safe at the Royal, stole my mother's jewelry, stole my grandmother's jewelry, attacked my son, and she finished up the night by attacking me."

It was obvious he was fuming. Sal could hear his teeth grind.

"And that's just the tip of the iceberg, Gotham is getting worse daily," Carmine said. "The League of Assassins have returned to Gotham City."

Sal considered these words from Falcone. Yeah, he heard a lot about this from other people, but he really didn't believe that Gotham got this bad. Hearing it from Falcone is a completely different story.

"If you're willing to play ball, I might be able to help you," Falcone said. "I might be able to pull some strings and get you out of Blackgate on good behavior."

That caused Maroni to look extremely interested.

"Otherwise, it stands right now that Loeb is going to make certain that you're going to stay exactly where you are for a very long time," Falcone answered.

That caused Sal to blink. The information about Loeb was news to him. He knew the Commissioner was angry with him as a result of embarrassing him shortly before he was attacked by Nightwing last year.

"Didn't know that fat bastard was still holding a grudge," Maroni grumbled.

Falcone shrugged in response, "Some people just don't know when to let go of a grudge."

Maroni responded by giving Falcone an agitated look. It was obvious that was a fairly veiled dig against his father.

Carmine pressed on like he didn't hear anything out of the ordinary, "Despite the fact that Gillian is nursing a grudge, quite potentially a justified one, I should be able to convince Loeb that you being back on the street is what's best for business."

Maroni couldn't help, but grunt. He knew that if Falcone told Loeb to jump, the Commissioner would ask him how high.

"So, what do you exactly want for this consideration?" Maroni asked.

"I want business between the two of us to go back how it used to be, before we both got put away last year, and no more infighting between our factions," Falcone said. "Oh, and I want my Grandfather's motel back, but I'm willing to compensate you for that. As much as I hate to admit it, Zucco and his boys took it from Mario during a time of war between the two families."

Maroni couldn't help, but look intrigued by what Falcone was offering.

* * *

It was pretty early in the evening. The night hadn't properly started just yet.

Jack Napier smiled when he relaxed in one of his favorite casinos. This place had so many wonderful memories, like the time where he beat the holy hell out of a couple of hitmen working for Carl Grissom some time back.

He returned to the tables. He was surrounded by two of his favorite things in the world. He had a large stack of chips and a large army of stacked women. It sounded like a wonderful night out on the town.

"Oh lookie here, I'm winning once more," Jack said. His teeth twisted into a grin. "It's going to be a hot night, isn't it boys?"

He surrounded himself with several gangster types, including his number one man, Bob the Goon. For once in his life, he seemed to be scoring with the women. Good for him.

Napier took notice that he and his crew weren't the only ones in the house. He caught sight of Rupert Thorne seated in the VIP section of the club. One could argue that he was holding court and given that there was a stream of low to mid level gangsters, that wasn't that inaccurate.

The man's eyes was watching Napier like a hawk, likely because the last time he was here, Napier won a ton of money off of him and it looked like he was cleaning house again tonight.

There was also the belief that he may have been responsible for having killed Grissom and Thorne considered the old gangster as friend, along with several of the younger criminals. Some of them also saw Napier as a loose cannon ready to explode.

Jack rolled the dice once more. One of his boys leaned towards him and whispered in his ear, "Thorne is watching you pretty closely, boss."

"Yes, I know," Jack said. He turned around and looked over at Thorne. He nodded at the man. "All in, put everything on red."

Unfortunately for Jack, his lucky streak ended and it ended on black. There was a groan from the ground.

Jack shrugged, "Oh well, you win a few, lose a few. Guess, I fell into the same trap many did….not quitting while I'm ahead."

This should also go a long way to getting Thorne off of his back. He didn't need that kind of heat right now since he was in the middle of consolidating his grip on Grissom's holdings.

It turned out that train of thought proved rather true when Thorne nodded at him in response.

"Guess, that's my cue to go tonight," Jack said. "I've got places to go, people to see….so tell the other boys to get their shit together, because that's our cue to skidoo."

Jack finally shook off of the women that was hanging on him and his every world. He turned over towards Bob the Goon.

"Take a hike, toots," Jack said to the woman who was actually hanging off Bob the Goon. "So, the thing?"

Bob's eyes rose when he racked his brain and he nodded. "The thing should be ready for you, you just need to pick it up."

A wide and toothy grin crossed over Jack's face. He looked about as giddy as a schoolgirl and that was a scary thought.

"Been something that I've been waiting for a long time," Jack answered.

It was then that his men have finished getting their shit together and they were about ready to leave. They were only to be stopped by the sound of a roaring engine.

It sounded like a truck that was going at full speed down the highway. Jack and Bob the Goon looked up in surprise.

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Jack yelled. Both of them dove out of the way.

This proved to be an extremely prudent action when a very large armored car came smashing through the front entrance of the club a moment later. Time seemed to stand still.

Several gas canisters along with a couple of flash-bang grenades are fired into the room. The truck opened up and a group of heavily armed and armored men streamed out of the vehicle. They were packing military guard weapons, gas masks, and wearing tactical gear that you would expect a SWAT team to be in.

One of the men was wearing a rather noticeable red hoodie underneath his tactical vest with the hood pulled up over his gas mask.

"Get the fuck down!" one of them yelled.

There wasn't any sort of compliance. So, one of the gentlemen started to unload a shotgun into the person closest to him that isn't a member of his gang. A couple of men work crowd control, and another group headed for the cages where the cash was being kept.

Upon reaching the cages, they used a shotgun with a thermite slug to melt the lock and head inside.

Due to their quick thinking, Jack, Bob, and Jack's men were able to take cover, so they were able to avoid the worst of the tear gas and flash bangs.

Jack frowned; he wasn't too pleased that he was being treated like an everyday civilian. He rose up to his feet, rolling up his sleeves. He decided to take full advantage of the fact the Red Hood and his gang are distracted keeping the crowd under control.

He reached into his jacket and pulled out an excessively large magnum caliber revolver. Across from him, Bob the Goon did the same thing. He was using a different kind of gun from Jack.

Having noticed their boss and his number one guy had drawn their weapons; members of Jack's gang did the same.

A long pause followed and it was almost like Jack was mentally counting down his head. He took careful aim with his magnum and fired.

While most weapons wouldn't even come close to penetrate the body armor the Red Hood gang was wearing, this particular gun he used punched right through it like a hot knife through butter.

Bob and the rest of Jack's gang began to follow their lead and open fire on another member of the Red Hood gang.

Luckily for the Red Hood himself, he was able to duck behind a nearby pillar for cover. The room descended into chaos when the rest of the heavily armed criminals in the room took advantage of the Red Hood gang being distracted by Jack to fire their own weapons.

"You boys picked the wrong night to crash this fucking party!" Jack howled.

Thorne's bodyguard escorted him out of the side door near the VIP section of the club in all of the chaos and did his job well, covering him to get him towards a waiting limo.

A shoot out started and Jack and the Red Hood took several shots at each other. Jack managed to catch the Red Hood in the shoulder, but his armor kept the round from penetrating any deeper. That caused him to drop the gun in response.

The Red Hood gasped when he dropped down onto his knees. He had to retrieve it which kept him from getting his head ripped off from a return shot from Jack.

He rose to his feet and unloaded the clip in Jack's direction. Jack dodged to the ground, but the thug standing next to him isn't as lucky.

"Talk about taking one for the team," Jack grumbled.

The men in the cage grabbed the cash and returned to join the fight. The man holding a particular large bag of cash ended up catching a swift round in the front.

"Ah shit, the cops!" one of them yelled, losing his head and getting one in the back of the head.

"I think it's time to call it a night, boys," Jack said, collapsing on the ground from the wound that he suffered.

Bob the Goon bent down and pulled his boss back on the ground, dragging him on the ground. One of the Red Hood Gang's done the same, whopping like a cowboy all the way, when he dragged his leader from the premises.

* * *

"I don't know who you think that you are, but if you think that you can get me to fall into line with you, you've got another thing coming," Simon Stagg said.

"I would think that you would like to rethink your position, given that your daughter could be in peril," the distorted voice said over the phone.

"You son of a bitch!" Stagg snapped. He clutched the side of his desk and started breathing heavily, "Is that particular threat supposed to scare me?"

"If you were any kind of father, it would terrify to your bones," the man responded on the other end of the phone.

"Don't think that this is the first time that someone threatened my daughter, it wouldn't be the last time either," Stagg said. "But I'm not about to cave in to a terrorist."

After that asshole broke into his building, he increased the Security throughout it, his own personal security, and he has security detail attached to Sapphire as well, although they had orders to only intervene at the sign of trouble. He made the mistake by attaching Mason to her, not realizing that it could be a conflict of interest.

"If you can't figure out that I'm not going to be bullied, then I feel sorry for you," Stagg said. He slammed the phone down on the cradle.

Simon took a few moments to catch his breath in the aftermath of losing his temper. The only problem was he was having trouble catching his breath. His arm started to grow numb and he felt like he was going to throw up.

He placed both of his hands to the desk and very carefully made his way around it until he could sit down in a chair. He opened it up and pulled out a pill bottle. He struggled to open the cap, his hand shaking all of the way. He was able to do so eventually, sticking the pill in his mouth.

He got himself a glass of water and drank it.

A couple minutes later, he thankfully started to feel better.

"Security is all in place, sir," Java said when he entered the office. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Java," Stagg said.

Java gave him a long a questioning look and responded in a soft tone, "If you're sure, boss?"

"I'm sure."

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 27** **th** **, 2015.**


	106. Chapter 106

**Chapter One Hundred and Six: Metamorpho Smash Part Five.**

* * *

 

It was rather late in the evening. Harry was currently sitting behind Barbara, who was sitting in her grand chair in the Clocktower. His plans to go out in costume tonight in order to investigate the scene of the explosion were dashed. Rather the girls insisted that he had a pretty active day so far.

"Okay," Barbara said. "So, that's settled."

"Grudgingly, but yes, it's settled," Harry said. Barbara turned around to give Harry one of those looks and he waved his hands. "Alright, proceed."

Barbara smiled. She lifted a cup of coffee, steaming hot. This was going to be a long evening she had a feeling and she was going to need her strength. She sipped on the cup of coffee, with a smile on her face, "Jaime will be the one checking out the site of the explosion. And while she's during that, Dinah and Diana are going to be checking out the site of an apparent murder that set off a lot of alarm bells. Batman and Katana on the other hand…well I don't know."

It was Harry's turn to pipe up, "If I understood correctly, Batman wanted to look into the incident involving the Red Hood that happened earlier in the day."

"The Red Hood could be a problem," Barbara offered.

"Maybe, his crimes so far have only been targeting other criminals and robbing them," Harry reminded her. "But still, thanks to their increasingly daring and violent nature, they're going to escalate quick. And if he's not stopped, someone who isn't a criminal is going to end up being caught in the crossfire and end up dead."

He reminded himself about the hostage crisis involving Vicki all those months ago. But, that being said, Batman was looking for leads on this front and Katana was along for the ride, just in case the League of Assassins decided to try something with Batman again, which was highly possible.

Harry was running on an hour of sleep, but that wasn't really anything new. Sleep could be the enemy as far as he was concerned. He decided to stay up and work mission control with Barbara.

While she worked with Dinah and Diana, Harry was going to work with Jaime through the crime scene at Gotham Central.

* * *

 

Speaking of Jaime, she was making her way through the Gotham Central building towards the location where the explosion was. In theory, it would make a significant amount more sense for her to come from the front since the blast opened up a large location.

There was just one problem, the police presence that currently gathered around the edge of the front entrance. That fact alone made her decide that getting in that way would be an extremely bad idea.

She made note that the power is still out in the building because of the explosion. That could cause her to slip in with ease. The darkness combined with the ability to cloak herself would make it so much easier for her to make her way through the police station instead.

She had entered the building from the rooftop access point, slipping into the elevator shaft, and made her way down to the basement from there. Jaime pushed the metal doors open and slipped into the building proper.

Jaime stuck to the shadows, waiting, and watching. Things became oddly quiet for times. Every now and then there was a police officer walking by with a flashlight. Jaime waited for a moment for them to past, but it turns out that due to their boredom, they weren't being very observant.

"You're shitting me, right, Joey?" one of the officers asked.

"That's what some of the boys are saying, Frankie," an officer said. "The boys are swearing up and down that they saw a gorilla or something similar moving around in the smoke right after the explosion occurred."

A third police officer, Joey's regular partner, shook his head. The two officers met the third when he was going down the hallway, "Do you honestly think that a gorilla caused an explosion?"

"Yeah, that's what I heard, and it's not like there's another explanation that we have that makes sense," Joey said. "Grant, there was something sighted down here last night, and it was huge. Explosions just don't happen on their own."

"So, it was a gorilla," Grant said. He looked rather bemused at the entire situation. "And he must have had a ray gun or something."

"Maybe he had telekinesis or something, you know that ability to read minds," Frankie chuckled.

"That's telepathy, you nob," Grant grunted. "People must have been seeing shit, but there's something weird going on. But seriously, some gorilla, that's utterly insane."

Jaime took advantage of the banter to slip away, shaking her head in amusement. She waved her hand to cause a very soft noise to slip down the hallway.

"What's that?"

"Maybe it's your Gorilla, Joey, coming back to see if there's any Bananas."

It was a soft enough noise for them to want to investigate, but the noise was not so loud where it would cause them any kind of trouble and call in reinforcements.

It was enough for Jaime to slip inside, when she heard them arguing whether or not it was a rat or not. She made her way into the destroyed medical lab.

"So, are you in?" Harry asked her.

"Yes, should have some time to look around with Larry, Curly, and Moe bumbling back there," Jaime said. She whistled when she looked around. "It's not a pretty sight in here, I can tell you that."

Most of the lab was gone, completely and utterly gone. And what was left of the lab that wasn't gone was completely wrecked. Jaime took a moment to look around and just take in the grisly sight. She could see outside of the building quiet clearly from where she was standing and it was a fairly awful sight.

Jaime stepped back and she recoiled. Something was not right in the air, _'Oh boy, the smell of this place, not sure what exploded but….'_

' _What's wrong?'_ Harry asked. He could sense her discomfort through the bond link.

' _It's not as bad as what I smelled when I went down in the sewer, or my uncle after he was finished in the bathroom,'_ Jaime thought. _'It's not sulfur, brimstone, or any smell like that; you know any smell that you would associate with an explosion. It smells much more disgusting then that, like someone covered a dead body in tar and then lit it on fire.'_

She made a face, but she grinned and bared it. Like she said, she had smelled far worse. Jaime shifted the HUD in her mask over to black light mode to have a more in depth study of the premises around her. She activated the chemical scanner inside of it, so Harry could get a real time reading of this.

' _Well, I think that the readings in the scanner are most certainly odd,'_ Harry remarked. _'There's far more chemicals in the air that should be for example.'_

' _So, you and I are on the same mind, aren't we?'_ Jaime asked.

' _And they're bonded together in really strange ways,'_ Harry thought. _'In ways that shouldn't be happening. In ways, where I'm really surprised that people aren't dropping dead left and right, like something out of a comic book from the 1950s.'_

' _I don't think the quantities in the air were strong enough,'_ Jaime thought. _'Otherwise the entire building would have been taken out, not just this main laboratory.'_

' _So, you and I are on the same mind because of this,'_ Harry thought.

Lucretia piped into the bond, looking over Harry's 'shoulder' when she read the bond. She just happened to be up getting some work done over in England, _'There are a lot of things in that chemical makeup that most certainly shouldn't be there. And this is after a massive explosion, so it's borderline impossible to tell what chemicals were present in the air before it occurred.'_

' _I would have to agree,'_ Harry answered. _'It would be helpful if we had a sample of whatever it was that the laboratory team was examining down here before the explosion happened.'_

Harry paused and it hit him.

' _But, I have a pretty good idea what they were working on, and if it is what I'm thinking, well we're going to have to break into Stagg Industries in order to borrow a sample of the serum that Rex Mason was exposed to.'_

Jaime continued to examine things, and she heard Lucretia register her agreement.

' _This is a dead end, the body has been destroyed in the explosion,'_ Jaime thought. _'There's not much more that I can find here. The blast was pretty destructive and pretty much destroyed the entire lab.'_

It went without saying that the fact it blew out the floor above causing debris to be showered everywhere didn't help either.

There wasn't much more that she could do tonight. _'I'm going to catch up with Dinah and Diana, to see if I can help them any.'_

' _Right, Barbara, could you forward their coordinates to Jaime's HUD.'_

* * *

 

Elsewhere in Gotham City, Black Canary and Huntress were on their way to the location where the murder happened earlier tonight. It really wasn't all that unusual for somebody to be murdered in Gotham City. As a matter of fact, the police actually have quite the backlog of unsolved murder cases as a result.

This particular one caught Barbara's attention due to the circumstances surrounding it since it set off a program that she installed in the GCPD computer database when she worked there.

' _The circumstances surrounding this murder, they're a bit odd_ ,' Barbara explained. _'This person was a mid-level member of the mob. He was well known to police, but that was due to the fact that he was known for being paranoid. And that didn't mean that people weren't out to get him.'_

' _Exactly how so?'_ Black Canary wondered.

' _Well, he was paranoid enough to survive two previous attempts on his life,'_ Barbara explained. _'So the fact he turned up dead near the front of the alleyway with enough ash in his lungs to choke him to death is unsettling.'_

' _That's a really awful way to murder someone,'_ Huntress piped up. Mobster or not, she couldn't argue that was a bad way to go.

' _On top of that, the Detective who investigated the crime scene couldn't help, but notice the damage done to the alleyway itself,'_ Barbara added. _'They know that there's something going on, but they don't have the slightest clue what's going on.'_

It was enough of a mystery thought that it was worthy of an investigation. Talon had gone off to investigate the explosion at Gotham City, and Black Canary and Huntress made their way over.

They moved from rooftop to rooftop. Unfortunately, it was a bit too icy to take Dinah's Harley. Diana's Charger was a bit too noticeable to drive at night. While Harry had plans to modify it to be stealthier, it was more of a work in process. He was waiting on a large piece of the smart glass they use in the HUD of their mask so that Diana can drive it at night without the lights on. He also wanted to make some modifications to the engine so that it is just as powerful as it is now, but it can run much quieter.

Black Canary and Huntress moved closer to their destination, but they were stopped by the sounds of loud shouting. A crash echoed and there was a tinkle of breaking glass.

' _So, we should go check that out, shouldn't we?'_ Black Canary asked her.

' _Good idea,'_ Huntress agreed.

They headed in the direction of the noise. The two of them got closer, and the noise as they approached was getting louder. It's a noise that sounds very familiar to them, because it sounded like there was a brawl in progress.

It was a rather vicious brawl if the sounds of broken glass were any indication. Black Canary and Huntress arrive at what they were expecting. Two gangs were in the middle of a pretty brutal brawl.

One side was members of an Irish gang who were members of Rupert Thorne's commission and known for being brutal in general. The second group involved in the brawl was a biker gang from out of town known as the Wolfpack. Both sides looked inclined to throw down old school with fists, rather than fire arms.

The two heroines took stock of the situation. The fighters have largely made their way out of the bar where the brawl started, and there was a heavy amount of fighters. This particular bar was a pretty major hangout for the Irish faction of the Commission and Bikers by their very nature liked to travel in packs.

' _So, maybe we should use a similar tactic like the one we used against Maxie Zeus and his men,'_ Dinah thought.

That sounded like a good plan. Diana will draw the fighters attention towards herself, while Dinah picked them up off the edges.

The Huntress was ready to make her presence known to the fighters. She took an impressive leap off of the rooftop and dive-bombed the two fighters in the middle of the pack. She ended up connecting to the two with a rather jarring impact that pretty much left them buried in the pavement beneath them.

Slowly, she rose out from the crouch she landed in. The two sides stopped fighting.

"You picked the wrong fight to stick your pretty little nose in, lass," one of the sides of the Irish mafia said. He was a large pale man with a flaming red Mohawk. He turned towards his fellow mob members who was ready to fight. "Fellas, why don't we teach her some manners."

A couple of them rushed and attacked her. One of them swung a bat, but Diana grabbed him by the arm, and snapped him down by the arm. His arm broke in such a way where he was forced to drop the back.

Diana hoisted the goon up and threw him rather hard at the other two enemies approaching her. That did a rather good job of knocking the enemies off of their feet. She picked up the bat and armed herself for it.

Black Canary slipped behind one of the thugs and wrapped her arm around his throat. She drove him down into the ground with a Scorpion Deathdrop type move, before slipping back into the shadows.

She followed that up by nailing her adversary with a vicious kick to the side of the head. The bandanna wearing greasy haired biker gang member flew to the ground with a thud. He was the annoying grease rat type who fell down to the ground hard.

She went for another thug, this one from the Irish mob. He dodged her attack swiftly and moved up to try and return fire. Both of them exchanged blows. This thug seemed rather well trained. He had a combat knife and seemed intent to make Black Canary pay for what she did. She dodged the knife in time to avoid being stabbed.

It did connect with the side of her leather jacket. Dinah flipped away from a second swipe and kicked at the knife. He responded by kicking her in the stomach and drove her back a few feet.

Diana found herself surrounded by bat wielding thugs.

"Step aside, Chico, let the big man take a crack at this."

A greasy haired man with a Cuban accent and a toothpick behind his ear stepped back and the other members of the Wolfpack followed suit. He allowed a large seven foot tall figure to step aside. He had his dark hair slicked back, and he was wearing black leather. He was wearing a black glove and he had a bad attitude.

He swung a rather heavy chain at her, but Diana dodged that. The thug stepped back and tried to take her head off with a really big kick. She shifted herself to the side so the kick passed by close enough to her face so she could feel the wind brushing past her.

She nailed the man hard in the knee with the bat hard enough that you could hear it cracking as a result.

"Shit, my leg," he grumbled.

Diana took his head off with one vicious clothesline and knocked him down to the ground.

The bat broken took Diana out of the game and one of the thugs grabbed her from behind. He tried to lift her up on the ground, but that didn't work out too well. She elbowed him in the face hard, breaking his jaw.

The greasy haired goon with the toothpick fell to the ground behind her.

Dinah was still locked in intense combat with the Irish fellow that was armed with a combat knife. The knife was sharp given that it opened up a gash along the midsection of the leather jacket and also cut across her right forearm when she was trying to block a slash aimed at her head.

It wasn't the best decision, but it was either that or lose her left eye, and she needed that to see, so it wasn't the hardest decision in the world for her.

Dinah was forced on the defensive so far due to the fact that the man was surprisingly skilled. She was sorely tempted to use her Canary Cry, but she elected not to. It was a point of pride for her.

She cleared some distance between the two of them by sidestepping another slash hooking her arm around his mid-section and with another fluid motion; she swept him off of his feet hard enough. He ended up bouncing off of the ground with a solid smack.

That did a remarkable job of knocking the air out of the man's lungs, but he still kept hold of his knife. Dinah tried to end the fight by curb stomping the man, but he had the presence of mind to roll out of the way. Dinah readjusted her footing, and decided that now she created enough distance between the two of them to do something about it.

She grabbed hold of the batons she sheathed in a holster across her lower back and whipped them out. Her opponent staggered back to his feet at this point.

"Like a good fight, but you're really pissing me off, bitch," he slurred. Blood dripped from his mouth, as Dinah caught sight of a loosened tooth.

He lunged at Dinah with a knife. The fishnet clad heroine responded to that by smacking the knife to the side with her left hand baton, and then cracked him across the arm several times with the right one.

She finished the combination by jabbing him rather hard underneath the armpit. He was forced to drop the knife on the account of his arm going numb.

The fight wasn't over because at the last second he was able to catch the knife in his hand I na reverse grip with his left hand before it hit the ground.

Dinah had to admit, that was pretty impressive. She dodged a kick that was meant to catch her off balance. He tried to follow that up by slashing her across the chest with the knife.

She responded by hooking her left baton around the wrist holding the knife. She yanked backwards to pull him off balance. She jabbed him in the trachea with the right baton and followed by up by smacking him hard across the temple with the left baton.

It was a pretty good combination and she did it in such a way where it didn't kill him, but it did disable him. He was going to have a killer headache and a bit of trouble breathing until it healed.

Dinah paused and caught her breath. She turned around to face the direction where Diana is still fighting.

Thankfully she was ending the fight rather quickly, taking the remaining fighter to a one way trip to suplex city.

* * *

 

Jaime joined Dinah and Diana some time later. She actually turned up and was dealing with the fighting that was still going on in the bar that hadn't spilled out into the street.

The trio finally moved their way over towards the murder scene they were supposed to be investigating. Diana crouched down near where the body was found and Dinah investigated the damage done to the rooftop of the building above the crater of the GCPD found further down the alleyway.

Jaime, on the other hand, utilized her HUD to see if she could find anything that the other two might miss.

"I'm able to pick up trace remnants of the ash that was found in the dead mobster's lungs," Jaime told Diana. She nodded and Jaime continued, "It's close to the kind that's produced when a volcano erupts."

That caused Diana to be surprised. She wasn't even sure how that was remotely possible.

"The only real difference is that it's so heavily concentrated compared to what would be considered to be normal that it's no wonder the mobster died the moment it entered his lungs," Jaime continued. Diana nodded in response.

"He must have been close to him when it happened," Diana said. She frowned and pointed something out to Jaime. "See these footprints there? Seems to be that there was a brief struggle, but not too much of one. The murderer was so much stronger than the mobster that he might as well not have been trying to fight him."

"It seems to be me like he overwhelmed him pretty much from the start," Jaime replied.

Diana activated her radio. "Oracle, was there a broken switchblade lying next to the body?"

"Yes," a slight distracted Oracle said. "Why did you want to know?"

The Huntress frowned. "I wanted to know if the police found any blood at the crime scene."

"No, they didn't," Barbara said. "Well, there was some blood around the murder victim's mouth, ears, and eyes, but there was nothing other than that. No blood on the blade either. It doesn't make any sense, switchblades might be known to be made pretty badly, but the blade just wouldn't snap in half like this one apparently did."

Diana stood up to her full height and led Jaime further down the alleyway.

The murder scene was strange enough on its own. The scene of chaos that awaited for them further down the alley is even more baffling.

The footprints started off normal enough and become progressively deeper further up the alleyway as the progressed. There were a couple of places here and there, where the concrete appeared to have been warped by a foot sinking into it deeply and then pulling up the stone alongside of it.

"My scanner is…." Jaime said. She paused to ensure that the readings were right. "It's picking up trace elements in the air and on the ground similar to what I found in the destroyed lab back at Gotham Central. Here, they're a lot more stable than the ones I found there."

"Peculiar," Harry chimed in over the radio.

"So are you seeing the same thing as I am?" Jaime asked.

"Yes," Harry said after analyzing everything carefully. "I see it, but I'm having a lot of trouble believing it. There are a lot of the compounds mixed together in very strange ways. And these ways shouldn't really be possible due to how volatile these chemical mixtures are."

That bit of news caused both Jaime and Diana to pause in their tracks and exchange a nervous look with each other.

"So, should we be concerned?" Jaime asked him. "I mean, if our hunch is right, whatever…or maybe whoever, was responsible for what happened here, also caused the explosion at Gotham Central."

"You're fine, right now," Harry said. "Most of the chemicals are inert and a lot of the more violent ones have already dispersed into the atmosphere. You're in no danger of a sudden unexpected explosion."

"Well, this is Gotham City," Barbara chimed in. "So there's always a chance of a sudden unexpected explosion. But…yeah, with those chemicals, a low chance, at least right now."

The duo reached the crater and Dinah joined them. She had just wrapped up examining the damage done to the roof.

"Whatever smashed through the roof to cause the crater was extremely heavy," Dinah said. "And, if I'm estimating this correctly, it was something in the range of fifteen thousand pounds, judging by the size of the crater and the holes in the roof, it was pretty tall."

"How tall?" Jaime asked.

Dinah thought about a moment, before giving her theory, "Eight foot tall, perhaps eight foot five….and I also detected a radius to what you saw in the ground and in the air. It was only present in the places of…whatever it is made contact."

Jaime looked intrigued by what Dinah was saying. Diana on the other hand, she was rather baffled. There was something about this entire mess that didn't quite match up in her mind.

She dropped down into the crater and crouched down so she could inspect the sight more closely. She examined the crater using her scanner and got similar results to what she got elsewhere.

Diana rose to her feet and turned to both Jaime and Diana. "Whatever caused the crater wasn't the same size when it left it."

* * *

 

Nightshade arrived at a dimly lit temple. It was dark except for the light that was provided by several torches and candles, but they weren't giving off all that much light.

Ubu followed at her heels, pacing back and forth. He was doing his impression of a leashed guard dog the way he was pacing back and forth.

There was a pair of rather attractive, dark haired twins, although one of them had larger breasts. They were dressed similar to Nightshade. The larger breasted twin, Nicola, had larger breasts than her sister, who went by the name Brienne. Nicola's armor was trimmed in a dark blue and she had a pair of combat fans which were strapped to her back. They were currently folded up so they look more like rather ornate daggers at the moment.

Brienne's armor on the other hand is tripped in purple. She had a pair of sais strapped over her back.

Both sisters wore masks similar to Nightshade's, but what could be seen of their face, they looked quite gorgeous.

The four of them were the only ones in the room, but not for long. Nyssa entered the room in her full costume. She wasn't alone since she had what appeared to be a blonde Amazon, who was nearly as tall as Ubu. She wore a heavier version of the armor that the female members of the League. The woman looked rather attractive despite her size.

Nyssa exchanged a look with Nightshade, and Nightshade spoke calmly, "What were your reasons for stopping me from killing the Cat the night before?"

Nyssa narrowed her eyes in response at her younger sister for questioning her and then she responded, "Catwoman is one of his and he wouldn't look too kindly upon you from killing her. To put things bluntly, I kept you from experiencing his wrath. And not to mention his sister's attention as well, and she is not nearly as forgiving as the Dragon is. Oswald Cobblepot learned that particular lesson the hard way."

Nightshade blinked in shock. She wasn't aware of that particular bit of information. "I was unaware of that. I know that the Cat had an open ended contract on her head worth quite a lot of money."

Nyssa nodded her head in acceptance of her sister's statement.

"Be careful in the future. You've come dangerously close to turning Harry against the League with your actions during the summer. You owe me for shifting attention towards Zombie. All it would take is a single misstep to make an enemy out of him, and that's not something that we want, if our plans are to go forward."

She nodded in response. Talia understood her father's goal of finding a male heir.

"It would also lead to further infighting within the League, as I would be forced to align with my beloved and my followers would follow me," Nyssa said. "So, watch your step."

Talia thought about her sister was just aid for a long time before nodding her head. She heard Ubu's heckles raise behind them.

"She'd be a traitor then…." Ubu growled.

"Down, dog," Talia said.

Nyssa faced Ubu and spoke to him calmly, as if addressing a hyper active child, "While I commend the loyalty of you and your brothers to my father's cause, this is merely a hypothetical situation, a what if something was like to occur. I have no intention of betraying my father. And while again your loyalty was commendable, you need to remember where your loyalties lie when my father was indisposed."

Ubu glared at Nyssa for a long moment and nodded in acceptance of her words.

Nyssa stepped back and was pleased with Ubu's submission. She turned and focused her attention back to Talia, "Has our guest arrived?"

Talia shook her head in response. "No, she hasn't arrived this. Given how this is a relatively out of the way location known only to a very few, I sent one of my most loyal to escort here."

"Very well," Nyssa commented. "How are your efforts in testing Wayne?"

Talia made a brief face before she responded to her older sister's question, "I have been able to infilitrate Wayne Enterprises all too easily for my liking. The only person who seems to suspect me of any deceit is Potter….and I'm not quite certain how much he knows."

Nyssa didn't say anything. She allowed her sister to finish.

"I'm certain that he knows something, though," Talia said.

Nyssa responded with a smirk in response. "You may want to change your perfume in response the next time you switch identities. The one you wear now is rather distinctive."

A look of annoyance flashed over Talia's face. It was such an amateur mistake to be tripped up by. Nyssa's amusement on the look on her younger sister's face was quite priceless.

"So how is your own project going?" Talia asked her.

"My project, it's going well enough," Nyssa said. She frowned. "There's no real clue as to who took my father's body. It was someone who had knowledge of how the League functions. The group that attacked the location where his body was stored obviously had some similar training, but no real idea who is leading them. Whomever took is body brought it back to Gotham City, but that's just speculation as well. His body might not even be in Gotham City."

Ubu piped up, "Our priority should be finding the Master's body, and not playing the games we're currently playing."

The daughters of the Demon narrowed their eyes in unison and they turned to glare at Ubu.

They were interrupted from reprimanding Ubu by the sound of footsteps approaching. They turned in direction of the sound. They aren't particularly surprised to see Lady Shiva and Ben Turner, who was currently going by the name of Bronze Tiger. They were lead in the direction by the enchanting raven haired lady known as Paige, who was the secretary of the boss of the Ace Chemical plant.

She was dressed quiet differently than she was the night before, wearing a similar set of armor than the other females present.

Talia, Nyssa, and Lady Shiva exchanged rather cool pleasantries. They weren't cold by any means, more formal.

Paige made her way to stand by Nyssa on her right side. Talia turned towards the enchanting raven haired lady, "Are you able to infiltrate the Ace Chemical Plant?"

"Yes, and I was able to bring the Plant Supervisor that I'm working for around to their way of thinking," Paige said. She sighed. "But, there's also been a complication."

Talia was rather impressed that she was able to do her job so quickly, while Nyssa looked concerned. "What kind of complication?"

Paige launched into an explanation. "The lead Chemical Engineer working on the project they were interest in ended up quitting his job recently, which set us back a fair bit. But, I was able to convince the Plant Supervisor to see what he could do to keep the man on, but it's still up in the air as to whether it will succeed or not."

Nyssa offered the younger girl a warm smile. "I'm rather pleased with your initiative."

Talia and Shiva both frowned. The setback pushed the time table back for what they had planned a considerable amount.

"It's unfortunate we're delayed, but it's nothing that can be recovered," Talia said.

Shiva spoke up, "Yes, we are in Gotham City for the long term."

She paused and asked the question, "So, what do you have planned for the Bat and the Dragon?

* * *

 

It was the next morning. Harry was finally able to get some sleep. He stood in the gym at the penthouse across from Kara. She wore a spandex sports bra and what could be just barely legally considered a pair of shorts that were also made of spandex.

True to his word, after Kara got back from Kansas, Harry decided to whip her back into fighting shape and that was what the two of them were doing. Vicki decided to spend the night at the penthouse after an extremely long day. When Harry woke Kara for training, Vicki woke up as well and decided that she would tag along.

Kara was able to talk Vicki into joining them, so she was wearing a spandex bra and a pair of pretty tight yoga pants.

' _Are you sure that isn't the reason why you convinced her to join us?'_ Harry asked Kara.

Vicki was able to keep up admirable enough through the exercise portion because she kept herself pretty fit. She wasn't able to lift as much as Harry or Kara could.

Harry and Kara moved their way over to the mat so they could spar and Vicki sunk into a nearby chair so she could cool down.

Kara fired a series of rapid fire kicks and punches, taking the roll of the aggressor for this particular encounter. Harry focused on countering her and he did so with ease. Kara wasn't really holding back, beyond making sure to fight at a relatively normal speed and not hitting Harry with her full strength. Even though he could take a blow or two or needed to.

"Switch up," Harry said.

Kara nodded and the two of them switched to grappling. He pushed Kara briefly on the mat and pinned her on the ground. Kara reversed it so she landed on top of them. She straddled him briefly and leaned forward to kiss him.

At the last second, just as she reached his lips, he reversed her reversal and pinned her back down. Harry pulled back and Kara didn't know whether to be cross with him or pout.

Harry pulled back from Harry and turned over towards Vicki, "So, do you want to have a go?"

"No, that's fine," Vicki said. "I took a self-defense class in university, but come to think of it, it was pretty basic instruction."

Kara placed her hand on her hip, arching her eyebrow, "How basic are we talking about?"

"Well it basically amounted to kneeing the attacker in the balls, gouging their eyes, and fighting dirty basically while screaming your head off…that kind of thing," Vicki said.

Harry only shook his head in response and Kara made a face. It really sounded kind of useless in general.

' _So, that's really not going to help her at all, is it?'_ Kara thought.

' _No, I don't think so,'_ Harry said. He held her in close, resting his hand on her ass.

"So, would you learn how to properly defend yourself?" Harry asked.

"I really think that I should be alright," Vicki said. "After all, I bought myself a taser after the whole kidnapping incident."

Kara's hands flew up into the air at exasperation. Harry shook his head and he exchanged a dark look with Kara.

"A taser isn't really fool proof, especially if the other person is skilled enough to take it from you," Harry informed her.

Kara smiled and she walked over towards Vicki. She leaned in and whispered in her ear, "Learning how to defend yourself would mean that you get to spend a lot of close personal time up close with Harry….getting all sweaty."

Vicki blinked, she didn't really consider that, but it was a rather compelling argument. She rose to her feet, "So, where do we start?"

Harry smiled, her sudden enthusiasm is infectious, "Kara, get to the side of me, please."

Kara stepped next to him and Harry began to walk Vicki through the art of throwing a punch and kick. When that was done, he and Kara walked her through a rather impressive defensive routine.

"Okay," Harry said. He was behind Vicki, his crotch pressed up against her ass. He held her arm out. "You should extend your arm like this for the best result for firing a punch."

She did as she was told. She could feel his crotch against her ass, his breath against the back of her neck and his hand just right on her stomach, and close to the understand of her breast. After a couple of times, Harry smiled.

He worked her through firing a kick.

"Okay, do you think that I can do what I taught you with Kara?" Harry asked. "Try and take her down."

Vicki and Kara went at it. Kara blocked some of Vicki's punches, and a couple of her kicks, although she managed to avoid Kara's blows as well.

"Don't get frustrated," Harry warned her.

Vicki tried not to and she kept firing the attacks at Kara. She managed to get her down on the ground and pinned her down, straddling her.

There was a triumphant grin on her face, but not for long.

"Oh, Vicki, valuable lesson," Kara gasped. She leaned towards her face and grinned. "Just because you're on top, it doesn't mean that you're necessarily in control."

Kara reached up and grabbed the back of Vicki's hair and pulled her into an intense kiss. Vicki returned the kiss with equal fire and passion.

She was rolled over onto the ground and Kara straddled her, kissing her extremely fiercely. Her tongue buried into her mouth and she kissed Vicki.

Vicki felt a heat rise from her body and Kara cupped her breasts before pulling away. Seconds later, she felt Harry's arms wrapped around her and he kissed her.

The vixen rubbed herself against Harry's crotch, with Kara smirking. Things got sweaty, but they're going to get rather sticky.

Kara made her way behind Vicki and wrapped her arms around her. The reporter's head pressed back on her breasts.

Harry smiled when he ran his hand down Vicki's stomach and that caused her to shiver. Harry pushed his fingers between her legs.

"Mmm, she's ready for you," Kara said. She suckled on Vicki's earlobes and that caused her to breath heavily.

Harry pulled down her Yoga pants and revealed her thong clad bottom. He smiled when he pushed his finger between the material and slowly pushed his finger into it. That caused Vicki to gasp.

"So, wet, have you felt her Kara?" Harry asked her.

"Yes, I know how wet she gets," Kara said. She slid around next to Vicki and smiled. He spread her legs and showed off Vicki's dripping wet pussy, "And how good she gets."

"God, Kara," Vicki whimpered. She felt Kara's tongue go inside her and she thought that she was going to lose her mind.

Harry was now behind her and he kissed the back of her neck. His hands ran down her back and cupped her backside. He squeezed it.

Kara's hot wet tongue brushed against her slit and Vicki appreciated the attention she received. She felt Harry's hands join the fun and he pulled down the bra that she was wearing and exposed her nice breasts, squeezing them.

"Really eat her out, love," Harry said. He twisted Vicki's nipples and that caused her eyes to flicker shut. He leaned towards her and pressed his mouth against her neck. "Do you like that, Vicki?"

"Always, love it," Vicki panted. Kara kissed up her legs and went between her thighs, and drove her tongue into her. Vicki felt her tongue tickle her insides, and it was pure magic.

Harry smiled and let Vicki fall back on the mats. He decided Kara was in perfect position for him to do what he wanted to do. He lifted his hand and slapped her hard on her ass. That caused Kara to whimper and Harry spanked her hard constantly.

He pulled back her shorts, with her legs spreading for him. She didn't even break her stride when she kept licking Vicki. She was slurping her like it was the last meal on Earth.

"That's making you wet, isn't it?" Harry asked. He pushed his finger into her hot pussy and felt it contract into it. He ran his free hand up her body and pinched her nipple through her bra, "Well, I think that I should do something like that."

Vicki watched eagerly when Harry's large cock was free from its constraints. She managed to focus enough on Kara's tongue not to get too hung up on the back that his cock wasn't inside her right now. It was really hard.

Harry plunged his way into Kara. He heard her moans, slightly muffled by Vicki's pussy. Her center clutched his rod in the most delightful way imaginable and Harry nearly pulled all the way out of her, before pushing into her. He wanted to be deep inside her in all of the worst ways and many of the bests.

"Damn, oh god, Kara, yes!" Vicki panted. She grabbed two hands full of Kara's long hair and made her eat her pussy. "Fuck her harder, oh so hard, Harry, fuck, drill that cunt like it owes you money."

Kara eagerly clenched Harry in response. It was obvious that she was completely on board with it and he couldn't really argue. He kept plunging himself into her sweet pussy. It felt so good that he thought that he was going to lose it inside her.

Vicki felt the hot sensations of Kara's tongue in her. She kept licking her hard in response.

Harry plowed into Kara's tight pussy. His balls slapped against her thighs when he drove himself into her.

Kara reacted to the touches Harry gave her, her body increasing with an intense amount of heat. He really was putting her through the paces.

"Okay, stop," Kara breathed. Harry frowned, but he pulled out of her. "I think you're ready to give her a gift."

Harry smiled when he moved towards Vicki. He grabbed her hands and pinned her down onto the ground and kissed her.

Vicki slipped her tongue deep down his throat. The two of them dueled with each other, trying to get the advantage on the other. Harry pinched her breast and dragged his cock against her dripping hot hole.

He marveled at how wet she was and he slipped his cock inside her tight pussy. Vicki felt it.

"Harder," Vicki said. "Fuck me harder, oh Harry, that's it."

"You've been a bad girl who can't stay out of trouble," Harry said. He pinched her thighs and continued to plunge into her. "And you all know what happens to bad girls, don't you?"

"They get fucked hard, so fuck me, hard!"

The redhead vixen felt him plow deep into her. Her pussy clenched and released him. She relished every single time that Harry's throbbing cock touched her most intimate center. She felt his hands reach on her and squeeze her chest. He toyed with her nipples as well.

Harry felt her wet vice close around him. He brought himself up and slammed herself down into her, causing her to gasp. "And bad girls only cum when I tell them to."

"Oh, I haven't meant to be a really bad girl and cum without my master's permission," Vicki breathed. Harry nibbled hard on her lip. "Please punish me."

Harry smiled and pulled out of Vicki. The busty reporter turned over and presented her ass.

She gasped when she felt something hot and wet stuck up in her ass. She dared turn around a little bit to see Kara's hot tongue sliding deep inside her hole and lubricating her center.

"Go ahead, Har, take her tight bitch ass and violate it," Kara encouraged him. "I bet she likes getting her ass spanked."

Kara slapped her ass constantly and that caused Vicki to yelp in pain. "Yes, more, please, more, mistress!"

"No, it's time for you to take a hard cock in your ass," Kara said. She moved back and smiled. She wrapped her arms around Harry's back, pressing her breasts against his back, and her dripping wet pussy against his ass. "May I?"

"Go for it," Harry said. He positioned Vicki's hole apart while Kara spread her tight cheeks in.

"Oh god!" Vicki yelled. She could feel Harry's thick cock spread her asshole apart. It was well lubricated as well.

"Never get used to it, because every time Harry fucks you, it feels like the very first time," Kara said. She smiled and she made her way in front of Vicki's face. "Get to work, Vale."

"Yes, Mistress," Vicki panted. She dug her nails into Kara's thighs and slowly kissed up her thighs.

She slid her tongue deep into Kara's pussy and returned the favor from earlier. She eagerly lapped up her mistresses juices, slurping and licking her.

Harry's thick cock penetrated her ass. He was stopped just before cumming twice, and he was building up quite a load in his thick balls. He wanted to take her to the limit.

Vicki opened her mouth to breath. She could feel her mistress stroking her hair. She felt herself succumb underneath Kara's tender efforts and she sucked up her pussy juices like it was her life blood and as far as Vicki was concerned, it was.

"Such a beautiful tight ass," Harry grunted. He plowed her from behind.

"Fuck it like you own it," Kara encouraged him. "Oh, yes, munch on my pussy bitch, god that feels good!"

Vicki would have to agree. His thick cock spreading her asshole made her pussy heat up. She felt his fingers brush against her slit and work her to an orgasm. Vicki's hips pushed back and he slammed into her.

Kara was eaten to an orgasm. She was breathing heavily, her nipples rock hard and sweat rolled down her face. It was obvious that Vicki was experienced in this sort of thing.

"Good girl, now it's your turn," Harry said. He felt Vicki's hips twitch and leak her fluids onto his fingers, coating them.

Kara stumbled over and greedily ate Vicki's juices from Harry's fingers. Vicki gasped at she was doing this. "Oh yes, fuck me, fuck me like a bitch."

Harry smiled. "I'm doing that right now, and it's my turn."

Vicki's tight anus squeezed him and he pushed into her smoldering depths. He slapped his hand on her ass and drilled her hard.

His balls contracted and he fired a hot burst of cum into her ass. He fired his thick load into her, drilling her with series swift shots when he emptied out his balls.

Vicki collapsed on the mat, having been put through the paces. Kara turned her attention to Harry, and used her tongue to clean him up.

When his cock was nice and clean, he scooped up Kara and threw her onto the couch. He slammed his thick cock into her and the dance continued anew.

**To Be Continued on July 2** **nd** **, 2015.**


	107. Metamorpho Smash Part Six

**Chapter One Hundred and Seven: Metamorpho Smash Part Six.**

* * *

It was much later in the day and Simon Stagg was currently standing outside of the office that he was occupying in the suite that he was sharing with Sapphire at the Royal Hotel. The two of them were there is due to the fact his gala event to announce Stagg Industries expansion plans moving forward was tonight. It was far easier for him to oversee any last minute details regarding the event from the location itself.

So Simon, along with a few members of his staff, rented a room at the Hotel and spent the night there before. Sapphire joined him since she was co-hosting the event to a certain extent because she was his daughter.

He stood up and looked out of the window to get a better view of Gotham. He was wearing a rather stylish pair of black dress slacks, a white silk t-shirt that had a couple of buttons undone, and his sleeves were rolled up to about his elbows. His dress jacket was currently off, slung over the chair nearby. He had important business to attend to and it was important that this moved further due to recent events, especially regarding his current status and health.

Simon carefully reviewed an important contract. He and his lawyers put it together after his heart attack scare the other night. He scanned it and checked it. He was fairly satisfied with what he was reading.

Everything was in order, so he put the contract down. He signed it carefully using a rather expensive looking fountain pen.

With that take care of, Simon rose to his feet to go and put his suit jacket on. Only, he hunched over for a moment. The feeling like he got punched in the stomach filled his body. His knee buckled and he nearly fell to the ground.

Simon clutched onto the desk and took a long deep breath. This was the second time in the last couple of days.

He gasped and shook his head. He muttered after taking a deep heaving breath, "Need a vacation."

It was a long time since he had one, even though his doctor had been getting on his ass for at least a year to take one for his health. He had been working even harder than ever before and the recent break in put even more stress on top of the normal every day stress.

Simon reached into his pocket and took out a small pill bottle, containing his heart medication. He took two of them and followed that up by downing the two of them with a glass of water.

He put the pill bottle down gently near the glass of water. With his medication taken, Simon slumped down in the nearest chair. He placed his head in his hands and he breathed heavily in an attempt to catch his breath while he waited for the pills to take effect. It took a couple of minutes, but the pills eventually kicked in.

Simon reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a handkerchief which he used to wipe the sweat off of his face.

He followed that up by brushing his hair back into face using his fingers. It took him a couple of seconds to have his breath catch up with himself.

"Daddy?" a concerned voice asked. Sapphire knocked softly on the door, but he didn't answer it right away, mostly due to the fact that he was still drinking water.

The door was pushed open and Sapphire stepped inside. She was shocked to see that her father wasn't ready yet. That caused her concern to grow, considering that wasn't like her father at all not to be ready. And there was the fact that Java clued her in on what happened the night before that caused her to get rightfully concerned.

Sapphire stepped completely into the room, dressed in a long silver dress that is cut low in the back, with a long slit up the right side that comes up to just above her knee. It fit her like a glove and caused her eyes to shine like diamonds.

Moving over towards her father, Sapphire placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned over, before asking in a concerned tone of voice, "Are you okay? I'm surprised that you haven't gotten dressed yet."

Simon smiled, not wanting to worry his daughter. "I'm fine, I'm just finishing up some last minute paperwork before I get dressed."

Sapphire looked at him carefully like she didn't believe him, mostly because she didn't believe him. She decided to hold her tongue for now, because she knew how stubborn he was. She just ended up nodding her head.

She reached calmly and helped him straight up his shirt and helped him finish up his bow-tie.

"Thank you," Simon said. "Do you think that Harry would be interested on going on a trip with them to Hawaii? It's been a while since we've gone there."

Sapphire was taken aback. That particular question came completely out of the blue for starters and secondly, it was pretty much out of character for her workaholic father.

"I'd really like that, but I have to speak with Harry in order to see what his schedule is like," Sapphire informed him.

Simon nodded in understanding since he knew from personal experience how busy somebody like Harry could get.

"You know, I'm surprised," Sapphire told him. Simon raised his eyebrow in surprise. "I know that you're pretty busy lately, and you don't really like Harry, so I'm kind of confused about why you would want to go on vacation with the two of us in response."

Simon frowned in response to that, "Do, really need a reason to spend some time with my little girl?"

Sapphire shrugged, that was fair enough.

"And any issues I have with Harry aren't really as bad as you're making them out to be," Simon explained. "I've gotten to know him a bit over the past couple of months and the differences between them are mostly ideological, I don't have any personal differences with him."

Sapphire nodded.

"I'll be the first to admit, your relationship with him, isn't what is considered traditional by any means and not what is expected of you," Simon said. Sapphire was about to say something, but he wasn't finished. "But, Harry makes you happen, and if he makes you happy, it makes me happy."

Sapphire ends up beaming at her father in response ,"I love you, Daddy."

She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

Simon thought that he was feeling a little bit better and he was all dressed up. He got to his feet and offered her his hand, "Shall we?"

Sapphire nodded in response, taking her father's hand. The two of them made their way from the room.

* * *

Harry stood wearing a dress suit that fit him like a glove. The way the suit was made fit extremely high of his tailor's abilities.

Naturally, Harry wasn't alone and he always came with a group of women. And they were dressed in style.

Karen followed him close out of the limo. She was dressed in a nice white dress that shows off a lot of her incredible cleavage, but it was pretty tasteful otherwise. Faora showed up with her and wore a blue dress of her own that matched her eyes.

Kara followed the two of them and she wore a nice little red dress that fit snugly against her amazing curves. It showed her nice stocking clad legs and wore a nice pair of heels that made her legs look like they went on for miles.

Lily and Rose were there as well, both of the women decked out in emerald green dresses that matched their eyes. Lily was here due to her connection to Shining Light Enterprises and Rose was there due to her role as the head of the Shining Light Foundation. Their dresses matched their eyes nicely, although Lily's was a bit longer that Rose's and more daring.

The two of them were also playing up the fact that despite the age difference, the two of them could pass off as twins. Their hair, make up, and jewelry are very similar to each other.

Diana joined them a second later, playing her role as Harry's bodyguard, even though people wouldn't know that due to her outfit. She was dressed in a daringly cut red dress with slits up both sides that cup up to just below her hips. It was held in place by a rather beautiful gold belt which appears to be made of one solid piece of metal. In reality though, it was thousands of gold wires woven together.

While it really wasn't her scene, Dinah came with them and looked absolutely gorgeous in a black dress cut in such a way she has a fair amount of room to move around in and she wore silver accessories to match it.

Juno slid on in. She was officially attending the event with Harry. She was dressed to stun in a burnished gold dress that fits her body, showing her off rather daringly and giving an enticing view.

Harry smiled. He got the impression that he was seeing her wearing a different dress than what everyone was seeing. Given that she was a goddess who was quite gifted in illusions, Harry figured that was the case.

"Yes, thank you, thank you, you're too kind," Juno said. She looked at Harry with a smile and a wink, and gripped him by the arm, tightly.

That party was great, but there were a few more people who showed up. Pamela was there, which was rather strange given that she really wasn't fond of Stagg Industries and she actively picketed against the company's practices in the past.

That being said, she did consider Sapphire a friend with the younger girl sharing a similar appreciation of the environment. And it appeared that Simon Stagg was taking his company in a completely different direction in order to make his daughter happy.

Despite her past distaste for the company, Pamela decided to be here to support her friend and boy was she dressed to thrill in a nice green dress that fit her like a glove and showed off the fact that she had quite the nice body in her own right. It just wasn't one that was on showcase that often since she preferred to dress in clothes better suited for a lab.

Harry blinked and saw her. His mind went back to how he saw Pamela when he was tripping balls off of the Scarecrow's fear toxin. He imagined the outfit that was perfectly cut, showing her legs and amazing cleavage. The tight green one piece he imagined wasn't too far from the dress, although it was far less leafy.

He shook his head and returned back to reality.

"Hi, Harry!"

A chipper voice spoke and he saw Harleen standing there dressed in a dark blue dress that showed off her gymnast's body quite nicely. It also showcased the fact that she has a rather impressive pair of breasts.

"Hey, Harley, how are you doing?" Harry asked. He didn't know Harleen and Sapphire were friendly with each other.

Harry's mind shifted back to Pamela and he blinked. He imagined Harleen standing in front of him. Only her face was painted and her hair was put in a tight ponytail. She wore a tight black top and red vest that fit her breasts and a pair of dark red pants that fit the lower half of her body nicely.

A brief flash entered in his mind of the two standing there like that and Gotham City on fire. He saw a white face that had a grin on it and its laughing at Harry rather insanely.

Harry shook his head. A moment passed and everything was back to normal.

A hand reached over to place itself gently on his elbow. Harry turned around and spotted Juno standing there with a concerned look on her face and a questioning look passing through her eyes.

"Are you okay?" Juno asked.

Harry leaned to the side and kissed her on the cheek, "I just had a wave of deja-vu wash over me just the, it's gone now."

Juno smiled in spite herself in response to the kiss. "Well, then we shouldn't miss the party, should we?"

There was a who's who of the Gotham City elite, and they were out in full force tonight. Rupert Thorne, Maximilian Shreck, and Ferris Boyle were all there, with their latest flavor of the weeks. They were with Hamilton Hill talking about the upcoming election.

"So, you want a new power plant in the city?" Boyle asked. He was a newcomer to this group, having been intrigued by Hill's friend to big business approach. It turned out to be one of his political bullet points.

Thorne rolled his eyes and spoke in a humorless tone of voice, "Oh boy, here we go again."

He had heard Shreck give the hard sell to this, at every single party he had been to in the last six months.

"Well, Gotham City could always use another power plant, "Shreck commented. "I mean there is never enough."

Harry made a note that they were some of Hill's biggest contributors, but they were far from the only people in attendance tonight. Lionel Luthor was there, along with William Earle and Roland Daggett. Interesting enough, Phillip Kane appeared to be missing in action. The three core members of the douche bag association of evil businessmen were talking to a man that Harry hadn't seen in person until now, but he recognized as Malcolm Merlyn.

He didn't get a chance to really clue himself in on what the four men were talking about, when Phillip Kane finally joins them. He said something underneath his breath, which caused Merlyn to narrow his eyes and then he walked away.

The Luthor twins were attending the Gala Event with their father, but they had split off to do their own thing.

"I think that there will be a rather bright future for LuthorCorp here in Gotham City," Alexa said to Lucius Fox. "Perhaps we should restore the relationship LuthorCorp and Wayne had now that my father's attentions are…divided elsewhere."

"One could think that you're conducting some kind of powerplay, young lady," Lucius Fox responded. Alexa looked at him, acting as if she was surprised that such a thing would be accused of her.

Lex was chatting up a pretty brunette with a tight body, who seemed to be buying what Lex was selling.

' _And, young Mr. Luthor finds his next restraining order,'_ Kara thought.

' _Oh it might work out,'_ Harry countered. He was amused at the fact the younger male Luthor had some game and Alexa seemed to be selling Lucius pretty hard.

Naturally, it wouldn't be an event in Gotham City if Bruce Wayne wasn't attending in some form or fashion, and he was dressed in style.

Originally, Bruce was planning to go stage tonight, but Veronica wouldn't have any of that and informed him that he would be escorting her to the gala event tonight. For his own protection naturally against those women who had less than unsavory intentions.

Bruce, knowing when to pick his battles wisely and knowing how Hurricane Ronnie is when she wants something, decided not to argue. She was there, dressed in a night black dress and the two of them were making their rounds through the various charities there.

"You're kidding me, right?" Veronica asked Rose.

Rose nodded feverishly, "It's true, Harry paid the medical expenses out of his own pocket."

That caused several people to look on in surprise. Bruce decided to speak what they were all thinking. "Harry is involved with charitable foundations."

"I agree with Bruce, they would have happily done so," Veronica said, many around her agreeing.

Rose shook her head and responded, "And that's why Harry didn't end up doing it, for that very reason. It was like he said in the interview with Vicki Vale, he did it because those people need help at the time and he was willing to help him. And…furthermore there isn't really a charity in Gotham designed to help people who were down on their luck."

Perhaps it was Rose's imagination, but it was here that several people looked rather guilty.

"The homeless is generally seemed to be forgotten," Rose continued.

Kathy Kane, who was leaning against the wall, casually listening to the conversation piped up, "My sister was heavily involved with a charity that worked along those lines, but it ended up getting folded into the Wayne Foundation when she married Thomas Wayne. And when a board of trustees decided to take it over in the aftermath of their deaths, they decided to focus the Foundation's attention elsewhere. The homeless and the poverty stricken ended up forgotten."

Bruce looked thoughtful, "It might be an idea for me to go speak with the board of trustees."

Rose shrugged. What happened at the Wayne Foundation really didn't effect her beyond the fact there's some overlap in the fact that there are some people who are offered scholarships from both foundations.

"Harry, Veronica, and I have taken steps that seem to be leading to a new charity that focuses on those things," Rose commented.

Roman Sionis moved over and looked a bit put off by all of the talk of helping the homeless. In fact, he wasn't enjoying the event much at all, despite the fact that he was with a smoking hot blonde in white dress. She seemed to be put off by the fact that Sionis wasn't paying her what she thought was the proper amount of tension.

He spent a lot of the time alternating between glaring at Bruce Wayne, Rupert Thorne, and Carmine Falcone. Falcone was there with his daughter Sofia and son Alberto. Normally, Mario would come with him since he was the heir to the throne, but he made himself scarce since the hostage situation involving Maxie Zeus.

From what the word was on the street, he became an even more violent hothead in the aftermath of that event. That wouldn't bode well for the Roman since he was trying to unite the families that made up the Gotham City into one faction once more.

So he was keeping his oldest son under wraps.

Falcone looked back at Sionis and offered him a crisp smile, but then he turned away like he was a triviality, like he was an afterthought.

The hatred between Sionis and Wayne went back to childhood and Thorne was being an oversized roadblock in keeping him from expanding his territory as quickly as he'd like to.

Harry frowned. Sionis looked to be the real sourpuss of the party tonight, but he could have sworn that he saw Selina slinking around, but he wasn't quite sure if he really did or not. She slipped out of sight before he could be completely certain.

If it was Selina, she was wearing a low cut purple dress that fit her wonderfully and seemed to have been healing nicely. She was gone as quickly as she was there, which left Harry pondering.

* * *

Some time passed and Harry split off from Juno, who wanted to speak with a friend of hers who lived on the west coast and she hadn't seen in a while. Therefore, Harry found himself on his own for the first time of the evening.

He wasn't alone for that long though. He saw Sofia Falcone of all people, wearing a nice intricately made black dress and she was carrying two glasses of wine.

She closed the distance between the two of them. Not wanting to be rude, Harry took the glass of wine with her and gave a polite declaration, "Thanks."

His lack of rudeness didn't stop him from casting a quick poison detection spell. That was something that he religiously did in both timelines. In this world, Mad-Eye Moody was a private detective and just as paranoid as his Auror self in the former world was, and Harry encountered him a couple of times. Not that he needed the lesson of Constant Vigilance pounded in his head.

He only trusted people who he was bonded with to cook something for him, without any detection, because he could tell whether or not they were lying.

Sofia smiled, "I've been hoping to speak with you for a while, Doctor Potter."

"Please, call me Harry, Miss Falcone….I believe we may have had this discussion before," Harry commented.

Sofia nodded. "And if we have, I told you to call me Sofia….but be that as it may, I've been hoping to speak with you again for a while now. I was going to approach you during the club open, but….Zeus lost his damn mind and the opportunity was lost."

"Yes, that's a dreadful piece of business, that was," Harry agreed.

"The entire affair was hard to believe and I grew up in Gotham," Sofia replied. "And I was happy and a bit surprised to learn that you survived. Anyone else would have ended up dead."

"Yes, well I was lucky to where I fell," Harry said.

"So, how are you?" Sofia asked in a surprisingly soft spoke voice. "It might have been a couple of weeks ago, but even if you fell luckily, you were still pretty banged up."

Harry saw that Sofia genuinely seemed to mean what she was saying, "Thank you, I appreciate your concern and to answer your question, I'm fully healed."

"That's good," she replied.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Harry asked her.

It appeared that Sofia paused for a good long moment in an attempt to phrase her response, "Well, this isn't common knowledge, but I run several businesses that my family happens to own. And one of those businesses happen to be Falcone Shipping, which as you might know as one of the major shipping companies within the United States."

"Yes," Harry agreed. "I'm aware."

"We do some international shipping as well, but it's mostly focused on the Mediterranean," Sofia continued. "I'm aware that one of the cornerstones of Shining Light Enterprises is international shipping, along with import and expert. So, I was curious if you might be interested in doing business in some capacity."

That particular question caught Harry off guard to a certain degree since he wasn't quite expecting it. He took a sip of his wine to cover up the fact that he needed to recover quickly. "So, what did you have in mind?"

"Given that SLE's shipping capabilities aren't as strong as they are in other countries, I think there could be a mutually beneficial partnership," Sofia answered. "We have strong shipping capabilities within the country and also we have some very strong ties with customs and the various unions, those kind of connections could help drastically cut down on the time it takes to have good unloaded and load."

Harry considered what she was saying. He couldn't help but think that she had an extremely good point, a very good point at that.

There's also the fact despite the Falcone's criminal leanings, the Roman wasn't the type to shit where he eats so certain businesses under the family's umbrella are relatively clean. He wasn't for sure the shipping company was one of them.

When he was hmming about it, he couldn't notice that she was checking him out.

' _Well, that's interesting, considering the rumors,'_ Nyssa chimed in.

' _Maybe she's bisexual with a strong leaning towards women,'_ Faora thought. _'That isn't exactly a new thing for us, come to think of it.'_

' _Must be half of the collective,'_ Kara commented casually.

' _This would be a good business deal as a way to take a look at the company's finances,'_ Barbara chimed in. _'The Roman is likely not stupid enough to keep things blatantly illegal on the books,b ut if you dig deeply enough, you're bound to find something interesting.'_

"Well, when you frame it that way, it does seem promising," Harry said. "There are a couple of people I need to speak to first."

"Of course," Sofia said in an agreeable voice. "We should have our personal assistants arrange a meeting in the future."

"That would be ideal," Harry said.

Sofia smirked slightly at that since she thought he might refuse her outright. "Well, that's good then."

She shook his hand firmly and leaned towards her, giving him a soft kiss. "I'll have my assistant call yours in the morning."

She slunk off to talk to someone else.

Harry shrugged, he wasn't sure what to make of Sofia. He finished his drink and turned around to find Selina. She was wearing the same purple dress which was cut in a similar fashion to Diana's in that it got a slit cut up the side which doesn't quite go all the way up her thigh. There was also a strap over her shoulder she injured.

Needless to say, the most amusing thing was the look of her face.

Harry couldn't really make out the bruising that he expected to see on her face. So either she healed pretty quickly, or Faora happened to heal a lot of damage on the sly when she visited her.

"I don't know how you do it," Selina said. "I can't believe that Sofia Falcone of all people….Sofia Falcone who I know for a fact prefers the company of women, is acting like a smitten schoolgirl with you."

Selina said this and grabbed Harry by the hand and dragged him out to the dance floor before he had a chance to ask her to clarify what she meant.

"So, you're going to have to explain that," Harry said the moment that they were out on the dance floor.

She positioned herself and got real close to him to dance, mostly so they were less conspicuous when they talked.

"Well, come on, you've heard the rumors," Selina said. "It isn't exactly a closed secret, but they're out there. The rumors that Sofia is a lesbian."

Harry responded by dipping Selina low to the ground and swept her back up with a fluid motion. That caused her to grin.

"Yes, I've heard the rumors, but given some of the ones I've heard regarding myself over the years, I'm not one who puts much stock in such things," Harry informed her.

"Right, like when people have you pegged as an intergalactic shape-shifting dragon who is looking to steal all of the women," Selina said. Harry raised his eyebrow. "You'd be surprised what people say….and that's not just in the gossip rags either. That's where the real wall banging stuff is."

"It seems like you might know more than you're letting on, regarding Ms. Falcone," Harry informed her in a low voice.

She looked like the cat who caught the canary and she licked her lips, "Well, for one thing, it's not a rumor."

Harry arched his eyebrow and looked directly in her eyes, "How would you know?"

"Legacy of a misspent," Selina said. "When she was younger, Sofia had quite the track record for going to strip clubs and picking up a stripper for an evening of entertainment. She's quite legendary for it in circle circles."

Harry could not resist indulging his curiosity. He spun her around and dipped her again. He leaned down and pulled her back up. "So, did she ever do it to you?"

Selina shook her head. "Well, Sofia isn't my type. But she did corner me in the high schools showers once and kiss the hell out of me…oh look the song is over, got to run. Thanks for the dance."

She kissed him on the cheek, actually licking him on the way out. She slipped off into the shadows, to do whatever she did at events like this.

Harry couldn't help, but be a tad bit annoyed he hadn't had a chance to ask her how she kept slipping into things like this.

There was no time to dwell on that, there was a dark haired gentleman coming his way. Harry turned around and came face to face with Malcolm Merlyn.

"Doctor Potter, I have to say that I've been looking forward to meeting you for a long time," Merlyn said and he extended his hand. "You've caught the attention of many given that you've been tearing through the business world like a glorified dragon. I'm Malcom Merlyn by the way."

"Ah, yes, Mr. Merlyn," Harry said.

He knew who the man was; he took over Queen Industries after the death of Robert and Moira Queen, when they went down in a plane crash. Queen Industries was a pretty powerful business entity, even though it wasn't on the same level as Wayne or SLE.

The two of them really didn't have a chance to meet, mostly due to the fact that Queen Industries operated off of the West Coast while Harry largely operated out of Gotham City. Harry got a sense that Merlyn was looking to change that tonight.

Merlyn offered his hand for Harry to shake and he took it. The two of them had a firm handshake, and it lead to a test of strength of sorts, which was a power play.

Eventually, Merlyn broke, but Harry had to admit that he gave pretty well for what he was.

"I've been meaning to speak to you for a while, but things haven't really lined up until now," Merlyn replied. "Now is the best time."

"And why do you want to speak with me?" Harry asked.

Merlyn launched into an explanation, "Queen Industries and SLE used to do some business together before the death of the Queens. Business, as far as I could tell from looking at the records was fairly profitable for both companies. But, due to the unfortunate plane crash and the aftermath, the contracts ended up falling to the wayside and forgotten. And the opportunity never popped up to see if it would be possible to negotiate with them until now."

"Well, that's fairly interesting," Harry said. It seemed like Merlyn was feeling him out.

' _Tread lightly, beloved,'_ Nyssa warned him. Harry didn't have a chance to ask, when Lily popped up to answer his unasked question regarding the situation with SLE and Queen Industries.

' _It's possible,'_ Lily said. _'Rose would know better than I did, given that she wasn't indisposed at the time.'_

' _There was a lot going on around the time the Queens died and there's a couple of older contracts that the board of Directors couldn't really address on their own,'_ Rose thought.

Harry nodded. "That's the first that I've heard of it, but I can look into things on my end, talk to a couple of people, and see if they'd be interesting in moving forward with renewing that partnership."

Merlyn considered that statement for a few seconds and nodded. He figured that was about as good as he was going to get tonight.

Before he could say anything further, he was interrupted, "Malcolm, I'm sorry, but I need to speak with Harry privately for a second."

Merlyn didn't look to honestly pleased, but he knew it was important and Stagg was not the type of man you said no to. He nodded and left.

* * *

Sometime later, a thoughtful Harry was standing by a pleased looking like Kara. Kara was enjoying herself, despite this not being the most exciting event in the world.

She did pick up on the fact that Harry looked distracted by whatever he was talking to Stagg about. Kara reached forward and grabbed his hand.

"Hey, Harry, is there anything wrong?" Kara asked him.

Harry shook his head in negative. "No, not exactly. It's just what I ended up talking to Stagg about was unexpected and it gave me a lot to think about it."

Kara frowned. Her curiosity was grabbed.

"May I have your attention please?"

That statement given by Stagg was going to cause Kara's question to be forgotten, at least for now.

Simon was standing at a podium off to the side of the room and there were several screens behind it. It was clear that he intended to give a presentation of some sort. After a moment or two of calling for people's attention, things quieted down.

They all turned their attention to their host.

"Thank you for coming tonight," Simon informed them. "When Stagg Industries started, it was a small company based out of Metropolis. But through hard work and dedication, it eventually became a billion dollar enterprise."

He paused to allow that to sink in and there was a loud round of applause. He stood calmly and allowed things to calm down.

"Whilst the company was successful beyond my wildest dreams, I can't help, but think that mistakes have been made along the way, and the cost of success is a lot higher than it should be," Stagg continued. "There were things that had been lost and cannot really be recovered. And one of the people who intended up paying for those sins was Mother Nature."

There was a long pause when he looked oddly reflective.

"I didn't think about this when I was younger and looking to make a mark on the world, but now that I'm older, I can't help, but think that I could have done things differently," Simon said. "Done them in a better way, but while I cannot change what's done in the past, I can pave the way for a future and start fixing things now."

There was even more applause for him. Stagg waited for things to die down before he continued yet again.

"I'm certain this is common knowledge Stagg Industries have developed several state of the art zeppelins in order to serve as an alternate form of transit between Gotham, New York, Metropolis, Keystone City, and Coast City," Stagg explained. "But, I can't help but think that Stagg Industries can do more. To that end, we are going to be starting construction of a state of the art facility that will be on the cutting edge of environmentally friendly practices and this factory will be the first of three. Once those three are finished with construction, Stagg Industries will retrofit our current factories to the standard of the new ones."

The screens behind him flashed the images of what he had in mind. The entire crowd was waiting with bated breath.

There was a sound of a scuffle that prevented him from speaking further. "What the hell?"

A loud banging on the heavy oak doors got even louder. Seconds later, those doors come crashing forward into the ballroom followed by several security guards crashing with it.

That rather dramatic entrance was followed by a man who stepped into the room wearing a brown trench coat and fedora hat. It was easy to tell that something that was wrong, based on the fact that the footsteps are a lot heavier than normal. His skin was different colors as well.

One of the security guards tried to nail him with a baton. There was a metallic tink and the baton ended up bending out of shape and the man backhanded the guard hard onto the ground.

The man in question offered a mocking slow clap towards Simon. He spoke in a voice that sounded like two rocks being grounded together, "Pretty words Stagg….but that doesn't….change fact…that you're murderer….and I should know. You're the one….who killed me….after all….you and Potter."

The man shifted. His white head was visible and his skin was a combination of brown and purple. He was eight foot tall and over fifteen hundred pounds. His feet smashed on the ground.

"But that's…okay….just mean that I get to smash you for it!"

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 5** **th** **, 2015.**


	108. Metamorpho Smash Part Seven

**Chapter One Hundred and Eight: Metamorpho Smash Part Seven.**

* * *

Metamorpho crashed the party and there were some helpless party goers who were in shock. Some of them were screaming their heads off something fierce and the screams got louder. There was a lot of mad scrambling towards the exits, which made an already bad situation someone worst.

The monster didn't care about the party goers. There was two people on his list that he was here for and he would make them pay. He could see Simon Stagg back up, clutching against the wall.

"What's the matter Stagg….you look like you've seen a ghost!" he taunted. The security guards positioned themselves in front of Stagg. That inconvenienced the creature and caused him to throw his arms back with a loud roar. "STAND BACK! STAND BACK!"

He bellowed those last two commands and his hands were shaking. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he was trying to keep himself calm as he could be. There was a huge problem though with the fact that he could not hold himself together.

"Behind us, Mr. Stagg," one of the security guards said. He started to fire several rounds at the creature, practically emptying a clip.

Several party goers decided to leave right away, taking the mysterious guest as their cue to get out of there. Others decided that it would be prudent for them to stick around just at that moment. The creature turned towards the security guards, lifted its arms and gave a primal roar. The roar rattled pretty much everyone in a certain radius.

"I WARNED YOU!" Metamorpho bellowed. He closed his eyes. He didn't have the hang on these new abilities that he wanted to, but they seemed to work for him in small bursts.

The trick was to get the people to back off and he managed to make it work. An ugly cloud of green gas sprayed in every direction. The two nearest security guards inhaled enough of it to cause their lungs to burn and they instantly hit the ground.

One of the security guards choked madly, a disgusting foam nearly choking the life out of him. He lifted his hand and screamed. The other security guards were far luckier, but they were completely useless.

Stagg struggled to catch his breath, seeing his entire life flash before his eyes. A large rocky hand grabbed one side of the curtain and then it grabbed the other side, boxing him in.

"You killed them," Stagg managed. His voice became raspy, as if he couldn't believe what had just happened. "You…killed them!"

"I didn't kill them, you killed them!" the creature growled. "Every drop of blood tonight is on your hands, just like my blood is."

Stagg could barely hold his head up. His hand was getting numb. If this creature didn't get him, then his heart condition would.

The creature bellowed loudly, when Stagg dropped to the ground, clutching his chest and struggling hard to breath.

"Get up and face your death, old man! Face me, face the man that you set up for murder! Both you and Potter! You were glad to be rid of me!"

It hit Stagg suddenly. He struggled to draw in breath to speak, but he managed to do so as swiftly as possible, "Mason? Rex Mason!"

Metamorpho gave a loud roar in response. He relaxed his grip and allowed Stagg to scurry up to his feet.

"Glad….that you remembered me," he growled. "All the men you lead to their deaths….it does become hard to keep track."

"Leave my guests alone, this is between you and me, no one else," Stagg said. He coughed madly, and he could feel the creature grab him with a huge rocky hand.

"Ah, that's the thing, isn't it?" Metamorpho asked. "This is between you and me….and Potter, we can't forget him. His time will come, he will pay for what he's done….all of what he's done….but you have to pay for your crimes."

He was leaking gas off of his breath and Stagg struggled even more to draw breath.

"Those powers, they're out of control….need help, badly," Stagg said. He panted trying to keep his head up and into the game. "Mason….let me….need help."

"You, help me?" the monster asked. He laughed quite roughly..

"Yes, help, I can get you real help," Stagg said. He could feel his eyes watered. "No one needs to die….you don't need to become a murderer, Mason."

"Not, murderer, you murder!" Metamorpho responded and he let go of Stagg and slammed him against the wall. "But no one needs to get hurt….no one other than you….and Potter."

The screams of the party goers distracted him for a moment. He advanced further on Stagg.

"You set me up….and now, you're going to be the one who takes the fall….Stagg."

Several more shots fired at Metamorpho's back. They all bounced off of his thick back, the bullets having pretty much no effect and some of them melting before they even came close to having impact.

Stagg could barely hold his eyes open. He clutched his chest and drew in a breath. He could see Metamorpho raising a huge rock like hammer over the top of his head, ready to crush him into paste.

"End this….then….Potter."

Something flew at his shoulder at super charged fashion and it caused Metamorpho to howl in agony. He turned around to see the source of it.

* * *

' _I think that we found the source of the explosion in the lab,'_ Harry thought to the girls. He could see them all running around. _'Kara and Karen, get them through the exit, Mum, Aunt Rose, Confundus spells if necessary. We need to get them out of there.'_

' _Dinah and I have already slipped off in the confusion,'_ Diana informed him. Harry smiled at that.

That was great, because he was going to need all the help that he could get and then some. Harry could see Bruce making his way out of one of the back entrances, when he was certain that Veronica was out of there.

' _I saw Sapphire and Veronica leave through the same door, although Sapphire needed some coaxing, because of her father,'_ Faora thought. She grabbed one of the guards who had been wounded and pulled him out of the way.

"This way people, let the GCPD handle this!" Kara yelled. She was getting frustrated. She could see Roman Sionis slip out the front door and Hamilton Hill being escorted out by his bodyguard. "He's dangerous, none of you should approach him, under any means."

Harry thought that much was for sure. Perhaps he was beginning to put two and two together, or perhaps he was jumping on the obvious, but he could see who this was.

' _I don't know what was in those chemicals, but they've really fucked up Mason badly,'_ Faora thought. She frowned. _'I'm pretty sure that was tear gas that he tried to bring into the ground, but, it didn't work.'_

' _Thankfully we were able to perform a purifying charm….the guards nearest weren't so lucky,'_ Lily thought. She zapped a couple of the more stubborn party goers and tried to get them out of the door.

Harry didn't keep his eyes off of the creature of the second. He stalked Stagg like a predator.

' _Kara, could you clear this area?'_ Harry asked. _'I kind of don't want anyone to see what I'm about to do.'_

' _I'll try, but wait….what are you going do to?'_ Kara asked.

' _I'm guessing he's going to do something really reckless,'_ Faora thought. She couldn't be bothered. She helped up Kathy Kane, who had twisted her ankle in the chaos.

' _Pretty much along those lines,'_ Harry thought. He looked for something that could help him. _'Bingo.'_

Harry saw a serving cart tray. He placed his hands on it and closed his eyes. Channeling this level of power might not be the wisest thing in the world to do now, given that it would leave him fatigued in this current state.

But it was better than the alternative and that alterative was seeing Simon Stagg being smashed into paste. Especially considering that he was becoming less of a douchebag businessman, for his daughter's sake more than anything else.

' _Okay, we're in position now, everyone's clear,'_ Kara thought.

Harry's hands lit up and he decided to super charge the metal on the card, before he propelled it at the creature. He braced himself for impact.

BOOM! It nailed the creature and caused it to stagger back. It gave a loud roar of anguish.

' _So did you hurt it?'_ Barbara asked, chewing down on her lip nervously.

' _Not sufficiently enough,'_ Harry thought. He caught his breath and reached over, grabbing the table and moving over. _'But I think that I got Mason's attention.'_

The good thing was it diverted his attention away from Stagg, who looked to be in a bad way. The bad thing was Harry's little attack diverted the creature's attention towards him.

"YOU!" he howled at the top of his lungs. "GOOD!"

Harry didn't think that it was so good, but he slipped on a pair of brass knuckles in his pocket. They clicked into place and he rushed the creature.

Metamorpho caught his arm and hoisted him up off of the ground. Harry was propelled hard.

He smacked into the wall with a super powered speed. The cracking sound that just resounded was his shoulder obviously dislocating. He grimaced when trying to get up to his feet. His breath was nearly there.

' _We're on our way,'_ Diana said. Now she was pissed off.

It turned out that Huntress and Black Canary weren't the first ones on the scene. Rather, a dark brooding figure crashed down from the skylights, throwing several exploding gas balls on the way down. It caused Metamorpho to stagger back.

"Stay way!" the creature yelled. "Not concerning you."

Batman responded by flipping into the air and avoiding the creature's attack. He tried to wrap it up in a grapnel, but the creature snapped it like it was a piece of Kleenex. Batman dodged his attacks and shocked him with his gauntlets. The creature staggered and gave an agonizing yell.

"Out of my way!" he yelled.

Huntress fired an arrow at the creature's back to get its attention. It turned around to engage her.

"STAY AWAY!" it bellowed.

Batman reached into his belt and launched an ice grenade it. The creature's legs were frozen for a mere moment. That was until it heated up and broke out of its icy prison. It turned around and tried to nail Batman.

Huntress summoned all of the strength she could and drove her hands down onto the creature's head. It was anguished.

Black Canary offered her own input to the battle, namely a Canary Cry that caught the creature and staggered it back. The creature gave an anguished moan and its arms and legs swung in every direction.

"GET BACK!" Batman yelled. The creature was shaking madly and barely able to keep itself from doing what happened next. A loud explosion rocked the grand ball room and caused part of it to cave in. Debris and dust got in the way and caused things to become less visible.

Huntress slipped on in and helped Harry up when the dust settled. And when the dust settled, Metamorpho was no longer there.

"We better get out of here," Black Canary said. The paramedics were heading on in to check on Stagg and there really wasn't that much that they could do from here.

"Fine," Harry said. He answered the unasked question. His shoulder was a bit banged up to be honest, and kind of dislocated. "Did everyone get out alive?"

"Yes, even though we barely did," Huntress said. She helped Harry.

"We got to find Sapphire," Harry said. He shook his head and nearly collapsed. Mason did more of a number on him when he could have thought. "Remind me to thank Bruce if he ever has the decency to stick around."

"I'll make a note of it," Diana said. There was a tone of amusement in her voice. "Come on, let's get you patched up."

* * *

Sapphire waited across the street from where that thing showed up and she was really worried. She looked from her position and it was a madhouse. The sounds of sirens, both from paramedics and the GCPD was heard from her vantage point. It would be a long time before she would ever forget what that creature was like. Her heart raced.

She shook her head. She had to get it together, but she was apart. The last thing she saw before she was ushered out the door was that monster approaching her father and he was ranting about her father and Harry.

It was completely terrifying to say the least. It wasn't human; it was the things that nightmares was made of.

Sapphire collapsed down on a bench. She thought that she just needed to sit down for a few moments and take her breath. The night was starting so good. She was a little bit concerned about her father, granted, but other than that, things started well. There was a promise that Stagg Industries would be looking towards the future.

And it would be left in a pretty good place for the time that she had to take over. Sapphire was optimistic for the future.

Sapphire got to her feet after taking a bit of a rest break. She thought that it might be the perfect time for her to seek out Veronica and find out where she was. She could see her coming out the door, in fact, Bruce pretty much ushered her out of the door and Sapphire went along with them. Then about two hundred other people give or take, poured out along with them and she lost track.

"Veronica?" she asked. She could see more people coming out. The sirens of the Gotham City Police Department were rather prominent.

She could see the paramedics there and she thought of the state that her father was in when she last left him. Worry flooded through Sapphire's mind. She tried not to be worried, but at the same time, she was.

Something rumbled beneath her on the ground. The explosion from inside caused her to jump back.

"My god!" Sapphire yelled suddenly. She wondered what the hell happened.

Explosions weren't good under any circumstances. Sapphire placed her hands on the side of her face and dug her nails in.

The ground rumbled beneath her. Sapphire found herself suddenly choking on what appeared to be heavy fog. It made her eyes watered.

Then, something rose out of the ground. Sapphire would have screamed, if she had not been so paralyzed by a gripping, insane amount of fear.

The creature turned towards her and it looked somewhat more creepier now when it was in the middle of the fog. The fog slowly dispersed around it, "SAPPHIRE!"

"Stay away from me!" Sapphire shouted at the top of her lungs. She staggered back and threw her hands up, before she added in a loud shriek, "Get away from me, you creep!"

She couldn't really run because her ankle was still a bit hurt from a couple of days ago and it was flaring up again.

"Please, don't hurt me," she begged him.

The creature stepped back and looked confused, "No….not….hurt….help….Sapphire."

A cloud of dust wrapped around him and then shot out in front of her. She could feel herself get a little queasy and then light headed. She passed out.

Metamorpho bent down and with a surprisingly gentle hand, picked up Sapphire. He held her entire body in the palm of his hand.

He carried her across the street, before he jumped onto a very tall building and began to climb, with her dangling in his hand when he did so.

* * *

Harry was patched up and he made his way outside. He could see Simon Stagg was being hauled away on a gurney and things were looking rather bad for him. From what Harry found out, this wouldn't be the first time that he had a heart attack, but this one might have been the big one. He staggered a little bit.

He tried not to show the pain that he had.

' _And again, I swear that you have the worst luck in the world,'_ Faora thought. _'You could really have gotten banged up worse than you did. The moment you're able to access your full powers, I'll breathe a lot easier.'_

' _You aren't the only one,'_ Kara said.

' _Just a dislocated shoulder, it could be worse,'_ Harry answered.

' _Yes,'_ Dinah piped up dryly. _'You could have gotten knocked out of a window again from the tallest building in Gotham City.'_

Harry didn't say anything. He could see a GCPD squad car there. He was going to investigate that, but he was stalled from that by a cry of "HARRY!"

He turned around, wincing a little bit when he jarred his shoulder. He saw Veronica standing there. She looked a bit ragged, but the worse for wear.

"Veronica, there you are," Harry said. He frowned when he looked around. "Have you seen Sapphire?"

"No, I haven't," Veronica replied and with that she frowned. "The two of us were out of the building. Bruce slipped into the crowd and disappeared….to do what Bruce does in a situation like this. I was with Sapphire, but then….security came through there and the next thing she knew, I let go of her."

Harry didn't blame Veronica for this at all, obviously. He just couldn't help, but be worried. He knew that this creature was Mason and his unsettling obsession with Sapphire wasn't something that was far from Harry's mind.

' _Perhaps it isn't that bad,'_ Kara suggested.

Harry shrugged. He hoped so. He looked around. In the sea of many people out there, he could not locate Sapphire and that was a fact that caused him to grow very concerned.

The witnesses seemed terrified. Some of them held it together well, but others were just losing their minds. Some of them lived sheltered lives, even in Gotham City, therefore you would think that they wouldn't lose their mind.

Harry notice Sarah and Ellen walking over. Ellen was talking to a group of people and Sarah caught Harry's eye. She walked over, taking quick strides.

She stopped when she noticed that Harry favored his shoulder instantly. Her frown deepened and she moved over, "I figured that you would be in the middle of this."

"I hate being that predictable, but…..I'm not sure if all of the events are attacked by someone who has lost their minds, or just the ones that I attend," Harry said. He cradled his shoulder over by his side. "I'm surprised that you're up and about."

"Just a few bumps and bruises," Sarah said. "But what happened."

"I ran into the source of the explosion," Harry told her. "It's Rex Mason….or at least it was Rex Mason."

Sarah's frown deepened when she looked towards him, "You're going to have to clarify that explanation, but I'm lost."

"The accident at Stagg industries caused Mason to mutated into….well I'm not sure what he is, but he isn't human," Harry said. "And….I'm not sure how dangerous he is now, but I should assume that he's pretty dangerous."

' _That assumption is correct,'_ Alura thought. Sarah paused and frowned when she heard them. _'I'm looking at these readings and he could be one wrong move away from going critical and wiping out half of Gotham City.'_

Harry thought that this night couldn't get any better. He was really wrong. He heard something else that caught his attention and didn't improve his mood.

"Okay, slow down and take a deep breath," Ellen said. She motioned for the woman to sit down and she looked at the edge of losing her mind. "What did you see?"

"He was hideous, he was purple, some of him was white, and some of him was brown, he must have been about ten feet tall, maybe more," the woman said. Her voice was all of a flutter and it took a long time for her to recover. "This monster….she abducted this girl…..I swear….that's all that I've seen."

"I know, I know," Ellen said.

"I'll see you later, I know you have witnesses to interview," Harry said. He slipped away from Sarah.

' _I don't suppose telling you that you shouldn't be out there with the state of your shoulder is going to be something that you're going to listen to,'_ Dinah piped up. Harry paused. _'So, where do you think that he took her?'_

' _The one place where I don't think that the police would think to look, Stagg Industries,'_ Harry responded. _'The two of you should go there, and I'll be there as soon as I can.'_

' _Where are you going?'_ Diana asked.

' _I've got to pick up something from the Penthouse, I was working on it this afternoon,'_ Harry said. He switched to contact Lara and Alura. _'Please tell me that it's ready.'_

' _It just finished synthesizing,'_ Lara informed him. _'And just in time by the looks of things.'_

' _Okay, listen to me,'_ Harry thought. He could hear that Dinah and Diana were listening closely to him. _'This is what we're going to need to do.'_

* * *

Sapphire's eyes slowly opened and she found herself in a dimly lit lab. It was like something out of a really bad horror movie. She was restrained to the table by a set of extremely heavy straps.

She spotted the creature that was mixing some chemicals. Sapphire found herself paralyzed, unable to move at all. Her head lifted off of the table.

The creature noticed her. She whimpered. "Do be afraid."

His tone caused her to be the absolute opposite of not being afraid. She was in fact scared to the death .Yet, in this fear, in this terror, something clicked in Sapphire's head. It was a wonder that it didn't click before.

"Rex?" she asked. He nodded in response.

"Fix this, fix you….make you like me so we be one and together like we should."

"No, Rex, listen, you're not well….I can get you help!" Sapphire pleaded. It was the accident at Stagg Industries that caused him to be like this. While she knew that this was nothing more than an extremely terrible accident that did not mean that she didn't feel the least bit guilty. "You don't have to be like this!"

Metamorpho stopped and Sapphire thought for a moment, throughout all of this.

"And Harry, he can help you, he has….."

"NO!" Metamorpho yelled. He slammed his fists down onto the wall and caused it to bubble and Sapphire to become extremely terrified. "He….was….responsible, just like your father. Stole you from me."

"I was never yours!" Sapphire yelled.

"Will be soon…see the light," Metamorpho yelled.

A gruff voice cut on in, "Leave the girl alone."

Metamorpho turned around and saw Batman swoop down. Batman nailed him and sent him staggering back half of a step. The monster recovered in an instant and his fist hardened. He rushed towards Batman in an attempt to take his head off, but Metamorpho ducked the attack. Batman grabbed his fist, but it heated up and caused him to recoil.

"Smash you!" Metamorpho yelled at the top of his lungs. "Shouldn't have…gotten involved!"

Batman tried to fling an exploding Baterang at him, but it was all for nothing. His powers were breaking down in weird ways, ways that even Batman couldn't even figure out. The monster staggered back and knocked Batman back.

The chemicals he was mixing up was not the best combination in the world either. That was what went through Batman's head, right before the creature's foot nearly did.

Batman rolled around and shot a grapnel, and pulled himself out of harm's way. The creature lifted up a large piece of metal over its head and hurled it over towards Batman. It smacked against his back with an oof and caused him to be dropped on his back.

The Cowled Crusader rolled over and could see the large fist about ready to pound him into paste. Before it could connect, a pair of hands yanked him out of the way.

Black Canary was here as was Huntress. Huntress had a sword drawn and she swung for the fences at the creature. He blocked her attack with a large growl.

His skin looked like it was bubbling. Diana was pretty sure that he was breaking down faster. Whether his body was on par with how his mind was breaking down, or something along those lines, that did remain to be seen.

Diana dodged the creature trying to take her head off with a well-place swing of his large rocky army. The Huntress shot an arrow over his head at a chain holding up a large piece of equipment.

It disengaged and fell on top of the creature. It didn't crush him though, far from it, although it did delay him. His form liquefied and he rose up, with a large roar.

Something rushed in, and an electrified pair of brass knuckles caught Metamorpho right in the shoulder, dislocating it. Metamorpho howled when he fell to the ground, his shoulder in pain.

He looked up and saw the Dreaded Dragon, "We end this."

Metamorpho roared, but the Dragon fired a bullet at his shoulder. The bullet broke open and caused a sticky substance to coat his body from head to toe.

' _Okay Dinah, you're on,'_ Harry thought.

Black Canary opened up her mouth and belted out a Canary Cry. The Canary Cry activated the chemical and caused his body to break down. It was the key that set off a chemical reaction. He broke into a gaseous voice that quickly dispersed, being spread out into millions of miniscule little particles that could not pull themselves together.

Sapphire passed out from the distress, but she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder, rousing her. "Harry?"

She woke up and saw Nightwing standing over her.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked her.

"Yeah," Sapphire said. She frowned. Surely not? She shook her head to clear it and addressed the mysterious crusader, "Sorry, I thought that you were, someone else for a minute."

Nightwing unhooked her and passed her off to Huntress, who escorted her out of there. The GCPD would be by here in a few minutes, no doubt. He turned to Batman, who was giving him one of those looks.

"That could have gone down a bit better," Batman said.

"Given the circumstances, there was no other choice given how fucked up his powers were," Nightwing said. "He was on a course to blow up half of Gotham City, and I doubt either of us wanted that."

It was obvious by Batman's expression that he would have to concede to that point, whether he'd like to or not, "So, do you think that there is any chance of him coming back?"

"If it really put Mason down or it was a temporary fix?" Harry asked. "I don't know, but we should prepare for his return."

Nightwing slipped something into his pocket, but before Batman could ask him what, he disappeared into the night. The cue of sirens gave Batman his cue to pretty much do the same thing, slipping into the night.

* * *

The next day, Sapphire sat outside of Stagg Industries, sipping a cup of coffee. She didn't really get much sleep last night, and after what she was, it would be a long time before she got a substantial amount of sleep again, or at least that's what she figured.

She was waiting for Harry to show up. He did and she gasped when she saw his arm in a sling.

"Are you okay?" Sapphire asked.

"Yes, I'll be fine, I've had worse," Harry said. "You know, after you've been knocked out of a window from the highest building in Gotham City, a dislocated shoulder really isn't half bad. Plus, I'm a quick healer. I should be ready to go, about as good as new in a couple of days."

Sapphire nodded. Given what happened last night, she had a lot to think about, and that might be putting things mildly.

"Do you have any further news about your father?" Harry asked. "Last I saw him, he wasn't doing that well."

Sapphire thought they would come around to that, at some point. It was the other reason why she wasn't sleeping so well at night.

"He suffered a heart attack, and it's not good," Sapphire said. Harry held her hand, squeezing it. She sighed and continued, "Thankfully, he didn't die, but….he's in a coma right now. And the doctors aren't really sure whether or not he'll get out of it….and if he'll ever be the same again."

Harry took his free arm and put it around Sapphire. He thought it was remarkable how well she was holding it together, considering the circumstances. He pulled her in tight against him and she looked grateful.

"It was almost like he expected something like this to happen because….he told me that he made preparations….a little while back," Sapphire responded. "I'm not sure what he did, but he was kind of worried that the Board of Directors wouldn't go with me, if worse came to worse."

"I know what he did," Harry said. Sapphire looked towards him, as the two of them made their way into the Stagg Industries building proper. There was a slight smell of rotten eggs in the air, likely a souvenir of Metamorpho's escapades in this building last night. "Simon signed over his controlling interest of thirty five percent to me last night."

"So that's what he talked to you about," Sapphire confirmed. "And when combined with the forty five percent interest that I got from my mother when she died, that gives us controlling interest of the company."

"Well, on paper, you're going to run things, but I'll be backing you up," Harry said.

Sapphire sighed. "If the Board of Directors are half as difficult as my father made them out to be, I will need it. And someone is going to have to keep the ship afloat."

Again, she couldn't say this enough, the doctors honestly weren't sure when Stagg was going to come out of his coma, if ever.

The two of them made their way to the top floor and met Java at the elevator.

"Business?" Sapphire asked.

"It must go on, that's what Mr. Stagg would have wanted," Java said.

"I know," Sapphire said.

The three of them entered Simon's former office and the door closed behind them.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 8** **th** **, 2015.**


	109. Metamorpho Smashed

**Chapter One Hundred and Nine: Metamorpho Smashed.**

* * *

 

A couple of days have passed since Rex Mason terrorized Gotham City as the menacing Metamorpho. It was the talk of Gotham City for that time. There were very few people who really knew what happened, other than the monster had attacked the grand ball room and Simon Stagg was currently in critical condition. There was a lot of gossip regarding the fact that Harry Potter experienced yet another injury, although relatively minor compared to the one he experienced at the hands of Maxie Zeus.

Speaking of the young man himself, Harry was currently sitting in the lab, pondering what his next maneuver was going to be. All of the information about the chemicals was in front of him and the readings his suit got from Mason in the labs as well.

Lara and Alura had just finished giving him a physical.

"So, do I pass?" Harry asked.

"I think that you do," Lara confirmed. "Taking a direct hit from someone like that….it's a good thing that you're so durable, even when you have the watch."

Harry thought that it went without saying. It was a good thing that his instincts made him turn his body where the least amount of damage could have been done. That was not to say that there was no damage done, but rather there was a minimum of any kind of damage.

He could see someone out of the corner of his eye. "Kara, don't just hang around out there, frele free to join us."

Kara slipped into the main lab. She wore a red sweater, with a pair of tight jeans, and a pair of red socks that matched. She crossed the room and sat down next to Harry. "I'm just curious why you're down here….and not upstairs resting."

"I rested for about a day, there really isn't that much more than I can do, but to rest," Harry said. "But, you're curious at the diagnosis I'm sure."

"Yes," Kara said. She was almost afraid to ask that particular question, but morbid curiosity overwhelmed and got the better of her.

Lara offered her the explanation that she wanted, "Harry's injuries were minimal. He didn't have a concussion like we had feared or any kind of bruising. He was extremely lucky not to, especially given what he was up against."

Harry interpreted that, perhaps rightfully so, that he was lucky not to be crushed flat. At least that's what his assumption, until he was proven wrong.

"It was a mild fracture," Alura said. "It was not a full blown dislocation."

"Or worse, a broken collarbone," Harry said. It was extremely difficult to heal that, even with the access to his magic.

' _So in the end, you pretty much got lucky and didn't get hurt again,'_ Donna said. She was going to ask how he did it, but the most obvious answer to that question was that it was Harry.

' _The damage Metamorpho caused, it was a wonder that he didn't,'_ Diana thought.

Jaime would have to agree, even though she didn't say anything. She studied what Metamorpho did up close and personal.

"I'm more concerned about the damage that he could have done," Harry said, speaking that his answer directly to Kara and through the entire bond network in general.

Karen's exasperated voice cut on through the bond network. _'Of course you do.'_

' _Well, to be fair, Harry wouldn't be Harry if the interest of the people were not in his mind,'_ Amanda thought. She spoke in a combination of pride and a slight amount of frustration to go along with it. It was a strange mix to be honest.

Diana jumped straight in, _'Given the circumstances, he was going to go nuclear and wipe out half of Gotham City. And that includes Harry and all of us.'_

' _There's a chance some of us could find our way back,'_ Harry admitted in a begrudging voice. _'But that's a really messy territory and I don't really see it being enjoyable for any of us.'_

' _Fair enough,'_ Karen said. She didn't knock Harry for thinking of people above himself, but the insane lengths he went, even if there was some kind of greater agenda in mind, really amused her from time to time.

Harry turned his attention to what was in front of him.

"I'm taking the groundwork that I used to neutralize the chemicals and disperse Mason as a counteragent to negate and cure anything caused by the chemicals," Harry said. Kara nodded.

"But, isn't Mason gone?" she asked him.

"I'm not sure yet," Harry said. "He was reduced to a gaseous form and spread extremely thin."

"I see," Kara said. She sat down and took the hand from Harry's uninjured arm into hers and squeezed it. She leaned towards him and whispered gently in his ear. "So, you're looking to cure it, aren't you?"

"Cure it, or contain anyone who has been subjected to those chemicals," Harry informed her.

"Maybe you could use the same containment fields that we used on Markos?" Kara suggested.

Alura was the one that shot her daughter's idea now. "Normally, that would be a good idea, but the chemical compound might not be held. The technology could become unstable, and as you know, unstable Kryptonian technology is a bad thing."

"Yes, I understand," Kara said. That could be filed under one of the many reasons why the planet blew up.

' _Don't we know that,'_ Faora thought. _'Although a similar principle could obviously apply….but a cure might be a more permanent fix. There's a chance that these chemicals caused some twisted form of immortality.'_

' _Is that for sure?'_ Karen asked.

' _It's a theory,'_ Faora thought. _'If you can call what happened to really be living.'_

' _Given how the chemicals twisted Mason, I don't think that would be called living,'_ Dinah thought. She saw him up close and personal. His mind degraded and with it, the ability to use his powers.

"Running simulation," Harry said. He turned to Kara while that got cued up. "The black suited figure, someone had to send for him, I just don't know who at this point."

' _And so far other than the two guards that died, there were no one exhibiting the strange symptoms that could be a problem,'_ Barbara informed them. _'But, I'm monitoring the usual channels. Along with anything that I can find about our mysterious thief and who he's working for. Admittedly, I don't have that much to go on.'_

The simulation finished off.

' _Thank you, Barbara, I appreciate it.'_

' _Not a problem,'_ Barbara said. _'It's a lot easier having voices inside your head.'_

' _Yeah, only in our group could that make any kind of sense,'_ Amanda said. She grinned. _'But it works well, although it could get a bit crowded.'_

' _Good thing you can turn it out and filter, well at least in theory,'_ Barbara said. _'Just got to figure out how to best work the bugs out, but I'm getting there.'_

' _You'll get there, Barbara, trust me,'_ Harry responded.

Kara shook her head, and frowned, "That didn't go as planned."

"That's why it's a simulation," Harry replied. It's to get all of the bugs out before they become a problem.

Kara looked over it, and it was obvious that her mother had an idea. Then again, given that she was the most brilliant mind on Krypton, it was only too obvious that she would come up with an idea.

"So, do you mind if I give you a suggestion?" Alura asked.

Harry laughed. "I'd be almost insulted if you didn't."

* * *

 

It was a rather calm morning in Gotham City. Some of the homeless population was a bit more ease ever since some of the support that had been given to them. There was a few people who were too stubborn and prideful to accept too much help, but there were others in that group that really appreciated the help that was given to them.

"What the devil is that?" one of them asked. The sound of someone whistling a jaunty tune caused them to all look up and forward.

"Whatever you do, none of you look up," another one of them responded. They recognized the person in question.

One of the younger homeless men turned around and saw a young man, dressed in a nice pinstripe suit, whistling. He had greasy black hair and he had a wide smile that was almost prominent. A trio of black gentlemen stepped behind him, one of them looked to be large and imposing, almost like a bodyguard type. The sunny smile on his face looked rather unsettling through.

"My friends, lend me your ear, because I'm going to tell you something amazing that is going to make your lives all that more swell," the man said in a jovial tone. He was rocking himself up and down and he looked extremely excited. "I've heard what they've all said about you, how you're trash, how you're the dregs of society, how you've been thrown out. How you're going to be swept underneath the bus like you're nothing."

The smiling man said. The trio of gentlemen behind him started to clap loudly.

"This man, he brings the gospel!" one of them yelled.

"Yeah, he brings enlightenment!" another man responded.

"You see, you think that you're lost, but you're nothing, but little birds without wings," the smiling man said. "All you need to do, is spread your wings and fly away. You need to find a way to take your feet off of the ground and soar to the highest heights. Anything that you can do, you can do. You need to soar to the highest heights. All you need to do is….BELIEVE!"

"BELIEVE!" the trio behind him echoed.

"Yes, my friends, all you need to do to spread your wings and head to the highest of heights is to believe!" the man said.

"So, if we believe, can we fly like Peter Pan?" one of the homeless man asked.

"I live my life by one simple credo," the goofy man responded. "Eat, Sleep, Believe, Repeat. Eat, Sleep, Believe, Repeat."

"Eat, Sleep, Believe, Repeat!" the group chanted. "Eat, Sleep, Believe, Repeat!"

A news van pulled up and Vicki Vale exited the van. This was what passed as news this morning. When she was told to go cover the disturbance on 5th street, this wasn't what she had in mind. Some hyper active goofball and a trio of black gentlemen who likely knocked racial relations back a good fifty or so years.

"Miss Vale, Miss Vale, oh, good you're here, oooh is that a camera!" the goofy man practically squealed. "Good, I want to be on camera…."

"We're rolling in five, four, three, two, one," Vicki said. "This is Vicki Vale….."

"HI MOM!" the goofy man exclaimed, breaking in on Vicki's statement. "See, you're baby boy is finally on television and he's spreading the good word."

"Yes, this is Vicki Vale," Vicki said. She eyed her producer, who was already calling the GCPD. Some mentally ill homeless man caused a disturbance and it was most certainly disturbing her. "Anyway, I'm here with….."

"Call me Brother Beau!" he said in an excited voice. He sounded like an overexcited schoolboy. "You might remember my big brother, the honorable Deacon Blackfire!"

"Deacon Blackfire stirred up the Gotham City population into a riot, and he caused countless deaths and property damage," Vicki reminded him.

"I know what will make everything better!" Brother Beau said. It was almost like her words went in one ear and out the other. Either that, or he had the attention span of a five year old on a sugar high. "COOKIES! Someone bring me Cookies! Cookies will make everything better! Cookies! Cookies for everyone!"

Vicki rolled her eyes and prayed to whatever higher power that would listen to give her some kind of strength.

"I've got cookies!" the largest of the big men said. "Cookies for all!"

"Cookies for all!" the two smaller black men chanted.

Brother Beau's grin got even wider, "Yes, cookies for all! You get a cookie, and you get a cookie, and you get a cookie, and you get a cookie, and you get a cookie! And would you like a cookie, Ms. Vale?"

"No, thank you," Vicki said. She made it a habit not to take cookies from strangers or random psychotic men.

The sounds of the GCPD indicated that there was a squad car pulling up. Vicki placed her hands on the side of her face.

She never thought that she'd be so glad to see the GCPD, but she was. And she never really thought that she'd be glad to see Harvey Bullock. Bullock exited the car, with Renee Montoya.

Bullock wrinkled his nose like he smelled something foul, "Well, well, look what the cat dragged in….."

"Hello, Detective, would you like a cookie?" Brother Beau asked. Bullock looked at him.

"We've gotten about eight complaints about you, and it's time for you to have a little time out, so you and your little altar boys, get your hands in the air where I can see then," Bullock said. The trio raised their hands.

"Hey, man, you got to be more positive!"

"I'm positive that you have the right to remain silent."

Vicki decided that it was her cue to leave. Brother Beau and his merry men were brought it, more peacefully than she would have thought.

She watched Bullock swipe one of the cookies. Of course he did. Most of the homeless took the free cookies, because free cookies, were free cookies. Although, Vicki didn't know whether or not she could trust anything that came from the brother of the late Deacon Blackfire, but maybe that was just her.

She turned around and saw Kara standing, waiting for her.

"So what was that all about?" Kara asked her.

Vicki responded with a swift shrug, "Something tells me that we're better off not knowing."

The two girls left, having agreed to meet for lunch after Vicki finished up here. Had they stayed around longer, they would have noticed a van parked.

This van had the windows completely blacked out. One of the windows slightly rolled down and a pair of ominous looking eyes stared out, when Brother Beau was taken away.

Without any further action, the van drove off.

* * *

 

Harry exited the limo right out of a large office building that was right in the middle of Falcone territory in Gotham City. He moved around and opened the limo door. Faora slipped out of the limo and walked in next to Harry with a smile on her face. She was dressed to kill in a professional looking female business suit. Her skirt made its way down past her thighs and showcased her stocking clad legs. She wore a pair of glasses and a green blouse that matched Harry's eyes and a jacket slipped over her.

"So, shall we?" Harry asked.

"Yes, let's do this," Faora said. She took her brother's arm into hers and she kept walking forward.

The two of them walked towards the warehouse. Jaime, while she couldn't be with them right now because she was busy, decided to chime in on the communication link.

' _So, what do you think about this?'_ Harry asked her.

' _Well, it offers an interesting opportunity,'_ Jaime suggested. She chewed down on her lip and thought about it. _'She's really….well she's most certainly something.'_

' _Half of the rumors, you just wonder if they're true or not,'_ Karen added.

Faora's lips twisted into a soft smile, _'Well given what Selina said, we should assume that they're true. She had an interesting perspective on things.'_

Harry laughed. That was the truth if there ever was one. She had an interesting perspective on things to put things mildly. The fact of the matter was that Selina really did drop a tantalizing piece of information.

' _Still we talked about this earlier,'_ Jaime said. _'Getting an ally, or some eyes inside some of the big criminal outfits might be a really good idea.'_

Harry thought that there was a pretty good idea to be honest, but there were some problems. Most importantly, Faora was able to chime in with her own perspective on the matter.

' _Yes, it could work in theory, but we've got to play this carefully and coolly,'_ she said. The two of them grabbed the case from the back of the limo and finally made their way to the front entrance. _'If Sofia is one thing, she's loyal to her father.'_

Harry did know that. And he wouldn't get in the way of that. Still, the Falcones did run a lot of Gotham City, so it did make business sense to poke around and see what they could do for them. He thought about it carefully, and turned towards Faora.

' _I take it that you got an idea of what we want to do,'_ Faora thought.

Harry nodded in agreement. The two of them finally walked across the parking deck to the visitor entrance of the building.

' _A fair idea, yes,'_ Harry agreed with her. _'Let's worry about the legit business. We looked into this enough to know that the legit business won't spill into the mafia. We could get our feet in the door and work from here.'_

' _Ah, gaining trust,'_ Faora said.

The two of them made their way to the front entrance of the door. A very surly looking guard was waiting for them.

"State your business," the surly guard said.

Harry wasn't sure whether or not he liked the guard's tone. He seemed to be the strong armed goon type to begin with, to make sure that no one caused trouble. Given the mob warfare that was happening, Harry figured that was the case.

"I'm Doctor Harry Potter, and this is Doctor Alexandra Potter," Harry said. "And we're here to see Sofia Falcone."

The guard checked the clipboard and he turned to them. He opened up the gate and the two of them made their way inside.

The large guard led the two of them down the hallway.

' _Well, he's quite the cheerful type,'_ Karen chimed in.

' _Given the job that he has, I don't think that we can blame him all that much,'_ Faora added.

Harry and Faora, under the guise of Alexandra Potter, made their way to the door. The guard leaned down and said something to the woman sitting at the desk. He walked off.

The assistant looked up at them and she smiled, "Sit down for a moment, Ms. Falcone will see you in a moment, Doctor Potter and Doctor Potter."

At least she was of more of a sunny sort than the guard. Harry and Alex sat down and awaited for Sofia to come to meet them.

The two of them didn't have to wait for all that long. There was a buzzing sound.

"Are they here?"

"Yes, Ms. Falcone," her personal assistant said.

"Send them in," Sofia said.

Harry and Alex took it as their cue to get to their feet and make their way into the office to meet with the daughter of the Roman.

Sofia greeted them, "I'm glad to see that you've taken this meeting….and Doctor Alexandra Potter, I didn't expect to see you here, but it's appreciated to see you here never the less."

The Falcone woman was giving Alex a nice looking over.

"So, I talked briefly with my mother and aunt….they regret that they cannot be here at this meeting, given the circumstances," Harry said. "I got their full blessing to go forward though."

Sofia waved her hand. "That's fine. I had my lawyers draw up a preliminary agreement. My father has naturally given me his full blessing and more importantly his encouragement to go through with this. He thinks that this is best for business, both his business and yours, and could open the door."

"Well, we're going to have to see how this goes," Harry informed her.

"Yes, we will," Sofia agreed. She knew that her father was playing a very careful game. She understand that Harry's connections through his mother's side of the family could make things quite uncomfortable for the Falcones and they could not afford to make a powerful enemy. "Read that, don't sign it here though. Have a lawyer go over it with a fine tooth comb."

"You don't seem in a rush to have this signed," Harry said.

Sofia shook her head. "I'm not in any kind of rush. The entire deal is laid down. Falcone Shipping can help you in the United States, and the Shining Light Enterprises can help you go overseas. We should start splitting the profits down the middle, but there might be an opportunity to renegotiate after the initial probationary period is up."

Harry thought that was interesting.

"Just look it over, both of you," Sofia said. She made her way over to a cabinet, and removed a bottle of wine. She poured themselves three glasses of wine. "Regardless of what you decided, to our success."

Alex and Harry discreetly checked the glasses. They were only put slightly more at ease with the fact that Sofia took a small drink.

"To our success," Harry said.

"To our success," Alex said.

Harry thought that this deal would change the face of Gotham City. It was a short probationary deal and everything was pretty much in place. From what they looked over, all of the ground work was there.

* * *

 

Alex and Harry both thought the meeting was good. They ran a bit late, but overall, they arrived just in time to meet Kara and Vicki, who were in the process of having lunch.

Vicki's eyes rose up suddenly and Kara laughed.

"Sorry, I'm used to Harry showing up out of nowhere," Kara said. Vicki gave her a side long look. "But even sometimes, he surprises me."

"I can see that," Vicki said. She was bursting with a few questions, but she decided to keep the work at the workplace, at least now.

"Sorry that we're late, a business meeting ran wrong," Harry said.

"So, I take it it's been a productive morning?" Vicki asked.

"Very," Harry said. He still had to meet Alexa and Sapphire this evening. It was after Stagg Industries closed up officially. Stagg, RAO, and the east coast branch of LuthorCorp looked like it could do business today.

Vicki thought that her curiosity was going to get the better of her.

Alex barely broke out into a smile. She could see Vicki struggling with all of her might not to ask the obvious question. She was fairly amused, _'I think that she's about to burst, Har.'_

' _You're getting a lot of pleasure out of this, aren't you?'_ Kara thought.

' _You really aren't?'_ Karen asked.

Harry decided that he was going to take some pity on Vicki, "You know, if you're going to ask a question, you can ask that. I won't bite, unless you ask nicely."

Kara had to drop her napkin on the floor, to duck down and break out into a laughing fit. Unfortunately that drew more attention to her, then drawing attention more or less away from her.

' _Subtle, she isn't,'_ Barbara thought. She made another note to what she was working on.

' _But then again, what do you expect, she's about as subtle as a brick to the face,'_ Donna thought. That caused Kara to glare at her through the bond link. That caused Donna to fire back with an equally amused grin. _'I love you too honey.'_

Harry nearly laughed at the bemused look on Kara's face. More so because Faora lightly pinched her when she reached underneath the table.

Vicki opened her mouth, and seemed like she was trying to figure out what she wanted to see. Harry turned directly towards her. "So, what do you want to know?"

"What was your business meeting about?" Vicki asked. She decided to go all in, or all out. "I heard that you were meeting with Falcone Industries."

"Well, they offered me a business deal and it's fairly fascinating," Harry said.

Vicki decided to jump on this rather quickly, "Is it one of those offers that you can't refuse? Is it one of those type of things?"

Harry chuckled. When it was put that way, it did sound a bit shady, "No, it's nothing like that. It's more of a probationary thing. Shining Light Enterprises wants to get a foot hold in the United States shipping wise and the Falcones want to spread their influence throughout the world. If anything unsavory goes on, the deal is done."

Vicki nodded and smiled. It appeared that she looked at ease because of what she learned. "Okay, fair enough."

She paused for a second. It was not like she wanted to accuse Harry of anything, but it was just surprising.

"From what I've found out, the Roman likes to keep his business separated from the real business, if you catch my draft. But this is strictly off the record, Vicki."

"Yes," Vicki replied, nodding. "Of course it is."

She wouldn't dare betray Harry's confidence. She reached forward to take a drink.

"So, the big fashion week event is coming up?" she asked.

Harry nodded in confirmation, "I've been busy with that, although not was busy as the people who are doing all of the groundwork. It's a big high society thing, and it's a big thing for charity."

Vicki nodded. She would have loved nothing better than to support and cover that. Even though it wasn't really her thing, she would have loved nothing better than to take a closer look at covering the fashion week event.

Harry raised his eyebrow when he caught a look at Vicki's eyes.

"So, what about you?" You seemed a bit out of it."

"Well, I ran into someone causing trouble this morning," Vicki said. She could see Alex and Harry exchange a dark look with each other, so it was best that she clarified. "Not bad trouble, well it could have turned into bad trouble. It was more of a nuisance kind of trouble. He claimed to be the brother of Deacon Blackfire."

That was news to Harry. Given his recent encounter in the in between with the good Deacon, he was put on his guard.

"I see."

Vicki pressed on, "He was trying to rally the homeless with some inspirational speech, or something. He seemed like a bit of a goofball to be honest."

Kara thought that she was finally getting what this was all about and she was surprised that Vicki didn't seem too concerned.

Harry, meanwhile, looked very thoughtful. He recalled his encounter with the good Deacon weeks back on the dreamscape. His brother, or supposed brother, showing up in Gotham City, was rather curious.

There were many things Harry didn't believe in, and one thing he didn't believe in was coincidence.

Vicki decided to switch tracts, "So, how's your arm?"

"Better," Harry informed her. The nano-technology in the cast he had on his arm expediated the process of healing, at least for minor injuries. Some of the girls weren't pleased with him being used as a guinea pig, but there you go. "Could have ended up worse for Gotham City if Nightwing didn't get involved."

Vicki thought that was the case many times over. With her own life in Gotham City being one of the things that could have ended up much worse, had Nightwing not stepped in.

Kara grinned knowingly. "Isn't that the truth?"

Harry smiled, but said nothing.

* * *

 

If Sapphire Stagg looked frazzled, at least a tiny bit, that was because she honestly was. She currently sat in her father's former office, now her office, looking over a few documents.

It was really good that the Board of Directors were held at bay, because Sapphire didn't think that she could handle them on top of everything else right now. Even with Harry's help, there was a lot going on at Stagg Industries, with the improvements being made. Granted, these were improvements that she was proud of and glad that her father was making, but that did not undercut the work that was being done.

Still, if this work got done, then Sapphire would be pleased.

There was a light knock on the door that Sapphire responded with a half grunted, "Come in."

The door opened and a familiar voice said, "Behold, I come bringing takeout!"

Sapphire saw Harry standing there. Despite the day that she had, the week she had, she smiled and responded in a soft, swooning sigh, "My hero."

She finished what she was working on. After doing that, she rose up to her feet, and threw her arms around Harry. Her lips smashed against his in a passionate kiss, her tongue sliding into his mouth.

Sapphire pulled herself away, nibbling on his lip. She took one of the bags from Harry and cleared off a spot on her desk to eat.

Harry chuckled when he looked out how ravenous she was when she tore into her food. "So, you're hungry, aren't you?"

"Starving," Sapphire said. "I haven't had lunch today. I'm not sure my father had lunch in about twenty years, unless I made a point to join him for lunch."

Harry shook his head, "Even with my schedule, I always have a point to have lunch. So how are things going?"

"I'm actually glad that I have that much work to be honest," Sapphire said. She took a long drink. "You know….."

There was something that clicked in her mind, that she almost forgot. The dread filled her body and it enhanced when she snuck a long look at the clock.

"Shit, that was today, wasn't it?"

Harry nodded, "Yes, that was today."

Sapphire thought that she could do a better job at keeping track of this. She got to her feet. Harry helpfully wiped the sauce off of her lips. She smiled at him when he helped her clear up the office.

"I don't know what I'd do without you, sometimes," Sapphire said.

Harry respectfully didn't answer that question and Sapphire appreciated him even more than he didn't. There was no time to conclude that thought, because a buzzing brought Sapphire's attention to the intercom.

"Miss Stagg, Miss Luthor is here for the meeting."

Sapphire thought that it was odd that Harry wasn't announced. Then again, she could have heard him being announced, but she wasn't really listening. Sapphire brushed her hair away from her eyes and smiled.

"Send her in, Rochelle."

Alexa Luthor entered the office. She stopped and looked at Sapphire, "So, how are you holding up?"

Sapphire shrugged and responded with an honest answer, "One day a time."

That was fair enough. The trio made their way into a conference room.

Sapphire sat down on a chair behind one of the tables. She kicked off her shoes because her tension was at high.

"I'm going to prove that I'm not just another rich kid that got thrown into the deep end and doesn't know what to do without Daddy's money."

"Anyone who knows you knows that you're not, "Alexa said.

Harry nodded, taking her hands firmly into his, "You really have nothing to prove."

Sapphire snorted. She appreciated the respect, but she couldn't believe how rich these words were coming from Harry of all people.

"You really don't either. Even though you try to keep proving yourself in every single aspect of your life."

Harry shrugged. He couldn't really argue that point. He noticed Sapphire didn't really clarify this point. He might have to talk to her later, once everything had a chance to cool down.

He felt her stocking clad foot brush against his leg. Harry took it down and slowly began to run his fingers over her foot.

"My work on the East Coast is going as planned," Alexa said. She frowned. "And I'll be happy to have the two on board to do some business, now that some of the people who would cause problems have been somewhat collared."

Harry read some people as Earle.

Sapphire felt Harry's fingers work their pure magic. It sent a jolt down her legs, through her body. She shuddered for a moment, but maintained a straighter look. His finger's brushed up her legs, and stopped short of her thighs, before making its way back down and massaging her foot.

"I have a feeling that I haven't seen the last of Earle," Alexa said.

"He's the type of guy who is like a cockroach, isn't he?" Harry asked.

Alexa nodded swiftly. "He really is. Lionel just left me to my own devices. He's been detached lately. I think that he's been working on his plans for Queen Industries. He and Malcolm Merlyn have been in a cold war with each other."

Sapphire closed her eyes when Harry kept working over her feet, before bringing herself back to the conversation.

"Those two….they didn't seem to be on the best terms at the party."

"Well, Malcolm has his own plans and Lionel's plans don't coincide with his plans," Alexa said. She smiled. "Believe me, I know the feeling….but, I think that we can get some preliminary work done on this deal, now that I'm taking stronger control.

"The deal looks good," Harry said, taking a long look at the proposal that she drew up.

Sapphire would have to agree. Just like what Harry was doing to her did a good job at making her extremely relaxed.

"Naturally, you should talk to all of the principals involved, but it's structured in a way where it benefits us all. This deal might not have happened with your father involved, or mine."

Sapphire blinked. Despite the fact that her father was trying to make change for the better, there were many who questioned his actions. The old guard worked for him, but the newer guard was reluctant to stick their tool into that pool.

"I have a feeling that we're going to need to work together to make sure the Douchebag Association of Businessmen doesn't gain a foothold," Alexa said. "So, do you think that's a good deal?"

Harry nodded in response. "I think that it's more than fair. I know that you want to establish a further presence on the East Coast."

"The rumors floating that LuthorCorp was doing business with you has caused the stock to jump," Alexa said. "Those who bought the stock when it was at the bargain basement levels it was after the meteor shower are looking pretty smart, especially if they sell off in a few months."

Sapphire felt good, but she wanted more.

"We'll discuss this matter on another day when we're less distracted by everything that's going on."

Sapphire nodded and grinned. "So, Harry, you've done a good job in relieving my tensions. But I'm sure you're tense as well."

Alexa crossed the room and leaned her head through the doorway. "Mercy, watch the door."

Sapphire's foot brushed against the bulge in Harry's pants. He helped her out by undoing his pants and pulling it down his throbbing manhood. Her foot brushed against his balls and she stroked him with his toes.

She smiled in a sultry manner and gave him a smile, before speaking in a breathy tone, "You helped relieved my tension, now it was my turn."

Sapphire's toes stroked on the underside of his cock and slowly rubbed it up and down. Harry had no problems with it. The heel of her foot slowly teased and tempted the base of his cock.

Alexa leaned back and watched Sapphire rub her foot up and down on Harry's cock. She leaned back and slowly slipped her stocking off.

She threw it in Harry's face with a giggle and he caught a whiff of her foot on the stocking. Sapphire rubbed her soft, bare toes on his manhood.

Harry smirked when Sapphire casually ran her toes up and down his massive prick, bringing up an immense amount of pleasure through him. Her toes rubbed him and Harry closed his eyes, feeling the pleasure increase.

Both of her feet were now bare and she slowly brushed her feet up and down. Harry could see her panties have been shifted and she fingered herself when she had a foot job.

Alexa whimpered. She vowed not to interfere in this, but it was becoming too hard. She slid her fingers into her pussy and rubbed herself. She grinded her fingers deep within her gushing quim.

Sapphire removed her feet from his massive cock and put them down. Harry could feel the lost of her feet rubbing up and down against his manhood.

"Oh, I don't want to waste your cum just yet," Sapphire said. She got up and placed her hands on the table. She hiked up her skirt. "Why don't you fuck my spoiled rich ass?"

"Now, that's a good idea," Harry said. He looked at her thong clad ass and it was an amazing sight to be see to say the least. Harry shimmied down her thong and revealed her ass when it beckoned for him.

He waved his hand and his cock was lubricated with oil, along with her asshole. He pushed inside her well lubricated asshole!

"YES!" Sapphire shrieked at the top of her lungs. She felt his throbbing cock enter her asshole. "Fuck my spoiled ass, fuck it hard!"

Harry was encouraged by her. His balls slammed against her hips. He cut a decent pace, and also cupped her pussy, playing with it. He pulled almost all the way out of her ass, his tip resting in it and he slammed into her. He pushed his finger into her pussy, fucking it with her finger, and fucked her ass with his cock.

"Damn, that's so hot, "Alexa panted. "Fuck her god damn ass!"

"Don't worry, you're next," Harry grunted. He plowed Sapphire extremely hard from behind.

Alexa's pussy clenched her fingers and she could not wait for it. Her fingers kept brushing against her dripping cunt when she kept playing with herself. She really moaned when she prodded her insides with her fingers. She panted lustfully when she kept playing with her dripping slit.

"Oooh, I want this, so bad," Alexa begged him.

"Wait your turn," Sapphire said.

She felt Harry's manhood drill her tight hole. He rammed hard inside her asshole again and again.

"Get next to her, in the same position," Harry replied.

Alexa obeyed his order, hiking her skirt up. She either wasn't wearing panties or had removed them earlier. Regardless, her wet pussy and her curvy ass was exposed to him. She looked over her shoulder, biting down on her lip in response. "Like this, Daddy?"

"Perfect," Harry said. He shoved his throbbing manhood into Sapphire's tight ass and decided to switch over her pussy.

Sapphire was caught off guard. Her pussy gripped his tool and he shoved himself inside her. Her insides were pummeled. Harry's balls dribbled against her sensitive clit when Harry pushed inside her pussy.

"Fuck her, then fuck me!" Alexa breathed. She could feel Harry's fingers push between her legs and she smiled when he played with her pussy.

Harry pulled his fingers out of Alexa's pussy and made her suck on his fingers. Her eyes went wide, when her tongue brushed over her fingers. She sucked and slurped, when Harry pulled out of Sapphire.

Sapphire collapsed on the desk and she came down from the orgasm. Harry pushed deep inside Alexa's pussy. Her wet heat engulfed him. "Yes, oh that really feels good, doesn't it?"

"Mmm….fuck me, fuck me hard!" Alexa breathed.

Harry was determined to fuck her hard. He kept drilling her hard from behind. Her wet heat engulfed his tool when he almost pulled out of her. His balls dribbled against her thighs. He pushed deep inside her. He leaned towards her and pressed against her. His breath hit the back of her ear when he spoke.

"Would you like me to fuck your perfect ass?"

"Yes!" Alexa breathed. "Fuck my ass, Daddy, drill your little girl like she's nothing, but a bitch."

"She has a filthy mouth," Harry said to Sapphire. Sapphire nodded. "Maybe we should do something about that?"

Sapphire grinned. "Maybe we should."

Sapphire slid over. She was a bit sore from the first fucking, but she slid underneath Alexa's head. She grabbed the back of her head and forced her face.

Alexa got the hint. She slipped her tongue into Sapphire's pussy and gripped her ass. She shoved her fingers into her ass.

"Such a dirty little girl!" Sapphire screamed. "Mmm….I love you tonguing my pussy. Keep it nice and wet for when Harry fucks it. I'd really love that!"

Harry's throbbing hard cock slid into Alexa's ass. Sapphire encouraged her to eat her pussy and the slurping sounds Alexa made prompted Harry to keep plowing into Alexa's hot ass. He drilled her hard from behind.

He rose up and slammed into her asshole. Harry's balls slapped against her. "And look, I'm fucking her spoiled ass. I wonder who has the more spoiled ass."

"Well, you're going to have to fuck both of us the same to find out, won't you," Sapphire said. There was a dirty smile on her face. She gripped the top of Alexa's head. "Did I give you permission to quit eating me?"

Alexa drove her tongue deep into Sapphire's pussy. She licked her over and over again. The more Harry fucked her, the more she felt his cock inside her.

She had an orgasm with his cock inside her ass. Harry pulled out of Alexa and Sapphire smiled, leaning back on the desk.

"Come and get it," Sapphire breathed. "Go ahead, fuck my spoiled pussy."

Harry accepted the invitation. He pushed into her dripping hot quim and felt her pussy clutch him. He held onto her hips and plowed into her while Alexa recovered from the hard fucking that Harry gave her.

Sapphire had a brand new burst of lust going through her body. Harry held tightly onto her hips and plowed deep into her hot pussy. His balls loaded up with a heavy amount of cum. Her body became sweaty when she wrapped her legs around his waist.

Harry impacted her wet pussy. Her slick pussy gripped him over and over again. Sapphire bit his neck and stifled her scream. "You really like that, me fucking your perfect pussy."

Sapphire moaned, and she released Harry's neck. Harry rolled over onto his back and Sapphire was now on top of him. She brought her hips down and crashed her pussy onto him.

Harry reached up and squeezed her breasts. She allowed him access to her chest and Harry sat up, his mouth was between her breasts. He slowly licked and sucked on her nipples.

"So, good, coming to make me cum," Sapphire said. She felt Harry's manhood bury inside her. She reached over and fingered Alexa when she was trying to recover. "I'm going to make you cum, I'm going to milk you dry. I bet you'd like that….fucking cum for me Harry!"

She bounced up and down. Harry could not hold back from her. Her pussy milked him. It was so tight, so juicy, that he couldn't hold back.

Sapphire felt her orgasm explode through her body. She was glad that she could cum. Harry's thick cock nearly pushed through her body.

He fired deep inside her body. A few spurts of cum rocked her body. Sapphire screamed and Harry continued to cum inside her. She came twice more before he was done.

She slid off of him, falling back on the conference table. A lovely combination of juices spilled from between her legs.

Alexa slid over with a predatory look and she pushed her tongue inside her dripping hot cunt. Harry slid inside her and he continued to fuck both of them in turn.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 11** **th** **, 2015.**


	110. Risky Business Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Ten: Risky Business Part One.**

* * *

 

Harry thought that last night's meeting at Stagg Industries with Sapphire and Alexa was rather productive. Sapphire was doing well with running the company. He decided to give her the room that she needed, coming in to advice when she needed it.

' _Think that she might be figuring out that I'm Nightwing,'_ Harry thought.

' _You get that hint, don't you?'_ Barbara asked. _'Kara mentioned something about a probationary period where people jump on the bond. I jumped on pretty quickly though.'_

' _It varies from person to person,'_ Harry informed her. Barbara responded with a swift nod, because that a made a lot of sense. _'You've been with me for about two years, even before we sealed the deal. There should be no real problem with you getting on. Others, it takes longer, mostly because of their own stubbornness and the baggage they carry.'_

Harry thought of a couple of candidates for that position. Sometimes the bond magic worked in a strange way and Harry couldn't even begin to describe how it worked, only that it worked out well at times.

Regardless, he was sure that Sapphire might be joining them before too often. She had been drawn into that circle closer. He might have to talk to her soon to give her the heads up on things.

He pushed the door opened and was treated to a fairly enticing sight. Dinah was stretching before him, wearing a pair of tight Yoga pants and a sports bra. Harry got a glimpse of her fit body and looked appreciative at her when he looked her over.

"Hello, Harry," Dinah turned. She turned around towards him and moved over to the gym area. "Care to join me for a sparring session? That is if you're up for it."

Harry smiled, "I'm up for it always."

Dinah smiled in response. She could always count on Harry to join her. After a quick change of clothes, she caught a good look at the tight white shirt he was wearing and the extremely tight pair of black pants. He looked good enough to eat and Dinah was devouring him with her eyes.

"Ready when you are," Harry said in an inviting way.

The two of them made their way into a battle stance. Dinah went straight in for a kick. Harry blocked it and got behind her. She slipped out of his attack, and made her way behind Harry. She forced him down to her knees.

Dinah was flipped over onto her back. She bounced back and started to fire a series of rapid fire punches to him. Harry dodged most of the punches, and returned fire with a rapid fire series of punches of her own.

"So, I didn't ask," Harry said. He swiftly kept his eye on the ball. "How did your trip go?"

"Well, Oliver showed up," Dinah said.

Harry dodged an attack from Dinah, and returned fire with one of his own, "I thought that I sensed some displeasure from your end."

"Displeasure?" Dinah asked. She was knocked on her ass. Her fault completely, she didn't keep her eye on the ball.

Harry chuckled, "Okay, not so much displeasure, more like thinly veiled anger."

"Well, I wasn't happy about that comment that he made at the party," Dinah said. "You know the one."

"I don't think I need to repeat that one," Harry said. He could tell Dinah's intensity sped up with her attacks, and that was causing her to lose focus.

Dinah must have realized that she was losing focus. She took a moment to take a deep breath and to calm her, before she returned fire back on Harry. She backed up and she could see him go into a defensive stance.

"So, Ollie came by, and asked if either Sara or I had seen Thea," Dinah said. She dodged the attack and could feel Harry take her legs out from underneath her. He eased up and she returned to the attack. "And we hadn't….she must have run off."

"I heard, her being missing is in the news," Harry said. "So, what made her run off?"

"Don't know, could have been because she was fed up with Ollie, could be that Merlyn was stifling," Dinah said. "He was made their legal guardian after the Queens died in the plane crash, you know."

The two of them kicked up their sparring to another level. She was firing a kick.

"From what I heard, Malcolm hasn't been quite the same since his wife died," Harry said. She fired a kick. "I'm pretty sure that Thea will show up somewhere. Doesn't she have a credit card we can track or something?"

' _Been there, thought of that already,'_ Barbara said. _'Her purse was found dumped somewhere in Gotham, and her credit cards were it, untouched. They haven't been used in about two months prior to that. Someone took whatever money she had in there.'_

Harry hated to be the one to say that, but finding a woman's purse, with the money taken out of it, and no sign of the woman in question, especially in Gotham City, really didn't bode well.

"So, how is your father?"

"He's better off than he has been in months, but the doctor still wants him to take it easy, at least for a little bit longer," Dinah said. "Just to make sure that there aren't any lingering side effects from what happened."

Harry thought that was fair enough. The two of them engaged each other in battle for a little bit longer, until they came to a stop.

"I think that's enough," Dinah said. She slipped away from Harry and smiled. "Care to hit the showers?"

Harry waved his hand, "After you."

She smiled and Harry caught a nice glimpse of her ass when it kept swaying and she walked off, leaving him standing there.

' _Harry?'_ Kara asked.

Harry was quick to answer, _'Yes, Kara, what is it?'_

' _Do you think that you can do me a favor?'_ she asked me. _'Well it's more than a favor for Vicki than anything, but still.'_

' _I'm all ears,'_ Harry replied. He had to admit that he was fairly curious.

* * *

 

After the shower and the breakfast that followed, Harry currently was down in the lab. Rose and Lily were talking to him over the bond link.

' _So, this is one of the biggest events in New York, and that's just the public event,'_ Lily informed him. _'Therefore, it might attract some unsavory people.'_

Harry frowned, _'So, let me guess. You're really ramping up security?'_

' _It's well worth the investment,'_ Lily thought to her. _'Given that all of the trouble that we all seem to cause.'_

The last two big events caused Harry to end up with an injury. This one was rather minor, but the event before that could have killed him if he wasn't in such good shape and his instincts.

' _One of these days, I will get through one of these social events without getting attacked,'_ Harry said.

Lily laughed despite the grimness of the situation, _'Well, Harry, you have gotten through a few of these social events without getting attacked. It's just the times that you've gotten attacked are so prolific, they stick out in your mind.'_

That was the truth to be honest.

' _At least you're taking some steps to increase your self-preservation,'_ Karen thought. _'But, then again, if this event is away from Gotham City, we should hope that we're not going to run into any trouble.'_

' _Well, New York has it problems,'_ Jaime replied. She had been there a couple of times. Not the worst place in the world to be honest, but it was not without its problems. _'I think that if we have the security, we should be in good shape.'_

' _Lavender would freak if we didn't take this event seriously,'_ Parvati chimed in. _'And don't worry, we're making sure all of the models are going to be well protected. It's protecting your investments, after all, and it would be bad if anything happened to them as people. So it kind of makes sense from a business standpoint.'_

' _And I'm pretty sure that we can protect Harry as well,'_ Jaime added.

Harry smiled. Another voice chimed in, "Well, for the record, us being in the same place at the same time in a public event doesn't net that many good results, but perhaps we'll be fortunate enough this time not to get screwed open."

' _Great Hera!'_ Diana exclaimed.

' _No, actually just very good,'_ Hera joked.

Harry smiled. He was half watching the Juno Jones show on television, which was live most days. She was standing there, as an image in the lab, looking at him with a smile on her face.

"So, you're gearing up for fashion week?" Juno asked.

Harry nodded eagerly. He looked her directly in the eye and responded, "Yes, it is one of the biggest events and I think that we've got some eye catching events planned. Are you coming?"

Juno gave him one of her reward winning smiles, "Honey, I wouldn't miss it for the world. It's for a good cause as well and you know how I like to spotlight some of the greatest young talent in the world."

"Well, you do have an eye for talent," Harry responded to her. "So, did you hear anything about GNN and who they're sending?"

"Well, this is up Summer's alleyway," Juno said. There was a tone to her voice that made her not too happy.

Harry picked up on what she was saying, "And I take it you're not a real fan of her."

"I'm not a big fan of her work, she's the type of sensationalistic tabloid journalism that I'm trying to get away from," Juno said. "Can't really say as much as who she is as a person. The people who are in that bonus are pretty phony to begin with. Some of them, if they tell you the sky is blue, you'd want to go out and check."

Harry didn't want to say anything, but that wasn't the most endearing terms of endearment regarding a person.

"As much as a fluff piece that fashion shows are normally seen, I take it that you want it to be taken as a serious and big ticket event," Juno informed him.

"Yes, very big," Harry said. "And I need to ask you for a favor….."

"No need to mention it, Harry," Hera said. She smiled and placed her hand on the side of her face. "I'd be happy to help you with this. I think between the two of us, we can lean on GNN and put the pressure on them to get a good reporter on the job. Or at least one that can treat this event with the levity it deserves."

Harry much appreciated this favor that she did for him. He thought that all of the pieces were falling together, as the big Fashion Week event and the after dark event crept even closer.

Kara stepped onto the bond link to offer her two cents, _'For the record, Vicki is interested in going and covering the event. She's trying to play it cool, but she's most certainly interested in attending the event.'_

A smile crossed Juno's face, _'Well, who am I to prevent someone's dreams from coming true?'_

It was obvious that she had a plan and with Harry's input, it was going to be accomplished one way or another.

* * *

 

Malcolm Merlyn sat in his office and was busily on the phone with someone, "Yes, I know….keep monitoring the situation. She couldn't have just vanished off of the face of the Earth. No….I'm certain that she's not dead…..he's behaving himself, for now…..but we've got a serious problem with certain people hovering around. Keep me posted on what is happening, and I'll talk to you…."

He hung up the phone. His secretary buzzed him.

"Yes," Malcolm said in an extremely tense voice. "What is it?"

"Mr. Luthor wants to see you, he says that it's about urgent business," his secretary said.

Malcolm adopted a more stoic mask.

"Send him in," he stated curtly.

The door opened and Lionel Luthor stepped into Malcolm's office. Malcolm looked up towards him.

"Well, you're a long way from Metropolis, aren't you?" Malcolm asked.

"The perks of having a private jet," Lionel said. He sat down on the chair in front of his desk. "I've been reading the grave news. Queen Industries is suffering. If the actions of your heir and his unfortunate behavior is not bad enough, the heiress having gone missing at such a crucial point must really not inspire all that much confidence."

Malcolm hated to acknowledge that Lionel had a point. Oliver was one escapade away from causing a scandal that could really be a black mark on Queen Industries. The most galling thing was that he could keep it together on most days. Other days, when he couldn't keep it together, there was a lot of trouble.

"You said that you were here on business," Malcolm said.

"Yes, I understand that it can be difficult to be the guardian of someone who doesn't have his interests fully on the business at hand," Lionel prompted. He spoke in a cordial tone, the tone that a more naïve and less guarded man would have been taken in by. "On that note, are you thinking about the deal that I and my associates have made you?"

Malcolm took a long drink from the cup of coffee that sat on his desk. He took some time to survey Lionel over the top of it, "Yes, I've thought about it plenty."

The ball was firmly in his court and he decided to make Lionel think about what he said for a moment.

Lionel responded quite coolly, "And?"

"The Board is a bit reluctant to act as long as Oliver is in play," Malcolm said.

"Given some of the rumors that I've heard, Oliver might not be in play for much longer," Lionel said. He took Malcolm's non-answer as pretty much all of the confirmation that he needed of this. "But I'm sure that a brilliant man such as yourself is more than capable of thinking outside the box."

Malcolm knew what Lionel's game was, but it was better just to let this man talk.

"I am curious about one thing," Lionel said. "A man drops off the map for three years, and he returns, much colder than ever before. No one has any idea where he went."

"It was after the death of my wife," Malcolm said. He spoke in an extremely cold tone now. "People deal with death in different ways and adversity. I understand you dealt with the death of your wife in your way. You threw yourself into your business and I decided to take enlightenment in a different way."

"Yes," Lionel said. "But now it's time for you to make a decision, and one that's best for business. You've been hovering around on the edges, and you know of my little group. You've talked to many of them. But, I need your decision, Malcolm. Either you're all in, or you're all out."

Malcolm didn't respond and Lionel kept pressing forward.

"There's a group of enlightened businessmen who are working together to protect themselves from the storm that is coming," Lionel continued. He was sure that he had Malcolm's attention, even though he didn't quite have his interest. "And that storm that's coming is Harry Potter. He's been quite the rising star and the old guard is concerned of the progress that he's making. Especially considering that he's changed the rules of the game, whether we like it or not."

Malcolm didn't respond. He just looked at Lionel extremely calmly.

"Do consider my offer and understand that you're standing on shaky ground right now," Lionel said. "If you throw in with my group, we can protect you from the storm. If you don't….well also know this. I'm far from the only person to swoop in and take control of young Oliver's self-destructive behavior. "

"I'll give your proposal consideration," Malcolm said. "I don't know why you had to fly all the way here, when a phone conversation would have served well."

"I find speaking on the phone to be a tad impersonal," Lionel commented. "Never the less, think about it."

He left Malcolm in his office to think about it and think about it, long and hard.

* * *

 

Vicki currently was sitting at the Gotham News Network main studios and she thought that she was just a bit nervous. Just a little bit, more than a little bit actually, she thought that it would be almost insulting if she got passed up for this deal.

To be honest, she tried to play it cool. Vicki Vale had to play it cool. If she didn't keep it cool, well she had a tendency to overreact and overthink with things.

On the one thing, it was just Fashion Week, so it shouldn't be something that her career hinged on. On the other hand, Harry Potter and several other notable names would be there. And there was the fact that New York City was a change of pace from Gotham City. There was no less excitement, but it seemed to be far less hazardous.

Vicki wouldn't give up the job she had in a million years, but at the same time, she would like a change of pace.

She looked up and saw Summer Gleeson, who looked like the cat that ate the canary. She stepped towards her and sat down.

"Vicki, isn't there some police riot that you should be out covering right now?" Summer asked her. "You live for danger after all, and Fashion week…it's just one of those high society events that is pure fluff. The type of stories that you never like to cover. And it's not even in Gotham City, so there really isn't any danger factor."

"That's not the point," Vicki said.

"It's going to be dull," Summer responded to her. "I mean, sure it's exciting for me, but for someone who nearly got put into the crossfire two times in the last year…or was it three? It might have been even more, I can't keep track."

"For the record, it was two," Vicki said.

' _For the record, you can kiss my ass, you tabloid hack,'_ Vicki thought.

Summer drummed her fingers against her case, "Sure, I know why you're interested. Harry Potter is going to be there. But he's just overseeing things, he isn't even the center of attention."

Vicki didn't bother to correct Summer. Harry never went out to be the center of attention. The attention found its way towards him, so there was no effort required.

She did find herself to be similar in that regard. It was almost amusing.

Kara slipped out of the side room. She helped herself to a cup of coffee and figured that she would do Vicki a service and serve her a cup of coffee as well.

"Thank you," Vicki said, taking the cup of coffee graciously. She appreciated it, she really did. She lifted the cup of coffee to her lips and took a long drink of it.

She might be a little bit tense, but one could hardly blame her given the circumstances.

Summer watched Vicki. To be honest, this assignment was one that she had pretty much banked on, but that was because it was her job. Reporting was a job to her, and there were no shortage of opportunities she could take. She didn't know why people took what she reported so seriously. It was nothing personal to her, merely just business, and she had to find the best stories, even if she had to use creative license to add a juicy tint to them. That was the name of the game in this business.

That netted her some vocal critiques, Juno Jones being one of them, but she took her work way too seriously as far as Summer was concerned. She had been at this for a long time, and took plenty of time to get detached from any emotional involvement she would have.

Vicki wondered if she took her passion a bit too seriously sometimes. Reporting was something that she fell into. The truth was that she didn't know, but she was here. And she was going to do the best she could to get the story, no matter how risky it was. That was the type of passion she had. There were some people who criticized her for having too much of an emotional attachment for her subjects.

"If I don't get this role, I guess that it will be okay," Vicki said.

"I wouldn't worry about it, I've got it covered," Summer said. "There will be plenty more opportunities to oogle Harry Potter. Not that I blame you for that."

Vicki knew that Summer was trying to rile her up something fierce. The charitable part of the fashion week event and all of the hard work was being overlooked because of the potential celebrity involvement.

Her supervisor stuck his head out of the door. He walked towards her.

"We've been in discussion about who should cover this event," the supervisor said. Vicki raised her eyebrow. "And Summer, I know that you normally cover these type of stories for GNN."

Summer nodded and was about to open her mouth to say something.

"But, we feel that it's necessary to have another angle to this story," the supervisor said. He looked down at Vicki. "Miss Vale, congratulations, you are on your way to New York City to cover Fashion Week."

Vicki smiled, "Thank you, sir, I won't let GNN down."

"I know you won't, Miss Vale, after your coverage over this summer, I think that you can handle New York," the supervisor said.

Vicki wondered what he meant by being able to handle New York. That seemed like an extremely odd way to phrase things.

"The fact that Harry Potter and Juno Jones both vouched for you personally, makes you the best person for the job," the supervisor responded.

"No hard feelings, Summer," Vicki said. "I'm sure that it would have been a boring assignment for you. There's no shortage of fluff for you to cover in Gotham."

She extended her hand and Summer grabbed it, to shake her hand. Vicki retracted her hand instantly.

Kara was waiting for her, "Don't want to say that I told you that you were getting the job, but you were so getting the job."

"I have a feeling some divine intervention was at work," Vicki said.

Kara could barely keep her amusement at bay. Oh if only Vicki knew how apt that statement was. Still Kara was excited, she was going to make the trip anyway and she could get paid for this one and get some credit.

Plus the prospect of scoring some one on one time with her Harry was all too tantalizing.

' _Well, I'm pretty sure that can be arranged,'_ Harry said.

' _It better be, because I feel like I'm being overlooked,'_ Kara said.

' _Trust me Kara, you can never be overlooked,'_ Harry thought.

* * *

 

Wilson Fisk sat in a really large office chair behind a really large office chair. The big man was currently on hold on the phone.

"The fire was a tragedy, Mr. Menken, I agree," Fisk replied. He tapped his fingers up against the desk where he was sitting. "And what happened to the younger Mr. Osborn, it was even more so. The fact that he's back up on his feet is a miracle in itself."

Menken frowned, "But do you think that he's stable, after what happened?"

"Trust me, Mr. Menken, I understand your concerns and I understand your ambition," Fisk answered. "And I know that you'll do the right thing. The troops are being rallied. I really wished that we could uncover the secrets in Lab Four."

"Lab Four….the one that belonged to Richard Parker?" Menken asked. "He is a brilliant man, too brilliant. No one could get inside the lab, even though we tried. And there could be something in there that could be of value."

"He experimented on the spiders," Fisk said. "I'll be there for the meeting, Doctor Potter will be there as well, so fair warning."

"Yes," Menken replied. He was looking forward to seeing what he could make of the famous Harry Potter.

"Is there any further news about the condition of Octavius?" Fisk asked him.

"Not any just yet," Menken said. "I'll keep you posted and tell you anything if I need to."

Fisk said his goodbye. He frowned. Menken really was getting rather ambitious, too ambitious. He would need to keep an eye on him. The man seemed to forget where the power lied in OsCorp.

There was a buzzing that caused him stand up straight .He reached over and pressed his finger into the intercom system, tapping onto it.

"Yes, Wesley," Fisk said.

"It's your wife, she wants to meet with you, she says that it's urgent," Wesley responded. "She won't take no….."

"There's no problem," Fisk said.

Fisk waited for his wife to enter his office. He had been extremely busy. Business was at a critical venture at this point and he needed to neglect a few other things. He would need to make up for it later.

A gorgeous woman with dark hair entered his office. She had elegant looking features, even though those features were currently curled into a scowl. She wore a black blouse that were buttoned up over her ample breasts and her skirt flowed down in a nice manner. A pair of black stockings fit firmly to her legs and a pair of high heels.

"What was so urgent, Vanessa?" Wilson asked her.

Vanessa was crisp and cool, "You were so busy dealing with OsCorp, along with your other business, that you might have forgotten that there was a big ticket high society event that has New York's best and brightest at it. You remember, the one that was sponsored by both Doctor Harry Potter and Juno Jones, among others."

"Yes," Fisk responded. "I recall."

Vanessa nodded crisply, "Then, you do know how it would look if you didn't show up because of your business. And I don't feel like making an excuse for you this time."

Wilson could feel the thinly veiled jab that his wife was at her wit's end with him. One of the things that he had to do now that he had things further under control was ease her tensions and attending this event would be one of the ways that he would salvage his entire marriage.

"Thanks for the reminder, Vanessa," Wilson said. "I'll be there."

Vanessa nodded in response, "Thank you, Wilson. I'll be heading home and leave you to your work."

"Do you need an escort?" Wilson asked. "I can have one of my bodyguards escort you home."

Vanessa shook her head in response, "No thank you, I'll be going on my own. I'm going to meet some of my friends."

"Very well, good night, Vanessa," Wilson said.

She made her way out of the office. He didn't have much time to think about her words or her businesslike demeanor matching his when he had talked to her numerous times.

The phone rang and it was another important call. Fisk took the call, "Yes, Fisk here."

* * *

 

' _Yes Lavender, I know you're really buzzing about this.'_

Harry joined Faora, Karen, Kara, and Diana. They were on their way to the airport to be able to fly out to New York.

' _Give the girl some room to breathe,'_ Karen said. _'She's very excited about this.'_

' _Thankfully, you didn't have to be in the same room with her, while she was obsessively planning every single detail and making sure everything was in order,'_ Parvati replied. _'Mari finally had to leave to get some air, and I don't blame her.'_

' _Oh, I don't really blame her, that's for sure,'_ Kara said.

Lavender took a deep breath, _'This is going to be either a big success or a big bomb.'_

' _Lavender, it will be fine,'_ Parvati assured her.

They were on their way to the airport. This was one of the biggest events in the world. Jaime and Dinah stayed behind in New York, so Harry wasn't too worried about the city not being under good hands and of course, Barbara was in mission control.

"You're really pleased with this," Faora said. Harry responded by corking an eyebrow. "Not that I can blame you about this."

"It would be hard to blame him for this," Diana said. "After all of the preparation, it would be hard for this not to go smoothly."

Diana grabbed Harry's hand and clutched it. She sat on his left and Kara was to his right. Karen was in front of him and Faora sat to Karen's right.

"It gives me a chance to reconnect with some of the old members of the Society," Harry reminded them. "Some of them I haven't had a chance to see in years."

There were many reasons for this. Rose and Lily had been inviting some connections and it would be a good chance to mingle with people that Harry didn't meet with before.

"And there will be plenty of time for leisure," Kara said. She lazily laid her head on Harry's shoulder.

"Plenty of time for leisure," Harry agreed with her.

None of them were going to say unless something went wrong, because none of them wanted to tempt murphy. The car was driven and they made their way to the Gotham City Airport, where Harry's private jet was waiting.

"So, we have Fashion Week, a high society after dark type thing," Karen said. Harry nodded. "Then we've got meetings, a few of them."

"OsCorp being the big one, I know that Betty would like another interview, and there are some other things that I want to do," Harry said. "And I'm doing the media circuit as well, but yes, Kara, I planned some time for leisure, don't worry."

Kara didn't worry too much. She was worried about Harry working too hard. He needed a good long time away from Gotham City.

"Busy week, but still plenty of time to get everything done," Karen said. "I'm sure that there are going to be a few people who want your attention."

"The day after the after dark event, I do owe you a date," Harry told Kara. Kara smiled. "Don't think that I haven't forgotten really either."

"I'm glad that you haven't, really," Kara said. She nuzzled up against Harry and leaned against him.

They pulled to a stop, a little bit too soon for their liking. Never the less, the group exited the limo and made their way out of it.

' _Lav, I swear, it will go fine, you need to relax,'_ Harry thought to her.

' _Oh, just deal with her fretting…..see you in a little bit,'_ Parvati said.

Harry saw Zinda standing there. The beautiful blonde pilot spoke in her elegant accent, "So, are we ready to go?"

"When Vicki shows up, we'll be ready," Kara reminded her. She knew that Vicki wouldn't be late. Kara tapped her foot on the ground and waited for Vicki to arrive.

Vicki pulled up and got out of the car. Kara smiled and she waved Vicki over. One of Gotham's notorious patterns of bad weather was kicking off and Vicki approached her.

"Yeah, I've got everything that I need," Vicki said. Karen and Faora helped them load the equipment into the plane.

When they were settled in, they made their way onto the plane.

"Hopefully we're able to get off the ground," Vicki said. She was nervous. Gotham really had some real bad weather at the worst possible of times.

"The plane is made to withstand some of the worst weather, even the worst weather that Gotham City has to offer," Karen told her.

"You must have spent a small fortune to get such a thing custom made," Vicki said, with a light whistle.

Harry laughed and held his thumb and his forefinger together, "Just a little bit. It's not as good as the planes that Ferris Air puts out, but hey….you have to take what you can get."

Vicki nodded in confirmation.

"Would you care for a drink?" Harry asked her.

"Yes, please," Vicki said. Kara decided to take that as a cue to pour Vicki a glass of wine.

The rest of girls got their share of wine. They were getting off of the ground now and sure enough, while things looked like they could be bumpy, they could get off of the ground.

They were on their way from New York City. The only real improvements Harry could think of was to make the plane fly faster, but that would break down the structure faster.

' _Technology might be caught up in about a hundred years or so,'_ Karen chimed in.

Harry would have to agree and he really hoped so.

* * *

**To Be Continued On July 15** **th** **, 2015.**


	111. Risky Business Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and Eleven: Risky Business Part Two.**

* * *

 

Harry proved to be a man of his word, getting them out of Gotham City in one piece and into New York City. Vicki could attest to that fact. That again, when wasn't Harry a man of his word? To be honest, that was a question that she should not dare answer.

She could see Kara's teasing gaze lock onto her eyes, "See, Vicki, Harry got us here pretty easily. You really should have more faith in him."

Vicki folded her arms underneath her chest and stared Kara down, "For the record, I had plenty of faith in Harry, and yes we're here and I'm glad because of it."

Kara smiled. She was glad that Vicki got it pretty much. She did wonder when she would factor into the bond. There was a certain period, depending on the person. And Vicki did pose a concern.

Karen caught Kara's thoughts, _'I'm sure that she'll be in when she's ready and not a second before. Just have some patience.'_

Kara's tongue trailed out of her mouth, at the request to have some patience. One could argue that she had plenty of patience and said patience was rapidly running dry as far as she was concerned.

Never the less, the plan was landed completely. They would have to wait for the go ahead to get off.

As much as Vicki would love to take a closer look at the sights and sounds of New York, she did remember that she was here to cover this really big event and there was really no reason for her to slack off on her work.

Harry exited the plane and the moment he saw Lavender rush towards him.

' _Incoming,'_ Parvati buzzed him through the bond link. Lavender rushed towards Harry and wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. She was able to hold herself back enough, _'To be fair, I tried to warn you.'_

Harry could feel the ache in his arm go. He grunted when she had her arms wrapped around him, "Lavender!"

Lavender pulled away. She looked a little flushed on the cheeks and she stepped away from Harry. She was kind of embarrassed, but she was not sorry, if that made any sense.

"Well, I think that this event is going to go on without a hitch," Lavender said.

Parvati placed her hands behind her head and threw her head back towards the heavens, "What did I tell you?"

Lavender ignored the comments of her friend and she turned towards Harry, a bright smile crossing her face, "Anyway, this Fashion Week thing, it's happened before, but this time, it's bigger than big, and it's not just because we're involved."

' _So modest,'_ Padma said. She really felt sorry for her sister having to deal with Lavender during this crucial time. She did admire the hard work they both put into that. It was a groundbreaking event for them both.

"It is make or break," Karen commented.

Parvati shook her head and mouthed "no" and then she gave Karen a long frustrated look. The type of look that practically asked Karen why she had to get Lavender going down this rabbit hole, and then she turned towards Harry, the frown deepening.

"Yes, it is," Lavender agreed. She turned away from Karen and placed her hand on Harry's shoulder, "Seriously though, I might seem like I'm a bit high strung because of this….."

Lavender paused long enough to allow Parvati a chance to snort. She turned towards her friend and turned towards Harry. She finished what she was saying, "I don't think that I could thank you enough even if I wanted to and believe me I'd like to thank you more thoroughly, and I'm sure that Parvati would have as well, but…..we have to get going."

"Yes, we have another dress rehearsal," Parvati said. She didn't think that a big budget play had the number of dress rehearsals. She turned towards Harry and stepped towards him, "But, I do echo her sentiments, we want to thank you for everything that you've done. I don't think we could have accomplished nearly as much without you."

Parvati gave Harry a slight kiss on the lips. When she pulled away, Lavender gave him a big French kiss, slipping her tongue into his mouth. She ran her fingers down him and she cupped him.

"More tonight….maybe after dark if we don't celebrate too hard."

Or someone else beats her to the punch. Parvati personally thought that Lavender could use a good drink after all of this is over.

Harry noticed that Lily and Rose turned up as well. Lily threw herself at Harry with reckless abandon. She pushed herself against him and she slipped her tongue into his mouth, pushing him against the wall.

Kara snorted through the bond link, _'And you people get on me when I'm a bit too passionate with my greetings.'_

' _Well to be fair, you are a bit over the top,'_ Faora said.

' _Some could be a bit worse than I am,'_ Kara thought.

"The trip went well I take it," Rose said, after giving Harry an equally passionate, if more subdued greeting. She pulled away from him.

"The plane flew like a charm," Harry said.

The improvements could be obvious, but for what they needed, it didn't turn out too badly.

"So, everything is in order, then?" Lily asked and Harry smiled. "I'm pretty sure that this event will go off without a hitch."

Harry was pretty sure that Lily was right. The group separated. Kara and Vicki were heading off to check in with home base in Gotham City and the rest of them were heading to the Penthouse. There were a couple of last minute things that they would have to get in order.

' _I'll see you in a little bit,'_ Kara said. She laughed and added in a mischievous voice, _'Don't worry, I'll be sure to get your best side.'_

Harry laughed and responded in his most honest tone, _'I know that you do, Kara. You always do! I don't have any fear that you won't.'_

* * *

 

The press was buzzing and the next day, the big event was there. Vicki Vale was in the middle of the entire scene. She looked towards Kara and got on her professional demeanor.

"Okay, we're about ready to roll in a few minutes," Vicki said.

"The satellites are linked up, the equipment is working well, we're ready to roll," Kara said.

She could tell that Vicki was happy about that and Kara was about as happy as well. She thought the coverage that would be happening was a big event. She could see some people from some of the biggest big ticket cities in the world.

They were modeling some of the tamer items today, but they looked really good. Kara thought that some of the women Lavender picked could look good modeling a burlap sack. That would be a waste of their talents, but they would look good in doing it.

Vicki checked something. When she was done, she turned back to Kara and said, "One minute warning!"

There was a moment where Kara checked to make sure everything was ready. She could see Juno off to the side, talking to the various members of the press. Betty was one of them.

"I'm just here as a guest," Juno reminded them. They had some more questions, but she cut them off and spoke firmly, "This is all about the girls and what they're doing here. Lavender Brown has done a good job in putting together her line and there were a lot of other fashion companies that did a pretty good job in putting together their lines. Overall, I think that you're all going to be pretty pleased, but remember, this is all about the girls."

Vicki could seem one of the girls walking by. Mari McCabe was saying something to Lavender and she was modeling a nice elegant suit when she did so. The cameras loved her and Vicki couldn't say that she was surprised.

"And we're on, in three, two, one!"

Vicki switched into live, on the screen mode when Kara panned over the event and she got a pretty good shot, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Vicki Vale and I'm coming for you on location from Fashion Week in New York. Several top companies in New York City are putting together their designs and showing them off. The best and the brightest are out, but the real stars tonight are the models that are on the red carpet. The new spring fashions will be out within the next few weeks and let's see if we can see a sneak preview of this."

Lavender watched Vicki come over her way. Katie, Alicia, and Angelina were on the stage and she went into full mode, "For the more sporty females out there, we've got our fitness apparel, with some of the more durable sports bras and shorts, and yoga pants, just in time for the spring season. And here is our new everyday apparel."

Vicki had Kara get it all in and she stood to the side.

"As you can see, the trends here in New York city are fashionable and a look at what is sweeping the nation," Vicki said. "Miss Brown, do you think that I can have a quick word about this?"

Lavender swept over and it was obvious she had a magnetic appeal. Kara tried to adjust the camera so the shot was more tasteful and didn't focus on a certain part of Lavender's body.

"Yes, Miss Vale?" Lavender asked.

"Some of these designs, they're amazing," Vicki said.

Lavender nodded in response and was in her element, "I've got some of the most elegant material from all over the world. And it's not just elegant, it's fairly durable. The problem I find is that it's hard to balance between the elegance and long lasting material. A lot of the things that are built to last look tacky and vice versa, I'm confident that this new line will be the top."

Harry smiled. He was glad that Lavender was not the center of attention.

Karen could see that Lavender was in her element and she almost was sold on doing some modeling for a photo shoot. She did have that way of convincing people.

' _You're really going to do it, aren't you?'_ Harry asked.

Karen shrugged, _'I'm not sure if I'm going to do it, but I'm really considering it. We'll see what happens.'_

' _You would, won't you?'_ Harry asked.

Harry spotted Felicia stroking up a pose on the stage. She locked eyes with him and blew him a kiss and winked at him. The tight pants and top that she was modeling was elegant. Beatriz didn't look to be outdone. Tora tried to match their energy and Harry supposed that you couldn't fault a girl for trying.

He noticed a young woman, who looked to be about nineteen or twenty years old, watching him from the shadows. Her hair was tied back and placed underneath a baseball cap that was backwards and she wore sunglasses. She was wearing a baggy sweatshirt and pants, and that actually drew attention to her even more than it would normally.

' _Curious,'_ Harry thought.

He turned around and saw Ginny in the shadows, smiling at him when she waved him over.

"Hey, Ginny, it's been a really long time since I've had a chance to see you," Harry said.

Ginny responded by throwing her arms around him with a crushing hug and she kissed him, not carrying who knew it.

"Well, I was in the country this week, because you know I'm the official manager of the Three Sporty Vixens," Ginny said.

She suffered an injury that quite frankly put her on the bench and she decided to use her expertise to guide the superstars of tomorrow.

"Quite the show Lavender has put on, wasn't it?" Ginny asked him.

Harry would have to agree. He nodded and saw that Betty caught his eye.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to interview you about this," Betty said.

"Oh, that's a shame," Harry said.

"Vicki and I….we're getting together for lunch on Tuesday, to get caught up," she informed him. She paused and looked at him, "Would you like to join the two of us?"

Harry didn't hesitate when he answered, "I'd like that."

Betty was pleased. She hoped that lunch would go well and maybe if they were lucky, dessert would go even better.

* * *

 

The lights were off and it was time for the after dark event after the main fashion week event. There was a select group of people who were invited. True to its events name, there were a lot of people who were there after hours to scope out some of the lingerie that was on display on this evening.

Lily and Rose placed themselves on either side of Harry. Both women wore green dresses that matched their eyes and they looked like they could be twins. Some of the guests had come into town, while showing up to be part of the crowd at the fashion week event, had turned up on style and it was some good style that they turned up in.

Lavender was busy showing some people the lingerie. Harry caught a glimpse of a young woman in her early twenties with blonde hair, blue eyes, and a rather fetching figure, dressed in a nice black dress, with a choker, fingerless gloves, and knee high white boots who looked interested. Felicia smiled and it was obvious that the two of them knew each other from the past.

Lily thought that there were a lot of people at this party that she would like her son to meet, given the role of importance to the society.

As it turned out, there was a person that she was looking for. How long had she been there, well Lily couldn't say? She slipped into the club, dressed in an elegant black dress that clung to her body and she also wore fingerless black gloves. She wanted to make a scene now and she stepped out of the shadows with a smile.

Harry caught a glimpse of this woman and he would have to say that she had an aura at her.

"Harry, this is Selene," Lily said.

Harry knew the name, and smiled, "Of course, the Black Queen."

Selene offered her hand and Harry took it, "It's good to see you again."

He kissed her on the hand, which got him a share of revered looks for his daring. There were many people who looked at him like he had lost his mind, but Selene smiled.

' _What does she mean that she's glad that to meet you again?'_ Diana asked.

Harry shrugged. He figured that he must have met her before, or perhaps he might meet her.

"I trust that you're well?" Selene inquired.

"Business has been rather busy," Harry said.

"Yes, I've been informed that you've changed the face of global communication," Selene said. She could see a girl make her way over.

The girl was of an exotic beauty. Her dark hair was clipped back and her elegant face was an eye catching sight. She wore a bright yellow dress that fit against her body, showing her ample curves. The female walked with a poise and elegance that was fitting for royalty.

"I'd like you to meet the Princess of Nova-Roma, Amara," Selene informed him.

"A pleasure to meet you, Har…..Harry," Amara said. She bowed down respectfully towards him.

' _Did I detect a last minute change of direction?'_ Faora thought.

Amara's hand was taken into Harry's. He leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the hand. That got her red on the cheek.

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Princess Amara," Harry said. She nearly knocked over a tray because she got so flustered.

One look from Selene showed her the benefits of keeping herself extremely calm in the situation that she was in.

"Are you enjoying your stay in the United States?" Harry asked.

Amara nodded eagerly, "Oh yes, some of the sights and sounds, they're rather interesting…hope to see a lot more of what this end of the world has to offer."

Her eyes raked over Harry for a moment and blushed. Amara turned around and Harry could tell that he liked what that end of the Princess had to offer.

"We should get together some time," Selene said. She paused, and added ,"When our schedule is less hectic."

"Of course, Selene," Harry replied to her.

Lily smiled, she was a bit nervous that the Black Queen was taking an interest in Harry, but the fact of the matter was that he could handle it.

Felicia walked over. She looked stunning in the lingerie that she was wearing. The woman who followed her was the one that caught Harry's eye from elsewhere in the club.

"Harry, darling, it's good to see you," Felicia said. She crossed the dance floor and grabbed his hand, pulling him into a kiss.

A certain Brazilian female looked a bit shocked at her brazen action and frowned. She was hoping to grab Harry's attention some before the night was over. Lavender moved over to say something to her.

Harry was dragged past the Crimson Vixens. Ginny had been coaxed into modeling some of the lingerie. Granted, there wasn't that much coaxing involved.

"Harry, I'd like you to meet my roommate, Emma Frost," Felicia said.

Emma looked towards him with a smile on her face. She was undressing him with her eyes, it was obvious.

Harry got a flash in his mind of him bending Emma over and taking her against the wall. It was gone in a moment.

Emma's lips pulled into a mischievous smile and she placed her hands on her hips in response, "Hello, Harry, it's my pleasure to meet you, Felicia has told me so much about you?"

"Oh, she has, hasn't she?" Harry asked.

"I'm sure some of the details might have gotten tangled up in Emma's inventive imagination," Felicia said. She pressed herself on Harry's other side.

"So, you're being groomed to be the White Queen?" Alex asked them. She had joined them in the conversation, and paused, "Alexandra Potter, at your service."

"Well, Alexandra Potter," Emma said. She smiled when she looked at her. "I have to say it's an honor."

Both of the Potters were good enough to eat. It was a shame that the third one couldn't make it tonight.

"And yes, I'm sure you've heard the rumors," Emma said.

"I think that you'll do great in that role," Harry said.

"Only think?" Emma asked, and she crossed the room, closing the distance between her and Harry. She purred in his ear, "If you only think, then I'm going to have to do a better job in proving beyond a shadow of a doubt how good I am?"

Emma could see some old friends who had showed up. It would be quite rude for her not to talk to them, and she wanted to avoid rudeness.

"It was a pleasure talking to you," Emma said. She swept her eyes over to Felicia, and nodded, "The three of us should get together some time really soon."

"Now that's an idea," Felicia said with a win.

"Harry?" Beatriz asked.

Harry turned around and saw her posing in a bright green lacy set of lingerie that fit around her tan body snugly. She posed and looked at her.

"Is this a bit too much?" she asked. She leaned back and gave Harry a full view of her cleavage, and smiled, before asking, "Do you think that you could get me a drink of water? It's starting to get a bit hot in here."

Harry walked over and grabbed a glass of water. Bea took it and drank it, but then it slipped, splashing onto her. She was dripping wet and the front of the bra went slightly transparent, when the water rolled down her body.

"Little more tease, little less sleaze," Felicia critiqued.

She peeled off her coat and revealed an eye popping set of lingerie. Her breasts weren't ready to spill out, but it sure gave off that illusion. The thong fit around her ass and the stockings and garter belt added to the set.

"So, this good, Harry?" Mary Jane asked.

"Told you it was good," Lavender said.

Mary Jane smiled and reclined back in the lacy red set that she was wearing, "I know, but I'd like a second opinion."

Harry turned around and he saw Mary Jane. It fit her fit body and the fact she was biting down on her lip with an innocent expression on her face really added to the fun and games. Her red hair draped over her face.

"Beautiful," Harry told her. She smiled. "Absolutely, beautiful."

Reilly and Gwen could not help, but look amused with the pouty expressions on Bea and Felicia's face. Tora noticed her friend looking a bit sour, and that caused her to go into a fit of giggles.

The stern look Bea gave Tora caused her to laugh even harder.

* * *

 

Vanessa Fisk stood in the corner. She had chatted to a few of her high society friends, but she had pretty much been left at the party. Wilson made an appearance within the first half hour of the party, shook some hands, had a couple of drinks, and made an excuse to leave.

She turned around and much to her surprise, she came face to face with Harry Potter, "Doctor Potter."

"Hello, Vanessa," Harry said.

Her husband formally introduced her to Harry earlier and the two men had talked business for a couple of minutes, verifying that they would both be at the meeting tomorrow.

"You look bothered?" Harry asked her.

Vanessa frowned. He was oddly perceptive, at least more so than her husband.

"It's just been a trying last couple of weeks," Vanessa said. She took a long drink and recovered quickly, "My husband has made himself scarce. Given the kind of work that he does, it's better off that I don't know."

Harry raised his eyebrow. He knew that Vanessa said a bit more than she needed to, due to the fact that she was drinking.

"If his business is so important, than maybe I should not get in his way," Vanessa said. She reached forward and brushed against Harry's arm, taking a drink, and poured it over. She paused, "I think that he assumed that I would find my way home. I wonder how it would be, if I didn't find my way home one day."

"I'm certain that he might notice, he would have be blind, not to," Harry informed her.

Vanessa gave him a knowing smile, "You only know my husband in a business capacity Doctor Potter. We all wear a different mask in public, and there's a side of us all, that we don't let the public see, if we want to put our best face forward. My husband is like that. He has his good qualities, but…."

She trailed off. The two of them had a moment together.

"And I've heard a few rumors about you, and I wonder if even half of them are true," Vanessa commented. She leaned towards him and smiled, "It's extremely curious to….."

"Be careful, rumors can be dangerous."

Vanessa turned around and she spotted Anastasia walking up towards her.

"And here, I thought that you were keeping an eye on your daughter," Vanessa said.

"My daughter is fine, she has other people keeping an eye on her," Anastasia said. She sighed and looked around. Not everyone at the party was real winners. She poured herself a drink and smiled, "Why is it so hard to find a real man? Unless you're willing to share him with a group of other women."

"Well, are you unwilling? Vanessa asked.

"Just merely thinking out loud, honey," Anastasia said with a smile. She looked at Harry, and he gave her a knowing smile. "I guess beggars can't be choosy…..and….I have to speak with you about something. I'd hate to see you away from the amazing Doctor Potter."

Vanessa responded with a light shrug, "Well if it's important."

"Yes, darling, it's very important," Anastasia said.

The two women looked towards Harry. It was almost like they asked for his blessing, not that either needed it.

"It's fine," Harry said.

"This won't be the last time we meet, I have a feeling," Vanessa replied. She turned around and walked off with Anastasia, the two of them disappearing into a private room.

' _Hmm, I wonder,'_ Karen mused.

Harry did wonder as well, but he didn't have much longer to wonder. A gorgeous woman with purple hair and a long shimmering red dress caught his eye. Harry knew she had been at the after dark event and the show that came before that. She stood with a gorgeous blonde woman with pointed elfish ears and another gorgeous blonde with a form fitting silver dress.

' _HOLY SHIT, THAT'S ALISON BLAIRE!'_ Amanda yelled in the bond link.

' _Yes, thanks for that, Mandy,'_ Harry said. He felt like he had whiplash because of that.

' _Subtle, she isn't,'_ Donna said.

Harry walked over and he moved towards the woman. She swooped over him and engulfed him in a tight hug and leaned down, kissing him on the lips in response. She pulled away from him, and smiled, "Harry, it's excellent to see you."

Harry smiled and he put his arm around her, holding her in close towards him. He leaned towards her, "Betsy, it's really good to see you as well, it's been a long time….too long as well."

Betsy Braddock smiled. It had been an extremely long time for him. Despite all of the gorgeous women here, she had been among the most stunning and exotic looking on the dance floor. She leaned against Harry.

"So, how have you been?" Harry asked her.

"Sadly, it's been a rough last couple of months," Betsy said. She stepped back to join the rest of her party, "After my brother died….I had been overseas working over the family finances, and taking care of Meggan here."

"Right, sorry to hear about your brother….and your husband," Harry said, to Betsy and Meggan respectfully.

"Thank you," Meggan said. She smiled when she looked at Harry. She always had a bit of a crush on Harry, and she was embarrassed by it.

The only problem was that she didn't meet him before she got married.

"Is Betsy taking care of you?" Harry asked.

Betsy smiled with the suggestive statement that Harry gave, and her lips curled into a knowing smile, "I'm sure she can tell you that I'm taking care of all of her needs and then some more."

Meggan grew a bit red and she ducked her head.

"I'm glad that you are," Harry said. He turned around.

"I'd like to introduce you to Alison Blaire," Betsy said, "We met when she was on a promotional tour in Britain."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Blaire," Harry said.

' _Please Doctor Potter, call me Alison,'_ Amanda said, with a swoon. Donna and Emily both laughed.

"Please Doctor Potter, call me Alison," Alison chimed in.

Emily continued to speak in the bond link, _'Then I insist you call me Harry.'_

"Then I insist that I call me, Harry," Harry replied. He took her hand and planted a kiss on her hand.

' _Nice to see how you haven't lost your touch,'_ Betsy thought to him with a smile.

Harry turned towards her and wrapped his arm around her. He daringly slid his hand to her ass and grabbed it, squeezing it, _'Should I prove to you that I haven't lost any kind of touch?'_

' _Well, that's enticing,'_ Betsy projected through the bond, and she laughed when she could hear some giggling, _And your twin sisters are about as subtle as a train, as usual. Nice to see a lot of things haven't changed since the Academy.'_

"So when your business is over, do you think that you might come over to the United States?" Harry asked.

Betsy looked on and looked like she was considering this, "You know, when some of the insanity stops, I think that it might be a good idea…..that is if that's okay with Meggan."

"It might be a change of pace," Meggan said with a smile.

The three of them talked for a little bit.

"Come on, Alison, join us for a drink," Betsy said.

Alison looked at the three of them, and she looked a bit nervous, "This is…my first time really drinking, I'm not sure."

"You did say that you wanted to go out and live a little," Meggan said. Betsy nudged her girlfriend hard.

"We shouldn't pressure the poor darling," Betsy said. She reached forward and ran her hand through Alison's hair, "But, you do seem so high strung….don't worry that it's your first time, we'll be gentle."

Amanda chimed in with the obvious response, _'And you really had the gall to get on me for not being subtle.'_

' _Hush, love,'_ Betsy responded.

She smiled and she knew that Alison wanted to meet Harry, but she was nervous and needed to relax. She really should help her with that and she knew that she would.

' _What are you planning?'_ Harry asked her.

Betsy responded in mock sorrow, ' _Oh, I'm hurt…..you think that I'm planning something.'_

* * *

 

Alison Blaire was both rather pleased with herself and also kind of nervous at the same time. The good news was that she snagged Harry before anyone else had a chance to pull him off to the side tonight. The bad news was that she wasn't sure what to do with him, now that she had him.

Never the less, she had Harry pretty much at her tender mercy, in a private room. Or rather, she was at Harry's tender mercy. It was sometimes hard to tell with a situation like this. The heart of the pop star was racing rather intensely.

Those green eyes, they should be registered as lethal weapons. She was pretty sure that she wasn't the first girl to have that thought, but they were more than enough to bring a girl to her knees.

"At first, I was really struggling to break in," Alison said. She remembered the horror and the roadblocks she experienced and there was a part of her that cringed. "At first, I wanted to quit."

Harry placed his hand on her shoulder. He could see that she was growing a little bit nervous and he wanted to help her. The girl relaxed suddenly, although she looked to still be a wonderful bundle of nerves.

"What stopped you from wanting to quit?" Harry asked her.

"Well, you," Alison said. Harry raised his eyebrow. "You kind of inspired me."

Harry raised his eyebrow and let out one word ,"Oh?"

"Yeah, you really did," Alison said. She managed to gain a little confidence when Harry's hand slid down and grabbed her hand. "I mean, I thought that I could not really be anything. But I saw all of the work that you did and how you didn't get up. All of the college courses, all of the Doctorates you had, and the fact that you did Charity work on top of that, and had a pretty active social life….it was amazing. I thought that….well I thought that I shouldn't give up that dream."

"You shouldn't, especially if it's something that you love," Harry informed her.

She beamed because of that. The vote of confidence from Harry Potter was worth more to her than can ever be described.

"I'm also going to college, and studying Mechanical Engineering, if my music career doesn't work as planned," she told him.

"Well, if you ever want a job at RAO if everything doesn't work out, then we might have to arrange something," Harry informed her. Alison bit down on her lip and Harry squeezed her hand.

"Thank you," she replied. "I'll give you a call if that happens, but I'm not ready to fail just yet."

Alison laughed and shook her head. She grew serious after a moment.

"But I should really thank you for everything that you've done," Alison told him. "You know, I appreciate it more than you can ever know."

Alison stepped back and a wicked burst of inspiration hit her.

"I'll be right back, make yourself comfortable," Alison said.

Harry took her advice and sat down on the couch. He reclined back on it, relaxing.

A moment later, the bathroom door opened and Harry was blown away. Alison stepped forward and lacy lingerie covered Alison's body. A nice lacy bra covered her breasts, with intricate designs on it. She wore a pair of white fingerless gloves and a white choker around her neck. The panties covered her and Harry could see a small wet spot on her crotch. The garter belt and the stocking added to it.

She looked extremely dazzling. Alison turned her finger and she crooked it, inviting Harry to get up to his feet.

Harry rose to his feet and Alison threw her arms around Harry's neck. She gave him an extremely passionate kiss. Her hands felt up his muscular body and she went around, touching him.

He bent her over and started to kiss the side of her neck. Alison gasped when his talented lips made their way over the side of her neck. He nipped and licked at her and that caused her to moan in delight.

"I really want to thank you," Alison said. She wrapped her legs around Harry and they fell back onto the couch.

' _Well, she wants to thank you, you better allow her to,'_ Amanda said.

' _Yeah, go ahead, and do it Harry,'_ Emily said.

Amanda decided to correct her sister, _'Oh more like, do her.'_

Harry's fingers ran down Alison's bare back and she shivered in response.

"Well, if you wanted to thank me, then here's your chance," Harry offered.

Alison unbuttoned Harry's shirt and exposed his muscular chest. She ran her hands over it and kissed the side of his face. She kissed his abs and chest. Salvia dripped down, when she dragged her beautiful body down him.

Her hands unbuckled his belt and pulled his pants down. She could see his bulge and she licked her lips.

"It looks like I'm going to thank you a lot," Alison replied in a breathy voice.

She pulled out his cock and it sprang up extremely hard. Alison used her salvia to lubricate her hand and she used it to jerk Harry's cock up and down.

"Yes, I like you thanking me," Harry grunted.

"I want to suck it, can I please suck it?" Alison asked him. She stroked him, using both of her hands, playing with his cock. A sultry expression flashed through her eyes.

"By all means," Harry said.

Alison's mouth engulfed his cock and a wet heat went around Harry's mouth. Her throat muscles took him in and she hummed a tune when she brought him deep into her mouth.

The lovely vibrations from her throat caused Harry to groan. Alison bobbed her head up and down on his cock.

Alison used her lips, her tongue, and her teeth to stimulate him. She felt his hand on the back of her hair and she jammed his cock deep into her throat as far as she could. She was glad that she had excellent throat skills, because otherwise she would have choked on him.

She pulled off of him and got up to her feet. Alison looked at him and a sultry smile crossed her face.

"Don't want to waste a drop," Alison said.

Harry reached around and snapped her bra off. Her perky breasts exposed to him. Harry grabbed the glorious globe in his hand and squeezed them. That caused her to moan when he played with her breasts.

Her panties slid down and Alison crawled onto Harry's lap. His throbbing cock brushed against her smooth belly. It caused her to whimper when his cock touched her.

"Ready to thank me?" Harry asked her.

"Oh, I'm going to thank you hard," Alison said.

Harry's hands ran over her body and cupped her ass. He touched her legs and brushed over them. Alison brought herself up towards him and the tip of his cock touched against her entrance.

Her walls parted and allowed Harry to push inside her. The wet heat expanded and Harry grunted when Alison slid down on him. Her breasts were practically in his face and he grabbed them.

Harry's hands touched Alison's breasts and she moaned. She bounced a little harder on his cock, bringing herself almost up on him and then she caused herself to crash down onto them.

"More, oh, more!" Alison moaned.

His cock touched her in the most wonderful places. It was like there was some invisible force that was slowly guiding her orgasms to the edge.

Harry touched those amazing places. He felt the insides of her and Alison bounced higher. Her breasts begged to be touched and to be played with and Harry really wasn't going to deny her any pleasure for long.

Alison breathed when she came down onto Harry's cock hard. She was being stretched out. She was about ready to experience the pleasure of having an orgasm with a cock inside her. Her wet walls slid down onto him.

She experienced an orgasm being helped by one of her female friends, but this was amazing to be honest. His hands touched her breasts. All of the little touches he gave her, paying attention to her body, it was purely magical.

"Are you going to cum, my pop princess?" Harry asked her.

Alison nodded and she brought herself down onto his throbbing cock. The beautiful pop star could feel her walls clench him and she milked him.

The orgasm hit her body hard and all of the notes struck her body in the right place. Harry gripped her ass and squeezed it.

She moaned in pleasure, "Oh, you really know how to really make me feel good, don't you?"

"Yes," Harry informed her.

Alison regained her second wind and kept bouncing her up and down. Her walls grabbed around him and milked his prick, taking him deep into her body. His hands brushed against her.

He pulled out of her and Harry scooped her up. Alison whined when she lost her filling. Harry brought her into the bedroom and the door opened.

She was dropped down on the bed in the hotel room. Harry's throbbing cock was at her entrance and Alison's pussy ached for him.

"Time for you to hit that high note."

He slid into her and rammed deep into her. Alison whimpered when he raised his cock up out of her and he slammed deep into her dripping wet pussy. Her pussy closed around him when he drilled deep inside her pussy.

Her wet heat was drilled. Alison could not think about what would make it better. His mouth leaned down and he nipped her nipples, sucking them.

He lifted her legs up and jammed his cock into her wet pussy. Her slammed deep into her again.

"HARRY!" Alison yelled.

"Cum for me," Harry ordered her. He clenched her ass and he pulled almost out of her body. He drilled deep into her body.

Alison's hips bucked up and engulfed his cock inside her. Her wet heat was enveloping her pussy. She had her third orgasm of the evening with his cock inside her and it was extremely wonderful.

Harry pushed into her eager cunt. It squeezed him, with all of the energy that she got.

"Soon, you're going to get your gift," Harry informed her. He leaned down towards her and he squeezed her breast, smiling when he looked at her. "Are you ready to receive it?"

"YES!" Alison yelled at the top of her lungs. "Oh, could you cum inside me? I want all of your sticky, yummy, cum inside me….please, Harry, it'd drive me insane!"

Harry plowed into her pussy harder. He fucked her and her moans encouraged him to go deeper inside her. He had great stamina, but he wanted to give her a reward.

"You have done such a wonderful job in thanking me," Harry told her.

Alison nodded when he touched all of those wonderful spots in her. She exploded with a mind numbing orgasm that caused her to see stars.

Harry felt her pussy clench him and he knew that the end was here. His balls tightened and he launched inside her.

He splattered inside her tight body, and sent his cum deep into her depths. He really made a glorious mess inside her body, launching spurt after spurt of seed inside her body.

Harry pulled out of her, content with what he done. Alison collapsed down on the bed, smiling in response.

She blacked out after that last intense orgasm, Harry's dripping cum spilled from her pussy.

"Time for me to take over?"

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on 7/19/2015.**


	112. Risky Business Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: "Risky Business" Part Three.**

* * *

Alison Blaire's eyes flickered open. The sun roused her out of bed. Through her mind, she recalled that she had the most amazing dream. That was if it was a dream and if it was a dream, she honestly didn't want to wake up. She shook her head and she could feel an aching feeling go through her body.

The young pop star shifted herself on her bed and she tried to recall where she was. An intoxicating aroma filled her nostrils that caused all of her senses to perk up.

Alison felt a bit of a headache come on and she wondered how much she drank last night and really hoped that she didn't make too much of an idiot out of herself. She shook her head and it all came back to her.

"I really did, didn't I?" she muttered to herself.

She realized the reason that she woke up now was that there was something or rather someone who was missing from her bed. It was surprisingly vacant and that couldn't really do. The pop star slipped on a pair of panties and a bra and managed to find a robe that was lying on the ground.

After slipping into the bathroom, she walked into the kitchen, in a bit of a daze. She smiled when she saw Harry Potter standing in the kitchen, cooking her breakfast.

"Breakfast, on top of what we did last night," Alison said. She threw her head back in a mock swooning before she continued, "I guess I'm going to have to keep you."

Harry laughed and pulled a chair to invite her to sit down, "You better be careful, because if you're around my sisters, they might want to keep you."

"They wouldn't be the first fans to try to pull that one," Alison said.

She honestly was surprised that she had fans in the first place and she was humbled. Sure, she had a slight underground following. The record studio, at least the old one that she was with didn't seem to think that was mainstream enough. This knock against the pop star was rather disheartening for Alison at times.

"Last night was wonderful," she said. She watched eagerly when he put the food out in front of her. She put a piece of egg on the end of the fork and placed it inside her mouth.

She closed her eyes and she chewed down on it. It was so good, it should almost be sinful.

"Is there anything that you can't do?" Alison asked.

"A few things, mostly because I haven't tried," Harry said.

Alison laughed at that response. Amazing really was the best way to describe him, at least that was how she figured. She slid another large piece of the egg into her mouth and chewed down on it. She sampled some of the sausage.

It might not be as good as the sausage she sampled last night.

"I thought at first that it would be hard to balance by school and my career….but you do it just as well," Alison said.

"It isn't easy," Harry told her.

She nodded eagerly in agreement. She licked the grease from the bacon from her fingers. The pop star locked eyes with Harry when she suckled it.

' _I think that she's testing her boundaries here,'_ Kara commented.

' _Last night wasn't enough, apparently,'_ Dinah added.

' _When is it ever?'_ Diana asked.

That one question was followed by many terms of endearment from all of the girls. One thing was for sure, with Harry, it was seldom enough. He smiled when he looked Alison in the eye, and she looked back at him with an adoring look.

"Amazing," she murmured.

"You can be as well," Harry said. He reached across the table and touched the top of her hand. She gently took his hand into hers. "Just follow your dreams, and the entire world will be yours to take."

Alison was glad that he said that and she would have to agree. She had been inspired and it was hard not to be taken with him. She finished the breakfast and it was very good.

Something hit her suddenly and Alison got to her feet, "Okay….not that I want to get rid of you….and you know that I'd really want to continue what we started last night. You know that right?"

"It wasn't enough, was it?" Harry asked her.

Alison leaned over the table and cupped her hands on either side of his face, "Not on your life, Harry."

Her soft lips found his in another dazzling kiss. Her tongue pushed into his mouth. She backed off for a moment and sighed. There was a great amount of regret in her tone when she spoke next. Her sigh got even deeper.

"I wish that we could do much more than we did," Alison murmured in a low tone of voice. "But we really can't, at least not as much as I want to."

She figured that she owed him an explanation.

"I gave my minder the slip, and I'm sure that Daisy won't be too happy when she finds out," Alison said. "I'm going to have to thank Betsy for giving me permission to use this suite, because it really worked out well."

"It did," Harry confirmed.

Alison leaned towards him and gave him a soft kiss on the lips. With regret, she pulled away from him. It was obvious that she wanted nothing better than to see him later and she would in due time.

"We should get together sometime," Harry added.

Alison moved over to take a quick shower and get changed. She stopped and turned around, "I'll hold you to that one….maybe I'll be in Gotham City some time….it might be an interesting place to visit when I go on tour."

Harry thought that interesting was a good way to describe Gotham City. Never the less, he had to get ready. He didn't join Alison for her shower, tempting as it was. He had things to do and she did as well.

Alison slipped on a jacket and a white top, along with a pair of jeans, and the two of them left to go their separate ways.

* * *

Anastasia Hardy wanted to get this business meeting on the road and she waited to be joined by Harry and Lily.

It turned out that she didn't have to wait long for her ride to come here. A limo pulled up and the door opened up for her.

She made her way back into the limo, placing herself on the other side of Harry, with Lily sitting on Harry's other side. She was only moderately surprised to see Reilly and Gwen there.

"Hello, Harry," Anastasia said. She looked at the young man with interest. It was not difficult to see what her daughter saw.

"Hello, Anastasia, sorry that I didn't get to talk to you that much at the party," Harry said.

The older Hardy woman shook her head and looked Harry firmly in the eyes, "Don't worry about it, that was more on me, than it was on you. I spent a lot of time catching up with Vanessa and I must have lost track of the time."

Harry wondered, but it was not likely his business.

"Reilly, Gwen, it's good to see as well," Anastasia said. She smiled at her daughter's two friends.

"It's a pleasure to see you as well, Mrs. Hardy," Gwen commented. She did resemble Felicia's older sister more than her mother and that was extremely interesting.

"Likewise," Reilly said.

"And Lily, you as well," Anastasia commented. She reached forward and she shook her hand. "I must commend you on a successful event."

"It wasn't entirely on me," Lily said.

"Yes, that's right, Ms. Brown and Ms. Patil put a lot of hard work, they have really grown into their roles," Anastasia said.

She would have to praise them personally on a job well done. If she had to guess, they were celebrating late into the morning on a job well done. She knew that her daughter was. Felicia had phoned her, saying that she was staying at Emma's, and she sounded about as coherent as Anastasia did after a long night of partying when she was around that age.

"Hopefully we can get this deal rolling today," Anastasia said. "The Board has been very amenable to deal. Not all parties are involved."

All parties in the limo had a good idea of what the parties that were involved who were causing difficulties were. Reilly and Gwen exchanged a dark look at each other.

"Maybe we can talk to him," Gwen suggested.

They hadn't had a chance to talk to him ever since he suffered the accident. The fact he might not have been the same, really was a point that both of them recalled and as much as they hated to admit that, it was true.

"His father had some pretty high standards that he fell short in meeting, I'm afraid," Anastasia commented.

Gwen responded with a snort and she couldn't really help herself. She shook her head. If that wasn't an exaggeration, she didn't really know what was. Harold's problem really was because of his self-esteem.

The limo pulled around to the front door of OsCorp. The group exited the limo and Harry, Anastasia, Lily, Reilly, and Gwen made their way to the side entrance of OsCorp.

"We're here for the ten AM meeting with the Board of Directors," Lily said. "Lily Evans-Potter, Harry Potter, and Anastasia Hardy, along with Theresa Reilly Parker and Gwen Stacy."

The security guard checked the clipboard out in front of him. He was only a cup of coffee away from being completely with it. It was obvious that he was coming off of a rather long shift. The guard raised the clipboard, peering over with his glasses and he nodded in confirmation.

"It all seems to be in order," the guard said.

Passes were passed around and the ground made their way down the hallway. The meeting room was one floor up and they needed to take the elevator up to the next floor.

The elevator door opened and Lily blinked. A dark haired man, with a goatee and a slightly greasy demeanor limped his way out of the elevator. A cane clunked against the ground when he stepped forward to them. He stepped back and looked like he was surprised.

"Doctor Potter," the man commented.

"I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure, Mr…."

The man corrected him," Doctor, Doctor Michael Morbius."

"Yes, that's right, you're a pioneer in the field of genetics," Harry said.

"Yes, and I'd like to exchange notes with you, but I'm afraid that I've got urgent business to attend to down in my lab," Morbius replied. "A good day to you."

Lily caught one look of him and she shuddered. Anatasia noticed that shudder Lily gave and she looked towards her.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

Lily shook her head, "It's nothing, just a really bad flashback."

' _Yes, thank you, Rose,'_ Lily thought, when Rose hummed an extremely familiar tune in the back of her head.

It was time for the group to head onto the elevator and head on up for a meeting. They hoped that this would go rather well.

* * *

Gotham City after the sun went down was a host to several of the more colorful figures. The GCPD was so distracted by the gang war occurring that they only paid attention to the strange and mysterious figures, when they caused a problem.

A dark skinned figure, dressed in a pair of dark robes, made his way up the steps in the Gotham City library. He clutched a walking stick in his hand. It was like a pimp cane, but the only difference was that instead of a diamond tipped handle, there was a large skull on the handle.

In the right light, the skull looked like the eyes moved. A skeptic might argue that it was a trick of the light.

Regardless, the man who entered the dimly lit library was a rather imposing sight indeed. It seemed like he walked slow, but in reality, he walked at the pace that he chose and the pace that worked best for him.

The figure made his way to the front of the desk. The books at the front of the library might be of interest. He was more interested in the rare tomes that existed in the back of the library, especially the one that was for sale.

"Do you have it?" he asked the figure behind the desk.

"Yes, through painstaking trouble, I have it," the man behind the desk commented. "I don't think that you can full appreciate the type of trouble that I would be in, for acquiring such a tome. The information within is the type that many people would give their right arm for."

"Yet, you have it, and you will give me one of your copies," the man said. His hood parted to reveal a gaunt face, covered by what appeared to be a skull mask.

At least the man behind the desk assumed that it was a mask, or rather, at least the man behind the desk hoped that it was a mask. He recovered fairly quickly for a moment.

"Yes," the man said. It did pain him to part with such a tome. He did add, "And you did say that it would be worth my while."

A jangling bag was removed from the front of the man's robes. The figure behind the desk watched greedily when the bag was hovered over the desk.

"Let me get the book for you," the man behind the desk said. He reached over and turned around, to blow the dust off of the tome.

The tome was placed on the desk. The book almost looked like it had a life of its own, but it was extremely hold.

The skull faced man placed his finger on the spine and ran it down it, casually and extremely carefully.

"I trust that's all in order," the man behind the desk commented.

The skull faced man considered the book for a couple more moments. It was obvious that he was considering what the book had to offer with all angles.

Then, without another word, he released the bag on the desk. Several pieces of gold flew up into the air and out of the bag.

"You never saw me," the skull faced man told him.

"Discretion is the name of my game," the man behind the desk told him. "Especially with the clientele I keep after hours."

A chill erupted through the office when the man in question turned around and left.

The face of Anthony Roderick McDowell, better known as the Bookworm, poked out from behind the desk, "It was a pleasure doing business with you."

It was like he had not been heard at all. The man had disappeared. It was an odd business transaction and not one that the Bookworm was used to doing, but it had never the less been an extremely lucrative one.

The man had a short haunting walk out of the library. He made his way towards an ominous looking van, with the windows blackened out. The man approached the van, taking a few steps forward.

He knocked on the van doors three times. The van doors swung open and a pair of brooding henchmen greeted him. One of them was colored with a goatee and short black hair and the other had long dark hair with a black mustache. Both of them dropped to their knees before him, in a pose of submission.

"To your feet."

He set down the cane when the two men rose to their feet. Both of them looked at him, waiting for further instruction.

The man spoke in a low and crisp tone. His voice practically echoed when he spoke.

"The first phase has begun," the man said. The van began to slowly drive towards Old Gotham. "He will be brought back from the beyond and his message will be given to all of Gotham City. Soon, he'll have the entire world in his hands. Our higher power will be pleased with the sacrifices he will give."

The van kept creeping down the street, where it would eventually reach its next destination.

* * *

Harry didn't know what to expect with the OsCorp Board Meeting. He knew with his experiences with the Wayne Board, especially in those early days, they could pretty much be a bit of a problem. And there were several people here with their own agenda.

He crossed the room, with Gwen and Reilly following him. They spotted Harold Osborn sitting there. He was looking a little better than he was since the last time that they saw him, on the account that he wasn't heavily medicated.

He barely acknowledged Gwen and Reilly. Whether or not that was because his attention was distracted by something or some other reason, that was really hard to say to be perfectly honest.

Harry noticed that Vanessa was there as well. She acknowledge him with a slight smile and a nod. Her husband was engaged in a heated debate with a couple of people and there was a board member patiently talking to Harold.

"Given your recent episode, it might make you too excited to be at the OsCorp Board of Directors meeting," one of them commented patiently to him. "Your doctor is afraid that your stress might lead to a relapse….."

"Well given that those are the same doctors that overmedicated me, then…..I'm not really that confident with their diagnosis," Harold said. His tone was more sour than ever before and it was obvious that he had little trust in the Board members.

"Now, come now, Melanie, Mr. Osborn just wants to be involved, and the name on the marquee still says OsCorp," Fisk said. "It was terrible what happened to dear Norman, and the fact that his son had to witness that, well it might be good therapy to have something to keep his mind off of that horrible business."

The Board wasn't going to argue. It was for the first time, now, that Harold noticed the one and only, Doctor Harry Potter, sitting there.

"What's he doing here?" Harold demanded.

Anastasia frowned. She wasn't in the mood for the younger Osborn's petulant games. He could be a problem and they wanted to nip it in the bud while they had a chance.

"Mr. Potter is here with a proposal, and I find that it would be best for business for all parties involved," Anastasia said.

Harold grew sour. He figured that anything that would be best for business wouldn't be good for him. Harry Potter, he thought that he was so special. And he took notice that Reilly and Gwen were rather cozy to him. He would first steal the girls and then steal his company, and Harold wasn't going for that.

Donald Menken looked rather curious. He had managed to take control of things when Mr. Osborn had his accident. The Board followed along with him, even though they were in a holding pattern.

"A partnership with the RAO Corporation would raise OsCorp's profile," Harry encouraged them. "We jump started our distribution, and we feel that if we add OsCorp's to our network, we can spread all over the East Coast and in several other areas."

"An interesting proposal," Menken commented.

They carefully went over several of the finer details. There was a lot of legal consideration and Harry wanted some stock options in the process. OsCorp's stock was holding pretty steady, after plummeting.

Harry knew that this deal would lift OsCorp's profile to higher heights.

"It seems like you're winning, Doctor Potter," Harold commented in scorn. "I still don't understand what OsCorp is getting out of this."

Several rightfully around the table interpreted Harold's words to mean that he was unsure about how he would get anything out of this. The young heir was positively paranoid about the future of OsCorp.

"Now, Mr. Osborn, we're interested in building the future of OsCorp and innovation is the key to that future, not going with the same hand that put us in this mess in the first place," Anastasia said.

"I believe that we should move forward with this proposal," Menken said. "After all, we need to think about the future, after the tragic accident that put Mr. Osborn away and the current fragile mental state that young Mr. Osborn has….we must think about moving on, instead of moving further behind."

The young Mr. Osborn was going to protest that he was not fragile under any means, but that statement fell upon deaf ears. Mostly because the doors of the meeting room swung open and another man entered inside and everyone turned to see who the late arrival was.

"Menken, you don't have any place to say what's best for OsCorp. In this case, I agree with you, though."

An imposing looking gentleman entered the room and he was dressed in a fine suit. He was the type of man that you didn't want to cross under any means.

"My name is Gustav Fiers," he informed them. "I regret not attending this meeting sooner, but Mr. Menken decided that he would neglect to inform me of the time of this meeting."

Menken squirmed like a scared kitten in his seat and was about to make his excuses, but he knew how futile it would be with someone like Fiers. He was completely and utterly scared to death at what this man could do.

"Doctor Potter, Mrs. Hardy, I hope that I do not offend you by asking you to restate your proposal," the gentleman commented. He looked around to the board, some of them not looking too happy about his presence. "After all, we all have to be on the same page."

The figured that they could entertain his request, given that he was such an important person.

* * *

Vicki was happy with how this coverage went. The thing that she was happier about was the fact that she had a chance to spread her wings. She had adapted to the environment of Gotham City, and she had adapted to the environment of New York City.

"Fashion week really did go good, didn't it?" Kara asked.

Vicki nodded in response, smiling.

"Do you think that it might have a chance to be even bigger?" Vicki asked her.

Kara considered that point and she grinned.

"Well, if the people who are in charge of the entire event have anything to say about it, it will be big," Kara said. She placed her fingers together to make a motion towards Vicki. "And they're going to get obsessive over it."

"Juno seemed rather pleased about it," Vicki said.

Then again, anyone who was around her knew how Juno got about her pet causes. It was almost amusing to see how much joy could be found in her voice when she talked about the things that she was passionate about.

Kara downed the milkshake that she was drinking. She wiped it off of her face and she licked her fingers.

Vicki smiled at Kara's antics. She was glad for the change of scenery. And she had some rather familiar looking scenery here, so that was always a good thing.

"So, I bet that you're looking forward to your date with Harry tonight," Vicki commented.

Kara grinned and she looked in Vicki's eyes. "What gave it away?"

"Well, you're more perky than usual," Vicki said. "And you know, you can get really, really, perky."

Kara realized that she was guilty as charged. She could have a lot of energy and there were times where their lunch breaks had gotten extremely interesting. And a few times, Harry had joined them.

"I'm really glad that I'm getting some time with Harry," Kara said.

"Yes, his schedule is full," Vicki agreed.

She had to give Harry a lot of credit. His time management skills were second to none. Most people would crack underneath the pressure of all that he had to do, but Harry really managed to really get the most out of every minute of every day.

It was almost a scary bit of inspiration, to be honest. She was sure that many could be inspired by what he accomplished.

' _So, tonight's going to be a good night,'_ Kara thought. Her excitement was obvious with the girls in the bond link and they chimed in with excitement.

' _Hey, this is your night,'_ Karen thought.

An alarm went off and Kara tensed up immediately. Someone broke into the bank across the street. There was a loud crack and she saw the security guard on the outside flop to the ground like a dead fish.

Vicki noticed the bank being broken into. This sounded like news, but she didn't know if the man had a gun.

Kara noticed that she was itching to tell the story. Thinking quickly, Kara grabbed Vicki's wrist.

"Call the police," she said to her.

Vicki made her way over to call the police. The moment when she was occupied with her cell phone, Kara zoomed over.

Kara returned to her seat before Vicki could turn around. A second after her ass hit the chair, there was a startled scream. A pair of bystanders looked back in shock, when the would be bank robber was hunched over the side of the wall of the bank.

"I don't know what happened!" one of the witnesses yelled when the cops showed up.

"Yeah, it was like something just blew him over, like the wind," Kara said.

' _Kara?'_ Faora asked her.

Kara smiled and tried to play it really cool.

"Something took him out just like that," Vicki said. One minute the guy was about to rob the bank and the next moment, he looked like he keeled over. Vicki didn't have the slightest idea why.

' _You know, maybe we should get you a superhero identity, and get you on patrol,'_ Karen said.

' _I don't have the slightest idea what you're talking about,'_ Kara said. She tried to play in calm.

' _Well, this is only the second time you pulled a stunt like this in public,'_ Amanda chimed in.

' _I really don't know what you're talking about,'_ Kara responded.

Vicki edged over, which gave Kara time to talk with the girls in the bond without it acting weird.

' _Well, if you figure out what we're talking about, then you're going to need training, and you're going to need to step up your game,'_ Diana said.

Kara figured that she couldn't get that lucky to pull that one off twice. Hell, she wasn't so sure she pulled it off the second time.

The police were over the mysterious bank robber.

"Really, you again, Herman?" one of them asked.

"Did you fall over your two feet, like the klutz you are?" another officer asked him.

"No, I swear, it was some kind of blur that knocked me over, cheap shotted me," Herman argued. He rubbed his jaw and was hauled off into cuffs.

Vicki looked intrigued by this. Kara shook her head.

"Well, this is interesting, isn't it?" Kara asked.

Vicki looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded, "Well it looks like New York has its own protectors the same as Gotham City."

* * *

Gwen and Reilly thought that the meeting took a little longer than they thought that they would. The Board finally broke for lunch. The two girls thought that they needed to get away from Harold.

"He's really changed, he's…colder, more distant," Gwen whispered to Reilly.

Reilly placed her hand on Gwen's and she nodded in response.

"I know," she agreed.

She didn't really know what to make of this to be honest. An accident like that would change a lot of people. The two girls crept their way down to the lab. Reilly wanted to check out her father's old lab that had been locked ever since his death.

It hadn't been opened for lack of trying. It was sealed shut and they were pretty much on the outside looking in on this particular lab.

Reilly opened up the pad and placed her finger on the pad. The high tech lock blinked to light and clicked open.

"Guess your theory was right," Gwen said. "You know, you sharing your father's DNA allowed you into the lab."

The two girls entered the lab to be greeted by a disturbing sight. Over fifteen years worth of dust choked the pair of them when they entered the lab.

Reilly frowned when she made her way over to the computer and access it. Gwen took a moment to look around and saw a display case containing spiders. She squirmed a little bit.

"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure that they're dead by this point," Reilly said.

Gwen grew extremely nervous when she looked at the spiders. She swore that one of them didn't look dead to her.

"That's rather interesting," Reilly muttered.

That caused Gwen to jump halfway up. She had been so focused on the spiders that she didn't really hear what Reilly was saying.

"Someone tried to access the database in this lab remotely," Reilly said. "They didn't succeed, because it has to be accessed from inside the lab, but that's still rather curious."

Gwen frowned and she tried to think of anyone who would want to access the database and the information on it. She doubted very much it would be good.

"So, how many spiders did you say that there were?" Gwen asked.

"There were seventeen spiders that survived the initial process," Reilly said. "There might have been two different lines of tests with the surviving spiders."

"Because two are missing," Gwen said. She took a moment to look over. "One and seventeen are missing from the case."

Reilly thought that was completely odd. She walked over and checked things out. The case was slightly damaged, for some reason. There was some discoloration on the wall and she looked up at the ceiling.

"That's where the lab with the explosion occurred," Gwen murmured.

Reilly nodded in response, "Yes."

Before Gwen could focus on that, she focused on something else. She could feel a tickling sensation go down up her leg and then it switched over to her arm briefly.

"It's crawling up my arm, isn't it?" Gwen asked.

Her voice was surprisingly calm because of her phobia. Reilly looked over towards Gwen and she reached over to grab a pair of tweezers from the table on the lab.

"Don't move," Reilly muttered.

Gwen didn't have any intention of moving, mostly because she was paralyzed with fear. Reilly nice and easily eased her way over and was about to grab the spider.

Either one or seventeen currently was crawling up her arm. Reilly almost had it.

At least until she felt something sink into the back of her neck. That bite caused Reilly to jump u in surprise and she groaned.

This caused the spider crawling over Gwen's arm to be spooked and it bit her. Gwen's eyes widened and suddenly her body lurched, like that she had a seizure.

Reilly caught Gwen before she hit the ground and her limbs started to twitch. Her body was shaking. The reaction she had to the spider bite was more extra then Reilly's was.

Her health was of the utmost importance and Reilly wasted no time in working with Gwen to try and stabilize her. The thought in her back of her mind, regarding how Gwen reacted differently from the spider bite that she did was sufficient cause for alarm.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 22** **nd** **, 2015.**


	113. Risky Business Part Four

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen "Risky Business" Part Four.**

* * *

 

The meeting of the OsCorp Board of Directors concluded, or at least they were breaking for a short recess. Reilly, Gwen, and Harry exited the room among others. It was getting close to lunchtime, so it was obvious that any loose ends at the board meeting would have to wait until another time.

Harry leaned towards the girls, "So, was it just me, or was your friend a little...cold?"

Reilly shook her head. The brunette thought she went insane with the coldness. The girl felt much more at ease.

"He was, it wasn't just you," Reilly said. She shivered when she caught sight of Harold. He looked like he had changed in that accident and not for the better.

"His father's body was destroyed in the accident and he was severely injured," Gwen muttered. "There was a burned body found in the wreckage, later on."

"Was it Osborn's?" Harry asked sharply.

Gwen shrugged in response, "I really don't know."

Harry frowned. Perhaps it was just him being absolutely paranoid, for pretty much no good reason.

Gwen placed her hand on Harry's hand. "I really think that he is going through an extremely tough time, and he might snap out of it eventually. He thinks that he's losing his birthright because they think that he is not mentally fit to lead the company."

Harry didn't like to be that person, but Harold Osborn was not making the best case for his fitness to lead the company. He was going to lose his company sooner rather than later because he wasn't really mentally fit to lead that company.

"So, we're going to break for lunch, I guess?" Harry asked. "Do, you two girls want to join me?"

"Love to...but..." Reilly responded. She hesitated. "We'd really like to check something out, if you don't mind."

"It doesn't matter, I can wait," Harry said.

He had a pretty good idea where the girls were heading and he thought that it would be for the best if he let them too it.

"We'll be back, it shouldn't be more than about fifteen minutes, or so," Gwen said. She leaned forward and gave him a daring kiss on the cheek.

Not to be outdone, Reilly gave him a slight kiss on the lips and she pulled back from her. The two girls parted their ways.

Karen hopped onto the bond in amusement, _'Do you ever get the feeling that it wouldn't be too long for those two?'_

 _'It's all about timing,'_ Harry responded. He decided to switch gears elsewhere, _'So, Kara, you've had a busy morning, haven't you?'_

The sound of Kara sputtering about and trying to act all casual was amusing. It caused a lot of girls in the bond link to laugh.

 _'Well, I guess there's no use in really hiding it from you, is there?'_ Kara asked. That was a rhetorical question if there ever was one. _'I figured that I would stop some bank robber. The guy looked to be rather pathetic honestly, to say the least.'_

 _'Well, that was some light work,'_ Harry answered.

 _'Wow, way to play up my accomplishment,'_ Kara commented. She sounded amused. _'But yeah, that guy didn't have any powers. And I caught him by surprise, when I went in and I went out just like that. I got him before Vicki could even turn around. He claimed that some blur hit him, but the cops seemed to take him about as seriously as you would someone like that.'_

 _'Meaning not at all,'_ Barbara chimed in.

 _'Meaning not at all,'_ Kara said. _'I don't know, I know why you do what you do out there, Har, despite the risks that you take.'_

 _'It isn't all fun and games,'_ Harry warned her.

He could tell that the idea had been planted in Kara's head with what she wanted to do. He didn't want to discourage her completely, but he did want to warn her that she could be expecting some trouble coming down the pike.

 _'Well you've given me enough examples to show that it most certainly isn't,'_ Kara confirmed. _'But, you know, I can really do this if I put my mind to it.'_

Harry didn't doubt that at all, but he wished to give Kara a few warnings.

 _'If you want to do this, then you should step up your training,'_ Harry thought. _'A couple of muggers is good, but as you learned in Smallville, your powers can only get your so far.'_

Kara recalled and she would have to agree with that. She realized that they thought that she was the person who would most likely accidentally used her powers in a fit of anger. Thus she resolved not to be that person.

She wanted to prove them wrong.

 _'That's what got my interest, the incident with Markos in Smallville,'_ Kara admitted. _'If I would have had found the time to train, that might not have ended as bad.'_

 _'Yes, likely,'_ Diana agreed.

 _'I might have gotten my ass kicked there,'_ Kara said. _'But, I couldn't help but think that I could be a help to you...and maybe someday the world could be prepared for people that used powers.'_

 _'It's a long time coming,'_ Diana warned her.

 _'Sadly, I would have to agree with Diana's point,'_ Karen thought. _'The people out there are nowhere near ready or prepared for people with powers. Give them time and it could happen, but it's a long time coming.'_

Kara looked extremely crestfallen about this fact, but she would have to concede that was the case.

 _'We'll talk about this more later,'_ Harry said.

If this was something that she really wanted, even if it was a long term thing, Harry could arrange her to get some more training. It would be at least six months before she was field ready, but still, Harry thought that her ambition was nice and he would be happy to have her out there when she was ready.

 _'Later is fine, because I know that you won't forget about this,'_ Kara commented.

 _'Mostly because you wouldn't let him,'_ Faora thought.

* * *

 

Anastasia Hardy prided herself on having a certain amount of patience regarding certain things. However her patience did run out eventually and said patience rapidly reached a certain limit.

She shifted her gaze over towards Harold Osborn. She had the greatest of sympathies for the accident and the fact that he lost his father. That being said, it was unwise at this state to let any personal drama get in the way of business.

Fiers and Fisk were busy talking to him. She allowed those two men to be the ones to talk to Osborn.

"I don't think the two of you are seeing what I'm seeing," the younger Osborn heir informed them both. "The other members of the Board, they want to see me gone. Potter has swayed them, just like he's swayed everyone else."

Fiers looked at the younger Osborn heir and spoke in an extremely gruff tone of voice, "You shouldn't be so melodramatic, Mr. Osborn."

"I would have to agree with Gustev," Fisk commented. He leaned towards the younger man and smiled. "I would like to help you get back on track and do what you need to do get back to helping OsCorp."

"You really think that I have a role here?" Osborn asked.

Anastasia decided that it was best not to get involved, but she wondered what Fisk's game was. He seemed to be all in on the business deal at first and her suggestion to keep Harold Osborn on as a consultant who worked from home.

"Indeed I do, my boy," Fisk said. "The name on the marquee says Osborn and I feel bad about what happened to your father. It was a terrible accident, and the fact that you bared witness to his last gruesome moments must have been taxing on you."

Harold didn't really recall those last moments. All he recalled was demons from hell clawing and biting at him and the next thing he knew, he was strapped to a bed, being injected with God only knows what, in Ravencroft.

"That's good that someone has my back, given that my friends have made their choice," Harold answered.

Fiers thought that the young Osborn should be given a certain amount of tolerance, beside he still had his uses here. The board pretty much cut Menken from having any further delusions of power.

"I'll be back later, I've got a lunch meeting that I can't be late to," Fiers said.

Fisk nodded, and he watched Fiers pass Vanessa, who exited the elevator. Coming down the set of stairs from the other side, was the one and only Harry Potter. Vanessa nearly ran into Harry, but stopped at the last second.

"That could have ended rather badly," Vanessa said. She watched Fiers slip into the elevator behind her. "I didn't really get a chance to talk to you at the Board Meeting."

"No, but then again, there was a lot of squabbling at that meeting," Harry answered her.

"They're just posturing, because it makes them look important," Vanessa said.

It went without saying that both of them knew who was the worst at doing that. His name was Donald Menken and he tried to act like the big man on campus. Fiers shut him down really hard. Vanessa was honestly surprised that her husband didn't do so, but it was obvious that he was using Menken was a pawn to whatever game he was playing.

"So, how has your day been?" Harry asked.

"I'm surprised that someone actually took interest in that fact," Vanessa said. She smiled when she leaned towards Harry. "To answer your question, it's been rather routine."

Vanessa noticed her husband deep in talk with the younger Osborn. Vanessa frowned and she added as an afterthought, "My husband's attention is elsewhere it seems. Perhaps I should turn it elsewhere if he can't be bothered."

Her eyes lingered on Harry for the briefest of moments.

"Well, that might be his loss," Harry commented in a casual manner.

Fisk frowned, overhearing his wife's comment and Harry's response. He made a decision of what he needed to do, walking over towards his wife.

"Yes, Wilson?" Vanessa asked.

"I'm going to take young Mr. Osborn out for lunch, to talk to him about the future of both himself and his company," Wilson said.

"Yes, Wilson, that's fine," Vanessa commented to her husband. She couldn't recall the last time they had joined each other for lunch. He always scheduled business during that time and the case was no different today. "I was just going to join Anastasia for lunch, and maybe, Doctor Potter could make sure that no one would try anything against us. Given that he survived a fall off of a high building recently, I would say that speaks wonders for his durability and his endurance. Wouldn't you agree?"

"It is rather remarkable he survived that," Fisk conceded. He tried to brush off the other implications of that statement.

His plans entered a delicate stage right now, and unfortunately, there needed to be sacrifices made. Fisk remained confident he would have more than enough time to make up anything.

"I'm afraid that I'll have to decline, because I've already made plans," Harry said. "I apologize if that offends you."

Vanessa figured as much. The woman thought making the offer would be more than sufficient.

"No, not at all," Vanessa said, waving off Harry's words. "If you made plans to meet someone for lunch, then I understand. I'm sure that there will be another opportunity later on."

Harry couldn't help, but think that he was in the middle of something that he really shouldn't be in the middle of. Vanessa eyed him up, before she turned to Anastasia, and left the elevator.

The older Hardy woman paused and leaned towards Harry, "We're going to have to make arrangements at another time, I'm afraid. I know, and Vanessa, I'm sure understands that this week has been a full one for you."

Harry allowed the women to leave. Fisk had already left a long time ago, while they were talking. The younger Osborn left as well, and Harry was a bit glad for that. The hallway got a bit calmer and a little more tranquil with him being gone.

He stepped away and he waited, when a pair of scientists made their way down the hallway. One of them, Harry met one of them before, and he had only heard of the others world. The first scientist was a sandy haired man who looked to be in about his mid thirties when he showed up. His most distinguished feature was that he only had one arm. He looked to be elsewhere.

The other scientist was an attractive red haired woman with bright blue eyes. She wore a jacket, and a nice blouse that had all of the buttons done up. A pair of long pants went up her legs and fit her nicely.

"Doctor Connors?" Harry asked.

"You must be Doctor Potter," the man responded. "And you better call us Curt and Martha, because...well there are two Doctor Connors, and that gets confusing."

"It really does, you couldn't believe how many times we had to ask for someone to clarify which one of us they meant," Martha said. She looked at him, with a smile.

"I understand that you're friendly with Reilly, aren't you?" Curt asked.

"Yes," Harry confirmed.

"I was lab partners with her father, Richard, and I was hoping that I could talk to her about something," Curt said. Harry looked at him, with a questioning look. "I was actually hoping if she has any insight about how to get into her father's lab."

Harry felt there was something more than that. And if he had to put two and two together really easily, he had a feeling that Reilly was just going to do just that, and Gwen was along with her. He wasn't about to tell anyone, because she obviously wanted to keep that quiet.

"Sorry, you just missed Reilly," Harry informed her.

Curt looked a bit crestfallen. "Well another time...I need to go and speak with Doctor Morbius about something."

He made his way off. Martha sighed and she looked over towards Harry.

"His workload has increased a lot since the unfortunate accident, he even forgot his lunch today," Martha said. She looked a little frustrated by this.

"Well, we all get caught up in our work," Harry offered hear.

Martha shook her head. She figured that was right, but there was a part of her that wanted to argue this.

"You're able to balance your workload with everything else," Martha informed him. "It's quite remarkable how good that you are doing that."

"Maybe," Harry agreed.

"I've been reading your work, and I was quite impressed by it," Martha said. "It's unfortunate that I have to run, because I have a few questions that I'd like to ask you."

"Any time you have a moment, I'll be glad to answer any questions you have," Harry said. "It's always good to have a discussion with a fellow scientist."

Martha was glad that he acknowledged her as a fellow scientist. There were times where a lot of people forgot that she was a good biochemist in her own right. She didn't earn the same level of notoriety as her husband did.

"You might not remember this, but about a year ago, you did a lecture at GCU," Harry informed her.

"I do recall that," Martha said. She laughed. "It's funny though, I wasn't supposed to be the one giving the lecture, but the other person had to call in sick. And she was a friend of mine, so I was happy to do her a favor. Francine Langstrom, she was going to give a lecture."

"Yes, I've met both her and her husband, top of the line in genetics, and they think that they can splice together DNA with animals, to increase the evolutionary capacitiy of humans," Harry said. "I have to admit, I think their idea has a lot of merit, even if I really have my concerns."

"Yes, you did write a paper about that, didn't you?" Martha asked. Harry smiled and nodded. "Then again, you write so many papers, that it's really hard to keep track of them."

Harry smiled, if that wasn't the truth, he didn't know what was.

"It was after my husband's accident, where he lost his arm too, so it gave me a good excuse to get out of town," Martha said. "So, you were there?"

"Yes, I was there, and I have to admit, it was one of the best lectures that I've ever attended and I was glad that you were there," Harry said.

Martha gave him a teasing smile, "Are you just saying that because you're talking to me?"

"Have you listened to a lot of the college lectures?" Harry asked. "They could be a cure for insomnia. At least yours was worthy of staying to the end and it left me wanting to talk to you more."

"It's really a shame that you didn't come along fifteen years ago," Martha said. She looked towards Harry, with a fond smile. His work was something that intrigued her and his escapades with women intrigued her slightly, and it would have intrigued her more if she wasn't a married woman.

Despite her recent difficulities with her husband, she was reminded about that.

"Oh?" Harry asked.

"Well, my last name might not be Connors," Martha said. She sounded half joking, half serious. "So, I've got to run, but it was a pleasure meeting you."

"Can I ask you one more thing?" Harry asked.

Martha stopped and stared, turning around. It was obvious with the look on her face that she was all ears and willing to listen.

"Do you think that you could point me towards the direction of Richard Parker's lab?" Harry asked.

Martha did in fact know where it is. She had worked at OsCorp for a number of years, even though she since moved on, even though her husband stayed.

"Down the hallway, up the stairs two floors, third door to the right," Martha said. "No one has been able to get it open in fifteen years."

Harry figured that someone might, or maybe someone had. The fact Reilly and Gwen hadn't returned after they wanted to check for something raised a couple of red flags in his head.

"It's really a pleasure meeting you," Harry said.

"Likewise, hopefully we'll run into each other again," Martha said. She stepped back and left.

Harry made his way to the lab. Perhaps he was suspicious for the wrong reasons, but he figured out something was happening that might be worth his attention. Whatever was in that lab, there might be a good reason why it was sealed shut.

 _'What is with you and married women today?'_ Karen asked.

Harry shrugged and did not have a good answer to that inquiry.

* * *

 

The hooded figure stepped inside a dimly lit temple. His two minions stood on either side of him, like rather dangerous looking bodyguards. They approached the temple with sadism in their eyes.

On either side, there were two scantily clad, dark skinned women, scantily clad in clothe that only covered the bits of their bodies that needed to be covered, even though it barely covered them. Tribal symbols covered their forms in paint form and rings dangled ominously from their fingers.

The Grandfather of Deacon Blackfire made his way through the doors. The temple was dimly lit. Someone who was of weaker constitution would be intimidated by a place like this. Deacon Blackfire was not of weaker constitution, he was extremely strong.

"Closer," a ghostly voice whispered from the shadows.

The torches lit and the group made their way into the depths of the temple. Grandpappy Blackfire and his minions turned up and looked face to face with a pale individual, who sat in a dark robe that really showed off how unearthly pale he was.

"Do you have the book?" he asked in a low whisper.

"Yes," Grandpappy Blackfire answered. "I've live up to my end of the bargain, and it's time for you to live up to yours."

The book exchanged hands over to the ghastly looking man. He examined it closely and as far as he knew, pretty much everything regarding the book in his hand was all in order.

"And now, I give you access to the pit tainted by meteor rocks to revive your grandson," the ghostly pale man said. "And I have the book."

"Why do you need the book?" the imposing figure asked. "You already have the body of the Demon, don't you?"

"It is insurance against the Dragon," the ghostly man said. "The League is my birthright and I will prove myself as the most loyal of all members by bringing Ra's Al Ghul back beyond the grave."

The Dragon tainted his sisters, and it was time to open his father's eyes. The ghostly man would fail for his father casting him out. Once he brought Ra's Al Ghul back, he would prove that there would be no need for a male heir, because he had one that was ready made.

"There is one more thing that you should know," the ghostly man informed him. "The pit will need a blood sacrifice for it to properly bring your grandson back."

"Don't worry, I have the perfect expendable person," Grandpappy Blackfire declared.

His tone grew more ominous and the two men parted their ways, their deal had been concluded. Soon, they would prepare for the proper next step in their plans.

The deal proved to be mutually beneficial as the group parted ways with each other.

* * *

 

Harry made his way down to the floor which had Richard Parker's lab. He quickened his footsteps when he reached the area that he wanted to be in.

He noticed that a large part of this floor had been roped up, after the accident that killed Norman Osborn and caused Harold to be put in state currently afflicting the young man. It also left another scientist, Otto Octavius, in critical condition.

Technically, there was no one who was supposed to be down in this area. Harry snorted when he noticed the security guard. He had sat down on a bench and had fallen asleep. A cup of coffee tipped over and fell onto the floor.

Harry went down the hallway and he frowned.

For a lab that wasn't supposed to be opened, Richard Parker's old lab most certainly was wide open. Harry stepped closer to the lab.

"Hello?" Harry asked. "Gwen, Reilly, are either of you in here?"

Harry didn't have to wait too long when the pause concluded and he heard someone scramble up to her feet.

"Harry?" Reilly asked. Harry saw her approach from the shadows, she looked extremely pale and her palms were sweaty. She held herself against the side of a desk, trying to hold herself up. "Oh, thank god it's you...Gwen has been bitten by one of the spiders in the lab!"

Reilly decided to neglect to tell Harry about the fact she got bitten by the spider. She was perfectly fine after all. A little hungry, but she was more than fine.

"Stand back," Harry told her.

Reilly moved back and Harry rushed forward to check on Gwen. Relief filled Harry's boady. Reilly did an exceptional job in stabilizing her.

Harry reached into his bag and pulled out the necessary that he would need to help her. She looked like she had gone into some sort of diabetic coma, at least at the first sight. Looking at her, that wasn't the case and Harry had an idea what to do.

Reilly ate a chocolate bar that she got from the vending machine. She paused and spat it, realizing that bar had been in the vending machine since her father had sealed up this lab.

If the spider bite didn't do her in, that was one thing. The last thing that she wanted to do her in was food poisoning. That would be the irony to end all ironies. That particular thing doing her in after all that would have been equal parts amusing and horrifying.

Harry meanwhile was looking over Gwen and trying to stabilize her. He was doing a good job, but he couldn't help, but think that there were a few of oddities about her. Namely the fact she looked perfectly fine, other than the fact that she was barely responsive.

Gwen coughed and she tried to shake herself awake. Harry gripped her around the back of the head and held her head in place.

"Gwen, can you hear me?" Harry asked.

"Yes," she croaked in a hoarse voice.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked.

"Fine," she managed. She held onto Harry's hand and was nearly slipping. She was dizzy for a moment, but she was better. She smacked her lips. "Need water, that would be really good right now, I mean really good."

Reilly was already out of the room and she returned as fast as her feet could carry her with a glass of water. She walked over towards Gwen and handed her the glass of water.

Grateful, Gwen took the water and drank it. The cool water touched her lips and she really felt refreshed.

"You scared me half to death," Reilly informed Gwen.

Gwen shook her head and looked fairly apologetic, "You think that you got scared half to death? I was terrified as well, and I was going through it."

Reilly honestly couldn't argue with that point. The fact of the matter was that her stomach growled and she could eat something.

"So, I'm hungry," Reilly said. She turned to Gwen. "Are you hungry?"

"Yes, starving," Gwen said.

Harry looked both of the girls and there was a question that he needed to ask. He looked Reilly directly in the eye.

"Did you get bit by the spider, as well, Reilly?" Harry asked her.

Reilly shifted nervously and frowned. She honestly couldn't tell a lie otherwise.

"Yes," Reilly responded. She was nervous when she was given this question. Harry reached towards her and squeezed her hand. "But, I feel fine, I swear to God."

Harry thought that she looked fine, but he wasn't sure. He looked her over and Reilly cracked a little bit.

"Okay, I'm just a little hungry," Reilly said. Her eyes briefly took in Harry's body and an aching came through her loins.

She might not be just hungry for food, come to think of it. The more she was looking at Harry, the more enticing he was.

"Well, I'm sure that we can get you something to eat," Harry informed them. He was fairly aware of the girls that were looking at him.

"Oh, that would be wonderful," Gwen said. She grabbed Harry by the hand, and casually nudged him against him. She whispered in his ear, "And then something for dessert."

"We need to get the two of you checked out."

"As long as you're doing the checking, Harry," Gwen breathed in his ear. Reilly took his other arm and the three of them exited the lab.

The simple fact the trio made it to the limo with how wound up they were surprised Harry a lot.

* * *

 

The three of them got something to eat and they made their way back to the limo, to get checked out. The trio made it through the meal nearly without incident. There was all kinds of subtle brushes and touches underneath the table, where Gwen and Reilly were trying to get Harry riled up.

"We're going to head back to the Penthouse, I've got something that could check you over," Harry said.

Gwen still held an ice cream cone. She took a bite from the ice cream cone and nodded when she slowly and sensually licked the cream on the cone. Her eyes fluttered shut when she allowed herself toe at it.

"Sounds good," Gwen said in a breathy voice. She chewed on the ice cream and swallowed it. She turned towards Reilly and grinned. "Want some?"

Reilly leaned over Harry, her breast pushing against his chest, when she chewed on the same ice cream cone that Gwen was eating. Her eyes closed.

"So good!" she moaned when she licked the cone and swirled her tongue around her mouth, savoring the taste.

Harry could feel some pheromones shooting off that made him extremely light headed. He wondered if some kind of side effect happened when the spider bit her. He would need to get to the lab to find out, with the limo driving.

"Want some," Gwen breathed. Her lips were on one side of the ice cream and she feasted on it.

"Whoops," Reilly said, with a giggle.

Harry felt a cold sensation on his leg. The ice cream slid off of the cone and landed on his leg, causing a shiver to go down his leg.

"What a mess!" Gwen exclaimed. She bent down and licked the ice cream off of Harry's leg.

"Oh, Gwen, I think that we ruined Harry's pants," Reilly said. She ran her hand slowly over the stain, cupping his crotch all of the way. "What do we do?"

"You two naughty girls could take off my pants and let them dry," Harry informed them.

Reilly smiled and she undid his pants, pulling them off. A pair of dark boxer shorts was revealed and her eyes was glued on the tent that was forming in them.

"I think the boxer shorts have been soaked too," Gwen breathed excitedly. She felt around, her fingers against his bulge.

She felt Harry's hand grab against her ass and that caused her to hit a breath. He leaned towards her.

"Well, you better get those off too?"

Reilly already rushed eagerly to accomplish this particular task. She pulled down his boxer shorts and revealed the prize that they sought underneath.

"Oh my, I think we might have released some pheromones that have caused some intense swelling," Gwen said in a breathy voice. She placed her hand on the inside of Harry's thigh and leaned down to inspect him.

"Well, I spilled your ice cream, Gwen," Reilly said. She licked her lips and lowered her head down to inspect Harry. Harry's hand groped her tight little ass and that caused her to smile. "But, I think we've got something much better to share."

"Looks like a popsicle," Gwen breathed with glee dancing in her voice. She licked her lips and grinned. "It's a really big popsicle."

She wanted that, she needed that, and Gwen Stacy fucking vowed to take that in her mouth. 

Gwen's drool fell into her hand and she caught it. The gorgeous blonde used her hand to lubricate Harry's big stiff pole.

"Mmm, I need to taste this," Gwen said lustfully.

"Taste all you want," Harry grunted. He could feel her hand stroke him and it felt really good. His cock grew extremely stiff really quickly and swelled in her hand when she pumped him.

Gwen got on one side of Harry and Reilly got on the other side. Both girls sensually licked his tool, moaning and groaning when their tongues brushed over every single last inch of his throbbing manhood and they tasted him, with great hunger dancing through their eyes.

Reilly and Gwen took turns licking and slurping Harry's raging cock. They smiled when they kissed and licked it, really bathing in salvia.

"Good job, girls, get the swelling down," Harry groaned.

Gwen decided to wrap her hand around Harry's base to steady it. Her wet hot mouth hovered over his tool and she brought the tip of his head into her mouth, suckling on it.

She moaned when the head of his cock entered her mouth. She nearly gagged on him when he pushed into the back of her throat. Gwen's throat expanded to accommodate him.

Now she deep throated him hard, taking him deeper into the back of her hot throat.

Reilly, not to be outdone, dove between his legs. She took his swollen, large, balls into her mouth and suckled and licked on them.

The two girls switched up. Harry's cock found Reilly's hot mouth and throat and Gwen's mouth latched around his balls, suckling on him extremely hard. It really didn't matter at this point, both girls felt really wonderful.

The two of them switched on and off and took turns sucking his cock. Then both of them wrapped their lips on either side of Harry's cock and sucked him hungrily. Their hands stroked his swollen balls.

"Going to burst," Harry warned them.

Harry's statement didn't do anything to deter them. Their moist mouths continued to suckle on and they grew more intensely. They made the lewd sounds that would stir the fire from the loins of any man and Harry was far from the only one that could have fire stirred from his loins. He groaned when he felt an aching come from his lower area.

His balls released his cum up into the air. It splattered the faces of both of the girls. The sticky white seed, stuck to their clothes. The amount of cum the two girls produced from Harry's balls looked to be intense and might have ruined their clothes.

These two particular girls honestly did not care.

"We better take these clothes off, because we made a mess," Gwen breathed.

Reilly unbuttoned Gwen's top, slowly stripping her from around Harry's eye sight. A generous bust was revealed and Gwen's breasts strained against the bra that fit her perfectly the morning, but now was strained and about ready to burst out.

The bra snapped off and her D-Cup breasts were revealed. Reilly felt them shameless, while making sure her eye contact was directed towards Harry.

Reilly's hands ran over Gwen's thighs and she slowly stripped off her pants, revealing a pair of black panties that were completely soaked through. Gwen's ass was a sight to see and Reilly could not resist spanking it.

"Hey!" Gwen said in a pouty tone.

"Sorry, honey, I couldn't resist," Reilly breathed in her ear, not sounding all too sorry at all from what she did. She grinned at her.

"Fine," Gwen said, folding her arms underneath her large globes. "Time for me to do you,"

Gwen reached forward and pushed Reilly against Harry. Reilly's ass grinded against Harry's crotch and Gwen tore off Reilly's shirt.

"No bra to begin with?" Gwen asked.

"I don't like how they feel," Reilly said.

"Oh, but do you like how this feels?" Gwen asked. She squeezed Reilly's large breasts.

She moaned and grinded her ass on Harry's throbbing cock. They finally moved back to give Harry a little bit of air.

Reilly's pants were already down and her panties were exposed. Gwen returned the favor earlier by spanking Reilly's hot little ass.

"And I guess you're right, I really couldn't resist," Gwen said with a sultry little smile. She pulled off Reilly's panties to reveal her toned ass and spanked her.

Gwen turned her attention to Harry, removing the last bit of clothing. The horny blonde presented her wet, eager pussy towards Harry. The girl's finger spread the woman's lips.

"It's time for me to get my reward," Gwen breathed. She wrapped her arms around Harry. "Waited for Barbara to have her turn first, but now that you took her cherry, it's my turn."

Gwen dragged her hot lips over Harry's cock. Her moisture lubricated his swollen organ. He decided that he had enough of the teasing and he grabbed Gwen around her waist.

"If you're going do it, then do it," Harry growled.

"Of course," Gwen breathed.

She slipped herself down onto him. Her barrier broke, but Gwen didn't really feel that much pain. Maybe for a couple of seconds, but her adrenaline dulled any sensation of pain when she came all the way down on Harry's tool.

Harry grunted when her wet walls enveloped him. Gwen rose up and brought herself down onto him. Her tight, warm, walls stuck to him, gripping his cock with a wonderful suction.

"Damn, Gwen, you're so fucking tight," Harry groaned. "And you feel hotter than….a furnace."

Harry's hands grabbed her shapely ass and she brought herself down onto him once again. The heated pussy wrapped hard around his tool when she pumped Harry into her depths.

"I love your hard cock inside my body, Harry, fucking me hard," Gwen said. She bit down on her lip and spoke in a soft voice, "Do you like fucking me tight little pussy, hard?"

"Yes," Harry groaned. He buried his face between her sweaty cleavage and suckled on her breast.

Gwen thought that such a thing inside her would have pain, but it had pleasure. She could ride this cock all night long and never get tired of it.

Reilly sat in the seat beside her and Gwen decided to help out her frustrated friend until it was her turn. Gwen pushed her fingers deep into Reilly's cunt.

The brunette women could feel Gwen's sticky fingers work into her hot cunt.

"She feels so tight, you'll enjoy her," Gwen breathed.

She bounced up and down on Harry's cock. Harry gripped her ass and made her bounce high up and crash down on his cock.

"I'm not done with you, yet," Harry breathed in her ear.

"No, you're not," Gwen whimpered. Her wet walls leaked down onto his tool and she came down onto him.

Her wet pussy clenched around his cock and released its way inside her. Harry felt himself encased between her folds.

He dove down and attacked her breasts again. That really got her moaning and groaning, working up and down on him on his throbbing cock. Her wet walls slid up and down on him.

Gwen came hard with a shrieking moan. She released Reilly's pussy and shoved her cum soaked fingers in Harry's mouth.

"Delicious," Harry said, after sucking her fingers dry. "Are you going to cum with me?"

Gwen nodded eagerly. She bounced high up and drove her wet pussy down onto Harry's throbbing tool. It was brought as far between her legs as possible. Gwen allowed herself a hungry little moan when her pussy brought itself down on Harry's massive rod. Each spike inside her caused Gwen to whimper with delight.

She rose herself up and drilled her pussy down onto Harry, his tool encased inside her wet snatch. She pumped him.

"Damn, here it comes," Harry grunted. He suckled on Gwen's nipple.

That caused her to throw her head back. Gwen impaled herself down on Harry's cock. It throbbed inside her and her wet sticky pussy tightened around him. Her nipples stuck in front of his face and Harry suckled them hard again.

She milked him over the edge and behind. Harry came up inside her, splattering the insides of her wall with his cum. It shot a huge load inside her pussy.

Gwen pulled out and instantly, Reilly threw herself over Harry's lap. Her wet slit rubbed up and down his tool.

"Don't think that I was just sitting here for that," Reilly breathed. She felt Harry's tool grow and she smiled.

Reilly's breasts pressed against Harry's chest, when she rose up. She brought herself down onto his manhood. Her tight box clamped around him.

"Perfect fit," Reilly groaned. She rose up on him and brought herself down on him. "Oh yes, oh fuck yes!"

Harry squeezed her breasts and encouraged Reilly's bouncing to increase. She rose up onto him and brought herself down onto his tool. She panted heavily when she was working herself up and down on him, his cock being milked by her tight pussy muscles.

He spanked her hard on the ass.

"Do you like that?" Harry growled.

"Love it," Reilly said. She leaned back against the back of the seat, so Harry could fuck her hard.

Her legs balanced on top of Harry's shoulders and he drilled her pussy harder with the added leverage.

Gwen licked Harry and toyed with Reilly's clit in the moment where his cock slid in and out of Reilly's pussy. Reilly moaned when she brought herself down hard onto Harry's throbbing prick.

Harry felt her milk him and Gwen really wasn't going to be denied. He decided to shove his fingers in her ass. That caused her to moan and she sucked Reilly's breasts when Harry fucked her.

"Damn it, oh I'm cumming so fucking hard," Reilly breathed. She could feel Harry's manhood push deep inside her extremely hard.

Harry felt his massive prick be squeezed, "I'm going to enjoy cumming inside this tight, young, pussy!"

He thrust inside her and Reilly's eyes screwed shut. She felt pretty much everything go wild. Her body went numb with pleasure.

Her orgasm hit first and lubricated Harry's tool. Harry slammed into her hard and he reached his orgasm. She knew that she couldn't hold back for that much longer.

His balls tightened and fired a heavy load inside her pussy. He fired several spurts of cum inside her, launching his essence inside her.

Gwen's tongue found the inside of Reilly's pussy and sucked out Harry's gift. Harry's cock quickly took Gwen from behind.

Harry got back, with very little time passing thanks to the time dilation spells. Both girls were too horny at first, and then well fucked to really pay attention to the fact that very little time had passed.

The two girls put their clothes back. They weren't too ruined, at least not enough for them to care.

"So, I'm full, for now," Gwen said. She still nuzzled herself into Harry's side and Reilly pressed herself against Harry's other side. Their curves enticingly rubbed against Harry's body.

Harry could tell that these tests might be an adventure, but outside of some general playfulness, they were sated, at least for now.

**To Be Continued on July 25** **th** **, 2015.**


	114. Risky Business Part Five

**Chapter One Hundred and Fourteen "Risky Business" Part Five.**

* * *

 

The sex proved to be extremely intense, but Harry thought that he got it out of the system of the girls, at least right now. He escorted Gwen and Reilly into the elevator, up until the Evans penthouse. He told Faora to meet him, and she agreed to do so.

While he didn't have everything completely set up the way that he wanted to, he had enough of everything set up where he could check out the two girls. Both of these girls stood on either side of him.

"I can't believe we did that," Reilly murmured.

"You regret that?" Gwen asked her.

"I didn't say that I regretted it," Reilly informed her. Gwen blinked and she nodded in response. "I just can't really believe that we did it."

Gwen had to agree with that point. She had thought about it, but thinking about it, and doing it was really two different things. And she had to admit that it did a wonderful job of clearing her heads.

"I can't believe a spider bite increased our sex drives," Gwen murmured.

"It caused us to excrete pheromones," Reilly suggested. "To ensnare a strong mate, that being Harry, I guess, although he returned fire. He didn't really do anything to discourage us, after all."

Reilly grinned when she looked at Harry. Harry turned back to her, with a smile crossing his face when he looked straight into Reilly's bright blue eyes. The silence hung in the air like some kind of demented pendulum.

"Are you complaining?" Harry asked.

"Why does everything think that when I'm making a comment, that I'm complaining," Reilly said. She turned towards Gwen, who offered a rather noncommittal shrug in response. Reilly slumped her shoulders down, sighing, obviously getting no help on that end, at least what she assumed.

"It's not you saying something," Gwen said. She reached around the other side of Harry and placed her hand on Reilly's shoulder. "It's just the way that you said it, that might end up rubbing people the wrong way."

Reilly shook her head and sighed. She guessed that she could deal with that. With a smile, she stepped back and Harry waved for them to take a seat in the main sitting room area. Both girls found their way to a really cozy couch. Harry reached into his bag and pulled out the necessary equipment to draw a blood sample from each of the girls.

"So?" Gwen asked. Harry raised his eyebrow and she saw that she had his attention, so she pressed on. "Should we be concerned that you always have the equipment that you need to run some tests?"

"Never hurts to be prepared," Harry said. He motioned for them to extend their arms forward. "It's just going to be a small prick."

Gwen tried to resist saying what she thought next, but she couldn't do it. Such a low hanging fruit begged to be plucked off of the vine.

"Well, after the big prick we both felt earlier, it shouldn't be anything, "Gwen said. She felt something pinch her and realized that it was not any needle, it was Reilly.

"You're really subtle, you know that?" she asked in annoyance.

Gwen grinned, but she winced a little bit when she felt the blood being withdrawn from her. She closed her eyes and felt it drawn out of her body.

The door opened and Alexandra Potter entered the room.

"The two of you remember my cousin, Alexandra, don't you?" Harry asked.

"We met at Fashion week," Gwen recalled. She smiled and rose straight to a standing position. "It's kind of hard not to remember someone like you, someone so brilliant and beautiful…..you know, you should stick around for a bit, we wouldn't mind the company."

"We really wouldn't," Reilly agreed with a smile.

Alex smiled. She could sense some light pheromones. She turned to Harry, "So, what do you want me to do?"

"Keep them company while I run some tests in the lab on their blood," Harry informed her. She nodded in response. "Do whatever you can to keep them entertained."

"That's giving me an extensive license," Alex said, but never the less, she parted ways with Harry and walked over.

Harry entered a laundry room over to the side and set up his equipment. He reached into the bag and pulled out a crystal, and plugged it into a black box. The holographic form of Lara showed up and Harry set up the rest of his equipment.

"They were bitten by one of the genetically altered spiders, I managed to acquire one of them," Harry said. He set down the vial with the spider and needed to test it. "I'm hoping that it isn't that dangerous what happened, but I don't think that it would be."

Lara looked over his shoulder, and offered her honest assessment, "Well, it looks like their DNA is changing….it's still somewhat human, but it's like they're evolving, but into what?"

"I don't know," Harry said. "We're going to have to have them monitored over the next couple of weeks, maybe the next couple of months. Make sure there aren't any side effects."

"You mean other than a super powered libido?" Lara asked, noticing the love bites on Harry's neck.

"Yes, other than that," Harry said. He continued to run a scan on the blood, and frowned. He set up some more equipment. "I'm going to need to arrange some tests. Their stamina and pain tolerance is extremely high, I know that much. They're pretty strong as well. Other than that, I don't know."

Harry didn't know, but he intended to find out. He exited the lab to tell Gwen and Reilly the good news. He exited the room and saw Gwen placing her hands on Alex's waist.

"Join us," Gwen muttered.

"I think Harry has some news for you first," Alex said. She placed herself down on the couch right next to Gwen, and Reilly got up to make some room for Harry.

The moment Harry sat down, Reilly plopped herself down on Harry's lap. Gwen folded her arms and pouted, wondering why she didn't think of that. Reilly gave her a smug smile.

"So, we're not going to grow extra arms, are we?" Reilly asked.

"That would be hot," Gwen suggested. Reilly gave her a cross look. "Just saying, that's all."

Both girls snickered and Harry gave them one of those looks. Said look caused the girls to just laugh even harder.

"I don't think that anything like that is going to happen," Harry said. Gwen and Reilly shook their heads and both smiled. "But, Alex and I are going to have to put you through a full round of tests to make sure that everything is going to end up okay."

"So do you have something set up here?" Gwen asked.

"We can set something up," Alex confirmed to her. The two Potters got up and lead the way down the hallway.

' _A bit eager aren't they?'_ Faora asked.

Harry grinned, and told her, _'You should have been with us when we were in the car.'_

' _Is it really bad that I'm disappointed that I wasn't?'_ she asked and Harry smiled.

"No way, no way, no way!" Gwen said. She saw what Harry did in the converted laundry room.

"How did you do this so fast?" Reilly asked.

"An experimental Nano-Technology that RAO is working on, although it's about a year or two of even getting close to being put out on the market," Harry informed them both. Both of them nodded, they would expect that.

"Wicked, completely awesome, but how do you run something like that?" Reilly asked.

"Wicked, are you turning British on me, Reilly?" Gwen teased her. Reilly gave her a mocking swat against the shoulder and Gwen stuck out her tongue in response.

"You know what I meant," Reilly answered. "So, how do you do it, Harry, how do you run all of this?"

"That would be me," a voice said and the two girls turned around to see a hard light holographic projection of a woman. She was gorgeous and well built, with blonde hair and gorgeous blue eyes that shined. "My name is Lara, and you must be Gwen and Reilly."

"AI?"" Gwen asked. Harry nodded. "Wow, that's….I knew RAO was on the cutting edge, but I didn't know….wow, that looks like just….wow….."

Gwen's voice failed her and she found herself struck completely speechless.

"I think she's rather impressed," Alex said.

Reilly laughed when she nudged Gwen slightly. "I think that you broke her."

"I'm not broken," Gwen murmured. "I'm just really surprised that's all….can't I be surprised? Is it a crime to be surprised?"

"Not at the slightest," Harry agreed, with a warm smile directed towards Gwen. She leaned back and closed her eyes to relax. "So, should we begin the tests?"

Gwen and Reilly thought that there was a bit more to this setup than met the eye, but they couldn't really put their finger on it, at least they couldn't now. They would do their best to find out, though.

"I think we're ready," Gwen said.

"Best, I can tell, you're enhanced, but the question is how enhanced?"

* * *

 

Alison Blaire decided to return back to her apartment. She didn't go straight back, but she realized that she would have to face her roommate/handler sooner than later. The record studio seemed intent for her to have a minder. Given the kind of creeps that a young and gorgeous pop star could attract, she couldn't say she was surprised.

She unlocked the door and clicked it open. The door swung open and she turned on the light. Alison stopped and stared. There was a woman with shoulder length dark hair sitting on the couch, dressed in a tight black tank top, a jean jacket, and a pair of tight leather black pants. She had her legs crossed and her foot dangled to the music.

"Hi, Daisy," Alison said. She didn't really have the sunny tone that would normally have in this voice.

Her arms folded together and her foot continued to keep tapping. It was obvious that she was a bit upset and Alison walked across the room.

"Sit," Daisy informed her. Alison could tell that she was agitated. She decided that it would for the best not to provoke her any more. "Explain."

"Well," Alison said, after collecting her thoughts. "You know….there was a pretty good reason why I slipped out….I know that….well it wasn't like that I was alone, I went with Betsy and Meggan, Betsy was the one who invited me."

"Yes, the Braddocks, I know," Daisy said. She kept a keen eye on the Braddocks closely, but that was on a need to know basis and right now, Alison didn't really need to know. "I can't believe that you did what you did. I thought that we came to an understanding!"

Alison shifted. She hated when something like this happened and she felt extremely guilty. Her arms folded, "I….."

Daisy reached forward and touched her finger gently to Alison's lips.

"How dare you go there and not invite me along?" Daisy asked. Alison blinked.

"You would have….?" Alison asked. She left the question to hang and Daisy nodded in confirmation.

"I would have," Daisy agreed. "God knows I needed a night to unwind, given how wild you could tend to be when you get wound tightly. And it would have given me a chance to get plenty wild with you."

Alison wondered if the innuendo was intentional or not. Daisy smiled.

"Plus, I would have liked to meet Harry Potter," Daisy informed her.

"You and about every other woman with a pulse," Alison said.

Daisy gave a slight frown and touched her hand on the top of Alison's, "But, seriously, Ali, we've had that conversation before. You know you can't slip away alone without telling me where you went….it's too much of a security risk. Especially when you told me you would be somewhere else and I felt like an idiot when you didn't turn up."

Alison looked apologetic to her. "I'm really….."

"I know," Daisy said. She leaned back against the couch and sighed. "What's done is done, I guess. There really isn't that much more we can do about it."

"Betsy was with me, so I wasn't alone," Alison reminded her.

"Yes, I know," Daisy commented. She didn't really forget about that. Daisy decided that it was best that she kept in Alison's good graces, because she was watched by people extremely closely. "So, how was he?"

Alison's head snapped up and she looked at Daisy, like she had grown two heads, like she didn't know what the woman was talking about. Even though she knew precisely what the woman was talking about.

"Come on, I can tell that you got laid," Daisy said. "You had that look on your face. The 'I got laid and it was pretty fucking good' look. The look that most women would give anything to have."

The Dazzling Pop Star gave a knowing grin. She would have to say that she was guilty as charged.

"Well, wouldn't you like to know?"

Daisy smiled, the girl really knew how to drag things out and not in a good way.

"Yes, I would like to know, because I wouldn't have asked if I didn't want to know."

* * *

 

Jack Napier had a wonderful and quite awful idea. He actually was the type of person who could get inspired rather easily and he found his inspiration, his muse, through the last encounter with the Red Hood. Sure, he got his fair share of war wounds during that battle, but he was never the less inspired.

If Jack was nothing else, he was a performance artist, and he wanted to ensure that Gotham City had a better class of criminal.

He looked at the Red Hood, and figured that anything that he could do, Jack could do better.

Jack spent the better part of the last three days, shut up in his mancave, and when he came out. Jack made his way towards a rather well-worn shop in Old Gotham. His faithful sidekick, Bob the Goon, tagged along with him on this magical encounter.

"Bob, my boy, this man, if anyone can help me on this endeavor, it's this man," Jack said. Bob craned his neck and he nodded in response. "He's been in the business of making….fancy armor for some kind. The things this man can do in a cave with a box of scraps, well you wouldn't believe it. And now, if I commission some work, I can be someone that Gotham City respects."

Bob nodded and he stepped forward to join his boss.

"Nah, you better sit out in the car, Bob," Jack said. "Hate to say it, but Old Mel, he doesn't take too kindly to strangers, and you could be pretty strange when you want to be."

Bob the Goon rolled his eyes and shrugged. He returned and sat back down in the car until his boss returned.

Jack made his way into the shop, humming a merry tune underneath his breath. There was a spring in his step and a song in his heart. He was in a fairly good mood to be honest.

He made his way into the shop. It didn't look like anyone had dusted in a long time, which he didn't really mind. It gave the shop some needed character and he couldn't argue with that.

He reached forward and he rang the bell.

From the back room of the shop, a grey haired man with thick glasses, dressed in a rather horrible custom made suit, exited the back room. He was surprised to see Jack standing there.

"Well, there goes the neighborhood!" the grey haired man said. "Little Jack, it's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"It has, Old Mel," Jack said. "But, I'm not here for one of those warm and fuzzy reunions, I'm here for some actual business."

Old Mel recovered quickly from the look of surprise.

"And I figured that someone of your immense talents could get the job done, just like that," Jack replied.

Old Mel looked rather intrigued. Call him a sucker, but he enjoyed when his curiosity had been piqued and his curiosity most certainly had been piqued.

"Take a look at this," Jack said. He slapped a sketchpad with a rather detailed design on the table.

Old Mel looked at the paper and his mouth hung open. He resembled someone who was catching flies, so he reined himself in, "That is….isn't it?"

"Yes, it is, yes it is," Jack said. He figured that he should spell it out clearly, so there was no questions about it. "That's the Red Hood, only better. The real question is can you make it?"

Old Mel looked almost insulted by Jack questioning his ability to make something like that.

"Of course I can make it," Old Mel said. He tapped his fingers on the table.

Jack responded with some laughter. Old Mel looked at him like he was a bit bent.

"Yeah, I know, got a few screws knocked loose, but Gotham deserves a better class of criminal," Jack said. He placed his hands down on the table and looked in Old Mel's eyes. "It's time that I give it to them."

Old Mel was excited about the work that would be put his way. There wasn't that much work given ever since the gangs ruled into town. Any commission would go a long way of reviving and he finally had that old spark that he found he was lacking for an extremely long time.

* * *

 

Harold Osborn wanted to take certain steps to prove that he was fit to run OsCorp, that they didn't need to bring in outside help. He knew all about the type of person that Harry Potter was and he wanted to stop him. If Harold just sat back, Potter would take everything from him, including the girls and every dime to his name, along with his company, his birthright.

Harold came to one conclusion and the best way to show his worth was to finish his father's work. He had been present when the accident happened and whatever happened was a distant memory in the back of his mind.

Therapy suppressed what happened on that night. One thing was for certain, Harold intended to finish his father's work.

"Are you sure that you want to go through this?"

Harold thought that the voice of self-doubt manifested itself at the worst possible time possible. However, it wasn't his own voice of self-doubt that popped up at the worst possible time, it was the voice of one Michael Morbius.

"Yes, Doctor Morbius, I wouldn't have agreed with this, unless I knew absolutely that I was sure about it," Harold informed him. He looked at the scientist. "You seemed to be all in on working on this project before."

"Yes," Morbius agreed. "But, given what happened to your father and Doctor Octavius…"

"I think that someone sabotaged their project," Harold breathed. "My father allowed too many people to be on it….I'm guessing it was Fiers or maybe Menken or maybe….it was Potter, wasn't it?"

"Careful," Morbius said, placing his hand on the younger Osborn's shoulder.

"It was Potter, he planned this coup of the company, and Hardy and the rest of the board were in on it, and….Gwen and Reilly were conspiring against me because they had been brainwashed by Harry Potter!" Harold ranted. He held his breath and remembered his breathing exercise. "I wouldn't be surprised if he stole Mary Jane and Liz as well."

"Yes, spurned love, it can be a harsh thing that bruises the heart," Morbius said. "But instead of complaining about what Harry Potter may have done….."

"He did it, he killed my father, I know that he did!" Harold thundered. His eyes went wide and crazed.

He felt a headache going on. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his medication. He took out two pills, and popped them into his mouth. He found himself go into a blissful state of tranquility.

"Prepare the trial," Harold said.

Morbius wasn't sure if it was a good idea to run this particular trial when Harold was on his medication, but the young man was already stripped to his underwear and he entered the chamber.

"Just think of what this could do, Doctor," Harold said. "If the formula works, it might be able to cure the affliction that you have."

Morbius was well aware of that particular affliction. A rare blood disease that required a blood transfusion every six months plagued him and he thought that the OZ formula might be his ticket. But he wanted to test on someone else.

"A small amount of OZ is being released, no more than two drops, converted into gaseous form," Morbius said. "The quantity increased during subsequent trials."

Morbius struggled not to add if there were subsequent trials. It seemed like a 50/50 shot whether or not Harold would even survive the first trial. Morbius calmly reached into a desk drawer and removed a gun, placing it firmly on the desk. You could never be too careful.

Harold was put under in the tank so he could be exposed to the formula properly. Morbius activated the switch.

"Trial One of Oz3, releasing the quantity into the tank, now," Morbius said.

He watched the liquid being pumped into a converter and it was converted into gas. They would have to do these trials after hours, when no one was hanging around. If the Board caught wind with what they were doing, it would be both of their necks on the line.

Harold would be out of his position in the company and Morbius would be looking for a job. And he needed this job, if he wanted to support the blood transfusions.

His eyes flickered to a cage with vampire bats. And if he wanted to complete his life's work, he needed OsCorp's resources.

He watched Harold's vital signs spike in an erratic manner. That would be just about right.

They grew rather calm, if a bit better than they were. Harold stepped out of the tank, with a bright smile on his face. His eyes glinted in the light.

"Mr. Osborn, how are you feeling?" Morbius asked.

Harold breathed in and breathed out and his teeth spread into an extremely toothy grin. He looked towards Morbius.

"I feel like a million dollars!" Harold said. He jumped up in the air.

He felt a tingling sensation through his body and he smiled. He reached over and punched a bag that had been set up in the office.

The bag registered a huge amount of force directed towards it, through Harold's fist turned purple when he connected with it.

Seconds later, the bruising disappeared. Harold's happiness bubbled deep within his bosom.

"Same time next Monday, Doctor Morbius?"

"I'll need you back tomorrow evening to monitor for any….side effects," Morbius said.

Harold only barely acknowledged him. He was going to hit the town and find some hot chick to take home and potentially make a woman out of her. He felt like he could take on the entire world.

"Going to have to monitor his mental state and keep close watch on him from afar," Morbius said. He dialed up the phone. "Yes, Mr. Fiers, the first trial has been completed. He doesn't suspect anything."

* * *

 

Harry slowly studied the results of the tests on the computer. Faora perched on his lap when the two of them looked over the test results. Gwen and Reilly crashed in the guest bedroom after Faora and Harry put them through the paces. And then they ran some tests to see the full capabilities of their powers.

"Well, their strength, stamina, and strength have increased," Harry commented. "They appear to be slightly different, but whether it's because they are different girls or not, I really don't know."

"Gwen looks to be a bit stronger, a bit quicker, and a bit more agile," Faora commented. She looked over things. "But Reilly had a bit more of a growth spurt, and she has developed these stingers and some kind of venom blast powers, even though she couldn't consciously access how to use them yet."

"Yes, not yet, but with the proper training, both girls could master their powers," Harry said. "Although they would need some proper training."

"Once they hop onto the bond, are you thinking about bringing them in?" Faora asked.

Harry thought about it. It was only inevitable that these two girls would end up being brought onto the bond in some form or fashion.

"You know it wouldn't hurt to give them training, although it would be a long time off," Harry said. "We need to give Kara some training, especially after that little escapade she pulled the last time."

"Yes, that," Faora agreed. "We won't even talk about what she did the first time. Figured that the first time was just an isolated incident, given the circumstances. And the incident in Smallville with Markos….well that couldn't be helped. But….I think that if she wants to be involved, you need to prepare her for everything."

Harry smiled when Faora got off his lap.

"So, will we ever see you out on the field?" Harry asked.

Faora looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "I can't see myself being out there anytime soon but….never say never. I think that Karen and I got more than enough to deal with. But, then again, you have more than enough to deal with, and you're out on the field pretty much every night, risking life and limb."

Faora clasped her hands together and leaned forward. There was a knock on the door.

"The door's open, Kara," Harry informed her.

Kara entered the room and Harry had to say, she looked amazingly beautiful, even more so than normal. Her hair was done up nicely and she wore a little red dress that fit against her curves. The stockings she wore clung to her legs and she managed to balance herself rather nicely on a pair of high heels.

She smiled when she saw that Harry was ready to go. Kara crossed the room and threw her arms around Harry.

Harry overwhelmed her and pushed her against the wall. He kissed her, pushing his tongue into her mouth. Kara returned fire and their tongues danced together in an attempt to overwhelm the other.

She moaned deep in his mouth when Harry's hands brushed over her ass, running his hands over them. Kara smiled when his tongue dug into her mouth.

He left her breathless, slumped against the wall with an intense kiss.

"So, are you looking forward to this?" Harry asked her.

Kara pulled herself away from the wall, looping her arm around his, "Are you kidding? I've been waiting for this for a long time."

She really did hope that everything went well, not that she would voice that hope out loud. Kara felt voicing a hope nothing went wrong tempted a whole lot of fate.

"I talked to Felicia and Mary Jane, and they both recommended the hottest clubs in the city to go to," Kara said.

"I don't know about you, but I'd trust their judgment," Harry replied.

"Yeah, I would as well," Kara commented. She pressed her head on the back of Harry's neck and her lips pressed against the back of his neck. "But, it really doesn't matter, as long as I spend some time with you, that's what matters. I know we've both been busy, but that's really no excuse."

Harry laughed. He suspected that Kara got a point. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in even tighter towards him.

Faora smiled and cleared her throat.

"The two of you have a good night, and I'll take care of anything with Reilly and Gwen, should it come up," Faora said.

Kara looked at Harry curiously, when he escorted her into the elevator. She knew a little bit about what happened, but she had been in and out of the bond link all day.

Harry sensed her curiosity, "Don't worry, I'll tell you about it."

Kara was pretty certain that Harry would tell her everything. The two of them went down from the top floor of the penthouse and prepared for what was likely to be an extremely magical evening.

* * *

 

Wilson Fisk sat in his office, contemplating his next move. His wife's not so subtle comments really got to him to be honest. And he wasn't the type of person who would just let things go.

Fisk dialed up a number, trying to get in touch with his wife. Vanessa still gave him the cold shoulder after he ducked out earlier during the high society benefit. But, given how she talked to Anatasia Hardy, she seemed to enjoy herself.

One day, once everything had calmed down, he would fix it.

"Vanessa, this is Wilson, if you get this message, call me back, I'll be at my office late tonight," Fisk said. He put the phone down.

Voice mail again, and it was hard to tell whether or not she was out with friends, or she was just deliberating ignoring him. Her claims that she should perhaps direct her interest elsewhere like Wilson was doing really annoyed her.

Fisk had to admit though, Harry Potter intrigued him. And when someone like that intrigued him, Fisk needed to know more about how they operated. Potter might have been a big deal in Gotham City, but this was a different place.

How good was he? Were any of the rumors true? Fisk didn't know.

He got back on back on the phone, but he wasn't with his wife. He waited patiently for the phone to ring through.

An obviously distorted voice responded over the phone, "Speak."

"You know who this is," Fisk said. "I have a job for your unique talents."

"Tell me more," the distorted voice said.

"I'll tell you, when we meet at the usual location," Fisk said. "How soon can you be in Hell's Kitchen?"

"By sunrise," the distorted voice informed him.

"Excellent, then I will meet you then," Fisk said. He put down the phone on his desk and he got up to stretch his legs.

He looked out the window. He built a lot of this from the ground up. The people out their owed a lot to him, but Fisk enjoyed a challenge. It gave him something to strive for.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 5th, 2015.**


	115. Risky Business Part Six

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen "Risky Business" Part Six.**

* * *

 

The bright lights of New York City beckoned for Harry and Kara when they went out on the town. The couple dressed to the nines. Harry helped Kara out of the limo.

Kara was really pleased went out the town with her husband. Normally she took part of a big outing of other girls, but this time she savored pretty much every last moment along with Harry. Her lips curled into a grin. The two of them approached a night club in the middle of New York.

The night life in New York City turned out to be far different from the night life in Gotham City. Gotham City bustled with activity, but a sense of urgency existed where a wild night could turn around for the worst. New York wasn't without its fair share of crimes and a couple of colorful individuals, but there were far few chances to go out.

Kara and Harry ordered their drinks and sat down next to the bar. Casually, Kara reclined up next to Harry. Harry's hand brushed against her hair and she smiled when she kept relaxing against him.

"Finally," Kara said. "I have wanted to have some time for you for alone, for so long, you wouldn't believe it."

"Yes, I can tell," Harry said. The waitress brought them an ice cream sundae at the bar to share. "You know, all you needed to do if you wanted to spend some time with me, is just ask."

"Is it really simple?" Kara asked. She placed some ice cream on a spoon and slowly ate it. She turned around and fed Harry a bite. "I mean, half of the time we go out on the town, I feel like something is going to come up."

Harry chuckled. Story of his life, something comes up on a date.

"Which is why you scored the free time in New York, better chance….." Harry said.

The words faded from Harry's mouth. Kara shoved more ice cream into his mouth to shut him up before he jinxed the entire night.

Kara shoved a bit too much into Harry's mouth. She turned around and slowly licked the ice cream off of his lips. She got a few jealous looks from a couple of the fellow club goers, which only prompted Kara to start licking the ice cream from his lip.

Harry grabbed a spoon and fed it to Kara as well. Kara gave a slow and sensual bite of the ice cream. She licked her lips.

"But, this looks to be a nice place, I think we should hit the dance floor now," Kara said. "I think we've both improved loads since the Academy Ball."

"Yeah, it was a good thing they had some insurance," Harry said.

Kara accidentally dropped the ice cream on her thigh. She scooped it off and fed it to Harry. Harry savored the taste of the ice cream his wife gave him.

Soon, between the both of them, the ice cream was gone. Harry smiled and stood to his feet. Kara wrapped her arms around him and he dragged her into the center of the dance floor.

Kara squealed in delight when Harry spun her and dipped her back from his position. She touched the dance floor and Harry leaned forward, to kiss her on the side of her neck. She closed her eyes to savor the moment.

"So, what was with earlier today?" Harry asked.

Kara knew Harry ended up bring up a certain point sooner or later. The two of them maneuvered their way to the side of dance floor. The two gave the people on the dance floor room to breathe, along with Harry and Kara having a private conversation.

"Yeah, what I did was kind of spur of the moment," Kara said. "But, you have to admit, I know why you're out there, and….I think if I was out there, we could get a lot more done. You guys….you're spread a bit thin as it is."

Harry couldn't really argue with Kara's point.

"I mean, Diana joined you out on the field finally, and I figure Karen would be on there, once things start running themselves at RAO," Kara suggested to him. "So, after Smallville, I need to step up my training anyway. But, nothing beats practical experience, you know what I mean."

"And you want to be able to keep a closer eye on me, because I keep getting hurt, don't you?" Harry asked.

Kara hesitated for a moment. Harry squeezed her hand to get her to look at him.

"Can you blame me, given you got knocked out of a window not too long back?" Kara asked. "If only I was able to fly out and catch you without breaking my cover…..when do you think people will be able to get used to the fact someone could fly?"

"It's a long time coming," Harry said. "If you really want to do this, it's time to step up your training. And I mean your actual physical training. Which means you need to get up early and join me, Dinah, and Diana, in sparring in the morning. It's going to be a lot of intense training before you're field ready. Both mentally and physically."

"Hey, I want to do it," Kara said.

"And when you train, you're going to have to wear an inhibitor watch like I wear, so you can get used to not using your powers," Harry said.

Kara conceded the point. She didn't want to be a person who relied on her powers, as a crutch.

"We'll discuss this more when we get back to Gotham City. Delaying it until then will give you plenty of time to think how much you really want this," Harry said.

Kara made up her mind. She wanted this so bad.

Nyssa sent Harry a bond "private message.

' _So, do you want me to help train her?'_

' _You really have the time?'_ Harry asked.

' _I can pop in fairly often,'_ Nyssa said. _'I taught you a lot.'_

' _Yes, but I'd prefer not to send her in on the deep end swimming with the sharks,'_ Harry thought. _'I want to give her some time to think about this anyway, because I think she's still riding a high from Smallville. The adrenaline's hitting her hard.'_

' _The heart always wants what it wants, beloved,'_ Nyssa said.

"So, do you think Fashion Week is a rousing success?" Kara asked.

"Yes, I think Fashion Week's a rousing success, Lavender was really pleased with how everything has gone down," Harry said.

Kara laughed and leaned in to Harry with a dazzling grin on her face.

"Plus you nabbed yourself a hot young pop star, so talk about a really success week, wouldn't you agree?"

"Just an added perk," Harry said.

Kara giggled, even more so when Harry dipped her back. He started to kiss her on the side of her neck.

* * *

 

Harry and Kara enjoyed the night on the town, and even better, it ended without any kind of dangerous incident. It must have been some kind of new record they could avoid the trouble normally stalking Harry on his outings with his girls.

They didn't want to jinx themselves, so neither said anything until they returned to the penthouse. They had a little bit to drink, which wasn't really a problem. Kara kissed on the side of Harry's neck and running her hands down his body. He returned her fire by feeling him up.

"You know, you could wait until we get up to the penthouse," Harry said.

Kara puffed out her lip in a pouty tone.

"But Harry!" she said.

Harry swatted her on the ass and caused her to straighten up and she looked at him, biting down on her lip with an atomic pout. She looked nearly adorable, and Harry clutched her close to his body. He gave her a light kiss on the top of her head and the elevator dinged.

They entered the sitting area of the penthouse and came across Faora, who reclined on the couch. She wore a transparent robe and really nothing else underneath. She leaned into a laptop and studied the facts on it.

"The two nymphos finally went to bed," Faora said. "Or rather, I wore them out and they passed out."

"Don't deny it, you didn't have fun," Kara said.

Faora smiled. She zeroed in on the marks on both Harry's neck and Kara's neck.

"Well, it's obvious you had plenty of fun, didn't you?" Faora asked.

"The fun had just started, I think," Harry said.

"Fair enough," Faora said. She rose to her feet and edged to the bedroom. "I don't want to get in your way, but I figured I'd stay up to tell you, there have been no dangerous side effects. Their sex drive is likely to taper off a little bit."

"Define a little bit?" Kara asked.

Faora clarified for them, because there's a lot of variables to discuss.

"They won't want to fuck twenty four hours a day, without any break. Although, I had to remind them they needed to eat. You'd be surprised how often the fact someone needs to eat gets lost on the horny and helpless. And speaking of which, we're going to need to replenish the groceries in the penthouse fridge, because they're out."

"Of course we are, "Harry said. Kara snickered until Harry glared at her. She laughed even more. "So, is there anything else?"

"Well, it's pretty much it," Faora said. "I think we learned a lot from them, and…..I think we're going to have to keep monitoring them. Given the business deal I made, I'm going to have to be flying in to New York a fair bit often, even after this week is over, so I'll be able to keep an eye on them."

"Really good, I'm glad," Harry said. "So, how is the deal going?"

"I think she's pretty interested in it, she was impressed with how we performed and what we had to offer at Fashion Week," Faora said. "I'm sure Lavender will be pleased working with her as well, but I don't want to tell her until I seal the deal."

Kara smiled.

"Well, I'm sure Lavender will be over the moon when you do it."

"She will," Faora said.

Faora placed her hand over her mouth to attempt to stifle a yawn. She barely blocked out the yawn.

"You never yawn and you never get tired," Kara said.

Faora shifted and sighed.

"Well to be fair, those two were more of a handful than I expected."

"And you're not complaining about it at all, are you?" Harry asked her.

"Are you kidding?" Faora asked. "You know I relish the challenge."

She leaned forward and pressed her lips onto Harry's, giving him a soft little kiss. Kara folded her arms and Faora grabbed Kara and wrapped her arms around her. Faora shoved her tongue into Kara's mouth with an intense kiss.

Harry watched the erotic spectacle conclude. Faora pulled away from Kara, a trail of salvia forming from their mouths. She turned around towards Harry and a grin formed across her lips, when she placed her hand on his chest.

"Sorry, I didn't put as much passion into your kiss, here, I'll make it to you," Faora said.

Harry caught the game in a matter of seconds. Faora intended for her first kiss to be a slight tease and the kiss to Kara to stir Harry's passions. Faora's lips, still brimming with Kara's taste, smashed against Harry's. She ran his hands across his body and Harry could feel her naked skin press against him, on the other end of her robe.

"Well, have a good night, both of you," Faora said.

"We will," Kara said. She grabbed Harry's hand and led him into one of the master bedrooms.

Kara threw herself at Harry, wrapping her arms around his neck and his legs around his waist. The feisty blonde smashed her lips into his with an intense kiss. The two of them fell back onto the bed, their legs wrapped around him.

Harry took advantage of the distraction to take Kara and roll her over on the bed. He peppered her face with a series of kisses to the side of her face and kissed down her neck.

He pulled back from Kara and viewed her lovely form, the way the dress clung to her body.

"This dress looks nice, but you know, I'd think it'd look even better on the ground beside our bed," Harry said.

Kara responded with a saucy little smirk.

"Well, then, take it off."

Harry relieved Kara of her dress. She rested on the bet, wearing a lacy black bra, a matching pair of panties, a garter belt, and a set of stockings. She looked at Harry, her golden blonde hair draping over her head. A smoldering look burned in her eyes.

"Harry?" Kara asked.

"Yes, Kara," Harry said.

"Well, I really think you're a little bit overdressed," Kara said. She sat up and removed his suit jacket and unbuttoned his shirt.

She slowly stripped him of his clothes, making a bit of a show of it. His clothes dropped to the ground to the floor, with his underwear being the last article on the floor.

"Now, you reversed the situation, you're the one who is overdressed," Harry said. He closed the distance between him and Kara. "I wonder what you're going to do about being overdressed like like you are?"

"What do you think?" Kara asked him.

Harry pulled her onto his lap. Kara straddled Harry's lap. Their tongues explored each other and hands explored their bodies.

Kara reached behind her and pulled off the bra strap.

Kara's soft, perfect, breasts bounced into the world and more importantly, into Harry's line of sight. He grabbed them and squeezed them. Kara moaned into his mouth when Harry played with her breasts.

She ground her panty clad pussy over his cock. Harry grabbed her hips and positioned her over him. Kara lost her panties, her wet pussy hovered over him.

"I need it inside me," Kara said.

Harry teased her a little bit. He wanted to make her drool for it. And she drooled for it, in pretty much every sense of the word. His throbbing head aimed for her dripping hot center and was close enough to penetrate her. Kara parted her thighs and allowed him to enter her body.

His throbbing tool spread her lips and pushed inside her molten center.

"Yes, oooh…a good spot!" Kara yelled.

Harry lifted her up by the hips and jammed her down onto him. He filled her up completely. His cock stretched her to the hilt.

Harry entered Kara many times over the years, but she had to admit nothing made her feel better than it did now. She bounced up and down on Harry's lap, driving herself down onto him.

Kara clenched Harry's tool with his cunt and released it. He slapped her ass and inspired a passionate moan to spread from Kara's throat. She rode up and down on her.

"Yes, drive my cock far into you," Harry said.

Kara was only too happy to leave up to the end of bargain. She kept driving herself up and down on Harry. Her juices dripped down Harry's pole and lubricated him.

"YES!" she screamed.

Harry's cock drove deep inside her and caused her to see stars. Kara could feel an annoying loss in her pussy. And the second later, Harry turned her over.

"Get ready," Harry said.

"I was born ready," Kara said.

"Good," he said.

With one word, Harry slammed himself inside her. Kara felt him go into her from behind. He drilled into her cunt. The little bursts of energy spread through her body felt extremely good.

Harry held onto Kara's back and plowed into her from behind. His cock enjoyed the full touch of her depths. Her soft pussy enveloped his throbbing tool when he worked himself into her. His thick balls slapped against her thighs.

"TAKE ME!" Kara yelled.

She experienced a full burst of pleasure spread through her loins. She could feel his hard cock slam into her pussy. Not at full strength, but still felt really good.

"You're going to be the death of me," Harry said.

"Death by pussy," she said. "Not too bad….fuck it….fuck it to death! Fuck me hard!"

Harry took her suggestion and give her more than she hoped for. She released him and Harry took himself almost all the way out of her. He plunged into her depths, feeling her warm center hug around him. Harry rested his hands underneath Kara's breasts.

Harry's balls ached and he knew an explosion was going to occur sooner rather than later. Harry withdrew from her and pushed inside her again. A few more rapid fire thrusts, and he was ready to go.

"Yes, oh god, yes, cum inside me, please!" Kara yelled.

Harry rammed his throbbing cock inside her tight center. His aching balls crawled closer to the period of release.

Kara's tight walls closed around him and she milked his tool as hard as possible. A tingling spread through Kara's loins. He struck her G-Spot good and made her feel like a billion dollars.

"You first," Harry said

Kara answered his words by milking his prick. The held back orgasm fired through her body and Harry rammed his thick cock into her wet quim, plowing deep into her wonderful depths.

His balls ached and the need for release increased when his balls sized up and he slammed himself into Kara's tight pussy.

Harry fired the first volley of cum inside her. It splashed inside her pussy and caused her to shriek at the top of her lungs. Her nerves were on fire when he emptied his balls for her.

The sorcerer's cum drained from her pussy and Kara turned around. She laid on her back, propped up on her elbows. She rubbed her finger across her dripping slit and gave Harry an enticing smile when she spread her legs.

"Oh, I better not make a mess," Kara said. She placed her fingers and collected Harry's cum onto them.

She slurped the dripping cum from her fingers, making a sensual sound. Her fingers were sucked completely dry when she licked them. She used her tongue to brush over her fingers and ran her fingers down across her.

Harry grabbed her hips and brought himself deep inside her. His cock was engulfed by her wet heat.

"YES, MORE!" Kara yelled.

Harry pinned her down onto the bed. Her legs balanced up against his shoulders. Harry nearly pulled all the way out of her and he brought his throbbing hard cock down into her wet dripping pussy. Her screams edged louder.

"You want everything I can give, don't you?" Harry asked.

Kara nodded. Harry teased her insides with his big cock.

The heat radiating off of her pussy was intense and she looked intent to suck Harry into her quim. Harry plunged inside her. Her pussy vibrated underneath his probing attacks when he held onto her hips and speared into her hard and fast. His rapid fire thrusts rocked her body and Kara panted when Harry drilled into her body.

"You want more, you need more, don't you?" Harry asked her.

Kara bit down on her lip. His cock drove further into her still.

"Fuck me, Har-Zod, make me scream beneath you!" she screamed, digging her nails around him shoulder

Kara's needy pussy clenched him. Harry rose up and slammed down into her. The two matched each other's strokes.

"How's do you feel?" Harry asked her. He nibbled her ear.

"Really good, baby, oh god, it's really good!" Kara screamed yelled. Her grip tightened around him.

Kara heard of the death by a million cuts, but the way Harry's hands caressed her and paid attention to her body, she experience some kind of delightful death by a million orgasms. And she relished every single last moment of it. His hands brushed over every single delightful inch of her body. His hands touched and tempted her breasts, over her legs, over her hips. Harry tightened his grip around Kara's ass and made her go wild.

Harry plowed Kara's pussy. Her nice snug pussy begged to be plowed by his cock. As much as his throbbing cock deserved to be milked hard by her, and both did so.

"Ready," Harry said.

Kara gave him a playful nip on his ear and she clenched him with a daring tightness.

"I was….born ready….and born to be fucked by….."

Harry released her backed up orgasms all at once and caused her mind to become rocked beyond all belief. Her head started to rock back and forth. Tears streamed down her face when she felt an intense rush go through her body.

"Now it's my turn."

Kara embraced the full explosion rushing into her body. She embraced his cum spilling into her. The load spilled into her pussy, coating her insides. Harry's batter leaked out to her, splashing up onto her stomach, coating it in his thick, juicy, spunk.

"Five more times," Harry said.

Kara looked up at him.

"Bring it, Har-Zod, bring it!"

* * *

Wilson Fisk pondered his options about what to do next. To be honest, he could just let it go and trying to mess with Harry Potter might not be the most prudent action. He learned about what happened to Cobblepot's club and rumors flew around Cobblepot tried to settle an old family debt against the Evans family.

Fisk heeded the warning well in mind, and most certainly it was a concern there could be retribution back to him on many fronts, if this was found out. Fisk kept the fact in the back of his mind.

' _What to do? If I don't do something decisive, I'll lose respect, in the eyes of my associates, Potter's eyes, and the eyes of my wife. I can't allow respect to be lost.'_

The large man made plans to tie up all of the loose ends. He arrived at the usual meeting place to meet with an old associate.

Sure enough, he didn't have to wait for long. An attractive woman with dark hair stepped out of the shadows. She covered half of her face, but it was obvious by her features she was Greek in origins. She wore a red top stretched around her ample top half. The bottom half of her fit snugly and showed off her strong legs. It could cause a man to stop and stare, right before he got a dagger between his eyes.

"I'm surprised you met me face to face," the woman said. She stared down Fisk. "Normally you contract me through an intermediary."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Fisk said. He looked like he towered over the woman, although he towered over her more because she crouched down. "It's a matter of honor, and I know only your services, along with those of the organization you serve are required and will carry out the mission to the fullest extent."

The woman craned her neck and frowned as her steely gaze locked onto Fisk. She stood perfectly still and rigid, waiting for the ball to be thrown back from Fisk's court.

"I require you to take out, Harry Potter," Fisk said. "The name is familiar to you, isn't it, Elektra?"

"Yes," Elektra said. The assassin knew of Harry Potter and there seemed to be a bit more to him than met the eye, but she couldn't peace together him. "You want him taken out."

"I wish for him to feel the full onslaught of your abilities," Fisk said. "I understand you know what it means. Can I trust you and the Hand to ensure Harry Potter is no longer a consideration which will get in the way of my plans?"

Fisk thought the test demonstrated a more straight forward way of thinking. If Elektra and the Hand ended up killing Harry Potter, then he failed the test. If he survived his encounter with the group, then he would be worthy of a closer look and more of Fisk's attention. He would see how dangerous and durable he was.

"It will be done,"" Elektra said.

The Greek Assassin slipped into the shadows as she appeared. Fisk checked his watch and he tapped his foot on the ground. If his hunch proved to correct, and he had no reason to dispute how accurate his hunch is, his next guest arrived in a matter of moments.

The door opened and a bald gentlemen covered with scars over his face entered the room. He held a dagger in his hand. The gentleman threw the dagger into the air and he caught it in his hand.

The assassin, known as Bullseye, prided himself on the fact he never missed a shot, ever. He looked at Fisk.

"So you contracted the Hand of all people?" Bullseye asked.

"Yes, I did," Fisk said. "You know what your role is. Should Elektra succeed in taking out Harry Potter, put an end to her, quickly and efficiently."

"Hmm," Bullseye said. "And you don't want any of Potters bitches catching wind of the fact you're trying to do him. Not to mention your old lady….I can see why you want Potter out of the way. Honest guys like us, we don't need the competition."

"You need not concern yourself with my marriage, just concern yourself with the job I've given you, and getting it right," Fisk said. Bullseye nodded, falling back into line. "Keep a close eye on the situation and….take Elektra out."

"Hey, you don't have to ask me twice," Bullseye said. As far as he was concerned, he and the bitch had a score to settle. They had been around the block more than a couple of times. Elektra humiliated Bullsey in the past.

"So, do we understand what we have to do?"

"So, just let me ask you one question?"

Fisk's full attention turned on the assassin.

"If you wanted her taken out, and you wanted Potter done in, then why not just cut out the middle man? You know me, I never miss."

"I feel your skills would be better placed on someone else," Fisk said. "And I would think with the money I have paid you, you would be asking far less questions than you do. Now get in position."

Bullseye knew in an instant this question and answer session concluded. He slunk off into the shadows, preparing for shank the bitch.

Fisk waited for the next move. One way or another, a very interesting next couple of days approached.

He made sure to be seen in public around the time this occurred. It would not be a good idea to have anything less than an airtight alibi with this entire mess.

"We'll see if there is more to you than meets the eye, Mr. Potter," Fisk said.

Fisk left the garage; he might be a kingpin of New York by night, but by the day, he was a respectful businessman, and he needed to put his best face on for the public.

* * *

Vicki arrived at the entrance of the Daily Bugle office. She was going to pick up Betty, to meet up with Harry with lunch.

Not hearing the lovely tones of J. Jonah Jameson surprised her. Vicki refused to complain too much; because he was a person you were better off not to hear. He had those jumbo-trons set up all over Time Square. And he ensured he ranted about whatever came to his mind. He seemed to be missing the one thing to be fixated on. When he latched onto the one thing, Katy Bar the door.

"Hey, Vicki!" Betty called. She made her way out of the Daily Bugle office. The woman looked like her busy morning concluded.

The two women spent some time catching up at the big event, but mostly they were worried about their own stories. Vicki did a piece for Gotham News Network and, Betty was writing a story for the Bugle. She got a pretty good peace.

"Betty, how are you doing today?" Vicki asked.

Vicki swept Betty into a tight hug and smiled.

"Oh you know me, I'm always doing my best to keep busy," she said. So, are you ready for this?"

"You know I'm always ready for anything," Vicki said.

"Given you come from Gotham City, I'd imagine it's true," Betty said. She thought New York was full of oddness, but some of the things she heard about Gotham City, well they made weird go to a new level. Vicki didn't even know where to begin with this entire situation. "I guess you're going to have to be ready for weirdness at a moment's notice."

Vicki nodded, the other reporter's point proved to be sound. Betty made herself comfortable in the passenger's seat and Vicki took the driver's side. The New York Traffic wasn't bad, even though Vicki heard some real horror stories about it.

"Yes, more or less," Vicki said. "But New York has its own mystery."

"Oh, yes, some mysterious savior took out Herman Schultz," Betty said. She looked at Vicki. "And you were right across the street."

"Yes, having lunch with Kara, and…..it was just a blink and you miss it type thing," Vicki said. "One minute Schultz was standing up, and the next minute, he was on the ground, flat on his ass."

Vicki turned a corner and Betty laughed.

"Schultz has a lot of bad luck, trust me, I've seen his rapsheet," Betty said. The reporter almost found herself amused by his luck, if his luck wasn't so pathetic. "But, never mind…..I think we're here, aren't we?"

Vicki searched for a good spot to park the car. Only a couple of minutes passed before Vicki found one. Harry warned them there might be a business meeting which had the possibility of going wrong, hence why Vicki to go pick up Betty for their little lunch, and he would meet them as soon as it wrapped up.

Fortunately for Harry, the meeting didn't drag on as long as he thought it would go. He was waiting for the two of them.

Vicki greeted Harry with a grin, and pulled him into a hug. When no one noticed, Vicki stole a light kiss from Harry.

"Things weren't as headache inducing as you thought they were?" Vicki said.

Harry smiled. The two of them rejoined Betty. Vicki sat down and Betty took the seat as well. Both reporters smiled to Harry.

"You didn't want to throw the OsCorp Board of Directors out of a ninth story window?" Betty asked. "Sorry, but it is news you're in a business arrangement with OsCorp."

"Yes, it is news," Harry said. He wasn't necessarily denying point. He leaned back with a smile. "We just got to wrap up a couple of things, but it didn't go too bad, but keep in mind, this is strictly off of the record. Anything newsworthy will be announced in the next few days, and I'll be sure both of you get the exclusive, if you promise not to jump the gun."

' _And they're both trying to hide their eagerness,'_ Karen thought. _'Very entertaining, wouldn't you agree?'_

' _I don't think anyone would disagree,'_ Diana said.

"Oh, we won't jump the gun," Vicki said.

"Yeah, we would never dream," Betty said.

Both women refused to jeopardize anything which might be a big deal. Betty refused to do so most of all. Especially considering Harry could be her boss, if he decided to enact on his options regarding the Bugle.

"But, there are some big things happening, aren't there?" Vicki asked.

Harry smiled and touched his hand to the top of hers. "

The biggest, but like I said, the news will come out…..I'm hoping everything can be delivered before I leave New York."

Both of the reporters read between the lines and figured out Harry mean, likely the younger Osborn, caused headaches. They really hoped the headaches would be resolved sooner rather than later. The sooner everything resolved itself, the easier Harry slept at night

"Well, I have to say, you should be very pleased about how Fashion Week turned out," Vicki commented. She placed her hand on the table and took a second to collect her thoughts. "I thought you couldn't pull it off….."

"To be fair, it wasn't only me who pulled it off," Harry said. "And we're going to be a huge part of Fashion Week every year. It's a worthwhile investment and next year should be even bigger than the one before."

"Ooooh, some pretty bold claims!" Betty said. Her tone looked to be challenging.

"You should know I always back up my claims," Harry said. "Always."

"Always?" Betty asked.

"Well, maybe you should have a refresher course," Harry said..

Vicki laughed and Betty shivered. She knew what the refresher course was going to be. Vicki hoped to play her cards right to be front row and center.

"Oh, believe me, I know all about what a refresher course entails," Vicki said. She patted Betty o the top of her head.

Betty fired back with a smirk on her face.

"Do you know it because Harry gave you one recently?"

"Maybe," Vicki said. She winked and refused to be subtle about her intentions at all. "So, are you still holding strong with Jameson?"

"Oh about as strong as someone like me can, and I have to admit, I'm doing well, about six figures a year is a really good motivation," Betty said. "It's more than enough to deal with him, and the thing is, you got to know how to deal with someone like Jameson."

"Hopefully with a lot of aspirin," Vicki said.

Harry laughed. For the second time in a row, his bad luck left him alone.

' _Wonder how long the good times are going to last.'_

Their food arrived and they looked for a nice afternoon together, hopefully without any kind of incident which potentially could ruin their day.

* * *

 

Harry talked on the phone with Anastasia and hung around outside of a gym located in downtown New York.

"I hope we don't have any more difficulties," Anastasia said. She took a moment to collect her thoughts. "I hoped Wilson would be completely on bored with the deal by now, and it seemed like he was. Then he turned around. "

"You assumed, I assumed, but you know what we get for assuming," Harry said. "I think the younger Osborn should have gotten some better counseling. His time at Ravencroft didn't do him any favors."

"Yes, I know we should respect the heritage of the Osborns who caused the company to grow," Anastasia said. There was a but hanging in the air and Harry felt like he needed to snatch it out.

"But….."Harry said.

Harry trailed off and allowed the woman to pick up. Which she did in her own posh manner.

"But," she agreed. "We really need to worry about business, and not worry about the feelings of one young man. The way he's going on about it, he thinks this deal was in place even before his father had his accident."

"He could be a problem," Harry said.

"One we're going to have to deal with," she said. The woman's sigh broke up her words. "He's not actively sabotaging the company, at least not yet."

His actions casing a deal to get slowed down which should have been done ages ago.

"Fiers is on board with it though, and his word carries a lot of clout," Harry said.

"He was with there, even when Mendall Stromm was," Anastasia said. The woman's voice dropped a little bit. "But those days have long since passed. He still is on board, even though if Wilson seems to be wavering. I'd have Vanessa talk to him, but given…well drama has happened."

"I think I better take a step back from any problems they have," Harry said.

' _Until I can see how it's going to play out.'_

"Wise," Anastasia said. "Fisk, is rather obsessive when he wants to conduct business and….he's playing some kind of game."

"Do you think he could be maneuvering Harold out of the company, to take control on his own?" Harry asked.

"I don't think he is, but he is testing someone," Anastasia said. "It's best for business if this deal gets done soon and we are in a pretty good place business wise."

"I'm glad, hopefully we can get the deal done on Friday," Harry said.

"I'm pretty sure our next meeting should seal the deal. And we can move on. Young Harold is running out of steam and excuses. Wilson is the one we should concern ourselves with, but with Fiers on board, I think we have a decent shot."

"I hope we have the good chance you're talking about," Harry said. "I'll talk to you later, see you in the morning."

"I'll be there, bright and early," she said.

Harry put his phone away and walked over, to scoop up a hooded sweatshirt to slip it on. The sky outside was looking rather unpleasant.

He was rather used to the Gotham City weather, notorious as he might be, so any rain in New York wasn't going to faze him. However, he wanted to get covered up for the occasion and he did so, walking outside.

' _Long day over?'_ Diana asked him.

' _Day's going to be even longer, and into the night, I'm going to check something out,'_ Harry said.

' _You're nuts for going out in this shit, it's going to rain, then it's going to freeze, and then it's going to turn into snow,'_ Barbara said, checking the forecast on her computer. _'Granted, this weather just another February evening in Gotham City, but still.'_

' _And since when have you know the weather forecast to be one hundred percent accurate?'_ Donna asked. Barbara protested, but she had her tongue tied. Donna steamrolled her with logic. _'Remember the one time where it was supposed to be a bright sunny day, and we got massive amounts of hail?'_

' _Well, to be fair, the forecast I'm making with my own eyes makes it seem like we're going to have a bad night,'_ Harry said. _'But, I'll hopefully be home in a little bit.'_

' _We'll hold you to what you're saying,'_ Kara said.

Kara recovered from her night out with Harry. Still sore, but Kara wanted a little bit more.

Harry was a bit fixated on something Vanessa mentioned to him at the party. The thought ate away in the back of his mind for days. And he needed to head to Hell's Kitchen. Fisk had started there and it had a bit of a sentimental value to him. His hunt of information began in Hell's Kitchen.

A loud crack of thunder echoed around him. For a second, Harry sensed someone followed him. The feeling left him.

The weather played tricks on his mind. The young man thought his decision to bundle up proved to be prudent. A dark and stormy night visited him.

Elektra observed Harry in the distance. She wondered if the legends were accurate. She felt she would find out sooner rather than later.

The young man continued his move. Elektra stalked him from afar.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 8** **th** **, 2015.**


	116. Risky Business Part Seven

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixteen "Risky Business" Part Seven.**

* * *

 

A loud thunderclap echoed from outside. The rain and the horrific storms allowed Harry the ideal cover. He wore a hooded sweatshirt with a hood pulled up covering his face and black leather pants. He wore gear underneath, and he shoved his other suit in his bag.

Harry opened the door leading to the main office. Everything started for Wilson Fisk and it was now used as a storage room/archive, for his operations. Harry took a moment to look around and frowned. Harry believed he had a clear idea what he could find inside.

Harry heard whispers and innuendo about Fisk being involved in some less than savory activities. His wife pretty much implied unsavory things went on. Did she consciously let it slip or was she venting her frustration? Harry didn't know, but he could guess a little bit.

He opened up a crate and he found a stack of invoices inside. Harry flipped through the documents.

' _Nothing of note, I take it?'_ Faora asked.

Harry took a moment to look around. The young man sighed for a moment.

' _Sadly, not, just some shipping orders of his businesses, his legit one, nothing to raise any concerns,'_ Harry said.

Harry shuffled into the office and took a long look around in the office. He spotted a computer in the office of an older model and operating systems. Harry reached into his pocket, plugging something into the computer. The device allowed him to hack inside the system.

The system looked to be held up together by the barest of threads. Harry's frown deepened when he kept combing over the files, hoping perhaps he could figure out a way to deduce what information Fisk contained in his records.

Harry found nothing on the computer, but there was evidence a lot of files had been deleted. Perhaps, Harry read too much into information.

He tried to recover them. He didn't know how much this old computer could take and Harry figured he might have guards on top of him within the next five minutes, when the shift changed hands.

The sorcerer found nothing so far, but a little pressure to challenge Harry. Harry brought up the files, corrupted, which might cause a problem. The emerald-eyed enchanter attempted to see if he could somehow bring up an older version of them in the system.

Bringing up an older version of the system was a no go, unfortunately. Harry placed his hand underneath his chin and gave an extremely labored sigh. He felt like he was back to square one and not in a good way either.

Harry hit the jackpot. One of the files still read legible, and the file indexed a number of warehouses. Harry would have to look into them.

' _Must have been leftover before Fisk moved out of this old building,'_ Harry thought.

He noticed the computer crashed. Harry performed a hard shut down of the computer.

He didn't know if the listed warehouses were even still in play. Harry would have to have Barbara do a cross-check of them when she had the time, or he supposed he could do it. It didn't really matter, as long as someone looked into the warehouse.

The shift changed in a couple of minutes. Harry cleared up the office. When Harry finished up , he slipped from the exit.

' _Talk about cutting things close,'_ Karen said.

Harry thought he might have cut things close. He believed he only scraped the surface of the information. Fisk was crafty, he would give the man a lot of credit. You didn't become a successful man without being slightly crafty.

Harry understood one fact, he knew Fisk had left a couple of breadcrumbs behind. Breadcrumbs Harry followed. He was almost certain Fisk might have accidentally left behind those things, because he didn't see him as a man who would intentionally do such a thing. At least Harry assumed Fisk left something behind.

Assumptions often proved to be the tools of fools.

' _I still think you're pretty nuts to walk home in this,'_ Kara thought.

' _He is Harry,'_ Karen said.

' _A little rain isn't going to hurt me,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, a little rain can't hurt you,'_ Barbara said. She was playing mission support in Gotham City, although things were strangely quiet. Which did a wonderful job in putting her on edge, because the quiet became the prelude to a dangerous event. _'I little rain can't hurt you, but a lot, a lot could kill you.'_

If only rain was the worst of the weather he to deal with. February weather was bad, then again the weather paled in comparison to December and January. Harry shook his head and left the building through the same back alley way he got there.

' _I should be home before dinner,'_ Harry thought. _'Unless something comes up.'_

Harry turned his head to the side and dodged a shuriken a figure hurled at him at the last possible second. The jagged ninja star slammed against the wall.

' _You were saying?'_ Karen asked.

Harry looked up in time to catch a glimpse of someone dangling off to the side. The person who attacked him slipped into the shadows.

Most people would think it might not be a prudent idea to go to a person who tried their best to take you out with a sharp object. It went without saying Harry Potter wasn't most people. He liked to mess with people's expectations.

The lightning flashed across the sky. She couldn't have gotten too far.

Sure enough, Harry caught a glimpse of her on the roof. It was a her, he could tell by her figure, even in the dark attire she wore, with a half face-mask pulled up over her mouth, obscuring her facial features.

The chase kicked into high gear, and Harry wasn't going to let up.

' _More to this which meets the eye.'_

Perhaps he read too much into this, but the fact this woman attacked him the moment the left Fisk's office strayed a bit far from coicidence. He would find out in a moment though.

* * *

 

Lawrence Crock, better known as the Sportsmaster, stormed around in a foul mood. After his defeat at the hands of Nightwing, the criminal stewed in his juices for a long time.

He had months to stew and think about his revenge when he lingered in prison. He thought about how he had been made to look like a fool, a chump, pretty much every single other word in the English Language.

The law sentenced him to six months in prison to stew. Much to his agitation, no one visited him not even his wife and daughters.

Lawrence waited for the day to come. He chomped at the bit to be released and finally be back into the world. He tapped his fingers on the edge of the bars to his cell.

Surely, his loving family would have been informed about his exit from prison, wouldn't they have?

The seconds crawled into minutes. Finally, and Crock thought he was going to grow old waiting, he heard the footsteps approaching his cell. A rather rough looking guard made his way outside of the cell.

"Lawrence Crock, you're free to go," the guard said to him.

Lawrence pulled himself off of the cot. The criminal known as the Sportsmaster stepped from his cell, a free man. The sooner he left this dump, the better off he would be. The food in this prison was beyond horrible.

"Remember, Crock, you act up, and you'll be back in your cell," one of the guards said.

Oh what wouldn't he give to use the bastard guard's head like a beach ball and punt him into the middle of next week. Crock held his tongue, and refused to rise to his bait. He knew these idiots were trying to provoke him, but he wouldn't allow it. He would walk out of here, with his head held high, like the proud man Crock believe himself to be.

"Don't worry, you won't ever see me back here," Crock said.

The guards escorted him outside of the prison. He didn't see his wife or daughters there, which put him in a sort of a foul mood. He did see Willis Todd, casually sitting outside in the parking lot, looking like the vagrant he was.

"So, welcome back to the outside," Willis said.

Lawrence stared at the man who greeted him like an old drinking buddy. He knew his daughters were friends with the man's daughter, but the fact their daughters proved to be friends didn't mean the Sportsmaster had to like him. In fact, he refused to like the guy too much.

"What are you doing here, Todd?" Lawrence asked.

He was on the edge and he didn't really want to deal with any of Todd's bullshit. The man always had some kind of scheme going on.

It was a wonder why he wasn't eating out a dumpster, shot and killed somewhere, or something along those lines. The man looked like a John Doe waiting to happen.

"Ah come on, Larry, lighten up," Todd said in a jovial voice. He laughed and patted the man on the shoulder. "Is it anyway to talk to your ride out of here? I don't see Paula or the girls here to meet you….must have lost track of the time. Six months already….plenty of time to move on, to the next big thing….but guys like us, we're survivors. We reinvent ourselves, spin ourselves a new yarn."

"What are you talking about, Willis?" Lawrence asked.

"You see, if you would have asked, whatcha talkin' about Willis, would have been funny," Todd said. He laughed, but Lawrence gave him a look showing like he would like to bludgeon him with one of his golf clubs. "Right, not one for popular culture, fine, I can dig it."

"If you can dig something, then get a shovel," Lawrence said.

Willis broke into a round of giggling laughter. He sounded like a crazed hyena.

"Oh, you are funny, I thought for a moment your trip to prison changed you," Willis said. "But, you don't seem the type to drop the soap….but you never know about a guy."

Lawrence shook his head in response.

"What the hell are you smoking?" Lawrence asked.

The last time he ran into Willis Todd, he seemed to be a bit down, and a bit prone to bursts of anger, in a pissed off mood half of the time at the world. Now he sounded like someone who turned his life around.

"Aren't you the least bit curious how I reinvented the wheel?" Willis asked. "Magic, or maybe it's chemistry….tell me, Lawrence, what's your opinion on the Red Hood Gang?"

Willis's words prompted Lawrence Crock to look at him. The Red Hood Gang explained a lot of things, but given he might not be welcomed home, Lawrence thought he would play this game, at least for now. At least until he figured out what Fisk would do.

"What are you driving at, Todd?" Lawrence asked.

"We're businessmen, two consenting adults even," Willis answered. He looked on with one of those smirks. The type of smirks looking like he wanted to reveal forbidden information. "I think the two of us can work together, and really stir up Gotham City. And I've got just the man to help us out, he's been moving up the ranks in the mob. He took a shot at me, so I know he has balls."

"He better have more balls than you have brains, Todd," Lawrence said.

He thought Todd was losing his mind wanting to shack up with some guy shot him up.

* * *

 

The rain pissed down and Harry was after the mysterious ninja woman. He could feel his heart start to race against his chest. A loud crack of thunder brought Harry out of his thoughts and inspired him to go where he's really needed to be.

' _Getting closer.'_

Harry crouched down on a gargoyle and saw a throwing dagger whirl at him.

He placed himself out in the open in an attempt to make the woman show him where she was. Sure enough, Harry skidded from rooftop to rooftop in time to notice something stirring in the shadows. He hurled a throwing dagger at his own, but she dodged the attack.

She did an expert flip and positioned her way in front of him. She nailed him with a kick to the ribs. The kick knocked Harry onto his back.

The assassin jumped into the air, but Harry blocked her blade, and got to his feet, kicking her legs out from underneath him.

"So, should I ask who sent you to get me?" Harry asked.

The woman only responded by trying to kick Harry's head off. He blocked her next kick by tangling her feet up, and causing her to land face first onto the top of the building.

She rolled out of the way, freeing herself from her bindings. The assassin hurled the daggers at her. Harry avoided the daggers from piercing into his skin.

Several heavy chains flew out of nowhere. The heavy chains wrapped around Harry's limbs. The woman rushed him, with a blade drawn. Harry struggled out of her grip.

At the last minute, Harry snapped his arms and caused the ninjas who had bound him up to go flying.. They crashed down to the ground, taking out the Greek assassin in a flash.

Harry picked up one of the blades and began the chase again. The ninjas rushed behind him. He deflected the shuriken his enemy tossed at him. There was a group of ninjas who closed on him. Harry stepped back for a second to take clear note of his surroundings.

Harry spotted a puddle of water and a brilliant idea passed through his mind. He placed a pair of brass knuckles on his hands and waited for the ninjas to step into place, onto the water.

One of the ninjas took the bait, stepping straight on the water. Harry raised his hand and slammed it down onto the water. An electrical charge rocked them and caused the ninjas to fly backwards with a series of cracks. They dropped, and gave Harry room to breath.

' _Of course my night isn't done.'_

The female assassin tried to take Harry out. The cold embrace of steel almost knocked Harry out. He dodged each and every one of her attacks, deflecting them back at her.

' _They want to follow me, don't they?'_ Harry thought to himself.

Harry hurled himself off of a rather tall building onto a shorter building The ninjas followed him to an even lower building. Harry hurled a throwing dagger over his shoulder and caught one of them in the chest. He dodged behind a pillar.

A trio of ninjas stepped forward and prepared to attack him.

Harry came down from above them and slammed his full weight down onto the top of all of their heads.

He use the blade to deflect the blades swung from the ninjas.

"Stand back!" the female assassin yelled.

Her sai removed the sword from Harry's hand. The sword hurled from his hand and crashed down hard.

"Not bad," Harry said.

He tightened his grip on her arm and flipped her over onto her back. Harry spun around, doing a duck and a roll to avoid several more shuriken being launched at him. He felt himself have his breath knocked out of him. Harry raised his head up, and frowned when he looked around.

A larger ninja grabbed Harry around the shoulder and hoisted him up off of the ground.

He was not built for stealth, rather he was built for strength and brutality. Harry kicked his way back from the grip of this dangerous ninja.

He brought the knuckles down onto his captor's shoulder and gave him a small shock. The ninja bounced back from the attack.

Harry launched himself at the ninja and speared him, knocking him into his fellow assassins. They topped down like some ninepins.

Elektra was fuming. She didn't think this was going the way she intended. She tried to attack him, but he dodged.

The glass window the two of them stood on started to crack. Elektra jumped off, but Harry didn't jump off in time.

As it turned out, he intended to break through the glass window. He slowed his descent the best he could, throwing himself behind a stack of crates.

Harry looked for something, and found it. The ninjas going after him were quite relentless, but this should slow them down. He lit a fuse and hurled the fuse inside the barrel..

Throwing himself out of the nearest exit, Harry waited for the explosion to occur. Sure enough, an explosive end to the barrel forced the ninjas to either scatter, or be obliterated in the wake.

The explosions caused clouds of smoke to go in the air and gave Harry the cover the needed. He disappeared down an alleyway, into the industrial district. The battle wore his suit out, so Harry needed to change into another one.

Harry eluded his mysterious, assassin, at least for now. He didn't think the would be able to keep up for very long.

* * *

 

Elektra anger burst over the edge. She lost track of Harry Potter. The fact she lost him wasn't surprising. Her intelligence showed Harry Potter to be annoyingly craft.

' _I'll get you.'_

She tried to trace his footsteps. The Hand circled around to look for him. No matter what, he could run, but he couldn't hide for long.

"So, are you going my way?"

She looked up and saw a figure clad in black, with vibrant green eyes looked fairly haunting. Elektra stepped back.

"So, the Dragon disguised in human flesh is not a myth," she said.

The two assassins stepped to each other.

"Far from it," Nightwing said. "And might I ask who you are?"

"My name is Elektra, and I will enjoy taking you down," Elektra said.

The assassin pulled out the dagger and charged him. Nightwing disarmed her. She only flinched slightly because of his attacks. The two of them exchanged a series of rapid fire blows.

Elektra was staggered back after an instant. She avoided his latest attack and slipped into the shadows.

She came back on top of him and drilled him into the ground with a curb stomp. She tried to stab him, but he blocked it. Harry rolled up to his feet.

"Very good," he said.

He removed a miniature orb shape device from his outfit, and pressed a ear splitting sonic pulse erupted, and caused Elektra to stagger back. The device didn't hold up as well as Harry thought. The device shorted out before he could cripple Elektra.

' _A sort of weaponized Canary Cry?'_ Dinah asked.

' _What can I say?'_ Harry asked her. _'You inspired me.'_

No rest for the wicked as Elektra charged him again. Nightwing dodged Elektra's latest attacks. Her brutality increased after moment of discomfort. Nightwing's little weapon needed a few bugs to be worked out, but he thought it worked well enough.

Elektra made him follow her. Well if she wanted to lead him around on a wild goose chase, Harry adapted what she wanted.

His head pounded and he looked to the left and he looked to the right. She disappeared into the shadows.

Elektra brought her feet down from above on top of his head. The kick staggered him back. Another kick is dodged.

Nightwing brought her down hard onto the ground. He held a blade at her throat. She blinded him temporarily and rose to her feet.

A series of rapid fire kicks caught him. The moment Harry staggered back. she tried to slice at him. His armor blocked most of the more painful attacks, at least Harry worked with the theory.

Elektra was more determined to fight him now than ever before. She recognized Nightwing's fighting style of the League of Assassins. She maneuvered around him to deliver a deadly shot. The Hand Ninjas backed off, allowing her to fight him one on one. It was a matter of pride and honor.

"I see everything clearly now," Elektra said.

She tried to nail him with a blow to the throw, but he blocked it.

"I can see a lot of things," Nightwing said.

He whipped her back and caused her to smash against a wall. He whipped her around once again. She returned fire with a hard kick. Nightwing avoided her kick. The two engaged in some heavy hand to hand, until The Dreaded Dragon backed her up and bound her to the chimney.

"Okay, we're going to have words now," Nightwing said to her. Elektra's humorless stare answered his question. "You're going to tell me who you're working for."

The fact occurred to her Harry Potter and Nightwing shared a few similarities in their fighting styles. The similarities did not get noticed by the naked eye , but to a skilled assassin, she was able to put two and two together. His eyes shared the shade of green as Nightwing, a color represented death.

Elektra looked at him, not even budging from her position. She felt a small amount of excitement going through her.

"You present a challenge, on both sides of your mask," Elektra said.

A cloud of smoke spilled the air followed by the teleportation. Four ninjas dressed in dark armor turned up. They had masks which covered their face and stylish looking head gear. They carried bladed weapons and they surrounded Harry.

They attacked him efficiently, surrounding him from all sides. Harry battled them, trying to block the majority of the attacks.

Harry noticed an additional problem. Every time one of them got too close to getting attacked by him, they teleported away, and thus putting him back at square one.

One of the weapons cut Harry. He winced when they drew blood. He faced some obviously enchanted weapons, but these ninjas were of a more mystical nature than the League.

One of them kicked him in the ribs. Harry valiantly fought, although he had suffered an intense beating already. And the fight with Elektra did a wonderful job in wearing him down.

Harry broke the grip one of them had on his weapon, but both the ninja and his weapon teleported away.

The next thing Harry knew, he was knocked off of the side of the building. He had the wind knocked completely out of him from the sickening impact.

He pulled himself back up, only in time to get stabbed in his injured shoulder. His eyes closed when he staggered around. His ankle rolled underneath him, to add to the pain.

Elektra freed herself and motioned for these elite ninjas to move back. This one would be hers. She rushed in, preparing herself to deliver the one shot would put her adversary out like he was nothing.

A loud crack echoed in all directions and Nightwing was sent flying off of the building to his doom.

Elektra peered down. She couldn't quite make out where he landed, and was plenty of evidence he could have survived such a brutal landing. She turned around and looked at the Hand Elite.

"Find him, whether it's his body, or he's alive, I need to make sure," Elektra said.

From the distance, Bullseye watched the situation. He would be able to pick his best shot to take down the assassin. It was a shame, but they had a score to settle and he was going to ensure he settled the score.

All it would take was one well-placed hit to send her straight to the afterlife.

* * *

 

One of the Hand Ninjas staggered into the alleyway, looking fairly wounded. He doubled over in pain. The explosion Potter created caught him, and seconds later, Nightwing smacked him around. The Hand hunted for a moment, but the ninja staggered into the moment.

The Hand had been well trained, but they were dealing with someone who was equally well trained. This particular enemy didn't care who he would have to take out.

A pair of firm hands grabbed the ninja. The ninja tried to attack his enemy, but he got a pair of rapid fire thrusts into his chest, doubling him over. He was slumped over, the wind knocked completely out of him.

The next thing the ninja knew, his enemy strung upside down by his feet, dangling. There was a cold blade placed underneath his chin, when the figure peering at him through her eyes stared him down.

"You're going to talk," the mysterious assassin said. Her voice and tone was completely humorless. "What is your business with the Dragon?"

The ninja wasn't too talkative. Even with the point of the foot pressed down onto his chest, and even with a blade a few inches away from his neck, he wasn't rather talkative.

The female assassin kept herself pressed against the shadows. She pulled off the mask and forced his mouth open, to reveal his tongue had been sliced in half. Such a matter made him rather useless.

Removing someone's tongue demonstrated a rather depraved ritual by the Hand. To ensure someone of their members maintained silence, they would get their tongues cut.

The assassin slipped into the shadows, where two more ninjas crept down the alleyway. She clung to the wall and waited them.

The ninja she wrecked had blacked out from the pain it suffered. It succumbed to injuries. One of them lifted his hand and a glowing energy appeared from it. The hand of the Hand ninja slammed into the chest of his enemy. A large ripping sensation occurred and the ninja fell backwards onto the ground.

The assassin had been put out of its misery. His body crumbled into dust and his remaining life force channeled into the ninja who killed him.

The two ninjas made their way to the edge of the alleyway, where a third was waiting for him. He made a motion with his hands, and nodded.

The female assassin crept her way through the shadows and kept close to him. There were ninjas combing the streets of New York, when there was a hell of a rainstorm going on.

They used the cover of darkness, rain, and a little mystic magic was able to keep their cover secured.

The woman on the ground frowned. She developed an inkling she drew in close to where she needed to be, or rather they were.

All she had to do was following them and they would reach the edge. A high wind kicked up and the rain turned fairly cold.

* * *

 

A figure stumbled through the darkness, making his way through the antique shop. The young man met with one of those good news, bad news situations. Nightwing staggered around with a frown. His head felt rattled along with a splitting headache.

He kneeled down behind a counter in the shop and mentally pulled himself together. The screams of frantic girls echoed in his head. Harry hit the ground at such a rate he assumed he got a concussion.

It was one of those good news, bad news, type situations. The good news he avoided hitting the ground in a way they would break every single bone in his body, snap his spine, or kill him. There happened to be a mattress close enough where he landed. And his armor took a pretty good brunt of the blood.

The bad news, and Nightwing had to focus on the situation a little bit more; the battle banged him up. His arm was injured, his head ached, he got some cuts, and his ankle was busted up pretty bad. He limped around.

He was in an antique shop, surrounded by priceless junk.

He noticed some of the weapons around him. Weapons he could use when the Hand came calling, and he would use them. Harry caught a few glimpses of them, before he gave them the slip.

' _Harry, are you there?'_ Diana asked.

' _Yes, I'm here, Diana,'_ Harry said. He wiped the blood off of his mouth. _'They're not going to give up until they kill me or I kill them all.'_

' _So what are you going to do?'_ Kara asked.

Harry could hear a thumping from the roof above him. The sound of shattering glass could be heard upstairs.

Harry dragged over a large heavy cabinet and threw it in front of the door. Or to be more accurate, he rolled it in front of the door.

Some broke in from upstairs. Harry determined he wouldn't be able to stall them for long. Harry staggered back, his vision blurry. He needed to figure out a safe route out of harm's way. The sorcerer couldn't teleport out of here, because they put barriers out there. He couldn't fly because of the limitations for his powers.

The only thing he could do was fight them and hope he could find a way out of there. The problem was he was pretty sure Hell's Kitchen swarmed with ninjas.

The front windows of the Antique Shop busted open. Harry kept crouching in the shadows. He noticed some antique looking daggers in the case. Those would do rather nicely for his purposes, even though they weren't as high tech.

The Elite Guard of the Hand turned up. Harry placed the antique dagger in his hand and caused it to heat up.

The dagger nailed the Hand Elite in the chest and knocked him down to the ground.

Harry felt a blade smack him in the chest and knock him down to the ground. Three of them were on top of him. Harry dodged their attacks, and pulled a shield off of the wall. He blocked their attacks.

The sounds of more ninjas pouring in upstairs could be heard. Harry levitated a chain and wrapped it around the door and bolted it into place.

He knew his efforts couldn't hold him for long.

One of the ninjas stabbed him in the back of the leg. His armor blocked a lot of it, but there was a huge dull pain from the stabbing erupted through his leg. Harry slumped against the wall.

They moved in for the kill. Harry slumped down on the ground, the wounded warrior he was. He was pulled up to his feet. His ankle and leg felt a bit banged up.

The Hand Elite guard he wounded join his brothers. He looked down, with the demonic looking glowing red eyes. His hand illuminated with power and he raised it, while his brothers held Harry in place.

"Finish this," he said.

The ninja pointed his glowing hand at Harry's throat.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on August 12** **th** **, 2015.**


	117. Risky Business Part Eight

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventeen "Risky Business" Part Eight.**

* * *

 

The glowing hand approached Harry. Harry looked up and saw his entire life flashing before him. One more trick rested up his sleeve. He jerked his arm away to dodge the blow at the last second.

The hand passed through the air where Harry once was. He pulled himself to his feet. A second burst of adrenaline passed through his body. He kicked up and landed a knee down across his opponent's head. The crack echoed over the top of his head was music to Harry's ear.

A sinister slash from the blade flew through the air. Harry dodged the slash from the assassin who tried to attack him. Harry stumbled from behind a shelf. He avoided the second attack from wiping him out.

Antiques went flying when Harry pulled the bolts off of the shelf. Several thousand dollars of damage came down onto his enemies. Harry clutched his ankle and struggled to get to a standing position. A throwing dagger propelled through the air. One quick shot nailed one of his enemies.

They kept coming at him. Harry closed his eyes and wondered what it would have to take to defeat these guys.

' _No matter what, these guys are insane. They won't give up. But guess what, I won't give up either.'_

Harry's head looked in time for the charging hand. The glowing hand rushed him one more time. Harry twisted his weight to the left side to dodge it. The hand flashed with some kind of enchantment. Harry noticed Death flash in his eye the second the hand drove into his chest.

Yes, Harry determined this glowing hand should not attack him. It struck against the wall and allowed Harry an open shot to waffle his enemy with a swift and sickening blow. The sound of feet against the back of the head drove him down onto the back of his head.

' _Okay, persistent, I'll agree,'_ Harry thought. He avoided a large blade from the assassin which nearly parted his hair.

The blade didn't connect with Harry. It smashed into a fuse box and caused an explosion knocked two of the Elite guard members back onto the ground. Sparks flew and started to set the antique shop on fire.

' _Rain, check, fire check, do we need a creepy music score while we're at this?'_

Harry's question disappeared into the depths of his mind. His earlier thought these bastards were quite persistent returned to him. Two of them charged Harry. He waited until the last second.

Harry jumped, they flew into the ground with a sickening smash. He kept moving to avoid the attacks.

More antiques were sacrificed in the name of keeping Harry Potter alive. His knee was feeling a little bit better, or maybe he improved in blocking out the pain. Regardless, he had to feel better, for one of them tried the touch of death thing once again.

Again, Harry blocked it. He gripped the man's hand and brought it down into the fire.

The man screamed when Harry burned his hand. Harry staggered back in surprise by the quality of the scream. The scream wasn't anything human. It was ghostly and very wrong. It caused shivered to blow up Harry's spine.

The sounds of battle from upstairs reminded Harry of one thing. There were ninjas in the attic. Harry was surprised his little trap held from earlier. Not he wanted to get another gift horse in the mouth, just surprised.

Nightwing dodged another decapitating blade swing. Harry avoided another attack. Again and again, the swords attacked him. And again, Harry avoided the cold embrace of cold steel.

"End this!" one of them said.

His tone resulted in a half whisper, half yell, and one hundred percent creepy.

"You guys were a lot less creepy when you didn't talk," Harry said.

Sparks flew from the fire around them, and Harry used the distraction to his advantage. He removed a hot chunk of wood and hurled it. The sparks from the fire flew across the room and nailed the elite ninjas in the face. At least two of them dropped from this attack.

Harry propelled himself up with his fist extended. Seconds later, his fist drilled into his opponent's chest.

His opponent fell back into the ground with a thud. A ghostly scream followed seconds later and Harry prepared to follow up on the attack.

The assassin vanished in the smoke. Harry spun around and nailed his opponent when he jumped at him with an electrified pair of brass knuckles.

A miniature explosion shoots up from the air from the fire. The flames rose in the air and licked the ceiling. Harry shielded his face and it was becoming very hard to see or breath. Thankfully, his armor prevented those from being problems for too long. His night vision capabilities switched on and Harry saw them coming.

He had another problem. The door he sealed shut busted open. The chain was sent flying and Harry dodged it.

He prepared himself to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. The fire and falling debris in the antique shop allowed him the ideal cover to avoid his enemies.

A figure moved quickly in the shadows. This figure nailed one of the Hand Elite with an arrow right to the shoulder and followed it up with a vicious snap kick. The elite ninja crashed hard to the ground. The fires engulfed him and stalled any further process.

The other three hand elite goons dropped to the ground. Harry staggered back outside and waited for this person to join him.

He didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth. Harry watched through the window. The mysterious assassin made quick work of the Hand Elite.

They all dropped to the ground like they were nothing. Seconds later, they disappeared into a puff of smoke.

The door swung open. Harry braced himself, prepared for anything. The assassin stepped closer towards him.

"Sorry, I'm late, beloved."

Nyssa pulled down her mask and gave Harry a long kiss. He returned the favor, wrapping his arms around her. He held her against him tightly. Their tongues wrestled, but they had to stop all too soon.

"The Hand are brutal opponents," she commented when it ended. "They train on a more mystical level then the League does. As I'm sure you noticed when you fought them."

"Yes, I noticed," Harry said.

Harry felt a little bit better now he walked into the open. A loud crash from above his head diverted his attention.

Nyssa noticed the same thing. She put her arm around Harry and allowed herself a moment to sigh.

"It appears our night is far from finished," Nyssa said.

Harry looked up and knew Nyssa's point rang true. Elektra looked to be in a tight spot against an unknown enemy. Harry couldn't quite make it out who she fought from his point, only the battle turned into a rough one.

"Shall we break up their little party?" Nyssa asked him.

Harry didn't answer other than with a nod. The two slipped off into the night to join the battle up on the rooftop.

* * *

 

Elektra stood face to face with one of her old rivals. He had been caught trying to attack her.

"Bullseye!" she yelled. His name flew off of her tongue like it was pure venom.

The assassin peered down at Elektra with narrowed eyes. His lips twisted into a wicked grin. He wore a sheer black bodysuit with a bullseye over it. A mask pulled up over his head. He stalked Elektra.

"This is going to be as easy as cake," Bullseye said.

An equal amount of venom spilled from Bullseye's tongue. Elektra withdrew a shuriken and she flung them at Bullseye.

The shuriken bounced off of the walls where he once stood. She whipped a chain out and tried to ensnare him. He dodged it. Elektra jerked it out of the wall and nailed him on the backswing.

"Good shot, proves you don't always miss," Bullseye said. He pulled himself up far enough to taunt her. "But, neither do I!"

He caught her foot when she tried to drive it down onto the top of his head. The crack of thunder masked the crack of her neck when he whipped her down on the ground. Bullseye hammered her in the ribs with a series of violent attacks.

Elektra skidded to a stop right beside the same chimney Nightwing tied her up against just moments ago. She pulled herself up and she got a dagger near the side of her neck.

"You missed," Elektra said.

"No, I didn't, I can take you out at any time," Bullseye said. He pulled it out. "I want to savor this moment."

Elektra's hate filled gaze locked onto Bullseye's eyes.

"Savor this."

Bullseye was doubled over when Elektra planted her foot straight into his balls. The assassin doubled over. Elektra bounced off and cracked him with a running kick to the face. A loud crack resounded when Bullseye dropped to the ground.

Bullseye rolled over and avoided Elektra plunging down onto the ground against him.

He laughed and got to his feet. He grabbed Elektra and pummeled her with a series of punches to the ribs.

Elektra avoided his attack and jumped into the air. Bullseye removed a dagger from his sleeve and flung it at her.

It caught her in the side and cut her. Elektra dropped down to the ground and felt a searing pain come through her wound. She doubled over and gasped in agony.

Bullseye raised the blade over his head.

"Say good night, bitch," Bullseye growled.

The crazed assassin grew aroused at the thought of stabbing this bitch and causing her to bleed.

Bullseye failed to seal the deal. The assassin struggled to stand as he turned, his head spinning. A bombarding sonic attack caused his head to split open.

The dark-clad assassin staggered around and caught a glimpse of Nightwing in his blurry vision. He noticed a dark clad assassin standing next to him. She looked like she had a nice fit body, it would be a shame Bullseye would have to mutilate it.

The device in Harry's hand ceased to work. He would have to really have to run further tests to make sure he had a lot of the bugs ironed out.

"Thought you'd be dead by now, guess you're a lot harder to put down," Bullseye said. "I told my boss…..should have cut out the middleman. Turns out I'm right. Say good night!"

Bullseye tried to nail Harry with his dagger. The only problem was he missed. Bullseye's breathing started to escalate. He threw his head up and slammed his hands down, reaching for a second dagger.

"I never…"

Harry launched a throwing dagger at his enemy. The dagger exploded in Bullseye chest and sent him flying over the side of the building.

Elektra's groans brought Harry's attention away from Bullseye. While Bullseye didn't finish her off, he did wound the woman very much. Harry made his way closer towards her and bent down. He noticed a large and jagged cut on her body.

Thankfully, the cut didn't rip deep, although it did look like it hurt like hell. Harry scanned her and found no poison in her wounds. Satisfied with the results of the scan, Harry waved his hand against her.

Elektra could feel a bit of power course through her and it caused her body to tingle. Her eyes opened. Elektra's eyes lingered onto those of the Dragon's.

"I tried to kill you, but yet you saved me," Elektra said. She allowed Harry to help herself to her feet.

"Would you have wanted to die because of Bullseye?" Harry asked.

Elektra scoffed and she shook her head. Dying at the hands of the bastard would be the ultimate of all indignities.

' _Guess, she should be grateful,'_ Nyssa thought. _'But she doesn't look too grateful.'_

"I am surprised a member of the League would have such honor," Elektra said.

"Is this because the Hand lacks it?"

Elektra turned around and her eyes fell upon the Demon's oldest daughter who peered down in her eyes. Her demeanor remained calm and cool. At the same time, there was an amount of smugness Elektra knock out of her. Her fingers twitched around the blade in her hand.

"I'd like nothing better than to make you bleed," Elektra said.

"But you won't, because you owe my beloved a debt for your life," Nyssa said. "Don't you?"

Elektra could not believe it, but she did. She was in the debt of someone who had been trained by the League.

' _And she's not taking this well,'_ Nyssa said.

' _Well, I think we'll demonstrate being in my debt isn't without it's perks,'_ Harry said.

"The Hand will hunt me down for this," Elektra said.

"Trust me, I don't think they will be a problem," Harry said. "You were the only assassin in the Hand who gave me any kind of challenge."

Elektra could not help, but feel smug about the Dragon's assessment of her abilities. She leaned forward to say something. Instinct decided to take over her. Some invisible took over her body, and the assassin closed the gap between the two of them.

She pushed Harry against the wall. Instead of attacking the Dragon this time, she kissed him, and kissed him hard. The two of them exchanged a lip bruising kiss, both dueling for domination with the tongues fighting in their mouths.

Nyssa smiled when she made her way over. She reached and placed her hands on the waist of her.

"And you're going to see all of the rumors of how skilled the Dragon was….well they were all true."

Elektra looked reluctant at first. She felt Nyssa's lips on the back of her neck and she felt herself slowly succumb to her.

The fact Harry's hands skimmed over her body at such a rate made this a lot easier.

"Take me."

Her breathy moan in Harry's ear made it very hard to argue with her.

"Well, considering she asked so nicely," Nyssa said. "I believe you should thank him on your knees."

Nyssa grabbed Elektra by the back of her head and helpfully pushed her to her knees. The assassin didn't need much prodding. She reached forward and fumbled with the clasp of Harry's outfit.

"It unhooks there," Nyssa said.

"Thank you."

Elektra gritted her teeth. She would have been able to figure out how to remove the Dragon's outfit, given enough time. Regardless, she had him out and now she would take advantage of what she had.

The assassin turned temporarily speechless. She saw it in her face. She saw it, but she really couldn't believe it. Elektra licked her lips in hunger when she spotted his huge tool in her face.

She allowed some of her drool to drop into her hand. The woman started to stroke his cock with the proper amount of lubrication.

Harry pushed his crotch into her hand. Elektra continued to give Harry an intense handjob, increasing his pleasure.

"Good, but you can do more."

"Yes, but I'm not sure if she could fit in her mouth," Nyssa said.

"We'll see how much I can fit in my mouth."

Elektra wrapped her lips around him and brought his cock into her mouth. She attacked him with a fury, proving her intensity did not extend into his fighting.

Nyssa elegantly got to her knees around Harry. The rain caused her to become dripping wet, not she cared because of the lust. Her lips found their way around Harry's balls.

Harry groaned in pleasure. The beautiful Daughter of the Demon sucked his balls. Her talented lips and tongue worked him over and he groaned even harder when Nyssa pleasured him with her mouth.

The two of them double teamed his crotch and wonderful things happened. Harry could feel some pleasure coming through him.

"Oh, god," he groaned.

Harry's loins ached and holding back much longer wasn't possible. Elektra pulled off of him at the last second and Nyssa grabbed his cock and stroked it hard.

He splattered his cum in her face. Nyssa kept jerking on his cock and making him fire his load into Elektra's face. Her pretty face was coated with a heavy load of spunk.

"And it looks like we made a mess," Nyssa said.

The Daughter of the Demon yanked the Greek warrior to her feet and shoved her against the wall.

Nyssa casually licked his cum dripping down from Elektra's face off of her. The assassin breathed heavily when Nyssa ripped off her top, exposing her breasts. The cool air rolled over her nipples and made them harder.

Harry was hard in no time and he advanced on Nyssa. He held his hands against her wrists and pinned her against the wall. His throbbing cock ached and he needed relief. Elektra's hot pussy looked like it offered the relief Harry desired. .

"Fuck me," Elektra said.

The gorgeous Greek assassin wrapped her legs around Harry's waist. This time she was trapped up against the chimney, but in a good way. Harry's throbbing tool poised to impale inside her pussy.

Elektra's heat sucked Harry in. Harry rubbed his head against her dripping slit and started to tease her. Nyssa panted heavily when Harry played with her slit. Her dripping hot lips ached when he was about ready to enter her.

"Prepare for it," Nyssa said.

The daughter of the Demon nibbled on Elektra's nipple which caused her to try and block out the pleasure. She would not give into pleasure, especially from the Daughter of the Demon.

Nyssa smiled when she tormented the assassin. It was good to feel a member of the Hand crumple underneath her.

"Inside me," Elektra said.

Harry dragged himself against her slit and caused her to hitch in her breath. The more his cock touched her, the more Elektra desired him deep inside her.

Seconds later, Harry took the plunge. He pushed himself inside her.

"Damn, really fucking tight," Harry said.

"Naturally, she's never had the pleasure of a real cock inside her," Nyssa said.

The dangerous, but beautiful, woman stepped back and pulled down her pants, to expose her dripping pussy.

Nyssa slowly dragged her finger over her clit and rubbed it. The more she played with herself, the more devious thoughts regarding Harry spread in her body.

Speaking of pleasure, Elektra felt Harry bury his cock inside her. She could feel him pull all the way out of her. Only his tip rested against her slit and she tried to push forward to put him back inside her. Only, Elektra couldn't quite reach him.

Harry entered inside her again and slammed into her body. His cock stuffed her pussy completely, his cum loaded balls resting on her entrance.

Elektra's cunt inhaled the massive rod of the dreaded Dragon. Harry held onto her hips and plowed deep into her body. The woman screamed out loud when he slammed into her.

Harry drilled Elektra harder and she wrapped her legs around him. Harry guided her onto the ground and her legs moved up, to be balanced onto her shoulders.

"You know, if you're going to scream, maybe I can give something constructive for your mouth of yours to do."

Elektra was about to protest this, but she really couldn't. Nyssa's sweet, juicy center was forced into her mouth. She had to open her mouth and start licking, to avoid being smothered to death.

"Well, she's pretty skilled," Harry said.

"Yes, such a good tongue….although room for improvement," Nyssa said. "If she had it removed….it would be a waste….now wreck her, beloved!"

Harry didn't need to have any more encouragement from his lover. The rain continued to pour down. Nyssa's top clung to her breasts and formed a transparent outline of them. Her nipples stuck out from the wet top. Harry slammed into Elektra harder because of the fuel his beloved gave her. .

Elektra's hips pushed up and she accepted his throbbing manhood to be buried inside her. The Greek woman whimpered underneath his thrusts.

"I can tell she really wants this," Harry said.

Nyssa nodded when she ground her pussy on Elektra's mouth. She forced the assassin to eat Nyssa's pussy like her life depended on it. And it did, her life did in fact depend on eating Nyssa's pussy, as far as she's concerned.

Her tight vice tightened around Harry. He knew he would only have a few moments before he burst. Harry held onto her hips and plowed deep inside her.

Nyssa grinded on her waiting mouth. She could feel him. Her top tore open, revealing her breasts. He played with her breasts with one hand, and with the other hand, he drilled Elektra on top of the roof where she tried to kill him a short amount ago.

"She wants you to spray your sticky seed in her," Nyssa said. "Make her yours forever."

Harry intended to do so. Such a hot piece of Greek ass, he couldn't do anything, but cum inside her.

The warrior's balls balls tightened and he fired his load inside her. He shot his load inside her heavily, filing up her insides with his spunk.

Harry slid out of her and Nyssa pulled off of her face ,only to forcefully turn Elektra over. Her ass pointed up to the sky, tempted, and ready for Harry to take the plunge, in one way or another.

"Go ahead," Nyssa said. A dirty grin flashed over her face "You know you want it."

Nyssa smacked Elektra's ass and caused it to turn red underneath her touch. Her actions caused Harry's cock to re-harden. He took one look at Elektra's glorious, hot hole, and agreed with Nyssa about how he wanted this.

Elektra thought this might be going too far. She became unable to protest due to her face being shoved between the thighs of the Daughter of the Demon. Any protest was cut off and Harry's cock was at her ass.

The Dragon took her ass. All three holes belonged to him. And Elektra accepted her fate.

Harry took a moment to adjust with how tight and firm her ass was. When he got a feel of it, he really went to town on her perfect tanned rear. His hands rested on her hips. Harry fired a series of thrusts.

Nyssa felt the moans inside her pussy. At first they were moans of struggling, but they quickly shifted into moans of pleasure.

"Yes, she likes it, take it, harder!" Nyssa breathed. "WRECK HER ASS, WRECK IT!"

Harry slammed his hard cock inside Elektra's ass. He kept drilling her hard inside her.

"My beloved saved up a huge load for you, but he's not done with you yet, "Nyssa panted. She grabbed down on the back of Elektra's hair. "He's not done taking your ass."

Elektra loved taking it up the ass. She couldn't deny how much she loved being dominated.

"Taste how wet she is."

Nyssa smiled and she took ahold of her beloved fingers. She suckled them until they were dry. A moan escaped the back of her throat.

"Yes, she's wet, a wet slut, who deserves a big cock in her ass."

Harry rammed his tool deep into her ass. His balls loaded up with even more cum and Harry drilled her constantly with a few hard thrusts.

His balls ached and they needed to deposit their load quickly. He gave a few more pushes into her ass.

Elektra could feel him deep inside her. She knew he came and prepared herself for it.

Harry's balls tightened and he splashed his cum inside her.

The moment Harry's cock left Elektra's ass, Nyssa grabbed ahold if it.

"Such a mess," Nyssa said.

She licked him completely clean, and Harry felt his balls twitch underneath her efforts. Her tongue dragged all over his cock, working him to the edge.

The next thing Harry knew, her tight, wet, cunt wrapped around him. Harry's night was done.

The rain had slowed down, but Harry didn't notice. All he cared about was Nyssa's wet pussy wrapped around his throbbing cock.

The daughter of the demon sunk down onto his throbbing cock, riding her beloved for all he's worth.

* * *

 

Today sucked to be William Earle. He spent a lot of time and called in a lot of favors lining up these business deals before Alexandria Luthor coming into town. And she shut down them.

Lionel's daughter just couldn't come into town and tell him what to do. Her decisions were not best for business, best for the business of LuthorCorp. He was going to give her a peace of his mind, and let her know how things worked.

Earle had it out with the girl ever since she waltzed into the East Coast Branch of LuthorCorp and decided to take things over. She kicked him and his entire staff off of the floor.

Lionel had been rather cold to his plight. Earle excused it because he knew Mr. Luthor was distracted with what Harry Potter and the rising RAO accomplished. Believe him, Earle could sympathize with him. And coupled with the problems he had been having with Malcolm Merlyn and Queen Industries, Lionel's plate overflowed with problems.

Earle took a couple of moments to hold his head up high like a proud man. He started to march towards Alexandria's office.

"Excuse me, sir," the receptionist said outside of the office. She looked over her glasses to gaze at Earle. "May I help you?"

"I need to see Ms. Luthor, she must have blocked a few of the important deals we set up by mistake," Earle said.

The receptionist sighed, glad her payment remained at the top of the line. When Earle had been kicked off this floor, she had cheered. He was one of those guys where the less you had to see of him, the better.

"Just one second," the receptionist said.

Earle hated to be told to wait, but he had no choice. The receptionist buzzed the office.

"Mr. Earle thinks you made a mistake regarding one of the contracts he had set up," the receptionist said. "Do you wish for me to send him in and have you set the record straight?"

A heaving sigh echoed from the other end of the office.

"I guess I better get this taken care of, so he stops pestering me" Alexandria said.

Her twin brother was due to arrive at any moment for a visit, and Earle picked now of all times to be a difficult ass.

"Tell him I'll be out with him in five minutes, and tell him to wait," Alexa said.

Alexa knew by making Earle wait would get him more agitated. The oldest Luthor daughter knew and she honestly didn't care. The little worm deserved to suffer for all of the headaches he caused and the fires she put out.

"She said she'll be with you in a moment," the receptionist said.

Earle didn't say anything. He sunk down onto the couch.

' _He's doing this on purpose, making me wait.'_

The door opened and Alexandria strode out of the office talking on a cell phone.

"You're on your way up, good, I'll come and meet you."

Alexa made Earle wait a little bit longer, but she honestly didn't give a fuck. It was good for him, to make him wait. Consider it a lesson she wanted him to learn. Her gaze locked onto Earle.

"This way," she said.

Earle paused and looked at her with a questioning look in his eyes. It took him a couple of moments to find his voice.

"I thought we were meeting in my….your office," Earle said.

Alexa did not miss the near slip on his part. Her lips curled into a frown and she looked at him. A nasty glare worthy of any Luthor followed and a look which told Earle he might have very well overstepped his bounds.

"Let me make one point perfectly clear," Alexa informed him. She looked him dead on in the eye, without blinking. "I only conduct essential meetings in my office."

The normally smug businessman experienced the wind taken out of him by a basic gut punch. Alexandra Luthor escorted Earle down the stairs and he was following behind her. She was walking fast and forcing him to keep up.

Earle thought she was deliberating taking the stairs, to make him look foolish, instead of the elevator. And for once in his life, he was right.

"Ms. Luthor, I need to….." Earle said.

Alexa stopped on the floor where she exiled Earle to. She motioned for him to sit down and Alexa handed him a glass of water. The parched man took the water from her.

"You're going to need it, because the last thing I need is a liability lawsuit," Alexa said. "Now, you're here on the level where you need to be, I'm going to make one thing perfectly clear. You were removed from the administration level for a reason. And your next stop is I'll bust you down to the alleyway behind headquarters."

Earle stopped drinking his water and glared the Luthor daughter straight in the eye.

"Your father would never…"

"I told you before, Earle, if you have a problem with anything I do, take it up with him," Alexa said. "And remember, he doesn't tolerate whiners well."

Earle recalled Lionel's lack of tolerance towards whiners. He fell silent.

"I think there's been a mistake," Earle said. He was finally finding his ability to speak. "I made some deals before you got here, and I think they were good for business."

Alexa brushed her hair away from her head. She could see several employees, members of Earle's staff, crowding around.

Lex arrived to this intense scene, and he took a step back. The bald man noticed his twin in distress straight away.

"You made deals with several of your cronies," Alexa said. "The problem is you fail to see the bigger picture like I do. And you fail to see what's best for the future of this company."

Earle opened his mouth, but Alexa stepped closer towards him. She bared down upon him like a rabid wonderful.

"The deals you might make, would work for a short time, for a short time gain," Alexa said. "But, it's only going to cause problems when you and your relics lose your ground. And you're losing your ground, more every day, along with your credibility. And making a deal like this, trying to force it through behind my back, doesn't do anything for your credibility. Or your future in this company."

To his credit, Earle found a set of balls, but he did so at the worst possible time.

"You should….."

"This should be amusing, trying to tell me what I should do," Alexa said.

Alexa yanked the bullets from Earle's gun one by one, rendering him in shock.

"If I followed these deals, LuthorCorp will have an unprecedented quarter," Alexa said. "Unfortunately for you, it would be an unprecedented quarter of losses. The people who you want to work up don't exactly drive stockholder confidence up. Considering the luster of their own companies is fading to black"

Lex looked from Alexa and Earle, it was like he watched a tennis match. This was far more entertaining.

"If you ever try and undercut me again, you won't like the consequences," Alexa said. "Things are changing."

"This isn't over," Earle said.

"It is for today," Alexa said. "I will not allow any of your deals to go through. You're a consultant, and nothing more, as far as I'm concerned. If I am desperate enough to need your advice for something, I will consult you. Stay on your floor and I'll come and find you. Or you know where your next stop is."

Earle swallowed his retort.

"Say, I understand you perfectly, Ms. Luthor, and I'm sorry for disturbing you with such trivialities," Alexa said to him.

Earle again swallowed and looked really sour. He had no choice, but to respond.

"I'm really sorry for you, Ms. Luthor, and I'm sorry for disturbing you with such trivialities," Earle said. "And I made the error, and I apologize for assuming differently. And I will not bother you again unless you choose to ask for my advice. Which I will freely give when you need it. "

Alexa had people on Earle's own staff who kept an eagle-eye on him. If he tried anything else along these lines again, she would cut him off at the balls and bury him alive.

Earle left and with his departure, unsettling silence followed.

"Well, I don't think he will bother you again," Lex said. "Impressive."

"You're capable of the same thing, Lex," Alexa informed him. "All you need to do is remove yourself from Lionel's thumb."

"He does have a rather tight hold," Lex said.

"Because, you allow him to," Alexa said. "The best way to meet Lionel's expectations is not give a fuck with what he thinks, and do your own thing. If you become an attention whore, trying to make a name for yourself, he'll be less than impressed."

Lex frowned. She had a sound point.

"So, now Earle's out of the way," Alexa said. "I think we better get something to eat."

There was something about tearing someone a new asshole which make her hungry. Alexa didn't know what it was.

Lex shrugged. He figured there's no reason to argue with what his twin wanted.

* * *

 

The storm finally tapered off and the sun was about to rise during the next morning. Harry allowed himself a moment to bask in the result of his triumph. He had united the League of Assassins and the Hand, at least for a brief amount of time.

Elektra rested against one side, having blacked out from what Harry did to her. Nyssa was currently sleeping on the other side of him. The unique position he found himself in allowed Harry to reconcile the last few hours in his mind.

He had brought the girls to a safe house. They spent a couple of hours picking up where they left off after the fight on the rooftop. Harry frowned when he turned his weight.

' _Well, it could have gone much worse,'_ Diana thought.

' _I don't really like thinking about how things could go worse,'_ Harry thought.

' _Talk about a good way to invite something else more dangerous on,'_ Faora said. _'It all worked out as well.'_

' _How are you injuries?'_ Karen asked.

' _I'm fine, they didn't cut me too badly,'_ Harry thought. _'Most of the cuts and broken bones, they already healed. It's the really serious injuries I have to worry about.'_

' _And you have this really bad habit about falling from high places,'_ Kara thought.

Harry thought falling from high places was one of his more annoying habits. He would have to agree about Kara's assessment.

' _Thankfully there was a mattress for me to land on,'_ Harry conceded. _'Shoulder doesn't feel too bad, but I might be used to the pain by now.'_

' _I haven't seen you this focused in a long time, it was like you blocked everything else out,'_ Faora thought.

' _To be fair, I did have an army of ninjas who intended to kill me,'_ Harry thought.

' _It did work out better than you thought,'_ Karen thought.

' _You did get a prize,'_ Diana said.

Harry smiled and he could see Elektra's naked body right in his line of sight. Quite the prize it was too if he had to say so himself. She really pushed him to his limits. Harry really had to be creative to give both women back here.

Nyssa opened her eyes first. She crawled over towards Harry and draped her body over his chest. She gave him a kiss on the lips and trailed down his jaw. She came back up to nibble on his lip.

Harry reached around and gripped Nyssa's ass. He squeezed her firm cheeks and gave her a necessary amount of attention, to bring her focus back around to him.

Nyssa reached forwards Harry's crotch. A hand blocked her further process.

Elektra was now up and she was staring down Nyssa. The two of them were after the same prize and the two warriors stared each other down. There was a bit of competitive fire in their bodies.

"Ladies," Harry said.

Nyssa backed off out of loyalty to Harry. Elektra did so because she had a life debt bond to Harry, created when he saved her life.

"So what was the deal between you and….Bullseye?" Harry asked.

"Yes, him," Elektra said. "There was professional jealous there, and it spilled over into personal jealousy."

"I see," Harry said.

"I'm in your debt," Elektra said.

"I know," Harry said.

"I'm marked for death in the eyes of the Hand," Elektra said. Her chest rose and lowered after taking in a breath "I allowed myself to get in the debt of a member of the League. They will hunt me down, until there are no more to hunt me down."

"Well, then, then I'm going to have to take care of the Hand," Harry said.

"You are ambitious, aren't you?" Elektra asked.

"He is," Nyssa said. "Who sent you to kill him?"

"It was Fisk, Wilson Fisk," Elektra said. "He intended to test you, I believe."

"And if you succeeded in defeating me?"

"I think dying automatically leads to you failing the test," Elektra said.

Harry met Nyssa's eyes. The two of them entered a silent conversation with each other.

' _Do you wish me to act?'_ Nyssa asked.

' _No,'_ Harry said.

Nyssa looked about ready to protest, but Harry shook his head.

' _This won't go unanswered, you can be assured I won't let it go. But, I need to ensure Fisk understands he's dealing with someone extremely dangerous.'_

' _What are you planning to do?'_ Kara asked.

She wasn't the only one who became curious to what Harry's plans turned into.

' _Let Fisk know he isn't the only one who can make all of the right moves.'_

Nyssa smiled and she got up to her feet.

"I need to take a shower," Nyssa said.

Her announcement resulted in Elektra smiling, thinking for a moment she would have some alone time with her new master.

"And I need to check you over, to make sure you're not hurt," Nyssa said.

Nyssa took Harry's hand and marched him into the next.

Harry decided not to argue. The Alphas giving their blessing to Nyssa made this decision easier. And it wasn't like he didn't get anything out of this arrangement.

Elektra was about to protest, but the door locked shut behind her. She was forced to listen to the sounds coming from the other side of the door.

Frustration mounted at her not receiving more time with her new master.

* * *

 

Wilson Fisk arrived at the office building, talking about the day which occurred.

He spent most of the morning at OsCorp with another round of meetings. Menken was surprisingly meek after Fiers pretty much cut him off. Fisk managed to spend most of the meeting in discussing with the Board. Most of the Board wanted to push Harold out of the company.

The problem as Wilson saw it was the boy was a bigger liability on the outside of the company, than on the inside. There were people who could keep close watch to him at OsCorp. Fiers in particular was able to ensure Harold didn't do anything too reckless. And he was the type of man you listened to.

Wilson conceded it would be best to limit his role while keeping him involved so he didn't do anything foolish. Harold could become a consultant was regulated to a fancy office, but he was rarely, if ever consulted. He got the idea when he learned of the fate of William Earle at the LuthorCorp Branch on the East Coast.

Granted, he would offer Harold better accommodations.

Speaking of young men, Harry Potter arrived at the meeting. He didn't look too worse for wear, and talked to Wilson like he didn't get attacked the previous evening. Fisk was impressed by this and also a bit unnerved.

Fisk pushed the matter of Harry Potter out of his mind. He had a much more personal matter on his mind.

His wife refused to return his calls, despite constant efforts on the part of Fisk. Her anger could only last so long, surely?

Fisk reached the outside and at the end of the day, he tried this again. He knew Vanessa was fine, because he overheard Anastasia Hardy talking to her on her phone at the office. When Wilson asked to talk to her, Anastasia told him Vanessa had to run.

"Vanessa, this is Wilson, talk to me when you get a chance."

He hit her voice mail again. This wasn't for the first time she did this, when Wilson focused a bit too much on his work.

Wilson recalled the one restaurant Vanessa liked. He would make reservations there and smooth things over. He prepared to dial up the number, hoping his plan to smooth over the problems they went through would fade.

His wife wasn't returning his calls. What was worse was he couldn't get in touch with Bullseye either. Not a pressing matter, but still a concern. Lester was the type of man tyou wanted to know where he was at all times.

He received a text message. Finally, it was his wife.

Wilson frowned as his hopes dashed. . There was a text, but it appeared to come from nowhere. It was like someone hacked into his Red Sun and put the text there, without sending it from any phone.

' _Get the message, Fisk. Look up.'_

Wilson looked up, in time to see an explosion come from his office building. It came from the very top floor of his office building.

There was no one up there right now. Most of everyone left for the day, and Fisk always stayed late, even after his staff and his security. His bodyguard vacated the building with him.

Fisk rushed back into the building. It was his office, his fortress of solitude for lack of a better term.

He opened the office door. Several cabinets were melted, his windows shattered. The man's overly large desk melted into a hunk of metal.

The ashes and the smoke caused Fisk's eyes to water. His test parked a nasty retaliation and he had no proof who did it, even though he knew who did it.

Fisk failed to learn the lesson Cobblepot learned in Gotham.

Thou shalt not fuck with Harry Fucking Potter.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 15** **th** **, 2015.**


	118. A Looming Shadow

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighteen "The Looming Shadow."**

* * *

More of the same weather loomed over Gotham City. The very worst of February weather greeted Talon when the crime fighter went on a nightly patrol. Valentine's day loomed around the corner, within the next few days, but Talon did not feel the love.

The crime fighter offered to stay behind when Harry and company went to New York. From what little the raven-haired heroine could tell, there was most certainly a couple of adventures. Jaime stuck around the bond long enough to find out everything turned out okay on the Harry front. Gotham City had problems which put anything going on in New York worst in her mind.

Oracle verified many of these problems over the radio to Jaime.

"There was a bit of a ceasefire for a while," Oracle said. "But the ceasefire is going to lead to more problems. I've gotten confirmation Falcone visited Maroni in Blackgate and obviously, Maroni was made a deal they couldn't refuse. They don't want to die out to the new school mobsters in this city."

Jaime thought figured Falcone and Maroni might have come to an agreement sooner rather than later and thus reached a truce. The rise of the Penguin and Black Mask, along with Thorne and the Commission of Crime, ensured the old school mobster might be something of the distant past.

"So, these two are working together now, and I think we've figured out Sionis and Cobblepot are in bed with each other to a degree," Talon said. "I don't know how long the ceasefire is going to last. And then we got Thorne doing his own thing. Not to mention the Red Hood Gang are just screwing up everyone's shit."

"You pretty much covered the landscape of the Gotham City mob," Oracle said. "Looks like the Penguin and Maroni are going to try and talk things out, or rather a couple of their top lieutenants. Zucco showed up at Cobblepot's a few days ago."

"Might just be a deal, some kind of exchange of goods and services," Talon suggested.

"I think we can figure out there's some kind of deal going on," Oracle said.

The vigilante sighed. Gotham City's problems just began. For a few days, things calm down, but with word of this latest deal, it looked like things picked up. It's like a roller coaster effect.

' _And not the good type of roller coaster, the time which leaves me sick and wanting to get off the ride.'_

Jaime adjusted the flight pattern she took. Oracle's latest information might prove to bear fruit. The only way to find out would be to check the situation out.

The gargoyle on the roof top proved Talon to have a perfect perch port. The crime fighter placed her hands palms down.

"So this is the place?" Talon asked.

"Best, I can find out, yes," Oracle said. "But, unless the deal changes, they should be arriving any moment now."

The deal changing on the account of the weather would be an event did not surprise Talon at all.

' _Okay, showtime,'_ Talon thought.

With the location verified, all Talon had to do was wait. The game anyone hated to play was upon the emerald-eyed vigilante.

A car pulled up a ways down the street. It drove in an erratic manner.

Talon frowned. The car headed towards the meeting place and then it stopped. Talon perched on the roof and followed in pursuit.

The crime fighter ran from rooftop to rooftop. The car kept spiraling out of control. The insane driver behind the wheel of the car looked to have no idea where he was. Jaime wondered if something happened.

The passengers of the car looked frantic. One of them forcefully nudged the driver.

Jaime quickened the pace. Another car drove around the corner. The drive slammed on the brakes.

The driver and the passengers got out just in time to watch the first car spiral into a wall. The driver screamed bloody murder and attempted to detach the seatbelt. This endeavor led to nothing but absolute failure.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Man, I don't know. It looks like the lights are on, but there's no one home!"

The mobsters echoed the very questions Jaime wanted to know.

' _Okay, this is getting weird,'_ Jaime thought. Her lips curled into a frown.

"Nightwing's newest toy picked up something interesting," Oracle said.

"Define interesting?" Jaime asked.

"Mobsters attacking people on their own side?" Oracle asked. "I don't know about you, but seems interesting enough to me."

Actually, Oracle's information defined interesting quite nicely to Jaime Lily Potter. The emerald-eyed stalker of the night made a split decision and directed a new course to the source of the quarrelling mobsters.

The situation went from weird to insane. As much as Jaime wanted to stick with these mobsters, Oracle's report proved to be way too tantalizing for the crime fighter to pass up.

The moment Jaime crossed a certain point on the streets, it felt as if a buzzing feeling erupted within her mind. Everything got all fuzzy.

' _Okay, what the fuck is going on now.'_

Jaime's head snapped back. A figure could be seen in the shadows. Jaime approached it.

The figure disappeared as soon as it appeared. Jaime changed trajectory in mid-air. The crimefighter stuck a landing with a death-defying flip.

Jaime peered down. The Penguin's thugs ran towards who she recognized to be a small group of Maroni's men. Both groups looked prime for a collision course.

Only they ran around and the mobsters started attacking each other in a fever. Mostly kicking, scratching, and punching as opposed to any attacks. One of Penguin's man grabbed another gentleman in a headlock and furiously scratched at the man.

The street fighting kicked up, and only took a turn for the worse.

Another ripple rose and Jaime felt a chill. Laughter could be heard. The insidious sounds echoed and got worse the closer Talon edged towards the chaos and the crime.

' _What the bloody hell is going on here?'_ Jaime thought.

No activity from the bond. Faint whispers yes, but no clear-cut activity. Jaime found herself trapped on the edge of a tunnel of some sort.

' _It feels….so dark…so….awful,'_ Jaime thought.

The chill continued to explode through her body. Jaime sensed an unsettling chaos in the air in the air. A fear tightened over her chest.

Horrors continued to happen. The night sky around Jaime turned a shade of red. The crates started to move on their own accord. The screams of these dangerous mobsters caused Jaime's skin to crawl.

Jaime activated additional shielding on the Talon armor. Putting two and two together, the detective realized something.

' _Crane, of course,'_ Jaime thought. _'He must be back in Gotham, after his escapade in New York.'_

Scarecrow's return added another problem to the mounting list. It would be a long time before anyone dared forget the horrors which occurred last summer.

Jaime collapsed down on her hands and knees. The raven-haired detective looked up. The mobsters all were slumped against the wall. A few of them stirred, many did not.

"Oracle to Talon!" Oracle yelled. "Are you there? I hate to break this to you, but you just fell in the middle of Gotham City, where a bunch of mobsters who would like to kill you are coming your way! And more might be coming around the corner!"

Oracle's words were sufficient enough to pull Jaime out of the funk the girl had been placed under.

"Yes, I'm here, just….lost track," Jaime said. A sensation similar to being dunked into a bucket of ice water filled her body. I'll be fine, I got caught off guard, won't happen again."

The raven-haired vigilante slipped down the alleyway and back into the shadows. Jaime slumped against a door, pushing the door open. She dipped inside the nearest building.

"GCPD is here," Talon said.

"Looks like you got back just in time," Oracle said. Concern filled the hacker's voice. "So, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Talon agreed. "The attack caught me off guard. I caught my breath, just fine."

Jaime wondered if those words pacified Oracle. The words barely did the job of pacifying Jaime.

Regardless, Talon got back to the tower. The most important thing was to check herself for any side effects of any kind of fear toxin. Crane must have arranged a test run of sorts.

"I'll check in a little bit, when I get back," Jaime said. "I'll look around one more time."

"If you insist," Oracle said. "Be careful out there."

Jaime hoped she could be careful. Being careful was easier said than done. The moment the dark clad woman caught her breath, communication networks had been switched.

"Alura, Lara, prepare to test me," Jaime said.

"Do you think you got injected with something?" Lara asked.

"I don't think so," Jaime said. "Something different caught me off guard. I want a full scan, both chemical and magical, ready to go though. You can never be too careful."

"Why would you want a magical scan?" Alura asked.

"Something in the air," Jaime said.

Could this little mystical trip have anything to do with the Scarecrow's escapades in Ravencroft? Jaime found this to be a good question, and would find out the answers. First though, the young vigilante resolved to ensure her head remained straight on her shoulders.

Talon made it back to the tower without any incident. The sense of looming darkness caused the emerald-eyed sorceress to become uneasy.

Then there was the figure Jaime saw before everything went to hell. The presence of the mysterious figure baffled Jaime most of all. This might have been collaborated Jaime's theory or it could have been an illusion.

* * *

The chaos in Gotham City stretched slightly beyond the city limits. The chaos eased behind a border and leaked into a realm.

A pre-teen female lain upon a stone slab. Mystical energy surrounded her. The girl looked to be around ten or eleven years of age. The eyes of this figure glazed over in a completely catatonic manner. Every so often, the body twitched or a low moan escaped the mouth of the person laid out.

The mysterious magic user lapsed in and out of catatonic state.

A group of females dressed in all white robes surrounded the girl on the table. Another woman turned up and pulled down the hood of her robe. The woman resembled an older version of the girl with the same purple hair.

"Have there been any improvements to her condition?" the woman asked.

"No, it started last night, and it worsened tonight," another woman said.

Concern spread through the minds and bodies of the robed figures. The potential power of the girl lain upon the slab terrified them.

"We need to do something, if her magic gets out of control," someone said.

"This is my daughter we're talking about," the first woman responded. "She'll get through this like she got through the crisis event a few months ago."

The crisis event where a powerful device cut through past, present, and future, along several universes were recalled with clarity by these women. Some individuals remained the same, some were very different. Many people arrived in this universe who did not belong here.

The tears fixed themselves. The young girl sensed it happening, sensed a young man opening up a dangerous object. Many died when the young man switched places with a young girl.

The young boy did not assume anything had been wrong and neither did the young girl. The minds of most around them were altered. Their lives continued in a happy manner, oblivious to the change. A few more divine people recalled the changes. Those outside of the fabric of reality also remembered.

"This is far worse than previous crisis event," another argued.

"Only time will tell what consequences this universe shift will bring," the woman said. Her full attention was turned towards the girl on the table.

The woman looked down upon her daughter. She detested seeing anyone in this state, in particular her own flesh and blood. The enchantress performed many spells to scan the girl on the table. None of them brought any relief or any way of getting answers.

Without warning, the girl started thrashing on the table. It looked like the girl was about to have a seizure. Jerking back and forth, the girl smashed bits of the table. Cracks formed in the surface of the stone tablet.

Several figures pinned the girl down. As quickly as the girl started to thrash around wildly, calmness reached.

One of the robed figures turned towards the older purple haired figure.

"Do you think his hand is involved?"

"Surely….you can't…it can't be….."

"Do not even think of him. He will….he stalks us. Do nothing to stir his interest in us further more!"

The women in the temple might be powerful, but any words about him put them in a tizzy. His name was never spoken and his existence was seldom alluded to for one simple reason.

The citizens of Azarath feared he would come for them. The girl on the table was a reminder. A clock ticked. The seconds counted down to the moment where this girl, a half-demon, reached her sixteenth birthday. The prophecy stated what would happen on the date of her sixteenth birthday.

The harbinger to doomsday, the harbinger to the end of the world, it would be near. And one girl would bring the chaos to the world.

"I know you fear him and I was manipulated by him even more than any of you," she said.

"Yes, we know, Arella," an older, much wiser woman, said. "He has charm, but his true form shows what lies behind those horrible eyes."

"If we prepare, we might have a chance to stop him," Arella said. "My daughter must face him, and I dread those days approaching us. But….perhaps if we get the help of one who has dealt with him in the past."

"The Dragon?" one of the women asked. "He is not of full strength yet."

"One day, he will regain his full power, and he will be more impressive than ever before," Arella said.

"But will it be in time?" another woman asked.

"You must have faith he will find a way," Arella said.

Arella hoped to offer them hope, even if her hope faded with each second.

' _Plenty of time to stop from the inevitable from occurring.'_

The most obvious solution would be to obliterate the portal. The problem was Arella knew enough destroying the portal would cause a chain reaction which could destroy all of life. The changes would be more unsettling than the mysterious changes occurring months back.

The portal also happened to be her daughter. Raven twitched one more time. Arella placed a rag in a basin of water and dabbed it onto her forehead.

"My dear, Raven, I know you feel horrible, and you can see all which unfolds among many worlds along with the feelings of despair," Arella said. She continued to dab her daughter's head. "Remain strong. Do not fear your gifts, but embrace them."

"She fears her gifts….chaos," Raven said.

Raven's body underwent another spasm forcing the women of Azarath to further restrain her. Arella knew her daughter had a sense of feelings, both fears and joys, of the people around her. The empathic gifts Raven inherited from Arella allowed her to see experience things and sometimes it overwhelmed her. The crisis event months brought some dire memories and emotions to the surface. Several people had been wiped out of reality.

Some of the inferior race of magic users had remained. Less than ten percent of those people remained after the reality had shifted and contorted.

Arella knew what she wanted to do. There was one man on Earth with the ability to help them.

"I must seek him," Arella said. "If I form the foundations of a bond with him, the Dragon will be more likely to assist us when it occurs."

The women of Azarath nodded. Arella leaned down and tried to communicate with Raven.

Raven started screaming at the top of her lungs. The temple walls started to rattle.

Arella watched the chaos unfold, trying not to widen her eyes to spook everyone in the temple. One thing could be made perfectly clear. Raven's magic was capable of distorting reality. This magic her daughter channeled came from a different source than what she was accustomed to.

Everything was silent. Arella made a decision of what to do next. The sorceress felt it prudent to move now, before Raven's condition worsened.

The source looked to be in trouble as well and the source's mental well-being tied into Raven's own well being. Arella was confident the guardians of the temple would ensure Raven would not be harmed.

Arella sought to seek out the Master of Death, the Dragon, first and foremost. The woman lifted a heavy weight from a heart which had been torn asunder.

Life could work out funny sometimes. The worst thing which ever happened to Arella led to her greatest treasure.

* * *

Soccer tryouts ended in Smallville. Or Football, if you used the British term for the game, and young Lana Lang was careful not to say the S-Word in front of Amanda Potter. From what Harry told Lana, Amanda got really, really offended when people referred to Football as soccer.

Lana worked hard to make the team. The hard ass overseeing tryouts looked to be happy about seeing young girls cry.

' _I swear, most gym teachers and coaches in school are just failed drill sergeants, or bitter failed athletes,'_ Lana thought.

The satisfaction of a practice well done added some spring in Lana's step. The improvement in the weather increased the preteen girl's mood as well.

The day was rather beautiful in Smallville, which was surprising for February. At least, Lana thought it was still February. This month went by extremely slow to the point where Lana felt like life moved at a snail's pace.

Puddles of slush rested on the ground. Lana realized how late soccer practice went. She barely heard herself over the growling of her stomach.

Much to Lana's frustration, Claire didn't appear to budge when Lana attempted to get the girl to tryout. Claire was still a bit gun shy about sports. Then again, it appeared Claire didn't want to do anything to upset Jonathan Kent who had told his daughter it was too much of a risk.

Maybe, Claire would be interested in JV cheerleader tryouts in the fall. Granted, Lana could not see Claire really being the type.

' _Well, at least she has the strength to lift us into the air,'_ Lana thought. _'And she wouldn't look too bad in a skirt….granted, she's not the skirt wearing type, to be honest. And she would overshadow some of those fake peppy girls…..given how she is when she gets excited. Guess, she is the type.'_

Lana almost busted a gut laughing at the absurd image came to mind. Claire didn't realize how much she missed out on.

Nell was gone for the week, so Lana stayed with the Kents. Lana thought of her little week being a really long sleepover.

The walk home was a hop, skip, and jump from the Kent Farm. Smallville Elementary was closer to the Kent Farm than Smallville High. The Middle School was somewhere in between which fit quite nicely.

Lana noticed something very peculiar sticking out of the ground. This item looked to be buried in the snow in the winter and promptly forgotten.

A frown crossed over Lana's face. Would it really hurt to check it out and see what it was? Curiosity got the better of the dark haired eleven-year old.

Lana leaned down and grabbed the edge of the wood sticking out of the ground. Thankfully, wearing gloves meant splinters should not be a concern.

With a little bit of effort, the wooden slab pulled from the grass. Lana frowned and looked over it. A faded drawing looked to be carved into the slab.

Upon closer inspection, the drawing looked a little bit like Harry. Upon even closer inspection, the drawing looked a lot like Harry. Upon more closer inspection, Lana thought the drawing looked exactly like Harry.

' _Looks to be from one of the native tribes,'_ Lana said. _'It's really creepy how much this looks like Harry. Maybe it's his great-great-great grandfather or something?'_

Lana figured a good idea might be to hang onto this. The only word she could make was in a language she struggled to get a good enough hold on.

The curious fifth-grader slipped the wooden piece inside a bag and walked off. Claire would have to see this.

Lana felt a chill in the air. The temperature appeared to drop a few degrees in seconds.

The sudden drop in temperature prompted Lana to get her butt in gear and head home. The smell of a home cooked Martha Kent meal tempted the black-haired youth. Talk about the best incentive to return back to the Kent homestead in Lana's own biased opinion.

* * *

On this Friday, the schools in Gotham City closed down. It was a four day weekend for the students of Gotham City. A statewide teacher's conventional mandated this, where the teachers and staff would talk about ways to improve the schools and budget concerns.

Granted, the fact a convention went on was little concern to the students. All they cared about was the extended weekend.

Jade and Jessie stepped into the mall. Both girls had little money to spare, but the place was a good place to hang out. Jessie talked to Jade in hushed tones.

"So, your father," Jessie said.

"Yes, what about my father," Jade said.

The subject of Jade's father was a sour subject for her. Jade was to the point where any respect for her father died a death.

"He's kind of crashing in Willis's basement," Jessie said.

"You mean, he's out of prison?" Jade asked.

Jessie nodded in response.

"I thought my dad hated your dad," Jade said.

Jessie frowned. Come to think of it, she assumed Larry hated Willis as well.

"Well, I guess Willis wants to work with your dad on one of his hair-brained schemes," Jessie said. The girl shrugged. It was hard to figure out a lot of what her father did anymore. "But, your dad is out of prison and up to something, I think."

Needless to say, Jessie's news did not put Jade in good spirits. The spirited girl had a few things she wanted to say about her father. Unfortunately, those cutting remarks would have to wait.

Artemis joined the two older girls. Paula Crock insisted Jade allowed her sister to tag along on this trip to the mall. Jade figured there was no point in arguing with her mother and allowed Artemis to tag along.

The younger Crock sister burst with excitement. She finally saved up enough money to get the archery set of her dreams. Archery had been a hobby of Artemis and something the girl wanted to improve in. Archery was also the one sport Artemis had better skill in than her father.

Artemis's hands found the girl's hips and a look of agitation was directed towards Jade.

"Jade, you could have waited!" Artemis said.

"Artemis, I told you to keep up," Jade said.

Artemis's hands flung to her hips in time to glare at her older sister.

"Well, you deliberately ditched me!"

Any further exchange between the two girls would have to wait. Quite a motley crew awaited them when the girls visited. Namely, Donna, Amanda, Emily, Bette, Bunny, Lois, and Lyta, all of them arrived at the shopping center in style and quite the rowdy group as well.

Amanda noticed the three girls who had stepped towards the larger group of girls. The larger group sat around to enjoy some sodas by the fountain.

"Hey, Jade, Jessie, Artemis!" Amanda said.

"Amanda, it's good to see you," Jade said.

Jade walked forward to greet the older girl, who was a bit of a mentor to the oldest Crock sister.

Pleasantries had been exchanged and the other group of girls proceeded to sit down to join Amanda and the others. One of the Potter twins decided to introduce the girls to the group. Some of them knew each other, while others didn't.

"Ladies, and Lois," Amanda said. Amanda's slight caused Lois to stick out her tongue in response. "This is Artemis Crock, Jade Crock, and Jessie Todd. Ladies, I'm Amanda Potter, this is my sister Emily, Donna Troy, Bette Kane, Bunny Vreeland, Lois Lane, and Lyta Potter."

"Wow, you said all those names in one breath?" Emily asked.

"Please don't start, Emmy," Amanda said.

"I was just praising you," Emily said.

"You saying all of those names was really impressive," Bette said.

Amanda sighed hard. The dog-piling on her by everyone else already began.

Lyta looked at Artemis and shook her head. Artemis wondered why the girl was doing this.

"Wow, another Artemis?" Lyta asked.

"Is it really too common of a name?" Artemis asked.

Donna decided to jump in and hopefully Lyta would not embarrass her in public. Young sisters tended to embarrass older sisters, especially in public, and especially in front of ther friends.

Diana would remind Donna this was some kind of karma regarding how the middle princess acted when she was Lyta's age. Donna hated when Diana was right. And Diana was right a lot, which made Donna hate her sister a lot.

"Well, we know two of them, our trainer and another one," Donna said. The Amazon Princess found it hard to tell people she knew the Goddess Artemis in casual conversation. "And…my sister, Diana, she was named after the Roman name for the Goddess Artemis."

"Wow, kind of cool cool….not sure what my mother was thinking giving naming me Artemis," Artemis said.

"She saw the name on a back of a moving truck," Jade said.

Artemis's eyes snapped towards Jade. It was difficult to say whether or not Jade was being straight up with Artemis or not.

"Well, maybe you should change your name," Lyta said. "I mean, it's going to get confusing."

"Well not gonna happen," Artemis said.

Lyta folded her arms across her chest in an extremely adorable atomic pout like motion. Donna raised a hand and patted Lyta on the top of the head. Donna's actions only served to upset the girl even further.

"Donna!" Lyta yelled.

"It's so cute when you don't get your way," Donna said. "You know, because it doesn't happen often."

Lois laughed even more. The poor girl, Lois almost felt sorry for her. Lois decided to talk to Jade's younger sister.

"So, you're Artemis?" Lois asked. "Jade has told me a lot about you."

Lois's statement caused Artemis to become extremely worried.

"She has?" Artemis asked.

"Good things," Lois said. "We were just talking about a trip we were going to take to California."

"Oh, yes, it's going to be awesome, especially when I go to the Magic Kingdom, and there is a bunch of other cool stuff in California," Lyta said.

Amanda and Donna locked eyes and both shook their heads with how Lyta was behaving. One could say a blessing occurred when the youngest Amazon Princess behaved at all.

The trip to California most certainly piqued the interest of the other girls. The way the twins and certainly Lyta started to prattle on about it only served to increase the desire of the girls to learn about even more.

"So when are you going?" Jade asked.

"Late March, for Spring Break," Amanda informed her.

"You know, maybe you three should come with us, it might be good for you all to get away from Gotham City," Lois said.

"I don't know," Jade said.

Artemis looked hopeful, and Jade knew Artemis might want to go.

"Just think about it," Lois said.

"They really are looking forward to this, aren't they?" Artemis asked.

Laughter reigned when Lois thought about the understatement the younger Crock sister made. A long moment passed before Lois decided to hold her tongue and for once stop saying what she really thought.

"Girls are looking forward to this about as much as they are the soccer tryouts," Lois said.

Lois bringing up soccer tryouts was something of a hot button issue for Amanda. Amanda folded her arms together and looked at Lois.

"First, Football, Lois, Football," Amanda said. "And second of all, I hope to see all of the girls try out, well maybe not Bette and Bunny, but everyone else."

The oldest Lane sister's hands went flying into the air agitation. Bette had another point of contention to what Amanda was saying.

"I was on the team," Bette said. "In fact, the only reason you're the captain is because a lot of girls are in our final year."

"Yeah, we really need to focus on our exams," Bunny said.

Amanda finally shut up and looked rather despondent at the fact she had been shut down. Emily looked at her twin in amusement.

"Not having the best day, are you?" Emily asked.

"You know, you could have not left me out there to die," Amanda said. "Some evil twin you are."

"Wait, I'm the evil twin?" Emily asked. "I think you have it backwards, especially with your attitude."

"Oh, really nice, you think I'm backwards," Amanda said. "It's too bad you're not on the Football team."

"Soccer really isn't my thing," Emily said, purposely using the term Amanda hated to rile her sister up.

The banter between the two twins were laughed at by all. Artemis wasn't used to it. The younger girl turned to Lyta.

"So, are they always like this?" Artemis asked.

"Most days, they're much more annoying," Lyta said. "Then, again, some people would say the same about me and Donna."

"Well, I'm sure a lot of people would say the same thing about me and Jade as well," Artemis said.

"Tell me more," Lyta said. The girl placed her hands against the bench and started to bounce up and down.

Donna and Jade exchanged a nervous look with each other. Their two sisters collaborating with each other, well talk about a disaster waiting to happen.

Jade thought it might be good for Artemis in some way, but Lyta did seem like a handful. It was hard to envy Harry with someone like her. Jade leaned towards Lois.

"So, those two together?" Jade asked.

"Scary, but not as scary as if Lucy ever joined forces with Lyta," Lois said.

The older Lane sister shuddered at the thought.

"So how is your sister?" Jade asked.

"Still overseas, I'm assuming everything is fine," Lois said. "At least, I haven't gotten any calls. The General is still doing what he does, moving around."

Lois felt grateful Harry took her in. Moving all around the country and sometimes could get rough on a girl as spirited as Lois. She needed a bit more stability to keep her in line.

"So, is everything going good for you at home?" Lois asked.

"Yes, given my mother told my father in no uncertain terms he's never to return," Jade said.

"He should be out of the slammer by now, shouldn't he be?" Lois asked. "Guy should have been locked up longer with the stupid outfit he put on. And seriously, Sportsmaster?"

Jade couldn't help, but laugh at Lois. The twelve-year old feisty female might have had many issues with her father in the past, but the name still sounded a bit stupid. Didn't make him any less skilled.

Jessie watched the exchange between Lois and Jade. The two had started to become friends during the school year and it made Jessie feel like left out in the cold.

"I'm going to get my stuff," Artemis said.

"I'm going to come with you…there is something I want to look at in the sporting good's store," Jessie said.

Artemis shrugged. If Jessie wanted to join her, fine enough by her. Given how rough and tumble the girl was, there would be hardly anyone who Artemis thought could cause any problems.

Lois continued to chat away with Jade.

"Did you hear about the Circus?" Lois asked. "They said Haley's Circus is coming back to Gotham City."

"First time in ten years, it's going to be a big event,' Bunny said.

"Yes, Hamilton Hill worked out a deal with Haley to bring entertainment to Gotham City, and by coincidence in an election year," Amanda said.

"It is supposed to be a better show than it was years ago," Bette said. "There were a lot of shady people causing problems, at least from what Kathy told me."

"Shady people in Gotham City, no way," Donna said.

The circus would be interesting, especially considering it returned to Gotham City for the first time in ten years. The girls enjoyed their day off. Hanging out in the mall ensured they did not get into trouble.

Well, they didn't get into too much trouble at the very least.

"So, Harry's coming back on Monday, isn't he?" Lois asked.

"Unless something comes up," Amanda answered.

The biggest miracle of all was this particular group of girls did not get around to the subject of Harry until now. Amanda personally thought they set a new indoor record in not talking about Harry.

* * *

Jaime had been undergoing tests for the better part of the last day. Alura and Lara prepared to give a diagnosis of just what was going on.

"You are completely clean," Lara said. "There's no toxins, no chemicals."

"Nothing is in your blood stream, you are the picture of perfect health," Alura said. "And believe me, if there was even one hint of toxin in your system, we would have noticed it."

The news the two women gave Jaime baffled and confused the ever living fuck out of the emerald-eyed vigilante. Fingers twirled in the hair of the twenty-one year old woman. This didn't really make a lot of sense to be honest.

Only one thing left to do is check in with Oracle.

"Oracle, this is Jaime," Jaime said. "I check out."

"Oh, thank god," Oracle said. She spent her day off at school going over some case files and worrying about how Jaime could check out. "Why did it take so long?"

"We wanted to be sure there is nothing wrong," Jaime said. "And there isn't….what about the mobster who got in the car crash? Did you get any news about him?"

"He has every single drug in his system known to man, except for any kind of drug which would account for his behavior," Barbara responded. "It's like some mysterious force caused them to freak out. It's hard to explain. They're all clean of any fear toxin. In fact, the police report I received, states none of them even remembered enacting in this weird behavior."

Jaime got silent and Barbara took the silence as her cue to keep pressing on.

"Mysterious force….magic might be the only solution," Barbara said.

"You might be right, but it's like no magic I've ever been taught, and I don't think Harry has or any of the others either," Jaime said.

The news went from weird to even more strange. Other than one moment of insanity last night, nothing bad occurred. Jaime felt something really off. Reality distorting around her, even briefly, caused Jaime to wonder what the hell was going on.

"Guess tonight's going to be a long night," Jaime said.

"You have no idea," Barbara said. "Well, I'll stand by if you need anything."

"Thanks, appreciated as always," Jaime said.

Jaime was pretty much on her own tonight. Diana and Harry still were in New York and Harry wasn't one hundred percent after the problems he encountered. Batman and Katana found themselves up to their neck in League of Assassins business. Dinah currently followed what might prove to be a good lead on Thea, so she was out of commission.

Friday night rapidly approached and Jaime just had a feeling it was going to be a long weekend. Tracking down Crane would be the best thing to do, to get to the bottom of this.

Jaime waited for the sun to go down. An uneasy feeling chilled the vigilant to the bones. At first, she thought it was because of Gotham's notorious weather. Upon further inspection, this feeling came from something else entirely.

' _Well here we go,'_ Jaime thought.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 19** **th** **, 2015.**


	119. Unraveled Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen "Unraveled" Part One.**

* * *

 

Wanda heard nothing but screams tormenting her thoughts. The symphony of terror resounded through the mind of the young woman. The woman's breathing grew extremely ragged and exceedingly heavy. Seconds from now, Wanda thought she would be losing her mind.

Providing she didn't lose her mind already.

Jonathan Crane swept into the room Wanda sat with her legs crossed. The depraved man watched the tormented teenager rock back and forth. The scientist wore a long overcoat which made him look like a creepier of the night. A long brim straw hat was put on his head and a gas mask added to the creepy appeal.

Crane looked like a more humane version of a Scarecrow. The fear toxin the crazed man could release would tell the story no question about it. Wanda clenched the arm chair and drew in a deep breath.

The brunette girl felt her chin get cupped. The merest touch caused her nerve endings to feel like they were on fire. Wanda looked into the soulless eyes of Doctor Crane. The girl felt completely paralyzed, unable to do anything.

"Just let it fester, my dear. Just let it stew. The test run was good. You showed what you could do with a minimal amount of exposure."

Crane's words pierced inside her mind like a well-placed razor place. The man turned around and strolled in a direction of a makeshift lab.

Wanda struggled to touch her fingers together. The emotions, the feelings, Wanda knew they were all messed up. The moment Wanda woke up in the asylum, she knew everything was all wrong. The girl didn't have the ability to hold it together or communicate what was wrong.

The administrators or the doctors couldn't help her. Wanda felt like a caged rabbit. Fear slowly gripped her body as she recalled those tormented years in the asylum.

Wanda placed a pair of unsteady hands atop her head. The woman slowly rocked herself back and forth, and mentally tried to will it to stop.

In the shadows, through the doorway, Jonathan Crane observed the young girl. Pen was placed to paper in the ragged notebook. The good doctor scrawled a couple more notes and read them over to see if they made sense.

"Today, Friday, February 13th, 1998, I continue to observe the subject," Crane narrated. "I have managed to manipulate the subject with a steady combination of chemicals and psychological warfare. We have moved from the cottage generously denoted by Hugo Strange to a base of operations outside of the Gotham City limits."

The pen casually scratched across the paper. Crane continued to take narration.

"The subject has minimal ability to gain control, but they are passing," Crane said. "I have observed she has caused a distortion in the fabric of time/space. Time seems to crawl at a much slower rate and sometimes in reverse for moments at a time, in proximity to her. I will need to continue to observe any changes and keep my eye on any clocks, making notes regarding any further effects. ."

Satisfied the notes were to his standards, Crane made his way towards the kitchen of the cottage. The man's eyes shifted over the porridge which was properly prepared.

Crane took a small crystal vial and poured it into the porridge.

"Please, stop, I can't take this anymore!" Wanda cried.

Wanda's tone of pleading almost made Crane's heart bleed. Almost, but he needed to keep any emotions out of this. The true nature of fear required experimentation and Crane need not get hung up on the fact his lab rat felt discomfort.

Crane advanced on Wanda and the porridge was steaming hot.

Under normal circumstances, the food would taste wonderful, it would taste perfect as well. Wanda shook her head.

The added flavor in the porridge was fear and lots of it. Crane looked at her with a smile. This particular smile was even creepier than anything. The deranged man walked closer towards Wanda, practically boxing her into position.

A thumping echoed and Wanda felt dizzied. Crane leaned down towards her.

"Wanda, it's time to take your medicine," Crane said. "Don't fight me on this, Wanda. You need food. Let me help you."

Wanda's stomach growled. She needed food. No matter if it was drugged, she still needed food.

Crane rationed her meals out in an attempt to ensure every time he wanted her doused, she craved the food the mild toxin was in.

"Perfect, Wanda, you know things go better when you allow your doctor to help you," Crane said. "You're hungry, aren't you?"

"Yes, Doctor Crane, please, I need food," Wanda said.

Wanda's mouth open and she accepted the porridge. The moment Wanda swallowed it, she felt her pupils shift and dilate.

A scream came out of her throat. The scream was like perfect music to Wanda's ears. Wanda kept screaming out loud.

Crane walked over to a player piano. Cracking his knuckles, Crane started to compose an eerie tune towards Wanda's shrieks. They got even louder, before Wanda fell silent.

The chill in the room disturbed Crane a tiny bit, which would not do. Crane reached into his vest and pulled out a vial of an orange liquid. Crane pulled back his sleeve and sanitized his skin. Then, he placed the vial into an injector.

"The anti-adrenaline concoction will even the odds, somewhat," Crane said. "This drug will allow her perception of reality not to affect my thoughts."

The weird distortion of reality caused by Wanda had a minimal effect after her . Crane was in a blissful state of sedation. The scientist hummed a jaunty tune underneath his breath.

"And now it's time to further admire my handiwork," Crane said.

With those charming words, Crane turned on the radio. A scientist must always listen to what people said about his experimentations. The rabble showed the best feedback.

"And Gotham City has no more than the usual amount of strangeness on Friday the 13th. Several hardened mobsters appeared to have freaked out for no reason. One man passed away after suffering a stroke. More baffling yet, medical examination of the mobsters on the scene proved there was absolutely nothing wrong with them."

"Yes, not yet, but there will be," Crane said.

Wanda's powers mind fucked them a little bit, but a person could get over a nice little mind-fucking easily. Crane flipped through the television stations and more of the same.

The news reports coming in Gotham City briefly mentioned the oddness, but they had no idea.

' _Only a test run.'_

The real fun and games would start now. Crane could hardly wait to play. He turned towards Wanda.

"Rest, well, Wanda, for tonight, we leave for Gotham City."

Wanda could not argue. She lapsed into a fitful sleep on the couch. The teenage girl's nightmares fueled the horror Crane would cause over all of Gotham City.

A fair amount of time would pass before the fear toxin would be completely cooked. The real fun prepared to occur at this time.

Crane was going to give them a Friday the 13th they would never forget. A day associated with misfortune and bad luck would be given tenfold to the citizens of Gotham City.

* * *

 

Crunch time was here in New York with the business deal at OsCorp. The members of the board rapidly approached lunch on Friday the 13th. Everyone's anxiety increased, the need for a deal being high. If it could not be made today, then they feared it would be off of the table for good.

OsCorp needed this deal, Harry could see it. They just got greedy.

Harry consulted with a few people. Anastasia and Harry discussed what they needed to do get this done. As much as both of them would have liked to turf the younger Osborn, the fact was the would do much less harm where people could keep an eye on him.

The board decided to play hardball, but they were playing little league and Harry was in the big leagues.

Another man who played in the big leagues was one Wilson Fisk. The man was cordial to Harry both times he met him. The man did not act like he was bothered by his office blowing up.

Harry could see why. To call Harry out on would mean Fisk would be called out on more than a few things. The biggest of those things happened to be a group of dangerous ninja assassins going after Harry.

So, both men worked together for the moment because it was best for business.

"Ladies and gentlemen, for the past week, we've hashed out this matter to death," Anastasia said. "I was under the assumption you were men and women who had business on their mind first and foremost. Some of you do have your livelihoods on the line at OsCorp. Do you want it to die on the vine because you wanted to get just much more from the cookie jar?"

Anastasia laid it all out on the table. Wilson leaned towards Harold, and the older man whispered something to the younger man.

Harold looked rather sour, but nodded. Fisk had been working on him all week, and if Harold wants to live up to his father's standards, conceding a smaller battle to win a larger war is important.

"Yes, I believe this deal is more than fair," Fisk said.

"Given, the circumstances, I agree the deal is more than fair," Fiers agreed.

Fiers had no idea what game Fisk was playing. There was a slight power struggle between the two men. Fiers respected Fisk on some days and on other days, he would like nothing better than to reach across the table to ring the fat man's neck.

"Mr. Fiers will stay on with a substantial role," Anastasia continued.

"And young Mr. Osborn will be a consultant," Lily added. "We still value the input of the Osborn name, and it would be unwise to pressure this young man into doing more than he's ready to handle."

"Yes, not all of us are born perfect," Harold said through gritted teeth.

"Harold, this deal is best for you," Fisk said.

Fisk knew what was on the line here. Harry Potter and SLE could sweep in and buy out all of the majority shareholders and Fisk would be at a lose big time if he pushed him too far. This deal was just best for business.

Harry, Lily, and Anastasia looked over each other. Anyone with a few brain cells to spare could see it was evident. They knew this deal was going to go in this direction and accepted it, at least for the time being.

"All we have left to do would be to hold a Board vote," Fiers said. "All in favor for the agreement?"

Everyone voted. There were no holdouts this time. Even Harold voted, despite having no real power on the board. Menken made a spectacle out of giving his vote.

"I don't know what took so long," Menken said. "I had been for this deal since day one."

"Menken, enough," Fiers said.

The only thing to do was to shake hands and walk forward into the next chapter of this particular business arrangement. Harry extended his hand towards Harold, to prove there were no hard feelings.

Harold responded to grip Harry's hand firmly. Harry could feel the young man's attempt to exert pressure.

"It's a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Osborn," Harry said.

"Likewise, Doctor Potter," Harold said.

Harold figured sooner or later, he would have his company back. Harry Potter would pay for all he did to him, all he stole from Harold.

Despite Harry being at a fraction of his strength, this was not a game Harold Osborn wanted to play.

' _I didn't think he was strong,'_ Karen said.

' _Maybe it's the watch?'_ Donna said.

' _Watch or not, Harry should break him,'_ Diana thought.

' _I agree,'_ Faora said. _'We're going to have to keep an eye on him. I wonder if something happened when his father had his accident. What was Norman Osborn working on anyway?'_

Harry had his suspicions, but he would find out sooner rather than later. The two young men released their grips o ntheir hand.

The concerns of the girls in the bond were well noted. Harry would have to figure the answers out later. Right now, he had another appointment to go to.

"It's been a pleasure doing business with you," Harry said.

"Yes, and we'll do much more business in the future," Fiers said.

"I'm sorry for leaving so soon…."

"Yes, I know, your appointment," Fiers said. "A man of your responsibilities has other places where he needs to be."

"I can take it from here," Lily said.

"Thanks, Mum," Harry said.

Without another word, Harry gathered up the papers on the desk and turned to leave. Lily and Rose still had control of SLE until Harry's legal 21st birthday. He did a lot of work for public relationships purposes.

Taking his leave, Harry departed. Harry could sense something was off somewhere. The blip he felt through the bond from Jaime earlier caused Harry some amount of pause.

Nyssa and Faora waited in the limo. Both of the women had been listening in on the meeting, but they wanted to hear it from him.

"So what happened?" Faora asked.

"Tell you in a minute," Harry said.

Now all three made themselves comfortable in the limo, Harry recapped what happened in the limo. All and all, he was really glad to have everything sign, sealed, and delivered by the weekend.

"It's good to see your business has been concluded," Nyssa said. The Daughter of the Demon's eyes closed. "I just wish the other nasty business concluded….but I guess you did acquire something useful in the exchange. At least as useful as someone from the Hand would be."

Nyssa understood if Elektra was not an attractive woman, Harry would have slaughtered the woman no questions asked. And Nyssa wouldn't have argued the point. Given Elektra proved to be a resource, and Harry never squandered a reason, Nyssa understood why.

"Yes, never squander a resource."

Harry wondered when Nyssa was going to get around to this. There were problems with the League and the Hand.

There was something else on Nyssa's mind. Harry could sense it for some reason.

"So, are you okay?" Harry asked. "It seems like you've had something on your mind."

"I have my own concerns I'd like to keep private, just like you'd like to keep your own concerns private," Nyssa said.

"Fair enough," Harry answered.

Harry would let it go for now. The only reason where he would press Nyssa for more would be if it directly impacted his life. Right now, it didn't appear what Nyssa was doing would have a direct impact on his life.

' _At least for the moment.'_

Faora frowned.

' _So, what are you going to do?'_ Faora asked.

' _Keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, but don't get involved unless it impacts me,'_ Harry said.

Faora understood perfectly where her brother went. . Harry's agenda would be served quite nicely, and it would be the best direction to go from here on out. Nyssa had her secrets and both respected it.

Unless it affected Harry personally, there would be no reason to interfere.

* * *

 

Talon patrolled Gotham City. Much to her concern, it was Friday night again. For a moment, Talon thought she had mistaken the date, but there was something going wrong. The emerald-eyed crime fighter currently engaged in deep conversation with Oracle over the communication network.

"So, what do you expect to find out there?" Oracle asked.

"Anything," Jaime said. "What's the date today?"

"Friday the 13th," Oracle said. "So be careful for any black cats, ladders, and mirrors tonight."

"Last night was Friday the 13th?" Jaime asked.

"Was it?" Oracle asked. "I think….you know, I could have sworn it was as well. And in fact, it feels like I lived this same day in some respects. Including you going out on patrol. What do you think is going on?"

"Magic of the worst kind," Jaime said.

"Well, magic's more your bag, than mine," Oracle said. "So far there's nothing strange on my end, but hey, I'll keep you posted for any weirdness."

One thing the witch could sense was some strange mystical power in the air. The power caused the hairs on the back of her neck to stand up.

They thought it would be prudent to keep things to the standard network. The best thing would be not to get Harry involved. Especially after the close encounter of the ninja kind he experienced the other night.

Jaime kept her eyes peeled for anything out of the ordinary.

Talon jumped back and nearly lost her grip. She shot the grapnel in the air and tried to latch onto a gargoyle. Unfortunately, the gargoyle in question looked to be getting further and further away from her.

Jaime ducked her head and came preciously close to plummeting into the ground. Several wraiths flew towards her from the air. Jaime ducked her head down.

Something ensnared her. There was something really wrong.

"Oracle, I think it's happening again, only it's worse this time," Talon said. A long pause followed and there was no answer.

Jaime didn't like silence. Actually she more than didn't like the silence, the emerald-eyed vigilante hated it.

"Oracle?"

Either, Jaime could hear her, and it just wasn't registering, or both had been cut off. All of Gotham City shifted into something else entirely around her. The changes in the air caused goosebumps to rise from Jaime's shoulders.

The little burst of chaos she encountered last night was a drop in the hat compared to this little dose of insanity. Jaime turned her head from the left, to the right and saw the wraiths dive at her again.

Closing her eyes, Jaime channeled all of the power she could through her hand. A bolt of pure white energy shot through the air and connected with the creatures. The wraiths propelled back after she bombarded them with energy.

The white energy twisted into a dragon with razor sharp claws. The dragon did a good job in taking out all of the creatures.

The wraiths disappeared. The fog created in their wake still remained. Jaime turned her head around and sighed.

Jaime tried to get back up to the rooftop. Only the moment she got to the rooftop, Jaime lost her balance again.

The green eyed girl fell down in what appeared to be a flaming pit. Gotham City could still be heard around her.

A group of robed figures surrounded a fit. They all wore sheep masks. They hummed a tune underneath their breath. The tune continued to get louder and louder.

A bearded man dressed in a black robe and a straw hat approached. The man peered down at Jaime.

Jaime realized she was face to face with the deceased Deacon Blackfire.

"I told your brother when I met him, I would be back to spread the world. Tonight is the night. Maybe he didn't believe me, but soon, I'll make a believer out of Gotham City. Perhaps, people should be more afraid of things they should not see, man."

The demented preacher's laughter grew even more sinister. Jaime tried to rush him.

The rocks the Deacon stood on rose up. The man peered down at Jaime through narrowed eyes and smiled. A chuckle echoed through the back of his throat.

"Each day, I grow stronger. This chaos magic, it brings me closer to the edge, brings me back to life. Soon, I will return. The more souls I sacrifice for my higher power, the better. And the more you fight, the harder the chaotic elements attack them. You cannot defeat the system, my friend."

The laughter resounded even more. Jaime could see something turned really awry. The raven-haired witch scrambled to her adversary one more time.

Only she found said adversary was a bit out of reach.

"Okay, this just got pretty fucked up pretty quickly," Jaime said.

It had only just begun to get fucked up indeed. Ghosts, ghouls, and gremlins surrounded Jaime. Jaime flashed back into Hogwarts, and saw a disturbing image. Albus Dumbledore stood before her dressed in tight black leather corset, a thong, and fishnet stockings. Snape, Umbridge, and Fudge led a chorus and they started to sing.

Jaime slipped down into a tunnel. A flaming skull head taunted Jaime and the young witch slipped further into madness.

Bright lights bombarded Jaime.

"All is well."

Jaime shook herself awake and hung from the windows of the penthouse. A pair of hands pulled her back inside before the girl completely blacked out from the insanity which surrounded her.

Given all she saw, especially some of those images at her former school in her old world, fading to black pleased her immensely.

* * *

 

Lana bounced back to the Kent Homestead. The fifth-grader broke into a wide sprint. She could hardly wait to return back to share the exciting news with Claire and Kara.

A nearly close encounter occurred. Lana staggered back a moment and realized she nearly ran into Marie.

Marie shook her head. Lana looked rather excited. It was almost amusing to the young woman.

"Whoa, Lana, where's the fire?" Marie asked.

Marie loosened up a little bit after the incident regarding Markos. She had been a bit more relaxed. Exactly how much of had to do with having Kara in her head, no one could really say. Marie only could guess, but the incident was the boost for her to become more relaxed.

"I found something, it was something really amazing," Lana said.

Marie surveyed the girl with thinly veiled amusement. Lana Lang could make a person tired with all of the energy she had. Marie wondered what the girl's caffeine intake was.

Claire poked her head outside. Lana's arrival could be heard from a mile away and Claire wasn't sure if was completely because of her super hearing. Regardless, Claire advanced on Marie and gave the girl a fairly crisp smile.

"So how as try outs?" Claire asked.

"Oh, those, they went fine," Lana said.

Lana sounded like she was a million miles off. The girl nearly bust at the seams, with the need to tell her friends what she found.

"Just fine?" Claire asked.

"Yeah, I'll tell you about them later, but I have something to show you right now!"

Lana nearly forgot about soccer tryouts in all of the fun and chaos. The eager girl fished through her bag. It caused books and pencils, along with her soccer clothes to nearly fly out everywhere.

Marie exchanged an exasperated look with Claire. Lana managed to find it after intense rummaging.

One would think the item would not shift into the bottom of the bag with so little time having passed. One would think, but one would be wrong.

"Here it is," Lana said. "I want you to look at this? Doesn't it look like Harry to you?"

Claire would have to agree with Lana. The resemblance to the drawing was completely uncanny.

"Maybe, it's a group of people who worship Harry like a god," Claire said.

Under normal circumstances Marie found herself not believing something so absurd. Given the memories she got from Kara during the power drain, the girl found herself slowly become a believer regarding one Harry Potter.

Marie's lips curled into a smile. Maybe it was possible, just maybe.

"I don't know about you, but I really want to find out more about this," Lana said. "Why would something like this; it must be centuries old, be lying in the middle of the grass in Smallville?"

"I don't know, maybe someone wanted it to be found," Claire said.

"Really, who?" Marie asked.

"I don't know," Claire said. The fifth grader shrugged. "Someone, they wanted it found. I don't know who would want it found, but someone did."

"Well, we're not going to find out just by asking about it," Lana said. "We need to look around, see what we can find out."

Lana's eagerness being infectious would be one thing Marie would have to concede. Almost instantly when Lana made the suggestion, something else hit Marie.

Marie recalled running into something. It was when she was on the run, just before she ran into Martha. The teenager waved her hand and summoned Lana and Claire towards her.

"I remember seeing drawings like this before," Marie said.

"You do?" Claire asked.

Curiosity had been piqued and Lana and Claire listened rather closely. Marie drew in a deep breath and continued.

"Yeah, I was on the run from Eiling and his men," Marie said. "I came across a set of caves and I slipped inside. There were drawings all over the wall. I can't remember exactly what they look like, but they were there, and all over the wall."

Claire and Lana nodded. The two girls invited Marie to continue.

"It's really creepy, it's almost like there's some kind of presence up there," Marie said.

"Maybe, it's haunted?" Lana asked.

Lana, at first, was going to offhand dismiss the fact there were any kind of hauntings. It might be a little bit unfair to dismiss ghosts. And someone who knew aliens and wizards, dismissing ghosts would be equally as unfair.

"Ghosts, seriously?" Marie asked.

"Yeah, don't you find ghosts to be a little far-fetched, Lana?" Claire asked.

"Oh?" Lana asked. "You mean about as far-fetched as aliens and mutants?"

Lana folded her arms and smirked at both of the girls. The two girls faltered under the weight of her logic.

"You know, this seems like a mystery we really look into," Lana said. "And I think there's a reason why I found the slab."

"So, do you think we should research it?" Claire asked.

"I think we should take a closer look at those caves Marie camped out in," Lana said.

Claire seemed to be all for it. As for Marie, well she was reluctant, but not dismissing the matter outright.

"Lana, Claire, Marie, dinner is ready!"

A Martha Kent dinner was more than enough to entice them away from this mystery. Claire, Marie, and Lana went inside, with Lana slipping the stone piece back into her bag.

There had to be a reason why she found it. Lana refused to let this much go. Those caves beckoned. The creepy factor actually made them more alluring than such a thing would be normally.

* * *

 

Harry hung out with Kara, Reilly, and Gwen at the penthouse in New York. Reilly and Gwen calmed down, or at least calmed down as much as they were going to with their powers. The two of them relaxed after the marathon sessions they were put through.

Sometimes Harry had help from Faora. Other times the help came from Kara. Regardless of the point, the help was very much appreciated.

Gwen wrapped her arm around Harry and rested her head on the man's shoulder. Harry's hand settled on the small of her back. The brainy blonde smirked at it.

"I had been thinking," Gwen said.

"Oh boy, you thinking could be dangerous," Reilly responded.

The look was directed towards Reilly. Reilly was more than used to being a recipient of the look, so it didn't really faze her all too much.

"Ha, you're very hilarious," Gwen said. "Actually, I've been thinking about something with these powers. I just wonder if we can do some good with our powers."

"What do you mean by doing good with your powers?" Kara asked.

"Well," Gwen said, after a moment of consideration. "I wondered if we can perhaps use the powers to fight evil."

Kara raised her eyebrow and turned towards Gwen. Gwen responded with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

"Okay, I admit, I was kind of inspired by the blur who's been running around New York lately. Not to mention Nightwing in Gotham City."

"Nothing's out there to prove he exists, though," Harry said.

"Well, there's nothing proving he doesn't exist," Gwen said.

"Well, she's got you there, hasn't she?" Kara asked.

"The GCPD might not want to acknowledge his existence because of the legal ramifications allowing him and Batman and Black Canary and anyone else to function above the law bring," Gwen said. "But, you got to admit, and I'm sure they do, it makes their jobs a whole hell of a lot easier. Even if they can't admit in in public"

Kara sighed for a moment. Leave it to Gwen to make a good point.

' _Girl is too smart for her own good,'_ Kara said. _'Kind of like Barbara.'_

"I guess you have a point there," Kara said.

"Of course she does, for once," Reilly said. Gwen stuck her tongue out in response. "And I agree."

Kara frowned and rested her head on Harry's other shoulder. Reilly found herself wishing Harry grew an extra arm.

A concern had been brought up in what Gwen had said. Faora managed to hammer the point home quite nicely.

' _Well we knew this was going to happen,'_ Faora thought.

' _What, you mean well-meaning people following the example some of us gave,'_ Diana thought.

' _Well for some people, inspiration is going to be a problem,'_ Harry thought. _'Here though, not so much of a problem, for obvious reasons.'_

' _Yeah, I see your point,'_ Diana thought.

The good news was Reilly and Gwen could be easily trained. Especially if the two girls made the full time jump to Gotham City like they considered doing during summer vacation. Harry would have more than enough room to accommodate them.

' _So we'll be able to keep a closer eye on them when they enter the bond,'_ Karen said.

' _When do you think they'll hop on the network?'_ Kara asked.

Faora snorted. _'_

_The rate they're coming back for more Harry time, the exposure is going to fast track them. I wouldn't be surprised to have them come on at any time.'_

' _Well, we can block them until they're ready,'_ Harry said. _'We all know how jarring being in the bond can be.'_

' _Yes, even if you do get prepared for it, it can be a bit….well you know,'_ Kara said.

' _Yes, I know,'_ Harry said. _'Don't worry about them though, Faora and I have a good hold of their powers and we can prepare them for what's to come.'_

If Harry had to hazard a guess, they would be on the fast track to bond traffic sooner rather than later. Especially at the rate they kept coming back for more, at least until their sex drives had been stabilized.

The fact the OsCorp business deal was closed took a weight off of Harry's heart. Gwen frowned and decided to say something to Harry.

"I really hope Harold gets over what's been going on," Gwen said. "It's hard on him losing his father, even if his father was a bit of an asshole."

"It was good for you not to kick him out completely," Reilly said.

"It really wasn't my call, but I'm glad the board listened to my recommendation," Harry said.

Harold walked a dangerous tightrope. If he took the wrong step, there was no question about it. The young man would plummet into the abyss.

Harry would have to keep an eye on Harold and make sure the young man didn't become too much of a problem. Hell, the reason why they agreed to keep him around was so he didn't embarrass the company by being outside of their control.

Something jerked on Harry's senses and he staggered. Harry's knees nearly buckled from underneath him. Seconds later, he slammed onto the ground to one knee.

Kara pulled away from him, gasping in surprise. She recognized something like this happening to Harry once before and it wasn't really any good.

"HARRY!" Kara yelled.

No response from Harry caused Kara to freak out something fierce. Harry's eyes were open, but no one was home.

Gwen and Reilly looked frozen in time as well. Kara's mood grew even more grim.

Harry saw a rather distorted view of Gotham City through Jaime's eyes. Gotham City shifted into horrors of his own. The young man's old subconscious added a few new tricks, namely the distorted forms of Harley and Pamela.

Insidious laughter echoed through his head, seconds later before Gotham City went up insane.

Harry snapped out of that, with Kara shaking him. The young man realized he had collapsed on a chair.

Had he been a little less disoriented, the non-reaction from Gwen and Reilly would have gotten to him.

"Are you okay?" Kara asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry said. "Jaime isn't though."

Harry's answer took Kara a few seconds to reconcile in her mind. The situation prepared about to take a turn for the even more strange really quickly.

"No one is fine, no one in Gotham City. Everyone in the city is in horrible danger."

A tall purple haired woman with a curvy figure appeared. The white hooded robe she wore clung to her body. A jewel glistened on her head and Harry wondered what this was all about.

"Who are you?" Harry asked.

"My name is Arella of Azarath, I come to you bringing a dire message about the fate of Gotham City and the world," Arella said.

Arella spoke in a somber tone towards him. Harry could tell something really serious was about to go down. He didn't know what. The other Alphas joined Harry on the Astral Plane.

"A girl with dangerous powers has been taken off her leash and let loose on Gotham City," Arella continued. "The powers have affected Gotham the most, but they are leaking out elsewhere and beyond. My realm has been affected, along with my daughter."

Harry and Diana looked at each other. One thing was for certain. The vacation was over. They needed to return back to Gotham City.

"Emergency flight back to Gotham?" Faora asked.

"Yes, at once," Harry said.

' _Just to let you know, Jaime made it back to the tower,'_ Donna said, popping in to join Harry and the Alphans on the plane.

Donna's words eased Harry ever so slightly. The problem was that he had some worry on his mind.

' _She's really shaken up, more shaken up than I think she wants to let on,'_ Donna said.

The phone rang and sure enough, Amanda was on the other end to give Harry the excuse he needed to leave town, without telling Barbara and Reilly something was seriously wrong.

"We need to head back to Gotham City, business has come up," Harry said.

Gwen frowned, but nodded as the grim look flashed over Harry's face.

"Right, we….understand things happen."

If whatever happened damaged Jaime's strong will, Harry honestly could not even begin to guess what would happen to all of Gotham City. The Scarecrow returning was always inevitable. And now, with the crazed criminal making his next move, things were about to get rather tense in a real hurry.

' _Be prepared for anything,'_ Harry thought.

Harry and his girls braced themselves for one of the worst challenges they might have experienced. The only way to find out would be to return to Gotham City.

* * *

 

Jonathan Crane hummed one of Alison Blaire's songs underneath his breath. The criminal put the finishing touches on the fear toxin.

The tanks were ready. Crane loaded them on a dolly, to roll them out one by one towards a hearse. Wanda sat in the grass, legs crossed and eyes glazed over. The lights were on, but no one was home.

"Remember how it made you feel, Wanda," Crane said. "Remember how it made you feel to be put in a cage. To have you full abilities caged."

The girl recalled that and rage continued.

"Caged you, just like your father caged you, when he wanted nothing to do to that. Remember how your imprisonment made you feel when we enter Gotham City. Remember there's an entire city of people that will cage you if you allow them to."

The mention of her father caused Wanda to stir up. Crane leaned down to speak with her some more.

"Yes, you feel terrified, embrace the fear," Crane said. "Enter the hearse, please."

Wanda rose to her feet. The door opened and Crane helped the mutant inside of the back of the hearse.

Crane secured the tanks and locked the back of the hearse. Crane entered the driver's side and hit the gas, driving into Gotham City.

Wanda's powers would not start kicking in until they reached the city limits. Then the next phase of his plan would begin and Crane could hardly wait for the results.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 22** **nd** **, 2015.**


	120. Unraveled Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Twenty: "Unraveled" Part Two.**

* * *

 

The creepy vibe always existed around Gotham City. The city always filled with madness. Some people attributed the madness to start with the deaths of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Those who looked back through history would see the fallacy in trying to tie it back to a certain point. The madness existed in Gotham City even before them. The city carried a curse; at least people who believed in such madness claimed it did.

The GCPD's squad car pulled out in the docks. Bullock exited the car and looked around. The man shivered.

"Lot of weirdness going on around here tonight," Bullock said. "What's the date today again, Montoya?"

Montoya consulted the date.

"Friday, February 13th, 1998," Montoya said.

"Oh, Friday the 13th," Bullock grumbled. Friday felt like it went on forever. The detective felt trapped in an endless loop.

"Don't tell me you're one of the superstitious and cowardly lot," Montoya said.

"Nah, don't believe in junk, but there seem to be a lot of weirdos out tonight, and tonight seems to be going on forever," Bullock said. "It only took us a minute to get up here and investigate the source of the disturbance."

Bullock saw a black cat strut across the ground in front of him. The presence of the creature put Bullock on his toes and rattled the man's nerves a slight amount.

"Not, the superstitious one, I see," Montoya said.

"Black cats freak me the fuck out, you don't have to believe in all of this curse mumbo-jumbo to be scared by something, alright?" Bullock asked.

"Whatever you say," Montoya said.

Bullock stopped short of smacking into a ladder or worse, walking underneath said ladder. The detective backed off. A man stood in the shadows. The man wore a trench coat and a hat. A white shirt with stains on it and faded ripped jeans added to the man's attire.

"So, you're the guy who called us?" Montoya asked.

"Is the table cloth red?" the man asked.

"No, it's pink with polka dots," Bullock grumbled.

The man looked satisfied with Bullock's answer. A packet of cigarettes slid from his pocket. The man fumbled with a lighter and lit it up. The shady man took a long drag from the cigarettes.

"Saw something really weird out here earlier tonight," the man said. Smoke blew in the air when the man's smile shifted. The man had three whole teeth and all of them were yellow. "You see a lot of weird people, some shady characters out by the docks. But, I've never seen anything like this guy, not at all."

The man enjoyed letting the fuzz stand in suspense and wait for his answer. The informant rarely controlled the output of information he gave, so naturally, the man made the most of it.

"There was this weird guy in a trench coat and a hat, looked like a fucking undertaker," the informant said. "The man's hair was sandy and he looked like a normal guy other than the trenchcoat and hat. But, there was something off about him."

"Come out with it already, what was weird about him?" Bullock asked.

The shady informant looked pleased at how much he strung both detectives along. The man basked in his accomplishments for a couple more moments.

Bullock clutched his fist and reached into his pocket. The man slapped a twenty dollar bill into the informant's hand.

"The man lead a young girl, around fourteen, maybe fifteen," the informant said. "I watched from my shack over there. She looked like she didn't belong to her. Real waif looking girl as well. Bad things happened around her. The sky turned red. The girl was terrified and the man encouraged her to be scared."

Montoya pulled out a rumbled on flier with a picture of Jonathan Crane on it. The GCPD distributed the fliers. After the escapades with the fear toxin last summer and the escape from the Arkham wing at Blackgate, Crane positioned himself on Gotham's top ten most wanted.

"Is this the man?" Montoya asked.

"I don't know," the informant said. "I need something else to refresh my memory."

Bullock grumbled and fished another twenty from his pocket.

"You sleazy piece of shit, I hope you choke on it," Bullock grunted. The detective slapped the money in the informant's hand.

The informant counted his money, ignoring Bullock's outburst for a couple of seconds.

"Someone who looks like an unmade bed should not say such things," the informant fired back. "But to answer your question, he's the man. He was here earlier, but he's long gone. He could be anywhere in Gotham City."

"But, you're saying he's still in Gotham City?" Montoya asked.

The informant considered her question. After leaving her in suspense for a couple of seconds, he nodded.

"You never saw me," the informant said. He slunk back into the shadows.

"Fitting given the rat you are," Bullock grumbled.

The two MCU members made their way back to the GCPD squad car. Both needed to call in an APB on Crane. The MCU needed to step up the manhunt if Crane returned back to Gotham City in all of his glory, which might not have been too glorious all things considered.

"Follow up on a Nightwing sighting," a voice said over the radio. "She has been seen in Gotham City, staggering around and screaming in horror."

"First, we all were told Nightwing's a myth," Bullock said. "And if Nightwing wasn't a myth, wasn't Nightwing supposed to be a guy?"

Montoya's guess proved to be as good as Bullock's. Members of the GCPD joked they needed a score car to keep up with all of the urban legends who currently made Gotham City their home.

The long sigh told them all what they needed to know about tonight.

"It's going to be a really long night," Montoya said.

"Yeah, already it feels like the night which never ends," Bullock said.

The rumors of mobsters screaming their heads off made much more sense with the information they receive. Confirmation Crane returned to town unsettled them. The vibe in the air chilled even the most hardened men to the bone.

The night being long might prove to be the understatement to end all understatements.

* * *

 

Jaime sat up in the penthouse. The vigilante slowly recovered from her latest ordeal. The girl rested on one of the beds in the medical area of the penthouse. Donna sat across the bed from her.

The Amazon Princess jumped up. Jaime rested on the bed for some long it was about as unsettling as anything else to see her moving. Donna rose off of the chair and walked over to the bed. The Amazon paused for a second and considered her next question.

"Well, this might be a stupid question," Donna said.

"Ask it any way, and I'll be the judge of how stupid your question is," Jaime said.

"How are you feeling?" Donna asked. "Honestly, how are you feeling?"

Donna asked a fair enough question. Jaime wished answering said question would not require the mental leap it did. Jaime sat up and noticed for the first time someone changed her out of her suit. Or maybe Jaime did and she did not remember it in her state. Regardless, Jaime wore a white shirt and a pair of jean shorts.

"I feel like something took my skull apart and put it back together in all of the wrong ways," Jaime said

"Really bad?" Donna asked.

"Yeah, really bad," Jaime said.

Jaime rose to her feet and staggered forward. The sensations from the trip into Gotham haunted the girl still. Jaime wondered if she ever would have the capability to stand up right without any help.

Donna reached over and got Jaime a glass of water. The twenty-one year old woman snatched the glass from Donna and drank it. The cool water filled her throat.

Amanda and Emily popped in. The two twins looked serious. The fact Amanda and Emily behaved themselves for once in their lives clued Jaime in on the fact something went wrong.

"Okay, you're not telling me something," Jaime said. The girls spent a moment looking away from her. "There's no use in denying you're keeping something, so spill."

Amanda sighed. Trying to keep something from Jaime frustrated both of the twins about as much as their attempts to keep something from Harry. Keeping secrets failed against people who had ability to read emotions.

Emily nudged Amanda hard.

"So, do you want to tell them, or should I?" Emily asked her twin.

"I'll tell her," Amanda said. "You blacked out from the bond for about three minutes, and for a moment we thought….."

"You thought I died, didn't you?" Jaime asked.

"Well, it seemed like you died," Amanda ressaid. "Barbara came all the way from the clock tower, because she was concerned ….well something was happening."

"She shouldn't have driven all the way through Gotham City in this madness?" Jaime said.

"Was it really like I had a choice?"

Barbara crossed the room and rushed towards Jaime. A pair of arms flung around Jaime's waist and pulled the girl into a nice hug.

"By the way, I'm glad you're okay," Barbara said.

"You and I both, Barbara, you and I both," Jaime said. The hug continued between both young women. "I felt like I went from hell to back."

Another knock on the door outside of the main penthouse could be heard. Amanda crossed the penthouse to answer it. The door opened and Sarah Essen stood on the other side.

"Sarah, what are you doing here?" Barbara asked.

"Had to check up on you," Sarah said. She leaned against the doorframe and frowned. "Do you mind if I come in, or are you in the middle of something?"

"Other than being glad I'm not dead, no, they're not in the middle of anything," Jaime said. Jaime invited Sarah inside. "Coffee….I think we still might have some."

Donna already was on the ball and made coffee for everyone.

"The rumors were true, you fell from a great height in the middle of Gotham City and people saw you screaming your head off," Sarah said.

"They saw me?" Jaime asked fretfully.

"They saw a lot of things tonight, the sky opened up, according to one guy, and demonic gargoyles circled around Gotham City," Sarah said. She placed a hand on Jaime's shoulder. "But seriously, are you okay?"

"Well, okay, might be pushing things," Jaime said. "But, all things considered, I'm alive. I don't like the chances of Gotham City."

"With, Crane back in town, I will have to agree," Sarah said.

Jaime found herself pleased to have confirmation Crane returned to Gotham City. The young woman felt less than pleased the criminal caused havoc in her adopted home.

"He has an accomplice," Sarah said.

"An accomplice?" Jaime asked.

"Well, I don't know if an accomplice is the right word," Sarah said. "The GCPD got conflicting reports about whether or not the girl joined Crane willingly. Regardless though, someone is with him and Gotham City is in danger."

"Naturally," Jaime said.

Gotham City being put in danger surprised Jaime very little.

"Wait; there was a girl with him?" Barbara asked. The rest of the group turned towards her. "You don't suppose this is the same girl he kidnapped from Ravencroft?"

' _I wouldn't be surprised,'_ Harry said. _'Barbara, I think it's long overdue you look into matter.'_

Given how firm Harry spoke, Barbara found it difficult to argue.

' _Right."_

' _And as for me, I'm coming back to Gotham City,'_ Harry thought. _'The girls and I are on our way to the airport right now and boarding a jet. We should hopefully be there soon.'_

' _How soon is soon?'_ Jaime asked.

' _Well given how oddly time passes, I can't really say,'_ Harry said. _'I'll be there and you'll see me though.'_

Another worry passed through Jaime. While she kept an eye on Gotham City, the one also spared half of a thought with what went on in the bond.

' _Are you sure you're up for this?'_ Jaime asked Harry.

' _I'm going to have to be,'_ Harry said. _'Trust me, I'll be ready, regardless. Diana will be with us this time. Maybe strength will come in numbers.'_

Jaime hoped Harry hit the nail on the head. The raven haired vigilante continued to feel a buzzing escalate through her head and it would only get worse the more time passed.

The weirdest distortion of reality happened to be the fact Amanda and Emily acted so somber and serious. The twins stared at each other.

Jaime wondered if the theory twins had a higher affinity for magic was too far off the mark.

"Something weird is happening," Amanda said.

Donna felt it as well, given her own background. Reality shifted all around and not for the first time. Changes occurred and uncertainty gripped the mind.

A voice screamed in the darkness. Said voice screamed for help.

* * *

Harry arrived at the airport, on the cellphone when the rest of the girls boarded on the plane.

"Really sorry to cut the rest of the week short, Vicki," Harry said. "You know how shit like this happens."

"Yeah, I know, but, hey, got to spend some time with you this week and filed an amazing story on location," Vicki said. "The OsCorp deal is such a big deal my boss wants me to cover it, so I won't be back until Monday. Too bad you won't be around to give a statement."

Harry thought people forgot Lily and Rose officially headed up the SLE operations until Harry turned twenty-one. Being such a public face, Harry understood why people forgot it.

"Well, I'm sure my mother and aunt will have to do," Harry said.

"They will have to do," Vicki said. The woman didn't mean to sound disappointed. "So, hopefully everything goes okay. Talk about some really weird rumors coming back from Gotham City."

"Isn't weirdness standard fare for Gotham?" Harry asked.

"I'm not kidding, be careful," Vicki said. "I hate to scare you, but at least three planes have been misdirected off course coming on from Gotham City."

Harry filed the fact underneath a potential problem they would have to deal with. The private plane the group flew on had a couple of surprises. The early warning system warned them about some magic.

' _Well the only thing which didn't happen to me to me is be in a plane crash,'_ Harry thought.

' _You really shouldn't joke about this,'_ Kara said.

' _Sorry, Kara, I didn't mean to make light of the situation,'_ Harry said in his apologetic tone.

"So, what are you planning to do?" Harry asked.

"Have to cover the business deal between OsCorp and SLE," Vicki said. "Tell Kara not to worry about it though. It will be a piece of cake for me."

Harry found himself glad Vicki didn't ask too many questions. The reporter in her might have asked a few more, but out of respect for Harry, she held her tongue.

"I'll tell you how things go when I'm in safely," Harry said. "Gwen or Reilly will let you into the penthouse if you want to hang around there."

"Thanks for the offer Harry, but I think I'm going to crash at Betty's," Vicki said.

"Fair enough," Harry said. "Better get out of here before everything gets too bad."

A storm brewed in the air and Harry finished up his goodbyes. The moment Harry mentally plugged himself to the girls left behind in Gotham City; he felt something strange.

' _Jaime, are you there?'_ Harry asked

A long pause occurred, but not long enough for Harry to have a chance to ask again.

' _Yes, sort of.'_

Harry sensed the effects of the chaos magic, for lack of a better term, lingering around on the surface of Jaime's mind. The young man intended to pull her together.

' _Okay, Jaime,'_ Harry thought. _'Don't go out until I get back. Something really bad is happening.'_

' _I could have told you as much,'_ Jaime said.

Harry's hand touched over Jaime's mind. Jaime felt her thoughts become more clear now.

' _She tried to reach out, but pulled back at the last minute, didn't she?'_ Jaime asked. _'And what's the deal with this Arella woman?'_

' _I'm thinking she reached out to many people, but her powers are so chaotic, she's struggling to figure everything out,'_ Harry thought. _'Crane's had her for a long time now and…god only knows what he did to her.'_

' _We're going to have to find out who she is and what her deal is,'_ Jaime said.

' _Yes, I know,'_ Harry said. _'Barbara will be looking into the situation now.'_

Both Potters said on one thing. If anyone could find out what the hell was going on, Barbara Gordon could. The administration staff at Ravencroft seemed to be reluctant to part with the information. Daniel Ravencroft avoided the inquiries on the magic.

Harry wondered what was so under wraps about this particular patient. Barbara's research hopefully uncovered answers.

' _So, we're up in the air,'_ Faora thought.

' _Be prepared for anything,'_ Harry thought.

The magic grew stronger the moment they lifted into the air. A storm brewed around them and Harry figured this storm didn't have anything to do with the weather.

* * *

 

Barbara returned to the Clocktower. The eerie calm in Gotham City unsettled the information broker more than anything.

' _Just more of the same calm before the storm,'_ Barbara thought.

Barbara flicked on the lights and booted everything up. The girl made her rounds and made a cup of coffee. The slowness of tonight showed she better brace herself for a long night. Coffee fueled Barbara and kept her completely sane.

Everything ran in the Clocktower and Barbara sat down. The Ravencroft database awaited her and Barbara hated to keep them waiting.

Barbara cracked her knuckles and got to work, trying to break into the database. The hacker hit a snag. A part of her became extremely pleased. Barbara felt no joy in breaking into a database which had really bad security credentials. What was the fun in an easy hack anyway?

The hacker waited patiently to see if any of the tricks could work. The communicator clicked the life.

"Oracle, are you there?" Batman asked.

Oracle switched the microphone on which distorted her voice in the communicator.

"Yeah, I'm here, what do you need?" Oracle asked.

"Katana and I ran into the League tonight," Batman said.

' _Wonderful, dealing with the League, as if we really needed another problem,'_ Barbara thought.

"A little short-handed tonight, I'm sorry," Barbara said. "I don't know if you noticed, but there's a situation coming up elsewhere."

"Yes, I've noticed," Batman said.

"And let me guess, you're in the middle of a problem of your own," Barbara said.

"How did you ever guess?" Batman asked.

"Call it a hunch," Oracle said without a hint of irony in her voice.

The tech-savvy woman leaned back and allowed the brooding detective to speak. Barbara enjoyed the challenge of hacking into the database at Ravencroft, but the process grew monotonous without anyone to talk to.

"As I said, Katana and I ran into the League," Batman explained. "One of them started to scream suddenly and said he was drowning."

"And, let me guess, the assassin was on dry land," Barbara said.

"Yes," Batman said.

Barbara felt her hunch became spot on. The woman took a moment to crack her knuckles and get back to work.

"You should know Jonathan Crane is back in business in Gotham City," Barbara informed Batman. "And he intends to continue his experiments in fear."

"Crane left the city for a short time," Batman said. "So, he's back."

"Yes," Barbara said. "So, I don't need to tell you and Katana to be on your guard, do I?"

The long paused offered proved to be sufficient enough for Barbara to imagine the Bat Glare of death on the other end. She never came face to face with said Bat Glare. Harry and Dinah told her more than enough.

"The League dropped and we took them all out," Batman continued.

"Yes, I'm sure," Barbara said. "It's odd you weren't affected."

"As far as we know," Batman said. "My scanners indicated no fear toxin."

"Nightwing thinks no fear toxin is being used," Barbara said. "Crane's using an unwilling accomplice. This girl he broke out of Ravencroft."

"How dangerous is this girl?" Batman asked.

"I'll keep you posted," Barbara said. "I'm looking into the Ravencroft database right now. Let me know if you need anything."

"I will," Batman said.

The connection went dead and Barbara cracked her knuckles to get back to work. A heavily encrypted firewall greeted the redhead youth. Barbara nibbled on her lip and screwed her shuts in frustration.

Barbara typed on in and frowned.

"Okay, this better be good for all of the work you're forcing me to do," Barbara said.

The firewall denied Barbara's access again and again. The woman's excitement heightened and shook all over.

A blinking light occurred and Barbara saw the magic words. Access granted.

Barbara thought about getting up to do a jig. The hacker decided against him. She might be alone in the tower, but cameras exited for security purposes. Barbara showed a great deal of restraint not getting up and dancing.

The system of Ravencroft popped up. Barbara realized the information grab would be a lot easier with a name. The name of the potential Crane accomplish showcased the one frustrating detail eluding the group of heroes.

' _Oh well, got to do what I got to do,'_ Barbara said.

Inspiration struck Barbara and she accessed the records connecting to Doctor Ashley Kafka. The record would still be in the database.

Barbara found a record connected to Kafka of a missing patient. The hacker cross-referenced the details from the GCPD's description of Crane's accomplish. Excitement filled Barbara from head to toe and the girl struggled not to rub her hands together like a blatant super villain.

The brilliant hacker decided to pump her fist into the air in triumph. Barbara cleared her throat and hopped onto the bond.

' _Harry, I got something,'_ Barbara said. _'I'm sure it's her, it has to be her….and this is more interesting than we thought.'_

* * *

 

' _So what did you find?'_ Harry asked.

Harry and Jaime sat in the Penthouse and suited up. Diana joined them a few seconds later, dressed up in the Huntress gear and armed to the teeth. The group said about one fact. The sooner they found out information about the mysterious accomplice, the better off everyone would be.

' _Well, I found out her name is Wanda Maximoff,'_ Barbara said. _'Her father dropped her off at Ravencroft at the age of six.'_

' _Why?'_ Diana asked.

' _Wanda's powers proved to be too hard for him to control, she became a danger to anyone around her,'_ Barbara said, reading the information from the file verbatim. _'Wanda has been through numerous doctors and Doctor Kafka started treating her a year ago. Some of the doctors Wanda had before Doctor Kafka began to work at Ravencroft.'_

' _Well, really tells you something, doesn't it?'_ Harry asked.

Harry felt a dark feeling spread over his body. Arella hinted Wanda's sanity twisted because of her treatments. Harry recalled the redheaded woman of his dreams and the warning this dream girl gave.

' _Help her, before it's too late,'_ a voice echoed through Harry's mind.

' _Harry, are you okay?'_ Barbara asked.

Harry shook his head before returning to the conversation.

' _Yeah, I'm fine, just distracted for a moment,'_ Harry said her.

' _Fair enough,'_ Barbara said. _'She spent ten years of her life in Ravencroft until Crane picked her up. Most of the doctors treated her like a science project, a curiosity, someone to study, someone to experiment with.'_

Harry felt a weight drop down to the pit of his stomach. The doctors really sounded corrupt and the implication of how they treated Wanda made Harry grow even more sickening.

' _Doctor Ravencroft didn't seem to know this was happening and was furious about it, he assigned Doctor Kafka in an attempt to fix her,'_ Barbara said.

' _Too little, too late?'_ Jaime asked.

' _Well, we don't know, but the damage in this report from the heavy medication shows some really bad things happened,'_ Barbara said. _'Someone ordered Wanda to be medicated really heavily.'_

' _Kind of like the Harold Osborn situation,'_ Harry said.

He tried to keep his tone neutral, but he thought Ravencroft could take a closer look.

' _Yes, Ravencroft really should do better background checks,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Most people do have a price, unfortunately,'_ Harry said.

Harry's eyes flickered out the window. Nothing weird occurred inside Gotham City. The calm before the storm spread over the city. The fog heightened outside of the city.

Thankfully, the plane made it inside the city at a downtime and the Alpha Council along with Harry returned to the penthouse.

' _I'm sending you a file about all of the strange weirdness which happened recently,'_ Barbara said. _'It's weird, and doesn't have a pattern.'_

' _Like all of the weirdness is chaotic?'_

' _Pretty much, yes,'_ Barbara thought.

Harry received the file and frowned. The young man's eyes scanned over the file and frowned extremely deeply.

' _Yes, you're correct, there's no pattern,'_ Harry thought.

' _But, you think there's something there,'_ Barbara said.

' _The first attacks must have been a test run,'_ Harry thought. _'A prelude to a bigger, more dramatic attack later.'_

The young man's finger trailed over the paper. A few incidents occurred around Gotham city strongholds of the top mobsters in town. Falcone, Black Mask, and Penguin's men got caught in the crossfire.

' _Batman said the League isn't even immune to the attacks,'_ Barbara said. _'One of them thought he drowned on dry land.'_

' _The League….I thought they would be immune from the powers,'_ Faora said.

' _Read this,'_ Harry said.

Harry slid the piece of paper in Faora's hand. The Kryptonian committed the details to memory and mouthed them.

"Reality distortion," Faora murmured. "Magic by its base definition is reality distortion, isn't it?"

Harry nodded in agreement. Any expert who knew enough defined magic as the distortion of reality. Harry saw one fundamental flaw in this entire mess. Magic like Wanda performed went far and further beyond reality warping. Harry described the magic as pure and unrestrained chaos.

"Beyond any conventional magical distortion," Harry said. "To the point where it jumps out and attacks those who have the skill….Jaime are you ready to join us?"

"Yes," Jaime said.

Harry turned around towards Jaime. The two Potters locked hands with each other and each set of green eyes met the other. The magic jolted through the air.

"You felt the power, didn't you?" Kara asked.

' _All of us felt the power, I think,'_ Amanda said. _'Do you think she's on the move again?'_

Harry pondered the fact and nodded casually. Wanda's presence nudged on the edge of his mind. Did she reach out to him?"

' _Arella, are you there?'_ Harry asked.

Harry waited a sufficient amount of time for Arella to respond. The mysterious woman did not respond any. Tension rose even more. Jaime tightened her hand around Harry's. The girl's fingernails dug into Harry's hand.

' _I can't believe this,'_ Kara thought. _'Shows up for a message of doom and gloom, and then….'_

' _Maybe something is blocking her,'_ Harry suggested.

Harry and Jaime detached their hands together. The information Barbara gave them said a few questions and gave the group even more. The two heroes locked eyes with each other and made a decision.

"So, are you ready to go out?" Harry asked Diana.

"Ready," Diana said. "The real question is are you ready?"

Harry nodded and took a long stride outside into the night in Gotham where the fog rose above the ground. The three vigilantes resigned themselves to a really long night.

A strangled whisper caused Harry pause.

' _We need to stick together, or we'll fall separately,'_ Harry said.

The words stuck into the minds of the three. Huntress, Talon, and Nightwing stepped out into Gotham City. Chilly weather commonly occurred in Gotham City during the month of February. The insane amount of fog blinding the trio looked to be another matter entirely.

The three stuck to the shadows and to each other. Harry doubted very much finding Wanda would be a problem. Wanda would find them.

* * *

 

Wanda sat cross-legged in the back of Crane's voice. The memories in the back of her mind during her time at Ravencroft taunted Wanda. The cold demeanor of some doctors reflected in her mind. The frustrating feeling when Wanda liked a doctor and they left because Wanda lost control and terrified them gripped the girl.

Crane never once acknowledged her the moment they left. Wanda tilted forward and placed her head down, chin touching knees.

' _Get it together,'_ a voice said.

' _I need to get it together,'_ Wanda repeated.

' _You need to get it together,'_ the voice said.

' _I don't have any control,'_ Wanda breathed. _'Not having any control is why my father left me in place in the first place.'_

' _Do you want to go back?'_ the voice echoed.

Wanda did not want to go back. The woman's haze lifted slightly. A paralyzing fear replaced the haze.

Crane turned around and leaned over the back seat.

"Park Row," Crane said. The scientist leaned further over and looked at Wanda. "You know all of the fear you are feeling. The feeling of being trapped in a tight cage, with no way out?"

Wanda nodded.

"Yes, I know the fear, but I don't want to feel it," Wanda said.

"As your doctor, I want you to feel it," Crane said. "Don't bottle those feelings Wanda. Let them all out. Feel the horror and project those feelings out into Gotham City. It's unhealthy to keep those emotions bottled up inside. Share them. Share them with the fine people of Gotham City."

Wanda's anger rose and the sky distorted above her. The girl wobbled after exiting the hearse and she barely held onto the side of the vehicle. The chaos-magic user released all of her emotions into the city.

Crane used the orange chemical to inject himself. Bliss filled Crane after the chemical worked into the scientist's system.

"Beautiful," Crane said.

Crane shifted his coat to hide the excitement the scientist felt after the first few screams of fear. The people unfortunate enough to be close by would be ensnared first.

"Cannot be healthy on the psyche of a person," Crane said.

Crane cracked open the back of the vehicle and slid out one of the canisters. The first screams of fear got even louder.

"Is there something the matter, Wanda?" Crane asked.

"My mouth is dry," Wanda said.

Crane chuckled and reached into the van.

"Yes, I figured as much," Crane said.

Dry mouth syndrome showcased Crane's little cocktail began to lose its grip upon Wanda. The scientist reached into the front of the hearse and handed Wanda a water bottle. The teenage girl snatched it away and drank the contents.

The moment the water hit Wanda's lips, chills flew from her body.

Crane slipped a specially made surgical match over his face. The crazed man studied Wanda's face and knew the time approached.

"Phase two begins," Crane said, twisting the knob on one of the vials of toxin.

Gotham City took a turn for the macabre as Crane added another variable into this twisted experimentation.

' _Beautiful.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on August 26** **th** **, 2015.**


	121. Unraveled Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and Twenty One "Unraveled" Part Three.**

* * *

A sinister cloud of fog blanketed all of Gotham City. The chilling breeze arrived through the city and the situation grew even grimmer. To the naked eye, many people brushed off the incidents over the past day as more Gotham weirdness. The time passed a fair bit slower than people were accustomed to.

A scream of terror cut through the sinister slice of fog. A dark figure swooped over Gotham City and a second dark figure followed suit. The screams became erratic and continued to grow more strangled. The two dark figures stooped down and looked into the city.

A state of panic slowly fell over the city. The panic happened so gradually many failed to notice until the panic completely gripped the city.

' _Too late, much too late.'_

Thoughts gripped over Nightwing's mind, and he struggled to keep them down. The dark clad vigilante swept over Gotham City and Talon followed him. The two looked around inside the city.

Talon continued to peer down in the fog. She adjusted the dials on her mask and the HUD display flashed.

' _Picking up some level of chemical display in the city,'_ Talon thought. The girl clutched her hand. _'That's not completely fog, something is interacting with it.'_

' _Yes,'_ Nightwing thought. _'Keep your eyes peeled, Crane and Wanda have to be nearby.'_

Magic prickled against Harry's skin. Harry strained to listen for where the magic came from. The fog in some places turned a bit red. Grabbing Talon's hand, he pointed out the weird nature of the red fog.

The screams of people showed the two positioned themselves where they needed to be.

Nightwing frowned and a crackle echoed in the headset of his suit. The crackling stopped after a second and Harry shook his head.

' _Do you feel the magic in the air?'_ Harry asked.

Jaime's heart fluttered. The girl felt a flashback rise through her body. The hell on earth she experienced earlier tonight rocked her body.

"Focus," Nightwing said.

Huntress joined the duo and Nightwing lifted the grapnel. The grapnel hook fired in the building across the street.

Nightwing and Talon made their way across the city, and Huntress followed. The building across the street allowed them a better view.

Red fog rose from the city and entangled them. The fog seeped inside the suits of both of the heroes.

Huntress dropped and the fog disappeared. Harry's eyes dilated and suddenly, he jumped down into the city.

' _Harry?'_ Huntress asked.

Diana felt a momentary burst of sorrow when her question to Harry fell on deaf ears. The Amazon Princess stepped forward, but suddenly, Talon rushed Huntress.

The attack happened so quickly Huntress threw herself down on the ground. Talon flipped and landed on the ground.

Talon placed a hand on the top of her head and Gotham flickered around her. Shadows surrounded around her and Talon lashed out at them.

A second later, Talon's eyes flew open and she caught sight of all of Gotham City burning around her. The girl's heart started beating.

Harry staggered around and his head started to throb. He looked around Gotham and every second, a different part of the city burst on fire. Harry rushed to save a civilian.

A hole opened in the ground and sucked the civilian in. Laughter echoed through Harry's ears. Harry spun around, looking around for the source of the laughter.

Hideous creatures stepped towards Harry. The tense sorcerer felt a hand placed on either shoulder. Harry turned to face the source of the hand being placed on his shoulders.

The distorted forms of Pamela and Harley showed up before him. Pamela's red hair flew in her face, her skin green, and a skimpy red outfit barely covering her body. Vines wrapped around her. White paint appeared on Harley's face and the perky blonde did her hair up in pigtails. She wore a tight vest and an extremely tight pair of pants.

"Go, ahead, Harry, do it!" Harley yelled.

"Yes, Harry, do it," Pamela said. She stepped next to Harry and placed a hand on his chest. "Gotham City is going to burn, you should smash the demons. Destroy each and every one of them."

Harry saw the creatures in Gotham City and descended upon the helpless civilians.

Jaime managed to block out most of the effects and returned back to reality. She pulled herself back into reality in time to see Harry about ready to attack Gotham City. The older Potter female tried to enter Harry's mind.

' _Harry, snap out of it,'_ Jaime said.

Jaime saw what happened around her. The delirious Gotham City citizens looked to be hideous demonic creatures from Harry's point of view.

The woman reached into her suit and shocked Harry from behind with a tazer. The warrior's body twisted into a hideous spasm and he screamed out loud.

Nightwing turned around and saw another demonic creature standing behind him. The young man raised his fist and channeled all of the power through a pair of brass knuckles. Swinging his hand back, Harry nailed the demonic creature.

Talon staggered back. Her armor flickered back on and Nightwing drilled a series of rapid fire punches into her chest. Nightwing backed Talon off a few steps and continued to hammer away on the woman.

"Snap out of it, Harry!" Jaime yelled.

Jaime fired back with a running kick and knocked him out of a loop.

The two of them stood in the middle of Gotham City.

"Sorry about that," Harry said. "We've got to get it together, where's Diana?"

"I don't know, I haven't seen her since we encountered that real fog," Jaime said. She stopped and a chill rose through her body. "Oh my god."

Jaime staggered back and Harry caught her. The two turned around and looked at the zombified survivors of Gotham City. The two focused their attention to the demonic form of Deacon Blackfire. Deacon stood next to the same creature who haunted Harry with his matter. The crazed looking white faced man looked at Harry, with a wide grin spreading over his face. The grin grew even wider by each second.

"Gotham City just burns around you, heroes," the Deacon said. "Your foolish crusade will doom you and all of Gotham City around you."

"You're dead," Harry said.

"I told you, I'm merely in transition, my friend," the Deacon said. "And this man is my brother. He continues to feed off of your failure. My brother is the personification of all things wrong with Gotham City and I am his keeper."

The ground cracked open and several more zombies showed up. The zombies moved towards Harry and Jaime.

"None of this is real," Harry said.

One of the zombies tried to strangle Jaime. Jaime struggled against the grip of the zombie and propelled it to the ground with a sickening thud. The zombie's body cracked against the ground with a brutal thump.

"Try telling them that," Jaime said.

Harry tried to fix the shielding in his suit. He knew the key to getting out of this situation would be to fix the shielding. One problem; the magic in the air tampered with his ability to reach out for home base for any kind of remote fix.

The young man adapted to the situation as well. Harry raised a hand in the air and sent a concussive, non-lethal blow at the zombies.

Jaime followed Harry's lead and switched to non-lethal protocols.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" Harley yelled.

The red fog rose up and tried to ensnare them again. The cackling mobster beside the Deacon got bigger.

"Yes, fuel him with your inability to stop the Zombie Apocalypse from spreading. Fuel his power, add to his mirth."

The smile of the monster grew even more hideous and Harry tried to block out Blackfire's words. The words drilled into his mind.

"The entire world will be in my hands, but Gotham City will burn under your thumb, Dragon!"

* * *

Diana scrambled down from the city. The Amazon Princess shot an arrow into the crowd to try and part them. The shot lacked any lethal punch. The shot scattered the figures in the crowd.

' _Harry, Jaime, Harry, Jaime, respond,'_ Diana thought.

Diana lost sight of her partners. Crane focused on separating them, even after the three of them vowed to stick together. The man worked like a master chess play, dividing and conquering them. Diana gave the devil his due, even though she hated it.

The Amazon Princess stuck to the ground. The screams of terrorized Gotham City citizens rang out. Diana ducked to the side and avoided being trampled. A pair of helpless men proved not to be as lucky. The men got punched and kicked, and scratched.

The strangled screams told Diana more than enough. The men, women, and children saw their greatest fear come to life.

A wheeze of a man behind her caught Diana's attention. The man staggered and dropped down to his knees, clutching his chest. The man's breath great extremely ragged and the fear caused his heart to give up.

Grim realization dawned on Diana. The old man would not be the last who died from a heart attack.

' _Faora, can you hear me?'_ Diana asked. She continued to search for Jaime and Harry, while staggering through the mist.

' _Barely,'_ Faora thought. _'You're cutting in and out, I can barely make out anything, we're just going to have to adapt.'_

' _There's something seriously wrong,'_ Diana said.

' _Yes, I'll say,'_ Faora thought. _'Jaime and Harry's suits are failing and the shields have been compromised by magic.'_

Confusion flooded Diana's mind. The warrior woman breathed deeply and answered with the first thought popping into her mind.

' _I thought's impossible,'_ Diana thought.

' _Well impossible is such a restrictive word,'_ Faora thought. _'To answer your question, the shields should not fail.'_

The shields should not fail. Diana caught sight of Jaime and Harry, who stunned Gotham City citizens.

Diana saw an outline of someone in the mist. The person resembled a specter, a spirit of some sort. The Amazon Princess scrambled closer.

' _Careful, Diana,'_ Faora thought. _'The barrier between the realm of demons and Gotham grows very thin, especially on Friday the 13_ _th_ _.'_

Diana recalled the point. The Amazon doubted Crane even knew the havoc he caused. He might attack them harder if someone clued in on the scientist.

' _Kara, Karen, and I are working on trying to access the suits and reinforce the shielding,'_ Faora thought. _'I'm sure Harry is doing his best to get the shields working from his end.'_

' _Will he succeed?'_ Diana asked.

Diana never received an answer to her question. Jaime flung into the air and rushed Diana. The raven-haired beauty avoided the attack.

The two engaged in a sparring contest. Diana tried to hold back, while restraining Jaime.

"Jaime, please; snap out of this!" Diana yelled.

Diana caught a chilling glimpse of what lurked by Jaime's eyes. The girl saw one image even though reality presented another image entirely. Jaime and Diana battled back and forth, with Jaime breaking through the armor with a brutal shot.

The attack staggered Diana off guard. A pair of strong hands grabbed Jaime and forced her down to the ground.

"You're back," Diana said.

"Yes, but Jaime's still a prisoner in her own mind," Harry said. "Help me restrain her."

Diana joined Harry in his attempt to restrain Jaime.

"We end this when we find Crane," Diana said.

"There's one problem," Harry said. "Crane moved on."

Diana feared Harry was correct. The two continued to restrain Jaime's arms and legs, when the girl remained a prisoner of her own mind.

* * *

Moments ago, Harry and Jaime fought the illusions. Harry felt himself slip more and more into madness the more he went along with this fantasy.

"Fear based illusions should not be this real," Jaime said.

"I agree, but remember…..we're dealing with Crane on an entirely different level," Harry said.

Harry wrapped ropes around the zombified people. The young man reminded himself these people still were Gotham City citizens. The sorcerer refused to become ensnared by the illusion.

' _Not real, I'm in control, not real, I'm in control!'_

The mental chant in Harry's head lost steam. The hideous specter watched over them. Other than moments of laughter, the specter did not do anything other than grin and observe. The monster said absolutely nothing.

Deacon Blackfire always said plenty and the preacher refused to let a captive audience down. Harry almost allowed himself to be tricked in believing the Deacon's the real deal.

"You see, you've allowed yourself to believe these terrible lies. You believed you were the hero Gotham City deserves. But, you're nothing but the personification of all of the corruption which pollutes this city. All of Gotham City twists around you."

"Yes, we know what you think is twisted," Harry said.

He bombarded an energy blast towards the Deacon. The blast conveniently missed the crazed man. The Deacon's laughter continued to raise in hackles.

"Your anger is directed to me, but you should not be angry at me, my friend," the Deacon said. "The world is a terrible place, and you're just enabling the darkness, the cruelty. Each sacrifice, my brother goes stronger and more importantly my higher power grows stronger, my dark master, the noble demon, she craves more damned souls."

Jaime rushed the demons and assaulted them. From the girl's perspective, the demons formed a barrier and went to save Blackfire.

Harry watched the demons spin around. A spark fired up from Harry's suit. The young man's suit's shields appeared for a minute and Harry got a brief enough shot of what Gotham City really is.

' _Faora, if you can hear me, it's working, give it one more jolt,'_ Harry thought.

A loud scream echoed and Jaime backed off when an imposing figure walked towards her. Harry shook his head.

' _Get out of there,'_ a voice said.

Harry turned around and spotted a red haired woman in the mist. The young man reached towards her.

The same woman Harry dreamed about months ago showed up. She resembled a sixteen year old in some ways, but many other ways, because of her expression, she resembled something else entirely. The red hair blew in the wind.

Everything in the world stopped short.

"You need to return, she still needs you," the girl said. She touched an encouraging hand to his shoulder "Go."

Harley and Pamela stood immobile in the shadows. Harry saw them flicker out of the shadows and replaced by the lamp posts they were.

The Phoenix song empowered Harry and for a second, the power levels on Harry's suit increased. The shields returned and Gotham City slowly faded away from around him.

The young man collapsed down onto the ground. Harry's knees pressed against the hard pavement and he started to breath in and out. Harry took a few seconds to catch his breath and looked up.

Jaime rushed Diana again. The two of them threw down with a series of punches against each other.

Harry caught a glimpse of Jaime's eyes. The enchantment still ensnared Jaime. Harry felt his suit ran on a faulty amount of power.

' _I'm back, but Jaime isn't,'_ Harry thought. _'Faora, can you hear me?'_

' _Yeah….it…worked,'_ Faora thought.

Faora's voice entered Harry's mind at a clipped pace. He raised a pair of hands and mentally counted to ten.

' _It worked,'_ Harry thought. _'At least on my suit.'_

' _Jaime is still trapped in there,'_ Faora thought. _'Do you really think constant exposure might have anything for her being underneath for this long?'_

Harry considered it and nodded. Plenty of time for theories later; now, Harry rushed over and grabbed Jaime around the waist and pulled her away from Diana.

Diana rose up to her feet and Harry locked eyes with her, when Harry pushed Jaime down onto the ground.

Jaime struggled against Harry. The dark suit clad hero locked the other Potter's arms into a double chickenwing and held her into place.

Diana staggered over to the two Potters. The woman's face filled with relief, even if she tried not to show it.

"You're back," Diana said.

"Yes, but Jaime's still a prisoner in her own mind," Harry said. "Help me restrain her."

Diana rushed over to join Harry in restraining Jaime.

"We're going to need to find Crane," Diana said.

Harry looked around. The young man sensed everything.

"The only problem is Crane's gone," Harry said.

Harry saw Jaime continue to thrash. The young man injected a tranquilizer into Jaime's hand. The heroine's body slackened against Harry and he held her up.

"Get her out of here, right now," Harry said.

"What about you?" Diana asked.

"I'll figure out something," Harry said.

Diana's argument disappeared into the ether of time and space when Kara jumped in.

' _We've got a scan of the fear toxin,'_ Kara said. _'We're doing the best we can to get a counter-agent. Lucretia is helping from abroad and Pamela is here, helping Kara and I. My mother and Lara also are working on it, but it's going to be slow.'_

' _I'm not sure if it will really work now with reality warping,'_ Harry said.

The repairs on the suit partially blocked out the distortion effects occurring around Gotham City. The effects of the fear toxin only caused about fifty percent or so of what happened. The chaos magic messed with people just as much.

Harry screwed his eyes shut. The young man channeled all of the energy through his body and felt a brand new power go through him. The primal force of the Phoenix strengthened Harry and caused him to become as powerful as he could be without the watch.

Jaime started to spasm in Diana's arms. The girl started to cough and eyes flashed open.

"She said I would find my way back, and she was right," Jaime said. "She said I was stronger than this."

Her eyes dropped shut. The twenty-one year old woman rose to her feet. The stubborn nature of Potters and Evans females everywhere kicked in. Jaime turned towards Harry.

"Let's find Crane and end this," Jaime said.

Three times this attack put Jaime under, each time worse. Her determination bubbled over to the service.

* * *

"The Blackfire clan empowered itself by a terrible, terrible demon. The wonderful, yet horrible, Abigail, gave life to our clan and brought each Blackfire to something stronger. As long as souls get sacrificed upon the grounds of Gotham City, I will exist. You cannot hope to break my power."

Jaime hoped to shut the crazed man's mouth. The man kept babbling on every single moment. Jaime realized she lost Harry.

The woman's view of what is reality faltered. Jaime mentally reminded herself of how this crazed zombie plague resulted from the fear gas twisting her mind. The emerald-eyed young woman kept mentally trying to remind herself of this particular fact.

"As long as someone spreads the word, as long as someone remembers the gospel, I will be around!" Blackfire bellowed.

"Well, it's hard for anyone to forget, when you won't shut up," Jaime said.

Jaime wondered if Blackfire grew bigger the longer she endured this illusion. The vigilante stopped from letting her imagination run wild away with her. A bigger and badder Blackfire resulted in a problem.

"Feast upon her fears, my children!" Blackfire yelled. "She will not fight, she will allow Gotham City to burn."

The zombies grabbed Jaime and she struggled against their grip. The grip showed to be too strong.

Jaime screwed her eyes shut and tried to return back to reality. The entire nightmare gripped the woman still and no matter how hard she tried, she found herself trapped in reality.

A light headed feeling came over her and Jaime flashed between reality. For a brief second, Jaime caught a glimpse of Harry and then she flew back into the fantasy world. The demonic gaze of Deacon Blackfire looked at her.

"Please accept this sacrifice as a token of my loyalty!" the Deacon yelled.

The man pointed towards Jaime, who continued to struggle. A brutal heart beat grew even more prominent against her chest. Jaime thought for the briefest moment this would be the end.

A hooded figure shot a set of arrows into the crowd of zombies. The zombies parted from Jaime's POV. Jaime collapsed to the ground on her hands and knees, a heavy and pained breath coming from her body.

A figure dressed in black and purple crouched down. The woman lowered the hood and Jaime came face to face with someone she knew in another world.

"Helena?" Jaime asked.

"Yes, Jaime," Helena Wayne said.

"You will not…"

"You talk too much," Helena said. She raised the crossbow at Deacon Blackfire and fired a bolt right to his heart.

The hideous figure beside him exploded into a shower of blood and insidious laughter. Deacon Blackfire dropped down to the ground, down to Earth.

"I don't understand, you were right behind Kara and me," Jaime said.

The older Potter shook her head. The more she tried to reconcile regarding this situation, the less she understood.

"I was right behind you," Helena said. "And I'm still behind you, and soon, we'll meet up again."

"I'm still tracked in the hallucination, and you're not real," Jaime said. "Are you real? Are you somehow in Gotham City?"

"I'm where I need to be right now, and soon our paths could cross again," Helena answered. "Now pull yourself together. You're strong. You killed a Basilisk at twelve, produced a corporeal Patronus at thirteen, and shook off the effects of the Imperius Curse at age fourteen. You can do this, Jaime, I believe in you."

"I'm glad someone does," Jaime murmured.

"Be strong," Helena said.

"I am strong," Jaime said.

"You are much better than this," Helena said. "And I'll see you again soon, when the time is right. Tell Kara not to worry."

Jaime jolted out of the hallucination and started to cough. The Potter woman returned her way into reality and just in time as well, from all indications.

* * *

The group at the tower gave Sarah a heads up of the madness which proved to be evident in Gotham City. Until she turned up to join the scene, Sarah thought madness didn't begin to cover everything.

The officer looked around. Many of the people reported screaming moments ago slumped against the wall. The mouths of the people hung open in a catatonic manner. Terror slowly gripped the people of Gotham City.

Bullock and Montoya looked around at the scene.

"Okay, messed up," Bullock said. He raised a hand and waved it against the face of the man in question. "Yeah, we're going to need some medical people. Lights are on, but no one's home. I don't know what to say about this."

"I'll make the call," Renee said. "Gotham City is understaffed with the medical people now."

The lack of medical people on call in Gotham City showcased a really huge problem. Naturally, the fact some of the medical people were under a catatonic state.

"Crane must have flown the coup," Bullock said. "I thought this guy would be the type of person who would stick around and admire his handiwork. Guess I read the bastard completely wrong."

The creepy girl with Crane also disappeared. The fog in the city got even worse.

"Only nine at night," Bullock said. "Seems much….."

The detective swore he saw something move in the shadows around him.

"Must be the fog," Bullock said. He stepped over and picked up a box of donuts from the top of the car. "Better not let these go to waste, going to be a long time."

Bullock took a large bite from one of the donuts. He chewed on them.

"Must have used a different kind of jam," Bullock said. The donut's tasted a bit tart. The detective shrugged.

Bullock decided it all went the same place anyway and ended up the same place at the end of the cycle. Plus, the donuts didn't taste particularly bad. The detective opened the cup of coffee and swallowed the contents. The coffee really hit the spot.

Renee walked off and returned to talk to Sarah.

"She's been sighted outside of Amusement Mile," Renee said. "About fifteen minutes ago."

"Is she there now?" Sarah asked.

Renee shook her head. The girl escaped detection once again. The sightings of the girl showed up all over Gotham City. More occurred even more moment.

"There's more, isn't there?" Sarah asked.

"There's more," Renee said. "Every sighting, the witness says they spotted a hearse. Inside the hearse is a man in a long coat. He looks like Crane."

Sarah wondered where Crane's next move. The woman decided she needed to take a break and hopefully focus on everything. The GCPD scrambled all around town and for some reason, the entire area of the city appeared to be stretched out.

Many people flashed back to this past summer. Sarah didn't transfer into the GCPD until after the attack Crane lead on the city with his previous fear toxin, along with the League of Assassins. Harry managed to bring her up to speed soon enough.

Speaking of which, Sarah caught sight of Harry in the alleyway. The woman walked over towards the side.

"You look like hell," Sarah said.

Harry smiled, he appreciated her concern and her bluntness.

"Look it, feel it, saw it, likely tonight," Harry answered. "I feel like someone took my mind back together and put it back together in all of the wrong ways."

"Is that because of the toxin?" Sarah asked.

"No," Harry confirmed. "The toxin didn't have any part because of it. The girl Crane's with, she's extremely dangerous, and has the ability to twist reality. Especially when she has enhanced emotions….like fear."

Sarah grimly nodded and a shiver went down the spine of the GCPD officer.

"Crane's been working her mind over for some time," Harry said. "I think he's been controlling her with a mild form of his fear toxin."

Sarah frowned.

"If she's this powerful, is Crane playing with fire?" Sarah asked.

"The man is a doctor, more than anything else," Harry said. "He wishes to experiment and that's what he'll do."

The conversation between the two parties cut short. Bullock gave an extremely loud scream of terror.

"Get them away from me!" Bullock yelled. "I didn't know they were your children, I didn't know donuts could even have kids, please don't eat me!"

Bullock thrashed around and pulled out his gun. Sarah moved over in an attempt to stop Bullock from doing something he might regret.

A loud thump followed and Bullock's body slumped to the ground.

Harry turned away from the scene. Amusing as such an incident might seem, Harry wanted to focus on what the girls working on.

' _Okay, bond traffic is really fuzzy, especially from all the way across the pond,'_ Lucretia said.

' _But, we're just going to make do with what we have,'_ Pamela said. _'You got all of the information on the serum, don't you?'_

' _Yes, in front of me,'_ Lucretia said. _'Did you come to the same conclusion? This serum is different from the serum Crane mixed up last summer, or even the makeshift toxin he created to infect Doctor Kafka.'_

' _Good, that's the conclusion I came to as well,'_ Pamela said.

' _Makes three…of us,'_ Karen said. A crack echoed throughout the bond. _'We have a solid enough formula, all we need to do is create a cure.'_

' _It cures one symptom to an overall disease,'_ Faora said. _'Without calming Wanda down and helping her get control of her powers…..'_

Harry turned and saw Arella in the mist.

"So, you're the expert here," Harry said. The statement half looked to be a question and half looked to be a comment. "What do you think we should do in helping get her under control?"

"Her powers are unlikely anything I've dealt with," Arella said. "Even my daughter, an empath, has a stronger control of her emotions."

' _Find her, cure her!'_ a strangled voice echoed in Harry's head.

The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up. The vigilante slipped back into Nightwing mode and wondered if tonight would end up taking another turn for the weird and the confusing.

"Hey, can you hear me now?" Oracle asked.

"Yes, barely," Harry said. "What's on your mind?"

"Nothing good," Oracle said. "Thought this piece of information would make your night."

"What?" Harry asked. An incoming feeling of dread filled Harry's body.

"Well, Crane's been sighted driving in the direction of Arkham Island and I think his accomplice is with him," Oracle said.

Oracle's words proved to be right, this news made Harry's night. He made his way towards Talon and Huntress. Both women looked refreshed and ready to go. They would be even better off when the antidote from the fear toxin.

' _Remember, that's just part of the symptoms, we need to locate the source of the fear and put it out,'_ Harry said.

Both girls nodded. Without question, Crane's attack moving over to Arkham Island might prove to be extremely dangerous, given the rumors surrounding the island and what chaos awaited them there.

Chaos ensnared all of Gotham City with each tick of the clock and with each passing moment.

* * *

Wanda shook madly in the back of the hearse. The lingering fumes of Crane's fear toxin got to her. The approaching island brought back all kinds of memories and those memories showed not to be good ones.

The trees on the road started to sway and demonic eyes flickered from within them. The sky turned a multitude of colors when they traveled on the road.

"Bad place," Wanda said.

"Do you have a concern, Wanda?" Crane asked.

"Said this place is a bad place," Wanda said. "Reminds me of Ravencroft, only worse. Please turn back, I don't know what might happen. I might not be able to control it."

A cloud of dust kicked up on the road. Crane hit the brakes and skidded to a stop. The doctor turned around.

"What do you really want, Wanda?" Crane asked. "Do you want to be back, caged up? Do you want them to pump you full of so many drugs where you'll never wake up?"

Wanda shivered at the memories and shook her head.

"That's what's going to happen to you," Crane said. "You've come so far, don't fall of the wagon now. I helped you realize your full potential and they helped chain your power."

Wanda saw a flicker of her father sitting in Crane's face. The girl's hand balled into a fist and she wanted nothing better, to rip it through Crane's head.

' _Get it together,'_ a voice thought. _'Relax and play along, it will be done soon, help Is on the way.'_

"My apologies, Doctor Crane, I forgot myself," Wanda said. She breathed in and she breathed out. "I'll do better in keeping my emotions in check."

Crane smirked at the girl. The chaos around the road tapered off just enough for him to continue to push on through.

"Yes, you will," Crane said. "Yes, you will….until we get to Arkham. Then, I want you to unleash your fury for the final phase of this experimentation."

Crane realized the subject grew increasingly difficult to control. The man reached towards a dashboard and pulled out a vial. A double dose of the anti-fear toxin proved to be prudent. The scientist injected it into himself.

His heartbeat slowed down to a crawl for a moment and Crane paused for a moment. For a brief second, he thought his heart slowed to a stop.

Fortunately for him, his heart started to beat again at a normal, if not reduced rate. Crane needed to finish, consequences be damned.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 29** **th** **, 2015.**


	122. Unraveled Part Four

**Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Two: Unraveled Part Four.  
**

* * *

"This is Jack Ryder on the streets, and I'm going to assume we're still live, although it's really hard to tell at this point," Jack said. "Regardless, I'm filling in for Vicki Vale. The most credible reports state….."

A scream of terror cut through the air. Ryder recovered for a moment and shook his head.

"The most credible reports are Jonathan Crane, a former doctor at Blackgate, recently escaped, and created a new batch of fear toxin," Ryder said. "Other reports, far more sketchy, have trickled in about Crane having an accomplice. A young girl, of about….twelve or so years old. The girl may have been coerced by Crane to do his bidding, but we have no clue at this point"

Ryder listened in on the ear piece. The reporter frowned for a moment. The area he reported in gave off an atmosphere of being eerily calm. Other than the fog, Gotham City appeared to be extremely normal.

Normal for Gotham City; a quality considered odd by many who lived outside of Gotham City. The fog slowly rose in Gotham City.

"The latest report in, indicates a monster with three heads and many teeth has terrorized a group of homeless Gotham City citizens," Jack said. "While we tell people many of these reports are fear toxin based hallucinations, the GCPD orders the citizens in Gotham City to stay off the streets. Summer, do you have any further information to give us?"

A long pause and Summer Gleeson did not respond. Jack felt a lack of surprise wash over him. He wondered if GNN still remained on the air. In the crazed new world Gotham City twisted into, one could barely tell.

"Okay, we'll try and go back to Summer in a moment," Jack said. The newscaster cleared his throat and resumed talking in a professional manner. "The streets are an abandoned ghost town here in Gotham City, and people have wisely decided to head in doors after the first wave of attacks. Tonight, Friday February 13th, Nineteen Ninety Eight proves itself to be one of the longer nights in history."

Jack's heart raced and he heard a groaning sound. The man in the truck frowned and nodded, as if to say the newscaster remained on the air.

"Once again, the GCPD…"

Speaking of the GCPD, they scrambled down the street. A cop rushed forward, scratching on his face. The man fell to the ground at the feet of Ryder.

"You need to leave, get your crew, and leave," the cop said.

The cop's breath turned rather ragged and he looked like he could barely keep his head up. A thunderclap echoed and Ryder looked up. The newscaster considered his options and decided against leaving.

"We have….."

A crazed group of Gotham City citizens rushed towards Ryder on camera. The newscaster started to heavily breath when the citizens rushed towards him, screaming their heads off.

"We understand, Crane has unleashed his toxin a block away from where I am!" Ryder yelled. "And I should have known this before I did but…."

Several of the hands started to grab at him and the crazed Gothamites trampled towards the production truck. A crackle of energy filled the air when the production staff fled for their very life.

Faora watched the proceedings out of the corner from the lab. GNN went off the air. Hell, prior to this point, Faora felt surprised any news station remained on the air or any television station at all remained on the air.

Pamela and Karen worked steadily on the antidote to the fear toxin, with Lucretia offering remote support when she could. Faora prepared the delivery system to get the antidotes out to Harry, Diana, and Jaime, who still hunted for the source.

' _Still think it's madness to be out in the middle of all of this,'_ Karen said.

' _This isn't madness, this is Gotham,'_ Jaime said. Her joke fell flat with a series of groans indicating how flat it fell. _'Sorry, just trying to keep my spirits up after being mind fucked three times on this never ending day.'_

' _I don't honestly blame you,'_ Karen said.

Karen analyzed the chemicals in front of her. Creating an antidote to the fear toxin helped with their problem, but did not solve the problem. The biggest issue the group ran into showed they could not recycle the old antidote from the previous summer or the antidote used to cure Doctor Kafka.

Faora stepped away from the lab and leaned out the window. The woman frowned, peering down out into Gotham City. She turned back to the group at hand.

"It's getting bad out there," Faora said. After pacing for a couple of moments, she sat back down. "The tower is protected, but given what happened to the suits, it's not assured we're completely out of the woods."

"Working as fast as I can, "Pamela said. "It should be nearly ready, all we need to do is run one final simulation and cook it."

Faora's expression softened. She did not mean to rush Pamela. Anxiety hit her after what happened to Har and the others as well. The woman considered, for a brief moment, to suit up, and head out into Gotham herself.

The idea proved to be ill-advised, but Faora considered it. She knew if the chaos magic ensnared her, things would be bad. The daughter of Zod shuddered to think what horrors might get concocted from her mind.

"Okay, simulation is prepared," Karen said.

' _Cross your fingers and hope to Har-Zod this works,'_ Karen thought. Faora gave Karen a cross look in response. _'Sorry a little humor to lighten the mood.'_

' _I'll laugh when we're out of the woods completely,'_ Faora said.

The simulation ran through and showed what might happen. One catch existed. The group had no idea what occurred with the chaos magic variable added to this entire situation.

"We're just going to have to figure this out," Faora said. She loaded up three samples of the vial in a high-tech remote control plane.

' _Har, I'm sending them off your direction,'_ Faora said.

The remote control plane flew through the opened window and out into Gotham City.

' _We got them,'_ Harry said. _'The odds should be a bit more in our favor.'_

Jaime hated to be a downer.

' _Fear toxin yes, but the chaos magic zapped me before the toxin is in the air.'_

' _Well, we've got another variable on our side this time,'_ Harry thought.

Faora shared Har-Zod's confidence and turned to a figure in the shadows. She prepared two more samples.

"I need for you to make a delivery. They should be around the area of Crime Alley."

Oracle popped in for the confirmation to Faora.

"Yes."

* * *

Batman crouched in the shadows and picked the next few spots wisely. The Dark Knight Detective spotted the demented Gotham City citizens.

"Any one of them could jump at us at a moment's notice," Katana said. "They resemble rabid animals."

Batman said very little. Normally, Katana didn't mind the fact the Dark Knight took on a silent stance. The current atmosphere in Gotham City made everything seem all more depressing and dark than normally before. His silence unsettled her even more because of this.

The detective craned his neck to the side. Crane and his accomplice compromised the atmosphere in Gotham City in ways the scanner couldn't pick up.

"The League would be easier to deal with than this," Katana said.

"They're innocent people, subdue, but do not injure," Batman said.

Katana wondered if Batman listened a word she said. The woman sighed and decided to put her namesake away.

"Like I said, the League would be a lot easier to deal with," Katana said.

The woman's hand gripped against the wall. The League scrambled the moment the chaos started to occur. Katana thought taking these actions showcased the League's intelligence more than any other step they took.

The Gotham City citizens scrambled ahead of them. Batman lifted a gas canister and slammed it onto the ground. The canister released tear gas into the crowd. The gas stunned the citizens, but their hallucinations overrode any pain they felt in the physical world.

"Cut them off," Batman said.

"Right," Katana said. She jumped up and cut a tarp hanging above the street.

The tarp fluttered down onto the ground. The group scrambled in two different directions.

Batman held up a sonic device and pressed a button. A low level sonic blast summoned a barrage of bats. The bats fluttered into the scene and Batman hoped a more fearsome threat might break them out of their attack.

"Really, Bats are your situation?" Katana asked.

The sword she clutched made her immune to whatever this reality warp threw at her. She looked towards Batman and looked into his eyes. The man's eyes faded over and flashed with torment in them.

"Batman?" Katana asked.

Batman turned around and went to attack her. The Dark Knight fired a series of punches at Katana. She dodged the attack.

"Batman, snap out of it," Katana said. She slammed Batman into the wall with a jumping kick to the chest.

Batman flew back. An imposing dark suited man attacked him. Batman pulled himself back to his feet.

"You've failed your tests, Bruce!" the man yelled. "You're failing all of them. You have failed to embrace the Bat!"

Batman grunted and lifted his head up. A series of rapid fire punches rocked him. From all sides, more black clad figures swooped around him.

"See this, see this, and watch Gotham City burn!" Blackfire yelled.

"Blackfire, you can't be back!" Batman yelled.

"I've never been away for long, my friend," Blackfire said. He shifted to the side and revealed Thomas and Martha Wayne.

"Why, Bruce?" Martha asked.

"I didn't raise you to be like this Bruce," Thomas said in a distorted voice. "I didn't raise you to be a failure."

The faces of Thomas and Martha Wayne distorted in a blink of an eye. The faces of the Wayne couple melted and turned completely white. Their hair turned green and the faces of the Wayne couple turned into wide, sick grins.

"This is a terrible world, isn't it, Bruce?" Blackfire asked. "Gotham City will burn, burn for its sins. It will burn in hellfire, when my dark master receives her sacrifice! She will cleanse the world of all of the sin and all of the torment, when I feed her more souls!"

Batman shook his head. The sinister faces of the demented versions of his parents started to twisted in a more hideous manner.

"First, Gotham will fall, and then you, the Dragon, and his coven will join them."

Blackfire flashed off in a symbol of black fire. Batman staggered around and his parents disappeared into a tunnel.

Katana nailed Batman hard from behind. A roundhouse kick nailed the Dark Knight hard. He only staggered around for a moment and stood straight up. The kick failed to register with the Dark Knight detective.

All of her other ideas fell on the vine and frustrated her. Katana made a split second decision and decided to bring in some back up.

"Alfred, we have a serious problem….." Katana started.

The samurai's statement never finished. A dart flew through the air and caught Batman in the side of his neck. Batman's eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Katana turned and the moment she turned around, a dart hit the side of her neck. The valiant warrior's head snapped back and she turned around.

"Show yourself," Katana said.

A figure moved into the shadow and disappeared into the chaos. Katana hunted around for the person for a few more moments, but by the time she started the search, the mysterious dart blower already disappeared into the shadows.

"Over here," Batman said.

Katana decided to walk over to check with Batman.

"First of all, how are you feeling?" Katana asked.

"I'm back," Batman said. A buzzing kept filling over his head.

Batman reached underneath a bench and slid out a black it. The person attached a note to the black kit.

"Nightwing sent it," Batman said.

"Are you sure we can trust it?" Katana asked.

Batman didn't answer, mostly because Oracle chimed in over the radio network.

"So, did you get the delivery?" Oracle asked.

"Yes, and a dart in the neck," Batman said in his usual curt tone.

"Sorry, if our operative delivered the antidote in a less than conventional way," Oracle said. "We weren't sure if you would take it in the normal way, given you were you. Inside the kit, there's a version of the antidote that you're going to have to give any of the heavily infected people."

"What about the rest of them?" Katana asked.

"Nightwing is sending a drone with a vaporized version of the antidote, to counteract the fear toxin," Oracle said.

"Wait, Nightwing has drones?" Batman asked.

"Yes, they're….rather new," Oracle said. "Don't you?"

"No," Batman dead panned.

"Don't worry about the chaos magic, it's moving all over to one source," Nightwing interjected over the communication link.

"Where is that?" Batman asked.

"Where else but Arkham Island?" Harry asked.

* * *

Wanda allowed Crane to lead her inside Arkham, although the young woman honestly didn't have any choice. The woman moved her way further inside of the structure. The girl's skin grew with further goosebumps.

Being inside any kind of medical hospital mortified Wanda. The staff abandoned Gotham many years ago, but Wanda still experienced the echoes of what once rested between these hospital walls when the structure opened up.

Crane steered Wanda past an area.

"Solitary confinement," Crane murmured in Wanda's ear. "Some of the worst patients in the history of Arkham were kept in these rooms. Some of the times they were a danger to themselves and other times, they showed themselves to be a danger to others. And many times, they were both."

Wanda recalled the doctors at Ravencroft using those words to describe her many times. They spoke in cold cruelty. The woman's eyes flashed over and she thought for one brief moment Crane might place her inside solitary confinement. Horror increased through the mind and the body of the woman.

"Do you fear what could happen to you?" Crane asked. "Do you fear returning to this cell?"

Crane's finger aimed over towards the cell and pointed towards the inside. Wanda nodded in response.

The doctor cupped Wanda's chin and forced the brunette to face him. Their eyes met and Wanda's heart started to beat even faster.

"Do not worry, fear is necessary," Crane said in a low voice. "One day we may understand the true horror fear causes in our minds. How it warps us?"

Wanda felt really warped. Crane shepherded her past solitary confinement and down the rows of cell. Wanda's heart beat faster. The girl nearly hunched over.

"Stand up straight and keep your eyes open," Crane said firmly. "It will be worse for you if you fail to acknowledge your fears."

Wanda's eyes widened and she shivered. The powerful and troubled young woman attempted to keep her head over water. She felt like she drowned in something.

Spirits surrounded her. The ghosts of Arkham's past whispered in Wanda's ear. The woman's chest rose and lowered again.

"Are you?" Wanda asked.

Her voice trailed off because of the gripping fear which punished her.

"Take a deep breath and speak calmly," Crane said.

"Are you afraid?" Wanda asked.

"I don't need to be," Crane said. "I'm numb, and nothing here can hurt me. But, you on the other hand, everything can hurt you."

Wanda wondered what sense Crane numbing himself from the fear made. Wasn't he supposed to face his fears?

"You aren't facing them," Wanda said.

"I faced them," Crane said. "Terrible people in my past ridiculed me for my intelligence. They harassed me, bullied me. But, it turns out when they lose their intimidation factor, they're nothing. Weak and helpless as any other force on Earth."

Crane pointed towards the shadows and a rat scurried into the picture.

"They're nothing, but a scared rat," Crane said. "They scurry away. The fear cripples them, Wanda, but you, it can empower you. You can do things people do not dream about. Channel all of your fears and make them your weapon."

Wanda dropped into the middle of the asylum floor. Crane lifted Wanda up and made her walk towards the cell.

"Inside this cell, a disturbed young woman resided," Crane said. "She was troubled. Scared even, mortified beyond all belief. She resembled you. She held the rage inside."

Crane's finger twisted around Wanda's hair. The madman leaned forward.

"One day, she lashed out and stabbed her father twenty one times with a butcher knife," Crane said. "She did it outside on the lawn, where the neighbors watched. It scarred them for life. She jumped over the fence, realizing what she did, and attacked the children next door."

"My god," Wanda said.

"She kept it all inside herself," Crane said. "She died inside this cell, hanging herself. The shame of what she did, and the horror gripped her body."

Crane led Wanda outside of the cell. A chilling breeze came through the Asylum.

"Each one of these cells had patience who has cruelty which lives on through all time," Crane said. "Can you feel the unease? People believe this place remains haunted even after being shut down. Others scoff at the idea of ghosts. Which one do you think is right?"

Wanda experienced an extremely unsettling presence. The girl twitched

"Gotham City is filled with many disturbed people," Crane said. "Past, present, and perhaps future, it's time for you to reach out and touch them."

Wanda didn't want anything to do with the spirits of the people in this Asylum. She felt them tingle on the outside of her mental sphere. They tried to ease their way inside her mind. Wanda struggled and fell to her knees.

"Remember your greatest fear," Crane said. "Remember the fear of what happened. Remember what might happen if you're locked back in this cell?"

Crane shoved Wanda back into the cell of the crazed woman he told about her. The demented individual slammed the door.

"No need to imagine it, because you're feeling it, aren't you, Wanda?" Crane asked. "Be afraid, be very afraid."

Every spirit overwhelmed Wanda at once and she started to scream her head off. The door of the cell broke open and Wanda kept screaming.

Crane stood back and watched everything unravel. All of the colors, all of the sensations, the man's lips twisted into a smile.

"Beautiful," Crane said.

* * *

With the toxin nullified, Harry figured their job only ended up a fraction of the way done. And the job he, Jaime, and Diana needed to do took a turn for the potentially horrifying. The group arrived at the edge of Arkham Asylum.

Nightwing never wanted to step foot on this island. The whispers of the past echoed in his ear. He turned and saw Diana breath in deeply. Nightwing sensed his wife recalled her last visiting from the island. The dark haired vigilante placed a hand on top of Diana's and squeezed her hand in what he hoped might be a soothing manner.

' _Diana, stay strong, I know you are,'_ Harry thought.

' _I think I should tell you the same thing, Harry,'_ Diana said.

The two nodded in response and set their sights for the island and all of the surprises. Jaime walked half of a step behind them. The Phoenix song gave them a nudge, but it could only amplify courage. The Phoenix Song couldn't negate the problems happening around Arkham Island and the Asylum.

The gates creaked open on their own accord and allowed them access. A rocky incline showed the way up and a sign pointed towards the building.

' _That looks really welcoming,'_ Diana said.

' _Not really,'_ Harry responded. His tension reached an entirely new level.

Harry really hated a place like Arkham. His powers, even with the watch, bombarded his mind and caused his head to split. The ghosts of the past whispered. Their spirits tied to the Asylum and they failed to move on. Harry didn't know why, but they didn't move on.

The trapped spirits proved to be low on Harry's list of concerns at the moment. Something else stirred within the Asylum walls and caused the tension of the Master of Death to raise.

Harry's eyes looked skywards to a crack in the sky. Some shadowed figures began to swirl in the sky above him. The crack got even wider.

The most galling thing for Harry was if he could access his powers fully, closing the crack proved to be child's play. A lot of tasks might be fairly easier for Harry as a matter of fact. The crack above them continued to hum and hiss. Any weird sounds rarely demonstrated anything good would come out of it, without even accounting a riff in time and space.

Several demonic shadow wraiths escaped the portal. Their eyes looked sinister with red slits, clawed hands, and hideous looking faces. They approached Nightwing, Talon, and Huntress.

Talon clutched a hand to the top of her head and shook it. She lifted her hand and a silver light emitted. The silver light shot at the shadow wraiths, but only one problem. The energy beam cracked through the body and caused it to grow.

"Has that ever happened?" Huntress asked.

"No, it isn't," Talon said.

Everyone stood on pins and needles as they waited for the next play.

"No matter what, remember none of this is real," Huntress said to Jaime in what she hoped was a reassuring voice.

"Try telling them that!" Jaime yelled.

The creatures swarmed around them. Nightwing wondered what they waited for. He tried to block out the very real fear they would not reach Wanda in time. The moment Harry stopped thinking those destructive thoughts; the creatures shrank a little bit. Their mass became a little less.

"Don't fear," Harry said.

"I fear nothing!"

Harry turned around to be greeted by a very disturbing and fairly powerful sight. A figure dressed in purple robes presented herself, along with many glowing red eyes from underneath the robes. Tendrils spilled out of her form in every direction imaginable.

"These creatures, they are nothing to me!" she yelled.

The tendrils wrapped around the wraiths and sucked them underneath the girl's robe. The screams of horror followed.

Jaime's mouth hung agap and words failed the powerful young woman. The creatures fired out from underneath the robe and expanded in mass.

"That didn't work," Huntress said.

"Oh, yes it did," Harry said.

The creatures above their heads expanded and kept expanding until they exploded. Several wisps of energy fired out in every single direction.

A second wave of creatures went down. The robed figure expertly maneuvered herself where she could take out the most waves of creatures. The crackling screams continued when they overloaded on way too much fear.

Harry wondered what the hell occurred now. The more answers he thought he had, the more questions raised themselves. Questions reared their ugly head more often than Harry hoped in cases like this.

"I can't stay on this plane for much longer," the robed figure said. She slumped over and Harry saw a flicker of a face which contorted with pain.

Harry couldn't say he committed any of the details to memory. The horrors on her face told the story more than enough.

"Seal it, it should work," she said. "I've bought you some time, but more will be on the way."

"Right," Jaime said. "I think I can seal the barrier."

Harry hung back, hanging his head in annoyance.

' _If only I had my full power,'_ Harry thought.

Jaime channeled all of her magical energy. A crippling cold swelled over her body. The brunette tried to hold on.

' _No matter what, don't stop me,'_ Jaime said. Her heart hammered against her chest. _'None of you stop me.'_

A rush of cold air bombarded Jaime's body. Nerve endings shot in both hot and cold spells. The Potter heiress felt a tingling sensation which grew worse with each passing instant. Each second she tried to hold on, showed to be another second where time lost itself.

Suddenly, Jaime collapsed, breathing heavily. The warp sealed shut, barely.

Silence followed. The demonic humming finally ceased and Jaime breathed. A searing hot feeling pierced through her lungs, but she breathed and breathed nicely.

"Jaime?" Harry asked her tentatively.

Jaime struggled to turn and face Harry. The twenty-one year old Potter female staggered and collapsed against Harry's waist. Harry held her up and looked the girl straight in the eyes.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Jaime said. "Magical exhaustion never is good, but, hey I'm the only one who could do that."

Harry once again hated the fact he felt useless and couldn't help out.

The cloaked figure stood by their side still. Harry nearly forgot about her until she faded out.

"Save her, before it's too late," the cloaked figure whispered and she vanished into the mist, never to be seen again.

The Phoenix Song continued to empower them, but the further they entered the Asylum, the Phoenix song's quality became more ghastly and dare Harry say it, it sounded a bit more jerky.

The three stopped suddenly when an astral projection appeared and Arella stood before them.

"Yes?" Harry asked.

"She's in the basement," Arella said. "We don't have much time."

Harry sensed reality splitting apart at the seams. A case of Deja-Vu visited Harry the further they got inside the Asylum.

' _Time is on my side,'_ a familiar voice sang in Harry's head.

* * *

Wanda's eyes refused to shut and refused to blink. Her neck trained itself into a position where she stared forward. The powerful magic user never turned her head away from the fear.

"You're embracing it," Crane said. He ran his hand through Wanda's hair, like a lover might. Only, he did so very mockingly. "You're embracing the fears your mind is causing. You're embracing the moment. You keep feeling this moment. All of Gotham City succumbing to the fear."

Wanda didn't speak. The process of the rift tearing open continued and distracted the disturbed young woman. A hideous creature started to clawed its way out.

"And you're enjoying it, aren't you?" Crane asked.

Wanda shivered and Crane pulled away from her.

"No….not enjoying this," Wanda said.

"You crave the fear like the touch of a lover, because its then where the full potential of your powers manifest themselves," Crane said.

"I don't crave fear, not like that, no ever," Wanda said.

"Denial is your only cage now," Crane said. "The sooner you bust the locks free, the better everything will be."

Crane stood back from Wanda and threw his head back. The screams from inside the city echoed even on this island. The atmosphere this old rundown asylum showed the true personification of power in Gotham City.

"Feel it, Wanda," Crane said.

"No," Wanda said.

Wanda shivered and tried in vain to control all of her powers. The girl lacked control when no drugs were in their body. The drugs pumping through her body caused her grip on reality to keep slipping. She tried to hang on.

"Help!" Wanda screamed.

Crane corked an eyebrow at her for a second and turned away. The anti-fear drug coursing through his body caused Crane not to give a fuck.

"Yes, it's beautiful," Crane said. He looked on the verge of ultimate fulfillment and self-pleasure. "A little more, embrace all of the fear. Feel the fear!"

"NO!" Wanda yelled at the top of her lungs and show howled in agony.

Another crack and a hideous looking creature crawled through the cracks. The creature's hands curled into bony fists. A black robe billowed behind the creature. The face looked pale with sunken in red eyes and straw hair.

"Beautiful," Crane said. "She's the most beautiful thing in the world, isn't she?"

Wanda wondered what hideous creature she uncovered. Something brushed against the girl.

"Good, Wanda, unleash them into Gotham City," Crane said. "I must….feel your power….this beautiful creature, your mind causes such wonders, my dear scarlet witch."

Crane panted heavily and smiled. The creature gave a pained scream.

"So beautiful," Crane said.

"This is fucked up, I'm not judging you, well I am, but you're fucked up!"

Wanda's eyes looked at the direction of the voice. A breath barely escaped her body. The temperamental teenage girl observed a figure in billowing black robes. An object clutched in his hand.

"I'm here to help you, Wanda!" the voice said.

"NO!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. "STAY BACK!"

Wanda's breath started to come up and out of her heavily. Her hands clutched against the ground and the girl kept screaming.

"She sees you as a threat," Crane said. "I hoped you would come here, Nightwing. You thought you could get the better of me."

Harry bounced off of the ceiling, and dodged the cracks in reality. An injector slid out of his sleeve and Harry charged her.

' _Hope this works,'_ Harry thought.

A red energy wave surrounded Wanda and Harry felt his hand blister. His eyes flashed and a barrage of images bombarded in Harry's mind.

Harry fell down to his hands and knees and started to cough.

"Even the dreaded urban legend succumbs to his fear!" Crane yelled. His face contorted into a distorted image, much like the dangerous Scarebeast on the other side of the vortex.

Huntress and Talon tried to rush forward, but the ground elevated above them, sending them high into the ground.

"Can't hold back, feel it ripping!" Wanda yelled. "What have you done to me?"

Laughter echoed around them and more cracks appeared in the side. A wave of energy washed over them.

Harry rose to his feet. The wave of vertigo slammed into him, Harry nearly slumped over.

He tried to aim a throwing dagger at Crane and knock him out of the equation. Crane dodged the attack.

"Now you see me, now you don't!" Crane yelled. "You're not stronger than me, hero!"

Harry saw dozens of demonic shadows surrounding around him. In the middle of them, Wanda started to scream in agony.

The dark clad vigilante dove at Wanda and tried to hold her down. A vortex opened up underneath them, and glowing red tendrils pulled the two of them and Crane deep under the ground.

Diana finally descended to the ground and stared at the portal. The portal sealed itself shut.

"What happened?" Diana asked.

Jaime stared up into the sky and saw black clouds shift into place. Green lightning erupted above them and hit the ground.

The ground started to rumble underneath them. Something tried to break out underneath them.

"It's not over," Jaime said.

Reality started to crack after the break sucked Harry, Wanda, and Crane between worlds.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 2** **nd** **, 2015.**


	123. Unraveled Part Five

**Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Three: "Unraveled" Part Five.**

* * *

 

The world busted around Harry the moment he fell through the hole. The emerald-eyed savior shook his head. Was he dead? Harry verified he remained alive, technically. Harry visited the realm of the death a couple of times, and most certainly, he still remained alive.

Laughter of demonic spirits echoed through Harry's ears. He might not be dead, but Harry refused to minimize his sufferings. The damaged hero tried to utilize some arm movements to put him back on the straight and narrow. Easier said than done? Maybe, Harry tried to adjust his movements and land on his feet with a solid thump.

Harry knew Crane lingered and who knows what else lingered. The young man's single minded objective drove him forward. He needed to locate Wanda, before time ran out.

Time already grinded down the more Harry walked into the realm. Harry blocked out the laughter.

"I see you're still lingering like a bad house guest, Blackfire," Harry muttered underneath his breath.

Harry experienced the strangest feeling he never technically left Arkham. Wanda's magic yanked him into a completely different realm all together. The question is how to fix it.

' _Fix it by fixing her, I know,'_ Harry thought. _'Looking to be easier said than done now.'_

Harry craned his neck to search for Crane. The steps he stood up rose up like some kind of twisted escalator. The clouds in the sky twisted to resemble the same smiling goon.

The twisted versions of Pamela and Harley joined him to make this completely and utterly insane acid trip complete.

"I'd say you smite the bastard with fire when you find him!" Harley said, lingering over his right shoulder.

"No, fire is too messy," Pamela said, lingering directly at Harry's left shoulder. "I say you slowly rip him apart and make him be the one to fear the terror."

"And how is ripping someone apart not messy?" Harley said. "At least fire is nice and quick, without any problems. With ripping him apart, there's so much blood and it's just ick…really, it's just ick!"

Harry didn't waste any time speculating what twisted his mind so much to create such abominations. Regardless, Harry kept climbing the never ending stare case. All of this insanity proved to be a distortion of the mind. The sorcerer struggled against the effects of Wanda's magic further ensnaring.

The gripping changes proved to be less life altering than when a certain Kryptonian accessed a mirror box and changed the world, but they still occurred.

An army of hideous mind demons flashed in front of Harry. Harry realized if he concentrated hard enough, gaining the advantage ended up being a piece of cake. A sword manifested in Harry's hand.

Harry spotted Wanda sitting in the middle of the army of demons. The girl chewed violently down on her lip when more creatures threatened to shove their way out of her mind. She started to scream in an extremely violent manner the more horrors pushed from her mind.

"Hang on there!" Harry yelled.

The sorcerer didn't even know if his words reassured Wanda. Regardless, Harry lifted the sword and slammed the full force of it down into the creatures. The hot blade ripped through the creatures where he kept running.

The red mist appeared in the air and Harry tried to activate the shields in his suit, trying the same trick. The young man stabbed one of the mind demons through as hard as he could and ripped the sword from the creature's chest.

"Stand back!" Wanda yelled.

Harry eyeballed a looming figure off to the side of the red mist and Crane bounced around as giddy as a school girl.

' _And that's scarier than anything Wanda's mind could produce,'_ Harry thought.

Crane's face flashed and slowly contorted into a twisted Scarecrow. Harry wondered if he transformed for real or if the shell-shocked sorcerer hallucinated as part of the mind fuck in the Astral Plane.

"Nightwing, you really think you can get the better of me!" Crane yelled. "I will see Gotham City be blanketed in fear, giving into their utterly primal feelings! But, why stop at Gotham City….."

"How are you not being affected, Crane?" Harry asked.

Harry hovered between two options. Either, he stop Wanda, or he get to Crane. Either option looked to be a challenge for Harry.

"Go ahead and do it!" Crane yelled. "Embrace them, embrace you fears. Feel what your fears can do for you!"

When Crane spoke, Harry's keen observation skills picked up the man holding a syringe with a glowing orange liquid inside it. Harry recognized it as a drug which suppressed adrenaline without sedating a person completely.

Crane moved to give himself another dosage.

"Seems like you should take a leaf out of your own book and embrace your own fears, Crane," Harry said.

Harry moved, hand quicker than the eye and pulled the injector from Crane and destroyed his drug.

"NO!" Crane yelled. "What have you done?"

"Put us on a more even playing field, Doctor Crane," Harry said. "Now, we're going to go head to head, like it should be."

Crane raised his hands and a rift opened up. The scientist ran through the riff instead of facing off against Harry Potter.

Harry turned his attention away from Crane and Wanda got further away. The Kryptonian sorcerer realized he ran out of time.

' _Mind over matter, and this….limitation,'_ Harry thought, tapping his wrist with the watch. _'Doesn't matter in here.'_

Harry flew up the stairs with reckless abandon and ran through the creatures. They tried to take a swipe at him, but Harry clapped his hands.

A sonic blast of magic energy erupted from Harry's palms and knocked the creatures over. They all toppled down to the ground like nine pins, crashing down hard onto the ground.

Arella floated next to Harry.

"Well, lend a hand if you want to," Harry said.

"I can't do anything physically, I can only amplify your power levels," Arella said. "And even that has limitations."

For someone who tried to help, Arella did have some rather annoying limitations. Harry gritted his teeth to hold back the obvious protest.

"So, you can't," Harry said. "Any reason why you can't….."

"You need to stop Wanda, because when her mind cracks, so does reality," Arella said.

Harry noticed, the shifts and the contortions in reality grew even more prominent when Harry stood back. The young wizard waited for all of reality to come undone around him. More cracks manifested in the area around him.

Time to take proactive steps to close the distance between himself and Wanda, Harry thought. He closed his eyes and tried to take the plunge.

More obstacles manifested themselves in front of Har-Zod. The powerful young man worked through them. It didn't matter what happened to him, the world proved to be in peril for a little bit.

* * *

 

Doomsday approached in Gotham City. The good news is people no longer ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.

Katana shook her head. The samurai never got that expression to be honest. A decapitated chicken never technically ran around on the account of not having a head. A lot of Western expressions didn't make a whole lot of sense to her.

"Okay, Gotham City, it should be back to normal….well normal for Gotham City," Katana said.

Batman left her hanging without an answer. He stepped into the city and made sure the path cleared itself.

"We need to stay clear of any people," Batman said.

Katana thought about protesting this point, because out of all of the weird things people saw tonight, two vigilantes would be extremely low on the totem pole.

"You didn't answer my question," Katana said.

"The fear toxin is negated," Batman said. "Scanners show no foreign substances are in the air, other than the standard Gotham City pollution."

"Oh, lovely," Katana said.

Everything grew quiet. Katana didn't like it. Something felt extremely wrong about it.

Everyone around the city stood like statues. The warrior wanted to take a step forward, but decided against it. Batman stared towards them.

"Not moving," Batman said. "Batman to Oracle?"

"Yes!" Oracle snapped.

Batman refused to be phased by her short statement.

"Have you got in touch with Nightwing lately?" Batman asked.

"For the past hour, I've been trying, but the moment he entered Arkham, he's dropped off of the grid," Oracle said. "What's the problem?"

"Something up his alleyway," Batman said. He stepped forward and reached a wall.

A weird heat ate through his glove and Batman couldn't move his right hand. Katana yanked him back and the movement of his hand returned.

"A part of Gotham City is frozen in time," Batman said.

"I'd like to give you a logical explanation," Oracle said. "But given everything else happening tonight, I think we can both agree a logical explanation is strictly out the window."

"Yes, I'm….they're moving again," Batman said.

The men and women of Gotham started to walk in reverse. Batman looked up at the clocktower on the square and it slowly turned in reverse.

The weirdness only began to occur. Batman looked up in time to notice the ghostly form of Nightwing doing battle with some shadow wraiths. Both the vigilante and the wraiths flickered in and out of reality for a couple of moments.

"What's going on?" Batman asked.

For a brief moment, even Batman got rattled. A rumbling sound echoed onto the right. He looked up and motioned for Katana to move to one side.

Katana took Batman's advice and casually jumped off in one direction. The two vigilantes avoided a bus about ready to crash into them. The weirdest image flickered within the bus. The passengers inside the bus appeared at one moment and disappeared at the very next moment.

"What the…."

"MOVE!" Batman yelled.

Batman's keen instincts moved to be spot on. In the corner of his eye, a runaway train barreled out of nowhere. The train shot out of a glowing gateway and neared the bus, about ready to slam into the bus.

The train stopped a precious few seconds from hitting the bus. Katana watched the progress of the train and it floated into the air.

The duo watched the bus open up and the scared passengers start to leave the bus. The ghost train floated and disappeared into wisps of light.

Batman turned his head from one side and saw the clock grinded to a complete stop. Laughter echoed in the back of his head for a scarce second.

"We better find the high ground," Katana said.

Several flashes of light erupted around them and several assassins exited.

"Those are the same ones we fought last night," Katana murmured.

Reality got even more messed up beyond all recognition when Katana noticed the past images of herself and Batman doing battle with the assassins. The figures shifted in the same movements and Katana tried to fight.

It almost appeared like past, present, and future bled into each other in one devious mix. Was that even close to being correct? Katana didn't have any clue, although she knew the entire world started to crumble.

The situation took the turn for the even weirder when an orb of light shot right through Gotham City. Everything the orb of light touched withered and died.

Batman and Katana jumped into a crater created by the carnage. The orb of light flashed over them and for a brief second, they fell into a pit of despair and anguish.

Katana looked up. Not dead, not just yet, and everything appeared to be going back to normal. A bunch of people staggered around the area of Gotham City, having no idea how they got to where they were in the first place.

Batman took the moment to disappear into the shadows. He grappled up to the building and Katana followed him a few seconds later.

"Would it kill you to wait?" Katana asked.

"No," Batman said. He switched to the ear piece. "Oracle…"

"Everything's back to normal all around Gotham City, I think," Oracle said. "After the night we've had so far…"

"Has Nightwing checked in?" Batman asked.

The frustration filled Oracle's voice when she spoke.

"No, Batman, Nightwing hasn't checked in yet," Oracle said. "And I think it's for good reason."

"The chaos isn't over, it's just centered over one area," Batman said.

"Yep, pretty much," Oracle agreed. "I'd give you three guesses what area the chaos completely migrated to and the first two don't count."

Oracle couldn't get in touch with Nightwing. Batman took a moment to survey the situation down on the street. Other than a few people looking around, everything turned back to what passed for normal.

"Continue patrol, and see if we can't get to Arkham," Batman said.

"NO!" a voice yelled in their headsets. The feedback caused both Batman and Katana nearly to be knocked off guard.

The voice sounded inhumane and more distorted than anything the two crime fighters ever encountered in their life. The ringing knocked both of the vigilantes off guard and rattled them immensely.

* * *

 

Brimstone shot up through the ground. The more the drugs assaulted Wanda's system, the more things unraveled around them.

The girl judged Harry as a threat and to be honest, with the rate Harry assaulted the demon's in the girl's mind, hard to argue. The young woman experienced people telling they were here to help. All Wanda received for those efforts to help was pain. Harry sensed how bad the young woman felt and did what he could to fight the demon's in the girls mind.

' _Wanda, you can…'_

Harry knew he needed to get one clear shot. To the chaos magic user's credit, the woman didn't completely break down. Harry knew the moment Wanda completely broke down would be the moment everything would be fucked up.

The wizard made one last mad dash up the steps. The empowering force of the Phoenix song led him up the stairs. Harry held the antidote in his hand.

Harry jabbed the needle into the neck of the brunette girl. The girl thrashed for a moment. The amount of drugs to control her amounted to an insane amount. Crane cured her of the drugs the Asylum used to sedate her, and started to add his own special mix into the equation.

"NO!" Wanda yelled.

Wanda started to really freak out when the full degree of what the girl did came to her. Harry firmly grabbed her and struggled to hold her down.

"Wanda, Wanda, listen to me, I'm a friend, and I'm here to help you," Harry said. "I know that doesn't mean that much, but….you don't want to destroy the world."

"I don't want to!" Wanda yelled. "But, I have no choice, I'm a monster. My father was right to lock me up."

"No, Wanda, you're only what you allow yourself to be, not what you're born as," Harry said.

He firmly hoisted Wanda off of the ground.

"Get away, I don't want to hurt you," Wanda said.

"Good, you don't want to hurt me, I approve," Harry said. "Channel those feelings, Wanda, make them real, make them yours. Channel everything you have."

Wanda tried to control it.

"See the magic, it's yours, you can master anything that belongs to you," Harry said. "It's your mind, and it doesn't belong to anyone else. These powers don't define you, you define them, what you do with it."

Wanda started breathing in and out heavily. Harry hung onto Wanda. The hands of the sorcerer started to blister grabbing around Wanda.

"I'm not going to let go and I most certainly I'm not going to let go of you," Harry said. "You can bring it together, I know you can."

A red light flashed around Wanda. She slowly started to breath in and out, heavily panting in an attempt to hold her thoughts together.

Reality slowly started to reset around them. Wanda started to freak out a little bit more, but Harry held her tightly.

"You can do it, if you want to take control, believe it," Harry said.

The demented form of Jonathan Crane flashed back into the picture. Harry though the madman disappeared into the dust.

"The Dragon is just going to put you back into another cage," Crane asked. "Are you going to allow it?"

"Crane took you out of one cage and put you into another one," Harry said. "Do you really want him to do that?"

Wanda didn't really want anything to do with that. She clung onto Harry's arm and everything once again swept away. A burst of red light appeared and ensnared both Harry and Crane.

Crane flew out of the vortex and landed on the ground with a huge thump.

Harry followed out of the Vortex. The young sorcerer dropped to the ground and all of the wind knocked out of him. The sorcerer slumped forward and his breathing continued to escalate.

He turned towards Crane, who looked up.

"No, you can't…"

Harry saw within Wanda's psyche what the monster did to her. He manipulated her and now Harry wanted to put Crane out of his misery.

"I'm afraid you're very sick, Crane," Harry said. A crazed expression flickered in his eyes. "Time to put you out of your misery with some shock therapy."

"YOU CAN'T KILL ME!" Crane yelled.

Nightwing's image flickered into a demonic Grim Reaper like visage. The Grim Reaper held a rather wicked scythe. Crane's heart sped up as he experienced true fear.

The ground beneath Crane shifted and Crane slipped out of Harry's grip.

Diana and Jaime started to blink. The moment Harry got sucked into the Vortex, both women went through a rather insane trip. They returned to see Harry about ready to kill Crane.

Fortunately, for Crane, Harry's attention got diverted to something else. Wanda still hovered on the ground above them. The girl's arms and legs crossed together. The brunette witch rocked back and forth above them.

Images bombarded Wanda's mind, like the mirror box did before it brought her and several others into this combined world. Wanda touched the top of her head and started to scream.

"Harry, I think we should get out of here!" Jaime yelled.

Harry heard his sister, but his mind didn't really register the urgency in Jaime's voice. Harry closed in on Wanda and grabbed her.

"Wanda, get it together, I know you can, you did it once before," Harry said firmly.

"No, not that time," Wanda said. Her words came out in a pant. "I can bring it back into myself, but….you should get out of here….."

Wanda didn't mention she assumed an attempt to bring her power inward might kill the magic user. The girl's dark hair rested against her against her face.

"I'll be with you every step of the way," Harry said.

"No, no you can't," Wanda said. "You can't, not this time."

"Harry, she's right, I think we need to go," Jaime said.

Jaime grabbed Harry by the right arm and Diana gripped onto his left arm. Both of them lead Harry out of the Asylum.

The three heroes bolted out of there. Wanda calmly sat in the middle of the ground, focusing the strands of the powers. The energy succumbed around her.

' _Yes, I can,'_ she thought. _'Yes, I can control this power, yes, I can!_ I can do this, I can control this power!"

Half of the wing of the Asylum where Wanda sat in, started to crumple around them. Wanda started to levitate above her and swirled in a ball. The brunette girl started to shake madly and the magic user's pupils began to dilate.

' _Almost there,'_ a soft voice said. _'Don't worry Wanda, it's not over.'_

Wanda's body filled with a scarlet energy and she flickered into nothing, but energy. The wing of the abandoned Arkham Asylum exploded along with Wanda. She vanished completely.

The chaos magic faded, leaving nothing, but a huge hole smoldering in the center of the Asylum. Wanda vanished without a trace.

* * *

 

Nightwing felt a sudden chill go through his body. The same chill erupted through the young man's body whenever someone died. Nightwing's eyes widened and he stepped closer towards the Asylum.

The feeling left him about as quickly as it came through him. Talon and Huntress looked up in time. The two heroines watched the progress of the falling brick.

"So, does everything feel normal to you?" Huntress asked.

"I don't even know what normal is anymore," Talon said. "But to answer your question, everything feels far less chaotic than it did before."

"Good, I'm glad," Huntress said. "Nightwing?"

Nightwing stepped over and placed his hand on the fallen and crumbled rocks. He shifted the rocks underneath his hand.

"Nightwing?" Huntress asked again. She put her hand firmly down on Harry's shoulder and squeezed it.

"Yes, Huntress, I'm fine," Harry said.

The words came out of Harry's mouth. He experienced what Wanda went through in her mind and those memories, those thoughts, those fears, shook Harry to his very core.

Harry tried to pull himself back together. Several threads of magic lingered in the air and Harry tried his hardest to latch onto those. No choice, Harry needed to find Wanda.

The strands of chaos magic hovered in the air and Harry grasped onto them for a few seconds. The young man frowned and tried to explore them.

"Anything?" Jaime asked.

Harry turned towards his sister and grimaced in response.

"Nothing, absolutely nothing," Harry replied. "Well, nothing of value anyway, the chaos magic is here, but….it's fading. It's like blood being left behind at the scene of the crime, if the blood started to fade."

Harry thought the analogy lost sense. He kept looking around. A terrified girl with wild powers continued to linger out there. Harry refused to assume the worse.

Even after the moment, even after all of Gotham City settled back to what passed for normal, Harry still stood on pins and needles. Something might have given sooner rather than later.

"She left on her own accord," Huntress said. "She knew the risks….and she did it to save Gotham City."

"You don't think she's….." Talon said.

"For a moment, she was," Harry said. "She's powerful enough to temporarily wipe herself out of reality."

"Crane must not have known how dangerous of an ally he really had," Huntress whistled. The warrior woman realized something and added, "Speaking of Crane, where is he….."

Nightwing stood up straight. In the chaos, Jonathan Crane vanished into the night. He benefitted from this experiment.

"Don't suppose it's too much to hope he didn't escape and got crushed underneath all of this," Talon said, gesturing to the rubble.

"It's too much to hope," Harry said. "He'll be back. They always come back."

Speaking of people coming back, Arella's form manifested herself before the three of them. Harry raised an eyebrow when he tried to get a good idea of what the intentions of the sorceress were.

"So, is everything back to normal?" Harry asked.

The odd sorcerers folded her arms against her chest and stared towards Harry. She boosted his powers in the realm, but he proved himself to be capable of so much more.

"Normal is a simplistic declaration," Arella said. "But to answer your inquiry, yes, everything appears to have calmed down, and I can return home to my people, and to my daughter. Once Wanda left to find her focus, my daughter woke up from her state."

"Excellent," Harry said.

"Yes, well, don't celebrate too much yet," Arella said. "Dark times approach for the people of Earth and my people. An old enemy of yours hungers for revenge. The people of Azarath will need to call upon the help of the Dragon one day. All of the women fear his return."

Harry racked his brain to think of an enemy who inspired much fear from extremely powerful magical users. The young man went around the block a few times with some really dangerous people. Harry closed his eyes and thought about all of the enemies he did battle with.

"The terrible one did not forget his setback at your hands, even before our daughter was sired," Arella said. "Someday, the Dragon will stand side by side with Azarath."

Arella paused for a moment. Several years should pass before they concerned themselves with his return.

"As for Wanda, do not worry about her," Arella said. "I know someone of your strength would, but she's gone off to find a way to stabilize her powers. She will return to you when she's ready. Wanda will need your help most of all."

Arella faded into the distance, Harry watching her leave. The woman certainly proved herself to be a fairly strange one.

"Crane's gone," Diana said.

Crane might still be at large, but the three vigilantes deprived Crane of one of his most dangerous weapon. The mad scientist licked his wounds and would be back all too soon.

"So?" Jaime asked. Harry turned towards her. "Would you have really killed Crane?"

Harry sighed and rolled this matter over in his mind a couple of times.

"Let me tell you what he did to Wanda and you tell me," Harry said.

* * *

 

"Once again, this is Jack Ryder filling in for Vicki Vale, and I don't really know what to say now…..well, no one in Gotham City knows what to say. We all seemed to have gone through a really bad acid trip together and…..well, it was quite the ride for what it was, wasn't it?"

Ryder chuckled.

"Escaped Blackgate prisoner, Doctor Jonathan Crane and his accomplice vanished as soon as they appeared," Ryder said. "Given they are the most likely suspects to this oddness, we're…we're….we're at a loss to say what happened to them, but we're pretty certain they escaped in the chaos. And…..well in the coming days, we're figure out what happened. Friday the thirteenth is finally about over, and a day where even more bad luck befalls you, if you're a man, happens, Valentine's Day is tomorrow."

Harry tinkered away in the lab. Ryder served as background noise. The man really had no idea. Who could really blame him? People moved on with their lives tomorrow and Harry moved forward with the next step in his.

Or he wished he could move forward. Harry half worked on some stronger shields which hopefully might allow him to deal with heavily powerful magic users like Wanda.

Harry paused and shook his head. How many powerful magic users like Wanda would Harry have to deal with?

The young man's mind remained on Wanda. Harry thought in another life, he might find himself in a similar position. No one could really predict what might have been and Harry rarely hung himself up on what might have been. No, Harry focused on what was now.

"Any luck?" Jaime asked.

The two Potters sat down side by side with each other. Both got hit with the worst of it.

"No, sadly now," Harry said.

Jaime grabbed her brother's hand and squeezed it across the table.

"No matter what, we'll find her," Jaime said. "Arella said just as much, she'll return to us when she's ready, and you can help her."

Harry knew helping a temperamental girl with powerful magic might not be the easiest thing in the world, but Harry prepared to do anything necessary to fix the damage done to Wanda. The files Barbara brought up for him both underlined the fact Harry had his work cut out for him. It gave him insight on Wanda's past.

"You really were going to kill Crane," Jaime said.

"Well, you never know what might have happened, had fate not intervened," Harry said. "People are always going to argue if I go too far or if I don't go far enough."

"Such is the problem with being a hero," Jaime said.

"Am I really a hero?" Harry asked.

Harry asked himself this question many times. The images Blackfire showed him might ended up proving to be an inevitability than a hallucination. Maybe those images showed a harbinger of a distant future no one never meant to understand.

"Well, heroes, villains, the roles are dependent on who is telling the story," Jaime said. She leaned towards Harry. "I've been called the world's savior and the world's pariah so many times, I honestly don't know what to believe."

Harry recalled Jaime's problems in her old world.

"The real measure of a person is not the labels they're given, but rather if they're capable of doing much good," Jaime said. "I think if you really think about it, that's what makes a hero, doesn't it?"

"In a sense, yes," Harry said.

"Do what you feel is right," Jaime said.

The hero in one person's story proved to be a villain in the other person's story. Jaime took this particular saying to the bank.

"Today's been a long day," Jaime said. "Quite literally."

Harry smiled and felt a prickling in the back of his head. He recovered quickly. The sorcerer recalled something like this happening when the mirror box activated and the world changed.

The sensation Harry experienced showed something like what happened, happening again, on a far smaller scale.

"Okay?" Jaime asked.

"Just a long day, like you said," Harry said.

Jaime helped Harry up and steered him out of the lab, and they made their way to the nearest bedroom.

Diana waited for them both, sitting on the bed. She changed out of her costume and wore a tight bathrobe with her hair already dripping wet from getting out of the shower. The Amazon Princess rose to her feet.

The warrior woman pounced her husband and pushed her tongue deep into his mouth. Harry returned the kiss with each fire.

Jaime began to strip off her clothing and proceeded to join them. Diana pulled away from Harry and did the same to Jaime, kissing the daylights out of her.

Diana turned back and gave Harry another kiss, tearing his clothes off in the process. Harry knew what his wife wanted only proved to be too happy to accept it.

The hot lips of the Amazon Princess slowly worshipped their way down Harry's body. Diana kissed Harry's chest and kept working her way down. Her tongue lavished beneath his belt and Diana slowly began to lick his tool. Hunger flashed through her eyes.

Diana's hot mouth wrapped around Harry's tool and she looked up at him.

"So hot, as always," Harry said.

Diana slurped on his hard cock and took Harry far into the back of her throat.

"Here, let me help you."

Jaime grabbed the back of Diana's hair and forced her down onto Harry's cock. The throbbing rod choked Diana and she rocked back. The Amazon slowly slurped on his manhood, licking him with hunger growing through her body.

"Yes, she likes this," Jaime said. "And I know you like this."

Jaime dropped down to her knees and started to bat her tongue against Harry's balls. Harry groaned in pleasure.

"Yes, like that," Harry said.

Jaime squeezed the cum heavy balls of her twin and played with them. The Potter female couldn't wait to unload Harry's cum from those balls.

"Keep sucking his cock," Jaime said. "And I'm going to eat your pussy."

Diana spread her legs in an obedient fashion. Jaime smiled. The princess didn't stand a chance against two strong people.

The warrior woman felt Jaime's able tongue snake into her pussy and slither around on the inside. Diana managed to avoid being overwhelmed by her own pleasure.

Harry gripped the side of Diana's face and kept fucking her mouth. The Amazon took his huge cock into her mouth.

"Getting closer, keep sucking my cock," Harry said. Diana's hand reached up and rubbed Harry's balls. She massaged his cum-loaded testicles. "Damn it, Diana, oh god, the best, I love what you're doing. I'm going to cum in your mouth."

Diana bobbed up and down onto the magnificent rod before her. The gorgeous woman took Harry all the way back into her throat. The Amazon squeezed Harry's throbbing prick, milking his tool with her throat muscles. Diana slurped and suckled Harry, feeling all of him go into her throat.

"Damn, Diana, you're really fucking good," Harry said. "You're going to make me cum so fucking hard, I can't….oh god."

Diana licked and slurped on Harry's tool, bringing him deep into her throat. The beautiful woman utilized all of the tools she had to work over Harry's raging rod.

The vibrations coming from the back of Diana's throat prompted Harry's hips to buck forward. He bucked into her mouth, his cum heavy balls slapping against her chin.

Diana's mouth worked him over.

"Go ahead Harry, choke her with that hose," Jaime said. She came back up for air, cum dripping from her mouth.

Harry groaned and his balls roared. The Alpha Male slammed his tool into Diana's mouth and she kept slurping him.

The contents of Harry's balls fired into Diana's mouth. The Princess slurped Harry's cum into her mouth. The woman tilted her head back and continued to slurp him.

Diana rose to her feet, getting to her feet and Harry prompted Diana to get down on the bed. The Princess obeyed Harry's commands.

"Hands and knees," Harry said.

Ropes wrapped around Diana. The Amazon Princess struggled in her bindings, her body writhing around.

Jaime waved her hand and Diana became dripping wet with oil. The Amazon's hair draped over her face and her body dripped with desire.

"Tell me how you want me?" Harry asked.

"Your cock, I want it hard, in me," Diana begged him. "Please, sir, fuck me with your big cock, I'm nothing, but your filthy little bondage princess. I'm nothing but an elegant slut who craves your cock and cum."

Harry smiled. His tool lined up with Diana's sweet pussy and Harry aimed his way into her. His cock slipped into her familiar center.

"Use my body!" Diana yelled.

Harry's hands flew all over her body, squeezing and pinching her nipples. Each action done by Harry prompted a scream to come out of Diana's body. The Amazon Princess moaned in pleasure.

"Time for you to return the favor," Jaime said. She shoved Diana's face in her pussy.

Diana attached Jaime's pussy. The Amazon assaulted Jaime's cunt and more juices poured from it. The Amazon continued to slurp and feast on the dripping juices coming from between Jaime's legs.

"Yes, oh god, you sexy bitch, use my pussy!" Jaime groaned. Diana continued to lap up the pussy juices. "Fuck my pussy, with your hot little tongue, you filthy cunt! That's what you want, eating my pussy when my brother fucks you with his giant penis!"

Harry kept drilling Diana. The Princess's tight cunt released and clenched him, milking him. He grabbed her swinging tits.

Diana saw stars from Harry drilling his cock into the Princess's tight center. Her pussy begged to be used by Harry like nothing by a sweet whore.

"Now, you can cum," Harry said.

Diana clenched and came. Clear juices splattered onto Harry's tool. The wizard plowed Diana and reached her center.

"Getting closer," Harry said. "But, how many more times can I make you cum?"

Harry's finger brushed against Diana's anus. A chill spread over the Amazon and her pussy clenched Harry again. A crushing vice force slammed against Harry's massive pick.

"Many times, loads of times, this slut is built for your cock," Jaime said. "Oh, yes, fuck, Diana, your tongue…it's so good. You bitch, make me cum!"

Diana made Jaime cum.

"How's that for cumming?" Diana asked. "Oh, yes, Harry, drill me ,make me your cum rag!"

Harry plowed Diana's pussy. The Princess's words spurred Harry on. The Kryptonian nailed the Amazon extremely hard, testing the quality of the bed.

"Hera, oh, fuck," Diana said.

Harry grabbed both hands full of hair and rutted into Diana hard from behind. The Amazon panted in pleasure. The sorcerer's talented hands massaged Diana's body.

"Cum for me again," Harry said.

Diana didn't even pause to deny her husband. Harry worked his way into Diana's hot pussy and brought himself into her tight cunt from behind.

"My turn," Harry said.

A barrage of orgasms released in Diana's. The Amazon Princess screamed when seven orgasms in succession nailed her body with the fullest force.

Harry didn't hold back from pushing into her and upon the completion of the seventh orgasm, Harry's balls tightened.

Loads of Harry's cum spilled inside Diana's pussy. Harry pushed himself deep into Diana's depths, emptying the contents of his balls with a fluid motion.

Harry pulled himself from Diana and instantly, Jaime pounced on his cock. The alternate universe Potter licked and slurped Harry's tool with her mouth.

Jaime suckled the combination of juices off of Harry's cock and smiled. Looking out of the corner of her eye, Jaime mounted Harry. His throbbing piece of meat lined up with Jaime's dripping hot pussy.

"I'm ready for you," Jaime said.

"Give me your pussy," Harry ordered, slapping Jaime on the rear.

Jaime obeyed Harry like a good pet. Her slick pussy rubbed against Harry's massive tool and seconds later, the two Potters joined.

The nerve endings exploded. Jaime bounced up and down on Harry's lap. His cock found new ways to work its way inside her body. Jaime enjoyed the ride, bouncing higher and higher on him, tits bouncing.

"You asked for it," Harry said.

Jaime leaned back and allowed Harry to maul her tits.

"Oh yes, my stud of a brother, maul my tits!" Jaime yelled. "They belong to you, they so fucking belong to you!"

Jaime screamed in pleasure and Harry continued to assault Jaime's tits with his hands and his mouth, working the girl over with pleasure.

"Fucking take my tits, TAKE THEM!" Jaime screamed at the top of her lungs.

Harry never broke his actions. Jaime asked for her tits to be taken and Harry took them the best he could.

"Oooh, fuck me, fuck my brains out," Jaime panted, drilling her wet cunt down onto Harry's throbbing tool.

Harry slapped Jaime's ass and caused her to feel pleasure. Each second grinded by when the two Potters continued their fun and games with each other.

Jaime broke first. A satisfied smile appeared on Harry's face. He situated Jaime and brought the vixen down onto his tool, causing the beautiful brunette to scream to the heavens.

"You need this cock deep inside you, don't you?" Harry asked.

Jaime whimpered as she submitted to Harry's actions. The Potter girl's body thrashed up and down Harry's cock.

Harry felt Jaime bury his cock into her depths. The nympho rode him hard. Their pubic bones cracked together. Fingernails dug into Harry's shoulder.

Jaime gained her second wind.

"I'm going to milk your balls dry, stud," Jaime purred in his ear.

"We'll see," Harry said.

"We will," she said.

Jaime released and clenched him, milking Harry's tool. These actions caused her own body to heat up.

"Good," Harry said. "But, it's time for you to cum."

Jaime struggled and failed, submitting again. Harry buried himself balls deep into her. The witch wondered when Harry got her onto her hands and knees, instead of her riding him.

"Guess what, you're going to get my cum, but only if you beg for it."

"No, I…."

Harry firmly slapped Jaime's ass. Jaime caved into her desires.

"Please, master, cum in me!" Jaime screamed.

"Where do you want my cum?" Harry asked.

"I want it in my pussy, that's where it belongs!" Jaime yelled. "Shoot your fucking cum inside my pussy, blow up my womb with your nasty, sticky, seed!"

Harry smiled and plowed Jaime hard. The beauty beneath him allowed her words to give way to frustrating moans. Harry worked himself against Jaime, nailing him deep into her from behind.

"GOD!" Jaime yelled.

"Yes, indeed," Harry groaned.

Jaime came first. The vibrations trembled the girl's body. Harry didn't pause to allow Jaime to come down. Harry kept slamming the monsterous cock into Jaime's tight pussy.

The witch ached in all of the worst ways possible, but all in the best. Soon, Jaime felt cumming would be necessary.

"Cum for me," Harry said.

Jaime came again, wondering when her turn to get Harry's gift would be.

The powerful witch's prayers got answered when Harry's aching balls fired their load into Jaime's pussy. The young man shot load after load of cum into her. Each load of cum resulted in a shockwave of pleasure.

Harry pulled out of Jaime, just in time for Diana to be ready for him.

"Miss me," Harry said.

"Fuck me," Diana begged, rubbing her pussy.

Harry decided to take his wife on this invitation and slip inside her. Diana's legs pulled around him and Harry started to fuck her without abandon.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on September 5** **th** **, 2015.**


	124. The Morning After

**Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Four: "The Morning After".**

* * *

 

Sunshine shined through the windows of the Royal Palace of Themscrycira. Hippolyta rolled over in bed and noticed someone missed from his current position. The dark haired Amazon pushed herself from the lush bed she currently slept on. The bare naked woman walked to the windows and peered outside.

Hippolyta soaked in the sunshine and the peace on her island. The sounds of battle filled her ears. The Queen smiled, not wanting any other result.

The Amazon Queen bent down at her dresser and fumbled around for some clothes. She hoped to catch him awake. Hippolyta never worried about what she wore too much, but aides reminded her as Queen, a certain amount of elegance needed to be observed.

Hippolyta pulled open the dresser drawer and an elegant purple night robe laid in wait for her. The Amazon removed the robe and slid it onto her body. The robe pushed against her frame and shined transparent in the light.

A gentle breeze fluttered against her window. Hippolyta thought she delayed way too long. The Amazon left her chambers and moved outside.

Hippolyta walked only several hundred feet to spot the image of Har-Zod sitting cross-legged on the island. The Queen stalled her movements.

' _Oh, I can see why he wouldn't want to be disturbed.'_

The duplicate of Har-Zod transferred information from his mind, to the mind of the master copy. Fools interrupted this process when it happened.

Hippolyta positioned herself close as she dared towards Harry, in front of him instead of behind him. The Amazon Queen crouched down. As close as she dared, but not too close where she would stifle Harry's efforts.

' _Big information dump, looks like,'_ Hippolyta thought.

Harry rewarded Hippolyta's patience by opening his eyes up. Rising to his feet, Harry wrapped up Hippolyta in an embrace. The following kiss electrified the Queen of the Amazon's.

Hippolyta returned the kiss to her lover. Hands caressed one and other. Harry's found his way on Hippolyta's wide ass and pinched the woman's rear. Hippolyta reciprocated this action with a pat on Harry's ass of her own.

The two lovers parted from each other. A trail of saliva formed from the lips of the two lovers.

"I missed you this morning," Hippolyta said.

Harry wrapped his arms around Hippolyta's waist and pulled the queen closer towards him.

"I know," he said. The sorcerer ran a hand through the midnight locks of the Queen. "Prime encountered something really big in Gotham City, and…..well given it effected all of Reality, something I had to know."

Hippolyta smiled and kept running her fingers through her husband's hair. She leaned in towards him and planted a slight kiss onto his lips.

"Today is the day, isn't it?" Hippolyta asked.

"It is," Harry said. "Six months moves by fast, especially when you keep me occupied on the island."

"And to avoid any complications, you're going to need to leave and merge with the original copy," Hippolyta said.

Hippolyta enjoyed a copy of her husband on the island even though few things beat the original. Nothing beat the original as a matter of fact.

"Another will return in my place," Harry said. He guided Hippolyta back onto the stone bench. "And Prime may stop by."

"He does get wrapped up in a lot of things," Hippolyta said. "He could use a vacation."

"So could you," Harry said.

Hippolyta chortled. Very few considered Paradise to be anything, but a vacation. The Queen of the Amazons thought about the interesting scenario she found herself in. Truly, being a part of the Amazons and being the Queen delighted her. With every delight, days crept up on Hippolyta where she longed for a vacation.

"Artemis could handle everything, no one could beat her in a fight, but you," Harry said.

"You dominate her in other ways," Hippolyta said.

Harry laughed, his wife hit the nail on the head. The Kryptonian relaxed next to Hippolyta on the bench, but not for long. The Amazon Queen positioned herself against her lover and straddled Harry's lap.

"You're pretty keen this morning, aren't you?" Harry asked.

Harry's hands found Hippolyta's ass and squeezed the delightful globes poking out from underneath the robe. The gasp coming from Hippolyta's mouth made Harry smile.

"I missed you in bed," Hippolyta said. "I think it's only appropriate I give you a send-off before you depart. One last bit of information to pass off to Har-Zod, before you return to him."

"Well, I'm not going to argue," Harry said.

Footsteps approached them. Hippolyta's body grew rigid and she turned around.

Artemis approached the two of them. The General of Hippolyta's armies frowned after catching sight of Hippolyta and Harry. The woman recovered quickly enough to clear her throat and stand up straight.

"Yes?" Hippolyta asked. "What is it, Artemis?"

Artemis slumped her shoulders for a brief instant and stepped to join her Queen.

"There is something, amiss, My Queen," Artemis said.

"What is it?" Hippolyta asked.

"I'm not sure, but one of our enchanters noticed a weird distortion in the protections of the island," Artemis said.

Hippolyta's frown deepened. Anyone tampering with the protections on the island deserved her full attention. Only a handful of people acquired the skills and had the ability to tamper on the island. One of them, Circe, wedged herself firmly underneath Harry's thumb.

"I feel it now," Harry said.

"I do as well," Hippolyta said.

The magic in the air rippled towards her. Hippolyta shuddered as the magic caressed her body.

"I will need to stay a few more days, to ensure everything is alright," Harry said.

"Are you sure this is safe?" Hippolyta asked.

Hippolyta recalled the original duplicate living a life of its own and how dangerous the duplicate grew. The shifts in the universe took care of a potential budding threat.

"The process is safer this time, if I become a threat to Prime, or grow beyond his directive, auto-recall," Harry said. "I understand my purpose."

The wizard's grip tightened around the hand of the Amazon.

"Anything to protect my girls," Harry said.

Hippolyta nodded, and smiled. The Queen leaned forward and locked completely onto the protections on the island. The protections pushed back against her.

The woman braced herself for a long body of work ahead. Trying to force her way into the protections showcased an ill-advised plan. If Hippolya tried this, the magic collapsed and crushed the Amazons.

"Delicate."

* * *

 

Mia reviewed the contract Selina placed in front of her. The lesson of reviewing everything in writing her mother taught her stuck out in Mia's head. The woman looked over it.

"Says the same every time you read it, funnily enough," Selina said.

"Just want to make sure," Mia said.

Selina placed a hand on the shoulder of her charge.

"Don't sweat it. I'd be insulted if you didn't read over the contract with a fine tooth comb. I don't want anyone stupid working in this club. You wouldn't believe some of the girls I had to let go when Harry and I took this place over."

Given the stereotypical relationship strip clubs earned, rightfully so in some cases, Mia only guess. She reviewed the contract one more time.

A pen slipped into the girl's hand and she committed pen to paper.

"You can start work when you're ready," Selina said.

"What if I'm ready to start on Monday?" Mia asked.

"Then you can start on Monday," Selina said.

Selina patted the girl on the hand. She knew people frowned upon such a profession. Stripping demeaned women, if you listened to the drivel falling from the mouth of supposed feminists. Only a feminist bullied another woman into submission with such style, Selina mentally noted.

"I think you're find your confidence will bloom," Selina said.

Mia smiled and nodded. The demons she left back home strayed far away from her mind as possible. The girl yawned. Adjusting her head slightly, Mia caught sight of the clock. She returned her gaze to Selina and Selina casually reclined back in the chair.

"Three in the morning, how did you convince me to come here this early?" Mia asked.

"Night's just ending for some of us, honey," Selina said. "Pot of hot coffee over there if you need a pick me up."

Mia rose from her chair and sauntered over to coffee pot to pour herself a nice cup of hot coffee. The woman prepared to drink it, but the door opened up.

' _Who could be here this late?'_ Mia thought. _'Oh no.'_

Mia froze for a few seconds. The last person she expected to walk into a strip club walked into a strip club.

Dinah Laurel Lance of all people entered the strip club. Mia backed off. Thankfully, from her position, Mia spotted Dinah, but Dinah couldn't see her.

"Bathroom, got really bad cramps," Mia said.

Selina waved Mia off. The woman sympathized, she really did. Mia entered the bathroom.

"Selina?"

"Mmm," she said.

Selina watched Dinah walk up the steps. A pair of black pants hugged her hips. A tight white tank-top and a leather jacket added to her assemble. The pair of black boots topped off the look. Selina gazed over Dinah and undressed the athletic blond with her eyes.

"Do you think I can have a word with you?" Dinah asked.

Selina reclined further back in the chair.

"Are you working for a part-time job to supplement your income?"

Dinah rolled her eyes. Selina chuckled and pulled out Mia's vacated chair.

"I ran into a strung-out man," Dinah said.

Selina took a second to consider Dinah's words. A distinct lack of surprise hit the woman.

"You are in Gotham City," Selina said. "It comes with the territory."

Dinah's eyes bored into Selina with her gaze. Selina smiled and waved her hand.

"Continue."

"I ran into this strung out addict in Gotham City. He had some girl's purse….obviously it didn't belong to him."

"Not the man purse type?"

Dinah shook her head. Selina rose off the chair. The vixen sauntered over to the coffee and poured herself a cup.

"So, do you want some?" Selina asked.

"I'll pass," Dinah said.

"Too bad," Selina said.

Selina situated herself on the chair. The woman lifted the steamy coffee cup to her lips and drank the contents.

"Continue."

"I convinced the addict to hand over the purse. No money in the purse, but I found a receipt."

"Oh, what did the receipt say?" Selina asked.

"The receipt was from a used car lot," Dinah said. "Big Bob's used car lot."

Selina crinkled her nose at the sound of the place.

"Yes, a very sleazy place, I know all about it," Selina said. "The guy doing business is the type I show the door the moment he steps into the club. You know, best for business."

"A Thea Queen signed the receipt?"

Selina patted her chin and a frown tugged on the corners of her lips.

"Why does the name Thea Queen sound familiar to me?" Selina asked.

"Maybe because she ran away a few weeks ago from Star City," Dinah said. "The younger sister of Oliver Queen."

"Yes, him, I've met him," Selina said.

Selina dug her nails into the coffee cup. Scratches shined against the light.

"I think Thea is still somewhere in Gotham City," Dinah said.

The two women locked into an intense staredown with each other.

"Have you seen her?"

"Have you?"

Dinah threw her hands up. Selina placed her hand on Dinah's shoulder.

"Maybe you should relax a little bit," Selina said. "I'm sure she'll turn up….rich girl like Thea is more valuable alive than dead."

"I'm worried!" Dinah yelled. "Some scumbag might have sold her into prostitution."

Selina reached forward and flipped Dinah's hair away from her face.

"Dinah, honey, let me tell you about something," Selina said. "Someone high profile like Thea, they're not going to be able to keep their fucking mouths shut. Someone is bound to start bragging they tapped some rich girl. Scum in those circles, they have no shame. The street rate for being with some missing rich heiress, it's through the roof."

Dinah frowned for a long beat. Seconds later, the woman's head inclined into a nod. Selina, given the circumstances, would know better than anyone else.

"I'll keep an eye out for any hint of her," Selina said.

"You know something, don't you?" Dinah asked.

"You've been working too long," Selina said. The woman played with Dinah's hair until she pulled away. Selina shrugged. "Those late nights, they can be rough on someone with a soft complexion like yourself; my pretty bird."

"If you see her….."

"Honey, I'll inform anyone if I see Thea Queen in danger anywhere in Gotham City," Selina said. "Trust me."

"Are you sure there's not anything else?" Dinah asked.

"Watch out for stray cats," Selina said.

Dinah rose from her chair and turned around. Selina enjoyed the view of Dinah exiting the club.

The moment the woman left, Selina edged towards the bathroom. The woman rapped on the door.

"Mia, hope those cramps clear up, now we're the only two people alone in the club."

Selina's lips curled into a smile. She observed her younger charge exit the bathroom. Bless her heart, the girl attempted to allow relief.

* * *

 

James Gordon walked into the office. An already late night edged into a really late morning. The GCPD officer filed his papers in a neat order.

A very subdued Bullock greeted him with a wave. Montoya sat next to him.

"Do you have to do that?" Bullock asked.

Montoya nibbled on a donut.

"What?" Montoya asked.

Bullock groaned and turned around to face Gordon. John Jones took a seat next to him.

"Okay there, Jones?" Bullock asked.

"It has been a rough night," Jones said.

"Preaching to the choir there, buddy," Bullock said. The gruff detective patted the man on the back. "But, man, you look like you've seen a ghost."

"You have no idea," Jones said.

A few more members of the MCU filed in. Sarah stopped and looked at Bullock.

"No hard feelings, Bullock, but…."

"Nah, Essen," Bullock said. "Just doing your job, but the next time, could ease up just a bit on the haymaker."

A few people smiled at Sarah after she entered the room.

"Congratulations for living the dream of pretty much everyone in this precinct," Josie Mac said.

Gordon cleared his throat. Chief O'Hara stood behind Gordon for the briefing of the Gotham City Police Department's Major Crimes Unit.

"Tonight, Gotham City returned back to normal. I don't have an explanation to this. The GCPD submitted evidence to the crime lab, where we hope to uncover the truth about what occurred this evening. One unfortunate fact tonight is…Crane and his accomplice escaped into the night in Gotham City."

Groans followed Gordon's declaration. Gordon waited patiently for the groans to die down.

"I know, all of you are disappointed we are back at square one. Every police department in the state has been put on high alert for Crane. We will locate him and bring Crane into justice."

"Yeah, son of a bitch deserves to be knocked down a peg or two," Bullock said.

"What about the rumors?" Allen asked. "The one's pegging Nightwing around the area of Arkham Asylum when he went after the Scarecrow."

"The Scarecrow?" Bullock asked.

"The press apparently dubbed Crane the Scarecrow," Ellen said.

"Great, just what that nutter needs, encouragement. If you ask me, he's nuttier than my Grandma's fruitcake."

Gordon cleared his throat.

"We need to stress, Batman and Nightwing are only urban legends, no conclusive evidence tied them to any of the events people told us about."

"And I must remind you of the office stance Commissioner Loeb has made on vigilantes in our fair city," Chief O'Hara said. "The official Gotham City law considers the actions of Batman and Nightwing to be illegal. They are not duly deputized agents of the law, and any GCPD officer who catches them, should they exist, will be praised for their capture. But, as of right now, a formal investigation conducted by the MCU indicates they're nothing, but an urban legend."

O'Hara's words came beat from beat from a press released Loeb made several weeks ago, at least to the public. Internally in the GCPD, Loeb's opinion on the vigilantes resulted in an entirely different matter entirely. O'Hara heard of some rumblings about double dealings between Branden and Loeb, regarding an anti-vigilante task force off of the official record.

Vigilantes policed by other vigilantes never ended well.

"Where is Loeb?" Essen asked.

"Commissioner Loeb declined to attend this briefing, after tonight's events, he's feeling under the weather."

"A shame," Montoya said.

"A lot of really messed up shit happened tonight," Bullock said. "So obviously, a bunch of people imagined a couple of Boogeyman popped out of the shadows and said boo! Doesn't make Batman and Wingnut's….."

"Nightwing," Montoya said.

"Yeah, him, doesn't make them any less real than flying vampire rabbits or giant werewolf tomatoes or….."

"Killer cannibal donuts?"

The detective shuddered at the reminder of his traumatic ordeal.

"Yeah….those."

Bullock slumped into his chair.

"Are you done, Harvey?" Gordon asked.

"Yeah, Jimbo, I'm done."

Gordon allowed O'Hara to wrap up the meeting. The meeting took an extraordinary amount of time to clarify nothing else could be said.

After the meeting, Gordon excused himself. The officer pulled out his Red Sun and dialed a number.

"Good evening, Dad! Or is it morning, now? I can't really keep track."

"It's morning, almost. So, how are you holding up? I hope I didn't wake you up."

Barbara snorted on the other end of the phone.

"Wake me up? You've got to be kidding right? I've been working on school work, got a lot done tonight."

"I know you're busy, but I wanted to check in."

"Hey, Dad, I know, you wanted to check in. Hell, I wanted to call you up, but I thought you'd be in the middle of something."

Gordon reached up to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"You don't know the half of it….but, you should get to bed."

"Oh, I will sooner or later, I got a little bit more to do."

Gordon sighed and shook his head.

"Barbara, sometimes, I think you take on way too much?"

"Geez, Dad, must have got that from somewhere?"

Gordon chuckled, thankfully his daughter picked up only a couple of his bad habits. The GCPD officer saw the rest of the cops file out.

The night from hell nearly ended. The longest Friday the 13th ever gave way to Saturday the 14th, Valentine's Day.

* * *

 

Kara sat in front of the view screen at the Penthouse. One of Harry's long shirts stretched down her body. Kara filled out the shirt nicely. The fact the girl declined to wear panties or anything underneath the shirt became obvious the moment she shifted the shirt.

Vicki Vale's image appeared on the other side of the view screen. The reporter dressed in some fancy silk pajamas and she curled up on the couch. The sun barely rose, but both girls rose from bed early.

"So, what the hell happened?" Vicki asked. "Am I going to regret not being in Gotham City when the insanity went down?"

Kara smiled at Vicki. Vicki's eyes narrowed and arms folded, looking back at Kara.

"Depends on your definition of regret, really," Kara said. "I'm not really sure all of what went down last night. I'm sure you heard some really weird rumors."

Vicki snorted before she recovered to sound mostly professional.

"I heard Gotham City nearly fell into the Earth because of some crazed powered woman," Vicki said.

Kara chuckled, and Vicki frowned. Leaving the woman in suspense suited her very well as far as Kara thought. The moment of fun passed and Kara returned.

"Not too far from the truth to be honest."

Vicki's eyes narrowed and she gasped in surprise. Gotham City lingered moments away from a sudden demise and she never covered it. Not really fair, and the reporter's body slumped at the thought.

"Everyone got out alright though, didn't they?"

"There were no casualties, time reversed itself," Kara said. "I don't know how, but it's kind of hard to explain it."

"I'm already getting a headache from you trying," Vicki said.

"Sorry about that," Kara said.

Vicki smiled. She reached for her coffee and took a drink. The coffee allowed her to focus. After the insanity in Gotham City, Vicki found focusing to be a very prudent activity.

"So, you're back in Gotham City….I don't want to even speculate about the nature of the emergency which brought you back," Vicki said.

Vicki developed some shrewd suspicions regarding Harry, but without any proof to back them up, they remained suspicions and nothing more.

"Can we say it's a personal matter, and drop it?"

"I agree," Vicki said. "But, I guess it's for the best you're back."

"Veronica really is happy," Kara said. "She can now move the little Valentine's Day deal up to Valentine's Day, instead of the Tuesday after."

"Can she do it on such short notice?" Vicki asked.

Kara shrugged and returned to her coffee.

"If anyone can, it's Veronica. She's productive in an insane way when she wants to be. And let's face it, she can be really scary with how much she does on an average day."

"Not to a Harry level, though."

Kara avoided snorting her coffee out. Good she did not snort it out because her keyboard rested next to her. The last thing she needed was another ruined keyboard thanks to coffee.

"No one is on a Harry level of insane productivity," Kara said. "Speaking of which, he's working on another project this early in the morning."

"Tell him, I said hi."

"He feels really bad about having to duck out, but I guess it all worked out in the end," Kara said.

"Has Harry ever considered getting a helicopter if he's going to take all of these trips back and forth to New York?" Vicki asked.

Kara placed her hand underneath her chin and smiled.

"Well, it's an idea," Kara said. "I better check on Harry. Talk to you later, Vicki."

"Yes, I've had a long night, maybe I should get a couple of hours of sleep."

"You know, having coffee is kind of counterproductive to having a couple of hours of sleep."

Vicki conceded Kara's points and the two girls disconnected the video chat with each other.

Kara bounced over to the direction of Harry's lab. She frowned and watched her husband at work, piecing together some sort of information.

Harry hunched over the readings from his suit. Inconclusive described the readings, and Harry found himself back to square one. A chaos magic trail ended at the edge of reality, but Wanda disappeared off of the Earth.

' _Almost like she wrote herself out of reality.'_

Harry noticed an added weight on his lap. Kara joined him at the table.

"Hey, Kara," Harry said.

"Hi, Harry," Kara said.

Kara made herself comfortable on Harry's lap. Harry's arms wrapped around Kara and rested his left hand on her bare thigh.

"So, what are you doing?"

"Two things," Harry said.

Kara's interest piqued and the Kryptonian turned an ample amount of attention towards her husband.

"The first thing is I'm trying to soup up the suits, and increase the shielding on the suits."

"Aren't you and Faora going to increase the shields later?"

"No, reason why I can't get a jump start on it," Harry said.

Kara nodded, no reason to argue about what Harry said. As always, Harry gave good reasoning for anything he did.

"And what's the other thing you're doing?"

"I'm trying to locate Wanda," Harry said. "She's out there somewhere, and…..well, wouldn't you like to know where she is?"

"You don't think she deleted herself from reality, do you?" Kara asked.

Harry fashioned himself to have many traits, some admirable, and a couple, flawed. The watch he wore showed proof how flawed he ended up.

"I thought so for a moment, at first," Harry said. "Now, I don't quite know what she did. She transported herself somewhere which is out of reach."

"You can't track her?" Kara asked.

"Her magic doesn't work the way I thought it might," Harry said. "Or, how any magic works I've ever experienced."

"How does her magic work?" Kara asked.

Harry thought of the best way to answer Kara's question.

"Magic has certain rules, most of the time. Rules are made to have exceptions though, as you know."

"I'm talking to one," Kara said.

"Indeed," Harry said. "Wanda's magic on the other hand has no defined limits. She is able to bend the fabric of reality. Magic is by definition the crude distortion of reality, and bitch-slaps physics."

"If she has no defined limits, do you think….."

Kara trailed off after a couple of seconds. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Do, I think what?"

Kara shook her head.

"Never mind, it's stupid wishful thinking, I should have never brought it up."

Harry frowned and grabbed Kara's hand, giving it a tight squeeze. The girl's gaze matched Harry's.

"What if she can fix what's wrong with your magic?"

Harry considered the matter. The reward might be minor. The risk of going for a quick fix was too great.

"There's a small chance she might," Harry said. "There's an even bigger chance, she won't be able to, and she'll end up nuking all of reality."

Kara sighed, and she watched hope fly out of the window. The five year wait crawled along at an unbearable slow pace.

"So, what happens when she gains control of her powers?"

Harry considered the matter for a long moment. Nearly a moment passed prior to Harry deciding how to best give his explanation.

"She becomes an extremely valuable ally or one of the most dangerous enemies we've ever faced against."

Kara mulled over Harry's declaration. The amount of levity he gave Wanda's status proved he didn't joke around.

* * *

 

Hippolyta and Harry followed Artemis and her warriors to the edge of the island. The Amazons braced themselves for combat.

"Be prepared for anything to come out of the portal," Hippolyta said.

The energy orb expanded and a brunette girl popped from the portal. She shook her head for a moment. The girl's red top stretched around an ample set of breasts. The top stopped to showcase a fit stomach with an amazing set of abs. Her tight black pants looked fairly warned. Her auburn hair strung out in every direction in an immense amount of disarray.

Harry stood and recalled the face of the girl. The same girl prime battled, the one who Crane manipulated stared back at him. Wanda grew up in the less than a day she vanished from reality.

"Please said back," Harry said.

Hippolyta nodded to solidify his statement. The Amazons stepped back from Wanda on the ground.

Harry crouched down next to the now stacked girl.

"Are you okay?"

The girl accepted Harry's hand, and he pulled the visitor to the island to a standing position.

"Sorry, I brought down the protections on your island," Wanda said. "Why don't I fix it?"

Wanda tethered on the edge of losing control.

"Do you think…."

The powerful woman brought the strands of magic together. A hole in the protections sealed shut and Wanda smiled.

"Not as easy as she made it look," Wanda said. "But, I'm better off than I was back in Gotham City."

One look at Wanda's body indicated the trip did her rather well. Harry, Hippolyta, and the Amazons took a good long look.

"Glad I didn't teleport in here naked," Wanda said.

Harry cleared his throat.

"So, why did you come here in the first place?"

Wanda smiled and leaned towards Harry.

"Direct and to the point, I like," Wanda said. "But, it turns out, despite my training, I'm going to need help…..to center myself."

"What kind of help?" Harry asked.

"The help only an extremely powerful magical being could give," Wanda said.

"Oh?" Harry asked.

Wanda gazed at him and stepped back from him.

"No offense, but I'm going to need help from the original copy. You're a good imitation, but nothing is better than the real thing. Plus, I can see your time is short, and I wouldn't want to delay your rejoining."

The duplicate grabbed Wanda's hand and pulled her in tight.

"Why don't I take you to join him?" Harry asked.

"I'd like you to do so," Wanda agreed. She smiled and pressed herself closer to Harry. "If you would, please?"

With such a demeanor and expression, how could Harry say no?

X-X-X

Early the next morning, Harry talked to Veronica on the phone.

"Really glad you got back in time," Veronica said. "And it isn't really much trouble, in fact it's much better."

"How is it much better?" Harry asked.

"Well, some wires got crossed, and the entire get together in Tuesday became a high society event, instead of just the girls like we intended," Veronica said. "After last night, a smaller, more intimate get together is. I've been calling in every single favor to get everything done tonight. It satisfies everyone, I think."

Harry smiled.

"Whatever you think is best, Veronica."

"I mean," Veronica said. "I mean we can have the smaller get together with you and all of the girls as planned, and the more high society event with the Vreeland-Potter group still can happen. And I swear, security is being tightened up at both. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you, you know."

"I know you wouldn't," Harry agreed. "Six sharp?"

"Six sharp tonight," Veronica said. "Most of the girls are in town, aren't they?"

"We all came back early, Vicki's still in New York, and a few others are still," Harry said. "Still we've got a tight, intimate group, don't we?"

"The more intimate the better," Veronica said. "I'll see you tonight, still about ten million things to get together, just wanted to let you know of the time, and how you saved my ass by returning in town early."

"You can make it up to me later," Harry said.

Harry's statement sent shivers down Veronica's spine.

"Talk to you later."

Harry hung up the phone.

' _Bit frantic, isn't she?'_ Kara asked.

' _She wouldn't be Veronica otherwise,'_ Harry thought.

The duplicate popped up for his sixth month remerging. Harry leaned back and noticed his duplicate lead a guest into this particular area of the tower.

"So, I understand you've been looking for me?"

Harry looked over Wanda for a brief moment. She changed from the skinny waif into a stacked bombshell.

"Yes, I have….sit down for a minute, I'll be with you."

Wanda accepted Harry's offer to sit down and reclined on the couch. The brunette crossed her arms.

The two Harry's merged together as one. Harry turned his full attention to Wanda.

"So, what can I do for you?"

"I think I found a way to completely control my powers, but I need your help to pull this off."

Harry frowned.

"And where have you been?"

"I do owe you an explanation, don't I?" Wanda asked.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 9** **th** **, 2015.**


	125. The Healing Process

**Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Five: The Healing Process.**

* * *

 

Zatanna picked a hell of a time to return to Gotham City. She joined her father on tour for the past few months. She popped in and out on the bond traffic to give her input as needed, but for the most part, she stayed out of state.

The dark-haired beauty stepped into the penthouse. She joined Harry and an auburn haired girl in the tower. Harry turned his attention to Zatanna. The emerald-eyed enchanter stepped towards Zatanna and wrapped his arms around her with a tight hug and kissed her on the lips. The two exchanged a passionate kiss.

The auburn haired woman gazed at Harry and Zatanna with quite the forlorn expression dancing in her eyes. Harry pulled away from Zatanna.

"Zatanna, this is Wanda Maximoff. Wanda, this is Zatanna, she's an old friend of mine, and if my guess is not wrong, she'll be here to help out with your problem."

Wanda touched her hands to her hips and nodded.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Zatanna," Wanda said.

"Likewise, Wanda," Zatanna said.

Harry brought Zatanna up to speed about the incident in Gotham City on Friday the 13th. Zatanna's guilt manifested, wishing she had been in the city when the event occurred, but other events took up her time.

"Wanda was about to explain to me what happened since the moment she left Gotham City."

Harry directed his attention at Wanda. His hand gripped hers, squeezing it. Wanda smiled at Harry's strong grip. The powerful wrapped around her hand gave her strength and encouragement.

"Yes, I was," Wanda said. "So, the moment I left, I didn't know what happened….I flashed out of Arkham. I needed to get out of there. So terrible, many bad memories, and not my own."

Harry nodded. He understand the dark echoes coming from Arkham. He felt them himself and hated what he felt.

' _We all can feel her pain,'_ Diana said.

"I teleported out of Arkham. I entered some kind of void, some kind of inbetween."

Harry frowned and leaned in towards Wanda.

"Could you try and be a bit more specific? No offense, but there are a lot of voids and a lot of areas which can be considered to be an inbetween, you know."

Wanda bit down on her lip and frowned. Harry's hand clasped around hers gave Wanda the necessary motivation to pick up one more time.

"Yes, the in between….a multitude of colors splashed the sky. The ground looked like some kind of dismal grey field, and I kept walking until I reached two doors."

"Two doors?" Zatanna asked.

"The two doors gave off a weird aura," Wanda said. Zatanna frowned and looked Wanda in the eye.

"A weird aura could mean many things," Zatanna said.

"One door led to a good option for me, and one door lead to a bad option for me. I stood in front of the doors, hoping I made the right choice."

Harry found himself wondering what happened if Wanda made the wrong decision. The fact she sat before him happy and healthy told Harry all he needed to know.

"And you chose the right door," Harry said.

"I didn't know at the time, but yes….I chose the right door….and the person on the other side helped me out. She called herself Doctor Fate."

Zatanna's eyebrows rose at the statement. The expression on the dark haired magic user's face failed to go unnoticed by Wanda.

"You know, Doctor Fate?" Wanda asked.

"Yes, I do," Zatanna said. "Two things wrong with this picture."

"What's wrong with this picture?" Wanda asked. "Are you calling me a liar?"

"NO!" Zatanna yelled. She sensed the girl's agitation and did anything to pacify it.

"Zee is not calling you a liar," Harry said.

Wanda relaxed. Her body tensed up still, and she walked on pins and needles. Something broke sooner or later, she didn't know what it might be.

"Sorry, I'm jumpy," Wanda said.

"Given what Crane did to you, it's understandable," Harry said.

Wanda recovered from the ordeal, but still carried a lot of demons in the back of her mind. The demons threatened to break out at the worst possible time. Regardless, the young woman took a breath and turned to Zatanna.

"What is wrong with the picture?"

Zatanna relaxed when Wanda's did. Her magic when tense terrified Zatanna a little bit, and her father described some rather horrifying varieties of magic to her. None showed themselves to be worse than Wanda's chaos magic.

"First, my father knew Doctor Fate in the Justice Society of America. A long time ago, but he's dead and he was a guy."

' _Don't suppose a new person took on the mantle of Doctor Fate,'_ Karen said.

Zatanna frowned, the most logical explanation manifested for her, and a sigh escaped her mouth.

"Well, this Doctor Fate most certainly is a woman," Wanda said. "She helped me stabilize her powers, although there were limits to what she could do."

"An agent of Order, helping someone with chaos magic," Harry said.

"Weird, isn't it?" Zatanna asked.

Wanda shrugged. She thought the Agent of Order helping her proved to be a little bit strange, but she refused to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"I've been gone for twelve hours from your perspective, but it's been a lot longer from mine."

Harry raised an eyebrow and leaned into Wanda.

"How long?"

"Three years," Wanda said. "Three years, I've trained to find my balance, and I've nearly found it, but I'm going to need help to get the rest of the way there."

Wanda leaned in closer to Harry.

"And that's where I come in?" Harry asked.

Wanda nodded in confirmation.

"My powers are still a bit shaky and I'm still having trouble in controlling them. After reality shifted a few months ago, I had a freak out involving them, and I woke up trapped in a mental institution."

"I thought you were there your entire life?" Harry asked.

"Yes, and no," Wanda said. "My memories became confused and I thought I spent half of my life in the asylum. From a certain perspective, I did. Studied by doctors, some sympathetic to my plight, many others, regarding me as little more than a scientific curiosity."

"Not right at all."

"No, it isn't. And I became a prisoner of my own mind before I recalled what happened before everything changed. And Crane didn't help with my mental state."

Wanda's expression darkened when she talked about her time with Crane. Harry grabbed her hand and squeezed it to return her back to the conversation.

"Doctor Fate help set me right, but I need a force to ground them. They could turn unstable again at any moment."

Wanda stepped closer to Harry and wrapped her arms around him.

"Which means you need my help?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I need your help," Wanda said. "We need to bond."

Zatanna smiled. Wanda's timing couldn't be even more perfect.

"Today would be the perfect day to bond; the tantric energy in the air is the highest."

Wanda chewed down on the bottom of her lip.

"I understand your night is busy," Wanda said. "With all of the women you have to give an attention to, which a powerful man like yourself should have."

Harry pulled Wanda into his embrace.

"Don't worry, I'll find the time."

Harry kissed her on the lips to give her a hint of what was to come tonight.

* * *

 

People scrambled into the Jewelry stores in Gotham City. Many of them men, who intended to do some last minute shopping on Valentine's day, to avoid spending the day in the dog house. The men rushed around in circles.

"I thought this necklace cost cheaper than this."

"Well it would have, if you bought it a few days ago, sir," the jeweler said. His tone made Ben Stein sound excited and peppy. "But, supply and demand rocketed up the price. I'm sure your lady will understand if you fail to get her a gift."

The man clutched his hand.

"You know what this entire Valentine's Day business is? It's extortion, plain and simple. Trying to fuck over us honest Joes like this!"

"I couldn't agree more with you, pal!"

The Red Hood gang bust through the doors of the Jewelry store. They held weapons and the leader of the Red Hood gang stepped on in to give a speech.

"All of you sad, pathetic souls are here for one reason. You neglect your wives and your girlfriends three hundred and sixty four days of the year, three hundred and sixty five on leap years, and on this magic day, you become the perfect man. You hope to buy her a shiny trinket, so you can hop into bed for a magical ride."

The Red Hood banged his fist on the side of the table.

"Guess, you can't be bothered to actually show your lady some attention. You win her over with one tacky piece of trash. It makes you look bad as men. It also makes all of your ladies look like shallow bitches. Which makes you look even worse as men, because you're putting up with their bullshit to get in their panties."

The Red Hood chuckled.

"Wake up people, Valentine's day is nothing, but a conspiracy, brought on by the candy companies, the greeting card companies, and this jewelry store. You need to wake up and smell the roses instead of buying them."

The Red Hood gang surrounded the group of people in the store. The Red Hood's lips curled into a grin underneath his mask.

"The good news is, you boys have plenty of disposable income, don't you? Clean them out, boys."

The gang members shook down the last-minute shoppers. Some of them drained their bank accounts to purchase a gift for the special someone in their life.

Sportsmaster stepped out of the shadows in time to crack one of the shoppers. The man took out the fact his wife no longer welcomed him in his own house on the shoppers. He slammed the point of the iron down onto the shopper's leg.

"Get it in the bag, and don't fucking around."

Outside of the jewelry store, the whooping and hollering of the Red Hood crew echoed from inside. Jack Napier and Bob the Goon, along with some of Napier's man, waited in a parked car.

"Not too shabby. They have some style, but they don't have the pizzazz I do."

Jack popped his fingers together and chuckled. The doors of the jewelry store swung open and the Red Hood Gang exited.

"Pick your shots boys, pick them good."

The doors swung open and the men fired a barrage of bullets. The bullets punctured the tires of the getaway car, and wiped out the members of the Red Hood gang in the process.

The only two people standing turned to face Napier. Sportsmaster reached into his bag to grab a tool to club Napier.

"Seems like you boys are in need of a ride, and it happens I've got a bit of an offer for you. And it's one you'd be a fool to refuse, because it's going to make you a whole lot of money."

Red Hood's glare burned into the face of Napier.

"Hope you aren't too pissed about my boys whacking your boys. I had to get your attention, you know."

The Red Hood paused for a second and shrugged. He entered the back of the car, with Sportsmaster following.

"So, do you think we can trust this punk?' Sportsmaster asked.

"Punk?" Bob asked. "Who are you calling a punk? Do you think I should blow him away, he wasn't part of the deal…."

"Try it, son, I dare you," Sportsmaster said.

Sportsmaster clenched Bob's wrist and hit the pressure point. The goon's wrist crunched underneath the grip of the Sportsmaster.

"Bob, down," Napier said. Bob fell back into line. "I apologize for the conduct my friend; he doesn't know when to back off….but I think the three of us can work together."

The Red Hood's arms folded together.

"Work for you?"

"No, the three of us can work together," Napier said. "Your ceiling is only so high, and my ceiling is only so high. Together, we raise our profile together."

"How high profile of a job are you talking about?" Sportsmaster asked.

Willis Todd only allowed him to rise so far, Napier's connections, even with his boss deceased, elevated even higher. Sportsmaster intended to do a couple of high profile jobs to get back into Paula's good graces. He intended to prove he wasn't a punk, and Black Canary and Nightwing hit a lucky shot.

"Pretty high profile," Napier said. "We all want to stick it to Thorne, because he's getting a bit too big for his oversized britches."

Sportsmaster and Red Hood heard Napier out. Both gave Napier the benefit of the doubt and both did so for very different reasons.

* * *

 

Claire and Lana followed Marie down the beaten path. Marie closed her eyes and recalled the horrible time she ran away from her problems, before Jonathan and Martha Kent took her in. The uncertain nature of whether or not someone might attack her resounded in the back of Maria's head.

"Are you sure it's close?" Claire asked.

Marie's head snapped back around. Claire took a step back and avoided falling back. Lana held Claire up.

"I know where I'm going."

Lana ensured Claire retained her balance and the three girls explored the caves. A presence in the air prickled Lana's skin for a second.

Seconds later, the presence left Lana. Claire leaned into the distance and narrowed her eyes.

"Do you feel something? "Claire asked.

The prickling sensation brushed over Lana's skin. The twelve year old girl frowned.

"I felt it the moment we came up here," Lana said. "It feels weird doesn't it? Like something brushed out and touched you."

Marie stopped before Claire and Lana proceeded forward. The budding Southern bell peered over her shoulder. Her shoulders slumped and she sighed.

"I'm not really sure if it's a good idea if I brought the two of you up here," Marie said.

"What do you mean?" Claire asked.

"I didn't really notice the feeling the first time, because I ran for my life. But, you know, there's something really wrong up here?"

Lana frowned. She walked as far as possible up the path without sidestepping Marie.

"Do you want to know the answers?"

"Well, yes, but….what if the two of you are put in danger because of…whatever's in there?" Marie asked.

"Don't worry, Marie, I'm sure there's nothing bad in there," Claire said.

Claire placed her hand on Marie's gloved one. Unlike before, Marie didn't flinch from Claire coming close to touching her. She stepped an inch closer.

"How can you be sure?"

"I'm not sure," Claire said. "A gut feeling I am. Harry told me it's best to trust your gut, and not overthink things, you know."

"I guess," Marie said.

Marie's reluctant attitude resulted in Claire frowning at her.

"Harry knows a lot more than most, trust me."

"I know," Marie said. "But, don't you think you should have him look at you with the cave first."

Claire hesitated at Marie's advice. The girl raised an intriguing point, and one Claire struggled to wrap her head around. Maybe, waiting until Harry entered town would be a good time to look at the caves, instead of traveling up here without any supervision.

"Claire, I'm sure one little peak won't hurt!"

Lana hovered over Claire's shoulder like the ever present devil. Claire turned her head at Lana.

"One little peak won't hurt."

"I guess," Marie said.

The three girls traveled into the cave. The paintings shined on the side of the cave. The mere presence drew the three girls closer.

"Don't they almost call out to you?" Marie asked.

"Yes, they do," Claire said.

Lana removed the wood carving from her bag. The paintings on the wall matched the paintings on the wood carving almost to the letter.

"It's….."

"You three girls shouldn't be in this cave. It's unsafe."

Lana, Claire, and Marie looked behind them. An elderly Native stepped into the cave. He waved for them to depart the cave.

"Why, why isn't it safe?" Claire asked.

"Hauntings," the Native said.

His raspy voice swam with the direst of warnings. The three girls stared at the man. Lana blinked, confusion filling the face of the girl.

"Hauntings….oh you mean like ghosts and stuff?"

The stony expression on man's face caused Lana to shiver.

"The hauntings are far more than ghosts; there is a presence in the caves, which the Kawatchee have not been able to explain. The granddaughter of one of the tribe elders vanished while exploring these caves. Danielle is around your age, and she's been missing for a year."

Lana and Claire shuddered at the icy look the Native gave them. Marie tried to stand up and stepped between the Native and the two younger girls.

"I did not mean to scare you," the man said. "My name is Longshadow, and I understand the allure of the legend of Namen."

"Namen?" Marie asked.

"Yes, a god who fell from the heavens, with the strength of ten men, and the ability to shoot fire from his eyes. He could outrun any bullet, more powerful than any train, and jumped entire structures in a single bound. The legend reminds me of the heroes I fought alongside of, in my youth. Those days long passed."

Longshadow's sigh broke up his words. His eyes lingered on Claire for a brief instant.

"You're the Kent girl?"

Claire stood up straight at his words.

"Yes, I am."

"Your grandfather was a great man, and your father has many of your grandfather's values. They were two of the only outsiders to do the Kawatchee right. Each passing year, more tribal elders die off, and we grow closer to losing our sacred land. The allure of a brighter future seduces the Earth."

"But, shouldn't we progress?" Lana asked.

"Progression for the sake of progression opens the gateway to failure," Longshadow said. "Lionel Luthor looms closer to our land, and one day, he will make us an offer we can't refuse."

"My cousin, Harry, you know Harry Potter, he can help out," Lana said.

The statement spilled from her mouth before Lana knew what she said. Lana wondered if she offended the elder given how his eyes narrowed. A long paused hung in the air.

"Sorry, Mr. Longshadow, I didn't mean to…."

"I do not wish to impose on Mr. Potter's charitable nature, or impose any debts from him on our people. He's done enough for us, more than he realizes."

The girls blinked.

"I trust you girls will stay away from the cave."

"Yes, we will," Claire said.

Claire looked up and the second Longshadow appeared, he disappeared into the night.

"Okay, weird," Claire said.

"So what do we do know?"

Claire's eyes averted to the cave. Marie gripped Claire by the shoulder and turned her back around.

"Nothing else we can really do now, we're going to have to listen to what he says, aren't we?"

"But, he disappeared," Lana said.

"Doesn't make what he says any less valid," Marie said. "If a girl really vanished in those caves, then I don't think we should be up there."

Claire and Lana conceded the older girl had a point.

"Do you think Danielle's still alive?"

Marie folded her arms underneath her chest, and frowned.

"Don't know, guess anything's possible."

* * *

 

Veronica doubled the security force for the party with Harry and the girls. Only the girls and Harry attended the party, the big Vreeland Valentine's bash took place the following week. Veronica refused to take any chances someone might try something.

Harry's batting average with high society events lingered on the low side.

"You really outdone yourself, this time," Sapphire said.

Sapphire's white dress clung to her magnificent frame. The beautiful vixen stepped into the shadows.

"Glad to see you can make it, Sapphire."

"Ronnie, I wouldn't miss it for the world, you know. A lot of problems cropped up with my father on the shelf, but….."

"You're doing the best you can," Veronica said.

Sapphire smiled, and looked around. The guest of honor showed up, flanked by Kara on one arm and Diana on the other arm. Karen, Alex, Jaime, and several others filed into the party.

"Harry!"

Sapphire wrapped Harry up in a big hug and kissed him on the lips. The two of them exchanged greetings with each other.

"Glad to see you can come out with us tonight," Harry said.

"Well, I wouldn't miss this party for the world, and you coming back in town early, saved us from a snafu."

"Yes, Harry, you're my hero."

Veronica's green dress shined in the light. Harry took in the elegant material the crafter made the dress on.

"You look beautiful, Veronica," Harry said.

"Thank you," Veronica said. "You're not too bad on the eyes yourself, you know."

Veronica slipped closer to Harry and pressed her lips against his with a kiss. The Vreeland heiress dragged Harry off onto the dance floor.

"After all the trouble I went you, I think you owe me the first dance."

Harry grinned and wrapped his arms around Veronica. He pulled the party hostess in close to his body.

"I think it might be an insult if I didn't give you the luxury of a first dance."

Veronica's lips curled into a dazzling smile as Harry guide her onto the dance floor. The two of them enjoyed the dance with each other.

"So, what business caused you to run all the way back to Gotham City?"

Harry chuckled. He dipped Veronica, his hand resting on her leg all the way when Harry touched her to the ground.

"You know, the business didn't really prove to be pressing at all, well nothing which couldn't be handled in a few hours."

Harry declined to mention the fact the few hours twisted into several day's worth of time when the time dilation occurred.

"But, you can't deny, it's a good thing I came back, and….you're nothing short of amazing in getting this event together."

Veronica fought a shit eating grin from popping up on her face. The Vreeland heiress's mood grew even more amused.

"Really, planning at this point is second nature."

Harry spun Veronica around for a moment.

"I really do feel bad about the other event being miscommunicated like it was. You know, word leaks out, and the elite of Gotham City assume they're invited. And you perform a social faux pas."

"I'll put in an appearance at the other one," Harry said. "But, I'm not sure how long I can stay."

"Hey, given your track record at big ball events in Gotham City, I don't blame you for not sticking around," Veronica said. "And thank you for the list of girls you gave me…..I can't believe it's grown so long!"

Harry laughed. The young man leaned to Veronica and stole a kiss from the heiress. The heiress returned the kiss and the two of them parted ways.

"So, I guess I'm crashing this party."

Selina waited for Harry on the edge of the dance floor.

"You can't crash a party you've been invited to, Selina!"

"Oh, I know, darling, I know," Selina said. She sighed long and hard. "But, you can't deny I have a certain reputation to maintain. And being on the arm of the strongest man in Gotham is a huge part of the reputation."

Selina reached to Harry and pulled him into the midst of the dance floor. The two locked hands and began to dance with each other.

The beat of the music kicked up. Harry and Selina cut a wild path through all of the dancers. Kara and Alex danced past them. Or to be more accurate, Alex guided Kara.

"So, should I be jealous my girlfriend's dancing with another woman?"

"The two of them had been involved for a long time," Harry said.

"Yes, I'm aware," Selina said.

The two spent another couple minutes dancing with each other. Harry leaned to Selina.

"So, a little birdie told me you have been busy."

Selina paused for a moment and leaned into Harry. The woman dropped her voice into a whisper.

"Does this little birdie happen to be a canary as well?"

"Well, for me to know, and you to find out, isn't it?"

Harry's breath hit Selina's ear with a smile. The two continued to dance for a little bit in the club, with Harry placing his hand around Selina's leg.

"I'm going to have to stop by to meet your new employee though."

"Well, it's standard procedure for you to do so," Selina said. Harry backed up almost up against the wall and pulled her into the middle of the dance floor. "Given everything which has fallen onto your plate, I'm certain you had a lot on your mind….how did Fashion Week go by the way?"

"Went like a charm," Harry said. "All of the girls performed great, and we raised a lot of money for a good cause….."

"Several good causes, wasn't it?" Selina asked.

"Given Juno played a big role in it, yes."

"A pity she couldn't make it back to Gotham City. Speaking of which, when are you going to make her a notch on your bedpost?"

' _Lovely attitude this girl has,'_ Juno said. _'A valid question, but still…..'_

' _Surprised you couldn't make it back for the party,'_ Harry said.

' _Need to maintain appearances,'_ Juno said. _'I'll make it up in the future. The week off has done me good, but back to the grind on Monday.'_

Harry wished he could pat Juno on the head in a sympathetic manner, but he could not as the two did not bond yet.

Alex and Kara cut into the scene. Harry felt the tap of Alex on his shoulder.

"So, why don't you switch dance partners?"

"I don't have a problem with this, do you?" Harry asked.

"Not a problem at all," Selina said.

Alex swapped Kara for Selina. Harry took Kara in the middle of the dance floor and the two of them began to dance.

"So, how are you holding up?" Kara asked.

"With you," Harry said.

Kara gave him a playful swat on the arm and frowned at her husband.

"You know what I mean."

"Everything's good now, Wanda's better, well better than she was."

' _Not too hard to be better than she was,'_ Jaime said. _'Those hallucinations were not just hallucinations, they were a peak into Wanda's damaged psyche. Gotham reflected her damaged psyche.'_

' _But, she's back, and we can help her,'_ Diana said. _'Or rather, Harry can help her, and we both know Harry can help her a whole lot.'_

' _I'll do what I can,'_ Harry said.

Harry and Kara danced the night away. Kara enjoyed the precious moment she spent with her soul mate.

' _Hey, it's Felicia,'_ Karen said.

Felicia Hardy stepped into the ball. She walked past the security. Needless to say, she looked at home at a high society event. Veronica smiled and greeted Felicia, shaking her hand.

Harry detached himself from Kara, much to the girl's pouting, and joined Felicia and Veronica.

"The two of you know each other?"

"Yes," Veronica said. "The Hardy Foundation and Vreeland Industries joined together for charity work in the past."

"And, it turns out, you get around a lot too," Felicia said. She winked at Harry. "Truly a small world after all."

"So what are you doing here, Felicia?"

Felicia smiled, and the two edged to the dance floor.

"It turns out you're not the only one who had to check out of the week's festivities a bit early. Urgent business popped up in Gotham City, nothing too serious, but still a bit time sensitive."

"Oh?" Harry asked. "Wouldn't your mother take care of it?"

Felicia's face pulled in a flash. Harry hit upon a sensitive subject, if her expression.

"Sorry, if I…."

Harry's words stopped cold on account of Felicia's lips pressing against his. The two of them exchanged a passionate kiss which turned a few heads. The vixen ran her hands all over Harry's back, sticking her tongue into his mouth.

"You didn't offend me. My mother….she decided to take an extended trip to some place warm and tropical. Most her affairs were taken care of, but she must have missed this one."

Felicia chuckled. Harry's undivided gaze fell on her. The mirth dancing in Felicia's eyes compelled Harry to ask a question.

"You're amused?"

Felicia leaned at Harry and smiled.

"You must have heard by now, Wilson Fisk and his wife had a little spat about him leaving the high society event a little early to conduct his business. And a few nights later, Fisk's man cave went boom."

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"What are you trying to imply?"

"Curious he pissed off his wife, after he ruined something important for Vanessa. And then, something he holds dear gets ruined a few days later."

Harry smiled, and leaned in to Felicia. The gorgeous heiress dipped back in her little black dress and gave Harry a hint to what she's wore, or rather did not wear.

"It's a theory, there's no concrete proof. She left town a few days ago anyway, and….well there's these rumors about her and my mother, which might hold a hint of validity."

Harry raised an eyebrow at Felicia.

"Tell me more."

Felicia smiled and flipped her hair out from in front of her eyes.

"Well, given your escapades, you have a pretty vivid imagination. I'm sure you can tell me, can't you?"

Felicia shifted over to get a drink, she bumped into Selina.

"Well, well, well, the notorious Selina Kyle."

"You must be Felicia Hardy. I've seen your work, and I'm a big fan. Has anyone ever told you had a body perfect to be a stripper?"

Most women took such a comment as an insult. Felicia took the comment as a compliment.

"Are you trying to get me into my bed, Ms. Kyle? Because you're going to have to wine and dine me first, if you want to seal the deal."

Harry's amusement at the exchange ceased with Faora's commentary.

' _This might end badly,'_ Faora said. _'The two of them collaborating on anything proves to be trouble.'_

' _You think?'_ Karen asked.

The party rolled on, and Harry continued to make his rounds. The drinks flowed, and the night moved on at a steady pace. Everyone enjoyed the time to let their hair down to relax after the crazy Friday the Thirteenth.

* * *

 

Wanda walked in Harry's general direction as the night happened. The girl dressed herself in a stunning red dress. The dress's material hugged her developed curves. The woman dragged Harry off into the direction of the dance floor.

"I think we should have one dance, before we do this," Wanda said.

"I think we have plenty of time for at least a dance."

Harry smiled, wrapping his arms around Wanda. The party died down a little bit ,mostly because a few of the people partied a bit hard.

"So, I'm really surprised none of the girls tried to drag you upstairs."

Harry laughed. He leaned down and touched his lips to Wanda's.

"Keeping kissing me, and well, I can't really say if I can wait before I head upstairs, you know."

Harry gave Wanda another reason to grow anxious about going upstairs. His hand cupped her ass and squeezed it. The woman whimpered for a moment, her eyes locking onto Harry's.

"Good things come to those who wait."

"And you're making me wait a long time. If I didn't think waiting for you made things more special, I'll be really upset right about now. And you didn't really answer my question, you know."

Harry laughed. He edged over to the door and lead Wanda with him.

"The Alphas are running interference tonight. They're pretty good at what they do, you know."

"I'm glad they're good at what they do," Wanda said. She leaned in to Harry and nibbled on his ear. "I can't wait."

Harry scooped up Wanda in his arms and marched her up into the bedroom suit. Her shoes fell off, not she knew it.

"You can feel the higher waves of energy in the air, can't you?"

Wanda chewed down on her lip and nodded. Zatanna waited for them to make their way up the stairs. The magic user leaned against the wall. She dressed in a tight form fitting black dress, along with fishnets. The dress allowed Harry a nice view of her ass.

"So, are the two of you ready?" Zatanna asked.

"You look beautiful tonight, and yes, we're ready," Harry said.

"She does look good enough to eat," Wanda said.

Harry swung her down to the floor. Wanda shifted her dress and some of it rolled up. Harry glimpsed a bare tease of her tantalizing thighs.

"And I'm sure I can find something else which is good to eat."

Wanda's hand inched down the front of Harry's pants. The naughty witch's soft touch caressed his manhood.

"Oh, you're full of surprises, aren't you?" Wanda asked.

"Yes," Harry said. "But, are you really surprised?"

Wanda's fingers teased him for a couple more seconds. The woman's power swelled within her. She faced the only man with the capability to tame her.

"Maybe not, but I got a surprise of my own," Wanda said. She clenched Harry and whispered in his ear. "I'm not wearing any panties."

Wanda shredded Harry's pants out of pure need, and kneeled before Har-Zod.

"Oh, you're really big. You know what they say, the bigger than are, the more powerful they are."

Harry smiled as Wanda played with his balls.

"It isn't how big it is, it's what you do with it."

"And you know how to use it really well."

Wanda licked up and down Harry's tool. She covered his large prick with her dripping salvia. Her hand wrapped around the base and pumped him.

"I'm not sure if I can fit it all in my mouth."

"Oh, trust me, it's fun to try," Zatanna said.

The dark haired magic user slid her panties to the side and viewed the spectacle. The curvy witch wrapped her lips around Harry's throbbing cock.

"Good girl, Wanda. Suck my cock."

Wanda used her tongue, teeth, and throat to really give Harry's engorged prick a going over. The energy spurred her on. Each time Harry's cock spiked into her throat, Wanda's pleasure increased. Her thighs stuck together.

Harry experienced an energy wave envelope his tool. Wanda's hot lips massaged him, and drove him deep into the depths of her throat.

"Good Wanda, oh good," Zatanna said. "Suck him off."

The encouragement of the other woman spurred her on. Wanda sucked him. Her fondling of his balls increased.

"Ready to receive your gift?"

Wanda nodded, bringing his cock into her mouth even more. Harry's thick rod penetrated her tight throat. The expanding indicated Harry neared his climax.

The powerful young man grabbed Wanda's face and fucked her mouth the rest of the way. His balls released an intense amount of cum down Wanda's throat. His cum spilled into her throat. The massive volume of cum almost choked Wanda out when he sprayed his seed down her throat.

Wanda ascended to her feet. Zatanna grabbed Wanda around the waist and pulled her in.

The two girls exchanged a loud and passionate kiss. The two powerful sorceresses shared the contents of Harry's balls, trading it between their mouths.

"Time to let Harry return the favor," Zatanna said.

Wanda rested back on the bed. Harry hiked her dress up to reveal she lacked a pair of panties. The wizard smiled and started to kiss away at the vixen's thighs.

Each kiss dragged Harry closer and closer to the promise land. Harry's lips touched on the edge of Wanda's delightful center.

Harry buried his face between Wanda's thighs. The sorceress forced her lover's face in between her thighs. He suckled the honey between her legs.

"Good, he's good, but he's about ready to be even better."

"Better than this?"

Zatanna snickered, and ran her hands down Harry's body. She groped his prick for a few seconds. When her fun ended, Zatanna leaned in to whisper to Harry.

"Show her."

Harry's tongue slithered into Wanda's pussy. The vibrations caused Wanda's powers to go hyper. Harry increased his pressure on her thighs. He clenched her firmly to keep her attention.

"Sorry, but so good!"

"Told you so."

Harry's sinful tongue manipulated Wanda's core. She gripped on the back of his head. Several more passes reduced Wanda to mindless pleasure.

The second Harry rose, Wanda pounced Harry. She grabbed him and flung him back onto the bed.

"Someone's eager," Harry said.

"You have no idea," Wanda said.

Her wet cunt lips dragged over Harry's throbbing tool. The massive cock almost parted Wanda's walls. She dragged her hot lips over him through a couple more passes.

Harry gripped her hips. Wanda drove her virgin cunt down onto Harry's cock.

Wanda bit down onto her lips. Her womanhood ripped apart. The first time Harry's cock entered her body, several sharp blasts of pleasure bombarded Wanda in the fullest force.

"YES!" Wanda yelled.

Wanda raised her hips up on Harry and lowered herself down onto him. The woman's wet walls caressed Harry's massive tool. She brought as much as Harry inside her as she dared, and as much as she dared to bring himself him proved to be a whole lot.

"Fuck me harder!" Wanda yelled.

Zatanna's head rocked back. The force of Wanda's powers intermingling with Harry shook her body.

She reached between her lips and rubbed herself up and down.

Wanda's breasts spilled out of her top. The D-Cup globes bounced up and down. Her nipples jiggled for Harry.

"Take my breasts, please, squeeze them, play with them!"

Wanda's encouragement grew louder. Harry's hands toyed with her breasts, and squeezed them hard.

The powerful young woman bounced up and down. The shared energy flowed between her body linked them closer together.

The first orgasm with Harry inside her visited Wanda. She caressed him when the pleasure crept up in her body.

"Go for it Wanda, cum for me."

Wanda's body released her juices. The juice's coated Harry's throbbing tool to allow a steadier journey into her body.

Harry buried his face between Wanda's breasts. The woman wrapped her arms around Harry. Her loins ached from the first wave of the bonding process, but not for long.

The energy Harry gave off recharged Wanda. She brought herself down on his manhood. Wanda channeled the power into her core.

Harry groaned. He fought Wanda's powers.

"Please, Harry, I need your cum inside me. I'll go insane without it."

"Trust me, his cum will drive you insane," Zatanna said.

The woman lingered on the outskirts. She edged as far as possible to the energy wave. Zatanna's hips rocked a little bit.

' _Wish I took a page from Wanda's book, and didn't wear any panties. These are no good. But I'm not the only one who is going to be feeling it for a moment.'_

"The first orgasm is free, you're going to have to work for the next one, honey."

Wanda pulled away from Harry. She got on her hands and knees to sway her hips to him.

"Well make me work for it, Harry! FUCK ME!"

Harry reentered Wanda from a different position. Wanda acquired the leverage, even if Harry controlled the sex. From the position they entered, Harry controlled body.

Zatanna drew over to the intense sex. Wanda grabbed Zatanna and buried her face into her pussy.

Chaos magic unraveled Zatanna. The woman's hips thrust up into Wanda's mouth.

"God, oh, this feels really fucking intense!"

Intense described her and Harry bonding. Zatanna failed to come up with a different adjective to describe what Wanda and Harry's bonding process did to her.

Wanda hung onto Zatanna's thighs. Harry's thick cock split her half. Pleasure waves traveled up her body, all the way into her depths.

"Stay with me, Wanda."

Harry grazed her nipples. The magic in air made Wanda even more sensitive and susceptible to his touches.

' _God, he hits all of the right spots, he's wonderful.'_

Zatanna collapsed on the bed. Wanda used her greedy tongue to eat Zatanna into a mind shattering orgasm.

"Good, now you're with me, and we're going to cum together."

The energy surrounded Wanda's body. Her body begged for her release and his at the same time.

"Harry, please, I need it."

"The stars are almost aligned," Harry said. "You've done well, don't weaken on me now."

Harry buried his cock into the body of this nympho. Her powers and her sex drive escalated. About seventy percent because of the magic in the air, but because of her own desire to see the dance through to the end.

"Ready, Wanda?"

"YES!"

Wanda's loins desired one thing only. She milked the incoming thrusts. The tool stretched her several times through.

"Cum now."

Wanda caved into these words. Her body shook all over. The backed up orgasm struck her hard.

Harry followed seconds later. The warm sensation of her pussy combined with her powers taxed Harry's self-control to the fullest. He rode Wanda's first six orgasms out in a row.

Wanda realized the significance of the amount of orgasms Harry put her through. The gorgeous woman's body tensed up and Harry continued to plow his way into her depths. He drilled her a few more times from behind.

The seventh orgasm combined between the two of them.

"And now, for the finale."

The sheer force of their combined orgasm struck the bond. Harry released a thick amount of cum from his balls. The sticky seed spilled into Wanda, and filled her up to the brim.

Wanda collapsed from the sheer force of the orgasm. Juices dripped on the bed from her overtaxed cunt after Harry finished inside of her.

"Very good."

Anyone locked onto the bond when Wanda and Harry came together felt a burst of energy. The burst of energy failed to stop at the bond mates. The energy engulfed and ensnared all of Gotham City.

Wanda's content smile told the story. She caused chaos, but in all of the right ways this time. Every woman experienced the good her powers could do.

**To Be Continued on September 12** **th** **, 2015.**


	126. The Road to the West Coast

**Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Six: Road to the West Coast.**

* * *

"I'm really glad my business on the West Coast coincides with the little trip I'm planning. Really can kill two birds with one stone, and mix some business and pleasure."

Harry relaxed in one of his offices and chatted on the phone with Alison Blaire. The pop star prepared for her tour after the trip to New York. It was a really big deal to be honest.

"Well, you are the type to mix business with pleasure," Alison said. "Not it's a bad thing, a little bit of both. Even though my trip to New York was my last vacation for the real fun."

"Right, the tour you're going on. It starts at the end of March, doesn't it?"

"March 24th, a month away from now," Alison said. "Tickets are sold out; hell tickets are sold out for the first twelve shows on the tour. Sure it's going to be an omen I'm going to have high expectations."

"Don't worry, Ali, I'm sure you can live up to them."

"I hope you're right," Alison said. "Still, with it being sold out, there's going to be a lot of disappointed fans."

Harry chuckled for a couple of seconds. His chuckle grew even more prominent.

"What's so funny?"

"My sisters are in quite the mood they did not get tickets."

"Really?" Alison asked. "With all of the resources they have, they could get the tickets they wanted, they could….they could have paid someone to camp out to get them tickets if they really wanted."

"Would they?" Harry asked.

"Well, if I wanted to go to a concert, and I had a ton of money, I'd pay someone to camp out."

Harry's chuckling increased, adding to the obvious amusement from the young man.

"You've given this scenario a lot of thought, haven't you?"

"Well, yes, I guess I thought about it a little bit," Alison said. "I'm surprised they did not think about it."

"Well, logic fails even the best of us sometimes, and my sisters, they have their moments where logic fails them pretty badly."

Alison giggled for a mere moment.

"So, are you going to tell them?"

"Tell them what?"

"Tell them you picked up front row seats for the concert and backstage passes weeks before the concert went on sale."

Harry's lips curled into a knowing smile. He chuckled for a good long moment. The moment he returned back to the conversation, he let Alison in on truth.

"Sure, I'll tell them, when we're about to leave to heat out for the concert."

"Oh, really you're going to leave them hanging long? You can really be cruel sometimes, Harry. And….what would you have done if they got concert tickets?"

Harry placed his hand to his chin in thought.

"You know, good question. If they took the opportunity to go out and get the concert tickets on their own accord, they deserve some praise. But, they didn't."

"Did you arrange it for them where they did not?"

Alison paused. The strangest sense visited her; almost like Harry glared at her through the phone for a few seconds.

"Alison Blaire, you can't be accusing me of deceiving my sisters, by manipulating them into not getting tickets, can you?"

"I know, it stupid," Alison said. She flung her hands up and almost dropped her phone in the process. The pop star took a moment to reconcile some thoughts in her mind. "But, given all of what you're capable of, is it honestly out of the realm of possibility?"

Harry chuckled at the words of the pop star.

"First of all, Ali, I'm flattered you think of me as being so good. And I am pretty good at many things, as you well know."

Alison giggled one more time at Harry's suggestive words. The night the two shared together in New York etched in Alison's mind, and remained burned in her memories for some time. Alison's panties moistened at the mere memory of it.

"And you're thinking about it right now, aren't you?"

"I'm not thinking about it now!" Alison yelled.

She held the phone with one hand and the other hand is occupied.

"So, what are you wearing right now?" Harry asked. "Are you even wearing panties?"

"Not….well I am, but I'm not sure…..I'm wearing panties," Alison said. "And a nice silk top which hugs my breasts, and a hip hugging black skirt, along with sheer stockings. I'm not wearing any shoes."

"Good, I'm imagining your pretty little feet now."

"Well, what are you wearing, handsome?" Alison asked.

"A custom made shirt, and a pair of tight leather pants, but they're currently around my ankles. Kara is underneath my desk right now. She'd say hi, but her mouth is kind of full at the moment."

"Wait, you're getting a blowjob when you're talking to me on the phone?"

Kara doubled her efforts to get a reaction on Harry. Harry humored her by putting his hand on the back of her head.

"Yes, I am."

Alison laughed despite the situation. Most girls grew scarlet at such a revelation. Alison took the news in stride.

"I never would have known, you seem so composed."

"I'm good a multi-tasking. Given the rumors, you know I can do many things at once."

Alison's face flushed in response at Harry's implication. In her mind's eye, the pop star imagined a huge orgy of girls with Harry in the middle. Placing herself in the midst of the scene moistened Alison's panties even more.

"Okay, well, I won't keep you waiting. I've got an early morning, PR tour and stuff. I'm going to have to get a shower, a really cold one, and it's your fault by the way."

"See you backstage," Harry said.

"I'm looking forward to meeting your sisters," Alison said. "Bye, Harry, enjoy your blowjob."

"Oh, I am," Harry said.

He finished up in Kara's mouth. Kara rose to her feet and said something to Harry.

' _Kara, it's rude to talk with your mouth full,'_ Martha said.

Everyone laughed at the sheepish look on Kara's face. She lowered her hands to her hips and peered at Harry.

"So?" Kara asked. "You're going to really make them sweat it out, aren't you?"

"A little bit," Harry said. He gripped Kara's ass and positioned her on his lap. "But, not as much as I'm going to make you sweat it out."

Kara removed her panties prior to this meeting, and Harry grinned. He pulled his wife close to him and the two met.

* * *

Kathy Kane's sessions with Hugo Strange continued. After recent events, the heiress thought she regressed.

"So, you saw things on the night of the last Friday the 13th, where you wished you could forget. Is this correct, Miss Kane?"

"I saw the ghost of my dead sister, talking about how I fell short to expectations," Kathy said. "She told me in the eyes of our parents, whether alive or dead, she always would be number one in their heart."

Strange placed his hand on the desk and shuffled through some papers.

"Yes, I'm certain you were affected by the events of Friday the 13th. We may never truly know of the mysterious changes occurring on the day. It is a day which is long since associated with superstition. But, in my own professional opinion, I think superstition is made more powerful by the mind. The mind is the most powerful organ in the human body. It's strength or weakness rules your quality of life."

The doctor leaned in close to Kathy.

"This phobia lingered in your mind. A catalyst brought it out on Friday the 13th, the same catalyst which spooked several other people."

"This happened to other people?"

Strange chuckled because of Kathy's words.

"Oh yes, this occurred to many other people."

Kathy frowned so much her jaw hurt. The heiress wondered what to do about these dreams.

"You're only the fourth patient to tell me about this situation since the night of Friday the 13th. Poor Alberto suffered the worst of it, he checked himself into the hospital. I made a trip to ensure he is okay. His father's trying to keep it all quiet, talking to me personally. I trust, you won't mention it to anyone, Miss Kane."

"No, of course not, if he's trying to get help," Kathy said.

"Good," Hugo said.

Hugo smiled at the thought of Crane's experiment and the results of it. The events of Friday the thirteen brought in some new patients, some of them among the rich and famous. Their nightmares troubled them, and Strange gave them the counseling they needed. All for a nominal fee of course.

"Have you slept well?"

Strange knew the answer the moment Kathy entered her office.

"My insomnia is not getting any better, it's getting worse. I lay in bed every night, wondering if I'm doing enough for Gotham City. I see all of the things Ronnie does, and Bruce, and Harry Potter, and I feel inadequate, I feel like I'm doing very little. Martha could have done more if she lived."

Hugo's smile grew the second he looked over the heiress. The lines under her eyes made Strange a very happy man.

"I wondered if you gave any further thought to hypnosis."

"I didn't….I'm dealing with it," Kathy said.

"Now, my dear Kathy, you're not dealing with it. The events of Friday the 13th escalated your condition. As your psychiatrist, I'm concerned you're developing reckless tendencies, and it could lead to a psychotic break."

Kathy slumped on the desk. The woman's moodiness escalated to another level as of late. Strange's point slapped her in the face along with reality.

"I….are you going to work with me, Doctor?"

Strange responded by shaking his head.

"I'm afraid I cannot work with you, Kathy," Strange said. "Your case is more advanced than I feared, and the recent events of Friday the Thirteenth forced me to fill up my sessions. The next several months are booked tight."

"Oh, but then….."

"I've called in a colleague who owes me a favor," Strange said. "He's one of the most world renown hypnotic experts from Europe. He's on his way right now, if you'd like to meet him?"

Kathy hesitated for a moment. Her belief in all of the hypnotism faltered for a few seconds. The woman struggled with her beliefs for the next few seconds.

"Do keep in mind we're only doing this to help you, Kathy. You do want to be better, don't you?"

Strange's claws sunk into Kathy. The woman's throat turned out a little bit dry, before she inclined it down.

"Yes, I'd….I'd like to meet with him," Kathy said.

"Very, well, send the good doctor in."

Second seconds passed on the clock. The door opened up. A well-built middle aged man stepped into the office. He dressed in a professional manner. His dark hair splattered with the slightest hints of grey, and resulted in a rather dignified air being presented.

"Miss Kane, this is Doctor James Somnambular. Doctor Somnambular is well-known sleep therapist who specializes in billionaires with insomnia."

"A pleasure to meet you, Kathy," the man said. The good doctor spoke in some kind of Eastern European accent.

He gripped her in hand and leaned in. His lips touched at the top of her hand.

"No offense, but you are in a rather specialized field."

"None taken, and millionaires and billionaires with sleep issues are more common than you think. Some of them refused to get the help they need until it's too late. The consequences prove to be fatal."

Kathy's eyes widened as she recalled the efforts she utilized in an attempt to sleep. The pills worked well some nights. Most nights, they resulted in some troubled, restless evenings.

"It's worth a shot," Kathy said. "So, when do you want to see me?"

"How about every third Monday? The first session this coming Monday, so I can delve into your psyche, and find the root cause of your problem."

Kathy wondered if her problems doomed her to spend half of her life going to doctors and trying to find the root cause of her problem.

The sleepless nights haunted Kathy. She failed to remember the last time she got a good night sleep.

"I think I can arrange it."

"Trust me, you won't regret it," the Doctor said. "Many of my patients slept a lot easier after I relieve them of their burdens."

Kathy smiled. A lot of burdens visited her. A heavy heart being the most of them, and the responsible of maintaining the Kane legacy crushed her.

* * *

Kara dressed in a tight black sports bra and a tight pair of black shorts. Dinah stood across from her dressed in more of the same. Harry observed the situation with more of the same.

One addition added to Kara's training session this time. A red solar watch, compared to the one Harry wore, dangled from her wrist.

Harry observed the sparring session between Kara and Dinah at the same time he held a conversation with his girls in the bond based off of recent events.

' _So, Wanda's getting settled in pretty nice, isn't she?'_ Karen asked.

' _More than nice I think,'_ Zatanna said. _'You all felt the blast of her power, didn't you?'_

' _You felt it most of all,'_ Donna said. The Amazon Princess smiled. _'And hell, you're still feeling her power. At least I know I am.'_

' _And she really did fill out during the time she disappeared,'_ Jaime said.

' _I think all of us noticed how gorgeous she turned out to be,'_ Faora said. _'She hasn't settled into the bond link….or Harry hasn't brought her completely into the bond traffic.'_

Dinah avoided Kara's punches. Harry kept his gaze locked onto the two women sparring before he returned to the network.

' _She spent a long time in an Asylum; I doubt hearing voices in her head this soon is going to do her good.'_

' _We're going to have to sit her down, and explain to her the ins and outs of the bond,'_ Diana said. _'But, I'm sure she has an excellent idea…..we'll bring her in soon enough. Her bond is active, you didn't trigger the interactive portion yet.'_

' _I'll explain it to her when I talk to her next,'_ Harry said. _'She's with you, isn't she Zee?'_

' _Yes, she is,'_ Zatanna said. _'She really doesn't know much more about Doctor Fate. The entire fall of the Justice Society resulted in a lot of them vanishing off of the map. I'm not even sure if we're ready for another age of heroes.'_

' _Well, one person's hero is another person's villain,'_ Harry said.

' _Truer words never were spoken,'_ Jaime said. _'So what are you going to do about the fact Wanda left Ravencroft without being cleared? Or have you thought about it?'_

' _Oh I've thought about what to do about it, and I'm working on a solution. I'm going to have to talk to Wanda, because I doubt it would be good to spring it on her. She can't go anywhere near the Asylum.'_

' _Given some of the Doctors she had before Kafka, I can't say I blame you for keeping her way,'_ Jaime said.

' _Ashley didn't know though, and she did the best she could with Wanda's fractured psyche.'_

Harry returned his attention to the battle. Dinah knocked Kara back onto her ass. Kara bounced up and tried for a series of blows to Dinah. Dinah evaded all of the attacks.

Some of the rust Kara allowed to accumulate from her past training shook off. Dinah trained every single day of her life for the past several years, while Kara slacked. The power inducer gave Kara another weight around her ankle.

"And time."

Kara stepped back, working up a little bit of a sweat from the back and forth with Dinah.

"So, how did I do?"

"Depends, how do you think you did?"

Kara frowned. The girl hated when someone turned her words back around in another direction. Kara's arms folded underneath her chest, peering at Dinah with an intense gaze.

"I thought I hung on far longer. You didn't hold back, did you?"

Dinah flipped a strand of hair away from her face. She focused her gaze on Kara for a few seconds.

"No, Kara, I didn't hold back at all. I wouldn't insult you by holding back. You have some great raw talent. Your offense is your best strength. Well your strength is your best strength, but we need to get you away from relying on it."

Kara frowned. Instincts told her to use her powers.

Harry placed a hand on his wife's shoulder. Kara turned around to meet him.

"Remember, your powers are only one tool in your bag of tricks, not the entire bag of tricks."

Kara recalled the lesson Harry imparted on her. The strength of her powers became too easy to be a crutch. One who embraced the powers also needed to learn a lesson about finding balance. Kara and Harry worked with Claire on the lesson.

' _Maybe you should learn the lesson as well.'_

"You do have some natural talent," Dinah said. "A bit of rust on top of the natural talent, but it's something we'll work on. Give it time, give it plenty of time. Your offense is sound, and your defense….."

"A work in progress?" Kara asked.

Dinah paused, and nodded. Kara described her own flaws better than Dinah could.

"A work in progress," Dinah said. "The fact you understand your defense needs some fine-tuning means you're on the right track."

The feedback resulted in a smile coming in over Kara's face. She prepared herself to join the group out on the field. The last couple of instances made the bug bite her and hard.

"Why don't you hit the showers? We'll join you in a little bit."

Kara walked off to go over the results of the training in her mind. The incident in Smallville demonstrated she needed to step up the training.

"Let her stew for a little bit?" Dinah asked.

"Yes, for a little bit," Harry said. "You seem a little bit preoccupied. Is this about the Thea thing?"

"Yes," Dinah said. "Selina claims she doesn't know anything, but I have a feeling she's seen something she's not telling us."

Harry knew all about Selina. Someone in her line of work noticed a few things many people failed to notice.

"Tell Kara I'll make up things to her. I'm going to catch an early meeting with Selina."

"I'm sure I can find a way to distract her," Dinah said. "And wouldn't it be late for Selina?"

Harry noticed five AM on the clock, and figured as much. He kissed Dinah and the two parted ways.

* * *

Joe Kerr observed the scene around the Ace Chemical Plant in Gotham City. After some haggling, he took a sixty day probationary contract. He did not want to jump into the job without getting a feel for everything.

The men he supervised showed not to be of the higher end of the intelligence spectrum. Joe made a mental note to have them brush up on safety regulations. Or suggest it, because he still answered to the higher ups.

Third shift dragged to a conclusion, and the morning supervisor would relieve him in about an hour. Joe hovered halfway over the catwalk.

"Remember, those chemicals are dangerous. Touch them, and…"

"They can't be too dangerous!"

"Trust me, they're very dangerous," Joe said.

No accidents in the Ace Chemical plant, but Joe thought it unwise to try and tempt fate at any time. These people walked around, some of them only there to cash a paycheck. Which Joe didn't fault them for, but he thought they should be a bit more careful.

' _Wonder if I should have followed Jeannie's advice.'_

Follow your dreams, Joe recalled his wife saying. He wanted to follow his dreams, but this job proved to do the best for his family.

"Harold, move it into the backroom, the batch is no good. Look at how it's smoking!"

Joe supervised them moving the smoking chemical with great trepidation. Fate shined on them when the employees moved the chemical into the room.

"Oh look at this, look at this. OSHA is going to have a field day if they saw this place!"

Joe's eyes looked at up and saw a well-dressed man in an outrageous purple suit approach him. Several goons, for lack of a better term, flanked the man. The man shimmed over to Joe with a wide grin on his face.

"How are you doing, my dear boy?"

Joe leaned in to the man and frowned. The man looked to be a gentleman up to no good who didn't care who knew it either.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here? I'm going to have to see some identification."

The man chuckled. One of the goons tightened his grip on his coat.

"Oh, where oh where are my manners? You see, the name's Napier, Jack Napier, my card!"

He handed Joe an ID. Joe recognized the name Napier from the paper. The GCPD questioned him about some guy named Grissom.

"And as for here, I'm here on business. My boss did some business with your boss before he tragically passed away. Got on the wrong end of a really bad man."

Joe stepped back. Jack reached into his coat and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper.

"As you can see, my boss has an order all ready to go, right here. It's been collecting dust in the back room."

The paper slipped from Jack's hand into Joe. Joe read the invoice number and the details of the order. The man frowned.

"Right this way, sir," Joe said.

Jack smiled, and his not so merry men followed him into the back room of the factory. They reached the room and a case rested on the floor.

"Pick it up boys."

The boys picked up the case. Joe cringed with the way they handled the case. He stepped to them.

"Be careful with the case. The chemical inside, it's highly explosive, and is on the fast track to being recalled. It's used with fireworks and some idiot teenager blew his hand off."

"Well, we won't blow any of our hands off, will we, boys?" Jack asked.

The boys shook their hands. Jack smiled and cuffed Joe on the shoulder as the shoulder as hard as possible.

"I believe you have something for me to sign, don't you?"

Joe lifted up the stack of papers from the crate. Jack signed his name to the paper. The man backed off and wondered about the wisdom of allowing Jack Napier to sign the papers. He would find out how foolish his decision ended up being in a matter of moments.

"Well, I guess our business has concluded here. And it's such a pleasure doing it with you."

Jack whistled as his men carried the crate out of the door.

Joe's eyes averted to the copy of the invoice in his hand. The man's eyebrow furrowed. What kind of person buys all those explosives?

A person who was a few screws short, maybe?

The supervisor walked out to do his job to supervise. Another hour ticked by.

"Excuse me!"

Someone bumped into Joe. Joe stopped short of the railing, and hung on. He almost tipped over the edge of the railing.

"Be careful where you're going!" Joe yelled.

The employee's expression turned a bit sheepish. He scuttled off in the other direction. Joe breathed in and out and backed as far away from the railing overlooking the chemical disposal as possible.

' _What did I get myself into when I signed up for a gig like this, anyway?'_

* * *

Claire Kent walked to the window of her room in Smallville, dressed in her Pajamas. She stepped out of the window and jumped out of it.

The young teenager flew above the ground. The wind blew into her face. The smell of the country air filled her nostrils and she propelled herself in the direction of the caves.

The caves called for Claire. The warnings of what the caves fell on deaf ears. The bright light engulfed her the moment Claire entered the cave.

Shivers exploded down her spine the second Claire passed into the cave. Millions of voices called out for her when she passed through the cave walls. They reached out to touch her.

"FRAUD!"

Claire's head whipped back. The loud voice startled the young girl to the point where she wondered what the hell happened.

"You should not be here, Clara-El. You do not belong here! You took my son away from me!"

Claire struggled against a pulse of light. She broke away from it and tried to fly away.

"No, I don't understand what you're talking about! What about your son, who are you?"

"You belong in another world, you should not be here! The Crisis brought you here. You are not worthy of the gifts of a Kryptonian."

Claire's hands slapped onto her hips.

"Who are you to say what I'm worthy of? Who died and make you supreme ruler of everything?"

The symbols on the cave walls lit up. Claire reached for one of the symbols, but thought better of touching it.

An energy beam shot from the wall and ensnared Claire. The girl groaned as the beam dragged her closer to the edge of the wall.

"You took my son from the world. It displeases me. You aren't deserving of this destiny!"

Claire screamed. The girl's head snapped back. Her fingers clenched for a few seconds. The girl started to breath in and out.

She hovered above her bed, her back pressed against the ceiling. Claire remained pressed against the ceiling. Until the point where Claire realized she floated above her bed.

The girl crashed down on the bed. The bed rocked underneath her weight, but did not collapse. Even if it wobbled before settling down.

' _Thankfully, would be hell explaining to Ma and Pa,'_ Claire thought.

She pulled herself off the bed and scrambled to the window. A bright light shined from the general area of the caves.

Claire wrestled with the idea of pulling on a coat and going out to take a closer look. The light darkened before Claire made any kind of decision.

The eleven year old girl scrambled back into bed. Her sleep stalled because of images not leaving her mind.

Claire shivered as she pulled the covers over. Her eye's opened when a thought entered her mind.

Was the window open before she went to sleep?

* * *

Mia leaned back against the wall. Late night, early morning, really, all the same for people working in the profession she fell into. When she ran away to start over, the last place she expected to find herself happened to be a Strip Club.

Funny how things worked out half of the time? Regardless, Mia bobbed back and forth to the latest Alison Blaire hit. Not her normal type of music to be honest, but hell, the girl's talent shined through.

"My sisters are fans of Alison Blaire as well."

Mia spun around and jumped ten feet in the air. She turned around and spotted a figure standing in the shadows.

"You nearly gave me a heart attack. What the fuck is your problem?"

The figure in the shadows snickered.

"Sorry about startling you. I have a bad habit of popping up at the worst possible times."

Mia folded her arms. The girl watched the man step out in the shadows.

"We haven't been formally introduced. My name is Harry Potter."

The woman's eyes widened at this particular bit of news. She cursed out her boss, one of them. oh my God, she cursed out her boss. The heiress wanted to fall into a hole and bury herself.

"Sorry, I didn't….well….I didn't know it was you."

Harry stepped to get closer to her. Mia looked him over. Harry smiled as he looked at her eyes mentally undressing him. He cleared his throat, which caused Mia to stand up straight.

"Sorry, but you're….you're….Harry Fucking Potter!"

"Yes, and I wish I could legally change my name as well to line up with what everyone calls me. And you're…."

"Mia, Mia Dearden."

"Yes, the girl Selina found in Gotham, and offered a job until she got back on her feet. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mia."

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you too," she said. The two of them shook hands. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Well, as you might know, if Selina told you, I have an ownership stake in the Cat's Cradle."

"Yes," Mia said. "She informed me about you owning a part of this place."

"Good," Harry said. "So, as you might also know, I like to talk to new employees. So why don't you tell me a little bit about herself?"

Mia launched into the same story she told Selina, and later Alex. Harry listened to her say everything. How she came from Vancouver, how she entered Gotham City. How some asshole stole her belongings, and swiped her purse when she left the diner.

' _So, the story is pretty much the same as the one she told you, right?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes,'_ Faora said.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Mia. I think you'll be a good fit in here. A lot of girls came to Gotham City to come and get a fresh start. Selina has an interesting habit of picking up strays."

"Do, I hear my ears burning?"

Selina sauntered out of the back room of the club, dressed to kill as always. The woman crossed the room and smiled to Harry.

"Harry, I must have lost track of the time. I didn't think you'd be by now."

"Well, I thought I'd stop by and talk to your newest recruit," Harry said. "So, how are you doing?"

A look of innocence spread over Selina's face. Didn't fool Harry for a second, but the thought counted.

"Oh you know me, I'm always keeping busy, trying to stay out of trouble."

Harry avoided having a smile pass over his face. He knew Selina's definition of staying out of trouble, and her definition failed to line up with everyone else.

"Well, thanks for stopping by, but I think I need to get Mia back home. It's getting rather late."

Harry took Selina's hand and stopped her.

"I need to have a word with you; it will only take a minute."

The woman's eyes raked over Harry's body for a few seconds. A smile tugged over the corners of her lips.

"Are you sure it's only going to be a minute?" Selina asked. Her saucy tone returned in full force. Her arms wrapped around Harry's neck. "Because, I'd say you lost your touch if it only takes you a minute."

Mia's eyes widened as she looked at Selina and Harry.

' _But I thought…unless….oh well none of my business…maybe something really weird and kinky is going on they're not telling me about.'_

Selina realized by the serious look on Harry's face what he intended.

"Oh, you really intend to talk," Selina said. "Well, I think I can spare a couple of minutes, if….."

"It's important," Harry said to her.

The two of them left Mia to fend for herself and entered Selina's private office. Selina pushed the door shut behind her.

"So what's the deal with Mia?"

Selina raised her eyebrow and leaned to Harry.

"The girl has her secrets, just like we all do. There's a good reason why she's here, and I'm not going to pry too far unless something happens which will put her or any of the other girls at risk. You know I have the best interests of everyone in mind, don't you?"

"Always," Harry said.

Selina flung her hair back. The woman's look diverted from playful to thoughtful in a matter of moments.

"It's a good thing I got to her in time. A type of girl like Mia is the same type who is going to get eaten up in Gotham City. She's got some spirit in her, but it could get her into trouble if she gets in over her own head."

"Yes, I'd imagine so," Harry said. "Do you think you can do me a favor and keep a close eye on her?"

Selina leaned in to Harry. The two of them touched together for a few seconds.

"Have you taken a personal interest in her already?"

Harry brushed a lock of hair away from Selina's face and leaned in closer to her.

"It has to do with one of the secrets she might be holding onto. I want you to keep a close eye on her and make sure she doesn't get into any trouble."

"How do you know something is going to happen with her?" Selina asked.

Harry returned the smile she gave him earlier and reminded her of a simple fact.

"We all have our secrets, some more than others. As long as it poses no danger to anyone, I don't see why Mia can't do what she does. I have my secrets as well, but don't we all?"

Selina snickered in amusement. Harry threw her own words back at her in such a way amused in a way. Selina lifted one finger and placed it upon Harry's lips.

"Well, it happens I intended to keep a close eye out on her to begin with," Selina said. "For you, I'll make sure to double up on my efforts."

"I'm glad you would," Harry said.

The two leaned in with a kiss. Electricity passed through their lips when the two parted.

"I won't take another minute of your time."

Selina placed her hand on Harry's shoulder. The woman's voice dropped into a suggestive whisper.

"Take as much as you want, I know you'll give a lot in return."

The two of them kissed one more time before they decided to part ways. They exited the backroom of the club. Harry stopped.

Mia slumped her shoulders against the wall. Harry recognized the look on her face, from having younger sisters. She had the look of someone who tried not to let onto the fact she listened onto a private conversation.

"Mia, I have to say, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, I'm glad to meet you as well," Mia said. "Hope to see you again sometime."

"Maybe, I'll come by when you're working," Harry said. "I like to observe the new talent."

Harry left her speechless the moment he left the club.

' _So?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Yes, you're hunch is right,'_ Harry said.

' _So what do we tell Oliver?'_ Dinah asked. _'Actually, do we tell Oliver?'_

' _You've know him far longer than I have,'_ Harry said. _'I'm putting the ball in your court.'_

' _Oh, bringing up the fact he's sister's working in a strip club, yeah, I'm not relishing this conversation,'_ Dinah said. _'I need to sleep on this one. If Selina's keeping an eye on her, I don't think there's much of a problem.'_

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 16th, 2015.**


	127. Destination Calfornia Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Seven: Destination California Part One.**

* * *

 

Ashley Kafta exited her car and walked down the driveway. A dark haired woman with blue eyes greeted her outside of an extravagant building. The woman showed off a very fit form, but also she dressed professionally in a female business suit which covered her body. Her entire displayed only a hint of her cleavage and her legs, both of which could catch the eye of anyone with the most minimal of efforts on her part.

"You must be Doctor Kafka."

The two women exchanged a smile with each other. The tall woman extended a hand to Ashley, and they shook hands with each other.

"I am, and you are…."

"Diana, I'll be escorting you up to see Harry and Wanda."

"Right," Ashley said. Genuine concern flooded over the good doctor's face. "How is Wanda?"

Diana escorted Ashley through the front doors and to the elevators. When they passed the first security check, Diana turned towards Ashley.

"She's doing fine, but I think you'd like to see for yourself. And the Ravencroft staff would be pleased if you saw her from herself. And do you have all of the forms, Harry requested."

Ashley reached into her bag to check to see all of the require documentation. She smiled and nodded when she looked at Diana.

"Everything is in order. I had to pressure my bosses to even get the papers. Doctor Potter might have put the squeeze on them."

Diana laughed as the two women entered the elevators. She pressed a few buttons to lead them up to the floor where Wanda and Harry waited. Just outside of the main penthouse area in one of the conference rooms, because Ashley failed to pass the security check.

Harry may fix it all too soon.

"Harry does have the ability to persuade people to do what's necessary."

Ashley wondered how far this ability extended. The professional reprimanded herself for allowing such thoughts to enter her mind. The two of them exited the elevator.

The two of them entered a conference room. Off to the side of the room rested several cushy chairs and a couch. Wanda sat perched on one of the chairs, and Harry reclined on the couch. He looked up and smiled.

"Doctor Kafka, please come in and take a seat."

Ashley crossed the room to take up Harry of the invitation. She positioned herself in a spot on the couch beside Harry, and also facing Wanda on the couch. The woman crossed her legs.

"Hello, Doctor Potter, it's a pleasure to see you again," Ashley said.

"It's good to see you as well, Doctor Kafka, and I'm glad you're much better after your ordeal."

Ashley's eyebrows crinkled at the memory of the ordeal she went through.

"Thanks to you, Ms. Isley, Ms. Stacy, and Ms. Parker, or so everyone told me. But, I'm glad to be back on my feet, and….."

Ashley turned her attention to Wanda. The doctor acknowledge Wanda looked much better than she ever

"Wanda, how are you?"

Seconds passed and Ashley wondered what Wanda would have to say.

"I'm doing fine, thank you Doctor Kafka," Wanda said.

An awkward air existed between the two women. Ashley recalled how Wanda reacted to the treatments. By the time Ashley took over with Wanda as her patient, the previous doctors did a lot of damage to her.

Damage which became undone at the drop of a hat as Ashley noted. Wanda's progress showed to be nothing short of remarkable.

"How did this happen?" Ashley asked.

"Doctor Crane….well he took me and unleashed my gifts on Gotham City….I'm sure the rumors of what happened last month on Friday the 13th reached outside of the city?"

"Yes, it did," Ashley said. "Please, go on."

"Someone….helped me, and I vanished. I went to place where I could gain control of my powers. After I gained control of my powers, I turned up, and Harry helped me the rest of the way."

Wanda gave a smile at Harry. Harry returned the smile. The woman shifted her gaze towards Doctor Kafka.

"I'm sorry, it's kind of hard to explain," Wanda said.

"I understand, well I understood all of the important parts," Ashley said. "You have control over your powers."

"Yes, and…..it helps not being locked in a cell and being observed and medicated. Not it's your fault, Doctor Kafka."

Ashley shook the thought she had from her head.

"Do you have the papers for me to sign?" Harry asked. "Or do you wish to speak with Wanda a little bit longer before you hand them over?"

Ashley paused for a moment. The papers spilled over the side of her bag. The Doctor turned her attention to Wanda.

"For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"I was a mess when you came and got me," Wanda said. "You're going to ask me about my father, aren't you?"

Ashley understood how much Wanda's father set the girl off. She wanted to avoid any relapse.

"So….how do you feel about him today?"

"I'm sad about what he did, but I understand why he did what he did," Wanda said.

Wanda hung her head for a brief moment. Anytime a family member abandoned you for whatever reason, it hurt a great deal.

"He's halfway across the world now, and I have no reason to seek him out," Wanda said. "I'm sure it's best for me to move on. The girls have been helpful. Having a support network makes me feel like I'm not alone and trapped."

"I'm sorry if you ever felt you were trapped at Ravencroft," Ashley said.

Wanda reached and placed her hand on Ashley's. This action surprised Ashley a lot, most of all because Wanda initiated it. It exhibited proof beyond any words Wanda healed from her ordeal a fair amount.

"Do not blame yourself for the actions of those who came before you, Doctor Kafka."

"Yes, Wanda's made a lot of progress, as you can tell," Harry said. "If you would like to meet her once a month…..I would be happy to fly you into Gotham."

"I think we can manage something," Ashley said.

"And you were the most helpful of all of the doctors I had at Ravencroft," Wanda said. "And you looked the best."

Ashley frowned. Given some of the beauty pageant winners who worked at Ravencroft, talk about damning a person with faint praise.

"Well, thank you, and I'm looking forward to meeting with you in a less….obtrusive environment," Ashley said. "And I'm happy to see you've flourished underneath Harry's care."

The good doctor noticed Wanda filling out from a waif to a beautiful young woman. The treatments over the years at Ravencroft resulted in more harm than good for her.

"Among other things," Wanda said. "But, I'm looking forward to meeting you as well."

"Yes, I wouldn't intrude on your time for much longer," Ashley said. "I barely managed to get in town to meet Doctor Potter's schedule….and the forms….sign them please, and Wanda will be legally released in your custody."

Doctor Ravencroft signed the forms already and Ashley did so as well, given her status as Wanda's primary doctor.

"Everything in order?" Harry asked.

Ashley scanned the documents Harry signed and smiled.

"Yes, everything's in order," Ashley said. "I'll sign her, and….Wanda's legally not a patient of Ravencroft institute, although she's under your custody until she turns eighteen years old."

Wanda smiled. She supposed the entire plural marriage collective deal might be a bit too much to take in.

"We'll delve into this deeper next month when we meet," Ashley said. She wrote down her e-mail address and her cell phone number, her private one. "And if you want to talk to me about anything, Wanda, don't hesitate to get in touch with me. Even if you have a good support network, it never hurts to have an extra set of ears."

"I'll keep it in mind, thanks," Wanda said.

"Well, I better be leaving, I understand you've got to be on a plane by tomorrow morning," Ashley said. "But, someone like you, I'm sure you spend half of your time on a plane."

Harry chuckled and moved to the door.

"It's about as much. Why don't I walk you to your car?"

"Well, who I am to say no?"

Harry guided Ashley to the elevator. The two made their way back down.

"So, Doctor Potter…."

"You know, if we're going to be working together, you should call me Harry," Harry said. "After all, we are adults, and I think after I saved your life, we're afforded certain privileges."

"Right, sorry about it, Harry," Ashley said. "And you should call me Ashley."

"Okay, Ashley," Harry said. "You wanted to ask me something, didn't you?"

Ashley chewed down on her lip for a moment. The professional's nervousness increased the more she looked at Harry.

"Yes, I wanted to….well I wondered if the next time I'm in town, if you want to go out for a cup of coffee or something. I'd like to get to know you better outside of a life and death situation."

"I think something can be arranged," Harry said. "We'll discuss it when Wanda's next session is set up."

Ashley smiled, but tried not to smile too much. She found herself curious about a few things about Harry. The doctor resolved to keep things professional.

For the most part, anyway, but exceptions existed to every rule.

* * *

 

Black Canary prowled in Gotham City. On the surface, she focused on the criminals. She knocked out a couple of muggers, and someone who tried to knock off a mini-market tonight, but nothing of nuttiness which normally occurred on the patrol.

The vigilante perched down. Her mind traveled a million miles away. What she learned a few weeks back entered her mind.

She didn't tell Oliver about it yet. Dinah conceded Thea's reasoning to prevent her brother from learning about her departure from town.

' _Plus, given Oliver's current state, it might not be the best idea to tell him anything.'_

Black Canary perched above. The winter weather lingered, even if they entered Spring recently. The nights turned cold even with the days being warmer. No rain occurred in Gotham City. The dark and stormy nights resulted in headaches when Dinah patrolled.

A loud explosion jerked Dinah out of her thoughts.

' _What the hell is going on?'_

Black Canary descended from her perch point. She followed the source of the explosion. A second explosion brought her closer to the edge.

She noticed the Red Hood Gang at the source of the explosion. Their leader rushed off and cackled at the sight of a job well done.

Black Canary stalked the Hoods from the shadows. She recalled a truck being here from her vantage point. Now, she noticed a charged hubcap, and not much else. The point of blowing up the truck escaped the fish-net clad heroine.

' _Have to go after….'_

Sportsmaster attacked her out of the blue. Black Canary avoided his attempt as he tried to drill her with a club to the side of the head. He swung one more time, but she dodged it again and fired back with a kick which he barely avoided.

"Finally, I've been waiting for this for a long time," Sportsmaster said. "It's time to settle the score!"

"With you….I haven't…."

Sportsmaster hurled an eight-ball at her. Black Canary avoided the eight-ball. The weapon exploded behind her and started her.

Black Canary blocked his attacks. The woman fired a spin kick to the Sportsmaster. He avoided her attack.

Sportsmaster hoped to run into Nightwing tonight. He felt the need to settle a score with this punk. Since he didn't run into Nightwing, Sportsmaster settled for his accomplice. Either way, someone to settle the score with.

The two engaged each other in a brutal hand by hand. Sportsmaster swung a baseball bat at Black Canary. The heroine avoided the attack and jumped up, arm extended for the attack.

She cracked him across the face and disarmed him in two fluid shots. Black Canary hurled him halfway across the alleyway. The man landed with a thud against the trash cans. Fitting in many ways.

Sportsmaster scrambled to his feet to face off against her.

"Guess, you're getting out of prison only to be put back in!"

Sportsmaster slipped a spiked gauntlet on and tried to drill Black Canary with a spinning back hand punch. She blocked it. He avoided her punch.

The roaring of a motorcycle prompted Black Canary to get out of the way before the maniac ran her over. She recognized the man on the bike as the Red Hood, although he looked a bit different than the Red Hood who blew up the truck.

"Don't just stand there gawking, hop on!"

Sportsmaster got on the bike. The Red Hood zoomed off and left Black Canary standing in the middle of the alleyway.

The woman regained her bearings and ran around the corner. She parked her own bike close enough. The woman slipped on her helmet and sped off in hot pursuit after the Sportsmaster and the Red Hood.

Black Canary drove through the streets of Gotham City. She could not get close enough. The Red Hood custom made his bike to go fast.

' _Going to have to pick up the pace!'_

She accelerated on her motorcycle and sped down the street after the motorcycle.

A van sped out of the side street next to them. One of the Red Hood gang aimed a machine gun at Black Canary. He started to unload at her, forcing her to evade the attack. She sped off to the side.

Black Canary spun around on her motor cycle and opened her mouth. The van stopped as well and the goons exited the van. She directed her attempt to the goon nearest to her who exited the van. The woman opened her mouth and unleashed one Canary cry to bring her adversary down to his knees.

The goon charged Black Canary. She returned fire. A huge kick to the leg knocked him down onto the ground. Two more goons charged Black Canary. She avoided their attacks and decked them.

"Let's go, the boss has gotten away!"

Three of the four goons scrambled back to the truck. The fourth goon tried to scramble away along with him. He failed to run off on account of a broken leg he suffered in the battle with Black Canary.

The vigilante turned him around and the man's mask slid off. Black Canary drilled him with a violent kick. The man crumpled to the ground.

The vigilante stooped down. A scanner device ran over the face of the enemy. When she got a good look at him, she patched herself into the network to talk to Oracle.

"Oracle, this is Black Canary. I'm sending you a scan of the face of a member of the Red Hood gang I captured. He must be wanted for something."

"Okay, I'll get right on it, it might take me a while," Oracle said. "And I agree, with a mug like his, he's wanted for something. Maybe by the Fashion Police?"

* * *

 

Nightshade slipped into the Ace Chemical Planet in the lull between second and third shifts. The plant's employees amounted to little more than a skeleton crew tonight.

Her woman on the inside sent a message to her, to tell her of the urgency of the matter. She hoped nothing took a turn to the south for the plan.

Paige motioned for her at the end of the hallway. They moved into a storage room of the chemical plant. The accumulated dust in the storage area told Nightshade all she needed to know about how much use this location received.

"The biological weapon is going as planned."

Nightshade raised an eyebrow.

"I assumed you called me here for a reason other than to tell me everything has gone as planned. And what about Joe Kerr?"

"He hasn't decided whether or not to extend the contract beyond the probationary period. I learned of a recent encounter which might have compromised it. It occurred around a month ago."

"Why did you do learn of this sooner?"

Paige's eyes narrowed for a second. She drew in a deep breath and situated her gaze at her mistress.

"I did not learn of this meeting until recently. I moved through Joe Kerr's records, and he had a copy of an invoice belonging to Jack Napier."

Nightshade racked her brain, and recalled the name, even if such matters were beneath her station.

"Grissom's former second in command?" Nightshade asked. "What makes him so important?"

"Napier picked up a high level explosive, the same the Red Hood Gang uses in their current heists and acts of….their vile and barbaric acts," Paige said.

The note of disgust in her voice reflected. Nightshade's boredom reflected in her response.

"You're telling me of something which amounts as a triviality. The Red Hood gang is a moderate nuisance to our plans, but they will burn themselves out, and likely end up blowing themselves up in their stupidity."

"There's more."

Nightshade's gaze raked over Paige's eyes with the barest of curtsey expressions.

"The Red Hood Gang is in the league with Lawrence Crock…the Sportsmaster. Napier and the Red Hood Gang joined up with Sportsmaster."

Paige waited to see the response of her mistress. Nightshade turned around and clenched her fists. The woman counted to ten for a few seconds and turned back to her.

"I'll deal with the traitor. We should have dealt with him when he set the League's plans back during our previous dealings."

"I would have stopped the transaction if I hadn't been otherwise occupied," Paige said. "Please, I beg of your forgiveness."

The tension resounded in the air. The two women stared each other down for a matter of seconds.

"Do not apologize," Nightshade said. "You have your role to play. If you stopped the transaction, you may have cast suspicion upon us by the wrong people."

Nightshade believed the Red Hood and his men under normal circumstances rested beneath cockroaches on her notice. They swarmed around like filthy disease ridden insects, the symptom to Gotham City's overall problem of being a blot on the world.

"Maintain your post at Ace Chemicals, Paige. I will correct the error."

Paige nodded, relieved at the forgiveness of her Mistress. The enchanting raven-haired woman leaned to Nightshade.

"And what do you intend to do?"

Nightshade's gaze fell onto the woman. An apology formed on her tongue. Slipping her mask down, Nightshade stopped it by leaning in and kissing the woman on the lips. The most direct way to shut a person up, so they did not bother her with apologies.

The two women pulled apart from their kiss. Nightshade pulled the half mask up over her face.

"I'm going to bait a trap, and take care of two birds with one stone."

With those words, Nightshade slipped into the night, back into Gotham City. The Daughter of the Demon refused to allow her goals to be set back any further.

* * *

 

Dinah returned to the Penthouse a few hours later. Harry checked her over. Kara stood in the background and looked her over. Dinah changed out of her gear, wearing a white tank top and a pair of blue jeans. Kara sparred with Harry for a little bit before Dinah came in. She dressed in a black tank top and a pair of black short shorts which stretched around her firm ass.

"So, Sportsmaster?" Kara asked.

"Really lame name or not, he's pretty dangerous," Harry said. "And Dinah didn't expect him to be working with the Red Hood Gang tonight."

"Especially given the Red Hood gang has been in several places at once tonight," Dinah said.

Harry nod in conversation. Barbara confirmed the Red Hodo Gang bounced all over town for the most part. About a month back, they stepped up their operations. Word is on the street, most of their operations directed at Thorne. Maroni, Falcone, Cobblepot, Sionis, the Red Hood Gang steered away from their operations, at least for now.

"Do you think there might be another guy underneath the mask?" Dinah asked.

"Yes and no," Harry said. "I really think there's more than one."

Dinah frowned and considered Harry's theory. She leaned to him.

"The Red Hood leading the explosion, different from the one on the motorcycle who saved Sportsmaster."

Harry drummed his fingers on the edge of his computer. He checked some of the latest sightings of the Red Hood Gang. A few shipment trucks blown up, a few trucks ransacked, and Harry frowned for a few seconds.

"Before a couple of months ago, most of the Red Hood's activities padded his bottom line," Harry said. "Now, he's committed a lot of acts against the likes of Thorne."

"His goons seemed a bit more different than the usual Red Hood Gang, better train," Dinah said. "Do you think he's stepping up his operation?"

"Maybe," Harry said. "Or maybe there's a third party funding his operation? Someone who has it out for Thorne?"

"Who do you think might have it out to Thorne?" Kara asked.

Kara realized seconds later what she said. Obviously someone would have it out for Thorne.

"Many people," Harry said. "The man's stepped on a lot of important toes. He's pissed some rather angry people off."

"Yes, and you had an encounter with him when he did the same to you," Dinah said.

Harry smiled, he recalled as much for sure. He leaned to the two blondes.

"I recall, believe me, I'll never forget. It's time to figure out how has it out for him bad enough to cause trouble," Harry said.

"Well, Barbara's going to look up the scan, so we'll find out, one way or another," Dinah said. She leaned in to Harry. "So, do I check out?"

"Yes," Harry agreed. He leaned in to her and grinned. "Just a small cuts and bruises. Sportsmaster whacked you a bit hard."

"Bastard took a lucky shot from behind, it won't happen again," Dinah said.

Harry admired her determination and he admired Dinah for many reasons. He reached in and ran his hands over her gorgeous blonde hair.

"I agree, he won't," Harry said. "You won't let him, will you?"

Dinah rose to her feet. She threw her arms around Harry. She shoved her tongue into his mouth. Harry fought back. His hands reached behind her and groped her ass. He pushed Dinah against a wall and pressed her.

The groans of the woman inspired Harry. He grinded his crotch against hers for a few more seconds.

Kara folded her arms and tapped her foot. She bit down on her lip, feeling a bit left out.

Harry released Dinah and smiled. He turned to Kara. Kara jumped into his arms, wrapping her arms around his neck.

Kara kissed the ever living daylights out of Harry. Her tongue entered his mouth. Harry returned fire with their tongues wrestling for domination. The sorcerer ran his hands up and down Kara's long legs to feel her up. He squeezed her ass and caused her to whimper into a kiss.

"Now, I'm the one feeling left out."

Kara broke away from the kiss with Harry. She turned to Dinah and grabbed her. Kara pushed Dinah's hands behind the siren's head and kissed her hard. The two shoved their tongues into each other's mouths.

The Kryptonian temptress wrestled Dinah to the ground. Kara peppered a series of kisses down the side of Dinah's face.

Harry smiled and rested his hands on Kara's lower back. His hands felt up her body as Kara sucked on the pulse point of Dinah's neck.

"Make sure you give her a good working over, Kara."

Harry stepped back. Kara gripped her hands underneath the bottom of Dinah's shirt and yanked it over her head, to reveal the delights underneath.

Kara ran her hands over Dinah's exposed breasts. She leaned in for another kiss to capture Dinah's eager lips with her own. The two women's tongues clashed together in an attempt to dominate the other.

The Kryptonian won the battle, but not without a good fight. She kissed Dinah back. The two of them staggered back into a room off to the side of the gym area.

A lavish bed allowed Kara to push Dinah back. Kara made her way over Dinah and kissed down her body.

"Damn, Kara…you know my good spots!" Dinah yelled.

' _Such a screamer,'_ Kara thought.

Kara kissed down Dinah's body. She paid extra attention to the woman's belly button which drove Dinah wild. Kara's kissing continued as she made her travels around Dinah's body.

Harry walked behind Kara. He leaned down.

"Eat her pussy, and I'll take care of you, love."

Kara kissed down Dinah's belly button. The woman's hot lips lingered inches away. Kara worked her finger into Dinah's pussy and spread her lips, allowing paradise to be revealed to the Kryptonian.

"Please, Kara, don't tease me."

"Well, since you asked so nicely."

Kara slipped her tongue into Dinah. Dinah reached up and grabbed the back of Kara's head. The girl's tongues with her tongue deep into Dinah's pussy became slow and soft at first.

"Tongue fuck me, baby, tongue fuck me hard!" Dinah encouraged her.

The Kryptonian grinned. Her tongue started to vibrate a little bit more. Dinah's hips bucked up into Kara's face.

Kara felt a set of fingers manipulate her pussy.

"Good, time for you to scream as well."

Harry slid his hard cock inside Kara's dripping wet pussy. The walls of his Alpha tightened around him. She clenched him and pulled his rod deep into her body. Harry held onto her hips and started to pump his way into her molten core.

Kara never once broke what she did to Dinah. Her tongue moved in circle's in Dinah's deep core.

"OOOOH, YES!" Dinah yelled. "Take your tongue, and….make me scream!"

' _Good thing the room's protected,'_ Harry said.

Harry held onto Kara's hips and plowed into her. He leaned in to her.

"This is what you live for, isn't it? My hard cock in her your pussy? You can't give enough of it, can you, Kara?"

Kara couldn't answer on an account of her mouth being very busy with Dinah's pussy.

"Yes, she enjoys it, I can fucking feel her moaning in my pussy!" Dinah screamed at the top of her lungs. "Oh, good job, work my pussy! Suck all of my juices. Oh god, I'm cumming!"

The woman's hips pumped their juices into Kara's mouth. Kara sucked them down with greed and desire. Her hunger increased the more Dinah flooded her mouth.

Harry sped up his hard thrusts. He worked over Kara's pussy. Her walls clenched him hard.

"Good, I'd like you to cum for me."

Kara's walls tightened around him.

"You're nothing, but a slave to my cock," Harry said. "And I'm sure Dinah can't wait for her turn, can she?"

Kara munched away at Dinah's pussy. Dinah's screams indicated she hardly could wait to have Harry's large penis inside her body and fuck the daylights out of her.

Harry hung onto Kara's hips and drilled her cunt. Her cunt gushed with juices which allowed Harry to slide to her center.

"And again."

Kara came again. Her walls fastened around his cock to milk it. Harry grunted as the soft walls caressed him. His balls ached with cum and a fair amount of it. His fingers brushed against her nipples for a moment to tease her.

"It's time for you to get rewarded, Kara. Are you ready?"

Kara's thighs parted to indicate how ready she proved to be. Harry hung onto her hips and plowed inside her a little bit more. His balls ached with their eruption of cum.

Harry launched his load inside Kara. Several spurts of cum coated the inside of Kara's body. He fired an immense load into her.

Kara pulled herself away from Dinah. She rolled onto her back and dipped her fingers into her cunt. The nymphomaniac alien suckled the combination of her juices along with Harry's, prompting hardened nipples to show up.

"So, how much do you want this?"

Harry crawled over Dinah. He straddled the siren beneath him. Harry leaned down and captured Dinah with an eager kiss to her lips.

Dinah returned the kiss in heated fashion. Her arms wrapped around Harry. His throbbing hard prick brushed against the smooth flesh of her stomach. Dinah reached a fever pitch, and groaned with need. His cock pushed against the outer edge of her lips.

She wanted everything Harry had to offer her. The woman arched her back in an attempt to coax him inside her.

Harry held onto Dinah's hips. He inched himself into her. His cock head teased the entrance of the woman.

"Do you want it all inside you?" Harry asked.

"Yes, stick your big cock inside me, and fuck the daylights out of me."

Harry's re-hardened cock slid into Dinah's dripping slit. Her twat clenched him as Harry entered inside her.

The woman's legs wrapped around Harry to ensure he would not stray from her pussy for a long time. Harry grabbed onto her breasts, giving them a squeeze. Harry lifted himself up out of her pussy and slid back into her depths.

"Fuck me! Don't hold back!"

Harry brushed his hands over her legs and touched them. He reached around to fondle her ass, playing with the firm globes.

Dinah arched her back off of the bed. She resembled an angel with golden locks draped over her face.

"It's what you want, isn't it? You want my hard cock inside your perfect pussy, stretching the hell out of you?"

Dinah screamed to the heavens. An orgasm rattled her body. Harry's mouth worshiping her breasts when her fucked her added to her pleasure.

"Yes, oh god, yes Harry, harder, fuck me harder! Fuck my brains out and make me scream! I want your cock, I want it inside me hard! FUCK ME HARD!"

The woman's tight pussy clenched around Harry's aching rod. He plowed into the wet, hot, velvety, center, which stretched around his long, fat, cock.

"I love making you scream."

Dinah indulged Harry. Her body begged for him. His fuck stick drilled into her greedy pussy hard. Her moisture spilled from her thighs.

"Good girl, you're going to cum hard, aren't you?"

"Yes," Dinah said.

Pleasure filled her body. Her nipples grew hard to an uncomfortable level. His manhood pulled almost from her and pushed inside her. Dinah's cunt gushed with his manhood burying deep inside her pussy.

The stunning siren's loins exploded with pleasure. She tightened her grip around Harry's neck with her arms and the grip around his waist with her legs as well. Harry plowed hard into her from above.

"My turn, Dinah. But, you're going to have to earn it?"

Dinah clenched his throbbing rod with her tight muscles. The beauty's body tensed up. She saw stars from a second orgasm, then a third one.

Harry smiled.

"I can fuck this pussy all day, you know."

"Please do!" Dinah yelled.

Dinah matched Harry. Her stamina proved to be ace. Her cunt enveloped Harry's hard rod inside her. The woman's hips ached for a moment, but she wanted more.

"Yes, fuck the daylights of her!" Kara yelled. She fingered her pussy at super speed. "Shove your big fucking cock in her pussy!"

Harry lifted Dinah up off of the bed and fucked her hard. Dinah's hips lifted up to return the fire.

Something broke in a matter of moments. Dinah's latest orgasm opened up the door for Harry's end game.

"Yes, cum in me!"

Harry spurted his cum inside her. The force of his cum shooting inside her pussy caused Dinah to pump his rod into her.

The two rode out each other's mutual orgasms. Harry fell forward, with his face landing on Dinah's breasts. He lingered for a moment and rolled over.

In time for Kara to crawl on top of him, rubbing her pussy over his tool, for the two to join together, and spur the next round of sex.

* * *

 

Paula Crock wrapped up making breakfast for her two daughters, and Jessie, who stopped by. The women stood in the living room of her modest house. Her hair draped over her forehead in disarray. The woman dressed herself in a robe which covered her athletic fit body.

Despite having two children, Paula kept herself in fit physical condition. Even beyond her night job, the woman kept fairly active. The Asian woman listened to her two daughters and their friend chatter about school.

A knock on the door caught Paula's attention.

' _Who could it be this early in the morning?'_

Paula received her answer when she opened the door and the one and only Harry Potter waited for her on the outside of the door.

"Paula, it's good to see you again," Harry said.

"You as well….Doctor Potter," Paula said. She stepped back for a moment. "It's today, isn't it?"

"Yes, I'm here to pick up your daughters and their friend for the trip to California," Harry said. "I also wanted to ask you a question, if you want to come with us on the trip as well."

Paula locked her eyes onto Harry's. Harry grabbed the woman's obvious interest for a couple of minutes. The woman leaned in close to Harry.

"So, are you sure you have enough room for me on the plane?"

Harry leaned on in and smiled at her.

"Paula, trust me, there's more than enough room on the plane. And also, I would think, because of the circumstances, you'd want to get away from Gotham City."

Paula only began to guess how much he knew about her current circumstances, but the young man showed some great wisdom. Her estranged husband refused to take no for an answer. Despite the fact Paula changed the locks, she still had a sense his eyes followed many of her movements.

The woman's training allowed her to handle herself. The safety of her two girls illustrated the real problem. Both only barely understood what their father did, and why she kept him away from them. She never informed them the legal system released Lawrence from prison.

"So, do you…"

"I think it's a good idea for me to get out of town for a few days," Paula said. "Let me get changed."

Paula left. Her robes parted to offer a Harry a tantalizing gaze of what rested underneath. After two children, the women trained her body to look rather firm. She put many younger women to shame with her workout regimen.

' _Again, I ask the question, what's with you and married women?'_ Karen asked. _'Or is she still married?'_

' _Technically speaking, or legally speaking, she's estranged,'_ Harry said. _'And I can't blame her. She doesn't want her daughters to be influenced by Crock. She's stepping back from her night activities.'_

' _Unless you pay her to do something,'_ Jaime said.

' _Well, a skill set like Paula has shouldn't really go to the waste,'_ Harry said.

Harry turned to the girls who sat around eating breakfast.

"So, are you three girls ready for the trip?"

Jade looked up from her cereal and smiled.

"Given Lois won't shut up about it, I think we've been made ready for the trip," Jade said. "Did you really threaten her with not going?"

"No, I never threatened Lois with not going," Harry said. "The twins might have invoked my name, to troll Lois, but, I never said anything."

"Okay, fair enough," Jade said.

Jessie's eyebrow rose when she looked at Harry. Trying to figure out the mystery of Harry Fucking Potter seemed like a challenge and Jessie wanted to see what he's all about.

"Well, don't be rude," Jade said.

"I'm not being rude," Jessie said.

"Some time's you can be rude, without even trying. I'm not sure why you are sometimes."

Jessie folded her arms for a second. Try living with her father, with some of the crap he did. Thankfully, she spent most of her mornings at Jade's house, which actually ensured she got a solid breakfast. Her father seldom came home anymore. Not a big loss, but still, he could be dead in a gutter somewhere, and Jessie might be the last to know about it.

"Why would you come and pick us up?" Artemis asked. Harry looked at her. "I mean, no offense, but…..I think a rich guy like yourself has people he can use to pick other people up."

Jade's gaze fell upon her sisters. Artemis responded with a cheeky grin.

"My sister didn't mean any offense, Doctor Potter," Jade said. "She slept through all lessons on etiquette."

Artemis stuck her tongue out at Jade.

"Case in point," Jessie said.

Not she had any room to talk. Out of all of the girls at the table, she had the least call to complain about someone's etiquette, or lack there over. Jessie folded her arms over chest and watched the interplay with the sister.

Catching the eye of one Harry Potter, Jessie understood the brilliant young man watched the interplay as well.

"Artemis, you're correct, I can. But I figured it is best to talk to your mother personally, and not through an intermediary."

Artemis paused, and frowned for a moment.

"I guess…..I guess you're right," Artemis said.

"Of course, he's right," Jade said. "He does have four doctorates, or is it five, or something?"

Harry didn't have a chance to inform Jade of the proper facts of the matter. Paula returned from upstairs. The woman dressed in a nice white blouse and a pair of skin hugging tight leather pants. She carried a suit case down. Paula crossed the room to approach Harry, the shadow of a smile crossing her face.

"So, are you ready to go?" Harry asked.

Paula smiled.

"Yes, when the girls finish up breakfast, and get their things, we can get going."

"Yes, if Artemis finishes sometime before Christmas, we can get going," Jade said.

Artemis looked at Jade, and almost said something. Maple syrup dribbled from her mouth, which kind of made her lose any intimidation factor.

"Artemis, don't speak with your mouth full."

Paula's look put her daughter in line.

"So, we'll be back, I need to talk to Doctor Potter about a few things in private."

Paula and Harry left to the next room. Artemis stood up in an attempt to eavesdrop on the conversation. Jade slapped her hard on the thigh to force the girl back down to a sitting position.

"What?" Artemis asked.

"You know what!" Jade yelled.

Jessie leaned into her friend.

"Maybe it's me, but I think your mother has upgraded her taste in men. And not a moment too soon. No offense, but your father…."

"I don't want to talk about this, Jessie," Jade said.

Jessie fell silent and respected her friend's wishes. Paula and Harry finished what they talked about.

"So, I guess we better get ready," Jade said.

"So, are all of the girls with you?" Artemis asked.

Harry laughed at the thought of trying to chaperone every one of the girls into one limo.

"I don't think RAO has developed TARDIS technology yet," Jade said. Jessie and Artemis gave her confused looks, not quite getting the reference. Jade sighed. "Never mind, uncultured b….."

"Jade!" Paula yelled.

Harry snickered and leaned to her.

"I have the girls being escorted to the airport in groups. You're going to be joining me and your mother."

' _Yes, and talk about a headache waiting to happen,'_ Diana thought. _'But it could be much worse.'_

' _Isn't our role as Alphas to help keep everyone in line?'_ Kara asked.

Diana folded her arms in response, not saying a word. They did their best to keep every single girl in line. Some of the girls showed they were a handful. The older ones sometimes more so than the younger ones, in instances, but it made life a bit more interesting.

Artemis, Jade, and Jessie scrambled to get their things. They already packed the night before, but the three girls moved with the productivity teenage girls moved with during the early morning hours.

* * *

 

Lawrence Crock and Willis Todd camped out in a van across the street from Paula's. Crock put a close eye on his wife's house. Said eyes narrowed the moment she left the house, along with Harry Potter.

"You know, I can't believe you're acting like such a jilted ex," Willis said. Lawrence glared at him, and the man underneath the hood shrugged. "Many other fish in the sea, and some of them you can throw back. No need to tie yourself down with marriage."

Crock tightened his hand around his nine-iron. He wanted nothing better than to waffle Harry Potter over the head with the weapon. He would drill the smug fuck with it.

The phone rang. Willis groaned and picked it up.

"Hey, it's your old pal, Jack. Just making sure we're still on for lunch. After all, we want to make sure Thorne becomes toast."

Willis dropped the cell phone on the seat.

"So, he comes in, and takes over the entire operation."

"Didn't you want to hook up with him in the first place?" Lawrence asked.

"Details, details, the problem's I'm becoming the third wheel for this entire scheme, and I don't fucking like it. I'm the one who started the Red Hood gang. I'm the Red Hood!"

"Yeah, announce it to the entire neighborhood, Willis."

Willis Todd leaned forward with a grimace. The man grew even more sour by the moment, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Remember, anyone can stick the hood on, and become the Red Hood," Sportsmaster said. "You and I both know it. People never would be afraid of Willis Todd, but the Red Hood….he's someone who has people talking."

Willis grumbled one more time. He pulled out of the neighborhood. The hood proved to be more durable than the man underneath the hood.

' _Going to prove I'm not a punk, and I'm not a chump.'_

* * *

Barbara Gordon finished her research on the face of the goon Dinah took out. To borrow a phrase, Barbara thought she hit the jackpot.

' _Wonder if I should have taken Harry's offer to head to California with him. Oh well, someone has to man the ship.'_

Never the less she got a look at the goon who Dinah unmasked.

' _Dinah, can you hear me?'_

' _Yes, Babs, loud a clear, what do you got for me?'_ Dinah asked.

' _The man's name is Jonathan Webster, he used to work with Carl Grissom. He did a bit of time, before Grissom's untimely demise.'_

' _And Grissom's second in command, Napier, is trying to take over the operations,'_ Dinah said. _'Do you think Napier is working with the Red Hood?'_

' _It'd make a little bit of sense,'_ Barbara said. _'But, anyone could be under the mask, and we wouldn't know, would we?'_

Dinah conceded Barbara's point. The man under the mask didn't matter, but the status symbol of the Red Hood mattered. The person underneath the mask, whether they were important, or no one at all, didn't matter.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 19** **th** **, 2015.**


	128. Destination California Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Eight: Destination California Part Two.**

* * *

Sunlight hit a hotel room. A dark haired woman pressed faced down on the bed. Her covers draped half over her, and her hair stuck up in every direction in a wonderful level of disarray. She yanked the covers over the top of her head, and groaned.

"For fuck's sake….who the hell let the sun into this room?"

"The sun normally does come out by ten in the morning. But, are you up, or are you trying to sleep up the latest hangover?"

The woman half rolled over into the bed. She could not muster the energy to make a complete roll over onto her back. The woman lifted a hand and pressed it against her forehead. Sweat dripped from her forehead.

"What do you think?"

The dark haired woman flipped the covers over her head. The woman's blurred focus met a second woman. She tied back her red hair in a ponytail. Freckles adorned her face. The woman dressed in a conservative female business suit which only slightly hid her amazing body. Anyone with sexual desire eyed the woman when she walked past. The skirt fit snugly despite going down a longer amount than usual. The pair of sheer stockings clung to her legs.

"I think you should have not had as many drinks."

"Well, I think I should roll over and go back to sleep, Pepper."

The woman groaned and flipped over onto the bed. Pepper rolled her eyes. A strange sense of Deja-Vu visited the woman. Pepper crossed the room.

' _A year next Tuesday. Why does it feel like ten? Actually, I know why it feels like ten.'_

"Tori, you need to get up, about an hour ago. The Board thinks you're in California conducting business. Not hitting up everything with the skirt."

Natalie Victoria Stark, Tori to her friends, grumbled something underneath her breath. Pepper frowned and leaned in towards her employer.

"I'm sorry, whatever you said, I must have not understood."

"I said, I'm not sure if most of those women were even wearing skirts," Tori said. "Some of them qualified as belts, with such much material."

"Regardless of the fact, you really do need to get up out of bed. You can't be doing this. Late nights, and sleeping the days away."

"What's the point in having money if you can't do what you want?" Tori asked.

Pepper yanked the covers off of Tori. The dark haired woman rolled over. Her hair stuck up in several different directions. She wore a nightshirt which clung to her ample breasts, and a lacy pair of black panties covering her shapely ass. Long legs stretched down for what seemed like miles.

"Fine, I'm up," Tori said.

She rose from the bed. Her body ached from whatever happened last night. What happened last night?

No ring on her finger made Tori feel a lot of relief. Pepper ensured she never stepped one foot into Vegas for obvious reasons.

"Your….companion has already been kicked down the road," Pepper said. "She rifled through your purse, and tried to run off with your credit cards after you went to sleep."

"Again?" Tori asked.

Her casual demeanor indicated this was far from a first time offense with one of her dates.

"Yes, Tori, again," Pepper said. "But, never mind, you have a meeting with Alexandra and Harry Potter this afternoon about the potential to work with them on a drone project."

"Oh….wait, today?" Tori asked. "I…why are you telling me this today? A meeting with someone like the Potters, I need to….I need more time to prepare. And I thought the meeting was Wednesday. Isn't today Tuesday?"

A long moment of silence passed.

"Today is Tuesday, isn't it?"

Pepper rested her hands on her hips. The woman moved past screaming and straight into exasperated indifference.

"Because, Natalie Victoria Stark, your last little bender put you in bed for the better part of a day. I let you sleep it off as far as you could."

"Really, how do I lose a day?" Tori asked.

She slumped back down on the pillow, or at least Tori intended to. Pepper yanked the pillow away from her. Tori still planted herself face first into the mattress, despite the lack of pillow.

"This isn't the first time you lost a day," Pepper said. "And….you're lucky I covered for you. Stane called and asked about the meeting."

"What did you tell him?" Tori asked.

In her haze-addled mine, Tori recalled the stipulation of the meeting. Harry and Alexandra agreed to meet with her, providing she met with them, and not one of the Board of Directors, or Stane. Obediah Stane's personality took a long to grow on you.

' _Talk about a taste even I haven't completely acquired.'_

"I told him you were busy meeting up with old friends in California, and said I'd make sure you got to the meeting on time," Pepper said. "You're not going to make an idiot out of me, are you Tori?"

"Pepper, you're brilliant, I'd have to work really hard to make an idiot out of you."

Pepper hated it when Tori made her smile, especially when she needed to be mad at the heiress.

"I think you'll be fine if you get a shower."

"Are you coming with me?"

Pepper fired one of those looks at Tori. It prompted Tori to get her butt into gear and get out of bed.

The heiress stripped off her remaining clothes. Nothing like a good cold shower to get a person woken up from an all-night romp of fun.

"So, do you think I have a shot with Potter?"

"Tori, I think you should shower, and get something to eat. I'll call for room service, if you want me to."

"Is the cute Asian chick still working here? I need to tip her a bit better next time."

"Natalie Victoria Stark!" Pepper snapped.

Tori shook her head and straightened up, at least as the best she could.

* * *

Harry questioned the wisdom of the trip. If the girls enjoyed the trip, he figured it to be worth it in his book. He half carried Lyta. Donna walked a few inches away from them.

"You're just being lazy now, aren't you?" Donna asked.

"I'm not, it's a long walk to the hotel room," Lyta said.

"Well, maybe if you're getting tired from walking, we need to hit the sparring arena, and I can whip you into shape," Donna said. She smiled at her younger sister.

Harry carried his daughter. The Alphas divided the other girls, making sure they all reached the hotel without any sort of incident.

Faora ran down the full list of things they had to do today.

' _So we've got to get this lot settled in. Then we need to head over to Ferris Aircraft at noon for the meeting with Carol and Carl, which is really a formality at this point. Sign some papers, and we're good to go. And then, we've got the meeting with Stark Industries.'_

' _Kind of iffy with this one,'_ Harry thought.

' _Well, Karen and I can both tell you how persistent Natalie Stark is, when she wants a meeting with someone,'_ Faora said. _'We know Stark's into making weapons…or rather the company is. I'm not certain how much Natalie has to do with the day to day.'_

' _We have a meeting with her, and not someone like Stane,'_ Karen said. _'I'd rather hang out with Lionel Luthor than Stane.'_

' _Wow, talk about burying someone into the ground,'_ Harry thought.

' _And interesting enough, we have time for a vacation, believe it or not,'_ Faora said. _'Don't worry, I scheduled most of the business early on.'_

' _Thanks Faora, you're a real life-saver sometimes,'_ Alia said.

"So, California, my father took me here once when Lucy and I were younger," Lois said. The oldest Lane chatted away. "Granted, we didn't get to do anything fun here. Just like all of my other trips."

"At least you went places with your father," Jessie said.

Jade mentioned to Lois Jessie's touchy relationship with her father. Lois backed off for a second.

"Wow, I can't believe we're here!" Bunny said.

"Your sister allowed you to come alone with Harry, without her supervision," Bette said. "Why didn't Ronnie make the trip, anyway? I swore Harry invited her along."

"Harry invited a lot of people along, but some didn't make the trip," Amanda said.

"Yes, it would have been even more of a madhouse if a few more girls showed up," Emily said. The redhead flipped her head back. "A really big madhouse, come to think about it."

' _Then again, if we took every single woman Harry knew on this trip, I'm not even sure if the plane could hold them all,'_ Amanda said.

 _'It'd be a pretty tight bit,'_ Emily thought.

 _'But think of the orgies,'_ Amanda thought.

_'Really Mandy, there are children on the plane.'_

'Well, it would have to be after they go to sleep, duh.'

"Ronnie couldn't make the trip because something came up for Vreeland industries, she couldn't cancel," Bunny said. "She might take another flight out later this week and join us, if she can. And….well, she could use a vacation about as much as vacation."

"Harry does need a vacation, he works a bit too hard," Bette said. "Maybe we can help find a way to relax him."

"Bette Kane, you're not implying what I think you're implying, are you?" Bunny asked.

Bette's lips curled into a knowing grin. She leaned to her friend.

"Come on, haven't you thought about it, he's Harry Fucking Potter. And you know he has many women at his beck and call. Any red blooded woman with a pulse thought about what it might be like to be bedded by him. Don't you dare lie to me and say you haven't as well!"

Amanda and Emily exchanged a frustrated look with each other.

' _You know something scary?'_ Emily asked.

' _Other than the fact Alison Blaire tickets got sold out?'_ Amanda asked.

' _Must you rub it in,'_ Emily said. _'No, it's not the fact Alison Blaire tickets are sold out. Just annoying, but not scary.'_

' _I see,'_ Amanda said. _'What is it?'_

' _We're among the most mature people on this trip,'_ Emily said.

' _Oh, goddesses help us all,'_ Amanda said.

' _You rang?'_ Aphrodite thought.

The giggling goddesses caused the twins to fold their arms across their chests.

Harry half listened to the antics of the girls. Kara joined the group in the front, with Donna, Faora, and Lyta.

' _Sometimes, they act like you can't hear them,'_ Kara said. _'So are you going to take advantage of those two and their desire to get you into bed?'_

' _Make them wait for it, a bit longer, it builds character,'_ Harry thought. _'If I take them now, they won't appreciate it as much when I take them later.'_

' _Words to live by, and proof why you're the most evil man on Earth,'_ Donna thought. _'And I remember the first time when you took me good. I don't think anyone would ever forget what you did to me. At least I know I won't.'_

' _I don't think anyone us are going to forget your induction into the collective,'_ Diana thought.

' _And you building up our sisters like you're doing, do you really have to troll them like you are?'_ Jaime asked.

Harry smirked, trying not to look too evil. Otherwise he would need to grow a mustache just to twirl it.

' _You know, they could have gotten tickets before they even went on sale if they wanted to. The fact I actually managed to pull strings to get them good tickets and backstage passes gives me a pretty solid license to play with them. Wouldn't you agree?'_

' _I guess, you have a point,'_ Jaime thought.

The twins chatted away with the other girls. How they made it out of the plane into the hotel room, Harry only began to guess. Regardless, they showed up in California, ready to go for better or for worse.

* * *

Carol Ferris leaned against the water cooler. She spoke to an attractive blonde. An air force uniform formed a tight seal around the stacked woman's body. Despite the uniform she dressed in, one took full look at the woman's body. Her chest stuck out with great prominence. Her body looked to be fit without an ounce of fat on it. Long legs and shapely ass added to the overall appeal of the package.

Until Harry and Alexandra Potter arrived, Carol passed the time talking to an old friend of hers from her air force days.

"So, how are Alex and Kara?"

"Kara's….she's adapting to her powers nicely, although it's hard to keep such a thing under wraps. Alex is working with the top secret government agency thing."

"Any idea what she's exactly up to?" Carol asked.

"Well, it wouldn't be a top-secret government agency thing if she broadcasted all of the secrets, would it? But, it has to do with life on other worlds."

"I wonder if there's anything really out there," Carol said. "There has to be intelligent life out there. There are times where I don't think there's more intelligent life on Earth."

Carol's eyes swept over to Hal Jordan. Her friend placed her hand on him.

"Did he crash another plane?"

"Yes, despite being warned not to do anything reckless," Carol said. "The fact he's able to walk away from any crash really does show he's the luckiest idiot in the world."

Carol's attention diverted away from Hal Jordan to someone more worthy of her attention. She spotted Harry and Alexandra Potter who made their way.

"Wow, my sister is going to be upset when she finds out I saw Harry Potter before she did!"

Carol raised her eyebrow to turn to her friend.

"Why does she have a bit of a crush on Harry Potter?"

"Who doesn't?"

Carol couldn't argue with the point. The young man's green eyes distracted her to the point where Carol figured they should be registered for lethal weapons.

"Harry!" Carol yelled. She waved him over.

"Hi, Carol, it's been too long," Harry said.

"I'm glad you could make it out here," Carol said. "So, how are you doing?"

"Generally speaking, I'm doing pretty well," Harry said. He turned to Carol's friend, and looked her over.

Carol stood up straight for a moment. Her friend locked eyes with Harry.

"So, aren't you going to introduce us, Carol?" Harry asked.

"Right, where are my manners?" Carol asked. "This is Carol Danvers. Carol, this is Harry Potter, and his cousin Alexandra."

Carol Danvers smiled and reached forward to shake hands with both Harry and Carol.

"It's a pleasure to meet with both of you," Carol said. She leaned in with a shadow of a wink. "Carol told me you were coming by."

"Carol is fresh out of the Air Force, and I've set her up as a role as one of my test pilots," Carol said. "My father still has people he trusts to fly his planes but….I'm not sure how much they fit into the structure of where I want Ferris Aircraft to head here on out."

Carol's eyes averted to the young man a few feet away from her.

"So, my father's upstairs waiting, I don't think we should keep him waiting long," Carol said.

"And I'll be leaving, I've got some friends I want to meet," Carol said. "It's good meeting you, Harry, and Alex."

"It's good meeting you as well, Carol, hopefully we can get to know each other better in the future, when things aren't as hectic," Harry said.

"Well, given you're working together with Ferris Aircrafts, I think we'll be seeing a bit more of each other now."

The four of them parted ways. Carol, Harry, and Alex left to go up to the office.

"Stay with me, don't mind him," Carol said.

"Hal Jordan?" Harry asked. "The infamous Hal Jordan?"

"Don't call him infamous where he can hear you," Carol said. The Ferris heiress took a moment to look around nervously. "I think he does it on purpose half of the time. Thinking I'm going to agree to go out on a date with him, out of pity. I don't….I don't date employees."

"Well, there goes our chances," Harry said.

Carol spun on her foot and leaned in.

"Don't count on it, Doctor Potter. You're not my employee. We're business partners, there's a difference. And technically, he's my father's employee. Still counts, though."

"Even if you run the majority of the day to day operations?" Alex asked.

With each passing year, Carol ran more of the day to day operations with her father only making the big decisions and being a figure head. Carol enjoyed the experience. One day, when her father passed on the company to her, the experience may prove itself to be invaluable."

"Mr. Ferris, it's a pleasure to meet you."

An older gentlemen rose to his feet. Harry noticed he looked tired from a distance. The moment Harry met his line of sight, the older man's eyes lit up.

"Doctor Potter, the pleasure is all mine."

The man stuck out his hand to give Harry a firm handshake. The two men locked hands with each other.

"It's merely a formality for me to sign off on this deal," Carl said. "My daughter's developed a knack of what's best for business, and everything is going according to plan."

"Good, I'm glad you think everything's going according to plan," Harry said. "I think this deal is going to benefit both of us, and it's best for business."

"What's best for business is best for my daughter's future," Carl said. "I want to leave a legacy behind, and you're already cementing one of your own. And I'd like to help out with the spirit."

The deal regarding the satellites spelled out in legal writing. Carl and Harry both signed on it. Carol did as well, as the Chief Operating Officer.

"Well, it's a pleasure doing business," Carl said. "I'd like to see the end result of your little deal, but I'd imagine it's great."

"I'm sure you'll live to see it, Daddy," Carol said.

Carl rose to his feet and made his way past a hallway across the office. The one and only Hal Jordan stopped and looked at Carol.

"Yes, Hal?" Carol asked.

Cheesy pick up line at twelve o clock, Carol saw it coming a mile away.

"Yesterday when I pulled myself out of the wreckage, I thought I died because I saw an angel."

' _Seriously?'_ Faora thought.

"Carol, you look a little tightly wound," Hal said. "How about I take you out for coffee?"

"I told you, Hal, about twenty times, I don't date employees," Carol said.

Hal turned to Harry with a side long.

"She sounds annoyed with me, but its obvious unresolved sexual attention. Oh, and Hal Jordan, my good man."

"Harry Potter," Harry said.

"No, seriously, the Harry Potter?"

He delivered a "bro punch" to Harry's shoulder. Alex clenched her fists for a second.

' _Can I throw him out the window?'_ Faora asked.

' _No,'_ Harry said.

' _Please?'_ Faora asked.

' _Faora, I said no,'_ Harry said.

"Yes, I'm Harry Potter," Harry said.

"And we're heading off to lunch together, so I can't join you for coffee," Carol said.

"But, isn't he meeting with your father?"

"Yes, which makes him an independent contractor, not an employee," Carol said.

"Hal, do you think I can have a word with you in my office?" Carl asked.

Hal stood up straight a little bit. When someone asked to have a word with him, normally not a good thing, but he couldn't disagree with Mr. Ferris.

"What an annoying Macho….ugh," Carol said.

"You don't like him, do you?" Alex asked.

"About as much as I like getting my teeth pulled without Novacaine," Carol said. "He's just….a good guy, but there's something about him which rubs me the wrong way."

"You can do better," Alex said.

"Yes, I'd like to think so," Carol said. "So, we're going out for lunch, right?"

"If you want to," Harry said. "To celebrate the business arrangement between our two companies."

"And many future dealings to come," Carol said.

Carol wondered about her father. He looked a bit tired and a bit worn out. His attitude towards Harry allowed him to show the most emotion than he did in many months. It put a little bit of pep in his step.

' _I should have thrown him out of a window,'_ Faora said.

' _Faora, please be good.'_

' _It's not as fun to be good,'_ Kara said.

Faora, Carol, and Harry left for a quick lunch. Harry could tell Carol needed to get away from the office, so he thought to indulge her for a couple of hours.

* * *

The worst parts of the Gotham City winter concluded into March. Some chilly nights lingered, but a heat from an explosion drew Black Canary into the scene of the crime.

The fish-net clad heroine stooped down on the ground. Flames caressed the air as she approached the scene around her.

' _So, are you wishing we're in California right about now, or is it just me?'_ Barbara asked. _'Because I honestly wish we're in California right about now.'_

' _Not just you, Babs,'_ Dinah said. _'But could you get me information on the location I'm heading to.'_

' _Right, about ten steps ahead of you right now,'_ Barbara said. _'Oh, it's a shipping company belonging to Maroni.'_

' _Thought the Red Hood directed most of his attacks on Thorne,'_ Dinah said.

Dinah thought about the fallacy of expecting a consistent attack pattern from a psychopath like the Red Hood.

' _Is it just me, or does it lean to the fact there's more than one guy underneath the Hood?'_ Barbara asked her.

' _No, it's not you.'_

Dinah slipped out of the shadows and took a good look around with her surroundings. A noise of a door opening indicated she was not alone.

Maroni's goons turned up to go against Black Canary. She took a good long look at how well they were armed.

"Look at her, caught red handed on the scene. Black leather, must be the Cat."

"Are you sure it's the Cat? I mean, she has her legs exposed in those fishnets. Not I'm complaining, those are some….hey where did she go?"

In the moment where the thugs argued whether or not they dealt with Catwoman, Black Canary slipped into the shadows. The woman slipped behind one of them and wrapped her arms around his throat. A chokehold put the goon to sleep. Black Canary pushed herself back into the shadows.

"Spread out, the bitch couldn't have gotten too far!"

The goon who said the statement proved to be accurate. Black Canary swooped in from right on top of the goon and nailed him with a glancing blow to the back of the neck. A shot to the side of the neck doubled the goon over.

Black Canary yanked the goon into the shadows. The fishnet clad heroine swept around to the shadows.

One of the goons screamed. Another figure in the shadows took the goon down.

Black Canary watched as a goon dropped to the ground. An arrow planted into the chest of one of the goons and doubled him over onto the ground.

The fishnet clad heroine turned her head. Nightshade stepped from the shadows. The arrival of one of the members of the League put Black Canary on full alert.

"What are you doing here?" Black Canary asked.

Black Canary stood in a martial arts pose. If Nightshade gave her the excuse, Black Canary planned to knock her enemy out like a light.

"Trust me when I say if I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead before you knew I was here," Nightshade said. "We have a mutual enemy."

Black Canary didn't let her guard down. Her curiosity piqued to a brand new level. The fishnet clad crime fighter leaned in to look Nightshade in the eye.

"Tell me more?"

Nightshade flipped a folder over her in her hand and placed it into Black Canary's hands.

The second Black Canary looked at the folder, Nightshade vanished into the shadows.

' _Okay, talk about weird,'_ Barbara said.

' _I think this redefines weird,'_ Dinah thought.

Nightshade assisted her, when Black Canary assumed the woman would rather killer her. Why did she do it? Dinah only began to speculate, but she flipped open the folder. Interesting information stared in her face. Information Dinah needed Barbara to check for authenticity.

' _I'll be back in the Clocktower in fifteen minutes. Got to make sure no one follows me back.'_

Harry recently had security doubled, and Paula tested it, but still, Dinah didn't want to take any unnecessary chances.

* * *

A figure sat in the shadows surrounded by numerous high tech monitors sat in an overly large computer chair. He leaned back. The image of a figure appeared from the shadows.

"So, were the rumors true?"

"Yes, the rumors are true," the man said. "Stark and Potter are having a meeting with each other. Not sure about what, but buzz in the scientific community is they're working on some kind of drone technology."

"Oh amazing, fantastic, imagine the possibilities of such an amazing invention," the man in the shadows said. The man started to rub his hands together, but stopped when he resembled a stereotypical villain.

He wanted to be a better than average villain, so being a stereotype would not suit his better than average standards.

"We've already considered the possibilities, even though we hit a snag with our own collaboration on such an invention."

' _Yes, because your group doesn't have an inventive bone in your body,'_ the man in the shadows said. _'All you do is kidnap some of the best scientists, or steal all of your inventions.'_

"And I trust you've been at work getting the information we want from you," the man on the other end of the screen said.

The man in the shadows raised his eyebrow. He clutched his hand into the edge of the keyboard.

' _Must not lose my cool in dealing with these simpletons.'_

"Well, I'm waiting for the answer to my inquiry."

"To answer your question, yes I've been working on gathering up the necessary information for you," the man said. "I have a full floor plan, which you can get inside and get what you want."

"The virus is only one element of our plans, but it's a vital element," the man on the other end said. "You've done the world of science a great service, Enigma."

Enigma broke into a slightly visible smile from within the shadows. He tried not to look too pleased with himself, even though a moment of smugness broke on through his façade.

"Yes, well, I'm sure this will be the beginning of a partnership. I can be the most valuable mind your organization has ever seen."

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Our plans may yet involve you, and if they do, we will be in touch sooner than you think."

"Yes, well, let me know so I can check my schedule," Enigma said. "I might be able to find time for you yet."

The monitor clicked off. Enigma leaned back and smiled wide.

"Yes, they need me. They're just not sure what to do with an intellect like mine. I don't blame them. Not many know what to make of someone like me. I mean, I'm only….well, the second smartest man in Gotham City."

He looked at the picture of Harry Potter, mended with duct tape from a recent outburst

"I'm sure I could have taped this better. But, my friend, we got to give credit where credit is due. They still don't understand how brilliant you are. The only person in this city who is close to matching wits with someone like me."

The alliance with the Advanced Idea Mechanics proved to be a fruitful venture for Enigma, more than anything else. The man cracked his knuckles together.

A message came in from another one of his contacts. Enigma swooped in to see what this man had to offer him.

* * *

Tori and Pepper arrived at the office. Pepper ensured Tori arrived about fifteen minutes before the meeting and completely sober. She resisted the pleading to stop at the club for a few minutes.

If Pepper's experience, a few minutes really met a few minutes, especially when Natalie Victoria Stark is concerned.

The moment Tori arrived, she stopped. A tall blonde woman dressed like a secret service agent greeted her. She carried a baton of sorts in her hand. A pair of sunglasses covered her eyes, although at certain angles, Tori noticed they were blue.

The suit fit around her body. Nice large breasts, a tight fit form, a shapely ass, and long legs. Also she was the type of woman whom looked like she could break you in more ways than one, both in good ways and in bad ways.

Tori's gaze turned to Pepper's. The woman's mouth hung open.

"Oh good, the agency sent you over," Pepper said. "I'm glad you could."

"Pepper, who is this and what is she doing in my office?"

"My name is Bobbi Morse, I'm your new bodyguard."

Tori turned away from the woman and looked at Pepper. She looked back to the woman and took the woman's hand. The two shook hands, even if Tori's tension rose.

"I don't remember asking for a bodyguard. Did I ask for this in the heat of the moment, and didn't remember it the next morning? Or did I….."

"You didn't ask for one, the Board wanted you to have one given your ability to get yourself in trouble," Pepper said.

"Hey, hey, hey, it isn't my fault some crazed nutcases developing fixations at the worst possible times. And I had a taser, so it wasn't like I was in any real danger."

"Really?" Pepper asked. "Would you rather Stane or the rest of the Board assign someone?"

Tori stopped short. Stane, she'd rather not have to deal with anyone Stane assigned for obvious reasons.

"Hey, if I wanted to, I could build a high tech suit of armor in a cave with a box of scraps to protect myself," Tori said.

"You're not getting a high tech power suit of armor," Pepper said.

"Why not?" Tori asked.

"Because, you'd end up fighting crime in it, or something."

"Fighting crime in a high tech suit of armor?" Tori asked. "Not a bad idea really."

Pepper nearly brokered the meeting between her palm and her forehead. The woman hated it when she gave Tori ideas. Talk about encouraging someone to get into trouble.

"Don't worry, Pepper, I'll make you one as well."

"No, thank you," Pepper said.

"Come on, every hero or heroine needs a sidekick. Think about it."

Pepper thought about it, and she envisioned cities going up in flames.

Bobbi cleared her throat to bring her out of the conversation.

"I understand your reservations, Ms. Stark. But I can assure you I'm the best at what I do. Half of the time, no one will know I'm there. Unless, they give me a good reason."

Tori knew the meaning of her, and the woman smiled, glad to have someone like Bobbi on her side. Talk about someone who could kick some serious ass, and might not be a half bad fuck either.

"Well, you're easy on the eyes, and look like you can handle yourself," Tori said. She turned to Pepper. "So, when's the meeting with RAO start?"

Pepper consulted her notes to double check.

"About in a minute…and here they come."

Harry and Alexandra Potter stepped through the front doors of the Stark Industries office building in California, flanked by their bodyguard and their personal assistant.

Pepper stared at Harry as he went into the office. Tori did as well, but turned to Pepper.

"Pepper, put your eyes back in and focus."

Pepper turned to her employer/girlfriend, and gave her the death glare. She realized Tori received it so often, she grew immune to it.

"Pot, kettle, black."

* * *

**To Be Continued September 23** **rd** **, 2015.**


	129. Destination California Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Nine: Destination California Part Three.  
**

* * *

Alex, Diana, and Tamara joined Harry in the back of the limo. Tamara finished giving Harry the rundown about a brief history of Stark Industries.

"After Howard Stark died, the Board of Directors declared Natalie was not ready to take over the company. Therefore, they appointed Obediah Stane. But, given some of her…..less than sterling reputation, it appears Tori never became ready to take over the company."

"Her father died when she was thirteen," Harry said. "She was supposed to take over the company when she turned twenty-one, like it's set up for me at SLE. At twenty-three, she's not ready, or unwilling to take over the company."

Given the rumors which Harry heard, he could only guess which of the two explanations her current attitude went under.

"She does have a reputation of being a bit of a partier," Alex said. "I wonder how much of it's a façade."

"What do you mean?" Tam asked.

"She does seem like the type who has a few unresolved issues with Daddy dearest," Alex said. "But, maybe I'm reading the signs wrong."

"No, I'm sure you're right," Harry said. "And Stark's been sending a lot of offers to me. And….I'm willing to hear them out."

"It's best for business if we hear them out," Alex said.

"The fact they're in the weapons business is concerning to you, isn't it?" Tam asked.

Harry leaned towards his personal assistant and nodded.

"I prefer not to put my genius up for sale for the government, whether it's from the United States government, or any other government in the world."

Tam frowned, and conceded Harry's point. She understood where he came from, believe her, she did.

"But, we're still going to hear them out," Harry said. "We had several concessions to make with the meeting. Namely, we meet with Natalie Stark herself, and not….well not anyone who is on the board."

"Stane's a prime candidate for the Douchebag League of Businessmen," Tam said. Harry raised an eyebrow. "Alexa's term, not mine. Although you have to admit, it's fitting."

"Perhaps," Harry said. "I wonder how all of their egos can fit in the room at the same time, you know."

' _Yes, I thought the same thing,'_ Karen said. _'Wish I could be there, but….'_

' _Hey, you've got a really important role yourself,'_ Harry said. _'Make sure everyone is settled in.'_

' _I can help, if you want, Karen,'_ Jaime said.

' _Thanks for the offer, but if anyone deserves a real vacation on their vacation, it's you, Jaime,'_ Karen said.

Jaime smiled. After this past Friday the 13th, the one in February, in Gotham City, she still hadn't recovered one hundred percent from the ordeal.

"I'm sure Karen's got it well handled," Diana said. "And Kara and Donna are old enough to back her up."

' _Old enough, but maybe not mature enough,'_ Amanda thought. _'Although it still scares me we're among the more mature girls on the trip.'_

' _How do we end up so…..composed?'_ Emily asked.

' _I've come to the sad conclusion, and I'm sure you've come to it as well, my dear Emily,'_ Amanda said. She spoke in a faux tone of sorrow. _'We got old. Truly our lives are over, but we became really old. Over the hill, at the age of sixteen, almost seventeen.'_

' _Seems like we've been on the cusp of being seventeen for a while,'_ Emily said.

' _Well it's been a slow year. Yet, somehow, a lot has happened.'_

Diana smiled and pulled herself away from the banter of the twins. Without them, life might take a turn for the dull and the dismal.

"It does help a little bit, Natalie Stark is fairly easy on the eyes," Diana said.

"It doesn't hurt," Harry said.

Alex smiled and leaned in to her "cousin. She knew what he was thinking.

"So, are you intending to add her to the list of conquests?"

Harry smiled. Alex went with the obvious question, didn't she? Harry leaned into his sister/cousin and grinned.

"Well, I think it might be a good idea if I consider adding her. But, you know given her reputation, might be shooting fish in a barrel."

"Not so sure about it being as easy as you think it is," Alex said. "You have a lot in common."

Tam's eyebrow rose, but she said nothing. Granted, the rumors about Natalie Stark reached the ears of many in certain circles. And she'd have to admit, Natalie kept herself in shape for someone who partied a lot.

' _Must be all the cardio,'_ Tam thought. _'Wow, talk about coming out wrong.'_

"Oh?" Harry asked.

Alex leaned in to Harry, a grin passing over her lips.

"The two of you, you have a taste for women. Granted, she's about as selective as you used to be."

' _If you call what Har is to be selective,'_ Kara thought. _'Which is not a complaint, merely an observation, you know.'_

' _Of course, it isn't,'_ Faora thought.

Alexandra Potter leaned in towards her cousin. Tam shivered at the look she gave.

' _She always looks like she intends to get someone into bed, and….I'm not sure if I'd argue too hard if she asked. Especially if it's both her and Harry.'_

Tam shook her head one more time. Working way too hard, if those kind of thoughts broadcasted their way into her head. She tried to keep her head above the water not to get too frustrated. Sexually frustrated, which happened a lot around Harry, and the hard work she did.

"Most of her conquests are women," Alex said.

Harry leaned in, and smiled. He knew what Alex thought, and decided to vocalize it for her.

"Which makes her right up your alley, wouldn't you say, Alex?"

The woman's lips curled into a knowing smile. Her tongue briefly brushed over her lips.

"Well, you're under the assumption I am capable of being subject of a conquest."

' _She isn't,'_ Kara said. _'But, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.'_

The limo pulled up at the Stark Industries main office building. Harry resolved to keep an open mind. He doubted they were going to make any deals today, more like a meeting to figure out what Stark's intentions were in making the overtures.

Tam, Diana, Harry, and Alex left the limo after Penny parked it, and made their way up to the meeting between Stark and RAO.

"Remember, everyone keep an open mind."

* * *

Black Canary didn't know what to make after her encounter with Nightshade. She looked over the information, after returning to the Clocktower. It was pretty legit, but at the same time, something about the information stunk to all kinds of high heaven.

Oracle looked over the information. The hacker performed her voodoo with the precision one might expect from the likes of her. Her fingers whizzed over the keyboard at an intense and accelerated rate.

"So, very interesting," Oracle said.

Black Canary's gaze locked onto the back of Oracle's head. She took the long way around to ensure Nightshade or any members of the League didn't follow her back to the Clocktower.

' _Unless they already know,'_ Black Canary thought.

"Aren't you going to ask what's very interesting?" Oracle asked.

Black Canary shook her head to return herself out of the funk she entered. Oracle didn't even notice the lost look in her eyes. She stared forward into the computer screen.

"Yeah, sorry, my mind's a million miles away right now," Black Canary said.

Oracle smiled and rose to her feet. The two of them faced each other.

"A near fatal encounter with the League isn't anything I'd forget for a long time," Barbara said. "And it wasn't really fatal. She didn't kill you."

"She didn't even attack me," Dinah said. "She shoved the packet into my hand and disappeared into the night as quickly as she appeared."

"Why would she, though?" Barbara asked.

Dinah responded with a shrug. Any theory entering her mind either proved to result in the truth or resulted in a sheer fallacy.

"I really don't know," Dinah said. "I can only begin to guess what happened out there. The League's planning something."

"Do you think Harry could find out if the League is trying something?" Barbara asked.

"Well, his contact in the League either doesn't know, or he doesn't want to pressure her. Or maybe he enjoys the challenge of trying to figure out the plans of the League on his own."

Barbara folded her arms underneath her chest and tossed her hair back.

"When you really think about it, Harry does have some odd ideas with what he considers a challenge."

"Yes," Dinah said. "I'd have to agree sometimes, but it makes him the very best he can be. So, do you think you could fault him?"

Barbara frowned and shook her head. No she couldn't fault Harry. Regardless of what the League planned, Dinah and Barbara faced a real and very tangible problem involving the Red Hood Gang.

"Well, we'll worry about the League when we need to worry about them," Barbara said. "And why do I think we're going to have to worry about them sooner rather than later?"

"Because we are?" Dinah asked.

Barbara sighed, the point was well taken.

"But, the information Nightshade handed us, I've been able to verify it. And it will likely lead you straight in the line of fire between Sportsmaster and the Red Hood Gang."

"Just as Nightshade intended, I'm sure," Dinah said.

She smelled a trap to be honest. Her keen instincts detected one, and Dinah loathed the fact.

"But, as you know ,if Napier's involved, and we have every reason to believe he is, it's going to open a brand new can of worms with Thorne."

Dinah groaned and nodded. She understood all of the problems in Gotham City, and the various gang wars heating up. Hell, Black Canary found herself in the middle of the gang wars far more times she cared to admit.

"I'm going to head out right now, see what I can do," Black Canary said.

Black Canary privately thought she lingered too close to some den of snakes. The League resembled vipers this close to biting the first hand who stuck itself out into the snake pit.

The Red Hood Gang on the other hand, they proved to be the wild cards of Gotham City. And they'd be more than dangerous after adding some actual leadership to their group.

' _I don't envy your position,'_ Barbara thought. _'And are you still thinking we should have gone with the others to California?'_

Dinah made her way down from the Clock Tower and back into the mean streets of Gotham City. The woman turned a corner, and turned her head as well.

' _Believe me, I've thought about every single moment since the trip. I'm sure Harry's going to make it worth our while to be here. And besides, someone needs to hold the fort down.'_

' _Batman and Katana are still very active,'_ Barbara said.

' _But they're allies, not part of the group,'_ Dinah thought. _'And they've got their own problems with the League, without involving them in my own.'_

' _Maybe more of us should get involved, the more Gotham City's problems are becoming more of a problem,'_ Barbara said. _'I've been thinking….'_

' _Dangerous, Babs, really dangerous.'_

' _Oh, you're funny, Dinah Laurel Lance. I've been thinking about suiting up, and maybe….well I thought about what it might be like to go out on the field, and actually be a bit more active. Just a thought, you know.'_

Dinah's protective older sister senses started tingling.

' _No, absolutely not,'_ Dinah thought. _'Not without more training anyway, lots more training.'_

Barbara did know how to defend herself, but brushing up couldn't necessarily hurt her cause any.

' _Well, maybe you can train me more like you're training Kara,'_ Barbara said. _'Just a suggestion, no need to take it the wrong way.'_

Dinah smiled. She didn't really take it the wrong way. Her concern Barbara might get in over her head rose. Kara's training worked more along the lines of making sure she brushed up on her fighting without her powers.

* * *

"I must say, Alexandra Potter, it's good to see you in the flesh, and a lot of glorious flesh it is as well," Tori said. "Not, I'm saying the skirt's too short, I mean a skirt could never be too short….and you look well even with the company you keep."

Tori's gaze locked onto Diana.

' _And here I thought Bobbi's in good shape, this one looks like she could eat Bobbi for lunch, chew her up, and spit her out even. Granted, Bobbi's pretty capable of her job. Pepper wouldn't have hired her if she's less than capable, you know.'_

"It's a pleasure to meet you, and do business with you, Natalie," Alex said. "Given how many times you've requested a meeting, it's difficult to say no after a while."

"You know, I've been a bit of a pest, but….even RAO has attracted my attention," Tori said. "And the attention of some people higher up the food chain in me."

"I'm sure your father intended you to be pretty high up the food chain yourself," Harry said.

"Perceptive, but I've got a good staff, who have things under control," Tori said. "Why would I want to pull them out of their positions, when they're capable of doing the work."

"Stark has posted some of the highest record profits as of the past couple of years, but this year, it dipped a little bit," Harry said.

Tori frowned.

"You know, I'm the wrong person to ask about why the company's profit took a dip. Sounds like you'd want to talk to the Board about it, and….yeah, they better answer some questions quick, as in yesterday."

Tori's annoyance bubbled through her sunny voice. Pepper cleared her throat and nudged her employer.

"But, you know, we could talk about what's happened in the past, but I'm more for moving up in the future. And you're right, I think I should take a closer interest in what's been going on in my own company."

"We're very impressed with your work, Doctor Potter," Pepper said. "So much so, you may help solve a problem Stark Industries has been working on for a long time. Making a long-lasted and sustaining drone, which has the potential to deliver medicine and other supplies past hazardous conditions."

"And it does have other uses as well," Tori said.

"Yes, I understand what the other uses are," Harry said.

Tori experienced a chill going through the air. The words of Harry Potter cut her to the bone with a solid slice.

"Oh, I didn't mean to….what I meant to say is….."

"Our drones are still in the experimental phase," Alex said. "We did have a working test model, but we had to recall it to make some modifications."

"You aren't the first people who inquired about our drones, nor will you be the last," Harry said.

Truth is, they had some moderately functioning drones, but the power drain on them, along with the wear and tear resulted in too many problems for a day to day usage of them.

"So, the RAO drones do exist?" Tori asked. "Because, it would be so cool if they did."

Pepper sighed. Her employer always distracted herself with the shiny. And the biggest shiniest things her employer encountered turned out to be the drones made by Harry Potter.

"In the experimental phase, they exist, in the prototype phase, they exist, "Alex said. "In the actual practical phase, there's a very long time before we have anything tangible out on the market.'

"You know, every government in the world would bust a nut if they thought you came close to having drones," Tori said.

Harry frowned, taking a drink of a cup of coffee in front of him. He understood where Tori came from in a situation like this. And her words glinted with a hint of accuracy. Military types took interest to what Harry worked on.

"They might be interested, but I doubt they could find my price tag," Harry said.

"Wait, you wouldn't sell to the military?" Tori asked.

"I could make a huge profit, but at what cost?" Harry asked. "I'm not in the business of causing mass destruction."

"Well, short term, it results in good profits," Tori said. "Long term, kind of damages your reputation."

Her father's past skeletons reminded Tori of this fact. Howard Stark's genius helped many people, and hurt many others, even if he did so in an indirect manner. Good technology twisted to bad purposes when in the wrong hands.

"Tell him about the Artificial Intelligence we've been working on," Pepper said.

Tori snapped out of her thoughts on the drones.

"Um, yeah, AI, right, we're…..working on the state of the art AI which is miles ahead of anything on the market."

' _In a sense, she's right, our AI isn't out on the market,'_ Alex thought.

' _And our AI is scrapped together from a combination of ancient magic and Kryptonian technology, far beyond the capacity of your standard person on the street to scrap together,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, you've got a point,'_ Alex said.

"So, you've been working on the AI?"

"More of the concept, but I swear, if I ever have a slow moment, I'll be able to get together some kind of prototype."

Tori fished a notebook out of her bag. The heiress to the Stark empire flipped through her notebook, stopping with a frown.

"You know, I've never called this number. Hope she's not too pissed off at me for giving her the brush off. Oooh, the suit of armor I designed for the school science fair when I was ten. Forgot about it. Never quite got the power source to function….I wonder if the Arc reactor would make it work. Another problem for another time, I guess."

"About the AI?" Pepper asked.

"Yes, in a minute, Pepper," Tori said. She shifted herself through the papers. "Ah, here we go, one AI here. Named JARVIS, after an old friend of my father's….spent more time with me than my father did, because he's tied up with keeping Stark running smoothly."

Tori trailed off and avoided heading down a particular trip down memory lane.

"If you're dealing with AI, you should test it and run it over with a fine tooth comb before implementing anything," Harry said. "AI works well in theory, but as anything with free will, it can go wrong."

"Yes, I know, AI is a crapshoot," Tori said. "I've read some science fiction books, but thanks for the concern. I haven't even got a prototype built yet, although shouldn't be too hard. Going to need the right amount of time….and not be distracted by other pursuits."

Tori frowned.

"Granted, the theory is different than the practice. And I'm sure a smart guy such as yourself has a few ideas. The two of us together, we could create something wonderful."

"Well, you do have some ideas, if you can focus on them," Harry said.

"Yes, she does," Pepper said.

' _Good luck at the actual focusing part.'_

"Well, maybe you can educate me on the ins and outs of artificial intelligence at dinner one night," Tori said.

Pepper looked surprised at Tori showing any interest, even from a professional standpoint, at a male. Then again, Harry Potter just wasn't any male. His accomplices and his massive and ever growing stack of Doctorates spoke for himself.

' _Wonder how he finds time to sleep. Especially given the rumors of his extra activities, but….I spent way too much time around Tori to give this much thought.'_

"I might think about it," Harry said. "But, I think unless you have something else to show us, I think we better wrap this meeting to a close."

"So, I guess, I pretty much ruined the chances of Stark and RAO working together in the future," Tori said.

Harry leaned to the Stark heiress, a smile crossing his face.

"Ruin is a pretty loaded word. I don't think you ruined anything. But we're going to have to come back to this deal at a later date, and see where it goes."

"Right, I'm glad you aren't pushing me away," Tori said.

' _Normally I do the pushing, mostly because….who really needs the drama of commitment.'_

"I think if Stark makes some changes, and if you take a closer look at your company, I might be interested in doing future business with you."

Tori groaned. She thought he pretty much told her she needed to step up and take responsibility.

"Easier said than done, I think."

"You do have a brilliant mind," Alex said. "Don't let it go to waste."

* * *

A woman dressed in a tight, form fitting, but functional, blue body suit, slipped into the Stark Industries production facility. She wore an ornament golden mask, covering her face. The mask looked standard at first, but the low tech illusion showcased how high tech the mask turned out to be.

The masked woman sauntered into the facility. One assumed she knew precisely where she needed to go.

"Hey, I'm going to need a pass!"

A portly security guard's head turned to the masked man. The woman whipped out a baton, and shocked the guard.

The guard slumped to the ground with a small, but non-lethal dose of electrified.

"I'm going to need your clothes."

The woman showed surprising strength as she hoisted up the man and dragged him into the closet.

Seconds later, the woman exited the closet, dressed in the uniform of the guard. The uniform hung from her body.

"Let's see what the mask can really do."

She pressed a button on the side of the mask. The mask took on both the features and the body type of the security guard.

The intruder ran her hands over her body. She still felt her curvy frame. The mask could not hide everything, so she'd have to not bump into anyone.

' _Okay, you're not in your main office, where are you?'_

The disguised guard picked up a cup of coffee and leaned against the wall, drinking it. A couple of suited employees passed her.

"Don't work too hard, Frank."

"I'll try not to."

The masked woman watched the two men passed. Her voice passed for a precise duplicate of Frank the Security guard.

She stepped off to the side. A key card allowed her access to a private elevator. The woman made herself comfortable, as she went down several floors.

The masked woman slipped from the elevator into the next room. She remained crouched down on the ground. The thief moved like a cat stalking on a particular fat rat, and hid behind a stack of boxes. It allowed her the perfect vantage point to see her target.

A bald gentleman dressed in a custom made suit spoke on a communication device to some person.

"Yes, I realize you are skeptical of the matter, but I can assure you I have it….if the price is right, you can have it."

The woman in the mask peered around the stack of crates to continue her hunt. Obediah Stane caused the woman to clench her fist.

"I can sell this virus to you at a premium, and you can use it to accomplish whatever goals you may see fit!"

The masked woman's eyes narrowed once more underneath her mask .She leaned past the stack of crates and kept looking.

' _Yes, Obediah, no matter what, you tend to have grand ideas of what's going to happen. And you assume your plans are infallible.'_

Stane lifted a vial of red nano-bots up for the unseen party to take a look at.

"It does exist," a distorted voice said.

"Of course it exists. This virus doesn't just stop technology, it eats it, destroys it from the inside out. Natalie Stark invented the project, when she was in middle school, bored in Biology class one day. She filed it away, and forgot about it, but I unearthed it from archives."

The masked woman swept across the ground, preparing to make her next move, for better or for worse.

"But, we're going to discuss more about this item later, the second you return to me with the right price. I'll be in touch."

The woman armed a tranquilizer gun and made her move. The moment Stane disconnected the call, she fired a dart into the back of his leg.

Stane doubled over, and stumbled back. He felt dizzy and almost dropped the virus onto the ground.

The woman reached out to catch the virus before it hit the ground. She responded by kicking Stane in the ribs. She removed a taser from her belt and shocked him to his knees.

Stane turned around with a grimace, and stared down the figure before him.

"Who are you?" Stane asked.

"Call me, Madam Masque," she said. She smiled, and removed a blade from her assemble.

Stane recognized the elegant mask on her face for the briefest of seconds, before he faded to black.

Seconds later, Stane departed from the office, slipping the vial into a briefcase. The businessmen moved past the two security guards, who parted like the Red Sea and allowed Stane to continue to go.

"Sir, there's been a security breach, one of the guards has been…..

"I'm in a hurry. Take care of it."

Neither of the guards questioned the abrupt nature of Stane's departure. Their boss always moved on with something or another, and left them hanging.

Madam Masque exited the building. In a matter of seconds, they would come across Stane sedated, in his underwear. By the time they found him, she would be gone and out of the building, without any kind of trace.

People threw around the term perfect crime a little too much in this day and age, but Madam Masque thought she pulled off the perfect crime.

She had no use for whatever the red nanobots were, so it's time to see if she could make a deal. Kill two birds with a single stone as the statement went.

* * *

The sound of loud club music started to resound off of the walls. The music didn't have paint peeling qualities, but never the less, it made a lot of noise.

Tamara and Harry entered the club, moving past a group of club goers. The two of them walked hand in hand over to the bar and over to order a drink.

"So, what do you think of Natalie Stark?" Harry asked.

Tam frowned and leaned back against Harry. The two of them decided to on their third date, or was it a fourth date? One of them didn't really count in her eyes, given they were with a group of people. Okay, maybe it did count, but only as a half of date. The math confused her, but never mind.

"Well, she's got a lot of issues," Tam said. The bartender placed the ordered drinks down next to her. "Seems like she doesn't want to take adult responsibility, even though she's willing to take control of the company."

"She's pretty intelligent," Harry said. "She just lacks the necessary amount of ambition to get things done."

"Yes, talk about the story with a lot of rich children of millionaires and billionaires," Tam said. "I mean, talk about issues. Okay, you turned out alright."

"Debatable," Harry said.

"Well, sure you have your vices, but you're a lot better in reigning them in when it counts," Tamara said. "And then Alexa and Sapphire, despite having a high pressure situation dropped into both of their laps for different reasons, but they've done pretty well for themselves."

Harry smiled and looked at Tam.

"And what about you?"

Tam grinned, he caught her. Technically she counted as a rich heiress, even if she wasn't often mentioned in the same breath of the others.

"I think I've done fairly alright as well," Tam said. "Although, as far as prominent rich kids go, I wouldn't put myself on your pedestal."

Harry reached and touched her hand. Some small sparks of electricity flowed between their fingers, causing a tingling sensation within both of them.

"Don't sell yourself short Tam. You're amazing."

"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence. But, there are a lot more Oliver Queens out there, then there are Harry Potters, and it's a shame. I wouldn't put Tori on Queen's level, but I'd like to buy her personal assistant a drink."

"She does seem like she needed one," Harry said.

The two of them enjoyed the moment. Tam thought this might prove to be a nice evening. Sapphire and Alexa hinted at Harry's prowess so much, the woman considered taking the next step tonight.

She wasn't one hundred percent sure she wanted to dive in. They had been on a few dates, and spent a bit more time other than their dates together.

The doors of the bar swung open. Pepper and Tori entered the club, followed by a third woman, although she stayed out of their way.

"It's going to be a long night, hope you don't get bored easily," Pepper said.

"Don't worry," the other woman said. "I know what I signed up for the moment where….."

The woman's eyes fell upon a familiar face sitting at the bar. Tori noticed the same person as well and made a beeline.

Pepper followed Tori, wondering if hazard pay would cover this little outing. Did she even get hazard pay? She should have qualified for now.

Tori popped herself up on the chair right next to Harry.

"The usual, Miss Stark."

"You know what I like, Macy…..and I'll see you after hours."

"After last time, don't bet on it."

Tori acted like she received an arrow shot straight to her heart. Pepper joined her boss on the other side.

"So, can I buy you a drink?" Tam asked.

Pepper frowned and shook her head.

"I think I need to keep my wits about me, just to make certain."

Tam's eyes shifted over Natalie Stark. The woman's lips curled into a frown which deepened with every second.

"I see."

"Glad, you do," Pepper said.

"So many doctorates….I actually looked up how many you had, and you're on task for another one, aren't you?"

"I'm sure you could have had just as many, if you put your mind to it," Harry said.

"You sounded almost like my father sometimes, and you have a similar reputation with the women as he did," Tori said. "Between all of your work, all of your conquests, and all of….well your studies, I wonder when you find the time in the day to sleep. Hell, I wonder how you find time to do much of anything at all, with all of the women."

"I'm good at multi-tasking," Harry said.

Tori caught the double meaning of it. Or her mind flew straight into the gutter.

The door of the bar opened. A woman dressed in a shimmering red dress which formed a tight fit around her body entered the club. Her dark hair tied back to show her elegant looking face, and her blue eyes shined bright. Her high heels made her legs go on forever.

"Well, here comes trouble," Pepper said.

Tam and Harry both heard Pepper's remark, and were about ready to question the woman about it, but they were stopped. An excited Tori bounced to her feet.

"Whitney, I didn't know you were in town….I would have looked you up if you did."

"Tori….well it's a small world after all, isn't it?" Whitney asked.

"Please don't say it's a small world after all, I don't want to get the song stuck in my head," Tori said. "Although, I've mapped out the plans for an invention to get songs out of your head, although, I'm not quite sure how it works in the practical stage. Or ethical given it involves mind wiping."

Tori cleared her throat and stood up a fair bit straighter.

"Harry, Tamara, I'd like to introduce you to an old friend of mine, Whitney Stane. Whitney, this is Harry Potter and Tamara Fox."

Whitney's eyebrow rose at Harry's name, but she adjusted her face not to show as much surprise quickly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Harry," Whitney said. "Tori told me if she ever slept with any guy, you'd be at the top of the list."

"Whitney!" Tori yelled. "It was a hypothetical situation, not it wouldn't happen, unless it does, which it could….but I haven't had this much to drink, and we're not in Vegas, so I doubt anything too scandalous is going to happen."

Harry found a fair bit of amusement of the normally cocky heiress sticking her foot in her mouth. She did have a couple of hard drinks in her.

"You know you're not allowed to be in Vegas anymore," Pepper said.

"Hey, Pepper, still as spicy as ever?" Whitney asked.

"Hey, Whitney, still as amusing as ever," Pepper said. She turned her attention away from Whitney to Tamara. "So, is the drink offer still on the table?"

"Yes."

Tori turned her attention to Whitney.

"So, I noticed you did something to your hair? As in, it used to be blonde, but now it's black."

"Well, we all go through changes, Tori, and we all wear masks," Whitney said. "Given, we have similar demons and issues, I'm sure you understand better than anyone else."

Tori understood all about the masks people wore, and why they wore them. Whitney's the prime candidate for someone who wore a mask because of having to hide from the world.

"So how are things…."

"With my father?" Whitney asked. "I don't talk to him, he doesn't talk to me, I think it's a relationship we both can live with."

Pepper excused herself for a moment to take a phone call. Seconds later, she returned.

"Tori, we've got to go, now," Pepper said.

"Go?" Tori asked. "But, we just got here?"

"Yes, there's been a break in at the facilities here in California, and Stane's on the warpath," Pepper said.

"A break-in?" Tori asked. "I didn't know Stane was on the West Coast. He didn't inform me….did he tell you to tell me?"

"No he didn't," Pepper said.

"Damn it, I guess I'm going to have to take care of this one right away," Tori said. She turned to Harry. "Sorry, but….."

"Hey, I understand, business comes up," Harry said.

"We're really going to have to get together sometime," Tori said. Whitney smirked. "Not like….you're really a bad influence on me!"

"Really, you need a bad influence?" Whitney asked. "Good luck in dealing with my father. Better you than me….I've got to meet with an old friend….they're not the kind who like to be kept waiting."

"Oh, well I'll be seeing you around," Tori said.

"Another time, then?" Harry asked.

"Another time."

Harry watched Tori rise to her feet. She looked like the troubled kid who had been spent to the principal's office. Pepper and her bodyguard, who Harry hadn't really noticed past going in, exited the club just as they appeared.

The intrusion of Stark Industries caught Harry's attention, but he determined not to nose around in it at least at the moment.

* * *

A group of men dressed in yellow suits approached an individual who looked to have a large head in addition to a shorter body. The men approached him.

"Our person on the inside informed us there's been a break in."

"Typical, Stane is trying to drive up the value of the Technovore by manufacturing a break in."

"You think the break in is staged?" one of the goons asked.

"I'm certain of it. But no matter, Advanced Idea Mechanics have a far bigger prize in mind. He's here in California. Capture Harry Potter. He's worth a significant amount, or perhaps he could be an asset to us."

"Capture Harry Potter?" one of the scientists asked. "But….bad things happen to those who….try anything with him."

"Given the money I employ you with, I expect you to come up with a solution, and I expect you to come up with a solution as soon as possible. I want Harry Potter."

The AIM goons grumbled. Some of them detested taking orders from this abomination, but the high council created him to ensure their operations moved in a more efficient manner.

"Capture Harry Potter, he talks about how it's easily done. For all of the probability crunching he does, he should know how stupid this idea is."

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 26** **th** **, 2015.**


	130. Destination California Part Four

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirty "Destination California" Part Four.**

* * *

 

Enigma's fingers clutched against the edge of a chair when he rocked back and forth. He awaited for AIM to return his communications. After all of the hard work the master hacker underwent, one would think a little bit of gratitude would be in order. The bee keepers snubbed him for a moment.

The organization who prided themselves on some of the top scientific minds in the world, one would think anyone with half a function brain cell in their head placed Enigma at the top of their lips.

' _Perhaps, I have given AIM a bit too my leeway, perhaps they aren't as intelligent as I assumed them to be,'_ Enigma said. _'We all know assumptions tend to be the tools of fools….but I fail to be thought of as a foolish individual. My mind is strong and keen. I won't….I refuse….I won't go down the road.'_

Rain propelled against the side of the window of his cave. The sounds of sirens resulted in the security of Gotham City having the same level of activity as they would the previous evening.

For a brief instant, Enigma assumed tonight's factitive resulted in him entering a crippling boredom. He reached to his desk and organized some files on the desk which were crooked.

The man spent an inordinate amount of time straightening the files on his desk. A well-organized mind placed everything in order.

A subtle buzzing directed Enigma's attention from his rummaging.

' _How very peculiar,'_ he thought. Enigma reached and activated a button.

"Is this Enigma?"

Enigma only gave this line out to a select few people. The fact he faced a mysterious woman on the other end made him frown.

' _Doesn't seem like my usual clientele who uses this line. But, maybe I should maintain an open mind.'_

"I think the real question is; how did you gain access to this line?"

"I have my resources, as you have yours. It's doubtful you want me to answer the question, because it would deprive you of an opportunity to engage in a battle of wits and solve the riddle on your own."

"Again, I ask you a question, you know much about me, but yet, I know very little about you," Enigma said.

"A man can be his own worst enemy if he speaks way too much," the woman said. "And you are rapidly becoming yours if you do not remain silent."

"Clever….clever girl," Enigma said. "But, could you at least indulge me on the fact of why you are contacting me. Very few go to all of the arrangement to connect with me, unless they need information or have something to sell…Ms….?"

He allowed the opening to hang. The woman stepped into greater prominence. Enigma didn't even know why she bothered to linger in the shadows. He had a good reason, but the woman wore a body bodysuit along with a golden mask.

"Well, I'd say you are a young female of shapely build, perhaps between the ages of twenty and twenty five. You're well educated and well bred, due to the way you hold yourself. Tell me if I'm getting warm?"

"And deprive you of an opportunity to solve the question with your own brilliant mind?" she asked. "I know you've been in contact with AIM, and they have been searching for an item of great value from Stark Industries."

Enigma's grip tightened against the chair. He returned himself to calmness after a couple of moments.

"I can neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of your statement."

"Well, I can confirm I have stolen the Technovore Virus from right underneath Obediah Stane's nose," she said. "I'm certain he intended to sell it, and if the price wasn't right, they intended to steal it. You hope to get a little piece of the future, signing up with AIM."

"I'm a man who keeps my eye on the various scientific achievements," Enigma said. "So, the Technovore, it's real?"

"Real as the air you breathe," she said.

"Yes, I'm sure you are willing to make me a deal…or perhaps you want me to help you set up a meeting with AIM, Ms….."

"Madam….Madam Masque," she said.

Enigma snorted. Given all of the time she had, to think of such a dull and unassuming name really showed her originality.

"Well, Madam Masque….what kind of deal do you think you're going to make for me?"

"I'm willing to sell you the Technovore Virus, for a fraction of its market value," Madam Masque said.

"How sizeable of a fraction are we talking about?" Enigma asked.

Madam Masque's words gripped Enigma. The man bit down on the worm and now the masked woman started to reel him in for the kill.

"We're talking about something along the lines of ten percent of the market value."

Enigma knew ten percent of the market value of such an exotic weapon wouldn't come cheap, but it was a fraction.

"You're willing to sell me the Technovore, for ten percent of the market value?" Enigma asked.

"Yes, you can either keep it for your own purposes, or sell it on the black market," Madam Masque said.

Enigma rolled over the positives and the negatives in his mind. Very few negatives when one considered the entire situation, and many positives, especially the virus would be in high command.

The profit potential almost caused Enigma to take the deal, but he paused. His OCD wouldn't allow him to take the ultimate plunge without asking the obvious question.

"What's in it for you?"

Madam Masque paused. Did she smile? Difficult to tell beneath the mask, but Enigma leaned in to listen.

"I want any information you can dig up on Obediah Stane."

"Stane?" Enigma asked. "You seem obsessed with him. I would highly recommend you get some help regarding your obsession. No one likes a stalker."

"Can you get me the information?" Madam Masque asked.

"Can I get you the information? Oh please, have you forgotten who you talk to? I can get you the information, yesterday, which you need today. I believe we had a deal….one of my associates will be in touch….I'm not certain how."

"In three days, I'll be in Gotham….on the outskirts of town, and in two, I'll call you for further arrangements."

"Well, you have planned this out, haven't you?" Enigma asked. He chuckled for a brief moment.

The woman almost amused him, along with creeping him out. There's nothing which crept Enigma out more than a creepy stalker being creepy.

Enigma continued his observation on the movements of Harry Potter. He received a new role as a moderator in an online news group called "Potter Watch" which dedicated itself to gathering all of the latest Harry Potter news.

The role of moderator gave him some extra eyes and ears, for the second most brilliant man in Gotham.

"Do not worry my friend. Being second best to my intellect is nothing to be ashamed about."

* * *

 

Harry sat upon the edge of the bed, with Lyta bouncing up and down on the bed to his right. The young Amazon Princess bubbled with excitement for obvious reasons.

"So, are you looking forward to the big outing tomorrow?" Harry asked.

Donna rolled her eyes. She sat on the bed across from Lyta. Harry put himself between Donna and Lyta.

' _Why do I think you're putting yourself between those two just to avoid a hazard?'_ Diana asked.

' _Diana, are you telling me you can't trust your two younger sisters to behave?'_ Kara asked.

' _Well, they can get a bit spirited,'_ Diana thought. _'And by a bit spirited, I mean very spirited. You know to the point where you wonder where they get all of the extra energy.'_

' _Sometimes I wonder myself,'_ Harry thought _'It is, what it is, though.'_

"Yeah, excited, as in she couldn't shut up about the trip ever since you arranged it," Donna said.

"Given the situation, you would have been excited if you were Lyta's age," Emily said.

"Or even not Lyta's age," Amanda said. She waved an accusatory finger in Donna's face. "You were looking forward the trip, don't lie about it."

Donna playfully swatted her hand around. Amanda responded with a sharp smile.

"Yeah, Donna, don't lie about it," Lyta said.

"It's good to get away from Gotham City for a few weeks," Donna said. "Don't get me wrong, it grows on you, but….."

Donna hung her head down for a few seconds. She pondered her next couple of words carefully. How did she want to say this?

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder," Harry said.

"Exactly," Donna said.

"And you know, my fourteenth birthday is coming up in a couple of month?" Lyta asked. She frowned and sighed. "Really seems like I've been thirteen forever…"

"Well given, the Amazon aging….." Amanda started before Donna hushed her.

The older Potter twin crossed her arms and rolled her eyes. If there was one thing she hated, it was being hushed.

"Finally, I'll be able to get my armor and start the next step in my training," Lyta said. "You know, my Ascension ceremony."

"And I'm sure you're looking very forward to your Ascension Ceremony?" Harry asked.

Lyta nodded her head a few times, resembling an overgrown bobblehead. The twins almost broke out into laughter at the antics of their niece before Harry told them to cool it.

"So, I guess it's going to be me and you, Donna, in the duel," Lyta said.

"Yeah, it should be something," Donna said.

"And I'm really sorry," Lyta said.

Donna folded her arms. Her shrewd suspicion of where her sister headed hit her in an instant. Harry gave her a warning look.

"You know, I'm sorry if I beat you in battle. I've been practicing, and I think you've been slacking off a little bit."

"I've not been slacking off," Donna said.

Donna folded her arms and glared at her younger sister. How dare she? She should spank the little brat for being so insolent. How dare Lyta act like Donna when she was around her age?

' _Maybe a little bit,'_ Diana said. _'You did put up a good fight in our little sparring session the other day.'_

' _Yeah, you didn't really slack up as much as I did for a while,'_ Kara said. _'Markos was a real wake up call for me.'_

' _So, when do you think you'll be on the field?'_ Donna asked.

' _When, Dinah, Diana, and Harry give me the go ahead,'_ Kara said.

' _I love you're not so subtle attempts to fish for feedback, from the people in the same room and in the same bond call,'_ Donna thought.

' _Don't worry about it Kara, pretty soon, you'll be ready,'_ Harry thought. _'You've got to work on your defense a little bit more. And I think we've trained you as well as we could without your powers.'_

"I can't believe we couldn't get tickets," Amanda said.

"I can't believe you couldn't get tickets either," Harry said.

Amanda folded her arms. She had the sense her brother taunted her about their inability to get tickets.

' _It's your own bloody fault you didn't get tickets,'_ Harry thought.

' _Where would they be without their older brother to save them?'_ Jaime asked.

"I mean, we should have thought ahead, and got the tickets….."

"Well, I was busy, so you should have gotten the tickets," Amanda said.

Emily's arms folded underneath her chest. The two twins stared each other down at least for a second, before Harry cleared his throat.

"Okay, there's no need to lay blame at each other," Harry said. "You've learned a lesson, haven't you?"

"Next time, we camp outside before the tickets go on sale like those nutcases in front of Wal-Mart on Black Friday," Amanda said.

"Or at least we pay someone to camp out for us," Emily said. "I bet Lois would do it, if we put her up to it."

"You're not going to put Lois up to it," Harry said. "She doesn't need any encouragement."

Amanda and Emily realized quickly discussing their plans in front of their older brother might be the best idea of the world. Granted, he could always listen in on them due to the bond link.

"Well, the next eighteen shows are sold out," Lyta said. "Better luck next year, my dear aunties."

Donna laughed, mostly because Lyta's sharp tongue directed at someone who wasn't her at the moment. Talk about a refreshing change.

"You know, we really messed up when our niece is scoring off of us."

"Oh, it's a real shame you know," Harry said. He smiled and patted Amanda and Emily on the head. "Better luck next year…..I'm sure Alison will be successful enough to have another tour. It might not have the pomp and circumstances of her initial tour, but you have to make do."

Amanda and Emily slumped on their chairs. Donna cracked a grin with Lyta bursting into laughter for a few seconds. She barely caught her breath.

' _So when are you going to tell them?'_ Kara asked.

' _On the day of the concert,'_ Harry thought.

' _And you can be cruel sometimes,'_ Kara said.

' _Oh, they're going to be happy with what I've done, especially if everything falls into place,'_ Harry said.

' _You don't want to make any promises, do you?'_ Karen asked.

' _Never want to jinx myself in case everything doesn't go as planned,'_ Harry thought to himself.

* * *

 

One of the higher end mobsters in Gotham City, Frank Bertinelli joined a group of his associates in the back of a limo.

"Yeah, my daughter, she's going to be up there at the top of her class at GPA this year. There's some stiff competition, but if anyone can do it, Helena can."

"You seem pretty proud of your daughter, boss, "one of the mobsters said. Frank raised his eyebrow in response. "Well, I'd be proud if she did…what she did…you know."

"Yeah, I'm very proud of her, Marco. She even made the soccer team. I guess you don't know what it's like to have any children…."

"A son, the wife took him, along with half of my money," one of the mobsters said. "I tell you, this career pays off at some times, but when it doesn't….it really fucking doesn't…"

"At least your wife didn't leave you for another woman."

"Well you should have seen the right on the wall….WHAT THE HELL?"

The limo drive slammed on the breaks, running into a roadblock. The sudden stop jarred the mobsters to the point where they didn't know what the hell happened.

A baseball bat cracked the glass of the window. The mobsters nearest to the window needed to duck down to avoid the glass spraying them.

"Open the door!"

"It's the goon in the Red Hood!" one of them yelled.

"I told you to open the door, if you know what's good for you!"

"Fine, I'm opening it," one of the men said. He removed a gun, but a hand grabbed him the second he opened up and yanked him out.

The Red Hood drove the man down onto the pavement. The criminal stood over the individual with a wicked grin crossing his face.

"Hello, Belmore, long time, no see. Still working with Thorne?"

The Red Hood caused the man known as Belmore to crash down onto the ground with a solid smack.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Well, I do, and I want you to let Thorne know the Red Hood is after him, and his turf in Gotham City belongs to the Red Hood!

Red Hood placed his foot on Belmore's chest.

A pair of hands yanked one of the Red Hood's goons into the shadow. The Red Hood goon's face connected with the pavement.

An elbow doubled over one of the goons, and caused the wind to be taken out of him. The Black Canary slammed one of them head first into the wall of the building.

"It's over!"

The Red Hood stepped back from her. He raised his hands and started to clap slowly.

"You should feel honored. I don't give any woman the clap."

Sportsmaster dropped from a nearby roof. Black Canary turned to face him, keeping her eyes on the Red Hood.

The criminal aimed a javelin at Black Canary. Canary dodged the javelin before it impaled into her.

Black Canary disarmed him after a brief tussle. Sportsmaster rolled to his feet, and tried to nail her. Black Canary blocked his attack and engaged in some hand to hand. Punches and kicks fired off of each other when the two of them did battle.

"I'm going to get you for what you've done to me!"

Sportsmaster flipped and pulled out a baseball bat. Simple, but effect, he thought. He swung for the fences trying to take Black Canary's head off.

Black Canary slammed a baton into the baseball bat. The two of them dueled with the bat and the baton, circling each other.

"Your play!"

The bat snapped because of Black Canary's attack. She drilled him with a series of rapid fire attacks. Black Canary flipped out of Sportsmaster's attempt to hurl an exploding eight ball at her.

The eight ball struck the ground. Dirt and debris shot into the air. Black Canary took advantage of the cover by dipping into the shadows.

"You know, I'm sick and tired of this bullshit. I'm going to make you pay….along with Nightwing, and Harry Potter….I'm going to make Potter pay as much for trying to move in on my life. He thinks he's so special, but he's nothing but a homewrecker and….."

Black Canary hammered Sportsmaster with a huge kick to the face, more to shut him up than anything. The kick doubled him over and planted him onto the ground.

She dodged a bullet from The Red Hood. Red Hood cackled like a hyena as he tried to put another bullet in Black Canary. The Bird of Prey dodged the attack.

A rumbling occurred in Black Canary's ear. A motorcycle drove up, and another Red Hood, this one less well dressed than the other one, turned up.

"Double the trouble, double the plunder!" the Red Hood said.

"I'm sick of this!" the second Red Hood yelled.

The first Red Hood stepped back and pulled his gun on the second Red Hood. The second Red Hood responded by pointing his gun at him. The two of them stood off with each other, like two outlaws about ready to have a shoot off in the old west.

Sportsmaster pulled himself to his feet for a second. He thought about taking advantage of this situation, but discretion looked to be the better part of valor.

"As they say in the old west, this town isn't big enough for the two of us."

"Well, I'm sick of playing your patsy."

The two Red Hoods circled each other, neither of them backing down for a second.

A canary cry doubled both of the Red Hoods over. The higher tech Red Hood staggered a bit less, while the low tech Red Hood dropped to the ground, clutching his ears in agony.

Black Canary charged the high tech Red Hood, but several goons rushed in to join her in battle. She prepared to throw down against the Red Hood gang.

The mobsters disappeared into the night, and Sportsmaster disappeared licking his wounds.

Nightshade watched Black Canary make short work of the Red Hood Gang. She didn't judge the woman as incompetent, but she thought it time to send a very powerful message. She turned to a trio of masked assassins on the roof.

"Make sure to leave an impression on her, ladies."

"What of you mistress?" one of them asked.

"I'm going after Sportsmaster," she said. "He won't get far, I can promise you."

The trio of assassins made their way from the roof. One of them took out a lone Red Hood gang member with swift precision.

Black Canary looked up. She figured a double cross loomed around the corner. She didn't know how soon, but the answer is now. She braced herself to fight three strong woman warriors.

Given they belonged to Nightshade's advanced guard, Dinah took them fairly seriously.

' _And these three might be the tip of the iceberg. It's the League; I wouldn't put it past them to have a few more assassins waiting in the wings after I deal with these three.'_

* * *

 

"So, someone broke in, what did they steal?" Tori asked.

"They stole my briefcase, with several classified Stark Industries documents," Stane said.

"Well, given the name on the marquee says Stark, shouldn't you tell me what's on those classified documents?" Tori asked. "And how did they slip in the facilities undetected. I don't understand how they could have got past the state of the art security."

Stane looked at the young woman. She seemed too smart for her own good at times, something which might be a problem going forward.

"Months ago, a state of the art mask went missing from archives," Stane said.

"You never informed me," Tori said. She turned to Pepper. "He didn't inform me, did he, Pepper?"

"To the best of my knowledge, he didn't," Pepper said. The woman's frown deepened.

The two women stared down Stane. Stane didn't back off from their intense glares.

"The mask allows people to take on the face of another person," Stane said.

"Yes, it's highly dangerous and unstable as well, hence why I had it thrown it out," Tori said. "Or I thought I did. The real question is why did it end up in archives?"

"I'm certain it's a misclassification," Stane said. "We'll make sure the person responsible for such a blunder is fired."

"Yes, convenient it's someone else's fault," Tori said. "You should have told me about the mask going missing, or is your failure to communicate vital information about my company an oversight?"

"Natalie, you never took much interest in what's going on in your own company," Stane said. "Whenever I talked to you about information, you were too preoccupied by playing with your laptop."

"I listen, some of the time," Tori said. "But, we have a dangerous and lethal mask in the hands of a potentially competent professional thief. They can wear any face, but eventually they'll forget who they really are."

Tori rose to her feet for a second.

"You know, keeping information like this is the reason why William Earle got booted out of Wayne."

Stane's face curled into a frown after hearing a name of someone he didn't respect.

"I'd kindly tell you not to compare me to Earle," Stane said. "And you're the number one suspect in this robbery."

"Oh, really?" Tori asked.

"I think the police will want to discuss your alibi with you," Stane said. "And I hope it's a good one, because you could lose any power you have in Stark Industries. You're already trending in slippery ground."

Pepper placed her arm on Tori's shoulder.

"I was with Tori the entire time, sir."

"I believe you, but I'm not sure the police will take a billionaire heiress at her word," Stane said. "Especially one who has a prolific history of drunk and disorderly charges."

A knock on the door interrupted Tori's cutting retort. Her fists curled into a ball.

The door opened. Tori's eyes gazed upon the one person she didn't want to see. An audible groan escaped out of her throat.

Miranda Waller stared down Stane. She looked intense as she stared him down.

"I'll handle the investigation from here, Stane," Waller said. "I'll be asking Ms. Stark a few questions, and I'll be back to interview you later."

"What right do you have….."

Miranda showed him her credentials. Stane backed off after a second when the credentials waved in front of his face.

"I trust you won't have any other problem," Miranda said. "Ms. Stark, this shouldn't take more than a couple of moments. Stane, we'll discuss this later, you're a person of interest, and my agency is very curious to what this Madam Masque intended to steal."

"Madam Masque?" Tori asked. "Oh yes, original, very original, she's a brilliant woman."

Miranda's gaze forced Tori to get to her feet. Tori, joined by Pepper and Bobbi, walked down the hallway.

Tori remained silent for a little bit. If past experiences with Miranda Waller told her anything, she would really let Tori have it at a drop of a hat.

"You don't believe I stole the mask, did you?" Tori asked.

Miranda responded by escorting Tori into the next room without saying a single word. Her angry gaze snapped on the woman.

"You better be more mindful of your surroundings, and what's going on in your own company."

"You're the second person to tell me to stop being a fuck up and take responsibility today," Tori said. "Although the other person was a bit more diplomatic than you are, and…."

"I know you think life's just one big party, Natalie," Miranda said. The woman stared into her eyes, her intense gaze burning. "But, you're going to lose everything your father built, and be left with nothing. Open your eyes, and see what's happening."

"Didn't know you cared, Miranda," Tori said.

"I wouldn't if the commander didn't have a bit of a soft spot for you. I'd sooner let you swim with the sharks."

"So, I'm not a suspect?" Tori asked.

"Even though Stane doesn't know you were meeting with Harry Potter at the time of the break in, I know, therefore as far as the agency is concerned, you're off the hook. Get your shit together, and have a nice day."

Tori watched Miranda Waller leave.

' _She really needs to get laid,'_ Tori thought. _'And I really could use a good drink.'_

* * *

 

Harry prepared the next morning for the trip. He wrapped up an early morning phone call for a minute.

"Yes, Carol, I agree, everything went well," Harry said. "And I hope we can meet in the future."

"How about lunch tomorrow?" Carol asked. "If you're not busy."

Harry mentally checked his schedule, and hooked his head.

"No, I'm not busy," Harry said. "I have plans all day for today, but as for tomorrow, I'm not busy. If you want to do lunch, we can do lunch."

"Great," Carol said. "I hope I don't seem like I'm coming on too strongly, but I really want to get to know you a bit better out of an office setting."

"No, don't worry, Carol, you're not coming on too strongly," Harry said. "At least no more strongly than a lot of women."

"Given some of the women you attract, I'll take it as a relief," Carol said. "I have to go, a busy day of meetings….and I'm sure you have plenty to do as well. So, you'll pick me up at eleven thirty, right?"

"Sounds like a plan, Carol, I'll be there with bells on," Harry said.

Harry put away the cell phone, but another number came in.

"Hello?" Harry asked.

' _I swear if it's another one of those telemarketers, I'd hurl the phone out the window,'_ Amanda said.

"Hey, Harry," Tori said. "Just….sorry about being….well sorry about having to leave last night before things really got going. Not saying things might have happened, but you know….I'm not….yeah, I've had a really bad night. She gave me both barrels last night, and told me I was nothing but a fuck up and how I would destroy my father's legacy. So I had a few drinks, while I thought about what to do next, and….well I decided to dial you up, and say I'm sorry."

"Hey, I know, business happens," Harry said.

"I mean, Obie has a ton of secrets, but this is the first time he outright lied to be me about something….maybe he's behind the heist, or something," Tori said. "Very few people had the credentials to get the mask. But, why would he tie himself up and strip himself to his underwear….must be a hell of a trick at parties."

Tori's slurred voice only barely constructed more than a few sentences. A part of Harry found himself really impressed she spoke as coherently as she did.

"So, anyway, just touching base, and….just letting you know I got in alright, and….I think I need to head to the toilet," Tori said. "Talk to you later….yes Pepper, I'll need you to hold my hair. So, um, bye Harry."

The phone hung up. Harry frowned, it wasn't the first time he had to listen to someone's drunken babblings nor would it be the last.

' _Well, talk about interesting,'_ Harry thought.

' _Think she's a train wreck waiting to happen,'_ Karen thought. _'A very attractive train wreck waiting to happen, but a train wreck's still a train wreck, isn't she?'_

' _Maybe,'_ Harry thought. _'But, she did verify Stane's been keeping secrets.'_

' _Stane, he makes Lionel and his crew look less shifty,'_ Faora thought. _'I guess we'll have to worry about it later, right now….a more thrilling adventure awaits up.'_

* * *

 

' _Have I mentioned you're out of your mind, because you're completely and utterly out of your mind,'_ Donna thought.

Harry chuckled. Lyta nestled herself in between him and Diana as the two of them walked through Disneyland. Most of the girls walked off to do their own thing.

' _Good thing we have trackers on all of them,'_ Kara thought. _'Just in case.'_

' _Well some of them are rich, and….while I'm sure Disneyland security is pretty good, none of us really want to take any chances,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yeah, Mickey Mouse looked pretty shifty,'_ Jaime thought.

Chuckling at his twin's remark, Harry bent down to look at Lyta.

"Oh, this is the best!" Lyta yelled.

Diana smiled as well. Her baby sister could grow up too fast, but it was good to see she could enjoy some of the wonders of the world.

Of course she enjoyed the time out with Harry even more, but could Diana fault her for enjoying the time out with Harry? Not at all, Diana couldn't blame her.

"I don't think you've seen some of the best parts, yet," Donna said.

"You've never been here, Donna," Kara said, walking over to join the group.

"Oh, I didn't….well I know how to use the Internet," Donna said.

"Well, if they said something on the Internet, than it has to be completely true," Kara said. Her lips curled into a bright grin.

Donna folded her arms and pouted.

"Ah, it's so adorable when you pout, because it means you don't get your way," Lyta said.

Donna gave her sister one of those side long looks.

"I better go with the two of them," Diana said. She leaned over and stole a quick kiss for Harry. "Don't worry, it will be okay."

"She's really looking forward to her fourteenth birthday," Kara said. "Because, we both know what it means."

Harry smiled, more so at the twinkle flashing through Kara's eyes more so than anything else. He understood what Lyta's fourteenth birthday meant very well.

"Yes," Harry said. "She gets her armor as part of the Ascension ceremony, anyone would be excited."

"I think she's going to get to spend some up close and personal time with you," Kara said. "Maybe not too personal….what's the age cut off anyway for the Collective?"

"Depends on the circumstances," Harry said. "Granted, fourteen in Amazon terms can pass off as old enough as an adult."

Kara nodded. Kryptonian and Amazons had a few different rules, magic uses too. Standard humans, the age thing skewed a bit higher. Then again, Harry's preferences for women skewed a bit older these days.

And speaking of older women, Paula Crock stepped over near Harry. Harry turned to greet her.

"So, are you enjoying yourself?" Harry asked.

"I'm enjoying getting out of Gotham City, more," Paula said. "Trust me; it's good to have a change of scenery every now and again."

Paula noticed a device in Harry's hand.

"Sorry, it's best if I keep track of our party," Harry said.

"Right, you tagged my daughters and the others as well," Paula said. "And they're with Ms. Lane and your twin sisters."

"Yes, it's a group I should be checking on, given the amount of trouble those three might get into together," Harry said.

"A GPS device for children," Paula said. "Well, if you ever put it out on the market, you'd make a fortune. Every mother in the world would want one. I could have used one with Jade and Artemis half of the time. They can be fiercely independent."

"I wonder where they get it from," Harry said.

Some screams of terror brought their attention to elsewhere in the park. Harry stood up rigid and frowned.

' _Oh, of course,'_ Harry thought.

' _I suppose we couldn't go on one vacation without some shit going down,'_ Karen thought. She shook her head in response.

' _What is it this time?'_ Faora thought.

' _Looks like a group of angry bee-keepers,'_ Karen thought.

Harry raised his eyes. He spotted the group of angry-bee keepers. Paula tensed up for a moment, but Harry shook his head.

"Help Jaime and Alex round up everyone," Harry said. "There's a pavilion there where you can hide."

"I don't like hiding from danger," Paula said.

"Don't think of hiding from danger, think of it as protecting your daughters and their friends," Harry said. "I wouldn't ask you to do this, if I didn't think you were skilled enough."

Paula stood up straight and nodded. She made her way off. Kara stood a few feet behind Harry.

"We're looking for Harry Potter! We intend to recruit him to work for the future masters of the world!"

' _Really, a job offer?'_ Kara asked. _'Getting a little bit pushy to be a job offer, isn't it?'_

Harry frowned and braced himself. He had a feeling it was more than a job offer. A group of rough neck mercenaries entered the park.

"And if Mr. Potter refuses to come with us, be warned, there's a bomb in the park. I can detonate it with a simple push of the button."

This declaration made Harry's blood boil.

' _What are you going to do?'_ Diana asked.

' _Diana, Kara, search for the bomb, I'll keep them occupied,'_ Harry thought.

Harry stepped out of the shadows in front of the League scientists.

"You know, if you wanted a meeting with me, you should have called in through my personal assistant."

Harry stepped to the AIM members. The mercenaries stood in front of Harry.

"So, are you ready to come serve your new masters, Doctor Potter?"

"I'll come with you," Harry said. "But, I don't you'll like me too much."

Harry allowed AIM to escort him off, taking a good look at the type of technology they used and where the most obvious weak spots in their armor would be.

' _Kara, Diana, you know what to do,'_ Harry thought.

' _Looks like the mercenaries are sticking around,'_ Diana thought.

' _Well, Kara, looks like it's your chance to put your training to good use.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on October 3** **rd** **, 2015.**


	131. Destination California Part Five

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-One: Destination California Part Five.**

* * *

The bee keepers escorted Harry from the van and towards some kind of high tech government complex. The young man stayed calm on the outside. On the inside, he seethed about what these bastards did. His fists clenched together. Deep breaths in and out, and for once, Harry's gratitude towards the watch bubbled to the surface. The only instance Harry's curse based on the mastery of death became a help rather than a hindrance.

If it were not for the watch, something would have exploded by now. Oh, Harry would be making things explode alright and rather soon. The explosions happened on Harry's own choice, not because of them forcing his hand.

"Harry Potter, admit you have finally met your match. You thought you were the most brilliant person in the world, but you pale in comparison to the minds of AIM."

"Wow," Harry said. "You really think you have me, don't you?"

"We don't think, we know we have you, Harry Potter," the AIM leader said. "And soon, you will be meeting our greatest creation."

"I'm on pins and needles," Harry said. One cold detect the smallest note of sarcasm in his voice.

"Jest now, Harry Potter, for we will have the last laugh. Your keen scientific mind is just another asset to be exploited by the Advanced Idea Mechanics. All great minds will serve the cause of science. We are the future rulers of the world, and you are in here, hopeless and helpless."

The words of the AIM leaders caused Harry to frown. They really thought he didn't go with them without a plan. He didn't know if they were arrogant, or their intelligence was far less than they even assumed. Regardless, the young man stretched his neck, keeping it high up, or at least as high up as possible.

"You should feel blessed, Harry Potter," one of the AIM leaders said. "There are very few who are allowed to see the inside of this facility. Truly marvel in the state of the art nature of this facility."

"Well, you've put a lot of time into it," Harry said. "And made it almost difficult to find your way around here."

"To a lesser mind, it might be difficult," the AIM leader said. "But to AIM, it is fairly simple and efficient."

Harry reached the edge of the tunnel. He looked around, making note of the exit points. His keen memory recorded each and every single tunnel down this labyrinth. AIM challenged Harry, well they should be careful what they wish for.

While the AIM leaders spoke with each other in lowered tones, Harry switched focus to the girls in the bond link. Kara and Diana remained at the park. The other Alphas assisted Paula in guarding the girls.

' _Oh be careful, Harry,'_ Amanda thought.

' _You're about to enter the zone,'_ Emily thought.

' _You're about to be assimilated as part of the hive mind of AIM,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Are all of the girls safe and sound?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes, they're all fine,'_ Faora thought. _'A bit anxious, but….you know how pre-teen and teenage girls get when they're over-excited.'_

' _Yes, I know,'_ Harry thought.

' _The AIM mercenaries are circling the park,'_ Karen thought. _'Do you think they know about any of us?'_

' _I don't know,'_ Harry thought. _'We should assume they know more than enough to cause some trouble.'_

' _Right, guess we'll keep you posted,'_ Karen thought.

' _Just be careful for any flashing lights,'_ Amanda said.

' _They're going to try to brainwash you,'_ Emily thought.

' _Even though they really don't know what they're getting into, because things tend to explode when you're not happy.'_

The back and forth did not distract Harry from the situation he entered. The AIM leaders lead him into a glowing chamber.

Harry wondered what the hell they planned to accomplish. What was the end game? Seconds later, the answer manifested itself in quite the interesting form.

For a few seconds, Harry assumed an eclipse occurred. A large headed individual with short arms turned up. His wrinkled face stared at Harry. For a moment, Harry cracked a smile.

' _What the hell is….oh it looks like something I drew when I was five,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Who the hell thought this creation was a good idea,'_ Donna thought.

' _Someone on drugs?'_ Emily asked. _'And I don't mean the good drugs either, I mean the bad ones.'_

The girls in the bond helped very little with Harry keeping a straight face. He turned to this large headed man.

"Greetings, Harry Potter, and welcome to the future of the world, welcome to the Advanced Idea Mechanics. I am the Mechanical Organism Designed Only for Conquest. I have been created by the Advanced Idea Mechanics as a way to lead them to the future. And I will acquire all of the greatest scientific minds in the world. The power will flow through my mind and the power will be mine."

The grandstanding speech almost made Harry break his straight face façade. The large headed man took a lot of time and a lot of effort in the speech. The young man struggled to keep his face straight and hold his head above water for too long.

He almost cracked. A mental countdown prevented Harry from cracking. He turned to the large headed man.

"You really must have thought this plan though."

The man's head started to bob in a crazy fashion. His mouth curled into a sadistic grin.

"The algorithm I've created showed the most probable event. There's no way this plan would fail. The result of failure would be implausible."

Talk about your best laid plans which were about to go wrong, the moment everything cleared in the park, Harry plotted to enact some payback for kidnapping him and worst of all, putting his daughter in danger.

The layout of the lab gave Harry some ideas. A few interesting looking pieces of technology caught Harry's fancy. His lips curled into a smile.

' _Oh of course, you wouldn't leave without a door prize,'_ Amanda said.

' _Does your kleptomaniac nature know any bounds?'_ Emily asked.

His girls hit everything right on the money, as per usual. Harry cackled at how accurate their words were. The son of Zod prepared to find a way out of there, but only when the moment was right.

* * *

Kara crept from the shadows. A group of AIM mercenaries patrolled. The terrified screams caused Kara's blood to boil. The Girl of Steel clenched her fists.

Putting people in danger to prove a point, they really entered her shit list. Kara took a moment to take a deep breath.

' _Okay, time to put what you've learned to use, Kara,'_ she thought. _'You can't be seen, you can't be seen at all.'_

One of the AIM mercenaries walked over her. Kara moved in, and caught him with a glancing punch to the side of the neck. The mercenary dropped to the ground, and flipped over, being strung up.

The two other AIM mercenaries walked over to check the sound of the disturbance. They looked around in an attempt to locate their enemy.

A flipping kick knocked one of the AIM mercenaries out. A second AIM mercenary looked around.

A second figure wrapped her arms around his head. She brought her arm underneath his chin, choking him out. The mercenary's knees buckled underneath him before landing on the ground.

"What the hell is going on?"

"Our men are dropping, we better go check it out."

An entire cluster of them scrambled over to check on the downed mercenaries. They looked at each other, in confusion.

"I don't like this….we better get out of here."

"Our leaders aren't going to be happy if we fail to hold the park. We need it as insurance for Harry Potter."

"Well, we better find out who is trying to be a hero then," one of the AIM goons said. He pointed his weapon, but saw nothing, not even an animal. "I don't like….."

Two of the mercenaries were plucked from the rest of the group. The loud cracking sound indicated one of the mercenaries falling to the ground. The wind knocked out of them.

Kara dragged one of them up from her perch point and threw him hard onto the ground. One of them aimed a weapon at her. She dodged the blasts of light with expert movements.

The teamwork allowed Diana to swoop in, and grab the man around the head, before whipping him back. A second mercenary directed his attention to Diana.

Kara returned the favor by bringing the point of her elbow high down from the heavens and coming down hard. The woman cracked her elbow down onto the back of her enemy's head.

Diana smiled for a moment. She looked over her shoulder. No more mercenaries came after them.

Despite defeating the mercenaries, they were not out of the woods yet. Kara picked up the portable AI council and pressed it in, activating her mother.

"Okay, Mother, I hope we can find the bomb," Kara said. "I have a feeling it could be detonated at any moment."

"Scanning, you're actually closer than you think," Alura said.

The bomb had to be close by, providing it wasn't a bluff. A weird energy emitted from around a cart.

Kara turned over her shoulder, looking at Diana. The Amazon Princess locked eyes with the Kryptonian.

"Diana, I know you're capable," Kara said. "But do you think you can give me a little bit of room to breathe?"

"Oh, of course," Diana said. "I'll watch your back."

Diana stepped back. Defusing a bomb wasn't her thing. Most of the civilians cleared out, although the sirens indicated someone called the police.

Kara frowned. She looked over the bomb. Time to consult an expert in the matter. The AI crystal hovered her in her hand.

"Okay, mother, do you think you can figure out how to dismantle the bomb?" Kara asked.

"We better do so soon," Alura said. "The bomb is seconds away from exploding."

"Wonderful, more good news," Kara said.

"First, you need to pry the bomb open, and look for some kind of power source. Cutting the wires won't work on the bomb, you need to remove the power source."

The girl did ask her mother asked, prying open the council. Diana rushed over to find a way to stall anyone from entering the park.

' _Kara, I'll see what I can do to stall them,'_ Diana thought. _'I'm not sure how long I can.'_

' _Just hope I can do this in a few minutes."_

" _Can you?"_

Kara only needed a few minutes, at least she hoped. She opened the bomb and a complex set of wires greeted her.

"As I told you, don't worry about the wires, they're not important," Alura said. "Focus on the power source. It's behind the silver panel. Remove it, and gently pull it out."

With a steady hand, Kara reached it and pried back the silver panel. The energy would have burned her hand had she not been super powered. Which could have been the idea, but beside the point.

A glowing power crystal slid out. Kara looked up into the sky. She hoped her mother's idea worked, because if it didn't work, she would be all kinds of fucked and not in the good way.

Kicking up in the sky, Kara flew as high. The sun and air burned the crystal.

"And congratulations, Kara, you've disarmed a bomb," Alura said.

With the verification, Kara breathed easier. Diana patted her back at a job well done.

' _Well, I think we can stop holding our breath now,'_ Donna thought.

' _Excellent, Kara,'_ Harry thought. _'So, are you ready for what comes next?'_

' _Ready,'_ Kara thought. _'Are you sure?'_

' _I know you're capable of it, Kara,'_ Harry thought. _'Now listen to me very closely.'_

* * *

One of the assassins rushed Black Canary with her arm extended. The fishnet clad heroine arched back to avoid the swinging punch of the assassin which attacked her. She pivoted on the ground, gripping her enemy's arm, and twisting it behind her back.

A loud pop echoed. The enemy fell face first onto the ground with a huge thud. The second assassin tried to take her down with a sword. Black Canary avoided the attack. She kicked the weapon from her hand.

A chain flung from out of nowhere, and wrapped around Black Canary. Black Canary turned around, and used the momentum of the assassin.

The first assassin sprang up to her feet, and backed off Black Canary, sending her back against the wall.

Black Canary battled out of the corner. She thanked her habits for keeping in good shape. If she wasn't in good shape, things would have really went really bad.

The fish-net clad heroine fought out of the corner. She nailed the thug in the chest, doubling him over. The woman flipped over the head of one of the assassins.

One of the assassins reclaimed her sword. She rushed at Black Canary in an attempt to get a good enough shot with her sword.

The sword clung into a katana. The owner of the katana, Katana, stepped in. She swooped down underneath the assassin.

The assassin stepped back. The eyes of the woman narrowed underneath the mask. The sword clad woman rushed for a second.

The katana blocked the attack one more time. The dark haired assassin flipped herself into the air.

The third assassin tried to hurl the chain back into the battle .A rough hand grabbed the chain. The woman allowed a gasp and yanked on the chain. The two parties engaged in a vicious and violent tug of war.

The Dark Knight grabbed onto the chain and pulled the figure into the picture. A hand buried into the chest of the woman doubling her over. Batman tangled her up in the chain.

Katana and the assassin with the sword scrambled in a battle with each other. The blade shattered by Katana's expert swing.

The assassin flipped over the top of Katana's head. The League member hurled shuriken at the woman. The woman arched her back, avoiding the razor sharp blades.

Black Canary looked into the shadows, the lone assassin motioning for her to go on forward.

The sounds of gunshots in the distance caused the battle to stall. Black Canary charged the assassin in the second of distraction.

The roundhouse kick drilled the assassin in the face. A loud crack resounded with the assassin dropping down to the ground.

"You're not going to stop us!"

"Oh yeah, watch us!"

"Oh yeah! Well you're going to go down, and you're going to down hard!"

The howls of the Red Hood Gang pulled Black Canary's attention away from the battle. She bound the ankles and arms of the assassin as quick as she could.

Two Red Hood gang groups started to yell at each other. Another gun fired into the air.

Black Canary realized she could take down two birds with one stone, bad pun intended. She crouched down and opened her mouth.

One canary cry later took out the various members of the Red Hood gang. They all crumpled down to the ground.

Black Canary rushed in. She gripped one of them by the arm and turned them around by the arm. The woman gripped onto his arm and slammed her down.

One of them rushed with a pipe. The pipe flew over the top of her head. The Canary twisted around, grabbing the enemy around the neck. The Canary flipped him face first onto the ground, cracking his face onto the concrete.

Two of them aimed their guns. A well placed batarang disarmed them. The dark figure pulled them up off of the ground.

The other members of the Red Hood gang started to scramble out of the way.

"We better get out of here. Too many freaks around here!"

Black Canary turned around. Katana staggered out of the alleyway and bent over, coughing. The fishnet clad assassin looked her over.

"Are you okay?" Black Canary asked.

"They got the jump on me I'll be fine, but…not having the best day," Katana said. "They were gone by the time I caught my breath."

The three assassins they tried to bound disappeared into the night. Black Canary arched her neck back for a second and tried to locate them.

None of them left any trace, despite two of them being bound, and the third knocked unconscious.

Black Canary looked over her shoulder. Katana and Batman disappeared into the night as well.

' _Well disappearing into the night, seems to be all of the rage these days. I wonder if I should take a leaf out of their books.'_

The sounds of the GCPD arriving told Black Canary she better follow everyone else's lead and disappear as well.

She made her way into the shadows and crouched down. A buzzing echoed in her mind. Oracle checked in.

"Hey, Oracle to Black Canary, are you there?" Oracle asked.

"I'm here….you sent them along, didn't you?"

"I figured you could use a little backup, and they were in the neighborhood," Oracle said. "I wonder what their intentions were."

"Should have known she was going to pull something," Black Canary said. "Unless…."

Her voice trailed off for a few seconds.

"Unless what?" Oracle asked.

"I get a feeling she's testing me somehow. I don't know how, but she is."

"Well, you managed to hold your own, even without Batman and Katana," Oracle said. "At least the coast is clear."

"Red Hood Gang took a hit tonight," Black Canary said. "I don't think their leaders, either of them were among the group."

"Two Red Hoods?" Oracle asked.

"Yes, two of them," Black Canary said. "And two different Red Hood gangs now."

The groan which followed told Black Canary all of what she needed to know about what Oracle thought about this entire mess.

"Talk about a headache," Oracle said. "At least we're out of the woods, at least for now."

"Yes, at least for now."

For now, for now at least, Dinah reminded herself. She disappeared into the night with everyone else. Everything could have gone far worse.

* * *

Harry waited patiently. Two of the AIM scientists escorted Harry into the main lab area. He looked around and smiled.

"You should get used to the lab right now," the AIM scientist said. "Your accommodations are going to be where you're going to work for life."

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to make do with what you've given me," Harry said.

"You should, because you have no choice," MODOC said. "Any resistance would mean the destruction of innocents. I've studied with painstaking accuracy, and I know all of your weaknesses. I've studied you, and made a plan to get you to work for AIM. You are nearly as brilliant as me."

The young man took a moment to brace himself for what was about to occur. He started to chuckle.

MODOC's gaze fell into Harry. It looked like the Mechanical Organism Created Only for Conquest struggled to figure out why Harry laughed.

"Why do you find my statements funny?"

Harry hung his head for a few seconds and started to chuckle in bemusement. He caught his breath for a couple of seconds.

"Well, a couple of things, actually. The first thing is you think I'm nearly as intelligent as you. Funny, given you're only as smart as the people who created you, and they don't look too bright. I can tell by the way they're dressed."

"You can assume you're intelligent, but you would be wrong," MODOC said.

"Well, I don't really mind the lab, it's fairly….adequate," Harry said.

"I'm glad it's to your liking," MODOC said.

"I would ask you not to pat yourself on the back just yet. But, you wouldn't be able to reach it with your arms."

MODOC snarled. He sacrificed his body for a perfect mind. A body withered and died, while a mind lasted forever, in his mind.

"Because, you know, I'm not going to be staying for long. You're little bomb, it isn't going to work. In fact, it's not going to work at all. Because it's disabled. Therefore, I have no reason to stay here."

"You dare speak such lies," MODOC said. "It's impossible, no one is brilliant enough to disable my bomb."

"Well, you're wrong again," Harry said. "What's the use in an overinflated head if you have nothing in it?"

"You dare mock me!" MODOC yelled.

Harry shook his head. Did he even need to say anything? It was too easy.

"I don't think you need my help to be mocked. One person takes a look at your head, and it does more than plenty for me."

The anger of MODOC escalated. Harry hoped he pushed the buttons of this bastard and riled him up a little bit. The scientific abomination tried to activate the bomb and call Harry's bluff.

Seconds passed, and nothing happened. Nothing occurred. Harry tapped his foot. MODOC tried to enable the bomb, but it remained disabled.

"Impossible!" MODOC yelled. "My algorithm worked out well. This is inconceivable."

"Perhaps you should have carried the one," Harry said.

' _Kara,'_ Harry said. _'Thirty seconds.'_

MODOC's gaze turned onto Harry. Anger flowed through the creation.

"I've decided you're not as useful as I thought."

"Guess, the size of your head compensated for something," Harry said.

"Destroy him!"

The AIM scientists turned to Harry. The guards cracked their knuckles. One of them reached into his holster and prepared to blast him away.

Harry smiled and stared it down.

' _Now.'_

A blur shot through the door and knocked one of the AIM goons into the wall. The goon landed on the wall.

Harry picked up the blaster, set the blaster to a lower setting, and blasted him. The laser blasts destroyed the armor of the AIM goons, at least the one who did not get attacked.

MODOC's anger rose one more time. Something grabbed MODOC and flung him halfway across the lab area. The large headed individual spiraled out of control and crashed through the glass, destroying it with his overly large cranium.

"Well, at least your fat head is good for something."

Harry smiled as Kara walked over to check on him.

"Did you need to bait them?" Kara asked.

"No, not really, but it kept their eyes on me, and off the woman blowing past their defenses," Harry said. "You got through everything alright."

"Yeah, piece of cake," Kara said. "So, are you okay?"

"I wasn't near any high windows," Harry said. He reached in to grab his Alpha's female in a reassuring way. "And I didn't hurt my arm again. So, I'd say I'm having a good day."

Kara's relief outweighed her agitation at Harry making light of a situation. She agreed he had a point, even though the casual way Harry made these points dug into her and placed underneath her skin.

Harry moved over a few pieces of equipment. He moved over to the council and accessed the inner workings.

A few toys lifted off on the ground. They looked of interest, but Harry would have to look at them later.

"So, I'm going to make a really big bang in a couple of minutes," Harry said.

"So we better get out of there?" Kara asked.

"Yeah, it might be a good idea," Harry said.

' _It wouldn't be Harry if he didn't leave a place without a big bang,'_ Amanda said.

' _Or without a couple of souvenirs,'_ Emily said.

With the AIM base set to explode in a matter of moments, Harry and Kara departed. Kara lifted Harry off of the ground, and the two of them shot out of the nearest exit.

The second the two of them passed the doors, a huge explosion resounded. The AIM base went up in smoke.

A second explosion erupted seconds later. Kara turned towards Harry for a few seconds, frowning, wondering what he did.

"So the first explosion came from the console blowing up?" Kara asked.

"Yes," Harry said.

"What was the second explosion from?" Kara asked.

"MODOC," Harry said.

"MODOC?" Kara asked.

"Yes, you know the guy with the big head and an even bigger ego," Harry said. "I accessed his programming why he was busy talking, and set him to self-destruction."

"So when you were figuratively pressing his buttons, you literally did the same thing," Kara said.

Harry laughed at her assessment on the matter. Kara nailed it pretty good. She smiled as the two of them left the scene of the crime.

Given all of the grandstanding speeches MODOC did, Kara wasn't too sorry to see him go up in smoke.

The two watched, with some parting gifts.

' _Well today went well.'_

Harry smiled, relief spread through his body. Everyone escaped the entire situation intact. AIM paid for putting everyone in danger, his daughter especially.

Time for them to return to join the others, and after the insanity which occurred today, Harry wanted some time to relax.

* * *

Kara joined Diana, Faora, Karen, and Jaime for a meeting. The five girls sat around one of the luxury suites in the hotel they stayed in. Harry bought out a fair chunk of the hotel for their usage. Price tag didn't come cheap, but Harry could burn money, so it was obvious he would accommodate the group on their trip to California.

"So, today didn't go as planned, did it?" Karen asked.

"Does it ever?" Jaime asked.

She tried not to sound too cynical. After her incident in Gotham City in the past, Jaime wished for some rest and relaxation. Today was the exact opposite of relaxed.

"More often than not, no," Diana said. "Lyta's mad."

"Of course, she's mad," Kara said. "Those AIM idiots ruined her big day."

"Harry blew them up pretty good though," Faora said.

"Good," Kara said. "I'm glad, after they tried to put Harry in danger."

"Technically, speaking…."

"I know, technically speaking, Harry wasn't in any danger, but I don't care," Kara said. "It's the principle of the matter."

"Speaking of Harry, where is our guest of honor?" Diana asked.

"He should be showing up soon," Faora said. "Har wanted to check up on everyone."

"Talk about a couple hour job," Diana said.

' _He's on his way right now,'_ Donna said. The middle Amazon princess stopped when she realized what she said. _'I'm pretty sure he wanted his arrival to be a surprise, so act surprised!'_

The guest of honor showed up with a smile. Harry made his rounds with the other guests on the vacation.

"Sorry, it took me so long," Harry said.

"How is everyone?" Diana asked.

"Given the situation, they're fine," Harry said. "Lyta's a bit miffed, but….it's understandable."

"I'm sure you can make it up to her later," Diana said.

Kara shifted and moved over so Harry took a seat between her and Diana. He smiled and brought them the good news.

"Everyone is fine, and the AIM won't be bothering us for a long time," Harry said. "I think I've made my interest clear."

Jaime relaxed a little bit. She figured a vacation wouldn't be without incident, although the incident they encountered turned out to be a bit too prolific for her tastes.

"So, Diana, thank you for helping at the park," Harry said. "And Kara…..?"

"Yes?"

Harry's attention shifted to Kara. The girl sat up pretty straight for a moment. Today's first test, and Kara already went over the incident in her mind, would be an interesting one in determining how ready she was. So many good things happened, and so many things she did right.

Regardless, Kara thought she would make her case. The sooner she entered field work, the better everything would be.

"You know, I disarmed the bomb, and helped take out of a lot of the mercenaries," Kara said. Harry didn't say anything, and Kara realized she might have overestimated what she did. "Okay, maybe about a dozen, but they were will armed."

Harry smiled at her words. He leaned in and kissed her on the lips to ease her tension. Kara smiled.

"Yes, and by the looks of the bomb, if you failed, it would have been a tragedy," Harry said. "So, you saved a lot of lives, and we're really brilliant in doing so."

Kara tried not to look too smug. She disarmed a bomb, a bomb which could have caused a lot of tragedy and way too many deaths. Not just among the collective members, both present and future, but among countless innocents. The heroine showed their true merit in saving innocents.

Faora leaned in to Kara, and looked at her sister wife with a smile.

"You know, if you think too hard, you won't be able to put your head in the door? I can deflate it to you if you like."

Kara bolted up for a few seconds. The group laughed, at least until Harry cast them a look which put them back into line and made them behave.

"You did well, but not perfect," Harry said.

Kara slumped her head forward and braced for what Harry would say.

' _Here it comes.'_

"You made yourself a bit too visible at times. Which didn't end badly, but if you gave up your position too much, you could put you, and the people around you in danger. You should have used the cover around you a bit more, instead of darting back and forth, wasting too much movement."

Kara waited for the other part.

"Your actual methods to take them out, despite your lack of cover, worked rather well. Can't say much of your defense; you didn't have much of a chance to demonstrate any defense."

"So overall?" Kara asked.

"You've showed marked improvement from Smallville, but you've got a few kinks to work out," Harry said. "When we get back to Gotham City, we'll figure out how to best work them out."

Harry's assessment made Kara nod her head. Granted, she wouldn't have been as critical, but he saw things from a unique perspective. She respected his experience on the field. Especially if one considered the nightmare of Gotham City, where you needed to have your wits about you at all times.

"You shouldn't be too hard on yourself," Harry said. "As far as field missions, go, you didn't do badly at all. You could do better, but you didn't do badly. Especially given, you didn't have any gear."

"And didn't use any powers other than your super speed," Diana said.

"Sorry," Kara said.

"Don't be, given the situation, it worked in a pinch," Diana said.

"As long as you don't live and die by it, you should be fine," Harry said.

"Try not to," Kara said. "And I had a little help with the bomb, you know."

"Well, help is good, and we're going to need all of the help we can get," Harry said. "You realized what would happen if I tried this crusade alone?"

"We wouldn't let you," Kara said.

"Well, I would hope not," Harry said. The grin barely could be kept off his face. "Still, we do need all of the help we can get. And you've been a great help."

"Yes, you have," Diana said.

"You did well, Kara," Jaime said. "Don't pat yourself on the back, but you've applied your training well."

Kara slumped forward with a smile across her face. She just wanted to be a help. A few rough edges needed to be smoothed out, but not many.

"So, when do you think I'll be ready to do this for real?" Kara asked.

"Sometime this summer, maybe," Harry said. "There's no experience like practical experience. And we worked a lot of the rust off."

With Kara's assessment out of the way, Harry decided to check in with Gotham City. He admitted he kept his mind far away from there as possible on person. Although, despite his own distraction, Harry sensed something was wrong.

' _So, how are things in your neck of the woods?'_ Harry asked.

' _It's been a long night,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Nothing we can't really handle,'_ Barbara thought.

Harry's face curled into a frown. Dinah tried to scramble to tell Harry what went on, with some help from Barbara.

' _The Red Hood gang, well there's two of them, and they look to be going into some kind of civil war,'_ Dinah thought.

' _One of them is Napier, you know, Jack Napier,'_ Barbara thought.

' _I've heard of the man, yes,'_ Harry thought.

' _And there's the League, but I had help, Batman and Katana intervened,'_ Dinah thought. _'Nothing we couldn't handle.'_

Despite being mildly pacified, Harry wanted to know even more. Even when out of town and even when the situation was covered, Harry liked to keep one eye on the city.

' _Go back and tell me everything.'_

X-X-X

Sportsmaster slipped into the dark alleyway in Gotham City. He sensed a dark force stalking him.

The criminal cursed. He pressed himself against the brick wall of the alleyway, having run out of room.

A figure swooped down. Nightshade slammed her fist into the chest of Sportsmaster. The punch doubled him over. She sliced his club in half, and grabbed him, slamming him against the wall.

"You thought you could run from the League? Well, you were mistaken."

Sportsmaster struggled. The woman pinned him against the wall. The goon struggled. Nightshade kicked him in the face.

"We gave you a chance to prove yourself," Nightshade said. "You failed the test."

Freelancer or not, the League seldom tolerated failure. Sportsmaster witnessed his entire life flash before him.

A sword blocked Nightshade's sword. Nightshade turned around and the one and only Lady Shiva stood before both of the parties.

"Leave him."

Nightshade turned away from Sportsmaster with disgust and followed Shiva down the alleyway.

Sportsmaster staggered to his feet, busted up ribs making his life suck. Not dead, but things could be much worse.

He wondered why Lady Shiva of all people would pull him out of the fire.

A car pulled up in the alleyway. The door opened up, and Willis Todd poked his head out, his face barely covered with a hood.

"So, I'm guessing you need a ride?" Todd asked.

"Yeah, thanks," Sportsmaster said. "It's been a weird night."

"You don't fucking say?"

Sportsmaster slipped into the car and slumped against the car. Todd clenched his fist around the steering wheel.

"Son of a bitch is going to pay what he did. I'm not going to let him piss in my tea kettle!"

Without another word, Todd drove off into the night. He would not be made some punk, not made some patsy, especially by someone like Napier.

Willis Todd vowed to make the bastard burn in flames.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 7** **th** **, 2015.**


	132. Surprise

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Two: Surprise.**

* * *

Most people would take a couple of days off to relax after being kidnapped by a crazed group of madmen along with their big headed leader. No one would fault Harry if he phoned it in for the next couple of days. Technically speaking, he was on his vacation as well. He might have mixed a bit of business with pleasure, but relaxation should have occurred.

Harry refused to be most people to be honest. He spread the few pieces of AIM technology he acquired out on the table. The young man looked over the bounty before him, a smile crossing his face.

His phone rang. Harry allowed it to ring a couple of times before he picked it up.

"Hey, Tam, how are you doing?" Harry asked.

Harry paused long enough to the point where he could almost hear the woman on the other end of the phone give him an extremely exasperated expression. The young man could chuckle at the words which followed.

"Shouldn't I be asking you if you're fine? I mean, you were the one who kidnapped."

Harry's amusement hit a new level as he chuckled. He tried not to sound too amused, but really failed at blocking out his amusement.

"Tam, I asked you first," Harry said.

' _And there we go, deflecting the question with all of the practiced ease of a politician,'_ Kara thought.

"Well, I'm fine, other than the worry I had yesterday," Tam said. "News didn't quite reach back to Gotham City."

"Good, this wasn't even in the top ten of the craziest things which happened to me," Harry said. "And I mean this year, not just in my life in general. This year has been insane. And to answer your question, I'm doing well. Just working in my makeshift lab here."

"You're working, on your vacation?" Tam asked.

"More like tinkering, I've been doing this since about three in the morning," Harry said. "All of the girls are safe and sound too by the way."

"Oh, I'm glad," Tam said. "It's big local news, not as much national or international as you would think. Mostly because someone saved you. Do you know who did it?"

"My guardian angel," Harry said.

' _Ah, thanks, Harry,'_ Kara said.

 _'You didn't have to gush about it,'_ Karen thought. _'But you did a good job out there.'_

"Which means either you don't know," Tam said. "Or you have an idea, and you don't want to say. It's one or the other, and half of the time, I can't figure out where you're coming from."

"Well, you're on the right track," Harry said.

Harry took a couple of moments to adjust the knob on one of the devices.

"If you want me to cancel the meetings, just say it, and I can arrange….."

"Thanks for the offer, Tam, but I'm going to have to pass," Harry said. "I don't want to cancel any meetings."

"Right, but you still have lunch with Carol today," Tam said.

Harry was grateful for the reminder, even though he remembered already. He continued to work on his little project.

"I'm going to make it," Harry said. The young man adjusted one little setting, frowning, and double checking it. "Going to take more than some big headed weirdo to slow me down."

"You really are a man of a steel, Harry," Tam said. She flushed when she realized the implications of what she said. "Sorry, if it sounded….well sorry if I sounded a bit off. And it came off a bit more crude then I intended."

"It's alright," Harry said. His chuckle in amusement continued. "I understand what you're saying. Actually, I wanted to ask you about something….."

"Our little date got cut a bit short, didn't it?" Tam asked.

"Just a little bit," Harry said. "But, given many my dates end in chaos….."

"Natalie Stark showing up isn't chaotic?" Tam asked. She could hear Harry shake his head over the phone. "Relax, Harry, I know what you mean."

"Good," Harry said. "Looks like we're going to have to try to pick up things in Gotham City."

Tam sighed for a second. Slow courtship process this was, and not for any lack of trying to be honest.

She thought this trip would be a big step, but everything became sidetracked.

"Well, looking forward to it," Tam said. The woman sighed and one could sense a tiny bit of frustration. "Do you think you can get through the rest of this trip without being in danger?"

"I hope so and the rest of the girls hope so," Harry said. "But, we're just going to have to wait and see what's going to happen."

"Words to live by," Tam said. "You just go with the flow, don't you?"

"Well, I have to go with the flow, otherwise, I get drowned underneath the waves," Harry said. "Have a nice day, Tam, I'll talk to you later."

"Right, take care yourself as well," Tam said.

The two of them concluded their conversation. Harry frowned and looked over the bits and pieces of technology around him.

' _AIM does have a couple of people of value in the organization,'_ Karen thought.

' _I know, but their talents are rather wasted,'_ Harry thought. _'We're going to have to see what we can do to liberate them from AIM.'_

' _Oh, recruiting as usual?'_ Karen asked.

' _Harry's always recruiting,'_ Kara thought. _'He's all over the map. It's almost like he could be in several places at once. Surprised, you didn't send a duplicate in your place.'_

' _Wouldn't have proved the point I wanted to prove,'_ Harry thought. _'The technology isn't all of what AIM thought it was.'_

' _Which means?'_ Kara asked.

' _Very primitive, and a cheap imitation of other technology,'_ Harry thought. _'A lot of this looks like counterfeit Stark technology.'_

' _So, are you going to tell, Tori about it?'_ Faora asked. _'Do you even think she'd take it seriously?'_

' _Might as well give her the head's up,'_ Harry thought. _'But, all of this really isn't as powerful as AIM wanted you to believe. I have a feeling most of their technological achievements are stolen technology, or…I guess copied.'_

Harry frowned and tucked his hand underneath his chin.

' _Still, this won't be the last I see of AIM,'_ Harry thought.

' _You think?'_ Faora asked.

' _I don't think, I know,'_ Harry thought. _'They seem like cockroaches who will keep crawling up at the worst possible times.'_

' _And you'll be ready for them when they pop up?'_ Karen asked.

' _Yes, know your enemy,'_ Harry thought.

The technology set up in front of him allowed Harry to learn his enemy and study them in great detail.

* * *

Diana moved over to the room to check on her sisters. She didn't hear anyone from either of them for a little while. Kara joined Diana on her trip.

"Figured you could use some backup," Kara said.

"Yes," Diana said. She turned to Kara with a smile. "Well, maybe a little bit, but it's appreciated."

Diana rose her hand, knocking on the door. She waited a bit too long for an answer.

"Come on, Diana!"

Diana entered the room. Amanda and Emily joined Lyta and Donna. Both of the Amazon Princesses smiled as their older sister.

"Don't worry, Diana, we're making sure they stay out of trouble," Emily said.

"Sad, we're…going to have to be the responsible ones," Amanda said. She shuddered for a couple of seconds at the very thought. "What the hell is the world coming to anyway?"

"I don't know, but I'm glad you're here," Diana said. "Are you doing well, Lyta?"

"Guess, I'm okay," Lyta said. She looked a bit sullen, but perked up at the sight of her older sister. "Yesterday didn't really go as planned. Sure the entire trip was fun….well other than the kidnapping, and those AIM jerks getting involved. Them getting involved wasn't too fun, but…..I really can't…..I really can't complain too much."

Lyta folded her arms and cleared her throat.

"I just wish the entire day would have gone on a bit longer," Lyta said. "Is it a crime to want the trip to last forever?"

Donna smiled, very few times did she want to agree with her sister? This time, Lyta had a point, as much as she hated to admit as much.

"No, not really," Donna said. "But, you have to know, whenever we go out in public, there's a chance…."

"My father attracts attention in the wrong ways," Lyta said. The young princess cast a gaze over all of the parties in the room. "And my sisters and aunts aren't much better either."

Amanda, Emily, and Donna stared at Lyta, who gave them a cheeky little smile and a wave. Diana chuckled at the antics of the three of them, and Kara's amusement hit an entirely new level as well.

"Guilty as charged," Donna said.

"We do get in more than enough trouble," Diana said. She shook her head for a moment. "Guess, we're just going to have to make up for it later."

"We will make up for it later. We're still on vacation for a couple more days."

The door opened up in time for Harry to show up. Lyta bounced off of the bed and threw herself towards Harry. She threw her arms around her father's waist and bombarded him like a missile, wrapping her arms around him.

' _And people think I get too excited,'_ Kara thought.

' _Well, she's thirteen, granted you act like a teenager,'_ Donna thought.

' _And you weren't much better when you were your sister's age,'_ Hippolyta said.

' _Too bad you couldn't make the trip, mother,'_ Donna thought.

' _Maybe it's a good thing, I didn't,'_ Hippolyta said. _'I don't think I would have been able to hold back if I saw them go after Harry.'_

'We barely could,'

Diana thought. _'But, Harry could handle himself and we had a job to do.'_

" _You know, I wasn't in any danger,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, and you got out of this trip rather unscathed,'_ Hippolyta thought. _'Which is remarkable.'_

' _Helps, I wasn't near any really high windows someone could knock me out of,'_ Harry thought. _'Yes, I really need to stop talking….well I just really need to stop tempting fate.'_

' _Or we really need to arrange all functions in Gotham City to be on the ground floor,'_ Juno said. _'Sorry, don't mind me, I'm just playing a voyeur. Perk of being a goddess you see, we get to pop in when you least expect it.'_

' _Fair enough,'_ Harry thought.

' _The big talk is the big Harvey Dent rally coming up, it's going to happen about a week after you're due to be home,'_ Juno thought.

Harry recalled, things were getting rather serious as Harvey's big run to become District Attorney picked up even more steam. The young man sat back with a smile on his face.

' _Oh believe me, I wouldn't miss it for the world,'_ Harry thought. _'Veronica has been working hard on it.'_

' _Damn right, I am,'_ Veronica said.

Veronica popped into the bond link so seldom Harry almost forgot she was a part of the bond link. To be fair, the woman was busy, so there were instances where she couldn't join in.

' _Sorry, I'm….not as chatty lately,'_ Veronica said. _'I want to make sure everything is ready. If we're putting our support behind Harvey Dent, I want everything to work out well….everyone who is anyone will be there.'_

' _Your standard Gotham City high society mess then?'_ Harry asked.

' _Pretty much,'_ Veronica said. _'Don't worry; I'm arranging a ground floor event, because of your bad record against really high windows.'_

' _Thanks, Veronica, you're the best,'_ Harry thought.

Lyta folded her arms for a few seconds. She rolled her eyes at what she heard from the limited bond access.

"So, are you done with your boring high society stuff?" Lyta asked.

"Lyta!" Diana said, which caused the twins and Donna to snicker. Their laughter caused Diana to cast one of those older sister looks at both of them.

"Pretty much," Harry said. "But, it's interesting, some of the time."

Lyta folded her arms and raised an eyebrow. Harry hoisted her off of the ground.

"Surprised Harry can pick you up, given how much chocolate you've been eating," Donna said.

"Hey, I keep up on my training, and it's not like I gain any weight," Lyta said. "I burn off twice as much on training."

Kara leaned to Donna and patted her on the back.

"She has a point, you know."

"Yes, I know," Donna said.

"But, is it really exciting all of the time?" Lyta asked.

"Well, not all of the time, but it's a part of the status I have in the world," Harry said. "You know I'm a very important person."

Lyta rolled her eyes at Harry's words.

"Yes, Dad, I know ,you are my father, that makes you the most important person in the world."

Donna laughed and turned to Harry with a smile.

"Well, who are you to argue with her logic, Harry?" Donna asked.

"I think it's pretty airtight, wouldn't you agree?" Kara asked.

Harry smiled and leaned forward, to kiss Lyta on the forehead.

"Don't forget about your mother as well," Harry said.

"Oh, she's pretty important too," Lyta said.

' _It's always nice to get such a ringing endorsement from your children,'_ Hippolyta thought. _'So, have you given my offer any consideration?'_

' _I think a trip this summer would line up nicely,'_ Harry thought. _'It would give some of the girls some vacation time, who deserve it. And Gotham wouldn't be unguarded for long with the time dilation properties. We could be gone for about a day.'_

' _I think it would be a good idea,'_ Barbara said. _'Sorry for eavesdropping, if it was supposed to be a surprise.'_

' _Well, you and Dinah deserve a nice vacation, especially after the other night,'_ Harry thought. _'And to be fair, I offered for you to come along to California in the first place.'_

' _Well, we figured you had more than enough to deal with as is, and someone needed to keep a watch on Gotham City,'_ Dinah said. _'Batman and Katana can't be everywhere, even if I think Bruce tries.'_

* * *

Paula rested from the previous day. Dealing with two daughters proved to be a challenge she rose to more times often than not. Even greater a challenge than the numerous fighting disciplines she encountered. The luxury suite she shared with her daughters and Jessie showed to be a little bit too much.

Harry took care of the people he treated. To the point, where she feared some people might take advantage of it, and ruin it for the rest of them. One fact shined through which allowed Paula to be at ease.

' _Harry, is far too smart to fall for manipulation. The number of doctorates he has proved as much.'_

Paula returned from the shower and thought about fixing herself a cup of coffee. The girls slept on in the next room, so Paula basked in the silence. After the chaos in the past day, Paula enjoyed the downtime.

And here she thought she escaped Gotham City in time to get away from the chaos. One would think as much, but one would be completely and utterly wrong.

The woman finished up a cup of coffee just before a knock on the door prompted her to spring to her feet. The woman edged to the door and opened it up.

"Harry," Paula said. "What brings you by my room this early in the morning?"

"Just making my rounds to check up on everyone," Harry said.

"Thought you'd been here last night," Paula said. She surveyed the younger man with a smile. "The girls finally crashed in their beds."

"I'm sure you're glad for a chance to take a breath," Harry said.

Paula invited Harry inside. The two of them sat down on the couch in the sitting room area of the suite.

"Coffee?" Paula asked.

"I'd be insulted if you didn't ask," Harry said. "Sorry, it's a bit of addiction."

"Among us who keep late hours, and busy days, I'd imagine," Paula said. She took a moment to drink the cup of coffee. "Well, yesterday wasn't without its weirdness."

Harry tried not to laugh too hard, but she hit the point on the head square off. If anything, Paula understated pretty much everything which occurred.

"I'm a weirdness magnet," Harry said. "I can leave Gotham City, but I guess you can't bring the Gotham City weirdness out of me. I might not have been born there, but I've lived there long enough where it's become home."

"Gotham's become home for a lot of people," Paula said. She reached to Harry and touched his hand to the top of his. "And don't worry, the fact you're a weirdness magnet isn't really a bad thing. It adds to the intrigue of Harry Potter."

"Good, I'm glad," Harry said. "Glad to know you approve of my….quirks."

The door swung open, and Paula raised her eyebrow. A very tired looking Jade staggered out of the room. She stepped back when she saw Harry. The young girl shook her head in a vain and failed attempt to clear out the early morning cobwebs.

"I didn't expect you to be by this early," Jade said.

"Is it because your hair is in disarray?"

Jade turned around and saw Jessie walking out of the room. She looked like someone who had barely got out of bed and thus gave zero fucks about the world. The coffee caught her attention and caused her to may a beeline for it.

"Are you sure you should be drinking coffee?" Paula asked.

"My father doesn't care," Jessie said.

"Your father doesn't seem to care about much," Jade said.

"Other than his next whore or next crazy scheme," Jessie said. She kept her voice low enough where Paula couldn't hear it.

Harry frowned at her words, shaking his head.

 _'He won't win father of the year,'_ Harry thought, more to himself, than anyone in the bond.

"We're…we're going to get something for breakfast," Jade said. "There's a nice little place across from the hotel, and I think we're going to head to the park."

"Make sure to take your sister with you," Paula said.

Jade opened her mouth for a second, but there was no argument.

"What's this about going to the park?"

Artemis bound out of the bedroom for a second. She slipped on a green hooded sweatshirt and a pair of blue jeans.

"Guess, you're tagging along with us," Jade said.

"Because, it leaves your mother, and Mr. Potter all alone," Jessie said with a knowing smile.

"No need to be so formal, Jessie, you can call me Harry," Harry said.

"If you insist, sir," Jessie said.

Jade smacked Jessie across the back of her head with the palm of her fist. Jessie turned around and stared at Jade.

"Why did you hit me?"

"For acting like a simpering puppy dog around Harry," Jade said. "If you're quite ready to put your eyes back in, can we go?"

"It's not like you're much better around him," Jessie said. "And half of the girls in my class have a crush on him."

Jade almost laughed at Jessie for a long moment, but stopped at the death glare she received.

"Just half?" Jade asked. "It's nothing compared to GPA….."

"Well, I'm ready, if you're ready," Jessie said, not wanting to have this conversation.

She really didn't want to have this conversation with the young man in question parked about ten feet away from her.

"I don't know about you, but I'm ready," Artemis said. "And you really are the pot calling the kettle black with Harry."

"Sure, whatever you say, half-pint," Jessie said.

"I don't even know what the big deal about Harry is," Artemis said.

Jade and Jessie exchanged one of those glances with each other. Either Artemis acted too cool for the school, or she was a bit too young.

"Well, if you don't know, you'll know in a year or so," Jessie said.

"Sure, I will," Artemis said. The younger sister rolled her eyes. "So, are you done, or are we ready to go?"

"After you," Jade said.

The three girls left the room, leaving Harry and Paula to talk.

"Well, they sure make life interesting, don't they?"

"An interesting way of putting my daughters' behavior, but yes, I'd have to agree."

* * *

"I swear, you can get into trouble without even trying."

Carol Ferris leaned back in the chair. She dressed a nice elegant purple silk blouse which fit around her upper body nicely. The blouse showcased a tasteful amount of cleavage, with the plunging neckline involved. Her hands touched flat and firmly on the table as she gave Harry one look in the eye.

The skirt showed her nice stocking clad legs as well, but didn't go too short. It gave her the air of a businesswoman who was attractive, but also extremely formidable, and not one you wanted to fuck with.

"Well, you know me, it seems like danger follows me everywhere," Harry said.

Carol hated to admit it, but Harry had a point. Some people got in trouble, who knew better. But, there were other people who found trouble despite not actively seeking it.

"But, you're fine, aren't you?" Carol asked. "I would hate to see anything to happen to you. After you've been through so much….don't you have a bodyguard?"

"She was making sure the other girls didn't get caught in the crossfire," Harry said. "She does her job though well. And I thought it was best for me to head with AIM, to avoid anyone else being hurt."

"Did they really have a bomb?" Carol asked.

"Well, if they did, someone disabled it," Harry said.

"Lucky you had a guardian angel on your side, Harry," Carol said. "I'm glad you got out of there fine."

"It makes two of us," Harry said. He leaned in and smiled, squeezing her hand. "Believe me, Carol, I'm just as glad."

Carol smiled and took a bite of the sandwich made for her.

"You haven't had grilled cheese until you had grilled cheese here," Carol said. "Go ahead, and have a bite."

"I think I will," Harry said.

He took a nice long bite of the grill cheese sandwich. The taste allowed Harry to savor the moment.

"What did I tell you?" Carol asked.

"Well, I don't think I'll ever doubt your review on anything," Harry said. "Not, I had a good reason to doubt it before."

Carol grinned. She took a nice drink, bending over at the table a little bit. Her foot brushed Harry's leg casually underneath the table. Carol sat up for a moment, and adopted a professional expression.

"So, it's still on?"

"Day before I leave," Harry said. "I want to redo the Disneyland trip, but it should give me plenty of time."

"Second time lucky, I guess?" Carol asked. "What are the chances you're going to be attacked two times on the same trip?"

"Odds, I'm not going to even touch," Harry said. "And I'm not going to tempt Murphy."

Carol's shoe kicked off and the top of her foot brushed Harry's ankle for a moment. She leaned in and checked her text messages.

"Jordan," Carol said.

"Guy, doesn't know when to take a hint?" Harry asked.

"Well, he's persistent, but I've got my sights set a bit higher," Carol said. "And I'm sure…"

Harry's phone rang to cut off Carol's words. He frowned and took a closer look at the phone.

"Go ahead, I'll wait," Carol said.

Harry took a moment to accuse himself, and he opened up the phone, not knowing what to expect.

"Hey, Harry, it's Tori. I heard about what happened. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Harry said. "I'm here having lunch with Carol Ferris."

"Oh, Carol, well good luck with her," Tori said. "Not you need the luck, but she's a pretty hard one to tie down. Going to need some really good rope to even have a chance."

Tori cleared her throat and directed herself away from the tangent she put herself on.

"Right, listen, Harry, I'm really sorry," Tori said. "The other day, I called you up. I don't remember what I said, but you might have noticed, I was a bit….well a bit over the legal limit of alcohol and….I might have acted like a bit of an ass."

Harry decided to take the most diplomatic approach possible.

 _'You know, she understates a lot,'_ Faora thought.

 _'Why do I have a feeling Harry is going to understate just as much?'_ Karen asked.

Harry chuckled at the point Karen and Faora made, especially because they proved to be right.

"I noticed you weren't of sound mind."

"Diplomatic, I like it," Tori said. She could use some diplomacy in her life. "But…sorry if I said anything really embarrassing. Sometimes, when I'm drinking, I start drunk-dialing people, and….well, I'm sure Whitney can share some stories if you ever run into her again."

"You won't be the first, nor you would be the last," Harry said. "But, you might have been the most prolific to do it."

"Right, right," Tori said. "So, sorry….but hey, if you want to get together, sometime, in the future….for some kind of scientific peer brainstorming thing, I'll be open to it. We can talk about the AI like you promised….yeah I remembered. Even if I might have been a bit…scatteredbrained over the last couple of days. Being accused of stealing from your own company that."

Tori shook her head. Also, it caused a person to ramble a lot.

"And I'm rambling when sober, and I swear to every god who has ever been to created, I haven't drank anything in almost a day," Tori said.

' _Well, I'll believe her,'_ Faora thought.

"Don't even tell me what I said when I was drinking. It would embarrass me a little bit, okay maybe more than a little bit."

"Tori, I'd love to get together to pick your brain," Harry said. "Not sure if you have time….."

"Well, I've got to be on a plane in about eight hours," Tori said. "Plenty of time for anyone else to get ready, but you know me."

"Well, I'm sure we'll figure something out."

"Surprised you're picking my brain, instead of trying to figure out a way to get into my panties," Tori said. "No offense, but you kind of do have a reputation….."

"Well, you have to save something for the second date, don't you?" Harry asked.

Tori shut up in a few seconds. The girls on the bond link laughed.

 _'Well played, Harry,'_ Kara said.

"So, give me a call, you got my number, I got yours, we'll talk shop later," Tori said. "I think I need a real vacation, somewhere really tropical. But, it's back to business. Maybe I should take a closer look at my company."

"Talk to you later," Harry said.

He turned back to Carol. Carol smiled.

"So, you've been struck by the runaway train which is the lovely, Ms. Stark?" Carol asked.

"Yes," Harry said. "I can't help, but think she's a trainwreck waiting to happen."

"I don't know," Carol said. "She lost her father, and it's been a bit downhill ever since then."

Carol could understand, the businesswoman braced herself for certain inevitabilities involving her own father. His health hit a steady decline in recent months, not Carl Ferris would ever admit it.

' _Stubborn to the last breath. Just like other men in my life.'_

* * *

Amanda, Emily, Bunny, Bette, and Lois sat around the room, talking about the day which was.

"Harry, I swear sometimes, if he didn't have bad luck, he wouldn't have any luck at all," Lois said. She shook her head and sighed. "At least he got out in one piece."

The girls all nodded in a solemn fashion. The incident at the park was anxious to say the very least.

"Oh, I'm sure he got out in more than one piece," Amanda said. "I made all of those AIM assholes regret the day they ever kidnapped him."

"Good, I'm glad," Lois said.

"Oh, I think we're all glad," Bette said. The young heiress looked off with a far off look in her eyes. "Imagined if something happened to Harry before we had a chance to….well….."

"Are you still trying to get my brother into bed?" Amanda asked.

"Well, I'm only on a list with most women in Gotham City," Bette said. "And most women around the world. Harry has his hands full more than enough, but still….you can't blame someone for dreaming."

"It's a good dream, isn't it?" Bunny asked.

Lois shook her head at the antics of the older girls. Granted, Harry was hot, but still, the way they were acting made her want to bury her face into her hands and sighed.

' _They're about as subtle as a trainwreck sometimes.'_

"And are you sure you couldn't get tickets to the Alison Blaire concert?" Lois asked.

Amanda and Emily glared at Lois, as if they were upset she dared to bring this particular point up. Lois folded her arms, pleased she dug underneath the skin of the twins.

"Must you remind us of our failures, there?" Amanda asked. "We did the best we could to get tickets, you know."

"You could have gotten them easier, if you had been a bit more on the ball," Lois said. "Some, Alison Blaire fan you are, and here I thought you were her biggest fans."

Bunny broke into giggles, and turned to Bette.

"Oh, they got owned by a twelve year old," Bunny said.

"Hey, age isn't an indicator of intelligence," Lois said. "And besides, I'll be thirteen in August."

"Yes, five months, of you still being a not teenager," Bette said. Lois folded her arms and responded by getting all huffy. Bette patted her on the head in response. "But, you still got one over the dynamic duo over there."

"I think the entire world is conspiring against us not to get those tickets," Amanda said.

"Seriously, Mandy?" Emily asked. "Even I…"

"Isn't it weird all of the avenues we could go down, is blocked?" Amanda asked.

"The concert was big," Emily said.

"Our brother should have given us a better heads up," Amanda said. "I mean, he slept with Alison."

"Ha, I knew it!" Bunny cheered. "Bette, pay up!"

Bette grumbled at this revelation. Common sense told her she shouldn't have taken the bet, but she was feeling daring. She rummaged through her purse and slapped a twenty dollar bill in Bette's extended hand.

"Seriously, you've been making bets about whether or not my brother slept with a famous pop star?" Amanda asked.

"Well, half of the girls in school make bets about your brother's love life," Bette said. "He is a local celebrity."

A knock on the door caused all of the girls to look up. Amanda stared forward.

"Come in."

Harry opened up the door. Bette smiled and waved at him, along with Bunny. The two of them acted as if they weren't talking about him, or hadn't just settled a bet with them.

"Hi, Harry," Lois said. "Those two really are something else, you know."

"Well, people could say the same about you, Ms. Lane," Harry said.

Lois shrugged. Harry had a point, as always. He always had to be right at every possible moment. It made a grin cross Lois's face at the thought of him being right.

' _Always right, but he has to be so wrong, with being right, doesn't he?'_

"I'd like to have a word with my sisters," Harry said.

"What did they do now?" Bette asked.

"What makes you think we did anything?" Amanda asked.

Bette raised her eyebrow, looking at Amanda for a long moment.

"What?"

"Past experiences," Bette said. "Well, I don't see any reason why we can't spare them for a couple of minutes."

"Thanks, Bette," Harry said. "Shame about losing twenty bucks, though."

Harry's words caused Bette to raise her eyebrow and a flabbergasted look followed. Amanda and Emily followed Harry out of the room, barely containing their laughter.

"So tomorrow night is the Alison Blaire concert," Harry said.

Their laughter stopped with a certain revelation on Harry's part.

"Yes, as people keep telling us," Amanda said. She looked sullen a little bit.

"Guess, you learned a valuable lesson about keeping your eye on the ball," Harry said. "People are in for a really magical night. Alison mentioned to me she's making the opening night really special. You have to be there to appreciate it, because it's really a once in a life time thing."

"Oh, Harry, why?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, they're making us feel even worse than we did before, and we felt pretty bad already," Amanda said.

Harry smiled and shook his head.

 _'Wish I have popcorn,'_ Kara thought, with only the Alphas and Harry hearing her thoughts.

"I'm sorry," Harry said. "To make up for your disappointment, how about, we have a night out tomorrow night, just the three of us?"

"Oh, really?" Amanda asked.

"I figure, I can ease my lovely twin sisters' disappointment by taking them out on a night on the town."

Amanda and Emily nodded. If they couldn't go to Alison Blaire's concert, then going out on the town with Harry would be the next best thing possible.

"Oh, and what do you have in mind?" Amanda asked.

"Well," Harry said. "I have something really special in mind….I'm not sure if I should tell you, because it might spoilt he surprise."

"Tell us," Amanda said. "Do, I have to get on my knees and beg you?"

"It might help," Emily said.

"I agree," Harry said. "But, I'll tell you if you really want to know."

' _I think the suspense is killing us,'_ Karen thought.

' _Not as much as it's killing them, though,'_ Kara thought.

"So, I have in my hand….tickets to Alison Blaire's concert, and backstage passes, which I got when I was in New York."

The twins looked on in shock before it fully set in on them their brother pulled one over on them.

"Harry, you ass!"

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 10** **th** **, 2015.**


	133. Opening Night

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Three: Opening Night.**

* * *

 

Barbara stretched her legs and reached up to the sky. The redhead dressed in a tight black sports bra and a pair of yoga pants which stretched over her ass. The woman braced herself for a nice little sparring session. Her attention turned to Dinah, dressed a similar attire, sitting in the center of the room. The stunning siren sat on the ground, legs crossed, as she stretched herself forward. The woman's blonde hair spilled down over her face and cleavage stuck out in the tight top she wore.

The prodigal hacker found her gaze lingering for a fair amount of time. Then again, she always thought Dinah was beautiful and it was hard to deny her beauty. A few seconds later, Dinah bounced up to her feet and made her way to the center of the room.

"So, are you ready?" Dinah asked her.

"Yes, I guess," Barbara said. "I must be some kind of glutton for punishment if I'm going to throw myself at you in battle."

Dinah's lips curled into a knowing smile before she beckoned Barbara into the center of the room.

"You've taken some self-defense," Dinah said. "So it isn't like you're completely helpless."

"Daughter of one of the handful of good cops in Gotham City, one who has made a few enemies," Barbara said. "Yes, I took some self-defense, but it's nothing compared to what you, Harry, and the others do. I mean, going out there like you do every night, I don't care how much training you have. Talk about nerve-racking."

"We do what we can do," Dinah said. The stunning siren motioned for Barbara to come forward. "Attack me, the best you can."

Barbara hitched in a breath and charged in for Dinah. She swung her fist and attempted to attack Dinah. Dinah blocked her hand with a steady punch, and flung Barbara's hand back.

"Good, and again!"

Barbara tried to nail Dinah with a glancing blow. She faked her out, and tried to nail her with another blow. Dinah caught the second blow, after noticing the fake-out as a fake-out.

"You have to make your fake-outs be a little less obvious," Dinah said. "If you leave your opponent an opening….."

Dinah dodged another punch from Barbara no sooner did these words leave her mouth. She smiled at Barbara trying to exploit an opening. Good practice given most of the criminals would never keep their mouth shut during a fight. The stunning siren weaved underneath Barbara's jab. Another jab came close to drilling Barbara in the face. Barbara returned fire, but Dinah blocked the attack.

"So, about the other night?" Barbara asked.

She paused and had to avoid them.

"The League, what do you think their game is?" Barbara asked.

A series of punches started to be aimed at Barbara. She dodged most of them, but a couple of them nailed her. If Dinah really wanted to hurt her, she would have put a little more force in her punches. They ended up being little more than glancing blows which knocked the wind out of Barbara.

"You know, I don't really have the slightest idea," Dinah said. "And Nightshade….well she acted about as I thought she would."

"She really does have some kind of agenda," Barbara said. She swooped down to avoid Dinah's attack. "And it can't be good for all of Gotham City."

' _As if we didn't have more than enough to worry about, with all of the gang problems. And now two different Red Hood gangs. As if one gang wasn't bad enough, we have two.'_

Barbara shifted her way underneath the jab from Dinah. Dinah picked up the pace with a series of rapid fire jabs to the chest. Barbara avoided the attack, at least to some of the point. One of the jabs caught her in the right shoulder.

"Your right shoulder is your blind spot for some reason," Dinah said. She gripped Barbara's shoulders and positioned her at another angle. "Don't focus all of your attention to protecting your right side, but make sure you don't get hit there hard."

"Yes, because it hurts," Barbara said.

The training went on. Barbara thought despite picking up some skills, she had a lot to learn. Even if she didn't go out on the field, it wouldn't hurt her too much to know how to kick a little bit of ass. Kara's desire to step up her training inspired Barbara to step up her training.

"Kara's doing well," Dinah said, almost as if she read Barbara's thoughts. Likely because she did read Barbara's thoughts. "The trial run in California went well for her."

"Better than Smallville did," Barbara said. "But, then again, she only had to deal with a group of mercenaries, not a super powered group of meteor mutants. Or really, even one of them."

Dinah allowed Barbara to catch her breath for about three seconds. She swept Barbara off of her feet. Barbara bounced off and returned to the attack. Her offense barely broke through Dinah's defenses.

' _Okay, she trains every day, but she has to have a weak spot,'_ Barbara thought. _'Okay, maybe not, but you can't blame someone for having hope, can you?'_

Barbara ducked and weaved underneath Dinah's assault. Dinah knocked her back against the ground.

"So, did you talk to Oliver?" Barbara asked.

"No," Dinah said. Her gaze snapped into Barbara's face. "Keep your eye on the ball."

Barbara could hear the shortness in voice. The fact Dinah knocked her on her ass with a solid punch indicated Barbara hit a sore spot. Then again, Oliver's attitude always pissed Dinah off, more so after they broke up. And Barbara thought Dinah traded up a lot.

She did get the hint Dinah didn't want to talk about this right now and resumed trying not to get hit by Dinah. Dinah's rapid fire attacks continued for a few moments longer.

"Time," Dinah said.

Barbara almost collapsed, after Dinah put in a series of hard shots on her. Barbara shook her head, with a long sigh passing through her throat.

After the long night which was, the two deserved some downtime in the Clocktower. The two cooled down after their sparring session concluded.

* * *

 

Harry decided to work on one of the projects he attempted to work on since the moment before he left Gotham City. He hunched over the shield of one of the suits. They weren't upgraded far enough to integrate magic into the shields yet.

Well, they could, at least in theory. Harry understood the problem was the magic interfered with the degradation of the suits. He would be going through a lot more suits if he had integrated the magical components in the shield.

And they were a good chunk of time away from having technology catch up to the point where magic would be a logical extension of the technology, rather than some kind of roadblock to fit in. Harry suspected a good ten to twenty years, or so.

' _If I'm being charitable.'_

Faora knocked on the door. Harry cleared his throat and allowed her to come in. She took a seat next to Harry.

"I'll be ready to run the first run of tests when I get back to Gotham City," Harry said. The two siblings locked eyes with each other. "Providing I don't run into any snags."

"With Wanda on our side, we should be able to do everything a lot more easily," Faora said. "Well, in theory at least, not sure how much in practice we can do everything more easily."

"It's the thought which counts," Harry said. He turned away from his sister to view the item on the table. "And yes, Wanda can help us test the shields. Not sure how much I want to push her. She has a better handle on her powers, but she did spend seven years in an asylum. And I don't know exactly where she's been."

"Do you even know anything about Doctor Fate?" Faora asked.

"Well, it's like Zee said, Doctor Fate was a member of the Justice Society of America," Harry said. "And Doctor Fate was most certainly a male. But after the JSA broke up, I guess Fate….either found a successor or someone else took up the mantle."

"Or someone claimed they were Doctor Fate, and they were posing as him, or her, or whoever," Faora said. "You didn't sense anything the matter with Wanda."

"Well, if they were claiming to be Doctor Fate, they sorted out Wanda well enough," Harry said. "When I bonded with her, I went deep into her mind, so there really isn't any problems with her."

Harry made his way to the shield and started to tinker it. He had to increase the power just enough where it should in theory prevent most magic from frying it. Without frying other components of his suit, and thus forcing him to move around in a clunky mess, but never mind the technical aspects of it.

"She is someone who we should keep an eye on," Faora said. She reached in and gripped Harry's hand to gain his full attention. "And she's an asset to add to the group. And after she matured….well you know what they say about magical powers?"

"Yes, I know," Harry said. A smile crossed his face at the thought of it. "Large breasts are a sign of immense magical powers. And Jaime and I knew she was powerful, given what she did. And she might be capable of even more amazing feats of magical prowess now here head is on straight."

"Well, I'm sure you can help guide her on her path," Faora said. "You might want to make a couple more adjustments here."

Harry took his sister's feedback into account and smiled, working with the shields the best he could.

"You know, I read about Stark having something in development, shield wise," Faora said. "Maybe it would be prudent to not throw away a potential partnership with them just yet."

"Yes, I understand they are," Harry said. He made another adjustment. "We're keeping the door open, but we're not letting them in just yet."

Faora understood the reasons why her brother made the decisions as he did. She couldn't blame him at the slightest for doing what he did. If the situation had been reversed, she would have done things the same exact way.

"Tori has a lot to live up to, with her father being who he is," Faora said. "Howard Stark, the man's a living legend. He accomplished far more than most people would do in his life. In some ways, you're a lot alike."

"Do I hear a note of respect for a man other than your brother?" Harry asked. "Who are you and what have you done with Faora?"

Faora smiled, and shook her head.

 _'Perhaps I should do a better job at clarifying myself,'_ she thought.

 _'Just a little bit,'_ Karen thought.

"I don't respect Stark the man, I respect Stark the inventor and his accomplishments," Faora said. "Many of his inventions have been lost to time, mostly because of the fact, he was the only one who could explain them."

Harry nodded in response. The young man started to tinker a bit more with the shield. He pretty much put everything in order, at least up until the field test when he returned to Gotham City.

"It's going to have to do for now," Harry said. He put down the wrench in his hand and smiled, wiping his forehead. "I wonder what her intentions are."

"Well, normally, I would say she intends to get you in bed," Faora said. "And it might be one of her goals, but I don't think it's the end goal, at least as far as I know."

Harry smiled and placed the finished, at least for now, shields inside a box, where he could easily transport them back to the lab in Gotham City.

"I think she wants someone to share some of her more brilliant, if not out there ideas," Faora said. "Someone who understands where she's coming from. And you do have a reputation for being too brilliant for your own good."

Harry chuckled after Faora's assessment. Boy did his sister have him pegged fairly nicely. All of the doctorates show him to be too brilliant for his own good. He had the ability to absorb knowledge at an insane pace, so why not take full advantage of his abilities.

"And you're going to be working with Bethanie a bit more closely so you can wrap up your latest conquest," Faora said. She allowed the statement to hang just long enough for a playful smile to cross her face. "And I'm referring to your doctorate, although I'm sure knowing you, you wouldn't be up for a bit of multi-tasking."

Harry's face cracked into the merest of a hint of a smile as he looked her in the eye.

"We'll see what happens there," Harry said. "You never know what might happen. But, better wait until after I excel in her class before making my move."

"Oh, I see, and I agree," Faora said. "You never want to leave any doubt you did something on your own merits. Although, if you spend time with any women, the Gotham City Gossip chain will have you sleeping with them."

Harry frowned and shook his head. He suspected he had no one else to blame but himself.

"I wish I was there to see the looks on their faces when you told him about the backstage paces," Faora said.

' _Do you realize how hard it was to keep a straight face all of the times they talked about how they would miss out on Alison's concert,'_ Kara thought.

' _Just how many of you were on Harry's evil scheme?'_ Amanda asked. _'I don't mean to say anything bad about it, I'm just curious. It seems like a lot of you knew about it, before Harry even said anything.'_

' _How many?'_ Harry asked. _'Just the entire Alpha council, maybe a couple of others. We wanted to keep everything tight lipped so no one blabbed.'_

' _Fair enough, I guess,'_ Amanda said. _'We really should be angrier at you then we really are though.'_

' _Well, you should be mad, unless you remember you're getting backstage passes and you're going to the concert anyway,'_ Harry thought. _'So the only crime I'm guilty of, is trolling you. And it's still your own fault you didn't get tickets.'_

' _Yes, we're going to never hear the end of it, aren't we?'_ Emily thought.

' _Guess not,'_ Amanda thought. _'We really should get ready.'_

' _The concert's not for another eight hours,'_ Kara thought.

' _We're meeting Alison Blaire, in person, backstage,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Wouldn't you want to look your best?'_ Emily asked.

' _Well to be fair, I already met Alison Blaire in person,'_ Kara thought. _'A lot of us did, and Harry met her up close and personal, as you know.'_

 

The twins responded with a groan and Kara responded with laughter, looking fairly amused.

' _Yes, Kara, thank you, rub it in,'_ Amanda thought.

' _It's my pleasure,'_ Kara said.

' _And you were the number one partner in pulling this little prank on us,'_ Amanda thought.

' _I'm not sure if it was a prank, as much as it was a lesson,'_ Faora thought. _'A valuable one, which both of you girls should learn.'_

' _Yes, rub it in, Alex, rub it in,'_ Amanda thought. _'We're going to get to get Harry back.'_

' _You know, you shouldn't really plot when I'm in an earshot,'_ Harry said. _'It loses just a little bit of effectiveness.'_

' _Just a little bit?'_ Donna asked.

' _Okay, more than a little bit,'_ Harry said. _'A whole lot and I'd really like to see you two try. I know everything you know, and even more.'_

* * *

 

Joe Kerr recalled what his wife told him. She told him to follow his heart and do what's best. Joe thought his heart leaned to doing what was best for the future of his family. The past couple of months at the Ace Chemical plant pretty much told him he wasn't sure if it was the best.

The standup routine ended up being a mixed bag. He knew it didn't have much viability, especially after his initial performance.

The last thirty days on his sixty day trial period ticked down. Joe decided it would be right to make a decision and hope everyone would be okay. The man stood outside of the door, ready to show some moxie and do what was right.

"Joe, my dear boy, come in."

Mr. Romero, the overriding supervisor of the plant, waved for Joe to come in.

"So, you were on the fence thirty days ago, and now you're halfway through, what do you have to say?" Romero asked.

"I'd wish to give my thirty day notice, sir," Joe said. His supervisor raised an eyebrow. "The deal of the Ace Chemical plant, it's too good to be true, but….I'm more concerned about some of the employees and some of the people who you do business with."

"Now, Joe, don't be worried about our customers," Romero said. "Some of them are paying big dollars and we need it to keep the doors open."

Something about Romero's words stank to high heaven as far as Joe was concerned. He swallowed a lump in his throat and stared down the man.

"Sir, why would you….why would you hand me me such a large contract, if you're bleeding money?" Joe asked.

"My boy, you don't understand business the way I do," Romero said. "To stop the bleeding, you have to let all of the blood flow. And I value talent."

Joe corked an eyebrow, wondering what the gentlemen reached with his point. Romero leaned forward.

"I value your work which you've done," Romero said. "And a short term loss is better for a long term game…..yes, come in Paige."

Paige made her way into the office. The enchanting dark haired woman stepped over to the desk. She leaned forward, her pale cleavage glinting in the moonlight. Some official looking documentation dangled from her hand.

"Sir, I need your authorization for these forms," Paige said.

"Yes," Romero said. He scrawled his signature on them. "I have to make deals to keep the plant running. We lost money last quarter, and we have a few lawsuits on the books. But, now, by making these days, the company will be put back in the black."

"Oh, so it's all about money?" Joe asked.

"Money makes the world funny, Joe," Romero said. He chuckled, even though Joe didn't laugh. "It's the root cause of what drives us. And you need to dip your fingers into some pies which might not be to your taste…..are you sure you wish to give your notice?"

"I've decided to do what's best for me," Joe said. "I have an example to lead, and thank you for everything Mr. Romero. I will honor the final thirty days of my contract and won't breath a word of anything I've seen."

"Joe, do you know something I don't?" Romero asked. "Because, if you know something, you should speak up. I know some of my employees might be salt of the Earth, but…..I don't know everything going on in this plant."

Joe stopped for a few seconds and shook his head.

"Nothing sir, it's nothing," Joe said.

"Well, then, I'll wish you the best, and have a good night," Romero said. "And be careful."

"Yes, Mr. Kerr, be careful," Paige said. "It's dangerous these days in Gotham."

Joe walked out of the door. Did he walk out of the best job of his life like a fool? Only time would tell. Regardless he stood and walked out with his head held high.

' _Not having a good night,'_ Joe thought.

Joe entered the car and prepared to start up the car. Only, out of rearview mirror, he noticed a blanket being hurled into the air. A gentleman dressed in a Red Hood popped up to a sitting position and grabbed Joe by the shoulder.

"You and I are going to need to have a nice long chat," the Red Hood said.

"You're one of the goons who works for Napier, aren't you?" Joe asked.

The Red Hood made a strangled sound like some kind of animal being throttled.

"Please, don't insult my intelligence and I won't insult yours," The Red Hood said. "You're dealing with some really bad people in the plant and you've really stepped into something, haven't you?"

"I guess," Joe said.

"You guess?" the Red Hood asked. "Well, I think I've got an offer you shouldn't refuse."

"What do you mean you're going to give me an offer I shouldn't refuse?" Joe asked.

"Well, let me put it like this," the Red Hood said. "You walked away from a cushy little job. You have your morals and I can respect it. The Red Hood gang has their own code of conduct, something Napier spat on when the bastard thought he could run the show. And he is using my image for his own gain to get some respect in Gotham City."

"Yeah, world's a cutthroat place, we all got our problems," Joe said.

"And you have a baby on the way, and your fledging comedy career….really isn't what it's cracked up to be," Red Hood said.

"How do you know….."

"Joe, I do my homework before I make a deal," The Red Hood said. "And I know you're in a bind and you wouldn't say no to a bit of freelance work on the side. Just think about what we can do for each other. I scratch your back, and you scratch mine."

The Red Hood pulled out a stack of one hundred dollar bills and placed them on the front seat next to Joe.

"I'm not a killer," Joe said.

"I'm not asking you to be a killer, my good man," the Red Hood said. "All I'm asking for you is one simple favor, for you to hold the door open for me. Do this for me, and I'll take good care of you."

Joe blinked for a second.

"Best, I can tell, you've got your cushy little security credentials for another month, don't you? And I'm giving away free money for the next month. Just mull over what you want to do and I'll see you again soon, really soon."

The Red Hood set the money down on the front seat. Joe's eyes raked over it like a forbidden fruit. He wasn't ignorant, he read the papers. The Red Hood gang stole a lot of money during their heists.

Maybe just a little bit to get him by until his comedy career got off the ground.

* * *

 

Amanda and Emily decided to get over their frustration towards Harry keeping a secret from them about the Alison Blaire concert. A limo picked up the girls and Harry at the hotel and drove them to the concert in style. They would be making their way backstage for a bit of a meet and great before the show, and then they would head out to prime seats.

The after show might be the more exciting event to them. At least if everything went according to plan.

"I guess being the boy toy of a famous pop star has its benefits, doesn't it?" Amanda asked.

Harry chuckled at Amanda's assessment. A very true one in many ways, but still, the way she said it.

The three Potters exited the limo and walked up to the door. After showing their passes, the doorkeeper stepped back and let him in.

"And, it doesn't matter where you go, people are going to be in awe," Emily said.

"As well they should be," Amanda said. "I mean, Harry's bigger than a lot of rock stars and pop stars and actors and…..well he's pretty much larger than life."

The three of them made their way backstage. A hurried group of backstage workers scrambled around in an attempt to get everything ready for the biggest star.

"Is it just me?" Amanda asked. "Or do those people have the air of people who think they might get fired if this entire show doesn't go off without a hitch?"

"It's not just you," Harry said.

An attractive woman dressed in a business suit with short dark hair and piercing blue eyes stepped over towards them. The woman crossed the room with a smile on her face and stepped towards Harry.

"Doctor Potter, Ms. Potter, and Ms. Potter?" the woman asked.

"Yes," Harry said.

"My name is Daisy Johnson, and I'm Alison's minder…..she wanted me to escort you to her dressing room backstage before the show, so she can make sure you and your sisters got here on time," Daisy said.

"Ah, yes, thank you," Harry said.

The woman escorted the three Potters through the backstage area. She turned towards them with a smile on her face.

"The backstage area in this arena, it can be a little bit of a maze," Daisy said. "And, I missed you in New York."

"Oh, you did?" Harry asked.

"Alison neglected to mention she headed off to the big Fashion Week event," Daisy said. A smile crossed her face. "And she neglected to mention she was going to partake in the afterparty either."

"Well, it's a shame I didn't get to meet you there," Harry said. "I guess, she's going to have to make it up to you some other time."

"Yes," Daisy said .Her eyes traveled over Harry's body. After Daisy finished checking him out, she continued. "She would…..have to…but I'm sure she's pacing the floor enough as it is. I think seeing you and your sisters, would be a relief to her, Doctor Potter."

"Please, Ms. Johnson….." Amanda said.

"Call, him, Harry," Emily said.

"And I'm sure…"

"He can call you Daisy."

Daisy shivered for a moment because of the two of them finishing each other's sentences. She knew twins had some kind of form of mild telepathy, especially gifted twins like the Potter twins. The entire finishing each other's sentences thing unsettled the woman just a small bit.

"Happen to you often?" Daisy asked.

"Oh, a fair bit."

Daisy looked rather amused at Harry's casual words. Regardless, the woman escorted Harry forward. Her skirt swayed, showing off her ass quite nicely. And she didn't mind at all Harry looked. In fact, the thought of Harry Potter checking out her ass made her very happy.

"Alison," Daisy said.

"Go away," Alison said.

"Harry's here to see you," Daisy said.

The rustling within the room caused a smile to crack over Daisy's face, and the twins to be barely able to hold it together.

"I'll be ready in a minute," Alison said. "But, please don't open the door, my hair looks like hell."

Harry shook his head in amusement. He could hear Alison frantically scrambling around in the room. Just by the sounds of her, only one conclusion could be made. Harry leaned towards Daisy.

"A bit of stage fright?" Harry asked.

"Just a bit," Daisy said. "There's a huge difference between a recording studio and being out on stage in front of a sold out crowd, in one of the media capitals in the world."

The door opened and Alison's expression brightened up.

"Harry, I'm so glad you can make it," Alison said. She looked at him, beaming with a smile. "I'm going nuts….would you like to come inside?"

Alison grabbed Harry by the hand and dragged him inside. Amanda and Emily followed him inside.

"Alison, this is Amanda and Emily, my twin sisters," Harry said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Alison, we're such huge fans," Amanda said.

Alison chuckled at the expression on their faces. It wasn't odd for her to encounter such passionate fans. In fact, it happened fairly often.

"So, Harry told me," Alison said.

"You're not nervous about the show are you?" Emily asked.

"Yes, thousands of fans are counting on you to dazzle them tonight," Amanda said.

Harry gave Amanda a look which clearly stated "you're really not helping with her nerves."

"Don't worry, it will be fine," Emily said. "Go and….."

Amanda clapped her hand over her sister's mouth.

' _Don't you dare tell her to imagine everyone in their underwear,'_ Amanda said. _'Have you seen some of her fans? They're the type you wouldn't want to imagine in their underwear at all.'_

Amanda relaxed her grip around Emily's mouth. Emily crossed her arms, lip poking out in the atomic pout to end all atomic pouts.

"Alison, can you come with me for five minutes?" Harry asked. "Daisy, do you think you can escort my sisters to their seats?"

"Yes," Daisy said with a smile.

Daisy escorted Amanda and Emily out to their seats. The two girls chatted about the concert.

"Alison, don't worry about what the critics think," Harry said. The young man reached forward and paced his hand on Alison's cheek. "I've heard all of them, what they say. Your music is garbage, sappy, cheesy, and….it's an insult to the intelligence of any intellectual out there."

"You're really not making me feel better, Harry," Alison said.

"Those people are idiots," Harry said. "Professional critic is the most pathetic job on the planet, because you get paid to bitch about the things you hate. And you have to ruin the fun of everyone else. But, how many of them bought tickets to your concert? Worry about your fans, and how excited they are to finally see you in concert. Eighteen weeks, sold out, you must be doing something right."

"What if I let them down?" Alison asked.

"You won't," Harry said.

He leaned towards her and stole a kiss from her. Alison returned the kiss with eagerness and hunger. Harry left her breathless after his lips left hers.

"Remember, put in a good show, and we can celebrate afterwards," Harry said.

With such an enticing proposal, Alison found herself struggling to argue with it for any reason whatsoever.

' _Well, he's given me a good enough incentive. Time to knock them dead out there, Alison, show them what you're really made of.'_

* * *

 

The applause didn't come close to dying down as Alison finally made her way backstage. She shook her head, at a moment.

"Can you believe I was nervous about my concert bombing?" Alison asked.

Daisy smiled and leaned towards Alison with a reassuring smile on her face.

"Oh, Alison, you just had first night jitters," Daisy said. "You were a hit tonight….and don't worry, I'm sure the next several times are going to be just as good. I think you even made believers out of a few of your critics."

"Well, it's not them I'm worried about, it's what my fans think," Alison said. "And they loved it tonight."

"Oh, we sure did!" Amanda yelled.

"It was amazing," Emily said.

"I dare say, it was pretty dazzling, wasn't it?" Amanda asked.

"Oh, you just had to go there, didn't you?" Emily asked. "You just had to say something groan inducing, didn't you?"

"Hey, I didn't induce any groans," Amanda said.

Harry watched the conversation between the twins in amusement, but cleared his throat.

"You did excellent, Alison," Harry said. "I told you, you shouldn't worry about the critics."

"I agree with Harry," Daisy said. "Haters are going to hate and bitchers are going to bitch."

Alison smiled for a moment. She could hear security in a shouting match with a few people.

"Ah, the paparazzi," Daisy said. "Do you want me to take care of them, Ali?"

"Could you, please," Alison said.

Harry escorted them back to Alison's locker room. Alison anticipated a more private celebrate with Harry. Not she didn't mind Harry's twin sisters, but she anticipated a more private celebration with Harry.

"I've imported something special, and it didn't come cheap."

Harry pulled out a wine bottle.

"One drink, to your success," Harry said.

Alison thought about it for a moment. After a concert, she thought she should have a drink, but she wanted to set a good example.

"Don't worry, drinking laws are a bit more lax back home, then they are here," Amanda said.

"Oh, I see," Alison said.

She had a couple of drinks here and there when she was stressed. Her parents didn't really support the entire pop star thing, wanting her to go to college. Which she did, in a round about way, but she never quite mended the fences with her parents.

"So, to tonight's success, and a lot of future success."

Alison downed the drink. She looked at Harry.

"Careful, it's a bit strong," Harry said.

The look on Alison's face caused the twins to crack up in laughter.

"A little head's up before I drank it, might have been nice," Alison said.

"You're really beautiful tonight, Alison," Amanda said.

"And you treated us to a good concert," Emily said.

"Not to mention, you let us crash in your locker room, and eat your grapes," Amanda said.

"Hey, help yourself, I don't even like grapes," Alison said.

Alison smiled and she tipped back for a moment. She took a long drink of the wine and smiled.

"But, you certainly like your wine," Amanda said.

"Hey, if you've had the day I've had today, you'd like your wine too," Alison said. She shrugged and took another long drink. "We're going to have a really good night tonight."

"Yes, a really good night," Amanda said. "Harry brought the two of us backstage, for a reason. We want to show how devoted of fans we are of you."

Alison's heart beat against her chest for a moment. The woman hovered over her, with a smile.

"And how good of a brother Harry is, for sharing the wealth with his younger sisters," Emily said.

Amanda swooped on in and caught Alison with a long kiss on the lips. Alison closed her eyes for a second. Her intention might have been to push Amanda away, but she succumbed to the kiss within a matter of seconds. The woman's tongue buried deeper in Alison's mouth.

Alison turned to Harry.

"My sisters and I have a rather close relationship," Harry said. "We're different from a lot of people."

"Oh, I see….oooh, "Alison said.

She shook her head with a smile, growing a tiny bit red at the implications. The pop star decided not to judge people for who they are or what they did. Her heart started to hammer against her chest at an extremely accelerated pace.

"Yes, I hope you don't mind," Harry said. "You don't mind, do you?"

"Not at all, not at all," Alison said.

She barely could choke out the next couple of words. Mostly, Amanda's tongue pushed into her mouth and kissed her.

"You showed us a good time backstage, Alison. You really dazzled us. I think it's time we show you an even better time."

Alison's heart hammered over her chest. Some mysterious force engulfed her mind and destroyed her inhibitions. And the mysterious force didn't end up being wine, as far as she could tell.

"Your top looks a bit strained….look how your nipples look. Why don't we get some relief?"

Amanda removed Alison's top, exposing her breasts to the world. Her round breasts popped out into the air. The Potter twin grabbed her chest and squeezed her breast.

"Please," Alison said. Amanda wrapped her lips around Alison's breast and sucked. The sucking caused Alison to moan deeper. "Please."

Emily ran her hands down Harry's stomach. Harry bent down and wrapped his arms around his sister. He pulled her into a kiss. Emily broke the kiss and smiled. She pulled open Harry's shirt. His belt slid off and Emily ran her hands down his abs. She brushed her fingers across his abs.

"Time for me to get you warmed up," Emily said. "I want to thank you for getting us these excellent backstage passes."

Harry's pants went down by his ankles. Emily wrapped her hand around his throbbing cock. She pushed her hand up and down on his manhood. Emily touched her lips to his cock.

"Yes, I'm sure you'd really want to thank me," Harry said.

"Mmm, hmm," Emily said.

With these words, Emily's hot lips wrapped around his cock. His twin sister brought his thick cock into her throat. She brought herself down on him, bobbing his head up and down.

Alison watched, unable to tear her eyes away from the taboo slight. She experienced Amanda going between her legs. The woman's tongue pushed between her legs. The tongue extended to go further between her legs. Amanda dug her nails into Alison's thighs.

"Mandy, please," Alison said. The pop star brought her hips up.

Her pussy oozed with pleasure. Amanda swirled her tongue, bringing more of the dripping juices out.

Emily decided to outdo herself. The beautiful redhead blew her older brother. Harry placed his hands in her shorter hair and pushed his cock into her waiting mouth. The woman cooed as he hit the back of her throat.

"I think you want to thank me in another way," Harry said. "I can smell you."

Harry brought Emily to her feet. She licked her lips. Her panties slid down underneath her dress. She aimed her pussy at his cock.

Emily slammed her hot box down onto his cock. Her wet and hot walls stretched around his manhood. Emily gripped his shoulder as she brought her hips forward onto him. The Potter girl brought her hips down onto him, wiggling all the way down.

"Good spot," Emily said. He pushed inside her and it caused Emily to scream. "Oh, I feel you inside me, Harry!"

Harry held onto his sister's hips and worked into him. He caught sight of Amanda diving down between Alison's legs, eating her pussy.

Amanda tasted Alison's pussy, but she wanted even more. The more devious of the twins rose up from between Alison's legs. With a sultry grin, Amanda crawled on top of Alison. The Potter twin pinned down the gorgeous pop star.

"You have such a beautiful pussy, and nice tits," Amanda said. She dragged her tongue all over Alison's cleavage, and kissed the side of her neck.

Alison closed her eyes, feeling Amanda's hot mouth lavish the side of her neck. Amanda's lips wrapped around the side of her neck, suckling on her.

"Yes, more!" Emily yelled.

Harry fucked his sister from behind. His throbbing cock speared into her pussy. Her tight vice like cunt squeezed and released him. He knew he wouldn't be able hold back even more. He thrust into her.

"Cum for me, Emmy," Harry said.

Emily came for him. Her wet pussy clenched the wizard's raging rod into her. He slammed into her. His balls churned with cum.

"I think it's your turn," Emily said.

Harry brought her into the couch in the dressing room. His balls slammed against her aching clit with Harry trying to finish himself into her.

His balls ached with the need for his release. A few more thrusts edged Harry closer. Emily's eager pussy milked him. Harry brought his seed into her pussy, splattering into her snug walls. He launched several ropes of cum into her pussy.

Amanda rubbed Alison's pussy and brought an orgasm to her. Seeing Alison needed to recover, Amanda sauntered over to Harry.

"Don't think I didn't want to thank you as well," Amanda said.

"I don't think, I know," Harry said.

She dropped her dress, revealing her firm, large, D-Cup breasts to him. Amanda wrapped her tits around Harry's aching pole. Harry groaned as his sister worked her breasts up and down his pole, rubbing him with furious intension.

"Damn, Mandy, your tits feel so good," Harry said.

"Do you like tit-fucking your sister, Harry?" Amanda asked. "I'd like your jizz all over my face and my tits! Give it to me, big brother!"

Harry experienced her bouncing up and down. His balls loaded up with the pleasure of cum, almost coursing through him. Amanda brought her breasts down onto his shaft and rode him to the edge of an orgasm.

"Yes, I want to feel your cum on me," Amanda said. "Will you give me your cum, Harry?"

Harry grunted in response. He thrust into her, and sent a jolt of pleasure through Amanda's clit. Amanda's thighs clenched together when Harry continued to pump his throbbing cock between her willing breasts.

"Be careful what you wish for, Mandy," Harry said. "You're going to get everything you want, and more."

"Good, I'm glad," Amanda said.

His balls tightened up. His hose launched cum all over Amanda's tantalizing body. It splattered Amanda in the face and covered her breasts. The force nearly caused her to fall back onto the ground.

Emily swept behind her sister, catching her. The two Potter twins looked at each other, as Emily scooped Harry's cum off of Amanda's breasts. Emily licked her fingers clean, which caused Amanda to shudder in response.

Amanda and Emily exchanged spit and Harry's cum in a hot makeout session. Harry's cock hardened at the sight of his sister's swapping spit along with his cum. They rubbed their breasts and their pussies together along with their tongues. Amanda slapped Emily on the ass which prompted to her to squeal in her mouth.

Alison wrapped her hand around Harry's throbbing cock and pumped him. She moved her pussy over the head of his cock. The gorgeous pop star spent a few seconds teasing herself, along with Harry. She grinded her hot pussy over the aching head of his throbbing cock.

"Finally," Alison said.

Alison slid her hot pussy lips down onto Harry's cock. She enveloped his tool into her wet pussy, clamping down on him as hard as possible.

The pop diva's gorgeous legs wrapped around Harry's waist, and she raised herself high into the air, before bringing her pussy down onto Harry's throbbing hard pole.

Alison wrapped her arms around Harry's neck. She closed her eyes and brought her pussy down onto his tool.

The ground underneath then shook for a brief second. It stopped after a moment. Alison closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around Harry's neck.

"Oh, yes, suck my tits," Alison said. "They're yours, baby, yours!"

The pop star impaled herself down onto Harry's cock. Another mild shake appeared underneath him. Harry grabbed Alison's hips, working into her love box. Their loins admitted, with Alison bringing herself up and down on his cock.

Amanda crawled onto Emily's body. The two twins engaged in pleasure kissing each other. Their pussies rubbed together, creating a spark.

Emily faded underneath Amanda's touch. Amanda really worked her up into a fever. Their pussies rose up and down together.

"So hot, isn't it?" Harry asked.

"YES!" Alison panted. She drove her dripping hot pussy up and down on him.

Alison's legs wrapped around his waist, bringing herself up and down onto his throbbing pole, with him grabbing her ass. The two of them connected with each other, thrusting into her dripping hot pussy.

"Good, cum for me, you know you want to."

Harry nibbled on her nipples. Shivers blew down Alison's spine. Her well lubricated center worked up and down on Harry. She brought her pussy down onto him, grinding against him.

Alison hit the high note from his cock sliding into her pussy. He twitched inside her.

"Good girl, I'm getting so close, do you want my cum?"

"YES!"

Alison panted as she brought her tight hips up and down onto his throbbing manhood. She worked herself to a fever.

"One more time."

He released her orgasm. Alison's body heated up with pleasure. Her right nipple hardened in her mouth. Alison tilted back, moaning in pleasure.

Harry followed, thrusting up into her. He hit her g-spot with precision, hitting the best note he could. His hips rose into her, forcing Alison to twitch down onto him.

"Cumming, so hard!" Alison screamed, letting her pleasure flow through her.

"Of course," Harry said. "Let it go."

Alison collapsed down onto him, and seconds later, he fired his load into her pussy. Thick cum emptied from Harry's balls into her pussy.

She collapsed on his shoulder, drooling, as he pulled out of her. Amanda and Emily moved over to help clean up Alison like the devoted fangirls they were.

Harry relaxed after putting his sisters and the pop diva through the pace.

' _Kara?'_ Harry asked.

' _Um, yeah, Har?'_ Kara asked.

She sounded distracting, as if basking in the moment of the orgasm.

' _Could you check to see if there's been any earthquakes on the west coast?'_ Harry asked.

' _No, I don't think so,'_ Kara thought. She checked and verified there wasn't. _'Why?'_

' _Just checking,'_ Harry said.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 14** **th** **, 2015.**


	134. Meanwhile Back at the Ranch

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Four: Meanwhile Back at the Ranch.**

* * *

 

A beautiful spring day hit nice and hard in Smallville. After the bitter winter, the citizens of Smallville greeted spring with open arms and some of the biggest smiles imaginable. Lana and Claire sat down in the grass. Both of the girls enjoyed some orange juice and the gentle breeze hitting their faces.

Claire shook her head for a moment when the young woman recalled everything which occurred to her at late. The dream she experienced a couple of weeks ago really worked over her mind. She hadn't had any dreams since then, but a feeling of unsettlement visited Claire and threatened her mind.

The girl took in a deep breath. Lana looked at Claire for a second and cleared her throat. When clearing her throat didn't cause Claire to wake up, Lana picked up a stick and wacked Claire on the side of the arm with it.

"Lana!" Claire yelled. Her head swung and glared at Lana. Lana barely stopped herself from laughing."What did you hit me?"

"Because, you looked like you were a million miles away," Lana said. The dark haired fifth-grader looked at Claire biting down on her lip in concern. The woman brushed a dark lock of hair away from her eye. "Seriously, Claire, what's been eating you? You haven't been yourself since we visited the caves."

Lana hated the fact Claire looked so off. Her friend tended to be rather guarded. It took a long time before she told Lana her secret, and now she did, there was something else eating Claire.

"I don't…it's weird," Claire said. The young Kryptonian tried to figure out how to explain it the best she could, but the young woman sounded like a loss for words. "I'm not sure if you'll understand what I'm going through. It's not exactly the most settling thing in the world. It's messing with my mind a whole lot too, I can't really explain it."

"Claire, you need to….just take a deep breath, and relax," Lana said.

Lana grabbed Claire's hand and held it firmly. Well, as firmly as she could. Claire didn't really feel much of anything with the entire super-invulnerability thing. Hell, whacking her with a stick only registered a small bit of annoyance in her mind. Lana cracked a smile at the thought of it.

"Okay, Claire, you have to…you have to relax," Lana said.

Claire shook her head. Lana already established the fact she had to relax. Did she feel relaxed? Well a little bit, because Lana was here to help her get through this. Claire didn't even tell her parents about the weird dream. Whether or not her mother had an idea something bothered Claire, the nearly twelve-year old Kryptonian didn't really know. Mothers knew everything, often at the worst possible times.

"It always comes back to the cave," Claire said. The young woman took a long second to close her eye. "I keep thinking about it. It's like I need to go back and explore it closer."

Lana shivered for a moment. She decided to be strong for Claire's sake more than anything.

"You know, Mr. Longshadow did warn you about how the cave is haunted and you shouldn't mess around there. And I don't think the three of us should have gone up there. Sorry, about me and my stupid curiosity."

"You didn't drag me up there, Lana," Claire said. The young woman's blue eyes locked onto Lana's with a firm glare. "I was curious to see what was going on, only….well I'm the only one who had a weird dream over the curiosity."

Lana leaned in to Claire, frowning.

"It's just one weird dream, right?"

"Just one weird dream," Claire said. "And a whole of me being unsettled during the day. It's just a feeling of me needing to return to the cave for reasons. I can't really explain the reasons, but there are reasons where I want to return to the cave. And they really bother me."

"Claire, you shouldn't….well you shouldn't allow everything to get to you," Lana said. "And you haven't even thought about going to the cave again, have you?"

"No, I haven't," Claire said. "Well, I've thought about it, but I haven't done it yet. But, if this keeps up….I don't know what I'm going to do."

Lana shook her head to clear the thoughts from her mind. Claire really did have some problems, which Lana hoped she would be able to sort out in due time. Lana worried about her friend sometimes, and wanted nothing, but the best from her, to try and help her.

"We both know what you should do, don't you?"

Claire sighed, she knew where Lana headed with this one, and the young alien preteen had to agree.

"Yes, I know, talk to Harry, about this," Claire said. "He's been busy lately, though. Might not have the time to go out to Smallville."

Lana gave Claire a stern look in response. It was the same kind of look her aunt gave her when she was in big trouble.

"And what is stopping you from calling him up on the phone, and talking to him?" Lana asked.

"You know, absolutely nothing," Claire said. "Well, other than it's hard to explain this over the phone. And we should really show him the caves, because if this is about him, do you think he has the right to know?"

"Maybe he already knows."

Lana's blunt statement hit Claire with all of the subtly of a speaking train. The young girl looked thoughtful.

"Maybe he knows, maybe he doesn't, but….I don't know," Claire said. "I know Kara will most certainly want to know about something being up there in the caves."

"She would, Harry would, and I'm sure Harry's cousin would," Lana said. "Or is she his sister, I can't ever keep track. I have a confusing family tree sometimes."

"You're still upset about your project last year where you had to do a family tree, isn't it?" Claire asked.

"Well, looking up information on half of the Potters was frustrating, because….well a lot of the information on one branch of the family is lost," Lana said. "Thankfully, Harry was able to come through with me."

"Well, he's good at coming through in a clinch….."

Claire's eyes shifted for a moment. Her mind reflected to the caves, but it looked to be a bit deeper underground. She caught sight of a dark haired woman with widening her eyes, slumped against the cave.

The word "help" rang out in Claire's ears. Claire snapped herself back to life, with Lana chattering on about something or other.

Claire knew the girl looked like one of the natives? Didn't Mr. Longshadow mention a girl who went missing? Claire recalled something along those lines.

* * *

 

Dinah reclined in the one of the rooms in the Penthouse. After a long night of patrol, she decided to call Sara. Who thankfully was a pretty early riser and wouldn't bitch out Dinah for getting her out of bed at such an ungodly hour.

If the Lance sisters shared one attribute with each other, the weird hours they kept shined out like a blinking beacon. Both of them woke up before the crack of dawn and many of the times, they worked out hard.

"Well, Dad's doing fine, it's hard to keep a good man down," Sara said. "Sionis tried though, didn't he? But he's still at large, I'm surprised."

"He's got some friends in some pretty high places," Dinah said. "I don't like it any more than you do. He sat in prison for a little bit, and got out on a technicality."

"You mean a luxury suite and a bribe, don't you?" Sara asked. "It's been a couple of months since Thea up and left, and….well, you'd figure something would have broken by now, wouldn't you?"

Dinah thought long and hard about how to breach the subject to Oliver, without getting him to come to Gotham City like a bat out of hell and embarrassing himself. The blonde haired young woman clutched onto the phone ,closing her eyes and started to think.

"How is Oliver doing?" Dinah asked.

"Same as always…he has his moments where you want to slap him upside the head, but he has his charm," Sara said.

"Sara, don't…don't do anything you're going to end up regretting," Dinah said.

"Hey, don't worry about me, I'm a big girl, I won't let the big bad Queen do anything to me," Sara said. She tried to cause a teasing tone to enter her voice. "I think he took the breakup with you pretty hard."

"His own problem, isn't it?" Dinah asked. "You know what happened….."

"Dinah, I really don't want to talk about what happened," Sara said.

Dinah trailed off after a few seconds at Sara's warning tone. Their mother and her affair with Oliver caused some tension. And the older Lance sister cringed with guilt. She introduced the two of them in the first place.

"Fine, I drop it, but we broke up, I moved on to better and bigger things," Dinah said.

"Oh, do tell me more," Sara said.

"So, you haven't talked to him lately?" Dinah asked.

"No, not in a week or so, why?" Sara asked.

"Because I've left him three messages, and he hasn't bothered to call me out," Dinah said.

"Maybe he's afraid you're going to bitch him out about something," Sara said. "People are already saying it's his fault Thea left. Which isn't fair, because the blame can be pinned on Merlyn. Guy creeps me out a little bit, I don't know if he creeps you out."

"Just a little bit," Dinah said. Actually it might be a bit of an understatement.

"Well, he's just really obsessive," Sara said.

"He's a businessman, they can be obsessive by nature," Dinah said. "But, Oliver is okay."

"Yes," Sara said. "Are you his mother now? Because in hindsight it says a whole lot about your relationship in hindsight…even after it's over. Not I'm judging, but…."

"No, I needed to talk to him about something," Dinah said, brushing Sara's words off."It's something really important….something I heard from someone…."

"And by something you heard, it means something Babs found out, because she's too nosy for her own good, right?"

Dinah shook her head, but smiled at the thought at how Sara could be so right. At this point though, she ended up being fairly wrong.

"So, Dad's still not obsessed with trying to get back into active field duty, is he?"

"No, he's thinking about going into a private detective work. But you didn't answer your question. What did Barbara find out which is so important you have to bombard Oliver's voice mail with messages? Merlyn isn't peddling something he shouldn't, is he?"

"No, he isn't, but if he is, Babs could find out," Dinah said.

"Well, I don't doubt….so what's the deal?"

"Barbara didn't necessarily find this out….I found it out through another source," Dinah said. "Thea is alright."

"She's….she's alright?" Sara asked.

"Yes, she's alright, she's fine," Dinah said. "She's actually doing pretty well for herself now."

"It's almost like the source was you and you talked to her," Sara said.

"Well, she wouldn't talk to me, obviously," Dinah said. "The one time I came close to her, she scurried in the other direction as far as possible."

A long pause followed and the silence unsettled Dinah. She almost thought the connection between the two of them had been lost.

"Sara?"

"What the hell is going on? "Sara asked.

"All, I can tell you, is Thea is fine, and someone is keeping an eye on her," Dinah said. "Don't worry, Sara."

"You telling me not to worry makes me worry a bit too much," Sara said. "And it sounds to me like you're keeping secrets again. You and I both know what happens when people in this family keep secrets."

Dinah didn't say anything.

"And, I'm not even getting into what you get up to after dark."

"Sara, I don't know what to say…."

"Say, you're going to be straight with me, and not try and double talk me," Sara said.

"It's not my secret to tell, it's Thea's," Dinah said. "You do realize if Merlyn found out where she was…."

"Yes, Dinah, I know about Merlyn, and I guess I can agree with you there," Sara said. "And she's somewhere in Gotham City, isn't she?"

"What do you think, Sara?" Dinah asked. "You're not going to tell him, are you?"

"When I talk to Oliver next, I'll tell him Thea is okay," Sara said. "I'll tell him she called me, and told me not to worry, if it will make you feel better."

"It's not going to improve his mood any, she didn't call him," Dinah said.

"Leave everything to me," Sara said. "But, remember, Dinah, I can't help you lie forever. Eventually, someone is going to find out what's going on. And Thea can't stay under the radar forever."

"She's doing a pretty good job so far," Dinah said.

"Indeed," Sara dead panned. "I've got to go, I've got to be into work in about a half of an hour. Don't worry about Ollie, I'll pass the message onto him."

"Just….make sure he's sober when you do it, okay?"

Sara sighed in response. She understood. Maybe if Oliver understood how what he was doing effected everyone, he backed off. He was close to losing the legacy his parents built.

"Goodbye, Dinah, I'll talk to you….sometime."

"Goodbye, Sara, be careful."

"You better be careful, too, Dinah."

The two of them hung up the phone. Barbara sat across from Dinah, working at her laptop. A long time passed before Dinah walked forward to talk to Barbara.

"So, you listened in on everything, didn't you?"

"I really have no idea what you're talking about."

Dinah folded her arms when she gave one of those looks to Barbara. Most of the time, Barbara looked pretty good at playing coy, but there were times where she slipped up in the worst possible way.

"Well, if you must know, we pretty much agreed there's a pretty good reason Thea's…doing what she do," Dinah said.

"Hey, whatever happened, it's between you and Harry, and….well, it's between you two," Barbara said. The hacker's lips curled into a flicker of a smile and she barely stifled a giggle. "I love how whenever you need to look up information, people think I know everything."

Dinah took it as confirmation Barbara did listen in on her phone conversation.

"To be fair, you're too smart for your own good."

Barbara didn't say anything for a moment. The grin on her face couldn't be removed by any conventional means if she had to say so herself.

"Do you think we should have gone to California?"

"It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it," Dinah said. "And it just has to be us, doesn't it?"

Barbara frowned. It would have to be them, it would always have to be them.

"It doesn't matter though, after the night we had last night, we deserve a night to ourselves," Dinah said. "You know, just between the two of us."

"Are you serious?" Barbara asked.

"Yes, I'm serious," Dinah said. "As hard as you've been working, I think you need some time to unwind. I swear, you're trying to beat Harry's record for the most projects you're trying to take on at the same time."

"Oh don't be absurd, Dinah, there's no way I'm going to be able to beat Harry's output," Barbara said. "And believe me, I've tried."

"Yes, I know," Dinah said. "So, put your laptop away, we've got the entire night ahead of us. It's been a while since it's been just the two of us out there."

Barbara smiled, it had been a long time. She logged off on the computer and put it away without another word.

"Let me get my jacket."

* * *

 

The joint rocked at the Dusty Road, a country and western bar outside of Gotham where many people could get funky like a monkey and where the view never changed.

Brother Beau, fresh out of his imprisonment, entered the bar. He dressed in a pure white suit, with a cowboy hat, dressed like a southern colonel. A diamond tipped cane rested in the palm of his hand despite not having any kind of ailment which required a cane.

The high intense country western music bombarded him. The man entered the establishment, doing a little jig as he walked inside.

"So, it'd be the usual, wouldn't it?" the bartender asked in a bored voice.

"Yes, a nice towering glass of milk," Brother Beau said. The young man gave the bartender a cheerful smile which she regarded with indifference."I need a nice glass of wholesome milk to really make my night swell."

"Yes, swell, one dose of the white stuff coming up," the bartender said.

"You know, a nice little thing like you, working in a place like this, must be scary, with all of these toughs here," Beau said. The inspirational speaker broke into a wicked grin when he looked around. "They just don't believe like I do."

"Yeah, I'm sure you believed enough, and it got you thrown into jail," the bartender said. "Guess, you're a lot tougher than you look."

"The power of positive thinking, along with my integrity managed to save the day," Brother Beau said.

The woman set the glass of milk on the counter.

"Well, I've got to go tonight. Enjoy your milk, sugah."

The woman's tone sounded a bit sarcastic, unless you were Brother Beau. He turned around and talked to a rather weathered looking old man, who looked out of it.

"See, she called me sugah, she must be sweet on me. Isn't she just spiffy?"

"Yeah, yeah, watch the horseshoe," the old man said.

"You know, you shouldn't have to crawl inside the bottle to get away from your problems. You just need the power of positive thinking. The bottle is a mean, nasty demon. All you need to do is believe in yourself, and you can do anything your mind gets set to."

The doors cracked open. Beau saw two large imposing gentlemen enter the bar.

"Those two look like a pair of hooligans, don't they? "Beau asked.

The dark haired man with a mustache approached him. He shoved the old man off of the bar stool, which caused him to fall down onto the floor with a thump.

"Hey, I know you, you work for my Grandpappy!" Beau yelled. He bounced up and down on the stool, until it shattered underneath him. "Owww, I hurt my bum!"

The large colored gentlemen picked up the glass of milk and sniffed it. He downed the contents of the glass with one long drink.

"Hey, you drank my milk!" Beau said.

"Quit whining like a petulant brat, and listen….Blackjack wants to see you."

"Grandpappy wants to see me!" Beau squealed. "Oh, a happy, happy, day….I thought he didn't want to see me anymore….after I ruined his special soup."

"Well, boy, today's your lucky day. You can help Blackjack with a special project. And you'll be able to make everything up to him."

Beau almost squealed in delight, looking like a overexcited schoolboy.

"So, why don't you get in the back of the van?"

Beau knew he shouldn't get into the back of a van with strangers, because strangers meant danger, but these were friends of his Grandpappy.

"Oh, this is so great, road trip!"

Beau squealed and hugged the two men in a hug. Both men looked like they want to bludgeon Beau.

"Yes, now get in the van, son, and we're going for a ride."

Beau walked off doing a merry jig, making Blackjack Blackfire's two heavies look at the boy like something touched him in the head.

"And there he goes, skipping off like a little fairy," the large white goon said. "Something really ain't right about the boy in the head, but he does have a purdy mouth."

The large black man only had one word to say.

"Damn!"

The two of them exited the bar before anyone could spot them. Blackjack Blackfire warned them the kid would be difficult, but they didn't really have any problems getting him into the van.

"I call front!"

* * *

 

Tony Zucco finished dealing him and Big Lou in for a nice rousing game of poker. Big Lou took a nice long look at Zucco. The bastard was the time who would cheat someone out of a poker game. If it wasn't for Sal, Lou would have taken down Zucco a long time ago, the man was more trouble than he was worth.

"I'm keeping my eye on you, Zucco, you look like the type who is going to cheat me big time," Big Lou said. "I don't care if you're my boy's number one man, cheating in cards is going to get you really intimate with the fishes at the bottom of Gotham river."

"I wouldn't ever cheat you, Big Lou," Zucco said. "You'd be too smart to fall for it first of all."

"Yeah, damn right, I'd be too smart," Big Lou said. Big Lou decided to get something off his chest. "Just like, I'm too smart to fall for the crap Falcone's pulling. I can't believe Sal's going to let Falcone pull the wool over his eyes. And he's going to give Falcone back his grandfather's hotel without getting the better end of the deal."

Zucco wondered when Big Lou's favorite topic in the world would come up. He didn't like dealing with the Roman any more than Big Lou did.

"Sal's getting played like a chump," Big Lou said. "The only reason he's feeling any heat at all is because of Cobblepot and Sionis deciding to work together. I'd say he should ride out the waves, because their two egos, they won't last past the end of this summer. If I'm being generous.."

The two men continued to play cards. Zucco wondered if Big Lou would wrap up his rant, but the large mobster just began to rant.

"Then you got Thorne and every two-bit wannabe in town working on the commission," Big Lou said. "And you've heard the rumors, Napier's balls have finally dropped, and he's trying to play with the big boys. Guess when you knock off someone like Grissom, it makes you really confident you're going to be able to do something big, isn't it?"

Zucco didn't really have to argue with Big Lou.

"So, we're just going to have to ride this one out, I guess," Zucco said.

"Yes, until Falcone decides to fuck us over," Big Lou said. The grumbling continued in his voice.

Zucco didn't need to say anything. It wasn't a matter of if Falcone would screw them over, it was when Falcone would screw them over.

The man paused for a moment. A jingle played on the radio, describing Haley's Circus coming over the radio.

"Ah, the Circus, I love the circus," Zucco said.

"Why, is it because you fit in with the rest of the clowns, Zucco?"

Zucco pulled a face.

"No, my old man took me the circus, before the cancer got to him," Zucco said. "Cigarette company sent us a wreath when he died. His habit kept them in business during some rough times. Smoked a carton a day, but it's before all of those people figured cigarettes are bad for you, and you really shouldn't smoke too much, because it'd give you cancer."

"Don't need a bunch of quack doctor's to tell me what to do," Big Lou said.

"Well, anyway, I really liked the circus, had some laughs. Pops was a bit close with the bearded lady, if you catch my drift."

"Deal with enough bearded ladies working with you mooks," Big Lou said.

"Ah come on, Big Lou, you've got to love the circus," Zucco said. "I mean, what's not to like about it? Look at all of the clowns."

"Really, Zucco, you had to bring up clowns?" Big Lou asked. "If there's anything more unnatural I can't stand, it's a bunch of clowns."

"What's the big deal about clowns, anyway?" Zucco asked.

"I'll tell you what the big deal is, they laugh all too much, and they aren't found funny at all," Big Lou said. "And they say what we do is sick. Parents who hire clowns to entertain their children at birthday parties really have issues. Give their kids a bunch of nightmares."

"I think you're overreacting, Big Lou," Zucco said.

"Yeah, well, I still don't like clowns, and besides, I deal with more than enough funny business trying to keep this outfit from falling apart," Big Lou said. "If I see another clown in my life, it would be way too soon."

Big Lou cringed at the thought of having deal with clowns. And speaking of clowns, someone knocked three times on the door. The gruff mobster looked towards the door, raising his eyebrow, before he spoke in his usual tone.

"Come in."

One of his goons entered the room at the sign. He bent down and dropped a stack of papers in front of Big Lou.

"It's ready, boss."

"Excellent," Big Lou said. "Guess, we're going to finish this off another night, Zucco. Our boys are ready to go now."

* * *

 

Barbara stepped into one of the more upscale and cleaner nightclubs. There were a few shady people, but overall, Barbara thought nothing would be a problem, at least too much. She dressed in a black top, a jean jacket, and jean shorts. Her hair tied back into a ponytail.

"Don't look nearly the part as much as you do."

Dinah stepped inside, dressed in a leather jacket, a white top which stretched over her toned body. She wore a nice skirt which showcased her legs, and a pair of high heel boots. Fingerless black gloves topped off Dinah's look fairly nicely.

"Don't worry, Babs, you look great," Dinah said.

"Really?"

"Yes, really."

Dinah leaned on in for a second and planted a kiss on Barbara's lips to somewhat ease her nervousness. Barbara opened her mouth and accepted Dinah's tongue into her mouth. The two engaged in a little show which received more than a few stares.

Both girls knew people looked at him. Neither girl honestly cared all too much to be honest. Dinah withdrew from Barbara's lips. A trail of saliva connected their mouths.

"Feeling better?" Dinah asked.

"Yes, a little bit," Barbara said.

The lively beats of the dance music bombarded her ears. Barbara and Dinah stepped into the club.

A few notable people made their way into the club, but no one they knew too intimately at first. No one who would cause too much trouble in the club either, which brought a smile to Dinah's face.

' _We don't need any trouble after the last couple of nights,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Since when do we always get into trouble,'_ Barbara thought.

 _Since about all of the time,'_ Dinah thought.

A frown slapped across Barbara's face at the thought of Dinah pretty much laying the verbal smack down on her. The woman crossed her arms for a long moment and sighed in response. She noticed a familiar woman elsewhere in the club. She wore a hat and sunglasses, along with a trench-coat, but Barbara recognized her because of her deductive instincts.

"Hey," Barbara said.

The one and only Vicki Vale spun around so quickly she almost hurt herself. She looked to the side nervously, to make sure no one else watched her.

"Oh, hey," Vicki said. "Sorry, if I'm not in too much of a chatty mood tonight….I really hope one of my sources haven't lead me here under false promises."

"So, you're going after a big story?" Dinah asked.

"He really didn't say much, other than it would be worth my while to be here," Vicki said. "And so far, it isn't worth my while, because nothing has shown up."

Barbara frowned deeply in response. She recalled all of the trouble Vickie got herself into.

"I checked things out, and it seems safe enough."

Funnily enough, those words didn't really do anything to sooth either Barbara or Dinah. The two of them looked at Vicki for a couple of seconds.

Kara, who listened in on the conversation, popped in with a frown on her face.

' _I don't know,'_ Kara thought. Worry started to spread through her form. _'If I know Vicki, her version of being safe enough and another person's version of being safe enough are two different things.'_

' _So, do you want me to keep an eye on her?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Be discreet as you can,'_ Kara thought. _'I'd hate to ruin her night….hell it might not be anything too dangerous to be honest. It might be someone screwing with Vicki, giving her a big time story, only to pull the rug out from underneath her.'_

' _Or it could be one of her many enemies trying to set her up for a big fall,'_ Barbara thought. _'It's pretty dangerous out there. Vicki always is someone who bites off more than she can chew.'_

' _Yes, but she understands the risks in Gotham City.'_

A man stood in the back room. He flashed a green card, and then placed a yellow card over it to Vicki. The two of them locked eyes for the merest second, before Vicki edged her way out of the room.

' _Some kind of signal to let her know he's the real deal,'_ Kara thought. _'It happens a lot in the news business, a source doesn't want to broadcast what he's doing. Especially if he has information which could get him killed.'_

' _Lovely,'_ Dinah thought.

She decided to put at tail on Vicki, and hope to find out what was going on here.

"And now ladies and gentlemen put your hands together for the man who likes to talk to himself, Mr. Arnold Wesker!"

* * *

 

A reddish-pink skin man dressed in a Green uniform with a white section on the front made his way through the galaxy. The most prominent feature of him happened to be a glowing green energy ring.

Abin Sur, the Green Lantern of Sector 2814, passed through the universe. A routine patrol, so far no trouble showed up to haunt him. The Lantern turned course and prepared to report back to Oa.

A hostile alien ship started to fire at him. Sur put up his shields, and the alien ship veered off course. It stopped firing at him nearly as soon as it began.

Abin Sur's eyes followed the ship, and it stopped. A beam of yellow light shot out of the ship, and cut through the shield.

The light cut through him, opening up a huge cut on his chest. Abin Sur slowed his descent with the Green Lantern ring, but energy started to flicker in and out.

The man dropped on the same asteroid where the ship landed. Sur tried to drag himself to his feet.

He charged the ring before he left, but for some reason, there wasn't enough juice left in his ring to send a distress beacon.

The door of the ship opened, and a grey skinned man exited the ship. He started to scream in terror, throwing his arms around like a wild man. The occupant of the ship rushed away from the ship, screaming his lungs out.

Seconds later, the man impaled himself on some jagged rocks, killing himself instantly.

Blood dripping from his mouth, Sur walked to the ship. He shook his head and leaned forward. The ship remained open and the Green Lantern dropped down onto the ship. The navigational components of the ship still functioned.

He tried to activate the onboard computer in an attempt to activate a distress signal. Some component in the ship locked him out and prevented the man from sealing the deal. Abin Sur leaned head down on the ship. Thick blood spilled from his mouth.

The Green Lantern pulled himself to together.

"Where did you come from?"

A more important question hit the Green Lantern hard.

"Where are you going?"

The engine of the ship began to rumble to life. The ship lifted off of the ground on its own accord. A sinister whisper echoed around him.

The yellow energy bombarded the inside of the ship, making it really difficult for Sur to keep his head up.

An energy vortex opened up. He placed his hands on the ship.

The ship shifted into the Milky Way galaxy. Most of the planets in this sector were dead zones. The fourth planet from the sun, used to have occupants, but a civil war decimated the forces. The third planet from the sun was fairly young, and didn't really have the most advanced civilization. They were still divided into countries, without a one world government.

Without many choices, Abin Sur set a course to the third planet from the sun.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 17** **th** **, 2015.**


	135. Emerald Flight Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Five: Emerald Flight Part One.**

* * *

 

Carol Ferris dropped the phone with a frown crossing her face. She inherited her father's responsibilities along with a couple of his headaches. He distanced himself from business. Carol understood the reason why, he didn't want to be seen in public. It was a generational thing where no one could be seen as sick. It frustrated Carol to no end her father went through this, but thigns happened like this.

She attempted to figure out what to do with the bind she entered now. The woman crossed the hall and made her way down the steps. Tomorrow looked to be a test flight, and her test pilot, as reckless as he could be, was going to be out of action.

The woman pulled out her Red Sun and dialed it up. The businesswoman waited as paitently as possible for the phone to be picked up on the other end.

"Hey, Carol, yes, don't worry, we're still on for lunch. Oh, are you there already? Yeah, I'll meet you there in about fifteen minutes. Something really bad came up. I'll talk to you about it when I get there."

Carol placed herself behind the seat of the car, preparing herself for what looked to be an extremely long drive. A solution pretty much fell on her lap to be honest.

The business deal with RAO could put Ferris Airspace to another level. And it was a deal she brokered on her own, even though Carl Ferris signed off on it. Carol showed up in all of the press events.

The stock holders gave her flack about not being able to thrive in a man's world. Carol vowed to show them. As they moved out of the 1990s, and into a new century, Carol vowed to change the perception they had. The perception would be changed kicking and screaming, but Carol was up for it.

' _Times are changing, and I really hope I can help drive the change,'_ Carol thought.

The last few years under her father caused Ferris Aircraft to stagnate. It wasn't a slight on Carl Ferris, hell Carl would be among the first to admit the company saw many better days. Carol's mind ran a million miles away as she exited the vehicle on her way out.

She made her way to a fancy little inn. Carol walked inside. The statuesque blonde who met her wrapped Carol up in a hug.

"Hey, Carol, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing fine, Carol."

Carol Danvers sat down at the table. The two women ordered their coffee and waited for their food to arrive.

"I've known you for years, and I have a pretty good read on when you're not doing your best. And you look pretty fazzled."

The Ferris heiress placed her palm down on the table and groaned. Carol knew her all too well to be honest.

"Well, it's the Board of Directors first of all," Carol said. The pained look on Carol's face told the story. "Some of them are my father's old friends who can't seem to wrap their head around the fact times are changing."

"I've heard a lot about the Board of Directors in any company," Carol asked. "Does anyone have a good word to say about them, ever?"

"Unless you're on them, likely not."

Both Carols laughed at the thought and it was painfully accurate. Unless you were a part of the Board Directors, it was unlikely you would have too many favorable things to say about them at all.

"So, I actually wanted to ask you a big favor," Carol said.

Carol Danvers raised her eyebrow.

"Ask it, you know I'll help you out in any way," Carol said.

"Thanks, I appreciate it. I'm finding myself in a bind. You know, Hal Jordan….."

"You haven't killed him and disposed of the body after he asked you out one time too many, haven't you?"

Carol almost choked on her coffee at Carol's blasé words regarding murder.

"Okay, no to the murder. But, there's something else."

"He came down with a really bad case of the flu," Carol said. "Yes, go figure, all of those dangerous crashes, and the flu is the one thing which puts him down to his knees."

"Well, it's always the smallest things which bring down the toughest guys," Carol said. The buxom blonde smiled, draining her coffee with a smile crossing her face. "He won't be ready to go for the test flight, tomorrow."

"Yes….and he is our best test pilot," Carol said. "When he has his head on straight, he's our best test pilot…despite his flaws"

"And when he doesn't have his head on straight?"

"Good thing Ferris aircraft has some really good insurance," Carol said. "But, anyway, he's out of the RAO sponsored test flight. And I know, you've done some test piloting for the Air Force before."

"Yes, but I moved on," Carol said. The women didn't want to outright say no, but she knew where this was going to head to. "You know, I'm working as a consultant for NASA right now."

"And you do pretty good work," Carol said. "But, you don't have too much to do these days between your consulting jobs, do you?"

Carol placed her hand underneath her chin and frowned.

"Not really," Carol said. She blinked and it dawned on her. "You're asking me to….you're asking me to fill in for Hal Jordan, aren't you?"

"Yes, I'm asking you as a friend if you'd do be a favor and fill in for him," Carol said. "Do you think you could help me?"

Carol Danvers thought for a moment. It had been a good year since she had been a part of a test flight. The woman admitted to herself the itch returned to her. The mere thought of going for one last flight appealed to her. Plus, it would be for a big business deal and one which helped Carol build her reputation beyond her father's daughter.

"For you, I'd come out of retirement."

"Yes, retirement at the ripe old age of twenty five," Carol said in a teasing voice. "Might have to give you a cane and everything."

Carol responded with a smile.

"Guess, I still have one more good flight left in me," Carol said.

"You never did tell me about the incident which made you leave the Air Force," Carol said.

"It's nothing bad, but weird never the less," Carol said. "I'm not even sure if I believe what happened half of the time. Hell, it's more along the lines of Alex's line of work more than anything."

"It almost sounds like you had a close encounter," Carol said.

A mysterious twinkle flashed through the eyes of one Carol Danvers. She shifted into a smile.

"Something along those lines, yes."

* * *

 

Harry figured his luck might end up a bit better for this trip than the previous trip. He found himself on the way to Disneyland once again.

He noticed security increased a little bit.

' _And just think, they comped our group for the trip to the park,'_ Diana thought.

' _Almost as if they were trying to avoid any kind of bad publicity with Harry Potter being kidnapped on the premises,'_ Kara said.

' _Oh, it barely reached the news here in Gotham, if you must know,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Well, we pulled some strings, and made sure everything didn't leak out too much,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm sure everyone involved is just happy I got alive. And technically, I wasn't kidnapped, I walked away with them to make sure they didn't hurt anyone.'_

' _And you blew some shit up in an epic fashion,'_ Kara said. _'And a certain heroic blur made another appearance and knocked around some AIM goons. After she disabled a bomb.'_

' _Excellent,'_ Barbara said. _'Wow, if Dinah and I really made the trip, we wouldn't have been lacking excitement, would we?'_

' _Never lacking excitement,'_ Harry said.

Harry bent down to Lyta, who smiled.

"I'm so glad we're able to do this again," Lyta said.

"Well, you and the rest of the girls deserve a make up after what happened," Harry said to her.

Lyta smiled, she was pretty sure she deserved a make up from what happened. The two of them could always agree on as much. The rest of the girls did as well, she guessed. They looked forward the trip so much.

"I'm going with Lois and Artemis, we're going on some of the rides," Lyta said.

"I'll come with you," Donna said.

"I can take care of myself," Lyta said.

Lyta folded her arms and stared down her sister. Donna, used to the glare of her younger sister, refused to back down for a moment.

"And why do you think I'm coming with you?" Donna asked. "You could end up beating up someone, because they looked at you funny or tried something."

"Oh, I see," Lyta said. "Well, fine, if you can keep up, because of how old you are."

"Lyta."

Lyta turned around and looked at her father.

"Mind your sister. I know she gives you a hard time….."

"Only because Lyta gives me a hard time," Donna said.

' _Consider it your karma for how you were when you were younger,'_ Diana thought.

' _I wasn't too bad, was I?'_ Donna asked. The middle Amazon Princess started to chew on her lip.

' _Well, not since after Harry and I….made sure you minded,'_ Diana thought.

Donna shuddered at the not so subtle reminder Diana gave her from her wilder older days.

' _I've been on my best behavior since,'_ Donna thought. _'Sure, I've had my moments, who hasn't, but I'm doing fine, aren't I?'_

' _You're doing well, Donna, don't worry about it,'_ Diana thought.

Donna's lips curled into a knowing grin as she walked off with Lyta, to join the group of Lois and Artemis.

"So, you're nuts to take this group the first time, much less the second time."

Harry turned around and saw Bette relaxing against the wall. Her partner in crime wasn't with her.

"So, last year, at GPA?" Harry asked.

"Yes, and I'm ready to move on to GCU," Bette said. "I've got the marks to do pretty much anything in the world I can think of. Business administration might be my area of study, if I think about it. You know, one day, I'm going to want to help run the family business. Kathy….hasn't been in the best of spirits, as of late."

"Oh, I hope everything is going okay," Harry said.

"I wasn't supposed to say anything," Bette said. "So, you won't say anything to her, will you?"

"No," Harry said. He placed his hand on the shoulder of the Kane heiress. "But, if there's anything I can do to help…."

"Oh, I'm sure there's a bit you can do to help, but you know how stubborn Aunt Kathy is," Bette said. "It took a lot of prodding before she saw something about her problems. She has to live up to a lot, after Martha Wayne died. She's….been put on a bit of a pedestal, both of the Waynes in fact."

Harry indulged her for a second and smiled.

"Kathy's done a lot in her time though."

"Yes, and a lot of the media talking about how she's following in the footsteps of her brilliant older sister doesn't help with her psyche," Bette said. "And she has a really bad case of insomnia. Whenever I stay over at the Manor, she walks the floors half of the night."

"It must be really bad," Harry said. "She has nothing to relax her."

"Well, she's heading to a sleep therapist," Bette said. "Doctor….Solomon I think his name is."

"Solomon?" Harry asked. "Name doesn't really ring a bell to me….but, then again, I've had plenty of reasons to stay in bed. So I didn't really need a sleep therapist."

Bette smiled, blushing a tad bit. She leaned in to Harry.

"I hoped to talk her into coming to the trip, but she insisted on sticking around in Gotham City," Bette said. "Maybe the next time you see her, you can….well you can just get a feel of where she is, only don't tell her I told you anything."

"Don't worry, Bette, it's between you and me."

' _And about dozens voices in your head,'_ Kara thought. _'Wow, I had no idea she was in this bad of state.'_

' _I did, and….well, I backed off,'_ Veronica said. _'She has been talking to Professor Hugo Strange, a therapist who is highly regarded….guy gives me the creeps, but he has some credentials.'_

' _Yes, trust someone named Strange, very wise,'_ Barbara thought.

' _But, he's not a sleep therapist,'_ Veronica said.

Harry almost bumped into Jade and Jessie. The two girls stood up.

"Hello, Doctor Potter," Jessie said.

"Please, call me, Harry," Harry said. "We're not in a formal setting, we're on vacation."

"Right, sorry, Harry," Jessie said. "Thank you for inviting us along. I'm glad we got out of Gotham City. You have no idea."

Jade knew her friend had been having a lot of trouble at home. For the first time, Jade noticed Jessie smiled, and became less guarded. The trip did her friend a lot of good.

And speaking of people who did a trip a lot of good, her mother chatted with Alex and Jaime Potter off to side. Jade suspected it was business. Her mother received a job as a consultant, at RAO.

"So, I'm going to go off and get on some of the rides," Jessie said. "Before the lines get too crowded. Are you going to join me, Jade?"

"Maybe, later," Jade said.

Jessie shrugged and gave her a look which said "suit yourself." She ran off with a smile on her face.

"She's in a pretty good mood," Harry said.

"You have no idea how weird it looks," Jade said. The preteen frowned and debated on how much to say. "Her father keeps some weird hours."

"So weird she spends most of the time at your home?" Harry asked.

Jade paused for a second and nodded.

"Pretty much," Jade said. "But, I think the trip has done her some good. Shame it has to end eventually, and it's back to Gotham City for all of us."

"Not looking forward to going back," Harry said.

"Well, Gotham City…it grows on you," Jade said. "It isn't as bad as a lot of people outside of the city things it is. Unless you are an idiot and put yourself in danger."

"It could be a problem in a lot cities," Harry said.

"Yeah," Jade said. "So, what's going on between you and my mother?"

Harry smiled at the bluntness of her statement. He wondered if it was a consequence of hanging around Lois a bit too much, or something along those lines. Or if her blunt demeanor already exited long before she met Lois.

"Your mother is working as a consultant at RAO, as you know," Harry said.

"And you must have made her a good offer, if she finally stopped her night work," Jade said. "Oh, I knew what she did at night, before you hired her."

"She thought neither you nor Artemis knew what she did," Harry said.

"Well, Artemis might have been naïve," Jade said. "But I knew exactly what my mother was doing at night."

"Oh, did you?" Harry asked.

Jade smiled and spent a moment looking over Harry. Her eyes glanced over his body, with a smile growing on her face.

"And I have to say, compared to my father, I really approve of you," Jade said. "I mean, he is nothing but an uncultured thug, and you have a bunch of doctorates. I'm not sure if Lawrence ever finished high school."

Harry agreed with Jade, but he figured he should be the responsible adult.

"And yes, I know I shouldn't talk about my father like I am," Jade said. "Does it really suck being the responsible adult?"

"Oh, given the people I hang around with, someone has to be," Harry said.

Jade's eyes raked over Amanda and Emily, who hung out off to the side.

"Indeed," Jade said. "But, I'm sure Mom wouldn't complain if you took really good care of her."

"You know, I'm not sure if you're old enough to…."

"Please, these days, kids know all about sex before the schools tell us," Jade said. "If they bother to tell us."

' _Because apparently ignorance is the best way to prevent a rampant amount of underage pregnancy,'_ Kara thought.

"But, seriously, you'd be good for her," Jade said. "And Artemis and I wouldn't mind….well at least I wouldn't mind."

"Well, it's nice to have your blessing," Harry said. "But your parents aren't officially divorced?"

"Well, only because Mom can't find the deadbeat to hand off the papers," Jade said. "Just….just think about it."

Jade noticed her mother walking towards him.

"I better check on Artemis and her friends," Jade said. "It's been a long time since I've heard from them, and….you don't want to let them out of their sight. Especially, Lois, you know how she can get."

'Yes," Harry said. "So, go and have fun."

"And you try not to incur the wrath of angry beekeepers, sir," Jade said.

Jade smiled and slipped off at the half-serious, half-jesting warning. Paula showed up next to him.

"Thank you again, Harry," Paula said.

"Well, I think I'm the one who should be thanking you," Harry said. Paula raised her eyebrow and Harry persisted. "If you didn't help keep things in order, I'm not sure what happened."

"Jaime and Karen were a big help," Paula said. "But, it's true. Raising two daughters, with a father who is….less than helpful, teaches you a lot about patience."

Harry laughed at the bluntness of her statement.

"But, I'm sure you know more than enough about patience," Paula said. She leaned towards Harry. "So, you're okay after what happened?"

"I thought it was best to walk off with them," Harry said. "But, I have a feeling this isn't the last I'm going to hear from AIM."

Paula groaned at his words, as accurate as they were. She worked during her old line of work for people who were fanatical. They obsessed with gaining anything they can at all costs.

"Some people are obsessed beyond all reason."

"And speaking of obsession," Harry said. "Jade mentioned you were trying to get a divorce from your husband."

Paula's expression grew a bit stormy, but she recovered quickly.

"Well, it's hard to divorce someone when you don't know where he is," Paula said. "The best hope to get a divorce from him is for him to get arrested. I should have jumped on the trigger when he rotted in prison."

"Well, we can't really beat ourselves up with what might have been," Harry said.

Paula pursed her lips in response and shook her head.

"No, we can't," Paula said.

She made a lot of mistakes. Really, her two daughters were the best things which came out of her ill-fated marriage. At first, it seemed like a good idea, a few heists to set up a better life. They could stop after setting up a nice foundation for their daughters. The idea became less grand when Lawrence turned greedier.

"Guess, we're going to have to make do with what's been happening now," Paula said. "Looks like my daughters are having a good time."

"You should be having a good time," Harry said.

"Oh, I am," Paula said. "So, do you have any work for me?"

"We're working up an upgrade to the security system for when we get back," Harry said.

"And you want me to take a look at it, to make sure all of the kinks are worked out of," Paula said.

Harry leaned towards her.

"Yes, you know the drill by now."

"Hey, if there's any hole, I'm good enough to find it."

' _You have to appreciate a woman with a pulse on what she does, and the ability to do it well,'_ Jaime thought.

Harry smiled, they would have to do so indeed. He turned his attention to Lois, who broke away from the rest of the group. Mostly because Lois dove bomb him with a hug, which lingered a few seconds.

She pulled away for a second.

"Thank you, this is the best day of my life," Lois said. "Actually, second best day of my life."

"And what's the best day of your life?"

Artemis and Lyta turned up at Lois's shoulder. Donna hovered in the background, watching them like the responsible adult. It still sounded weird and unsettling to her, because it was weird and unsettling to her.

"Why did you have to sneak up on me like that?" Lois asked.

' _She gets it from you,"_ Hippolyta thought from afar.

"You didn't answer my question," Artemis said, folding her arms. "What was the best day of your life?"

"The day she moved in to be to live with D….Harry," Lyta said.

Lois grew a bit red around the ears, but couldn't really deny it.

"Well, it's just….I've been in California a couple of times," Lois said. "But, I've never been here, because….well the General isn't the Disneyland type."

"No way," Lyta said.

"Well, do you see him hobnobbing with Mickey Mouse?" Lois asked. The girls all broke into laughter at the vivid imagery Lois put in their minds. "You've seen him before."

Kara started to crack up at the thought in her mind.

"Glad you're having a good time, Lois," Harry said. "But the day isn't over."

"Yeah, and nothing bad has happened," Lois said.

Lyta pinched Lois in response, causing her to almost jump halfway up off of the ground.

"Don't jinx it, Lois."

Artemis clapped her hands over her mouth to stifle her laughing. The cross look Lois gave her in response didn't help with the stifling of the laughter.

* * *

 

After the long trip which was, Harry, Faora, and Karen arrived back at the penthouse pretty late in the day to map out a battle strategy for where they were going to go next.

"So the trip is ending in two days, well almost two and a half really," Karen said. "But, we've got the test flight at Ferris to day with tomorrow."

"Carol is really excited about the flight, she's hoping for a good day," Faora said. "And I'm sure the plane we're sponsoring is going to fly."

"It should open the door for something more efficient being created for private use as well," Harry said.

Karen and Faora knew Harry had big plans.

"And speaking of travel, how are we coming along on the gates?" Karen asked.

Faora smiled and put together some notes briefly before giving them a basic assessment.

"Well, it took a long time to align things between Themyscira and the outside world. And we have to use a halfway point, where we take a gateway from the Penthouse into Castle Peve-Rell, and then take it to Themyscira because it would only work along those lines, as you well know."

"We do know," Harry said.

"Right," Faora said. "We're spending a lot of time in Metropolis, but also, having one to Smallville would be efficient as well. But, having both at this present time leads to a conflict."

"Having two gateways near each other would run the risk of having them collapse in on each other," Karen said. "Gotham to Metropolis seems logical. You can take a private plane just as easily to Smallville, or….if you're not seen in public, you can have one of us fly you there."

Harry tried to keep a smile on her face, despite the rumor of his inhibitor watch prohibiting solo flight without the help of another plane or a person. He discovered while Wanda's chaos magic could repair the damage, there was too many variables to run the risk of something even worse and more crippling manifesting itself.

So, wisely, and with a bit of reluctance, Harry decided to leave the matter along.

' _Magic, is really like a monkey's paw,'_ Zatanna thought. _'For every good thing you can do with it, there is a potential for a really big backfire. And….you do realize, my great-great-several times over grandfather was kind of responsible for the entire Monkey's paw story.'_

' _Seriously?'_ Jaime asked.

' _Yeah, the Zatara's always enjoyed their magical artifacts,'_ Zatanna thought. A long sigh followed her casual words. _'A bit too much.'_

' _So, how are things going in Gotham City?'_ Harry asked.

' _More of the usual,'_ Dinah thought. _'It turns out Vicki's source only lead her to another source, which she's meeting in a couple of days. It has to do with something what Cobblepot is planning.'_

' _Don't worry, Cobblepot's going to be in for a rude surprise if he thinks he's going to pull one over on me,'_ Harry thought.

' _Surely, he wouldn't try anything after what happened the last night?'_ Diana thought.

' _He wouldn't be stupid enough,'_ Harry thought. _'Cobblepot has his own problems, with the landscape in Gotham City changing.'_

' _And in the ultimate dose of irony, his problems, are our problems as well,'_ Dinah thought. _'Falcone and Maroni….'_

' _They've been quiet,'_ Harry thought. _'Well, Maroni can't do much, given he's still behind bars. And his father….I get the impression him and Falcone really don't see eye to eye.'_

' _Could it be because the Falcones were responsible for deporting Big Lou?'_ Barbara thought. _'Oh, you know me, I do my research.'_

' _I don't doubt you do your research,'_ Harry thought. _'And it's much appreciated for the entire group.'_

' _Good, I'm glad it's appreciated,'_ Barbara thought.

' _And she's looking smug, you can tell,'_ Dinah thought.

' _I'm not smug,'_ Barbara thought. Dinah's scoffing caused Barbara to straighten up. _'Okay, maybe I'm a little smug. Guess, getting booted from the GCPD was a really good thing after all. Not, I'd send Riddle boy any flowers. He might get the wrong idea.'_

' _He's really…dedicated to his obsessions,'_ Faora thought.

' _Well most people are,'_ Harry thought. _'So nothing really bad happening in Gotham City, which we need to discuss.'_

' _Not to my knowledge, no,'_ Barbara thought. _'Looks like tonight is going to be a relaxing night. We can all pack it in.'_

' _Good, I'm glad,'_ Harry thought. The young man smiled, glad the two of them would have a safer, more peaceful evening. _'Take it easy tonight.'_

The moment Harry pulled out of the bond link, Karen leaned in and kissed Harry on the lips. He didn't question her impulsive actions. Her hands moved down his body, kissing him.

' _And I take it you've been planning to jump me all night long?'_ Harry asked.

' _You have no idea,'_ Karen thought. _'You deserve a little time to unwind after making sure the second take of the Disneyland trip went on without a hitch.'_

Faora stood, waiting patiently, perhaps a little bit impatiently, for her turn. Good things came those who waited and Faora would be rather patient in waiting.

"I think we should get you out of those pants, they're really not needed tonight, are they?"

Harry would have to disagree about the necessity of pants. Karen dropped down to her knees, pulling his pants off. She smiled as she prepared to unravel him to her own eyes and the rest of the world.

Karen descended to her knees with a smile on her face. She fished Harry's cock out of his pants and wrapped her hand around it, stroking the thick rod as hard as possible.

Faora took Karen's place in kissing Harry. Harry wrapped his arms around her and ran his hands down his sister's back side.

"Hey, give me some room."

Faora stepped a little bit to the left, never once breaking the kiss from Harry. She pushed her tongue into Harry's mouth. Harry returned fire, his tongue wrestling against hers, and dominating a little bit with her.

Karen brought Harry's stiff rod from his pants. She unbuttoned her blouse and allowed it to fall to the floor. Her breasts wrapped around his stiff rod.

"Oh yes, this is going to be good," Karen said.

Harry placed his hand on Karen's breasts and squeezed them together. She responded by giving him a hand and clenching his cock in between her large, juicy, tits.

Karen's breasts stroked Harry's throbbing rod up and down. He pushed his massive prick between her cleavage, with Harry working his massive cock in between her breasts.

"YES!"

Harry slid all the way between her breasts. She worked her breasts up and down his throbbing hard tool. The blonde vixen closed her eyes deeply as she jerked off his aching prick between her breasts.

"More," Karen said.

Harry jackhammered his cock between Karen's massive breasts. The woman worked her breasts up and down his throbbing tool.

Karen cooed loudly. Harry felt on her breasts with his hands as Faora planted a series of kisses. She removed Harry's shirt.

Faora smiled and moved her way down. She planted a series of kisses on Harry's muscular chest. She made her way down Harry's abs, peppering his body with a series of kisses which caused him to feel a burst of pleasure.

"Oh, your tits, I'm going to cum all over them," Harry grunted.

Harry grabbed Karen's breasts and jackhammered the valley with her cock. Her mouth wrapped around his head as he popped out of the valley of her cleavage.

"Good, I'd like to see you cum over her tits," Faora said.

The daughter of Zod shifted her panties back underneath her skirt. Faora slid a finger into her, and added a second finger. The dark haired woman rode her fingers from underneath her skirt. She tilted her head back, allowing another moan to escape from the back of her throat.

"Fuck her, fuck her big tits with your huge cock, Har-Zod!"

Karen jerked off his throbbing cock with her tits. He returned fire, using her tits. Her nipples hardened at his balls slapping against her chest.

"OOOH, yes! "Karen yelled.

A few seconds later, Harry's balls tightened. His balls released a heavy volume of cum. The white seed splattered over Karen's face and her chest.

The second Karen rose to her feet, Faora grabbed Karen. Faora slipped her mouth around Karen's nipple and started to suckle her nipple. Karen rolled her head back, feeling the pleasure of what Faora did to her.

Harry's cock hardened in a few seconds. He didn't need any trouble. He grabbed Faora after she finished up with a desk.

"Oh, are you going to take me?" Faora asked.

Harry responded by slamming Faora down to the desk. He ripped her skirt off, exposing her dripping hot pussy for him. Harry aimed his throbbing cock against the edge of her pussy. Her heated mound ached for him.

Faora positioned herself on the desk, her shirt pulled open revealing her large tits. She wore nothing, but a pair of stockings and a garter belt. Harry lined up his cock.

"You're going to squeal beneath me."

Faora hoped so. A smile pressed against her face, when Harry's hand touched her thighs.

"Beg for it," Harry said.

Her pride tapped out to the lust for his mighty cock. Faora looked up at him, drool dripping from her chin.

"Please, Har, take your cock, and fuck the daylights out of me."

Harry lined himself up with her dripping hot slit. The skilled young man brought his full cock into her wet center. Faora clenched him when Harry brought his massive prick into her smoldering hot depths.

"So good," Faora said.

Harry held onto her hips and brought himself into her. Her nerve endings exploded with pleasure.

Her wet pussy clutched him like a tight fist in a velvet glove. Said fist milked his incoming thrusts.

Harry hung onto her and jackhammered her pussy. Faora lifted her hips up, causing the structural integrity of the desk beneath her to be called into question.

"Oh yes!" Faora yelled.

Karen decided to add to the fun. The buxom beauty pushed her dripping pussy over Faora's mouth.

"Eat me."

Faora decided to give Karen much more than she could chew off. The Daughter of Zod pushed her tongue into Karen's hot pussy. Karen ground her pussy against her hot mouth, drilling herself down on Faora's tongue.

Karen closed her eyes. Nipples hardened, still stained with Harry's thick seed. Sweat poured down her body.

"You're so hot," Harry said.

Karen groped herself, with a lustful look flowing through her eyes. The buxom blonde lifted her breast up and started to suck on her own nipples, cleaning the rest of her husband's cum off.

Harry wrecked Faora's hot pussy with a series of rapid fire thrusts. He groaned as he worked himself in between her legs.

Faora lifted her hips up. Karen's pussy juices dripped into her mouth. Horny bitch proved to be really horny at this time. Faora brought her tongue deeper into her mouth, licking and suckling the juices.

"It's time for you to cum," Harry said, leaving no room for debate.

Karen's body shuddered, a trained reaction. She played with her hard nipples and rubbed her clit. Waves of pleasure coursed through her body.

"I meant Faora."

At the sound of her name, Faora's pussy clenched around Harry's probing rod. She closed her eyes tightly as he pumped himself into her.

"Cum for me."

His hands explored her body, running over her legs, and ass. Hard to say no to someone like him.

Faora's slick walls wrapped around his tool, milking his incoming thrusts, with Harry working into her with an immense force. His throbbing hard rod worked into her.

"Going to cum, aren't you?" Harry asked.

Faora's loins ached with pleasure. A spread of wetness made her loins ache. Harry buried his throbbing cock into her greedy loins with a series of rapid fire thrusts.

He made her cum so hard she thought it would hurt. The young man worked her to a fevered orgasm, rocking her body.

"Good, you've cum, now it's my turn."

Faora braced herself for Har's gift.

"Do it!" she yelled.

Harry sped up his thrusts. Their loins clashing together resembled a super powered blur. He stored quite the load for her.

His balls ached and neared their release. Harry pushed himself into her depths with a series of hard thrusts. His sister's pussy stretched on his cock when he battered her pussy with a series of hard thrusts.

Karen breathed heavily, knowing once Harry brought himself to an edge, it would be her turn.

"Batter her pussy, batter it!" Karen yelled.

Her encouragement made Harry speed up his thrusts. He waited for Faora to near her climax, working himself into her.

His balls started to ache and with a long thrust, Harry braced himself to fire his load into her. He started to spurt his cum into her.

His cum splattered against her walls. Faora rocked her head back, moaning, and grinding against his massive prick as it entered her. A huge thrust brought his throbbing manhood into her wet center.

The moment Harry pulled out, Karen buried her face between Faora's thighs. She started to suck Harry's seed out of Faora's pussy.

"Oh, you have such a hot mouth!" Faora said.

"You know it," Karen said. "I'm going to make you cum when Harry fucks me from behind."

"A good strategy," Harry said. He positioned Karen's thighs apart.

Harry slammed his cock into Karen's tight pussy so hard it caused her breasts to jiggle. He grabbed her swinging tits and plowed into Karen from behind. His thrusts brought her even closer to the edge.

"Damn, Karen, you're really horny, how hard did you cum?"

Karen failed to answer Harry on the account of going down on Faora's pussy. Granted, she could answer through the mental link, but her mind buzzed with pleasure.

Harry decided to answer the question himself by thrusting his manhood into Karen's body. Her wet, velvety, walls, rubbed against his manhood. She milked him in tune with the thrusts.

The orgasm dragged out to the edge. Harry jerked Karen out to the edge and slammed his thick rod into her body with a few more thrusts.

Faora rested her hands on Karen's head. The blonde dove into her pussy. The sweet juices spilled from Faora's pussy.

' _Hope you have another dose big enough for me,'_ Karen thought.

' _I always do,'_ Harry thought.

He pounded her pussy with a series of hard thrusts, working his throbbing balls against her. The balls loaded up.

Harry held himself back, dragging Karen's orgasm to the edge.

Karen experienced every moment of her orgasm reaching the peak and he pulled the trigger. The pleasure rattled her body. Again and again, Harry pressed the points.

All good things eventually reached to an end. Harry rested his hands on Karen, channeling magical energy through her large breasts. Her nipples pierced into his hands, and she groaned when his cock filled her body hard.

"Ready?" Harry asked.

Karen experienced the slow mode orgasm one more time. Her body and mind danced with pleasure with Harry putting himself into her depths with a long and hard thrust. His balls ached for another second.

He started to fire a series of rapid fire thrusts into her body, painting her insides with a load of cum. Harry's cum stuck to her walls with the powerful sorcerer unloading his essence into her body, firing shot after shot of his load inside her.

Harry pulled out of her, leaving both Karen and Faora on the brink of sexual fulfilment.

"Hope you ladies aren't done for tonight."

* * *

 

Kara tagged along with Faora, Karen, and Harry. After the test flight finished, the four of them would stop to get some lunch with each other.

' _Thankfully, we have an early morning test flight,'_ Faora thought. _'We can deal with all of the problems.'_

' _Carol wanted it to be early morning, something about getting swamped with dealing with the Board of Directors later,'_ Harry thought. _'She didn't look too pleased about it.'_

' _Is anyone really ever pleased with dealing with the Board of Directors?'_ Karen thought. _'Unless you're on the Board of Directors of course.'_

They shook their heads. Into their line of sight, came a gorgeous blonde woman dressed in a snug pilot's uniform. Each inch of the uniform greedily hugged her curves and made for a rather eye catching sight as she moved forward.

"Carol Danvers, we meet again," Harry said.

"Hello, Harry," Carol said.

"You've met Alex," Harry said.

"Briefly," Carol said.

"It's a pleasure to meet you again, Carol," Faora said.

For a brief second, Carol received the impression Alexandra Potter undressed her with her eyes. A brief shiver rolled down her body, with Carol's mind going to a rather tawdry place.

"And this is Karen, and her younger sister, Kara," Harry said.

For the briefest second, Harry thought Carol did a double-take at the look of Kara and Karen, but she managed to stand up and be the pinnacle of professional behavior.

"It's a pleasure to meet both of you," Carol said.

"Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you as well, Ms. Danvers," Kara said.

' _She's got quite the body on her,'_ Kara thought. _'Gives you some competition, Karen.'_

' _And you in a few years, and a few other girls,'_ Karen thought. _'And I'm sure Harry does have a type.'_

' _What female?'_ Kara asked. Much laughter followed through the bond link.

Harry trained himself all too well to keep his face calm and casual during any bond banter. He focused his gaze on the girls for a matter of seconds.

"Please, call me, Carol," Carol said. "Might be a little confusing, with Carol here, and anyone listening to our phone conversations might have their heads explode just a little bit."

"Don't worry," Harry said.

' _Yes, between Artemis the Amazon, Artemis the goddess, and Artemis's, Paula's youngest daughter, we are used to dealing with people who are named the same,'_ Jaime thought for a moment.

"So, I was under the impression Hal Jordan was going to fly the plane," Harry said. "Not, I'm complaining about the change of plans."

"I know you aren't, and I'm not either," Carol Ferris said. "And for your information, Hal is down with a really bad case of the flu. I know, crazy, given all of the plane crashes he walked away from, and the flu is what puts him down for the day."

"Guess, we have our own weaknesses," Harry said.

"And yours seem to be the company of beautiful women," Carol said.

As Carol made her way outside to prepare to fly the plane, Harry introduced both Karen and Kara to them.

"So, the day looks perfect, not a cloud in the sky," Carol said. "So, let's cross our fingers and pray to Murphy this day goes rather well."

Kara, Karen, Alex, and Harry all laughed.

"So, can you hear me?" Carol asked.

"Loud and clear," Harry said.

"Yes, I can hear you," Carol said. "Just remember, fly the plane through the course, and keep me posted on any problems. The emergency exit is in working order."

"Well, I'm glad for the emergency exit being in full use," Carol said. "And don't worry, this will be riding like riding a bicycle….hundreds of feet above the ground."

The plane took flight. With practiced ease, Carol ran through the course, flying through it.

"So, far, so good."

"We've barely begun," Carol said.

The plane ran about better than they thought it might for what essentially amounted for a test run.

"Okay, the plane kind of jerks to the left a little bit. But other than…."

"Okay, I'll make a note," Carol said.

Harry looked up and noticed a bright light appear in the sky. He frowned, looked pretty suspicious all things considered.

"Carol, Carol, are both of you seeing this?"

Carol Ferris's eyes widened.

"Yes, I'm seeing it….it appears to be some kind of ship, and….it's into my course….we're going to collide!" Carol yelled.

Carol, being the professional pilot, tried to shift her plane to minimize the damage. The mysterious vessel crashed with the side of the plane.

"CAROL!"

Faora and Harry bolted out the door after a second.

' _Do you recognize the vessel?'_ Harry thought.

' _Not of this Earth,'_ Faora thought.

' _I figured as much,'_ Harry thought.

From the ship, a rather bloodied and battered alien rose from the ship. His skin looked like it burned.

"Find a worthy one."

Faora's eyes widened the second she recognized the alien and his garb.

' _It can't be, can it?'_

Carol pulled herself out of the wreckage. Harry moved to her.

"Well, I just pulled a Hal Jordan, and wrecked the plane," Carol said. The pilot shook her head and grimaced. "Really not a good omen…what the…."

Harry's questions of how Carol escaped the wreckage faded in a matter of seconds. His gaze locked onto the alien. Rather the alien ring rising out of the wreckage.

Carol stepped to the side, closer to the ring. The ring shot out and with fast reflexes, Carol caught it in her hand.

The ring joined with her, and caused a green energy orb to manifest.

Harry locked onto the orb, as did Faora. The three of the disappeared into a flash of emerald light.

A shell shocked Carol Ferris watched Carol disappear with the Potter cousins into a blast of light. Kara gasped, but managed to hold herself together.

All hell broke loose in the bond seconds later.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 21** **st** **, 2015.**


	136. Emerald Flight Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Six: Emerald Flight Part Two.**

* * *

The moment the ship connected with the plan, Kara stood up straight and became increasingly alert. Only Karen's grip prevented Kara from bolting out the door instinctively. Kara relaxed underneath Karen's grip, with her eyes staring towards Carol Ferris.

Carol kept cool underneath the rush of pressure. The business woman didn't let anything phase her. There's a moment where her eye twitched for a moment. She reached over to activate the radio leading to the plane.

"Carol, if you're still able to hear me, please give me a sign."

Seconds later, Faora and Harry bolted out. Everything happened so fast Kara couldn't begin to wrap her head around it. Her mind mentally slowed down everything. Seconds after Faora and Harry stood by their sides, they were out the door. Harry moved pretty fast without using super speed.

' _Look,'_ Karen thought.

Carol pulled her way out of the wreckage of the vehicle. The woman looked a little worse for wear as she staggered from the vehicle.

"Thank god," Carol said. The woman thought her entire life flashed before her when Carol went down.

Carol, being savvy enough to understand something big happened, kept her eyes locked on the vessel off to the side. A battered and bloodied creature rose from the vessel. The creature, for lack of a better term, opened it's hands. A green energy ring flew out.

She barely blocked out Kara's gasp. Mostly due to the fact Carol's eyes followed the progress of the ring. The ring looked to be on a direct course to….the ring latched onto Carol's hand. The pilot's eyes widened in shock.

Kara stifled a second gasp, in time to notice, Harry, Faora, and Carol being engulfed in a green energy shield. They disappeared into a flash of light.

The entire bond turned nuts to be honest.

' _Okay, everyone relax!'_ Jaime yelled.

Given her status as being an alternate female version of Harry, Jaime took control of the reigns of the bond. The bond traffic turned rather wild and given Harry's sudden removal, more than a few girls started to freak out, at least until the Alphas took control.

' _Harry's not gone,'_ Karen thought.

' _Why does it feel like it?'_ Amanda asked.

' _He's out there, but he's out of range,'_ Karen thought.

The girls pacified themselves a little bit. The freaking out tapered off into a normal level, as they focused on it.

' _What happened?'_ Dinah asked. _'It felt like someone dumped cold water on the back of my head.'_

' _Yeah, and now I feel like a part of me is missing,'_ Wanda said.

Wanda's only thoughts which prevented her from losing all sense of herself were Harry still lingered out there. She just had been brought onto the bond link and now a small sense of security had been lost.

"They disappeared," Carol said.

The woman's numb shock faded in a matter of seconds. Kara reached over towards her and grabbed her by the arm.

"Ms. Ferris….you need to…."

"I need to call base security," Carol said. "People are going to find out what happened…..I don't even know what happened. One second it wasn't there, the next second it was there."

Kara tried to get a good look at the occupant of the vessel. Either he did a really good vanishing act, which in his condition, Kara doubted a whole lot. Or, the more logical, and grimmer scenario, he perished out in the middle of nowhere.

' _Harry's established a protocol for something happening if he's unconscious or in another dimension or transported off world or into another time,'_ Jaime thought. _'It would be a lot easier to pull tight reign if one of the Alphas hadn't been sent off as well.'_

' _Yes,'_ Lily said. _'But, we all need to keep a level head. Because, if we don't keep a level head, we won't be able to find a way to bring Harry back home.'_

Kara sensed Lily's frustration. As Harry's mother, as well as his bonded, an entirely new level of worry entered her.

' _I'm calm now, but at first….everything went black….'_

' _I think it did all at once,'_ Rose thought.

"Yes, thank you….yes of course I saw a big ship flying through my base," Carol said. What was said on the other end of the phone caused Carol's expression to quickly sour. "No, it isn't a publicity stunt, why would you think I'd pull something….so inane as a publicity stunt? Well, obviously, you're not going to believe me because you've already made up your mind….see for yourself if you….."

"No one can go near that ship!" Kara yelled.

Carol jumped halfway off of her seat at Kara's words. The owner of Ferris Aircraft nearly jumped out of her skin at Kara's words.

"Why?" Carol asked.

"Trust me, no one can….it's humming, listen."

Carol listened, and sure enough, Kara's statement proved to be accurate. The ship hummed and gave off a sinister yellow glow.

"Seal off the base, emergency drill nine, you know the one," Carol said. "I'll deal with them if they come….yes, I know how to do it…..look, just make sure everyone gets off of the base."

Carol turned to Kara and Karen.

"Look, I know the two of you know a bit more than you're letting on," Carol said. The two girls did nothing to disprove Carol's theory. "But I need to know if my employees are in danger of dying because of the ship….and what was the thing on the ship?"

"Would you believe there's intelligent life out there?" Kara asked.

"Well, I'd believe anything given I just saw something out of Star Trek fly out of nowhere and crash head long into one of the test planes," Carol said. "And then, I saw my friend disappear….along with Harry and Alexandra Potter….."

Carol's words trailed off.

"I'm not sure if I want to know," Carol said. "But, tell me, is there any way the two of them….."

"We have to worry about the ship," Kara said.

"Keep your people away from the ship," Karen said. "And we can have a specialist in here within the next twelve hours."

"If only you're lucky enough," Carol said. "But, I think we're bound to attract some attention. Carol's sister works for a government agency which deals with the strange and mysterious, and….well, I'm not sure RAO has the capabilities to beat the government at their own game."

"Give us a chance," Karen said.

Carol's phone rang. She wouldn't be surprised if certain organizations of the government had people watching her at Ferris Aircraft as she spoke. No surprise whatsoever if those types of people kept an eye on her.

* * *

Area 51 in Nevada often resulted in a great deal of spectacular as to what was really going on the base. Many people speculated the lack of information around the area proved without a shadow of a doubt it was grand central for some kind of alien conspiracy. People thought some outlandish things to put things mildly.

Yet, truth often existed in the middle of rampant speculation. Area 51 housed one of the many bases for the Department of Extra-Normal Affairs, or the DEO. Right now, several government agents realized they had something really intriguing in their midst.

The organization really cut its teeth during 1989, when a meteor shower rained down on Smallville, Kansas. Despite constant investigation of the matter, nothing other than some glowing strange rocks appeared. The DEO kept one eye on the town, and many odd rumors reached them.

If they didn't have other elements to worry about figuring out, they would have spent a sufficient amount of time trying to worry about what happened in Smallville.

The latest bit of news reached them from further west, in California. The west coast did not have much oddness. The East Coast and the Midwest proved to be the two nexus points for weirdness, albeit for very different reasons. Further west, while there was an odd event like Roswell, weirdness came few and far between.

Many members of the DEO could only speculate why they would put the base in the middle of Area 51.

"Protocol has been established. An alien vessel crashed on the vicinity of Ferris Airspace."

Several people looked up in surprise.

"Has the news media caught wind of any information regarding the alien ships coming down?"

"No, not yet," the DEO representative said. "But we should be under the assumption they will and we need to prepare to get ready."

The suits moved around to try and reign in everything. They didn't do the legwork, they just barked the orders. Today would be the day they would finally get some answers about what was out there. If they could figure out anything about an alien ship, then it would answer a few questions brewing in their minds for some time.

And if, by any chance, they could find any occupant in the ship, it would finally prove there was something more dangerous out there which justified their existence.

"Assume as always the occupant in the ship is armed and dangerous," the lead suit said. He dressed in a black suit, wearing dark glasses covering his eyes. "Leave him alive if possible, because if he isn't alive, the DEO will be unable to determine anything about his origins, or how he came to be here. But if it isn't alive, then so be it."

The shoot to kill, if only necessary, orders, manifested once more. All too common to the DEO, who never during their time have ever gotten their hands on an actual alien, with a ship crashing about three years ago being the closest.

A gorgeous woman with dark hair leaned back in the shadows. The moment the words "Ferris Aircraft" left the mouth of the people involved, her tension rose to an entirely new level. She leaned in, frowning.

"I wish to help lead this mission."

"Yes, I know, and you've already been assigned. You know Ferris Aircraft the best. Your older sister works for the company as a freelance capacity. We understand Carl Ferris's daughter runs the company now, and she could be a bit belligerent even in the best of times. You would know better than any of us how to handle her if she gives us an attitude."

The woman shook her head.

' _Carol isn't really belligerent. She's just determined and obsessed with her work. Which I guess can be mistaken as belligerent if you think about it.'_

"I'll talk to her, explain to her the dangerous situation she's found herself in. I'm sure by now, she's already cleared the base."

"Let's hope she hasn't tried to mess with the ship," one of the men said. "Any tampering of the ship could cause us to lose valuable intelligence which will set us back by a fair amount."

Alex Danvers kept her mouth shut for a moment. The DEO's well-meaning efforts often lead them on some wild and out of control goose chases. Sometimes embarrassingly so, their track record compared to many government agencies tended to be mixed. If there weren't a few ET obsessed government officials who kept throwing money at them to prove they weren't paranoid, the DEO's operations looked on track to collapse some time ago.

"I'm sure Carol is smart enough not to screw with anything she shouldn't"

Alex excused herself for a second, while the rest of the task force waited for a go ahead.

"Carol, it's Alex, just a head's up….we're coming to investigate the little incident…..yeah….I figured as…CAROL! Oh, god, what happened…my sister…..yes, I know, I shouldn't panic. And if I take this too personally, my higher up will pull me off."

Alex took a deep breath. Best not to lose her cool or this assignment would be re-assigned to some trigger happy idiot. Then they would have a more serious problem.

"So, are you ready to go?" Alex asked, as if she didn't get hit with some detressing news.

"Yeah, we're ready to go," the man said.

"Remember, we don't know how hostile the alien we're dealing with is," Alex said. "Even if he or she is injured, he could be hostile."

"Yeah, what could hurt a big bad alien?"

Alex thought part of the problem with the department was some of the denser members assumed aliens were monster creatures who stuck out like a sore thumb. They couldn't blend into humanity to save their life.

The woman's lips curled into a knowing smile. Talk about a quality she personally used to her advanced. After the alien crash three years ago, she harbored a not so little secret from the DEO as well.

* * *

Carol took a second to look around herself. A large reflection surface showed she wore a green and white uniform. The lantern on it flashed out in greater prominence in the light. She took a second to look over her surroundings.

Harry and Faora appeared a few seconds later behind her. The newly uniformed woman turned around with a deepening frown crossing her face.

"Okay, do any of the two of you know where I am?" Carol asked.

"You're on Oa, the home of the Guardians of the Green Lantern Corps," Faora said.

Carol raised an eyebrow.

"And one of the Green Lantern rings chose you to replace the alien who died, apparently in the service of the Lanterns," Harry said.

Carol experienced the weirdest sense of foreboding. Replacing a dead person never started anything off on the right foot. Being the determined woman she was, Carol did her best to make the most of it, even though she knew making the most of it would mean some frustration on her part.

"Okay, I have a question .Why did the Lantern choose me?"

"It chooses the person it deems to be the most worthy," Harry said.

"It has to do with will-power, strength of such,"

"Why wouldn't it choose someone line you?" Carol asked. Her eyes averted to Harry when she said things. "I mean, with all of the women you keep, you must have a lot of will-power to deal with them when they go off the rails….no offense."

"None taken, mostly because I agree," Faora said. "It's a good thing, I agree, right."

"You don't say," Carol said.

The woman turned towards a fairly sizeable archway. Was she intimidated? No, Carol didn't do the intimidation thing all too well. She thought herself to be a little bit fearless.

Regardless, what did await her? Seconds passed.

"I think you better walk through to face the Guardians," Harry said.

A strange notion visited Carol.

' _There's something more to those two than meets the eye. Sure, I just be paranoid, but I'm getting a rather strange vibe off of both of them. I can't explain it, I just am getting a vibe. I don't know why, kind of weird.'_

Carol shook her head to clear her thoughts, in addition to the extremely weird vibe she felt. Her feet shuffled forward through the Archway.

She made her way to a chamber. Several large blue headed men dressed in robes peered down on her. Carol found the sight to be a bit ridiculous, but they looked at her in a combination of shock and disgust.

"Guardians of Oa."

Harry spoke these words. The Guardians looked at him. One of them opened his mouth, and a couple resembled someone who might be on the verge of suffering a stroke.

Their expressions grew even grimmer when their eyes rested on Alexandra Potter. One of them stepped back for a moment.

"They withdrew from the sector, you don't understand….."

"I understand the circumstances, everything was doomed to begin with," Alexandra said. Her voice blew with chills. "But, we're not here to deal with old news, rather to talk about the future."

The Guardians all nodded in response. They agreed with these people with one thing.

"Yes, what happened to Abin Sur?" one of the Guardians asked.

"He crashed in a ship on Earth," Harry said.

"Earth?" one of the Guardians asked.

The mutterings of the Guardians indicated they thought Earth would be a poor recommendation. Harry's frown deepened as he leaned in to listen to the mutterings of the Guardians of Oa.

"And the ring chose me, "Carol said.

"Well, this is unprecedented," one of the Guardians said. "No one from such a primitive planet has been gifted with the Green Lantern ring."

"Especially given there are those who are far more worthy in your party belong to said sector who have such an honor," the Guardian said.

"Ah, but one of them wasn't born in the sector."

Carol filed the information away as interesting for later. Either Harry or Alexandra weren't born on Earth? Well, at least according to the big blue headed aliens they weren't born of the Sector.

The strong woman dealt with her own strangeness in the past, but this strangeness proved to eclipse every single moment of the strangeness she dealt with before. She shook her head, ignoring the slight headache which came on.

"The ring of the Green Lantern crops do not make any fatal flaws or errors," the Guardian said. "Regardless of any preconceived notions we may have, this woman….."

"Carol Danvers, of the third planet from the sun in the Milky Way Galaxy," one of the guardians said.

"How did you know?" Carol asked.

"The ring tells us all," the Guardian said. "But, it takes more than being chosen by the Green Lantern ring to be chosen. You need to prove certain virtues, and prove yourself to be worthy of being a part of the Corps."

"Then, let me prove myself."

Carol trained in the military amongst some of the toughest people to every throw down. How bad can this training be?

"Very well, we will assign you a mentor, and you will report to her within the next cycle. Your training will begin, and if you are worthy, you will officially be inducted into the Green Lantern Corps. We must prepare our investigations on the death of one our own. The ring choosing you has cleared you have any compliance of his death. Good day to you."

Carol's breath let out of her body. For a brief second, she thought she'd be charged as an accessory to murder for being just in the vicinity of the alien dying.

* * *

The furthest place away from Oa happened to be Gotham City. One of Gotham's finest crept in the alleyway. Michael Wuertz of the Gotham City Police Department knew if one of his fellow officers caught in in this part of town, he would have a lot of questions to answer.

Hence why he would not allow one of his fellow officers to catch him in this part of town The officer consulted his watch and anxiously waited for his guest to arrive.

"Come on, come on, I don't have all night. COME ON!"

Wuertz dangled the folder from his hand and frowned. He hoped his guy didn't stand him up or worst set him up. The favors he called in to get his hands on this little folder, it could be the end of his career if someone caught him.

If he was lucky, it would be the end of his career. Loeb would have his neck in a noose if he found out the deal he made. If nothing else than to throw Wuertz underneath the bus. Loeb took care of people, unless they became a problem. If they became a problem, Loeb ended them.

And the thunderclouds rolling into Gotham City didn't look too friendly.

"What is it about the weather in this town? "Wuertz asked.

"It matches well with the stormy nature of the city."

A gentlemen wearing a red hood stepped out of the crowd. Wuertz's hand shook. The Red Hood gang, depending on what Red Hood gang you dealt with, tended to be an X-Factor. A lot of the targeted locations matched up with some shady run businesses. The jewelry store robbed back at Valentine's Day was rumored to be a front for gold of a different kind, white gold. The jewelry sales, extravagant as they were, funded the trafficking of the white gold.

Cocaine for those who didn't know all of the street lingo, and Wuertz did, not he indulged in the stuff. Some of the boys yes, but everyone had their vices.

"So, you're the Red Hood," Wuertz said. The officer viewed his guest with a crucial eye. "Thought the reports pegged you as a little bit taller and a little bit skinnier."

"You know, humor isn't one of your strong suits," the Red Hood said. "And you should not quit your day job. But, since I'm in a good mood, I won't shoot you for making such a bad joke. Providing of course, you have me the file."

"Yeah, have it right here, don't know what you want with Napier," Wuertz said.

"It's personal."

The Red Hood took the file folder and flipped through the results of the investigation. His eyes brushed over everything.

"Well, isn't this pretty incriminating, but they don't have no solid evidence to back it up," Red Hodo said. "Someone like Rupert Thorne would find it interesting though."

"Thorne, Thorne….yeah, he's been talking with Loeb a bit," Wuertz said. "So, are you against Thorne?"

"The fat bastard blocks out my view of the sun," Red Hood said. He started to laugh. "Hey, son, now there's a joke, you should laugh it up!"

Wuertz gave an uncomfortable round of laughter. The gun near his stomach prompted him to laugh even more.

"So everything is here, right?" the Red Hood asked.

"Yeah, everything," Wuertz said. "It's going to tell you what you need to know about Napier, how much dirt the GCPD has on him. They can't pin the murder of Grissom on him yet, mostly circumstantial type shit there. But he doesn't play by their roles."

"Napier's a maverick, he plays by his own set of rules," The Red Hood said. "But don't worry, he'll get what's coming to him, mark my words."

Wuertz wondered what the Red Hood had in mind.

"Hood's a bit fancier than the reports say," Wuertz said. "I have to say, it looks pretty good on you, pretty damn good even."

"Officer Wuertz, I'm flattered, but I'm a married man," the Red Hood said.

"You're married?" Wuertz asked. After all, this bastard seemed like a scumbag, what woman would have him. "No, get out of town."

"Yes, to my work, and to bringing down the establishment in Gotham City, brick," the Red Hood said. He did a jig. "By brick."

The Red Hood chuckled for a second. Wuertz looked on pins and needles.

"Have a good night, officer, drive safely."

The Red Hood placed a stack of bills in his hand.

"We never met," Wuertz said.

"Don't worry, I forgot your face already. Not hard because I wanted to."

The Red Hood exited the alleyway, leaving Wuertz with a stack of bills.

"Not too bad, can score a whore with this, should see if I can get things through the usual hook…."

Wuertz's words faded off into oblivion. Something stirred in the alleyway off to the side. Wuertz turned his attention to the alleyway.

"Come out, I'm a member of the GCPD….."

The gunshot hit him so solidly he didn't have time to register it. The man died instantly, hitting the pavement.

A slim hand reached down and pinned a stack of photographs revealing the officer shaking hands with the Red Hood seconds before.

Wuertz expired in the alleyway.

Seconds after the shooter left, Batman dropped down from the heavens. He found another cop dead, another one taken down by the mysterious cop killer vigilante.

"Fresh."

The realization struck the Dark Knight he missed the shooter by a bare moment. He would have had a chance to look around more clearly. Sirens started up, forcing Batman to depart before he could get a clear look.

* * *

"I appreciate you sticking around for a little bit," Carol said. The strong woman walked next to Harry and Alex, and she frowned. "I mean, it's not like I'm nervous….."

"There's something really odd going on," Harry said.

"I got the sense those big blue headed people….those Guardians….they didn't tell us everything."

Carol didn't imagine the next snort coming from Alexandra. The Potter cousin turned to her, raising an eyebrow.

"You're going to be getting the sense the Guardians aren't telling you everything a whole lot. They've not the most transparent of people in the universe."

"So in other words, like most higher ups in the government on Earth?" Carol asked.

"Yes," Harry said.

"Well, at least this job won't be too foreign," Carol said.

The ring had power, but Carol wasn't certain how to channel it just yet. The training would teach her the question.

The trio almost ran smack dab into a woman with darker, reddish, skin, with dark hair. She wore a Green Lantern uniform which fit quite nicely around her body.

"Hello," she said. "You must be the new recruit."

"Carol Danvers, I'm from Earth," Carol said.

"My name is Katma Tui," she said.

"This is Harry Potter, and Alexandra Potter, they became dragged along for the ride," Carol said.

"Ah, yes, the initial teleportation of the ring, it can be a bit jerky," Katma said with a knowing smile "It's a pleasure to meet you all."

She found herself drawn to Harry's eyes. The green eyes caught her in an enchantment before she looked away.

"So, how long have you been a Green Lantern?" Harry asked.

"About a year now," Katma said. "I was part of a group who….well only less than a handful of us made it through the training course. It isn't exactly the most fun thing in the world to go through the training course."

"I've been through boot camp," Carol said.

"Oh, you're part of your Earth's military?" Katma asked. "It may help you. I have no idea. None of us really know much about Earth and I'm sure what we know is out of date."

"Much has changed in the universe," Harry said. "And yet, you have a Green Lantern traveling Sector 2814."

"Well, there are planets in neighboring galaxies," Katma said. "I'm not sure whether or not humans have discovered them or not."

"I can assure you we're just in the initial stages of space travel," Harry said. "We only made it to our moon in the last thirty years."

Katma nodded respectfully.

"The weird thing about Earth is it's such a strategically located planet," Katma said. "If some really dangerous people found out about it, they can use it as a point for war."

Harry understood as much. RAO looked into the long term future. Eventually people were going to discover Earth and the potential it brought. Kryptonians had been oddly ahead on the curve for the potential Earth could bring.

"Well, I'm looking forward to training with you, Katma," Carol said.

"Oh, I'm afraid you're not training with me," Katma said. "The woman I was trained to be a backup to, she'll be your mentor. And she's not one for tardiness….so I hope you're on time."

"We've arrived with time to spare," Harry said.

"The thing about Harry is he's always way too early," Faora said. "It makes everyone look like they're way too late."

"An admirable quality to have," Katma said. "I have to go…..see if the Guardians have any assignments for me. It was a pleasure to meet all of you."

Katma Tui shook hands with the three of them. Harry planted a kiss on her hand, briefly, with his lips brushing against his knuckles.

' _So, no matter what the planet is, you catch the eye of every woman you say,'_ Faora thought. _'And believe me, I'm not complaining, just making an observation.'_

Carol turned around and noticed the woman who could only be her teacher. Her skin darkened to a different shade of red than Katma's. Her hair went down her shoulders. No one disputed she had a fit body, but the lack of smile stopped anyone cold.

"My name is Sinestra," she said. "And you're the new recruit. And you're on time. Good, most people fail at being punctual. Perhaps there's some hope."

The woman backed off and her frown gave way to a slight smile.

"Faora, you're alive?"

"Hello, Sinestra, it's nice to see you've moved up in the world."

Carol did a double take at Alexandra Potter being referred to as Faora. She knew something weird was going on here, although she struggled to know what.

* * *

Carol Ferris appreciated Alex Danvers giving her the heads up the DEO was on their way. It allowed her a few seconds to compose herself. Kara and Karen stood a bit out of the way in the background.

The military transport vehicle arrived, six hours after the ship crashed. Carol thought they made some pretty good time. Alex walked out, with several suited men following her. A couple of them looked at the ship, which closed up.

"Guess, the ET is trying to hole up inside the ship, scared to the big bad humans, and what we can do to him."

"Well, it isn't like he's going to phone home or something."

Alex looked over her shoulder.

"Don't touch the ship, until we know what we're going into," Alex said. "I'm going to interview Ms. Ferris. Stand guard over the ship, and don't touch anything."

"Yeah, we won't touch the ship."

Kara and Karen watched the ship from afar. Alex walked over to Carol and the two of them exchanged pleasantries.

' _One of those idiots are going to touch the ship, aren't they?'_ Kara asked.

' _Well, we really should give them the benefit of the doubt,'_ Karen thought. The scoffing of Kara caused Karen to jump up. _'I know, I'm going to live to regret those words, aren't I?'_

' _Mmm, yeah, pretty much,'_ Kara thought. _'But….are you getting a strange vibe from the ship…how do we explain to the DEO something is going on, without them asking too many questions.'_

' _Let's just hope the professionals are able to use common sense,'_ Karen thought.

Kara tried to hold back the groan from the outside. No question about it, they were pretty screwed.

"Carol was on the plane," Alex said.

"Yes, she offered to test fly it as a favor for me, after my original test pilot called in sick," Carol said. "And no one else on the base could fly it on such short notice."

"I know," Alex said. "Carol is the best at what she does and….green light….are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Carol said. "Do you know?"

"No, but there have been whispers of people disappearing in flashes of lights, only to come back later with strange abilities," Alex said. "And this wouldn't be Carol's first brush with the alien kind…thankfully, she has her own friends in high places to help her cover them up."

Alex kept her voice to a whisper. She stood up.

"I'm going to….."

"The higher ups are calling in an expert," one of the agents said.

"Who?" Alex asked.

"Hammond, Hector Hammond."

The sour look on Carol's face indicated she didn't think the name was a good recommendation or indeed, much of an expert at all. She tried to remain as calm and as collected as possible.

Kara and Karen looked at each other. Kara looked into her bag.

' _We should really consult an expert of our own….the problem is, I don't think I can get Alura close enough without the DEO clearing off.'_

The strange energy coming from the ship caused Kara to feel a prickling feeling of dread. Similar to the feelings she felt in Gotham City during the Scarecrow's latest misadventure.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 24** **th** **, 2015.**


	137. Emerald Flight Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Seven: Emerald Flight Part Three.**

* * *

 

Carol left the group for the first day of basic training. Sinestra, Harry, and Faora stuck around, with some catching up with each other needed.

"She's going to complete her first day of basic training for the Green Lantern Corps at any moment now," Sinestra said. "It does a wonderful job in weeding out those who aren't worthy on the first time. Some of us don't really support the ring choosing. As it's just an advanced AI, and thus being a computer, it's subject to error."

Harry frowned, he would have liked to take a closer look at the Artificial Intelligence of the Green Lantern ring. Stealing a quick look at Faora, he detected the same kind of ideas coming from her, at least for this moment.

"So, Har-Zod, I remember when you were a mad idea in the eyes of a crazed man," Sinestra said. "I'm shocked your father pulled off the project."

"Give Zod some credit," Faora said. A knowing smile crossed over the face of the daughter of Zod. "He might have gone a bit off of his rocker towards the end of Krypton's existence, but….he was a brilliant scientist in his own right. At least the third brightest individual on the planet."

"Way behind Alura," Harry said. "Slightly behind Jor-El."

"Yes, very slightly," Faora said. She conceded Jor-El's brilliance, even if she didn't like the man personally. Still, the devil needed his due. "He did agree with Jor-El about the planet's days running out, but the General had his own agenda. Go figure, and now….well he's camped out in the Phantom Zone, never to return."

"Yes, the Phantom Zone is a rather popular place for the worst criminals in the universe," Sinestra said. "And there are more than a few people who shouldn't be there."

"We never intended for the Zone to be a rest stop for political prisoners," Faora said. "But, I guess it couldn't be helped."

Harry found himself curious regarding a certain question.

"The two of you know each other," Harry said. "So, exactly how did the two of you meet up?"

Sinestra reached to the table and picked up her drink. She took a long drink of it and smiled.

"Hard to believe there was ever a time where I was a wet behind the ears Lantern in training, but there I was. I chased a dangerous fugitive all the way to the sector where Krypton was located. The Guardians and the Council butted heads and…..well, the Green Lantern of the sector decided to ignore any activity around Krypton, on the orders of the Guardians. Being the good little boyscout he was, he decided to listen to the Guardians. I wasn't one who played by the rules."

"And as a result, you ended up crashing through the roof of my bedroom," Faora said.

"Well, he got the better of me, and I was injured," Sinestra said. "I thankfully made my way to Faora's room, where she managed to get me the medical attention I needed. And believe me, I needed it."

"The General was out leading his coup at this point, and the Bitch…..well, she was not really around," Faora said. "So, it goes without saying I did this behind their backs."

Sinestra turned to Harry and surveyed him for a few long seconds.

"I'm guessing this is the first you heard of this little story," Sinestra said.

"Yes, Faora never mentioned it to me before now," Harry said.

"Well, now you know," Faora said. The daughter of Zod answered with a not so subtle shrug. "Never really had a reason to come up before now."

The three of them sat in silence for a moment. Sinestra leaned towards them, arching her eyebrow.

"So, can you explain the circumstances of how Carol Danvers received the Green Lantern ring? Abin Sur's sudden death is really troubling."

"A ship arrived at Earth," Harry said. The simplest explanation looked to be the most obvious one, at least in this case. "It appeared out of nowhere. This alien, Abin Sur, he was wounded. Something dangerous attacked him."

"He went to Earth, but he didn't radio back to base," Sinestra said. "Whoever attacked him must have scrambled his brain along with hurting him. He must have been on the verge of dying….without seeing the ship, I can't say….and you're saying the ship crashed on Earth."

Sinestra clenched the side of the table. She worried and for the best reasons. Humans had a bad habit of playing with things they shouldn't start playing with.

"And the Green Lantern ring detached from him, "Sinestra said. "And it sought out the most worthwhile person to have the ring….which happened to be our newest trainee."

Sinestra picked up the drink she nursed during the entire meeting. She placed the drink on her lips and drank long and hard. After a long moment of consideration, she looked at Harry.

"I'm surprised the ring didn't latch on to either of you," Sinestra said.

"Technically speaking, isn't one of the Green Lanterns of a sector supposed to be born of the sector?" Faora asked.

Sinestra tucked her hand underneath her chin, tilting it back. A smile crossed her face.

"Yes, technically speaking, although I'm certain exceptions can be made, under the gravest circumstances," Sinestra said. The Guardians only knew what those exceptions could be, if they existed. Her eyes averted towards the young man sitting across the table from her. "Why did it not go to Har-Zod then?"

"I think you're selling Carol short," Harry said. "With her background, she's more than capable of wielding the Green Lantern ring."

"Maybe," Sinestra said. The woman sounded a little bit skeptical, but she was willing to play along, at least for the moment. "I'd be a little more at ease if someone who wasn't human had their hands on the ring."

Faora suspected Sinestra had a bad experience she didn't want to talk about. Faora sympathized to be honest.

"You do realize there are fools on any planet," Faora said. "And the humans have potential; they just require the right guidance."

"Something I'm certain yourself and Har-Zod are willing to provide several times over," Sinestra said.

Seconds later, the doors swung open. Carol moved towards them. She walked in a slightly ragged manner, and almost slumped over. But, she stood, which was more than Sinestra could say about many of the newer recruits. A small bit of respect filled her.

"Well, you survived the first day of training," Sinestra said.

"Did I earn your respect, yet?" Carol asked.

"You took a solid step towards going so, but don't get ahead of yourself, rookie," Sinestra said. "You have a long way to go before you can be considered to be a full-fledged Green Lantern. And you have a very long way to go before you're going to follow in Abin Sur's footsteps."

"I will," Carol said. Her voice sounded both firm and confident, along with a bit daring.

If Harry knew Carol, at least from his limited interaction with her, he knew she would challenge pretty much everything Sinestra said.

"Good, I'm glad you're not going to wilt on the first day like a flower left out in the open," Sinestra said. "But, I'm going to take you on a more practical component of your training. You're returning home for a short time."

"The ship? "Carol asked.

"Very good," Sinestra said. "The ship Sur was on, it may have not been an accident he had been found. With his erractic behavior of heading to Earth after the ship crashed, I'm curious to see who the ship belongs to."

Faora thought Sinestra's reason was solid enough. She did have one question to ask her old friend regarding the ship.

"So do the Guardians of Oa know about this?"

Sinestra took a long pause, considering Faora's words for a moment.

"Well, they're aware of what happen. But the wheels of bureaucracy move depressingly slow on Oa. And it's much more efficient to ask for forgiveness than it is for permission."

Harry figured what angle Sinestra went with now, and he couldn't really disagree with her.

* * *

 

The Gotham City Police Department learned about the latest attack regarding one of their own. Despite many in the department having no obvious love loss for someone like Wuertz, it unsettled many of them.

"He was found in the middle of the alleyway," one of the GCPD officer's on the scene said to the other members of the department. "Some anonymous tip called it in, and we arrived, and there he was. But he couldn't have been there more than ten minutes, could he have?"

"Do you think the tipster might be the killer?"

Sarah raised her eyebrow. It was an interesting thought.

"Well, did anyone trace the call?"

"It came from a payphone," Renee said. The woman wiped a hand over her forehead, before turning to the report. "By the time anyone could get there, the tipster, killer or not, was long gone, without a trace."

"So, someone is going around popping off dirty cops," Bullock said. "And we don't have any suspects."

"Oh, there are suspects," Gordon said. "But, we don't have anything to go off of. And we have to narrow down a list of hundreds of people who had access to the GCPD personnel files. And not to mention, the old files which were disposed of when we went paperless."

"Yeah, it was a sad day when we let computers run our job," Bullock said in his standard gruff tone. "Providing it's the same guy doing this, could be an entire gang of them, like the Red Hood goons."

Bullock's theory posed a bit of water, but they didn't have any proof or reason to disprove it either.

"The one thing they all have in common," Gordon said. "All of the cops who have been killed have been up for investigation for misconduct at one point or another. With the charges being dropped over time, and the problem never being brought up, at least until now."

Several police officers in the room shifted for a moment. None more so than Harvey Bullock, who had a few skeletons in his closet which he wished to keep buried for all time. He didn't screw with civilians, they were off limits. But a couple of the criminals, well he engaged in some police brutality. And he took a couple of bribes to stonewall some investigation.

Guy needed the money, and he needed to eat rather well.

"And any of us in this room, we could be looking the killer right in the eye, and not know it."

"I'm certain no one in this department is….the killer," Gordon said.

A slight doubt visited Gordon for a second. He did his best to squash it. He couldn't afford to be paranoid of the people in his own department. Paranoia would lead to a rather bad road for all of them to go down.

The door opened up and Loeb arrived to face the people. Chief O'Hara walked in next to him as well.

"Today, is a sad loss as Michael Wuertz was brutally gunned down by a serial killer who has targeted many of GCPD's finest. I cannot impress upon you all enough, about the importance of tracking the person responsible for these atrocities. Such actions are not acceptable and will not be tolerated in Gotham City."

"Easier said than done, Commissioner," Chief O'Hara said. "The personnel files we believe the killer to be using has been accessed by countless people. Given some of the transgressions in question date back to well before the 1980s, we believe the suspect may have been someone who worked with the GCPD."

"Do they still work with the GCPD?" Sarah asked.

"Through this point of the investigation, we have no leads," Loeb said. "But remember, this is a major crime, therefore it is up to the Major Crimes Unit to track down anyone responsible for any vigilante activities. Remind them crime doesn't pay and justice always prevails in Gotham City."

Loeb turned and returned to his office. He would need to up the security around him, so the attacker didn't get any bright ideas.

"Guy must get his cornball lines out of a comic book," Bullock said. "But, he does have a point, we have to capture the cop killer."

"We will," Gordon said.

"Yes, but….still you shouldn't count out it being someone in this very room," Bullock said. "They could be laughing at us for being such idiots right now."

"I'm certain everyone inside this room is beyond reproach," John Jones said.

"And how do you know, Jones?" Bullock asked. He rose up to his full height to look the other cop in the eyes. "It's not like you can read people's minds, or anything."

* * *

 

Alex noticed straight away how miffed Carol seemed to be. The woman tried to keep her own temper in check, due to her older system being in the middle of an investigation one more time. She had to prove herself as something, with Kara and Carol being unique in their own ways, she experienced the worst case of Middle Child Syndrome imaginable.

The agent of the DEO took in her breath and caused a long sigh to spread through her voice.

"Well our expert comes, we should really get to the bottom of the ship," Alex said. "I know, he's not exactly the most…appeasing gentleman."

Carol snorted in response. It didn't sound very lady like for her to snort, but at this point, she really didn't give a damn. Alex flashed a sheepish smile towards Carol.

"I know, understatement," Alex said. "If we investigate the ship, we might be able to find out what happened to Carol."

Carol tried to squash the guilt she found. A jeep pulled out and two suits exited the front of it. A broad shouldered man with a mullet and a mustache exited the back of the jeep. He made his way forward.

Karen raised her eyebrow, looking rather unimpressed.

' _So, he's their expert,'_ Karen thought. _'I don't know, I'm kind of unimpressed already, maybe it's just me.'_

' _We should give him a chance, though, you can't really judge a book by his cover,'_ Kara thought.

"Move aside ladies, and let me take a look underneath the hood."

The cockiness, the swagger, both elements caused Kara's stomach to turn. True, one couldn't judge a book by its cover. When the pages on the inside of the book looked about as rotten as the book cover itself, it was time to stop judging.

Alex exited the office where she spoke with Kara. She stood up straight.

"Remember, Hammond, this isn't one of your toys. This is a high tech alien vessel….."

"Bah, this thing, high tech," Hammond said. His voice dripped with both sleaze and machismo. "It just looks intimidating to a woman. It really needs a man's touch, so stand back."

Carol sensed some foreboding the moment Hammond made his way to the ship. He tried to pry open the hood of the vessel. Only to find the hood didn't quite come up at the right point.

"Guess, a man's touch can't quite get the hood open," Alex said.

"Whoever locked this hood, they did so pretty tight," Hammond said, trying to push it open with a grunt, but things looked to be rather tough on him.

Kara was pretty sure she could get it open. The latch on it looked rather straight forward, although complex to someone like Hammond. He didn't seem like the sharpest knife in the shelf.

"Get my tools from the back of the van."

The two suits shifted in annoyance at being bossed around. They decided they had no choice but to scramble to the back of the van to pick up the tools.

One of the goons lifted up the large tool crate. He strained underneath the heavy weight of the crate.

"Careful, don't drop it."

Carol folded her arms. The entire spectacle she watched might have been rather amusing to be honest, had it not been so sad to watch. The heiress to the Ferris aircrafts dynasty dreaded the extent to what Hammond would do to open up the trunk.

"Make sure you don't blow up half of the base, Hammond," Carol said.

Hammond looked up and smiled when he caught sight of Carol.

"Well, the lovely, Ms. Ferris….I have to say it's quite nice your father trusts you with running his business. I hope good old Carl is doing well….he didn't look too well the last time I saw him."

Carol ignored the rather pointed reminder of her father's failing health. She brought her attention onto Hammond in a matter of seconds.

"Don't worry about my father. Worry about yourself, Hammond. And worry about what would happen if you mess up everything."

Hammond chuckled. The girl didn't quite know all of the trenches he entered. He looked over the latch, pulling out one of his tools.

"Right, let's see, I believe I've got the little bugger right where I want it."

Kara shifted for a second and stared. Common sense indicated she didn't really want to take a look at what was underneath the hood. Curiosity dictated something else entirely. Kara's eyes squinted as she stared beneath the hood.

A glowing set of yellow crystals greeted Kara from the other side of the hood. The Kryptonian survivor sensed something rather bad, a feeling of dread, a feeling of fear, and feeling of something which shouldn't be messed with.

"Mr. Hammond, I wouldn't open the hood, the hood is shielding….."

"Oh, young lady, I'm sure you think you might know a bit about cars because your boyfriend let you hold the wrench," Hammond said. "But, when it comes to vehicles I'm an exp….."

The hood swung open. To no surprise to Kara or anyone else involved, the crystals in the trunk started to heat up to release an intense blast of energy from the air.

The energy caught Hammond and some of the DEO members. It rose in a ball.

Karen created a shield around herself, Alex, Carol, and Kara, along with a few DEO members who had been fortunate enough to be away from the blast zone when the crystals fired off their energy.

The energy passed around the shield and traveled through the desert.

Hammond collapsed to the ground, screaming in anger. His head ached and swelled, almost like it was going to burst in agony. His howls of agony echoed when too many thoughts bombarded his mind.

"NO!"

Karen's eyes rolled into the back of her head. She blacked out.

"KAREN!"

* * *

 

A portal opened up. Carol exited the portal, with Sinestra following behind. Faora exited next, and last, but not least, Harry escaped the portable.

Sinestra's Lantern Ring started to fluctuate for a second.

Carol's eyes widened and she let out a strangled declaration of "My God!"

The group noticed an explosion at Ferris Aircraft the second they dropped down to the ground. The explosions echoed in a chaotic fashion.

The yellow energy cloud rising from the desert caused Sinestra to put up the bubble around them. Only the cloud started to eat through the green bubble.

"My ring, it has a vunerability to certain kinds of energy," Sinestra said."Anything yellow, it has…."

Faora took a long moment to open her mouth and shut it. Actually seconds, but after the time, Faora opened her mouth and blurted out the first thing which came to her mind, out of her mouth.

"It's a stupid flaw!" Faora yelled.

"Agreed," Sinestra said.

She couldn't even begin to figure out what the Guardians thought when they caused such a flaw to manifest. Harry's hand launched over towards hers and grabbed it.

"What are you doing?" Sinestra asked.

"Boosting your power to remove the vulnerability."

"Will it…."

"Trust me," Harry said.

Harry's power wasn't at its highest, but it was high enough to cancel out the yellow vulnerability, at least long enough. He closed his eyes. The artificial intelligence inside the ring rebooted itself for a few seconds.

"There, it should lack the vulnerability until you need to recharge the ring."

Sinestra decided to put Harry's theory to the test. She closed her eyes. The bubble rose up, keeping the quartet in more close quarters. The yellow energy hit the side of the bubble, but blocked them out at the last possible second.

Could she breathe easily? Sinestra didn't really know. Second passed and the yellow energy around them faded for a moment.

She turned her head. The yellow energy could infect something so she needed to keep her eyes on the situation for a few seconds.

Carol leaned towards her for a second.

"What was….."

"It was energy coming from the power cells from the ship," Sinestra said. "It explains how Abin Sur acted as he did. He didn't signal back to Oa for help because he didn't want it. He couldn't, it wasn't possible for him to signal back to Oa."

Sinestra performed a brief scan of the energy. Relief visited the woman, or at least a sense of closure.

"So, have you figured out the problem?" Harry asked.

"In a sense," Sinestra said. She placed her hand underneath her chin. "The ship didn't have the energy needed. Therefore the explosion wasn't as prominent as it could have been."

The explosion's lack of prominence didn't mean they were completely out of the woods just yet. The blast triggered by one of the humans messing with something they shouldn't. Sinestra wished she could find her way to Earth before this, to stop them from finding the ship.

 _'Stupid, idiot, humans,'_ Sinestra thought. _'Now there's going to be a huge problem.'_

She gave the Guardians the benefit of the doubt, they wouldn't drag their knuckles. And they became burned because of it.

' _Harry?'_ Kara asked.

' _Yes, Kara, it's me,'_ Harry thought.

' _Where have you been?'_ Kara asked. _'Okay, it's not…..it's not like I'm nagging you, but everything went cold and dark…..and while I knew what was happening, half of the girls freaked out something fierce.'_

Harry raised his hands to the bridge of his nose, but he paused. Sinestra checked with something regarding her ring.

"The energy faded as quickly as it arrived," Sinestra said. "The levels coming from the crystals are low, but lethal to some species."

"Would one of those species be humans?" Faora asked. Sinestra looked like she didn't know, but they would assume.

' _Figures we should have prepared the girls more for this,'_ Faora thought.

' _There's been an accident,'_ Kara said. _'Everyone in the group and at least half of the DEO are fine. Karen blacked out though because of magical exhaustion when she shielded us….the ship's calmed down.'_

"The ship's calmed down," Harry said.

"Yes, I figured as much," Sinestra said.

The two tried to figure out what their move was. Sinestra came to one conclusion.

"It's important we get the ship out of there," Sinestra said.

Harry agreed with her point. He noticed out of the corner of his eye a few government agents lingering around.

"Going to be easier said than done," Harry said.

"Don't worry, I've done this before," Sinestra said. "Just talk to them, if they get too close, and I'll do the rest….you might want to wear something less conspicuous."

Carol thought about her normal clothes. The uniform she wore faded away, and she wore the ragged air force uniform she dressed in before being picked up.

* * *

 

Agony rattled the mind of Hector Hammond. Too many thoughts entered his mind at once. He didn't know what it felt like to have Q-tips stabbed into someone's brain. The sensations pushing into his mind caused him agony.

"No, no, make it stop!"

Alex hesitated for the briefest of seconds. A call to her supervisor looked to be the strongest thing yet.

The ship rested in front of her, some relic of a great crime scene. The man screaming on the ground was a second relic.

"I don't know why my phone's not working," Alex said.

"If you'd like, there's a phone in my office….you can use to call your base," Carol said.

Alex appreciated the gesture to be honest, but she didn't think the phone in the back room of Ferris Aircraft would be really secure. The line she had on her was heavily encrypted, but all of the energy in the air caused things to not really work as intended.

"Maybe, I can take a look at it, and see what's wrong," Kara said.

Alex looked up for a second. Kara being an older version of her sister really unsettled her a tiny bit. Having the same name….even more so. Granted, she didn't look precisely the same, there were some differences. More than a few similarities, with the demeanor being a really big one to be honest.

"No thank you, I can handle it," Alex said.

"Right, I understand, you don't want me poking around," Kara said.

"No, it's just….I think if I reboot it, it should be fine," Alex said. "Or make it worse, fifty-fifty shot really."

Alex waited patiently for the communication link to fire back to life. Several seconds passed as she held it up to her ear.

"Can you hear me?" Alex asked. The agent of the DEO let a breath escape through her body when confirmation reached her. "Yes, there's been an accident at Ferris…oh you're well aware….wait, he's well aware of it."

Alex stepped away from the situation to talk with her supervisor. This entire mission started out rather weird and had turned to the worst.

More personally, she didn't know exactly what happened to Carol.

Karen held her head up off of the ground. Kara frowned as she half dragged her older sister to a set and sat her down on a couch.

"I'll be okay after a minute," Karen said. She shook her head.

"It was a heroic stunt you pulled there," Carol said. "I'm not sure what you pulled, but it saved a lot of lives."

"Would you believe in magic?"

Carol wondered if she should answer the question. Granted, the thought of magic was out there. On the other hand, everything which happened today, magic scrapped the bottom of the barrel of things she wouldn't believe. Actually, out of everything she experienced in her career, magic scrapped the bottom of the barrel.

"After today, you'd be surprised what I didn't believe."

Karen sighed. Something about the ship going off created a cloud which blocked out any further yellow sunlight from replenishing her body. It finally started to trickle in.

"Water?" Carol asked.

"Thank you," she said.

Karen accepted the drink of water. She drank the water, allowing it to hydrate her for a few seconds. The buxom blonde returned herself for life for a few seconds and soon the yellow sunlight would come back in.

Kara frowned, and all of the sudden, she noticed someone hovering around on the outskirts of the bond link. Dare she ask? Dare she get her hopes up? Kara brought herself into the bond link.

' _Harry?'_ Kara asked.

' _Yes, Kara, it's me,'_ Harry thought.

Relief spread through Harry. Everything seemed to be fine, but she couldn't bring herself not to ask the most obvious question in the world. Her heart skipped a couple a bit.

' _Where have you been?'_ Kara asked. _'Okay, it's not…..it's not like I'm nagging you, but everything went cold and dark…..and while I knew what was happening, half of the girls freaked out something fierce.'_

Kara and Karen managed to calm down the girls for the most part. Diana and Jaime assisted in their own ways, but it caused a lot of frustration to be honest with them. Now Harry returned, Kara experienced the jubilation.

' _We should have prepared the girls a little bit better for this one,'_ Faora thought.

Kara thought Faora had a point. She figured she would bring them up to speed.

' _There's been an accident.'_

* * *

 

Harry, Carol, and Faora arrived back to base. Sinestra, not being one to stick around for casual conversation, disappeared into the darkness, but her presence loomed elsewhere.

The medics loaded on the men who suffered the accident onto the stretcher. The expression on the man's face haunted the nightmares of many people for some time to come.

"The energy cells on the ship," Harry said.

Carol cleared her throat, as Alex made her way over. The two sisters met each other halfway in the middle.

"Do you think I can have a word?" Carol asked.

"Am I going to get an explanation of where you ended up going?"

Carol smiled and nodded. Alex accepted her words and the two of them walked down a winding path. The wind blew.

"We shouldn't have anyone overhear this."

"They know better than to eavesdrop on me," Alex said. She leaned against the rock wall of the cave. "So what happened?"

Carol extended her hand and caused a barrier to be created in the wall of the cave. A shimmering green light flickered from her hand. Alex watched the ring rise to life, eyes widened. Her mouth hung open in shock and awe.

"I was chosen by one of the elite corps in the universe, the Green Lantern corps," Carol said. "It's one of the most premier peace keeping forces in the universe. I have this ring, and six weeks of intense training ahead of me."

Alex's mouth hung open for a second. She closed it before she caught flies. The woman stood up straight for a second. Carol created a couch with the ring so the two of them could sit down.

"Well this is the extent of my training so far," Carol said. "Badly made furniture and shields to keep people out. You're shocked about this weirdness, aren't you?"

"No," Alex said. "Well, not was shocked as you thought."

"Kara's gifts, they've prepared you for pretty much anything," Carol said.

"I've been willing to accept pretty much anything thanks to our sister and her gifts," Alex said.

Alex thought at first there weren't aliens among us. For the longest time, Alex thought if there were people out there, then wouldn't they have shown themselves by now? Over time, Alex came to a different conclusion.

The people of Earth thought a bit too highly of themselves. They weren't an important planet in the grand scale of the universe. They were a new part of the scene. Any aliens who sought them out, either did so out of morbid curiosity, because they had been stranded, or because they wished to see if Earth had any resources.

Alex hoped for acceptance to other races. The arrogance of some humans only left them open for invasion.

"Glad, you're able to accept this," Carol said.

"Well, to be fair, this isn't the weirdest thing which has happened to you. Although the last one was kind of my fault...took some covering up."

"You didn't have to do much of the covering up though," Carol said. "I had some friends who were more than happy of doing so. Although, the help was appreciated."

"Yes, thank you," Alex said. "I hope one day, the DEO won't be run by trigger happy idiots who are more interested in dissecting aliens and picking apart their ships then…..you know, working with them for the betterment of Earth."

Carol and Alex left the caves. The two of them noticed a black man with an eye patch walking up towards the ship. Several government agents approached, and the DEO members appeared to not like what they heard.

"Well, curious," Alex said.

Carol recognized the man in an instant. She rose up on the balls of her feet to get a better look at the approaching gentleman.

The man turned around and met Alex's halfway down the path.

"You're from the DEO?" he asked.

"Yes," Alex said.

"We'll take the ship from here."

The man slapped a piece of paper into Alex's hand. She read it over. Unable to ignore the official looking order, she stepped forward.

"You really have no idea what you're dealing with."

The group found themselves face to face with the one and only Harry Potter. Alex barely noticed him when he showed up. Now the young man walked into greater prominence, she noticed him now.

' _Kara is going to freak when she finds out I met him.'_

Her youngest sister really would freak.

"I know we're dealing with a ship which has killed several and hospitalized many," the man said. "Rest assure, my agency is….."

"Your group doesn't normally deal with matters outside of terrorists," Carol said.

The eye-patched man glanced at Carol for a second.

"Times have changed, terrorists exist in all walks of the universe."

Harry stared down the man. Everyone involved sensed a battle of wills taking place.

"You've stepped into a wider world than you ever knew, Doctor Potter. Hope you survive the experience."

A beam of light shot from the sky and impacted the alien ship. The light tore the ship in half, and destroyed it, except for the mysterious yellow crystals. The crystals levitated up into the sky and disappeared through the portal.

The government agents started to scramble around for the source. Harry and Carol locked eyes when no one looked.

' _So, someone destroyed the ship,'_ Kara thought.

' _And I have a good idea as to who,'_ Harry thought.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 28** **th** **, 2015.**


	138. Emerald Flight Part Four

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Eight: Emerald Flight Part Four.**

* * *

The moment the dust cleared after the destruction of the ship, Harry waited for the fallout to occur. Faora and Harry walked to the outskirts of the Ferris Airspace. The two of them knew who they were looking forward.

' _Sinestra hasn't really changed,'_ Faora said. _'Okay, she's a bit rougher, but she plays by her own set of rules. She doesn't really play by anyone else's game to be honest. Her good side is the best place to be.'_

' _And her bad side?'_

' _Not a place you'd want to be,'_ Faora thought.

 _'Funnily enough, I got about as much,'_ Harry thought.

Sinestra crouched on a rock in the shadows. She created a blinding light with her ring. Harry lifted his hand halfway up to his feet to shield himself from the vision. The woman dropped her arm when Harry and Faora walked over towards her.

"So, you've been busy," Faora said.

"The ship has done more than a sufficient amount of damage on Earth," Sinestra said. "The Hammond man's condition should be more than proof of it."

"Is there anything which could be done to help him?" Harry asked.

Sinestra placed her hand underneath her chin. Tilting her head back, the veteran Green Lantern shook her head.

"Doesn't look as much," Sinestra said. "He should have understood the risks with his job. But, it's one of the faults of a lot of people in the universe."

"Not just on Earth?" Faora asked.

"I admit foolish curiosity is not exclusive to Earth."

Faora adopted a stoic look, preparing to sit down across from Sinestra. The woman rose to her feet and passed the exit to the cave.

"My work is done here. Thank you for your help."

Sinestra turned around. She faced Harry. Was she smiling? Hard to tell with the look on her face, but regardless she reached forward.

"I wouldn't pretend to understand why you didn't receive the ring. But, I think I have more than a sufficient amount to work with."

Harry frowned. He closed the gap between himself and Sinestra. The woman didn't step back, but she didn't flinch underneath the looming shadow of the Son of Zod.

"Are you giving Carol the benefit of the doubt? She isn't…."

"She'll do for now," Sinestra said. The look on her face didn't betray what she really thought. "We'll see if she functions as part of the Green Lantern Corps. But, I have to admit she's not as pathetic as many might be. Perhaps, she could rise above the ranks. She's taken the first step."

"And do I detect a note of praise from you?"

Sinestra stopped. Seconds passed. The silence deafened them all with a wind blowing off into the distance. The sun long since went down.

"Praise is earned, and she has a long way to go where Carol earns it, along with my respect," Sinestra said. "Don't concern yourselves with the energy crystals. I have them stored in a safe place where they can cause no further damage."

Harry raised his eyebrow. While he would have enjoyed taking a closer look at the mysterious energy crystals, the entire situation was really out of his hands to be honest.

' _Given all of the weirdness with those crystals, it's likely for the best.'_

Faora and Harry followed Sinestra outside of the cave. Carol waited the entire group. The veteran Green Lantern stepped in to face off with the rookie Green Lantern.

"So, did you say your goodbyes?" Sinestra asked.

"Yes, my sister helped me make arrangements to cover my absence," Carol said. "If I was missing for six weeks without an explanation…..it wouldn't have been good."

Sinestra decided to hold her tongue out of respect for Har-Zod and Faora. The thought slipping into her mind showed everything she thought.

' _Humans really can be the clingy type sometimes.'_

Carol walked over towards the two of them. She reached in and touched her hand onto Harry's. The two of them lingered with a stare down with each other.

"You know, you should really have this ring."

Harry smiled at her. People kept telling him. While he wanted to take a closer look at the Lantern Ring, such a responsibility wouldn't work as well right now.

' _Maybe another time.'_

"The fact you don't think you're entitled to the ring makes you more worthy of the mantle than many."

Sinestra raised her eyebrow at Harry's words. She suspected he had a point. The rings didn't exactly have a perfect success rate of proving certain people were worthy of holding them.

' _A bunch of idiots getting chosen to hold the Green Lantern rings.'_

"Best of luck to you," Faora said. "Hope you survive the experience."

Carol frowned.

"Don't let Alex get you down," Harry said. "I'm sure you'll do great out there. And when you come back, I think the two of us should get together to have a drink."

Carol smiled. She leaned closer towards Harry.

"Talk about something to look forward to," Carol said. "And something to help me through those really long nights."

"And when you return, I want to hear everything."

Carol smiled. From what she was told in briefing, she would be responsible for a sector which for the most part included Earth. Life once existed on Mars, although not so much anymore.

"Best of luck to you," Harry said.

Carol made her way through the portal. Sinestra paused for a second.

"We should get together again sometime," Sinestra said. The woman answered with a long sigh and a groan spread over her body. "But, I have to file a report on the ship to the Guardians."

Talk about an endeavor which always excited her.

* * *

Lunch took place much closer to breakfast the next morning. And they would need to escort all of the girls onto the plane.

"Getting them here was a lot of fun," Faora said. "And I'm sure them all back of the plane will be about as much fun."

"Given some of them don't want to leave just yet," Karen said. "Can't say I blame them, other than a couple of hiccups, this hasn't been too bad of a vacation."

Harry smiled even after all of what he went through during his vacation. Compared to past standards, this vacation didn't really lead to too many problems. Okay, a couple of scraps here and there, but compared to what might have been, Harry thought he escaped the vacation with his sanity intact and without major injury.

Actually, considering the fact Harry did not get knocked out of a really high place, he found the vacation to be a rather relaxing one. Any time a person escaped bodily injury like Harry did, was a bit of a victory. At least as far as he was concerned.

Kara took a long bite out of the sandwich she ate. After a couple of bites, she swallowed and gave her honest assessment.

"You know, it wasn't bad. And hey, the AIM mess, it could have been far worse. But, you controlled what you were doing there."

"And I had plenty of back up if I needed it," Harry said. "Kara, you're almost ready."

"Almost?" Kara asked.

"Yes, almost," Karen said. "You'll be out on the field, although it might be a while before you get to go on solo missions."

Kara corked her eyebrow and leaned back with a smile. To be honest, she didn't really mind having backup on the field. The old saying strength came in numbers.

"This little mission is bound to be far different than Gotham City," Kara said.

She reached in and took a long drink to wash down the sandwich she ate.

' _Well, in many ways, too many to explain, yes,'_ Dinah thought. _'AIM works differently than your average gang on the street in Gotham City.'_

' _Do you think they'll be back?'_ Kara asked.

' _I think there's a good chance they'll be back, yes,'_ Harry thought. _'And when they come back, we'll put them back down again.'_

AIM thought a far lot more of themselves beyond what they were truthfully capable of. Their attitude essentially would lead to their downfall, at least as far as Harry was concerned. The technology they created wasn't spectacular but it was worthy keeping an eye on.

"And now, the Green Lantern Corps, you actually went on Oa," Kara said. "You know, there are more than a few women on the Corps….just saying."

"Yes, I've noticed," Harry said.

Already, Harry made plans to expand his horizons to different worlds and accomplish a fair amount.

"It's bound to happen," Faora said. "Expanding your reach to other worlds. Didn't expect it to be this soon, but at the same time, I thought it was bound to happen."

Harry reached in, taking a long drink of his drink. He allowed the drink to refresh himself before he considered Faora.

"Well, to be fair, at this point, I'm sending out some feelers," Harry said. "Nothing extraordinary just yet, and Carol could be my in."

"You did promise her a drink when she returns from her training course," Karen said. "In about six weeks….give her or take."

Faora considered Karen's words for a second.

"Considering how things tend to go, I'm sure Carol will be back as soon as she can, but something tells me it won't be quite six weeks. Her true test will come up, and knowing how she is, she will pass it with flying colors."

"I just wish the test flight would have gone better," Kara said. "The plane started with so much promise."

"You and Carol…and Carol….hell everyone involved," Harry said. Everyone chuckled in amusement. "Seriously though, we all thought everything would turn out for the better. Instead, it didn't turn out to be very good at all, didn't it?"

"No, it didn't."

Harry would have to say though, this trip, despite the ups and downs involved, proved to be the best. He did forge some new connections which was half of the reason why he was out here. The other half and the bigger half would be for the girls to have fun and put their hair down.

' _Don't worry, we're going to make sure all of the girls get on the plane safe and sound,'_ Diana thought.

' _Yes, although we've enlisted all of the help we could,'_ Jaime thought. _'Paula understands what it's like to get a bunch of hyperactive girls in place, so she's been a help.'_

' _Never underestimate Mother powers,'_ Lily said. _'They can be deadly.'_

' _I concur,'_ Hippolyta said.

' _Agreed,'_ Martha said. The woman could not avoid breaking out into laughter. _'Then again, we might be a tad biased in the matter.'_

Harry chuckled. Biased or not, the three women had a point. He finished up his soup and prepared for the long road home.

Overall, despite all of the twists and turns in his little vacation, he did have a good time. Met some people and picked up a few trinkets on the way, but hey you couldn't have everything in life.

' _So, how are things going with Vicki?'_ Harry asked.

' _So far she hasn't gotten herself into too much trouble,'_ Dinah thought.

' _A change,'_ Kara thought. _'But still keep a close watch on her, because I'm not sure what kind of rabbit hole she's about to go down, but it won't be a good one.'_

* * *

Black Canary took Kara's words to heart, sticking in the shadows. She took added care not to alert Vicki or anyone else of her presence. Vicki walked down the alleyway of Gotham City, dressed in a long coat over the top of her normal blouse and skirt.

A man stood over by the side of the dumpster. Black Canary walked in about as close as she could. The fog cover made it a bit difficult to see.

Vicki shivered as she journeyed through the mists. Goosebumps rose on her arms as she hoped tonight's lead would be one which would bare some fruit.

"So, you've begun to understand Cobblepot's not the standup bloke you thought it was," the gentleman said.

Dinah received a closer look at the man. A scuzzy looking man with messing hair and a long beard strolled closer into prominence. He dressed in a stained wife beater top, with fingerless black gloves, and a long leather jacket. His hair dripped with grease.

"He's not who he says he is," Vicki said.

"You don't have to say anything, but his little Iceberg Longue blowing up, it wasn't an act of terrorism, but an act of good old fashioned revenge."

Vicki thought the scuzzy gentleman wasn't telling her anything she didn't already know or anything which wasn't already ready to guess. She listened closely. The man had a rough accent, British from the sound of things. Sounded like he came from the wrong side of the tracks, although she wouldn't really be an expert on such things from the culture.

"Yeah, Cobblepot has been a rough one for years; I remember when he ran around with the Dursley bloke. Really nasty and wild bastard he had, a real hooligan, got into a lot of fights. Not the brightest bulb in the box, and if his temper got the better of him, oh boy, there would be some collateral damage. Word on the street is he snapped at his wife one day, and offed himself out of embarrassment after he put the hurting on her."

"Oh my god," Vicki said.

"Well, it's just one the old gossip chain is saying, it is. Don't know how much I'd want to believe such an obvious amount of hearsay."

The man cracked Vicki a smile. His rotting yellow teeth flashed at the reporter. The man's eyebrow rose as he stared Vicki down.

"But, you're interested in his misdeeds. Perhaps you could be the one who puts Cobblepot down and makes him answer for his crimes."

"What's your angle in this?" Vicki asked.

"Love, I'm just a concerned citizen, just doing his civic duty," the man said. "I want to make sure Cobblepot answers, and justice will find a way to thrive, even in the land of the lawless like Gotham City."

The man coughed for a moment.

"Years of the fags finally catching up to me," the man said. Vicki looked at him, and the man realized why she gave him the look. "The cigarettes, forgot you yanks use that term for something far more mean spirited."

"Right," Vicki said. She wondered if he really had information and would be giving her a go around. "But, you have the information."

"What, do you think I've been yanking your chain?"

"No, it's just yet….I've talked to about three people before I got to you," Vicki said.

"Yeah, the media's a pretty cutthroat job, and if this gets back to me….well Cobblepot's going to be the one who cuts me throat."

The man gave a nasty laugh. Vicki stepped back, the putrid breath hitting her face.

' _The price for being a journalist, I guess.'_

The man fished through a bag. He pulled out a yellow folder and picked it.

"Been snooping around on my own, doing my own deal. Figured, you could use something like this to really put your investigative report. But, the old cagey bird has reestablished contact with the daughter of his old business contacts."

"And how do you know it's not just business?" Vicki asked.

"Well, it's never just business with the family, they have some personal vendettas," the gentleman said. "After his Lordship popped his cogs about five years back, things have gotten pretty quiet. His daughter expanded his shipping company, after doing some time. You see, she had a bit of a five finger discount of her own."

"Shoplifting?" Vicki asked.

"Now, you're catching on with me tale," he said. "But, she did her time and she's been clean as a whistle since. Or more likely, some people have taught her a lot where she's cottoned on how not to get caught. But either way, she's kept a pretty clean record, not many people remember. The rich are able to get their misdeeds swept under the rug pretty quick."

The folder dangled from his hand. Vicki fished through her coat and pulled out an envelope, before putting it in his hand.

"Not I'm complaining, but why didn't you want more for the information?"

The man's gaze locked onto Vicki's. His mouth twisted into a toothless smile. He thought about putting his hand on hers, but thought better of it.

Given it was rumored Vale and Harry Fucking Potter was in a relationship, the last thing he wanted to do was piss him off. Given the whispers regarding he paid back Cobblepot with the little Iceberg Longue explosion when Cobblepot pissed her off.

"I'm a man of very simple tastes. Just need some money to get out of the country and lie low. The crazy bird will discover what I'm up to, and I need to keep the eat."

Black Canary watched Vicki walk down the alleyway, making her way to the car. The crime fighter continued to perch herself on the ledge, frowning as she observed Vicki.

Black Canary avoided a position where Vicki would see her in the rear view mirror. Peering in the distance, the woman gazed at the label. The words "Ffogg shipping" greeted her in the distance.

The woman frowned, the name sounded familiar. She would have to get a closer look at the folder later.

Vicki started up the car and drove off. Black Canary ducked behind a building.

On her motorcycle, she followed Vicki at an extremely discreet distance. The woman's interest piqued and now more than ever before, she wanted to find out what was going on.

* * *

Enigma understood a deal like this required care. And doing a deal inside of Gotham City, in the current climate would be suicidal.

"Are you sure she's going to show up boss?"

"After I went through such painstaking detail to uncover the information about Stane, she better turn up," Enigma said. "But, don't worry, I'm sure she will. And she's told us the exact spot where she would be."

The flunkey wore a black hooded tracksuit and a white mask which obscured his face. His identity would be a fascinating riddle.

He walked to the exact spot where Enigma informed him the woman would be. A grey haired woman dressed in a conservative outfit with thick glasses stood there.

The flunkey took another step, but did so with anxious thoughts swimming through his mind.

"Remember the sequence, and do it properly," Enigma said.

The thug shook his head, groaning. His boss obviously thought he wasn't the brightest bulb in the box, but he'd show him, he'd show everyone just how bright he was.

"The sky is blue, isn't it?"

The woman's eyes glazed over him.

"It's looks pretty cloudy to me."

The flunkey nodded and motioned for the woman to follow him over in another direction. The two of them walked into a more private room.

The woman reached into her case. Sliding out a vial, the flunkey noticed a crystal vial which glowed red.

"Don't drop it."

"I'll handle it like my first born child," the flunkey said.

The woman brushed off his casual words for a second.

"You're not Enigma, are you?"

"No, Madam Masque, he's not," Enigma said on the radio on his belt. "I have other responsibilities to attend to."

"You mean you're a basement dweller who never leaves his house?" Madam Masque asked.

"You know, I wouldn't talk like you do. Not after I procured the information you wanted about Obediah Stane."

The woman's stance relaxed for a few seconds. She tried not to betray her glee. While Enigma was only a voice attached to this flunkey, she sensed he could still watch her. Best to remain on his guard.

"It's here."

"Every incriminating detail I can find…you're very lucky my interests lie only within Gotham City for right now," Enigma said. "The material inside makes me think extortion shouldn't be any problem."

"I wouldn't be so certain," Madam Masque said. "Stane has been known to make people disappear who have tried to blackmail him."

"Ah, but you intend to use the information, for what purpose?"

"I don't intend to blackmail him, he has nothing I want," Madam Masque said. "I'm a woman of well off means already."

"Yes, yes, of course," Enigma said. "So, you do not seek to blackmail him with the information, what do you seek?"

"I seek to utterly destroy his reputation," Madam Masque said. "When he has just his life left, he'll beg me to take his life as well."

"Ah, you are being rather petty, but I suspect I can't fault you for such a thing," Enigma said. "No doubt there is a past between yourself and Stane. Don't tell me."

"I have no intention of doing so," Madam Masque said.

"Excellent, because it would deprive me of the opportunity to solve the riddle," Enigma said. "So, you have the virus?"

"In my hand, as it has been for the past five minutes," Madam Masque said. "We'll make the swap."

Masque handed Enigma's goon the virus. He handed her the case, which contained vital documents, along with a small amount of money.

"You've never seen me," Madam Masque said. "And I guess now I can say about the same for you."

Enigma's connection crackled, mostly because of his cackling. The amusement of the crazed man filled the air.

"Yes, I suppose you can. Use your information in good health. I have to say, Stane makes Lionel Luthor look like a wonderful and honest man."

Madam Masque didn't even bother to acknowledge the statement made by Enigma. She slipped off into the night almost as quickly as she appeared.

"So, the boys are waiting for you in the back, they're paid well to safely transport the Technovore out of the city."

The henchmen handled the vial with this Technovore thing carefully in his hand, taking added care not to drop it on the ground.

"So, do you have any buyers, boss?"

"Some people might be interested, but I wouldn't jump on them just yet."

Personally Enigma thought he might want to keep a close hold on the item. One never did know when such an item might come in handy. Especially when it could be used as a bargaining chip.

* * *

Hector Hammond howled in agony as he had been strapped to a bed. His pupils dilated as the medics did everything to sedate him.

"No, no, no, I KNOW EVERYTHING! TOO MANY THOUGHTS!"

His brain would never relax from the constant bombardment of thoughts hitting him hard. He picked up on the thoughts of the medics around him, absorbing information. He regretted having opened the trunk. Why didn't anyone warn him about opening the crystal?

He thrashed against the table. The man's head settled on his neck caused him immense again. A drop of blood spilled from his mouth as he thrashed and twisted on the table. The man's heart kicked up for several more beats.

The pain proved to be too much for him. The medics rushed around.

The monitor spiked in an erratic function.

"I don't know what to do. Was anything like this ever covered in medical training?"

All of the medicals shook their head in a frantic fashion. Nothing like this had been ever covered in their training. They became at a loss of what to do and frustration spiked to an entirely new level.

"Mr. Hammond, we can't help you, if you don't try and relax."

"HOW CAN I RELAX WHEN I CAN'T STOP THINKING?"

Several mental spikes jabbed into his mind. The man thrashed like a fish on the table, almost hurting himself. The breathing escalated as his calmness escalated to an entirely new degree. His heart beat even more heavily on the table.

A knock on the door caused the medic to crane his neck. He scrambled over to the door, where a scientist dressed in a long yellow coat approached him.

"I'm afraid there isn't much more you can do for him now."

The medic struggled to breathe. They worked with Hammond around the clock in an attempt to stabilize him and work with him. Unfortunately, they couldn't begin to work with him.

"We've done everything….."

"Yes ,you've done everything," the scientist said. The man's tone sounded a fair bit sympathic, although it was false sympathy. "And there isn't much more you can do with him now."

The scientists ushered the medics out of the room. Some of them walked away without incident, dead on their feet as they were. Another protested, frowning.

"How can you tell us we have to leave?"

One of the scientists fished out an official looking badge of identification. He showed it to the paramedic who raised an eyebrow and slowly backed off, having no real choice, but to allow the scientists inside.

The moment the paramedics cleared off, one of the scientists picked up a metallic looking rod.

"What are you doing?" Hammond asked.

"With your big brain, you couldn't figure out what we're doing, Mr. Hammond?" one of the scientists asked.

The yellow coated scientist took a scan of Hammond's brain waves. The man twitched in anger, but one of them reached into his coat. He pulled out a long needle and stabbed it into his neck.

"Neural relaxer….deemed unsafe by the market, but distract times cause for drastic measures."

The neural relaxer did the trick with Hammond slipping off into the darkness for a few seconds.

"His accident is AIM's gain," the scientist said. "After our initial MODOC project failed, due to a faulty algorithm we need a stronger and more durable mind."

"Yes, we're not done with this, not by a long shot. And AIM will have our day. Mr. Hammond, you won't understand the service you have given us."

Another pair of scientists wheeled in a containment unit.

"Are all of the papers in check?"

"Yes, Mr. Hammond is free and clear to go."

"There's just enough room for his head."

"Given we rendered him completely unconscious, the chances of his head swelling in the containment tube are slim to none. Still, best be careful for when we're transferring him. We wouldn't want to damage anything."

Hammond's head swelled up a little bit more as the group hauled him into the containment unit. He struggled to keep his head held up high, for lack of a better term.

"Easy does the trick now. Easy does the trick."

The AIM scientists wheeled Hammond out of the medical area. They only had an hour before the medics on the base caught onto the fact they weren't the people they portrayed themselves to be.

* * *

Black Canary crept around on the ledge outside of Vicki Vale's apartment. To be honest, it wasn't her ideal way inside, but curiosity got the better of her.

"Okay, we both know Cobblepot's dirty, and…..do you really think there's anything in the file which will tell us anything we don't already know?" Oracle asked.

Black Canary opened the window, which already had been cracked. A cool summer breeze blew through her head.

"I think we'll know when I take a look at the folder. Which I….intended to do."

The door leading into the living area of Vicki's apartment looked to have been tampered with. Black Canary dropped all pretext of stealth and entered the apartment.

She noticed a woman wearing a stealth black bodysuit and a mask. The black bodysuit clung to every single inch of her body. The woman's hand placed on the folder upon the table.

The woman noticed Black Canary out of the corner of her eye and turned around.

"Drop the folder," Black Canary said.

The woman's hand made a movement. A shine of a silver band glinted in Black Canary's eyes.

Seconds later, the room around them both started to fill up with a blinding fog. Black Canary tried to make her way through the fog, which turned out to be thicker by each second. She aimed her punch, but the enemy dodged out of the way.

The enemy engaged Black Canary for a moment, catching her with a punch to the stomach, doubling her over. Getting caught off guard, Black Canary turned around and grasped into the darkness.

The cheap shot prevented Black Canary from noticing the thief from going out of the window. Black Canary walked back onto the balcony. The fog covered her line of sight and made it borderline difficult to see where she went.

The fog faded a little bit more, but not long enough for Black Canary to catch sight.

"Dinah, are you okay?" Oracle asked.

"Fine, just got caught off guard," Black Canary said. "We've got a little bit of a problem though. The file I wanted to take a look after, it's gone."

"Gone?" Oracle asked.

"Yes, gone," Black Canary said. "I must have not been the only one keeping an eye on Vicki tonight."

' _Is she okay?'_ Kara asked.

Black Canary slipped inside of the apartment and crept into the shadows. She heard a stirring in Vicki's bedroom.

One look at the table indicated Black Canary's thoughts proved to be spot on. The folder is gone and the only thing she knew about it was the Ffogg Shipping label. She frowned; something about the name looked familiar.

Black Canary slipped into the shadows where she heard some movement in the bedroom.

The door opened, and Vicki entered the room. The transparent green panties she wore allowed Black Canary to get a view of her. A expensive and exquisite looking green bra contained her large breasts. The garter belt and stocking set added to the apparel.

Vicki walked over to the table. The fog inside her apartment made the woman raise an eyebrow. She walked to the window and found it open.

The door leading to the living area cracked open to be honest.

Black Canary watched Vicki stroll around the apartment in a flabbergasted manner. She bent down next to the table, realizing the folder was gone.

"Damn it," Vicki said.

She looked over her shoulder, almost expecting someone to leap out of the fog and attack her. The woman's tension increased.

Vicki thought about calling the GCPD, and she figured she should, but there was a part of her who held back. Given her past dealings, despite having a few friendly faces, it was too risky.

Black Canary watched Vicki consider her options. The woman made sure everything was fine.

' _Yes, Vicki's fine, but she's confused.'_

' _Who wouldn't be?'_ Kara asked.

The fog outside of Gotham City slowly faded away. Black Canary waited as Vicki stayed up well into the morning.

The mystery of the woman in the fog visited and haunted Black Canary. Now she wanted to get to the bottom of this mess and soon.

* * *

**To Be Continued on November 4** **th** **, 2015.**


	139. Touching Base

**Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Nine: Touching Base.**

* * *

 

The weird encounter at Vicki's apartment prompted Dinah to return to the Clocktower to touch base with Barbara. A million questions roamed through Dinah's head. She found herself grateful for the walk here to clear her mind. The Ffogg shipping label stuck back in her mind like a beacon. The name resounded in the back of her head.

' _So, you're going to be okay,'_ Barbara said.

' _Yes, I just got cheap shotted with one punch, I'll be fine,'_ Dinah thought. _'I don't think whoever was in the fog could have taken me head up.'_

' _Are you sure?'_ Barbara asked. _'I seem to remember you telling me never to underestimate your opponent no matter how harmless they might look at first. They might be able to surprise you.'_

Dinah craned her neck back, for the most part to give her something to do. She recalled giving Barbara the lecture about not underestimating people. She hated to admit falling prey to some of the flaws.

' _You're right, Babs,'_ Dinah thought. _'But, something is bothering me.'_

' _You mean, you have no idea what's so vital Cobblepot sent someone to get the file.'_

A thought crossed Dinah's head.

' _No, I don't…..I don't even know if Cobblepot sent the person in question to get the file.'_

Dinah crossed her arms, walking up the winding set of stairs. She pushed the door open. The second she entered, the woman made a beeline to get a cup of coffee. She scooped up the coffee in her hand and took a long drink.

"So, I picked a hell of a time to return to town, didn't I?"

Barbara almost launched the coffee into the air. Harry reached out to catch the cup of coffee into his hand before it spilled down onto the ground onto her.

"Nice to see vacation hasn't made you lose your touch," Barbara said. "You're still pretty good at scaring people half to death, aren't you?"

"Just know it keeps you on your toes, both of you."

Harry lifted Barbara out of her chair. The redhead woman experienced the full Harry Potter experience with a sensation kiss. The kiss caused her spine to tingle. His hands brushed against her when he pushed her back.

After the lengthy kiss, Harry pulled away from her, leaving Barbara in a bit of a daze. Dinah looked off to the side, giving a frown and she opened her mouth for a comment.

"And not to be forgotten."

Harry engulfed Dinah into an embrace. She made the first movement, diving in for an intense kiss, with a smile on her face.

Dinah's tongue brushed against Harry's lower lip, demanding entrance. Barbara sat down on the chair and returned her effort.

Harry's tongue brushed against Dinah, pushing into her mouth. The two of them engaged in a passionate kiss, until Harry won the battle.

After the spit swapping concluded, Harry pulled away from Dinah, leaving a trail of salvia between the two of them. Dinah nibbled his lip before they pulled away.

"Talk about a real pick me up," Dinah said. "Good you have you back though."

"In some ways, it's really good to be back in Gotham City," Harry said. "After the trip to California, I think I need a real vacation."

Barbara and Dinah both laughed, they needed a good round of laughter after what they've been through. They might have gotten out of one insane situation, but they reached another.

"Oh, I think we need a real vacation as well," Barbara said. "Not we don't think you've been dealing with your own share of problems outside of the city, but we've had our own share of insanity in Gotham City."

"The League," Harry said.

"Yes, the League," Dinah said. She sighed and the other thing came to mind. "Along with what I ran into earlier tonight."

Harry motioned for Dinah to proceed. Barbara jumped in front of her, cutting the line.

"I've been looking into things, and really….the fog mystery is just a mystery. The fog blankets Gotham City, and it's been blanketing it for a while. Happening on the inside is rather weird indeed."

"Maybe your focus shouldn't be on the crimes," Harry said. "Maybe your focus should be on the label in the folder stolen from Vicki's. Ffogg shipping, isn't it?"

"Yes, Ffogg shipping," Barbara said.

"From what I heard, Lord Ffogg died years ago," Dinah said. "And his daughter took control and she did some time for shoplifting. And nothing more other than the shoplifting crimes."

"I've been in contact with Prudence Ffogg," Harry said. The young man looked to be choosing his words with care and precision. "She's….difficult to read. She's been working her own angle for some time, trying to get involved in Gotham City. She's running her own deal overseas, which makes it a wonder she's even involved over here."

"But where does Cobblepot get involved?" Dinah asked.

"With nothing good."

Harry still nursed a grudge against Cobblepot for the attempted kidnap of the twins months ago. He didn't really take too kindly to those who messed with family and his girls.

"I….have a feeling there's something else about these Ffogg crimes I should know," Dinah said. "Something taking place during the JSA days…..something my mother might have mentioned in passing."

"Well, you could ask Grant," Harry said.

Dinah almost slapped herself. If she really needed to know something about the JSA days, Ted Grant, better known as Wildcat, was one of the best resources she could have. Dinah wondered why she didn't think of her mentor right away.

"I better head to his gym," Dinah said. "He opens pretty early."

Harry kissed Dinah. She decided to head off for a quick change and she would be off.

"It's been a long week or two," Barbara said.

"I'm hoping now more people are joining in the field, things will be easier," Harry said.

"Why do I think you're doubting it?"

Harry touched his hand underneath his chin, frowning. The most logical explanation popped into his head, immediately. Or it would have, if Barbara once again didn't jump the line and answer her own question.

"I mean, it makes a ton of sense. More heroes equal more villains, and there's a bit of escalation there, isn't there? Still, with Kara, and maybe Gwen and Reilly and….."

"You?" Harry asked.

"Me?" Barbara asked.

Harry almost laughed at the dumbstruck expression on her face. He reached in, grabbing Barbara's hand and holding it gently.

"Yes, you."

Barbara almost tripped over her own tongue in an attempt to respond to Harry's casual declaration. Words came out of her mouth, but they didn't form into any kind of coherence. The stammering woman's eyes met Harry's.

With a not so subtle chuckle, Harry reached to her and gripped her hand. Barbara took a moment to regain her composure.

"Me?"

"Oh, Barbara, we're not going around with the me and you game, are we?"

Barbara lost it with a little bit of laughter. Doubling over, she perked up and stared Harry in the eye.

"I guess we won't," Barbara said. "But, you have to admit, the thought of me being out in the field….."

"You've been sparring a lot with Dinah," Harry said.

Barbara nodded, she couldn't deny what Harry said. She had been kicking up her training. Living in Gotham City and doing some of the dangerous things she did made learning self-defense.

"Yes, and….well I did have those skills from when I was younger. My insane schedule made me take a step back, but after Kara jumped back in, I figured I'd take a page from her book. You never know when they might come in handy. I did mention being out in the field, and it would be fun, but….."

"It's not any time soon, but in the future, if you ever get bored being behind a computer….."

"The day I get bored being behind a computer is the day you check me for possession or if I'm a shape shifter."

Harry cracked a smile and shook his head.

"Do you think it would be possible to let me finish, Babs?"

Barbara slumped forward for a second and grinned.

"Finish, I'm done making….well I'm just done."

"We could use all of the help we can get," Harry said. "I think you can agree Emily did a good job in filling in for you when you were in New York."

"Yes," Barbara said.

"Even though no one is better than you."

Barbara's lips curled into a smile at the not so subtle pumping up of her ego.

"Just something to think about in the future."

Barbara thought about it, and even joked about it a time or two. Harry's endorsement meant a lot to her, even though it was a long time coming. She picked up her training in earnest over the past couple of weeks, with the sparring sessions with Dinah.

The interview concluded abruptly with a call. Harry picked up the phone and made his way over to answer it.

"Hello?" Harry asked.

"Hey, Harry, it's Betsy," Betsy said. "I figured I'd call you, and let you know I'm in Gotham City right now."

"Now?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Braddock Industries has some business in town which I need to take care of," Betsy said. "If it wouldn't be too much of a bother to you, maybe the two of us could meet up."

"No, not a bother at all," Harry said. "Where are you?"

Harry experienced a slight tingle in the back of his head. Betsy dropped the most clear and concise instructions possible in the back of his mind.

"So, I guess I'll see you in a little bit?" Betsy asked.

Harry smiled and had to say, he looked forward to seeing Betsy in the flesh again, after the fun they had in New York.

"I'll see you in a little bit."

* * *

 

In the second version of the Iceberg Lounge, an elegant limo pulled up. The doors of the limo opened and a woman wearing a hat to block out the sun exited the limo. The young woman in question wore a white blouse tastefully buttoned up, and a skirt which flowed down. She walked with style on a pair of high heels. She carried an elegant looking umbrella in one hand, despite it wasn't about ready to rain. In the other hand, she held a case. The blonde haired and blue eyed woman looked to be in her later twenties, even though her age pegged her about close to forty.

Good genetics, good breeding, good health, and a few other things allowed her to maintain a useful appearance.

"Well, Oswald, you really went all out," she said. "Almost as if you had to compensate for something."

She made her way to the front of the club. A guard sized her up.

"I know you're just doing your job," she said. The woman surveyed the guard with a stern gaze. "But, I'm Lady Prudence Penelope Ffogg, and I have an urgent meeting with your boss, Mr. Cobblepot."

The man checked the appointment book. The woman tapped her foot on the ground. A heavy case dangled from her gloved hand, and it grew heavier the longer she waited.

"Perhaps I haven't done a good job in defining the term urgent meeting to you."

"What the devil….Prudence Ffogg….why didn't you come in already?"

"Your doorman is awfully through, Oswald," Prudence said.

Oswald shook his head and turned to the man.

"Do you realize who this is? Well, of course you don't, because if you took a moment to educate yourself, you'd know who this is."

Cobblepot stepped back and escorted Prudence into the office. Inside his office, Tracey and Dudley waited for them both.

"Well, well, you've changed since the last time I've seen you," Cobblepot said. "Must have been a few years, hasn't it?"

"A few years ago, I was in a rather unfortunate place," Prudence said.

"Ah, of course, of course, his Lordship just passed away," Cobblepot said. "Must have been traumatic considering you're the apple of his eye, and his Lordship taught me a few tricks of the trade, if you know what I mean."

"Yes, I know my father had a soft spot for you," Prudence said. "But, I'm not here to talk about the old times, I'm here to talk about business."

Cobblepot started to cough. He disguised his cough with loud squawking sounds. Putting his cigarette holder down on the desk, the cagey bird stared her down.

"If you're will to make a deal, best we do it now. Because I didn't fly all the way to Gotham to be disappointed."

"Hey, you can't talk to the boss like that!" Tracey yelled.

Prudence's eyes looked at the woman.

"And you shouldn't really address your betters like that or at all," Prudence said. "Your accent shows how low you've been bred. Not to mention it makes my ears bleed."

The mustached mini-Walrus cracked his knuckles.

"Hey, hey, you can't talk to her…."

The Walrus rose to his feet. The young man puffed up his chest, showing some level of importance.

"You must be Dursley's son," Prudence said.

The man stopped and puffed himself with pride. He almost fell over, but clutched onto the wall.

"Yes, I can tell, you have the same qualities as your father did," Prudence said.

"My father did business with yours."

"Yes, I'm aware," Prudence said. The young woman sounded almost bored. As far as Dursley was concerned, the apple didn't fall far from the tree. "So, what do you have to say, Oswald?"

Oswald's gaze narrowed for a couple of seconds. He decided he better play nice for the moment.

"You said you wanted to sell off one of your father's final inventions."

"Yes," Prudence said. "For the right price, I'm willing to give you the item. I don't think I have much use for it."

"It wouldn't have anything to do with one of his fog machines, would it?" Cobblepot asked. "He made those pretty compact."

"Mmm, yes," Prudence said. "He did….although the pipe was what did him in the first place."

"Last, I heard, one of his inventions backfired in his face," Cobblepot said.

"Why do you think I told you he was done in by the pipe?" Prudence asked.

Cobblepot frowned and nodded his head. He figured old Marmaduke would end up cutting himself in the worst way.

"I trust you're not selling me the invention which ended up offing your old man."

Prudence folded her arms, clutching her umbrella in her hand. She slid the case onto the table.

"I wouldn't touch it if I were you."

Dudley made a motion to touch the case to take a look at it.

"I'm just looking," Dudley said.

"And perhaps you may have missed a lesson regarding etiquette, but eyes are required to look, not hands."

"Alright, Dudley, back off," Cobblepot said.

Dudley backed off. The first insult went over his head, but the second one didn't not. Tracey's arms folded. The woman stared daggers at the heiress of the Ffogg dynasty.

"I have other offers on the table," Prudence said.

Cobblepot almost squawked in surprise.

"Other offers…what….."

"You know, I decided to give you a chance to make me a really good offer first," Prudence said. "The close ties between our families, demands me give you as much."

"Oh yes, of course, of course," Cobblepot said. "Must have turned a few heads. And it's funny the fog has risen in Gotham City the moment you strolled into town."

"What are you implying, Oswald?" Prudence asked.

"Nothing at all, my dear," Cobblepot said. "Just some people might put two and two together."

"Well, I can bury any people who put two and two together," Prudence said. "But, I had been in talks with SLE….."

"What?" Cobblepot squawked, almost choking on his own spittle. Tracey patted him on the back, with Prudence using her umbrella to block the spittle.

"Yes, SLE, you know, the company owned by the Evans family," Prudence said.

Dudley's face contorted into a scowl for a few seconds, bringing up his mother's side of the family. His cousin, Harry Potter, always thought he was something special.

' _Would like nothing better than to knock the bloody wanker down a peg or two.'_

"You've been in talks with….."

"SLE, and RAO as well," Prudence said. "Harry Potter sounded like he would take me up on my offer, if I didn't find a better one."

Cobblepot clutched the edge of his desk. The man's breath turned a fair bit ragged, but he closed his eyes and mentally counted in his head.

"What kind of offer did he give you?"

"What kind of offer are you willing to give me?" Prudence asked.

Tracey's eye twitched for a second. She thought at strangling the bint, but one look from her boss caused her to stop in her tracks.

The look said plainly "screw up this deal, and you're going to piss me off."

"What kind of intention are we talking out?" Cobblepot asked.

Prudence smiled, realizing she grabbed onto Cobblepot hook, line, and sinker.

"It's a device which can amplify any jamming device."

Cobblepot thought good fortune dropped from the heavens onto his laugh. Ever since the bloody Bat got his hands on one of his communicators, he had been having all kinds of problems. Having his hands of a jamming device would tip the scales in his pleasure.

"Why would Potter be interested in something like a jamming device?" Dudley asked.

Prudence turned to the young man, wrinkling her nose up.

"Oswald, I commend you on your charity for the type you take in," Prudence said. "For all of the faults people say you have, no one can consider you anything less than a giving man."

Cobblepot's lips curled into a subtle, or maybe not as subtle, shadow of a smile.

"Do you think we can make a deal?"

"I believe we can make a deal."

Plans danced in the mind of the tricky bird as he prepared for his next move. Taking a look at the device as Prudence slid open the case caused excitement to grow deep within his bosom.

* * *

 

Dinah slipped through the entrance of Ted Grant's gym. He noticed him wrapping up a training session.

Holly looked back at Ted with an intense look on her face during the training session.

"Why don't we call it a night, kid?"

"Yeah, have to go, Selina's going to swing by to pick me up any moment now," Holly said. "And you have another visitor."

Ted looked up. A bright smile crossed his face. Holly passed Dinah, like two ships going through in the night.

"Dinah, it's good to see you again, kiddo!"

Dinah smiled and she crossed the room to join Ted.

"Do you have a few minutes?" Dinah asked.

"For you, always," Ted said. "I'm just wrapping up for the night, my last student left as you can see."

Ted sensed Dinah came here for more than a social call. The two would need to have a talk with each other.

"Why don't you come into my office, so no one bothers us?"

Dinah nodded and crossed the room with Ted. She followed her mentor into his office.

"Been a long night for you, hasn't it, kiddo?" Ted asked.

"Yes, a little bit," Dinah said.

"Heard the League of Assassins are back in town," Ted said. He shook his head and chuckled. "Your boyfriend picks a hell of a time to go on vacation."

"Well, if he waited for everything to die down a little bit, he'd never get a day off."

Ted laughed. Talk about the truth and talk about one of the flaws of being a hero. Any time you took off was inconvenient. And chances are the job follows you on vacation.

Hell, half of the time, troubled followed you on retirement. And the only retirement was death. And half of the time, death didn't really stop people as much as it used to. One could argue death wasn't what it cracked up to be if you were a hero.

"So, did you hear from your father recently?" Ted asked.

"He's itching to do something," Dinah said.

Ted chuckled, if he knew Larry, and he did, the fact he was benched with his little run in with Black Mask killed him on the inside.

"And I'm sure the doctor is real thrilled to let him out of the box."

Dinah's lips curled into a long frown. She breathed in and out after a second.

"Well, the doctor is not clearing him for field work," Dinah said.

"And you think it's for the best he's not let out on the field, don't you?"

Dinah smiled. To be honest, her father would do what he did. He slowed down over the years. Maybe he wouldn't have been caught by Black Mask and put in a situation three or four years ago.

"Sara's keeping a close eye on him," Dinah said. "And he's going in for regular checkups. He's thinking about being a private detective."

"Something to make him feel useful, have to agree," Ted said. "So, how is Sara doing? Still not hung up on the bum, is she?"

Dinah tried not to crack a smile at Ted's oh so unbiased description about Oliver. The woman closed her eyes for a couple of seconds.

"She….is a bit more fond of him than I am," Dinah said.

"I'm fonder of Oliver than you are these days, which isn't saying a lot," Grant said. "If you ask me, he's the world's richest bum. He's going to end up doing something stupid to get himself killed."

"Merlyn's not helping," Dinah said.

"Yeah, Merlyn doesn't help with a lot, no wonder his sister pulled a runner, I'd get far away from him as well. Guy got pretty weird after his wife was killed."

Dinah shifted for a moment. She kept her mouth shut to the best of her abilities. It wouldn't be wise to let on to the fact she knew precisely where Thea hid out.

Ted made his impression of Oliver clear years ago.

"Hope your sister doesn't get herself hurt because of his little playboy games," Ted said.

Dinah, not wanting to talk about her sister's choices, decided to switch options to something else. Her frown deepened as she began to speak.

"Ffogg industries…."

Ted's eyebrow raised in recognition at her words. Dinah launched into an explanation about what she ran into.

"Thought there was a little more fog in Gotham City, but I thought it was a really bad case of Deja-Vu. Your instincts were spot on, there's something which happened during the JSA days which was very much like the fog crimes."

Ted took a long breath.

"Story time," Ted said. It had been a long time since he recalled this particular caper. "Lord Ffogg wanted to steal a priceless set of jewels. Turns out, they weren't worth too much, but Ffogg wanted to him. Bastard was so rich he got bored and started committing crimes, if you can believe it."

Dinah allowed herself a long sigh. She could believe it.

"The jewels once belonged to Herb and Audrey Evans. But they gifted the jewels to the Braddock family. His lordship felt snubbed, he thought he should receive the jewels, but the Evans family disagreed. And the man vexed us for a while, disappearing into the night with a pipe of fog."

"A pipe of fog?" Dinah asked.

"Yeah, it was a bit silly, but hey, it was effective," Ted said. "His sister was a bit of a nasty piece of work. She ran a finishing school for girls. Taught them the merits of shoplifting, and a lot of these girls didn't need to steal. They just did."

"So, they're back in Gotham City?" Dinah asked.

"Nah, both of them died a while ago," Ted said. "Ffogg's daughter got into a lot of trouble a while ago, from what I heard. But Prudence Ffogg cleaned her act up, and she's run a respectable business. But I'm sure if you want to know any more, Barbara could dig up more information. She's good at doing the digging."

Dinah's lips curled into a smile. She thought just as much. She remembered the other question.

"Okay, fair enough," Dinah said. "Did you ever find out what happened to Doctor Fate?"

Ted's eyebrow rose at the name, but he shook his head in negative.

"Well, I don't really know, Dinah. Kent Nelson was a really stand up guy, but the helmet he wore….played tricks with his mind after a while, showed him things no sane man should see. His wife, Inza, kept him on the straight and narrow for a while. And then just one day, he upped and vanished, without a trace. Weirdest thing if you really try and wrap your head around it, you know."

"So, he's gone?"

"Yeah."

"What about the helmet?"

Ted took a few seconds to collect himself.

"Don't know, up and vanished. Zatara tried to track it down, but didn't really get anywhere with doing it. It could be anywhere in the world."

"Well, I have reason to believe someone else took up the mantle of Doctor Fate."

"Better hope they know what they're getting themselves into," Ted said. "Nabu's pretty messed up."

"Well, no one's bad gotten their hands on the helmet, have they?" Dinah asked.

Ted responded by shaking his head.

"Nah, if they got their hands on the helmet right now, the world would be pretty messed up, wouldn't it?" Ted asked.

"Thank you for your help," Dinah said.

Ted waved his hand as if it wasn't a problem, and it really wasn't.

"Hey, stop by any time. I'd love to have a talk with you….but I've got a student stopping by right now for a training session, so if you don't mind…."

Dinah left a bit quickly after saying her goodbyes. The woman made some quick strides.

' _Barbara?'_

' _Already on it. But you might find something interesting. Prudence Ffogg is staying in Gotham City.'_

' _Around the same time where I encountered the woman in black who created the fog?'_

' _Imagine the coincidence,'_ Barbara thought.

Both Dinah and Barbara didn't quite believe in coincidences, especially during times like this.

* * *

 

Harry escorted Betsy into the penthouse. The woman dressed to kill in a nice tight purple top, and a tight pair of leather pants, with boots. A coat of dark purple lipstick coated her lips. The Braddock heiress smiled and swooped in, capturing Harry's lips with a kiss.

"I'd have to thank you for letting me crash at your place," Betsy said. "Hotels in Gotham…not the best place in the world."

"Well, after all we've been through, I think I'd be rather rude if I didn't let you stay," Harry said. "So, what brings you to Gotham City?"

"The Braddock family jewels are on display at the Gotham City Museum," Betsy said. "My brother set up the entire affair when he was still kicking around, and well, I'd just like to follow his wishes, if I can."

The death of her brother still became fresh in Betsy's mind. Harry reached over and grabbed her hand.

"And you know, the Braddock family jewels, they have a bit of a history to them."

Harry raised an eyebrow. Should he be curious about what Betsy talked about.

"What do you mean?"

He finished fixing her a drink and the two of them sat down on the couch next to each other.

"Your grandparents gifted the jewels to my parents…a bit of a wedding gift. Helped cement the partnership between the Evans and Braddock families, you see."

Harry smiled. He did in fact see.

"Indeed?"

"Yes," Betsy said. "But, there was one man who thought the jewels should be his. Bit silly, as the jewels were kind of worthless to be honest. But he was named Lord Ffogg….he tried to steal them….but from what my brother told me, the JSA put a stop to his plans."

"Well, they put a stop to many people's plans back in the day," Harry said.

"Indeed," Betsy said. "So, I've been very busy ever since Fashion Week, and I take it you've been very busy as well."

Harry laughed. Talk about the understatement to end all understatements. The truth was he kept himself rather busy.

"The trip to California was interesting."

Betsy laughed, as always, Harry did have an interesting definition of what interesting is.

"Given the crowd you keep, I'd imagine so," Betsy said. She smiled and placed her soft hand on Harry's thigh. "And given the group you keep, I'm surprised the penthouse is very quiet."

"Well, mostly everyone is off doing their own thing," Harry said. "You have moments where they trickle in, and the chaos ensures."

"Cheshire those moments," Betsy said.

"Pretty much," Harry said.

"But, I've known you for a long time, and you've always found ways to keep yourself busy," Betsy said. "And it's not just with a beautiful woman, although I'm sure it helps, doesn't it?"

Harry held out his thumb and forefinger.

"Just a little bit."

Betsy smiled.

"I remember the first time I met you….well, it wasn't a direct meeting. I accidentally walked in on the Head Girl living up to her name with you."

"And you should have joined in," Harry said.

"Oh, I think I more than made it for it," Betsy said. "So, are you going to show me where I'm going to sleep? Or is the answer going to be your bed?"

Betsy pressed her chest against Harry's, wrapping a leg around him.

"Because as you know, I wouldn't necessarily mind."

Harry smiled, squeezing Betsy's ass. The woman closed her eyes for a brief second, enjoying the tight grip his hand enjoyed.

"I'm certain you wouldn't mind, but I do have a bedroom I need to show you to."

Harry and Betsy left the couch and made their way up the stairs. The two of them entered one of the main bedrooms.

Betsy smiled at the large bed which awaited her.

"You really know how to roll the red carpet treatment out, don't you?"

The woman swooped in again and caught Harry with a long kiss. Harry returned the kiss. His hands brushed behind her backside, squeezing it in his hands.

Betsy decided turnabout was fair play. The woman grinded her crotch down onto his. Harry pushed against her.

"If we're going to do this, then we better put your bedroom to good use."

Betsy grabbed Harry and pulled him into the bedroom. She cupped his crotch and leaned in for another passionate kiss. She forced her tongue into his mouth and started to duel with domination with him.

Harry scooped up Betsy and threw her onto the bed. Harry peeled off her clothes and revealed more of her body.

Large breasts bounced out at first for Harry's enjoyment. The round globes with erect nipples poked out. Harry leaned down and applied pressure to them. He leaned down and kissed her a few times on the mouth and the side of the neck.

Harry removed her skirt as he moved down, firing a series of kisses.

"Well, you're welcoming me…with style," Betsy said.

Harry kissed down on Betsy's stomach. Betsy shifted her hips up, spreading her legs.

"I'm going to taste you now. I'm sure you're as good as I remember."

Harry spread Betsy's lips. He teased her pussy with his finger rotating inside her dripping hot pussy. After licking around her lips, Harry pushed his tongue into her.

Betsy rocked her hips up, feeling Harry go deep inside her. His tongue brushed against her insides, creating an amazing amount of pleasure. The woman's nipples hardened when Harry slipped into her.

The honey taste her pussy gave off made Harry dive her further.

"Yes, love, eat me, lick my pussy!" Betsy yelled. "It's missed your tongue a lot. I've diddled myself to the memories, but it's not the same."

Harry's tongue vibrated deep into Betsy's pussy. He pulled out for a second, planting kisses on her smooth thighs. Harry dove back in between her legs, licking around him.

Betsy's hips bucked as high as possible. Harry returned fire, his tongue extending into her. She clenched the back of his head.

Harry eased her to an orgasm. He made it spread through her body so it would really work. Betsy grinded her hips back and forth against his face. More moisture pooled from behind her thighs as Harry dug his tongue into her.

"Yes, yes, oh more, oh yes!" Betsy screamed.

Her hips wiggled in an attempt to force Harry's tongue into her. Harry gave her everything she wanted and then some more. Betsy barely held it together, but his tongue inside her gave her the inspiration necessary to do so.

Harry's tongue connected with a sweat spot, and forced her hips up. Betsy came onto his face.

Rising up from behind her pussy, Harry pulled himself up to a standing position. He grabbed onto her shoulders. His cock head slid against her dripping hot slit.

"Inside me, Harry," Betsy said.

He teased both himself and her, dragging his swollen cock head against her dripping folds. Harry clenched onto her hips and pushed himself into her.

The molten pleasure of Betsy's pussy engulfed him. Harry gripped onto her hips, drilling himself into her wet pussy.

Betsy rolled her hips up in response. Harry plunged deeper into her in response. The two matched each other stroke for stroke.

"Wrap your legs around me, I want to feel them."

Betsy's sexy legs wrapped their way around Harry's body. Harry ran his hands over the smooth flesh. Her ass squeezed underneath his hands.

"Spear your tool into me, fuck the daylights out of me!"

Harry pulled himself almost out of Betsy, and plunged deep into her. Her wet walls clutched him, milking his throbbing prick.

After a few more thrusts, Harry pulled out and rolled over onto his back.

Betsy rolled on top of Harry, out of sheer obedience. She leaned over the top of him, pressing her breasts against his muscular chest. She kissed him, tasting her own juices on his lips. Purring, Betsy slid her tongue between her lips.

Harry gripped into her ass, massaging her round cheek. Betsy raked her pussy lips around his cock, and slid into him.

"Now, this is a ride!"

Betsy rose up, impaling herself onto Harry's throbbing cock. Her dark hair flipped into her face, sticking to her face. She looked at Harry through the curtain of hair, with her bringing herself down onto him. She pushed herself up, wiggling her hips and slammed down onto him.

Harry reached up and grabbed her breasts, squeezing them as Betsy rode him like a bucking bronco. Her hips drove down onto him, along with her ass.

He slapped her ass.

"Couldn't resist, could you?"

"You know, I couldn't."

Betsy brought her smoldering hips down onto Harry's tool, bringing him deep inside her. She rocked herself up and down on him.

Clutching his cock between her hot walls, Betsy milked his tool. His cock disappeared between her hot thighs, and reappeared the second he pulled out of her. She squeezed him and milked him. His hands roamed all over her body.

Pulling out of him, after achieving an orgasm, Betsy pulled back. Her lips, coated in purple lipstick, wrapped themselves around Harry's cock, and she achieved a few sucks. She ran her mouth around him.

"You want it, don't you?"

Betsy turned around, showing her firm, tanned ass. She wiggled it in front of Harry.

Taking her up on the challenge, Harry rose to his feet. Cock hardened, he aimed his throbbing manhood against her hot ass.

Harry pushed his cock into her tight ass. She trained her ass to look so good, Harry could barely hold on.

"Does this answer your question?"

"YES!"

Betsy punctuated her words with a not so subtle moan when Harry plowed his cock into her tight ass in a not so subtle manner. His hands wrapped around her tits for added leverage as he plunged himself into her.

"Good, I'm glad, you enjoy me fucking your ass."

"Always, and forever," Betsy said.

Harry clutched her hips, gaining some forward momentum. He plunged his thick tool into her tight and needy ass. He kept pushing himself into her depths, firing a series of hard thrusts. Each one caused Harry to groan in pleasure. Her ass tightened around his tool. A long thrust caused Betsy's eyes to close.

His fingers touched the middle of her thighs. A tingle of electricity entered her clit.

The second Harry's fingers slid into her pussy, Betsy lost it. The lust hardened her nipples. The telepath rode his fingers. She shoved his fingers into her aching pussy.

Harry experienced the tightness of her pussy, along with her ass. He double fucked her from either side, working his fingers into her.

Betsy closed her eyes. The rush spread through her loins and all through her body. The sensation coursed through her pussy. The orgasm escalated from mild pleasure to mind blowing pleasure.

"Good, damn, cumming so hard."

Harry worked his fingers inside Betsy's pussy. The woman came all over his hand, pushing her hips down onto him.

"Yes, good, more, want more," she said.

Allowing a groan to pass through her lips, Betsy finished riding Harry's fingers to a climax. She saturated his fingers with her efforts.

"I'm going to cum, where do you want it?"

"In my ass love, I want your sticky cum in my ass."

Harry clenched onto her hips. His balls rocked against her clit as he rammed into her tight buns. His balls clenched.

A rushing feeling coursed through his balls. Harry jammed another hard thrust into her. His balls churned and fired his cum inside her waiting ass.

Harry plunged his load inside her. He fired a series of long strokes inside her ass, nailing her hard from behind.

The woman collapsed onto the bed, panting from what he did to her. A grin crossed her face at a fucking well done.

"I don't think I'm done, and I know you have another load for me."

Betsy licked Harry's cock clean and made him harden again. When he hardened in her mouth, Betsy pulled out and rested back on her elbows on the bed.

Getting the hint, Harry pushed his cock inside her tight pussy. Betsy's legs closed in and pulled him in deeper as they went at it with another round.

* * *

 

Selina prowled the night as Catwoman. Slipping into the top entrance, she dropped down onto the ground. Crouching like a cat, Selina poked around to see what mischief she could get into.

The shimmer of the Braddock family jewels caught her eye for a second. A bit tacky to be honest, but Selina was sure she could liberate them without any problem. It would catch a certain someone's eye if she did so.

Alas, she didn't come here for a jewel heist. Other matters distracted the felonious feline. The rumors a certain item had been donated to the museum caught her eye.

Sofia Falcone donated an item to the Gotham City Museum. A tapestry which Selina wished to take a look at, because if it was the tapestry she thought it was, heads were going to roll.

The classy cat burglar crept into the shadows. The hair stuck up on the back of her neck as she made her way deeper through the shadows.

The fog thickened outside. Selina rose up to her feet with a frown. Not only the fog thickened inside, but the fog thickened outside.

' _What the hell?'_

Selina peered over her shoulder. The fog continued to thicken around and filled the Gotham City museum. A woman dressed in black made her way through the fog.

Catwoman narrowed her eyes. She couldn't really see what happened next to there.

She made a motion to adjust her goggles. The fog around them started to fade. Seconds passed and the woman disappeared. Along with the jewels inside the case.

A part of Selina admired her. An alarm being tripped on her way out made Selina admire her less.

' _Amateur.'_

The footsteps of two guards made their way forward.

"It's the Cat Burglar! And she stole the Braddock family jewels!"

The woman tensed up. She didn't really care when someone accused her of the things she did do. She did plenty of things which were worthy of accusation. When someone accused her of something she didn't do.

"Freeze, thief!"

The woman raised her eyebrow. Taking a careful note of her surroundings, Selina looked at the fire extinguisher. Raising a clawed hand, Selina activated her own cloud of fog.

By the time the security guard pulled their pants up, Selina disappeared into the night, past the cloud of fog.

The woman in black disappeared into the Gotham City night. The woman looked around and found her way onto the roof.

Seconds later, she ran pretty much head long into Black Canary.

"Okay, out of my way, Canary," Catwoman said.

"I know you didn't steal the jewels," Black Canary said. Catwoman stepped back, startled momentarily. "Did you see a woman disappear into a fog?"

Selina paused for a second and nodded. The woman found herself fairly curious as to what was going on.

"She stole the Braddock family jewels," Selina said. "And make it look like I stole them."

"Would you?"

Selina's lips curled into a frustrated frown and she groaned.

"I would never steal the Braddock family jewels. I would never steal something which belonged to one of Harry's girls. And if I did….I would do it with more style and wouldn't be so sloppy as to trigger an alarm."

"I know, you wouldn't," Black Canary said. "We have to find her."

Catwoman smiled. She would find the bitch who stole the jewels and have a few words for her. Not to mention a nice sharp claw or two.

"And I think you might know who was behind this," Catwoman said. She leaned in closer towards Black Canary, closing the gap between the two of them. "Don't you?"

"I have an idea."

The Canary went off and the Cat followed her, hunting for the thief. The fog blanketed Gotham City, although lessened, showing the thief got away clean.

Or so she thought.

* * *

**To Be Continued on November 7** **th** **, 2015.**


	140. Into the Mists Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Forty: Into the Mists Part One.**

* * *

Harry wrapped his arm around Betsy, pulling him into his chest. The two of them finally crashed after their marathon session, or to be more accurate, the two of them decided to take a breath after the intense round of intercourse they shared. The phone started to ring, and Harry could hear a buzzing in his mind as well.

Shifting himself away from Betsy, Harry crossed the room to do so while a very familiar voice popped into his mind.

' _Harry?'_ Helena asked.

' _Yes, Helena, what can I do for you?'_ Harry asked.

' _I'm the one calling you on the phone as well,'_ Helena said. _'It's best to maintain appearances….because I need to call you….and I'm sure Miss Braddock is there as well.'_

' _Present and accounted for,'_ Betsy said.

The woman stirred herself out of the fitful sleep she entered. The woman cleared the cobwebs from her mind, and took a step forward. Harry crossed over and answered the phone.

"Hello, Harry, it's Helena Sandsmark," Helena said. "Miss Braddock mentioned she was staying with her during the trip to Gotham. Is she there now?"

"Yes," Harry said. "Do you wish to speak with her?"

"If you could….I hate to drag you out of bed, this early in the morning. Especially….given I know you came back from a trip the other day, and….but….it's urgent."

Harry passed the phone over to Betsy. The woman took the phone with a steady hand. Harry stepped behind her, still able to hear the conversation. As Helena relayed the message to Betsy verbally, she relayed the information to Harry mentally.

"There's been a break in at the museum, and I don't know how it happened, but the Braddock family jewels have been stolen….the director of the museum is on a warpath, and Curator Sorrow is distraught the jewels have been stolen, underneath her watch as well. I figured, you should know about this. Chances are there's going to be a full court investigation. The GCPD might already be here….I was here late doing some paperwork, preparing for a trip this summer."

Harry knew all about the trip. Originally scheduled for this spring, it had been pushed back to July because of a conflict in scheduling. Going into Egypt during the hottest part of the year wasn't exactly ideal.

"Okay, I don't blame you….but do you have any idea who stole them?" Betsy asked.

Betsy rolled over in her head who would want to steal the jewels. They had great sentimental value to the Braddock family. Actual street value wasn't anything to write home about, nothing you could retire on.

"I heard one of the guards yell Catwoman was seen in the museum," Helena said.

Harry's eyebrow rose for a second. To be honest, his intrigue hit a brand new level, along with his suspicions.

"Catwoman?" Betsy asked. "Would the family jewels be her style?"

"Well, there's a bit of a mystery around Catwoman," Helena said.

' _Most of her heists have been against the….less than salt of the Earth people in Gotham society,'_ Harry thought.

' _So, you don't think she did it, did you?'_ Betsy asked.

' _I do more than don't think she did it,'_ Harry thought. _'I know she didn't do it….she wouldn't get caught if she did.'_

Harry figured Selina wasn't in the museum for entirely innocent reasons. He only could begin to guess what plans she had on her mind. Regardless, Harry would figure it out.

"They saw her in the museum," Betsy said. "But, did they see her with the jewels?"

"I don't know," Helena said. "Again, whoever disabled the case….they were quick about it. There's a weird fog in the museum, but it could be on account of her smashing a fire extinguisher."

Harry reached up, but stopped pinching the bridge of his nose. The young man vowed to break certain habits, it being one of them.

She really did have the ability to make herself look a bit guiltier than she should. And again, Harry recalled she wouldn't be in the museum for entirely benevolent reasons.

' _I ran into her,'_ Dinah thought. _'It's the fog based criminal….and you know the number one suspect is obvious.'_

' _Someone following in her dear Daddy's footsteps,'_ Betsy thought.

' _Well, yes,'_ Dinah thought. _'Ted told me about Lord Ffogg and his attempts to steal the jewels years ago. The JSA foiled him and his men.'_

' _And now, his daughter all these years later wants to follow in his footsteps,'_ Betsy thought. _'Can't say I should be too surprised?'_

"Yes, I'll be over there in a few minutes," Betsy said. "Well, as fast as I can get there in one of Harry's cars."

"Even though I don't have anything to do with the security of the Braddock family jewels, I'm sorry about their theft," Helena said.

The museum already had been under a lot of scrutiny after the theft of the Spear of Zeus all of those months ago, by the Siren, under the orders of Maxie Zeus. Helena hated to be in the midst of another theft.

Diana exited her bedroom. She finished slipping her boots on, and made her way to join the duo of Betsy and Harry.

' _So you heard everything, didn't you?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes,'_ Diana thought. _'I wanted to go into the museum anyway early, so I guess we're going in for another reason.'_

' _I appreciate you coming with me,'_ Harry thought.

' _We both do,'_ Betsy thought.

' _Glad to be of help,'_ Diana thought. _'So, what's your next move?'_

' _It turns out I have a meeting with Prudence Ffogg tomorrow afternoon, we're just going to have to bump up the time table a little bit,'_ Harry thought. _'And I'm going to have to pay a little house call.'_

' _What do you want me to do with Selina?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't get in too much trouble,'_ Harry thought. _'I know, but I have faith in your abilities.'_

' _Good, I'm glad,'_ Dinah thought, resolving not to let Harry down.

Harry, Diana, and Betsy left the Penthouse on their way to the Gotham City Museum.

' _GCPD is on the way,'_ Barbara said. _'Got into their police radio and the MCU are getting involved.'_

' _Do you ever sleep?'_ Harry asked.

' _Only when you relax me,'_ Barbara said.

* * *

Prudence Ffogg returned to the penthouse. Her adrenaline pumped a little bit as she pulled off the crime of the century. Stealing the folder of incriminating information from the snoopy reporter's apartment was a piece of cake.

Nothing in the folder was too incriminating for her, but in a matter of principle, she wanted all of the information to be off of the table. The person who tried to leak it would pay, but it wasn't high.

Prudence looked at the jewel. The gawdy looking design caused her eyebrow to raise and her stomach to turn.

' _You're a real nasty piece of work aren't you? And to think, my father wanted you more than anything itself. He obsessed over you until he died.'_

Prudence would not be caught with such awful jewels in public. She placed them down on the table for a moment. Her fence would take a look at them and pay her whatever he thought they were worth. Then they were his problem.

' _Never wanted them to hold. But I proved they could be stolen. Could have walked into any Jewelry store in Gotham and bought something better with less effort.'_

Prudence walked over and dialed up the telephone.

"Tonight, I need to meet you tonight. Because I need to be out of town by tomorrow. I have an interesting item for you to look at. Yes, I'm sure it will be worth your while….the usual place, excellent. Been a while since I've been in Gotham but….I can't come by earlier because I have a very important meeting this afternoon."

The sun started to rise up out of the corner of her eye. Prudence hung up the phone. Her fence asked a few too many questions for her liking. The Ffogg heiress hoped he wouldn't try and be a hero, and throw her under the bus.

Sure, she could get out of any problem he caused, but more of the principle of the matter.

Prudence thought about the meeting with Harry Potter. She made a verbal agreement to sell the item to Cobblepot, but in the interest of fairness, she thought she should talk with the owner of RAO and the heir to SLE.

' _He has green eyes which melts the heart of any woman who sees them and a body to die for.'_

Prudence shook her thoughts. If they had a child, she would be gorgeous. With the thought brushed out of her mind, she made her way through the clothes.

The tacky attire she wore to meet with Cobblepot wouldn't do. The umbrella most certainly appeased him, because the man's collection of antique umbrellas were well known through high society.

Prudence rummaged through her clothes for a few seconds, finding the proper outfit to meet Harry Potter in.

The phone rang. Prudence stood bolt upright and reached over to grab the phone.

"Yes."

"Prudence, my dear, I hope I didn't wake up this early in the morning," Cobblepot said.

"Oh, hello, Oswald."

Prudence tried to play nice over the phone, although she wondered what he wanted. Someone like Cobblepot didn't call without a good reason.

"I hope we can seal the deal tonight….and maybe over a little wine. I'm sure the Ffoggs and the Cobblepots could be a formidable combination, with the next generation, as they were during the previous generation."

Prudence didn't want to destroy Oswald's delusions of the importance of the Cobblepots. Her father saw Stanley Cobblepot to be little more than a thug, good for muscle, and to gain information, but really nothing else. And Oswald thought he was more in tune with the ladies and more of a gentleman.

"I believe I can stop by, if I don't get a better deal by tonight," Prudence said.

"Well, whatever Potter is paying you, I'll triple it," Cobblepot said. "The little….he won't get the better of me."

Prudence caught onto the near slip.

' _Doesn't want to affect my delicate sensibilities of a lady. How noble, and 19_ _th_ _century of him. He tries, bless his heart.'_

"Well, I don't know if he's paying me anything," Prudence said. "But, I'm sure I'll let you know when I do. You did make me an offer which I would be foolish to refuse."

"Yes, I did, yes I would," Cobblepot said. "But enough about business, I think we can cement our relationship in other ways."

If Prudence hadn't heard how impotent Cobblepot was, she would have been sickened to her stomach about now. He had something else in her mind.

Then again, if the rumors of him watching his secretary get on with other women were true, Prudence experienced illness in other ways. Bitch wouldn't be half bad looking if she had a ball gag in her mouth.

"Yes?" Prudence asked.

"Harvey Dent, the boy scout he is, is running for District Attorney," Cobblepot said. "And all of the high society will be there….including myself. It's tomorrow night, and I wondered if you be my plus one."

"So you want me to be your escort?" Prudence asked.

"I hoped you would do me the honor, we would discuss business with each other," Cobblepot said. "And we have a lot of catching up to do."

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline the offer," Prudence said. "I'm catching a flight out of Gotham City tomorrow morning. Urgent business has come up overseas."

"A pity, well there will be other times."

' _I wouldn't count on it,'_ Prudence thought.

"Well, perhaps there might be other times, yes," Prudence said. "I may see you tonight."

"Why do you sound so jumpy?" Cobblepot asked. "You've acted like you've committed a crime."

He laughed at his own joke. Or really squawked, sounding like a bird who smoked about three packs a day.

"Well, never mind. I'll talk to you later ,my lady."

She hung up the phone. She didn't know why, well she did know why, but she needed a shower. Then she would pick out something fitting for her meeting with the one and only Harry Potter.

* * *

As Barbara told Harry, and as Sarah informed him a couple more moments later, the Gotham City Police Department arrived at the museum. Harry noticed Curator Sorrow pacing back and forth, wringing her hands.

The owner of the museum had been grilled.

"I swear, the security was airtight…."

"Yeah, we've heard all about the security being airtight," Bullock said. "Given Zeus's eye candy walked in here a few months ago…you'd think you'd be a bit more careful. Think it might be some kind of inside job, though."

Harry frowned and took a step to get a closer look. The owner of the museum brushed past Harry and made a beeline motion towards Betsy.

"Lady Braddock, you must accept my most sincere apologies. I had no idea….I had no idea they would be stolen out from underneath my nose. Rest assure, we'll get Catwoman."

Betsy adopted a neutral expression.

"I'm sure it's best left for the Gotham City Police Department," Betsy said. "I would have thought security would have been a bit tighter."

"Yeah, you would think, wouldn't you?" Bullock asked. "Guess the Cat changed her style….as far as the papers knew she stole from alleged hoods."

"Things might not be what they seem, Detective."

Bullock's gaze snapped onto Harry's. The rotund detective staggered to Harry with a raised eyebrow. The man's gaze raked over Harry for a few long seconds.

"Why is it, where there's trouble in Gotham City, you're always close by? Guess we should be lucky, this time you didn't fall through any windows."

"I'd cut back on the donuts if I were you, Detective," Harry said. "They can….eat you up."

Bullock twitched at Harry's seemingly casual statement. Which wasn't really too casual given he knew what Bullock saw when the Scarecrow zapped him with a fear toxin.

"Catwoman just changing her tactics over a simple pair of jewels," Harry said. "It's a bit out of character for her."

"He does have a point," Renee said. She prepared to interview Helena Sandsmark and Margaret Sarrow. "All of the reports state she's targeted locations owned by Carmine Falcone."

"Yeah, but, can't someone change up things every now and again?" Bullock asked. "The jewels, they must be worth something."

"The jewels themselves aren't worth much of anything," Betsy said. "The story behind them is the real value. They were almost stolen before, foiled."

"Interesting, but what does it have to do with the price of tea in China?" Bullock asked.

"Lord Marmaduke Ffogg and his men tried to steal them before," Betsy said.

"Yeah, thought I heard something about it, when the jewels came to town ,but it's not like he got accused of anything," Bullock said. "Are you implying he tried to steal them again? Or succeeded this time?"

"Going to be very difficult since he's been six feet under for the past five years," Harry said. "If I had to guess….."

"Well, no offense, but your guesses don't really work. You're not a detective, no matter how many doctorates you have."

"Well, you're the expert here, Bullock," Harry said.

The Detective missed the thinly veiled sarcasm in Harry's tone.

"Damn right, I am," Bullock said.

"So, what leads do you have?" Betsy asked.

Renee spoke with Helena.

"No one saw Catwoman steal the jewels," Renee said.

"The security guards came across her near the case," Helena said. "The alarm didn't trip until after the jewels were removed. The guards were in the hallway outside….but there was fog inside the museum."

"It wouldn't have anything to do with Catwoman breaking a fire extinguisher?" Renee asked.

"No, she didn't."

Curator Sorrow stepped in.

"Did you see something Curator?" Renee asked.

"I was heading back to my office, when I noticed the fog billowing in from underneath the window," she said. "Strange, isn't it? Fog inside, but…then I heard the alarm. By the time I reached the hallway, the guards already were on Catwoman's tail. She escaped and worsened things by breaking the fire extinguisher."

"What were you doing there so late at night?" Bullock asked.

"I work here," the woman said. "I had some paperwork to file regarding an exhibit which is being brought in over the summer. I decided to get it done before I left for night."

"You said you were heading back to your office?" Bullock asked. "Where were you on your way back from?"

"I needed to freshen up," Sorrow said.

Bullock scoffed and said something along the lines of "women" which earned him an angry glare from Renee.

"So you can vouch the fog was caused by someone other than Catwoman?" Renee asked.

"It was," Sorrow said.

Diana listened to Curator Sorrow for a few seconds. The obvious thought entered Diana's mind.

' _Weird she was in the museum on tonight of all nights,'_ Diana thought. She shook her head.

' _Well, she has a good reason for being in the museum,'_ Harry thought. _'I think you're overthinking things, Diana.'_

' _Maybe,'_ Diana thought.

' _And everyone's more distressed about the jewels missing than I am,'_ Betsy thought. _'And everyone thinks it's this big quest where someone is going to cash in big time.'_

Harry grabbed her hand.

' _Remember, it's the legacy your parents left behind.'_

' _I don't need the jewels to do it,'_ Betsy thought. _'I'm pretty sure your grandparents gave my parents the jewels as a lark. And to tick off old man Ffogg.'_

' _I wouldn't be surprised,'_ Harry thought. _'My grandparents made a few enemies, and the Evans family overall did.'_

Harry hated to rub salt into old wounds. Everything would return to normal or maybe what passed as normal in the strange world they lived in.

"Miss Braddock, you should get some rest," Renee said. "We'll do what we can to track down the jewels….and sorry if your trip to Gotham City has been marred."

Betsy shook her head.

"Thank you, and I don't blame the GCPD. I'm sure you'll do the best you can to uncover the jewels."

* * *

Sunrise rose over Gotham. Normally the sun rising would mean it was time for Selina to head off to bed, but she had work to do. Namely, clearing Catwoman's name….she had a reputation to maintain after all. And a part of the reputation was not being so sloppy and running off after tacky jewelry.

' _I can't believe they thought I would be behind such an amateur hour heist,'_

Selina crouched down on the rooftop. She tilted her head from one side to the other, eyes narrowing. Another figure stepped off by her side.

"I hate to keep you up all night, Canary."

"No, this is important," Black Canary said. "What would you do if you stole the jewels?"

"I wouldn't steal them….but….if I did, I'd want to unload them on the nearest fence in Gotham. And I'd do it late in the evening, when the GCPD are otherwise occupied."

Catwoman crouched around, turning her head.

"The jewels are too high profile. She's not taking them out of the country. She only stole them to prove she could. Daddy issues, I guess…too bad she didn't get around to taking them when his Lordship still lived."

Black Canary and Catwoman dropped down into the alleyway. The Penthouse Prudence Ffogg stayed at lingered in their crosshairs.

"Okay you didn't steal the family jewels," Black Canary said.

An expression of annoyance slipped over Catwoman's face. She turned and looked at Black Canary.

"I thought we established I didn't intend to steal the jewels. Because, they were tacky."

"Fine, but, we both know you're not going into the museum for an after hour visit," Black Canary said. "Why were you really in there?"

"Now?" Catwoman asked. Annoyance flashed over the woman's face. "You're going to ask me about this now?"

"I'd prefer if you answered my question."

"Yes, you would," Catwoman said. "And for the record, I wasn't in there just to check out the exhibits. There was something in there….very personal to me."

Black Canary waited for a few seconds. Her eyes lingered on Catwoman. Time passed as Black Canary waited for her to speak and waited a little bit more.

' _Something tells me she's not going to tell you anything,'_ Oracle thought.

' _Yes, figured about as much,'_ Amanda thought.

Black Canary leaned against the wall. Could she trust Catwoman? To an extent, maybe, but the Canary kept her eyes on the Cat never the less.

"I didn't plan to steal anything," Catwoman said. "Unless I needed to."

"Unless you needed to?" Black Canary asked.

She wrapped her head around the thought of Catwoman not needing to steal anything. She looked very confident the museum contained something.

' _On it already,'_ Oracle thought.

' _Barbara, you're amazing,'_ Dinah thought. _'Just don't let it get to your head.'_

' _Don't worry, Dinah,'_ Barbara said. _'I won't let it go to my head. I know you're going to knock me around really handily in training the next time we spar.'_

Dinah's lips cracked into a knowing smile. She decided to stand up straight and turn her attention towards Catwoman.

Catwoman ignored the buzzing in the back of her head. She refused to acknowledge it at the best of times. Ever since she started sleeping with Nightwing, it happened every now and again. She refused to acknowledge it.

' _Because he doesn't need the drama. The sex is great, the drama….not so much.'_

"I know you don't really like me," Catwoman said. "And despite you looking good in the tight leather and fish nets, I'm not your biggest fan either. But, we do have a common cause. We want the tacky family heirloom to be returned to Lady Braddock, don't we?"

"Yes."

Black Canary couldn't deny the pair of them being on the same page because of this fact.

"You're not going to do what I think you're going to do?"

"If you think I'm going to break into her Penthouse, tie her up, and give her the spanking she should have gotten years ago, before stealing back the stolen jewels, then yes, we're on the same wavelength."

Catwoman slipped forward, and Black Canary followed her. She stopped short and grabbed her shoulder firmly.

"Wait," Black Canary said. "Look."

A group of thugs exited a limo which pulled into the alleyway. They tried to look conspicuous, and they might be if you weren't used to them. The goons stepped out. A young man dressed in a pinstripe suit and a top hat, with a mustache exited as well. The figure turned to the goons.

"She's up to something," the Walrus said. "She's going to double deal the boss."

"The boss seems to just stand there and take it," one of the goons said.

The Walrus threw up his beefy hands in response.

"He's always had a weakness for a beautiful bird. Almost as bad as the fetish he has for antique umbrellas."

"Should we really be doing this?"

"She's going to double cross him for Potter, I know it….

The Walrus calmed him. The last time he encountered his cousin, it didn't end up so well for him.

"Don't know why Cobblepot is even bothering….."

"Has to play nice for business reasons," the Walrus said. "But, there's only so much a bloke can take before he has to cut it loose. And you should hear the way he talked to me and to him and to Tracey….she's nothing but a cold hearted bitch who cares about herself."

The men nodded in sympathy.

"Sounds like my ex-wife."

"Sounds like my sister."

Walrus coughed for a second, and a second limo pulled up. Black Canary and Catwoman stood from the shadows.

"Seems like someone's balls just dropped," Catwoman said. The woman's eyes narrowed for a brief second and a cherish cat grin spread over her face. "Too bad they're going to be cut off."

Black Canary shook her head to rid her of the mental imagery Selina gifted her with. The two of them watched the goons sneaking around outside of Prudence's penthouse.

As if Dinah didn't have enough issues, making sure Catwoman kept herself out of trouble.

"Well, things have gotten more fun?"

Dinah doubted she'd describe the Penguin's men getting involved as fun.

* * *

' _She went on a tour on the world after being indicted on the shoplifting charge, which she basically received six months in insolation at a country club,'_ Barbara thought. She relayed the information to both Harry and Dinah at the same time. _'Rumors have it she may have showed up in Smallville of all place. Circumstantial evidence places her there around the time of the meteor shower, but we can't verify it with any facts. Although with her fog based powers, it's likely.'_

'Maybe,'

Harry thought. _'But, I think we figured out either she's using a pretty good slight of hand, or she has those powers for some reason. Meteor shower might be a good enough explanation.'_

'Or it could be something else entirely?'

Betsy thought.

Harry and Betsy tried what many might consider to be a fairly unconventional approach with dealing with her ladyship. If it worked though, they would get the jewels back without any trouble.

Luck rarely turned out as Harry intended though. He prepared himself for the alternative. With a plan in mind, Harry raised the hand and knocked on the door.

Almost a moment passed, and the door opened up. A woman dressed in a silk purple blouse, tastefully buttoned, with a flowing black skirt with a slit down the side opened the door. Black high heeled boots, and silk glove added to the apparel.

"I'm afraid I'm not….oh, Doctor Potter, what a pleasant surprise!"

Harry couldn't really tell how a voice could go from snooty to happy in such a short amount of time, but it sure happened.

"Hello, Lady Ffogg," Harry said. "Just heard you were in town, and I would have welcomed you in style, but I just returned from a trip."

"Ah, yes, you were on vacation, I understand, and you did arrange the meeting for tonight," Prudence said. "And you stopped by to verify yourself."

"I was in the neighborhood and I figured I'd drop by," Harry said. "It's a pleasure to meet you in the flesh for the first time."

"Yes," Prudence said. "It's a shame I didn't run into you when you were in the UK, but….you've moved on from over there. Having other people who could run your business ventures….if I understand right, Lady Greengrass and Ms. Edwards do the best job."

"They help everything run smoothly, yes," Harry said. "And you know Lady Braddock, don't you?"

"Yes, I've run into Elizabeth at a high society event or two," Prudence said.

She eyed the Braddock heiress for the first time in a long time. The Braddock woman being here, and being on Doctor Potter's arm caused her plans for Harry to be dashed. At least for the moment, but Prudence wouldn't give up yet.

She realized the irony of the woman who she stole the jewels showing up at her doorstep. The jewels which sat in a locked case underneath her mantle.

"Why don't the two of you sit down, and I'll fix you something to drink."

Prudence strolled over for a second. Harry allowed himself to take a good look around for a place where she might stash the stolen jewels. Naturally, they would not be out in the open. It would be very brazen if the woman put the jewels out in the open. Despite her miscue with the shop lifting years ago, Prudence struck Harry as being a bit more intelligent than before. At least his mind.

 _'So, what do you think?'_ Betsy asked.

 _'I think the jewels might be in the case right there,'_ Harry thought.

If Harry had full access to his powers, he would be able to verify. His instincts hit a high level as the jewels.

Prudence fixed them some tea.

"You wouldn't believe how hard it is to get a cup of tea in this country."

Harry smiled in response. He had an idea to be honest. Regardless, he waved his hand, performing a mild detecting charm. Out of habit really, after someone prepared his drinks.

 _'You can never be too careful,'_ Nyssa thought.

As an assassin, second nature really for her to be suspicious about all drinks not personally prepared for her.

"So, do you wish to discuss business here?" Prudence asked.

"Such an intimate setting might distract us," Harry said. "I understand you've pretty much sold the device to Cobblepot."

"Cobblepot's made me a generous offer, but the device has not left my hands," Prudence said. "One of my father's last inventions, and I have no use for it. Someone might, so it's useless to have it sitting there, collecting dust."

"Well, when we talk later, I might have to make you an offer," Harry said. "But, I actually wanted to ask you a personal favor."

"Oh?" Prudence asked.

If she played her cards right, she would get what she wanted. Granted, with the Braddock bitch here, the mood wasn't as ideal as she would like.

"Harvey Dent is running for District Attorney and is having a benefit tomorrow night," Harry said.

"So I heard," Prudence said.

"And I was wondering if you wanted to accompany me to the event."

"Well, I intended to leave town tomorrow morning….but I don't see why I can't postpone another day," Prudence said.

Almost as soon as Prudence spoke, the doors broke up. The Walrus entered, along with the Penguin's goons, all of them sporting guns.

"I knew it, you two timing tramp!"

"I figure what you might know could fill a matchbook," Prudence said.

Dudley swallowed and shook his head. He held the rifle in his hand, steady. His large hands wrapped around it.

Harry chuckled in amusement.

"Really, Dudley, again? You think you'd learn after what happened the last time you're pretty much good for nothing other than holding the Penguin's umbrella. But I guess some people can't be taught."

"Shut your mouth! It's time for you to learn some respect."

If anything, Harry laughed even more.

"I don't think you're really equipped to teach me, Dinky Duddydums."

Dudley pulled a face, and a couple of the gang members snickered behind his back.

"You blew up my godfather's club. Now, it's time for some payback. And breaking this tramp is going to be an added bonus."

Betsy and Harry caught each other's eyes.

_'So, right on schedule?'_

' _Right on schedule.'_

* * *

**To Be Continued on November 11th, 2015.**


	141. Into the Mists Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Forty-One: Into the Mists Part Two.**

* * *

Harry almost laughed, even though he had a bunch of guns on him. Dudley had him here, but he couldn't really pull the trigger on his own. He had this grand plan, this grand scheme for revenge. Harry almost found pride for the little bastard, his balls dropped, just a little bit, but not enough for it to make any difference.

He did wonder what the hell Dudley intended to really do. The little son of a bitch couldn't be serious, could he? Actually, Harry figured he might be a little serious, just a tad.

 _'Must have a hair up his ass from when I punched his lights out, go figure,'_ Harry thought.

"Does Oswald know you're here?" Prudence asked.

"I…you're to refer to him as Mr. Cobblepot," Dudley said. The walrus looking young man pulled a face. "And….I'm sure…."

"Because, you're this close to fowling up a business deal which he sees as very important," Prudence said. "My backing is essential for his plans to move forward."

Harry's lack of surprise proved to be evidence. He knew Prudence played several angles. She would be the type to betray her father if it furthered her plans. Harry wondered what angle she tried to play now.

It became obvious to Harry despite the fact he knew the game, Dudley found himself rather baffled in many ways.

"My godfather….I'm doing in a favor, and showing I can run things," Dudley said.

"Are you?" Prudence asked.

"Yeah," Dudley said.

"I think you're making a mistake, much like your parents did around eighteen or so years ago."

Dudley's face contorted into deep thought. His mind looked like it was about to have a mental breakdown.

 _'It must hurt to use muscles he normally doesn't use,'_ Betsy thought.

 _'And here I thought all of his space between his ears was for rent,'_ Harry thought.

One of the goons helpfully pointed out what should have been obvious.

"Hey, Dursley, she said you were an accident!"

Dudley's brain cells managed to click into place. It looked very painful from Harry's point of view.

"Shut your mouth, woman!" Dudley yelled. He raised his hand for a moment, but retracted it after a few seconds. "You don't have any right to come in here and trash me. Who do you think you are?"

"I'm the heiress of the Ffogg shipping dynasty," Prudence said. "And you and your goon squad are trespassing in my penthouse."

Prudence figured Dudley hadn't gotten as far past run in here and accuse her of treason. Would he shoot her in cold blood? Possible, but Prudence doubted the bastard had the stones enough to do it. He didn't seem like the type who would dare do anything to piss off the Penguin.

"Just…be quiet," Dudley said. "You walked in there and ripped into Tracey and me, and you thought…."

"Oh, this is what it's all about," Prudence said. "You know, despite the fact she has a voice which can summon hailstorms, she's still far above your station."

Dudley reached forward, and clutched his hands. He turned purple in the face.

"I thought I told you to keep your mouth shut."

"You told me, I just chose not to listen to the drivel coming from your mouth," Prudence said. She sighed. "And you'll never get anywhere without the proper manners."

"Just….I'm going to let the boss know what you're up to, you're trying to sleep around behind his back, with him," Dudley said.

"First of all, to sleep around with someone…."

"I thought I told you to shut your bloody trap!" Dudley yelled.

"Well, at any rate, you'll charm the panties off of any women if you keep talking to them like that, Dudders."

Harry's grin widened. Dudley looked at him with a grimace on his face. His fellow gang members started to laugh at him, and he didn't appreciate being laughed out.

"And you, better shut your mouth!"

"Oh, well, you sure showed me," Harry said. "A mustache and a bit of time in the gym still can't hide the fact you're a punk and a bully to the core."

Dudley hesitated for a moment. He would have liked nothing better than to blow him away, but he paused.

"Why don't you shoot him, Mr. Walrus?"

Dudley didn't say anything, mostly on the account of his phone ringing. Normally, he would ignore the phone, but the fact his godfather rang him up made it high priority.

Thinking quickly, well relatively speaking, Dudley's eyes cast over the gang members.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," Dudley said. "Keep a close eye on them….especially Potter, he's a tricky little bugger. You think you have him, but….he wiggles his way out of trouble."

"Which is why you should have shot him, Mr. Walrus."

"Don't do anything, until I get back," Dudley said.

He crossed the room into the hallway. The gang left themselves with the ground. One of them stared down Harry. The other gang member looked at the man, a frown deepening over his face.

"What are you doing?"

"Watching Potter, Mr. Walrus said not to turn his back on him."

Harry sat on the couch, cross legged, his hands folded in his lap. His calm expression didn't waver at all.

"Well, this is a way I wanted to spend the morning?" Prudence asked. "Could one of you ruffians at least fetch me a book?"

The goons stared at her like she was nuts.

"Right, you must be unfamiliar with the concept of literature. A shame, but I suspect people of your nature have far more loftier ambitions."

Harry stared forward at the goons, his hands in his lap.

 _'And I'm terrified how much this went to what you had planned,'_ Betsy thought.

 _'You know, you're right, I am as well,'_ Harry thought. _'Once we have the proper opening….we'll attack.'_

'You know, I can shut down all of their minds from here, don't you?'

Betsy thought. _'Wouldn't take too long, given how little there is to shut down.'_

'Yes, I know,'

Harry thought.

"What are you looking at Potter?" one of the goons asked.

"The clock," Harry said. "I have things to do, places to go, people to see, women to do…and you're not helping with me keeping my schedule on line. You know, there's going to be a lot of people questioning where I am."

"Wish, I could just shoot the smug fucker right now!"

"You know what; I'm going to do it right now!"

The goon grabbed his gun, but the other goon grabbed him by the shoulder. A second goon joined him in holding back the first goon.

"Mr. Walrus told us to stay right here, and for you not to do anything."

The goon relaxed his gun for a second. If they pissed off Mr. Walrus, they might draw the wrath of the Penguin. The last time someone drew his ire, the poor bastard got beaten half to death with an umbrella. None of them wanted to piss off the bird, especially because the bird was in such a bird because the bird on the couch spurned his advances.

Harry watched the goons and their agitation with a smile on his face. He figured one of them would lose their mind and start shooting. He still sat, crossing his legs, hands pressed firmly in his lap.

_'Come to think of it, such a casual expression would drive some people completely bonkers. Go figure.'  
_

* * *

Cobblepot paced around his outer office. Prudence really was a tough one to figure. She turned him down cold, and played the same games he thought she grew out of. He had business on his mind first and foremost. Unlike Potter, the man whore who liked to sex up everything with a skirt, well, he would get what was coming to him soon enough.

A chocolate skinned woman dressed in a business suit approached Cobblepot from the side office. She dressed in a nice black blouse, buttoned up, along, with a flowing black skirt. Her hair clipped back. A pair of elegant and stylish black glasses rested on her face.

"Hello, Candy, my dear, what could I do for you?"

"Here is the paperwork you requested, sir," Candy said.

Cobblepot smiled and took the paperwork from Candy. He hired the woman as his day time secretary, for the legit business ventures. The shadier stuff, he trusted Tracey with, but he shouldn't mix the two businesses. He wanted two separate staffs for both sides of his operations.

Candy came to his company at a premium. Cobblepot crowed over the victory he achieved over Potter, because he had his sights set on her to work at RAO. Cobblepot snatched her underneath his nose.

"Yes, yes, it's all in order," Cobblepot said. "Thank you, my dear…..and….thank you."

"Is there anything else you want, sir?" she asked.

"No, it would be all," Cobblepot said. "Tracey did explain to you everything you need to know, so, all you have to is to be on call. And to answer the phone, if you need to."

"Right, Mr. Cobblepot," she said.

Candy made her way to her office. Cobblepot enjoyed the view as she passed him. Seconds later, Tracey appeared at his shoulder.

"Looking at her, tarting herself around."

"Now, I wouldn't be so cross, Tracey," Cobblepot said. "She's relieving your workload by an immense amount, handling a lot of the menial tasks you formally took on. I'd be a bit more grateful if I were you."

Tracey grudgingly had to agree her workload increased. She still handled all of the interesting things. She had been the lead girl for so long; even splitting the responsibilities with someone else caused her to be agitated.

"Yeah, I guess," Tracey said. "And she's done quite the bang up job….just don't tell her I said it."

"Don't worry, my lips are sealed and your secret is safe with me," Cobblepot said. "Now, have you seen Dudley?"

"Dudley?" Tracey asked.

"He hasn't been around all day, and I'm growing a tad bit concerned," Cobblepot said. "I need him in place if our latest plan is to go off without a hitch."

"He mentioned something about looking into Prudence and what she's up to," Tracey said. "He thought she might have double crossed you."

"What?" Cobblepot almost squawked.

"But, I'm sure…he wouldn't do anything…too stupid."

If Dudley was anything like Vernon, and Cobblepot knew Dudley was exactly like Vernon, he would do something stupid when he felt his honor had been insulted. He gave an angry squawk and gripped his umbrella handle. The foul mobster slammed the umbrella off his desk in anger to make a horrific sign.

"Um, I just remembered I needed to…do some paperwork!" Tracey yelled.

She scrambled as far in the other direction as her legs could carry her. The last thing she wanted was to be nearby when her boss hit the roof and went on the warpath.

Cobblepot dialed up the phone. He waited for a few moments and Dudley answered.

"Okay, Dudley, where the bloody hell are you?" Cobblepot asked. "I've been looking for you all bloody morning."

"I'm at Prudence's penthouse, turns out the bitch was about to double cross you, to Potter," Dudley said.

"You…what…you….you…."

Cobblepot's anguish trailed off and his words lacked coherence.

"And we've got Potter here as well, and I've got him right where I want him! I finally got the little tosser!"

For a second, Cobblepot's surprise registered. His godson had Potter. Nine times out of ten, Cobblepot experienced pride because of such a thing, but this one time out of ten, he hated what Dudley did.

"Dudley, you don't know what you did," Cobblepot said.

"I have Potter…"

"You don't know the type of friends his Lordship had, "Cobblepot said. "And he can make my life, our lives, really difficult if she lets them know what you did….you should just let her go with an apology."

"But, I have her," Dudley said. "She was about to shag Potter."

"I don't care if she was about to shag a hundred men!" Cobblepot yelled. "You could have ruined everything by barging in there, on some cock-brained scheme. And believe me, boy, you were thinking with your prick, because Prudence slighted Tracey."

"She slighted you, and me, as well," Dudley said.

"Business, my boy. Put your big boy pants on and use your head," Cobblepot said. "She has resources which we can use, and now…you blew the chance…"

A scream echoed in the background. The sounds of fighting escalated. Cobblepot squawked once again.

"Dudley, Dudley, what's going on? DUDLEY!"

Cobblepot realized someone attacked his men. He clutched the handle of his umbrella so hard his knuckles turned white.

* * *

Black Canary made her way around the back. She kept in constant contact with Harry, to see what he had in mind. The woman stood, almost rigid. Black Canary leaned back for a few seconds, frowning.

Catwoman narrowed her eyes. Anyone who stood between her and her goal, the stylish thief determined them to be an obstacle. Whatever the Penguin planned, it was the furthest thing from both her mind and her consideration. The woman crossed her arms together.

The speech of the thugs off to one side caused Catwoman to stand up straight.

"So, does the Walrus think he's really going to pull this one off?"

"I don't care what he does in there. We have the simple jump. We just watch the door and make sure no one interferes with whatever he wants to do. He has to deal with Potter."

"Did you hear what happened at Cobblepot's club?"

"Yeah, the fat bird tried to hold Potter captive. Then a few days later, his club went sky high. Months back, and he's just finally recovering from what happened. If you asked me, people who end up screwing with Potter end up for the worst off. Maxie Zeus knocked him out of the window, and where is he now? He's pretty bad off, isn't he?"

"I don't like it, why does the Walrus think he can get away scot free with Potter?"

Catwoman's interest in the banter of the thugs faded in a matter of seconds. She positioned herself in the shadows, making a move.

"Go check to make sure no one comes in through the elevator. We don't want any janitors getting in our way, do we?"

The goon chuckled in response. His chuckles faded when a pair of legs wrapped around his neck.

With elegant ability, Catwoman dropped down and dragged the man down the stairs. She nailed him with stiff kick knocking him out.

"Hey, Eddie, is anyone coming down from the elevator?"

One of the goons charged in. For a second, he didn't see anything.

A heeled boot connecting to the side of his face changed his lack of seeing anything in a hurry. The boot smacked off of his face, doubling him over. The wind knocked out of him when he fell to the ground.

Black Canary noticed three large unshaven gorillas blocking the doorway. They armed with weapons, and they would be seconds away from noticing her.

She swooped behind a curtain for cover. Black Canary popped out from underneath the curtain, and grabbed one of them, pulling him back.

"Hey, what the…."

Catwoman clonked the second goon on the back of the head, and she snapped off another kick to make sure. The third goon didn't know whether to look right or left.

The confusion allowed Dinah to punt him down to the ground. She clubbed him across the back of the head. Using her momentum, she brought him down throat first across her knee, taking him down.

"More will be on the way," Dinah said.

 _'Actually, I think you got all of them out in the hallway,'_ Harry thought. _'But, I'd keep your eyes peeled just in case.'_

 _'Understood,'_ Dinah thought. _'So, how are you doing?'_

'I'm doing fine,'

Harry thought. _'Just waiting for the right moment to strike. So far they haven't done anything too stupid….Dudley's out there somewhere, taking a call. So, I'd keep an eye out for him as well if you could.'_

Dinah wondered what Harry had in mind. The woman heard something come in from the elevator. Another trio of goons exited the elevator.

Seconds passed before Dinah realized something else. She lost sight of Catwoman. She slipped into the shadows and disappeared into the night.

No real time to worry about where Selina slipped off to. The Black Canary clutched her fingers together, and prepared to attack.

"I don't like it, the other boys should have checked in by now!"

Black Canary swooped in from behind them. She grabbed the goon's arm, and flipped him down to the ground. The woman brought herself up high. The fishnet clad woman slammed herself down hard on the chest of her adversary.

The other two rushed her. Black Canary arched back and avoided her enemy's attacks. She engaged one of them in a brief hand to hand combat. Black Canary dipped behind him, grabbing him around the throat. She slammed in against the wall.

She avoided her enemy's second attack. Black Canary kicked him in the back of the head, slumping him down to the ground.

* * *

Harry started to drum his fingers, looking rather bored. He eased his eyes up towards the clock. At first, Harry's constant gazing up at the clock really didn't bother them. Many of the thugs found themselves dealing with situations where they looked at the clock constantly.

Over time, Harry's constant looking at the clock, coupled with his constant eye rolling, started to dig underneath the skin of the thugs. It reached a point where one of them turned to Harry, agitation flowing through him.

"What, do you have a hot date, or something?"

Harry chuckled at the casual statement of one of the goons.

"Of course, I do. I always have a hot date. Too many hot dates, I'm afraid. Something, you Kindergarten drop outs don't have anything to worry about."

One of them aimed his gun at him. Harry waited for the moment to come. The moment where he figured one of the thugs tried to pop him off. The time ticked by.

"Careful, you heard what Mr. Walrus said…."

"Forget it, he's been disrespecting us for the last twenty minutes."

"Wow, you can tell time, I'm surprised," Harry said.

The goon gritted his teeth. He thought he was so good, he thought he was so awesome.

"You think you're good, just because you can get every dame in the world to drop their panties with a mere word."

"Word of advice, stop calling women dames," Harry said. "I feel I'm stuck in the 1920s….which is a step up being trapped in 18th century England, but never mind. Still, you better do something quick. If you think you can without your boss to do your thinking for you."

Dudley thinking for someone, talk about the blind leading the deaf. Harry couldn't even begin to describe how sad this entire state of affairs were.

"See what I mean?" one of the goons asked. "Ask for forgiveness, not permission. Let's just blow him…."

_'Three, two, one.'_

Harry noticed the fog slowly surrounding them. He didn't strike first, Prudence did. A choking amount of fog gagged the goons and destroyed their visibility.

 _'Not going to lie, I should have suspected this,'_ Harry thought. _'She was oddly calm for someone who had a few guns pointing in their face…..fog thicker than peanut butter.'_

The fog allowed them a cloud cover. The scenery around them looked much better because the ugly faces of these men faded.

 _'They can't see us, we can't see them,'_ Betsy thought. Her lips shifted to a smile. _'But, we have an advantage they don't have.'_

Betsy locked into the thoughts of the goons submerged in a thick fog. One of them tried to fire the gun, but ran into a problem. The gun was disabled.

 _'Well, I kept them busy long enough, to disable all their weapons,'_ Harry thought. _'Oh, and brace for impact.'_

Harry launched himself high into the air. The young man slammed his fist down onto his adversary's neck. The adversary slumped down onto the ground, the wind knocked out of him.

Several goons ambled forward, guns at the ready. Betsy linked into their minds, and cut them off.

The goons dropped down to the ground like flies. Betsy disabled their thoughts. They ended up on the ground, sleeping off their attacks like a particular ugly set of babies.

_'And now, what we came for.'_

Harry made his way over towards the case with the emeralds, hoping to lift them through the fog. Only to realize Prudence had been about a half of a step ahead of them. An opened window indicated she escaped.

_'Well, talk about inconvenient!'_

From the outside, Harry put himself on high alert after a heavy set of footsteps echoed. He knew Dudley would return.

' _Not quite as fat as before bastard is going down,'_ Betsy said.

The door opened, and Dudley scrambled inside through the fog. Harry cracked his knuckles and prepared to give Dudley what for.

"Potter! What did you…?"

Dudley dropped to the ground when someone knocked him from behind. He fell to the ground like a particularly large lump.

The fog faded from their surroundings. Harry noticed Black Canary approaching him from within the mists.

' _I have to admit, I shouldn't have expected more,'_ Betsy thought. _'But, I guess, I should have expected far less with this crew.'_

 _'Well, it looks like you cleaned up pretty good here, didn't you?'_ Dinah thought

Harry made sure there weren't any surprises. Despite the fact he disabled the weapons, or rather prevented them from firing, he wanted to have a pretty good idea about what Cobblepot had up his sleeve.

* * *

Prudence hated to be so rude, but she needed to leave right away. The Ffogg heiress managed to hold the case with the jewels. The young woman crouched down and looked up into the sky. She waited for a helicopter.

A fail safe plan incase her theft of the jewels were detected. Cobblepot really knew how to ruin a girl's vacation.

_'My apologies Harry, but I guess we're going to have to take a raincheck on our date.'_

Prudence tapped her foot on the ground. She never liked to wait, even as a child. The impatience and agitation filled her body.

Seconds passed.

"Hope, you're not going to leave town without saying goodbye."

Prudence almost escaped through the fog. She turned around and saw the leather clad woman crouched on the ledge. The woman dropped down, going face to face with her. The woman's goggles glinted in the distance.

"So, they think you stole the jewels, didn't they?" Prudence asked.

"Honey, some people in this city don't know any better. They mistake common English trash like yourself for someone with style like me."

Prudence didn't back down, despite the cutting cattiness coming from the classy cat burglar. The woman clenched her hand.

"Let me make one thing perfectly clear, I'm not common. But, I don't expect a glorified street walker to understand what she's getting into by messing with me."

"Daddy's not here to powder your bottom, Princess," Catwoman said. "Now, why don't you be a good girl, and beg for me. And I might go easy on you when I spank you."

Prudence narrowed her eyes at the woman. Her fingers twitched.

"The heiress of the House of Ffogg doesn't beg. And I have a helicopter to catch."

The fog rose around Catwoman. Catwoman smiled. The goggles she wore allowed her to see the red outline of the British Noble Woman easily.

"Going to have to learn some new tricks to slip past me this time."

Catwoman jumped into the air, and tried for a snap kick. Prudence avoided her attack, and caught Catwoman's attack on the backswing. She grabbed Catwoman by the hair, and hurled her down to the hair.

Prudence extended her palm and charged forward with an extended palm thrust. Catwoman avoided the attack.

Rain started to pour down over their heads. Leave it to Gotham City to be true to form. Prudence grabbed Catwoman and drilled a knee to the stomach.

"Guess, the Ffogg princess has a few tricks up her sleeve," Catwoman said. "But, I'm not afraid to get down and dirty."

Catwoman scratched at Prudence, and pushed her back. Prudence landed in the puddle of water with a splash. She closed her eyes, rolling out of the grime.

The felonious feline pinned her to the ground. Prudence dug her nails into the back of Catwoman's neck and flipped her to the ground. The two of them rolled around on the roof, scratching each other, and pulling at each other's hair, until Prudence slipped away.

Nightwing dropped down seconds later. He peered through the fog. A fight greeted him when he turned up. Catwoman and Prudence threw down. The two women fought with ripped clothes, messed up hair.

As much as a part of Harry liked to watch the show, an even bigger part of Harry needed to drop down and break things up before they became too far out of hand.

Catwoman lifted a hand. Nightwing grabbed Catwoman around the waist, dragging her away from Prudence.

The woman struggled for a second, with Nightwing pinned her down.

Prudence's eyes narrowed. The woman's face contorted into a frown. She tried to create a heavier jet of fog to secure her escape.

Nightwing reacted before she made her way to the helicopter. The young man propelled himself over the top of her head with a backflip. He reached into his suit and removed a containment collar. He snapped the collar around her neck.

The fog created around Prudence faded out. The woman's knees buckled underneath her.

"What did you do?" Prudence asked.

"Cut off your powers," Nightwing said. He picked up the bag containing the jewels.

"You know, no prison will be able to hold me for long."

The young man stooped down, a smile crossing his face.

"Oh believe me, I know. But, I know you're going to have a rough next few days until you get the charges dropped. And….you won't go after the Braddock jewels again, will you?"

Prudence responded with a simple shake of her head.

"There's no point," Prudence said. "Take them, I've proved my point."

"Good, glad to see we're on the same page," Nightwing said.

Prudence closed her eyes. The humiliation of being put down to her knees, and not getting any fun out of it, talk about a real kick in the pants.

"So, I guess, I'm going to miss the rally tomorrow tonight," Prudence said.

"What?" Nightwing asked.

"Oh, Harry Potter asked me out on a date," Prudence said. "And….well, I'm not sure if you met him, but he's the type of man you don't get a second chance."

"Accept the consequences of what happened, and you might get the second chance," Nightwing said. "And understand the type of games you played, no one won. Your father never should have felt slighted, and if you're trying to prove yourself to a dead man, you're doing what you do for a wrong reason."

Prudence thought about it for a good long moment. She hated to admit someone, especially such a do gooder was right. She found herself about as annoyed with Nightwing as she found herself enamored with Harry Potter.

"So, I guess you're going to turn me in?"

"Do I look like I have a choice?"

"I'm sure there's no use of exposing you to the GCPD," Prudence said.

"Half of them don't want to know I exist."

Prudence thought the question had been answered. Nightwing led to the Penthouse.

"Is, Harry okay?"

"Hmm."

"Harry Potter, he might have been injured, when I escaped through the fog. I didn't mean to, it was an impulse decision….sometimes I think about myself more than I think about others."

Acceptance of flaws might be the first step. Prudence remained silent, furious at her moment of weakness. She stood up, with her head held up high, allowing Nightwing to escort her back to the apartment.

 _'So, the GCPD has been contacted, and I'm sure they'll be on their way in a moment,'_ Betsy thought.

_'They'll be expecting a few presents when I get back.'_

Nightwing locked eyes with Catwoman for about ten seconds. She slipped back off into the night.

* * *

Harvey Bullock answered the call first. The moment he arrived, he noticed the Walrus, one of the Penguin's lead men, hanging from the ceiling, stripped to his underwear. The cop grimaced and took half of a step back.

"Alright, much more of him than I wanted to see today," Bullock said. He turned to the GCPD officers, all of them looking like their stomachs twisted as well. "Get him some pants, and bring him…and the trash on the floor."

Bullock stepped forward and smiled, as he saw Prudence Ffogg, handcuffed and on her knees.

"Not a very natural position for you, is it, Princess?" Bullock asked. "Guess, we should have thought you'd be after the jewels. Following in dear Daddy's first steps, aren't we?"

"Yes, Detective, but you didn't capture me," Prudence said.

"Well, who handcuffed you, then?" one of the officers asked.

"You know, he swooped in and I fell unconscious," Prudence said. "Never once saw who it was….and if I did, you'd might deny his existence anyway."

"We're going to have to let her go."

Bullock's eyes snapped up. He looked at James Gordon, who turned up outside of the door. Bullock glimpsed at his fellow cop like he spoke in tongues.

"You mean…."

"She's not our responsibility," Gordon said. "The federal government will be taking over. I checked their credentials."

"Yes, Ms. Ffogg, you're coming with me."

Prudence frowned. Getting out of custody in prison would not be a problem. Especially since she could pull some strings, get a nice cell to cool her heels for a couple of weeks, and move on with her life.

She might be able to get out of this, although more detailed favors would need to be called in. And a few more threats than she wanted to give. As powerful as she was, she didn't want to make any powerful enemies.

Nightwing viewed the GCPD. Odd, Penguin didn't come to fetch his godson and allowed him to be lead off.

 _'Guess, the fat bird wanted to teach him one of those life lessons Vernon didn't bother to teach him,'_ Nightwing thought. _'Oh, and Betsy, I'd expect you to be getting a call…you cleared the scene already.'_

' _Yes, Dinah, and I rode back to the Penthouse,'_ Betsy thought.

Harry noticed Prudence escorted out, not by the GCPD, but by the same bald black man with an eyepatch he encountered on the West Coast.

Curious indeed.

* * *

**To Be Continued on November 14** **th** **, 2015.**


	142. Out of the Mists

**Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Two: Out of the Mists.**

* * *

The Gotham City museum suffered a huge hit in their reputation over the past couple of months. The incident involving the Spear of Zeus leaving the museum and being placed in the hands of one Maxie Zeus was a fresh one in the minds of anyone and everyone involved. Come to think of it, no one uncovered the Spear just yet. The GCPD investigated the theft, but some came to the conclusion the spear blew up when Zeus used it one time too many.

Personally, Helena Sandsmark wondered about the consequences of keeping so many high end and extremely powerful artifacts in a public museum. Without testing to make sure they actually did anything, she would file a personal recommendation to not put anything out without any kind of testing.

Granted said recommendation fell upon deaf ears, but Helena really hoped someone would listen to her for once in her life. The administration at the museum made a couple of questionable decisions to be honest.

The doors swung open. Elizabeth Braddock slipped inside. The heiress walked over. Helena turned up to join her, an apologetic look dancing in her eyes.

"You know, I don't think I could tell you more than enough how sorry I am, we all, of the fact the jewels were stolen."

Betsy's lips shifted into a knowing smile. It never ceased to amaze her how much people took the Braddock family jewels more seriously than she did. The woman leaned closer towards Helena.

"I wouldn't worry; you only work here."

Helena smiled, even though her smile ended up amounting to a really weakened smile. She only worked her, which didn't stop countless people from complaining to her when something really wrong happened. If she had a dollar for all of the times she received a complaint, she would be a rather rich woman.

Referring to them to upper management ended up being useless.

"You know, if people have something to say about the hard work you've done, they can just go and piss off."

Helena almost cracked a smile. She lowered the clipboard.

"You know….something about saying people can….piss off, I believe you said?"

"You're not offended are you?" Betsy asked.

"No, I'm not, in fact you're really on the money," Helena said. "Just hope this summer's exploits go off as planned. There are too many hands trying to dip into the pot, even though Harry…you know, Doctor Potter, is planning on taking control of the entire thing."

Betsy surveyed her with sympathy. Helena thought it was almost like she scanned her mind. Then she realized who she talked to and realized it didn't really seem to be the case.

Helena blushed as she realized Betsy could read her thoughts. And she thought about some of the times she shared with Harry because she brought up his name.

Betsy's lips curled into a naughty smile and a suggestive wink. She reached forward, in an attempt to console her about the frustrations at the museum.

"Don't worry, love, any thought you've had, I been there, and done that."

Funnily enough, Betsy's words didn't do anything to curb the dirty thoughts entering Helena's mind now. If anything, the dirty thoughts escalated to an entirely new level. She shook her head.

 _'Working way too many hours,'_ Helena thought.

 _'Think I might be able to help you,'_ Diana thought.

 _'Well, if you can, I'm open to suggestions,'_ Helena thought.

Helena stopped and realized what she said. Betsy smiled and walked to the office.

"I could use a cup of coffee, if you have it?" Betsy asked. "Never been one for coffee myself, but Harry….Doctor Potter…he got me addicted to the coffee."

"Well, some of us can't function without it," Helena said.

Some of the girls in the bond network laughed. Helena smiled at the thought. True enough, a lot of the girls couldn't function without it. Raising a daughter and working a high level job, Helena found herself a bit addicted to coffee.

"So, the most obvious suspect is the one who stole the jewels," Betsy said. "The apple seldom falls far from the tree, especially in high society."

Helena fixed both of them the cup of coffee.

"Sugar?"

"Just one please," Betsy said. "Oh, and speaking of which, Harry extends his apologies he couldn't make it to our meeting this morning."

"Another meeting he couldn't postpone?" Helena asked.

"Afraid so," Betsy said. "But, I'm sure there will be other opportunities for the three of us to get together. Harry's told me a lot about your work…and I'm sure you need to get back to it."

Unfortunately, Helena agreed she needed to get back to work. She checked her watch.

"Yes, in about fifteen minutes, my shift starts," Helena said.

"And you haven't left in a couple of days, have you?" Betsy asked

"Not really," Helena said. "But, at least it's over. I think in some strange way, we owe Catwoman an apology, at least a partial one."

Betsy frowned for a second. She really wished she could get into Selina's head. Not without the bond access, which she started to fight. Talk about a rather tough one to wrap her head around.

 _'I'm not sure if you could even properly get in her head with the bond,'_ Dinah thought.

 _'Well, she does have her issues, but don't we all?'_ Betsy thought.

 _'Life would be boring if we weren't just a little bit off,'_ Nym thought. _'Then again, I've hung around teenage girls so much, I'm starting to think I'm one.'_

'We barely notice you're there half of the time,'

Amanda thought.

 _'Well no one's supposed to notice I'm there, it's the entire stealth disguise thing,'_ Nym thought.

About the only thing they could get Catwoman on now is breaking and entering. The entire group wondered what Catwoman was after in the first place. Did she intended to steal something? Why would she break in if we didn't?

"Continue displaying the jewels here."

Helena's eyebrow rose in surprise. She leaned in towards Betsy. Her frown deepened.

"Are you sure you trust us to continue displaying the jewels?" Helena asked.

Betsy thought about it for a few minutes and smiled.

"Call me insane, but I think I should follow something through, to the very end, no matter what. And don't worry about their safe transport out of the country. I have some friends who will take this matter well in hand."

Helena hoped for her sake she was right. It might be a bit easier for some to attack a transport. Security would be beefed up around the jewels.

"I'll make the recommendation for them to heighten security," Helena said.

"Don't go to all of the trouble, I know the museum is slim for resources these days," Betsy said. "And you're hoping your next trip will bear fruit which will bring countless new visitors."

Helena nodded, Harry must have told her. If not, well it wasn't as if the rumors were a carefully guarded secret. The woman brushed her brown locks of hair away from her face, frown deepening as she sighed.

* * *

Harvey Dent studied the latest poll results. The race for District Attorney allowed him to move high up the rankings. The rally arranged for tonight should push him over the top to a brand new level.

Of course, this late in the election, mudslinging would be inevitable. Harvey braced himself for the worst. The lightning rod the election ended up being some events in his childhood.

Harvey shook his head. He planned to cross a few rickety bridges when he came to them. The man edged to his office, frown deepening. He approached the door and opened it up.

Rachel Dawes, the current acting District Attorney, sat on his desk. Harvey raised an eyebrow, as she crossed her legs, showing a nice hint of her stocking clad legs.

"Good morning, Harvey," Rachel said. She swung her legs off of the desk and crossed the room, approaching him. "So, are you ready for the rally tonight? It could be big….it could be the final nail in the coffin of your political rivals."

Harvey smiled. A couple of his opponents had rallies of their own, and they had big commercial campaigns, painting them as family men. Even though one of them was a known womanizer, who cheated on his wife with her own sister. And they were just getting started.

The road to November was going to be a rough one.

"Well, it's going to be a big event," Harvey said.

Rachel slipped behind him, to get a glass of water from the water cooler.

"With Miss Vreeland taking care of everything, it should be nothing less than extravagant," Rachel said. She took a drink of water, sipping on it. Harvey tuned to face her. "And Harry, we can't forget Harry Potter. He's got his finger in so many pies, it's a wonder he has time to do anything. I hope he has time for one more."

Rachel smiled, but Harvey didn't pick up on her words. He shook his head.

"Well, at least we're having this on the ground floor," Harvey said. "Doctor Potter has a bad habit of being knocked out of high places."

Rachel shook her head. It was one of his qualities she admitted.

"Bruce is escorting me to the event," Rachel said.

"Bruce Wayne?" Harvey asked.

"Well someone has to keep him away from all of the tarts who are only after his pocketbook," Rachel said. "And I'd figure….we could reconnect. You never know what might happen tonight."

Rachel slipped a folder into his hand.

"The latest poll results…looks like you're kicking a lot of ass," Rachel said.

Harvey didn't say anything. Rachel moved behind him and put her hands on his shoulder.

"You look a little bit tense, Harvey."

Harvey frowned.

"Wouldn't anyone else be tense?" Harvey asked. "There's the cop killer on the loose, and no one is able to have any leads on him."

"Yes, it's been a frustrating investigation," Rachel said. She moved around towards him. Her fingers intertwined against his briefly, before she pulled away. "We'll find them…hopefully before you're in office. Can't say the GCPD are doing themselves any favors. Loeb isn't exactly the most helpful person in the world. And there's a good old boys mentality in there."

Harvey hated to admit she had a point.

"But, we'll catch the son of a bitch, and make them hang for giving terror in our fair city," Rachel said.

Harvey admired the zeal she took with her job. Almost scary at times, and it gave him confidence she would catch the cop killer.

"Everyone in the GCPD could be a suspect," Rachel said. "If someone knows something, they'll crack, to get the heat off of them. The best thing for us if the cop killer struck one or two more times."

Harvey preferred no one else died because of this psychopath. He hoped to see whoever behind this locked up with the key threw away. Even if the cop killer killed some of the less than upstanding citizens in the GCPD, Harvey wished for justice. Some of them did have families who deserved about as much.

"The only reason why the press hasn't run away with the story is because cops get killed in Gotham City every day," Rachel said. "Could be a disgruntled cop, could be a low-level mobster with a guilt complex. Hell, anyone with an axe to grind could be a suspect."

Harvey figured she was right.

"But enough about that business," Rachel said. "How's Gilda?"

Harvey would have rather talked about the crazed cop killer for hours, than the strained relationship with his wife for one moment.

"She's…some days are better than others," Harvey said. "She had a couple of threatening phone calls and a window broken the other night."

Rachel gasped.

"Well, we better….strengthen the security around her," Rachel said. "The last thing we want you do to is drop out of this election because of your wife becoming a liability."

Harvey frowned.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure she has the proper protection tonight," Rachel said. "I want to make sure everything goes on without a hitch."

A thought crossed Harvey's mind which he squashed. No need to be paranoid after all. Everything would turn out just fine.

"You have more than enough to worry about," Rachel said. "You need to show the entire world how you're ready to take Gotham City, but so far, you have my vote."

She paused and added with a smile.

"After all, I believe in Harvey Dent."

* * *

Prudence Ffogg sat in a large room. The grey walls presented a sterile environment which she assumed intended to psyche out the prisoner. The chair caused an ache to spread through her back and hips.

 _'Not built for comfort,'_ Prudence thought. _'And they're keeping me waiting, some nerve they have.'_

The woman leaned on the table. The door slid open, and the gentleman who escorted her off stepped forward. The tall black man sat down on the chair in front of her.

"You kept me waiting," Prudence said. "I hope it was for a good reason."

The man slid a glass of water in front of her.

"You must be parched," the man said.

"I'll pass," Prudence said.

The last thing she needed was her fingerpints to be all over a glass of water. The man would be the type to put her fingerprints over something and frame her.

"Suit yourself," the man said. "You've given us a lot of trouble. Tell me, was it really worth it?"

"In the end, no," Prudence said. "Chalk it up as an unnatural moment of weakness, if you must. But, let it be known I won't get caught stealing the Braddock family jewels again. They're quite frankly gawdy."

"So, you have your Daddy issues," the man said.

Prudence raised an eyebrow, in a moment of annoyance. Talk about simplifying an issue beyond its scope. The woman folded her arms, and stared down the gentleman in front of her.

"Well, merely a thirst to prove myself."

The man nodded. He adjusted the briefcase in his hand and slipped it down on the table.

"I hope the thirst was really worth it. Are you finding the bracelets on your wrists comfortable? Given you're such a fan of jewelry, I would think you would."

Prudence didn't find the bracelets comfortable at all. She assumed it was the idea.

"Power inhibitors," Prudence said. "You don't trust me."

The gentleman widened his one eye. The woman held her hands up.

"You wouldn't be able to make it past the doors, fog or no fog. But, we wouldn't want to take any chances, would be?"

"You have me, but I don't have to lift a finger to leave," Prudence said. "You know, I have friends in high places. And they won't be happy for you to leave me here. And if I had to guess, Lady Braddock hadn't pressed charges."

The gentleman leaned back in the chair. He knew Elizabeth Braddock hadn't pressed charges. Perhaps on the suggestion of Harry Potter, perhaps on her own. Regardless, if she called his bluff, there could be trouble.

"Your powers might be useful," he said.

The woman's lips curled into a frown. She understood in less than a second where he intended to go.

"They are useful, but I doubt you'd be able to use them," Prudence said. "So, the rumors about your little squad of the super-powered are true."

The gentleman across from her adjusted the briefcase. He slipped a stack of papers down on the table. Prudence wondered when they would reached this more. The casual conversation ended.

"More of a development, really," the man said. "But, you can either go to prison for three years, or work a year with the team. Pick your poison."

Prudence thought she had more options.

"You don't even know how I acquired these powers, do you?" Prudence asked. "Because, I guarantee you I don't fit your criteria."

"We have been rounding up those who have been gifted by the meteors in Smallville," the man said.

"Nicholas Fury," Prudence said. The man raised an eyebrow. "Don't seem surprised; you're not the only one who has done their research."

The man on the other end of the table gave her one of those nods which made it look like she wasn't surprised by the fact she knew who she was.

"But, I have to tell you your research is incomplete. You think I received these powers in the meteor shower. I won't deny I didn't spend some time in Smallville, but it was in the months leading up to the meteor shower. I left town a few months before. If you want to have proof, I'll happily give it to you. I have records of all my business dealings, and I left Smallville before the meteors stopped flying."

Fury thought his people needed to do their homework better. Providing she told the truth, which Fury doubted a little bit. The man shifted his stance in his seat and peered into her eyes.

"Then, how did you receive those powers?" Fury asked.

Prudence didn't say a word for a second.

"I'm afraid I'm not saying a word, until you allow me to contact my legal console to get this sorted out," Prudence said. "And unless you want an international incident, you'll let me do it by the end of today."

"We'll see," Fury said.

"What do you have to get permission?" Prudence asked.

Prudence mentally filed away the fact someone might be higher up on the food chain than Fury. Who….well, she didn't know too much. Her intelligence didn't stretch too far to be honest.

"We'll have you, yet," Fury said. "Even if you leave today, we'll be watching you. Slip up again, and you might not have a second chance."

"Not have a second chance," Prudence said. "Well, I'll have you know I've learned my lesson. But keep me here too long….and you might find your plans being leaked to certain people."

"Blackmail, you'd resort to blackmail!" Fury yelled.

He bared down upon Prudence, his eye narrowing at her. Prudence's lips curled into a grin.

"Well, just playing your game, Nicolas. But your own medicine tastes disgusting, doesn't it?"

* * *

The Harvey Dent for District Attorney rally had the best of Gotham City. Bruce Wayne walked into greater prominence.

"A great night, isn't it Bruce?" Rachel asked. "And thank you for escorting me here."

"Well, you were insistent about me taking you," Bruce said.

"Well, it's not like you would have asked me yourself," Rachel said. She leaned towards him with a smile. "And, we're both here for a good cause. We're both here to support Harvey Dent. We both believe in Harvey Dent."

"Well, he has my vote," Bruce said. He turned around and saw the gentleman make his way into the picture.

Harvey stood around. Gilda walked next to him. She looked around, forcing her face into a smile.

"I didn't expect the turnout to be this…intense," Harvey said.

"Oh, you should have had more faith in yourself," Rachel said.

"It seems like the only person who doesn't believe in Harvey Dent, is Harvey Dent."

Harvey turned around. Harry Potter arrived, and he smiled. The loud round of applause diverted towards Harry. Betsy turned towards Harry.

 _'So, is it just me, can you barley hear yourself think with all of the applause?'_ Betsy thought.

_'It's not just you.'_

"A good turnout tonight, isn't it?" Harry asked.

Harvey walked forward to reach for Harry's hand. The two of them gripped hands in a firm handshake.

"Hope you didn't take the heat off of me too much," Harvey said. "Although I almost feel like I'm going to have to buy you a drink."

"You know with an applause like this, you should run for Mayor," Rachel said.

"I don't have any experience in politics, though," Harry said.

"You'd still be a step up from half of the people in Congress," Veronica said. She turned up to join the entire group. "And I think many would be vote for you."

"When would I have the time?" Harry asked.

Veronica shrugged in response. Harry's point was well taken by her to be honest. Rachel stared at Harry for a few seconds. Her eyes gazed intently into his, but she pulled back.

"A shame really, and it'd be too late in the game," Rachel said. "Unless there's a massive write in campaign….not I want to give anyone any ideas."

"I'd have to decline," Harry said. "Too bad, Mayor Grange isn't running again, but she's done her time, and she wants a long retirement."

"Who could blame her?" Harvey asked. "But it's time to move on. Hope we get some fresh blood in."

"Oh, I'm sure there's going to be a change in Gotham, Harvey."

Hamilton Hill made his way over. He cuffed Harvey on the back.

"Not a bad turn out tonight, "Hill said. "But tonight's your night, but I'll help you in any way I can."

Something about Hill's boisterous attitude rubbed Harvey the wrong way. Perhaps it would have done less so.

"Thank you, Hamilton," Harvey said. "Looks like you're going to be elected as the Mayor, no problem at all."

Hill tried not to smile too much. He moved over to mingle with the voters.

"Wouldn't count him out," Rachel said. "Especially since he's piggy backing off of the ground swell of support."

"Politics for you," Harry said. "But you'd know better than you would."

"Yes," Rachel said. "I would know better."

"And Alexa's here," Veronica said, making her way over.

The Luthor heiress arrived, and she wasn't the only Luthor here. Lex showed up in Metropolis as well, with a young woman handing on his every word.

"We're working on a project, which is going to reinvent the entire dynamic of LuthorCorp."

Lex wished he had a bit more support from high up. He decided to go forward, without Lionel's blessing. The time for him to man up and do what was necessarily approached now. After Alexa gave Earle a chewing out, Lex found himself inspired.

Speaking of Earle, he hung around with the rest of the Douchebag League of Businessmen. Lionel was absent, having had business. Alexa and Lex served the Luthor presence for this rally.

"Well, at least Lex is finally making his move," Alexa said. She turned around and greeted Harry with a smile. "And, I should have known I would have run into you."

"Well, I was a part of setting up this entire rally," Harry said. "But, Veronica deserves the lion's share of the credit."

Veronica tried not to smile. She tapped Harry on the shoulder, who turned around.

"Hey, don't worry, it's what I live for," Veronica said.

Sapphire crossed over, and she stopped in front of Alexa, Veronica, Betsy, and Harry. She hesitated for a brief second.

"You don't mine if I steal Harry, for a bit, do you?" Sapphire asked.

Betsy smiled at her fellow heiress.

"Just make sure to return him. I still haven't had my fun with him for the night."

Sapphire grinned. She leaned towards and planted a playful kiss on Betsy's chest. She raised a couple of eyebrows, but she honestly didn't care right now.

She gripped Harry's hand and escorted him off to one side.

"So, how have you been?" Sapphire asked. "I didn't have a chance to talk to you since you got back from California."

"Do you wish you went?" Harry asked.

Sapphire smiled and leaned in close to Harry. Her fingers brushed against his shoulder.

"Would I have rather been on a sunny beach, instead of in a stuffy boardroom? You better believe it, but….guess I had to deal with them. But, I've got them under control."

Harry slipped his hand into hers. He squeezed her hand. Sapphire sighed.

"If you need any help getting them under control, let me know," Harry said. "Your father knew there was going to be trouble….any signs of progress with him?"

"More of the same," Sapphire said. "Even if he recovers, he won't be the same."

Sapphire prepared to move on with everything .One day at a time, at least she had plenty of help. Her father created a foundation. Did he regret not starting on the right path too soon? He said as much.

"Ronnie really outdid herself," Sapphire said. "But, knowing here, she's going to find a way to beat herself again. Maybe when you run for Mayor of Gotham City or something?"

"Really?" Harry asked. "You too Sapphire?"

Actual public office, well Harry wasn't sure about it. He thought about how much power he could have given up and it would be a bit of a problem.

Her laughter indicated at least Sapphire thought the entire matter was as absurd as Harry did. She leaned in towards him, brushing her tongue against her lips.

"Relax, I know it would be one thing too many."

Sapphire took Harry with a nice kiss.

"And now, I'm keeping you from your date a bit too long," Sapphire said. "You shouldn't….not for too long."

Harry rejoined Betsy. Betsy was all too used to the scene around her. People pretending to shake each other's hands, while looking for the right spot to stab the knife in their backs.

 _'Isn't politics glorious?'_ Betsy asked.

 _'And it's a wonder why I don't want to get involved,'_ Harry thought.

Cobblepot shuffled his way into the situation. He gave Harry a nasty gaze. Harry waved his hand and casually waved at him. Cobblepot folded his arms and shuffled up, to discuss something with Sionis. Harry listened in for a second, but didn't pick up anything too incriminating.

 _'And now you're being a troll,'_ Betsy thought. _'You put his godson in prison.'_

'To be fair, it was Dudley's on doing,'

Harry thought. _'If he managed to get some common sense, he might be halfway dangerous.'_

'Something tells me, it's impossible,'

Lily thought. _'Vernon Dursley's DNA counteracts any attempt of common sense.'_

Harry's smile increased. Talk about having a point. Veronica made her way to the stage. Rachel, Bruce, and Harvey walked towards them. Gilda shuffled in the background. She stood up next to Harvey, with a smile, and waved towards them.

Anyone who was observant noticed the smile looked to be one who putting on a show for the crowd. Harvey turned around, observing the people. He tried to speak about three times. The overwhelming applause drowned out any attempt for him to speak.

"Thank you all for coming out tonight!" Harvey called over the loud applause.

"We're here for a reason!" Rachel yelled. "Gotham City has been through some rough times, but if there's one thing we all have in common, we're survivors. Any hardship, we can face together!"

The loud round of cheers rose up again. The cascading applause of the crowd continued, but one noticed some of the politicians eying the stage nervously. Their hands moved in applauded, but the eyes told a very different story entirely. All of them wondered how this would affect them.

Harry watched, along with the rest of the world. The landscape in Gotham City started to change. It looked like Dent would be the District Attorney in a matter of months. What happened from there, Harry, along with all of Gotham could only guess.

* * *

Joe Kerr drove from one of the last few shifts he would take at the Ace Chemical Plant. His hands rested on the wheel of his car. His eyes focused on the road, but his mind was the furthest away from the road. He took the back road to his home, and thought about the offer made.

All of the money for one night, one night which could set him up for the rest of the night, no need to worry about money ever again. Joe knew the kind of offer the Red Hood slipped underneath his nose was a once in a life time offer.

_'The Ace Chemical Plant…they're not going to lose out. And there's some shady dealings going on in the back room. What's one more little heist on top of them all?'_

Joe's rap sheet was nonexistent; he didn't even have as much of a speeding ticket. The man lived a life devoid of excitement.

_'Being booed off stage is the most relevant thing which has ever happened to me. Sad, but true, isn't it?'_

Joe pulled up to his house. A police barricade up in front of his house caused the man to skid to a stop.

His blood ran cold. He pushed open the car and exited it, frowning. An ambulance flashed the sirens.

The man made his way over the police barricade. Two EMTs rolled a stretcher with a sheet out on the street. The smell of burning flesh filled Joe's nostrils. He stepped back with a frown.

The lead officer exited the house. He caught sight of Joe.

"Are you Joe Kerr?"

"Yes, sir, what….what happened?" Joe asked.

He dreaded hearing the answer to the question. The sheet slipped off to reveal a ghastly sight to Joe, to be combined with the smell of burned flesh.

"Sorry, sir, we didn't want you to find out this way."

Joe snapped out of the trance.

"Your wife sir….we did everything we could, but….we couldn't save her. We believe it was a baby bottle warmer which did the deed."

"A baby bottle warmer?" Joe asked.

"Yes, sir, she plugged it in, and it exploded in her face, burning her. The neighbor heard the screams, but couldn't reach her in time. By the time the EMTs arrived, she suffered fatal burns."

Baby bottle warmer….a cold dose of reality took Joe.

"We believe it's an accident, sir, and not murder. Sorry about your loss, both of them."

Joe hunched his head down. He turned and faced away from his wife's body. The EMT dragged the sheet over her body. The incriminating sight already visited him.

"I'm afraid you can't go inside yet, sir, we're still investigating the crime scene. And we want to ask you a few questions."

Joe dragged his feet and followed the officer. His bad day couldn't get much worse, could it?

* * *

**To Be Continued on November 18** **th** **, 2015.**


	143. The Chase

**Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Three: Chase.**

* * *

Selina Kyle crept from the shadows, dropping down outside of the Gotham City museum. She secured herself in the full Catwoman attire. One might receive a strange sense of Deja-Vu after what occurred three nights ago. The prowler smiled. She placed her hand on the glass, and cut open a small hole.

Once the hole appeared in the glass, Selina slid her hand inside. She grabbed the door handle and clicked it open. The woman pushed the door open, allowing her inside. The security guards rustled around, but didn't notice her slipping in. Enhanced security, or so it seemed. Regardless, she decided to make her movement.

Ninety degree angle, and she needed to time it properly if she wanted to get the attention of the guards. Her finger flickered. Bullseye, which set the alarm towards the back entrance off. Such the pity, Selina found her way inside past the front entrance.

_'Pity the front entrance is always the one which is unguarded. Oh well, much easier for me to do what I need to do to get around.'_

Another casual step put Selina near the case. She stopped for a moment. The shimmer of the tapestry hung in front of her. The reason why she entered the museum three nights ago. A small peak while the guards chased phantoms wouldn't hurt, would it?

The tapestry security amounted to less around the Family jewels. One would think different given the involvement of a Falcone. Selina didn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

A look at the tapestry caused Selina's face to fall. She didn't really get what she wanted. The tapestry wasn't what she thought it was. The design on the bottom showed her at least as much.

_'Ah, so sad, guess I'm going to have to go for a consolation prize, and what a consolation prize indeed.'_

Her lips curled into a mischevious grin. One of the guards came back. Selina pushed her back against the wall, waiting for a fair amount of time to pass for her.

One guard stepped around the corner. She brought the point of her elbow down onto the guard's head and dragged him into the seconds. One guard dropping attracted the second guard, to look around.

"Hey, Albert….something in this place broken….."

Catwoman crouched down, wrapping her legs around the guard's neck. She used her ankles to flip him over. The large guard slammed into the ground with the full force.

With the standard grace and elegance expected, Selina flipped onto the ground. Her mouth curled into a knowing smile.

"Perfect."

She reached down and pulled the key card from the fat hand of the guard. The Braddock family jewels, tacky as they may be, shined out underneath her eyes.

_'She had no style, but right now, I have all of the style.'_

Selina swiped the card against the opening. The lock flashed to life and caused an opening to appear. Pulling out a bag, she removed the jewels from the case and placed them inside.

Not wanting to press her luck, Selina made her way through the front door. The woman took a half of a second to step into the moonlight.

Stepping into Gotham City allowed Selina numerous opportunities to run into certain people in the city.

The woman smiled as she noticed a very familiar figure across the street. She could tell those fish nets a mile away. Selina stepped back, placing a finger in her mouth. She ran her tongue over the claw. With a taunting glint in her eye, Selina held up the bag.

Black Canary almost wrapped up the patrol without incident. On a whim, she decided to stop by the Gotham City museum. The whim proved to lead her right smack dab in the middle of Catwoman's latest heist.

And after she told her, swearing up and down she had no interest in nabbing the jewels, what did she do? Catwoman ended up nabbing the jewels. The Braddock family jewels.

 _'Well isn't it a predicament?'_ Betsy thought.

 _'I'd say,'_ Dinah thought.

It wouldn't be an easy night without Catwoman to cause some problems. The criminal temptress stared over her shoulder.

 _'Something tells me I'm not the person she intended to get the attention of,'_ Dinah thought. _'But, she's going to have her fun right now regardless.'_

'How do you figure?'

Barbara thought.

_'I don't know; call it a bit of a dumb hunch.'_

Catwoman scrambled up the building, when she received Black Canary's full attention. The woman grinned after seconds passed.

Black Canary sighed and made her way up of the side of the building to give chase. And here she thought tonight would be boring. She guessed wrong, really wrong.

Catwoman thought she didn't run into the hero she expected, but it could be worse. The GCPD, the mobsters, or the SWAT, or the Magpie woman, which some people mistook as Catwoman. Selina didn't know why.

_'Talk about a bitch which has no sense of style.'_

Catwoman crossed over the building, almost skidding over the top. She watched as Black Canary made her way in.

The cat proved the sharpness of her claws. She swiped at Black Canary. The two of them exchanged in a brief round of hand to hand.

"You're fun, but merely a distraction."

Catwoman grabbed two hands full of Black Canary's hair and flipped her over. Black Canary stuck the landing, hitting landing on her feet.

She waved at Black Canary, and flipped off of the building. She retracted her whip, and locked it around a ladder.

Granted, not the most elegant way to travel, but it had its style.

Black Canary recovered from the brief hand to hand.

 _'I'd say she deserves a spanking,'_ Diana thought.

 _'Something tells me she's asking for one,'_ Donna thought. _'And the chase is on.'_

Black Canary knew the night would only end in one way, as the game between the cat and the canary kicked up. If she wanted to play games, Dinah knew how to play them as well.

* * *

Joe Kerr sank into a funk in his living room. He didn't think today could get any worse. The man spent the past few hours being grilled by an overzealous police officer. Which was funny because they came to the conclusion the death was an accident.

The smell of burning flesh lingered in his home. Joe wondered what else could go wrong. The stack of unpaid bills on the table in the sitting room showed him what else could go wrong. Even with the job at Ace, Joe found himself a bit strapped on class. The bills started to pile up, and the red words "final notice" stared out in front of him.

The Red Hood job really would set him up for life. If he wanted to sell his soul for some cash, Joe could do just as much. The man considered the few options he had left.

To add to the fun and games tonight, the phone on the bed side table rang. Joe lifted the phone up with a shaky hand.

"Yes," Joe said.

"So, you're having a bad night, aren't you, Joe?" the distorted voice asked over the phone.

"My wife died….not in the mood for it," Joe said.

"Sorry about your loss," the distorted voice said. "Seems like you have nothing left to lose and everything left to gain."

The statement drove the knife into Joe's shoulder even deeper. The man clenched his fist around the phone and breathed in.

"Do you agree you have everything left to gain?" he asked.

"I guess you have me in a bind," Joe said. "You son of a bitch."

"I wouldn't call me one, just yet," the distorted voice said. "After all, I wasn't the guy who wanted to send you a message."

"Are you trying to say my wife was murdered?" Joe asked.

"Well, I'm no detective," the distorted voice said. "But, I do know, around the same time you handed in your notice to the Ace Chemical plan, some people got very nervous. They like you there, Joe. And days later, she ends up dead. Do you think it's strange she ended up dead after you backed away from the plant?"

Joe gripped his fist around the cord.

"No, you're fucking with me," Joe said. "You're really yanking my chain."

"I never yank other men's chains, Joe," the distorted voice said. "You see, some really bad people are backing the Ace Chemical plant. You must have noticed some oddness, haven't you?"

Joe didn't answer the question straight away. His fist clenched against the phone which he talked on. Joe noticed the oddness, the weird way Mr. Romero conducted business. The deals he made, but would he go as far as murder?

"Really bad people, Joe," the man said. "The Red Hood gang aren't criminals, like the GCPD paints us to be. We're crusaders, working for a greater good. Wouldn't you like to stick it to these bastards?"

"I'm not sure if you're lying," Joe said.

Joe gripped his hand around the table. His entire life spun around in a circle. He didn't know who to believe at this point, or really any other point to be honest.

"Well, I told you it's only a theory I had, but I think deep down you believe it. And think about how some of the cops have been acting tonight. They wouldn't have acted like they had, unless there hadn't been some palms greased somewhere."

Again, the words burned into Joe's mind and stuck around for a long time.

"So, do you want to meet me face to face?"

The question lingered in the air for several moments like a bad stench. Joe considered the choice he made.

"Where can I meet you?"

With his bad day, he had nothing left to lose, and everything left to gain. What could happen anyway? The worst thing he could think of would be getting shot by a bunch of lunatics.

* * *

_'Well, the long night is just going to get even longer. Figures about as much.'_

Black Canary continued to be on the hunt for Catwoman. The crafty kitten decided to give her the slip, at least for moment.

A few times, Dinah rode along with Harry on the bond link as he chased Catwoman. She had a bad habit of disappearing and then reappearing at a moment's notice. Almost like she toyed with her pursuers. Dinah frowned as she leaned back.

_'So far, no sign of her, but not exactly a surprise.'_

'Keep looking around,'

Harry thought. _'She'll show herself all too soon.'_

'The real question is, when will you show yourself?'

Kara asked.

 _'When the time is right,'_ Harry thought.

The girls understood what he meant. Harry played Catwoman about as much as she played him. The game between Catwoman and Nightwing couldn't be described by someone on the outside looking in. In Harry's mind, she deserved to be toyed with.

It wasn't like she wouldn't be getting something wonderful at the end. Granted, she angled for a spanking, but still, knowing how kinky Selina was, she might enjoy it.

Black Canary crouched down. Was it possible Catwoman noticed Nightwing didn't come out to play and left well enough alone.

 _'Selina doesn't play by those rules,'_ Harry said. _'If she keeps up the pace, she'll be showing herself at any moment.'_

'Would be a lot easier if she was in the bond network,'

Dinah thought.

 _'And it would also take a lot of the fun out of the hunt,'_ Diana said.

She wished she had been in Dinah's place tonight. Hunting some pussy would break up the night, but Diana found herself swapped with school work, so she decided to take a back seat. It broke up the moments of frustrating.

 _'It would, with you,'_ Donna thought. _'What are you going to do when you get ahold of her?'_

Dinah didn't answer the question. She assumed her prey was about on top of her. Dinah looked up and noticed a dark figure flipping off of the rooftop, sticking the landing on the ground.

"You aren't hard to shake," Catwoman said. "And again, you might be fun for a little bit, but you're not the hunter I wanted to run tonight. Then again, canaries aren't hunters, and cats bat little birdies around, don't they?"

Black Canary tried to restrain her. Catwoman gave about as good as Black Canary did. A brief hand to hand, with Black Canary almost winning.

At least until Catwoman took her legs out. With expert grace, Catwoman flipped herself onto the rooftop. She stuck the landing.

Black Canary refused to be made to look like some chump by Catwoman. The woman trained a good portion of her life, and she refused to back down. The hunt continued.

The stunning siren closed her eyes and made the plunge. Catwoman could be anywhere. Black Canary turned to look around.

Her ears heard something scrapping against the ground. Black Canary turned around and avoided a whip cracked in her general direction. Black Canary avoided the whip being sent at her.

"Okay, I'm done," Black Canary said.

"Really?" Catwoman asked.

Black Canary caught the whip in her hand. She turned around, in an attempt to tangle Catwoman up in her own whip. The feisty woman rolled out of position, breaking free from the whip. She slid out and stuck the landing.

"I've just begun, sweetie," Catwoman said.

The kick aimed at her face forced Black Canary to evade the attack. The high-heeled boot almost connected with the side of her face. Black Canary returned fire, nailing her with a series of kicks.

Catwoman dropped down onto the ground. Black Canary pulled her up to her feet, with a hair full of hair.

"Oh, you know I like it when bitches pull my hair," Catwoman said. "Makes them think they're in control, when I'm the one in control."

Catwoman leaned in for a second. She planted a kiss onto Black Canary. Black Canary realized about a second too late she fell into Catwoman's trap.

The kiss concluded a few seconds too soon. Catwoman's claws raked Black Canary's face. The two of them engaged in another round of punches and kicks after the much needed intermission. Black Canary staggered back, her knees almost buckling.

Catwoman drove the point of her boot down into Black Canary's face, staggering her back against the edge of the roof top. With the wind drove out of her opponent, Catwoman licked her lips.

Black Canary realized she had been bound, with nowhere to go.

"Ah, poor baby, I'll kiss it, and make it feel better," Catwoman said.

Catwoman teased kissing her again, but she pulled out.

"I hate to leave a women hanging," Catwoman said. "But, you're still not the prize I've been looking for. No matter how great you can kiss."

Catwoman placed her backside near Black Canary's face. She slapped her hand against her ass.

"Maybe if you're good, I'll let you play," Catwoman said.

"You're cruising for one," Black Canary said.

Catwoman responded with a playful tongue flicker and left. Black Canary gritted her teeth. She closed her eyes.

She worked herself out of the bindings. Nothing which could hold her for too long, but enough to allow Catwoman to slip away.

 _'You fell for it, didn't you?'_ Harry asked. _'She's good at what she does.'_

Black Canary broke free of her bindings. Catwoman almost was too good at what she did. The stunning siren rubbed her hands together, shifting her weight.

 _'Almost too good,'_ she thought. _'But, not good enough.'_

Black Canary noticed the trail Catwoman left. Perhaps on purpose, perhaps on accident, but she wouldn't know until she followed it. The adjusted her jacket, slightly damaged in the fight.

 _'You're not going to let her get away with this, are you, Dinah?'_ Barbara asked.

The woman's grin looked mischievous, and she set herself up for the next move. Not if she could help it, and not by a long shot. Black Canary lowered herself off of the building, and dropped down onto a lower level. Black Canary could see Catwoman, still swaying her ass. She stopped long enough for Dinah to see.

_'Talk about really asking for a spanking.'_

This time, Black Canary intended to give the bitch what she wanted. She wouldn't like it when she got it.

 _'Don't let her get under your skin,'_ Harry said. _'Oh, and I'll be joining you in about fifteen minutes.'_

'Good,'

Black Canary said. _'Let's teach her a lesson.'  
_

* * *

Amanda and Emily grinned, having had full run of the penthouse tonight. Well, about as full of a run they were going to have. Donna approached the two of them.

"You do realize if we cause too much trouble, our siblings are going to have our heads," Donna said.

"Oh, you mean you're going to end up getting spanked."

A young woman stepped into the penthouse. She dressed in a black tank top and a pair of tight black pants. She had slightly spiked brown hair. Her breasts squeezed into a tight top, showing her cleavage.

"Well, given you're the closest thing to a responsible adult here….."

The woman responded with a scoff at Amanda's words. Amanda frowned and folded her arms when she stared the woman in her violet eyes.

"I did say the closest thing to a responsible adult, not you were a responsible adult," Amanda said. "There's a difference between looking like a responsible adult, and actually being a responsible adult, Nymphadora."

Nym crossed her arms together. Lois, who entered the room, looking at the scene which started to form around her, breaking out into laughter.

"Shouldn't you be in bed?" Amanda asked.

"Yeah right, I heard from the older girls about the party, you know I'm not going to miss it," Lois said. "Besides, we're going back to school in a couple of days…so, I'm not going to sit around while you have all of the fun. And I invited Jade, if you don't mind."

Amanda paused and shrugged. The more, the merrier, she guessed. Any more friends who stopped by, Amanda certainly wasn't going to find much fault about it.

"Hey, if she wants to stop by, she can," Amanda said. "Are Jessie and Artemis coming along? Artemis might be a bit too young, but….."

"I don't know, Jade didn't say," Lois said.

The dark haired girl averted her eyes towards the elevator. The door clicked up and Bette swept inside.

"Did you do something different with the curtains?" Bette asked. Her lips curled into a nice little grin.

"Oh, did you notice?" Amanda asked.

"Who wouldn't notice," Bette said.

Bunny made her way inside. No matter how many times she entered the Penthouse, it blew her away. To have clearance to one of the most amazing places in Gotham City really sent her heart aflutter.

The young girl's eyes shifted from one side to the next. She frowned, someone was missing, and someone who would really liven the party up.

"No Harry, tonight?" Bunny asked.

 _'Aw, she looks disappointment,'_ Veronica said to the girls who weren't in the know. _'But, hey, she had her time with Harry at the trip to the West Coast. So it isn't like she didn't get her fair share of Harry time.'_

'And what will you do when she has a chance to hear you, when she gets added onto the bond,'

Amanda thought. _'Because we both know it's inevitable she's going to jump on.'_

'I'll deal with it, when I have to deal with it,'

Veronica thought. _'Not the worst thing in the world…I can troll her on a new level.'_

'You picked up some pretty bad habits from Harry,'

Amanda said.

 _'He told me about the Alison Blaire thing, to be fair, you two had it coming,'_ Veronica said. _'You do realize the two of you could have camped out, or paid someone to camp out, or…'_

'Yes, Veronica, we know,'

Amanda said. _'We're never going to live this one down.'_

'Not if we can help it,'

Donna said.

 _'Were you or were you not in on the joke?'_ Emily thought.

Donna folded her arms and grinned at Emily and Amanda. Again, she didn't really give a straight answer, despite them wanting one.

"So, do you want something to drink?" Amanda asked. "Because, we have a good selection of wine here…."

"Yes, I'd have some," Lois said.

"Not you, Lois," Amanda said.

Lois glared at Amanda for a second. Why did she have to act like the responsible adult? The look from Dora caused Lois to falter.

_'Needs to give me lessons on how to practice death glare.'_

"Fine, I'll have a soda," Lois said.

"Actually, I'll have water," Bette said. "I'm going to be driving Bunny home, and….we know how it goes when she gets going."

Bunny stuck out her lip and her tongue towards Bette. Bette responded with a pout to the head.

"Something so I can deal with Bette's quips tonight," Bunny said. "But, I don't want to pass out again."

"But isn't passing out half of the fun?" Lois asked.

Bette paused for a second and wondered how to best explain to a twelve year old the particulars of drinking. The woman paused for second, but decided to stare Lois in the eye.

"Not if you don't want to wake up with a headache," Bette said. "But you shouldn't be worrying about it for a while."

"Yeah, you shouldn't try and sneak wine out of the cupboard when no one is looking," Amanda said.

Lois frowned, did they think she was stupid? She knew the cupboards had protections on them. Regardless she enjoyed her soda.

"And remember, if the penthouse is in ruins, no more parties," Amanda said.

"Don't you have French maids to clean it up?" Emily asked.

"Well one, my sister, but….she would clean it up, and also make you pay for making the extra effort."

Gabrielle stepped inside. She declined the offer of wine. Wine and Veela pheromones proved to be a bad mixture.

"You know, did you even get Harry's permission for this party?" Gabrielle asked.

"Well, we asked him if we could have some friends over tonight, when he and the older girls were out doing the charity thing," Amanda said.

"And he allowed it without an adult here?"

"A-hem," Nym said.

"Fine, he allowed it without a responsible adult here," Gabrielle said, shaking her head.

Everyone laughed at the look on Nym's face.

"Isn't she not too much older than we are?" Bette asked.

"She's in last year, isn't she?" Bunny asked.

"I started late," Nym said.

She crossed her arms against her chest, which made her breasts larger. Most of the time, the girls never noticed she was there. Face in the crowd, kindly janitor cleaning up, a silly little Freshman, Nym used her powers to their full extent to blend in.

No one messed with the girls at all.

"Well, the two of you are going to graduate, aren't you?" Lois asked.

"Yes, and it means Amanda and Emily will be the senior girls on campus," Bette said. "And our apologies….."

"You never know, we might make it to GCU with you," Amanda said.

"Are you willing to put in the extra work to skip ahead?" Bette asked. "Barbara was willing to do it, but she's kind of…well, Barbara."

The twins laughed at Bette's statement.

"You mean she's a bit mental," Amanda said.

Bette waved her hands, almost like back tracking.

 _'Thanks, Amanda, I'll remember you the next time you want your Algebra grade hacked,'_ Barbara thought.

 _'What Algebra grade?'_ Lily asked.

 _'Um, I think…The Penguin….might be up to something,'_ Barbara said. _'Have to run, talk to you later.'_

As bold as Barbara ended up being, the might of Lily toppled even the most amusing. Amanda realized her mother being live on bond, they were being supervised.

 _'One semester, and I studied my butt off the next one, so technically it balanced out,'_ Amanda thought. _'Besides, the teacher was some old fart who didn't know what the fuck he was talking about.'_

Bette leaned back and took a drink of a refreshing non-alcoholic beverage. She relaxed herself with a smile on her face.

"One more quarter, and it's off to GCU for me and Bunny," Bette said. "And I have to say, as sad as I am to go, it will be a bit of a relief for us to finally move on."

"Are you really relieved?" Donna asked.

"Well, after our senior year….some people think senior year is a screw off year," Bette said. "And I guess for some people, who don't want to make anything out of their life, it kind of is. For us though…because we actually want to make something out of our life…."

"It can be hard," Bunny said. "But, hey, we have exams…..and two days after exams, we have the Circus. Then Graduation and more importantly, the big graduation party, which you're all invited. Harry especially, even though he's not here right now."

Bette smiled at the thought. She wanted to see where things would lead her with Harry in California, but circumstances prevented it. A less chaotic setting should help her.

"Oh, the Circus is going to be amazing," Lois said.

"Returning to Gotham City after ten years, and if nothing else, they improved it," Bette said. "Kathy said it was a spectacle."

"How is Kathy?" Nym asked.

"She's seeing her new doctor….and….well, I guess she's getting the help she needs….she's kind of not telling anyone what's really wrong," Bette said.

Bette understood her aunt had her problems, all of them had issues. Regardless, tonight was not the night to talk about the Kane family drama, but rather, time to sit back and enjoy the last night of freedom before their grueling final quarter.

Jade arrive at the elevator seconds later.

"You made it," Lois said.

"Well, I figured I'd swing by…..I would have been here sooner, but there's this weird car which followed me about two blocks," Jade said.

"A weird car?" Nym asked.

"Yeah, I had to go through a couple of the…back alleys to shake it off," Jade said.

"Those back alleys are pretty dangerous though, aren't they?" Lois asked.

"Yes, they are," Amanda said.

She and Nym locked eyes. They both though the same thing, Paula's estranged husband, the Sportsmaster.

"Jade, you're not walking home on your own when you leave," Nym said.

"Do you think someone is trying to pick up pre-teen girls for…." Jade said. She filled in the blanks in her mind and pulled a face. "Some people are really sick."

Jade sank down on the couch with a frown on her face. She helped herself to a soda.

 _'We're going to have to increase surveillance around the Crock home, Harry,'_ Nym thought. _'And maybe someone to keep an eye on Artemis and Jade…do you think he'd be brazen enough to try and kidnap his own daughters?'_

'Yes,'

Harry thought. _'But, first, I think he's going to try and reconcile with Paula.'_

'She changed all the locks, didn't she?'

Nym thought.

 _'She did,'_ Harry thought. _'But, I wouldn't hang my hat on it deterring him for long…oh, I have to go….it's time for me to wrap up my little game outside.'_

'Okay, have fun,'

Nym thought.

* * *

Catwoman grinned. She riled up Black Canary a fair bit. She continued her journey across the streets of Gotham City.

The dark haired temptress stopped. Black Canary engaged the woman in a confrontation. The two of them fired a series of punches and kicks.

"I thought he would show up by now," Catwoman said.

Black Canary tried to kick her in the ribs to knock the wind out of her. Catwoman dodged the attack, and made her way from behind her.

"Like the view much better back here," Catwoman said. She pressed herself against Black Canary's ass with a nice little purr coming from her.

She had her fun and felt up her opponent. Black Canary tried to avoid being distracted too much. Spinning around, she engaged Catwoman with another battle, but Catwoman jumped off of the rooftop.

She made her way to the second rooftop, but a figure stepped out of the shadows.

"Going my way?"

Catwoman stopped, a grin passing over her face. She put her hand up in the air. Nightwing stood in front of her, in all of his glory.

"About time," Catwoman said. "You were going to make a girl grow old waiting."

She didn't want to make it too easy on him. No matter how much she anticipated these meetings, half of the fun ended up being what happened when he caught her.

Nightwing smiled and the two of them exchanged a series of punches with each other. Or to be more accurate, he blocked her punches, she blocked his.

"So, you decided to take the jewels after all," Nightwing said. "I think you have a serious problem."

"I think you need to spank me," Catwoman said.

She tried to get away, but Nightwing grabbed her by the arms and yanked her back. Catwoman found himself pushed against the wall.

He used some kind of sticky glue to fasten her against the wall.

"Don't worry, it will dry in about an hour," Harry said. Or he could make it dry in plenty of time. "Plenty of time for you to think about what a naughty little kitty you've been."

His talk caused Catwoman's pussy to flare up. The heat pulsing between her legs prompted nipples to harden along with it. She struggled not to lick her lips, but the temptation hit her hard.

"Yes, I've been really naughty," Catwoman said. "What are you going to do with me, big boy?"

Black Canary turned up next to her.

"Good position for you," Black Canary said. She brushed her finger down Catwoman's cleavage. Despite her stern demeanor, the cat burglar shivered underneath the Canary's touch. "We can do pretty much anything we want with you know."

Black Canary pressed against her, rubbing her body down Catwoman's teasing her for a moment. Finally, it was time for some payback. She smiled and looked at Harry.

"Your turn, love."

At those words, a round of chills went down Catwoman's spine. Nightwing pressed her against the wall. The heat from his crotch rose as he continued to push towards her. Her hands pinned behind her back.

"Are you going to spank me?" Catwoman asked.

Her zipper, halfway down, showed her sweaty cleavage. He smiled and backed off, leaving her hanging. He turned around towards Black Canary.

"In time, maybe,"Nightwing said. He snaked his arm around Black Canary's waist. "But, first, I've devised a more fitting punishment for the likes of you."

Frustration rolled over Catwoman's body. She couldn't believe he went there. Nightwing smiled and pulled Black Canary into a long kiss.

Black Canary decided to tease Catwoman, by moaning into the kiss. Her hands roamed over Nightwing's body, feeling up every inch of his sculpted body.

Catwoman struggled to free herself from the bindings. She watched Nightwing's hands grab a handful of Black Canary's shapely ass. She watched the ass, wanting to be in his place and her place at the same time.

Pushing her against the wall, Nightwing continued to kiss down her neck. He pulled back the crotch of her costume, pushing his fingers against her dripping slit.

Black Canary closed her eyes, to experience the rush entering her body. Nipples hardened as Harry stroked her slit.

"You're really wet," Nightwing said. "You're getting off on me tormenting her."

Catwoman's nipples hardened at the look of what happened. The look of wanton pleasure crossing Black Canary's face caused Catwoman's body to swim with jealousy. She wanted his strong fingers pleasuring her pussy, making her scream for more.

She refused to yell out to beg. Catwoman's pride overwhelmed her carnal desire to have the Dragon impale his beastly cock inside her body. To stretch her to the brink, and to leave her sore when she woke up back at her apartment.

With her hands tied, no pleasure happened. Not even a cool breeze passed between her legs, causing the frustration to increase.

Black Canary slumped against the wall. Harry's fingers tormented her insides, pushing inside her. The woman's hips pushed into his hand. He added three fingers, pumping them out of her pussy.

"Cumming," Black Canary said.

She came on his fingers. The woman's blonde hair slapped against her face, making her look pretty sexy. The grin spread over her face when Harry finished her off with his thick fingers, shoving them into her gushing cunt all of the way.

"Yes, I can tell," Harry said.

He toyed with her pussy for another second more, bringing her to the edge, and dragging her almost all the way off.

"Bet she tastes good, doesn't she?" Nightwing asked.

Catwoman opened her mouth and he shoved her fingers inside. He allowed Catwoman to suck Black Canary's juice's off of his hand.

Black Canary pulled the bottom part of his uniform down. His stiff cock spilled from his bottom. The blonde temptress licked her lips and followed up by licking his head. Her tongue gave him a going over.

Nightwing closed his eyes, feeling Black Canary's mouth wrap around his pole. The young man grabbed two hands full of hair. Her throat expanded to allow his massive prick inside her.

Catwoman watched Black Canary's hot mouth wrap around his engorged cock. Her nipples hardened even more. The suit she wore became very uncomfortable. Black Canary's lewd sounds popping around his cock.

"You're really enjoying sucking my cock. Then again, what woman wouldn't?"

Black Canary never broke her stride. She kept sucking his hard prick, resulting in a growing hardness in her mouth. She closed her eyes, pushing his pulsing prick as far into the back of her throat as she could manage.

She enjoyed his cock, she wanted his cock. Every inch of his cock buried in her throat. Black Canary indulged herself in the delight pulsing in her mouth. It swelled, pushing into the depths of throat.

Her eyes hazed over in a lazy fashion. Black Canary pushed herself to the edge, taking more cock than she knew what to do with into her throat. Her throat expanded for his throbbing pole.

"Going to cum," he warned her.

Black Canary's wonderful lips sped up his orgasm. His balls tingled.

"Cum in her fucking mouth, the slut deserves to be choked out with your cum! Blow your load into her whore mouth!"

The dirty grin she gave through the blowjob showed Catwoman, Black Canary knew precisely what she did to rile up the woman. Her hands rested on the side of Harry's legs. His lubricated pole pushed into the back of her throat, easing inch by inch of his tool into her mouth.

Black Canary tilted her head, accepting his throbbing manhood deep into the back of her throat. She strokes his testicles, forcing his orgasm to come to a head.

The contents of Nightwing's balls spilled into Black Canary's throat. She sucked his cum down like a soft drink, careful not to waist a drop.

Black Canary pulled herself to her feet. She walked over and pressed her hips against Catwoman's.

"Bet you wish you hadn't been such a bitch earlier."

"Oh, I'm never a bitch, more of a tease, really," Catwoman said.

Nightwing undid her bindings. She scrambled towards him, hunger in her eyes. His hand forced her to stop.

"Stop," Nightwing said. "Strip."

Catwoman swayed her hips to imagine music. She pulled the zipper on her suit, exposing her breasts. Breasts barely contained in a lacy black bra, determined to go out. She closed her eyes, pulling the suit down ,so it hung over her ankles. She still wore the ears and the goggles on the suit.

Nightwing stepped over. She placed her hands on his hips and grinded her mound against his cock.

"Turn around and assume the position."

Catwoman turned around on his cue. She placed her hands against the wall, her legs spread for him.

Nightwing raised his hand and slapped Catwoman's rear. She wiggled her rear at him and he spanked her a few more times.

"Yes, that's right, you know how much you want me, you're dripping wet, aren't you?"

Catwoman licked her lip, taking a breath. She felt Nightwing's hands grab her ass, squeezing it. His throbbing cock pushed against her asshole, and almost forced all the way inside.

"Yes, I want you to give me your huge cock in my tight ass," Selina said.

Harry smiled and obliged the woman. His cock penetrated her tight ring. He closed her eyes, experiencing tight sensation around his cock.

"Oh, you bitch!"

Black Canary dropped to her knees and licked her pussy. Her tongue swirled around the dripping mound, causing her to close her eyes. The siren licked her pussy. She leaned in, nibbling on the lips as well.

Nightwing plowed into Catwoman's ass. Her tight ass clenched him. Harry almost pulled all the way out of her and slapped her on the ass. His hand stung the woman's ass. Catwoman closed her eyes, bringing his massive cock into her tight ass. He slapped his hand onto her ass, and brought his throbbing cok into her.

"You like your pussy getting tongued out, don't you?"

Catwoman couldn't deny how good Black Canary's tongue felt inside her. Not almost as good as Nightwing slamming his thick cock into her ass.

"Are you going to blow you load in my ass?" Catwoman asked.

He alternated between slapping his hand on her ass and fucking it. She dug her nails into the wall, panting as Harry pushed himself into her. He buried his throbbing hard prick into her hot depths.

"YES!"

Harry almost pulled all the way out of her and slammed into her tight rectum. He smiled as he pushed into her.

"More, do you want more?"

"Yes," Catwoman said, nibbling down on her lip.

"Are you sure?"

"YES!"

Harry plowed her tight ass with his massive cock, stretching her to the depths. He worked his orgasm to the edge.

Black Canary's able mouth nibbled and nipped at her nether lips. They became all puffy in her mouth. She continued to slip her tongue into Catwoman's dripping center, eating her out. She experienced the rush of pleasure coming from her loins.

"Cumming, so hard, damn you!" Catwoman yelled.

Nightwing cupped her breasts, playing with her nipples. He continued a few more thrusts into her ass, drilling her hard.

After the teasing tonight, the pent up aggression rushed from Catwoman. She closed her eyes, tilting her head back with a solid moan. The rush of fluids spilled from her pussy.

Black Canary sucked the fluids from her pussy. Each drop of cum energized the stunning siren. She started to lick deep into her pussy, the hunger coursing through her body. The woman desired more, hungered for more, and she would get even more.

Nightwing pressed his hands onto Catwoman's hips and slammed into her hard. He punished her ass, which she had been waving in front of Black Canary's ass.

"Yes, I'm your slut, give me your cock!"

Nightwing shoved all twelve inches into her ass. Catwoman closed her eyes. She wouldn't be able to sit down the next morning, but receiving his hard cock like this would be worth it. He drilled her hard with a few more long thrusts into her tight ass.

"Oh, this feels really good," Catwoman said. She closed her eyes to properly experience the full rush.

His thick prick spread through her tight ass, making her all stretched out. His massive cock drilled her ass to completion.

"Here it comes."

Black Canary sucked Catwoman's nether lips, and shoved her tongue inside, working her to another orgasm. Her greedy eyes watched Nightwing's cock spear into Catwoman's tight ass.

A few more thrusts brought himself to the edge. His balls popped and Nightwing fired his load into her tight ass, emptying drop after drop of cum into her tight rectum.

"So do you think you've learned your lesson?"

"Yes, the Braddock jewels weren't the prize I wanted."

Nightwing smiled and figured as much. Regardless, he knew the jewels would be returned before they were really missed.

"For the record, there are easier ways to get my attention."

"But none more fun."

* * *

**To Be Continued November 21** **st** **, 2015.**


	144. Sessions

**Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Four: Sessions:**

* * *

Barbara wrapped up another marathon session of mission support in the Clocktower. On most nights, the only company she received were the voices inside her head. This night was different because two other guests showed up in the form of Kara and Donna.

"You brought pizza, you are my life savers," Barbara said.

"Hey, after you missed out on California, it's the least we can do," Donna said. "I think the girls are going to be talking about the trip for some time. I don't think any of us are going to ever forget what happened."

Barbara knew she wouldn't forget what happened in the slightest. Her lips curled into a knowing smile as she leaned back. Regardless, she took a slice of pizza. Kara offered her a soda and she took it.

"Thanks, I was in desperate need of caffeine," Barbara said. "Then again, when aren't I in desperate need of caffeine?"

Kara's eyebrow rose at Barbara. The woman wisely didn't say anything, because she didn't want to cause agitation, but one could see a slow smile form around her face.

"Are you sure you're not forming a dependency to caffeine?" Kara asked. "I mean, I'm not judging you, half of us can't get out of the door without our morning cup of coffee."

Donna laughed, all too true. Diana seemed to be able to function mostly well enough without her coffee. A couple other girls, not so much, with Amanda being the worst of it, having picked up a trait or two from her brother.

Barbara bit into the pizza. Her eyes watered when she bit into it. She looked towards Kara, who had a wide smirk on her face.

"Careful, it's hot," Kara said.

"Yes, thank you for warning me ahead of time," Barbara said.

She fanned her mouth and made her way to the drink. Granted, Barbara didn't mind hotter foods, like some people did. Still, she wished she would have gotten the heads up.

"Guess, we should have warned you," Donna said. "Super powered people have less sensitive taste buds than normal people, you know."

Barbara figured out about as much. Regardless she took a long drink of her soft drink. Kara looked over at her.

"So, you wanted to show us something?" Kara asked.

"Well, you wanted to go out on the field, and you're training to do so," Barbara said.

"Are you going to head out soon?" Kara asked. "I know you've been stepping up your game more as well."

"Well, what I'm getting into, I'd like to be able to defend myself," Barbara said. She leaned towards her and flipped Kara's hair back. "But, I like where I am right now."

"Although you are grooming Emily to take your place for when you do," Kara said.

"I wouldn't say to take my place, but to be my back up," Barbara said. "Gwen would work well….speaking of which, aren't Reilly and Gwen coming into town?"

She asked the question more to herself. Barbara checked her Red Sun to double check the date. Given all of the madness which took place over the last couple of weeks, Barbara lost track of the time.

"So, they're coming here, to the Clocktower?" Kara asked. Barbara nodded in confirmation. "They know?"

"Well, they're smart enough to have figured it out, aren't they?" Donna asked.

"Yes, they know," Barbara said. "Pretty straight forward, both of them questioned Harry about it, presented their logic. He decided to let them in on the secret, and well, it's a relief. The less people we have to keep secrets from the better."

"Because you're having a blast keeping secrets from your father," Donna said.

Barbara's gaze met Donna's. The Amazon Princess leaned back, under the glare of doom from young Miss Gordon. She really could inspire terror.

"Ugh, don't remind me," Barbara said. "And I'm sure he knows enough to know enough, or at least can speculate."

"Well any cop with their salt should be able to put the pieces together, if they wanted to," Kara said. "And in this day and age, it's a wonder Harry and everyone else can keep the mascarade."

Barbara agreed with Kara. She turned to Donna.

"Surprised you don't want to join us out on the field," Barbara said.

"I'll pass for now, I think I want to just relax, and focus on my studies," Donna said.

After centuries worth of training, or so it seemed, Donna ached for less adventure, and more relaxation. Sometime in the future, the Amazon Princess decided there's a chance for her to change her mind. For the moment, Donna decided to kick back, and make the most of her time with her studies.

"I'm pretty sure we could find you a kick ass costume design if you change your mind," Barbara said.

Donna's grin flashed towards Barbara.

"I'm pretty sure you can find me one," Donna said. "So, the Braddock family jewels have been returned for a second time?"

"Yes," Barbara said. "I can't believe Harry enabled her….but I suppose Betsy encouraged him to enable her. And Helena was half in on it as well….to test the defenses around the museum."

"Are you serious?" Kara asked.

"I don't know, just a theory I have," Barbara said. "If there's someone who can help plug up the security holes, it's Catwoman."

"She's wanted by the GCPD, and has a couple of sizeable bounties on her head," Kara said.

 _'If I know Selina, she doesn't think she's doing enough,'_ Faora thought. _'The girl lives dangerously.'_

'Well, can't say you don't encourage her behavior,'

Kara thought.

 _'There's no need for me to encourage much of anything,'_ Faora thought. _'She does more than enough on her own.'_

Kara couldn't really argue with anything Faora said. Sometimes she nailed a point so head on Kara was almost terrified.

"So, Kara, take a look at these, and see what you think? Be gentle, because I was like ten when I drew some of these."

"Don't worry, I know," Kara said. "I'm not expecting fine art, just an idea of what I can wear."

"I circled the ones which are you," Barbara said. "At least I think you're you. You would know you better than me."

Kara crinkled her eyebrow and looked at all the designs. Granted, Barbara did a better job than she could do when drawing them. Kara could barely draw stick people. She was about as bad at art as she was at cooking. And the only reason why she improved even the slightest amount at cooking was due to Martha Kent's constant instruction.

Most of the designs didn't really appeal to Kara's tastes. She looked them over one at a time, trying to determine the one she liked.

Then, her eyes locked onto something on the page. She looked it over, seeing the contrast of colors. She would need to make a slight addition to fit the codename she selected, but perfect.

The doors of the elevator of the clock tower opened up. Gwen and Reilly made their way inside the main area, with grins on their face and carrying luggage.

"You know, we should have stopped by the penthouse first, before stopping by here," Gwen said. She staggered underneath the weight for a second.

"I'll handle it."

Kara took the luggage, and placed it down on the table.

"When we drive back, we'll get you settled in," Kara said.

Reilly and Gwen smiled and settled into seats in the clock tower.

"Oh, pizza," Gwen said.

"Careful, it's hot," Kara said.

Gwen shrugged and took a long bite of the pizza. Barbara watched her friend.

"Tastes pretty mild to me," Gwen said. "But it could be because of the fact I have super powers and a higher level of tolerance."

"You think?" Barbara asked.

"It makes sense to you, doesn't it?" Reilly asked.

She took a long bite of the pizza. Gotham City pizza wasn't half bad, but nothing could be the pizza back home.

"Good thing we got all of our shit in order, so we can start at GCU," Gwen said. "They don't normally accept students during the last semester, do they?"

"No, enrollment normally happens in September and January," Barbara said. "But, it helps you have someone who has an ear of the board like Harry does. And they owe him a couple of favors."

"The fact he's made a generous donation to the school recently doesn't hurt, does it?" Gwen asked.

"Not in the slightest," Kara said. "Why be generous when it can't net you some favors?"

The girls all smiled, no real reason at all. Reilly and Gwen settled into the life of Gotham City. They had training Harry and Alex arranged. Diana and Dinah would assist with the training as well.

"So, is Harry busy tonight?" Reilly asked.

"Depends on if you mean is he doing his nocturnal activities?" Barbara asked. "It's been an interesting last couple of nights to be on mission support."

Gwen's lips curled into a grin and she leaned forward.

"Oh, tell me more, Babs."

* * *

Kathy Kane sat across the silver haired Eastern European doctor, Doctor Somnambular, who put her in a trance. At first, Kathy wondered if hypnotism worked on here. She was a skeptic, and only went along with Strange's suggestion as a means to help alieve her insomnia.

At first, the woman's skepticism filled her body. He put her under his spell, and Kathy faded into a trance. His efforts made a believer out of her.

"I need to relax, Miss Kane, and I need you to take a trip to me, in the problem areas of your mind."

"It all beings with Martha, when she was alive, she was beloved, and she's now a saint when she's dead….her and her husband Thomas…..and I feel no matter what I do, I'll always been Martha's little sister, who is following in her older sister's footsteps."

"This keeps you up late at night."

"I do what I can to help the downtrodden and make Gotham City a better place, but it's never enough, because I'll never be her," Kathy said. "And I've been held responsible with the Kane family fortune and the resources. I received an immense art collection from my parents, but….it was only out of pity. They wanted to make me feel value."

"An immense art collection?"

"A priceless art collection, one which could be worth a small fortune to the right buyer."

"Yes, and I'm sure this art collection is very well secure."

"Yes, very well secure," Kathy said.

"Do you ever have concerns someone would creep into your home in the dead of the night and steal from you?"

Kathy's pause became long and she bit down on her lip. She conceded the doctor's point for a second.

"It's one of the concerns you need to address, if your mind is of ease. If we remove the burdens, but how would one enter the wing of your manor with the art collection?"

Kathy paused for a few seconds.

"I'm not sure…."

"Kathy, you need to focus, and tell me. I'm only here to help you. I cannot diagnose the problem, and tell you about how unfounded your claims are, if they're unfounded at all."

Kathy decided it wouldn't do much harm to tell him. He was her doctor; after all, he could help her.

"When you enter the East entrance of the Manor, there is a long silver staircase. To the right of the staircase, there's a painted portrait of my parents."

"Yes."

"Behind the portrait, there is a panel. The panel has three buttons which need to be pushed in sequence."

"Relax, Kathy, and tell me."

"The buttons are red, yellow, and blue."

"So, they are primary colors?"

"Yes."

"And what sequence must you press them in?"

"Blue, then red, then yellow."

The good doctor took a moment to compose himself and press her for more details.

"And then, you are allowed access into a room where your art collection is."

"Yes, through a secret underground chamber," Kathy said. "There's another locked door you have to navigate, and it's a bit of a maze down there."

The Doctor smiled, as he scribbled more notes on a piece of paper.

"You've done well, Kathy, and when I snap my fingers, you will wake up, without any memory of what you've told me. But one thing, your mind will be relaxed, and you will realize your security is air tight no one will be able to steal your parents' art collection."

The doctor allowed everything to settle in. He lifted his fingers and snapped them, which brought her out of the trance she entered.

"You have done well for your first day in therapy, Miss Kane. But I have some exercises you should go before bed, to further relax your mind. And I have a small pamphlet for you to read before you head to sleep."

The doctor slid the pamphlet into her hand.

"I feel more relaxed already, doctor."

The doctor touched his hand to her shoulder. Kathy under most circumstances wilted underneath a touch. Something about his demeanor appeased her. He was so calm and tranquil. He spoke in an even tone, never too loud, and never too soft. He didn't do anything to unsettle her at first.

"Yes, but do call me if you have any side effects from the session."

Kathy smiled, she would. She grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder.

"One my aides will walk you to your car, Miss Kane. And remember, the exercises before you sleep."

"I will, Doctor," Kathy said. She spoke in a bright and sunny tone of voice.

The doctor chuckled, a smile crossing his face.

"Very well then, I will see you in two weeks."

Kathy left the office. The man consulted the notes, containing a detailed process of how to access the vault underground containing the Kane family's priceless art collection.

The side office door opened up. Hugo Strange exited the office. The large man entered the room and lowered himself down onto the couch across from the doctor.

"The first seed has been planted in her mind," Strange said.

"After prodding, she revealed to me the location of her art collection, as well as the way past security."

"The Kane family fortune is vast," Strange said.

"Yes, and soon…..we could acquire it with her help."

"I have far loftier plans than mere money," Strange said. "You need to know when to choose your battles wisely, my friend."

Doctor Somnambular only began to guess what his colleague's plans ended up being. Time passed as he put away his pocket watch.

"Loftier than one of the richest art collections in Gotham City?"

"There are other resources which can be more priceless than art," Strange said.

The doctor frowned. Strange shouldn't lecture the man like he was some rookie on the block. He had been at this game for a long time, longer than he thought. He altered his looks through plastic surgery to make him look much younger. He spent many years in Eastern Europe to form a brand new identity.

His old enemies assumed he died, with many of them dying themselves.

* * *

Ashley Kafka arrived in Gotham City, for her first session after Ravencroft with Wanda. Wanda sat in front her in a luxurious office area in the Penthouse. She dressed in a red top which hugged her upper body, and a pair of hip hugging red pants. She wore a necklace on her neck. She tied her long auburn hair back into a ponytail.

Meeting with Wanda in a less hostile environment caused Ashley's face to curl into a smile. She acknowledged Wanda grew into an extremely beautiful young woman.

"So, how are you doing?" Ashley asked.

"Loads better," Wanda said. The more relaxed atmosphere proved to be more conductive to communication. "No offense, but the Ravencroft food sucked. The food at the penthouse is much better."

Ashley cracked a smile for a moment. Many of the doctors who worked with Wanda wouldn't have done so, and appreciated the fact despite all she been through, she still maintained a sense of humor.

"I'm not the one who cooked it, so you can't offend me," Ashley said. "And….there's a reason why I bring a bag lunch from home."

"So the staff gets the same food as the patients?" Wanda asked.

"Well, I'm not sure, but….a cafeteria staff isn't the highest priority of Ravencroft," Ashley said.

"Along with most the doctors, with a couple of notable exceptions, "Wanda said. "Thank you for trying to help me, even though I wasn't the most pleasant patient in the world to deal with."

Ashley gripped Wanda's hand. It showed a mark of how far she came when she didn't flinch at Ashley's grip.

"The five doctors you had before me, they warned you."

"One of them pushed me, he got what he deserved," Wanda said.

None of them wanted to bring up the fact Wanda set the doctor's head on fire. To be fair, a bad reaction to one of the things the doctor drugged her with caused the sudden spontaneous combustion of the cranium.

"So, you're starting school on Wednesday?"

"Yes, my first day at GCU, and I can't wait," Wanda said. "Not going to be there for long, about eight weeks or so….but…I managed to pass the entrance exams. Barbara and Kara were a big help in guiding me along, and Harry helped."

"Harry made sure you entered college," Ashley said. "You do hold a torch for him."

Wanda didn't deny it. She looked Ashley right in the eye.

"Well to be fair, I don't think I'm the only woman holding a torch for Harry. There are women lining up around the block wanting a piece of him. And you have coffee with him, don't you?"

Ashley smiled and couldn't deny the fact she had coffee with him.

"But, despite my gifts, I want to experience some of the finer things in life," Wanda said. "I think I skipped the drama of high school."

Ashley smiled. She didn't want to let her personal opinion get in the way of her professional relationship with Wanda. Her missing high school wasn't too big of a deal.

Then again, Ashley was a bit of a socially awkward girl in high school.

"Would you say the girls help you cope through your problems?" Ashley asked.

"Yes, and they help make life a bit more worth living," Wanda said. "I like having a nice support group much better than being locked in cell at Ravencroft, being studied like a lab rat all day."

Ashley shifted for a second for a second. She couldn't help but allow a twinge of guilt to enter her body. Wanda reached towards her and smiled.

"Not your fault, but….it wasn't exactly the happiest environment in the world," Wanda said.

"I'd like to apologize….."

"For Crane?" Wanda asked.

Ashley both admired and hated the perceptive nature of the young woman in front of her.

"You thought Crane was a colleague. They kept what he did very quiet. News can be….hard to travel outside of Gotham City."

"I should have checked up on him more, before allowing him inside," Ashley said.

"Don't blame yourself for what Crane did," Wanda said. "I blame him for everything."

"Including what you did?"

A long pause followed as Wanda brushed a lock of hair out of her eye. She inclined her head down, and nodded in confirmation.

"Yes."

The word came out of her mouth with finality, and no one could dispute it.

"I'm over what happened," Wanda said. "It's time for me to move on with my life….Crane's still out there, but if I let him get in my head any more, he'll win."

Wanda would have ripped his head off at the first whisper of him still being out there, had she not been grounded very nicely.

"It's nice you've moved on," Ashley said.

Wanda leaned towards her. The top of her hand brushed against Ashley's fingers, causing a tingle of electricity.

"I have moved on past him, Crane will face justice, eventually," Wanda said.

For all she knew, he might have already done so. With all of the portal vortexes opening when they were at Arkham, something might have destroyed him.

Wanda recalled one very important rule which haunted many people. Without a body, there was no proof anyone perished.

"Thanks to Harry tutoring me, I'll be ready to head off to school, and have a mostly normal life," Wanda said. "As normal as I could."

"Well, I wish you the best of luck," Ashley said. "If you need anything, you have my phone number and an e-mail address. I know you have a big support network, but it doesn't hurt to have an extra set of ears."

"Thank you," Wanda said. A smile crossed her face and she took Ashley's hand into hers. The two of them shook hands.

Ashley made her way out of the side office. Harry waited for her.

"She's making a lot of progress, isn't she?" Harry asked.

"Thanks to you," Ashley said. "I don't know how you work your magic, but…..your magic works well on her. We could really use someone like you at Ravencroft."

Harry stepped towards her. The distance between the two of them closed in a few seconds.

"I'm afraid my magic only works on troubled young women," Harry said.

"Do, they really need to be troubled?"

Ashley closed her eyes for a moment. She tried to stay professional, but hard to do with those glowing green eyes.

"So, I believed we were going to go out for coffee?"

"Yes."

* * *

The two of them settled into a small little coffee shop, about a block away from the RAO penthouse. Ashley sipped on the cup of coffee. She took a bite out of the cake on the table as well.

"As a doctor, I always hope for the very best out of my patients," Ashley said. "And the remarkable improvement Wanda made makes me feel optimistic. Even though I was only with her during the last six months."

Ashley took a long drink from her coffee. Her foot moved instinctively, brushing Harry's ankle underneath the table. She pulled herself back.

"I'd like to think I could have reached her in time," Ashley said.

"I'm sure you could have, Ashley," Harry said. "The staff situation at Ravencroft is….."

"Doctor Ravencroft, he's finding funding a bit strained, so some of the doctors….are more interested in using their patients as a case study to bolster their careers," Ashley said. "As opposed to actually helping them."

Harry noticed from Ashley's tone how much of a fan she wasn't of some of the doctors and their attitude towards patients at Ravencroft.

"Some of them are leveraging towards a book deal."

Harry smiled and grabbed her hand to calm her down. Ashley relaxed underneath his tight grip. She need not lose her cool, because it would drive her around the brink. The woman took a second to calm her nerves down.

"I really do feel bad I can't help any more…but some….I hate to admit it….but they don't want to be helped."

Ashley hoped one day someone could reach them.

"If we gave up easily, life would be over before we know it," Harry said. "And Wanda made amazing strides, and all it took was you to reach her."

Ashley took a look at him.

"I've heard the strangest rumors about you….the events on the West Coast….."

"There was a scare, yes," Harry said.

"You've been through a lot over the last few months," Ashley said. "Getting knocked out a window when Zeus caused his rampage, attacked by the Metamorpho person…..and you have been in your share of other scraps, I'm sure. Why would anyone want to live in Gotham City?"

"It isn't as bad as people think," Harry said. "I've always been known to attract the more extreme situations. Call me a weirdness magnet….I attract chaos about as much as I attract women."

"I'm not certain I would go that far," Ashley said. "I think you attract women with a far greater ease than you do trouble."

Harry's lips curled into a knowing grin. He leaned closer towards her, touching his hand to the top of hers.

"Guess, we're going to have to agree to disagree."

Ashley figured as much. A sense of relaxation which she didn't feel around other people filtered around Harry. She would have to say there was something about Harry which made her smile. She couldn't really put her finger on what, but there he was.

"You know, I'd like to get to know you better," Ashley said. "I mean, on a personal level, I know all about your professional life, and….well there's numerous rumors out there about what you've done. I'm not sure how much of it is fact and how much of it is fiction."

Harry smiled at the woman. He edged closer towards her, his eyes locked onto hers. A second passed when a twinkle entered his eye.

"You'd be surprised, Ashley, you'd be surprised."

"Oh, would I?" she asked.

"What's stopping you from learning more about me?"

Ashley thought nothing out of the ordinary. She knew her professional career made personal entanglements to be rather difficult. She leaned towards him.

"You know if you can find the time to have an active social counter, I can find the time, why don't we continue this the next time I'm in town?"

"Well, you never know, I could visit you as well."

Ashley tried to keep the grin off of her face. She'd like it a lot.

* * *

Howard Branden of the Gotham City SWAT team entered the office of Commissioner Gillian Loeb of the GCPD. The two of them met well past midnight, when most of the office staff was either at home.

"Sit down, Branden," Loeb said. "Did you lock the door behind you?"

"Yes, Commissioner," Branden said. "A couple of my boys are watching the door for you. You shouldn't have a problem."

Loeb took a second to stare down Branden. Time stood still as the two gentlemen locked eyes with each other.

"Are they trustworthy?"

Branden smiled and poured himself a cup of coffee. He drank the coffee, before it cooled off.

"As long as my boys are paid well, they're always trustworthy. You can count on them."

Loeb raised his eyebrow, and nodded.

"I've always done what's best for Gotham City. But we have some cop killer who is killing Gotham's finest. I think I could be on the list."

Branden continued to drink his coffee. It remained hot in his hand as he drank it. Time passed as he allowed himself to savor the taste of his beverage of choice.

"Some of my actions could be mistaken for corruption. But they're all done to help maintain the current power structure of Gotham City. We all have to do things which the average citizen might not like to keep them safe."

"For certain, Commissioner," Branden said. "You always were a stand up man, Loeb. And I'll be happy to put my men at my disposal for any vigilantes who cross your path. We'll take them out. You can count on us."

"You'll ensure I'll be protected?" Loeb asked.

Branden's face curled into a knowing smile in the light. One noticed the light flicker in his face.

"I guarantee you'll be protected, Commissioner."

"And I can guarantee there will be a significant deposit in your personal account, Branden. I cannot thank you enough."

"You can't be thanked enough for the service you've given Gotham City."

Loeb understood Branden would scratch his back, as long as Loeb scratched the back of his and the rest of the SWAT. He needed to ensure no one noticed the money. The last thing the people in Gotham City needed to know was their Commissioner experienced any intimidation from a crazed cop killer.

They might think his authority failed, and Loeb couldn't allow anything along those lines to happen, not if he could help it.

The two men shook hands, making a deal which would go down in infamy.

* * *

Claire's eyes snapped open. She started to fly towards the cave. Some invisible force guided her, causing her to go towards the cave. Nothing Claire could do stopped herself.

The young woman dropped down on the cave at a certain location. The paintings on the cave wall flared up with energy. Symbols flashed in front of Claire's face.

Claire stood, paralyzed in fear. She thought she heard someone scream for help. A more booming voice overrode any thoughts she had.

"You cannot outrun your fate. You cannot outrun destiny! You will bow before it!"

A booming voice escalated even further. Claire's skin crawled as a bright light engulfed her.

"CLAIRE!"

A loud voice brought Claire out of her thoughts. She was down on the grass, with glass surrounding her. The young woman's body shivered as the scrambling of footsteps could be heard. Lana arrived first.

"What happened?" Claire asked.

The preteen alien's mind started to go a bit fuzzy. Her head rang with immense frustration, with increased as time passed.

"I don't, you tell me," Lana said.

Claire struggled to hold onto the dream. In the perspective of her dream, she arrived at the cave. The young woman flew.

"I flew."

"No, you didn't fly, you crashed," Lana said.

Lana leaned down towards her, but Claire shook her head. Lana made her way back, careful not to step on any of the glass.

"I crashed?"

"Claire, honey, are you alright?"

Martha made her way outside and helped Claire up to her feet.

"Bad nightmare, really bad nightmare," Claire said.

Martha frowned, something more than a bad nightmare visited her daughter. She speculated something was going on.

"Please, I'm fine," Claire said.

"You're really pale, you're not fine….watch your step, Lana."

Claire crouched down and cleaned the shards of broken glass out from the glass. Her heart almost went through her throat.

This nightmare was too weird to ignore. She would need to tell Kara and Harry about this one because something was wrong. Waking up in her nightdress in the middle of the night after jumping through a window wasn't normal even in Smallville.

* * *

**To Be Continued on November 25** **th** **, 2015.**


	145. Chapter 145

**Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Five: Escape.**

* * *

Harry stirred awake in the dead of the morning. Seconds before he woke up, a sense gripped his body some kind of emergency bombarded him. A startled gasp caused him to jolt halfway out of bed. The young man rose to his feet, in a flash of seconds. He was careful not to wake anyone else up.

The sorcerer stepped from his room and almost ran into Kara. Kara's gaze matched Harry's in a matter of seconds. The two of them locked hand to hand with each other, drawing closer together.

"You heard it too, didn't you?" Harry asked.

Kara didn't waste any time in nodding. Harry pulled her closer towards him. He made his way into the bond network to sense the sound of the disturbance.

 _'Harry, I'm sorry to wake you up,'_ Martha thought.

Harry took a moment to recollect his thoughts. He locked onto Martha. Distressed didn't even begin to describe how she sounded or felt.

 _'Don't be, Martha,'_ Harry thought. _'If you needed to wake me up, there's a pretty good reason for it, I would think.'_

'Yes, Claire….well, she woke up, and jumped out of her bedroom window.'

Kara's expression turned to one of a frown. Harry reached towards her. Their hands locked with Kara squeezing it. If he didn't calm Kara down, there was a serious problem. She looked seconds away from losing all sense of herself.

_'She jumped out of her window?'_

Harry hated to sound like he didn't believe Martha, because he did. How could he disbelieve anything she said in these circumstances? She sounded stressed out and Harry couldn't blame her.

One stolen look at Kara told her all he needed to know. Harry fixed Kara a cup of coffee. The tense blonde swiped the cup from his hand. She sipped on the cup of her coffee.

_'I know it's hard to believe.'_

Kara broke her silence after being stunned for several minutes. Mostly because the jarring nature of Martha entering the bond link in the dead of night; such an event wasn't something which caused an individual to settle. She raised a hand to the side of her head, and brushed a lock of hair away from her face.

_'No, it isn't, trust me.'_

Kara pondered the next couple of seconds with what she wanted to do. Harry's hand tensed up around hers.

 _'Did she say what possessed her to do such a thing?'_ Kara asked.

 _'I don't know, she's pretty much in shock…she's clammed up,'_ Martha said. _'I hate to pull you away from Gotham during a time like this, but do you think you can….'  
_

Kara and Harry locked eyes with each other the second Martha trailed off. Both nodded.

 _'Do you think should come to Smallville?'_ Harry asked.

Harry's theory something was up hit a new level. Tonight, his sixth sense indicated something in the air. A ghost from the past of sorts rolling into the present, and he wondered if Claire's little daredevil action resulted from some kind of backwash from the universal shifts a few months ago.

 _'If it isn't too much trouble,'_ Martha thought. _'I know you got back into town, and….'_

'Family is put ahead of business. I haven't forgotten.'

Harry stood up straight and decided to make his way into the room. He was half dressed in bed now. All he needed to do was to locate the rest of his clothes. Kara walked into her quarters to acquire a change of clothes of her own.

Something happened in Smallville, and Harry figured he best warn Martha.

 _'Martha, just keep a close eye on Claire,'_ Harry thought. _'I know you will, but I figure it stands to be repeated.'_

 _'Oh, thank you for your concern,'_ Martha said. _'Claire is in, and Lana is with me. She ran out with Claire, and checked on her…..do you think there's something more going on?'_

Harry took a moment to consider Martha's words. He sensed something stirring in Smallville, linked to his past. Whether or not it was a past yet to be created, he didn't know. The nature of time travel and the many adventures Harry went on in the past only allowed him to begin to guess.

_'I'm certain.'_

Harry turned around to notice Kara standing in the hallway. She packed a small carry on bag. She dressed in a black shirt and blue jeans which fit around her body. Harry beckoned for her to walk towards him.

_'We'll be there by morning, Martha, keep me updated if anything goes wrong with Claire…if she says anything…is she still in a state of shock?'_

'Yes,'

Martha thought.

Kara thought tonight took a turn for the ugly fairly quickly. She had tomorrow off from classes, not classes mattered to her right now. She made her way towards Harry.

"You know….."

"You can fly us out there," Harry said.

Kara paused, and frowned. She bobbed her head.

"But, we can't, can we? You were seen tonight in an extremely public venue. So we're going to have to take the jet."

A good thing they had a jet which could get them from Gotham to Smallville by morning. Faora and Karen took the trip on a regular basis within a couple of hours.

Harry and Kara made their way to the elevator. She looked at Harry.

"Are you okay?" Kara asked.

"Well, I'm worried about Claire."

Kara understood where Harry came from. She thought something else ate away at him. She gripped his wrist with her hand and squeezed it in a firm manner. Harry's gaze locked onto Kara's.

"There's something else."

Harry paused and nodded.

"Just a feeling I have."

Kara hated when Harry spoke in a vague way. She realized why he did. He didn't understand what he spoke a lot of the time.

"Is this some kind of Master of Death thing?"

Harry pondered her words. The two of them made their way to the limo, waiting for them. The moment the two settled into the back of the limo, Harry turned to her.

"Along those lines, yes."

Kara thought about as much. She needed to make sure. Regardless they would be on their way to Smallville and soon. Claire didn't show any aptitude in flying, even though she was reaching the age where she could.

For some, flight came easier than others, for Kara and Harry, it did anyway, even though Harry had been grounded. For others, the idea of flight didn't end as easily. Kara hoped to get to the bottom of this.

"It's something disturbing never the less," Harry said.

Kara bought what Harry said in an instant. She prepared herself for the trip to Smallville. Hopefully it would be a false alarm, but something told Kara the horror she felt ended up being very real.

* * *

Joe Kerr pulled up in front of what appeared to be a dive bar in one of the worst parts of Gotham City. A lot of worst parts in Gotham City, but this took the cake as far as worst parts. He killed the car engine and slipped out of the side exit of the car. The man locked up the car and looked up.

The man took extra care to make sure the door locked. He stepped into the bar, pushing the door open. A choking amount of dust caused him pause.

He pushed himself into the bar. A battle weathered old man with scars over his face and an eyepatch over his eye stood on the other end of the bar. Several of the patrons eyed Joe, making him feel like a fresh slab of meat. Why did he feel like he would be cooked in the skillet of some sort?

Joe passed the sleazy looking bar patrons and walked to the end of the bar. He stopped short at the sight of the Red Hood himself. Hard to tell if this was the same guy. The Red Hood raised a glass, and gave Joe the thumbs up.

Crossing the bar, Joe sank down on one of the bar stools.

"You look like someone who has had a bad day, and could use a drink."

Joe raised his eyebrow, not able to believe the gall of this bastard. At the same time though, he could believe the gall of this bastard.

"So, are you him, the Red Hood?"

The Red Hood pulled back the hoodie slightly, to take the drink, but not enough for Joe to catch a glimpse of who was underneath the mask.

"The original and not some pretender roaming around in a fancy outfit. As if clothes make the man."

The man scoffed in anger. He took a long drink, with the glass clenched in his hand.

"I'm the original Red Hood, the one and only, and no one should forget it either…and he tried to make me a patsy…and I won't forget it."

Joe took a long moment to consider what this man said.

"Some dumb son of a bitch named Jack Napier thinks he could move in on my turf. Well if he thinks it, he has another thing coming. I'm not going to give up what I've earned."

Joe remembered Napier, one of the reasons why he departed from the Ace Chemical plant. The bastard coming in during his shift and buying chemicals, dangerous chemicals, well any chemical could be dangerous in the wrong hands. It opened Joe's eyes to some of the dangerous shit.

"He took over my identity and raped my dignity….but you and I have a lot in common, don't we, Joe?"

Joe wondered what the Red Hood talked about. The man grabbed his hands. Joe experienced a shiver down his spine, like he wanted to take a shower.

He made a decision of where he wanted to go next.

"Look, I just want to come and tell you in person….."

The Red Hood silenced Joe's words.

"You're an upstanding citizen; you never once committed a crime. Not saying you don't have the stones to do so, but…..you've never went down a dark path. But, despite you being the straight arrow, everywhere you've turned, bad times, bad times."

The man rose to his feet and took a long drink from his glass. His body language moved around in an erratic manner.

"Did you ever wonder why the Ace Chemical plant would bend over backwards to keep a nobody like yourself?"

Joe wondered, especially considered the chemical plant suffered financial trouble every single moment of the day. He couldn't even begin to explain why they would want to hang onto someone like him.

"I'll tell you, you're their patsy, their bitch…whatever term you want to use, it's you, Joe, it's you."

Two other gentlemen turned up to join them, part of the rapidly depleting Red Hood Gang. Snapping his fingers, the Red Hood smiled at Joe.

"Just think of it for a second," Red Hood said. "You have nothing left to lose, but everything to gain from one little job."

One of the goons pulled out a case, and the Red Hood held it. The case opened up to reveal stacks and stacks of hundred dollar bills.

"Where did you get this money?" Joe asked.

"We steal from the rich and give to the poor," the Red Hood said. "And given you've hit bottom, I can't think of a poorer man than you are….but there's something in the case greater than money, there's piece of mind."

The red mask lingered on the stacks of one hundred dollar bills.

"I can see it in your eyes Joe….here…have a drink on me."

Joe accepted the drink, swallowing down the contents. The content burned his throat, but he pressed through with another drink.

"You're a man living on the edge; you just need one more push. Why go out with a whimper, when you can go out with a bang? Stick it to the man, and end your career at the Ace Chemical Plant with style. Just think, for once; walk away with your head up high instead of having your tail tucked between your legs."

Joe considered his words. Perhaps it was the alcohol speaking, but they sounded to be pretty good about now.

"Are you in, Joe?"

The Red Hood hoped so. Napier made moves for a new deal and it was time to settle the score.

* * *

Kara and Harry took the quickest, most conspicuous way to Smallville. The two of them arrived at the airport, where Nell arrived to pick them up and take them to the Kent Farm.

"I'm glad you're back in town, I just wish it was for better reasons," Nell said. "When I left, Claire was in shock, Martha was trying to get it out of her, and Jonathan….well he's pacing in the kitchen liked a caged animal. Never got the impression he was at ease with the weirdness."

"I wouldn't blame him though," Kara said.

"I'm not blaming him," Nell said. "Jonathan Kent is a practical man after all."

Harry knew as much. A practical and prideful man, and also he must have realized already this was one situation where he couldn't help his pre-teen daughter in. Harry didn't even know if he had the answers.

"Martha mentioned Lana came across Claire when she was out in the grass," Harry said.

Nell took a second to make a particularly sharp turn before resounding.

"Yes….I think they went exploring somewhere in Smallville, with the other girl at the Kent farm, Marie. Not sure where they went."

A strange feeling visited Harry on where they might have gone. He couldn't really be sure they went where he thought they were.

Kara's eyes narrowed as she thought of what trouble her cousin might have gone into.

 _'So, you're thinking what I'm thinking, aren't you?'_ Harry asked.

 _'Claire might have gone up to the caves,'_ Kara said. _'And here I thought we wouldn't have worried about anything Jor-El might have left up there."_

'Unless it's not Jor-El,'

Harry thought. _'The caves are subject to all kinds of urban legends….but it could be him.'_

'Wonderful,'

Kara thought.

Nell pulled up to the driveway. Harry glimpsed from afar Jonathan Kent pacing back and forth from the kitchen. Martha sat at the table with Claire and Lana. Lana tried to engage Claire into conversation, but Claire looked on, with her eyes widened. She shook her head.

 _'Worse than I thought,'_ Kara thought.

Kara hoped Claire didn't suffer any kind of brain injury from the cave. Her development became slightly stunted because of the poor landing her ship suffered. Then again, what was Jor-El thinking making a vessel small enough only to contain an infant, and sending it to Earth unsupervised?

Even if Lara handpicked the Kents, there was still so much which could have gone wrong. Never the less, Kara, Nell, and Harry made their way from to the front porch.

Martha answered the door the second they entered. She swept Harry up in a tight hug, smiling deeply when he approached her.

"Thank you for coming," Martha said.

Harry crossed into the kitchen.

"It's not a problem," Harry said.

Harry entered the room. Lana smiled and greeted him with a hug.

"Claire, you need to tell him," Lana said.

A long pause followed. Lana's look caused Claire to cave in. She looked up towards Harry and spoke in a rather shaky tone of voice.

"We went up to the caves," Claire said.

She blurted out the statement fast, because she thought she would lose her nerve if she took her time.

Kara's worst fears slammed into her with the force of a runaway freight train. Sweat started to roll down her face.

"No, no, no, no!"

 _'Kara, you need to calm down, Claire's spooked enough as it is,'_ Harry thought.

Kara accepted the words of her mate. She found it hard to calm down, but would do so for her cousin's sake. Claire and Lana stared at her.

_'We didn't think Jor-El's little gift would come to life until Claire turned fifteen.'_

Harry crouched down next to Claire.

"You had a nightmare last night, about the caves?" Harry asked.

Claire paused for a second, and nodded.

"We should have never gone up there," Lana said.

Guilt pressed through her body. If she never found the stupid slab of wood, they would have never been up by the caves, and they never would have had nightmares.

"How many other than last night?"

Claire turned to Kara. The question might have been asked calmly, but Claire's uneasy at answering it caused her to turn her head.

"One other time….it wasn't as bad as the last time."

"It's…it's my fault!" Lana yelled.

Harry raised his eyebrow and looked at his younger cousin. Lana folded her arms, and frowned.

"You know, if I never found the stupid piece of wood, then Claire would have never had the nightmares….I could have hurt her."

"Piece of wood?" Harry asked. "Do you still have what you found?"

Lana thought a moment about where it was.

"Um, it's in my desk in my room, I think," Lana said. "Mr. Longshadow warned us about the hauntings in the cave….and now Claire's dreams are being haunted."

"It's not ghosts," Harry said.

"How do you know?" Lana asked.

"Not ghosts in the traditional sense," Harry said.

Harry didn't have time to elaborate. The back door opened, and the other occupant of the Kent house made her way in.

Marie didn't mind taking care of all of the chores when Claire didn't feel well. She wasn't sure what happened last night which caused it. Mr. Kent warned her to steer clear of the broken glass.

The teenager stopped as she noticed Harry Potter in the kitchen. Certain memories absorbed stirred to the surface.

"Marie, don't be a stranger, come in," Martha said.

Marie shook her head, stopping herself from gawking at Harry. She made her way into the kitchen, the memories she inherited from Kara.

"Hello, Marie, we met briefly….a couple of months ago," Harry said.

_'Not for long enough.'_

"Hello, Harry," Marie said. She walked towards him with a smile. "It's nice to see you in the flesh."

Claire and Lana stared at her. Marie never seemed this forward for her.

"So, what brings you to Smallville?" she asked.

"Claire's nightmares….she went up to the cave, and ever since then, something haunted her mind."

Marie frowned. She didn't know what happened to Claire. One look at the younger girl chilled the young woman to her mind. She was haunted and not in the good way.

"If we find out what's been haunting her, we should be able to fix it."

Kara spoke up after a second. Claire turned to her cousin, fear crossing her face. The young girl's heart started to beat against her chest. Every time she closed her eyes, she noticed flickers of the nightmare which gripped her mind.

"Be careful, Kara."

Kara bent down and kissed Claire on the top of her head. Claire closed her eyes and smiled.

"Don't worry, I'll be careful. You could have tripped something really bad up there, and if we can find it ,and fix it."

Lana decided to chime in.

"Mr. Longshadow told us about a young girl who was lost up there."

Harry understood something else was going on. If there was a potentially missing girl up there, it looked like Claire wasn't the only one who trigger something up there. Claire being in close proximity to the cave didn't help her any or do any favors whatsoever.

He prepared to head to the cave on his journey.

"Everyone stay here, Kara and I will be back….let me know if anything happens on your end."

Martha nodded. Both Martha and Nell weren't too pleased at the fact the girls went exploring in the caves. Especially considering the fact another girl disappeared already. Vanished without a trace, and Martha thought she heard something about a missing girl by the caves when she went into town one day.

"Don't be too hard on them," Harry said. "Curiosity gets the better of the best of us."

Harry spoke from experience from the past. He turned to Marie.

"It was a pleasure meeting you again, Marie…hope we can talk together…and about your powers as well."

Kara mentioned to Marie if she wanted, Harry could give her some advice on her powers. Marie thought about taking up Kara on the offer sooner or later.

"I'd like it, I really would."

Was it the memories from Kara messing with Marie's mind? Kara's echoes sat on her mental shoulder like a particularly horny angel.

* * *

Kara understood why Harry experienced a disturbing presence in the back of his mind. The duo approached the edge of the caves.

"Something's up here."

The two of them took their journey up. Kara gripped Harry by the arm, to hover them up to get closer to the caves.

"Yes, something's up there," Kara said. "We know Jor-El set up something in the caves, but it was inactive. We couldn't access it until it was triggered….we figured out as much when we spent the time in the caves for your training."

Harry sensed the echoes of the past. The ancestors of a proud race echoing around him, but he couldn't really get a good enough fix on all of the weirdness surrounding him. The Master of Death experienced a slight buzz.

Kara stopped. Her enhanced hearing located someone approaching them from the other end. Kara turned around.

The elderly man stopped. Harry noticed a weird eerie aura from him. Some might not be able to notice it, but Harry did.

"What are you doing here?" Kara asked.

The elderly native looked past Kara to lock eyes onto Harry. The man's mouth widened and he leaned in to incline his head.

"My apologies, I didn't notice you were here….please forgive me for the Kawatchee….they have lost their way. I hope you would not judge them too harshly."

Kara wondered what the hell the man rattled on about. Harry stared at him.

"As long as they find their way when it counts, it shouldn't matter."

"I hope they do in time, for their sake."

Harry took a moment to consider his next words.

"Mr. Longshadow, I presume. I require to access the cave."

Longshadow wouldn't dare argue with the manifestation of this powerful god if he wished to access the cave. He allowed a second to pass before giving a warning.

"Be careful, Namen. There are dark forces who wish to challenge your authority."

Harry paused and the man disappeared with the warning. Everything clicked rather swiftly to Harry.

"Yes, I see clearly."

Harry and Kara entered the caves. The drawings shined on the caves. Kara smiled as she looked from the drawings to Harry.

"Do you see a resemblance?" Kara asked. "Should I really be surprised another race is worshipping you?"

"No, not really."

Harry put his full attention on the walls of the cave. Something lingered from the other end of these walls.

"Well, it looks like Jor-El stashed something in here," Harry said.

"Great," Kara said. "Let's find it and shut it down. Or do you think a hard reboot would work to clear whatever flawed component was in the programming?"

As much as Harry liked to the reboot the programming and perhaps give it a boot, he ran into one really large problem.

"It's not active."

Kara frowned, and she could have smacked herself. Talk about answering none of her questions and getting even more in response.

The Kryptonian touched her ear to the edge of the wall. A rumbling started to occur from within the wall. Kara tensed her grip around the wall. Harry placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Something is in the wall. Something is trapped inside the wall…you don't suppose….."

Harry reached to the case. He removed the portable AI component hooked to the master copy of Lara's programming.

"Lara, do you think there's some kind of failsafe which trapped someone in stasis when they tried to mess with Jor-El's programming?"

A long pause followed with Lara considering Harry's theory. She paused for a moment and agreed.

"I wouldn't doubt it at all."

"The energy readings coming from the cave wall are strange," Alura said.

Harry reached to the cave wall. The cave sparked and caused him to step back.

"Someone is trapped, and trying to get our attention," Lara said. "Jor-El visited these caves during these youth, and he kept getting drawn back to them."

"He wasn't the only one, Zod did as well," Harry said. "These very caves were where my mother found the genetic material which fixed her and allowed her give birth to me."

"Yes, we recall," Lara said.

She amused herself with the look on Jor-El's face when he realized he overlooked something Zod left behind. Years before the destruction of Krypton, Jor-El placed an item in the cave, but it was only half of a larger AI.

"Without the component on Clara's ship activating, it's just a paperweight."

"Yes, I figured as much," Harry said. "Someone is certainly trapped inside the cave walls. They're trying to escape, but they've failed to do so yet."

Kara placed her hand on the edge of the wall. A flow of energy sparked between her fingers. It caused her to stagger back with a brief jump.

She felt it, her hair stood out on end. Making a quick decision, Kara understood what to do.

 _'Maybe you should wait for me to get out there before you try anything,'_ Faora thought.

Kara shook her head. As much as she thought it was logical, she needed to figure out what she needed to do next.

_'We can't, I have a feeling time is running out.'_

'It is. We need to work together.'

Channeling enough energy through the crystal, the gateway in the cave cracked open. The cave wasn't going to give up its prisoner without a fight.

Harry and Kara braced themselves. The cave may have easily opened up to swallow them in just as well.

The rock slid apart. A bright light almost engulfed the two. Kara and Harry latched onto something, someone.

A titanic struggle followed, almost rocking the cave. The two of them yanked her from the wall.

A girl of around eleven or so years old fell into the caves. The opening in the wall closed with a hiss.

The cave remained quiet. The girl dropped to her knees, looking weak, and catatonic as well.

"You've found Danielle."

Longshadow returned. Harry turned towards the man, and they locked eyes. One thought crossed Harry's mind.

_'I know what you are.'_

Longshadow disappeared and all became silent in the cave. Harry reached down, to cup Danielle's fists.

Images of pure horror bombarded Harry for a second. It was long enough not to affect him, but short enough for him to feel the need to yank away.

"Harry?"

He shook his head and turned to address Kara's concerns.

"I saw what Claire did. It wasn't Jor-El, Danielle tried to reach out for help but….the signals were crossed."

Kara knew Harry would give her more of an answer. Right now, the two of them needed to haul Danielle from the cave and do it right now.

* * *

A standard Gotham City goon slipped into an alleyway. He escaped detection from the Gotham City police department.

The goon flipped over and had been pulled up the side of the building. The goon's eyes widened as he stared down Batman who dangled him over the edge of the building.

"You're part of the Red Hood gang!"

He spoke in a low growl. The goon made an attempt to stare Batman back down without fear. He faltered for a moment.

"Yeah, so what if I am? What's it to you, anyway, freakshow?"

The man's bravado failed in the face of Batman. He might talk a good game, but facing off against Batman caused real terror to go through his mind.

"They're dropping like flies," Batman said.

"Fine, we've had some recruitment issues, but we're stronger than ever. Besides, anyone can be the Red Hood. All you have to have is enough nerve to put it on."

Batman dangled him above the building. The goon dangled.

"Tell me what you're up to."

The goon scoffed. Surely Batman wouldn't dare send him plummeting to a sickening and sudden doom. Batman dangled the goon above the pavement and almost let go.

The goon screamed the moment he almost implanted into the ground. Batman stopped him from smashing into the ground. The Dark Knight bent over the side of the building and yanked him back up.

"Do you want to try again?" Batman asked.

The goon shook his head, and Batman held him.

"They're trying something big…some big scheme…it's at the Ace Chemical Plant tomorrow night, I don't know any more."

Batman left him dangle for the GCPD to find before slipping off into the night.

* * *

Harry and Kara moved Danielle into the Potter house, due to the fact there was more room there than the Kent Farm. They needed to make sure she was out of the woods.

Her lips started to move as she stirred awake. A detached voice came from her throat which caused Kara and Harry to turn, their eyes locked onto her.

"Destiny cannot be out run."

A deeper male voice coming out of Danielle's mouth faded, and she started to scream bloody murder like someone would expect an eleven year old girl to scream bloody murder.

Nell and Martha entered the room, to try and keep Danielle as calm as possible. Her arms and legs jerked in a multitude of directions.

She stood bolt upright, her eyes on Harry. One question entered her with surprisingly calmness.

"Am I dead?"

Harry shook his head. Danielle tried to keep herself calm.

"I tried….the spirit in the cave made me do bad things….I just wanted to end….how did you stop it?"

Danielle shivered, and she closed her eyes.

"I don't want to talk about it," she said. "I want to go home."

Martha moved over, with a bowl of soup. Danielle shivered a little bit more. Distrust flooded over her eyes.

"It's okay," Harry said. "You're amongst friends….and when you feel better, you'll be able to go home."

Danielle was glad of it, but when could she feel better? She haunted someone's nightmares, and her powers….they did really bad things.

"And you can tell me how you became trapped within the cave, but only when you're ready."

Harry sensed the moment he pulled Danielle from the cave, she had some bad memories.

"If it prevents someone from getting hurt…I guess I can help," Danielle said.

She couldn't believe he was real, and a part of her assumed she had some kind of feverish dream. A bigger part of her didn't want to say anything, in case he was real.

"Right now, you should get some rest, and we'll discuss it in the morning."

Rest, easier said than done, at least in Danielle's mind. It gave her plenty of time to come to terms with what happened at any rate.

* * *

**To Be Continued on November 28** **th** **, 2015.**

****Vote for the 2015 Megamatt09 Story of the Year in the Poll in My Profile:** https://www.fanfiction.net/~megamatt09**

 


	146. Memories Discovered

**Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Six: Memories Discovered.**

* * *

A surprising burst of warmth dragged Harry out of the thoughts. He looked around and the song of the Phoenix beckoned him forward. A temple appeared, with symbols on them. Harry tried to piece together what happened.

After he and Kara rescued Danielle, they left her at the Potter House. The excitement for the day caused Harry to retire to the bedroom at the Potter House which Nell kept ready for him. Kara decided to spend some time visiting with Claire and making sure her cousin recovered from the ordeal she was.

_'Must have drifted off when I tried to work. Where the hell am I? A good question, hopefully I can figure out an answer before too long.'_

Harry looked around and analyzed the symbols. Some of them, he recognized. Others, they were a bit foreign, although given enough time, Harry could put two and two together, at least the best he could. The young man stretched and touched one of the symbols.

The doors cracked open and engulfed Harry with an immense burst of light. The young man ascended a set of stairs. Harry wondered where he was. A figure appeared at the top of the steps dressed in a white cloak with the same golden Phoenix symbol he noticed all over the temples.

Harry noticed the woman crossing her arms. He figured he would find out what the hell was going on right now. One closer step made Harry know what he was getting into. He recognized her, the red hair, the green eyes, the powerful demeanor.

"You again?" Harry asked.

The powerful entity smiled. She descended down the steps until reaching an eye-level with Harry. Stretching her hand, she touched the top of his hand.

"Yes, I've taken a form which should allow us to communicate with ease," she said. "Once again, our paths have been intertwined, but it was always to be my destiny. Just like soon my chosen vessel will be ready to channel me."

The white cloaked entity stepped closer towards Harry. She touched her hands to either side of his face, and smiled. The two of them locked eyes into each other.

"I'm going to help you fix Danielle's mind. And hope you gain perspective on what is to come."

Harry frowned, hating the implication he didn't have any perspective on this situation. Regardless, he allowed the young woman to lead the way, for better or for worse.

A glowing gateway opened itself. The entity made a motion for Harry to go through at first. Harry watched her, wondering if he should take the plunge.

The temptation of him being able to fix Danielle's mind and help her out caused him to walk towards the gateway. Warm golden energy descended down on Harry's skin. He passed through the portal.

The entity followed them. Past, present, and future, life and death, swirled all around them. A vortex opened up on the other end of the cave.

Harry blinked and he could hear the voices two girls.

"Dani, aren't you the least bit curious? They say he might come here when the moon is full to bless us!"

A slightly older girl walked into the cave. Her dark hair pinned back in a ponytail. The young woman passed the cave entrance and started to shine the flashlight. The girl looked fairly close to being a teenager, if she didn't pass the age of thirteen. She dressed in a red tank top and a pair of black pants which covered her body.

The younger girl, Danielle, followed into the cave. She made her way towards the cave. Hands slammed to the side on her hips.

"Kyla, are you sure he will come tonight?"

"Everything is aligned tonight," Kyla said. "He will come tonight."

Danielle crossed her arms and looked around. She stopped for a second and stared at the drawings on the cave wall. The native girl heard the stories about Namen from her grandfather, and some of them made her wonder if the legends had been outraged.

She believed someone really powerful blessed the Kawatchee and guarded them from evil some time ago. The extent though, she didn't really know.

"Should he come, he comes through this entrance," Kyla said. "Wouldn't it be amazing if he chose us?"

Dani thought about it, and she couldn't really argue about as much. She wondered if the Namen would choose someone as young for his group. If fact, Kyla might have been old enough to be considered because of the traditions of their tribe, but Danielle had another year.

"I'm certain he would consider you, if you paid tribute."

The walls of the cave started to rumble. Harry stepped towards the astral forms of the girls, unaware. Harry recognized the energy from when the mirror box had been activated, and the world changed. The two girls entered the cave the night the energy wave emitted in Smallville, and passed through the rest of the world.

Suddenly, Harry saw everything pretty clearly. Danielle screamed, as an energy blast nailed her in the forehead.

"DANI!"

Kyla's panic hit a new level. The young girl panicked something fierce. She tried to grab onto Dani, but Dani's body sucked into the wall.

Harry shifted to the other side of the cave wall where Dani had been sucked in. He noticed the horror on the young girl's face.

"Kyla, don't…RUN!" Dani shouted.

Harry figured Danielle's words had been shouted in vein. The girl surrounded by darkness which engulfed her. She tried to push out of the shadows before they overwhelmed her, but the shadows pushed back.

Jor-El's programming kicked on line after the darkness completely submerged around Danielle.

"Emergency protocol online. Jor-El artificial component failsafe scan active, universal matrix shifted."

The words bore into Danielle's head like a prominent drill. She panted and shook deep in the cave wall. No matter what happened, the girl couldn't escape the prison.

Jor-El shifted online. The mist swirled around her as Danielle tried to frantically scream out for help, but no one wanted to help her. No one could help her.

"Remember, it's a memory, and one she must come to terms with. She has suppressed true horror, of being trapped. But….it doesn't end there."

Time passed for Danielle, many months, which might as well have been an eternity from her point of view. The girl took a panicked breath in her body. The girl resembled someone who had lost pretty much every degree of hope.

Voices approached in the cave. Danielle's eye twitched for a long moment. Three figures made their way towards the cave. One of them made their way there.

Harry watched along with Danielle of Claire, Lana, and Marie making their way towards the caves. They had been stopped by Mr. Longshadow before they were able to explore.

Danielle noticed some familiarity with the dark haired girl. The entity gripping her mind had a rise of temper. The temper caused Danielle to start reach out and touch them.

"I'm here….here I am….please help me….HELP ME, PLEASE!"

The young girl's screams fell upon deaf ears. No matter how loud she screamed, no one heard her voice. The girl's frantic yells increased with every attempt to gain someone's attention.

At the last moment, her mind grabbed onto Claire's. She realized the familiarity of the mind. The girl hoped to tempt the young woman back into the cave, to find more answers, and to free her.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," the Phoenix entity said. "And I think I don't need to tell you it was here the first nightmares started."

"Yes, they started….I never meant….something enhanced my powers, twisted the message."

Danielle stood on the side of the astral plane with him. The young girl made her way towards Harry and Jean. She glowed in light. The eleven year old gazed upon her past self who had been trapped inside the wall, all kinds of bad memories returning to her.

Harry motioned for her to come to him. The preteen stepped towards Harry. A combination of awe and intimidation spread over her face. The young woman didn't know what to say, or what to do when she came face to face with the Namen.

"He twisted your powers, yes, but you're free now."

"Yes, you're free," she said. "By taking this journey, you've shown us how to remove the final traces of corruption from your mind. And you will wake up, and the healing will begin."

Dani struggled to figure out what to say. The young girl decided to state the obvious.

"Thank you."

Harry and the redhead woman faded from the Astral Plane, and so did she. Dani felt warmth and realized one thing.

Now, it was time for everyone to wake up.

* * *

Claire thought about the last few days. She could close her eyes without any fear of the weird visions returning. She didn't really know what to think about the visions, other than they stirred up some really weird thoughts in her mind.

"Do I really belong here, Lana?"

Lana, who had been sitting on the couch in the Potter Residence, turned towards Claire.

"You're not really taking the dream seriously, are you?"

Lana reached forward and grabbed Claire around the head. The young Kryptonian survivor locked eye to eye with Lana.

"Not at all," Claire said. "But….when people find out what I really am….."

"Well, you're not going to be accepted by everyone, obviously," Lana said. "But, hey, I like you, and you shouldn't let those people worry you."

"Thanks, Lana," Claire said. "I hope I can talk to Danielle soon, because none of this was her fault. I don't want her to feel any guilt about what happened."

Lana thought it was pretty noble of Claire to reassure the other girl. The girl didn't mean any malice from what Kara explained to them. She tried to reach out to help them, but the message was distorted along the way.

"I know one thing," Claire said. "I'm never going anywhere near those caves….ever, ever, ever, again!"

Lana almost smiled at how adamant Claire sounded. She really hoped Claire would be able to live up to her words, although there was something which told Lana she might not be able to get her way. The young woman hoped for Claire's sake.

The door next to them swung open and Harry walked over to join Claire and Lana.

"I thought you went home, Claire," Harry said.

"I want to speak to Danielle….about what happened," Claire said. "To let her know, I'm fine, and none of this is her fault."

Harry smiled, while Danielle was at peace, talking to Claire could be the thing she needed to add to the peace.

"You know, she's awake right now….if you want to talk to her, I'm sure she'd like it a lot."

Claire bolted towards the room, wanting to talk to Danielle, and clear the air with her so to speak.

Lana turned her attention to Harry, raising an eyebrow. She wanted to know how Harry knew, but then the question was obvious.

"She woke up?" Lana asked. "Is she okay?"

Harry smiled and patted her neck on the back of her neck.

"The healing process has to begin for her," Harry said. "I'm sure talking to Claire will help her a lot."

"And we promise to never go the caves ever again," Lana said.

Harry leaned down on the couch, looking his cousin straight in the eye.

"Are you sure you're going to be able to keep your promise, Lana?"

Lana wondered if she would be able to keep her promise. The young woman's eyes flashed with the obvious intend to do so, but something told her she really didn't know. She would find out in due time.

Claire knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Danielle's weak voice signaled Claire to come in. The girl sat up in bed, and drank the juice which had been left for her. The sandwich had been left on the table for her. She didn't really know what to make of this entire mess.

"Hello, Clara."

Claire blinked, her full, proper, Kryptonian name had been used.

"The entity in the cave told me, he seemed to think you replaced his son," Danielle said. "But…I don't think he was right. He trapped me for a long time."

Guilt swam over Claire's body. She had a lot to go over in her mind. The weird dreams brought on by the cave gave her more questions than answer.

The fact Jor-El used Danielle as a puppet twisted Claire's stomach a fair amount.

"He shouldn't have done it."

Dani agreed with Claire's words. He shouldn't have done it, but it was done, and there really wasn't anything she could do about it. The girl shifted her weight on the bed, with a groan passing through her body.

"No, he shouldn't have done it, but he did do it," Danielle said. "And I'm not even sure what he intended to do...I wouldn't go anywhere near the caves. They are cursed as much as they are blessed."

"Harry will fix it, he'll make sure no one is ever hurt again," Claire said.

Danielle blinked, caught completely off guard by the words of the young girl. She realized what she said in an instant.

"Namen will fix the caves?"

Claire blinked at her words. The term "Namen" threw her off guard just a little bit.

"His name is Harry Potter, and….he does resemble the cave drawings, doesn't he?"

Dani scoffed at her words. While she wasn't the most loyal worshipper of Namen, him saving her caused her to wonder if she could step up her worship in him. She became a believer tonight, for lack of a better term.

"He does resemble the cave drawings, because he is him, there's no one else he could be," Dani said. "The Kawatchee don't believe in coincidence. He came here hundreds of years ago to protect us from evil, and he saved me. And now he purified the caves which had been tainted."

Claire frowned.

"You think a lot of him."

"He is a god to us."

Claire thought Harry was amazing, but god might be pushing it just a little bit.

"And now I owe him a debt which I cannot repay for another few years," Dani said. "He only takes those of us who have passed our sixteenth birthday, or so the legends state. Guess we'll find out the truth to it"

Claire caught herself making a mental note how much time she had left. The answer was way too much.

' _Why am I even thinking….oh never mind.'_

"Although he has been known to make exceptions a couple years earlier for a select few, and I do hope I qualify."

Claire mentally did the math, no, still too long, but she supposed she could wait all things considered. She hoped these nightmares would be released.

"Do you have a gift?" Claire asked. Dani eyed her for a second. "I mean, powers of some sort…it's just…."

"I'm able to send telepathic illusions out, mirages, and they can invade people's dreams," Danielle said. "I haven't been able to control it too well, as you noticed."

Claire placed her hand on the girl's. Dani shivered, mostly because of the cold in the room. And the last time she locked minds with Claire this close and personal, she invaded the girl's nightmares something fierce.

"No one is going to blame you for what you did. I don't….and I understand."

Danielle smiled, she couldn't say with words how much Clara's forgiveness meant to her. She realized a moment of curiosity could have caused great dismay for her people.

Perhaps she could forgive herself in time, but it would be a long and winding road before she would be completely happy.

"Just remember, no one blames you, especially, not Harry. But, I'm sure he's told you."

"He doesn't need to tell me anything," Dani said. "The fact he saved me when he could have left me to rot shows me all I need to know."

All happened to be forgiven. Danielle hoped she would be cleared to head home rather soon. She missed a good home cooked meal from her mother, not like this was bad.

"When you've eaten, you can go home."

Danielle almost sent the food tray flying when the emerald-eyed young man showed up at the door. Claire caught the tray before it hit the ceiling and balanced it on the young girl's lap.

Claire tried not to break out into a smile on the utterly spooked look on Danielle's face from receiving the Harry Potter experience up close and personal.

"Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

Danielle realized she had made a fool of herself in front of her god. She wanted to crawl under the covers and die. Claire patting her on the head didn't help her embarrassment at all, if nothing else; it heightened the girl's frustration to a new level.

* * *

Harry, Kara, and Claire made their way to the Kawatchee reserve the next day. Danielle had a couple of good meals, and a good night's sleep, not to mention a bath and a change of clothes. She didn't really want to go into the village looking like hell.

A part of her looked like an excuse to delayed the inevitable and her return home. She had been gone for a long time, months. How would everyone react?

Claire noticed some of the looks from the windows Harry received. From the men, a couple of them surveyed him with suspicion, at least the younger ones. The older men paid their respects to Harry, likely because they respected what he brought to the table. The women looked at him.

Kara ate up every moment of what happened with a shit-eating grin on her face. She turned to Harry, locking eyes with him. Harry looked back at Kara, and responded with a smile of his own.

"I should have warned you of the reception you would have received," Danielle said.

Harry smiled. He had been so used to women treating him like a god, and men being jealous about it, he didn't even bat an eyelash any more. Regardless, Danielle pointed out towards the home she lived with, with her grandfather and her mother.

"Dani, is it really you?"

Dani turned around, and Harry recognized the same girl from the visions. She looked a bit older, with her hair a bit longer. Regardless, she made her way over to her friend.

"You're alive, I can't believe it….you are alive, aren't you?" Kyla asked.

Danielle allowed herself a ghost of a smile from the look on Kyla's face.

"I'm not a ghost."

To prove her point, Dani wrapped her arms around Kyla and ensnared her in a tight hug. The two girls greeted each other with an embrace.

"I can see….MY GOD!"

Kyla almost fell back onto the ground. She gazed at Namen, in the flesh before her. The woman almost started to breath in and out. She could have fell over in shock from the young man she saw.

_'No, he…it can't be him!'_

"Hello, you must be Kyla."

Kyla's stammering didn't improve any because he addressed her by name. She couldn't believe she met him, here, and now, in the flesh. The young girl looked to enter a daze, as her mind wandered.

"My god, you brought Dani home….I don't think I could…thank you enough."

Kyla's mind racked with guilt for a second. She turned towards the green-eyed young man.

"Namen…."

The woman's eyes widened and she could hardly keep her wits about herself. The young man stared her down.

"I prefer, Harry, thank you."

Kyla shook her head and started to stammer a little bit. Kara almost broke out into a fit of laughter and even Claire smiled.

"Right, you want to remain discreet, so you've taken a more mortal form," Kyla said. "And you don't want to intimidate anyone."

She thought it would be much too late not to intimidate anyone because he entered the village. Still, Kyla understood his reasons and respected them. She had been brought up to respect those.

"You saved her, didn't you?" Kyla asked.

"Yes, I rescued Danielle from the cave," Harry said. "An evil spirit took ahold of her and dragged her into the cave walls. He utilized her gifts for purposes to bring my cousin to the cave….but I purged him."

To be more accurate, Harry deactivated Jor-El's AI, and later, they intended to return to the cave to reset the AI to factory standards. He wasn't sure if it would work, but it was worth a shot. High tech artificial intelligence, especially an alien version of it, looked to be a crapshoot, and Harry hoped for the best.

"Do you think you could help us lead Danielle home?" Harry asked.

Kyla beamed, unable to take her eyes off of the young god before her. Well granted, he was timeless, but still, he was amazing before her. She ceased mentally babbling for a second, and focused her full gaze on Harry.

"It would be an honor," Kyla said.

She almost reached forward to grab his arm, but pulled back, deciding it would be rude to lead him around like she might have.

Kara, Claire, and Harry lead the way, with Danielle walking next to them. She made her way towards her friend.

Kyla realized she would need to clear the air with Dani. The young girl opened her mouth, but Dani raised her hand to stop her.

"If you're going to blame yourself, I'm not going to hear it," Dani said. Kyla's protest faded out. Danielle waited for him to calm herself a little bit. "I've been doing some thinking, and there's a lot out of our hands. If you stayed in the cave, you would have been sucked through. And would you have done anyone any good if you had been trapped as well?

Kyla frowned; she supposed she wouldn't have done anyone any good at all. Didn't make her happy, but she wouldn't have done anyone any good to be honest.

"You're right," Kyla said. She turned towards Harry. "Is there anything I can do for you….anything at all? My grandfather…he's a tribe elder; one of the last….and….he can offer you anything, if you want it. We don't have much, but I'm certain the proper tribute can be given."

Harry figured they would offer him a lot.

"I do want one thing from the Kawatchee," Harry said. "It isn't much."

"Name it," Kyla said.

The young girl prepared to offer herself up, if it meant pleasing her god. She hoped her youth wouldn't deter him too much.

"I want reassurance you won't sell your land to Lionel Luthor."

Kyla's face turned into a frown. Such a grim fate had been feared by the Kawatchee, especially as many of the tribe elders died out. Some were willing to throw away their heritage to make money.

No way anyone should allow them to throw their heritage away to a wicked man like Lionel Luthor.

"My grandfather won't allow it, but a lot of the younger tribe members are trying to push him out, and make a deal with Luthor. Some of them have lost their way. Forgive them, they don't know any better."

"I know," Harry said.

"Mr. Longshadow said the same thing," Claire said.

Kyla turned to the younger girl, staring at her like she grew two heads. She spoke in a soft voice.

"Mr. Longshadow is dead."

Harry figured as much, and Claire looked on in confusion. Harry placed a hand on her shoulder and figured to spell it out.

"So, he's dead, but his spirit keeps watch over the cave, and his people," Harry said.

 _'If it's not dedicated to the cause, I really don't know what is,'_ Kara thought.

Danielle's mouth curled into a bright smile as she approached a well maintained building. Every inch of it was handmade, but it withstood the test of time. Nervousness spread over her body.

"I haven't been home in a very long time," Danielle said.

Claire leaned towards Dan and a grim spread over her face.

"I think you're late for dinner."

Dani couldn't help herself from breaking out into laughter. After the time she spent trapped in the walls of the cave, she needed something to bring her spirits up and laughter would be sufficient enough to do so, at least in her opinion.

She allowed herself to finally knock on the door and be allowed entrance. The door opened up, and a woman who looked like an older version of Dani looked at her.

"Danielle?" she asked.

"Yes, Mother, I'm home," Dani said.

Danielle's mother looked up, and came face to face with one of the last people she expected to see at her door.

"Namen."

Kara locked eyes with Harry, barely able to keep the growing shit-eating grin off of her face. Harry reached towards her, patting on her on the ass firmly. It was a not-so subtle reminder to behave.

"I uncovered Danielle from the caves, Mrs. Moonstar," Harry said.

The beautiful woman smiled and looked towards her god.

"Please, call me Eliza," she said. She walked towards him with a smile on her face. "I can't thank you enough for bringing my daughter home."

"Danielle…you've been brought back, as I thought you would."

An older man made his way to the door. He leaned on a hand carved walking stick, and he could barely walk. The man held up an amulet in his hand.

"Grandfather, it's good to see…you've….."

Worry spread through Danielle's face the moment she ran smack dab into her grandfather. He looked like he aged.

"This old warhorse has made his last journey," her grandfather said. "I wanted to say goodbye, and….understand I'm at peace. Soon, we will all be gone."

"You can't leave me now, I just returned," Danielle said.

"I'm not gone just yet, there's still time to say goodbye," the old native said. His eyes turned towards him. "You look like him, but are you him? There's only one way to find out."

The old man extended an amulet in his hand and pointed it towards Harry.

"He gave it to us to ward off any pretenders," the old native said. "He told my great-grandfather a long time ago to be tested….if you're him, take it."

Harry took the amulet from the old man's hand. The amulet touched his skin, and Harry experienced a glow of energy surround him.

"Forgive an old man for his suspicions, but I needed to be for certain," he said. "And now I can leave in peace….but it's not the end of the road, but the beginning of another. And I will inform Mr. Willowbrook you have arrived here. He has a business proposition for your earthly avatar, Harry Potter."

"Keep the amulet," Harry said. "In case a pretender does arrive."

The old man smiled. Only the true Namen would suggest such a thing.

"Leave it in the possession of my daughter, she understands her role to help be your spiritual assistant among the Kawatchee tribe," the old man said.

Eliza smiled, and she took the amulet. The transference of power indicated to her she faced off against the real deal. Many pretended to be the chosen one, many natives tried to acquire artifacts meant for him. All of their attempts to acquire those artifacts in the name of greed ended up poorly.

"I hope my service will be of value," Eliza said. "There is not enough for me to repay you with, since you've returned my greatest treasure."

Harry smiled, now the girls were safe, it was time for Claire to return home.

"And make sure you come back and visit, young lady," the old man said to Claire. "The Namen will help you find your own path."

Claire wondered what he meant, but she knew somehow she would learn all too soon.

* * *

Harry and Kara made their way into the caves. Silence followed the moment they crossed the barrier inside the cave. The two didn't want to say anything in fear of jinxing the trouble, but everything was too quiet.

Both agreed on one thing, they hated the silence.

"Well, this is foreboding, wouldn't you agree?" Kara asked.

"Yes," Harry said. "Jor-El left his little present somewhere back here."

"Yes," Kara said.

As Lara reminded them, until the other component in Claire's ship activated, the AI in the cave fully activated.

"There it is," Kara said. She extended her arm to point at a cluster of crystals near the wall. "Boring and practical, just like my uncle."

Harry waited a moment and watched Kara run her hands over it.

"Yes," Harry said. "So, do we shut it down?"

"We really can't," Kara said. "Knowing Jor-El, he rigged it to do something really bad….he was a fan of his failsafe plans. We can try and restore it to factory settings and reboot."

Kara pulled out the portable console involving Lara.

"It would be the only hope you have," Lara said. "But, given the process my husband used to create his AI, there are many chances for a glitch. Some of the rather minor. Some of them…a potential headache. But we can try to go back to the factory settings and see what happens."

Kara figured about as much. Never the less, it was a simple process to restore and reboot, especially when the AI components of the AI were rendered inactive. Kara went through them without any thought.

 _'We need to prevent the caves from falling into Lionel Luthor's hands,'_ Faora said.

 _'Which I'm sure Harry's already figuring out a way to do so right now, isn't he?'_ Karen thought. _'It'd be a real shame to rain on Lionel Luthor's parade, I'm sure he had his heart set on this.'_

'Well, if all goes right, I'm going to have the legal rights to the lands, even if I allow the tribe free reign to do what they want,'

Harry thought. _'Allowing Lionel to have any kind of access to these caves would be a disaster.'_

'Knowing him, he could have been sniffing around here already,'

Karen thought.

 _'Maybe it was because of the caves he acquired interest in the land,'_ Diana thought.

Harry thought about it, and thought Diana had a point. The young man walked over to the entrance of the caves and started to wave his hands over the arch of the cave. A glow appeared around the caves.

 _'No one will enter the cave without me knowing it,'_ Harry thought.

 _'You should have let me do the magic,'_ Kara thought.

 _'After I bonded with Wanda, I'm able to do a bit more magic without being tired, as long as I don't make a habit of it,'_ Harry said. _'Doesn't mean I'm out of the woods just yet, not until I'm twenty-one.'_

All of the bond mates knew Harry counted down the days to the moment where he could have the watch. Not he would use his powers, but the fact he could use his powers gave him an incredible piece of mind.

"So, no one is going to be able to get in here, without me knowing about it," Harry said. "Which we should have done from the beginning."

 _'To be fair, you didn't expect Claire and her friends to go exploring,'_ Faora thought.

Harry didn't expect, but he should have expected.

 _'So, do you really think you're going to get the land,'_ Faora thought.

 _'Pretty much a done deal, there will be a lot of young men who are not happy,'_ Harry thought.

 _'Well, the Namen will just have to smite them,'_ Karen thought.

 _'You're getting into this entire god thing, aren't you?'_ Kara thought.

 _'Don't tell me you, aren't,'_ Karen thought.

Kara didn't want to say anything, because it would be a lie if she said she wasn't getting into this entire god thing. She appreciated the fact many worshipped Harry as a god. The more people, the better, because to many, he was.

"And I've done all we can on this end," Kara said. "In a few years, we'll see how well this worked."

Again, taking the AI out of the cave might be the best option, if they weren't certain Jor-El did something to booby-trap it. Regardless, Kara and Harry left.

The silence around the caves sounded like complete and utter bliss.

* * *

Harry walked around the Potter house. Kara took Lana and Claire shopping. He figured the three of them deserved a girl's day out after what happened, Claire especially. Marie tagged along as well.

"So, I think we can finally breathe"

Nell turned up, dressed in a bathrobe. The robe rose and fell as she walked towards Harry. The flapping of the robe showed a tantalizing hint of Nell's gorgeous thighs and stocking clad legs.

"And you didn't think I would let you come to town, without stealing a few moments for myself," Nell said.

Harry flashed one of his charming smiles at her. He allowed his beautiful older cousin to walk towards him.

"I would be disappointed if you didn't try."

Nell crossed the room and made her way next to Harry. She grabbed him by the arm, and lead him to the bedroom.

"And since the house is empty, other than the three of us, I figure now is the perfect time for us to make up for lost time."

Harry wouldn't really disagree to be honest. Nell escorted him into the room.

Martha sat perched on the edge of the bed. She wore a lacy set of red panties with a red bra to match, which showed off her mature body.

Harry noticed Nell taking off her robes in the mirror. He turned towards the woman. She wore a bright green corset which made her breasts look even larger. It came down at a cut to show her toned stomach. Her lacy green panties covered her crotch, but just barely, showing the hints of her arousal. A garter belt and stockings added to the set.

"Christmas has come early to you," Nell said.

With the obvious joke out of the way, Nell crossed the room. Her lips found Harry's and she kissed him.

Harry allowed his cousin's tongue to invade his mouth. He reached around and grabbed her firm ass, squeezing it. She responded by grinding her crotch up and down.

The young man's tongue pushed down Nell's mouth. He backed her up against the wardrobe, which caused tingles to spread through her body.

The two broke apart, and Martha turned around. She rested one hand on Harry's crotch and one hand on the nice shirt he wore. She unbuttoned him, and leaned up.

"Let me show you how it's really done."

Martha removed his shirt and started to kiss Harry. The redhead shoved his tongue almost down his throat. Harry returned the kiss with an increasing amount of pleasure, as he roamed down Martha's firm ass.  
 **  
**Martha kissed down Harry's chest, planting her lips over and over again down his broad chest. She traveled all the way down his body, skimming over his abs. His abs looked quite tasty, and she needed to take a long taste.

"Oh, you're cock looks so cooped up in those tight pants," Nell said. "Let me help you."

Nell removed his pants and pulled it down. His throbbing cock sprang out for him. Nell cooed as she kissed the tip of his hand.

The gorgeous dark haired-woman descended to her knees. She started to lick Harry from the head, to the base.

"Don't wait, stick it in your mouth."

Nell opened her mouth to accept Harry's mighty rod. Her moist lips planted on the tip of Harry's head. She worked her tongue down onto the young man's slit, and pushed her mouth down all the way.

Harry grabbed Nell around the back of her head. His cock pushed into the back of her mouth. Her fingers pushed onto his toned abdomen as well, playing with him.

Nell bobbed her mouth up and down on him, sucking his big cock.

"Don't hog, Nell," Martha said.

Nell flashed a flirty little smile towards Martha. The redhead frowned and looked at her.

"I was just warming him up for you."

"Well, I'm sure Harry wants me to have a taste then, doesn't he?"

"Yes," Harry said.

Martha inhaled his cock with her mouth. The woman placed her mouth around his cock, taking all twelve inches into the back of his throat with all of the skill of a proper whore. The women twirled her tongue against Harry's cock.

"So good, you feel so fucking good, Martha," Harry said.

Harry's fingers opened Nell's robes, and pealed her panties down. The young man brushed his fingers against her clit, causing her hips to jump towards him. Harry maneuvered his way into her dripping slit, pushing his way inside her hot pussy.

"Finger fuck me!"

Nell's encouragement resulted in Harry shoving his fingers deep into her gushing pussy. The first finger manipulated her insides. The second finger increased her pleasure. The third finger drove Nell all the way to the edge.

"You're really horny," Harry said. "Do you like fucking your cousin's fingers?"

"I want your tongue," Nell said.

Harry re-positioned himself on the bed. Martha kept sucking his cock. She made several lewd sounds, popping her lips on him.

Nell's creamy thighs lowered onto his mouth. Harry inhaled her sent. It caused his cock to grow in Martha's mouth, stuffing her cheeks.

"Right there, right there, you fucking sex machine!" Nell yelled.

Harry twirled his tongue into her pussy, lapping the juices out. They all collected on his tongue when Harry licked her. Nell pushed her pussy onto his tongue, riding him.

Martha removed Harry's cock from her mouth. She squeezed his package to gain his attention.

"I want you to be inside me now."

Harry wasn't going to argue. Martha pulled off her panties, and climbed on top of Harry's cock. The nymphomaniac redhead clutched his massive tool, and started to stroke him. His cock jumped in her hand.

Martha's slick walls demanded her to take in a nice chunk of man meat. She lowered herself down onto Harry's cock, bringing it into her demanding pussy.

"Oh god, it's bigger than I remembered."

Martha brought his large throbbing manhood into her body, bouncing up and down.

Harry suckled on Nell's nether lips. He gripped and released her lips between his teeth which caused the older woman to gasp with the ultimate rush of pleasure. She brought her pussy down onto his tongue, riding it like a madwoman.

Nell reached towards Martha. She grabbed the chest of the other woman.

"Oh, Nell, you know what I like, why don't you suck my nipples, honey?"

Nell's actions encouraged Martha to ride down onto Harry's massive rod as many times as she wanted to. Martha brought her hot walls down onto him, pushing his massive rod into her depths. It stretched her pussy out.

Harry's tongue made Nell hit her peak. She fell back, needing to get her breath for a moment.

Martha rode his cock, looking like a particularly naughty angel. Harry reached up, and cupped her breasts.

"You just can't have enough of my cock."

Martha allowed him to fill her. Her snug core gripped the mighty rod. He stretched her out and filled her completely up.

"No, I'm starved for it….it makes these visits….so much better!"

Martha leaned down and captured Harry with a long kiss on the lips. Her mouth found his, suckling on his lips.

Harry grabbed her ass, squeezing it. Martha's walls slid up and down on him, working him up to a peak.

Nell settled herself in to watch the intense love making they make. Their bodies shined with sweat looked rather beautiful. Nell fingered her pussy, imagining Harry pinning her down on the bed, and making her his bitch.

Martha reared her head back, moaning. She brought her hips down onto the base of Harry's cock. His mouth found her breasts and sucked on them. Each touch of her nipples caused the tease of an orgasm to hit her.

"Please, Harry…please….."

Harry made her cum with the merest of gestures. Martha shook all over, bringing her hot hips down onto him.

Martha looked to be in a daze for a moment. She noticed Nell fingering her pussy and pulled herself away from Harry.

The next thing Nell noticed, Martha's tongue licked her swollen lips. The redhead sucked her juices. With a mouth full of pussy, Martha went down on Nell.

Harry's throbbing cock inserted into Martha from behind.

"Damn, I don't know how you say so tight, but…..I fucking like it!"

Harry skimmed his hands over her body. He held onto his hips and pushed the rod into her body. His balls slapped against her thighs.

Martha's peak filled through her body. Her tight walls rubbed Harry's cock. She suckled on Nell's nether lips, warming her up for Harry to fuck her.

"So hot, being with my two sexy mature cousins!"

Martha didn't break up her eating of Nell's pussy, not even once. She rubbed her tongue up and down.

The hot mature woman focused on Harry's cock slamming into her. He pushed inside her, drilling into Martha.

"You feel so good," Harry said. "If you want to tag out and let Nell have a turn…just tell me when, because I want to feel her mature cunt too."

Martha didn't say a word, she continued to munch and lick on Nell's pussy with practiced ease. She brought the dripping juices into her mouth. Each pass of the tongue into Nell's dripping cunt caused the woman's hips to rise up further into Martha's mouth.

"Fuck," Nell panted.

Harry experienced the joy of Martha's pussy milking his cock with skill. This woman turned wet pretty quickly and Harry loved her for it. He plowed her mature body with an intense force, bringing his thick prick into her tight center. Harry didn't hold back for a second as he plowed her body.

Martha collapsed on the bed, and pulled away. She would have her moment soon.

Nell looked up and saw her cousin hovering over her. His muscular body and large cock caused her to drool. Nell spread her legs apart, as far as she could allow.

"Fuck my brains out, cousin."

Harry shoved his cock into her dripping twat. Nell closed her eyes, and the bliss rushed through her body.

The young man held onto her hips and shoved his cock into her body like a well-oiled piston. Each thrust caused tingles to spread through her thighs as she raised her hips up and lowered them down.

"Are you going to try and milk me dry?" Harry asked.

Nell's moans indicated she intended to do just as Harry asked. Her pussy clenched his rod.

Harry speared down into her. He noticed Martha roll over on the bed. She rolled over, lying next to Nell. The red hairs on her pussy dripped with hair.

The young man reached over and touched her pussy. He rubbed her pussy, prompting her hips to start raising towards him.

"Harry, please," Martha said.

Harry slipped his fingers into her, and started to finger fuck Martha just as vigorously as he nailed Nell with his massive throbbing cock.

His mouth alternated between both of them, never once breaking any kind of momentum. His mouth licked Martha's sweaty breasts. He took her juicy nipples into his mouth. The sounds coming from her rewarded Harry because of his efforts.

"HARRY!" Martha yelled. An increasing amount of pleasure spread through her body and drove her around the bend.

Harry drove his cock into Nell, pushing her to the edge of an orgasm. She lifted her hips up, wrapped around Harry's cock.

Nell's determination flowed through. She wanted every last drop of seed Harry could offer her. The woman's walls grinded against him.

"Going to get your cum."

Harry's balls ached, as he rose himself up and brought himself into her. A twitching feel erupted.

"Cum, in her pussy, Harry, drill her dirty cunt with your cum" Martha said. She thrust her hips up, massaging his fingers with them, as more juices dribbled down her thighs.

Harry caught onto her encouragement and plowed his cock into Nell's dripping hot pussy. She brought her hips up.

Nell closed her eyes, her pussy tensing up. Just as his cock launched the first dose of cum inside her pussy, splattering her insides with the first intense thrust.

Harry emptied half of the contents of his balls into Nell's pussy. Nell collapsed on the bed.

Pulling his still throbbing cock out of Nell's pussy, he shoved his cock into Martha's at the speed of light.

"Enough for both of us, lovely!" Martha yelled.

She hit a high note when his cock drilled into her. The pleasure increased when Harry's hands squeezed her large breasts. She breathed heavily the more he worked her breasts and her nipples over.

Nell watched in awe, at both Harry's still hard cock plowing Martha, and also her pussy overflowing with so much cum.

Martha raised her hips up, and tightened her grip around Harry. The mature redhead tried to milk Harry's prick dry with a few thrusts.

Harry released his cum into the second hot mature woman in a matter of minutes, but not before allowing Martha a mind-shattering orgasm.

Martha arched her back, wrapping her legs around his waist, and her arms around the back of his head. Her body shook all over with the pleasure.

He emptied the load in her body, making Martha feel so fucking great, but all he did was make her want even more.

Martha smiled knowing Harry would be up for it.

* * *

**To Be Continued on December 2** **nd** **, 2015.**


	147. The Battle of the Red Hoods Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Seven: The Battle of the Red Hoods Part One.**

* * *

Darkness fell over Gotham City as the midnight hour approached close at hand. Anyone who lived in Gotham City for any amount of time shivered. The silence meant a storm came close to rolling in, although they didn't know what kind of storm.

A junker of a car parked outside of the Ace Chemical plant. Inside the car sat Jack Napier, along with his number one man, Bob the Goon. Jack shifted his weight in seat of the car. He took extra care not to stay in the same place for too long. A pair of binoculars lifted up to his face. Jack peered out of them.

"Not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse," Jack said. The mobster turned his attention to his number one man. "I'm going to have to say, I'm disappointed. I thought Thorne would turn up tonight."

Jack's thoughts drifted elsewhere for a moment. Some shady dealings occurred within the walls of the Ace Chemical plant. The man couldn't even begin to determine what all went on within the walls, only something went on. He noticed a couple of shady figures slip into a back gate.

"Well, they're not too shabby on the eyes, I'll give them credit," Jack said. Bob looked at his watch, nervously. "What's the matter, Bob, do you have a hot date to go on…or even a cold one?"

Bob the Goon shook his head. Jack paused for a long moment, wondering why his number one man became so antsy and the it hit him with all the not so subtle force of a runaway freight train, barreling down the tracks for all to see.

"Yes, right, we have an appointment to keep," Jack said. He leaned back against the seat of his car. "We need entrant into this place, and I just know the man for the job."

Jack thought of the entire plan. He knew he could count on Bob to shoot the straight shit with him..

"What about the Red Hood?" Bob asked.

Jack turned to his number one man. The man raised his eyebrow for a long second, almost as if he was trying to figure out if Bob jerked his chain or not. Jack reached down underneath the seat and pulled up the helmet. He put the helmet on the seat. With a steady motion, the man patted on the helmet next to the seat.

"Bob, we really need to get you some kind of vision exam if you don't see what I have in front of me," Jack said. He lifted up the Red Hood Helmet and placed it underneath Bob's line of sight. He raised his eyebrow. "So, tell me, what do you see?"

"The Red Hood."

Jack snapped his fingers. He nearly reared his head back in excitement and cackled like a madman.

"Bingo!" Jack exclaimed. He leaned over the side of the seat and looked at him. "You see, some schmuck off of the street might have been the original, but he didn't make it his as I did. This city needs a better class of criminal, and I'm going to give it to them."

With Grissom out of the way, Jack's next target was Thorne.

"Thorne….Thorne is another pretender, someone who thinks he's the big cheese. But expose him, and he's like the emperor with no clothes."

Jack checked the time. They all ran ahead of schedule.

"Thorne has his fat fingers in a lot of juicy pie," Jack said. "If you think about it, he's going to have something to do with the Ace Chemical plant."

Bob wasn't about to question his boss. For now, Jack remained in a jovial mood.

"So, not too many people in the plant tonight, should make our little information grab much easier," Jack said. He reached underneath the seat and poured himself a glass of wine.

Bob looked towards Jack, a look of longing crossed his face when Jack hovered the glass of wine between his fingers.

"I'd offer you something to drink, but you're driving," Jack said. Bob nodded in response. "Good man, after all we've been through….don't want to see you popped on a DUI charge."

Bob shrugged his shoulders. His boss really did look out for him sometimes. Jack took the wine to his mouth.

"It's going to be a long night, better settle in for a hard one," Jack said. He tapped his fingers on the dashboard, almost in tune to the music playing low on the car radio. "Everything in the plant….could bring Gotham City to its knees….and there's enough dangerous chemicals in there to destroy the Ace Chemical plant, and put a dent in Thorne's bank account."

Jack downed the rest of the wine glass. He would save the rest of the wine for latter, when he succeeded in bringing down the people in the Ace Chemical plant. He had a good feeling for tonight. It would be the best night ever.

"Buckle up, Bob, and put everything in high gear, tonight's going to be a hell of a night."

Bob placed the key in the ignition and started up the car. The engine whined for a minute. The goon frowned as he tried to roll the engine over again and again, until he managed to start up the car.

"It's a piece of junk sometimes," Bob said.

Jack reached over and patted his number one man on the back of his head.

"Don't worry, Bob, when we take command of Gotham, and take Thorne's empire, I'm buying you a better car," Jack said. He patted his second in command on the shoulder. "Just the sacrifices we have to make to ensure we rise to the top of Gotham City."

The car pulled out of its parking space and made its way. Jack found information about the safety inspector who would be visiting the plant. Bastard's punctuality was always on par, always took the same route.

_'Sucks for him, but hey, helps us.'_

Tonight would be the night to end all nights. Jack vowed to lead all of Gotham City to a new age. _  
_

* * *

Joe Kerr walked through the hallways of the Ace Chemical plant. His last night on the job, and he almost regretted what needed to be done. A man on the edge who didn't have anyone to talk him away had very little to lose.

The man shuffled through his locker. Joe didn't have too many possessions, and the possessions he did have wouldn't have been left in his work locker. The man continued to shuffle, distracting himself with attempts to organize the possessions of his locker.

_'I'm really going to do this.'_

Joe thought knowing his luck, he'd be caught, and everything is up. A voice echoed in the back of his head.

_'Come on Joe, show some moxie for once in your life.'_

The voice sounded a fair bit like the Red Hood, but the voice caused Joe to stand up straight, arms swinging by his side. He refused to be bullied in any way.

A set of footsteps approached him. Joe frowned. The doors opened and Paige entered. She approached Joe with a swift frown on her face.

"So, do you really intend to leave?" Paige asked. "If it's about your wife dying….you can take a sufficient amount of time. After tonight, we will not need as many hands on deck, so we can afford to allow you time off."

Joe already made up his mind a long time ago. The woman's persistence annoyed him. Don't people see this place wasn't good?"

"I know the boss sent you here, so it's not your fault you're trying to get me to stay," Joe said. "You're just doing your job."

Paige leaned towards him, pressing her hands onto the table. Her top shifted to allow Joe a glimpse of her pale cleavage. He closed his eyes, not falling for this rather obvious scheme to convince him to stay.

"All the time off, a month, two months…you will be paid all of the same," Paige said. "You've been a big help….but if we need to call upon for you for another project, we wish to call upon you."

Again, Joe understood what she was doing. He wanted to escape his job, the grind started to get to him. The death of his wife pushed him over the edge.

"If I had been at home and not at the Ace Chemical Plant, my wife would have still been alive," he said.

The pause allowed the two of them proved to be uncomfortable. Joe wondered if he crossed some kind of line by speaking out of turn. It did feel good to get it off of his chest.

"Do you know for certain?" Paige aske after the long pause. "Or are you just guessing?"

Paige reached into a bag off to the side, and she pulled out a contract. She pressed the contract down on the table in front of Joe. Joe bent over to look it over, frowning. The man couldn't believe the trouble they went to.

The man read over the contract. The contract had many perks in it, more benefits, more benefits he knew the Ace Chemical plants could afford. Given the past few days, Joe's suspicions hit a higher rate. He wondered who the hell was paying for this.

"Just sign on the dotted line," Paige said.

Joe thought about it, what he planned tonight would not make him welcomed. And after his near miss a couple of months ago.

The man lifted up the contract and with one fierce movement, he tore it in half. He dropped the torn contract in the trash.

Joe looked the woman in the eye. If speaking his mind felt well, tearing up the content felt better. It made him feel bold, made him feel like nothing else in the world touched him.

"Well, I guess it's no," Paige said. She frowned, it was unfortunate, but they would have to adapt to be honest. "Then, on behalf of the Ace Chemical Plant, I wish you the best in your future endeavors."

The awkward feelings returned to the air. Joe didn't really care.

"If you want to leave early, I won't…."

"I'll still finish up my previous obligation, I'm a man of my word," Joe said.

Joe entered a dark place in his mind. The words of the Red Hood taunted him, and he wondered if his wife's accident really was an accident. A small logical part of him tried to squash those dark thoughts, but then another part of himself reminded himself of all of the shady dealings going down.

"I have no doubt you're a man of principles, Joe Kerr. And also a man who I hope hasn't made a mistake which will cost him anything he has left."

Joe stared at the young woman. No one could have found out about what he did, the deal with the devil so to speak, he made. It just wasn't possible, was it?

Paige made her way towards the door, and stopped. One almost noticed a devilish grin crossing her face, but she turned around.

"Remember, the inspector from the safety commission will be arriving in two hours, towards the end of your shift. I trust you'll be able to ensure all of the employees will be cleared out."

"Yes," Joe said.

"Don't worry, Mr. Romero has taken care of everything else," Paige said.

She turned around and disappeared into the darkness of the hall. Joe didn't need to be a brain surgeon (furthest thing from it), to put together the fact the commission had already been bribed to give the plant a passing grade. All he needed to do was let the gentleman in and show him around.

Where did they get all of the money anyway? Tonight, Joe hoped to use the break in to get some answers.

The Red Hood told him tonight would be a night which would change his life, and Joe figured the crazy bastard was right.

* * *

Many hours previously, in another part of the country, Claire rose from bed, stretching out her arms. She swung her legs off of the bed, after a good night's sleep. The first really good night's sleep in months and it refreshed her completely.

The nightmares stopped, as she figured. No lingering traces of what happened in the back of her mind. The girl couldn't remove the grin from her face as she left the room and walked down the stairs of the Kent homestead.

Her mother was already up, and Claire caught a glimpse of her father working out in the barn. Kara and Harry sat at the table as well, and Marie made her way down the steps, with a yawn and a very tired sounding "good-morning" as she staggered over towards the table.

"Hello, Claire," Harry said. "Did you sleep well?"

Claire smiled, sitting down at the table. Her mother pushed a heaping stack of pancakes in front of her, along with some toast and some orange juice.

"Yes, very well, thank you," Claire said. "Kara mentioned you reset the thing in the cave….not sure what you did, but thank you."

Harry and Kara both smiled.

 _'To be honest, not too many people can put their fingers around what we did,'_ Kara thought. _'Even if we're teaching her as much as she needs to know little by little….best not to overwhelm her.'_

'Best thing you can do,'

Martha thought in agreement.

"It's like a computer," Kara said. "Sometimes when the system is corrupted, you can fix everything by resetting it to the same settings you got it from."

"Oh, well, I don't know," Claire said. "They don't even have computers at Smallville elementary, I don't think."

Harry and Kara looked at each other. They didn't think the schools had these little of resources.

"You don't have any computers at your school?" Kara asked. Claire shook her head. "At all?"

Claire responded by shaking her head another time in confirmation.

"Well, we're going to have do something about them not having computers," Harry said.

He sensed where the future was going. Harry wouldn't be surprised if in about five or ten years, everyone had a computer, a mobile device, pretty much something which glued them into the wider web.

One of the principles RAO looked at, towards the future, as they moved into the first last half of 1998, and into 1999, and the new millennium after. Harry wanted to help lead the future.

 _'What better way to lead the future than to help the youth of the future?'_ Harry thought.

 _'You do have a point,'_ Jaime thought.

"It would be nice if we got some halfway decent computers," Marie said. "I swear, the computers at the high school are something like you find at the museum. And they hang when you sneeze around them."

Kara noticed Marie started to glance Harry's way a bit often, when she thought no one was looking. Perhaps Kara's influence from Marie draining her powers still lingered in the back of her mind, but it was obvious she had a bit of a crush.

 _'Well looks like one of Karen's pet projects could be used to help out Smallville,'_ Faora thought. _'Rural communities are always the last places in the world to get on board. And there are many promising people in this town…we don't want to wait for them to move on.'_

"We'll see what we can do about getting some better computers in," Harry said. "I had no idea Smallville's schools weren't well funded.

Martha sighed. She was pleased this problem had been brought to the attention with someone who intended to do something about it.

"After Lionel pulled out and devastated the economy, there were a lot of cutbacks," Martha said. She sat down between her daughter and Harry, to eat some of the breakfast she made. She was still sore from the other night, but Martha managed to hold herself calmly. "And schools were hit the hardest….I know you can't save all of Smallville, but….."

Harry raised his hand and brought Martha to silence.

"Just didn't want to bring it to your attention, because you've done a lot for this town," Martha said.

Harry realized he did do a lot for Smallville. No reason possible why he couldn't do any more. He could see anyone without knowledge how to use a computer being very behind as they exited the 1990s.

"This should have been higher priority from the beginning," Harry said. "Too late in the current school year to do anything, but by next year, I promise the elementary, middle, and high schools will have brand new computers."

 _'I'll second the promise,'_ Karen thought.

 _'It's almost like you planned for something like this to happen,'_ Martha thought.

 _'Yes, eventually we did,'_ Harry thought. _'But, Marie clued us in on how bad everything is….and Smallville deserves about as big of a chance as Metropolis to be honest.'_

'And it would be good with raising RAO's business profile as well,'

Faora thought.

 _'And the Vreeland foundation is about due to give their annual grant to a select few schools,'_ Veronica thought. _'Smallville high deserves the grant about as much as any school.'_

Martha chuckled. They really had been planning this out. Claire bringing it up might have sped up everything.

"Good, I'll be glad," Marie said. "Maybe you can get some computer teachers who actually know how to turn on a computer, and don't struggle to find the any key on the computer."

"At least none of them tried to use the CD-Rom drive as a drink cup holder," Kara said. A long pause followed. "None of them tried to use the CD-rom drive as a drink cup holder did they?"

Marie laughed, thankfully they weren't this bad. If they were, she would be rather worried.

"Not to my knowledge, although you should see my teacher struggle to figure out the concept of a floppy disc," Marie said.

Harry chuckled, trying to find some humor in it.

 _'Shouldn't be too much of a problem to support teachers, and get them the education they require,'_ Karen thought. _'The program is set up to have a component for it, if needed.'_

'It's your baby,'

Harry thought.

_'But still, your input is valued.'_

Claire finished eating the pancakes. She reached on the table for a napkin and dabbed the fluids off of her lips.

"Claire, when you're done, Kara and I want to show you something," Harry said. "It won't take more than a couple of minutes."

Claire wondered what Kara and Harry wanted to show her. Could it be another aspect of her powers? She couldn't even begin to guess. Regardless, a smile crossed Claire's face.

"Okay, just let me finish."

"Take your time," Harry said. The last thing he wanted was for Claire to choke on what she was eating.

Claire finished up her pancakes and downed her orange juice. Curiosity spread through the mind of the young girl.

"So, where are we going?" Claire asked.

"Just into the living room," Harry said.

Claire frowned, what was in the living room, which Harry wanted to show her. Many questions filled through the young Kryptonian's mind, but she figured she would have a few answers the moment she reached her destination.

"What's in the living room?" Claire asked.

Kara leaned towards her cousin, ruffling her hair. It caused her messy "just got up out of bed" hair to become even more messy. Claire turned to her cousin, a scowl spreading over her face.

Kara!" Claire protested.

Kara wrapped her arm around her younger cousin and smiled.

"Come on now, you'll ruin the surprise," Kara said. Claire's anxiousness almost caused Kara to crack up in laughter. "But, I think it will be more than worth it, when you see it."

Claire's scowl deepened for a moment. She hoped the surprise would be worth it, but she mentally struggled to figure out in her mind what the surprise would be. Ideas entered her mind, would any of them be plausible? She didn't really know, and again, it became difficult for her to really guess.

A white tablet device with a few crystals sticking out laid on the table. The young Kryptonian took up a moment to look at it.

"You got me a portable computer?" Claire asked.

"In a sense, yes," Harry said. "And it took us a long time to get it right without it overheating and the core melting."

"Months and months," Kara said. She smiled and soaked in their handiwork. "Consider it an early birthday present, or a late one, depending on your perspective."

Claire tried not to rub her hands together in anticipation. It made her look kind of evil, and she wanted to avoid looking as evil as possible.

"The red switch on the side activates it," Kara said.

"Of course," Claire said.

They built it to be the most user friendly item possible. Claire pressed her finger onto the red switch, sliding it open. The crystal array activated before her, causing her to step back in awe, as white light invaded the room and her line of sight.

A beautiful blonde woman dressed in elegant robes showed up. She looked like Claire, with the same facial structure and eyes, only her hair was blonde, while Claire's was darker. Claire wondered, surely not…it couldn't be?

"Hello, Clara," she said. "My name is Lara."

"You're my birth mother," Claire said.

The preteen stood in awe. She heard Kara and Harry talk about her birth mother, but she never expected to meet her in the place.

"Yes, Harry, Kara, and I worked tirelessly to prevent you with a little piece of your heritage," Lara said. "A portable artificial intelligence based off of the main artificial intelligence Harry rescued from the cave years ago."

"I….I don't know what to say," Claire said. She shook her head.

"I think you're just happy to meet Lara, aren't you?"

Martha joined them in the living room. She made her way past Claire for a second and smiled at Lara.

"And I have to echo Claire sentiment's, it's a pleasure to meet you at last," Martha said.

Lara locked eye to eye with the woman who have her daughter sanctuary for all of this time.

"Martha, I have to say the pleasure is all mine," Lara said. "We couldn't have picked two better people to look after my daughter."

Martha looked to be a bit surprised.

"Do you…"

"Martha, I knew you and your husband would be perfect in looking over my daughter, and even my husband agreed," Lara said. "His misconfigured AI may say differently, but I wouldn't put too much stock into what he says these days."

Claire instantly put everything together. Her expression darkened by several degrees.

"The AI….he was responsible for what happened to Danielle," Claire said.

Claire's anger bubbled through the surface. She received a look from both of her mother's to calm down, not to mention from her cousins. She breathed and breathed out.

"Your father…he wanted a son, but he's going to learn to live with the daughter he has," Lara said. "Hopefully, Harry and Kara rebooting him will give him the wake up call."

Claire hoped her birth mother was right. The dark haired girl brushed the strands of hair away from her face.

"I have much to teach you, Clara," Lara said. "About your past, your present, and your future….but remember, despite your heritage, it is where you're going, which will be the important thing. And I know you'll do well. And the Kents building a solid foundation of values within you helps just as much."

"I was lucky to be found by them," Claire said.

"No, Clara, you found them."

Martha's lips curled into a smile. She spoke the same words to Jonathan the moment they found Claire all of those years ago. Great minds thought alike, especially when those great minds happened to be great mothers.

* * *

Rupert Thorne's night wasn't going as well as he planned. The man stretched out several stacks of papers, notes, everything on the overly large desk in his office. The crime boss already had a half drunk bottle of wine out on his desk.

Thorne knew if he wanted Gotham underneath his finger, he was going to have to dig deeper than ever.

"Yes, you heard me right, the son of a bitch is getting too big for his britches."

Thorne managed to cut himself off before he drained the bottle of wine.

"Put the word out, tonight's the night Napier gets his," Thorne said. "He wanted to run with the big dogs…..well he's going to learn he can't play this game. I want him brought before me, in a bag."

Grissom's death caused Thorne a few headaches, and Napier gallivanting around as the Red Hood, taking out his businesses, pissed Thorne off. The bastard tried to enter the big leagues, but made a couple of really stupid mistakes.

Throne wouldn't have known Napier was the Red Hood, had he not overplayed his hand. Napier wouldn't just stick to the shadows, he needed to let it known he was coming to Thorne.

"Word is on the street they're planning a big job at the Ace Chemical Plant," Thorne's contact said over the phone.

Thorne wondered what they could want at the Ace Chemical plant. The place was a cause of discomfort for Thorne. He didn't want anything to do with the place. People worked there who caused Thorne to become greatly discomforted.

"Don't know what they're doing there, don't know why Napier would want anything to do with Ace Chemical Plant," Thorne said. "Just keep me posted on if you find anything."

A knock on the door caused Thorne to lift his head up. The man's lips curled into a knowing smile as a figure crossed into the room.

"Welcome, my friend. Please come in."

"What did you want to see me for so badly?"

Thorne rose to his feet and beckoned the gentleman into the office one more time. The man decided to linger in the shadows. Better to be safe than sorry.

"I know you're a man who has business on your mind first and foremost. I have a job for you tonight, which will benefit both of us.

Thorne lifted up a briefcase and opened it up. Several fat stacks of money rose up out of the briefcase. Enough money to entice anyone to do some nasty deeds, especially the man in the shadows.

"All you have to do is do me one favor, and all of the money will be use. The Red Hood has caused trouble for my operations for months. I want him eliminated."

The look on this gentleman's face toward Rupert pretty much everything he needed to know.

* * *

Paige swept her way into the Storage Room at the Ace Chemical Plant. Her meeting with Joe Kerr didn't go as well. Two women followed her. One of them dressed in a green cloak and had bright red hair pulled up. Another dressed in a practical black cloak, and armor. The two of them stood by Paige on either side and acted as her buffers to any trouble.

"Tonight is the night," Paige said. Both of her subordinates stood sharp before her. They braced themselves to defend her instantly. "We can ill-afford to have anything to wrong tonight."

"And with the safety inspection going on tonight, most of the plant will be clear," the redhead said in a distinctive Irish accent. "So, are they coming?"

"Soon," Paige said. A chilling calm spread over her voice.

Soon ended up being right at this moment, as the trio of girls stood up to face those women who crossed the room to join them. Nightshade walked into the room, flanked by her two twin bodyguards. The women stood on either side of her body. Paige's two subordinates stared the twins down. Professional jealousy existed between both sides, along with a bit of personal jealousy. Paige cleared her throat.

"Stand back," Paige said. She turned to Nightshade, and bowed. "Mistress, everything is in order. The night shift is already leaving the plant, and the safety inspector will come in."

"He's been paid off not to access this part of the plant?" Nightshade asked. Paige responded with a crisp nod "Excellent, tonight is the night where the next step of our plan moves forward."

"I've done everything," Paige said. "I leave to serve the League."

"And as long as you serve well, your life will be rather full," Nightshade said.

Time grinded by second by second. The League planned for months, using the Ace Chemical plant. Romero was a patsy, who knew where his bread was buttered. If he questioned what was done too much, the payments stopped, and he could no longer afford the extravagant lifestyle of fast cars, outlandish trips, and women like the jet setter he ended up being.

"Romero, Joe Kerr, and the safety inspector will be the only ones within the plant tonight," Nightshade said. She paused and consulted her list for a brief moment. The woman added for the sake of completion. "Also, three night watchmen, but they can be easily put to sleep if needed….show me the fruits of our labor."

Paige stood up on her feet, easy to please her mistress. She motioned for her two subordinates to help her with a crate in the room.

One look from Nightshade forced the twins to stand back and guard the door. They would give a signal the moment anyone who shouldn't be here came into this area of the building. All the employees working in this wing, busy little worker bees who had no idea of the goings on, just out for their forty hours a week, left a long time ago.

Paige's two subordinates hauled out a fairly large crate. The crate rested on the table and popped open with the barest of efforts.

Nightshade pulled out of the vials and looked at it. The chemical was unassuming, clear, and undetectable, only one with a strong mind and more imagination could even begin to guess the destructive potential she held in her hand.

"Perfect," Nightshade said. She turned her head towards the security monitor, seeing the last of the third shift employees leave the plant. "Once they all depart, we'll be able to carry them from beneath this building."

The safety inspector would arrive within the next half hour, and it would be then where they would make their move. The plans of the League started to come together in a manner where they thought everything would be tied together.

"Joe Kerr didn't sign the contract," Paige said.

Nightshade allowed herself a moment and nodded with a note of finality.

"He's outlived his usefulness," Nightshade said. "When he leaves this evening, tie up all the loose ends."

While it was unlikely Joe Kerr would ever be dangerous enough to threaten anyone's plans, Nightshade wished to leave nothing to chance. All plans needed to be wrapped up perfectly. And therefore if he figured out anything, what he needed to be silenced.

* * *

Speaking of the safety inspector, he prepared to make his way to the Ace Chemical plant. The money already found its way into his bank account. All he had to do was spend an hour at the plant, and give them a passing grade. Business worked quite nicely in Gotham City in this way.

The best way to get passed by the Gotham Safety Commission would be to slip a little green into the account of the inspector in question. If a person didn't pay the fee, then even the best put together plant could be in violation.

The inspector started to whistle a merry tune. Why wouldn't he be happy? Tonight he was in the money and money made the world funny.

The inspector stopped at the sound of a GCPD squad car driving up behind him. He pulled over to the side of the road, annoyed he would be pretty late.

He rolled down the window and leaned out to face the boy in blue.

"Is there a problem officer?" he asked.

The officer leaned in towards the open window.

"Yes," the officer said. "Your taillight was out, and you didn't signal your blinkers down the road."

The safety inspector hitched in a deep breath. He didn't think no one would notice him not turning on his blinkers halfway down the road.

"License and registration, please," the officer said.

"It's in the glove box," the inspector said. The officer made a motion to tell him to go get it. The inspector did as he had been asked.

The man handed the officer the license and registration. The officer looked it over and nodded.

"All in order, but…sir, have you been drinking?" the officer asked. The safety inspector looked confused, he hadn't touched a drop of alcohol in years. The inspector shook his head, but the officer looked none too convinced. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the car."

"Officer, there's been some kind of mistake," the safety inspector said. He stepped out of the car. "I haven't drank anything, I'm….."

"Sir, we'll decide if you've been drinking, or not," the officer said. The officer drew a line of chalk down the sidewalk. "Walk on the line, heel to toe, without looking down."

The safety inspector started to walk down the line of the sidewalk. His knees started to wobble, but the inspector managed to walk the straight line.

"Recite the alphabet," the officer said. He paused. "Backwards."

The officer's mouth hung open. No one could recite the alphabet backwards when sober. He closed his eyes and slowly spat out each letter.

The moment he reached the letter "A" a loud bang followed, and a gunshot caught him in the back of his head. The safety inspector hit the ground. From the shadows walked Jack Napier and Bob the Goon.

"You forgot Q!" Jack yelled. He looked down, and frowned. Bastard was still breathing. He fired another two shots to the back of the safety inspector's head. When done, he slipped an envelope into the officer's hand. "Thanks for the help, Roberto….go and buy yourself something nice, I'll take it from here."

Jack gazed down at the safety inspector. By his calculations, fifteen minutes, plenty of time to make a quick change of clothes.

"Alright, Bob, it's magic time…time for me to make a quick change. No fair peaking though!"

* * *

Joe left the main area of the Ace Chemical plant, heading out to meet the safety inspector, but first he needed to meet his other guest before he entered the building.

The Red Hood and his boys made their way into the back entrance of the building.

"So, are you ready to become a man, Joe?" one of them asked.

Joe stood up. Any reluctance on his part was gone.

"Right through here," Joe said. The Red Hood nodded. "There's a blind spot over through here, and….through the side corridor, there's a room where they monitor the security cameras."

"Won't be too hard to disable them, will it boys?" the Red Hood asked. Two of his men held up battle axes and performed a little dance with them. The Red Hood's face, despite being obscured underneath the mask, cracked into a smile. "Join us, Joe, get your fair share from the cookie jar, once you're done dealing with the douche from safety commission."

The Red Hood Gang entered the Ace Chemical Plant, with storm clouds rolling over Gotham City.

Nothing would ever be the same again. Joe noticed another car pulling up. It must have been the Safety Inspector.

Despite his good grade already being paid for, Joe resolved to do the job until third-shift ended in two hours.

What could go possibly wrong?

* * *

**To Be Continued December 5** **th** **, 2015.**


	148. The Battle of the Red Hoods Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Eight: The War of the Red Hoods Part Two.**

* * *

The atmosphere around the Ace Chemical plant greatly unsettled Joe. There should be no way anyone suspected what he was doing.

_'Time to go and see what I can do.'_

Joe observed the safety inspector and his assistant making their way from the vehicle. The man dressed in a rather expensive looking suit, with a briefcase in one hand and a clipboard in another man. His assistant followed him, making their way inside the Ace Chemical Plant. The safety inspector swung his eyes and surveyed Joe.

"Boy it's been a long night, hasn't it?" the safety inspector asked. He spoke on what appeared to be an accent of some sort, which was strange to Joe, as he didn't look foreign at all. "Guess, we're all either working hard, or we're hardly working."

"Well, I'm doing the best I can," Joe said.

The safety inspector allowed himself a brief chuckle. A part of Joe wondered if the safety inspector mocked him.

_'It's been a long night, and you have been working way too hard. Just relax and act natural. He's been paid, his job is done.'_

"It's good you're telling yourself that," the safety inspector said. His words came out in a loud and chortling round of laughter. "But, you know, we can always do just a little bit better, can't we? The big boss man is never too happy, isn't he?" **  
**

The laughter coming from the safety inspector didn't cause Joe to do anything, but crack the most obvious of forced smiles. The safety inspector reached towards him and patted him on the top of the head.

For a long moment, Joe kept his eyes on the safety inspector with recognition dawning on him. Perhaps the man lost his mind, but something about him looked very familiar. The man kept sweeping his eyes around the plant. Two more hours, before his final shift ended and he went home for the last time.

The safety inspector smiled, and looked towards Joe. Joe escorted him down the corridor, where he needed to go.

"If you need anything….."

"If I need anything, I'll give you a little holler," the safety inspector said. "But, I don't think I will….all I have to do is spend an hour in here, ninety minutes tops. Gives me a nice easy night….after all, the check cleared. So it should be smooths sailing here. Wouldn't you agree?"

"I guess," Joe said. The man shuffled his feet.

"It's been a long night, smile, someone loves you!" the safety inspector said. "You know, if you smile, you'll get a lot more done….if you smile, you can change the world. Smile, darn you smile!"

Joe didn't have a lot to be happy about, especially with the Red Hood exploiting his darkest time, his darkest hour.

"You know, we should all be pretty happy," the safety inspector said. He turned to his assistant. "The check didn't bounce. When the check bounces, there goes the safety score of the plan…BOOM!"

The joke made Joe realize one of the reasons why he couldn't wait to leave the plant. Something about the sleazy nature of this place made him feel less guilty about what he was doing. He didn't really feel too sorry for what the Red Hood would be taking from this place.

The safety inspector's assistant started to wave around a high tech piece of equipment. The safety inspector leaned towards Joe, and motioned for him to take a bit of a walk.  
 **  
**"So, you've been here for a long time, haven't you?" the safety inspector asked. "Really know your place around, don't you?"

The inspector seemed to be making light conversation and didn't speak to Joe out of genuine interest. Joe decided to keep the gentleman talking.

"Actually, I'm leaving tonight, "Joe said. The safety inspector looked towards Joe and frowned. "Just…have to do what I have to do."

"Hey, man, I hear you," the safety inspector said. He reached into his pocket and removed a stack of money. "Why don't you leave a bit early, and go buy yourself something nice? No one will have to know….I won't even tell your boss you fucked off early."

The safety inspector pressed the fat stack of cash in his hand. Joe's eyebrow lifted for a moment and questioned what he needed to do. The stack of money resting in the palm of his hand made sure any questions faded a long way from his mind.

Not to mention, he needed to meet up with the Red Hood gang, and make sure they were in. So the safety inspector bribing him to take a walk played pretty nicely into his plans.  
 **  
**"I'm sure you know what to do," Joe said. "Be safe and have a good night."

"Well, I am the safety inspector," the gentleman said. **  
**

The man left for a moment. The safety inspector stood up straight at his assistant. The gentleman waited for Joe to leave. He leaned down and pushed his head down. A chuckle passed through his lips.  
 **  
**"Nice enough guy, wouldn't last five minutes on the street," Jack said. He opened up the hallow equipment to reveal a rather large gun. "Well, Bob, it's time to get to work. Would you like to do the honors, or should I?"

Bob the goon nodded, and walked to the side entrance. He opened one of the doors, and a group made their way inside. About six people scrambled inside. Jack did a head count of the goons, and frowned.

"I spy with my little eye, six little goons," Jack said. The mobster continued to follow the progress of his men. His jovial expression turned to a stony one. "And here I thought there was seven….where's Ralph?"

"I don't know boss, Ralph was just here a second ago," one of the goons said. The others responded with shrugs. "You know how he is….likely slipped off to take a smoke."

Jack looked at them and wasn't about to let things go with such an obvious explanation.

"Maybe," Jack said. The man made his way outside of the factory. One of his men hung upside down from a rope which wrapped tightly around his ankles. Jack stood up straight and turned towards the rest of his henchmen. "Boys, stand tight….I'll be only a minute."

Jack opened up the briefcase, and slipped into a private office on the side. The man fumbled for a way to open the door.  
 **  
**"Some stool pigeon thinks he's pretty clever," Jack said. "Well, I'm going to find who ratted us out….and who thinks they're clever shitting in my pot!"

A sound of another one of his men falling outside caused Jack to speed up suiting up in his new and improved Red Hood outfit. It was time to show the world they didn't know Jack.

* * *

Batman slipped further from the darkness into the factory. Two men dropped from his attacks. He recognized working for Napier. He counted at least five more goons, but the security cameras resulted in the biggest obstacle towards him getting inside the plant.

The Dark Knight had an ace up his sleeve, or rather one in his head. Oracle happily did what she could to assist him in any way she could.

"You need to make it to the panel two corridors over, and down the steps," Oracle said. "There should be a way to deactivate it from there. No need to thank me, just doing what has to be done."

Batman nodded gruffly. The Dark Knight caught sight of his backup in the shadows. Given he couldn't get in touch with Nightwing to ask for his assistance tonight, and Black Canary and Huntress were otherwise occupied as well, they had to make do.  
 **  
**"I noticed some rather dangerous people lurking around," Oracle said. "The Red Hood's lurking around, as you know, but I saw Jack Napier and his goons make their way through the door…they've been in the middle of this."

Napier and the Red Hood, interesting, for a couple of reasons. Some rumors pegged Napier and the Red Hood as one and the same. Batman figured more or less there was more than one and he would find them in an instant. The Dark Knight continued to travel, making sure to step into the blind spots of the security cameras.

A shadowed figure made its way down the steps. Batman followed the figure down the steps. The Detective crept down the steps to get a closer look.

Unfortunately the shadowed figures disappeared before Batman could get a closer look.  
 **  
**"Is there a problem?" Oracle asked.

"No problem," Batman said. He removed the tool from his belt, preparing to deal with any of the goons who came his way. The shadowed figure didn't manifest, and it could have been a trick of light.

Still, it was better for him to keep a close watch.

_'Can never be too careful. Master your surroundings. Mind your surroundings, or your enemies will do so first.'_

Batman wasn't going to hang his hat on nothing happening, but one step at a time. Disable the security system, and go from there.

The panel swung open, and Batman started to get to work, removing the three wires in succession. He waited for confirmation from Oracle.  
 **  
**"Security is disabled, I'm getting nothing on the cameras," Oracle said. "And the sensors are down as well, you did it….so….guess you should just go do what you do from here."

Batman wouldn't pump his fist up in success just yet. The man made his way up the steps, and heard three men talking to each other.

The Dark Knight moved in closer so he could hear what they said. The goons preoccupied themselves more with their conversation and less with watching the door.

 _'Playing into my hands. Taking this corridor to the right and going up the stairs should put me in perfect position to take them down.'_  
 **  
**"The boss really has a hair up his ass," one of the goons said.

"Isn't having a hair up your ass painful?"

"You know what I mean," the goon said. "He really wants to get one over on Napier….think he's just jealous he has the better threads."

"Did you say it to his face?"

"Do I look insane?" the Red Hood goon asked. He waved his hands when one of them opened his mouth. "Don't answer. The mood he's been in, he's in a real shoot, and ask questions….well really never. He won't ever ask questions . He'd just shoot you."

The goons all looked nodded. At least one of them thought they could do a better job than the Red Hood underneath the mask. Not they were brave enough to take the step of taking up the mantle.

A closer look allowed Batman to see three members of the Red Hood gang. Their numbers dwindled, but their insanity didn't. Batman descended into the shadows, to prepare to take them out one at a time.

One of them leaned against the wall, listening to a Walkman. The other two goons slipped further away from the scene.

Batman wrapped his hands around the mouth of the goon, which caused his words to be muffled. Batman brought the point of his knee into the spine of the goon. The goon's ankles crumpled underneath him when he collapsed into a heap.

The other two Red Hood goons turned around. They noticed one of their men down, but the two goons failed to notice who did the deed. It caused terror to spread through their bodies, as they stared each other down.

"We need to find who is doing this, I don't like this! I don't like this at all!"

Those words ended up being the last he would speak tonight. The second of the Red Hood goons flipped head over heels. He smacked into the ground. One movement later, some invisible force hung him up like a grotesque slab of meat.

The third Red Hood goon reached into his vest, and pulled out a crowbar. The goon started to turn his head from side to side. He bellowed at the top of his lungs.

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

The goon swung his crowbar and hit a curtain. Nothing behind the curtain. It caused him to stand up even straighter along with the hairs standing on the back from his neck.  
 **  
**"Show yourself you sneaky son of a bitch!" the final goon bellowed. He raised a crowbar in his hand. The man swung around the crowbar. Nothing had gotten caught on the crowbar. "SHOW YOURSELF!"

Batman dropped down. The Red Hood raised his crowbar with a blood curdling scream and charged in. He swung the crowbar with murderous intentions in his mind. Batman dodged the swing from the crowbar and it resulted in the man being caught in the curtain.

The final goon had been left open for an attack from Batman. Batman nailed him with a series of punches to the back, stunning the man as he doubled over.

With all three goons down, Batman disappeared into the night. His work had been completed.

* * *

The leader of the Red Hood gang waited at the edge of the hallway. The lone goon with him shuffled his feet nervously. On the account he wasn't a career criminal by any means; he was just a man with a few bad days.  
 **  
**"First night jitters, Joe?" The Red Hood asked. He placed his hand on the shoulders of his new "protégé". "Well, you're a comedian, aren't you?"

Joe was at a loss to see where this was going, but he nodded all the same in response.

"Well, you should know, you should be imagining me in my underwear."

Joe didn't expect things to be taken so far. They were about to enter the office area. The Red hood decided to take a different route there.  
 **  
**"Time for us to get what's coming to both of us," the Red Hood said.

"Aren't there more coming?" Joe asked.

The Red Hood peered behind him down the hallway. Joe asked a pretty good question.

"I don't know, maybe they're taking a piss break," the Red Hood said. The man looked practically giddy as he rubbed his hands together. "Oh well, more for us, much more for us. Less people, more pie left open. The pieces are bigger. You get what I'm saying."

The Red Hood pulled out a pair of bolt cutters and snapped the lock with a simple and swift movement. It allowed them to walk across the catwalk, overlooking several vats of defective chemicals, which had been marked for disposal.

The Red Hood gang bounced around on his heels, doing a merry jig. He resembled a kid in a candy store, and looked twice as giddy.  
 **  
**"Oh, imagine the fun we can have with the stuff in here," The Red Hood said. He read the signs around him which warned of all of the very dangerous chemicals in the area. The Red hood brought himself back to reality. "But….time to stick it to the man!"

_'Now or never. Going to really go through with it, aren't you, Joe?'_

Joe crossed the final frontier. Only the office door swung open. The man braced himself, thinking the jig had been up.

His boss didn't leave the office area to catch him. Rather, another man, dressed in a more elegant Red Hood outfit left. Two other men followed him, dressed in less stylish, but still more stylish than the original gang's, versions of the Red Hood attire. The two goons stood on either side of the man who left the office area.

The Red Hood stared down his doppleganger like he swallowed something rancid. The two of them eyed each other, staring the other down.  
 **  
**"Drop the mask, you're ruining my reputation!" the original Red Hood howled.

The man underneath the more stylish Red Hood started to laugh. He walked from the catwalk, and the two goons followed from either side. Duffle bags caused their shoulders to sag. Money bulged from the duffle bags when they struggled to hold themselves up with the weight inside.

"Do you realize how much you sound like a petulant child who had his favorite toy taken away?" the second Red Hood said. "You did….decent enough underneath the hood. There's just one problem."

The Second Red Hood leaned closer towards the first one.

"I'm making it my own, and I'm making it better!"

The man underneath the mask cackled. One could call him quite mad, and anyone who would be more than right. The original Red Hood's blood pressure hovered at an extremely dangerous level.  
 **  
**"The funny thing about this entire Red Hood mess is, anyone can wear this hood," the Red Hood said. He tapped the side of his face. "You see, a nobody could become a somebody if he puts this mask on. And I'm already somebody….all of Gotham will know my name! And Thorne…he'll sure as hell know who I am when I take everything away from him."

The new and improved Red Hood whipped out an extremely large gun and began to open fire.

Joe lost his nerve and stumbled over his feet as a result of the gunfire going off. His entire life flashed before his eyes in a chaotic and insane fashion. The man stumbled off to one side, and almost, just barely, avoided stumbling over the side of the railing.

The Red Hood original took out the goons of the imposter Red Hood's goons with a blast. The two Red Hoods stared each other down, like a Mexican stand-off.  
 **  
**"Gotham City isn't big enough for the both of us," the first Red Hood said.

"Well, you've got one thing right in your miserable life," the second Red Hood said.

For once in their lives, but only once in their lives, the two Red Hoods found themselves agreeing about the same exact thing. The original Red Hood pulled out a gun. The second, and more improved, Red Hood started to cackle like a madman.  
 **  
**"You've brought a knife to a sword fight," the imposter Red Hood said.

"You might have the bigger size, but, I know how to use mine."

The Red Hood shot the original in the arm. Despite the armor, the attack hit full on and caused the man to collapse. He fired another shot. Red Hood-Classic dropped and rolled. The bullets struck against the edge of the railing and caused catwalk to start rocking.

If nothing else, the laughter of the second Red Hood grew even more intense. The original version's fingers clenched against the gun.

A dark figure swooped down from the ceiling. The lone Red Hood goon lost his mind at the figure arriving. He fired at the figure. The figure descended and avoided all of the bullets before he punched him down.

_'Screw this shit, I'm out here here!'_

Joe tripped over the fallen body of one of Napier's Red Hood goons. He fell over the edge. Joe barely by some miracle hung on. His shoe fell off he had been knocked so hard.

The shoe sucked into the vat. Smoke started to billow from the vat of chemicals.

Batman dropped down, and came face to face with one of the Red Hoods. The Red Hood raised his hand in a mock salute.  
 **  
**"You do exist," the second Red Hood said. "Well, all I need to do is find Bigfoot and an honest politician and proof Elvis is an alien. And then, and only then, will my life be complete.

The Red Hood turned his attention back to the other Red Hood, and tried to blow him away The detective turned to see a third Red Hood dangling over the catwalk.  
 **  
**"Never take your eye off of the ball, BatBoy!"

Napier smacked him with the same bolt cutters he used to enter the office. The blow struck against the back of Batman's head and caused him to stagger. Batman staggered and almost fell over the railing.

Seconds before he could, Batman pulled out a grapnel and shot to the ceiling. He latched onto it. Batman pulled himself up and dangled preciously above the chemicals. He swung over to find equal footing and resume defusing the situation.

Batman pulled himself up, in time to see the two Red Hoods continue their fight, as if he was a mild diversion to the overall festivities.  
 **  
**"Damn it, I think I'm going to fall, son of a bitch!" the third Red hood yelled.

A bad day could always turn into a worse night. The Dark Knight understood it perfectly. **  
**

* * *

Paige paced back and forth. The twins acted like their usual diva selves, when they thought Nightshade wasn't looking, but otherwise, they had been trained to be the world class assassins you expected from the League. The woman offered to keep watch.  
 **  
**"Five minutes," Paige said. She waited for the go ahead on the other end. "Yes, obviously, security has been breached. Why else would it suddenly not work?

The snark burning her voice was not appreciated by the person on the other end, but even they conceded how correct she was.

The power being cut from the building would always be a cause for concern. A frown crossed the woman's face as she made her way further into the building. The darkened hallways caused her to be on her guard.  
 **  
** _'Someone is playing a game, they won't like the results of it. If it's some thug who thinks they're clever….they're going to learn who owns the Ace Chemical Plant.'_

The woman stuck her head from behind the doors, and pulled back out. She noticed two League members crumpled down on the ground. Her mood didn't improve even more when evidence of their sloppiness had been placed in front of her nose.  
 **  
**Paige withdrew a blade and made her way further into the building. A frown crossed her face the further she walked in.

The woman spied a woman who had received a kill onsite order. Paige noticed her through the glass pane on the other side.

Paige reached through the glass, and grabbed her around the throat.

Tatsu noticed the hands wrap around her throat at the last minute. She turned around, and pulled one of the League Assassins through the glass.

She became tangible in time to throw a dagger at Tatsu. Tatsu dodged the attack and one of the daggers slammed into the wall, causing the paint to be chipped off.  
 **  
**The two women come down and faced each other. The enchanting raven-haired beauty prepared to engage her enemy in battle.

"So, the traitor comes and faces me," Paige said. She looked at the woman with the thinnest veiled contempt in her eyes. "You know, you won't be able to face me for long….there will be a reward for the one who takes you out."

"Well, I hope you didn't intend to collect it," Tatsu said.

Tatsu withdrew her blade, and she tried to disable her enemy. The woman closed her eyes and faded to invisibility. The sounds of movement showed Tatsu her adversary didn't go too far. Her hands tensed around the other end and stabbed behind her.

The woman hit absolutely nothing from her efforts. Goosebumps rose on the back of her neck and arched back.  
 **  
** _'She is playing games.'_

One rapid fire punch caught Tatsu in the ribs. Tatsu staggered with the punch catching her twice more in succession, before she managed to grab onto Paige.

Tatsu grabbed onto her enemy's arm. She closed her eyes and flipped her to the ground with an immense show of strength. Paige hit the ground as hard as possible. Tatsu stepped back to wait to see what her opponent's next move was.

The woman's intangible form slipped through the ground. Tatsu waited for the woman who had been dubbed the ghost by those within the League to resurface and continue the battle.

With the sword at the ready, she stabbed towards the ground. An agonizing shriek echoed with Paige coming up from the ground. The sword's unique properties injured her in intangible form. Not as strongly as it might have had she been solid.

"First blood," Paige said. She pulled out a fan. A rather innocent looking weapon, but looks could be deceiving in the best of times.

The glint of the sharp edges backed Tatsu back for an inch. She placed her hands on her hips and stared down in response.

Tatsu stared down the fan at her, and sure enough, the fan caused her to be knocked back. The katana wielding heroine staggered back about half of a step, and her knee started to buckle.

Two could play the game. Katana kept her head above the water, and measured the Ghost with her weapon of choice. Despite the fact she saw about three of Paige now, she knew enough to aim and stab the one in the middle. The woman's hands wrapped around the sword just long enough to take the plunge.

The sword stabbed through the fan, and ripped it from Paige's hands. Paige flung herself into the air, and tossed several silver orbs into the air. The orbs released a purple gas in the air and blinded Tatsu from around the area. It caused her to grow a bit delirious.

Tatsu slipped a gas mask on before the orbs had a chance to hit the ground. The purple gas surrounded her, but didn't do any damage thanks to the fact the gas mask was slipped on.

 _'Teaming up with Batman, does have its advantages,'_ she thought. _'Even if I should know all about vigilance already.'_

Paige wrapped her arm up, unable to believe the traitor wounded her, when in spectral form. The rumors about her sword were true, she began to see.

_'There will be other days.'_

The purple smoke started to clear. Tatsu tried to hold her head up long enough to realize one pressing detail.

Paige disappeared. A loud explosion from to the hallway to the side caused Tatsu to jump up as well. The woman walked forward and noticed one huge problem. The hallway had been collapsed thus forcing her to double back around to escape this area.

The League didn't want her to follow them, and Paige tried to figure out why.

The sounds of a fight did catch Tatsu's attention and she moved forward to investigate.

_'Better go back him up.'_

* * *

Batman pulled himself up, careful to watch his step, easier said than done on a wobbling catwalk.

The door off to the side opened up. The supervisor stopped his mouth wide open. He could hardly believe this happened in his warehouse.

A stray bullet caught him and caused him to fall over the railing. The supervisor fell down into the vat. The vat swirled around, tearing his body apart. Smoke started billow out of the vat when his body had been suck again.

"No need to go to pieces on my account," Jack said. His hood half ripped off, and he started to throw down with the original and inferior Red Hood. Both men exchanged punches. Jack did his dirty fighting with some flair and doubled over his enemy with a kick to the face. He grabbed him by the throat and pulled him into a punch. "Some guys just don't know how to take a hint, do they?"

Speaking of people who didn't know how to take a hint, Batman made his way up. Jack turned his attention away from the Red Hood for a brief second. His eyes widened and mouth curled into a vicious sneer.

"Just go down!" Napier yelled. He reclaimed his large gun and just in time. "STAY DOWN!"

A couple of bullets caught Batman off guard. The bullets came close to piercing his armor. One caught him in the chest, and staggered him.

_'The armor holds….but not as well as I'd like.'_

His armor plate caught the bullet and prevented him from getting pierced.

The Red Hood bent down, and grabbed Joe around the hands. Joe started to breathe heavily, when he had been pulled up.

"I'm going to need your help….get the money, and get out of here. Start running and don't you dare turn back. If you feel the bullets on your ass, you better keep running."

The only problem was Jack wasn't about ready to leave things.

"You just won't take a hint, will you, you gruesome son of a bitch?" Jack asked.

"Oh, I really hope you're not hoping to leave now," Jack said. The man's face twisted into a grin. "Not when we were beginning to get to know each other so well!"

The madman pointed his really large gun at the Red Hoods.

"Remember, no matter what, there can only be one."

A baterang flung out of nowhere. The piece of steel knocked the weapon from Jack's hand. The madman howled as he doubled over. His fingers blistered in pain when he staggered forward.

"You again," Jack said. Batman dropped down to face the crazed mobster. "You have about as many lives, as a cat….oh well, time to take out the trash….and then you're next."

The Red Hood swung a crowbar at the back of Jack's head. Jack caught the crowbar in his hand. The two of them struggled and fought each other for the crowbar.

Joe tried to get himself to his feet. The scaffolding threatened to break underneath his wait.

A bad day could become a worse night, and the morning which followed could get even worse.

Batman pulled himself up the wall, and watched the battle. A green vat of chemicals started to bubble underneath him. The fumes caused Batman to become rather light headed.

The crowbar flung through the air and almost knocked Batman off of the wall. The detective hung onto the ladder. One of the bolts started to come from the ladder.

The ladder fell over, causing chemicals to splash up, and weaken the scaffolding even more. Batman made his way onto the wall, and started to dangle over.

He had two choices, either a window, or to make his way through the doorway. Batman tried to figure out the best way to get away. The chemical fumes resulted in a light headed feeling which made his thoughts feel rather light headed.

The door opened, and another figure appeared. The Red Hood raised his eyebrow, a smile crossing his face underneath his mask.  
 **  
**"About time you showed up," The Red Hood said. "I thought you forgot me."

"No, I would never forget you."

The man in the shadows raised a crossbow in his hand, and fired a bolt at his chest. It caused the Red Hood to stagger back. A second crossbow bolt hit him in the chest with his enemy not carrying who had been struck.

Joe fell back with him as well, and the two dangled. Jack leaned down, bending down with a grin on his face.  
 **  
**"Looks like your own boy turned on you, you stupid son of a bitch," Jack said in a mocking tone. He started to laugh. "Well, any last requests."

Jack's taunting resulted in his downfall when his adversary reached up, wrapping his arms around the man's neck. The Red Hood reached up, and wrapped his arms around Jack's neck. If he went down, he would be taking this son of a bitch straight to hell with him.

Jack received a bolt to the back as well. The three of them stumbled, with the scaffold almost crumbling underneath them, giving them nothing to latch on.

Batman almost reached the scaffold. He saw three figures from the shadows fall back into the vat of chemicals. He wouldn't have enough time to save both him and himself.

The detective gripped onto the wall, which almost slipped. The injury from where Napier shot him made it very hard to keep his head above ground.

A chain out, and he noticed Katana standing from the shadows. Her eyes looked intense.

"Hang on."

Batman grabbed onto the chain, and she pulled him past the doorway. The detective almost slumped down to the ground, struggling for breath because of his injuries.

Katana grabbed Batman, and used immense strength to help him out of the plant. Another explosion occurred, whether it was the League, because of the Chemicals, or something else entirely.

"We need a way out of here," Batman said.

Katana smiled, she was already on it. It was going to be a rough fit. She half dragged Batman towards the closest exit. She pointed her katana at the window and swung it, shattering it. The glass breaking created an exit where they could evacuate.

A barbed wire fence was a leaping distance away. She needed to leap over it.

Could she make the jump? Not too much time to think about it. The two of them sprung from the window and passed the fence.

Batman and Katana crouched down in a ditch, just in time to notice a chemical explosion occurred.

Reaching into his belt, Batman pulled the remote control out, summoning the Batmobile. Only seconds passed before the Batmobile zoomed to it's latest location. Katana looked at Batman, mouth hanging half open in surprise.

"You're bleeding."

Batman shook his head. He knew someone who could patch him up and trust to be discreet. First though, they needed to clear the area, before the GCPD could arrive. The wounds weren't as fatal had he not been heavily armored.

"There's something you should know. The League of Assassins were in the Chemical plant."

One stolen glimpse at Batman caused her to realize he wasn't too surprised.

* * *

Kara and Harry settled in the private plane. The news reports came on about the accident in Gotham City.

 _'Yes, Barbara, we're on our way back now, and yes we're seeing it,'_ Harry thought. _'But, you're saying there's even more then the news is talking about.'_

'Much more,'

Barbara thought. She didn't really know how to break this to Harry. The woman racked her mind for the best explanation. _'Katana ran into one of the League members….but the attack was a distraction. They were transporting something of the plant.'_

'What could the League want?'

Kara asked. She paused for a moment when she realized the stupid question asked. _'Actually, there are any number of dangerous things in the plant they could want.'_

'And word is on the street, the Red Hood gang used some prohibited chemicals stored at the plant,'

Barbara said. _'There's been some shady dealings in there for a long time, and….the plant should have been shut down years ago, but someone is keeping it above water.'_  
 **  
** _'The plant would be the perfect location to build some kind of biological or chemical weapon,'_ Harry thought. _'Last summer, with Crane, it was merely just a taste of what the League is capable of.'_

'What does the League want?'

Barbara asked.

Harry thought for a long moment about what the League wanted. Barbara asked a pretty good question, and Harry wished he could answer her question. At this point, he took a fair amount of time trying to wrap his head around all of the madness.

_'Maybe I should find out.'_

Harry needed to play this one close to his vest. While he trusted Nyssa, a lot of people lurked around who could spoil he was onto the plans.

 _'You know, she might tell you straight out if you ask her,'_ Faora thought. _'But I can see why you wouldn't want to play this card unless necessary.'_

'Batman and Katana are out okay, well Batman isn't completely okay,'

Barbara thought. _'But he'll be fine when he gets patched up, Napier shot him.'_

'Anything on Napier?'

Harry asked.

 _'He was in the plant during the explosion,'_ Barbara thought. _'He could have escaped, but chances of survival are slim.'_

Harry smiled, he wouldn't gamble on the chances of survival for anyone. The lack of body being found put things on even odds.

* * *

**To Be Continued on December 9** **th** **, 2015.**


	149. Nightwing and Flamebird Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Nine: Nightwing and Flamebird Part One.  
**

* * *

The dust settled at the Ace Chemical plant. Nightshade made her way further down the tunnels of Gotham City. She allowed her assassins to keep a closer eye on the chemicals hauled down here. Overall, tonight went about as well as could be expected, despite the snags. Nightshade refused to think her day could have gone much worse.

 _'This phase of the plan is essential….months of planning…completely gone on without a hitch,'_ Talia thought, moving down a tunnel.

The daughter of Ra's Al Ghul forced herself to learn the tunnels of Gotham City better than the back of her hand. Knowing the tunnels could mean the difference between life and death.

Regardless, they slipped away from the Ace Chemical plant, and only suffered one injury. Paige proved her loyalty by taking one for the team. Once she recovered from her injury, Talia rewarded her. Some tension existed involving the other members of the team because of Paige's preferred status, but Nightshade didn't care.

If they wanted to act like divas, they would be punished to the fullest extent. Nightshade wanted women who were strong and powerful, and didn't let petty jealously get the better of them. She allowed them plenty of leeway to get the job done.

The moment the job was compromised in anyway, they would all suffer Nightshade's displeasure.

A figure started to move in the shadows. Nightshade stood on her heels, and the sword extended forward. A tense expression spread over her body, where shivers followed. It took a moment before she realized who arrived.

"You can come out of the shadows now," Nightshade said. The woman leaned towards the figure who crept in the shadows. "We are truthfully alone, and there's no reason why you should keep hiding from me."

Nyssa made her way out of the shadows, with elegance and sophistication. The message she received indicated Talia finished her work tonight.

"Excellent," Nyssa said. She stepped towards her younger sister, her mouth curled into a slight frown. "So, how did the mission at the Ace Chemical Plant pan out?"

Talia relaxed for a moment, but only because her older sister turned up to face her. Any other person, especially on this night, she would be on her guard.

"It went on nearly perfectly."

Nyssa noticed the tension in Talia's body language despite her keeping her body still for the most part. She reached towards her sister and touched a hand to the top of hers.

"Define nearly perfectly?"

For a second, Talia slid back, and leaned her against the wall. A long pause followed before Talia launched into an explanation of how she wanted to go through with everything.

"We managed to acquire the chemical created at the plant without any kind of issues," Talia said. She leaned forward and placed her hand on the crate. "We ran into the Detective and the traitor. Thankfully, there was a disturbance involving the Red Hood gang which worked to our advantage. The only injury was Paige being stabbed by Katana."

Nyssa realized the implications of what was told to her.

"She was stabbed by the Soultaker," Nyssa said.

Talia nodded in confirmation.

"Needless to say, it negated her spectral form, and the wound will take some time to heal," Talia said. The younger daughter or Ra's Al Ghul threw her hair back, and focused on Nyssa. "No other weapon will cause damage. It's a shame she departed from the League."

"She was never one of us to begin with," Nyssa informed her sister. "Remember, she was a spy."

Talia hated to be reminded of the fact. She looked towards Nyssa, her gaze locked on her.

"Yes, she was. And rather talented at her craft."

"It's almost like you respect her," Nyssa said.

"I'm willing to give you credit where credit is deserved," Talia said. "It doesn't make me want to kill her any less should the opportunity present itself."

"Yes, I figured as much."

"So, why are you here?"

Nyssa was surprised the question took this long to be asked. She could have sworn Talia would say it the exact moment she came out through the tunnel.

"I wished to ensure you escaped your battle unscathed," Nyssa said.

Talia smiled despite herself. She was mostly glad her face was obscured in the shadows. The show of emotion she experienced would not be becoming of someone of the likes of her.

"Other than the injury, the League escaped just fine," Talia said. She appreciated her sister's concern, even though she didn't really need her constant supervision. "The Detective and the traitor….nothing is for certain about their fates. Without a body, I cannot say, but given it is ill-advised to enter the Plant, we can't confirm."

Nyssa thought as much. While her interest in the Detective was minor, he did prove to be resourceful enough. With no body, there was no death, number one rule of assassination. Many learned that fact the hard way.

"You'll find out sooner than later," Nyssa said. Her eyes lingered upon her sister's and the two of them stared each other down. Nyssa stepped towards her ,closing the distance further between the two of them. "I have to leave, unless you need anything further."

A long pause followed with Nyssa giving her sister an ample amount of opportunity to open up for her plan.

"There is nothing."

Nyssa frowned for the longest moment. She speculated something her sister said didn't ring true, but she was willing to give Talia the benefit of the doubt, at least for the moment.

"Very well then, contact me the moment you need any assistance," Nyssa said. She leaned towards her sister and kissed Talia on the lips. The kiss between the two sisters lingered for the briefest moment, before they parted ways. Nyssa smiled, pulling away from Talia. "Until next time."

Talia thought the kiss was all too brief, but she knew Nyssa had business all of her own.

"Yes, until next time," Talia said. She watched her sister depart, her eyes lingering until she disappeared into the depths of Gotham City.

A long time passed. Talia turned toward the corridor. She motioned for the figure at the end of the corridor to walk in. Silence existed, the kind which unnerved them.

"Nyssa is gone, you can show yourself," Talia said.

"You wished to summon me?"

"Yes, I wish to summon you," Talia said. "I'm ready to go forward with phase two of the plan…we were lucky enough for the Dragon not to be present when we transported the chemicals from the plant. This time, we're going to have to take actions."

Talia knew the deal she made could complicate things, but not taking steps to safeguard against the second phase of the plan would be even worse.

"I'm at your disposal."

Talia appreciated the assistance. She leaned towards the figure in the shadows.

"Good, and tonight we'll kill two birds with one stone."

* * *

Bette's anticipation reached a fever pitch, along with her nervousness. The GPA final exams crept around the corner, causing her to groan. Being the overachiever she was, Bette anticipated the exams and needed to get top marks. Her status afforded her to be in any college of her choosing, but she didn't want any doubt in anyone's minds.

 _'Okay, relax Bette, it's not really bad,'_ she thought. _'It's just exams….not the worst thing in the world. You can most certainly do this…it's just exams, not really the worst thing in the world….you shouldn't really be freaking out about this, not a little bit….not really ever….okay maybe a little bit. You can freak out a little bit.'_

A car pulled up, but Bette wasn't really paying attention. She wouldn't be the first person to break down because of exams, and most certainly wouldn't have been the last person to breakdown either. A clearing of the throat caused Bette to slowly break her attention from her rapid fire thoughts.

"So, do you need a ride, or are you busy freaking out?"

Bette turned, towards a woman dressed in an elegant blouse, jacket, and skirt combination. The dark haired woman looked to be in far better spirits than she had been in a long time, and as a result, perked Bette's spirits up in a considerable manner.

"Aunt Kathy!" Bette said. She bounced up and down on her heels in excitement. "You know, I was going to try and get a ride with the group, but since you're offering….."

"Actually, I was hoping to talk to you," Kathy said.

Kathy's statement threw Bette completely and utterly off guard. The two of them butted heads a little bit recently, and Bette knew when Kathy talked to her, it might not be good news.

"You were?" Bette asked. She wondered what her aunt was talking about. She realized how her statement sounded and quickly backtracked. "Um, not I'm grateful, but why do you want to talk to me?"

"Well, I was hoping you would join me for dinner," Kathy said. "You know, you always have a room open in the mansion, even if you've been staying with your friends a lot lately, and haven't been around. Which…I know how things get around your age…..you don't want to spend time with your tired old aunt."

Bette hated when her aunt tried to downgrade herself. She knew of the expectations Kathy had, but did she have to define herself by them? Bette reached out and touched her hand to Kathy's.

"You're not old, Aunt Kathy, you're pretty much in the prime of your life," Bette said.

Kathy would have to agree to disagree. There were times where she felt much older than she really was because of the fact she doubled up to keep up with everyone. Still, Bette did have a point in many ways.

"Well, I'm feeling younger than I ever have in a long time," Kathy said. The woman's lips curled into a knowing smile, and Bette stared at her aunt. "And I all have to thank my sleep therapist….he's worked wonders. Why I slept more in the last month, than I have in years."

Bette's interest piqued, but she was cautious. Something about this struck her as a bit odd.

"Oh, you have?" Bette asked.

"I have," Kathy said. The woman's giddiness hit an entirely new level when she leaned towards her niece. "And he's coming over for dinner this weekend, and I hoped you can meet him."

"Doctor Sam….Sandle….Sam….well your doctor is coming over for dinner tonight?" Bette asked. She frowned, and was agitated at the fact she couldn't pronounce the name.

Kathy almost laughed. A lot of people had trouble with his name. It was of some Eastern European origin, she wasn't sure which country. The good doctor never volunteered the information, and Kathy never asked him about his name.

"Doctor Somnambular, honey," Kathy said. She watched Bette sling her bag over her shoulder and make her way into the passenger's side of the door.

Bette stopped and she locked eyes with Bunny. Bunny waited with a small group of the girls, but Bette waved her off.

"Yes, Bunny, my aunt's taking me….I'll see you later!"

Bette settled in the front seat of the car next to her aunt. It was a change of pace to see Kathy look so relaxed.

"He's really changed your life, hasn't he?" Bette asked. She wanted to feel happy with what her aunt was doing, but she couldn't help but feel the slightest amount of anxiousness regarding this entire mess. "He's really helped you a lot, hasn't he?"

"Yes, honey, he is," Kathy said. She looked a bit more chipper. "I had to admit, when Professor Strange recommended him, I had my misgivings, but, everything worked out for the best, didn't it?"

Perhaps it was just Bette, but she regarded anyone with the last name of Strange with the slightest amount of suspicion. She would find out if this doctor was everything her aunt said.  
 _  
'Guess I shouldn't judge him until I meet him.'_

* * *

 _'It's going to be a big, once in a life time gathering, isn't it?'_ Rose asked. She could barely keep ahold of herself and tried not to rub her hands together with excitement. It took a long moment before she caught her breath.

Harry sat in one of the office areas of his Penthouse. He multi-tasked, checking over some paperwork which had popped up in his absence. Tamara sent it over and Harry looked it over, figuring everything is in order. Still, it didn't hurt things to double check.

While Harry looked over the paperwork, his mother, Rose, and Hippolyta discussed the plans for the big trip to Themyscira which would be taking place in the early summer months. It coincided with Lyta's fourteenth birthday and her second maturity, which also happened to coincide with her ascension ceremony.

 _'Easy, Rose, you don't want to lose your mind, do you?'_ Lily asked. _'But, it's nothing like any of us have ever seen.'_

'It isn't often an Amazon Princess reaches her date of ascension,'

Hippolyta said. _'Only two times in recent history, but it has been a long time since Donna reached this point. And the Amazons are preparing a celebration.'_

'I wouldn't doubt they are,'

Harry thought. _'Our daughter is pretty excited about the entire event.'_

'Excited, love, you wouldn't know half of it,' Hippolyta said.

 _'Yes, she wouldn't shut up about it,'_ Donna thought.

 _'Come on, Donna, you recall how you were like when you reached your Ascension Ceremony date,'_ Diana thought. _'I believe I'll mention how you wouldn't shut up about it.'_

 _'Of course, I was excited, but nothing like this,'_ Donna thought. Donna almost could feel the burning glaze of her sister's eyes on her. _'Well, I wasn't, you know.'_

'Of course, Donna, whatever you want to think. I won't argue.'

'Okay, girls, it's enough, Donna, you were pretty excited, and Diana, you were pretty excited, and it's an event which all the girls on the island wait eagerly for, _'_ Hippolyta thought.

Anyone who had been raised on the island knew Hippolya was telling the truth. The fourteenth birthday was a really big deal for them. It transitioned them from young girls, bright and ready to learn, to strong women warriors.

 _'Yes, Aresia was pretty excited for hers,'_ Donna said. She stopped in an instant, and realized what she said. A silence spread through everyone in the bond. _'Sorry, but….is there any sign of her?'_

 _'Artemis is still searching,'_ Hippolyta thought. She hoped to find Aresia and reach out to her. She had been a vulnerable young woman when brought to the island, and her vulnerability increased when arriving. Along with insecurity, something Hippolyta sadly failed to help her get over. _'I hope one day we can bring her home, but….I fear she may have fallen into with the wrong crowd, and she won't be found.'_

 _'Well, hopefully one day,'_ Donna thought. Despite what happened at the end, Aresia was her friend. She didn't….she had a bad life. _'And I'm sorry for bringing her up….I didn't mean to bring everyone down by talking about this. It's just….'_

 _'I know, Donna ,you worry about her, as do I,'_ Hippolyta thought. The rumors which reached her about tension brewing caused Hippolyta to be on her guard. She wished she could throw herself in her daughter's Ascension ceremony a little bit more, but it was not a luxury she could afford.

 _'As do we all,'_ Diana thought. Donna might be too young to remember, but Amazons chose to left the island in the past for whatever reason. It was always hard on her heart to see her sisters disappear into the night.

Diana wished her sisters the best, and hoped they didn't make the wrong choices, no matter what the case was. Aresia was the first case where Donna had seen an Amazon she knew depart from the island. Diana saw it many times during her life, and Hippolyta saw it many more times.

 _'We'll worry about it at another time,'_ Hippolyta thought. _'Artemis says she followed a lead about a month back, but nothing, but a dead end.'_

 _'She's disappointed, isn't she?'_ Harry asked.

 _'No more than we all are,'_ Hippolyta said. _'But, I'm sure some of your wives are looking forward to this trip about as much as my daughter is looking towards her Ascension ceremony.'_

 _'Yes,'_ Kara said. She couldn't help, but give her two cents. _'And I'm sure Barbara and Dinah are at the front of the line…..given how they missed the last vacation.'_

 _'Yes, guilty as charged,'_ Barbara thought. _'Although, I'm still…..'_

 _'In the real world, you'll be gone for less than a day, I'm sure Batman and Katana can handle anything which pops up,'_ Harry thought. _'Along with the MCU, it's what they get paid for, you know.'_

'Well, you twisted my arm,'

Dinah thought. _'Although you didn't have to twist it too hard, you know.'_

Everyone laughed at Dinah's nonchalant declaration. After what the girls encountered last time they had been left behind, Harry would be damned if they were left in Gotham City to weather the damage.

'Yes, I figured as much,'

Harry thought. _'So, we're leaving after the graduation party…..which is going to take place after the Circus.'_

' _Oh, right, the party for Bunny and Bette, to celebrate their graduation,'_ Amanda thought. _'Good thing they're not part of the bond…yet…because it would be hard to keep the secret from them, you know.'_

'I'm surprise you haven't blabbed it yet, Mandy,'

Gabrielle said.

 _'I can keep a secret if I'm given the proper incentive,'_ Amanda thought, frowning deeply in response.

 _'What, no sex for six months?'_ Emily asked.

 _'That would be the proper incentive,'_ Amanda thought to herself, sounding a bit moody. _'And also cruel and unusual punishment.'_

'Could be worse, you could have your shoe money taken away,'

Emiy thought to her in response.

'Oh, it's not too hard, I just have to regulate certain people,'

Harry thought. _'I kept secrets from you well enough regarding Alison Blaire, remember?'_

'Must you rub it in,'

Amanda thought. She still thought her and Emily could have done a better job in getting tickets, but you know, live and learn. _'Although it's more than worth it.'_

'Well, I'm sure you girls had plenty of fun,'

Lily said. _'And I'm sure you'll do well in your exams…and you've been studying hard for them.'_

'Oh, we've been studying pretty hard, really hard in fact,'

Amanda thought.

 _'Yes, we're not going to disappoint the Evans-Potter name by doing shit on our exams,'_ Emily thought. _'We have a reputation to maintain after all.'_

'You know, when those two really set their minds to something, they can be pretty dangerous,'

Hippolyta thought. She focused her attention on Lily and Rose. _'But, I'm sure I don't need to tell you two.'_

 _"No, you really don't,'_ Lily thought.

 _'Be thankful you missed the worst of it,'_ Rose thought. She took a long sigh. _'You remember how we were when we were teenagers?'_

 _'They weren't that bad, were they?_ ' Lily asked. A long pause followed.

As much as Harry wanted to finish this conversation, he would have to wrap it up later. A knock on the door announced the arrival of two young women, both dressed in a sports bra and yoga pants. Reilly wore a black top and Gwen wore a white top, but their pants matched. Faora escorted both of them into the room.

"So, we're ready to get nice and sweaty," Gwen said. The grin crossed her face, making Harry realize she knew precisely what she was saying. "You know, for the training."

Harry smiled, fairly amused with the fact she allowed enough question into the statement to make him wonderful.

"Well, I hope you're ready," Harry said. He rose to his feet and faced them. "Because I'm going to put you through the paces, and work you pretty hard. You better be ready."

"Oh believe it, we are," Reilly said.

Harry lead them into a gym area. He needed to work on their hand to hand, and then he would work on incorporating their powers. Once he created a solid offense and defense, only then, they could go out on the field.

 _'Pretty eager, aren't they?'_ Barbara thought. _'And to think, only half of it is the pheromones.'_

 _'What's the other half?'_ Donna asked.

 _'I'll let you use your imagination,'_ Barbara thought. She paused and realized what she said in an instant. _'Why do I think I've opened your minds up to some really dirty minded thoughts.'_

 _'Likely because you have,'_ Donna thought. _  
_

* * *

The Gotham City Police Department scurried around Ace Chemical Plants, about as far as they could go. The entire area was a wasteland of horror.

James Gordon stepped forward. The rest of his team waited for him to give the go ahead.

"Going to have to wait for the Hazmat team to go in, and give the go ahead," Gordon said. As usual, his days were either really late, or started very early. He reached the point where night and day blended in to each other, at least to the point where he couldn't figure out where one started, and the other began.

"Looks like someone did a really job on this place," Bullock said. He chewed on the edge of his toothpick and flicked it onto the ground.

The detective whistled as his eyes traveled over the building. It couldn't be good for the environment.

"Lots of safety code violations, which mysteriously disappeared before they could be checked out," Renee said.

"Not too big of a mystery here, you don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out what happened," Bullock said. "I don't even need to spell it out for you."

The fine folks of the MCU all shook their heads in response. They didn't need Bullock or anyone else to spell out the problems they encountered for them.

"What a mess," one of the GCPD officers said. He tried to take a step forward into the area, but Gordon placed a hand firmly on his shoulder and steered him back.

"I wouldn't go there, if I was you," Gordon said. "It's very dangerous."

The officer stepped back, realizing his blunder. He almost stepped into something dangerous, more dangerous than anything he ever encountered in his life come to think about it. The breath left his body in a rush when he realized what he potentially averted.

"Thanks, Jim," the officer said.

"Going to have to wait for the crew to get in, and take a better look at this," John said. "So, was anyone in there hurt?"

Sarah just received information from her source, just in time to answer John's question.

"Well, most of the employees were cleared out, from what we could find out," Sarah said. She adjusted her flashlight to allow them a little bit more coverage of this tunnel. "There was supposed to be a routine safety inspection from the Gotham City safety commission tonight….and a safety inspector was dispatched."

"Figures, they'd have a chemical explosion during a safety inspection," Bullock said. He flicked one of his toothpicks onto the ground. "So, they cleared out most of the second shift people who were up there?"

"Third shift actually, but….only four employees were inside the plant," Sarah said. She ticked off the fingers. "Two security guards….then there was the head supervisor, Ellison Romero….."

Some of the members of the team grumbled, Bullock being the most vocal of them all.

"Talk about your shady bastards," Bullock said.

"Yes, well, he was in his office during the explosion, at least from what we've been able to piece together," Sarah said. She took a long moment to consider her next rooms. "And there was the junior supervisor….Joe Kerr."

Bullock did a double take at the name and started to chuckle.

"Joe Kerr?" Bullock asked. "Hope the guy was funny, or his parents were really sick bastards."

"Well, he was a part-time comedian," Sarah said. She checked the information which had been dug up. "But, his reviews were….well let's just same his opening performance in Gotham bombed."

Bullock whistled for a long moment. So it was a bomb, and his parents were sick bastards.

"Still, what happened to him, and the people in this plant, it was really no laughing matter," Gordon said. He brushed his hair from his eyes and turned towards them. "And here they come."

The men in the yellow suits made their way into the plant, moving past them. The leader looked at the MCU officers like they were the hazardous chemicals they had to deal with.

"Stand back, there could be hazardous chemicals in the air….and some could still be explosive."

"Well, of course there are hazardous chemicals, because we wouldn't have called for a Hazmat unit," Bullock said. He shook his head at them, unable to believe them. Regardless, he stood back, and allowed them to check in.

No news on any survivors, but it certainly didn't look promising.

* * *

Nyssa made her way in the cover of darkness, after sundown. She perched on the rooftop, and made her way in the shadows. A lone gunshot was the only thing which made her pause, but considering she resided in Gotham City, she didn't pay it too much mind.

Harry requested for her to meet him on the rooftop. She didn't know why, Nyssa didn't question why, she just decided to meet Harry on this rooftop. He said it was urgent.

Nyssa arrived just seconds before a figure approached her. The Daughter of the Demon stretched out in a battle stance, but relaxed. She noticed his green eyes, although the rest of him submerged in shadows.

_'Right on schedule.'_

"So, you've returned, beloved," Nyssa said. She watched as Harry stepped out of the shadows. He dressed in his Nightwing attire, which caused her to frown. "You have taken on the guise of the Dragon. Therefore you must have arranged to meet me for a good reason"

Nightwing stepped closer towards the Daughter of the Demon with a smile.

"The most serious of all," Harry said. He stepped towards her, and brushed the locks of hair from her face. He leaned towards her and offered her a slight kiss. Nyssa returned the kiss, a smile crossing her face. "So, how are you doing?"

Nyssa frowned, and not because their reuniting kiss went a bit shorter than she intended.

"Well, I have my responsibilities, as do you," Nyssa said. She knew this conversation would be happening sooner or later. "I trust your abrupt business in Smallville went well."

"Sorry, if my departure caused an inconvenience," Harry said. "I knew you were in town, but the day were going to arrange a meeting to catch up….."

"No," Nyssa said. She touched her fingers to his lips to silence him "You had to take care of your own. If I was in your position….it would have been a difficult choice to make. But you had to make the choice you did, and I have to accept it."

Both of them looked at each other for a long time. Now the air had been cleared at this level they could speak freely.

"Glad you're understanding," Harry said. He decided to go and fish in for information." Did you hear about the incident at the Ace Chemical Plant?"

 _'Here it comes, the moment of truth,'_ Faora thought.

 _'Curious to see how she spins this one,'_ Karen thought.

 _'I'm not sure if spins is the right word,'_ Harry thought.

Harry waited along with the rest of the women in the bond for the answer.

"Well, word is through my sources a faction of the League might have had dealings in the Ace Chemical Plant," Nyssa said. She figured she could give him a shred of what was going on, even if this amounted to information he already knew.

Harry smiled, she did tell him what he already knew. Which was an admirable start, because he knew she wasn't lying. Still, Harry felt she withheld some tangible bits from him.

"My sources determined the same exact thing," Harry said. He cupped Nyssa's chin and leaned towards her.

Nyssa frowned, hoping to choose her words carefully. She knew if he asked her straight out, she couldn't really lie to him. The Daughter of the Demon couldn't bring herself to lie to him.

"Yes, they've been active in Gotham City," Nyssa said. "The rumors are the body of Ra's Al Ghul turned up in the city have reached the League….."

Nyssa stopped short. Harry smiled, realizing they had hit upon something really interesting.

 _'It's just as you thought,'_ Dinah thought.

"And I'm sure your younger sister wants to find it," Harry said. "The Demon won't stay down for long…..even though his previous plans for Gotham City have left him in a really bad state."

 _'Given his current status is deceased, I'd say,'_ Barbara thought. She could hear them about ready to protest. _'Yeah, I know. He's found out before.'_

Harry could see Nyssa's frown deepen. He reached towards her hand and gripped it to put her full attention on him.

"So, how much do you know?" Nyssa asked.

"I don't know," Harry said. The two of them locked eyes with each other. The tension could be sliced with one of the blades both of them favored. "You should tell me about how much I should know."

Harry decided to go in. Whether or not Nyssa would tell him anything, Harry didn't know.

"Well, if this isn't a cozy little gathering, I don't know what is?"

_'Looks like we have company.'_

Harry turned around, wondering who would be stupid enough to interrupt a meeting involving the Daughter of the Demon and her beloved. The fact Silver Monkey turned up gave his answer in spades. The tension spreading through Harry's body increased and the look in Nyssa's eye didn't help. She tried to calm down, but it was a struggle for her do so.

"You dare," Nyssa said. Annoyance spread over her features. "You dare?"

 _'Either she didn't know about this, or she's pulling off an amazing acting job,'_ Dinah thought.

 _'I'm thinking she didn't know,'_ Harry thought.

"You picked a wrong party to crash," Harry said. Silver Monkey waved his hand. Several monkey clan ninjas arrived around the scene. Harry frowned, but he didn't allow the hordes of ninjas to really bother him. "You shouldn't have come here tonight."

Silver Monkey didn't really bat an eyelash, although it was pretty difficult for him to do so underneath the mask. He motioned for his Monkey Clan Ninjas to come in, surrounding them all on the rooftop.

"Yes," Nyssa said. She withdrew her sword. She never thought much of the Silver Monkey, and figured Lady Shiva only kept him on hand because he had some connections. "I'll give you one opportunity to leave."

The Silver Monkey stood across from Nightwing and Nyssa, brash and brazen as you would expect. Harry wondered if he would be arrogant enough to do so.

 _'He would,'_ Harry thought. The thought crossed his mind as Harry didn't see the Silver Monkey step back.

Rather the Silver Monkey stepped forward to go face to face with Harry.

"I've been wanting to test my skills against the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul for some time," Silver Monkey said. "And to think, I'll be able to collect a bounty on the Dragon, it will make things much more interesting."

"Interesting is an interesting term," Harry said. "My kind of interesting and your kind of interesting differs."

The Monkey Clan ninjas waited for their time to pounce.

 _'Why do ninjas always have to travel in packs?'_ Barbara thought.

 _'Because,'_ Harry thought. One of the ninjas rushed him, but Harry avoided the swing of the blade. He turned around, and fired an exploding dagger. One of the ninjas fell out of mid air when Harry tried to take him out.

Harry rose up with another attack and plowed his hand into the chest of the demon. One of the chains flung towards him. Harry caught the sharp end of the chain and flipped in the air. He used one of the Money Clan ninjas as a projectile and knocked them over.

Nyssa swiped in, not willing to pull her punches at all. She plunged the sword into the chest of one of the ninjas. The ninja's arms waved in a wild fashion when he fell off of the roof. Nyssa turned around and swiped the sword against the chest of the ninjas.

Nightwing took advantage of one of the ninjas focusing on Nyssa to take him down. The dragon jumped into the air and slammed his enemy head first into the roof. In a flash, he bounced off of the roof.

 _'And again,'_ he thought.

The Hand ninjas he fought back in New York were better trained than this, although not too much. Harry fired off a split kick, taking both ninjas out at once. He sent the chain back at the third, causing the ninja to dangle from the rooftop. The ninja swung back and forth from the roof, in a vain attempt for him to break out.

Shuriken flung, but Nyssa stepped in front of him before Harry could defend himself. She swiped her sword and sent the Shuriken back at the ninjas.

In an instant, Silver Monkey disappeared. He moved into the night, along with the remaining Monkey Clan Ninjas.

Harry wanted to say something to Nyssa, but she disappeared into the night as well. Nightwing stood up straight. The attack really didn't do anything. The dragon was left with not even a scratch. The attack did leave him with a whole lot of questions and a minimal amount of answers.

* * *

Sometime later, Harry returned to a virtually abandoned penthouse. Other than Kara who laid on the floor down on her stomach; she worked on the homework on her laptop.

"Wow, Harry, you're just in time, I'm finished," Kara said. She wiped her brow. "Teachers are real sadists, at least break is right around the corner."

Kara made her way over to the couch, where Harry slipped off his mask.

"Did you talk to Nyssa?" Kara asked him.

"Tried to, and I was about to ask her, when the Silver Monkey attacked," Harry said.

"Really, is the League trying to insult you by sending him after you?" Kara asked. She looked completely agitated by the fact the League thought so little.

"No, I'm pretty sure they weren't trying to insult me," Harry said. "I'm sure they're trying to throw me off some kind of trail."

"But, if they attacked you, it means they're going to get your attention," Kara said. Harry smiled when he looked at her. "Granted, you're still going to fight them, why wouldn't you fight them, but still…."

Kara descended into babbling, and Harry smiled at her.

"If the Monkey Clan wants to declare war on me, they're going to get more than they bargained for," Harry said. "I think I'm in the middle of a power struggle within the League."

"And until leadership returns, the factions will be at war," Kara said. She paused for a long moment. "So, are the rumors true? Is Ra's body anywhere in Gotham City?"

Harry considered Kara's question.

"If it was, I don't think it is anymore," Harry said.

He rose up to his feet. Harry looked outside of Gotham City from the penthouse. The recent explosion at the Ace Chemical plant gave Harry a feeling something changed, although he was certain it wasn't for the better.

"If the Monkey Clan, or any other League faction wants to bring the fight to me, I'm going to bring the fight to them," Harry said.

"So, what next?" Kara asked.

"I'm going to pick up some equipment, and I'll be off," Harry said.

Silver Monkey would learn a valuable lesson. Having the Dragon's attention was the last thing you wanted to have.

_'It's showtime.'_

* * *

**To Be Continued on December 16** **th** **, 2015.**


	150. Nightwing and Flamebird Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifty: Nightwing and Flamebird Part Two:**

* * *

Several members of the League of Assassins circled around the tunnels deep underneath Gotham City. They made their way into one of the old Gotham City subway stations. Rumor had it Killer Croc used it for a temporary lair at another time, but since Croc cleared out, it allowed the League to grab onto it for their own base of operations.

For the most part, the entire underground tunnel had been cleared out. Every so often one of the assassins stepped on some animal bones which caused everyone in the tunnel to grow even more nervous. The wait they had to undergo for their membership to return caused agitation.

The League members waited for their leadership to return. They braced themselves for an attack from both Batman and the traitor in the League, the one who called herself Katana.

The more time ticked by, the more the couple of the new recruits in the League grew rather impatient. The old hands knew what the game was all too well, but some of the new recruits were still raw in many areas.

"What is taking so long," one of the members of the League of Assassins said. "They should have been here by now….I don't like this."

One of the older members of the League turned his attention on the new recruit. While the words she spoke had been thought of by all of them, the new recruits needed to learn their place. And learn the consequences of their tongue.

"It's not your place to question," another League member said. Her eyes narrowed on the first one. They needed to work together if this stage of the plan was able to go together. "It's your place to do what is necessary to ensure the mistress is ready. Anyone who is not part of the League who goes down this tunnel will be annihilated, no questions asked."

"Well, we should be asking questions."

The mutterings of several of the League members continued. Ubu turned more and more annoyed as he paced back and forth, looking like a caged animal. Eventually, the man's burning gaze snapped towards the League members.

"SILENCE!" Ubu yelled.

Ubu's declaration didn't go over too well with the League members, few of them who respected anything he brought to the table. Some of them had been at this for years. The veteran assassins regarded Ubu as little more than Ra's Al Ghul's trained pet.

"You best mind your tongue, dog," one of the assassins said. "Just because you're the demon's favorite pet, it doesn't mean you have any cause to raise your hackles at the rest of us."

Ubu and one of Nightshade's elite guard looked to be about to go head to head. A clearing of the throat of a very persuative party stopped the fight before it started.

"It will be sufficient, from both of you."

Nightshade slipped into the picture. All eyes of the League were on her.

"I know your concerns," Nightshade said. Her eyes swept over the group, all of them standing up. Very few would go against her in the mood they sensed she was in. The woman waited for them to go so silent a pin could be dropped and would resound across the tunnel. "And if you stuck to my plan, just as you did a few nights ago, there will be no drawbacks. Phase two of the plan is almost complete."

"You have not informed us of phase three," Ubu said.

"Phase three is on a need to know basis," Nightshade said. "Rest assure, if there's anything I need to tell you which affects your cog in the operation, you will learn of it, Ubu."

"Your father….."

"Thought of you as a tool, and your loyalty is appreciated," Nightshade said. "But, you can be replaced…you serve your purpose, and you will serve a grand purpose when the Demon returns to Gotham City."

The pause between the two of them opened the door with tension which could be cut with a rather fine blade. One thought for a moment Ubu was going to protest her words even more, but he stepped back from the Demon's youngest daughter.

"Do you have a problem?" Nightshade asked.

"No," Ubu said.

"Then you understand your place in the order of this League," Nightshade said.

"Yes, of course," Ubu said. He fell back into line, realizing where his bread had been buttered. His gaze fell onto the woman before him.

The entire party grew silent on both sides. Ubu stepped back into line.

Nightshade smiled. She turned to the twins, both of them who stood up, eager to please her. Especially after Paige being wounded, they intended to move up the pecking order.

"So, our plan is running as intended," Nightshade said.

"Yes, Mistress," the member of the bustier of the twins said. She looked up towards her, a bit of fear spreading through her body. "The plan is barely on schedule, but it doesn't change the fact the plan is on schedule."

The woman's lips curled into a frown. The other members of the Elite guard stepped back.

"See it remains on schedule," Nightshade said. She turned towards them. "Gotham City is a plague upon the world. Any potential it has….it has been squashed by the disease in this city….we need to flush out the weak, who are enabling the cancer which spreads throughout this world."

Despite the slightly fanatical nature of her speech, they hung on every last word she spoke. The League required a cause to hold onto, otherwise, they would be crushed underneath a thick weight.

"The strong will survive," Nightshade said. "The strongest will be allowed to run with the League….and once the city has been brought to its knees, Ra's Al Ghul will rise again."

The news of the potential return of their departed master caused the League members to cheer. Talia didn't know where her father's body ended up, but the leads she followed indicated someone who she didn't want to have it acquired it.

_'Hope, I'm wrong, but it's likely.'_

Regardless, she didn't show any sign of her worry. The Daughter of the Demon locked her eyes onto the entire League of Assassins.

"Long live, Ra's Al Ghul!"

Their loyalty was commendable, Talia gave them this. They need not count their chickens before they hatched, though.

"But, we shouldn't celebrate our triumph just yet," Nightshade said. "We need to ensure our plan remains on schedule, as it should always be. And this is a trial run for the final run….and Ubu?"

Ubu looked up at Talia for a long moment. The eyes of the broad shouldered man burned into those eyes of the daughter of the demon.

"Yes, Mistress," Ubu said.

Talia sensed a coating of "venom" in the word "mistress", but was willing to overlook Ubu's insubordination towards her. The end would justify the means in this case.

"Make sure the plan remains on schedule. If you wish to be rewarded by your master once he returns from his hiatus."

With not so discreet manipulation out of the way, Talia united the members of the League. They would be able to move through the next phase of their plan.

* * *

Nyssa made her way down the tunnel, before the trail for the Silver Monkey turned cold. The random attack made no sense, and Talia assured her, Shiva and her clan was on the same page. There were other factions of the League they needed to worry about, and the relief passed when they joined forces.

For a moment, Nyssa thought they were on the same page. Everything changed the night of this attack.

Tonight, Silver Monkey and his monkey clan ninjas attacked. Shiva wanted to know why, Shiva needed to know why. She would know why in time. The woman continued her travel down the tunnels, senses completely heightened.

 _'You couldn't have gotten too far,'_ Nyssa thought. The woman stood up as straight as possible. Silver Monkey attacked her and Harry, and then vanished, with his men, without a trace.

Something stirred which caused Nyssa to stand straight up. The woman turned around and looked over her shoulder. A figure crept down the tunnels, approaching her and getting close to closing the distance.

"If you're here, you better show yourself," Nyssa said. Her blade extended out. "And I hope you have a logical explanation for what you've done."

Nyssa waited for a moment. The figure rustled in the darkness, but a familiar laugh caused her tension to lower, at least for a moment. She wasn't completely out of the woods yet, but she could relax for a moment.

_'At least until he starts asking questions.'_

"Well, I'm not sure if you're going to accept my explanation, but there is a reason why I'm done here, just like there's a reason why you're down here."

Nyssa nodded, when Harry came into full view. He dressed in his Nightwing attire. Obviously, she should have known he would have been down here, because Silver Monkey's attack targeted him about as much as it did her.

"Beloved, I didn't expect you to be here," Nyssa said. The woman's tension only eased up for the briefest second. "You shouldn't be down here though….tonight is the wrong night….."

Nightwing stared at her, and Nyssa slackened for a moment. She knew, he knew, something was going on. Nyssa prepared herself for an explanation. Should he ask, she could not lie? Nyssa would appreciate if he didn't pull certain cards out.

"Yes, I figured the League was busy tonight," Nightwing stated when he walked forward. He made his way closer towards Nyssa. Nyssa approached him with tension. "And here I thought the Monkey Clan reached a truce with….your faction of the League. Or was it a one-time thing because of the fact Batman and Katana were there."

"Speaking of her….."

"Yes, she betrayed the League," Harry said. He didn't even bother to correct Nyssa. "But, you're evading the subject of why we were both attacked, you know."

Nyssa took a long breath. The truth could be such a dangerous thing to hold. Lies would get her into a sticky situation. The Daughter of the Demon stuck herself between both a rock and a hard place, with barely any way to escape. She tried to grit her teeth and bare with what was happening.

"Do you know, or are you just as confused as I am?" Harry asked.

He threw the ball into her court.

"I have no idea why the Silver Monkey attacked us," Nyssa said. She reached towards him and touched his hand. "I thought, as did you, the warfare between our two clans, especially when Gotham City is concerned, had been wrapped up."

Nyssa turned around and looked thoughtful.

"I only came to Gotham City….as an advisor," Nyssa said. "And to…help search for something of value."

Harry could sense who choosing her words carefully.

 _'You really have to appreciate the situation she's in,'_ Dinah thought. _'She is trying to appease all sides.'_

'Can't say I don't feel sorry for the situation she's in,'

Diana thought.

"We already established I know about Ra's body," Harry said. "And….it hasn't turned up…which makes me think someone else beat you to the punch."

One could almost see a groan forming in Nyssa's throat. Both sisters had a good idea who might have beat them to the body, but without any proof. They hated to go down the rabbit hole of speculation, especially during a time like this.

Circumstantial evidence pointed to the fact of a certain individual having the body. They needed actual physical evidence before they acted.

"Well, I can't say, at this point," Nyssa said. She reached and touched the top of Harry's forehead. She gave him a shadow of a smile. "The only thing we can do right now is….well just take care of yourself, beloved."

The two of them locked hands with each other. The pause followed for the longest of moments, when both of them stared each down. Harry had a rather serious warning to give her, especially when traveling around this part of the Gotham City sewers.

"Yes, and….watch out," Harry said. He looked around. "Killer Croc has been sighted around these parts."

Nyssa smiled. If only he knew certain members of the League had taken up residence in one of Croc's old lairs. Or maybe he did know, it wouldn't surprise Nyssa at all.

"He was swept further into the sewers, the last I heard," Nyssa said. She did keep on her guard. The woman sensed someone else lurked around the sewers as well.

Was it the Silver Monkey or was it something else entirely? Nyssa didn't know, and to be honest, she didn't like it. The woman's nerves started to become rather prominent as she rocked back and forth.

"And this is where we have to part," Nyssa said. "Do not want to let the trail get cold."

Relief spread through Nyssa, like a bucket of cold water splashing over a person after a long day. He didn't ask, but he came closed. Then again, a more pressing concern addressed both of them, at what the Silver Monkey was up to.

"If I find him first, I'll let you know," Harry said.

"Make sure to save me a piece," Nyssa said.

The two of them took their separate ways. Harry made his way down the winding tunnel. He frowned when he leaned up against the wall.

 _'In for the long night, tonight,'_ Harry thought. He switched tracks and moved towards another problem. _'So, Barbara, how is the research coming on the Ace Chemical Plant?'_

'The records are pretty much fried,'

Barbara thought. _'But I did manage to access a few interesting bits of information.'_

'Do tell,'

Harry thought.

'Well, they were on the verge of being shut down, but…the charges of safety hazards mysteriously disappeared,'

Barbara thought. _'No prizes there….and there have been some pretty big deposits put in the bank account over the past several months. About eight months or so ago…so whatever has been going on, has been going on for a long time.'_

Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose.

'Do you think you can trace to see where the deposits are coming from?'

Harry thought.

 _'Of course, I can, who do you think you're talking too?'_ Barbara asked. _'I may take some time…especially if I don't want to put a trail back to my doorstep.'_

'Take the time you need, I'm going to keep on Silver Monkey,'

Harry thought. He thought about what they needed to do and knew he needed to keep Barbara secure. _'Dinah, stick by Barbara….I'm pretty sure no one is going to storm the Clock Tower when she starts digging into records, but I'm not going to take any chances.'_

'I can defend myself,'

Barbara thought.

 _'And the two of us can defend you even better,'_ Dinah thought.

 _'She does have a point,'_ Donna thought.

 _'Yeah, you can't really argue with this,'_ Amanda said.

Barbara couldn't really argue with the logic. Two heads were better than one, and it wasn't like she didn't appreciate the company.

Harry continued the hunt. He noticed another shadowy figure creeping around. Maybe not the Silver Monkey, but someone who he should get closer to, and get a second look.

Maybe he was about to stumble onto what the League was up to today. It was worth a shot, and all Harry needed to do was head down the tunnels to take a closer look to see. Harry slipped into the shadows and made a turn down the tunnel.

* * *

Batman, despite the injuries suffered a few nights ago, was back on the hunt. Katana followed him, sticking closer to him. His decision to go out on the field had not gone over well for certain parties.

"Sir, I'm not sure if it's wise for you to head out in the state you're in," Alfred said. "The armor might have caught the brunt of the attack, but Jack Napier shot you full on."

"Yes, Alfred, I'm well aware of what happened, I was there," Batman said. He grimaced, but hid his pain instantly.

Katana looked towards her partner in crime. An obvious frown turned even more obvious the moment the woman sighed. She couldn't even begin to piece together all of the madness. She began to think one needed to be a bit mad to function in Gotham City.

 _'Stubborn to an almost obsessive fault,'_ she thought.

The persistence should be an admirable trait, and Katana wasn't going to disagree with the point. There were times where his persistence.

"Someone came down this tunnel from the plant," Batman said. "I overheard it over a police radio, a sewer worker claimed to see some figure in a mask leaving the Ace Chemical plant."

"A figure in a mask in Gotham City, imagine the odds," Katana said.

"You ran into members of the League last night….they could have transported something down here," Batman said.

Batman turned for a brief moment, and noticed splatters of blood on the ground. Alfred's urgent voice piped in through the communication headset to communicate.

"Sir, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the location where Killer Croc once holed up?" Alfred asked.

Katana stood ready for a fight in an instant, but Batman didn't seem too fazed of the battle.

"It is, but he hasn't been sighted, a few months ago," Batman said. "Although, the blood does point to someone dangerous down here."

The two vigilantes continued their trek downwards. Batman reached in and pulled out a scanner, scanning traces of blood. He cross referenced with the Gotham City Criminal database.

"Anything?" Katana asked.

"There's one match, Willis Todd…a small time criminal who has been in and out of jail for minor charges over the past fifteen years," Batman said. "Carjacking, burglary, public intoxication, indecent exposure….."

Batman trailed off to get a better look of the surroundings around him.

"Sounds like a real winner," Katana dead panned. "Looks like the trail goes cold about there."

The blood ended, but something was at the trail. A red hoodie stained in blood floated in the water. There was only one conclusion for the detective to come to.

"Todd is a member of the Red Hood gang," Batman said.

"So, he went rogue and tried to take control away from Napier," Katana said. Batman turned around and looked at her. "So, what do you think he's….."

"Without a body, I don't know," Batman said. He scanned the hoodie, careful not to pick it up. The hoodie started to smoke thus making any attempts to touch the hoodie or step closer to it inadvisable.. "There is trace amounts of chemicals….acidic in nature on the hoodie."

"Well, not much of a body to find, if he was one of the guys who took a header into acid," Katana said. Batman gave her the thousand yard bat stare of doom. The two of them locked eyes into each other. She sighed. "And you wouldn't believe he died unless you saw him dissolve with your own eyes."

"There might be remains somewhere, washed further down," Batman said. "Let's go."

Katana stood up straight. The smell further down the tunnel….well it wasn't normal sewer spell. The runoff of chemicals mixed with the waste in the sewers and the aroma was unsettling.

"Gas mask on," Batman said. He didn't even turn around to look at Katana.

"Yes, of course," Katana said. She already reached for her gas mask the moment he said it.

Anyone who would even consider going down these tunnels without any protection had some severe constitution issues. Or they're insane, Katana would be going with the insane explanation.

The further they made their way down the tunnel, the further the aroma would grow even more intense. Even with the gas mask, the scene they experienced almost choked Katana.

Batman held up his hand, and the two of them slipped further back town a side tunnel. Several dark figures started to pass them. They moved in the other direction, past where the trail involving Todd went. Yet, they were worthy of a closer look.

"The League," Katana said.

No need to really discuss the matter, Batman and Katana slipped into the shadows, and began to trail them down the labyrinth of tunnels. What happened to Willis Todd, whether alive or dead, was far less important than whatever the League was up to.

After last time, Katana knew they were up to something. A lot of the evidence from the explosion of the Ace Chemical plant had been covered up.

Anything else tying the League together, they would take care of everything else. It's just how the League rolled.

* * *

Bette dressed in a nice black dress, and made her way into the dining hall of Kathy's mansion. Her aunt joined her with a spring in her step. A bright smile passed over her face.

"Aunt Kathy, it's been a long time since I've seen in such….." Bette said, struggling to find the right words. "Well, in such a good mood."

"Bette, you look beautiful," Kathy said. A soft smile spread over her face, followed by a far off feeling in her eyes. "It's hard to believe how much you've grown up lately."

"Thanks, Aunt Kathy," Bette said. She looked over her aunt, dressed to the nines. She looked like she lost a bit of weight, and started working out more. Her hair returned to volume.

The lack of bags underneath her eyes from the lack of sleep was the most prominent change of all. It was amazing what a little sleep could do for the looks of a person.

"You look beautiful as well," Bette said.

Kathy laughed and smiled at the compliment. She placed her hand on her niece's shoulder and escorted her into the room.

"Much more than the horror show I looked like a long time ago," Kathy said. She smiled and looked at the mirror. She wore clothes which hid the weight she gained from the stress, but now, Kathy felt like an entirely new woman, reborn and recharged.

"A good night's sleep does do wonders, doesn't it?"

Bette turned around in time to notice an older man show up. The man's silver hair shined in the light, with blue eyes. Something about those eyes seemed a bit warm. He dressed in an elegant white suit, with a black tie which hung down his neck.

"Oh, you must be Doctor….well you must be Kathy's doctor," Bette said. She leaned towards him with a momentary smile on her face.

"Doctor James Somnambular at your service," the man said. He leaned towards her and extended a hand for Bette to shake. The doctor's eyes lingered on her for a moment. Long enough to get a good look at her, short enough to not make Bette uncomfortable. "And you must be the lovely, Bette Kane…your aunt talks about you, proud about the work you done. I understand you're in the top of your class at Gotham Private Academy."

Bette was surprised her aunt would talk about family matters. Kathy tended to be a rather guarded and private person, outside of her close circle of friends. After the moment of surprise, Bette recovered by nodding her head.

"Yes, she….yes, I am," Bette said. She didn't really know what to say, the only thing possible would be to respond with a smile.

"Well, do get a good night's sleep," the doctor said. "It's conductive for a good life, and a productive one."

Kathy smiled, the lesson she learned the hard way. She turned towards her niece looking fairly serious in the process.

"Bette, you shouldn't really take things too seriously," Kathy said. Bette blinked, and opened her mouth in surprise. "You wouldn't want to end up like your tired old aunt, wouldn't you?"

A long pause followed, and Bette's lips curled into a frown. Not end up like her tired old aunt; boy wasn't Kathy's words the opposite of what she said previously? Kathy always encouraged her to push herself as much as she could to be the very best.

 _'There's something really odd going on here,'_ Bette thought. _'Aunt Kathy's changed.'_

Almost as if Kathy Kane heard her niece's thoughts, she placed her hand down on her shoulder.

"I know, it's different from what I told you before," Kathy said. "But, the last thing I want you to do, is end up like me….."

"Now, Kathy, I wouldn't sell yourself short," the doctor said. "I'm pretty sure Bette just wants to aspire to be all she can be."

Bette did, and she looked at Kathy, wondering what she told the doctor. He did seem charming, but she didn't know.

"Why are we standing around here, talking?" Kathy asked. The rhetorical question went pretty much unanswered. "We should go and eat. Dinner isn't going to eat itself."

"It would be great," the doctor said.

Bette frowned. She wanted to know about this supposed miracle doctor and where he was coming from.

"So, if you don't mind me for asking…where are you from?" Bette asked.

"I was born in Eastern Europe, I spent half of my life behind the iron curtain," the doctor said. "I put myself through medical school with odd jobs, my father was a poor man, and my mother died when I was younger. She made me promise her, on her death bed, to become a doctor, and to take steps to better myself."

"And you just became a sleep therapists for rich people with Insomnia," Bette said. The woman sat down at the table.

She thought it was a pretty specialized field to be honest. The woman leaned back against the chair, pouring herself a drink of wine.

"The rich have many burdens," the doctor said. Kathy moved to pour him a glass of wine, but he grabbed her hand. "No thank you, I prefer not to indulge."

"You should loosen up, you take everything so seriously," Kathy said. She smiled as she took the glass of wine to her lips and took a long drink.

"Well, I am in a very serious profession, Kathy," the doctor said. He waited for dinner to be served. "Although, I have to thank you for inviting me for dinner tonight, because it has been a long time since I've had a nice home cooked meal. Mostly takeout."

Bette pulled a face at the thought of takeout in Gotham City. She almost felt for the doctor, even if her suspicious eyes.

"You should go out and see a lot more of the world, James," Kathy said. She stared him. "I can be your cultural guide, and show you around Gotham City."

Bette blinked for a long moment. At the very least, he was old enough to be her father, but Bette sensed an older man who aged rather gracefully. So in accuracy, he might be old enough to be her grandfather.

"Well, you do know much about this fine city," the doctor said. "Yes, water would be fine."

Kathy slipped the water in front of the good doctor. His hand wrapped around the glass and he took it.

"The circus is coming back to Gotham City for the first time in a decade," Kathy said. She looked thoughtful for a few seconds. "It's going to be an amazing cultural event, and all of the upper class people are going to be there….I would be honored to escort you and introduce you to Gotham's finest…..maybe you can help some of them as you had me."

Bette wondered what her aunt was doing. Surely she couldn't have…no he was much too old for her. He looked like the type who aged gracefully, but he would be old enough to be her father, if Bette was being generous.

"Perhaps," the doctor said. His beeper went off. "Excuse me for one moment."

The doctor turned around and walked off. Bette turned towards Kathy.

"So, what do you think?" Kathy asked.

"He seems nice…but he's a bit old," Bette said.

Kathy responded with a smile.

"It's nothing like…both you and Veronica, I swear," Kathy said. She leaned towards Bette and smiled, taking her hand. "Oh, the guest suite is just how you left it."

"Like a rampaging tornado went through it?" Bette asked.

Kathy's lips cracked into a smile. Bette did throw a wild party the last time she was here….well it wasn't really intended to be one, but word spread of it. At least no priceless antiques were broken in the process.

"Okay, fine, I had it cleaned up, so it's not exactly how you left it," Kathy said. "But it's good enough for you to crash the night, if you wanted to do so."

Bette sensed a change in her aunt….she would freak out if Bette left the room in the state she left it in the state month's after the fact. Now she seemed calm and collected, and Bette worried something was rather off.

"My apologies, Kathy, I must be going," the doctor said, as he entered. "An urgent matter as come up at the office, and….well it can't be taken care of itself."

Bette noticed a slightly saddened glance in her aunt's eyes, but she recovered quickly a moment later.

"It's quite alright Doctor Somnambular," Kathy said. "Maybe we can make arrangements to get together on another night…and do think about what I said regarding the circus."

"And remember to use the sleep aides I have you, for I'm sure you've noticed a marked improvement in your sleep schedule," the doctor said.

Kathy smiled, she wouldn't forget for the world, but she appreciated the reminder. She listened to the tapes before night, they caused her mind to become relaxed, without a care in the world. Mobsters could storm the house, but Kathy would be too relaxed to care. It was the kind of enjoyment she had.

The doctor planted a kiss on her hand, before turning around and leaving.

"So, how is school?" Kathy asked.

Bette smiled, talk about your loaded questions.

"Well, exams are coming up," Bette said. "So, I've been studying….I still need to study come to think about it."

"Relax," Kathy said. She leaned towards her niece, the smile spreading further over her face. "Have another drink."

"I'm not sure if I should," Bette said.

"You aren't going to do well on your exams if you work yourself into a frenzy," Kathy said.

* * *

One shadowed figure caused Harry to run into another group of shadowed figures. Ninjas always ran in packs, at least for the most part. All Harry needed to do is pick them off.

Sneaky style, Harry slipped into the shadows. He grabbed one of the ninjas and pulled him into the shadows. An elbow driven to the back of the goon's neck caused him to slump down to his knees.

Harry yanked one of the goons into the shadows, and continued to press forward. The next two were taken out with swift precision.

Only one remained standing, and Harry took him out with a sweeping kick. The assassin slammed into the wall at a rapid fire rate, slumped against the wall.

The young man stepped forward, they were planting something in the sewers. A closer look at it made Harry figure out what he was looking for.

Harry came across some kind of device to help dispense a chemical into the Gotham City sewer system. Harry lifted out the palm of his hand, and scanned it. The young man though there wouldn't be too much problem, but there was one.

 _'Of course,'_ Harry thought. _'Of course, when it rains it pours.'_

This wasn't the only device which they planted down in the sewer. There were multiple devices down here. All of the devices were put on a sequence, if one were disabled, it triggered the next device down the chain, and so on and so forth.

Harry took a nice long look at the problem he had in front of him and only one conclusion reached him.

 _'If I miss one, and don't do it in the right order, catastrophe in the making,'_ Harry thought. _'Nothing like a little bit of pressure to break up the monotony.'_

He used his wrist computer to break up a map of the Gotham City sewer system and tried to find all of the hot spots. There were at least seven of them he picked up right off the bat, and maybe there would be even more.

A different energy signature came on the map in the storm drain. Harry adjusted the calibrations, and realized it wasn't connected to the other devices in the sewer.

A loud explosion brought Harry's attention off of the devices he needed to activate. The water started to rise for him. The pipes burst open, and more water flooded into the sewer. Harry tried to keep his head above the water, putting the shielding on his suit.

The heavy water pressure started to drag Harry down. He shot a grapnel hook to the top of the sewer, in an attempt to yank himself up.

_'Well, this….this isn't….fuck.'_

Harry prepared to put everything into pulling himself above the water. More hard water came down on him, and if he reached a certain point he would be crushed.

A pair of hands swooped down and pulled him out of the water. The figure yanked Harry out, as the water pressure continued to rise in the section of the sewer where he was in.

A few seconds later, Harry found himself sitting on dry land. He still heard the cascading rush of water hit. The devices had been buried, and if they were under water, whoever was behind this could more easily set this off.

Harry took a moment to come to his senses.

"Looks like I showed up just in time."

Harry turned, and looked the person who pulled him out of the fire, or the water, so to speak. Her blonde hair clipped back in a ponytail. She wore a red mask which covered a section of her face, but no mistaking the smile. She dressed in a red top, with a golden insignia much like the Kryptonian goddess, Flamebird. The bottom half of her costume contained a skin tight pair of red pants, along with golden boots to match.

"Yes, you did, Flamebird," Nightwing said.

Kara smiled and she leaned back, allowing Harry to see her in costume for the very first time. She looked rather beautiful in it, but then again, she looked beautiful in everything.

"So, I think Lavender did a good job," Harry said. Kara frowned, and Harry patted her on the shoulder. "I know her handiwork anyway, and I saw a pretty generous donation to the fashion company."

Kara smiled, should have known it would take a lot to slip something past Harry.

 _'I told you he would figure it out,'_ Barbara thought.

 _'Well, you can't blame a girl for hoping, or trying,'_ Kara thought.

"Which I had to practically force into her hand to take," Kara said. "So, Nightwing and Flamebird, this is almost inevitable….but I think I'm ready…."

"You're about as ready as you're ever going to be, I think," Harry said.

Kara grinned. Months of training, and damn did it feel so good to be actually out and doing something.

"Well, there's only so much training you can do, before you really have to put your skills to the test," Kara said. "And I figured you'd need my help tonight."

Harry leaned towards her and kissed her on the lips. Harry's shielding protected him from acquiring the lovely smell of sewage on his person, which Kara appreciated.

"It's appreciated," Harry said. "And I could use help."

"Let's show the League why they can't just threaten Gotham City," Kara said.

It was time for Nightwing and Flamebird to fly. And they had a lot of work to do, especially with the flooding.

* * *

**To Be Continued on January 2** **nd** **, 2016.**


	151. Nightwing and Flamebird Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-One: Nightwing and Flamebird Part Three:**

* * *

The shadowed figures slipped into the darkness. Batman and Katana thought they had lost track of them. The two black clad vigilantes never once let up on the trail. Despite the Red Hood trail growing colder the further they went away from it, they couldn't let up on this one.

The shadowed figures intended to do something extremely unsettling, and the two wanted to figure out precisely what. At first, it appeared evidence they were being lead around the area in circles. At least for the moment, but something else was occurring just now.

Katana clutched the sword in her hand. After last night, the woman was in one of the moods which resulted in her fighting first and asking questions later. One look from Batman warned her to keep her head above the water. There were nights like this where Katana felt annoyance. Sometimes he did treat her like a sidekick, instead of an equal.

Her issues proved to be second to the overall point of tracking down the League. A footprint disappeared on the other side of the wall. Katana took out a knife and raked it against the wall. An obscured switch manifested from behind the wall. She turned to Batman.

"We have our way in," Katana said.

"Stay sharp," Batman said. He stopped for a long moment, and frowned. A sound could be heard from underneath. "Do you hear it?"

Katana craned her neck to listen and understood precisely what Batman was listening for at this moment. She answered with a swift nod.

"Yes, I hear the running water," Katana said. She turned around and looked towards a grate. She noticed water rising from a level beneath. "Someone is flooding the sewers, but why."

Batman didn't answer. He took out a pen-like laser. He cut his way through the door, leading him a way inside without compromising the door. The detective slipped through the shadows.

Two members of the League leaned against the wall. Neither of them said anything, but they did wait for orders. One of them leaned towards the opening, and turned around.

The moment he turned around, Batman punched him out. The assassin dropped to the ground, and the second one moved in to attack. He made a maneuver towards the person who tried to take out his first adversary.

Katana disarmed him with one quick swipe. The assassin dropped to the ground, and Katana wrapped his arm around his back. A loud crack echoed with his arms snapping. Seconds later, she kicked him in the arm. The dark-haired assassin rattled her enemy another attack.

A large fist came out of the shadows and almost took Katana's head off. The fist bounced against the wall and Katana staggered back. The large stampeding form of Ubu caused Katana to be momentarily caught off guard. She dodged Ubu as he rushed forward.

"The traitor!" Ubu yelled. He rushed towards both Batman and Katana with intentions of taking them out in his mind. "You will pay for betraying the cause of the great master."

Ubu used a large wooden club to try and smack Katana around. She blocked it with her sword and knocked it away from him. Katana swiped the weapon at Ubu, but the attack didn't quite pan out as expected.

Ubu moved fast for a big man and grabbed her around the throat. Katana struggled against Ubu's large arm. She squirmed, the wind being knocked out of her as she tried to get out.

From the heavens came Batman. Batman drilled both of his feet down on the back of Ubu's head. The large henchmen of Ra's Al Ghul almost dropped to his knees. His head whipped back when he turned to face his enemy. A snarl appeared over the man's features.

"YOU!" Ubu yelled. Ubu rushed Batman, but Batman dodged the attack, rolling on the ground. He used a trip line to take Ubu down before jumping up. A series of rapid fire snap kicks sent him backwards.

The Detective kept on the attack, never once letting up with his punches. The sound of his enhanced punches nailing Ubu's thick chest echoed through the sewer. Ubu shrugged off all of the punches, and nailed Batman with a punch.

Batman made sure to stay out of the way of the brutality from Ubu. The large man's fist almost smashed against the wall. Batman dodged out of the way and jumped on Ubu's back. The Detective started to nail him with a series of blows.

Like an angry bull, Ubu hurled Batman off of his back. The Detective only just avoided smashing into the wall in time for the servant to drop. Batman slumped against the wall, where three assassins dropped them. They rushed him with their swords extended. They moved forward to skewer him.

Katana jumped up, disabling their swords. The sword wielding woman took out the three assassins who intended to take in Batman. She flipped one of them into the two of them. Two of them clung together and the third side stepped him.

"If you're lucky," she said.

The assassin in question thought he was lucky. The man charged Katana with the intention of stabbing him. She blocked his sword, and broke it. Another sword swipe caused his armor to be ripped off. Katana nailed him in the stomach, and then against the back of the neck. The final assassin dropped from the force of her blows.

Batman rolled underneath Ubu's latest assault. Ubu tried to hammer Batman with a sledgehammer blow. Batman dodged and maneuvered Ubu back a little bit. The large servant charged underneath the archway with his fist extended outward.

' _Right where I need him.'_

At the last second before Ubu could turn around, Batman activated a switch. The bricks blew up in Ubu's face. More bricks flew from the wall, half of a wall toppling on top of Ubu. Batman stepped back, wiping dust off of his costume.

"So, we….." Katana said. Ubu rose to his feet, smashing through the bricks. Katana stared at Ubu for a long second with her mouth ajar. "Seriously?"

Ubu lumbered forward like Frankenstein's monster. Batman calmly extended one hand and used his finger to tap Ubu on the side of the neck. The servant of Ra's Al Ghul dropped to the ground, unconscious, but breathing.

"You could have done that at any time, couldn't you?" Katana asked.

Batman's lips turned into the briefest shadow of a knowing smile before side stepping Katana's question.

"Oracle, what's the situation?" Batman asked.

"Nightwing found the devices the League intended to use….the problem was the League has flooded the tunnel before we have a chance to deactivate them," Oracle said. "And before you ask, I've been trying to access the storm drains….but it's not on the computer system."

Batman figured as much, but it was nice to have clarification from Oracle.

"The sewers were built long ago, we have to access them manually," Batman said.

"Well, Nightwing and Flamebird are trying to find a way," Oracle said. A very distressed shudder passed through her before she pressed on. "If you need anything, let me know."

Katana blinked at Oracle's statement. She turned towards Batman, who was as stoic as usual.

"Flamebird?" Katana asked. "Did I miss a memo somewhere?"

* * *

"Well, your hunch was spot on," Oracle said. She kept in close contact with Nightwing and Flamebird. Kara's first official mission tonight and she wanted to keep close watch for her. "There's League involvement in the Ace Chemical plant….and they've been backing them for a long time. I managed to track one of the really big deposits from a bank account belonging to an alleged alias of Ra's Al Ghul."

Flamebird and Nightwing made their way down from the tunnels, with Oracle listening in on mission support. The duo continued to step further into the tunnels. The goal was to get underneath and hopefully access the drainage system.

"And judging by your non-reaction, it isn't much of a surprise, is it?" Oracle asked.

"No, absolutely not, in fact, I expected about as much," Harry said. He made his way. The door leading to this particular area hadn't been opened for some time. With a calm demeanor in his eye, Harry pressed his hand into the wall. The wall slid open, while allowed him inside.

Flamebird and Nightwing progressed forward. Curiosity got the better of them.

"So, I'm guessing one of his daughters co-opted the account," Oracle said. "Or did they?"

Flamebird sensed a thoughtful vibe to Oracle's tone. She decided to pipe up to get to the bottom of what she thought.

"What do you mean or did they?" Flamebird asked.

"Well, look at it this way," Oracle said. She drew a breath, and launched into what appeared to be a rather long and involved explanation. "When Batman defeated Ra's Al Ghul, the train crashed, didn't it?"

"I was busy dealing with other problems that night, but from what I heard, yes," Harry said.

Nightwing and Flamebird slipped inside to access the manual components of the drainage system. She pointed it out.

"Well, there's no body," Oracle said. She looked like she was on the cusp of something big. The lack of reaction from either of them deflated the wind from her sails. "And you pretty much figured it out before I did, didn't you?"

Nightwing paused for a long moment. He found the switch to activate the drainage system. He hoped the sewers weren't too flooded. Otherwise they were going to have a really serious problem.

"Well, in a sense, yes," Harry said. "It's the number one rule in this job. You don't find a body, you're always going to think…but judging by the way the League is acting, they didn't find any body either."

"So are you thinking someone else might have found the body?" Oracle asked. One could almost hear the gears of justice grinding to life in Oracle's head as she put this matter to thought. "Someone who we wouldn't have wanted to find the body….I don't know it could be…you said there were League splinter factions. This entire Monkey clan business seems a little shifty, but…..I don't know, I'm just guessing, don't mind me."

"Better guess than not know anything." Nightwing said.

"Yeah, we don't really know much of anything, at least not yet," Flamebird said. "But, I think you could be on the right track."

This line of theory had been broken up by Harry firing off an agonizing groan.

"Problem?" Oracle asked.

"Well, the valves aren't opening," Nightwing said. He turned to Flamebird. "See if you can open them the old fashion way."

"You mean even more old fashion than you're trying?" Flamebird asked. She frowned and heard a groaning. The valves grinded as she tried to exert her strength to get them open, without making their situation worse. "Something is blocking them….I think I can get on through."

"Well, if you can, do it, I'll make sure no one comes on through," Nightwing said.

He leaned against the wall, waiting for someone to come on through. To be honest, Nightwing expected a fair amount of trouble. The lack of assassins unsettled him and put him on more of an edge than he had been previously.

"Good, thank you," Flamebird said.

She appreciated all of the help. Utilizing both her X-Ray vision, along with the scanner of her mask, she managed to see the buildup. It was going to need a small little jolt, nothing too strong which it would set off any of the explosion devices or even flood the tunnel even worse than it already was.

' _No pressure or anything.'_

The jolt rocked the drainage system and the flood in the tunnel with the device began to drain out of the one chamber.

 _'Leads right into the harbor, I think,'_ Amanda thought. She pulled a face. _'It's a pretty good thing we're not drinking directly out of the harbor.'_

'Yeah, no kidding,'

Flamebird said. She pulled herself way, thankful the entire tunnel didn't collapse.

 _'Excellent, Kara, you did it,'_ Nightwing said. The two of them locked eyes. _'Well, we still got some work to do….we still have to get around and disable the devices, I'm downloading the specifications. We've pinpointed the order of what explosives need to be taken out….but this is a two person job by the looks of things.'_

'The League intends to split up anyone who tries to stop them,'

Flamebird said. _'I'll take the explosives on the East side, and you can take the others on the west side…..we'll keep in contract when we take them down.'_

'Right, we have to be in sync,'

Nightwing thought. _'And we always are, so if you think you can….'_

The two of them ascended the stairs to their next location. The water level went down. Kara made her way to the first of the explosives.

 _'Would help if they put these in order, but maybe not,'_ Flamebird thought. _'Because, it would have made our lives so much easier if they did it.'_

'First rule of this entire mission, the villains will never make your life too easy,'

Black Canary thought. She continued to watch over Barbara in the physical world, but did so with Kara in the mental world. _'Just remember everything you've learned, and you should do well.'_

Kara smiled and made her way to the first device. She found it to be a simple enough procedure to disable it, but the real challenged had been demonstrated by the fact they needed to strike them in the right sequence.

 _'Okay, you're up, Harry, I got the first one,'_ Kara thought. She looked down the tunnel, bracing for combat. Hoping she wouldn't have to, but something about this entire mess made Kara's tension increase tenfold.

No pressure or anything indeed.

* * *

Nightshade paced around in a circle, wearing out the ground. Thankfully no one lingered near enough to give her a proper outlet for her wrath. The woman looked around the tunnel. Ubu should have returned by now to ensure the device was properly armed.

The fact he failed to return caused Nightshade's tension hit a new level.

 _'He better not have gotten himself in trouble,'_ Nightshade thought. The woman gritted her teeth and clenched her fist so hard nails dug into the side of her hand.

The guard down the tunnel didn't report back either. After what happened previously, Nightshade didn't have any room for error.

 _'Just on schedule, but barely,'_ Nightshade thought. _'We have to clear the tunnel and test it.'_

The next tunnel brought her right underneath Amusement Mile. If the plague made its way into Cobblepot's territory, several undesirable elements would be removed from Gotham City. Wiping out the Penguin was not part of her plans, but it was an excellent

Of course, it was only a bonus, and none of it could happen, unless everything was in order. The bomb going off signaled the flooding of the tunnel, which prepared phase three. However, another problem presented itself in the most amazing way possible.

Someone managed to access the drainage system and started to drain the tunnel. It left her at an inconvenience. Not quite a deal breaker, but she was inconvenienced all of the same.

' _And here comes more trouble.'_

A couple of figures made their way into the tunnel. Nightshade pulled open the rickety old entrance to the side, and made her way to a stairwell.

Seconds later, Batman and Katana entered the area. Little did they know they came within perilous inches from running into the Daughter of the Demon. Little did they know, but it was much too soon for them to do so. Talia wouldn't allow such a thing to occur.

' _This explains much.'_

Ubu didn't report, and Nightshade knew why. Those two had gotten to them first. She didn't think Ubu was killed, but….she wasn't about to hunt for his body. Time ended up running shorter than she thought.

Nightshade made her way up the stairs, to another section of the sewers. A battle involving Katana and Batman would have been a waste of time and an even bigger waste of energy tonight. She didn't intend to fight them, not on this night at least.

She pulled out the portable computer, and coordinated the devices….all but two were inactive. Her expression darkened. The plan could still be pulled off, but it would be much more difficult for her to do so.

Only one person had the ability to pull this off. Talia commended him for his persistence even if it caused a few problems on this evening.

 _'I'm going to just have to make the best of this situation,'_ she thought. The woman continued to make her way up the steps.

Had Batman and Katana turned around and gone up the steps a moment ago, they would have run into her. Given the fact she slipped up the steps and disappeared, she was completely and utterly gone, without a trace.

Neither had the slightest inclination about how close they came from missing a fight against the Daughter of the Demon.

* * *

The relief or a job well done almost hit Harry. He didn't want to pump his fist up in glee, because it would be the best way to taunt Murphy. Still they were close and he could almost feel it.

 _'Okay, Kara, it's the last one,'_ Harry thought. _'We're really going to pull this off, and this one is on a ten minute timer.'_

 _'More than enough time,'_ Kara thought.

 _'Don't get cocky, kid,'_ Barbara said. She just had a sickening feeling something really inconvenient was going to happen. _'The last one is always the hardest to disarm.'_

Kara kept Barbara's warning in mind. She made her way down the tunnel, with the timer running out. The bomb was in her line of sight, when suddenly, a shuriken flung out in front of her face. Kara leaned back, to dodge the attack.

' _Oh for the love of Rao!'_

' _I hate to say I told you so.'_

"And I bet you thought you wouldn't get caught dismantling the bomb."

Silver Monkey and his monkey clan ninjas turned up and closed in on her. Kara prepared to put her skills to the test. One of the ninjas jumped into the air, and fired a kick at her face. Kara caught the leg, and threw him down onto the ground where he landed with a crash.

Another one of the ninjas charged her. Kara avoided the attack from the ninja. A rapid fire string of punches fired at her in a certain pattern.

She recognized the movements when they came at her, at two and three at a time. Kara dipped back behind the ninja, disarmed him of his weapon, and slipped into the shadows behind them to find the best vantage point to take them out.

 _'I really don't have time for this,'_ Kara thought.

She swiped the sword across the chest of one of the ninjas, opening up a wound on his chest. Kara sprung up into the air, and wrapped her ankles around his head. She flipped him down to the ground and cause him to snap off of the concrete with a solid thump.

One of the larger ninjas tried to nail her with a punch. Kara blocked his hand, with her super strength, and hurled him into the wall, causing him to crash down to the ground.

The ninjas hurled a pair of chains in an attempt to catch their enemy. Kara caught the chains in her hands and lifted the ninjas off of the ground. The assassins took orbit, and smacked into the ceiling with a resounding crack!

' _Oh, I heard that one all the way at the Clocktower,'_ Barbara thought.

The sounds of blood and bones proved to be music to Kara's ears, at least the moment. The young woman slipped past them. She rushed forward at the pace of a speeding bullet.

Kara removed a throwing dagger from her sleeve, and hurled it one of the ninjas. Or to be more accurate, the landing he stood on. Still had the same idea. The landing distingrated underneath the ninja and sent him on a one way trip hurling down to Earth.

' _And it was a good shot,'_ Dinah thought.

' _All in the wrist,'_ Kara thought.

Kara decided it would be a bit premature to pat herself on the back too much. The heroine noticed the device on the ground. Two ninjas threw themselves in front of the device. Kara rushed forward and fired an uppercut punch, doubling the ninja assassin over.

The second ninja tried to nail her with a palm strike. Kara evaded the attack and caused the ninja to be knocked off balance. The heroine jabbed her fingers into the base of his spine. Not with enough force to paralyze him fully, but the feeling left his legs.

The ninjas looked to be down, at least for a moment. Kara wished she knew how much time she would have left.

' _Have to be cutting it pretty close by now.'_

A figure rushed in front of her and nailed her before she made her way to the device. A pair of knuckles nailed Kara in the face and rocked her back. The heroine slammed against the wall with an immense force. All of the wind knocked from her body. The bricks she hit caused the wind to be knocked out of her. Kara looked up, dazed.

One of the most feared women on the planet approached Kara. The one and only Lady Shiva peered down at her. Flamebird tried not to stare back with any fear, but even she could respect the dangerous woman across from her.

' _Kara, get out of there,'_ Dinah warned her.

"You though you could get to the device, didn't you, little girl?" Lady Shiva asked.

"It was the idea," Kara said. She stood her ground and in fact took a step closer towards Lady Shiva. The woman's lips curled into a slight smile. "But, I guess the idea was wrong."

Lady Shiva didn't say a single word. She rushed towards Flamebird, and tried to take her out. She dodged the attack.

Shiva came back at Flamebird with a series of rapid fire attacks. Flamebird tried to return back with fire. Her super speed almost came close to matching Shiva. The skilled martial artist backed off and retaliated by dropping a silver orb down on the ground. Gas released in the sewer, obscuring Kara's vision.

Kara readjusted her gaze at Shiva. Shiva came back around and jumped high into the air. She brought both fists down onto the side of Kara's neck, causing her knees to buckle underneath her.

Kara dropped down to the ground. Shiva tried to nail Kara, but Kara blocked her hand. The heroine turned Shiva around.

A punch managed to catch Shiva in the darkness. Kara held back her power, but it did a good job of splitting Shiva's lip.

The deadly assassin stopped, smiled. Her tongue trailed over her bloody lip. The action almost weirded Kara out.

 _'Don't let her get inside your head,'_ Dinah said.

Kara didn't let her get inside her head. She had more than enough people inside her head thank you very much. The woman rushed towards Lady Shiva. Shiva dodged the attack, and moved behind Kara. A kick almost nailed Kara, but she dodged the attack.

Shiva fired another rapid fire string of kicks, but Kara kept up the pace and avoided pretty much everything in all ways. Flamebird rose up the ranks of Shiva's respect and also in the ranks of her annoyance.

"I'll give you plenty of credit, little one," Shiva said. "You have lasted a lot longer than most have in your situation, but even you….."

A flash caused Kara's cheek to burn. She raised her hand up, and touched her cheek. Blood dripped down her cheek from Shiva's attack. Shiva must have some kind of enchanted blade which could cut through anything, including Kryptonian flesh.

"Will have your breaking point," Shiva continued with the blade still on her hand. Another swipe had been dodged, and Kara stepped back. Shiva's bloodied smile showed the horror the woman could be capable of at her worst. "I'm not called the deadliest woman in the world without proof."

"You're good," Kara said. She would be foolish to deny it. "But, you're going to be down here when the bio-weapon goes off, and the only way you're going to leave, is if you walk over my dead body."

Shiva's bloodied mouth curled to a smile when she stared down the young girl. Kara's heart started to beat when the dangerous woman eyed her.

"Do you want to put it to the test, little one?" Shiva asked. She had taken antidote, but she couldn't resist toying with this one.

A pair of brass knuckles slipped onto her hand. Kara smiled, and motioned for her to come to her. Kara picked up the blade one of the ninjas dropped. The budding heroine clutched it in her hand and squared off against the deadliest woman in the entire world.

"If you think you can match steel and skills against me, you….."

Kara jumped into the air, in an attempt to strike her when she was in the middle of giving her badass boast. Shiva's hand whipped out, and dodged it.

The woman's eyes flashed over, and she charged at Kara, knocking her back. The Girl of Steel almost was pinned against the wall, but Kara pushed out from underneath Lady Shiva. Kara used Shiva's momentum to hurl her against the wall.

Shiva grabbed her around the throat, and rolled her over. The heroine known as Flamebird struggled against Shiva's grasp. She tried to get from underneath her and flip the dangerous woman over onto the ground. Flamebird getting the leverage made her think she had a chance to take her down.

' _Here goes…nothing!'_

The woman flipped over and landed on her feet, sticking an intense landing. Lady Shiva turned around, a smile crossing her face.

Kara realized the woman welcomed the fight. Well, if she wanted to fight, then Kara would bring her the fight.

Flamebird swung the sword, and rejoined the fight, Shiva moved with a deadly grace and precision, and made the heroine realize it wasn't going to be easy. Her competitive fire increased.

' _Bring it, bitch.'_

* * *

Nightwing didn't hear from Flamebird and the time started to tick down. He didn't sweat too much, but he also wasn't going to unplay the danger of what was going on here.

 _'I hate to be the one to bring this up, but she ran into a little trouble,'_ Oracle thought.

Nightwing's breathing hit a level where it looked like he could lose his mind. Somehow, he kept himself from losing his mind, as hard as it was to do.

 _'Define a little trouble,'_ Nightwing thought. He spoke in the calmest tone he could potentially manage, but anyone who was able to listen more closely could see without little trouble how miffed he was.

_'Lady Shiva.'_

Nightwing didn't even bother to say anything in response. He bolted down the tunnel in Kara's direction. If Shiva was down here…..well it could mean trouble.

Naturally, Harry could not make the full path without running into trouble.

"You're trying to protect your girlfriend, aren't you?" Silver Monkey asked. Nightwing made a violent motion with his hand as if telling Monkey to move it or else. "Forget it, you're not going anywhere."

Several ninjas closed circle around Harry. Harry stood as calm as could be, like the mighty boulder which would not be chipped about by the raging wind. He raised a silver device in his hand.

"Wrong move," Harry said.

The perfected sonic device split the heads of several of the ninjas who just happened to be close enough to be in the range. Harry blasted forward and nailed one of them in the chest. The resounding sound of a foot to the chest knocked one of the ninjas back and caused him to crumple like a piece of paper.

Silver Monkey staggered back, and withdrew a sword. Nightwing flung a throwing dagger at his arm and send the sword flying from his hand. The Monkey stepped back and looked up to see Nightwing already moving in for a follow up attack.

"You attacked me earlier tonight, let me return the favor."

Nightwing flipped Silver Monkey into the air. He tried to scramble around like his namesake, but Nightwing nailed him with a series of rapid fire punches. He grabbed the man's arm and slammed him onto the ground. The Monkey was down on the ground, but not out.

Silver Monkey withdrew a pair of brass knuckles and tried to nail Harry with them at full force. Harry dodged the attack, and grabbed him around his arm. The assassin twisted the arm. A crack followed with Silver Monkey's knees buckling underneath him when he dropped down onto the ground.

"You don't know what you're dealing with….ugh!"

Nightwing silenced the Silver Monkey with a well placed punch to the throat. If he hit him any harder, he would have killed him. He settled for preventing him for talking from a long time. Silver Monkey grasped, only just able to breath because of the crushed wind pipe. Another punch knocked more wind out of him, and caused him to hit the ground.

"Don't ever get in my way again."

Nightwing punctuated the statement with a huge kick to the face. The gunshot liked attack caused him to be knocked out. Harry healed the damage cause to the assassin's throat, made sure he was bound, and prepared to head off.

 _'Well, Harry, looks like you thoroughly spanked the monkey,'_ Barbara thought. Her statement received some well-earned groans all throughout the bond link. She looked almost apologetic. _'Sorry, but I couldn't resist.'_

'Try harder to next time, for all of our sakes,'

Amanda thought.

 _'Oh, come on, it wasn't like you weren't thinking it as well,'_ Barbara thought.

One could almost see the smile. Harry didn't allow the bond banter to distract him. One of the ninjas tried to get to his feet, but Harry stepped on his head, forcing his face into the sewage.

The sounds of combated showed how close he drew. He checked the timer. Ten minutes passed since Kara had gone off to disable the final bomb. Which they should have figured was the well-guarded.

Further down the tunnel Harry went. He walked into the danger zone.

' _Ready or not here I come.'_

* * *

Flamebird slammed against the wall. The wind knocked out of her body, with the cut on her cheek just barely healing. Time grinded by, and she didn't know how much of it had passed. Shouldn't it have been more than fifteen minutes by now? The ringing in her head made it hard to think or calculate the proper amount of time which had passed.

Regardless, Flamebird did her very best to fight through. Shiva slowly took her apart, and now a few aches manifested in her body which weren't there previously. Flamebird found herself running even more, than she was fighting.

"You grow tired," Shiva said. Flamebird struggled to her feet and Lady Shiva only stepped back to give her enough room where another attack would be sweeter. "You try and prove you can handle yourself….but it doesn't matter."

Flamebird was tempted to remove the watch, but stubbornness became an enemy she couldn't slay. If she removed the watch, and had full use of her powers, there would be a pretty good chance she could end up curb stomping Shiva.

Then again, perhaps she shouldn't make these assumptions. There was a saying about people who made assumptions after all. And there was no guarantee she could beat her with the powers anyway. Shiva was pretty good.

 _'Your powers are as only good as the person using them,'_ Dinah thought. _'She's going to try and get in your head, don't let her.'_

Was the advice deja-vu from earlier? Kara couldn't tell. Regardless, she kept her head up above the wall, breathing heavily. She summoned all of the inner strength. Only to find herself kicked against the wall with a vicious attack. Kara bounced into the wall again, with repeated rapid fire blows to the chest.

The sword she armed herself with had been sliced. Lady Shiva looked down at her. The two of them stared each other down.

"You've lasted longer than anyone else has, but….."

An explosive dagger hit the ground and caused the ground underneath Lady Shiva to rock for a moment. Flamebird, seizing the moment, yanked the sword away from her.

Lady Shiva recovered, but despite not having a weapon at hand, she always had a backup plan. She picked up one of the monkey clan ninjas, removed the sword from his cold hand. She turned around and prepared herself for a new enemy.

"Come out, Nightwing," Lady Shiva said. "It's been a long time, and….I wondered when I would face off against you."

"You're keeping us distracted," Nightwing said.

Shiva didn't answer, but rather she rushed towards Nightwing, and attacked him. He dodged her. She responded by returning fire with a vicious swipe with the sword. Nightwing arched back to avoid the attack.

A huge rolling kick caused Shiva to land into the wall.

"Flamebird, two minutes!" Nightwing yelled. The hand to hand between Shiva and Nightwing continued.

Kara recovered from her own injures. She lifted a finger to her cheek and touched it. Two minutes, really not a problem, wasn't it? It seemed like she had been down here for a lot longer.

' _Okay, I can do this, completely.'_

A spiked ball rolled onto the ground towards Kara's feet. Only half of a second passed before it exploded. Kara dodged the pieces of jagged metal. Given the nature of her injuries form the sword, Kara didn't want to take any chances. Kara reached for the back of the panel, only to be grabbed around her cape, and Shiva yanked her back.

Nightwing jumped up and sliced Flamebird's cape, causing her to be disarmed from Lady Shiva. The dragon caused a smoke bomb to be detonated, causing the field of vision to be eliminated.

Shiva almost slipped down the tunnel, only to find out Nightwing was behind her. Nightwing caught her with a series of rapid fire punches. She blocked some of them, while others slipped through her defenses.

A flashbang grenade caused Shiva to move elsewhere in the tunnels, only to run into a sliding kick from Flamebird. Shiva stepped back, impressed, but grabbed Flamebird around the neck, and slapped a collar around her neck.

An explosive device on the collar caused Flamebird to drop her battle with Lady Shiva, and work on getting the collar off of her. She ricocheted her heat vision off of the pipes, and burned the collar off of her neck. Catching the explosive collar in her hand, Flamebird lobbed it at Shiva, who dodged the attack.

The wall exploded, sending Shiva for a loop. Nightwing grabbed her, and restrained her, hooking her to the pipe against the wall. Nightwing made sure she didn't have anything to rip the chains apart.

Shiva looked up with a bloodied smirk at both of them. Nightwing took a step back, not liking the look on her face. The woman didn't laugh, but it would have been less unsettling if she did so. The look on her face caused both Flamebird and Nightwing to think things have gotten unsettling enough.

"What?" Flamebird asked.

"Congratulations, you passed one test, but you failed another," Shiva said.

"Seems like we defeated you," Flamebird said. She blinked when she realized it. In the high of winning this battle, she forgot one big problem. "Oh shit!"

It hit her; a bit too late for it to do any good, time had passed out. The last bomb hadn't been disarmed and they were running out of time. Flamebird dared not ask how much time had passed.

"Fifteen seconds," Nightwing said.

* * *

**To Be Continued on January 9** **th** **, 2016.**


	152. Nightwing and Flamebird Part Four

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Two: Nightwing and Flamebird Part Four.**

* * *

Time slowed down around them. Kara wondered how literal it was. Never the less, everything crawling to a stop caused her to grow extremely anxious. The device in front of them began to arm. For a brief second, she froze, but Harry grabbed her hand. The grip around her hand brought Kara back to life. Her body shivered, and she turned back around to look at Harry.

"What do we need to do?" Kara asked. She allowed a long sigh to pass over her body. "Can we disable it, can we stop it? Or is it too late?"

"Never too late," Harry said. He realized there was about a two minute delay between the trigger mechanism and the chemical dispersed. "The good news is, they're all disconnected, so there won't be a massive chain reaction."

"There's bad news isn't there," Kara said. The heroine started to stand up. Harry waved his hand and started to seal the entrances of the tunnel. "Are you okay?"

"Took a little bit more out of me than I thought," Harry said. He took a deep breath. "I'll be fine…we have the tunnels sealed, and to answer your question, there's bad news. The chemical will still spread…..if we don't trap the emissions."

"We can trap it?" Kara asked. Hope sprung from her voice.

Hope sprung eternal in her mind. Dare she….no she dare not be anything, but positive? Kara held her hands up to the edge of her face. Her fingernails brushed against her head. Did she worry? Worry was something she couldn't experience right now. Especially when there was so much on the line.

"If I didn't have my handicap, we could have been able to trap it more easily, between the two of us," Harry said. He stared ahead, and pried open the device. "But, we can still do it….but it's risky."

"I….let me know what I need to do," Kara said. Her voice shook, but the young heroine calmed down.

Harry gripped her hands and touched them on the edge of the device. It started to rumble, and Kara sensed they didn't have much time.

"Just tell me what I need to do, and….get as far away from here as you can," Kara said. She sensed there was something Harry didn't tell her. "Because, we're going to have to detonate the bomb, and trap it…and there's a chance either of us can inhale the gas if we're close enough."

"Yes," Harry said. He didn't want to sugarcoat it from her, the very real risks involved. "But, no matter what, I'm not leaving you. You wouldn't leave me if the situations had been reversed."

Kara cringed for the briefest of moments. The bomb continued to rattle underneath her hands, but Harry held her steadily.

"I need to give you a little boost, just a quick spark," Harry said. He smiled a moment. "I don't think the chemical is meant for us, and I'm sure the League has been given antidotes."

"How can you be sure?"

Harry smiled at her question. He couldn't be sure, and it was a huge problem where he wasn't sure. His hand touched the top of hers.

"Remove the central wire," Harry said. "It should trigger a quick release."

Kara did as she was told. The device started to spread no sooner did she complete her actions.

"Stand back!" Harry yelled.

Kara did stand back as well. She could see the cloud rise in the sewers. The woman steadied her hands, and caused an energy bubble to appear around them.

Shiva watched them closely. No matter how futile their efforts were, she almost was intrigued to see how close they would get to escaping. They did work together as a team, as her positioning was on point.

 _'They should have not left their sight off of me,'_ Shiva thought. She turned her weight, and slid a concealed blade from her sleeve.

The assassin started to cut her way free from the restraints, watching them as she did so. The chains which bound her were tough and it was difficult for her to escape them, she'd give them as much.

"Okay, I've got it all in a bubble, now what," Flamebird said. She strained to hold it. "I'm not sure how much longer I can keep this up."

"Only a few minutes," Nightwing said. He swiped the chemical compound with his wrist computer. "Just seeing if I can fully scan the component."

Flamebird wondered about something. She figured it out straight away. A test run, of course it would have to be.

 _'Remember the reason why I'm down here,'_ Kara thought. Sweat spilled from her face, but the young woman held her head up. _'You're up here to help Harry, and assist him in any way possible. Don't forget your goal, young lady.'_

Despite her reminding herself of the goal, what Harry asked of her was borderline difficult to do. Kara bit down on her lip. The hero started to increase her resolve and channel all of the energy, even though the chemical tried to break free from the bubble.

"Are you ready for the next step?" Nightwing asked.

"Yes," Kara said. She almost collapsed from the energy.

"You know, you really don't need this in an emergency, "Harry said. He modified a setting of the wristwatch and caused the stored yellow solar energy inside to flow back into Kara.

Kara could have slapped herself. Her life became so much easier to hold the cloud of chemical gas when Harry released the chain she self-imposed on herself.

 _'You're remarkable for fighting with only a small fraction of your powers, especially against Lady Shiva,'_ Harry thought. He turned around, and looked at a still Shiva. He could have sworn she would have attempted to break free by now, but he guessed wrong.

 _'But, sometimes, they are needed,'_ Faora thought. _'The fact you can handle yourself without them is a testament. But if you need to let go, then let go.'_

Kara tried not to smile, but the shadow of a smile spread over face. Harry touched her hand, and the warmth from him charged the Kryptonian more than any sunshine. She could feel empowered and stronger than ever before.

"So, are you ready?" Harry asked. His hand touched hers, sending a spark of energy through it which further empowered the young woman's body.

"Yes, I am," Kara said.

* * *

Batman remembered through his training to never keep his eyes in the same spot for too long, because all other spots became your blind spot. Another part of his training he remembered was never move too often, do not waste movement.

"I have an update…they didn't make it to the final device in time," Oracle said. The hacker tried to keep the distress out of her voice. "They ran into a problem."

Most people would have been shaken by this news, but Batman refused to blink.

"Where are they?" Batman asked.

"You wouldn't be able to get down there if you wanted to," Oracle said. A long moment passed. "He's giving the glare, even though I can't see, it isn't he?"

"I'll be honest, it's hard to recognize his face when he doesn't give the glare," Katana said. She intertwined her fingers together with each other. "But, yes, Batman is glaring. Maybe you should….maybe you should tell us what you mean about us not being able to get in the tunnel."

Batman held up a hand and paused. He sensed someone stalking him from afar, but exactly who was hard to find out at the moment. Whoever it was, they kept out of sight.

"So, are you done scouting?" Katana asked. Batman's lack of stopping her made Katana assume something was going on. "Very well, continue."

"Yes, Nightwing needed to block the tunnels to stop the spread," Oracle said. She bit her lip. "But, Flamebird and Nightwing are both down there, and if something happens….just worry about finding Nightshade, she's down there somewhere."

"Good, hopefully we do," Katana said.

"She may have already left," Batman said. He kept on his guard all of the same and turned around.

He grabbed a shell shocked sewer worker around the neck. The sewer worker almost screamed, but Batman clapped a hand over his mouth. The Detective stared down the sewer worker with his usual charming demeanor.

"Get far away, you shouldn't be down here," Batman said. "And don't breath one word we were down here, we know where you live."

The sewer worker nodded fretfully and moved away. Katana watched him leave, but before she could comment on it, something else could be heard. She withdrew her sword and tried to pull open a large steel door.

"Locked," Katana said. She raised the sword and tried to break the lock, but the lock wouldn't give.

"Stand back," Batman said. He waited for Katana to give him enough room. He pulled out explosive gel from his belt and painted a bat symbol on the door. Batman motioned for Katana to move back to another part of the tunnel.

Batman pressed a detonator, and an explosion resounded. The metal door flung open, and Batman rushed forward. A figure stared down at him from the top of the steps from in the shadows. The woman almost beckoned Batman forward.

"It's her," Batman said. He stopped short of going up the steps and for good reason.

He noticed an explosive charge planted underneath the steps. The charge from the explosion caused the steps to blow up. Pieces of concrete and wood flew at Batman. At the last minute, Batman flung himself out of the way.

"Another time."

Katana rushed over, but there was no need for Batman to do anything. He already stood up, a prideful expression spread over his face. The Detective prepared to give chase after her, but realized there was no safe way up to engage her.

"She got the drop on us again," Katana said. "Why don't we double back around?"

Batman turned his back once again and walked off. He hoped to find an alternative way around and get some answers.

Nightshade exited the sewer and made her way back into the area above in Gotham City. It was a surprise how close he came to catching up to her, but one always needed a backup plan. The dark haired woman turned around, and ran into a figure in the shadows. Nightshade stepped back and removed a sword from her sheath, arming it when she intended to fight her enemy.

"You need to watch your back properly," Nyssa said. "You almost were caught."

Talia knew her sister cared, but her lecture didn't make Talia any less annoyed.

"Almost doesn't quite equal caught," Talia said, the moment she looked at her sister. "Where is….where is the Dragon?"

"Dealing with whatever present you left for him," Nyssa said. Talia almost opened your mouth. "Tell me only what is necessary, not more."

Talia inclined her head down. Her sister assisted her, but there was some information she couldn't tell Nyssa based on plausible deniability. Regardless, she relaxed for the briefest moment.

"The Silver Monkey ran into trouble, I just found him secured in a nearby tunnel," Nyssa said. Talia raised her eyebrow. "What do you want done with him?"

"Leave him, he's not my responsibility," Talia said. She flipped her hair back. "Let's go….hopefully Shiva will join us."

The number of League members they lost tonight were minor, but annoying. Never the less, tonight was very illuminating about the capabilities of the labyrinth of underground tunnels beneath the streets of Gotham. Talia made sure no one followed her. It was almost impossible for the Detective and the traitor to give chase, but she wouldn't take any chances.

"Shiva will join us when she's finished testing him," Talia said. "She waited for him at the last device…..and naturally, all of them had been disarmed….which I expected."

"You intended to fail?" Nyssa asked.

Talia hated to cut her sister off, but given the circumstances, the two of them needed to keep their words to a bare minimum. Especially with the number of prying ears, but she did have one thing to say to Nyssa.

"I'll talk about my intentions later, once we're far away from prying ears," Talia said. "But everything is part of a plan and….."

"I've uncovered information, but I don't think either of us will be happy about what I've found out," Nyssa said. Talia opened her mouth. "Away from prying ears."

Talia could tell by her sister's demeanor this was extremely big and sensitive information as well.

"Agreed," Talia said.

The two sisters departed, vowing to continue their conversation at a much later time. After what happened, the two of them needed to regroup.

* * *

Could Kara breath? She wasn't sure if she was able to breath or would be allowed to breathe at this point in time? Regardless, Harry walked her through the final step, making sure to get a scan of all of the chemical component.

"And we're done?" Kara asked. She didn't mean to rush Harry through, but the relief would pass through her body was hard to deny or even ignore at this point. Harry smiled and placed her hand on the top of her hand. She smiled and backed off. Did she dare do a little bit of a dance? Not without looking like a fool she could. "Oh, finally!"

"Yes, finally," Harry said. "Do you feel fine?"

"A little light headed, but I could be worse," Kara said. She turned to Harry, looking at him for a long moment. "I suppose if all of the chemical compounds were released at the same time, we would have a really big problem."

Harry knew Kara was right. Regardless, a full scan in the lab would tell him what the League was doing, or at least put him on the right track. Nightwing and Flamebird turned to exit the tunnels, but stopped.

"Of course she did," Nightwing said. He threw his hands into the air. "Of course she did."

Lady Shiva slipped into the night, resourceful as always. Harry and Kara preoccupied themselves with the bomb so much they didn't really pay any attention to Shiva, which ended up being a bit of a mistake.

' _At least she didn't attack you,'_ Dinah thought.

Harry smiled. He figured Shiva wouldn't. Despite all of her faults and all of her flaws, she could be extremely honorable when she wanted to be.

"But, we do have someone who can tell us what's going on," Harry said. He stepped into the shadows.

 _'Providing he didn't get away too,'_ Dinah thought. The young woman watched from the bond anxiously, as the rest of them did.

 _'Something tells me he really didn't,'_ Diana thought. All they would have to do is wait and see at this point.

Regardless, Nightwing stepped into the tunnel and hovered over the Silver Monkey. The Monkey turned over, allowing a groan to escape from his body. Harry leaned down and hoisted him up.

Silver Monkey slammed against the wall, the wind knocking out of him. Harry burning gaze pierced him. The ninja woke up, breathing heavily, with Harry's hand wrapped around his throat.

"What was the League planning down here tonight?" Harry asked. Silver Monkey struggled against his grip, and looked at him.

"You better tell us right now, if you know what's good for you," Kara said. She picked up a large piece of metal and contorted it with her hand. Silver Monkey only barely flinched, for the briefest of seconds.

"You know, what makes you think I'll tell you anything, even if you break my body?" Silver Monkey said. "I've been trained underneath the hottest conditions."

"How hot are you talking about?" Kara asked. She created a burning outline around his body with heat vision.

Silver Monkey closed his eyes. She put out the fire after making him sweat it out for a couple of minutes.

"Next time, the heat just doesn't go around your body," Harry said. He turned up the heat on his own. "You better talk, if you know what's good for you."

"How much talk do you want?" Silver Monkey asked. He tried to break free from Harry's grip, but he struggled against the wall. "If I told you once, I told you a million times, I don't….I won't…."

Nightwing and Flamebird reached the most obvious conclusion in the world at his stammering. They should have seen it coming a mile away.

"He doesn't know anything, does he?" Kara asked. "He is just trying to be a big man, but he's nothing but a coward, and a blowhard….we should just break him and be done with it….I'm not even sure if Shiva thinks he's useful if she left him down here."

"She…she knows my role and my purpose," Silver Monkey said. He tried to struggle against Kara's grip, but she tightened her grip around his throat, putting the squeeze on him.

"Does she know?" Kara asked. "Would you like to gamble your life on it? Would you like to tell us….unless you're afraid of Lady Shiva?"

Silver Monkey cringed for a brief moment. How dare she call him scared? He might have respected Lady Shiva and been the slightest bit intimidated by her, but it didn't mean he was petrified of her. The Silver Monkey feared no man and more certainly no woman.

"Yes, he's nothing but a pawn she's manipulated, isn't he?" Harry asked. "You're weak, you don't have anything. You might as well be put down now, because you don't have what it takes."

The Silver Monkey cringed with Harry retracting a blade from his sleeve. The blade pressed up against his chest. If he moved; it would have cut through him.

"You want to know something," Silver Monkey said. His voice dropped in a low gravely whisper, so only Nightwing and Flamebird could hear him. "Lady Shiva is becoming soft, the whispers are already starting."

"But obviously not too soft because you don't speak above whispers," Flamebird said. Her eyes heated up and looked at him.

"Her insistence of testing the Dragon is clouding her judgment and her mind," Silver Monkey said. He held a breath deep within his body. "Shiva wants to test you, she's obsessed with….rectifying certain matters."

Silver Monkey slammed his head against the wall with the fullest and most blunt force possible. The moment he struck the back of his head against the wall, he passed out from the impact. Nightwing allowed him to fall to the ground.

"So much for him telling us anything," Flamebird said. Nightwing raised an eyebrow.

"I don't know, he did tell us something useful, perhaps the only useful scrap of information he knows," Nightwing said. "One for the GCPD tonight, we're going to have to call Sarah, and have her pick him up."

"Do you think he can be held?"

Harry frowned; she asked a pretty good question. He hoped he could be held, but someone of the capabilities of the Silver Monkey, he would escape.

"We'll see how important he is, providing he didn't end up giving himself brain damage," Harry said. Kara turned towards him. "One of the things I can't heal, even when my magic is at its strongest."

Kara opened her mouth and smiled, it made a whole lot of sense to be honest. They made sure the Silver Monkey had been bundled up.

The most he was gift wrapped, the Dynamic Duo left the area of the sewers, their work done.

* * *

The moment Nyssa informed Talia she had information, the younger daughter of Ra's Al Ghul found intrigued. The two of them made their way into one of the League safehouses in Gotham. The safe house proved to be a temporary fix at best, where they wouldn't be able to go too far all things considered.

"So," Talia said as she looked straight into Nyssa's eyes. "What's the news?"

"Tell me the results of your test tonight," Nyssa said. "I know you have your eyes on….well both of them."

Nyssa didn't think too much of Batman to be honest, but then again, she could be the slightest bit biased.

"Well, I assumed you didn't want me to tell you a word of what happened," Talia said. Nyssa continued to stare Talia down without really blinking. The younger daughter of the demon smiled. "Which wouldn't stop me from giving you a general overview of what has happened tonight."

A few seconds passed. Nyssa sat down on the couch and invited Talia to take a seat. As much as Talia wanted to protest she rather would stand, after tonight, other thoughts crept into her mind. With a heavy heart, she took a position down next to Nyssa on the couch and tried to relax herself, at least the best she could.

"Keep your nerves calm tonight, Talia," Nyssa said. She brushed the lock of hair away from Talia's face as to look at her sister properly. "You tested both of them tonight in this little gambit."

"It was a prelude of what is to come, as you know," Talia said.

A long moment paused as Talia tried to determine how much to tell her sister. Plausible deniability wasn't a game she played too well, but she knew if her sister knew too much, the wheels would come off. Especially given Nyssa found herself at a crossroads.

Talia very slowly began to understand the allure of the dragon, and hated herself for it at this moment.

"The Dragon managed to almost exceed all expectations."

"His companion was a surprise, but the two of them working together proved to be an interesting challenge."

Nyssa and Talia only gave the barest of visual indications they noticed Lady Shiva enter the room as calmly and swiftly as she pleased. The woman sank down to join the two of them, a crisp smile passing over her face.

"You should have done a better job in masking your trail," Shiva said.

"Yes, we should have," Nyssa said. "You're saying he has a companion?"

Nyssa knew of Kara's training, but the League didn't need to know of it. They didn't ask to be honest. So Nyssa declined to offer up the information. Nyssa waited to see what Shiva had to say in the matter. The woman always put Nyssa on her guard, which happened to be a good thing.

"Both of us held back, therefore nothing was settled in any kind of fight," Shiva said. "They were more preoccupied in disabling the final device….it went off."

Talia raised her eyebrow. The news about her device going off happened to be news to her. The woman's face fluttered into a frown.

"But, it didn't spread," Talia said. "They found a way to stop the spread."

"On a limited level, they did," Shiva said. A level of respect flashed through her eyes which never crossed them in the past. Shiva giving any respect to anyone happened to be a rare occasion for obvious reasons. "But, it's hard to say if they have any ability to stop the spread on a grander stage."

Talia knew what she needed to do now. They must have figured out a way to stop the spread, and now they had a chemical sample. The plan wasn't out the window, but at the same time, she didn't really have a go ahead for the plan either.

Shiva watched for any sort of reaction from Talia.

"I see."

"I'll be in touch," Shiva said. "I have to let Silver Monkey stew for a few days, before I decide to retrieve him."

Shiva slipped out as suddenly as she appeared. Nyssa turned to Talia, a frown appearing on her face.

"You knew about the Monkey Clan's attack, didn't you?" Nyssa asked. Talia raised her eyebrow. "You allowed me to think there had been another splinter in the League, and they betrayed us."

"Shiva has everything under control, don't worry," Talia said.

"But do you have Shiva under control?" Nyssa asked.

Talia frowned in the implications of what her sister said.

"Nyssa, I'm sorry, if I offended you, but I needed your response to be authentic to divert suspicion from you," Talia said. She reached forward to grab her sister, but Nyssa pulled back and regarded Talia with a cold expression. "Nyssa, I don't…"

"Harry isn't stupid, he's going to figure out everything," Nyssa said.

A chilling pause followed between the two sisters.

"Good, I hope so, it means he's worthy," Talia said. "Your loyalty is divided."

"No, my loyalty is precisely where it should be," Nyssa said in the crispest tone possible, without missing a beat. "Maybe you should determine where your loyalties should lie, Talia, and think of the path you're taking. Remember, the path to damnation has many forks."

Tension escalated from the two sisters, which thankfully didn't escalate to violence. Nyssa said what she needed to say, and Talia voiced her concerns. The two of them had to be on the same page.

"We have to stand together against a common enemy who will ruin any well-placed plan," Nyssa said. Talia's frown deepened. "Our estranged brother, the White Ghost, lives."

To say Talia's mood worsened would be an understatement. If true, the White Ghost being alive, would be able to complicate many matters.

* * *

Batman waited on the rooftop. Tonight's mission took a turn for the better, even if it could have gone a fair amount worse. The Detective and his sidekick waited for the other two parties to arrive. In a moment, the two of them arrived, Nightwing, and his partner.

"Flamebird, if I'm not mistaken," Katana said.

The two of them exchanged a brief glance with each other before Flamebird responded with a swift nod.

"No, you're not mistaken," Flamebird said. She looked at the former member of the League of Assassins with a smile crossing underneath her mask. "Seems like we missed each other tonight, didn't we?"

"It seems like it," Katana said. After tonight's very long night, all four parties understood what was going on.

Batman, being Batman, summed up the entire situation to the best of his abilities.

"Tonight was a test run," Batman said. Nightwing responded with a nod. "The next time the League will strike harder, and strike on a grander scale."

 _'It's going to make what happened with the Scarecrow be like a walk in the park,'_ Harry thought. The young man clenched his fingers. _'But, you know what, the League made a terrible mistake.'_

"The League made a terrible mistake," Flamebird said, the instant the thought crossed her mate's mind. She knew the instant what he was going to say as well. "They gave us enough time to prepare, and be better the next time we fight."

"The League may be testing you," Katana said.

"I know," Nightwing said.

The cold wind blew through Gotham. The sounds of the usual level of Gotham City activity occurred from beneath them. Batman turned his attention away for about three seconds, and then he turned his attention back to Nightwing and Flamebird.

Or rather, he turned his attention back to the general area where Nightwing and Flamebird used to be. The two of them disappeared in a flash of a blink of the eye. Batman didn't miss a beat and he turned to Katana.

"We better follow their lead," Batman said. One eyebrow raised, but no beat was missed by Batman. "It's been a long evening."

The two parties made their separate ways. Flamebird and Nightwing made their way back to the Clocktower. After tonight, Kara's mind buzzed with so many thoughts, Harry couldn't really get a fix on tonight. Harry reached a hand up and touched it to Kara's shoulder. Kara stood up straight, at least for a moment, and turned to him.

"Sorry, I'm just excited," Kara said. "First night and….well….what do you think is up with the chemical the League used?"

"I don't know," Harry said. The two of them made their way into the side entrance of the Clocktower. "But, if I had to guess, it's of a biological attack variety."

 _'We'll know when we have it in for analysis, give or take in a day or two,'_ Faora thought. _'From the initial readings, it looks like it could cripple someone's immune system.'_

Kara whistled, she knew before really thinking about it how bad this could be. Regardless, the two of them made their way into the Clocktower.

"Busy night," Barbara said, as she turned away from the computer. "Guess, we'll figure out more about what the League has been up to after the chemical readings get back."

Barbara learned the patience game, because if she failed to play it, there was going to be some problems. Still, Barbara hated the fact she couldn't drag up too much more information on this League account.

The computer hacker shook her head. Barbara decided it would be best to focus on the costume Kara wore. With a smile, Barbara walked over, placing her hand on Kara's chest and ran her hand down the costume.

"Are you checking out my costume, or are you feeling me up?" Kara asked. Barbara cracked into a smile.

"Why can't I do a little bit of both?" Barbara asked. Kara's grin of mischief indicated Barbara bit off a bit more than she could chew. "But, seriously the costume looks great….if anything, Lavender made the design look pretty good."

"To be fair, I think there could be a couple of modifications," Kara said. She flipped her hair back. "But, then again, I always think something could be improved on. It looks good and it functions well, and good enough for me."

"Remember, it's not the clothes which make the woman, it's the women who makes the clothes," Harry said.

Kara smiled and leaned in towards him. Her lips brushed against Harry's, before Kara pulled away.

"Don't worry, babe, I know," Kara said. She flashed a teasing grin at her husband. "Don't tell Lavender, she'll get on you. You know how much clothing is really serious business for her. Really serious business in fact."

Harry laughed, he knew how Lavender took her fashion seriously, more seriously that a lot of people took their schooling. She excelled at fashion, so who was Harry to deny her the enjoyment.

"I really wish we had more information about what the League's up to," Harry said.

"Nyssa really isn't telling you much of anything, isn't she?" Dinah asked.

Harry shook his head, the young man's frown deepening to be honest.

"Not sure how much she knows about her sister's plans, or what she's up to," Harry said. "She looked fairly surprised and agitated when the Monkey Clan attacked us earlier tonight."

The entire group pondered this for a moment before Dinah considered something.

"Did you ever think she may be putting on a façade?" Dinah asked.

Harry turned to Dinah. The breath left her body from the extremely intense look Harry gave her. The heroine wondered if she said way too much to Harry.

"Trust me, Dinah, I know when one of my girls are pulling one over my eyes," Harry said. "Shiva may have thrown Silver Monkey at us for her own amusement to watch the show."

"Well, if she did, she must really have it out for him," Barbara said. "Or have much more confidence in his abilities than it appears."

Harry knew what the answer to this particular question was.

"Monkey did say she was obsessed with testing you," Kara said. She didn't know what else to say, but she thought they could all agree on one point. Tonight happened to be a fairly long night. "You know, when she wind down."

"And we know the way to wind down," Barbara said. She made her way to Kara and pressed her hands top her. "And for the record, now I'm really feeling you up and not checking out your costume."

Barbara's hand dipped around and squeezed Kara's ass. Kara jumped with the sensation of Barbara grabbing her ass.

"Looks like a good idea," Harry said. His arm wrapped around Dinah and pulled her close to him.

"I agree."

Harry responded to Dinah's words with a passionate kiss. Everything escalated from passionate to scorching in a hurry, when their eager hands rolled over their bodies.

Barbara sauntered the center of the room with Kara, the two of them pressed chest to chest. The redhead brought her hands down and parted Kara's thighs, allowing a shiver to go through her body.

"I feel how horny you are," Kara said. She threw her hands behind Barbara's back and squeezed her ass. "I can smell it too."

Barbara didn't say anything, but rather she kissed Kara one more time. A few kisses made their way down her bare body. Barbara's journey to the center continued, with her tongue brushing against Kara's pussy.

Speaking of a journey, Dinah kissed Harry, while stroking his cock. Her tight grip brought him up to full hardness. She squeezed the iron bar in her hand, before sinking down on the ground.

"Can't wait to taste you," Dinah said. She smiled when she stared down Harry. The twitching cock near her showed how much he wanted to be tasted by her, and who was Dinah to deny him such a treat.

Dinah's tongue brushed against his underside, licking all the way down him. She could taste him.

Harry reached in, and grabbed a hand full of her blonde locks. He waited for Dinah's lips to part and for her to accept his throbbing manhood deep into her mouth. The stunning siren's gorgeous lips parted, accepting one inch at a time into her mouth. Her throat enclosed around Harry's pole, taking him into her hot depths.

Dinah's throat pushed down onto Harry's thick tool. She engulfed him with one solid push of her mouth, bringing him down into her throat. The sensation of him going into the back of her throat caused Dinah to lose her mind.

"Go ahead, suck my cock, you know you wanted it all night," Harry said. Dinah's eager lips formed a tight seal around his cock in response.

Speaking of eager lips, Kara leaned back, and allowed Barbara's lips to pay tribute to her neither regions. Kara reached down and put her hands on the back of Barbara's head. A delightful moan came out of the beautiful Kryptonian.

"Such a good mouth for you to pay tribute to me," Kara said. The fiery young woman pushed her hips forward, to allow Barbara's tongue to brush against her pussy. The tongue continued its journey towards Kara's juicy center. "AGAIN!"

Kara's fierce declaration prompted Barbara to speed up her actions. Barbara swiped her tongue into Kara's womanly depths, accepting even more juices from her. The woman's tongue touched Barbara's hips to push forward into Kara's waiting mouth. Her tongue swirled and pushed deep inside her dripping hot pussy.

Dinah sucked Harry a few more times, before she pulled herself to her feet. Harry pushed her against a spare desk, and pulled down her jeans. His kisses teased the lower half of her body.

"More, please, oooh…it feels good!" Dinah said.

She knew this was just an appetizer for the main course. Harry's mouth teased her clit, suckling on it. Dinah's hips jumped forward. Her body danced like a well placed puppet underneath a string.

Harry slipped his tongue into her. His tongue circled around her center.

"Harry, please, oh god!" Dinah yelled.

"Barbara, more, deeper, use your tongue, baby!" Kara yelled.

Kara reached up and started to rub her nipples. The Girl of Steel tweaked and pulled on her nipples. Fireworks spread through her body.

Dinah's legs wrapped around Harry's shoulder. Harry rattled his tongue into her. The orgasm edged to a climax with Dinah thrashing her hips with each vibration. Her nails dug into the back of his head.

Harry found himself content with burying his face between Dinah's legs and eating her pussy for the moment. At least for the moment, but the scent coming from her made Harry's cock throb.

"Please Harry, I need your cock," Dinah said. She smiled when he rose to her feet. The blonde beauty spread her thighs, showing a dripping hot pussy. "You know exactly how to treat a lady."

"Especially when the lady wants to be fucked so hard she turns into a screaming slut."

Dinah couldn't argue with his words. His thick, fat, cock, slipped inside her pussy. Her legs tightened around his waist, never holding him. Sensations spread through her body, each of his thrusts hitting a new pleasure center unlike anything ever before.

Harry pumped his throbbing cock into the tight center of the beautiful woman beneath him. His hands ran greedily all over her fishnet clad legs as he kept plowing her with all of the might he could. A thick throbbing cock pushed deep into her womanhood, stretching her out all around on his thick tool.

"Fuck me, oh fuck me senseless!" Dinah yelled. She gripped onto his shoulder, pushing his throbbing manhood into her dripping hot depths. "Make me your….MAKE ME YOUR BITCH!"

Her pussy tightened around him. Harry smiled when he stuffed his manhood into her. He noticed Barbara's legs spread, wide open, it would be a shame for them to be neglected. And it would give a chance for Harry to allow Dinah to come down from her high.

"You pussy looked so underfucked, let's fix this."

Harry slammed into Barbara's pussy, bringing his throbbing manhood into her body. She was caught off guard by the sudden, but quite welcomed intrusion of his thick cock into her womanhood. He stretched her. Barbara grinded back, making sure his thick cock speared inside her.

Kara removed her pussy from underneath Barbara's mouth, which caused her screams to become unstifled. She turned over with a smile her face. Dinah looked in a state of bliss, and Kara thought she could make it better while Harry occupied himself with Barbara.

"Hello, Dinah," Kara said.

Kara kissed the life out of Dinah. Dinah spread her legs, and allowed Kara's to scissor their cunts together. A super heated amount of friction had been generated between the two of them. Kara brought her hips up to jackhammer Dinah.

The super friction rubbing against her clit caused Dinah to lose it and pretty much forget her best friend monopolized her lover's cock, at least for the moment.

Barbara experienced the pure bliss of Harry's throbbing cock pounding into her body. He hit every single nerve ending in her body, causing her to strike.

"Yes, Harry, oh yes, oh god….MORE!" Barbara yelled.

"You want more?" Harry asked. Barbara responded by nodding eagerly, biting down on her lip. "Well, I'm going to give you everything you want."

Barbara's orgasm slowly crawled up, reaching a fever pitch. The beautiful woman's body exploded into a lustful display of sexual bliss. Her hips pushed back in an attempt to engulf more of his cock into her body.

"Yes, oh, yes, more!" Barbara said. Every moment Harry's hands touched her body, she experienced a jolt of bliss cascading through her body. "Harry, I need…."

What she needed had been lost in a blissful moment. Barbara's walls tightened around Harry the second she came. The redhead milked Harry's prick, forcing more of him inside her body with each thrust.

"You need it, you want this, don't you?" Harry asked. He nibbled on Barbara's earlobe, causing her to gasp. "You want my cock baby, you want it buried in your sweet pussy, don't you?"

Dinah's screams dwarfed out Barbara's. Kara really worked over her pussy, making sure her moans continued to intensify.

"That's right bitch, scream for me!" Kara yelled. She pulled up Dinah by the hair, and kissed her full on the lips. Their tongues tangled together with a passionate kiss.

Dinah melted underneath Kara's kiss. The orgasm caused her pussy to grind up against Kara. Their sticky centers rubbed together.

"Cum for me, Dinah, do it, honey," Kara said. She leaned down and nibbled on her earlobe, which caused Dinah to respond with a gasp.

Their nipples grinded together when Kara deepened the kiss on Dinah and pulled out of her mouth, causing her to drop down onto the bed.

Kara turned around, with Harry thrusting into Barbara. The strong woman rushed forward, and grabbed Barbara's breasts, squeezing them which caused her screams.

"Do you like it, do you like it, huh?" Kara asked. She nibbled on Barbara's earlobe, causing her to pant. "I bet you like Harry slamming his big cock into your tight little pussy, making it stretch out. I bet you're cumming right now, just thinking about it."

Kara licked the back of Barbara's neck, causing her to twitch.

"She is, I can feel her pussy tighten around my cock."

Kara started to alternate between playing with Harry's balls and Barbara's clit. Harry returned fire by shoving his fingers inside his Alpha's pussy.

The Kryptonian vixen's blonde hair flipped back and forth against her face. Kara rode Harry's fingers like it was no one's business. Her pussy clamped down on Harry, allowing his thick digits to fill and release her with the intense motions of her hips pushing forward.

"Oh Rao, oh fuck!" Kara yelled.

Kara's tight pussy formed a snug seal around Harry's fingers. She pushed herself onto his fingers, trapping them deep within her cunt. The Girl of Steel worked his fingers into her body, pumping him inside her.

The vigorous fucking of her pussy prompted Barbara to hit a gusher. Her pussy clamped down on his cock and released it. Juices flowed from it.

"Get ready, Babs, here it comes."

The news Harry was about ready to cum inside her caused Barbara's pussy to grow even more wanton with pleasure.

"Go ahead, Harry, plow her, plant your seeds in her pussy," Kara yelled. She finished coating his fingers. "Fuck her brains out….it's so hot when you fuck another women into submission with your big throbbing cock!"

Harry's load spilled into Barbara's pussy. Every last drop of the sorcerer's seed spilled into Barbara's protected pussy. Harry pulled out, only to find Kara's legs wrap around her. She kissed him hard.

Turning Kara around, Harry pushed her against the wall. His cock throbbed, wanting entrance into her pussy. Kara responded by spreading her legs, allowing him to jam himself her.

"YEAH, RIGHT THERE!" Kara yelled at the top of her lungs. Kara grinded her nails into his back.

He entered and exited her several times. Each thrust brought Kara to a further emotional release more so than the last. Her pussy grinded against his.

Harry shoved his cock into Kara's slick pussy. She became really wet, and hungry for his cock, making Harry's night so much easier.

Dinah staggered to her feet and moved over, smiling. She rolled Barbara over and pressed her lips onto Barbara's with an intense kiss.

Barbara's eyes snapped over to the sensations of Dinah slowly planting kisses all the way down her body. The redhead gasped as Dinah's talented mouth continued to lavish her.

Dinah enjoyed the taste of her young friend, and wanted even more. Barbara's legs spread apart, allowing her to dive between Barbara's divine thighs. Her tongue licked around her.

Kara pressed her pelvis bone forward, accepting more of Harry's cock inside her hungry pussy. Each thrust brought Kara closer to the edge. Her hand clamped around his wrist, the further he buried himself into her.

"Give me more!" Kara said. Drool almost spilled from her mouth the further Harry pushed his cock into her body. "Give me everything….GIVE ME YOUR COCK IN MY BODY!"

"You need to be fucked harder, if you're still able to talk."

Kara threw her head back with a shriek which nearly put Dinah's to shame. Harry went to town on her pussy, slamming his cock into her. He fucked her like she paid him to do so.

"Take me…oh, yes I'm cumming, cum with me."

Harry teased Kara with a few more strokes, making sure she experienced the full course of bliss. His balls loaded up with a dose of cum just for her.

His hands brushed over Kara's sweaty body, touching every last inch of her. The two met in the center one more time, before Kara clamped down on him.

Harry's load spilled into Kara's pussy. Each blast sent a huge rope of cum into her. Kara pumped him for each drop she could, but she knew there would always be more.

The fact Harry's abilities allowed him a never ending supply of cum put a smile on Kara's face. She was ready and willing for more.

* * *

**To Be Continued on January 16** **th** **, 2016.**


	153. School's Out for Summer

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Three: School's Out for Summer:**

* * *

**  
**Bette Kane made her way down the steps of the Gotham Private Academy with a shit eating grin on her face, even if said grin paled in comparison to the wary look on her face. The Kane heiress survived the last exams. It would be about a week before she found out how good she did, or how much she bombed despite her best efforts. Bette's confidence reached a fever pitch, and she hoped she did well.

Maybe not Barbara Gordon well, because she made some records which never could have been broken. Regardless, Bette walked with a spring in her step, almost running into Bunny who lingered at the bottom of the steps. The Vreeland and Kane heiresses stared at each other for a long moment.

' _At long last, it's finally over, and finally, finally I can relax.'_

Bette approached the younger Vreeland sister standing at the bottom of the stairs.

"So, you survived another year," Bunny said. Her stance rose up when she looked Bette in the eyes. "And not just another year, but our senior year….we got out of there, and we're pretty much home free….at least until we find out how much we've failed."

Bette tried to remain confident. She situated the bag draped over her shoulder. The heavy bag buckled underneath the shoulder of the heiress. A frown crossed Bette's face when trying to hoist it up further.

"I'm pretty sure I did well….and I'm sure you did well, as well, Bunny," Bette said. The hasty amending of her statement didn't fall on deaf ears. Regardless, Bette threw her arm around Bunny's shoulders and pulled her in. "Don't worry, you studied about as hard as you could, and did the best you could."

Bunny smiled, really did do the best she could out there. Would her best he good enough? Both friends figured sooner or later, time would tell.

"I'm sure the rest of them are wondering where we are," Bunny said.

"Don't keep them waiting."

Both of the girls broke out into a fitful round of laughter, but it had been interrupted rather quickly.

"You two really made a good try at it, didn't you?"

The Potter twins stood at the foot of the steps next to them. Gabrielle joined them, along with Lois and Jade, with the two younger girls in intense conversation. Bette tried to listen in, but respectfully pulled back. Maybe if the two girls plotted something, it could be for the best she didn't know about it. Best not to listen to anything.

 _'Plausible deniability, and everything,'_ Bette thought.

Bette took a close step towards the twins, approaching them with caution. Bunny followed a half of a step behind them.

"The Circus is in a few days," Amanda said. The attention of all of the girls turned to one of the Potter twins. While Amanda sounded excited, Emily resembled someone more subdued. "And don't worry, I'm sure the clowns won't be too bad."

"Clowns are unnatural, they're abominations, they shouldn't be allowed to exist," Lois said without missing a beat before anyone could say anything. "Has anyone found a clown to be funny at all? How many parents scarred their children by inviting a clown to their birthday party? What kind of sane person finds a clown to be funny at all?"

Gabrielle smiled and shook her head. Lois's discomfort around clowns was one of the few things the girl held a bit of a phobia with. To be fair to Lois, Gabrielle didn't really care for them either. Something about clowns creeped her out just a little bit.

"I have to agree with her," Nym said. She shifted amongst the girls, ready to pick them up. "But, I think Haley's circus used to have a clown, but he retired, his name is Jocko, or something."

 _'Last I heard, Jocko the clown got brought up on some pretty nasty charges,'_ Barbara thought.

 _'What, was he too friendly to children?'_ Amanda thought. She shuddered at the thought of what a man with access to children could do.

 _'No actually, he got sent up the river for tax evasion,'_ Barbara thought.

"Well, guess everyone has to eventually," Lois said. The brunette's gaze snapped around. "So, we're all going, aren't we?"

All of the girls nodded with smiles crossing over their youthful faces.

"Well, anyone who is anyone is going to be there," Bette said. She smiled. "And Kathy said it's a gathering for the rich and the famous….and the infamous in Gotham City. Her doctor is….her doctor friend is going to be there."

Bunny eyed Bette for a second. Kathy's doctor, whose name escaped Bette now, appeared to be a nice enough guy. Something about the relationship Kathy had with him sounded unsettling.

Very few times did Bunny agree with Veronica, but the younger Vreeland would agree with the older one about this much. Something about the good doctor appeared to be a little bit off, and Bunny hoped Kathy really knew what she was doing.

"You still haven't bothered to learn his name, have you?" Amanda asked. She frowned at the look on Bette's face.

 _'If she's worried, maybe we can have Barbara run a background check on the guy,'_ Emily thought.

 _'Actually, I've already run a background check on the guy, and….he's come up pretty clean all things considered,'_ Barbara thought. She frowned for a moment. Perhaps this was one case where someone happened to be everything he appeared to be.

Awkwardness lingered in the air between the two of them.

 _'I'm sensing a but,'_ Amanda thought.

 _'I don't know, maybe he is a good sleep therapist….although what worries me more is….well just how much Kathy is relying on him,'_ Barbara thought. _'And I'm sure Veronica feels the same way….if she's listening in. But I can understand if she didn't'_

 

Barbara realized Veronica always had a lot on her plate, and might not be able to join in on the conversation all of the time. Considering she was busy planning for Bette and Bunny's graduation party, it did seem about right.

"So, it's been a long day," Amanda said, pulling her away from the thoughts. The redhead turned towards the two seniors. "How would you like to head to the penthouse….maybe we can order a pizza and help celebrate your freedom?"

Bette snorted at the eloquent words coming from the more free spirited Potter twin.

"I'm not sure if it's freedom, we haven't gotten our exams back yet," Bette said. The Kane heiress blanched at the thought of an extremely prominent sword dangling over her head.

"Well, you can rub it in our faces how much time we have left at any rate," Emily said.

"Hey, I'm game for doing that," Bunny said. Lois broke out into laughter. It would be worse for the twins who still had another year to go. "Besides, who is going to turn down free pizza?"

The girls all knew the answer to it. Nym escorted all of the girls out, with Donna meeting them the moment they reached the car.

Bette and Bunny prepared to kick back and relax. The circus would take place, then they would get their exams back, and then graduation followed. Neither of them could wait, and it was likely onto GCU in the fall.

* * *

  
John Grayson of the famous Flying Graysons stepped outside of the makeshift dressing room at the sight of Haley's Circus. He took a long breath and looked around. The workmen started to set up for the Circus, and the man moved around to see if they needed any help.

"You boys need a hand?" John asked.

The two men turned their attention to the star attraction of the circus. The Graysons always did treat them decently, but they had this under control.

"No, Mr. Grayson, we're fine," one of the workmen said, responding with a cheery wave.

"Just let me know if you need anything," John said. The workman waved him off and the Patriarch of the Flying Graysons turned around, smiling.

Gotham City, a place where he spent a lot of his youth in, brought a fair few found members in the mind of the leader of the Flying Graysons. The gentleman shook his head at the trip down nostalgia lane. It might have been fifteen years ago since he truthfully stepped foot in Gotham City, but not much had changed.

High society always stuck a foothold in the city, as John knew well, about as much as the criminal elements. At many times, the lines between high society and the criminal element tended to be very thin. The two groups were not mutually exclusive even at the best of times.

The sounds of two rather angry voices caused John to stand up straight and crane his head. The man frowned when the voice's got louder. One of the voices belonged to Haley, the man who ran and owned the circus. His family brought the Circus into Gotham City all those years ago. John took half of a step forward and listened for the other voice.

"Haley, my good man, it's an opportunity you can't refuse….."

"I can refuse it, and I'm going to refuse it….the Circus is not for sale, and I'm not going to put any money in your pocket!"

John walked forward, wondering if he should get involved. The hostility brimmed from the voice of the man on the other end of the door.

"Hey, the Circus is a dangerous place, accidents happen," the man said. John kept creeping forward and leaned his way through the doorway. "Would it really hurt to have a few extra ears out to keep a watch of things?"

Haley slammed his fist onto the table so hard the man bruised his knuckles. The loud banging escalated and caused John to stand up as straight as possible. The man's neck craned when he looked from the door.

"Don't say, I didn't warn you….hope you keep a good eye on your performers….stay say out there, old man."

The man passed John from the office. John's eyes scanned over the man to see he had been dressed in thick clothes. The long heavy coat he wore wasn't really practical given the summertime weather. The man's large frame made him look even more comfortable.

"Haley?" John asked.

The Circus owner stared at John. Rings formed underneath his eyes when he looked at John.

' _Man, he looks like hell,'_ John thought.

"Yes, Grayson, what I can do for you?" he asked. The man sounded gruff and tired, but his temper lowered when he saw one of his star acts.

"Just seeing if everything was alright," John said. The man leaned towards Haley. "The guy sounded like he was pretty serious."

Haley gave a laugh, a nervous one, but a laugh never the less. John Grayson read between the lines and could see something less than fluid from the laugh.

"No, he's just another blowhard, wanting money from the Circus," Haley said. He reached into a cabinet and pulled out a dusty bottle of wine. "Think they're going to scare me, and terrify me when it happens."

John thought long and hard about what he heard, something about it seemed rather long. He wanted to say something to Haley, regarding the man. The circus acrobat took a long moment to try and get his thoughts together.

"Sounds like it could be trouble, why don't you call the police?"

Haley cracked open the bottle of wine and poured himself a glass of it. Breaking back into Gotham with the recent changes in the city allowed him to increase his profit margins and more than make up for the disappointing performances with the gate last year. Anyone who wanted to break into Gotham City would need to deal with positives and negatives as well.

"Grayson, I wouldn't worry about him, he's just a blowhard, and over-aggressive sponsor," Haley said. He took a long drink from his glass. "Would you care for a drink?"

"You know I stopped," John said.

"Right, when you became a father," Haley said. He nodded in approval. "So, this is it, isn't it? The Flying Graysons are going in for their grand finale in Gotham City, where it all started years ago. Almost poetic."

John knew Haley knew. The circus owner made an extremely big deal out of the final hooray of the Flying Graysons.

"I'm surprised you aren't throwing the world at me to get me to stay," John said. He knew the Circus had been ran off of the act of the Flying Graysons.

"Would you have agreed to stay even if I handed you the keys to the Kingdom?" Haley asked. "I've got a few ideas for a new closing act….but if you're going to go out, I know you won't phone in the last performance. You're the main event, kid."

John nodded for a moment. He batted around the idea of retirement for the past three years, but he kept backing out. His wife, Mary, insisted this would be it. John would be heading out the door without looking back. The Graysons saved their money and would be buying their dream home in Gotham City.

Life would be good for the next couple of years. Everything had been set up for a bright and glorious future for the Grayson family. Their daughter would enter Gotham Private Academy this fall thanks to the money they saved from some wise investments.

"Thanks for everything, Haley," John said.

"No, thank you," Haley said. He extended his hand and shook hands. "If you're going to go out, better go out on top."

John left the office, and made his way back to the dressing room. He almost ran into someone.

"Where's the fire, kiddo?" John asked.

The figure staggered back, and John caught sight of the young girl before him. The thirteen-year old girl stood with her hair cut down to her shoulders. She dressed in a red top with a silver button with an "R" on it, and a pair of green shorts. A pair of green pixie boots topped off the outfit.

"Oh, I just wanted to sneak out, and take a look at Gotham City," she said. "You know to see what it's really like."

"Now, Rebecca, you need stay close to your mother….things are pretty dangerous," John said.

Rebecca Grayson threw her hands to her hips and looked at her father with a questioning look.

"Any more dangerous than flying a hundred feet above the air without a net?" Rebecca asked. John looked at his daughter, but she saw right through the bravado of the leader of the Flying Graysons. "You know I'm right."

John chuckled, his daughter was too smart for her own good sometimes. Or really John's own good come to think of it.

"You're right Rebecca, but your mother will kill both of us if she finds us wandering out and about."

Rebecca's bravado faded for a little bit. She would rather take the high wire net without a net. Facing off with the wrath of her mother, Rebecca would rather fly to the highest heights without a net. The young woman turned with a sheepish grin as her father steered her into the tent.

"There the two of you are."

Rebecca and John turned around to see a gorgeous brunette woman approach both of them, with a smile on her face. She clipped her hair back, causing it to flow freely on the other side of her face. Blue eyes started to shine out, looking at the two of them.

"You shouldn't go too far, it's a bit dangerous out there," Mary said.

"Yes, I know, there was some tough who was trying to rough up, Haley," John said. Mary placed a hand to her mouth and gasped. "He said it was an overaggressive sponsor, and told him not to worry about it."

"Sounds like you're worrying about it," Rebecca said.

John didn't want his daughter or wife to get too anxious. Time to put things back on center.

"We need to worry about the performance tomorrow night," John said.

"It's going to be the last time," Mary said, stretching her arms out. Not getting any easier to prepare for these performances, especially since her daughter joined them about five years back. Rebecca was fearless and it scared Mary regarding how fearless her daughter happened to be.

No sense of self-preservation at all.

"Yes, we're going to be higher than we've ever been," John said. A knowing smile tugged through the corners of his lips. "Even higher than I have got in college."

Mary swatted John on the arm playfully, and it prompted a roll of the eyes from Rebecca. As if she didn't know what her parents had been talking about. She had a colorful enough vocabulary, just listen to some of the circus folks. The bearded lady cursed a blue streak which would make a hardened sailor blush.

' _I think I knew all seven words by the time I was five,'_ Rebecca thought. _'Repeating them around Mom was a bad idea.'_

"It's going to be the last time," John said. "We have it all settled, tonight, we're going out with an amazing performance."

"Yes," Mary said. She smiled. "And we're going to go out, and by next week, we'll be in my dream home. And by next autumn, Rebecca is going to be entered in Gotham Private Academy."

"A real school?" Rebecca asked. Discord filled the face of Rebecca and hands clutched together. "Mom, it will just slow me down."

Mary smiled, and it was obvious she knew it well.

"Well, you've been going too fast for your own good, young lady," Mary said. She placed a hand on Rebecca's head.

"If you say so," Rebecca said. "At least our last performance will be in Gotham, in front of the best of the best, and in front of, Harry Potter."

Mary responded with a knowing smile and she leaned forward to ruffle her daughter's hair.

"Yes, I forgot your crush is going to be in attendance tonight," Mary said. She smiled at her daughter.

"No, I don't like him because he's hot," Rebecca said. The thirteen year old girl grew red in the cheeks just a little bit. "But….I like him because….well he fell out of the highest building in Gotham and survived. It makes him fearless enough to be one of the Flying Graysons."

Mary shook her head.

' _My daughter and her priorities,'_ Mary thought.

"Can't argue with logic like that," John said, barely having a chuckle. "So, we wouldn't want dinner to get cold would we?"

Dinner and a nice night's sleep before their performance, and the three Graysons would move onto the rest of their normal life in their dream home in Gotham City.

* * *

  
Barbara stretched herself out on the couch, working at her laptop at the penthouse. Pamela crashed next to her, yawning.

"So, long day for you?" Barbara asked.

Pamela stifled another yawn before turning right towards Barbara.

"Not as long as your day, I wonder if you ever sleep," Pamela said, with a shadow of a smile crossing her face.

Barbara hid the smile on her face under the guise of going back to working with her laptop. There were times where Barbara wondered the same thing herself. She lived off of a combination of caffeine and stubbornness.

"Sometimes I wonder, sometimes, I wonder," Barbara said. She placed her full attention on her friend. "So, how are things going with Doctor Woodrue?"

Pamela's hung her head forward, and looked a tad bit frustrated. Barbara reached towards her and touched the top of her hand.

"Not as well as they should," Pamela said. The brainy redhead inhaled and exhaled with a long sigh, causing her chest to raise and lower. "I've been working with him for long hours, weekends even….but we keep hitting the wall."

Barbara felt Pamela's pain full and one hundred percent. Never was a good time trying to get a project done one hundred percent of the way.

"Surely there's some kind of method you could use?" Barbara asked. She squeezed Pamela's hand in reassurance, only it did little to reassure the woman.

"Well, there are plenty of methods we can use," Pamela said. She pondered what could be done. "But, very few of them are ethical."

Barbara looked towards Pamela for the longest moment. She knew how Pamela had a strong moral compass and wouldn't do anything unethical, even if it meant achieving a goal.

"Doctor Woodrue had his heart set on getting it done before the end of this year," Pamela said. "Now, I'm not sure it will happen…his backers are getting pretty anxious….and he's getting very frustrated."

Barbara understood Pamela's tension and the frustration which came from it. It could be a bumpy right and Barbara hated to see her friend in the backer.

"Is he getting angry at you?" Barbara asked.

"Well not necessarily at me, but more like with the entire process," Pamela said. "And his backers don't have any patience. They wanted it to be done yesterday."

"Well, his backers getting frustrated, never a good thing," Barbara said. She tried not to sound too cynical.

"It's a shame, people can't be patient, this project can revolutionize the world," Pamela said.

Barbara only smiled, if she had a dollar for every single time a person said a project could revolutionize the world, she would be a very wealthy woman.

Pamela's phone rang and she hastened to answer it.

"Doctor Woodrue?" Pamela asked.

"Hello, Pamela….I know tonight is your night off, but I think I have a breakthrough….and this time, I think I have it," Woodrue said. "I need your help you."

"My help?" Pamela asked, a note of both reluctance and regret passed through the woman's voice.

Barbara eyed Pamela, saying nothing, but at the same time, thinking more than enough.

"If it wouldn't be too much of a bother for you to come down here, it won't be more than a couple of hours," Woodrue said.

"I'll be down there in about twenty minutes," Pamela said.

Pamela rose to her feet and looked at Barbara. Barbara's gaze continued to lock firmly on Barbara, but didn't say anything.

"I have to go, I'm sorry," Pamela said. She stepped towards Barbara and brushed her lips against hers with the barest hints of a kiss.

Pamela turned and walked out the door. The moment she passed, Dinah made her way through her. The two girls looked at each other, acknowledging each other, before Dinah made a beeline over and sank herself down on the couch next to Barbara.

"Long night for Pamela again?" Dinah asked.

Barbara responded with a crisp sign and nodded.

"Woodrue thought he had a break through," Barbara said. Dinah raised an eyebrow in response, and Barbara answered with a long smile. "Yes, again, but….let's just hope this project really does have a breakthrough. I can tell how frustrated Pamela is beginning to get with not moving forward. And I can see her point."

"Must not be anything compared to the frustration Woodrue is feeling."

"Yes, I suppose you're right," Barbara said. A full body shudder spread through her. Dinah reached up and clenched Barbara's shoulder. "I still think he's a creep….he looks like Lionel Luthor after a really bad day."

Dinah responded with a smile in response. Barbara did make an apt comparison between the two of them.

"Which is really saying something," Dinah said. She turned to Barbara. "I want to get your feedback on something."

"Oh?" Barbara asked. She always was happy to give her two cents on something, especially if it meant helping a friend like Dinah.

"I thought about heading back to college, and finishing my major in law," Dinah said.

Barbara remembered Dinah decided to leave halfway through the first time, after her mother died, and a lot of drama involving Oliver happened. One thing after other happened, the mess with her father occurred, and she became Black Canary, so college became a low priority to her.

"With all of you girls accomplishing great things, I feel a bit left behind," Dinah said. "And now Kara and Diana are out on the field, and…"

Dinah responded with a long sigh, cutting off her words. Barbara raised her eyebrow and reached up a hand to beckon for Dinah to finish her thought. Dinah did so, even though it was reluctantly done so.

"And I figure you'd be out there sooner rather than later," Dinah said.

Barbara wondered if they were going to able address this particular elephant in the room. While Barbara's training kicked up a new level; the difference between training and being on the field.

"Maybe by the autumn," Barbara said. "I'm not going to jump out there, especially with the full plate I have. But, I figure it's eventually something I'd like to do. Not sure if I could ever see me working for the GCPD, especially given I'd answer to Loeb. And there's just too many bad feelings after what happened."

Dinah cupped a hand underneath her chip and nodded. She never wanted to go onto the force.

"I can't say I blame you," Dinah said.

"But, being an illegal vigilante would be the next best thing," Barbara said. She reached underneath the couch and pulled out her sketchpad. "I have a couple of ideas, but….none of them quite speak to me."

"Well, I'm sure you'll figure out something," Dinah said. She threw her arm around the shoulders of her surrogate younger sister and pulled her in close. Barbara answered with a smile. "You always do….but….never mind, what do you think of me going back to college?"

"I think it's a good thing for you," Barbara said. "Now your life has calmed down as much as it's going to, there should be no excuse for you to neglect your studies."

Dinah tried to find an excuse, but to be honest none came to her, at least a good one. Sara took care of their father, who was itching to do something constructive again. She had her life together for the most part, thanks in part to Harry and the other members of the collective. The looming drama involving what would happen if Oliver ever found out Dinah knew what Thea was doing and didn't tell him worried her, but Dinah could handle it.

' _Just go one day at the time.'_

* * *

  
Veronica and Kathy left the gym, and made their way to Veronica's car.

"So, how have you been sleeping?" Veronica asked.

"Like a baby," Kathy said. She turned to Veronica. "I have to thank Doctor Somnambular for all of the help he's given me. I know you think he's a bit….odd…..I have to admit, I had my doubts as well."

Veronica frowned, thinking the doctor was odd, especially given how Kathy had been recommended him by Hugo Strange. Perhaps Veronica spent way too much time in Gotham City, or at least far too much time in the bond link, and grew a bit too cynical for her own liking, but trusting someone with the last name of Strange caused her to lead to some growing level of discomfort.

"But, even you have to admit, the man gets results," Kathy said. She turned to her friend with a smile.

Veronica answered with a crisp smile towards her friend. This conversation could turn into a dangerous level if she wasn't careful.

"Okay, Kathy, you're an adult, and you know what you're doing," Veronica said. "But are you sure you can sleep without his assistance? Could you drop the therapy at any time, and be able to sleep at night now you've worked through whatever problems?"

Kathy paused for a long moment. Veronica placed her hand on her friend's head and steered her towards her.

"Kathy, you're one of the most independent women I've ever known," Veronica said. The Kane heiress continued to look at her. "But, if you are dependent on this guy, then you're really throwing away your independence."

Kathy considered it, but much like a brick wall, Veronica's words bounced from her.

"I just need a little help, I can quit at any time."

Kathy's words didn't do anything to reassure Veronica. On the contrary, they worried her even more than they did before.

"I hoped the doctor would agree to my invitation to escort me to the Circus tomorrow night," Kathy said.

"It seems to me like you're becoming fond of the doctor," Veronica said.

"Well, he can be a charming old man, but it's nothing like….nothing like how you think," Kathy said. He could take care of her emotional needs, but nothing physical, Kathy knew.

"Good, because he may have a daughter your age, maybe even a granddaughter," Veronica said.

"He actually doesn't have any children, come to think of it," Kathy said. Veronica raised her eyebrow. "His wife died when he was young, they never remarried. He has been lonely for a long time, his only solace is his patients."

"Or so he told you," Veronica said. Skepticism flowed through her voice.

Kathy smiled, but decided to let Veronica's skepticism flow.

"Well, he's been a great help," Kathy said. Veronica responded with a raised eyebrow and Kathy looked at her, with a long sigh escaping her face. "You don't see me prying into your personal life, Ronnie."

"Not prying, just concerned you're becoming a bit dependent on him," Veronica said.

"I thought I told you I could stop at any time," Kathy said. She shook her head. "I know you don't believe me….but can we talk about something else….so how is the planning on the graduation party coming? Do you think I can help with anything?"

"I have it all covered, but thanks for offering," Veronica said. She frowned and a thought crossed her mind. "Do you think I'm overdoing it for a graduation party?"

"You, overdo it?" Kathy asked. She gave Kathy a mocking little smile. "Perish the thought!"

The two women laughed, getting the humor of the entire situation.

* * *

  
Harvey Dent looked in the mirror as he thought about the circus tomorrow night. One of the biggest cultural events to come to Gotham City in quite some time, and Harvey didn't really care too much for the circus. Working in a government job, he dealt enough with clowns, even if he wasn't sure if this circus had a clown or something. Last Harvey checked, he had been sent up the river.

Still, as his people reminded him, a trip to the circus would be a sufficient way to increase his public image. Everyone who was anyone would be in attendance, from the notable names like Harry Potter and Bruce Wayne to the shadier types like Oswald Cobblepot and Roman Sionis.

Hill continued to piggy back off of Harvey's groundswell of popularity to punch his ticket to be Mayor. Harvey really didn't bother himself with the details of Hill's grandstanding too much.

Gilda passed him when she made her way to answer the front door. Harvey didn't realize someone knocked on the door, at least until the moment where Gilda answered it.

"Oh, hello, Rachel," Gilda said. She stepped back and allowed the acting district attorney.

"Is Harvey available?" Rachel asked.

Harvey leaned out and acknowledged Rachel's appearance with a smile.

"I'm right here, Rachel, what did you need?" Harvey asked.

"You left some important papers at the office," Rachel said. "I wanted to make sure they didn't fall into the wrong hands….not sure if there's anything in there which could incriminate you, but we want to make sure we do everything we can to win this election."

Gilda stared from Rachel to Harvey, as the woman walked towards her husband.

"So, are you feeling safe, Gilda?" Rachel asked. "There hasn't been any more phone calls, has there?"

"No, the nutcase who did it must have given up," Gilda said. "I'll be just glad when the election is over."

Rachel responded with a knowing smile and patted Gilda on the shoulder.

"Oh, well, when we….when Harvey wins the election, the real work will begin," Rachel said. She smiled when she looked Gilda over. "We're going to need people who are loyal to Harvey…who believe in Harvey Dent. So, your life is going to be even tougher from here."

Gilda brushed off her words, and nodded.

"How are you doing?" Gilda asked. "How are you coming along with the cop killer investigation?"

Rachel smiled.

"So close I could almost touch them, and I'd really like to nail that bastard to a wall for all the trouble they've caused me," Rachel said. The intensity in her eyes caused anyone who looked into them to shiver.

"Well, thank you for dropping the papers by Rachel, I don't know how I forgot them," Harvey said. "I guess my mind has been everywhere at once lately."

"Don't worry, Harvey, you have me, and you can get through this," Rachel said, briefing eying Harvey like a large steak. She turned towards Gilda with a bright smile. "Have a pleasant night, Gilda, and you too Harvey….pleasant dreams, and I'll talk to you tomorrow."

Rachel walked off, and Gilda watched her leave.

"Is Rachel alright?" Gilda asked.

"Rachel copes with her problems by throwing herself at her work full tilt," Harvey said. He turned his wife around to face him. "Think her inability to nail down a good lead in the cop killer case."

Gilda frowned, Harvey spent a lot of long nights at the office away from home, away from her, where Rachel was. The woman had no proof, but she wasn't the only one who thought along those lines.

"Are you up for attending the circus?" Harvey asked.

"I'm going to be there, to make sure the papers don't get the wrong idea about how our marriage is panning out," Gilda said. "After all….we have an election to win."

Something about Gilda's tone seemed rather offsetting to Harvey, but he nodded. It would be alright to have a normal night for a change.

"Don't believe the papers, it's just the competition stirring up shit," Harvey said, grabbing his wife's hand and patting it gently.

Gilda wished she could believe it was just harmless shit stirring. Something about the interaction between Rachel and Harvey made her a spectaculating spouse.

* * *

  
Juno Jones looked into a fully length mirror, brushing her hair. She made sure it looked as pristine as usual. Not she was as much of a diva about her looks about some people, but still, Juno vowed to look her best. There was an image to uphold to be honest.

A knock on the door caused it to swing open and the one and only Harry Potter appeared before her in the flesh.

"So, are you ready for our date?" Harry asked.

Juno leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek for a moment. She wrapped her arm around him, and for a brief second, teased copping a feel, but pulled back.

"I've been ready for it since we arranged it," Juno said. "Let's pray to all of the goddesses it goes well tonight."

Harry laughed, and Juno tried not to tempt fate too badly. The two of them mad themselves comfortable in the limo.

"So, Nyssa is still a bit of a wild card, isn't she?"

"Yes," Harry said. "If push came to shove, I'm sure she'd choose me, but…..I don't want to be the one to force her hand."

Juno figured Harry was right. Harry always had a sixth sense about these crazy things.

"Yet, sooner or later, you might have to," Juno said. "And you know it."

Harry nodded in response, he wasn't concerned of either of the sisters, but rather the party who may have beaten them in their quest to Ra's Al Ghul's body. What scheme did he have up his sleeve?"

Only time would tell, as much as Harry hated saying it.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on January 23** **rd** **, 2016.**


	154. Night at the Circus Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Four: Night at the Circus Part One.**

* * *

All of Gotham City began to buzz as for the first time in over a decade, Haley's Circus returned to their fair city. All of the citizens in Gotham City were out, the elite and the not so elite. All of them waited for the return of one of the noblest acts in Gotham City, the Flying Graysons. No doubt tonight would be a memorable night. Any time one of Gotham's own returned home, everyone had been excited.

Harry made his way into the crowd, receiving some rather decent seats in the process. Kara and Diana joined him when the three of them made their way into the crowd. Others roamed around in the crowd. A bit of a social gathering took place prior to the Circus beginning. Hill put himself front and center, shaking hands with some very important people.

Juno caught Harry's eye and smiled. The two of them almost looked amused, although Harry wanted to find his way to his seat. The two made an unspoken agreement to talk later.

"Hey, Harry!" Veronica yelled. Harry smiled. The two of them barely made their way through the crowd with each other. "Thought I couldn't find you through the crowd, but I guess I did."

"It's a bit of a challenge," Harry said. He smiled and noticed Bette and Bunny arriving with the larger group, which his sisters belonged two. Both of the girls flashed the young man a knowing smile with each other. "So, I thought Kathy was coming with you?"

Veronica's lips curled into a frown. Harry wondered if a bit of a nerve had been struck.

"Actually, I'm right here….sorry I'm late, you wouldn't believe the traffic out there in Gotham City…okay maybe you would believe the traffic. It was really insane."

Kathy stepped around the unwashed masses escorted by an older man who looked rather overwhelmed. Harry noticed the older gentleman looked to be in fairly decent shape, even though he had been frazzled.

"So, Kathy's sleep therapist," Harry said.

 _'Yeah, him,'_ Veronica thought, keeping the disapproval inside the bond link, while the Vreeland heiress made her way over.

"You got here just on time…the show's going to start pretty soon," Veronica said. The billionaire heiress sounded almost out of breath.

Kathy looked around at the surrounding people. Hamilton Hill moved into the picture and continued his hob-knobbing with the rich and famous.

"Seems to me like the show started, and Hill made himself the main act," Kathy said. The rich woman rolled her eyes for a second. "Fits in quite well to the Circus, given he's a clown."

Harry smiled and moved forward to Kathy.

"Hello, Kathy, how are you?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I'm doing well….I'm not sure if the two of you have been introduced," Kathy said, taking in a breath before the woman regained her bearings. She played it cool and turned from one gentleman to the other. "Harry, this is Doctor James Somnambular, James, this is Doctor Harry Potter."

"Yes, the famous Harry Potter," the doctor said. He reached forward and gave Harry a steady handshake. Both men gave a firm, but unthreatening, handshake. "Charmed to meet you."

"Likewise," Harry said.

The young man frowned, and looked towards Veronica. The woman already swept past them and walked towards her seat, without another word. Harry walked a little bit behind, watching Kathy introduce the doctor to some people out of the corner of his eye. The man seemed nice enough, but a bit of a standoffish attitude.

Harry passed Juno, who also watched the scene between Kathy and the doctor. The woman's frown deepened the more she viewed the two of them pass each other. Juno turned her attention to Harry to offer an expert opinion.

"Ms. Kane has been taken in by an exotic older man….and….well he's not discouraging her," Juno said. The disguised goddess looked over the two of them. Kathy looked to want more out of this than the doctor did, but something about him didn't jibe well.

Veronica couldn't really read the look on Juno's face, but she sensed the woman sensed a train wrecking coming. The oldest Vreeland sister smiled, happy to be in some rather good company.

"You don't think it will last," Veronica said.

"No, I don't think it will last very long," Juno said. The woman didn't doubt the relationship would end all too all well. Relationships between a man this much older and a woman around Kathy's age rarely did.

 _'Unresolved Daddy issues are at work,'_ Juno thought, not she wanted to be too critical of a person's relationship. Given all Juno put up with her ex-husband, the goddess found herself the least qualified to be critiquing the relationships of other people, not to mention their tastes.

So if anything else, Juno would try and maintain an even hand and not be too meddling.

"He's old enough to be her father, isn't he?" Harry asked.

Veronica responded with a snort, but never the less, she parted ways with Harry.

"Father, if we're being charitable, he seems much older than he looks," Veronica said. She leaned towards Harry and frowned. "It's not the age gap I'm really worked for, it's the addictive nature he's bringing out of her. Kathy is relying on him and his sleep aides to get a good night's sleep."

Harry frowned, the slippery slope was rather dangerous as well.

"Yes, I see," Harry said. "I don't suppose you tried and stage an intervention."

"Yes, I tried," Veronica said. The woman almost tugged on her hair, leaning back. In frustration, Veronica leaned in and placed her head on Harry's shoulder before returning back to her thoughts. "I didn't do much good, but at least I tried."

Harry thought the point of the matter was Veronica tried. Another redhead demanded Harry's attention for the moment, two of them in fact.

"I didn't think you were the circus type, Alexa."

Alexa Luthor turned to Harry with a smile, as did Tess. Both of them moved towards Harry, inclined to get some attention.

"It's good to see you again, Harry," Tess said. "As Alexa pointed out, everyone who is everyone is here at the Circus, and we most certainly are someone important."

"And I need to remind certain people the Luthor presence is alive and well in Gotham City," Alexa said. The young heiress's gaze flashed upon the douchebag class of businessmen. "Of course, I feel like I'm dealing with a circus every day running a business, especially with some of the people Lionel left for me to work with."

Harry figured as much. The two parties separated into the crowd, but obviously they would have to catch up later. Harry passed Bruce, who had been escorted to the circus by Rachel. Rachel paused and gave Harry a long and searching look, but turned back to chat with Bruce about something. Harry passed Harvey and Gilda Dent.

Was it Harry's imagination or was Gilda trying to burn a hole in the back of Rachel's head? Thankfully, for Rachel, Gilda didn't have heat vision.

 _'If you believe the press, there's trouble in paradise for the Dents,'_ Kara thought.

' _Now, Kara, gossip and hearsay right now,'_ Harry thought. _'There's no proof.'_

Harry would say there were some instances where there being smoke to a rather obvious fire. And it didn't matter if it was true or not, but rather the right people had to believe it.

 _'I think Mrs. Dent believes it,'_ Donna thought. The look of pure malice burning through Gilda's eyes was enough to cause all of them to experience an insane amount of unease. _'Do, you really think any of us want to know?'_

'Gotham City politics, it can be pretty dangerous at the best of times,'

Barbara thought. The girls convinced her to come out her clocktower for some fresh hair tonight. Perhaps the circus atmosphere would do Barbara some good, or maybe something really bad could happen. _'But, hey, I'm sure the tabloids will have a field day with anything they see out there.'_

'Since when do the tabloids not have a field day,'

Kara thought.

Harry could tell Harvey navigated in some pretty hostile waters. Gotham's newest golden boy had a pretty good press team, but it was going to be rough.

 _'Martial issues can derail a campaign, even though everything else is on point,'_ Harry thought. _'Rachel does seem a bit content with Bruce….not sure how content he looks.'_

'Well, you know his issues, and any women he is with is always part of the facade,'

Jaime thought.

All of them knew all too well, at least better than most other people. Regardless, the entire groups set back, settled in, and hoped to enjoy the show to the best of their abilities. The opening act prepared to start, but everyone geared up for the final act. The Flying Graysons always performed death-defying stunts and in their final performance, no one in the crowd doubted they would top all previous acts.

' _So, the greatest show on Earth,'_ Amanda thought. _'After all of what we've heard, I hope it lives up to the hype.'_

Harry smiled, confident it would live up to the hype the circus had been promoted as.

* * *

A few of Gotham's finest crowded around ,waiting for a moment of trouble which didn't come. Loeb sent them out tonight, thinking the Circus would be a lightning rod for some kind of trouble. So far, the boys in blue didn't find anything. Things had gone pretty quiet, especially for a Gotham City night.

"The only mobsters out there tonight are the ones who are the ones in the crowd, and they're here to enjoy the show," one of them said. "Look, the bearded lady….hey Frank, looks kind of like your ex-wife out there."

Frank responded with a dry chuckle before casting the offending officer one of the dirtiest looks the man could muster.

"You're a real laugh riot, are you, Jeremy?" Frank asked. "Of course, if you were funnier, than maybe you should stand up at the old Gotham club, than….."

"Hey, relax, it's a long night, and….well it's not like we can drink on the job," Jeremy said.

One of the cops responded with a snort and shook his head. The officer must have been knew in town, which judging by his fresh-faced demeanor and calm expression pretty much showcased how much of a newbie he was.

"Well, if we were a bit higher up on the pecking order, we could have all of the drinks we want," an older officer said. "But, Loeb is in one of his moods where he wants the GCPD to look respectable. This entire cop killer thing, it has him on the edge."

"Yeah, well, guy's done some fucked up shit to get where he is," Frank said. The man took a long drink from his coffee. "I don't worry about any cop killer. If you ask me…."

"No one asked you."

"Shut it, Sam," Frank said. The officer tipped the coffee cup in his hand, and almost spilled it all over him. "Damn it!"

"Smooth one, Frank."

"I thought it told you to shut it, Sam!" Frank yelled. The officer bunched up his fists. "As I was saying, don't have anything to worry about. My record is about as clean as you can imagine."

"Yeah, about as clean as a woman on a street corner," Sam said.

"I thought I told you to shut it, Sam!" Frank said. The man's agitation hit an entirely new level. "You know, you're something else tonight, I don't know what crawled up your ass and died. If you ask me, I think they should be going up and down and taking a look at all of the cops who were stupid enough to be bumped from the force. You look at them, and you'll find your guy."

"You really think it will be easy," Jeremy said. "Do you really think anyone who was stupid enough to do something so stupid to get caught in Gotham would be smart enough to pull off a caper and no one has any leads for like six months or however long it is?"

Frank was about ready to respond, but someone walked around the corner. The other cops stood at attention, frowning when they approached.

"What do you want, Alvarez?" Frank asked.

The man, Alvarez, didn't even blink at the hostile tone coming from Frank's voice. Instead, he approached the man and looked him straight in the eye.

"I want you to clear out, me and my boys are taking security detail," Carlos Alvarez of the GCPD said walking to them. The other officers stared at Alvarez. He fished through his pocket and pulled them a roll of a hundred dollar bills. "Go, and get yourself something nice to eat, maybe a better shave as well. Some of you need it."

The police officers didn't question Alvarez, but they walked off. Alvarez watched them leave, leaning, as he watched the second to last act wrap up.

A worker passed Alvarez, carrying the ropes used for the final act. The two locked eyes for a moment and Alvarez took a good look at what the man was carrying.

"Those the ropes used for the final act?" Alvarez asked.

"Yep," the worker said. "Looks like it's going to be a memorable one…their final performance."

Alvarez nodded, taking a drink from his coffee. The man leaned against the tent pole to prepare for the five minute intermission.

A memorable night tonight indeed.

* * *

Rebecca hung out backstage while the intermission took place. From what the youngest Grayson watched of the Circus, all of tonight looked to be a premier event. Everyone looked forward to the main event, the Flying Graysons, the star act of the circus.

 _'Hope we can live up to their expectations,'_ Rebecca thought. The young girl cupped her hands together, nervous at the thoughts.

A figure almost knocked into Rebecca which caused a yelp.

"Excuse me!" Rebecca belted out, but the rough and tumble stagehand moved past her.

"Move it, kid, can't you see I'm in a hurry."

A burly looking fellow passed Rebecca, a sneer on the face of the man. The circus acrobat stopped from falling over in a hurry, keeping to a standing position. The woman frowned the moment the man in question passed down the hallway. Rebecca gasped as she realized she saw the weird man earlier. The weird main roamed around the Circus.

' _He shouldn't be here, should he?'_

"Mom…."

"Rebecca, we need to go on, in a few minutes," Mary said.

"But there's this guy back here….."

Rebecca's words fell on deaf ears when her father gently gripped the girl's shoulder.

"I'm sure he's just one of the stagehands," John said. The man craned his neck back and looked for the man in question. "He's gone now, whoever he was."

The cheers of the crowd caused John to want to step out into the tent and go and address his adoring public. The patriarch of the Grayson family stepped into the light. The cheers of the crowd, the adoring public, all of those virtues happened to be a drug. John smiled when he stepped into the picture.

"Tonight is the last night," John said. Mary raised her eyebrow. John chuckled, knowing this particular look from his wife all too well. The look of a man who had gotten humored regularly. "This time I mean it."

A small smile passed over Mary's lips. Talk about a song and dance John had in the past, but the Grayson woman wanted to believe her husband. Regardless, the trio of Graysons made their way out into the arena. The booming voice announced them.

Rebecca hated to admit it, the roar of the crowd made her smile. Being up high above the arena caused a feeling of bliss like none other to spread over the young girl's body. Tingles followed a matter of seconds later. Rebecca stood on, barely keeping a smile from spreading further than it had previous.

' _Okay, this is always awesome, I don't care what anyone thinks.'_

"Ladies and gentlemen, you will not believe your eyes when you watch the acrobatic death defying performance! High above the ground, without the aid of a net, everyone put your hands together for the Flying Graysons!"

Further cheers went up. The first family of Haley's circus waved to the ground. John recalled the times with his parents doing the same high wire act. Night after night, until his father decided to call it in. The adrenaline pumping through his body caused John Grayson to want to follow in his father's footsteps.

The Graysons ascended up the ladder, as the crowd grew into a buzzing feeling. The death-defying acrobatics started and everyone watched. No tricks, no wires, no gimmicks, these Graysons flew above the air. They defied gravity with a spectacular and death defying performance.

The crowd went up into a solid "oooh" when the youngers Grayson swung over and detached herself from the wire, flying through the air. The thirteen year old girl hurled through the air, as the collective breath of the crowd remained held. Gravity proved to be a harsh mistress and almost brought Rebecca Grayson to an end.

The last second, John Grayson caught his daughter by the hand and swung over. The two of them descended onto the platform. Rebecca raised a hand to the crowd to signify she was okay.

John waited for his wife to pull the same trick. The woman held onto the edge of the rope and swung through the air.

Mary Grayson flipped in the air. The entire crowd watched when the woman who defied death so many times looked to defy it again.

John caught his wife, and the two of them swung backwards. The two of them swung back towards the edge to complete the act.

The crowd rose to their feet, and two figures fell with a rope giving way. A sickening snap could be heard. Rebecca's eyes widened and mouth opened up.

"No, Mom, Dad!"

Rebecca ran over the edge, and almost jumped down, but caught herself. The thirteen year old descended the stairs to the ground, feeling more scared than ever, even after every high flying act. The closer Rebecca came to the bodies of her parents, the more terrified the girl became.

The crowd buzzed, at first, some of them thought it was part of some death defying stunt the Graysons ended up walking away from like every single other time. Time stood still and they realized it was real.

The Circus grew frantic, and yells followed, with someone asking to call an ambulance. Rebecca barely heard anything; the teenager sank to the crowd, kneeling by the broken husks of her parents.

* * *

The moment James Gordon saw the Graysons fall, he thought stunt, but only few seconds. The reaction of the young girl from high above dispelled the notion.

Medics made their way into the scene, as the GCPD moved in to deal with the shell shocked population. Gordon figured they barked up the wrong tree.

Meanwhile, Rebecca kneeled in the exact same spot her parents fell. The teenager kneeled, completely and utterly terrified. A strong hand grabbed her by the hand.

"It's going to be okay," Gordon said. "My name is James Gordon, I work for the GCPD."

Rebecca barely understood a word said to her. The girl's mind started to spin in several circles. A stabbing pain much like a headache James Gordon pulled Rebecca to her feet. The steady hand helped Rebecca to her feet, shock entering her mind and body.

"They'll wake up….please tell me they're going to wake up," Rebecca said.

"I don't know," James said. The cop wished more words of reassurance could be offered, but those words fell by the wayside. "We're going to do whatever we can to help them."

"Thank you…thank you," Rebecca said.

Numbness filled the body of Rebecca. Everything happened so fast it was hard for the young mind to process.

Gordon looked up and saw a solemn looking Bullock approaching him.

"It wasn't an accident, Jim, this entire mess was sabotage," Bullock said. "Someone used acid or something to weaken the ropes, not enough where it would be obvious, but….."

Bullock trailed off and Gordon pretty much filled in the blanks.

"The weight of people performing would eventually cause the ropes to give way," Gordon said.

"Could have happened to anyone, wouldn't have known a damn thing," Bullock said. "Doesn't look good, Jim…"

"I saw someone….I saw someone here who shouldn't be," Rebecca said.

Gordon turned his attention to Rebecca and the circus acrobatic took a long breath which sounded more along the lines of an extremely frustrated sigh more than anything.

"He didn't look like he belonged?" Gordon asked.

Rebecca didn't know how to explain this. Everything happened so fast, she couldn't really process it in a timely manner.

"I tried to say something….he's been walking around the circus a lot, in the last couple of days….I didn't really get a look on his face, but he was a big guy, he wore a hat and a trenchcoat."

Gordon frowned, it would have been a lot easier if Rebecca saw the guy's face. If the guy saw her, they would have a bit of a problem. Gordon wondered if the circus acrobat knew how much danger she was in. The officer had been around the beat enough times to know the man didn't really intend to leave any witnesses alive and Rebecca being alive could in fact be a little bit of a problem.

"Hello, Jim."

James Gordon turned around and noticed Harry Potter standing there. The young man had a sober look on the face. Gordon wasn't too surprised to see him here. In fact, he expected it.

"Figured you'd be in the crowd tonight," Gordon said. He turned to Harry, speaking in a low tone of voice. "I was here tonight….one of my nights off….but you know how that goes. Not I'm complaining….but still….never in my life expected to see what I saw."

Harry took a long moment and looked at the teenage girl. The girl remained in shock and seemed to be blinded by what was going on around her.

' _Poor kid,'_ Kara thought.

' _I agree,'_ Harry thought. _'Her life is a pretty rough one.'_

"What about her parents?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," Gordon said. The officer swallowed a lump in his throat.

No sooner did he say it, one of the medical examiner stepped forward. The woman wore a look on her face no one wanted to see when a medical examiner stepped forward. The woman turned towards Gordon and beckoned him over.

"I'm sorry, but they're all gone," she said. The woman turned around to give Rebecca the awful news. The medical examiner hunched down to face her. "I'm sorry sweetie, but….we could haven't done any more."

"They're gone…they're dead, aren't they?" Rebecca asked.

Diana turned up for a second and walked towards Rebecca. The girl tried to remain strong, but failed at it.

' _No, this can't be happening, this really can't be happening,'_ Rebecca thought. _'This is just a bad dream.'_

"They can't be dead," Rebecca said, before a firm had had been put on her shoulder.

"Shh, it's going to be okay," Diana said. "My name is Diana, and…."

"I'm not sure if it's going to be okay," Rebecca said, not wanting to sound rude.

Diana knew how distressed teenage girls could get so she tried to explain this to Rebecca in the most sympathetic way possible.

"I know it's tough," Diana said. The Amazon sat down next to Rebecca. "It's….well the best thing you need to do is deal with things one day at a time. Your parents would have been happy if you grew up to be a normal and strong woman."

"I don't….it was supposed to be our last night, everything was supposed to be….well it was supposed to be….." Rebecca said. The bold young woman's voice broke and she bent down. "It could have been me up there…falling…why would someone do this?"

"I don't know," Diana said. "There are a lot of angry people out there, capable of some nasty things….and…..your parents were some good people from what I heard."

Rebecca's numbness increased thanks to Diana's words. The fact her parents were such good people caused them to be victims of this particular cruelty.

"Is it alright to cry?" Rebecca asked.

Diana answered with a smile, grabbing Rebecca around the shoulder with a smile.

"It's always alright to cry," Diana said. The Princess remembered something her mother told her a long time ago. "True strength comes within showing your emotions, not hiding them. Do not worry about what the world things, rather let out your emotions."

Diana patted Rebecca on the back and the girl broke into sobs.

Gordon turned around and looked at the tent. A few of the Circus people gathered around. Rebecca might have said the guy in the trenchcoat looked like he didn't belong, but still, all of them were suspects.

"She's going to be targeted," Sarah said, walking over with Bullock, Montoya, and Yin. More members of the MCU showed up to join the group.

"Yeah, this was a hit…bit of a sloppy one, but it was a hit," Bullock said. He turned to Harry. "Can I help you?"

"Just being a concerned bystander, detective," Harry said. His gaze looked at the rotund detective. "Unless it's a crime in Gotham City to care about anything these days."

A long moment of pause followed with Bullock and Harry locking eye to eye with each other.

"She's going to need a safe house," Gordon said.

"Yes, but all of the safe houses the GCPD has…they aren't equipped to hold a child," Montoya said. The safe houses were for mobsters or politicians who they were protecting before they testified against people who were dangerous.

Harry decided to make his way over, finding what he thought was an adequate enough solution.

"We'd take her in, and keep an eye on her," Haley said.

Gordon turned to the man. He wanted to have some time to chat with Haley. The man had a pretty good idea what was going on.

"Sorry, but it's too much of a risk," Gordon said.

Harry watched in time to see Nym slip over, posing as circus hand thanks to her powers. Kara and Jaime took positions as well, as did Dinah, acting as bystanders in the crowd. If anyone tried anything against Rebecca, they would nail her.

"I've known John all of his life, and….I never wanted this to happen," Haley said. There would be some extremely important and powerful people after his neck thanks to what happened to the Graysons and Haley shuddered. "We're going to leave town in three days."

"Rebecca is an important witness, we can't just have her leave town with the Circus," Gordon said. The man snapped his fingers and turned to Harry, who stood there. "Harry, I need to ask you for a favor."

"You're asking rich boy for a favor here?" Bullock asked. Sarah, Ellen, and Renee cast him warning looks, but Bullock pressed on. "You must be pretty low on options here."

"Of course, Jim, anything," Harry said, brushing past Bullock's coarse words.

"I know your Penthouse is highly secure," Gordon said.

Harry smiled, the security upgrades recently were finished and Paula tested them. If Selina ever decided to get over her issues, whatever they were, Harry would have her test them as well. Selina still disavowed any component of her nocturnal life when both of them were out of costume.

"No need to mention anything, Jim, I'll be happy to take her in…for however long," Harry said.

"It's just a temporary measure, just until we nail this guy," Gordon said. "Besides, I'm sure it would be a distraction of her to be around so many friendly faces."

"I don't know Jim, putting her in his custody," Bullock said. "What makes you think he isn't going to start having the girl groomed for his harem?"

Some more dark looks had been cast to Harvey Bullock. The rotund detective thought he took a step too far.

"You've been reading too many tabloids, Bullock," Sarah said shortly.

"If there's any heat from Loeb or anyone else, I'll deal with it," Gordon said.

The crowd started to die down, with the press finally being escorted out. Some of Gotham's finest and not so finest reporters didn't need to show up, because they were already in the crowd.

"Thanks Harry, I owe you one later," Gordon said. "There's something rotten here….I can't put my finger on it."

"Hey, you let me date your daughter, it's the least I can do," Harry said.

Gordon offered a brief chuckle, before growing rather serious.

"And why do I have a feeling Barbara would kill both of us if she heard you say that?" Gordon asked. "Even if it is in a jesting manner?"

Harry smiled and the two of them walked over. Bruce appeared in the shadows, watching from the edge of the crowd. Harry signaled for him he would talk in a couple of minutes.

"Miss Grayson?" Gordon asked. Rebecca looked up, using the handkerchief Diana handed her to dab her eyes, staring the officer down. "You're going to go into protective custody….the people who killed your parents might want to come after you."

Rebecca's eyes had one of those looks Gordon knew all of those well. The look of a reckless child who had been hurt by the death of a loved one.

"Let them come after me, at least I'll know who did it, and….I'll make them pay for it," Rebecca said.

"You're angry, but….your parents would have wanted what was best for you," Diana said.

Rebecca was about ready to spat back no one knew what her parents wanted, but the Circus acrobat stopped herself. Her parents were going to retire tonight, so she could have a normal life. It might not have been a life she was thrilled with, but Rebecca thought it was a life for the best.

' _Maybe he does have a point.'_

The moment when Gordon was talking to Rebecca, Harry made his way over to Bruce.

"We both know this isn't an accident," Bruce said. The only indication Harry gave Bruce was a nod. "And we both know Haley knows something he's not telling us."

Haley shifted in the side, a bit of guilt in his face. Regardless of his guilt, Harry couldn't worry about it too much right now. Gordon waved him over, and the arrangements needed to be made. Harry agreed to do it, because the Penthouse was the most secure place in Gotham. It would take a miracle for anyone to breach it, and Harry didn't really believe in miracles.

* * *

Carlos Alvarez of the Gotham City Police Department slipped towards the edge of the Circus Grounds. He fished through his pockets for some coins, before slipping them through a slot in the payphone. The man's hand shook. It almost felt like someone watched over him.

"Come on, come on, pick up, I don't have all day," Alvarez said.

Finally, after a long pause, the man on the other end of the phone answered.

"Yeah, what is it?" Zucco asked.

"You didn't stick around and watch the show, did you?" Alvarez asked.

"Nah, I have you there as my eyes and ears for a reason, besides, duty called," Zucco said. "So, what's up with you….did the Graysons fall? Do you think Haley got the message?"

"There's a problem…..the GCPD are investigating the crime as a murder," Alvarez said.

"Well of course they are, you're a cop, every crime is a homicide, but once interest dies down, they'll figure out it's an accident and it will all blow over," Zucco said. "Until then, Loeb isn't really playing ball with us this time, so….we're going to have to play it careful."

"What got up Loeb's ass anyway?" Alvarez asked.

"He convinced himself he's a decent guy, instead of the corrupt bastard we all know and love, but….he'll do something underhanded, especially if his skin's on the line," Zucco said. "So, they're investigating a murder…big deal…Haley will keep his mouth shut if he knows what's good for him, and the last thing he wants is a bunch of cops snooping about."

"One of them survived, one of the Graysons," Alvarez said.

Alvarez figured what Zucco's response was going to be like.

"You've got to be shitting me," Zucco said.

"It's their daughter, Rachel, I think her name is, or something," Alvarez said.

"Or something, or something, well….listen to me carefully, Alvarez," Zucco said. The man drew in a breath. "I ran into the brat on my way out the door….if she saw my face, you're going down with me, so you better hope she didn't see a damn thing….and when you get close enough to her….you know what to do."

Alvarez hated the fact he was thrown underneath the bus for what Zucco wanted to do. The man's teeth gritted for a long second.

"Let me guess, another problem," Zucco said.

"She's being put in protective custody….Gordon and the MCU are taking care of it, and I've been locked out of the loop," Alvarez said.

"Well, find your way in the loop, or you're going to find yourself at the bottom of a river," Zucco said.

"You don't….I know things, and I can go to the GCPD and tell them what you've been up to," Alvarez said.

Zucco responded with a mocking laugh.

"We both know you don't have the balls to do it, so don't act like you're a big man, Alvarez," Zucco said. The man's chuckle sounded rather prominent. "You don't know what I have on you either. People need to understand the pecking order. Falcone, Haley, the GCPD, all of those freaks in suits, and even you, Carlos….have a good evening, and call me when you have a lead on where their stashing the kid."

Alvarez hung up the phone. The officer shuddered at the thought someone watched him. The thought was ludicrous wasn't it? Regardless, the office of the GCPD returned to the car and made his way on home.  
X-X-X  
James Gordon returned to the scene of the crime early the next morning on a hunch. The Circus looked abandoned, with the area where the Graysons performed taped off on a crime scene.

He made his way inside the mostly abandoned circus. Gordon stepped inside and walked across, knocking on the door.

"Mr. Haley, this is James Gordon of the Gotham City Police Department, are you there?" Gordon asked. A long pause followed. Gordon raised his hand and started to knock on the door again. No answer once again. Haley locked the door, and Gordon couldn't get inside without force.

In the shadows, a figure moved. A gun pointed at Gordon, about ready to take the Gotham City police officer out.

Before Gordon could be attacked, a figure swooped down from the heavens. The goon dropped to the ground and smashed face first hard.

The goon tried to rise to his feet to fight the attacker, but experienced a series of kicks to the face which rocked the goon.

Gordon looked up and saw a figure stand from the shadows. The officer stepped forward, and withdrew his sidearm, but it wasn't as a measure to attack, but rather a measure to defend himself if he needed to.

"I know you don't exist, and I know I shouldn't talk to you, but I appreciate the assist all of the same."

No response, but Gordon didn't anticipate one, not even for a second.

"You should go, the rest of the GCPD will not appreciate what you being here."

"You're the only one here."

Gordon hated having his bluff called. Batman stepped from the shadows, but not quite in the light.

"I have reason to believe one of the GCPD officers is involved in the Grayson murders."

* * *

**To Be Continued on January 27** **th** **, 2016.**


	155. Night At the Circus Part Two

**Vote in the latest chapter of the week poll. New one every Sunday. https://www.fanfiction.net/u/424665/  
**

* * *

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Five: Night at the Circus Part Two:**

* * *

The last day made Rebecca Grayson feel like she had been trapped in a never ending nightmare. Yesterday started out so good, with the Graysons so happy. Their final performance in front of Gotham City ended in tragedy. The next thing Rebecca knew, her parents suffered injuries which would end up being fatal, and to prevent the murderer from going after the orphan, The GCPD put her in the custody of one Harry Potter.

Talk about strange with how life tended to go. What a different twenty-four hours made in the life of the young circus acrobat.

Rebecca almost smiled at the fact she found herself in the custody of Harry Potter. Or Rebecca would have during another day. Right now, after the weird day which passed, and the nightmare which caused her to wander the floors sleepless, Rebecca couldn't enjoy the arrangement as much as she would have liked. The woman turned upon her heel, and took a deep breath as Rebecca kept walking the floors.

And she could walk the floors for hours and hours and never quite end up in the same place.

Talk about a big place, the entire sitting room looked to be bigger than her entire house. Granted, as Rebecca reminded herself, house would be putting where her and her parents lived would be pushing it. Their residence looked to be some hybrid between a trailer and a tent, for lack of a better term.

"Are you lost?"

Rebecca almost stood up. A redheaded woman sat on the couch in her pajamas and leaned over it. The two locked eyes for a moment, staring each other down. Rebecca finally found her voice.

"No, just….I couldn't sleep," Rebecca said.

"I understand," the woman said. Sympathy filled her voice when she motioned for the younger girl to walk over. "Everything happened so fast….and I'm sorry to hear about your loss."

Rebecca nodded, not really knowing what to say. The woman moved over a stack of papers and allowed the circus acrobat sitting down on the couch. The woman took a long breath and turned towards the woman on the couch.

"Barbara Gordon," she said, answering Rebecca's unasked questions. Rebecca answered with a crisp nod in understanding. "You met my father."

Rebecca smiled, she did recall this.

"Right….he….I'm sure he wants to help, but I didn't really see the guy's face," Rebecca said. The thirteen year old girl sighed and hung her head. Barbara handed Rebecca a soda to drink. "Kind of counterproductive for me not getting any sleep, handing me caffeine, wouldn't it be?"

Barbara laughed.

"Well, you look like you need something to drink," Barbara replied with a shrug. "I wouldn't ask you how you're feeling…but if you need someone to talk to, I'm here."

"Thank you," Rebecca said. She shook her head to clear the cobwebs. Everything really unsettled her in way too many ways. She took a long sip from the soda before returning her gaze. "Every time I close my eyes, I think they're going to come back. I think it's going to be some joke, some act, something…but it's real, it's very real."

"I know…and it's hard," Barbara said.

"So everyone keeps telling me."

Barbara patted Rebecca on the back of the neck.

"And I didn't see anything," Rebecca said. She almost looked at what Barbara was working on the laptop, but she shut it and put it away. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be really nosy, but….."

"It's fine, I understand," Barbara said. It wasn't anything she wanted to hide, but past experience caused her to keep on her guard. "It's been a long night for a lot of us, especially for all of us in attendance. You more so than anyone."

Rebecca nodded, not wanting to say anything. To be honest, the thirteen year old didn't really know what to say. A lump filled her throat and prevented her for speaking. Barbara eyed her with a sympathetic smile and a nod.

"Don't worry if you don't want to say anything, it will come," Barbara said.

Her father mentioned about the problems a lot of the children who found their parents dead had. Barbara only could imagine what it was like for Rebecca as her parents fell before her, what exactly went through her mind throughout the entire mess.

' _Poor kid, she must be losing her mind. Good thing she has a support group now.'_

' _Yeah, we're going to have to all make sure everything goes well for her,'_ Kara said.

Rebecca was glad Barbara didn't press her for details. The young woman took a long drink from the soda, hands shaking. Rebecca took a moment to steady her hand and put it on the table for a long moment.

"My Dad says he was a stage hand…and I thought he looked weird," Rebecca said. "Why couldn't I have done anything?"

"What would you have done?" Barbara asked.

Rebecca found Barbara's question to be one which took her completely off guard. The dark haired girl thought about it for a long hard moment. Barbara started to clear up everything on the table and put it in a neat stack, or as about as neat as it was going to get.

"I don't know," Rebecca said for a long moment. The girl tensed up with more guilt flowing through her body than ever before. "I told them…they didn't listen to me."

Barbara wished she could offer even more words of encouragement, but nothing came. She watched Dinah arrive at the end of the hallway, and the two of them exchanged a smile, with Dinah making her way to the training room for some early morning training.

"Did Doctor Potter ever get back last night?" Rebecca asked. Barbara turned towards her with a raised eyebrow. "He left last night, but….I didn't see him come back….not I was waiting up for him, but….it's weird he left late in the evening and it's….."

"Harry keeps some odd hours," Barbara said. "Speaking of which….I need to head out right now….I've got to head to work…if you need anything, Dinah or Diana or Kara will be able to help you."

"You have to go to work right now?" Rebecca asked. The woman stole a look at the clock and almost had been caught off guard by the time on it. "Three in the morning? Seriously?"

Granted, being a circus brat, Rebecca was pretty used to some strange hours, but she almost thought such hours would be strange for a normal person.

"Well, tech support, and my….clients are up rather early," Barbara said.

Barbara didn't want to say she managed to run down a lead regarding Rebecca's killers, for the simple reason Barbara didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, especially her own.

' _Maybe we'll find out something which can put her at peace,'_ Barbara thought.

* * *

Meanwhile around this time, Nightwing drops down on the roof. The dreaded vigilante waited a long moment, before Batman dropped down.

"So, she's settled in?" Batman asked.

"Yes," Nightwing said after a second. "She shouldn't go out and try something she'll regret. I have enough people keeping an eye on her to prevent that."

Batman nodded. Someone having their parents struck a cord with Bruce. The killer of his parents never had been properly brought to justice. Batman hoped to bring this killer to justice and prevent another child from having the pain he suffered.

"And I know you have a lead," Nightwing said. "So what is it?"

"Carlos Alvarez of the GCPD ran off after the investigation to make a phone call to someone," Batman said.

"And you think he knows something," Nightwing said. Batman's non-answer proved to answer the question better than anything.

Nightwing wondered where they had met here of all places. The young man leaned out over the railing in front of a rather active night club. It wasn't the most active place in town, but it still served its purpose. One of Gotham's politicians entered the club with a woman dressed in a sleazy dress. This woman most certainly wasn't the man's wife.

"I've dug up some information," Oracle said in their ear. Both crime fighters showed their full and undivided attention. "This Alvarez guy, he's friendly with Maroni, or at least he was before Maroni got sent up the river."

"And we've never been able to figure out why Maroni had just lost favor with Loeb," Nightwing said. He turned to Batman. "Did you track down Haley, the owner of the circus?"

"I tried to talk to him, but he skipped town," Batman said. "He knows something is wrong. He might not have anything to do with the murders, but he's acting like a pretty guilty man."

Nightwing could begin to piece the puzzle together. Based on both how Haley acted and what Rebecca said, every bit of this investigation came together in a fluid manner.

"This has all of the hallmarks of an extortion gone wrong," Nightwing said. The two continued to watch the entrance of the night club. "So, is this one of Alvarez's hangouts?"

The amount of sleazy cops and politicians who hung out in this area told Harry all he needed to know about this place.

"Yes," Batman said. "He comes here, gets a few drinks, tries to pick up a woman….trying to claim he's some big hero, even though his record says differently."

"Sounds like a real smooth operator," Nightwing said.

Batman turned from the front of the night club and gave his usual look. Nightwing only blinked in response. Batman recovered quickly at his look not quite working on Nightwing.

"I never said he was successful at picking up women."

Nightwing chuckled, Batman's blunt demeanor made the statement seem funnier than it should be. Regardless, the vigilante perched himself on the gargoyle across the club. One of the things he counted on from Gotham architecture was the strategically placed gargoyles where they could peer out. The time for thinking about Gotham architecture reached to a close. Nightwing adjusted his mask, to get a better look.

' _Well, this is a wonderful bust,'_ Kara thought.

' _Just keep at it,'_ Harry thought. _'He should show up. His entire day got thrown off, I know it did.'_

So far, nothing, not even a corrupt cop. Nightwing wanted to nail this guy to the wall. He might have not committed the murder. This didn't mean he didn't perform some problems.

' _Of course, there's a chance I could be wrong,'_ Harry thought. _'It's happened. It's rare, but it happened.'_

' _Aren't we being modest?'_ Donna asked.

' _Both modest and accurate,'_ Karen concluded. _'He's bound to crawl out from underneath a rock sooner or later.'_

 _'So, you're just playing the waiting game now, aren't you?'_ Dinah asked. _'She's in shock….walking the floors of the Penthouse….she opened up a little bit to Barbara. Diana is going to talk to her later, but…you don't want to push her too far, do you?'_

'No, I don't want her to pull away before we make inroads,'

Harry thought. _'I wouldn't grill her for information even….if she says she didn't see the guy's face, she didn't.'_

' _You believe her?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Of course, I believe her,'_ Harry thought. _'If she saw anything, she would say it.'_

'But can't you reach into her mind and pull out details she might have missed?'

Barbara thought.

 _'It can be done with magic, but just because it could be done, doesn't mean it should be done,'_ Zatanna thought. _'Especially with the fragile state of mind she's in, after seeing her parents die.'_

'Bringing up one memory triggers another memory, and it could break down the strongest of minds,'

Lily said. _'Mind magic is a dangerous area to navigate. You don't want to cause problems there.'_

Speaking of dangerous areas to navigate, the club door opened. Almost on cue, in fact, pretty much down to the second, Alvarez exited the club. The man looked to the right, which meant Batman came down to the left.

The GCPD officer almost screamed as Batman dragged him into a long and dark lonely alleyway. Nightwing dropped down next to both them. Thanks to his aura, the dragon cast a slightly more intimidating shadow than Batman.

"Please don't hurt me, I'll give you anything you want, just please, don't hurt me!" Alvarez yelled.

The man almost collapsed like a useless sack of flesh on the ground. Harry directed a slight eye roll towards him.

"Tell us about what happened at Haley's Circus tonight," Batman said.

"I don't know," the officer said. "It was a tragic accident…the MCU are investigating it, it's not really my beat but….OH GOD NO!"

Batman hoisted him up so the vigilante could suspend him high atop the city. The corrupt cop dangled over the pavement. Nightwing calmly walked up to Alvarez and stared in his face.

"I suggest you start talking, because it's a long drop onto the concrete from up there," Nightwing said. "And you'll find if my friend's grip slips, you're going down the long way, the hard way."

Alvarez started to shake and shiver as long as Batman suspended him high above the ground.

"I can't….he'll hurt me!"

"You know what else hurts?" Nightwing asked in a chilling tone. "Free-falling into pavement."

"Fine, you want to know, fine!" Alvarez yelled. "It was Zucco….Tony Zucco…he was trying to extort money from the Circus…and he's pissed the brat survived the fall."

Nightwing slammed his fist into Alvarez's mouth, busting up his lip and his teeth. Blood and bone splattered everywhere when Nightwing nailed him in the most painful way possible.

"If you're lying, I will find you, and I will haunt your nightmares to your dying day," Nightwing said. "You won't be able to close your eyes at night."

The sounds of sirens arrived. Batman lowered Alvarez to the ground, causing him to drop onto some bags with the rest of the trash. Seconds later, Batman slipped out into the night and Nightwing followed closely behind.

* * *

Tony Zucco started to pace the hallways in an office. The past twenty four hours caused him to become a bit of a wreck and start sweating like a pig in a suit. The man rummaged through his desk drawer and pulled out a white handkerchief, dabbing the sweat from his face. More of it stuck to the cloth and the cloth stuck to his face.

_'Can't believe it, my extortion attempt left a witness, and that imbecile Alvarez couldn't even seal the deal. Unbelievable, could this night get any worse?'_

A loud rumbling knock caused Zucco to come perilous close to heart failure.

' _No, not the GCPD, it can't be them…I…it can't be this soon. The bastard wouldn't have had the balls to squeal.'_

"Open the door Zucco, I know you're in there!"

Zucco reached underneath his desk with a shaky hand and pulled out a shotgun. The door opened on its own accord and Big Lou Maroni sauntered in to the office. The man slammed the latest newspaper on the desk. The old mobster's eyes looked at Zucco's gun.

"Put the thing down, before you hurt yourself," Big Lou said. His hot Italian temper bubbled dangerously close to the surface. Even Zucco backed off at the forceful statement.

Did Zucco need the gun? Likely wouldn't hurt to keep it at arm's length, but he doubted he could use it against Big Lou. Even at his advanced age, the crafty old bastard boasted some pretty swift reflexes. Zucco didn't really feel like tempting fate and screwing himself over and not in the fun way.

Big Lou took a long and deep breath. He motioned for Zucco to take a seat. Zucco did as well. The man pushed the newspaper underneath him and made him read it.

"Read it, read it!" Big Lou yelled.

"It says the GCPD has a potential lead in the investigation," Zucco said. "So, some circus brat survived, she didn't see anything."

Big Lou gritted his teeth to stare down Zucco with fury.

"I would call you retarded, but there are some short bus kids who would be very insulted by being compared to the likes of you," Big Lou said. Zucco almost opened his mouth to protest, but Big Lou slammed his hand on the desk which caught Zucco's attention. "Listen to me and listen to me good….you got greedy. I don't like it when people get greedy; they act like they're the king shit! But they don't know shit, do they?"

Zucco knew a rhetorical question when he heard one.

"I never meant….."

Big Lou slammed his big fist down onto the table which got Zucco to pay attention.

"Quit flapping your yap and listen to me," Big Lou said. "The boys have been talking….there are plenty of people around asking the wrong kinds of questions. And people asking the wrong kinds of question is bad for business. I don't believe in the boogeyman or anything, but you stirred up someone and they're going to be after you like a dog after a bone."

"Alvarez, that son of a bitch better not have said anything," Zucco said. The man started to huff and puff and almost rose to his feet. Big Lou reached over and grabbed Zucco's wrist, forcing him to sit down on the desk.

"You are the biggest dumbshit in the entire world, and given some of them I've seen, I'm giving you a whole lot of credit," Big Lou said. The man stood up to a full height and peered down in Zucco's eyes. "Look at it, I see the guilt in your beady little eyes. You're a dumbfuck who just couldn't keep his hand out of the cookie jar for once, could you?"

Zucco almost opened his mouth. Big Lou hauled off and smacked him like a pimp smacking a prostitute who had skimmed some money off of the top. Zucco staggered both from the slap and the entirely murderous glare Big Lou flashed his way.

"You just couldn't stay away from the Circus, could you?" Big Lou asked. "If you go down, the shit goes upward. Loeb's got a hair up his ass for some reason. He put my boy away…you remember Sal getting thrown under the bus, don't you?"

Zucco didn't do anything more other than nod. Scared to death pretty much described how the man felt. He took in a deep breath, staring Big Lou in the eye full on.

"It's a good thing you're my boy's boy," Big Lou said. "If it were up to me, you would be in the fucking harbor….but you need to get the hell out of Gotham, before the heat comes after you."

Zucco almost grumbled about the fact Big Lou told him to get out of his city. Alvarez wouldn't really say anything, he had too much riding on the line. Regardless, Zucco clenched his fist.

"You have about three hours to pack your bags before the train to Metropolis leaves Gotham Station," Big Lou said. "Old Ugly will take care of you, and be thankful he has a use for you. Otherwise, you'd be thrown out to the wolves."

Zucco nodded, thinking it would be for the best if he chilled a little bit.

"Yeah, thanks," Zucco said. The man sounded more humble than ever before, even though he knew this would come back around and whack him in the face.

Big Lou waved him off. Zucco didn't know how much trouble he caused the family. Falcone would wait for an opportunity to swoop in and take control. Sure, he played nice with Sal, but Big Lou saw the Roman for everything he was, a dubious, double-crossing, snake.

' _Bastard will go down as well,'_ Big Lou thought. _'I'm not playing nice, not any more.'_

* * *

James Gordon paced back and forth, wondering if he really should jump down this rabbit hole. Some of the veteran cops in the Gotham City Police Department warned him the force changed people. Being in Gotham changed people and caused their morals, their limits to be pushed. They warned him a good cop was only a cop who hadn't had his morals tested at all just yet.

The need for a mysterious vigilante operating from the shadows became obvious the longer Gordon worked with the force. He didn't like it, but there were some really big problems. And recently, threats manifested which the GCPD could not handle alone ,capable as they may be.

 _'On the rooftop, in five minutes,'_ Gordon thought. Four and a half minutes passed. The Gotham City police officer sat back.

The shadowed figure showed up right on schedule and as promised. Gordon didn't blink when he stared him down.

"Good morning, Lieutenant," Batman said. The man made sure to keep visible enough to where Gordon saw him, but not so visible where anyone else could see him.

"Yes, morning," Gordon said. He took a drink from the coffee he brought to the rooftop. "You do realize how much of a risk it is for us to meet up here, isn't it?"

"It's worth the risk, we need to talk," Batman said.

Gordon figured as much and thought about how to breach the subject obviously.

"Is this about Alvarez being found by Montoya and Bullock screaming out of his mind about demons and dragons?" Gordon asked.

"Tony Zucco is responsible for the attack at the circus," Batman said. "And he worked with the Circus back before it left Gotham the first time."

"How did you know…." Gordon asked, trailing off for a moment.

Batman caught Gordon off guard and the Detective, knowing what direction this one was going in, pounced on an opportunity to jump in.

"Alvarez said Zucco was the one responsible for the murder, and he intended all three Graysons were to end up dead," Batman said. "It was almost the perfect crime, but he'll be the first to confess."

"I'm not sure if his confession will do much good," Gordon said. "Alvarez has clammed up, and he refuses to talk, except for yelling about being haunted by terrible demons. You and your friend left an impression on him….for someone who doesn't exist."

Batman didn't respond for a moment. He brushed off Gordon's words and gave his two cents.

"Zucco is the important piece to this puzzle," Batman said. "Find him, and this ends."

Gordon hoped he knew finding someone like Zucco was not going to be easy. Even though Maroni was in Blackgate, the man had resources. No one knew why Loeb started to take a hardline stance against the mobster, but he did take a hardline stance and it left Maroni inside prison. For now, Maroni's attempts for parole had been blocked.

' _Only a matter of time before Maroni finds a way over Loeb's head,'_ Gordon thought, trying to dismiss the obviously painful thought.

"I'd keep an eye on Alvarez if I were you," Batman said. "The cop killer might find him an acceptable target to continue their crusade."

Gordon opened his mouth and closed it, resembling a fish out of water more than anything. The cop killers hadn't really reached the press, other than brief blurbs about the deceased. Gordon didn't know how anyone didn't connect the dots, but they didn't connect them. For some reason, everything had been swept underneath the rug.

Regardless, there was a lot of internal pressure to catch the individual or individuals responsible for the killings.

A sound of footsteps dragged Gordon out of his thoughts. Someone came up to the roof, likely to check on why someone was on the roof. The police officer turned to Batman, to communicate he needed to leave.

Only Batman disappeared into the night as quickly as possible. Gordon wondered how he could leave after having his head turned for two seconds.

 _'He's good,'_ Gordon thought, grudgingly impressed by the man.

The door leading to the stairwell opened up and one Harvey Bullock stepped out. The man looked more in disarray them ever before.

"So, coming up here to get some time alone with your thoughts?" Bullock asked. Gordon nodded. "Yeah, all of us have moments….well we just need some time to wonder where the hell everything went wrong."

"Is Alvarez talking?" Gordon asked.

Bullock chuckld before catching a look from Gordon.

"Well, he's screaming out every now and then, but I don't talk cuckoo," Bullock said. "He keeps wanting us to check the closet, you know for monsters. Thought most people got over the entire monster in the closet thing by the time they turned ten. Well most of them did."

Gordon knew all about Alvarez's ramblings. He could not focus on them. Rather, more important things needed to be discussed.

"Did he say anything else of value, in the middle of the constant ramblings?" Gordon asked.

"Well, he did talk about being kicked under the bus, and being set up for a fall, but…anyone who is caught doing a misdeed, that's what they all say," Bullock said. "But a lot of what he's saying isn't making sense."

"The cop killer might have Alvarez in his crosshairs," Gordon said.

Bulock considered Gordon's thoughts for a moment. The man hit something straight on point.

"Yeah, I figured the man with his record would be a perfect target," Bullock said. "But he's in the precinct, surrounded by cops…so do you really think the whacko is going to be able to get through?"

"The cop killer might try, the last couple of attacks have been more brazen than the earlier ones," Gordon said. "If Alvarez is placed in a spot where is open and secure at the same time, we might be able to nail whoever is doing this and end it."

Bullock had been caught off guard from t his suggestion from Gordon.

"Wait, you want to use Alvarez as some kind of bait?" Bullock asked. "I'm not sure if I should be scared you're doing this, or impressed. "

Gordon knew what his answer was. Under normal circumstances, James Gordon wouldn't have contemplated such a suggestion.

"But you're really treading a dangerous line breaking rules like this."

"I'm not necessarily breaking the rules," Gordon said. He frowned as Bullock said what he needed to say. "I'm finding a way around them."

Bullock clicked his tongue, with what passed as a disapproving tut. The man flicked a toothpick down to the ground and replaced it with another.

"Always starts with a small justification, but ends up with you being dragged down the rabbit hole with the rest of us," Bullock said. He repeated what the veteran cops told him a long time ago. And what Bullock discounted at least until it was too late. "Gotham corrupts, and those who try and play by the rules are often either dead or become just as corrupted."

Gordon recalled what had been told to him about as long time ago by the older cops both from within and outside of Gotham, the city corrupted even the most noble of hearts. Gordon tried to strike out and prove to be the difference maker.

"If you're done getting some fresh air, O'Hara wants a word with you," Bullock said.

Gordon turned around without another word and went to see what the Chief of Police of Gotham City wanted.

* * *

Rebecca Grayson spent most of the time walking the penthouse floors when unable to sleep and had a pretty good idea where all of the exits happened to be. Something bugged her at this late point of the evening.

Some murder was still out there, and he might have skipped down. Rebecca strained her mind to remember the slightest detail of his face, but nothing. Rebecca strained and thought and tried to come up with any idea.

Nothing, nothing at all. Not even a hint.

' _Come on Grayson, remember,'_ Rebecca thought.

She needed to go and find him, find the person who did this. Rebecca faked going to bed before heading out after her second night in the penthouse.

Rebecca made her way to the door, almost reaching it, when a figure stepped in front of her.

"Kara, right?" Rebecca asked.

"Yes," Kara said with a smile. "And I take it you weren't going for a midnight stroll."

Rebecca knew they were keeping an eye on her. Still, she barely touched the door before she had been caught this time.

"Look, I appreciate Doctor Potter taking me in, and making sure I'm okay, but I'm fine, really I am," Rebecca said. Kara's gaze locked onto Rebecca's and an annoyance filled her voice. "Look, I can pretty much take care of myself on my own….the Circus isn't the safest place in the world."

 _'Hence the fact why Mom and Dad ended up murdered,'_ Rebecca thought grimly.

"You're in the safest place in Gotham, and the person who is after you is pretty dangerous," Kara said.

Rebecca responded with a scoff and folded her arms. Kara didn't back down from her words.

"Yeah, no one really knows who did it….I didn't even see his face," Rebecca said. "But, I'll find him….if he's still hanging around, he'll be at the Circus."

Kara knew the young girl was angry and a bit temperamental. In her mood, reckless might be a good descriptor for what Rebecca could be up.

"Please stay put," Kara said. "The GCPD are investigating it."

"Well, I'm sure they're doing a good job," Rebecca said. She didn't mean to sound so cynical. It just popped out this way. Kara raised an eyebrow and Rebecca's tone softened a tad. "But, anything they do won't bring my parents back."

"And killing the guy who did it would?" Kara asked.

"Maybe not, but it would….it would stop him from hurting anyone else," Rebecca said.

"It's been a long night for all of us," Kara said. She leaned down and received a message on her Red Sun. Kara frowned when she received it.

"If you don't mind me asking…what's going on?" Rebecca asked. Kara turned towards her, raising an eyebrow. "Sorry, I didn't mean to…."

"No, you didn't, but….I think we have a pretty good idea regarding who did this, who killed your parents," Kara said.

Rebecca's face sprung into a smile. Dare she hope something would point out. Dare she hope something would end this nightmare.

' _No, I shouldn't get my hopes up.'_

"Really, who?" Rebecca asked. She almost bounced up to her feet. Kara grabbed her shoulder to steady her.

 _'She's a bit of the impatient type,'_ Amanda thought. The woman's eyes went into the back of her head with an obvious groan. _'Not, we're ones to really talk, you know.'_

'Yes, believe it, we know it,'

Barbara said.

"Are you calmed down?" Kara asked.

Rebecca tried to keep herself from losing all sense. Kara gripped Rebecca's shoulder and steered her to sit back down. The Circus Acrobat started to nod her head up and down.

"Yes, I'm calm, trust me, I'm calm," Rebecca said. The woman started to tug her hair, rocking back with a groan passing her throat. "So….did you…..you know…you really know."

Rebecca stopped for a long moment and wondered if she really wanted to know. Kara handed her something to drink. The water calmed her nerves a little bit and cooled her down.

"If you want me to tell you, you need to do something for me," Kara said.

"Fine, what do you want me to do?" Rebecca asked.

"Promise not to go and seek him out," Kara said. "I really want you to promise this, okay?"

"I…."

"Rebecca," Kara said in a firm tone.

"Fine," Rebecca said, grumbling for a moment. "So, who was it?"

Kara took a long moment to think about how to put this to Rebecca. Such an explanation had to be handled with the grandest of care.

"His name is Zucco, Tony Zucco," Kara said.

"I've never….I've never heard of the guy in my life," Rebecca said. "But, why would he kill my parents?"

"To send a message," Kara said. Rebecca raised her eyebrow.

"He was the guy who my dad saw talking to Mr. Haley…the day…." Rebecca said. Her voice started to break and Kara grabbed Rebecca by the shoulder, steading her. "The day it happened….and….why did it have to be them?"

Rebecca slammed her fists down the table. The acrobat winced when the woman's hands became bruised from the impact on the table. She paused and almost apologized. Kara shook her head in response.

"It's alright, let it out," Kara said.

"I don't…I don't know what to happen," Rebecca said. "Zucco needs to pay for what happened….and….I hope I get to look him in the eye when they put him away."

At least she wasn't going to try and hunt down Zucco on her own. Kara pretty much talked her off of the ledge for now.

 _'We're going to have to keep a closer eye on her,'_ Kara said.

'Well thankfully we'll be able to,'

Diana thought. _'No one is able to leave the premises or enter without any of us knowing.'_

'Which is why we have such security,'

Kara thought. _'Just one day at a time, hopefully Harry has a lead.'_

'I just might.'

* * *

Nightwing resumed the hunt after sunset. He scouted out a night club which belonged to the Maronis. Given how high up the food chain Zucco stood, there was a chance he was here.

"Maroni gave back the hotel to Falcone as an act of good faith," Oracle said. "At least it's what I've found dealing with records….word is on the street Big Lou Maroni and his boys are hanging out in the basement."

"And one of those boys is Tony Zucco," Nightwing said. "Well, if he comes out and about, it's hard to miss him."

 _'Yes, but I'm surprised the GCPD hasn't swarmed the place yet,'_ Dinah thought.

 _'Are you really surprised?'_ Harry thought.

 _'Zucco might not even be here,'_ Barbara thought.

_'Well if he's not here, than there's someone here who knows where he is.'_

Nightwing continued to turn his neck for a long moment. A couple of women left the club, but they looked to be normal club goers, unaware of the seedy dealings beneath, or maybe they were, but they didn't care.

 _'So far, nothing,'_ Harry thought. He turned his attention to Kara in the bond link. _'So, how is everything back at the ranch?'_

'Becca has calmed down, after I told her who killed her parents, and explained to her how dangerous she is,'

Kara thought. _'At least for the moment.'_

'Well, at least we are keeping an eye on her,'

Diana thought.

 _'And speaking of keeping an eye out, it's go time,'_ Harry thought.

A burly man made his way from the lab. Harry recognized his face from Gotham's most notorious, he was one of Zucco's chief men. The man stumbled half of a step forward, obviously intoxicated.

Nightwing dropped down from the heavens, causing the party goers to scatter. He grabbed the goon and hoisted him up.

"Ah, no, please, no!" the man yelled.

"It's a long way down, isn't it?" Nightwing asked. "And you're about to find out what happens when a puppet has his strings cuts."

The man started to shake like a leaf. His entire life flashed before his eyes.

"Where is Tony Zucco?" Nightwing asked.

The man almost had a heart attack when he saw the glowing red eyes. The glowing red eyes were only just visible from the darkness. The rest of the dragon's body shrouded in the shadows.

"Zucco, I don't know, I don't know, please don't hurt me, I don't know!" the man started to stammer.

"Do you?" Nightwing asked.

"He…he took a train out of Gotham, he's not here, he needs to leave…let the heat die down!" the man yelled.

"Which train?" Nightwing asked.

The goon trembled underneath Nightwing's strong grip.

"I don't know…it leaves at Midnight."

Nightwing had twenty-three minutes until Midnight, talk about being run against the clock. Nightwing made a quick decision of what to do, getting in touch with Oracle as he did so.

"Oracle, check on the trains going out of Gotham, at Midnight," Nightwing said.

"Just a minute," Oracle said. The sound of the quick fingers furiously typing on the computer could be heard, before she responded. "Just the one, it's from Gotham to Metropolis, and it leaves every night at Midnight."

Nightwing needed to hurry. Oracle sent him the location through Nightwing's wrist computer. Nightwing took the shortest route, running against the clock.

* * *

**To Be Continued on January 30** **th** **, 2016.**


	156. Night of the Circus Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Six: Night of the Circus Part Three.**

* * *

After everything he went through over this past day, Carlos Alvarez of the Gotham City Police Department doubted very much he would ever sleep again. The corrupt and rather terrified officer started to chew the same piece of gum over and over again until the point where his jaw became sore. His eyes started to dart to the right, to the left. His gun had been confiscated, not it did any good during the time where Batman showed up.

The creaking of the door caused Alvarez to almost bounce to his feet. Loeb turned up, along with Howard Branden, and James Gordon. Rachel Dawes followed the three men into the room several seconds later. The door remained open behind him which caused him to feel extremely vulnerable.

"Could you please lock the door behind you?" Alvarez asked. Loeb looked at Alvarez for a long second. "What if he comes back for me?"

Everyone looked at Alvarez with an interesting combination of sympathy and agitation. None of them took what he had been going through too seriously.

"I'm being serious, he could come for me…he's like the devil!"

"No one is going to come after you, Mr. Alvarez," Rachel said. The woman leaned towards the clipboard.

"But, they're after me, they're going to come for me, all of them are going to come for me!" Alvarez yelled. The man almost rose to his feet, but Loeb raised his hand. "But…."

"Sit down, and take a breath, calm down," Loeb said. The GCPD commissioner's eyes locked on Alvarez's face. "Calm down and be quiet, so we can all get through this."

Alvarez always hated when people told him to calm down. He was anything but calm. The man's encounter with the Bat and the Dragon caused him to become a bundle of nerves.

"Tell me where Zucco is, and there shouldn't be any problem," Rachel said. The Assistant DA leaned closer towards him. "If you help me put him away, there won't be any problems. He won't come after you."

"Yeah, yeah, you really think…you don't know nothing," Alvarez said.

Rachel looked back at him.

' _Very well, Alvarez, if you want to play the game, I can play as well,'_ Rachel thought.

"Well, then I must know something," Rachel said. The meaning of her words flew over Alvarez's mind. "I know Zucco is going to leave you hanging on the vine, until you fall off. You should tell us everything you know and where he is, so we can nail him hard."

Alvarez flinched when these words hit him hard. He took a couple of deep breaths before responding to this particular line of questioning.

"Yeah, yeah, well I don't know where he is," Alvarez said. An observant person noticed Alvarez's eyes darting from one side of the room to another in a frantic flurry of paranoia. "He must have gotten out of town until the heat is off. The Circus Brat wasn't supposed to survive, but….you got to help me."

Alvarez wasn't a religious man, but now he prayed to anyone who listened. Anything to get him out of this jam.

"We'll help you, if you help us," Rachel said. "Just tell us all you know about the Maroni family."

"You already have Maroni," Alvarez said. His eyes met Loeb, who looked away, under the pretext of adjusting his tie. "Zucco's been more reckless after you threw him away….none of this would have happened if you didn't put Maroni behind bars."

Loeb realized the implication to those words. The Gotham City Police Commissioner bared down on Alvarez, doing his best impression of an angry bulldog.

"Are you blaming me for putting Maroni away?" Loeb asked.

"Well, Zucco wouldn't have tried something like this if Maroni was at large," Alvarez said.

"You're in a lot of trouble," Gordon said. "So either tell us what you know or…."

"Gordon, enough," Loeb said. "If Maroni's men comes after you, we'll be able to nail them for something."

"I'm going to be used as bait?" Alvarez asked. The man didn't seem so impressed for the plan. "You're going to use me as bait so you can draw Zucco out in the open, aren't you? You want to nail him for something. Are you in bed with Falcone known? Or maybe the Penguin or….."

"Alvarez, you're in a lot of hot water now, don't push your luck," Loeb said through gritted teeth.

The chilling tone of the voice of the Gotham City Commisioner caused Alvarez to back off. Loeb arranged for a lot of police officers who called him on the carpet to disappear. Alvarez dreaded to be one of these officers to incur Loeb's wrath next.

"Relax, Alvarez, I know you've had a very long night," Branden said. The SWAT officer took a closer step towards him. "But, my boys are going to keep a good eye on you. No one is going to take a shot at you tonight…they wouldn't be bold enough to do it in the GCPD. Especially not with my boys hovering around, keep you all nice and save."

Alvarez knew Zucco or any of his associates would be bold enough to break into this building and take him out. Others, Alvarez wasn't really sure about it to be honest.

"You better be right," Alvarez said.

"Yes, Alvarez, we're going to arrange for your protection, SWAT will be in this room around the clock," Rachel said. "You won't even notice they're here."

"For how long am I going to be here?" Alvarez asked.

Loeb took a long moment. He removed his glasses and dabbed a white cloth to them, starting to dab them with a long frown over his face. The accusations leveled by Alvarez still stuck fresh in his craw. He let Alvarez hang there, and make him sweat out in response.

"For as long as necessary, Alvarez," Loeb said. "You're going to be in for the long haul tonight….but you're the safest you've ever been."

"Unless you want to speak," Gordon said. "And then we can move you to a comfortable location. "

Alvarez folded his arms. If he didn't say anything, he could be in danger, but if he exposed Zucco, he would be royally screwed. Alvarez weighed whether or not he should tell them about Maroni's connections in Metropolis, but he decided to save it as a trump card for later.

"What are you going to do about him?" Alvarez asked. "I've seen him….I've seen Batman….."

"You've had a little bit too much to drink when Bullock and Montoya found you," Loeb said.

"You think I'm seeing things?" Alvarez asked.

Loeb didn't respond. The man took a lock, with Branden following him.

"The moment it happens, your boys will be right on him," Loeb said.

"You can count on the SWAT tonight," Branden said.

Loeb nodded, Alvarez was expendable and also rather useful. News of his part in the Grayson murder leaked to the underground sources. Perhaps the cop killer's interest would be piqued and this would all be wrapped up.

' _Tonight it has to end,'_ Loeb thought.

* * *

Nightwing saw the clock start ticking down. Five minutes until the train departed and he knew Zucco would be on the train right now. The vigilante stood perched in the shadows. A quick look around showed the Dreaded Dragon what he needed to do. A look around allowed him to become mindful of everything around him, most of his entrances and his exits. Every point of entry he could find, Nightwing could swoop in. A guard moved away, making his patrol to the train station.

The only people who took a train out of Gotham at this time ended up being those who wanted to get out of Gotham during this time. Nightwing understood about as much. The Dragon continued to perch himself on the top ledge of the building, peering down with an intense gaze in his eyes.

A gunshot firing off in the distance put Nightwing on as high of alert as possible. A second gunshot proved the attack ended up being more than the usual Gotham City background noise. Nightwing jumped from one vantage point to the other to survey everything around him.

 _'Trouble?'_ Barbara asked.

 _'You might say it,'_ Harry thought. The leather clad vigilante continued to peer down as the scene descended to shouting and a few gunshots. Just when he thought it was safe, things got a bit more rough and ragged. _'The Penguin's men is getting into a tiff with Maroni's….the worst is really yet to come from here.'_

'Maybe it's a coincidence,'

Barbara thought.

Harry tried not to scoff. Sometimes he might entertain the notion a coincidence, but other times, he didn't. The Dragon took a long look at the targets on the ground. To get on the train, he would need to pass them, and while it was possible to get by them without raising an alarm, Nightwing found getting around them to be borderline tricky. Difficult yes, but doable, at least in the back of his mind.

' _Okay, let's do this, one step at a time.'_

The enchanter slipped into the shadows, using his suit to blend in. With a swift movement, Nightwing grabbed one of the goons from the shadows around the arm. The goon whipped back into the shadow with a not so subtle crack the moment he connected against the wall.

Nightwing returned to the shadows and continued to circle his foes. Soon, there would be more goons falling.

One down, and another one moved in. A brutish thug swung a pipe towards the shadows, but hit only air. The next thing the thug knew, Harry grabbed him around the neck, and put him to sleep. The thug slumped to the ground.

Smoke flew in the air, resulting in a shoot out from both sides of the equation. Nightwing weaved between one of them and stung his opponent with a series of rapid fire jabs. Moving to the next one, Nightwing grabbed one of the goons by the head and cracked him against the concrete.

Nightwing pulled out a grenade and launched it to emit a small charge which should disrupt the weapons. The goons tried to fire, but with a jammed weapon, Nightwing swooped in and took them down with a swift uppercut punch in response.

 _'And the train is about to leave,'_ Kara thought.

Nightwing didn't answer straight away. He dipped behind one of the goons and slammed him head first into the wall. Another jab to the back of the neck put the goon down onto his knees. Another punch rocked him with a huge uppercut punch.

"I have you now!"

One of the goons clubbed a figure in the shadows. The goon's triumph faded into discord when one of his fellow gang members dropped to the ground. The hood's reaction of terror followed a figure zapping him from behind and rendering him completely unconscious.

Nightwing looked over to the corner of his eye, and saw someone else taking care of the goons from the shadows. A flash of a katana caused a banner to fall over and blind the line of sight from two of the goons.

A brief flicker of Batman tripping up one of the goons saw in the side of Harry's eye. The brief moment of eye contact and a hand motion told Nightwing what he needed to do. The train started to leave the station and grinded all the way down the tracks.

 _'I told him you were after the train,'_ Oracle thought.

Harry wanted to thank her for the help. Only one problem though.

 _'Yeah, but the train is getting away,'_ Nightwing thought. The young man's mind worked overdrive, and he made his way to the edge of the station, before scrambling up to a higher vantage point.

 _'Let me guess, you have a plan and it's completely dangerous and utterly insane,'_ Kara thought.

 _'How did you ever guess?'_ Donna asked. Her progress followed Harry the more, wondering what he was going to do.

_'I wouldn't be who I was today without taking a risk.'_

The glider wings of his costume extended when Harry gained a running start. He would have preferred to fly the old fashion way. Unfortunately, until his CORE had been healed, this would not be possible.

 _'I had a pretty good scope of my surroundings,'_ Harry thought. _'The entrances and the exits, and everything all around….and I just have to time the jump right.'_

The girls wanted to ask what would happen if Harry didn't time the jump right. On second thought, none of them wanted to think of it. The longest second followed with Harry positioning himself, and the young man dropped as gently on the train as possible as it made a sharp turn.

 _'Don't try this at home,'_ Amanda thought.

 _'Yes, because Harry is a trained professional, and completely out of his mind,'_ Nym thought. Granted, she would have done it, if she thought she could get away with it, but still.

Harry made it, and continued to proceed forward. Time ran still. If he got to Zucco, this ended tonight, and the man would be brought to justice.

* * *

From his position in the train, Tony Zucco watched the battle. If his luck wasn't rotten, he would think something was kind of wrong. The Penguin and some of Maroni's men had a bit of a disagreement. This argument proved to be a blessing in disguise.

' _Guess whatever they were pissed off about, it doesn't really matter,'_ Zucco thought. _'It got me onto the train easily, no problem at all.'_

The mobster breathed in and breathed out. No need to lose his shit, plenty of time to lose his shit later. All he needed to do is get to Metropolis and hook up with Ugly. It would allow him to stay low.

A look above his head told Zucco all he needed to know. As one of Maroni's top men, he had a pretty good idea what kind of contraband had been moved on and off of this train over the years. And the contraband ended up being of the sketchy sort, to put things bluntly.

The train started to roll and Zucco thought it was about time. He thought he would lose his mind waiting for the train to pick up and get the hell out of town. Now they started to get further away from Gotham and into Metropolis, Zucco took a long breath.

 _'About time, thought I was going to grow grey waiting,'_ Zucco said.

The mobster's gaze looked through the pane glass of the hallway. Two heavily armed men paced down the hallway. They looked to be keeping an eye on Zucco just as much as they kept an eye on the dangerous contraband on the train. The man's hand's tightened around the case and he waited.

Each second could feel like a grinding eternity to a man just as nervous as Zucco.

' _Come on, come on, what's the hold up?'_ Zucco thought.

The lights on the train began to flicker over the top of his head. A chill filled Zucco's body the longer time passed. The lights almost went to black for a moment before turning back on.

 _'They really need to fix this old train,'_ Zucco thought. A long moment paused when a figure slumped against the wall dropping down onto the ground.

Zucco almost bounced to his feet. The man's heart started to beat on his chest. The palms grew sweat and slipped against the rail he held onto. Zucco reassessed his grip on the side of the railing.

 _'Okay calm down, it might not be because of you, just act natural,'_ Zucco thought. A gunshot fired against the hallway. A scuffle could be heard, and Zucco slipped his way. He fumbled towards the latch leading to the exit of the compartment.

The mobster backed down the hallway, his heart started to beat against his chest. The mobster rushed down the hallway and the sounds of further combat could be heard. Zucco almost hit head on with a security guard.

"Everyone needs to be in their compartments, the train is moving," the security guard said.

"There's someone on the train, who shouldn't be," Zucco said.

The security guard looked at the man who raised the alarm. The lights kept flickering on the train, and made Zucco bolt even more. The sound of something or someone, hitting the wall at an immense force prompted Zucco to keep moving on.

 _'Son of a bitch, I don't know what the hell is going on here, but I don't like it, at all,'_ Zucco said. The man brushed his greasy hair out of his eyes. _'Don't like any of this shit at all.'_

Zucco stopped, the sounds stopped. The sounds of someone being beaten up stopped. Dare he stop running, dare he stopped breathing.

The door almost opened and Zucco reached behind him, pulling out a gun. Only the mobster never had a chance to shoot his adversary. A figure bolted forward as quickly as possible and knocked Zucco against the wall with an immense force.

Zucco slammed hard against the wall, his wind knocked out of him. He looked up to stare straight in the face of the Demented Dragon of Gotham City himself.

"Alright, Zucco, you're finished!" Nightwing yelled. His eyes glowed red.

Zucco trembled underneath Nightwing's grips. The criminal's heart started to rattle against his chest.

"Zucco, I don't know what you're talking about, I'm not Tony Zucco!" Zucco yelled. "You've got the wrong guy."

Nightwing hoisted Zucco up to his feet and hurled him against the wall. The mobster careened against the wall hard.

"You know, Zucco, if you were a little smarter, you wouldn't have taken such an obvious route out of Gotham," Nightwing said. "You're going to burn for the death of the Graysons!"

Zucco slumped against the wall, groaning in response. Nightwing started to drill him with a huge punch to the stomach, doubling him over.

"Please, don't….it never meant to go….I didn't do it!" Zucco yelled. He experienced fear beyond everything else.

Suddenly, the train started to skid to a stop, which caused Nightwing to be thrown off of Zucco. Zucco scrambled to his feet, and picked up a piece of pipe. He swung it at Nightwing, but Nightwing dodged the attack, and disarmed the pipe from him.

Zucco dropped down to the ground, the wind knocked out of him. The wall across from him began to crack and suddenly, something blew a large hole in the wall! The debris started to fly and almost nailed Nightwing from behind.

Nightwing ducked his head and rolled out of the way of the falling debris! The Dragon looked up from the ground. High tech laser blasters started to fire him. Nightwing reached into his sleeve and hurled an exploding dagger at one of the enemies. Much to his surprise, the dagger bounced off the armor and only caused the man wearing it to flinch.

One of them loaded up a gloved hand and punched Nightwing in the chest. His armor blocked a lot of the impact, but the impact still caused him to be launched up into the air and launched into a wooden rack above.

"Get up, Zucco," one of them said in a distorted voice.

"Finally, something goes right tonight," Zucco said. He turned to the goons. "Give me one of those Star Trek blasters, and let me finish him off."

Nightwing pulled himself to a standing position, blood dripping from his mouth. The goons escorted Zucco from the train, with one of them dropping a silver device onto the ground.

Several red energy beams crossed the ground, essentially caging Harry in, and preventing him from leaving the room. The dragon noticed the heat signature coming from the device dropped on the ground. Harry's eyes flickered in annoyance to another item dropped in front of him.

' _Let me guess…they're preventing you from leaving the train,'_ Kara thought.

 _'A bomb, because of course it is,'_ Harry thought. _'It's always has to be some kind of high tech bomb.'_

 _'Careful, Har, you're going to need to disable it carefully and with precision,'_ Faora thought. _'This type of technology can wipe out entire cities.'_

'You've seen this before, haven't you?'

Karen asked.

Harry approached the bomb with ease. The alien language on the bomb wasn't completely foreign to him. Harry closed his eyes and braced himself for the moment. He slowly pried open the bomb. Knowing one jarring move could lead to everyone being blown to smithereens, himself included. He needed to make it do it carefully and quickly.

The red energy beams flickered, and threatened to close in to slice Harry. Harry put the shielding on his suit to full intensity, but would it be enough? He didn't want to compromise any functionality by putting the shielding.

The complex circuitry greeted Harry the second he opened the back of the device. He needed to work at this with a careful hand and do so quickly as possible.

 _'Okay, it's blue, green, red, in that order,'_ Kara thought. _'And you have three seconds in between each one, so….you need to work quickly.'_

'Thanks,'

Harry thought, committing the sequence to memory and getting straight to work.

With a singular, fluid motion, Harry pried open the back of the bomb and got to work as Kara expected. His hands whirled around in circles, disarming the wires, blue, green, and red. The bomb stopped for a moment, before the red lines around Harry retracted.

The bomb crumbled into dust, unfortunately, because it left Harry with very little to study. He only could go off of what he saw before the bomb had been brought down.

 _'The make of the bomb, it looked familiar,'_ Harry thought.

 _'Well, it should,'_ Faora thought. _'Twenty three different planets have access to the technology to make the bomb….and before you say it, no, none of them are Earth, at least not for several decades.'_

'If we're being generous, and with moderate help to help speed things along,'

Karen thought. _'But, yes at least not for another couple of decades, if we're being generous.'_

Harry put the ashen remains of the bomb. He studied the burn marks around the door, talk about nothing like Harry ever saw, at least from Earth. These goons were dealing with some heavy weapons and the danger was rather clear.

One factor could be driven home was Zucco gotten away, and disappeared into the night. Harry had him, so close, but so far.

The train stopped and police officers boarded it. Nightwing took it as his cue to disappear into the night. At least they would find the contraband on the train, so a moderate blow to the Maroni family, even though Zucco disappeared into the night.

' _One step ahead, several steps back,'_ Harry thought, watching the officers of the law enter the train to secure it.

The train had been secured and Nightwing disappeared off into the night, his job having been completed. No need to stick around.

He had to check up on some people.

* * *

"By the time police were able to follow up the lead on Tony Zucco, the suspected murderer of the Flying Graysons….he disappeared into the night without any trace. The Gotham City Police Department has no solid leads where Zucco might have gone to."

Rebecca Grayson looked up at the television, a frown crossing her face. She thought about fixing herself some breakfast. She hadn't really eaten in the last few days after what happened to her parents, but her stomach started to betray her. Need and necessity finally caused her to grumble. She would need to eat something.

The thirteen year old girl stopped and saw Harry Potter standing in the middle of the Kitchen. She took a moment to recover from her shock and awe at the larger than life figure who showed up before her very eyes.

"So you actually still live here," Rebecca said. "I haven't seen I came here."

Harry smiled and invited her to sit down. Rebecca did, pulling out a chair in front of the table. The circus acrobat parked herself in the chair.

"Sorry, I couldn't be here sooner, I had a couple of things to take care of," Harry said. He noticed the look of discomfort on the young girl's face. "You look like you could use some breakfast."

Rebecca looked at him, and the growl in her stomach pretty much ensured breakfast would be an obvious thing. The Grayson girl sat down at the table.

"Thanks," Rebecca said. She decided to address the elephant in the room. "Zucco got away, didn't he?"

"He did," Harry said without even hesitating to answer her. "I've talked to Lieutenant Gordon, and they're doing everything they can to take him down, but he's out of Gotham City."

Rebecca took a bite of pancakes, mostly to give herself something to chew on and calm her rather frazzled nerves down.

"He's going to pay for what he's going to do, he's not going to get away for too long," Rebecca said.

"Well, remember your promise, Kara told you who did this, and you wouldn't go after him," Harry said. "Besides, what are you going to do to him?"

"You think I can't handle myself?" Rebecca asked, practically challenging him to argue with her.

Having a daughter close to Rebecca's age, and with her unique set of challenges, gave Harry an adequate ability to handle the drama of a teenage girl. Plus his sisters when they were around Rebecca's age, they could be a bit highly wound at their very worst.

"There's a big difference," Harry said. He paused and held his hands apart. "Between handling yourself and being able to go after a dangerous mobster. Zucco killed many grown men, people who thought they were bad. And people thought they were tough. They weren't as tough as they thought they were."

"He killed a lot of innocent people," Rebecca said. "Including my parents."

Harry sighed, knowing this statement would be coming from Rebecca.

"And he'd like to finish the job with you," Harry said. Rebecca opened her mouth, but Harry stopped her from talking. "I know what you're going to say."

"How do you…."

"Trust me, I know how this normally goes," Harry said, a smile crossing his face. "You're going to say you'd want to join your parents, but you don't mean it. And they would want you to live. I know they would."

"They bought their dream home in Gotham City, they were going to retire," Rebecca said. She slumped her head down for a moment.

Harry gently patted her on the back. Lois made her way into the room, stumbling around, with her hair in slight disarray.

"They're talking about how Nightwing came close to stopping that Zucco guy," Lois said. Rebecca perked up. "But, someone stopped him on the train….but passengers saw him…it's all confusing, no one knows what's really happening."

"Nightwing, she's amazing," Rebecca said.

Lois looked over Rebecca with a frown on her face.

"What do you mean, she?" Lois asked. The young girl grew rather incredulous about Rebecca's words.

 _'So are you going to stop this before it starts?'_ Kara asked. Harry turned around and she stood in the doorway, with a smirk spreading over her face. _'Or are you going to let it play out to see where it goes?'_

"Well, it's obvious Nightwing is a woman, and quite the woman, I'd imagine," Rebecca said. "The most reputable sightings are…...well she's a she, isn't she?"

"Well, I only trust the things I see with my two eyes, and I've seen Nightwing, and he's most certainly a guy," Lois said.

 _'Oh dear, what have we started?'_ Jaime asked, almost amused at this little exchange.

 _'So, we intended to confuse the criminals with the duel Nightwing thing, but we befuddled civilians as well,'_ Harry thought. _'Seems about right, doesn't it?'_

'For us, yes it does,'

Jaime thought.

"Couldn't you be imagining things?" Rebecca asked.

"I suppose he could be a shapeshifter, who allows himself to be seen as a woman," Lois said.

"Well maybe she's a shapeshifter, than sometimes, she allows herself to be seen as a man," Rebecca said.

"Actually, Nightwing might be neither if he or she is a shapeshifter," Kara said. She couldn't resist throwing more fuel on the fire.

The two girls almost stopped at these words from Kara.

"Well, you have to be born something, don't you?" Lois asked.

Who was going to argue with a statement as logical as what Lois said? Harry wasn't about to be the fool to argue with the young girl, as persistent as she happened to be. Something told him no one else would do so either.

* * *

Tony Zucco recovered from his ordeal and unfortunate encounter with Nightwing which caused him to come close to meeting a dangerous end.. He managed to escape and had a bit of a swagger to spare. His swagger started to falter when he had been pulled up outside of a rather less than adequate hotel. The Hotel didn't look like a rundown dump, but it still looked less than adequate.

' _I can't believe this,'_ Zucco said. _'Big Lou you bastard, you know I deserve better than this!'_

"Get out, Zucco, we're here."

"We're here, you're serious?" Zucco asked. The two men looked at him with their hands on their blasters. Zucco saw what those blasters did to the Dreaded Dragon, they slowed him down. Zucco didn't think he would have a hope in the depths of hell.

"Yes, we're serious, now move it Zucco. We don't have all day to babysit you."

Zucco decided not to test his luck. After all, he should feel some kind of gratitude. These mooks saved him from getting scorched by Nightwing. He made his way through the hotel. The musty smell filled Zucco's nostrils. He didn't dare ask what it was, he didn't dare complain about it.

One of the goons escorting Zucco through raised a hand and knocked on the door. The trio waited for the door to be answered.

"Yeah come in, I'm ready."

Zucco had been lead into an office area which as a remarkable amount nicer than the rest of the hotel, although the office area didn't look as nice as it could be. The man behind the desk leaned out to look at Zucco.

"Sit down…careful they don't make chairs like they used to."

The mobster sat on the moth worn chair which almost crumpled underneath his weight. Zucco took a deep breath, causing himself to move. The hefty gentlemen stared down the man who sat behind the desk. The man puffed on a cigar before seeing it fit to talk to Zucco.

"So, looks like my boys got you out of a tight fix," he said.

The grizzled and worn hand placed the cigar down upon an ash tray on the table. The face of a rather grizzled looking dark haired man stared out. The look on his face showed an individual who wouldn't win any beauty pageants to be honest. Bruno Mannheim, aptly named Ugly for obvious reasons, peered directly towards Zucco.

"Yeah, I guess your boys did, I suppose I owe you a favor," Zucco said.

Mannheim reached underneath his desk, and pulled out another cigar, to light it.

"In due time, Zucco," Mannheim said. "Good thing Sal likes you, because if it was up to us, we would have left you to the dragon….but the guy's a good back scratcher. Scratch his back, and he scratches yours good."

Mannheim puffed a cigar. The smoke blew in Zucco's face and caused him to cough.

"What's the deal with those weapons?" Zucco asked. "They looked like something out of Star Trek, or something."

"Looks more like Star Wars to me," one of the goons said.

"Star Wars, Star Trek, it's the same thing, isn't it?" Zucco asked.

"Actually, it's…."

"Alright, enough," Mannheim said, not wanting this fucking debate to start up again. He leaned towards Zucco for a long moment. "Just sit tight for a few weeks, I've got a room for you, I'll even feed you…but down the line, you're going to pay me back for this."

Zucco nodded, he figured about as much. Now he needed to wait to see what kind of deal Mannheim would have in store.

* * *

Alvarez waited for the change in SWAT team shifts to make his move. Despite the fact they told him to stay in their sight, Alvarez decided now was the time to get out of here. With Zucco having blown down, Alvarez needed to follow his lead. Time to get out of Gotham City, while the getting was still good.

 _'They must be nuts if they think I'm going to stick around here,'_ Alvarez thought.

The corrupt police officer rushed down the steps. He paused and almost walked into a figure. Alvarez opened his mouth, but never had a chance. The figure put a bullet into his skull, causing Alvarez to slump over the side of the banister, before falling over off of the stairwell.

James Gordon made his way over, to start his early morning shift. Granted, the late night shift never really ended. He got some coffee and some donuts from across the street, and prepared to settle in for an extremely long haul.

He almost ran into Rachel Dawes, who greeted him with a wave.

"Good morning, Lieutenant Gordon," Rachel said.

"Hello, Rachel," Gordon said, looking a bit worn.

"Long night?" Rachel asked.

Gordon thought this was one of the grossest understatements to end all gross understatements.

"It's going to be an even longer day," James said. The sun hadn't quite risen up, but then again, who could really tell the difference.

James stepped back for a second and noticed something rather peculiar slumped over by the stairwell. Several more officers made their way down from upstairs.

"Gordon!" Branden almost barked when he looked down the stairs at Gordon. "Have you seen A….."

Branden was about ready to ask whether or not he saw Alvarez, but he noticed the figure down underneath the stairwell. The SWAT leader's mouth opened up in shock and several other people showed up. One of the SWAT team members on patrol showed up at Branden's shoulder.

"I think we just found Alvarez, sir," the SWAT team member said. His voice shook along with his hand.

The freshly shot form of Carlos Alvarez slumped slightly underneath the stairwell of the GCPD building. More officers moved in to take a look at the crime scene. Several "my gods" could be heard by the officers when they came across the slain officer in the middle of their own precinct.

James Gordon's blood ran cold. Whoever did this, they had managed to walk in and shoot Alvarez in cold blood, without anyone seeing anything.

"Dawes, did you see anything?" Branden asked.

"I thought I saw some guy…run by in a hurry, he looked like he was delivering donuts or something," Rachel said. "To the SWAT team…and he left in a hurry."

"Yeah, I saw someone walk by here….but none of us ordered donuts," one of the SWAT team members said.

Everyone hit a panic; the cop killer slipped inside the GCPD building and took a shot at Alvarez. And left without a trace.

"Damn it, I could have had him, he was right underneath my nose!" Rachel yelled. She threw her folder down to the ground in frustration.

"No, Dawes, you couldn't, you could have gotten shot," Gordon said.

The intruder was meticulous in his killings, and judging by Rachel's eye witness description, it was a he, who did it.

Loeb stood in the background, his nerves about shot. Someone killed another one. He couldn't even be safe in his own office. Was someone trying to get him to resign? Loeb wouldn't do it, he would crack down even harder on vigilantes after this event.

* * *

**To Be Continued February 3** **rd** **, 2016.**


	157. Graduation Party

**NEW STORY OF THE WEEK POLL ADDED FOR JANUARY 30th 2016. Closes February 6th, 2016.**

**Poll for Voting:** www.poll-maker.com/poll563570xF19C72dF-24

 **Links to Chapters in the Poll:** webofchaos.blogspot.com/2016/01/week-four-poll-is-live.html

* * *

 

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Seven: Graduation Party.**

* * *

 

A hand reached around the corner and several green lights flipped on illuminating an area. The gleeful form of Enigma made his way into the room with several quick strides. His teeth expanded into an absolutely menacing grin. The man almost skipped into the room before shaking his head and walking a few more steps.

"Now, now, I must be dignified."

With the reprimand out of the way, Enigma stepped closer towards the edge of his chair. He spun it around and dropped down onto it. Enigma clutched the papers in his hand. His contacts would no doubt have so much more for him. Enigma spun around in the chair and situated himself right in front of the computer screen.

Enigma heard the news. The fabled cop killer of Gotham City struck again and murdered someone. The attack on the precinct under the noses of everyone sparked a lot of panic and confusion amongst Gotham's finest. Mass panic would follow soon.

"And to think, the fact it happened under Branden and Loeb's noses….oh this is too glorious," Enigma said, clapping his hands together when he booted up the computer system. "The poor bastards they must be freaking out something fierce."

Enigma watched as the computers all booted up. He had a full view of all of the hot spots in Gotham City. Nothing happening of note to tonight, at least nothing which would catch his interest for this evening. Between the events at the Circus and the cop killer striking again, there was more than enough going on earlier in the day.

"They're calling it a massacre," Enigma said. He smiled when he flipped over the papers. "Loeb, Branden, Gordon, the acting DA, all of those big names there, and not one witness to actually who did it."

A lightbulb flashed in Enigma's head when he broke out a grin. The information broker started to cackle.

"Unless, of course, one of those individuals was the one behind the attacks," Enigma said. He brushed a strand of hair away from his face and pressed the latest police report of the attack up to his face. "Without any proof though, it's very difficult to throw around accusations….especially without proof."

Enigma's lips curled into one of the more devious grins a person could have.

"But, if one was to find proof, and nail the culprit, they would be considered a god among men," Enigma said. "For months, the GCPD have tried to figure out who is doing in their most corrupt."

Enigma pulled up the files on each of the people who had been killed.

"Not exactly your salt of the Earth people who have been killed either," Enigma said. He busted into a nice little grin. "In fact, some of these people are lower than scum. Oh, they say they reform and changed their ways….."

Some of these people handed Enigma valuable information without really realizing it.

"Some of these people weren't the brightest bulbs in the box by a longshot," Enigma said. His hand clasped on the piece of paper in it. "Makes them perfect targets for the Gotham City cop killer."

Enigma bounced on his chair for a few seconds. He stopped, catching his hands on the chair, and breathed in.

"Calm yourself, Eddie, I know you're excited," he said to himself. "But, you just got to take a deep breath. Calm yourself down….take a nice long drink of water…..water, not caffeine."

Enigma filled a glass of water from the dispenser off to the side of his workstation. A few drinks later, he smiled.

"Much better, much better," Enigma said. He cracked his neck and smiled. One more drink of water followed. "Much better."

Enigma took the stack of papers, frowning. He made sure all of them stacked in a neat order. It had information which could solve a riddle in Gotham City which vexed many.

"There's nothing like a good riddle to really perk you up in the morning!" he exclaimed. He almost threw the stack of papers into the air, but he stopped himself seconds later. "Okay, a bit too over the top, but….we'll work on it, won't we?"

Enigma turned to the picture of Harry Potter hanging in his man cave and smiled. The hacker cleared his throat.

"Right, down to business, down to business," Enigma said.

He pushed the cop killer business out of his mind, at least for the moment. Anyone who solved this mystery would be considered a hero and not a zero. Enigma knew if he put all of the pieces together; he could solve one of the more vexing mysteries in all of Gotham City.

Enigma turned his attention to the safe in the next room. Months ago, Madam Masque sold him the Technovore Virus. The virus hung over him like a dangling blade.

"I better get rid of it and soon," Enigma said. "Maybe today is the day where I'm going to find a buyer….to give me what it was worth. AIM's not stupid…even if they declined to recruit me. But even all geniuses have their blind spots."

Enigma's rant had been cut short by the tell-tale signs of an e-mail. The young man raised his eyebrow.

"Well, well, what do we have here?"

The information broker for the criminals stared at the information on the screen before him. Even someone with a brilliant mind such as Enigma needed a couple of minutes to process it.

Taking another drink, this time from a cup of coffee, Enigma looked over the information.

"And here I thought AIM would have tried to do anything to get their little Technovore back," Enigma said. He added some sugar to his coffee and smiled. "But no, this gentlemen is rather persistent….and he doubled his initial offer….well isn't he generous?"

Enigma enjoyed the power of having something people wanted. This Technovore was in high demand, with the feelers he put out there to several interested parties.

"Mr. Krang, of the Techno Cosmic Research Facility," Enigma said, reaching the information. "The man who might be the proud new owner of Tori Stark's Technovore….if he plays his cards right."

Enigma just wasn't about ready to sell the technovore to just everyone. A few more offers had been placed on the table.

"And yet, you baffle me," Enigma said. "Mr. Krang, you are an enigma….a riddle….a puzzle all to yourself….never allowed yourself to be photographed….all people know you as the brains behind TCRI."

TCRI had been founded a few decades about, and they had been in the news about fifteen years ago for a big chemical spill. Enigma wasn't necessarily privy to all of the details, a truck spilled some dangerous chemicals in the sewer.

' _Money changed hands. All was forgiven….other than with those who wanted to dig in the information. Or those who their lawsuits mysteriously thrown out.'_

Enigma smiled, so far, Krang happened to be quite the interesting puzzle to work with.

"Looks like I'll be as busy as a beaver," Enigma said. He almost started cackling.

The shady dealings the organization undertook aside, Enigma would be foolish to deny they had the most generous offer. Almost too generous, it reeked of desperation. Enigma was very vague of what the Technovore was, mostly because he didn't quite know what it's capabilities were.

' _Let them fill in the blanks and use their own imagination,'_ Enigma said. _'It may be difficult for them to summon the brain power to do so….but it's amazing what someone can do when they put their minds to it.'_

Enigma checked his messages for anything out of the ordinary.

"A slow night," Enigma said. "Very well, gives me more time to work on my profile for our friend, the cop killer."

A glint of glee flashed in Enigma's eyes. He lost himself in the thoughts of all of the glorious possibilities which would be.

' _Tonight could be the beginning of something new.'_

* * *

 

Sarah Essen arrived at the coffee shop. The last few days had been rather tense for them all. The murders at the circus kicked the ball rolling, and it ended with the latest cop killer attack.

She placed her hand on the cup of coffee next to her, not really drinking it. More likely pondering what happened. Sarah thought about what happened. Last night wouldn't help the paranoia which brewed deep within the GCPD.

"So, I take it you've had a long day."

Harry joined her a few seconds later, bringing Sarah out of her thoughts. He leaned down and planted a light kiss on her lips before sitting down on the chair next to her. The waitress moved over.

"Coffee would be good," Harry said. The waitress gave Harry an accommodating smile and scrambled off, but not before dropping something on the table.

The moment the waitress stepped off, Sarah raised her eyebrow at the piece of paper which had been dropped onto the table. The GCPD officer could barely keep a smile off of her face.

"You haven't been here for five minutes, and already some waitress dropped her phone number on the table," Sarah said. "Men would kill to know what your secret is."

"Well, it isn't really much of a secret, more like common sense," Harry said. "If you listen to my sisters…..I can close my eyes, walk five feet, and run into a beautiful woman who wants me to get in their panties."

Sarah chuckled. Any other man in the world and she would think he bragged a bit too much for his own good. Harry wasn't any other man in the world.

' _We should put the theory to the test one time,'_ Amanda thought.

' _You mean by literally blindfolding Harry, and putting him out in the middle of Gotham, and seeing if he runs a beautiful woman?'_ Donna asked. _'Might be something worth of experimenting with.'_

' _You do realize I can hear every word you say,'_ Harry thought.

' _Oh believe us, we know,'_ Amanda thought with a smirk.

' _You do have to admit, it's an interesting little social experiment,'_ Kara thought.

' _Although do we need an experiment to clarify the obvious?'_ Diana asked.

Sarah chuckled, getting a slight hint of the bond banter. She didn't partake in the actual fun too much. Keeping her wits about herself was important in Gotham City as well.

' _Still it's made a lot of rather slow nights in Gotham City, just staking out a lot more interesting then they should,'_ Sarah thought. _'Kind of hard to explain to Ellen if I break out into a smile for no reason.'_

' _It is hard,'_ Harry thought, placing his hand on hers.

' _Especially when having voices in your head isn't a viable and sane explanation,'_ Sarah said, her lips curling into a knowing little smile in response.

' _Sadly, not,'_ Harry thought.

The waitress made her way towards the table, with a smile towards Harry and a wink, before she turned around. Her ass swayed when she departed on the way off.

' _Not a bad little number,'_ Karen thought. _'She might be the type to be a bit too clingy for her own good though when it's all said and done though.'_

Harry allowed the girls to gossip. The sun had barely even risen up over Gotham. He took a drink of coffee, allowing the warm embrace of his poison of choice to hit his taste buds.

"Seriously, Sarah, you look like you've had a pretty rough night," Harry said.

"We all have had the same rough night," Sarah said. She finally touched her coffee and tipped the contents back into her mouth. "It hasn't reached the news yet….and it's been pretty underplayed when it has. But, the cop killer has struck again."

Harry raised his eyebrow. He had kept up with the cop killer; although he had some other things on his mind than the movements of someone who was popping off the corrupt cops of Gotham City.

"It was Alvarez who got it this time," Sarah said.

"You mean the cop who assisted Zucco?" Harry asked. "Wasn't he under police protection?"

Sarah's grim nod told Harry all he needed to do about this entire mess. Harry frowned when he could see the gears going through Sarah's mind.

"Yes, he was right underneath the protection of the Gotham City SWAT," Sarah said. "Branden wasn't happy about it."

Harry never thought of Branden to be happy about much of anything. He was a miserable looking guy.

' _Branden's life has been extremely difficult lately,'_ Barbara thought. _'You know with Batman and Nightwing on the prowl and everything….making the SWAT look more inept than ever.'_

"Gordon isn't doing well either," Sarah said. "He thinks if he had gone up the stairs a couple of minutes sooner, he might have seen the cop killer."

"Or he could have been collateral damage and taken care of," Harry said. "There hasn't been any witnesses to the cop killer yet?"

"No one has seen a glimpse of his face, or her face," Sarah said. "Some people think it's a group, people rotating out."

"Makes sense," Harry said, thinking it would be much harder to nail down a suspect. "To think the cop killer struck at headquarters without a problem."

"Loeb's doubling up on his security now," Sarah said.

"He would have the most skeletons of his closet," Harry said. "If half of the allegations about him are true."

Proving Loeb was capable of any misdeeds would be a slight problem though. The paper trail disappeared around at every term. The fact he looked so anxious about what was going on indicated he had something to hide. The question was what and how.

"I don't know about the truth of them," Sarah said. "It wouldn't be wise to speculate."

"He is the most high profile target of the cop killer," Harry said as he cupped his hand underneath his chin in a thoughtful manner. "But will the cop killer go after him."

Harry reflected back on the situation as he remembered it. The cop killer targeted some rather soft targets. Corrupt, but they weren't too high up the food chain. Escalation was the huge problem.

"So, how is Miss Grayson settling in?" Sarah asked.

"She's going to need some time to cope," Harry said. "She's in danger for as long as Zucco is out there."

Sarah paused for a long moment. She had almost forgotten the other piece of bad news in all of the insanity. The cop killer pushed this bit of news out of her mind for the time being.

"Tony Zucco," Sarah said. Harry raised his eyebrow at her in response.

"I know, he fled town," Harry said. "Exactly to where, I don't know."

Someone like Zucco would have had a few contacts which could be problematic and could hide him. Nightwing wasn't going to mince words about it. Things wouldn't be really easier.

' _Easy, never really my game,'_ Harry thought.

A long pause followed. Sarah didn't have much inside information, other than Nightwing was sighted fighting some of Zucco's men at the train station. She didn't put too much validity into many eye witness accounts. People could be fooled especially in a place like Gotham City. Sarah turned towards Harry.

' _Yes, I encountered him,'_ Harry thought. _'And he slipped through my fingers…..some high tech thugs put a bomb on a train.'_

' _Zucco had help from people like that?'_ Sarah asked.

They both wondered the same thing. Maroni might have been in prison, but it was obvious someone of his stature had a few concessions. Harry really considered what those concessions might be.

' _Would be something worthy taking a closer look at,'_ Harry thought. _'Although it's going to do some digging.'_

' _What I want to know is how they got their hands on those high tech weapons,'_ Faora thought. _'Higher end than a lot of the weapons on Earth, but not quite the highest quality weapons in the universe.'_

Harry figured as much. If they found out who Zucco's friends were, it would go a long way into figuring out where Zucco was. Harry followed an extremely insane paper-trail to track down Zucco.

' _I'm more interested in finding out who is bankrolling Zucco's friends,'_ Karen thought.

Harry figured about as much. The caliber of weapons Zucco used were not the average street fare one looked at in Gotham City.

"As long as Zucco's on the street, Rebecca is going to need to be kept safe," Harry said. He turned his eyes towards Sarah and eyed her extremely seriously. "And we both know what the most safe place on Earth is."

"The Penthouse?" Sarah asked.

"Exactly," Harry said. "The only family she has left is an aunt, but she's old and in frail health. So, she wouldn't have been up to watching Rebecca anyway. And I think you can agree the last thing we want is Rebecca to fall under the custody of the state."

Sarah responded with a brief nod. They could do without Rebecca falling under the custody of the state for sure. She kept her eyes on Harry.

"My mother and my aunt are talking with her aunt, and there are arrangements being made," Harry said with a smile. "So by the end of the week, her custody should be legal and on paper."

Sarah smiled.

"Well I'm sure you'll have everything under control," Sarah said. She took another sip of coffee. "So, do you have any plans?"

"Big graduation party for Bette and Bunny, after finishing GPA," Harry said. "And you know Veronica and Kathy made sure this party is going to be big."

Sarah chuckled; she knew the Vreeland heiress liked to make the most extraordinary high society events ever. It was like an informal competition with the best and the brightest in Gotham City.

' _With her younger sister, she's going to really outdo herself.'_

Sarah didn't have much more time to discuss this with Harry. Her cell phone rang and she took it.

"Within twenty minutes?" Sarah asked. "I'll be there."

"Duty calls?" Harry asked the moment she finished the call.

Sarah allowed herself a hint of a smile and took a drink from the cup of coffee. She drained the rest of it before turning towards Harry.

"Yes, the MCU wants all hands on deck," Sarah said.

Harry could tell how agitated Sarah could be with the entire cop killer situation.

' _Can't say I really blame her. Especially when it happened right at the GCU's front door, with all of the finger pointing and the insanity….which goes along with it.'_

Sarah rose to her feet and gave Harry one more kiss.

"Talk to you later," Sarah said.

She made her way to leave, and Harry paid for their coffee, before departing himself. A lot happened over the past number of days which he needed to think about and he thought there was a lot more to come.

* * *

 

Bette Kane whistled the moment she arrived at the Graduation Party. Harry offered Blackgate Manor as the venue for this party, and Veronica and Kathy decided to jump onto the equation. Bette walked into the party dressed to kill in the classic little black dress. Bunny wore a nice red number which showed what she had to offer, but in a tasteful manner. She maneuvered herself gracefully in her high heels and spent some time looking around the party.

"Wow," Bunny said. "If this is what we get, maybe we should have graduated with honors sooner."

"Maybe," Bette said.

The decorations surrounded them in the room. Balloons, streamers, and banners all over the room. The buffet table in the main dining hall had been covered with drinks and food of all kinds. A large roast had been set out as well. Music started to blare over the loud speakers.

Bette gasped when she saw a large neon sign in the front. She took a moment to take in the words blinking on the neon sign in front of her face.

**Congratulations Bette and Bunny, GPA Class of 1998.**

"Wow, this is….."

"Impressive?" Amanda asked. She squeezed in and walked in front of Bette, with a smile. "I thought the neon sign would have been a nice touch….Emmy here thought it was a bit much. Harry was the one who put it together."

"Oh, that's really amazing," Bette said. She craned her neck back to get a look at the people coming in.

"Nothing better than the best….especially considering the two of you were first and second in your class."

Kathy stepped into the room and wore a nice black dress which fit against her body. Bette appreciated how stunning her aunt looked on this night. She took a moment to prevent herself from drooling all over the arrival of her aunt.

"It's been a while since I wore this dress," Kathy said.

"It suits you, Ms. Kane."

They turned around and saw Alexandra Potter step in with a smile. Kate walked in next to Alex, who was looking over her with a smile on her face.

"It does make you look excellent," Kate said.

"Hey, you clean up pretty nice as well Kate," Kathy said, looking at her with a smile on her face. She wore a nice red dress which showed off her budding body.

Kate allowed for a smile and moved around to talk to some other people, with Alex following her. Kathy watched the two of them walking off, a smile crossing over her face.

"You're nearly impressed as they are, aren't you?"

Veronica made her way over towards Kathy. Her green sequined dress shined in the light when she stepped over towards Kathy. She stepped closer towards her. Kathy took special notice about how the dress matched Harry's eye color.

"You really outdid yourself this time," Kathy said. "I really wish I could have helped a little bit more."

"Hey, you've been busy with…your sessions," Veronica said. "And you really had no choice in the matter. You know because I didn't let you."

Kathy whistled when she took a look at the bright neon side on the wall. She thought it might have been just a little bit much, but was willing to roll with it never the less.

"So, you're going to be starting GPA next fall, aren't you, Lyta?" Bette asked.

The youngest of the three sisters flashed a smile. She had been allowed to attend the party on the stipulation she would be under her best behavior. Plus it would give her some time to get used to the girls.

"It's the best time I've been to a school…a public school," Lyta said.

"Well technically it's a private school," Bunny said. Lyta folded her arms. "You mean, you were home schooled, weren't you?"

"Yes," Lyta said, thinking it would be the best explanation. "My mother thought it would be the best for me to join the school and since I'm old enough, it's time for me to start attending."

"Are you a bit nervous?" Bette asked.

"No, not really," Lyta said.

Donna moved over towards the group, raising her eyebrow. She could sense her baby sister's bravado going on a certain height. Donna was to escort her back through the gate after the party was over so she could undergo the final preparations for her ascension ceremony.

"It's okay if you are," Bette said. "All of us were when we arrived….even the twins here."

Amanda and Emily showed up and raised their hands out.

"But, you don't have anything to worry about, you're done," Lyta said.

"And it's off to college," Bette said. She was excited, but at the same time nervous.

"Which is an entirely new level of fun," Bunny said.

They would never know how Barbara Gordon did it, making the move from GPA to GCU, and taking classes at once. They wondered when Barbara ever slept sometimes. She was a workhorse and a bit mental to be perfectly honest.

"Oh, I'm sure it will be fun," Kara said. She helped herself to a piece of cake and moved over to join the group of girls. "Besides, if you ask really nice, Harry might be your student advisor."

Bette and Bunny stared at each other, trying not to look too smug. They would like nothing better to be honest. The thought of it caused several potentially naughty thoughts to enter their head.

"I'm sure it could be arranged, if you ask really nicely."

Bette almost jumped halfway off of the ground and turned around to jump into the arms of Harry Potter. Harry looked towards her with a smile on his face.

"Just how long have you been sitting here?" Bette asked.

"I just made my rounds around the party," Harry said. "I wanted to make sure the entertainment got here in time."

"Oooh, entertainment," Bunny said, with a smile on her face. "And here we thought you were the only entertainment we ever needed."

Harry could tell both of the girls had a couple of drinks already tonight. Things would end up being more interesting as the night pressed on. Interesting in a good way, or in a bad way, Harry didn't know. He would just have to wait and see.

"And here we thought you would be the only entertaining we'd need tonight," Bette said. She stepped closer towards Harry, closing the gap between the two of them. "What is it? Are you going to pop out of a cake wearing nothing but a bow-tie?"

"Maybe," Harry commented, smiling when he closed the gap closer between him and Bette. "Maybe if you play your cards right….but this wasn't the entertainment I was referring to."

"And what is?" Bette asked.

Harry laughed at the look of eagerness on the face of the young heiress. He could tell by the twinkle dancing in her eyes she really wanted to know. Harry would have her in the palm of his hand by the end of tonight if this kept up.

"And if I told you, it wouldn't be surprise entertainment, would it?"

Bette folded her arms in response and issued the most adorable atomic pout in the world. Harry reached towards her and pulled her closer into him with a nice smile.

"Come on, you just can't give us a hint?" Bette asked. Harry shook his head. "Just a little bit."

"Sorry, would spoil the surprise."

Amanda and Donna almost bent over. The two girls looked a few inches away from busting a gut in laughing. Harry's gaze turned towards them. Funnily enough neither girl didn't back off, but they did break down. Amanda almost looked about ready to choke because of the laughter. Emily reached over and grabbed a glass of water for her sister.

"I think you need this."

The more devious of the two Potter twins took the glass of water and downed it. Seconds passed before she managed to catch her breath.

"Sorry," Amanda said. Bette's glare almost caused her to break down into another fit of laughter, but she managed to hold herself back. "It's just….it's amazing….now you know how we feel when Harry kept the fact he got tickets from Alison Blaire from us."

"Really, they're still on about that?" Lyta asked.

"And you did set yourself up," Donna reminded both of them. "If you had just….."

"Yes, we know, don't rub it in," Amanda said. She folded her arms and turned around with a solid huff.

The fact Lyta reached over and patted her aunt on the side of the elbow didn't help.

' _Guess it was one of those things which will take a while to live down,'_ Donna thought. _'You know, like what happened when Har first came to the island.'_

Kara and Barbara, who just turned up, exchanged grins, with Donna folding her arms doing her best impression of Amanda. The two girls looked away with a smile.

"The leas you can do is take me over for a dance," Bette said, placing her arm out for Harry to take.

"Hey, I wanted to dance with him," Bunny said. She folded her arms underneath her chest and looked out at them with an atomic bout.

"Bunny, you'll get your turn," Veronica said, deciding to make her rounds. She had been talking to the various guests at the part to see how they were going on. She spent some time with the special guest who would be coming out at the moment.

"Yes, Bunny, you'll get your turn," Bette said. Someone slapped her on the ass from behind. She looked at Harry with a smile.

"I think I can give you one dance, and Bunny one dance," Harry said. "Before, I give you the rest of your graduation present tonight."

The suggestion smile on his face caused Bette's imagination to run wild. She didn't really have much to do, before Harry lead her onto the dance floor. He gently steered her into the middle of the floor. Bette's face almost enveloped into a perma-grin at being front and center, especially front and center with Harry Potter.

' _My sister has to learn she doesn't always get her way just because she decrees it,'_ Veronica said.

' _Are you sure you didn't learn that lesson the hard way one time?'_ Sapphire asked.

' _To be fair, we all need a little bit of discipline sometimes,'_ Veronica thought. _'Thankfully Harry is there to…administer it.'_

The suggestion tone of her words caused Harry to smile. He tipped Bette back on the floor and caused her to gasp. He pulled her up and planted his lips onto hers with a kiss which caused her to be shocked. Bette returned the kiss with the electricity tingling through her body and coursing over her loins. Each touch brought her further towards the edge of pleasure.

"My turn," Bunny said, making her way towards Harry. She tried to kiss him, but Harry dipped her down to the floor.

"Patience, Miss Vreeland."

Bunny almost got excited where Harry's hand traveled. She didn't want to be the one to accuse anyone of anything, but she was sure he teased her a little bit.

The two of them danced as well, and the moment they finished, Harry leaned towards Bunny. His lips caught hers with a kiss and left her in a daze.

"There better be more to come," Bunny said, with Harry pulling away from her.

"Mmm."

Harry decided to make his way to the stage to commandeer the microphone.

"Thanks for coming out here tonight," Harry said. "I want to congratulate the women of the night, Bette Kane and Bunny Vreeland. They've gone above and beyond the call of duty, being the first and second of their graduating class at Gotham Private Academy. And wish them the best of the luck when they start the new term at Gotham City University next fall."

"Let's propose a toast to Bunny and Bette!" Veronica yelled, holding up a glass of wine. She leaned on Sapphire with a smile on her face.

"Yes, a toast for how well these girls have done, and how far they've come," Kathy said.

Her niece might have been a bit of a party girl, just like Kathy was around this age. But when it came time to buckle down and study, Bette buckled down in study.

Bette turned around, flushing with embarrassment.

"And, we've spared no expense for this party," Harry said. "Ladies and gentlemen, here to help us celebrate Bette and Bunny's accomplishments, one of the top young pop stars in the nation and a good friend of mine, Alison Blaire!"

The sound of women screaming could be heard. Alison Blaire made her way on the stage and dressed in a nice silver dress. She paused and walked up towards Harry. She leaned towards him and stole a nice kiss from him.

' _Well, this is a surprise,' Faora_ thought with a smile.

' _Guess being the boy toy of a pop star does have it's perks,'_ Amanda thought, trying not to look too excited. Naturally she had been with Dazzler up close and personal, very personal in fact.

' _Interesting way of putting it,'_ Kara thought.

Alison began to play her latest hit song "Emerald Eyed Savior" at the party. Most of the girls smiled when they realized where the inspiration had come from and appreciated it.

Harry smiled, and looked towards the two girls of the hour. The party was about ready to get started.

* * *

 

Bette and Bunny made their way to the upstairs area. The two young heiresses positioned themselves on the balcony which had a nice little view. The real view was in the bedroom on the other side of the balcony.

"I'm going to be feeling all of the drinking in the morning," Bette said, running her fingers over the top of her head.

"Hey, you only graduate once….well, until college," Bunny said. She wrapped her arms around the back of her friend's neck and pressed her breasts against her back.

"You know, if you end up knocking me off of the balcony, this will be a bad way to end the night," Bette said.

Bunny retracted her arms from around Bette's waist and gave her a nice little smile. A series of footsteps greeted both of the girls.

"So, did you girls have a great time?" Harry asked.

"Oh, the best," Bette said. A flirty smile popped onto the girl's face. "Just wish it didn't have to end."

"Me too," Bunny said.

"Well, the night's not over yet," Harry said with a smile. "Look over there."

Bette and Bunny looked over the edge of the balcony towards the courtyard. A series of miniature explosions went off, offering the more messages of congratulations in fireworks.

"Amazing," Bette said, practically swooning. She almost fell over, with Harry catching her.

"It might be a good idea for me to get both of you away from the balcony," Harry said.

"You aren't going to argue with me," Bette said, a grin crossing her face.

Bunny and Bette made their way into the room with Harry. Both of the women looked at towards him with a smile.

"So?" Bunny asked.

"Yes," Harry said.

"Our present?" Bunny asked. "Are you going to give it to us?"

Harry's lips curled into a smile. Bette rose up to her feet and kicked off her heels so she could walk in a more manageable manner. She stood on her tip toes and looked into Harry's eyes.

"Please Harry," Bette said. He lips moistened when she looked towards him. "We would be so grateful if you gave us a present."

She wrapped her arms around Harry and kissed him. Bette started to rub her crotch up and down across Harry's pants. Harry returned fire with a smile on his face. She reached up and started to undo the buttons of his shirt.

Bunny walked over towards Harry's other side and wrapped her arms around him. Harry had been pinned between both of the heiresses.

' _Overall, not the worst place in the world to be.'_

"Why don't the two of you girls unwrap your present now?" Harry asked.

Bette grinned. It was about time. They intended to jump Harry in California, but AIM attacked and it didn't seem to be the time or the place. Now they had Harry all alone.

"Don't worry, Harry, we intend to," Bette purred, humping her hips against Harry, pressing him to the wall.

"You're a slut," Bunny said.

"Oh, you're the one groping his ass every chance you get."

"Ladies, behave, or I'll just spank you and put you to bed."

Both girls shuddered at the thought, but got their wits about themselves. It was time for them to get their just reward.

Bette unbuckled Harry's pants and pulled them down. She squeezed the bulge forming with Harry.

"Oh, is this our present Harry?" Bette asked.

"I think it is," Bunny said, tracing patterns down his bare chest and leaning in with a kiss. The younger Vreeland sister kissed him on the side of the neck. "It's so big….."

"No wonder all of the girls smile," Bette said, giving him another squeeze and causing him to grow.

"It's all yours," Harry said.

"I've never seen one up close," Bunny said. "I want to be there when you unveil it."

Bette pulled down Harry's trousers to reveal his throbbing manhood. Both of the young heiresses look at him with glee and a bit of drooling as well. Bette placed her hand on his prick and started to rub it.

"It can get bigger!" Bunny yelled. She rubbed her thighs together to try and get some relief. No question about it though, she wanted it inside her, piercing her, spearing her, making her scream.

"Much bigger," Harry said. Bette leaned down and started to kiss his chest. "Just imagine how big it is in your mouth."

"Oh, this seems like a challenge," Bette said, rubbing her fingers along the edge of his cock. "And you better believe I'm not going to go without accepting this one."

Bette used her tongue to give Harry a full service job. Harry smiled when she ran her tongue down his cock, before placing her juicy lips on the tip. She sucked him into the back of her throat like a pro.

"God, Bette, so fucking hot!" Harry groaned, touching his hands on the back of her head.

Bunny sat down and yanked her panties down to reveal herself. She started to run her fingers down between her legs to feel how aroused she was.

"Bette, suck his big cock, oh this is hot," Bunny said. She placed one hand on her breast and squeezed it, before working her fingers between her legs. "Harry, you have to fuck her throat like the whore she is."

Harry smiled and grabbed onto the side of Bette's face. She opened her mouth wide in an accommodating matter. Harry responded by drilling his cock into the back of Bette's throat.

Bette gasped with pleasure the more Harry pushed his cock into the back of her tight throat. She sucked and slurped on his cock, wrapping her tongue around the other side.

"You've wanted to choke on his big prick for a long time, haven't you?" Bunny asked, masturbating vigoriously to Harry ramming his cock down Bette's tight throat.

Bette looked up, her mouth stuffed full of Harry's cock. She hummed hungrily when her lips wrapped around his thick manhood. She wanted all of him. The fact he used her mouth as his own personal fuck hole caused Bette's hunger to escalate to an entirely different later.

"Look at her, she wants this," Harry said. "And guess what, you're going to get a nice dose of cum. Wouldn't that just be the best graduation present ever?"

Given how much Bette redoubled her efforts, placing her hand on Harry's bare ass to encourage him; Harry deduced she did want this. He found his way into the back of her throat. Bette's throat closed around him, humming when she tilted her head back. Another intense suck brought Harry closer.

Harry pumped his seed into Bette's throat. She tilted her head back to accept the full contents of his balls deep into her mouth. The full load had been tilted into the back of her throat.

Bette held onto him, pulling back. Harry's cum started to dribble off of her lips and chin. Harry pulled her off and pulled back the straps of her dress. The dress pooled down her body to reveal more of her skin. The transparent white bra Bette wore showed Harry her eager nipples. Her white panties stuck to her center as well.

"Take me anyway you want me," Bette said. Harry's hands trailed down her body, taking her in an embrace. Her wet panties pushed against his cock. She wanted him inside her.

"Dangerous words, Ms. Kane," Harry said, kissing her behind her ear and leading her onto the bed.

Harry removed Bette's bra first which caused her breasts to bounce into the world. The perky globes bounced into the air. He squeezed her chest which caused obvious fluids to pool down between her thighs.

"Horny little girl, you're all wet," Harry said. He pulled down her panties.

Bette thought she would come close to dying. Harry planted a series of kisses down her body. Each of them combed over every inch of her body and got closer to her womanhood.

"Harry, don't tease….oh god!"

Harry's tongue slipped into Bette. He buried his face between her thighs and started to swirl his tongue into her.

"Fuck, eat my pussy, it feels so fucking good!" Bette yelled. She reached up and grabbed the back of Harry's head.

Bunny stripped off her panties and crawled onto the bed. She leaned down and kissed Bette on her lips. She tasted Harry which caused her loins to burn with need once again.

"I should put that dirty little mouth to a more productive use," Bunny said with a sultry smile.

Bunny slid her thighs over Bette's face and straddled him. The mouth of the Kane heiress opened in surprise, but she started suckling on Bunny's nether lips.

"Oh, yes, you always did know how to eat a pussy!" Bunny yelled. She wiggled her hips down onto Bette's mouth.

Harry gave one last loving lick to Bette's pussy and rose himself up. He positioned his full weight upon her thighs. His cock brushed against her stomach. Bette twitched due to this action and Harry moved over.

"You can feel how much the kinky bitch wants your cock inside her," Bunny said. She pushed herself down on Bette's mouth, riding her tongue. "Oh, I can't wait to have it in me."

Bette's thighs spread and prepared to welcome Harry into her body. His cock lined up with her and pushed into her body.

Harry grabbed onto her hips and positioned himself into her. Her wet folds welcomed his cock into her body. The beautiful blonde's moans were somewhat muffled by the fact Bunny straddled her face. The heat pulsing around his cock made Harry know all he needed to feel and he welcomed him.

"Worship her pussy, it belongs to you, baby, it's all for you!" Bunny yelled.

"Yes, this tight pussy is mine, and I'm going to take it!" Harry yelled. "You feel so good Bette, you were made for my cock."

Bette clenched at the words of encouragement. She could feel Harry slide into her. The tip of the head of his cock practically kissed her womb. The sensation caused Bette to raise her hips up.

Harry reached over and rolled his hands over her breasts. He squeezed them before massaging her fun bags. Each time he pinched or squeezed him, he stole a look at Bunny's face.

"She…really likes having her tits played with," Bunny panted. She kept riding Bette's mouth. "She's making me cum so hard because she's practically moaning in pleasure."

"I wonder if you like having yours played with just as much," Harry said, reaching over and pulling Bunny's dress down and ripping off her bra.

"Oh, Harry, you kinky bastard!" Bunny yelled. Her larger breasts bounced out.

"Looks like natural assets run in the Vreeland family," Harry said, squeezing her breasts.

"Yes!" Bunny breathed heavily. She pushed her hips harder down onto Bette's mouth. "You can suck them later when I ride you."

"Looking forward to it," Harry grunted, piercing Bette's pussy. Her wet walls closed around him and milked him. "Someone wants my cum."

Harry stuffed Bette with his cock, sawing in and out of her over and over again. He pushed deep inside her, with her thighs clamping down onto him with pleasure. Warmth spread over her and shot juices out of her womanhood to coat his cock over her cum.

"And looks like she's going to get her present now."

Harry allowed Bette to come one more time. He pushed into her and the contents of his balls spilled into Bette. His thick seed sprayed into her pussy, filling her with a bottom.

Bette came undone further, with a shrieking orgasm. The scream caused Bunny almost to topple over. Harry reached forward and captured her.

Bunny watched Harry's manhood slowly slide out of Bette. Her legs rubbed together at the thought of Harry being inside her. Her wicked little imagination went on a trip.

"I need you in me," Bunny said. She threw herself at Harry and gave him a passionate kiss on the lips.

Harry could feel her sultry body rub up against him. The young man reached around her and slipped a hand underneath her dress. Harry's hands ran against her thighs and went between them to go underneath her dress.

"You'll have me."

Harry worked his throbbing pole in between Bunny's hungry thighs. The young heiress brought the point of her hips down onto his manhood and forced him inside her.

"YES!" she squealed the moment when he was inside her.

"Relax," Harry said.

Bunny relaxed which allowed his manhood to slide into deep inside her. She started to rock her hips back and forth, sending the point of her pussy down onto his throbbing manhood. Her breasts jutted out for Harry.

"Such juicy titties," Harry said, brushing his fingers against her nipples.

"Suck them, bite them, make them yours!" Bunny panted.

Harry decided to take the glorious flesh in his hand and started to squeeze them. Bunny reared her head back with Harry working over her tits with his hands.

"I've got you creaming over just a mere touch?" Harry asked, rubbing her breasts.

"Mmm, you're so fucking manly, Harry," Bunny breathed. She released and squeezed Harry between her thighs.

Harry drove his face between her tasty tits and squeezed them together. The moment he bit down onto one of her nipples and caused her to start squeezing.

"Fuck me like an animal!" Bunny breathed.

Harry pulled out of her with a smile on his face. Bunny whined at the loss but Harry flipped her over onto the bed so she faced Bette's spread thighs. He touched between her thighs and could feel how wet she grew from the merest touch he offered.

"Don't worry, I will," Harry said. "Clean Bette's pussy out!"

The order was punctuated with a slap to her ass. Bunny's thighs moistened at Harry's strong hand bouncing against her ass.

"Oh, do that again, Daddy!" Bunny yelled at the top of her lungs. Harry responded by spanking her ass again and again.

Her ass turned red because of how hard Harry spanked it. It caused Harry's cock to grow hard as well and be in desperate need of relief. Harry pushed his way between Bunny's thighs.

The moment Harry entered her, he felt an eager heat suck him in. He gained a fair bit of momentum from sawing into Bunny's pussy from behind.

"How do you like my big cock inside your tight little pussy?" Harry asked.

Bunny moaned in hunger when Harry stuffed his thick prick into her hungry little pussy. She couldn't say anything further in response on the account of Bette reaching up and grabbing Bunny around the head.

"Time to return the favor, bitch."

Bette shoved Bunny's face between her dripping hot thighs. The Vreeland heiress licked and sucked at her nether regions. Each sensation caused Bette's hips to buck up.

Harry drilled into Bunny while spanking her tight ass. He couldn't help himself, it was just all slappable. His balls built up their juices when he rammed into her.

"She likes it, oh god, she really likes it!" Bette yelled. She continued to force Bunny to eat her pussy. "Fuck this cunt, fuck her hard….take her tits and squeeze them!"

Harry smiled and pinched Bunny's tits. Each time he touched her breasts, her pussy wrapped tighter around her. Her wet walls caressed Harry's veiny throbbing cock. The tight sensation around it threatened to make Harry pop inside her juicy center.

Bunny was extremely happy to feel Harry's cock buried inside her pussy while her face buried inside Bette's pussy. All of her sexy erotic dreams came true all at once. She could feel him buried into her and this caused excitement to brim their body.

Harry's balls started to bubble with cum. He grabbed onto Bunny and fucked the hot girl harder and faster. Her moans encouraged him to slam his way into her. Each thrust eased Harry closer and closer towards his climax. As he pushed forward, he cupped Bunny's swinging breasts.

Another orgasm rippled through the body of the vixen beneath him. Harry pushed himself further into her body.

"Get ready for the rest of your present."

Bunny clenched him the moment Harry offered her declaration. Her slick walls pumped him harder. The vixen beneath him allowed herself a moan before she collapsed back between Bette's thighs.

This was the nudge Harry needed to be pushed over the top. The contents in his balls started to flow out of them and into Bunny. He splattered the contents into her.

The moment Harry pulled out of her, Bunny sighed. The amount of essence spilling onto the bed from between her legs was more than enough to make her hungry for more.

"Harry," Bette breathed in a sexy voice. She started to tickle her pussy. "I want more."

Harry smiled and he approached her. He slipped his tip against her wet slit and pushed inside her with all of his might. Harry entered Bette again.

The two girls managed to learn to take turns with Harry's gigantic and beautiful prick all through the night. The trio was left dripping and sticky with fluids by the time the night wrapped up.

Both Bette and Bunny agreed they received the best graduation present ever.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on February 6** **th** **, 2016.**


	158. Prelude to Paradise

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Eight: Prelude to Paradise.**

* * *

The graduation party concluded and it had been an amazing one. Kathy Kane still had a big smile on her face from the party, seeing how well her niece and her best friend's sister did. Bette and Bunny deserved the night and deserved to have all of their accomplishments celebrated.

Kathy walked with a purpose outside of a jewelry store in the heart of Gotham City. She pulled up a mask over her face to obscure herself from the public. Her heart started to race when she walked towards the store. Adrenaline pumped through her body when she realized how exciting this little trip was. Sweat rolled down the palm of her hands.

' _Let's do this.'_

One strong and prominent thought ran through Kathy's mind. She made her way to the front entrance, but stopped. The door had been equipped with a security lock and there would be no way for her to get inside from her vantage point. Kathy pulled at tool out of her belt and pressed it up against the lock.

The outdoor security system overrode itself. The flashing of the lights showed Kathy the code had been scrambled. The door clicked open and let the woman into the jewelry store.

Kathy walked inside. She wondered why she was here, but she would know so in a minute. The dark haired woman never thought she would do anything this excitement.

The sound of voices from the back room caused Kathy's tensions to rise to an entirely new level. She thought she was the only one in the building, but the fact someone was talking proved her wrong.

Who were they? What was their mission? She didn't know and she wanted to find out.

"Alright, make sure you get all of it in the bag!" one of the goons yelled. "And by all of it, I mean all of it!"

"Yeah, yeah, who died and made you the boss?" one of the goon asked.

"I'm put in charge and you're going to be the one who is going to die…"

Kathy saw the men who looked like your usual thug types. They dressed in leather clothes with knit caps and one of them had a blade hanging from his waist band.

"Yeah, yeah, I know, you're the big man. Don't get your panties all ruffled or something. We're going to do it….just….keep calm."

Kathy heard more than enough and stepped into the room. One of the thugs turned towards her when she stepped in.

"This isn't trick or treat, toots!"

Kathy lunged forward with dangerously fast reflexes and grabbed the goon around the wrist. A solid crack followed when the goon dropped down onto the ground. He howled in agony with every single bone in his hand having been broken.

"You bitch!" one of the goons yelled at the top of his lungs when he charged Kathy. You're going to pay for that one!"

Kathy lunged out of the way to avoid the attack. She didn't waste any movement or any time with words. She grabbed the goon and brought him head first into the glass case. The goon's head shattered the case and caused shrads of glass to fly everywhere.

Another one of the goons pulled a gun on her. Kathy responded by drawing a gun on her own and shot him in the arm. She charged him in response and knocked him down against the wall.

One of the goons wrapped his arms around the throat of the woman. The grip tightened around her neck and forced her to her knees.

"Picked your last night….."

Kathy responded by using a concealed taser in her glove right to the goon's balls. He doubled over in agony. She held him up into the air and launched him halfway across the room. The goon landed on a table which broke underneath his girth.

The sounds of the sirens followed and Kathy slunk her way out of the back door, the damage done.

Kathy Kane rolled over out of bed. She could feel a throbbing headache coming onto herself. A weird dream left her mind, one she scarcely remembered the details for.

' _Ugh, how much did I drink?'_

Kathy came to the unfortunate conclusion she partied a little too must at her niece's graduation party. The heiress swung her legs out of bed and took half of a step forward. She almost collapsed, but made her way towards the bathroom.

She resolved not to drink again, at least not to this extent. Her body never had been this sore and this ravaged. By some grace of god, Kathy stumbled her way around the corner of the room and reached the shower.

Kathy casually flipped the radio on. She pealed off her underwear and dropped it to the ground. Her workouts left her body in great shape, despite the conservative clothes she wore when she was conducting charity work.

The heiress fumbled with the nozzle on the shower and received a dose of cold water to the face. It did a wonderful job in waking her up and sobering her up a slight amount.

Kathy knew she didn't hook up with anyone last night, which was a good thing. In fact, she remembered Veronica drove her home and tucked her into bed. And it was pretty much a big blank from there until the moment she woke up just now.

"Last night, police are baffled by a break in at the Third Distract Jewelry Emporium. Reports indicate the thugs found their way underneath past the security system by tunneling underneath. The thugs have been caught, suffering some severe injuries in the process. One of them had been shot in the arm. The Gotham City Police Department refuses to give some information at this time. Only speculation runs rampant about who was behind the attacks."

Kathy only half paid attention to the news report, rather she washed her hair and made her way towards from the room. She walked over, wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her body. The mansion sounded rather quietly.

The Kane heiress turned the corner and pressed a button to check her messages.

"Hey, Kathy, it's Ronnie….give me a call when you have some time, or when you sober up. I want to make sure you're okay after last night."

Kathy endeavored to do just that, right after some breakfast. She had some toast and some orange juice while sitting at the table. The paper waited for her on the table. She read more about the mysterious incident at the jewelry story.

She frowned when looking over the paper, but thought nothing of it at the moment. Kathy looked up from the newspaper when the door opened up and Bette strolled into the room. She dressed in a white tank top, jean shorts, and wore a pair of sunglasses.

"Please tell me you didn't drive here," Kathy said.

"Don't worry, I'm still…well I'm sore from last night," Bette said with a smile. "From Harry giving me my present."

"So, you got your wish," Kathy said. "Congratulations, Bette."

"Thanks, Aunt Kathy," Bette said. She walked a little crooked. It was more than worth it. "I caught a ride from Diana…you know, Harry's bodyguard."

"Yes, I know, I've met her," Kathy said. "So are they…"

"What do you think?" Bette asked.

Kathy responded with a smile and a chuckle. She reached over to take another drink of the orange juice, it really hit the spot.

"The biggest champion for women in Gotham City ends up sleeping with half of them," Kathy said.

"I'm surprised you haven't tried to hook up with him," Bette said. Kathy raised her eyebrow. "I'm sure Ronnie and Sapphire would be pimping him to you."

Kathy came close to spitting out her orange juice at the terminology her niece used.

"Are you sure pimping is the right word to use, honey?" Kathy asked.

"I meant hyping him up, not actually pimping…pimping," Bette said, growing red in the face.

"Relax, I know," Kathy said. "And we…we haven't….I don't think he needs the baggage I bring along."

"I'm sure he'd disagree," Bette said.

"There's toast if you want it," Kathy said, evading the question.

"Fine, I'll take it," Bette said. She helped herself for toast and orange juice. "But, if you have to jump back on the horse sometime….you might as well jump on the best horse….and he's hung like one."

Bette realized she didn't quite meant to say it out loud. Kathy just smiled and nodded at her niece, before getting back to breakfast.

* * *

Gwen did some leg stretches when she made her way into the center of the room. She dressed in a white tank top which clung to her body quite nicely and a pair of tight yoga pants. She turned towards Barbara, who wore a black top and a pair of equally tight yoga pants.

"Don't worry, Babs, I'll go easy on you," Gwen said.

"The idea here is to make sure you temper your own strength when needed," Dinah said.

Dinah leaned back on the couch to observe the training of both of the girls when needed and interject. So far, Barbara had been making some progress. A solid grounding helped her move. And Gwen really came into her own.

Gwen and Barbara made their way into the center of the room with each other. Neither decided to be the first one to make the move, at least not yet. The movement would come in time. Gwen tried to fire a roundhouse punch, but Gwen blocked the punch. Both of them went back and forth.

A few seconds later, Barbara swung her fist on the back swing. Gwen arched her back to avoid the fist nailing her across the back of the head. The blonde woman stepped back and blocked her hand again. Barbara caught her with a legsweep which knocked her onto her back. The redhead leaned down and pinned Gwen down to the ground.

"Very clever," Gwen said.

"I thought so," Barbara said. She looked at Gwen with a knowing smile on her face. "Ready?"

"Born ready."

Barbara hoped for Gwen's sake she was right and she was born ready. The two of them entered the center of the room with each other. The sparring session continued.

"You don't want to telegraph your attacks too much," Dinah said to Barbara. "A seasoned enemy will be able to catch your punches coming from a mile or two away."

Barbara smiled and made a mental note to agree with Dinah. She came back with the attack with a series of rapid fire punches and kicks. All of them had been avoided by Gwen.

"How are you doing this?" Barbara asked.

"Don't get flustered," Dinah said.

Barbara thought it was much too late not to get flustered or whatever. Gwen grabbed her around the arm and took her down onto the ground with a flip. She grabbed Barbara's arm and started to pin it behind her back. The redhead groaned when Gwen held her onto the ground.

"Too late," Gwen said with a smile, pulling away at Barbara. "Not bad, but I saw it coming."

"Yes, I figured as much," Barbara said, rising up to her feet one more time.

Barbara resolved not to get knocked on her ass again. She was ready and was ready to fight. The spirited redhead lunged forward and tried to attack her adversary with an uppercut punch. Gwen avoided the attack and landed on her feet.

"How do you do this?" Gwen asked.

"Come on, Gwen, you know a magician doesn't reveal all of her secrets," Barbara said, cracking into a bright smile.

Barbara wondered how the hell Gwen seemed to be maneuvering around her attacks before even Barbara saw them coming too much. And more important, Barbara wanted to know how she could use it to her advantage.

' _Think outside of the box, Babs.'_

Barbara pulled back on one punch and came back with a snap kick which sent the web slinging heroine flying against the wall. Gwen bounced back and rolled to her feet.

"Good, again," Dinah said.

Barbara tried not to ride the high too much. She rode it too far as Gwen grabbed her ankle and flipped her over onto her back. For the second time during this fight, Gwen straddled Barbara and pinned her to the ground.

"Well, this position is natural for you," Gwen said, her face cracking with an ear to ear grin when she lightly ran her fingers through Barbara's face.

"Very funny," Barbara said. Gwen reached out and helped Barbara up to her feet holding her hand out.

"I'm sorry, I'll kiss it and make it better," Gwen said. She leaned forward and planted her lips on her head. "Although, technically speaking….I did knock you on your ass."

"I wouldn't deny you if you did," Barbara said.

"Okay, take five," Dinah said. She could feel the hormones running high and she wanted to try and keep her wits about herself.

"You're really doing well at the fighting thing," Barbara said. "So, are you ever going out on the field any time soon?"

"When, I'm ready," Gwen said. "I think Reilly's jumping the gun a little bit, she's already had a name picked out."

"Oh?" Barbara asked.

"She wants to be the Spectacular Spider-Woman," Gwen said. "Which to be honest, given how we got our powers….it isn't the worst name in the world."

"Most codenames don't pass the eye roll test," Barbara said.

"Like Batman?" Gwen asked.

"I guess, if the shoe fits," Barbara said. She sat down on the bench and took a bottle of water. She took a drink.

"Although to be honest, I feel like I should be Spider-Woman," Gwen said. "I am older than Reilly is. She should be Spider-Girl."

"Talk about a name which doesn't pass the roll of the eye test," Barbara said.

Both of the girls laughed in thinly veiled amusement with each other.

"Although," Gwen said, reaching over to grab the water bottle and indulge in the cool liquid herself. "You can't deny Nightwing is a pretty cool name."

"No, I can't," Barbara said.

"But, I guess the man who uses it makes it his," Gwen said.

The elevator door opened up. Reilly made her way into the room dressed in a jacket covering her gym clothes. She took a half of a step towards them with a smile on her face and a spring in her step.

"So, am I late?" Reilly asked.

"No, Reilly, you're not," Gwen said, bouncing to her feet. She wrapped her arms around the waist of her girlfriend and pulled her into a hug. It was an intense one and Gwen looked into Reilly's eyes. "You're just in time to get your tight little ass kicked."

Gwen squeezed Reilly's ass in response. Reilly stared down Gwen with a smile on her face. The intense and burning look going through her eyes told Reilly to bring it.

"Oh, you think you can beat me."

"I don't think I can beat you," Gwen said. "I know you can beat you."

"She's been working out hard," Barbara said.

"I can't deny you don't have confidence," Dinah said. She rose to her feet with a smile. "But, confidence could be misplaced…and we'll see how good you really have gotten."

"Oh, how?" Gwen asked.

"Because, I'm fighting you next," Dinah said. "If you can beat Reilly."

Gwen smiled, but looked a little nervous. Despite the fact she would like nothing better than to take Dinah and pin her to the ground repeatedly, she had a feeling she might be overwhelming.

"Don't get cocky, Gwendolyn," Reilly said. "You know you still have to beat me….and I won't let you."

Gwen put her hands on her hips and stared down at Reilly.

' _Well, they want to work out hard,'_ Barbara thought. _'Although I can just imagine how bad it would be if you're here.'_

' _I can only guess,'_ Harry thought. _'So are you ready for the trip?'_

' _I can't really speak for Dinah,'_ Barbara thought. _'But given how we missed the last trip, we aren't missing this one for the entire world.'_

* * *

Lois Lane parked herself in front of the computer. The dark haired girl made sure to balance her soda a little bit away from the components as to not to fry them.

"Seriously, this has been a rather hectic last couple of weeks," Lois said. She made a popping sound with the back of her mouth and grinned.

"How is the new girl settling in?"

"Rebecca is coping with it," Lois said. She shook her head. "I think if anyone other than Harry would have taken her in, things would have been bad."

Lois smiled, Harry had the tendency to keep a level head. With all of the girls he needed to deal with, you really had to.

"Because, he does keep girls out of trouble," the girl on the other end of the chat said. "You know, because he's the one who keeps you out of trouble all of the time. And you know you could get into trouble."

Lois chuckled in response. She wasn't going to be the one to deny her ability of getting into trouble more than she could. The young woman flipped back her dark hair.

"And it runs in the family," Lois said.

"Not denying it for a minute it does," she said.

"And I'm not sure if Harry's keeping me out of trouble," Lois said. "As much as he's making sure I do a more constructive use of my time."

"And you performed the best you ever have on your school marks," she said. "Congratulations, Lois, I really didn't know you had it in you."

Lois frowned. She didn't think she was stupid, far from it. There times though where school didn't motivate her as much as a lot of people did. As a result, she really failed to achieve the best marks she could. The fact she had a case of dyslexia was a problem.

"Really, not everyone can be a Brainiac like you can, Chloe," Lois said.

"No, I guess not," Chloe said with a smile. "It helps you have access to some of the best tutors out there….and they are all in Harry's little group."

"Yes," Lois said.

"Hopefully one day I'll get to meet him," Chloe said, smiling. "He sounds amazing."

"He doesn't sound amazing," Lois said. She paused for a long time to allow the proper amount of outrage to fill Chloe's gasp before she continued. "He is amazing….although you might be a bit too young for him yet."

"That wasn't what I was talking about, you pervert," Chloe said. She almost shook her head. "But still, one of the smartest men in the world. All of those doctorates, you're going to need a score card to keep track of them if he keeps it up."

"You mean you don't need one right now?" Lois asked.

"Not everyone has your attention span, Lois," Chloe said.

Lois shook her head with a smile on her face. She didn't really deny it. Her attention span happened to be one which could be an extremely mixed bag as well.

"Never a dull moment in Gotham City, is there?" Chloe asked.

"Not really," Lois said. "You can say that again."

"I would say it again, but I'd run the risk of repeating myself," Chloe said.

A sound of a knock on the door brought Lois out of her thoughts. She could see no one was around.

' _No one would get this far if they weren't allowed.'_

"I've got to go, someone is at the door," Lois said. She snapped her fingers and bobbed her head in excitement. "Maybe you should come by Gotham City some time."

"Maybe," Chloe said. "Or maybe you could head up to Metropolis. What's the point in having a guardian who has a private jet if you never get to use it?"

Lois laughed. She couldn't think of a good enough retort from what Chloe said mostly because she saw Chloe as having a point. Lois rose up from her chair and made her way towards the door.

She opened the door and saw a young girl make her way to the front doors. Lois saw she had dark hair and some blue eyes. The dark haired young girl looked to be about a year or two within Lois's age, give or take. Another woman followed her, dressed in a nice white blouse and a black skirt which covered her stocking clad legs. It wasn't too extravagant, but it did catch Lois's attention.

"Hello," Lois said.

"Hello, you must be Lois," the woman said with a smile.

"Yes, I am," Lois said. She tried to be polite. Anyone who entered this penthouse, if she was a woman, there was good odds she was sleeping with Harry, or about ready to be sleeping with Harry. "And sorry, I haven't had the honor of meeting….."

"I'm Martha Kent, and this is my daughter Claire."

"Right, you're Harry's cousins," Lois said. "It's a pleasure to meet both of you."

"We decided to swing by Gotham City for a visit, and Harry asked me to keep an eye on a couple of things while he was away," Martha said.

"Right, on his trip," Lois said. She couldn't be too really disappointed.

Kara made her way around the corner. She greeted Martha with a smile on her face.

"Martha, it's good to see you can make the trip," Kara said.

"Well, I knew none of the girls wanted to miss this one, even though you'd been gone for a couple of days," Martha said. "So, is Lyta excited for her birthday party?"

Kara cracked into a smile. She was thankful Claire would have a few more years before she reached a huge point in her maturity. They might have to deal with some real fun. Growing up with her powers forming on Earth would lead to some interesting challenges.

"You have no idea," Kara said. She turned around and saw Rebecca walk around the corner of the room. "Martha, this is Rebecca Grayson. Rebecca, this is Martha Kent and her daughter Claire."

"Nice to meet you," Rebecca said. She took a few days to settle in and she was glad. The fact the bastard who killed her parents were gone. And she was just really coming to terms.

"Hello, dear, I'm sorry about what happened with your parents," Martha said.

"It's not….I miss them," Rebecca said. "But, I have people here which can help me."

"It's all that matters," Claire said with a smile.

"Lois makes sure I don't get too emo," Rebecca said. Claire raised her eyebrow. "Her words, not mine."

"Well you were," Lois said. "Look, it's not too…it's not too easy. But you just have to take it day by day."

Lois knew a lot better than anyone else given the fact she lost her mother when she was younger. Her younger sister was too young to remember, but Lois remembered it. Her father sitting her down and telling Lois her mother was not coming home from the hospital this time.

"So, how are you doing?" Kara asked Claire.

"There's been no more nightmares in case you've been wondering," Claire said. Kara smiled at her and patted her on the top of her head. "I've visited Dani and Kyla a few times."

"Danielle still isn't apologizing for her part in what your father did, is she?" Kara asked.

"No, okay just a little bit," Claire admitted. Kara raised her eyebrow at her cousin and Claire sighed before smiling. "Okay, she's been apologizing a whole lot. Even though it wasn't her fault."

Harry joined them as they went down the stairs. Claire greeted Harry with a hug, smiling when she parted from him.

"So, how is everyone doing?" Harry asked.

"We're fine," Martha said. "Everything's been quiet…Jonathan has been supervising the renovation of the barn…..don't worry, I left the workers with strict instructions to make sure his work was just supervising."

Harry chuckled and leaned over to pat Martha on the top of her hand.

"I'm sure you will," Harry said with a smile. "I'm sure you did, I have no doubt in my mind you did."

' _Knowing Martha, there should not be any doubt in your mind indeed,'_ Lily thought. She almost broke out into a fit of amused laughter. Only did Lily's self-control barely win out.

"Don't worry, you'll learn pretty quick here why you should learn to knock on doors that are closed. And not just barge in, unless you want to be scarred for life."

Claire looked a bit confused. Rebecca shook her head and closed her eyes to really soak in the accidentally encountered things at the Circus which could be potentially disturbing and could scar her for life. Walking in on Harry ranked pretty low on the list.

* * *

Lyta stretched her limbs out. She prepared for the big day. The day she waited for what seemed like centuries. Given the Amazon rate of aging, it was pretty close to the truth. Her hand flexed over the edge of the bar which she started to pull herself onto.

The unique circumstances of her birth combined by the unique circumstances of her heritage made it bigger than any other Ascension ceremony which had ever been. Even bigger than Diana's and Donna's in some ways. The thought she would have something bigger than her sister's cause her to bring a smile to her face.

Still, Lyta remembered just because she had an Ascension ceremony, she shouldn't slack on her lessons. The Amazon Princess walked out of her quarters and checked to see some other girls making their way over to their lessons. If Lyta was late, they would all be late together.

' _Then again, I doubt this many Amazons who risk Artemis's wrath for being late for these lessons,'_ Lyta thought.

"You're in a pretty good mood today."

Lyta stopped and had been brought out of her thoughts. She moved over towards a pretty young blonde Amazon around her age. Juno's charge, or Hera's rather, Eris.

"Well, you know what's coming up in a few days," Lyta said.

"Please, we all know what's coming up in a few days," Eris said. She flashed a smile towards her friend, even though there was a part of it which was forced happiness. "It's the talk of the island….everyone is going to be there."

Lyta couldn't really say much of anything. The other Amazons crowded around. It was amazing how warriors in training devolved into gossiping school girls when the situation rose.

"Everyone is going to be there, including him," one of them said with a smile.

"What, who?" Eris asked. She received a dirty look from her fellow Amazons which caused her to return it in turn. "Oh, right, it's him."

"Come on, you couldn't have forgotten about him," another Amazon said with a smile. "Harry Potter, Har-Zod, the Dragon…he has a statue just a few hundred yards away from us."

"It looks nothing like him at all," Lyta said. The other Amazons looked towards her. "The nose is a bit off center."

"Well, when you're sculpting perfection you're going to make a few mistakes," one of the Amazons said. "Even Princess Diana….."

"No, my sister's perfect, I'm sure," Lyta said. Her hands switched to her hips and she gave them a nice little glare. "I'm sure some of you would like to argue with me about it."

The Amazons looked at each other. They had never seen any flaws with Diana, and some of them had looked. There was a competitive spirit within the Amazons to be the very best. They seldom took it too far, but when they did, the older Amazons brought them back down to Earth.

"She's pretty good though," one of the Amazons said.

"Yes, she's okay," Eris said.

"Just okay?" Lyta asked. Eris allowed herself a smile. "You know, from you, I'd take it as a compliment. And I'm sure you'd like to see Harry just as much as everyone else."

A crowd of gushing fangirls had been formed around them. Eris tried to keep her annoyance to a bare minimum.

"Actually, I see him every single day," Eris said. "So, I don't think seeing the Dragon is a big deal."

The other young Amazons gasped at the absurdity of her statement. Eris shook her head. Just because Har-Zod was handsome, strong, well built, with a nice ass and the most brilliant set of green eyes imaginable didn't mean she was going to gush in her panties like the rest of him. Just because he could take her down and pin her to the ground before making her is, making her scream all night long.

Eris stopped and shook her head. She didn't know what road she was going down right here. Juno hyped up Harry so much to her it was becoming troubling. She could see he was amazing.

"You only see a magically replicated duplicate copy of him," Lyta said. "This is the real deal, there's a huge difference in the presentation."

"They look the same, talk the same, act the same, and….have the same measurements, don't they?" Eris asked.

"I don't know about that last part," Lyta said. She smiled, thinking she might have a better idea after her Ascension ceremony and maturity was over though. "Why don't you ask my mother or one of my sisters?"

"Let's not," Eris said.

She flushed and thought it would be a real cheerful conversation trying to talk to the Amazon royalty about the size of Har-Zod's equipment.

The Amazons stopped gossiping at once at the sight of Artemis walking towards them. The woman exhibited a stern and business like demeanor which would send shivers down the spines of anyone who encountered her. She would have almost had to reign herd on these Amazons.

"Since you seem to have an abundance of energy today, we will get started right away," Artemis said. The Amazons stood up straight, none of them groaning. They knew by now groaning would cause them to get put through the paces even more. They were more skilled because of it, but it didn't make things any less forward. "We will start right now and we will finish just before lunchtime."

Some of the Amazons tried not to look too upset their entire mornings would have been blocked off. They could see Lyta allow herself to smile for a moment.

Artemis caught Lyta smiling. She didn't want the Amazon Princess to grow too relaxed.

"Princess Lyta, front and center, if you will," Artemis said. "And Eris, if you would join us as well."

Eris moved over with her head held high. The competitive spirit of the warrior woman almost had been matched by the Amazon Princess next to her. Friend or not, Eris knew she had something to prove. And in a way, she was helping Lyta prepare for her big day by not holding back.

"Don't hold back," Lyta said.

"Don't worry, I'm not," Eris said. "Good luck, Princess, you're going to need it."

The two Amazons circled each other. Lyta could see how Eris wanted something prove, but she would have her time in the future.

"Do not become over confident in your abilities," Artemis said. "The first person to be knocked down will need extra practice."

Lyta braced herself after the incentive Artemis gave her. The Amazon princess charged forward and tried to nail Eris with a punch. Eris caught her arm and hooked her in an extended armbar. Lyta used her momentum to flip both herself to one side and Eris to the other side.

Both Amazon's landed down. Eris grabbed a sword off of the rack. Lyta produced a sword as well.

"Make things interesting," Eris said.

"Bring it," Lyta said.

The two of them rushed each other. Their swords clashed each with each other. Sparks started to fly forward.

"Watch your stance, don't slouch too much," Artemis said. "It leaves you open for an attack."

Lyta managed to catch Eris around the legs and bring her down to the ground. Eris winced when she rose her sword to block. Lyta slammed her sword through Lyta's and pushed her down to the ground.

Eris rose to her feet with a sour glance on her face. Lyta pursed her lips and smiled before inviting Eris to attack her one more time.

Lyta went after her friend with a new found intensity. She appreciated how hard Eris pushed her, and how hard Artemis did as well, along with the rest of her trainers.

She would have liked to go into the Ascension ceremony having been able to defeat one of her sisters in the process at the very least.

* * *

Artemis's drills might have put Lyta through the paces, but she was not the least bit tired. Excitement brimmed in the face of the young Amazon Princess.

Hippolyta walked over towards her daughter, with the Amazon royal guard. Several Amazons joined her awaiting his arrival. As Lyta astutely pointed out, they saw a duplicate of Harry on the island every single day. The real thing coming by was something entirely different. The duplicates were less magically powerful by design, after Harry's initial problems with the early duplicates. Still competent enough to handle themselves in a fight.

"Everyone brace yourself, Har-Zod will be arriving!" Hippolyta yelled at the top of her lungs.

The portal opened up to reveal a group of women walking through the portal. Lily Evans-Potter lead the way out of the portal. She had been followed by Amanda and Emily. Donna walked out of the portal and offered a smile and a wave to her sisters. Rose stepped out of the portal.

Barbara walked from the portal and she looked around. She took one look at the island and one word passed through her mouth.

"Whoa."

Dinah stepped behind Barbara and took a look at the island herself. She was about ready to call Barbara out on her not so sophisticated outburst, but she couldn't do it. The stunning siren had been more than tongue tied about the island sights and sounds around her.

Faora, Kara, Karen, and Diana made their way out of the island. The Amazons backed off to give their eldest princess their respect and their admiration.

"Welcome home, my daughter," Hippolyta said, stepping towards her with a smile and she wrapped her arms around Diana's waist in a hug. She did the same to her youngest daughter the moment Donna walked over towards her.

' _There you have it, Diana, you get a better reception than I do,'_ Donna said.

' _There's no need for you to be jealous,_ Diana thought.

' _I'm not being jealous, I'm just making a point,'_ Donna said. _'I have nothing to be jealous about.'_

"Diana, Donna, I'm so glad you came," Lyta said.

"Of course, Lyta, we wouldn't miss your big day," Diana said, leaning down and pulling her sister into a nice hug, before picking her up off of the ground. "You've been training, haven't you?"

"Of course, I do want to kick Donna's a…butt in battle," Lyta said, realizing her mother was within an earshot and salty language would be reprimanded.

The portal started to fire up again and Harry stepped out of the portal a few seconds later. Lyta detached herself from Harry and made her way over, throwing herself at Harry like a ballistic missile.

"Daddy!"

Harry smiled at his daughter showing up. Wanda and Zatanna followed them into the portal.

"Wanda, I hope you're doing well," Hippolyta said with a smile.

"Trust me when I say, I've flourished underneath Harry's tutelage," Wanda said. She stepped over the Queen of the Amazons to pay her respects to her. "And I'm sorry about the scare I gave you last time."

"I understand the circumstances," Hippolyta said, giving Wanda a reassuring smile.

"Never ceases to amaze me," Kara said.

Donna responded with a shrug.

"Growing up here makes it lose some of the luster and the amazement."

"Oh, you're just….it's just so awesome," Barbara said. Dinah smiled when she looked around. "I'm sure Diana can give you a grand tour, if you just ask her."

"I can give the grand tour to both of you," Diana informed both of the women. "There's a nice sparring arena I'd think both of you would like, especially you Dinah."

Dinah could not wait until she tested her skills against an entirely different group full of people. Her excitement brimmed to an entirely new level as she could not wait to see what would happen next.

' _Well this should be amazing.'_

Lyta managed to finally detach herself from Harry and look at the younger Amazons. She could see Eris sneaking a stare at Harry. The moment Lyta knew she was looking at Harry and smiled at her. Eris folded her arms underneath her chest.

' _Guess you're famous, Harry,'_ Kara thought.

' _And to think, they've only likely heard whispers of you from their older sisters,'_ Donna thought. _'You know there has just been a duplicate on the island this entire time….so it's not like…..yeah I know, nothing beats the real thing.'_

' _Answered your question, didn't you?'_

Harry could see all of the Amazons wanting to get some attention from him. The Queen of the Amazons naturally demanded first dibs. She walked towards Harry and planted a kiss on his lips.

' _Leave it to my mother to show everyone how it's done,'_ Diana thought.

"I would say I'd show to your quarters, but you know where they are," Hippolyta said, with a smile.

"All too well, love," Harry said, deciding to outdo his wife by planting another kiss on her lips.

Lyta pulled a face at her parents kissing.

' _Oh, come on, it's not like you haven't spied on them doing more,'_ Donna thought.

This thought from her sister caused Lyta to grow red in the face and the ears.

"Well, he's something, isn't he?" Lyta asked, turning to Eris with a smile.

"Yes, something," Eris said, snapping herself back to reality. "But, like I said, I see him every day….so I don't know what the big deal is."

"Yes, you see him every day, studying his every move intently…even if it is a duplicate," Lyta said.

Donna watched the interplay between the two, frowning. It reminded her…well it didn't matter right now. She needed to ask Artemis about her progress on that particular front.

' _Deja-vu much.'_

She looked up to see Harry and her mother slipped off. Donna didn't have to be a genius to know where this one was heading.

* * *

**To Be Continued on February 10** **th** **, 2016.**


	159. Ascension Day Part One

**Week Five Chapter of the Week Poll is Live. Voting Opens 2/6/2016, closes 2/13/2016:**

**List of Chapters On the Poll:** http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/2016/02/week-five-poll-is-live.html

 **Actual Poll Itself:** http://www.poll-maker.com/poll571944xf09246E4-24

* * *

 

**Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Nine: Ascension Day Part One.**

* * *

Hippolyta regarded the expressions on the face of the young Amazons with a smile on their face. A quick stolen look towards Harry showed her he regarded them with the same smile on his face as well. The Queen of the Amazons reached forward and turned her husband around to get his attention.

"You would think my arrival wouldn't be as big of a deal," Harry said. Amusement crossed over his face. "There is a duplicate on the island every day."

"In theory, I suspect it wouldn't be," Hippolyta said. "But as our daughter constantly hammers home, it's a magical replication of the original. It may talk the same, act the same, and have….similar measurements, but nothing beats the original."

Harry smiled and wrapped his arm around Hippolyta's waist, pulling her in closer towards him.

"Doctor Sandsmark sends her regrets about not making the trip," Harry said to her. Hippolyta raised her eyebrow in response. "She would have liked nothing better than to see the island."

"Still a lot to do regarding the trip?" Hippolyta asked.

"Helena wants to make sure it goes off without a hitch," Harry said. "A lot of people tried to get their hands into the trip, even though they shouldn't have done so."

Hippolyta smiled. The few times she spoke to Doctor Sandsmark, she managed to get a sense she had some high expectations for this trip and she didn't want it to be some publicity grab from the museum. Doctor McElroy, despite his eccentric nature, supported her all the way in her endeavors.

"Helena has been working busy," Diana said. "It's unfortunate she had to miss out on this."

"There will be other occasions for her to visit the island," Hippolyta said, patting her daughter on the elbow with reassurance. "Especially when Cassandra gets older, if she accepts the opportunity on the island."

Diana smiled. Knowing Cassie's personality, she would be over the moon to be here. The younger girl could barely contain herself around Diana half of the time, and had she knew the full truth, she would have hit the ceiling.

' _I wasn't ever this bad, was I?'_ Donna asked.

' _No, well a little bit,'_ Diana thought. Donna folded her arms, even though she was in a group with Kara and the twins. _'Okay more than a little bit, maybe a whole lot. But I'm pretty sure we were all bad when we were younger.'_

Donna smiled.

' _Is this the closest thing to an admission I'm going to get with you saying you're not perfect,'_ Donna thought.

' _Donna, I never said I was perfect,'_ Diana said, frowning in response.

' _You might not have said it, but the implication is there,'_ Donna said in an argument.

' _Girls, no one expects either of you to be perfect,'_ Hippolyta said. _'Just to put your very best face forward.'_

Harry smiled and moved over to reach towards Diana. He understood some of the challenges she went through.

' _Glad to be back home?'_ Harry asked.

' _Well, I could use some time out of Gotham,'_ Diana thought.

' _I'll agree,'_ Dinah and Barbara chimed in at the same time.

The Huntress had been rather active, as had Flamebird, Nightwing, and Black Canary. Oracle managed to keep them all together and they had some help from other allies.

' _I was worried about going,'_ Barbara said. _'You know what? I figured he can function well enough without me for a couple of days.'_

' _Gotham isn't going to burn just because we're not there,'_ Harry thought.

His mind flashed to a moment where Gotham City did in fact burn, but he shook his head. He had allowed his thoughts to run wild and he needed to watch himself there.

"So, how has everything been on the island?" Harry asked.

Hippolyta stopped short for a moment and turned towards her husband with a raised eyebrow.

"You do mean after the duplicate left a few days ago," Hippolyta said. Harry smiled and nodded. "It's been prepration. It's been a long time since Donna ascended. And this is the biggest event on the island since your arrival."

"It will be bigger, I think," Harry said.

"In the minds of the Amazons, perhaps, perhaps not," Hippolyta said. She turned around towards the younger Amazons, who lingered. "You do not want to be late for your lessons. Just because Har-Zod has arrived, does not mean you should slack off."

Lyta laughed at the look at the faces of her fellow classmates. Her mother looked at her with a smile.

"It means you as well Lyta; you need to remain sharp for tomorrow night."

Lyta knew better than to argue with her mother. She did go over and hug her father one more time, before he kissed her on the cheek. The youngest of the three Princesses moved over towards the group where Eris waited.

"Daddy's girl," Eris said to her.

"Oh, just wait, you'll be calling him Daddy one day," Lyta said with a smile on her face.

Eris grew red in the face and started to murmur something underneath her breath. The girls scrambled off. Donna decided to follow them to check up on her sister's progress.

' _Besides, I need to get a word with Artemis to see how her hunt is going.'_

"I almost forgot what it was like to be young and innocent," Hippolyta said, returning to her place by Harry's side.

"You're still in the prime of your life," Harry said.

Hippolyta smiled and wrapped her arms around Harry, before pulling him into a tight hug and a kiss. The Queen of the Amazons copped a feel of his ass, before backing off.

"I'll see you later tonight," Hippolyta said. Harry smiled. "Have to make sure the feast is in order after all."

"You want any help?" Harry asked.

"Harry, you're our guest," Hippolyta said. She leaned closer towards him and kissed him on the lips one more time. Her fingers lingered on his abs for a long pause. Then she pulled back. "But, thanks for the offer regardless."

She squeezed his crotch and turned around. Harry watched the Queen of the Amazons retreat. Diana took her mother's spot right next to Harry.

"It will be good for her to get a break when this is all over," Diana said.

"Yes, yes it will," Harry said, smiling when he looked her over. He turned to Dinah and Barbara. "Why don't we show you two where you'll be staying?"

"I think Dinah wants to hit the training arena," Barbara said. Dinah looked at Barbara with a raised eyebrow. "Oh, don't you dare deny it; you've been practically gushing about it since you got here."

"I haven't been gushing," Dinah protested. Barbara looked towards her with a smile. "Okay, I've been gushing….but only a little bit."

Diana smiled and she allowed Harry to lead the way. The three girls followed while the others made their way around the island.

' _They do have the Amazon spirit,'_ Diana said.

' _You can say about as much about a lot of us though,'_ Faora said.

' _Yes, you can,'_ Diana said.

She was excited by this day, mostly because of her sister. Lyta had been talking about it non-stop for months and now it was about to pay off in a really big way for everyone involved.

* * *

Several hours later, some of the younger Amazons were about ready to collapse on the ground from the results of another intense day of training with Artemis.

"Very well, you may stop for today."

One of the Amazons excused herself to head to use the facilities. This had been an impressive training session.

Lyta stretched out. She looked over towards her two sisters. Donna had been here during the entire session. Diana joined sometime during the session.

"I think you're ready," Diana said.

Lyta looked at her sister with a raised eyebrow. She frowned and lean towards Diana.

"You think I'm ready," Lyta said. She placed her hands on her hips and stared down her older sister. She didn't get as lippy as she would with Donna, but still. "Oh, I don't think I'm ready, I know I'm ready."

Donna exchanged a smile with her older sister before she turned to her younger one.

"Well, at least we know you're pretty confident," Donna said. She reached over and placed her hand on the top of Lyta's head. "Just make sure it doesn't get to your head. Or we won't have any room for it in the palace."

Lyta brushed off the warning from her older sister. She wasn't letting her ego get the better of her. If nothing else, she thought Donna underestimated her and her abilities, and it annoyed her. Some of the other Amazons underestimated her in sparring and paid for it.

"I'm down to Earth, thank you very much," Lyta said. "Which is more than I can say for you when you underwent your ascension ceremony all of those years ago."

Donna cringed. She thought she had been a bit overconfident. Diana showed her the price for her overconfidence and wrecked her in battle with the minimal of effort.

' _I could really take her better now,'_ Donna thought.

' _Are you willing to wager on it, Donna?'_ Diana asked.

Donna thought she might want to, but she wasn't sure.

' _Just for fun, no pressure?'_ Diana asked.

' _There's always pressure when dealing with you, Diana,'_ Donna thought.

Lyta smiled at the interplay between her two older sisters. She wanted to go into her Ascension ceremony and beat Donna in the exhibition duel. Then maybe, just maybe, she would go into battle with Diana. The Amazon Princess thought about holding her own with Diana. It would show how much she would improve.

Maybe, maybe, maybe she could actually win. Lyta did not dare get her hopes up.

"I'd really like to see you two go at it," Lyta said. Diana and Donna turned towards her. "I mean, in battle."

"I'd really like to see how much you've improved," Diana said.

"Sure, you can see how much I've improved," Lyta said, a smile crossing over her face. She leaned towards her and touched Diana by the leg. "When I'm out there, fighting you in the Ascension ceremony."

Donna observed her a little bit and so did Diana. Lyta was not going to play her hand too much. Not if the youngest princess could help it, at least. She had been preparing for this day for a long time.

"You really think you can beat us?" Donna asked.

"You, sure," Lyta said without any hesitation. Donna's mouth opened in mock indignation. "Diana, I'm not sure about but it would be an interesting battle. And I hope she doesn't go easy on me."

Diana smiled and patted her younger sister on the head.

"When we fight in battle, I'm not going to hold back anything," Diana said. She leaned closer towards her sister. "Don't worry. You're going to earn any victory."

"And I'm not going to either," Donna said.

"Good, I'm glad."

The three sisters parted ways with each other. Diana was going to join Dinah and Barbara. Lyta was going to hang out with her friends, if they were able to. As for Donna, well Donna needed to ask these questions.

The middle Amazon Princess turned her way towards Artemis. Artemis was about ready to move off, but she stopped.

"Do you wish to test your skills?" Artemis asked her.

"Later, so I can be prepared for my sister," Donna said. "I don't want my little sister to beat me in battle."

"She wants it a lot," Artemis said. "I can see the intensity in her eyes. She wants to prove something. Lyta wants it, badly. And she wants it even more than you did during your Ascension ceremony."

Donna's frown deepened. She really was going to be told she had been slacking off during her training way too much. She knew it all too much how lazy she was when she was younger. She slacked off her lessons.

"For the record, if you had the attitude you did today, it would ended up much better," Artemis said. "But, you didn't want to talk to me about this."

Donna paused for a long moment. The thought entered her mind about what she wanted to ask about. Thinking about wanting to ask about it and actually asking about it was two different things.

"Has there been any progress with Aresia?" Donna asked.

A long moment followed when Artemis looked at Donna. Donna could tell it was a loaded question.

"There have been no leads," Artemis said. "It doesn't look too promising."

Donna clutched her fists to the side and groaned when she locked eyes with Artemis.

"It's been a long time since we got any information about her," Donna said.

"I know," Artemis said. She sympathized with Donna because she had been right in the middle of this chaotic situation.

"Aresia was a skilled pupil, one of the best on this island," Artemis said. "She had a lot of rough edges, but they could be smoothed out in time."

Donna remembered the baggage Aresia had when she had the island. Rough edges might have been an understatement to end all understatements to be honest. She befriended the girl, feeling empathy towards her. Aresia's problems ended up being more deep seated than she thought they were and it was extremely frustrating when it happened.

' _I really wish I could have done more.'_

"You shouldn't feel guilty, Donna," Artemis told her. "Aresia's demons were not yours to tame."

"It was a misunderstanding which drove her from the island," Donna said.

"Yes, and her hatred for men…wasn't something mutually exclusive towards her," Artemis said. She placed her hand down onto Donna's shoulder and smiled at her. "She's capable."

"And she's terrified as well, so she would do something dangerous," Donna said.

"Your mother has told you of other exiles, hasn't she?" Artemis asked. Donna responded with a nod. "This island is a prison, not a paradise. There were other times where Amazons departed from the island."

Donna understood what Artemis was saying. She didn't see as much of the tensions with her mother and some other Amazons. They happened before her time most of them.

"And depending on where she fell, she would have fallen with some sympathetic people," Artemis said.

"And you don't want to risk a war, do you?" Donna asked. Artemis answered with a swift nod.

She figured as much. Donna wanted to look into the eyes of Aresia and ask her why she did what she did. She brought Circe to the island to bring chaos upon them. Even though it worked out well in the end, it wasn't the point to be honest.

"We'll find her, Donna," Artemis said. She leaned in and squeezed her young charge on the shoulder.

Donna hoped so for the sake she did. She didn't know what Aresia was capable of doing out there. The very thought scared the warrior princess to her wits end. For now though, she would focus on her younger sister's Ascension ceremony.

* * *

Circe resembled the cat who ate the canary. And not in the sense of what Selina did to Dinah a while back. Technically speaking she had been banished from the island a long time ago due to some misunderstandings. Interventional allowed her to return to the island, on the condition she would be on her best behavior. Circe wouldn't be on anything else other than her best behavior.

' _After all, I wouldn't want to be kicked out before the fun and games begin,'_ Circe thought.

An Ascension ceremony for an Amazon Princess were few and far between to be honest. It happened two other times with Diana which was a spectacle. And with Donna, which Circe didn't have any particular experiences.

"I hope you're going to be on your best behavior," Rose said.

Circe turned towards the Evans Sisters when they stepped on either side of her. The sisters had a lot of advantage reigning people in thanks to their experiences with their twin daughters. And they were pretty wild during their time or so Circe heard. She wasn't sure if she could believe the rumors. They tended to go off the rails.

"Best behavior," Circe said. She smiled and looked at both of the sisters. She respected both of them with her work. "I wouldn't do anything to jeopardize my second chance."

"Mostly because if you give us any trouble, Harry will take you into hand," Lily said. Her lips curled into a knowing smile when she looked him into her eye.

"I'm not sure if punishment from Harry would be a real deterrent," Circe said.

"Depends on what the punishment is," Lily said. She leaned closer to Circe. "If you get cut off from sex….."

Circe shuddered, not even allow Lily to resume her thought. Being deprived with sex was most certainly something which caused shivers to run down her spine.

"Harry would go there," Circe said. "Especially if the Princess and the Queen suggests it….they know how to push my buttons. Both right and wrong."

Circe leaned closer towards them. She looked into Rose's green eyes. The lips of the devious goddess of magic came closer to Roses, but she pulled back.

"But, don't worry," Circe said. She placed her hand onto Rose's shoulder with a smile and leaned closer towards her. "I know how to push other women's buttons as well."

A couple of seconds passed when Circe made her way closer towards Rose. Lily pinched her on the ass which caused Circe to jump about halfway up in the air.

"Behave," Lily said.

"Oh, I'll be the good girl you want me to be," Circe said. Her expression grew extremely sultry and steamy when she peered into Lily's eyes. "Or I'll be as bad as you want to be."

Lily was all too used to Circe's actions.

"I never thought I'd see the day where I'd be allowed back onto the island," Circe said. "Of course, there's one little technicality which smoothed over the transition."

"Circe was banned from the island," Rose said. "Donna Milton wasn't banned from the island."

"Brilliant and beautiful at the same time," Circe said in excitement.

"And you should thank Harry as well," Lily said. "He was the one who appealed to the goddesses."

"I'll be sure to thank him later," Circe said. "Hera and I have had our share of misunderstandings in the past….but it's water under the bridge, at least for the most part."

Circe shook her head. You have one misunderstanding when someone ends up as a pig and it could define a person's relationship for an extremely long time. She hadn't turned anyone into a pig for the longest time. Mythology boxed her into this little clichéd action, where she did nothing but turn people into pigs. She only did it a handful of times.

' _Then again, the legends peg Amazons as notorious blood thirsty man-haters,'_ Circe thought. _'Sure, some of them might be uptight, but they aren't that bad. Just need to remove the stick from their ass.'_

"Your definition of a misunderstanding can be pretty liberal," Lily said.

Circe laughed; she wasn't going to deny it to be honest. She looked out into the distance. The innocence of youth caused her to crack a smile on her face. Not completely because she could corrupt it to be honest.

"Lyta's certainly something isn't she," Circe said. "She gets a lot of her attitude from her mother…and a fair bit of it from her grandmother."

"What are you trying to imply?" Lily asked. She placed her hand on Circe's shoulder firmly and gave it a squeeze.

Circe cracked into a smile when she could see the look from Lily. The goddess realized she really stepped into it. She looked at Rose, but Rose just smiled and shrugged her shoulders in response.

' _Wow…talk about…..'_ Circe thought.

' _You really are on your own about this one,'_ Harry thought. _'You do have a knack of getting yourself into too much trouble.'_

Circe whistled in response to this casual statement. It really made the understatement of the century where Harry told her she got herself into too much trouble.

"And by that I mean she can be passionate about what she does," Circe said. "It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing."

"Oh, it isn't?" Lily asked.

Circe grinned back at Lily. She decided to place her hands on the waist of the redhead witch. The power coming from her was most certainly hereditary to be honest.

"No, it isn't a bad thing," Circe said. She lingered closer towards her. "If I offended you….sorry."

Circe didn't seem too sorry. Her soft lips found Lily's with a kiss for a moment. Lily decided to back her up against the wall, and pin her hands behind her back. The redhead started to press herself against Circe and cause her to whimper out in a moan.

"I can see where Har-Zod gets it from," Circe said. Lily reaches around and gave a firm pinch to her ass.

Circe jumped halfway up into the air. She allowed a grip to pass over her face, turning around for a moment. Her attention locked back onto Lyta. The fact she stood out head and shoulders above this class of Amazons pretty spoke a lot of her. She looked rather intense glare glinting into her eyes.

"She can be terrifying," Circe said.

"Are you admitting you're terrified of a fourteen year old girl?" Rose asked with a smile on her face. "She can get pretty intense sometimes; I just hope she doesn't….."

' _She'll be fine,'_ Harry thought.

' _You would know better than anyone else,'_ Lily thought.

Lily could see Harry's point when she observed Lyta in action. One of the Amazons moved over towards Lyta and attempted to spar her. She looked like she had a chip on her shoulder about as much as Lyta did. If not more than she did.

' _She's Lyta's friend, Eris,'_ Harry thought.

' _She was the one who gave you cow eyes, and tried to act like she didn't,'_ Circe thought.

' _The very same,'_ Harry thought. _'From what Artemis told me, she's pretty intense in battle out there.'_

' _Given who her father is, I don't doubt it,'_ Circe thought.

Circe turned her attention one more time to Lyta. She prepared to stand in a battle stance. The other younger Amazons looked around.

' _You just wonder how they would act like if they knew Harry was there,'_ Diana thought.

' _I want to see them fight without any distractions,'_ Harry thought. _'You know, I want to see them fight in their natural enviroments.'_

Lyta lunged forward with a martial arts attack. Eris tried to block the attack. The two of them battled back and forth exchanging a series of rapid fire attacks. Eris almost drew first blood, but Lyta jumped back at the last moment. She challenged her to go forward.

"Again!"

Circe followed the progress of the battle with a smile on her face. She thought because of Lyta's heritage; she would have been something special. Would she be better than her sisters and her mother? The sorceress figured there was a pretty good chance she would go down this particular road if she applied herself in an excellent manner. Right now though, she focused on going through the Ascension ceremony.

Lyta almost got knocked down, but she lured her opponent into a false sense of security by taking her down again.

' _Reminds me of….'_ Donna thought.

' _It reminds you of you and Aresia, doesn't it?'_ Diana asked.

' _Is it obvious?'_ Donna asked. _'I hope this story has a happier ending than Aresia's does.'_

' _I think you'll find it will,'_ Harry thought. _'Have faith.'_

* * *

Barbara kicked back and relaxed on the island. She had to say this was the life and she wouldn't trade it for pretty much anything else. She dressed in a nice red toga which really stretched over her growing body. Best to get into the spirit of the island to be honest, at least it's what she thought.

Turning her head a fraction to the right, Barbara noticed Dinah walking towards her. She dressed in a black toga. The material parted a little bit to show off Dinah's silky legs. She took her position next to Barbara.

Barbara raised her head a little bit to give Dinah room to maneuver. She set it back down, using Dinah's chest as a pillow.

"I have to say, we earned this vacation," Barbara said.

"To be fair, it was our own fault we didn't go on the trip to California," Dinah said. Her hands absent mindedly started to stroke towards Barbara's red hair. "And yes, we didn't expect what happened to happen."

Barbara frowned. It was really a problem. Hell, the Red Hood War might have died down after the Ace Chemical Plant incident, but the incident at the plant left more questions than answers. Especially with the League's involvement.

"Let's not talk about this business right now," Dinah said sternly.

"Right, we're on vacation," Barbara said.

The sun started to beat down onto them. Barbara thought about having a chance of working on her tan. The proximity of the sun on the island had been rather bright. She could see Kara a few feet away, sunbathing in the nude. She didn't really care, although to be fair, none of the women on this island had the taboos which came off with living on the mainland. It was a refreshing change.

"So, are you going to join her?" Dinah asked. "Or are you just going to stare at her ass?"

"If I am, I'm not the only one," Barbara said, without missing a beat. Dinah laughed and hugged her friend's body closer towards hers. The back of Barbara's head pressed against Dinah's breasts which felt rather nice.

The two of them enjoyed a few moments together in the sun. These moments allowed Barbara to get her head together. The only sad part was this vacation would not last forever.

' _As Donna told me though, paradise really isn't paradise if you're here all of the time.'_

"You know something, Barbara."

"Mmm."

"The Amazons really know really kick ass," Dinah said.

Barbara laughed for a second at Dinah's statement. She pretty much spoke the most obvious point in the world. The Amazons were good at battle. Dinah was always up for a nice spar, especially against an opponent which could get her competitive juices flowing.

' _To her, nothing's as good as a nice spar, and sex afterwards with the woman she fought, or Harry, whoever fought her.'_

"They do know how to kick ass.'

Dinah raised her eyebrow. She shifted herself, with Barbara practically lying on top of her now. She could hear the sounds of battle coming from afar, but she was too relaxed to care.

"Would you care for some refreshments?"

One of the Amazons walked over, a younger one, part of Lyta's age group, joined them.

"Thanks for the offer," Barbara said, as she and Dinah took it.

"Queen Hippolyta would like me to tell you if there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask," she said. "And we hope you enjoy your time on Themyscira."

"We are so far, thank you," Barbara said.

The pretty young Amazon walked off. Wanda and Zatanna followed in her place. Wanda wore a scarlet toga which fit her like a glove. Her swelling breasts practically strained against the material, but they were evidence of her magical prowess. Zatanna dressed in a silver toga which shined in the light as well.

"You don't mind if we join you, do you?" Zatanna asked.

"Oh, not at all, make yourself comfortable," Dinah said.

"Just like Barbara is making herself comfortable?" Wanda asked, grinning when she looked at Barbara who had been sprawled out on Dinah's body.

Dinah laughed even though Barbara responded with a mock scowl directed towards both of the women. Wanda responded by blowing Barbara a nice little kiss and situating herself on the chair next to her.

"You're in a good mood," Barbara said.

"With my powers, I have to be," Wanda said.

Barbara smiled and nodded. She had a point to be perfectly honest.

"I love this island," Zatanna said. "Plenty of room to stretch your legs, you know."

"Yes, and some lovely legs to stretch," Barbara said, staring at Zatannas legs long and hard. Zatanna kicked off her sandals and stretched out her bare feet, wiggling her toes at her.

"Sights aren't too bad," Wanda said. She looked out from her vantage point and saw a nice view overlooking the sea.

Better than the last time she came here. The last time Wanda showed up on this island, she almost ripped time and space open with her efforts. She hoped to make up for what happened in due time.

"So, are you looking forward to this Ascension ceremony thing?" Wanda asked.

"Not as much as the princess is looking forward to it," Barbara said.

All of them laughed at this. Of course, they could be referring to more than the Princess, all of the Amazons, including her older sisters looked forward to it.

' _It's a once in a lifetime event,'_ Diana thought.

' _How did your Ascension ceremony go?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Yes, I….I quite don't remember how it went for you,'_ Donna said.

' _You were much too young to remember,'_ Diana said. _'And maybe it was for the best you don't remember….I learned a very valuable lesson on the day of the ceremony.'_

' _Wasn't your ascension ceremony's aftermath what ended up getting Circe banished from the island?'_ Lily asked.

' _I told you it was a misunderstanding…..actually I don't even know what I was riled up about in the first place,'_ Circe said.

A long time had passed, too long. Circe didn't even begin to guess what caused the entire mess involving her and Diana. She had theories, but none of them.

' _I went in there, thinking I could beat my mother,'_ Diana thought.

' _Oh boy, isn't this a familiar story?'_ Donna asked. She thought she could handle Diana.

' _And needless to say, things went downhill from there,'_ Diana thought. _'It's a long story, and you had to be there to do it justice.'_

' _I'll confirm it was, and I think we all could have been better off that day,'_ Hippolyta thought.

' _Is this a direct admission from the Queen she was in the wrong?'_ Circe asked.

' _You weren't entirely innocent, Circe,'_ Hippolyta replied.

' _I know I wasn't entirely innocent,'_ Circe thought. _'But, you were wrong, and I want to make sure you were making a confession.'_

' _Oh, here we go,'_ Morgan thought. She rolled her eyes. She rarely entered the bond link due to other things monopolizing her time other than casual banter. _'She's going to be like a dog with a bone with this one.'_

The girls in the bond all rolled their eyes. The excitement Circe had about the fact Hippolyta admitted she might in fact be wrong was pretty infectious. One could cut the tension with a knife though.

* * *

Hippolyta prepared to make the final preparations for her youngest daughter's Ascension Ceremony. Barring any unforeseen surprises, this would be the very last time she would be going through something like this.

She hoped the event lived up to the anticipation. The feast tomorrow night would kick off the ceremony, and then the big event would happen one day later.

A knock on her chamber doors brought Hippolyta out of her musings.

"Come in."

Lily poked her head inside the chamber. Hippolyta smiled and invited her further inside.

"So, how are my sisters doing on the mainland?" Hippolyta asked.

"They have blended into SLE and RAO seamlessly," Lily said. "Your recommendations were completely spot on to be honest, but who would know better than the Queen of the Amazons herself."

Hippolyta smiled. She didn't want to be someone who would toot her own horn, but who would know better indeed?

"I have a few more recruits you may want to take a look at, if given the chance," Hippolyta said. "We've been in isolation for too long; it's time to branch out."

Hippolyta was glad the goddesses gave them their blessing. She honestly felt it was long overdue.

"Hera's blessing most certainly helps, doesn't it?" Lily asked.

"Yes, it does," Hippolyta said. "It's unwise to send all of the Amazons on the island, but some of them work well in their roles."

So far the Amazons Hippolyta sent ahead filled two major roles. Security and research, both of the roles vital to the infrastructure of both SLE and RAO, and the Amazons done rather well.

Some Amazons were more equipped to function outside of the island than others. Hippolyta understood some of them came to them with a lot of issues they needed to work out. And some of them worked them out quite nicely, which pleased Hippolyta.

"Well, some are more quipped then others," Lily said. "I trust your judgment to only recommend those who are fitting for the job and Harry trusts your judgment as well."

Hippolyta smiled. Lily said the magic words, no pun intended naturally. The Amazon Queen turned herself outside of the window.

"So, are you ready for Lyta's big day?" Lily asked.

"Yes," Hippolyta said. "But, I have a feeling I'm not as prepared for it as my daughter."

Lily laughed. She viewed the excitement in Lyta's eyes, and it reminded herself of her around this particular age.

"You seem tense," Lily said with a smile.

"A little," Hippolyta said. She didn't want to admit it. "I hoped to have news for Donna about Aresia by the time she arrived at the island. But, there's been nothing. A couple of false leads, some false hope, but nothing."

Hippolyta didn't want to have Aresia answer for her crimes as much as bring her home. The world was cold and harsh, and there were people out there who would take advantage.

"You can't give up hope," Lily said in the most firm voice possible. "If you give up hope, what else will there be in the world?"

Hippolyta frowned; there was nothing else other than hope. The hope Aresia would be brought home safe and sound. Exactly how to handle her from there and make sure she didn't repeat her actions was up in the air. And out of Hippolyta's hands in a way. The goddesses would decide on what to do with Aresia.

"Take your clothes off and lie down."

Hippolyta raised her eyebrow at Lily. The redhead smiled at her with the type of confidence which caused Hippolyta to wonder what was going on here.

"I think we both know the best way to ease stress, don't you?" Lily asked.

Lily already started to remove her clothes. Hippolyta could not take her eyes off of the fit body of the mother of her husband. The Queen of the Amazons could feel a tingle go down her body.

The sultry redhead dressed in a silky set of bra and panties which matched her hair cover. The slightly transparent area caused Hippolyta's mouth to water. Lily stepped over towards her and wrapped her arms around Hippolyta with a smile and kissed her on the lips.

Hippolyta returned the kiss which relaxed her. Lily's tongue sought entry into the depths of her mouth and Hippolyta had no choice, but to allow it. Lily's hands exploring her body made her breath.

The Queen of the Amazons pulled back. The heat coming through her body made her strip her clothes off without realizing what she was doing. She turned around.

Lily watched the pure and uninhibited view of Hippolyta's ass. It stuck out towards her in a rather nice manner. Lily smiled and trailed her tongue across her lips, licking it.

"I've been told I have magic hands," Lily said.

"If you're anything like Harry, I don't doubt."

Lily waved her hands and several massage oils appeared on the table. She proceeded to slowly rub the muscles on the back of Hippolyta's neck. An innocent massage at first, which grew even more daring the more Lily explored her body.

' _Twenty minutes, Harry.'_

The middle Evans sister continued her exploration of her. The moans coming from Hippolyta caused her to continue. Lily leaned forward a slight amount.

Hippolyta closed her eyes for a second when Lily grew closer and closer. The Queen of the Amazons held in her breath with what was going to happen next. Lily moved straight in for the kill.

"Now time to really relax you."

Lily ran her hands down between the thighs of the Amazon Queen. She smiled when she started to rub circles around her ass, teasing it a little bit.

"More," Hippolyta begged.

Lily smiled when she started to stroke between Hippolyta's thighs. They spread to reveal her perfect pussy. Lily kneeled down between her thighs and leaned between her thighs. She licked her lips when she saw the amazing pussy before her.

"Roll over," Lily said.

Hippolyta rolled over with a smile. Her nude body revealed itself to Lily. Lily saw all of her with Hippolyta's nice breasts popping out. The redhead MILF touched the breasts of the Queen of the Amazon's.

Hot oils poured all over Hippolyta's body. Bursts of pleasure came down her body. Lily straddled the top of her, stripping off her clothes.

"You're beautiful," Hippolyta said.

"And you are as well," Lily said. She smiled and leaned down to kiss the mother of her granddaughter on the lips. She straddled Hippolyta and started to push herself down onto her.

Hippolyta allowed a moan to pass through her lips. Lily started to grind her hips down onto Hippolyta's pussy. She gasped when she brought herself more and more.

Lily smiled when the Queen of the Amazon's juices coated her own thighs. She reached down and massaged her breasts, playing with her nipples.

Hippolyta panted when she felt some magical force penetrate her. Lily worked her insides and brought her closer towards an orgasm. The warmth spread through her body.

"Go ahead, touch my ass," Lily said.

Hippolyta took advantage of invitation and squeezed Lily's ass. She could feel her sweet firmness in her hand.

Lily smiled and leaned down, touching their breasts together. She started to kiss down Hippolyta's body, moving her way down her body. The valley between her legs was inches away from Lily's face. The redhead buried her face between Hippolyta's thighs and started to eat her pussy with hunger.

Hippolyta screamed to the heavens. The talented witch ate her out and drove her completely to an orgasm. Her tongue worked into her depths and kissed her insides. The Queen of the Amazons rose her hips up and started to ram her hips into Lily's face.

"More, more!" Hippolyta yelled.

The juices started to flow from Hippolyta's pussy. Lily brought her to a spectacular orgasm which caused her entire body to start singing with sensational sensations. Every time Lily's mouth worshipped her pussy, Hippolyta thought she would have been brought closer to the edge of something amazing. Her pussy sang with an increasing amount of pleasure.

Hippolyta came as Lily's magical mouth brought her to the edge of pleasure. She bucked her hips up and unleashed more of her juices into Lily's mouth.

"Excellent, she's ready for you."

Harry stepped into the room dressed in a silky robe. Lily decided to get her son ready for Hippolyta. She waved her hands and several ropes wrapped around her.

The ropes pushed into Hippolyta's breasts and pussy, binding her to the bed. Lily turned around and smiled when she placed her hand firmly onto Harry's abdomen.

"Let me get you ready for the bondage Queen," Lily said. She worked his robes down and unleashed his cock for her.

"Suck my cock, Mum."

Lily thought it was an amazing thought. She played with his cock, running her fingernail down the underside of it. She placed her head on the top of his head and made several soft sucking motions. Her tongue situated around the area of his slit.

Harry groaned when Lily gave him a good going over. Her hot tongue started to suckle him.

"I can't wait to be in your mouth."

Lily brought Harry into her hot mouth. She hummed when bringing him into the back of her throat. Harry grabbed onto the back of her head and pushed his thick cock into her mouth.

Like the sex goddess she was, Lily took Harry's entire thick rod into her mouth. She made sure the Queen got a good view of Harry being sucked off by his own mother.

Harry looked down to the delicious sight of Lily's beautiful lips around his cock. Her enchanting green eyes looked up at him with an expression of unmistakable lust dancing in her eyes.

"Harder, Mum," Harry said. "I want to fuck your beautiful mouth so fucking hard."

Lily brought his cock into her mouth for a few more passes. The eagerness of her cock sucking increased, but she stopped for a moment and rose to her feet.

"Look at her pussy," Lily said. She pointed towards the spread eagled Queen of the Amazons on the bed. "Wouldn't you agree she deserves a royal fucking?"

Harry turned his attention completely to Hippolyta. Her legs spread for him and almost begged him to penetrate her. Harry stepped over towards her and touched his hands on her breasts.

"I think she wants a royal fucking."

Harry pushed his throbbing cock against her. Hippolyta's pussy opened up to allow him to slide in. He plunged into her strong Amazon walls.

Hippolyta silently thanked all of the goddesses for the gift Harry gave her. He straddled her and kept plowing his thick manhood inside her body. He pushed into her tight pussy, drilling his thick cock into her body.

"Oh, I can feel how much she wants her pussy pounded," Harry said.

Hippolyta tried to moan through the gag Lily put on her. Lily reached down and touched her breasts to squeeze them.

"I think I have something better to gag you with," Lily said. A wave her hand caused the gag to be cut off of Hippolyta's mouth and exposed her gaping mouth. She screamed with Harry plunging into her. "Eat me."

Lily draped her hips over the face of the Amazon Queen. She ground her hips up. Hippolyta opened her mouth to latch it into Lily's cunt.

"Oh, this is so hot," Harry said. He held onto Hippolyta's hips and plowed into her body with a pistoning effect. Hippolyta clamped down onto her. "Just like her pussy."

Her walls stretched all the way around him and contracted around him when he gained a little bit of momentum. Harry plunged his thick manhood into the Amazon Queen's eager, dripping center.

Hippolyta thought she would die because of the duel sensations. She wished she could use her hands. Harry pushed down on her, having his way with her when slamming into her pussy.

"Use your entire tongue!" Lily screamed at the top of her lungs. Hippolyta lapped Lily's pussy juices like a pro. "Oh yes, yes, this is why she's the Queen."

"And she's earned her orgasm."

Harry's fingers traced patterns down Hippolyta's nipples and stomach. He reached down and found his hands on her clit. He slowly started to massage the love button on her.

Hippolyta's hips thrashed up with an intense jerking motion to bring his cock into her body. Harry pulled her over the threshold into one of the most spectacular orgasms's in the world.

"Cum around my son's big cock," Lily said, grinding her hips up down onto him. She moved a little bit, so Hippolyta could stick her tongue deep inside her ass. "Mmmm, I love you tonguing my asshole like this."

"I do as well," Harry said.

He rose up to allow his balls to slap against Hippolyta's clit several times. He positioned himself and plowed into her body. Hippolyta's wet center clamped down onto his rod to milk it.

Hippolyta could sense her husband's orgasm coming around the corner. Her heated organ pushed up towards him. She tried to rub him for the leverage.

"She wants your cum," Lily breathed. She followed her son's large cock entering and exiting Hippolyta's pussy, following it with hunger and greed dancing in her eyes.

"She'll get it."

Harry drove his cock deep inside her pussy. Every time he touched her insides, her wet warmth hugged him and tried to milk his seed out of his balls. Harry grunted and held onto her hips. A long thrust caused her pleasure to increase and her heat to keep pumping up around him.

Hippolyta wished she could wrap her hands around Harry and pull him in closer. He seemed to be doing a good job in burying himself balls deep in her cunt.

Speaking of cunts, Lily's was never to be neglected. Hippolyta continued to tongue her out. The scent and Harry's thrusting into her drove her to one more spectacular orgasm to end all orgasms. Hippolyta's cunt clenched around Harry's tool and started to milk the seed from his balls.

"Here's your reward!" Harry said.

One more push caused the flood gates to open. Hippolyta received an immense amount of cum being buried into her womanhood. Harry buried his thick, hot, seed into her pussy.

"She's so good taking your cum like this," Lily said. She watched Harry pull out of Hippolyta.

The redhead returned to her spot between Hippolyta's legs, kneeling own. The gag returned to Hippolyta's mouth. Lily bent down and started to lick Hippolyta's cunt. The combined tasted between the two of them enhanced her taste buds and made her loins hungrily.

Harry viewed his mother's dripping wet cunt. So soft and so inviting for his cock, which hardened again at the erotic sight. He lined up his manhood with her sopping wet pussy and slid back into her.

"Guess, I'm a true motherfucker, aren't I, Mum?"

Lily only moaned in response, the vibrations from the back of her throat hitting Hippolyta's cunt. Her son's cock stretched her in ways which nothing else could follow. His large balls slapped against her womanhood. So full with cum and so full with cum for her.

Harry pumped his way into his mother's delicious heat. He reached around and clutched one of her breasts. He squeezed it which caused a moan.

"I love your soft, big tits," Harry said. "They're so firm after all of these years."

Harry thanked magic for keeping his mother in tip-top shape. Her pussy remained snug around his thick tool. He rose out of her and pushed into her, bringing himself into her wet heat. It clamped down onto his tool and continued to milk his manhood with each thrust.

An orgasm slowly rocked through Lily's body. Her son's thick cock plowed into the depths of her body. Her hot walls wrapped around him and tried to suck him into her.

Harry continued to ravish his mother from behind, while she ate out the Queen's pussy. The sensation of Lily's tight muscles wrapped around his veiny cock became a bit too much to bare.

"You must really want my seed, don't you?"

Lily only responded by clenching him with each thrust. Harry ran his hands all the way up her body several times. He settled on squeezing her tight ass which made her start panting with pleasure.

"And you're going to get it," Harry said. "You're going to get every last drop of my seed, buried into your tight pussy. I'm going to stuff you full of my cum!"

Lily's pussy heated up in excitement at the thought of what her stud of a son might do to her.

"Harry, give your mother all your cum," Lily breathed. "I want your sticky, incestuous seed buried inside my womb. Oh, Harry, put it all inside me!"

Harry pushed into his mother with another hard thrust. Lily returned to eating out Hippolyta. The outrageous sounds she made when sucking the queen's pussy caused Harry to plunge deeper into her.

Lily's orgasm bubbled to the surface. Every time Harry touched the inside of her pussy, she came closer to losing her mind. His throbbing manhood struck her nerve endings with a few large thrusts.

Harry held onto his ass and rode out his mother's latest orgasm. Her wet juices smoothed the trip down her cavern into the depths of her cunt.

"Closer."

Lily's body rocked with another orgasm which sent her body spiraling over the edge of all the pleasure she could handle. Harry thrust into her a few more times before it happened.

Harry's balls released their creamy essence into Lily. His nerves racked with pleasure when he slammed himself into his mother's tight pussy, bringing dose after dose of delicious seed into her womanly depths. She clamped down onto him extremely hard.

The last spurt of cum fired into Lily's pussy and Harry pulled himself out of her. Lily collapsed between Hippolyta's legs, with a content grin on her face.

Harry braced himself for my sweaty, sticky fun to come tonight.

* * *

**To Be Continued on February 13** **th** **, 2016.**


	160. Ascension Day Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixty: Ascension Day Part Two.**

* * *

Hippolyta sighed and rolled over to snuggle into Harry's side. The fun concluded a bit ago, even though it lasted for several hours. Lily pressed herself onto her son's other side. Harry positioned himself in the middle of the two sexy MILFs and smiled. He could feel his mother's fingers lightly dance against his muscular chest.

"There's nothing like a good round of intercourse to relax a person," Hippolyta said, with a warm smile. "We learned that many years ago."

"I'm always happy to help," Lily said. She leaned over her son to touch her lips to Hippolyta's briefly. The kiss was brief, and also extremely nice. "And I know Harry is just as eager to help."

"Yes," Harry agreed. "But, our trip to the island isn't all sunshine and happiness, is it?"

Hippolyta sighed. Now she had come down from the spectacular series of orgasms Harry and Lily both gave her, it was time for her to return back to Earth. As much as Hippolyta detested going down this particular road, she had essentially no choice to be honest.

"No, I wish I could have brought you better news on the Aresia front."

Hippolyta knew of Artemis's frustrations with not tracking down their former charge. The Queen of the Amazons thought Aresia's disappearance personally reflected on her as a slight failure. She didn't want to admit it, not in the slightest. Had she been more attentive with Aresia, she would have noticed the signs and stopped them before they progressed out of control.

' _This has dragged on for some long, it's almost painful,'_ Diana thought.

' _Yes, I know, Diana,'_ Hippolyta thought. She could feel the pain of her daughters, both of them. Lyta wasn't as close to Aresia, and she sensed there was some hostility there regarding Lyta.

Hippolyta longed for closure, even if the closure ended with her bringing Aresia back to the island in chains to stand trial. She would only want to do it after every single avenue failed.

' _As much as I think of her as another daughter, she's broken the law, ancient law,'_ Hippolyta thought. _'If she expresses remorse for her actions, then….there will be nothing for her to fear.'_

Hippolyta mentally qualified the next statement. If she expressed remorse, it was a really big thing.

Harry wrapped his arms around her head and planted a kiss on the top of it.

"There's one small amount of hope," Hippolyta said. Harry and Lily turned towards her. Their interest had been grabbed. "At least twice now, there has been someone baring Aresia's description having been sighted around Africa….and close enough to the areas where the rogue tribe of Amazons have gone."

Harry nodded, he knew all about the rogue tribe of Amazons. Some had taken the teachings of Hera the wrong way, and their experiences with men had been among the worst.

"Exactly where in Africa?" Lily asked.

"Somewhere in Egypt," Hippolyta said.

Harry's lips widened into a smile and wondered. Dare he hope to dream? It was really funny how these things worked out.

' _Maybe we can take a closer look,'_ Diana said. _'When we check out the tombs with Doctor Sandsmark, we can take a look around.'_

' _Do you think it's possible she would let herself be seen?'_ Donna thought. She hoped, crossing her fingers even, they could find her old friend.

' _We'll see what we can do about bringing her in,'_ Harry thought.

Hippolyta thought they would be way too lucky to actually run into Aresia when they were on their trip to Egypt. For almost four years, Artemis searched and the only thing were less than a handful of sightings.

' _We can at least make the effort to look, can't we?'_ Diana asked.

Hippolyta smiled at the sound of pleading in her daughter's voice. She couldn't really argue

' _It never can hurt,'_ Hippolyta thought.

The Queen of the Amazons went over several different scenarios in her mind. What would happen if Aresia attacked? What if she was in trouble, and couldn't reach out to them? What if the rogue Amazons would consider Hippolyta attempting to bring her back as a declaration of war.

' _Honey, you're overthinking this a little bit,'_ Harry thought. He grabbed Hippolyta's head.

' _Sorry, as the Queen of the Amazons, I have to consider all possibilities,'_ she thought. The frown of the woman deepened before she continue with her train of thought. _'Even though those possibilities are less than desirable.'_

' _I know, and I'm glad you're able to think things through,'_ Harry thought. _'Don't worry, we'll find a way.'_

Harry recalled the misunderstanding as clear as yesterday. Aresia feared being taken the same way Donna did. Not knowing this was under Donna's consent and she was completely willing. And Harry had a sense Aresia feared not as much of what happened, but also feared betraying herself had she enjoyed it.

' _You've given this a lot of thought, haven't you?'_ Donna asked.

' _Have you?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes, a little bit,'_ Donna agreed. She had been thinking about it every single moment. _'She left before we could explain it to her.'_

' _I know, I recall,'_ Harry thought.

Harry ran over the events of the early days on the island. Aresia's attitude had been worse than Donna's, and after hearing about the circumstances where she arrived of the island, it was hard to blame her.

"I've never had to do it before," Hippolyta said.

"What?" Harry asked.

"I've never had to bring another Amazon back home to stand trial for their crimes," Hippolyta said. "But there are few Amazons who tempted fate this much."

Harry smiled and could sympathize with his wife's thoughts. The young man's arms tightened around her and pulled Hippolyta in tight. The first rays of sunlight had been hit them.

"I'm sure you will conduct the trial with honor and give her a fair chance to defend herself," Lily said.

Hippolyta thought the fair trial would be no problem. Every single Amazon deserved a day in court to defend herself. She feared what would happen next. The Queen of the Amazons detached herself from the bed and rose up. She sauntered over towards the window and looked out into the island. It was so peaceful out there.

"I'll just have to deal with it when it happens," Hippolyta said.

Harry rose up out of the bed and walked over towards her. He placed his hands on her shoulder.

"Tonight's our daughter's big night," Harry said. He pressed himself against Hippolyta's naked back.

"Yes, and Aresia can wait," Hippolyta said. "We won't know for sure until we take the trip, will we?"

Harry shook his head, no he wouldn't.

"Helena's over the moon about the trip, she can't wait for it," Harry said.

"I'm sure she can't," Hippolyta said, her lips curling into a knowing smile. "So, would you care to join me for a shower?"

Harry smiled when he looked towards her. He thought she had never asked.

"Lead the way, love."

Hippolyta turned around and walked towards the shower in her palace.

"Would you like to join us, Lily? There's plenty of room, more than enough to maneuver."

Lily smiled, she wouldn't dare pass up an opportunity like this. She joined her son and Hippolyta into the shower thinking there would be far worse predicaments to be in.

' _You're making me jealous,'_ Rose thought.

' _You snooze, you lose,'_ Circe said. _'Besides, we got up to more than enough fun last night.'_

Harry was intrigued, but he figured he would get the full blow by blow account of what type of fun Circe and Rose got up to later, when the time was right. Now a shower and two hot women beckoned him., and he just needed to accept the invitation.

* * *

Lyta stepped out of her quarters completely refreshed and raring to go for a new day. She managed to get herself to sleep a little bit, although her mind was still going a few miles a moment. The Amazon Princess couldn't believe the day would be arriving soon. She trained for weeks and weeks for this moment. The Kryptonian Amazon managed to restrain her excitement even though she came close to bursting forward with it. She almost bounced up and down with thinly suppressed glee.

The day was going to be beautiful on the island. A gorgeous day always was a good omen for the Amazons. Lyta stretched out and looked around. She thought about going out for another early morning sparring session. Her mother offered the opportunity to take the day off.

' _What example would I be setting if I simply took the day off every single time I was allowed?'_

Lyta fancied herself as a bit of a leader. The Amazon stepped forward basking in the sunlight. She turned her head and from her quarters walked Eris. Eris approached her.

"Sorry, if I was a little rough yesterday," Lyta said.

Eris frowned for a brief instant before she cracked into a smile. She reached closer towards Lyta and patted her on the side of her cheek.

"You shouldn't apologize," Eris said. She walked over and offered her friend a soft smile. "I hoped you wouldn't hold back."

The hot blooded warrior temperament Eris developed would be insulted. The two of them walked over towards an area where some of the Amazons both older than younger relaxed.

"I could have hurt you," Lyta said.

"Please, you couldn't hurt me even if you wanted to," Eris said. Lyta raised her eyebrow. Eris pressed her hand on the side of Lya's shoulder. "And I mean it's not because you aren't capable. It's just….."

"You're far more durable than you look," Lyta said.

"Exactly," Eris said. "People underestimate me a lot…think I'm just another soft blonde who can't stand out there. And they think I have a chip on my shoulder because of…him."

"And people think I'm just another pretty princess," Lyta said.

"Well, you aren't," Eris said. "You're a pretty princess yes, but there's a whole lot more going up then it seems at first."

Lyta smiled at the nature of Eris's statement. The two of them sat down, a little bit away from the rest of the group.

"So, are you really leaving after the Ascension Ceremony?" Eris asked. "I mean, are you spending your time in Gotham with your sisters…and with him."

Lyta shook her head. They danced around the elephant in the room so skillfully right now; she didn't really know where to begin. Hippolyta's youngest daughter placed her hand onto Eris's in a moment of reassurance. The two of them locked hands with each other.

"It's true, I'm leaving, but it won't be forever," Lyta said. "I want to follow in their footsteps…..you know I look up to them. Just don't tell Donna about it."

"You love giving her a hard time," Eris said.

"She asks for it half of the time," Lyta said. "Someone needs to bring her back down to Earth."

Eris had been hit with the possibility of her friend leaving on the island. Maybe not forever, but she wouldn't be around. She wanted to pursue her education at Gotham Private Academy.

"You know, I'll be back to visit," Lyta said.

"I don't doubt your word," Eris said.

"And you can always come to visit, if you want to," Lyta said. "I'm sure Juno will happily help you make arrangements to come and visit."

Eris smiled. She had spent so much time in Paradise, without visiting the outside world. She talked to Hera, Juno, whatever she decided to call herself, for her progress. She almost asked about information regarding her father and what he was up to, but she did not dare ask about it. Eris feared learning about the man who had given birth to her.

Her mother had been left a broken woman because of her father using her. And she died at a young age. Eris only barely remembered her. Juno took her under her wing and brought her here. She was a selfless woman, even though her obsession with Har-Zod could be a bit annoying at times.

"You know, I'll think about it," Eris said.

"I'd do more than think about it if I were you," Lyta said. "And your own ascension ceremony is coming up in a few months, isn't it?"

Eris smiled. She didn't think it would be as grand as Lyta's, but she nodded.

"December, roughly, in time for the Winter Solstice, at least when time passes normally," Eris said. She kicked off her shoes and put her feet into the cool stream near her to relax her.

Lyta looked at her friend and copied her movements. The Amazon Princess leaned back and touched her feet into the water as well.

"I'll be back to watch you," Lyta said.

"Watch me make a fool out of myself?"

Lyta's eyes looked at Eris. There was a moment where the two friends stared into each other. Lyta wondered who this girl was and what she did to her normally confident friend.

"Who are you and what have you done with Eris?" Lyta asked.

"Nothing is going to compare to yours, and…..well, it would be an embarrassment if I don't fully ascend," Eris said.

Lyta was surprised her friend opened up with her misgivings for her. Eris never once was anything other than the pinnacle of confidence around her. To see her like this made Lyta see her friend in an entirely new height. More human, if anything else, and it was good to bring her back down to life. Lyta scooted closer and placed her arm around Eris's shoulders.

"You can't make an embarrassment out of yourself," Lyta said. "Did you ever hear the story of Donna's ascension?"

Eris cracked into a grin which lightened the mood a little bit.

"You might have told me a few times about it."

"The point is, she turned out alright in the end despite her embarrassing efforts against Diana," Lyta said. "And you're going to turn out as well no matter how many times I knock you on your ass when we spar."

"Oh, you think so?" Eris asked. "You got lucky last time, princess."

"Prove it then," Lyta said. "Prove you're the proud warrior you always said you were."

Eris smiled and the confidence boosted from herself. She pulled her feet out of the water and rose up to her feet. Eris stared Lyta in the face.

"There's a sparring arena right now, if you're think you're woman enough, Princess," Eris said.

"Oh, I think I'm more than enough to take you on," Lyta said.

The two of them walked their way over to the arena with each other.

"So, are you going to fight Donna?" Eris asked. "Or are you going to go big and go Diana?"

Lyta pushed her hand underneath her chin and cracked a thoughtful smile. The two of them walked into the sparring arena. They caught a glimpse of Artemis and Dinah having an early morning spar out of the corner of her eyes.

"You know, it would spoil the surprise."

"How about when I beat you, you'll tell me," Eris said.

"You must be feeling better, if you think your win is assured," Lyta said.

The two young Amazons smiled at each other. They gave themselves the proper respects before Eris crouched down. This time she looked like she intended to win.

Lyta wouldn't be denied on her big day. Not if she could help it, anyway.

* * *

Donna made her way out to one of the sparring areas. She dressed in a black tank top which stretched over her body. A pair of tight black work out shorts added to her apparel as well. The middle child of the Amazon Royal family started to stretch a little bit. She prepared herself for Lyta's big day, just as much as Lyta did.

She also submerged herself deep in thought about a couple of things. One of the biggest problems happened to be the situation involving Aresia. The news she had been potentially sighted in Egypt allowed Donna to have the most hope. She didn't know how to face her former friend. What would Donna say to someone like this? Would Aresia even have been the same she remembered her? Four years passed and a lot could change in four years.

"Hey, Donna," Harry said.

"Harry," Donna said. She turned herself towards Harry.

"Would you care for a sparring session?" Harry asked.

Donna smiled, fighting with someone who could match Diana really would tell her a lot about her abilities were.

"I don't mind if I do," Donna said. She finished stretching out and bent over for a moment. This gave Harry a proper view of her posterior. Donna turned around and went face to face with her husband. "I'm ready to go when you are."

"There's a pretty good chance, Lyta's going to challenge you for her ascension ceremony duel," Harry said.

Lyta could challenge, Donna, or Diana for the battle. She could also challenge Artemis, having been her teacher. If she was being ambitious, Lyta could challenge either of her parents, but Harry wondered if his daughter would be confident enough to do this.

"You think so?" Donna asked.

Harry flashed her one of his accommodating smiles and motioned for her to follow him into the center of the ring. The Amazon Princess followed Harry and faced off against her.

"I don't think so, I know so."

"I know so as well," Donna said. "And are you ready?"

"Always ready for you."

The two of them walked up next to each other. Both of them raised their hands to lock up in a grappling stance. Harry had a couple of inches on Donna, although the height difference wasn't too much.

The Son of Zod used his leverage to bring the middle Amazon Princess down to her knees. Donna stepped back and tried to get underneath Harry. When this didn't work, Donna slid back and tried to go down underneath him. She fired a series of punches to him.

Harry held up his hand to block her punches. Donna realized what he was doing and slowed down her punches. This left her open for him to grab her around the waist and hoist her up in a gutwrench position. Donna locked her legs and managed to grab Harry's legs. The Princess gripped Harry around the legs and tried to flip him onto the ground.

Donna watched him stick the landing on two feet. The Amazon's heart started to beat and she pushed herself forward. A punch tried to hit Harry, but Donna's sparring partner caught her in a standing armbar. Harry hyper extended the elbow forward. Donna did a cartwheel out of the move and landed on her feet.

"Watch your balance."

Harry almost caught her with a glancing punch. Donna crouched down underneath it. She grabbed his arm and pushed him down. Donna tried to bring him back.

She might have had an advantage of strength because of Harry's restrictions, but it didn't handicap Harry in the slightest. Donna rolled over landing on her feet. She rushed towards Harry, but Harry caught her by the waist and flung her down to the ground.

Donna smacked into the ground. The bruised pride of the Amazon warrior shined through when she scrambled to her feet. Donna aimed her fist at Harry, but he blocked it. She tried again and again the punch had blocked to a similar effect.

"Good, and again," Harry said.

Harry gripped Donna around the head, hooking her. Donna managed to use her strength and flip Harry down to the ground. Harry spiraled to the ground from Donna's takedown throw.

One crisp takedown did not win any battles. Donna tried to nail Harry with a series of jabs, but Harry stepped to the left and stepped to the right.

"Your stamina is on par," Harry said.

"You know it is," Donna said, a cheeky little smirk on her face.

Donna tried for a haymaker punch to take Harry down. She overshot her target and allowed him to grab her around the waist. Harry flipped her down onto her chest with a waistlock. He rode the top of her, bringing her down to the ground.

Harry pulled up and Donna bounced up to her feet again. She started to fire some leg kicks this time. Donna realized she caught Harry with a glancing blow to the leg. The Amazon stepped back, but realized Harry grabbed her and flipped her back onto the ground. Donna rolled out of control. Harry pushed himself towards her with a series of punches.

Donna tried to aim for another leg kick.

"Never should have let up the first time, should you?"

Donna shook her head. She was wearing herself out by her frantic attempts. Donna slowed down and backed off. The Amazon flipped her hair out of her face so she could see properly.

"Come on."

The lessons Artemis taught Donna stuck in the Amazon's head. She shouldn't waste her attacks when they came out a premium. Donna tried for a sliding attack and it knocked Harry back a half of a step.

The second sliding attack proved to be Donna's downfall. Harry caught her around the waist and hoisted her up into the air. He flipped her onto her face from a shoulder position which smashed her down onto the ground.

Harry leaned down and pinned Donna to the ground. She struggled against his wait. Harry leaned down and smiled when he looked her straight in her eyes.

"I think you lost," Harry said. "But it was a valiant struggle."

"Glad to hear it," Donna said. "I really thought I had you a couple of times."

"This is the closest you've ever gotten to beating me in a spar," Harry said. He stepped forward and pulled Donna into an embrace. "Congratulations."

Donna smiled. She willingly learned from her mistakes. If she had the attitude when she threw down with Diana in the Ascension Ceremony the first time, perhaps things would have gone slightly different. Harry's powerful lips pressed against her soft ones.

"I'm going to go exploring, I promised Kara and Barbara I'd show them a couple of things," Donna said. "Talk to you later."

"Okay, Donna, have fun."

The two of them met at the mid-way point for another kiss. A trail of salvia had been left on their mouth before they had been pulled apart.

Harry smiled and watched Donna leave.

' _She shouldn't have let up on the leg kicks when she did,'_ Diana thought. _'Are you okay?'_

Harry disguised the slight limp he developed from Donna kicking him in the leg. Should have kept it better covered, but in battle, you all had your blindspots. Harry would have normally had his leg armored, along with other parts of this body if this was a real battle.

' _Don't worry, I heal pretty well,'_ Harry thought. He shifted a half of a step back and sank down onto the edge of a seat. _'Even after all of the problems I've had.'_

' _Not really the worst injury you've had,'_ Dinah thought.

Harry laughed, some swelling and bruising on his leg wasn't the worst injury he had. He sat down for a moment and looked towards another Donna coming his way. In the form of Circe, in her Donna Milton disguise.

"It's refreshing to be on this island and have a proper chance to enjoy its majestic wonder," Circe said with a smile.

Harry smiled and was glad Circe was on her best behavior. Or rather what passed as best behavior for Circe. Still despite some naughtiness on her part, she mostly was doing well.

"You know if the misunderstanding didn't happen between me and Hippolyta, things might have turned out differently," Circe said. Harry returned fire with a smile on her. "The good kind of different."

"Maybe it still could."

Circe turned her attention away from Harry. The Amazons had either gone in for their lessons or in the case of the older Amazons, to eat dinner. A few of them still dueled in the distance. She appreciated the majestic wonder across the island. The sun shined bright, the birds tweeted, a nice and crisp summer breeze blew in her face.

Perfect conditions for an Ascension ceremony, and Circe wondered if there might have been some kind of divine invention to cause so. Rain on an Ascension Ceremony day always worked out better when the weather was on point and not crummy at all.

"Maybe," Circe said with a smile. The goddess took a moment to gaze out in the distance. "Well, at least I know I can't really cause any trouble even if I wanted to."

Harry corked his eyebrow. Circe amended her statement.

"Not that I want to," Circe said, speaking with more honesty she thought possible. "But, I'm sure Hera is keeping a close eye on me, and Athena and Artemis are backing her up."

Harry smiled. He wouldn't doubt so. Then again, there were instances where he sensed the presences of the goddesses around the edges. They were the ultimate voyeurs.

"If they want to watch, I'm sure I can give them a reason to," Circe said. She touched her hands on Harry's stomach.

Harry smiled, she was sure Circe would put on a show given the amount of time. He wondered what the goddess had in mind.

' _No doubt something devious,'_ Rose thought. She recalled the devious nature of Circe from last night. _'And I would know.'_

* * *

Lyta returned from another day of lessons. Eris followed her, in better spirits than she was this morning.

"I don't know why you're smiling," Lyta said. She turned towards Eris with a little grin crossing her face. "I beat you in the little duel out there."

Both of the girls laughed before Eris grew extremely serious. She turned her head directly towards Lyta.

"You might have beat me," Eris said. She rose her fingers up into the air. "But it was only by this much."

Eris held her thumb and her forefinger together. Lyta responded by looking towards her and rolling her eyes.

' _Something has a bit of a romanticized view of how our little duel went,'_ Lyta thought. She wasn't about to say anything else, other than crack a smile across her face.

Lyta turned around and grew excited. Harry walked towards the two of them. Eris stopped, taking aback of seeing Harry up close and personal. Her eyes widened.

"Can we help you?" Eris asked, managing to retain her pride. Lyta elbowed her forcefully in the side which caused her to make a hasty admission. "Um, sir."

Lyta smirked, much better. The Amazonian-Kryptonian hybrid turned towards her father.

"I want to borrow Lyta for a moment," Harry said. "If it's okay with you?"

"It's fine," Eris said.

The daughter of Ares frowned. She could have sworn a divine presence watched her every move, and watched her disapprovingly. Eris sensed she might get at talk about her attitude before leaving this island.

Lyta and Harry moved off in the opposite direction. The Potters, now out of an earshot from anyone, walked towards a nice little pavilion. A lot of Amazons came here for their thoughts. Six statues greeted them inside the pavilion. Physical representations of Hera, Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Hestia, and Demeter stared back at them.

Literally perhaps, as Donna told her these statues were used by the goddesses to watch over their young charges. Granted, Lyta didn't know why the goddesses would need statures.

' _Donna could be pulling my leg,'_ Lyta thought.

"Eris is pretty spirited, isn't she?" Harry asked.

"Don't mind her, she has Daddy issues," Lyta said. Harry raised his eyebrow at her. Lyta folded her arms underneath her developed chest. "Well she does."

"If you say so."

' _Something you should be used to,'_ Faora thought.

' _Speaking from experience?'_ Karen asked.

Harry directed his attention away from the bantner. He could almost have seen the stature of Hera look back at him with a wink.

' _Could be a trick of the light, or there could be something to it,'_ Juno thought, deciding to pop into the bond link to observe. _'But this is going to be a great deal.'_

Lyta basked in the warm presence of the goddesses and most importantly the warm presence of the man who would guide her into womanhood. She watched the hours ticking by, waiting for it to get there. Butterflies started to work their way into her stomach. Lyta tried to force them down.

"Are you nervous, honey?" Harry asked.

Lyta smiled when she leaned back against her father's chest. The top of her head pressed up against to the midway point of his collarbone.

"No, I'm….okay, I'm just a little bit nervous," Lyta said.

"Don't worry," Harry said. "I know you'll be the very best out there….and no matter what, there's always room for you to grow."

"I'll do better than Donna," Lyta said.

She mentally added the last words _'I hope.'_ to her words. A gentle summer breeze continued to blow outside which relaxed her more than it should. Harry placed his hands on her shoulders from behind.

"Your sister means well," Harry said to Lyta. "She can be a bit little high strung….but so can you."

Lyta wasn't about ready to argue with her father she was high strung. She got herself into trouble a few times. Judging by what she could find out, Donna was the same way, and Diana had her moments as well.

"The next twenty-four hours after the ascension ceremony will be the most crucial of the periods after the ceremony," Harry said. "After you hit your maturity, but I'll be there to help you get through it….through the changes."

"I know you will," Lyta said.

' _She's going through uncharted territory being a hybrid,'_ Faora thought. _'I'm interesting to see how the changes effect her hormones.'_

' _Always the scientist,'_ Kara said with a smile. _'Always the scientist.'_

' _No just curious about how she will evolve.'_

"I'm sure Eris will be wondering where you are," Harry said. "You better go…..I'll walk you out."

Lyta offered her father a silent thanks when the two of them made their way. He walked Lyta out.

"Enjoy your lunch, I'll be back around later," Harry said.

Harry watched Lyta walk towards her, and followed the progress of the two girls walking towards the entrance to the dining hall. He had some business to take care of, otherwise he would grab some lunch himself.

' _Deja-Vu,'_ Donna said. The two reminded her of another dark haired Amazon princess and her blonde friend from a long time ago. _'Let's hope this one ends better.'_

' _Hindsight being what it is, it will,'_ Diana thought. _'Despite her exterior, there isn't anywhere near the warning signs there were with Aresia.'_

Donna nodded. She regretted ignoring the signs. Four years, almost to today, time had passed.

' _Well, if nothing else, you know you can take this one in hand,'_ Kara thought.

' _She wants to hate you, because I may have talked you up a bit too much,'_ Juno chimed in. _'But she just can't quite bring herself to do so.'_

Harry smiled; the workings of the minds of teenage girls could be an enigma indeed.

' _Don't worry, Harry, no one can figure it out,'_ Barbara said. _'No man…hell half of the girls can't figure out how other girls think, or why they do what they do.'_

' _Might be an interesting study,'_ Harry said, turning the corner and disappearing elsewhere onto the island.

* * *

The first night of the three day Ascension day ceremony was about to begin. The star of the ceremony, Princess Lyta, sat at the table. Harry sat to her left and Hippolyta positioned herself at a seat to her right. Lily sat right on Hippolyta's other side, and Rose sat on Lily's other side, on the far right on the table. . Diana sat next to Harry, with Donna sitting next to Diana. Kara, Karen, and Faora filled out the table on the other side.

Several rows of candles had been erected which illuminated the area around them. Banners had been put up, to celebrate Lyta's birthday celebration.

The Amazons all crowded around and Lyta smiled. Tonight was the night the eyes were on her and she relished every single moment for it. A lavish banquet set up for her consumption. The chefs in the kitchen made it with the right combination of food so Lyta could have the energy she needed to fight, while not compromising the tastes.

"My sisters in arms, tonight begins an extremely special event," Hippolyta said. "Two previous times, you have been before us, preparing for the ascension ceremony of one of our princesses. Where she will graduate from the rudimentary class, and move up to the advanced level of training."

Lyta smiled. She hated to leave her friends behind, but she would not forget them. And they would be slowly joining her in the next couple of years to begin with.

"My youngest daughter will be elevating herself to an entirely new level," Hippolyta said. "I've been proud of her achievements, and I do not say this simply because she's my daughter."

"Lyta has shown herself to be an example to her class," Artemis said, rising to her feet from the royal behind the royal family. The other younger Amazons nodded in response. "She could attempt to rest on her laurels and grow complacent because she's the princess."

' _No, that wasn't a thinly veiled jab at my attitude when I was younger,'_ Donna said.

' _You grew out of it, Donna,'_ Diana said, patting her younger sister on the back of her neck. _'And we're very proud of you for doing so.'_

Donna wasn't going to lie, something about the words of praise coming from her older sister made her smile. Regardless, her heart skipped a couple of beats when she focused.

"I think it's all to do with a strong sense of values," Harry said. All eyes were on the man who had brought the Amazons so much pleasure and inspired them to be so much more. "I expect the most out of my daughter, just like all of you would expect the most out of yourself. And I expected a lot out of me."

Some murmurs of agreement followed by a respectable of applause could be heard by all. Lyta kicked up on the table.

"Tonight, we celebrate how far Princess Lyta has gone through her trials," Hippolyta said. "And I'm sure the princess would like to say a few words."

Lyta wasn't expecting a chance to speak tonight. The confident demeanor faded from her for a moment. The girl of the hour rose up to her feet. A dry sensation formed in her mouth.

"Um, I'd like to thank everyone, my mom and dad, Artemis, my other teachers, and my classmates for giving me several good sparring partners to prepare for this night, Eris especially," Lyta said. "She never held back just because I was the princess, and thank you. Oh, and I'd like to thank Diana, Donna, Kara, Dinah, Faora, and anyone else who helped me out for some things. I couldn't have gone here tonight without you. And I hope I do the best…and make it worth the…praise you've given me. And I hope others…do well as well when their time comes."

Lyta breathed deeply having gotten all of those words out.

' _For the record, I couldn't have said it better myself,'_ Diana thought.

' _Neither could I.'_

"Everyone, let's hear it for Princess Lyta, and let's hope she does far better than I did during my Ascension ceremony," Donna said. Some of the Amazons who remembered smiled. "Although, just because it's her day, doesn't mean I will hold back when I fight her."

"Bring it, sis, bring it," Lyta said.

Harry smiled at the antics of his daughter. Hippolyta watched her two youngest with a casual eye, but it was all in good fun.

"Tonight is a celebration, and we will prepare for a brand new Ascension," Hippolyta said. "Everyone, indulge yourselves in the meal provided for her, and let us thank the goddesses for this meal and this beautiful night which allows us to dine outdoors."

"All thank the goddesses."

' _We do what we can,'_ Hera thought, which caused much laughter from the people in the bond link.

"Eat up," Harry said. "And you should get a good night's sleep afterwards."

"Yes," Hippolyta said. "A good night's sleep will help you function well."

Lyta thought as much. Would she be wound too tight to even sleep though? Maybe if she was stuffed full of this well prepared meal, Lyta would drift asleep.

The princess took a ravenous bite of her food. The spectacle only began. It was time.

* * *

**To Be Continued on February 17** **th** **, 2016.**


	161. Ascension Day Part Three

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* * *

 

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-One: Ascension Day Part Three.**

* * *

Lyta approached the stage with her head held high and confidence in her eyes. The Amazon Princess understood the importance of this day more than anything else. She recalled all of the spars she did prepping her for this moment. Each and every one of those spars reflected in the back of Lyta's mind. None of them quite prepared her for the moment of this battle.

Noon arrived more quickly than Lyta could ever recall. Lyta thought the seconds passed by rather swiftly on the clock. The young woman approached the stage with her head held high and trying to ignore the butterflies passing through her stomach.

' _What was it Aunt Mandy told me?_ Lyta thought. She scrunched up her little nose deep in thought and frowned. _'Oh yes, imagine everyone in their underwear.'_

She blushed at the thought of it. The entire world watched, well all of Themyscira at the very least. Along with all of her father's Alphas and a few of his other wives as well.

' _No pressure or anything.'_

Donna approached the stage a few seconds later. One could see a look dancing in the blue eyes of the middle Amazon princess. Thoughts of redemption danced in the back of Donna's head. She recalled her Ascension ceremony. She looked at her sister.

"You're not nervous are you?" Donna asked. "Don't be…even though I won't go easy on you."

"Good," Lyta said. "It will make my victory over you all the more amazing."

Hippolyta rose to her feet and cleared her throat. All of the Amazons put their eyes on their Queen because when she spoke, they all listened to what she had to say.

"Welcome to the second day of the Ascension Day Ceremony," Hippolyta said. "I would like to take a moment for us to thank the goddesses for the beautiful weather which had been gifted on us."

All of the Amazons paused, including Donna and Lyta in the center ring, inclining their heads with smiles on their face. This was a perfect day and Lyta hoped this would be an omen.

"And now we begin for the passage of combat featuring Princess Lyta against her older sister, Donna Troy," Hippolyta said. "Lyta will be judged amongst the gods for her worthiness to ascend and take the next step in her training and her development as a warrior and as a woman."

' _Really tough when you put it that way,'_ Lyta thought. _'No pressure or anything, huh, mother?'_

Lyta stretched out for a moment. Hippolyta walked over towards a large gong.

"If the two combatants are ready, then we may begin."

Donna extended her hand out with a smile and took her little sister's hand into it. Lyta took the hand and shook it for a moment. Both Amazons nodded, to indicate how ready they were.

Hippolyta struck the gong and the battle began. Everyone sat on the edge of their seat in pure anticipation for the excitement which was to come.

Lyta took a deep breath and focused on her sister. Both of them moved into the center ring and grappled with each other. Donna's slight height advantage came into place and Lyta bent her knees.

The test of strength matched them evenly in theory, although in process, Donna brought her younger sister down to her knees. Lyta gripped her arm and bent, before taking her down with a takedown. Her father taught her this move and she was very proud she pulled it off.

Donna bounced back to her feet, having been caught off guard. Lyta tried to fire a stinging jab at her sister. Donna avoided the jab before it connected with her body.

"You get too excited, sister," Donna said. She held her sister's arm and hyper-extended it outwards.

Lyta shifted herself back for a moment and did a roll. Donna flipped out into position on her feet. Lyta jumped into the air and measured Donna with a leg kick. Donna ducked the move and came up behind Lyta. Lyta turned around quickly and tried to punch her sister. Donna stepped back and blocked it.

Shifting into a second gear, the youngest Amazon Princess fired an uppercut punch which only barely grazed Donna's chin. Donna caught her arm and caught her arm again, before hooking her in a bearhug like move and launching her over the top of her head.

Lyta landed onto the ground hard from this suplex type throw from Donna. The Amazon Princess rose up to her feet, taking a moment to catch her breath with the wind having knocked out of her.

"Come on, Lyta, it's your day."

Lyta didn't know whether this was a taunt or an encouragement. The woman's flowing punch aimed towards Donna's chest. Donna dodged the punch.

Donna smiled, her sister didn't do too badly, but she made some rookie mistakes. Donna fired a leg kick, but Lyta avoided it. Donna's ankle rolled, and Lyta dropped down, scissoring her legs around Donna's before sending her down with a leg takedown. Lyta grabbed her leg for a moment and held onto it, forcing Donna to expend energy getting out of it.

Donna rose to her feet and she started to breath heavily.

"Out of shape?" Lyta asked.

Donna caught her breath and fired a huge stinging jab at her sister. Lyta showed her speed by avoiding the stinging jab of the punch. The youngest princess stuck and move and jumped into the air.

A huge jumping punch knocked Donna back a few steps. Donna crumpled to her knees. A second punch had been blocked by Donna one more time. Donna expended her energy to prevent the punch.

Donna Troy's resolved strengthened when she looked into the smug look in her sister's eyes. She tried to take Lyta down while her legs were open. Only, Lyta held onto Donna's head and threw her off to one side.

' _Damn, she's…she's trained well.'_

Donna wondered if this battle would be different if they chose to go in there with weapons. She suspected it didn't matter. Lyta eyed her sister and smiled, before motioning for her to go forward.

"Did you really think you could beat me, Donna?" Lyta asked.

Donna took a deep breath. Artemis's training kicked in now. She spent too much time coming to Lyta in an attempt to beat her. Was it too late to change strategies?

"Take your best shot, Lyta."

Lyta rushed over towards Donna with her arm extended for a punch. At the last minute, Donna dodged the punch. All of her sister's punches struck the air and Donna reached up, grabbing her by the head and pushing her down to the ground.

' _Oh you condescending bitch,'_ Lyta thought.

Lyta bounced up to her feet and tried to spear her sister down to the ground. Donna countered it with a guillotine lock. Lyta tried to push out of the hold, feeling the energy sap out of her body with Donna's vice like grip.

Donna broke the hold after a few seconds and prepared for a finishing blow. Lyta avoided the attack with the kick hitting nothing but air. The breeze from Donna's missed kick showed how much it would take her out had the attack connected.

Lyta grabbed her sister around the waist and flipped her onto her stomach with a huge belly to back suplex. Donna rolled over, the wind knocked completely out of her. Lyta grabbed her in a crucifix hold and wrestled her to the ground, before laying into Donna with a series of elbow strikes. The point of Donna's elbow hit her again and again.

The youngest Amazon Princess wrestled her sister to the ground and straddled her hips, before pinning her hands behind the back of her head. Donna breathed with her sister's full weight on her. Lyta held her sister down for a five count, more impressive than a lowly three count.

Donna could not believe it. She gave it her all, but Lyta managed to pull one out in the end.

' _Well, I lost,'_ Donna thought, frowning. _'But, she earned that one, damn it.'_

' _She did, she did,'_ Diana thought.

Hippolyta rose to her feet. The applause from the Amazons and their guests were loud. Lyta smiled and extended her hand forward.

"Good fight, Donna," Lyta said.

"Same to you," Donna said, taking her sister's hand. She wrapped her arms around her little sister in a hug. "I'm very proud of you."

Lyta smiled, she didn't want to let it go to Donna exactly how much this meant to her. The two sisters embraced in celebration of a noble battle between the two of them.

"The winner of this duel, Princess Lyta!" Hippolyta yelled.

Lyta smiled, basking in her moment and this was her moment to be honest. The second day, and she knew the third day would be even more special than ever before.

' _Let's not get ahead of ourselves,'_ Lyta thought. _'The second day hasn't even ended yet.'_

* * *

None clapped harder for Lyta's triumph than Harry did. He moved his way towards the table looking over towards Diana who beamed with pride. The other Alphas smiled as well.

"You should be proud of her," Diana said.

"I would be as well," Kara said. "She put in a lot of effort….I have to admit, there were times where I thought Donna was going to pull it out."

"Oh, really, thank you for the confidence, Kara."

Donna rejoined them, still tingling from the battle with her younger sister. She took the seat which had been saved for her between Barbara and Kara.

"Don't be obsessing over this one," Diana warned her sister.

Donna sighed, Diana knew her all too well, didn't she? The truth was there would be a pretty good chance Donna would be taking a close look at this duel for the months to follow. Looking over every single angle of it, obsessing over every single angle of it.

Lyta did deserve her moment and Donna was extremely proud of her. Still, it didn't help, Donna thought she could have done so much better out there in battle against her younger sister.

"It's always the competitive thing with the Amazons," Dinah said. Diana turned her attention towards her. "You strive to be the very best."

"I could say that about a lot of women in this group," Diana said, looking over at Dinah with a smile.

Dinah returned the smile. She would have to say she was guilty as charged about being confident, a bit too confident to be honest. The stunning siren knew she threw herself into battle a little bit too fluidly at times.

"We really could, couldn't we?" Dinah asked.

"Yes, you're the pinnacle of it, aren't you?" Barbara asked.

' _Then again,'_ Barbara mentally added to herself. _'I really have no room to talk, well very little room to talk to be honest. I'm the person who takes on way too much.'_

"I for one appreciate how my girls could be the very best they can be," Harry said. He earned himself several smiles. "You can just go too far sometimes."

No one at the table was going to argue this point. Harry decided to turn his full attention to Donna and lean in closer towards her. Despite the fact he was happy about his daughter's accomplishments, he couldn't say he was displeased about how Donna handled herself out there. A couple of times, it was too close to call.

"Diana's right, you put in a noble effort, and a great fight," Harry said. "You had nothing to be a shamed by."

Donna leaned in towards Harry and allowed her husband to sweep her into a nice embrace. The two of them exchanged a kiss with each other. The action was brief, but never the less, Donna appreciated it. She stepped back from her husband, a smile crossing over her face.

"Thanks Harry, I needed….well thanks," Donna said. The Amazon laughed, which caused them to all look at her. "I just wonder where this hard working side of myself was when I had to fight Diana in my own Ascension ceremony."

"You've grown and you've improved," Diana said. "Maturity does that to the best of us."

"Although you don't want to grow up too much," Amanda said. "It takes a lot of the fun out of life."

"But, still, time does pass for everyone."

Donna leaned back, trying not to take the attention away from her sister. Lyta really did deserve this moment. They might have been at each other's throats a lot of the time. And Donna fully understood this was some kind of karmic backlash for her.

Hippolyta and Harry walked over towards Lyta who was talking to her friends.

"I know, she came closer than I thought she did," Lyta said to them. "But, it made the victory all the more amazing."

Lyta smiled and turned her attention towards her parents when they walked forward to.

"So far, you have conducted yourself well in this ceremony," Hippolyta said. She leaned forward and swept her daughter into an embrace, before kissing her on the forehead. "Congratulations, my daughter."

"Thank you, mother," Lyta said. She turned to Harry, a smile crossing her face. "So….."

"You didn't lose your cool out there and kept a straight head," Harry said. "I noticed you incorporated some of the techniques, I taught you."

"Eris was just asking me about them," Lyta said. "I'm sure, you'd be happy to teach her some of your technique if she just asks….never hurts to have an extra weapon."

Eris glared at Lyta for bringing this point to her. Lyta only responded with a cute little smile across her face and waved at her.

' _You know, our daughter should learn a bit more tact, shouldn't she?'_ Harry thought.

' _Oh, that seems to be a common trait around my daughters when they were younger,'_ Hippolyta said. Her eyes twinkled with a slight hint of mirth dancing in them. _'But, they grow out of it…for the most part.'_

' _Yes, for the most part,'_ Harry agreed.

Lyta turned around and looked thoughtful about something. Her parents stared at her and she supposed she should tell them exactly what they were thinking.

"I can make a secondary challenge, can't I?" Lyta asked.

"You can not only make one, but it will not impact the judgment the goddesses have made on you," Hippolyta said. The Queen paused and added. "Actually, a challenge will only reflect in a favorable manner upon you. It shows you intend to better yourself and shows you're not going to rest of the laurels of your first successful challenge."

Lyta smiled, she intended to better herself, and she thought this challenge could be considered one of the more bolder ones she delivered.

"I want Diana."

Diana raised her eyebrow at her younger sister.

' _And here I thought Lyta had enough sense to quit while she's ahead,'_ Donna thought. _'Well, at least she didn't challenge Artemis or our mother.'_

' _I wouldn't be so sure,'_ Faora thought.

' _What do you think there's a chance Diana is going to lose to our younger sister?'_ Donna asked.

A long and poignant pause followed. One could almost hear the wheels turning in Faora's mind when she considered the best way to answer this question.

' _You never know what could happen on the right day,'_ Faora thought. _'It could be interesting.'_

Diana walked up to her feet and walked towards her sister. She leaned down to look Lyta straight in the eyes.

"Are you certain, you wish to challenge me?" Diana asked. "You have nothing to prove."

"I have everything to prove, Diana," Lyta said. "I want to see how far I've come along when I fight you."

Diana almost was taken aback by the passion in her baby sister's voice. To be perfectly honest, it reminded her of all of the times where she stood up to her mother. Diana knew she was going to be defeated, but what if…what if she actually triumphed. Even barely triumphing wold be a victory worth smiling about.

' _And that's what drives her, just like it drove me,'_ Diana thought.

"I never thought you would be one to back down from a challenge, Diana," Lyta said. More confidence brimmed in her voice than ever before.

The entirety of everyone's attention shifted. They wondered what the challenge would be. Diana smiled when she looked at her sister.

"You know I can never back down from a challenge, Lyta," Diana said. A smile crossed her face when staring down her younger sister. "Especially one so interesting."

"Good, I'm glad," Lyta said.

Lyta appreciated the fact Diana accepted more than she ever knew. The young princess envisioned thoughts about how she would go on and defeat Diana. A pipe dream to someone, but Lyta wasn't certainly walking into the center ring to lose. No, she wasn't, Lyta fought to win.

And what if it happened? What if Lyta could defeat Diana? She didn't mean to get ahead of herself, but still those thoughts crept into her mind.

* * *

"We'll see if the Princess has flown a little too close to the sun this time," Barbara said.

"She's confident, very confident," Dinah said. She sparred with Lyta and one thing she could not lack was confidence. Almost to the point of pushing herself a bit too far and falling flat on her face.

They awaited the second duel of the day. The first duel had been hand to hand and this one would be with weapons. The girls knew Diana's talent with both a sword and crossbow.

"Confidence isn't necessarily a bad thing, though," Karen said. "It can push you to some new heights you never thought possible."

"It can almost get you in a lot of trouble," Kara said.

"Speaking from experience?" Faora asked.

Kara turned towards her old friend, allowing a smile to cross over her face.

"You know, you have more than enough instances where your confidence got you into a bit of a tight jam," Kara said.

"Well, how else are you supposed to learn?" Faora asked. "I find this interesting though. I think she's going to surprise us though."

"I don't know," Donna said. "The student surpassing the teacher thing doesn't happen as much in real life as it does in fiction. Well, it least it doesn't happen here."

All eyes locked Donna for some form of clarification. The Amazon Princess leaned her head down.

"Every time Diana challenged Artemis and our mother…she got stomped. Every time, I challenged Diana, she found new ways to humble me and show me despite how much I improved, there's a lot to learn."

"But, Lyta beat you," Kara said.

"Yes Lyta…thanks Kara," Donna said. "But, I wasn't her teacher…we're pretty equal potential wise. I just happen to have more experience than she does."

"And she also spent a lot of time studying you and picking apart weaknesses," Amanda said. "Maybe she can do the same thing against Diana."

Donna thought in theory it might have been a sound strategy. She adopted a rather tried and tested strategy of just waiting and seeing what would happened. There was a pretty good chance Lyta could step in there and really surprise them something fierce. Donna wanted to keep an open mind out there.

' _Do me proud, sis.'_

Lyta walked into the center of the ring. She dressed in her rudimentary battle armor and held a sword in one hand and a shield in the other hand. The high from beating Donna left her and now butterflies resumed.

' _It's okay, you can beat her,'_ Lyta thought. _'You can outlast her…you just got to make her tired, and find a weakness…does Diana ever get tired I wonder?'_

Lyta shook her head. Diana walked into the center of the ring, wearing her well crafted Amazon armor. Lyta's thought her rudimentary armor looked rather crummy indeed next to the spectacle Diana wore. Diana wielded a sword which caused Lyta to stare her down.

' _No fear, no fear, no fear.'_

Lyta repeated the mantra in her head. She bobbed her head from side to side. Diana's mere presence should not psyche her out.

"My fellow Amazons, and guests, welcome," Hippolyta said. "Earlier this afternoon, Princess Lyta scored an tremendous victory in her initial challenge against her older sister. And today, she's decided to challenge Princess Diana, her oldest sister. This battle will not have any bearing on the goddesses evaluating her talent, but never the less, we should commend her."

Lyta thought condemned might be a better word.

' _She's just another woman, you can take her,'_ Lyta thought.

Lyta rose her head up confidentially and Diana raised her hand to shake it. The two Amazons showed respect, before she backed off.

Hippolyta signaled for the start of the battle and they circled each other. Lyta rushed in for the first blow to try and take Diana with her sword.

Diana blocked it with the grace and intensity one would expect from someone of her caliber.

"Again!" Diana yelled.

Lyta rushed in again and again she had been blocked. Diana barely even moved, but she pushed Lyta back against the ground.

The older Amazon Princess made her first move. The sword swiped out and struck the shield Lyta carried. The shield rattled and caused Lyta's knees to knock together.

' _Great Hera,'_ Lyta thought.

Lyta brought herself out of her daze, determined to make this anything less than an epic curb stomping. She would not be the second coming of Donna with her Ascension fight with Diana.

Her eyes screwed up and teeth gritted. Lyta swung her sword and tried to nail Diana. Diana blocked her attack again. Lyta pushed herself forward and tried to fake Diana out.

Everything she tried, hit a wall. Lyta stepped off to one side, and decided to try something different. She swung and slammed her shield into Diana's shoulder.

Diana was surprised by a weapon which was intended for defense being used as Lyta's offense. She shouldn't have been, because it was a strategy that made sense. Never the less it was.

Lyta stabbed at Diana, but Diana blocked it. She pushed her sword, in an attempt to disarm Diana, but Diana fought back against her. The older Amazon Princess wasn't having it.

The moment they struggled with the swords, Lyta decided to try a desperation move. She fired a leg kick at Diana which caused her to stagger back with a grimace. Lyta swung around and caught her sword against the side of Diana's face.

Time seemed to stop as a collective gasp came up in the ground. Blood dripped from Diana's face where Lyta wounded her. Lyta looked at the small cut she opened on the side of her sister's cheek.

"I…I cut her…."

Diana rushed forward and started to clang the sword against Lyta. Lyta's knees rocked back when they buckled back. The entire ground left a collective gasp.

Lyta's swinging arms knocked Diana's shield from her grasp, giving her a small window to attack. Diana had no choice, but to use her sword to block, which limited her offensive abilities.

"Come on, Diana, more, give me more!" Lyta yelled.

Her hair swung around wildly, looking like a wild woman. The same thing happened to Lyta seconds later, with her shield getting crushed by Diana's punch.

The battle devolved into a bare knuckle fight where swords just happened to be in the proximity. Diana punched away at her sister. Lyta stood there, taking all of the punches.

Diana wondered what the hell her sister was doing. She took all of her punches. The helmet on her armor absorbed a lot of the punches, but not all of them. Lyta's breathing increased heavily the more Diana started to hammer away at her. Diana held back her punches, something Lyta noticed and scowled about.

"Come on, Diana, more!"

Lyta dropped her sword, thus leaving herself valuable for the attack.

"What's she doing out there?" Donna asked.

"It's strategy," Faora said.

"Dropping her sword is strategy?" Amanda asked.

Faora smiled. She didn't know precisely what Lyta had in mind, although she had a good hunch. If she's right, it could potentially give her the opening to put Diana down. Or it could rile Diana up even more? Faora didn't really know, but she could had to guess.

' _I see where you're coming from,'_ Dinah said, allowing a smile to cross her face.

' _Oh you do?'_ Faora asked. _'I'm glad.'_

Diana hesitated to attack Lyta.

"If you want to call this thing, no one will think against you," Diana said.

"Hit me, Diana, I want to lose this with dignity!" Lyta yelled.

She didn't want to lose by forfeit. If she lost, she wanted to be unconscious when she did so, or at least fairly pinned to the ground like Donna was. Diana charged towards Lyta and Lyta decided to strike.

Lyta grabbed Diana around her neck and hooked her into a guillotine lock. The older Amazon Princess almost powered out within seconds and pushed Lyta off.

The second Lyta bounced back to her feet, she hooked Diana around the neck into another guillotine lock, cranking on her neck and trying to cut off the flow of oxygen from her. And for a second time, Diana bounced Lyta off, this time hitting her on the ground.

Diana moved down to pin Lyta and end this before her sister got too hurt. Lyta hooked her for the third time, applying the cranking headlock for a third time. Her strong legs wrapped around Diana's waist in an attempt to further drive the air out of her.

Lyta hung on like a pitbull to a bone. Diana rose to her feet, with Lyta's legs wrapped around her waist and arms grapevine around her head.

"Can she?" Donna asked. She clutched her fists to her face, digging her nails again.

Diana hurled Lyta off once more. Lyta bounced back again and hooked Diana around her neck, trying for the hold one more time, but Diana elbowed her to block it. Another elbow staggered Lyta back!

Lyta could feel her eye swelling up from the battle, but she needed to do this. She stepped back and jumped into the air.

Diana caught her in mid spin with whatever she was doing and drove Lyta onto the ground. Diana collapsed down onto the ground as well, feeling the ravages of her sister's attacks.

Both Amazons laid on the ground, the ravages of battle having gotten to them. Hippolyta rose to her feet.

"By the decree of the Queen, the first Amazon to rise to their feet wins this battle."

Lyta rolled over to her hands and knees. She dug her knees to the ground. The people started to applaud to be honest.

Diana was on her knees, which was not to her feet. Lyta rose to one knee as well. She almost pushed herself up to her feet, and the crowd of warrior women around them held their collective breaths.

Everyone watched as it happened. Diana popped up to her feet, just a split second before Lyta did. Both sisters collapsed into an embrace just a few seconds later.

"I'm proud of you, Lyta," Diana said, a warm smile directed towards her sister.

"Diana has won this battle!" Hippolyta yelled.

Everyone applauded, and while Diana would normally smile about a battle well done, she thought this was an extremely hallow victory. Waiting for a break, Diana raised her voice high over the applause.

"I don't deserve your applause!" Diana yelled, firmly putting her hands on her hips. "Lyta does, having taken me beyond my limits."

Diana won this battle, but it was through a technicality. She stole a look at her youngest sister and could see the swelling forming on her face from where Diana pounded to it.

"I told you not to hold back," Lyta said. "I look awful, don't I?"

"I'd like to think it's a lesson learned," Diana said.

Diana couldn't be sure how close she was to blacking out thanks to Lyta's efforts. Lyta almost drove all of the wind out of her several times.

Harry and Hippolyta hoisted Lyta to her feet, where they moved her to the center of the ring. She was handed a drink of water, which she took.

"The goddesses have convened," Hippolyta said. "And we would like to welcome Princess Lyta to the sisterhood of Amazon warriors."

Applause followed seconds later. Lyta smiled and nodded her head. Artemis and two of the other guards brought out her new armor. It resembled the ones she saw the older Amazons.

The applause got to Lyta a lot, and she really wished she could enjoy it more than she did. The problem was the battle with Diana caused her to be quite rattled and nauseous as well. The wait didn't really hit her this hard.

' _Oh, I think I'm going to throw up.'_

* * *

Sometime later, Lyta rolled over into bed. She had been checked over and thankfully her injuries were minor. Diana apologized to Lyta, but Lyta threatened to hit her harder than she ever did in battle if Diana wouldn't stop apologizing.

Lyta rolled out of bed, smiling when she took a look at her new armor. A look at the position of the sun saw it was rising and it was early the next morning.

The Amazon Princess gasped when she could feel the tightening around her shirt. It rode up several inches, threatening to rip. Lyta smiled and did a little wiggle of her hips at the thought of hitting her growth spurt. She couldn't believe it, but it was true.

Lyta took a nice look at her body. Her breasts swelled and grew much fuller against her shirt. Her stomach was toned and tight, but her hips stuck out wide. They gave her quite the shapely rear. The Princess oogled her new body in the mirror. The maturity hit her and she had thankfully been asleep for the changes.

A set of footsteps caused Lyta to turn her attention outside of the door. It opened up with Harry entering the door.

"You've entered the final stage of the process, haven't you?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Daddy, I have," Lyta said. She stepped towards her father with a smile. "And I have to say, you're looking handsome today."

"You don't mean I always look handsome to you?" Harry asked.

Harry took a nice look at his daughter's mature body. She really grew into some amazing curves, which matched those of those two older sisters. Despite being fourteen years old, Lyta resembled a female who was eighteen years old. Magic wise, her age had been pegged on it.

"Of course, Daddy, you're always handsome to me," Lyta said. She walked towards him and pressed her hips against his with a flirty smile. "And look, it's starting already."

Harry smiled his daughter's cleavage positioned underneath his eyesight.

"And you know, it's going to be rough, the next day," Lyta said, wrapping her hands around her father's strong waist. "But, you're going to be here for me…to help your little girl become a true woman."

Lyta frowned and looked into Harry's eyes.

"Something wrong, Princess?" Harry asked.

"My clothes, they're too tight around me," Lyta said. "They fit the old me perfectly…but the new me….I'm going to need more clothes."

"Well, I'm sure you can go shopping when you get home and in the meantime, I'll use a few charms so they can fit you," Harry said.

Lyta smiled, shopping for a nice new wardrobe seemed quite lovely indeed. Her hands rested on her hips when she backed off.

"I'd rather just take these clothes off right now, they're too tight anyway," Lyta said. She leaned closer towards Harry. "You don't mind, do you Daddy?"

Harry smiled when soaking in his daughter's bountiful curves.

"Of course, you should feel comfortable around me," Harry said. "And I should feel comfortable around you."

"Oh, I'm sure I can make you very comfortable," Lyta said.

Lyta pulled her shirt over the top of her head. The first thing Harry saw was the full view of his daughter's toned stomach. Her cute little belly button shined out. Her tan made her skin a lovely color as well. Lyta slid her shorts down her legs, and revealed a pair of lacy black panties which stretched over the edge of her wide hips.

"Please, Daddy," Lyta said, edging towards her father. "Kiss me."

Harry smiled and leaned towards his daughter. The Kryptonian survivor took his arms around Lyta and pulled her into a hungry kiss. Lyta returned the kiss, pushing her tongue into his mouth.

The kiss caused her loins to heat up, and Harry to push his tongue into the depths of her mouth. Lyta enjoyed the point of his tongue pushing into her mouth. Lyta decided to return fire.

His hands found their way onto ass and Lyta deepened the kiss, while grinding herself against her father's crotch. Her hormones drove her completely nuts and she wanted it.

"Please," Lyta said, with a smile.

Harry returned his smile towards her, holding his daughter in his arms. He prepared to guide her through the final stage of her ascension.

"We're just getting warmed up, baby."

"Yes, please."

Another kiss caused Lyta to grow weaker in the knees and her loins start to heat up. Harry eased her closer towards the bed and prepared to get to work to do his duty and make his daughter into a woman.

Lyta's knees grew increasingly weak underneath her father's kiss. She knew why the girls were always smiling, but to know it and to experience it, were two different things. Her body heated up, hormones running wild.

"Get on the bed," Harry said.

Lyta smiled and did as her Daddy told her like a good little girl. She posed her her father in her bra and panties. Her breasts swelled and her pussy ached in great need.

The Amazon Princess gasped when her bra snapped. Her round, firm, breasts pushed out. Like her sisters and her mother, Lyta was extremely well endowed indeed. Her tummy was toned, with her hips being wide with a shapely ass, and her legs were long.

The maturity treated Lyta extremely kindly.

"You're beautiful, Lyta," Harry said.

"Thanks Daddy," Lyta said. She looked at him with an adoring look on her eyes. "I want you so bad."

"And you'll have me."

Harry kissed Lyta one more time which caused her to return the kiss ravenously. He started to kiss down the side of her neck, suckling his daughter.

"Yes, mark me, Daddy!" Lyta panted, feeling her father suckling on the side of her neck. "I'm yours and yours alone, no one else's. Your baby girl belongs to no other man!"

Harry planted some kisses down her collar bone and smiled when feeling up his daughter's breasts. Their endowment showed her power which made Harry quite pleased. Taking an erect nipple into his mouth, Harry started to suckle it.

Lyta panted with pleasure with what her father was doing. He sucked on her left breast while wrapping his hand around her right breast and squeezing it firmly.

"Daddy, these are yours, play with me!" Lyta cried.

Harry played with his growing girl already. His hands quested down her body giving a few last firm sucks of her breasts. He would have them later, but right now, he wanted a taste of something else.

Lyta felt her father's kisses all the way down her toned tummy and they reached closer towards her center. The young Amazon spread her legs and she could feel Harry grab her panties.

"My baby girl has been a naughty girl," Harry said, cupping his daughter's sex which earned him a squeal in response.

"We can be naughty together," Lyta encouraged him. Harry started to stroke his fingers against the edge of her womanhood, to tease her heated mound.

Harry peeled off Lyta's panties and exposed her dripping hot pussy. Her pussy looked to be among the most tight Harry ever laid eyes on and he laid eyes on many. The black hair covering her pussy invited Harry to bury his nose into her. Harry gave his daughter a long and lingering kiss right on her opening.

Lyta gasped and lifted her hips in pleasure when her Daddy started to make out with her opening. Harry's mouth pressed on her opening and slowly started to ease his tongue into his daughter's depths.

Harry smiled, beginning to taste his daughter's sweet pussy. He wanted even more though. A swipe of the tongue caused his little girl to start screaming when he licked around her opening, tasting her. Harry lapped out his daughter's sweet juices.

"Daddy, oh, please, I'm cumming, make me cum!" Lyta said.

Lyta's nipples grew extremely hard and the princess happily discovered playing with them got herself off handily. She started to run her fingers over the edge of her nipples.

Harry munched on his daughter's cunt, tasting the sweet juices. His tongue teased her opening pleasure increasing when Lyta's hips pushed up to meet his throbbing thrusts.

Lyta breathed in and out heavily. Harry's tongue took her to more intense heights than any duel or any sparring session did. And she moistened thinking about how this was just the preliminaries of this fun they would have.

The rush spreading between Lyta's thighs rocked her. She started to move her hips up and down at a rapid face to coat her father's face in her own sweet juices. Harry came all the way down into her with his tongue.

Seconds later, Harry pulled himself up. Lyta looked at his face, dripping with her juices. She sat up when he leaned down.

"Did that make you feel good, Princess?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Daddy, it made me feel really good, but I want more," Lyta said. "You wouldn't want to disappoint your daughter by not giving her everything she wants."

"Lyta, I don't think you'll be disappointed when we're done."

Lyta wrapped her arms around Harry's waist and pulled him into a kiss. She made out with her father. The Princess explored him and taught her Dad was way too overdressed for the equation.

The skilled and quick hands of the Amazon Princess started to work his belt open. Harry's pants had been pulled down to reveal him dressed in his boxer shorts. Lyta pulled his pants down and looked at awe because of her father's throbbing prick. She could see it and the third eye almost seemed to be staring her down.

"Daddy, your penis is so big, and it's because of me, isn't it?" Lyta asked, with faux innocence dripping from her voice.

"Why don't you give it a kiss, honey?" Harry asked.

Lyta wrapped her fist around her father's fat cock and leaned forward. Her perfectly formed lips planted a kiss on it. She continued to kiss his cock, but she wanted her.

"Your lips are perfect for this, baby," Harry said. "Suck your father's cock, Princess."

Lyta wrapped her perfectly formed dick sucking lips around Harry's cock and brought him into the back of her throat. Harry balanced her head to avoid any embarrassment on her part. Lyta brought the point of his thick cock into her throat, inhaling him practically on the way in.

She moaned when feeling his cock stretch out the back of her throat. The taste of him made Lyta all hungry and horny. She pushed her face back and started to suck her father's cock.

"Daddy likes it when his princess puts her juicy lips around his big cock," Harry said.

Lyta reached up and felt her father's big balls in her hand. She grabbed them with greed and kept pumping her lips around his cock. It took her a while to get going, but when she did, she sucked cock rather divinely.

"You're doing a good job, baby, you're going to get my cum in your mouth," Harry said.

Lyta followed some deep instinct on her to suck Harry's cock. It was almost like some divine influence guided her to do what she needed to do. She worked her tongue against the other side of his member.

Harry's veiny cock pierced his daughter's throat and his balls ached for a moment. They were about ready to burst and send their creamy pleasure down her throat.

Lyta couldn't say she wanted this any more than she did.

"Here it comes, baby."

Harry's balls tightened and he could feel the pleasure. The thought of shooting his seed down his daughter's throat caused his balls to ache. His daughter's lips were made for sucking his cock and her throat was made for worshipping it.

Lyta opened her throat up to taste her father's cum. The contents of his balls shot down her throat. The warmth spread to his loins when he kept shooting down several thick strands of juicy cum down Lyta's throat.

She released her mouth from her father's cock and gave it an extremely loving squeeze. Lyta rose to a standing position and smiled when looking her father in the eye. Her hand still wrapped around his cock.

"I love your cum, Daddy," Lyta said. She gave his cock a few more licks, licking the essence off of him.

Harry groaned when his naughty little princess licked him back to full mast. He sensed someone might have been giving his daughter some instruction on what to do, covertly.

"I'm going to make this special," Harry said.

"Oh, are we going to make love now, Daddy?" Lyta asked.

She crawled back, balancing on her elbows. Lyta spread her legs to make sure her father saw all of her. The princess's perfectly pink pussy beckoned out for him.

"Are you going to slip your big cock inside me?" Lyta asked through fluttering eyelashes. "Are you going to make me a woman?"

"And what a lovely women you'll be."

Harry leaned down and straddled his daughter's hips. She squealed and spread her legs to raise her pussy. The edge of Harry's head touched Lyta's pussy lips. They came extremely close to inviting him inside her cunt.

"Yes, I'll be your women, Daddy," Lyta said.

"This will hurt, but only for a minute," Harry said.

"I'm sure you'll make me feel really good," Lyta said.

Harry pushed himself through his daughter's resistance. Lyta closed her eyes and could feel his cock breaking through him. Harry kissed her on the side of the neck and played with her breasts to distract her.

"Oh…Daddy," Lyta said. She raised her legs and locked them around his hips to encourage him to push into her. "You feel so good."

Harry pushed himself into his daughter's hot snatch. Lyta clamped down onto him and he could feel her into her.

"Don't you just love this father-daughter bonding, sweetie?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Dad, I do, I do," Lyta said. "More, please, I want more."

Harry worked his hips against hers a little bit. He made sure to pay attention to the legs wrapped around him. The force of her legs could crush someone into submission as Diana almost found out. They also felt completely lovely wrapped around him.

"Your cunt is so hot, and so tight," Harry said. "I love my little girl's pussy wrapped around him."

"Such a bad Daddy, fucking his little girl's innocent pussy," Lyta said. "But, I'm such a naughty girl."

The words sounded so sweet and eloquent spilling from her mouth. Harry hung onto Lyta's hips and pushed himself deep inside her. Her hips rose up to meet his cock.

Lyta could feel her father's hard cock penetrating her wet center. Her walls contracted around him. Something crept up her body and the first sense she was going to cum with a man's cock inside her rose through her loins. Lyta panted the more Harry pushed into her body.

"You're making me cum!" Lyta cried. "You're going to make your little girl cum."

"Go ahead, baby, let it go."

Lyta screamed when her pussy tightened around her father's probing prick. The newly mature princess dug her nails into Harry's ass to hold her in. She encouraged him to go into her. He did so, touching her legs and leaning down to bury himself face first into Lyta's needy breasts.

"Suck them, Daddy, they belong to you," Lyta breathed.

The sensations of her orgasm rocked through her body. Lyta's hot loins kicked up and pushed Harry inside her body. She tensed up around him and could feel being brought to the edge.

"Feels good?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Daddy, it feels…it feels amazing," Lyta said. She wrapped her legs around him. "More, I want more, harder."

Harry pounded his princess's tight pussy. The fourteen year old Amazon could feel her father's thick cock drilling into her womanhood. She stretched around him.

"Yes, harder, harder, you're making me cum again!"

A passionate burst spread through Lyta. Her entire body sized up with the pinnacle of pleasure. Harry held onto her hips and pushed himself into her. Lyta squealed when their loins touched together. Another orgasm flew through her body. The warmth spreading through her body was intense.

Harry sped up a little bit at his daugther's encouragement. She gripped his arm and Harry had no choice but to fuck this perfectly tight pussy. Her pussy walls stroked his naked cock hard.

"It's going to be mine turn."

"Oh yes, Daddy, cum inside your daughter," Lyta said. Her hips matched Harry stroke for stroke. The Amazon's walls clenched him in an attempt to bring his seed into her. "Princess wants her reward."

Harry sucked on her breasts when his orgasm grew near. The delightful little sounds Lyta made underneath his body caused his cum to bubble up in his balls.

"DADDY!" Lyta moaned.

Harry thrust into her one more time and spilled his essence into Lyta's pussy. Lyta held her hips up, taking him deep inside her. Several thrusts brought a load of cum inside her pussy.

"Oh, yes, Daddy, oooh yes!" Lyta yelled.

Lyta could feel his cum hitting her insides. Harry spilled his seed into his daughter's insides, staining her walls with sticky white goodness.

"Happy birthday, Lyta," Harry said, pushing his thick manhood into her.

"Love you, Daddy," Lyta breathed, when the last bit of cum spilled into her body.

"Love you too, Princess."

Harry pulled out of his daughter and she rolled over next to him, snuggling into his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair, as his daughter cuddled against him.

"We're going to do this sometime again sometime, aren't we?" Lyta asked.

"Of course, baby ,whenever you want me."

Lyta smiled.

"Good.

* * *

A figure stepped into the edge of the village in Egypt. One could tell by the looks of her she most certainly was not one of the natives. The woman's hair pinned back underneath a hat. She dressed in an elegant looking black top and a pair of tight silvery cargo pants. Her lips coated with lipstick. A canteen of water rested on her hip.

The dark haired temptress stepped into the field, surveying the scene around her over a pair of sunglasses. Her bright blue eyes shined bright into the distance.

A pair of rough looking gentlemen approached her. The woman stood carefully and watched them approach her. The slick smile appeared on the edge of her face.

"Hello," she said.

"What do you want?" one of the men asked.

"I'm sure you gentlemen know your way around the area, and can help a poor woman in distress," the visitor said.

The men looked at each other with smiles. Fresh meat to have some fun with, if they lead her in the right direction, and they intended to.

"Sure thing, darling," one of them said. "What can we help you with?"

"I need you to point you to the direction of the badlands," she said.

The pause followed with the men exploding into a raucous round of laughter. The young woman across from them frowned, biting down on her lips. Annoyance reached a fever pitch.

"Oh, you want to go to the badlands?" one of them asked.

"No men has ever stepped into the badlands," he said.

"Yes, I've heard of the man killing Amazons who have taken up residence there," the woman said. "But, I'm no man."

"No, darling, you're not," one of the men said, and he reached forward to grab her. "You're all woman, so why don't you let us show you how much men we can be?"

"Step away from me."

The men started to laugh, but suddenly, a light headed feeling went over them.

"You are now underneath my spell," she said. "You will obey me, is that clear?"

"Yes, we will obey you," one of the men said.

"Excellent," she said. She pointed towards the man. "Hand me your dagger, your map and your gold."

The man did as she requested without warning.

"Anything for you mistress," the man said in a dreamy voice.

The dark haired woman smiled. The man would kiss her toes if asked, but this wasn't in the cards for her.

"Yes, you will do anything," the woman said. She put more honey into your voice. "I want you to keep walking into the desert, until you collapse from heat exhaustion."

The men turned around and walked off. They were all the same, pathetic, weak minded fools who fell underneath the Siren's spell. This allowed the Siren's eyes to fall onto the items she had been given. This would serve nicely.

She secured her passport with the name "Lori Leigh" etched onto it. Without another word, Lorelei Circe slipped into the shadows.

* * *

**To Be Continued February 20** **th** **, 2016.**


	162. Plans and Preparations

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Two: Plans and Preparations.**

* * *

Jessie Todd parked herself down on the steps leading into the Crock residence. She positioned herself here often enough when the young girl wanted to be left alone with her thoughts. She looked up to feel the summer breeze in her face. Gotham's notorious weather managed to actually take a turn for the better this summer.

She took the can of soda to her lips and took a long drink. The young girl delved deep into some thoughts. Something bothered her the first couple of months. She was glad Paula unofficially took her in, and let her pretty much stay at the residence as a permanent guest. It was better than going back to the flat her father lived at.

Did he even live there anymore? Jessie didn't know. She took a long sip of her soda and frowned deeply. A lot of thoughts entered the girl's mind.

She barely heard the footsteps, or Jade approaching her. Jade sat down next to her.

"Hello?" Jade asked. She raised her hand in Jessie's face and started to wave her hand.

"Yes, Jade, sorry, I've just been….."

Jessie trailed off, not knowing what else to say. Words failed her. The birds tweeting from the tree caused her to consider what was going on now.

"I've been staying here for a long time, haven't I?" Jessie asked.

"So long, you feel like a part of the house," Jade said. She smiled. "It would feel weird without you."

Jessie smiled. Being too used to being regarded as just someone who lived there, she meant a lot. Her father's weird hours caused some strife and some problems.

"Thanks, it's…it's great your mother let me in," Jessie said.

"She's great," Jade said.

"Do you ever think about your father?"

One could sense the mood being cut with a swift stab of a rather sharp knife. Jessie flinched when Jade's eyes locked onto hers. Time passed slowly and swiftly when Jade considered her friend's words.

"I don't make an effort to do so, no," Jade said. The girl's mood darkened several shades when her father had been brought up. "Why, do you think about him?"

Jessie allowed a moment to consider and nodded swiftly.

"Yes, a little bit," Jessie said.

"He wasn't much of a father," Jade said. "Half of the time food wasn't in the fringe, you know."

"Yeah, I know."

Jessie couldn't shake the vibe she was getting. Jade's eyes fixed upon hers.

"It's just…every few days, he would come home, and pretty much crash in his bedroom," Jessie said. "Sometimes, he would bring home some strange woman."

Jade responded with a nod, not really knowing what else to say. Or rather what to say which would be politically correct. There were words she could call those women which were not meant to be spoken within an ear shot of her mother.

"And I've been back there at least three times a week," Jessie said.

"I know," Jade said in a casual sort of way "You sneak out at night, thinking you're going to get one past us, don't you?"

"I don't…I don't mean to be sneaky," Jessie said. She frowned and looked at Jade. "But, there hasn't been a sign of him, not even once. He's not the type to clean up for himself."

Jade snorted. Given what she heard about Willis Todd, she could imagine so. A stolen look at Jessie caused Jade's abrasive stance to soften a little bit.

"He really hasn't been seen in a couple of months, has he?" Jade asked.

Jessie only responded by shaking her head. She tried not to get too broken up about the situation, but at the same time, many thoughts crossed her mind. The only thing she could do which calmed herself as it take a drink of a soda.

"I'm wondering if he got into a fight with someone and is now a John Doe in the Gotham City morgue," Jessie said. "Or at the bottom of the river somewhere?"

Jade frowned, Jessie was being a little bit morbid, too morbid for her own good to be perfectly honest.

"Don't you think you may be overreacting just a little bit?" Jade asked. One look from Jessie answered her question without any pause. "He has pulled this before, several times."

"He has, but not like this," Jessie said. "He hasn't been gone for this long before. No more than a couple of days, maybe a week at the most. But it's been almost two months since he's been gone."

Jade didn't really know what to say about him.

"And it's not like anyone is going to report him missing," Jessie said.

"Shouldn't you?"

Jade wouldn't recommend reporting Willis Todd missing. She doubted much of anyone would know who he is or care.

"No…I don't…" Jessie said. "If someone found out I was missing, then I would get stuck into some home and get lost in the system."

Gotham City didn't care about the plight of people like her. Well some did, not enough people who made the decisions about where the daughters of petty criminals would go.

"We won't let them do this," Jade said .

"I know you won't let them, but they'll find a way," Jessie said. "And they'll find something in your mother's background, or worse…your father will work against her and me."

Jade didn't consider this thought, but coming from Jessie it made a lot of sense. She cupped a hand underneath her chin and pushed back against her head, frowning.

"Good point," Jade said. "Good point."

Jade really hated to admit it, but Jessie had a point. Her father never really had been gone this long, under these circumstances. Jade's thoughts shifted on another level and made her wonder what her father was up to these days.

' _Last thing I want to really talk about.'_

"Dinner will be ready in a few minutes, if you're hungry," Jade said.

Jessie frowned. It had been a long time since lunch. This kind of deep thought caused her to get more hungrier than she ever did before.

"Guess, I've been thinking for so long, I forgot how late it was," Jessie said.

"Don't worry about him, I'm sure something will break, one way or another," Jade said.

Without another word, the two girls rose to their feet. Jade offered to get the door for Jessie and opened it up before they made their way into the apartment. Artemis lounged on one of the chairs, trying to repair her bow which broke during practice when she didn't make the shot.

"Do you need any help, Artemis?" Jade asked.

"Piece of junk," Artemis grumbled. "Yes, you could…hold it for me."

Jade smiled and she held onto the bow to allow Artemis to try and repair it. She couldn't resist what she said next, it was too easy. A smile crossed her face.

"You know, Artemis, maybe you shouldn't hurl the bow across the room the next time you miss a shot," Jade said.

Artemis hated to admit her sister was right. She regretted it instantly. The purchase of her archery set was at a discount sporting store.

"Well, there's always duct tape," Jessie said. Artemis and Jade turned towards her. "You'd be surprised how much it could fix."

Paula turned her attention around the corner, viewing the banter between the two of them. A smile crossed her face when she leaned down on all of them.

"Dinner is almost ready, just a couple more minutes," Paula said. "Why don't you three girls get washed up?"

Jade thought it was a good idea, and lead by example. They managed to repair the bow just in time.

"Don't throw it across the room next time," Jade said. Artemis responded by sticking out her tongue. "Oh really mature."

* * *

Lois Lane rolled over out of her bed and barely stifled a momentary yawn. The sunlight shined into her face when she pulled herself out of bed. She rose up bright and early, way too early in fact for her liking. Then again, she appreciated the sleep she received on her summer vacation. Lois never received the luxury when the General was around.

The twelve, almost thirteen, year old girl, swung her feet out of bed and landed on the ground with a thud. The sounds of people talking in the kitchen caused Lois to walk forward. She moved over to take a quick shower.

The moment the shower woke Lois up; the pre-teen made her way into the room. She threw on some clothes, and entered the kitchen. Lois stepped a few steps and stared at Rebecca and Claire who were sitting at the table.

"Well, I thought you were going to sleep your life away," Rebecca said in a cheerful tone. "Good to see you awake."

"Why are you so awake this early in the morning?" Lois asked, touching her hands to her hips.

The brunette stifled a yawn before stepping towards her. Lois almost leaned forward and took in a deep breath.

"I'm used to it," Rebecca said. "Always had to get up early, because we had some weird hours."

Lois shook her head. She should have been used to some weird hours thanks to the General. The brunette woman dropped down onto the chair across from them.

"So, your father is a General?" Claire asked.

"Yes, he's…he does different things, he's a big time, big wig in the military," Lois said. "I don't know exactly what he does, because you know…it's classified. A lot of defending this country from some really bad people, I'd imagine."

Claire just nodded in honest.

"So, how's life on the farm?" Lois asked.

"Yeah, it would be rather interesting to spend some time on a farm," Rebecca said. "You know, I've never been to one."

"You haven't?" Claire asked.

Rebecca nodded and she decided to clarify this statement for the other girl.

"Well, never really had the chance, we've been moving around on the road for as long as I can remember," Rebecca said. "Spent a lot of time in trailers and tents and stuff like…well stuff like that."

"With the Circus?" Claire asked.

Rebecca smiled, even though the smile turned rather bittersweet.

"Yeah, my parents were the top act and I joined it when I was old enough," Rebecca said. A second passed when her voice started to shake, before Rebecca calmed herself down. "So, I've spent a lot of time going from town to town. I was born in Gotham City though. Didn't live here for this long….just kept moving."

Claire nodded in response.

"I'm sorry to hear about your parents," Claire said. She sounded honest. "Mine died…my birth parents died when I was just born, a few days later."

"Oh, that's awful," Rebecca said. She frowned deeper. "I'm sorry, at least I got to know my parents."

Lois looked at the two of them. Her mother died when she was young. She had some memories of her mother, more than Lucy did. The General was far different after Lois's mother died.

"I…feel like I know them, thanks my cousin, Kara," Claire said. She almost mentioned the mini artificial intelligence which contained Lara's personality, but thought better of it. "She knew them."

Rebecca smiled and nodded.

"So, ever since you were adopted, you've been on a farm your entire life, haven't you?" Rebecca asked. Claire responded with a nod in response. "Oh, wow, that must be something."

Claire smiled, craning her neck. She could see her mother about ready to complete breakfast.

"Well, it's certainly something," Claire said. "But, growing up in the circus, it has really exciting. It has to be something as well."

"It's not as glamorous as you think it is," Rebecca said. "I mean it's okay, but….it's just….well it's okay."

"Are you kidding, it must be interesting?" Claire asked. "You get to travel all of the time."

Rebecca didn't have the heart to tell Claire the circus seldom traveled to anything which could be considered big ticket destinations. Gotham City was the biggest location they had, and it was only because they have roots.

"Here you go," Martha said with a smile on her face.

"Thanks, Mrs. Kent," Rebecca said.

"Yeah," Lois said. "These look really good, thank you."

Then again, Harry wasn't going to let her starve, not at all. Still, Lois started to eat the pancakes and smiled. Hard to tell whether they were better than the usual cooking at the Penthouse.

"You act like you never eat," Claire said.

"Oh, like you have room to talk," Lois said. "I think you practically inhaled those pancakes."

Rebecca's eyes shifted from one side to the other and watched the interplay. A grin crossed over her face and the dark haired girl dug into her waffles with a smile on her face.

Claire shook her head for a second.

"What can I say?" Claire asked. She looked towards the other woman with a smirk on her face. "I like my mother's cooking."

Lois thought the other girl's reason proved to be supremely sound and clear as day.

"Hey, I don't blame you," Lois said, smiling. "Do you blame her, Becca?"

Rebecca didn't want to say anything, but she nodded in response. Her taste buds stimulated with the pancakes, Rebecca would have to agree. The former circus acrobat lifted her fingers and started to lick the contents off of them. With the syrup off of them, Rebecca snapped up a glass of refreshing orange juice. Her day wouldn't be complete without it.

"Good to see you understand," Claire said with a smile.

She took the last bits of pancakes off of the plate, before helping herself to more. When Claire got home, she had no doubt she would run it off with her chores returning back home.

Looking at Rebecca and Lois, Claire realized the two of them lived some interesting lives. Despite Claire's rather unconventional origins, she lived an extremely conventional life.

' _They moved all over the place when they were younger,'_ Claire thought. _'I pretty much stayed in one place, and I know the reason why as well.'_

"You okay?" Lois asked.

"Just thinking," Claire said.

Lois smiled when she helped herself to pour more syrup on her pancakes. Much too early in the morning to get her brain working. Lois could get out of bed and do something constructive if push came to shove. She just chose not to do so.

' _After all, why do something if you don't have to do it?'_ Lois asked.

"About what?" Rebecca asked.

"Just life on the farm…it's a simple one, but a fulfilling one," Claire said.

"I'm sure it is….I would have loved to grow up on a farm," Rebecca said. "Would have kept me out of a lot of trouble."

Lois snickered. She hated to admit it, but farm chores would keep her out of trouble a lot as well.

Martha observed the inner play between the three girls. The innocence of youth….well it might have not as been as innocent as Lois thought so in the past.

' _Then again, reminds me of another trio of girls plotting a long time again,'_ Martha thought. _'The more things change, the more things stay the same.'_

* * *

For a city which could be so active on some occasions, there were instances where Gotham City grew extremely quiet. Anyone who lived in the city understood the necessity of appreciating these moments of calm. The calm ended in a matter of minutes.

A few straggling homeless men and women made their way outside. It was getting late and they needed to find some shelter. Some of them decided to remain on the streets, refusing the assistance from the charity organizations working around the city. Others decided to stray far into this territory, scrapping together what few coins they could find on the street, to score themselves some pain killers.

A sound of a motorcycle engine revving up caused one of the men to look up in surprise. A gaggle of motorcycles started to move down the street. The various biker gangs in Gotham City road down these streets. Most of them time they passed forward. This time however, they stopped with a skid. Three motorcycles rested at the edge front and center.

"Hey, man, he was eyeballing us."

The largest of the three bikers stepped over the bike. He dressed in sunglasses, with black leather gloves and a black leather pants. He dressed in a black leather top and black leather pants. He looked big, bad, and nasty to know. The man sauntered a step or two forward and flipped his long hair out of his eyes. The man had been referred to as Da Big Man in the Gotham City motor cycle gang circles.

The second man stepped out, dressed in an opened vest. His chest hair poked out. Blue jeans and shoes topped off the outfit. The man had a toothpick dangling between his lips and jewelry dangling from his neck. His name had been known as "Da Bad Guy."

The third gentleman was well shorter than the other two. His greasy hair pulled back into a bandana. The leather jacket, wifebeater top, and blue jeans topped up the look. The gentleman resembled a greasy little rat, and had been called a lot worse. Da Little Guy stepped away from the bikes.

Da Big Guy raised his hand towards the fellow members of the Wolf Pack. The goons drove off into the distance. The President, the Vice President, and the Sargent in Arms of the gang stepped in to survey their surroundings.

"Well, boys, it's been a good last couple of weeks, hasn't it?" Da Big Guy asked.

"Yeah, Chico, it has," Da Bad Guy said in a distinct Cuban accent. "Those punks from the Irish Mob thought they could muscle in on our turf, but we sure showed them, didn't we?"

"Yeah, man, we have," Da Little Guy said.

"Hey, calm down, man, don't get too excited, you might wet yourself," Da Big Guy said. He surveyed the streets of Gotham. "I tell you what though, the leader of the Irish Mob thinks he's tough shit. But if you ask me…he's just another victim of the Irish Curse."

The three chief members of the Wolfpack Street Gang started to laugh and looked rather pleased.

"But, the boss man, he's going to be pleased we cleared out some more of the territory," Da Bad Guy said. "All that green."

Da Big Man smiled, he was all about the green and all about the money.

"Tell you what, our sugar daddy, Sleazy E, will be pleased when we clear some of the trash off of the street," Da Big Man said. The larger gentleman craned his neck to staredown at one of the homeless men. "What are you looking at?"

"Nothing, nothing…nothing!" one of the homeless man said, practically stammering over his words.

"Oh, ho, you think I'm nothing, don't you?" Da Big Man asked. "And if you think you're staring at nothing, then I must be the great and powerful Oz!"

He shoved one of the homeless gentlemen towards a trash bin. The man landed with a thud, practically crushing against the bin.

"Hey, Chico, you better stay down if you know what's good for you," Da Bad Guy said. He started to make a motion with his hand like someone taking a switch blade. "Or we're going to end up cutting you up!"

The homeless man stayed on the ground. Da Bad Guy flicked a toothpick at the man's face which caused him to flinch.

"HEY, YOU PUNKS!"

The three members of the Wolfpack turned around and saw a crazy old man staring at them. The man looked like a wizened wizard, with his platinum blonde hair sticking out in every direction. Several scars covered his forehead. He dressed in the best clothes a homeless person could get their hands on.

"Well, look who we got here," Da Little Guy said. "Looks to be some old fossil who got lost on his way back from the museum."

The crazed old man stared back at him with a crazy old man glare.

"Let me tell you something, you little prick…"

The old man had been shoved back. He reared back his fist and nailed Da Little Guy straight in the crotch which doubled him over. The man reared his head back, but had been grabbed around the throat and shoved him into the ground.

"Oh, you want to go, Grandpa?" Da Big Guy asked. He stomped the man down. "Hey, gramps, you're not looking so good? You've been drinking the bad prune juice, haven't you?"

The old man tried to jump up and started to dig his dirty fingernails into the eyes of Da Big Guy, but the Big Guy picked him up by the scruff of his neck. Despite the old man's scrappiness, he had been knocked on the wall.

"Seems like Grandpa's been dipping into his own cough syrup," Da Big Guy said. "Hold him…oh hold him, this is going to be too sweet!"

Da Big Guy clocked the much older men with some punches while his two companions held him down. He walked over towards his bike and picked up the chain.

"The measuring stick just changed here in Gotham City, old man."

The large biker wrapped his fist up in the biker chain. He looked at the already beaten and battered old man, ready to pummel his skull.

A whizzing echoed above their heads. Da Big Guy looked up, in time to see something smash the light post. The sound of the lights going off and tinkling glass brought his attention.

"Hey, someone is trying to be….."

A figure dropped down from the shadows. Da Big Guy, barely able to see in the dark, swung his beefy chain loaded fist at his adversary. The adversary moved underneath the attack and fired a violent kick at the back of her adversary's leg. The leg crumpled underneath him. Another series of vicious strikes brought Da Big Guy onto his back, before his enemy used his own biker chain as a weapon.

The other two bikers tried to rush towards their enemy. The little guy fired a roundhouse kick towards him. The educated feet of the smallest member of the Wolf Pack couldn't take out the enemy in the shadows. A fist buried into his chest and something slammed against his leg which caused.

"Alright, you're not so bad, come on, and get me!" Da Bad Guy yelled. "Give me your best shot, Chico."

A vicious attack put the goon down onto the ground. Da Bad Guy folded up and dropped down to the ground. The wind had been taken completely out of him.

Moments later, the lights kicked up. The brutally beaten three Wolf Pack Gang members clung onto their life. The members of the Gotham City Police Department stepped into the picture, to look down at the people who had been taken down.

"Whoever took these guys out, they did a number on them," one of the GCPD officers said. "Guess we better call for an ambulance as well."

The officers nodded. While they had no love loss for any of these men, given they caused them so much trouble, these were the only three men who could give them answers. There had been a lot of attacks in recent weeks which didn't make any sense. The GCPD officers knew of all of the urban legends, although whether or not they acknowledged them to be true varied from officer to officer.

"Ambulance is on the way."

"Good, hopefully we'll find out some answers," the officer said.

Loeb was breathing down their necks to get some results. The cop killer and pretty much everything put the Gotham City Police Commissioner and a lot of the higher ups in stress. The average joe on the street, the beat cop, they were the ones who got the brunt of the stress when something like this.

* * *

Helena Sandsmark concluded what she hoped was the last minute preparations for the trip to Egypt. It appeared there had been countless things to do, because there had been countless things to do.

She thanked pretty much everyone who would listen about the fact Harry, Hippolyta, and Diana managed to take care of the vast majority of the legwork. Otherwise this trip might not have gotten off of the ground.

' _Then again, a trip is never assured to go without a hitch, until you're actually there. And even then, a lot can happen.'_

A merry whistling caused Helena to look up for a few seconds. The boisterous and pleased form of Professor McElroy stepped around the hallway. He dressed in a suit which had to be hot on his boisterous frame in this weather.

"Good afternoon, Professor McElroy," Helena said.

"Oh, happy, happy, day, Doctor Sandsmark," Professor McElroy said. Helena chuckled in amusement.

' _At least he didn't do a nice little dance and a jig, it would have been kind of….well very disturbing,'_ Helena thought.

"You're in a rather good mood today," Helena said.

"Naturally, I'm in a rather fetching mood," McElroy said. "The trip will be taking place in a few days, and we will be heading to Egypt….along with Doctor Potter and his associates of course. And we will get to study the mysteries of these tombs up close and personal. Perhaps, we could stumble across some lost culture."

Helena hoped it would be the case. McElroy's mood made her crack into a smile.

"Who knows what wonders will be hidden in the depths of those tombs?" McElroy asked. He did a little bounce on the heels of his feet before growing suddenly serious. "But, I'm sure speculation does not hold the candle to the actual event."

"No, it seldom does, Professor," Helena said.

"And plus a little sun and warm air does the good, my doctor tells me I should get more of it," McElroy said. "You see though, I spend most of my days cooped up in an office. Oh, and a few promising students who have studied Egyptology have been picked to take the trip. No more than around half of the dozen, very likely less."

McElory's excitement was so much Helena could not help and smile.

"I don't see where it would be a problem," Helena said.

"And naturally, I will be taking full responsibility for them," McElroy said. "It will be like a field trip all over again…boy it takes me way back to a day long ago."

Helena understood where McElroy was coming from. Ever since the accident, he had to retire from his teaching position at Yale. He spent a few years in and out of therapy, before going to the Gotham City Museum.

"But, until we depart….I will get out of your way," McElroy said. "And I must see if I'm packed…it would be embarrassing if I forgot anything."

Helena turned herself around and smiled. Doctor McElroy's cheerful demeanor caused her spirits to grow a little bit.

' _Hopefully he's not getting his hopes up,'_ Helena thought.

Helena took a few more steps before she could see another woman making her way up a step of steps. She dressed in a black buttoned up blouse and a lengthy leather skirt which covered her up. One could see the slightest hint of stocking clad legs buried underneath her. Her red hair shined in the light and a pair of green eyes shined brightly.

"Doctor Hall, what a present surprise!" Helena exclaimed. The clipboard came seconds away from slipping between her fingers, but she just barely caught it. "I wasn't expecting you to come by until….."

"I figured I would stop by sooner so we can go over a few details for the trip," the woman said. "You don't mind."

"Not at all."

Helena stepped off to lead her colleague far into the opposite direction. Both of them made their way to Helena's office.

"Don't mind the mess," Helena said. "I haven't had much time to clear out….getting ready for the trip."

The woman cracked a light smile towards Helena. "Surely, the mess couldn't be much worse than my apartment is."

Helena smiled and sat down. She managed to clear up a spot on the desk where she could look over it towards the redhead across from her.

"Doctor Hall…."

"Please, since we're working together, call me Shayera," she said.

"Right, Shayera," Helena said with a smile. She moved over. "Would you like a cup of coffee?"

"Yes, please."

Helena walked over to get some coffee. She had a coffee maker in her office. Long nights and early mornings proved it to be necessary. The woman reached into a small miniature fridge to pull out the milk and the cream.

"With sugar, or without?" Helena asked.

"With," Shayera said. The two women exchanged knowing smiles before Helena stepped over, getting to work. "So, have you talked to Doctor Potter lately?"

"No, I haven't," Helena said. "But, he should be returning from his vacation tomorrow."

"You mean if I would have decided to meet you on time, there was a chance I could have met him?" Shayera asked.

Helena's mouth curled into a smile. Subtle, she wasn't to be honest.

"I'm sure you're just going to have to wait a little bit longer, but you'll meet him."

Shayera didn't say a word to be honest. She had been interested in the work of Harry Potter. And also curious about meeting him up close and personal. The archeologist received a weird vibe and wanted to clarify it. Like the two of them met before a long time ago. It seemed silly because Shayera thought she would remember meeting him.

"Diana and Hippolyta will be meeting us," Helena said.

"The Queen of the Amazons and the oldest princess?" Shayera asked.

"Yes, but they try to downplay it," Helena said. "Especially Diana…and Themscryria isn't exactly on speaking terms with the United Nations. Some people are very….on edge there's a nation of warrior women who have their trained army."

"They have nothing to fear, unless they do something stupid to provoke the," Shayera said.

Helena cringed at her words, but managed to recover quickly.

"There are numerous legends about the Amazons which are misconceptions," Helena said.

"Likely crafted by men who intended to start problems?" Shayera asked.

Helena took a moment to lift her coffee cup and take a long drink from it while it was still warm.

"Seems so from what Hippolyta and Diana have told me," Hippolyta said. "But never mind….why do you want to go on this trip? If you don't mind me for being curious?"

Shayera took her turn to take a long drink of the hot coffee. The moment the liquid touched her lips, she looked to be rather pleased with it.

"Well, why does anyone want to explore Ancient Ruins?" Shayera asked. "They want to see if they can unlock hints to the past."

Shayera had always been a bit obsessed with history. Those who failed to learned to history had been doomed to repeat it. And Shayera, despite not putting her finger on it, couldn't really understand how she had been doomed to fail history.

"Fair enough," Helena said.

"I was quite impressed by the statues you have on display," Shayera said.

"Oh, the Hawk Warriors?" Helena asked.

"Yes, they were preserved, almost as pristine as the day they were found," Shayera said. "What are they made out of?"

"It's a good question," Helena said. "There's a part of me who wants to find out, but I don't think it would be a good idea for scientists to do some poking and prodding around."

"I can see your point," Shayera said.

The statues held many questions, but something about them demanded they would be kept preserved.

Regardless, Shayera anticipated the meeting with one Harry Potter. She heard more than enough about his accomplishments. Given how often he popped up on the news, everyone heard more than enough about his accomplishments.

Hearing about him, and actually seeing him were two different things entirely.

Helena's phone rang. She answered it and spent a few minutes talking in whispers.

"Yes….I understand….I'll be there…yes I understand."

Helena's gaze locked onto Shayera's for a moment.

"Trouble, I best get going," Helena said. An apologetic smile had been flashed through the woman. "Do you mind rescheduling for tomorrow?"

"Guess, we're going to meet tomorrow after all," Shayera said, smiling. She reached her hand forward to shake Helena's. "Not at all, looking forward to it."

And maybe, just maybe, looking forward to meeting someone else. Shayera could only hope as much.

* * *

Sara Lance returned home after a long shift at work. She wanted to just sit down and kick back, maybe relax a little bit in a nice long soak in the water.

The moment she arrived home, Oliver Queen sat on the front steps of the door waiting for her.

"So, how was graduation?" Sara asked.

"I got a piece of paper that the Board of Directors and Malcom insisted I get," Oliver said.

Sara frowned, but nodded. She could tell Oliver was close to being on the edge. He lingered dangerously close and Sara didn't want to be the one to knock him off.

"They…well Malcolm is always riding me about what I need to do, you'd think he'd have better things to do," Oliver said. "All of the resources at their disposal, and….Thea still hasn't been found."

"Oliver, I…."

"I know, Sara, you think Thea is still out there somewhere, and maybe she is," Oliver said. He started to pace back and forth. "But, why wouldn't she at least call home?"

Sara hated to be the one to tell Oliver one of the reasons why Thea left was likely to get some space from her brother. She decided it was best to play the role of the supportive friend and not be the one to burst his bubble.

"I need to get away from it, get away from it all," Oliver said. "I'm sick and tired of hearing about how I'm one bad day away from self-destructing.

"So, are you just going to run away like Thea?" Sara asked.

Oliver cringed at this thought.

"Sara, I'm not running away," Oliver said, wiping the sweat dripping from his brow off of it. "But I need to get away. Far away, somewhere where…somewhere where I don't have to deal with anything."

Oliver had been put into a position, and he was certainly sure he was put in a position to fail. The Luthors circled around the company like vultures, ready to pick up the bones. Something Malcolm reminded Oliver about constantly.

"My father's old ship finally got fixed, I've been working on it," Oliver said. "Gives me something to do…so I don't have to deal with this bullshit."

"You actually got the Gambit fixed?" Sara asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure my father will be proud his legacy lives once again," Oliver said. "For all I know, he could have been more proud of his boat than he was of his own son."

Sara raised her eyebrow, but wisely decided not to comment on Oliver's negative words on this entire situation. She knew better to be perfectly honest.

"So, I've been thinking it would do me some good to take a long trip out to the sea on the boat," Oliver said. "And I was hoping you would come along."

Sara frowned. This invitation was a bit abrupt. She did have a bit of a crush on Oliver when he was dating Dinah, but Sara wasn't quite sure if she wanted to go down this road.

"You want me to come along?" Sara asked.

"You've been cooped up looking after your father for a long time," Oliver said. "And isn't he going to visit some old friends of his for the next couple of weeks?"

Sara responded with a nod, but she had all of the impression of someone who wasn't quite buying what Oliver decided to sell her.

"Just think, if you come along with me," Oliver said. "You can keep me out of trouble….I know you can keep me in line, Sara."

Sara frowned, Oliver would have to throw down this particular card.

"Let me…call, Dinah," Sara said. Oliver looked at her almost with a pleading type of expression. "Don't worry, I'm not going to tell her I'm going on a boat trip with you…..just to let her know I'll be gone for a couple of weeks….only two weeks Oliver, I need to be back in time for when my father gets home."

Oliver frowned and nodded.

"Sara, I wouldn't…well I don't need to give your father any more reasons to hate me than he does now," Oliver said. "And if he ever knew about this…."

Oliver trailed off and Sara finished his statement.

"Well, I'm sure Dad knows ways to make a body disappear where no one will ever find it."

Oliver chuckled nervously, not sure whether Sara was joking or not. With the look on her face, Oliver honestly couldn't tell. And he didn't doubt he accuracy. Regardless, he stood quiet and waited for Sara to call Dinah.

"Dinah, it's me Sara… Dad's off to visit his buddies in town…and I've decided to check out for a couple of weeks as well…my friends and I are going on a trip," Sara said. "Call you when I get back. Love you, bye."

Sara put away her phone.

"She's still away on the vacation her and Harry went on," Sara said.

"Right, Harry Potter," Oliver said.

Sara frowned at Oliver's tone, but wisely, he didn't say something. Perhaps because he was pretty sober, or perhaps there was another reason. Regardless, Sara thanked her lucky stars Oliver didn't say a word. If he said anything about Dinah or Harry, she would not let him get away with it. Especially with what he implied about Dinah when he was drunk at the party.

"I'll go get my things."

"Take your time, I don't plan on leaving until morning," Oliver said.

Sara turned around. Getting away from it all for a couple of weeks might be fun.

What could go wrong?

* * *

Lorelei tapped her feet on the ground. The people running this particular outside café would not be bothering her, thanks to telling them to leave her and her guest be in private.

"You've picked the oddest place to meet."

Lorelei looked up and smiled the moment Prudence Ffogg turned up and sat herself down on the chair right across from her.

"Hello, Prudence, long time no see," Lorelei said.

"Given the trouble you've been into recently, I would have to say it's been a long time," Prudence said. "And I wouldn't expect to see you again, with you keeping a low profile."

Lorelei smiled. Her old friend got straight to the point and Lorelei appreciated this.

"This is far from my usual accommodations."

Prudence looked around and snorted. Talk about an understatement to end all understatements. Lorelei normally went for more luxurious locations.

"Normally you're in some kind of lavish penthouse complete with air conditioning," Prudence said. "You can practically have the best of the best, but yet…you choose to reside in some rundown hovel in the middle of the desert."

"Oh this is just a temporary accommodation," Lorelei said. "As you know, circumstances have changed."

"Yes, your plan trying to bewitch Harry Potter was doomed to fail from the beginning."

"I will have him some day."

Prudence didn't have the heart to tell Lorelei about the fact Harry Potter was made of strong will and her little tricks wouldn't bring her into his arm or her closer into his bed.

"But, for my plans to work, this is where I needed to be," Lorelei said, rummaging through her bag for something.

Prudence frowned. She doubted very much this was a place where anyone really needed to be. No one would choose to go here on their own choice never the less. Regardless, Prudence wondered what she had in mind.

"I have something of great interest," Lorelei said. "If you wish to offer your assistance and your…skills."

Prudence's eyebrow raised and her interest had been piqued. Lorelei lifted up a dusty scroll and placed it on the table.

"It took months of searching to find this much," Lorelei said.

Recognition dawned upon Prudence when she looked over the scroll. The heiress knew precisely what the scroll would lead to.

"So, what exactly do you have in mind?"

* * *

**To Be Continued on February 24** **th** **, 2016.**


	163. Returns and Departures

**Week 7 Story of the Week Poll(Closes 2/27/2016).**

**List of Chapters:** http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/2016/02/vote-for-week-seven-chapter-of-week.html

 **Actual Poll:** http://www.poll-maker.com/poll587963x26724E51-25

* * *

 

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Three: Returns and Departures.**

* * *

Sara Lance slung a bag over her shoulder and as Oliver Queen exited the car and moved over to hold the door open for her. He was being a perfect gentleman, which made Sara smile for a moment.

She almost heard Dinah's voice reminding her men like Oliver were only perfect gentlemen when they wanted something. The younger Lance sister discounted it as just thoughts burning in the back of her head.

"A six month restoration project….and they tried to convince me to get a brand new ship," Oliver said. "But, no, I wanted to prove something to them…prove I could fix something my father left behind."

Sara had been hit with the thought Oliver had been projecting a lot of the failings on the company on this ship.

"Just wait until you see it, I think you'll agree I did a pretty good job on it," Oliver said. "Don't worry, it's perfectly safe."

Malcolm told Oliver he was wasting his time and was a fool for working on his father's destroyed dream. Oliver would prove the businessman wrong, and prove he could handle a moderate responsibility.

"So, where is it docked?" Sara asked.

"Not too far from here," Oliver said.

Oliver Queen stopped short for a moment. The Queen's Gambit wasn't the only thing which was too far away from here. Trouble walked around the corner. Oliver tensed up for a moment to see one of his old arch-rivals showing up. What was he doing on the West Coast of all places, Oliver didn't know?

Sara wondered what got Oliver so tense. She received her answer in the form of Lex Luthor. The bald young man dressed in a custom made dark suit. He held a case in his hand and was talking on a cell phone. At first, he didn't recognize Oliver. The piercing glare Oliver gave Lex made Sara think all should be glad looks couldn't kill.

' _He wants to burn Lex with his eyes,'_ Sara thought. It caused her to shudder.

The younger Lance sister knew about the tension between the Queen family and the Luthors which ran pretty deep. She just didn't have an idea of how deep it ran. Wounds tended to die pretty hard in these circumstances.

"Ollie, maybe we should get to the ship," Sara said.

"In a minute," Oliver said.

Sara wasn't sure what she could do to convince Oliver this entire confrontation wasn't worth it. The younger Lance sister prepared to watch the show unfold.

"Yes, I'll talk to you later…it's a big deal….I want it done and more importantly, try and keep my father out of the loop for as much as you can," Lex said. "He'll get himself involved into it."

Lex hung up the phone and he came face to face with Oliver Queen. The younger man smiled when he looked at Oliver.

"Well, well, well, Oliver Queen," Lex said. "Very small world we live in….guess you must have heard of the rocking party scene down here. You know there's a nice little club down here….I've never been, but I've heard some pretty good things about it. It caters to your crowd."

"What are you doing here, Luthor?" Oliver asked.

Lex chuckled when he looked at the hot blooded male before him.

"You know, I don't have to share this information with you," Lex said. "Congratulations for graduating by the way."

"You're out here to see what I'm up to, to see if you can bring any incriminating information back to your father about me," Oliver said. "You better tell him to stay away from Queen Industries."

The look in his eyes caused Lex to blink for a second. He didn't sweat the likes of Oliver Queen. In fact, Lex saw him pretty much like he always saw someone like Queen. Nothing but an overblown bully and a blowhard.

"First of all, don't flatter yourself, Queen," Lex said. "I'm not out here because of your little escapades or to keep an eye on you. But keep your friends close and your enemies closer, huh?"

Lex smiled and acted like he was going to pat Oliver on the shoulder. He thought better of it though.

"And secondly, if I want incriminating information on you, it would be futile; the local tabloids already do the job for me," Lex said. "And third….you know if my father wants something, nothing I say will convince him otherwise."

Oliver clenched his fists together, but didn't say anything. Sara looked towards Oliver and almost grabbed his arm in a pleading motion.

"I'm sorry to hear about your sister running away," Lex said. "I truly am…she….must have had her reasons. Hopefully, you find her soon…because…well I know I would be broken up inside if my sister had run away from home. Wondering if it had been my fault or not."

Oliver gnashed his teeth together. Lex knew all of the right buttons to push.

"We might not have gotten along, but I'm sure if there's anything to do to help track down your sister, I'll be happy to help," Lex said. "Considering it a gesture of good faith….after all my father's done to undermine your company."

Oliver reached forward without a warning and grabbed Lex roughly around the shoulders. He slammed Lex against the wall which caused the bald man to grimace.

"Let me make one thing clear, Luthor," Oliver said. "You better stay away from my sister."

Lex didn't even blink at Oliver's grip around his shoulder. In fact, his face contorted into one of those famous Luthor smirks.

"You sound so convincing saying to stay away from your sister," Lex said. He could tell Oliver struggled not to punch him hard. "It must have been something you've heard a lot…almost up there with someone telling you to stay away from their daughter…or their wife."

Oliver tightened his grip around Lex. Lex locked eyes with Sara and gave her one of those smiles.

"Oh, this is interesting," Lex said. "Your goal in life must be for Lance to put you into an early grave. First his oldest daughter, then his wife, and now his baby girl…and you know, who would blame him?"

Sara grabbed Oliver by the arm. Lex veered into some dangerous territories bringing up the past and nailing all of Oliver's buttons like the well placed chess master he is.

"Ollie, you've…he's trash, he's not worth it," Sara said. "He's just trying to get a rise out of you."

Oliver threw Lex to ground like week old trash. Lex rolled over onto his hands and knees. Sara noticed a concealed weapon on Lex's person. Given the threats made to both his father and likely the fact some lunatic tried to take a shot at him.

"You'd do anything for some fresh pussy, wouldn't you Queen?" Lex asked. "And she's….well she'll learn the same lesson Dinah did, wouldn't she? Hopefully before she defiles herself with you…..she traded up, didn't she? Have to say, I'd go for Harry Potter over Oliver Queen, seven days a week and twice on Sunday."

Oliver was sick and tired of hearing about how he could never measure up to a Harry Potter or a Bruce Wayne, or even a Tori Stark, or indeed a Lex Luthor. He thought he would be doing people a big favor if he cracked Lex's bald head off of the pavement like an overripe melon.

Sara sensed the danger and stepped in.

"You should mind your own business, Lex," Sara said.

Lex smiled and gave her a respectful no and a smile.

"Just giving you a friendly warning, Ms. Lance, be careful, he's hurt friends of mine before," Lex said. "And he's got a dark side, not even the media has seen it yet."

Oliver was about ready to jump at Lex, but he just gritted his teeth.

"You're not worth it, Luthor," Oliver said.

Sara and Oliver walked off, leaving Lex to brush his suit off.

"I'd be careful out on the seas, Queen. Weather report said there's a hell of a storm coming."

Lex's words, if they had been heard, received no response. The Luthor heir turned to brush himself off.

' _Well, there is my excitement for the day. Back down to business.'_

Lex Luthor walked off, leaving Oliver Queen and Sara Lance to board the Queen's Gambit. He had other things to take care of before he took the trip back to the East Coast.

The call he received next landed higher on the precedence list than an encounter with a hostile heir.

* * *

Harry thought the time on the island did them well. He exited the side of one of his cars. Harry walked around to open the door of the car, to allow Diana out of the car.

"For me, this is my vacation," Hippolyta said.

Hippolyta smiled. She dressed in a casual white top and a modest black skirt. A pair of sunglasses added to the outfit. They looked stylish, mostly because of the Amazon Queen wore them. Diana dressed in her usual female business suit combination with glasses on. Harry dressed in a custom made suit. The party of three made their way up the stairs to the Gotham City museum.

In some strange way, Harry thought it was good to be back in Gotham city. He wondered if anything pressing happened in the duration of the trip. His usual contacts were with him on the trip.

' _The city's still standing,'_ Diana thought. _'I think we can agree this is a good sign.'_

Harry cracked a smile in agreement with her. The three of them made their way inside the Gotham City museum. The search for Doctor Sandsmark didn't take too long.

"Harry, it's great to see you back!" Helena said. She smiled and walked over towards him, wrapping her arms around him in a tight embrace. The two of them exchanged a heated embrace and a kiss to match, although it was rather short due to some of the moderate traffic. "And Diana, and Hippolyta a pleasure to see you as well."

"Doctor Sandsmark…Helena, the pleasure is all ours," Hippolyta said.

The Queen of the Amazons anticipated this trip for the simple reason it had been a long time since she left the comfort of the island for an extended period of time. She popped in and out to go to various gatherings, but other than this, she returned home rather soon.

"Judging by the look on your face, everything's in order," Harry said.

"Yes," Helena said. "I thought for sure we were going to hit some snags…"

Harry reached over and placed his fingers firmly on her lips. She stopped babbling for a second.

"Hippolyta and I worked through everything, all you had to do was a few formalities," Harry said. "Although, I can see by the look on your face, mindless busy work really isn't the best thing in the world."

"We all have our part to play in this," Helena said. "Professor McElroy is over the moon about this. He's recruited a few students and it's going to be a chance for him to return to his passion."

Diana responded with a nod. It was a real shame what happened there, a real shame indeed.

"He's…he's doing fine after the ordeal he had a few months ago?" Diana asked.

"It's like it didn't even affect him," Helena said. "Then again, I barely have any foggy memories during my time underneath the Siren's spell as well."

Harry smiled and nodded in agreement.

' _Perhaps the fact he's not remembering this is the best thing for his health,'_ Harry thought.

The sounds on the television screen coming to life caught Harry's attention.

"This is Vicki Vale here with a special report about another attack from a mysterious vigilante. The latest victims are the notorious Wolfpack Biker Gang. This street gang, which terrorized Gotham's east end, have been taken out with ruthless efficiency."

' _See, I told you there's nothing to worry about,'_ Harry thought. _'Batman is handling things with his usual ruthless efficacy.'_

' _No need to cut the vacation short on your account then?'_ Dinah asked.

' _No, enjoy a little bit more time in Paradise,'_ Harry thought. _'I'll be back to check in on you when the trip is done.'_

' _Best of luck,'_ Donna thought. _'Mother is over the moon about it, as she should be and….let me know if you see her.'_

' _Don't worry, Donna, I will.'_

Those words of reassurance only just left Harry's mouth the moment when he saw a woman enter the room. A beautiful redhead woman dressed in a black top and cargo pants entered the room. She had an amazing and fit figure, looking like she worked out. Green eyes shined brightly on the other end of a pair of sunglasses which pulled down towards her eyes.

"Shayera, just in time," Helena said. "Shayera, this is Doctor Harry Potter….Harry, this is Doctor Shayera Hall."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Hall."

She extended her hand to shake. Being the gentlemen he was, Harry took it to shook and planted a kiss on the top of her hand with a smile to match.

Sparks tended to fly between the two of them. Something hit Shayera, the strangest sense of deja-vu. She recovered quickly when looking at Harry.

"The pleasure is all mine, Harry," Shayera said with a smile. "You don't mind if I call you Harry, do I?"

"Not at all, will save me the trouble from insisting you do so," Harry said.

"Then, I insist you call me, Shayera."

"Of course, Shayera, it's a pleasure to meet you," Harry said.

Shayera smiled, her fingers touching against Harry's for a few seconds longer. The archeologist decided to let go and turn her attention to the other people in the room.

"And you must be Hippolyta and Diana," Shayera said. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Hands were shaken all around on both sides. The five people made their way to walk in the direction of Helena's office. Shayera took a moment to take a closer look at the statues of the winged warriors.

"Marvelous, aren't they?"

A second passed before Shayera registered what Harry said or even the fact he talked to her at all. She turned her neck towards Harry and responded with a nod.

"They are…they are pretty marvelous," Shayera said.

Something rang a bell to her about them, but she couldn't put her finger on it. Shayera wondered if she could convince Helena to let her take a closer look, but she decided against it.

' _I wouldn't want to damage them.'_

Shayera positioned herself away from the statues. She would have to take a closer look at them later.

"So, Professor McElroy is excited about the trip?" Diana asked.

"The man might not be able to keep his dates straight, but he does know his history," Helena said. "I just have a few last minute items to go over in my office, if you don't mind."

"Of course," Harry said. "We want this trip to go on without a hitch."

Helena smiled; this trip going on without a hitch would be a lot to hope for. Given the fact the trip was going to take place several months ago, but it had been pushed back.

"I'm just finally glad we're able to get out there," Helena said. "Thanks for the support."

"Anytime."

Shayera anticipated the trip as well; but she anticipated it for different reasons to be honest. The secrets to the weird flickers she had could be in those temples. The statues were promising.

"Everything appears to be in order, wouldn't you say, Diana?" Harry asked.

Diana took a moment to look over everything. They had the transportation and the funding was in order. Hopefully this trip would be able to be justified with the Board of Directors.

"I'd have to say we're all in order," Diana said.

Harry smiled; glad they were able to get on the right page.

"So, it's settled, we leave in the morning, bright and early," Harry said.

Harry returned to Gotham City only to leave it once again. This pretty much described his life to a tee, if nothing else did.

' _Such an active life I live.'_

* * *

Deep underneath Stately Wayne Manor, a brooding figure exited an elevator and walked towards a computer. The state of the art database processed the results of several cases, both recent and previous. Several newspaper clippings had been clipped to a board and a box sat in the back of the cave, with video footage of both news broadcasts and survelience of his previous battles.

Bruce Wayne, better known as Batman, sat down at the computer. He dressed in his usual Batman costume, the only different would be his cowl had been pulled down .The most recent news reports had been placed in front of him.

The cop killer was the most pressing case Batman investigated at this time. The lack of physical evidence the cop killer left behind showed him one interesting thing. He or she had some background in law enforcement or some police training at the very least. Or at least enough knowledge to cover up the problems.

All of the reports stacked on the desk. Batman turned his attention to the news broadcast where Vicki Vale is attacking.

"The Wolfpack will be transferred to Black Gate prison where they will be underneath a hearing. The Gotham City Police Department refuses to comment about the possibility of this mysterious protector at this moment. Should any late breaking news hit, you'll have it first. Back to the studio."

"A bit rough on those hooligans?"

Batman turned around and could see Alfred approaching him. A tray of food had been carried by the dutiful Wayne family butler.

"It wasn't me, Alfred," Batman said.

"Naturally, sir, this…newest player has a bit of a more dangerous flair," Alfred said. He set down the tray of food. "If I had to guess, the new vigilante had some form of military training. Perhaps some martial arts training as well, and a distinct lack of inhibitions towards injuring them. I have to say the thugs who our new friend taken out were quite lucky indeed."

"Yes, lucky."

The two previous incidents had been logged, and Batman was cross referencing police reports for more.

"And your dinner is getting a bit cold sir, so I'd figure I'd bring it down so you can consume it," Alfred said. "No need to thank me, just performing my duty."

"Thanks Alfred, it's appreciated," Batman said.

"Well, glad to see you do appreciate some small comforts," Alfred said. "So, do you think this new vigilante and our elusive cop killer are one and the same?"

Batman allowed the answer to hang for the longest of moment. He didn't neglect to answer Alfred's inquiry, he was just considering all of his options.

"I don't know right now, Alfred," Batman said. "But, I'm leaning towards they aren't. They do share one thing in common, they're both entirely dangerous."

So far, the vigilante didn't have any blood on their hands.

"It's what you feared, someone would be inspired by what you're doing," Alfred said. "But, sir, you cannot police everyone in Gotham City. There have been a few who had taken up arms against…how did you put it…oh, yes, the superstitious and cowardly lot."

"Yes," Batman said.

"And their efforts have been…well to put it bluntly, they've been in vain."

Batman nodded. The mission was a tough one. Some people started with the best of intentions, but the best of intentions often turned sour. An individual eventually went off the deep end trying to do the right thing.

The Detective wrote a tightrope from one side or the other. He could have fallen into the abyss at any time and been just as dangerous as the monsters he hunted.

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," Alfred said.

"I couldn't have said it better myself, Alfred," Batman said.

"And you're going to end up causing yourself a great deal of mental discord by trying to…trying to get into the heads of these people," Alfred said. He paused. "Then again, I feel sorry for those who attempt to enter your head as well."

Batman brushed off the usual Alfred wit and returned to his work.

"Just takes one piece of evidence to tie it together," Batman said.

"Are you referring to your copycat or are you referring to the cop killer?" Alfred said.

"Both, I'm dried up on leads," Batman said.

"Well, I'm certain you'll think of something," Alfred said. "Or if you don't think of something, you will spend every waking moment of your day obsessing over the answers until you do."

Batman didn't want to admit this out loud, but Alfred was right. He went over all of the cop killer victims once again. Hoping to find some kind of common thread other than the obvious connecting thread.

' _Other than all of them having been brought up on charges of police corruption and having ties to the various mob factions in Gotham, there's nothing,'_ Batman thought.

"Just a friendly reminder to you, sir," Alfred said. He could tell he got about as much of his employer's attention as he was going to get under these circumstances. "Ms. Dawes has called me to insist I remind you of your dinner plans tomorrow evening."

"Yes, I haven't forgotten," Bruce said.

"And she's persistent about you attending," Alfred said. "And she was quite adamant in telling me how disappointed she would be if you had decided to take another raincheck on your plans again."

For a few seconds, Batman paused. He did listen to every last word which came out of Alfred's mouth, even though he was busy at work trying to piece together the evidence.

"If she calls again, tell her I'll pick her up at five o'clock sharp," Bruce said.

Bruce wondered if Rachel saw a lot more in their dinner as they did. He didn't want to give her the wrong idea.

"Yes, I'm certain she'll be delighted with the fact you aren't trying to maneuver out of one of your friendly dates," Alfred said.

"It's not a date, it's just an outing between two old friends," Bruce said firmly.

Alfred could tell by Bruce's voice he meant every word he said.

"Just a word of advice, Master Bruce, from an old man who knows too much about how much this sort of thing can escalate," Alfred said. "I'd be clear to here this is just a friendly outing….the longer you lead her on in the wrong direction, the more people are going to get hurt."

"It was never my intention," Bruce said.

"And I've heard the rumors about herself and Mr. Dent….."

"Not my place, Alfred," Bruce said.

"Of course, sir, of course," Alfred said.

Bruce Wayne returned to piecing together the cop killer evidence. He went through the profiles of all of the previous cops.

' _What if it's a gang of people who is doing this?'_ Bruce thought. _'No, it can't be…there's too much of a chance they'll slip up and one person will blow the entire operation.'_

One meticulous person looked to be the culprit for this.

"And your dinner is getting cold, Master Bruce. Just a friendly reminder."

"I'm done for tonight, Alfred," Bruce said.

The fruits of his labor had withered and died on the vine. He suspected unless the cop killer slipped up, and in the previous murders they hadn't, there would be no tangible lead.

* * *

Aresia stepped into the center of the room. She dressed in battle armor which had been forged by the hands of the gods. It covered her body from head to toe, showing none of her now mature frame. One could only get the slightest hint of her womanly hips and curves on the other side of it. The only visible part in the closed helmet was her blue eyes.

"Again."

The voice of her teacher rumbled off in the distance. Aresia braced herself for battle and more importantly the fresh tortures her teacher devised for her. The heart of the Amazon beat against her chest.

"You need to be persistent and you need to prepare yourself for anything."

Ares used his power to animate the stone statues. Aresia needed to defeat all of them in battle, or suffer the consequences. She knew he would not kill her, but being dragged to the edge of death wasn't pleasant as well.

One of the stone statues tried to impale Aresia on the edge of it. Aresia dodged the sharp point of the blade to prevent it from slicing into her body. The Amazon whipped back with an attack and knocked the stone guard down to the ground. The guard fell to the ground with a dangerous clatter.

Aresia stepped back and noticed one of the other guards rushing towards her. She dodged the cold stone steel from hitting her body. Aresia lifted her shield and blocked it.

"You react and you don't act…and when you do act, you act poorly," Ares said. "It was one of your failings as a warrior, and why you will never be ready."

Anger swelled through the body of the Amazon warrior.

"I'm ready!"

The laughter of the god of war rolled down Aresia's spine. She rushed forward, a rage in her eyes. She sent the blade into the throat of one of the enemies and cut off the large stone head. Aresia spun around to deliver another decapitating blow to another adversary. The twisted steel impacted her adversary in the neck and almost came close to cutting him off.

"You've proven yourself to be sloppy."

Two of the guards brought Aresia down. A third approached her closely. The last second, Aresia pulled herself away. She lifted up a spiked ball and flung it.

The spikes ricocheted off of the wall and smashed the heads of the stone warriors. Aresia picked up the fallen spear of one of the enemies and flung it while it was still warm. She disarmed the guard of his weapon.

The hot steel of the sword sliced down onto the top of the head. Aresia dodged an attempt to take her legs out from underneath her. The guard ambled forward and grabbed her around the neck.

"You've failed, you're pathetic."

Aresia undid the belt and launched a grenade from it. The stone guard blew to smithereens, taking out the other guards.

The rogue Amazon hunched down on the ground. Placing a hand to her mouth, she wiped it.

"Go ahead, let your blood lust flow, embrace it," Ares said. "Soon, you will be ready to take him out, and avenge the sisters he's held in captive."

Aresia's rage bubbled when she recalled it all. Har-Zod victimized Donna and bewitched her fellow Amazon sisters. She ran away and had been swept into Ares. Their alliance became one bred out of necessity.

"You've been claiming soon for years," Aresia said. Her teeth gritted when her eyes bulged out. "When are you going to allow me to face off against him…when are you going to allow me to…."

A huge fist hit Aresia and caused her to fly backwards. Aresia landed on the ground. Ares appeared from the shadows and ripped off her helmet. Aresia thought for one brief second he was going to rip off all of her clothes and do unspeakable things to her.

"See the fear in your eyes?" Ares asked. He hoisted Aresia up by the hair with all of his might and pushed her face first towards a bubbling stream of water. "Do you see the fear dancing in them?"

"Yes, I see…I see," Aresia said. "Do you see how much I hate you?"

"You should hate me, hate is strength, and strength allows people to win wars," Ares said, only slightly letting up on the back of Aresia's head. "Your weakness disgusts me Aresia…you have not been able to properly weaponize your hatred."

Aresia broke free and picked up a weapon to engage her tutor of battle. She tried to attack Ares. In a flash, Ares blocked her attack. One slight twist of his wrist broke the weapon and the next thing Aresia knew, she dropped to her knees before him.

"If you don't comprehend the lessons I teach you, your place will be on your knees before another men," Ares said. "You're as pathetic as my daughter is."

"Yes, your daughter, who is making cow eyes at Har-Zod when she thinks you're not….."

Ares raised his hand and slapped Aresia from the ground. A cut ripped open on her cheek which caused blood to drip down her cheek. Aresia staggered to her feet, but Ares pushed her down and pressed the heel of his boot on her chest.

"You always fear I'd take liberties with you," Ares said. "Do not worry, I would not dare defile myself by touching something as weak and fragile as you are."

Aresia's feelings were mixed with this.

"Who do you think you are to mock me?" Ares asked.

"I'm a true Amazon warrior," Aresia said. "I'm not one of the harlots who have been forced to get on their knees before Har-Zod and debase themselves….."

"Perhaps you should have offered yourself as his whore," Ares said. "You fight him and he will break you. In more ways than one….if you're too pathetic to stand up, then you should embrace it."

Aresia wouldn't do it, she refused to do it. She refused to embrace what Ares asked her.

"I can do it, I can…I can….I can….."

"Can you?" Ares asked. "You've proved nothing."

Aresia wiped the blood off of her cheek. The hate burned through her gaze towards Ares.

"You don't know how far I come, and who I've met on my travels," Aresia said.

"I know who they do, and they consider you nothing more than a curiosity, a pet they've felt sorry for," Ares said. "A fitting descriptor given you act like a lost, pathetic, puppy dog."

Ares spat out the last two words. Aresia flinched, but didn't back down from him.

"I'll give you one chance to prove yourself," Ares said. "You get the job done, and I'll be impressed. Fail and…."

Aresia responded by slapping Ares across the face. Her hand ached from the action. Ares stopped mid statement and looked at her in surprise.

"You know what I'm sick of this!" Aresia yelled, drawing a blade and pointing it at Ares. "And I'm sick of you…I'm sick of you slapping me around like you own me. I'm not your property….the only reason I haven't done anything is because you haven't allowed me to."

Aresia brandished the blade and waved it at Ares.

"I've had it with you, I've had it!" Aresia yelled. "I don't need you, or your stupid lessons. You're nothing but another pathetic man. I can do better without you."

Aresia turned on her heel and stormed out of the temple.

Ares watched her leave with a booming laughter echoing through the temple.

"Perfect," Ares said. "Perhaps you do have some fire in you after all, child."

He would observe her next move and see what Aresia had in store for them all.

* * *

Bright and early, the crew prepared for departure. Helena, Harry, Diana, and Hippolyta all arrived. Shayera waited at the airport for them with a smile on her face.

"Hope, we're not late," Harry said.

"No, you're not late," Shayera said. "I'm just early."

Diana barely avoided cracking a smile and breaking up into laughter. She decided to count to ten mentally, while flashing a knowing smile to Harry.

' _You have to admit, it's an interesting change of pace,'_ Diana thought. _'Someone else beating you to the punch early.'_

Harry did see the humor in this entire situation funnily enough. He turned his attention briefly from this piece of business to the conversation Helena and Hippolyta underwent.

"So, do you have a good idea what we're looking for yes?" Hippolyta asked.

"A general idea," Helena said. Passion bubbled through her voice. "Hopefully, we're able to find relics which will tie together the lost eras of history in Egypt. Eras we only have a general idea about."

Helena frowned before adding with a wistful sigh passing through her voice.

"The Board of Directors may be more interested in things which look good on a museum display," Helena said. "But, it's just how things work sometimes."

"I'm sure we're going to find something which can satisfy both parties," Harry said.

Helena agreed. She was just happy this trip was planned perfectly and they could get in the air. Given it was supposed to happen back this past Spring, and it got delayed. Partially because of the ordeal with the Siren and Maxie Zeus, and partially because of other reasons.

Shayera leaned against the pillar. Harry noticed the archeologist's eyes linger on him for a few minutes at a time. To be fair, Harry had a sixth sense when a woman had an interest of him.

"So, you've practically begged to be on this trip, didn't you, Shayera?" Harry asked.

Shayera's eyes snapped out.

"Sorry, I'm not normally this distracted," Shayera said. "It's just…well, it seems we've met before today."

Harry smiled and stepped closer towards her. The archeologist looked up towards him with a smile.

"A woman such as yourself would have left a more lasting impression on me," Harry said.

Come to think of it, there was something about her demeanor which was familiar. Harry racked his brain to think of what it was, but his normally powerful brain failed him at the most opportune time. Then again, he came across a multitude of beautiful women in his day to day activities, most of them in passing meetings.

"Maybe," Shayera said. "But to answer your question, I wouldn't say I begged to go on this trip….although history has long since been a passion of mine."

"We have to follow our passions," Harry said, taking a closer step towards her.

"Yes, if we don't follow them, we never know what we miss in life," Shayera said. The redhead didn't back down from him getting closer, in fact she stepped closer.

A van pulled up and Professor McElroy got out, with a few college ages gentlemen. All of them looked excited to be on the trip and also excited to work with the great Professor McElroy, who was a bit of a legend.

* * *

Lorelei and Prudence struggled to fight the treacherous winds. Being women of fortune, neither were used to these conditions. Yet, the payoff would be almost worth the risk.

Prudence weighed the options in her mind how much of a risk they were worth.

"Look," Lorelei said.

Lorelei pointed towards a fierce looking blonde. A mostly closed cut lined her face along with a bad attitude in her eyes. She marched towards the general direction of the Badlands

"Do you think she's one of the natives?" Prudence asked.

"She has the right kind of attitude to be one," Lorelei said. She took a second to breath in deeply and breath out. "Shall we approach her?"

Given the women's attitude where she looked ready to kill, Prudence wondered if this was the most ideal of suggestions. Yet, if she could be their ticket inside, they could be.

"Excuse me," Lorelei said.

The blonde woman turned towards her.

"What do you want?" she asked.

Lorelei frowned at the two in the tone of the woman's face. It rubbed her the wrong way.

"We mean you no harm, but we're searching…for the Badlands," Lorelei said. "I would like your help Miss….."

"Aresia," the warrior said, staring them down. "And you're not from around here…you have the look of two women who have been greatly softened by their time in man's world."

"We're just travelers," Lorelei said.

The piece of paper dangling from Lorelei's hand caught Aresia's attention. Without even asking or any invention, Aresia snatched the paper from her hand.

"I beg your….."

"I can't believe it, it's real!"

Aresia's normally harsh tone softened into a giddy schoolgirl. She practically bubbled with excitement. A tone which gravely worried both Prudence and Lorelei.

"I need this," Aresia said. "It's perfect."

"We have a problem," Lorelei said. "Because, I intend to acquire this item for myself."

Aresia and Lorelei locked eyes. Prudence could see the two stronged willed women about to go after each other. Aresia looked like she wanted to rip out Lorelei's throat.

"Perhaps we can come to an accord for a price?" Prudence asked.

"For a price?" Aresia asked. "Maybe I can allow you the item for a price."

"I have an ample amount of resources, just name it, and it will be yours," Prudence said.

Aresia smiled, and thought of the possibilities.

"Wealth doesn't become me," Aresia said.

"But, surely you must understand it makes the world go around," Prudence said.

"Man's world, maybe," Aresia said, speaking the term with disdain. "We'll make the journey together. And if you try and double cross me and take the item for yourself…we will have a problem."

Both Prudence and Lorelei noticed the rather sharp blade Aresia said. One wrong move, and they would be cut to ribbons. Neither woman had any doubts about this fact.

"Play along, Lorelei," Prudence muttered. "For now."

"I need this object…for my plans for Harry Potter to succeed," Lorelei said.

Prudence groaned at the one track mind her friend had. Granted, the heiress wanted to get Harry Potter into her bed as well, but easier ways to do so.

Aresia smiled when she looked at them. Neither woman cared too much for the smile.

"I'll use it for my means," Aresia said. "And then you can have it….my price is you do not interfere in my plans."

' _Need to prove myself. Need to prove I'm ready.'_

"Can we trust you?" Lorelei asked.

"I give you my word on my honor as a warrior and a member of the true Amazon sisterhood."

Aresia shook hands with Lorelei and Prudence. Both women felt her firm grip and knew the amazon shifted every bone in their hands would be broken.

' _I wonder if it would be safer to stick my hand into a den of snakes then to trust this wench,'_ Prudence thought.

Regardless of their thoughts, the trio of women prepared for a treacherous journey into the heart of the Badlands. The storm which kicked up was not for the faint of heart.

* * *

**To Be Continued on February 27** **th** **, 2016.**


	164. Born in Arizona Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Four: Born in Arizona Part One.**

* * *

Harry, Helena, Shayera, Hippolyta, and Diana arrived in Egypt. The moment they touched down, it was a bit of a walk to get to the area. McElroy insisted his students would be the ones to lug the equipment they needed. Happy to be a part of the mission, the students complied with doing so and carried the equipment forward to them.

"So, how far do you think we have to go?" Diana asked.

"According to the preliminary research, less than ten minutes," Helena said, taking a canteen from her belt and swigging from it.

"Might be a bit sooner than you think," Shayera said. "Look."

The archeologist extended an arm forward. The party looked forward towards a temple. Despite the fact the temple was built centuries ago, the architecture looked as pristine and perfect as the day it was built. Several markings appeared on the temple. A closer look saw markings which resembled some kind of son god, and also markings which resembled figures rising from the ground.

"Remarkable, actually remarkable," McElroy said. "It looks to have been buried underneath the ground, but the recent sand storm in this area has unearthed it."

Harry allowed McElroy and the students lugging the equipment to step in to take a closer look at the temple. The sorcerer decided to look at something else a bit more closely. A crystal fragment jutted from the ground. The fragment only barely eclipsed the size of Harry's smallest finger nail.

The moment Harry touched the fragment, it had been reduced into dust, being mixed into the sands of the desert.

"The Amazons explored this area," Hippolyta told her daughter and Harry. "Both we had not uncovered this temple….it's almost like it had been hidden."

Harry noticed a small hole in the edge of the temple. Adjusting his vision, more microscopic fragments flashed in front of his face. Too small to tell, but Harry could tell something had been dislodged loose from the temple.

"I think I may have an idea why the temple could not be found before now," Harry said.

"Professor, I think I found a way in!"

One the students bubbled in excitement.

"Well doe, Jeffery, well done," McElroy said. "Very good, very good."

The professor clapped which enhanced his resemblance to an overlarge cartoon character. Harry decided to step into the edge of the temple. The moment he touched the doors they responded. Swinging open, entrance had been allowed to the temple.

"Well, Doctor Potter, it seems like you have the magic touch," McElroy said.

Diana locked eyes with Harry, and smiled.

' _If only he knew how magical your touch was,'_ Diana thought. _'So, was it weird it responded to you?'_

Harry stepped onto the ground. The dirt kicked up. The torches on the wall all lit up, thus illuminating their way down the tunnel. Harry took a step towards, noticing a rickety stair case going to the right.

"Watch your first step, it's a bit of a doozy," Harry said.

Harry climbed down the steep staircase, with the rest of the group following him. The students watched themselves and needed to descend further down the stair steps.

' _Is there something the matter?'_ Faora asked.

' _Well, I'm not sure,'_ Harry thought. _'But I think…..but I think we're stepping into something more interesting than an ancient civilization. We'll find out in a moment.'_

' _And you're find out something anyway,'_ Kara thought. _'Magical runes are all over those walls.'_

Harry stopped for a second. Sure enough the maker in this temple carved a series of uneven and quite strange magical runes all over the walls. Diana stepped up towards Harry for a moment.

"Everyone watch out," Diana said.

Hippolyta understood Diana's unease instantly because the same unease passed through the body of the Queen of the Amazons as well. Turning around, Hippolyta locked eyes with the entire party coming down the tunnel.

"Yes, everyone be careful, there could be potential traps," Hippolyta said. "No one touch the walls."

One of McElroy's young recruits came seconds away from touching the walls.

"Yes, gentlemen, and lady," McElroy said. "Listen to the experts here, they know plenty about such….sensitive issues."

McElroy stopped and looked around like an overgrown schoolboy. So far, there was nothing of value, other than a never ending labyrinth of passageways. The tunnels curved in every single direction like a maze.

Harry took the lead down one tunnel. A bright and shiny object beckoned him the further in the tunnel the traveler went.

Shayera walked closer towards her. The explorer's curiosity threatened to overtake her along with an even stronger sense of Deja-Vu. Shayera's eyes shut and the redhead explore tried to remember if she ever entered this temple before. A bubbling thought crept deep into her thoughts.

' _Nothing,'_ Shayera thought. _'As far as I know.'_

Harry stepped closer and could see the others move off into a very different direction. A slightly larger crystal fragment rested on the bottom of the temple floor. Crouching down, Harry performed a scan which brought the specifications of the crystal back to home base.

' _The readings read inconclusive,'_ Faora thought, hating to burst Har's bubble like this. _'But, I don't think we need any reasons to come up with the obvious conclusion.'_

' _We knew Kryptonians visited Earth centuries ago, and this is the proof,'_ Harry thought.

' _So, are we coming to the conclusion the crystal likely belonged to some kind of displayed traveler?'_ Kara asked.

Harry made sure to return to Helena who studied the writings on the wall. The writings were a bit skethy and she frowned.

"I can't say I've ever seen any writing like this in my life," Helena said.

"It roughly translates to….God help all who enter here," Harry said.

"Well….I shouldn't be surprised," Helena said, looking down towards the ground. "This particular path is a dead end….unless McElroy found something…where has that man snuck off to?"

Helena thought finding the Professor should be among the highest priority. The man's inability to keep dates right proved how easily lost he could get. Helena took full responsibility of what happened to him on the mission.

Hippolyta noticed a dusty table and on the table, a dagger laid upon it. The dagger looked to have been crudely carved.

"Is it Amazonian, or something else?" Shayera asked. Hippolyta gave half of a jump. "I apologize; I'm not too versed on the culture."

Hippolyta smiled at the thought of an adventurous young woman intending to educate herself on all culture matters. The Amazon Queen cupped a hand underneath her chin and studied the item on the table. A few seconds passed before Hippolyta drew a conclusion.

"Most certainly not Amazonian," Hippolyta said. The blue eyes of the queen studied the item for a few more seconds. "If I had to hazard a guess…the metal has a similar texture to the hawk statues Doctor Sandsmark has at her museum."

Shayera blinked a second later. This particular news enlightened the woman. Temptation visited the woman one more time to touch the dagger. It called to her.

"It could be cursed as well," Harry said.

"Why is it all people curse everything they put in the temple?" Shayera asked.

"Not everything, but most things," Harry said.

The group was about ready to perform their next move, but the full bodied shout of "Eureka!" hit them from the edge of the tunnel. Everyone stood up straight in surprise.

' _Looks like McElroy may have stumbled upon the jackpot,'_ Karen thought. _'Or lots of trouble.'_

' _Those two things aren't mutually exclusive you know,'_ Harry thought.

' _No, they aren't,'_ Karen agreed.

Harry, Shayera, Diana, and Hippolyta walked down the tunnel.

' _Guess I'm tomb raiding today,'_ Harry thought.

* * *

The first rays of sunlight hit Kathy Kane's room. The heiress only barely received the minimal amount of sleep last night. Disturbed thoughts kept her up at night. Kathy feared regression to the past patterns.

Kicking the covers off, Kathy rose up out of bed. The thoughts of the nightmares were both very fresh along with extremely vague. The brunette heiress touched fingers to the top of her head and walked forward.

Kathy looked into the mirror, frowning. Holding up her right hand, the heiress examined it closely. A few swift scratches got into great prominence. Kathy suspected her hand looked like someone who had gotten into a great fight and unfortunately lost the battle. A band-aid placed on her upper arm which had not been there when Kathy drifted to sleep last night.

Then again, Kathy did receive sleep, but something was wrong. The aches and pains entering her body grew a bit more prominent. Kathy approached the doorway leading into the bathroom.

' _What the hell is happening?'_

Kathy blinked, having not the slightest idea what was going on. A few thoughts entered the woman's mind. One strong thought hit Kathy greater than all of the rest.

Doctor Somnambular told Kathy to call his office should she receive any sleeping problems. Feeling excessively tired despite having a mostly good night's sleep qualified as a sleep problem. Kathy pulled off her night clothes and dressed in a lacy white blouse, and a skirt.

Kathy sat down onto the edge of the bathtub. The heiress wondered if the therapy could be the cause of her strange sleep patterns. Kathy wondered if the sleep aids really helped.

The cause of these nightmares made Kathy wonder exactly what was going on.

' _Maybe I need to talk to him.'_

Kathy trusted the doctor made well. Professor Strange insisted James excelled in the field of sleep therapy and Kathy wouldn't doubt it for a moment to be perfectly honest. The best experts made errors with their work. Kathy wondered if James could have prescribed something which caused some ill-fated side effects.

A warm cup of coffee made Kathy become more alert than ever before. Rummaging through the cupboard, Kathy looked for something to eat. Bette was off on a trip with Bunny to celebrate her recent graduation. Kathy didn't mind her niece being in the house, but the lack of Bette's presence gave Kathy some peace and quiet.

After she took some time to be left along to ponder the sleep scenario, Kathy made a split second decision what to do.

' _Have to call him, have to find out.'_

Kathy walked towards the phone. The sessions performed by Professor Strange burned into the back of Kathy's head. The dark haired woman remembered the words.

' _Hesitation leads to fear, and fear leads to great misfortune. Decisive action is required to avoid great misfortunate.'_

Kathy decided to take hold of the phone and dial the number.

"Hello, is Doctor Somnambular in his office?" Kathy asked. The woman waited patiently. "I'm Kathy Kane, I'm his normal Monday morning patient, at nine o'clock AM."

Kathy waited to hear the shuffling of the papers as James's secretary searched through the information to speak to her.

"Yes, I'll hold…he'll be with me in a minute?" Kathy asked. "You're putting me through to him right now? Great!

Kathy's voice bubbled through with excitement. The voice of the receptionist faded and had been replaced by the elevator music. Kathy decided to double check to ensure breakfast was completed before taking the plunge.

"Ms. Kane, this is a surprise," Doctor Somnambular said over the phone. "My secretary said it was urgent."

"I've been getting a good night's sleep every night for the past few months," Kathy said, slowly choosing each of her words.

"That is good, that is good," the doctor said, his accent becoming rather prominent when talking to her.

"But, it's not…it's not as good," Kathy said, choosing the next few words as carefully as the first. "I get the good night sleep, but wake up in the morning feeling with my body is feeling sore."

"So, your mind is rested, but your body is not?" the doctor asked.

"Yes, and I've been having weird dreams….being at the scenes of crimes…..places I've never seen in my life," Kathy said. "And well…."

"Well what?" James asked.

Kathy paused for the longest moment, trying to clear her thoughts. The heiress froze for the longest moment. More flickers came back to her in an instant, or two.

"Well, it's just…it's just silly," Kathy said. James cleared his throat which showed Kathy the doctor wanted to know. Taking a deep breath, Kathy allowed herself the courage to press on. "I'm not only at the scene of the crime, but I'm fighting the villains, like I'm some kind of crime fighter. And….I'm not holding back either. For the first time, I actually feel free, to do what I need to without consequences. And it feels like Gotham City can really be helped."

Kathy almost gasped at the amount she said. Time froze for a few seconds.

' _Did not mean to say this much, really did not mean to say this much,'_ Kathy thought. The woman's heart stammered a couple of quick beats.

"To be clear, you are taking the sleep aids as prescribed, are you not?" James asked.

"Yes," Kathy said.

"Do not worry, it can be a common side effect," James said. "If the problems do persist past the end of this week, do call me on Monday. I will delve into your psyche and see if we can find the root cause of the problem. It's possible by solving one worry, you may have triggered another. If I had to guess, your dreams are another manifestation of the guilt felt for not doing much for this city as your friends."

Kathy nodded in response. Something about his explanation rang true to form. Almost a little bit too true, come to think about it. Kathy decided to be gracious though, despite lingering seeds of doubt blossoming about the sleep therapy having some dangerous consequences.

' _Being paranoid.'_

"Thank you, James…Doctor Somnambular," Kathy said.

"It's what I'm here for," the doctor said. "I'm a doctor, it's my job to help my patients in any way I can. Until Monday, Ms. Kane."

Kathy tried not to sound too hesitant. It could be dangerous to hesitate as Professor Strange pointed out to the woman on a constant basis.

"Yes, until Monday."

Kathy put down the phone. For the first time, Kathy took Veronica's warnings something was not on the level with this man right. James was so smooth and so slick, having all of the right answers quickly. The explanation was good, almost too good.

Sitting down, Kathy ate her breakfast. More questions, few answers, and those potential qualities caused a frown to form.

' _Almost as if he's expecting a question and needed the right answer,'_ Kathy thought. A frown continued to deepen across the face of the heiress.

Kathy figured the answers would be a bit easier to be honest. The sound of the phone ringing caused Kathy to rise to her feet.

"Hello?"

Kathy's eyes widened. A disturbed look crossed the woman's face, and then a look of acceptance replaced it. Kathy nodded like a robot in response.

"Yes, yes, I understand."

Kathy placed the phone down onto the table with a robotic quality. Shuffling to the table, Kathy passed it, leaving her half eaten breakfast on the table.

Without another word, Kathy Kane disappeared up the landing and into her bedroom.

* * *

The cheer coming up from McElroy's end sidetracked the thoughts of Shayera. The woman reached the inside of the chambers first and looked around. The markings flashed on the wall and several scraps of metal laid on the ground. The metal shined to the bright.

"Just like the dagger," Harry said.

"And just like the armor at the museum," Shayera said. Helena stepped towards her, a bright smile crossing the woman's face. "Have you found anything else other than these scraps?"

Helena responded with a head shake.

"Nothing I'm afraid, the dagger you found back there is the largest piece we've found so far," Helena said. "If I had to hazard a guess, someone managed to grind these pieces of metal down for weapons, and these are the scraps."

Shayera noticed something behind the torch. It glowed.

"The temple has been sealed from the inside," Helena said.

Diana approached the two of them. A frown crossed over the face of the Amazon Princess and the most obvious answer crossed her mind.

"There must have been a way in there though," Diana said. "Or a way out of there."

"Unless they sacrificed themselves to stop something they trapped inside," Shayera said.

The mood darkened at these words from Shayera. Diana and Harry locked eyes and exchanged a look which showed they believed what Shayera said.

"But you saw something?" Diana asked.

Shayera lightly brushed her fingers against the torch. Hidden underneath the torch laid an eloquently crafted mace made of the metal. The redhead woman pulled the mace into her hands. Sparks flew the moment she touched hands to the mace. Shayera's hands closed around the handle, mouth hanging up in absolute surprise.

"Impressive," Shayera said.

"Well, it's quite a find, isn't it?" Helena asked.

Shayera held the mace for a few more seconds. For a moment, the achelogist thought something sparked, but nothing did. The flash of recognition filled her.

"Yes, it is," Shayera said. "But, what of Professor McElroy's find?"

"I'm about to check on him now to see if he needs any assistance," Helena said.

"I'll join you," Harry said.

The walls glowed brightly the moment Harry and Helena slipped into the alcove where Doctor McElroy and his crew started to go to work. Harry put himself on high alert. Could more of the crystals been here?

' _It's possible the temple had been built over whatever alien ship came here,'_ Faora thought. _'Or at least it had been built in some area of the general vicinity.'_

"Professor McElroy, are you down there?" Helena asked.

"Yes, I'm down there, and if the markings are on the wall are accurate, I think I've stumbled upon something which will change the field of science as we know it," McElroy said.

' _Bold words, very bold words,'_ Faora thought.

"Professor McElroy, if you see anything glowing or hear anything humming, you should leave in an instant," Harry said. "Run as fast as you can."

"Well, my boy, with my age and size, I don't do much running, but I will make every effort to steer clear of anything too dangerous," McElroy said. "But, I think it's best if you and Doctor Sandsmark continue your exploration of the corridors above. I will send one of the students up if we run into anything tangible."

"Nothing yet?" Hippolyta asked.

"No your majesty, nothing, but old bones," McElroy said. "But, don't fret, I'm certain it's not an unfortunate omen of what might be to come."

Harry could tell the Egyptologist was trying to keep calm despite the situation at hand. Turning off to the side, Harry decided to keep renewed attention on Diana and Shayera who are deep in conversation.

"No, I can't say I've seen anything this remarkable….outside of the museum statues," Diana said.

"You must have seen some things which are remarkable in your day," Shayera said.

Diana smiled, and nodded in agreement.

"Give the craftsmanship back home, Diana has," Harry said. Both women turned around to face Harry. The torches flickered which both all of them on edge.

The moment the torches stopped flickering, Diana, Shayera, and Harry sought their opportunity to speak more freely.

"I've seen some extraordinary things back home, yes," Diana said. "I think what I was trying to say was this was far different than anything I've ever seen…different, maybe not better, but different."

Shayera held the mace. The initial spark started an obsession.

' _Maybe if I had touched the statues back home, there would have been another trigger in her mind.'_

"Careful," Harry said. "Those who obsess with the past are doomed to have a miserable time in the present."

"True enough," Shayera said. The two of them moved closer to each other. Close enough at each. "But those who forget the past, are doomed to forget their past mistakes."

An image flashed into her eyes. Winged warriors falling in battle and an evil force triumphing over them. Corruption ensnared them all. The force caused Shayera to shiver in response.

Made no sense to her, not at all, but the thoughts flashed through the woman's mind.

"You have a point," Harry said, pressing a hand on her. "You seem rather attached to the mace."

"Something feels right about holding it," Shayera said. "Is it…..is there something the matter?"

"No," Harry said. "You just remind me of someone I met in passing a long time ago."

Shayera thought about what the emerald-eyed youth said and responded with a smile.

"Is this a good passing reference, or a bad passing reference?" Shayera asked.

"No, she was noble, and good, but doomed to fall in the end," Harry said. "And we pushed away from each other like two ships passing in a night."

More memories stirred in Shayera, but none of them made sense. A strong impulse to kiss the handsome explorer near visited Shayera. The red head squashed it, despite having every reason in the world to follow on her instincts.

"YES, I WAS RIGHT!"

One of the students scrambled up the stairs. Barely older than a teenager, the boyish charm on the lad's face shined through.

' _Thank you for the distraction,'_ Shayera thought, a bit too breathlessly for her own good.

"Did McElroy hit something?" Helena asked.

"He hit something he's been looking for years…and this is going to make this trip more than worth it."

Shayera turned, wondering what he found.

"He wants you to come down and take a look at it," the student said. "Doctor Sandsmark and Doctor Potter; he needs their expertise on the matter."

Despite not being requested, Diana tagged along for a moment, and Shayera followed.

"Are you coming, Mother?" Diana asked.

"No, Diana, I'll be fine," Hippolyta said. "Go on, I wish to explore."

Hippolyta wanted to check out some of the more obvious Amazon influences on this particular temple. A good feeling crossed the woman's mind something really excited could be found. Not just Amazon, but some Kryptonian influences as well. Did their people meet a long time ago, and it just wasn't recorded?

' _Just have to wait and see.'_

* * *

Enigma put on the coffee because tonight would be a busy night. Several offers rolled in for the Technovore virus. Much to his surprise, none of them had been AIM. Enigma felt a bit slighted this didn't even get underneath AIM's radar. Relief hit the man as well in an instant.

' _If AIM tries to come after me, there will be some really big problems,'_ Enigma thought. The man adjusted the dial and put on the cup of coffee.

A printout of all of the perspective buyers rested neatly on his desk.

"Well, isn't this interesting?"

The first of the three leading deals came from OsCorp. Enigma knew after Harry Potter took control of the company, there were still some shady people deep inside the company. Some of them looked to be after some under the table dealings to get a better deal for themselves. Enigma frowned and one thought crossed the mind of the calculating schemer and hacker.

' _Do I really want to poke the bear and enrage RAO or SLE?'_ Enigma asked.

So far, Enigma managed to remain underneath the radar. Harry Potter's corporate mainframe didn't have so much of a backdoor and Enigma had to quickly kill one system after it started to infect his and start tracing back the attempted hack. Had Enigma been a bit less on the ball, disaster would have occurred.

' _Clever, much to clever for your own good.'_

Enigma held the paper from his fingers. The paper dangled down onto the table. Seconds passed before the hacker snatched up a red pen. Enigma marked a big red "X" over the OsCorp offer.

"Sorry, your discretion is questionable," Enigma said. "And I'm going to have to move onto the next offer, because you're not the best in the world."

The OsCorp offer slapped onto the failure pile. The money was decent, but the risks did not outweigh the rewards for a second. Enigma reached up and grabbed the sandwich from the takeout he took on the way home from his actual job.

"And the sooner I get rid of you my glowing friend, the better all of our lives will be," Enigma said. The black vault underneath the table rattled, whenever Enigma approached it with technology. "But until I find someone who can put you to go use and pay a good price, you'll be sealed up tighter than a patient in quarantine."

Enigma finished off the sandwich and smiled when the taste attacked his taste buds. The next offer awaited the riddle obsessed gentleman and it would be rude to leave it laying this time. Snatching up the offer, Enigma looked at it. The sense of glee quickly disappeared into a sense of agonized groaning.

"You must be kidding me," Enigma said. "This is one of the more insulting offers I've ever received in my life. To think someone would attempt to insult my intelligence in such a way…it's quite laughable."

Enigma observed the details of the offer. Time to see if some poking around could be done.

' _And I know whose behind this as well,'_ Enigma thought. _'To think he would be the one to fool me…I don't think so.'_

The information popped up for Enigma's consumption.

"Just as I suspected," Enigma said, situating the papers on his desk so they remained laying straight. Any paper laying even a fraction of an inch out of place disrupted the work space. "A company underneath an assumed name of Lionel Luthor, and likely by his fine association of businessmen. Well, I know you, and you can make more than what you're offering, boys. Think you can pull the wool over my eyes. Do you really think I have no perception of market value?"

Enigma took the red pen and crossed an x over the paper with glee. A giggle escaped Enigma's mouth.

"Now, do not love this too much, it's a necessity," Enigma said. "Which leaves one more company….oh yes…you do make it harder to say no with each passing day, don't you?"

Another rattle came from the black safe. Enigma clenched the print out of the third offer, which doubled in the past week. And Enigma thought if he held out more, the offer might double.

"Yes, we're back to this one, aren't we?" Enigma asked. "TCRI….and you have a very checkered past."

Enigma eyed a newspaper article which read "Controversial Scientist Baxter Stockman hired by TCRI months after dismissal from Smythe." The article was dated from six months ago and the most recent TCRI ever been in the news.

' _I have to say, you're pretty good at keeping some of your more tawdry activities away from the public eye,'_ Enigma thought. _'But there is one time where you slipped up.'_

Enigma spied the article.

"TCRI denies any wrong doing over chemical spill which leaves woman blinded," Enigma said. "The Techno Cosmic Research Institute Board of Directors have declined any knowledge of the chemical spill. In fact, they say it's a steering wheel malfunction."

Enigma drummed a set of fingers on the table.

"Fifteen years ago, it was a disaster," Enigma said. "A disaster…and the worst of it was covered up."

Less mainstream sources indicated a partial government cover up, mutations, about along the lines of the fabled Smallville Meteor shower all of those years ago. Enigma could not say whether or not he believed the rumors. They were interesting to consider though, but not necessarily a concern from him.

Enigma checked the messages. More of them from TCRI, both on the e-mail and the phone, and they were insistent on getting a meeting.

"Well, congratulations, Mr. Krang, if that is your real name, you are the front runner," Enigma said.

If AIM came searching for the stolen item stolen from the organization, it would be TCRI's problem right now. Enigma clapped his hands.

Enigma pulled out a green pen and put a check mark onto the paper.

' _Now time to the next phase. Unless another bid comes in by the end of the week.'_

Enigma finished the rest of his sandwich with the crumbs landing firmly on the napkin. The hacker picked up the napkin and opened up the bin before dropping it neatly into the bin. He closed the bin and filed away all of the items lingering on the desk.

* * *

"Keep up, we're almost there."

Aresia walked forward, with Lorelei and Prudence following a few steps behind her. The two refined women grimaced when walking towards the dessert.

"Thankfully," Prudence said.

Those boots were not made for walking through treacherous terrain. Prudence grimaced with each step of the way forward. Lorelei looked at the back of Aresia's head. The dagger Lorelei took from the traveler remained hidden.

Call it insurance for the chance someone might jump them. Or these Amazons decided to offer them up to a ritual sacrifice to appease a goddess. Lorelei thought it was likely, although what goddess would even be appeased by the mass slaughter of people. Sounded rather refined to her.

"It's best if you let me do the talking, and neither of you to speak one word," Aresia said. "You're already on shaky ground being outsiders in the Badlands."

Aresia having been born into Man's World found herself at a disadvantage at first. The Amazon's defeat of the tribe leader gained a smudge of respect which hopefully could glow and blossom into something greater.

A rough faced woman and two guards stepped towards Aresia. Aresia looked up to them without any fear. The leader of the guards stepped closer towards them. With her dark hair and well-formed face, not to mention beautiful muscular body, ample breasts, and long legs, the Amazon would be a pinnacle of beauty. Had a scowl not be a permanent fixture of the woman's face.

"So, you've returned, Aresia," the guard said. The only difference was the scowl became less prominent, but still present. "Excellent, it's good to see you back. We thought you had been claimed…by one of them."

"Destra, you know I'm capable," Aresia said.

Aresia made a movement to walk to the gates, but another guard rose up. The guard stepped up and eyed Lorelei and Prudence. The two women looked into her eyes, neither saying anything. Aresia's warning rang true. Do not say anything, do not do anything. Neither sophisticated woman budged for a second.

"Why did you bring them back?" the guard asked.

"They assisted me in finding it, it's what we've been searching for," Aresia said. "The armor….."

"Yes, we've located the armor during your trip, and it's been removed," Destra said. "Our queen moved it and…she does not wish it to be disturbed without just cause."

Aresia opened her mouth for a moment, but another one of the Amazons cut in front. One could tell in an instant not all of the Amazons appreciated Aresia and some detested her from being born on the outside.

"You keep leaving and returning," a dark skinned Amazon said. "We want to know why."

Aresia experienced a fair bit of distress

"I'm seeking out to become a better warrior," Aresia said. "I will be the strongest, like the one who enslaved our sisters."

"Yes, the modern day Hercules, Har-Zod," Destra said. "We do understand your concern and your sorrow over what happened to your friend, but we cannot allow you to bring outsiders into our lands."

"What if we pay you?" Prudence asked.

Aresia's eyes flickered towards Prudence and warned her to shut up before the situation grew even worse. Prudence rested hands on her hips and stood proudly, refusing to speak another word.

"What could you give us that could be of use?" Destra asked.

"My family is very well off….."

"Typical ignorance bred from men," another Amazon said, withdrawing her sword blade to face Prudence. "They think money is what makes the world go around. The outside world would die if their currency had been removed."

"But, they may have something," Aresia said. "Lorelei, if you would, show them."

Lorelei blinked and wondered what Aresia talked about. The stunning siren realized a second later and realized Aresia knew about the dagger all this time.

' _So much for holding the advantage.'_

"Yes, I have a gift," Lorelei said. The dagger slid between her fingers.

Time stood still when Prudence eyed both sides. A sickening feeling of butterflies erupted into the pit of the woman's stomach.

' _Hopefully they do not judge this offer as a threat,'_ Prudence thought.

The Amazons stared down at Lorelei. The one known as Destra walked forward, placing her body between Lorelei and those of the other Amazons. Tension passed for several moments.

"A bandit attacked me," Lorelei said, with swift thinking. "A man."

"A man assaulted you?" Destra asked.

"Yes," Lorelei said, adding a little honey to her voice, but not too much to make it obvious. The Amazons bought what Lorelei sold, which proved to be useful. "After a struggle, I wrestled the dagger away from him and put him in his place."

Prudence admired Lorelei's ability to pull a story out of thin air and make it convincing.

"And the man would have come after any of you, and would have no doubt paid a similar price," Lorelei said. "So, would you take us to the chambers please?"

"I don't know," Destra said, mouth suddenly dry. "The Queen won't….."

Lorelei touched a hand on Destra's shoulder.

"What the queen doesn't know won't hurt her, would it?" Lorelei asked, voice raising into a delicate purr. "And you know, we'll return the armor when we're done with it. When we achieved this mission. It's for the good of the sisterhood."

Aresia watched, re-doubling the efforts to keep her wits above water. This tribe of Amazon outcasts spent a lot of time trying to guard themselves against submitting to men. This training left them to a blind spot towards deceptive women.

"So, will you lead us to the armor?" Lorelei asked.

"Yes," Destra said.

The other Amazons nodded. The sappy looks on their face looked almost comical to Prudence. The woman barely avoided breaking out into a solid fight of laughter.

The party made their way down the tunnels towards the armor. Aresia's eyes widened seeing the sleek armor, made by the hands of a skilled female crafter to put down men and bend them to their will. It amplified the natural strength of women tenfold and sharpened their senses.

"Perfect," Aresia said. "It's absolutely perfect."

Aresia walked up to the armor and the woman's face cracked into a devious smile which widened by each passing second.

"Finally, I will have Har-Zod, and I will defeat him, along with Diana."

Lorelei and Prudence exchanged looks with each other.

"Who do you think Har-Zod is?" Lorelei asked.

"The delusions of a mad woman no doubt," Prudence said, watching Aresia as she lifted up the armor and prepared to put it on. "I'm beginning to consider the drawbacks of giving a woman of questionable sanity this armor."

Lorelei could see Prudence's point, but decided to look at matters from another angle.

"Well, if the curse does exist, better it to be reflected on her," Lorelei said.

Prudence raised her eyebrow in surprise. So the armor was cursed, well of course it was? All of the ancient artifacts Prudence read about held some kind of curse.

* * *

Professor McElroy waved the three students over when they carried a large statue.

"I've found it, for the first time after all of these years, and the Gotham City museum is going to be benefit to one of the unheralded wonders of the ancient world!" McElroy declared. "Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Statue of Ra."

The statue looked rather imposing to be honest, and Harry had this odd feeling about it he could not shake.

"The Statue of Ra?" Helena asked. "I don't believe it, you found it…it was said to be only a myth!"

"No, no, it's not a myth, you can see the proof in the pudding right here!" McElroy yelled.

"Isn't it rumored the statue is cursed?" Diana asked.

If the statue was the one Diana thought it was, curse would be the lowest description of it. The Amazon thought McElroy would be in for an extremely rude awakening if she was right.

"No, this statue is not cursed!" McElroy howled. "It's brought great fortune to the great pharaohs of this nation, and I believe this will be the key of bring new prosperity to all of the people in Gotham City."

A glint shined in McElroy's eyes. Helena and Harry locked eyes with each other.

" _Do you find the look in his eyes a bit worrying, or is it just me?'_ Harry asked.

' _Trust me, it's not just you,'_ Helena thought.

McElroy ran his hands over the base of the statue with careful examination. The man's teeth clenched together.

"Anything else found in this temple pales to the great wonder I've uncovered on this day!"

Harry heard a dark whisper saying "he's returned." The wizard didn't like the sound of it and the eyes of the statue started to light up.

"Professor McElroy, watch out!" Harry yelled.

McElroy didn't heed Harry's warning in a timely manner. The eyes on the statue glowed and fired at McElroy which launched the scientist through a wall and down a set of stairs.

The three students scrambled down the steps after him. Helena, Harry, Diana, and Shayera followed a few steps behind them.

"Are you alright, sir?" one of them asked the professor in deep concern.

"It's your royal highness you uncultured buffoon!" McElroy yelled at the top of his lungs. "Finally, I'm back and I will not be locked in a cage any longer."

The mystical energies in the temple ensnared the students. The two male students transferred into royal guards and the female student transferred into a royal hand maiden.

"You cannot brainwash me anymore!" McElroy yelled. "I am taking my rightful place as ruler, as the mightiest pharaoh in the land. All of you will know who I am and will know me underneath one name…..KING TUTANKAMEN!"

"All hail, our great pharaoh!" the royal hand maiden yelled.

Harry tried to make a movement, but an energy shield popped up to block it. Given time, Harry could disable it, but a problem manifested instantly. McElroy, or Tut, ripped a staff of the wall.

"Yes, mighty staff, allow me to manifest the properties of the Statue of Ra remotely, and bring me my queen!" Tut yelled.

The two guards grabbed Helena and pulled her over towards them. Harry, Diana, and Shayera tried to go for Tut, but fires shot from the ground, blocking their view.

"Professor McElroy, you need to…."

"My Queen, it's been too long," Tut said, the man's voice squealing like an oversized schoolgirl. "You've been brainwashed and forgotten who you are, but now we will be one again."

Tut could see the flames drop, and the three interlopers on his kingdom moving over.

"As for you, three, you have been found guilty of treason!" Tut yelled. And you have been sentenced for your own doom!"

Tut lifted a hand. Several hands burst through the ground.

Diana, Shayera, and Harry looked up to face the army of the living dead which stalked them with all of the speed of a zombie army always did.

' _And here I thought the army of the living dead was under the domain of Osirius more than Ra,'_ Faora thought.

Harry didn't have much time to worry about logistics when an entire zombie army was on his hands.

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 2** **nd** **, 2016.**


	165. Born in Arizona Part Two

**Vote for the Week Eight(2/21/2016-2/27/2016) Chapter of the Week.**

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* * *

 

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Five: Born in Arizona Part Two.**

* * *

Zombies raised from the ground an incident which put Harry's partially active Master of Death powers into high alert. The creatures started to growl and approach Harry. One of them lifted a hand and rushed towards Harry with deadly intentions in mind. Harry dodged the attack. A rapid fire series of punches started to tag the zombie into the back of the head.

Another zombified henchman growled and withdrew a sword. Harry summoned a blade in hand and swiped the sword from the blade. The sparks flew from the blades when clinging together. The two of them fought in an intense battle with the blades clinging together. Sparks started to fly between the two of them.

"How did he even raise these things?" Diana asked.

"Not McElroy, the entity which is controlling him, and…feeding into his split personality," Harry said.

Harry remembered the best thing about zombies. The zombies rushed Harry one by one. A wave of the sorcerer's hand caused the daggers from the wall to fly into the air and catch all of the undead warriors. The warriors growled when dropping down to the ground.

Shayera paused for a moment, the iron mace placed in hand. Teeth gritted down, the archeologist rushed forward and swung the mace. The mace clanged into the head of one of the zombies and caused it to fly back.

Diana blinked, mouth hanging open in surprise.

"Great Hera," Diana murmured in surprise.

Harry would have to agree with Diana's declaration. Shayera charged into the battle and started to swing like a madwoman. The steel crashed into the zombie and the head of the goon ripped off. Shayera turned around and kept hammering the zombie warrior with a series of rapid fire shots.

Diana, not wanting to be left out of the fun, withdrew a blade and charged into the battle. One of the undead army ripped out an arm bone and clashed it at Diana. The Amazon Princess backed off and turned around with a vicious sword decapitating the henchmen. The zombie continued to charge Diana. The Amazon Princess sprang up and landed down on the back of the goon's head.

Several slimy hands reached out from underneath the ground and grabbed onto the zombie. The zombie pulled back into the Earth, having been reclaimed.

"Put them down to the ground, and they can take them down," Harry said.

"Good, they can stay down!" Shayera yelled.

Shayera swung the mace with a crazed fury which made both Diana and Harry glad the feisty redhead worked with them and not against her. Her primal force in smacking these minions down caused her to look very blood thirsty.

' _Well, she's more than we thought at first,'_ Faora thought.

' _I'm coming your way,'_ Hippolyta thought.

' _Good, thank you,'_ Harry though, plunging a fist into the maggot infested ribcage of the zombie. Sparks came from the hand of Harry, pushing the hand deep into the chest. _'We're going to need pretty much all of the help…'_

Harry super charged the zombie and blew him up.

"Well, looks like we have all of our secrets," Shayera said, a smile tugging on her lips.

"Yes," Harry said.

Diana weaved in and out of the zombie army. The warrior woman started to hack and slash at the zombies, and sent them down. The maggot infested creatures dropped down to the ground.

A rumble echoed from the distance, and several more slimy hands slammed out from underneath the ground. Several zombie warriors climbed out from underneath the Earth. These zombies more fully formed then the bones and rotting flesh versions. This particular variety of zombies looked more particularly human than the other batch of zombies.

Diana and Harry braced themselves for the battle, but Shayera's lips twitched with a smile.

"Good, there are more," Shayera said.

Diana raised an eyebrow. Despite being up for a fight, even more zombie warriors coming for them would not be classified as more. The Amazon Princess ran forward and attacked one of them. The zombie warrior pulled a blade out and nailed Diana. The Amazon Princess pulled up and landed down behind the goon.

The zombie warrior howled and charged Diana. The Amazon flipped back and stuck the landing firmly feet first on the ground. Diana opened up a hand and motioned for the zombie to just bring it.

' _There has to be a source of these things,'_ Harry thought.

' _You mean some kind of portal?'_ Diana asked.

' _Yes,'_ Harry said, activating a trap on the wall.

Darts flew the wall and caught the zombies in the back of their necks and back. The zombies all burst into flames. The undead warriors started to run around, swinging their arms and gave a scream out in the air.

Flaming zombies rushing around reduced to ash. Another figure appeared in the shadows and plunged a dagger into the shoulder of one of the zombies.

Hippolyta slipped into the picture and showed why she ruled the Amazons with an iron fist. The Amazon Queen gripped one of the zombie henchmen around the head and pushed the creature headfirst into the wall. The creature's head smashed head first into the wall bouncing off with a huge impact. Hippolyta drilled a series of rapid fire punches.

Diana smiled, relishing the opportunity to fight side by side with her mother.

"Well, Doctor Hall, it appears there's more to you than meets the eye," Hippolyta said, slicing into the zombies with a fluid motion. The maggots sprayed out of the zombie warriors.

"I don't know how it happens!" Shayera yelled, swinging the mace. "It just happens."

"Well, keep up with what you're doing!" Hippolyta yelled.

Shayera could feel more memories bubbling over to the surface. The intensity of the battle caused more memories to rise from the subconscious of the goons. The woman rushed forward and took the zombie down to the ground.

Harry closed his eyes and started to feel the air around the area of the temple. A source of dark energy flowed through Harry's mind.

"Everyone stand back!" Harry yelled the trio.

Shayera started to protest, but the looks from Harry caused shivers to blow down the archeologist's spine.

' _Talk about real presence.'_

Harry held his hands high into the air and brought them down onto the ground. The ground started to rock back and forth underneath them. Shayera, Diana, and Hippolyta all stepped back to give Harry some additional room.

"What is he doing?" Shayera asked.

"Tapping into something he shouldn't," Diana said.

' _Harry, it's too much!'_ Kara yelled.

' _No, I have it under control,'_ Harry thought. The yells of the Alphas pounded in the back of Harry's head, when slipping into the zone. The young man's heart kept hammering harder and faster.

The ground sealed underneath them. Harry's hands started to shake and rattle, managing to hold onto a firm footing down onto the ground. The magical energy swirled further around them.

Something popped underneath Harry and staggered the young man a few steps back. Harry's heart started to race even quicker the longer the magic swirled around the area.

Harry dropped down knees first onto the ground. Diana and Hippolyta stepped over to either side of Harry. The two Amazons hunched down to check on Harry who looked to be a bit out of things.

"Harry?" Diana asked.

"Just give me a minute," Harry said, trying to get the invisible water out of his ears. "Just give me a minute."

Harry didn't have a minute to consider any options because the ground started to rumble beneath his feet.

* * *

Lorelei and Prudence traveled from the Badlands. Aresia dressed in the elegant armor. The trio of women kept walking forward into the desert. A hell of a storm started to kick out.

"Remind me again why this was such a good idea?" Prudence asked.

"Keep your head up, we're almost there," Lorelei said.

When the moment was right, Lorelei would have the armor and take her prize. The dark haired woman's started to tingle at the thought of having the god wrapped in mortal flesh to be pleased by and to be worshipped by every single night. Lorelei slipped into a delicious thought process and sighed hungrily. A tongue traveled over the edge of Lorelei's moist lips with a smirk approaching the edge of them.

"You're daydreaming about him, aren't you?" Prudence asked.

"Well, he does tend to invade my thoughts quite often," Lorelei said.

Aresia stepped a few steps ahead, not wanting to hear about those two lusting over some man. Honestly, did they not have some shame? Men never had done anything for Aresia but cause trouble. The true Amazon thought about wiping the species out. Ares would be the first one to be taken out of the equation.

' _I'd love to see him squirm, we'll see who the stronger one is now,'_ Aresia thought. Giddiness spread over Aresia's body at the thought. Excitement about crushing a man and forcing them to submit was more gratifying than any sex whatsoever.

The ground started to rumble underneath them. Aresia took a step back and looked over towards Prudence and Lorelei.

"Okay, I'll bite, what's going on now?" Prudence asked.

Aresia face front as more dust started to kick up. Several seconds passed before the hot-blooded warrior woman noticed something rising up out of the sand to start kicking up the dust even further.

A Spinx started to rise up out of the sands, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Well, this has just escalated in the worst way in a hurry." Prudence said.

The entrance of the spinx clicked open. Two men dressed in Egyptian guard attire stepped from the temple. Aresia, Lorelei, and Prudence stood far enough away for them not to be seen which relieved two of the three women. The third looked for any excuse to take the fight to another man, if they so much as looked at Aresia cross-eyed. Aresia tightened a hand around the same blade the Amazon threatened the God of War of.

"It's all clear, your royal highness."

Aresia did not respect the authority of any man. A woman exited the tunnel, dressed in a harem outfit, fanning a large men. The fact a woman had been forced to act so submissive to a man caused Aresia's rage to hit a fever pitch.

' _He'll pay…whoever he is.'_

The rotund gentlemen walked out, now dressed in red and gold royal attire with a white headdress fastened to the top of his head. The man puffed out and resembled an overstuffed pigeon placing a pair of hands down onto the large hips.

"Excellent, make sure my Queen doesn't escape!"

The loud voice of the Pharoah boomed loud and deep into the desert. The two henchmen grabbed a woman, who tried to struggle. A knife placed at the woman's throat caused the woman to be brought deeper into the desert.

"It's….Professor McElroy, in that absurd outfit?" Prudence asked. "And he's had a relapse…again….thinks he's King Tut."

"He thinks he's a monarch who died at the age of eighteen?" Lorelei asked.

The crazed actions of the man made Lorelei feel a little bit better about all of the hang-ups she developed. The woman extended up onto her toes with a smile on her face.

"Fine, you know who McElroy is, but whose the woman?"

"Doctor Helena Sandsmark," Prudence said. "She's working with Princess Diana of Themyscira, and her mother, Queen Hippolyta."

Aresia's face contorted into a deep smile. So this woman knew Diana. Well it played into the warrior's plans quite nicely. A pair of hands rested on Aresia's hips when contemplating a plan.

' _Diana will come to get her,'_ Aresia thought. _'If I capture this Helena Sandsmark, I can lure Diana. And if I can lure Diana, then Harry Potter will come for them. That man couldn't resist not reclaiming his property.'_

The first hints of a plan started to form in the back of Aresia's mind. Coming up with the plan and actually implementing said plan were two different things. Ares's mocking voice echoed in the back of Aresia's mind.

' _One of your greatest weaknesses is the failure to implement a plan. You cannot think, you act, and your impulse is too much.'_

Aresia's determination to prove Ares wrong caused the woman to take a step back and not rush in.

"This McElroy has acquired some kind of mystical artifact," Aresia said, talking more to herself than to the other two women. "The artifact's magic is starting to feed into the man's darker impulses and causing him to not be able think."

A man who doesn't think would fall.

"The fact he's arrived must have messed up your plans," Prudence said.

"No, in fact, he's played into my hand," Aresia said.

Prudence, judging by past experience with McElroy, felt compelled to warn Aresia what she was getting into.

"I'm not sure if you've realized how dangerous McElroy is when he's tapped into his other side," Prudence said. "He's power hungry and anything you do will only serve to rile him up."

"He's a man, with simple tastes and certain pleasures which would be manipulated."

A long pause passed and Prudence thought Aresia's blind spots showcased themselves very nicely here. The Amazon hated men and the hatred for them would be distracting her from any thoughts to the contrary.

"You think you can manipulate McElroy?" Prudence asked. "I'm not sure if even Lorelei can pull it off."

Another instance of worry popped into Lorelei's subconscious. Many months ago, Lorelei used McElroy as a pawn and manipulated him to achieve the ends in the plan to get into Harry Potter's bedroom. Lorelei covered all hints of her presence, making sure McElroy wouldn't be able to tie it back it. Careful manipulation laid false memories into the Egyptoligist's mind.

' _But, with the mystical artifact in play, those memories could be brought out.'_

Lorelei clutched a pair of hands to the couch, really wishing the situation at the Badlands did not force the surrender of the Dagger. Losing her insurance put Lorelei into an extremely tight position.

Aresia's eyes narrowed at the rough handing of the two guards. The hot blooded Amazon warrior almost jumped in and attacked the gaggle of goons, but held back.

' _Remember to keep calm….remember not to act without any consideration.'_

Aresia's lips curled into the deepest of deep frowns at the moment of delay.

"Let's follow him," Aresia said.

Prudence had no choice to follow. Aresia wasn't asking as a consideration or asking any advice. The Amazon issued this particular statement as a demand and one she expected to completely follow.

' _Warned her, tried to warn her at least,'_ Prudence thought.

Lorelei hoped lighting could strike twice. Would the magic override Lorelei's powers? The Siren hitched in a breath and prepared to find out in the worst way.

"Make sure to guard the exit, and prepare the apparatus to bring my Queen back to life."

"But, your highness, there are only two of us…."

"Must I do everything for you boobs!"

Prudence was pretty sure the eighteenth dynasty monarch never referred to his men as "boobs." A smile tugged around the lips of the upper class heiress.

* * *

Zombies exited the premises, but the ground started to rumble even more underneath them.

"We need to leave, now!" Harry yelled.

The ground started to shift underneath them and collapsed. Hippolyta, Diana, Shayera, and Harry flew down to the ground. Thinking quickly, Harry waved a hand to slow the descent of all of them before making a rather nasty splat against the ground.

The four landed on their feet in the middle of a dark room. The torches from above just barely flickered and allowed them the light.

Before any of the four people trapped into the tunnel could react, the lights flickered on and started to illuminate around them. The stone walls around them would be revealed and steel spikes started to retract around them.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Shayera yelled.

Harry figured the next logical thing would happen and sure enough, he was right. The stone walls with the metal spikes started to close in on them. The walls closed in on both of them in an attempt to rip them apart.

"Diana, remove the spikes!" Harry yelled.

"On it!" Diana shouted.

Diana grabbed one of the spikes and placed her foot underneath one of the spikes. The Amazon struggled against the spike and with a full bodied tug, Diana ripped the spike off of the wall. The spike held into her hand.

The Amazon Princess raised the spike and with a full bodied shout, slammed the edge of the spike underneath the retracting wall. The spike latched underneath the wall to prevented it from moving even further.

Diana, realizing this effort would do just as well, moved over to the other wall. The Amazon grabbed onto the wall and ripped it from the wall. The Amazon slammed the spike underneath the wall. A loud grinding sound followed with sparks flying in each direction.

Harry eyed the temple nervously. They needed to find a way up.

Diana tried to instinctively jump up to fly out, but some magical force weighed her down.

"We're going to have to get out the old fashion way!" Hippolyta yelled.

Hippolyta grabbed onto two of the spikes. The Amazon Queen gained a rather steady footing which prompted the woman not to slip.

"Works just as well as everything else," Shayera said, copying the actions of the Queen of the Amazons and climbing up as well.

Diana followed next, and Harry brought up the rear. All four of them made their way towards the very narrowed walls. Hipployta clutched onto the wall. One wrong step would bring them down into the pit of doom and skin ripping spikes. None of them wanted to fall onto the pit.

"We need to find the side exit before anything else happens!" Harry yelled.

Diana thought it would be a lot better for them to fly out of here.

Shayera almost slipped on the side of the ledge. The redhead's heart started to beat with a dangerous drum beat. The thump, thump, thump across her ribcage caused.

A magical energy blast erupted through Shayera's body. A pair of eloquent and beautiful wings tore through the coat. The final flash entered through Shayera's memory.

Shayera would have been more freaked out about the development of suddenly sprouting wings, if it wasn't for the fact the entire group lingered a step away from slipping down.

"Can you fly?" Harry asked.

Shayera recalled the sensation of flying, and wondered if the act of flight could be pulled off. Could she do it?

' _Come on, it's just like riding a bike, you're going to be able to get back on it, just think of how it was.'_

Shayera took one step off of the ledge, gambling with the ability the wings could work in here. Time stood still within the temple when Shayera was seconds away from plummeting down into the bottom of the temple.

The wings started to flap and Shayera made her way up. Shayera noticed an exit off to the side. The mace clutched between the winged warrior's hands caused sparks to fly with her.

Shayera recognized a similar incident a long time ago, and knew what to do. The fierce female swung the mace and crashed it through the door. The door broke open and released them into the wild.

Harry smiled and reached to grab Shayera's hand. Shayera clutched Harry's hand and pulled him up. Harry grabbed Diana's hand who grabbed Hippolyta's. The four of them made their way from the temple and landed outside.

The quarter almost smacked head long into the sphinx which rose up from the sands of a desert.

"So, it's a good thing I had been reborn properly," Shayera said.

"No kidding, we would have been done if you weren't," Harry said, looking at the wings. "And it was good to meet you again."

"Yeah, you too…Har-Zod," Shayera said.

Shayera had been brought back for a great purpose, even though her long time companion finally broke the curse and had been sent on. But perhaps her companion was just a prelude for something else.

' _Really no time to think about it, right now,'_ Shayera thought, locking onto the Spinx.

More pressing matters presented themselves to them.

Suddenly, a huge sand storm started to kick up with greater intensity. Harry caught a glimpse of the figures deep inside the sand storm and frowned.

' _Talk about trouble…well more trouble.'_

* * *

Helena, now dressed in more standard Egyptian garb, had been carried to the table by two of Tut's golem guards.

"You don't need to do this," Helena said.

The rotund wannabe 18th dynasty Pharoah walked up towards Helena. A shadow of a smile tugged on the edge of McElroy's, or Tut's lips.

"Make sure you put her onto the table, and hook her in nice and tight," Tut said. "I don't want any surprises."

"Yes, master."

The stone bars fastened Helena through the table. They came inches away from crushing the explorer's chest. Helena tried to move around.

"Don't struggle, my dear, it will be a lot harder on you if you even attempt to do so," Tut said, tapping his fingers down onto Helena's head. "The moment of awakening, one you've been prepared for, for an extremely long time."

Helena wondered if any chance possible existed to get through the madness. The glow in McElroy's eyes showed the Professor long since left the building and had been replaced by a crazed individual.

"For years, my true self had been locked away in the mind of a dotty professor," Tut said, voice lowering a bit from its normal boom. Not quite to McElroy levels, but didn't escalate quite to the boisterous level. "Granted, I eat well, almost to the level of the king, but it was hideous to be brought down to this level, straight to this level of weakness!"

McElroy's voice returned to the levels of Tut and started to bounce around.

"But, now my advisor set me free, I will bring apart a new age," Tut said. "People around the world will line up to see the boy king!"

Tut's loud voice echoed all around the temple and caused Helena to frown in response.

"But, I'm sure you're confused, what role you play in this," Tut said. "You see, you are my dear lost Queen, having been locked away. I know you don't remember. And see your fear….but deep down, you know….you know!"

Tut's loud voice caused Helena to shiver.

"I'm going to have to break you a little bit, my dear," Tut said. "It's not out of cruelty, but out of love…and you will learn to love, once I have broken you a bit out of your shell!"

Helena shivered at the thought of being broken. The implications of those words caused horror to spread through her mind.

"Hush, darling, it won't be all too bad," Tut said. "The Ancient Thebian Pebble Torture is the great way to open an unlocked door, when someone has forgotten their true self thanks to hypnosis."

Helena's mouth opened and shut. Horror spread through the mind of the woman, really not able to comprehend the lengths this man could go through.

"Please, you're not yourself!" Helena yelled.

McElroy started to click his tongue back and forth. A smirk appeared over the face of the wannabe pharaoh, leaning down towards Helena. The large and beefy fingers belonging to the professor turned pharaoh mussed through Helena's hair. The woman flinched.

"At ease my queen," McElory said. "Everything will be fine….everything will be alright….you're just confused. We just have to find the way back home and open the door up here."

McElroy's fingers tapped the top of Helena's head.

"This will happen, ten thousand pebbles will be unloaded at a rate of one every three seconds," McElroy said. "The shock of the pebbles hitting your cranium will cause memories to return…or drive you completely insane."

Tut answered with a shrug in response. The pharaoh responded with an elegant nod and a cough.

"But, one cannot make a salad without breaking a few eggs!" Tut yelled.

Helena knew there was no way out. The pebbles would be about ready to dropped and then….Helena could not be sure of what would happen. The explorer's mind would either be broken, or Tut would be completely correct. Helena would be unveiled to be the queen.

' _No, no, you can't allow yourself to be sucked into this world,'_ Helena thought, shifting a few seconds back and groaning.

"Relax, and just clear your mind…allow the true self to return. Open the door….just like the door in my mind had been broken."

Tut soaked in the thought of being united with his Queen.

"Master, there are intruders!"

Tut's attention diverted all the way from Helena and a full bodied growl came from his throat.

"What?" Tut asked. "What the devil is going on here?"

"There are intruders."

A group of golems, along with the two guards stepped inside. Three women stepped into the chambers. One dressed in the noble of attire of a warrior. The other two women wore eloquent clothing, which had been covered in sand. The blonde's face curled into as snarl, and the dark haired women's face grew bored with the lack of content.

Tut's eyes focused on the three women entering his stronghold. Them snooping around did not impress the great Pharaoh.

"What is the meaning of this treason?" Tut asked.

"No treason, great one," the warrior woman said. "We share a common enemy."

Tut's chest puffed out for a second and started to breath in and out. The great Pharaoh continued to keep his eyes locked onto them.

"Oh, and you have referred to…?"

"Har-Zod," Aresia said. "Or, Harry Potter as he is most commonly referred to."

Both Lorelei and Prudence stared at Aresia. Neither woman liked where this was going.

"Yes, Harry Potter, the viper who stole my queen away from me, and turned her against me!" Tut howled at the top of his lungs. "If you are his enemy, then you very well may be worthy of an alliance."

Aresia tried to maintain a poker face. The possessed doctor walked closer towards Aresia. The warrior woman's heart kept thumping even harder and faster, a breath escaping extremely quick and fast.

' _Have to stomach it, have to stomach it.'_

Aresia's face cracked into a smile. The Amazon directed one hundred percent of her attention on the large man standing at the edge. Putrid breath hit Aresia's face.

' _When McElroy outlives his usefulness…then I'll finish him.'_

"So, are you in the mood for an alliance?" Aresia asked. "I'll make it worth your while."

Aresia's stomach churned at how Tut drank in every single inch of the Amazon's body.

' _Couldn't really act on it, but it doesn't really make things any less sickening,'_ Aresia thought. _'Okay keep calm, Aresia, you're going to get out here…you're going to get something from him.'_

"Yes, Harry Potter, the rogue who tried to turn my queen against me," Tut said. "He must have perished at the hands of my zombie army by now."

"Don't be so certain, your great highness," Aresia said. "He is easily adaptable."

The Pharoah's large face contorted into a twisted smile. More devious thoughts entered Tut's mind before coming to one extremely obvious conclusion.

"Yes, yes, I agree," Tut said. "A fool only declares any enemy to be dead without a body."

Aresia decided to make a needed sacrifice. The two women who came with her lived their usefulness. The reaction of disgust both when hearing of the death of Harry Potter showed Aresia pretty much all she needed to know. A calculated move formed in the back of Aresia's head.

' _A sacrifice must be made to win a battle,'_ Aresia thought.

"And if you don't mind me for asking, what's the reason for your grudge with Harry Potter?" Tut asked.

"He enslaved my sisters, forced me from my home….made me an outcast!" Aresia yelled. "He must pay."

Lorelei found the desire to play the world's smallest violin starting to creep up. The dark haired woman wondered where this next move was going.

"Wait," Prudence muttered.

"Oh yes, yes, I must agree," Tut said. "He's nothing, but a viper and will continue to strike and bite. True power must rise up!"

Tut's breathing grew heavy. The hand maiden fanned Tut until the monarch smacked the fan away. The woman recoiled in fear as Tut's glazing angry eyes fixed on her.

"I'm fine!" Tut yelled. "But, the bastard must be boiled in oiled. I'll skin him, fry him and…."

"You can't!"

Lorelei finally lost all sense of practicality. This bastard threatened her great love, and the Siren would not stand for it. A quick glimpse to Prudence showed the woman getting close to palm meeting face.

"OH HO!" Tut yelled, suddenly recognition dawning when seeing Lorelei. "I remember you…you thought you could get past me….you thought you could manipulate me….well we'll see."

"What are you….?"

"Don't play me for a fool, my dear!" Tut yelled at the top of his lungs. "You were the harlot who months ago tried to impersonate my Queen in an attempt to fool me…..but you really thought you could manipulate me for your games, did you?"

Tut's yell sent spit flying at Lorelei's face. She recoiled in disgust. More so when Aresia turned towards her with a knowing smile.

"Yes, and I managed to lure her here as a gift," Aresia said. "You see, if she betrayed your kingdom, the wench must be punished."

Lorelei only wished to use her powers to send Aresia stepping off of a very short ledge into a vat of boiling oil. Tut's unhealthy glow caused the woman to stand up even straighter.

' _Have to act, now.'_

Lorelei's mouth opened up and sent a wavy note out to strike Tut hard. Tut's eyes snapped over and two hands reached forward to wrap around Lorelei's throat.

"You will not bedazzle me again!" Tut yelled, strangling Lorelei.

Lorelei gasped when Tut's large hands tightened further around her throat. Aresia grew rather uncomfortable with the sight of a man laying hands on a woman in such a way.

"You…she'd be of no use to you dead," Aresia said.

A long pause followed before Tut unwrapped these large hands around from Lorelei's throat. Prudence kneeled down to her, before several of the golemsn closed ranks on them.

"You're right," Tut said, dropping Lorelei down to the ground. "She must learn a valuable lesson."

"Yes, your highness," Aresia said.

Tut waved a beefy hand towards the created henchmen.

"Bring them to the dungeons!" Tut yelled. "And make sure they don't escape."

The golems dragged Prudence and a half-conscious Lorelei out through the hallway, around the corner, and to the area of the dungeons. Tut's beady little eyes followed the progress of the women before turning.

"How would you like to be a part of my royal council?" Tut asked. "A woman of your strength deserves a place of honor."

Aresia barely pushed down the urge to vomit at the thought of dealing with such a rotund bastard. He was rude, crass, and worst of all, a man.

' _Just a little bit longer, just a little bit longer.'_

* * *

The sand storm started to kick off. Harry sensed a creature being forced through the sand. The hands and the arms started to frail around. Sand tendrils shot towards it.

"Great, so we have to fight an entire desert now!" Shayera snapped.

The greatest warriors had their breaking points. Shayera enjoyed a great fight just as much as the next person, but this was completely and utterly absurd. The tendrils shot out from all directions.

"Stand back!" Diana yelled.

The Amazon Princess punctuated those words by rushing forward. Diana nailed the more solidified parts of the sand demon. The resounding punch echoed which caused the monster to fly back. Diana backed off and nailed another punch. A second followed, then a third punch.

"Right idea, Diana," Hippolyta said, turning the dagger around and stabbing towards the creature. "But it needs a bit more punch!"

The mystical properties of the dagger from the temple caused the creature in the sand to stagger back. Harry clicked fingers together and an energy blast shot the creature, forcing it down into the desert. The stinging enveloped each of Harry's arms, but he pressed forward to new limits. Every single nerve ending on Harry's body lit alight with fire.

' _Just a little bit more,'_ Harry thought.

The creature flung Harry off. Harry skidded in the sand and kept rolling back.

' _I'm fine for the record.'_

Shayera clutched the mace and swung for the fences. The mace clung against the sand demon and caused clumps of sand to start flying into the air. Several more slams with the mace caused the sand demon particles to keep flying into the air.

"Get away!" Shayera yelled.

"Keep it at bay, so I can find the source."

Shayera and Diana locked eyes, almost communicating without words. Technically speaking, not the first time they fought side by side, even if it was in another life for Shayera. The two women worked in an eloquent tandem with each other. Diana dipped in one side for another punch. Shayera came in with another side with a violent mace swing.

The battle was music through Harry's ears. A glowing white orb appeared in the desert. The magic hummed deep into the desert.

' _Don't need to go in directly, thankfully,'_ Harry thought.

Harry wasn't sure if he could handle too many more times delving in and disabling the entire magical orb. The throwing dagger slipped between Harry's fingers and with one solid throw, hurled it.

Several seconds passed before the energy coded into the dagger started to super charge. Diana and Shayera stepped back to avoid the arms which swirled around. The sand crumpled together before turning into glass. The glass shattered onto the ground.

The sand storm ceased its chaos in the middle of the desert. All became quiet and all became well. Harry walked over and smiled, running his fingers against the edge of the Spinx.

"We need to get inside, now," Harry said.

' _Helena, if you can hear me, just hang tight,'_ Diana thought.

Harry, Hippolyta, Shayera, and Diana snuck into the side of the temple.

The golem guards roaming around the temple showed a little bit of a challenge. But, Harry had a different idea to get around.

* * *

Lorelei rolled over on the cot and almost rolled onto the floor. Instantly, she hated the dingy cell which became her new home. The Siren reconciled how this cell became her current accommodations. Thoughts returned with the failure to bring Tut to his proper moment.

"So, do you know now why trusting Aresia was an extremely ill-fated idea?"

"Yes, the bitch will pay before betraying us," Lorelei said in a low voice. The near strangling caused a minor throat injury and thus prevented any yelling or use from the powers. "Once we get out of here, I'll get Aresia. She'll be on her knees like a dog and begging to lick my feet."

Prudence smiled at Lorelei's words.

"Perhaps it would be for the best if we got out of here first," Prudence said.

"Yes," Lorelei said, rubbing fingers across her throat. Had Lorelei's vocal cords not have been damaged, it would have been a good idea to charm the two guards. "Do you think you can shift….."

"No," Prudence said. "The magic in the air is disrupting my powers. Otherwise I would have gotten out of here with you before Tut could imprison us."

"I'm not leaving without Aresia in chains."

Prudence loved Lorelei, but could not deny the woman's one track mind.

"So, your throat's damaged?" Prudence asked.

"Yes," Lorelei said. "The guards are affected by the same energies McElroy is as well. So I couldn't use my powers if I wanted to."

Any attempt to seduce the guards would enrage them, more than help them. Lorelei attempted to figure out another way. A lot of the Siren's ideas centered around the charm, and with it taken out, she was struggling.

The sound of a brief struggle perked up both of the women. Lorelei walked towards the bars, but Prudence grabbed Lorelei's shoulder to prevent her from touching them.

"No, it's been rigged, it will burn your hands."

The sound of brief battle stopped, and both women waited to see whether or not who walked around the corner would be favorable.

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 5** **th** **, 2016.**


	166. Born in Arizona Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Six: Born in Arizona Part Three.**

* * *

After the goon squad dropped to the ground, Shayera and Diana crossed around the corner. The two fierce warriors stopped short of looking at the cell before them. Two familiar faces, at least to Diana, looked out at both of them. The Amazon positioned her body to look in on the goons.

"So, it's interesting I meet you here of all places?" Diana asked.

"Who are they?" Shayera asked.

"Lorelei Circe, better known as the Siren, and Prudence Ffogg, the daughter of the infamous Lord Ffogg," Diana said, tapping fingers on the edge of the cell. "And no doubt they're up to no good."

Lorelei frowned, recognizing the woman briefly. Doctor Sandsmark's assistant at the museum, or whatever her job was. Lorelei didn't really think too much of it.

"I'm surprised you didn't use your powers to charm your way out of this situation," Diana said.

"You have to get us out….he's insane," Prudence said. "McElroy, he thinks he's a long dead Pharaoh."

One look at Diana's face showed Prudence the tall and leggy woman knew what the entire situation was. The blonde heiress raised her arms and threw them back with a very prominent sigh.

"He's lost the entire plot," Prudence said. "Everything he's saying….he thinks he's going to…..well, the situation Doctor Sandsmark is in, I wouldn't wish it upon my worst enemy."

Diana stood up rigid for a few seconds and peered into Prudence. The woman's words most certainly caught the attention of the Amazon Princess. The sound of movement above them caused Diana to frown.

"What do you mean?" Diana asked. "What does he plan to do to Doctor Sandsmark?"

"I'm not certain," Prudence said, frowning deeply in response. "But, I think he intends to use some kind of ancient torture to unlock something in the woman's mind. Or he thinks to."

"He's more demented than that Aresia bitch," Lorelei said.

Diana's mouth hung open when Lorelei spoke a name she had been looking to listen to. The Amazon Princess almost looked shocked and stunned to put things bluntly.

"Did you say…did you say Aresia?" Diana asked. Lorelei locked eyes with Diana. "How do you know her?"

"Who is she?" Shayera asked.

"Aresia is an Amazon who fled the island and…we've hunted for almost four years after she broke our laws," Diana said. The Amazon's heart started to beat when another realization hit her full on.

Diana couldn't hear any bond traffic. The magic in the air caused some interference, but certainty entered her mind.

"Let us free, and we'll tell you everything," Prudence said.

Diana frowned and pondered all of the consequences of releasing these two woman. On one hand, Diana took a look at them and figured there would be no way they could cause any trouble. On the other hand, Diana understood better than anyone else how looks could be completely and totally deceiving.

"Why do you need to be free?" Shayera asked. "I think the two of you are in enough trouble."

They intended to let these two free. Making them sweat a little bit was really good for them.

"We can lead you to Doctor Sandsmark and this Aresia!" Prudence said. "I'd get us out myself…but there's something about the magic in the air…which is preventing my powers from working."

Shayera and Diana eyed each other, but the winged warrior woman smiled.

"Magic," Shayera said. "No sweat."

The mace would come in handy. Shayera reared back the mace and slammed it against the door with full strength. A click echoed through the ears of all of the women. Shayera stepped back and swung the mace back before smashing it against the door a second time. A third vicious swing proved to be the charm.

The door clicked open and opened up. Prudence and Lorelei stepped out.

"Just wait until I get my hands on her," Lorelei said, but Diana grabbed the Siren by the shoulder.

"We let you out," Diana said. "Now talk."

Lorelei was about to protest, but Prudence nudged the other woman. The two met face to face with each other.

"Sorry, Lorelei, but a deal's a deal," Prudence said. "Perhaps you should be the one who can explain this."

Lorelei grimaced having been thrown underneath the bus, but managed to come to terms with this entire situation. The enchanting lady collected all of the thoughts necessarily.

"Aresia used us to acquire an armor of great mystical properties," Lorelei explained. "The armor would enhance the strength of the warrior and their abilities but….."

She trailed off. The Amazon Princess understood what she was talking about instantly.

"The legend states it holds a great curse," Diana said.

"Yes," Lorelei said, smiling. "But, she decided to betray us to Tut, and throw us under the bus. And she's using the armor to….."

Lorelei's words faded when Harry Potter of all people came around the corner. The Siren thought she should not be surprised, but at the same time was completely surprised. The enchanting lady's heartbeat started to race.

"Hippolyta is trying to find a back entrance in," Harry said. "There's magic swimming the inner temple."

"Likely because McElroy is trying to use an ancient Thebian pebble torture to unlock Doctor Sandsmark's mind," Prudence said. "And….I'd imagine you'd been acquainted with Aresia."

Harry didn't waste any time responding to this line of question. Anyone could say what they wanted, but very few pieces of news rattled Harry for too long or rattled him for too hard.

"Yes, we've met," Harry said, barely keeping a straight face at how much an understatement these words ended up being.

"Good, then I won't mince words, or waste your time with a backstory," Prudence said. "Aresia has the armor, and intends to use it to gain revenge from…..I have no idea what precisely. But I'm sure she assumes it's a really good reason."

Harry responded with a weak smile, a forced one at that. One could only begin to guess what kind of crowd Aresia slipped into during the last five years.

"So, what are we going to do?" Diana asked.

"This is one case where we're going to have to defer to your mother for."

Harry really had no idea how to deal with someone like Aresia right now. Well there was at least one way, if push came to shove. Harry didn't want to pull out this particular trump card unless there were no other options. And until they found Aresia, Harry couldn't logically figure out what to do.

Hippolyta walked around, hands on her hips.

"Aresia is here," Harry said.

Hippolyta tried not to look rather shaken, but Harry could tell the Queen was feeling the necessity of this situation and wondering what to do. Harry's hand shot out and touched Hippolyta on the top of her hand.

"I'll deal with it."

"We have another problem," Diana said.

Harry realized Diana was right, the moment Lorelei slipped off into the shadows and disappeared without a trace. Talk about having an entire new set of different problems dumped into a person's lap.

Despite the trouble Lorelei and Aresia could get themselves into, one really troublesome situation existed. Harry sensed the longer McElroy had been possessed by the statue, the worst things could happen. The more into this other persona he would get. The worst off Doctor Sandsmark would become and the more in danger she would be.

' _Have to act now and have to act swiftly,'_ Harry thought, even though these thoughts only echoed in his mind.

* * *

Aresia sat perched in the background. The apparatus had been set up and in a matter of minutes, the pebbles would be dumped down on the head of Doctor Sandsmark .Aresia walked over towards the older woman, and started to frown at her.

"Don't worry, it will be over soon," Aresia said.

The words of reassurance, as strong and persistent as they sounded, rang entirely hallow in the mind of Helena Sandsmark. Helena's eyes peered towards the young girl. She willingly worked with Tut, McElroy.

"What…what….are you just going to stand there?" Helena asked.

"No, I'm not going to stand there," Aresia said. "I need to ask you a couple of questions."

Helena didn't say anything for the longest moment. Was now really the time for some question and answer session? The explorer wondered about the delay. McElroy said the process would begin in a matter of moments. Helena hoped someone would delay it. Thoughts, dark and grim thoughts, pounded Helena's mind. The stones dropping onto her head one by one. Each tiny pebble leaving an imprint on her mind, and forcing some dark thoughts to enter her mind.

"What do you want to know?" Helena asked, voice quivering slightly.

"It will be fine, if you work with me," Aresia said.

Helena doubted it very much, but never the less relaxed for a few seconds.

"Are you a friend of Diana's?" Aresia asked.

The fairly straight forward question caused Helena to blink for a long second. The explorer's heart started to hammer hard against her chest. Aresia touched a hand to the top of Helena's head. The woman's hands felt soft, but strong at the same time. This Amazon warrior could treat Helena's skull like an eggshell if the explorer didn't answer correctly.

"Yes…yes I'm a friend of hers," Helena said.

Aresia appreciated the woman's honesty even in the dire situation. Conflict entered the mind of the Amazon. On the one hand, Helena Sandsmark is a woman and therefore worthy of Aresia's consideration. On the other hand, Helena Sandsmark was a friend of Diana's and likely connected to the accursed Harry Potter.

"What's with the artifact Tut has?" Aresia asked.

"He claims it's the statue of Osirius, an ancient artifact of great power," Helena said, a shiver blowing down her spine.

Aresia would have to agree the statue had great power. And power which was wasted in the hands of the man. The armor caused Aresia's desire to feast on more power to bubble and swell. The hunger swimming through the woman's eyes.

"Yes, great power, power which is wasted," Aresia said.

"You have to free me before….before something dire happens!" Helena yelled.

Aresia's annoyance increased, at anyone, even another woman, commanding she did anything. The fierce warrior and protégé of Ares marched to her own beat and didn't really care what anyone else said at any time.

"Given who you've laid your loyalty with, you're not worthy of being saved," Aresia said. "I'm sorry."

"What…what gives you the right to say who is worthy of being saved?"

These words almost pierced Aresia's soul in a way the armor couldn't be pierced. The Amazon's heart started to beat a bit more faster.

"Hippolyta and her amazons have grown extremely weak," Aresia said, placing a finger down on the side of Helena's face. "They have allowed themselves to be conquered by a men."

Helena allowed these words to come through Aresia, before drawing herself to an interesting conclusion. One Aresia might not like, granted, but Helena wanted to make Aresia see the light.

' _I'm doomed either way,'_ Helena thought. _'Might as well go the entire other way around to see if there's any luck.'_

"So, you've allowed yourself to be colored by a misguided perception of what you think an Amazon should be like," Helena said.

Aresia hated being challenged by anyone.

"I don't think you understand….."

"I've worked with Diana, and Hippolyta, and researched a lot of a culture, and how the Amazons think," Helena said. "They have brought me in as part of the sisterhood."

"You…you don't deserve it!" Aresia snapped.

"Oh, and are you the one to say who deserves what?"

Helena's piercing words hit Aresia full and completely on. The Amazon walked closer towards her.

"I've heard men who talk just like you," Helena said. "You hold an outdated perception of what the Amazons should be. You hold a similar opinion towards those of the men around you, who consider the Amazons to be little more than man-hating barbarians? Is this the perception you want to give?"

Aresia's balls curled in frustration and she glared at Helena.

"You don't know what I've been through!" Aresia yelled.

"Many women have been through problems," Helena said. "You haven't dealt with yours in a constructive matter."

Aresia wasn't about to educate this woman, this outsider, on what truly happened. No doubt she had been fed a pack of lies by Hippolyta, Diana, and Har-Zod. She had no idea how the Amazons were truly victims in this entire situation.

' _And yet, she may have a point,'_ Aresia thought.

Aresia grew to hate herself, but had no choice.

For a moment, Helena thought for sure Aresia was going to hack her to pieces with the sword. However, the woman's enchanted blade came down and started to hack the stone bindings keeping Helena locked into place.

"The exit is to your left," Aresia said. "Leave, if you think you can make it."

Helena's legs swung over the edge of the table. Aresia watched the woman leave with indifference passing over her face. Whether or not Helena Sandsmark made it out alive, Aresia didn't care. She freed her.

"I don't think you realize how dangerous he could be," Aresia said. "He took advantage of my sisters."

"Maybe you're just jealous he didn't take you instead?"

Aresia's eyes bugged out. The warrior woman pressed a set of fingers against the edge of the blade. Deep and heavy breathing followed with Aresia thinking about swinging the blade towards her adversary.

"Leave."

Helena got the hint and decided to amble towards the front door. The dark haired woman only made it a few steps down the hallway before two of Tut's guards stepped in front of her.

"Did you really think it would be this easy to escape?" one of the guards asked.

Helena tried to knock one of the guards into the one. Much to her surprise, one of the guards went down thanks to a well-placed sucker punch. The doctor started to scramble as far into the other direction as necessary.

The golems walked in front of Helena and their thunderous bodies walked on the other side.

"The master still wishes for you to be reborn into his queen."

Helena started to breath heavily.

* * *

Aresia thought the chaos of Doctor Sandsmark escaping the temple would all her to move around it unhibited through the temple. Despite the power coming from the statue making Aresia grow hungry, there was one other element which overrode all of the woman's desires and thoughts.

' _Har-Zod, I have to get to Har-Zod.'_

Aresia knew he would have come for Doctor Sandsmark, and when he did, she would lay in wait.

"Well, if it isn't the traitor? Time for you to learn your proper place."

Aresia's head whipped around and came face to face with the one and only Lorelei Circe. The Amazon clutched a hand around the sword and walked closer to her. The personification of the worst qualities of women, in Aresia's mind, faced the warrior. She refused to back down from Lorelei.

"And here I thought your throat was feeling a bit froggy," Aresia said.

"Oh, it's feeling much better," Lorelei said, smiling. "Just in enough time for us to play."

Aresia put herself on full guard and doubled up on the will power flowing through her mind. No way, Aresia would be put underneath the Siren's spell, no way at all.

"Why don't you kneel before me, and show your place?"

Aresia tried to move forward. A forceful presence erupted over the back of Aresia's mind.

"Kneel!"

Lorelei smiled, the will was strong on this one. The proudest of them all would be the most easily broken. Aresia viewed Lorelei's knees about ready to buckle down to the ground before her.

"Yes, kneel before me!" Lorelei said. "And after this is over, I might kneel before Har-Zod."

The mocking tone in Lorelei's voice caused Aresia to snap up and glare at the woman. The spell had been broken enough for Aresia to throw an arm out and knock Lorelei into the wall. Lorelei smacked hard against the wall.

"I guess you're throat isn't healed well enough."

A dagger shot out of Aresia's hand and almost hit the wall. Lorelei barely dodged the dagger. The Siren rose to her feet, and rolled over. Aresia raised the sword into the air.

Swords clung together and Aresia took half of a step back. Hippolyta's eyes bared down onto Aresia.

"Aresia, it's time for you to come home," Hippolyta said.

"And stand trial for my supposed betrayal?" Aresia asked. The rogue Amazon stepped back and swung the sword back one more time.

Aresia could see Hippolyta staring back at her.

"I've brought you onto our shores, against the advice of my council, and against the better judgment of the goddess's," Hippolyta said, using the dagger to remove Aresia's weapon from her hand in one fell swoop. "Because, I thought you had potential. And you did….once the rough edges have been smoothed out."

Hippolyta dodged a vicious attack from Aresia. The Amazon Queen refused to fight Aresia, simply deciding to block all of the rogue's attacks. Each and every one of those attacks grew more frantic.

"Fight me, you coward!" Aresia shrieked, almost red in the face.

"True bravery comes not from those who seek a fight," Hippolyta said. "But, true bravery comes from those who seek other options, despite when things seem dire."

Aresia ignored all of these words. The rage dancing in the eyes of the Amazon showed how angry she was. The anger continued to bubble through the surface. The rogue stepped back and tried to attack Hippolyta with another lethal blow.

"And you go for the kill," Hippolyta said. "You need to understand what happened."

"You've been poisoned by a man!" Aresia yelled.

Hippolyta blocked one of Aresia's punches and forced the arm into an extended armbar. Aresia howled in agony when Hippolyta tilted back. The Amazon Queen flung Aresia down to the ground. The rogue smacked hard against the ground ,with Hippolyta mounting the woman on the other side. The arm folded over the back of Aresia's head.

"No, no ,you can't!" Aresia yelled.

Hippolyta forced Aresia down to the ground and caused her to squirm in response.

"If you think the Amazons have been corrupted by a man," Hippolyta said, torqueing up the elbow of the other Amazon. "Then you don't understand anything, or the lessons the goddesses intended to teach you!"

The roaring sound of two golems rushed over. One of the grabbed Hippolyta around the neck, but the Amazon Queen fought free. Reclaiming Aresia's sword, Hippolyta sliced the golem. A decapitating swing knocked the creature's head off. Magical sparks started to fly in another direction.

Aresia swung back and crashed the full fist into the creature's face. Stone fragments splattered against the wall. Picking up the stone club the golem dropped, Aresia saw Hippolyta's back turned.

' _Time to finish this!'_

Lorelei grabbed Aresia by the hair and yanked the Amazon into the next room. The two women flew into the next room and flew head over heels before landing on the ground.

Aresia found herself surrounded by glass scriptures in every direction.

"Might not be able to put you under," Lorelei said. "But, I can put you under ground."

Lorelei opened her mouth and a high pitched note came out. The glass shattered in every single direction and the ground cracked from beneath them, sending them down to the ground.

The Siren could feel a strong hand grab her. Looking up with dazed eyes, Lorelei smiled upon her savior. Harry Potter held onto Lorelei's arm and yanked her up.

"My hero," Lorelei said, with a smile, arms wrapped around Harry's neck. The Siren stole a brief kiss on his cheek.

Lorelei unwrapped her arms from around Harry's neck. Prudence waited at the end of the corridor towards the nearest exit. Seeing the smile on Prudence's face and the anxious look, Lorelei got the hint and decided to exit the temple. Hippolyta joined them to escort the two out, as Harry approached the edge of the really deep hole Lorelei created.

' _And why do I think saving her is going to make her more obsessed with me?'_ Harry asked, dropping down to find Aresia.

' _Because, it's likely,'_ Diana thought. _'We're inside the inner chamber now.'_

' _Keep me posted, I'm going to find Aresia.'_

Harry hit bottom, landing on both feet. Had he been in free fall, an extremely hard stone floor would have been waiting for them? Harry doubted even Aresia would be having a good time of it.

The lights started to flick on around the room and light up the writing etched into the wall. Harry moved closer to the words and noticed them to be written in a Kryptonian language, an old time Kryptonian language. The language on the wall wasn't the only thing which caused Harry to stand up and take notice. Several broken pieces of glasses laid on the ground. Harry frowned, noticing the fluids dripping on the ground.

At the end of the hallway leaned a slightly busted stasis chamber. Amber fluid pooled on the floor around Harry's feet. Harry stepped onto it and started to frown when looking around in the area.

' _Well whoever was in the chamber, it had been cracked open just recently,'_ Faora thought, glad they could access the bond network again. It never hurt to leave a few extra sets of eyes looking into the chamber.

Those words from his sister put Harry on guard. Something flickered in the distance. Harry crossed the threshold into the shadows and started to look around, but found absolutely nothing. Not a hint anyone had been here, not anyone.

' _Guess, you're going to have to remain on your guard,'_ Karen thought.

' _So, there's no one there?'_ Kara asked.

' _No, no one, which means…no Aresia,'_ Harry thought.

Aresia was about ten seconds away from him. Lorelei destroying the floor in a fit of ill-gotten revenge really ruined a few things.

Including an attempt to catch up to Aresia to finish this one.

* * *

Elsewhere in the temple, Diana and Shayera snuck in past the guards. Two of them re-fastened Helena to the edge of the table. His royal Tutness looked over the woman with a wicked grin crossing over his face.

"Soon, soon, my queen will be back."

"I don't think so Professor McElroy!" Diana yelled, stepping in and arming a crossbow on the two guards. "Step away from Doctor Sandsmark, I don't want to hurt you."

Tut, well, Tutted, and shook his head. At them.

"How many times do I have to tell you people?" Tut asked. "Professor William Omaha McElroy is gone, kaput, deceased….and now….the mighty Pharaoh is here, King Tutankamen."

"Well, whoever you are, get away!" Shayera yelled.

Tut looked at the fearsome warrior. The attire was strange, but what was more exotic caused Tut great pause. The large wings the woman sported caused Tut to take great pause, and the huge mace she waved showed the danger this particular winged lady possessed.

"A winged warrior, well….it's time to have them clipped," Tut said, eyes growing savage. Tut's beefy hand clutched around the wooden staff and more sparks started to flow from it.

Doctor Hall turned into one of the wing warriors which visited his people several generations backed. But Tut refused to bow down out of any kind of misguided respect to them.

"You can try," Shayera said. Wouldn't be the first villain to make a quip about clipping her wings, and it wouldn't be the last. "Why don't you put down the staff before you put your eye out?"

"I think not, harlot!" Tut yelled.

Tut raised the staff into the air and shot a beam of energy out of it. Several dark black vines shot out of the ground and tried to grab onto Diana. Diana pulled away from the grip of the vine and loaded the crossbow. Two of the bolts put the vines into the ground.

The two guards rushed towards Diana. One of them swung a beefy fist at Diana, but the Amazon warrior dipped behind. The Amazon grabbed the henchman around the neck and started to squeeze. One fell down, leaving Diana in position to take on the other one. The guard kept hammering punch after punch towards Diana. Diana dodged every single one of the guard's attacks before going behind.

"Protect your king!" Tut yelled, more energy being drawn from the staff.

Diana wasn't sure, but something told her the faux king's eyes turning all black and slit like wasn't a good thing. The Amazon moved over to one end, while Shayera rushed over to the other side. The staff crackled underneath Tut's grip, but Diana dodged it and swung her lasso. Said lasso grabbed onto the wooden staff and yanked it from Tut's hand.

The rotund man whirled around to square off against his adversaries.

"Please help!" Helena yelled.

Shayera smashed the stone bars holding Helena down. This released the hold they had on her, but didn't get everyone out of the woods just yet.

"Oh no you don't, my queen!" Tut yelled, trying to dive on top of both of them to stop.

Thankfully Shayera pulled Helena out of the way from Tut's attempted belly flop to stop them. Otherwise things would have ended a lot less worse off for them. Tut hit the stone and started to groan.

"Oh heavenly…what more can….."

The apparatus holding all the pebbles broke open. Each stone pebble started to drop one by one on the back of Tut's head. The man's body started to twitch with the pebbles connecting with the back of the rotund Pharaoh.

Diana yanked McElroy out of the way before the entire weight of all of the rocks could collapse down and take them out. Turning over, Diana looked at Helena who was shaking.

"Thank…thank Hera," Helena said.

Diana smiled; obviously she was a bit of a bad influence on Helena. Regardless the shell-shocked archeologist staggered over to Diana and wrapped her arms around her. Diana managed to hold Helena up and prevent the woman from collapsing in a fit of horror and start blubbering.

"Oh, what a cruel world…what happened?" McElroy asked.

Diana stood, with a raised eyebrow. On the one hand, there was a chance McElroy could be knocked back into his normal, if not slightly eccentric self. Diana knew what happened to those people who assumed. The Amazon leaned down and found some rope to secure McElroy to bring him out.

"Professor, what happened?" one of the guard asked. "And why I am dressed in this ridiculous attire?"

"And why does this woman have wings?" the student turned royal hand maiden returned student said.

Shayera frowned, but Diana, thinking quickly, managed to come up with a good enough explanation.

"There's an artifact in this temple, which releases a potent pollen which causes you to be prone to hallucinations," Diana said, trying to give all of the students an encouragement smile. "Take some time to sleep it off and everything will be alright, trust me."

Shayera answered with a smile, taking a close look at Diana's face. Given the conviction Diana gave, Shayera believed it just as much.

"Nice one," Shayera said.

Harry entered the temple. Diana smiled, and was happy to see Harry in one piece.

"So, all's well, that ends well?" Shayera asked.

"Not necessarily," Harry said, hating to be the bearer of bad news. "Our little fugitive got away."

"What about Lorelei and Prudence?" Diana asked.

"Your mother led them to the exit, which…we should be heading to right now," Harry said.

The group would have to walk a little bit to get out, but there shouldn't be too much of a problem. As long as nothing else happened tonight, they should be in the clear and fine.

Just no sooner did these thoughts cross Harry's mind; the statue started to glow and gave an angry hiss. Helena, Shayera, and Diana looked at him, along with the confused students. The worst case scenario did happen, and Harry should have knew by now not to tempt Murphy.

"Five more minutes, Mother," McElroy murmured.

' _Serious problem, I'm pretty sure this temple is going to explode,'_ Harry thought. _'Or get sucked into some kind of dimensional void, and since….I stopped the zombie plague, it's….'_

Before Harry could even suggest he couldn't use magic, a blur shot into the temple at the speed of light. All four women, the three students, and McElroy had been deposited outside of the temple.

Hippolyta looked at them with a relieved smile and moved over to check on the room. If they were not out in the next minute, Hippolyta would be going inside there. The laser light show erupting from the temple pretty much showed a little bit of insanity and showed the temple about ready to sink deep down beneath the surface where it returned, along with the sphinx.

' _Whoa,'_ Diana thought, watching the powerful temple disappearing underneath their noses. No doubt many secrets buried deep beneath the ground.

' _Pretty timely rescue, Kara,'_ Harry thought.

' _What?'_ Kara thought. _'Oh, I was about ready to fly there and sprint you out….'_

' _Even if it's ill-advised?'_ Faora asked.

Kara gave her sister wife one of those looks, despite the fact they had been positioned in different cities. The look pretty much burned through the bond and caught her completely off guard.

' _But it doesn't matter, because someone beat us to it,'_ Kara thought. _'So as much as I want to accept the thank you, I can't. Because it wasn't me."_

Harry was glad for that someone, and they all watched the evidence of today's adventure sink. Diana held the staff, Shayera had the mace, and Hippolyta still carried the dagger, but every other item had been sent down onto the Earth.

Whoever saved them meanwhile disappeared as soon as the temple was. Thus leaving them with many questions, and not a sufficient amount of answers.

"So, Aresia?" Diana asked. "Do you think she had gotten buried alive in the temple?"

Harry frowned and pondered for a moment.

"No," Harry said. "Someone pulled her out."

Aresia had help, but no time for speculation now. They all had to catch their breath and get out of here. Then maybe, they could come to some kind of conclusion.

Harry could have sworn he saw a cloud of fog in the distance. Leaning in, he smiled.

' _And it looks like Prudence and Lorelei have also slipped off in the chaos,'_ Harry thought.

' _Disappearing without a word seems to be the new hip thing, isn't it?'_ Kara asked.

* * *

A blonde haired and blue eyed figure ambled towards the desert. A horrific sandstorm began to kick up, knocking sand into the figure's face. The figure's blonde hair came down to a bit past her shoulders, and blue eyes widened in confusion.

Commander Kathryn In-Ze of Argo arrived in the middle of this wasteland, wondering what brought her here. Memories started to go through the mind of the military commander. An entire team of Argo explorers arrived, as part of a recovery mission to get their hands on an aircraft which had been lost. Unfortunately, their ship veered off course and landed on the third planet from the sun in this strange and obscure solar system.

The terrain changed from what Commander In-Ze remembered. When the ship went into lockdown mode, she was surrounded by the frozen tundra. Now, Commander In-Ze found herself in the midst of the desert, with blowing wind sand gusts of hot sand.

One question entered the commander's mind with clarity and with strength.

' _Where am I?'_

The question hit Kathryn with the full force like a ton of bricks. Some unstable element interacted with her ships course. The party inside the temple had no idea how close they came to becoming vaporized.

The mysterious emerald-eyed explorer looked somewhat familiar to Commander In-Ze, but she could not worry about it. She was stranded out in the middle of nowhere on a planet which had changed since she had been asleep. How much had the entire scope of the universe changed? The Commander wondered.

Nothing around for miles. Perhaps the lack of technology indicated the primitive people on this planet barely managed to go above the level of stick and rocks.

The storm kicked up and Commander In-Ze powered through the storm, practically floating above the ground as she did. The woman stopped and gasped.

The brief adrenaline rush which allowed her to escort the hapless explorers out of the chambers before this mysterious temple along with her ship underneath buried into the ground kicked back on.

' _What is the source? I need to know….has this planet evolved me into something else entirely?'_

Despite the sand particles ripping against the Commander's skin, she didn't feel the least bit tired or injured. More questions had been raised and no answers had been given. The commander pressed on even more.

' _Need to find some kind of shelter and need to find it quickly.'_

X-X-X

Aresia blinked and stirred herself awake to a whole lot of confusion. Did she hit bottom? Was she captured? The Amazon had numerous questions which failed to be answered in a timely manner. The woman's heart started to hammer even more intensely when pulling herself up. The last thing Aresia member was the witch Lorelei attempting to bury underneath the ground.

"Allow me to refresh your memory. You've failed, but in your failure, you've succeeded."

Aresia blanched and realized she was back in the presence of Ares.

"I….you can't do this to me….I had them all!" Aresia yelled.

"Yes, you had the perfect opportunity and squandered it," Ares said. "The fire I assumed you acquired as little more than a damp candle."

Aresia's gaze looked back at Ares.

"It's a shame looks cannot kill, because you would be intimidating," Ares said, with laughter.

The laughter burned into Aresia. She clenched her first and stared back to the God of War with a feeling of simmering hate burning through her eyes.

"You know, I don't have to put up with this," Aresia said. "I have this powered armor, and I can rip you from limb to limb, god or not."

Ares responded to Aresia's threats with a loud round of unsettling laughter. The God of War turned over his hand and smacked Aresia into the wall.

"You have armor….my armor!" Ares yelled. "Do you even know how to properly use it?"

The armor ripped from Aresia's body. Ares didn't take any care not to rip the clothes of his apprentice as well or where he dropped her. Aresia dropped into the mud and landed with a splash.

"For once, you've done something right, even though, it's entirely by accident," Ares said. "You reclaimed the armor I lost on Earth."

Aresia slipped on the mud and fell. Her unclothed body dripped with the dirty liquid.

"The rogue Amazons thought they had the leverage, but you were easily manipulated to reclaim what is mine," Ares said. "And now, I will use it to crush my enemies underneath my feet."

Aresia pulled up to her feet, hanging onto the wall to avoid slipping and sliding.

"But, I will act when the time is right, with proper planning," Ares said, reaching down and pulling Aresia's naked, muddy, body up to a standing position. The Amazon's mussed up hair stuck to her face. "And not on an impulse. War is all about strategy, and not a crime of passion. Something you should learn about."

Ares dropped Aresia down to her knees, a proper place for his apprentice.

"I'd suggest you take a bath, you're filthy," Ares said, lifting up the armor and preparing to return it to a spot of armor.

"What of the curse?" Aresia asked.

Ares responded with a disdainful laugh.

"Idiotic child," Ares said. "The only curse is the misfortune which comes with a person who is not worthy wearing my armor."

Without another word, Ares left the humiliated and humbled Amazon to leave the temple to clean up. Her shredded under clothes were no good, and she would have to make fresh ones by hand, because Ares would not do so, and she was too humiliated to return to the Amazon splinter tribe.

' _This bastard will pay,'_ Aresia thought with disdain.

* * *

Rachel smiled, enjoy the culmination of a nice evening out with Bruce. He claimed it wasn't really a date, but Rachel was confident she wore him down a little bit more.

"I'm sure the tabloids will be talking about this for a long time," Bruce said.

"Well, maybe we should give the tabloids something to talk about," Rachel said, with a smile crossing her face.

Bruce took a step back, and decided to the best way to break this to Rachel gently.

"Rachel, tonight was a good night, and it's nice to get out of the house to be with friends," Bruce said.

"Right, it is," Rachel said, with a smile which looked more lopsided than anything. "And there are certain benefits of being out with friends, aren't there?"

Bruce had been saved by answering with a group of hooded thugs walking around the corner. The billionaire never thought he would be happy to be on the business end of a gunman. He held his gun and pointed towards him.

"Alright, we found ourselves a couple of live ones," the lead hood said.

"Wait, isn't this guy Bruce Wayne?" one of the goons.

The other goons nodded in excitement and the leader of the gang started to smile.

"Well, boys, it looks like we found ourselves a walking ATM machine," the hood said. "Come with us, rich boy, and the lady doesn't get hurt."

"You don't know what you're doing," Bruce said. "I know times are tough….."

One of the criminals smacked Bruce across the face hard. Blood dripped from Bruce's mouth. Bruce clenched his fist, waiting for the right moment to strike. Boxed in, it was hard to do so, and if he wasn't careful, one of the guns could go off and hit Rachel.

"You don't know anything about hard times you son of a bitch," the hood said. "You're strutting around in your little mansion, with your harem of underwear models. While us people have to deal with the Penguin or Black Mask or the Roman muscling in and us getting little bread crumbs. If those bastards don't take those away too."

Rachel wondered why Bruce didn't act. Well if he didn't act, she would act. Reaching into her coat, Rachel placed her fingers on a concealed firearm.

Before either Bruce or Rachel or any of the thugs could do anything, the street lamps blew up. The light had only been illuminated by a faint amount of moonlight.

A figure dropped down from high above. The sounds of snapped and cracked bones echoed. The figure moved in the darkness at a super-fast speed.

The sounds of a squad car followed seconds later, and illuminated the thugs on the ground. Bruce held his hands up in surprise and frowned. Rachel eyed him for a second, as if trying to figure out how he accomplished this little tactic.

Bruce came up close and personal with the mysterious vigilante who was most certainly a woman. And she moved quickly, taking out every single one of the armed goons.

More questions, fewer answers. Just another night in Gotham City for both Bruce and Rachel, although for different reasons.

* * *

**To Be Continued March 9** **th** **, 2016.**


	167. Born in Arizona Part Four

_**Vote for the Week Nine(2/28/2016-3/5/2016) Chapter of the Week Right Here.** _

http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/2016/03/week-nine-chapter-of-week-voting.html

* * *

 

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Seven: Born in Arizona Part Four.**

* * *

 

Helena Sandsmark could not speak for the rest of the group who joined her on this expedition, but it would be hard to forget this entire trip any time soon. The explorer joined Diana, Hippolyta, and Shayera back at camp. Needless to say, this entire trip was a bit of a revelation for a lot of people and Helena wondered if the revelations were going to continue for the foreseeable future. There were a lot of interesting thoughts entering the mind of this particular woman and boy did she wonder. Few questions entered her mind, with a minimum of answers.

The four ladies settled in and waited for Harry to return. Helena had a lot of questions bouncing in her mind. Being a woman who tried to explore the mysteries of life, there were always a lot of questions bouncing in her mind. The answers might not really be to her liking always, but it really came with the territory. Helena crossed her hands.

"So, the wings are a new addition," Helena said to Shayera, lightly making conversation. "Were you….."

Shayera smiled and looked fairly amused at the statement which had been given by Helena.

"Was, I surprised?" Shayera asked. Helena paused and responded with a swift nod. "In some way, I guess I was surprised. Deep down though, I really shouldn't have been surprised. Weird memories had been popping in all day. Guess everything makes sense now. Or about as much sense as it's ever going to make."

Helena accepted these answers, or at least these answers as the ones she was going to receive today. Shayera was struggling to figure out where she wanted to go in life and Helena respected that. Boy had she ever been a crossroads. During her wilder days, which ended up with her meeting Cassie's father, Helena struggled to figure out where life would lead her.

The door opened and Harry entered the room. The four women smiled as he approached them.

"Professor McElroy has been airlifted to a hospital," Harry said. "The physical injuries he suffered were pretty bad, although they could be worse."

All of the girls answered with knowing nods. It was a shame what happened to McElroy.

"The Siren left her mark last time, if I had known….I would have insisted he sat this particular trip out," Helena said.

Harry only responded by reaching over to grab Helena's hand and squeeze it tightly in a reassuring manner.

"The thing is, you couldn't have known, none of us could have known."

Helena Sandsmark thought Harry's words held a great deal of wisdom, but it didn't stop her from feeling all this much more guilty. The archeologist dangerously stepped into a game which no one with a logical mind should even consider playing. The "what if" game taunted and dogged her every moment. A woman like her shouldn't have fallen into such a game. She did and it frustrated her.

"You couldn't have known, and you could never have expected," Harry said. "The other students are safe…they're on a flight back. When they wake up, this will be nothing but a weird dream to them."

"Seems as if you worked your magic quite nicely, didn't you?" Diana asked.

"Well, I may have removed a few of the more scarring portions of this mission," Harry said. "But, they don't remember a lot of it. All they remember is there was an accident, they were lucky not to get hurt, but they were sent home with Professor McElroy to get checked out."

' _For the record, I think the hand maiden was cute, and if she ever wants to thank you, you might want to take her up on it,'_ Kara thought.

' _Of course, you never miss an opportunity, do you?'_ Karen asked.

' _Do you?'_ Kara fired back.

Karen wilted underneath the face of Kara's impeccable and quite awesome logic. Harry only pulled back with a chuckle, the slightest amount of amusement crossing over his face before he grew serious.

"Aresia got away," Hippolyta said.

"Yes, I know," Harry said.

For four years, they tracked Aresia. The hunt dragged on for a long time, but it looked as if the hunt would drag on a little bit longer. Aresia slipped in and tried to take advantage of the attack. Harry expected to see her on the bottom.

' _Oh, I'm sure she'll be on the bottom before this is all said and done,'_ Faora said. _'There's something wrong with her, but nothing a little therapy can't fix.'_

' _Someone is feeding into her delusions,'_ Diana thought. _'And riling her up….I doubt she would have been bold enough to try these attacks without some intervention.'_

Hippolyta caught her daughter's thoughts. Ever since the battle with Aresia concluded, Hippolyta went over every single instant of this confrontation with her former charge over and over again. Something about her fighting style looked familiar and the armor the rogue Amazon sported, certainly not.

"I'm beginning to see it," Hippolyta said. The full and complete attention had been turned to her. "She did have divine intervention, and some of the worst kind of divine intervention."

The armor had been lost to time, and stripped from the God of War many centuries back. Aresia was just a pawn on Ares's latest game, being manipulated around.

"Ares?" Diana asked, getting it immediately. "Mother, no offense, but don't you see this as a little far-fetched? Aresia working for Ares of all people?"

Hippolyta understood where her daughter came from in a situation like this. It did seem far-fetched and a match which was ill-fated."

' _Possible, and it would explain some rumblings,'_ Hera thought. _'Aresia is in even more trouble than she was when she left the island.'_

Hippolyta would have preferred the Amazon defectors be Aresia's only companions. The may have fed into the wrong stereotypes of what an Amazon should be, and held a blood-thirsty hatred for both men and any female who had grown in in the world of them, but deep down, they could be reasoned with.

"A known pig like Ares working with someone who hates men like Aresia," Diana said, frowning. "I'm not sure about this."

"I think it's possible," Harry said, thoughtfully. "Ares is a slick talker and a smooth operator. Aresia might think she's using a gullible man for foolish means, but Ares is anything, but gullible."

No one gets to be the god of war from being gullible. Harry didn't have a shadow of a doubt in his mind what was happening.

"If Aresia thought Ares to be gullible, then the teachings I imparted upon her had been lost," Hippolyta said. "While he's not as cunning as Hades, he can be pretty smooth in his own right. And….Diana, I know you can't believe it, or don't want to believe it….."

"I don't want to believe it," Diana said, letting in a gasp of a breath. "But I believe you."

Diana really didn't know how to deal with what was becoming a rather uncomfortable and troubling situation. Aresia being with Ares could bode extremely badly. It depended on when Ares picked her up. Four years passed since Aresia fled from Themyscira in a combination of fear and rage. Any moment in the meantime, Ares could have gotten his hooks into her.

"I'm more concerned about the armor she wore," Hippolyta said. "It's advanced battle armor, forged to increase the powers and abilities of those who wear it."

"Which explains why Aresia…and Lorelei both wanted it," Harry said.

Harry hoped by saving Lorelei, any further thoughts the Siren might have about putting Harry underneath her thrall would be dashed. The funny thing was Harry would have slept with her if Lorelei went about things the traditional way. She was rather attractive after all.

' _Some women just have to make it difficult on themselves,'_ Kara thought.

' _A sad, but obvious truth,'_ Dinah said, with other women through the bond nodding.

' _I'm more interested in the ship,'_ Faora thought.

Harry figured sooner or later, the ship would be brought up, and Faora would be the one to bring it up.

' _Not only is there a ship, but the ship's occupant and I met,'_ Harry thought. _'She could be benign…..'_

' _I love how you think the occupant's a she,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Babs, you know I have a sixth sense about things like this,'_ Harry thought.

' _It's one of your more…interesting powers,'_ Kara said, with a smile. _'And very useful, because you can also detect women who are…in need.'_

Kara's tone dropped to a suggestive statement, and Harry only flashed a smile across his face. He could indeed.

The figure disappeared out into the desert, faster than the speed of light. Which left Harry with a number of questions, and very few answers to go along with them, which was the opposite of how a trip like this should go.

* * *

 

Rachel Dawes sat in the middle of the Gotham City police station, arms folded. Bruce sat off to her right side, and looked about as cool as a cucumber. Cooler than Rachel would be in a situation like this. Tonight didn't go as planned, and it had been ruined by a group of thugs. Somewhat salvaged by this mysterious vigilante showing up, but then ruined again by the fact they took downtown.

"So, you've got a lot of enemies, don't you, Dawes?" Harvey Bullock asked. "A lot of people who would have liked to see you buried for putting them behind bars."

"I have ruffled some feathers, Bullock," Rachel answered. "But, this was just a bunch of street punks trying to make a quick buck."

"Yeah, random attack," Bullock said. "Seems like it's just random, considering old rich boy here was walking down an alleyway. Thousands of people in Gotham City, and they come across the one guy with the real big checkbook."

Rachel wondered where Bullock was heading with this one. The man's theory sounded to be….well Rachel now had a good idea where the rotund officer was going and a scowl crossed over the acting district attorney's face.

"Careful, Bullock," Rachel warned him. "A lot of people have looked the other way for you over the years, because you've done a good job. You might find your personnel file getting a closer look at if you make the wrong kind of enemies."

"Is that a threat, Dawes?" Bullock asked.

"No, merely an observation."

Bruce offered a shadow of a smile, but said nothing.

"You've been rather quiet, Wayne," Bullock said.

"Just waiting for my turn," Bruce said. "You seem to want all of the answers, but Rachel's told you everything she knows…it was a random mugging….."

"Yeah, it was a random mugging, and one of those do-gooders swooped down, thinking they would save the day," Bullock said.

"I'm pretty sure those do-gooders are just an urban legend, made up to put the fear into criminals," Bruce said. "The GCPD has been doing an excellent job….."

Bullock slammed his fist across the desk which caused the donuts into the box to fly into the air. The door clicked open seconds later, and Montoya stepped in, along with James Gordon, Sarah Essen, and John Jones.

"Are you trying to tell me some specter saved you?" Bullock asked.

Bruce answered with one of his billionaire playboy smiles and shrugs. Bullock would have loved nothing more than to reach across the table and slap it off of him.

"Well, its Gotham City," Bruce said. "Anything's possible."

"Anything is possible, Mr. Wayne," Gordon said, stepping inside. "And I think Detective Bullock is trying to find out what happened. He meant no hostile intent."

Gordon gave Bullock a warning look which told him to keep it cool. The two locked eyes with each other and responded with a frown.

"The lights went out, as we told you," Bruce said. "And when the GCPD showed up, all of the thugs were on the ground."

"And you didn't do anything to protect your girlfriend," Bullock said.

"Well, Rachel's just a really good friend, but no, I didn't have a chance," Bruce said.

Bullock snorted. He was being facetious. What was some soft playboy like Bruce Wayne going to do? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Dawes, he figured, would do something.

"So, you didn't get a good look at the person who rescued you?" Montoya asked. "Not a good look at all."

Renee didn't seem to be too impressed by Bruce, but a lightbulb looked to have went off in the head of the Playboy billionaire.

"Well, I did see a figure move around in the dark briefly," Bruce said.

"Describe them," Montoya said, glad to have gotten to the bottom of something.

"Well, she was wearing all black, and…well she was a female."

Bullock was about to make a comment about it being obvious a woman was female, but Montoya's glare caused the rotund detective to shut up after a few seconds.

"So, the person who rescued you was a woman," Montoya said.

Gordon only grew thoughtful. The only thing they had gotten out of the Wolf Pack Biker Gang was the person was a woman. A few grainy images of a couple of the other recent attacks was a woman as well.

"Yes, it seems so," Bruce said. "Or a man who has enhancements to throw them off of the trail."

"Hey, this is serious, Wayne, don't be making light of this!" Bullock snapped.

Bruce shrugged in response, with a goofy smile crossing his face. He had to play a bit of an act, but on the inside, his mind worked overdrive. This woman would have to be well trained in stealth and attack. To get in and out of here in a moment's notice. The woman also had access to some kind of device which caused the lights around them to explode. All and all, they were dealing with a true master of stealth and Bruce had no idea what to make of this entire situation.

"Well, it's always a possibility," John said, speaking up for the first time. "We are in Gotham City."

Bullock conceded anything would be a possibility inside of Gotham City. The rotund detective responded with a frown, thinking about everything regarding this case. There were a lot of questions, many of them quite frankly unanswered.

"We told you everything we knew and saw," Rachel said. "You can keep us here all night….or you can let us go….and do your jobs and figure out who is behind these attacks."

Gordon knew an order from the assistant District Attorney when he heard one and there was honestly no real reason to hold them here.

"Yes, Mr. Wayne, Ms. Dawes, you can go," Gordon said. "Thank you for your cooperation."

"Yes, Lieutenant Gordon, and you would do a better job in reassessing how professional some of the members of your staff could be," Rachel said, giving Bullock an intense glare which could kill had it been given a chance.

"Well, in any event, you're free to go."

Rachel and Bruce left the area. Alfred waited outside and the butler escorted the two outside. Bullock watched them go.

"Still think there's something really rotten going on," Bullock said.

"You made your opinion very clear," Gordon said. "And Rachel is right; you need to be more careful."

"If you asked me, the broad's taking her job a bit too seriously," Bullock said.

"Well some of us go to work to work and not leech on free donuts," Montoya said.

A tense situation existed inside this particular room. No one wanted to say anything which would move this entire situation forward.

"Sounds like another cape…which is what we don't need," Bullock said.

"According to Commissioner Loeb, none of them exist, they're just superstition," Sarah said, hiding her knowing smile in the shadows.

"Yeah, well the boys are running off with some really strange theories, whether it be supersticion or not," Bullock said. "Take Wingnut for instance…."

"Nightwing," Gordon reminded him.

"Yeah him," Bullock said. "The boys seem to think he's some kind of shapeshifter who can shift between a man and a woman at will. And while it would explain why there are conflicting reports about him being a guy or a woman….."

"Which cannot be confirmed," Gordon added.

"No, they can't, but makes a lot of sense ,doesn't it?" Bullock asked. "And they're saying, he can read minds."

Bullock broke out into laughter at a thought and turned to John.

"Can you believe that one, Jones?" Bullock asked. "Someone who reads minds?"

"It sounds a little bit far-fetched, Detective," John Jones said in a complete dead-pan.

"Regardless, we have a lot of work to do," Gordon said. "This savior was the same person who took out the punks at the jewelry store, and the same one who took out the Wolf Pack."

"And she doesn't play by the rules either," Bullock said. "Even more of a renegade then the other vigilantes who don't really exist."

The tongue in cheek nature of Bullock's retort was ignored as everyone got back to their investigation.

* * *

 

Carol Danvers could not wait until the final stages of these drills were done. Don't get her wrong, Carol wasn't who would back off from a little bit of work. In fact, she thrived on this particular level of work. Training through different government organizations had been rigorous. If you were sweating, you weren't trying. Carol thought this to be true, at pretty much any time of her life.

And yet, Carol couldn't really wait to be done with the training and head home to see her family. Alex only knew where she went, and Carol didn't know what story Alex told their mother. Carol couldn't dwell on this fact for a moment. The soldier pushed herself through the training sessions, sweat dripping down her face. Given Carol's abilities, it said something.

It said even more about how well Sinestra was able to work her prospects as well. Carol's breathing intensified the more she had been put through this particular course. The blonde woman continued to be put through the paces. An attack squad of drones came from one side.

The point of this exercise was not only to take down the drones, but do so in the most creative way possible. Any thug could blast them, but Carol thought there were more elegant ways to do this. Channeling her full will power, Carol divided the drones into three distinct groups.

With the drones divided, Carol could figure out what made them work and most importantly turn them against each other. Had this been a real mission, Carol would have opened up one and see who had sent them.

Which, considering the point of these drills was to simulate what Carol would do on a real mission, Carol proceeded to act as she would on a real mission. The Green Lantern moved over and pulled open the back of the drone, careful to use the Lantern tools and not the other gifts. A screwdriver had been created with the Lantern ring to get it open.

The computer was giving out readings in an alien language. Carol had a sense of different alien languages after the mishap with the ship a few years ago, and had even more thanks the Green Lantern training. Carol reached up to wipe the forming sweat from her brow when she went straight to work in an attempt to deuce what was going on.

Sinestra sat down on the other side of the training arena with a smile on her face. Carol was the last of the recruits, and the one Sinestra rode the hardest during the past few months, and not in a good way at all. The woman lifted a hand to make a few notes on the clipboard.

"So, what do you think?" Katma asked.

"Not now, when I'm observing her," Sinestra said. "Good, she managed to get them open and reprogram them without blowing them up. Most of the recruits go straight for the killshot with the ring."

Katma sensed the hints of faint praise coming from Sinestra's tone, but it was too hard to tell. Being the Backup Lantern of the infamous Sinestra most certainly put Katma in a unique position. It reminded the woman about the shoes she had to fill.

"Still needs some seasoning, but less raw than when she came here," Sinestra said.

"Are you not certain you're not just having high standards for her?" Katma asked.

Sinestra didn't even answer straight away. The truth was, the veteran Lantern strove for perfection and accepted nothing less. It bled to her assessment on the new recruits. Some of the past recruiters decided to go soft. The Guardians made a lot of questionable decisions and threw a lot of the Lanterns out on the field who were not ready.

' _If someone only rode me harder during training, I would have become a lot better a lot sooner,'_ Sinestra thought. The woman's eyes focused with an intense laser sharp focus when watching Carol complete the training. _'And would have made fewer foolish rookie mistakes which would have not gotten me in trouble.'_

One of those rookie mistakes caused her to meet Faora, so Sinestra could have not considered them to be all of a loss.

On the other hand, as Sinestra reminded herself, one of those rookie mistakes also opened the door to causing a lot of intergalactic incident. Hawks were an accurate assessment for those war mongors, for it's what they always sought.

Sinestra decided not to dwell on past demons, rather focus on present promise. Carol continued to work through the training simulator. A smile crossed over Sinestra's face as she awaited Carol to come out on the other end.

' _She's done better than I expected,'_ Sinestra thought.

The simulator ended and Carol walked out.

"The fact you're still standing reflects rather well on you," Sinestra said. "And the fact you're in one piece reflects even better…..your knowledge and adaptability to work with various pieces of alien technology is an admirable asset to have."

Carol was nearly certain she had been praised by Sinestra and it was something she would cherish for a while.

"But, you are still impulsive at times, and need to pick your shots," Sinestra said. "It's better to make a needed sacrifice to win a larger battle then to try and win all of the fights. A warrior who only is in to win, is one who is bound to fail."

Carol disagreed. Making sacrifices out of supposed necessity was what paved the road to hell with bad intentions. Carol butted heads with people about this.

"When you've seen how lawless space can be at times, you'll understand what I'm trying to tell you," Sinestra said. "You aren't the first new Green Lantern who had this particular look in her eyes when I told them this. And you won't be the last."

Idealism was something which Sinestra didn't have any time or patience for. She saw too much and experienced even more to go down this direction.

"So, I'm in the Green Lantern Corps?" Carol asked, trying not to sound too excited.

Despite being in both NASA and the CIA and also a consultant for SHIELD and the DEO, this was the coolest thing Carol had done in her life.

"You're the official Green Lantern of Sector 2814," Sinestra said. "Despite my misgivings, I'm certain Abin Sur would approve. He had notoriously lax standards compared to me."

Carol could see Sinestra slide back of her own critical attitude.

' _Fine, if you want to play this game, I can play it too,'_ Carol thought. _'It's just going to make me want to fight even more and fight even harder.'_

Sinestra could see the fight in Carol's eyes, and she wanted to nurture it into something even more.

"As for the Green Lantern Corps, you're in a probationary period before you can be recruited and called upon for wider missions," Sinestra said.

' _Space, the final frontier,'_ Carol mentally commented.

"And as soon as I deliver my assessment to the Guardians, and my recommendations, you will be free to start your post," Sinestra said. "And yes, return home and visit your friends and family."

Carol smiled, she was sure Alex had a million questions about this. And Carol would want to know what happened. But Carol couldn't wait to return home and visit Kara and her mother. A nice home cooked, Earth meal, seemed rather good right now.

One of the Green Lanterns rushed over towards Siniestra. Carol judged by the looks of him he had maybe only a couple of years of experience, given how much in awe he was with Sinestra.

' _Then again, she gets that a lot,'_ Carol thought, barely avoiding a smile crossing her face.

The Lantern whispered something in Sinestra's ear. Carol and Katma both looked at the fabled Green Lantern who had an expression which grew more and more agitated by each passing moment.

"Now?" Sinestra asked. "They want to see me now?"

"Yes, I'm sorry but….yes they want to see you now," the Green Lanter said.

"Very well," Sinestra said.

"What is it?" Carol asked.

"The Guardians think a situation has come up," Sinestra said in a cool tone of voice.

These words didn't do anything to deter Carol's interest. In fact, it did the exact opposite and increased it.

"What kind of situation?" Carol asked.

"It's on a need to know basis," Sinestra said, voice as cold as the Arctic blast. "You'll need to know, when you need to know…if you need to know."

Carol's frown became rather fixed, not Sinestra caught one glimpse of it. This particular line of bull had been given before by government superiors on Earth, and it was even harder to swallow in space. The Guardians would fit in well with the United States Senate, and Carol didn't mean this as a compliment by any means.

Locking eyes with Katma, Carol tried to judge the woman's opinion. A shrug from Katma showed Carol the two were pretty much on even ground knowledge wise. Katma fired a sympathetic look to Carol. The type of look which read Katma pretty much had been in this position all the time, for as long as she knew Sinestra.

"Given the mood she's in, it must be bad," Katma said.

"I agree."

Carol knew Sinestra would be pretty much giving her the okay to head home, and perhaps she should take it. Regardless of these thoughts entering the back of Carol's mind, and the strong implication she should head home, Carol couldn't help, but think it would be a good idea to stick around for a little bit longer.

Curiosity got the better of the Danvers women on many occasions. It was unfortunately one of their grander faults and one Carol was no less guilty of.

' _Better see what I can do here…if I can do anything.'_

* * *

 

Commander Kathryn In-Ze of Argo prided herself on one key aspect. Adaptation had been bred into her a long time ago. If she could not adapt, then they would not have sent her on this dangerous mission to this wild planet.

The never ending sand storm continued, but Kathryn some light at the end of the tunnel. Buildings, which meant she drew ever closer to some kind of civilization. The buildings didn't look well formed, but at least she made it closer to an area which was inhabited, to one which wasn't inhabited.

The fact her ship had been buried made things a lot more difficult. Despite being unable to assess the state of the equipment inside the ship, Kathryn could not under any circumstances phone back to phone base. The woman's heart started to race even more.

Empowerment filled the body of the survivor. The rest of her team had been lost, and given the time which must have passed, they would have been dead. The yellow sun beat down on Kathryn's body, empowering her body with a new kind of life which edged her even further along this path, into a brand new world.

Kathryn's sharp hearing picked up every sound of sand scrapping across the desert. The scratching could be rather annoying and caused the hairs on the back of Kathryn's neck to stand up at attention. The woman's heart raced even more.

' _The next thing to do is to figure out how to shut this super hearing off,'_ Kathryn thought. _'Okay, focus…like they told you on training….only focus on the sounds which you need for survival.'_

In the most remarkable way possible, Kathryn did just that and the sounds scrapping across the desert faded. Some particles of dust grinded across the scan, but she resolved to block them out. The commander intended to never to become a slave from the particles again.

Now with a clearer head, Kathryn persisted forward deeper into the storm, which started to subside. Something else replaced the sand storm as something which Kathryn needed to concern herself with.

Commander In-Ze came face to face with uniformed personnel. She deduced the leader was a general of some sort, given the medals hanging about his uniform. He didn't look among the most friendly of types either.

The man started to babble in a strange language with Commander In-Ze didn't understand. She prided herself on knowing a multitude of languages through a variety of different alien species. This particular language however had been lost on her.

Kathryn decided to communicate through body language. The commander lifted up a hand and caused the troops to stop. They communicated with their general.

Low-tech weapons pointed at the commander, thus knowing any overtures of peace would not be ignored. The survivor's eyes narrowed when a barrage of bullets had been fired at her.

Commander In-Ze could not dodge them all in a timely manner. She arched back, only to find out there was no need to dodge a single bullet for each and every one of them bounced off. The survivor gasped at this strange new super power. All the bullets did was shred the Commander's clothing and cause a new level of annoyance to bubble up deep within her.

The girl lifted a hand up and grabbed the gun out of the hand of the man who fired it. With a firm grasp, the metal crushed. The sound of an arm breaking could be heard.

The warning shut had been heard loud and clear by the army. None of them ceased firing, but many of them backed off. Kathryn took a deep breath, only to realize it started to kick around the sand particles even more.

The Commander's notorious quick thinking made her realize something. This yellow sun caused her powers to increase by an obsessive amount. The Girl of Steel reared back and huffed before causing a cloud of dust to rise up and fire back.

The dust and sand buried the men in the desert. Commander In-Ze's knees buckled before she collapsed in a heap and started to breath. Some of the men who didn't get buried ran in the opposite direction. Would they leave this matter alone, or would they return with further reinforcements? Kathryn didn't know, but the empowerment rushing through her body excited the woman.

Empowerment, along with confusion was the combination which swirled from within her. The Commander decided to pay this one extremely carefully. These powers, they had great potential, and also could have great destructive powers. The natives on this planet did not understand a more advanced culture.

Kathryn stepped over into the city and the sun started to beat more heavily on her. A rundown looking shack had been abandoned. A quick look at the dust collection showed Kathryn the shack had been abandoned a long time ago.

The woman's lips curled into a knowing and devious little smile.

' _It's going to have to do.'_

The Commander caught the wrong kind of attention, and until a more sound strategy could be developed, she would have to lie low. The door easily had been opened, even though the Commander busted the primitive door knob with her strength.

Commander In-Ze slipped inside of the safe house and continued to look around. Sleeping quarters, some kind of primitive communication equipment were there. A cupboard full of cans of what she assumed to be food. A small picture box with moving images was the most powerful piece of technology she noticed. How did they capture these images in a small box anyway?"

' _Perhaps these Earth citizens aren't as primitive as I thought?'_

Primitive people had room to grow and it was proof. The Commander decided to sit down on the chair, finding it adequate enough for her comfort levels, if not a bit dusty.

A frown escaped over the woman's face. A little bit of a cleanup job would have to be done, but still, with some work, this place was going to be habitable.

The Commander remained hopeful she would like it in her new, although rather primitive home. There was some promise things would improve for the better while here. Things most certainly couldn't regress.

A small moment of silence had been given to her team.

"Perhaps they had moved on, and integrated," Kathryn said.

Some thought of hope as being nothing but the tool of a fool, but Commander In-Ze disagreed. Hope was the one element which could drive a person forward in their life and get them up in the morning.

She decided to sample some of the Earth food, before getting some rest. A good night's sleep would allow her plenty of time to think.

' _Not half bad…even though I've had better.'_

* * *

 

Shayera peered out into the window. This storm which had been going on for the better part of the last two days finally let out a little bit. The woman dressed in a brown vest which zipped up. The vest only came up to her firm stomach. Shayera modified it slightly so her wings could come out of the back of it and get just a little bit of room to breathe. The winged warrior woman enjoyed how the leather pants formed a nice hugging motion over her hips.

"So, how are you doing?"

Shayera turned around and noticed Harry Potter standing a few feet away from her in the doorway.

"So, how long have you been there?" Shayera asked.

"I've just gotten back, Hippolyta and Diana have taken Helena back home, and are treating her," Harry said.

"After this trip, she deserves it," Shayera said, lips curling into a smile. "Can you believe what happened to McElroy?"

"McElroy is a very sick man, who is getting the help he needs, hopefully it will stick this time."

Shayera's lips curled into a nice little impish smile when looking back at Harry.

"Yes, hopefully," Shayera said. "I have to say, this trip has been a bit of a revelation in a number of ways."

Shayera took a moment to look at Harry for a moment.

"So, we really do meet again, Har-Zod," Shayera said, a smile crossing her face.

"Yes, we do, Priestess Chay-Ara," Harry said, smiling.

Shayera smiled, it had been a very long time since she heard anyone refer to her by this name.

"So, one moves on, while the other stays, because she has a grander purpose," Harry said.

"Yes, and I'm glad he can find peace….even though we were doomed," Shayera said. "But, since I have this life, I have a chance to go to something better….take the opportunity I should have taken a long time ago."

The two walked closer to each other for the longest moment. Harry smiled when Shayera locked eyes with him. He had the sense of a woman who knew what she wanted and didn't care who thought otherwise when she got it.

"Maybe I should have jumped on this opportunity a long time ago," Shayera said, placing her hands on the side of Harry's waist and pressing in closer towards him.

"Your connection to Katar held you back," Harry said.

"Yes, but I had been freed, along with the curse," Shayera said. "While he's finally gotten the opportunity to be at peace, the fates had given me one more chance to write the wrongs….one more life….a better life."

Numerous versions of her existed throughout history, of different ethnicities. But, she had been doom to failure.

Shayera decided to take the plunge and lean in to kiss Harry on the lips. Their lips smashed together with an extremely passionate kiss, with the two of then swapping spit and tongue. Harry pushed Shayera back against the wall, using his tongue to drive into her mouth.

"I've scared off men before for being too forceful," Shayera said. "But, maybe it's just a blessing in disguise."

Shayera backed Harry up onto the bed and placed her hands firmly on his thighs.

"It's been too long since I've gotten any," Shayera said. "And technically in this lifetime, I haven't got any."

Harry smiled, well physically a virgin, mentally she wasn't. It would be a rather interesting contrast to say the very least.

"Do you think you could help me?" Shayera asked, leaning forward. The zipper slowly came undone and shoved Shayera's breasts in Harry's face.

"I will help you," Harry said, cupping Shayera's ass and pulling her closer towards her. "You're beautiful in any lifetime."

"Make me yours, Har," Shayera said, with a smile on her face.

A Thangarian had the ability to match up with a Kryptonian, but really a Kryptonian was one of the few species who could handle the lust of a Thanagarian.

Shayera planted herself firmly on Harry's lap and kissed the daylights out of him. The winged woman's crotch grinded against Harry's to show him how much she really wanted this and wanted it now. Harry held the back of Shayera's head steady and went tongue deep down the powerful warrior's throat. She returned fire with another tongue deep kiss, driving it down the back of Harry's throat.

Harry pulled back and grabbed the zipper of Shayera's top. The top came down and revealed Shayera's round and gorgeous breasts. The nipples stood out despite the warm desert air. Harry gave Shayera another kiss, and started to kiss the side of her neck, suckling on the neck flesh, smiling when going down.

"Har-Zod!" Shayera moaned. "We should have done this many lifetimes ago."

Harry smiled and fired a series of kisses on the side of the woman's neck. Shayera breathed for a moment with Harry kissing the side of her neck. The young man suckled the neck flesh of the redhead, leaving his marks. More marks had been left.

Shayera groaned at how tight and restricted the pants she wore felt. Harry worked down and started to kiss her toned abs. Each kiss lingered preciously closer towards the paradise lingering between Shayera's thighs. She kept gasping the more Harry tried to go down, going deeper and deeper with each pressing kiss.

Harry smiled at the tight sexiness of her abs, and decided to remove the gorgeous winged woman's tight pants. He wiggled them down and revealed Shayera didn't wear any panties. The slick hair covering her pubic region showed the Thanagarian warrior was a natural redhead.

"More," Shayera breathed, feeling Harry's mouth nibble on her inner thigh when kissing inwards. "MORE!"

Harry smiled and kissed the right inner thigh and switched the left. The sorcerer's talented tongue started to wiggle around and tease closer towards Shayera's dripping wet pussy.

Shayera let out a pleasurable shriek when Harry bit down on her nether lips and started to suck on them. The hawk woman's true mate brushed his tongue against Shayera's dripping entrance and traced around the insides of her dripping womanhood.

Harry kept making out with Shayera's lower lips, nipping and releasing her lips. The moans coming from this alluring warrior rang in Harry's ears and encouraged him to go further, go deeper. Each taste hitting his tongue was like the best kind of magic. Harry couldn't deny it and couldn't deny how much Shayera dripped. Her pussy flowed towards his mouth and increased Harry's hunger tenfold.

"Eat my pussy!" Shayera yelled, hips rising up. All thoughts of decency had been forgotten.

Harry went down on Shayera. The winged warrior responded by bucking her hips upwards to meet Harry's movements. The powerful sorcerer's tongue drove deeper inside Shayera's pussy and started to lick the inside of it, lapping up every single last bit of juices from her. The redhead kept lifting and rising those hips more and more, bring them into Harry's mouth.

Shayera grabbed onto Harry's head to gain more leverage. She imagined how deep his tongue went and a shiver followed down her spine. Shayera rose her hips up and down.

"Get my pussy nice and wet so you can put your big cock in it," Shayera begged him.

Harry's tongue contorted and lengthened just a tiny bit. Shayera almost came unglued because of Harry's actions. The long and stretchy tongue worked deeper into Shayera's cunt. The dripping juices flowed out onto Harry's tongue. Harry twisted a little bit deeper inside of Shayera, causing the woman's hips to keep rising and falling.

"Yes, eat me, eat me, eat my pussy!" Shayera begged harry.

The juices flowing from Shayera demonstrated how horny the woman got. Harry ate Shayera to a spectacular orgasm. The woman's legs closed around Harry's neck briefly before releasing him.

Harry looked up from Shayera's pussy, lips dripping with the winged warrior's sweetest juices. Shayera grabbed Harry and pulled him up to his feet with deceptive strength. The two exchanged another passionate kiss, with Shayera's roaming hands ripping at Harry's clothes, removing them.

"Too overdressed," Shayera said.

Harry wasn't going to argue at all. Shayera stripped off Harry's pants and removed his boxer shorts, saving the best for last. The redhead warrior smiled, grabbing her hand around Harry's thick tool and pumping it up and down. Harry pushed it into Shayera's hand.

"This is the first time I've had a cock inside this new body," Shayera said.

"Don't worry, I'll be gentle."

Shayera squeezed Harry's cock firmly and pumped it, making the enchanter look the warrior straight in the eyes.

"No, I don't want gentle," Shayera said, squeezing his manhood while backing Harry up against the wall. "I want to be fucked, and fucked hard."

Harry's hands reached behind Shayera's ass and smiled. The two backed up against the wall, with Shayera wrapping one leg around Harry's hip and then the other one.

"You want it, be careful what you wish for," Harry said, guiding his cock closer towards Shayera's warm womanhood. "You just might get it."

"I hope so, lover."

Shayera grinded the juicy pussy lips against Harry's cock. The winged warrior's legs wrapped around Harry's hips and encouraged him to enter her. The soft wings brushed against Harry's back when Shayera enveloped them them.

Harry grabbed onto Shayera's hips and inserted his thick prick inside her juicy cunt. The woman's moan could be heard when Harry pushed deep inside her.

"Yes, lover, inside me!" Shayera yelled, feeling the barrier to this reincarnation breaking away.

Harry's thick manhood slid inside Shayera's slick cavern. The redhead woman's pussy clenched. Harry drove himself into Shayera's no longer virgin cunt, the pain having been replaced with pleasure.

Shayera gasped when Harry's twelve inches of thick and juicy manhood filled her up. The friction rose between the two lovers. Shayera could feel a deeper connection between the two of them. This was meant to be.

Harry's fingers pinched and prodded at Shayera's nipples. The woman rewarded Harry's efforts with some deep moaning and rose those hips up to meet Harry's incoming thrusts.

"You like being fucked roughly, don't you?" Harry asked.

"YES!" Shayera yelled. "Maul my breasts, they're all for you, Har-Zod…all for yours!"

Harry had his wicked way with Shayera's breasts. The large globes had been squeezed and pinched. Shayera kept driving her hips into him. Harry decided to kick up the pace and lick Shayera's juicy nipples, nibbling at them all the way until Shayera moaned deeply in pleasure.

"They're all mine," Harry said, cupping Shayera's ass, and pushing himself into her tight cunt. "And you're all mine as well….I'm going to fuck you and I'm going to do it all night long."

"Oh yes, baby, yes!" Shayera yelled.

Shayera showed her hot blooded Thanagarian nature by digging her fingernails into Harry's shoulder. The sharp marks caused Harry to drill Shayera's pussy harder.

"You're dripping wet for my cock," Harry said. "You've dreamed about my big cock for your entire life, haven't you? Deep down, you know it."

The two found their way onto the bed. They left each other for a moment, with Shayera laying back on the sheets. Her wings wrapped around both of them, so she could lay flat on the bed.

"Look at my pussy," Shayera said, spreading her legs so Harry can see all of the hawk woman's beautiful sex. "What do you think?"

Harry smiled and watched Shayera's pussy ooze with cum for him. The Kryptonian gentlemen decided to push his thick shaft against Shayera's entrance and plunge into her hottest and deepest depths.

Shayera gasped when Harry filled her completely up with all twelve inches. Harry stuffed her cunt completely full with the biggest, thickest, cock she ever felt. Shayera rose her hips to meet some incoming thrusts.

Harry leaned down to kiss Shayera. The two kissed with intense passion, nibbling and biting at each other's lips. Both lover's tongues wrestled for intensity. All while Harry fucked Shayera hard.

Shayera's tight pussy squeezed Harry's cock on the next orgasm. The meat missile buried itself into Shayera's body. The woman's vaginal muscles clamped down onto Harry in an attempt to get the seed nestled into Harry's balls.

Harry decided to remove his mouth from hers, only to switch to Shayera's breasts. The swelling globes rose up and down when Harry attacked them with his mouth.

Shayera panted, eyes glazed over with pleasure. Harry left multiple bite marks on her breasts, showing who they belonged to. Each time Harry mauled them with her mouth, juices trickled down Shayera's leg.

"Faster," Shayera yelled, grabbing Harry's lower back and digging her claws in. The woman's hips rose and fell every single time Harry pushed into her body. "FASTER!"

Harry speared his way inside Shayera's tight pussy, feeling her clutch around him. The woman's walls made Harry groan in pleasure when pumping into Shayera and fucking her extremely hard, with these rapid fire thrusts.

"One more time," Harry said.

Shayera accepted Harry's words. Her juicy cunt wrapped around Harry's prick and started to milk his thick manhood. Her pussy contracted and wanted the extremely thick cum to be pumped inside, straight inside of her. Shayera lifted her hips high and lowered them.

Harry cupped Shayera's breasts and got even more of a response out of her with each deeper thrust. The Thanagarian clenched his prick, milking him extremely hard.

"Here I come."

Shayera braced herself for the torrent of seed to come inside her. Harry pushed inside her and the heavy balls slapped against Shayera's wet and raw thighs.

"Cum inside me, oh you bastard, shoot your cum inside my needy pussy!" Shayera yelled. "I need it, I want it….GIVE IT TO ME!"

"Oh, you're going to get so much cum, Shayera," Harry grunted. Her wings wrapped around his back and pulled Harry in closer so he could keep pumping inside her.

"I hope so….fuck me raw!"

Harry obliged the wing warrior's words, pounding her tight pussy with a few more thrusts before unleashing the cum. His balls contracted and send a heavy amount of cum inside her. The warm feeling of Shayera's pussy contracted around Harry and milked every last drop of seed inside her.

Shayera raised her hips up and down, milking Harry extremely hard with her pussy muscles. Harry slammed deep inside Shayera. She could feel his cum shoot deep inside her cunt, firing blast after blast of cum inside her.

The two settled down on the bed, with Harry collapsing face first on Shayera's chest, after she milked him.

"Hope you're not done, stud," Shayera said, using her legs to flip him over. "Because, I'm going to ride you into the bed."

Shayera's wet pussy, along with heaving breasts caused Harry's motor to get revved back up. He slipped inside her, and Shayera impaled herself up and down on his cock like a pogo-stick. Her breasts bounced and heaved and wings flapped into the air.

They were far from done, and to be fair, this was many centuries in the making. Harry grabbed Shayera's breasts and fondled them which only caused the redhead hawk woman to bounce faster.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on March 12** **th** **, 2016.**


	168. Coming Storm

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Eight: Coming Storm.**

* * *

The Logan Nature Preserve had been deep in the heart of Africa, near off to a small village where the owner was not cut off from the rest of civilization. Yet at the same time, the owner located the preserve far enough where the outside world would not be a hint. The village nearby allowed a more raw appeal than the standard consumer based culture the United States and other more developed countries did, and the people were hard workers.

Marie Logan smiled having made her rounds. The redhead stepped outside, dressed in a brown tank top, and a pair of jean shorts to show off her long and shapely legs. Her legs had not diminished in quality since the days where she starred on Hello Megan. One of the reasons why she got the starring role would be Marie's legs looked pretty excellent in a skirt. And most of the time, the camera focused on her legs.

The redhead starlet smiled. Part of her appeal to certain groups of people, she had to think. It would most certainly have not been through the award-winning story plots of the show.

' _Ten years since I've been Megan,'_ Marie thought. _'Yet, people still stop me at the airport…god bless syndication, I guess.'_

Marie decided to throw herself into the charity work, the nature preserve being the most ambitious of her activities. The starlet didn't mind using her star to raise awareness for some of the more endangered species in the world. Hopefully, if she got through to a few people, Marie would be satisfied.

Someone pulled up at the gates. Marie frowned. While there were tours through this area at times, no one was due to show up today. The starlet moved forward to investigate the person at the gates.

"Harry!"

Sure enough, Marie came face to face with Harry Potter. She heard he had taken a trip, but it was a bit out of her general area. So seeing him show up was a pleasant surprise.

"How, are you doing, Marie?" Harry asked, waiting for her to unlock the gate and allow him inside the grounds.

Marie did so and Harry stepped inside. An ear to ear grin filled the starlet when she decided to hug him.

"Vacation has done me well," Marie said. "I had to get out of the States for a few weeks…and well….best to check up on the preserve. I have some really good people working here."

Marie wore shoes more expensive than the average person's monthly wages, yet she wasn't afraid to get down and get to work.

"And it seems like you being here has relieved them," Harry said.

"Hey, I take an interest to my causes," Marie said. "There's a lot of people in Hollywood who talk about the things they're passionate about. But it's just all a bunch of phoniness."

Harry smiled, having heard the same thing from Juno in recent time as well. Hollywood had some good people, but there were some people who paid the lip service to their own causes.

"I mean," Marie said, pausing for long enough to get her thoughts together. "They think a few photo-ops is more than enough, but they then go home and rake in the good publicity."

"So, I saw the documentary last month," Harry said.

"There's a lot of footage left on the cutting room floor," Marie said, leading Harry inside to her home away from home. "And I made a rule, for them to shoot here. No talking about Megan."

Harry chuckled at Marie's firm words. Hello Megan made her an extremely rich person, thankfully not falling into some of the same habits as other former child or teen stars had. Having a good head on your shoulders prevented some really bad habits from forming.

"Ten years, since the last episode aired," Marie said. "I haven't been Megan since I was eighteen years old….but people still want to talk about it."

"Your acting was….."

"Harry, it sucked," Marie said. "I think I've gotten better, but it sucked."

"They didn't give you much to work with," Harry said. "You've done much better in the roles you've had since."

Marie smiled, having done a few roles in the meantime, both television and bit parts in movies. All of which she used to keep her name out in the limelight to promote her charity efforts.

"And the script director was a nightmare, but….you didn't come here to talk about my past career," Marie said, turning to look at Harry. The twenty-eight year old starlet licked her lips subconsciously looking at him. "And I really want to say thank you for the donation last month….it means a lot of me, and it means a lot of the people at the preserve."

"You know me," Harry said. "I'm always a champion of good causes."

"Why don't we go inside, it's hot enough to bake you alive out here," Marie said. "No, AC, I'm afraid, but it's a lot more shaded in here."

Harry didn't want to bring up the fact his super vulnerability didn't make him sweat as much as most people did. Still, Marie escorted Harry indoors to a nice little house. The couch looked to be the newest thing in the house, pretty much everything was second hand. No television, or computers, even though there was a refrigerator plugged in.

Marie decided to get the two of them a couple of refreshing beverages. She wiped the sweat off of the brow of her forehead.

"Pretty hot," Marie said, feeling the shirt cling to her chest. The outline of her breasts could be seen on the other side of the transparent shirt.

Harry blinked, and noticed Marie didn't wear a bra. The starlet removed her boots and her socks, before sitting down on the couch. She lounged next to Harry, popping open the top.

"To another successful year," Marie said, with a smile, taking a long swig for the drink. "And to people who are making the world a better place."

"I can drink to that," Harry said with a smile, realizing Marie turned and lightly set her feet on Harry's lap. The feet brushed against him and Harry smiled.

"Oooh, my feet are killing me," Marie said. "Sorry, but….I've been on them all day, running around….but no pain, no gain."

Harry could see her fabulous legs and the sensual feet attached to them. Instinctively, Harry grabbed one of Marie's feet and started to stroke her toes. Harry's able fingers brushed against the souls of her feet. Marie responded with a surprised gasp, but leaned back with his fingers continuing to caress the bottom of her elegant arches and move up to caress her ankles.

"You don't mind, do you?" Harry asked.

"No," Marie said, biting down on her lip to stifle the yelp of pleasure. "No, not at all…oh you have such strong hands Harry…..magic hands even…they feel so good."

Marie enjoyed having her feet massage, but for some reason, a couple past boyfriends had been a bit nervous to touch her feet, thinking it was a bit strange. If they were this squeamish around feet, then Marie though they would be a bit of a bore in other ways.

"Do you think you can get my calves too Harry?" Marie asked, feeling Harry massage up and down her leg. "Thank you….oh thank you…feels go good!"

Harry's imagination ran wild and for a second he thought Marie received an orgasm just for Harry massaging her feet and legs. The woman's heavily lidded eyes looked up.

"So, if you're in Gotham City, how about the two of us go out for dinner?" Harry asked, switching from Marie's left foot to her right foot. Like a gentleman, Harry relieved her stress with the heavy massaging.

"Dinner and dessert hopefully," Marie said, smiling when Harry stopped. She sighed in frustration.

"Anything you want," Harry said. Marie scooted over onto the couch and practically curled herself onto Harry's lap. The redhead starlet looked at Harry with a smile.

"So, anything, Doctor Potter?" Marie asked, feeling all hot and bothered after the foot and leg message. The two almost crossed lip to lip with each other. "Mmm, might have to take you up on this."

A knock on the door prevented Marie from sealing the deal and perhaps more. The starlet looked up and could see one of the hands outside of the window. From her vantage point, Marie could see the hand, but he could not see her. Something Marie had been grateful for, given it would be very difficult to reconcile this.

' _I can just imagine the tabloid headlines,'_ Marie thought, trying to casually slide off of Harry despite having soaked panties and hardened nipples which made her state a bit obvious. _'Former child star is seen on couch at nature preserve dry humping Gotham City billionaire playboy. Lovely, isn't it?_

"So, I guess we'll pick this one up another time," Harry said.

"Yes, another time," Marie said, a bit wistfully.

A part of Marie wished the hired help had not arrived at this moment. Another part of her thought it was for the best, but Marie wondered if doing things for the best really did interfere with her own happiness at times.

The starlet turned towards Harry to tell him to leave, but he already found a way out of the backdoor. Marie hoped this was good, but given her helpers were normally good about not bothering her unless there was something the matter, she thought there was.

* * *

Certain areas around the world had their own share of legends, feared legends where people shivered at the very thought of them. One of these areas existed deep in the swamp outside of Gotham City. The legend of Solomon Grundy had been known by all. Those who encountered Grundy in the past knew he was far from the legend.

In an underground shelter a ways away from Slaughter Swamp, more devious doings had been going on. The people in the village knew and feared of the Blackfire clan. For hundreds of years, one of their clan members, the youngest and most innocent member of the clan, had been sacrificed to appease a demon. In return, the demon gave the Blackfire clan strength and power beyond the wildest imaginings of many of the merest mortals.

Legends had a way of being distorted from reality, but there were times where the truth had been more fanciful than any legend. Charles Robert "Blackjack" Blackfire heard of the whispers. They feared his clan, as they well should. People in the modern age stopped fearing what they could not see.

"Yes, they know what's going on here, and they should fear it well," Blackjack Blackfire said.

The elderly, but still formidable, gentlemen stepped out into the midst of the room. The man started to draw symbols on the ground with chalk. A vial of glowing and smoking pink liquid had been poured out. The man gripped around a staff with a skull on it. The moment the pink fluid poured upon the runic symbols, the chalk started to smoke and then staff began to smoke.

"Joseph, I know you lurk at the crossroads," Blackjack Blackfire said. "Come to me, my boy, come to me….the true heir to our legacy. For we appease our lost sister, Abigail Joan Blackfire, and know she will be our guiding light. We follow her. But should our foes wish to know what happened to their brethren, will follow the buzzards."

The lights popped open, and Blackjack Blackfire opened a window to the crossroads. Thousands of points manifested which he could look in. Horrors flashed before his very eyes.

Off to the side, the two Acolytes continued to play cards with Brother Beau. The fresh-faced young gentleman bounced up and down.

"Will you settle down?" the dark haired white acolyte asked. The man looked seconds away from reaching across the table and giving Beau a nice little bitchslap across the teeth, but calmed down. "You have more energy than a jackrabbit in heat."

"Sorry, sir, but I'm just so excited!" Brother Beau yelled in a bubbly tone of voice, pumping his fist up into the air. The two goons looked at him.

"Yeah, but you're…..son of a bitch, a flush again, really?" the white goon asked.

"Damn!" the black goon yelled.

"I tell you, but you didn't listen to me," Brother Beau said, with bouncy giddiness in his eyes. "I'm the national Go Fish champion, three years running…guess you boys should have listened."

The two acolytes exchanged one of those looks with each other. They would have liked to murder this little prick, but he was needed for the resurrection of the prodigal son.

"So, tell me boy," the caucasion acolyte said, looking at him. "Have you ever played fifty-two?"

"No, I haven't," Beau said. "Is it fun?"

"Oh yes, it's a barrel of monkeys," the man said, shuffling his cards.

"Sir, I'll have you know, a barrel of monkeys isn't fun, it's quite horrifying," Beau said. "It's not fun at all when you cram a bunch of poor primates in a barrel, sucking the life out of them, and giving them….."

The white acolyte cut off Beau's monologue by flicking his finger forward and popping the young man on the nose.

"Shaddup," the white acolyte said, which caused a trickle of blood to pour from Brother Beau's nose.

"Grandpa, your friends are being mean to me!"

Blackjack Blackfire didn't answer due to the fact he was communicating. The man muttered something underneath his breath.

"Save the monologue for the rabble, boy!" Blackjack piped up. "I've been hearing people spit hot fire since before you learned how to change your own diapers. Nothing I haven't heard before."

A long pause followed with Blackjack Blackfire continuing to commune with his son. Seconds further passed before Blackjack's neck snapped back. The two acolytes watched him and Beau looked a bit concerned.

"Grandpa doesn't look so good," Beau managed, and rising to his feet to get a better look.

Blackjack Blackfire snapped out of a heavy trance. The man looked completely out of it for a moment. Blood dripped from his nose. Reaching over, he cracked open a bottle of beer and drank it.

"The boy's coming home sooner or later," Blackjack Blackfire told his men. "I've seen what I must do. The person behind his death will need to have experienced loss which is comparable to my grandson's own. And a sacrifice will need to be made."

Blackjack Blackfire rose to his feet and looked around. The scent of the air around him grew stronger and the sense of the spirits looming in the air grew stronger. Soon, the final reckoning would be at hand, and soon, Gotham City would be the ultimate sacrifice to appease their dark master.

"Soon, boys, he's coming home," Blackjack Blackfire said, smiling. The power heightened to another degree. Sparks flew from the man's stick. "A sacrifice will tip the scales and right the wrongs of what has transpired. Her thirst will be quenched."

Deacon Blackfire rolling the eyes into the back of his head preceded the voodoo practitioner speaking in tongues. He would seek out the one he needed.

"So, how do you play fifty-two?" Brother Beau asked.

The acolyte holding the cards cracked them. The cards launched up into the air and rained straight down onto the top of Brother Beau's head. The fresh faced young man screamed in agony with cards hit the back of his head. The two goons cackled in amusement from Beau's discomfort. The cards landed on the ground beneath Beau's feet. He tried to get up, but slipped on the cards to lead to even more laughter.

* * *

Harry Potter had been on vacation for a long time. After a brief stop back in Gotham City, Harry went on the trip and went on quite the little adventure. One Harry doubted he would forget for a long time. Regardless, the young man made his way out on patrol after returning late in the afternoon. The sun started to go down around this time and allowed the cover of darkness.

' _So, is it good to be back in costume?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Absence makes the heart grow fonder,'_ Harry said. Nightwing crouched down on the top of the gargoyle, ensuring balance had been kept. _'And, it's not like there was any lack of excitement.'_

The girls on the bond all laughed at Harry's casual declaration. Nightwing looked around Gotham City. Not a creature was stirring, not even a thug. The city around Harry seemed a bit too quiet for his liking which showed something was up. And Harry would get to the bottom of it. Silence might be golden to some people, but for Harry, it was quite unnerving.

' _Calm before the storm,'_ Dinah thought. _'Not sure if it's a really good thin in Gotham City.'_

Nightwing nodded in agreement and made his way around the city. A couple of members of the GCPD walked around, heading into a donut shop for some coffee, and likely a couple of donuts.

"Can you believe the wife is trying to put me on a diet?" one of the cops asked in an agitated grumble. "I mean look at me. Abs of steel…well ab of steel."

The second cop chuckled at the first cop. "Yeah, you're like the pinnacle of all things health…but hey, if you want to put those donuts in your body…..I'm not going to stop you. A cup of coffee for me…and one donut."

"Hey, no one should get between a cop and his donuts. No one!"

The officer of the law gave such a firm declaration, Nightwing just had to smile. The GCPD didn't notice one of their targets perched on the edge of the rooftop and looked over them. Nightwing wanted to keep it like this. Gotham City wasn't ready to admit the urban legends were true.

Speaking of urban legends, Nightwing noticed someone moving in the distance. Almost like he had a sixth sense Nightwing would be out and about tonight. The dragon made his way in the direction towards the figure moving into the shadows. Batman popped up and walked towards Nightwing to face the crime fighter.

"We need to talk."

Short, sweet, and to the point, and very, very Batman. Nightwing arched his head closer towards Batman, with a momentary frown crossing the area underneath his mask.

"If we need to talk, then let's talk," Nightwing said. "It seems like you've been very busy."

Batman's head arched closer towards Nightwing, and a long pause followed between the two of them. Had it been anyone else in the world, Batman's glare would have been rather frightening indeed. A master of his own glare of doom, Harry took the nature of these burning eyes almost in stride.

"There's a new player on the street," Batman said. "And whoever is underneath the mask is rather well trained and quite dangerous."

Harry frowned; well this pretty much upset the applecart in an interesting way. He figured there would be other people taking up the mantle to fight crime, out of some kind of inspiration. Harry just never expected it to happen to soon or for it to happen this abruptly. He only grunted and nodded in response.

"She's struck three times….."

"So, you think the person is a she?" Nightwing asked.

"Bruce Wayne saw her up close and personal, and give an eye witness account the new person on the street is a she," Batman said.

Nightwing smiled, it did say a lot about Batman with the fact the detective spoke of his secret identity in the third person despite the only two people here having known better. And no one bothering to listen in. Talk about being prepared for anything.

"Well, you know the mysterious new vigilante is a female," Nightwing said. "A well trained…how well trained?"

"She took out armed goons in less than a minute, and disappeared into the night before the GCPD arrived," Batman said. "Ruthless, efficient, like a machine….."

"Almost like she had been programmed to do so?" Nightwing asked.

Batman paused for a moment and nodded in response. It would satisfy the machine requirement. The Dark Knight wondered what Nightwing was driving at.

"Someone may be manipulating her somehow…whoever is underneath the mask. Perhaps she's working for one of the larger criminal syndicates…trying to take the small time goons out."

"The people who attacked were pretty small time," Batman said.

The most high profile people this new vigilante attacked were the Wolf Pack street gang, and despite their numbers, they were not too high up the spectrum. This made Nightwing's theory this person worked for someone who wanted to take out the mom and pop criminal operations quite viable.

"So far, no one has been killed," Batman said. "But, how long until she decides to step over the line."

Nightwing knew all about the line which could be crossed out there. And the more dangerous people became, the more it became harder not to cross the line, to protect people. It was a very sticky subject and one Harry didn't think there were any right answers to. People would always have very strong opinions where the line was located and what mandated probable cause for crossing the said line.

' _Some might consider suiting up to begin with being dangerously close to crossing a line,'_ Nightwing thought.

There were a lot of dangerous roads to travel down. The moment Nightwing put down the cape, he learned this fact well.

"No one can answer that," Nightwing said. "At least until we know who this person, and what her motive is."

"And without any knowledge of the person underneath the mask, it's hard to establish a motive," Batman said.

"Along with how compliant she is with this entire scheme," Nightwing said.

"Exactly."

Something about this entire mess skewed a bit to the odd scale for Nightwing. He just couldn't shake off a weird vibe. Without any more evidence though, Nightwing would not feel right trying to point the fingers. Especially considering no one got a close look at this new figure. Bruce had been the closest of them, but even he only had some vague thoughts to offer.

' _Back to square one,'_ Nightwing thought, frown deepening. _'Why do I have a feeling this is going to be a long night.'_

' _Welcome back to Gotham City,'_ Barbara responded in an extremely chipper voice.

Harry almost chuckled at the casual nature of her comment. Welcome back to Gotham City indeed. Batman vanished off into the night, and Nightwing decided it would be the best to do the same.

' _Home sweet home.'_

* * *

Paula returned back home after a long day at work. The hours weren't as long as they needed to be since before her consulting job with Harry began. And they were a bit more taxing then the easy go out and commit crimes path her life had been on. Paula decided this part of her life had long since concluded, and it was finally time to settle down and set a good example for her two daughters. They reached the age where how Paula acted could shape the age.

Jade in particular was at the age where Paula could be called out on her hypocrisy if she didn't set the right example. And about a year ago, Jade would be right. Paula had convinced herself there had to be a better path, and there would be a better path.

The night her ex-husband had been captured, and Paula almost had been captured had been a wakeup call for her. Had, Paula been captured and convicted, Artemis and Jade would be lost in Gotham City foster care, which was not a good place for any child to be. Especially considering who they were the daughters of. Accidents happened with children.

' _Almost….good thing Lawrence is gone….he convinced me into this one last job…which nearly cost us everything.'_

Paula looked over her shoulder. There were times where she noticed a car going down the street slowly. One time, Paula returned home to see the gate having been fiddled with. This was the time where she decided it would be the best for her locks to be changed.

Today's shift brought her home a couple of hours before the girls were due home. This gave Paula plenty of time to run some errands and return home with some time to spare before her daughters did so. Paula picked up the newspaper on the porch and fumbled with the keys, unlocking the door.

Paula stepped back into the room, stepping around a baseball bat which rested in the corner. The mother of two, technically three now if one counted Jessie who pretty much became a regular resident of the house, wore a concealed weapon, but the bat added to the protection. Paula could handle herself otherwise, but with her estranged husband still at large, one couldn't be too careful.

The newspaper dropped down on the table. Paula stepped outside towards her station wagon and opened the back, to pick up some groceries she picked up on the way home from work which set at the foot of the stairs. Paula entered inside the house, walking past the open door.

The dark haired woman stopped short and placed the groceries on the counter. She noticed something sticking out of the bottom of the newspaper. Was it there when she entered the house?

Paula thought it might have been one of the circular ads sticking out of the newspaper. Yet, it was something else entirely, something which caught her eye. An envelope popped out and Paula read the writing on it. It had all of the hallmarks of something who had written with the hand they were not accostumed to using in an attempt to disguise their hand writing.

"For your trouble," Paula murmured, reading over the words on the piece of paper. The woman ran her fingers over it. "And here we go again."

Paula opened up the envelope and a few hundred dollar bills slid out. Less than a thousand dollars dropped to the table. This was the third time in a number of months where some mysterious benefactor did a drop and run with the money. This left Paula with some questions and no answers.

The first time someone dropped the money, it had been left on Paula's kitchen table which prompted the latest change of locks. This latest time, the mysterious benefactor became more sophisticated, slipping it in with the newspaper.

Paula looked at the money, crisp and fresh hundred dollar bills. She knew a fake a mile away and these bills were as real as they came.

' _Can't be Harry…..because he would be more transparent, and would be up front,'_ Paula thought. _'And he wouldn't have to go to the trouble of disguising his hand writing.'_

Paula frowned, but noticed the limo pulling up with the girls from the Private Academy. Arrangements had been made for Jade and the other girls to be picked up and brought back home, unless Paula had a day off. Today was only a half a day of work.

The dark haired woman frowned. She couldn't see the money, because Jade might think they were having problems. While their apartment was pretty nice, they were where they were thanks to some creative budgeting on Paula's part. Thankfully, the consulting work she did with Harry made up the difference.

Paula stashed the money in the cupboard and waited for Jade to come up the stairs. Jade knocked on the door, and Paula walked over to answer it.

"How's your day?" Paula asked.

Jade wore an expression which showed it has been a very long day for her. Jessie slipped into the room behind her, and Artemis followed a few seconds later.

"She's just in a salty mood I beat her at target practice," Artemis said. Jade turned around and Artemis stuck her tongue out.

"You got a lucky shot," Jade said. "And besides, Amanda was better than either of us…and Lois isn't too bad….when she bothers to focus enough to aim properly."

"Well, at least you're a better ducker than you are a shooter," Jessie said, sitting down between Artemis and Jade.

The three girls had been fixed a snack, and the three girls sat around.

"Thanks for everything, Mrs. Crock," Jessie said. Jade gave her a look. "Is it still Mrs. Crock? Or have they not found Mr. Crock and had him sign the divorce papers yet?"

"Still on paper," Paula said. "But, it's just a formality we're separated."

Jade was pretty pleased with this. Granted, with her father still out there, the bastard could rear his ugly head when he wanted something. Despite her mother saying in no uncertain terms Larry was here.

"So, he's still out there," Jessie said.

"Hopefully rotting in a ditch," Jade murmured, which earned her one of those mother looks. "Are you okay, Mom…you didn't run into him, did you?"

"No, I haven't seen any sign of your father in a while," Paula said.

"But, you'd tell us if you saw him, right?" Artemis asked, not quite knowing where she stood in this situation.

"Artie, you don't want to see him," Jade said.

"How many times did I tell you not to call me that?" Artemis demanded, arms crossed.

Jade curled her lips with a mock insightful look, directing a smiling gaze at her sister. Artemis looked the pinnacle of all things adorable when she started to pout. Jade reached forward and patted Artemis on the top of her head before answering.

"A few," Jade admitted. "But, then again, I don't bother to keep track of them all of the time."

Artemis reached up and slapped Jade's hand off of the top of her head. Jade slid her had back, frowning at the action from her sister.

"Okay, girls, be nice," Paula said, as much as the antics of her daughters made her day a little brighter, especially with the troubled thoughts, there was a line which should not be crossed.

* * *

Selina Kyle kept out of trouble and her nose clean after the fiasco at the museum a couple of months ago. Just enough for the heat to die down. Everyone was on guard for Catwoman, and while it added to the danger factor, the felonious feline had some self-preservation instincts buried deep down.

Catwoman scaled the edge of the building. She cased this place for weeks hoping to find something of value on the other side. Whispers on the street indicated Carmine Falcone stashed one of the most priceless artifacts in his family vault. The jewels were worth a lot of money, and they belonged to a woman the man held dear to his heart.

The woman, Selina figured, would be the key to this. No doubt she could take a closer look at the jewels and find out her hunch had been correct.

Selina reached the top ledge of the building and peered inside. One sleepy security guard longued in a chair, not bothering to even put up the token effort to do his job.

' _Perfect.'_

One claw retracted and Selina circled it around the edge of the glass to make a cut around the hole. When the hole widened enough to safely slip her arm through, Selina reached through and grabbed the latch. The latch pulled back at the window opened.

Selina slid inside, careful not to disturb any of the priceless items on the shelf. This window had not been the best way to enter, although when compared to the other entrances, it served its purposes. Selina enjoyed the challenge and the thrill of the hunt caused the criminal's blood to pump faster.

' _Exciting,'_ Selina thought. _'Okay, my pretties, you're going to have to be around here somewhere.'_

Selina stopped short of the alarm system. The cat burglar reached into her pocket and pulled up a little wind up mouse. Turning the crank a few times, the mouse moved underneath the red security lines, reflecting them off to one side. Selina only had seconds to slip through and slip through she did.

Sliding to the side, Catwoman pulled to her feet. She came face to face.

' _Face it tigress, you just hit the jackpot.'_

"Alright, lads, you know the drill, get in and get out."

Catwoman hesitated for a moment, holding onto the latch, about ready to open it up. Several figures entered the room. One of them was the Walrus, who stopped short and saw Catwoman standing there.

"What's the hold up?" Penguin asked.

"Boss, it's Catwoman!"

The loud squawk followed the Penguin entering the room. Catwoman stared down the rotund man.

' _Well, Oswald Cobblepot, can't say this is a surprise to….well anyone,'_ Selina thought. _'Kicked your rotund ass from my club for creeping out some girls. And now, I guess I'm just going to kick your rotund ass.'_

"Normally, I like a good piece of pussy as much as the next guy," Cobblepot said, withdrawing his umbrella and revealing a concealed knife in it. He pointed the weapon at Catwoman with intent to skewer. "But, you're interfering with my operation, kitten…and….get your hands off of those."

Catwoman lifted the jewels from the box. Cobblepot's breathing increased.

"You have three seconds to drop them, Pussy Lips!" Penguin yelled. "Or we will blow you all the way to Bludhaven."

Catwoman responded with a heaving sigh which made her chest raise and fall. This guy really did know how to charm a woman. Calling her pussy lips and then threatening murder. He was a real charming gentleman, wasn't he? Catwoman took half of a step back for a moment and acted like she would drop the jewels.

"Good girl, glad to see you know your place, "Penguin said, looking straight at her chest. Partly because he was perverted and partly because the bird was a tad bit shorter than the Cat.

Selina faked putting the jewels down on the ground and bounced up. A huge kick nailed the Penguin straight in the face. The bird staggered back. Catwoman cracked her whip and wrapped it around the Walrus's wrist before pulling him in front of her. The henchman's ponderous bulk allowed Catwoman a very sizeable meat shield to protect her from the bullets.

"Hold your fire lads, hold your fire!" Penguin yelled at the top of his lungs.

Catwoman realized even the Penguin had a soft spot deep in his perverted heart. The felonious feline knocked the Walrus down at her feet and released a little smoke grenade which covered the entire room. The thugs gagged from the smoke cover.

The dust cleared, and Catwoman was gone, disappeared into the night. Penguin threw his hands into the air in a towering mess.

"We better beat it!" one of the thugs yelled. The Penguin raised his umbrella with intentions to run the thug straight through, but cooler heads prevailed.

The Penguin and his gang slipped through the exit. The loud sounds of police sirens could be heard, but the Penguin and his merry men entered the van. All of his fine feathered finks kept within arm's length from the Penguin, not wanting to be a part of his wrath. He sat down, breathing heavily. A man of his size being red in the face didn't exactly inspire health.

"The bitch, the bitch, she…she shouldn't have gotten in my way!" The Penguin howled.

"Don't worry, we'll get her, and we're take the jewels back," The Walrus said, trying to appease his godfather. The Penguin's beady little eyes fixed on her. "She's not going to get away with making you look like a chump…sir."

Penguin took a deep and calming breath. The fowl bird squeezed the handle of his umbrella, taking even more deep breaths. No bitch made him look like a chump, no way, and now how.

"No, she won't, we're not done for tonight," Penguin said.

"What if it's the Roman who set you up?" one of the thugs asked.

"Are you daft?" Penguin asked. "Or are you just doing a really good impression of it?"

The thug managed to sit down, having been humbled by the Penguin's words.

"No, the Roman's victimized by the Cat just as much, did you see the claw marks on the man's face?" Penguin asked. "We had a deal going on…and the bitch had to ruin it!"

If Catwoman wanted to mess with Oswald Cobblepot's bank account, Penguin would make her live just barely long enough to regret what she did.

* * *

A chaotic storm raged out around the path of the Queen's Gambit. Winds blew with a sinister whistle and waves hit the side of the sea. The ship began to rock and roll until a loud crack resounded through the ship.

A scream echoed from the ship as it had been ripped in half. The wind picked up, adding to a sinister fog in the area.

A broken bedframe bubbled up underneath the waves. Sara Lance clung on for dear life, along with to the edge of the mattress which remained afloat.

The younger Lance sister held herself up, dripping wet and shivering. She dressed in nothing, but a robe which became transparent and her under clothes. The bag containing her change of clothes and cell phone sunk to the bottom of the sea.

"OLIVER!" Sara yelled at the top of her lungs.

No sign, no one answered her call. Well other than the angry sounding wind and the waves slapping violently against the rocks. A sinister wee caused Sara to hang on for dear life, almost being pulled down.

' _Good thing I'm in good shape,'_ Sara thought. _'Or I would really be a goner.'_

Sara struggled to keep her head above the mattress. A sign of the lifeboat flashed in the corner of Sara's eyes. She yanked onto the bed, but it slipped out of her grasp again.

Along with the lifeboat which had been ripped into pieces. Chunks of wood narrowly missed hitting Sara when the wind blew the ship apart.

A bright light shined. Sara hoped it would be a rescue ship.

"HELP!" Sara yelled. The blonde's hands started to slip and her arms became numb. "I don't know how much longer I can hold on!"

Sara's hands slipped off of the debris she held on and slowly, she disappeared into the murky depths below, struggling to fight the current, struggling to fight the storm.

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 16** **th** **, 2016.**


	169. Cat in the Crossfire Part One

Week 10 Chapter of the Week Poll is Up. Go Vote At My Blog. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/

**Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Nine: Cat in the Crossfire Part One.**

* * *

One would think the entire trip home would sooth the Penguin's nerves and calm down the Gotham City mobster. Those people could not even be more mistaken if they tried. The Penguin spent a lot of time stewing and thinking about the entire situation. The mobster plotted revenge on the bitch who stole from him.

The doors of the van slammed open in a towering temper. The door almost had been knocked off of the hinges from the sheer impact. The Penguin walked out with the Walrus leading the charge. The other members of the gang followed. All of them walked on egg shells around the boss. They did not want to be on the wrong side of the umbrella the Penguin carried.

Those who lived through the Penguin's bad mood after the blowing up of the first Iceberg Longue pretty much knew what the score card was. No one dared trifle with him when he entered one of these bad moods. Other mobsters who gathered around headquarters looked up and saw their boss storming on it. They all gave him a rather wide path and stepped away to ensure none of them had been caught in the crossfire.

Tracey Buxton walked over and frowned at the frustrated look on the face of her employer. She worked for the Penguin for long enough to spot the fact he had an extremely bad night a mile away.

"What happened?" Tracey asked.

"Catwoman happened," The Penguin said, finally finding his voice. The saltiness in the Penguin's tone of force almost buried every single person who heard it. "The bitch thought she could walk in and get something that didn't belong to her."

"It was the jewels Falcone sold to us," the Walrus said. "She swiped in, took them, and knocked us around."

"You should have been more on the ball, Dudders," the Penguin said, turning around and withdrawing the umbrella. "The real question is, why didn't you do anything to stop the bitch?"

The Walrus knew all too well by now the Penguin blamed anyone when he was in a towering temper. He only stood with confidence because Dudley Dursley knew the Penguin could never replace the likes of him. The mustached man smiled at the thought of his job security.

Job security did not prevent him from getting utterly bitched out by the boss. Cobblepot's gaze flickered upon him and burned a hole through Dudley's face.

"We all should have seen this coming," Penguin said. "The cat has been looking to stick it to Falcone for months now. Naturally, she would be trying to screw him and not in the fun way. Or maybe it's what she was trying to do, and Falcone cut her off."

One of the mobsters chuckled at his boss's statement. At least until the Walrus waffled him across the back of the head with a vicious and violent open-handed style slap. The mobster staggered about a half of a step back and groaned at the direct hit.

"Settle down," the Walrus said, withdrawing his hand. "It wasn't that funny."

The mobster stopped laughing and all of his fellow mobsters stopped laughing as well. The upper management of this gang lost their sense of humor tonight. None of them wanted to piss their boss off. All of the mobsters intimated statues with arms folded and with blank expressions etched on their faces.

Tracey decided to be the one who piped up again. "You know, I'm not sure what the big deal is. All Catwoman stole was a little bauble? It wasn't like she stole something really important, you know?"

The mobsters could not believe the gall of Tracey to say something like this. Then again, she had enough seniority in this entire outfit to pop off and make a comment like this.

The Penguin's eyes widened when he looked at Tracey. One look at the British mobster showed he shared a similar thought to those of his gang. He could not believe Tracey would pop off in such a matter. Penguin lifted a hand, turned it, and motioned for Tracey to walk a bit closer towards him.

Tracey, knowing she said too much immediately, gulped and walked over to join her boss. The woman's knees started to knock together and her breath grew ragged.

"Tracey," Penguin said, beady little eyes locked on the woman. "There are days where your contributions are quite valued. You know that, don't you?"

"Yes, sir," Tracey said, not quite knowing where this headed.

"And also," Penguin said, pausing for a moment to collect his words. "There are days where I think if brains were currency….YOU WOULD BE MENTALLY BANKRUPT!"

Tracey almost hit the wall from the full force of Penguin's sardine breath yelling in her face. The girl took a moment to recover and started to breath heavily. The mobsters almost looked gleeful at her misfortune. Some of they were jealous because of her position in the Penguin's gang.

Penguin walked over and entered his office. Dudley, Tracey, and a few other trusted men followed him. The Penguin reached over to the cabinet and opened it up. He pulled out an extremely expensive bottle of wine and a glass for himself.

"It all starts small," Penguin said, speaking in a low voice. The gang needed to listen closely. "It all starts small."

The Penguin tipped the wine bottle into the glass and poured himself a refreshing drink. Oswald Cobblepot picked up the glass of wine and surveyed the party over the top of the glass, he did not drink a drop of wine, just merely surveyed his men and one woman.

"It all starts small," Penguin continued, repeating himself for a third time. "It all starts…what did you say, Tracey, my dear? It all starts with one little bauble."

Tracey took a long look at her boss, and decided to nod. Penguin nodded in confirmation. He downed a couple of long drinks before surveying the entire situation as he saw it.

"It all starts small, with a couple of tiny baubles," Penguin said, taking another drink of mine. "Then it escalates into nothing too big. Oh, it's just a crate or two, taken off of the back of the truck. Because….a guy gets a reputation for charity and letting people get away from taking tiny little baubles. And then….entire shipments are lost. And if entire shipments are lost, money is completely lost."

The eerie calmness the Penguin gave unsettled the gang even more than the raging temper he had been in a few seconds ago. He gave across the impression of a gentleman who would slowly and casually strangle a person if there had been a call to do so. Tracey and Dudley both shuddered in response. The temperature in the room seemed to have dropped a few degrees.

"I will not be made to look like a chump," Penguin said, tipping the wine back and taking another drink. "I won't be made to look like a fool. Catwoman will pay for this. In blood….she will squirm."

"There are a few bounties out on her, boss," Dudley said. "And it shouldn't be too hard to get someone to take her out."

"Yes," Penguin said, intrigued by what his boy was driving at. "It seems like you know something, Mr. Walrus."

The Walrus responded with a nod which made him look a bit dopey.

"I met a guy when I was in Blackgate," Dudley said, remembering his long stint in prison. Oswald left him there for a lesson in failure. "And he knew this guy…who could get things done. He's been….out of commission for a while. But, I'm sure he needs the work. No one would hire someone like him….unless they really needed something done bad. His face….well it's seen better days."

"I ain't looking for a beauty pageant winner, you daft git," Penguin said. "I'm looking to get the job done. You better be saying this bloke can get the job done."

"Yes," Dudley said. "He can get the job done."

"Good," Penguin said, deciding to light up a cigar. "A lot of people thought I was some punk who could be pushed around. It's time to make them learn I'm not going to be fucked with. Anyone who fucks with my operation is going to get burned."

Dudley started to chuckle in response, which prompted the Penguin to give him one of the dirtiest looks a person could muster. The mustached man managed to straight up long enough to explain why he was laughing.

"Well, this guy can do that."

* * *

Harry parked himself in front of the desk at home and prepared to study the crystal fragment he located on the trip. The crystal certainly proved to be an interesting little addition. Harry wanted to figure out if it had any power left into it.

The doors opened up and Karen and Faora walked into the lab. Both of them approached Harry before sitting on either side of him. The scientist barely acknowledged their presence with any more than a smile and a nod, before turning to his work. Karen gripped Harry gently around the shoulder to get his attention.

"You've been working on that crystal for the last six hours," Karen said. Harry looked at her. "Have you had any luck, other than finding out it's noting, but a burned out hunk of fragment?"

"Peve's doing a scan of it right now," Harry said. "I'm just seeing if I can get anything from the crystal on my end."

"It's interesting," Alura said, popping up to job the discussion. "I just wish you would have had a better look at the ship before it had been buried underneath the ground."

"Yes, you and me both, Alura," Harry said, face crossing over with a smile. "Unfortunately, there were other things on my mind right now. If only it didn't get buried when I broke the power of Tut's curse."

"Well, at least you know the occupant is still out there," Karen said. Harry turned towards her, looking at the buxom blonde with a searching look. "Not really the best thing given she has super powers. So, she could have run into some trouble."

"Or more likely caused it," Faora said, speaking up for the first time. "But, so far she's keeping her head down and her nose clean. That's really something, isn't it?"

"It sure is something," Harry said in agreement, trying to figure out what the fragment in front of him could do for him. "And she did sprint ups out of there."

"You thought she was my daughter?" Alura asked. Harry confirmed her words with a nod. "She could be an ancestor on my side of the family. Maybe a distant one, even?"

Harry took a moment to consider Alura's theory and decided it to be the most sound in the world. Lara, who had been present, but helping Peve with the scan, decided to chime in with her two cents.

"You know, for a planet which is extinct, Krypton certainly has its fair share of survivors."

Harry broke out into a smile; boy was that ever the truth?

"To be fair, she was likely stranded on Earth long before Krypton met it's end," Alura said. Lara looked at her to concde Alura's point. "It's something to think about though, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Harry said, looking at the crystal and wondered when Peve would get down with the analysis of said crystal.

Harry didn't have to wait too long for Peve to pop back up. The glowing woman rose up from underneath the console and presented herself for Harry in a flash of light. One look at her face showed a rather interesting combination of frustration, and also intrigue.

"So, tell me you've found something," Harry said, pausing for long enough to come into the other theory. "Or you've just found more questions in your quest to find answers?"

"It's more questions for certain," Peve said, lips turning into a momentary smile. "As we expected, the crystal is long burned out. It had been burned out centuries ago. It's possible there's a larger chunk of crystal buried deep underneath the ground which may still be functional."

"We've not been able to locate any power source of this magnitude," Lara said. "We suspect there's some kind of magical interference masking it, providing it exists."

Harry figured there would be consequences of trying to unearth the ship with it being buried. He would have liked to get ahold of the ship and study it. For now, Harry would have to settle for theories and hypothesize what secrets the ship might have held.

' _Just think,'_ Kara thought. _'If you had not been preoccupied with Aresia, you might have been able to get a closer look at the ship.'_

' _And even if we were preoccupied with Aresia, she still slipped away, again!'_ Donna yelled. The Amazon Princess started to get hostile for a few seconds, but then reigned in her temper. Donna took a couple of deep breaths. _'Sorry, I didn't mean…well it's just really frustrating….and by really frustrating, I mean really…really frustrating…you know….I don't know how to really explain it, but it is really frustrating.'_

' _Don't worry, Donna, we know,'_ Diana thought. _'But, we know she's out there…although I wish she wasn't with someone so dangerous. He's winding her up and twisting her even more.'_

Harry returned to the crystal for a moment, figuring they had expended through all of the avenues they could here and now.

"It's most certainly over a thousand years old," Peve said. "It's a good model."

"I don't recognize the precise design off of it," Alura said. "It must have been lost over time."

"Sadly, much like a lot of really good technology," Faora said. "Thankfully we have some really good resources here, and one day, we could replicate it."

' _It would be something,'_ Barbara thought, sounding a bit distracted. One could almost sense the prodigy biting down on her lip in deep thought and a little bit of frustration as well. _'Sorry, I'm just busy at work, trying to figure something out.'_

' _Oh what are you up to now?'_ Kara asked. _'Even though I know the answer is likely no good.'_

' _You know me too well, Kara,'_ Barbara thought, chewing down on her lip a little bit more. _'But, I'm interested in the new player who is popped up in Gotham City. You know, the new vigilante.'_

Harry knew about this person all too well. Bruce wasn't too pleased about this person showing up in the scene in Gotham City. The Son of Zod suspected it was because Bruce didn't know something and it bothered him. Harry shared the man's pain in a certain way. There were no real leads for this mysterious vigilante and it was almost like they ran around in circles, like dogs chasing their tails.

' _Oh, did you have any luck in finding anything else?'_ Harry asked.

' _Sadly, I'm not having any luck,'_ Barbara thought. _'Gwen and Reilly are helping out when they can.'_

' _Yeah, we are,'_ Gwen thought. _'But there's not too much information out there, other than what's in the news, and it isn't much. Still in time, we'll be able to build a profile on this Batwoman.'_

' _Batwoman?'_ Harry asked, sounding rather amused.

Oh boy, Bruce wouldn't approve of that name, not at all. Then again, he was pretty territorial of the entire bat thing and took it as pretty serious business.

' _Yeah, Batwoman, at least it's how she's being dubbed, not sure what she's calling herself,'_ Gwen thought. _'If she's calling herself anything at all. And there's no clue whether or not she is.'_

Harry thought it was a fair enough assessment to be perfectly honest. He hoped the girls would do well on building some kind of case for this Batwoman, or whoever it was. So far though, there had been no leads.

* * *

Mitchell Edward Davies never could be mistaken for a decent cop under the best of circumstances. The gentlemen dripped of sleaze. Many joked if he wasn't a cop, Davies would make a living as a sleazy porn star. The man's mullet dripped with grease. He had the classic mustache. The man loved how the mustache captured the essence of his latest conquest quite nicely. Davies boasted of an abundant amount of chest hair.

Davies stepped around the corner of the alleyway. Barely anything stirred in Gotham City. This fact suited Davies more than fine. He didn't want to run into any trouble tonight. Everyone in the GCPD looked over their shoulder after one of their very own had been found at the foot of the stairs. The cop killer made every cop who wanted to see tomorrow sleep with one eye open with a gun close by their bed.

The member of the Gotham City Narcotics division shook his head. Some of the boys planned some vigilante style justice the moment they found out who the cop killer was. Until this moment though, they would be forever playing a rather dangerous and fairly crude guessing game.

A limo started to pull up around the corner and Davies waited for the individual to exit the limo. The man dressed in a nice suit with silver hair. He wore spectacles and stepped closer. Black Mask's Number One walked into the picture, with two bodyguards. One of them carried a silver briefcase.

"Mr. Davies," Number One said.

"Number One," Davies said. "Um, do you have a real name?"

"It isn't relevant for this Transaction," Black Mask's number one said. He stepped in and extended a hand to shake, but pulled it back at the last second. "We have a deal tonight, Mr. Davies. Do you have what we want?"

Davies reached down and pulled out the case, opening it up.

"Got this on a bust last week….from one of your competitors even," Davies said. "They're out a few hundred grand because of this. Street values are to the roof…and you're picking it up for real cheap."

"You're a very shrewd man, Mr. Davies," Number One said, analyzing the contents of the briefcase. A smile crossed over the gentleman's face. "Yes, my employer will be happy. And when he's happy, you'll be paid."

The racket and arrangement they had going on had been going on for around a year or so. The arrangement served both sides and more importantly made both sides a lot of money.

"Well, that's all that matters, isn't it?" Davies asked. "And….I'll be in touch when we get our hands on something big. There's supposed to be a big drug bust going down tomorrow night."

Number One nodded in response.

"You know how to get in touch with me," Number One said.

The goods had been swapped and the two parties went their separate ways. Davies picked up the case of money and decided to smile.

"Not a bad haul tonight," Davies said. "Better go and find a lady to have some fun with. See if she wants to go on a mustache ride tonight."

The dirty cop lit a cigarette and took a couple of puffs on it. Davies heard a rumbling of a storm going above his head. The corrupt cop turned a corner and could see a figure standing off to his side. The figure lifted up one hand and pulled a trigger to the gun.

The bullet hit Davies before he could even react. A second bullet hit him and dropped the cop to the ground. The latest victim of the Gotham City cop killer collapsed to the ground. Blood flowed from his body, trickling all around them.

The last thing Davies saw before the life completely left his body were a set of black boots swaying. The man didn't even take a good enough look at his killer, not that it did much good where he had been sent.

The cop killer stepped forward and placed the evidence of wrong doing on the chest of Davies. Another corrupt cop off of the street and Gotham City became a bit safer for the people who lived in it. The last thing the cop killer did before slipping back into the surroundings in Gotham City was to stomp the cigarette out.

Moments would pass before a patrolman found the expired body of Mitchell Davies. No one shed a tear for the man, especially the countless women he harassed or graced with the most disappointing two minutes of their life.

* * *

Enigma put on a large pot of coffee for a late night as he indulged himself in his latest obsession. The man preferred to call it a hobby, or really a crusade, but some would consider it to be an obsession of sorts. These people really had no call to put him down or demean him.

All of the information flashed in front of him. Newspapers clipped to the board. Enigma laid out so much information in front of him; he could see why there were so many plausible suspects in this investigation, and why the Gotham City police department chased themselves around.

"Let's start with the most interesting piece of information," Enigma said. "The cop killer only kills the corrupt cops. Well, he…or she, wouldn't have been called the cop killer if cops weren't killed. But this particular serial killer targets their victims after a meeting with some of the less salt of the Earth people in Gotham City. And they are left alive."

Enigma scratched a few notes on the piece of paper. He chalked this entire situation up as extremely odd. Okay, maybe not extremely odd, but just a little bit odd. The gentleman continued to take copious amounts of notes in an attempt to understand this.

"Let's start with the most obvious suspect in the world," Enigma said. "Harvey Dent…ah yes, the new golden boy of Gotham City. You've made a pledge to clean up Gotham City and remove corruption. Well the cop killer is certainly removing corruption, one bullet at a time."

Enigma couldn't rule out Harvey Dent. The motive most certainly sounded rock solid. There were also other suspects where Enigma needed to take a closer look at.

"If not Harvey Dent, then who could it be?" Enigma asked. "Well, how about Mrs. Harvey Dent? Perhaps she has something to prove after all. Perhaps she intends to help her husband, or maybe ruin him. Ruin him after the adulterous…a-hem excuse me…alleged adulterous affair he had with Ms. Rachel Dawes."

Enigma pinned Gilda Dent's photo right next to her husband's.

"And then, we can't forget the lovely Ms. Dawes," Enigma said. "Ever since her exposure to Doctor Crane's fear toxin, she's had a renewed vigor for criminals. I wonder if one day something inside her just went pop, and she started to kill cops who were making her job a bit hard. People make some deals, people walk, and that has to frustrate her a whole lot."

Another picture pinned to the tack board, and Enigma pulled out a fourth picture.

"Bruce Wayne, the billionaire playboy and head of Wayne Enterprises," Enigma said. "Man really needs no introduction and his motive is rock solid. His parent's murder has never been solved, likely because of corrupt police officers. It would cause anyone to develop some issues. And he plays the dotty playboy thing a bit too much on the nose for it to be anything, but a well-placed mask."

Could Bruce Wayne be the Gotham City cop killer? Enigma thought most certainly yes and pinned him on the board of suspects.

"James Gordon," Enigma said, touching a hand underneath his chin. "One of the good cops in Gotham City. But, this is Gotham City, there's no such thing as a good cop, is there? If these people were out of the way, your job as the shining light would be a lot easier. And no one could remain this heroic in Gotham City."

Enigma added Gordon's picture to the tack board and pulled out a picture of a redhead girl.

"Barbara Gordon, the daughter of James Gordon," Enigma said. "As smart as she is arrogant, but….she doesn't have the stomach to commit the murders. Her only crime is holding back the potential of a truly great man."

Enigma let the picture drop to the floor, the first suspect out of many being discounted.

"Well, aren't you the handsome devil?" Enigma asked, picking up the next picture and staring at it. "Edward Nashton, if that is your real name, the next suspect on our list. A brilliant individual who is more than capable of playing a long game and causing the GCPD to chase themselves around in circles. More than capable of committing the perfect crime and getting away with murder."

A smile crossed over Enigma's face when he stared down the picture.

"But, I know, you Mr. Nashton, and know you aren't behind this," Enigma said, but he paused and pondered something else. "Unless….of course, we've developed a split which one side doesn't know what the other is doing. Where a more assertive personality has taken control and become the Gotham City cop killer."

Enigma tapped a finger to his chin and looked at his own picture.

"I don't know," Enigma said, frowning even more deeply. "Seems to be a bit too…comic-booky for my liking, but stranger things have happened. Could it be?"

The riddle obsessed young man stared at the picture for a long and pressing moment.

"You could be our man," Enigma said. "And you are the man….let's add you to the maybe pile."

Enigma placed a picture a little bit off to the side and pulled out another picture. The hacker deserved

"Howard Branden is a thug, a low life, and scum," Enigma said. "But, he would not be able to pull of such a crime. And he knows where his bread is buttered. The more corrupt cops killed; the more his safety net is eliminated."

Enigma dropped Branden's picture on the ground on top of Barbara Gordon's. He resisted the urge to stomp on it and spit on it.

"Next, we've got Gillian Loeb, our Gotham City police commissioner," Enigma said. "Well, this is an interesting suspect to be honest, and….you know, he does have more of a motive than Branden. A lot of the cops killed, Loeb is quite chummy with. And they would sell out their own mothers for a good deal as well. So if Loeb ever finds himself up for charges of corruption….perish the thought in Gotham City of all places."

Enigma paused for a long moment to cackle at his own joke. He kept as calm as could be before returning to the investigation.

"So, Commissioner Loeb, welcome to the maybe pile," Enigma said. He looked at Loeb's face and placed it on the table next to him. "Don't worry, Commissioner, you're in some pretty good company now."

Enigma prepared to look at the next photo. A frown appeared over Enigma's face as he caught sight of the person in the photo.

"Most certainly, not," Enigma said. "I mean, when would you have the time to do something like this? Don't get me wrong, I'm not downgrading you, you are most certainly brilliant enough to pull off a complicated web. Why, you're almost on my level, but no, no, no, you're not the one, most certainly not."

Enigma placed the photo of Harry Potter neatly on top of a pile of papers on his desk. The riddle obsessed gentleman prepared to go through the next photo. The phone ringing delayed these attempts.

"Yes, TCRI," Enigma said. "Of course, I'm aware of the meeting on Monday. If nothing else, I'm a meticulous planner."

Enigma smiled, and he would be off to New York soon.

' _New York, New York,'_ Enigma thought. _'If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.'_

Once the deal was made, Enigma could finally unload the Technovore on Krang and the rest of the scientists at TCRI. Then it would be their problem.

The gentleman resumed looking through the pictures. There were still a few more suspects to get through. Enigma poured himself a cup of coffee, careful not to overflow the glass.

Enigma received an e-mail and smiled.

"Mitch Davies met his maker today," Enigma said. "Low-life and member of the Gotham City Narcotics department."

Enigma read the list of allegations on this man and could see why he wouldn't be a hit to the ladies.

"Alas, poor Mitch, we barely knew, ye," Enigma said. "And if we did know you; we wouldn't like you to begin with."

Enigma focused on the task at hand and looked at the picture of the next suspect of the potential Gotham City cop killers.

"Hmm, this would be an interesting one."

* * *

Harry exited his car and walked up to the Cat's Cradle night club. He almost bumped into Mia. Mia carried a tray of empty drinks from a table and almost jumped, startled by the close encounter.

"Whoa, watch it there," Harry said with a smile, preventing Mia from falling over and dropping the glassware to the ground.

"Sorry," Mia said. The girl blinked and realized who she talked to. "Harry, how are you doing?"

"I'm doing well," Harry said. "I just got back from a trip….from Africa….lots of sun and adventure."

"Yes, I've noticed," Mia, tracing her eyes down Harry's body. He smiled at her knowingly which caused the girl stop and look very flushed in the process. "You got a nice tan in the process."

"Yes," Harry said. "But, now I'm back in Gotham City. It might not be much, but its home."

Mia nodded. She would have to agree Gotham City was pretty much home to her as well, at least home away from home.

"So, I hope Selina hasn't been working you too hard, has she?" Harry asked.

"Well, I'm just waiting tables, and filling in for Holly on the nights where she's going to class," Mia said. "Can't really join in on the fun stuff until I become of age. The girls are giving me some pointers though."

"I'm sure," Harry said. "Just don't do anything you won't be comfortable with."

Mia smiled, glad for Harry's concern. He was a very hands on owner. The disguised heiress hoped there would be times where he would be hands on with her, very hands on.

"Mia," Selina said. Mia whipped around, almost dropping the dishes. "Why don't you put those away while I borrow Harry for a minute?"

Mia didn't really argue with this fact. She turned and leaned towards Harry with a bright smile on her face.

"Okay," Mia said. "It was nice talking to you again Harry. Maybe we can go out for drinks one night if you're not busy….non-alcoholic drinks."

Selina's stern gaze like a disapproving older sister caused Mia to add this last point.

"We'll see," Harry said. "Continue to work hard and I might have to treat you to something special."

Mia nodded, hoping so. The girl walked off with a bit of a sway in her step.

Selina decided to escort Harry across the hall to her office. Two sets of different shades of green eyes met with each other. The moment Selina caught sight of Harry, she figured out straight away something was off.

"You know, you should start to recruit them when they're young and fresh, "Selina said. "Although, I know you're going to make her wait for a little bit longer, until she really wants it."

"I have no idea what you could be referring to," Harry said, with a smile.

Both of them exchanged a knowing smile. Selina's eagle eye caught sight of something. Harry was fairly serious, more serious than he normally was at any rate.

"Judging by the look on your face, I'm guessing you're not here for a booty call," Selina said.

"Just want to know if you're doing okay," Harry said.

"Doing fine," Selina said, leaning back against the desk with a smile on her face. "In fact, I'm doing perfect."

Selina rode on a bit of a high after getting one over on the Penguin's goon squad last night. She didn't want to gloat too soon. The feisty female kept the jewels in an extremely safe place.

"Oh, well…things are stepping up in Gotham City," Harry said.

"So, I've noticed, and there are new people taking up arms against the scumbags on the street," Selina said. "Batwoman, isn't her name?"

"The press called her Batwoman," Harry said. "Not sure what she's calling herself but….most certainly someone who has left an impression the few times she showed up."

"Can't say I enjoy her inspiration too much," Selina said, tapping a finger underneath her chin and smiling. "She does have some style and I can't deny it."

Selina could see Harry for a moment. The two of them always danced around the idea of their costumed lives when they were out of costumes, and didn't bother to acknowledge their non-costumed lives when they were in costume. It added an interesting dynamic to their relationship which could frustrate anyone on the outside.

"I haven't been doing anything too reckless," Selina said, folding her arms. They stuck underneath the woman's sizeable chest which made them stick out. "And you know, I'm a big girl, and I can take care of myself."

"All too well," Harry said.

"I appreciate the concern."

Selina leaned over and kissed Harry on the cheek. The vixen almost flashed Harry a rather prominent set of bedroom eyes. Harry figured what her next move was.

If only Selina's cell phone didn't ring, that was. The vixen frowned and pulled out the cell phone.

"Now?" Selina asked. "Okay…fine, I'll sign for it."

"Duty calls?" Harry asked.

"Unfortunately," Selina said. "And I'm sure we're going to pick this one up sometime."

Selina leaned in and touched her lips onto Harry's briefly. Sparks flowed between the two. Selina pulled away from Harry and walked. Harry's eyes remained glued on her sashshaying ass.

' _Her resolve is bending a little bit,'_ Faora thought. _'She isn't as persistent in holding back the bond, but it's still there. She has to remind herself more forcefully why this isn't a good idea. Why she doesn't deserve it.'_

' _And yet, there are still some things she won't admit,'_ Dinah thought. _'Namely the fact she pissed off Cobblepot.'_

Harry frowned. After the entire Ffogg fiasco, Cobblepot's mood worsened. The gruesome bastard looked for any excuse to spill some blood and he wasn't completely fussed about whose blood got spilled. He just wanted an example.

' _Selina doesn't know how much she put herself in the crossfire,'_ Faora thought. _'And if she did, don't think it would do much good.'_

' _Does she think this is some kind of game?'_ Dinah asked.

' _No,'_ Harry said. _'Not a game.'_

' _More like a thrill,'_ Faora thought. _'Selina gets off on the danger and a chase…but this time she may have bitten off more than she could chew.'_

Harry decided to discreetly keep an on the situation and hope he was wrong.

* * *

The door to Cobblepot's office opened and Tracey stuck her head in.

"Sir, he's here to see you," Tracey said.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Cobblepot asked. "Send him in, send him in."

A gentlemen covered in a black trench coat entered the room. Cobblepot noticed the man's uncovered hands. The skin looked to be blackened and the sight of which caused Cobblepot's stomach to turn. Tracey took a spot next to Dudley, who stood off to the side of Cobblepot. Dudley imitated a Buckingham palace guard with his serious stance.

"Mr. Cobblepot, I understand you have a job for me," the man said, voice sounding like someone who had smoked a carton a day for thirty years.

"Yes, but…are you sure you're up for it?" Cobblepot asked. "Because, this job leaves no room for error."

"Don't worry, I'll be up for it," the gentleman said in a raspy and worn tone of voice. "You may have heard of me. My name is Garfield Lynns."

Cobblepot blinked in surprised.

"I could have sworn you bought the farm in the big fire last year," Cobblepot said. "Word on the street is you went up against everyone's favorite wing-rodent and came out on the short-end of the stick."

"Yes, I nearly died against Batman," Lynn's said, undoing the hood. "And I've paid the price for the love of my work."

The man's hood came back and allowed Penguin a full view of the man's face. Tracey and Dudley also recoiled in shock the moment they caught a look at it.

"Bloody hell!" Dudley shouted.

' _The lad won't be winning any beauty pageants any time soon,'_ The Penguin said, recoiling in horror at the ghoulish sight before him.

"These burns cover most of my body," Lynns said, speaking in his raspy monotone. "But, I still do what I enjoy and I enjoy what I do. And what I do is making sure anyone who gets in my way goes up in flames."

Penguin wasn't sure if this lad should be playing with fire given how much trouble it got him into last time. Cobblepot decided against arguing with the deluded psychopath though.

"I want you to take out Catwoman, make her burn, or whatever it is tickles your fancy," Cobblepot said. "You see, the bitch has a bit of a hard spot for Falcone. Don't know why? Maybe she's a jilted ex-mistress who Falcone kicked to the curb. I don't care."

Penguin brought up a blueprint of one of Falcone's buildings.

"I've already spread word on the street there's someone of value which Falcone wants hidden," Cobblepot said. "It will be moved in there tomorrow night and if I know Catwoman, she would be there later."

"So torch the building and make sure she doesn't get out," Lynns said. He held a lighter in his hand and shoved it forward.

Dudley winced when the flame came close to his chin before Lynns pulled it back.

"Do you think you can do that?" Penguin asked.

"Piece of cake if you're sure she's going to be in the building," Lynn said, playing with his lighter.

Penguin thought it would be time to teach these people a valuable lesson. If you played with fire in Gotham City, you were going to get burned. This guy sounded like the perfect person for the job. He was the perfect person for the job, no questions asked.

"Oh, I'm sure," Penguin said. "She can't help herself….and you'll get the other half of the money once I have the smell of burning pussy fill Gotham City."

"I'll even throw in Batman and Nightwing for free," Lynns said, sounding as animated as his voice would allow.

"My lad, we have a deal."

Penguin thought those two being out of the picture would be an excellent bonus. Besides, he would not get a deal this good for a very long time.

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 19** **th** **, 2016.**


	170. Cat in the Crossfire Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventy: Cat in the Crossfire Part Two.**

* * *

Catwoman perched atop of the ledge across from one of the Roman's many office buildings. The felonious feline barely could keep herself in check from the excitement brimming over her body. A large cache of valuable jewels and documents had been moved over to this building, to be secured. The movement had been done last night and they were secured here.

The fortress locked up extremely tight, but Selina enjoyed a challenge. She cracked a whip and latched onto the edge of the building before swinging across. She dropped down onto a balcony.

' _Face it, kitten, you've just hit the jackpot,'_ Selina thought, reaching forward to press a hand against the wall.

Some would argue Selina developed tunnel vision as it regarded to Carmine Falcone and trying to stick it to him. She refused to agree to be honest. Selina found herself with the greatest of razor sharp focus. She would not be denied the bounty inside of this fortress.

A loud siren echoed through Selina's ears and caused a frown to appear on her face. Someone tripped an alarm, and it had not been her. Selina been through this song and dance many times months before. One of the most prominent instances had been when Prudence Ffogg decided to go shopping. This had not been Selina's first rodeo at all.

' _Perfect,'_ Selina thought. _'If there are any guards, they'll be distracted with this guy, or girl, and not me.'_

Selina opened the window the rest of the way and slipped inside the building. The burgular dropped down and gained a full view of her surroundings. The air around her had a peculiar smell. Several seconds passed before Selina figured out what the smell was.

' _Someone is burning something,'_ Selina thought.

Curiosity killed the cat, or at least caused her to take a closer look. Selina stepped around the corner of the hallway.

' _I wonder if I walked smack dab into the middle of some kind of insurance fraud,'_ Selina thought. She armed herself and opened up the door. _'Only one way to find out.'_

Selina caught sight of a gentlemen dressed in an orange and black suit with glittering wings. His body had been completed covered from head to toe. A can of lighter fluid hooked to his belt and a tank placed upon his back. A gun held in the man's hand, and it was a flamethrower of some sort. The arsonist resembled some kind of glittering insect.

"Great," Selina said, shifting her stance and placing a pair of alarms underneath her breasts. "The one night where I want to get some work done….I run into some overblow firebug."

Firefly looked up from his work. Catwoman stepped back a couple of inches. The look on his face made her think he saw her as nothing but a glorified barbeque.

"Firefly, actually," he said. "And he was right, you're here, right on time!"

Firefly blasted a burst of fire from the flame thrower. Catwoman dodged the attack. This suit offered her some protection.

"You know, there's a strict fire code in Gotham City," Catwoman said.

Firefly didn't respond or give the cat burglar much room to breathe. A blast of fireballs from his flamethrower shot towards Catwoman. Catwoman did two backflips and watched one of the vaults go up in flames.

Catwoman made her way back to the hallway. More flames shot towards her. Catwoman slid back to avoid the attacks.

' _Okay, Selina, you have to get close enough to him without getting set on fire,'_ Catwoman thought. _'How are you going to get out of this one?'_

Catwoman noticed a fire extinguisher on the wall. Perfect for all intents and purposes. Catwoman removed the fire extinguisher from the wall and locked it onto her adversary. She pulled the trigger with an honest attempt to blast Firefly.

The fire extinguisher backed up and caused her an ability to attack it. Fire shot up and Selina aborted any attempt to attack him.

Survival instincts bred deep in anyone with half of a brain cell and Selina was someone who had some pretty good survival instincts. She took a couple of steps back towards the room. Stacks and stacks of paper surrounded her on all sides.

Firefly threw two miniature glass orbs into the air. They contained an amber fluid which upon impact exploded and coated the entire ground with the fluid.

"Time for you to go up in flames!" Firefly yelled, thrusting forward and launching a blast of fire from the flame thrower at his adversary.

Selina's entire life flashed before her as the office went up in flames. Firefly's demonic face could be seen as the flames crowded closer towards her with no way out.

' _Really, it ends like this,'_ Selina thought. _'I'm really….oh god…this is it, isn't it?'_

Selina tried to find a way around the fires. The ceiling collapsed to block Selina's attempt of a escape. The strong-willed female did her best not to lose it.

A guts of air came through the office which misdirected the flames. The sprinkler systems, which had been jammed earlier, returned back to life and started to douse the flames. Seconds later, someone grabbed Selina in his arms and the windows shattered around them.

"Hold on."

Selina didn't need any more reinforcement. The thief wrapped her arms around him tightly and they dropped down. More explosions came from the building. Fires shot into the air as the firebug wanted to make sure his job was done. Or maybe he had been hired to do a job against Falcone.

Or maybe those potentially incriminating documents had been moved there to be torched, and Falcone hired him. Selina wondered if she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The dust cleared and Catwoman found herself wrapped up in the arms of Nightwing. Something shielded them from the effects of the explosion. Selina didn't know what. All she cared was she was alive.

"So, you're alright?" Nightwing asked.

"Other the smoke inhalation, I'll be fine," Catwoman said, coughing for a brief moment. She shook her head. "You know, I know you're always into hot pussy, but I think this takes things a little bit too far and way too literal."

' _She just had to go there, didn't she?'_ Karen asked.

' _Of course, it's Selina, she would have to go there,'_ Faora thought.

Nightwing stared for long and hard at Catwoman. The woman's chest rose ad lowered, and a sheepish grin spread over her face.

"I know it's bad," Catwoman said, pulling away from him. A bit of her costume looked charred and reminded Selina how close she came from turning into one bad kitty, extra crispy. "And I swear, I'll never make such a bad pun ever again for as long as I live…which I intend to be longer than tonight."

The woman's chest inhaled for a moment. The fact the Gotham City air was a relief to her, showed how disgusting the air inside this building turned.

"Guess, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time," Catwoman said. "It's the story of my life, really."

"No, you're actually where the Penguin wanted you to be," Nightwing said.

"So, he got something up his ass about me swiping a bauble from underneath his nose," Catwoman said. She gritted her teeth. "Typical man."

"Really makes me feel good," Nightwing said.

"Well, to be fair, you're not a typical man…you're an atypical one," Catwoman said, leaning back for a moment. "So, you really think this firebug character has been sent by the Penguin to snuff me out."

"I have a pretty good idea he did," Harry responded. "And he's Firefly, real name is Garfield Lynns. Normally he's an arsonist, or at least he was until Batman took him down last year. And he was thought perish in an explosion."

Catwoman responded with one of the more obvious snorts someone could ever give. She knew exactly how a situation like this worked. They always said to perish into the night, but there was something else more than met the eye. There was always something more than met the eye.

"You're not buying it, are you?" Harry asked.

"No, never," Catwoman said, walking closer towards him with a smile. "And if I know you, you're not buying a word of this either, are you?"

Harry had to admit he didn't really buy it all too much either. The two of them parted ways for a moment. Nightwing resolved to keep a closer eye on her.

* * *

The news of another not so fine member of the Gotham City Police Department dying brought Batman out of patrol and onto the scene of the crime. Batman ran into these crime scenes numerous times over the past many months. He even came about the scene mere moments after the cop killer decided to leave.

"And again, the cop killer strikes," Alfred said. "Do you think we're getting any close to pinning down a viable suspect?"

"There are plenty of viable suspects," Batman said. "But, there's no clear evidence, don't forget that."

"Of course not, sir, I wouldn't dare to forget," Alfred said, not even wanting to discount the fact. The fabled Wayne family butler took a deep breath. "I think you're getting rather obsessed with this, sir. Eventually whoever is behind this is bound to slip up and you'll be able to nail them with something."

"They haven't slipped up so far Alfred."

Batman dropped down and took a look around the area. The cop killer grew more daring with every last attack. The attacks seemed minor at first, almost like they could be chalked up as a coincidence. Each passing attack grew more daring.

Last month, the cop killer's attack on Carlos Alvarez showed how brazen they could get, and also offered one of the most vital clues, even if said clue went into the realm of circumstantial evidence.

' _The cop killer can easily access the GCPD,'_ Batman thought. _'They may have still been in the same room or close by when the news had been broken.'_

Rachel refused to talk about what happened thanks to it being an ongoing investigation. Bruce respected her conviction in many ways, even though it made his job a bit less hard.

"Hang on, Alfred, I have a call on the other line," Batman said, switching through. "Yes, Oracle."

"Firefly is back," Oracle said. "He just attacked one of Falcone's hotels and torched it to the ground."

"There's more, isn't there?" Batman asked.

Garfield Lynns not being dead didn't surprise Batman. Only a fool would think someone to be dead just because no corpse had been located by the GCPD. Batman dropped down in the middle of the alleyway and noticed a figure standing a bit off of the side. His apparence proved Batman was not alone in taking a look at this cop killer investigation.

"He trapped Catwoman in one of the offices in an attempt to kill her," Oracle said.

"He's gone from arsonist to assassin for hire," Batman said.

"Or being burned nearly to death has driven him mad," Oracle offered. "Lynns is lucky to be alive if he survived the fire. If it's him and not some copycat."

Batman considered the possibility for a few seconds before promptly discounting any thought of this Firefly being a copy-cat.

"You think it's the same guy, don't you?" Oracle asked.

"Yes, I'll keep a look out for him," Batman said.

Batman didn't even need to explain why. Lynns had the personality of a type who would blame Batman for all of his misfortunes despite the fact the man caused the fire.

"Keep me posted on any more news."

Batman dismissed the call and walked up behind James Gordon. Gordon turned around and almost took a step back when he saw Batman. The older man's heart looked to be racing.

"One of these days, you're going to give me a heart attack sneaking up on me like that," Gordon said, half-grumbling. His tone softened a little bit and dropped to a whisper. "This isn't the best place….there are two cops around the corner, they're trying to track down a witness who saw Davies seconds before he got shot."

"Is the witness credible?" Batman asked.

Gordon responded with a heaving sigh. Batman just asked what was always the one million dollar question in Gotham City. Questions about the credibility of the witness? Gordon didn't really know how to best answer this at any time, never mind right now.

"He's about as credible as we're going to get now," Gordon said. "And until we get any more leads, he's the best chance we have of nailing the cop killer."

Batman responded with a brief nod directed towards Gordon. One look at the cop showed how he lived the same nightmare as Batman over the last couple of months.

"If I had just come down the stairs sooner, I might have seen the cop killer," Gordon said.

"Do you really think it would have been this easy?" Batman asked.

Gordon paused and considered Batman's crisp comment for a moment. The officer shook his head.

"No, I don't have anything to hide," Gordon said. "But, what's stopping the cop killer from turning from killing only the dirty cops, to taking out all of the cops in some misguided attempt to fix Gotham City? Or from silencing a good cop from stopping them?"

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions," Batman said.

Batman went over this particular statement in his mind constantly. Suiting up and fighting crime lead him down an extremely dangerous path as well. The Detective knew one wrong move could prove to be a pretty dangerous downfall for him and anyone who stood with him in his crusade.

"Justice will stop them in the end," Batman said.

"Justice in Gotham City, many would laugh at the very notion," Gordon said. Batman reflected one of those looks back towards Gordon. "But, justice is the only thing which keeps us hoping in a normally hopeless town."

Batman responded with one of the most poignant nods he could give. Gordon wondered if he could press him further on something.

"Do you have any idea about the masked crusader who is currently maiming some of the low-level mobsters in Gotham City?" Gordon asked.

"I don't endorse whoever she is," Batman said.

Gordon didn't do anything, but shudder at the vehement statement given from Batman regarding the vigilante. One assumed this closed the manner. Gordon didn't for a second believe Batman would have anything to do with this other mysterious vigilante haunting the Gotham City night. The methods made Gordon a little bit uncomfortable, and he doubted he would be the only one not to have the most comfortable thoughts regarding this new vigilante.

"I figured as much," Gordon said, just seconds before Bullock and Montoya went around the corner. "You better….."

The word "go" didn't quite leave Gordon's mouth. Batman already disappeared into the night and left Gordon standing in the middle of the alleyway. The normally unflappable cop stood shaken up and left behind. He wished the interview lasted a bit longer, but knew why it couldn't. Being seen with Batman, despite not officially existing, would be political suicide for pretty much every single member of the Gotham City police department.

"So, what did you find out?" Gordon asked, returning to a professional manner one expected of him.

"Another dead end," Montoya said.

"Not to mention another deadbeat, Jimbo," Bullock said. "The guy saw anything….well it doesn't remember."

Bullock wouldn't cry for Mitch Davies, not at all. He was lower down on the list of scumbags than a couple the cop killer popped off, which meant the cop killer closed in on Bullock's tier.

* * *

Nightwing imitated a particular demonic blood hound when going through Gotham City in search for Firefly. The best way to get Harry's attention was to perform a near barbeque on one of his girls. Selina's ability to handle herself, Harry knew all about.

"Lynns is more dangerous than ever before," Oracle said. "He's…"

Nightwing would have to wait to get the rest of Barbara's statement. The dragon dropped from the skies and came face to face with Firefly. Firefly turned his attention towards Nightwing.

"Well, it's you," Firefly said. "One of Gotham City's heroes. The funny thing is, you're just wasting your time….heroes fall. Heroes die, and heroes burn."

The flamethrower kicked and small flames shot out as a warning shot. Harry could see Lynns had some highly explosive fire bombs on him as well. One of those thrown into the middle of a population building could be messy.

"You're not Batman," Firefly said. "You'll do nicely. Do you realize I got burns over ninety-five percent of my body thanks to Batman?"

' _When he says over ninety-five percent of his body…do you think he means…well you know,'_ Amanda thought, mentally trailing off at the words.

' _I don't want to know,'_ Emily thought, shuddering.

' _It would explain a whole lot though,'_ Barbara added. _'Harry, he's going to try something.'_

' _I see the crazy look in his eyes,'_ Harry thought.

"You played with fire," Nightwing said, stepping closer. He needed to time this exactly right. One fire bomb out of place and the biggest fire since the Great Chicago Fire was going to be hit. "And you got burned."

"Fire and I just had a misunderstanding," Firefly said. "Now, we're going to work together as one. United in holy matrimony in destroying you, Nightwing!"

One of the fire bombs flew into the air and smashed into Nightwing hard. The hero spontaneously combusted from the fire nailing his suit hard. Firefly laughed like a madman as his eyes followed the progress of the fire as it appeared to engulf Nightwing.

Nightwing lunged forward and punched Firefly which caused him to fly back. The firebombs launched into the air. Harry waved his hand and prevented them from smashing onto the ground to cause the great Gotham City fire. Harry summoned water from a nearby fountain and doused himself.

' _We know the flame proof material on the suit works,'_ Faora thought. _'Really though, was it the best way to really test it?'_

' _It was the only way to test it right now.'_

Firefly couldn't believe this. He had the tank on his back.

"Fine, you've survived round one!" Firefly shouted. "Let's see if you can stand up to me really scorching you!"

The fire ball caught Nightwing in the chest one more time. A shield appeared around him on the shield of his costume. Nightwing pushed back and knocked Firefly back a couple of steps. Firefly stepped back for an instant. The suit protected him from the flames just as much.

"I don't care if I burn!" Firefly yelled, aiming a blast of fire at one of the scattered firebombs. Nightwing swept in to pull them out of the way. "I don't care if the rest of my skin burns off….all I care is I'm going to take you down in a blazing inferno with me. Myself and my sweet mistress fire will be together as one!"

A ring of fire surrounded Harry on the ground and began to close into the firebombs. Firefly started to laugh. Harry vibrated his hand and caused the flames to shoot back around and nail Firefly.

"You want fire's warm embrace?" Harry asked. "Here you go."

Firefly swung his arms around in an attempt to get the flames off of him. The tank on his back began engulfed in flames. Firefly flung the tank off after the mistake of what happened last time. Seconds paused before the tank exploded and sent Firefly and Nightwing flying forward.

The fire engulfed the ground and started to spread in many directions. The wind started to blow and the fire bombs on the ground rolled in the direction of the fire. Tension rose to a brand new level with Harry watching the direction where the fire bombs flew at.

Harry tried to focus on putting out the fire. Firefly laughed and started to kick one of the fire bombs towards the flames.

"We're going out in a blaze of glory….."

A whirling of a siren interrupted Firefly's manic monologue. A huge burst of water from the fire hose shot out and nailed Firefly right across the chest to send him flying into the fountain. Firefly became dripping wet.

Harry closed his eyes and levitated the entire fountain with Firefly in it. The strain proved to be almost too much. The alternative was even worse. Harry caused the fountain to rise up.

Heart beat quickly against Harry's chest and resounded with a war drum beat over his chest. Firefly flew out of the fountain and almost dove onto his precious fire.

The firebombs began to freeze and transfigure into water. They exploded into water bombs and doused the fire before it caused any more damage.

Firefly crawled on the ground and tried to reach towards his flame thrower to see if it had any juice left in it. A high heel boot pressed down on Firefly's wrist and pinned him down.

"Guess you're nothing, but a wet match in a dark cave now," Catwoman said, grinding the point of the boot into his wrist. "Whatever, Penguin paid for you, I hope he didn't put any money down."

Firefly's face cracked underneath Catwoman's boot. She turned to Nightwing and looked over him with a smile crossing her face.

"He's all yours, handsome," Catwoman said, with a smile, disappearing into the night.

Nightwing realized Catwoman commandeered a fire truck to get here. The fire hose attack came in handy and distracted Firefly long enough for Harry to get done. All of his dangerous toys had been busted and the fires all were put out.

' _Great, now I can drop dead in peace,'_ Harry said.

' _So, how many fingers am I'm holding up?'_ Amanda thought.

' _Amanda, you're the manifestation of a thought in my mind, technically you're not holding up any fingers,'_ Harry thought, protecting an image of frustration.

' _Actually, she's holding up one finger…and it isn't exactly the nicest hand gesture possible,'_ Barbara thought with an amused chuckle. _'We're being really mature now. I thought you girls were getting to be more mature now you're trying to take a leading role in class.'_

' _I had a relapse,'_ Amanda said. _'It happens to the best of us…and like you don't have a salty hand gesture every now and then.'_

Harry pulled himself away from the bond banter. The injuries could have been far worse without his protective coating. The feeling of fatigue almost left Harry's body when he pulled away from the scene of the crime. He spared Lynns one last look to see if he had been strung up properly.

The moment Harry noticed Lynns would not be going anywhere, he departed from the scene of the crime. This would be a night Harry wouldn't forget as long as he lived. Not he wouldn't try to move on from this.

' _Won't forget almost being set on fire, would you?'_ Faora thought. _'I wouldn't blame you at all if you tried to block it out of your mind.'_

' _I'm trying to keep a reasonable head about myself,'_ Harry thought. The sounds of girls being skeptical had been brought into Harry's mind. _'A fool's errand, I know.'_

Harry heard the sounds of the GCPD and sent a quick message to Sarah.

' _I'll leave him in your hands.'_

* * *

Ellen Yin and Sarah Essen made their way to Gotham Avenue Park where the rumors of a huge firefight reached the two of them. Fire being the key word given the person rumored to have rolled back into Gotham City.

"Lynns," Ellen said. "Are we sure it's him this time?"

Sarah didn't want to confirm or deny this one way or another. The fact was they knew the GCPD never recovered Lynns from the fire where he had been caught in months back. Some decided to assume he died and the case had been close. Some people in Gotham jumped the gun to consider the case closed without a body.

"I don't know, we'll find out," Sarah said.

"If he did survive, surely he couldn't have been in a good state?" Ellen asked.

Sarah answered with a brisk nod. Her partner pointed out a logical situation. The problem Sarah noticed in cases with the costumed lot in Gotham City had to do with the lack of logic. Logic took a very distinct backseat to the colorful criminals in Gotham City. The two women turned around the corner and noticed a bright red fire truck.

"We can see the where the stolen firetruck ended up," Sarah said.

Firefly made like a pendulum to swing back and forth. The man twitched when the air hit him. One could take a look at his mask and see how much it had been torn in the battle. Sarah approached him for a second. The cop saw it all in Gotham City. The disfigurement of the man's face told Sarah one thing and one thing only.

"Lucky to have survived the fire," Sarah said, before managing to assert a more impressive stance. "Garfield Lynns, you are under arrest for multiple counts of Arson. You have the right to remain silent…."

"HORRIBLE!" Lynns yelled at the top of his lungs interruption Sarah's reading of the rights. "It was horrible…he killed it…he killed it all!"

Sarah tried to cast Ellen a warning look for her not to say anything. Curiosity got the better of the younger cop who leaned towards Lynns and stared him down.

"What did he kill?" Ellen asked, managing to keep a calm tone to her voice. "Mr. Lynns, you're not making any sense?"

"IT WAS HORRIBLE!" Lynns yelled in a blood curdling shriek like someone murdered him.

Lynn continued to sob and shake. He kept screaming out "HORRIBLE" before he sobbed more.

' _Harry, what did you do to him?'_ Sarah asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

' _I just put out the fire and disabled his little toys,'_ Harry thought. _'And apparently, not being surrounded by fire has caused him to have a bit of a mental break.'_

"It was supposed to be beautiful! It was supposed to be wonderful. It was supposed to be my masterpiece! Gotham City was supposed to be scorched underneath horrific flames! Every man, woman, and child would go up in smoke. It was supposed to be paradise, my destiny even!"

Lynns had been tied up. The man almost collapsed down in a sobbing. People who lost family members freaked out less than this. The sound of metal clanking against wrist didn't even bring Garfield Lynns out of this.

"He's not a dragon, he's a demon!" Lynns yelled. "He's a super natural water-bending monster who seeks to extinguish the flames…she's not there anymore. She's not giving me any guidance. Oh, why…why…just when we bonded once again? WHY!"

Ellen and Sarah half expected an attempted escape form Lynns. Both of them held the man up to try and prevent him from doing so.

"Have to stop him…Gotham would have been ashes…it would have been so beautiful!" Lynns yelled. "I don't know why you're arresting me. Not the criminal, he is!"

Sarah realized Lynns finally snapped out of his funk just enough to realize he had been pulled into the back of the Gotham City squad car.

' _Months in isolation hadn't made him any less nuts,'_ Sarah thought. _'If anything, it caused him to lose his mind even more.'_

Sarah caught Ellen's eye. Ellen snapped away from the crazed man to her partner.

"Another one for the Arkham ward?" Ellen asked.

"Yes," Sarah said. "We better call this one in."

The Arkham Ward became a bit more crowded than anyone would have liked to see. Both of them thought there would need to be an extension. A lot of people discussed moving forward in rebuilding Arkham Asylum to hold the new wave of mentally disturbed prisoners.

The old Asylum did not have the most stirring reputation in the world. Present doctors ended up future patients seventy percent of the time.

Lynns continued to babble and rock himself silly. He felt no pain given the dull nerve endings. Fire made him happy and Nightwing took it away from him.

The man eventually sobbed himself into a stupor which made most of the trip oddly tranquil.

* * *

Catwoman returned from a long trip around the city. She didn't much like being made out to be a dupe. The crafty burgular may have duped the Penguin. It still didn't give him just cause to send some mad assassin after her.

Selina stopped and could see a figure standing on the rooftop. After the night he had, Selina wasn't expecting him to be up and about. Curiosity killed the cat or at least drew her into some potentially hostile waters. Catwoman decided to redirect her trip home and came face to face on the rooftop with him.

"So, are you okay?" Nightwing asked.

"I feel like I should be asking you the question," Catwoman said, staring him down. "You were the one who got set on fire….and you're the one who….did what it was you did?"

"I'm sure you're curious about…"

Selina pressed on finger across the man's lips to stop him from speaking. The two stared eye to eye with each other, neither saying a word to the other.

"Curious, yes," Selina said. "You have your secrets. I'm the last person in the world to accuse someone of keeping things from people. Especially considering it would be for a very good reason."

"Indeed," Nightwing said. "Has tonight showed you the dangers of pushing people away?"

Catwoman pondered his words. She came close to cracking, yet at the same time did not say anything. A near death experience lead many people down an interesting path of self-discovery. The talented thief lied if she thought this entire adventure did not open up the door for something else.

' _Maybe, I should have stopped fighting a long time ago,'_ Selina thought.

"Damn it, I hate you."

At these words, their lips met with a kiss. Catwoman's tongue sought entry into Nightwing's mouth. He returned fire as good as he received. The two of them continued to delve deep inside each other's mouths with a kiss with each other. Selina instinctively pushed her hips forward.

The two of them broke apart. The cleavage kept poking into Nightwing's face. Harry noticed her nipples poking out a little bit, begging to be pinched and sucked. And in due time, they would be.

"You're still sending mixed messages, aren't you?" Harry asked.

"A little bit," Selina said, smiling when cupping his handsome face and looking into his bright green eyes. "The masks hide who we truly are…or so people think?"

"Some might say the masks are who we truly are," Harry said.

Selina smiled in response, glad to see Harry got the message loud and clear. Their lips met in the center with another passionate kiss. Soft lips connected with each other and their tongues wrestled for domination. Harry pushed further into Selina's mouth with the hunger increasing.

"And maybe it's time to stop hiding," Harry said. "Maybe it's time to be more transparent with each other."

Selina heard the suggestion and considered it for a moment.

"I never wanted you to….."

Harry took his turn to press a finger onto Selina's lips to silence her this time. She responded by playfully nibbling on his finger which caused Harry to be distracted for a moment. The distraction didn't last for too long when Harry looked into her eyes and smiled.

"You know, I was going to be a part of this insanity whether we want it or not," Harry said. "And you know if there was a choice….I wouldn't be."

"Isn't there, though?" Selina asked.

"No more there is for you," Harry said.

Harry's words gave Selina something to think on. Putting on the costume of Nightwing gave him a purpose. Putting on the costume of Catwoman gave her a purpose, or so it seemed. It also allowed Selina to step back and shield herself from some demons.

"Did you not think you were worthy?" Harry asked. Selina answered with a smile and looked directly towards him. "Given how bold you've been before, not thinking you're worthy is pretty shocking."

Selina didn't expect it either.

"Something about you….I swear," Selina said. "I don't know what it is…."

Harry grabbed her head and captured it into another kiss which caused Selina's feelings of self-doubt to flush from her body. She held herself back from fully accepting this relationship with Harry. Fear spread through her of what the consequences of her would be.

"Maybe we can figure it out," Harry said, pulling away from Selina. The dark haired temptress's swollen lips made her look extremely beautiful.

Selina's lips twitched into a smile, despite her frustration of how this situation spiraled out of control for her.

"Maybe we can," Selina said, resting her hand on Harry's chest and slowly running her finger down the logo on it. "So, what happens now with us? No more masks….no more bullshit?"

"It's up to you," Harry said.

"Really?" Selina asked, leaning in closer towards Harry. She nibbled the crime fighter's ear, leaving a playful love bite behind it. "I know what I want now."

* * *

Sara Lance stirred awake. The stench of fish brought her awake. The younger Lance sister laid on the deck of a ship. It took her a few moments to come to and remember what happened. Sara tried to pull herself to a standing position. The normally self-sufficient female collapsed, being too weak to do anything of value.

The blonde strained her hearing in an attempt to listen at what they were saying. They didn't say anything in a language she could understand. The body language and the looks they gave her nubile body made Sara become on edge.

She had been saved from drowning only to be made a sex slave for a rowdy group of ships.

"No, stay away from me!" Sara yelled, trying to roll away, but one of the muscled men grabbed her and pulled her back into the ship.

Sara couldn't even fight. It made her hate life to be so weak at this point.

A sound of something striking the side of the ship caused the men to abandon their intentions for Sara. Another impact hit the side of the ship and caused the men to stagger back.

' _Great, am I going to be in my second ship wreck this week?'_ Sara thought, clenching onto the side of the mattress she rested on.

No sounds, other than the boarding of the ship, followed. Sara's blurred vision caught sight of several women dressed in dark battled uniforms. Masks pulled over their face. The captain of the ship said something.

The leader of this crew of women stabbed the captain straight through the heart. The crew were no match for this group of skilled women.

Bodies dropped around Sara. She barely could hold her head up to see what was going on.

A splash announced one of the crew members jumped into the water decided to take his chances in swimming with the sharks then going against these people.

The battle between ninjas and pirates concluded with ninjas winning a short, but brutal battle. Sara lapsed into a slightly catatonic state.

"Sara, it will be over soon," a soft voice said.

"Mom," Sara breathed, before going under completely.

"Nothing?" the leader of this group of ninjas asked.

"Our lead was wrong."

Nyssa Al Ghul frowned. She would have liked to have found out what they looked for was on their ship. A rumor traveled into her ears the White Ghost moved Ra's Al Ghul.

"She's the only one left on the ship?" Nyssa asked, eyes casted on the blonde.

The blond looked somewhat familiar to her, although Nyssa would not be the one to go towards assumptions. Harry accurately stated they were the tools of fools.

"Yes, but I doubt she has much time left," one of them said.

"Don't assume," Nyssa said. "I'm duty bound to see if there's anything which can be done."

Nyssa might have hit bust on a lead regarding her father. It didn't matter now; she stumbled upon something more interesting.

' _Always did have a soft spot for cute blondes.'_

The League prepared to bring this mysterious blonde, with a massive amount of injuries, onto the ship. Time was of the essence for her.

**To Be Continued on March 21** **st** **, 2016.**

* * *

_So it's time for the return of director's notes. Where I try and explain where my mind was in this chapter._

_Firefly's return makes him more batshit than ever before. Losing a lot of your flesh will do it to you._

_Penguin's setbacks are just beginning. One has to wonder how much he will take before he snaps._

_Okay "burning pussy" joke might have been just a little bit corny, but I couldn't resist._

_Selina, after fighting the bond, which must have been a year story time (far longer real time), is finally starting to cave in. The girl's stubborn, but so is Harry._

_Sara gets picked up by human-trafficking pirates. In the grand nature of story-telling, the ship is boarded by the League, and Ms. Nyssa Al Ghul. Granted, Sara really isn't really of sound mind or health right now to tell Nyssa who she is. Whether or not Nyssa suspects, well I'll leave it under my hat for right now._

_There are more sinister forces afoot here as well._

_Until Monday(yes, three Ascension chapter weeks coming up for the next two weeks for...reasons)._


	171. Cat in the Crossfire Part Three

_Week Eleven Story of the Week Voting on My Blog. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/  
_

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-One: Cat in the Crossfire Part Three.**

* * *

Selina bounced up and down on Harry's hard prick. The dark haired vixen rose all the way off of him and pushed down onto Harry, filling herself up with his manhood. The woman purred and leaned down for Harry to get access to her eager breasts. Selina clenched onto him with a few more thrusts, lowering down onto his manhood.

"Yes," Selina said, thrusting her chest into Harry's eager hands when they kept working him over. "Right there….OOOH, RIGHT THERE!"

Harry squeezed Selina's huge melons. The two of them had been going at this for an extremely long time. Selina maintained a steady pace of riding Harry's thick organ. Every inch of Harry's engorged prick buried into her body. The gorgeous vixen looked like a naughty angel.

"You're going to cum soon," Harry said, cupping Selina's generous tit flesh. "And you're going to enjoy it when it happens, aren't you?"

"Yes!" Selina yelled, bouncing up higher on his prick. The energy coursed through their body.

Harry entered her mind and hit all of the pleasure points. Selina could not believe how much she submitted. Even in submission, Selina attempted to maintain some level of control. Her slick walls rubbed up and down Harry's thick and probing shaft to stretch her out on his massive cock.

"Cum for me, Selina," Harry said. "I want to hear my naughty little kitty purr."

Selina panted with her large breasts bouncing. The vixen rode up and down on her lover again, putting him deep inside her depths. The heat engulfed around the other side of Harry's manhood.

The orgasm rocked Selina's entire body. She kept pushing down upon him, driving herself down cunt first onto Harry's massive pole. The thick organ brought her to the edge one more time.

Harry marveled at the fact Selina did not let up, and why wouldn't she let up? Harry had her at the crossroads and would make her scream in pleasure when she came over and over again.

"I want your seed," Selina said, pushing her walls against him.

"Good things come to those who wait."

Selina tried to protest she didn't want to wait. The woman's moans escalated with a few more bounces upon Harry's thick prick. The manhood stretched out Selina's center and buried deep inside her. The dark haired temptress rose all the way up with each push.

Another orgasm passed over Selina's body. She maintained her stride.

"I think you've earned this now."

Selina wanted to ask what she earned. It turned out to be another orgasm with rolled through her body. Selina rode out the process of her own orgasm upon Harry's thick cock. Her wet vice clenched him in an attempt to milk him.

"Oh, yes, fuck me raw, I've been a bad little kitty!" Selina yelled. "And now your bad little kitty wants all of her cream?"

The slick tightness of Selina's pussy muscles squeezed Harry. He grunted and pushed up. Harry launched a heavy amount of seed inside her.

"Yes, fuck yes ,paint my walls white!" Selina gasped. Harry reached up and groped her breasts to allow her to continue the immense ride the two of them shared. "Fuck me….fuck me harder!"

Harry launched an immense load of seed into her pussy. Every last drop of Harry's cum buried inside her. Selina didn't hold up and kept riding herself through several more orgasms.

Another round concluded and Selina pulled off of Harry. The seductive cat burgular's hot lips wrapped around Harry's manhood and she started to suck him off. Selina swirled her tongue around him to get a good taste of the combination the two of them created through their copulation.

"Damn, Selina!" Harry groaned, feeling the suction effect grow around his cock and balls.

Selina turned around, pulling off of his manhood. The dark haired vixen got onto her hands and knees to show her.

"My kitty needs to be played with again," Selina said, rubbing her lips invitingly towards Harry. Juices coated her fingers. "Would you pound my sweet little pussy with your big strong cock?"

Harry groaned and could see Selina spread her legs. She added to the appeal by sticking three pussy juice coated fingers between her soft lips. Selina's moans grew increasingly hard.

"You asked for it!"

Harry punctuated this last statement by shoving his thick cock deep inside Selina's hot snatch. The wetness of her pussy closed around him. Harry held onto her hips and pushed himself inside her. Harry groaned, feeling a wonderful feeling begin to churn up the edge of his balls when he kept stuffing Selina full.

"Stuff me full of your cock!" Selina yelled. "Really make me fucking cum all over your big, gorgeous, prick!"

Selina's walls tightened around him. Harry clutched her ass to gain the leverage and really pounded away on her. The beautiful moans showed Harry what Selina wanted, and he would be damned to deny her.

The dark haired-temptress experienced amazing bliss from Harry pushing his thick manhood into her wanton walls. Every time Harry pushed inside her, Selina experienced a jolt of energy. The jolts grew more increasing.

"You're born to be fucked hard and fast aren't you?" Harry asked, reaching around and fondling her huge breasts.

"Yes," Selina breathed, digging her nails into the bed. Harry speared inside her hard from behind. "The harder, the faster, the better, wreck my pretty little pussy! Drive me completely mad…totally mad….GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!"

Harry gave Selina everything he had for her. He pushed towards a brand new limit, stuffing his thick prick inside Selina's wet and hot cunt.

Selina clenched down onto Harry with the incoming orgasm. She allowed herself to sigh at the sensations of his cock jamming into her. Harry copied the movements of a piston to plow inside Selina's pussy with ruthless efficiently.

The hard, fast, and rough sex got her motor running. Selina lost herself to the thrill of his stiff cock which buried into her sweet and hungry little pussy.

"More, so much more, give me everything," Selina mewled underneath his thrusts.

Harry held onto her ass and reared back before letting Selina have it with a super hard thrust. The thick organ buried inside Selina's squeezing snatch. The contents in Harry's balls filled up and continued to plow his way into Selina.

Selina panted, behavior more in line with a dog than a cat. The vixen restrained this behavior instantly. Harry made it extremely difficult with the roaming and probing hands which gripped onto every inch of her flesh.

"And again, you cum."

Selina's pussy submitted to Harry as well. The bloated contents of his balls brushing up against her dripping slit made Selina want this even more. Every second which passed where she did not receive Harry's seed forced her to burn up inside.

"Almost there," Harry said.

Selina encouraged Harry to pump his sizeable prick into her from behind with a saucy wiggle of her backside. Harry pushed into her depths and kept pounding Selina from behind. The length of Harry's cock going inside her stretched Selina out. Her pussy hungered for even more pleasure.

"Cum for me, I need your sticky seed in me."

"Ladies first."

Selina almost protested how she couldn't be considered a lady. The only thing which stopped Selina was another orgasm gripping her body and stretching her.

Harry pounded Selina's cunt with an intense speed. Every single time Harry filled and emptied her pussy, it tried to keep him inside her. He would not allow this to happen for too long. Harry pulled out with an immense force on her gripping cunt and shoved himself back inside her with another long thrust.

"Oooh, why won't you give me your cum?" Selina asked. "Do you want me to beg for it?"

Harry only responded by toying with Selina's breasts and giving them a handy squeeze. Selina moaned with Harry working his fingers across the juicy nipples. Selina kept breathing heavily with Harry's long thrusts inside her body.

"Begging does help," Harry said.

"Please, give me your cum!" Selina yelled, with Harry reducing her cunt to jelly by pounding her. "I need your seed…my horny, slutty, pussy needs to be filled with your sticky cum. Fucking drill me and fill my pussy up with your nasty cum!"

Those words combined with her cunt muscles squeezing him with the force of a python caused the tension in Harry's balls to be released inside Selina's body.

Selina cooed with delight when Harry's heavy balls slapped against her thighs. The contents of them started to spray inside her cunt and fill her up with delight.

Harry brought Selina to one more spectacular orgasm when he finished emptying the contents of his thick balls into her body. The dribbling of juices caused Selina to gasp when Harry pulled out of her.

Selina fell onto the bed, satisfied finally, at least for now.

The aftermath caused Selina to smile and wrap her arms around Harry. A marathon round of sex concluded. While Selina was always up for more as much as the next woman, even she had her limits. Only a few minutes before she could recharge and go into the next round. In the meantime, she settled by draping her arms around Harry and pulling herself up against his chest. The woman's soft breasts rested against Harry's muscular chest.

"So?" Harry asked.

"It's amazing as usual," Selina said, running her fingernail down his chest with a smile. The dark haired vixen decided to blink for a moment. "Actually…."

"Was it a bit more amazing now you finally let me inside your head?" Harry asked.

"You were perfect before," Selina said, smiling and blowing a lock of hair out from over Harry's face. "I didn't think you could improve upon perfection, but you made a believer out of me."

Selina draped herself further onto Harry. She wondered if her entire life had been changed this time. Nothing would be quite the same, not now and not ever again. Selina wondered if some other things would have changed in her life.

' _So, how exactly does this thing work?'_ Selina asked, entering their minds. _'I've gotten slight awareness of it…but I pushed it out….each month, you made it harder to justify it.'_

' _It works where if you need to reach out to us, we'll be there,'_ a familiar voice said.

' _Alex, it's good to hear you….although I'm not sure if I like the idea of my girlfriend being in my head twenty four hours a day, seven days a week,'_ Selina said. The woman's lips pushed into a pouting expression and her breasts started to expand and contract every time she considered this. _'No offense, I like the company. And I'm sure if there's sometimes where I get bored, having the company will keep me out of trouble.'_

' _Which you should endeavor to do on your own more often,'_ Faora, known to the public world and Selina, as Alexandra Potter, stated to her girlfriend. _'I'd like to alleviate your concerns. There's no way we're going to butt in unless there's an absolute emergency. If there was any way to communicate this to you before, we would have done so. And maybe you would have joined the fun and games in the bond sooner.'_

Selina thought about it for a few seconds, deciding to shift her weight against Harry. Only one word passed through her lips.

"Maybe," Selina said, lightly playing with Harry's hair.

' _And I'm going to have to get used to not talking out loud when I'm responding to people talking in my head,'_ Selina thought. _'Shouldn't be too hard to do so though.'_

' _Best this happen now, and now when you're in public, in a group of a bunch of people,'_ Alex inputted. _'The Alphas only turn on the bond access to those who have been deemed worthy. Some girls are on a probationary period. For one reason or another, they haven't been proven.'_

' _So, not just everyone Harry sleeps with gets on the bond link?'_ Selina thought. _'Which is good, because the bond would be a muddled mess if so.'_

' _Are you calling me a man-whore?'_ Harry asked, raising his eyebrow at Selina.

' _Honey, we love you for it.'_

Selina leaned in and planted another passionate kiss upon Harry's lips. The two of them looked to be resuming their activities from earlier. It started late last night and went straight into the morning.

"Good thing about running your own business is you make your own hours," Selina said, looking at Harry with a smile. The green-eyed vixen shifted her weight.

' _It does help with your nocturnal activities,'_ Faora thought. _'Make your own hours and focus on what you're doing. And if you don't mind me for asking, what are you doing?'_

Selina paused for a moment. On the one hand, she really didn't want to tip off what the plan was for what Catwoman did. On the other hand, Selina figured given them a general idea of the situation didn't really hurt. The veil lifted a little bit. Selina needed to clutch on to some secrets.

' _This is a vendetta,'_ Selina thought. _'I know, it seems like a bit much, and maybe I'm pushing things too hard. You just got to put yourselves in my shoes for a minute and see where I'm coming from.'_

' _Don't worry,'_ Harry thought, squeezing her hand which dangled onto his chest. _'I know where you're coming from, believe me.'_

Selina smiled, glad someone knew where she headed right now.

' _This has to stem with something one of the Falcones did,'_ Faora thought. Selina responded with a hmm, and the Kryptonian posing as Alexandra Potter smiled. _'And judging by the non-reaction, I'm guessing….'_

' _As you may have guessed, I think I have a few issues,'_ Selina thought. _'And I'm beginning to think some of those issues have issues. Regardless, there's a lot about my past you don't know. Or maybe you do. You do seem to be the type who does their homework on the people you get involved with. You know, before getting into bed with them.'_

Harry smiled, both literally and figuratively. Selina hit the nail on the head with some room to spare.

' _Regardless,'_ Selina thought, pausing for a long second and considering something. _'There's a whole lot about myself which I want to figure out. And if Falcone is who I think he is, then there's a reckoning there.'_

' _I hope you don't go biting off more than you can chew,'_ Alex thought.

' _I'll have you know the entire mess with the Penguin was not intentional,'_ Selina thought. _'No intention of pissing the bird man off. Of course, he just made an enemy out of me by hiring some goon to set me on fire. And give what he tried to do to Harry….he'd be better off getting scratched off the list.'_

' _I wouldn't underestimate him,'_ Harry said.

Selina smiled and leaned towards him, planting a light kiss upon Harry's lips. The two of them matched lip to lip with Selina nibbling on the lower end of Harry's lip, swirling her tongue deep inside it. The two detached from each other for a moment.

"It's been a long night," Selina said, swinging out of her bed. The vixen sauntered across the bedroom with her naked body fully on display. Harry admired the tantalizing sight of her ass swaying when Selina started to walk away from him. "And a sticky night….I need a shower."

Selina took a moment to peer over her shoulder. The bedroom eyes had not burned out despite several hours of rough sex. If anything else, they intensified. Harry rose up from the bed and Selina reached forward to grab his hand. The woman gripped another part of his body and woke it up from a momentary slumber.

"Sorry," Selina said, eying his crotch in the most shameless manner possible. Her tongue traveled over the edge of her ample lips. "My aim this morning will be off…good thing yours is."

Harry smacked Selina across the rear which caused her to jump halfway up into the air. The two of them locked eyes with each other.

"I'd say it is."

"Certainly," Selina said, leading him into the shower, large breasts pressing against Harry's muscular chest.

' _And suddenly, I wish I was there,'_ Alex thought from the bond.

' _And what's stopping you from coming over and joining us?'_ Selina asked, leaning over and turning on the head of the shower. Her ass stuck out towards Harry in the most inviting and tantalizing manner possible.

' _Can't, I'm stuck in meetings all morning in Metropolis,'_ Alex thought. _'Karen and I both….a couple of pressing business deals we'd like to get going.'_

' _Oh, meetings, my condolences,'_ Selina said, a Cheshire cat grin popping over her face. _'I'll be thinking of you…and I'm sure you might be able to feel this through the bond…does it work that way?'_

' _Yes, we can feel pleasure though the bond,'_ Faora confirmed. _'Which can lead to some pretty kinky situations if you just use your imagination and think about it.'_

' _Believe me, I'm already using my imagination,'_ Selina said, a crisp smile appearing over her face. _'And I'm already thinking about it.'_

Selina and Harry entered the shower to get clean after the events of the past night. They would get clean, before getting extremely dirty again.

* * *

A figure dressed in black garb took a couple of steps forward to an arched set of doors. This man saw battle against some of the fiercest warriors in the world. This warrior showed no fear under many normal circumstances and refused to be brought down by anything at all. The assassin boasted of scars underneath his black garb. A few joints didn't work the way they should have any more.

The attack from the League on the ship left him as the only survivor. He managed to get back to the mainland. The man in black suspected the League only left him alive to tell the tale of what happened to his master.

The figure raised a hand and wondered if he should do this. Many had walked into the lair of their master. Very few walked out of said lair in one piece.

' _No fear,'_ the man mentally thought. _'No fear.'_

The man's knuckles rapped across the door. A long pause followed before a deep voice rumbled on the other side of the door.

"Enter."

The assassin opened up the doors and stepped in. The goon's heart started to beat harder against his chest, wondering if he stepped into the picture towards a sudden and obvious goon.

' _No fear.'_

The ninja looked around and could see the room barely illuminated. No hints of modern convenience existed in this room. Torches started to line up against the walls which further lead him inside. The assassin took a couple of steps inside and walked up towards his employer.

The man kneeled down to face the individual sitting upon the throne. A large black banner hung on the wall behind the master. It symbolized the symbol for their organization. A red foot with three toes flickered out from underneath him.

"You have a report?" the man in the shadows asked. "Tell it to me, now!"

The temperature in the room almost dropped at the cold tone from the man's voice. The blood stains which had not been cleaned from the floor dimmed in the light.

"Sir…the ship…the one coming from the South China Sea….."

"It was supposed to dock today," the man in the shadows stated. A pounding echoed in the back of the assassin's head while his master peered back. "Where is the rest of your crew?"

The question the ninja dreaded being asked of hit him with the full force. The ninja tried to stand up to face his master. The man's cold demeanor and the movement in the shadows added to the creepy atmosphere. The fact the ninja only could see the man's eyes, glowing red in a demonic fashion made the ninja stand up.

"The rest of my crew, there has been an attack…..the League of Assassins…they bombarded the ship and attacked us," the assassin said. "I was barely able to escape with my life."

"You were only allowed to escape with your life because the League wanted to live someone alive to taunt me of their success and my failure," the figure in the shadow said. The armored man in the shadows stared down with a sinister glint within his eyes. "This failure reflects badly on me."

"We can take down the League….."

One further flicker of those horrifying eyes shut the assassin up instantly. The henchmen's entire life flashed before him. Two options flashed in the man's mind. He could either sit here and take his death with honor. Or try to fight the death and be destroyed by his master. Neither option settled too well. The leader of this clan left few choices for outs in this organization.

"Ra's Al Ghul may have been put out of commission," the figure said, a throaty growl coming out of the back of his mouth. "His daughters live and there is another associate of the League, the Dreaded Dragon."

Any assassin who learned the history of this organization knew of the history of the dragon. The mystical creature who took on a form of an Alpha male was well feared by male assassins and longed for by female assassins alike.

"Your failure reflects badly on your continued employment in this organization," he said. "And this is something I don't tolerate."

"But….."

"You lost the ship," the figure said, eyes flashing in the darkness. The ninja tried to remain stoic. "And what was on it the ship you lost?"

"A blonde…between the ages of eighteen and twenty-eight," the assassin said. The no-fear mantra he repeated faded into the distance. The attempt to show no fear didn't work at all. In fact, he showed more fear than ever before. "And those are the most highly sought companions in our organization."

"Yes," the master said. "And you lost me money. Several buyers who have paid big for someone like her."

The human trafficking operation this organization underwent had been one of their seedier operations. The monetary gain canceled out the moral obligations.

"And you allowed the League to see it, and now they know what I'm doing," he said. "You and your crew didn't stop them."

"Please, I was lucky to be alive," the assassin said, voice finally breaking.

"Yes, you were lucky," the figure said, a spiked silver gauntlet becoming visible from the shadows. "And also a fool."

The assassin made a movement to fight back. Much too late to even try to do something like this. The spiked gauntlet slashed back and stabbed the unfortunate man in the chest. Blood spurted from his chest when he fell back.

"Another mess," the figure in the shadows said. "May you be reborn in the next life as someone who won't fail your superiors."

The figure remained immobile and watched the man bleed out. The last signs of life left the assassin's blood. Blood spurted from him like a particularly nasty fountain.

The trafficking operations allowed them to sell weapons and drugs to countries in South America, Africa, Asia, and Europe. Slipping his hooks into North America had been rather slow, but doable.

The loss of the shipment was not as damning as the loss of the female on the ship. Women of her ilk fetched a high price and became extremely high in demand. The League would be vigilante in watching for any trafficking efforts.

"Even without the Demon's Head, the League still seeks to cause me difficulties," the figure stated. "And now, it's going to get even worse. And I've lost money thanks to them. This will not go unchallenged. They will be crushed."

The figure's spiked gauntlet lifted up and sparkled into the light. Before the man in the shadows could act, the doors slid open and another member of his organization stepped inside. The figure stopped short at the downed man on the ground. One could see he was a bit thrown off.

"Speak now, and this had better be important," the figure in the shadows said.

"Right, it's important, very important," the man said. "There's a call from TCRI….Mr. Krang wants to speak with you. He says its urgent."

The figure in the shadows almost narrowed his eyes despite it not being visible from underneath the helmet. There was not a doubt in the ninja master's mind his business partner wished to ask something of him.

"Very well, I will speak with him," the figure in the shadows said, leaning forward to show another hint of the silvery armor which flickered out of the light. "Now, leave me."

The messenger, happy he didn't get stabbed for delivering the message, stepped back and nodded. He didn't give the master any type of opportunity to change his mind.

* * *

Mia walked across the Cat's Cradle and towards one of the private areas of the club. Business ran a little slow tonight, at least at first. People getting off second ship made up the good majority of their clients. Mia placed the folders down onto the table and settled down to take a look at them.

Holly would join after she returned from training. The two of them would go over the budget for the next month. Mia had some of the finer points of business drilled into her head at a younger age. The disguised heiress would like to think more of it stuck inside her mind than it did with her brother.

Regardless, everything was organized. Mia mentally praised Selina and Holly for making sure everything remained in order. All of the employee records had been placed inside folders fairly neatly. This allowed her to get to work and see what was inside these folders. The girl's mouth curled into a smile.

' _So far, so good,'_ Mia thought, double checking the records. _'And we're making money this month….unless I've missed something.'_

The doors of the club opened up and Selina sauntered inside. She was fashionable and late, in addition to fashionabally late. Mia locked eyes with Selina for the longest moment.

"Good evening, darling," Selina said, with a smile walking over. "What are you doing?"

"Just going over the latest finance reports," Mia said. "Things have gone up after the last year, haven't they?"

"A little less," Selina admitted, deciding to take a seat down next to Mia. Selina perched like a cat. "This was in a lot of trouble over the past year, before Harry and I went in together. Mostly, Harry….."

"Well, isn't he more like a silent partner than anything?" Mia asked. A moment passed before Mia noticed something quite interesting with Selina. The two of them locked eyes tonight. "So, that's where you were last night?"

Selina looked innocent, resembling a cat who had been caught doing something their master's told them not to. Selina gave Mia one of the most obvious pouty faces imaginable. Mia answered with a slight chuckle before crossing her arms.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Selina said, looking forward with a smile.

"You walk into the club with a spring in your step and a wide smile on your face," Mia said, reaching forward to grip Selina's hand and get her attention. "I know the look….I do have girlfriends…."

"I'm certain," Selina said, looking into Mia's eyes with a smile. "So, what do you think happened to me…oh…and you don't want to lose this one? It's rather important."

Mia gave a smile of thanks, wondering if Selina intentionally, or accidentally, changed the subject. The Queen heiress thought accidentally on purpose would have been a good descriptor of how she was acting.

"You have the 'I just got laid look' on your face," Mia said, a brightening smile etched on the girl's face. "Tell me, I'm wrong, if you think I am."

"I can't tell you you're wrong, because you aren't," Selina said, brushing her tongue against her luscious lips and moistening them. "It was a very rewarding evening….more than an evening as well….into the next morning."

Mia didn't mean to pry into things too much. Ever since she was young, Mia couldn't help, and be a little bit curious. There were times where this virtue got her in more trouble than she could remember.

"Okay, fair enough," Mia said, returning for a brief moment to the actual budgeting.

"Holly should be here in a little bit," Selina said. "Why don't you get a drink or something? You might need it."

Mia wondered if Selina really was going to allow her to get one of the more interesting drinks. The woman being in such a good mood caused Mia not to discount her good fortune. She wanted to take advantage of every situation possible. The teenager walked over towards the edge of the club.

An image on the television screen stopped Mia from reaching the television screen. Her mouth hung open at the sight of Oliver Queen's picture on the screen. The heiress strained to hear, but she could barely do so.

' _Oh, what now?'_ Mia asked.

"Hey, could you do turn that up?" Mia asked own of the waitresses who was near the television.

The waitress reached up and turned up the television screen. The sound of the newscast could be heard.

"Several pieces of the wreckage of the ship had been found by sailors just this past morning once the storm had subsided. This ship has been positively identified as the Queen's Gambit, once belonging to the late industrialist Robert Queen. It has not been operational since the death of Robert Queen. We have verified his son, Oliver Queen, had the ship rebuilt and restored. And he was the one who went out on the voyage of the Queen's Gambit vessel."

Thea Queen tried not to show too much of her worried face by biting down on her lips.

"We believe the storm which raged at sea over the past week caused Oliver Queen's ship to meet a gruesome end. There has been no sign of the crew or Mr. Queen. Current acting CEO of Queen Industries, Malcolm Merlyn had the following to say."

The view on the screen had faded away from the images of Oliver and had been replaced by a somber looking Malcolm, who stepped up onto the press conference.

"Oliver was like a second son to me, and it pains me to think something like this could have happened to a young man who had his entire future together," Malcolm said. "Until we find a body, we don't know what is going to happen. I'm going to plead with anyone out there, if they know anything, to contact the authorities instantly. There is a reward for any information regarding the whereabouts of Oliver, whether he's alive or dead."

Thea readjusted her Mia Dearden mask and tried not to allow it to slip further.

"Earlier this year, Thea Queen left home under mysterious circumstances," the news reporter continued. "Rumors initially pegged her on the way to Gotham City. Investigations have not turned up any leads."

Thea wondered if she would be connected to Oliver's disappearance in any way. It was not her intention to do so. The young girl barely noticed Selina standing behind her, watching intently. She tried not to betray her true emotions.

"Queen Industries will be offering a reward of a quarter of a million dollars for information regarding the whereabouts of either of the siblings, either alive or dead. Upon the news of Oliver Queen's disappearance, stock of Queen Industries is being sold in a frenzy, dropping the overall value of the company."

Thea watched the news for several more moments in numbstruck shock. The news of the shares dropping meant the company was in flux and meant anyone who wanted to jump in to take advantage could do so now. Several really bad people wanted a piece of Queen Industries and Thea didn't want this company to fall into any of those hands. The girl's mind had been clouded the longest time in an attempt to try and figure out where she wanted to go.

"You should take the rest of the day off."

Selina's voice cut through Thea's thoughts. The young heiress turned her head a fraction of an inch to the side and stared at Selina. The green eyes cut through the air with a searching look. Seconds passed before Thea figured out something.

' _Oh, she knows.'_

"Thank you," Thea murmured in a voice which caused Selina to respond by waving her over. The woman wrapped her arms around Thea's waist and pulled her into a hug.

"Take as much time as you need, to get yourself together," Selina said. "There will always be a position here waiting for you no matter what."

The girl swallowed the lump in her throat and thanked Selina mentally for all of this. She knew what to do now.

* * *

Nyssa paced around like a caged animal. The air around the demon's eldest daughter captured an unsettling feeling. She needed to wait for some news. The dark haired woman looked towards her aides, some of them who looked very nervous. None of them wished to say anything critical against her. Sometimes their lack of clarity could be annoying.

"Mistress, you must….well it would be a good idea to calm down," one of them said. "The healer will do what they can do for our young charge."

Nyssa's gaze swung across the room and looked towards her aides. All of them remained rigid and hoped they did not offend their mistress. Several seconds passed before Nyssa responded with an extremely stoic nod directed towards them all.

"Yes, you have a point," Nyssa said.

Much to the surprise of all of the League guards, Nyssa sank down on a bench and waited. The woman sat in a proper motion, hands folded over her lap.

The two twins exchanged a look and some words when they were sure their mistress was out of ear shot.

"Not sure, if she actually can be saved," the more slender of the two twins said.

"Yes," the bustier of the two twins said. "You know the oath the mistress has taken regarding helping women when they can. It's a noble one, even though there are times where I think she's…well she can be a bit extreme in her views."

The two twins exchanged one of those nervous looks with each other. Nyssa didn't pay them any attention. As a matter of fact, she didn't really say much of anything to either of them. The two twins returned to their conversation a matter of seconds later.

"She can be as bad with the hoarding as the dragon is," the bustier of the twins said out of the side of her mouth. "You know…she has to collect them all."

"If it wasn't for my collecting, the two of you would have been sold to the highest bidder," Nyssa said, showing the two of them some attention and the wrong kind of attention.

"My apologies mistress, I will choose my words better next time."

Nyssa turned her attention away from the conversation in time to notice the healer step around the corner. The Daughter of the Demon read people's faces quite well and by reading the expression the healer's face, Nyssa's heart took a skip.

"I've done what I can to stabilize her," the healer said. "She's suffered an infection and other internal injuries….rest assure if the medication takes hold, we will be able to help her. If she rejects it….she's doomed."

Nyssa allowed these thoughts to sink in. She took her attention towards the healer and placed a firm hand upon the woman's. The two of them locked eyes with each other with Nyssa giving a firm squeeze to the hand of the noble healer.

"Use everything at your disposal to ensure she is better," Nyssa said, a firm gaze locking onto the eyes of the healer. "Do you understand? Nothing is too unconventional when healing this woman."

"I will do what I can, mistress," the healer said.

The healer and Nyssa parted ways. Nyssa hoped this would turn out well. A long time ago, she allowed a woman to die. This haunted her for the rest of her life. Now, Nyssa wanted to atone for those sins.

' _It is what Harry would have done if he was in this situation,'_ Nyssa mentally chimed in. _'And he could have helped more….if the legends of the dragon having healing blood which only worked on women meant anything.'_

Nyssa treated Harry with respect and never asked this particular line of questioning. She figured it was a slight bit personal and no one needed to know anything about it.

"You wished to see me, great one?"

The two twins whipped around and saw a figure standing in the shadows. The more slender of the two twins pulled out a pair of knifes. A figure dressed in white from head to toe with distinctly Asian features stepped into the picture. Her blue eyes coolly watched the situation.

"Stand down," Nyssa said. "Welcome White Canary."

No one knew who the White Canary was underneath this mask. Legend had it several women wore the guise of the White Canary over the years. Legend regarded each woman wearing the White Canary guise as a noble opponent to anyone.

"I trust my information proved to be vital," the White Canary said.

"Yes," Nyssa said. "In a way it did. We did not locate Ra's Al Ghul. We did locate one of the Foots's smuggling operations, and put a stop to this. I had no idea he had sunk down to the level of human trafficking."

The White Canary responded with a nod. The mask covering her face caused human emotions to be dampened. One could see a feeling of disgust in her eyes.

' _Good, I'm glad,'_ The White Canary thought.

The woman beneath the mask wondered how long she could keep up the façade as the White Canary. A lot of time had passed since she assumed the guise from the previous person.

The Foot's operations got more questionable over the years and it hit an apex around this time. Human trafficking hit an entirely new low and a disgusting one as well. The woman hated what the Foot had turned into over the years.

Even a group with a checkered history such as the Foot had some kind of a code of honor. She justified a lot of the actions. The most recent ones, they were extremely hard to justify.

She had been sent into the League to infiltrate it and bring down the already weakened organization from the inside. Locating the body of Ra's Al Ghul and destroying it would be the final death blow to the League. It would collapse underneath its own weight once and for all.

The White Canary's problems didn't have much of anything to do with Nyssa to be perfectly honest. Her problems had to do with the younger daughter of the Demon, along with Lady Shiva. Those were the two members of the League who she had the most issues with.

Plaything the odds for her own benefit seemed to be the most logical idea, as far as the White Canary was concerned.

* * *

Dinah and Harry relaxed after a long day of training. Dinah dressed in a white tank top stretching over her ample breasts and a pair of short black spandex shorts. Her gorgeous legs displayed themselves nicely and in fact, they rested on Harry's lap when they leaned back on the couch in the study.

Harry flipped on the news and the moment he did so, the face of Oliver Queen showed himself.

"Another DUI?" Dinah asked.

"Several pieces of the wreckage of the ship had been found by sailors just this past morning once the storm had subsided. This ship has been positively identified as the Queen's Gambit, once belonging to the late industrialist Robert Queen. It has not been operational since the death of Robert Queen. We have verified his son, Oliver Queen, had the ship rebuilt and restored. And he was the one who went out on the voyage of the Queen's Gambit vessel."

Dinah's mouth opened and shut for a moment. While her break up with Oliver had been less than friendly, still, this was a piece of bad news.

"We believe the storm which raged at sea over the past week caused Oliver Queen's ship to meet a gruesome end. There has been no sign of the crew or Mr. Queen. Current acting CEO of Queen Industries, Malcolm Merlyn had the following to say."

The view on the screen had faded away from the images of Oliver and had been replaced by a somber looking Malcolm, who stepped up onto the press conference.

"Oliver was like a second son to me, and it pains me to think something like this could have happened to a young man who had his entire future together," Malcolm said. "Until we find a body, we don't know what is going to happen. I'm going to plead with anyone out there, if they know anything, to contact the authorities instantly. There is a reward for any information regarding the whereabouts of Oliver, whether he's alive or dead."

Dinah frowned. Merlyn really looked concerned in a way. Granted, the older Lance sister figured this was due to the fact Oliver's disappearance caused a great deal of inconvenience for Queen Industries and a fair amount of problems on this particular end.

"Earlier this year, Thea Queen left home under mysterious circumstances," the news reporter continued. "Rumors initially pegged her on the way to Gotham City. Investigations have not turned up any leads."

Harry smiled. He knew precisely where the missing Queen heiress was and had a good idea of what her reasoning for leaving was. As long as she didn't get into too much trouble, Harry intended not to pry in these affairs.

"Queen Industries will be offering a reward of a quarter of a million dollars for information regarding the whereabouts of either of the siblings, either alive or dead. Upon the news of Oliver Queen's disappearance, stock of Queen Industries is being sold in a frenzy, dropping the overall value of the company."

Harry nodded, well aware of the news regarding the Queen Industry sales. There were a couple of interesting parties hovering around like vultures, the main one being Lionel Luthor.

"So, do you think he's survived?" Dinah asked.

"I don't know," Harry said. "The wreckage looks pretty damning, doesn't it?"

Dinah nodded in response, not knowing what else to say. The phone on the table rang and Harry picked it up now.

"Harry, it's me…Lex," Lex Luthor said on the other end of the phone. "Did you hear what happened to Queen?"

"It's all over the news," Harry said.

"Yes, it just broke late last night," Lex said. "Although they didn't know who the wreckage belonged to until my father identified it to the press."

Harry frowned. The news left this particular part out of the equation. Harry found it very interesting.

"There's something you need to know…there was someone else on that boat," Lex said. "I'm going to be in touch with the authorities after I finish talking to you, but you should know about it before I contact them."

"Who was it?" Harry asked.

"Sara Lance, I saw her walking onto the boat with Oliver," Lex said. "I thought nothing of it at the time, but now…since the boat sank….you should tell her sister."

"Thanks Lex," Harry said.

Dinah noticed a funny look on Harry's face when he hung up the phone.

"Sara joined Oliver on his trip," Harry said.

"What?" Dinah asked. "No, no…no….she can't…she called me and told me she was going on a trip with friends!"

Dinah rose up to her feet and looked rather agitated, walking across the room in a furious fit. The moment she returned to Harry's position, he wrapped his arms around Dinah in a tight hug to calm her down. Dinah collapsed into Harry's arms and tried to keep it together. Her normally strong resolve started to falter a little bit.

"Lex…Lex could have been mistaken," Dinah said, grasping at straws, trying to grasp at something, anything, which would cause her sanity to be retained.

"He was certain," Harry said. "We don't know…there has been no news on survivors….Sara or anyone could have been picked up….I don't know."

Harry knew with the storms raging on the seas, the chances of survival were rather slim to be honest.

"Get dressed," Harry said. "We're going to have to get on a plane and inform your father what happened."

Dinah nodded. This would really make her father's day to hear about his baby girl being lost at sea with Oliver Queen.

' _Good thing Ollie is lost at sea,'_ Dinah thought in a hazed manner. _'Dad would kill Oliver if he found out he was trying anything with Sara. I thought Sara knew better!'_

' _Zinda, get the jet ready,'_ Harry thought.

' _At once, sir,'_ Zinda thought, understanding the urgency of the situation.

**To Be Continued on March 23** **rd** **, 2016.**

* * *

_Oh boy, does the shit ever hit the fan in this chapter? The Queen's Gambit ship wreck is revealed in this chapter, and needless to say the ramifications are obvious._

_So, yes, if people couldn't tell from the TCRI reference, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are being brought into this little tale. One of the easier things to cross over. The fact there was recently a TMNT/Batman crossover did help slightly, even though this has been in the works for a long time. So, everyone's favorite ninja lord who shares a name with a kitchen utensil makes a cameo._

_Selina joins the bond, officially, after lingering around the edges for a long time. Mostly due to her own doing. Also, she knows Thea is Mia, but I'm sure people may have been able to figure that out. Can't slip much past someone as sneaky as Catwoman._


	172. Reflection

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Two: Reflection.**

* * *

Dinah dressed within a few minutes and joined Harry to make the trip down to the airport. The flight would give her plenty of time to gain her composure and figure out how to best break this to her father. Dinah wondered if there was any good way to break this to anyone their daughter died. Some thoughts crept into the back of Dinah's mind, and they did not amount to the pleasant variety of thoughts either.

' _There's still a chance,'_ Dinah thought, inhaling and exhaling with a deep thought. _'There's still a chance she's alive…she has to be alive…there's no way…there's still a chance she has to be alive.'_

Harry reached over and gripped Dinah around the hand gently. The powerful grip squeezing Dinah's hand caused her to close her eyes and respond with a sigh. Their fingers intertwined for a brief moment with Harry pulling her close to him.

"I'd like to tell you it's all going to be okay," Harry said.

"Please don't, I don't think I need to….."

The two of them paused for a second. Dinah could see Mia, or Thea rather, rushing down the sidewalk. The girl almost tripped in her attempt to get there. Harry pulled away from Dinah, reached out, and caught the sixteen year old before she took a header onto the sidewalk. The girl opened her mouth to say something. She stopped short when noticing the blonde woman standing next to Harry.

"I'm so sorry," Dinah said, taking a step forward and wrapping Mia into a hug. "I didn't….what happened…."

Thea returned the hug, not knowing how to respond. Dinah knew instantly who she was, just as she thought months ago. The stoic look on Harry's face showed he knew as well.

' _So much for my grand disguise,'_ Thea thought, managing to return her thoughts. _'If I'm going to do this, I better do this now.'_

Thea managed to steady herself against Dinah's arms. The Queen heiress realized her face brushed against Dinah's breasts and she responded by blushing a little bit. The girl pulled away from Dinah and looked at the two of them for a long moment.

"So, you two know who I am, don't you?" Thea asked. Harry and Dinah exchanged a nod with each other. "For long long?"

"Since pretty much the moment you rolled into town," Harry said. "You show up, out of the blue. Right around the time Thea Queen vanishes out off the grid. The hair is done up differently, a different color. No one would know it was you, unless they had a rather good eye for picking females out of the crowd."

"So, you have this good eye, then?" Thea asked, pausing.

"Harry does have some good observation skills," Dinah said. "Don't worry…..I didn't tell anyone…not even Oliver. I figured there was a good reason what you did what you did. And Selina kept a close watch on you."

"She figured it out too," Thea said.

"Hard to put one past Selina," Harry said. "She's rather savvy….given the type of people she has to deal with, you have to be."

"Yeah," Thea answered, nodding her head up and down. "Yeah, I figured about as much…she would have to be pretty crafty to deal with those types of people."

The Queen Heiress had no idea what else to say from here. What else could she say? They knew, and….well now Oliver was lost at sea, Thea thought there to be a bit of a problem.

"Did you find out anything else other than what's in the news?" Thea asked.

"No," Harry said, frowning. "Was there anything you wanted to tell me? You ran down the street in a hurry, there must have been something you wanted to say."

Thea sighed and took a long moment to collect her thoughts. The moment the news about Oliver came up, Thea made her mind up. In truth, she had been thinking about this even before she ran from the city and ended up in Gotham. Oliver's death pushed things up. If she didn't do this, Queen Industries wouldn't have a future.

She wouldn't be taken seriously thanks to her young age. Harry on the other hand, commanded a lot of respect and could go twelve rounds with some of the people who looked to take control of her company.

"I want to sell you my shares in Queen Industries," Thea said.

Silence followed after Thea dropped this bombshell on them. Harry looked at her long and hard. Out of all of the things he expected her to ask of him, this ranked pretty low on the list.

"Is there any reason why you want to do this?" Harry asked.

"Lionel Luthor and his douchebag business man friends are looking around, ready to pick off the bones, and leave those who worked hard to build the company to rot," Thea said. "I couldn't have fought them even if I was around, at least not now. And with Oliver out of the picture…."

Thea allowed her statement to hang in the wind. Harry pretty much got the gist of everything she was going for.

"Then there's Malcolm and whatever angle he's going for," Thea said, taking a moment to compose herself. "I wouldn't be surprised if he sabotaged the boat."

Harry frowned. It was possible. Merlyn would be a pretty good actor to pull off this particular level of grief.

"Or it could have been Luthor," Thea said. "He got away with the murder of a Queen once before…why wouldn't he be able to do this?"

Harry heard of the role, the alleged role, Lionel Luthor played in the death of Robert and Moira Queen all those years ago. It had been a cause of a lot of innuendo. Lionel had some very good attorneys and resources which covered his tracks.

"The point is, if you buy my stocks, you'll be in a good position to take hold of the company and flush out some of the rats who are bringing it down," Thea said. "And with Oliver's shares up in the air, this leaves you in a very favorable position."

"And the stocks will be unloaded out of panic when the Queen heiress sells of her shares, thinking she thinks the company is in danger," Harry said, smiling at her.

"Which would leave you…us…in a favorable position to gain control of the company, and force Merlyn to run everything by you," Thea said. "I only want one thing in exchange for the deal."

Harry smiled, having a pretty good idea where this one is going. He looked towards Thea and answered with a smile.

"Name it," Harry said.

"I want the option to buy my shares back and take control of the company when the dust settles," Thea said. "And if Oliver is…"

Thea had lost her ability to speak for a long moment. Harry grabbed her hand to squeeze it. The warmth of his hand on hers gave Thea the strength and encouragement which caused her to breathe heavily.

"If something happens to Oliver, you want my help getting his shares as well," Harry said. "And….I agree."

"Thank you," Thea said, a smile crossing over her face.

"You're not really selling your shares to me," Harry said. "Well, officially on paper, you are…and I'll give you more than a fair deal for them."

"So, if I'm not selling my shares, then what are we doing?" Thea asked, pausing for the longest moment and cupping a hand underneath her chin.

"We're becoming partners, off the record," Harry said. "I'll have the legal agreement drawn up, to sign, both of the selling of shares, and the letter of intent for me to sell them back once things have calmed down."

"That'd work out for me," Thea said, a bright smile popping over her face, staring back at Harry in the process.

"Good, if you'd like you can come with us on the trip to Seattle," Harry said. "We can discuss this further if you want…and if you need anyone to talk to, we'll be here for you."

Thea pondered this for a moment and decided to nod in response. A few days away from Gotham City could do her some real good to be honest.

"Selina gave me some time off," Thea said, slumping her shoulders for a moment. "Guess, I better make the most of it….it would be a change of scenery."

Thea had been hit with another thought. The Queen heiress viewed both Dinah and Harry with a frown crossing her face.

"So, are you just leaving to visit your father and Sara?" Thea asked Dinah.

Thea knew in an instant there was a gut punch to Dinah. The look over Dinah's face was one of pain. The similar look of which Thea suspected she had the moment the news about Oliver broke.

"Sara…she was seen with Oliver….she might have been on the boat," Dinah said. "She left with Oliver."

A long second paused and allowed Sara to consider this new and unsettling information.

"My God," Thea said, finally regaining her composure. It was her turn to console Dinah just like she did to her. "Do you know…do you have any idea if she went on the ship for sure?"

Dinah closed her eyes for a moment and brought Thea into greater prominence with a tight hug. The two woman mutually comforted each other.

"Sara's cell phone is completely dead," Harry said. "And I trust my source….he wouldn't lie about something like this."

Thea didn't really know what to say. The heiress's heart started to do a death march against her ribs. A tightening feeling would be felt. She always liked Sara, maybe a bit more than friends. Of course, Thea was too young for Sara to pay her any mind, before Thea ran away. Now, Thea thought Gotham City, and helping Selina and Holly matured her a little bit. Made her think about the consequences of those actions a little more.

"There really is no hope for them, is there?" Thea asked. Harry only responded by touching his hand to the girl's shoulder.

"There's always hope," Harry said in a firm voice which caused Thea to nod in response. "There's a chance Sara or Oliver washed up onto an island somewhere. It just hasn't been reported anyone had been found."

Thea wasn't sure whether or not good people would find her brother or friend. The three of them entered the car.

' _Zinda, we'll be there in a few minutes.'_

* * *

Malcolm Merlyn dangled the phone between his fingers with a long sign. The moment the ship went down and Oliver had gone missing, panicked investors had been calling him all morning. People wondering what it meant for Queen Industries now the golden son disappeared into the night.

The investors foolishly thought this would change anything. Malcolm disagreed with their words. Business could and still would go on as usual. Oliver didn't take much interest into the company. A good thing, as Malcolm could see Oliver go down the rabbit hole with flights of fancy like building trick arrows or something along those lines.

This entire mess would not have been so bad if it had not been off of the heels of Thea doing a runner. Merlyn's concern for Thea was far greater than it was for Oliver. Still, Oliver disappearing made things look extremely bad. Malcolm went on television and made a last ditch effort to attempt to appeal to anyone who might have known anyone.

Several people had been lost at sea. Very few of them returned in any time. The man's hand curled into a fist. Another angry investor would be called. Queen Industry's stock held rather steady this morning, more than the plunge it took after the news broke.

Investors were creatures of panic and creatures of habit. The panic caused them to make some rather short sighted decisions which grew worse with each passing day.

' _The delinquency of those two children are causing my plans to save this city to come out with a net loss,'_ Malcolm thought for a moment.

The phone on his desk, which finally stopped ringing for about five minutes, rang again. Merlyn's hand picked up the phone and wondered what complaint this was now.

"Hello," Malcolm said in a curt voice.

"It sounds like you've had a busy morning, Malcolm," the crisp and clear voice one of the last men Malcolm wanted to hear, came over the phone.

"Yes, Lionel," Malcolm said after a long pause. "What do you want?"

"Just checking up to see if there's any new news regarding the lost Mr. Queen," Lionel said. "Or if you've heard anything about the disappearing Ms. Queen. You know, if you wanted to flush her out, this would be the best way possible. Providing, of course, she is still with us. Regardless, two of your biggest pawns have been moved off of the chessboard. Puts you in position for a checkmate. Or so it seems."

Malcolm thought about what Lionel said for the longest moment. Lionel was the last person who should be firing off accusations at a moment of this. When you stripped back all of the innuendo, accusation was completely and totally perfect.

"The Queen's Gambit going down when it did was an accident," Merlyn said. "The result of a force of nature. A one in a million fluke."

"Right, the Queen's Gambit was supposed to be unsinkable," Lionel said.

"They said the same thing about the Titanic," Merlyn said. "And I know you have designs on Queen Industries. You've been waiting for Oliver to slip and the investors to panic for a long time."

"I'm concerned dear Robert's hard work is going to go to waste because his son can't keep out of the tabloids," Lionel said. "I'm doing a favor for an old friend by trying to give a little back to his company."

"You and Robert….I never got the impression you were anything more than casual acquaintances who shared similar interests," Malcolm said.

"We might not have been acquainted as you were with Moira…but I'd like to think Robert would have liked his legacy to be more than a son who is a constant feature of the tabloids," Lionel shrewdly said. "And a daughter who runs away to Gotham City. Hopefully she didn't join any of the seedier avenues of work."

Malcolm's fist clenched against his desk.

"If anyone did anything to the Gambit, it could have easily as been you," Malcolm said. "You argued with Robert about how the subject of your little star gazing club should be used. And weeks later, he ended up dead."

"So, Robert informed you of our secret society," Lionel said. "Tell me, does it gall you we never decided to invite you?"

"Does it gall you Harry Potter swiped control of STAR Labs right out from underneath your nose?" Malcolm asked. "I know you waited for Swann to die so you could take control. Seems like he knew as well."

The long and intense pause followed between both sides. Both judged the other to be guilty with what happened with the Gambit and both hit some raw nerves with each other.

"You need not concern yourself with my business, worry about keeping yours intact," Lionel said. "Have a good day Malcolm, and I suspect we'll be doing business together soon enough. When the walls come crashing down, you know my number and you know when to call me."

The phone hung up and left Malcolm hearing it. There wasn't any time for him to stall due to the fact the phone started to ring for another call.

' _No rest for the wicked.'_

* * *

Enigma arrived outside of the TCRI building carrying a large case underneath his arm. He dressed with a pair of sunglasses, a long coat, and a fake mustache and beard. Normally, Eddie wouldn't have been a person to do something like this on his own. He did not trust anyone to bring the item safely into the TCRI building.

The man stepped into the front doors of the simple and ordinary office building. Eddie walked inside and took a good long around. People walked around with bright smiles on their face. The people bounced around with a spring in their steps.

' _They must really love their jobs,'_ Enigma thought, taking a long moment to collect his thoughts. _'To an extremely scary degree in fact….it's rather creepy.'_

Enigma shuddered, but confused himself. The man walked up to the front desk and walked towards a rather average looking blond. She wasn't bad looking, no one who would turn any heads on the street corner.

"Hi!" the secretary cheered in a bubbly tone. "Welcome to TCRI, what can I do to you today?"

Enigma noticed a rather faint scar on the side of her forehead. It was the only blemish on her skin. Had she not been in the light, it would have been rather notice.

"Good afternoon," Enigma said. "I'm here for an appointment with Mr. Krang. I'm…."

"You must be, Mr. Enigma," the secretary said in a bright voice. "We've been expecting you and your package for a long time."

Enigma frowned for a long moment. The secretary didn't even acknowledge the look of disconnect on his face. She managed to reach underneath the desk and push the button. She gave a rather robotic motion with her arm to activate something underneath said desk.

"You can go straight up, sir."

"Oh, yes, of course," Enigma said.

Enigma turned about three steps to the right and ran head long into a young African-American gentlemen in his mid-twenties. The man dressed in a lab coat with a nice dress shirt and slacks. Someone cut the man's hair into a salad bowel style hair style and thick glasses covered the man's dark eyes.

The man's demeanor proved to be a bit different than the cattle on the floor. The anger flashing through his eyes at being touch was obvious.

"Watch where you going, you crass simpleton!" the man yelled.

Enigma allowed himself a shadow of a smile. Another fool who used ten dollar words in an attempt to sound smart. It always baffled him.

"I beg your pardon," Enigma said, trying to remain cool and cordial.

"Do you know who I am?" the scientist asked, raising to his full height which towered over Enigma. Enigma peered over his glasses with disinterest directed towards him. The man's arm folded oved Enigma's chest. "Do you know who you're talking to? Do you know who…do you know I am?"

"Well, considering you've never give me a courtesy of an introduction, I can't say I am," Enigma said. "As extraordinary as I am with my mental capabilities, I have not acquired the ability to read minds just yet."

The scientist's face crossed with a scowl.

"I am one of the most foremost geniuses on the entire East Coast!" the man yelled at the top of his lungs. Enigma moved back to avoid having his face sprayed with a disgusting and absurd amount of spittle. "I am a man who will help bring TCRI to new heights. They might have spurned me, but everyone will know the name of the one, the only, Doctor Baxter Stockman."

The pause followed for a long time.

"I've never heard of you in my life," Enigma said. Suddenly, something hit him. The prodigal young gentleman wrinkled his nose a as if garbage suddenly appeared in mid-air underneath it. "Oh, wait, now I remember. You were Spencer Smythe's lapdog, weren't you?"

"I was Smythe's protégé!" Stockman responded. "And he was jealous I came further along with my goals than he did. He drummed me out and made everyone think I was some kind of delusional crackpot. He made me think I was a fool!"

' _Doing a pretty good job of doing that yourself, I think,'_ Enigma thought.

Stockman managed to hit a quick stride and would not be running out of steam any time soon.

"We'll see who the fool is Spencer, we'll see who the fool is!" Stockman yelled, gaining some momentum with his words. "I'll be able to build my robotic servants. This entire city's rat problem will be a thing of the past. You'll see when I have an army of my robotic servants….."

"Oh would you just be quiet!"

Enigma placed his hand in front of Stockman's face and made the "blah, blah, blah" hand sign with it.

"You really think you're something, don't you?" Enigma asked. "You're really full of it Stockman."

"Name one person who is smarter than I am," Stockman said.

"Harry Potter!" Enigma yelled.

"You…you…you….." Stockman said, hating Harry Potter had been brought up. He was some rich punk who likely slept his way to all of those doctorates as far as Stockman was concerned.

"Lex Luthor," Enigma said, deciding to gain his stride. "Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Tori Stark, Norman Osborn, Ted Kord, Ray Palmer, Harrison Wells, Christina McGhee, Virgil Swann, Eliza Danvers…you know we can do this all night long, the list can go on and on really…do you really want to play this game?"

Stockman gritted his teeth and threw up his hands into the air.

"Oh, and yours truly, as well, don't forget about me," Enigma said. "Did I mention I'm smarter than you? Because, I am, and you're nothing, but another….."

The doors opened up and two burly security guards walked up. Enigma noticed the same marks on their head the secretary had. He would not have noticed it had it not been for his OCD.

' _Curious, and curiouser,'_ Enigma thought.

"Mr. Enigma, has Doctor Stockman been bothering you?" one of the guards asked in a slightly cheerful tone which did not fit his burly frame.

"No, sir, we were just having a word about his work, and now….I must be going."

Eddie allowed the two guards to lead him down the hallway and far away from Stockman. The hallways looked barren and clean. Every now and then an employee exited their office, walked across the hallway without any acknowledgement, and walked into the next office.

' _Well, everyone is in such a good mood,'_ Eddie thought.

Eddie entered the conference room and twelve well-dressed men and women crowded around the table. All of them looked at him.

"Mr. Enigma, please sit down," the woman said. "Mr. Krang will be joining us a moment from now."

Enigma did as he had been asked. One of the men placed a cup of coffee right in front of his face. Enigma shook his head.

"No, no, thank you," Enigma said, with a long moment passing.

The man never ate or drank anything he never personally prepared himself. The amount of germs did not make it worth the risk, no matter how enticing the coffee smelled.

A large view screen came down behind the board of directors. They all stepped back to reveal a figure submerged in the shadows.

' _And here, I've heard of secrecy,'_ Enigma thought after a long moment. _'This might be taking things a couple of steps too far.'_

"Greets, Mr. Enigma, I am Krang, the owner of TCRI," the man in the shadows said in a highly modulated voice. "I understand you have the item I have wanted."

"Yes, the Technovore," Enigma said, putting the case on the table. Two of the members of the Board of Directors moved over to pull over the latch. "It's in a containment case. Still, I would suggest you be careful with."

"Do not worry, Mr. Enigma," Krang said in his creepy monotone. "My employees know the consequences of dropping a high dangerous piece of technology in the midst of a conference room."

"Of course they do," Enigma said, not wanting to imply anything different. "This technology can cripple entire computer systems and steal the data from them. It's a hacker's dream."

"Yes, this is precisely what I've been looking for," Krang said after a moment. "Mr. Jefferson, give Enigma what he came for."

The member of the Board of Directors, a rather bland looking blond named Mr. Jefferson, placed the case on the table. Up close and personal, Enigma noticed the same scar for the third time. Three employees having this particular scar, what were the odds.

Being a rather intelligent man with the self-preservation extincts to match, Enigma wisely kept his mouth shut. The case opened and revealed stacks of cold, hard, cash inside. The bills were clean, which brought a grin to Enigma's face.

"I trust all of the money ins in order and to your specifications," Krang said.

"Yes, yes, it's what we agreed to, you are too kind," Enigma said. "It's been a pleasure to do business with you, Mr. Krang."

"The pleasure will be all ours once the Technovore has been put into practice," Krang said. "Jenkins, why don't you show, Mr. Enigma out, and send Stockman in? I want to have a word with him."

Enigma gladly followed Jenkins out the door. The less time he spent in the presence of a pompous, overblow, self-important wind-bag like Baxter Stockman, the better off his life would be.

Further more, Eddie didn't have any idea what Krang's intentions were with the Technvore. Eddie didn't ask, Krang didn't tell, and plausible deniability was an agreement which suited both parties quite nicely.

Stockman walked in and looked at the screen with Krang on the other end. A long pause followed with Stockman preparing to be acknowledged.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" Stockman asked.

"I wish for you to study the Technovore virus," Krang said. "I only wish to know if it has any limitations, or weaknesses we can purge before we move forward in the next phase of this plan."

"Of course, and naturally you came to me, knowing my….."

"Stockman, shut it," Krang said, causing Stockman to close his mouth. "I'm going to give you one warning. If I catch you taking any creative liberties with the Technovore Virus, I will send you to Human Resources. Do you understand me?"

Stockman nodded in response, frowning deeply. The case containing the Technovore scooped up into Stockman's waiting arms. He frowned and walked off into the distance.

' _The fool has no idea what potential he's squandering,'_ Stockman thought. _'Not only with the Technovore virus, also with one of his greatest assets as well.'_

* * *

Dinah walked into the living room to join her father. Larry Quintin Lance took one look into his daughter's face and knew something bad happened.

"Why don't you sit down, honey," Larry said for a moment, motioning for her to sit down. "Something really bad has happened, hasn't it?"

"Yes, it has, you heard…you heard about the Queen's Gambit going down, haven't you?" Dinah asked.

"Yeah, I heard," Larry said, frowning at his oldest daughter. "A shame, but I can't say I'm going to shed too many tears for him. I knew you tried to stay friends with him…you're a far better person than I would have been if I were in your shoes."

Dinah didn't agree. If she had been a better person, she might have been a bit more observant regarding Sara.

"It's Sara," Dinah said.

"What?" Larry asked. "She…she told me she was going to leave for friends…for a couple of weeks. She should have been back yesterday, but you know how people are at that age. They lose track of the time."

"Sara…didn't leave with friends," Dinah said. "She left with Oliver."

A long and chilling pause followed. The air started to grow even more frigid. Dinah watched the reaction of discontent grow on her father's face and it unsettled her.

"She…no, Sara couldn't have left with Oliver Queen," the benched police officer said, climbing to his feet. "She couldn't have, she had more sense than that….especially after what happened to you…and with your mother….."

Larry started to breath heavily.

"Please tell me, you're pulling a joke on me," Larry said. "It's not a funny one, but I'd rather it be a joke….than to think...Sara went down at sea…doing God only knows what with Queen!"

Dinah stomach turned when her father put things that way. It sounded extremely bad. Actually it sounded worse than bad, it sounded kind of awful.

"She was seen…by someone…a friend of Harry's," Dinah said, managing to steady her voice. "She was leaving with Oliver…she went on the boat….I'm sorry."

Larry paused for a long moment and took a long and hard look outside the window. Almost hoping Sara would come down the driveway and inform them both this had been some elaborate joke. They would have some laughs.

Every second passing caused things to grow more grin.

"That son of a bitch!" Larry yelled. "THAT SON OF A BITCH!"

Dinah watched in horror as her father picked up a mug and hurled it against the wall. He didn't accomplish anything other than denting the paint on his wall and cracking the mug.

"Dad, you should…."

"No, he better have died at sea, because when he comes back…when he comes back…." Larry said, before almost collapsing into his daughter's arms. "I'll kill the bastard!"

"It's okay, let it all out," Dinah said. "It's…it's bad…but there's still a chance, Sara could have found land somewhere…where she's waiting this out, waiting for…waiting for someone to find her."

Larry answered with a brisk nod, the lump in his throat growing even more prominent with each passing second. He tried to force himself to calm down. This was the kind of stress his doctor warned him against.

"You're right," Larry said. "I should know better by now. Don't find a body, there's still a chance she's out there….there's still a chance she's still alive."

Larry thought about heading to get a drink. He realized this was the last thing he needed about now.

"This has been a hell of a last few years, hasn't it?" Larry asked. "First your mother…well she shacks up with Queen. Then she dies…about a year later."

Dinah wondered sometimes if her mother, racked with guilt for her mistake, just gave up and allowed herself to shut down and end up doing. The illness she suffered, no one knew about it, until Dinah's mother was on her death bed.

"Then….I get benched from the force because of Sionis," Larry said, pacing around the ground. "And this happens with your sister…and….that doesn't even begin to factor in the fact you're following in your mother's foot-steps."

Dinah looked for a moment. The near denial entered her voice. A stern look from her father dissuaded Dinah from any denial. Many questions entered her mind. The most obvious one was how.

"I'm sure you're wondering how I figured out you were moonlighting as the Canary," Larry said. "Well, it isn't too hard to figure out, when you put the pieces together. And I guess, knowing your mother was the original…it made it easier. And I had plenty of time to think."

Dinah took a few seconds to stare at her father.

"Now, Laurel," Larry said, using the childhood name for his daughter, so they didn't confuse people with two Dinahs in the house. "You're an adult, and you're obviously able to make your own decision. All I'm asking is to keep you out there."

"Don't worry, I always have someone watching my back," Dinah said.

"You actually listened to one of my rambling stories?" Larry asked. "Always go out there with police back up, because you never know what might happened."

The one time he went in alone was against Sionis. It cost him the profession he loved and changed his life.

"Well, they weren't rambling," Dinah said. "They were very wise in fact…and I'm sure a lot of people agreed with them…in a sense."

Larry took a moment to settle down. His youngest daughter remained missing. Until he knew something, good or bad, he would be staying up at long nights. Not he didn't do it already. He only slept a bit more soundly, realizing who was out there watching Dinah's back.

* * *

Huntress and Flamebird staked out a big exchange of weapons and drugs back in Gotham City. The deal had been in the works for some time.

' _Why does it feel like we're making up for lost time after being on vacation?'_ Kara asked.

' _Oh, you mean we're paying for daring to take a holiday?'_ Barbara asked, a grin passing over her face, even though the girls only sensed it through the bond network.

' _More or less,'_ Kara thought, a smile crossing her face. _'So, who are we dealing with tonight?'_

' _No one of note, just some mid-level gang bangers,'_ Barbara thought. _'Normally this would fly under the radar, even for us. But it's the perfect bait for our lovely and illusive Batwoman.'_

' _You really think she's going to show up tonight?'_ Diana asked.

' _You never really know who she's going to show up,'_ Barbara thought. _'And if not, we take some drugs off the street, and some weapons. From what I've heard, these guys have balls of brass, taking the weapons from the Penguin like they did.'_

' _They're pretty brave,'_ Kara thought.

' _Well to be fair it was one crate which had been left behind on the docks,'_ Barbara thought. _'Still would you want to tempt fate with the Penguin?'_

' _Catwoman nearly got burned for it,'_ Diana thought. _'Harry nearly got burned for it as well.'_

' _I know, don't remind me,'_ Barbara said, closing her eyes and shuddering. _'The good news is, Lynns is behind bars, and we can hopefully move on with our lives.'_

' _Let's hope so.'_

The two sides moved in. Two of them lugged in a large crate. One of them looked at the crate and noticed the military grade weapons in it. Kara adjusted her super-hearing to get a closer look at them.

"This is as good as they come. It's been a rough year for boys like us in Gotham City…..the Penguin, Black Mask is coming in, the Roman is making up for lost time, and Thorne is being the big man on campus."

"At least the Red Hoods finally got out of the picture," one of the goons said, a long pause following. "So, you're going to sell us these guns? And in exchange, we give you the goods."

"Yeah, we need to get the good stuff," the first goon said. "And these guns are better than money."

The goon squad giving up the guns were bound to make a profit by selling off these drugs. They knew all of the spots where all of the preppy punk kids hung out. The type who were bored, ready for a fix, and ready to burn their parents money in an attempt to get said fix.

"Alright, looks like we have a deal."

' _And Batwoman isn't coming,'_ Diana thought.

' _Damn it, I really thought she'd show up,'_ Barbara thought. _'Guess we can still bust these guy's balls….figuratively speaking of course.'_

' _Awww!'_ Kara whined.

Huntress hid the smile when she dropped down. Two of the goons turned around in time for the Amazon Warrior to knock them for a loop with a series of rapid fire punches. The hoods dropped to the ground with the immense impact Diana's punches delivered to them.

One of the hoods tried to attack from another side. Flamebird reached and grabbed the man by his nose ring. He screamed in agony with the golden haired heroine wiping him out one swift shot.

' _Ah, earrings,'_ Barbara said, barely keeping the smile off of her face. _'Give someone a handle and you better believe they could move the world.'_

The gang bangers made a made dash for the crate of weapons. Flamebird blocked their progress and grabbed the gangster by the scruff of the neck. She hoisted him off of the ground and launched him high into the air. The gangster crashed down to the concrete. Flamebird copied these motions with two more gangsters.

Huntress evaded the swing of the pipe. She positioned and fired a crossbow which knocked the pipe out of the goon's face. The Amazon nailed the hood with half-strength. Half-strength coming from her still ended up being the force of a truck coming from most other people.

The lights around them went out. Batwoman appeared in the shadows, with smoke bombs being thrown into the air. The dark-haired crime fighter roughly attacked several of the goons. The sound of bones shattering filled Kara's super-hearing.

A device placed on the side of the crate was the only thing which lit up the area. Flamebird and Huntress saw the pile of bodies stacked up next to the crate. Only seconds passed before Kara realized an explosive device had been set up near the crate.

' _We have to get these thugs out of here,'_ Kara thought.

Huntress assisted Flamebird in getting the thugs out of there. They all had been put far outside the blast radius, ready to go for the police. A pair of dock workers showed up and investigated the source of the disturbance.

' _Wonderful,'_ Kara thought, gritting her teeth. _'Your timing couldn't have been more imppecable if you tried.'_

Flamebird zoomed over at the speed of light, grabbed the dock workers, and put them away, before any of them noticed they were there. A big boom followed, taking up both the drugs and the weapons in one clear so.

' _So, can we safely say this is one of those good news, bad news situations?'_ Barbara asked. _'Good news, those weapons are now off the street, even with the drugs. The bad news is….'_

' _Batwoman got away before we could get a good look at her,'_ Flamebird said, looking up at the top of the building in a desperate thought to figure out where Batwoman went off to.

Only she disappeared into the night, without any kind of trace. This left both sides with a lot of unanswered questions they might not have a chance to answer any time soon.

* * *

Thea Queen dressed in a nice dress she purchased in an emergency shopping trip. The red dress fit against her slender body quite nicely. The athletic female looked out and noticed Harry show up.

The Queen heiress struggled not to drool too much at the sight of Harry approaching her. The girl's heart started to beat a steadier beat when Harry turned up to face her.

"The paperwork is all in order," Harry said. "If you want to go in, we can take a look at it."

The two of them walked over to a private booth. Food had been ordered, and when they learned it would be ready in several minutes, they resolved to talk.

"Not exactly the nicest place I've ever done business in," Harry said.

"Oh, it will do in a pinch," Thea said. "If anything else, it will prevent someone I know from noticing me."

Despite cutting her hair short and dying it, Thea still ran the risk of someone recognizing her. And for all of the wrong reasons. When this deal went through, she was going to have to keep a lower profile.

"So, do you have the papers?" Thea asked.

"Both of them, both the agreement to sell your sells, and the intent for me to sell them back to you, when the company gets on its feet, if it ever does," Harry said, placing the papers out in front of her.

"With you having a bit more control, I know it will," Thea said. She read over both papers. "You got this done pretty quick, didn't you?"

"Sersi works pretty fast, and Tam made sure to get it faxed over to me," Harry said. "We want this deal to get done before everything falls out."

"Oh, there will be a fall out, alright," Thea said, taking the pen and putting it to paper. All of the information was in order, after reading it with a fine tooth comb. "And maybe this is the beginning of a great partnership?"

Thea accidentally, or maybe on purpose, brushed her foot against Harry's leg. One of her shoes slid off on the table, reducing her foot to only stocking clad.

"I had my eye on Queen for some time," Harry said. "And so did Lionel Luthor."

Thea snorted in response. Harry didn't really tell her anything she could not already figure out alone. Malcolm and Lionel butted heads a lot over the recent years. They pretty much battled for the soul of Queen Industries, both claiming to be the closest friend of Robert Queen.

' _And now, I've thrown a bit of a wrench into their plans,'_ Thea thought. _'Let's see whether or not they can deal with someone who has a more forceful personality than Oliver.'_

Thea wondered what would happen now. The company was set up where Oliver's shares would need to be sold if he wasn't found within five years from the last quarterly board meeting he was around. They obviously would be in limbo if he had been found. Thea didn't want to think about the grisly alternative.

"If Oliver is never found…well those stocks are going to be in limbo," Thea said. "And the real fun will happen then."

"And the Board of Directors finding out not only you're alive, but sold off your shares of Harry Potter, isn't going to be entertaining?" Harry asked.

The server delivered their food which prevented Thea from having to answer this particular line of questioning at least for right now.

"Yeah, I guess it will be interesting," Thea said. "Guess, it might be the two of us running Queen Industries, if the worst happens to Oliver. I think that was your end game to begin with, wasn't it?"

"Only to keep it out of Lionel's hands," Harry said.

"Can't argue, really," Thea said. "People are going to unload their stock like it's something contagious. A lot of the stock holders are creatures of panic."

"Seems like you have a good head on your shoulders about business," Harry said.

"I figured it would be worth my time to learn something about how to run a business, if I did end up running Queen Industries one day," Thea said. "You might be taking a loss though…."

"I've made more than enough to cushion the blow," Harry said.

Harry wasn't concerned where he would be tomorrow. Where he would be five years from now, that was what he was extremely interested in.

"So, what made you leave in the first place?" Harry asked. "If you don't mind me for asking."

Thea took a long drink and let out her breath in a sigh.

"It wasn't one big thing," Thea admitted. "It was just a bunch of little things hitting me at once. Oliver's attitude, Malcolm hovering over me way too much…and…well I was going down a rather rough road."

Thea wanted to get this off of her chest, because this was something she told no one.

"Starling City has a huge party scene, and I started to get sucked into it," Thea said. "One of my friends…she ODed big time on the hard stuff. Only barely survived. She was sent to the hospital. Don't know she'll ever recover. If she does, she won't ever be the same again."

Thea chewed down on the breadstick on the table, more to give herself something to focus on than anything else.

"I needed to get away from that entire scene," Thea said. "And I looked at Oliver…what he became….I'm sure you saw the stories. Kind of hard to miss them."

"I might have heard a few," Harry said.

Thea nodded, there was more than a few stories, and she was about ready to get some infamy for her own.

"I ended up in Gotham City, from there," Thea said. "And I never though I'd end up being the assistant manager at a strip club…and then…maybe I'll actually join in on the fun when I'm older."

"It does give women a sense of empowerment to reduce a man to jelly," Harry said to her, stepping back to look at her. "Selina doesn't want anyone underage to be a part of the club, and I agree. You know, legal issues."

"Yeah," Thea said. "But, maybe I should practice….I could give you a private performance some time, if you want to see what I've learned…what tips I've picked up from the other girls."

Thea touched her hands on Harry's shoulder. She thought about it and withdrew her hands.

"I'm sorry, you must have women throw yourself at you all the time," Thea said. "It has to get old after a while, doesn't it?"

Harry chuckled at her blunt statement. He flashed a smile at her.

"So, I…I want to ask you a bit of a personal question," Thea said. "And I wouldn't blame you if you didn't answer. And I wouldn't blame you if you got really offended, because this is very personal. But, I want to know…how do you do it? I mean, how do you get that many women into your web."

"Are you looking for some pointers?" Harry teased her.

"Maybe," Thea said, not breaking her stride.

"A lot of women deep down want a strong man who could give them everything they need and ever wanted," Harry said. "Which would make a lot of feminists the world over a stroke."

"And funnily enough, they need to be laid more than anyone else," Thea said.

Thea sighed. For all the complaining feminists did about how men oppressed them, they did more to set back women's rights than any man ever could.

"It's like a pack of lionesses," Harry said, smiling. "And I'm the leader…the Alpha, and there are several Alpha females."

"The fact you've been able to keep them all in line is really amazing," Thea said. "If you've ever seen a group of women trying to shop for shoes, you know how rough it could be to keep all of us in line. Not, I've ever stressed too much over shoes."

"My sister would say you're speaking blasphemy not being into shoes," Harry said. "I'd like to thank you for helping me, and trusting me enough to come to me."

"You can make it up for me sometime by taking me out to a nicer dinner," Thea said. "Not this place isn't nice, but I think we can both do better. And we both deserve better."

"Indeed," Harry said, breaking into a long smile.

"And thank you for keeping my secret," Thea said, closing in closer towards Harry. "You don't want to even know how appreciated it is."

"I figured it would be a good reason to do what you did," Harry said.

Thea stared at Harry for a long moment, frowning when she looked at him.

"What's the matter?" Harry asked.

"There's something on your lips," Thea muttered.

"What?" Harry asked.

"Mine."

Thea smashed her lips onto Harry's mouth and kissed him. This action surprised Harry. He returned the kiss, giving the sixteen year old rich girl more than she could handle.

' _Well, this went in an interesting direction,'_ Amanda thought. _'I like her, even if she doesn't respect the art of shoe shopping.'_

Thea pulled back, unable to believe her daring. She wasn't sorry about it either.

**To Be Continued on March 26** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_Lots happening in this chapter, and there isn't a lemon in sight. Seriously, I did not intend this chapter to go this long, it just did, and there you go._

_Thea and Harry work through a business deal which will have some blowback later on. It screws up the plans of a few people._

_Lionel and Malcolm playing mind games with each other. It wasn't completely intentional of them to come across as two teenage girls arguing about whose was Robert Queen's BFF._

_I'll be blunt, I hate angst. I hate the fact it's so overused to manufacture drama, especially in relationships in comic book related shows. I'm not going to name any names, although, you may have a pretty good idea what I'm talking about. It's up there with flashbacks as lazy plot devices. (And yes, I used flashbacks in the past and cringe)._

_That being said, there are times where if you used angst right, it can pack an emotional punch. When done right, and when done sparingly. Angst, in a never ending field of angst never works. If the characters are miserable all of the time, then you kind tune it out and you're just bored. The scene with Dinah and her father worked out rather well in that regard, I think._

_Oh, boy, Baxter and Eddie, the meeting of the minds and the egos. And "human resources" means something fairly literal to Krang. Think about it._

_Got to give it to Thea, the girl knows what she wants._

_Until next time._


	173. Rat Trap Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Three: Rat Trap Part One.**

* * *

Harry thought the last couple of weeks had been extremely wild and rather interesting. The budding billionaire doubted he would ever be forgetting them any time soon. He spent about a week in Seattle. Dinah encouraged him to move on, telling him there was no reason for him to be in the rain and the dreary weather of this particular city for any longer than he had to be.

Now, Harry found himself in the bright lights and the big city of New York. His eighteenth birthday moved around the corner. It seemed like forever since he had a birthday, and Harry really didn't think about it too much until it approached faster. He lived a life which was extremely active.

Reilly and Gwen joined him in the back of the limo as they went to pick another friend. Gwen decided to take a seat on Harry's lap in the spacious limo. Harry firmly wrapped his arm around Gwen and pushed it underneath her breasts. Reilly answered with a pout when Gwen stared her down.

"Sorry, Reilly," Gwen said, blowing her a mock kiss. "You snooze, you lose."

Reilly stuck her tongue out in response. Gwen responded by wrapping her mouth around it with an extremely passionate kiss with each other. Harry smiled at the two of them.

"So, are we there yet?" Reilly asked, the moment Gwen bothered to released her mouth from the kiss. This prompted one of those looks from Gwen. "I'm just saying…you know…."

"Yes, I know," Gwen said.

"We're almost there," Harry said, leaning out the window. They turned around a corner and noticed Mary-Jane waiting for them. She dressed in an extremely stylish black leather jacket. Underneath, she wore a purple top and blue jeans which firmly fit around her body. She always attired herself in the latest fashions. And no doubt, underneath, she wore some high class lingerie.

The limo pulled around. Reilly stuck her head out the window and flashed Mary-Jane one of her winning smiles.

"So, do you think we can pick you up little lady?" Reilly asked, in a really bad, but somehow cute, Texas Drawl.

"Yes, if you're heading my way," Mary-Jane said, sliding into the back of the limo. She decided to squeeze in on the other side of Harry. Mary-Jane locked eyes onto Gwen and flashed a winning smile. "I have to say, looks like you have the best seat in the house right now."

"Really?" Gwen asked. "I thought about as much as well."

The entire group laughed. They had one more of their party they needed to pick up. Harry peered over Gwen's shoulder when the beautiful blonde positioned herself firmly against his lap.

"So, have you been keeping busy, Mary-Jane?" Harry asked her.

"I think the real question is have I been keeping myself out of trouble," Mary-Jane said, cutting off Reilly before she could make the obvious remark. "And to answer your question, yes, I've been keeping busy. Mari and Lavender really have been keeping me in the public eye, getting me a few print advertisements. They have me modeling the latest back to school fashions for teenagers and college students as well…they figured I could be good as the face of the ad campaign."

"They have an eye for talent," Harry said. "And they're always looking to get more of the girls into my web."

"And Lavender is gearing up for Fashion Week next year," Mary-Jane said.

"But, isn't that like three months away?" Reilly asked, raising an eyebrow at Mary-Jane.

Mary-Jane flashed Reilly a smile and leaned over Harry to plant a teasing kiss on her cheek.

"Honey, as Lavender says, it's never too early to plan," Mary-Jane said.

"If I know Lavender, she's likely started to plan fashion week around the time the last one ended," Harry said. "And she's going to make it better than ever."

The girls all laughed. Harry pin-pointed Lavender through the bond. The limo pulled up around the corner and into the parking lot of the Daily Bugle office building.

"We're here," Reilly said, and Gwen looked at her, eyebrow raised. "I know, stating the obvious, you don't even have to say it."

"As long as you're self-aware," Gwen said, smiling. "Look, all we need to do is get Betty and we can get to this show on the road a little bit…have a pretty big night…and it's our duty to help Harry celebrate his eighteenth birthday would be a bit understated."

Harry didn't want to break it to the girls his eighteenth birthday would be a bit understated as opposed to last year. His third maturity was a really big deal, even though a lot of the power backed itself up.

The group had no problem entering the Daily Bugle, thanks to Harry's credentials as a shareholder for the Planet. The party slipped inside and past the doors before making their way into the hustle and bustle of the Bugle.

Harry spied with his little eye, one Betty Brant. Betty escorted a young woman, who looked to be around Harry's age, maybe a little bit older, around the Daily Bugle. Harry was floored about how much she resembled Barbara, at least in this particular light. Her red hair pulled back into a ponytail. Green eyes shined. Her body filled into a yellow blouse which had been buttoned up and a nice pair of yellow pants. A lot of people wouldn't pull off this combination, although she would.

Lavender in particular would have a fit about this combination of yellow. There were certain colors which just didn't work. Banana yellow would be the best way to describe it, as far as Harry was concerned.

"Harry!" Betty yelled, when catching his eye. The reporter bounded across the room and threw her arms around Harry in an immense hug. Her arms wrapped around his and pulled him into a tight hug. "It's so good to see you!"

Harry smiled when he returned the hug. The two of them pulled away with each other. Mary-Jane, Reilly, and Gwen all flashed knowing smiles with each other at this particular exchange. Anyone with eyes knew the score and more importantly knew what was going on here.

The young redhead raised an eyebrow at the exchange. Betty decided it would be time to introduce her new charge.

"Harry, this is April O'Neil, she recently hired in over the last month as an intern for the Daily Bugle, and already has been turning some heads," Betty said. "April, this is Harry Potter, Mary-Jane Watson, Gwen Stacy, and Theresa Parker, although her friends call her Reilly."

April's expression snapped into a bright smile the moment she set her eyes on Harry.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, especially you, Doctor Potter," April said. "I read so many stories about you…is it true you fell out of the highest window of Gotham City and survived?"

Harry started to laugh. Of all of the things she could ask, this would have to be the one which April would have to ask. He decided to give her a nice and warm smile in response.

"Yes, I have," Harry said. "It was…well, it could have gone worse if I hadn't landed in the pool. I was sore for weeks afterwards."

"It's a good thing you weren't…well dead," Gwen said, with a cross look directed towards her boyfriend.

"So, what brings you to the Daily Bugle?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I want to…well I just want to help make the world a better place, and…what better way to do so than to learn the ropes underneath one of the greatest reporters in this city," April said, in a practically gushing tone.

"Please, you're making me blush," Betty said, with a smile.

"So, what do you make of Jameson?" Reilly asked. "He could be a bit of an acquired taste, you know."

"Oh, he's…he isn't too bad," April admitted. "He could be a bit loud, you know…but, he gets the results. You don't get to be the number one newspaper for a reason…even if he has his strange obsessions."

Harry almost had been afraid to ask.

"You come from Gotham City, and there's a few urban legends there, isn't there?" April asked. Harry smiled at the intern and nodded.

"Yeah, you might say that," Harry said.

"Well, this is the one where Jameson's obsessed with, and it's here in the heart of New York," April said, placing a picture in front of the group.

"Jameson is obsessed with a blurry picture?" Reilly asked after a moment. "Is this one of those Big Foot things where no one knows what's quite going on?"

"Actually, that's a pretty accurate assessment, I think," April said, answering with a brief nod in response. "And there's more than a couple of blurry pictures. I heard a story from a couple of sewer workers who are swearing up and down until they are blue in the face this is what they saw. And what they saw are the same creatures in the picture."

The four girls and Harry took a look at the picture.

"They're turtles…walking, breathing, turtles," April said, allowing her words to drop, before adding in a small voice. "Actually, they're maybe turtles…it's really hard to tell from the photo. You know, it's kind of grainy…it could be something else, although I don't know what, but what if they are?"

"Let me guess, Jameson wants pictures, pictures, of giant turtles," Reilly said.

"How did you ever guess?" Betty asked, flashing her friend one of those smiles.

"I don't know, call it a hunch," Reilly said. "The couple summers I've worked here at the Bugle as a photographer for spending money, it's pretty much given me a sixth sense of what we want."

"So, what do you think they are?" Gwen asked April.

"Don't know, but….I want to find out what they are," April said. "Maybe they're some kind of government experiment that escaped, or something, I don't know, but I want to find out."

"DO YOU NOT COMPREHEND WHAT I'M SAYING!" Jameson yelled in his usual loud and boisterous tone which almost shook the walls of the entire Daily Bugle office building. "I WANT THEM…I WANT THE PHOTOS….PHOTOS OF THESE TURTLE CREATURES…OR WHATEVER THEY ARE? DO YOU HEAR ME BROCK? WHAT DO I PAY YOU FOR ANYWAY?"

Reilly smiled and shook her head.

"Well, he's about as charming as I remember them," Reilly said. "And seriously, Brock's still here? I thought he would have been fired a long time ago."

"His agent cut a good deal," Betty said, shrugging. "And Jameson couldn't really argue….so, April, if you need anything, just give me a call…my shift's over though now."

"Oh right," April said, turning to Harry with a smile on her face. "It was a pleasure to meet you…it was a pleasure to meet all of you in fact."

April's eyes lingered onto Harry for a second, as if she was visually feeling him up. Harry's magnetic attraction held solid anywhere in the world he went.

* * *

The first trip out had been a teaser, and they would go out properly for Harry's official eighteenth birthday tomorrow night. Harry decided to take a moment to kick back and relax and also discuss a little business with his mother and aunt over the bond link to see what has been going on as of late.

' _Harry, I wouldn't worry about it,'_ Lily thought. _'This is supposed to be your vacation away from worrying from stuff.'_

' _Mum, you know as well as I do that never works out as well as I'd like it to be,'_ Harry thought.

' _Baby, I know,'_ Lily thought.

' _You get your bad luck from your mother,'_ Rose thought. _'Where adventure and trouble follow you around every corner, no matter your best efforts to avoid it from doing so.'_

' _You really don't have any room to talk, Rose,'_ Lily thought, with those words which wiped any kind of smug expression off of Rose's face. _'To answer your question though, Harry, the younger Osborn has finally settled down. I'm not sure he accepted the arrangement, as much as he conceded there's not much he can do about it. He's been quiet over the past couple of months according to Anastasia.'_

' _It would still be better to keep an eye on him,'_ Harry thought.

Harry noticed the arrival of a certain someone outside of the Penthouse. He decided to get up and greet her.

' _Believe me, we agree with that, and Anastasia does as well,'_ Lily thought. _'Harold will be watched, we won't let up on him at all.'_

' _Well, let me know if he causes any problems, you can't handle,'_ Harry thought, a smile cracking over his face.

Harry turned down the steps and walked over. He came face to face with a familiar face from the trip to the west coast. She dressed in a black button up blouse and a nice black skirt which flattered her legs. And boy did she have some amazing legs which seemed to stretch on for miles.

"Alex Danvers," Harry said. "What brings my favorite agent to New York?"

"I was just in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by and see you," Alex said, with a smile directed towards him.

"Well, come inside," Harry said.

Harry could tell when a woman had the hots for him so to speak and Alex Danvers had the hots for him. The moment the two of them crossed paths again, she made it her business to be in Harry's path.

He smiled and invited her inside to sit down.

"So, would you care for a cup of coffee?" Harry asked her.

"Yes, please," Alex said, and Harry already had a couple pre-made. He put one down on the table next to them. "So, happy birthday…early birthday."

"The media really does make it a big deal when someone of fame has a birthday, don't they?" Harry asked.

"Well to be fair, you're eighteen, and that makes you legal in most states," Alex said, trying to look casual at this particular line of questioning. "You know, an actual adult legally speaking…of course, you're more mature than a lot of other men twice your age…and some women other to be fair."

"Yes," Harry said, drinking the cup of coffee. "I'd like to level with you, Alex. A DEO agent rarely is just in the neighborhood. Is there another reason why you're here?"

"I did want to see you," Alex said, sounding a bit defensive in the process.

"I know that," Harry said. "And believe me; I'm happy to see you again in all of your lovely glory. Although I preferred you in the catsuit, it was more fetching on your figure. Although I won't say no to see you in a skirt, with your legs."

Alex blushed at Harry's eyes raking her over like a prime cut of meat. To be fair, she was doing the same thing when Harry wasn't looking. So turnabout was fair play.

"You're smart, too smart for your own good, Doctor Potter," Alex said, licking a bit of cream off of her lips. "Yes, there's another reason…little green men."

Alex almost looked embarrassed at having such a blatant stereotype about aliens being thrown up in her particular line of work.

"There are strange rumors of a bunch of little green men taking up residence in the New York City sewers," Alex said, frowning. "There's a blurry picture which is making its rounds. Sewer workers are claiming they are Turtles. The DEO thinks they're something else. I'm supposed to check it out and see what they are."

Alex took a long sigh, not wanting to talk about this. She personally thought it was some kind of prank by some bored teenagers in Halloween costumes. They dressed up as green men, maybe giant turtles, entered the sewer, and tried to scare some people. The people started to buy it.

"There's something else on your mind, isn't there?" Harry asked, reaching in and touching Alex on the top of her knee to get her attention.

"Yes," Alex said. "Carol, she's been gone…well she should be coming back soon, shouldn't she?"

"By my math, the Green Lantern training is either about to wrap up or is going to wrap up soon," Harry said. "And it could go a little bit long. The Lantern training is tough."

"Yeah, this training might be tough," Alex said, folding her arms over and looking Harry straight in the eye. "My sister is tough. Carol has gone through a lot with all she's done."

Alex took a moment to drink from the cup of coffee. She tried to push the sixth sense of feeling of dread out of her head. The last time she had this feeling about Carol, she encountered the vessel which changed her life forever. Alex touched her fingers to the side of her mouth.

A less serious question other than this entire mess regarding Carol came into Alex's mind. She decided to throw all caution to the wind and ask it.

"So, Harry?" Alex asked. "You don't mind if I call you Harry, do I?"

"Of course not," Harry said. "I think we're comfortable enough with each other to reach that point."

"Good," Alex said, deciding to put the cup of coffee down to look at him. "So, when is the Red Sun Eclipse coming out?"

The question came a bit out of the blue, to the point where it caused Harry to raise his eyebrow.

"My sister was wondering," Alex said.

"Your sister?" Harry asked.

"Well, I was wondering as well, but it was Kara for the most part," Alex said, leaning in closer towards him. "Do you think you can give me a heads up?"

"We're actually making the big announcement of the launch next week," Harry said. "Working for a top secret government agency has given you a lot of practice in keeping secrets. So I figured there would be no harm in letting you in on it."

"No…no there wouldn't be," Alex said, managing to keep herself calm, or at least as calm as she could be in a situation like this one. "So, what's the big news?"

"There's going to be a big launch party in September," Harry said to Alex. "We're going to make the official announcement next week. We're projecting sales which are much higher than the initial Red Sun model last year."

"Oh, I think you will," Alex said, looking at Harry with an adoring gaze. She tried to remain stoic. The agent just wasn't doing a good job of it, with Harry's hand casually resting on her leg, moving up a little bit more from its position.

"There was a bit of a delay," Harry said. "I think the extra work we've put into it will be more than worth it. And the pre-orders are spilling in."

"Well, I better start camping out so I get me…my sister, one early," Alex said, amending this particular statement with not as much grace one would expect from a government agent. The phone on her started to buzz. Alex reached over and sighed. "DEO business….you know about this goes….always interrupting my….well interrupting my leisure time."

"Good luck with your hunt for the little green men," Harry said, unable to resist saying it.

Alex gave him a knowing smile and a mock glare to match.

"I'll be seeing you soon enough, Harry," Alex said.

"Is the DEO investigating me for some reason?" Harry asked. "Are you going to personally interrogate me?"

Alex stopped and leaned down. She placed her hands on Harry's thighs and looked him straight in the eye.

"If I do, Harry, you can be sure of one thing," Alex said, staring him down. "I can be pretty hands on in my work."

Alex knew Harry was just joking. He did hit rather closer to home than the prodigal young man might have had. He had been a person of interest thanks to his connection to several other people of interest in Smallville. A lot of other members of the DEO were a bit too zealous for their own good. Alex admired a good bit of zeal a lot of the time, even though some of these people just took things one step too far to accomplish their goals.

* * *

Carol Danvers decided to do some snooping. It was a trait which ran in the family. The Danvers sisters always wanted to uncover some of the greater mysteries in the world, even if there would be problems.

' _Okay, this is a bit away from Oa,'_ Carol thought. _'I wonder what Sinestra was doing here.'_

The newest Green Lantern spotted two gentlemen lurking around in the shadows. They spoke in low voices and did not look like they were very friendly in the slightest. Carol's eyes flashed over them.

The most peculiar part of their attire happened to be they wore red versions of the normal Green Lantern attire. Both of them resembled someone who was mean, sour, nasty, and rude.

The first of the gentlemen noticed Carol in the shadows. The glowing red gentlemen rose his hand and sent a large spike construct from his ring at Carol. Carol had the presence of mind to duck the attack.

A second spike from the next gentlemen flew through the air. Carol channeled all of the energy possible from the ring and pushed back the attacker. The man with the red power ring lifted a hand and started to wave it around. The energy blasts came directly at Carol in an attempt to wipe her out.

"Green Lantern, you shouldn't have snooped around!" one of these Red Lanterns yelled.

A red wrecking ball swung towards Carol. Carol fired back with a construct of her own which clashed them together. One of the Red Lanterns began to twitch and again started to fire a blast of red energy at them.

A green boxing glove nailed one of the Red Lanterns in the face. The angry enemy flew back onto the ground and landed down onto the ground hard.

Sinestra flew into battle with the Red Lantern, resembling someone who was a force to be reckoned with. She demonstrated why she was the most feared Green Lantern yet, placing the Red Lantern in shackles and knocking him back.

"Okay, it leaves me to play tag with this other one," Carol said.

Two red spiked walls appeared on either side of Carol and almost closed in on her. Carol's heart started to hammer against her chest hard and fast. The red walls came close to closing in on her.

Carol used her will power to force the walls apart and to knock the Red Lantern back.

Sinestra turned her head in time to notice the Red Lantern picking up a lot of speed and coming dangerously close to nailing her directly in the head. The Green Lantern stepped off to one side to dodge the attack before they had an unfortunate and rather painful meeting of the minds.

The two Red Lanterns scrambled and left the two Green Lanterns. Carol scrambled over towards Sinestra and extended a hand to help her up.

"I could have had them," Sinestra said. "If you wouldn't have gotten in the way, I would have had them."

"Sorry…."

"I told you it was on a need to know basis," Sinestra said. "They're lurking around way too close to Oa. The Guardians were right…what little information I managed to pry out of them. They keep saying the Red Lanterns are a myth."

"Red Lanterns?" Carol asked.

"Yes, Red Lanterns," Sinestra said. "Much like the Green Lanterns fuel their rings through will-power, the Red Lanterns do the opposite. They fuel their rings through rage and hate."

Carol frowned. This sounded like a real cheerful bunch to her.

"Now, we've sent them packing, they will return, in greater numbers," Sinestra said. "One thing is for certain, their leader, Atrocitus…he hates the Guardians of Oa more than anything in the universe, or anyone for that matter."

"Atrocitus, there's a name of someone who is cheerful and upstanding," Carol said, the note of sarcasm in her voice.

"You might make light of this situation," Sinestra said, with a long and searching look directed towards Carol. "But, this is no laughing matter. Atrocitus is one of the most dangerous fugitives, and he will not rest until every single Green Lantern lays in a pool of blood beneath his feet."

Carol hitched in her breath for a long moment. Sinestra really did know how to paint a rather grim picture of this entire situation.

"So, do you have any idea why this Atrocitus hates the Guardians?" Carol asked, and this question had been asked by an extremely long and powerful gaze directed by Sinestra.

Carol wondered for a brief moment how much she overextended her bounds. Sinestra stared at her for a few seconds.

"If the Guardians had the courtesy to tell me, then it would be a lot easier to know where they're coming from," Sinestra said. "I know this much. The fact they told me as little as they did means they're really desperate. And they really need my help."

Carol could tell Sinestra sounded resigned to this fact. The Green Lantern superior was not done yet.

"They will return in greater numbers," Sinestra said. "And the Guardians will want all rings on deck."

Carol's sigh turned out to be one of the more prominent ones she had ever given. She really looked forward to a nice, home-cooked meal, catching up with her sisters and mother. And actually getting down to policing Sector 2814.

"And I guess that delays my home coming," Carol said.

"If it bothers you this much, then you may leave," Sinestra said. "We do not need a Green Lantern from a rather minor sector, we have plenty of rather able rings which would suit the job even more."

Carol frowned. She really thought they were over this.

"Maybe I will go if my contributions aren't valued," Carol said.

"Your assessment has been turned in and give, there's no reason for you to stay," Sinestra said, looking at the woman in question. "I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed in you, Miss Danvers. I thought you were of stronger stuff than this. I guess, that's the disappointment I get when putting all of my faith in an Earth dweller."

Carol's eyes snapped open and mouth hung open. She didn't want to get into a scuffle with Sinestra after seeing what she could do with the ring. Carol had no delusions about her ability. The Green Lantern thought she was good. Nothing compared to Sinestra.

"I've changed my mind," Carol said. "Do you need my help?"

"I could use an extra warm body to throw out there if the Red Lanterns return," Sinestra said. "And you're not the worst choice compared to some of these amateurs out there."

Carol took this statement from Sinestra as a compliment. It might have been a bit of a back handed compliment. She would have to take anything she could at this point.

' _She doesn't give out any compliments lightly after all,'_ Carol thought, frowning and placing her arms over each other for a long moment.

"There's one thing you must know," Sinestra said. "This mission is strictly off of the books. It doesn't have the blessing of the Guardians. And waiting around for their blessing would put countless lives in danger."

Carol responded with a stoic nod. She thought Sinestra said the Guardians told her about this.

"The Guardians have officially classified the Red Lanterns as a myth, an intergalactic boogieman of sorts," Sinestra said. "Even though they should know they're very real."

Carol responded with a nod when she looked at Sinestra. They all knew what was at stake right now. There was no need for Sinestra to state the blatantly obvious.

They would need to be both careful and discreet, along with not wanting to upset the blue boys in any way whatsoever.

* * *

Harry stood in the center of the room. He dressed in a pair of tight pants and already removed his shirt. Gwen and Reilly looked at each other, wearing sports bras and yoga pants. Gwen's dressed in a white top, while Reilly dressed in a dark top. Both of them eyed up Harry like the prime cut they thought him to be.

"So, are you really going to spar with us without a shirt?" Gwen asked.

"Yes, why?" Harry asked.

"Not, that we mind the view, because we don't," Reilly said. "You know it's a little bit distracting to see you around here without a shirt."

Harry answered with a dry chuckle. He figured about as much to be honest.

"So, that's the idea," Harry said. "I know you two have been working with Dinah and Diana and….well getting all of the training you can get. I just wanted to check up on you."

"Oh good, so which one of us do you want to fight right now?" Reilly asked.

"Both," Harry said.

Gwen and Reilly actually breathed in relief. Both of them fighting Harry meant they had a little bit more of a chance against him then they would fighting him one on one.

"You get him from the left, I'll get him from the right."

Harry raised a hand to signal the beginning of the sparring session. The two spider themed girls charged Harry on either end. Gwen came from the left side. Harry blocked her arm and turned around, blocking Reilly's attack once more.

"Not too subtle, I'm afraid," Harry said, flipping both of them to the ground.

Harry jumped up. Reilly placed her hand up to block it.

"Remember," Harry said, pushing back Reilly. The two of them engaged in a brief flurry of offense. "Your spider sense is as much of a weapon as it is a defense."

Gwen flipped up in an attempt to jump on Harry's back. Harry caught her in mid air and flung Gwen back. The blonde science prodigy bounced off of the padded black mats. She dodged a kick from Harry.

"Maybe you should go for the right, and I'll try the left," Reilly said.

"I don't think it matters now," Gwen said.

The sparring session kicked into high gear over the next little while. There were times where Gwen and Reilly made a short-sighted attempt to attack Harry separately. They then ended up trying to attack him together at the same time.

Throughout the hour, they were better. One time, Gwen almost knocked Harry down to the ground. The follow up attack spelled doom for Gwen. Harry grabbed her and flipped her to the ground.

"Don't run away mentally with a moderate improvement," Harry said, firing a series of rapid fire punches at Gwen. "Just because you're doing good, doesn't mean you're going to be perfect."

"Right," Reilly said, trying to grab Harry and she flipped him down. "I….."

Reilly found herself down on the ground when Harry took her legs out from underneath her. The dark haired girl hit the ground with a solid oof and Harry landed on top of her.

"We've done enough," Harry said. "You girls are really picking up the pace…just learn to block out the distractions and don't let a bit of success get to your head, and you'll be good."

Reilly and Gwen both nodded in response. They weren't going to say much other than it was sound advice.

"So, one day, we will be able to go out on the field with these powers, right?" Gwen asked.

"Someday, but it will be a while," Harry said.

"Okay, fair enough, and we need to be called something, you know, like a codename or something," Gwen said, arms folded underneath her chest. This had the excellent side effect of making her breasts look bigger. "And since, I'm nine months older, maybe, I can be Spider-Woman, and Reilly here, can be Spider-Girl."

"Spider-Girl?" Reilly asked, rolling her eyes. "Absolutely not…it makes me sound like a sidekick…why not something cool like the Scarlet Spider or Silk Spider?"

Harry chuckled for a moment. Gwen shook her head.

"Okay, the codename thing is a work in progress, I'll be the first to admit it," Gwen said. "We are really excited about your birthday party, tonight at the club…it's going to be big."

"Which means we should get cleaned up," Reilly said. She looked at Gwen with a smile. "So do you want to hit the showers?"

Gwen flashed her girlfriend one of those winning smiles. The two of them walked off, stripping off their workout clothes for Harry's benefit to get them riled up.

' _They're too much sometimes,'_ Dinah thought. _'Although it's more your fault for getting them riled up by walking around without a shirt more than anything.'_

' _Of course it is,'_ Harry thought. _'So, how are things going with you and your father?'_

' _He's coping, and hanging onto the fact Sara's still out there, she washed up somewhere,'_ Dinah thought.

' _So far there's nothing on anyone on the ship,'_ Harry thought.

' _No news is bad news,'_ Dinah thought. _'Happy birthday…don't….don't have it ruined on my account.'_

' _Thanks, Dinah and if you need, anything, I'm here for you.'_

Harry knew what he needed to do. Come to think of it, he was sweaty. Harry could hear the running of the shower water.

' _I'm sure this will make their days,'_ Barbara thought.

Harry stripped off his pants and underwear, before stepping in the shower. He noticed Gwen and Reilly lathering each other up. Both of the girls breathed heavily when they felt each other up.

"I think there's room in there for one more, isn't there?" Harry asked, stepping off to the side of the showers.

"Always," Reilly said, a smile crossing over her face. "Always for you."

"Yes, birthday boy," Gwen said, looking over his nude and sweaty body. "Let's get you all clean."

Gwen walked forward towards Harry and ran her hands down his body, soaping him up with them. The gorgeous blonde flashed him a brilliant smile when rolling her fingers up and down Harry's abdomen area.

Reilly walked behind Harry and pushed her breasts against his back. She decided to wash Harry off from behind using her breasts. Her hands strayed down and cupped Harry's ass, smiling when she looked at him.

"Oooh, that's good, getting nice and clean," Harry said.

"Yes," Gwen said, kissing the edge of Harry's jaw while she lathered up his crotch. "We're really going to get you nice and clean now so we can get you good and dirty in a minute."

Gwen started to move her way down and kneeled on the shower floor. Harry's cock started to throb. Gwen's soapy hand wrapped around Harry's prick and started to move up and down in a handjob motion. Her had slid easily down him.

Harry's cock grew in her hand in anticipation for her mouth to wrap around him. Gwen teased his prick with a couple of light licks and swirled her tongue around him.

"Oh God, Gwen," Harry groaned, feeling Gwen's mouth wrap around the head. She really worked her lips around him.

Gwen smiled and inhaled his entire cock after teasing it. She sucked his cock with hunger dancing in her eyes. A few intense seconds of cock sucking brought Gwen to delightful heights.

"Oh, Harry," Reilly said, seductively perching herself against the wall with a wicked smile on her face. "Look how wet I am for you. You want to eat my pussy, don't you?"

Harry wanted all this and even more. Reilly's tantalizing thighs spread nice and wide for him. Harry eased towards her and buried his face between Reilly's legs which prompted a soft moan to erupt from her.

Reilly rocked her hips up towards Harry's face. His talented tongue explored the outside lips before slipping past them and mapping a path inside her. She gasped when Harry's tongue rattled inside her. It forced her to open wide and Harry slipped his tongue against her ovaries which caused a pleasure.

"All for you, baby," Reilly said, looking down and enjoying the erotic one two punch around her.

Gwen slurped and sucked on Harry's thick manhood, bringing it deeper and deeper into her mouth. The blonde's hunger could not be satisfied by any normal means. The only thing which could satisfy Gwen was the large load of cum currently stored in Harry's balls. Gwen kept stroking Harry's heavy balls in an attempt to bring the cum out of them and deep down her throat.

"Mmm," Gwen moaned, bringing her hot mouth around Harry's aching tool. Every single inch of his cock brought itself deeper down into her throat. Gwen needed to have his delicious seed buried into her throat and needed it now, by any means necessary.

Harry grunted and fired his load into Gwen's mouth. The spider empowered vixen managed to suck up every single drop of it, causing the seed to start spilling into her mouth. The girl sucked him up.

Reilly shrieked and slid down the wall after Harry brought her to an amazing peak. The dark haired girl came down from an extremely spectacular orgasm which only served to rock her mind and her body even more than ever before.

Gwen removed her mouth from Harry's cock and turned around to see Reilly slumped against the wall in dream street. A wicked grin crossed Gwen's face as she forced Reilly's mouth open and spat a mouthful of Harry's seed inside.

Reilly shuddered at the welcomed intrusion from Gwen. Gwen reached down and cupped Reilly's breast to squeeze her nipples. This got an excited rush out of her.

"Mmm," Gwen said, placing her hands on the wall and spreading her legs. "You know where to put this cock, don't you, big boy?"

"I think I have a good idea," Harry said, reaching over and placing his hands on Gwen's hips. He rolled down her amazing legs and started to rub her pussy. "You want me to stick my big cock into your dirty little pussy, don't you? You want me to fuck you against this shower wall until you scream and beg me to stop. But deep down you really want more. You really want to be wrecked don't you?"

Harry used his free hand to fondle Gwen's large breast. Gwen closed her eyes and experienced the glorious rush of energy rising between her thighs. Harry really knew how to push the right buttons to drive her completely wild.

"Yes, I want your cock, your big, gorgeous cock inside me," Gwen said. "You can feel how wet I am…you know I can't live without your giant cock inside my tight pussy, splitting me in half. Give me an orgasm like you did Reilly."

Harry pressed his chest against Gwen's and rubbed against her opening. The friction teased Gwen. Two times, Harry's cock almost slipped inside.

"Harry, give me your cock!" Gwen yelled, trying to wrap her legs around him and pull him in tight.

Harry lightly brushed down her leg and moved around to cup her ass. Gwen breathed heavily at this action. Harry touched the edge of her opening and slipped inside her.

"Finally!" Gwen yelled in triumph. The yell turned into a moan when her nipple found its way into Harry's mouth as easily as his cock found its way inside her.

Harry's cock buried deep inside Gwen's eager and needy pussy. He slowly worked inside her at first. The more Gwen wanted it, the more he teased her. He knew how to get her wet.

"You're so easy," Harry said, placing his hand underneath her breast and giving it a firm squeeze. "All I need to do is push the right buttons, and you're begging for my cock."

Gwen almost had it within her to protest Harry's words. The problem was her body caved in to Harry's cock and clenched down onto it. She couldn't do anything other than enjoy the ride and enjoy him buried deep into her.

Harry experienced the rush of his girlfriend's tight cunt wrapped around him. Gwen rocked up against him.

"Oh, god, Reilly!"

The moment Gwen rose up to impale herself down onto Harry's cock, Reilly slipped in to her unattended asshole. The fellow spider themed heroine started to lick around her asshole.

"You like me to lick your asshole, don't you?" Reilly asked, pinching said ass. "You like my tongue jammed in your dirty little anus while Harry fucks your slutty pussy with his cock…and he'll fuck mine in a little bit."

"Yes," Gwen said, using her spider strength to wrap around Harry's cock. "Go ahead and cum for me, Harry, please."

Harry gained control over Gwen's strength and worked a steady path in between her legs. Gwen needed to learn a few lessons about control.

"YES!" Gwen screamed at the top of her lungs, enjoying Harry's thick cock buried deep inside her.

Harry stepped up the face with rapid fucking against the wall. Gwen held onto Harry's firm glutes and pushed him inside her. Both of them took this to the next level, speed fucking against the wall.

Reilly licked Gwen's asshole while rubbing one out. This was so hot, she couldn't even stand it. The heat came from her pussy.

"Harry, drive your big fucking baby maker inside me, and shoot cum into my womb!" Gwen yelled. "I want so much cum in my pussy, I feel fucking bloated. I want to have a belly full of your seed…put it in me….put it deep in me!"

Harry enjoyed the dirty talk.

"I'm going to put more cum inside your tight little body than you know what to do with," Harry said, pushing against her. He mauled her tits with his mouth. "You like me biting on your tits, like a kinky little slut, don't you?"

"Mmm, yes, I'm nothing, but your little spider-slut," Gwen said. "Pound me raw, cum in me, cum deep in me! Cum so deep cum will shoot out of my nose and splatter all over Reilly's face."

Reilly rubbed her lips more fiercely than ever before. She rocked her hips up and down in an attempt to make herself cum.

Harry pushed one more time inside Gwen's pussy and shot his sticky load inside her. The contents of his balls started to spill inside Gwen's body.

Gwen held back and screamed when an excessively large amount of seed spilled inside her pussy. Every last drop spilled inside her pussy.

The moment Harry pulled out of Gwen, she slid down the wall. Her legs spread to show the seed spilling out of it. Reilly pulled herself up and grabbed Harry by his cock. She rubbed him.

"I hope you have another load in those balls for me, stud," Reilly said.

Harry responded by groping Reilly's chest which caused her to gasp in pleasure. The Alpha Male backed Reilly against the wall and aimed for her pussy.

"What do you think?"

Reilly experienced the delight of Harry's massively huge prick pushing inside her body. Every last inch of his thick cock drilled into her body and made her want to scream out in pleasure.

"Go ahead," Harry said, planting kisses on the side of her neck and face. "Scream for me."

Reilly kissed Harry when the fucking continued. The two of them rocked their hips back and forth. Reilly tasted the delight of herself still stained on Harry's lips and could not get enough of her own taste when she drilled her hips against Harry's body.

"Oooh, ah…mmm!" Reilly moaned.

"Are you ready to cum all over my cock?" Harry asked, shoving himself deep inside her. "Are you going to cum all over my insanely large prick like a good little girl?"

"YES!" Reilly screamed at the top of her lungs, experiencing Harry going deeper into her than she could ever dream. His big balls slapped against her thighs and gave Reilly a little preview of the cum they stored.

Gwen slowly recovered from the orgasm and noticed Harry's cum dripping from her pussy. Not wanting perfectly good seed to go to waist, Gwen scooped up the cum. The girl placed three fingers into her mouth and slowly began to suck on the semen which coated her fingers.

"Mmm, so good," Gwen said, enjoying how their tastes intermingled together.

"Slut," Reilly breathed, in jest. Her pussy clenched at the thought of Harry spilling as much cum inside her.

"Seems like you have a few slutty tendencies yourself," Harry said, squeezing her breasts. "And you like me playing with your big tits. They're good for squeezing and for sucking…and for fucking."

Harry pushed himself into Reilly. Reilly tightened the grip around Harry's legs in response. The brainy brunette really wanted him to bury his cock into her and a potent amount of seed in her. The spider demanded the strongest mate and there was none stronger than Harry, satisfying this many women.

All good things drew to an end eventually. Harry buried himself deep inside Reilly's dripping hot cunt and pushed inside her.

"One more time," Harry said.

"Yes," Reilly said, grabbing onto her lover's shoulder. "Give me a big one."

Reilly's gorgeous legs rubbing up and down him along with her tight pussy around his cock brought Harry closer to a great edge. He wanted to make sure Reilly finished first like a true gentlemen.

"Time for you to cum for me," Harry said, pushing himself between Reilly's legs. "Go ahead, honey, cum for me…cum all over my big cock."

Reilly accepted the words of her mate as the authority which governed her body. Harry's able mouth working her nipples over and repeatedly marking them to show his territory caused her to heat up and come down onto him. Reilly mewled in pleasure the more she worked her walls down onto his thick cock.

Harry returned fire and sent his seed into Reilly. The contents of Harry's swollen balls fired inside Reilly's hot cunt. Every time Harry's seed spilled inside her, Reilly's pussy twitched.

"Oh, I love your cum inside me!" Reilly said. "At least until Gwen acts like a greedy slut and eats it out of my cunt later, when you fuck her pussy from behind."

Gwen tried to protest this for a second. She stopped when realizing Reilly was likely right about this.

Harry finished up inside Reilly and allowed her to gracefully descend to the ground. He looked at a hungry looking Gwen who crawled on ground. She resembled a predator ready to devour one thing only, Reilly's pussy.

* * *

Nyssa crouched over the mysterious blonde as she lapsed in and out of consciousness. She was starting to run a fever. The healer did everything for her. There was only one more avenue Nyssa could explore, and it would be best to do it before too long.

"No, no," she breathed.

"Rest easily," Nyssa said, feeling her burning forehead. "Everything will be fine…just rest….and be still."

Sara Lance tried to roll over. She could feel another gentle hand caress her cheek. It eased her a little bit.

"Sara, honey, it's time to start fighting," the voice of Dinah Drake Lance said softly. "It's time for you to come home."

Nyssa looked over in the room, at her young and unknown charge. She didn't know what else to do other than wait and watch. She needed to figure out something.

"She's not getting any better," Nyssa said as the healer slipped into the room.

"I'm sorry, we both know there is only one other recourse for you to take," the healer said. "Unless you wish to allow her to pass from this world peacefully."

Nyssa refused to allow it to happen. She started to come to the conclusion there was only one decision.

The Daughter of the Demon sat up rigid at something. The healer and a couple of the guards stared at her for a long moment.

"What is it?" one of the twins asked.

"I sense a presence," Nyssa said, goosebumps rising up on her arms.

Not much inspired such a feeling of unease within Nyssa Al Ghul. She found herself to be self-sufficient and brutal most of the time. If anything caused her unease, it should be taken extremely seriously indeed.

* * *

Baxter Stockman gazed upon rows and rows of his Mouser Robots. They had been built in this lab. Without a master control to direct them, they were pretty much useless chunks of metal.

"They thought they could spurn my genius," Stockman said, tapping his fingers at the edge of the screen. "He's wasting the Technovore. Krang doesn't know the pure and utterly destructive potential such a dangerous item has."

A genius idea filled Stockman's mind. He brought the scans of the specifications he made for the Technovore on the screen along with the specifications made for the mouser robots.

"This weapon is self-sufficient and sentient," Stockman said. "The processor is powerful enough to run my mousers. I'll demonstrate to Krang how valuable I, the great Doctor Baxter Stockman, is for TCRI!"

Stockman started to program the small sample of the Technovore into the core processor of the mouser robots.

"Upload in process."

Stockman's gaze grew positively gleeful on the other end of his glasses. There was no question about it, it would be show time.

"Yes, they're online, they're alive!" Stockman yelled. "Go out my pets, and destroy every single rat in this city."

The eyes of the mousers glowed red and directed their attention elsewhere in the lab.

"I didn't think this was possible," Stockman said, and he noticed two of the mousers jump on a huge piece of equipment and started to maul it, practically devouring the technology. "I demand you stop at once…."

Stockman held out his remote control device. One of the mousers jumped up and took a large bite out of the remote control, devouring the technology.

"They're going to destroy the lab, if I don't do something!" Stockman growled.

The mousers targeted every last piece of technology in the lab, starting to maul it apart with their teeth. No scrap of technology had been uncovered.

Stockman opened the doors to his lab, leading out into the subway system under the city.

"Go, my pets, go out in the city!" Stockman yelled. "There is a wider world of technology out in the city. Go forth and take devour it!"

The Technovore's programming sought out the technology and signaled the army of robotic rat catchers out into the city. They began to march two by two.

Stockman sank down in the chair. He went to get a drink of coffee, only to see the mousers destroyed his coffee maker.

"We may have a slight problem," Stockman said, pondering the consequences of letting the mousers out into the city for a moment.

Stockman didn't really care about the city, he had a far more pressing problem. Ensuring Krang did not find out about the equipment which he had damaged.

The original Technovore remained locked into a vault. It started to rattle, as if directing something.

"It's directing the mousers despite being contained," Stockman muttered. "Fascinating, I must delve more into this."

Stockman created a link between the mousers and the master copy by copying the Technovore core inside. He made his way to the main computer in his lab, thankfully salvaged, to study more of this.

Behind Stockman's back, several pieces of equipment glowed with red nano-bot's which traveled through the walls to infect other areas of TCRI.

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 28** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_So April O'Neil is the first non-Marvel, non-DC girl Harry meets on screen. I stress on screen because….well there are some adventures which go off in off screen land. It's a magical place. And there's something about green reptiles roaming around in the sewers. Naturally, the thought of this is absurd. :)_

_Alex and Harry have some interaction and well, if you didn't think she would be interested, then I question what story you've been reading._

_Well, that's most certainly one way to celebrate your birthday, some nice clean fun in the shower._

_Carol's adventures in Oa continue, and there's a bit of a situation here. I was just going to originally just have Carol back with all of her adventures in space with the Red Lanterns and other things implied, but in hindsight, this works out a bit better. Plus it cuts to something slightly different so there you go._

_And Sara is seeing her dead mother. I wonder if anyone has picked up what's going on. It will be clear soon._

_Stockman's ego gets the better of him. No doubt there's some long term ramifications. And playing with a high tech virus never ends well for anyone. You put the thing which eats through technology in robots with sharp metal jaws. Good job, Baxter._

_Until Monday._


	174. Rat Trap Part Two

_Week twelve voting at blog. Go vote, thanks._   _http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/_

 

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Four: Rat Trap Part Two.**

* * *

The bright lights and the big city of New York beckoned Harry on his eighteenth birthday. In some respects, Harry supposed he lived a lot longer than he did. In other respects though, Harry legally wasn't eighteen until early today. The young man stepped out of the limo, followed by a quartet of fabulous females.

Gwen decided to take a place next to Harry before someone snagged it. She wore a form fitting green dress which did a magnificent job of hugging every single one of her marvelous curves. The dress came down tastefully to the point of her thighs, showing her long stocking clad legs.

Mary-Jane exited the limo, wearing the classic little black dress which fit against her budding body nicely. It was easy to see how she had been chosen to be a fashion model for their teenage line. The material hugged her curves like a needy love.

Not to be out done, Reilly stepped out of the limo. She dressed in a shimmering purple dress which parted at her cleavage. She was happy thanks to the growth spurt she received and more importantly how well the dress hugged her body. It came down to her thighs. She stepped over Mary-Jane to the other side and took Harry's other arm.

"Hey, you got more than enough of him earlier," Mary-Jane said, blushing at the innuendo Reilly and Gwen fired off in the limo about their alone time with Harry.

"Sorry, Red," Reilly said, using her pet name for Mary-Jane and blowing her a kiss. "You snooze, you lose…and you're not going to snooze for too long with Harry."

"Oh for sure, he's going to make you're not going to rest for long."

Betty couldn't join them tonight. Felicia Hardy on the other hand more than made it for it. She dressed in an extremely tight and form fitting black leather dress. The sheer will of gravity was the only thing which sustained the dress from down. Felicia grabbed Mary Jane and pressed her against her body.

"Don't worry, kid, you'll get another chance soon," Felicia said, accidentally shoving Mary-Jane's face into her breasts. An action which Mary-Jane didn't correct at the slightest.

The five of them strolled into one of the highest class night clubs in New York City.

"This comes highly recommended from Emma Frost," Felicia said. "So it better be good. And it will be, because she hates being wrong."

Harry smiled. From what little experience he had interacting with Emma, something he intended to change, she did come across as a bit of a perfectionist type.

The group stepped through the club. The man at the door, seeing both Harry Potter and Felicia Hardy in front of the party, almost fell back, tripping over his feet.

"Right this way, no need to wait, there's always some room," the doorman said.

Felicia smiled. It always intrigued her when a man who normally acted like a douchebag falling over backwards to impress a rich client, or a couple of them. Gwen, Reilly, and Mary-Jane looked at awe.

"I have to say, I'm not sure if we would have even passed the front door if it wasn't for you two," Gwen said.

Harry turned towards Gwen with a smile and looked her directly into the eye. There were times where Gwen thought Harry stared into her very soul when staring her down.

"I think anyone who turned you girls away wouldn't be worth our time," Harry said, leaning over, planting a kiss on Gwen's lips.

The kiss was brief. Gwen hadn't quite had enough of Harry in the shower. She hoped to end this night with a bang, a couple of them. A really big one, bigger than the one she and Reilly shared in the shower with Harry if they managed.

"Why don't we order some drinks?" Felicia asked. "Nothing too outrageous, we want to be able to stand at the end of the night."

Felicia decided to dial back on the drunken party girl antics. She and Emma got into some trouble, which was an act of not so subtle rebellion against their parent units.

"I'm going to steal Harry for a dance," Mary-Jane said, deciding to take her moment. "If that's okay."

"I think you just hit the jackpot," Harry said.

Mary-Jane responded with a smile and grabbed Harry, leading him out on the dance floor. This left Gwen, Reilly, and Felicia to talk about whatever.

The redhead thought about making her next move. It had to be right because someone like Harry demanded no less. Mary-Jane wrapped her hands around Harry's waist and steered him into the dance floor. She looked up at him, green eyes locked onto green eyes. The redhead daringly pressed her body against his.

Felicia, Gwen, Reilly, and Betty all beat her to the punch. Liz hadn't yet. This only had been because she didn't spend as much time around Harry. The point is Mary-Jane Watson really hated to be second best to anyone. She had to be the best, go screw the rest, at least in her mind.

' _Wonder, if I can get him into bed tonight,'_ Mary-Jane thought.

Harry smiled, knowing what Mary-Jane had in mind. Far be it for him not to encourage the girl, especially when she was an attractive redhead. Whether or not she would pull the trigger, Harry had no idea.

"So, it's a nice night, isn't it?" Mary-Jane asked, slowly rolling her hips against Harry's for a moment before returning to the dance.

"Yes, it's positively beautiful," Harry said, smiling when he looked down at her, knowing her game. He played it cool, which tended to make the girls want it even more than ever before. "It has to do more with the company involved then anything."

"Mmm, you may have a point," Mary-Jane said, looking into his green eyes. They showed so much warmth and energy. Mary-Jane found her knees weakening.

A sound of screams could be heard. Harry perked up for a second and even Mary-Jane took notice. Gwen and Reilly rose to their feet.

' _Of course, we couldn't have one night without running into trouble,'_ Gwen thought, throwing her hands up into the air. _'Guess the more perfect the night, the bigger the trouble.'_

The sounds of police sirens could be heard. The owner of the club rushed out to talk to the officer. The two of them were engaged in some deep conversation.

"I can't just shut down the club, just because of some kind of hunch you have," the owner said. "Do you realize how much money I could stand to lose tonight if I shut down after every mild threat?"

"I don't know, is your profit more important than the safety of these people?" the officer asked. "They're coming here, and they're devouring everything in their path. They attacked the research facility across the street."

"What are they?" the owner asked, sounding still sour.

"We haven't been able to get close enough," the officer said. "All we know is we got to keep all of the people out of the area, before there are problems."

Harry heard pretty much all what he needed to know. His eyes flickered over to Gwen and Reilly, who looked back at him.

' _We know what to do,'_ Gwen said,

' _Get Felicia and Mary-Jane as far away from here as possible,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm going to see what's going on.'_

Harry slipped off in the confusion to make a quick change.

* * *

The carnage in the lab greeted Harry the moment he turned around the corner. The emerald-eyed enchanter dropped down onto the ground and took a long look at the carnage around him. The news had gone from a bit bad, to really bad as far as he could tell. He just had a feeling the problems would increase from here.

"It's very confusing," Oracle said in Harry's headset. "I punched up the security footage, but I couldn't get much. It's almost like the cameras were the first thing which had been destroyed."

"So, whatever we're dealing with is self-aware," Harry said. The groan coming from Harry's voice could be heard from miles away. "There's a piece of good news."

"Yes, I agree," Barbara said. "What do you think it is? Some kind of rogue scientific experiment which escaped. If it is, there are some people who are covering it up, I bet."

Harry sensed these things, whatever they were, weren't done just yet. The sorcerer stepped inside the room and looked around. He could see several pieces of equipment which had been damaged and ripped apart. Circuits popped out of the machines and scattered across the floor. The situation turned quite ugly in a matter of moments.

"This day just keeps getting better," Harry said, slapping a hand to his palm. "And better."

A step into the lab painted a rather grisly picture. Harry activated a device underneath his hood which showed images on Oracle's view screen. The images flashed pretty much everything Harry saw on the screen.

"Do you see what I see?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Barbara said. She frowned deeply. "It looks like something ate the technology around you. And it didn't discriminate what it ate."

"Technology which eats other technology," Harry said, taking a moment to consider something. "There's something about this which seems very familiar, I can't put my finger on it….."

Harry turned around at the sound of a robot clicking to life outside of the shadows. The red eyes of the robot shined and it stalked Harry. It seemed to be sniffing out something. Harry wasn't going to allow it to sniff out anything on him. He whipped a dagger out of his sleeve. The dagger decapitated the robot. The head exploded into a shower of circuits and motor oil around Harry.

"Okay, there's that," Barbara said.

"And there's more."

No sooner did Harry's words come to light, more appeared around them. Several of the little demonic robots circled around them. Their heads were extremely big with jagged teeth. They had slender bodies and short legs. Two of them dove at Harry. Harry spun around and knocked them back.

Strength came in numbers when these little robot monstrosities circled around Harry. Harry could see one of the robots make a mad dash for his Red Sun which was currently on them.

' _Maybe I can use their obsession with devouring technology to my advantage,'_ Harry thought. _'Maybe I can use it to distract them…I'd really hate to lose my Red Sun…but if it has to be done, it has to be done.'_

Nine robots left in a circle and all of them made their way directly towards Harry. Harry prepared to attack them and hope they would be obsessed enough to jump at once.

A line of webbing shot in and grabbed one of the robots around the head. The robot smashed onto the ground.

Gwen stepped in, dressed in a white hooded sweatshirt pulled over her head, along with a pair of black pants. Reilly dressed in a black and red version of the same outfit. The two of them circled around the robots. The robots rushed towards them.

"Looks like your father's old web shooters worked out well," Gwen said.

"Yeah, well mostly well," Reilly said, clicking one of them and causing it to get jammed. "There are a few bugs we still need to work out. So it's still a work in progress."

Harry dove onto Reilly's other side and started to nail the robots. The robots flew back.

"Make sure to keep one of them mostly intact," Harry said. "I want to take a good look at it."

One of the robots dove at Reilly. Reilly dodged the attack and kicked him in the face.

"I'm not a chew toy!" Reilly yelled. One of the robots tried to bite the jammed web shooter. All it did was trigger a quick release and gum up the neck of the robot. The jaws had been rendered useless which allowed Gwen to jump in and punt the robot's head off like a soccer ball. "Hey, that's not…."

"They're eaters of technology!" Harry said, arming another dagger and cutting through another robot. A third one tried to scale up to the ceiling and made another mad dash for Harry's Red Sun.

"Yeah, we heard," Gwen said, pushing the head of one of the robots down. "Ah, there's nothing like some good practical training out there…and you could have used a little back up as well."

Harry wasn't going to deny he could use the back up or either the girls used the personal training.

"So, who to back you up better than Spider-Woman and Spider-Girl?" Gwen asked. Reilly cast her the evil eye. Gwen returned fire by folding her arms in response. "Okay fine, the entire name thing is a work in progress."

"Doesn't really matter too much until we get proper costumes," Reilly said, smashing her fist through the top of the head of one of the robots. "And I think we only need to leave one of these intact."

Two of them remained intact. Reilly used her other web shooter. It clicked and showed it was out of web fluid.

"Okay, note to self, put in some kind of alarm which warns you you're out of web fluid," Reilly said, holding her web shooter up.

"Where would you be if I wasn't here to watch your back?" Gwen asked, firing a blast of web fluid from the shooter and tangling up the robot. She smashed its skull with spider strength. "Huh?"

Gwen rose up her hands and notices several glowing red flecks on her hand. Harry saw it as well. He focused his attention on the fourth and final robot which charged him.

Harry noticed a switch on the robot and switched it off. The robot looked as if it was going to turn itself back on. Harry noticed a glowing red nano-bot implanted in the neck.

' _Curious,'_ Harry thought, removing the mini-bot from the back of the creature's neck and picking it up. _'Extremely curious….'_

"Gwen, don't move, I'll get those off your hands," Harry said.

Gwen didn't know what these things were. They made her feel nervous, like they were going to start devouring her skin much like those little robots.

Reilly stared at the robot for a long moment.

"You know, this thing is ugly," Reilly said. "And I don't mean cute-ugly either. I mean, ugly-ugly, so ugly you want to disfigure it with something because it can only improve its looks."

Harry removed the bots quickly from Gwen's hand and scanned her.

"Thankfully they didn't infect you," Harry said. This caused Gwen to sign in relief. "At least it doesn't have the capability to infect humans. At least not yet."

Gwen had a lot of questions, being the scientific prodigy she was. Being infected was a good sign. The nano-bots eventually having the ability to infect humans at least in Harry's theory, this was less than a cheerful proposition. She wondered and no doubt there were many questions going through Gwen's mind. The lack of answers bothered her something fierce.

Reilly let out a solid "hmm" when looking towards Gwen.

"Was this a good hmm, or a bad hmm?" Gwen asked.

"Look at this robot…it looks like something which could be made by Spencer Smythe," Reilly said.

Now Reilly pointed it out, Harry noticed the similarities between this robot and some of Smythe's creations. Uncanny looked to be the word of the day between this creation.

"Yeah, it does look like it could, couldn't it?" Gwen asked, frowning and taking a long look at the robot. "The similaraties are pretty crystal clear, aren't they?"

"Yeah, they are," Reilly said. She turned her head a fraction of an inch to the side to look at Harry. The lab sounded quiet and the sounds of police officers finally moving in greeted them. "So what do you think?"

"First, I think we should get out of here," Gwen said, looking at Harry with a side long look. "Sorry to step on your toes or anything….."

"No, I agree," Harry said, smiling at Gwen and placing his arm around her. "We should get out of here as soon as possible and regroup. Then it's time to pay Doctor Spencer Smythe a visit."

Harry made sure the robot was secured, about with the nano-bot samples. A brief scan of the lab indicated the other small samples either burned out(the preferred option) or escaped(the dangerous option). Harry really hoped they just burned out.

The bot still made its way to escape the vial. Harry pocked it. If his hunch was correct, they found a rather dangerous piece of technology which went missing several months ago.

* * *

The next morning, Harry, Reilly, and Gwen changed out of their costumes, and made their way into their civilian attires. Harry slipped inside a side entrance and made his way up to the lab of Doctor Spencer Smythe.

"And I'm surprised there wasn't more security than there was," Gwen said, raising an eyebrow. "Is it just me, or do either of you think it's very odd?"

"For once, it's not just you," Reilly said. Gwen gave Reilly one of those side long gazes which caused some agitation. "Just kidding. It's odd…and suspicious."

The two of them made their way into the lab. No news was bad news as far as Harry was concerned. The robots appeared to have gone underground. Whoever was controlling them must have recalled them.

' _Or,'_ Harry thought. _'Or, they went underground on their own accord.'_

' _Do you even want to head down this road, Harry,'_ Faora thought. She wasn't about to dismiss it. _'This is really advanced technology. And something we have never been able to create.'_

' _To be fair, it's in our capabilities to create it here on Earth,'_ Karen thought. _'To have it be done safely and not have it intermingle with Earth technology in a bad way, not so much.'_

Harry Potter's ability to take a few steps forward and almost run into a beautiful woman held true to form when one walked around the corner. An attractive brunette scientist stepped forward. Her hair had been done up neatly in a ponytail and she wore glasses. This scientist wouldn't be considered a conventional beauty, at least if you looked at her from a distance on the street. Beneath the surface though was a different story. Harry could tell she was the spunky type and this could be rather attractive.

"Oh, my…you're Harry Potter, Harry Potter, here in my lab, and you're here…in my lab!" the woman yelled.

Gwen and Reilly snickered off until the side, at least until Harry gave them one of those gazes. The two girls promptly settled down. Harry raised his eyebrow when he stared down the scientist who stepped forward.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just, you're a real living legend," the woman said, trying to hitch in a breath and keep calm. "And you're here, I can't believe you're here, in this lab right now."

"I wouldn't say I'm a legend," Harry said, chuckling. "Although one day, I aspire to be one, or something more."

"Right," she said. "I'm Marla… Marla Madison."

"Well, you already know who I am," Harry said, walking towards the brunette. She gave a surprised squeak when Harry stepped towards her. "This is Gwendolyn Marie Stacy and Theresa Reilly Parker."

"Right, it's a pleasure to meet both of you," Marla said. She managed to regain her composure at least for the most part and lock eyes onto Harry. "So, what are you doing here…not that I don't mind…."

Harry allowed her to trail off. The easy going smile he had caused her to stop in her tracks and moisten her panties.

"I'm looking for Spencer Smythe," Harry said. "You wouldn't happen to know where he is?"

"He left earlier this morning, saying he needed to get something big out of the city before those…well you've heard of the metal machines, haven't you?" Marla asked. "It's a prevision of completely good robotics, using them for evil."

"You seem rather passionate about this," Harry said

"Oh, I am, I'm passionate about a lot of things," Marla said. She coughed for a moment, realizing what she said. "There's a lot of people who don't understand how robotics can be used for good. They can do surgery humans can't safely do. They can explore areas and learn about wonders we can't safely explore. Instead, people want to develop drones for war and to spy on people."

"Well, I might have to offer you a job at RAO, because we have a project you could be perfect for."

Marla looked pleased and also a bit embarrassed at this. Embarassed she pretty much had no choice other than to turn Harry down.

"Sorry, I can't, I'm under a contract with Doctor Smythe, for another eighteen months," Marla said. "End of 1999, I'll be out of the contract."

"I wonder if he'll accept me buying the rest of your contract out," Harry said. "I'd really want someone like you to be a part on my team."

Marla wondered if he could. Spencer hated to let go of resources for any means. She worked as his assistant out of college, mostly to pay off her debts. One thing lead to another and she worked for him full time.

"I…well I don't want to encourage you to start to tamper with my contract, we both could get in a lot of trouble," Marla said, looking a bit flushed.

One long and searching look at the lovely Doctor Madison's face showed her what she really wanted.

"So, Smythe is not here," Harry said. "Maybe you can help me with something. You do work with him closely, don't you?"

"I'm his assistant," Marla said. "I'm not sure if I can help you too much….no matter how much I want to. You know, I'm under an extremely strict confidentiality agree."

Confidentiality, this could be a real problem. Harry hoped to find a way around it.

"Why doesn't Harry show you what he has and we can figure out if you can say anything?" Reilly asked. "It could be a life and death situation and we could use your help."

Marla now found herself more than curious. She opened her mouth for a brief second and responded with a swift nod.

"Let's see it, then," Marla said. "And I can tell you whether or not I can tell you."

Harry produced the robot in his arms for her to see. Marla's eyebrows rose in surprise the moment she took a quick look at the robot.

"It looks like something made by Baxter Stockman," Marla said after a moment.

"Baxter Stockman?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Stockman was Smythe's protégé for a long time," Marla said. "Doctor Smythe let Stockman go because he had an attitude problem. Which is strange because Doctor Smythe rarely lets anyone go unless he doesn't have any use for them. And I guess he didn't have any use for Doctor Stockman any long."

Harry frowned. He filed this under interesting.

"I've heard of Stockman," Gwen said. "There was a big news story a while back where some scientific company hired him. They got into a lot of hot water into them."

"What's the name?" Reilly asked.

Gwen spent a moment trying to rack her brain to remember. She was drawing a completely blank. The blonde balled up her fists in frustration.

"Techno Cosmic Research Institute," Marla said. "Or TCRI….they were in the news for a big chemical spill all of these years ago."

Harry filed this thought underneath the extremely interesting. He heard the letters TCRI a couple of years ago.

"His mouser robots were created in an attempt to curb the city's rat problem," Marla said. "He had been creating an interface. I guess, Doctor Smythe didn't want him to get involved in this problem."

"The two of them had it out, then?" Harry asked.

"Pretty much," Marla responded by shrugging her shoulders. "The two of them almost ripped into each other big time, and by big time, I mean big time."

Harry could only begin to guess the nature of the row. The red lights of the mouser's eyes clicked on and it turned around. It made a movement for Marla's computer.

"GRAB IT!" Harry yelled.

Reilly and Gwen wasted no time grabbing onto the mouser. Now they knew what it is, there was no use to leave it intact. Gwen's hands crushed around the mouser head and pretty much reduced it into scrap metal. Thankfully none of the nano-bots sprayed out onto her hands this time.

Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out the vile with the nano-bot sample he fished out of the mousers. Marla's eyes widened.

"Mousers don't do this," Marla said.

"And they're not supposed to devour every single piece of technology in the city, aren't they?" Harry asked. "Unless they've been upgraded with something really dangerous."

"Another company has been attacked," Barbara said. "It's almost like these things are multiplying."

Harry groaned. This was what he was afraid of. He had one of the nano-bot samples even though it tried to scramble away. Hopefully he could get to the source.

' _I'm going to need to make a phone call.'_

* * *

Some areas of TCRI were more classified then others. One had been isolated from the rest of the building. No floor plan for the TCRI building featured this particular area on of the building. The room proved to be a fortress of sanctuary and solitude for the owner of TCRI, the man known of Krang.

Krang wasn't what he used to be. A former alien warlord who had been stripped of his body and banished to Earth, Krang shuffled around. He managed to restore himself to a semblance of his former glory with the aid of a bubble walker device. It allowed him mobility. The neural interface allowed him to manipulate some robotic arms to get some work done.

"Bah, this primitive Earth technology is slow," Krang said. "They would have to banish me to the one mudball which had completely and utterly inadequate technology for what I need to accomplish."

Krang continued to get to work in an attempt to work. The computer running slow caused the disembodied alien warlord to throw himself into a fit.

"By my calculations, the technology on this planet won't start catching up until the next seventy-five years!" Krang howled, slamming his tentacles down onto the console. It did not make it go any faster. "This is inadequate, completely and totally inadequate. I do not have the time to wait!"

The frustration brimmed rather nicely out of Krang.

"If only I had an inter-dimensional portal which I could call on my forces from Dimension X," Krang said, practically burping the last word out. "Bah, this atmosphere is inadequate as well. It gives me an unhealthy level of indigestion. How can I even have indigestion without a stomach I'll never know!"

Krang belched one more time.

"These humans will end up destroying their own planet at the rate they're going before I can even have a chance to conquer it," Krang said, looking at the display. "Finally, it took you long enough."

Krang wished he had access to a portal which would allow him to get ahold of the vast armory he had stored away in Dimension X. They would be useful in his attempted conquest of this planet.

"I can't even access it without the proper technology," Krang said. "And my army…who knows what the state they would be? Without my leadership, they could have been captured or worse."

Krang activated the floor plans of his project.

"At least, after all of these years, it's almost assembled," Krang said. "I have to rely on that boob Saki and his ninjas to get it together. So far they haven't bungled things."

Deep underneath the TCRI building, Krang's pet project was being assembled. Once it was completely operational, it would have the ability to level entire cities in a matter of days, countries within weeks. All of the humans would succumb to the almighty Krang, the one and only supreme warlord of Dimension X.

A blip appeared on Krang's screen.

"An infection!" Krang bellowed at the top of his lungs. "It's impossible…the security system is airtight."

The alien breath drew in the air. A remarkable feat considering he had no lungs due to being relieved of them when he had been banished.

If Krang had a heart, it would be beating right now. Not he had a heart before it banished. If it was, it was coal black as the darkest night.

"Computer, tell me the source of the infection," Krang said. Krang waited very impatiently for this stone-age computer to do its thing.

The lab had been scanned and Krang noticed a cluster of red-particles. The alien warlord brain frowned.

"Prepare for decontamination," Krang said. When he found out who did this, they would pay. Krang started to decontaminate the lab. The screams of the little metal creatures proved to be music to Krang's….okay he didn't have ears anymore. He still had the ability to perceive sound.

Krang put up a news reporter.

"Panic has hit all of New York when several metal monsters have attacked the city and have devoured every last bit of technology in the process," the news caster reporter. "Oh my god…they're coming here. Get the camera on them, get the camera on them quick!"

The camera's lens focused on a very familiar creation.

"STOCKMAN!" Krang yelled, angrily accessing the communication link towards his lab.

"You bellowed, sir?" Stockman asked.

"Your mouser robots are tearing up the city," Krang said. "I believe I've told you not to take any creative liberties with the Technovore Virus. And yet, you've done just that. Why would you see it fit to disobey me?"

"I ran a test…testing to see how the Technovore would react to the mouser technology," Stockman said. "I managed to lure them out into the city."

"You lured them out into the city?" Krang asked. His voice sounded calm. If one saw his eyes though, they could see how incensed he was. "Stockman ,you made this mess, you better get it under control instantly. Or human resources will have a chat with you."

Krang burped out the last "you" and Stockman paused for a long moment.

"Don't worry, don't worry, Mr. Krang," Stockman said. "I'll find a way to get them back, get them all back, you'll see…oh you'll see."

"See that you do, Stockman," Krang said. "Or you will suffer the consequences."

It was so hard to find good help these days.

* * *

A dark haired nineteen year old college student walked onto the train. She dressed in a nice blouse and skirt which stretched down passed her knees. Underneath her arm, the girl carried a crate underneath her arm.

"Almost late for the train again?" she asked. "Then again, Caitlin, you seem to be riding back and forth on trains a lot these days."

Caitlin Snow, a nineteen year old scientific prodigy who graduated high school years before the rest of her class, sat down on the train. She currently was working as an intern for Doctor Christina McGee at Mercury Labs, even though there had been a lot of people aggressively recruiting her when she finished with college. She was about ready to finish her first doctorate, but she shouldn't limit herself.

A high level and irreplaceable piece of scientific equipment she ran from the New York branch of Mercury Labs all the way to the Central City branch rested underneath her arm. Caitlin didn't ask, and Doctor McGee didn't tell. This seemed to be the most obvious way to conduct business with the two of them.

The lights on the train started to flicker which caused Caitlin to sit rigid. These old trains were always on the process of breaking down a little bit. Caitlin clutched the crate closer to her belly and the frown she had deepened.

Suddenly, a sound of chewing caused Caitlin to stand up rigid. A couple of the other passengers stood up.

"This train better not have rats or anything!" one of the passengers yelled.

"No, it's not rats," Caitlin said, attempting to sharpen her hearing.

Several metal robots started to chew through the train. One of them stepped forward and lunged at the camera one of the people the train had.

"Hey, I just paid a lot of money for that!"

The robots didn't really care too much for how much money the passenger paid for the camera. It chomped on through the camera and several other items.

The robots turned their eyes towards the box which Caitlin was carrying. One of them dove at the box. Caitlin pulled it away the best she can.

"No, stay away from it!" Caitlin yelled.

She was so dead, or worse fired, if these things started to chew through the box and devoured the equipment inside like they did with the camera. They all surrounded her, with one of them nipping at the bottom of the box.

Out went the lights and in went mass panic on the train. Caitlin couldn't really make the sound out of what happened. Only a lot of crashing and breaking of objects went on around her on the train.

Someone grabbed Caitlin around the waist and escorted her, along with the other passengers out of the train.

Caitlin found herself standing in the subway, with the equipment box in her hand, and no clue what just happened. Only she was glad to be away from those things, whatever those things were. They seemed like a perversion of robotics, like something out of a really bad science fiction movie from the 1950s.

* * *

"I think I found your Technovore."

Harry gave this statement to the one and only Natalia Victoria Stark, Tori to all her friends. The woman's hair was messed up a little bit, indicating she had just gotten out of bed after a long night partying.

"It's a good thing I didn't leave then," Tori said, looking at the nano-bot sample. "Well, it's not the full Technovore, maybe just a replication of it. Of course, the fact someone had access to it to replicate it, even if it was a poor replication is pretty bad."

Harry noticed Tori sounded more serious than ever before. When someone like Tori Stark sounded serious, it normally drove home how grave the situation was.

"These were implicated inside these Mouser Robots," Harry said. "And they gave them an ability to chew through anything…"

"Including technology," Tori said. "This is why the Technovore was locked away in the first place."

"Yes," Harry said. "And these robots were created by Doctor Baxter Stockman."

Tori snorted in surprise which caused Harry to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh god, Stockman, you're being serious, aren't you?" Tori asked. Harry raised an eyebrow so Tori jumped in for a clarification. "Stockman's an absolute nutcase of the highest caliber. Only he would be foolish enough to put implant a dangerous virus into items with large metal teeth."

"And TCRI is a Fortress," Oracle said in Harry's ear. "They have some of the best security in the world. No one can hack it. Not even me, I tried."

Harry noticed the grave tone in Barbara's voice. He could tell how much of a personal insult it was for her not to be able to break into TCRI.

The door swung open. Alex Danvers stepped inside.

"So, I'm here and…."

Alex stopped short and looked straight on at Tori Stark. Harry sensed a moment of tension between the two of them. It wasn't the good kind of tension either to be honest. It was the bad kind of tension.

"So, how are you doing…um, Alice wasn't it?" Tori asked.

Alex reared up and slapped Tori right across the face so hard it almost hurt Harry to see it.

"It's Alex, but I'm not surprised you didn't remember my name," Alex said. "Given you're too drunk to see straight half of the time."

Harry looked from one girl to the other. He thought perhaps he should step in before this got too ugly.

"I can't believe I slept with you, and you didn't even bother to call me afterwards," Alex said. "What was I thinking?"

"To be fair, I don't think either of us were thinking, the way the drinks were flowing," Tori said. Alex placed her hands on her hips. "So, how have you been holding up?"

Alex responded with the death glare to end all death glares at Tori.

"I could be better," Alex said. "I only came here because Harry asked for my help….what was I thinking sleeping with you?"

"I'm pretty sure if I had a dollar for every time a woman said that, I'd be richer than I was now," Tori said. Alex stared her down.

"Alex, whatever…happened, we have a far bigger problem than that," Harry said, finally stepping in between the two women, at the risk of his own health.

' _You're far braver than many,'_ Barbara thought in amusement.

"Will whatever personal issues between you do get in the way of getting the job done?" Harry asked.

"No, I can't speak for her," Alex said. "I'm a professional though."

"Good, I told you about the mouser robots," Harry said. "We're going to need her help to shut her down, because she created the base form of the virus which they've been infected with."

Alex gave Tori a look of agitation. This wouldn't be the first time one of her inventions caused any trouble.

"And I think I have a way to shut it down," Tori said. "We're going to have to get all of them into one place."

"We can do that," Harry said, looking towards Alex.

"Yeah, should be no problem," Alex said.

The three of them needed to work together. Reilly and Gwen were out in the city keeping an eye out for any mouser sightings. It was go time.

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 30** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_Mary-Jane is about ready to get herself, but gets cock-blocked by robot,s and thus the opportunity has been lost. That happens a lot._

_Gwen and Reilly make their debut in costume, kind of, sort of, although it's a work in progress._

_Harry can go out into a crowd blindfolded and attract women. A character you may recognize if you read Spectacular showed up._

_And Krang finds out what Stockman did and he's not a happy megalomaniac brain. Stockman may be sent to human resources sooner rather than later._

_Caitlin Snow makes a cameo, and we'll obviously see more of her later._

_And Tori plays off a joke about a mysterious phone number she never called back being Alex Danvers. It wasn't intended to be Alex when I wrote that bit, but I came up with a burst of inspiration and rolled with it. And well…..things are a bit awkward here, aren't they?_

_See you Wednesday._


	175. The Rat Trap Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Three: Rat Trap Part Three:**

* * *

Harry knew when setting up a trap, you ran a likelihood of getting trapped even worse yourself. He ran pretty much on these same principles when dealing with the criminal element in Gotham City. There were times where the criminals thought they made a couple of moves ahead. In the game of mental chess Harry played, one had to be two or three moves ahead of a crafty adversary. Otherwise, they would get the drop on him.

The bait Tori provided for them would work. She had it brought there from one of the Stark facilities nearby. Alex eyed the woman. Despite her less than amorous personal feelings towards the woman, Alex admitted to herself Tori really did know how to put together some sweet looking technology. A lot of it was way above the intelligence level of the average user.

"So, the plan is just to put this out there and hope the Technovore attacks it?" Alex asked, sounding cool, casual, and to the point when speaking to Tori. All parties considered this progress, even if it was strictly professional.

"Yeah, pretty much," Tori said. Alex almost scoffed in response. Tori folded her arms across her chest and stared back at her. "Give me some credit though. I managed to send up a signal. They'll find it, give them some time and they'll find it."

Alex decided to give Tori the benefit of the doubt. They would need a Plan B if Plan A didn't work. Fortunately, Harry whipped something up which could help.

"Once the mousers have been destroyed, this should drag all of the wild nanobots in the city over here," Harry said, holding out the magnetic orb.

"And this is just something you whipped up on a slow day?" Alex asked.

Tori responded with a smug little smile, and ignored the very obvious snark directed in her direction.

"There are other purposes," Harry said, leaning over towards the government agent. She looked back at the piece of equipment, rather impressed by it. "A quick reconfiguration or two, and we can bring them here. The mousers will try to devour it."

"The nanos on their own are mostly harmless," Tori said. This statement earned Tori one of those side long looks which told her she better explain and explain quickly where she was going with this. "Mostly harmless, as in, they can still devour technology. If they can find their way into a computer terminal or anything. And if the mousers are gone, there's a chance they'll commandeer something else."

Tori let out this particular explanation with a nice and long breath. She would have to move quickly and efficiently.

"Just get in position," Harry said.

Alex took half of a step back. Technically this wasn't in the DEO's jurisdiction at first, and she was going off of the books anyway. TCRI being involved made her justify going off on this rogue assignment. If she brought back information regarding TCRI, then they could nail the owners to the wall.

"So, what's the deal with TCRI?" Harry asked. "I know about the chemical skill. Didn't a girl get blinded by the chemical waste?"

"Yes, she was only ten, fifteen years ago," Alex said, sounding somber. "If this was the end of the problems with TCRI, I'd be a lot happier. It only scratches the surface."

"Does it?" Harry asked. "Is this classified?"

"Everything in my line of work is classified," Alex said, with a sigh. "TCRI are people of interest, or rather the brains behind the operation. Let's just leave it at that."

Harry pretty much had a good idea where they were going. The munching of little mouser mouths turned his attention away from this conversation.

' _Now, or never,'_ Harry thought. _'There's only about a ninety-three percent chance of this working.'_

' _And the seven percent margin of error really agitates you doesn't it?'_ Karen asked.

It went without saying even such a margin of error agitated them. The mousers all came into the area, with the two spiders moving in close behind them.

"You want the big, high-tech snack, don't you?" Tori asked. She waved her arms out. "You remember me, don't you? You remember Mommy, don't you?"

Gwen and Reilly exchanged a look of disbelief at Tori Stark referring to herself as the mother of this technological nightmare. The two of them couldn't really say much more than this. The little mouser robots came on by and kept chewing and munching at the little pieces of technology.

' _Just a little bit closer,'_ Harry thought.

Harry would have smiled. The plan went almost according to accord. The mousers zeroed in on the technology. The field around them discharged and caused them to knock back.

The lead mouser, for lack of a better term, turned to its companions. The metal rat traps looked to be discussing something with each other and they turned their attention.

' _Gwen, Reilly, you know what to do now.'_

The two spiders knew precisely what to do with this attack. Both of them descended down upon the ceiling and took half of the mousers out. Reilly webbed onto two of the powers and lifted them up into the air. She flung them together and smashed them to bits. Little red nano-bots flew into the air.

Gwen dodged the nanos and prevented them from showering her. She picked up a crate and smashed it down onto them. The mousers chewed back to the crate in time for Gwen to jump up. One of them bit at Gwen's toes. She narrowly avoided losing a foot at the mouths of these little demons.

Alex came from behind the corner and fired at one of the mousers. She disrupted the sensors with the shots which allowed the two spiders to take them out.

"Nice shooting," Gwen said with an approving smile directed towards the DEO agent.

"Thanks," Alex said, firing another bullet against one of them. "You aren't too bad yourself."

There wasn't a sufficient amount of time for any kind of back patting when some of the mousers started to chew the support beams. Alex's cover began to collapse from underneath her. The DEO agent staggered a little bit.

Harry grabbed her and pulled Alex out of harm's way. Alex recovered quickly and attacked the mousers.

"Just how many more of these things are there?" Alex asked, blowing the head of one of them off. Reilly took the one out which came to their right side. "Because, I swear, there shouldn't be these many of these things. So what's the deal?"

"No, they shouldn't," Tori said. She picked up a makeshift wrist blaster made out of spare parts and blew up some mouser heads. "Hey, this is fun. Maybe I should built an entire suit."

Cold chills ran down Alex's spine at the thought of Tori Stark having a destructive suit of armor at her disposal. This sounded like one of the world's worst disasters waiting to happen.

"Everyone stand clear!" Harry yelled, picking up the metal orb.

Harry braced himself to find out whether or not the seven percent probability would bite him into the ass. The robotic nanos lifted off of the ground and sucked into the little orb. They were trapped with no way out.

"Please tell me that's all of them?" Alex asked.

Tori held up a hand scanner and flashed it around. She nodded. Everyone relaxed, for the moment.

* * *

One of Harry's safehouses lead to a state of the art lab which Tori Stark was as giddy as a school girl in. Her giddiness only went so far before it faded into a frown. The collected Technovore samples had been placed on a slide right in front of her. Tori looked over the samples and her frowned deepened.

"So, was it everything you thought it was?" Reilly asked.

"Yes," Tori said, hoping to study it more. "Someone replicated the Technovore. It's nowhere near the potency of the original model. It's still extremely dangerous in its own right."

Tori responded with a sigh. She really wished she had a stiff drink right about now. Granted, a drink was among the last things she needed. It didn't change the fact she wanted one and wanted one badly.

"Dangerous meaning….." Gwen asked.

"Oh, enough to cause even more damage," Tori said. "Downloading it into metal robots with sharpest teeth wasn't the brightest decision in the world. The only thing I'm glad is it wasn't downloaded into something even more dangerous than those metal monstrosities."

Tori didn't want to even think about what might happen if the Technovore had been downloaded into something more dangerous. The idea of it prompted Tori to shudder in response.

"It would be a good idea to study this sample," Harry said. "And maybe with time, we can find a way to shut down the Technovore once and for all."

Tori didn't turn away from the replicated Technovore for several minutes. A couple of thoughts went through her mind. Tori decided to tell Harry what she was thinking.

"Well," Tori said, answering with one of her bright smiles. "The Technovore was locked away for a good reason. No one at Stark had the slightest idea how to shut it down, and more importantly they didn't have the slightest idea how to stop it."

"The real question is do you have any ideas?" Gwen asked.

"Yes, I have ideas," Tori said. "I'm going to have to bring this back to labs. Be discreet about it."

"And make sure Stane doesn't find out about this," Harry said.

Tori waved off Harry's concern. She agreed this went without saying to be honest. Stane getting his hands on the information regarding the Technovore would be some bad news. Evidence disappeared which could potentially pin him to selling it into the first place to AIM.

"Madam Masque stole it?" Alex asked, finally speaking up for the first time in a long time. The agent's lack of involvement in the conversation gave plenty of time to think.

"Yes, she stole it," Tori said, pleased to be back on mostly civilized terms with Alex. Even if it was just for business. "She stole it, and….well it ended up in TCRI."

"Do you think she would have sold it to TCRI?" Alex asked.

Tori frowned and cupped a hand underneath her chin. The gears grinded in the mind of the eccentric genius up until the point she shrugged.

"It's hard to know what's going on in that woman's mind," Tori said. "She really is playing a game which I'm not sure what her motive is. I want to get inside her head."

"I'm sure you'd like to do a lot of things to her, Stark," Alex said. "Do you have any clue who she is?"

"Well, you see, my dear, Alexandra, the mask tends to disguise her," Tori said. "Can you believe the authorities thought I was Madam Masque for a little bit?"

Tori laughed at the very thought of it. Miranda managed to smooth it all out and tell everyone what was what. If Miranda didn't step in for a bit of an invention, things would have turned sound rather quick. Tori turned around to try and gauge Alex's reaction. Her lips twisted into a knowing smile when looking back at her once time lover.

"Trust me, when I say, no one who really knows you would ever believe you're Madam Masque," Alex said. "You wouldn't be a very good spy."

Tori wasn't sure whether or not to take this as a compliment or an insult. She had a shrewd suspicion what Alex intended to.

"Would it help if I said I was sorry?" Tori asked.

"Maybe a little," Alex said grudgingly. "But, you know, it would be best if we maintained a professional relationship here on out. You've helped the DEO a couple of times in the past."

"Yes, I know," Tori said. "When you're an awesome super genius like myself, the alphabet soup organizations start knocking down the door, hoping for some insight."

Gwen reached up and placed her hand on the top of Tori's.

"You better watch your head, Tori," Gwen said, a smile shifting over her face. "If you don't, you're not going to be able to fit it inside any buildings with how swollen it is."

Tori's eyebrows raised, and Gwen and Reilly laughed. She had to admit, they were almost as smart as her, and really attractive to boot. Tori caught herself enjoying the sights when Reilly turned around.

' _Well, they're legal, so there's no shame in it,'_ Tori thought.

"I better file the report," Alex said, after pausing for a moment. "I'm going to get an earful for my supervisor for going off the grid."

"I hope I didn't get you into too much trouble on my account," Harry said.

"Relax, you didn't," Alex said, stepping a bit closer towards Harry. The two of them almost went face to face with each other. "I think after the initial lecture, returning with proof TCRI is up to no good will help me out."

"Hope you figure out a way to bring them down," Harry said.

Alex smiled. There were a lot of people who attempted to bring TCRI down over the years. Krang managed to avoid being brought down. There were rumors there were several high level backers which made evidence disappear. The girl who got blinded had a huge cash settlement in the lawsuit.

There were also the whispers Krang had the backing of several criminal organizations. This information was far out of the scope of Alex Danvers and the rest of the DEO. It would get them into trouble with a lot of people. The only thing they worried about was the fact alien technology might be stored in a vault somewhere in the TCRI building.

"Thank you for your help, Reilly, Gwen, and Harry," Alex said, pausing for a long moment. "And you too, as well Stark. When you have your head out of your ass, you can be pretty intelligent."

Alex thought Tori Stark could do a lot better, if she didn't spend half her days in a blissful state of intoxication.

"I'll see you around again, soon," Alex said, shaking hands with both Gwen and Reilly. She nodded at Tori.

Alex paused and leaned in, kissing Harry slightly on the cheek. Harry sensed Alex stopped full on from hitting him on the lips with one of those passionate kisses.

"It was nice seeing you again," Harry said.

"Yeah, it was," Alex said.

"Same here," Tori said. Alex didn't even acknowledge this statement with anything other than turning her back on them and walking off.

Harry almost broke into laughter. Gwen and Reilly really didn't have any reason to hold back. They broke into one of the most obvious and insane fit of giggles on the planet. It was to the point where Tori was looking at them with a frustrated look. At first, she looked amused, and then the amusement shifted into frustration.

"I don't get it," Tori said, taking a moment to regroup mentally. "You don't call someone one time and they hold it against you for the rest of your life."

Despite being a woman her entire life and sleeping with many of them, there were times where Natalie Victoria Stark would never get the fairer sex. Who could not be all that fair most of the time, given the cruelty they could be capable of performing.

"I don't know what I've done wrong," Tori said.

"I'm pretty sure she's fond of you, she just wishes you could do better," Gwen said, shaking her head.

"Oh, I don't think she's fond of me," Tori said. "I know contempt a mile away and there was contempt burning through her eyes. "Surely you could have seen it as well?"

Harry placed his arm around Tori's shoulders and pulled her in tight towards him. He leaned closer towards the woman and tried to give her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. This didn't really calm her down as much as Harry thought it might.

"You know, I'm sure deep down she must feel something for you," Harry said. Tori glanced over her shoulder and frowned. "Granted, you're going to have to go deep."

* * *

Baxter Stockman sat in front of the view screen and saw the images on it. The last images before someone tampered with his relay signal for the mousers. The last moment before someone demolished his creation. Stockman slapped his hand down onto the desk and tried to backtrack. Anything, the slightest most minimal clue which would point to what was going on.

"I can't believe this!" Stockman howled at the top of my lungs. "I refuse to admit it. Months of creation and planning down the drain."

Stockman turned to the vault which contained the Technovore virus. It rattled all night when the mousers were active. Now it grew completely silent.

"Whoever was there, they found a way to counteract the Technovore virus," Stockman said. "How did they do it? I need to find out and I need to find out before…."

"Stockman!" a very familiar voice said on the screen. "I want to talk to you."

Stockman almost cringed when the voice of Krang, the owner of TCRI, buried into his head. The scientist had a mountain of work to do as tall as his desk and that ingrate wanted to have a nice little chit-chat. Stockman wondered how long he could get away with ignoring Krang when he bellowed.

"And for the record, that wasn't a request, it was a demand!" Krang bellowed in greater agitation. "So, get your scrawny ass in her now!"

Stockman shivered at the thought of Krang and what this man could do. Would he actually see the mysterious owner of TCRI face to face for the first time? No one over the years ever managed to catch a glimpse of Krang's face in the light. Dare he hope for the privilege or would this privilege be nothing, other than pain?

"Fine," Stockman grumbled, shuffling his feet a little bit. "I'm coming, I'm coming."

The doors slid open and Baxter Stockman made his way down the steps. He made entered into a lab and walked forward to see a figure submerged in darkness.

"You know, it's hard to talk to someone when they won't face you," Stockman said, not even bothering to disguise his irritation with the matter.

"Stockman, be silent!" Krang bellowed at the top of his lungs. This caused Stockman to be quiet, at least for the moment. "Do you understand how much trouble you have caused? Did I not warn you not to take any creative liberties with the Technovore Virus when I gave you the task to study it?"

All of these statements ended up as rhetorical questions. For the first time in his life, at least in a very long time, Stockman wisely kept his mouth shut. He would need to choose his words wisely.

"And you nearly compromised everything I've worked for," Krang said. "While you were still fetching Spencer Smythe's coffee, I was building an empire which will one day be the most fearsome on the planet Earth."

The last word "Earth" belched out for a moment. Stockman stood up to his feet. He fixated on one thing and one thing alone.

"Let me tell you something, Mr. Krang…I was not…."

"You weren't as much of a genius as you liked to portray yourself as?" Krang asked. Stockman stopped short and did his best imitation of a fish caught out of water. "For once in our lives, we agree on something. I took a chance on you, Stockman. Many would consider me to be a fool. Deep down, you do have some level of intelligence. You managed to replicate the Technovore virus."

"Yes, I did, thank you for noticing," Stockman said, ego brimming through.

"Yes, you replicated it and foolishly downloaded it into your little toys like a child with an attention deficient problem!" Krang bellowed, deflating Stockman. "Did you really think this would end well Stockman?"

"At least we know it devours technology, all technology," Stockman said.

"Yes, you've managed to stumble upon one element of your success," Krang said. "Rest assure, I know now not to trust you for such a task. The Technovore will be utilized when my plans reach their genesis."

"And what are your plans?" Stockman asked. "Given how much you belittle me, I think I would have a right to know. I work here, late nights, weekends, and all I ask for a little satisfaction."

"Yes, given the state of your social life, I would hate to see what I'm depriving of you," Krang said in a dry voice. "Your employment at this facility is the only thing you have going for you in your miserable existence. Should I decide to take it away from you, and believe me I can, your life would crash and burn."

"So, you're going to fire me?" Stockman asked. "I could make you something…beyond your wildest imagination."

"My imagination is far beyond your simple comprehension," Krang said, practically scoffing at the scientist's words. "And at the rate you're going, I wouldn't trust you to program my VCR so I can catch up on my stories."

Stockman's ego pricked once again at the words. The scientist balled his fists together.

"You wouldn't have to fire me, because I don't have to take this abuse," Stockman said. "You can consider me gone and out the door. Good luck in your future endeavors."

Two security guards slipped behind Stockman for a moment. The burly men grabbed Stockman and held him in place. The scientist struggled in an attempt to break free from them.

"Let go of me, you ingrates!" Stockman yelled. "I have rights, you can't do this to me. Do you realize who I am? I'M BAXTER STOCKMAN!"

The two security guards grabbed Stockman, digging their nails into his arms. Stockman tried to break free from their grip. The more he struggled, the more they hung onto him.

"As incompetent as you are, Stockman," Krang said. "You know too much, and you've seen too much. And I couldn't allow you to violate your contract."

"You can't just keep me here against my will!" Stockman yelled. "I have rights…this is slavery!"

"You only brought this on to yourself Stockman," Krang said. "You have no one to blame, other than yourself. This will be delicious and this will be justice. You will suffer because of your arrogance."

Stockman sputtered with only a little bit of steam lost when one of the burly guards injected a sedative into his arm. The scientist slumped down on the ground. The hateful glare in his eyes still had been directed in Krang's general direction.

"I think a little trip to Human Resources will do you some good, Doctor Stockman," Krang said. "I needed the spare parts anyway. And you're in good physical shape for a human specimen."

Stockman gave a rather subdued "no" when he had been dragged off. People had been dragged to human resources before. What Krang had in store for him terrified the scientist. Surely there was some way he could convince him of his genius. Surely there is some way?

Krang returned to study the security footage. He noticed a uniformed agent showing up and the alien brain's mood did not improve any.

"I'm going to have to step up the time table for my plans thanks to that fool, Stockman," Krang said, firing off what basically amounted to an angrily bellow. "If they have an excuse, they're storm the building."

Krang decided to prepare a suitable welcome for the government should they decided to stage some kind of covert operation.

* * *

Tori decided to stick around at the safe house for a little bit longer. Reilly and Gwen already left, to check up on their friends Felicia and Mary-Jane. Tori didn't doubt for a second the two girls had more than a few questions about what just happened. Hell, she lived this and the industrialist had a lot of questions to be perfectly honest. A lot of it had to do with TCRI. Which Alex wasn't willing to give up any time soon.

The rich party girl placed her hands down to the side and looked down out the window. She turned her head a fraction of an inch to stare at the television screen.

"And these metal monsters have disappeared as soon as they have appeared. What did they want? What were they purpose? More importantly who sent them. The FBI and the CIA have released statements saying they are investigating the matters. And they have declined further comment."

' _Along side several other organizations identified only through their initials I'm sure,'_ Tori thought, turning around. The Stark heiress turned around a fraction of an inch and came face to face with the only and only Harry Potter who stood to face her.

"Any luck finding out how they replicated the Technovore?" Harry asked.

Tori cupped a hand to her chin and looked deep in thought. Despite the girl's playful party girl demeanor, there was a whole lot going on in that mind. When she could bother to focus the mind, and decided not to cave into more sinful pursuits that is, but regardless of this fact, Tori touched her hands to her hips and stared down Harry.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Tori said, stepping towards Harry. She touched a hand to his shoulder. "I'm guessing someone managed to break it down into actual physical programming. Which is not good. They could send it on e-mail attachments and infect the entire Internet. And all you need to do is use one of those Nigerian scams, and boom, there goes the entire Internet."

Harry thought about it and could see how much Tori had a point about something like this. There was a lot which could be done with a dangerous virus like this. Harry couldn't even begin to count the ways .

"It's going to be a long term project to see whether or not I can figure out a way to negate it," Tori said. The woman laughed. "I guess what they say about idle hands was true. They are the tool of the devil."

Harry smiled in response. The fact Tori put together this Technovore out of boredom was equal parts scary and impressive.

"All you need to do is replicate the boredom and you should be able to put together a counter-measure for the virus," Harry said, giving her a shadow of a knowing smile. This caused Tori to grin in response.

"Shouldn't be a problem, there's a board meeting with the Stark Board of Directors next Monday."

Tori responded with a laugh even though Harry responded with a delicate raise of the eyebrow. The Stark heiress deflated, slumping her shoulders in a moment of defeat.

"Believe me, I thought about what you said," Tori said. "And you know, maybe I should take my legacy a bit more seriously. As you've said, Pepper has said, Alex no doubt made perfectly clear, and….Miranda Waller has told me constantly in the bluntest and mean ways possible. Mean, but true."

"Miranda Waller?" Harry asked.

Tori realized Harry may have not known who she was talking about. Or maybe he did and played coy. Sometimes, it was hard to tell with Harry.

"Oh, she's just some big-wig government type, she works for some mysteriously agency, and there are really too many mysteriously agencies with their own conflicting agendas to work with," Tori said. "Her father runs one of them. Big guy, very Samuel L. Jackson like, only he has one eye."

Harry recalled the man, having met him briefly.

"Oh, and she's likely very interested in you," Tori said. "And she's likely sent someone to keep an eye on you…somewhere. So, keep an eye on that."

Harry had his theories no doubt. He was going to see if they would give fruit.

"And it's likely a hot woman who would want to find her way into your bed," Tori said, placing a hand on her hip. "Like any woman would want to find their way into your bed."

"Like you?" Harry asked.

"And I really don't get it," Tori said. "I'm a lesbian….I never went for the butch construction worker haircut, but I'm a lesbian. I'm more queer than two dollar bill….is that political correct language these days?"

"I have no clue, I can't really keep track," Harry said, a momentary smile crossing her face.

"And I know…there's something about you, something which draws me to do," Tori said, taking a brief breath when looking back at Harry. "And I can't quite put my finger on what it is. You have some kind of Alpha-Male effect on women which supersedes pretty much all logical or sexual preference. And it's just….."

Tori drew back her hands with a sigh and grabbed Harry's hands. She looked into his eyes.

"I guess you're different than other men, I'm not even sure if you could even be classified as the same species as other men," Tori said. "It's like comparing a SuperBowl MVP to a bunch of second string JV bench warmers."

Tori took a moment to sigh.

"You know I would have jumped you in California if I wasn't so drunk," Tori said. "And I wasn't falling over drunk to be honest, but I wasn't exactly functional drunk either. I was just….."

Harry decided to take the matter out of Tori's hands by forcing his lips onto hers with an extremely powerful kiss. The Alpha-Male struck and ensnared his pray with his lips. Tori couldn't really fight the kiss, and in fact, she succumbed to the desire and the pleasure of such an extremely powerful young man.

Tori backed up against the wall.

"Oh, god, fuck me, fuck me right here, I don't care how hard, just fuck me."

The fact Harry exerted his dominance over her in such a way caused a pool of liquid to form in Tori's panties, more prominent than anything else which ever happened.

' _Well these are ruined,'_ Tori thought, enjoying Harry pressed against her.

Harry had Tori pinned up against the wall with nowhere to go. The heiress tried to maintain some level of control. Harry's hands working underneath the skirt caused Tori's control to lessen.

"Look at the state of you," Harry said, brushing against her dampened panties. "You're already wet, and we've barely started. What am I going to do with you?"

"I have a few suggestions," Tori said, breathing heavily. Harry's fingers worked around her. Her underwear presented an annoying barrier. "If you're likely to hear them."

Harry scooped up Tori and threw her onto the nearest bed. Tori landed onto the bed. Harry crawled on top of the Stark heiress and pinned her down on the bed. A series of kisses planted on the side of Tori's head. Harry started to suckle on Tori's ear which caused her to breath in pleasure.

"Oh, this feels good," Tori said, with Harry marking the side of her neck. "More, please, I need more!" Oh god, I need more."

Harry worked over her blouse. A pair of firm breasts pushed up in the bra. Harry thought they needed some room and he prepared to give them some room. His hands gently pushed against her breast.

Tori thought she never would feel anything this amazing in her life. Harry started to kiss all over her neck and move closer towards her breasts. He moved tortuously slower to her breasts. Tori's nipples stood out for attention. The heiress to the Stark empire wanted them to be played with.

Harry squeezed one of her breasts, softly at first. The moan indicated a more firm handling was in hand. Harry squeezed Tori's firm breast one more time and caused her to cry out in pure passion. Harry leaned on in and planted his lips down onto her nipple. He pushed the lovely bud past his lips and into his mouth.

"God," Tori managed one more time. A foggy amount of lust entered her body.

"Good to see you admit it," Harry said, toying with her breasts a little bit longer.

Tori's bare stomach ended up being the next stop on Harry's tour. He started to kiss the girl who moaned underneath him. Harry could go straight for her sweet pussy. It wouldn't cause her to moan nearly as much in the most insane amount of anticipation possible. Harry continued to travel all over her.

Every single time Harry kissed her, Tori thought she would die. His lips needed to be registered as lethal weapons. Harry's fingers brushed against her skirt.

"Please Harry," Tori panted. "Don't tease me."

She never felt so in need. Normally it was Tori who was in control. This loss of control aroused her any more.

"Your pussy is so damp," Harry said, cupping her gently between the legs. The touch of his fingers prompted Tori to lose herself with him. "Maybe I should do something in plugging the leg."

Tori almost fired back with a quip maybe he should. Harry's tongue drawing patterns around her smoldering lips brought Tori out of these thoughts. The tongue touched her and did not slip straight it. Tori attempted to lift her hips to encourage Harry to drive his tongue into her.

Several long moments of intense teasing passed with Harry driving Tori to the point of pure sexual frustration. His tongue danced around her lips and did not shove it inside. At least until he had her right where he wanted her.

Tori's moans increased when Harry finally plunged his tongue into her. It went a little ways into her, teasing her folds a little bit. It slipped further into her.

' _Damn, how deep does his tongue go?'_ Tori asked.

Harry sensed her arousal. It tasted wonderful after he built it up with the teasing. The normally self-sufficient and cocky woman squealing beneath his lips and tongue caused more juices to flicker.

Tori gasped in ecstasy when Harry nibbled her pussy lips and slipped back in. His tongue pushed further inside her and tickled her ovaries.

"God damn it, you're fucking amazing!" Tori said, trying to wrap her legs around his head.

Harry pulled out and planted a series of intense and powerful kisses on Tori's upper thigh. Tori breathed in and out heavily, almost losing all sense of herself with Harry's work on her.

"Just wait," Harry said after slipping his tongue inside her. "You've felt nothing quite like this, Ms. Stark."

Harry's tongue swished inside Tori's dripping hot pussy. She couldn't believe it. His tongue practically rattled inside her. The intense vibrations coming from it made Tori's hips rise and fall, capturing more of his mouth.

The next sensation brought Tori to even greater heights. His hands pushed down her legs and rubbed up and down. Tori loved when people paid attention to her legs. Most people focused on her tits and ass. Tori argued her legs were the entire package.

Harry continued to suck juices from Tori's dripping hot pussy while playing with her legs. The man's hunger increased with each slurp and each push inside her. His tongue drove into her deeply.

"AHHH, MMM, OOHHH!" Tori screamed at the top of her lungs.

Harry struck her G-Spot with an excessive force. Hell, Tori would argue he somehow transformed her entire body into one solid G-Spot. Every time Tori rose up, pleasure cascaded through her body. Juices spilled out of her. The sex god above her started to suck the juices from her pussy and brought even more pleasure from her.

The cumming of Tori Stark increased and saturated Harry's face with her pussy juices. Harry rose up to show her the juices dripping from his face.

"Damn, I came that much," Tori said, seeing Harry's face coated.

"Yes, you're a horny rich slut who gets off on being dominated by a stronger man," Harry said, running his hands down Tori's pussy. "I'm going to fuck your horny pussy in a moment. First, you need to clean up my face."

"I think it's only fair," Tori said, capturing Harry's lips with a long kiss. The babe drank the juices off of Harry's face.

The exact moment Tori finished licking Harry's face, the man in question pushed the Stark heiress back on the peg. Harry parted Tori's magnificent legs to reveal the dripping cunt for him. Harry's hand brushed up against it and caused a moan to rise from it.

"And now, this is the prize I wanted all evening."

Tori thought she got a prize herself when Harry's cock tip touched the edge of her pussy. Harry held onto her and slid completely inside, sliding all of his gigantic prick inside her.

"Oh, god," Harry said, pushing his cock inside her tight pussy. "For such a slut, you can be so fucking tight."

"Yes, I am," Tori said, breathing. "But, you're the first male penis I've had inside me, so fuck me…Daddy."

The last word had been whispered into Harry's ear when he pushed into her. The fact Tori Stark had Daddy issues didn't really surprise Harry in any way whatsoever. It explained her immense libidio and the fact she slept with pretty much anything wearing a skirt. Harry pumped his way into her.

"How do you like that, honey?" Harry asked. "Do you like my cock inside your tight pussy? Do you like me pushing it in her?"

A sheen of sweat coated Tori's body when Harry pushed inside her. The vixen's legs wrapped around Harry's body and kept him close to her. The thick prick pushed deeper into her tightening womanhood.

"Oh yes, do me harder!" Tori moaned, tightening her grip around Harry's arm. "Faster, Daddy, push your big cock inside me."

Harry held onto Tori's hips and started to push inside her. The tool slid in and out of her pussy easily. He made her plenty wet from the teasing and the eating out earlier.

Tori thought she would die because of Harry's big throbbing cock pushing into her again and again. He just fucked her harder. Tori hung onto his arm to encourage Harry.

"Yes, Daddy, fuck my dripping cunny, fuck it so hard! Break your little girl in half, she's been such a naughty bitch."

"Does, my baby girl want to cum?"

Tori's walls wrapped around his tight prick, milking him. Harry wasn't about ready to give up it. He kept pounding Tori and she responded by digging her nails into his shoulders.

The two of them enjoyed the dance which sped up before slowing down. The constant orgasms which bombarded Tori's body had caused her to reach new heights. Her past sexual partners weren't bad, some of them had been very talented ladies. Some of them she had been way too drunk to remember.

Harry brought Tori to an entirely new level and kept pushing himself deep into her. His thick and heavy balls slapped against Tori's thighs and caused her to whimper in pleasure.

"Harder, oh god, harder," Tori said, whining when Harry kept pushing inside her. It felt so good to have him inside.

Harry anticipated his orgasm coming. Tori's walls wrapped around him, pushing all the way up. The two of them continued to engage in the age old dance of passion and sweat.

"I'm going to mark you for mine," Harry said, biting her neck and suckling on it. "I'm going to cum."

"Yes, cum in me, please, shoot your virile seed inside your little girl's hot, greedy, slutty pussy," Tori said, hanging onto him. The more Harry touched her legs, the more her cunt oozed.

Harry fired a thick stream of cum into her body. The splatters of cum injected into her body and started to fill her up with the hot contents from his balls.

Tori collapsed on the bed, the final orgasm having put her into a blissful state of sexual bliss.

Tori rolled over and placed her head on Harry's hand. She never was the cuddling type, but with Harry, she would make an exception.

"I swear to…well you," Tori said, drawing in the deep breath of an air full of the aftermath of sexual debauchery. "This was not a well calculated attempt to get more women in my bed, using you as my secret weapon. I think I have a bit more dignity than that…well mostly. I can't be entirely sure though."

"Well, I'm sure you do," Harry said, placing a light kiss on the side of Tori's head. Tori relaxed against Harry with a look of pure contentment on her eyes. "So, are you going to be attending the Red Sun Eclipse premier in Gotham? I'd be happy for you to be there….could perhaps lead to a more businesslike partnership between us."

"Business could complicate things," Tori said. "Although, last time I was in Gotham City, I think I upset a woman…yeah, I know, weird, right?"

"Yes," Harry said, allowing himself to smile.

"I think her name was Selina."

Harry's first thought was echoed by several women in the bond network.

' _Oh dear.'_

* * *

Sara Lance flittered in and out of consciousness. Her mind was going, slowly slipping away. Being a Lance, she stubbornly held onto the life. Her mother stood before her.

"It's okay, baby, you can move on," Dinah said. "Everyone will miss you, but in the end, you'll be in a better place. And we'll be together…and someday Laurel and your father will be meeting us."

Sara almost was about ready to let go, almost about ready to return. The girl's fingers twitched with a momentary sigh. She turned to the specter of Dinah Drake Lance.

"It's okay, let go, come with me, follow the light and it will set your soul free."

Sara started to concede it was maybe time to move on.

"It's okay, I'm here for you. I will guide you to the proper path."

The girl's acceptance caused a bit of a smile to appear on the face of the original Black Canary. Sara didn't notice it. For a moment, the scene of the real world flickered back into place, before she had been pushed back into the room with her mother. A doorway appeared next to her.

"Alright, Mom," Sara said. "I love you."

"And Mommy loves you, Sara."

Sara took her mother's hand and looked at her. She froze in place.

"Yes, Sara Lance, Mommy loves you, but I'm afraid I'm not your mother."

Sara watched in horror as her mother's skin melted before her very eyes at the same time a red mist engulfed her. It appeared to be trying to snatch her soul from her body.

"Sara, it's such a lovely name," a figure said in a distinct Southern accent. He stood before her, dressed in a black robe. His black eyes looked devoid of life and his scraggly beard came down. His hair resembled an unruly mop. "My name is Deacon Joseph Blackfire, and you….my sister….will atone for the sins of another. One who sent me into the fires, but she didn't kill me. No, my sister, she baptized me in the fire."

"Let me go…LET ME GO!" Sara yelled.

"Oh, it's no use in struggling, sweet Sara," Deacon Blackfire said. "Those who lived in sin, will end up dying sin!"

Blackfire started to speak in tongues as Sara struggled against his grip.

* * *

Nyssa carried the mysterious blonde in her arms and she walked over towards a group of robed people. They all surrounded a pit with shimmering green water. Lady Shiva walked a few steps behind Nyssa and looked to be almost pleading with her about something.

"Nyssa, I implore you not to go along with this," Lady Shiva said, stepping closer towards Nyssa. "She's certainly not worth it…not worth the risk of using the Lazarus Pit."

"The risk is minimal now, given there is still life and warmth left in her body," Nyssa said, the girl's breathing grew rather shallow.

"Your father used the pits, and…it may have done questionable things to his psyche."

Nyssa noticed the criticism Shiva gave to Ra's Al Ghul was beyond what most members of the League would give. Then again, Shiva was fearless and Nyssa had the impression her father respect the fact she did not worship the groupd he walked on.

"Yes, it may have," Nyssa said. "My father's exposure was constant and over centuries…this is….."

Nyssa paused for a moment and could hear something. The girl's body gave a shudder and her eyes rolled into the back of her head.

"No, she can't have…." Nyssa said, placing her down onto the ground.

"I'm sorry," Lady Shiva said, placing a hand on Nyssa's shoulder. "I know how much guilt you must share."

Nyssa took a moment to consider what she would do next. The oldest daughter of the demon placed a hand to the mysterious blonde's forehead.

"No, she's still warm, there's still hope," Nyssa said. She turned to the group of robed figures. "Prepare to lower her into the pits."

Lady Shiva gave Nyssa a momentary disapproving glance. She figured there would be no way to argue against doing this.

' _If I'm wrong, the consequences will be mine to hold.'_

"I know what you're thinking," Nyssa said, watching her charge being prepared to be lowered into the pit. "But, I've sworn to protect any woman who comes my way, no matter the cost. And if I'm wrong, the consequences will be mine to bare."

"Yes," Lady Shiva said, watching.

Their new friend had been lowered into the Lazarus Pit. Several ticks of the clock passed, at least two minutes. For a moment, Nyssa thought it did not work.

The blonde woman jumped out of the pit with a crazed look dancing in her eyes. She looked like a feral beast. One look in her eyes indicated the vacancy of a soul.

Shiva withdrew her blade. Nyssa shook her head and stepped between Shiva and the blonde woman.

"Wait."

The feral blonde jumped towards the nearest assassin. Nyssa moved in to try and subdue her, with the twins and Shiva following. The woman didn't want to go down without a fight and she did have some instincts.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 2** **nd** **, 2016.**

* * *

_The end of the Technovore Mousers arc conclude, and Tori Stark is all kinds of awesome in this chapter. Although she does have her share of issues._

_Well, Stockman done screwed up._

_And Sara is taken on a mystical journey by Blackfire. And the League has an adventure of their own where Sara's body is brought back to life, without Sara's soul is inside her body._

_Some fun moments in this chapter, along with some moments which is nightmare inducing._

_Until Saturday._


	176. Enter the Crossing Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Six: Enter the Crossing Part One.**

* * *

The entire world around Harry Potter twisted into one topsy-turvey vortex of complete and utter weirdness. He collapsed down onto the ground, the wind having been shaken out of him no sooner did he land. Harry pulled himself down from his hands and knees to look around the area around him.

Thoughts rang in his mind. Harry tried to remember where he had been before arriving to this particular plane. He had returned from the adventure in New York. Returned and was in the process of having a conversation with Kara and Faora. The next thing Harry knew, he woke up here, without any thought to what happened.

' _Don't tell me there hasn't been some kind of twist in the multi-verse again.'_

Harry hoped not. He almost had been ripped apart mentally by the big one many months ago. Several minutes passed before Harry managed to get use to the terrain around him. Some steps were fluid on even ground. Some steps on the other hand gave Harry the very distinct expression gravity was going to reverse itself and Harry was going to end up falling flat on his face. He didn't know what to make of this.

' _If anyone can hear me, please give me a sigh,'_ Harry thought, touching hands to the top of his head.

No voices from the bond network came in Harry's ears. What did come by was a series of tormented shouts. Harry craned back a little bit to fully focus on this. One grim conclusion entered Harry's mind.

Lost souls, souls of the damned, whatever you want to call them. They were here and they were present, yelling and screaming at Harry. Some of them sounded like they had been trapped. Lost between two realms, one of the living and one of the death. Harry was more sensitive of these things, being the Master of Death. Despite the fact he didn't have his powers, Harry still had the instincts.

The instincts more importantly to dodge out of the way when a demonic shadow dove through his way. The shadow glided and did not stop despite missing landing into Harry. Time froze around him before the shadow went off on its merry way.

' _Damn, close call,'_ Harry thought. _'I need to find the exit.'_

Harry stepped towards what appeared to be a doorway. He walked through it.

Seconds later, Harry popped out of a doorway behind where he just came from. Harry knew right away this was going to be one of those days. He was in one of those type of realms. Just made his day all this more rewarding and fulfilling.

"The moment I find a way out of here….." Harry said, pausing and straightening up. "You know what, I better stick around. There has to be some reason why I had been dragged here in the first place. Why I got dragged all the way across time and space."

Harry's unease increased more screams. They were not the screams of the damned souls. Well, maybe a future damned soul, not a current one as it were.

Harry gazed forward to see some feet shuffling back and forth. A figure started to run forward, dressed completely in white. The sounds of heavy breathing increased when the figure ran closer and closer towards Harry.

Time paused when Harry realized who the figure was. He ran into the missing Sara Lance. Harry moved forward and grabbed Sara around the waist, pulling her out of the way.

The two of them skidded out of the way and flew backwards, landing on a lower cluster of rocks. Sara took a moment to realize who she saw in this weird place.

"Harry?" Sara asked, surprised to see Dinah's boyfriend here. He had to be the very least person Sara would expect to run into here when she was running for her life against these monsters. "Am I dead? Actually…are you dead?"

Harry thought this was a good question and tried to answer it the best he could.

"Sara, you're in some kind of Limbo, not quite dead, not quite alive," Harry said. He looked into her eyes for a long moment. "Well, this is going to be trouble…RUN!"

While Sara's soul was trapped in the Crossroads, her body could be opened to all kinds of things. Harry didn't even want to speculate the things.

"They just won't let up," Sara said, breathing heavily. "Oh, why did I…it doesn't really matter now….Harry, they're not going to stop, he's not going to stop!"

Sara was losing all sense of sanity. She normally prided herself on being able to keep everything together in a coherent way. This time though, Sara felt less than coherent and less like herself. Everything started to hit her all at once.

"Who is coming after you, Sara?" Harry asked.

Several demonic looking hands shot out from a red mist which rose up out of nowhere. Sara tried to struggle against them. There was no fighting them, even Harry could not loosen their grip on the younger Lance sister.

"I believe, I'm the answer to that particular question, Dragon."

Harry turned around and saw the face of Deacon Blackfire surrounded by more mist. He started to laugh and looked even more demonic. Harry turned away for them and tried to grip Sara.

"Yes, your greatest sin is you always are a sucker for a pretty face," Deacon Blackfire said. "Do you know, my brother, the sins this one has performed. They might be nothing compared to the sins of her sister, who tried to slay the only voice of Gotham City, the only thing to give it a conscious. But, don't worry, once the exchange is complete, I will return."

Harry noticed Sara disappear. He tried to track her. This entire dimension messed with Harry's perception of reality.

"Why is it every time reality turns upside down, you're in the middle of it, Blackfire?" Harry asked.

"Because, my brother, I am the wolf that walks amongst the sheep," Deacon Blackfire said. "I will return to tend to the flock and tend to the lost and the forgotten among Gotham City."

"Being dead has made you any less chatty," Harry said. "What are you doing to Sara? What has some done to you?"

"Nothing directly, but someone has to pay for the sins of the sister," Blackfire said. "And her family has sinned. Her dear mother, she sinned, coveting her own daughter's boyfriend. This entire family swims deep in blasphemy."

Harry took a moment to recover. Focus and find Sara.

"An exchange is needed to return me home to my body, Dragon," Deacon Blackfire said. "The exchange will be two for one, when you will be trapped forever here, surrounded by the damned which wish to hunt you down. Yes, I now see why you are so special. I smell the stench of Death all over you. And soon, she will accept me as her new savior, just like all of Gotham City, and the rest of the world!"

Deacon Blackfire laughed and Harry tried to figure out where this demonic projection came from. More shadows surrounded him.

' _Master your surroundings,'_ Harry thought. _'Do not let him get inside your head, do not let him take residence inside your mind. If he gets in your head, you won't be able to stop him._

"I can see how my words affect your psyche. How deep I am in your mind. It's like I'm penetrating your skull."

Harry snapped out of his trance and turned towards Blackfire.

"Only because you've decided not to shut up," Harry said.

"Soon, I'll be back in the land of the living, once my Grandpappy has worked his magic," Deacon Blackfire said. "And you and the girl will be trapped here….condemned to this limbo forever. And her body will also cause havoc for they resurrected it in one of those pits. But, I already claimed her soul, and I may just claim her body for insurance!"

Harry wondered if Blackfire rambled on about something or if there was some kind of validity to his mad diatribe. He needed to worry about getting control here and more importantly finding Sara before it was too late.

Before it was too late for both of them.

* * *

The mysterious blonde thrashed and twitched having been fastened to a stone tablet. Nyssa looked over her, a frown deepening on her face. Guilt started to flash through her eyes when looking over the girl. Lady Shiva stepped behind her. The most feared assassin in the world looked extremely somber indeed when she gazed upon the downed form of this woman.

"I did warn you there would be consequences," Lady Shiva said. "And now we have a problem….it may be humane to set her free."

Lady Shiva held her hand onto the shealth and prepared to draw her sword. Nyssa's hand snapped out and blocked Shiva's attack.

"We did not come this far to merely set her free," Nyssa said. "There has always been mania after a person had risen from the Lazarus Pits."

"There is mania," Lady Shiva said, pausing for a long moment and casting Nyssa one of the fiercest looks possible. "And there is what happened to this girl. She is not completely within her right mind. And her soul has already left her body."

"The Pits should have returned it after a time," Nyssa said, touching a hand to the side of the pit.

"Your father didn't even uncover the mysteries of the Pits," Shiva said. "There's something we're missing here."

"Yes, there is."

Nyssa approached the girl. The blonde's vacant eyes stared at her. Her teeth almost snapped at her like a wounded animal. Her growls continued and she looked as if she wished to rip Nyssa's throat out with primal instincts.

"Be still," Nyssa said. "I wish to help you, but I can only help you if you allow me to."

Not one word Nyssa said stuck in the girl's mind. Her gaze fell upon Nyssa for the longest moment. The girl's expression challenged Nyssa to a fight.

"Damaged….we should have put her in the Pit sooner," Nyssa said, turning to one of the figures. "Bring the staff….there's something wrong."

The mystical woman stepped closer towards the girl. The moment the staff came in contact with the girl, she started to thrash about in a mad way. The straps only barely held her against the table.

"This is worse than we could have ever thought," the mystic said, raising her hand and a glowing Rune appeared on the mysterious woman's head. It glowed black.

Nyssa didn't even have to guess how much danger they were in. This black rune upon the girl's head spelled out things quite nicely for her.

"Just as I suspected," Nyssa said. "There's something else going on. Her condition was not accident; it was an attempt for some mystical force to steal her soul."

"For an exchange of some sort," the mystic said. "Her soul is still intact, and still fighting."

One soft word came from the girl's mouth no sooner than she did.

"Help," the girl whispered, sounding weak and pathetic. "Help….Harry….help!"

Nyssa blinked for a second at these words. The feral growling and snarling replaced the weak words coming from the girl no sooner did they appear. Questions lead to questions. Nyssa thought this situation grew stranger by each tick of the clock.

"It's still barely hanging onto her body," the mystic said. "It's Voodoo, and unless we find the source and stop it….she's doomed."

Nyssa paused for a second. She really hated to do this, but this was the one thing she had to do. The woman spoke out, reaching out for help, and gave her, perhaps indirectly, the person she needed to reach out to solve this problem. The Daughter of the Demon made the most obvious split second decision possible.

"Guard her, do not do anything," Nyssa said to Lady Shiva. "Only come to me if she exhibits any changes, whether they be for the better or for the worse…or if she speaks clearly."

"Of course," Shiva said.

Nyssa made her way into her private chambers and sealed the door behind her. The Daughter of the Demon knew she would have to answer some questions about how she came across this particular woman.

' _Better to ask for permission later, than forgiveness in the present time,'_ Nyssa thought, sitting herself down and crossing her legs. She prepared to enter the mind scape.

Nyssa didn't find herself an active participation in the bond network, despite being bonded to Harry many years ago. Harry respected the fact she would have secrets to keep and as long as it didn't directly put him or his girls in danger, Harry wouldn't pry. Nyssa would have hated to do something like that.

' _Harry, I hate to bother you, this is urgent,'_ Nyssa thought.

' _Nyssa?'_ Kara asked.

' _Yes, Kara, it's me, can I speak to Harry,'_ Nyssa thought. _'It's urgent.'_

' _Well, Harry's….Harry's feeling under the weather.'_

It was then where Nyssa knew something extremely serious was happening with Harry. Harry fell out of the tallest building of Gotham City and was barely injured even with his restrictions. Now, Kara told him Harry was feeling underneath the weather and unable to speak to her. Something was very wrong.

' _I'm sure he'll agree, he can speak to me,'_ Nyssa said. _'Unless he can't.'_

' _We're not sure what's going on with Harry,'_ Faora thought, checking down. _'He collapsed a little bit ago…and we're having him checked out.'_

Nyssa's instincts told her she needed to get on the first plane to Gotham City now. Her sense of duty fought with her emotions, but didn't she have a duty to ensure her beloved would get through every situation?

' _This has happened before,'_ Kara thought, voice shaking a little bit. _'When….well this has happened before….when there's a particularly big magical flare in the air.'_

Nyssa was beginning to put two and two together.

' _I'm sure whatever it is you're going to tell Harry, you can tell us just as easily,'_ Faora said, without even missing a step along the way.

Nyssa took a moment to consider this entire mess. She supposed if she couldn't tell Harry, telling the Alphas would be the next best thing. She considered her options.

' _We rescued a girl who had been captured on a ship,'_ Nyssa thought. _'And she was…well she wasn't well.'_

' _You tried to resurrect her through a Lazarus Pit, didn't you?'_ Faora asked.

' _Yes,'_ Nyssa thought, figuring there was no way get around this particular problem. _'And her body….it rejected the pits.'_

Nyssa figured this would be the best way to explain this to the pair of them. A long time paused before Kara returned back to the conversation.

' _There's something else, isn't there?'_ Kara asked.

' _Someone is trying to steal her soul through Voodoo,'_ Nyssa thought.

' _That's extremely powerful magic,'_ Kara thought. _'And it would explain why Harry collapsed…because he could feel the magical flare, and something….thanks Nyssa.'_

Nyssa was glad to be of service even though her worry regarding what happened to her beloved increased. She really hoped to return to focus on this.

' _Could you do me a favor, and tell me if anything…if the worst happens,'_ Nyssa thought.

' _Har is resilient, he'll be able to fight through it,'_ Faora thought for a long moment. _'Worry about your charge, and we'll worry about him…chances are they're both correlated.'_

Nyssa thought and nodded in agreement. She rose to her feet and left the quarters, a brand new worry crossing her mind. Harry's lack of connecting in the bond left a hole in her soul. While he wasn't gone completely, the sufferings should not have been minimized. And given how the mysterious blond blurted out Harry's name, Nyssa had a shrewd suspicion their souls were in the same position.

"There's been no change, she's been growling and fighting he entire time," Shiva said. She blinked and looked at the Daughter of the Demon who looked off into the distance, a bit forlorn. "Is there something the matter, you look…."

"Just merely received some unsettling news,' Nyssa said. "We must remain watchful…and be prepared for any presences who might commandeer her body."

"If they do so, we'll have no choice other than to put her down," the mystic said.

Nyssa only acknowledge these words with the barest of nods. She understood instantly this would be the only recourse and more importantly why it would be the only recourse. Acknowledging it and actually performing the deed were two extremely different things.

* * *

The moment Harry collapsed in the study, Kara and Faora worked quickly to get him down to the lab, underneath the watchful eyes of both Alura and Lara. Lara bent over Harry and started to study him. A small amount of blood trickled down his nose, and while it wasn't as bad as they thought it could be, this entire situation wasn't necessarily good either.

"It's bad," Kara said. "Harry, I know you're strong enough to….."

"We don't even know what happened," Faora said. "We only have Nyssa's theory to work off of…and I get the feeling there's something else she's not telling us."

Kara believed Faora's words to be true. The problem was she didn't spend time going down the road of suspicion. Perhaps she should more often, but she'd like to take Nyssa at her face value. The girl was stuck between rock and a hard place with the entire League mess and the mess regarding her father.

"I think we can both agree there's something really wrong," Kara said. "And Voodoo is a pretty good explanation of it….but how would Harry get pulled into these things?"

"He has an excessively sensitive Death magic radar," Faora said, clutching Kara's hand in her own. "And you have to admit, the theft of a soul, or an attempted theft of the soul is pretty high up the Death magic radar chart."

"No, I don't think anyone is arguing with this," Alura said. "I just wish there was a more concise explanation….I think it's time to consult a someone who might be able to answer these questions better than we do."

The image of Peve-Rell fleshed in front of them.

"Yes, you should have called me from the beginning," Peve said. "This isn't a problem your many skill sets can solve. No offense, naturally."

"None, taken, believe us," Alura said. "I know of magic and Lara…well she has an idea of the theory and the fundamentals, despite not being able to practice it. But, you've forgotten more about magic than most people would remember in their entire lives."

Peve took the compliment in stride. She kept scanning Harry. His mind was there, his soul's connection to his body had been maintained, even though it had flashed before them in an extremely weak manner. Peve noticed Harry's CORE and it looked to be strengthening on schedule.

"It's nothing to do with his CORE before you ask," Peve said. "This has been compromised and…I don't know how whoever attacked got their hooks into Harry."

"I know."

Faora, Kara, Peve, Alura, and Lara all spun around. They saw a figure standing in the midst of the lap which had pretty much taken them off guard. Arella Roth stood before them, looking back at them with a lengthy frown.

"You know?" Kara asked.

"Thanks to Harry's gifts, a trade of souls has been brought to his attention, and his astral form has been drawn from his body into a Crossroads dimension," Arella said. "It's between the land of death and the land of the living."

"Yes, because it's a Crossroads," Faora said.

"Unfortunately, he cannot adequately deal with the problem thanks to only having access to his partial Master of Death abilities," Arella said.

"Is there any way you can take us to the Crossroads?" Kara asked, a pleading feeling appearing in her eye. She was getting rather desperate. Faora placed her arm around Kara's shoulders to attempt to calm her down. Kara really didn't notice what Faora was doing. All she did was draw in a deep breath.

"I'm afraid I can't."

Faora's eyes locked onto Arella for a long moment. The mystic was looking back at her with an apologetic glaze dancing in her eye.

"You can't, or you just choose not to?" Faora asked after a long pause.

"I cannot, and Harry must find his way back into this dimension on his own," Arella said. "If the gateway closes…his soul will be trapped forever and his body withers."

"And all of life and death will suffer."

Wanda popped into the room. Her entire body was on edge due to the amount of chaos magic which spread through the air around her. Goosebumps popped on the back of her neck with Wanda's sense of dread.

"Wanda, do you feel it?" Kara asked.

Wanda responded with a nod and shuddered.

"There's magic in the air…I've felt this kind of presence before," Wanda said, sitting down on the chair. She turned towards Arella. "And you have before….when he was present."

"Yes, I have," Arella said, not denying it.

The doors of the lab swung open, and Diana, Karen, and Jaime entered. Faora decided to take control of the situation the best she could. The Daughter of Zod remained steady and secure, not wanting to show them any level of weakness, as hard as it was not to show it at this present time.

"You've all felt what happened to Har," Faora said.

"Felt it, felt Kara losing her mind as well," Karen said. Kara gave her a side long stare. "And I think we're all losing our minds. We're going to have to sit back, relax, stay focused. Stay cool and calm."

All of the girls agreed this was easier said then done. They looked over towards Harry's body. Diana placed a hand on Harry's cheek and withdrew it instantly.

"What's wrong?" Jaime asked for a second. "Diana?"

"He's both cold and hot," Diana said.

The Alpha Council, Wanda, Peve, Lara, and Alura all stood wondering what this met. There was something extremely wrong and very unsettling going on around here. Something they couldn't put their hands on.

"We could try and reach him," Jaime said, shrugging. "Maybe the combined forces of all of us can manage to reach his soul…wherever it had gone."

"What do we have to lose?" Kara asked, and the question earned Kara some dirty glances. "Well, a lot, but anything is worth a shot."

"Yes," Faora said. "Yes, it is…is everyone ready?"

* * *

Sara Lance knew now what a mouse being chased by a cat experienced. The fear, the uncertainty, the moments of hope when she thought she had gotten away. And the moments where she had been trapped in a corner without anywhere to go. Her heart hammered across her chest and performed a war-march.

Harry had disappeared before her very eyes. Sara could feel like she ran around in circles. Something chasing her, from all sides, and she was sick of it. she was sick of running.

Sara hit the wall suddenly. She couldn't move any more. Flames shot up from the ground in front of her and on either side to further block her progress.

"What do you want?" Sara asked.

"I want to set you free and to return myself for the former glory which I so greatly desire," Deacon Blackfire said, stepping through the flames towards Sara.

His slimy fingers touched her face, or more likely touched her soul. Either way, Sara's stomach turned in disgust at his demented disgust.

"You…he'll stop you…."

"Oh you think he'd stop me!" Deacon Blackfire yelled, practically bellowing. "He is the sick conscience of a world which tramples on people like me. You see, I've done my best to spread the gospel and spread the good word. I've done my best to increase awareness of all of the darkness out there. The pure sins, they rot away at the fabric of all the values we true here."

Sara tried to look into the eyes of this glorified televangelist before her. One look into the man's eyes sent shivers down Sara's spine and caused her body to become cold. She stared directly into dark pits of something sinister.

"You were like the snake in the Garden of Eden," Deacon Blackfire said. "You thought you were doing him a favor, but in your own deplorable way you merely tempted him."

"I don't know what you're talking about…."

The flames shot up around Sara and came close to closing in on her. They almost licked her face. Sara shivered when they drew even closer yet.

"Avert your lying eyes away from me!" Deacon Blackfire said. "I can see it; I can sense it, your sinful thoughts, your depraved nature. You know who you are, and you've known what you've done. You are nothing, but the whore who tempts the righteous. You are cut from the same cloth as she is."

Sara could feel this nutcase's words bury into the back of her head. It began to give her a headache, ripping into her mind. The fire around her stopped closing it. The hot presence caused things to be more intense for her.

"You have no right to look upon me for sympathy for what you've done," Deacon Blackfire said, continuing his hellfire sermon. "You cannot forgive yourself for what you've done, you know you have sinned. And you know I'm righteous…"

"Righteous, that's good, that's really good!" Sara yelled. "Would a righteous man use the image of someone's mother to trick them into a deal? You're the snake here, Blackfire, not me!"

"Still your tongue, girl," Blackfire said. "Those who have darkness buried deep within their heart can always be flummoxed by a little bit of the light. And there is plenty of darkness in you, my sister."

Sara gasped in frustration. It took her a couple of moments to realize the ground started to sink underneath her. She struggled to maintain her footing only to realize it was pointless.

"The darkness should be purged and the light will remain true!" Deacon Blackfire yelled at the top of his lungs. "You will atone for your sins, in purgatory, and the sins of your sister as well!"

Sara's head started to throb and not just because of this never ending ranting as well, she found herself buried deeper into a pit.

"You see, you may have sinned, but I find it within myself to forgive within reason," Deacon Blackfire continued. "And everything which is wrong will be set right again. You will allow me to return to my life and you will allow me to return to my world. And this is when you're going to forgiven."

The air coated with a smell of brimstone. Sara tried to rise up. It was almost like something which pushed her down underneath the ground, deep into the dark and dank pit. One grim thought entered Sara's mind which would not leave her under any circumstances.

' _My, god, he's going to kill me,'_ Sara thought. _'This is it, I'll never return home.'_

"Your struggles grow weaker by each passing moment," Deacon Blackfire said. "Deep down in your polluted and foul soul, you know my words to be true. It really isn't a fair exchange, between you and me."

Sara gasped one more time. She had been cast down this filthy pit where she was almost drowning in. Yet, there had been no water being poured in. Several ashes floated up and started to fill the pit around her feet. Small rocks shoved in the pit over the top of her. Sara could hear Blackfire start saying a prayer.

"I don't know what Dinah did to you, but this doesn't make things right!" Sara yelled, gasping for air. She struggled to pull herself out of the pit.

Deacon Blackfire resembled someone having a seizure. His body started to turn more defined and Sara's became less. It was almost like she was fading into oblivion.

"This isn't right!" Sara screamed at the top of her lungs. "You have to stop this."

More ashes and rocks poured into the hole, burying Sara from her waist up inside the pit. The younger Lance sister could feel a little bit of herself slipping away.

A flash of light jarred her and she could see her body thrashing about in the middle of a room. Several hooded figures surrounded them.

"Help!" Sara yelled at the top of her lungs.

"They cannot hear you, even with the connection you still somehow have to your body," Deacon Blackfire said, slipping out of his trance. "I've talked to my dear Granddaddy, the final phase is complete….watch as your soul plucks away, strand, by strand until your body is nothing, but a wild husk with no sense of yourself and no feeling at all."

Her arms had been trapped inside of the pit. Sara watched in horror as red fluid started to ooze from underneath the pit.

"Ashes to ashes, you will fall, my sister."

Sara could feel it rising up past her arms and it was slowly reaching her neck.

"When I'm buried…..there's no turning back," Sara said, coughing. She couldn't help and think of this.

"Yes, I'm glad you understand," Deacon Blackfire said, bending down the hole and kissing Sara on the forehead. "Time is not on your side."

* * *

Harry hated losing control in any way whatsoever. Now, he found himself walking around in circles without a rhyme, without a reason, or maybe without a purpose. He stopped for a moment and took a deep breath.

He knew Blackfire had not succeeded in his plans yet. The situation in this area would be more dire had it happened. Harry did not want to be stuck in this limbo.

Harry stopped for a moment. A thought entered the mind of the Master of Death which caused his frown to deepen.

' _Cleary, I've been going about this the wrong way,'_ Harry thought. _'The only reason why this has been messing with my mind because I allowed it to. I allowed my frustration of being stuck here to get the better of me.'_

Harry sat down on the ground, legs crossed over each other, and arms crossed as well. The Master of Death tapped into the energies around him and started to relax himself. Time was an interesting thing. Those who messed with time ended up getting in a lot of trouble unless it was controlled.

' _Don't go to them, bring them to me,'_ Harry thought, trying to focus on the sound of Sara's voice. She had to be somewhere. Maybe she was closer than he thought.

Harry could hear the fearful gasps of Sara. It took Harry a moment to realize what happened. Sara's soul strands plucked apart strand after strand, and soon Blackfire would have her trapped here. He would be able to return to the world thanks the voodoo ritual.

' _Not on my watch, Blackfire.'_

Harry continued to channel the energy in the air around him. The scene started to shift a little bit. The realm around him began to fight. Harry pushed harder and fought every step of the wall. Will-power increased even more.

The second Harry dropped down, he could see black flames surrounding a pit. Through the flames, Harry noticed Sara's head poking out from underneath a pit of jagged rocks. She was being buried and once she had been covered, her soul would be trapped within the pit and Blackfire would be free.

In the real world, Harry's limitations were obvious. Here in this spirit world, he didn't have the same limitations. Harry dove through the black flames. The fire burned into his body. Harry dropped down onto the ground and took a deep breath.

"Harry, he's…he's here, he's right behind you!" Sara yelled, trying to keep her head above water.

Harry could see the fear dancing through her eyes and could see her resemble someone who was drowning. A cloud of buzzards circles around Harry. They transformed into Deacon Blackfire who dropped down to the ground.

"You seek to stop it!" Deacon Blackfire bellowed at the top of his lungs, holding his arms out in a crucifix style pose. "But, you can't stop it."

"We'll see about that," Harry said.

The same limitations which forced him to wear the watch did not apply here. At least Harry hoped they didn't. He would find out should his soul be shredded.

' _Not much left to lose if I get trapped here for all eternity,'_ Harry thought, blasting through the rocks and freeing Sara.

Sara could breathe a little bit easier now. The girl's mind returned together.

In a flash, a dark figure swooped down in front of Harry. Several more dark figures swooped around in front of Harry. Deacon Blackfire smiled when he could see them.

"I've always been an avid collector of lost souls!" Deacon Blackfire said. "And these souls have been lost in translation. Heaven does not want them. Hell is too afraid they will take over. And they have a serious problem for Death putting them in this Crossroads. And they have a serious bone to pick with you, Dragon."

The black shadowed figures swooped around towards Harry. Harry gave himself a bit more room to breathe. He only partially stopped the ritual, and bought Sara and himself a few more seconds.

' _Okay, stop Blackfire,'_ Harry thought, dodging the swipes of the figures. Their razor sharp claws shot acid which Harry suspected would damage his soul. _'Defeat his shadow minions, get Sara out of there, and get out of here…no problem…at least I don't think there's a problem.'_

This was going to be a difficult bridge for Harry to cross. The dark warriors surrounded him. These had a particularly devious axe to grind with Death. Some people just lingered and not as ghosts either.

Harry's clothes shifted into a robe and a glowing energy scythe appeared through his hand.

"Alright, Blackfire, you want to play with matters of Death," Harry said. "You're going to see how dangerous this can be."

* * *

Brother Beau Blackfire rested on the slab with the two Acolytes watching him with grins on his face. The life force slowly drained from his body.

"Finally, the little weasel is useful for something," the Caucasian Acolyte said. "When Blackfire Blackfire has his life force drained from Brother Beau, he'll be nothing but a little dried out husk. What do you have to say about that?"

"Damn," the black half of this duo of Acolytes said.

"I figured as much," the other one said.

"Stand back," Blackjack Blackfire said.

The two Acolytes stepped back and the voodoo doctor stepped in. He stared down at his worthless grandson, who would be more useful in life to resurrect his more useful grandson from the grave.

' _The sacrifice of the blood of the enemy and the sacrifice of the blood of the slain will empower the pit to bring him back,'_ Blackjack Blackfire said, taking a long moment to look down at him.

He turned to the body of his grandson.

"The world will be prepared to hear your gospel again someday," Blackjack Blackfire said. "No one can stand in your way. This Canary, she'll know the meaning of loss. There will always be a part of her soul racked with the guilt of sin."

Blackjack Blackfire took a moment. The ritual was not ready to be completed yet. Something intervened, and Blackjack Blackfire could not understand what.

The head of the Blackfire clan sat down to the ground with his legs crossed and started to commune with the other side.

"Dragon!" Blackjack Blackfire growled. "He has the hand of Death!"

This was an unfortunate little kink in their plan, although it wasn't one where Blackjack Blackfire could not get around.

His eyes cast upon the hour glass. Glowing red sand slowly dropped down. Each strand represented another strand of the souls which he would trap forever.

"It doesn't matter," Blackjack Blackfire said, the sands having stalled for a moment. One of them slowly slipped down the neck of the hour glass.

Patience would prove to be the key which brought Blackjack Blackfire to the dance. Sometimes a wrench could be tossed into even the best laid plans.

"Soon, my grandson," Blackjack Blackfire said. "Soon time will be on your side."

One more strand of the red sand slowly slipped. A few moments, a few hours, it didn't matter. Once the sands of time slipped away, Joseph Blackfire would be lowered into the Pits and be reborn anew.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 6** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_And a lot of insanity has occurred. Really speaks for itself. Magic can cause a lot of headaches. Until Wednesday._


	177. Enter the Crossing Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventy Seven: Enter the Crossing Part Two.**

* * *

Two rows of shadow wraiths lined up around Harry, Sara, and the Deacon. The wraiths acted like they were blind to Deacon Blackfire's presence. They noticed Harry completely as well. One of them charged Harry with razor sharp claws extended. Harry spun around and slammed the energy scythe into the chest of his adversary. The scythe ripped one of the enemies in half.

Another one of the shadow creatures lunged towards Harry. Harry turned and thrust his energy weapon. The weapon caused a rift to open and rip open one of the creatures. Glowing energy manifested around them all. The others stepped back for a moment. Harry had them on the run. He moved in for the kill.

Why they weren't sent on, Harry only could begin to guess. The troubled and conflicted states of their souls were more obvious than usual. The energy weapon slammed into one of the demons and lopped the head of it off. Black blood splattered to the ground. Harry continued to rain down with the attacks and assault the creature.

Deacon Blackfire's body flickered. His body started to slip into the real world. Harry realized his time had run out. Every single tick of the clock caused Harry to grow with a tension knot in his chest.

' _I'm running out of time.'_

Harry closed his eyes and caused a swirling vortex of wind to appear around him. The burning sensation going through his being was not considered to be good. Harry blocked it out of his mind and started to launch the creatures back into the ground.

"Soon you will be buried once again and soon…."

Harry made his move and knocked Deacon Blackfire back a few inches. The Deacon slammed against the wall of rocks.

"Harry, please!" Sara yelled.

Harry rushed over to the pit and placed his hands on it. The rocks and ashes began to glow. They disappeared one by one. Sara lifted straight out of the pit, and Harry pulled her to her feet. She staggered for moment.

"Lean on me," Harry said.

Sara really didn't have any choice due to the fact it was hard to stand. She was seconds away from getting her soul stripped from her body. And hell, Sara wasn't even sure if she was completely and totally out of the woods yet. The two of them stood up for a couple of seconds with each other.

"You have merely delayed what is inevitable!" Deacon Blackfire yelled, rising up to his feet. "You cannot escape. I will have both of you and the world will be in my hands."

"Does he ever shut up?" Sara asked.

Harry only responded with a nod. He could see more creatures manifest. His entire body swam with a stabbing pain in the side of his arm. Like all true warriors did, Harry blocked it out and did his best to power on through. A warm sensation spread over his hands when he kept pushing himself through.

"I'm going to take those things out, then defeat him, and you have to get out the door the minute I open it," Harry said.

"My body it's…it's…." Sara said.

Harry didn't blame her for not getting the words out. The flames shot up and caused demons of fire to appear. Harry took a deep breath and drew all of the energy into him. The powerful warrior's fingers started to glow. Energy blasts fired from his fingers and knocked down the creatures extremely hard.

"He can't protect you!" Deacon Blackfire yelled, flashing behind Sara. "Your destiny is to atone for the sins of your sister, and to…."

Sara stepped back. She stood in front of him.

"I'm not going to run from you," Sara said, standing firm. She knew this one fed off of fear. "You think you're really big and you're really bad, don't you?"

"I'm the thing you cannot properly face…"

A sword manifested in Sara's hand. She swung the weapon at Deacon Blackfire and ripped him in half with the sword. Black mist flew in the air. This attack from Sara left Deacon Blackfire open from an attack from Harry. Energy blasted from Harry's hand and sent Blackfire hurling into the wall at an intense speed. His form faded into nothingness at least for now.

"Maybe now you'll finally shut up," Sara said, taking a deep breath. She didn't kindly take to people who tried to steal her soul in battle.

Harry continued to do battle with the shadow wraiths and the fire wraiths. A burst of energy caused them to freeze in battle. Harry stopped and decided at this moment not to ask too many questions. He pushed on through and knocked the creatures back with a huge duel energy blast from his hands.

The creatures dropped down. Harry sensed something off to the side on the walls. He reached in and pushed his hand through the wall. A doorway opened up.

"There it is," Harry said to Sara. "It's the way home."

Sara paused and looked at the glowing doorway. The gateway looked to be leading somewhere, she couldn't deny this fact. Still there was something unsettling about it. Almost like stepping through this doorway was almost as much of a calculated risk of staying here and being at the mercy of Deacon Blackfire.

The only alternative was to remain here. Harry motioned for the doorway and Sara noticed how faint it started to grow. It almost shrank despite the fact Harry opened it up.

"You need to leave, nothing is more important now," Harry said. "If you leave, you stop him from returning."

"Well, I better get going," Sara said, pausing for a moment and looking back at Harry. "What about you, though?"

"Someone is going to have to stop Blackfire from stepping through the portal," Harry said, and Sara looked at him. "I'll be fine, I'll be okay."

Sara opened her mouth to further protest this. Harry silenced her in the best way possible by pushing his lips over her mouth with a kiss. The younger Lance sister found herself extremely surprised by Harry's mouth over hers. Her heart raced when Harry kissed the ever living hell out of her.

"I guess I made a bad judgment call," Sara said, the moment they broke the kiss. "But, now, I'll live with it, instead of dying for it. So that's progress, I guess."

Sara leaned forward and gave Harry one more kiss, nipping on his lips in the process. The doorway opened and Harry took advantage of Sara's preoccupation to guide her through it. Harry took in a deep breath. The noxious air filled his lungs.

"Now, it's my turn….."

Deacon Blackfire rose up behind him, eyes glowing. His hair looked completely wild. All of his calmness faded and had been replaced by pure rage. His eyes glowed red and fingers turned sharper.

"You robbed me of my triumph," Deacon Blackfire said. "The only solace I will receive now is the fact you will not be leaving this place alive. Your fate will be sealed. Sealed by the kiss of our grand savior, Abigail, whose noble sacrifice has empowered the Blackfire clan for generation after….."

The Phoenix song filled the Crossroads. Deacon Blackfire recoiled and did his best impression of a demon who had been splashed with holy water. The man's heart started to speed up as the flaming bird like creature appeared in front of him. In the middle of it, a female with red hair and green eyes dressed in white robes with a golden phoenix emblem appeared.

"Now it's your turn."

The manifested woman planted a kiss on Harry's lips. Short and intense caused a burning fire to be transferred to Harry's body. Harry faded from the realm. The last image he laid eyes upon was the pure horror etched in Deacon Blackfire's eyes when everything around the Master of Death completely faded to black.

* * *

Kara, Karen, Diana, Jaime, and Faora all crowded around Harry's bedside, all of them trying to have reached out to him and not really having much success with it. Kara in particular appeared to be on edge.

"It's like his mind is completely….." Kara said when suddenly she could feel a presence slam to life back into her mind. "Did you feel that?"

Wanda, who sat in the corner, jumped completely up out of her chair. The strange presence which filled the air shifted into something else. Something which calmed, soothed, and dare she say, arouse her.

"I think we all felt it," Wanda said.

Harry Potter's body started to thrash on the table. Karen and Faora moved to try and hold him down. Blood started to trickle down Harry's nose which was not a good sign.

"His vital signs are all over the charts!" Lara yelled at the top of her lungs, trying to get some order here. "His CORE levels spiked for one second, before returning back to normal."

Peve found this the most curious thing of all. Something healed the damage to Harry's CORE for three brief seconds before it returned back to the standard level. Exposure to something caused him to temporarily become whole for three single seconds. Peve thought she witnessed a miracle. Everything had been brought back down.

Harry's eyes opened up suddenly and the room started to come back into focus around him. Never had a greater combination of being both relieved and having to thrown up visited the mind of the Kryptonian sorcerer. He just needed a couple of moments to focus.

"Harry, Harry, please speak to me," Kara said, leaning over for a moment. She was just glad Harry stopped shaking. "Harry, do you think you can say something?"

"Sara….Sara Lance," Harry said, trying to spit out these next couple of words before they had been lost to all time. He coughed madly. "Sara Lance is alive."

Harry lapsed into a fitful state of sleep. Everyone started to look around for a moment. Faora moved to start testing Harry.

"He's just asleep to recharge himself," Faora said. "What I want to know is how his CORE levels returned to normal for three seconds? Something spiked them, and healed them."

Kara didn't really notice. Now she felt curious. Something making her Harry whole again and not having to worry about being burned out because of his powers made her very happy. Kara knew Harry would still use the watch as a way to challenge himself. The fact he didn't have to wear it though eased her mind.

' _Was I hearing things?'_ Dinah asked, after she came down from the high of the relief of Harry being fine. _'Did he just say Sara was alive? My sister, Sara?'_

' _Yes,'_ Jaime thought. _'Maybe we should ask him when he gets better.'_

Dinah wanted to know, even though she could wait for the right reasons.

* * *

The body of the mysterious blonde suddenly stopped thrashing in its made attempts to break free, and for this, the members of the League of Assassins stood on pins and needles, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Harry," she murmured, before fading off into a peaceful sleep.

A pause occurred. In this time, the mystic lifted a staff and started to scan the area around them. The energy pulsing from the staff was more normal than ever before. The presence faded from around the entire group.

"Some good news," the mystic said, with Nyssa, Shiva, and the other assassins looking towards her. "The worst is over, we can finally breathe now."

Nyssa smiled. In the end, she felt justified in the decisions made in this situation. Yet, there was something else in the back of her mind which grew in greater prominence. The horror this girl went through after being dunked in the pits caused one mantra to flash in the back of her mind and it would not leave her alone in any way.

' _Never again,'_ Nyssa thought. _'Never again will I subject anyone to these horrors. We're going to have to find another way.'_

Shiva stared down at Nyssa for a moment. The oldest daughter of the demon stared down Shiva for a moment before coming to one conclusion.

"You'll be happy to know we were both right in this situation," Nyssa said, allowing Shiva to raise her eyebrow. Elaboration would need to be given and Shiva gave it. "She needed to be saved and the pits were a risk. We're going to need to find alternative ways."

"To be fair, there were circumstances here," Shiva said, willing to admit she had been mistaken and after a long journey, Nyssa said. "I suspect there had been some divine hand interjected in this situation."

The thought of who worked his divine hand in this situation clicked with both assassins.

"She did say Harry's name," Nyssa said, smiling very fondly at the thought of it. "And there are few hands which are more divine than his."

"Yes, your obsession," Shiva said, returning with a smile. "It could be someone other than…the Dragon."

She spoke this particular title extremely low and out of an ear shot of many other people. There were very few people who knew Harry Potter went underneath this particular moniker. How many more speculated and put it together, Shiva didn't know. Her skills were many. Reading minds was not one of the skills she had.

"You mean like your obsession with testing him to prove his worthiness," Nyssa said.

Shiva only responded with the barest hints of a smile. For the mission she had in mind, she needed to have someone completely and totally worthy of her. And Harry Potter served her goals more often than not.

Nyssa stared at the content woman.

"We're going to have to move her to a proper bed now," Nyssa said. "Having her chained up like a prisoner is extremely poor form. And plenty of food and water when she wakes up."

People were a lot more cooperative to answering questions when they were properly fed, at least they were in Nyssa's experience.

* * *

The hourglass knocked over and red mystical sand smashed all over the floor. The two Acolytes stepped back, both of them wincing in agony. Both from the horrific sound invading their eardrums when the hour glass smashed on the ground and also the fact their boss would skin them alive when he recovered.

Charles Robert Blackfire's anger could get extremely nasty when provoked. The man clutched his bleeding ears. The cry of the song bird continued to echo through his ear drums.

An old legend passed down from generation to generation regarding the song bird's cry. Every time a Blackfire heard this creature in their ears, misfortune was soon to follow. Blackjack Blackfire heeded the wisdom of his ancestors quite well.

"Go fish!"

The scream of Brother Beau could be heard from miles around. The life energy returned to his body and the disgraced other grandson of Charles "Blackjack" Blackfire stirred awake from enchanted slumber.

"Damn!" both of the Acolytes hollered in unison.

* * *

Malcolm Merlyn had a lot on his plate this day. The running away of Thea started the ball rolling towards the trouble. The last sightings of her put her somewhere in Gotham City, which didn't improve Merlyn's mood any. Gotham was no place for a teenage girl, and Merlyn was surprised the entire city didn't burn into the ground years ago.

Oliver going on the ill-fated boat trip and being lost at sea continued the ball rolling down the hill for trouble. Queen's stock became rather shaky. It really plummeted the week Oliver disappeared. It leveled off. Merlyn was reaching the point where heads would have to roll and people would need to be laid off. He would be damned if the Board of Directors got him. A scapegoat needed to be found and soon.

The latest problem centered around Lionel Luthor and his league of businessmen who dogged Merlyn pretty much around every corner. Luthor wanted control of the company. He had his eyes on Queen Industries for an extremely long time.

Lionel's calls to his office came in a couple of times a week. Merlyn thought about his options. There was a couple of things he could do. Until one or both of the Queen children turned up dead, he couldn't really move forward.

One trump card had been left in Malcolm's deck. He dare not exercise it just yet, given the risks involvement. Merlyn took plenty of risks due to being a shrewd businessman.

Coming into the office on this Monday morning, Merlyn hoped for a better week to follow the one which passed. He entered the office after having passed the secretary with only the barest of acknowledgements.

' _Let's hope for this week to be more efficient then the last one.'_

Merlyn barely had a chance to pour his morning coffee when he noticed something of particular interest sitting in the fax machine in his office. The businessman snatched it up and read it, frowning.

' _Well, this is interesting,'_ Merlyn thought, deciding to sit down.

He debated on whether or not he needed something stronger than a cup of coffee to figure out how to tackle this new situation. Merlyn's frown continued to deepen when he looked over it.

"Well, Thea, it's becoming more clear now, isn't it?" Merlyn asked. "At least it's confirmation you're out there and you're alive."

Merlyn's phone rang just like it had been over the past few weeks, ever since Oliver Queen went down the ship. Nervous shareholders, nervous investors, Lionel Luthor, people from the press, all sorts of misfits calling in every single day and making Malcolm's life a bit more difficult than it should be.

He allowed the phone to ring a couple of times before picking it up and answering it.

"Yes," Merlyn said in his most calm and concise manner.

"Mr. Merlyn, have you heard?" one of the members of the board of directors asked over the phone. "Thea Queen is alive."

"Yes, I know," Merlyn said. "The first bit of good news we've had in weeks here."

Merlyn could not help, but be a bit relieved. If only he could pinpoint where Thea was, he could have her brought home.

"But, why did she sell her shares?" the man on the phone asked. "And she sold her shares to…well to Harry Potter."

Merlyn glossed over this fact at first. Thea being alive and selling her shares to someone was more than enough to get him thinking. The fact it was to the one and only Harry Potter, well Merlyn found himself fixated on this particular piece of paper for a long time.

"So, she has," Merlyn said. "The future will be intriguing."

Merlyn could see this entire scenario going one of two ways. Harry Potter had a significant amount of control, but not complete and total control over the entire company. He did have enough control though where he could effectively strong-arm Merlyn into doing what he wanted should he really choose to do so.

The other scenario, and Merlyn had to smile about this, was if the two of them worked together, they could effectively lock Lionel and his crew out of the company. Therefore, Merlyn wouldn't have to play his trump card just yet.

"Sir, what do you think this is going to do?" the board member asked.

"RAO is big business these days, and having Harry Potter connected to our company can only mean good things," Merlyn said. "Without having talked to him, I don't know what our next move is."

Merlyn figured Harry Potter to be an extremely busy young man. While he didn't obsessively keep up with his exploits like some did, Malcolm Merlyn kept himself well informed of the various goings ons of one of Gotham City's favorite sons. He most certainly carved his niche.

"We should focus on the most important aspect of this," Malcolm said. "Thea is alive, which means we finally have some good news to tell the general public."

Malcolm already was planning to get a press release drafted and released before the news media could beat them to the punch. The media caused Queen Industries their fair share of problems.

"Sir, if she sold the company shares to him, it means Harry Potter knows where Thea is," the board of director member said, sound rather excited about his declaration.

Malcolm almost slid out of his chair. A member of the Board of Directors having an intelligent thought, would wonders never cease? Malcolm would have to have a discussion with Harry Potter sooner rather than later about this. Exactly how long had the deal been in progress, Malcolm couldn't know. All of the red tape might have just been eliminated today.

"We have a new and fresh avenue to explore," Malcolm said, looking over the fax. It was standard corporate and legal speak. Nothing which could really give him any concise information regarding the whereabouts of Thea, and he didn't expect this particular document to do so.

The phone call ended and Malcolm decided to make a call.

"Yes, we need to get the word out Harry Potter purchased Thea Queen's stocks, and….make sure to emphasize the fact she's alive and out there."

It was time for them to re-double their search for Oliver. If they found him, then Queen Industries would be back on track. If he was alive, so much the better, but if he was dead, well they would have to move on.

Malcolm knew someone would get this internal fax and despite it being company sensitive information, it would be leaked to the press. Everyone wanted to their time in the sun.

Today was a new day.

"I want to see what we can do to arrange a meeting with Harry Potter," Malcolm said. "If he knows where Thea is, then it's vital for us to have a conversation."

The first lead they had in months presented its way to them and Malcolm intended to follow it up.

* * *

Harry Potter wondered what the hell hit him so hard. It took him a couple of moments to come to his bearings before he realized what happened. He recalled how his conversation with Faora and Kara turned into being pulled into the crossroads dimension where he encountered the demonic spirit of Deacon Blackfire. There were some other things which happened, where Harry couldn't quite process. In time, Harry would recall.

For now, Harry experienced a throbbing sensation in his head. It could be best compared to a herd of elephants stamping the back of his head. He groaned when waking up.

Diana, Jaime, Karen, Kara, and Faora all sat around the bed with him. Faora reached forward and placed a hand on his forehead to feel it.

"You're back to normal," Faora said. "Because, you were really hot when you came out of wherever you came of."

"And here I thought I was always really hot," Harry said, giving a weak smile when he tried to hold his head up. It sank back onto the bed and he groaned in frustration.

Jaime turned towards Diana and the two of them exchanged a smile. They were both glad to see Harry was feeling much better than he was.

"We thought you had been lost for good," Diana said, trying to keep her voice even and calm, and somehow stern at the same time.

"I wasn't looking to get pulled into a Crossroads dimension," Harry said. "It was just one of those things which happened."

"I know," Diana said, smiling and placing her hand on her husband's cheek. She leaned in and kissed him. "You were pretty much wrecked when you came out."

Harry hated being confined to a bed. Any weakness, he hated. The problems with his CORE caused him to be a bit weaker than he should. It was one thing if Harry put restrictions on himself because of a choice. To him, restricting what he did allowed him to think outside of the box. Doing so by choice was a challenge. Doing so by force was a frustration.

"How long was I out?" Harry asked, barely holding back a cough which passed through his body.

"Three days," Kara said, looking rather shaken up and rightfully so. "You were out for three long and grueling days. For a moment we thought….well it's good you're fine."

Harry reached over towards Kara and gently wrapped her up in a hug which calmed her down. He felt a little bit better.

"So, how are you feeling now?" Karen asked.

"Hungry," Harry said. "I burned up a lot of magical energy fighting in the realm, so I could use something to eat."

All five of the Alphas smiled and Jaime slipped out for a moment so she could get Harry's request. Harry kicked back for a moment and relaxed.

"The sooner I get out of this bed, the better," Harry said.

"Lara, Alura, and Peve want to check you over," Faora said, with a smile and not leaving her brother's side, not even for a moment.

Harry appreciated the attention. He wished he had a few moments to contemplate. His mind buzzed with what happened, which he only barely remembered now. The trip to the Crossroads was an extremely dangerous thing as in you didn't know what was going to happen, and how you were going to come out on the other end.

' _Harry, I hate to bother you,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Dinah, it's no bother,'_ Harry thought, mentally reassuring her it's okay. _'I'm glad to hear your voice….hell, I'm glad I hear anyone's voice right about now. When I was there, I could hear nothing…well nothing settling. So it's good to hear a friendly voice.'_

' _Believe me, I'm glad to hear you as well,'_ Dinah thought, taking a moment to compose herself. She found Harry's babbling due to his disoriented state to be rather endearing because it was so rare. _'I wanted to ask you a question, about something you said.'_

' _Yes?'_ Harry asked, sounding a little bit tense. He wished Dinah would have just spit it out and said it. He wasn't too much of a fan of playing guessing games to be perfectly honest.

' _You said something about Sara being alive,'_ Dinah thought.

The moment Dinah mentioned this fact, Harry recalled the fact in the back of his mind. He recalled encountering Sara's spirit in the Crossroads.

' _Yes, I encountered her spirit,'_ Harry thought.

' _Wait, if you encountered her spirit, than she's…dead!'_ Dinah yelled with a long moment having passed. She could feel Harry positively cringe for a moment.

Harry knew this would be a delicate situation to try and explain.

' _Yes, and no,'_ Harry thought. _'Her body had been resurrected after her spirit had been disconnected….and I sent her spirit back.'_

' _Do you think it made it back?'_ Dinah asked.

Another few seconds paused before Harry decided he could accurately answer Dinah's questions.

' _I'd like to think she did. You do know how much I get along with assumptions.'_

Peve flickered into position and started to perform a scan on Harry. Harry laid still and patient because mostly he had no real choice other than to lie still and patient upon the bed. He waited calmly and clearly for Peve to continue to work her magic over him.

"So, what's the damage?" Harry asked.

"In theory, you should be wrecked and set back even more," Peve said, looking rather pleased Har-Zod quite frankly wasn't. Merging with the Hallows sounded like a quaint idea in the process. The results of the experiment didn't go well. "However, your CORE levels are normal and are on schedule."

"It's a real pity they weren't accelerated so I could have full access to my abilities."

Harry could tell this assessment had been shared by many of his girls. He thought constantly about how much he could accomplish. The thought caused Harry to shift on the bed.

' _Not saying I would overuse my powers. The fact I could have them would give me an extra tool.'_

"For about three seconds you were."

Harry raised his eyebrow at Peve. She noticed she had both Harry's attention, and also the normally intelligent and on the ball young man was baffled for a second.

"The Phoenix appeared and sent me home," Harry said.

"The mysterious redhead who haunts your dreams every now and again?" Karen asked, piping up. "The one who looks like she can be your older sister."

"Yes, her," Harry said with a smile, and speaking of older sisters, Jaime returned with a plate of food. "Oh, Jaime, you're such a life saver, I'm so hungry I can eat a house."

"Don't you mean a horse?" Karen asked, which caused Diana to pull a face at the thought. "Hey, people do it."

Diana's disgust increased with the busty blonde's words.

"More than I needed to know," Diana said.

"And for the record, I know what I meant," Harry said, deciding to dig into the food. "And perfect as usual Jaime."

Jaime hated to cook after her experiences with the Dursleys. She was good at it. It didn't really mean she was really good at it to be honest. Harry was one of the few people she would happily break the vow of not cooking for.

Kara watched Harry eat for a couple of moments. Harry's eyes locked onto hers for a moment.

"What, do I have something on my chin?" Harry asked, playfully.

"No, I was just thinking about something," Kara said, for a long moment.

"How, I seem to end up getting pulled into situations which give my girls collective heart failure?" Harry asked.

Kara leaned down her head and shook it. She tried not to really think too much about that, at least any more than she could help. The Girl of Steel's lips curled into a shadow of a smile.

"I thought about heading to Smallville to visit Claire, Martha, and everyone else," Kara said. "And I was wondering if you would like to come with me."

Harry thought about it for a moment. He could use some time away from the bigger city and return to a simpler area. The fresh country air would do him some good to heal and relax.

"I'd like to join you," Harry said.

"Good," Kara said, kissing Harry on the top of his forehead. "And you do have something on your chin."

Kara wiped the sauce off. It stuck to her finger. Slowly, Kara slipped a finger into her mouth and sucked the sauce off of it with a smile towards Harry.

"Just wait until get out of this bed," Harry said with a suggestive grin on his face.

"Looking forward to it, Har," Kara said.

* * *

"The Guardians aren't being very transparent with this, are they?" Carol asked Sinestra.

Sinestra tried not to give the new recruit an extremely frustrated look. The veteran Green Lantern thought she remained exceedingly patient, perhaps a bit too patient with the newest recruit for the Green Lantern corps. The sense of idealism was refreshing and she hoped it stuck through for Carol's sake.

"They are operating under their usual protocol," Sinestra said.

"See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil?" Carol asked after a few seconds.

A long pause followed and Sinestra cupped her chin to look thoughtful for many seconds.

"If the shoe fits," Sinestra said for a second.

Around the corner came one of the Guardians. Sinestra noticed him approaching her.

"Hello, Sinestra," Ganthet said. "And Carol Danvers….I had thought you would have returned home by now, since your training has been completed."

"Well, there's an emergency on Oa," Carol said. "And it would be very bad form if I left the rest of my team behind."

Ganthet smiled, this kind of idealism should be encouraged. It was a pity so many of his fellow Guardians did their best to squash it with numerous extremely questionable decisions. They never used to be like this, the Guardians.

' _A lot of the races in this universe answer to the Guardians,'_ Ganthet thought. _'But who do the Guardians answer to? Every time questions are asked, we refuse to answer them. It doesn't inspire a lot of hope.'_

"More Lanterns should follow your lead," Ganthet said. "Believe me, a lot of my fellow Guardians were skeptical of a earth being receiving the Green Lantern ring."

"I've noticed," Carol said in her driest tone.

"I think you'll be a credit to Sector 2814 in the end," Ganthet said, looking Carol straight in the end. "Most would say a crisis is not their problem."

"And so, you admit there's a crisis," Sinestra said.

Ganthet chuckled. He appreciated Sinestra's blunt tone. It made a lot of the other members of the Guardians very uncomfortable because she was not the type to bow to them without good reason. She did everything by the book to the public eye. Behind closed doors, it was another matter entirely.

"I'm saying there is probable cause for a security breach near enough to Oa to be a concern," Ganthet said. "If the Red Lanterns end up proving themselves to be more than a myth, I would exercise caution."

The other Guardians exited and one of them gave Ganthet a long look. The Guardian straightened up.

"Keep your eyes open and your ring completely charged," Ganthet said. "And a good day to you both."

Carol watched the Guardian leave and slowly turn her full focus towards Sinestra. Sinestra's face contorted into recognition which completely dawned on her.

"Did he admit there were Red Lanterns?" Carol asked.

"As much as his fellow Guardians would allow," Sinestra said, privately admiring Ganthet's shrewd way of wiggling around the official word of the Guardians.

"So what do we do now?"

A long and pressing silence followed seconds later.

"I'm not sure how much of a virtue patience is among the people of Earth," Sinestra said, eyes locked onto Carol's. "But, you should exercise it right now."

Sinestra would figure this out. She hated moving without thinking. The Guardians might be trying to bury the Red Lantern problem underneath the sand.

* * *

Lana and Claire situated themselves underneath a tree just a little bit away from the Kent House. From their vantage point, Claire could see her father working with the farm hands. Claire kept a close watch on her father for her mother so he didn't do anything too strenuous. While his doctors cleared him for light labor, Jonathan Kent's definition of light labor differed from the definition of light labor from a lot of people.

"I can't believe we're going to start the sixth grade," Lana said.

"Well, it's just one year later, not a big deal," Claire said.

Lana stared at Claire with a wicked little smile.

"Well, I get to be the captain of the cheerleading squad," Lana said. "So, that's going to be something…you know you should try out."

Claire only responded with a smile. She knew of Lana's desire to have her try out for the cheerleading squad. Claire thought about it, but decided not to.

Marie walked out to join the two of them. While the two younger girls were going into the sixth grade, Marie started her Sophomore year of high school this year.

"Well, Marie should be excited about going to school," Claire said. "And in a few months, she'll be old enough to drive."

"Yes, clear the road," Marie said, giving them a smile, before someone beat her to the very obvious joke.

"Well, it would be nice to have someone who isn't a parent who has access to a car," Lana said.

Martha made her way outside with a tray which contained some lemonade and some sandwiches.

"I figured you girls could use something to eat," Martha said. "And since it's so nice outside, I brought it outside."

"Thanks, Mom," Claire said with a smile.

"Thanks, Mrs. Kent," Lana said with a smile.

"Yeah, thank you, I'm so hungry I can eat a horse," Marie said, which caused Lana to give her a scandalized expression.

"That's barbaric," Lana said.

"It's a figure of speech Lana," Claire said in a mostly reassuring tone of voice. Lana just crossed her arms and huffed.

"Sorry, I'll choose my words better next time," Marie said.

A very familiar car pulled out. Claire rose to her feet, and smiled. Martha turned around and walked to greet them as well.

"Harry, Kara," Martha said. The door opened up and Kara, who was driving, got out. She said something to Harry. She moved over to get your bags.

"Claire, do you think you can help me with our bags?" Kara asked.

"Yes, I can," Claire said with a smile, watching Harry walk out of the car. The young Kryptonian took a step back. "You look awful."

"You should have seen me a few days ago," Harry said, wrapping his cousin into a hug, before releasing her.

Claire and Kara helped carry the bags, as Harry moved over to greet Martha, who looked a bit more worrying.

"Hopefully I can relax here," Harry said.

"Of course, any time you want to come, you don't need to ask," Martha said, smiling when she wrapped Harry into a tight hug. "And why don't you come inside? I made some sandwiches for the girls, but I can whip up something for you."

Harry turned around briefly, returning the wave which Jonathan gave him before turning back.

"It would be nice."

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 9** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

' _Eat a house' was a typo originally. I rolled with the punches and there you have it._

_The Phoenix pops up to help Harry, and it means bad news for the Blackfires._

_So, Nyssa may be almost certain about the identity of the not so mysterious blonde. We'll see. Sara is out of the woods and on the mend though._

_I have to admit, Lana and Claire do remind me of the twins a little bit when they were close to that age. Not as much as Lois and Rebecca do, but we're getting ahead of ourselves._

_Malcolm is scheming. That can't be good._

_See you on Saturday._


	178. Fresh Air and Relaxation

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Eight: Fresh Air and Relaxation.**

* * *

 

A bright and sunny summer day had been gifted to all of the people in Smallville. Anyone who stepped outside of their own front door for more than a few minutes could even realize how perfect this day was. The sun shined brightly, the birds sang, truly this was one of the more perfect days to be alive and to be about in the country side.

Harry Potter perched himself on the blanket, watching closely as Lana and Claire moved about the field near the Kent Farm House. The two girls chatted about the things pre-teen girls normally chatted about. There was a time where Lana broke out into a fit of giggles, and Claire responded by rolling her eyes. Marie walked over and joined the two of them. She paused and met eyes with Harry for a minute, and shook her head as if to say, "see what I have to put up with every day I'm on the this farm."

Kara joined Harry out on the farm and relaxed against his shoulder. The two of them spent a lot of time together. Kara was pretty glad Harry was unwinding and most of all, had regulated the bond traffic to only the most absolute necessary of it all. There was really no point in him worrying about everyone.

"So, isn't this nice?" Kara asked, with a smile.

Harry placed his hand on the back of Kara's hair and started to stroke it with a smile on his face. She sighed for a moment when Harry's hands removed from her hair and started to perform an extremely relaxing and very envigorating neck massage which caused tingles to spread down Kara's spine.

"Yes, it is," Harry said, leaning in and planting a light kiss on the back of Kara's neck. She responded to his actions with a slight shudder. "It's very nice, as you well know to be out here with family and friends."

Harry didn't even think about what happened a few days ago, at least not too much. Thoughts crept into the back of his mind. After his week of Smallville, Harry tackled it. He had a thought, especially after Kara told him about Nyssa trying to contact him in the Crossroads, that Sara was in good hands.

"So are the two of you ready for school?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, it should be interesting," Claire said. "We're going to be in the oldest class of the school."

"Claire here should show a bit more school spirit," Lana said, poking her friend in the shoulder. "She would be a good fit for a cheerleader, wouldn't she, Harry?"

Harry pondered the thought for a moment. He stole a look from Kara who looked to be on the verge of cracking up at the thought of her little cousin playing cheerleader. The thought did amuse Harry just as much as it did Kara if he was being fair.

"I don't know, Lana," Harry said, a statement which prompted Lana's hands to fly directly to her hips. The dark haired girl staring him down amused Harry very much as her gaze practically burned into him. "Not all people are as energetic about what they do as you are."

"I guess they aren't," Lana said. "Claire would look good in the skirt though."

Claire's cheeks reddened at this statement from her best friend and she didn't know what to say. Lana broke out into laughter at the look on Claire's face.

"Oh, you're too easy sometimes, you're too easy," Lana said struggling to talk in between fits of laughter.

Claire took herself away from Lana and walked over towards Harry. She looked at her cousin for a long time.

"You look much better than you did when you got here," Claire said, looking over Harry.

"I'm glad you notice," Harry said, with a smile crossing his face when he stared Claire down. "Your mother and her cooking managed to set me right."

' _Not to mention some personal attention,'_ Kara thought, smiling. _'But, there's really no need for her to know about those details, are there?'_

' _No, there isn't,'_ Harry thought. _'I don't want to give her nosebleeds.'_

Kara cracked into a smile and decided to turn her attention on her cousin.

"So, have you had anything with your powers yet?"

Technically, Claire's powers would only kick in, in a big way when she turned fourteen, or during the first maturity for non-magical Kryptonians. Kara thought there was a chance Claire might be an early bloomer.

"Only me breaking things when I clench them too tight," Claire said, looking embarrassed. "And running too fast and ending up all of the way across the county line. I've been getting better."

"Just relax, don't let the powers get to you," Harry said, looking at Claire with a smile. "They're perfectly normal, and if you try to hold yourself back, you're going to end up hurting yourself or others."

Claire understood where Harry was coming from. She received some conflicting information from her father regarding this entire scenario. She understood though where Harry was coming from and appreciated the evidence.

"I'll try," Claire said.

"Just get the little things down, and the big things will follow," Harry said. "And the biggest little thing is up here."

Harry tapped on the top of his head for emphasis of where he wanted to go. Claire answered with one of her little smiles and only relaxed for a little bit.

"Listen to Harry," Lana said, looking over at Claire with a knowing smile. "He has a pretty good idea what he's doing."

"Is there any chance you'll have your full powers back soon?" Claire blurted out, before she could really think about what she thought.

This statement earned her an exasperated look from Kara. Kara wished for the same thing, but for her little cousin to say it out loud and in such a blunt manner which as bit too much for Kara. Lana also was shooting Claire a few daggers.

To Harry's credit, he took what Claire said in stride. He patted her on the shoulder.

"Well, hopefully it's sooner than we all think," Harry said. "Powers thought are a funny thing, Claire. You need to master them, obviously. And they should only be one tool in your arsenal…..there are other abilities, and your mind is the strongest of them all."

Claire blinked at Harry's words. They sounded pretty profound even though she didn't quite know. Harry smiled and tightened the squeeze on her shoulder.

"I'll explain it to you when you get a little bit older," Harry said. "There are a few things which you need to learn and you will learn them. They will help you master any powers."

Claire looked forward to it. She moved away from Harry for a minute and passed Marie before she walked over towards them.

Harry thought long and hard about his powers returning. He recalled Peve's words about his CORE returning to normal, healed, levels. Harry suspected his brief encounter with the Phoenix Force and the kiss she gave him in the Crossroads was to explain it. At least in Harry's mind, it was to explain everything.

' _If only I measured my CORE the other times after I encountered her,'_ Harry thought, frown flashing over his face. _'Then I would know all about the effects it could have.'_

Harry blinked for a couple of minutes and drew in his breath.

"Hey."

Marie walked over to both Harry and Kara. It was very obvious she had been trying to work up the nerve to do this for a very long time.

"Hello, Marie," Harry said with his usual charming smile which he saved for the best of the young women who surrounded themselves around him. "What can I do for you?"

Marie thought this question could be considered very loaded. She managed to get her courage up to speak. Kara's memories had made her quite taken with Harry, and there was a part of her who would have gotten to this particular conclusion on her own.

"Well, I was wondering something," Marie said, biting down on her lip.

Kara thought this gave Marie quite the endearing quality, biting down on her lip in such a manner. Kara wasn't even sure if Marie was really aware of what she was doing. Kara didn't want to bring it up.

"Yes?" Harry asked.

"Well, you were helping Claire control her powers," Marie said, heart starting to beat a little bit more quickly. "And as Kara might have told you, my powers…can train the abilities and memories of others…along with their life-force, and if I hang on for too long, I could…well…."

Marie's words had faded off into nothingness. Harry gave her a smile which told her how much he understood. Marie hitched in her breath extremely deeply and smiled.

"I understand," Harry said. "And you want a way to control your powers so you don't accidentally drain someone."

"Yeah," Marie said, glad she didn't have to explain this too much. Her heart already was beating heavily at the thought.

"None of us came out of the box with our powers under control," Harry said. "It took months, years of training, and there are still some things we don't full understand. There are always new circumstances about our powers which we never thought to be possible."

Marie nodded as she soaked every single word Harry gave her in. The thoughts continued to boil in her mind.

"The problem isn't physical with you," Harry said, giving Marie one of the smiles. "The problem is mental…you need to get your head together, and you'll be halfway there."

"It's like training a muscle, your powers," Kara said. "You need to learn how to control when to flex the muscle and when to relax it."

Marie had a feeling the two of them had been giving a fair amount of thought to this entire mess.

"Why don't you practice it on me?" Kara asked.

"Are you sure?" Marie asked. "I don't want to hurt you."

Marie grew red around the cheeks as well. There was another reason why she didn't want to drain Kara when Harry was here. She might get the desire to jump him, given the thoughts she received from Harry last time.

"Trust me, you won't hurt me," Kara said. "I'll let you know when I feel you to start draining me. Just focus, and relax yourself, relax your powers."

Kara and Harry discussed this to help Marie. They needed to train her how to shut these powers off. Then they could train her how to use them to her advantage in a fight scene.

"Are you ready?" Kara asked.

"Yes," Marie said, trying to keep the feeling of absolute and total dread buried deep inside her. "Let's do this."

Kara extended her hand for Marie to take. She did just as Kara requested. The two locked hands. Each second passed as Marie closed her eyes, trying to avoid the power drain.

"Marie!" Kara yelled.

Marie pulled back, having drained a few seconds of power worth from Kara. Her entire body shook having experienced a spike of adrenaline which enhanced her excitement big time.

"How long was that?" Marie asked, almost fearing the answer to this particular question.

"Fifteen seconds," Harry informed her. "There's room for improvement."

Marie snorted, thinking Harry understated it much. A thought, at least a brilliant thought entered Marie's mind, when she caught sight of the watch Harry wore.

"Maybe you could build me something like your watch, only for my powers," Marie said, heart hammering. "Just for a little bit…so I can live a normal life. You know some kind of power inhibitor or something."

Harry figured this one was coming. He looked at Marie with a long stare as if trying to figure out how to best explain something to her. He decided the truth, in all of its bluntness worked the absolute best, at least in his mind.

"Marie, I can't do this for you," Harry said. Marie's mouth opened in shock, and Harry decided to continue on. "If I gave you something to inhibit your powers, it would do more long term damage to you, and it would stop working after a time. I only wearing this watch as a last ditch resort."

"So, it would end up hurting me in the long run?" Marie asked, accepting an answer. It didn't mean she had to like it. She just accepted it to be honest.

"Yes, unfortunately," Harry said, looking towards her with an apologetic glance towards her. "I would have offered you the option by now, if I thought it would have done any good."

"So, the two of you had talked about me, about how to help me?" Marie asked.

"We just wouldn't intervene unless you said you needed help," Harry said. Marie's lips curled into a small smile. "And we appreciate the fact you've came to us."

Marie couldn't help, but feel rather pleased about this. It was most certainly a change to have people who looked out for her, with the Kents, and Harry as well. Her entire life changed and for the better in the past several months.

"So, if you've been talking about me?" Marie asked, folding her hands over her hips. "You must have been figuring out a way to help me, which didn't involve a power inhibitor."

"Yes," Harry said, glad she came to this conclusion. "We believe the best way to help you is for me to teach you the mind arts. It's always mind over matter. You do have it within you to control your powers. You just need to get over the conflict in your mind."

Marie wanted to argue nothing was wrong with her mind. She couldn't. Harry was right, there was something extremely shifty in the back of her mind.

"I guess, you know better," Marie said. "So, when do we begin?"

"I'll give you some books about the theory, and some exercises for your to practice," Harry said. "And some basic instruction why we're here. And then I'll swing by to test your progress once a month. If that's fine with you?"

Marie looked like she thought about it, but only for a couple of minutes.

"It sounds perfect to me," Marie said with a smile. "I just want to…get this under control."

She thought it could be useful and not a curse if she was able to control it. Controlling it happened to be a problem which Marie intended to solved in an instant.

* * *

 

The newspaper reports detailing the attack of the metal menaces in New York pressed down neatly upon Enigma's desk.

"Oh, boy, this escalated quickly," Enigma said, looking over the paper. "The moment you sell the Technovore to someone, and they really don't mess around."

The news would get swept under the rug, like a lot of past scandals TCRI found themselves smack dab in the center of. Enigma would be keeping an eye on it, as he was sure the rest of the world would be.

Enigma returned to indulge himself in his favorite hobby. Trying to pinpoint the identity of the mysterious Gotham City cop killer. The cop killer had not struck since the attack at the Gotham City Police Department headquarters. Eddie deduced one of two things from this potential problem.

The first idea slipping into his mind happened to be the Gotham City Cop Killer decide to take a step back, realizing they overplayed their hand. The second idea, and Enigma thought this was more likely, was they were lulling everyone into a false sense of security. Make the people think they would step back from their activities. The iron cooled down, the heat got off.

"And then, the moment when everyone has their mind on something else…wham!" Enigma yelled, slapping his fist into his hand. His hand reddened from the impact of his fist being buried into it. "Ill-advised, but I can't help it. This is the biggest thrill in the entire history of Gotham City."

Enigma pulled back the tarp on his tackboard with the most likely of suspects.

"Mr. Dent, you're still suspect number one," Enigma said. "And you're becoming clearer you're the cop killer every day. It's more likely you're the monster who walks free in Gotham City."

Enigma cleared his throat.

"James Gordon, you're a good cop," Enigma said. "The best cop….but good cops can get turned bad, in Gotham City. And a sense of justice can get misplaced after a few ill-timed setbacks."

The hacker continued to look at the clipboard.

"Loeb, Loeb, Loeb, the allegations about you continue to mount," Enigma said. "And every one of those cops who bought it, they're connected to you in some way. Pretty damning indictment if I have to say so myself. The only thing which puts you down the list is because I don't think you have the spine to do so."

Enigma stepped back and blanched when he looked at the picture.

"Still the handsome devil," Enigma said. "And…you know something, I'm beginning to think they're something quite devilish about you, Eddie Nashton, if that is your real name."

A long and lingering look passed with Enigma staring down the gentlemen on the paper. As much as it pained him to admit this, Eddie could not be considered suspect number one. Top ten material, potentially, maybe top five if he could wrangle it.

"Then we have our two femme fatales!" Enigma said, rubbing his fingers together in glee. "Rachel Dawes, our crusading acting district attorney for Gotham City. One year ago, she had a really bad summer, but she bounced back. And she's bounced back with a vengeance, and she's really causing the Gotham City criminal underworld to shiver when she's brought justice down on them."

Enigma paused for a second and calculated his thoughts.

"Ms. Dawes is most certainly impressive, and she might have turned her war of corruption into a war on crime, against the Gotham City police department," Enigma said. "And we can't count out Mrs. Harvey Dent as well. I mean…it's obvious what the rumors are between Mr. Dent and Ms. Dawes. Dear Gilda may be trying to show her husband how worthy it is, and…well it spiraled out of control. It's hard to believe a frail housewife could have masterminded a killing of police officers in Gotham City."

Enigma stopped and smirked when he considered something else.

"There have been stranger things in Gotham City," Enigma said. "Then it brings us to Gotham City's first family of crime, the Falcones. I think we can throw the Roman out. He knows the value of having the law in his hip pocket. But, we can't say the same about his children."

Enigma picked up three pictures of each of the Falcone children.

"Michael, you're the least likely, you know not to rock the boat, you're the good son, the loyal son," Enigma said. "Alberto, well, what I've dug up about you is interesting. You're seeing a doctor, Hugo Strange. Not sure if I'd trust someone with the last name Strange, but…different strokes for different folks."

The hacker's grin widened when he took another drink of coffee.

"Alberto, I don't think you're the one doing this, you wouldn't…have it in you," Enigma said. "And this brings me to Sofia. She's tried to distance herself from the Falcone business and gone legit. She's made overtures to Harry Potter…yet another slut not worthy of the time of such greatness. And to me, this makes her a prime suspect. She's very shrewd and manipulative, like the snake in the Garden of Eden."

Sofia tacked on the board in a position of great honor. Enigma proceeded to clear his throat one more time and pick up a picture.

"Oliver Queen," Enigma said. "Oliver Queen….I put you in the same box as Bruce Wayne. Rich kid who lost his parents, had a few issues because of it. And didn't know how to cope with it at all….give you've shoved half of your family fortune up your nose, Mr. Queen."

Disdain filled Enigma's voice when he looked over the picture of Starling City's most troubled son.

"Possible, but not probable, although they stopped and if you died on a ship, there would be a good reason for it," Enigma said. "And there's the man who was underneath the Red Hood mask. You can't count them out ever."

Enigma placed one of the few grainy images of the Red Hood. He amended himself.

"One of the gentlemen underneath the Red Hood, anyway," Enigma said, smiling. "As we know, there were multiple people who had this particular moniker."

Enigma clipped the picture on the tackboard all of the same, allowing Oliver Queen's picture to drop into the bin at the same time.

"Then there's…."

The phono rang and caused Enigma to turn around. Duty called at the worst possible time. Enigma decided he would return to this situation later. He flipped the recording device and went to answer the phone.

* * *

 

The first flickers of sunlight snuck their way into the room. The blonde laying in the bed started to stir herself awake. Shivers rose over her body, as the thoughts returned to her mind. She barely remembered what happened.

Sara Lance had been asleep for an extremely long time with her body having recovered. The unsettling presence which haunted her over the past couple of days left her. She wondered where she was.

The girl mentally went over the last couple of weeks in her head. She joined Oliver on the Queen's Gambit, mostly as a friend who was willing to talk him off of the ledge. If something more happened, it would. It didn't, and Sara couldn't find herself too broken up about it.

The ride on the boat ended in a disaster when something put the ship down. Sara found herself on a ship of mercenaries, until she had been rescued by a group of black clad figures. Then she drifted in and out with her mother encouraging her to move onto the other side. Encouraging Sara to let go of life.

Only her mother wasn't really her mother. Deacon Blackfire tricked her. Everything went all insane from there, and Sara couldn't quite remember how she got home.

Sara really wished it would all come back onto her. She had a feeling something really nice happened beyond all of the hellfire, brimstone, and near soul stealing she encountered.

"So, how are you doing?"

Sara's eyes flickered open. She noticed the same dark haired woman who had watched over her when she slipped in and out from one side to the other. The woman's striking beauty gave Sara a momentary pause. She couldn't do anything other than keep her head up and about though.

"I'm….I don't know," Sara managed after a couple of minutes, trying to hitch in her breath. "It's just confusing, it's like I haven't…it's like I can barely keep my mind together. I don't even remember what happened."

"Understandable," the dark-haired woman said. "Maybe if I explain some of what has happened, it will do wonders in jarring your memory."

"Maybe," Sara said, trying to stretch out a little bit. All this accomplished was collapsing her down upon the bed.

"My name is Nyssa," she said, snapping her fingers. Several women made their way in to carry some food and water inside. "And you look rather famished and need to eat. After the journey you have been one, you nearly died several times."

Sara almost swallowed for a moment. She was well aware of it. The water hit the back of her throat and eliminated some of the rawness she experienced. The younger Lance sister shifted back for a moment and wondered where she would be going next.

"So, how did you find me?" Sara asked. "I remember some things, but not everything. There was something about me being on a ship, that's about as much as I can remember."

"You were on a ship," Nyssa said, touching a hand to her forehead with a smile. "And yes, it was extremely bad when you were. These were wicked people…they intended to…..well let's just leave it at the fact they intended to use for purposes which I could not condone under any circumstances."

Sara took a bite of the food. It tasted delicious. Nyssa reached in for a second, and paused.

"By, all means, I'm not going to eat this all," Sara said, feeling a bit better and a bit more sane now she had food in her body. "It's almost like you said I was being sold by some slave ship, to a country where I couldn't pronounce, much less point out on any map. Am I even close to being on the mark?"

Nyssa smiled and took a nice bite out of the bread as well. She had waited up for three days without eating. The Daughter of the Demon took her job extremely serious.

"Yes, you're close enough," Nyssa said.

"So, thank you for the rescue," Sara said. "How did you come about the ship in the first place?"

In an instant, Sara knew she had gone too far with her line of questioning.

"It's a personal manner," Nyssa said, leaning back and closing her eyes. "I was searching for a lost loved one…my father. He is…missing, and there was a tale of whether or not he was on the ship. But….it came up empty."

"Sorry, you didn't find him," Sara said. Nyssa's hand shot out so fast it laid on top of Sara's before she even had a chance to blink. The feeling of their hands touching each other was not entirely unpleasant.

"No, don't be. It's not over yet. And the fact I saved someone from a horrific fate is more than enough of a reward for me. I'm not going to complain at all, not because of something like this."

Time passed rather casually between both sides. Sara didn't know what to say, or how to respond to this situation regarding Nyssa. She just sat back and took another bite of the food. Not having a proper meal for several weeks could really make a person miss the food.

"Well, I thank you," Sara said, closing her eyes. "I just don't know what happens to me next. I've been gone for some long….I don't know."

Sara treaded lightly for a couple of moments. She didn't want to blindly trust this woman to be honest. The last person she blindly trusted, the spirit of her mother, turned out to be a hellfire and brimstone preacher who intended to pull her soul down to the pits of hell.

"Your destiny is always in your hands," Nyssa said with a smile. "And….I didn't quite catch your name."

It was here Sara hesitated for a very long time. She didn't really want to leave this valuable information on the table.

"I don't….I don't remember," Sara said for a couple of minutes. "I had it for a minute, but…not everything is coming back to me, only bits and pieces."

Nyssa didn't hesitate to buy her story for a second. In fact, she simply smiled.

"I put you through the process through the Lazarus Pits," Nyssa said. "It can bring someone back to full health even when they are an inch from life. The process through is extremely dire, and will have side effects. A person whose body is still warm can go through the pits."

"Can it bring a person who is already cold back to life?" Sara asked, curiosity getting the better of.

"it's possible, if you call the state of what they enter life," Nyssa said, not wanting to go into the gruesome details. "It's a very controlled process under the best of times. In the worst of times, when someone enters the pit….it can be a huge problem indeed."

"I didn't…I couldn't have known," Sara said, almost choking back her words. "And did you have any problems with me?"

Nyssa hesitated for long enough for the younger blonde to know something was extremely up. The skilled assassin relaxed her shoulders and firmed up the grip around Sara's hand.

"Nothing I couldn't handle," Nyssa said, drawing in a breath. "The point is, a trip through the Pit causes you to lose a minor sense of yourself. Just relax, and everything will come back to you soon."

Nyssa had a shrewd enough idea of the identity of this mystery blonde. The daughter of the demon hated to assume because assumptions were tools of a well-guarded fool. Her arms crossed together for the longest moment.

Sara leaned back and ate. She remembered her encounter with Harry Potter inside this weird Crossroads Dimension now she had some time to think and relax.

' _I really hope he made back okay,'_ Sara thought. _'And I hope one day I have a chance to thank him.'_

Sara smiled, knowing exactly what she would want to do to appropriately thank the likes of one Harry Potter.

* * *

 

Harry Potter contemplated what he wanted to do while in Smallville. He decided to get on early and take a walk. Kara fell asleep, and Harry couldn't bother to wake him up.

The good thing about Smallville was Harry didn't have to worry about running into any trouble in the city like he did when he walked around Gotham City. There were not too many dangers in Smallville.

Harry slipped past the entrance and made his way into the Kawatchee settlement. He made his way up into the main house when he saw a beautiful older woman who was currently outside hanging up laundry. The woman's smile increased the second Harry approached her.

"Namen," the woman said with a smile. "It is good to be blessed with your presence today."

Harry smiled as he came face to face with Danielle's mother, Eliza Moonstar. The woman dressed in clothes which flattered her body. Bright colors which shined in the sun and showed off her healthy skin. A pendant rested upon her breasts.

"Hello, Eliza," Harry said. "And when I'm walking around in my physical form, it's Harry."

"Of course, I apologize if I offended you any," Eliza said, stepping closer towards Harry with a smile over her face. "Would you like to come in?"

"Yes, I would," Harry said. "I'm actually looking for Kyla and Dani….are they around?"

"They're coming back for lunch shortly," Eliza said, gripping Harry's arm and escorting him inside. "It would be an honor if you would sit down and wait with us."

No sooner did Harry sit down and make himself at home, the doors opened up and Danielle and Kyla stepped inside for lunch. The two of them walked into the room.

"Namen, it's an honor!" Kyla said, stepping back for a moment.

"Yes, it's a real honor," Danielle said. "Why have you decided to grace us with your presence on this day, though?"

"I promised you girls I would return with a present for the two of you," Harry said, locking eyes with both Danielle and Kyla. "And I have returned."

Harry took out a nice black box and put it on the table. Danielle's eyes widened for a moment when she looked at it. Kyla looked equal parts flushed and embarrassed at the sight of the item which Harry had put out upon the table.

"It's too much," Danielle said for a moment. "The fact you saved me, it's more than enough, great one."

"We thank you though," Kyla said, opening up the box and pulling out one of the necklaces. "It's beautiful."

"It's a totem which can help fend off evil spirits," Harry said.

Danielle smiled when she looked at her necklace. She might have put up a resistance out of respect for Namen not to accept the gift. It didn't make her any less pleased to receive it though.

"It's beautiful," Danielle said, looking at it with a smile. Kyla raised her eyebrow. "Hey, great minds think alike, don't they?"

Kyla smiled at her friend's words. She looked over the necklace and managed to put it on for a second. Eliza set out the lunch for both of the girls and also something for Harry to eat as well.

"It would have come in handy when Dani was trapped in the caves," Kyla said, and Harry raised his eyebrow. "I'm certain a great one such as yourself would have come to the same idea, wouldn't you have?"

"Yes," Harry said, his smile deepening when he enjoyed it. "And please, when I'm in mortal flesh, you can call me Harry."

"Sorry, Harry," Kyla said. "We forgot ourselves….and we will respect your wishes."

The two girls, Harry, and Eliza ate for a long while. They enjoyed the feast. Namen's satisifaction meant the food was quite blessed indeed.

"I do have a gift for you as well, my….Harry," Eliza said, remembering to correct herself. "I've been keeping it inside the bedroom…preparing for your return."

Harry raised his eyebrow for a moment, but did not say something. The two girls brimmed with curiosity and did not really say anything either.

"Why don't you return outdoors?" Eliza suggested to Kyla and Danielle. "It's a beautiful day out there, and I would hate for either of you to waste the opportunity to get fresh air."

Danielle and Kyla did as Eliza suggested.

"I'll escort you to the bedroom," Eliza said with a smile. "Would it offend you if I slipped into something a bit more casual?"

"Not at all," Harry said. "I'll just wait in your bedroom."

Harry stepped into Eliza's bedroom and sat himself on a lavish looking bed. The room resembled a practical one. There were several figurines and also a painting of what appeared to be a rendition of him hanging off to the side of the room. Harry gazed upon the painting for a short amount of time.

Eliza entered the room, dressed in a silky bathrobe which hugged her body. The MILF walked toward and allowed the bath robe to start flipping about in the wind to reveal some of the more tantalizing hints of her thighs. She walked towards Harry and stopped short of him.

"Yes, I realize the nose is off center," Eliza said after a brief moment's pause.

"Did you paint it before or after meeting me?" Harry asked.

"Before, I encountered….inspiration in a vision," Eliza said, smiling. "I'm pleased to see it's to you approve, at least mostly."

Eliza took a step forward. She stopped and gave Harry a once over with her eyes. The Kawatchee native bit down on her lip when staring Harry down.

"It appears you have encountered an evil spirit recently," Eliza said. "Would it offend you if I ask who it is?"

"His name is Blackfire, he was a deacon in Gotham City….." Harry said, pausing and the look of horror upon Eliza's eyes could be sene by anyone with a pair of eyes. "And I take it by the look on your face you know of such a monster."

"Yes," Eliza said, closing in the gap between her and Harry. "And the fact you escaped him intact does speak wonders of your prowess indeed. The Blackfires have tormented countless for years. They worship a demon named Abigail, and in return, she empowers them. It's been a cycle for years."

Harry smiled when he looked at the older woman.

"And I'm confident one day I will break this never ending cycle," Harry said, pulling Eliza in a little bit closer towards him so both of them could go face to face with each other.

"I have little doubt of it," Eliza said. "And now it's the matter of your gift."

Eliza stepped forward towards Harry and wrapped her arms around his neck. The fact she wore absolutely nothing underneath these robes made it very plain to Harry.

"I wish to bear your child."

Harry blinked when he looked towards the woman. Her smile flickered over her face and she closed the gap against him. She undid his shirt and slowly pulled it off to reveal his sculpted physique. Eliza's eager hands removed his pants next to reveal he was in nothing, other than his boxer shorts.

"Why?" Harry asked. "There's a reason, isn't there?"

"You saved my daughter," Eliza said. "And the only way to adequately pay this particular debt is to give you my womb to carry your divine offspring."

"Eliza," Harry said, for a moment, before she could remove her robes. "Believe me, I'm honored you want to take this step, and I'll be honored to make love to a woman such as yourself."

"The honor is all mine, great one," Eliza said, and Harry cleared his throat. "The honor is all mine."

"It's only fair I let you know, any of my children…it could be dangerous because of my divine power," Harry said. "For both mother and daughter….it could be dangerous…..if you're a human."

"I'm not entirely human," Eliza said. "I'm a shadow mage, and my body is empowered. It can handle your child, if you are willing to give me such a gift in return."

Eliza dropped down the sash of her robe to reveal her body. Her silky dark hair hung down her face to show her alluring blue eyes. The hair curtained her face in a seductive manner. Her large breasts looked as firm and perky as ever, solid D-Cup breasts. Her wide hips made the most alluring curve downwards. Her tummy was flat and toned, and it looked like she worked out. She looked pretty tight despite having given birth. The hairs on her nether region had been trimmed. A set of toned legs stretched down.

"Allow me to give you a daughter," Eliza said, squeezing the bulge in her god's pants and then she pulled it down. "It's as they have said, perfect"

Harry wrapped his arms around Eliza and pulled her into a hungry kiss. The Kawatchee woman breathed when Harry slipped his tongue into her mouth.

"If you're certain," Harry said, feeling Eliza drape her right leg over his left hip and push into him, to grind him.

"Yes, I've cast the fertility rituals on myself to ensure my body was properly prepared for your seed," Eliza said. "I wouldn't have offered you my womb if I wasn't certain."

The two of them kissed together, the pheromones in the air creating an erotic atmosphere in the air.

Eliza's arms snaked around Harry's body. The Kawatchee woman's breasts pushed against his chest. The MILF rubbed her body down Harry's and slowly worshiped every inch of it with her lips, with her breasts, with her hands. Every single inch of her god's body was worthy of consumption for her.

Harry's thick manhood proved to be the last piece of this puzzle. Eliza wrapped her hand around him. She needed both hands to properly stroke him.

The manifestation of Namen, at least in the minds of the Kawatchee, enjoyed the hands of this talented woman.

"I have waited my entire life to please you, Namen," Eliza said, kissing his abdomen before planting a series of kisses on his pelvic region and then taking his cock into her mouth.

The mature woman sure knew how to worship him alright. Harry groaned when his cock struck the back of Eliza's throat. She continued to drill him dick first into the back of her throat. The woman's questing hand gripped Harry's balls and squeezed them.

"Oh, suck my cock, suck it, and worship it!" Harry commanded her.

Eliza re-doubled her effort. She slurped on Harry's cock which caused it to be moistened with her salvia. She did her best to stimulate every single nerve ending in his cock. The manhood caused it to grow past it's normal capacities and swell further into her mouth. Eliza hungrily inhaled this thick prick deep inside her throat, wanting more, needing more. And she would have it, she would have much more.

Harry put his hands on the back of her head to gain room. An older woman on her knees and sucking Harry's cock never failed to get him going. He lost himself to the primal urge.

"You're going to get my seed," Harry said. "You want it, don't you? Swallowing every single last drop, knowing there's more of it to come. More of it to cover every inch of her sexy body. You want all of this, don't you?"

Eliza's mouth continued to rock back and forth around Harry's cock. The proof danced in her eyes. She wanted all of this and she would get all of this sooner rather than later. Hunger flowed over her body the more she inhaled his throbbing prick.

Harry groaned when her hand clenched and rubbed his balls. The empowered gentleman pumped himself into the willing mouth of the MILF before him. A few more pumps later and the muscles in Harry's cock clenched.

Eliza knew what was to come and took him far into the back of her throat. She flexed her throat muscles and caused her master to send the sticky, warm gift down her throat. The contents of Harry's balls fired into the back of Eliza's throat.

Harry experienced the lovely sensation of the MILF sucking down every single last drop of the cum contained in his balls. He unloaded himself into her throat and pulled back for a moment.

"Why don't you get on the bed, and I'll give you a reward," Harry said.

Eliza propped herself back on her elbows and spread her legs. Harry drank in the full vision of her delightful body. Juices started to roll down her.

"Do as you wish to me, great one," Eliza said.

The Kawatchee female took in the air heavily with Harry sucking on the side of her neck. He slowly started to kiss down her body and made his way to her breasts. Her large mature tits were a delight and Harry squeezed them. His hands molded the orbs of flesh.

Every single time Harry touched Eliza, she thought she lost her mind. His hands could work wonders on her body. Her nipples hardened and he took one of them into his mouth. Harry reached around and pinched Eliza's nipple with his spare hands to increase the sensations with some kind of duel enjoyment.

Harry enjoyed the sweet taste of her nipple extending into his mouth. Tongue kept brushing against her. His free hand came down and touched her in the most intimate place a man could.

Eliza dreamed about a meeting like this. Nothing compared to what she wanted.

"And now, I'm going to eat your pussy," Harry said. "I know it's going to be as sweet as the rest of you."

Harry continued his tour down Eliza's body. Her hot body molding underneath Harry's very able and hungry mouth, with him working down her body. Eliza spread her wet and willing thighs for Harry's intrusion.

"Please, great one," Eliza said.

Harry took her tender flesh into his mouth and gave it a couple of nibbles. Eliza lost her mind with Harry brushing up and down her. He switched to her clit for a second. Eliza rose her hips.

Every tease led Eliza up to the main course. The brief flickers of Harry's tongue deep into her pussy and excitement rose through her body for what was to come around the corner next.

Harry made out with Eliza's nether lips. The Kawatchee priestess gasped when Harry practically made love with her lower regions. A second later, Harry slipped himself inside her tongue first.

The moment Harry's tongue entered her dripping hot center, Eliza thought everything around her stopped. The only thing which mattered was his tongue driving into her and touching her walls. He licked and touched every single part of her. The talented tongue brought her to an intense orgasm.

Eliza pushed her hips into Harry's waiting mouth. Each time Harry got a piece of her pussy, the woman moaned and thrashed underneath him. Harry drew her to another orgasm.

Pulling back, Harry smiled and looked down at Eliza. Her pussy looked pretty much ready for him.

"Are you ready?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Eliza said, her body prepared to take her god deep inside her.

Harry took the tip of his cock and pressed it to the edge of Eliza's smoldering hot lips. The priestess saturated his tip and allowed him to push inside her.

Eliza closed her eyes, hanging onto Harry's shoulder. Harry buried himself inside her. The joining of these two caused Eliza's mind to run away with the results of her fantasy.

"Yes!" Eliza yelled, hanging onto him. Harry's hand stroked her leg which caused her hips to jump up. Harry leaned in and paid tribute to the body of his priestess.

"Is this everything you've ever dreamed of?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Eliza said, feeling Harry lift her leg up and plant kisses on it. "Everything I ever wanted and much more…so much more."

Harry was glad he met her expectations. A long thrust pushed into Eliza's tightening pussy. The caressing of her legs caused Harry to start breathing in and out.

Eliza watched him bury deep inside her, deep inside her womb. Harry thrust hard inside her, rising in and clashing out. The hot friction between the two of them increased with each rise and each fall. Harry pushed his fingers between her nipples and caused her to moan at the top of her lungs.

"Just let it go."

The tension on Eliza's lower muscles found themselves around Harry's probing manhood. She clamped down onto him when he pushed inside her. The thickness of his balls pushed down onto her. They filled up and soon they would release the load inside her.

"Use me," Eliza panted, hips rising up. "Shoot your seed inside my womb! Give me your child, please!"

Eliza clenched onto Harry's backside to make sure he didn't stray too far from her pussy. His balls sized up and was about to inject their hot seed into her pussy. Eliza couldn't wait any longer. She needed Harry to push himself further inside her and to put his all into her.

"Yes, I'm going to cum, it's going to be inside you," Harry said. "There will be no turning back, if you really want this. If you don't, don't worry, my magic will take care of it."

"No, I didn't undergo fertility rituals to turn back now," Eliza said, closing her hips around Harry.

Their bodies melded together, and Eliza could feel it. Her pussy leaked with the hunger of his cum which he came close to planting inside her. The young man's heavy balls kept slapping against her thighs.

"They're so full of seed, seed for you," Harry said, squeezing her breasts.

"Yes, Harry, put your cum inside me," Eliza said. "Please my lord, bless my womb with your child. I can't wait to have it grow inside me. Cum inside my fertile womb….put all of your cum inside me!"

Harry pumped inside her a few more times before the contents of his balls shot inside Eliza's body. The seed splashed into her, and injected inside of her womb.

Eliza Moonstar's body warmed up, knowing it worked. She smiled when her god pumped his divine seed inside her body. The priestess experienced a rush of warmth inside her body at the new life being created into it.

Harry pulled out of her and laid next to her, toying with her breasts. This only got Eliza in the mood to go again, and she knew her god would be willing to go over and over again.

From outside of the room, two sets of eyes spied what had been going on through the window from outside. Both girls found themselves assaulted by new and amazing feelings and were in desperate need of a fresh change of panties.

"Congratulations, Dani, I think you're going to be a big sister in nine months."

* * *

 

Rebecca Grayson joined the other girls for a shopping trip, to get some clothes and other supplies, before heading back to school in the fall. Or in her case, she was heading to school for the first time. The former circus acrobat sped up her steps and slipped to the side.

This was a chance for her to get some unfinished business done.

"Hey, where's the fire?" Lois asked, rushing at Rebecca's heels. "Just where are you going?"

"I'm heading to Metropolis….I'm going to visit a friend there," Rebecca said.

Lois had a very bad feeling about where this was going, especially with the look of determined intent Rebecca wore on her face.

"Mandy told us to stay near the rest of the group," Lois said, and Rebecca slipped onto the bus in the hustle and bustle, before making her way to the back of the bus. "Hello, did you hear me Becca?"

"Keep your head down, and be quiet," Rebecca said, pushing Lois so she went invisible behind the seat of the bus.

Lois wondered if getting on a random bus in Gotham with a bunch of people who looked like they didn't bathe for weeks was such a good idea. It seemed like a really good way to get themselves stabbed, if Lois had be to be completely honest with themselves.

"We're going to be in…."

"Since when did you listen to anything, Mandy said?" Rebecca said. Lois only responded with a scowl in response. "It will be okay…trust me."

Amanda prepared to do a head count, with Emily following her close behind. Emily frowned and turned towards her twin sister.

"Have you seen Lois, or Rebecca?" Emily asked.

"No, I haven't," Amanda said, and she stopped Jade. "Hey, Jade, have you seen Lois or Rebecca since we left the shoe store?"

"I think, Rebecca mentioned something about visiting a sick aunt in Metropolis, and she wanted to catch a bus," Jade said.

The two twins groaned, knowing something was up now.

' _If by sick aunt, you mean going after Tony Zucco, then we have a problem,'_ Amanda thought.

' _I can't believe this, we take care of her with one day, and we lose her,'_ Emily thought. _'Harry's going to kill us.'_

' _If Mum or Aunt Rose doesn't kill us first,'_ Amanda thought. _'Alright, alright, calm down, it won't be this bad…..we're just going to have to get to Metropolis and beat her….I've got an idea.'_

' _Oh dear Morgana, no!'_ Emily yelled.

' _Jaime has a spare suit which will fit me, and…..I think it will be fine,'_ Amanda thought. _'And if I run into Zucco, I can bring him down as well.'_

' _Mandy…this is….this is insane!'_ Emily yelled. _'This might be the most idiotic thing either of us have ever done in our bloody lives.'_

' _You have an entirely romanticized view of our teenage years then,'_ Amanda thought. _'Besides, would you want to answer to Harry, the Alphas, or our mother or our aunt about this?'_

Emily shook her head, reluctantly. Rebecca was gone, and Lois was gone, which meant the trouble was doubled.

' _So, I'll get the suit, and teleport to Metropolis,'_ Amanda said. _'What's the worst that could happen?'_

' _Mandy, you don't want me to answer that question.'_

' _Just get the girls home, and….Oracle it up,'_ Amanda thought.

Barbara was out of town visiting Dinah so the clock tower was vacant. Which worked out well for their plans.

' _Okay, time to fix this.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on April 13** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Oh, what can potentially go wrong here with Amanda and Emily? Other than pretty much everything in the world._

_So Eliza Moonstar offers to have Harry's second child(well that we know of anyway, given Harry's time traveling habits, you never really know). I tend to not to like to do children and pregnancy unless there's a pretty good reason to do so. Because it adds a lot to a cast which is already big. Although ninety-nine out of every one hundred children Harry will have will be female._

_And also, people don't seem to realize some of Harry's magnitude can pick and choose when he can have children and it has to have one hundred percent consent. Because, why have world bending magical powers when you can accidentally knock someone up. The only purpose is to add unnecessary drama to a story, and that's no fun, contrary what some people want you to believe. And having dozens of characters which don't have much use for a while is no fun, so they really have to serve a purpose._

_And I really wish I gave Eliza Moonstar a different first name but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Then again, there's three Artemises, two Carols, a shit ton of Jessicas/Jessies, and quite of a few Cassandras/Cassies, so really, it isn't that big of deal. Still, before anyone asks, yes, Eliza Danvers and Eliza Moonstar are two different people. You'd think people wouldn't have a problem with this,but I've confused people with Artemis the goddess and Artemis the Amazon, making them think I listed Artemis twice on the cast list first. So if you think you're annoyed when you hear me state the obvious, just remember I'm annoyed when I have to state the obvious._

_Anyway, also in this chapter, Harry and Marie have a nice little conversation, where they discuss why it's not a good idea to where an inhibitor._

_Until Wednesday._


	179. Blinded by Vengeance Part One

Week Fourteen Chapter of the Week Voting is on the blog. Vote for your favorite chapter of last week. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/

**Chapter One Hundred and Seventy-Nine: Blinded by Vengeance Part One.**

* * *

 

Every time Barbara stepped out of the Gotham City limits, she likened herself to a stranger in a strange land. Barbara lived in Gotham City for about as long as she remembered. While she wasn't born in the city, she pretty much found it to be home. The same sentiment had been shared by the young woman who sat next to her.

Barbara Gordon and Dinah Laurel Lance sat in a park bench of Seattle. One could almost say this was the perfect day, which gave Barbara the sense something bad could end up happening. She didn't want to say anything either way for fear of being a jinx. Regardless, it was the type of day for both to sit out in the moment, wearing tank tops and shorts. The two packed a nice picnic lunch to go out and about, even though Dinah had a far off look in her face.

The redhead hacker sighed; she knew the look in Dinah's eyes a mile away, several miles away if she could be perfectly honest about it. Barbara placed a hand on Dinah's shoulder. The woman shifted and resembled a rabbit who had been caught in a tree by a fox. Her gaze turned completely to Barbara.

"So, are you okay?" Barbara asked. "You look like you're a hundred miles away."

"No, just thinking about….everything."

Dinah sighed for a second and reached over to the cooler to get a glass of water. The refreshing liquid hit the parched woman and she smiled, sighing with a deep breath.

Barbara didn't even ask Dinah what she was talking about. Both knew, and Barbara thought about it a little bit as well. The thought of it weirded her out just as much as it did Dinah. More so because it raised some questions and not too many answers, which Barbara hated to be honest.

"So, what do you think?" Barbara asked.

"I don't know," Dinah said after a moment's pause. She took another drink of water. "Harry knows what he saw. He encountered Sara's soul and he sent it back…but did it make it back?"

Barbara wasn't going to pretend to be an expert on magic and the mystic arts. The redhead decided to take her water bottle and take a long drink.

"And our expert doesn't know what happened either," Barbara said. "And I'd hate to bother him to ask questions. Mostly because Kara is insistent he gets plenty of rest. And you know how she gets when Kara insists something."

Dinah responded with a brief smile. She knew all too well how Kara became when she insisted something upon something happening. Especially those things Kara took seriously, and she took Harry's health and well-being extremely seriously.

"I couldn't imagine what it was like to be there," Dinah said, frowning. "Being a long way away was scary enough."

"Being close was pretty scary," Barbara said, taking a long drink out of the bottle of water and frowning. "I can't imagine how it was like for Kara and Faora."

Dinah rose to her feet and looked at Barbara for a long moment.

"I want to blow off some steam," Dinah said. "Care to join me in a sparring session?"

"Sure," Barbara said, smiling. She would like nothing better than to test her ability out against Dinah.

Barbara and Dinah stood face to face with each other and was about ready to fight. Something started to rustle from the bushes. Dinah tensed up and turned around.

"Barbara, stand back," Dinah said, underneath her breath. Barbara blinked in surprise, and stepped back. "There's someone else here in the park."

Dinah's hairs stood out on the back of her neck. The spirit of the warrior burning within her showed how ready she was for a fight. Dinah got into a battle stance.

"If you're going to do anything, come out now," Dinah said. "Don't make me drag you out."

Barbara prepared herself for battle as well. She wasn't sure how good she would be, even if she really stepped up the training in the last couple of months. The type of people Dinah threw down against a nightly basis were in a league of their own.

A pair of figures dressed in red material with some hints of red and face masks stepped out. One of them strapped a sword to her back and the other strapped what appeared to be a wooden staff to her. One of them was slender and lean, and the other looked muscular and a little bit bustier, even in her ninja uniform. Another trio of figures stepped up.

"The Daughter of the Demon wishes an audience with you," one of the figures said, a slight hint of an Irish accent coming out in her voice.

Dinah raised her eyebrow for a second.

"If she wishes to meet me, she can do it face to face," Dinah said, wondering which daughter they were referring to.

Dinah received the answer to her question when the one and only Nyssa Al Ghul stepped out of the bushes and approached Dinah. The Demon's Oldest Daughter stepped up and faced Dinah.

"I hope you can forgive the theatrics," Nyssa said. "We have a problem, and I was hoping you would verify something for me….if you're willing."

Dinah blinked and stared down Nyssa Al Ghul. While Harry trusted the women, there were a few things she kept from them. Dinah prepared for a battle. When dealing with the League of Assassins, anyone going up against them always needed to be prepared for a fight no matter what.

"What do you need me to verify?" Dinah asked.

"It's better if I show you it, rather than tell you," Nyssa said.

Barbara's eyes traveled from one woman to the other. The tension was there, and Barbara wasn't talking about sexual tension either. Now she thought about it, there was likely some of it there as well. A brief smile crossed over Barbara's face when she realized Nyssa's girls were also following the progress of this situation back and forth.

"And I'm supposed to go with you, just off of some whim you have," Dinah said, looking Nyssa with a challenge. "Sorry, Nyssa, I'm going to have to ask for more than just some hunch you have."

Nyssa didn't come here for a fight. While it was one she would win with confidence, it would not be worth it. And Dinah would give her a challenge, if Shiva's reports were anything to be believed. Dinah impressed Shiva, even though she had room for improvement according to the most dangerous woman in the world.

Nyssa's royal guards tensed up and they were looking to pounce on Dinah. One look from Nyssa caused the guards to relax themselves, at least for right now. Tension wasn't completely over just yet.

"It's fine," Nyssa said. "I'll tell you. I may have found your sister."

Dinah raised her eyebrow at this.

"I'm ninety five percent sure this is your sister, even if she doesn't claim to remember who she is,' Nyssa said. "I'm figuring you would help jog her memory if you were there. Providing she isn't faking her amnesia in the first place out of some kind of defense mechanism."

Dinah didn't want to get her hopes up too much.

' _So, what do you think?'_ Harry asked.

' _How long have you been here?'_ Dinah asked, glad he was here. Just caught off guard he popped into the bond.

' _I've been here the entire time, and Nyssa…feel free to join us….especially if you have some sensitive information you want to keep quiet from your Elite Guard,'_ Harry thought. _'Don't worry, it's just the three of us right now.'_

' _If you insist,'_ Nyssa said. _'I made a crucial error, but it worked out in the end.'_

' _What kind of error?'_ Dinah asked. _'My sister isn't in danger, anymore, is she?'_

' _Not anymore, although it was close,'_ Nyssa thought. _'I had no choice other than to put her into a Lazarus Pit.'_

The longest pause followed. Dinah swore the Pit was a name she heard somewhere. Harry happily popped in with an explanation on the matter.

' _The Pit can bring a person back from death,'_ Harry thought. _'The longer the person is dead, the more ill-advised it is to put them in a pit. The best thing is to do it when the body is still warm.'_

' _And there are side effects,'_ Nyssa thought. _'If Dinah could verify it's her sister, it will be great.'_

' _I'm sure that wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility,'_ Harry thought, pondering for a couple of moments. _'I'm coming with her though….because we have something to discuss.'_

' _Naturally,'_ Nyssa thought. _'Our mystery blonde is at….'_

' _Nanda Parbat,'_ Harry thought. _'Don't worry, I recognized it on the other side of the gate, and I know where to come….Dinah and I will meet you at the bottom of the mountain and you can lead us in.'_

' _So, should I expect a plane to show up soon?'_ Dinah asked.

* * *

 

The bus to Metropolis rolled up. Rebecca Grayson snuck out of the side through the emergency exit. Technically the two of them weren't allowed on the bus due to not buying a ticket.

"I can't believe we snuck up a bus and got away with it," Lois said. "And we didn't get stabbed for it as well."

Given the types of people who took public transportation in Gotham City, Lois thought they were extremely lucky not to get hurt, or even worse. Gotham City wasn't a good place.

"He's got to be here somewhere," Rebecca said. "Your cousin said Zucco was seen in a club downtown…somewhere in Suicide Slum, I think it was called."

Lois groaned at this bit of news given by Rebecca.

"Yes, the most Gotham part of Metropolis," Lois said.

"So, Zucco would fit right at home there," Rebecca said.

Lois imagined beating her head about a brick wall would be more productive than trying to get Rebecca Grayson to listen to reason. She just stuck close to her.

"You didn't have to follow me onto the bus," Rebecca said. "If you want to go…go to your cousin's….I'll be fine."

Lois shook her head in response. She wasn't going to ditch Rebecca this easily. She dreaded what would happen if they really got up close and personal with Zucco.

"Didn't you say you want to visit your cousin anyway?" Rebecca asked. "Let me handle my business and the two of you can hang out."

"Yes, I wanted to visit her, maybe have Harry fly me out here sometime on his private jet," Lois said. "What's the point of having a guardian who has his own private jet if you never get to fly on it? I don't think there's much of a point, do you?"

Rebecca wasn't going to let Lois's air tight logic get her down. She did have a point, as much as Rebecca hated to admit it.

"And it was kind of sneaky how you found out about Zucco, because you only overheard me and Chloe talking about it," Lois said. "And Chloe isn't even sure if it's true or not. So, we could be just running into the bad part of town and risking our necks for nothing."

"My neck Lois, risking my neck," Rebecca said to her, with a firm glance towards her. "You're not the one who has to be here, I am. I'll find Zucco and then I'll….."

Rebecca's voice started to trail off a few seconds later. Thinking it and saying it were two different things. The orphaned Circus Acrobat didn't think she could go through with saying it.

"What are you going to do, Becca?" Lois asked, challenging her. "Are you going to kill him?"

Rebecca hesitated and even stammered a little bit.

"I….he killed my parents," Rebecca said. "Therefore something has to happen to him….it's been two months almost….."

"These things take time!" Lois yelled. "Harry said….."

"You ever think Harry takes on too much?" Rebecca asked. Lois's mouth opened and shut for a comment.

Lois did agree to an extent Harry took on a fair bit too much. It was part of his charm with how much he took on, to an entirely insane degree. Lois wasn't going to argue with it.

"We don't even know if Zucco's really here," Lois said, trying to deflect it back around here. "And you didn't here who he's hooked up with, if he's here…he's hooked up with Intergang. You know who Intergang is? They're pretty bad people….like extremely bad. They had all of these weapons out of Star Wars. Or maybe it's Star Trek?"

"Same difference," Rebecca said in a distracted matter.

"Oh, you don't want to say that in an ear shot of a science fiction geek," Lois said. "Or Chloe….Chloe would flip if you said they were the same thing, and they're kind of not, but…."

Rebecca held her hand up to curtail Lois's frantic.

"Lois," Rebecca said. "I appreciate you're looking out for me, but I've handled myself for years. The Circus isn't exactly a friendly place….hell, the fact there were a lot of shady people in the circus, it was the reason why my parents wanted to get out."

"Yes, I know," Lois said. "But, what are you going to do? Becca, you can take care of yourself, but you're just a kid. No offense, you're just a kid and you're….well it's very dangerous to be out here in the bad part of Metropolis."

Rebecca closed her eyes for a few seconds. Lois rested a hand on her shoulder.

"Besides," Lois said. "Harry is really going to flip his shit when he finds out when you run off to Metropolis."

"Sometimes…well my father told me a long time ago," Rebecca said, drawing in a sharp breath. "It's a lot easier to ask for forgiveness, than to beg for forgiveness….it will be fine…trust me."

Words Lois grew to dread just came out of Rebecca Grayson's mouth.

"And I took this from Harry's lab," Rebecca said, pulling a cloth her pocket and showing Lois the dagger.

"You took it from Harry's lab?" Lois asked, trying to comprehend what she heard. "It's dangerous, extremely dangerous, and very….."

Rebecca shook her head for a few seconds.

"I think I can use it," Rebecca said. "I just need to get close enough to Zucco to pull it off and when I do…right between the eyes."

Lois could see Rebecca was not going to be deterred for any reason whatsoever.

"Rebecca, just think about this for a minute," Lois said. "I've seen soldiers, women and men, who had to kill to protect their country. They thought they were prepared for this. They were wrong. It changes them…and it will change you because you're nowhere near prepared for it either."

Lois could tell her warning fell upon deaf ears. All she could do was stick by Rebecca and hope she didn't get both of them killed.

* * *

 

"Let me be the first to say you look like a complete and utter twat wearing that costume."

Amanda Potter dressed underneath the guise of Nightwing, or rather Talon. Most of the cool gadgets had been stripped away. There was some armor and a few minor toys she scrapped together. She arrived outside of Metropolis and peered into the city.

"Emily, you're just jealous because you couldn't rock this look half as much as I could," Amanda said.

"We have an obviously different perspective from this," Emily said, frowning. She set into the Oracle chair at the Clocktower. "The bus Rebecca and Lois most certainly arrived about an hour ago."

"How far can two young girls get in Metropolis?" Amanda said. "Sure, we could get pretty far if we were left unchained, but we had magic and they didn't."

Amanda flicked up the sensors on the suit and scanned the area for any traces of body heat. The mask started to warm up, forcing her to dull down the scanners a little bit. Amanda frowned, one avenue having been taken down.

"I think I know why Jaime abandoned this for a better model," Amanda said. She couldn't rely on the sensors of the suit. The old fashioned way would have to do so. "Oh, well, we're just going to have to make due….please tell me you had the lead for her. Please tell me she hasn't slipped off of the radar."

A long paused followed with Emily making Amanda wait for it.

"For pre-teen girls with no powers, they can get around pretty quickly," Emily said. "For no powers…how much trouble could they get into?"

"You really want to answer this question," Amanda said, taking half of a step back and going into the shadows. She repelled up and balanced herself up to the ledge. It took a couple of tries before full balance had been achieved. "Oh God, how do they do this without losing their minds?"

Amanda could see a couple of men walk down the alleyway. One of them shrugged to his partner in crime and they walked off.

"They're up to something," Amanda said.

"Well, yes, they could be," Emily said. "You can't really worry about this right now. We have to find Rebecca and Lois and we have to find them right now."

"If only, Harry slipped a tracker on one of them," Amanda said, brushing her fingers out of her face. "If he did, it would make this a lot…hang on, did he?"

Amanda's abrupt statement caught Emily off guard.

"Emmy, are you there…sorry, Oracle," Amanda said, remembering while this was a secure line, it would be best for her to call her by the codename.

"Hang on, let me check," Emily said, looking through the system. "You do realize, Jaime, Karen, and Faora are in town, and you…may have to take a look at the RAO branch of Metropolis….to enlist their help."

Amanda's voice came out in a sigh and it was during this instant where Emily realized how much of a losing battle she fought with her sister.

"You know, there's a reason why I said we couldn't get the Alphas involved," Amanda said, closing her eyes and sighing. "Besides, I kind of want to prove….."

"What, do you want to prove, M…Talon?" Emily asked. She was still getting used to the secrecy thing playing mission support. Barbara pretty much had it down to a silence and Emily would get it someday.

Amanda took a couple of seconds to ponder her thoughts. The redhead shifted her head back for a couple of minutes and closed her eyes tightly.

"Just want to see how good I can do," Amanda said. "You know, we're trained….maybe not as good as Harry or Diana or Dinah or even Kara….but you know, we should be good enough to out on the field."

"You're more of a field person, I'm more of a mission support person," Emily said, sighing. "And I'm just filling in for Barbara…I think she wants to go out on the field as well."

"It would be something…." Amanda murmured, trying to aim the grapnel. It took her two times before she managed to latch onto the building. The more athletic of the two Potter twins even had trouble getting across the street. She tried to get across the street, barely able to latch onto the side of the building. "Oh, how does she do it?

Amanda groaned when almost hitting the side of the building. The redhead dangled and pulled herself up to the top of the building.

"I have something," Emily said. "At least I think I do."

"You think you do, or you know you do?" Amanda asked, tension rising within her.

"Well, there's something on the move, and it's Metropolis," Emily said, punching up the information on the computer. "It's from one of Harry's daggers…they all have a miniature tracking device in them."

"Really?" Amanda said, listening in closely. "I mean, that's oddly pragmatic, but I suppose since it's Harry, it's more than fitting. At least I would think it is."

"Yes," Emily said in agreement. "And the device is in Metropolis which means….oh God, she wouldn't do anything like this, would she?"

Amanda froze completely at Emily's words. No need to elaborate, Amanda knew where this was going and more importantly how she didn't like it? She wondered why Rebecca would think of such a thing being a good idea. Then again, Amanda knew her judgement had been clouded. The first night she stayed at the Penthouse, Kara saw her sneaking out. She waited until Harry and most of the Alphas were out of town before pulling this.

' _Have to hand it to you, Becca, you're pretty slick,'_ Amanda thought.

"Oracle, do you think you can get me a more precise location of where the dagger is?" Amanda asked.

"I'll see what I can do Talon."

"And I'll keep up the search here," Amanda said, still not feeling comfortable in the costume.

She also figured it was a lot harder to maneuver herself in the bright city lights of Metropolis than the dark and dreary Gotham City.

* * *

 

Patricia Swann stepped into the main conference room of the Metropolis branch of RAO. Faora, Karen, and Jaime showed up to join her. The four of them waited for their guest.

Faora in particular was extremely confident this deal would be made and they could move on with something big. The elevator opened up to reveal an attractive woman in her mid-thirties. Her brown hair had been cut to her shoulders. Her blouse held the hints of a feminine figure underneath. A business like skirt showed some stalking clad legs.

"Doctor Christina McGee, welcome," Karen said with a smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine, I can assure you," Doctor McGee said with a smile, leaning forward and shaking Karen's hand and doing the same. "Well, Doctor Swann told me about your operation, I had to take a look at it myself. And I have to say, it's very impressive."

The good doctor had been escorted inside.

"We think there's a good chance Mercury Labs and RAO can work together," Karen said, with a smile over her face. A couple of proposals stacked neatly on the table in front of them.

"Given how your owner seems to want to seduce my lab assistant away from me, it might be best we meet somewhere in the middle," McGee said. "Although, if half of the rumors of Doctor Potter are true, then perhaps it is just best if we combine our resources and not open up the door to competition."

"I think it would be best if we work together, Tina," Patricia said with a smile on her face.

"Yes," Tina said, smiling back at her. "And you've been trying to push for this one for months. Taking constant trips to Central City."

"Well to be fair, I wanted to check to see how the STAR Labs branch in Central City was doing," Patricia said.

"Yes, Harrison Wells," Tina said, with a smile on her face. "He worked with your father in the past, hasn't he?"

"They were business partners, and both….well they met when they tried to file for the patent for Star Labs at the same time," Patricia said. "It lead to them becoming partners and friends….although they drifted apart in recent years. I don't know what happened."

Tina closed her eyes, looking thoughtful for a moment. It was really hard to say what happened to be perfectly honest. Harrison changed after the death of his wife. He became more secluded and more….reserved. No less competent in his work, in fact, he hit his work with a renewed vigor.

"We've kept Doctor Wells on," Karen said. "And he's given us no reason to doubt the quality of his work. He's done a fine job of running Star Labs."

"Yes, and we've been watching him," Faora, under her guise as Alexandra Potter, said with a smile. "And so far he's meeting all of the expectations we've laid out for him. So we can't ask for anything more."

"Yes, I quite agree," Tina said, pausing for a couple of seconds and shaking her head. "You can't ask for much more."

The deaths of a loved one changed a person forever. They were never the same again. Tina had been in that same role a long time ago, but she got over it, at least in time. She put herself into her work deeply.

There came a point though where you can only go so far into your work before some trouble started. And Tina thought Harrison stepped a couple of steps further into the "too much work, and no relaxation category", at least as far as she was concerned.

"We're moving our way into Central City, within the next couple of years," Karen said. "We're not going to force anyone out."

"No, of course not," Tina said. "Even though I would think some people would be intimidated. RAO is becoming a juggernaut, and when you couple it in with SLE and STAR, it looks pretty damning to your average person on the street."

Jaime slid one of the proposals over to Tina. The scientist peered at it with a frown on her face.

"These are just the initial ideas, they aren't past the concept stage," Jaime said. "But, if they can be done…."

"It would change humanity," Tina said, smiling at the very thought of the possibilities this could present. "This is really one of those projects where you almost have to be on the ground floor for, for it to do much of any good."

"Yes, I figured as much," Karen said, smiling. "And I know you're a visionary."

Christina McGee couldn't lie. She wanted a big part of this. This was just a preliminary meeting, to feel them out.

"It's been a rather…rough year for Mercury," Tina said. "The shareholders want results, and they don't seem to understand safe experimentation takes some time."

"Well, this is a win-win situation for us, and for you," Alex said. Tina raised an eyebrow. "A partnership with a growing juggernaut is going to mean more interest and more money for you."

"Yes, and the only thing those ruffians understand these days is money," Tina said, staring over the paper.

Jaime just frowned. She hoped they wouldn't have to deal with another pain in the ass set of Board of Directors. The Wayne Board of Directors had been put underneath the rug for the most part, when Earle was lead from the company. Most of the other members of the company didn't have the teeth needed to fight them.

"Then, it's a good thing you're getting in bed with some people who understand their language," Patricia said.

"Yes, Patricia, I know," Tina said. "You've been telling me for close to a year this deal is best for business. And….well, a couple of the Board of Directors are old friends of Lionel Luthor. And the last thing I want my years of hard work to be wasted on whatever Lionel has in mind."

' _Lionel up to no good,'_ Karen thought, closing her eyes. _'Boy will wonders ever cease.'_

' _The sarcasm almost burns me,'_ Jaime thought.

Alex decided to turn away from the banter and talk to Tina.

"Believe us, this is the last thing any of us want as well," Alex said, smiling when she looked towards Tina. "We don't want your company, your hard work to fall into the hands of….."

"The Douchebag League of Businessmen," Karen said, and Tina looked at her. "Sorry, but…."

"It's crass, but fitting," Tina said, smiling. "And likely they have been called a lot worst, and for the most part by their former employees. So, it works as well as it does."

One particular project caught Tina's eyes. It actually was something she tried during her college days and failed. The results of the experiments caused her aging to regress slightly, which she would hardly associate with a bad thing.

"I take it it's something to your liking," Jaime said, smiling. "I have to admit, it's a bit of a long shot."

"Yes, it is, perhaps with our companies combined, we can succeed where others have failed," Tina said, lips curling into a smile. "It's worthy of a shot."

Tina took the cup of coffee offered to her and drank it. The warm contents hit the back of her throat and caused her to be relaxed ever so slightly.

"If you don't mind me for asking, I assumed Doctor Potter….Doctor Harry Potter, was going to join you on this meeting today," Tina said. Best to clarify because there were more than a few Potters with the last name Potter. Some of them sat in this room.

"Yes, he had to cancel at the last minute," Karen said. "He's feeling a bit under the weather."

Tina nodded. It was more than understandable. Everyone had their limits.

"Well, send him my regards, if I don't get a chance to talk to him," Tina said. "A brilliant mind like his would be lost if he worked himself a bit too hard."

"It's a common problem with geniuses, we tend to work ourselves hard and for too long," Karen said.

Tina smiled. She would not need to look any further than in the mirror.

"I'm just glad we're able to get a deal done today," Tina said. "The Board have been breathing down my neck after the near miss in New York, last week."

"What happened?" Karen asked.

"My assistant, Ms. Snow, she was bringing in a prototype generator," Tina said. "Merely a prototype….albeit a very expensive prototype."

Faora could tell someone like Doctor McGee would take great pride in her prototypes.

"Those metal machines which terrorized New York last week took a trip to the subway station and almost came after her and the prototype," Tina said. "Most fortunately….something intervened. I don't believe in divine intervention, but believe me, I was grateful when this happened. And Caitlin was shaken up, understanded, and she apologized."

"Do you have any idea who could have done this?" Karen asked, even though she knew. "This seems like Corporate sabotage, doesn't it?"

"Nothing too particularly wicked," Tina said, frowning. "It just seems like someone needed to keep a better reign on their experimentations. Although I do recognize the handiwork anyway….it belongs to Doctor Baxter Stockman who completely and utterly lost the plot, if I do say myself."

Faora and Karen exchanged the briefest hints of a smile.

"Regardless of this particular nasty piece of business, I'm confident this will lead to the beginning of a partnership," Tina said. "And tell, Doctor Potter I hope he recovers soon, and hopefully we'll have a chance to meet to further hash out everything."

"It has been a pleasure meeting you," Karen said with a smile, shaking hands with her.

"Yes, it has," Alex said, extending her hand for Tina to shake as well.

"I hope we can do more in the future," Jaime said for a moment.

"I'll see you out to your car," Patricia said, getting up to her feet.

"Yes, I think we both have some catching up to do," Tina said, a hint of a smile crossing over her face.

The two women exited the room towards the elevator. Jaime walked into the side office the moment they left to get a cup of coffee. She stepped over to the television set to look up and what she saw, surprised her. To be honest, she frowned extremely deeply.

On the screen, Jaime noticed a news report about Nightwing having popped up. This was strange for a couple of reasons. She had been in meetings all day, and Harry was currently elsewhere as well.

"Jaime, what is it?" Karen asked. No sooner did this question get asked, Karen's gaze flickered over to the television screen where she answered it. "Oh, I see."

"Yes, I'm sure," Jaime said. "I better suit up."

* * *

 

Amanda thought she ran head long into trouble. The good news was she found something interesting. The bad news was she didn't run into Lois and Rebecca.

"Talon, no," Emily said. "I know you're curious, but….this is not the reason why you're here."

"Relax, Oracle, I'm just going to go in to take a closer look," Amanda said, thinking she got the hang of the balancing above on a slender ledge thing, well at least for the most part. She still looked a little bit shaky to be perfectly obvious. "Russian mobsters by the looks of things….wish I knew Russian to figure out what they were talking about. Too bad there's not a translator on the suit."

Amanda paused for a beat before thinking of something.

"Wait, there's not a translator on the suit, is there?

"No, Jaime knows like about thirty different languages, and Harry may know even more, why would they need a translator?" Emily asked.

Amanda listened to the rabid Russian on the ground, and the leader sounded angry. He looked angry too and waved his hands. A group of goons stepped from the shadows. One of them dressed in a black blouse, a jacket, and a flowing skirt, with her red hair tied back. She would look fairly beautiful had it not been for the look of contempt on her face.

She spoke in Russian for a few moments, and Amanda closed her eyes, really wishing she knew Russian. She turned around to face her men, all of them looking as bamboozled as Amanda did.

"They aren't budging," the woman said.

Amanda watched the woman with surprise. Emily piped in for the unanswered question.

"Whisper D'Aire, she's the third in command of Intergang, behind Ugly Mannheim and Morgan Edge," Emily said. "Well, Edge is more alleged than anything, he's the head of a major television station in Metropolis. So on the record, he's going to have to keep his hands very clean."

Amanda lost her footing at the worst possible time. She fell down onto the ground in front of the Russian mobsters. One of them said something which she was pretty sure was Russian for "kill the interfering bitch."

Granted, Amanda was pretty sure her Russian was rough. One of them tried to grab her by the throat. An electric charge erupted out and knocked him back onto the ground.

One of them grabbed one of those Star Wars blaster things and fired. The hot lasers flew through the air and landed against the wall. The good news was these goons didn't have the handle of these things.

"Here," Whisper said, a smile on her face. "Let me show you how it's done."

She aimed one of the weapons and fired. Amanda could see her entire life blinking before her. The ground beneath her had blown up and forced her to fly back. Amanda managed to use her natural agility to avoid each shot. A series of flips maneuvered her out of harm's way and out of the way of the launcher.

Both sides battled with each other. Another one of the Intergang goons took a shot in taking her out.

"Say your prayers you meddlesome….OOF!"

The goon crashed to the ground when a mysterious force wiped it out. Another goon tried to take a shot at Amanda. Instead, something plucked her off of the ground and pulled her out of harm's way. Everything happened so fast, Amanda was pretty sure she left her stomach behind.

From the perspective of the Intergang goons, Nightwing plucked Nightwing off of the ground and crashed through a window with her. A serious rumble broke down otherwise.

The police sirens forced the groups to scatter. Both sides picked up as many weapons from the warehouse shipment as they could, before the Metropolis Major Crimes Unit flew around the corner. The cops took a more hardline stance on crime than their Gotham counterparts did.

Amanda waited for the dust to clear. She stood out in the alleyway. She got a few bumps, bruises, and her ankle hurt like hell. The good news was she had been pulled out in one piece. Amanda stood face to face with the bad news. She stood on the business end one Jaime Potter glare of death. She looked more intimidating with the head piece on and the way her eyes looked.

"What the fuck were you thinking?"

**To Be Continued on April 16** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well, Amanda and Emily aren't that far above it. Just most of the time….and Amanda was bound to get into some kind of trouble, shocking I know._

_And Harry only appears in this chapter in a bond conversation. It looks like the Lance sisters are going to reunite and Sara may have a chance to thank her savior in person, if you know what I mean._

_Lots of business dealings going on, but it's background noise for the whacky hijinx of Amanda, Emily, Lois, and Rebecca._

_Until Saturday._


	180. Blinded by Vengeance Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighty: Blinded by Vengeance Part Two.**

* * *

Amanda remembered how intimidating her sister could be when she was pissed off. And boy, Jaime was extremely pissed off. Amanda never saw anyone as angry as Jaime looked right about now. Her eyes narrowed hard. Amanda understood what it was like to be a criminal who had been chased down. The eyes on this suit looked a far bit more intimidating than anything Amanda ever went up against. The redhead swallowed a huge lump in her throat.

"So, I'm waiting," Jaime said, crossing her arms together. "Tell me, there has to be a perfectly good explanation for why you were running around in Metropolis in one of my old suits. Given, you're not particularly ready to even try to do something like this."

The slap pierced Amanda's ego. Such a cutting statement hurt her, big time. It was true, Jaime pulled no punches in how true a statement like this was. She hated every second of being told she was right.

"There's real a good explanation, trust me," Amanda said. "I wanted to….I wanted to….."

"Something happened, something you and Emily caused….she's on the communication network right now, isn't she?" Jaime asked. "Listening to this right now, isn't she?"

"Hi," Emily said in a small voice, modulated. Despite the modulated voice, one could hear the anxiousness ringing out heavily in her tone. "For the record though, I tried and tell her this wasn't a good idea. You know how she is about listening to people."

"Indeed," Jaime said, folding her arms underneath her chest. "Well, I'm waiting."

Amanda knew for a fact Metropolis didn't get anywhere as chilly as Gotham during its worst. Jaime's own powers caused a rush of wind to go around her. The two stood back in the alley. Amanda half-wanted to find out what were in those boxes.

Jaime cleared her throat and Amanda knew the instant this happened, she couldn't really explain it any longer.

"Well, we were at the mall, you know, some back to school shopping," Amanda said. Jaime stared at her in a way which would make Batman back off in intimidation. Amanda tried not to wilt underneath her sister's gaze and pressed on to the best of her abilities. "Anyway, we were….we went to the mall. Emily and I we took….."

Amanda drew in a deep breath. She knew this stalling was to delay the inevitable fallback. Jaime's stare showed Amanda she knew Amanda knew the fallout was being delayed. Amanda drew in one final breath to prolong her life a couple more seconds. With this out of the way, she continued to press on.

"We took the girls to the mall, Jade, Artemis, Jessie, Lyta, Lois, and Rebecca," Amanda said, mouth growing dry. Jaime stared back at her for a few seconds. "And…well, I guess Rebecca planned to break away the first time she had the chance, and she….well…you know….you could have….and I mean we should have."

"Rebecca ran off and you let her go," Jaime said voice chilly as the Arctic breeze.

Amanda flew instantly on the defensive. "We didn't necessarily let her go. She just slipped away from us, in the middle of a crowded shopping mall. I don't know….well you don't…..you wouldn't have lost track of her I know, and Harry…..we messed up pretty badly, didn't we?"

A long amount of time paused with Jaime locking her eyes on Amanda. The ice cold expression dancing in her eyes caused Amanda to step back.

"We messed up, but don't worry, Emily and I are tracking her," Amanda said. "She took something from Harry's lab, one of his experimental daggers. I don't think I even need to tell you what she wants to do with it."

"She's going after Zucco," Jaime said, an added chill in her tone of voice. "And Zucco….we told her she shouldn't."

' _She promised she wouldn't,'_ Kara said, popping up on the bond link, sounding rather annoyed at this entire process. _'She….I don't know what I'd do…..'_

' _Alright, Kara, calm down,'_ Amanda said.

Amanda knew about three seconds after saying this why this was the wrong thing to say.

' _How can I be calm when you lost someone we're supposed to be in charge for?'_ Kara asked, making Amanda glad she was there and Kara was in Kansas. _'If I wasn't keeping an eye on Lana and Claire so Martha and Nell can have a day out, I would have come over there right now and…..'_

Kara managed to lose all steam as Jaime cleared her throat.

"I just wanted to fix this," Amanda said. "But, I think I just made things worse."

"Yes, you did," Jaime said. "And this is your first lesson. When you screw up, not going for help, and trying to fix the problem yourself is the worst thing you could do, period."

Amanda hung her head in shame. She should have really knew better.

"We're talk about this in more detail later," Jaime said, craning her neck now to get a better look. "You're in it pretty deep. And what's worse, Metropolis knows Nightwing is here….this is bad….given we're technically an urban legend in Metropolis."

Fear spread through Amanda's eyes. She looked back at Jaime. The anger in her eyes faded for a few seconds. There was still a rather obvious undercurrent of annoyance going through her.

"You found out because I managed to bumble my way on the news," Amanda said.

"The only saving grace to all this is it didn't happen in Gotham City,' Jaime said. "If it did there would be trouble….and we need to find Rebecca right now."

Amanda had been steered back to the really important situation regarding where Rebecca was.

"Oracle, unload the tracker specifics to my gauntlet," Talon said, speaking in the standard businesslike tone of voice, like she hadn't reamed the twins out just yet.

"Just hold tight, I'll take care of that, right now," Emily said, punching in the information.

The information unloaded into the gauntlet of Jaime's suit. Jaime frowned and she put up an overlay of Metropolis on it. The three-dimension hologram coordinated with the blinking red dot. Jaime took a long look at it, and started to put everything together as only she could.

"Right," Jaime said, a thought entering her mind. "She's entering Intergang turf now….Zucco would be there if the rumors are true."

"What rumors are these?" Amanda asked.

Jaime paused for a long beat as if debating whether to let her younger sister in on some extremely sensitive information. And she really wanted to hear what the MCU officers had to say.

"Zucco's being taken in by Bruno Mannheim," Jaime said. "Granted, he hasn't been seen in public since the murder of the Graysons, so he's being put under house arrest."

"If he had a hint Rebecca was here though…." Amanda said, allowing her tone to trail off. A chill spread down her spine. "He would really stop at nothing to silence her, if he had a chance."

"Hence why we need to get there," Jaime said. "Is there anything else you need to tell me before we go?"

Amanda figured she was in for it now, so she might as well drop the other bombshell.

"Lois followed Rebecca on the bus," Amanda said. "It's possible she tried to stop her…and hopefully if she has any sense….she will go to her cousin's."

Jaime decided to verify this right now. Something told her Lois didn't have enough sense to stay out of trouble. Just a feeling Jaime had. She dialed up on the cell phone.

"Hello!" a chipper voice of a pre-teen girl said on the cell phone.

"Is this Chloe Sullivan?" a voice asked.

"Yes, this is her," Chloe said. "You aren't one of those people saying I can lower my credit card rates, are you? Because, if you are, I really don't have a credit card."

"My name is Jaime Potter, I'm Harry's…..cousin," Jaime said, almost hearing the excitement in Chloe's squee at this part of news. "And I wanted to know if your cousin Lois is there with you."

"Let me guess, she did a runner, and you have no idea where she is," Chloe said, picking up instantly. "And no, she's not here….are you sure she's in Metropolis even?"

"I've heard from a pretty reliable source she is," Jaime said, almost groaning. "So, if you see her, will you have her call us?"

"Yeah, I'll tell her," Chloe said.

* * *

A brown eyed woman with medium length brown hair, dressed in a black uniform stepped across from the warehouse. They had a hot tip of a commotion and a short amount of time later; they saw both members of the Russian Mob and Intergang running out of the back door with their tales tucked between their legs. She didn't have to be a rocket scientist to know something was really bad.

Maggie Sawyer had been on this case for more than a year. Metropolis never had a problem as frustrating as Intergang. They caused havoc in the city to a level where Maggie thought they had been misplaced from Gotham City. It just as well might have been to be perfectly honest.

' _And now, this just gets stranger.'_

Two of her fellow MCU officers were in the process of interviewing a rather dazed and confused looking construction worker. The construction worker's mouth hung open when he stared down the MCU.

"And you're saying there were two of them?" one of the officers asked.

"Two of who?" Maggie asked, getting the situation in order. The officers turned to her.

"Two of the dragon lady, dressed in black, with a blue….my brother he works…well he runs a club in Gotham City, where he hears a lot of….questionable things going on," the construction worker said. "I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be telling you this, or not, you being cops and all."

"Gotham City problems are out of our jurisdiction, continue," Maggie said, without missing a beat.

"Right, right, sure, sure," the construction worker said. "Anyway, they've called her Nightwing, something's it's a him, I guess, and….well no one quite knows. The GCPD aren't willing to acknowledge he, she….whoever, exists."

Maggie heard about Gotham's policy on the urban legends. There were more than a few, Nightwing, Black Canary, Batman, and likely others as well she forgot. The cop managed to keep up with the lasted rumors about them, more of a curiosity than anything.

The last thing she expected was running into one of them in Metropolis.

"I don't know, why would this Nightwing, if they exist, come all the way to Metropolis?" one of the officers asked.

Maggie thought this was an interesting question, Why would they indeed? It was the job of the MCU to find out the whys and the answers to the questions.

"It would be some copycat, I guess," the construction worker said.

Maggie's gaze burned on him. "You said there were two of them, didn't you?"

"One dragged the other out, she didn't seem too happy," the construction worker said, remembering it all now. "If you asked me, one was ripping off her act, and the original….well she didn't agree with it. Providing the real Nightwing is a lady. There are guys who swear up and down Nightwing is a man, and then there are those who swear up and down she's a…well a she."

Maggie thought this entire mystery just added another entirely complex layer on top of an already complex layer. She didn't really know what to think.

From the crowd, Lois and Rebecca watched the scene. They knew they were pretty close.

"We find this Intergang, we find Zucco," Rebecca said.

Lois figured it was useless to argue. Rebecca resembled an angry pitbull who was going after a particularly juicy bone. Her pleas to just go to Chloe's and call someone to pick them up fell on deaf ears. Hell, if Lois recalled right, Karen, Alex, and Jaime were here on business. And boy would they be pissed when they found out what Rebecca and Lois did.

' _And when the General finds out…oooh boy,'_ Lois thought, with a shudder.

Rebecca offered Lois pretty much every chance in the world to abandon this little trip. What kind of friend would Lois be if she just left Rebecca hanging though? Not a very good friend likely, at least in Lois's mind. Lois trailed Rebecca down a very questionable alleyway, which was a bad idea already.

The lovely combination of urine and decay filled Lois's nose. Rebecca stepped into the alleyway, not really bothered by this. The stomach turning Lois experienced caused her to cough and eyes to water. The dark haired girl tried to push all of the thoughts of this entire mess out of her head. It was extremely hard to do though.

Rebecca smiled when she turned around and locked eyes with Lois. Lois narrowly avoided a pile of something which she really hoped was mud. The dirty diaper laying in the alleyway a few feet away from it painted a disgusting image of how much of a filthy place this was.

"Why are we even in a place like this?" Lois asked. "Rebecca, you do realize how insane this is? We should have turned back…it's getting late…and while Metropolis is nowhere near as bad as Gotham is at night, it's still dangerous."

"Lois, you don't really need to be here," Rebecca said, grabbing the handle on the back door and pulling it open. "Locked."

Lois had never felt more relief in her life. Harry likely invented a device which could pick any lock. Thankfully, Rebecca didn't have the bright idea to steal something like that.

"We better find another way in."

Lois frowned, words like this filled her with a feeling of dread. The lack of visible windows on the back of this building caused Lois to feel a small amount of relief.

"We're going to have to see if there's anything on the roof."

Rebecca's eyes averted towards a rickety looking later. Lois could see any things wrong with this.

"Rebecca, this isn't a good idea," Lois said. "This entire thing is a bad idea, but going up that ladder…which doesn't look safe, it's not a good idea."

"Relax, Lois, it's perfectly fine."

Lois breathed in and breathed out when she gazed at the ladder. No one cared about building codes in this part of Metropolis.

"Maybe for someone who has spent half of her life on the high wire. But for us who live on the ground…that's not very safe."

Rebecca took a step towards the ladder. She looked towards Lois for a second. Something which would be incomprehensible to her dawned.

"Lois, you're not afraid of heights, are you?" Rebecca asked.

"No, no, of course not, I'm not afraid of heights, really, I'm not, I don't know what gave you this idea!" Lois stammered at a million miles a minute. Rebecca's gaze fell upon Lois's. The dark haired girl sighed. "Okay, maybe a little bit….it's just….felt more at ease with my feet on the ground…it's stupid, I know."

"No, it's not," Rebecca said. "Everyone fears something."

"Oh, like you do?" Lois asked. "You're the fearless Flying Grayson, I can't think of anything you can be afraid of."

"My worst fear already came true," Rebecca said, voice sounding solemn.

Lois couldn't really answer this particular statement especially the way it was spoken. Rebecca struck Lois dumb. The former Circus Acrobat made her way up, and Lois, despite her better judgment, decided to follow her.

"Just don't look down," Rebecca said, which caused Lois to close her eyes. The ladder started to creek underneath her.

"Right, don't look down, don't look down she says, oh, God, this is the worst idea you've ever had!" Lois Lane yelled, feeling a burst of adrenaline.

The wind kicked up, making an already rickety ladder swing back and forth. Lois, looked down, and she almost experienced heart failure. The girl thought she was about ready to lose her mind while up here.

Rebecca already reached the top of the building and extended one hand down. Lois took the hand and allowed Rebecca to pull her up.

"Lois, it's fine, I won't let anyone else fall."

Rebecca made Lois extremely uncomfortable with the statement. Lois didn't really know what to say, other than just shrug her shoulders. Rebecca walked around on the building and started to search for something, anything which could get them inside.

' _Other than the almost dying part, this was kind of exhilarating,'_ Lois thought, taking a moment to watch Rebecca's frantic search for a way inside. _'Am I going to tell her that…of course not. I wouldn't want to encourage anything. Still this was kind of…exciting.'_

The fact she was in danger, the fact they could get caught at any time. All of it caused Lois's excitement levels to peak to a new level. Also, conquering her fear of heights, at least for a moment, really made Lois feel great about herself.

"There's no way in from up here either!" Rebecca yelled, throwing her fists to the air.

"So, wait, we climbed up that ladder for nothing?" Lois asked. She tried to keep her voice even and not too annoyed. Annoyance accidentally slipped out despite her best efforts. Rebecca nodded in response. "So, we came up here…for nothing, and now…we're going to have to climb down into the alleyway."

Rebecca nodded in response. Lois allowed her breath to be taken out of her body with a sigh.

"I'll go first," Rebecca said, wanting to be on the ground in case the ladder gave way. Her reaction time was better because of her time at the circus.

Lois watched Rebecca descend from the ladder without fear. The dark haired girl's overactive imagination started to run away with itself. She imagined some kind of mysterious force causing the area between the ground and the ladder to grow even more.

Almost all the way down, Rebecca did a graceful somersault off of the ladder. She did at least two full rotations before landing down on the ground.

"Show off," Lois said, not helping herself. Lois dreaded going down. She conquered her dread going on, she most certainly could do it going down.

One foot anxiously pressed on the edge of the ladder step. Lois took one step at a time. Her foot almost slipped. Lois gasped and hung onto the ladder.

"Just let go, Lois, and I'll catch you," Rebecca said.

One of the bolts from the ladder almost slipped away. Lois let go without a second though. She fell back into Rebecca's waiting arms. The two girls nearly toppled over from the momentum. Rebecca managed to land on the wall and hold Lois up.

"Are you okay?" Rebecca asked.

"I'll let you know when my stomach catches up with the rest of me," Lois said, allowing Rebecca to help her to a standing position.

She was all intact, no problems at all. Almost no problems at all, actually, Lois would be lying if she was completely out of the woods. Her heart beat even faster than ever before if possible.

Rebecca's eyes followed someone closing the side entrance behind them. He locked it before they could slip inside. Rebecca grabbed Lois and pulled her from the alleyway.

The man turned the corner. Behind then, Lois heard the rickety ladder slam into the ground with a thud. Her heart jumped a few inches. Thankfully the man in question didn't turn around.

* * *

Bruno Mannheim hated to admit he needed help. The situation in Metropolis looked to be a powder keg about ready to explode. Despite his hook up with the high tech weapons, Mannheim could see the Russian mobsters were ready to bully their way in there.

"So, it's been the Russians who have been snagging our shipments," Mannheim said.

"Yes," Whisper said, stretching her legs back and relaxing for a couple of seconds. She had been sent here as a favor and most certainly not because she enjoyed the presence of Mannheim's company. "I saw them. They have to be in the possession of the MCU by now."

"You're kidding me, right?" Zucco asked. Whisper gave him one of those looks which indicated she wasn't really kidding. Mannheim swallowed a lump in his throat. "You're being completely serious, I mean, of course you are, why aren't you?"

Whisper placed the information down on Mannheim's lap. Mannheim flipped through it. Each invoice number struck a more frustrating cord in Mannheim's mind. He really wished this was some kind of practical joke. The man known as Ugly through the criminal circuit resolved to re-double his efforts to secure them.

"So, the MCU has them, great, just great," Mannheim said. "There's enough in those crates to make them put the pressure on us. And Mr. Edge won't want to lose the political capital."

Mannheim's eyes followed Whisper's. A second passed before a lump manifested in Mannheim's throat.

"There's more isn't there?" Mannheim asked. "There has to be more, there's always more."

"Apparently, Nightwing showed up," Whisper said, placing he hand up to stop Mannheim. "Or rather someone dressed in her costume."

Mannheim groaned in response and almost slapped the top of his head.

"Great, we have to deal with low-recent copycats…and I thought Nightwing was a guy," Mannheim said. "That's what Zucco's been telling me."

"And you believe everything which comes out of Tony Zucco's mouth?" Whisper asked.

This statement smacked Mannheim straight in the mouth. He hated to admit it. The dame had a point. There had been conflicted stories about what exactly Nightwing was.

"The most credible sources say Nightwing is a woman," Whisper said.

Mannheim couldn't really argue with Whisper. He had a bigger pain on his hands. How to get those weapons back?

Tony Zucco sat in the flea-bitten room where he had been holed it. It was a distinct downgrade from his previous accommodations in Gotham City. He wondered what the next step was. Mannheim had him here, and it would be a shame not to use him. This Whisper chick sounded like she was a bit cold. Zucco met ice queens before, and she took the cake, ate all of it too.

The phone rang and caused Zucco to stand up. He recognized the number of one of his chief contacts in Metropolis. He didn't waste any time answering the phone.

"Talk to me," Zucco said.

"There's been someone lurking around the club," the contact said. "A pair of girls, I saw them following me a while back."

"Really, a couple of girls, you're afraid of a couple of girls?" Zucco asked.

"I'm not afraid of them, but I thought you should know something," the contact said. "One of them was the Circus brat."

Tony Zucco's face contorted into a wide grin. He would have to say he hit the jackpot and hit it back time. This was really too good to be true.

"Don't lose sight of either of them."

Zucco thought he was going to be holed up in this flee-bitten hole for a while. Now, he thought he would be living a bit more comfortable.

Mannheim and Whisper appeared to move their meeting elsewhere. Zucco was glad they weren't there. He moved over to dial the number.

"Hey, Joey, I've got some work for you and your boys….remember the brat who saw me at the Circus?" Zucco asked. "Well, it looks like she's got her panties in a knot and thinks she's going to catch me. We're going to show her how dangerous we boys can be."

* * *

Carol Danvers whistled the moment she entered the hanger. She waited for a couple of scientists to leave before slipping inside.. Inside, she looked at a state of the art alien ship. It was green and white, with the symbol of the Green Lantern on them. Carol could see how impressive it is.

"Carol, I thought you were heading home after training."

Carol turned to face Katma, who stepped towards her. Katma's eyes locked onto Carol's and she responded back with a smile.

"I thought I was heading home too," Carol said. "Figured I'd stick around though because of….well because of the security breach."

Katma thought many people wouldn't have stuck around for long if given the chance to go home. Especially the people who had been through the same training from hell Carol did. Sinestra put her through the paces, and then a bit beyond any paces.

"Glad to see you're here then," Katma said. "I don't know what the Guardians are up to."

Carol thought this blunt declaration was extremely interesting. She assumed Katma would know a bit more than she let on. Sinestra most certainly did. Any attempt to get any information from her was about as productive as trying to coax a mule out of a ditch at a cold winter day.

"The Guardians are acting rather odd," Carol said. "Granted, I haven't had to deal with them enough, but….."

Carol trailed off. Katma touched her hand on the side of Carol's shoulder.

"Yes, I see they're odd," Katma said. "You and Sinestra saw them, didn't you, the Red Lanterns?"

"Yes, we did," Carol confirmed. "For people who don't seem to exist, they sure can get around a lot. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes, I agree," Katma said.

The ship started to come to life. Carol stepped forward when she heard a crackling sound on the ship.

"There's something wrong," Carol said. "Oh, how do we get this ship open?"

Almost on cue, the ship cracked open for Carol. Carol's mouth hung open in surprise. The two of them stepped into the ship. Carol whistled when looking around the ship. The high tech circuitry reminded Carol of something out of a science fiction movie from the 1950s. Only this wasn't movie trickery, this was the real deal.

"HELP!"

One word, one voice, and the transmission went dead. Carol positioned herself in front of the ship's control console. She wanted to figure out how to work the ship.

"We're going to need to take this ship and follow the distress signal," Carol said.

"Can you fly it?"

Carol bragged about how there wasn't a thing she couldn't fly. The ace pilot looked at this ship and wondered if this unblemished record was about ready to come crashing down.

"I don't think it's a good idea," Sinestra said, entering the ship.

Carol and Katma jumped at this surprising statement. The last thing they knew, Sinestra wasn't there and now she was. The presence of the veteran Green Lantern shook the woman. Carol recovered quicker than most of them would.

"There's a distress signal, I'm pretty sure we're the only ones who heard it," Carol said, folding arms underneath her chest. It allowed her breasts to stick out in more prominence to her uniform. "You're not going to let a man be killed by…something or someone…..are you?"

A small part of Carol figured if this were the Red Lanterns, it was time to prove herself. Sinestra's eyes looked at Carol, burning into her gaze. Carol remembered how school felt when a particularly strict teacher was staring her down when she got in too much trouble. Nothing had been compared to her mother though doing those days after the school got ahold of her.

Sinestra stared at Carol for a long moment. It was for certain she wasn't going to allow someone to die, not if she could help it at least.

"This is part of your assessment," Sinestra said. "If you fail, I won't speak up for you in front of the Guardians."

Carol smiled. She could tell Sinestra wanted to go as well despite the bullish tone she took. The veteran Green Lantern turned her attention towards the computer and addressed it.

"Computer, online," Sinestra said.

"Yes," a feminine voice said, blinking to life.

"We're members of the Green Lantern Corps, and I believe you've been programmed to help serve and assist the Green Lantern Corps in any way," Sinestra said. "Is this correct?"

"Yes, this is correct, I am the Artificially Yountful Application installed onboard this interceptor device," the girl said, in a tone which showed innocence.

"I think we're just call you, Aya," Carol said, which caused both Sinestra and Katma to give her one of the crossest looks possible. "What it roll off the tongue a lot easier? And it's a fitting name for a female."

"Technically the artificial intelligence is….."

"Aya, could you please track the distress signal you received a short time ago?" Carol asked, shushing Sinestra before she could say something completely blunt and rude.

"Yes, as you command," Aya said. "I have tracked the signal. I feel duty bound to warn you, the trip will be treacherous."

The sounds of footsteps from outside the ship caused Carol to tense up. She knew if the Guardians reached them before take off, the jig was completely up.

"Okay, how do you fly this thing?" Carol asked.

"The auto-pilot on this vessel is completely and fully functional," Aya said. "All you need to do is give me a minor charge to jump start it."

"How?" Carol asked, sounding nervous.

"Place you ring where the ignition slot is," Aya said. "Ten seconds will be sufficient."

Carol did as Aya asked. The ring slid into the ignition slot for a full duration of ten seconds. All of the systems of the ship fired up and the top oft the hanger opened up. The ship rose above the ground just as the doors opened up.

"We're going to be in trouble right now," Katma said in a somber voice.

Carol closed her eyes and figured as much with the Guardians. They would have never approved of this trip. This unauthorized trip, the key word Carol knew was unauthorized. They had it coming through with all of their lack of communication. Carol forced herself to deal with some superiors which failed to communicate with the people they were put in charge of. These Guardians took the cake and ate it as well.

"Stop, stop where you are!"

Carol made a split second decision, knowing how much was on the line. Several lives, which were more important than their status as Green Lanterns while waiting for the Guardians to hem and haw about everything.

"Aya, now's the time to make an escape," Carol said.

"Right, engaging in hyper-drive, I suggest all three of you buckle up," Aya said.

The group realized why they would be suggested to be buckled up. The ship blasted into a burst of light and tore through the time space barrier past Oa. It left some rather angry Guardians in their wake.

* * *

Talon, Jaime this time, made her way to the hunt. She slipped inside a club where she heard Zucco might have been holed up. Moving past a toppled over ladder, Jaime stepped inside. Business hours were completely over.

"Are you sure this is the place Lois's cousin said he might be in?" Jaime asked.

"Yes, and I'm surprised to are relying on Intel dug up by an eleven year old," Emily said. "And the tracker…..Lois and Rebecca are likely two blocks down from you."

"Handy information to know right now," Talon said. To be perfectly honest, Zucco was also high priority. Amanda trailed the girls and hopefully this time she would not let them get away.

Talon almost came from around the corner. A police officer stepped around the corner. An attractive brunette with short brown hair stopped and stared at the spot about two inches away from Talon soon. There was no use pretending she didn't see her there. Jaime stood for the longest moment, rooted on this very spot. The sands of time passed slowly.

"I can see you, come out," the woman said. Talon took a step out. "Nightwing….I….well the folks in Gotham City swear up and down you're a myth and in some cases, a man."

Talon stepped into more greater prominence and addressed this particular officer with a soft smile.

"There are a lot of stories about me," Talon said. "I don't know what you think….but I'm here to help….Detective….."

"Maggie Sawyer, of the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit," the woman said without missing a beat. "I know you mean well, and believe me, I'm sure your help in Gotham City is appreciated by many, even though they can't say it without risking politically suicide. Metropolis is a very different animal than Gotham City."

Maggie watched the gaze of the vigilante look over her shoulder and she stepped back further into the shadows. The detective found herself completely flummoxed. Did she actually respect her words? Maggie didn't mean to seem ungrateful. She just wasn't sure if this was the actual Nightwing from Gotham City. This was a very dangerous game people played with rather real consequences. She had seen well-meaning citizens try and take the law into their own hands.

"I'm telling you, there was someone creeping around the alleyway."

"Was this more or after you started drinking?" one of the goons asked. "We know how you are Robbie. You're always going to get blood in your alcohol stream."

Maggie stood and prepared to make a movement. These were Intergang goons. She recognized two from the posters in the downtown office. They were extremely bad news, worse than bad news in fact. Maggie stood proud.

One of the goons suddenly flipped over and had been hanging upside down from the ground. He screamed when some mysterious force swung him directly into a stack of crates. Said goon collapsed from the impact.

The second goon found himself dragged into the shadows. Maggie watched him fly out of the shadows second later at the feet of the third goon.

"Metropolis Major Crimes Unit, freeze!" Maggie yelled.

"No, no, there's something worse than you back there!" the third goon yelled. "I told Brian and Denny there was something back there. Why didn't they believe me, why didn't they…."

The goon waved around his blaster without any care of the danger he was putting people in. A hand grabbed the goon from behind and forced him down to his knees. The goon gagged when he fell down face first onto the ground.

"Do you believe my capability now?"

Maggie smiled, she did make a believer out of her. Then again, there was nothing to prove.

"Well, you're impressive, I'll give you that," Maggie said, picking up the weapon. "We've taken a bunch of these things downtown…the shipment you stopped…at least I think you stopped….a witness swore up and down there were two of you."

Talon didn't say anything. She crouched down to look at the weapon.

"The human mind is a strange and mysterious thing," the crime fighter said in an even voice. "It can play tricks on even the best of us."

The sound of people arriving caused Maggie to tense up. Her backup arrived and this would be one of the worst times to get caught talking with a vigilante, especially one from Gotham City.

"Look this might not be Gotham City, but there are still laws against vigilantes so you…better go."

Three seconds ago, Maggie looked at her. Three seconds later, this woman disappeared into the night. This raised so many questions in Maggie's mind and a lack of answers which annoyed her. The only silver lining was they had the first big break with the Intergang case.

Talon slipped back into the alleyway and made her way up.

"Okay, I think I've tracked Zucco," Emily said. "And the girls are heading his way as well. There's a rundown hotel where Mannheim and his boys are holed up."

Talon frowned. You would think someone with the political capital of Morgan Edge would have a bit more money to throw around. Regardless, Jaime decided to remain vigilante.

"It's on the corner of 6th," Emily said.

"Right, thanks Oracle," Jaime said. "Faux Talon, stay put, I'll be there in a few seconds to relieve you."

Amanda's mouth hung open in surprise and also grand irritation.

"First of all, Faux Talon?" Amanda asked, protesting. "Are you kidding me? This is the code name you give me? And second of all….you want me to sit this one out?"

"I'll handle it," Jaime said. "You messed up the other situation pretty badly."

Amanda's argument deflated when she realized Jaime pretty much had a point. She didn't like the point, but she had one.

* * *

Dinah's mind became a maelstrom of conflicting emotions, mostly dread and anticipation. She really wanted to see Sara again, despite the circumstances which she left. The problem was, there was a chance this wasn't Sara. Or of it was, Sara didn't remember her.

Harry turned up right next to her. He dressed in a black uniform which had been armored in some places in green. The armor of the uniform resembled the scales of the dragon. He wore a mask over his face, which obscured everything other than his eyes.

"So, are you ready?" Harry asked, voice slightly muffled by the mask.

"Now, you're here, I am," Dinah said, grabbing onto Harry's hand. "I hate to admit it, I'm a little bit nervous. What if this isn't her? What if it isn't Sara?"

"I know what you're thinking," Harry said. "We just got to meet Nyssa and….."

Nyssa made her way down the mountain. Dinah pulled up the hood of her sweatshirt to obscure her face slightly. She doubted many would be able to connect Dinah Laurel Lance to the Black Canary. The few people who were around who could make the connect were there.

"Relax," Nyssa said. "No harm will come to you here….if the people here value your lives."

The two of them smiled, even though their masks pretty much obscured their expressions.

"So, how did you get here?" Nyssa asked.

"I took an express flight," Harry said, pointing over his shoulder.

Kara dropped down next to Harry, obscured in the same uniform Harry did, only it had red where the green were.

"You wouldn't show up without any insurance," Nyssa said, smiling. "I must warn you no one will bring harm to you…unless provoked. And I can't make any promises."

"Don't worry, we won't attack anyone," Dinah said. "Unless it's out of self-defense."

Nyssa nodded, glad they had some kind of accord. The Daughter of the Demon ascended the mountain with the three visitors following her up to Nanda Parbat.

"The Dragon has already explained the Lazarus Pit to you in detail, so I won't mince any words on what we're dealing with," Nyssa said. "I will say if this is your sister, she's been rather withdrawn and….guarded. Which is understandable, given the circumstances which you explained she was in."

Harry hated to bring up his little escapades with Blackfire, but it did paint a picture of where Sara's mind and where she was. He was confident without a shadow of a doubt this mysterious woman was the lovely Ms. Lance.

The quartet stepped inside, and the moment they stepped inside, several eyes fell on Harry. Harry took the matter in stride, even though Kara leaned against him with a smile.

' _Anywhere you go, I swear,'_ Kara thought.

"Great Dragon," an enchanting raven-haired woman with pale skin said in a very obvious and clear British accent. "It's an honor to meet your acquaintance on this day."

"Yes," Harry said. "And you are….."

"Paige, I'm one of Nyssa's…elite guard," the raven-haired woman said. The slender woman moved closer towards him. A hip of her hips showed how gifted she was in one particular area. "And it's an honor to see you."

"Yes, I believe you have said that already," Harry said.

"Right, if there's anything you need, anything you need at all, don't hesitate to ask."

' _You know, I'm pretty sure if you told them all to kneel before you, they'd do it,'_ Kara thought.

' _Their loyalty towards you has been well reinforced,'_ Nyssa thought with a smile.

"I wanted to see the mysterious blonde woman your mistress found," Harry said.

"I believe she intends to lead you there now, great one," Paige said with a smile.

"Yes, indeed," Nyssa said. "Guard the door and ensure no one disturbs us until we're done."

"As you wish," Paige said.

Nyssa escorted Harry, Dinah, and Kara. Harry stopped for a second and noticed a fairly familiar looking figure in white. The White Canary gave him a brief going over before falling back into line with the rest of them.

' _Didn't you fight her last year?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Yes, I found myself in the middle of something or other between her and Lady Shiva,'_ Harry thought, stepping down the hallway and turning around the corner.

No trouble, not any of them would dare do it.

"She's in here," Nyssa said, raising a hand and knocking on the door.

"Come in."

"I have some visitors, you might want to see," Nyssa said, pushing the door open.

Dinah entered the room and it only took her approximately two seconds to notice her sister alive in the flesh. The older Lance sister rushed over and hugged Sara.

"I'm so glad you're alive," Dinah said.

Sara flinched when her arms wrapped around her, but it took her a couple of seconds to recognize her.

"Oh, hello, Dinah," Sara said.

"So, you are Sara Lance," Nyssa said.

Sara realized how much she slipped up and glared at the woman for making her slip up. It didn't matter Nyssa was extremely hot, with cleavage Sara caught herself staring at and an ass to boot, this was unacceptable to her.

"Yes, I guess, you got me, congratulations," Sara said, sinking back into her moodiness.

"I'm glad to see you made it out fine."

The blonde looked up to see one of the figures pulling off his mask to reveal his face to her. Sara wasn't going to lie, seeing Harry's face and hearing his voice, brightened her day.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 20** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_The whacky adventures of Lois and Rebecca in Metropolis continue. Oh and Chloe cameo is here as well._

_Some other things happened, namely a family reunion. And there's going to be a more interesting reunion coming up, as Sara needs to thank Harry for saving her soul._

_Until Wednesday._


	181. Blinded by Vengeance Part Three

Chapter of the week poll at the blog. Go vote. **http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/**

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-One: Blinded by Vengeance Part Three.  
**

* * *

 

Lois Lane would be the first to admit she had a sense of adventure and wonder which could get her into trouble. The young girl had her limits and Rebecca was getting dangerously close to reaching over them. Actually scratch getting dangerously close, Rebecca ran completely over the line without any thought of the consequences. Lois thought herself to be fearless at least until she met the circus acrobat. There were some things where Lois looked about, out of some level of self-preservation.

The delightful combination of urine and decay greeted them when they made their way around the back end of the hotel. Lois let out her breath with a frustrated sigh. Rebecca turned around to stare Lois down in response.

"What's up?" Rebecca asked.

"Just thinking we've made a really big mistake," Lois said. "We're in too deep now…if we turn around…."

Lois was struggling to say the right words. Rebecca reached forward and placed a hand gently on Lois's shoulder. The two teenage girls blinked in response.

"All I need is one clear shot at Zucco," Rebecca said. "I don't want him to hurt anyone else, and if I can get him, he won't. No one has to watch their parents die in front of them ever again."

Lois really didn't know what to say. This particular conversation took an unfortunately uncomfortable turn. Lois never was the most supportive person in the world. The General was blunt, and the few memories she had of her mother, well they weren't exactly clear enough for Lois to get an exact feel of her personality. The headstrong girl's eyes locked onto Rebecca's.

"So, if we're going to do this, we might as well," Lois said, taking in a deep breath. "Are you going to…"

Rebecca stopped for a second. She hesitated, something the former Circus Acrobat never did in her entire life. She really did travel down an extremely dangerous path. There was a chance things could end really poorly for her. Rebecca took in a deep breath.

"You don't have to," Lois said. "We can always turn back."

"It's too late," Rebecca said.

"You got that right, kiddo."

Two goons with bad hygiene gripped both Lois and Rebecca from behind. It was almost like they came from out of the alleyway.

"Well, look at we have here, we have a little circus brat, who stuck her nose too close to Boss Zucco's actions," one of the men said, showing a rotten smile of decaying teeth.

"You could really use a breath mint," Lois said, glaring at the man. He looked at her with contempt and Lois smiled. "Just saying."

"Oh, you think you're a wise gal, don't you?" one of the goons asked. "What are supposed to be? The little Circus brat's sidekick or something?"

Lois only responded by firing a kick to the groin of the goon and pushed the one who was holding Rebecca into a trash can. The man clattered down to the ground. Rebecca looked down, holding the dagger in her hand. Lois didn't give her a chance to think about using it or not.

"Let's go, Becca!" Lois yelled, almost pulling Rebecca's arm out of her socket and pulling her across the street.

The two girls ran for a few feet until a limo pulled out in front of them. The door swung open and a particular large henchmen scooped both of the girls up underneath his arms. The girls were little more than moderately heavy luggage to them.

"Oh, you think you've got away, girly," one of the goons said. "Is that her?"

"Yeah, she's been following me all day, thinking I wouldn't notice," another goon, the one which Rebecca and Lois noticed coming out of the club said. "They thought I didn't see them, but believe me I saw them. They knocked the ladder over."

Lois closed her eyes whilst kicking and screaming all of the way. Something told her this entire mess was too good to be true. The woman kept swinging wildly in an attempt to get free.

"This one has some fight in her," the third goon said with a leer. "She's going to be a lot of fun when she's older to try and tame. Pity, she isn't going to last long enough to see her next birthday."

The goon raised his hand and knocked three times. The door swung open and Rebecca came face to face with Tony Zucco. The first time in months, Rebecca caught a look of her killing and a look of hatred.

"Hey, kiddo, you'd think you would be happy to see me with the dirty look you're giving me," Zucco said, staring at Rebecca with one of his more charming and disturbing little smiles. "Yeah, you figured out who I am. It was because you I got ran out of Gotham City. Look at these bites."

Zucco showed his arms to Rebecca and Lois, covered in bug bites.

"Those are all because of you, because you just couldn't keep your nose out of my business," Zucco said, staring down the girl. "I bet you thought you were smart, chasing me to Metropolis, following my boys around here? What were you going to do anyway?"

Rebecca stared at Zucco with contempt.

"Oh, you were going to kill me, I get it," Zucco said. "You see, when I was your age, my dad was killed by some police officer. I was mad as you were….guy was trying to make it in the world, and some cop tried to be a hero and shot him. Only the shot was fatal. Dad and I always went to the Circus, we had some good laughs….always loved the Circus."

Zucco smiled when he looked at the girl. The girl glared back at Zucco.

"Here I am being all sentimental and without my hanky," Zucco said. "The point is, you know too much. And you should have stayed in Gotham City where it was safe."

The other goons looked at Zucco, seeing his madness shining through. Anyone saying Gotham City was safe proved they lost it just a little bit.

"I'm in the business of correcting my mistakes, and you not falling with your folks was one of them," Zucco said, pulling out the gun and preparing to blow both of them away.

Boom out went the lights, and a grapnel pulled Zucco's gun out of his hand. Zucco staggered back and had been sent flying out back.

Rebecca and Lois didn't know what was happening. They could hear the grunting of one of the thugs. The large thug which held them fell down to the ground with an Earth-shattering impact. A series of rapid fire punches followed which stunned the thug in question.

A flash of light followed and Lois could see someone in the light. Who was this person? Whoever it was, they really kicked ass.

Zucco turned around. He had been disarmed and knocked in the jaw. A couple of teeth loosened and blood dripped from his mouth. The mobster turned a couple of inches to the left and bolted towards the door as fast as his stubby legs could carry him.

Rebecca wasn't going to let this go this easily. She darted after Zucco.

"Alright, this is a bust, move it!" Zucco yelled, pulling himself into the back of the van.

Rebecca held the knife in her hand. She watched the knife throwers many times at the circus. The former acrobat was certain she knew the technique. The youngest member of the former Flying Graysons hurled back her arm and threw the knife towards Zucco's retreating back.

"NO!"

The knife flew hit the ground, missing Zucco by several feet. Rebecca hurled her arms into the air in frustration.

"No, no, you won't be getting away!" Rebecca yelled, trying to give chase of the van down the highway. She sped up a little bit and tried to get behind the van. "No, no, no, you can't, I won't….DAMN IT!"

Another figure swooped down and grabbed Rebecca around the waist. Nightwing grabbed Rebecca and held her back.

"Let it go, there's nothing you can do," Amanda said, trying to disguise her voice. She noticed Talon on the edge of the warehouse, making sure all of the thugs have been tied up and fastened.

Rebecca tried to protest. The van turned around the corner and disappeared around the corner. Lois rushed down the street and nearly stopped behind Rebecca. The sirens of the MCU echoed from close behind them.

"Are you okay?" Lois asked, with Rebecca turning around to look at Lois.

"Fine, I'm just fine," Rebecca said, taking her hands to her waist. "Zucco got away, and I just….I didn't get him."

The dagger blew up on the street and had been left behind. Rebecca frowned in response.

"Someone attacked in the warehouse, we were very lucky to survive," Lois said, seeing the cop car pull up. "We better go with them."

"Yes, I know someone saved us," Rebecca said. "It was Nightwing, I saw her, and yes it was a her, I told you Nightwing was a girl!"

Lois threw her hands up into the air in frustration, biting down on her lip. She couldn't believe Rebecca would go there. She took a couple of seconds to consider something.

"I think there might have been two of them," Lois sad, watching the woman out of the car move towards them. "And one of them was in the dark. I didn't see Nightwing in the dark; it could have been a guy. There could have been two of them."

Rebecca's eyes rolled over the face of her head. The woman walked up towards them with a couple of guards.

"Are you two girls okay?" the woman asked. Rebecca and Lois looked towards her. "I'm Detective Maggie Sawyer….you…you should come with me, it's not safe to be out here."

The tip told her there were two girls who had been kidnapped and sure enough there were. Both of them looked fearless, the type of pre-teens which Maggie dreaded having to dela with every day. She lead both of the girls in the back of the car, and would find out if someone registered them missing in all of the chaos.

* * *

 

Amanda Potter changed out of her uniform and the moment there was word of the girls being picked up, the woman showed up at the front desk.

"Hello, my name is Amanda Potter, I'm here on the authority of my cousin Jaime who has authority on behalf of my brother Harry, and I'm here to pick up Lois Lane and Rebecca Grayson," Amanda said, without even pausing to take a breath.

' _Very impressive,'_ Emily thought. _'I'm scared how you managed to speak that many words without breathing.'_

The clerk at the front desk double checked the information involved. Harry Potter did have authority over these two girls, even though he could not be reached at this time. He had been out of the country. The call had been redirected and Jaime took it. She had been one of the girl's alternate guardians in case something happened, among a couple others.

"Yes, the two girls are with Detective Sawyer," the clerk said, and she started to click through to the intercom. "Detective Sawyer, Amanda Potter is here to pick up the two girls."

"Send her in."

The moment she got the go ahead, Amanda stepped in. The redhead woman stepped forward and peered down at Lois and Rebecca. Both of them stared up at her with big smiles on their face. It was the type of innocent smile which caused Amanda a small amount of amusement, if she wasn't so furious.

"I'm Detective Maggie Sawyer," Maggie said, introducing herself. "And you must be Amanda Potter."

"Yes," Amanda said. "I'm in charge of wrangling these two delinquents in."

Maggie could see she was upset, and rightfully so. She could tell this girl had been given an unprecedented amount of responsibility and allowed the two girls to slip away. There was a fair bit amount of projection of guilty.

"Do you think you could give me a moment alone with these two?" Amanda asked.

"Of course," Maggie said, it was always awkward to be in the room when a parent or guardian had been reunited with runaways.

Amanda turned around. Lois and Rebecca both stared her down. Neither girl knew what to say. Amanda stood with hands on hip to look at Rebecca and Lois.

"So, hey," Lois said, trying to give Amanda a smile, to try and lighten the mood. It didn't work.

"Don't hey, me," Amanda said, sounding more like her mother or aunt than herself. "The two of you ran off and…almost got yourselves killed."

Rebecca stared up at Amanda. The back and forth battle of wills started between the two girls. Rebecca glared back at her for a second.

"Don't you look at me like this, Rebecca Grayson," Amanda said, staring at her. "You promised both Kara and Harry you wouldn't do anything like this. What do you think they're going to think when they come back?"

Rebecca hung her head for a second, biting down on her lip. The girl's guilt swam through her eyes. Amanda stared her down.

' _Congratulations, Mandy, you're turning into Mum,'_ Emily said. _'I'm actually scared to be honest.'_

"And as for you, Lois…."

"Lois tried to stop me from coming, and I realize I should have listened," Rebecca said, injecting herself in before Amanda could say anything. "I was just really mad, he killed my parents, and I looked at him, and he bragged about it."

Amanda took a moment to stare at both of them. She walked over and engulfed both of the girls in a hug. Both of the girls returned the hug, relieved she didn't strangle them.

"So, you're not mad?" Rebecca asked.

"Oh, you believe me, I'm mad," Amanda said. "Do you realize how dangerous it is to go out there and try something against Zucco? You could have gotten yourself killed by trying to do something like this and putting yourself in over your head."

' _Do, I sense a little bit of projection?'_ Emily asked, which caused her to receive one of those glares of death through the bond link from Amanda. _'Okay, I'm shutting up right now._

The door opened and Maggie stuck her head in. Another figure walked down the hallway and Jaime slipped down the hallway. She dressed in the same business attire which she wore.

"Jaime Potter?" Maggie asked, extending her hand for Jaime to shake. "I'm Maggie Sawyer."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Jaime said, barely keeping a smile off of her face. Two of them shook hands. "So, Amanda is with the two girls?"

"Yes," Maggie said. "She was terrified something bad would have happened to them."

"Rightfully so," Jaime said, knowing she would have to have to have a word with Amanda and Emily later on. Especially Amanda about the entire stealing one of her old costume thing, which really stressed her out.

Maggie took a long look towards the woman. She looked extremely frazzled for the right reasons. Maggie wanted to take a walk with her and reassure her of some things.

"I've been working on the Intergang case for a year, and….now Zucco's involved with them, it's going to be complicated," Maggie said. A moment passed where she sighed. "He got away."

"Yes, unfortunately," Jaime said, clutching her hands in fists for a few seconds. "He's slippery as a snake, and this wouldn't be the first time he escaped justice."

"We'll get him," Maggie said, resting her hand on Jaime's shoulder with a smile. "Every single person in Metropolis will know what Zucco looks like, and…they'll know what he's done."

Maggie just hoped she could get the support from Gotham City she needed. There were a lot of hurdles to jump through, some of them extremely frustrating. Maggie would be lying if there weren't any good cops. Shit trickled downwards from the top and those in a position to do something caused her great frustration.

"Thank you for keeping an eye on the girls," Jaime said. "They can be a big headstrong at times, and an even bigger handful at times."

"No problem," Maggie said. "It's my job, and they…..I've dealt with children who were angry about their parent's murder before."

The two of them exchanged a long and wistful look with each other. Jaime caught the type of look the detective gave her and smiled. It would only be polite and lady like if she thanked the detective for all she did to help. It might have been her job, but still, Jaime was extremely thankful for the assistance.

"How would you like to go out for a cup of coffee?" Jaime asked. "As a way to thank you."

"I don't know, I was just doing my job….." Maggie said.

"I insist," Jaime said, smiling at her. "It's the least I can do to thank you….this was a very stressful day for us, and I'd hate to call my cousin when he's away for his health."

"Well, since you insisted," Maggie said, not being one to turn down a free cup of coffee if it had presented itself.

"So, how is six tomorrow morning for you?"

* * *

 

Mannheim sat back and looked jumpier than a cat running underneath an entire room full of rocking chairs. Something was going to happen to him to bring the boom down and crush his tail. Mannheim hated it just as much as anyone else did. The man rocked himself back a half of an inch and appeared nervous.

"You know you're going to have to face the music sooner or later," Whisper said. "You lost the shipment and you got…some do-gooder breathing down your throat. And this incident proves to the MCU you're up to something."

Mannheim grumbled, like he needed to be reminded of this bullshit. Mr. Edge was likely going to give him a jiggle and it wasn't going to be a phone conversation which he enjoyed. Zucco's idiot move forced Mannheim to move him to one of the safe houses, which they normally used to store the good stuff. Thankfully, Zucco was being kept on an extremely short leash which Mannheim thought would be for the best.

The phone rang and Mannheim snatched the phone off of the cradle on the second ring.

"Hello," Mannheim said.

"We have a problem."

Mannheim both experienced a sensation of relief and also a deep rooted feeling of dread. The good news spelled out the fact this was not Morgan Edge on the other end of the phone. The individual on the other end of the phone was in face one Big Lou Maroni, and he didn't seem too happy.

"You couldn't keep him under control," Big Lou said.

"Your boy's boy is the one causing problems," Mannheim said. "Don't even know why you're even keeping him around. Just say the word, and Tony Zucco will have a little accident. Your hands will be completely clean."

"No, Mannheim, we need to keep him, he's useful, and when this heat dies down, he'll be back," Big Lou said. "And my son will be back in business as well. And we can reestablish our little partnership, keeping the pipeline between Metropolis and Gotham City open."

It was day and night between the two cities. Metropolis was the bright and sunny day and obvious Gotham City turned out to be a dark, dreary, and extremely stormy night. The two sides established this partnership. It fell apart a little bit when Maroni went in prison.

"I'm a bit nervous, all of those freaks in Gotham City, like the Penguin and Black Mask, they could be causing problems," Mannheim said. "And that kind of shit trickles downward."

"Don't worry about them, they think they're in the big time," Big Lou said. "They're going to learn soon they're not as big time as they think they are."

All Mannheim could do in confirmation was nod. Big Lou had his opinion on these things and they were pretty strong.

"Sal's been making a lot of questionable decisions, but prison does weird things to a man," Big Lou said. "Prison does some very weird things to a man, like making a deal with the Roman. Carmine Falcone, you know, the Roman."

"Yes, I'm aware of him," Mannheim said, clutching his fist together. "You know, he's the king shit in Gotham. I would have done the same thing Sal had, making a deal with him. He gets things done. I wouldn't invite him to go golfing, but he gets things done."

The atmosphere grew extremely cold in the room. Mannheim thought it was extremely cold in this particular room.

"What's best for business is one thing," Big Lou said. "Personal pride is another thing entirely."

The phone hung up without another word. Mannheim could see it was the end of this particular interview. The second in command of Intergang sighed.

"Zucco is more trouble than he's worth," Whisper said, looking at Mannheim. "And why do you owe anything to the Maronis by keeping him alive?"

"There are some things you or Mr. Edge don't understand," Mannheim said, practically grumbling.

Speaking of the devil, the phone rang, and it could only be one other person. Mannheim picked up on the phone.

"Mannheim, you should still be lucky I have any use for you," Morgan Edge said, without a "hello" or "how you doing" or anything along those lines.

Mannheim tried not to groan. Any phone conversation which started with something this confrontational already got him off to a stirring start.

"In what way, Mr. Edge?" Mannheim asked, taking the attitude out of his voice.

"I had to call in some favors to get certain people to back off a little bit, so you can get your shit together," Edge said. "Is it worth it to harbor Gotham trash?"

"Sir, it will be worth it, we'll….."

"Mannheim, don't forget, you're the muscle of this operation, and I'm the brains," Edge said. "I'm the brains for a very good reason. You don't do very well thinking on your own."

Mannheim gritted his teeth, hating the amount of disrespect coming his way from the likes of Morgan Edge. Edge really did smack him hard in the face.

"Just remember where you came from, and remember you would still be there if it wasn't for me pulling you out of the depths of your own failure," Edge said. "I think we've come to an understanding, haven't we?"

"Yeah, yeah, I understand you alright," Mannheim said, practically gnashing his teeth in frustration.

"Good, I'm glad you can be taught, despite your past failures."

The phone hung up and Mannheim threw his fist into the air with an obvious groan.

"Son of a bitch, can't do anything to please him anymore!" Mannheim yelled. "He's worse than a woman."

This earned Mannheim one of those glares of disdain from Whisper. She didn't say anything, her look said plenty. Mannheim had more than enough self-preservation to keep his mouth shut right now.

* * *

 

A twelve year old blonde lounged around in the living room of her house in Metropolis, fiddling around with her Red Sun, and being bored. Her father was working a double shift which wasn't anything new. He had to work these long and weird hours after the girl's mother….went away for a very long time.

A knock on the door caused the blonde to bounce up to her feet. She wasn't expecting company. A thought entered the back of the girl's mind. Could this be trouble?

' _Most criminals wouldn't knock on the door,'_ she thought, and frowned before shrugging. _'Okay, maybe they would, if they were trying to lure people into a false sense of security or something.'_

The girl peeked through the hole and saw two girls waiting outside for her. She smiled and opened the door.

"Lois!" the girl yelled, throwing her arms around her older cousin with a smile and hugging her.

"Hello, Chloe, it's good to see you," Lois said, smiling and returning the hug. "This is Rebecca Grayson…she's been listening in on our conversations, and….it gave her the bright idea to head to Metropolis."

"To be fair, you should have made sure no one listened in on our conversations when we were talking, "Chloe said, firing a smile towards her cousin. Lois responded. "Hello, Rebecca, my name is Chloe Sullivan, I'm Lois's cousin."

"It's good to meet you, Chloe," Rebecca said, a smile crossing over her face. "Lois has told me a lot about you."

Chloe's eyes met Lois's with one of those knowing gazes. Lois threw her arms back to her side and returned the gaze. Rebecca watched them for a couple of seconds. It was more exciting than a tennis match, which considering Rebecca found tennis quite boring, it wouldn't be saying a whole lot.

"Good things Chloe, very good things," Lois said, staring down at her. Chloe placed her hands on her hips and smiled at Lois. "Don't give me that look."

"So, what are you doing here?" Chloe asked.

"Do I need a reason to visit you?" Lois asked, and Chloe gave her one of those looks in response. This coaxed a sigh out of Lois. "I was looking forward to visiting you, but you know me, I couldn't wait to see you, so instead….I decided to come for you, instead of waiting for you to come to me."

Chloe gave Lois a searching look. Lois recalled more than enough times how her younger cousin was a bit too smart and savvy for her own good. It was almost frustrating how smart and savvy she was.

"And there might have been other reasons."

"This wouldn't have to do with the Zucco thing," Chloe said. "I'd say you had more sense than that….but given how I know you better….."

"HEY!" Lois yelled, and she turned around, calming herself down. "We're going to hang out here for a while, until we can be flew back to Gotham. And then, I'm sure we're going to get an earful about what we've done."

Chloe shook her head and smiled. Rebecca thought she might not get a word in edgewise with the motor-mouth twins there. She resolved to sit back and enjoy the show.

"It's a good thing Harry's out for…reasons I'm not sure," Lois said. "I think there's something wrong with them."

Lois frowned and a look of concern flashed over Chloe's face.

"I hope it's not too serious," Chloe said, touching her hands to her hips and locking eyes onto Lois.

"Not too serious, at least I don't think," Lois said. "The only really big thing is he does way too much."

Chloe thought if she ever met Harry, and one day it could happen, the first question asked would be how he would do so much in one day. It seemed insane. Chloe sought to emulate his example, but maybe only dial it back to a quarter of his example. A quarter of Harry's example may have been pushing things a fair bit, but there you go.

"Amanda, one of Harry's twin sisters, she'll be stopping by shortly," Lois said. "For someone who got in a lot of trouble when she was younger, she really can give someone the self-righteous act."

"Like you do with Lucy when she gets into something she didn't," Chloe said.

Lois's mouth hung open wide at Chloe's words. Chloe almost broke out into a fit of laughter at Lois's expression. It was so glorious it was almost funny.

Chloe heard a knock on the door and pulled it open. A gorgeous redhead with an athletic build and shoulder length hair made her way into the room.

"You're Amanda, right?" Chloe asked.

"Well, if I'm not, then you just answered your door to some random stranger," Amanda said, and Chloe returned heir smile with an extremely nervous one. "Yes, I'm Amanda Potter, and you must be Chloe Sullivan, Lois's cousin, I've heard a lot about you."

Amanda thought the energetic blonde would be an interesting to….keep in mind for when she was old enough.

"Oh, yes, Lois has told me a lot about you, how you're the all-star football player," Chloe said.

"Yes, and I like you already because you called my sport by its proper name," Amanda said. "Unlike Lois, or my twin, who misname it on purpose."

"Well, the other Football…it really isn't that great of a sport," Chloe said. "And the SuperBowl, I mean, it's just one big marketing gimmick. The commercials are the only halfway decent part, aren't they?"

Lois looked at Chloe, frowning. She mouthed the word "suck-up" to her.

"So, I'm looking forward to the Eclipse coming out," Chloe said. "It's next month, right? In September?"

"Yes, it is," Amanda said. "It should be exciting to see the upgraded model on the market, and….well if you've seen my brother on any of his talk show appearances, you know how much work we've put into this."

"Oh, yes, I've seen him," Chloe said. "I've taped all of the times he's been on the Juno Jones show. And the J. Jonah Jameson show, even though that one wasn't interesting. Someone needs to tale Jameson his style of mustache went out with the Third Reich."

Rebecca almost bust a gut laughing.

"It does seem a little bit obsessive, but he's really changing things," Chloe said. "Changing the way we think about technology and communication. And it's so much easier to carry my Red Sun and I don't have to worry about any dropped calls or anything, it's just so amazing."

"Chloe, babbling!" Lois said, sounding a bit incredulous.

Chloe might be bad now, she shuddered to think how bad Chloe might be if Harry was actually here in the flesh alongside them. Lois thought she would be embarrassed enough for both of them.

"So, are you working on anything else, anything else amazing?" Chloe asked, without taking a breath.

"We actually might be working on something," Amanda said, and here she gave one of her more prominent death glares to Lois and Rebecca. Both of the girls gulped in response when they looked at her. "It's a bracelet which parents can use on children. It has the similar tracking technology the Red Sun has…when a phone goes missing."

"Oh you mean when you call up RAO headquarters, and they can find your missing phone for you by sending a signal," Chloe said. "Which is so amazing by the way. I can't tell you how many times where I leave my phone somewhere at school, and I'm freaking out about it."

Amanda could only imagine judging by the look on her face.

"Well, this piece of technology can track children anywhere they go, without any problems," Amanda said, looking at her. "So if any of them escape a group at the mall and try and run off to Metropolis without permission, they can find out where they're going. It's pretty amazing, especially with girls who tend to be headstrong and spirited."

"I'm sure my Dad would say I needed one of those," Chloe said.

Amanda smiled, she was sure a lot of parents would say their children needed one of those. Hell, Amanda would be lying if her and Emily didn't need one of those when they were around Lois's age. They mellowed out, at least for the most part, with a couple of exceptions.

"So, you're really Harry's sister?" Chloe asked. Amanda looked towards the energetic blonde and responded with a crisp nod of her head. "How does he do it?"

Amanda blinked at this question from Chloe. She could tell this was the first of what might have been a million questions.

* * *

 

Dinah and Sara had what amounted to be a touching reunion. Both of them avoided addressing the elephant in the room. The two of them sat in the comfort of Sara's own bed chambers, just talking with each other.

"It's funny how everything changes," Sara said, flashing a smile towards her sister. "You know, when you come back to life after death. It just changes…..I never thought I'd be having this conversation."

Dinah responded with a smile.

"Given the business I'm in, there's very little which surprises me these days," Dinah said, reaching forward and touching her hand on her sister's. Sara flashed her with one of those smiles. "I'm really glad you're okay….I was worried. And Dad….well he's a wreck."

Sara sighed in response.

"When you get back, tell him…tell him I'm fine," Sara said, voice shaking a little bit more.

"You should call him," Dinah said, eyes locked onto Sara's and her hands touching the top of her younger sister's.

Sara responded with a nod. She wasn't going to argue with Dinah she should talk to her father and in due time, she would talk to her father. Sooner rather than later.

"I will….once I figure out what to say about him," Sara said. "He wasn't mad?"

"Not at you, more at Oliver really," Dinah said, finally bringing up his name. "But, to be fair, Dad doesn't need too much of an excuse to get mad at Oliver, does he?"

Sara cracked a smile at the more obvious statements her sister ever spoke in her life. The two of them scooted closer together, so their bright blue eyes could match each other.

"Nor do you," Sara said. "It's….well, hindsight can be a wonderful thing. I don't even know what happened to him…is there any news about him?"

"Nothing," Dinah said. "Malcolm is putting a big award for him with information, but he hasn't been able to find him, any more than he's been able to find Thea. Queen's…."

"In trouble," Sara said, finishing the sentence. "I've been searching for something….something which has been a lot more underneath my nose this entire time. And Dinah, I don't care who thinks it's wrong."

Dinah opened her mouth. Sara gripped Dinah's jaw and pressed her hot lips forward onto her older sisters. Sara's soft lips pressed over Dinah's.

The older Lance sister could not believe her younger sister kissed her as she would a lover. One gaze into Sara's eyes caused Dinah to see the lust which had been involved. Sara's arms wrapped around Dinah's throat and pushed her tongue into mouth.

Dinah's tongue returned and danced with Sara's when they met together. Both hot sisters pressed together. Their nipples stuck out the other side of their tops.

The door opened, and Harry stepped inside the room. Kara decided to head off to test her skills, and who better to test her skills with than the Daughter of the Demon herself.

A more tantalizing sight greeted Harry. Sara and Dinah kissing each other on the bed and caressing the other's bodies, and Harry could sense their arousal.

Sara broke free from Dinah's lips, giving it a few more parting nibbles. A trail of salvia partially connected the two sister's at the mouth before they could pull apart. She licked the side of Dinah's mouth and trailed down her cheek towards her neck.

"Hello, Harry," Sara said, bouncing up to her feet. The bombshell trailed her tongue around the lips a couple of times before giving a smacking sound to it. "I'm so glad you're here to join us."

"Oh, given what I've seen, I wouldn't miss this for the world."

Sara crossed the distance across the ground, grabbed Harry's jaw, and gave him an aggressive kiss. Harry returned the kiss with fever and hunger, shoving his tongue down Sara's throat.

Dinah watched, a heat rising from her body. Her boyfriend and younger sister were about ready to go at it. The look Dinah noticed from Sara's eyes showed the fire and the lust she had from Harry.

"I want to thank you," Sara said, grabbing Harry's uniform and tearing it back, while planting passionate kisses.

Sara looked so hot and horny. Harry accepted her desire to thank him. The nymphomaniac blonde tore through his clothes, while sucking on his neck.

' _My sister's the type of girl who won't take no for an answer,'_ Dinah thought. _'I'll let you two have fun for a while, but please, give me a good show.'_

The moment after Sara tore through Harry's uniform with all of the excitement of a child wrapping open a present on Christmas morning, Harry grabbed Sara's head and pushed his mouth against hers for a second kiss.

The kiss shot passion from Sara's lips down the base of her spine and inflamed her loins. It made her want something more than anything else in her life. Harry's able hands explored her, and pushed her towards her.

Sara broke free from the kiss, and started to kiss Harry down his neck. Harry smiled at Sara's eager lips going down his neck, down to his collar bone. Sara continued to worship Harry's body and travel down every single inch of him.

"You have to have it in your mouth," Dinah said, sitting back, and pulling off her shirt and jeans to be in nothing other than a pair of lacy bra and panties.

Sara wanted it in her mouth. The girl's mouth watered at the thought of Harry's cock. She removed the final layer of clothing from him, saving the best for last. The more of Harry's huge cock which had been involved, the more Sara grew wet. She could not wait to impale herself upon his cock.

"No wonder all of the girls are smiling," Sara said, tracing a pattern over her lips with her tongue.

"Go for it," Harry said. "Suck my cock."

Sara smiled and teased Harry's head and herself with a little kiss. The blonde woman's tongue started to trace around the thick head of his cock and moved down him. His veiny cock twitched against her tongue.

Harry enjoyed the sensations of her hot lips wrapping around his cock. Sara grabbed onto Harry's ass to gain the leverage and shoved him down her throat.

"Fuck!" Harry groaned, feeling Sara make a slurping action.

"She's such a good little cock sucker, isn't she?" Dinah said. Her fingers rubbed up and down the slit. Dinah's eyes followed the progress of Sara when she drove herself down throat first on Harry's cock.

Harry agreed with Dinah's assessment. Sara pushed herself all the way down Harry's cock and brought him into the back of her throat. Harry's grabbed the back of her head.

Sara looked up at him with her bright blue eyes to encourage the face-fucking. Harry practically drove his cock deep down into her mouth. Sara's hot lips wrapped around his probing tool the deeper he entered her tight mouth. A loud smacking sound echoed with Harry pushing himself into her.

"Damn, it Sara, I'm about ready to cum in your sweet little mouth," Harry said.

Sara didn't back up. She gave Harry a full service job with her lips, tongue, and throat, worshiping him in every single way possible. The talented blonde's hand fondled Harry's sac, pleased with how heavy it was for her.

One more grunting thrust planted Harry's thick and hot load deep into the back of Sara's throat. He saturated the back of her throat with his seed, spilling a heavy amount down her gullet.

"Take it all, take all of his seed," Dinah said, using one hand to rub her pussy and the other hand to massage her aching breasts. Watching her sister suck her boyfriend off caused Dinah to get so wet.

Sara swallowed every single last drop of his cum. She slipped off her top to reveal a lacy black bra which contained her ample and perky breasts and defined abs. Sara shimmied down her pants to reveal a full view of her gorgeous hips, covered with a thong which stuck to her hips. Long legs stretched down for miles.

The gorgeous blonde pealed her thong up. Sara exposed her wet pussy to him, and pushed him up against the wall. The lust in the woman's eye was contagious. Harry reached around and grabbed her by the ass ,lifting her off of the ground. Sara's dripping hot pussy hovered closer towards the edge of his rod.

"I need this inside me," Sara said, wrapping her legs around Harry's waist. She shifted a fraction of the inch and pushed down onto his thick cock, pushing it inside her body.

Sara closed her eyes, holding onto Harry's shoulder. The gorgeous blonde pushed down onto Harry's rock, allowing her pussy to fill up with his throbbing hard cock.

"Oh, this feels so good!" Sara yelled, pushing her hips down onto him.

Harry would have to echo her. Sara drove herself down onto his cock.

"You're so fucking tight," Harry groaned, pushing her toned body down onto his.

Sara closed her eyes, and turned him around. The two of them found their way onto the bed, right across from Dinah. Sara's dripping hot pussy grinded down onto Harry's thick throbbing cock and pushed it inside her again.

"So good," Harry said, removing her bra and exposing her breasts. Harry grabbed her perky breasts and squeezed them. Sara gasped. "Do you like this baby?"

"I know I do," Dinah said, running her hands down between her pussy. The older sister drove her finger deep inside at the sight of Sara driving herself down on Harry's cock.

"Yes," Sara said, losing her mind to lust when Harry touched and played with her legs. "More of this, baby, more of this."

Harry's hands took a full tour of Sara's body. Her skin felt so soft and pussy so wet going down onto him. Sara started to push her hips down onto him. She moaned heavily.

"OH, GOD, YOU'RE ALL THE WAY INSIDE ME!" Sara yelled. The beautiful blonde started rocking up and down on Harry having the ride of her life.

"Looks like you're not the only screamer in this family." Harry said, with Dinah.

Dinah didn't response. The stunning siren watched with glee to see Sara's pussy sliding down Harry's pole and his thick manhood sliding inside her. Sara kept rocking up and down hip first down onto Harry. Harry's able hands started to caress all over her body.

Sara screamed at the top of her lungs from the best orgasm she ever experienced. Harry's hands played with her breasts and caused her to pant even more.

"You feel so good," Sara said. "So good, please, don't stop….I never want to stop fucking you."

Sara impaled herself down pussy first onto Harry's cock. Each time she came down the wet pussy released around Harry's cock. Harry pushed up and grabbed the girl's ass.

"Mmmm….I love you playing with my ass," Sara said.

"You have a hot ass, it's worth playing with."

Sara pumped Harry's cock up and down with her cunt. Another orgasm started to rock her body.

"Oh, I know what else you'd love, baby."

The eighteen year old beauty rose up completely and positioned her puckered asshole against Harry's engorged rod. She pushed down onto it.

"Damn, Sara!" Harry groaned. "You're ass feels like a fucking furnace."

"Hottest furnace you've ever put your dick it, stud," Sara said. "Mmm, I love your thick cock inside my ass, drilling inside of it, while you play with my tits and my pussy!"

Harry ran his hands all over Sara's breasts, cupping them. He spent some time fondling her firm tits. Sara responded with loud moans when he traveled towards her stomach. He brushed against her toned abs and down between her thighs.

Sara's pussy became inflamed with Harry's fingers going into her pussy as deep as it went into her ass. Her tight ass pushed deep down onto them.

"I can't stop fucking your hot little ass," Harry groaned, pushing himself into her. The tight sensation of her anus squeezed down onto her.

"Oh, I hope you don't, I really hope you fucking don't!" Sara moaned. "Harder, fucking harder!"

Sara's eyes stared at her big sister. Dinah's bra fell down her breasts and her panties rolled down her legs. The younger sister watched the older sister pleasure herself to Sara's riding.

"Dinah, you're such a dirty slut, getting off on Harry jamming his big hard cock inside my ass!" Sara yelled, grinding down onto him. "I bet you'd like to lick my pussy when Harry fucks me in the ass, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you like to clean out my dirty pussy like a good older sister?"

Dinah pulled away from playing with her dripping twat and sauntered over towards Sara. Sara gripped Dinah's hand and took her fingers into her mouth. The talented girl suckled on her big sister's finger's tasting her juices.

"God, Sara," Dinah said.

Sara cupped Dinah's breast in her hand and squeezed it, before running down her body. The younger Lance sister continued to suck the juices off of the fingers of the older Lance sister.

Harry drilled Sara's ass while she played with her sister. The erotic sight around him spurred Harry to greater heights. His balls filled up with seed which would soon be buried in Sara's ass.

"Dinah, you taste so fucking good," Sara said, smiling and grabbing her sister around the head before pulling her into another kiss. Sara pulled away from Dinah. "Would you like to taste your baby sister?"

Dinah dove into Sara's pussy without much prompting. The stunning siren made love to her sister's nether regions with her mouth which prompted Sara to moan and thrash.

"Oh, this is so fucking hot!" Harry yelled.

Sara moaned when Harry's large cock buried its way into her tight bum. Sara thrust herself down ass first onto Harry's cock and made it fill herself. She lifted up and emptied his cock from inside her, before filling herself up again.

"Yes, it is, it's so fucking hot!" Sara agreed. "And it would be even hotter for you to put all of your hot cum in my tight ass…OH DAMN IT DINAH, RIGHT THERE!"

Dinah sampled her sister's sweet pussy juices. The delicious scent inflamed Dinah's sinful desires for her baby sister and made her want her even more.

Another sensation filled her. One of Harry's probing fingers working his way into her dripping cunt, pushing them as far in as possible and sliding them out. He manipulated her core hungrily. The finger-fucking was intense.

Sara worked her anal muscles down onto Harry, rubbing her breasts the further she rode herself down on him. Sara wanted the sensation of hot cum in her ass.

"MMMM!" Dinah moaned, causing vibrations from her throat to strike Sara's sweet spots.

"Oh, sweet…..fuck…DO THAT AGAIN!" Sara yelled, digging her fingernails down on the back of her sister's scalp and pushing her further towards her pussy.

"Yes, Dinah, make your sister cum as hard as I'm making you cum."

Dinah's vision turned hazed over. The way Harry pushed into her, it was almost like a cock buried into her. If Harry used a dupe, it turned invisible when it pounded into her.

' _Actually, adds a lot,'_ Dinah thought, slurping her sister's juices up.

Sara shuddered underneath Dinah's efforts while she buried Harry's cock deep into her guts. Dinah did her best impression of a dying woman in the desert and Sara's pussy juices were the only thing which can sustain her.

"We're going to all cum together, I think," Harry said, pounding Sara's ass harder.

"Yes!" Sara yelled, clenching her cheeks together to trap Harry. "Paint the inside of my ass with your cum and…..OH GOD!

Sara came and screamed. Dinah came and caused Sara to scream more because of her powers having the effect of a vibrator turned up to its highest frequency.

Harry grunted and fired the contents of his balls deep inside Sara's hot ass. The blonde beauty clenched down onto him and had Harry fill her completely up.

Sara pulled herself up, dazed from the orgasm, and wanting more. Her body craved more of Harry's seed and more of his cock inside her. The Lazarus Pit most certainly had an intriguing side effect on her, and it was not one unwelcomed from her.

Dinah placed her mouth around Harry's cock and sucked it a few times before sliding herself onto it, waiting for her turn and her ride.

"Yes, sis, ride his big cock!" Sara screamed, shoving her fingers into her pussy.

Harry groaned when the familiar tightness of Dinah's pussy bounced up and down on him.

"So, which one of us has the better pussy?" Dinah asked, breasts bouncing up and down. Harry's hands found their home on them.

"Going to have to test…more," Harry said.

The two Lance sisters smiled, they were happy to help Harry experiment.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on April 23** **rd** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well there's a threesome which was a long time coming._

_Lois and Rebecca's and Amanda's wacky interactions conclude in this chapter. At least for now. And Chloe gets some generous screen time, which is always fun._

_Until Saturday._


	182. Opening Eyes

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Two: Opening Eyes.**

* * *

 

"Ladies and Gentlemen, the wait is finally over. Last year, when the Red Sun Model 1.0 came out, all sales records for every cell phone in history had been destroyed. It changed the way consumers thought about cell phones. It changed the way people thought about cell phones. The Red Sun could not be kept on the shelves. Even today, stores right here in Gotham City are struggling to keep the Red Sun 1.0 on the shelf."

A redhead reporter made her way onto the screen with a bright smile on her face. She stood outside of a shelf at one of Gotham City's many shopping malls where cell phones would be sold. On the shelf with the Red Sun, a notice hung from it saying "Sorry: Sold Out."

"This is Vicki Vale, and this is the scene around several stores around the greater Gotham City area," Vicki said in excitement. "And Harry Potter is going to do it all over again. The Red Sun Version 2.0, also known as Red Sun: Eclipse would be on the market. The great gala open will take place the Friday before Labor Day and everyone is excited to see the new phone on the market. Industry experts are expecting this to bring RAO, and their partners, Wayne Industries, to even greater heights. Many people have already reserved their phone on pre-order, and malls around Gotham City are going to expect a mad house when the doors swing open to reveal the Red Sun."

Oswald Cobblepot watched the news on the television with thinly veiled disdain in his eyes. He likened this entire mess to a train wreck. He didn't want to watch it, he couldn't turn away though.

"Gotham City's golden boy!" Cobblepot said, reaching over to grab the remote control and turning the channel. He could see another advertisement, this time a biography on Harry Potter. "Bah, absurd. BAH!"

Cobblepot almost tossed the remote control at the television. He stopped himself from doing so at the sound of approaching footsteps. Cobblepot straightened up, never happier to see a commercial.

"Gotham City needs a mayor which will take action. Which will bring big business back into prominence and make more jobs for the common folk in Gotham City. Who will take a harsh stance in crime, and those who threaten our way of life. You need a mayor you can trust to bring peace and order back to Gotham City. You want a mayor who can stand up for what's right. You need a Mayor who will fight for anything that's right. Herbert West is not that man. He has cut jobs and laid off many at his corporation. He's not that man. Hamilton Hill is. Vote Hill for Mayor."

Hamilton Hill's smiling face appeared on screen.

"I'm Hamilton Hill, and I approve of this message."

"Never thought I'd be pleased to see a commercial with Hamilton Hill in it," Cobblepot said, straightening up on his desk. A knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts. "Yes, come in."

The door opened and Candy slipped into the room, a smile on her face.

"Hello, Candy, what I can do for you, my dear?" Cobblepot asked in his usual charming tone.

Candy took a step forward, braving the combination of sardines and cigars coming from Cobblepot's breath, and stepped closer towards him. The personal assistant walked towards her boss.

"Sir, this came for you in the mail."

Cobblepot took the view and opened up the envelope to see the contents inside it. The man's mood grew a slight bit sour the moment he opened up the envelope.

"What is it, Mr. Cobblepot?" Candy asked, curious.

"It's an invitation for Harry Potter's gala opening for the Red Sun Eclipse," Cobblepot said in an even tone of voice. "Thank you, Candy, you may go now my dear."

Cobblepot could not even appreciate the view Candy leaving offered him. The man's beady eyes fixated on this one little invitation on his hand. The taunting invitation in his hand regarding this little gala, and the non-stop Potter returned on the television screen.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Cobblepot raged. "Did the smug little wanker just buy up every television station in Gotham City when I wasn't bloody looking?"

Cobblepot sank down onto the chair, fuming in more ways than one. He hated everything Harry Potter stood for, mostly on his mother's side of the family. He didn't know the Potter side of family out of a line up. Although, the boy's…great-grandfather, Oswald believed, helped enabled those bastards, the Waynes. So, he was poison on either side.

The mobster clutched the invitation in his fowl little hand, nose crinkling up in the process with thinly veiled anger. He couldn't believe the nerve of Harry Potter.

Cobblepot remembered the opening of the Iceberg Lounge, where he neglected for the invitations of both Harry Potter and Bruce Wayne to be lost. The two had the nerve to show up uninvited, and now Harry Potter invited him to the little gala opening. Where Cobblepot would see another success he takes.

"Every single shit this little bastard takes comes up smelling like a rose, doesn't it?" Cobblepot asked, almost fuming at the thought of being in the middle of a bunch of people fawning over the greatness of Harry Potter.

Cobblepot couldn't fume for long. A knock on the door brought him out of his thoughts. Cobblepot grunted for the person on the other end to come in.

The door swung open, and Dudley entered the room. Dudley spent a couple of months in prison to cool his heals. Cobblepot looked at his godson with a business like calmness. The wounds of how much Dudley messed up an important business relationship with a powerful family because of his inability to keep calm remained fresh in Cobblepot's mind and really stuck to his craw.

"Yes," Cobblepot said, motioning for Dudley to come in closer towards him.

"Sir, the shipment is going to come into Gotham on Friday," Dudley said.

Cobblepot recalled the date. Friday was the date where the gala happened for the Red Sun opening. The night where he would be forced to bare witness to the alter of how amazing Harry Potter was. Cobblepot's stomach turned into one of those queasy feelings, the type people felt prior to throwing up their lunch.

"Yes, Dudley," Cobblepot said. "An engagement has come up."

"What kind of engagement, sir?" Dudley asked.

"Never mind," Cobblepot said, staring at his godson. "I'm going to need you and some of the boys to take care of the shipment. And this gives you another chance to redeem yourself. You haven't put your best foot forward, have you, my boy?"

Dudley knew his godfather remembered the Ffogg fiasco, and also the incident where the assassin he recommended failed to finish off Catwoman. Dudley wasn't a fan of baseball, but if he recalled correctly, two strikes never meant anything good for anyone playing the game.

"You're like your father, sometimes, my dear boy," Cobblepot said. "You're a bit too much about him. Vern thought with his heart too much, and…well it got him married to a bloody Evans. At least you came out more like him, than her."

Dudley responded with a nod, not sure where this was going.

"I need you to stay focused, and get the job done, no matter how long it takes," Cobblepot said, staring Dudley down. "Do we have an understanding?"

"Yeah," Dudley said.

"Good, man," Cobblepot said.

Cobblepot thought everyone had a couple of bad days, and he would have a really bad day come next Friday when he heard about the greatness which was Harry Fucking Potter.

* * *

 

Maggie Sawyer heard the rumors about the Potters, and did not know what to expect. She made her way to a small little coffee shop across from the police station. It also sold donuts, and happened to be one of the more profitable coffee shops in Metropolis thanks to the close proximity to the police station.

' _Imagine that,'_ Maggie thought, a smile crossing over her face, when she tried to settle down.

She looked up seconds later and noticed Jaime Potter's arrival. The woman was a striking and stunning beauty. She boasted of a perfect body which wouldn't be out of place belonging to a model. The skirt combined a modest, respectful tone, but did not hold off what she had on display. The silky stockings tempted Maggie, wanting to run her hands over the legs which went on for miles.

Anyone, male or female, would be sorely tempted to take a look at her and to run their hands all over those perfect legs. Maggie tried not to drool too much even though temptation hit her full on without any warning. Her heart started to race, skipping several beats.

"Hello, Detective," Jaime said. "I'm glad you made it out today."

"Ms. Potter, you can call me Maggie when I'm off duty," Maggie said. She dressed in a casual pair of sweat pants and a nice button up shirt.

"Sorry if I'm overdressed for a coffee shop," Jaime said. "I have a meeting early this morning, and I figure it would be too much of a bother to go home and change."

"No, problem, you…well it suits you well," Maggie said, eyes remaining glued to the woman's legs. Maggie's heart started to race even more, not knowing where this one would go.

Jaime flashed a knowing smile at her. The waitress came in. She looked rather sleepy.

"A cup of coffee, with a lump of sugar please," Jaime said. "Make it piping hot."

"I'll take the same," Maggie said, smiling. She would be lying if a nice cup of hot coffee was going to get her going.

"I don't know how people function without their caffeine," Jaime said.

"Tell me about it," Maggie said. "I don't think I'm properly ready to face people until I get a sufficient amount of caffeine in my body. It's just a lot easier to face the day."

Both of the women smiled at each other. Jaime stretched forward for a moment so she could get a closer look at Maggie. She kept herself in good shape. Being a police officer though, she would pretty much have no choice other than to do so. Metropolis might not have had the reputation for high crime as Gotham City did. It still had its fair share of criminals and crime as any city might have in any circumstances.

"You've had a frustrating day the other day, didn't you?" Jaime asked.

"Not as frustrating as you did," Maggie said. "Thankfully, Lois and Rebecca were captured before they could get hurt."

"They waited until Harry and a few of the others were out of town," Jaime said.

"Others?" Maggie asked. She decided to jump on into the fire and strike, hoping not to get burned. "So, I've heard a lot of rumors about Harry Potter….it's kind of hard not to. He's in the news every other day, especially with the big push for the Red Sun Eclipse."

"Yes, this Friday," Jaime said. "Which is why I'm having these meetings. I'm making sure the distribution network in Metropolis is good to go. And even with the expanded distribution, we're projected to have a sellout."

"I don't doubt it," Maggie said. "I've pre-ordered mine. It's still going to be a madhouse to pick it up."

Jaime chuckled, although if she would be honest, whatever happened in Metropolis would pale to what happened in Gotham City. Sarah mentioned the GCPD arranged extra police protection around the key shopping centers, and anyone who even hinted at a weapon would be taken down. Some joked this would be more chaotic than Black Friday.

Which was interesting, because if all went right, RAO would be releasing something else just in time for the holiday season around Black Friday, and it would be big.

' _I can't believe people would shoot someone over a cell phone,'_ Karen thought. _'I know the Red Sun is amazing, and everything, but seriously, getting shot over a cell phone?'_

' _It's Gotham City though,'_ Barbara chimed in. _'People have been shot over a lot less.'_

No one could dispute Barbara's point.

"So, anyway, I've heard some rumors about Harry Potter," Maggie said, pressing forward one more time. She wanted to strike on this one when the iron remained hot, or at least a bit warm. "And I wanted to know how true they are."

"It depends on what rumors you're talking about," Jaime said. Maggie blinked. "I'll answer if I can, but keep in mind, I don't have…access to every moment of my cousin's life. He has his secrets and keeps them well pretty much like anyone else would in these circumstances."

Maggie didn't doubt he held his secrets. The coffee arrived for the two of them, stalling the confrontation for the latest time. For the third time, Maggie mustered up enough courage.

"Does he have a harem of women?" Maggie asked bluntly.

"Well, we don't use the h-word, we prefer to call it a collective," Jaime said. "But, yes, Harry is in a relationship with multiple women…and many of them are in a relationship with each other."

They didn't exactly hide the fact, even if it wasn't plastered on billboards in Metropolis, Gotham City, and anyone else.

"Okay, fair enough," Maggie said. "It does explain a lot."

Jaime almost expected a further line of questions from the Detective. She didn't really receive it however, which she didn't know what to talk about it.

"So, what about, you Maggie?" Jaime asked. "What brought you here to Metropolis?"

"I wanted to be a cop my entire life," Maggie said. "My parents were very strict and disapproving….I'm not sure if they would have approved of much of anything. My Dad worked the typical nine to five job, my mother was your typical housewife out of the 1950s, never once questioning her husband. This was the type of life they expected for me."

"But, not the type of life you wanted, was it?" Jaime asked.

"No, and….well, the last time I spoke to them was when I moved away from home to join the academy," Maggie said. "I graduated with top honors, and had the job offers coming in. I decided to take the job here in Metropolis. Gotham really wanted me, more for bragging rights, than anything. I don't think I would have grown here."

Maggie looked off with a far off look.

"I have a couple of people on the force I'm friendly with," Maggie said. "GCPD and MCPD have a bit of a…conflict of interests. Metropolis thinks Gotham is a bunch of corrupt bastards. Gotham thinks Metropolis are a bunch of soft hearted liberals who wouldn't last five minutes in real city….it's absurd really."

Jaime thought old stereotypes died hard.

"Gotham's improved," Jaime said.

"Yes, I know, James Gordon is really moving up on the ranks," Maggie said. "I don't know how far he'll be allowed to get before someone cuts him off at the knees."

Barbara winced on the other end of the bond network. She knew Maggie didn't mean this literally, but in Gotham City you could never tell. Given what happened to Dinah's father, and how lucky he was to be alive, police work in Gotham City could be extremely hazardous to the future health and well-being of a person.

"So, you decided on Metropolis," Jaime said.

"Yes, and I haven't looked back," Maggie said. "The Intergang case might be something out of Gotham though. Or something out of a science-fiction movie, if I'm perfectly honest with their weapons."

Jaime thought it would be an accurate assessment. The Penguin's military grade style technology gave them more than enough headaches to deal with. These weapons coming from Intergang proved to be something else far more dangerous entirely.

"It's a problem," Jaime said.

"Yes, and one I really shouldn't be discussing because it's an ongoing investigation," Maggie said.

Jaime smiled, understanding perfectly where Maggie came from. The investigation being compromised would cause any attempts to bring Zucco back into Gotham City to stand justice to be compromised. She only hoped Rebecca's little impulsive action didn't cause Zucco to be put further away from them. Or worse, for Zucco to be found at the bottom of a river somewhere in Metropolis, where no justice could be served.

Someone who committed such a brutal crime should stand justice. Jaime ached about how close it was. And how he slipped from her fingers.

"Just one second," Maggie said, picking up her cell phone. "Yes, yes…yes…stay right there, Turpin, I'll be there as soon as I can. Just don't do anything too reckless until I get there…yes, I realize that."

Maggie hung up the cell phone, flustered not being an accurate word to describe how off she felt today. Actually it would be the perfect word if she was perfectly and completely honest.

"Trouble?" Jaime asked.

"Yes," Maggie said. "It's my partner….he's a good cop, but he can be a bit hot headed. I think he belongs more in the wild west than he does in modern times, if I'm perfectly honest."

"So, I guess that ends today," Jaime said. "I better get going as well…we should do this again sometime."

"Yes," Maggie said. "It would be nice if they did."

The two women shook hands with each other. Maggie's gaze and hand lingered for the longest moment before she pulled away. The two of them parted ways with each other.

' _Talk about your interesting meetings,'_ Amanda thought.

' _The girls are still staying out of trouble, aren't they?'_ Jaime asked.

' _Yes, they're asleep right now,'_ Amanda thought. _'Chloe's father is working another double-shift, so it looks like I'm going to be sticking around for a long time.'_

' _Not too much longer,'_ Jaime thought. _'After my meeting today, we're taking a flight home. And it will give us some time to talk about what you did.'_

Amanda's groan could be obvious over the phone. She hoped, perhaps foolishly, Jaime would just let what happened go. She couldn't be even more wrong if she tried.

' _You really didn't think I would forget about you, did I?'_ Jaime asked, a small part of her sounding extremely amused at the groan Amanda gave out even if this was a mostly serious situation.

' _You can't blame a girl for her wishful thinking, can you?'_ Alia asked, practically crossing her fingers and looking on with one of her brighter smiles.

' _No, I can't blame a girl for her wishful thinking,'_ Jaime thought in response, almost laughing in bemusement. _'But, I've got distribution meetings all morning.'_

' _Hope they go well,'_ Amanda thought. _'I'm glad I got a break from the twenty-questions game from a certain Ms. Sullivan.'_

Jaime smiled. Karma was delicious and Amanda deserved to get badgered by a nosy eleven year old after the decision she made.

* * *

 

Gotham City Private Academy would be starting with a new semester of classes in a couple of weeks. Many new students were trying to get through the doors. Most people only got a spot in the academy in two ways. They knew someone important which opened some doors, especially if this someone important made a donation to the school. Or they had grades which were exceptional enough to catch the eye of a charity foundation such as the Shining Light Foundation. Thus, they would get in the side door.

A particularly exotic looking female stepped inside Gotham Private Academy with her head held high and an added spring in her step, along with a bit of a smile. She crossed in the side entrance showing her pass.

Her blonde hair hung down past her shoulders. Her skin showed an enticing Brazilian heritage, with an above average bustline for her age and some wide hips displaying a delicious looking ass which most certainly would catch the eye of many men and some women walking down the hallway. She walked with a confidence and a poise many students wished they had. The so called queen bees didn't have it, even though they wished to possess it.

"Excuse me, sir, I'm looking for the admissions office," the girl said, in a mostly clear voice, only with the hints of an accent which had been trained away by hard work.

"Of course," the man said with a smile. "Everything is in order, right this way, please."

The perspective new student made her way into the admissions office. The secretary looked up.

"Ms. Crestmere, Mr. Peterson will be here to see you shortly."

"No problem, I'm sure Mr. Peterson is a very busy man," the woman said, making herself at home on the desk, her hands folded in her lap.

She waited to be a part of this academy for a while, ever since her grandmother told her about this particular mission. The stunning Latina could stand to wait a few more moments. She had been trained in patience and poise far longer than she had been able to walk.

"Ms. Crestmere, you may go in now."

The beauty flashed a smile, which she knew could get a long way. She sauntered into the office of a man in his 1950s. His black hair came down towards his shoulders, and he had a mustache. Only the smallest hints of grey could be presented as part of him. They made him look more dignified than anything else.

"Amy Crestmere, right?" Mr. Peterson asked.

"Yes, sir," she said.

"I've taken a look at your entrance exams, and I have to say they are very impressive," Mr. Peterson said. "I understand you have been homeschooled for the first eight years of your education."

"Yes, sir," Amy said.

"Might I ask why you decided to attend Gotham Private Academy?" Mr. Peterson asked.

"Gotham Private Academy is highly accredited, and I feel like I'm missing something in my education, despite my grandmother paying for high dollar tutors," Amy said.

The man nodded in response.

"We turn a number of students away from the academy each year," Mr. Peterson said. "You understand this, right?"

"Yes, sir," Amy said, a nervous smile appearing on her face.

"However, Ms. Crestmere, you won't be one of them," Mr. Peterson said, a broad smile appearing on the gentleman's face. "I'd like to be among the first to welcome you to Gotham Private Academy. I hope you enjoy your stay there. It is an honor to have someone of your high intellectual standards at our Academy"

Amy Crestmere, or as she was better known elsewhere Princess Amara of Nova-Roma, flashed a smile.

"Thank you, sir, and the honor is all mine," Amy said. "And I will seek to maintain the same high standards you expect from your students."

* * *

 

Amanda took the long walk back in, and Rebecca and Lois stepped behind her. Jaime didn't really say too much of anything on the flight home. The look on her face conveyed more than enough disappointment and made Amanda more than nervous.

The moment Rebecca and Lois returned home, they noticed Lyta. The youngest Princess perched herself on the couch, arms folded when she stared down Rebecca and Lois.

"So, the two of you ran off from the rest of the group and went to Metropolis all alone," Lyta said. "Don't you realize how much trouble you're going to be in when Harry gets home? I bet he might spank you."

Lois grew red at the implication of this. She fantasized about Harry spanking her. It left her sheets in quite the state.

"And no, Lois, get your mind out of the gutter, I didn't mean in that way," Lyta said. "I can't believe the two of you ran off, and didn't invite me along."

The two girls blinked when they stared at Lyta. Lyta folded her arms over the top of her chest and stared at both of them.

"I think we got in more than enough trouble, as it is," Rebecca said. And they still hadn't gotten in all of the trouble they could though. Harry and Kara weren't back yet, and Rebecca dreaded when the two of them returned. "And the last thing we wanted to do was incur the wrath of your two older sisters."

Lyta shrugged her shoulders to accept this particular answer, or at least accept it as much as she was going to do at this point. Rebecca stared back at Lyta, almost happy she didn't lose all sense of herself.

"I need to talk to you, Amanda," Jaime said, letting the three girls reunite with each other.

' _Emily, I need to talk to you as well.'_

Both of the twins knew they were busted. Emily came out of her room, dressed in a long night shirt with her longer hair in disarray. She gave her twin a nervous smile.

' _I told you this was going to blow up in our faces, Mandy,'_ Emily thought. _'And it blew up, big time.'_

Amanda answered with a shrug. She knew now it was a bad idea for them to go off into Metropolis to chase after Lois and Rebecca. Jaime escorted the two of them off. Both twins agreed on something, it was a good thing Harry wasn't back. If Harry returned, this entire mess would be far worse than it was right now.

' _Granted, Jaime still is Harry, so it's still pretty bad to begin with.'_

Jaime motioned the twins into a private room and the two of them sat down in front of her. The tranquil fury on Jaime's face caused both Amanda and Emily to respond with a chilling shudder.

' _I can't believe what you two pulled,'_ Donna thought, shaking her head.

' _Would you have done the same thing if Lyta would have run off?'_ Amanda asked her.

' _Yes, I would have freaked out,'_ Donna thought, nodding in response. _'I'm not sure if I would have done something like you and stole one of my sister's costumes, and made an utter fool out of myself.'_

Only a few seconds passed when Jaime stared at both of the twins. Amanda wondered what she was going to say. She had been going over the thoughts in her mind and doubted it would be anything good.

"What were you thinking?"

Jaime's question stabbed the air around them. Amanda recoiled and decided to bite the bullet and answer the question.

"I don't think I was thinking this much," Amanda said. "We panicked; we did the only thing we could think of…."

"And you just happened for forget, Faora, Karen, and I were in Metropolis, didn't you?" Jaime asked.

Amanda and Emily both looked at their sister. The look she gave them was made worse by the fact Jaime didn't shout. Far worse, as a matter of fact.

"We didn't…we didn't forget," Amanda said. "It really makes it worse, doesn't it?"

Jaime gave both of her sisters the side long glare, which told them they were both in trouble.

"Yes, it does," Jaime agreed, locking her eyes on both of her sisters. "I want to make one thing perfectly clear to both of you, and I'm sure Harry would make the same thing clear to you. The rules are in place for a reason. Only, Dinah, Diana, Harry, and I are able to be able to go out without backup if the situation calls for it, and even then, most of the time we have backup. You aren't nowhere near ready for the field, despite your training. And the events of today proved it."

Amanda hung her head in frustration. She wanted to say something, anything, the apology got trapped in the back of her throat.

"We have these rules for a reason," Jaime said. "It's a good thing this is going to blow over, or we really would have problems."

"It won't happen again," Amanda said. "Trust me, it won't happen again."

"I told her…." Emily said.

"I don't blame you for the position you had been put in," Jaime said. "And Rebecca isn't entirely blameless for this situation either…and we aren't either."

The Potter twins both blinked in response. They wondered how Jaime and the others could be responsible for it.

"Most of us were out of town, and we should have arranged for an escort to take you girls to the mall for added security," Jaime said. "It was a mistake to think you two could handle it."

Amanda sighed. She wondered if this was a clearer indictment on herself or not. All the more devious Potter twin could do was sigh.

"And Rebecca did find a security flaw with the lab," Jaime said. "I'm sure Harry's going to have to agree we're going to have to take greater steps to lock it down."

"Yeah," Amanda said. "So, you're not mad at us?"

"Oh, I'm mad," Jaime said. "I'm still pretty pissed off with the two of you, and I hope you never pull something like this again."

The twins nodded. Words were shallow, and they couldn't say without clarity something like this would not happen again. They learned a valuable lesson regardless.

"I also know the guilt is eating you away more than any lecture," Jaime said. "And what Harry will say when he gets back."

Amanda nodded in response.

"And other than the big mistake you made, you didn't do too poorly out there," Jaime said. "There's always plenty of room for improvement, but it wasn't bad at all."

Amanda blinked, almost shocked Jaime gave such a compliment.

"This doesn't mean I'm giving you any kind of blessing to go out there again like that," Jaime said. "But, considering you're so eager to be a part of this, we're going to step up your physical training. I suggest you get to bed early tonight. You're going to need to be up by five."

Amanda groaned a little bit in response. Emily patted her twin on the shoulder in a fairly sympathetic manner. The moment the two twins locked eyes, Amanda could tell she had pretty much dug her own grave. Jaime's tone and look left no room for any kind of argument.

* * *

 

Juno Jones arrived in style outside a fairly exclusive restaurant in Gotham City. The famous talk show host had a very important date she did not want to miss. She had to wait for her date though. The gentleman arrived not late, rather Juno arrived a little bit early. Given her skills, Juno found a way to be where she wanted to be, when she wanted to be.

A fancy sport's car pulled up and the door opened. Juno smiled when she watched Diana step out of the car. The Amazon dressed in a black button up blouse and a flowing skirt. Her hair had been pinned back in a bun and she wore glasses. Juno thought it gave her the deceptively naughty librarian vibe when she saw as a pretty good look.

Diana stepped around the car and helped out Helena Sandsmark. Helena gave off the look of a woman who had been refreshed after an extremely tough time. The two women made their way over to meet Juno, both of them having smiles.

"Diana, it's good to see you again," Juno said, smiling at her.

"It's always an honor to see you," Diana said, responding with a smile.

Diana could not believe the Queen of the Goddesses had been living in Gotham City all of this time, almost directly underneath her nose. It really amazed her at the same time.

"You remember, Helena Sandsamrk, don't you?" Diana asked, after taking a moment to recover from her star struck nature regarding having a close encounter with her idol.

"It would be bad if I had forgotten such a lovely woman," Juno said, reaching around and shaking Helena's hand with a smile. "And I trust you're feeling better, Doctor Sandsmark."

"Loads better," Helena said. "The time away, along with the rest and relaxation did me a lot of good."

"We all need the time off," Juno said. "And how is Doctor McElroy in all of this?"

"He's really confused about what happened," Helena said. "I think it's for the best he doesn't remember. He's getting some time off, state of the art place where he can get the medical help he needed."

"Will he ever be back to the museum?" Juno asked.

Helena responded with a shrug.

"We're just taking this one day at a time, to be perfectly honest," Helena said. "The doctors are thinking it would be the best for him to retire. Take up something less stressful, but we won't know how far gone he might be. He hasn't had any episodes which is pretty encouraging."

Helena thought it was very charitable of Harry to pay for the stay of the good doctor at his home of rest. Harry did do a lot of fairly charitable things in his day which were quite remarkable.

As lovely as these two women were, and Juno wouldn't be denying their beauty, they weren't the date she waited for. She thought of worst ways to pass the time then spending some time with them.

Another car pulled up at this moment. The door opened up and Kara Kent-Potter exited the car. She walked around the side and opened up the door. A refreshed and invigorated Harry Potter entered.

"Harry!" Juno called, and she walked over to greet him with a smile. "Are you feeling better?"

"Lots better," Harry said. "The country air and the change of scenery really did a lot to get my mind together, but I'm back and ready for business."

Juno wrapped Harry into a tight hug, which caused Helena, Diana, and Kara all to smile knowingly. The disguised goddess decided to be a bit daring today and planted a kiss on Harry's cheek.

The group of five decided to make their way inside.

"Reservations are already taken care of," Diana said.

"You're amazing, Diana," Harry said, leaning over and kissing his wife.

"Yes, I try," Diana said, trying not to look smug. She would never hear the end of it from Donna about how her head wouldn't fit through the door.

The five of them settled down at the table and ordered their food.

"Thank you; it will be twenty minutes for your order."

Harry squeezed between Diana and Kara on the bench. Juno sat directly across from him and Helena sat directly off to the side of Diana.

"So, Harry, do you think I can ask you a question?" Juno asked, a smile crossing the woman's face when she stared him down. Harry nodded in confirmation. "Are you free Thursday?"

"Yes, I can make myself free," Harry said. Juno raised an eyebrow. "Actually, I have nothing going on. It's the day before the big gala opening, you know."

"Yes, I'm sure all of Gotham City knows about it by now," Juno said. "And if someone has been living underneath a rock for the past month, I'm sure we can happily educate them when you go on the Juno Jones show next Thursday."

Harry smiled. She really made this sound enticing and to be honest, it had been a long time for both of them.

"And it's not just because my ratings go through the roof every time you're on, although that keeps the station managers happy," Juno said. The entire group laughed. "I think you're a very engaging guest, and…there always seems to be something new to talk about with you."

Harry didn't doubt it to be perfectly honest.

"Yes," Harry said. "Providing of course you give me the honor of joining me for lunch after our interview is over."

"Oh, believe me, the honor is all mine," Juno said.

"It's going to be a big week," Kara said. "Vicki wanted to book some time with you as well next week."

A suggestive smile indicated the lovely Ms. Vale had more than an interview in mind.

"Well, I'm sure my media department is working out a good interview schedule," Harry said.

"Given, I'm the media department, I agree," Kara said, almost laughing.

Their food arrived and Harry settled in for a particularly nice meal. He figured this could almost wait until after dinner, but he couldn't resist.

' _So, did anything happen when I was out of town?'_ Harry asked, mostly asking Jaime, Karen, Faora, and Diana this question.

' _Enjoy your meal,'_ Jaime thought. _'I'll tell you tonight.'_

Harry didn't know why, but he had a sense of foreboding. He decided to do as Jaime requested. He trusted his girls to take care of any problems.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on April 27** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Harry is a world class troll, regarding Cobblepot. Not going to be a good time to be the Penguin over the next couple of months._

_The difference between the Metropolis Police Department and the Gotham City Police Department is pretty much night and day, as people can see here._

_The twins get lectured, and well it appears there trouble is just beginning._

_Lots of interesting things being set up on the background._

_Until Wednesday._


	183. Beware the Batwoman Part One

Week Sixteen Chapter of the Week Voting is up at the blog. Head there, vote for up to three of your favorite chapters.

* * *

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Three: Beware the Batwoman Part One.**

The buzz in Gotham City reached a brand new and intense fever pitch. The biggest and most anticipated event of the entire summer hit. The Red Sun Eclipse gala opening event, and the Friday before Labor Day weekend hosted the event. This date was a fairly curious one, as many would be going out of town to celebrate the holidays. Harry had a particular method to his rather devious madness. The scene started to rock in Gotham City as some of the brightest stars came out.

Gotham Square had been decorated for the occasion. A giant countdown clock appeared on the jumbo-tron counting down the seconds to midnight. Gotham's finest arrived in style along with several prominent guests from out of town.

A fancy car pulled up and the man of the hour arrived. Harry stepped out of the car dressed in a nice suit. Kara followed him out of the car dressed in a shimmering red dress which hugged pretty much every inch of her body. Diana followed with a tight black dress on which turned heads. Karen exited in a white dress and Faora wore a black dress from Diana's. Faora's dress boasted of less sequence. Finally, Jaime brought up the rear attired in a green dress which matched both her and Harry's eyes.

The sounds of cheers echoed the moment Harry exited the limo. He smiled and basked in the moment, his moment, when walking into Gotham City. No sooner did Harry walk five steps out of the limo.

"And we are live on the scene on Gotham Square, where the guest of honor has arrived," Vicki said. The reporter had been forced to speak a little bit louder than normal over the loud cheers from the people. "Harry Potter is here. Harry, you really have done it again, haven't you?"

"Yes, Vicki, I have," Harry said, smiling. "I've always had the greatest expectations for my products. This exceeds all of those great expectations by a country mile. I'm confident and also extremely excited this is going to be one of the defining nights for RAO in Gotham City."

"Do you even think there's going to be a phone on the shelf after the flood of consumers?" Vicki asked.

Harry chuckled at her response.

"The pre-orders have exceeded all expectations," Harry said. "And if people miss their chance this week, we intend to have a second shipment come in next week. They should get them while they're hot."

"Not only getting them hot, but after the release of the initial Red Sun coming down last year, people are excited for this new and updated model!" Vicki said in excitement. "And I understand there are more products which are coming around the corner. Would I be premature in asking this, Harry?"

"No, Vicki, there isn't," Harry said. "I'll make an announcement closer to the date. This coming spring and next summer are going to bring big things and more things which will change the way people communicate. Technology helps change the world. We either have to go along with the ride, or be swept into the current."

Vicki smiled and took a moment to breathe in deeply. The loud sounds of the crowd made it extremely difficult for one to hear themselves think. It did show how excitement Gotham was it.

"Well, if these last two releases are any indication, RAO is most certainly spear-heading a technological revolution which will take us into the new millennium," Vicki said, a smile crossing her face. "This is most certainly the hottest party of 1998. This is Vicki Vale here, and we'll be popping in throughout the night with the latest news. Back to the studio!"

Vicki let out her breath in a sight. She turned towards the group with a smile.

"You've really outdone yourselves this time," Vicki said.

"I'd like to think we outdo all expectations every time," Harry said. "So, how are you, Vicki?"

"You mean since our interview the other day?" Vicki said.

Kara placed a hand on Vicki's shoulder and grinned brightly.

"I had the impression you were a little bit sore after that one," Kara said, giving a smile towards Vicki and a wink. "Or at least a little bit sore from the aftermath…you know, the off the record portion of the interview."

Vicki laughed. She would have to say an interview with Harry was always memorable. The top-notch reporter received something for the station and most certainly something for herself. More than something for herself, she could never get her fill of Harry despite Harry filling him fully.

"You really did make the media rounds, every single talk show in Gotham, both television and radio," Vicki said. "And you capped it off with another appearance on the Juno Jones show. I don't even know how you made it interesting, and different enough."

"It isn't easy," Harry said, watching the girls move off in their opposite directions. "Watch yourself out there Vicki. Especially when the clock strikes midnight. I would hate to see you trampled out there."

Vicki almost broke out into laughter. After all the danger she weathered, being trampled by a crowd of rabid cell phone addicts would be the way to go.

Harry caught sight of Tamara Fox. Tam dressed in a nice blue dress which hugged her body and made her radiance shine through. She smiled and looked over towards Harry.

"I bet you'd be glad when this is all over," Tam said, a smile flickering on her face when Harry approached her.

"Why, wouldn't you?" Harry asked. "You've been doing a lot of work yourself."

"Yes," Tam said, placing a hand on her hips. "My father is around here somewhere…after all, Wayne helped with the distribution deal, so he's as excitement as you are about it."

Harry could see how someone, even someone like Lucius Fox, could lose himself within the crowd. Anyone who was anyone was here in Gotham City.

"I have to say, the turnout is intimidating," Tamara said. "And I'm sure you're glad they're all here to witness one of your latest crowning moments….you seem to have a lot of them."

"Yes," Harry said. "And I'd like to thank you for the hard work. I owe you a good dinner for all the help you've given me."

"It's really impressive."

Alexa turned up in the crowd and Tess joined her. Both women dressed to kill in the trademark little black dresses. Alexa looked at home amongst the people here and did not allow these people to intimidate them at all.

"If they're this excited over a cell phone, I wonder what happens when you have an even bigger project out on the market," Alexa said, closing in on Harry. She smiled and could see a lot of people watching her curiously. "Well, if they're going to take a picture, we better give them something to take a picture for."

Alexa, without any further preamble, wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and pulled him into a sizzling kiss. The kiss had been returned by Harry. A couple of flashes of a photograph could be heard, which caused Alexa to wrap her arms tighter around Harry and press her body against hers.

Tamara and Tess watched the kiss linger for a long moment. Both girls turned numb struck, unable to figure out what to properly say. This entire thing blew their minds beyond all belief and caused them frustration in more ways than one.

The kiss lasted for a bit of time, and Alexa finally pulled away. She gave Harry a few parting nibbles of his lip and cupped his ass for a second.

"You really have no shame, do you?" Tamara asked.

"She's a Luthor. They had their shame removed at birth."

The entire group turned up and Sapphire showed up wearing a tight little white dress. Every inch of her curves were on display. Speaking of no shame, she stepped over towards Harry and threw herself practically at the young man. Sapphire's tongue pushed deep into Harry's mouth. Harry closed his eyes and enjoyed the kiss from her.

"You know, he's not going to get anything accomplished tonight, between the two of you," Tamara said.

Alexa cast the Fox heiress a smile.

"You know, if you're feeling left out, strike while the iron was hot."

Tamara smiled. She did want to strike, and eventually she would strike. Out in the middle of a crowd, during one of the hottest nights of the year, both figuratively and literally speaking, didn't strike her as the perfect nice.

"So, how have you been doing, Sapphire?" Harry asked, the moment she pulled out of way.

"Usual dealing with people in the company who can't seem to get it through their skulls things have changed in Gotham City," Sapphire said. Her head rested lightly against Harry's shoulder. Harry wrapped his arm around the slender waist of the daughter of Simon Stagg to holder her up. "It's funny though."

"What's funny?" Harry asked.

Sapphire smiled and nuzzled herself into Harry's neck. She didn't really care they were out in the middle of public.

' _Girl has no shame,'_ Kara thought. _'Makes me like her.'_

' _You would, oh boy, you would,'_ Donna thought. _'I think she's just under a lot of stress and who better to help her relieve her stress than Harry.'_

Sapphire took a couple of moments to re-collect her thoughts. It wasn't the intention of the Stagg heiress to leave Harry hanging, at least not for too long. She gave him a light kiss upon his lips which half-acted as an apology of sorts.

"Whenever I bring up your name, they can't help, but fall back into line," Sapphire said, drawing in a deep breath before doing a pretty good imitation of your usual corporate subordinate. "Yes, Ms. Stagg. Anything you want Ms. Stagg. At once, Ms. Stagg. Anything, anything at all, Ms. Stagg."

Harry's face cracked into a knowing smile. Sapphire pretty much hit the nail directly on the head. His name held a lot of weight.

"Harry's name does hold a lot of weight," Alexa said. She smiled and looked towards Sapphire. "And I'm sure you wouldn't abuse this little power at all, would you?"

The wicked little grin invading Sapphire's face told Alexa what she needed to know. The crowd's attention diverted elsewhere and Harry knew why. Someone, a pair of someones, turned up, and their dates as well. Bruce Wayne walked out of the limo with the usual amount of fanfare one expected from the Billionaire playboy.

Harvey Dent made his way out of the car as well. The favorite to win the Gotham City District Attorney race this November always managed to have a crowd follow around him. His wife Gilda made her way out, and she shook her head. The crowd almost overwhelmed her the moment she walked out.

"Are you okay, Gilda?" Harvey asked.

"Never thought it'd be this crowded," Gilda said, managing to keep her wits about herself.

"What do you expect, it's Harry Potter? He attracts a crowd pretty much wherever he goes?"

The current acting District Attorney Rachel Dawes made her way out. She eyed up the crowd. Harvey moved around to get his fair share of attention which she frowned at.

"I feel sorry for the people working security in this," Rachel said. "Would hate to be in their shoes."

"Gordon said they're beefing things up, it's almost like they're expecting an attack," Harvey said. He groaned when he noticed Carmine Falcone step into the picture, the Roman holding full court like he was Caesar.

"I know," Rachel said, sensing Harvey's agitation. "But, you know, Falcone wouldn't miss an opportunity to put himself in the middle of everything. And there's Hamilton Hill, getting pretty chummy with the businessmen of Gotham City."

"Is Shreck yammering on about the power plant he wants to build in Gotham City?" Harvey asked in a dry voice. "He almost talked my ear about it last week. How it would bring new jobs and new opportunities to Gotham City. I had to work to get him off the phone. Don't know why, he has Hill's support."

"Maybe he's covering all bases," Rachel said.

Bruce responded with a nod, only half paying attention. He kept his eye out for a certain person and noticed Oswald Cobblepot turning up in the flesh. Cobblepot walked into the crowd and resembled a ten-year old who had been dragged into a family get together against his will. If he didn't show up though, it would make him look bad in the eyes of the rich and famous who he tried to become a respectable member of Gotham's society.

' _Good one, Harry, very good one,'_ Bruce thought. It was a worthy maneuver.

Harry disappeared into the swarm, and could see a certain reporter and her assistant wanting to get a word with him, if they could fight their way through.

"April, Betty, how are you two doing?" Harry asked, pushing his way through the crowd. Not an easy task to be perfectly honest, but Harry managed it.

"We're doing fine," April said, stepping over Betty. "It's really good to see you, Harry."

"Yes, it is," Betty said. "I know you must be getting sick of interviews by now….but maybe after all of this dies down, maybe a brief word for the Daily Bugle?"

Harry flashed the two reporters a smile and leaned in closer towards them.

"Given how memorable of an interview you can be, Ms. Brant, I'd be delighted," Harry said.

Betty smiled in a knowing manner. This particular smile caused April to raise her eyebrow in surprise, almost as if she was trying to contemplate what was going on.

"So, how is the Bugle treating you, April?" Harry asked.

"Just working on a story of interest, or at least convincing Betty to see if it has any legs," April said.

"You aren't talking about that one blurry picture of the things which may or may not be human sized turtles?"

April shook her head for a second. She found her interest directed towards the urban legends of the New York City Sewer system. She really didn't know what to believe. Many skeptics didn't share her interest in the weird and the absurd. Some claimed these mysterious creatures to be nothing other than a bunch of punk kids in Halloween.

"Okay, I'll grant you, the entire Turtle thing is pretty interesting," April said, drawing in her breath. "It isn't the only interesting thing out there in New York though."

"I'd imagine it isn't," Harry said in response.

"The metal monsters attacking technology companies in New York, there's something interesting which is worthy of a second look," April said, leaning in closer to Harry. "Wouldn't you agree?"

Harry would have to agree. He also decided to leave April with one crystal clear warning.

"It's of interest," Harry said. "But, you should…."

"I know what you're going to say, Betty's said it about a hundred times," April said. Betty raised an eyebrow in response and April amended her statement. "Okay, two hundred."

The two reporters exchanged one of those smiles. April, knowing she had Harry hooked and where she wanted him, pressed on.

"It has to do with TCRI," April said, voice lowering. "They've been involved in their fair share of shady things lately. No one can deny it."

Harry didn't deny it. Alex and the DEO had been investigating some strangeness involving TCRI. Harry thought the security system was top of the line. Barbara couldn't even hack in past the security. She tried and had been bounced out. Barbara took it as a personal insult to her own abilities.

"No, not denying it," Harry said.

The timer gave the thirty minute warning. Betty held onto April's shoulder and turned her around.

"I'm sure Harry would like to learn about your suspicions later, but Jameson would have our skin if we don't have pictures….PICTURES…of the grand opening," Betty said, doing an impressively accurate imitation of the jolly giant of journalism. She should know all of the takes. "You can work a camera, can't you?"

"Of course I can."

"So, has the Red Sun Eclipse launch exceeded all of your expectations?" Betty asked, trying to get a quick quote.

Harry took in a deep breath. It had been a quote he had given several times over the past week, in various different variations. He didn't want to say he was sick of saying it.

"I think it's exceeded all the expectations I've had previously," Harry said, a smile crossing over his face. "It just made me a bunch of future expectations I'm going to have to exceed and believe me, I will exceed them in the future."

Betty smiled. Anyone else, she thought it would be just a bunch of PR spin and talk. With Harry, she figured it would be so much more. Betty leaned over and smiled.

"I'll see you later," Betty said, taking a moment to steal a quick kiss on Harry's cheek which April did catch being the sharp-eyed young woman she was.

"Yes, I will," Harry said, with a smile on his face. "I'll talk to you later, you too, April."

April smiled and waved. She turned around a fraction of an inch and came face to face with another redhead who resembled her in some ways, at least from a distance. They looked like they could be twin sisters separated at birth. Maybe they wouldn't be completely close twins, but they were twins never the less.

Barbara chuckled when she passed the young reporter. She took a nice spot next to Harry to gain a couple of minutes with him.

' _It's really like looking into a mirror,'_ Barbara thought. _'I guess what you say is true, you have a double somewhere, anywhere, which looks like you.'_

' _Yes,'_ Dinah thought.

"Glad to see you can make it out tonight, Dinah," Harry said. "How's your father doing?"

"He's fine, coping with the entire Sara thing," Dinah said, sighing when she closed the gap closer towards Harry. "She promised she'd call him sooner or later. I guess she hasn't gotten around to doing so yet."

Dinah had the sense Sara wasn't ready to come home. This was more than fine for Dinah to be perfectly honest, Sara was an adult who could make her own decisions. All she wanted Sara to do was tell her father everything was okay.

"She's got a lot to deal with," Harry said. "You did try and lift your father's hopes, didn't you?"

' _He hasn't given up all hope just yet,'_ Dinah said, smiling widely. Harry wrapped his arm tighter around her body. _'He's in the school of if there's not a body, then there's always hope. He's dealt with things like this. We all have, being in Gotham City.'_

Harry stepped away from Dinah and turned around to Betty and Bunny. Both of them grinned at him. Bette pushed forward and grabbed Harry by the shirt. She pulled him into a completely sizzling kiss, slipping him a little bit of tongue in the process.

"Looks like you're happy to see me," Harry said, allowing Bette to push back towards him. Bunny pouted and Bette stepped out to the side. "Hi, Bunny."

"Hi, handsome," Bunny said, trying to outdone her friend and likely get a jump on her sister when she caught up to Harry later. The feisty redhead pushed her tongue into his mouth.

Bette shook her head. The socialite thought only one person won all of these competitions and it was Harry. She doubted he complained about the entire situation.

"So, Bette, how's your aunt?" Harry asked.

"She's…she's been feeling a bit under the weather," Bette said. "I caught a ride here with the Vreelands."

Speaking of which, Veronica stepped up to join them. Harry and Veronica greeted each other with a kiss, even though it looked a bit subdued in the process.

"Hope Kathy is feeling better, and it isn't anything seriously," Veronica said. "She's been out of it as of late….it's almost like she isn't getting any sleep again. Kathy not sleeping doesn't comfort me. Especially with her appointments with the so called world-class sleep therapist."

Harry sensed the disdain regarding Kathy's doctor in Veronica's voice. The look in Bette's eyes showed Harry this was shared.

"I don't know," Bette said. "Kathy claims it was something she ate. It didn't agree with her, and to be fair, she's been in the bathroom a lot for the past couple of days. As much as I want to blame Doctor Slumberman, or whatever his name is, I don't think it's particularly fair to do so."

"Maybe not," Veronica said, a small amount of doubt in her mind.

Harry eyed the countdown clock. The time to the grand launch was almost here. People lined up through the doors, many of them had their pre-orders.

* * *

Hugo Strange sat in his office late at night. He reached over to the phone and dialed up a number of one of his colleagues, a Doctor Somnambular. He had not bothered to return his calls in weeks, something with Hugo Strange found a tad bit frustrated. He waited for the phone.

"Hello, you have reached the office of Doctor James Somnambular," the recording on the other end of the phone said. "If you wish to inquire about an appointment, please note my appointments for the next two weeks have been cancelled due to an unforeseen emergency. If the message is urgent, please press "2" and I will return your call at the earliest convenience."

Strange pressed two.

"James, my old friend, this is Professor Hugo Strange," the good professor said over the other end of the phone with his booming voice. "I hoped to inquire whether or not the game is still afoot. I would hate to think you've stood me up for some reason. I will be extremely disappointed. You have my number. I will be in my office all Labor Day weekend, so do call me."

The good professor disconnected the phone call, realizing there was no instance of the doctor calling him. Strange made these calls over the past few weeks. The last time Strange and the doctor communicate was around the middle of August, about the 16th, or was it the 17th?

' _Time to take the game to another level.'_

Strange dialed up a number on the phone, and waited for someone on the other end to pick up. A few rings later, a distorted voice came through the other side of the phone.

"What path can you take where you start in one place and end up at the same place you started?" the distorted voice on the other end of the phone asked.

"A circular one," Strange said. "Hello, Mr. Enigma. I want to inquire if there's any soft targets tonight which my protégé can take."

"Just one moment," Enigma said. "If you wanted her to strike, this is the perfect night. All of the people in Gotham are busy at the Red Sun Gala. My invitation must have been lost in the mail. No doubt, an oversight of the postal service."

"Of course," Hugo said in his driest tone possible. "Now, if you please, could you dig me up a target for my associate to strike?"

"Alright, alright, let's not get too pushy," Enigma said. "Some low level mobsters are trying to be big time, getting their guns and drugs from a third party company in Japan."

"Oh, they must be very bold, if they are willing to incur the wrath of both the Penguin and Black Mask," Strange said.

"When one wants to be big time, they have to step on some rather important toes," Enigma said, breathing in and out. "It's taking place, well after midnight…well this should be interesting."

"What is interesting?" Hugo asked. "I hope you're not holding out on me."

"No, never," Enigma said. "The Penguin's men are doing a deal close by….shortly thereafter. We could be in the middle of something dangerous."

Hugo Strange looked on with a thoughtful expression. A smile crossed over his face. A scientist always enjoyed adding some new and fresh variables into the equation. He hoped this experiment would go forward. He reached over and picked up the phone to dial up their test subject.

* * *

A pair of low-level mobsters paced around the docks with a great deal of impatience. A boat pulled up. The boat didn't look like anything remarkable, your usual shipping boat. The occupants on the boat were something else entirely.

A large, hulking, figure exited the boat. He dressed in a black sleeveless vest which showed off his large arms and a tight pair of black leather pants. One of his arms had a large tattoo of a purple dragon on it. The man's face adorned with several scars. His hair was bleached blonde, to the point where people figured it might not have been the man's natural color. His hair had been done up it in a rat tail.

A smaller, but still larger, white gentleman dressed in military fatigues exited the boat as well. The man was followed by a colored gentleman dressed in a red vest, a white wife-beater, and fatigue pants. He wore purple sunglasses and purple hair done up in a stylish Mohawk.

"Do you have the goods, Hun?" one of the low-level low lives asked.

"You better have made it worth my while," Hun said.

He didn't like Gotham City. There were too many freaks hovering around for his liking. Something about this city gave this man mountain the creeps. And he worked with the Shredder.

"Yeah, we've made it worth your while," one of the low-lives said and snapped his finger.

Two other hoods carried a large case from the truck. One of them opened the case up to reveal stacks and stacks of money. Hun grabbed a fist full of the stacks of money and flipped it over.

"Do you think we're messing you?" one of the low-lives asked. "Do you think we are screwing you over? Giving you fake money?"

The man's antagonistic tone made Hun's eyes cast over him. One could see the agitation flashing through the man's eyes.

"You can never be too careful with Gotham City trash like you," Hun said.

One of them tried to move forward. The two large heavies of Hun stepped in front of him and both of them growled. One of the low-level Gotham City hoods drew out a knife. One of Hun's goons responded by drawing a machete.

"All of it's in order though," Hun said. "Bebop, Rocksteady, get them what we promised them."

Bebop and Rocksteady walked onto the ship and wheeled out two crates. One of them had been filled with weapons, the other had been filled with drugs.

"I'd like to say it's been a pleasure doing business with you," Hun said. "Have fun, boys."

Hun picked up his case of money, the deed down, and led his men back on the boat. The boat left the docks and sailed back to New York.

Katana and Batman watched the entire deal go down from the perch point. After Bruce Wayne made a standard appearance at the Red Sun opening gala, he prepared himself to suit up as Batman to follow a deal. And they most certainly landed in the middle of a deal.

"A new player in town?" Batman asked.

"A new player in Gotham City maybe, but I recognize him," Katana said. She was surprised Batman didn't recognize this particular gentleman and also a bit amused. She had rarely gotten the better of Batman in the information game. "His name is Hunter Mason, but most people call him Hun. He's the leader of a new York city street gang called the Purple Dragons."

The name did ring a bell to Batman. He inclined his head which Katana took as her cue to go on.

"He works with the Purple Dragons and answers to a more insidious force," Katana said. "A man who calls himself the Shredder."

"The Shredder?" Batman asked, almost breaking his stoic demeanor and catching himself at the last minute.

Katana had about the same exact response the first time she heard the Shredder's name.

"The name might make him sound like he's a kitchen utensil, but don't let it fool you," Katana said, warning in her voice. "He's extremely dangerous and extremely cruel as well. He may not be Ra's Al Ghul. He merely aspires to be."

Batman could already tell someone who aspires to be as powerful as Ra's Al Ghul looked to be a particularly powerful and dangerous foe indeed. He didn't say anything.

"They had a falling out, in fact," Katana said. "The Shredder broke away from the League of Assassins, and brought the ancient Foot clan to greater prominence. He took control of the Foot, framing another man, Hamato Yoshi, for the murder of the sensei. He was cast out in shame. And Yoshi hasn't been seen for the past fifteen years."

Batman found the backstory to be a fair bit interesting. A limo pulled up right in the middle of these low-level goons showing up. The door opened up and the Walrus came out, along with several of his men.

"Ramshot, what the bloody hell are you doing?" the Walrus asked.

"Walrus, it isn't one it looks like," one of the low-level low lives named Ramshot said. He tried to stand up bold. Walrus grabbed him by the hand and pushed him against the side of the building.

"Looks to me like you're not playing the game right," the Walrus grunted. He backed off, only for two of his men to grab Ramshot.

Ramshot's boys tried to move in. They had been blocked by the Walrus's goons.

"You see, there's a pecking order in Gotham City," Walrus said. "We used you and your boys to run some goods, under the radar. And you've done a good job, haven't you? And now, you're buying from outside of Gotham City."

Walrus pulled out his fabled cricket bat.

"Hold him, so I can teach him some manners," Walrus said. "What were you thinking? Did you really think you can be big time? Well you should have thought harder."

Walrus reared back the bat and cracked Ramshot over his knee caps with it. Another wild swing smacked Ramshot as hard as possible across the knee cap with the baseball bat. A crunch echoed when the man slumped over, agony rolling over his eyes and face from getting tagged with the baseball bat.

Batman looked over his shoulder and gave Katana one look which plainly stated it was time to move. Only someone else beat them to the punch, grabbing two of the Walrus's goons around the neck and slamming them down onto the ground.

Katana watched as the woman who the press dubbed Batwoman start kicking some heavy ass. She dodged a knife being stabbed and grabbed the goon around the neck. She drilled the point of elbow down across the goon's pressure point and dropped him to the ground. The man gave a pained gasp as he dropped to the ground.

The Walrus's anger reached a fever point.

"Just don't stand there, shoot…ARGH!"

Katana dove down from her perch point and curb stomped the mustached mobster into the pavement. He landed head first with a huge thump. The warrior withdrew her weapon of charge and sliced the pipe one of the goons held.

Batman dragged two of them into the shadows and laid a beating on them. Punches rocked the mobsters. One of these punches knocked the wind completely out of them.

The mysterious vigilante knocked the gun out of the hand of one of the mobsters, and pulled out a silver explosive. She pressed it and rolled it onto the ground. A fiery explosion rose up from the orb and caught the mobsters completely off guard. The woman in question pulled the knife out of the hand of one of the men and brought it back into his thighs.

Batman stepped in front of the mysterious vigilante, preparing to stop her before things got too far. One of the mobsters tried to get the drop on Batman. He turned around and nailed him in the stomach to double him over.

The vigilante perched on top of the box of goods and set up a device on it. The device armed to explode in about the next three minutes. The figure reached into her glove and dropped a gas pellet on the ground.

Katana dropped down to avoid the gas from attacking her. Tear gas by the looks of things and she coughed. The warrior wiped her eyes.

"We have to get out of here!"

Two of the Walrus's goons picked up the Walrus. Ramshot's men did the same of them. Both sides left the shipments behind and chalked it up as an unfortunate bust.

Batman and Katana rushed out of the blast radius and had to dive into the depths of the harbor to avoid being caught up in it. A loud explosion rang out and sent flames shooting up into the air.

Other than the ringing which entered their ears, both sides thought they were fine. Batman peered up over the docks to see the flaming wreckage. All of the mobsters left, in addition to the mysterious vigilante.

"I recognized the technology used," Batman said.

The two of them pulled out of the water and Batman craned his neck a fraction of an inch upwards. Katana frowned when putting her eyes on the back of Batman's head.

"You're going to care to elaborate on that?" Katana asked.

"We need to leave."

His curt statement told Katana all she needed to know. No, he wasn't going to elaborate. Why would he even try to elaborate on something like this?

* * *

Bette Kane returned home, having been dropped off by Veronica. She had a nice night. The nice evening though had been kind of shadowed by the fact she was worried about her Aunt Kathy. She had a stomach bug of some sort, or something, and Bette decided to be a nice niece to go up and check on her.

A window opened and someone crept inside. This particular sound caused Bette to stop directly in her tracks. Bette grew rigid. The security in Kathy's mansion, while nowhere as good as Wayne or Potter level, still was pretty good.

Bette peered around the corner and saw a figure in a mask and full body armor creeping around. The woman walked down the hallway. Bette took a couple of nervous steps forward and stopped when the figure entered her Aunt Kathy's room.

The woman sank down on the bed and pulled the mask off. Bette was almost about ready to go and call the GCPD.

The mask came off and the woman's face reflected in the mirror. The face was Kathy Kane.

Bette gasped and she could barely even stop the next statement to come out of her mouth.

"What the fuck?"

Kathy rooted on the spot and the vapid and dangerous look on her face showed Bette something wasn't right. The woman jumped off of the bed and lunged at her own niece like she was a threat of some sort.

Bette used her reflexes to jump out of the way and jump out of the hallway. The woman jumped in front of her and blocked Bette's path down the stairs. The younger woman turned around and made her way into her room and bolted the door.

The pounding on the door echoed which matched the pounding in Bette's chest. She felt like an extra in a slasher film and she was about to get stabbed by the crazed maniac of the story. The pounding grew even more intense the door smashed.

Bette rushed over to her window and started to fumble with the lock. She opened it up and made her way onto the balcony. Bette propelled herself off of the ledge and tried to land on the bush. Her heels came flying off in the process and Bette landed on the grass. The blonde winced and twisted her ankle in the process.

Running on pure adrenaline, Bette got in her car, pushed the key into the ignition and floored it, knocking over the trash cans and the gate. She had a few drinks tonight, but she needed to get out of here.

Kathy turned around in a zombified state and eyes flickered open. The lost look in her eyes faded and had been replaced by horror. .

The woman looked back at herself in the full-length mirror, fully conscious of what she was doing. She dressed in the fully Batwoman costume.

"My God."

* * *

**To Be Continued.**

* * *

_And behold, one of the worst kept secrets of this story is revealed officially._

_A fair bit of set up and the Red Sun's big labor day launch happens after many chapters of hype._

_Until Saturday._


	184. Beware the Batwoman Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Four: Beware the Batwoman Part Two.**

* * *

The Red Sun Eclipse Opening Night Gala took every single expectation which had been laid down by the fine folks of RAO and leveled it with a well placed bitch slap. The turnout was good and while the sale records could not be finalized by Tuesday thanks to the holiday week, the projected results were something the entire group could pat themselves on the back with.

Harry, Kara, Karen, Faora, Jaime, and Diana returned to the penthouse well after midnight. Some of the others decided to check in a bit earlier and return home at an earlier tonight. They stayed to see this even through until the end. It was way closer to Saturday morning than Friday night by the time they returned home. Harry walked over with a smile on his face and looked out the window. The area of all of Gotham City greeted him.

The man of the hour needed to soak in all of the atmosphere around him. Harry briefly considered for a moment if he would be arrogant to say he deserved this. Such thoughts squashed at the genesis. Harry did deserve all of this.

"You should pat yourself on the back," Faora said, and she took a spot right behind Harry. The Daughter of Zod wrapped her arms around her brother's neck and leaned on in. A lazy, but satisfied smile reflected in the window. "This was a good night, and a greater turnout. It's just as we talked about years ago. It's all about making your place in the world."

"I'm not sure I should be the one patting myself on the back," Harry said. One statement could get an interesting amount of surprised gasps from the entire group at large. "You and Karen should be patting yourselves on the back as well. The amount of work you did to get this all together was amazing. I can't even begin to describe what you've done."

"Oh, believe me, we know exactly what we've done," Karen said. She stood on Harry's right side. The other Alphas situated their way into the room. "I would say it wasn't easy. It wouldn't have been rewarding at all if it was easy, you know."

Harry laughed. Karen spoke the truth. He never did anything because it was considered easily. Harry always took the most prestigious path straight to the top and hoped he would accomplish a lot.

"A lot of people have been asking what's next," Harry said. He paused for a long moment. Anyone who wanted to remain ahead of the curb had RAO products now. And their penetration into the society of Gotham City were just beginning. "And they don't realize the best is yet to come."

"You sound like a super villain plotting world domination," Kara said, passing off a grin towards Harry.

Everyone laughed at this statement. Harry pulled himself away from the window and sat down. Karen and Faora positioned themselves on either side of Harry. Kara zoomed over to the other side of the room and took a spot on Harry's lap before anyone can think about it.

Including Diana, who gave Kara one of the most evil eyes possible, which Kara returned with a smile and a look which plainly stated "you snooze, you lose." The Amazon Princess responded with a shrug and sighed before locking eyes onto Kara. She settled down on the seat next to Harry.

"At least we're in for a nice and quiet labor day weekend after all of the madness is over," Kara said.

"Are we sure?" Harry asked, and Kara blinked. "Remember what happened last Labor Day?"

Kara took a moment to bring in an extremely frustrated sigh. It would be a long time before any of them would forget the last Labor Day. Several expecting mothers had been killed by the Calendar Man. Julian Day may be rotting in prison. The effects of his crime spree were experienced by all of Gotham City.

"Let us all hope nothing this awful happens this year," Diana said.

Jaime reached over and grabbed an expensive looking bottle of wine. She poured a glass for all of them involved and a smile cracked over her face.

"I think we can all drink to this hope," Jaime said. She paused for a long time and passed all of the wine glasses around. "Along with our success and the future success of the RAO Corporation."

The party all took a long drink at Jaime's toast. Tonight's events resulted in months of preparation. All of them looked forward to the next big event in the spring and Harry's confidence it a fresh new fever pitch something big was going to happen now.

A buzzing sound echoed which indicated a guest was on their way in. Kara slid off of Harry's lap to allow him up and to jump him. Both of them locked eyes with each other and wondered who would be turning up for a visit this late in the evening.

The answer came to them in the form of Bette Kane. The elevator doors slid open and a rather dazed Bette Kane staggered into the room. She limped towards them and almost fell over. Kara and Harry caught her before she collapsed and both of them marched them over to the couch.

"Alex, get something to treat her ankle," Harry said.

Faora nodded and got right into it right now. Bette had been placed on the couch. Her ankle had been completely swollen. Harry looked at the ankle and looked back at the girl. She sounded a little bit pained to be honest.

"You really looked banged up," Kara said, frowning when she locked eyes onto Bette. "What the hell happened anyway?"

"Don't….don't overwhelm her right now," Faora said. Harry and Kara stepped back and allowed Faora to get to work to do what she did best. Faora ran her hand over Bette's swelling and tried to prod at it. "Does this hurt?"

"A little bit," Bette said, tears rolling down her eyes. She didn't know what the hell she left behind. All she recalled was pealing rubber out through the gates of her aunt's mansion and not looking back. "It's….it really hurts like hell….I guess the adrenaline has worn off and….."

Faora applied some ice to the ankle. She looked up towards the Kane heiress with a smile directed to her face.

"I have some good news," Faora said, smiling. "You didn't break your ankle…how did you twist it anyway?"

"I jumped off of a balcony from three floors up onto a drive way, "Bette said. "I guess I'm not a graceful landing as I thought I was. I did it in heels though…"

Bette's heels had been lost although to be fair, she might not have gotten away from her pursuer.

"Did you see something at your mansion?" Harry asked, managing to get to the overwhelming. "What was it?"

"It might have been a better idea to go straight to the GCPD if you saw someone breaking into your mansion," Kara said. She took a moment to frown at the look of Bette's face. "Unless there's something else you saw which…well which weirded you out."

Bette's eyes closed shut and she responded with a momentary sigh. Weirded out was a pretty good description of how she felt right about now. Harry placed a hand on her bare knee and caused her to sigh.

"I saw….I heard noises after the Vreelands dropped me off," Bette said. "I thought nothing of it at first…but then I heard someone coming in a window. It was her…the masked vigilante. The one the press is calling Batwoman, you know the one I'm talking about right?"

Bette's entire tone came out completely shaky. Harry knew precisely what she was talking about though.

"Are you sure?" Kara asked, looking at Bette with one of those looks on her face.

"Yeah," Bette said, shivering for a moment. "I know what I saw. I saw her in the house, wearing the costume with the mask off. And she attacked me."

"Why would she attack you?" Kara asked, frowning.

Bette took a moment to consider this thought. It hit her like a ton of bricks in the chest.

"It's not….I bet it's that doctor, he's doing something to her," Bette said, hurling her arms into the air. "I knew something was up there….he's planting a hypnotic suggestion in her head or something….we need to get her….we need to get her help now."

Bette almost rose to her feet. She collapsed. The full pain of the ankle injury really got to her. The girl took in a deeper breath calming down.

"You're not going anywhere," Harry said. "You should get some rest….and….we'll figure something out."

Bette wanted to protest she didn't need to get any rest. She couldn't get any rest as long as her aunt was out and about, being a crazed vigilante. These words faded off into the distance when something injected into her arm. Bette drifted up to sleep.

"You gave her a mild sedative didn't you?" Karen asked, watching Bette drift off. The frown was still on her face.

"It's best for her ankle to heal up and for her not to do any more damage," Faora said. "Besides, the poor girl was in distress, you wouldn't want her to end up doing something she would regret? We have had more than enough of that lately."

Harry smiled, given Lois and Rebecca's escapades, along with Amanda's questionable way of dealing with it, he knew exactly where Faora was coming from. Kathy playing vigilante and not being herself complicated matters a lot. The emerald-eyed enchanter thought about it and turned to Kara.

"It's time to suit up," Harry said.

* * *

"Boss, you got to…you got come here right now!"

The Penguin didn't like taking orders. The entire reason why he became a mob boss in the first place was not to take orders, but rather to give them. The mobster rose to his feet the foulest of most foul expressions etched upon his face. He walked from the room and stopped short. The man's mouth hung open for a long moment and an angry squawk came out.

Words failed him. Dudley slumped over the couch and looked to be punch-drunk. He groaned when one of the mobsters tried to put an ice pack onto his head. Unfortunately, the mobster only succeeded in doing more damage when he slammed the pack of ice down on the Walrus's head.

"Sorry, sorry, boss, it won't happen….."

"Back away you goons before you do more damage," Cobblepot said, pointing the umbrella at them. A sharp point shined into the light. "Dudley, speak to me. What the bloody hell happened?"

Dudley responded with a gurgling moan. This particular line of response was not something Cobblepot found himself too pleased by. He gripped Dudley firmly around the chin and forced his godson to take a long look at him. Dudley shivered underneath his godfather's grip.

"Dudley, pull it together!" Cobblepot yelled, holding up his fingers. "Look at this, how many fingers am I holding up? Talk to me boy, it ain't that hard?"

"It was her…the bat…bitch!" Dudley slurred before he blacked out. The goons managed to catch Dudley before he slid into the ground.

"Get him over the couch and if you drop him, I'm putting a knife through your bloody bullocks!" Penguin yelled, looking rather agitated to be perfectly honest. The goons did as they were told. "So, it was she who did this, was she? Batwoman got involved. It's bad enough Catwoman made me look like a bloody disgrace, but…CAREFUL, CAREFUL!"

The goons managed to somehow make their way over to the couch and slide Dudley onto the couch. Cobblepot propped himself against the door and caught a couple of breaths. The man's heart rate hit an accelerated rate which made him resemble someone who had grown quite mad.

"Sir?"

Tracey showed up to look at her boss. She didn't think her boss would lash out at her. The Penguin's assistant found herself stepping on the eggshells when she walked around him. Her boss had a really bad last couple of weeks and he was as mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.

"Yes, Tracey," Cobblepot said, his temper bubbling over to the surface. He managed to calm himself long enough to face her. "Yes, Tracey, was there something important you wanted to tell me?"

"You have a call…gentleman on the other line," Tracey said, holding the office door for her boss to pass through. "He didn't say who it was….only you'd know when you heard him."

Cobblepot knew there was one person in particular who could said something like this. He turned around and made the long walk inside office. Tracey handed him the phone after a few seconds. Cobblepot waved his hand and this prompted Tracey to depart from the office.

"Yes," Cobblepot said without any pre-amble.

"Mr. Cobblepot, one might assume you're not happy to hear my voice," Enigma said in his obviously distorted tone. "A couple of sources told me your boys ran into some trouble tonight. A couple of low level mobsters trying to get around your territory and go into business for themselves."

Cobblepots hand tensed over the phone. Last night's fiasco went from completely bad to extremely worse. He thought the worst of it would be forced to spend the time in the presence of a bunch of people fawning over the greatness of Harry Potter. He thought it couldn't get any worse than Dudley getting pounded.

"Don't worry though, they got a bad deal when Batwoman took out their shipment," Enigma said. "And she laid a beating on your boys too, didn't she? I bet you want a piece of her."

"Yes, I'm going to take a small piece of her, carve it up and mount it on my office wall," Cobblepot said. "Now did you call here to tell me what I already know? Or is there a reason why you decided to ring me up today?"

Enigma responded with a chuckle, which caused Cobblepot's mood to sour even further.

"Well, aren't we the impatient one?" Enigma asked, voice cracking for a moment. "There's a pretty good reason why I called you up, actually, my good man. I thought you might want to know the Roman's boy is doing a big deal time….and it's outside of your territory."

Cobblepot failed to understand why Carmine Falcone's waste of semen would be of any relevance of him. The prince of foul play gritted his teeth and waited patiently.

"And I'm sure you wonder what this has to do with you," Enigma said. "I'll tell you, Batwoman is bound to show up."

"How do you know this?" Cobblepot asked.

"Now, does it matter how I know this, or how you're going to get vengeance on her for making you look like a third-stringer?" Enigma asked. "I know you, Mr. Cobblepot…..I respect you….."

"If you respected me, you'd call me by my proper name when conducting business with you," Cobblepot said.

"I know your lines are secure, and you better believe mine are," Enigma said. "Besides, your connection to the Penguin is an open secret. The police know all about you. They just don't have the evidence to make it stick. You've formed some powerful friendships, just not as powerful as Harry Potter."

Cobblepot gnashed his teeth at this particular awful name being stated. He wanted to put his umbrella through the wall. The only problem was he liked the way his office had been painted.

"You're welcome by the way," Enigma said. "I hope you have better luck dealing with his problem, than the other problem you were dealing with."

Cobblepot thought about the problem. The waddling master of foul play thought about the perfect man to put the screws to Batwoman once and for all. He couldn't risk calling any of the usual suspects to do a job, and this man was efficient and the price was right. The price was more than right.

"Bastard's a bit sick in the head, but he won't stooge off a client."

Cobblepot dialed the phone and waited to get connected. The situation in Gotham City was getting more intense and now Cobblepot knew he needed to double down. Batwoman would be taken down, and if he put down Alberto Falcone in the process, it was only a bonus. It would really get the Roman's attention and remind him how the Penguin was a name not to be ridiculed. His was a name to be completely and utterly feared.

"Hello," a slick voice said on the other end of the phone.

* * *

Kathy Kane walked around her mansion in a completely disoriented tone. The dark haired woman had a sickening feeling in her stomach something really bad happened. Those feelings came to light weeks ago, they grew, and left her with more questions, and fewer answers to be had.

The zombified state of this particular woman continued. She walked down the steps of the mansion. Every time she passed next to a mirror, a part of Kathy flinched and shuddered.

' _No it can't be, it shouldn't be,'_ Kathy thought, taking a breath. Her chest rose and lowered. _'It would explain a whole lot.'_

Kathy remembered a strange dream she had a few weeks ago. A thought haunted Kathy for a couple of moments. Was it a dream? She tried to picture what happened with greater clarity. She walked down the set of stairs and moved to her parent's old art gallery. Several pieces of art had been lifted from the wall. They had been pulled off of the wall and Kathy walked them out of the back entrance.

The Kane heiress closed her eyes. Her parents worked hard to accumulate the entire Art Collection. Now she turned around the corner and heart started to beat a bit more heavily. Kathy placed her hand on the door and activated the security code.

Kathy waited for a long moment for the security code to be activated. The lock opened up and allowed Kathy to walk inside. She took a tentative step inside of the room. Kathy walked over to the spot where the art pieces had been removed. Each and every one of them had been lifted out of place. Kathy touched a finger onto the wall and mouth opened up.

Another flash entered through Kathy's mind. Not only was her art collection stolen from. She was the one who stole from it. A thump, thump, thump, resounded in the back of Kathy's head. The heiress dropped down to her knees and buried her face in her hands.

' _This can't be happening,'_ Kathy thought, coming closer to having a nervous break. _'This can't be happening.'_

The sleep therapy, the aides, one particular frustrating element continued to dog Kathy and pretty much taunt her every step along the way. The months everyone warned her there was something shifty about James, Kathy didn't listen. The best sleep she ever gotten seduced her.

Doctor Somnambular slept pretty soundly at night, Kathy assumed. He slept pretty soundly with her art collection. The priceless and irreplaceable art pieces disappeared from the Kane collection.

Her parents must have been rolling over in their graves to see their lives work disappear. Kathy proved she was not as good as dear Martha. Her older sister, married to Thomas Wayne, gunned down like a martyr all of those years ago. Her heart clenched in her chest.

' _This is my fault, all my fault, oh god, my fault,'_ Kathy thought, nibbling down on her lip. She chewed so hard an indent had been left on the edge of lip.

Kathy's hands experienced one of the more clammy feelings possible. She was too embarrassed to report this to the cops. Kathy feared what would happen when the insurance company caught hold of this. There was no….there was no explanation other than she tried to commit insurance fraud.

There was also the entire Batwoman thing. She dressed up as a vigilante to beat up criminals and apparently steal from herself. Kathy heard of the criminals in the hospital, battered and broken.

' _My god, this got worse,'_ Kathy thought, hitching in a breath.

Kathy rose to her feet at the sound of the phone ringing. She didn't want to answer it. The phone continued to ring twenty times, thirty times, forty times. Kathy walked across the hallway to reach the phone. The woman's hand rested on the phone to give it a few more rings.

If whoever called her was persistent enough to let the phone ring off the hook, Kathy should be kind enough to answer the phone.

"Hello?" Kathy asked.

"The game is afoot, Ms. Kane."

Kathy's eyes flashed over into a completely blank state. The lights looked to be on. There just wasn't necessarily anyone home to answer anything.

"Yes," Kathy murmured underneath her breath, hearing the tone on the other end of the phone. "What do you want me to do?"

* * *

Nightwing and Flamebird snuck into the office of Doctor James Somnambular the next morning. Both of the vigilantes didn't know what they were going to run into. All either of them knew was they were going to run into some big trouble.

"Looks like no one is here?" Flamebird asked.

Nightwing prepared to activate the lock. He didn't need anything more sophisticated than a pin to open the door. The door clicked and swung open.

"He must be rather lax with security," Flamebird said after a moment's pause.

"Or, he thinks there's nothing here which can incriminate him," Nightwing said.

"I disagree," Oracle said over the communication. "There's always something here to incriminate someone…..we just got to look."

"So on a scale of one to ten, how illegal is this?" Kara asked. "Us going through these medical records?"

"I'm not sure if a number has been invented," Barbara said. "There might be a clue to Kathy….and I'm going to have to dig deeper on the good doctor."

"You didn't find anything months ago?" Kara asked, watching the door for Harry when he made his way through the medical records. "No offense meant, but how you do you think you're going to find anything right now?"

Barbara took in a breath for a second. She entered pure Oracle mode on the other end of the communication call.

"There's really none taken," Barbara said. "And to answer your question, I'm not sure. He dug deep, but I don't think I've dug deep."

Harry pulled out some records and placed them on the desk. One of them looked familiar to him. He frowned for a long moment and took a long look at the label shining out for him on the folder.

"What's wrong?" Flamebird asked.

"Just keep watching the door," Nightwing said. "Oracle, look up the name Doris Preston?"

"The name rings a bell, I think," Barbara said, heading onto the computer to look up the name. "Why do you want me to look it up though?"

"I have a hunch," Harry said, evading the question at least for now. He was looking through the folders, looking for Kathy's file. "We're going to know in a minute whether or not it's true."

Kara stared at Harry from the door and turned back to the door. They didn't even run into anything. They would have expected a janitor of some sort to come around the hallway. Kara thought something, and wondered if this place had been cleared out for weeks.

' _Why do I have a feeling Sonambular and his staff have already skipped town ages ago?'_ Harry thought.

' _It's not making any sense though,'_ Kara thought.

' _According to what I've heard, he hasn't been seen since August,'_ Barbara thought, chewing down on her lip. _'Oh boy, Harry….oh boy…it looks like your hunch was right.'_

Harry managed to find Kathy's file which might have held a key to this entire mess. He would stop for long enough to listen what Barbara would have to say.

' _Okay, Babs, shoot, I'm all ears,'_ Harry thought.

' _Doris Preston was a rich heiress who owned several factories in Europe which manufactured furniture,'_ Barbara thought. _'She had become paranoid about the fact her hired help and her children were out to poison her and steal her fortune. Ms. Preston decided to go out for sleep therapy under a Doctor Michael Westfield.'_

Barbara sent the picture of Doctor Westfield to the portable computer. She also popped up picture of Doctor Somnambular up next to him. Harry frowned when taking a good and long look at the two pictures next to each other. His frown grew more prominent

' _Wouldn't you say the resemblance is uncanny?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Eerily so,'_ Harry thought. _'The only difference is the age. One has darker hair, and Doctor Westfield's hair is a big longer. You wouldn't know they were the same guy unless you matched the face side to side.'_

' _She came home one day to find several of her cherished possessions had been stolen, and also her bank accounts had been wiped out,'_ Barbara thought. _'It came out she had been given sleep aides to help ease her at night, and the only person who had the ability to commit these particular thefts were her.'_

Nightwing and Flamebird locked eyes for a moment. The plot most certainly thickened and the two of them had a sinking suspicion this was the tip of the iceberg. Harry opened up Kathy's file and flipped through. The first note indicated Kathy had been recommended to him by Hugo Strange, or rather Strange recommended the doctor.

' _What happened to Ms. Preston?'_ Harry thought.

' _She ended up drinking herself to death because of her depression and was found dead in her sitting room six months later,'_ Barbara thought. _'Doctor Westfield escaped the country.'_

The name Michael Westfield was another path Barbara could use to find out information. She broke out into the biggest grin possible, thinking she just hit the jackpot.

' _Westfield is wanted under ten other different aliases, and we can add another to the list now he's committed this crime,'_ Barbara thought. _'He's never done anything this elaborate though. He's gotten the confidence of his patients, had them rob their house for any valuables, and skipped town with his bounty. He's never done anything like Batwoman, ever.'_

' _Very Strange wouldn't think you?'_ Harry thought, putting emphasis on a certain word. He flipped through Kathy's file. _'There are parts of this which have been blotted out…..why he would leave a copy behind, I don't know.'_

Harry had a couple of things at his lab which could uncover the blotted out parts of the paper. He figured out everything, at least to the best of his abilities.

' _So, it's obvious someone is pulling the strings,'_ Barbara thought. _'One of my sources told me Batwoman is on the move now…and…there's some kind of deal going down.'_

Harry figured this fact put more credence beyond the fact this was more than a one person opportunity. Hugo Strange would be someone Harry would need to look into.

' _Bette said when Kathy turned up, she didn't look like herself,'_ Kara thought. _'Do you think we can snap her out of it?'_

' _It's worth a shot,'_ Harry thought, looking at the file. _'We're going to need to do this with care. Any shock to her could be…it could be a problem.'_

Kara reached behind Harry and placed her hand on the top of his. The two of them smiled and knew what they had to do.

* * *

Bette's eyes flickered open. It took several minutes for her to come to her senses with the hope she imagined this entire mess. The girl woke up and found herself changed into a night gown. The heiress reached down and touched her ankle to feel the thick wrap around it. A frown deepened over her face.

Her foot didn't seem as swollen before. Bette swung over on the couch and winced.

"I wouldn't make any sudden movements, Doctor's orders."

Bette turned around and saw Barbara Gordon standing there. The sun was setting which made it look like it was late the next day. How long was she out?

"My God, it wasn't a dream, was it?" Bette asked. Barbara responded with a nod and went over to her. "Kathy is…oh God, I don't even know what I'm going to do?"

Bette blinked and stared at Barbara. A paralyzing level of fear spread over her being. She stared back at Barbara, mouth opening wide and shutting wide even more.

"You didn't call your father, did you?" Bette asked. Barbara shook her head which caused Bette some small amount of relief.

"No, he doesn't know about this," Barbara said. "Although the GCPD are on full alert for her…even if they don't admit she exists."

Bette didn't want to sound too critical of the GCPD, especially around the daughter of one of the few decent cops in the entire outfit, but to be perfectly honest, Bette didn't see them being able to catch too much of anything. The Kane heiress situated herself on the couch for what she thought would be a long night, or at least she assumed it would be a long night.

"So, what are you up to?" Bette asked.

"You might want to sit down to listen to this," Barbara said. Bette gave her one of those long glares which only prompted Barbara to smile. "Right, you really do have no choice other than to sit down because of your injury. I almost forgot."

Bette leaned back and gave Barbara one of those searching looks. The redhead decided to sit down, having fixed a cup of coffee and she handed Bette one. Bette took it and took a long slurp from the coffee cup. A part her thought something stronger would have been a pretty good idea. Bette just didn't really want to push luck asking for it.

"I'm all ears," Bette said. "No matter what scenario you're going to lay down on me about this, I have thought of something far worse than what you're going to tell me."

Barbara wondered if Bette thought about something like this. A brilliant young woman such as herself just might have done as much. The hacker took in a deep breath and launched into her explanation.

"Kathy was the victim of an international con artist," Barbara said. Bette's eyebrow raised and she paused long enough to reach. Barbara waited for her to say something. Bette's hands waved in the universal sign to continue. "He's conned his people underneath twelve different identities, and several of them are wanted by the governments of a dozen different countries. He moves in, takes in rich heiresses with insomnia, and cleans them out."

Bette whistled in response. Her Aunt Kathy had been quite vulnerable because of her sleep issues.

"He's been around since the 1970s pulling this con, and he may have been around earlier," Barbara said. "I found out one of his alternative identities, a Doctor Michael Westfield. The ball rolled from there as I found more information on him. His conniving and….."

"He should be stopped," Bette said without another thought. She turned around to look outside of the window and stare out into Gotham City. "My Aunt is out there somewhere…..doing whatever because of some crazy sleep doctor, or con man, or whatever, putting some thoughts in her head. It seems weird, doesn't it?"

Barbara thought weird would be a pretty good explanation for what was going on here. She wished she had more information for both her sake, Bette's sake, and the sake of this entire mission.

"There's a lot of weirdness going on here," Bette said. "I really don't know how you…there's something else you're not telling me, is there?"

Barbara could see the searching look of the blonde. Bette took another long drink of coffee whilst surveying Barbara over the top of the cup. Her searching look proved to be rather intense to put things mildly. Barbara kept looking back at her, not missing a beat or backing down.

"Well, Harry will tell you when he and Kara get back," Barbara said. Bette looked at her. "They were….well they were talking to a friend who might know how to find your aunt."

Bette did wonder what really went on within this particular Penthouse.

* * *

Nightwing and Flamebird stood on the docks and awaited the arrival of Batwoman. Batwoman didn't show up, instead they noticed Alberto Falcone show up with some of his men. The son of the Roman's eyes darted around for a moment. He took a deep breath and turned to one of this men.

"They said they were going to be here, didn't they?" Alberto asked. The man responded with one of the brisk nods which normally belonged to someone who tried not to lose control. "Well if they're supposed to be here, then why aren't they…"

Alberto started to trail off into random muttering. His men stepped back to give him a wide path to do what he needed to do especially since Alberto started to wring his hands in a completely and utterly manic manner. His mutterings increased when his pacing increased along with it.

"Boss, maybe we should….."

A sound of something creaking caused Alberto to jump about ten feet off of the ground. He reached into his jacket for a gun.

"If you're there, you come out and face me now, "Alberto said, hand almost slipping against the gun from the sweat dripping down it. The Roman's heir took several deep and calming breaths just like Professor Strange recommended. "Damn it, I said come out and face me!"

A figure jumped from the shadows and Alberto fired at the figure when it jumped him. The figure dodged around the bullet before it connected. She whipped a hand forward and gripped Alberto around his throat. The son of the roman had been launched into the air.

One of the mobsters swung a piece of wood at this adversary. She dodged out of the way and the wood smashed over the top of the crate. This woman fired a rapid display series of punches which rocked her enemy and brought him down for the count.

Batwoman grabbed the mobster around the arm and bent her knees. She flipped the hood down to the ground. Batwoman grabbed another mobster around the arm and twisted his arm back before driving him down to the ground. The mobster's arm connected with the knees of Batwoman and boasted of a loud cracking motion which caused him pain and agony.

"You're dead meat, bitch!"

Batwoman grabbed the mobster's knife, and grabbed him around the head. She flung him down onto the ground with one resounding crack. The leather clad vigilante followed up on the attack with more punches.

The rumbling of a motor cycle brought Batwoman's attention away from the downed mobsters. A motorcycle roared towards her and almost mowed Batwoman down. Batwoman dodged the attack and landed on her feet a few feet away from the man.

Flamebird's eyes widened when she saw him show up. The man's white hair was obviously dyed. He wore a pair of black sunglasses which slid down a fraction of an inch to reveal crazy eyes. He attired himself in an extremely flamboyant pink jacket. A pair of black leather pants with tassels topped off the insane combination.

"Well, if this isn't the famous Batwoman who has been causing trouble," the flamboyant man said, revving up his motorcycle and trying to run Batwoman over. Batwoman dodged the motorcycle before it could do any dastardly deed. "You won't be causing too much trouble any more, not where you're going. But, I have to say, you look quite delicious."

Batwoman flipped over the charging motor cycle and stuck the landing. She plowed both of her feet into the back of the man and caused him to fly off of the motorcycle. He landed onto the ground and hit mouth first onto the ground.

The crazed man rolled over, blood dripping from his mouth. A bloody smile matched his insane looks.

"Let me return the favor."

Flamebird and Nightwing exchanged a look and now was the time to jump in. They appeared on either side of Batwoman.

The flamboyant man didn't back off in the slightest. His face contorted into one of the more devious grins possible when he stared down at Batwoman, Nightwing, and Flamebird.

"Well, the famous Dragon!" the crazed man said when he mounted his motorcycle. He revved it up. "Let's see if you can dodge this fire."

The revving action activated a miniature flame throwing. Flamebird grabbed Batwoman around the waist and sprinted her directly out of harm's way. The two of them made out of the way.

"What..what?" Batwoman asked, finally snapping out of the trance she was in. "Where am I?"

"The last place you want to be," Flamebird said, gripping onto Batwoman's waist and launching both of them out of harm's way before the Flamingo could come in for another attack.

The stack of crates they landed on top of had been rammed and forced them to evacuate. The man didn't have any regard for the well-being of himself or others. His sunglasses flew off during one of the attacks and the full view of these crazed soulless eyes flashed at them. He eyed them all up like he was a slab of beef.

"Who is…who is that?" Kathy asked, mouth hung open agape.

"Oh, it is rude for me not to make a proper introduction," the flamboyant gentleman said. "My name is Edurado Flamingo, and I really hope you're going to stick around for dinner."

Flamingo licked his bloody lips and set his sights on Nightwing. First, he would have some barbecue.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 4** **th** **, 2017.**

_Well, Kathy, you snapped out of it at the worst possible time._

_The flamboyant Flamingo makes his debut,and I'll tell you, he's not right in the end._

_Dudley attributing Katana curb stomping him to that bat bitch gives a nice case of mistaken identity here._

_Strange is playing some interesting games, but he wouldn't be Hugo Strange if he wasn't mind fucking several people._

_Until Wednesday._


	185. Beware the Batwoman Part Three

Week Seventeen Chapter of the Week Voting is Open and Ready at the Blog As Usual. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Five:**

* * *

 

Kathy Kane did not know what to think right about now. One moment she had been in the middle of the mansion freaking out about what she did under the influence of hypnosis. The next moment, Kathy found herself in the midst of a battle with no reason why she got here. And this crazed gentleman's eyes flared with madness. He revved up the motorcycle one more time.

Batwoman and Flamebird jumped out of the way to avoid the attacks from the Flamingo. The Flamingo slammed straight into the boxes in an attempt to send them flying. The man's glasses flew completely off of his face. A cross look crossed over the man's face. He revved up once again and released another jet of fire.

Nightwing recovered from the earlier assault and aimed his dagger at the wheel of the bike. He whipped his wrist back and caused the dagger to impact the wheels of the bike to send the man flying off of it. The Flamingo launched himself from the bicycle and landed down on the ground. His breath had been knocked from his body.

The Flamingo recovered from the attack and picked up a chain. The large chain swung around in a way. The Flamingo smiled when he charged his adversary.

"I was only hired to take out Batwoman!" Flamingo yelled as he kept swinging the chain. "You will do nicely as a side bonus though, Dragon."

The man's crazed laughter echoed along with the constant chain swinging.

' _This guy is going to be trouble,'_ Harry thought. He avoided the swinging chain and tried to blast his adversary. Flamingo showed surprising agility. _'From what I know on this guy, he's a world class assassin who had parts of his brain removed. These are the parts which perceive pain and empathy towards other people. It makes him dangerous, both to his victims and sometimes to his handler.'_

Flamingo swung his large chain out. Nightwing caught the chain and pulled Flamingo towards him. Nightwing cracked him in the face with a punch which doubled him over. Flamingo returned fire, not perceiving his injuries.

"I'm going to see who is underneath the mask," Flamingo said as his hands extended towards him. "We're going to see if you're nothing more than another pretty face."

Nighting averted this attempt from Flamingo and flipped him high into the air. Flamingo stuck a landing and scrambled around, trying not to fall over in an attempt to go after his opponent.

' _I can't perceive pain?'_ Flamebird asked. Nightwing responded with a nod. _'But, he can still get injured right, even if he can't feel it?'_

' _Yes,'_ Nightwing thought. He disarmed Flamingo with another dagger. The gun he pulled from his flaming pink coat dropped to the ground.

' _All I needed to hear.'_

Flamebird ripped an anchor out of the ground, arched her arms back, and threw it towards the Flamingo. The Flamingo grunted the second the anchor hit his gut and doubled him over. Nightwing came in from above with an attack and nailed him with a series of punches. The punches didn't register on Flamingo's pain sensors.

' _Where the hell did Cobblepot find this guy anyway?'_ Oracle asked. _'Oh, and we are pretty sure the Penguin hired him, after the run in Kathy had with The Walrus and his boys earlier tonight. He's been proving to be vindictive tonight.'_

Nightwing launched the Flamingo into the air. Flamingo rolled over and landed off to the side of the wreckage of his motor cycle.

' _I can't be for sure,'_ Harry thought. He could see Flamingo fumble with something. A grapnel hook shot in his hand and Harry pulled him over. _'I don't see Penguin dealing direct with a guy like this. Maybe through an intermediary or something.'_

Flamingo rolled over. The blood dripped from his hand and matched the rage in his eyes. He saw this at business at first. The thoughts of business faded from the back of his mind. Now this was personal and pretty damn personal at this. Flamingo raised his fist into the air and charged.

Kathy snapped out of it. All of the guilt, all of the agony, faded. This bastard who attacked her would stop at nothing. She had a few tricks on her belt of things which could be used to take him down.

A moment passed when Nightwing and the Flamingo started to throw down against each other. Both sides traded their punches with each other and neither backed down for a second. Kathy decided not to back down herself as well. She was strong and can do this.

The small device she reached into her belt for launched high into the air and crashed down onto the docks. A flare of light appeared and launched the Flamingo into the air.

"It appears the Batwoman was playing possum!" Flamingo said. "Good, I'm glad, I love when my prey has more fight in them then…."

Batwoman took advantage of the Flamingo's monologue to hurl another grenade into the air. The grenade lit up on the docks and caused a flare of white hot energy to surround him.

Flamebird noticed the barrels about ready to go up in flames. She grabbed Batwoman, and locked eyes with Nightwing as well. The barrels with the explosive material went up in a hot explosion. The Flamingo screamed as he had been caught in the cross-fire of these barrels.

"I guess he does have some perception of pain," Flamebird said.

The sounds of gunfire directed in their general direction showed Harry they were not out of the woods yet. The Flamingo being trapped in the flames did not end their night. He looked and spied the Penguin's goons making their way to him.

"You don't have any more of those things to throw at them, do you?" Nightwing asked after a long pause.

"No, sorry, I'm fresh out," Batwoman said. Vague memories of her expanding her full supply on the attacks earlier tonight spilled back into her mind. "Do you think you have something there?"

Nightwing answered Batwoman's question by removing a silver orb from his belt and rolling it out onto the ground. The orb flashed with a burst of white hot light which engulfed the mobsters in a blinding fury.

Flamebird interjected herself into the battle. She darted from one mobster to the next. One of them did not want to part with his gun so easily. Flamebird convinced the mobster it was a good idea to let go of his possession by firing an elbow into the gut and doubling him over.

One of them launched a miniature rocket through the fire. Flamebird hurled herself on the ground and the missile rocket flew over the top of her. She picked up one of the broken crates and hurled it into the air.

Alberto Falcone groaned when he rolled over onto the docks. He could see his limo out of the quarter of his eye. The son of the Roman rolled over in crab walk position.

"Bring out the heavy stuff boys!" one of the mobsters yelled. "None of them can leave alive….."

The mobsters brought out some large cannons which had been upgraded to hurt. They never had a chance to use them thanks to one figure flying out from the sky.

The mobsters turned their attention to Katana. Katana didn't given them much time to react. She hacked through the high tech military weapons with her weapon of choice.

A second figure showed up. One of the mobsters turned around. Before he had a chance to yell, Batman came high from the sky and brought his adversary down head first into the ground with a huge crack! The mobster's head slammed into the ground with one of the most resounding and brutal attacks possible.

Batman dodged one of them using a good old fashioned fist to the face. The Dark Knight nailed him with an uppercut punch which sent him flying back down to the ground with a sickening thud. The goon's legs crumpled out from underneath him.

Sirens pierced through the air. Batman didn't flinch. He reached into his belt and dropped a pellet down on the ground. The pellet burst open and released a steady amount of fog in the air.

"We better get out of here!" Flamebird yelled, grabbing Batwoman.

Nightwing and Flamebird dragged Batwoman into the shadows and away from the line of fire. Batman and Katana took their own leave of absence and the Penguin's mobsters also disappeared into the dark of the night.

* * *

 

Kathy Kane shot straight up out of bed. She had no idea where she had been brought here. This wasn't really a feeling she had since her college days, before she became a somewhat responsible adult. Kathy's eyes fixed on Harry and Kara who sat there, along with a very concerned looking Bette.

"Where are Nightwing and Flamebird?" Kathy asked. It took her a couple of seconds to realize someone stripped her out of the incriminating costume, into a night dress.

"They dropped you by," Harry said. "You must have passed out…you did have a long day."

Kathy took a moment to look at the two of them as if trying to decide whether or not their story held up underneath scrutiny. She decided to accept what Harry said at face value because of a far bigger problem haunting her. Doctor Somnambular defrauded her of some priceless works of art.

"I…I told him where the art collection was," Kathy said, mouth almost dry with frustration. "And….if I told him where the art collection was….I might have told him other things…..I need to check up on something."

Her bank accounts could have been wiped out. Kathy never remembered telling James about the art collections. He put her into a state of deep sleep when mining for this information.

"Here," Harry said, handing Kathy a phone for her to use.

Kathy dialed up the number for her accountant. The phone rang and the man picked up.

"David….I know what time this is but….I need you to check my bank accounts for any suspicious activities….yes I know it's a Sunday, and a holiday weekend, but this is an emergency," Kathy said. "Yes….okay, get back to me whenever you find out anything."

Kathy let out her breath in an entirely frustrated sigh. She hated to admit when control had been lost. Kathy Kane prided herself as a woman who had a lot of control. When the slightest amount of it slipped from her.

"You should get plenty of rest," Kara said. Kathy's eyes fell onto the younger girl. Kara responded with a crisp smile. "And yes, I know it's easier said than done. You should try though."

Kathy sighed, conceding the fact he was correct.

"Right, I should try," Kathy said, murmuring underneath her breath and giving off a slight sigh. "Thank you for…letting me crash here."

"It's not a problem," Harry said.

Kathy thought Harry would be more charitable than she would be during a time like this, at least to herself. Her mind racked with a never ending stream of guilt and frustration. Kathy Kane turned into the victim she always sought not to be and it caused her great agony. The sour feeling dwelling in the pit of her stomach would not go down no matter how much she thought.

"Aunt Kathy?" Bette asked. Kathy turned to her niece. "You….."

"Bette, you were right, Veronica was right, everyone was right," Kathy said, delving into a deep sigh. "He was a fraud and I got taken into him….I should be smarter than this."

"Women who were older and wiser than you are have been taken in by him," Bette said. Kathy's gaze fell over her niece's and Bette responded with one of her soft smiles. "I know, it doesn't help, does it?"

The momentary amount of pain filling Kathy's eyes showed Bette all she needed to know. The woman fell into a funk.

"Just get some rest, and take this one step at a time," Harry said.

Kathy spent a moment deep in thought and responded with a swift nod. To be perfectly honest, rest seemed to be the best thing she could do right now. Sleep might not come easy for her ever again. Kathy would need to mull it over.

"Why don't we go and let, Kathy get some rest," Kara said. "And I can show you where you will be sleeping."

Bette stopped for a moment to give her aunt a hug and a kiss on the forehead. She pulled away from them and joined Harry and Kara in going down the hallway.

"So, how is your ankle feeling?" Kara asked.

"A little bit better," Bette admitted. "Rest really did it well."

Relief filled Bette's body. Tonight had been a long night and the nightmare was almost over. The only thing which frustrated her and would haunt her dreams was the fact Kathy's daughter must have escaped the country.

"She would have been ripped to pieces if it hadn't been for Flamebird and Nightwing," Bette said, a slight smile filling her. "For myths, they really are out and about a lot, aren't they?"

"That they are," Harry said, barely holding back a chuckle and a smile.

"And it was extremely odd they were out and about tonight," Bette said, putting her hands on her hips and staring down both of them. "How did they know Kathy would be out there? I suppose you could say they have their sources…..but there are other explanations aren't….."

Kara could see Bette traveled down a particularly dangerous road. The feisty blonde jumped in to kiss the other blonde on the lips. Their soft lips molded together in an extremely sensual and very passionate kiss. Kara locked her hand around Bette's head while the other hand traveled down Bette's back.

Bette closed her eyes to feel Kara's questing hand cup her ass. A firm squeeze caused Bette to moan into Kara's mouth.

The moment Kara pulled away from Bette, she slipped behind her. Harry slipped in front of her.

"Oh, kiss me, baby," Bette said in a light moan.

Harry's able lips pressed over Bette's. A spine tingling and panty moistening kiss followed when Harry drove his tongue inside her throat. He pulled back and stripped Bette' of her top. The blouse unbuttoned to reveal Bette's firm breasts inside a lacy purple bra.

Kara unzipped Bette's skirt and slipped it off to reveal lacy purple panties. A damp spot already rose on it.

Bette stood in her bra and panties, extremely horny and ready to be taken both of her lovers.

Kara slipped behind Bette and smiled with a light cup of her breasts. The other blonde didn't have much of a sense to reaction other than with some soft moans. She unhooked Bette's bra and allowed it to fall to the ground to get a more uninhibited go at her breasts.

"You've always been a hot piece of ass, Ms. Kane," Kara said, running her fingers down and cupping Bette's ass. "And I think you deserve some stress relief, wouldn't you say?"

Bette nodded. As good as Kara's hands felt cupping her breasts, Harry's roaming down her body also made tingles explode down her spine. The heiress experienced a burst of energy.

"You shouldn't be on your feet," Harry said with a smile, rubbing down Bette's firm stomach and down her thighs. The soft skin underneath Harry's fingers pressed against them. "You should lie down and relax. Take a load off."

Bette wasn't going to argue. Kara decided to join her to her side on the bed. Kara kissed Bette on the side of the head and suckle her earlobes. She moaned.

"Oh, Kara…mmm, oh…I'm so sensitive there!" Bette said, practically squirming underneath Kara's actions. Kara kept sucking behind her right ear and kissing down the side of her neck.

Kara sucked on Bette's flesh while locking eyes with Harry. Harry straddled Bette and planted a series of kisses down her body. The tour ended with a long kiss on Bette's womanhood through her wet panties. Juices trickled down Kara's thighs in a response to this hungry action by her lover.

Harry inhaled the beautiful scent coming through her. Her panties still clung to her. Harry reached on them and pealed them off. He smiled and threw them across the room. The panties landed directly on Kara's face who inhaled them with a big grin on her face.

"Mmm, the smell so good," Kara said. "I bet she tastes better."

Kara slipped her panties off in the process.

"Why don't you taste me when Harry tastes you?" Kara asked.

Bette's body heated up in anticipation. She wanted to bury her face between Kara's hot thighs and eat her out. The hunger increased by tenfold the closer Kara edged towards her.

Kara closed her eyes and could feel Bette's mouth press against her. The blonde's gorgeous face slipped between Kara's thighs and ate her out.

Harry enjoyed how hot this was. Bette's sweet pussy waited. He kissed around her dripping slit before meeting Bette in the middle. Harry's lips made out with Bette's nether lips. He bit down onto her and released her lips.

Bette inhaled Kara's sent when Harry slowly devoured her womanhood. The sweet pussy juices already spilling into her mouth inflamed Bette and urged her to go on. Bette drove her tongue inside Kara's pussy.

"Oh, she's really fucking good!" Kara yelled, grinding her face down onto Bette's tongue. Bette swiped her tongue around Kara's pussy. "I bet she had a lot of practice. She's nothing, but a rug munching slut!"

Bette's pussy clenched at the dirty talk. Harry drove his tongue fully inside her at this time. His tongue mapped out a path around her pussy. It treated the inside of her pussy quite nicely, tickling her depths.

' _It's almost as if he can extend his tongue and make me feel really good,'_ Bette thought through her hazed lust. Kara's pussy squirted their sweet juices into her mouth.

Harry heard the moans of his Alpha. Kara had the time of her life and he could make Bette moan even more. Harry started to hum a tone which caused the vibrations in his tongue to speed up.

"Keep doing this to her!" Kara yelled while she drove her face down onto Bette's questing tongue. Kara tore her shirt off to reveal her lacy red bra. Kara pulled the bra down and allowed it to hang loosely. The sex-starved alien rubbed her breasts. "Oh, I'm going to cum so much."

Harry dragged Bette out to one of the more spectacular orgasms the heiress ever experienced in her life. His tongue kept bringing her to even greater heights with the swipes driving deeper into her dripping hot cunt. The moment Harry released her from his lips Kara bounced.

The cock-hardening sight of two beautiful blondes going down on each other in the sixty-nine position made Harry feel the need to remove his pants to free himself. Their moans and hungry slurps was almost torture for Harry as his observation of them continued.

Kara pulled her pussy away from Bette's mouth and released her mouth from Bette's pussy. The Girl of Steel laid down upon Bette. They pressed together pussy to pussy.

"You're going to watch Harry fuck me while I eat out your horny little twat," Kara said.

Bette gasped at how Kara spoke. Her pussy ached with hunger for something. Kara teased her and went down her body, with a series of hungry kisses. Every time Kara's lips touched Bette's body, a fresh jolt of pleasure fired through her loins.

Kara went down on Bette's pussy and took a taste test of it. She started to eat her just as a pair of strong hands grabbed her.

Harry rammed his tongue into Kara's pussy for a brief couple of seconds. The beautiful woman next to him arched her hips back a couple of times. Harry took a guided tour of Kara's pussy and also his hands explored the woman's juicy curves. He ended at her tits and gave them a squeeze.

"I'm going to fuck your brains out," Harry growled the moment he pulled his tongue from Kara's pussy.

Kara didn't break her stride from eating Bette out. All the Kryptonian survivor did was take her thighs and spread them apart for Harry's consumption. Her sweet ass and dripping pussy exposed itself for Harry.

Harry's cock slid into Kara's pussy. The hot and powerful warmth spread around his cock when she sucked him in. Harry hung onto her hips and took a quick stride.

"Mmm, oooh," Bette said, balancing on her elbows so she could get a proper look at Harry's hard cock hammering Kara's pussy. It fit into her tight sheath perfectly. "Fuck her snug pussy hard!"

"Yes, I'm going to make her scream in a minute," Harry said. He started to play with Kara's ass when he fucked her from behind. "Just look at what I'm doing…she likes having her ass played….likes having her ass fucked. Do you like having your ass fucked Bette?"

Bette watched Harry's hand slide into Kara's anus. It seemed so wrong, and yet so hot. Her pussy clenched at the thought of Harry or anyone else shoving his cock into her tight anus.

' _Oh, she really got off on it,'_ Kara said in bliss. Harry fingered her anus in tune of fucking her pussy. _'And I'm sure she'll have a hot ass to fuck…your cock would look so good. When I pound her pussy as hard as you're pounding mine as well.'_

Harry experienced the first rush of a Kara orgasm. Kara's heat drew him in and Harry pushed into her.

' _She's almost ready, do it,'_ Kara thought.

' _Believe me, I am too,'_ Harry said, riding out the rush of Kara's orgasm. His thick prick buried its way into Kara's dripping hot pussy.

A few more thrusts stretched Kara out. Harry finished thrusting deep inside Kara and pulled out. This allowed Kara to pull out of Bette.

"I want your ass," Harry said. "Turn around."

Bette's entire body shivered from what Harry said. She couldn't really deny Harry this particular pleasure. Her ass hungered for his cock just as much as Harry's cock hungered for her ass. Bette turned around and her cheeks spread on their own accord.

"Don't worry," Harry said, holding onto her legs. "It will only hurt for a moment, and then it will feel really good. Trust me."

Bette's lust was so much she needed a big cock in her ass. The heiress brought herself down onto him and filled her ass slowly with his cock. Bette almost screamed in agony. Kara caught Bette's lips with a kiss which prevented her from screaming too loudly.

Harry ran his fingers down Bette's toned tummy to encourage her to go further down onto his thick prick. Her anus spread for the intrusion of Harry's thick and juicy cock. It spread her asshole apart when going deeper inside her.

"Damn, Bette, you're fucking ass is tight," Harry said, running his fingers down and playing with Bette's moist twat when she rocked herself. "Does this feel good?"

Kara decided to release Bette's lips from their captivity so she could answer Harry's question.

"Yes, so good," Bette said. Harry's able hands touched every single wonderful point of her body. Bette brought him deep into her bowels. "Stick your thick cock into my tight ass and wreck it! I don't want to be able to sit down without thinking of you….."

Harry shoved his fingers into Bette's sticky twat. The horny blonde grinded herself against Harry's fingers. The duel sensations caused Bette's face to size up in an amazing state. Her nipples stuck out and practically begged to be sucked on and toyed with.

Kara slipped into strap on. The sleek black cock pushed against Bette's opening. Kara arched her hips back.

Bette's mind went completely nuts. This was much better than any toy she ever played with during her time. And she played with a few toys in her time. Bette might as well have had an additional cock buried inside her pussy and fucking her senseless.

"You like having double the pleasure?" Kara asked, cupping Bette's breasts.

The blonde enjoyed the double stuffed feeling. Her pussy clenched around Kara. Kara firmly pushed deep inside her. The two blonde's molded together. She turned into the meat of a Harry and Kara sandwich, and Bette approved to his arrangement without any arguments whatsoever.

Harry groaned and pushed into Bette's ass. He was getting close. The ball busting sensation of Bette pumping around his ass made it.

"Put your cum inside her ass," Kara said, grinding into Bette's pussy. "She just clenched again. This slut wants you to put your big hot load into her skanky ass!"

Bette couldn't really protest much. Harry pressed against her back and Kara pressed against her front. Harry's balls sized up against her and shot inside her.

The full contents of Harry's balls spilled into Bette's delicious ass. Harry rode out his orgasm inside Bette's tight anal core. His full ball content kept sizing up and spilling into her.

"Oh, Bette," Kara said, the moment Harry withdrew from her ass. "We should clean up the mess you made."

* * *

 

Labor Day weekend passed into the ether and everyone was back to work. Harry didn't get the projections for the Red Sun Eclipse release. He found himself extremely confident all sales would break the records which had been previously established. He never sought to be anything better than his best though. It was one part of Harry which never would disappear from his being. Harry would beat this record at a later date.

Now, Nightwing stalked the night in Gotham City. The usual patrol was rather quiet. A mugger here, a small pissing match between some small time mobsters there, and an attempted car-jacking for flavor made up the majority of Nightwing's evening. He wasn't exactly out here alone even though appearances could say so. Then again, he was never completely alone thanks to the wide-support network he boasted of.

' _One of the last beautiful nights of the summer, and you're out there busting small time criminals,'_ Faora thought. _'I have to say, I admire your dedication even if there are some times where I question your sanity.'_

Harry only responded with a light chuckle. There were instances where he questioned his own sanity as well. He guided himself to the roof top and prepared for a meeting. The man he met was always on time even if he always left the meeting on his own clock. Harry humored him with the stealth thing. It wouldn't do well for the Batman myth if he managed to burst the man's bubble.

Speak of the devil and he shall arrive. Batman dropped down from the perch point and walked across the building. He came face to face with Nightwing.

"I'm going to be up front and say it," Nightwing said. "I know who this….Batwoman was."

Batman's look at Nightwing using the forbidden name could be considered quite burning. Nightwing pressed on under the assumption Batman didn't give him the thousand yard glare of death.

"I know what she did, I know why she did it, and I'll just say she only did it because there were forces manipulating her," Nightwing said. "Only one of which is still in Gotham City, and I'll be paying a visit to shortly."

Batman's stare didn't really waver for a moment. Nightwing wondered if he even had a hope in breaking this glare and making him react with any other emotion whatsoever when Bruce entered Batman mode.

"I'm certain he will not appreciate your visit," Batman said after a moment's pause.

"Few people who have something to hide appreciate a visit from either of us," Nightwing said. "They are….a superstitious and cowardly lot, aren't they?"

Batman's non-committal nod told Nightwing pretty much all he needed to know about a situation like this. He pressed on as much as he could.

"I'm certain someone of your talents could figure out who Batwoman is given enough time," Nightwing said. "And I can already see the wheels turning underneath that pointed cowl of yours."

"I may have an idea."

Confirmation or the closest Nightwing ever would get of confirmation from the likes of Batman. He would take it to be perfectly honest.

"There's no sign of Flamingo," Batman said. "The explosion wouldn't have left many survivors, but he's been known to cheat fate before."

"Yes," Nightwing said, having done his homework on the stylish and quite manic assassin. "If no one found a body, he's still out there, biding his time. And the contract on Batwoman is still in play. Cobblepot isn't about to rescind it….he still has a call out for Catwoman's head as well."

Batman responded with a nod. They would have to keep an eye on this situation. The last few days proved to be one of the more taxing set of days in a very long time, at least until it settled down after tonight. There was nothing as tragic as the events of last year on Labor Day.

"One good thing to come out of this," Nightwing said. He took a long enough pause for Batman's full and undivided attention to be locked onto him. "The one good things to come out of this is Cobblepot has lost a lot of resources, men and weapons as well."

"He will rebuild," Batman said without skipping a beat.

' _And there he is, the Mr. Sunshine and happiness we have all come to know and love,'_ Kara thought. She paused for a few seconds and brought herself out with a lengthy sigh. _'And even though he sounds pretty cynical, you can't deny he doesn't have a point.'_

' _I think you were the only one who were being vehement about it, Kara'_ Dinah thought, smiling at her.

' _They both have points?'_ Barbara asked. _'I really thought this was going to be a statement. Ended up being a question, go figure.'_

Nightwing tried not to break from the look of stoic indifference he developed. His attention turned completely back to Batman.

"He will rebuild, and will prepare to take him down again, until his presence in this city will is crippled," Nightwing said.

This one point Batman could not refute no matter how much he thought about it. The Dark Knight turned around to say something else to Nightwing. Only to see Nightwing vanished into the distance without another word.

' _Fair enough,'_ Batman thought, taking a cue from Nightwing and going in the other direction.

Nightwing always thought it was amusing whenever he left Batman hanging. They were pretty much even on the entire stealth disappearing thing. Sometimes Batman did it, other times Nightwing did it. It was a bit of a competition the two had. Granted, not official, more along the lines of an informal type competition.

' _For the record, it never gets old for you leaving him hanging,'_ Barbara thought. The computer hacker leaned back in the chair. _'Night seems pretty slow. Do you think you're going to pack it in? Maybe head in early tonight, and actually relax for a change?'_

' _One more sweep, and I'll head on in,'_ Harry thought.

The sound of a woman screaming caused Harry to turn around. A rough mugger shoved her into the wall and ripped the woman's purse from her arms. The mugger took down the street as fast as his legs could do, shoving the woman's young son down in the process.

' _So an early night in Gotham City?'_ Barbara thought. _'We should have known it would be a bit too much to ask for, wouldn't you agree?'_

' _Yep, pretty much,'_ Harry thought, as he glided down on the ground.

Harry landed in front of the mugger. The hood reached into his shirt and pulled out a switch blade. Nightwing grabbed the man around the arm and twisted it around with a loud crack. The man fell down to his knees and hit the ground with a grunt. Nightwing slammed his fist into the hood's stomach and doubled him over with a sickening cough and wheeze combination.

"What's your problem, man?" the hood demanded.

"You!"

Nightwing slammed the point of an elbow down onto the hood's neck. The mugger collapsed to the ground. Nightwing grabbed the purse and returned it to her. The woman smiled and yelled out "thank you!"

Harry wasn't going to lie, there were a lot of times where it could feel pretty good to be appreciated. This was one of those times.

* * *

 

"So, the bank accounts are just as I left them. No, there…well there were a lot of people who were the victim of identity theft recently. I mean, even you've seen it all over the news. I know they're secure, but it's not a good idea for me to just think everything is going to fine and accept it. Thank you for everything you've done and….well I'll be in touch if I need anything else."

A huge weight lifted off of the shoulders of Kathy Kane. Another weight remained, what to do with her parents lost art collection? She technically stole them, and brought them to a van. She was a bit embarrassed about the entire falling for the doctor think.

Speaking of her embarrassment regarding Doctor Somnambular, Kathy prepared to head off to meet with Veronica. Ronnie remained one of the most starch critics against the good doctor, and she had been warning Kathy he wasn't all what he was cracked up to be. Bette was right behind her. Kathy had to live with the fact they were not being paranoid, just concerned.

Kathy slipped inside where Veronica waited for her sitting at the table. The heiress took a deep breath and walked towards the older of the two Vreeland sisters.

"So, are you doing okay, Kathy?" Veronica asked in a concerned tone of voice.

Kathy positioned herself against the wall. The woman took a deep breath and calmed herself. One thing the doctor told her was to remain calm under stressful situations. Kathy hoped it wouldn't trigger a relapse.

"My bank accounts are untouched," Kathy said. "I don't know what I'm going to do about the art collection."

"I'm sure if you put out the word it's stolen, people will…they will understand what happened," Veronica said. She leaned in and placed her hand on the top of Kathy's. "I'm really sorry about what happened."

Kathy could feel Veronica's sympathy. She responded with a swift shake of her head.

"Don't be…don't be sorry," Kathy said, taking in a deep breath. "It's my fault completely. You were warning me months ago….I'm surprised you didn't say you told me so."

"Even if I did, it would be kicking a person while they're down," Veronica said with a sympathetic pat on Kathy's hand. "And I have a feeling you're kicking yourself harder than I or anyone else could be doing. Am I far off the mark, or am I pretty close you hit it?"

"Bullseye," Kathy said, trying to smile. She did get the good news about her bank account. "I never thought I would be one of those women…who fell for something anyone with half of a brain cell could see through."

"Those like….your doctor, they prey on the vulnerable," Veronica said in a sympathetic voice. "You were in a pretty bad place. You got help and….I wonder how much Professor Strange has to do with this. Or was he just as much of a victim?"

Kathy responded with a shrug. She was done with seeking professional help. Kathy hoped she could rely on her friends, family, and herself for the support needed to pull herself through some of the more dire situations.

"I'm not going to go to him or anyone else regardless," Kathy said. "I'll always wonder if someone is messing with my mind."

Veronica gave a sympathetic smile towards her friend. She could see where she came from.

"Can you remember anything?" Veronica asked. Kathy paused and looked back at her friend. "Sorry if I sounded…."

Kathy waved off Veronica's apology. She sighed long and hard as if trying to come up with something. Kathy was pretty sure the hints of what she did rested in her nightmares and going down this particular rabbit hole was what lead her to this particular situation in the first place.

"Sorry, Kathy," Veronica said in an attempt to snap her friend out of the trance she was. "I didn't think you were….sometimes I put my mouth before my brain. It's caused me a lot of trouble."

"No, it's okay," Kathy said. "You have an understandable question, and I wonder how much of it I remember. Bette said I was like an entirely different person."

"Which would account for the fact you really don't remember anything, outside of your subconscious," Veronica said.

The only place which could bring these memories on, Kathy assumed, would be hypnosis. Something Kathy would want to avoid at all costs. This particular rabbit hole she avoided going down.

"Sorry, it took me so long."

Kathy and Veronica turned around and noticed Harry Potter standing before them in the flesh. Both of the women smiled when they caught sight of Harry. Veronica reached around and greeted her husband with a nice kiss on his lips. Kathy moved in and wrapped her arms around him.

"Thank you for everything," Kathy said, the hug lingering a few seconds longer. She experienced the full warmth of Harry's body and wanted to…explore more of it later. Now, Kathy had to pull away. "My bank accounts are untouched and….there's only the art collection."

"I know people who can keep a look out for it," Harry said. Kathy opened her mouth for a second. Harry cut her off. "I know I don't have to. I just chose to do things which can help you."

"Yes," Kathy said, smiling. Harry was the kind of person who would help and this is why she decided to do this. "And thank you for both of you being here for me."

Kathy took the short walk with Harry and Veronica across the street. This caused her to run through a number of different scenarios in her mind. There would be those who would cause her another scatter-brained heiress who blew her money. There would be the usual "first-world problems" crowd which would look down upon this. They didn't understand what Kathy was doing. The circles she ran in were not the only people who could be effected by this.

The press and several people were out. Kathy closed her eyes for a second. Veronica patted her on the shoulder.

"You don't have to go through with this if you don't want to," Veronica said. "If you're not ready, I can handle them….."

"If I don't go through with this, he's succeeded in ruining my life," Kathy said. She made her way up to the stage. Hands grew increasingly chilly and a bit clammy. Kathy refused to back down for a second. The woman's heart skipped. "Thank you all for coming out today."

The people started to buzz and wondered what Kathy Kane was going to say. Kathy drew in a deep breath and started to speak.

"My name is Kathy Kane, which many of you know. What you don't know is I was a victim of fraud over the past few months? Doctor James Somnambular, better known as Doctor Michael Westfield, Doctor Ian Phillips, Doctor Jonathan Belmont, among many other alias, lured me into his office, and prescribed me sleep aides, in an attempt to cure my insomnia. It allowed me to sleep soundly, while he slowly picked apart the Kane art collection one piece at a time."

Kathy blocked out the words of everyone else around her, other than herself. She would get this story out there and would do it any criticism be damned.

"My biggest regret is not losing the art collection my parents worked so hard to collect," Kathy said, dragging out her breath in a long sigh. "This is far from my biggest regret. No, my biggest regret is not listening to my friends and my family who warned me about him."

Kathy took a moment to close her eyes. She started to go around in circles on the stage. The woman's heart skipped a couple additional beats before she pressed on with the explanation.

"I never thought it would happen to me," Kathy said. "I was wrong. Very wrong, it could happen to me. And it could happen to anyone, man or woman in Gotham City. And I will not rest until he's brought to justice and pays for what he's done to me and several other people."

Veronica exchanged a smile with Harry. Neither of them had to jump in and relieve Kathy because she bulldozed through her fear of being ridiculed and being thought of less.

"Some might judge me," Kathy continued. "And you are perfectly within your rights to have your opinion. Your mother, your daughter, your sister, any of them could have been a victim just as easily. Do not be afraid to reach out for help though. Do not be afraid to state what these people are doing. The more awareness you raise, the better off each and every one of us are."

Everyone started to cheer. Kathy hitched in a deep breath and smiled.

"I'm going to sleep a lot more soundly tonight knowing people like my former therapist will be off of the streets and in prison to pay for his crimes," Kathy said. "The people of Gotham City will be known for their strength once again and none of us will lie down and be victims for these criminals! The foundation I'm setting up will educate everyone on what they need to do if they're a victim. We're here to help you and we're here to hurt them."

The loud applause almost became deafening. The two people who clapped the loudest were Harry and Veronica. Kathy appreciated their opinion the most of all.

* * *

 

Hugo Strange reclined back in his office. The old lightning in the office started to flicker when a storm raged outside.

"Gotham City, a storm always brews," Hugo said.

The lights flickered for a moment as a draft momentarily filled the office before it stopped. Hugo looked up from his paperwork the second the light turned more vivid. A costumed vigilante stood in his office door. Hugo didn't acknowledge him until the note has been scratched down.

"You know, if you wished to visit me, you should have made an appointment," Hugo said the second his full attention had been addressed on him. "Nightwing, isn't it?"

"I know you were the one who recommended Doctor Somnambular to Ms. Kane," Nightwing said in a calm tone.

"It's curious to where you get your information," Hugo said. "Even if you're wrong….I will not deny Ms. Kane is rather troubled though, and I thought the good doctor would be someone to help straighten her out. I did have no idea about how crafty the doctor could be, though."

Nightwing interpreted the statement in his own unique way. The two of them locked eyes for a long second with each other.

"What does drive someone to dress up in a costume and put their lives on the line to save the people of any city, especially Gotham City?" Hugo asked. "Especially when anyone with sense knows how much of a losing battle they are fighting."

"I'll be keeping an eye on you, Strange," Nightwing said.

"Your savior complex is extremely fascinating," Strange replied. "It would be something interesting to take a closer study of."

The moment Strange blinked, Nightwing disappeared. The doctor reached for the cabinet. He always considered drinking to be a sign of weakness. Tonight was a night where he came extremely close to breaking his vow of soberity. The man reinforced his strength before his hand touched the cabinet and pulled out the accursed bottle.

"Ms. Kane may be sleeping a bit more soundly tonight," Hugo said. "I do hope for his sake the Sandman sleeps with one eye open and holding his pillow tight."

Strange did not suffer betrayal lightly. He dealt with a veteran con artist and was conned just as many as any of the doctor's victims. There would be restitution for this particular betrayal.

"It's a shame young Alberto has regressed," Strange said. "I will be spending some time with him to reinforce what he has forgotten."

Strange made one final note and closed the file on Kathy Kane for the evening. There may be a time where he would revisit this experiment.

' _Now is not the time. Especially since Nightwing observes me as intently as I've been observing him and Batman from afar.'_

Strange turned the key and locked his files away from the cabinet safely. He turned and eyed the liquor cabinet one last time before scoffing and turning to leave.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 7** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Most certainly to be continued with Flamingo, in all of his flamboyant glory, as you might have expected. This is not the last we're going to see of him, not by a longshot._

_Nice distraction Kara, before Bette put two and two together. Kathy has been reborn in a sense and used her experience to help other people. Some people decide to stay the victim while others are a bit more proactive with their actions. One could see easily where Kathy is coming from._

_And Hugo Strange comes face to face with Nightwing. Which is interesting for all of the respects you may expect._

_Until Saturday._


	186. Back to School

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Six: A New School Year.**

* * *

Life's natural state may just very well be chaos, at least in Harry's own honest opinion. The first day of school for the students of the Gotham Private Academy reached around the corner and as with everything else, despite all of the preparations, there was still a fair amount of running around.

Harry really didn't want to do too much to add to the chaos which had been bred on this morning. He did have to have a word with a couple of girls based on a stunt they performed a couple of weeks ago. They thought they were out of the woods. Harry disagreed. He just needed a couple of weeks to more adequately figure out a way to deal with the two wayward girls.

"Lois, Rebecca, do you think I can have a word with you two for a second?"

Lois heard a question. Buried within a question was a command. An adult asking to have a word with you never was good. Rebecca cringed for a second right beside Lois.

"You knew this was coming," Lois said.

"Yeah, I knew this was going," Rebecca said. Her voice dropped down a slight amount when directed towards Lois. "I thought he forgot though."

Lois hated to be the one to burst Rebecca's bubble and ruin the mood even more. Harry was one of the few people Lois knew for a fact had a good memory and would not forget. The two girls approached Harry and faced the music.

"Rebecca, I thought Kara and I made it clear you were not supposed to go after Zucco under any circumstances," Harry said. "Was anything about it not clear?"

Rebecca wished Harry would have shouted. It would have been a lot easier to stomach than this voice of disappointment which he gave her.

"No, sir, it was very clear," Rebecca said. "I just….."

"Wasn't thinking?" Harry asked, helpfully allowing Rebecca's sentence to be finished without her having the indignity of being forced to finish it herself.

Rebecca thought the fact she wasn't thinking was more than obvious. The former Circus acrobat lowered her head and shame filled through it.

"Don't yell at Lois, she tried to stop me, I just chose not to listen to her," Rebecca said. "It was all for nothing, and I almost got Lois and myself killed. It won't happen again."

"I know it won't happen again," Harry said.

"Wait, that means Amanda was serious about RAO developing the tracking bracelets for children?" Lois blurted out before she really thought about it.

Harry placed his hand underneath his chin and a thoughtful expression filled over his face. He smiled when he looked back at Lois and Rebecca.

"No, even though it's not the worst possible idea," Harry said. "We could make a significant profit on it….I'm going to have to thank her for the good idea."

' _Yes, you're quite welcome Harry,'_ Amanda thought, smiling. _'Unless you plan to use the tracking bracelet on me….and Emily…which in this case, you're not welcome.'_

' _No, I can punish you in other ways,'_ Harry thought.

' _Oooh, someone isn't getting any for a while,'_ Kara thought, unable to help herself.

Harry turned his attention towards Lois and Rebecca. Both of the girls watched him. He motioned for them to both sit down so he could properly talk to them.

"It would be good for the two of you to get some training," Harry said. "I understand you have some generalized self defense training, don't you, Lois?"

"Yes, Harry," Lois said. "The General thought it would be a good idea for Lucy and me to learn how to defend ourselves. You know, because someone might get back at him through us."

Harry figured General Lane, despite his rough demeanor, would not allow his two daughters to go out unarmed in battle. Harry regarded both of the girls.

"It's obvious we need to step up your training," Harry said. "And we're going to do so soon. You're going to be joining Lyta in the morning. Dinah, Diana, or myself will help oversee your training, in the morning. And it will be bright and early in the morning, three days a week to start with. Although if you want to do more, by all means."

Lois's face wrinkled hard at the words "bright and early." They punctured her as if these words were the knife and she was the balloon. The offer of training sounded like an extremely enticing proposal. The words "bright and early" attached to it the offer of training made it less than exciting.

"And while you're not being punished completely this time, I hope this will….deter you from any future trips looking for Zucco," Harry said. Rebecca blinked. "You need to be patient…he will be found."

Harry didn't want to tell Rebecca her little excursion caused Zucco be driven deeper underneath the ground. The words had been implied.

"I suggest the two of you get ready….it's your first day, Rebecca," Harry said.

Rebecca smiled in excitement and rose to her feet along with Lois. The former circus acrobat stopped short and turned her attention around to Harry.

"I'm really sorry if I caused any trouble, Harry," Rebecca said. "It wasn't…there are times where I don't think."

"As long as you learn from your mistakes, we won't have a problem," Harry said. "If you don't learn from your mistakes then we will have a problem."

Rebecca thought it was fair enough. The two of them walked off in time to almost run into Lyta. Lyta stopped short and looked from them to Harry.

"So, he lectured you?" Lyta asked. Both of the girls answered with a swift nod. "It's a good thing you didn't get spanked."

Both Lois and Rebecca grew red in the ears. Lyta stepped across the room and crossed it to walk over towards Harry. She smiled and gave him a kiss when she thought no one was working.

"Good morning, Daddy," Lyta said. She casually positioned herself down on Harry's lap.

Harry closed his eyes for a second to block out the wonderful sensation of his daughters teenage rear wiggling against his crotch.

"Hello, Princess," Harry said, nibbling his daughter behind the ear which caused her to giggle. "Are you ready for your first day of school?"

"Yes, I'm ready," Lyta said. "Aunt Mandy said the teachers are sadist. They can't be any worse than the teachers on the island, can they?"

' _No,'_ Donna and Diana said in unison over the bond link.

"Your aunt is prone to exaggeration, I won't pay her any mind," Harry said. Lyta responded with a smile. "Just go out there, and work hard, study hard, and do your very best. Like I know I know you're capable of."

"Oh believe me, Daddy, I'll do really good, for you," Lyta said.

' _Great one, are you busy?'_ Eliza Moonstar asked, her voice bubbling with excitement when she went through the bond link.

' _Just making sure the girls get out the door for school,'_ Harry thought. _'And Eliza, I did tell you to call me Harry.'_

' _Yes, of course,'_ Eliza said, growing red around the face. _'I just found out this morning, the ritual worked.'_

' _Really?'_ Harry asked. _'That's great.'_

' _We couldn't have done it without you,'_ Eliza said. _'Your daughter will be born sometime in early May.'_

Harry smiled at it. Lyta looked at him, her mouth opened wide. She hugged her father in response.

' _So, I get to be an older sister,'_ Lyta thought. _'Well half-older sister, but still, it's about time!'_

Everyone laughed at Lyta's blunt words from the bond link. Eliza was well aware of the bond link.

' _Oh, I'm sure you're going have all kinds of fun when you have a younger sister,'_ Donna said. _'You know the way you treated me? That's going to come back to you.'_

The smile fell off of Lyta's face.

' _Don't pay your sister any mind, Lyta,'_ Diana said.

' _You were informed of the unique circumstances around Harry, weren't you?'_ Faora asked a few seconds later.

' _Yes,'_ Eliza thought. _'And the debt is paid so….the baby will safely arrive in May.'_

' _I want to check in with you once a month and monitor the progress,'_ Faora said. _'If you're a mystic, your body should be able to handle it. I don't want to leave anything to chance though.'_

' _Of course,'_ Eliza thought. _'I think we can make arrangements for you to meet with me…how soon?'_

' _I'll be in Smallville tomorrow, how about then?'_ Faora asked.

' _Of course, if it's good with you, it's good for me,'_ Eliza thought, not wanting to leave anything to chance. She was rather excited about the child in question.

Despite Donna's words, Lyta was excited to have a younger half-sister just as much. Harry smiled and nudged her.

"You still have to go to school you know, even after the good news."

Lyta responded with her best pouty face. Her father gave her one of those stern looks which caused Lyta to get going. Harry watched his daughter leave.

' _Well, that was an interesting way to wake up,'_ Lily thought. _'Faora, do you think I can tag along with you on the trip?'_

' _I wouldn't want to be the one to deny you the right to visit the mother of one of your future granddaughters,'_ Faora thought.

* * *

Harry made sure all of the girls were out the door and to school. He stopped by the coffee shop to meet with Paula Crock. Harry intended to discuss the new security around RAO and his hopes she could help him test it out when she had an opportunity to do so.

The woman approached Harry and looked a bit ragged. She gave the air of a person who really did need a cup of coffee.

"So, busy morning?" Harry asked.

Paula sighed at his understatement.

"More hectic than anything," Paula admitted when she looked at Harry. "And to be fair, I've had the same hectic morning you've had. Getting the girls out the door and making sure Jade, Artemis, and Jessie made it to school on time."

Paula took a moment to soak in those few private moments. She didn't need to head into work for another couple hours.

"We've upgraded our security recently," Harry said. "And I was hoping for your expertise so you can test it out this weekend?"

"I've never been able to break through one of your security tests yet," Paula said.

Harry chuckled as a plate with donuts had been delivered to them. Thankfully the GCPD(or more likely Bullock) didn't cause a donut famine this morning. Harry took a second to eat the donut.

"Always a first time for everything," Harry said.

"You're in a pretty good mood this morning for someone who had to make sure several more children got safely to school than I did," Paula said. "So what's the good news?"

Harry paused for a moment and smiled at the woman. He took a long sip of coffee.

"Well, I'll be becoming a father soon," Harry said.

"Congratulations, I'm surprised it hasn't happened multiple times before now."

Harry almost spat his coffee out at the blunt statement Paula gave him. Paula realized what she implied and tried to backtrack a little bit in her attempt to save some face.

"I did not mean…I did not mean…well I didn't mean what you thought I might have meant," Paula said. "It's just….congratulations….so how did this come about?"

"Well when a man and a woman…"

Paula sighed and shook her head.

"I know about that part," Paula said. "Although if you're about to say love, that's not necessarily true. There are times where all it takes is animalistic lust and the swapping of body fluids. Thankfully the results work out well, some of the time."

Harry could tell Paula was just a tad bit bitter for obvious reasons. He decided to just let this one go.

"I helped her with something, helped track down her daughter," Harry said. "She was trapped in a set of caves in Smallville."

Paula took a second to process the information and responded with a brisk nod.

"So, she decided to thank you by….I see," Paula said. "She must have been extremely grateful to do so."

Paula reached over and shook her head in response. She figured Harry had some way to stop unwarranted pregnancies which was more foolproof than anything else on the market. It stood to reason with the number of women who fell at their web. Then again, Paula always considered it to be the responsibility of the women to take such preparations. Jade was a surprise, and she had to marry Larry because it was just the proper thing to do. Artemis was conceived after a particularly successful heist which netted them huge score.

A huge score Larry blew later on by betting on the wrong team in the big game.

"Harry, I need to ask you a question," Paula said. "I understand if you're doing this…because you think I will never accept charity. But someone is leaving money, it's happened three times."

Harry took a moment to allow this information to settle in. His eyes locked onto Paula's for a couple of minutes and the frown grew a slight bit more prominent.

"Paula, you know I would pay you outright, if I thought you were struggling," Harry said. Paula started to open her mouth to say something. Harry cut her off directly at the pass. "And I know you will never accept it for as long as you live. No matter how hard I try."

Paula smiled thinking Harry got the measure of her completely.

"So, it's not you?

"Sorry, it's not," Harry said. "I swear to you on my unborn child it isn't."

Paula knew now it wasn't Harry because he would not have made a declaration like this idly. This raised some unfortunate questions in Paula's mind and the answers were not something she liked to even comprehend.

"So if it isn't you?" Paula asked. Harry responded with a swift nod. "That really means it can be a couple of people…either Jessie's father….."

Paula stopped short. Willis Todd had not been seen since around May, or so. It was almost September. Jessie made it clear her father disappeared for months at a time.

"Or it's your ex-husband," Harry said. "Or is he your ex-husband now?"

Tricky one to really figure out to be honest.

"Technically speaking, although it's hard to serve someone divorce papers when they're on the run and we don't know where he is," Paula said. "I changed the locks twice….it's almost like he's finding a way around them."

Harry frowned at the thought of this.

' _We're going to have to work on securing their house even more,'_ Karen thought. _'And have someone watch their house at all times….until Crock decides to make his next move.'_

' _Agreed,'_ Harry said.

* * *

Amanda and Emily lead the group of Lyta, Rebecca, and Lois onto campus. The two Potter twins bustled with excitement at being in the top of the class.

"Lois, Rebecca and Lyta need to head to orientation?" Amanda asked. "Do you think you can show them the way?"

Lois nodded. She had been in this position last year with Amanda and Emily showing her the way. Now she would be in the position to show Rebecca and Lyta the way.

"The two of you, please try and keep up," Lois said. "I'll help show you the way. I'm not going to help and baby sit you, so follow me."

"There's no need to be so bossy," Lyta said in a huff. "I swear you're worse than Donna is sometimes."

Amanda and Emily watched the girls leave. The Potter twins turned towards each other and flashed smiles, nervous ones though, directly at each other.

"Bette and Bunny mentioned this would be a busy year, our senior year at GPA," Amanda said. "Just think next year we'll be out of here and…"

"They might have been exaggerating it," Emily said. "It isn't as bad as they thought it was…we'll be fine."

Emily always took to school a bit more easier than Amanda did. Amanda wasn't a failure at education, there were times where she lacked the motivation. At least until her mother, aunt, or other brother gave it to her, and Amanda buckled down in time to study.

"Yeah, it's going to be fine," Amanda said. She smiled and looked towards the senior group. Just one year ago, they were on the outside looking in. "This is going to be great though. We have unrestricted access to the campus, and we can leave for lunch."

"And we should really step forward and….."

A figure made her way into the school. Amanda noticed she looked a bit older than the younger students. Actually, she looked pretty close to their age. Amanda saw the tell-tale signs of someone who had been lost and stumbling around without a purpose.

The Potter girl took her role as class leader seriously. She ambled towards the girl and approached her.

"Excuse me?" Amanda asked. "Are you new?"

"Yes," the girl said with a smile. "I just moved in last month, and I enrolled into Gotham Private Academy…I'm a senior."

"Oh really?" Amanda asked.

"Yes," the girl said, chuckling at the other one's question. "I'm Amy Crestmere."

Amy extended her hand for her fellow Senior to shake. Amanda took it for a second and shook it. She could feel the girl had a tight grip which was firm even around her.

"My name is Amanda Potter, and this is my twin sister, Emily," Amanda said. "Emily, this is Amy Crestmere."

"So I heard," Emily said. She moved past Amanda to shake the newbie's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Amy…wait, weren't you…you received a Shining Light scholarship, didn't you?"

Amanda was glad Emily remembered things like this, because it almost slipped her mind in the chaos in making sure Rebecca, Lyta, and Lois arrived without incident. It would explain a few things about how Amy got into the school.

"Yes, I'm here funded by Shining Light," Amy said. She bounced up and down almost in excitement.

Amanda's eyes glued to the new girl's cleavage. Her bountiful assets, healthy chocolate colored skin, wide hips, and long dazzling legs caused Amanda to become distracted. Emily pinched her lightly on the back of the leg which caused Amanda.

"Oh, our mother helps run Shining Light, along with my aunt!" Amanda yelled, her voice a little bit higher than normal after Emily pinched her on the backside.

Amanda turned slowly away to face Emily. Emily gave her one of those looks showed how smug she could be.

' _I'll deal with you later,'_ Amanda thought.

Emily's face contorted into a wicked grin as if she was challenging her twin to bring it.

"You must have done well in your entry exams," Emily said as if the interplay between the twins didn't happen. Amy acted like it didn't happen. "GPA doesn't normally accept students straight into their Senior Year. Even with the Shining Light Scholarship that would be a hard one to pull off, wouldn't it?"

One could almost see the smile crossing over Amy's face. She flushed in modest.

"I just studied hard for months, and….I did well," Amy said. "It wasn't a big deal."

"Are you kidding?" Amanda asked. "This is a big deal, the biggest deal!"

Amanda figured the blonde Latina beauty would be the type of talent Harry would keep his eyes on. Amy achieved something very few people ever dreamed of in their life and it was something she should pat herself on the back more and more for.

' _And the fact she's as hot as an active volcano doesn't hurt her chances either,'_ Amanda thought.

Emily ignored her sister mentally undressing the new student with her eyes. Mostly because it would cause Emily to do about the same thing herself.

"So, where did you go to school, Amy?" Amanda asked.

"I actually didn't go to a school, I was home schooled, the best tutors money could buy," Amy said.

"So why attend an actual school now?" Amanda asked. Amy responded with a corked eyebrow in response. "I mean why now of all times?"

Amy knew the real reason. A manufactured one her grandmother came up with worked just as well, at least she thought it did.

"I want to attend college, and what better way to start getting my foot in the door than one of the most prestigious private academies in Gotham?" Amy asked. The Potter twins looked back at her. "So, do you think the two of you can show me around?"

Amanda smiled and extended her arm for Amy to grand.

"At once, my fair lady."

' _You're trying too hard,'_ Emily thought, shaking her head.

' _I'm just being friendly,'_ Amanda piped in. _'Is there really anything wrong with being friendly. I didn't think there was anything wrong with being friendly.'_

Emily decided to keep as calm as possible and they lead the new student into the school for the grand tour of Gotham Private Academy.

* * *

School year started all across the country. Smallville Elementary School was one of the places where it would start. Lana and Claire made their way up to the school standing side by side each other. Lana smiled when the two of them made up to the school.

"So have you thought about it?" Lana asked.

Claire knew Lana for as long as she could remember. When the girl had an idea in her head, it was kind of hard to argue against it. The twelve year old took in her breath with a sigh and took out her breath with an equally prominent sigh.

"I've thought about it," Claire said.

"Yes, good, you've thought about it," Lana said, smiling. "And….?"

Claire could hear Lana's voice, there was a bit of pleading within it. The puppy dog eyes followed and Claire had a bit of a weakness for the puppy dog eyes. Lana mastered them well. She tried to summon every bit of strength to avoid answering it. Lana looked at her.

"And?" Lana asked.

Claire's hands found her hips and she looked at Lana.

"And?"

"You know, repeating yourself isn't going to get the question answered any faster," Claire said, without missing a beat. Lana wore her best pouty face. Claire chuckled. "And that hasn't worked since both of us were eight."

Lana re-doubled the puppy dog eyes and added the hands on the hips. Claire shook her head.

"And I don't know."

"You made me wait for all of that?" Lana asked. The girl responded with a rather prominent huff which made her look quite absurd indeed. "And what do you mean you don't know?"

Claire decided to speak her words with slightly more clarity in case Lana didn't understand her the first time.

"I mean what I said," Claire said, touching her hands to her hips and staring down at Lana. "I…don't….know."

Each word had been empathized one at a time. Lana took a couple of minutes to stare down at Claire. Her mouth hung open for a moment.

"Keep doing that, and you'll face will end up freezing," Claire said in a half joking manner. Lana's eyes locked onto Claire for a moment. "Seriously, Lana, I really don't know. But, isn't that progress from a few months ago. Where I said no to you flat out?"

Lana threw her arms into the air in the international sign for conceding defeat. Claire almost bust a gut in laughter when she stared down Lana's face.

"Okay, fine, that's better, I guess," Lana said, biting down on her lip in frustration. "Seriously Claire, what's the hold up? You could really be a good cheerleader. If you think you're going to make a fool out yourself, you really won't…and you do have the legs for it as well."

Lana grew red at the thought. Claire looked back at Lana with a smile.

"So you have been staring at my legs, haven't you, Ms. Lang?" Claire asked.

"I have eyes, I see things!" Lana snapped huffily. She was extremely embarrassed about being called out on the carpet. A few years from now, Claire would grow up beautiful, no question about it.

Claire could see the nerve struck with Lana. The Kryptonian survivor reached in and touched a hand to the top of Lana's.

"Relax, Lana, I was just having some fun," Claire said to her. "I didn't mean anything, just some harmless fun."

Lana nodded in response. She knew Claire was only trying to poke fun at the situation. Lana thought she went too far in yelling at Claire. There was just a fair amount of pressure on her this year to do really good. Lana thought the pressure would get the better of her. She took a deep breath and calmed herself down.

' _Okay, there are times where you can go too far, Lana,'_ the girl thought.

"I won't push it any more, Claire, it's my fault," Lana said. "I just….well it would allow you to do something fun. Sorry, about…if I pushed you. I forget my boundaries sometimes."

Claire answered with one of her smiles in response. Lana's sell job really made her think about it. Claire turned around and almost ran head long into a figure making her way into the hallway. The figure staggered and almost tripped over her legs. Claire reached in and caught the girl before she landed on the ground.

"Oh, sorry, I wasn't…."

"No, it wasn't you, I wasn't the one who was watching where I was going."

Claire made sure the girl stood up. An attractive brunette looked towards both Claire and Lana. She gave them a nervous smile. The girl dressed in a yellow tank top and a pair of jean shorts. A medallion hung down past her and caught the attention of both Claire and Lana.

"You're new in town, aren't you?" Lana asked.

"Yes, how did you ever tell?" the girl asked with a smile on her face.

"You have the look of someone who is new in town," Lana said with a smile on her face. "You're really…well you look pretty lost."

"I just moved here last month," the girl said. "Oh and my name is Lori, Lori Lemaris."

"I'm Claire Kent, and this bundle of fun is Lana Lang," Claire said. Lana stuck out her tongue in response at Claire's words. "Oh yes, Lana, you're being real mature right about now."

Lori looked from both of them. She stepped forward and almost tripped again. Lori hung onto the wall.

"I swear, there are sometimes they gave me two left feet," Lori said with a sigh. "I've been tripping over them all morning and it's kind of embarrassing…."

"It's just jitters," Claire said. She flashed Lori a smile. "Everyone is like this on their first day. Don't worry, you'll be fine."

Lori hoped she would be fine. The confidence in Claire's voice made Lori confident this was going to work out.

' _Here goes nothing,'_ Lori thought. _'And I do mean nothing.'_

"That's a pretty medallion," Lana said.

Lori blinked for a second, having been caught off guard by Lana's words.

"Oh, thank you," Lori said. "It was a gift from back home…before I moved away….I lived by the sea. Lots of fresh air and ocean life…it's amazing…not so good though in recent years."

"Oh, what's not so good?" Claire asked.

The warning bell rang which caused all three of the girls to jump up. Lori didn't have a chance to respond to Claire's question.

"So, do the two of you know where Room 512 is?" Lori asked, checking the message before her. "I'm supposed to go there for home room."

"It's down the hallway and to your right," Claire said. "The school's trophy case is right across the hallway for it. You can't miss it."

"Oh, thanks," Lori said.

Claire and Lana watched her leave. Lana watched the girl in concern. She looked a bit awkward, even more so than Claire could be at her worst. There were times where Claire could at least master the art of walking.

"It's very odd," Lana said. Claire turned around to face her. "She's interesting, isn't she?"

Claire thought interesting, and the medallion was interesting as well. Lana and Claire couldn't dwell on this matter for too long because home room awaited both of these girls.

* * *

Harry was about ready to start his first class, although it wasn't going to be until early in the afternoon today. He made his way to a small café across GCU. Pamela and Barbara joined Harry to keep him company. Both of the girls launched into a spirited conversation about something.

"So, you really think this is going to be the year?" Barbara asked.

"Yes," Pamela said. Harry raised an eyebrow. "It's about the project with Doctor Woodrue….we're close to a breakthrough."

Harry smiled and nodded in a sympathetic manner. Pamela's confidence this project could still work inspired Harry. Harry had his fair share of doubts and for good reason.

"You're still close to a breakthrough?" Barbara asked, frowning at Pamela's words. "Was this the same breakthrough you were close to last year? The one which didn't really amount to anything of value."

Pamela answered with one of the more obvious frowns. She wasn't going to lie, she was disappointed they didn't really get closer.

"This will have to be the year," Pamela said. "He says it's going to change the world. And when you change the world, you're going to run into some snags along the way, aren't you?"

Harry didn't really deny this fact to be perfectly honest. His own attempts to change the world resulted its fair share of challenges. It caused Harry to have a different perspective than many people had.

"Yes, yes we are," Harry said without missing a beat. "Just….you know my misgivings about him."

"Yes," Pamela said. "And so far he's been nothing, but professional. Did you ever think the rumors were nothing other than rumors?"

Harry did consider this to be perfectly honest.

' _I think the more obvious reason is he's afraid of you and he knows if he tries something, you can have him shut down,'_ Dinah thought. She sounded a bit tired.

' _So, how's class?'_ Barbara thought.

' _Difficult, but they never said it was going to be easy,'_ Dinah said. _'Actually come to think about it, they said it would be the opposite of easy. They said it would be extremely painful.'_

"So, are you going to plug away at another doctorate this year?" Barbara asked. "Because, you're making a lot of us look bad."

She said it all in good humor. Harry responded with a smile.

"Well, you know how I am, I'm going to be my very….."

Pamela's cell phone rang and broke out this particular line of conversation. The brainy girl rose to her feet and moved off to answer the cell phone.

Harry and Barbara exchanged a pair of unsettling smiles. Both of them knew precisely what the call was all about. Pamela turned back around to face them.

"Sorry, we're going to have to do lunch another time," Pamela said. "Doctor Woodrue…remember the breakthrough he thought we were about to hit?"

"Yes," Harry said.

"Well, of course you did, given I only brought it up a couple of minutes ago," Pamela said, drawing in her breath and drawing it out with one fell motion. "Anyway, he insisted he needs my help, and well, I did tell him I would make myself available if it was rather important."

Barbara frowned at these words from Pamela. She could not help and say something.

"Those are very dangerous words, Pam," Barbara said.

"Maybe, but…well anyway, I have to go."

Pamela reached in and wrapped her arms around Barbara. She planted a nice little kiss on her friend's cheek and pulled away from her. She would be remiss if she didn't say farewell to Harry as well. She leaned on in and planted a nice little kiss on his lips.

The moment Pamela finished up with Harry, she turned around and walked off. Barbara responded with a sigh and waited for her to leave.

"I think Woodrue is taking advantage of her," Barbara said. Harry raised an eyebrow. "Not in that way….he's not secure with himself. There have been times where he's called her for all hours of the night, and she returned later…disappointed his latest hunch wasn't correct."

Harry frowned and a couple of theories entered the skilled sorcerer's mind.

"Is it just me, or does it seem like Woodrue is getting pretty desperate?" Harry asked.

Barbara touched her chin and thought about it.

"Maybe," Barbara said. "You know, Woodrue is monopolizing more and more of Pamela's time. I'm not saying you should do something about it, but maybe it's a good idea for you to do something about it."

"I wouldn't want to jeopardize Pamela's intern ship without probable cause," Harry said.

"Isn't Woodrue acting like a clingy creep not probable cause?"

Harry thought it would be more probable cause to monitor Woodrue.

"He is getting desperate," Harry said. "And I'm sure it's not because of him. Whoever is funding his research wants to see results, I'd imagine. I bet they want to see results months ago."

"Do you have any idea who is backing Woodrue though?" Barbara asked.

"No, not a clue," Harry said. "Maybe this looks like a job for Oracle."

Barbara cracked into a smile. Maybe this did look like a job for Oracle. She would have to see what could be found.

"You were right, he still looks like the type of teacher who uses his credentials to get his students to sleep with him," Barbara said. "And I'm pretty sure he wouldn't try it with Pamela."

"Wouldn't have something to do with the fact one of her friends is the daughter of one of the most honest cops in Gotham City who would not approve of such a thing?" Harry asked.

"It has about as much to do with the fact her boyfriend is…well, he's you," Barbara said, cracking a smile. "He does respect you on some level, and fear you as well."

Harry gathered this much based on his limited interactions with Jason Woodrue.

* * *

Harvey Dent took a long look at the latest polls and could not be happier. He didn't run unopposed but most certainly none of the other candidates boasted as the type of backing Harvey did.

"Yes, I agree," Harvey said. "Are you sure about this, Rachel?"

"Harvey, we just need one more push, to really make people think they can believe in Harvey Dent," Rachel said over the phone. "I've talked to Veronica Vreeland and Kathy Kane….it gives Kathy something to do after her ordeal."

"Yes," Harvey said. He hoped to find some way to nail the fraudster who stole the Kane art collection. All evidence indicated he was out of the country. "So, the fund raiser happens at the Friday before Halloween?"

"Yes, so it doesn't conflict with any Halloween activities for anyone else in Gotham City," Rachel said. "It's going to be big…everyone is going to be there….and I'm certain Hill will take it as an opportunity to get a few last minute votes."

Dent didn't seem surprised at all. Hill took every single other opportunity to piggy back off of his campaign. Why would this be any different?

"So, how's Gilda?" Rachel asked. "There haven't been any more threats on her life, has there?"

"No, not recently," Harvey said. "I just wish I could treat her to a weekend away….."

"It would be ideal, but you simply can't do that, Harvey," Rachel said.

Harvey knew and understood. The election was important and there were around seven more weeks to go. They took place the Tuesday after Halloween which gave Harvey one last night to go around and get the support of people who could make his election sink or swim.

The last few weeks before an election would be more crucial. The mud-slinging would really begin.

"Yes, I know," Harvey said. "I have to focus on the election, and when I win…the real work will begin."

Harvey placed his hands flat upon the desk to look at the flier one of his opponents drew up. He made some big promises, but Harvey knew the man was all bluster.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 11** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_Back to school and there are a few interesting meetings to prepare for the future. And it's going to be quite the interesting time to come._

_DA elections are wrapping up, and there are going to be some severe ramifications coming soon._

_And the long term nature of Pamela's subplot gets a snarky little wink, wink._


	187. Curse of Y'ggphu-Soggoth Part One.

_Latest Chapter of the Week Poll Voting As Per the Blog as Usual. Go Vote. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/_

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Seven: Curse of Y'ggphu-Soggoth Part One.**

* * *

 

The more comfortable summer time weather slowly turned into the chillier winter of Gotham City. The leaves on the trees turned to a different color and some of them started to fall. While Autumn was not officially to begin for a couple of days, those who were in the know could understand and more importantly feel the change going through the air. It would be a prominent factor in all of Gotham City.

One of these individuals who could feel the change and understood the significance of all if it was the sorcerer known as Felix Faust, who had spent the past year recovering from an ill-fated voyage to the land of the Amazons. The less said about this blunder, the better off they would be. Faust understood all about setbacks though and you had to allow one victory.

He had been joined by two men who he worked with in the past, during the glory days of the Justice Society of America. Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu joined the devious sorcerer. They held in their hands something which would bring them great prominence.

Faust hoped to get a closer look at the object, and if it was what they believed it was, it would be well worth his time to conduct an experiment with it.

"Do you think we can get on with this, Faust?" Chang-Tzu asked.

Faust's devious lips curled into one of the more knowing grins. Both of the egg-obsessed cousins stared at each other.

"Patience, my dear, Chang-Tzu," Faust said. "I had hoped someone who had been around the block as often as you had would understand the value of patience."

Both of the devious rotten eggs looked towards Faust for a second. Edgar decided since he was the most level headed of the two, he would have to step in before Chang-Tzu did something to jeopardize the entire mess.

"We've waited for a very long time," Edgar said. "You have to excuse my cousin for his…impulsive nature. We debated when to come to you, even."

"Yes, I know, my reputation can be one which can be a fair bit intimidating," Faust said without missing a beat of any time. "You can rest assure though I mean you no ill-will. I'm here to help you achieve you greatest potential. Isn't that what all of us want?"

Edgar and Chang-Tzu locked eyes with each other. A long moment passed before both of the cousins responded with a nod.

"I just hope you don't intend to take the power of the egg for yourself," Chang-Tzu said.

Faust placed his hand upon his heart as if wounded. The sorcerer stared at the two former enemies of the Justice Society of America. They worked together before and he hoped they would be able to work together.

"I wouldn't dare dream of doing such a thing," Faust said. "I'm only here to act as your guidance through the ritual which will bring about ultimate tidings of power and wealth."

Both men responded with smiles. They enjoyed how this was going so far. Faust thought most men would in circumstances like this. Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu were far from an exception. They fit the moniker of those who would do anything for a little bit of power. Both men were in the twilight of their lives right now.

' _I wouldn't dream of robbing you of your chance to utilize the egg. Because the object is cursed, and….well, I have no idea how to break it. Naturally the curse works differently for many. Will I tell them that? Best to le them find out on their own. Being infected with a curse is a vital lesson about how not to blindly trust magical objects."_

"So, you have no designs on the egg?" Edgar asked. Faust shook his head. "None at all."

Faust's face broke into a smile. Both of the egg-fixated cousins gave him a long and searching look. Faust sensed the skepticism in their looks. They didn't believe him.

"No, I….it doesn't suit my goals," Faust said.

"It's…hard to believe," Chang-Tzu said. "Truly a man such as yourself would dream of infinite power and wealth."

Faust took a long second to double his gaze towards the two men. Two men as smart as Chang-Tzu and Edgar Prince would understand where he was coming from.

"If you've been through what I've been through, you'll find out infinite knowledge and power comes in many different forms," Faust said, looking off with a long look. "Power can come…with it's advantages, and it's drawbacks. I'm certain two men as refined and cultured as yourself will have spent a fair amount of time going over those particular points. Am I correct?"

Both cousins resounded with a nod.

"Perhaps we'll fully understand where you're coming from when the power of the egg flows within us," Edgar said. "The moment this occurs, we will be able to eggstract our revenge on all of Gotham City."

"Yes, but we've been waiting too long," Chang-Tzu said. "Perform whatever ritual you need to and….."

"To rush will mean you cannot experience all of which this magical artifact has to offer."

"Yes, my dear Chang-Tzu," Edgar said. "It wouldn't hurt to exhibit a little bit of patience for once of miserable life."

Faust took a mere second to note the tension between the two gentlemen. He would dare not exploit it, even for a moment.

"As I've told you previously, we need to wait for the energies of the Autumn Equinox to be perfectly in line," Faust said. "The change of the seasons create the most benefit and this is where archnic energies are at their highest point."

"Yes, of course, as you did warn us earlier," Edgar said. His gaze fixated on his cousin's.

"Very well, perform your mojo, then," Chang-Tzu said. "I do find it curious you're not getting anything out of this particular arrangement. It does seem a bit….."

"Oh, you need not concern yourself with what I get out of any arrangement."

Faust's words caused both of them to regard him with uneasiness. The Bookworm told them making a deal with Faust would allow them to unlock the powers of the egg fully. He also warned of potential consequences and more importantly some potential drawbacks.

Edgar and Chang-Tzu understood one particular element from their criminal career. They took the good from the bad, and they were willing to trust Faust to a small extent. A very small extent until they pretty much got what they needed out of him. Then all bets were off.

Faust smiled. Soon he would understand what the full power of the Crystal Egg would bring. Would their minds be strong enough to survive the experience? Faust had no idea whatsoever. He was curious enough to try and find out to the best of his abilities.

' _Let the games begin.'_

* * *

 

Harry found himself in a café across from GCU multiple times throughout the week, waiting for one of his girls to join in for lunch. The person in question followed him up. Dinah appeared next to him and plopped down in the chair.

"So, how as class?" Harry asked. Dinah looked back at Harry, an agitated look fixated on the face of the crime fighter. "Yeah, that might not have been the best question to ask given the circumstances, was it?"

Dinah responded with a swift shake of her head. Not really the best question to ask under any circumstances especially the circumstances where she found herself in.

"I guess class is fine," Dinah said with a sigh. She did not mean to sound so tired, but picking up with class on top of her nightly activities could be a bit of a balancing act. She respected Barbara and Harry even more for doing so. "The first few weeks are the hardest. They really wanted to weed out the people who are in it for the easy haul. So it really makes it hard on the rest of us."

Harry reached across the table, gave Dinah a comforting squeeze on her hand, and kissed her on the lips. Dinah took a moment to accept the kiss which did a wonderful job in helping her calm down. She indulged herself in Harry's lips and pulled away.

"Feeling better?" Harry asked her.

Dinah raised her eyebrow and a smile crossed her face.

"A little bit better," Dinah said. She crossed her legs and leaned in closer towards Harry. "It does give me an entirely new appreciation on what you do out there. I know you're….well you're dedicated, and Barbara is the same way. I've been out of school for too long, it's…going to be hard to get back on the bike."

Harry leaned back and took a long drink. He chose his next couple of words with care when he looked towards Dinah.

"Dinah, I believe in you, and I know what you're doing," Harry said. "You have it within you to be your best. I chose all of my girls for a reason, you have the capability of being your very best. You know I only chose the best to the best."

Dinah smiled, spirits raised. She wanted to smack anyone who called Harry an indiscriminate man whore who slept with anything wearing a skirt. He did have standards. There just happened to be a lot of women with potential which Harry wanted to rescue from a mediocre existence. If that was a crime, Dinah and several others could be found guilty of aiding and abetting him.

"Thank you, Harry," Dinah said, barely avoiding a smile spreading across her face. She reached closer towards him and placed a hand on the top of his. "You know how much this means a lot to me."

"A whole lot," Harry said. "Don't worry, Dinah, you're not going to only thrive, you're going to thrive."

' _Yes, Dinah, I know you, you're too stubborn to do anything less than your best,'_ Barbara thought. _'I might have picked up the nasty habit from you.'_

' _Oh, don't go accusing me of this, you're perfectly capable of being like this on your own,'_ Dinah thought in a somewhat playful tone, and also somewhat serious tone as well.

"So, how is your father doing?" Harry asked.

"Stir crazy, but that's nothing new," Dinah said. "I think it puts his mind at ease to know Sara's still out there….even though he missed her call."

"Oh, well that….that's kind of bad," Harry said. "I bet he was disappointed because of it."

Dinah cracked a smile towards Harry.

"Disappointed, oh boy, you don't even know the half of it," Dinah said. "She left a message though, and it was just enough to hear her voice."

Harry thought it was good. Larry Lance most certainly had been through his share of hardships of as of late. He was strong and a survivor, both qualities which had reigned supreme within his daughters, both of them. It showed the apple did not fall far from the tree.

"So, she's not here yet?" Dinah asked.

Dinah spoke too soon, as almost on cue, Zatanna Zatara-Potter entered the room. She did not enter the room alone though. Her father, the great John Zatara, entered the room. He wore a somber look like someone had died.

"John, what a pleasant surprise," Harry said. "Sit down, what do I owe the pleasure?"

Zatara sat down next to his daughter as she sat right across from Dinah. This allowed him the position to look his son-in-law directly in the eyes.

"I'm not sure if it's much of a pleasurable encounter, Harry," John said in his most somber tone of voice. "One could consider what I have to say to you as a warning."

Harry sensed something really unsettling was about to come. He motioned for John to continue.

"You encountered Deacon Blackfire a while back, didn't you?" Zatara asked.

"Yes," Harry said.

John hoped to never hear the name Blackfire ever again.

"The Blackfires are bad news, beyond the absolutely worst," John said in the most somber tone possible. "The Justice Society ran afoul of Blackjack Blackfire. He's a dangerous threat. In fact, he was in no small part responsible for the death of Kent Nelson."

"Doctor Fate?" Harry asked.

"Yes," John said. "He was a good friend, and Blackfire was powerful enough to take him down. His grandson looked to be in the process of following in his footsteps."

John allowed himself a drink. He thought he would need something a bit stronger than coffee to deal with a situation like this. He did accept the drink regardless.

"We hoped we saw the last of him," John said. "Your encounter with Deacon Blackfire at the crossroads shows he's still active and still extremely dangerous. And he will not rest until he accomplishes his goals. He's a master of Voodoo."

Zatanna jumped in to give her father time to catch his breath.

"Voodoo is one of the more finicky and dangerous branches of magic possible," Zatanna said. "Used right, it could bring down an enemy without any problem. Unless you have been taught by someone who understands it, it's hard to master."

Harry figured as much from the few instances he came across information regarding Voodoo in his studies. The young man took a second to mull over a couple of ideas in his mind.

"It's more than just being difficult to learn," John said. "It takes a fair amount out of you as well."

"Don't you have to give up a bit of yourself to be able to perform some of the rituals?" Harry asked.

"Yes," John said. "And it's extremely taxing for someone. The fact Blackjack has been able to master it….you should be concerned and do your best to arm yourself against any future attacks."

Harry only had been drawn onto the plane because he needed to rescue Sara, something he didn't regret for one second of his life.

"There's something else, isn't there?" Harry asked.

John drew in a deep breath and nodded in response. He showed Harry there was in fact something else.

"There's been a couple of reports, and I've been able to verify this from some sources I trust," John said. "Felix Faust is back in Gotham City."

"On the eve of the Autumn equinox?" Harry asked. "Given the high concentration of magical energy in the air, that can't be a coincidence."

' _The high concentration of magical energy in the air for the autumn equinox will also make it extremely difficult to track Faust,'_ Jaime said. She took a moment to collect her thoughts. _'Someone of his power level won't make it easy, will he?'_

' _You would think he wouldn't, would you?'_ Harry asked after a few seconds passed.

"There are two problems we're going to have to keep an eye out for," Harry said. "Thanks for the heads up."

"My daughter would not speak to me if I didn't give you a warning," John said in a half-joking manner. Zatanna flashed one of those looks at her father. "And I figure it's just the right thing to do."

Harry did appreciate it. He had a lot to think about. The specter of Deacon Blackfire and his grandfather lingered for a moment. Felix Faust lingering in the background, especially on the eve of the Autumn equinox proved to be problematic as well.

' _Just another day in the life of Harry Potter.'_

* * *

 

Amy walked around the Gotham City shopping mall and looked around with wide eyes at the sights of the mall. Amanda and Emily exchanged a smile with each other. They decided to appoint themselves as the girl's cultural guide.

"So, what do you think about your first taste of the mall?" Amanda asked. "You don't have anything like this back home, do you?"

"No, Amanda, I don't," the disguised princess said in a giddy voice. "So, is there a shoe store here, or something?"

Emily almost reached her hand to her forehead to do the most epic of epic face palms. The words "not another one" passed through the lips of one Emily Potter. Amanda responded with a mocking pout and Emily just flashed a wicked grin.

"At least two on this level," Amanda said. "Of course, Deluxe is the one you want, because it not only has the best deals, it has the latest fashions. If you stick with me, you're going to learn the waves of excellent shoe shopping in Gotham City."

Emily almost wept at the corruption. She looked and spotted two familiar faces coming over. Bette and Bunny smiled when they rushed over towards them.

"Bette, Bunny, hey!" Emily yelled, waving them over.

Bette and Bunny greeted the two twins with hugs. Both took turns in kissing the twins in greeting before switching off with smiles on their faces. Amy looked at both of them.

' _I wonder if this is some kind of cultural thing between friends. Selene didn't make me aware of this…maybe she wanted to keep me on my toes.'_

"How are you two doing?" Amanda asked.

"Oh, we're doing fine," Bette said. "And college is going pretty smoothly. Smoother than the last year at GPA."

"It helps to have a great student advisor who rewards us for working hard," Bunny said with a suggestive smile on her face. She took a moment to look at the girl who was standing behind them. "I'm sorry, we haven't been…."

'Oh, duh, of course, where is my brain?" Amanda asked.

"Right in the gutter where you left it," Emily said.

Amanda took a moment to give her sister the sisterly glare of mild discomfort. Emily just responded with a shift little smile and waved off. The elder (by a minute) of the two twins stared them down.

"Right, this is Amy Crestmere, she just moved into Gotham from….where did you say you moved from?"

"Brazil," Amy said with a smile.

"Right, of course," Amanda said. "And Amy, this is Bette Kane and Bunny Vreelenad."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Amy," Bette said with a smile on her face. "I hope you're finding Gotham City to be an interesting experience."

"Well, the mall is pretty nice," Amy said. "Amanda was just showing me some of the better shoe stores in the mall and where I can get the best deals and the latest brands….I have to admit, there's really nothing like this back home."

"Mandy, you just had to convert another disciple to your cause, didn't you?" Bette asked. "Your cause of pure and utter evil."

"It's a noble cause," Amanda said. "You can never have enough shoes."

"Give Shoemaggedon is about to take place in our closet, I doubt it very much," Emily said. The two twins stared each other.

"You two can't stay in line for a minute?"

Amy noticed a blonde, a brunette, and redhead showing up. All three of them were appealing to the eyes and the pinnacle of female perfection. She spent some time taking in the looks, the curves, and everything else of them.

"More friends of yours?" Amy asked.

"Yes, this is Kara Kent-Potter, this is Donna Troy, and this is Barbara Gordon," Amanda said. "Barbara, Donna, Kara, this is Amy Crestmere. She's a new student straight from Brazil…first time in an actual school."

"Oh, how do you do?" Kara asked.

Amy shook hands with the blonde. Kara almost seemed to be fixated on something regarding her. She recognized the girl from Fashion Week, one of Harry's wives. Did she recognize Amy.

"Is there something on my nose?" Amy asked, wiping it in response.

"No, it's just…have we met before?" Kara asked.

"I would have remembered someone as beautiful as you are," Amy said, trying to deflect.

"I'm certain."

Kara's gaze fell upon Amy's face. It reached the point where Amy looked rather nervous.

"I hope you enjoy your time in Gotham City," Kara said. "There can be a lot of challenges…..there's a lot of amazing people here though who are willing to make the most of a bad situation."

Amy smiled, for a second she thought her cover had been blown.

"Which is one of the reasons I came here," Amy said. "Plus, I can't be anywhere else in the world other than Gotham City on a Shining Light Foundation scholarship."

"Oh, you have the scholarship?" Donna asked. "That must mean you're the best of the best."

Amy's cheeks heated up. Barbara looked towards her friend with a smile.

"You shouldn't really embarrass her, Donna," Barbara said. "You must be willing to work hard…you look like you entered late in GPA."

"She's a senior," Amanda said.

Some of the girls gasped in surprise at this and Amy tried not look too pleased with herself.

"Wow, that never happens," Bette said. "They're particularly stingy on their transfers to begin with. It must be unprecedented to have someone enter the school in their senior year."

"So I've been told," Amy said. "So you were going to show me that shoe store, Amanda….it was a pleasure meeting all of you! Sorry, if I have to ditch."

"No problem at all," Kara said, giving the girl one more searching look. "I know by now not to get behind a woman and her shoes."

Amy was glad they come to some kind of understanding. She thought for a brief moment Kara would have recognized her from Fashion Week.

"Why don't we say we meet up in about an hour, and we can all have dinner?" Kara asked. "That is if you're willing?"

She directed this question towards Amy. Amy responded with a light smile towards Kara.

"I'd like it a lot if we could."

It was all settled. All of them would meet up to grab a bite to eat a little bit later.

* * *

 

Sinestra took a moment to consider what just happened. They stole a state of the art inceptor to go on a mission against a threat the Guardians of Oa considered to be ghosts.

"You said you picked up a distress signal?" Sinestra asked.

"I did tell you this, yes," the artificial intelligence said without missing a beat.

"You said you picked it up, but it's not registering?" Sinestra asked.

Carol decided to speak up.

"These things take time to pick up," Carol said. "It was so fleeting we might have missed it. Maybe if we can track it to the general coordinates we could have a chance to…find out who sent it, maybe?"

Carol paused for a long moment and figured the best way to get an answer was to ask outright.

"Do you think we can do that, Aya?" Carol said.

"Yes, I believe it would be within my capabilities to do so," Aya said. "Hang on while I set a course for the last known transmission of the distress signal."

Sinestra took a moment to consider something. Carol could see the look in Sinestra's eyes and looked back at her for a brief moment.

"You believe we're walking into a trap, don't you?"

Sinestra only responded with a crisp smile. Carol understood straight away where Sinestra was coming from and didn't like it.

"Even you admit the fact we're walking into a trap is obvious," Sinestra said. "It's perfectly acceptable for you to walk into a trap, providing you have the capabilities to turn the trap around on your attacker. Something I doubt you're capable of."

Carol had to work hard to bust her ass and prove herself to some of the more demanding supervisors possible. Sinestra did take the cake though.

"You're not giving me enough credit," Carol said. "You….."

"I've heard this before, someone survived training and they think they're ready to take on the entire universe," Sinestra said. "Many times, don't think you're the first one to…"

The alarm on the ship started to bare. Sinestra sat up straight and frowned rather wide.

"Interceptor, what is the nature of this emergency?" Sinestra asked.

"We are under attack, Green Lantern Sinestra."

A blast of light struck the side of the ship. Carol looked towards the control console.

"Can you shield the attacks?" Carol asked.

"Yes, I can, but they…they are breaking through the attacks."

Carol took in a deep breath. She almost made her way outside of the ship.

"What are you doing?" Katma asked.

"We can't lose the ship, not now," Carol said.

Katma's frustration hit high. She could seldom stand back and let a team member do something extremely reckless.

"We can't lose you either," Katma said.

Carol double checked to make sure the ring was charge. When it was, she made her way towards the nearest exit of the ship.

"Aya, could you please allow me outside of the ship?" Carol asked. "So, I can engage the Red Lanterns full on?"

"Green Lantern Danvers, I am compelled to tell you this is ill-advised, and you will be putting yourself in grave danger," Aya said. "And given my function is to assist the Green Lanterns, I would not be assisting you very well if I allowed you outside of the security of the ship."

"I'd say allow her to go," Sinestra said.

Carol tried not to have second thoughts.

"Yes, please, Aya, they're going to keep attacking us, and unless….I can divert them away from the ship," Carol said, letting her breath out after a moment.

Aya reluctantly allowed Carol to exit the ship. Katma locked eyes with Sinestra for a long moment. Sinestra's gaze came back around towards Katma's.

"So, that's it, isn't it?" Katma asked. "You're just going to let her go out there on her own, and fight them."

"It's the only way she'll learn," Sinestra said. "Interceptor, take the ship down to a landing."

"Perhaps it would be best of you assist Green Lantern Danvers," Aya said.

"I will in a moment," Sinestra said.

Carol's training may have been over. Sinestra still had some lessons to impart on the new Green Lantern recruit. One of the biggest of all of the lessons was for her not to jump the gun in battle without back up.

The Green Lantern from Sector 2814 stopped outside of the ship. A woman stared down at her. She would have been fairly attractive if it had not been for the rage in her eyes. The woman snapped a construct from her ring back. A glowing red sickle threatened to hack Carol into bits. Carol avoided the full brunt of the attack before the sickle ripped into her.

"Green Lantern, prepare to die!"

A large headed Red Lantern came into the picture. Carol stepped back and went face to face with her adversary. He raised a ring and fired an attack.

Razor sharp knives flew towards Carol's general direction. She evaded the attack with swift precision. Carol rose a shield up and blocked the knives coming after her. She took in another breath and avoided a second barrage of attacks.

"I'm not going to go down this easily!"

Carol created a wall between the two Red Lanterns which allowed her to take one and not the other. She created a glowing green fist using her ring. The lantern swung the fist and nailed one of them.

"We have a problem!"

Sinestra rushed forward and nailed the female Red Lantern in the face. A spiked fist nailed him into the face.

"Oh, the greatest Green Lantern of all time!" the large headed green lantern said. More glowing red knives shot towards Sinestra's general direction. "We're pleased to meet your acquaintance!"

"Can't say the same for you, Zox!" Sinestra yelled.

Sinestra ripped through the attack from her adversary and knocked him back. The Green Lantern started to fire back with several rapid fire attacks.

A loud boom could be heard, and a black device lowered down from the sky. Sinestra moved past them to get a closer look.

"Watch your back!" Carol yelled, raising a construct and swinging it as if using a wrecking ball.

The green Lantern construct knocked both of the Red Lanterns back. Sinestra only gave Carol's effort the barest of acknowledgements.

"What's that?" Carol asked.

"Trouble," Sinestra said. The two Red Lanterns disappeared into the night, for now. "This weapon will drill into the planets core and destroy it if we don't stop it."

"Can we stop it?"

Carol's question hung into the night with a supreme amount of frustration coming from her. Sinestra took a moment to consider it. She walked over and made a movement to touch the drill. A flash of energy spread through her hand which backed her off.

"Not without the proper tools, or without time," Sinestra said. "Neither of which we had."

Red Lanterns lurking around the planet proved to be a problem. Both of them only saw two.

"Interceptor, scan for any traces of red lantern energy," Sinestra said.

"Do you think it wouldn't be prudent to help evacuate the planet?" Aya asked.

"Are you scanning for red lantern energy?" Sinestra asked in her standard salty tone.

"Actually, it would be a good idea to do so," Carol said without missing a beat. She looked towards Sinestra a moment later.

"If you have suggestions, I'll be glad to hear them."

* * *

 

Harry returned to the penthouse with Dinah and Zatanna in tow. The news regarding Zatara's warning rang rather prominent in Harry's head.

"Learning more about Voodoo wouldn't be the worst idea," Zatanna said. "It's always a good idea to know about the magic and no what to expect."

"Is there a way to counter it?" Dinah asked.

Zatanna only responded with a shrug. She honestly didn't know. This was the type of magic out of her grasp and the grasp of most.

"Blackjack Blackfire learned it from his grandfather, who learned it from his," Zatanna said. "At least that's how the story goes. The Blackfires have been doing this entire game for generations, and they keep coming back to haunt those who they target."

The more Dinah thought about this, the more she felt a swell of gratitude Harry managed to keep Sara out of trouble.

"Blackfire underestimated me last time," Harry said. "We should go in with the thought it won't happen again."

Dinah and Zatanna both nodded. A couple of months passed since the encounter on the Astral Plane.

"And he'll be after me," Dinah said. "I was the one who was there when he died. I technically killed him."

"No, Dinah, you didn't kill him," Harry said. "He killed himself."

"Voodoo is one of the few forces which can raise the dead," Zatanna said. "Of course, there always has to be a sacrifice to balance the scales."

The trio made their way to the elevator. Harry would need to call in some people to see if he could find anyone who could give him a crash course on the basics of voodoo. Any attempt to learn it would be ill-advised given the nature of the magic.

Harry paused and thought he heard someone. Wanda, his super sharp hearing picked her up and also there was someone else talking to her.

' _Wait, why would there be someone talking to Wanda?'_ Kara asked. She pulled her way from hanging out with the girls. _'Surely someone couldn't have breached the security of the tower?'_

' _Anything is possible, although highly unlikely,'_ Faora thought.

This scenario raised a whole lot of interesting questions. Questions Harry wondered if he wanted to even attempt to learn the answers to. His eyebrow raised the second he walked forward. The voices grew more prominent the closer Harry reached the source of them.

"He needs to know about this…although I do sense he has already found out about it."

An unfamiliar voice could be heard by Harry's sharp hearing. Seconds later, Wanda's familiar voice picked up a few seconds later.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you should be the one who should tell him. Meet him face to face. You've secluded yourself from the shadows too long. I think it's time you actually take some accountability for your actions, and actually face him. Ever since you took the mantle….."

"I have my reasons."

These words proved to be the catalyst for Harry opening the door. Dinah and Zatanna followed him a few seconds later. Zatanna stopped short and look at the figure. The shiny golden helmet atop the person's head caught her attention most of all out of everything.

' _No way, it can't be,_ ' _Zatanna asked._

The figure dressed in the same blue and golden robes which came down from her body. The cape flowed. There was one distinct difference to the original Doctor Fate. The extremely feminine curves on her body, and she stood to face all three of them.

"Hello, Har-Zod," she said, turning the majority of her attention towards Harry. "I wish we could have our meeting underneath better circumstances."

"You wear the helmet of Nabu," Harry said, trying to process a couple of interesting thoughts in his mind. "Only Doctor Fate wears this particular helmet though."

"Yes, only Doctor Fate has worn this helmet," the figure said with a crisp smile across her face. "Ever since my husband died, I have taken up the moniker of Doctor Fate in his stead."

Harry only responded with a brisk and obvious nod. It did make a lot of sense someone else would have to take up the moniker of Doctor Fate after the death of Kent Nelson.

' _Inza,'_ Zatanna and Dinah both thought.

"So, the rumors of your demise were greatly exaggerated as well," Harry said. "Very interesting. I suspect this isn't a social call."

Inza, the new Doctor Fate, responded with a brisk shake of her head. She leaned closer towards Harry and looked straight into his eyes with a somber look.

"I'm afraid it cannot be one, Harry Potter," she said. "Magical energies are not only high in the air, but they feel wrong. I feel Faust is trying something. And it will put Gotham City in peril."

The message of doom, always a good way to top off the day, and when two powerful magic users said something was happening, Harry believed something was happening.

* * *

 

Felix Faust prepared for the ritual at hand. Edgar and Chang-Tzu waited for their moment. The egg had been placed into the center of the room.

"Yes, I feel the power flowing within and out," Faust said, a smile crossing over his face. "Today is going to be a great day for this ritual."

Chang-Tzu crossed his arms. Edgar looked towards his cousin.

"It's going to pay off," Edgar said. "Look, I already feel a tingle."

"The room is chilly," Chang-Tzu said.

Edgar shook his head at the droll demeanor from his cousin.

"Must you be such a rotten egg," Edgar said.

Faust's breathing exercises continued as he orchestrated the magic to flow from within the egg and without the egg. The supreme amount of power started to flow and be channeled with the core of the egg.

' _They have no idea what the consequences of infinite power and wisdom are,'_ Faust thought. _'They're going to learn the hard way.'_

Edgar and Chang-Tzu experienced a huge burst of power flowing through their very beings. Their bodies started to change.

"Yes, I feel it!" Edgar yelled at the top of his lungs.

His mind pumped in more information than he recalled remembering. His eyes shifted back a few inches and the man's heart kept beating even more heavily.

The power and knowledge swelled into their minds. Another side effect occurred.

"What is happening to us?"

Their bodies started to horrifically mutate. Edgar's head swelled as his hair began to burn off his head. Chang-Tzu's body went through several more interesting changes. His skin turned to the color of yolk and his body shifted into the shape of a grotesque looking egg.

Their bodies had been reshaped. Faust watched the mutations draw to their natural conclusion.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 14** **th** **, 2016.**

_And that's why dabbling in powerful magic can be dangerous. After a while, we return to this particular plotline._

_Until Saturday._


	188. Chapter One Hundred and Eighty Eight: Curse of Y'ggphu-Soggoth Part Two.

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighty Eight: Curse of Y'ggphu-Soggoth Part Two.**

* * *

Harry knew there was something more than a simple magical ritual taking advantage of the extra power in the air going on today. Doctor Fate, any version of Doctor Fate, rarely showed up. An agent of order like her showing up meant there was some heavy chaos in the air.

Wanda looked away from Harry for a moment. Harry reached towards Wanda and touched a hand to the girl's shoulders as if trying to tell her something.

' _She managed to break through the enchantments,'_ Wanda thought. _'I told her you might not appreciate it. She insisted it was urgent. I'm sorry I tried my best.'_

' _There are just some things which are beyond you, Wanda, its fine,'_ Harry thought.

He could sense a fair bit of agitation coming from Wanda. Harry gently placed a hand on Wanda's shoulder and calmed her down with a squeeze of it.

' _Maybe we could ask her how she pulled this little trick off,'_ Faora thought. _'So we can make some adjustments and not let it happen again.'_

' _I'm guessing the helmet doesn't really bow to the traditional laws of magical security,'_ Zatanna thought.

Harry couldn't really argue with anything Zatanna said right there. Especially when he thought the same thing was likely. Regardless, he joined Zatanna, Wanda, and Dinah in following Inza into the room.

"I'm surprised to see you alive and about," Zatanna said. "No offense, but I thought….."

"I didn't have any reason to go out into the public eye after Kent's….demise," Inza said. "The fact he is active one more time makes it prudent for me to be just as active as well."

"What have you been doing?" Harry asked.

Most people would have thought this was an invasive question even though it was not Harry's intention to pry around as such. Inza took a moment to smile and nod thoughtfully.

"I've been observing what has been going on," Inza said. "The progress of some magical performers out there has been intriguing to observe, and while others….they leave a lot to be desired. Some of them go down the wrong roads. And others, some of them just need the right nudge to head on the proper path."

Here, Inza flashed a smile towards Wanda. Wanda responded with a smile of her own.

"Overall, I've been bracing myself and adapting to a changing world," Inza said. "The world isn't as innocent as it was during the time of the Justice Society of America. It may be more in need for heroes then ever before."

"Whether or not they accept the heroes is another matter entirely," Harry said.

"You're quite right," Inza said. "And we need to sit down and get down to business."

Inza waved her hand and produced a book. An image appeared in front of them. A glowing crystal egg appeared in front of them.

"This is the Crystal Egg of Y'ggphu-Soggoth," Inza said. "Legend has it who holds the egg will achieve great things. They will have all of their wildest ambitions come true."

Harry heard this particular statement before. The other people hovering around the bond link all awaited for the catch because they know there was.

"As you may have guessed," Inza said after a long pause. "Achieving your wildest ambitions comes at a great price. Divine power takes a bit out of the person attempting to channel it."

"Yes," Harry said. "And some magical artifacts have that literal genie thing going on where it gives you want you want."

"Yes, or a Monkey's Paw," Zatanna said.

"Both of your assessments are correct," Inza said. "It would have been one thing if the egg was your standard magical artifact. However, there is something else to it. There was more to the egg than meets the naked eye. Even a magical expert will be duped because of the egg and it's qualities."

Every single one of the sat up straight to listen intently, wondering what more there was to this egg. A magical artifact was problematic enough. Any additional qualities to this egg proved to be a generous headache on top of everything else.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

Inza took a moment to catch her breath. Everyone sitting around the table prepared themselves for a long explanation.

"Years ago, there was a mad titan who sought power and also openly courted death. He figured someone of his power would be willing of a mate more powerful than life itself. Death disagreed with this naturally and did her best to ensure he would never cross over to the other side."

Harry vaguely recalled hearing of a figure like this from DeeDee and Hope some time ago. Obsession did come in many different forms.

"Obsession comes in many different forms," Inza said. "And this man's obsession with controlling all of reality reached an unhealthy point."

"It often does," Zatanna said.

All of the girls, and Harry, nodded. There was a far larger amount of agreement coming throughout the bond network.

"To make a long story, rather short, this terrible titan crafted some of the most powerful gems in the entire universe," Inza said. "Or maybe he found them. Details of his ascension to power grow sketchy. Regardless, he achieved a grand amount of power and no one could stand in his way."

"Yet, he was stopped," Harry said.

"Yes, he was stopped by an entire army of people consisting of rebels from the planets which he defeated," Inza said. "The agents of order and chaos also intervened, one of the few times in history where they came to the consensus on a matter."

Zatanna, Wanda, and Harry all sensed this was a more extraordinary event than Inza even said and she may have been underplaying everything just a tiny bit. More than just a tiny bit of they could be perfectly honest.

"He was stopped and stripped of the artifacts," Harry said. "And yet, they could not be destroyed."

"Both sides reached an agreement to scatter across the universe," Inza said. "Artifacts of such power could not be destroyed without reaching consequences. Over time, the gems had been lost."

"Until one of them was placed inside a crystal egg," Zatanna said. "The power source isn't deprived from magic, it's derived from some cosmic source."

Harry looked around the entire table. He slid the glasses off of his nose and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You know what we're going to have to do, right?" Harry asked.

Everyone nodded around the table.

"We're going to have to find the egg and extract the gem from it before it causes damage," Zatanna said. "Why do I think it's easier said than done there?"

"Likely because it is," Dinah said.

Magic really wasn't Dinah's area of expertise. She would defer to Harry, Zatanna, Wanda, and Inza on this. She thought they could figure out something a bit easier than she could.

' _Why do I feel like the fifth wheel here?'_ Dinah asked, almost groaning out in agony.

Harry reached around and touched his hand onto Dinah's. Their fingers intertwined with each other the moment Harry squeezed her hand. Dinah closed her eyes and turned towards Harry.

' _You never should feel like the fifth wheel for any reason, Dinah,'_ Harry thought, tightening his grip around her hand. _'Don't….don't ever feel like you're useless or anything. Magic can be confusing even for us who have been practicing it.'_

Dinah cracked into a smile. With renewed confidence, and Harry putting things in perspective as she could, the leggy crime fighter pushed herself with renewed confidence.

* * *

Edgar Prince dropped to his knees. His breathing started a bit soft and grew more ragged. He closed his eyes and reached to the top of his head. The rotten egg pushed his fingers against his bare scalp. The hair removed from his head and caused his head to be slightly misshaped, and large as well.

"No," Edgar said. "This wasn't supposed to happen."

"Oh, quit your whining!" Chang-Tzu snapped. "Look at me, I look like someone's overcooked breakfast."

Edgar took a look at Chang-Tzu who balanced himself on the chair. His entire body turned yellow and ninety five percent of his mass went to his head. His eyes narrowed looking towards him.

"So, you got a little bit off of the top, big deal," Chang-Tzu said. "My brain capacity has enhanced by ten times."

"Yes, I have as well," Edgar said. "And considering our intelligence was previously extraordinary to begin with, this is a great boon to all of us."

"See, there is a silver lining to every dark cloud."

Felix Faust showed up with a silver cylinder ring dangling from his head. Chang-Tzu's beady little eyes fixed on Faust when he approached them.

"There could be potential side effects to every magical ritual," Faust said. "And while you're bemoaning your fates, let's be perfectly honest gentleman, you wouldn't have been winning too many beauty pageants before this. And after this…"

"Watch it, Faust," Edgar said. "You better mind your tongue, or we will eggsterminate you."

Faust clicked his tongue with mock sorrow spreading in his eyes.

"You know, you should be a lot kinder to me, given you couldn't have accomplished this without my help."

"Yes, we do apologize," Chang-Tzu said. He tried to pull himself up. The large floating egg monstrocity flopped back onto the chair. "This is more than an inconvenience."

"One which we will rectify."

Chang-Tzu stared at Faust.

"Do we dare accept his help given it was his fault we were in this position in the first place?" Chang-Tzu asked.

"Maybe we have certain drawbacks," Edgar said. "You cannot deny the fact our brain capacity being enhanced would be a boon to us…plus….I feel a lot younger than I did before."

Chang-Tzu grumbled. He got the bum end the deal to be honest. Chang-Tzu made a split second decision and decided there was pretty much nothing left for him to lose. His situation couldn't get any more dire after all. His gaze locked onto Faust.

"I'm going take this as you accepting my help," Faust said.

"Get on with it, before I change my mind," Chang-Tzu said.

The silver ring shot out of Faust's hand and hit Chang-Tzu directly in the face. The energy wave bombarded him until a hover chair manifested around him.

"Mobility," Chang-Tzu.

"See, it wasn't so bad," Faust said.

The two rotten eggs grinned and both of them turned to each other. Edgar corked an eyebrow when he stared down his cousin.

"Now, we need to figure out what to do with our unique situation," Edgar said. "It's just like my mother used to say. When life gets you eggs, go and make an omelet."

"Yes," Chang-Tzu said. "There are many different possibilities out there in Gotham City. All we have to do is seize the opportunity."

Both of them, after getting over the initial shock of the mutations, made the executive decision to make the best of what could be an extremely bad situation.

"We could still be the most handsome, most powerful, men in all of Gotham City," Edgar said.

"Well, I think the ship has sailed on the most handsome part, but the most powerful men sound extremely good," Chang-Tzu said. "And along with the most intelligent."

"Yes, let's not forget the most intelligent, it's very important," Edgar said. "We were considered to be among the top of that level before. Now, there's no doubt about it."

"And the wealth we will have, we will finally be the top of the heap," Chang-Tzu said. "It's no more than what we so richly deserve."

"Yes, yes, although wealth and power always go hand and hand with each other."

Both of the cousins nodded in response. They became excited at the possibilities. The entire world was at their disposal. It was time for them to teach the younger generation of Gotham City.

"The criminal element had grown less sophisticated since our glory days," Chang-Tzu said.

"My dear cousin, I'm afraid I must correct you," Edgar said. "Our glory days are not a thing of the past. Our most glorious achievements are to come."

Both cousins exchanged nods with each other. The power flowing through them caused them to be on edge. Edgar's spine tingled at the very thought of what they were going to do. All of Gotham City would be there's to be honest.

"The only problem is where do we begin?" Chang-Tzu asked.

"That's very simple, my dear cousin," Edgar said. "The Gotham Enterprise Diamond Mart."

This caused Chang-Tzu's eyebrow to raise up almost as if he didn't expect to hear this particular point coming from his cousin. His breathing became more labored.

"It was the heist which…resulted in our temporary retirement," Chang-Tzu said. "It's highly fortified and it would take an act of great genius to even put a great dent in the security."

"I know," Edgar said. "Just think about it."

Chang-Tzu thought about it for a moment. A wicked grin spread over the face of the rotten egg when he looked towards his cousin.

"I see, I see, oh do I ever see," Chang-Tzu said.

"You've been quicker on the uptake normally," Edgar said. "It must be some kind of side effect."

Chang-Tzu noticed the third part of their party disappeared into the darkness.

"Faust appears to have not wanted to stuck around," Chang-Tzu said. He would have shrugged had he had shoulders left to shrug with. "I guess considering our deal was concluded there is no reason for him to stick around."

* * *

Harry and Inza traced the source of the magic to the Gotham City Public Library.

"Are you sure it's the place?" Zatanna asked. "I mean, no offense, it just seems a bit off."

Harry grabbed Zatanna on the shoulder and steered her off to the side.

"Just think about it, Zee," Harry said. "Not many people would look in a library if they were looking for an extremely powerful magical artifact."

Wanda took a steady step forward. The loud "thumping" coming from inside the library indicated something was going on. The chaos magic user placed her hand on the entrance door of the library. A warmth spread underneath her finger tips which caused her entire body to shudder with energy.

"There's certainly something in there," Wanda said. "Something really bad."

Inza grabbed Wanda's arm and steered her away from the edge of the door. The current holder of the helmet of Nabu along with the current Doctor Fate stepped back.

"The door is sealed," Inza said. "Stand back and allow me to….."

The door clicked open. She turned and faced off with Harry after he opened the door.

"It only takes a standard unlocking spell to open the door," Harry said. "There's really no need to complicate things."

The five of them entered the public library. Dinah stepped a bit closer towards Zatanna and Harry. Harry may have motivated her a slight bit earlier. This motivation speech did not cause Dinah to feel any less out of her depth. She had a thought something around here was not quite right.

' _Why don't we pay the person at the front desk our respects?'_ Wanda asked.

' _Wait,'_ Zatanna thought. _'I recognize him.'_

' _Who is he…oh, I see,'_ Dinah said.

Two daughters of the JSA heard the stories and had a pretty good idea of the colorful rogue's gallery the Justice Society of America fought. There was no question regarding this particular party as well. He may have aged.

' _The Bookworm?'_ Harry asked.

Zatanna nodded in response. The man's eyes averted towards them. The slippery fiend remained extremely calm when he stared down at them.

"I'm sorry, I don't know how you got inside," Bookworm said. "But, you should know the Gotham City Public library is closed for renovations until the month of October. Feel free to come back then if you want to."

"Does the name Y'ggphu-Soggoth hold any meaning to you?" Zatanna asked.

The Bookworm only blinked for a moment.

"The name does sound familiar," he said. "But, I'm afraid there's nothing in this library which will help you. Well, there might have been if you had been here about months ago. The only book on the subject had gone missing and may have accidentally been thrown out."

Harry's eagle eye spotted the Bookworm reaching for something underneath his desk. Harry snapped his wrist and caused the Bookworm to land head first onto the desk. He had been put unconscious in a fitful state of sleep.

"Help me analyze the energy in the air," Harry said.

Inza, Wanda, and Zatanna all assisted Harry in analyzing the strange energy pulsing through the air. The energy was most certainly present although a fair amount of it was fading.

"It's most certainly the same amount of energy which has come from the egg," Inza said after a moment. "This could be a problem."

Inza swiped her finger back and forth. A spark of energy spread between her fingers and started to pulse around her.

"Do you feel it?" Inza asked.

The energy almost bombarded Wanda for a moment. It flared up with her energy. Harry reached over and gripped her by the shoulder. This simple gesture brought Wanda back from the depths.

"Yes, I think we all felt it," Harry said.

"Yes, even I feel it," Dinah said. "What was it?"

"Trouble," Harry said with a sigh. "Everyone stand back…we're going to have to break through an extremely powerful seal."

Harry and Inza fired a bolt of magical energy through the edge of the library. They struck the wall with the full force. The energy rippled around them. The wall did not crack despite their best effort. Harry and Inza raised their hands in response and bombarded the edge of the wall. The energy shield cracked against the wall.

The seal broke open and a bright light bombarded them full and completely. Inza, Harry, Dinah, Zatanna, and Wanda gasped when a glint of light filled their eyes.

A winding set of steps had been revealed. Harry led the charge going down the set of stairs down to the basement. Several books surrounded them. They looked to be books of different cultures. Some of them were with languages Harry barely understood.

"Look!" Zatanna gasped.

She pointed out some interesting looking carvings upon the wall. Each and every one of these carvings were of a strange symbol.

"What?" Harry asked.

"This indicates a trip to limbo of some sorts," Zatanna said. She placed her finger on the side of the wall and a spark of latent energy. "Someone opened a portal to escape at the very least."

"Do you think we can activate the runes and see where the person who carved them into the wall went?" Dinah asked, sounding a bit more hopeful than normal.

"It's hard to say," Zatanna said, shrugging her shoulders. "There's a pretty good chance the coordinates could be scrambled and it could bring us to a place where we want to."

"There's more than a pretty good chance," Inza said. "It's more than assured."

Harry took a long look at the books. As much as he wanted to take them and take a closer look at them, he managed to stall some of his more frustrating tendencies.

"We better leave," Harry said.

"Yes, the sooner the better," Wanda said.

Wanda didn't want to say anything too clear. There was something about this entire library which gave her the creeps. Zatanna turned around to Wanda and directed a momentary frown towards her friend.

"Are you okay?" Zatanna asked.

"No, not really," Wanda said, unable to lie about something like this. "There's just something about this place which gives me the creeps."

"You're not the only one, trust me," Zatanna said with a smile. "I'm guessing it was built on top of some area of great mystical power."

"You're correct," Inza said. "It may not be sufficient enough to destabilize modern technology, but it still could be a prominent area."

"We still haven't found the egg," Harry said, sealing the gates behind him.

"What about the Bookworm?" Dinah asked.

Harry finished sealing the gate before he turned to address the entire group.

"I don't doubt he hasn't played a small role in this," Harry said. "He's not the main person though, he's….."

A thunder clap echoed around them before he could say how he figured Bookworm was an accessory to these crimes. Harry's tension reached an entirely new level. There was something bad about ready to happen around them.

"We better go," Inza said. "The power draws closer, I can feel it."

* * *

Power of a different kind drew another individual forward outside of Gotham City. A hearse rolled up and Blackjack Blackfire exited the limo. He stepped forward for a moment and frowned. The sound of a shovel scrapping against the Earth filled his ear. He peered over the fence towards a graveyard. A large bald hulking figure who looked like something out of a horror move kept digging a grave for some unknown purpose.

The grandfather of Joseph and Beau Blackfire managed to take a deep breath and make his way to the shop. The man who took care of the shop had been in business for an extremely long time. He passed a sign which read "Uncle Paul's" before making his way towards the shop. Not many people entered this shock. Curious artifacts surrounded them. The most prominent of these artifacts happened to be a sinister looking urn.

Blackjack Blackfire reached in and took the bell on the desk. His fist hit the bell three times in succession to ring the man on the desk.

"Yes!"

One word had been given out in a ghostly whisper. A pasty face rounded man dressed like an old time mortician waddled out from behind the counter. His lips curled into a knowing smile when he stared down an old friend.

"Robert, it has been too long!" the rotund man yelled. "Are you in need of spare parts? If you need fresh one, I can have my son go out and get you a fresh batch by nightfall."

"Not today," Blackjack Blackfire said. "I have something else in mind, regarding my grandson. As you know, he has been plucked from this world much too soon."

"Oh, I have heard about this," the rotund man said. "And word has reached my ears of your failed attempt to bring him back from the depths a couple of months ago. Perhaps, it was divine intervention which prevented your grandson from returning."

Blackjack Blackfire understood precisely what the man was going to do.

"I have known you for a long time, Uncle Paul," Blackjack Blackfire said.

"Yes, since the day you were born," Uncle Paul said. "I do have something you may find in value given your desire to resurrect your grandson from beyond."

Uncle Paul turned around and waddled into the backroom. He turned around and waddled out.

"I have been saving this particular dagger for such an occasion!" Uncle Paul howled. "But, it comes with a warning above everything else. You can use the dagger to perform a blood sacrifice which will be powerful enough to return your grandson from the depths."

"It's what I've been looking for," Blackjack Blackfire said.

Uncle Paul hesitated to put so much power into the hands of one man at least for right now.

"But, I must warn you of the consequences," Uncle Paul said. "You use this particular dagger and bring him back, he may not be as you remember him. They rarely are when they have crossed over to the other side."

Blackjack Blackfire reached out his hand for the dagger. Uncle Paul slid the item into his hand the moment he saw there was no further room for any kind of argument.

"It's my choice," Blackjack Blackfire said.

"Oh, yes, I have no doubt this is your choice," Uncle Paul responded in his ghostly howl. "I only give you this warning because I consider you to be about as good as a son. Joseph has been corrupted by the sweet seduction of ultimate power, and he is working beyond all the Blackfires hope to encounter. He no longer quite follows the path set up by your descendent, the sweet and virtuous Abigail Joan Blackfire."

Blackjack Blackfire took a long moment when staring down at Uncle Paul for a long time.

"I understand the circumstances," Blackjack Blackfire said.

"And you must understand one further point," Uncle Paul said. "The sacrifice will need to be precise at the right moment when the spirits are closest to the barrier between life and death. Otherwise, it could result in some severe consequences."

The eyes of Blackjack Blackfire fixated on the man.

"I understand everything," Blackjack Blackfire said. "And I understand the necessity of performing an even sacrifice."

He would only need one part of the sacrifice. The dagger would spill the blood in such a way to empower the Lazarus Pit. The pit would be charged and they could lower his grandson into the pit.

"I wish you the best of luck," the rotund gentleman said. "I leave this completely in your hands."

The man looked completely and utterly defeated. He attempted to warn Blackjack Blackfire of the consequences. Those words fell upon deaf ears. All he could do was sit back and hope all went as intended.

"Yes, you will," Blackjack Blackfire said.

"Do remember thought, if the sacrifice is not judged to be adequate, there will be terrible consequences," Uncle Paul said. He paused to give his tone an even more dramatic flair. "Terrible, dreadful consequences beyond anything you have ever experienced in your entire life!"

Blackjack Blackfire only responded with a momentary nod. He ensured the dagger had been wrapped up in the clothe and turned his way outside. He walked past the graveyard. The sound of the shovel scrapping across the ground and throwing dirt into the air continued to go on.

The two acolytes waited for Blackjack blackfire. They waited for further instructions.

"I have it," Blackjack Blackfire said. "We have a lot to prepare for if we want everything to go to plan."

They responded with nods in response. Without any further word, the two gentlemen entered the back of the hearse. Blackjack Blackfire entered the hearse.

The sound of the graves being dug continued to go on around them. Blackjack Blackfire hitched in a light breath and frowned.

' _He says there will be consequences,'_ Blackjack Blackfire said. _'We'll see.'_

* * *

Chang-Tzu and Edgar arrived outside of the city. They both thought they made some good time. The people started to scream the moment they set their sights on the two rotten eggs. The sounds of Gotham City citizens running in terror caused screams to resound even more around them.

"Well, I have to say, we always know how to make an entrance," Edgar said. "And we leave an impression on anyone who dares run into us."

The two rotten eggs set their sights on the prize in hand. Twenty years ago, their criminal careers almost went kaput due to a failed robbery of the Gotham City Enterprise Diamond Mart. It was supposed to be the heist which capped off their criminal career. In a way, it worked, the JSA put them down, and both cousins found their way into prison for some time.

They slipped out in a mass jailbreak and seemingly fell to their demise. They were considered dead by all which knew them until a year ago.

"Yes, they fear us," Chang-Tzu said. "And we will rule over Gotham City. Not Black Mask, not the Penguin, not even the Roman."

"Yes!" Edgar yelled in excitement. "We are Gotham City's foremost criminal masterminds!"

The two men made their way towards the front entrance of the Gotham City Enterprise Diamond Mart. The building resembled something more high class and sleek. The glass shined in the light. The security was more complex. Edgar smiled when he looked over the Gotham City Enterprise Diamond Mart. A black box flickered out from the other side. Edgar touched his fingers to the edge of the box.

"This requires a good touch," Edgar said. "And a little bit of creativity."

He analyzed the box and the most probable security code entered his mind. Edgar's fingers started to flare and the doors opened up.

"Bingo!" Edgar yelled. "It's a success."

The two of them entered. The security guards made their way forward. Two of them pointed their weapons at the goons.

"I'll handle this," Chang-Tzu said.

The boredom filled his tone of voice. His mental powers caused the guards to land down on the clatter.

"Not bad, allow me to contribute though."

Edgar pulled out a small gun which resembled a hair dryer. He clicked a couple of buttons and the gun nailed the guards. All of the guards dropped down to resemble glorified ping-pong balls.

"We have trouble," Chang-Tzu said.

Trouble appeared in the form of Nightwing and Black Canary. Edgar's lips curled into a smile when staring both of them down.

"Yes, I figured we would be getting company," Edgar said. "It's like old times, even a brand new Black Canary."

Nightwing paused for a second and looked at both of them. The mild amounts of energy coming from them told Harry one thing and one thing again.

"You used the power of the egg," Nightwing said.

"Yes, of course," Edgar said. "You are intelligent and you've done your homework."

"We can't wait to pick your brains!" Chang-Tzu yelled looking completely mad.

Black Canary wasn't going to give them the chance. She let out an extremely potent canary cry which knocked them back several feet.

Edgar fired a blast of energy from one of the guns. Black Canary and Nightwing scattered from the attacks. Both of them made their way to other side.

Chang-Tzu watched Nightwing fly at him with a kick. He concentrated on the fact he wanted to block this assault. An energy field flickered around Chang-Tzu. The energy shield bounced him down off of the ground. Nightwing backed off and threw a dagger at Chang-Tzu.

"You cannot hope to defeat the power of my mind!" Chang-Tzu yelled at the top of his lungs.

"No, I'm more concerned about the power of your mouth."

Edgar fired a bolt from his gun. Nightwing disarmed him with one attack. Edgar staggered back and slumped down onto the ground. Blood started to drip from his hand.

"Well, that was unpleasant," Edgar said. He dodged out of the way when Nightwing attacked him. "You're not going to defeat me. My mind is stronger than yours. It can process every one of your attacks….."

Black Canary snuck behind them one more time and unleashed a huge canary cry. The two rotten eggs staggered and dropped to the ground. They had to reinforce their shields to ensure their heads had not been split open from this extremely vicious attack.

"Yes, this was…not entirely pleasant," Edgar said.

The original Black Canary didn't have the ability to produce a sudden amount of deafness. Edgar produced a silver egg from his pocket and pressed a button.

"You might have protection from the gas," Edgar said. "But do these people?"

A small amount of poison gas filled the air from this particularly dangerous rotten egg. Some of the people looked dazed and drooling.

Harry raised his hand and directed the gas into a cylinder so it would not harm anyone. He and Dinah may have had the protection against the gas. These two rotten eggs managed to get one over on them in time.

The gas settled and sure enough, the two were gone in the process. They escaped, exactly how or why, Nightwing didn't know. Sirens pierced the air which prompted both of them to stand up straight and take a full look around them.

"And here's the GCPD," Dinah said. "Which means it's our cue to go."

The two of them passed guards who had been slumped on the ground. They had been cross-eyed and drooling. Harry stopped and looked for a second. Black Canary grabbing him firmly by the wrist got Nightwing's attention and the two of them slipped into the shadows.

' _We've been picking up strange energy all around, and we're pinpointing a central source,'_ Zatanna thought. _'We should be able to find where the two rotten eggs are holes up.'_

' _It isn't the library as we first thought,'_ Wanda thought. _'It's someone…deep underneath Old Gotham….in a place where no one dares go. They fear some dark force would consume them.'_

Nightwing frowned. In case he missed his guess, Harry figured Felix Faust of all people would be setting up shop at this particular location in Old Gotham.

' _So are you thinking what I'm thinking?'_ Harry asked.

' _I believe so,'_ Dinah thought after a long pause. _'Is it just me or did some of them look…..they're sucking brain power off, aren't they?'_

' _Inza believes this a potential side effect to usage of the egg,'_ Wanda thought. _'It has given those two the ability to siphon off the thoughts and over time, they could have reduced those around them into vapid, empty minded fools.'_

Harry figured pretty much they didn't have conscious use of all of their powers, at least not yet. Two individuals as smart as these two rotten eggs would be able to figure out how to utilize these powers sooner rather than later. There was no time to worry about them now.

Dinah and Harry might not have been effected thanks to both their above average mental strength and the bond reinforcing their will. The others around them would not be the same.

' _We need to find them as soon as possible,'_ Harry thought.

' _With my father helping us, I think we've got a good idea where they're hiding out,'_ Zatanna thought. _'You know, it's pretty much a long shot.'_

' _Long shots are the best shots in situations like this,'_ Dinah thought.

* * *

Felix Faust balanced the egg on the shelf. A few seconds passed when he could see a gate open behind him.

"What has happened to us?"

"Knocking is obviously out of date, especially with those who are old school," Faust said. "Our deal has been completed. I believe we have no further business here."

Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu advanced on him. Faust didn't need the use of a magic mirror to know the two of them were extremely upset with him.

"You haven't tapped into your full powers," Faust said.

"I could hear the thoughts of everyone around me!" Chang-Tzu yelled. "And I feel like my IQ was dropping….."

"No, your IQ wasn't dropping," Faust said. "There's were….the egg reacts differently to different people. Your mental power and desire to be the most intelligent men on Earth causes you to feel the need to siphon off the mental energy of everyone around you."

Edgar placed his hand underneath the chin in the classic thinker pose.

"So, what you're saying is, we can mentally drain any person and reduce them into an empty headed shell," Edgar said. "Each thought, each idea, they could be ours and ours alone."

Chang-Tzu's gaze grew a little less distrustful and more thoughtful.

"Yes, yes, of course," Chang-Tzu said. "This is an interesting opportunity we can exploit. We're going to need to find a transmitter to boost our already significant brain power."

"No, we don't need the transmitter," Edgar said. "We just need the egg."

"Now, we have a deal, I perform the ritual, and I get to keep the egg," Faust said in a protest.

"Ah, but it doesn't go with the rest of your collection," Edgar said.

Faust took a ragged breath. He needed to hang on to the egg. Its power shined in a most prominent way. If he could utilize it, it would make him an extremely powerful man.

"There's something in there he wants," Chang-Tzu said.

"Are you telling me the egg is worthless and there's something else our sorcerer friend could want?" Edgar asked. "You should tell us Faust, or we'll suck every last thought out of your vacant head."

Faust knew more than enough to start speaking, especially when his life was on the line.

"It contains a magical focus which I can use to summon a powerful demon," Faust said. "The egg is still the source of your powers, and it serves no purpose for my plans."

The two cousins communicated with each other. Their mental abilities gave the other a sense of what they were talking about.

"I can give you the egg, if you help me extract the gem from it," Faust said.

"Another bargain, this soon, Faust?" Chang-Tzu asked.

"So let me get this straight," Edgar said. "You want us to help you eggstract the gem, and in turn, you will give us the egg. No strings attached."

"No strings attached," Faust said.

Both of them knew through experience a Felix Faust deal rarely came with no strings attached. They awaited for the other shoe to drop.

Another portal split wide open before they could make further arrangements. Doctor Fate exited the portal and she was not alone. Zatara, Zatanna, the Scarlet Witch, Nightwing, and Black Canary all stepped from the portal.

"Well the Justice Society rides again," Faust said. "It's a pity it won't be for much longer."

"Hand over the egg!" Nightwing yelled. "It's your only warning, you have no idea what the dangers you're unleashing."

"Oh ,we know, and it will lead to your destruction," Edgar said. "I wonder what secrets these heroes are holding."

"Let's find out," Chang-Tzu said.

Faust stepped behind the two rotten eggs. This couldn't have gone any better if it had been planned.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 18** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_A tale of two arcs, featuring creepy times with the Blackfire families and also the two rotten eggs._

_Kind of Justice Society reunion, although only two of the people involved were involved in the JSA. So it wasn't really not a reunion to be honest._

_Until Wednesday, for the mind numbing conclusion of this arc._


	189. Curse of Y'ggphu-Soggoth Part Three

**Chapter of the week voting at the usual place. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/**

* * *

 

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Nine: Curse of Y'ggphu-Soggoth Part Three.**

* * *

 

Harry Potter viewed it about six inches away from his face .The egg was there, he just needed to get to it. Unfortunately for him, wanting something and actually getting to it often tended not to be too easy. Especially considering when the two parties in question, being Egghead and Egg-Fu, managed to box them in with an attack.

' _Wanda and Zatanna, I need you to help me blast the shields, give it everything you have!'_ Harry yelled.

The two sorceresses worked in harmony. They channeled raw power and bombarded the shields. The strong mental will of Chang-Tzu and Edgar Prince had been reinforced. No matter how many times they bombarded the shields, they would not break or bend. Both of the woman did their best to throw these bolts of raw power up against the shields.

Faust responded with a frown. He knew it would happen sooner rather than later. Someone would find a way to bust through the shields and get the egg. He couldn't allow anyone to get ahold of the egg, not without getting the jem inside. It could mean ultimate power for him.

"We need to find way to break through," Doctor Fate said.

The mental energies of these two men had been great. The sorceress almost broke through the attack, only to hear something rumble from beneath her feet. The rumbling beneath her feet continued to escalate and a large stone fist slammed out from underneath the ground.

The entire group stepped back to see stone golems had been raised to life. These minions played straight out of the Felix Faust playbook.

"That's it my minions!" Faust yelled. "Attack them, defend your right to live!"

One of them tried to nail the nearest enemy. Wanda crouched down to avoid the large stone fist from nailing her in the side of the head. The stone fist collided up against the wall. Wanda returned fire to nail her enemy with a bolt to the midsection. The bolt of energy lifted the stone golem high off the ground and caused him to smash against the wall.

Dinah propelled herself high into the air and fired off a huge martial arts kick. Another rapid fire display of kicks caught the creature off guard. The stunning siren propelled herself several feet in the air and landed firmly on the arm of the creature.

She waited for one of the creatures to scramble over and attack. The second the creature attacked, Dinah launched herself off of the shoulder. The creature punched another creature. The blonde haired crime fighter dropped down behind the creature and opened her mouth to give off an ear-splitting Canary cry.

The golem had been staggered even from this. It opened him up for an attack with Harry arching his wrists back and firing several razor sharp daggers at the creatures. The daggers stuck in the pressure points. Harry activated the daggers with a flare of energy and caused them to be bombarded with a burning light.

John Zatara retained some steady amount of movement when he took it to the creatures with ease. Anyone who had saw him in his prime may have long since forgotten how the master worked. He muttered an incantation underneath his breath and turned one of the creatures into water.

Faust stepped back and dropped to his knees. One could get the impression Faust had been murmuring a prayer. He had in turn been performing an incantation which would bring more of these creatures to life. Faust started to rise them from the depths.

A flash of energy erupted from the ground and two more of the really large creatures came from them.

Chang-Tzu and Edgar Prince watched. Edgar slipped back a couple of inches and scooped up the egg in his arms in an attempt to give it some security.

"We better split before they find a way to break through," Edgar said.

His eyes followed this Scarlet Witch ripping apart Faust's golems. They might as well have been tissue paper give the success she had.

Chang-Tzu almost protested the fact his brother wanted to depart. One final look at the battle showed Chang-Tzu the decree.

"Right, we must regroup," Chang-Tzu said. "We can think of a plan which will allow us to continue are assault upon Gotham. And we will continue our acceleration to be one of the smartest men in Gotham City."

Edgar watched the battle and one thing vexed him above all of the other things.

"Odd, to my recollections, Doctor Fate was a man," Edgar said.

"Well, someone else must have taken up the moniker," Chang-Tzu said. "And the best to my recollections, Blackjack Blackfire put Doctor Fate out of our misery."

Both of the rotten eggs shuddered at the thought of this particular villain. Something about this man was not quite right at the best and extremely unsettling at the worst.

"I think it's time for us to depart," Edgar said. "So, do what you did last time to get us out of here."

Chang-Tzu's ugly face screwed up and caused a flash of light. A portal had been opened. It would lead them far away from the heat of the battle.

It had given them both headaches for the mental shields to be held up for this long and this constantly. The remnants of the JSA continued to fight Faust and his minions.

Faust sensed a portal opening up in his own domain. He turned his head back where Doctor Fate and the Dragon were disabling each and every one of his well-placed shields around his domain.

' _They have decided to depart along with the egg. An interesting idea. Perhaps I should endeavor to do the same. They are not going to cheat me out of what is mine. No one cheats Felix Faust out of a deal.'_

Faust decided to summon more of his pets in an attempt to delay the heroes from following him. The sorcerer turned around and slipped through the portal.

"Faust is getting away!" Zatanna yelled.

"Yes, obvious," Dinah said.

The Black Canary dodged the attacks of the golems. They may have been powerful to certain extents. These golems also adopted a one track mind.

"No, he won't be getting away," Doctor Fate said.

A portal appeared off to the side now she disabled most of the security portacol's in Faust's base.

"Well, I wish we could have surprised them when we were here," Harry said. "We should really just take what we can get though right now."

Harry jammed the throwing knives into the stone joints of the golems. He activated the explosive method sand reduced them to clay.

"Come, the two of us need to stop them from utilizing the egg any further," Doctor Fate said.

"Do you think you all can handle it?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I've been handling situations like this since before you were born!" Zatara yelled.

He could feel his blood racing a little bit and heart pumping hard against his chest. The adrenaline kicked it and pushed John Zatara to go on.

"We're good!" Wanda yelled.

Wanda bombarded the creatures with a heavy blast of energy. The hex bolts connected with the creatures and forced them to slide backwards.

Harry and Inza knew they were racing up against the clock. The help of several capable people would allow them to get what they needed to do accomplished, no problem at all.

* * *

 

The two rotten eggs flashed onto one of the highest buildings in Gotham City. Edgar cradled the egg in his hand with a smile on his face.

"We managed to escape thanks to our superior intellect once again," Edgar said. "And soon all of Gotham City will be feeling the power we have."

"Yes," Chang-Tzu said. "We have the egg and the ability to drain them all of their mental energy. Soon every single person in Gotham City will be even more empty headed them ever before."

For a large, floating head monstrosity, Chang-Tzu gave off the air of someone several shades more dangerous than he could really be. A manic smile spread across the face.

"Yes, power, wealth, and intelligence beyond all measure!" Edgar yelled. A flare of madness popped over his face "We will be the most intelligent men in all of Gotham City."

"Yes, a sound plan. There is just one flaw in it."

Faust appeared on the edge of the rooftop and stared down the two rotten eggs. Both of them staggered back underneath the glare of Felix Faust.

"I don't think you'll be leaving here with much of your sanity intact," Felix Faust said. His gaze continued to lock on them for a good long moment. "Or the power of the egg."

Faust rose his hand and a silver triangle popped out from the palm of his hand. Edgar and Chang-Tzu tried to defend themselves. They had been trapped in the cages.

"Faust, you betrayed us!" Edgar yelled.

"We should have seen this coming," Chang-Tzu said. He paused and amended his statement. "We did see this coming!"

Faust chuckled in response of these words from the two rotten eggs. For their collective intelligence, they should have seen it coming. They did see it coming. And the fact they thought they were going to come out ahead amused Faust to no end.

"Time makes fools out of many of us," Faust said. "And it makes a fool out of the two of you most of all."

The sorcerer clutched the egg in his hands. He could see in a few minutes what was so enticing about the power the egg had given up. The egg drew into him and made him smile beyond all belief. He cradled the egg to his waist and drew in the deepest breath possible.

"And let us be perfectly clear about something," Faust said. "You two would have betrayed me eventually. I just did my best to get a jump start on the betrayal before you had a chance to do so."

Edgar Prince and Chang-Tzu locked eyes with each other. Neither of them would deny they would have betrayed Faust if given a chance. It was more of the principle of the matter to be perfectly honest.

"Of course we would have betrayed you," Edgar said. He sounded completely exasperated when he talked. "But to do so during the crowning achievement of our criminal careers is pretty low ball."

"Sorry," Faust said. "All is fair in love, war, and the collection of highly powerful magic artifacts. Nothing personal, it's merely business."

Chang-Tzu bombarded the edge of the silver cell with his mental attacks. Faust watched him do so, a smile growing on his face each second.

"All you're going to accomplish is giving yourself a tremendous migraine," Faust said. "Please continue though. The act of you trying to escape is rather amusing."

Faust set the egg down onto the ground. He sat between it and placed his hand upon the top of it. He started to murmur an incantation underneath his breath.

The eyes of the deceitful sorcerer popped up. Cracks manifested through the egg.

"Yes, come to me!" Faust yelled. "The power is all mine. MINE! MINE!"

Faust's madness escalated by a tremendous degree, the moment a loud crack resounded. A pair of figures slipped their way through the portal on either side.

Nightwing and Doctor Fate turned up just in time to view this horrific sight.

"Faust, what are you doing?" Doctor Fate asked.

"I'm releasing the gem from the egg so I can have ultimate power!" Faust yelled. "Don't try to stop me, for you are too late!"

Faust channeled the energy. The egg shattered underneath the incantation.

Harry looked up into the sky. A swirling red vortex manifested high above Gotham City. The crackling of energy rising in the air put everyone, including Harry on edge.

"What is this?" Faust asked.

"Something far beyond your comprehension!" Doctor Fate yelled.

Harry understood instantly. The egg served as a dimensional barrier between a realm of horrific proportions. Several dark creatures tried to slip from the portal.

"No, no, it's fine, I have the power, I can control it!"

Faust's words pretty much rang of a man who was close to losing control. He stared up in the sky with widened eyes and an even wider mouth. His heart started to race and skipped several beats in an attempt to reach up through the portal.

"I have freed you!" Faust yelled. "I will offer you a sacrifice if it would appease you."

"A sacrifice!" Edgar yelled at the top of his lungs. He tried to push his way from the containment unit.

Chang-Tzu once again tried to utilize his mental prowess to push on through. The feedback loop caused him nothing other than a bloody nose. He was back to square one.

Harry turned his attention to Inza with a frown crossing over his face.

"So, do you have any ideas?" Harry asked.

"The best way to stop this is to repair the egg," Inza said. "I can do it in time…..disrupt Faust's concentration!"

Harry thought he could do that. He raised his arm in the air and nailed Faust in the chest with a bolt of energy. Faust staggered back and Harry jumped on in. He tried to nail Faust with a punch. The aged sorcerer dodged out of the way.

"Do you really think you can defeat me?" Faust asked.

Harry sprung back and caught Faust with a flipping kick. The kick propelled the gem up into his air. Faust made his way to grab the gem. Harry's quick reflexes put the gem in his hand.

"Give it to me!" Faust yelled, raising his arm to perform an incantation.

Nightwing reared back his arm and launched a huge roundhouse right to the jaw of Felix Faust. The sorcerer crumpled with one punch as he dropped to the ground.

' _And there's the problem with magic users,'_ Harry thought. _'In general, they have all of this power and prowess, but they also have a glass jaw syndrome.'_

"Please, no, please no, please no!" Edgar yelled. "Doctor Fate, you have to save us."

Chang-Tzu was too proud to beg even though his cousin wasn't.

Inza put the words of these two rotten eggs as far out of her mind as possible. Her hands pressed against the egg and she started to murmur these words underneath her breath. Each moment a piece of the egg clicked back together into place. It formed a solid and round shape.

"We'll…you have to…please!" Edgar yelled.

The egg almost had been repaired. The gem was not needed to restore the egg, thankfully. And it restored itself back to normal.

The moment the egg pieced back together, the portal fired up and started tor reverse course. The dark minions coming from within the portal started to get drawn back in without too much trouble. Several flashes of light erupted from the portal.

The cages containing the two rotten eggs broke. Edgar and Chang-Tzu dropped to the ground. A glazed look appeared over their face.

"The power burned them out," Inza said. "It's a common occurrence when one attempts to obtain power which is far and completely beyond their capabilities."

Harry edged closer to the both of them. Edgar and Chang-Tzu most certainly had been wiped out with one fell swoop. Both of them looked completely disoriented and it was a unique state for both of them to find themselves in.

He would have liked to think this would have been the end of all of this madness. Deep down though, Harry knew it wasn't.

He turned to take a look at Faust. The slippery snake disappeared into the night, true to form.

Harry kept the glowing blue Jem in his hand. The true source of the mental prowess was at hand, and it turned on them.

A haunting whisper echoed from the Jem. It yearned to be returned to join it's mates. Harry clutched it closer towards his chest.

"Don't be seduced by the tantalizing power," Inza said. "Many mentally strong man have fallen mad with the quest for them. Holding one of them is a temptation."

Harry reinforced his will and understood everything. He couldn't delve into this situation much more when a portal cracked open. Zatanna made her way out of the portal, followed by her father, along with Wanda. A very weary looking Dinah took up the rear.

"Portals," Dinah said. "It's not my favorite way to travel."

"It can be an acquired taste," Zatanna said with a sympathetic smile crossing her face.

"Behold," Harry said, extending his hand forward. "Two rotten eggs, overcooked."

Wanda stepped over. The energy still rising from them put the chaotic magic user on an edge. She stepped closer towards them and frowned.

"The lights are on and no one's home," Wanda said.

"I suppose Faust got away," Zatara said in a tired voice.

"Are you okay, Dad?" Zatanna asked.

"I haven't done this for a long time," Zatara said. "The old bones aren't what they used to be."

The former member of the Justice Society took a long breath and managed to feel a little bit better.

"Faust escaped, but he didn't escape with this," Harry said. "We better make sure these two are found by the proper authorities."

The unconscious forms of Egghead and Egg-Fu rested on the ground. While they looked to be no immediate threat, none of them wanted to take chances.

"And with that done, maybe we can head to a less conspicuous place to talk," Inza said.

* * *

 

"It's been a long time for me," Zatara said. "I'll turn in."

The veteran former JSA member turned his back and left. This allowed Harry and the girls to make their way into the penthouse. The blue gem rested on the table.

"Is it just me, or does that thing greatly unsettle you as much as it does me?" Wanda asked.

"It's not just you," Harry said.

Harry could sense true power swirling through the gem.

' _I know what you're thinking, and we're thinking the same thing,'_ Faora thought. _'We should try and get the entire set.'_

' _To make sure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands, at least, '_ Karen thought.

Harry thought as usual his Alphas were right on point with what he was saying. The sorcerer leaned back with a frown on his face.

"What a day," Harry said.

"You can say that again," Dinah said, stretching out her legs. She already removed her boots. She turned to rest her fishnet clad feet on Harry's lap.

Harry didn't exactly protest this arrangement. Zatanna and Wanda sat on the seat across from Harry. Doctor Fate took a position in mid air with her legs crossed. Harry absent-mindedly started to rub Dinah's toes and soles before he turned his full and undivided attention towards Doctor Fate.

"Faust slipped away, "Harry said.

"He will always take an opening to escape," Inza said. She put her hand down upon Harry's shoulder from her positioning. "The egg is perfectly safe and as for the gem….."

"I should hold on to the gem," Harry said. "I have the best capabilities of finding the others."

Inza observed Harry for a long and pressing moment. Harry had the impression his soul had been scanned almost as if to check it from any impurities.

"Don't stare in there too deeply," Harry said.

"Would I not like what I see?" Inza asked.

"No," Harry said. "I think you might like what you see a little bit too much."

Inza didn't even bat an eyelash from Harry. Her gaze continued to search him over.

"You are one of the strongest willed individuals in any realm, Har-Zod," Inza said. "You would have to be to hold as many bonds as you do and as many responsibilities without lapsing into madness."

' _And she has seen a lot,'_ Hippolyta said. _'Even beyond what her husband has seen or any of the other wearers of this helmet.'_

' _You know this, Mother?'_ Diana asked.

' _I did assist the JSA on occasion,'_ Hippolyta thought. _'My responsibilities to the sisterhood came first, naturally, but I was not going to turn them down at all. Not if I can help it at least.'_

Diana's lips curled into a knowing smile. She could believe it to be perfectly honest.

"I'm going to take this as the compliment it is," Harry said to Inza.

"A compliment if you must," Inza said. "You should take it as an endorsement, along with my blessing."

Harry's mouth turned around into a knowing smile.

"Fair enough," Harry said. "So what are your plans for now?"

"I am where I need to be," Inza said without any pause. "And I needed to be here. Our paths will cross again. I know this gem is in good hands and….in the interest of fairness, I will keep the egg."

Harry thought this was more than a fair trade. The egg after all opened a portal to a horrific realm. Who better to guard this portal than the wearer of the helmet of Nabu?

The eyes from behind the helmet turned extremely serious. Inza slid off the helmet to reveal an attractive woman who appeared not to have aged a day past thirty. Her red hair came down past her shoulders and bright blue eyes shined with unmistakable warmth. Also a small amount of worry etched in them. Harry took this worry beyond serious given the absolute power she possessed.

"Do know there are dark times coming through Gotham City," Inza said. "And the Blackfires will target you for foiling their plans. I know how dangerous Charles Robert Blackfire is. He has gotten more so during age."

"They are obsessed," Harry said.

The mistress of order responded with a smile and walked over towards Harry. Dinah removed her legs from Harry's lap so Harry could rise to her feet and face Inza properly.

"Obsession is a common tactic for most menaces," Inza said. "And it is a common trait among the Blackfires if you have a chance to study them throughout history."

Inza produced a thick and really worn looking journal. She pressed it in Harry's hands.

"This is everything I know on the Blackfire clan," Inza said. The helmet started to glow in her hands, as if warning her not to spend too much time detached from it. "You may be able to derive some potential information from it."

Harry nodded in response. Any information could be helpful in accomplishing his goals. Inza took one last look at Harry before slipping the helmet back on.

"I wish you the best of luck," Inza said. "And the best of fortune."

The bright light erupted and Inza departed. This left all of them plenty of time to think about.

Harry, in the meantime, had some extremely unsettling bedtime reading to delve into. What he glimpsed of the psyche of Deacon Blackfire in the Crossroads was unsettling enough.

' _Well this is going to be interesting,'_ Harry thought.

"The history of the Blackfires?" Dinah asked.

The stunning siren was equal parts curious and apprehensive. She wanted to delve into this information, and at the same time, she knew if she delved into this information, she may not like what she read on the other end of it.

"Yes, it appears so," Harry said, his frown deepening when he flipped through the book.

* * *

 

The lights flashed to life in a government facility. A stretcher rolled past. The prone body of Edgar Prince had been rolled down a stretcher onto the lab. A couple of doctors walked impatiently on either side of him. The doctors took a moment to gaze intently at the gentleman.

"He really has been put through the ringer, this one, hasn't he?"

The lead doctor walked out of the lab. He tried to maintain the professional manner, but the hideous misshapened face caused the doctor to perform the most obvious of double takes. The doctor tried his best to keep his thoughts at bay and mostly to himself. The twisting feeling entering his stomach gave the impression of a knife stabbing into it.

"He looks pretty bad, doesn't he?" one of the orderlies asked. "You should see the other one, he looks worse."

The other hand had been wheeled in pretty much on cube. The doctors all took a look at what appeared to be an overcooked egg in a fish tank. The slit like red eyes stared back at them. These eyes did not blink, nor did they show any signs of life.

The hardened medical professional walked over. A woman dressed in a professional looking blouse, skirt, and jacket combination stepped in. Her hair pinned back in a black ponytail and her glasses came over her face.

"So, what do we have?" the doctor asked.

"These two men are Chang-Tzu and Edgar Prince," the woman said, consulting the information on her clipboard. "They went under the monikers of Egg-Fu and Egghead years ago. They were two enemies of the Justice Society of America."

The doctor responded with a nod. The JSA was a bit before his time, although he did hear his grandfather tell him stories about the heroes which had been busted apart.

"Yes, they were, Chang-Tzu and Edgar Prince," the doctor said. "Something has happened to them."

A quartet of armed government agents stepped into the picture. All of them folded their arms and adopted some extremely stern expressions. The doctor took a step back.

"It's merely for security purposes," the lead government agent said. "We honestly have no clear idea what happened. All we know is several civilians are under medical care, having suffered mental duress which has lapsed them into a state of depression. They have no sense of anything around them, especially themselves."

The doctor's mouth hung open when he looked at the government agent. He managed to push a few key words out of the back of his throat.

"Surely there is something which can be done?" the doctor asked.

The government agent shook her head.

"We're going to study them, what happened to them may have been use to them," the government agent said. "My employer wants to know what makes them tick and what makes their minds work. And she wants it done as soon as possible. Do you hear me, as soon as possible!"

The doctor most certainly heard the government agent. He didn't really like it, but he heard it. He really didn't have much of a choice to be perfectly honest.

The government officials stood in the background. A couple of the agents smirked when they took a good and long look at the misfortune which visited these two gentlemen.

"Man, they won't be winning many prizes in a beauty pageant," one of the government officials said in a dry voice.

"Are you kidding?" another government official asked. "This is a real improvement on how they looked before."

There could be a fair amount of argument back and forth either way about how either party looked or didn't look.

* * *

 

The intentions of the Red Lanterns could be seen. The blood thirsty nature of them made Carol breath in and breath out heavily.

"Get it together, rookie," Sinestra said.

Carol frowned. Sinestra was being her usual charming self on this mission and Carol didn't know how to take it.

"Do you think you can disable it?" Carol asked.

The veteran Green Lantern took a long look at the object as if trying to determine the best way to disable it. Time passed before Sinestra turned around and shook her head.

"With plenty of time and effort, we can disable it," Sinestra said. "While I know between the both of us we can put in the effort, the timing is off. We don't have enough time."

Katma returned from her patrol on the base.

"All of them are huddled in the capital," Katma said. "They're worried about what about if they're going to survive."

Carol thought they were rightfully worried. Everyone had been troubled by what had happened.

"We can't sugar coat this for them," Sinestra said. She took one more look at the bomb which had worked its way to the center of the Earth. "We're going to have to tell them their planet is doomed, and they're going to have to find a way out off of it, immediately."

"The Red Lanterns have destroyed all methods of travel off of the planet," one of the natives said. "Why have they targeted us? And why have the Guardians of Oa not stopped them?"

These were completely fair questions. Sinestra didn't answer.

"Look, we'll find a way off the planet for you, we'll put a stop to this," Carol said. "Just calm down."

"It's an honest question," another one of the native said. "I thought the Guardians were supposed to protect us. The Green Lantern of this sector was killed by those monsters, he tried to appeal to the Guardians numerous times planets in this area had been taken down by the Red Lanterns."

Carol could feel their plight, she really could. Sinestra turned her attention to them.

"Despite my seniority, I don't have an insight to the Guardians or how they think," Sinestra said. "Our hands are tied…this mission isn't authorized."

The natives didn't look too happy. As a matter of fact, the native stirred and looked completely restless. Carol turned towards Sinestra who flashed a frown when she got to work on the item.

"I have no idea what to do, do you?" Carol asked.

"This planet has a moon," Sinestra said. "In theory, we could transport them all there….but the planet is still doomed."

"Maybe we can shield the blast somehow," Carol said. "You know, shield it with our green Lantern rings."

"If there were more than three of us," Sinestra said, pausing for a long moment. "I would think this would be an ideal solution. The three of us couldn't hold back the explosion for more than a few seconds."

They would have to call back Oa to get the help involved. Given the current attitude of the Guardians of Oa, Sinestra had a sinking suspicion this wasn't going to occur any time soon.

"What are the motives of the Red Lanterns?" Carol asked.

"They have no motives," Sinestra said. "They are only driven by rage. They have all suffered loss, and they let the anger they suffered consume them. To the point where they will wreck themselves if it meant causing the blood of others to spill across the universe."

Carol frowned. Sinestra could argue certain points until she was blue in the face. Carol saw this potential idea as a motive.

"They're going to come back to ensure their handiwork goes through," Carol said.

"Maybe," Sinestra said. She took in a deep breath and raised her voice. "Everyone come to the town square immediately. It's an order! No one is going to be left behind, do you hear me? No one is going to be left behind."

Sinestra's booming voice echoed all around. The natives all walked over. Some of them regarded Sinestra with as much suspicion as they would the Red Lanterns.

"Haven't you done enough?" one of the natives asked.

"There's no way for us to stop the device," Sinestra said. "Time is running out. I need you to listen very…."

A loud bang echoed from above the planet. A glowing vortex started to manifest. Three figures appeared from the other side of the vortex.

Carol's eyes followed the progress of the Red Lanterns dropping down on the ground. The battle in space caused her to want another crack at taking them down.

"Destroy the Green Lanterns!" one of them yelled. "Nothing else matters."

"Do what you have to do," Carol said. "I'll handle them."

Carol didn't wait for Sinestra to try and talk her out of it. The woman's hand reared back and created a miniature boxing glove construct. One of the Red Lanterns responded with a bolt of red light to try and sliced Carol in half. Carol kept moving and turned her construct around. She nailed one of the Red Lanterns flush in the jaw.

The same female Red Lantern she fought in space came down on them.

"DIE!"

Carol backed off to avoid the high impact blasts of energy. A red pair of scissors came closer to her and was dangerously close to cutting her in half.

"She can handle herself," Sinestra muttered. The native all grew anxious, especially when one of the Red Lanterns crept up behind them.

Sinestra dove into the picture and knocked the Red Lantern back a few feet with a vicious roundhouse punch. Sometimes you didn't need a ring to cause a great deal of damage.

The Red Lantern crumpled down to the ground. Carol rushed back into the battle and pulled the Red Lantern off of the ground. The Red Lantern flipped over from the modified spatula construct. He landed down onto the ground.

Sweat rolled down Carol's face. She thought adversity did a pretty good job in building some character. This was a bit too much though for her.

Sinestra formed a shielded staircase with her ring. It rose up as far as it could go. Katma helped reinforce it.

"Everyone walk calmly up the stairs," Sinestra said. She spoke in way which absolutely no room for argument. "It leads to your moon."

Sinestra thought there might be a small chance she could shield them from the explosion, or disable the device. Given the Red Lantern invasion which took place, Sinestra wasn't going to chance it.

Everyone walked up the modified staircase. Some of them almost fell over through abject nervousness.

"Just calm down, everything will be alright!" Katma yelled.

Sinestra smiled, her backup Lantern was a lot more able to sooth the masses then she was.

* * *

 

Zatanna arrived at her father's house. She wanted to check up on him after the events of tonight. It had been a long time since John Zatara had been in the thick of things and it had really worn him down very hard.

The worry the young magic user had for her father became extremely prominent. Zatanna's heart started to beat against her chest more fluidly the moment she slipped into her home.

' _Something is very wrong,'_ Zatanna thought to herself.

This feeling grew even more dangerously prominent the moment Zatanna stepped inside her home. She could hear something off in the distance and a crashing sound from upstairs.

Zatanna raced up the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her. A crash like that was rarely good. The stench of something burning encouraged Zatanna to pick up the pace and make her way further up the stairs.

"No!" Zatanna yelled.

She could not believe what she had seen. Down on the floor laid the prone body of one John Zatara. Zatanna jumped over the toppled shelves to get to her father. Blood poured from his nose when he had laid on the ground. His breathing was non existent and Zatanna couldn't get a pulse.

"Come on, "Zatanna yelled, pumping on her father's chest.

Zatanna performed a spell to attempt to jump start her father's heart which had been taught to her by him. Nothing happened, his heart was completely dead and beyond any reviving.

Any attempts to revive her father was all for nothing. Zatanna tried hard one more time, but the unfortunate conclusion visited her.

Harry appeared at Zatanna's side in a flash of light having noticed his wife's distress. He saw John Zatara down on the ground. Harry kneeled down before him and scanned Zatara, before confirming the worse.

"I'm sorry," Harry said, pulling Zatanna into a hug. He did his best to comfort his wife. "He's all gone. You did all you could"

Zatanna flinched at these words. Coming from Harry, with his abilities, they sounded so final. She tried to hold on hope, maybe denial.

John Zatara's body remained motionless and completely devoid of any life.

Had Zatanna not been too distracted by her father's demise, she would have noticed several key items had been missing from the shelves in his room.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on May 21** **st** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_John Zatara's death would have likely come about sooner, if there hadn't been other things which happened and demanded even more attention. The identity of his murderers are going to be a mystery and it's a bit of a background thing. Maybe not as long-term as Pam's story arc, but still._

_Egg-Fu is in the tender loving care of AIM. That couldn't be good._

_Until Saturday._


	190. In Memory Of

**Chapter One Hundred and Ninety: In Memory Of.**

* * *

 

The crisp autumn air kicked up a few leaves. The day's temperature rose a few degrees above the normal standard fare, more than enough where the people in the city could go outside without their jackets on. The sun shined brightly and the birds sang. It may be one of the last nice days before Gotham's notorious winter weather hit. Many decided to enjoy the time they had before this particular event happened.

It was a real shame for some people a dark cloud had been cast over this perfect day. There were numerous people who walked in to pay their last respects to the one and only John Zatara. Friends and family alike had stepped in to pay their respects to one of the key members of the Justice Society of America.

A broken up Zatanna walked into the funeral. She held Harry's hand. Dinah walked on Zatanna's other side for emotional support. Bruce Wayne stepped into the funeral as well, a glaze over his eyes. John Zatara was one of his mentors, therefore it put him in a very bad state of mind. Alfred walked a few inches behind him.

Several other people showed up as well, including Ted Grant. Ted moved over to face Zatanna.

"I'm really sorry, kid," Ted said. "Your father didn't deserve….struck down like this."

"Thank you," Zatanna said, accepting the condolences with a heavy heart.

Zatanna recalled the official cause of death the coroners gave her. John Zatara suffered a brain aneurysm brought on by stress. Zatanna accepted this fact was true, at least to a certain extent. There were other circumstances which lead to her father's death.

The dark haired girl took a deep breath. Wanda joined them as well.

"It's going to be okay," Wanda said. Zatanna looked at her. "Well, not now, but it will be. I only met your father a couple of times, but he wouldn't want you to beat yourself up over this."

Zatanna knew this deep down in the bottom of her heart, her father wouldn't have wanted her to beat herself up over this. The fact of the matter remained she was tearing herself to shreds over it.

' _If I had been a couple of minutes earlier,'_ Zatanna thought.

' _You don't know that,'_ Harry thought. _'You could have gotten caught in the crossfire as well. And then what would we have done there?'_

Zatanna conceded Harry had a point. There were times where he had the right idea and it frustrated Zatanna greatly how on point he was.

The gaze the dark haired sorceress struggled to turn towards the casket. Seeing her father inside the casket would result in some sense of finality he was truly gone. Zatanna screwed her eyes half shut and half open. A slight tear came down from her cheek.

Harry's hand tightened around hers and gave it a little squeeze. This prompted Zatanna to situate herself and push forward. The confidence coming through the dark haired sorceress increased.

Zatanna looked forward towards the casket. The body of John Zatara laid in the casket in one of his suits. Hands had been folded across his chest. He looked at peace.

Looks could be deceiving. Zatanna could see two of the officials walk on past and block her view from the casket.

"It makes things final, doesn't it?" Dinah asked.

Dinah had been through this entire mess a few years back regarding her mother. She didn't want to look towards the casket, afraid of what this would mean. Afraid her mother's remains in the casket would result in some kind of finality. She couldn't deny it though, no matter how much she wanted it to.

"Yes, it does," Zatanna said, taking a deep breath and sighing. "I guess I'm going to have to face facts."

"At least we're going to be here with you when you do," Dinah said. "Don't worry, Zee, we're here if we need us."

"Yes, we are," Harry said.

Zatanna knew this. The reinforcement got her through a dark time. Thoughts of what she would like to do when she got her hands on her father's attackers crossed the back of her head.

"So, are you holding up about as well as can be expected?" Barbara asked.

Barbara turned up at this point with her father. While James Gordon didn't know John as well as many, he did meet him a handful of times. John Zatara seemed like a standup guy from what James experience and they shared one thing in common. They raised headstrong, but brilliant daughters.

"About as well," Zatanna said. "I just have to take this one day at a time."

"It's for the best," James said. "Just know your friends are there, and you shouldn't let yourself get consumed by the guilt."

It was one of the things James had beaten into his head in training. If your partner got shot on the field, whether it be fatal, or not, one should not let themselves get consumed by the guilt. Guilt could eat away at a person even during the best of times.

Everyone settled down. The priest gave a few words at the opening.

"And John Zatara will have left behind those who loved him. But do know, he is in the arms of God now and at peace. And now a moment of silence for the departed."

Everyone bowed their heads. Zatanna wished she could be at peace with what happened. The thoughts of her father not being at peace caused a feeling of despair to erupt through Zatanna's stomach. Despite Harry's strong hand wrapping around hers and giving it a firm squeeze, it only could do so much.

"One of John Zatara's oldest friends, Mr. Ted Grant, wishes to give a few words regarding his memories of the departed."

Ted made his way to the podium. He cleared his throat.

"I'm not one for thinking about what I'm going to say, and I'm sure if John stood beside you, he would agree," Ted said. "And he would also agree we should pull ourselves up and get on with our lives. He never lived a day in his life in fear. He knew he could drop dead at any time. Every day could be his last."

Ted tried to regain his composure. The man on the stage started to get a bit choked up. He readjusted his grip on the side of the podium.

"He was a good friend, a really good friend, and would be there for you when you needed him the most," Ted said, emotion coming through his normally gruff voice. "John…he pulled me out of trouble…when my own fool self got into it. He…helped me through some tough scrapes. And I see his daughter out there….and she's proof John was a really good man."

Ted's voice broke a couple of seconds later. He took in a deep breath and continued to press forward. No matter what, he would continue to speak.

"And he knew the value of…living every single day, and making the most out of it," Ted said. "And I know he went into the ground with no regrets….even if we're all going to miss having him around. He had the most sense out of all of us….even if he had his moments. No one's perfect, and John would have been the first to admit it."

Ted took a deep breath. Zatanna rose to her feet to take over from him. The two crossed paths with each other.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this, kiddo?" Ted asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure," Zatanna said. "Just….I have some things to say and to get off my chest now."

Zatanna made her way up to the front of the group. She could see a lot of eyes on him.

"My father….I thought he would be always around, and for years, I thought he was this perfect, and larger than life character," Zatanna said. "Something out of a comic book, but you know, he was the real deal. He managed to get things done…..and I thought I couldn't live up to that."

Everyone looked at Zatanna. Dinah, Barbara, Wanda, and Harry all gave her encouraging smiles. This prompted Zatanna to push herself forward.

"Losing my mother years ago at such a young age, it was hard on me," Zatanna said. "And I think it was even harder on him. He was left to deal with a young daughter who tended to have a problem with listening to authority figures. And he had to keep her in line. I couldn't have been easy on him."

Zatanna took another couple of breaths and stared down at the people around her.

"I realized as much as I had to live up regarding his legacy…he had to live up with just as much," Zatanna said. "When my mother died…he had to raise me. And if something wrong happened with me…..well he would have been letting her down. He was a bit strict at times, and he could push me far…as far as I needed to go. And I think I grew up a better person for it."

The dark haired woman clutched her hands to the side of the podium. She continued to speak before she lost her nerve.

"Even when he didn't need to, he wouldn't let injustice go by without a warning. He would always help a friend in need, and those he considered family above all else. And I wouldn't have been the person I am today, if it wasn't for my father. And I hope he finds peace where he was….and I will make sure his memory lives on, and…..I will make sure he's proud of me."

The best words were left unsaid. Zatanna was going to find who killed her father. She wouldn't accept this was natural causes. Too much magic and mayhem was in the air for it to be natural causes.

* * *

 

Alex Danvers had some unfinished business to take care of on the West Coast. She thought it would be prudent to visit an old friend of hers when heading in this particular direction. Actually, a mutual friend of the family, when one came to think of it.

She entered a café a bit of the way across from Ferris Aircraft and Carol Ferris sat across from the desk waiting for her. Carol gave a smile towards Alex when she settled down on the other side of the table.

"So, how have you been doing lately?" Carol asked.

"Oh, you know me," Alex said. "I've been keeping pretty busy."

Carol smiled. She knew the feeling of keeping busy. She knew it a lot better than many other people did. The thought of which caused a brief smile to appear over her face.

"So, how about you?" Alex asked.

"Well you know me, I've been keeping busy," Carol said.

Both of the women laughed at them adopting a similar view on their lives.

"I'm just…well I'm a bit worried about Carol," Alex said. "It's been a fair bit longer than six weeks…..she did tell me it might stretch out a bit longer, but I'd think she would have checked in by now."

Alex had to dodge a few questions from her mother regarding the nature of Carol's assignment. She really hoped Carol appreciated the lengths she went to cover from her.

"So, she hasn't returned," Carol said. "I….I'm not sure if we should be worrying just yet. The one thing I know about Carol is she can take care of herself."

Alex thought as much as well. It didn't stop a sickening feeling hitting the pit of her stomach. Something unsettling hit her. Alex couldn't really pinpoint precisely what unsettled her. It was just something unsettled her and this was not a really good feeling to have.

"She really can take care of herself," Alex said. "And she always seems to be doing something interesting, and what she's done….well she's done it first."

Alex had been in the unfortunate role as the middle child in a very overachieving family.

"This is bugging you, isn't it?" Carol asked.

"No, not really, okay maybe a little bit," Alex said, taking in a deep breath and taking it out. "It's just with all of what Carol's achieved and Kara's unique circumstances, there are times where I feel like I'm second rate."

Carol reached across the table and gripped Alex firmly by the arm. Alex sat up straight and Carol stared her directly in the eyes.

"Why would you think you're second rate?" Carol asked. "You graduated from high school at an early age, got a doctorate at a fairly early age, and you were accepted to a high level government organization by the time you were nineteen based off of this. It doesn't seem second rate to me. It seems really good, Harry Potter good in fact."

Alex wasn't going to lie. This particular declaration brought a smile across her face.

"And you ran into him again in New York, didn't you?" Carol asked. "I'm surprised at you, Alex."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked.

Carol responded with a rather knowing smile directed towards Alex.

"I can see your face light up like a Christmas tree every time you hear his name," Carol said. "You have it pretty bad, don't you?"

Alex tried to protest it, but Carol's gaze directed on her caused her to respond with an intense nod.

"Oh, he's amazing, and…given all of he's done, who could blame me for being interested?" Alex asked. The question hung through the air casually. Carol knew the answer to it the moment Alex had gotten done asking it. "The fact he's pretty easy on the eyes, it doesn't really hurt things does it."

"No, it's a pretty significant bonus if you asked me," Carol said. "So, why didn't you take the advantage and spend some time to get to know him a little better when you were in New York?"

"I….Tori Stark was there," Alex said. Her face contorted into a scowl. "And I'm not sharing my moment with Harry with her."

Carol smiled in a sympathetic manner. She recalled the ill-fated one night stand Alex and Tori had. She had to talk Carol out of not giving Tori a piece of her mind. Then again, Carol and Tori may have had a similar entanglement in the past, so it stung Carol how Tori treated her little sister in a similar way.

And the interesting thing was, she was certain Tori had no malicious intent. She just was how she was.

"Okay, fair enough," Carol said, lips curling into a smile. "You do realize there will be other moments where you can share, don't you?"

Alex took a moment to look towards Carol.

"You're the type of woman he goes after," Carol said. "You're gorgeous, intelligent, and can keep up with him, both in bed and mentally….."

"I'm not sure about that, Carol," Alex said.

"I know you're smart and I know how you can be when you're really passionate about something," Carol said. "Beneath that ice queen façade you wear, there's something else…..there's something more beneath it, isn't there?"

Alex responded with a cool smile. She didn't want to let Carol know she had been onto something. Alex wanted to time this exactly right though. An opportunity to be with the likes of Harry Potter only came up so often. She should have taken a chance. And if it wasn't for Stark, shoe would be more inclined.

"I could have sworn you were interested in him," Alex said, trying to pull the last bullet from her gun.

"I am," Carol said. "Who wouldn't be?"

Alex had been cut off by Carol's words. The point was not only well taken, it had been well established.

"This is your moment, Alex," Carol said. "You want to do something…you go out there and take it. I can wait my turn just like everyone else."

Alex knew about the various women Harry was with currently, and from what she could tell a lot of them were in relationships with each other as well. It proved to be an interesting dynamic which Alex wished to try and study more in depth with.

"Well, it's pretty enticing," Alex said. "And….maybe I should ask him out on a date, and whatever happens, happens."

"I'm sure we know the night will only end a certain way," Carol said. "You wanted to do something before Carol….and she could return any day now."

Alex smiled. This was true. Her competitive fire burned deep inside her to be the very best.

"For now, I wish to keep my relationship with Harry professional," Carol said. "And you better hurry, so I don't change my mind."

Alex took a couple of minutes to breathe in deeply. She gained more confidence with what she wanted to do with each passing moment.

A part of her did wonder what Carol was up to right about now.

* * *

 

Carol Danvers slammed into the ground hard. One of the Red Lanterns rose back her hand and tried to bombard her with a spiked fist.

The newest Green Lantern blocked the spiked fist and rocked her adversary back. She could see the people evacuated off of the planet out of the corner of her eyes.

The Red Lantern with the large head noticed this. The ring pointed towards Sinestra and flew through the air. Sinestra put a hand up to block the attack. The two of them pushed back and forth in an intense battle.

"You cannot stop our plan!" Zox yelled at the top of his lungs.

Sinestra only answered this statement by propelling her adversary high into the air. He bounced off of a set of rocks to the side.

Carol could see her Red Lantern opponent had been distracted. The blonde empowered heroine fired up her energy ring and wrapped it around the ankles of her adversary. The shackles pulled the enemy into position for a vicious curb stomping.

The Red Lantern deflated underneath the attack. Carol propelled herself up. The Red Lantern flung a razor blade towards her in the air.

"You've already lost!" Carol yelled.

"No, you'll lose when I spill your worthless Green Lantern tainted blood all over the universe!" the Red Lantern yelled at the top of her lungs.

Carol supposed reasoning would not help with these Red Lanterns. The fact this Red Lantern made an honest attempt to remove her head showed Carol just as much. She drew in her breath.

"Fine, we're going to have to do this the hard way."

Carol created a shield to block the attempted of the impaling. Every second the Red Lantern fought her, she grew more and more frantic.

She noticed also the red lantern's constructs were turning out to be less fluid. It was almost as if this particular Red Lantern had lost a bit of juice in the process.

"Looks like you're running low on power," Carol said.

The Red Lantern created a sickle which swung towards Carol in an honest attempt to cleave her in half. Carol dodged the sickle. The newest Green Lantern created a pair of shackles. The Red Lantern knocked Carol back by channeling the energy.

"More than enough to rip you to shreds, Green Lantern!"

The Red Lantern's drill aimed towards Carol's head. Carol pushed the drill back. Sweat rolled down her face for a brief second.

"We have to get you off the planet, now!" Sinestra yelled.

Katma wondered what Sinestra was yelling at. An aged scientist carried a case underneath his arm. The scientist almost fell over in an attempt to carry the case from the staircase which Sinestra created to the moon.

"We're going to have to get you off of the planet now!" Sinestra yelled. "Whatever it is, leave it behind."

"I can't do it," the scientist said. "It's one of my most valuable creations. If the Red Lanterns got ahold of it, it will mean the end of everything."

Sinestra grumbled underneath her breath about stubborn scientists. It also shined a potential motive about why Atrocitus picked this particular planet to send his minions to.

"Katma, make sure he gets up there," Sinestra said. "I'll help Green Lantern Danvers hold the ground."

Katma almost said she thought Carol did a pretty good job of holding the ground herself. A look from her Green Lantern superior told Katma she better step up the game if she wanted to get out of there.

"Come on, sir, don't worry, I'm right behind you," Katma said.

"As long as the Red Lanterns aren't right behind us," the scientist said. He almost slumped over getting down the steps.

Katma grabbed onto the case and between the two of them they made their way up the steps.

Carol and the Red Lantern she engaged in battle performed an extremely deadly game of duck and dodge.

"Why do you fight like this?" Carol asked. "You've lost."

"I've lost everything before!" the Red Lantern yelled, her eyes blazed over in fury. "I have nothing left to lose. If I take you down, I'll have something to gain!"

Carol could see the Red Lantern blow through the shields and start attacking her.

Sinestra created a huge club with the construct and swung it, before taking the Red Lantern down. The Red Lantern dropped down onto the surface of the planet.

"The planet is going to explode soon," Sinestra said. "We have to leave."

Carol looked at the downed Red Lantern. Something flashed in her eyes beyond the usual rage. Carol could have sworn it was fear.

"What about her?" Carol asked. "We can't leave her."

"We can," Sinestra said. "I know you want to play a hero and save her life. She was already dead from the moment she put that ring on her finger."

The staircase flickered up. Sinestra couldn't hold it forever.

"The Interceptor is waiting," Sinestra said. "Everyone is off the planet."

"Not everyone!" Carol said.

Sinestra didn't even pay the Red Lantern on the ground any mind.

"The other two left their comrade for dead," Sinestra said. "If they're willing to do that to their own, then you know how dangerous these Red Lanterns are and what she'll do when she wakes up."

Carol couldn't really argue with Sinestra because of this point. The two of them made their way up the stairs.

The Red Lantern rolled over and pulled herself to her feet. She shot up the stairs like a cork after them.

"NO!" The Red Lantern yelled.

She created a glowing red sledgehammer and smashed the stairs trying to bring them back down.

"You…you don't realize what you've done!" she yelled.

Carol blocked the attack from the Red Lantern. An outside observer would see red and green energy blasts which sliced through the air.

"I realize what I've done, I've saved them all," Sinestra said.

Sinestra flew past Carol and nailed the Red Lantern in the chest. She flew into the air and was about ready to plummet down to the planet beneath.

Carol created a stretcher and caught her unconscious falling body.

"What did you do?" Sinestra asked.

"The right thing," Carol said. The two of them stared back. "Leaving her for dead is not the answer. Just because she would have done it, doesn't make it right for us."

Sinestra folded her arms across her chest. Carol could see in an instant how much Sinestra disagreed with what she said.

"Besides, she knows about what the Red Lanterns are up to," Carol said. "Wouldn't it make sense for us to keep her as our prisoner?"

Sinestra took a moment to look at the fallen one. She created several shackles around the body of the fallen Red Lantern.

"Let's take her up to the ship, then," Sinestra said. "If she causes trouble, she'll be your responsibility."

Carol figured as much. She refused to give up the fact she did the right thing. She knew it in the back of her mind she did the right thing.

* * *

 

A sullen and more broody than usual Batman perched himself on the rooftop on Gotham City. The death of one of his mentors put him in a very dark place.

"So, you're not going to let the official coroner's report go with this one, are you, Master Bruce?" Alfred asked.

"No, Alfred, I'm not," Batman said. "And I'm sure Zatanna wouldn't let it go either."

"There was no physical evidence at the crime scene though, was there?" Alfred asked.

"Only circumstantial evidence someone was there who shouldn't be," Batman said.

Understandably, Zatanna didn't notice there were some of her father's personal items missing. Whether they had been stolen, or had been lost prior to this point, it would have been difficult for them to find out.

"Who could get the jump on John Zatara?" Alfred asked. "He's always been sharp as a tack as long as I've known him."

Batman thought along the same lines. There were very few people out there who could come close to even trying to get the jump on Zatara. Those who were, they were some dangerous men.

"Yes, he has," Batman said. "There's something dangerous happening, and I can't…"

A loud crash could be heard. Batman sensed there was something going on. The sound of a car driving out of the way as quickly as it could shone a very interesting light on what has been going on.

Batman stepped up the pace and made his way over. The Dark Knight dropped himself on the ledge and could see a figure down in the alleyway. He wore the uniform of the Gotham City police department. No sooner did Batman drop down, he knew what was going on.

The officer of the Gotham City police department rolled over. A small amount of blood trickled from his mouth. A folder had been pinned to his side. It had been opened slightly where one incriminating photo stuck out of it. The cop in question was busy shaking hands with Big Lou Maroni in the photo.

"The Cop Killer has struck again," Batman said.

"My word," Alfred said. "This night just keeps getting more problematic, doesn't it?"

"Yes, it does," Batman said. He took a closer look. The man's face was still visible. Some facial scan recognition would be the best thing for him. "Let's see if we can have a match."

Batman took a moment to scan the man on the ground. He knew he was running up against a clock to be perfectly honest.

The GCPD would have noticed the disturbance before too long.

"Again," Batman said. "I have a match."

"You do?" Alfred asked.

"Yes," Batman said. He made his way up into the shadows.

The lights of two of Gotham's finest came in. One of them noticed the man on the ground. Batman perched himself atop the building and made sure they were out of earshot.

"We better call it in boys, he's pretty much toast," one of the GCPD members said.

One of them walked down the alleyway, and the other one strayed a bit further away. The moment Batman saw them to be gone, he scrambled higher up the building.

"His name is Robert Nixon."

Alfred paused for a long amount of time and responded with an answer.

"So, who is this Nixon fellow?" Alfred asked.

"He was an old friend of Big Lou Maroni, and by extension, Salvatore Maroni," Batman said. "Nixon is one of the harshest critics of Loeb when he imprisoned Maroni."

Batman didn't know why Loeb would decide to do something like this, take a hard line stance. There were many theories, Batman didn't know how valid any of them would end up being in reality.

"And through his connection to Maroni, he is the latest victim of the cop killer," Alfred said. "I swear, sir, you almost keep coming across this fiend. You have all of the worst luck in the world. He or she keeps escaping before you can grab ahold of her."

Batman thought this was the idea. The cop killer kept slipping away before he could grab onto them.

"They think they're playing a game," Batman said.

"You mean they're taunting you, sir?" Alfred asked.

Batman turned around for a moment and stepped away. He thought exactly what was going on. He didn't like being taunted at all.

"Sooner or later, the cop killer will have to slip up," Batman said. "And when they do, I'll be there."

Batman said this statement with firmness and without a moment of argument in his voice. He turned his attention away and slipped back into the night.

The cop killer had been keeping up this game for close to a year with no end in sight. Batman was running out of leads. The only pattern was the cops being killed had ties to certain known members of the Gotham City criminal underworld.

* * *

 

Thea Queen, under the guise of Mia, waited outside of the apartment her and Selina shared. She was considering what she could do to get her own place. The sale of her stocks at Queen Industries gave her a fair amount of money. She learned though not to spend it all in one place. She saved the money she spent at the Cat's Cradle to buy an apartment close by Selina's to call her own.

A fancy sport's car drove up. Sure enough, Harry Potter sat in the driver's seat.

"Well, you know how to arrive in style, don't you?" Thea asked.

Harry smiled and walked out of the car. He walked around to open up the door. Thea smiled as he let her inside.

"Well, I'm going with a beautiful women, which happens to be a big part of my style," Harry said. "So, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," Thea said. "So, where is this place we're eating dinner at?"

"Not too far from here," Harry said. "It's a little bit of a drive."

Thea smiled. Driving in such luxury was something she could get used to again.

"Careful, Doctor Potter, you don't want to end up spoiling me," Thea said with a smile and a not so subtle wink directed towards Harry.

"I wouldn't dare to dream," Harry answered with a smile.

"So, I heard about John Zatara's death," Thea said. "Is Zee doing alright?"

"She's coping with things," Harry said. "You just have to take these things one day at a time."

"Right, I understand," Thea said.

Thea didn't have Oliver's death to worry about, at least not yet, although the potential for him dying at sea was completely real. She refused to give up hope regarding good news. Each passing day nothing was found made Thea a bit more nervous and a bit closer on edge.

The two of them entered the restaurant and settled down at the table. The second they waited for their food to arrive, Harry leaned in towards Thea.

"I had a discussion with Malcolm Merlyn," Harry said.

"What did he say?" Thea asked.

"He was just fishing around for information regarding the sale and how I came into possession of the stocks," Harry said. "It wasn't long, about ten minutes. He was busy, I was busy. We will likely meet up together to discuss business soon."

Thea took a moment to adjust her positioning in her seat. She peered across the table, eyes locked directly at Harry.

"So, what did he say?" Thea asked. "Actually, what did you tell him?"

"Don't worry, Thea," Harry said, smiling. "I understand discretion more than anyone else. I told him I purchased the stocks through an intermediary."

Thea responded with a nod. This was what she expected Harry to come up with, if she was perfectly honest. She kicked her shoes off underneath the table to allow her feet some room to breathe.

"You were right though," Harry said. "The moment the news hit about you selling the stock, they unloaded stock by the boatloads."

Thea smiled. She paid attention to trends regarding her own company. This was her future on the line, even if Harry was holding it steady for her.

"The usual suspects?" Thea asked.

"If you mean Lionel and his crew, yes, they're sniffing around ready to pounce," Harry said. "And there are a couple of unusual suspects as well."

Thea raised her eyebrow and stared down Harry. Confusion appeared over the face of the young heiress.

"Really?" Thea asked. "Like who?"

Harry racked his brain for a few seconds and responded with a smile.

"Isobel Rochev is a name which keeps coming up," Harry said. "I've done some research, and over the past few years, she's masterminded the hostile takeover of several small to medium sized technology companies on the West Coast."

"Well, Queen Industries, even with the problems, isn't really a small to medium company," Thea said. "I wonder what's her angle in this?"

"What indeed," Harry said, taking a moment to consider something. "I suspect we'll figure out what we need to do when the dust settles."

Thea shifted in her seat, stretching her leg up and brushing the underside of her foot against Harry's ankle. A daring glint flashed through Thea's eyes.

"At least we don't have to worry about Oliver's stock, unless he's been found dead, or hasn't….in another five or so years," Thea said. "Did you hear the latest news?"

"Yes, the Gambit has been found, at least a few pieces of it," Harry said. "A lot of it has been lost at sea though…and the people on it."

Thea responded with a soft sigh for a moment. She absent-mindedly worked her foot up Harry's leg for a moment. She stopped short when she realized what she was doing.

"Guess we're going to keep searching," Thea said. "And maybe we'll find something, someday….somewhere."

Thea closed her eyes for a moment.

"Dinah must be torn up with what happened," Thea said. "Her sister on the boat…and that has nothing to do with what her father must think. Lance likely wants to kill Oliver, doesn't he?"

"Well, given the circumstances…"

"Who could blame him though," Thea said cutting off Harry's words with a slight smile. "No one could really blame him, and no one should blame him at all."

Thea took a deep breath out of her body.

"I can't believe Sara got on the ship with him, after what he did to her mother and sister," Thea said. "Ollie might be my brother but….you know."

"No, I don't know," Harry said with a smile.

"Sara's just amazing though, she's far too good for him," Thea said. "Her beautiful face, her golden blonde hair, gorgeous eyes, her fit body. And she has a nice ass too…."

"Why, have you been watching, Ms. Queen?" Harry asked in a low voice.

Thea smiled and moved her foot a little bit closer towards Harry's crotch. Her stocking clad foot started to rub his inner thigh.

"Maybe a little bit," Thea said. "She's the type of girl any girl would consider going bi for at the very least."

And in a world where Harry Potter didn't exist, Thea thought she would go all the way to the other side just for Sara.

' _I knew she had a crush on me,'_ Sara thought, with a smile on her face.

Thea looked wistful while her foot continued to rub circles up and down Harry's crotch. A smile crossed over Thea's face when she looked towards Harry.

"I'm glad Dinah got away from Oliver when she did, and I hope if Sara survived, she has the sense to do the same," Thea said. "And I do hope he's alright…."

Thea closed her eyes for a moment. Harry reached over to grab Thea's hand and squeeze it tightly. The long-haired brunette turned short haired blonde responded with a smile.

"Sorry," Thea said. "So, work's been really good."

Harry was glad she changed the subject so Harry didn't have to steer it out of these potentially hazardous waters.

"Selina mentioned you were helping Holly," Harry said.

"Yes," Thea said, resuming what she was doing earlier with her foot on Harry's crotch. She rubbed him through his pants more vigorously than ever before. "And I've also been getting some tips from the girls on my technique…you know for stripping. How to get the most out of the least."

Thea continued to rub Harry through the crotch of his pants. Her toes rubbed up against him. She could feel him react to her and this caused Thea to smile.

"I've been practicing at home, when I've been by myself at the apartment," Thea said. "You know in front of the mirror. It's just like when I had to give a presentation at school only…far sexier."

Thea teased Harry's length through his pants with one more stroke. She could feel him grow and was about ready to burst through his pants.

"I'm sure it's a sight to behold," Harry said, doubling up his will and trying to hold back.

' _You know, she's cruising for a spanking,'_ Dinah thought. _'And I've always wanted to give her one.'_

' _Not the time, at least not right now,'_ Barbara thought. _'As tempting as it might be.'_

"Oh, it's so hot I even turn myself on sometimes," Thea said. "Maybe I'll invite you over sometime, and we can have a private performance? It's much better to do so in front of an audience."

Thea smiled and removed her foot from Harry's crotch. Her hand replaced it, resting on his lap.

"Hell, we can skip straight to dessert now, and go over to Selina's apartment," Thea said.

She leaned in closer towards Harry, who leaned back for a minute.

"Don't worry, Harry, I won't bite, much," Thea said, licking her lips hungrily.

"Thea, I know you want this night to end one way," Harry said.

"Damn right, I do," Thea said with a predatory smile on her face.

"You're beautiful, smart, and fun-loving," Harry said.

"Oh, flattery will get you in my bedroom quickly, Doctor Potter," Thea said, her fingers questing through the band of his pants. Harry reached towards her.

"And you're also a bit too young."

In Thea's mind, she heard the sound of a record player scratching. She looked up towards Harry.

"You know, I won't tell anyone, I'm not one of those bitches who sleep with an overage guy, and then turns them into the police," Thea said, lips curled into a smile.

"I did the same with Barbara, and a couple of others, waiting until their seventeenth birthday," Harry said. "It's only fair I do the same with you."

Thea's face turned into a sullen expression.

"March 17th," Thea said. Harry raised his eyebrow. "That's my seventeenth birthday. I expect you in my bed then."

"Well, I'll give you a birthday to remember," Harry said with a smile.

"It wouldn't hurt anything if I kissed you, would it?" Thea asked.

"No, I don't see the problem with you kissing me," Harry said with a smile.

Thea leaned closer towards Harry and pressed her lips against his. She gave Harry an extremely hungry kiss. The sixteen year old's hand started to stray and rub against Harry's crotch.

"Thea," Harry said, grabbing her hand.

"You can't really blame a girl for trying, can you?" Thea asked.

The guilty grin on Thea's face made her look like a girl who was caught sneaking in a pre-dinner sweet. Harry smiled, he really couldn't. And he supposed he didn't have anybody to blame but himself.

Thea enjoyed one final brief kiss thinking March 17th couldn't come soon enough.

' _You know, when I come back, I may have to get a piece of her,'_ Sara thought.

' _So are you thinking you your eyes on the wrong Queen the entire time?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Maybe, I'm allowed to make mistakes,'_ Sara thought. _'Considering once upon a time, you made the same mistake.'_

' _We've both traded up though,'_ Dinah said.

This was one thing the Lance sisters both could agree on.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 25** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_And we have John's funeral, which was a gathering to be honest._

_The cop killer strikes again, and they're going to cause a lot of headaches._

_Well Thea/Harry has their date, although Harry's rules about when he gets with females rears their ugly head. It's a long time for Thea, which will be even longer because of who she has to wait for._

_Until Wednesday._


	191. Here and Again

**Chapter of the Week Poll Found at the Usual Location. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/**

* * *

 

**Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-One: Here and Again.**

* * *

 

Harry left a busy morning of classes. The afternoon wasn't as bad as the morning was on a Thursday. His Fridays were actually pretty easy after his morning classes, he had the nights off. The weekend started early for him based on this.

He made his way to the café across the street. Every single day, Harry had lunch with a beautiful woman, and in this case, he had lunch with several beautiful women at the same time. Kara sprung up to greet him with a smile. Sapphire, Barbara, Pamela, and Harley all sat around the table. The moment Harry stepped into the picture, Harley jumped up and almost knocked Kara out of the way from greeting Harry with her energy.

' _Well, you did deserve that,'_ Barbara thought, smiling at Kara's pouty expression.

"Harry, it was amazing!" Harley yelled. "The other day, it was simply amazing."

Sapphire exchanged one of those side long glances with Kara, who smiled in response.

"I have to admit, I had some doubts, but the presentation went really well," Harry said. "It was thanks to you and your help, Harley."

"Well, you could have pulled it off without me," Harley said with a bright and sunny smile on her face. "I just gave you some advice and helped you with a couple of things. You did all of the legwork and really make the presentation come to life. And you have another doctorate in the bag. I think Doctor Ravencroft was pretty impressed, and she wasn't the only one."

"It was pretty amazing," Sapphire said.

Kara, Pamela, and Barbara all wished they had been there to see it. They knew when Harry put his all into a presentation, he went all of the way, and at least a couple of steps beyond all the way.

"Really wish we were there," Barbara said with a wistful sigh. "Harry would have nailed this one out of the park….really makes what we're doing kind of pathetic."

"Oh, trust me, no one would call your workload pathetic, Babs," Pamela said.

The two redheads exchanged a smile. Barbara might have been the only person at this table doing about as much as Harry did, if not even more so.

"Besides, I'm not doing anything to make you look bad," Harry said. "If anything else, I think I'm causing you to reach a brand new height."

"Yes, you got to reach for the stars around Harry," Sapphire said. "And another doctorate….pretty soon we're going to have to put together a spread sheet so we can keep a close eye on all of your achievements."

One smile coming from Harry indicated this was exactly what he had in mind. Harry always was under the impression he could do so much better than he did. One could always improve upon perfection.

"So, how are you all doing?" Harry asked.

Kara was the first one to jump in.

"I'm doing a presentation for my media studies class next week," Kara said. "It's really no big deal. The work I'm doing with Vicki makes it very easy to do. I already have an in there."

"You should pass it with flying colors then," Harry said.

Kara's lips curled into a knowing smile. She leaned closer towards Harry and gave a grin directed towards him.

"Oh, don't worry, love, intend to."

Kara kissed Harry on the lips. This caused Harley to turn to Sapphire with a smile.

"She's really subtle, isn't she?" Harley asked.

"Do you have room to talk?" Sapphire asked. Harley responded with a raised eyebrow. "Actually, I don't have room to talk either."

She positioned herself closer towards Harry.

"So, how about you Sapphire?" Harry asked. "You haven't had any problems running things at Stagg, have you?"

"No, they've been on their best behavior, the Board of Directors have," Sapphire said. "Profits were up this quarters, which was good. I hope to keep putting them up, while conducting business in a way which will help Gotham City, and not harm it."

"And the world is a much better place," Pamela said. "See, you proved it can be done, even if the work is slow. You don't have to wreck the environment to make a profit."

Sapphire figured her board would have liked to see better results. Rome was not built in a day and a better world would not be built in a day either.

"Dad's still…well there are times where it's almost like he knows I'm there," Sapphire said. "He's still not completely out of the woods yet though."

Harry reached underneath the table and patted Sapphire on the knee.

"Take things one day at a time," Harry said. "Take things one day at a time."

Sapphire knew if her father woke up, he would not be able to handle the rigors and the stress of running the company. He should have stepped down a long time before he could.

' _At least he'll rest well knowing I'm able to run the company without any trouble,'_ Sapphire said, a smile crossing her face.

Sapphire shifted against the edge of the chair and looked into Harry's eyes. She turned away from him and turned back to Pamela.

"So, are you still at a standstill with your work with Woodrue?" Sapphire asked.

The long and labored sigh which escaped Pamela showed her all they need to know.

"I thought this time it would work, but we're back forward," Pamela said. "Doctor Woodrue wants me to work on something for him this weekend."

"Wow, he's getting kind of obsessed with you," Harley said. "If he wasn't terrified to death of Harry, I would say he's trying to get you alone to take advantage of you."

Barbara and Harry almost cringed at Harley's words. They talked about practically the same thing. There was a difference between thinking about it and talking about it outloud.

' _Harleen Quinzell, brilliant, bright, bubbly,'_ Kara thought. _'And she also has a lack of tact.'_

"Doctor Woodrue would not….." Pamela said. "Look, I know you're not a fan of his work."

"His work….well I'm not an expert," Harley said. "He just seems like the kind of guy who gets by on his credentials, what he's done a long time ago. Tell me, what has he done lately?"

Pamela racked her brain with a thought. Harley raised an interesting point. What did Woodrue do lately?

"I think he'll make this project really work," Pamela said. "It will change the word."

"He's living through you, Red," Harley said. "You're the one with potential. He's yesterday's news….you have a lot of options."

Pamela disagreed about how many options she had. A part of her knew it might be the best to give this one up as a lost cause, especially considering they were going on the third year of working on this project. Another part of her refused to give it up.

' _I've come this far, I'm not going to back off, not if I can help it.'_

"Just looking out for you," Harley said.

"I'm sure she's made her mind up, Harley," Harry said. "She wants to stick around for the long haul."

"Yes," Pamela said, in a distracted voice. "I want to finish this one."

' _Whether or not Jason's backers will finish him off first, I don't have any idea,'_ Pamela thought to herself.

She managed to get herself away from this topic of conversation. Jason's frustrations would not consume her, even though Pamela was ready for a long weekend. It helped she was a bit determined herself to finish the long and hard work she's accomplished.

"So, how's your internship at Blackgate?" Pamela asked.

Harley almost sensed the fact Pamela changed the subject. She was going to allow it right now.

"Oh, you know, more of the same," Harley said with a shrug. "Most of the patients are just sitting there, drooling, and heavily medicated. There's a couple of them who threaten me…..I'm not allowed to go anywhere near their cells there."

"And yet, you can't resist sneaking a peak at them, can you?" Pamela asked.

Harley responded with a nod in response.

"So, are you doing anything especial this weekend, Harry?" Harley asked.

"I'm going to visit a friend of mine," Harry said.

All of them understand a friend to be another girl with potential.

"Well, I'm sure she'll be in for a nice weekend," Sapphire said. "And I'm sure you'll be in for a nice weekend as well."

Harry responded with one of those smiles when looking back at Sapphire.

"Yes, I'm certain."

* * *

 

Sara Lance trained for half of her life in self-defense. She could handle herself in a fight no matter what the circumstances were. Given her mother's friends, Sara had no short of training. She sought out more opportunities to fine tune her abilities herself as well. The younger Lance sister thought she had the potential to at least match her sister, and maybe under certain circumstances be better than her.

A kick snapped off into her face and send Sara down to the ground. Sara pulled herself to a standing position and stared down at Nyssa.

"You're allowing yourself to be distracted," Nyssa said. "Remember, you must block all distractions out of your mind."

Sara pulled herself to her feet. A burning gaze flicked through her eyes which said one thing and one thing only.

"Bring it."

Nyssa brought it alright. She tried for a punch towards Sara. Sara dodged out of the way of an attack and popped up with a series of rapid fire strikes. Each and every one of these strikes had been deflected.

' _Okay, I'm going to have to think outside of the box.'_

Sara had no problem with thinking outside the box. The warrior rushed forward and dodged Nyssa's attack. She grabbed Nyssa and flipped her over.

Nyssa landed with grace on her feet. Sara charged Nyssa one more time. Nyssa tried to punch Sara in the throat. Sara dodged the attack and flipped over Nyssa.

"You telegraphed your attack too much."

The oldest daughter of Ra's Al Ghul flipped down behind Sara. Nyssa grabbed Sara, and started to run her hands up her body.

Sara breathed in when Nyssa cupped her breast and grinded against her ass. Nyssa's large breasts also pressed against her back which caused Sara to pant.

The next thing Sara knew, Nyssa nailed her in the face with a roundhouse punch. Sara's knees crumpled out from underneath her from the attack. Nyssa withdrew two of her daggers and slammed them on either side of Sara's head. Her hand was pinned between two sharp blades.

"Do not allow yourself to get distracted by any pleasure," Nyssa said.

Sara was allowed to rise to her feet. She only had a half of a second to catch her breath before Nyssa returned to the attack.

Each and every one of Nyssa's attacks nearly nailed Sara. Sara slid back a couple of steps and avoided the attacks before they connected with her.

' _Yes, I can beat her. Yes, I can do this."_

Sara managed to knock Nyssa down onto the ground. She jumped up. Nyssa popped up from her back and flipped Sara over onto her back.

The younger Lance sister groaned. Nyssa straddled her hips and pushed down onto her. She placed her hands down onto Sara's hands and kept her down onto the ground. She smiled.

"You've shown noted improvement," Nyssa said. "And there's still a long way to go before you're ready to fully join the League."

"I'll be sure to gain your approval."

Nyssa smiled. The power she had over Sara made her smile. The fact Sara squirmed against her and tried to fight off to gain an advantage inspired Nyssa to force her down even more.

A figure appeared right at their shoulder. Nyssa released Sara and turned around to meet one of her aides.

"Yes?" Nyssa asked.

"Urgent business," one of her aides said.

Nyssa nodded and turned back to Sara, finally allowing her to get back to her feet without incident.

"We'll resume this later," Nyssa said. "Practice the concentration exercises I've taught you. Your mind needs to achieve an optimal state and your body will follow."

Sara answered with a smile. Her body would resume this optimal state if she could help it. Sara walked over towards a stone bench outside of the temple and rubbed her shoulder.

' _Hey, Sara,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Hey, Dinah,'_ Sara thought, rubbing her shoulder and trying to push it back into position. _'So, what are you up to?'_

' _Just got out of class,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Oh, you're actually studying law now,'_ Sara thought. _'And knowing you, the overachiever you are, you're going to be the very best you can be at it.'_

If Sara closed her eyes, she could almost see her older sister smile. Something about Dinah's smile put Sara at somewhat of an ease. More ease than she would have been at any other rate anyway.

' _You know, you're not one to talk about overachieving,'_ Dinah thought. _'If you were here, you would be trying to improve yourself, be better than me….I think the competitive fire we have made us better.'_

' _And you really have a lot to live up as well, surrounding yourself with overachievers like Babs and Harry,'_ Sara thought.

Sara groaned when turning her head around. She started to stroke the side of her arm. Her shoulder ached a tiny bit.

' _Nyssa really gave you a working over, didn't she?'_ Dinah thought.

Sara kept the next thought to herself.

' _Not in the way I wanted her too either.'_

Sara smiled at the thought of her.

' _I wouldn't beat yourself up too much because you haven't beaten her yet,'_ Dinah thought. _'She is pretty good.'_

Sara thought Nyssa would be more than pretty good. She was a lot more than pretty good. The Daughter of the Demon was amazing beyond all belief.

' _Sara are you still there?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Yeah, I am,'_ Sara thought. _'Sorry, I had gotten distracted, just thinking about….well things.'_

' _I'm sure you got distracted,'_ Dinah thought, smiling a knowing smile. _'And she's worthy of getting distracted for, isn't she?'_

' _She's the best at what she does, but then again, she's been training at this for a long time,'_ Sara thought. _'Her entire life in fact, since the moment she could walk, Nyssa has been training.'_

' _Well, to be fair, we have been doing the same thing, haven't we?'_ Dinah asked.

Sara shrugged her shoulders in response when she continued to talk to her sister.

' _In a way, we have been, I guess,'_ Sara thought. _'She's younger than she looks though. Very good, and she's…..'_

' _Beautiful and it's distracting you,'_ Dinah thought.

' _She does hold herself with a presence and a confidence, like she's going against the world,'_ Sara thought. _'And I would bet the world is going to lose every last time she does this.'_

Sara could see a figure approaching her from the shadows. The younger Lance sister leaned back and frowned when she could see someone lurking towards her.

' _Dinah, I'll talk to you later,'_ Sara thought.

She noticed the White Canary making her way towards her.

"You're the White Canary, right?" Sara asked.

"Yes," White Canary said. "And you were the woman who was rescued by the Dragon."

Sara responded with a nod when she viewed this mysterious woman. Her dark hair poked out from the other side of her mask and her green eyes stared back in an almost haunting manner.

' _Wonder if this is her actual eye color,'_ Sara thought.

"So, the Dragon must have taken an interest to you," the White Canary said.

"Well, he did save my soul from being trapped, and I'm eternally in his debt for this," Sara said.

"So, you must have an idea who the Dragon is?"

Sara smiled for a moment. Nyssa informed her only a select few people in the League knew Harry and the mysterious, legendary Dragon were in fact one and the same.

"Well, he only reveals himself to those which he has declared to be truly worthy," Sara said. "Or, those he has marked for death right before he's killed them."

The White Canary took a moment to stare down Sara. This conversation was not going in the direction she intended for it to go.

"So, you have no idea who he is?" the White Canary asked. "Or are you not permitted to do so?"

Sara crossed her legs and put herself into a calm state of mediation. All of the stresses of the world and all of the pressures just faded away the second she slipped into a trance like state.

"Why don't you ask the Daughter of the Demon if you are curious?" Sara asked. "Or is this because you are afraid you would not be judged worthy?"

The White Canary stared down Sara for a second. She could see someone approaching them from the other side.

"Well, I will leave you then," White Canary said. "Maybe you find peace and tranquility, and may you get all you wish as part of the League."

She disappeared into the shadows at the same time Lady Shiva walked by. Shiva walked past the mediating Sara and slipped into the temple.

The White Canary was not going to lie. She had been intrigued by the Dragon ever since he interrupted the test Lady Shiva gave her some time ago.

' _Such power is intriguing. The Foot has been founded in the foot print of the dragon, all of those centuries ago. It just laid dormant until the Shredder returned.'_

She wondered if the Dragon meant an actual physical dragon.

* * *

 

Harry made his way to the train where he would be heading to meet Alex Danvers for the promised meeting of dinner. Harry was looking forward to it.

' _So, the deal with Mercury is pretty much on the table,'_ Karen said. _'Even though Doctor McGee was a bit disappointed she didn't have a chance to talk to her.'_

' _She understood why though,'_ Faora thought. _'Although now you're back on your feet, it might be prudent to set up a meeting with her. Just a suggestion though.'_

' _I'm certain we can set something up,'_ Harry thought. _'And also, the deal with Ferris is going fairly well all things considered.'_

' _Yes,'_ Karen thought. _'Overall, we're going on all cylinders. I can't to see how everything is going to go. And maybe the engine will finally get some headway.'_

Karen had been working hard on this project for a long time. The problem was it was hard to work on a project which was several years away from getting caught up with Earth. She allowed herself a deep frown.

' _Don't worry, one thing at a time,'_ Harry thought. _'We're bringing more people on board, and…..'_

Harry stopped short and someone ran into him. The person who ran into him nearly staggered back and spilled her cup of coffee, which caused her to scream in surprise. Harry's arm shot forward and caught her, along with the cup of coffee before it could spill on him.

"Oh, sorry, sorry, I did not mean to do that."

"It's fine," Harry said.

He took a good look at the woman. To his lack of surprise, she was a fairly attractive brunette woman with brown eyes. She dressed in a button up white blouse and a nice professional looking long skirt. One look at her body showed how attractive she was.

The brunette blinked when looking at the young man before her. The handsome man caught her off guard.

"You're…oh you're him, aren't you?" she said. The brunette realized how she looked. "You're Harry Potter."

"Yes, and it's a pleasure to meet you…."

"Oh, Caitlin, Caitlin Snow."

Harry recognized the woman in a second. The last time he saw her, they were on a darkened train together.

' _Well, she spends a lot of time on a train by the looks of things,'_ Faora thought. _'And she has a habit of running into.'_

' _It just proves our theory,'_ Kara thought. _'Harry can't go six steps into public without running into a beautiful woman. In this case, quite literally in the case you run into someone.'_

Harry turned his attention towards the beautiful brunette. She stared down at him with a nervous look on her face.

"You okay?" Harry asked.

Caitlin frowned and stared down Harry for a couple of moments.

"Well, I should be asking you if you're the one who is okay," Caitlin said. "I mean, I almost ran you over like a klutz. And I could have spilled coffee on you. And the coffee is really hot…as in, the person who served it could get sued if it spilled in someone's lap hot when they were driving."

Harry smiled when he looked at her.

"You didn't though," Harry said. "And I'm perfectly fine."

Harry led her over towards the seat on the train and turned towards Caitlin with a smile.

"And I've wanted to meet you for a long time," Harry said.

"You have?"

Caitlin would be lying if she admitted she wasn't nursing a bit of a crush on Harry. She did along with pretty much every single woman with a pulse. She stared at him.

"I'm sorry to hear you took the job at Mercury," Harry said.

"Actually, it's only for a year until I finish my classes, it's more of an internship and then a job," Caitlin said.

Harry responded with a smile towards her.

"Then, are you keeping your options open?" Harry asked.

"Yes, Doctor McGee has requested I consider staying on," Caitlin said. "I have a few options in Central City."

Harry smiled and he wondered if he could sell her on something. It was always worth a try.

"Have you decided in expanding your options outside of Central City?" Harry asked. "There's a place at someone like you for RAO, and…"

"I know you're trying to recruit me," Caitlin said. "And I'm sure we could work together in the future. It's just, I really like where I am now. It's really no offense, really, at least not to you. I just like where I am right here, in Central City."

Harry smiled when he looked towards her.

"I really hoped I didn't shut you down too badly," Caitlin said.

"No," Harry said. "I understand how hard it is to leave where you were. And I understand if you want to stay at Mercury and in Central City. RAO is working with them on a deal. It might ease our transition into Central City, when we're ready."

"Oh, you're looking to expand?" Caitlin asked, sounding rather interested.

Harry smiled when he looked at her. He reached towards Caitlin and placed a hand on top of hers. She didn't do anything to pull away from him.

"Everyone is looking to expand, Ms. Snow," Harry said. "It's one of the cornerstones in the business. I've always prided myself on looking for the best and the brightest. And I'm willing to make deals with companies to help me with that, and in some way help them. You're only as good as the other people on the market. If you crush everyone in your path, then who have you really beaten?"

Caitlin responded with a nod. She thought this made a lot of sense.

"Doctor McGee sounded disappointed she didn't have a chance to meet you in Metropolis," Caitlin said. "I understand you were under the weather, are you okay?"

"I caught something bad, but a lot of country air, rest, and home cooking fixed me right up," Harry said. "If you see, Tina, could you tell her if she wants to go over some things, we can schedule a meeting at her first convenience. We have a lot to talk about there."

"Right, of course, if I see her first," Caitlin said. "She's having me drop off something with another one of our partners. And I have to say, this train ride has been going a lot more smoother than the last one."

"Oh, what happened?" Harry asked.

Harry knew given he was in the middle of this particular chaos. He decided to give Caitlin a chance to explain what was happening for him. The dark haired girl looked over towards him and frowned.

"I'm not sure if you heard about the mousers attacking in New York," Caitlin said. "No one knows what happened, but they were after technology. I was lucky to be saved by…well someone."

The girl responded with a sigh. Harry didn't remove his hand from hers and she didn't remove it from him.

"Good thing you had a guardian angel out looking for you," Harry said.

"Yes, it was a good thing," Caitlin said. "I'm very fortunate."

The train stopped and Caitlin checked it. The young prodigy spent a moment lost in Harry's eyes before Harry cleared his throat.

"This is your stop, isn't it?" Harry asked her.

"Right," Caitlin said. "This is where I get off…off on my stop, I mean."

If she said something a bit off kilter, Harry didn't answer it. Caitlin pulled out a piece of paper and a pen.

"If you want to discuss anything, or if you want someone to…talk to about…well if you want to just bounce a few ideas off of someone, just call me," Caitlin said. "I actually have a million questions for you."

"Just a million?" Harry asked.

She smiled and put the piece of paper in Harry's hand. She turned around and the view of retreating was as good as the view from the front.

' _And once again, you can walk two feet into public, close your eyes, and run into a beautiful women,'_ Amanda thought. _'Actually, I'm pretty sure we already established this point, haven't we?'_

' _Yes, we have,'_ Kara thought with a smile crossing her face. _'You're a bit late to the party with this one, Mandy.'_

* * *

 

A fourteen year old girl dressed in a tank top and shorts with her hair tied back and wearing glasses laid back on the bed in her older sister's apartment. She waited for her adoptive mother to pick her up. Now, the fourteen year old girl played with the newest model of the Red Sun. A smile was on her face.

Kara Danvers looked towards her sister with a bit of a smile crossing over her face. She watched Alex scramble around.

"So, you really know Harry Potter?" Kara asked.

Alex almost stopped her mad scrambling in an attempt to get ready. She turned around to take a look at her younger sister. Kara finally put away her phone and slipped it into her bag on the bed. The girl swung her legs around and rose up to look at Alex with a searching expression in her eyes.

"Yes, I told you I met him a few times," Alex said.

"So, is he is as hot as he looks in the pictures?" Kara asked.

"Kara, our mother should be coming to pick you up at any minute, maybe you should get ready?" Alex asked, looking a bit absent minded.

Kara shook her head and moved around to get her things. She made sure her Red Sun had been secured in the bag.

"What is he really like?" Kara asked. "Are you going to bring him home to meet us any time soon?"

"Kara…."

"Alex, I think we should get to meet your boyfriend," Kara said with a smile.

"He's not…we're just friends," Alex said.

Kara gave her sister a knowing smile and a wink. There was one word which came out of her mouth at this statement from her older sister.

"Right," Kara said. "Of course the two of you are just friends."

Alex frowned at this statement coming from Kara. Granted, the two of them could be something more after tonight. Alex didn't want to say anything, not to get her hopes up. She didn't want to jinx everything after all.

A soft knock on the door could be heard. Alex crossed the room and opened up the door. An attractive blonde woman in her forties stepped into the room. She looked a fair bit younger than her age.

"Mom, how was your trip?" Alex asked, giving her mother a hug.

Eliza Danvers gave a weary smile towards her daughter and stepped inside of the room. She took a long look around.

"It was about as exciting as they always are," Eliza said. She smiled and looked at Kara. "So, did everything go okay with your sister?"

"Oh, everything went fine," Alex said. "We have had lots of fun, didn't we, Kara?"

"Yeah, but I think she wants to get rid of both of us," Kara said walking over towards her adoptive mother. "So, she can have fun with Harry."

Alex loved Kara, but little sisters could be such a pain sometimes. Her mother's eyes snapped up to her.

"Do you have a date or something?" Eliza asked.

The door opened up. Kara turned around for a moment and gasped when she saw Harry Potter standing there in the flesh. Harry stopped for a moment and looked at the scene before him.

"So, is this a bad time?" Harry asked.

' _Yes, I think it's a bad time,'_ Kara thought.

The younger Kara looked at Harry through widened eyes. Her adoptive mother didn't have any less tact than her daughter did. Eliza took a second to recover.

"Doctor Harry Potter?" Eliza asked.

"Yes, in the flesh," Harry said. "I'm here to take your daughter out for dinner."

"So, you're the Harry….she mentioned," Eliza said. She turned towards her daughter. "Alexandra, honey….."

"Oooh, full name," Kara said.

Eliza and Alex both looked towards the teenager girl and gave her a full death glare. Kara folded her arms up and stared at them.

"You didn't mention the Harry was…well Harry Potter," Eliza said. "You might not remember me, Doctor Potter, but we ran into each other at the airport about a year ago. Eliza Danvers, remember. I was getting on a plane, and I think you were getting off of the plane."

"Yes, I recall," Harry said. "It's a pleasure to meet you Doctor Danvers."

"Please Doctor Potter, you can call me Eliza," she responded with a smile.

"And then, it's Harry," Harry said.

"I…I hope I'm not being too…well I'm a really big fan of your work, and it's admirable just how much you've done in a short time," Eliza said. "And I'm astonished Alex didn't invite you over to dinner so we could properly meet you."

"Actually…this is our, well the first time we went out, to dinner," Alex said.

"How did the two of you meet?" Eliza asked.

Harry saved Alex from coming up with something.

"Your daughter helped me with something I was working on in New York," Harry said. "She was in town, on a conference, and the two of us ran into each other. We got to talking, and the two of us solved a problem. I couldn't have been able to accomplish something without her."

"Yes, when she applies herself, Alex can excel," Eliza said.

"I wouldn't be too hard on her," Harry said. "She has a lot to live up with, with your brilliance. It's a hard act to follow, between you and her older sister."

Eliza smiled at this point.

"Well, it would be an honor if you can come by for dinner sometime," Eliza said. "We'd really like to have you over. I'm sure there's a lot for us to talk about."

"Well, I'm sure we can arrange something," Harry said. "I know how busy you can be."

"Oh, everything is slowing down," Eliza said. "It was really hard after my husband died."

"Oh, your husband died?" Harry asked. Eliza took a moment to recollect. "My apologies."

"It was a year ago," she said. "I wouldn't want to keep you and Alex waiting. I hope the two of you have a nice evening together."

"Oh, I'm sure we will," Harry said. "Hopefully, we'll have a chance to get together some time, it was a pleasure meeting you Eliza, you too Kara."

Kara's face curled into a smirk at Harry saying it was an honor to meet her. The two of them moved off and left Alex standing there.

"So, I didn't expect you to meet my mother so soon," Alex said. "I thought you weren't showing up for another half hour or so?"

"I was a bit early, wasn't I?" Harry asked.

"Yes, you were," Alex said. "Actually, that's kind of your thing, isn't it?"

Everyone in the know in the bond started to laugh. It felt a bit rude come to think of it, because Alex wasn't in on the joke.

"So, shall we?"

* * *

 

A few hours later, Harry and Alex returned back to Alex's apartment. The two of them had a nice night of dinner and dancing which relaxed Alex fairly relaxed. The two of them enjoyed the company with each other.

Alex held her arm around Harry and held herself up. She had a couple of drinks night to relax herself. Not too many, but enough to make her feel a bit of a buzz.

"So, still nothing from Carol?" Alex asked.

"No," Harry said. "Nothing on your end either?"

"Not a clue," Alex said. "I know she can take care of herself, but….I'd be lying if I didn't have some concerns."

Harry held Alex in close towards her. Alex's eyes met Harry's and she allowed a sigh escape from her body.

"You should be concerned," Harry said. "She is your sister. And she would be in the same role if a mission of yours went a long."

Alex was not going to lie. There was a difference between one of her missions going long, and this mission from Carol. Every time she went out on the field, there was always a risk. Carol told her this a long time ago, and Alex felt it reinforced time and time again. Thankfully, she had more false alarms than anything which relaxed her.

"My mother is asking about her," Alex said.

"How much does Eliza know about Carol's work?" Harry asked.

"She knows enough," Alex said, inching a bit closer towards Harry. "Enough to have a feeling when something is wrong. Then again, a mother always knows, doesn't she? Deep down, and she isn't as worried as she could be."

Alex smiled and she looked towards Harry with a smile. Now was the moment, wasn't it? Alex leaned closer towards Harry and her lips pressed against Harry's with a kiss.

Harry tightened his arms around Alex and pushed his tongue deep inside her mouth. Their tongues tangled together and the two of them moaned. The two started to feel each other's bodies.

"Why don't you rest in my room?" Alex suggested, the moment she pulled away. She kissed Harry on the side of the mouth. "I'll be with you shortly."

Harry stepped into Alex's room. A comfortable and neatly made bed was right before him. The lights flickered on with just the right amount to allow him to be put in the mood.

Seconds later, Alex stepped over towards him. She dressed in a lacy set of lingerie, a corset which pushed up her breasts, a lacy thong, and a pair of knee high stockings, along with a garter belt.

"Why don't we get you out of those clothes?"

Alex leaned towards Harry and yanked his shirt off. She unbuttoned him and revealed his muscular chest and abs. Alex licked her lips and liked what she saw.

"Oh, you have a present for me now, don't you?" Alex asked.

Alex's hand teased Harry's bulge with a squeeze. She maintained a gaze into Harry's eyes. Something hungry flashed through her eyes. Alex leaned forward and kissed him on the lips.

The beautiful government agent tugged on Harry's pants and pulled them down. There was only one more scrap of clothing which blocked Alex's way from her prize.

"You don't know how long I've wanted this," Alex said, slipping her hand deep down Harry's pants and squeezed his throbbing pole.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I have an idea."

Alex sprawled herself on top of Harry dressed in her lacy lingerie. She straddled Harry's hips and started to kiss all the way down his body.

Harry experienced the joy of Alex's hot lips down onto his midsection. The brunette continued to explore Harry, licking his abs.

His cock sprung into the air. Alex grabbed Harry's cock.

"You're so big," Alex said. "I can't wait to suck on your cock."

"Why wait, then?" Harry asked her.

Alex didn't think there was any choice to wait. Her hot lips wrapped around the throbbing head. She worked her mouth all the way down onto the thick prick.

"Damn, you feel so good!" Harry growled. "I love your mouth."

Alex couldn't speak on the account of her mouth being full. Her mouth loved him. Alex worked herself all the way down onto his cock. The thick prick almost pushed into the back of her throat.

Harry could feel himself going deep into the back of Alex's throat. She looked at him with mouth full of cock. This action made her look so sexy. Harry grabbed the back of her hair and guided her throat down onto him.

Alex normally wouldn't have allowed a man to fuck her throat like this. Harry pushed into her mouth hard. She slurped on him. Something about him made her hot and turned her into a sex craved nympho.

"I'm going to cum into your hot mouth now!" Harry said. "Are you ready for it, baby?"

Alex brought her mouth down onto Harry's hard cock with a loud slurp. The cock pushed into the back of her throat. Alex's hand wrapped around Harry's balls and squeezed them. She could feel how much of a big load he had for her.

Harry enjoyed what Alex did to him. Her mouth brought him to new sensations. The hot cock sucking brought Harry to the edge.

Alex enjoyed the first burst of cum firing into the back of her throat. The contents of Harry's thick balls fired into the back of her throat. She brought her hot mouth down onto his throbbing manhood. Alex's talented mouth came down onto her.

"Mmm, your cum tastes so good," Alex said, licking her lips. She leaned down and started to lick Harry's cock. "It makes me so wet for your cum being in my stomach."

Harry pinned Alex down onto the bed and pealed the strip of fabric covering her cunt off. Alex's dripping hot pussy had been revealed by Harry. His hand cupped her pussy and slowly stroked her. This caused Alex to close her eyes.

"My god!" Alex yelled.

"If you insist."

The dark haired woman's nipples poked out hard from the other end of her lingerie. Harry leaned down and pushed his lips down onto Alex's nether lips.

Alex closed her eyes and placed her hands down onto the back of Harry's head. Her hips pumped up with Harry pushing his tongue deep inside her. Harry made love with her nether lips and it caused more heat to pump up between her legs.

"This feels so good!" Alex yelled. "More, I need more!"

Harry gave her more. His tongue swirled around the edge of her pussy and kept eating it. Each time Harry's tongue slipped inside her, Alex lost a bit of herself. Her stocking clad legs tightened a grip around Harry's head.

"Eat my fucking pussy, eat me all up!" Alex yelled. "My tight pussy is yours, yours…and no one else can eat it like you. Eat my pussy, you cunt munching god!"

Harry already knew for a moment Alex was pretty much his to use and pleasure in any way he wished. He pushed his tongue inside her and brought her up to the edge.

Alex's entire body sized up with pleasure and shot an orgasmic amount of bliss through her body. He worked her up slowly for the main event and caused the pleasure to fire through her.

"Are you still with me?"

It took Alex a moment to realize what happened. She sat up and stared down at Harry. The DEO agent smiled and used her quick reflexes to push Harry back on the bed.

"Oh, I'm still with you, alright, stud," Alex said. "And I'm going to ride you dry."

Harry was going to argue. He latched his hands on Alex's waist and dragged her closer towards her. Alex's dripping cunt approached his throbbing hard cock.

The dark haired vixen smiled and teased herself with the head of Harry's cock. The moment his cock brushed against her dripping pussy, Alex knew she needed to have it inside her.

Her legs wrapped around him tightly and she bent down to tease Harry with a kiss to the chest. She bit down on his nipple.

"Someone is being kinky," Harry said.

Alex drove herself down onto him. The prodigy bit down on her lip when going down onto her pussy. Harry grabbed Alex around the waist and pushed herself down onto him.

"Yes," Alex said.

Harry reached over and grabbed the top of Alex's lingerie. He pulled the straps down and revealed her firm breasts. They bounced in front of his face which caused Harry to smile. Alex brought herself all the way down onto his thick cock.

"Touch them, please," Alex said.

Harry cupped her perky breasts and gave them a squeeze. This squeeze caused juices to trickle down Alex's legs.

Alex closed her eyes to allow the full sensations to hit her body. She opened them up with a sexy smile on her face. Alex leaned forward to allow Harry's hands to explore and cup her breasts.

"You're really horny," Harry said. "I wonder what will happen if I do this."

Alex was about ready to ask what this was. It turned out she would find out this answer before too long. Harry leaned forward and captured one of her nipples in his mouth. Harry started to suckle on it and caused Alex to scream out in pure bliss.

Harry received the answer to his question. She started to gush all over his cock. Alex pushed her hot hips down onto him. She rose almost all the way up and slammed herself down onto him. Alex's tight walls contracted around him.

"I'm going to cum," Alex said.

Harry held onto her hips and steadied her to slam herself down onto him. The handsome gentleman pushed his partner down onto his cock and slowly steadied her towards an orgasm. Alex's tight walls contracted around him.

"Mmm, yes!" Alex yelled at the top of her lungs. "Hit me right there!"

"You're going to cum, and you're going to be mine."

Harry pushed his cock inside her. He touched all of the spots he knew would drive her wild. While Harry's cock worked her over on the inside, his hands talented him on the outside.

He noticed stroking her legs caused Alex to speed up her bouncing. Her vaginal walls twisted and clenched around Harry's cock. She pushed him deep inside her.

Alex's body sized up and exploded. Juices started to coat over Harry's cock. Harry jammed the tip of his cock inside her and buried himself into her body. Each thrust pushed him inside her.

Harry rode out the end of Alex's orgasm. Her body twitched around him and her cunt squeezed him hard. She slid off of him completely and turned around. Her ass and pussy exposed for him.

Alex's pussy ached with need and hunger. Harry pushed his throbbing cock up against her entrance.

"You really want this, don't you?" Harry asked. "You want my big cock inside you, while I fuck you face first into this bed."

"Yes," Alex said.

His hands touched her hips. Harry's hard cock pushed into Alex's dripping hot pussy.

"Do you really want it?" Harry asked.

Alex nodded. Harry gripped her waist and pulled all the way back into her. He pushed his throbbing manhood deep inside her willing and wet walls. She stretched out onto him with a huge thrust.

"Yes!" Alex yelled at the top of her lungs.

Harry hung onto her hips and slammed the point of his cock deep inside her. Her dripping hot pussy stretched around him and hugged him. Harry pushed himself deep into Alex's body and plowed her into the bed.

Alex's mind had been bombarded with even more pleasure than she ever knew. Harry's thick, throbbing, manhood spiked inside her body, with every last inch buried into the depths of her body. Harry pushed inside her taking his big cock inside her.

Harry held onto Alex's hips and rocketed back inside her. The dark haired vixen's hot walls contracted around him with a huge thrust. He buried his manhood into the depths of her womanhood. She clutched him hotly and tightly with each thrust.

"Cum for me again," Harry said, placing his lips on the back of Alex's earlobe and suckling on it.

Alex's body obeyed Harry. Her pussy submitted to his thrusts. The amazing sensations made her feel better than most. Harry really stimulated every single inch of her body. He ran over her body and cupped Alex's tits in his hand.

"Is it your turn yet?" Alex asked.

Harry smiled and continued to run his hands over her body. He gently gripped her around the back of the head and held onto her short hair. It was just long enough for Harry to get an intense grip and ram into her.

"After you."

Alex's wet walls tightened around Harry's thick rod. She started to milk his rod. This time she wanted his cum inside her and wouldn't stop at anything.

Harry sped up his thrusts. Alex became an incoherent and yelling wreck. His hands tormented her body along with his thrusts. Another orgasm wrapped around Harry's cock and milked his probing rod.

The first blast of cum fired into Alex's body and hit into the back of her womb, with each thrust burying a heavier load of cum deep inside Alex's body. Harry emptied the contents of his cum into her body. The young man pushed inside her body with a huge thrust deep inside her body.

Alex milked his orgasm all the way. The warmth of her pussy made Harry twitch inside her. He fired all the way inside her and coated the inside of her walls.

"Feels so good," Alex said, collapsing on the bed with a grin. She rolled over and spread her legs. "So, do you think you have more in you?"

Harry smiled and aimed his re-hardened cock against her before entering Alex one more time for another round.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on May 28** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Pamela and Harley have an interesting role reversal than from what has been established in the past._

_Harry meets Caitlin, well officially for the first time. He encountered her in the dark on a train._

_Harry meets the two members of the Danvers family he hasn't. Younger, adorkable Kara, who is younger and more adorkable than she is on Supergirl._

_Well, one down, three to go._

_Until Saturday._


	192. The Homestretch

**Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Two: The Homestretch.**

* * *

 

Lois Lane flew back a few feet and landed firmly on her ass. The girl pushed herself back to her feet in time to dodge a jab from Dinah. Another jab flew towards the face of Lois. Lois tried to catch the hand and turn it back around on her adversary. This worked out about as well as Lois could expect. She had been lifted off of the ground and hurled back several feet.

"Come on, Lois!" Dinah yelled.

Encouraged with a new thought she was going to actually get something done, Lois charged Dinah one more time. The student engaged in a little bit of hand to hand with her teacher. A few punches almost broke through Dinah's defensive barriers. Dinah came back with another attack, grabbed Lois around the head, and pinned her directly down to the ground.

Lois could not believe she had been worked into a compromising position.

"Rebecca, it's your….."

Rebecca attempted a difference approach to fighting Dinah. She tried the element of surprise. Unfortunately for Rebecca, Dinah saw her attacks coming. Dinah blocked a kick. Rebecca used her agility to flip out into the air and try to attack Dinah again.

Lyta sat back and observed the two of them. Barbara sat right next to her. Both of them awaited their turn in the sparring ring to show what they had to offer.

"You're throwing too much into your attacks!" Lyta yelled. "You have to relax. If you don't relax, you won't be able ot break through her attacks."

Rebecca tried to heed Lyta's advice. She knew her friend was only trying to help. The problem was it was hard to listen to advice when you fought against a very skilled and able enemy. Dinah Lance pushed her way through the attacks with a rapid fire series of punches.

' _Okay, don't put too much into your attacks. Relax and go with the flow. Got it, easier than it looks, but I got it.'_

Dinah turned around the absolute second Rebecca flipped behind her. The experienced fighter tried to kick Rebecca. Rebecca used her own acrobatic abilities to get out of Dinah's way.

Lois watched the sparring session with eager eyes and an eager smile on her face. She would have to say Rebecca did a little bit better than herself. Watching these battles from the sidelines gave Lois an interesting perspective on the matter though.

' _She's going to work herself into a defeat.'_

Lois naturally tried to be supportive towards Rebecca. From her angle, Rebecca threw a bit too much into the fight

Rebecca pulled back and managed to get some leverage against Dinah. She tried to take her down with the move she had been taught earlier in this week. Unfortunately for her, Dinah gripped her around the head and brought her face-first down onto the ground. The stunning siren applied an magnificent grip on her. Rebecca barely could escape. She took a second to gasp at the hold Dinah put onto her.

"This wasn't bad," Dinah said. She gave both of the girls a critical perspective before she added to her words."It could have been better."

She tried to switch on the tactics of the battle a little bit.

' _Glowing praise from you,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Well, to be fair, they're improving, and they're willing to learn,'_ Dinah thought. _'They're just not as a field ready as you are.'_

' _Still, it's a foundation which can be built upon,'_ Diana thought. _'They've done everything which has been asked of you.'_

"The two of you come at me at once and try and take me down," Dinah said. "Just be warned, a combined attack can be trickier to pull off than a standard single attack. You have to be in perfect harmony with your partner."

Lyta nodded off to the side in response. This was one particular lesson Artemis taught them practically well on the island.

"Dinah's right," Lyta said. "You need to be able to think ahead of your partner, about ten or so steps ahead. Otherwise, you're not going to be able to accomplish much of anything out there."

Lois and Rebecca took the advice from the young Amazon Princess and both of them nodded. They prepared to head into the attack on Dinah.

"You hit her from the right, I'll hit her from the left," Rebecca said at the last second.

Lois's quick thinking managed to process this. Unfortunately, Dinah was able to process this one more time.

"It's also best to develop some kind of body language system your opponent can't read to communicate," Dinah said.

' _Or a bond link,'_ Donna thought. _'Yeah, they're still a bit young for that, but it works too.'_

"Otherwise, your opponent will be able to figure out what you're doing," Dinah said. "And calling your attacks out loud never works too well."

Rebecca and Lois learned this one quite well. They had been propelled to the ground by Dinah, despite having her attacks in harmony.

"Doing something to obstruct your opponent's hearing works as well," Dinah said. "But, only if they don't have the ability to read lips."

Both of the girls scrambled to a standing position. Lois was the first one to go for an attack. She hit high and Rebecca hit low.

Dinah dodged the low kicks and caught the high kick. Lois flipped over onto the ground. Rebecca tried to grab Dinah from behind. Dinah countered by flipping Rebecca onto the ground. She grabbed Rebecca's arm and pinned it behind her back to force her down.

Lois caught Dinah off guard while she grappled with Rebecca. She slammed a fist into Dinah's stomach and doubled her over. Lois did not follow up on the attack because Dinah bounced up, grabbed Lois in a half nelson type hold and wrestled her to the ground. There were multiple attacks Dinah could have done from here, instead she let Lois up to the mat.

"And what have we learned?" Dinah asked.

"You kick ass and even the two of us can't take you down?" Lois asked.

Dinah fired back with one of those looks. The younger girl faded into a frown. It was one of those things where Dinah looked agitated and rightfully so.

"We need to work on our timing to better achieve a victory," Rebecca said after a moment. "We need to learn to work together because if we don't, we're going to fall flat on our face pretty much every time."

"Exactly," Dinah said. "You're training isn't bad."

"How about you, Lyta, you want to have a go?" Lois asked.

"What, me against the two of you?" Lyta asked. "No offense, but the two of you are going to end up getting smoked, and badly."

Rebecca and Lois exchanged one of those looks at each other. True to form, Lois was the one who spoke up with her usual swagger and charm.

"Well, look at this one, Becca," Lois said with a smile. "She really thinks a lot about herself doesn't she?"

Lyta smiled. She thought a lot about herself because there were a lot of herself.

"You sure you want to be humiliated more, when Dinah kicked your ass?" Lyta asked. She stood up straight and smile. "Babs?"

"Yes?"

"How about the two of us spar for a bit so I can get warmed up," Lyta said.

Barbara smiled. She always looked forward to testing her skills. Lyta was pretty intense in the battle field. Maybe not as much so as Diana, Dinah, or even Harry, but she was pretty good. Barbara thought it would be a good assessment on how far she's come and how far she has yet to go.

"Don't worry," Lyta said with a smile. "I'll go gently on you."

Barbara actually hoped she would a little bit. Lyta could and would break her if she had been given half of the chance.

* * *

 

The high society scene in Gotham City was about as active as the criminal scene, even more so. Some cynical Gotham City citizens would say the fine line between the two scenes could be rather blurred at times. Regardless, some kind of event always happened in Gotham City. Not only did these events happen, but these events also drew an interesting amount of attention.

Some might say these events had the tendency to draw the wrong kinds of attention.

Kathy Kane, fresh off her ordeal and with a new renewed fire, joined Sapphire Stagg and Veronica Vreeland. The three of them put their heads together.

"Let's get the elephant out of the room right away," Sapphire said. "Half of the time these events happen, they attract the wrong kind of attention. And I don't mean from some of the guests we invite either."

Earlier this year, Sapphire ran into the most obvious wrong kind of attention from a deranged suitor turned into a super powered madman named Metamorpho. While he was gone, the events were not forgotten.

"Doubling up on security for this event," Kathy said. She reached across the table and placed a gentle hand on top of Sapphire's "Nothing is foolproof."

"Those who think security is foolproof often will be proven a fool," Veronica said.

"That's a Harry statement, isn't it?" Sapphire asked.

"Of course it is, did you really have any doubt it wasn't?" Veronica asked.

Sapphire smiled. She really didn't have any doubt whatsoever. Speaking of Harry, another concern entered her mind.

"And this is going to be on the ground floor, right?" Sapphire asked. The two women's eyes snapped at her. "We'd like to avoid a repeat incident of what happened at Maxie Zeus's party if we can."

Veronica frowned. She had tried her best to block this little incident out of her mind. She supposed it was too much for her to hope for though.

"Yes, we should try our best to avoid something like that from happening again," Veronica said, folding her arms across her chest. "Don't worry, we've booked a ground floor suite. There are no really high windows for Harry, or anyone else for that matter to fall out of."

Sapphire smiled and only one word passed through her lips.

"Good."

Kathy responded to these words with a light frown.

"I have no idea how Harry survived something like that," Kathy said. "He must be very fortunate."

"Well, Harry keeps himself in pretty good shape," Sapphire said. "All of the cardio he does keeps himself in tip-top condition."

Kathy smiled and could see where both of them were coming from. She hoped to get in on a piece of that action.

"And the fact there was a pool right by where he fell helps as well," Veronica said. She put her thumb and fore finger together. "It helps, you know, just a little bit."

"Yeah, just a little bit," Sapphire said.

The three girls laughed in response. Harry was safe and sound, so they could derive amusement from what would be a serious situation.

"I've seen Dent the other day, I'm sure he'll be glad when the election was over," Kathy said. "Do you think this charity event is over the top?"

Veronica raised her eyebrow with a smile.

"Well, maybe a little bit, but you can never be sure the horse you're backing has finished the race until it's over," Veronica said. "So you have to give him a little extra nudge when he reaches the finishes line. I think people will be glad to have a chance to unwind. All of this extra security is a necessity though for obvious reasons."

"Not only will Dent be in attendance, but Hill will be crashing the party as well," Sapphire said.

"Well, it isn't so much as him crashing, as the fact he's been invited," Veronica said. "And to be fair, he is a decent politician. It's just his choice of friends leaves a little bit to be desired."

Veronica thought about it for a minute and realized this could be a commentary on all politicians. They had the potential to be decent, even great, only if they chose their friends a bit more wisely.

"Dent and Hill are a combination which can't be beat, I guess," Kathy said. "Shame, Mayor Grange has decided to call it quits though."

"Yes, although who can blame her?" Veronica asked. "The heat is on and her office is feeling the heat of a lot of problems in Gotham City. And she's not getting any younger. Best to get out of office while she has some level of her sanity in place."

Veronica thought this was an excellent way to get them all back on task.

"And really though, it's events like this which can make us hang onto a little bit of this sanity, even in the insane world that is Gotham City," Veronica said. She pepped up a bit more. "So, I don't think it's over the top. Just your simple masquerade ball."

"Nothing is ever simple in Gotham City," Sapphire said with a playful smile directed at her friend.

Veronica responded with an equally playful smile of her own. Her friend really had this one on point, if she had to say so herself.

"So, we have security, venue, and a guest list all out," Veronica said. "You know the really important bits."

Best to get the important things out of the way before they get onto the more entertaining details of planning a party, the things they really lived for.

"And I guess we're onto the music and the decorations," Kathy said with a smile.

"Well, it's the little things which makes a party alive," Sapphire said. "And it gives us our own Gotham City flavor."

"Yes, we should show the world we have lives to live," Veronica said with a distracted smile and nod.

* * *

 

Big Lou heard the news from a second hand source.

"Yeah, funeral is on Saturday?" Big Lou asked. "Yeah, I'll be there…tell the kids Uncle Lou sent his regards, and as for you….we'll get the son of a bitch who did this."

Big Lou Maroni slammed the phone down on the table. A couple of the mobsters around the area turned towards him nervously. One could see the larger mobster's vein about ready to throb in frustration.

"A moment of silence, boys," Big Lou said. "Bobby Nixon has fallen. He's helped us out a lot. He couldn't help my boy out but….no one's perfect. And we go back a long way, and the Maronis wouldn't have done half of what we did if it wasn't for the information he got for us."

"You're really broken up about some cop, boss?"

Big Lou's beady eyes locked onto his goon. The goon swallowed and for a brief second, he thought Big Lou was going to smack him around something fierce.

"Bobby Nixon was more than some cop," Big Lou said. "He was about as close as a brother to me, and none of you would be where you were if it wasn't for him."

The mobsters nodded, almost terrified to say anything against Big Lou. They knew if they said anything, he would tear them apart with his bare hands.

"Excuse me, gentlemen, I'm going to need a moment alone."

The mobsters all nodded. They bowed their heads in respect, despite the outburst. One of them gave the mobster who had spoken the evil eye, but they waited to say anything until Big Lou completely left the room.

"You're really lucky he didn't bash your head in. You're really a son of a bitch, you know that."

Big Lou allowed himself to take a deep breath and turn around. He took a moment to step his way into the next room. Cheap vases were lined up on tables all around him. On the wall, a baseball bat settled. Big Lou removed the baseball bat from the wall.

The elderly man started to breathe in heavily. He mentally counted to twenty before swinging the bat. The bat smashed the vases.

The sound of crunching glass echoed throughout the room. Big Lou mutilated the vases with a swing of his baseball bat.

"If I ever find the fucking cop killer!" Big Lou yelled, smash one of the vases with a baseball bat.

Big Lou held the baseball bat in his hand. He swung it one more time and mutilated the vase. He didn't know who the cop killer was. He found it his business to find out who this bastard was and bring him down.

"You've picked the wrong man to mess with!"

Big Lou smashed the wall in with the baseball bat one more time. He held the bat for a few seconds and took a deep breath.

The mobster put the bat back onto the wall. He stepped over the broken vase. Someone would have a hell of a mess to clean up earlier.

Big Lou pulled open his office door and made a beeline straight for the cabinet. He grabbed the cabinet door and tugged it open. The shelves had been covered with bottles of wine. Big Lou picked out a vintage model and a glass. He poured the glass of wine and put it down on the glass.

"Godspeed, Bobby, you're in a better place now," Big Lou said. "And I'm going to make sure the person who did this is the next one who is in a box."

Of course, if Big Lou had his way, this cop killing bastard wouldn't be in a box. They would be at the bottom of the lake. Big Lou took a long drink from the wine.

A lot of bad things happened. His son made a deal with the Roman, who promised to get him out of prison. Big Lou regarded Carmine Falcone with suspicion. The bastard rarely did something without anything benefitting him.

' _Okay, what's your game, Falcone.'_

Big Lou took a glass of wine and tipped it back. The sweet taste entered the back of his throat. He smiled and dropped it down on the table.

"Going to need Mannheim's help, and Zucco fucked that one up," Big Lou said. "That hot headed idiot!"

Big Lou wondered if he could get away with killing Zucco, even though he would get some heat from his boy. The mobster decided against it. Zucco still had his uses.

He took another drink to the memory of his old friend. This would not go unanswered. The cop killer made a big mistake. You don't mess with another man's family after all.

' _Whoever this bastard is, they must be really happy with themselves.'_

* * *

 

Harvey Dent couldn't lie, given all he accomplished, he was pretty happy with himself. The election was coming around the corner in a couple of weeks. And he would be glad if it was over. Yet, he could see there was a chance this could come crashing down around him.

Rachel smiled when she looked towards the door. They would be joined by someone else.

"You should be pretty pleased with yourself," Rachel said. "Go ahead and smile, lap it up."

Rachel slipped the latest poll reports down in front of Harvey. Harvey took a nice and long look at the poll sheets in front of him. His lips curled into a knowing smile.

"Well, the polls are interesting," Harvey said. "It isn't over until it's over through."

"It's a good idea not to count your chickens before they hatch."

Rachel and Harvey turned around. Bruce turned up wearing one of his best suits. Rachel pulled up a chair for Bruce, so he could sit down on the other side of her. Harvey sat to Rachel's left and Bruce sat to her left.

"Come on, Bruce, tell Harvey he has this one in the bag," Rachel said with a smile.

"I think you're looking forward to passing the responsibility of being the District Attorney to someone else," Harvey said.

Rachel answered with another smile. She would be lying if she was looking forward to taking a deep breath and relaxing for a moment. She would still technically be the Assistant District Attorney, instead of the acting one.

"I'm surprised you didn't run, Rachel," Harvey said.

"No, I'm….well I think Gotham deserves someone they can truly believe in," Rachel said.

"I wouldn't be selling yourself short," Harvey said.

Rachel responded with a knowing smile. She wouldn't sell herself short either, but there was just one problem.

"You were born to do this, Harvey," Rachel said. "There's just something deep inside you which makes you the best person for this job. You can do this, Harvey. We believe in you, we all believe in….."

"Yes, we believe in Harvey Dent," Bruce said.

These buzzwords made Harvey smile. They sounded like buzzwords, but they were something more for him. They were confirmation he made something out of his life. Given how Harvey grew up, with his father demeaning everything he wanted to be, this was vindication for him.

"So, Vreeland really is going all out for this charity ball event, isn't she?" Harvey asked.

"Yes, Ronnie does have her passions," Bruce said. "And it's just best you stand back and let her do what she need to do."

"I think she put together something wonderful, it's really going to cement your position," Rachel said. "Granted, you don't need it, but still…."

"All of the help is appreciated," Harvey said. "So all of the proceeds to the ball are going to charity, aren't they?"

"Yes, for noble causes," Rachel said. "We're going to guilt trip some of those people to open up their wallets and actually help someone other than themselves for a change."

Harvey could see where Rachel was coming from in a situation like this. She spoke mostly in jest, even though it kept too close to home.

"Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm able to match the cumulative donations of everyone involved," Bruce said.

"Oh, I'm sure you will, Bruce, you're always good at burning a little of that excessive money for a good cause, Rachel said in a gushing tone of voice. She stared towards Bruce with a smile across her face. "So, is this donation going to be when combined with Harry's, or before his?"

Bruce responded with a raise of his eyebrow. Harvey decided to be the one to break the news to the man.

"Yes, because Harry has already pledged to put in a big donation which will match the cumulative efforts," Harvey said. "I guess great billionaire minds think alike."

Harvey responded with a nice pat to the back of Bruce.

"I guess some really good causes are going to be very happy come October 30th," Bruce said, a smile flickering across his face.

"So, that means, you're going to match everything including Harry?" Rachel asked.

"Yes," Bruce said.

Rachel and Harvey exchanged a look and smiles with each other. There was a huge part of them who thought Harry would do about the same thing to throw this much extra in.

The moment Rachel came down from her thoughts, her cell phone lit up.

"Yes?" Rachel asked, answering the phone. "Keep an eye on it….Maroni isn't going to let this one go. It may be a chance to kill two birds with one stone."

Harvey looked towards her.

"Bobby Nixon?" Harvey asked.

"Yes, and our mole on the inside said Big Lou is on the warpath," Rachel said. "He wants to kill the cop killer."

Harvey knew this was going to get uglier before it got even better.

"I better get going," Rachel said. "They're going to need all hands on deck."

Harvey made a movement to follow her. Rachel shook her head in response and stopped Harvey from following her out of the door.

"Don't worry, I can handle this," Rachel said. "You have a big next couple of weeks coming ahead of you. You need to prepare yourself for the election."

Harvey nodded and settled himself back down on the table. He could see Bruce's eyes lock back onto him.

"So, how's Gilda doing?" Bruce asked.

"Gilda will be glad when the election is over," Harvey said. "You know, that makes two of us come to think of it."

"The death threats haven't continued, have they?" Bruce asked.

"No more than they have for any politician out there," Harvey said. Bruce was about ready to say something. "It's just nothing, but threats and hot air. Rachel helped me arrange for an escort and security to keep an eye on Gilda when she's out and about."

Harvey trusted Rachel with his life and the life of his wife

Bruce's cell phone blinked to life. He placed it into the palm of his hand.

_Urgent. Five Minutes. O._

Bruce understood what he saw on the phone. Harvey raised his eyebrow.

"Is there a problem?" Harvey asked.

"I just got a reminder I have an urgent Wayne Enterprises meeting, in about an hour, it must have slipped my mind," Bruce said. "It would be bad if I didn't attend it…it's rather important."

"Well, I won't keep you for long," Harvey said. "I better get going myself."

Despite the fact Rachel said she didn't need help, Harvey disagreed. He and Bruce rose up to their feet and shook hands.

"See you at the party, Harvey," Bruce said.

"Looking forward to it," Harvey said.

Harvey took a long sigh out. He breathed in and out heavily for a couple of seconds. The District Attorney prospect would be glad when this entire election was over. He could feel the burn, despite not having any solid competition for the election.

People still ran with platforms which could barely be held up on quicksand.

* * *

 

In a rundown warehouse, a pair of skilled hands put the finishing touches on a costume. The costume had the distinct homemade look on it.

"Yes, this isn't the most high tech suit after all," he said with a frown. "But it will do."

The man looked at the suit and adjusted the goggles. The chemicals which he was dealing with in his weapons could not get in his eyes under any respect whatsoever.

"Yes, it will do," the man said. "Soon all of Gotham City will know my name!"

He coughed for a moment. The dust and the chemicals in this warehouse made it a bit difficult to breath when he got excited. The man calmed himself down for a moment.

"Yes, all of Gotham City will know my name!" the man yelled. His mania grew even larger despite the fact no one was around to hear his manic speech. "They know Black Canary, they know Batman, and they know Nightwing. Soon they will know….."

He paused and allowed himself a moment for dramatic effect. A wicked grin spread over his face before he blurted out the first name which came into his mind.

"They will all know the name Mothman!"

The man heard the name and almost cringed at it. He took a second and shook his head.

"No, no, Mothman doesn't work. It doesn't have the same zing, the same pizzazz the same…well it just doesn't work, does it?"

The man took a moment to allow his rhetorical question to hang in the distance.

"No, the name Killer Moth will be feared by all! They will all know my name. It's time to bring in true terror in Gotham City!"

A loud burst of laughter came from him. His super villain laugh wasn't spot on, although he had been practicing a little bit.

"Let's see how the children are thriving!"

The man dubbed Killer Moth stepped forward and walked past a black and white television. It's picture flickered in and out. One thing flickered into picture.

"Harvey Dent is the favorite to win the position of the District Attorney in Gotham City. The Charity Ball takes place at noon on October 30th, and….."

Killer Moth reached down on the table and held up a hair dryer like weapon. He turned it and pulled the trigger. A blast of energy shot from the gun and nailed the image of Harvey Dent straight on. The television cocooned and started to sizzle underneath the cocoon. The television smoked from underneath the modified webbing.

"The good news is, my Moth Ray works," Killer Moth said. "The bad news is, I'm in desperate need of a brand new television!"

Killer Moth smiled.

"When I crash this Charity Ball and steal all of the proceeds, I will get a brand new big screen television!" Killer Moth yelled. "And Dent…the fact Dent will be there, oh this makes it this much better."

At another time, Killer Moth was known as Drury Walker. He committed a crime which caused him to spend several of the best years of his life in prison. The lawyer who was responsible for throwing him in jail? A young lawyer by the name of Harvey Dent was responsible for this.

The fact he could gain his revenge on those high society bastards which put him in this position was also a bonus.

"This Friday is the night where Killer Moth will bring his terror to Gotham City!" Walker yelled.

Walker turned his attention to the next room. His prize creations awaited their orders. They would get their time to shine.

"Rest well, my children, soon you will have time to spread your wings," Walker said.

* * *

 

Blackjack Blackfire stepped outside of the temple where his grandson's body was at rest. Each day passed by, closer to the day where he could bring his grandson back. The sands of time grinded down in their own amazing way.

"Yes, it comes soon."

Blackjack Blackfire looked up into the sky. The moon shined extremely bright and the power was nearly charged. A full moon at midnight on All Hallow's Eve was extremely rare. It would give him the power.

The sacrifice combined with the moonlights and the pits. Blackjack Blackfire held up the dagger in his hand and smiled. The moonlight shined off of the dagger and caused the runes on the stone to glint.

"Soon, you will rise again, Joseph."

**To Be Continued on June 4** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Lots of interesting bits and pieces going about in the background, as the election and Halloween Night draws nearer. Also Chapter Two Hundred, where nothing will ever be the same again. Post three years to the date after the first chapter of Ascension Book One. Funny how things like that work out, isn't it?_

_Until Saturday._


	193. Masquarde Ball Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Three: Masquerade Ball Part One.**

* * *

 

A man dressed in a blue suit, with a Bill Clinton mask over his face started to walk around the area of the lobby. The people turned to look towards him, with a few hints of amusement dancing through their eyes. The imposter Bill Clinton kept walking around and extended his hand to shake with someone. One of the people took the man's hand and shook it.

"Um, how do you do, Mr. President," one of the party goers said.

"Give our regards to Monica!"

The man in the Bill Clinton mask didn't say anything. He just continued to move around, sauntering around the party in a really jolly manner. He went from person to person shaking their hands. Amusement danced throughout his eyes.

The attention of the people attending the party were diverted. Some of them had gasped when a figure dressed in black with a dark bat insignia turned up at the party. He had worn armor covering every inch of his body. One could see his unmistakable green eyes from the other side of the cowl.

"Hello, citizens," the man said in a gruff voice.

The party goers broke out into a fit of laughter. Harry Potter smiled underneath the cover of Batman. He played into the rumors going around he was in fact Batman underneath this mask. It was an interesting idea if he was to be perfectly honest, but it didn't seem to have any plausibility in reality. At least in the back of his mind.

Speaking of Batman, Bruce Wayne himself turned up at the party. He dressed in a vintage Sherlock Holmes costume. Harry turned towards him with a smile.

"Well, the World's Greatest Detective," Harry said, extending a hand and shaking it with him.

Bruce leaned forward a few seconds later. He only had one thing to say to the fact Harry dressed up like Batman.

"Nice costume," Bruce said.

"Thanks, although not entirely original."

Harry empathized his point by extending his neck outwards. Several of the party goers had been moving around, some of them dressed in homemade Batman costumes, which looked like they spent maybe a couple of hours of time working on at most.

"Yours does stand out," Bruce said. "The ears stand could use a little bit of work, but yours does in fact stand out."

Harry was going to take this exactly how he thought it was, as a complement. This would be an interesting night.

Speaking of interesting, Barbara turned up at the costume. The purple bodysuit fit snugly against her body. It shined brightly into the light. It could arouse a person, but it could also allow her more fluid movement. The hints of her red hair poked out of the back of the mask. The yellow Bat logo shined in the light, along with the more homemade looking belt of bat gadgets.

"And look, it's my sidekick," Harry said.

Kara turned up next to Barbara, laughed. She wore a golden bikini which only barely covered the bits which needed to be covered. Her breasts threatened to spill out of the top. Her flat stomach was on display. The bottom half displayed her hips as well. Her legs stretched on for miles as she dressed up in a pair of golden high heel shoes.

"Really, you had to go there?" Barbara asked.

"What, it's a classic," Kara said with a smile on her face. She leaned over and kissed Barbara on the cheek. "And your costume is great. You put a lot of time and effort into it."

Barbara smiled. She put a lot of time and effort into making this costume. Maybe not as much as she would out on the field, but still the point stood firm.

"There's no need to fear," Kara said, placing a hand on Barbara's shoulder and grinning at her. "Batgirl is here!"

Barbara's eyes widened at Kara's words. Her mouth hung open for a couple of minutes and she only muttered one thing.

"Batgirl?" Barbara asked. She drew in a deep breath and muttered it again. "Batgirl?"

Barbara had to pause for a moment to really consider what Kara was saying.

"Batgirl?" Barbara asked.

Kara almost doubled over into a fit of laughter. She turned towards Barbara with a smile. Kara spent a couple of moments taking a heavy breath before laughter overwhelmed her one more time.

"Yes, Barbara, Batgirl," Kara said.

"I have to say it does suit you in many ways."

Kathy Kane turned up, dressed in a version of the Nightwing costume. It did fit around her body quite nicely. She turned up and smiled when looking towards Harry.

"I see you were inspired," Harry said, whispering in her ear.

"Well, I feel I should pay tribute to him, considering he saved me," Kathy said. "Or her….there are times where there's conflicting evidence. I'm sure whoever Nightwing is, has a couple of stunt doubles to throw people off of the trail. I mean, it's just common sense. It would lead to a lot of confused criminals though."

Harry would have to agree to be honest. It was his intention, at least perfectly.

"It's a nice costume," Kathy said with a smile.

"Nothing on yours," Barbara said.

"Well, I had a friend who had way too much time on his hands, and he owed me a favor," Kathy said. "Overdid this one a little bit I think."

Barbara took a moment to look around the party. There was a thought which entered her mind she had to share with the rest of the group.

"It's really funny," Barbara said. "For urban legends, Batman and Nightwing tend to be pretty popular."

Harry noticed a lot of the homemade Batman costumes and Nightwing costumes and understood in an instant. He could see the man wearing the Bill Clinton mask stumbling around and shaking hands with one of them. He turned back towards the conversation.

Kathy decided to chime in with her own little theory about why this was.

"Well, just stop and think about it for a minute," Kathy said. "They might be urban legends, but a lot of the people out there appreciate what is done."

The doors opened and a figure dressed in a skintight black costume appeared. Some of them whistled when they noticed Catwoman appear in the party.

Dinah Lance had no idea how Selina maneuvered in this costume. It actually gave her some level of respect for the woman. She struggled to hold herself up.

Harry walked over to hold up Dinah.

"So, you actually did it," Harry said.

"Yes, I can't believe I did it, but I did it," Dinah said.

The door opened up and a woman sauntered in. An obvious blonde wig covered her face. She wore a tight black leather top with a jacket. Her fishnet stockings stretched down her legs and she wore a pair of zip up leather high heel boots which made her legs look all that much the more longer.

' _Okay, I'm not going to lie,'_ Dinah thought. _'She does look amazing in those fishnets.'_

Dinah found herself gazing at the fishnet clad legs of Selina Kyle dressed as the Black Canary.

"Oh, you naughty little kitty, I caught you looking," Selina said with a smile.

"Oh, you know us slutty cat burglars, we can't keep our eyes or our paws to ourselves," Dinah said.

Selina smiled and she looked towards her with a smile on her face. She traced the outlines of Dinah's curves with her eyes, a certain amount of hunger flickering through her eyes.

"Oh, I know how you are," Selina said. "And I can't help, but scream. I'm a real screamer."

"I'm sure you are, and a kinky bitch like myself can't help, but be turned on," Dinah said.

The two of them made their way face to face. Harry turned his head to the side and caught sight of Thea. She dressed in a green hooded sweatshirt and tight pants. She had a bow over her shoulder and a quiver as well. The arrows in it were more for show to be perfectly honest. It was the classic female Robin Hood look, and Harry approved of the costume.

She burst out into laughter at the little interplay which was going on. She turned towards Harry, who smiled.

Bill Clinton almost toppled over a tray of drinks when he walked in the background. His antics had proved to be very distracting to everyone involved.

"Hey, looks like you've been tipping a few back, haven't you, Mr. President?" one of the party goers jeered.

"Maybe he needs a cigar?" one of the party goers asked.

The man in the Bill Clinton mask almost staggered over. He almost feel flat on his face in an attempt to keep moving. He grabbed one of the man around the shoulder and pulled himself up.

"Get off me, you weirdo!" the man yelled, shoving him back.

The man in the Bill Clinton mask turned around and moved without warning to the next person in the party to keep shaking his hand.

* * *

 

Killer Moth arrived, his costume underneath a waiters uniform. He wore a fake mustache and beard combination when he wheeled a cart slowly to the elevator. He was in the basement level of the building. A tunnel underneath the building allowed him entrance to the bottom levels of the building.

A pair of burly security guards stepped forward. Their eyes fixated on Killer Mouth the second he turned up. It was obvious they were not in a good mood and were the type of people who detested their job.

"I need to get these appetizers up to the party," the waiter said.

"Not without some identification, you're not," the security guard said.

Killer Moth frowned. This wasn't going exactly as planned to be perfectly honest. His breath heaved in and out with a frown spreading over his body.

"Look, Ms. Vreeland wants these upstairs now," the waiter said. "Do you want to be the ones to have to explain to Ms. Vreeland why these are late going upstairs?"

The security guards stood both steadfast and firm. None of them were willing to budge an inch from their stance. One of them grabbed the waiter by the shoulder.

"Either show us some identification, or turn the cart back around and leave," the security guard said. "Don't make us throw you out of here!"

Killer Moth responded with a frown. This wasn't going as he planned at all. He always hated when his plans ended up going south. A deep breath passed through his body before Killer Moth took a few seconds to consider what would happen next.

' _Very well, it's time to go to Plan B,'_ Killer Moth said. _'It lacks the elegance of Plan A, but I'm on a very strict timetable right now.'_

Killer Moth took a step back. The guard both watched him and waited for his next movement. The man disguised as the waiter took a step back.

"I'm going to have to say, Ms. Vreeland will be disappointed," the waiter said. The guards all stared down at him. "Oh, wait, I have…..I have my identification right here."

Killer Moth removed something from his sleeve. The two guards stared him down and looked towards him. He dropped it on the ground.

The moth ball exploded and released the material around their bodies. They had been wrapped up in a cocoon! The two security guards struggled to wiggle out of there containment.

"What are you doing?" one of the guards asked.

"I'm just making sure justice prevails for once in Gotham City!"

The waiter pulled up the hood to reveal the face of Killer Moth. He made sure his moth gun clicked into place and locked it onto the men on the ground. They all struggled in an attempt to get back to their feet.

"I would not move if I were you," Killer Moth, clicking the gun in their face. "The material will smother you, if you move a little bit too much."

The security guards stopped the moment the material started to stretch around them. It was difficult to breath.

Killer Moth rolled the cart into the elevator. He started to press a few buttons and activated the elevator. The elevator slid shut and allowed him to make his way up to the top floor.

' _Tonight is the night,'_ Killer Moth thought. _'And tonight is the night where justice will finally happen in Gotham City.'_

He believed in Harvey Dent's demise. The best years of his life have been ruined by this bastard. Killer Moth would not stand back.

* * *

 

Harry smiled and moved over towards Thea, who finally got over the amusing interaction between Selina and Dinah. The two of them walked closer towards each other.

"So, do you think you can spare me a dance?" Thea asked, with a smile gripping onto Harry's forearm.

"I think that wouldn't be a problem," Harry said, leaning closer towards her.

"Good," Thea said, easing a bit closer towards Harry. She smiled when moving a little bit closer towards him and pressing up against his body. "I'm glad."

Thea smiled when she lead him out into the floor. It had been a long time since she had a dance, although given all of the high society events she had been dragged to, it was well within her interest to learn.

"I have to say, that's an interesting costume," Harry said.

"Thanks, yours is as well," Thea said. "I guess you're having a lot of fun with the tabloid rumors."

She was no stranger to tabloids. Anyone who was in the high society would be no stranger to tabloids to be perfectly honest. Harry wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in.

"Well, they do give me some inspiration from time to time," Harry said, pulling Thea in closer towards him.

"Inspiration," Thea said. She gave a little snort. "That's a funny way of talking about the tabloids. A lot of people wouldn't even pull out the term inspiration regarding them."

Harry laughed. This was true. He had to admit a lot of the rumors were silly. Every now and then, they hit a bit too closer to home. As long as it wasn't anything too slanderous, Harry was more than compelled to just let the tabloids be.

There were a few people here not in costume. One of them was Malcolm Merlyn who had shown up and looked to be trying to catch Harry's eye.

Thea tensed up a little bit. There should be no way Malcolm could recognize her. She changed her hair both in the color and the length, along with wearing a mask.

"So, it looks like he wants to talk about business," Harry said. "Why don't you get a drink, and I'll be back in a minute?"

Thea was glad Harry made the suggestion so she didn't. Harry made his way over towards Malcolm Merlyn.

"So, I'm surprised you could make the trip," Harry said to him.

"Yes, well, it gives me an excuse to have a few words with you," Malcolm said. "So far, there's been no word on the missing Mr. Queen, or the missing Ms. Queen either."

Ever since the piece of the Queen's Gambit had been found, Harry didn't really hear any news regarding what happened to Oliver. While Sara turned up and had been under the custody of the League of Assassins, and her training with Nyssa had gone well, Oliver had not had any hints to him.

"My people have figured out there have been any number of places where Oliver could have ended up," Harry said. "But other than the small fragments of the Gambit you've found, there's nothing else. Is there?"

"No, there's nothing," Malcolm answered, staring down at him for a minute. "And I was conducting my own search in Gotham City, because as you know, the latest rumors have pegged Thea to be here in Gotham City."

Harry could tell with a quick search Malcolm had no idea.

"Well, we've all been keeping an eye out for her," Harry said. "She's fallen off of the grid though."

"Unfortunately," Malcolm said. "I do have to thank you though…your presence has appeased the Board of Directors. And prevented them from making a deal which would not be best for business."

Harry decided to read between the lines and realize Malcolm didn't want Lionel involved any more than he did.

"Just keep up what you're doing, and you shouldn't have to hear from me too much," Harry said. "I'll be checking in once a month to see if Queen Industries is approving to expectations."

Malcolm nodded. He hadn't attempted anything daring. They were in a holding pattern, and he wanted to only hold onto his trump card unless absolutely necessary. He thought he would have to use it when Lionel was hovering around. And there was Robert's former mistress who was also sniffing around. Malcolm uncovered that particular bit of information, and someone really powerful was banking her.

His cell phone lit to light on his side pocket. Malcolm took it into his hand and frowned, picking it up.

"Let me guess, business?" Harry asked.

Malcolm nodded and shook hands with Harry. He moved forward and turned towards Harvey, dressed as the Greek God Apollo.

"Best of luck to you in your election endeavors, Mr. Dent," Malcolm said, extending his hand for Harvey to shake.

"Thank, you Mr. Merlyn."

Thea moved her way over and could see Malcolm leaving the party. He acknowledged the rest of the businessmen with the barest of nods.

"You really had nothing to worry about," Harry said. He turned to the quiver and smiled when he looked at Thea. "so, is that just for show, or can you use it?"

"Oh, believe me, I can use it," Thea said. "I might be a bit out of practice, given I spent a lot more time partying than practicing. My teacher told me I could go to the Olympics if I had applied myself. That could have been the problem."

Harry smiled when he looked at her.

"You really were that good?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I think I was, or I could have been, if I applied myself more and been less of a party girl," Thea said. She smiled. "Those days are behind me….well for the most part."

"If anything, you're a more functional party girl," Harry said.

Thea took a moment to consider Harry's words and nodded. A more functional party girl, she liked the sound of this to be perfectly honest.

"I have to say, life is a lot easier, when you work with Harry Potter, and not against him," Malcolm said to Lionel Luthor before departing to the party. "Hopefully you learn that, for the sake of your future. Your daughter has."

Harry smiled and could see a familiar blonde standing there. Sapphire Stagg stood before him dressed in a sexy pirate costume. She stepped towards Harry with a smile across her face.

"Hello, Harry," Sapphire said. She placed a hand down on her face.

"Nice costume, Sapphire," Harry said.

"Thanks," Sapphire said, leaning forward. She showed Harry a nice bit of her cleavage. It was hard to miss from Harry's position. "Maybe, you want to plunder my booty a little bit later?"

Harry looked at her with a smile on her face. The moment Sapphire said this statement, a part of her looked like she regretted the statement immediately.

"Sorry, it's just this costume lends itself to a rather obvious pun," Sapphire said, leaning towards Sapphire. "And Veronica bet me a hundred dollars I wouldn't say it."

Harry smiled and grabbed Sapphire around the ass. She shivered at Harry groping her so obviously in public.

"Quite the booty to plunder as well," Harry said. He smiled and kissed her on the lips.

"I didn't think she would say it," Veronica said. She walked closer towards the picture. "I guess she was wore."

Veronica wore a black tank top which came up to expose her toned stomach. She wore a pair of short leather shorts as well and boots. Her hair had clipped back and she wore sunglasses as well. Veronica resembled someone who was about ready to go and raid a tomb.

"I have to say, you look really good as well, Veronica."

The redhead leaned closer towards Harry and kissed him on the lips.

"Maybe, you'd like to raid my tomb later," Veronica said. "And now, Sapphire owes me a hundred dollars, because she bet I wouldn't say it."

"Well, this was a loss," Sapphire said, with a smile and a shrug. "I suppose we should have counted on each other being shameless enough to be purposely cheesy."

Harry laughed when Veronica walked closer towards him and stole a dance. His hands rested on her firm and sexy body.

"Lara would most certainly approve of this costume," Harry said.

"How is she?" Veronica asked.

"Oh, you know how she is," Harry said. "She's busy doing her exploration. She missed taking the trip with us to Egypt, and I'm sure she would be rather upset about it, especially when she found out the adventure we had."

"Yes, an Egyptologist thinking he is a long dead Egyptian King would pretty much qualify as an adventure," Veronica said, edging closer towards Harry. She dragged her tongue across her lips with a smile. "Speaking of which, how is Doctor McElroy?"

Harry took a moment to think about this.

"He's getting some real help," Harry said. "He's had a long and hard life. His wife dying years ago didn't really help him any, and the stress of putting on too much with his work, it started to crack."

Veronica nodded in a somber manner. She really hoped the Professor would be able to put it together more often than not. Harry and Veronica made their way over. Sapphire slipped across in Veronica's place, practically nudging her over to the side.

"You know, you've had your turn," Sapphire said, grinding up against Harry's crotch, before pulling him into a dance. "And now it's mine."

Sapphire gave a grin and they left a patting Veronica.

"This costume makes your ass look sexy," Sapphire said. "Then again, you are the type of man who looks really good in costume."

She gripped Harry's ass through his costume and smiled when she leaned closer towards her man. The friction of her hips pushing against Harry was amazing. She wondered how much she could get away with regarding Harry.

"Looks like you're the one who is willing to plunder the booty, Ms. Stagg," Harry said, leaning her back onto the floor.

Sapphire's mind had been blown when Harry dipped her onto the floor. He leaned back and started to give her a series of kisses on the neck.

Diana and Donna stood in the corner. Diana had her hair pinned back in a bun with eyeglasses covering her face. She wore a white blouse which had a couple of buttons undone. She wore a zip up skirt and high heels. She resembled a naughty librarian. Donna copied her sister's attire. Only the blouse was tighter and more unbuttoned, and the skirt was shorter to see more of her legs. Donna also had a pen in her mouth.

"If it weren't for all of the old men here, this party could be a hell of an orgy," Sapphire said. "Well, maybe for the afterparty."

She stroked Harry one more time and kissed him. She moved over to hang out with Kara for a moment.

Seconds later, Harry turned around, and was at the tender mercy of Selina.

"Hello, Black Canary," Harry said.

"Hello, Batman," Selina said. "May you honor me with a dance?"

"The honor would be all mine," Harry said, walking towards Selina.

This would most certainly be a sight no one expected to see. Black Canary and Batman dancing in Gotham City, wlel in a matter of speaking.

"So, are you going to make me scream later?" Selina asked.

"Maybe if you play your cards right," Harry said, with a light grope on her ass.

Selina smiled and she got really into the dancing. She was waiting for all of these people to do their tax deduction donations before she got to work. The crafty woman smiled when she looked around.

"Oh, I think I'm going to play my cards right," Selina said. She leaned forward and showed her cleavage.

"You better be on your best behavior," Harry said.

"Oh, you know me," Selina said. "I'm being a good girl tonight. A good girl who looks like she should be standing on a street corner."

A moment past with Dinah walking by, joined by Karen. She dressed in a red, white, and blue outfit with a shield held in her hands. The costume fit around her rather snugly and caused her breasts to on nice display. It caused a lot of people to look towards her.

' _Maybe we should work together sometime,'_ Selina thought. _'You distract, and I snatch.'_

' _I don't want to enable your little hobby any more than I have to,'_ Karen thought. _'Besides, you are good enough to do this on your own. And I would hate for me to crimp your style. And you have some serious style.'_

Selina smiled. She wouldn't lie for a moment. She did have some serious style.

The woman continued her dance with Harry, all while keeping a critical eye on the men who were dropping off their donations. She was making a mental list about who had donated their tax deductions.

* * *

 

The night was winding down and it was time for the man of the hour to make his speech. Selina slipped off into the shadows to get to work. Harry was joined by Juno Jones, who was dressed in one of the classic depictions of Hera.

"A bit on the nose, wouldn't you say?" Harry asked.

"The funny thing is, I don't really look like this," Juno said. "There have been some details lost in the mythology though."

The woman smiled when looking around. Diana and Kara joined them, and the other Alphas were also hovering around in the distance. Kara reached over and took a spot to Harry's left side, while Diana moved over towards Juno's direct right.

' _Huh?'_ Kara asked, noticing something odd. _'Weird.'_

' _What's weird?'_ Faora asked.

Faora stepped in dressed as a scientist. Granted, it wasn't too different than her normal every day attire. A couple of modifications had been made to make her a bit more sultry.

' _There's Hill,'_ Kara thought.

Harry could tell where Kara was going out. Hamilton Hill stepped in, wearing a suit, a top hat, and a monocle, with a nice diamond tipped cane hanging from his hand.

' _I thought he was the guy making a fool out of himself in the Bill Clinton mask,'_ Barbara thought.

' _No apparently, not,'_ Harry thought. _'Something tells me that guy has been shown the door. Have any of you seen him as of late?'_

The entire group shook their heads in the negative. Harry turned around a moment. He wrapped his arm around Kara, who pressed against his arm. Barbara, Dinah, and a few others were pretty close to the Alpha group.

Veronica made her way up to the stage and smiled when she looked at the group.

"Thank you for coming to this charity ball tonight, and we've shattered all expectations tonight!" Veronica yelled. "Tonight, we've proven how the people in Gotham City has gone above and beyond all expectations. And tonight, we've raised over a billion dollars all together, after the donations Harry Potter and Bruce Wayne have given."

Everyone applauded the donations.

"And we should put our hands together for the man of the hour, the man who we are all going to support out there during elections next Tuesday!" Veronica yelled. "Everyone put your hands together for the man Gotham City can believe, who won't back down from the criminal element. Ladies and gentleman, Mr. Harvey Dent!"

Harvey made his way to the top of the stage. Juno's eyes locked onto the costume he wore. Harry looked back towards her with a smile on his face.

' _Not bad,'_ Juno thought. _'I would have to say this is a nine out of ten. There's always room for improvement as you well know.'_

Harry answered with a chuckle in response. Harvey reached over and shook hands with Veronica.

"All of the people out there made tonight's events all possible," Harvey said. "I will live up to all of your expectations. I can't do it without each and everyone one of you!"

Everyone cheered.

"Yes, yes, we believe in Harvey Dent!"

Someone cut through the air and made his way through the side entrance. The security guards moved over to get to him. The man pulled out his gun and fired a blast of light towards them. They had been stunned and dropped down to the ground.

"I believe Harvey Dent is going to pay for his crimes, and putting me away all of those years ago!" the man yelled. "Everyone in Gotham City will bow down before Killer Moth!"

Harry and the Alphas all exchanged a look with each other. The name might have been absurd, but he found a way into the party.

"And don't think I've forgotten what the rich and famous have done!" Killer Moth yelled. "They threw me out on my ear and forced me to scrap. And now, since you took everything away from me, I'm going to have my children take everything away from you."

Killer Moth pulled back the tarp and revealed his moths. Everyone stared at it for several minutes. Then the party goers burst into laughter.

"Man, this guy is a riot….ARGH!"

One of the moths extended its wings and flew through the air. It grabbed onto the expensive watch and caused the man to stumble forward and fall flat on his face.

"Yes, my children, yes, I….."

' _Crowd control, Karen, Barbara, Faora, and Dinah,'_ Harry thought. _'The rest of you, you're with me…..'_

One of the moths landed in the middle of a punch bowl. The wings of the moth like creature started to swell in response before the rest of his body expanded several times its normal size.

Killer Moth's mouth hung open a moment later. He watched the creature grow several times its normal size with a widening expression in his mouth. He couldn't see this one coming.

' _Well, this is a surprise.'_

The large moth creature rose up above the crowd and caused a sickening green fluid to splatter down onto the ground. The crowd scattered.

"Yes, my pet, make them pay!" Killer Moth yelled. "Go after him, take out Harvey Dent!"

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on June 8** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_All I'm going to say is the costume party had some pretty interesting choices. And I spent way too much time in putting thought into those costumes._

_Harry casually dropping he knows Lara Croft, because of course he does. She was supposed to be a part of the Egypt/Tut arc, but got cut because there was more than enough going on._

_And Killer Moth might look a bit absurd, but he's more dangerous than he appears._

_Until Saturday._


	194. Masquarde Ball Part Two

**Usual Chapter of the Week Poll At this Location. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/**

**Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Four: Masquerade Part Two.**

* * *

 

Killer Moth had been surprised about as much as anyone else from his moth growing several times its normal size. He recovered quickly a moment later with a wide grin in his face. One could almost see the mania going through his body. He rubbed his hands together and watched his large moth hover around. The smaller moths closed in directly towards them.

"Yes, go ahead my pets and do your worst!" Killer Moth yelled. "Do your worst and make them all pay! Make sure Gotham City all suffers for their crimes against me."

The smaller moths continued to attack the people around them. An attempted swat at the moth did not pan out too well. Killer Moth's lips curled into one of the more devious smiles possible when he stared down at his adversaries.

Harry could see the girls move back closer. Standard protocol would naturally apply even though the giant moth monster kind of caused this entire scenario to take a turn for the worst.

' _Okay, everyone, try and get the party goers out,'_ Harry thought. _'And we're going to….'_

Dent pulled a fire axe off of the wall and jumped in front of some unsuspecting party goers. He tried to nail the moth monster with the fire axe. The axe rammed into the head of the creature. The creature sputtered in response a second later and glared back at Dent, a hideous expression dancing in its eyes.

' _Of all of the times someone would want to try and be a hero, it would have to be right now,'_ Kara thought, throwing her head back with a long sigh.

Harvey's attempts had been mostly in vein. The moth monster rose up and sent Harvey flying. Rachel and Bruce scrambled around to Harvey's other side.

"I'm fine," Harvey said. "Make sure everyone gets out of the door."

Killer Moth chuckled when he looked towards Harvey Dent. He pointed the moth gun at him.

"Harvey Dent, always trying to be the white knight crusader you think the city deserves," Killer Moth said, responding with a very obvious tut.

"Someone needs to protect the city….."

Killer Moth released one of his moth balls from the glove. The sticky material wrapped around Harvey Dent and caused him to gasp in pain. Killer Moth stood over Harvey and planted the foot down onto the man's chest.

"I think the city does need protecting," Killer Moth said. "It needs protecting from politicians….."

The sound of people scrambling away from the room caused Killer Moth to stand up. He turned away for a second.

The material fit snugly around his body. Harvey's breathing escalated to a point where the material almost crushed him. He closed his eyes and shifted about a half of an inch to the side. The knife he had in his pocket allowed him to slowly cut out of his pocket.

Killer Moth watched his moths swarm. He took a second to consider what he wanted to do before it all came to him.

"I wouldn't be bothered," Killer Moth said. "They're nothing but Gotham City high society trash. They'll have their day. This is your big night, Mr. Dent."

Killer Moth paced around in a circle and had gone under the impression Harvey was trapped. He very nearly cut through the cocoon wrapping around his body.

"Yes, it's time!" Killer Moth yelled. "Time for you to see the consequences of your….."

Harvey decided now was the time to pounce on in. He dove on top of Killer Moth in an attempt to wrestle him down to the ground. The two men struggled and for a second, Harvey Dent almost had gotten the super villain down.

Killer Moth reached for his moth gun. Dent slammed him back first into the wall and disarmed the weapon from him.

"I don't know who you think you are!" Dent said.

The large moth returned more dangerous than ever before and pulled Dent away from his master. Dent had been hoisted up off of the ground. The prospective district attorney's attempts to break free had gone in vein.

"You don't know who I am?" Killer Moth asked. "I'm not surprised. You say you're full the people in Gotham City, but you had to stand a lot of extremely dangerous people on your way to the top, didn't you?"

Harvey Dent crashed down onto the ground one more time. Dent pulled himself to a standing position. Killer Moth pointed the moth gun at his head.

"One wrong move, Mr. Dent, and that good head you pride having on your shoulders, you won't have it any more," Killer Moth said. "Providing my little friend doesn't have you as an appetizer first."

Harvey looked up with contempt. He would stand up with pride despite his ribs aching something fierce. The District Attorney candidate almost rose up one more time, and collapsed down to the ground.

"Good, Mr. Dent, you can see it, can't you?" Killer Moth asked. "You can see what's going to happen with you in the not so distant future?"

"I can see you're completely out of your mind," Harvey replied.

The gun pointed at Harvey's head. Harvey realized one more click and it would be game over.

"I'm sure you want to see the face of the man's life you ruined before he ends yours."

Two more of the moths found themselves into moisture and started to expand several times their current massage. Harvey could see them looking at him. They weren't like any moths he had ever seen with sharp fangs, glowing eyes, and claw like arms, six of them. They proved to be absolutely grotesque.

"Look at me, Harvey!" Killer Moth yelled. "LOOK AT ME!"

The scream coming from Killer Moth showed how positively frantic he was. Harvey almost sat up to face Killer Moth. Killer Moth placed a foot down on Harvey's chest and forced him down to the ground. The mask slipped off.

Harvey Dent came face to face with a rather unremarkable looking man.

"Who….I'm sorry, you're not…."

"So, you really don't care about ruining my life!" Killer Moth yelled. "Good, because I don't care about ending yours."

The Moth Gun had been knocked out of Killer Moth's hand before he could fire. The criminal turned around and noticed a figure standing into the shadows.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are!" Killer Moth yelled. "Sniff them out my pets."

His moth gun started to spark, but given these creatures, Killer Moth thought it didn't matter. He had pretty much everything one could ever dream of. The army at his disposal would bring Gotham City to their knees.

* * *

 

Adrenaline pumped through the body of Barbara Gordon. She had been a part of this many times, from the other end of a bond link or a communication link. She watched the battle unfold from the other side more than a few times. It caused her a fair amount of excitement every single last time it happened.

Being on the other end of the bond link as an observer and actually seeing things unfold from a first person perspective were two different things. The room had been cleared out. Barbara, still dressed in her Batgirl costume, could see the entire situation unfold around her.

She poked her head back in time to see Harvey Dent down on the ground about ready to be blasted away.

' _Drastic times call for drastic actions,'_ Barbara thought.

She withdrew an item from her belt and flung it as hard as it could. The toys were not just for decoration and Killer Moth had been nailed. The Moth Ray flew directly out of his hand and landed on the ground with a solid crunch.

Killer Moth started to scan the area around him. A frown flickered over the face of the criminal with Barbara standing back, pressing her back against the wall.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Killer Moth said, gun pointed into the shadows. "I'm not playing around, I really am not playing around. You come out and play, or I will blow you away."

Killer Moth sang this demented little tune and waited one more time. He pointed his gun only to find it stuck up.

Harvey Dent finally passed out from the pain in the distance. This allowed Batgirl to step out into the shadows.

Killer Moth's mouth hung open a moment later. He recovered quickly enough to spit out a few words.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Killer Moth asked.

Barbara decided to get into character by throwing her hands down onto her hips and striking one of the more heroic poses she could manage.

"Someone who is going to bring you down," she said.

Killer Moth started to laugh. Someone dressed in this type of costume laughing at her made Barbara frown deeply and extremely hard. The buzzing above her showed her Killer Moth was going to end up laughing at her for an extremely good reason.

"Oh, you're going to bring me down?" he asked in a sing-song voice. "I think not, Batgirl!"

Barbara thought the name was going to stick regardless of her best intentions. If she were perfectly honest, it started to grow on her a little bit.

Thoughts of a codename had been put on the back burner when several large moth creatures started to buzz around them. There were only one of them the last time Barbara had saw and there were only three of them.

"My pets, show her why we don't like interlopers!"

"Think you have room for two more?"

Harry and Kara entered the room, dressed as Nightwing and Flamebird. Killer Moth decided to throw himself underneath the table to repair his moth ray.

One of the moths went directly towards Nightwing. Nightwing used his skills to dodge around the path of the moth before it could smash into him. The moth averted it's attack over to the other end and went directly towards him.

Flamebird engaged moth number two. She pulled out a grenade and flung it into the air. The impact caused the moth to fly back into the wall. The moth only had been stunned a little bit. It spit something at Flamebird.

She had no idea what flew out of this giant moth's mouth. Only she was pretty sure she would not like it. Flamebird pulled herself down onto the ground.

' _Don't get them near any moisture,'_ Harry thought. _'Any of the small ones especially which are still hovering around.'_

Kara pulled out a net and rounded some of the small ones up. The small ones had been trapped and were unable to be annoyance or better yet, grow into this monstrocities.

Batgirl bent down and picked up Harvey Dent. Harvey's eyes opened up and started to grumble.

"Who are you?" Harvey asked.

"A figment of your concussion," Batgirl said in a half-distracted voice. "Don't worry, it's going to be okay."

Harvey was going to take her word for it. Something about her voice sounded familiar. Was it one of the party goers or yet another vigilante he hadn't bother to keep track of? His ringing head prevented any level of rational thought to be perfectly honest.

Killer Moth rose to his feet to block them. One could almost hear the frustrated sigh spilling out of Batgirl's mouth when she stared face to face with this criminal.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Batgirl yelled.

"I don't kid, and I won't!" Killer Moth yelled.

Killer Moth repaired his moth gun and fired it at Batgirl. The charge only caused half of the stick fluid to pop out! The fluid splattered Batgirl in the face and all over her costume.

Batgirl realized she had not been blown away and rushed over to grab Killer Moth. She pushed him hard against the wall. The intention to pound him senseless entered Barbara's mind and she gritted her teeth.

The third moth creature had been unaccounted for though and it swooped down to pluck Barbara off of his master.

"Yes, take her out boy!" Killer Moth yelled. "Rip her to shreds!"

Barbara closed her eyes and could feel her costume start to melt away as well. She would not only be dead, but she would be naked and dead.

Reaching into her glove, Barbara tried for one more last ditch effort. A concealed taser had been removed from her glove and it stabbed directly into the underbelly of the creature. The jolt of electricity forced him down onto the ground.

Barbara flew back to the ground, having been knocked breathless. She watched the electricity course through the creature. Flamebird walked over towards her.

"Stand still!"

She adjusted her watch and took a deep breath. The fluids had been blown off of her body, only having eaten off of her costume. On the bright side, it made her face clear and smooth, which was an interesting, if unexplainable side effect.

' _Electricity, they are vulnerable to electricity,'_ Barbara thought urgently.

' _Right, we can take care of that, you take down Killer Moth,'_ Kara thought.

Barbara smiled and only had two words to give Kara in the bond link. _'With pleasure.'_

Killer Moth raised his arms into the air in triumph and made his way to the downed Harvey Dent. Batgirl jumped in front of him and kicked the gun out of his hand once again!

"You just won't give up, will you?" Killer Moth asked. He reached into his costume to pull out one of his moth balls and try and fire it at Batgirl. She dodged out of the way. "Well, fine, I'll bring you down, my pets….."

One of those pets had been knocked out of the open window by Flamebird. He connected with a powerline at full force and the energy coursed through him. He shrank down to a more standard form before exploding into a ball of puss and disgust.

Flamebird smiled and saw Nightwing had the last one in hand. He dodged underneath the spit and bombarded him with an energy ball created from his suit. The creature started to shake madly before he started to shrink.

"My pets, what have you done to them?" Killer Moth demanded. He rushed Nightwing.

Nightwing lifted one hand up and nailed Killer Moth with one solid punch to the face. The criminal crumpled down onto the ground in the most comical manner possible. Nightwing used one of his moth balls and bound him up.

' _If that isn't poetic justice, I don't know what is,'_ Barbara thought.

' _GCPD coming,'_ Sarah thought, warning them over the bond link.

' _Right, it means it's time to make ourselves fairly scarce,'_ Harry thought, escaping through the side entrance.

* * *

 

James Gordon lead the charge per usual. The first thing he saw was a downed Harvey Dent slumped against the wall. The same man who yelled at him about a half of an hour ago to get everyone out and then get back up. He looked like he had bene wrecked.

"Harvey?" Gordon asked. "Harvey!"

"Ugh, I heard you the first time, Jim," Harvey said, pushing himself to standing position. He could barely stand without being dizzied so he slumped down onto the chair and took a heavy deep breath. "And now my head is aching…"

"Maybe you should get to the hospital," Gordon said.

"Nah, a couple of nights good rest, I'll be fine," Harvey said. "Guess, I've got the election in the bag now."

He only said this half in jest. He wasn't intending to be a hero out there, but the opportunity presented itself. The man who he attacked him put a lot of people in danger. He intended to be the District Attorney in Gotham City to keep these people out of danger. This was a job Harvey took really seriously and he wasn't going to back down in any way whatsoever. Even if it did cause him a great danger to his mental health and well-being.

Harvey found himself questioning whether or not his mental health already took a direct hit out there from going out there and fighting some man with a dangerous weapon and also killer moths.

Bullock and Montoya made their way inside. They really kicked themselves from missing the invitation to this party right about there. Sarah Essen and Ellen Yin followed a few feet behind them, and there were a lot of people who would be about ready to join the party.

"Looks like we're here to be the cleanup crew," Bullock said in his usual gruff tone and shook his head. "Lucky us, we get the fun stuff."

They opened the door and could see the man lay perfectly still. He was wrapped in some kind of sticky white substance which caused him to not be able to move.

"You got to get me out of here, before it crushes me to death!" Killer Moth begged.

"Oh, you poor thing, about ready to get crushed to death after you invaded a high class party with killer moths and tried to kill a political candidate," Bullock said. The man's sympathy sounded to be in very low supply for him.

Montoya took pity on Killer Moth for a moment. She walked over, retracting a knife and cut him out. Any attempt to be thanked was cut off when it had been replaced by a pair of handcuffs which snapped over his body.

"Let's see what ugly mug is behind this mask," Bullock said. He tugged on the mask and removed it to reveal the face underneath. Bullock frowned with zero recognition. "No one in particular."

"How dare you, you donut sucking buffoon!" Killer Moth yelled. "I was more relevant than you ever will be."

"Yeah, and now you're prancing around in a Halloween costume, talking to bugs," Bullock said. "Guess you took a bit of a dip down the relevancy scale, didn't you, pal?"

They marched the unmasked and disgraced Killer Moth out of the room. Killer Moth stopped and went face to face with Harvey Dent in the hallway. Harvey responded with a frown, staring down Killer Moth for a long moment.

"You put me away for seven years when you were a punk attorney and caused me to lose everything!" Killer Moth yelled. Harvey stared at Killer Moth for a couple of moments and this caused Moth to slowly lose his mind. "Drury Walker….you busted me for an extortion scheme….my partners sold me out and cut a deal….and you nailed me to the wall hard, because I was the only one you could nail to the wall!

Harvey responded with a frown. Moments passed before it all slowly came back to him. It had been a long time ago.

"Yes, well you're going back to where you've come from," Dent said, eyes locked onto Walker. "Take him away."

Drury Walker had been lead out of the door. Bullock turned from one side to the other and looked back at him. He picked up the mask and shoved it back on his face.

"You know, you look a lot better with this on."

Harvey almost staggered, feeling a little bit dizzy in the process. He managed to hold his head up in time to prevent himself from falling over. The man took a deep breath and situated himself in a standing position.

The door swung open and the one and only Harry Potter made his way back in. Veronica followed closely behind him, with Sapphire, and Kara also leading the way. Rachel and Bruce stepped a few feet behind them.

"Harvey, are you alright?" Rachel asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, my head's a little sore, just got to take a couple of asprin, walk it off, and I'll be fine," Harvey said.

"Glad to hear it," Bruce said.

Bruce would have been in the thick of things. He helped Harry and the girls with crowd control, before Harry disappeared to do the Nightwing thing. It was rather amusing in some ways he changed from Nightwing to Batman. Then again, it would have done nothing to discourage the rumors if people were around.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't expect something like this to happen," Veronica said. She took in a deep breath and frowned. "And I really should have expected something like this to happen. I mean, we're in the depths of Gotham City, with all of the insanity."

"It's fine," Harvey said. "No one got hurt….."

"Other than you," Harry said.

Harvey took a smile. He had been used to taking hits to protect people. It caused him to reflect back to his childhood, but those were things which were best left buried.

"Yes, other than me," Harvey said, shaking it off. "I have to thank you and your girls for making sure everyone got out, with that mad man. Who knows what he would have done if…help hadn't arrived."

Harvey barely had a chance to process all of the chaos. Everything occurred so quickly.

"No one was hurt," Kara said. "A few valuables were lost but….that's for the insurance companies to deal with."

Harvey moved forward. Now the adrenaline had worn off, his ribs started to ache. He almost collapsed down to the ground. Rachel and Bruce held him up before he fell.

"You're visiting a hospital now," Rachel said in a firm voice which left no room for argument.

"Gilda…is she….."

"She's fine, she had to get sedated, but fine," Rachel said. "The security is with her now….I'll call her when you're in the hospital and get the medical attention you need."

The woman showed why she was a strong acting district attorney by leaving no room for negotiation. Harvey's gaze turned towards Bruce, as if asking him for assistance of some sort. Bruce smiled and patted Harvey on the shoulder.

James walked from the room and turned his full attention to Harry. A frown crossed over his face.

"Barbara left with Dinah," Harry said. "She's perfectly safe right now at the Penthouse, in fact she might be giving you a call right about now."

As if on cue, Gordon's cell phone rang and he moved off to take care of it. The others could handle Killer Moth now he lost all of his toys and his pets. He was just a pathetic man in an extremely pathetic costume.

Harry turned his attention towards Kara and both of them had the same thought, at almost the exact same time.

' _What a night.'_

* * *

 

An entire civilization had been saved by the crew on the Interceptor, even though the planet had been destroyed. You win some, you lose some, it was the nature of the game to be perfectly. Carol piloted the ship. Sinestra sat in the background. Katma had been in the back of the ship, checking over their prisoner.

Sinestra had not been one for conversation, so Carol had been flying in silence. They needed to figure out their next move and the best way to do this was to look for any clusters of Green Lanterns.

"We have an incoming transmission from Oa," Aya said. "Do you want me to put it on?"

Sinestra and Carol locked eyes and tried to figure out how to determine how to do this without communicating. The two of them nodded.

"Put it on," Sinestra said.

Carol's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. Sinestra tipped herself back in the chair and waited for the lecture which is to come.

"What is the meaning of this?" the voice of one of the Guardians demanded. "Green Lantern Sinestra, we thought you had known better than this."

"I took an oath for a good reason," Sinestra said. "And I intend to uphold this oath, no matter what the Guardians think. And I think you all have lost sight of the purpose of the Green Lanterns."

"Now listen here…this is more complicated than it is…"

"Only because you're making it complicated," Carol said.

"Green Lantern Carol Danvers of Sector 2814, you're on, as the people on your planet would say, thin ice," one of the Guardians said in a cold and hostile voice. "I would not test us."

Sinestra turned for a moment and gave Carol one of those expressions which plainly told her Sinestra could handle this. Carol responded with a shrug, leaning back to allow Sinestra to handle this, for better or for worse.

"My charge may have been brazen, but she does raise an excellent point," Sinestra said. "The only reason this entire situation is complicated is because the Guardians of Oa have chosen to withhold information. The death of the Frontier Lanterns pose a problem."

"It's not your concern to deal with," the Guardian answered in an extremely crisp tone of voice. "I would suggest you turn back. You are already facing an inquiry regarding stealing a high level ship with an experimental artificial intelligence."

Carol had grown rather agitated by hearing the drivel which spilled out of the mouths of the Guardians of Oa. She decided to take some drastic action to prevent this conversation from escalating on any further.

"I'm sorry, but we're experiencing some difficulities, I think the communication is breaking up," Carol said. She adjusted a knob.

"No, the communication is perfectly….."

The sound of static had gone over the system and the Guardians had been silenced. Sinestra turned her attention back towards Carol. A shadow of a smile, almost something close to approval, filled over Sinestra's face.

"Something tells me I'm going to regret doing that later," Carol said.

"It is all down to the success of this mission," Sinestra said. "This is far bigger than we can imagine, and what the Guardians could even imagine."

"Why are they so intent of preventing us from investigating?" Carol asked. "They don't even acknowledge the fact the Red Lanterns exist."

Sinestra allowed herself to sigh in frustration. Explaining intergalactic politics to a rookie ended up being the most frustrating things the senior Green Lantern had been tasked to go. Mostly because there were times where she could just barely wrap her head around the logic the Guardians used. The woman frowned and decided to give it a good and solid try, figuring there wasn't much left to lose.

"They won't want to acknowledge it," Sinestra agreed. "The reasons for doing so are numerous, and they're not going to come out with the answer. They may have made a bad mistake which is coming back to haunt us."

"Surely they would want to give us the head's up?" Carol asked.

Sinestra frowned and turned towards the woman. The two of them stared each other down for a minute.

"The Guardians are nothing like your Earth governments," Sinestra said without missing a beat.

"The Guardians seem like the type of people who withhold information which should be given to the people, for their own benefits," Carol said. She took a moment to consider something and frowned. "They're more like our Earth governments than we could think."

Sinestra decided it would be pretty much futile to have this argument right now. The doors slid open and Katma walked out. She frowned and one could see the frustration on her face.

"Any luck with our guest?" Carol asked.

"She's pretty belligerent and demands to be let out of her cell," Katma said. "Then again, given her husband was killed in an attack on her planet, she has plenty of anger to spare. It made her a prime target for the Red Lanterns."

"Detach yourself from any sympathy," Sinestra said. "She's a prisoner, and a Red Lantern. The moment she slipped on the ring, she forfeited any chance of sympathy she would have from me."

Carol gave Sinestra one of those looks as if she couldn't believe what came out of her mouth. Sinestra blinked and said nothing.

"You know, you're all heart," Carol said. "Surely you understand there are circumstances….."

"I do not wish to have this discussion," Sinestra said.

A moment passed between the two of them. Carol could tell already anything she said would go in one ear and out of the other. She practically had to twist Sinestra's arm to get her to agree with bringing the prisoner over in the first place.

"When she's cleared, I want to speak with her," Sinestra said in a firm voice which left absolutely no room for argument.

Perhaps it was just Carol, but there was a part of her which thought this might not have been the best idea in the world. Regardless, she had no choice.

"Yes," Katma said. "I'll keep you posted."

* * *

 

Harry sat in the lab. Barbara had changed out of what was left of her costume, wearing a tank top and short shorts. She sat to Harry's right to keep him company. Pamela sat to his left, just coming off of a long session with Woodrue, where they didn't accomplish anything. Therefore she wore a professional blouse and pants combination.

"So, what do you have so far?" Pamela asked.

"The mutagen he used to create these things were a combination of house hold products," Harry said. "Everyday house hold parties, which went mixed together in the right quantities, could be extremely powerful."

"You're kidding, right?" Barbara asked.

"I wish I was," Harry said, with a smile. One could see despite the smile on his face, a certain amount of seriousness passed through his eyes.

Harry drew in a deep breath and continued to research the remains of the moth monster. He also had a sample of the substance he splattered onto Barbara.

"Thankfully the damage you did to his moth gun prevented it from being as strong as it could have been," Harry said. He took the sample to look at it later. "Or he did on purpose create something which could eat through clothes and can be used as a highly effect acne cream."

"Your skin is a lot softer," Pamela said, caressing Barbara's face with a smile.

Barbara hated the implication her skin wasn't soft before. She thought though Pamela had a bit of a point. She allowed herself a moment to sigh.

"So, he's pretty dangerous, if not a bit bent, and intelligent as well, despite the stupid costume," Barbara said. "And the glass jaw as well, you can't forget the glass jaw."

"Trust me, my fist wouldn't forget it," Harry said.

Barbara made her unofficial debut as Batgirl tonight. She really didn't know what to think about it. No doubt, Harry and Kara could critique her, and she was sure Dinah, despite only observing from afar, would give her some feedback from afar.

"It's a real shame the costume had been destroyed," Harry said.

"Yes, it's nothing, but a few tattered pieces of fabric," Barbara said, shrugging in response. "Oh well, put in a case, put it in a museum, and a hundred years from now where Batgirl's famous, it will be a collectors item."

Pamela raised her eyebrow.

"Well, I guess since Batwoman is already taken, it works about as well as anything else," Pamela said. "Still, I'm sure with enough time you can think of a something a bit less….I don't know….."

"Sidekicky?" Barbara asked.

"Is that even a word?" Pamela asked.

"It is now," Barbara said. "Besides, the entire Batgirl name kind of stuck. It's growing on me, slowly. It took a while, but it is really growing on me."

Pamela would have to take Barbara's word for it. It would not be a moniker she would have chosen if she had the choice. The choice had been taken out of her hands.

"Mercifully there were no casualties in the attack by Killer Moth on the charity ball sponsored by District Attorney Candidate Harvey Dent. And in other news, notorious mobster Salvatore Maroni's parole hearing is scheduled for next week."

Harry frowned when he listened to this particular interesting bit of news. Barbara's eyes locked onto him.

"Yes, it looks like he's going to be getting out soon," Barbara said.

Harry figured just as much. The moment after Maroni renewed his partnership with Falcone, Harry figured it was only going to be a matter of time before he would be out. With the Maronis back in full power, things might be a bit more challenging. There wasn't a doubt in Harry's mind this proved to be a cold and bitter winter.

' _They've buried the hatchet,'_ Harry thought. _'Although not in each other's heads, at least not just yet.'_

' _That might still be to come,'_ Barbara thought.

Harry figured she might be right. This was one situation where he would have to deal with it as it happened. The parole hearing next week would be a worthy one to keep a close eye on.

"Time to turn in for the night," Harry said.

Pamela smiled and she and Barbara helped Harry put away. The three of them walked towards Pamela's bedroom.

"You've had a fairly active evening, haven't you?" Pamela asked.

"One could say that," Harry said.

"And I've had another stressful day at work," Pamela said.

Pamela and Harry didn't need to say much more. Harry wrapped his arms around Pamela and swept her back with an intense kiss. Their lips met together in the middle.

Barbara watched the display between the two of them. Frustration shined through the face of the woman. She tapped her foot.

"You know, I feel like I'm not getting enough attention here," Barbara said with a mock pout.

"Sorry," Pamela said, letting go from Harry. "Our mistake."

Pamela wrapped her arms around Barbara and gave her another kiss. Their tongues worked together with hunger for one another. They made sure their eyes had been locked onto Harry.

Harry's pants tightened a little bit and he decided it was best he tried and fix that little problem. He undid his belt to allow himself room to breath.

Speaking of room to breathe, Pamela slowly unbuttoned her work blouse to reveal her firm breasts encased in a lacy green bra.

"I know what you really want, honey."

Barbara buried her face between Pamela's bra covered tits. The older redhead held Barbara's head into place.

"Let's give you a bit better access," Pamela said.

Pamela unclipped the green bra she wore and revealed her breasts. They felt so warm and soft, and inviting pressed against Barbara's face. She just had to bury her face between them and start suckling them.

A pair of eager hands started to remove her pants and also pull down her panties. Harry stood behind her.

"Go ahead, join in on the fun," Pamela said, closing her eyes.

Pamela didn't know what else to think. Barbara's able mouth wrapped around her nipple and started to suck on it and suck on it hard. The redhead made sure Barbara had full access to her chest as she ran her fingers down her stomach and started to remove Pamela's pants.

Harry smiled and decided it would be quite frankly rude for him not to join in on the fun. He parted Barbara's thighs and started to work his fingers deep between them. He could feel her dripping pussy. The juices flowed down and Harry pressed his mouth against her lips to get a good dose.

"Mmm, Harry, fucking suck on that pussy!" Barbara yelled, practically panting with pure bliss in her tone. Her nipples hardened. "Actually sounds like a good idea."

Barbara finished worshipping the upper half of Pamela's body, before worshipping the lower half. Her panties pealed back to reveal Pamela's dripping womanhood. Barbara pushed her tongue deep inside Pamela and started to trace patterns.

"Barbara!" Pamela yelled. She hoisted her hips back up to meet her tongue.

Barbara rose to the challenge and drove her tongue inside Pamela's dripping hot womanhood. The two redheads enjoyed their fun.

Pamela laid back on the bed, and could feel the vibrations coming from Barbara's throat. It became extremely obvious in the most pleasurable way Harry ate her to an intense orgasm.

Harry smiled and had his cock out, hardened. Barbara's dripping wet passage had been prepared for his manhood. Harry pushed his aching prick against the edge of her and slid deep inside her.

Barbara moaned heavily when Harry's thick cock found its home into her womanhood. Harry held onto her hips and pushed deep inside her. The young man thrust back and forth inside of her, which caused her to gasp and moan.

"Drive it into her!" Pamela begged him. "Oh, that's so hot, it's very, very, very hot!"

Harry decided to oblige Barbara and Pamela. His hands extended down to hold Barbara's breasts and cup them in his hands. He started to push into her.

Barbara's entire world swarmed with pleasured between Harry thrusting inside her and Pamela's pussy juices into her mouth. Her body tensed up and wrapped hard around Harry's aching prick the more he forced himself inside her.

"Oh, this is a great ride," Harry grunted, pushing his manhood deep inside Barbara.

His palms pressed against the breasts of the redhead. Harry slid all the way down her body, and pushed inside her in tune with his thrusting. Another huge thrust brought Barbara closer to an orgasm.

"Drive yourself into her, yes, that's the spot right there!" Pamela yelled.

Harry pumped his way into Barbara's tight channel. His balls throbbed and threatened to unleash their load deep within Barbara's dripping hot twat. He held onto her and kept working into her.

Orgasm after orgasm had been driven into Barbara. She tried to focus on eating Pamela's sweat pussy. Her tongue swirled around the edge of it. Hunger danced through Barbara's body.

"Oh, you're such a good pussy eater!" Pamela yelled.

Barbara went down on Pamela with lust burning through her eyes. The combination of Harry fucking her and Pamela's sweet pussy caused the brainy redhead's loins to be set on fire.

Harry pushed deep inside her and rode out another orgasm. A throbbing sensation rose throughout Harry's balls. He plunged deep inside her womanhood with a long and powerful thrust. The contents of his balls edged closer to spilling into her.

"I'm going to cum," Harry said. "But, lady's first."

Barbara couldn't respond with a snappy retort. Harry's plowed deep inside her body. Her wet walls had been given a proper stretching as her body tensed. The orgasm was almost at hand with the deep and powerful thrusting Harry had gave her.

Harry closed his eyes and enjoyed the ride. The British gentleman spilled the contents of his balls into Barbara's body. Several long bursts of cum shot deep inside her body with a pair of long thrusts. It spilled inside her body.

Both of them saw stars and Harry pulled his way from Barbara's body. Barbara rolled over in time for Pamela to spread her legs.

"You want a piece of this, don't you, baby?" Pamela asked.

The sultry redhead rubbed her pussy lips. This combined with biting down on her lip made Harry hover over her pussy. Harry jammed his re-hardened cock deep inside Pamela's dripping threat.

Pamela raised her hips up the moment Harry plowed deep into her womanhood. She held onto Harry, wrapping her soft legs around him.

"Mmm, yes, feels so good."

"You always feel so good," Harry said, grabbing Pamela's breasts and using them for leverage.

Harry smashed himself down onto Pamela's body. Her firm breasts pressed against his chest. The redhead closed her eyes the more Harry plowed deep inside her He started to thrust deep inside her body.

Barbara turned over to the side and watched Harry's large cock appear and disappear. Pamela's pussy reclaimed the thick manhood. He pushed inside her.

"Don't just sit there," Pamela said, reaching over to lazily finger Barbara's pussy.

Barbara allowed Pamela's finger to work her over the edge. A wicked smile crossed over the face of the lovely Miss Gordon.

"Fine, I won't sit here," Barbara said. "I'll sit right there."

Barbara rose up to her feet and sat directly on top of Pamela's face. Pamela had to open her mouth to breath. She received some of Harry's cum mixed with Barbara. The swirl and combination of the top allowed Pamela to start pumping her hips further up to meet Harry's thrusts.

"This is so hot!" Harry said.

Barbara would have to agree. Pamela's tongue deep inside her felt amazing. She returned the favor from earlier and with style, more style than Barbara could imagine. Her hips started to rock up and down on Pamela's face. Pamela buried her face between Barbara's thighs and munched on her wet, dripping hot pussy.

"Oh, yes, right there, this is a good spot!" Barbara yelled.

"I think she wants to cum," Harry said.

The heat pulsing between Pamela's walls prompted Harry to raise up and plow deep inside her body. The dripping wet sheath pushed around Harry's invading cock. He pushed in and plowed out of her. Each thrust brought himself deeper into Pamela's wet and inviting loins.

"Well, let her cum," Barbara said.

Pamela's wet walls continued to caress his hard manhood. He pumped deep inside her body with a long and powerful thrust. The contents of his balls were at her door. She lifted up to invite it in.

The ripple effect of Pamela's orgasm caused Harry to drive into her hard. Her breasts bounced from Harry plowing deep inside her. Harry held onto her with a long and powerful thrust inside the depths of her body.

Barbara in response pushed herself down onto Pamela's waiting mouth. Pamela's tongue shoved deep inside Barbara's hungry pussy.

Both of the redheads came at the same time which gave Harry a jolt of pleasure. He responded by giving even more pleasure to start hammering away at Pamela's pussy.

"Oh, you're really making her scream," Barbara said. "I'm not sure if I can handle this much more."

Harry decided to test the upper limits of what Barbara could handle. A pair of invisible hands started to caress Barbara's breasts. Barbara closed her eyes the moment Harry started to caress her hard nipples.

"More of this Harry!" Barbara begged him. "More of this!"

Harry wasn't about to deny Barbara any level of pleasure. His hands caressed Barbara's breasts from the other side. He squeezed them to allow the pleasure to explode through her body.

Speaking of pleasure, Harry worked his way closer towards the end. His throbbing balls filled up with cum. Pamela's pussy enveloped him and threatened to milk him dry.

A jolt spread through Pamela's loins when Harry shoved himself inside her. Harry grabbed onto Pamela's hips and kept rocking his throbbing manhood into her body. His balls swelled up and threatened to bury his cum into her.

One more thrust proved to bring Harry to the edge. He pumped his load inside Pamela's waiting pussy.

Pamela came one more time before Harry finished planting his seed inside her. The woman's pussy had been pumped into see, so much it already started to ooze out of her the moment before Harry planted himself into her.

Barbara also collapsed from a satisfying orgasm. The three of them saw stars from their mutual rise and fall.

"We should do this more often."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on June 11** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Killer Moth makes his debut and gets taken down. Batgirl makes her debut, although it's more of a trial run. Oh, and in the B-Plot, the Guardians are jerks, but that's nothing new._

_Maroni getting a parole hearing is a cause for concern._

_See you on Saturday._


	195. Risen Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Five: Risen Part One.**

* * *

Barbara had a few hours of sleep to think about the events of the previous evening. She decided to join Harry for a nice cup of coffee. They made their way to the café a little bit away from the Penthouse. There was lot of cafes in Gotham City. Barbara changed into a sweatshirt and jeans, to meet Harry who wore his usual stylish shirt and pants combination.

The redhead hoped after last night they would have a rather subdued Halloween. She could tell in an instant from Harry's stance he wasn't thinking along so these lines.

"So, are you okay?" Barbara asked.

"All Hallow's Eve just puts me on edge," Harry said.

Barbara answered in a nod. This was the day where his mother had been put into a coma for about ten years and his father had been killed. Several other incidents of note happened at the Private School Harry attended during his time. Halloween always tended to be a day which held a certain significance to Harry for obvious reason.

"Oh, I understand," Barbara said. "Given all of what's happened, I can really understand."

She spoke in a pretty somber tone of voice. Harry slid back in the chair and reached forward to put a hand down onto Barbara's. The emerald-eyed young man's eyes flashed onto her.

"It's not just what happened," Harry said. "It's just a feeling in the air….there are two times of the year where I get this feeling deeper than others. On this day, and on the rare times where Friday the Thirteenth has happened."

Barbara took a moment to breath in and breath out. The last Friday the Thirteenth and the incident involving the Scarecrow and Wanda settled into her mind.

' _Indeed, I'd prefer to forget about it,'_ Wanda thought.

' _Yet, you still remember it, don't you?'_ Amanda asked.

A long moment paused when Wanda threw her head back with a sigh. She was glad to be near a support network. The enchanting woman shared Harry's feelings there was something really off in the air.

' _What do you think it is, though?'_ Donna asked.

' _I can't explain what it is,'_ Harry thought. _'It's just one of those things which are. Just close your eyes and concentrate on what is going around on you. And you'll see it.'_

Donna took a moment to close her eyes and breathed in deeply. She could see it just as well as anyone else. This Halloween put everyone on high alert.

' _Just try and relax,'_ Harry thought. _'We're going to get through this though.'_

Harry wondered if he was reassuring himself or everyone else. He booked his day full to keep himself distracted from the uneasiness.

Barbara and Harry were not alone for very long. The door swung open and Dinah made her way in. She dressed in a white tank top, a black leather jacket, and a pair of form fitting tight jeans. The older of the two Lance sisters parked herself down across from Barbara and Harry. She caught a glimpse at Harry for a few seconds.

"Are you alright?" Dinah asked.

Harry smiled. He could tell Dinah had only been half paying attention to the conversation. The young man flashed a nice smile towards her, looking straight into her blue eyes.

"I'm about as well as you can expect," Harry said, leaning closer towards her. "I just have a lot on my plate."

Barbara shifted a moment. To give herself something to do, Barbara took a long bite from the pie which had been served up on the table.

"Okay, Dinah, get it out," Barbara said, leaning back for a moment. She stared towards her older sister figure. "How badly did I do out there?"

"You did fine out there, Barbara," Dinah said. Barbara raised her eyebrow. "Okay, there's always room for improvement, and there were a couple of times where I would have done something differently, but overall, you did fine. Especially for an impromptu and unplanned debut."

Barbara took a moment to nod in response.

"So, are you willing to make it a full time thing?" Dinah asked.

Barbara took a moment to lean back and close her eyes. She heard the girls at breakfast before she ran out. They were talking about how Batgirl kicked ass at the party. Which was strange given none of them were there. Barbara had to admit she had been bitten by the bug a little bit.

"You know, I just might," Barbara said. "But, not for a few more months, unless you're really short handed and need some help. I want to work out the kinks out of my training."

"Not as much as Harry and Pam helped work the kinks out of you last night," Dinah said.

Barbara folded her arms underneath her chest and looked towards Dinah with a smile. The blonde leaned across the table and kissed her on the lips in response. A couple of people watched, and Harry was amused.

' _The two of you can be too much sometimes,'_ Donna thought.

' _Thanks, we try our best,'_ Barbara thought with a mocking bow.

' _You're my sister's hero, at least for this morning,'_ Donna thought. _'Diana and I might have answered some questions briefly.'_

Barbara almost wanted to be a fly on the wall during this particular conversation. Another part of her just thought there was nothing which would beat what went through her mind. She allowed her imagination to run wild to be honest.

' _So, Batgirl's million dollar debut last night went rather well,'_ Kara thought.

' _Lois and Rebecca are also impressed,'_ Donna thought. _'If only they knew it was you, they would lose their mind.'_

Barbara smiled. She took a long drink from the coffee. This really was something to think about. Both Dinah and Harry looked Barbara in the eye. Something was bothering her and Harry nudged her.

' _Well, I think we should improve my costume so it doesn't melt next time,'_ Barbara thought. _'That was embarrassing.'_

' _It could have gone worse,'_ Kara thought.

Barbara smiled; it always could have gone worse. Harry placed a hand down onto Barbara's and got her attention.

' _I have a few ideas, if you want to hear it,'_ Harry thought.

' _Oh believe me, I'm all ears.'_

* * *

Breakfast went through rather nice. Dinah and Barbara were going to spend the day together before returning mid-day for a sparring session where Dinah would give Barbara a more detailed critique. Harry figured after last night, he would have to check in with the women who put together the event Killer Moth attacked. Kathy, Sapphire, and Veronica were at one of the more high class hang out spots in Gotham City.

Veronica bounced up to her feet and saw Harry approach them. She dove towards him with a smile, wrapping her arms firmly around his waist. She leaned closer and gave him a nice kiss on the lips. The two of them broke apart and Sapphire almost practically nudged Veronica off to the side to take her place next to Harry. Harry smiled and pulled her into position for both of them to enjoy the moment with each other.

"So, glad everyone is here in one piece," Sapphire said, taking Veronica's face and giving Harry a long kiss on the lips.

Veronica smiled, Sapphire's competitive spirit showed how much she really wanted to outdo her. Veronica let her do it, competition was rather heavy for them all, at least in Veronica's mind. The two kissed for a good long moment before breaking apart.

"All things considered," Harry said, taking a half of a step back to give himself some room to breathe. "This entire party ended a bit better for me."

"No windows to know you out of," Kathy said. She smiled and leaned towards Harry, giving him a hand shake and leaning towards him. She caught him with a brief kiss on her cheek. "So, how are you doing?"

"Fine, all things considered," Harry said.

"Did you hear anything about Harvey's condition?" Veronica asked. "I feel bad that nutcase was able to get through with even past all of the security I put in place."

Harry reached on in and gave Veronica a fairly consoling squeeze on the shoulder. The redhead smiled in response. Harry leaned closer towards her.

"I wouldn't beat yourself over it too much," Harry said. "It just proves there's no such thing as too secure. And I think in the end, everything worked out. It's pretty much cemented Harvey is going to win, barring some last minute revelation about him."

"What are the chances of someone digging up some dirt about him?" Sapphire asked.

Harry answered with a shrug. He was pretty certain there was always a chance. Harry didn't quite know what it would be. Everyone had skeletons buried deep in their closet and it wasn't Harry's place to pry under any means.

"You never really know these days," Veronica said.

The door opened and Bette and Bunny arrived. The moment Bette saw Harry, she made her way towards him, almost knocking Bunny to the side. Bunny's expression grew into a full blown pouting. Bette threw herself towards Harry and made a bit of a spectacle out of herself, with a kiss. Harry placed his hand on her stocking clad leg.

Kathy shook her head and responded with a clear of her throat.

"I don't see where she gets that from," Kathy said.

"You don't?" Veronica asked.

The moment Bette detached herself from Harry, Bunny slipped closer towards him. She decided to kiss him intensely as well as if to show Bette up.

"I don't see where she gets it from," Veronica said.

"You don't?" Kathy asked.

Sapphire ducked her head underneath the table under the pretext of dropping her purse. She was too busy laughing at the interplay to really maintain a straight face.

All of them settled around the table. Sapphire came up from the table in time to ask Kathy the next question with a straight face, or about as close as she could to one.

"So, how is your project going?" Sapphire asked.

Kathy took a moment to consider the question and smiled.

"Actually, the project is going pretty good, although it's a bit slow going at first," Kathy said. "We need to raise awareness for more people, both men and women, to come forward. I wasn't the first person to be scammed by him, and there are countless other people out them."

Kathy knew her brother had put out a contract on the man's head already. She wasn't sure if this was the right thing to do, she would prefer he would face the victims himself. Jacob thought of things a different way, she supposed.

"So, is there anything else?" Harry asked. "Are there any other side effects? Any problems sleeping?"

"Actually, I've slept better than I have," Kathy said. "So, in some strange way, he did help me. He made be a bit stronger, and a bit more determined. The fact I'm helping people gives me a pretty good reason to sleep at night."

Kathy just wished she didn't have to go through this particular scheme to get to this point. She supposed you had to venture through hell in some points to get to heaven.

"I think if it helps one person, it will be worth it," Bette said.

"Yes, it will," Kathy said with a smile on her face. The smile turned into an uncomfortable frown. "I just wish I was able to track down the good doctor."

"Do you have an idea where he is?" Veronica asked.

"Only rumors," Kathy said. "He has connections somewhere in Europe. We might not be the only one who is looking for him especially with the contract Jacob put out on his head."

Harry thought he could check in with a couple of his contacts with the League to see if they found anything. He didn't venture into Europe if he could help it. There were a lot of people who had their nose into those parts of the world.

He did hope Kathy's foundation did its job in raising awareness. The criminal element in Gotham City existed in many forms, and not just murder and mayhem. There were people who could prey on the innocent and cause a load of problems for them all.

"At least we got that all out of our system last night," Veronica said. "We're going to have a nice and subdued Halloween."

"Here's to hoping that," Sapphire said with a smile.

"I think we can all hope it's going to be nice and uneventful," Bette added with a smile.

The next week would be the chaotic scene with elections. None of them here envied being part of the GCPD when they had to deal with the circus which was to come.

"Here's a toast for a quiet and uneventful Halloween night," Kathy said.

"Yes, here's hoping," Harry said.

He couldn't help, and think of the sinking feeling which entered the back of his mind. Harry hoped he was completely wrong again. One of the most magically prominent nights of the year passing without incident would be a change. Something told him it might have been too much to hope for despite joining in on the hopes.

' _Halloween is also the night where Murphy is at his most vindictive.'_

* * *

Zatanna took a deep breath when she situated herself. The statue was right in front of her. All she had to do was properly manipulate it in a way where it could be a deadly weapon. Zatanna raised her hand and muttered the incantation underneath her breath.

The statue started to rattle to life and almost worked. It also exploded the moment where Zatanna's emotions flared up a little bit.

"It's fine," Circe said in her most patient voice possible. "Let's try this again."

Circe lifted her hand and reanimated the statue. The statue glowed around them. Zatanna eyed the statue and prepared to try it again. The statue resembled a pretty daunting task for Zatanna. She needed to attack it head on.

Wanda watched Zatanna. She could tell Zatanna's emotions were all over the place after the death of her father. Guilt tended to be an emotion which messed with magic users the most. Wanda caught some vibes of anger, emotions which were frustrating enough to deal with under any circumstances.

"Zee, just take a deep breath and focus," Wanda advised her.

It took Wanda a long time to gain control of her emotions. Today would have been a pretty difficult time to gain control of them as well.

"You're angry about what happened to your father," Circe said. "You think if you had been there, it would have made the difference, don't you?"

Zatanna nodded in response. Her heart started to beat heavily against her chest.

"I have to tell you about the fact you're mistaken," Circe said. "It wouldn't have made any difference, not at all."

Circe's eyes locked onto Zatanna's and she could see the other woman's eyes narrow in response. Circe could tell Zatanna was about ready to lose all sense of herself.

"Let me make one thing perfectly clear," Circe said. "The dangerous magic users which attacked your father? They would have annihilated you as well."

Zatanna drew in her breath and tried to manipulate the statue one more time. It was hard to keep her wits about herself. A pair of strong hands reached from the shadows and touched her waist. Zatanna frowned the moment they had been put there.

"Just take a deep breath and focus on everything you need to focus on," Harry said in her ear.

Zatanna closed her eyes and agreed. She needed to focus. Harry steadied her towards the statue and let go of her the second. The statue fired and glowed.

The dark-haired sorceress jerked her hand and manipulated the statue forward.

"Good, become one with the statue," Circe said, smiling. "It's a physical manifestation of yourself….think of it as an added layer of protection which can do your bidding under many circumstances."

Zatanna turned her hand over and Circe had created another statue, seemingly from nothingness. The two statues clashed together with each other.

Circe decided to teach Zatanna a valuable lesson about control. The witch turned the sword around and slammed it through Zatanna's statue. The dark-haired enchantress dropped down to the ground, gasping in agony when she felt a searing motion.

"This is your next lesson," Circe said. "When you come one with the statue, any damage which has been done to the statue will be felt by you."

Circe walked over and extended her hand. Zatanna took it quite anxiously, being dragged to her feet.

"It's not enough to be lethal," Circe said. "It can be extremely deliberating under the right circumstances, however."

Zatanna took this in stride. Circe smiled.

"We'll pick up on these lessons later," Circe said.

Zatanna rubbed her chest. She pulled down her top to check. No physical wound, only the magical impression one had been caused. It may have burned even more than an actual physical wound, if she had to hazard a guess. Regardless, she walked over with Harry to join Wanda.

"And here I thought I knew a lot," Zatanna said. "She really puts me to shame."

"Both she and Morgaine, right?" Harry asked. Zatanna nodded and smiled. "I'm glad both of you girls are learning a lot from them….Inza would have been a valuable teacher as well."

"Yes, good luck pinning her down," Wanda said, with a half-smile towards Harry.

Wanda perfectly understood the feeling Harry experienced earlier regarding the dread about this day. It hit her in abundance and made it extremely difficult for her to concentrate. Harry reached towards her and touched the top of her hand. He held the hands of both of the girls as they drew close towards him, with smiles on their faces.

"So, I've been thinking about something," Zatanna said. Harry waved his hand and gave Zatanna the opportunity to go on. "Circe mentioned something about all magic users having great powers, but most of them having glass jaws. A little self-defense and training wouldn't go wrong, would it?"

"You know, you two girls are welcomed to join in on the training pretty much any time you want to," Harry said. "I certainly won't hold you back."

' _Yes, I'd be happy to help put you through the paces,'_ Dinah thought.

She had been working with Rebecca and Lois, with help from Diana and Harry. Lyta also joined in, with Donna and Kara in the level above them. Gwen, Reilly, and Barbara also had their raw edges worked out.

' _You know, you're forming a pretty formidable group,'_ Barbara thought.

' _The one thing I can say about my girls is they can take care of themselves,'_ Harry thought. _'And they always take the incentive to learn more if they can manage to do so.'_

Circe returned after a moment. She looked at Harry for a few seconds before waving him forward.

"Harry, do you think I can have a brief word with you?" Circe asked.

The serious tone in Circe's face showed him it was quite urgent. Harry detached himself from Wanda and Zatanna which left the two girls to discuss something.

Circe lead Harry off out of the earshot, even though she knew Harry was never out of earshot of his girls. It was the principle of the matter really as far as Circe was concerned.

"Your feelings aren't quite off," Circe said. "Morgaine and I have detected something in the air tonight, and this is the perfect night for people to dabbling in forces they barely have any comprehension in."

Harry answered with a brisk frown when he stared Circe down.

"I'm not saying it directly affects you," Circe said. Harry continued to lock his eyes onto her. "Even though it likely does."

Harry smiled. If anything he was happy for verification. While a lot of people looked forward to Halloween, and Harry wanted to get into the spirit of the holiday, he would be lying if he would be happy to see the back of it.

"Thanks for the heads up," Harry said.

"And for the record, anything you're facing, I think…."

A loud thunderclap echoed from outside. Circe frowned and turned around. She hoped this thunderclap wasn't a really unfortunate omen of trouble to come later on. She closed her eyes for a few scant seconds and prepared for the worst. And the worst in these situations could be pretty dire indeed.

"Let's prepare for anything," Harry said to her.

Circe thought it was a good plan.

* * *

Nyssa stepped back into Gotham City. Paige tagged along at her heals, mostly because she needed to be the one to bring the oldest daughter of the demon to this location.

"Talia said this was urgent," Nyssa said. She frowned and arched her neck forward. "Where is she?"

The enchanting raven-haired lady lifted one finger and pointed it towards a warehouse. Nyssa pushed the door open and kicked up a heavy cloud of dust. The Daughter of the Demon stepped in, and noticed Talia standing right next to a man with a hood over his face. He dangled to the ground. Weapons had laid on the ground, along with a tooth which Talia removed the hard way.

"Good, Nyssa, you're here," Talia said. "Just in time, because I wasn't about ready to wait a moment longer."

The Daughter of the Demon ripped off the hood to reveal a man with bruises over his face.

"A bit rough on the captive, aren't you?" Nyssa dryly asked.

"I let him alive, didn't I?" Talia retorted in an equally dry manner.

Nyssa couldn't argue with this. Talia reached over and slapped the man in the face. The man jerked awake and stared at the three women who had secured him. He bit down furiously.

"If you're looking for this, it will do you know good," Talia said, holding up the tooth. "You really thought I wouldn't have prepared for this."

The man cursed out Talia in another language. Talia responded in the same way.

"Mind your tongue, or I'll remove it," Talia said in the man's native language.

The figure hanging upside down had blanched, Talia having called him out without any question. A second passed with Talia pulling out the knife onto him and pressed it against the man's throat.

"What do you know about Ra's Al Ghul?"

"I know the true heir of Ra's Al Ghul has acquired the demon's body."

Talia took a long moment to stare at him. Her patience reached its breaking point.

"Elaborate," Talia said.

"The White Ghost, he has Ra's Al Ghul," the man said. "And he will kill me for telling you this."

"I will kill you for being aligned with this waste of oxygen," Talia said.

"What are the White Ghost's plans?" Nyssa asked.

"He has acquired a book which he assumes will give him Protection from the Dragon," the man said, figuring he had nothing left to lose. He was going to be dead regardless of how this situation ended. "He acquired it from Blackjack Blackfire?"

This particular name caused the hardened members of the League to grow rather nervous. Nyssa was the one who recovered first.

"Blackfire doesn't give up items without receiving something on his end," Nyssa said.

"The White Ghost gave him access to a Lazarus Pit which had been tainted by glowing green rocks," the man said.

It all clicked into Nyssa's mind. He intended to resurrect his grandson using a pit.

"Where is the pit?" Talia demanded, forcing the man dangling upside down to look at her. "Where is it?"

The man shook in fear at the Daughter of the Demon baring down at him. He tried to remain calm and collected, but it was very difficult to do so.

"Kansas, where the meteor shower occurred nine years ago," the man said, trying to pull himself free.

"That particular pit is unusable," Talia said.

"Not exactly," Paige said. "While access is difficult, and the pit will cause….certain deformities, it is almost useable if a sacrifice is made to properly empower it."

Nyssa realized instantly what they planned to do now.

"We have a lot more work to do then we thought tonight," Nyssa said.

"Anything else?" Talia asked.

The man tried to pull himself together. Even if he had pulled himself down, there would be no way where he could get to the door without any trouble. They would have all killed him in an instant the moment he dropped down.

"No?" Nyssa asked.

"Please, I can serve you."

"You're pathetic because you allowed yourself to get captured," Talia said. "Therefore you have no use to me."

Talia could see the fear in the man's eyes. He rightfully should have been afraid because his entire life flashed before him. The blade sliced through his throat and ripped his head off.

"Let's go," Talia said. "We have work to do."

The pit needed to be secured tonight. Talia just hoped they had plenty of time to get it done before it ran out.

* * *

Smallville was a night which was not too warm, but not too cold either. Lana was pretty pleased them could go out trick or treating without any jackets. It kind of ruined the look of a costume when you had a jacket over the top of it. Unless of course, it was a part of the costume.

Lana made her way outside and looked at her costume in the windshield of the Kent family truck. The black mask pulled over her face and she dressed in a black costume, with a blue insignia which looked like a dragon. Lana, dressed in her Nightwing costume, looked out into Smallville with a smile on her face.

"Come on, faithful sidekick," Lana said, with a smile on her face.

Claire made her way out dressed in the bright red and gold costume of Flamebird. She really wanted to be Nightwing, but she lost the coin toss to her.

"I have to say your mother did a pretty good job on these costumes," Lana said. "They look almost like the real thing."

"No one has even gotten a picture of the real thing," Claire reminded Lana.

"Yeah, I know, urban legends and all that," Lana said, smiling. "But, there's a lot of people who described enough of them. It's what they say on the Internet at least."

Claire shook her head. The Internet was a terrifying place and to be perfectly honest, you couldn't believe everything you read on it.

"Marie should be coming out in a second, shouldn't she?" Lana asked, anxiously stretching her neck back to look at the door.

"She had to talk with Ma about something," Claire said in a half-distracted voice.

Sure enough, Marie made her way out. She dressed in a flannel shirt and a pair of faded jeans. She had her arms folded the moment she reached Claire and Lana. Lana and Claire smiled when looking at her.

"So, what's your costume supposed to be?" Lana asked. "Moody teenager who got roped into taking a couple of kids trick or treating?"

"Ha, ha, very funny," Marie said.

Lana and Claire smiled at each other and turned around walking down the driveway, with Marie following them. Both of them were ready.

"You know, it was your turn to be the sidekick," Lana said. "Last year, I was Bucky, and you were Captain America….."

"Hey, there's no shame in being Bucky, he made a noble sacrifice to help end World War II," Claire said.

"No, there isn't," Lana said. "But, seriously, that wasn't your best idea for a costume. The real Captain America was cool, and rumors…well he might have been a she….it was classified."

"You're pulling my leg, aren't you?" Claire asked.

"I suppose there would have been more than one," Lana said, shrugging her shoulders in response. "Let's just hope Captain America wasn't anything like that campy live action 1960s show."

"Hey, that show had its charm, and it helped revive a dying comic books industry," Claire said. "And we wouldn't get the super hero movies we do today without that show."

"Even the Matt Hagen version of the Grey Ghost which is coming out this year," Lana said.

Claire wrinkled her nose in response to this line of questioning coming from Lana. To be perfectly honest, all of them could go without this particular movie.

"He's not a good fit," Claire said.

"No kidding, the live action Grey Ghost show was good, and the radio serial in the 1940s was even better," Lana said. "Nell introduced me to it, she used to listen to re-runs of it with her grandfather, and….I think she regrets doing so, because I'm a bit….."

"Obsessed?" Claire asked. "Fanatical?"

Lana couldn't deny these were the appropriate words to describe herself. A smile crossed the face of the dark haired girl. If the shoe fit, wear it, as far as she was concerned.

"I don't know, Captain America is much better than the Grey Ghost," Claire said. "The Grey Ghost could be a bit dark sometimes."

"It's just the grittier feel of the show," Lana said. "And you can't deny Bucky could get a little….old with his holy this and holy that."

"He wasn't like that in the radio show from the 1940s," Claire said. "Although they made Captain America's love interest into a damsel in distress, and that was annoying in a different way."

Marie looked at both of the girls and sighed. She was surrounded by a couple of nerds.

"And here I thought you two were going trick or tricking as Nightwing and Flamebird, and not a couple of Internet message board posters," Marie said. "You know, all of the good candy might be gone…and I intend to get my cut for taking you two."

Lana and Claire hastened their steps. Marie thought anything could be accomplished with the proper incentive.

* * *

Blackjack Blackfire stood with his two acolytes and his pathetic waste of a grandson known as Beau standing over towards him. The man cleared his throat and prepared to go on with a his speech.

"Tonight, we stand here on the seventy hundredth and seventy-seventh anniversary of the night where our ancestor, Abigail Joan Blackfire, sacrificed her innocence to ascend to a higher plane and give us the trappings of ultimate power!" Blackjack yelled. "We Blackfires have been driven by one common purpose. We intend to rid the world of a disease which will ensnare it. And this world will be ours one more time."

The two Acolytes raised their hands in the air with a cheer.

"Gotham City is the biggest epic-center for a terrible disease which grips the hearts of even the most noble," Deacon Blackfire said. He held out his hand and smiled. "And the entire world will once again be in the palm of our hands, once I have given the gift to our fallen angel, Abigail Joan."

Blackjack Blackfire turned his attention towards Beau.

"Boy, come forth, and play your role."

Beau stepped forward with a smile on his face. This was going to be so cool, he was going to show his granddaddy how useful he could be now.

"What do you want me to do?" Beau asked.

"Place your hands upon this stone."

Beau did as he was asked. His hands appeared to be glued to the stone the moment it had been placed on.

"And now, you will be more useful in death, than you are with your worthless life."

Before Beau could really respond, Blackjack Blackfire remove a knife and sliced into his wrists. The stabbing motion made sliced Beau's wrists straight through. Blackjack Blackfire tapped an artery and caused the blood to flow.

The blood started to trickle off of the stone and roll off into the pit. The pit gave an ominous glow.

"Lower him into the pit," Blackjack commanded.

The two Acolytes moved the crank which lowered the body of Joseph Blackfire into the pit. Blackjack Blackfire dropped to his knees and said a prayer. The rest of the blood drained off of the stone.

The last drop fell in, before finally releasing the corpse of Brother Beau down onto the ground. The pit started to glow.

"My dear, sweet Abigail Joan, accept this bounty, and bring forth my son, Joseph Blackfire so he can lead an uprising which will remove the plague which is Gotham City!"

A lightning bolt shot past them and caused the pit to bubble even more. The body of Joseph Blackfire floated on top of the waters of the pit.

Seconds later, he sat up like a zombie, the eyes rolling into the back of his head. His hair and beard stood up wildly. Blackfire pulled himself out and practically walked on water. His laughter grew even more intense as sparks flew from his hand.

"Boy, settle yourself," Blackjack Blackfire said.

Even with all of the steps they took, there could still be madness from getting risen from the pit. Blackjack wasn't about to take any chances if he was going to be perfectly honest.

"Oh, can't you say, how I have risen!" Joseph yelled. "Do not fret, grandpappy, for she has shield me from the spirits inhibiting the pit. And in fact, I now have them in the palm of my hand!"

Ghostly figures rose out of the pit and started to circle briefly. Joseph retracted his hand.

"Finally ,months I walked the crossroads, shielding myself from Death," Joseph said. "I would not go without a fight."

"Save your breath for the people who wronged you," Blackjack warned his grandson.

Deacon Blackfire smiled and grew rather wicked.

"It is just like my Daddy told me, before he went down at sea," Joseph said. "You can lead a snake to the edge of the garden, but you can't expect him not to bite you. It's in his nature, just like it's in the nature of this world to try and throw away someone who they have no use for."

Joseph stepped over his poor brother and picked up the dagger. It still smoked with the blood.

"Cheap, but it will do," Joseph said. He turned towards Joseph. "And I spoke to her before I had been given entrance back to this side. She is sated with the sacrifice. Our sweet Abigail Joan is not completely happy though. This was not the sacrifice she had in mind. She's disappointed in you."

Blackjack held his head in shame.

"Forgive me, our sweet fallen angel, for I have failed you," Blackjack said. "I thank you for the gift of my grandson, and will do anything to make amends to balance the scales."

Joseph's face curled into a wicked grin when looking at him. The dagger lingered between his fingers.

"Each generation has to leave so the one after it can grow stronger," Joseph said. "She said your time has come, Granddaddy, and you know what you must do now."

Blackjack nodded and he dropped to his knees. His arms stretched out as if offering himself for a sacrifice.

"Some must die, so others may thrive."

Joseph plunged the enchanted dagger straight into Blackjack's heart. The old man's body burst into flames and Deacon opened his mouth wide, absorbing his life essence and his powers.

The ashes which were once Blackjack Blackfire fell to the floor. The strength of Deacon Joseph Blackfire exhibited tenfold.

"Yes, yes, I had a taste of the power, and I must have more!" the Deacon yelled to his audience of two. "Today is the day where the spirits are at the highest, and today will be the day of reckoning! A day where the Dragon will fall. He was once mighty, but now….now he will perish!"

Lightning and thunder appeared in the skies. Deacon Blackfire laughed as his hand extended towards the pit and dragged the echoes of all of the damned souls which passed through this pit.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 15** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_Turns out Harry's bad vibes are spot on. Little do we know the bad vibes are just beginning. But it will be clearer when Chapter Two Hundred gets here._

_Lana Lang and Batman share a common interest in fandoms. The more you know._

_And now the Deacon is back to the land of the living, although he's a bit supernatural these days. Then again, his resurrection being on Halloween may have play a role in it._

_So it begins. Until Wednesday._


	196. Risen Part Two

**Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Six: Risen Part Two.**

* * *

Harry chose to go out on patrol tonight, mostly because he wanted to get his mind off of the insanity which entered his mind. Halloween would be over into a few hours, and if those few hours passed without incident, he would have been in a pretty good state. He tilted his head back and dropped down onto the ground, turning around when he looked.

' _So, what's going on now?'_ Diana asked.

' _So far, so good,'_ Harry thought. _'With any luck, the night will end…are you and Dinah close by?'_

' _Yes, and it's all fine on our end,'_ Diana thought. _'Maybe your instincts were wrong today.'_

Harry really hoped deep down his instincts were off. There were a couple of times where he thought something was off about the insanity which was taking today.

' _Maybe my instincts were wrong,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm not sure, but anything is really possible.'_

Anything was possible, Harry figured. The young man caught a glimpse of a very familiar figure in the shadows. She waited in the alleyway off to the side. Harry dropped down into the alleyway and looked around.

"Yes?" Harry asked.

Nyssa slipped out of the alleyway. Harry could already tell by her body language the Daughter of the Demon was agitated about something. Harry held his hand out and placed it onto Nyssa's shoulder. Nyssa rose up to her feet and looked Harry directly in the eyes.

"We have a problem."

Harry's favorite words in the entire world had just be spoken. He motioned for Nyssa to follow him. Harry fired a grapnel and pulled himself to the top of the building. Nyssa pulled herself up onto the building. The dark haired woman leaned back towards him.

"Let me guess, something is happening tonight," Harry said.

"You had a feeling, didn't you?" Nyssa asked.

Harry responded with a nod and leaned forward to look Nyssa straight into the eyes. The two of them stared each other down. The wind started to blow and there was the sound of thunder in the distance. A sinister flash of lightning followed and flashed through the eye. Something about this thunder and lightning was far different than a lot of the other thunder and lightning.

"It's Halloween," Harry said. "The magic in the air is stronger than ever before."

Nyssa nodded in response. She took a deep breath and wasted little time in explaining what was going on with Harry.

"I was hunting down one of the followers of an enemy of the League," Nyssa said. Harry nodded and prompted Nyssa to continue. "He made a deal with Blackjack Blackfire, and gave him access to a Lazarus Pit….which has been tainted with meteor rocks."

Harry already could tell there were going to be a lot of problems. He only had one question entering his mind.

"Will the Pit work?" Harry asked.

"With the right sacrifice, there's a chance it will bring him back regardless of how long he had been dead," Nyssa said. "And even without one, it will work, in a sense. He will be a monster which would need to be put down if he escaped from the Pit."

The fact Harry encountered Joseph Blackfire on the crossroads all of these months ago reminded him he was desperate to return. Blackfire escaped his justice and now he was back.

' _Dinah, prepare yourself,'_ Harry thought. _'And Barbara, give Batman the heads up Blackjack Blackfire is about ready to resurrect his grandson. Providing he hasn't done so already.'_

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to figure out what he was going to do. The young man's breath came into him. He noticed Nyssa was still there.

"Nyssa, lead me to the Pit," Harry said.

Nyssa hesitated for a moment, and she nodded.

"We have means to get there, and we should be there in about three hours….."

"Is it in Smallville?" Harry asked.

"It's slightly outside the town, folding her hands together."

Harry figured he was going to have to take the portal through Smallville. He didn't really want to expose it to everyone and anyone. Desperate times called for extremely desperate measure. Harry held Nyssa's arm.

"Hang on," Harry said.

Harry's wings retracted from his costume and his suit started to fire up. It propelled him and Nyssa across the city and the express route to the Penthouse.

' _We're going to get there quickly and….'_

A loud scream echoed from underneath them. Harry's skin started to explode into a set of goosebumps. He held Nyssa in the air and the two of them dropped down to the ground. A group of Gotham City citizens scrambled around and one of them rushed forward.

"Zombies, get away from me!"

' _Oh boy, this can't be good,'_ Harry thought.

One of the Gotham City citizens swung a board with a nail which caused trick or treaters to scramble around. Nightwing extended his hand out and fired a cable from the other side of his sleeve. The cable stuck into the man's chest and caused a small and subtle jolt of electricity. His hands and arms collided together.

"Get away from me!" an elderly women yelled, swinging her cane wild around and around in an attempt to take out anything that moved.

Nyssa fired the cane out of her hand with an arrow. The cane stuck to the edge of the building. Nyssa stepped forward and the woman screamed.

"Zombie monster!" the elderly woman yelled, almost collapsing down to the ground. She started to breath in and out heavily.

Nyssa dropped a tear gas grenade. This caused the mob around them to be deliberated and they rushed in the other direction. The Daughter of the Demon turned around and could see the shell shocked looking children. One of them potentially trembled in terror.

One of the victims of the attack dropped down on his knees. Harry swept towards him and lifted the man up to a standing position. His pupils dilated. Harry swept the hand scanner up and down to see if he could find any kind of infection or gas. The man's eyes opened.

"Huh, what happened?" the man asked. He had been put to sleep by Harry before he could see him.

Harry really wished he could answer the question right away. There were a couple of pressing questions coming through his mind. He could answer it, only if the air could be swept around him. Harry raised his hand and swept out, perfectly aware Nyssa had been watching him.

The insanity died down. Harry new more than anyone else any lack of insanity was just the calm before another storm. He leaned down to keep a close look at the man who had been put to sleep. Harry gave his diagnosis of the man, passing the information to the group at large.

' _He didn't get injected with anything, breathe in anything, or see anything which would hypnotize him,'_ Harry thought.

' _He must have seen something if he reacted in the way he did,'_ Kara thought. A long pause followed a few seconds later. _'Okay, I know what you mean in a way.'_

' _Yes, he didn't get injected,'_ Faora thought. _'So the explanation is only one thing, and you don't want me to say it, even though it's the truth.'_

Harry took a moment to close his eyes and soak in the energy. He caught an echo in the background of the detached mumblings of demented spirits which continued to echo.

"Soon, Dragon, your reckoning will be at hand."

"I can feel him," Harry said. Nyssa opened her mouth and had been cut off before she could asked certain questions. "Blackfire, he's hovering around the margins. He's close….and I think he had been brought back. We're too late, we can't stop him."

"So we can't stop him," Nyssa said. "The only think we can do is put him down and make sure he stays in the grave this time."

Harry didn't want to be the one to bring up an extremely frustrating point. The last time they dealt with Deacon Blackfire, Harry thought he was gone. His grandfather must have found a way to allow his grandson certain death. Generations of Blackfires tapped into the power of some kind of ancient entity, and now Joseph Blackfire tapped into something far more dangerous than anyone ever could have realized in their lives. Harry didn't know what to think about this, other than trouble was coming around the corner.

' _Nothing is forever,'_ Harry thought, giving what he thought was one final thought of finality.

* * *

The Church of Deacon Blackfire had been abandoned for over a year since the days where he had lead the lost sisters and brothers of Gotham City. A cloud of smoke started to manifest outside of the church entrance. The mist started to gain some form. A head rose from the mist followed by a torso and some legs. The eyes of Joseph Blackfire glowed red as they rolled into the back of his head. The Deacon's body shook the moment where he dropped onto what was once sacred ground.

"You can go home again," Joseph said. He paused and turned around to stare into the distance. "Linger, and give them one last warning."

The condemned sign lingered on the outside of the church. The Deacon's hand pressed on the sign and pushed it over to allow himself entrance to the former Church. The ground which had been tainted allowed him inside.

The ghosts of the pasts lingered inside the Church. A sinister wail echoed throughout the Church. Blackfire stepped forward a couple of inches and dropped to one knee, holding it out.

"You can go home again!" Blackfire yelled. "I see it right in front of me. The spot where I had met my temporary demise the last time! It's here!"

Blackfire's eyes lingered to the spot where the church collapsed down onto his head. The images of the fight flickered through his mind the last time. The battle against the Black Canary replayed in his man. The siren's stunning cry put him into the ground. He clutched onto the edge of life before making a desperate move to bounce back to death.

"They thought they could push me over the edge and cause my demise," Blackfire said. "I showed them why they should not discount what I can do. I showed them I wouldn't not fall down. I had many setbacks, but I could not be fully laid to rest until I accomplished all of my goals. Until I achieved everything I had ever wanted to in my life."

Blackfire extended his arms up. He summoned the energies which he took from the sacrifice of his grandfather and the small amount of energy he leeched from the Dragon during their encounter from the crossroads. The small taste brought a smile to his face.

He had a little bit, he wanted more.

"I return to Gotham City, and it's still the blight on God's world!" Blackfire yelled. "It's gotten worse in the year since I've departed. And the cancer has a danger to spread, and this can't be. The righteous must rise and the wicked must be pulled underneath the flames!"

Blackfire whipped his hands off and sent a bolt of lightning through the air. It struck the grass outside of the church and caused it to whip into flames.

"Gotham City must burn for all of us to survive!" Blackfire yelled. The man whipped his head back and the long hair flipped back into his face. "The entire world will rest in the palm of my hand.

Blackfire's eyes turned white the second they rolled into the back of his head.

"I've been given the gift of renewed life so I can finish the holy crusade I've started," Blackfire said. "There was one critical error I made since the last time."

Blackfire turned his hand over and a bolt of energy flew through the air. It arched up and hit the ground in a cemetary next to him. The ground started to shake much to the delight of the Deacon.

"I thought I could save the lost sons and daughters of Gotham City, the ones who had been thrown out like the trash," Blackfire said. "I know now all of Gotham City must be decimated for all to survive."

Blackfire turned his hand over.

"Do not be alarmed, for I am here to guide you for your own purpose," Blackfire said. "Many of you are the true victims of this city. Your lives have been cut short."

The ground started to rumble underneath Blackfire. The man's lips curled into an excited smile. One could almost see his wicked and sharp teeth contort into a devastating grin.

"Yes, I can see you all….we're all march onto Gotham City!" Blackfire yelled. "And you will get your vengeance and help as the city burns. And you will finally be completely at peace."

Blackfire stepped outside. The rain continued to come down. The Deacon walked through the rain without any expression of discontent whatsoever on his face. He challenged all of the energy into his hands.

Any outside observer would have seen Blackfire speak in tongues and roll his eyes into the back of his head. He became one with the damned souls of Gotham City. Ever since passing through the Lazarus Pit, Blackfire's powers strengthened.

The ground broke open and the shadows of several figures rose from the depths. The shadows drew the bones buried deep within the ground into them to form a more physical form.

"Yes, embrace it!" Blackfire shouted towards his demented legions of followers. "Now we must march onto Gotham City."

* * *

"Deacon Blackfire may already have been back into Gotham City," Oracle said. "And we both know what happened the last time he was active."

Batman didn't say anything at least at first. He could feel something in the air. It was a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach he experienced every time he investigated a crime and knew he was going to come across a dead body.

"Batman?" Oracle asked. "Batman?"

"I heard you loud and clear, Oracle," Batman said. "I'll be sure to keep in mind. Keep me posted if you heard anything else."

A long paused followed with Batman rubbing his forehead. He stood up for a moment despite this uncharacteristic bout of emotion. He could see Katana's eyes peering into the back of his head. Her mouth hung half open for a few seconds as she looked at the back of his head.

"Are you alright?" Katana asked.

"I'm fine," Batman said in a low voice.

Katana took a second to stare at the back of Batman's head. There were times where his definition of fine and most other people's definition of fine didn't correlate. The fact he told her in such a firm and casual voice pretty much told Katana all she needed to know. She had to step back and assume he was completely and one hundred percent fine.

Outwardly, Batman reinforced a stoic mask. On the inside, thoughts flashed through his mind. The night where he had been brainwashed by Deacon Blackfire and then used to conduct the man's wicked bidding, it was a night he would never forget. Despite doing everything in his power to reinforce his will ever since, those images of what occurred still flashed through Batman's mind and would never stop taunting him. The Dark Knight took another half of a step towards the Church. His mind had blared with images which may in fact end up haunting him for the rest of his days.

"So, do you think he returned to the old church where he haunted?" Katana asked. A moment passed when Batman turned his eyes towards her. "And that was a bad choice of terminology wasn't it?"

"Given he is now practically a ghost, yes," Batman said.

Batman stepped over the police tape which lead to the Church. The bell started to ring back and forth above the Church. There was no rhyme or reason with how it rang. It just had gone back and forth, swaying in the wind. Anyone who watched it would have been spellbound by the very look of it. Batman approached the Church, a frown passing over the top of his lips.

"Stay close," Batman said to her.

Katana withdrew her weapon of choice. The Soultaker might have been one of the more valuable tools tonight of all night. She could feel something in the air around her and she would not have liked it.

Batman could see the entrance of the Church having been tampered with. The Dark Knight stepped into the Church. The smell of fire and brimstone filled the Church.

Katana held out the blade. There was some kind of foreboding presence which put her completely and utterly on edge. The woman took half of a step into the Church and her heart started to beat more heavily. She didn't like any of this, she didn't like any of this at all.

"Blackfire has to be close," Batman said.

The man left quite the impression this time. The static in Batman's headset indicated they had been cut off from Oracle and anyone else who may have been popping in or out.

' _We're on our own,'_ Batman said.

Batman could see a flicker of light into the next room. It explained the smell of brimstone when fire surrounded a circle in the ground. A figure stood in the circle. Batman noticed a beard and a straw hat. The Dark Knight stepped forward closer towards the figure.

A message written in fresh blood soaked into the wall. The words burned into the wall and they also burned into the mind of Batman.

**Any Trip to the Promised Land May Be Paved With Dark Intentions.**

Batman heard the grinding sound and realized the man wasn't Blackfire. It was just some random body he grabbed and rigged with something. Explosives, and they were about ready to go off.

"Run!" Batman yelled to Katana.

She didn't need telling twice. Batman and Katana darted to the nearest window of the Church and threw themselves out. The glass shattered all around them before both of them escaped the Church. The explosion followed them out of the window.

Batman and Katana both crouched themselves in the ditch. More explosions continued around both of them. The Church had been reduced into even worse wreckage than it was.

Katana's eyes popped out of the ditch and looked towards a nearby cemetery. Several holes had been punched through the ground. Katana reached around and grabbed Batman's shoulder to get his attention a little bit more.

"I think I know Blackfire's plan," Katana said. "He's going to raise an army."

Batman noticed what Katana was pointing out. The Detective readjusted himself. He had a feeling this was going to be a long night ahead and like the incident with the Scarecrow and the Scarlet Witch on Friday the 13th, time was having a nasty habit of slowing all the way down around him.

"Oracle to Batman, can you hear me?" Oracle asked.

"We lost the connection for a moment," Batman said. "I have information for you to pass onto the others. Unless they're still listening in."

"What is it?" Nightwing asked, popping into the headset.

* * *

Nightwing leaned down, having received the information from Batman. Nyssa stood about ten feet away from him, also listening into the conversation. Batman confirmed what he feared.

"He now has the ability to raise the army of the undead on Halloween," Nightwing said.

The Daughter of the Demon's face turned stony and stoic. Harry reached on in and grabbed her by the shoulder.

"The real question is can be control it?" Nyssa asked.

Harry mulled over the question for a couple of long minutes. He came to one unfortunate conclusion.

"Not without my powers, he's not," Harry said. "If I tap into my powers, I can reverse what's happening. The problem is, I'm quite limited and there's always a risk…..I'll be reunited for my humble servants for a long time."

Harry wasn't really sure how death would work for him, being the master of death. The only certain part was he didn't want to figure it out.

Nyssa recalled Harry's plight, and had stopped short of suggesting the Lazarus Pit to fix the damages. Given the unforeseen variables of this entire situation, Nyssa would have hated to complicate matters even worse than they really were. She wasn't in the business of doing that.

"I'm going to have to do something though," Harry said.

"Batman's sidekick," Nyssa said.

"You mean, Katana?" Harry asked. "What about her?"

Nyssa responded with a sigh. She hated to give the League traitor any credence, even though she didn't take Tatsu's role in betraying the League as personally as Shiva or Talia did. They did lose a valuable hand, and the fact they lost a valuable hand stung Nyssa more than anything else.

"She has a weapon which will be able to….."

A loud rumbling echoed underneath the ground. Harry stood rigid at the sound of the ground rumbling. He looked over his shoulder to Nyssa and only had one thing to say to her.

"Hold that thought."

Harry had a feeling he was going to get a close encounter of the undead kind. These undead warriors lurched towards Harry with the worst of intentions going through them.

Nyssa saw they were different than many of the other undead creations she had the displeasure of fighting. They had no skin, they looked to be nothing more than demonic shades held up by wobbly bones. The creatures made their way forward towards Harry and Nyssa.

"Be ready," Harry warned Nyssa.

Nyssa didn't need to be told twice. The woman adjusted her stance and stared down at these creatures. One of them glared down at her. Nyssa took half of a step back and aimed her crossbow at the creature.

An arrow shot through the rib cage of the creature and nailed him full on. The smoke had been released. Harry jumped into the battle and shot something from his hand. The dagger impacted the smoke and caused it to be pulled into the darkness.

"It's all about hitting the right pressure points," Harry said. "I'll set them up, and you know them down."

Nyssa thought this was excellent strategy to be perfectly honest. She drew her bow back and fired. The moment it struck the skeletal creature, the cloud of black smoke exploded into the distance.

' _So, how are things on your end?'_ Harry thought.

' _More of the same, Jaime has joined us now,'_ Diana thought.

' _The rib cage is the weak spot,'_ Harry thought. _'Take it out and throw one of the daggers. It will send it back.'_

' _Are you sure?'_ Jaime asked.

Harry was ninety-five percent sure he was sure. The young man adjusted his stance a few seconds later. He could see Nyssa fighting beside him.

"I'm surprised you don't have back up," Harry said.

"They're elsewhere in Gotham City, tracking down Blackfire," Nyssa said.

They had a pretty good idea they would be too late to do anything about Blackfire coming out of the pit. Nyssa hated to admit it, but it was the truth. She kept firing her arrows at the creatures. Harry fired the daggers at them which caused them to disappear into a burst of light and smoke.

The gates of the cemetery near them started to blow open. Two large figures moved out of the gates with deceptive speed.

Harry had been too distracted dealing with the zombie army, he didn't have much time to register the large and powerful gut punch coming from one of his adversary's. The punch nailed him hard and another one grabbed Harry around the head and teleported him off.

"Beloved!" Nyssa yelled.

She took out three of them in one fell swoop. She moved to the spot where Harry had been attacked. The Daughter of the Demon rushed over to the ground and a scowl appeared on her face. The Daughter of the Demon launched her hands into the heavens.

Anger spread through her body. Unfortunately another feeling hit her when the hands grabbed her. The army intended to rip Nyssa apart.

The Daughter of Ra's Al Ghul wasn't going to be taken down this easily, not without a fight. She kicked her way away from the creatures. One of them had been nailed with a full force and rather blunt attack to the side of the head. A loud crack resounded when the entity had been forced back.

A blade swung from the opposite direction and sliced through the bones of the creature. The soul of the creature had been banished onwards.

Nyssa dropped to the ground and noticed Katana show up. Batman joined her and bombarded the skeletal creatures with a weapon which caused them to be set up for Katana's attack. The bright lights flashed around them.

"Fighting alongside the member of the League," Katana said, allowing Nyssa room to get up. "I never thought I would see the day again."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Nyssa said. "And would you prefer the alternative?"

Katana couldn't say she did prefer the alternative. She turned around and sliced the weapon at the creatures. For tonight, she would stand alongside the League, and they would stand alongside her. A reckoning would happen between the two sides.

"They've taken Nightwing," Nyssa said.

"Then we're going to have to get him back," Katana said.

Batman thought it would be easier said than done. Blackfire was more dangerous than ever before.

"We'll find him," Batman said, refusing to give up on a colleague.

* * *

The Gotham City Police Department was a madhouse. The events of the other night involving Killer Moth ended up being a cakewalk. Zombies everywhere in Gotham City, and people freaking out. There were a million calls a moment and then there was reports of an explosion at the old Church of Blackfire.

Harvey Bullock found himself swept in the midst of some chaos and insanity. The man turned around and could see an image in the shadows. He did a double take at the shifty image flashing before his very eyes.

"No way."

Bullock couldn't believe he saw what he saw. Not now and not for a million years. The other members of the Gotham City Police Department crowded around him. Sarah, Ellen, and James all made their way closer towards them.

The figure of Deacon Blackfire stood in the middle of the station, and several other shell shocked cops.

"So we add a ghost on top of everything else," Bullock said.

"I am here to give you a peace of mind right now," Blackfire said. "While the Gotham City Police Department is the center of corruption and deserves to burn with the rest of Gotham City….."

"Yeah, the only one who deserves to burn is you pal!" Bullock yelled.

He wanted to pull his gun out and blast him away. Bullock didn't know if it would work. It would just make him feel better.

"You all deserve to burn by creating an atmosphere where the criminal element can thrive and survive," Blackfire continued as if he had not been interrupted. "By Midnight tonight, Gotham City will die and this cruel world will be reshaped. From the ashes, a new society will rise, and the entire world will be reshaped. I will bring those who can handle the light to the promise land."

Blackfire took a long moment to allow his words to soak in to the unwashed carpenter.

"On the night of October 31st, 1998, Gotham City will meet its final resting place," Blackfire said.

"You're completely out of your mind," Bullock said.

"You might say I'm crazy," Blackfire said with a chuckle going through him. "You might say I'm mad. But, many people said these things about a young carpenter."

This particular comparison did not do anything to stop the people listening to him judging Blackfire to be insane. This just increased his thoughts.

"I'm not him, I will have done more for this world than him before it has all said and done," Blackfire said, his throat growing scratchy. "Can't you see everything? Can't you see it slipping away? The creatures of the night are going to converge upon Gotham City and destroy you. Even the heroes you refuse to acknowledge cannot protect you forever."

His laughter grew even more manic. Anyone who listened to him for more than a few moments could tell he was mentally gone.

"People aren't afraid of things which go bump in the night thanks to modern convenience, your computers, your television, your telephones, it has all made you less afraid," Blackfire said. "But, now perhaps you should be afraid of things which go bump in the night."

The power in the Gotham City Police department went out thanks to a mysterious power surge. The lights came back on and Blackfire disappeared. Before they could register his disappearance, the lights went out one more time and stayed out.

Gotham City experienced complete and utter blackout thanks to Joseph Blackfire.

"Alright, don't just stand there, someone find a flashlight, or some candles, or something…and we've got to also find the door and get out of here, the people of Gotham City are freaking out."

The sounds of smashing glass and gunshots not too far from there indicated they didn't have much time to pacify the masses.

* * *

Harry slipped out of the grip of one of the Acolytes. The large white Acolyte rushed towards Harry. Harry flipped over the top of his head and landed on the ground.

An upturned tombstone had been pulled out of the ground. Harry hoisted the tombstone and jammed it into the chest of the Acolyte. He reared back and started to punch him completely out.

The other Acolyte swung a wooden axehandle at Harry. Harry dodged the axehandle and shot the weapon out of the hand of his adversary. The figure doubled over and Harry kicked him in the face. The acolyte dropped down to the ground and then scrambled back to his feet.

The punches coming from this particular enemy resounded like gunshots and started to hammer Harry. Harry could feel the thunderous punches. The punches nailed him in the chest at a rapid fire attack.

' _Okay, this is going to be a tough one to put down, but you can do it.'_

Harry lifted a railroad spike out of the ground and drove it into the face of the Acolyte. This finally put him down for the count.

The white Acolyte rose to his feet and swung a shovel like a baseball bat. A shovel slammed against a rotting tree. Harry moved on the other side of the tree, and withdrew a dagger. The dagger sliced through the tree and toppled it over.

One toppled tree later, the Acolyte had been crushed. His partner also got nailed in the process which was a good thing for Harry. The young man dropped to his knee and buzzing continued to go through his head.

' _Okay, this is what we call not a good situation,'_ Harry thought, trying to push himself mentally forward. The strain going through his mind made it difficult. _'There's no bond, and no way out.'_

The slow and loud clapping indicated the arrival of one Joseph Blackfire. The man dressed in white robes. His beard and hair looked to be longer than ever. The sinister individual approached him.

"I'll be blunt and get straight to the point."

"Well that would be different," Harry said.

Blackfire ignored his words. Harry prepared to attack Deacon Blackfire before he started the monologue.

Several hands shot out of the ground and grabbed onto Harry around the legs and head. The young man dropped down to the ground, the breath having been driven out of him.

"For generations, my ancestors feared the Dragon, and they fled at any hint of him," Blackfire said. "Truly though, what has happened to the almighty Dragon?"

Blackfire held a staff to his hand and pressed it against the chest of a trapped Harry.

"I think I know what happened, you've lost your flame!" Blackfire yelled. "You used to strike terror into the hearts of men, but instead you've grown soft and you've frown complacent. You would rather rule from the shadows as an urban legend then jump into the light of the day, and strike the personification of fear into everyone. You, my friend, have lost your nerve."

"Let me go, and we'll just see how much nerve I've lost," Nightwing said.

Nightwing managed to break free on his own accord. He bounced up and nailed Blackfire with a huge punch which jacked his jaw.

"Oh, good, but not with the same fire as you did before."

Nightwing channeled all of the power through the brass knuckles and nailed Blackfire. Blackfire stood there, as if nothing happened. Nightwing reared his hand back and nailed Blackfire.

More punches rattled Blackfire. Nightwing threw back his hand and plowed it into the chest of the bearded man. The punch impacted off of the man's chest.

' _What is this guy made of?'_

Nightwing picked up the shovel which had been left on the ground and channeled the energy through it. The shovel bashed Deacon Blackfire in the face. He stood there, immobile.

"You don't understand, can you?" Blackfire asked. "Tonight, I'm untouchable. You can't embrace your powers. You refuse to embrace the darkness. You've squandered your ability Dragon…"

Nightwing decapitated Blackfire in mid-sentence! His head fell on the ground and had been reduced to dust. His body stood on the ground and fell over.

For a brief, cheerful second, Nightwing thought the night was done. The ashes started to swirl around and the body of Deacon Blackfire appeared once more, completely intact.

There were precious few things which gave Harry Potter a lengthy pause and a cause to blink. This was one of a number of things which caused this. He withdrew his daggers from his sleeve and positioned them to attack his adversary. Harry flung them off into the distance and nailed his adversary as hard as he could manage directly at his opponent.

The daggers caused a miniature explosion. Blackfire pushed through and rushed forward before knocking Nightwing back.

"The green fire has saved me twice, Dragon!" Blackfire yelled. "And now, I send my mistress one final gift, a token of thanks for all she has brought me. He's coming, dear sweet Abigail Joan Blackfire."

Blackfire rammed his hand into Harry's chest and put it through his chest. The energy ripped through Harry's body. Joseph used his grandfather's powers to steal the life force.

"YES!" Joseph yelled. "THE POWER IS MINE!"

He withdrew his hand from Nightwing's bleeding chest. The dragon free-falled back into the open grave and landed much like a puppet having his strings cut.

"Your last breath is finally leaving your body," Blackfire said. "As you linger between worlds, watching your rotting body get covered shovel full, by shovel full, do remember you had brought this all upon yourself Dragon. This is the results of your sins. And all those who helped you will be joining you, along with all of Gotham City. I sent you along first so you can watch and know there is nothing."

The power swirled over Joseph's body. He raised his hand and reanimated his father's former Acolytes after the Dragon decimated them.

"I have power to bring about new life and bring about crushing death!" Joseph said.

His pupils dilated and swirled with black energy. A more demonic tone echoed through his voice, which grew deeper and raspier. All around him, he could sense the souls of everyone, both living and dead, which had passed through this area.

The power he drank in aroused the Deacon.

"Bury him!" Blackfire yelled.

The two men walked forward with obedience and picked up their shovels. They tipped the earth down into the ground and began to bury the Dragon six feet under.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 11** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_Well that can't be good. This has gone from bad to worse._

_Until Saturday._


	197. Risen Part Three

**Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Seven: Risen Part Three.**

* * *

 

Nyssa slid back on the ground and noticed the minions circling around her. Her eyes narrowed and a breath when through her body. Nyssa charged forward and swung the blade. The weapon snapped through the minions. The minion returned to his feet and raised a hand into the air. The creature broke off a bone and swung it towards Nyssa. Nyssa leaned back and allowed the bone to fly over the back of her head.

Gritting her knee, Nyssa turned around and slammed an uppercut to the chest. The demonic whisper spit energy out of him. Nyssa flipped high into the air and retracted daggers. The daggers soured through the air and nailed the creatures. The skeletons flashed in front of her and released the daggers.

A chill spread through Nyssa's body. Something happened around her. The horror of the situation hit Nyssa one hundred percent of the way. Nyssa's hand wrapped around the dagger and noticed Katana and Batman had been separated from her. Seconds passed before Nyssa stepped back and engaged the attackers with an intense look flashing through her eyes.

Nyssa needed to break through the barriers. Nothing else mattered to her right about now. The problem was the minions rose to their feet and performed a protective barrier to the cemetery. The minion reached forward and grabbed Nyssa around the throat to squeeze her. Nyssa's breath squeezed from her body.

A crossbow arrow caught the creature in the arm. The skeleton exploded in response. The dust clouded the air around her, with Nyssa raising her arms up to block the explosion.

Nyssa rubbed her neck. She noticed Flamebird, Huntress, and Black Canary turned up. Flamebird jumped into the air, arm extended. One punch nailed the creature in the head. The creature cracked in response and wisps of smoke shot out of the creature. She stepped back and nailed the creature with a series of punches to the chest to nail it. The ribs cracked.

Huntress extended an arm and helped Nyssa to her feet.

"Are you okay?" Huntress asked.

"I've had better," Nyssa said, the moment she reclaimed her weapon. "I just wish I could reach him. He's disappeared off of the bond link.

Nyssa rushed over and plowed a punch into the creature. The sound of the bones crunching apart could be heard all around them. The Daughter of the Demon slid back a second later.

A figure approached from the mist. Katana rejoined them and swung the blade towards the creatures.

"They're getting stronger!" Katana yelled. "The sword only disables them for a few moments."

Nyssa wondered what the hell Blackfire was doing. One of the creatures grabbed her from behind. Nyssa slipped out of the attack and slid back a couple of inches. Nyssa withdrew a chain and flung it out. The sickle passed through the rib cage and pulled the creature's shell apart.

The creature's mist form staggered. Katana stabbed the sword through the air and caused a glow to erupt from the blade. The samurai turned around to engage more of them.

"Where's Nightwing?" Batman asked.

"I was hoping to find that one out actually," Huntress said, pointing the crossbow at them. "I'll get the ones on the left and you get the ones on the right. Then we'll meet back into the middle."

Batman created a cloud of smoke. The smoke didn't even block the minions of Blackfire. The hands pushed through the smoke and grabbed Batman around the neck. He sent a jolt of energy from the armor and propelled him back. A grenade rolled on the ground and busted open.

Several glops of glue caught the creatures. This allowed Huntress to rush over to the side wielding a sword. The sword blade hacked over the skeletons of the creature. A flash of light erupted around them. Huntress turned the blade around and stabbed the creature with a few more swipes of the sword.

The creatures broke apart from the impact of the sword being driven into the chest of the creature. Diana stepped back a few feet.

"They're coming still!" Flamebird yelled.

"Everyone stand back!" Black Canary yelled.

Everyone had a pretty good idea when the Black Canary told them to stand back, it was time for them to stand back. Batman, Katana, Nyssa, Huntress, and Flamebird all stepped back a few feet. This left Black Canary in position or the attack.

She drew in a deep breath and unleashed one super powered canary cry. Dinah threw pretty much everything into the attack and knocked them back.

"Now!"

Huntress rushed into the attack straight away. She drew the crossbow back and fired in a rapid fire degree. Each of the arrows caught the creatures in the chest. The arrows destroyed the cover. The shadows only circled around them ominously.

Flamebird held a grenade and lobbed it into the air. The grenade released a cyclone blast of oxygen which created a reverse cyclone.

Katana joined the battle. The sword stabbed into the cyclone and released them back into an energy vortex. The samurai's body completely shook.

Nyssa grabbed her around the waist and yanked Katana back. The two of them stumbled a few inches forward and they flipped onto the ground. The impact drove them into the ground extremely hard.

"I could have had them!" Katana yelled.

"No, there's something happening," Nyssa said.

Black Canary, Huntress, and Flamebird all could feel it as well. A cold feeling went through the air. Gotham City turned even darker, and black crowds rolled over the sky. The entire scene around them grew extremely dark and it was extremely difficult for anyone to see anything.

Flamebird could feel an energy burst through her body and a sound of something cracking in the back of her mind. The strand containing Harry connecting to her had turned from inactive to non-existent.

"No!" she yelled. "HARRY!"

Diana's entire body went through a shiver. The Amazon's Princess's entire body grew extremely rigid and an agonizing feeling spread through her.

' _All of you feel it,'_ Karen thought. _'Oh my….oooh….'_

Nyssa closed her eyes a few seconds. The woman's breathing escalated in and out. She had to get it together, for all of their sakes. The creatures around them started to disappear and fade into the distance.

Light flashed around them in the skies. It wasn't the bright moonlight which surrounded them though. An eerie green light flashed around them. More lights rose up and the entire air around them had been filled with whispers which resulted in everyone looking around. The whispers had no source.

"Could anyone please explain what's going on?" Katana asked.

"He's….he's….oh Hera, help us all," Diana said.

Whether or not Hera actually heard her, any plea had been lost into oblivion. The darkness which surrounded them all, not to mention the fact Harry disappeared from the bond put them on edge. It put everyone on edge. Diana didn't know what to do next. A sense of hopelessness hit her one more time, and the anger followed. Harry's body was trapped in there for Blackfire to use it as he pleased, with any depraved ritual.

"He's stolen his powers," Kara said.

"Who are you referring to?" Katana asked. A moment passed before she realized it. "Nightwing…he's….he has mystic abilities."

"It's deeper than that," Flamebird said. She was trying her best to keep everything together. She struggled to hold back the frustration, knowing what would happen if she allowed herself to lose all sense of herself. "He has mystical abilities which can allow him to master certain elements. He doesn't have full access to them…it's a long story."

Katana was certain it was, and Batman decided to be the one guy who would have to say the obvious.

"And the story we don't have a sufficient amount of time to discuss."

Naturally, he would have to be this one person to say the blatantly obvious. Katana frowned and agreed.

More light flashed in the distance. The entire group grew tense. The various members of the League of Assassins joined Nyssa and the others. Both sides became tense and Nyssa leaned towards them. She wondered if they had any kind of explanations.

Both sides would have prepared to go at it had Nyssa not put herself in the middle of the battle. She was most certainly some kind of neutral party who had to involve herself in this situation, regardless of what the consequences were.

"We had been delayed by the minions which had been unleashed on this city," Talia said. "I will give my apologies, and tell you it will not happen again."

"I understand the circumstances," Nyssa said.

Talia could tell from her sister's body language there was something wrong about ready to happen. She didn't want to ask any personal questions with the heroes standing there.

"We're going to have to work together," Nyssa said. "Nightwing has fallen, thanks to Joseph Blackfire. We have reason to believe Blackfire may have used a ritual to steal his powers."

"Surely it's impossible," one of the League members said.

"I've felt it, so don't tell me what is impossible," Flamebird said. She looked about ready to jump down the throats of the League members, or maybe worse. "I've seen it with my eyes!"

"Flamebird, it's sufficient," Huntress said. She shared her anger, but now wasn't the time or the place.

' _Kara, I understand you're upset,'_ Diana thought, more gently than her firm outside tone would suggest. _'And believe me, I know where you're coming from. We can't let this get to us. We're going to have to work together. Just calm down and we'll figure this out.'_

One could almost hear the frustrated sigh coming out from the other side of Flamebird's mouth.

"What do we need to do to work together?" Black Canary asked.

"We're going to have to disrupt the ritual leading into the cementary, and find a way to cut off Blackfire's power," Nyssa said. "Unfortunately, the only person who can help us defeat him, may have been sent to the beyond."

"There has to be another way," Black Canary said.

"There's always another way."

Everyone stepped back and Talon joined the party. Everyone who was in the know responded with smiles. She may have been the next best thing when compared to Harry due to the simple fact she was a female version of Harry. Would she be enough though? Only time would tell.

* * *

 

Dee-Dee sat on the other side in a calm and tranquil state. The calm and tranquility shattered away in a second when a really bad vibe hit the representation of Death. She rose to her feet and walked towards the gates.

The gate started to rattle back and forth. The pale skinned beauty frowned and watched everything continue. Something was extremely wrong. It blew past beyond wrong and went into the territory of completely dire.

"The seal is in danger of breaking."

Dee-Dee turned around a fraction of an inch in time to see Hope approach her. Hope walked. The darker manifestation of the afterlife was rarely so shattered. Dee-Dee understood why it was immediately.

"It's him, isn't it?" Dee-Dee asked.

"Charles Robert Blackfire was finally sent through by his grandson," Hope said. "He had been launched practically into my lap by….by her."

The name had not been spoken. The word "her" had been practically spit out by Hope with all of the vile and venom the darker manifestation thought it deserved. Dee-Dee didn't really know what to make of this. She did in fact know who Hope meant but her and it caused Dee-Dee a fair amount of tension to be honest. She was mostly businesslike.

"Apparently the sacrifice of one grandson wasn't sufficient payment," Hope said. "And she has been shielding Joseph this entire time, I should have claimed him last summer."

Dee-Dee hoped Hope would not take it too personal she didn't get her prize. She knew better though. Hope turned to the other side of the realm. Shadows began to bleed through the wall which caused both of the manifestations of death to frown.

"He has the power," Hope said. "He can recall spirits from the other side to do his bidding."

"And he has the assumption he can master us," Dee-Dee said.

Both of the women paused, knowing full well they chose their master. The Keys to Eternity passed through several hands. No one held onto all three at once, although some held all three during their lives. Just never at once. The power would have ended destroying them.

The power almost destroyed their chosen avatar of Death, but his strength and the fact he bonded to so many strong women shielded him. The phrase "what does not kill you makes you stronger" came to mind straight away. Har-Zod had been the epitome of that.

"He won't need to master us if the barriers between the physical world and the spirit realm are destroying us," Hope said. "It is as I told you, the seal is breaking. And when the seal dissolves….even we cannot stop it from going through."

All of what existed was in peril and the threat of destruction put both manifestations of Death on anxiety. An emotion which never boded well for people, as they were only restless when everything was in peril.

"All we have to do is find him," Dee-Dee said.

Hope turned towards Dee-Dee. The woman was thinking along the same lines as Dee-Dee was. Finding him, even in a situation like this, was a bit easier said than done.

"And we're going to have to find him soon," Hope said. "Time is running out."

An unsuspecting chill spread over Hope's body. She took a few seconds to close her eyes and allow everything to settle in. A monster had his hands on unlimited power over the spirit world which threatened to destabilize anything and everything she held dear. Moments passed.

The barrier stood in front of her. Hope cast a nervous gaze upon it. It had been rare for her to be so rattled and so unsettled. She could feel the cool hand of her sister placed on her shoulder. Hope only barely registered what was going on around her until the soothing words of Dee-Dee hit her in the back of her head.

"Don't worry, just have a bit of confidence. He will find us, hopefully we can find him."

The space in the afterlife was infinite, owning up to the fact there were more people dead then there were alive on Earth. The moment those seals broke, they would overwhelm the land of the living. The moment they overwhelmed the land of the living, it would be game over for them all.

Hope didn't want to mince words in a situation like this. If they did not do something sooner rather than later to break free, they would completely and utterly screwed beyond all recognition. Then where would they be? Hope didn't know and the fact she didn't have the slightest idea overwhelmed her.

"I have a good feeling he may be lurking over here."

Both sides of Death hoped their good feelings would pan out. Their master needed to obtain the artifacts before the stroke of Midnight, or all would be lost. It wasn't an accident this particular ritual had been done today of all days, on this particular Halloween night.

* * *

 

Joseph Blackfire hunched himself over the grave of the dragon which he buried. The winds in the cemetery started to kick up and rustle the leaves of fall all around them. Blackfire stood forward, a hand cupped underneath his chin. Power personified around him. Every time he moved, he discovered new aspects of his power.

The control he had over the darkness and the light made him break ear to ear with a grin. Twenty-four hours ago, he ran from Death to avoid being trapped forever. Now, Joseph Blackfire not only controlled death, he relished every single last moment of the control he had over it. The man's palm started to glow and expel an immense amount of energy all around him.

The man wondered what else he could do. The only light allowed around him had been the glowing green light emitting from the cemetery. The restless shadows which had been buried there continued to circle around his head.

"Every last breath they draw, it could be their last. I could draw it out, or I could end it. The possibilities are endless. I have power beyond all imagining. And this power will be used to eliminate everyone around me!"

Blackfire dropped to his knees and his head whipped back. The hair whipped back along with his head and struck himself in his face. A manic expression spread over Blackfire's face. One could spot the hunger he had acquired, along with the lust for his power a mile away. The darkness spread all over Gotham City every single moment he drew breath into his body.

"Yes, feel it, I can do anything!"

Joseph Blackfire's arms lifted high above his head and crashed down to demonstrate what his powers could do. A blinking blast of light surrounded them all. He smiled when all of the power enveloped him. It caused him to both shake and feel so good. Empowerment spread through every last inch of his body. He could take the world as he pleased and do anything he desired with it.

"There's one thing I wish to do above all else."

Blackfire rose to his feet. The Deacon functioned best in front of a crowd. The fact many people listened to his gospel empowered the man and gave him strength beyond all measure.

No crowd existed at the moment. Joseph raised his arms to bring a crowd up to a standing position all around him. Several of the lost sons and daughters of Gotham City surrounded him. Joseph stepped back and took in a full breath of the brimstone cackling through the air.

"You see what has become of your city!" Blackfire yelled. "You see what has become of your beloved home! You see how corruption has made Gotham a place which is not fit for any type of habitation, have you?"

The lost souls started to grumble. Some of them buried in this graveyard had been killed thanks to the corruption which caused Gotham City. Many were killed years ago, and some had been killed more recently, caught in the crossfire of a gang war. Wounds healed fast for some, and some not healed better.

"I'm sure you're asking yourselves, what can you do for me?" Joseph asked. "The question is not what you can do for me, it's what can I do for you, my brothers and sisters?"

Joseph experienced a deep rooted connection to the lost sons and daughters of Gotham City. He bonded with them in some strange and twisted way. He experienced their sorrow and it fed into him.

"The world can be re-shaped, and changed, and be nothing like the awful world you lived in," Joseph said. "You can see the light I can bring."

Joseph lit up the graveyard around them. His voice captivated even the dead which brought a smug little smirk to his face.

"I can bring about the light, within the darkest hour!" Blackfire continued to yell. "And your darkness hour has already passed. I can give you one last chance to show the world what you mean to Gotham City. Some of you have unfinished business. Once I claim my ultimate power and break the seals, you will be released freely."

The spirits started to grow a bit more restless. Blackfire smiled.

"Patience is a virtue I would think would come alongside death," Blackfire said. "I would not be the one to assume though for it is the tool of a well-practiced fool."

Everyone around him started to grumble. Joseph leaned back to observe the comings and goings of these demonic spirits.

"You are bound to this graveyard," Joseph said. The deacon peered down onto the ground which they had pulled from the ground. "Not for long though. Once the seals have properly been dismantled, you will be able to roam free….all which have lost will be able to roam free."

One could see Joseph's eyes flash back into a more manic state. He looked beyond all sense and potentially for good reason. One could see the Deacon grew extremely rabid in his claims.

"Within the darkness, and within the light, your power will return to all of you, and it will soon flow within me," Joseph yelled.

He took a step towards the grave of the individual he sent to the other side. The man's lips curled into one of the most obvious frowns in the process.

"It is rather peculiar I wasn't able to recall you along with the rest of them," Joseph said. "I slayed you, Dragon….so in theory, I should be able to control you."

One idea hit the back of Joseph Blackfire's mind. He couldn't shake it off no matter how much he tried. Some mysterious force blocked his recalling of the spirit of the Dragon, to use it as a guardian for his army.

Joseph's eyes screwed shut a few seconds later and he tried to channel the full force of energy into his body. Something hit the wall which had been created by him and forced him to retreat. A second time he tried to bombard the wall and something burned him.

"I should not be harmed!" Joseph yelled. The momentary loss of his composure may have rattled even his undid minions along with the two zombie Acolytes who had been mostly forgotten about.

The song bird's presence was obvious one more time. It had taken a liking to protecting the Dragon from his ultimate fate. Joseph thought the Avatar of Life would not matter once Midnight passed.

Something else caught Joseph's attention. The Bat and the Canary lurked on the outside, along with several others.

"Well, it would be rude not to have our guests be invited inside," Joseph said. "Let them inside."

He spent some time learning and testing the limitations of his power set. The more he tapped into, the more Joseph gave off the air of being completely untouchable. There wouldn't be a person alive who could stop him and there would certainly not be a person dead who would not bow before him either.

* * *

 

Dee-Dee looked down the pathway. The walls flickered around them until they grew transparent. A more unsettling vibe spread over the two sisters of death the more they walked across this path. She clasped her hands together and realized if they did not find their master, this would be all for nothing.

"Our master experienced a separation from his power," Hope said.

"How could this happen?" Dee-Dee asked.

"All of the planets were aligned properly, and Joseph managed to be in the right place at the right time," Hope said.

Hope's fist clenched together. Dee-Dee could feel those dark thoughts radiating off of her sister. There were very few times where she experienced any type of sorrow for someone like Blackfire. These times though, Dee-Dee felt sorry for him. Hope could be rather creative with certain parts of torment when she wanted it to.

Dee-Dee, more anxiously, turned around. Death should not have been terrified of the realm she had to protect. The uncertainty and the unprecedented nature of this situation put her completely on edge. Nothing which passed through this realm had the ability to hurt either manifestation of Death. This was one guarantee both of them could run away with, without any problem whatsoever.

The fact they could all escape, this was what caused the sorrow in Dee-Dee's mind and she was certain her sister felt the same thing.

"Keep moving," Hope said. "We're close."

How close were they? Dee-Dee had no need to answer this particular question because something broke through the barriers. The song should have been toxic to those who harbored the dead. Instead, much to her surprise, Dee-Dee perked up instantly.

"Did you hear it?" Dee-Dee asked.

"Yes, I did," Hope said. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is."

Dee-Dee could experience the warmth and the energy from this song. The two of them walked side by side with each other further into the distance. The song continued to lead them where they needed to go.

"She has a sense of where he is at all times," Hope said.

"Yes, I know," Dee-Dee said.

Both of the sisters of Death understood one thing perfectly clear. The Phoenix knew had a connection to Har-Zod. The vessel she took on Earth may not have known it just yet thanks to some weird dreams she may have been having. It was nothing more than a brief feeling.

When she was ready to embrace the Phoenix Force fully, the real interesting thing would take place. Was she ready for it? Could she survive the experience? It would only be a matter of time before they could and would all find out what would take place.

* * *

 

Fire and brimstone shot up from the ground. One prone figure laid amongst the flames. A groan came from the figure as he rolled over and tried to drag himself to a sitting position.

Despite the fact nothing should hurt him here, Harry's spirit experienced a large aching pain going through it. His chest throbbed and head throbbed. A large piece of himself had been ripped from his body from Joseph Blackfire. This element made the rest of himself feel dirty, knowing he was being used in such a manner by a monster.

' _Damn, what the hell hit me,'_ Harry thought.

Harry took a half of a step to his feet. His knees buckled out from underneath him the moment Harry rose to his feet. He placed his hand on his chest.

' _Well, shit.'_

The Hallows, the Keys, whatever you want to call them, were missing. Things would have been a lot more dire had Blackfire obtained them completely. He did manage to absorb part of Harry's natural affinity with the death.

Harry raised his hands and caused the fire to part so he could walk more freely in this realm. The throbbing in his head made it difficult to contact anyone for help. Even his two humble servants in this realm were out of reach, and given the chaos caused by Blackfire, Harry did not doubt they would have more pressing matters in mind.

The girls were strong, but there was a difference between Harry being dropped from the bond link temporarily, and his thread completely vanishing from the bond link. Every second Harry was not on Earth, represented a second where chaos would spread over the world.

Another feeling hit Harry with all of the subtle force, or lack thereof of, of a ton of bricks. His hands swayed off to his side with a breath leaving his body.

' _And look at me, I'm trapped here.'_

Harry hated to tempt fate by saying things couldn't get worse. This was one of the worst things he could say in a situation like this.

' _And the seals are breaking down, can the news get any better?'_

Harry could hear the whispers of the damned souls. Some of them would like to rip apart the champion of death. He closed his eyes to allow himself some level of protection here.

A sword, a shield, and some armor appeared on the body of Harry. Harry took a half of a step forward into the darkness. The sound of children skipping, singing a song with words Harry could not describe.

' _If they start singing about how Freddy's dead, I'm moving in the opposite direction.'_

Harry took another couple of steps back and then pressed on forward into the untamed afterlife. This was a bit worse than when he had to save Sara from the Crossroads.

' _At least my body was sustained in the lab last time,'_ Harry thought. _'This time, it's deep underneath the ground, playing with the worms.'_

Harry never needed to draw breath. Still, there was something there which pulled back and threatened to drag him all the way to the other side. Harry didn't know what it was, only he was pretty certain he did not like it.

"I'm going to have to find a way to get out here and stop him before he rips apart both the world of the living and the dead," Harry said. "I'm going to have to take my powers back."

"Not without a key you aren't."

A bubbly female voice spoke those words. Harry turned a fraction of an inch. He noticed a glass case standing across from him. Harry couldn't believe what he saw. Inside the case rested the wand, the stone, and the cloak. He could feel them still connected to his body by a slight thread which grew progressively weaker.

"If the thread snaps, the seal completely breaks."

All Harry needed to do was reinforce the thread and he would be able to return back to life. He reached to the case to lift them out.

A jolt of energy caused Harry to rise up into the air. Harry's hand had been burned from the laughter. A loud sound of giggling laughter could be heard in the distance. This put Harry on his guard.

Suddenly, in the distance, a brunette girl in pigtails started to skip towards him. She wore a Catholic schoolgirl outfit, the blouse riding up to show her flat and toned stomach. The skirt came down just a bit above her thighs, and Harry could see a flash of her panties when she raised her legs there. The stockings covered her leg and she wore heeled shoes which amazingly she skipped towards him.

The girl looked like the pinnacle of innocence, which put Harry more on his guard.

' _The more innocent something looks in this realm, the more dangerous they truly are.'_

Harry lifted a hand towards the case and thought about it for a second.

"The definition of insanity is trying the same thing every single time expecting different results," the girl said sweetly.

Harry could not help, but notice how perfect her lip were and how tight her body looked. The moment she turned around to walk towards the case the skirt rolled up to show her panty clad ass which made it very distracting. The girl radiated sweetness, with a hint of sin wrapped around it.

"You know, these things almost ripped you apart the last time," she said. "Why don't you let it go, and let nature take it's course? Let my bore of a descendent learn the hard way what happens when dabbles in things he has no comprehension of."

Without warning, she threw herself into Harry's arms and practically snugged into his chest. She leaned up for a kiss, which Harry delayed.

"Come on, don't you want to have some fun?" she asked in a little girl voice, sticking out her lips in a pout. "A sweet and sexy succubus wants your cock, and you just deny her. That's rather rude."

"Just who are you?" Harry asked.

She smiled and stepped back.

"Right, I was Abigail Joan Blackfire in another life, but now I'm something else entirely," she said.

Harry could feel her eyes burning into him, soaking in his power.

"And you're here to help me, handsome."

Harry frowned at her presumption.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on June 22** **nd** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well, things escalated pretty quickly. Talk about going to hell in a handbasket._


	198. Risen Part Four

_Vote for the Chapter of the Week Poll at the Blog as Per Usual.http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/_

**Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Eight: Risen Part Four.**

* * *

 

Dinah Laurel Lance experienced the strangest and most crude sense of Deja-Vu the second she stepped into the graveyard. Her mind flashed back to the night where she battled Deacon Blackfire in the church. He intended to make a sacrifice. The entire atmosphere grew to be unsettling and Dinah thought she had been extremely fortunate to escape the Church alive. Gotham might have never been the same once again.

This time, Dinah moved into the church with a heavy heart and even heavier legs. Her legs started to knock together the moment she passed into the graveyard. Nyssa moved over towards her side. The two stood, ready to face the very worst which could come.

' _And the very worst is pretty awful,'_ she thought for herself.

"You feel it again, don't you?" Nyssa asked.

Nyssa didn't wait for Dinah's response. She recalled this feeling the night where Harry fought against Blackfire on the crossroads. The chill bombarded her mind. This unsettling presence of a lingering and dark death made her at ease. She could also sense something else. The smell filled the air when she tipped her head back. A cough resounded through the body of the oldest daughter of Ra's Al Ghul.

"Step into the light," the voice said from the distance. "Step into the light, unless you want to be trapped within the darkness."

The cold rush of air spread over the area as this particular taunting voice hit them harder. Nyssa held out a hand. The other members of the League held out their hands as well. The spirits swirling around the area of the graveyard told them a story which unsettled them more than a little bit.

The red mist surrounding the graveyard continued to rise off of the ground. The figure of Joseph Blackfire could been seen peering from the mist. A wicked smile pressed against the face of the sinister individual. He held his hand into the air.

"Black Canary, it has been too long," Blackfire said. "Over a year ago, you murdered me."

Dinah tried not to let the accusations get to her. She walked forward proudly with head held up high and fists clenched to the side. The battle hardened warrior glared back at her adversary. The more time passed, the more she would stand strong.

"I didn't kill you," Dinah said. "Your arrogance is what did yourself in."

The laughter coming from Blackfire cut through the air and resulted in more chills. Nyssa's eyes followed the strands of light rising from the ground and wrapping around Blackfire. A web had been formed with several spirits locked onto Blackfire. These spirits gazed towards the members of the League and started to whisper. These whispers continued to escalate the more.

' _The spirits of the damned,'_ Nyssa thought to herself. _'The spirits of those who passed through the Lazarus Pit.'_

Nyssa would have been foolish to think they would not have been brought back to life.

"You try and justify your actions underneath the blanket of heroics," Blackfire said. "What is a hero? Only nothing but a means to justify your sins for a greater good?"

Dinah's head throbbed the closer she walked towards Blackfire. The sight of freshly dug up earth caused a sickening feeling to erupt through the pit of Dinah's stomach.

"Tell me, what is a villain?" he asked. "It's merely a term to use to decry the work of another. Your labels, they mean nothing for me. I'm the one who walks in the darkness and in the light and I'm….."

"FIRE!" Nyssa yelled.

Several arrows flew at Blackfire. The arrows all aimed towards him. A couple of the arrows pierced into him. The heads bent at the moment where they connected with Blackfire.

Dinah stepped in front of the members of the League of Assassins. She tipped back and opened her mouth as wide as possible. One super-sonic canary cry hit Blackfire and lifted him off of the ground.

Blackfire put the brakes and landed firmly on the ground. He retracted the staff from underneath his overcoat.

"Not the worst song I heard today," Blackfire said.

The demented preacher wiped the blood which dripped from his ears thanks to the Canary cry. He turned the staff around and jabbed it towards Dinah's midsection.

The Canary doubled over and a gasp of oxygen spreading from her lungs. The agony spread through her body when Blackfire pushed the staff towards her. He reared his hand back and stabbed the staff towards her one more time.

"I'm going to enjoy when the energy gets dragged out of your body slowly by slowly," Blackfire said. "An eye for an eye….you will be reunited by your partner in crime. Only when you beg me."

Dinah Lance closed her eyes and started to breath in and out heavily. The Assassins started to fire at the Deacon. The Deacon's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he started to speak in tongues.

A flash came from behind the tree. Blackfire turned around in time to see a woman dressed in black wielding a sword and stabbing towards it towards him.

An agonizing scream passed through Blackfire's body the second the Soultaker Sword passed through his body. He fell back a moment later.

Katana stepped back and waited to see how the sword would affect him. Blackfire fell down to the ground, his entire body shaking in agony.

Dinah's head whipped back and she started to breathe in and out at a rapid fire rate. Everyone started to surround her. Flamebird and Huntress joined them from the other side. Flamebird extended a hand and allowed Black Canary to lift herself to a standing position.

"Are you okay?" Flamebird asked.

Black Canary staggered a couple of steps to the side before she fell onto Flamebird's shoulders. Her breathing escalated to a new level and her eyes shifted over a few blinks.

"I'll let you know when my stomach catches up with the rest of me."

Blackfire's arm started to twitch. More life spread through his body.

"You thought you could kill me, but I've already been here and beyond," Blackfire said. He lifted a hand up towards his face.

Blackfire closed his eyes and the spirits in the air swirled around him. Katana moved in instantly while she had the advantage and tried to attack her adversary with the sword.

The sword repelled her back a few feet and knocked her for an impressive loop. Blackfire started to laugh like a madman.

"You thought this is over?" Blackfire asked. "Oh no, it's not over, it's only just beginning!"

The thunderous tone of Blackfire's face caused everyone to attack him more. His red eyes glowed like slits and rolled into the back of his head in an extremely demonic manner.

"Again, hit him with everything!"

* * *

 

Abigail sat on the ground, with her legs crossed. She popped a lollipop into her mouth and slowly licked her tongue around the surface of the head of the sucker. She looked up towards at Harry, with suggestive "bedroom" eyes and smiled. She waved her hand and allowed a chair to appear.

Harry took a seat. Abigail turned around and rose up to her knees so she could properly face Harry. The succubus placed her hands on either side of Harry's thighs.

"Don't worry, I'll behave myself."

Harry thought this remained to be seen. He would allow her to do as she wanted to, at least for now. The moment she gave him any reason to distrust her, there would be trouble. Right now, Harry didn't have any reason to deny her.

Regardless, the demonic girl looked up at Harry, still sucking on the head of the lollipop. Several seconds passed before she sighed.

"For the past eight hundred years, I watched my decedents commit vile and cruel actions in my name," she said, almost as if she had grown rather bored from seeing atrocity. "The world isn't black and white as many want to believe it is during this day and age."

Harry wondered where this was going. She shifted for a moment and continued to maintain the grip on Harry's thighs. She looked up at him, the sucker still buried between her lips.

"My descendants have grown crueler and more deranged over the years. They say they are doing the actions under my name, but I know better. They only do things in a way to satisfy the darkness within them. A darkness which tainted my blood line for nearly eight hundred years."

"And it started with you?" Harry asked.

The girl smiled sweetly and looked towards him.

"I was more innocent than I was now," she said without any shame in her voice. "My village had been the epicenter of an attack of a dangerous demon. She consumed everything in her path. She fed on sin and mistrust. The finger pointing began and everyone blamed each other for the danger the demon brought to the town."

Harry waited for her to draw in a deep breath. She took the lollipop out from between her lips and grew a fair bit somber.

"My father decided to commit what he thought was an act of pure genius," Abigail said. "It was entirely reckless. He decided to sacrifice his innocent, virginal, fourteen year old daughter to the alter of the demon. I was made an offering to the demon."

"Your father sacrificed you?" Harry asked.

His tone sounded rather calm and tranquil in some ways. Providing she told the truth, it was a sick and sadistic thing for a man to do. Especially when he did so to his own daughter, and this really made Harry feel extremely sour. Sour and disgusted, which happened to be the worst combination one could feel.

"Yes," Abigail said. "The demon did something I never expected. She took pity on me, and empowered me. She trained me in her ways. However, this empowerment came with a price."

Harry thought she would be getting to the darkest point of this story. He looked down at her and hoped the girl had stayed strong.

"I was forced to be the guiding light for generations of Blackfires," Abigail said. "There was already a darkness and a mania. The bargain my father made to save his home came back to decay my future family members in the worst way."

Abigail knew her relatives were not considered to be soil of the Earth people. The darkness which spread through them.

"For countless generations, I've become the inspiration for every single action the Blackfires have committed," Abigail said. "Every single cruel action they have performed, they have performed them underneath my name."

Harry could see her eyes glowing with anger. The inner demonic fury within her threatened to bubble through the side.

"Charles Robert Blackfire committed countless crimes in my name, and I…could not do anything, because every time he invoked my power, I had to assist him," Abigail said.

"There's always a choice."

Abigail swallowed a lump in her throat. She wouldn't argue there wasn't a choice. She would argue she made the wrong choice constantly.

"Yes, there were always options," Abigail said. "The curse of my family made it very difficult to exercise the right choice though. That man was the devil himself, and I was glad to send him on where he belongs."

"For someone who serves the Blackfires, you have a rather dismal opinion of them," Harry said.

"I've seen all of what they performed, and all of what they can do," Abigail said. "It started my father, and if I have my way, it will end with Joseph Blackfire. He considers himself to be a savior. In reality, he's nothing but some backwards redneck preacher from the swamp who should have stayed there. He can thump his bible all he wants, but he's the true embodiment of evil."

Abigail rose to her feet and stared Harry completely in the eyes. Any sense of mischief had departed from her body. Hundreds of years of serving an entire clan of monsters and having sacrifices done in her name caused her façade to crack into multiple tiny fragments.

"He wishes to fix the world," Harry said.

"Fix the world, he's an eater of them, and he'll sooner see them burn," Abigail said with a scoff. "I've been trapped in this never ending cycle of serving them, as they've made sacrifices and tributes to me. I've had no choice, but to serve them. It has not been easy, not at all."

Harry could see the underlining feeling deep inside her. He rose to his feet to face her, or rather look down at her because she was a head shorter than Harry.

"You feel now he's stolen my power, your purpose has been lost, and you will won't be able to temper the worst of them," Harry said.

"I've never called myself a saint," Abigail said. "I know one thing, even in my darkest hour, Joseph Blackfire is the worst person possible to hold mastery over life and death. It will mean the end of anything."

A flash of light appeared. Hope and Dee-Dee turned up next to Harry.

"You!" Hope snapped.

Abigail smiled when she looked upon the darker manifestation of death.

"Hello, Hope, I hope you enjoyed your present," Abigail said.

Those burning eyes stared down at the younger looking girl, who kept sucking on her lollipop, unnerved.

"You shielded him from us," Hope said. "We could have had him a long time ago, if it wasn't for you. And look what you've done."

"I've used him to bait a trap for a far more dangerous man," Abigail said.

Harry gazed upon both sides of the argument. He could tell instantly there had been some bad blood between the two. The fact Dee-Dee positioned herself in the middle, ever the peacemaker, told Harry all he needed to know about this entire mess.

' _Oh boy, I can feel the tension already,'_ Harry thought. _'And not the good sexual kind of tension…okay maybe a little bit. The angry sex type.'_

"We all need each other," Abigail said.

"Yes, only because of the mess you've caused," Hope said. "Master…."

"Let's hear what she has to say before we make a decision," Harry said.

After all of the backstory, they were finally getting around to what Harry wanted to hear. The reason why Abigail did what she did.

"You two," Abigail said, pointing to both of the ladies of death. "Need my help to prevent the seal from completely breaking."

Hope scowled at her. Dee-Dee raised a hand and put it on her "sister's" shoulder to calm her down.

"You need my help to return to the real world, and help protect your collective and your city from Joseph before he rips them both apart out of his petty need for revenge," Abigail said. "And I need your help…..to break the curse and end the Blackfire line once and for all so I can be at peace."

"It ends with Joseph?" Harry asked.

"It ends with Joseph," Abigail said.

Harry looked her dead onto the eyes. So many mixed emotions flickered through her eyes. Harry didn't really know what to say other than respond with a crisp nod. There was a part of him which believed she told the truth.

"You can have him, if you can hold him."

Much to everyone's surprise, it wasn't Hope who stepped up to speak, it was Dee-Dee.

"We could have held him the last time, if it wasn't for you," Dee-Dee said.

"I was bound to help him, as long as he performed the proper sacrifices," Abigail said. "He overstepped his bounds. And when the last Blackfire perishes, I will finally be free. There will be no one left for me to serve."

Harry wondered if they were going to get to the point he wanted to. He leaned closer towards Abigail.

"You're going to send me back?"

A moment passed when she smiled. Both ladies of Death and Harry all grew tense and anxious. This type of smile coming from a demon rarely meant good things.

"At a cost, I will," Abigail said.

Hope practically fumed even though she didn't say anything. This meddlesome selfish child wanted something in return, even though the entire world was at stake. The seal between the realms of life and death threatened to break, she and she wanted something.

Harry looked over his shoulder and made sure both of his humble servants stepped back. He turned his direction towards Abigail.

"What do you want?"

"I want what every woman wants," Abigail said. "You."

Harry stared at her. The terms for this agreement made Harry wonder what kind of game she was playing. He sternly looked back at her for several seconds.

"Just one night," Abigail said. "And if you're open for more….I'll be open. You better believe I'll be very open."

Abigail empathized these words by putting a hand on Harry's chest and smiling with a burning gaze through her eyes. Hope and Dee-Dee looked at the situation with discontent in their eyes. Finally, it was Hope who said something.

"Master, do you think I can have a word with you?" Hope asked. "Do you think we can have a word with you?"

Harry pulled himself over to the side and allowed Hope and Dee-Dee to move in closely.

"I'm sure you know there's a catch," Hope said.

"You didn't even have to point that out," Harry said. "She's about as desperate as we are right now."

Hope and Dee-Dee caught a glimpse of the woman in question. Desperate pretty much described how she looked right now. Abigail gazed at Harry with one of those long looks which showed how much she wanted what he had to offer and the potentially disturbing extent she was going to take to get it.

"I'll give you your one night," Harry said. "On one condition."

Abigail waved her hands as if to say she was all ears. Harry had the opening and he was going to take it, no pun intended.

"You send me back, and I'll send Blackfire on," Harry said. "And then when he's secured, and my powers have returned, you will have your one night."

A long pause followed. Abigail's face scrunched up with the not so obvious expression of someone who was heavily mulling over something in the back of her mind. Finally, after a long moment, she conceded with what Harry was saying with a nod.

"Any other man makes this offer, and I would demand the payment from him up front," Abigail said. "I know you're a man of your word though, and you won't betray me."

The two extended hands with each other and shook on it, cementing the bargain.

* * *

 

Joseph Blackfire's glowed with the personification of the power he felt. More of the energy surrounded his body. The clock grew closer to midnight and he would have everything he ever wanted in his life. Laughter echoed through his body when his adversaries fought these minions he brought from the ground.

"Just wait, Blackfire!" Flamebird yelled. "Just wait!"

"Wait, for what?" Blackfire asked. "You are lost without your leadership. You can't focus any longer!"

Flamebird hated to admit it. The lack of Nightwing in her head caused her attacks to grow less persistent. A small part of her wanted this to be over with so she could join him.

' _No, it's not going to be that easy,'_ Flamebird thought. _'He wouldn't want you to just give up like this. And besides, he is coming back, you'll see.'_

Flamebird pushed herself past the edge and a little bit further. She punched her adversary in the chest. The punch resounded and collapsed her enemy extremely hard.

Katana wished she had taken the second shot and ripped the sword through her enemy. Now, he was so far away from her. The Samurai tried not to allow herself to think about what might have been. No, she had to consider what could be right now.

' _Hold it together, Tatsu, focus, and you'll have him!'_

The problem was the person she wished to have seemed so far away. The creatures which rose out of the ground grew with more prominence. It was to the fact where they were even too powerful for her to take down.

Nyssa understood now the dangers of tapping into the Lazarus Pit. She also knew why he could not leave this Graveyard alive. She exhausted her entire supply of arrows on these creatures and never once came close to hitting the big one.

"Continue to fight!" Talia yelled. "The honor of the League will not be diminished by this monster!"

The words of her younger sister pushed Nyssa forward. Inspiration could come from many corners and the inspiration which came from Talia spurred Nyssa on. She picked up a weapon and swung it off to the side.

"Clear the path for Katana!" Nyssa yelled. "She just needs to take another shot at Blackfire!"

Katana actually didn't know how she felt about the League members assisting her in this battle. There were no time for feelings rather time for actions. The wraiths all surrounded her from all sides. They thought they had her boxed in and it would be the end for Katana.

' _There's always a third option.'_

Katana intended to do all she could do to exercise the third option. She took a fixed point on the ground and swung the blade at a ninety-degree angle. The energy coming from the blade absorbed the creatures.

It caused her to shake because of the sheer mass of evil. A figure swooped in from behind her. Huntress pointed the weapon at Blackfire and started to take shots at him.

Blackfire's laughter continued to escalate. He wouldn't be put down so easily. The demonic entity's eyes rolled back for a second.

"And now, all of the heroes…"

A grenade flew through the air and landed on the ground. Blackfire regarded the grenade for a few seconds with amusement. The amusement ended the moment where the grenade released a pulse of light and engulfed Blackfire inside a cage.

Batman jumped out of the shadows and put his fists through the cage. The rapid fire punches connected with Blackfire. The enhanced punch buried into the skull of the demented preacher. Batman reared back his fist one more time and connected with the side of the head. More punches started to rattle him.

The cage broke free and Batman had been knocked back a few feet until he landed onto the ground. The wind had been driven from his body.

"Yes, Batman, I was wondering where you have slipped off to," Blackfire said. He extended his hand over and drove Batman to his knees before him. "Yes, there's no need for you to slip off into the night without saying goodbye to your former master."

"You were never my Master!" Batman growled.

Blackfire's hand twisted around and launched Batman back. The Dark Knight could feel the armor absorbing a great deal of the assault. Seconds later though, something was about ready to eat through the armor, and this resulted in Batman's staggering backwards.

Black Canary, Katana, Flamebird, and Huntress, along with the various members of the League tried to push their way through the barriers.

"Get me to him!" Katana yelled. "I can finish this."

If she had her way, this would end tonight. There would be no more murder. No more horror, Blackfire would be put back down.

"You can't destroy me any more than you can destroy the wind!" Blackfire yelled at the top of his lungs. His face contorted into the wickedest way possible.

All of those who fought them had been brought to their knees before the deadly deacon. The entire world, and they, had been all resting in the palm of his hand.

* * *

 

Hope and Dee-Dee made their way to a bedroom, for lack of a better term. It was actually a lair of Death where it could be anything they chose it to be.

Harry followed them. One could see the tension going through Harry's body. Dee-Dee swooped in to alleviate it. Her hands rubbed the back of Harry's shoulders and made circular motions around them. She leaned into him with a smile which looked apologetic.

"If we only knew the trouble the Hallows would have caused," Dee-Dee said.

"They would have caused more trouble being out in the wild," Harry said.

"It doesn't stop us from feeling a little bit guilty it wrecked you and prevented you from leading to your full potential," Hope said. "And for the record, we searched long and hard for a way to help speed up the process of your healing….because it is our burden to bare."

"You didn't find anything, did you?"

Both of the women shook their heads. Hope made her way to the front of Harry and straddled his lap. She worked open the buttons of his shirt and started to rub his chest through them.

"Sorry, I'm afraid we didn't," Hope said. "It wasn't for any lack of trying, you have to believe us."

"Don't worry," Harry said, leaning closer towards her. "I believe you."

Hope closed her eyes for a second. Her master had been too kind to the both of them at times. She leaned closer towards him and captured his lips with an intense kiss. The lips had been released after a couple of moments of a wanton exchange between the two of them.

"I won't lie," Harry said. "There are times where my limitations cause me a great deal of agitation."

"It's understandable," Dee-Dee said.

"I see ways to get around them as a challenge," Harry said. "And a way to think outside the box. And I know in the end, I'll come out on the other side stronger than ever before for my eventual Ascension."

The three of them shared a quiet moment. Hope continued to press her breasts against Harry's chest, and had almost slipped his shirt completely off.

"You're a survivor," Hope said. "Normally, it wouldn't be an appealing attribute in our line of work. For you, though, master, it's very appealing."

"Good," Harry said. "I'm glad."

Dee-Dee smiled and pressed her soft chest to her master's back. Her fingers started to work against the back of his ear and her mouth nibbled away at him.

"In a short while, everything will be aligned for Abigail to send you back, "Dee-Dee said. "If we can trust her not to pull any tricks."

"Well, I think we can," Harry said. "If she pulls any tricks, she's not getting any."

Hope responded with a smoldering smile despite the situation. She leaned closer towards Harry and gave him a nice nip on the neck before speaking.

"I might not approve of the succubus in question," Hope said. "You can't deny the results."

She moved her hands all the way down and started to unbuckle Harry's pants. Harry looked at his servant with a raised eyebrow. She only responded with a shifty grin.

"You know, we weren't going to let you get away without getting some ourselves, master."

Hope already pulled Harry's cock out of his pants and with one fell swoop, had him engulfed into her mouth. The hot seal formed by her tight mouth caused Harry to groan the second she had him in her mouth.

"We hope we can relax you, master," Dee-Dee said.

Hope's hot mouth slurped around Harry's large prick. He thought they were off to a pretty good start. His hand threaded around the back of Hope's head. Another hand grabbed the back of Dee-Dee's head as she smashed her lips against his.

The sweet and savory sensation of Dee-Dee's lips pressed up against his made him feel so good. His tongue swirled inside her mouth and pushed deep inside of her.

Hope, wanting the proper attention, brought his cock into the back of her throat. She slurped the manhood a few times before pulling it from her mouth. The Lady Death extended her long wet tongue and wrapped it around the base of his cock. She swept her tongue all the way down him and wrapped it around his head.

"You're so good," Harry said.

Hope smiled and pushed his cock into her mouth. A few more deep sucks brought his throbbing manhood into Hope's mouth. Hope enjoyed the taste of her master's encouraged hip.

Harry leaned back onto the bed which appeared for them. Dee-Dee pulled herself over towards him and started to nuzzle up against him and kiss the side of his neck.

He grabbed Dee-Dee's hips and pulled her on top of him. Her dripping hot snatch hovered over the top of his face. Harry held his hands onto either side of her hips and lowered him towards her.

Dee-Dee anticipated Harry tasting her. His lips nibbled onto hers. The sensations of his mouth catching her pussy lips and then releasing them resulted in Dee-Dee to gasp. Her wet pussy started to work up and down on him.

Harry slipped his tongue deep inside Dee-Dee's dripping hot pussy. He could taste the wonderful sensation. He held onto her hips and buried his face between her thighs.

"Oh, it's been way too long!" Dee-Dee yelled.

Hope smiled and gave Harry a few more deep sucks. Her master's cock stood erect and ready to be mounted. Her salvia coated it from the head to the base of it.

"Given how often our master flirts with death, I'm surprised," Hope said with a smile. She squeezed his cock and could feel it push up into her hands. "Well, I'm wet and ready to ride."

Dee-Dee lifted her hips and brought it down onto her master's mouth. She watched when Hope took off her panties to reveal her smooth, wet snatch.

Hope smiled, it had been a long time since she had been filled with her master's giant cock. The sinful beauty pushed herself down onto Harry's cock. Every single inch of it filled her hot pussy, allowing her to pump all the way down on him with a deep and powerful thrust.

"Just as I remembered!" Hope yelled at the top of her lungs.

She hit a high note when Harry's massive cock hit the back of her. It stretched out her center. Hope held onto his hips and rose all the way up. Hope rose again and fell again to fill herself with Harry's amazing and massive prick.

Harry soaked in the feeling of her soaking and wet pussy on top of his prick. She rose and lowered all over the top of him. Harry's manhood engulfed into her wet snatch.

Dee-Dee's dripping pussy got a wonderful tongue lashing as well. She grinded herself up and down on Harry's face to enjoy it.

"He is talented with his tongue," Dee-Dee said. "Oh, this feels really good."

Some magical force started to caress the breasts of both of the sisters of death. Dee-Dee continued to buck her hips up and release a force of juices down on her face.

She released Harry's mouth to slide back on the bed. Dee-Dee closed her eyes and started to run her fingers over her body. It buzzed from the feeling of an extremely intense orgasm, the likes of which she had barely felt during her life.

"Mmm, looks good."

Hope leaned towards Harry and captured his lips with a passionate kiss. She caught his lips and kissed them. She caught and released those lips over and over again, with a series of hungry and passionate kisses.

Harry groaned and captured Hope's hungrily lips with his. The warmth of her soft and passionate lips made Harry hunger for her. He gripped her breasts and they continued to rub up against him. His cock throbbed nice and hard within her sheath.

Hope grinded her wet pussy up and down against him, and pushed him inside her. She engulfed her master's cock and released it all while rolling her breasts down his body.

Dee-Dee looked up and saw another version of Harry crouched above her. The two of them exchange a passionate kiss while Harry looked down at Dee-Dee's willing body.

"I don't think she's going to release me any time soon," Harry said.

Dee-Dee smiled and spread her legs for her master. Her finger slowly rotated within her pussy.

"Then, you are good enough to give me my release, master."

Harry smiled and took his swollen cock inside her dripping wet pussy. The hot woman's walls closed around Harry the moment he pushed inside her. Harry held onto her and pumped inside her, experiencing the texture of her. Her pussy rubbed him and encouraged Harry to push himself deeper inside her. So, Harry did, rocking her body with a few long and powerful thrusts.

Dee-Dee leaned back to give her master an encouraging moan. Her legs squeezed his waist. The mistress of death's wet and hot pussy grinded up and down against him. She pushed Harry into her wet center with a few long and powerful pumps. Dee-Dee arched herself back and fell onto the bed. She enjoyed having him inside her.

"You've really wanted this for a long time?" Harry asked, leaning into her. "Haven't you, you naughty girl?"

"YES!" Dee-Dee yelled, experiencing the full rush of Harry filling her up and emptying her all of the way.

Hope rose up and continued to bounce up and down on Harry's cock. She speared herself down on the thick piece of manhood. It filled her body up with each rise and each fall. She spiked her hot cunt all the way down on Harry's thick tool.

"Oh, you're making me cum!" Hope yelled. "Thank you master."

Harry reached up and cupped Hope's large breasts. He fondled the soft, but sizeable, orbs in his hands. Hope grinded herself up and down on Harry's engorged prick. It pushed into the depths of her with each rise and with each fall. She closed her walls against him to begin to milk him hard.

Dee-Dee's eyes glazed over from Harry pumping himself inside her. Her wet pussy clenched his hard rod the moment he pushed himself inside her.

"Oooh, yeah," Dee-Dee breathed.

Harry smiled and grabbed her breasts before squeezing them. Dee-Dee's slick walls closed around Harry's hard rod and kept pumping up against him.

"Fuck me, fuck me hard!" Dee-Dee yelled.

"As you wish, my pet," Harry said.

He grabbed onto a handful of her hair and kissed her. The lip bruising force of the kiss inflamed Dee-Dee's loins. She brought them all the way up. The pleasure had been doubled when Harry's hands traveled over her breasts and cupped them extremely hard.

Harry pounded in and out of the wet pussy of the manifestation of death. Dee-Dee's nails pushed into Harry's back the deeper he pushed himself inside her.

"So hot!" Hope yelled. She brought herself all the way up down onto Harry and spiked herself all the way down onto him.

"Just like you," Harry said.

Hope nodded and pumped his cock inside her with a few more vigorous pumps. She wanted the full contents of his balls buried deep inside her. Nothing else would do. Hope kept bouncing up and down on his pole.

The end had been reached with Harry's balls twitching within Hope's wet cunt. She slid all the way down onto him and Harry pushed forward.

He fired his load inside Hope's pussy. Harry grabbed onto Hope's ass and forced her all the way down on him so the entire load could be pumped inside her willing and wet pussy.

Hope's walls closed around him a few seconds later. She came down to Earth with an amazing orgasm. Good didn't even begin to describe who she felt from here.

The duplicate unleashed his gift into Dee-Dee's body. The young man fired the thick seed inside her lovely and hot twat.

The two sides came down from their mutual bliss. Dee-Dee draped over one side of Harry's body and Hope draped over the other side of his body. The two sides of Death smiled and their hands started to caress Harry's body.

"A-hem."

Abigail stood in the doorway and watched both of them. The girl shifted her leg a little bit and the skirt rolled up.

"As much as I enjoyed the show, it's time," Abigail said. "When you return, you will not be completely merged with the Hallows. Until you claim them in a battle with Blackfire."

"Which means I have my full potential until I get them back," Harry said.

He waved his hands and some clothes appeared on his body. At least three signs of absolutely disappointment passed through them.

"You don't have to merge with them," Abigail said. "You can be strong without them, stronger without them. The moment he's banished and his power is broken, he won't have them either."

"I've learned a long time ago the Hallows being in the wild alone is a bad idea, given how much blood has been spilled over them," Harry said. "I'm willing to accept the burden…again, even if it sets back all of the progress."

"It will…more likely set you back to where you were before he killed you," Hope said. "Maybe slightly weaker, maybe slightly stronger….hopefully slightly stronger."

Harry hoped she was right. As of right now, he stepped out of the shadows and moved onto face Abigail.

"Once he's secured, I get my prize," Abigail said.

"Yes, as promised," Harry said.

"And I'm sending you back just in time," Abigail said. "But, don't waste any time, for it's running out. Good luck."

Abigail leaned towards Harry and pressed her lips against his with a smoldering kiss. The energy swirled around Harry and his essence began its trip back to the world of the living.

She could have just teleported him without the kiss and the dramatics. One couldn't deny this was a bit more fun.

* * *

 

Joseph Blackfire basked in his moment of glory. Several of his enemies were on his back. He turned his full and undivided attention to the Black Canary and Batman. The two struggled to rise to their feet. Joseph put them to their backs.

"Don't you see, the power I wield!" Blackfire yelled. His eyes grew with manic fury. "I judge the living. And I judge the dead!"

Blackfire leaned down to face them. His eyes grew even more spooky the second he leaned down.

"And today, I'll judge you!" Blackfire yelled. "Say farewell, for this is the end, the end for you all!"

Blackfire raised his hands to the air.

Black Canary tried to break free from the containment. One more attempt to save herself.

"I failed," Katana said.

"No," Flamebird said. "You haven't failed. You just haven't gotten around to succeeding yet."

Katana didn't know how this could be. They were trapped without any way out. Blackfire hovered over the top of them like the demonic snake he was.

Batman again tried to push himself out of the restraints. All of the gadgets in his belt, all of the training in the world, he couldn't get out of there.

He had been completely and utterly broken. Batman stopped fighting, at least for a moment.

"You will fall just like the Dragon did!" Blackfire yelled. "I'm certain you're hoping for him to make the save. You're wrong though. The Dragon is dead. He has passed away. He is no more. He has been sent to his eternal torment to be burned by the fires of his sin. The Dragon is dead."

A storm continued to rise. For a brief second, Blackfire looked skyward. The clouds contorted into the dark shape of a dragon.

"THE DRAGON IS DEAD!"

A bolt of lightning struck the grave which he buried the dragon in. Fire started to rise up from the ground over the top of the grave. Smoke rose in the air.

Joseph Blackfire turned his attention towards the figure in the smoke. His mouth hung open wide.

"Not quite."

Blackfire jumped back and threw his arms into the air. He gestured and swung his arms around while stammering. His words didn't have any particular meaning. His face paled up and sweat dripped from his brow.

Finally, he found his tongue.

"No, you're a specter!"

Harry raised his hand and shot a bolt of magical energy from his hand with greater ease they had since merging with the Hallows. The Deacon lifted off of the ground and smashed through the gravestone.

"Does a specter have the ability to do that?" Harry asked. "Get to your feet, Joseph. It's the end of the Blackfires, tonight."

"No, it will be your end," Blackfire said. "Spirits speak to me…destroy this pretender!"

Blackfire tried to draw his full power, playing into Harry's hands.

' _Harry, what…happened?'_ Kara asked, a bit weak, even though she smiled at him being back.

' _Just wait.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on 6/25/2016.**

* * *

 

_And Harry is back, just in time for business to about pick up._


	199. Risen Part Five

**Chapter One Hundred and Ninety-Nine: Risen Part Five.**

* * *

 

Nightwing knew there would only be a few moments before Blackfire recovered from the initial shock of Harry's return from the grave. The shot his hand forward and broke the chains which held down his various allies. They had been broken free and allowed Nightwing to turn his full attention away from Blackfire's minions to the Deacon himself.

Deacon Blackfire rose up to his full height and raised his hands. Nightwing prevented him from attacking straight away and knocked Blackfire back several feet. The two of them crashed through several head stones which toppled over like domino effects.

Nightwing rolled over and landed on his feet. He went face to face with Blackfire. The Deacon raised his hands and reclaimed the staff. He jabbed the staff at Nightwing in an attempt to attack him.

The Deacon groaned in surprise when the staff had been pushed back. The energy he tried to use to take the Dragon down had been pushed back into him. The Dragon jumped behind Blackfire to the point where the dangerous deacon could barely register what happened.

"You thought I lost my fire, didn't you?"

A loud crack resounded and Blackfire slid back from the impact. Harry's hands raised up into the air and he sent another violent attack down onto the back of Blackfire's head. The Deacon staggered underneath the attack. Nightwing decided to keep up the attack and bombarded his enemy with another high level energy attack.

"No, impossible, I'm the one who is the master of this power," Blackfire said.

"You tried to take my power without understanding it properly!" Harry yelled.

A flash flew through the grave yard. The energy knocked Blackfire down onto the ground. The Deacon tried to grab his energy staff.

Flamebird flew into the picture and pulled the staff out of Blackfire's hand. The Deacon rose to his feet and tried to nail her out of mid-air. She dodged the black fire coming from black fire and it caused one of the trees to burst into flames.

"Put down my staff, you wicked little….."

Nightwing caught him in mid-statement with a dagger directed into his chest. Blackfire had been doubled over from the dagger impaled into him. Blood splattered from his mouth.

"Forget it!" Blackfire yelled. "I don't need….I don't need you. I have the power, I'll summon it all of my own. The spirits of death come to me…"

Harry watched Blackfire summon all of the power. He smiled and watched the others move in to protect him. In about a minute, someone else who had an axe to grind with Blackfire would pop up.

"SOLOMON GRUNDY, BORN ON A MONDAY!"

The large form of Grundy broke through the church gates. The swamp zombie walked forward and came face to face with Deacon Blackfire. Recognition dawned in the face of Grundy.

"Look, he remembers you," Harry said. "I'm going to stand over here, while the two of you get reacquainted."

Solomon Grundy stalked Blackfire. The Deacon's mouth hung open and he tried to push his hand towards Grundy.

"Stand back!" Blackfire yelled. "Away from my beast, away from me. I command you to cease what you're doing!"

Grundy didn't take too kindly to a command. He grabbed Blackfire around the throat and rag-dolled him up into the air. The seven foot tall swamp zombie almost planted Blackfire into the ground with a huge choke slam. Grundy roared when he looked at his enemy.

"I told you back, monster!" Blackfire yelled.

Blackfire bombarded him with lightning. This distraction allowed Nightwing to motion in Katana's general direction.

Katana blinked and understood where he was coming from instantly. The Soultaker sword clutched in Katana's hand and she rushed forward. The blade plunged forward and caught Blackfire into the side.

The spirits grew restless. Harry raised his hand and created a containment unit to prevent the spirits from all bombarding down onto them. The spirits did their very best to attempt to break free from their particular position.

Harry followed the progress of Grundy punching Blackfire in his face. The meat hooks of Grundy nailed the wounded Blackfire in the face. Those punches continued to ravish the undead Deacon. The force of nature of Grundy didn't stop, no matter what.

"No, I have power, I'm under control."

"Oh, you mean control like this?"

Harry swiped his wrist. A scythe appeared in his hand made of pure magical energy. Blackfire tried to shield himself from energy attack.

A battle of wills started between the two of them. The group in the graveyard stopped long enough to watch the battle occur between both of them. Harry pushed against Blackfire. Blackfire pushed back.

"I am the conscious…"

"Of annoyance, yes, I agree," Nightwing said.

Everyone had gotten sick of Blackfire's grandstanding speeches. He had been launched a few feet off of the ground. Grundy grabbed Blackfire around the waist.

Harry almost forgot about Grundy. Blackfire didn't. The demented backwards preacher raised his hands and brought down the thunder down across the back of Grundy's head. Grundy screamed when the demonic spirits grabbed onto him.

Nightwing swept in and nailed Blackfire in the stomach with a lightning blast. He chained two more lightning blasts together before moving in for the kill. The scythe wrapped around his head and he propelled himself into the air.

The scythe ripped off Blackfire's head. His body collapsed into a cloud of dust.

"Have you not learned anything?" Blackfire asked. "I cannot be killed…"

Harry channeled enough energy to shove his hand throw Blackfire's throat. He should have shoved his hand through the man's chest. Ramming his hand through the Deacon's throat made Harry feel just as good and there was just something which made him feel really good about ripping the bastard's throat out.

Blackfire gasped for air. Words could not pass through his lips.

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you!" Harry yelled. "You know, the power you took, it's mine, and I don't like how you've been using it. So, no thanks, I'll take back what is mine."

The man's mouth continued to open when Harry yanked the energy deep from his being thread by thread.

"Finally, he shut up," Talia murmured to her sister.

Blackfire's body sized up and blew up into several magical particles. A glowing silver orb rose up into the air in front of Harry's line of sight. He smiled watching the orb rise out. The same image Harry noticed in the Crossing earlier buried inside the orb. The Cloak, the wand, and the stone all called out to their rightful master.

Nightwing caught the orb in his hand. The full power slowly returned to him. The strands of power, almost broken, reinforced themselves and reinstated Harry's connection to the Three Keys of the Endless. His eyes rolled into the back of his head.

' _Harry?'_ Diana asked.

' _Everything is fine,'_ Harry thought. _'Everything is wonderful. I can see the power….it's returning to me.'_

The barrier between life and death reinforced itself. The seal had been rebuilt between life and death.

Harry's attention returned to the downed form of Joseph Blackfire. The residual energies left within him slowly healed the man. Blackfire's gaunt face stared up towards him and he sat up.

* * *

 

The spirits surrounding him left. Joseph Blackfire's breathing continued with a rise of his chest and a fall of his chest. The clammy sensations coming from lead an extremely awful feeling.

Blackfire lost the power. The glorious power left his being. He sat to his feet and came face to face with the Dragon. Blackfire took half of a step back.

"No," Blackfire said. "No."

"Yes," Nightwing said. "You used up the rest of your power to stand up, didn't you?"

"I still have my grandfather's gift!" Blackfire yelled. "This isn't over. You put me down before, but I have risen up. I am the Phoenix which keeps rising from…"

Harry raised his hand into the air and lifted Joseph off of the ground. The impromptu levitation also led to lost. Blackfire's gaze penetrated Harry. He had many questions. All of them which had been lost in the back of his throat the moment he had been hoisted up onto the ground.

"I've heard the same song and dance from you," Harry said. "And I have to say, it's getting pretty tiring. You're pretty dangerous, I'll give you this. Crafty, although not as crafty as you think you are."

Blackfire's protests continued to occur. Nightwing didn't even bother to acknowledge his words. Even though they had become unheard, and Blackfire's fingers started to twitch. He was trying to summon anything with him.

The realization had lost a fair amount of his power had hit Blackfire along the lines of a ton of bricks to his chest. Harry relaxed the grip and caused Blackfire to drop to the ground. The ability to speak had been reinstated to Blackfire.

"You think this is over?" Blackfire asked. "You think this ends tonight?"

Harry looked over his shoulder towards the group which waited to see what he would do next. A full gaze around the graveyard showed Harry pretty much all he needed to know. He turned his attention directly to Blackfire and his lips curled into a smile.

"It looks pretty much over to me," Harry said.

"Oh, no, no, no, it's not over," Blackfire said. "You see, what does not kill you, makes you stronger. You might think of me as a nuisance. You might think of me as something which needs to die so the world can flourish. I am not a nuisance, I am the guiding light the world needs."

Harry allowed him to get the one last grandstanding speech out of his system. He pretty much knew what happened next and knew what Blackfire's ultimate fate would be.

"You see me as the devil when you look into my eyes," Blackfire said. "To the truly wicked, the righteous is the devil. And even if I am the wicked, it's better the devil you know. Then the devil you don't. I can feel it….and deep down you can feel it as well."

Blackfire's voice dropped into an extremely cryptic whisper. Harry leaned down towards him so he could listen to him.

"True evil will be born to Gotham City after Midnight," Blackfire said. "This city will never be the same again. It would have been more humane for me to let it burn. You see, I'm the savior….."

"Delusional," Harry said.

"True delusion is ignoring a warning when it comes to you," Blackfire said. "You'll know, and not until it's too late. You'll know when the consciousness of this world gets crushed by the consequences of your arrogance."

' _I'd finish him off,'_ Nyssa thought. _'If I were you.'_

Nightwing had a question, but discounted taking this man seriously. Joseph Blackfire manipulated the minds of so many with his sick games. Harry would be damned if he allowed this monster to enter his mind.

"Tonight, the Blackfire clan ends."

The ground beneath Joseph Blackfire cracked open. Several hands grabbed him and yanked him far beneath the ground. He sat up with a tranquil expression dancing in his eyes. The hands of darkness dragged him further and further underneath the ground.

Harry observed Blackfire disappear six feet under and then behind. The highly sensitive nature of his powers resulted in Harry watching Blackfire slip further and further underneath the ground.

' _Going, going, gone,'_ Harry thought.

He would be lying if he didn't feel a little bit unsettled regarding this. Blackfire's words made him think.

"Don't try and let him get in your head," Batman said.

Nightwing thought, and not for the first time, Batman's thoughts pretty much echoed his own. He turned around to offer his thanks to the League for helping.

They were all gone, including Nyssa. Harry considered this to be abrupt and was about to ask.

' _It figured it would be best for us to depart,'_ Nyssa thought. _'A truce of sorts, before the storm which will to follow.'_

"They're gone," Katana said.

"They must have figured it would be best for them to leave," Nightwing said. "Call things a truce after the night you had been through."

Katana considered his words for a few seconds. Given how the League had operated in the past, they would work together with their enemies if it served a greater purpose. Once the greater purpose had been served, there would be a probationary period of a couple of days. The moment it was over, it would be back to the races once again.

"And it must mean tomorrow would be another day," Katana said. "Once the truce is over, we'll going to have to prepare."

"And we will."

Batman and Katana took a second to look up. Nightwing vanished as quickly as he reappeared. Black Canary, Huntress, and Flamebird also followed him close behind.

Katana turned towards Batman, raising her eyebrow.

"We better follow their lead."

The sirens could be hard. It was a wonder Gotham City hadn't been turned into a wasteland because of the chaos of this evening. Everything turned pretty quiet, at least for right now. Midnight hadn't quite passed and Halloween wasn't quite over.

What else could go wrong tonight?

* * *

 

Many people had their fair share of near death experiences. Harry wasn't an exception to this rule in the slightest. Only when regarding Harry's experiences, they would have to take the near part out of the near death experience part and replace them with death-experience.

' _Just another day in my life,'_ Harry thought. _'Such is life.'_

Harry took a moment to collect his thoughts. He dressed as Nightwing. He could already hear the protests coming from behind him.

' _You come back from the dead,'_ Kara thought. _'That would be an excuse for pretty much anyone to take a long holiday, or at least call it a night. And instead, you're out there, on patrol.'_

' _What can I say?'_ Harry asked. _'I've never felt more alive.'_

The long pause allowed Harry to really consider the groans coming from the bond network. Diana, Dinah, and Kara were the three who were the most obvious in their groans. They did not groan alone. Groans followed by anyone else who was in the know.

' _Too soon?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes,'_ Diana thought. _'Much too soon.'_

' _I'm not sure you know how horrifying it was,'_ Kara thought. _'We've been around when you were knocked out, and…the bond link goes pretty weird then. This is different.'_

' _I'm sure it was,'_ Harry thought.

Nightwing decided to take advantage of the excessive power while he could to fly without the use of the wings on his suit.

' _So, you're more powerful?'_ Faora asked. _'I'm guessing the problem with the merging with the Hallows isn't fixed.'_

' _No, unfortunately, I'll be back to my pre-death levels in a couple of days, maybe about a week,'_ Harry thought. _'Dee-Dee and Hope weren't sure exactly when I'd return to their levels. The only thing they were pretty sure about was I wouldn't return to beneath those levels.'_

' _Are you sure about this?'_ Kara asked.

' _Ninety seven percent sure,'_ Harry thought. _'And yes, before any of you have to say anything, I'm normally the three percent. This time, it could be different, maybe.'_

Harry barely even entertained the notion of being wrong, at least this time. There was a pretty decent chance he could be wrong through. The young man averted his course and closed his eyes. So far, all of Gotham City was turning a bit quieter. Harry thought this was encouraging news, and news which wouldn't really last to be perfectly honest.

He decided it would be high time to check up on an old friend, or rather foe, to see if he returned to where he should be on this night. Harry turned off to one side and made a detour straight into Slaughter Swamp. Harry dropped down onto the ground.

A few inches to the side, Harry noticed him straight away. The figure of Solomon Grundy lumbered off to one side, arms swaying next to him. The figure's gaze turned straight towards home.

He stopped a second later and turned towards Nightwing. Grundy stared him down for a good thirty seconds. The pause happened between the two of them. A long moment passed where Nightwing thought Grundy would turn his attention onto him and stop Harry into dust.

The longest moment of Harry's life passed before Grundy turned his attention away from Harry. He walked off into the swamp and returned to rest.

' _Okay, was it just me, or it was that pretty weird?'_ Kara asked.

' _It wasn't just you,'_ Harry thought.

It was almost as if Grundy acknowledged their alliance tonight. Harry figured the next time they came side to side, it would be as enemies. They did find a common foe in Deacon Blackfire. Chaos bred strange bedfellows.

' _So, you're standing around to tempt fate, are you?'_ Dinah asked.

' _I've tempted fate a lot tonight,'_ Harry thought. _'Actually, I've tempted a whole lot tonight.'_

Harry turned back around and backed off. He still hadn't told anyone about the deal he made. He was certain the moment Joseph Blackfire had been secured, she would be coming to collect on her end of the deal. Harry didn't worry about it though. He had been in far weirder positions.

' _Everyone is on is one piece back at the penthouse, are they?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes, we are, for what it's worth,'_ Faora thought. _'We're all a bit shell-shocked. We thought for a moment you had been….and the bond link….it was really hard to keep it together.'_

' _You should have known I was not easily destroyed,'_ Harry thought.

' _I hate to ask this,'_ Dinah thought. She paused for a long moment and took a deep breath. _'Is the grave….'_

' _You mean to ask whether or not I resurrected my old body, or created a new one when I returned, don't you?'_ Harry asked. _'Thanks for reminding me, Dinah. Faora, we're going to need to recover what's left of my old body. Better be on the safe side.'_

' _So you essentially had been reborn into a new form?'_ Karen asked.

' _Yes, like the Phoenix I've risen from the ashes,'_ Harry thought.

Harry heard a hint of her in the afterlife as well. She didn't show herself to him this time. It was brief and it did lead his two humble servants to him. And the Phoenix song continued to haunt Joseph Blackfire and put the man on edge. Harry thought being on edge was where the man belonged.

* * *

 

Sarah Essen didn't even pretend to understand half of what was going on tonight on Gotham City. They thought the apex of the weirdness would have been an invasion of the moth monsters last night. The weirdness only continued afterwards with the ghost of a dead preacher showing up in the middle of the Gotham City police department.

' _I thought something was weird,'_ Sarah thought. _'I mean, I don't have the heightened sensitivity of many of the girls in the bond. Still though, there was something really weird going on.'_

' _Yes,'_ Harry thought. _'The something weird going on was me, dying, yet again. But, I'm back now. Blackfire is….well it's hard to explain. He wasn't alive. He returned to a physical body….and was able to control the afterlife, but he wasn't really alive.'_

Sarah smiled. She remembered why it was a good idea people like Harry were in town. There were some elements of crime the Gotham City Police Department were just not capable of dealing with. These problems popped up with an alarming decree of regularity.

A shell-shocked Ellen Yin stepped towards her. Sarah reached over and put her arm around the woman.

"Is it cliché to say it's been a long night?" Ellen asked.

"No, it's not," Sarah said. "And if it is, it wouldn't stop it from being accurate."

"I'm not going to even try and wrap my head around what happened tonight," Ellen said.

Sarah smiled and turned towards the younger police officer. The longest pause existed between the two of them. Other members of the GCPD filed in. Bullock walked in, in his usual mood. He swung his arms back and forth before he took a position in front of them. Montoya joined him as well.

"Be glad when Halloween is over," Bullock said. "Then again, we're in Gotham City. Never get a break from the kooks being out at night. They're out pretty much every night, aren't they?"

More members of the MCU made their way inside. James Gordon walked into the room. He drank a cup of coffee. Several tense eyes had locked onto Gordon in an attempt to make sense of some kind of situation where it would be almost impossible to even make sense of.

"Thank you all for joining me today," Gordon said. "As you know, tonight, Gotham City has been swept underneath chaos…..we're in the midst of an investigation. Many people in this department saw a dead man appear in the department and give us a message of cryptic doom."

Everyone nodded. Blackfire's startling appearance struck them hard and would not be leaving their thoughts any time soon. They all stared down at Gordon.

"More seriously elsewhere in Gotham City, many people claimed to see a plague of zombies, and had to be restrained from attacking children," Gordon said. "Immense riots happened thereafter with the people involved in them pretty much shocked and unable to reconcile what they did."

"Yeah, it's pretty nuts out there," Bullock said. "So, what did we find out? Did Blackfire actually pull out himself out of the ground? You know, his body did go missing, and you've heard the rumors about his grandpappy being some kind of witchdoctor or something."

Gordon took a moment to slide his glasses from the bridge of his nose. He gave his nose a hard pinch and responded with a sigh.

"We have still not been able to locate Joseph Blackfire's remains which had gone missing months ago," Gordon said. "We are investigating the source of this chaotic situation. The answer may in fact be to a new strain of fear toxin, created by Jonathan Crane."

Needless to say, this particular theory did not go over too well with them.

"It would explain a lot," Sarah said.

' _Even though I know better,'_ Sarah thought.

The MCU barely could acknowledge vigilantes walking the streets. She doubted very much Loeb would sanction any talk whatsoever regarding magical rituals which brought a long dead preacher back from the grave. Sarah just had this funny feeling buried deep inside her it was not going to go this way.

"So, someone, or maybe Crane himself, gassed us?" Bullock asked. "Doesn't seem to be effecting us now…..guess it was one of those selective doses of fear toxin."

One could tell from Bullock's tone he didn't buy the words at all.

"And did you hear what….Blackfire said?" Bullock asked. "He said the cop killer is among us."

"He's a master of deception," Gordon said. "We've long since suspected the cop killer could be among us all, but….there's no proof of it, is there?"

The entirety of the MCU all shook their heads.

"We're going to have to stand together, and not let mistrust rule us," Gordon said.

Tonight, mistrust and superstition nearly tore apart all of Gotham City. This didn't even go into the weird reports about the mysterious energy coming from the graveyard earlier tonight. By the time anyone could get a look at it, the graveyard was deserted.

' _Five minutes to Midnight,'_ Gordon thought to himself. _'I wonder if the nightmare was over.'_

* * *

 

The moment Nyssa and her team left Gotham City, they were on the first plane towards the Lazarus Pit tainted by the meteor rocks. They were not going to allow this pit to be used for any other purposes ever again. The League thought the first thing they should have done a long time ago was trash the pit.

"It's been allowed to exist for much too long," Nyssa said.

"We're here."

Nyssa turned towards her team. They spoke the obvious. Nyssa's eyes drifted outside of the entrance to the pit. Earlier tonight, it had bene used to resurrect someone who had been left better off dead. The strange energies coming from the pit put Nyssa completely on her guard.

Talia made her way towards Nyssa. Nyssa turned to address her sister very briefly.

"You're not having your misgivings regarding what we're doing, are you?" Nyssa asked.

"No, even though we're not going in with our father's blessing, it must be done," Talia said.

Nyssa knew of her sister's loyalty towards her father. The older sister only respected her father's position and nothing more. She hated to bring down her sister's mood by revealing this to her.

"I'm sure Ra's Al Ghul would agree this pit represents a security breach as well," Nyssa said. "And I'm certain the moment he saw how Joseph Blackfire tried to destroy the world he worked so hard to build, he would agree the pit would need to be destroyed just as much as we do."

Talia could not deny this fact. She turned around and lead the women inside of the temple. The energies in the air were all wrong for a Lazarus Pit. The Pit still worked under the proper circumstances.

"Everyone watch your step," Talia said.

The members of the League of Assassins moved forward to check if the coast was clear. This left Talia and Nyssa lingering a few steps in the background to have a conversation.

"It's obvious our estranged brother has our father's remains," Nyssa said.

"Yes," Talia said. "The question is what does he….."

"He intends to get our father's favor, to prove himself as more worth of the mantle of the Demon," Nyssa said. "He's always had a selective memory, thinking of himself to be of greater importance than he really has been."

"So, his body is a bargaining chip over his perceived importance of the League."

Talia's entire disgust rang out true within her voice. She would have liked nothing better than to take her sword and stab it through her brother's foul neck. One of the few things she disagreed with her father on was the fact she allowed such a monster to live.

The problem was, they had no choice to allow this particular monster to live, at least for right now. He had access to the body of Ra's Al Ghul to use as he pleased, as a bargaining chip. If they killed the White Ghost, they may never locate their father.

"He does realize the longer he awaits to put our father in the pit, the more…the more consequences there are?" Talia asked.

Nyssa didn't say anything for a moment. One of her followers stepped forward towards her.

"We have it….blood is oozing from the pit….it's still active."

"Then, you're going to have to cover the pit by collapsing the tunnel," Nyssa said.

She knew if any of the waters escaped into the wild, it would be a catastrophe. This area had enough problems with the fallout from the meteor shower all of those years ago. This entire pit wouldn't have been practically unusable.

"At once, my lady."

The team rigged the tunnel to explode. Nyssa and Talia stepped back with the rest of the team.

"Do it," Nyssa said.

They did it without any further prompting. The tunnel collapsed on the pit and sealed it from usage. Nyssa would hope this would be the end of it.

* * *

 

Harry stretched out and enjoyed the power flowing within him. Midnight on Halloween just passed and November had arrived. With it, a bitter and cold wind, along with a rainstorm directly outside of the window of his study, which Harry didn't try and focus on too much.

Really, tonight started rather badly and it could have ended worse. It didn't though. Harry rode some pretty good vibes tonight on a night which ended up turning around for the better. He hoped to make the most of his heightened powers while he could.

' _So, approximately how long do you have?'_ Morgaine asked.

' _If I would hazard agues, I would say a couple more days before my power levels reach what they were before my latest death,'_ Harry thought.

Harry would have preferred his progress had been sped along. He did enjoy the fact this little partially unmerging and then re-merging with the Hallows would not cause him to regress any.

' _It could have been worse,'_ Zatanna thought.

' _I could have regressed, or not found a way back,'_ Harry thought. _'So, is Wanda okay?'_

' _It took me a while to calm her down,'_ Zatanna thought. _'But, I found a way.'_

' _And it was pretty nice when she did,'_ Wanda thought. _'I'm sure we can demonstrate it for you later on.'_

Harry smiled. A good demonstration would be amazing if he would be perfectly honest. Harry settled back and rolled his neck a fraction of an inch to one side. The storm continued to hammer away outside.

' _Your guest hasn't arrived yet, has she?'_ Circe asked.

' _Well, she wanted Joseph sent along,'_ Harry thought. _'She might have wanted to see his torment….you really think I made a mistake making this deal.'_

' _Actually, no,'_ Circe said. _'Anyone else, I would have thought it would have been the biggest mistake in your life. You on the other hand….you have the ability to bend a highly powerful entity at your whim. And this will be another valuable ally for you, my lord.'_

' _Yes, I'm sure she might think she has a bit of an advantage on you,'_ Morgaine thought. _'You have this natural ability to tame women though. You'll have her. She'll bend to your will just as much as anyone else.'_

Harry respected their opinions. He did make the deal as a calculated risk. It would pan out though.

A glowing light erupted around Harry. He rose to his feet, expecting it to be Abigail who would be coming to collect her payment. She didn't pass through the portal, rather it was Hope, followed by Dee-Dee.

Harry locked eyes onto both of them instantly. The serious looks on their face made Harry know right away something was up.

"We have a problem," Hope said.

Harry heard his least four favorite words in succession with each other. A groan passed through his throat.

"Follow us," Dee-Dee said. "We'll explain."

Harry's good feeling of a night which turned out right despite it all going wrong faded in the distance.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on June 29** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Harry defeats Blackfire, but he warns of a greater evil coming along, at least far as Gotham City is concerned._

_Harry died, but got better, and got a little bit stronger. He's not completely healed though because we don't want to make things too easy._

_And having a problem that never bodes well for anyone. Our heroes especially being at the top of the list, as we'll find out before long._

_Chapter Two Hundred is on Wednesday. Three years to the day Ascension Book One began publication. Seems like a life time ago._


	200. After the Stroke of Midnight

**Vote For Your Favorite Chapter Of the Past Week At the Blog. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/**

* * *

 

**Chapter Two Hundred: After the Stroke of Midnight.**

A roaring engine announced the arrival of a limo which pulled in front of a ritzy nightclub in Gotham City. The city, in the midst of chaos just no less than fifteen minutes previous, finally settled down in a somewhat calm manner. The door of the limo pushed open and a rotund figure excited his way from the limo. The one and only Oswald Cobblepot, better known as the Penguin, exited from the limo.

He had a very important appointment to keep and it would be foolish to miss it. Cobblepot waddled to the front door. He dressed to impress and carried a stylish umbrella to match. Cobblepot's mood looked to be mostly jovial with a hint of a business like nature in his face. He carried a case which dangled from his hand.

"Yes, sir," the doorman said.

"I'm here to see Mr. Sionis," Cobblepot he said. "He may have told me you were to be expecting me."

The man took a couple of seconds to read the list and responded with a nod. The man stepped backwards and allowed Cobblepot his way inside. "Yes, sir, you're on the list. We'll make sure you or Mr. Sionis are not disturbed when you conduct your business."

"Of course, thank you," Cobblepot said.

Good service had been so hard to come by, even in Gotham City. Oswald Cobblepot walked down the corridors. He stopped a few beats down the hallway to give a jovial wave to the people involved. He turned and made his way up to the set of stairs. The penthouse suite had been rented out to give himself and Black Mask all of the privacy in the world when they conducted business.

' _And no doubt the suite is very useful for a couple of other things,'_ Cobblepot said. He chuckled even though no one could have even figured out what he chuckled about.

The chuckle tapered off and it was time to get down to business. Cobblepot ambled his way up the steps and raised his hand to knock on the door. He hummed underneath his breath and leaned back on the umbrella. The door opened and a young blonde who looked to be in her early twenties scurried out of the room past him.

A moment passed to allow the young blonde to clear the hallway before Cobblepot turned his attention towards Sionis. Sionis readjusted his tie the moment he made his way into the room.

' _Mixing business with pleasure, I see,'_ Cobblepot said. _'Ah well, it happens to the best of us. Who am I to judge anything he does?'_

"Good to see you," Sionis said. "Been holed up here all night….because it's not fit out to be Gotham City. Been getting some really strange rumors coming from over here."

Cobblepot turned somber and sat down. Sionis already fished out some glasses and a bottle of wine. Two bottles sat elsewhere on the table and it appeared Sionis had already been kicking back a few drinks. Given the rumors about how much of a violent drunk Sionis could be when he was intoxicated, Cobblepot would be lying if he wasn't a little bit concerned.

"If you're talking about old Joseph Blackfire coming from the dead and spooking a bunch of cops, I heard about the same thing," Cobblepot said.

"Yes, Blackfire….riled up a bunch of trash against me a year ago," Sionis said. "If he was alive, I would have wanted to put a gun down his throat, and my fist would be right behind it."

Cobblepot answered with a nervous chuckle. He already could tell Sionis had been riled up to be perfectly honest.

"Why talk about the past though?" Sionis asked. "We have a more pressing problem next week….."

"You don't think Harvey Dent's going to be a problem, is he?" Cobblepot asked.

"What, Dent, the pretty boy?" Sionis asked. "Nah, he's not going to be any trouble at all. He's going to learn how to play the game, if he knows what's good for him. Wasn't really referring to Dent, at least not completely, although he could be a problem if he gets any funny ideas."

Cobblepot accepted the glass of wine. He tipped it back and allowed the liquid to wet his whistle.

"Well, if you're not talking about Harvey Dent, then who are you referring to?" Cobblepot asked.

"Referring to the fact Salvatore Maroni is up on parole," Sionis said.

Sionis knocked a drink back. This allowed Cobblepot to reflect and nod about the entire situation. He took a long drink of his own and hummed underneath his breath.

"Yes, yes, I've heard," Cobblepot said. "Have to admit, old boy, it's concerning, isn't it? Maroni about out….seems to me the Roman is pulling some strings."

"It should seem to you, Oswald, because that's exactly what he's doing," Sionis said. "The Roman knows his grip on Gotham City is slipping. He isn't willing to give up his empire without a fight."

"Caesar was eventually betrayed by his allies," Cobblepot said. "It strikes you as a bit curious he would trust Maroni. He could be his Brutus, willing to put the final knife in his back."

Sionis took a long drink from him.

"Big Lou and the Roman only work together through gritted teeth because we've got them nervous," Sionis said. "We've made them scared. Made them scared there's going to change going through Gotham City. You see, we got them on the run. Now they're about ready to do something stupid."

Cobblepot took a second to drink from the wine glass. He could tell Sionis had a hair up his ass about something. Cobblepot wondered in the back of his mind how would this benefit him?

"And it's not just the Falcones and the Maronis," Sionis said. "You have Thorne being the king shit and thinking he's untouchable with his little Commission of Crime."

"So are you saying it's time for us to circle the wagons?" Cobblepot asked.

"What I'm saying is it's time for us to take control," Sionis said. "All of Gotham City could be ours….if we work together. The Roman falls and Gotham City is ours for the taking."

Cobblepot considered what he assumed to be a tantalizing proposal. He thought for the longest moment about what he wanted to do.

"The bastard has more lives than an entire army of cats," Cobblepot said. "He's not going to be an easy one to take out. You know it, Sionis."

Sionis laughed and grew suddenly serious. The moment a man like Roman Sionis turned serious, Cobblepot's anxiety hit an entirely new level.

' _Boy, the guy can be bug fuck nuts sometimes,'_ Cobblepot said. _'You can't argue with the fact he gets results and big time too.'_

"Think of it as a long term goal for 1999," Sionis said. "We take out Roman Sionis and we get him out of the picture. All of this city can be ours now."

"Yes, I can see your point," Cobblepot said.

Carmine Falcone's grip continued to slip in Gotham City. Both of them could see a couple of interesting opportunities presenting themselves. All they had to do was step in and see what would transpire.

"Time for the old guard to fall," Cobblepot said.

"Yes, and a brand new Gotham City rises in their place."

This was one point both of them could drink to without any reason whatsoever.

* * *

 

Kara walked through the penthouse in a daze. She looked at the clock and Midnight was about ready to edge past. The same vibe she felt last February during Friday the thirteenth hit her and she would glad when this Halloween was officially over.

Diana walked behind Kara. Kara turned around and almost gripped Diana by the wrist. The Amazon Princess stood up in surprise.

"Sorry," Kara said. "I guess I'm just still tense from tonight. Everything happening tonight, I don't even know what to think."

"Don't worry," Diana said. "We're all on our guard after tonight."

Diana made her way behind Kara. She flinched for a second. Diana's arms wrapped tightly around Kara and pulled the girl close towards her. Kara closed her eyes and enjoyed the warm softness of Diana's breasts pressing against the back of her head.

"All of the practice drills, nothing prepares you for this," Kara said. "And he's fine….even though he shouldn't be."

Diana escorted Kara across the recreational room of her penthouse. She turned herself to see Dinah dressed in tight spandex shorts and a black top. She didn't have her shoes on. Dinah kept hammering away at a heavy bag. Her eyes glazed over, lip had been bitten down, and an intense focused glare etched in her eyes.

She switched a moment later from the punching at the bag to the rapid fire kicking of the back. Dinah buried her kicks into the side of the bag with the constant rapid fire kicks. Diana and Kara turned to Barbara who sat on the couch over to the side. She looked a bit disturbed for some reason.

' _After the night she's had….I think we can give her some space,'_ Barbara thought.

Barbara did not have quite the night any of these three did. She turned towards her shoulder and could see Donna making her way up the stairs. Donna stopped short and looked at Kara and Diana.

"You…you should sit down," Donna said. "It's been a bad night."

Thankfully, Donna had the presence of mind to shield Lyta from the worst of it. And she didn't have the bond access the older girls had towards her father. Had this happened, well scarred for life might have been an understatement.

"Is Harry okay?" Donna asked.

"Well, I'm sure if he was here, he would tell you he's breathing," Diana said.

Donna's spine blew down with a series of shivers. It had been borderline difficult not to tell with Diana exactly how off she was tonight. Diana and Kara sat down next to Barbara on the couch. Donna took the last position over to the side

Dinah breathed in and out heavily. She fired a couple more rapid fire kicks to the bag. The chain threatened to give way thanks to Dinah's constant bombardment of the bag. Dinah hammered the bag one more time.

Finally, Dinah wiped the brow of sweat from her forehead.

' _So, are you….um…you're not okay, are you?'_ Sara asked.

' _Did Nyssa tell you what happened?'_ Dinah asked.

' _She hasn't gotten back, I'm pretty much waiting for her to fly back to the temple,'_ Sara thought. _'It's pretty quiet here. The mystics are on edge….they know something has happened, even if none of them have been figured in.'_

' _A Lazarus Pit has been used to bring Blackfire back,'_ Dinah thought.

An unsettling pause followed during the conversation between the two sisters.

' _How close?'_ Sara asked.

' _Harry died, but he got pulled back from the brink,'_ Dinah thought. _'He'll be perfectly fine….at least physically. There was no further damage to him.'_

' _I'm glad to hear Harry's going to be perfectly fine,'_ Sara said. _'You and I both know I was talking about you.'_

A long pause occurred between the two of them. Anyone who knew the Lance sisters well knew there were going to be a battle of wills about ready to occur. Any other night, and Dinah would have gotten the better of her younger sister. Tonight, of all nights, was extremely different. Something rattled Dinah and put her completely over the edge.

' _He came close,'_ Dinah thought. _'Closer than I want to admit….I saw my life flashing before my eyes.'_

' _Yet, you're still here,'_ Sara thought. _'You were strong.'_

' _If I was stronger, I would have put him through the ground when I had the chance,'_ Dinah thought.

Dinah sat down next to the group on the couch. Barbara leaned over and placed a firm set of hands on either side of Dinah's face. Dinah turned her complete attention towards Barbara.

' _Don't beat yourself up,'_ Barbara thought.

Dinah turned her attention towards Barbara for a long and unsettling moment. Anyone who knew Dinah, knew in an instant telling her not to beat herself up was the easiest way to cause her to beat herself up, in a matter of speaking at least.

' _Terrifying to be in the middle of this madness, isn't it?'_ Sara asked.

' _Terrifying doesn't even begin to describe how everything was,'_ Kara thought. _'It was even worse when Harry disappeared. It….took the will to fight out of us.'_

' _Did you think you could have gotten reunited with him if you gave up?'_ Sara asked.

' _No,'_ Diana interjected. _'Blackfire wanted us to give up all hope. He got off on squashing the spirit of those who are stronger than him. He's sick, obsessed.'_

Sara knew all about how sick and obsessed Blackfire had been when he attempted to sacrifice her. He lured her in with false hope and then tried to crush her. She wasn't crushed as easy.

' _So, Harry's oddly quiet,'_ Sara thought.

' _He has a few loose ends to tie up,'_ Dinah thought. _'He….had to make a deal….which none of us are happy about, but…given the alternative, it is the best thing to make.'_

' _Harry knows what he's doing,'_ Sara thought.

They deferred judgment to Harry in this particular case.

' _Everything is calming down though,'_ Barbara thought.

' _I'd be a lot better when we're out of Halloween and this is over,'_ Kara thought. _'I'm beginning to dread this day.'_

' _You're not the only one,'_ Wanda thought.

Halloween offered a strange vibe which caused her powers to get thrown out of whack. She knew something was coming. It continued to hit them, even after Blackfire had been sent beyond.

"Kara, I'm sure Harry won't run into any trouble," Diana said. "Hope and Dee-Dee won't let anything bad happen to him."

"No, it's not that," Kara said. "It's just….never mind….."

Kara rose up to her feet and stared at the window. She placed her hands down across her hips and stared out the window.

"I'm just thinking about what Blackfire said," Kara said. "Is there….something more dangerous coming to Gotham City?"

"He's….he's just trying to get into your head, Kara," Dinah said. "I wouldn't be too bothered by it."

"What if he wasn't getting in my head?" Kara asked. "What if this time, he's telling the truth?"

The entire group of girls all looked at each other. Anxiety and nervousness both hit them all together. All of them turned towards the clock.

"Past midnight in Gotham City," Barbara said.

"Thank, Rao," Kara said.

She thought it took forever to get to this particular point in her life. Kara hoped she could slip into bed and get a good night's rest. Then they could start November first.

' _First thing in the morning, Har should get a check up to make sure everything's okay,'_ Faora thought. _'Never hurts to be safe.'_

Kara had been glad she brought this particular point. She didn't want to be the one to nag about this.

' _The long night is over,'_ Kara thought.

The deep feelings of dread slowly left her. The lingering feeling in the back of her mind a storm had brewed had hit her.

' _He's just trying to get in your head,'_ Kara thought. _'Don't let him get to you, don't let him get to you.'_

' _To be fair, he got to all of us tonight,'_ Diana thought. _'And none of us will be shedding tears he's gone.'_

' _Damn straight.'_

Dinah and Sara both responded in unison. This particular statement gave them all a moment of levity and relaxed them a little bit.

* * *

 

Batman walked straight into the Batcave. His mind had been processing the battle every single time. From the beginning to the end and every single moment indeed, and now he was calming down just enough to let his guard down, about as much he ever allowed since that faithful day in Crime Alley all of those years ago.

Katana took a couple of steps behind Batman. She had a lot to think about after last night. Working alongside the League of Assassins was not exactly her ideal situation. She frowned and took in a deep sighing like breath.

' _The enemy of my enemy is my friend,'_ Katana thought. _'What a messed up world we live in tonight,'_

Batman sat in front of the computer and started to access the Gotham City police scanners. Nothing of relevance came up for him.

"All is quiet," Batman said. "At least for tonight."

"I was right all along," Katana said. "Nightwing….he had ties with the League of Assassins."

"Yes," Batman said.

The entirely blasé way Batman answered this question took Katana aback. She took a few seconds to reconcile the question in her mind and look at him. A long moment passed before she pressed the issue down.

"It's almost like if you knew this the entire time," Katana said.

"There is a difference between having ties with the League of Assassins and being part of the League of Assassins," Batman said. "At one time, you had ties with the League of Assassins."

Batman's statement struck Katana dumb, only for a few seconds though. She took a couple of seconds to recover her statement. "You know as well as I do this was a mission, and I had to be pulled out before I got in too deep…"

"You had been put in deep enough for the League to think you were an excellent operative," Batman said. "And now, they won't rest until you've been hunted down for your treason."

Katana answered with a brisk nod. Batman pretty much had nailed this point directly on the head. She turned around and paced back and forth in the Batcave.

"You know, I've had my training with the members of the League in the past," Batman said. "And so has he. And we both know the situation with the League has grown complicated."

"Complicated isn't the way to describe it," Katana said.

Batman laid it all down, even though he had a pretty good reason to figure out Katana knew.

"The demise of Ra's Al Ghul has created a power vacuum and all factions of the League are fighting for control, the Daughters of the Demon make up the most prominent faction," Batman said.

"And the Dragon has aligned himself with them," Katana said. "And you still find him trustworthy."

"I have done an extensive background check of anyone I've worked with," Batman said. "Even you."

Katana understood how Batman went over everyone's past with a fine tooth comb. It took a few months before he was….well Katana wouldn't say he quite frankly communicated with her, but he trusted her enough to fight alongside him in the field.

The problems in Gotham City grew to be more prominent than even she expected. Then there was the nature of Nightwing, who proved to be enigmatic as well. She heard the legends of the Dragon, so to come face to face with someone who fit all of the requirements for the legend most certainly caused him.

"I trust him," Batman said.

"I know you do," Katana said. "And I know how difficult your trust is to earn….and even when it's earned, it can be difficult to figure out what's going on beneath your cowl."

"Yes," Batman said. "And you know what that is."

Katana had a pretty good idea why this was. Everyone had been guarded for various reasons and many of these reasons had been pretty good. Batman wasn't an exception to this rule, far from it.

"The League is duty bound to kill you due to your betrayal," Batman said. "And even if you didn't technically betrayal then, they are still bound by a duty to kill you."

"Yes, and this can be a conflict," Katana said.

Katana made her way over to the area of the cave which had been used for training. She reached down and picked up the sword before setting it down upon the table. Some deep breathing exercises followed when the samurai tried to return herself to a state of clarity and reason.

The League had been coming after her. The only reason why they hadn't struck her down with more is because of their own eternal civil war.

' _They don't take loss well,'_ Katana thought. _'He doesn't take loss too well.'_

"My ability to do the best I can do really can be a blessing and a curse at the same time," Katana said. "Then, again, you and I are in the same boat regarding the League."

Batman didn't say anything. He knew the League would have struck him down if given half of the opportunity thanks to his role played in the demise of the demon. He turned around and checked out into Gotham City. Still quiet, and silence for some tended to be golden.

For Batman, silence tended to be a harbinger for a greater danger to come. He thought about Blackfire's parting words when Harry sent him off.

' _A greater evil is to come,'_ Batman thought.

Normal people dismissed the crazed ramblings of other people off hand. Batman had been far from a normal individual though. He took this entire rant as serious as possible.

* * *

 

Harry passed through the portal. He returned to this Crossroads area far more times than even he cared to remember over the past couple of months. Quite the crew of women followed in through the portal. Hope passed behind him, followed by Dee-Dee, and then Circe and Morgaine followed him down through the portal.

The other two appeared to be at ease. The fact they familiarized themselves with the Crossroads and all of the perils in it did not surprise Harry at all. Given what these two particular women got up to during their spare time, Harry thought it would only have been appropriate if they had gotten up into some kind of trouble.

Trouble brought Harry back around to the obvious point. Hope mentioned he had a problem. The entire atmosphere when he entered the crossroads put Harry on pins and needles.

The somber atmosphere heightened the moment Harry and his girls reached the edge of the corridor. Abigail stood across from them. A look of pure agitation spread over the face of the girl. It was beyond agitation though, Harry noticed something really unsettling with her expression and demeanor.

The moment Harry turned up to face her, he had a pretty good idea what happened. He reached towards her.

"Joseph Blackfire escaped?" Harry asked.

The two sides of Death, neither of them looked too happy.

"I knew we shouldn't have left him in her clutches again," Hope said.

Dee-Dee cleared her throat and her darker sister turned towards her. "Maybe we should allow her to explain her side of the story before we start making judgments."

Hope didn't even want to begin to tell her sister they were the dominion of death. Making judgments were pretty much the only thing they did in this case. Regardless, she stepped back and allowed Abigail to answer the question.

"Yes, he got away," Abigail said. "He was in my grasp. I could feel him in my grasp. He was this close to finally being brought in. I was this close to finally being free."

Harry picked out the notes in the girl's voice. He understood the difference between manufactured stress and actual, real life stress. He had a pretty good idea every single time a female lied to him. This girl did not lie to him in any way whatsoever. She looked positively unnerved and for very good reasons.

"Then, the moment I finally had him here, and finally would make him pay for all he's done in my name, someone snatched him. You did everything you could to send him. I failed to receive him."

Circe closed her eyes and allowed the magic in the air to channel through her. Her eyes snapped open and a heavy breath passed through her body. The magic hit Circe full on and caused her body to vibrate. Morgaine flung her hand on top of Circe's shoulder to stop her from twitching madly. Circe took a long breath in and took an even longer breath out.

"Circe?" Morgaine asked.

"She's not deceiving you," Circe said. "Blackfire was on his way here, and something blocked his arrival, and snatched…snatched him out from underneath Abigail's nose."

Abigail knew she had been distrusted by certain members of this group and for good reason. It would take a long time before all of the atrocities the Blackfires committed in her name would be forgiven. She doubted they would be ever forgiven. Good will took a long time to build after all.

"Who though?" Hope asked.

"I can't be for certain," Circe said. "All I know is she's not lying about this, not this time. Given the terms of the deal…she wouldn't lie, and she couldn't lie."

Hope conceded this point, despite her past dealings with the avatar of the entire Blackfire clan. Given the prize for her at the end of the tunnel, she would have to be stupid beyond all recognition to throw this away for the likes of someone like Joseph Blackfire.

' _I can't deny this point, no matter how much I want to distrust this woman on sheer principle,'_ Hope thought. Her frown deepened and a breath passed through her body.

Harry turned towards Abigail. The succubus's distress reached a boiling point.

"So, close, so close, so close," Abigail said.

"Abby?" Harry asked.

The girl's eyes looked towards him. She rushed towards him and threw her arms around him in a deep hug, burying her head into his chest. A brief sob came from the girl.

Abigail managed to pull it together at least to the point where she could retract herself away from Harry. The seething anger spread through her body. She lifted her hand and several statues of Joseph Blackfire popped from the ground.

Fire shot from the demon's hands. Her breathing continued to escalate. She burned through each and every statue, wishing the real deal had been in front of her.

Harry, along with the others, watched the interesting spectacle unfold before their very eyes. He had never been able to see the mood swings of a demon and the fact she went through sorrow.

"YOU ROBBED ME YOU BASTARD!"

A sympathetic blow to all men everywhere had been delivered when Abby nailed the mock copy of the good Deacon in the crotch with a fire ball. She wished she had done so to the real deal. These copies would have to do. All of the things he did in her name, it sickened her.

Morgaine watched, impressed with the display of magical power. She turned towards Harry, and smiled.

' _Good thing she's willing to align herself with you, master,'_ Morgaine thought.

Harry echoed Morgaine's thoughts one hundred percent of the way. He continued to follow the progress of the demon's destructive behavior on the representations of her descendants.

' _She does have a way to blow off steam,'_ Hope thought.

' _Did you just say something nice about her?'_ Dee-Dee asked.

' _If she asks, I'll deny it to her face.'_

Abby stopped annihilation the statues. Soot and sweat covered her pretty face. She breathed in once and breathed out a second time. The heavy breathing continued and she walked towards Harry and the others.

"I'm good now," Abby said. "I regret to inform you…we cannot cement our bargain until the moment I bring Joseph to his eternal torment."

Harry raised his eyebrow.

"We don't…"

"I made a deal with you, and I didn't completely fulfill my end of the bargain," Abby said. She walked towards Harry and smiled, looking in his eyes. "It's stupid, I know, but…my kind is honor bound to follow the agreement. So, we….."

Harry stopped her from speaking from leaning in and kissing her on the lips. She had been utterly surprised, but not entirely unpleased by Harry's actions. She gasped from the kiss from Harry.

"I really hate you," Abby said. "I'm being completely serious though….if I sleep with you without honoring our deal, it will….well….there will be fireworks and not the good kind. And it's a mood killer if your dick is covered in a pile of smoldering goo."

"Yes, apparently so," Harry said.

"It's a real shame," Abby said. "I know I would have enjoyed sleeping with you, and….I would have made it rather enjoyable as well for you….it could have been a new beginning."

She turned away from Harry and closed her eyes. The bastard Joseph pushed all of her buttons and not in the good way Harry pushed them a couple of minutes ago.

"If you need any help….."

This time, Abby silenced Harry with the kiss. Her lips burned in a warning shot so she needed to pull away from Harry.

"Har-Zod, you're far better than I deserve, far better than many of these women deserve," Abby said. "No offense meant."

"There are days where we happen to agree with you," Morgaine said without missing a beat.

Abby responded with a nod. She looked forward to this, especially after seeing Harry in action with the two sides of Death. She wondered if he tamed other personifications of Death, or if he even knew of them. It would be another discussion for another time.

"It's my burden to bare," Abby said.

"You don't have to bare it alone," Harry said to her.

"Yes, I do," Abby said. "Until we meet again…and we will meet again."

Harry knew they would meet again. He turned to the other group. It was time to go home and check in on the girls. After the night they had, he had been away for them for way too long.

* * *

 

Joseph Blackfire woke up to the smell of brimstone and hot fire. He turned around and found himself located into a dark realm. Demonic shadows surrounded him and they almost laughed at him.

"Who are you?" Blackfire asked. "What is the meaning of this….I command you to….."

"In this realm, you command nothing."

Blackfire wondered if the Dragon had sent him to Hell. It was nothing like he imagined, well not completely.

"Lucifer?" Blackfire asked. "Lucifer come out and face me!"

The figure in the shadows started to laugh. The laughter roared over the plain. Thunder would have been less prominent than this laughter.

"Lucifer?" the figure in the shadows asked. "Oh, I've been called many things, and I have been called by the name of the Christian Devil many times. I'm not him, oh no, I'm not him. He bows before even me, but I'm not him."

Joseph shivered from what happened. He wondered where he was in this status.

"You're a Blackfire," the figure said. "Yes, I can see it in your eye, the self-assured stance. The sense of entitlement, the thought you could rule here, if you just said the proper word. And the inability to remain silent."

"Now, listen here….."

"When you're in my realm, you'll do the listening, Joseph."

The neck of Joseph squeezed by some burning force as he had been raised to his feet.

"I can't kill you, because you're already dead," he said. "I can put your soul through torments which you couldn't even imagine in your most violent nightmares."

Joseph looked down into the shadows. He didn't need to see this individual to know he was as bad, as violent, and as cruel as his word. The figure flung Joseph back several feet and caused him to land onto the ground.

"Have we come to an understanding?" he asked.

Blackfire rose to a standing position almost instantly.

"You are here for my entertainment and nothing more," the man in the shadows said. "And when the time is right, I may have a use for you. If you have proven to be useful…..I'm willing to see even though the jury is still out as far as I'm concerned."

"Just who are you?" Blackfire asked.

"I have many names," he said. "I'm most commonly referred to by those who fear me the most as Trigon."

The red demonic creature towered over Blackfire by several feet. His white hair came down to his shoulders. He was thick and powerful, in the sense where he could crush Blackfire even before his power.

"Be prepared to pay tribute to your new master, Joseph Blackfire."

Joseph swallowed the lump in his throat. He didn't have long to wait before he came face to face with the terror which was Trigon. Demonic did not even begin to describe what this individual was all about. Terror rarely entered the mind of Joseph Blackfire. This time, terror hit him full on without any warning whatsoever.

* * *

 

One of Black Mask's mend dealt cards for a nice game of poker.

"Weird night tonight, isn't it?" one of the men asked.

"Yeah, weird, but, it's Gotham City, so you know, it's always weird."

Their boss had been in quite the mood as of late. As long as they kept their nose clean.

"Hey, I thought I told you to take these out of the deck….."

The door burst open. The members of Black Mask's gang all rose to their feet. One of them looked towards the individual who walked in.

A gentleman in a stylish suit wearing a Bill Clinton mask entered the room.

"Hey, you can't just walk in here, you're trespassing….."

These words barely got out until gunshots fired. Several men dropped down to the ground. The gunshots had been followed by a sadistic round of laughter cutting through the air.

One blood stained Joker playing card flipped face up on the card table.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 2** **nd** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well that ending, just that ending._

_Also, Blackfire ends up in the custody of one of the worst people possible._

_Halloween in Gotham might have ended but the chaos is just beginning. One thing is for certain, there will be a few more smiles._

_Until Saturday._


	201. Election Day Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and One: Election Day Part One.**

* * *

 

Salvatore Maroni sat as calm and quiet as he could be in front. The mobster dressed in his best suit for this hearing. He had been waiting for this for a long time. The moment he cut a deal with Falcone, he knew it would be inevitable he would have his day in court. He spent over a year stewing in prison. His status and position afforded him certain luxuries. It still wasn't the most ideal situation to be in prison for this long.

Now, Maroni waited for the judge to make his decision after all of the evidence had been heard. He tried not to be too confident. Many people had been screwed over because they thought they were in the clear. He still waited for Loeb, who had most certainly forgotten who buttered his bread.

' _Just wait, Loeb,'_ Maroni thought.

The pitter-patter of rain drops echoed outside of the window. Maroni's hands folded over his lap and he kept paying attention to the rain which fell outside. It gave him something else to do other than wait in the courtroom.

Seconds later, the door opened. Maroni paused and the judge didn't walk out. Carmine Falcone walked out. The Roman walked across from Maroni and acknowledged him with the briefest of nods. The Roman took his seat among the spectators.

' _Have to say, this bodes pretty well.'_

Maroni knew by now to not count his chickens before they hatched. The deal he made which ended up with Loeb nailing him in the first place reminded of him of this fact. So, never count your chickens before they hatched, otherwise he would be found eating crow or something along those lines.

' _Mixing up things right now,'_ Maroni thought. _'Ah, well, we'll figure out how this is going to go for a moment.'_

Salvatore tried to steal a look towards his father. Big Lou only scantly acknowledge his son's existence. He spent the vast majority of his time directing some death glares towards the Roman. Salvatore noticed the cold stare coming from Big Lou's face and realized something.

' _Man, if looks could kill, my father would be indicted on the first degree,'_ Salvatore thought.

The Roman decided to turn the other cheek. Salvatore knew better than anyone else this riled his father up more than anything else. The mobster placed his hands on the back of his head and tilted back with a frustrated sigh.

' _Wish the judge would hurry up,'_ Maroni said. _'My sentence is going to be over by the time he gets off his ass and does something.'_

Maroni never once had the patience which had been gifted to the common mule. Blame it on the Italian temper. He started to drum his fingers up and down. The raindrops continued to beat down outside of the window. He watched the clock which grinded by extremely slowly and made this entire mess even more frustrated.

After what seemed like an eternity, but only amounted to less than thirty seconds, the judge made his quick strides outside of the chamber. He stepped closer towards Maroni. The judge, the same one who threw Maroni behind bars in the first place, on Falcone's orders, surveyed him over his spectacles.

' _Alright, Sal, keep it together,'_ Maroni thought. _'Worst that can happen is you're back in prison….at the expense of the taxpayers of Gotham. Things can't get any worse.'_

"I've reviewed the evidence regarding Salvatore Maroni and the crimes he committed in violation of the RICO act," the judge said. "A further review indicates there is not a sufficient amount of evidence to deny parole."

Sal tried not to do his best impression of a grinning loon. This judge really didn't have the keenest sense of humor. Therefore, it would be only a matter of time before Sal did something to piss him off, or worse.

"Therefore, I am accepting the parole amount agreed upon, and it has already been agreed upon," the judge said. "You're free to go, Mr. Maroni, under one condition."

Salvatore Maroni leaned back into the chair. He could see the judge's eyes lock onto his. The mobster understood this man was not to be trifled with under any means.

"This is your one and only warning, Mr. Maroni," the judge said. "You are under probation. Mess up, and you'll be back behind bars."

Maroni thought this was the best possible scenario he could hope for.

"Hey, hey, don't have to worry about me, your honor," Salvatore said. He held his fingers up into the air and crossed them. "I'll be a boy scout. You ain't gonna get any trouble out of me."

The judge's expression appeared humorless. The guy just didn't really have any humor whatsoever. He scuffled his papers and walked off.

Loeb crumpled his papers in his hand and turned around.

"Hey, Gillian, aren't you going to shake my hand and congratulate me on the good news?" Maroni asked. "Guess, we're both on the same side of the law again, aren't we?

The Gotham City Police Commissioner stared down Maroni for a moment. Loeb's two subordinates stepped in front of him, as did Maroni's two bodies. One could see the resemblance to a Texas standoff in the old west between the two sides.

"I'm watching you, Maroni," Loeb said in a stiff voice. "You mess up, and I'll be after you."

"Hey, haven't you heard?" Maroni asked. "I've gone straight, no more trouble out of me."

Maroni thought about patting Loeb on the back or at least on the shoulder. He pulled back a couple of inches and decided he better not risk it.

"Hey, you watch yourself out there, Loeb, wouldn't want anything to happen to you?" Maroni asked.

Loeb stood up straight. Both of the cops who joined him for the escort to their trial grabbed the Gotham City Police Commissioner before he could try something he may end up regretting.

"Are you're threatening me, Maroni?" Loeb asked.

"Hey, hey, watch your blood pressure," Maroni said. "Nah, I'm not threatening you. Just being a concerned citizen. After all, there's still the nutjob killing cops. Doesn't matter if they've done anything wrong to people like him."

Loeb's heart skipped a couple more beats and hit the back of his chest. Maroni brought up a pretty valid point regarding the cop killer, one Maroni would have liked to have kept buried for as long as I can.

Sal spent the next couple of minutes watching Loeb leave. He turned around and looked towards his father. Big Lou leaned forward and wrapped his son into a crushing one armed hug. He patted him across the area of the back.

"Good going, you're out of there, now if you can stay out of trouble, you'd actually be going places in the world," Big Lou said. "Guess your new friend, the Roman, managed to pull the right strings after all."

Salvatore Maroni could tell his father sounded a bit embittered because of this. Sal didn't really know what to say at this point to be perfectly honest.

"Come on, Pops, you know the score by now, things have changed in Gotham City," Salvatore said. "Falcones and Maronis, we got to work together. At least until we're in a better position."

Big Lou knew it. Just because he knew it didn't mean he had to really like it at all. He looked towards his son. Big Lou had been fucked over big time by the Roman, and Falcone never once apologized for anything he did. The Roman never apologized, even when he was in the wrong. Now his son was being sold the same bill of goods Big Lou agreed about years ago.

"And, let's face it, Gotham City has gone tits up since I got put in prison," Maroni said. He lifted his hand as if ticking off numerous problems one at a time. "The Penguin's been causing problems, Black Mask is making a play. And there's Thorne, who is acting like the king of hot shit."

Big Lou nodded in response. His boy really was not telling him anything he didn't already know at this point in time if he was perfectly honest.

"And there's the cat bitch, you can't forget about her."

Given the humiliation Big Lou received from Catwoman, he certainly would not have forgotten about her for an extremely long time.

The two Maronis walked outside of the courthouse into the rain. A limo waited outside and standing by the limo ,holding an umbrella, happened to be Carmine Falcone.

"Missed you in there," Maroni said. "I got off, the judge gave me a warning, so I'll just keep it cool for a while until they have better things to worry about."

"Just make sure you do so," Falcone said. "I had to pull some strings."

"Oh, so you think we owe you something, don't you?" Big Lou asked.

The two men went face to face with each other. Salvatore could already tell his father was a few seconds away from doing something Sal knew he would regret. He grabbed the shoulder of Big Lou and tried to get his attention.

"It's a new day," Sal said. "The Roman's right, we've got to work together….trouble is brewing in Gotham City."

"I don't want anything out of it, Luigi," Falcone said. "It's a gesture of good faith, to help heal the wounds between our families. For too long we stood apart, and….well people who would sooner let this city burn got involved. They won't really do what's best for business. Let's buried the hatchet and start this all over, let's start this all over from the beginning."

The two hardened mobsters stood with the rain pouring down on the ground. Salvatore thought his father would have sooner buried the hatchet in Maroni's hand. The Roman extended the hand and Big Lou looked at it for a second.

Big Lou extended one large hand towards the Roman's and squeezed it in an intense handshake. The two of them shook their hands. There was a big of a power play to the handshake between the two of them.

"Now, who is up for a good home cooked meal?"

Maroni smiled. He could get on board with that. The prison food, while better than what most got, did not beat a good home cooked meal. And the Roman had many faults, but he could whip up a mean dinner.

* * *

 

Harry parked himself on the chair in the lab. He had gotten a full clean bill of health through magical means. However, there were a few things magical means could not properly detect. Therefore, Harry positioned himself to be checked out by Alura. He had been stripped of all of his clothes.

Alura checked Harry over with a fine tooth comb. She wanted to ensure every part of him was functional. Harry leaned back and let Alura do her work, because she knew what she did.

While Alura checked him over, Harry decided to have a conversation about Faora about a very important subject.

' _I'm in Smallville right there,'_ Faora thought to Harry. _'Figured I'd check up on Eliza, and see how's she's doing. And check up to make sure everyone is alright after the incident with the Lazarus Pit.'_

' _Blackfire didn't attack Smallville, did he?'_ Harry asked.

' _No, it appears Smallville has been left untouched,'_ Faora thought. _'He has a single minded fixation on Gotham City…..and….I guess it's a good thing and a bad thing.'_

Harry would have liked to say Blackfire's fixation ended up being single-minded on three people in particular. Nightwing, Black Canary, and Batman, all of them having played their own part in his previous demise, at least in Blackfire's demented and twisted mind.

' _Lana, Claire, Nell, Martha, Marie, and pretty much all of Smallville are perfectly fine,'_ Faora thought. _'And yes, your unborn daughter is fine as well.'_

' _Yes, I felt….something the other night,'_ Eliza Moonstone interjected through the bond link. _'I was confident in your abilities to take care of whatever happened though.'_

Harry smiled, glad in her confidence in him.

' _The rest of the tribe are excited about our daughter's birth,'_ Eliza thought. _'Even though it won't be until next Spring….our daughter is being spoiled already, and she hasn't been born.'_

' _Just wait until the Amazons get ahold of her,'_ Harry thought. _'You're perfectly fine about spending the last couple of months of the pregnancy in Paradise, are you?'_

' _I'm more than fine with taking the trip actually,'_ Eliza thought with a smile crossing he face. _'I think it would be an experience, and you said, it would be for the best for our child.'_

' _Yes,'_ Faora thought. _'I'm looking forward to seeing how you progress. You're not precisely human, therefore there shouldn't be any complications.'_

' _Well, I'm confident you won't lead me wrong,'_ Eliza thought. _'And you will help me deliver this blessing our god has delivered. And once she's arrived in this world, I'm sure the other females of the Kawatchee tribe will line up to be seeded just as much as I am.'_

' _Doubt there would really be any shortage of willing women,'_ Harry thought.

' _No, not normally,'_ Lily thought. _'So, have you thought about what to name my granddaughter?'_

' _I haven't thought about it too much….I didn't figure out I was going to name Danielle, Danielle until a few months before,'_ Eliza thought. _'Of course, whatever name Namen suggests, I will accept it.'_

' _We'll have a discussion about it later,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm sure we'll come up with a name which is worthy of a girl who is likely to be beautiful.'_

Harry waited for Alura to finish her scanning of him. Harry knew better than to stop her when she was at work and trying to get things done.

' _So, the elections are finally going to happen on Tuesday,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, and our Mr. Dent I'm sure is going to be relieved when it happens, '_ Veronica said. _'The events of last weekend put him over the edge of the polls, and it wasn't really intention on his part.'_

Harry doubted very much Killer Moth intended to help Harvey Dent out in any way whatsoever when he attacked. Dent really did show he was willing to stand up for what's right and the press ate up his act.

' _Harvey did well, and…he's even overshadowed the mysterious Batgirl's appearance at the party,'_ Harry thought. _'And I'm sure she's broken up about all of that, isn't she?'_

' _Oh, yes, I am,'_ Barbara thought, barely stifling an amused giggle from her end. _'Oh, well, I'm going to have to get over it.'_

Harry shook his head and responded with one of the more prominent smiles he could imagine. He turned towards Alura who continued to run over his body. She stepped back.

"I've got some good news," Alura said. "You're the pinnacle of health."

Harry turned towards the holographic projection of his Alpha's mother and smiled at her.

"Did you really think there was any doubt I wouldn't be the pinnacle of health? Alura asked.

"Well, there was some doubt," Kara said. She rested her palms on Harry's legs and moved them up through the sheets. "We need to make sure. You were fine from a magical standpoint."

"And now, you're fine from a magical and a physical standpoint both," Alura said. "Your power levels are a little bit heightened. You may have snuck out a little bit ahead this time. Not enough to make a significant difference."

Harry could get on board with this. He looked at Kara. She looked beautiful and sophisticated with the white lab coat covering her blue blouse and tight red shorts combination. Her legs beckoned to be touched along with the rest of her.

"Why don't we run one more test?" Kara asked. "We stripped Harry naked. It would be a real shame not to have done anything further it, wouldn't it?"

"Yes," Alura said. "A real shame."

Alura leaned forward and kissed Harry on the lips. Kara folded her arms and pouted. Her mother performed a nice little show and worked her tongue deep into Harry's throat.

The kiss ended a bit too soon. Harry didn't have much time to complain because Kara flung herself into Harry's path and pressed her breasts against his chest. Her nipples stuck through her shirt against Harry's chest.

The kisses covered Harry's body and she moved closer and closer towards the peak. Only one thing stood in Kara's way and Harry hoped the obstacle would have been removed sooner rather than later.

Kara's hot mouth inched over so closely towards Harry's crotch. She pulled back the covers and exposed his hungry prick. Kara inhaled her mate's beautiful scent and dragged her tongue across it. She kissed his cock and gave it a light suck before she continued to lick him.

' _Oh, this is going to be excellent.'_

Harry enjoyed the sensation of Kara's tongue scrapping up against him. He could feel a second hot mouth. Alura decided to join her daughter in tasting their mate's penis.

Alura took the swollen cock head into her mouth while her daughter licked the base. She could tell where the extra power was coming from. Harry tasted divine normally, but Alura had to double up to ensure her crystals did not overheat from the personification of pleasure she received into her mouth.

Harry enjoyed the warm and wet feeling of the pure MILF mouth over him. He reached forward and grabbed Alura's hair. He ran his fingers through it and stroked the softness of her scalp.

"Oh, yes," Harry groaned. "Right there, it's a good spot, right there!"

Alura continued to bring her mouth down onto Harry's throbbing cock. She took his endowment into her throat with a few deep and potent sucks.

"Damn, Kara!" Harry groaned.

Kara smiled and wrapped her warm lips around Harry's testicles. She knew this little act drove him mad and she intended to drive Harry over the edge with these potent sucks from her powerful and hungry lips. She planted little kisses all over his balls.

Harry leaned back and enjoyed mother and daughter taking turns in sucking his cock. Alura gave Harry a few deep and powerful slurps. She swirled her tongue around Harry's head and brought him into the back of her throat. Kara traded off and did more of the same.

Kara enjoyed the taste of Harry's cock and also the fact her mother's lips touched it a second before. She already could sense Harry getting close. Kara brought her eager lips all the way down on him and wrapped them tighter around Harry before giving him a solid hum.

"Kara, close!"

She jammed his cock into her mouth and waited for the gift to be pumped out. Kara's hot mouth formed a vacuum tight seal around Harry's prick. She shoved every single last inch of his thick cock into her mouth.

Harry held onto Kara's head and started to pump inside her mouth. Kara accepted the gift of Harry's cum which pumped into her mouth at a repeated fashion.

Kara tilted her head back to enjoy the full burst of cum firing into the back of her throat. Several deep and long spurts fired into her. Kara maintained the sucking and swallowed every last drop of the seed coming from Harry's balls. She pulled back and licked her lips.

"My pussy is hot," Kara said. "Do you think you could give it some relief before you stick your big throbbing cock inside my tight, wet pussy?"

Kara removed her lab coat and shorts. She pulled off her shirt to reveal her perky breasts and pressed them against Harry's chest. She kissed him on the side of the neck a couple of times before gently pulling Harry back.

"Why don't I keep Harry occupied while he tastes you?" Alura asked.

She shed her clothing. Alura turned up next to Harry in all over her glory. Said glory happened to be pretty glorious. Alura's dripping wet snatch pushed over the tip of Harry's head and engulfed his entire cock inside her wet and willing center. Alura smiled and pushed herself all the way down onto Harry.

Kara's pussy would not be ignored. Harry gave her womanhood a series of light kisses and slowly worked his way to the center. His tongue coasted against her wet hole. Every swipe of his tongue moved and turned deep into Kara's pussy. Her wet and willing walls rocked back against Harry's probing tongue.

The combination of one hot pussy on his tongue and one hot pussy on his head caused Harry to grow overwhelmed.

"I think Harry's stamina is still on point!" Alura yelled.

Alura brought her hips all the way up and slammed them down onto Harry's probing tool. She bounced up and down on him like there was no tomorrow.

"Then there should be plenty of him left for me," Kara said.

Kara paused and rotated her hips down onto Harry's face. His tongue hit the proper spot and caused energy to spark through her loins. Harry hit the back of her walls and vibrated against her. Kara wiggled her hips down to allow him to bury his tongue inside her again.

"Eat me, oooh, eat me hard!" Kara yelled. "Lick my dirty pussy dry. I want you drain my cum all over your face. Taste me, Harry, oh yes, taste me!"

Alura leaned in and cupped her daughter's perky breasts. Kara's hips clenched and released their juices onto Harry's face.

"I bet you want to lick my juices off of Harry's face, "Kara said. She slid back and showed Harry's cum soaked face for her mother's consumption.

Alura leaned forward and pressed herself against Harry's muscular chest. Her pussy muscles maneuvered up and down against Harry's pole. She leaned in and used her hot and wet tongue to slowly remove the juices from Harry's face. Alura licked all over Harry's face and smiled when the juices had been sucked from his face.

Kara watched her mother's actions. The way she feasted on her own juices caused Harry to grow extremely hot and intense. Kara pushed her finger inside her and pumped it into her.

Alura resumed her bouncing up and down. Her body tensed up with an orgasm. Alura started to ride Harry's cock a few more times and pushed him inside her.

"Yes, mmm, Har," Alura said.

Alura's wet snatch twitched around Harry's hard tool. Harry held his hands on her hips and enjoyed Alura's wet walls pumping all the way down onto him.

The juices released on top of Harry's cock and lubricated his cock. She pushed all of the juices onto his cock. Harry pulled her down and caused nerve endings to explode with more pleasure.

"Kara, I'm sure you want a go."

Kara stared down Harry's thick cock which stood erect for her. Kara reached towards Harry's cock and wrapped her fist around it and started to pump him.

"Time to ride the stallion," Kara said. She licked her lips a few more times and hovered up over the top of his cock.

Harry soaked in the completely familiar and very welcomed feeling of Kara pushing down onto his hard and throbbing manhood. She pushed almost all the way up onto him and sank down onto him with a pump of her pussy lips. She pushed Harry almost all the way into her and shoved him back into her.

"Always so good," Harry said. "And your breasts are amazing."

Harry needed to bury his face between Kara's breasts. His wife grabbed onto Harry's head and made sure he did not stray too much. Harry swirled his tongue around her nipples and sucked on them.

"Give me more," Kara said. "Make me cum all over your cock."

Kara knew in the back of her mind what had been inevitable. Harry would make her cum and cum hard. Her walls tensed up around him and squeezed him hard.

The situation had been reversed and Alura had been put into a position to watch her daughter ride her lover and ride him hard. Alura's fingers grazed against her opening. She situated one of her fingers inside her and pumped as deep inside her in time for Harry pushing his throbbing cock inside her daughter's pussy.

Kara lifted all the way up and reached another peak. The moment she drove her lover's thick cock inside her, Kara's entire body tensed up in excitement. The gushing came through her pussy and reached a fever pitch.

Harry continued to bury his face in Kara's breasts. She moaned in his ear for more. His cock throbbed inside her body with Harry pumping inside her.

"Going to make me cum again," Kara said. "Yes, you're back in business, Harry, and it feels so great. It feels really good. Your cum would feel even better inside me."

Kara stretched her hot pussy lips around his throbbing cock. She made sure Harry did not stray for her center. The contents started to size up within his balls.

First, Harry allowed Kara to cum. She came down onto his cock and saturated it with her pussy juices. It allowed Harry to slide inside.

The two of them screamed and enjoyed their mutual orgasm. The next twitch of her pussy resulted in Harry pumping his seed inside her body. The moment the burning seed hit her insides, Kara came for a second time and then a third time.

Kara collapsed on top of Harry. Glops of cum dripped from her pussy and she sighed in delight.

Alura pounced on the situation and decided to taste Harry's gift from inside Kara's pussy. Seconds later, Harry hardened again and pushed inside Alura's dripping hot pussy.

' _Yes, perfectly fine.'_

* * *

 

A limo pulled up into a Gotham City alleyway. Mysterious individuals arriving in style had not exactly been a something which had been uncommon to a lot of people. The person inside the limo would have raised a couple of eyebrows, had the people involved have been able to see through the doors of the limo.

The gentleman dressed in a fancy, three piece suit. He leaned back against the limo. His silver hair shined into the light. The man reached into his case and cracked it open. Information slid out which had been placed neatly in a folder. The picture of a gentleman with sandy brown hair rolled out.

Harvey Dent, a beloved man who ran for the office of Gotham City District Attorney, had been under the crosshairs of this man. He rustled the papers in his hands and lips curled into a fairly devious smile.

The gentleman in the car waited for a call. The person who hired him out said he would call him before seven in the evening. The time had not passed yet, but still, it did put the man on edge to be honest.

"Make sure to keep the doors locked until the moment of truth," the gentleman said. "As far as she knows, I'm halfway across the world."

"Of course, Mr. Cain."

Cain left nothing to any kind of chance regarding the mother of his child. The two of them had joined together one night in a fit of passion. The rest of the time, they were at opposite ends of the spectrum. They were pretty much at each other's throats. Blood would have been spilled between both of them if they had gone face to face with each other.

He had his problems with the organization his once lover pledged herself to as well.

Cain peered out of the front window and noticed several armored vehicles pulling up fast. He switched on the radio in the limo and waited for his moment to strike.

"Ladies and gentlemen, both the elections for the new Mayor of Gotham City and the new District Attorney of Gotham City. Barring a last minute surge of votes in other directions, analysts have said it's very obvious Harvey Dent will become the new district attorney of Gotham City. His counterpart in the Mayoral Race, Hamilton Hill, would become the Mayor of Gotham City. We'll know within the hour whether or not these two results have happened."

The assassin in the back of the limo started to play with the knife. He ran his fingers casually and carefully over the knife.

"Two minutes until," Cain said.

No sooner did those words pass his mouth, the cell phone rang. As agreed upon, Cain waited for the cell phone to ring three times within succession before picking it up and pressing it to his ear.

"Yes?" Cain asked.

"You're still in position to do the job, aren't you?" the voice on the other end of the phone asked.

"Yes," Cain said. "There's no need to worry. If you want Dent dead, then he'll be dead by the end of tonight."

"It's only fair warning you security will be tight tonight," the slightly distorted voice said on the other end of the phone. "Dent will be protected….especially given the VIPs who are in the area tonight."

Cain already knew and already had managed to scrap up as much information as he could muster about the security. Was it easy? It was never easy to get into a place, any place. David Cain thought though with a little bit of effort, he could accomplish what he needed to accomplish.

"Yes, I'm aware of the security in the area," Cain said. "Trust me."

"Good, I figured you would have made yourself familiar with the security," the man on the other end of the line said. "I know you're a professional, therefore you wouldn't have done anything less."

Cain considered anyone saying he was anything less than a professional to be an insult to his own abilities. The man shifted his hands apart and deepened his frown.

"I will get everything done which needs to be done," Cain said. "And my money….."

"Half if it has been deposited into the account you specified as a down payment," the man on the other end of the phone said. "I don't normally give a down payment, I prefer to give the entire payment when the job is done. So, I trust you will do nothing to make me regret this particular decision, Mr. Cain."

"I won't do anything to make you regret it," Cain said. His tone sounded fairly rough on the other end of the phone. "I'll hold up my end of the deal, just ensure you hold up yours."

"Good, it's been a pleasure doing business with you."

The phone hanging up indicated this particular conversation had been over. Cain turned towards one of his aides.

"Go and check if anyone is lurking out there," Cain said. "I'm not taking any chances."

The aide nodded. He knew what this was, it didn't even need to be spelled out. This particular suicide mission would make him a human meat shield. Not listening to Cain amounted to a suicide mission as well, so he pretty much had no choice other than to listen.

The door opened up and the man stuck his head outside. Given he didn't have his head chopped off or blown off the moment he stepped into the alleyway, Cain thought it would be pretty good. He used the man as a double thanks to the fact they shared a slight resemblance from a distance.

"Boss, there's nothing out there. We're all clear."

"Excellent," Cain said. "Get back into position."

The man slipped inside of the limo. To say his heart beat wildly would be the understatement of the century.

"Do you think there's any credence to the rumors Lady Shiva is in the area, boss?"

"I wouldn't have made you check if I didn't think there was any credence to these rumors," Cain said. His beady eyes fixed on the man.

Cain knew his plan the second he touched down in Gotham City. He would have to get in and out of here without any problems. Well, not too many problems. Anyone who thought a plan ended up being fool proof often have been a fool.

Shiva had been a lot more brazen in her actions towards him. The entire League had also indicated Cain was a high profile target. When Ra's Al Ghul had been active, he had told the League to back off of Cain. The Demon respected Cain's abilities.

The man's daughter on the other hand, she didn't have much use for him. Cain intended to be in and out of Gotham City before anyone could blink or breath.

* * *

 

Hamilton Hill walked up to the podium with a cartoonish smile plastered upon his face. He started to wave when he approached the stage. Everyone looked at the new Mayor of Gotham City. The results had been in and sure enough, Hamilton Hill became the new Mayor of Gotham City just in a snap of a finger.

"Ladies and Gentleman!" Hill cheered from the top of the stage. His supporters applauded.

Hill waited several seconds for the applause to die down. He took in a deep breath and pushed on with his speech.

"I'm honored to be your new Mayor of Gotham City!" Hill yelled. "It's going to be a long and hard road ahead of us, but I'm confident I am going to live up to your expectations and your standards. I want each and every one of you to know I'm going to ensure Gotham City becomes a safer place where you don't have to live in fear. Where we can be what Gotham could be. I want big business to prosper and bring in thousands of new jobs, to get people off of the streets into modest homes with three square meals a day."

Everyone clapped loudly. Hill said all of the right things. Whether or not he would do all of the right things, that remained to be seen.

"I'd like to thank Marion Grange for all of her hard work she did during her stint of Mayor in Gotham City, and I wish her the best of luck and I offer her my hope she enjoys a nice and relaxing retirement," Hill said. "As for me, the real worlk begins."

More thunderous applause followed. Hill tipped his head and smiled again.

' _Energy like this, he should have been a showman,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Politician, showman, isn't it the same difference?'_ Donna asked. _'They all have to play the crowd, and get them into the palm of their hands. They all have to act too ,don't they?'_

' _Yes, one could say that,'_ Veronica agreed. _'Well, we'll see how he does.'_

Veronica thought from the moment he ran, with the people who backed him, Hill would be getting into the spot as Mayor. He did have a lot of potential to do some good as Mayor. The crowd he ran in could be less than appeasing to many people. No one was perfect though, and Hill was among those people who would admit how not so perfect he was.

The applause continued and heightened in loudness. It was hard for anyone to think at the top of the stage.

"Now, the real work begins when I get into the office eight in the morning sharp," Hill said. "I'm going to pass this over to the former acting District Attorney Rachel Dawes…to introduce the man who I hope to work with more closely in the future to help bring Gotham City to a brighter, more vibrant city."

Rachel stepped to the top of the stage. The applause wasn't as strong as it was for Hill. Rachel didn't really play to the crowd as much either. She stepped to the top of the stage with a casual and cool purpose. She situated her palms on the top of the stage and addressed them all with a smile.

"We're going to need a strong person to lead the charge to be the District Attorney, after the fate of my predecessor," Rachel said. "We need someone who we can believe in. We need someone who will stand up and look the people willing to do the people in this city right. The people in Gotham City need someone who will stand fair and proud over the criminal element and will not fold when they put the pressure on him."

Rachel only paused at this moment to take a slightest of breath.

"We need a man who will stand fair and not wilt under corruption," Rachel said. "We will need a politician who is most certainly not two-faced. We don't need anyone who will say one thing to your face and do another thing behind your back. And we have him….ladies and gentlemen…..Mr. Harvey Dent."

The thunderous applause and chants of "Harvey" hit the stage. He smiled and turned towards Gilda. Gilda hugged her husband and gave him a slight kiss before resuming her position on the seats near the stage.

Harvey stood at the top of the stage. The applause continued and went on and on and on. Harvey lifted up his hand and checked his watch which got a bit of laughter from those who were close enough to the stage.

"Thank you, thank you, you're too kind," Harvey said. "I'm not one for giving speeches, I'll leave it to the professionals like Mayor Hill."

Everyone laughed and Hill smiled before giving a jovial wave at Harvey. The spectators in the crowd chanted "Harvey" in a constant and never ending loop. Harvey had to wait for it to die down before he continued with his speech.

"There have been a lot of people thinking they could tear this city apart and use it for their own benefits," Harvey said. "I will be the first to tell you straight up I will not allow Gotham City to fall to the criminal elements. I will stand up and make sure this entire city prospers. I'm going to take a hard stance on the criminals and ensure they will not have full run of this great city."

The loud cheers continued. Harvey leaned back to allow the cheers to soak in. Another smile crossed over his face. Harvey waited for them to die down and he drew in a deep breath.

"I'd be lying if I said I thought it would be easy," Harvey said. "I know in the back of my mind it won't be easy. In the coming months, I will make sure Gotham City prospers, and make you proud to believe in Harvey Dent."

He capped off his speech with the buzzword for his campaign. Harvey made his way over to the stage where Rachel waited.

"How about a drink, Mr. District Attorney?" Rachel asked.

"I've been trying to cut down," Harvey said. "Just one won't hurt though."

Rachel poured Harvey a drink and her a drink as well. The crowd started to buzz around them. The new District Attorney started to wave to them.

Out of the corner of her eye, Rachel noticed someone up on the rooftop. Having been the victim of a couple of near misses and botched assassination attempts, she recognized the signs.

"HARVEY, GET DOWN!"

Rachel didn't wait for Harvey to react fast enough. She shoved him down onto the ground out of the way just as the gun fired off. The bullet nailed Rachel in the side of the arm and caused blood to spurt in every direction.

A loud rumbling could be heard and security made their way up the steps in an attempt to grab onto this gentleman. This gentleman already had disappeared.

Harry noticed the expression on Bruce's face. Recognition had dawned upon him.

"Cain, David Cain."

* * *

 

The chaos allowed Bruce and Harry to slip away and to change into Batman and Nightwing. The two of them made their way up to the rooftop right across from where Cain fired his shot. There was no Cain though.

Katana joined the two of them a moment later. Despite the recent revelations regarding Nightwing, Katana acted like they never happened. She became the epitome of professional.

"I trust both of you have heard of Cain?" Batman asked.

"Yes, I've heard of him," Nightwing said.

"Who hasn't heard of him?" Katana asked. "Well, in our circles anyway. He's a world renowned assassin, best in the world in what he does, and what he does isn't very nice. Or maybe I'm confusing him with someone else."

Katana drew in a deep breath when both of the male crime fighters looked at her with one of those double stoic expressions.

"He's not going to stop at the first attempt," Katana said.

"I know," Batman said. "If someone has a contract on Dent, he's not going to stop, until Dent's dead or he is…or the contract is cancelled somehow…and in that case, he'll go after the person who pulled out of the contract."

People tried to back off with Cain. Most of them ended up dead or worse. He wasn't a man.

Batman had become preoccupied with the sounds of an ambulance driving off. Rachel took a hell of a shot.

"She'll be okay," Katana said.

"We need to find out where Cain may have gone," Batman said. "He may have some kind of base of operations in Gotham City, dangerous as it might be for his health."

"Right, because of his…alleged connection to Lady Shiva," Nightwing said.

"The connection is more than alleged," Katana said. "They shared a bed together at one more and…well they didn't part under the most amicable circumstances."

' _Lady Shiva, talk about one woman I wouldn't want to have scorned,'_ Dinah thought.

"Oracle could you…..?"

"Look up to see if there's anywhere Cain could be holed up in Gotham City?" Oracle asked. "It's a long shot, but….."

"The only shot we have," Batman said.

"I'll let you know if I can dig anything up," Oracle said. "And while I'm at it, I'll see if I can find out who put the contract out on Dent."

' _Well, we're going to be in for a long night tonight,'_ Harry thought.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 4** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_It wouldn't be an election in Gotham City without someone being targeted for assassination._

_Until Monday._


	202. Election Day Part Two

_Chapter of the Week Voting is on the Blog. So Kindly Vote. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/_

* * *

 

**Chapter Two Hundred and Two: Election Day Part One.**

Harvey Dent walked in a boxed in place. Four SWAT guards walked on the right side of him, four SWAT guards walked on the left side of him, two walked in the front and two walked in the back. Branden stood a few inches from the side and made Harvey feel extremely crammed in.

"Well, I'm looking on the bright side right about now," Harvey said. "Likely not in danger of being shot. I'm in danger of being suffocated."

Branden turned his attention to Harvey for a couple of seconds. The two men locked eye to eye with each other with the SWAT leader looking at the new District Attorney. The atomosphere around them grew tense and Branden had a cutting remark.

"Just stand by us, Mr. Dent," Branden said. "I won't let anyone lay a finger on you."

Dent knew Branden didn't really care for him and the feeling was in fact mutual. Loeb pretty much told Branden to keep Dent secure. Like a dutiful job, the moment Loeb barked at Branden to jump, Branden's only response was to ask how high he would jump.

"I don't think there would be enough room for a finger in this box," Dent said. "Any luck on tracking down the shooter yet?"

Branden stared at the new Gotham City district attorney. He would have sooner left Dent to rot on the vine. It was in his best interest to play nice with the golden boy. The entire team made their way inside a secured tent area.

"Hold tight, Mr. Dent, I'm sure he'll come out from underneath a rock eventually."

Harvey only responded with the most brisk nod possible. The District Attorney turned around and continued to peer over his shoulder. A couple of seconds passed as he walked into the room.

"Take a seat, and I'll be back in a minute," Branden said. "I need to go check on something."

Harvey waved the man off. It wasn't as if he could have much of a choice.

"Let, me know what happened with Rachel."

Harvey could not help but experience a small burst of guilt. The bullet was meant for him. He didn't really know what was going through Rachel's mind when she jumped in front of him and took the bullet. It defied all sense.

Would Harvey have done the same thing? Better believe it, but he stood up to a crazed criminal and his army of mutant moths about less than a week ago. Harvey doubted he should be considered to be the standard bearer for sane thoughts.

"Man, what a night?" one of the SWAT guards asked. "Just think, we could be out there, on the town, and instead, we're here babysitting."

The man didn't even bother to keep his voice down. Harvey looked towards him.

' _Not surprised,'_ Harvey thought. _'Wish I could do something about SWAT, Branden and Loeb are pretty tight though, so any criticism about them might as well have been pissing in the wind.'_

Harvey reached into his pocket and started to throw a silver dollar into the air. The coin flipped several times in a rapid fire rate. It was a habit he picked up whenever he was tense. Something about the clink of the silver dollar flipping up and down soothed him.

It also kept his mind off of everything. Harvey found himself interested with games of chance. Would it be heads, would it be tails? Harvey didn't know. He kept flipping the coin over and over in the air. The progress of the coin flipped over and landed on the back of his head. Harvey frowned when it clicked back into his hand.

"Do you mind?" the SWAT member asked.

Harvey's eyes glazed over towards them. Before this conversation could escalate into an argument, the side of the tent opened up. The SWAT guards held their guns.

"It's still me," Branden said. "Nothing yet."

Dent clutched his fist. He flipped the coin into the air one more time.

' _Heads.'_

The coin flipped over and it was tails. Harvey responded with a shrug. He guessed you couldn't really win them all to be honest. He twirled the coin between his fingers and allowed another sigh to pass through his lips.

"What about Rachel?" Harvey asked.

"She took of a hell of a shot, she had to get taken to the hospital," Branden said.

' _Yes, thanks for the sympathy.'_

Branden could see the tension coming from the body of the District Attorney. He placed his hand on Harvey's shoulder in what he thought was a sympathetic manner. It just came across as extremely patronizing.

"She'll be fine, she's getting the best doctors in all of Gotham," Branden said. "Besides, she's a tough broad, she's going to be fine. Just give her some time to heal, and she'll be back in business."

Harvey took a moment to consider Branden's words. One thought in particular entered the back of his mind.

' _Do people even use the word broad in this day and age?'_

"Hey, I wouldn't make fun of him too much, boss, he's got to keep his mistress in good health," one of the SWAT members said. "Hey, buddy, I'm not judging you or anything. Chick's not my type, but you got to get some every now and then, am I right, bro?"

Harvey Dent refused to acknowledge this chucklehead's remark with a response.

"But, I thought she was knocking boots with Pretty Boy Wayne," one of the SWAT guards said.

"Enough!" Branden yelled. "I don't pay you to gossip!"

He didn't want to have to pull Harvey Dent off of one of his boys either. The District Attorney's fingers tightened until they were white, but he didn't say anything else.

"Don't worry, we'll secure the perimeter, and make sure no one is coming for you," Branden said. "No one gets in, no one gets out, not without my say so…Jenkins and Peterson, do you think the two of you can handle that without me holding your hand?"

The two men responded with crisp nods. They looked to have been tripping over themselves to get in favor with their boss.

"And the sniper will show himself soon, Mr. Dent," Branden said. "You just have to have some patience."

"He better."

Harvey Dent did not intend to spend his first night as Gotham City District Attorney cowering in fear. He looked and Branden leaved. The SWAT officers backed off in the tent to give him some space and cover the entrances. This allowed Harvey Dent a chance to stretch his legs. He wouldn't get up and pace and around.

' _Someone must have put a contract on my head,'_ Harvey thought. _'I can think of a few people who might have….and all of them are extremely dangerous.'_

Harvey couldn't accuse without any proof. His coin flipped up and landed down. It landed face down onto the table. Tails, which Harvey did hope wasn't a harbinger for things to come.

* * *

 

Nightwing readjusted his stance to the wind. So far, no one, whether it would be a hitman or otherwise. He peered down from his point. Katana and Batman took one half of the city, which left him mostly alone. Even if he was never alone, it was the impression he would have liked to give.

All intended to bring the hitman back out in the open. Nightwing could have heard something.

' _Anything, yet?'_ Kara asked.

' _Just the SWAT,'_ Nightwing thought. _'They could complicate things.'_

Nightwing made his way down a few steps and made his way to the alleyway.

"Guess, we're guarding the guards tonight," one of the SWAT members said. "Dent looked about ready to strangle someone tonight."

"Hey, he's sleeping with the Dawes chick…maybe she was the target?" one of the SWAT members asked. "His wife must have been pissed…she looks pretty sickly these days….maybe there's something wrong with her?"

"Yeah, don't blame Dent for getting some on the side."

Nightwing ignored the thug banter from the SWAT guards. He swept past them and moved into the shadows. He continued to move and switched on the ear piece. A crackling came to life in it.

"Any luck?" Nightwing asked.

"Well, we can safely rule out Maroni," Oracle said.

On the surface, Nightwing thought of Maroni as suspect number one. There were a lot of problems with Maroni though which didn't make sense. Namely, he just got out of prison not even a day ago. He might have butted heads with Dent in the past, but his target would be on Loeb. Loeb was the one who stabbed the knife in his back.

"Okay, if not Maroni, than who?" Batman asked.

"Falcone and Thorne were both considered top suspects, but they were ruled out quickly," Oracle said. "I called a couple of contacts and I did some digging. And….well, I find out something interesting."

She could tell her lack of words would not be appreciated for very long. Oracle decided to spell out.

"Roman Sionis was the one who put the hit on Harvey Dent," Oracle said.

"Black Mask?" Nightwing asked. "Has he had a past with Dent? Have they butted heads in the past for some reason or another?"

Batman jumped in with an answer. "Not to my knowledge. As far as I know, I don't think they've spoke more than a handful of times and never for more than a couple of minutes."

This particular statement vexed Harry and he frowned. He knew Bruce would know better than anyone else. He knew Harvey for a long time, and he also had a bit of a past with Roman Sionis. Their parents knew each other at any rate and they both lost their parents at a younge age. If the rumors were true though, Roman was more of the self-made orphan type.

Nightwing paused for a long moment. The SWAT circled around and came close towards him. Had they turned their head a fraction of an inch upward, they would have noticed him perched on top of the gargoyle. The suit mimicked the environment around him.

' _So, are the modifications working?'_ Faora thought.

' _Yes, so far, so good,'_ Harry thought.

He didn't mean to be so silent. The guards behind him looked around. The younger guard looked at the older guard. The man's hands started to shove in his pocket and he trembled in the rain.

"I told you, there was nothing back here," the older guard said.

"And I told you, I heard something back here," the younger guard said. "You don't believe me, don't you? You think I'm crazy, don't you?"

The older of the two men decided to let this particular fact go without a comment. He humored his partner by walking into the alleyway and past underneath the gargoyle. The wind started to blow back and forth and caused the trash can to rattle.

"You worry too much, don't you?" the older guard asked. "If you're going to last on this beat, you got to get some hair on your chest. And know not every noise means the end of the world."

"I could have….."

"Yeah, if you worry about every little thing on this job, you're going to have some problems," the older man said. He tapped his finger onto the chest of the younger guard. "Let's go….we're switching out in about five minutes."

"Don't see why have to guard the guy?" the SWAT member asked. "I mean, the hitman hasn't shown up. Maybe he was going after the Dawes bitch."

"They don't tell you about this," the older man said to the younger member. "Word out on the street is some big guy put a cash hit on Dent's head. And there's someone who wants him dead, really bad."

"Really, it would be nice to get some quick cash….."

"Yeah, keep on dreaming the dream, kid."

Branden gave them the orders not to bother cashing in on the contract. Mainly because Loeb wanted to place nice with Harvey Dent, or rather his buddies, Harry Potter and Bruce Wayne, two men who could put a lot of pressure in and make it rather difficult for them.

"I have an idea," Nightwing said. "We're going to have to get David Cain to back off."

"You know the deal with him,"" Batman said. "He either kills his target, or he gets killed going after his target."

Nightwing considered it briefly as an option. It wasn't his preference now, although he wasn't ruling out killing David Cain, if it meant it would save a lot of lives.

"Or, the person who put out the contract rescinds the contract," Oracle said. "Which makes them the target, and still has the problem of David Cain being out and large."

"There has to be another way," Katana said.

"Maybe there is," Nightwing said.

These words caught the attention of pretty much everyone involved. Nightwing knew he had them in the palm of his hands. He shot the grapnel and moved past the SWAT guards. This new position put him rather close to where they holed Harvey Dent up. So far, nothing, and Cain would have ripped through the SWAT if given half of the chance.

"We could try and get to the source to stop the payment," Nightwing said. "Or we could make sure a more pressing matter makes Cain flee for the city."

"It must be very pressing to have a professional like Cain to break the contract," Batman said.

"Oh, I'd say it's pretty pressing," Nightwing said. "There are a couple of contracts out on Cain."

"Who?" Katana asked.

"The League of Assassins has it out for Cain for some reason, I'm sure it's personal," Nightwing said. "It must be if Lady Shiva has it out for him and Nyssa Al Ghul is backing her up."

"They used to be lovers," Katana said.

"Yes, I've heard the rumors," Nightwing said. "I'll be honest though, I don't make it my business to delve too deep into League of Assassins gossip. The point is…if we bring Cain to the League's attention, he has no choice, but to flee the attempt and flee Gotham City."

"It seems like you have a plan," Katana said.

Nightwing didn't say anything. A smile crept in underneath his face. Now she was learning.

* * *

 

David Cain took a step back after the failed assassination attempt. He could see there were people who hovered around. He wished the first attempt had not been a failure given it caused some unwarranted attention to be given to him. One of the most prominent forms of unwanted attention came in the form of the Dragon.

Cain didn't really allow himself to get too enamored by the tails of the dragon. He respected the man's abilities and nothing more.

He moved around in the back of the disguised truck. Acting as a cable repairman, Cain allowed himself to slip into the shadows more easily. No one would raise an eyebrow of a cable repair truck.

The SWAT mobilized. Cain had no problems with taking them all out. They were nothing but thugs with armor.

Cain's cell phone started to ring. The master assassin pressed a button on the side of the phone.

"Yes," Cain said.

"Just a friendly reminder, Mr. Cain," Sionis said. "This offer self-destructs at midnight."

Cain held onto the phone to the point where his fingers turned numb. He didn't say a word, at least not at the moment.

"Don't worry, the job will be done," Cain said.

"I heard good things about you, Mr. Cain," Sionis said. "I thought you had the ability, the balls, to be able to kill the White Knight."

David Cain took a few seconds to check the knife he sharpened earlier. He imagined pushing the knife through Sionis's face and into his throat. He paused for a second and took a deep breath.

"Age softens some of us," Sionis said. "And it has softened you. You used to be bold and brave. You used to be a killer, but now….I'm not sure what you are any more. But you're not a killer, Cain. The old David Cain would have finished off the bitch he shot, gutted Dent, and killed half of the people."

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't track you down and kill you?" Cain asked.

Sionis laughed in response to Cain's bold claims.

"Finally, some moxie, I like it, you should display more of it," Sionis said. "I'll give you a couple of reasons. One of them is you don't have the guts to kill me."

"We'll see," Cain said.

"And you're motivated by wanting a job done right," Sionis said. "Thirty years you've been at this, in some form or another, haven't you?"

Cain didn't respond. It seemed as if his employer had managed to research him rather well.

"Thirty years, you never missed an assassination attempt, until tonight," Sionis said. "If you want to see this money in your account after midnight, kill Dent. Stain the streets he's planned to protect with his blood."

"I'll get the job done, no matter how long it takes," Cain said.

Cain's fingers flexed against the knife. He took several deep and powerful breaths and imagined what it would be like to put it through Sionis's throat.

"You only have three hundred and seven minutes…six minutes," Sionis said. "If I you can't get the job done, I'll find someone who will get the job done after midnight."

"I'm getting to work," Cain said.

Cain ended the call himself. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. The wind kicked up outside in Gotham City and he started to count to ten.

' _Let's go.'_

* * *

 

Harvey Dent understood the frustration of a caged animal. He had been trapped in his own cage and forced to wait with the SWAT. The only moderate amount of satisfaction Dent experience was they were just as frustrated to be here as he was. Dent wouldn't mince words too much.

' _Nothing yet.'_

"Branden should have checked back in," one of the SWAT squad members said.

"The bastard would have checked in earlier for the night, left us to sit around until morning," the SWAT member said. He leaned back and noticed a flickering above him. "Someone should fix the lights….place is falling apart."

The SWAT team member watched the light fixture start to move backwards. One of them began to nod off and didn't care who knew it.

The front entrance ripped open and a hand plunged a knife through his chest. The SWAT member fell forward. The others turned around and one by one they met the same fate.

A rapid fire hand started to stab the knife at them. The knife jabbed into the chest and the arms of the SWAT team members. He picked up the weakest spots of the armor and took them down to the ground. Blood spilled from their bodies.

Harvey Dent rose to a standing position. His breath hit the back of his throat the second. An older man made his way inside. The blood coated knife held in his hand.

Dent barely avoided the flush stab of the knife going into him. The man grabbed Dent by the tie. Dent had been punched in the chest. He wheezed from the punch nailing him in the chest. Another punch nailed him in the chest.

"ARGH!" Dent yelled.

The knife stabbed him in the stomach. Dent closed his eyes. He had been padded underneath his shirt for attempted knife attacks. He feigned being stabbed in an attempt to put distance between himself and the assassin.

' _He'll notice the lack of blood sooner or later.'_

David Cain watched his latest victim go down. He didn't want to leave any work to chance. He would swoop in for the kill.

Dent picked up one of the dropped guns from one of the SWAT team members. The element of surprise had to work in Dent's favor. He pulled back on the trigger of the gun and fired it towards the man. The knife had been knocked from his hand from the ricochet effect.

David Cain had been caught off guard. The second attempt to fire at him had been avoided. Cain's face twisted into a vicious smile. He jumped back and kicked Dent's arm. He grabbed the man's arm and twisted around his back.

Dent struggled against Cain's grip. He had been disarmed and the cold blade reaching his shoulder indicated he would be disarmed in a slightly more literal way. Cain swiped the blade back.

' _Went down swinging.'_

David Cain dodged a punch which came from another figure from the side. The assassin stepped back a couple of feet. The figure came around him on the other end.

Batman circled around David Cain. The most important goal he had in mind was to direct David Cain away from Harvey Dent. Easier said than done given how Cain had a single minded objective. He hurled the Baterang at Cain in an attempt to get his attention.

Cain caught the flying weapon in his hand and hurled it back towards a wooden pole. A piece of scaffolding tripped over and almost squashed Batman flat.

Batman only just avoided the punch. Cain drew back and nailed him with a series of rapid fire punches to the chest. He held Batman up by the cape and flung him down onto the ground. Batman flipped over hard onto the ground.

"It's been a while."

Cain barely afforded his enemies any words. He decided not to waste any further movement on speaking. He lunged forward for the attack and tried to nail his adversary. Batman blocked his attack and nailed him with a glancing blow to the stomach which doubled over.

Batman hammered away at Cain with jab followed by jab. He strung together the strikes as fast and as fluid as he could imagine. Cain slipped back away from Batman and turned to try and stab him. The knife had been avoided and Batman rammed back into him with more punches. The fist of Batman connected hard and fluid into the face of David Cain.

Cain had been knocked over and landed on his back. He picked himself off of the ground and tipped something into his hand.

Batman dove into the air towards Cain. A flash bang caught him in the face. Cain pushed Batman over into a fence and picked up a club dropped by one of the nightsticks. He swung it and Batman avoided each and every shot. The Dark Knight flipped over.

The club had been hooked onto and Batman pulled it from Cain's hand. Batman slammed his fist into Cain's chest and kept drilling him with more punches. He grabbed Cain around the neck and put the squeeze on him.

Katana slipped out of the shadows. She could see Harvey Dent had been banged up. Nightwing turned up a half of a step behind her.

"I'll handle him, you go help Batman," Nightwing said.

Any argument had been stopped, and Katana nodded to walk over towards Batman.

Batman tried to put Cain down. Cain broke his grip and nailed him with a series of punches. The blade had been reclaimed in the battle and Cain stabbed the blade straight through Batman's thigh.

The stabbing pain entered Batman's leg and spread down his body. Cain took half of a step back to admire his hand work. He could see something approach him.

The blade of Katana swung towards him. Cain stepped back about a half of an inch and avoided the attack. He reached in and grabbed her around the neck. He pushed onto a point in her neck.

Katana broke free from Cain's grip. He tried to stab her with a dagger. The dagger had been blasted out of his hand.

"It's over, Cain," Nightwing said. "The League will learn of your presence in this city. I suggest you flee."

Cain weighed his options and decided to move towards the Dragon. The man moved with the speed and agility. Cain's first two punches had been avoided.

A miniature electrified charge erupted from the gauntlet of Harry's suit. He followed it up by firing a series of cords at Cain and wrapped him up. The mercenary struggled with no place to go.

"You move, and I'll retract them," Nightwing said. "When Lady Shiva arrives, I'm sure she'll be happy to see you."

Nightwing turned a half of an inch to the side and noticed Katana extending a hand to Batman. He could hear a car approach off to the side of the alleyway.

"You better go, the SWAT is arriving," Nightwing said. "Get him medical attention."

"I'm fine," Batman said.

Katana didn't even bother to acknowledge his words for a second. She knew by now with Batman it was easier to ask for forgiveness, then beg for permission.

The moment Katana and Batman disappeared into the night, Nightwing turned his full and undivided attention towards Cain. Cain, despite the swollen face, bloodied lip, and failed contract, looked up at Nightwing with a smile on his face.

"You could kill me," Cain said.

"I should kill you," Nightwing said.

"Yes, you should, but….you would be putting all of Gotham City in peril," Cain said. "There's a bomb where if it isn't disarmed within the next five minutes, it will go off. And if my heart does before then, it goes off."

Nightwing stared down at Cain. He had to have been bluffing, but Nightwing couldn't have been sure. He had two choices. He could either stay with Cain until the police got here, or he could tear off and look for the bomb.

Only one choice to make in a situation like this, as Nightwing turned his back on the situation and began to search for the bomb.

* * *

 

Time started to run out for Nightwing and all of Gotham City. The utilization of his wrist gauntlet managed to isolate any bombs which could be found inside of Gotham City. He knew he worked against the clock. Nightwing hoped to have found his way to a certain point.

' _You sure he isn't bluffing about this?'_ Kara asked.

' _I know someone like David Cain, he doesn't bluff,'_ Nightwing thought. _'I'm certain he thought he would have ran into myself or Batman. He considered there was a chance either of us could have captured him. And as such, he's worked with a contingency plan to make sure he didn't get taken, at least alive.'_

Nightwing found the subway station. The blipping lead him in the middle of the subway, because of course it was in the middle of the subway.

' _Good news, and bad news,'_ Nightwing thought. He dropped down to the ground and prepared to search for the bomb. The time on the clock continued to tick down.

' _Since when has there not been bad news with the good news,'_ Oracle thought. _'Oh, continue….let's see what we have to do.'_

' _Well, the good news is there's not too many people to clear out of the subway station,'_ Nightwing thought. _'The bad news is there's way too much people to clear up.'_

' _Maybe I could sprint everyone out?'_ Kara suggested.

' _You're quick, but not that quick,'_ Nightwing thought. _'If my calculations are correct, this explosion could end up rattling half of Gotham City."_

Nightwing always worked a little bit better underneath pressure. A lot of people worked a little bit better underneath pressure. Nightwing placed himself down on the ground. Time started to tick down second by second. He scanned and located the bomb, hidden deep within the newspaper stand.

He levitated the newspapers away. The only person nearby was a vagrant who had been passed out against the wall. The powerful young man pushed his hands down onto the newsstand and caused energy to flash within them. The bomb lifted up and Harry noticed it was a standard make.

' _Same bombs the League uses,'_ Nightwing said. _'Tricky to disarm, unless you absolutely know what you're doing.'_

Fortunately, Harry knew what he was doing. He dismantled the bomb just seconds before it would explode.

' _So, can we breathe?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Maybe a small breath,'_ Harry thought. _'The bomb's disabled…..but Cain….'_

Nightwing made his way down to the ground and the GCPD started to crowd around. The vigilante perched himself on the rooftop and crouched down to attempt to get a better look.

"I saw him, he was here just about ten seconds before I got here," one of the officers said. "And then, ten seconds later, he was gone."

Nightwing took a moment to sigh. He knew this was going to happen, and yet he left, leaving Cain tied up. He couldn't risk killing him or even rendering him unconscious if he was accurate about the fact the bomb would go off. It would have killed half of Gotham City.

David Cain disappeared into the night. Midnight had passed.

' _Black Mask has rescinded the contract,'_ Oracle thought. _'So, I guess he must feel secure Cain won't go after him.'_

' _Or he knows what I do about Cain, and he can't stand in Gotham City without having Lady Shiva go after him,'_ Nightwing thought a moment later.

Nightwing wished he could have come face to face with David Cain and finished the job tonight. The rumors he heard about what Cain was doing, well…nothing could verify them. The implications though disturbed him.

* * *

 

The members of Black Mask's gang knew to keep out of gunshot from their boss when he was in a temper. He paid them well, but the members of this gang knew this job came with certain occupational job hazards. Up to and including their very lives.

Black Mask walked over to his desk and slammed his hands on the desk. The desk rattled. Ms. Li inched closer towards them.

"If you want the bounty rescinded, then we should redouble security, in case Cain tries to retaliate on you," Ms. Li said.

"If Cain retaliates, I'll feed him his own sword," Black Mask said. "He's not the one I'm bothered with tonight…it's those two….Batman and Nightwing."

"They have gotten involved in your operations a lot, sir," Number One said.

Sionis turned his attention to Number One. Number One swallowed the lump forming in his throat. He knew in an instant he had pushed things a bit too far with his boss.

"Yes, they have, yes, they have, YES THEY HAVE!" Black Mask yelled at the top of his lungs. His rage took them completely and utterly aback.

None of them, not even Black Mask's most trusted, had the nerve to ask him why he was so pissed off at Harvey Dent. These days, they just went along with what he wanted, as long as the checks kept clearing and their bank accounts fattened up a little bit more.

"I'm going to…this is the latest and gravest mistakes either of them are going to make," Black Mask growled. "Fifty million dollars for Batman, twenty-five million dollars for Nightwing, I want both of them gone, spread the word out."

The other members of Black Mask's gang looked at each other. This was a pretty nerve racking moment for all involved. They wondered whether or not they had money to burn. Most of them were too terrified to even bother asking to be perfectly honest.

"Right, I'll send out the word," Ms. Li said.

"I want everyone to know by sunrise," Black Mask said.

Black Mask turned around and stormed from his office. His men hung around before they decided it was best to dismiss themselves.

The Gotham City Crime Lord took several quick strides and made his way into a study. He pulled back a bust of William Shakespeare to reveal a secret switch. A bookcase slid back to reveal an elevator. Black Mask stepped into the elevator and made his way down into the depths of it.

Black Mask stepped out of the elevator into a cave. A remodeled sports car sat in the middle of the cave. On the wall, there were several trophies on the wall. He jaunted to the shadows and slipped off his mask. His back turned to the fourth wall of the cave and towards a figure sitting in the shadows.

"You know, this will be the start of a beautiful partnership."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 6** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Cain doesn't succeed in killing Harvey Dent when the day is saved. The SWAT are kind of gossiping jerks, and Harry puts the fear of Lady Shiva into Cain._

_Those who are good at reading context clues might be able to figure out what the hell is going on with Black Mask(or have played a certain video game), but I shall not spoil it for the rest of the class._

_Until Wednesday._


	203. Powderkeg

**Chapter Two Hundred and Three: Powderkeg.**

* * *

 

The dust settled and a couple of days passed after the events of election night. Harvey sat in the middle of the hospital waiting room. He had the security guards surround him and formed a rather tight and close knit circle. Given what happened the last time, Harvey's confidence of their abilities to keep him protected ended up being a fair amount on the lower side of things. He drummed his fingers on the table and looked at the watch. Dent held the silver dollar in his hand and thought about flipping it.

Harvey paused a couple of seconds later and pushed the coin back into his pocket.

' _Not tonight,'_ Harvey thought. _'The doctor said she would be out in a couple of minutes, hope nothing went wrong.'_

As for Harvey, he suffered his second concussion in the past couple of weeks, along with some bruised ribs to match. This was not exactly the most endearing moment of his life. The fact the assassin which put a hit on him disappeared and the bounty appeared to have been rescinded didn't exactly put Harvey in the best of mind if he could be honest.

' _In Gotham, when it rains, it always pours,'_ Harvey thought. His hand slipped to the inside of his coat to pull out the silver dollar.

Harvey retracted his hand from inside the coat and took a moment to sigh. He did not need the coin. The coin did not need to be flipped. Force of habit, and old habits died hard with him.

The Gotham City District Attorney turned his head around and listened to the pitter-patter of rain drops across the window. Harvey swore every time he turned around, it rained. The thunder boomed through the sky and a wind smacked against the windowsill. Rain splashed against the windshield.

' _Every day,'_ Harvey thought.

The doors swung open and the doctor moved out.

"Mr. Dent?" the doctor asked.

"Yes?" Harvey asked.

"Ms. Dawes is ready to see you now," the doctor said.

Harvey responded with a smile and the nod. The two guards made their way up to follow Harvey close behind. Harvey allowed a sigh out. Best to allow them to follow him close behind and stick to him as if they were a pair of particularly ugly shadows because of the path of least resistance was not to argue with them.

The doctor chaperoned Harvey and the GCPD assigned guards to him and up to the stairway. Rachel sat up in the bed, arm in a sling, and a frown on her face.

"Hello, Rachel," Harvey said. "How are you feeling?"

"How am I feeling?" Rachel asked. "Well, I'm out of surgery, they removed the bullet. I lost a lot of blood. Couple of bones got shattered. Thankfully there isn't any nerve damage."

Harvey could see her to be in mostly good spirits. A sour look spread over Rachel's face and Harvey had a small amount of sympathy directed towards her.

"As for this hospital, the sooner I can get out of here, the better it is," Rachel said. "Hospital food sucks. I mean sucks big time."

Harvey answered with a moment of a chuckle. He had been in the hospital a few times himself. Rachel's commentary on hospital food proved itself to be accurate, if he thought so. He reached in and placed his hand on Rachel's good arm. A light pat on the arm followed and Rachel stared back at him.

"I'd be a lot happier if I was out of here," Rachel said. She stretched her hand into the air.

"No one likes to be benched," Harvey said.

"No, especially me," Rachel said. "Bruce was already by….you two must have missed each other….he offered to pay all my medical bills….seems to think he should have been able to stop this."

"What could he have done?" Harvey asked.

Rachel closed her eyes a couple of moments ago.

"He carries a guilt complex a mile long, ever since his parents got shot in the alleyway all those years ago," Rachel said. "His issues have issues, and it's a wonder….well….he does still find his own ways to cope."

Harvey heard the rumors about how Bruce tended to cope with his problems. The District Attorney couldn't really judge him to be honest. Bruce would do what he wanted to do.

"So, any luck with the man who tried to kill you?" Rachel asked. "Or the man who put the contract out on you in the first place? Do you have any ideas?"

"If I did, it's not anything I can pursue legally," Harvey said.

Rachel hung her head for a moment. The problem with their job is if they did everything by the book, they would be handcuffed in a lot of ways. Most of the people they dealt with would not do things by the book. They would do everything in a completely scummy and underhanded manner. It reached the point some days where Rachel's stomach turned around into a twist.

"So, you don't have leads?" Rachel asked.

"There's a rumor one of the Gotham City crime lords was the one who put the contract out on me," Dent said. "I've researched the man who picked up the contract, David Cain….."

Rachel almost dropped hospital food she ate. Unfortunately, Harvey managed to stop it from hitting the floor, which would only be the improvement. The former Acting and current assistant, District Attorney, started to breath in for a couple of minutes.

"I trust you've heard of him," Dent said.

"Yes, he's been…connected with a couple of murders in Gotham City, couple of cold cases which had to get lost because he isn't exactly the kind of guy you bring downtown for questioning," Rachel said. "And…you're very lucky you didn't get nailed hard by him."

"I'm not sure luck has anything to do with what happened with me," Harvey said.

Rachel set the spoon down onto her leg and drew in a breath.

"It's really getting bad," Rachel said. "And it's only going to get worse, now Maroni's out of prison."

Harvey didn't have anything to clench his hand around. If he did, he would have crushed it flat. The District Attorney didn't really have too much time to delve into this entire mess. From what he heard, Falcone said a few words to the judge, and the judge jumped when the Roman told him how high. As a result, Maroni was back on the streets without a second opinion.

"It's going to be rough over the next couple of months," Rachel said. "Looks like you're going to be in for the long haul….we're going to be in for the long haul."

Falcone and Maroni patched up their differences, Black Mask and Penguin worked together, and Thorne had been making deals. All of this was hearsay. Solid enough where Dent gave credence to it. Not fluid enough though where he could actually do anything about it.

' _Maybe it's time to start thinking outside of the box,'_ Harvey thought. _'It's dangerous Harvey, but we got to do something.'_

Harvey remembered how Nightwing showed up and pulled him out of the battle. He got things done, things which Harvey couldn't. Legally, Harvey couldn't do anything.

"So, how's Gilda doing?" Rachel asked him.

"She's a bit shaken up, but she's doing fine," Harvey said.

* * *

 

Oswald Cobblepot heard many rumors reach him. He didn't really know where to begin when he shifted through all of them. The businessman sat down at the desk and stretched out his legs a little bit. He read the news reporter which indicated Harvey Dent refused to back off, despite an assassination attempt. And Rachel Dawes, she would have made a full recover.

' _Tough bird, would have liked her in my roost,'_ Oswald thought.

He had business to do, even more now Maroni was back on the streets and knocking boots with the Roman. Not to mention Thorne and doing what he's going to do, and Cobblepot thought he would be in for a rather interesting, if not very frustrating time.

The moment he looked up from his desk, one of his men stood on the other side of the door. Cobblepot answered with a sigh and arched his neck a couple of inches off to one side.

"Well, just don't stand out there with your hand down your trousers, come in!" Cobblepot barked.

The man in question almost stumbled and tripped over his own feet when entering the office. Cobblepot turned towards the man entering the office with a frown and a sigh.

"Well, pull up a chair and sit down," Cobblepot said. "Tell me what you've heard? Are the rumors true, about the hit Black Mask has put out about the winged rodent and the slimy lizard?"

Given the rumors and the things the thug heard, he thought the winged rodent and the slimy dragon were some of the nicer things Cobblepot could have said regarding Batman and Nightwing.

"Well, out with it, boy," Cobblepot said. "Is it true?"

"From what some of the boys told me, it's pretty true," the thug said. "Yes, it's….he's put the money out, and all of the people are looking to cash in on the bounty. Weird he put the bounty on Dent, pulled it, only to put it on Nightwing and Batman. Think it's a bit fishy."

Cobblepot pressed his palm on the side of the desk. One could see certain gears grinding into the back of the man's head.

"Guess, I don't pay you to think for a reason," Cobblepot said. "So, it's….twenty-five million for Nightwing, and fifty million to Batman?"

Many questions had been raised by this entire situation. Cobblepot did not even want to begin to guess where this headed. The only thing he knew was winged rodents fetched a higher price than slimy lizards did. Cobblepot frowned and he pushed a button in the office which caused a buzz to go through.

"Tracey?" Cobblepot asked. "I need you in here on the double!"

Tracey Buxton made her way into her boss's office.

"Did Sionis ever call you back, sir?" Tracey asked.

"Nah, I'm going to call him again," Cobblepot said. "He goes into his…weird phases, but this is strange even for him. He puts a bounty on Dent, and rescinds it after midnight. Potentially pissing of an assassin who is notorious for killing people who call take back on his bounty. And now, he's thrown down the gauntlet on Batman and Nightwing."

One should not get Cobblepot wrong. He agreed with Sionis at least on principle with him putting the bounty on Batman and Nightwing. The theory was sound, even if the actual execution could be completely and totally off.

' _Going to try and get in touch with him again.'_

Cobblepot had no idea why Sionis even intended to avoid him. The criminal pushed a pair to the phone and began to dial the number.

' _Come on, pick up, you wanker,'_ Cobblepot said.

The phone had been picked up and Cobblepot waited.

"Yes?" Sionis asked.

"Black Mask, you're a very hard man to get in touch with these days," Cobblepot said. "It's your partner, remember me….."

"Of course I remember you, Penguin," Sionis said. "I've been busy the last couple of days. Deals don't make themselves."

Cobblepot heard the not so subtle implications coming from Sionis's voice. Sionis implied, perhaps not outright, he was doing a lot of work, and what was Cobblepot doing? Cobblepot tried his hardest not to flip out due to what Sionis was saying. He took a deep breath.

' _Got to be calm and cool regarding this, old boy,'_ Cobblepot thought to himself. _'Don't want to lose your cool, do you?'_

Cobblepot took a couple of seconds to calm himself down before he managed to ask the most obvious question.

"What have you been working on, then which has kept you so busy?" Cobblepot asked Sionis.

"I've been talking to Thorne just like we discussed," Sionis said. "He's willing to make some deals…guess he's got a hair up his ass regarding Falcone and Maroni getting back into bed. We both know the only reason the Roman made a deal with Maroni is because he's afraid of losing his power base."

Penguin scratched his chin and responded with a nod. Yes, he could see this, he could see this one hundred percent of the way. Thorne wanted to make a deal.

"He's got his eyes on the bigger prize," Cobblepot said. "Guess it makes sense then he wants to buddy up with the both of us."

Cobblepot knew Thorne might have been pressing on them, leaning on them as it will, to be making some sort of deal, to calm the waters as it were. He knew for a fact Thorne wanted to consolidate everything together. Cobblepot respected the man and knew he had ambition, but there were parts of the Gotham City scene which were outdating.

"And I found out something from Thorne you might find interesting," Black Mask said. "Maxie Zeus's old casino and hotel is up on the open market. Rumor is the Roman wants to make a bid for it."

"Bah, he's not going to get that….he has enough," Cobblepot said. "What does Zeus have to say about it? Or is he still in the crazy hotel for the foreseeable future?"

"He's not going to be getting out any time soon, if the state has anything to say about it," Black Mask said.

Cobblepot nodded. He figured the state seized Zeus's properties and now were about to make a mint off of what he owned. They had no idea whatsoever how much those hotels really were worth. Cobblepot wasn't going to educate them.

"Thorne has the ear of a couple of people," Black Mask said. "If you want to make a deal, now's the time to make a couple of calls."

"I'll keep it in mind," Cobblepot said. He rubbed his fingers together, glee flashing through his eyes. The thoughts of money and the fortune this particular hotel brought hit him very hard.

"And I'm sure you want the heads up for another business venture I'm working on."

Cobblepot's interest perked up. Was he going to inform him about it outright? Cobblepot would have appreciated the heads up before Sionis tried something like this. Still, better late than never.

"I've put a bounty on Batman and Nightwing, they've caused too much trouble for us in the past, and it's time to put them down where they belong," Sionis said. "Fifty million for Batman and twenty five million for Nightwing, if your boys want a crack, or if you want to do the deed yourself, then by all means have at it"

"So, you've put a hit out on our resident vigilantes," Cobblepot said. A deep rooted frown crossed over his face. "Interesting, very, very, interesting."

"You don't approve, do you?" Sionis asked. "Do you think this plan is madness?"

Cobblepot knew of the benefits of this partnership with Sionis. So he needed to choose his next few words carefully.

"It just wasn't a step I would have taken," Cobblepot said. "You know what you're doing, and it's your money. And I'd be lying if I didn't think our lives would be a fair amount easier without those caped crusaders in our lives."

Cobblepot understood where Sionis came from in this situation. He just wondered about the ramifications of this entire mess.

* * *

 

A rough-faced man dressed in a stylish suit with his hair slicked back walked from a club. He whistled and walked from a night club. He turned around into the alleyway and walked to the back parking lot to pick up his car.

The man stopped and noticed something. He put his finger down upon the tire and pressed it inwards. Someone slashed the tires. The air had been let out of his tires.

He turned around and soon the air had been let out of his body when Lady Shiva jumped out of the always. She nailed the man with a huge palm thrust to the chest. The impact from the blow knocked him over. Shiva grabbed the man by the scruff of the neck with deceptive strength and turned him around before slamming him into the wall. The man cracked back first against the wall.

Lady Shiva held him down against the wall. He groaned the second Shiva pressed on top of him.

"I know you've worked for David Cain in the past, and you've offered him a place to sleep when he's conducted business in Gotham City," Shiva said.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Shiva picked up the man and threw him into his own car. The assassin pulled herself up and grabbed the gentleman around his neck. Shiva hoisted him up and slammed him hard into the side of the windshield. She stopped before she rendered the man completely unconscious.

"I'm going to ask you one more time, and if you value your life even in the slightest, you'll answer my question," Lady Shiva said. Her bright eyes burned with fury the second she glanced down onto the man.

"I don't….."

Shiva's firm grip caused the man to squirm underneath it. A trickle of blood spilled from his mouth. Lady Shiva stood over the top of the man and the man knew in an instant he would be stabbed straight through had they tried anything.

"You better think hard," Lady Shiva said. "You have about thirty seconds before I kill you."

The cold hard blade pushed against the neck vein of the man. All Shiva needed to do was press the blade into the vein and he would be dead. Shiva held him down onto the truck. He looked up at her with hatred burning through his eyes.

"I'm waiting," Lady Shiva said. "And be warned, I'm not a patient woman. You should not keep me waiting."

The man's heart performed a war beat against his rib cage. Shiva could tell by his body language he was about to sing. The deadliest woman on the planet kept the knife close to his jugular to make sure he did.

"Cain….yes, he was here!" the man blurted out.

Shiva gave a predatory smile when she held the gentleman own onto the hood of the car. His head pressed closer towards the window of the car.

"Good, he was here, we're making progress," Shiva said. "Do you mean to tell me he's still in Gotham City? He's left Gotham City?"

Shiva hated to think she would have been too late regarding this situation. She held in her breath and let it out when she glanced down at Cain's associate.

"After the contract had been cancelled, he got onto the plane and let Gotham City, he didn't want to stick around for too long," the man said.

"Which plane?" Shiva demanded. "Where is he going?"

"I don't know, I swear, I don't know," the man said, practically stammering.

Shiva pulled back from the man. She gave him enough room to breathe and contemplate his fate. Then, Shiva pulled back her hand and stabbed him in the throat. Blood spilled from his throat the moment Shiva left him for dead on the hood of the car.

The world-class assassin turned around and took her journey out of the alleyway. Nyssa Al Ghul waited for her at the edge of the alleyway. A frown passed over the face of the Daughter of the Demon the moment Lady Shiva approached her.

"Any luck?" Nyssa asked.

"Another dead end," Lady Shiva said.

Shiva walked off and made her way to the rooftop. Nyssa kept the pace and both of them stuck to the shadows.

"Do you think it's time for you to step up with the plan?" Nyssa asked. "Cain has stayed one step ahead of you on this crusade….and….."

"I'll find him with or without the League's help," Lady Shiva said. "If you don't want to help me, I understand….you have your own concerns to worry about."

Nyssa did not mean to imply this in the slightest. She closed in behind Lady Shiva. The two of them continued their journeys and moved from one rooftop to the next.

"You know what I'm referring to, Sandra," Nyssa said.

"It's a personal matter, and I'd prefer not to get him involved," Shiva said. "Even though he's passed pretty much every test I've put in front of him."

Nyssa knew of Shiva's high standards and knew it would be hard to impress her to be honest. The fact she spoke in this mostly favorable manner spoke highly.

"If you didn't assist me in destroying the Pit and tracking down the lead on the White Ghost….."

"Which didn't pan out," Shiva said.

Nyssa took a moment and closed her eyes for a couple of seconds. The fact they had run into another dead end made her very agitation.

"Don't blame yourself," Shiva said. "Cain is slippery, but I'll have his head one day.

* * *

 

Harry crossed his legs and allowed the energy to flow within him. His power levels started to taper off a little bit to the levels they were before Halloween Night. They were still higher than normal.

"Hello, Diana."

Diana paused at the door and could see Harry sitting on the ground. He wore pants and no short. The Amazon Princess walked over. She dressed in a tight white blouse and a black skirt which flipped up to show Harry her stockings and panties all of the way.

"Good morning, Harry."

Diana closed the distance between the two of them and kissed him. She wasted no time getting what she wanted. Harry wrapped his arms around Diana tight and pulled her in closer towards him. She pressed against his crotch with another hungry kiss. Her tongue pushed deeper into his mouth.

"Mmm, this is a very good morning," Diana muttered.

Harry reached behind her and slipped his hand behind her skirt and squeezed her ass cheeks. She smiled and looked at him.

"So, how are you doing?" Diana asked. She ran her hand down his body and stroked him.

"Pretty good now actually," Harry said.

"Still got a bit more power to burn?" Diana asked.

"Tapered off a little bit," Harry said.

Diana smiled and leaned back. She unbuttoned her blouse and exposed her bra covered breasts to Harry. Her custom made bra strained against the cups.

"Well, we've got some time to kill before the girls are due to start their training," Diana said. Her hand stroked Harry's hair. "And I'm sure we can find an interesting way to keep occupied."

Diana pressed forward and her body grinded against Harry. Harry soaked in the heat coming from Diana and he knew what she wanted and how she wanted it really bad. Harry wasn't about to be one who would deny Diana everything she needed and desired.

"I'm certain we can."

Harry unclipped Diana's bra and allowed it to fall to the ground between them. He freed her breasts out into the wild. The glorious globes pressed into Harry's chest. Harry leaned towards her and pushed his lips onto Diana with a kiss.

Diana moaned and ground against him. The Amazon's fingers teased her partner's muscular physique with a wicked grin on her face. She continued to trace her fingers about the area of his bicep.

Harry pushed her deep into the wall. His crotch strained against his trousers.

"You're mine."

Diana arched her neck back to allow Harry to give her fuller access to it. His powerful mouth wrapped around his neck and started to kiss the side of her neck. Harry's mouth suckled and pressed on her pulse points.

"Mmm, Harry!" Diana breathed heavily. "More, give me more."

Harry gave her more alright. His mouth left several marks on her neck. He made his way down her body and buried his face between her breasts. The warm and firm orbs pushed into his face made Harry hungry for more. He nibbled and suckled away at her tit flesh.

Diana raised her hands up and placed them down onto the back of Harry's head. She panted with each suck, eat bite, and each squeeze.

Her skirt pushed back and Diana hitched in a breath. Harry pulled back her panties and rubbed his fingers against her. With authority, Harry forced his way inside her pussy. Diana lifted her hips up and squeezed them to encourage further penetration.

"More, deeper!" Diana yelled. "Suck my tits, suck them hard. Leave them marked!"

Harry decided not to deny Diana of what she wanted and what she needed. His mouth pushed against her tits when he pumped his fingers into them. He took advantage of the inordinate amount of magic pushing through them and manipulated Diana's core.

Diana lifted her hips back and savored every moment. Harry removed his mouth from her breasts. Protest never had a chance to leap Diana's mouth when Harry made his way down more on her. His mouth lavished her toned midsection and kept going down. He stopped short at her pussy and started to kiss her legs.

"I love your legs," Harry said. "They're as amazing as the rest of you."

"Yes," Diana said. "There's one part of me….I want you to pay tribute to though."

Diana's legs spread open and Harry received the hint in a moment. Harry kissed around her slit and pulled his fingers out. The moment Harry's fingers left Diana's dripping pussy, Harry brought his tongue inside her.

"Yes!" Diana yelled. "Thank Hera for this blessing!"

Diana screamed in pure bliss. Harry's tongue pushed deeper inside. He tickled her dripping center. Diana's legs wrapped around him and Harry reached underneath her to cup her ass. This made Diana push up to give him fuller access to both her pussy and ass.

Harry manipulated the center. He munched down on her pussy. The tasty Amazonian juices inflamed Harry. He brought Diana closer to the edge and he knew in the back of his mind what would really make her spurt.

"HARRY!" Diana yelled.

The sound of a strong hand smacking over a thick posterior could be heard. Harry spanked Diana again and again. She offered the most token of protests. Her pussy told a different story though. More juices spilled out for Harry to lap up and he continued the swift vibrations of his tongue.

Diana came with a constant barrage of orgasms. Harry pushed all of her buttons, even more than ever before. He brought her to multiple orgasms. Every single time Harry pushed his tongue into her, Diana saw stars.

Harry released her pussy and pulled back. A smile crossed over his face and he pointed towards the bed in the center of the room.

Diana walked over to the room. The Amazon's ass swayed and Harry smacked her on the ass a couple of times. Diana walked over and crawled onto the bed. Her ass stuck to the bed as Harry secured her to the bed.

"Are you ready?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Diana said. "Let's see how much you have."

Harry ran his hands down Diana's body. The fit and perfect Amazon body pushed underneath Harry's hands. Harry explored every single inch and pushed himself behind Diana. The tip of his cock pushed against Diana's lips.

Diana's pussy twitched with Harry at her entrance. Harry teased every single inch of her body. He pressed himself against her back and cupped her pussy.

"This belongs to me," Harry said. "My cock fits your pussy and I like to hear you scream."

"Yes," Diana said. "Stick your big cock inside my pussy. Make me scream, make me your bitch."

"You're my bitch?" Harry asked. "And you like being fucked with a big, juicy cock, don't you? You like me tying you up and fucking your pussy raw."

"Yes!" Diana yelled. "I like you tying me up and making me helpless. I want you to take your big cock and drill me until you spill your cum into me. And then, I want you to re-fill up and fill me again and again until there's no room left in my pussy for any more cum."

Harry thought this suggestion was tantalizing. Her pussy spread open for him. The beautiful pink lips beckoned towards Harry and Harry decided he would take the plunge in more ways then one.

Inch by inch, Harry filled her. Diana's body tensed up for a moment. Her walls opened and then clenched around him. Harry started to push into her into her pussy.

"Let's really test how much you have left," Diana said.

Harry grabbed Diana and rutted into her from behind. The mirror on the wall showed Harry and anyone else who may have been standing behind them saw Diana's orgasmic face. Harry held Diana's hips and hammered her from behind with a series of rapid fire thrusts into her.

"I think this is a good way to test me," Harry said.

A firm squeeze of her breasts caused Diana's walls to tighten around him. The thrusts grew faster and faster and brought Diana to her peak.

"Fuck me, hard, fuck me hard!" Diana yelled. "Pull my hair and tell me I'm your bitch when you fuck me!"

Harry grabbed two hands full of Diana's hair and pulled back. He slammed his cock into her in a repeated and rapid fire fashion. Her pussy squeezed around him the harder Harry worked inside into her.

"Yes, you're my bitch!" Harry yelled. "You're nothing, but a bondage princess who loves taking my cock hard in her dripping twat. You love being stretched out when I pound your pussy into submission. You love screaming over and over until I make you cum hard, don't you?"

"YES!" Diana yelled at the top of her lungs. "Harder, pound me harder, oh, Hera help me, I'm cumming!"

The firm squeeze of pussy against cock prompted Harry to ram himself into Diana with more fluid pumps. Her pussy closed around him and squeezed him hard. Harry continued to work her over to the edge.

Her orgasm belonged to him and Harry tempered it, mastered it, and did pretty much everything else he wanted to with it. Harry's rapid fire cock pumps spread Diana's thighs apart. His balls slapped against her the more he buried himself inside of her.

"Again?" Harry asked. "You're about ready to cum again?"

"Yes," Diana said. "I love cumming over your big cock. I love the way it touches every part of me. Makes my body burn with pleasure for you!"

Harry intended to keep up the pace. He rode Diana into the bed and spanked her ass every few trusts. Every time Harry hit her ass, Diana's pussy enveloped him. The wet and willing walls caressed his balls when Harry pushed onto the inside of her.

"Yes, more, harder, oh yes, baby!" Diana yelled.

Harry continued the heavy pumping. Every single time Diana closed around him, Harry's balls twitched. He reared back and shoved more of his engorged prick into her.

"Paradise, your pussy is the real paradise," Harry said. He pulled on her hair to give some leverage before he slammed into her.

Diana enjoyed Harry's cock buried deep inside her. The stimulation of her ass also heightened Diana's pleasure centers. He could bring her to many orgasms before, but Harry went for the record.

"I'm almost sliding out of you, you're so wet," Harry said.

Harry brought Diana back into the land of the living with a few caresses and squeezes of her breasts. He pumped deep inside her with more rapid fire thrusts.

"Yes," Diana said. "Guess you better hold on tight. I bet your balls are heavy and bloated by now, aren't they?"

One perk of Harry's temporary magical boost increased his capacity and tolerance. He was among the top. This one put him into an entirely different level. His balls swelled as he emptied and filled Diana with his thrusts.

"I have a load for you, for your perfect pussy," Harry said. "Feel how deep I am inside you?"

Diana could have sworn Harry grew even larger than ever before inside her. Her wet pussy clenched him the further Harry worked inside her. Those cum bloated balls pressed against Diana's entrance and she knew his orgasm was about ready to hit her hard.

"Yes, I feel you," Diana said. "Cum in me, please!"

Harry decided to give her everything she ever desired. His balls sized up.

"Cum one more time, and it's yours," Harry said. "Go ahead, my perfect bondage princess, cum for me. Crush your tight pussy walls around my throbbing cock."

Diana's cunt clenched him and hard. A few more pumps inside her made Diana hit her limit and beyond. Harry pressed into her with a few hard and rapid thrusts. The contents of his balls inched closer towards her.

"Yes!" Diana yelled. "YES!"

Harry brought Diana to one more potent and powerful orgasm. The next action followed brought Harry's sweet and sticky seed into Diana's body. His balls sized up and fired a heavy load inside her.

Diana clenched around him and enjoyed. Her body hit several more climaxes before Harry finished putting his seed inside her. She held onto the bed. Harry slapped her ass a few more times to really drive in the mind. His hands moved down and cupped her swinging breasts.

"Don't worry, there's far more where this came from."

Harry reloaded almost as fast as he unloaded and without any pause, he slipped inside Diana. Her battered pussy walls stretched around him the second Harry kept rocking into her again.

She pushed face first down onto the bed and never once bothered to stifle the screams.

Lyta stood outside of the room and waited for Harry and Diana. She had underwent a rather generous growth spurt in many ears and not just her chest and hips either. She shot up several inches and any baby fat she had had been trained away. She was now Donna's height and only a head shorter than Diana. Her green eyes shifted when she watched the situation.

She thought she heard something which pointed out to the fact her father and Diana were in. She wanted to meet them for training and get a jump on training earlier on. Lyta watched through a small crack in the door and saw her father and Diana got into their own little sparring session.

Lyta closed her eyes. Her face flushed and nipples hardened. Her thighs stuck together from the outrageous images she saw between Harry and Diana. He pushed her down onto the bed and mounted her from behind. Harry tied her up and rode her into she was wet.

' _Hera, this is so hot,'_ Lyta said.

Lyta had no idea her straight and proper older sister was into something like this. She had seen…..some things on the Internet, for research purposes.

"Mmm, Daddy, fuck my big sister so hard," Lyta said.

Lyta's ears reddened at the outrageousness of these words coming out of her mouth. Something else came from this, if Diana's screams could be indicated. The young princess closed her eyes and really hoped none of these thoughts had slipped into the bond link.

Her father and sister taught her how to keep the thoughts private. The Alphas did have an overriding process though. Lyta touched a hand to her face and ran it all the way down her body.

' _Better step back, before you get caught.'_

Lyta's eyes followed her father. Her Daddy was so big and so strong, and the only real man in this world. Lyta panted and convinced herself to stick around for just a couple more minutes. Her wicked imagination ran wild and Lyta replaced Diana with herself.

The youngest Amazon Princess never thought she would be enjoyed being put on the bed, tied up, and dominated until she thought about it. Granted, Lyta was not completely for certain she would like it.

' _Anything was worth trying at least once.'_

Lyta heard them stop. Disappointment struck her and she also had been told she would better go. Her thighs ached with need. A nice and good sparring session should be able to keep her distracted from all of this insanity, at least Lyta hoped as much.

' _Just in time.'_

Lois and Rebecca walked around the corner. Lyta acted as if them walking around the corner and her standing there was nothing out of the ordinary.

"Lyta, are you okay?" Rebecca asked. "You're not coming down with something, are you?"

"No, it's just….I hit it a little bit too hard in my warm ups this morning," Lyta said.

"Wait a minute?" Lois asked. "You get up by five for training…and you're up even earlier to do warmups."

Lyta leaned back for a second and just gave Lois one of those wicked little smiles. Rebecca smiled and looked towards Lois.

"You really like your bed too much, don't you?" Rebecca asked. "Besides, you were the one who wanted to train…"

Lois just wished it didn't have so much dedication. She willed her brain to stay awake. The weather outside failed to help Lois's slightly crabby mood this morning. She wasn't a morning person. Despite the fact the General was one and her sister was one, Lois wasn't one at all.

"Yes, I know, I wanted to train," Lois said. Her hands cupped together over each other. "And, I'm going to be the very best I can be."

Rebecca smiled when she looked back at Lois. She wouldn't really doubt it in the back of her mind. Lois was always one who would be better than her best. She looked from Lois to Lyta to say something. Lyta still had the far off expression in her eyes which caused Rebecca to raise her hand and begin to snap her fingers.

"Hello, Lyta?" Rebecca asked her.

"Just….I'm just deep in thought," Lyta said.

Lois turned to Lyta, and one could almost see the curious look budding in the young girl's face. Lyta resolved to be more careful because she almost had outed herself as spying on her father dominating her sister.

And speak of the two, they arrived. Harry made his way out of the room. Thankfully, the attention was on Harry, who wore a sleeveless top and tight pants combination. Rebecca and Lois glued their eyes directly on Harry the moment he passed from the room.

Lyta's full and undivided attention directed towards Diana. Diana's white top clung to her breasts and she wore a pair of tight shorts which fit her as if it was a second skin. Lyta pulled her gaze up to look at Diana and Harry properly.

"So, I hope you three girls are ready for your training," Diana said without missing a beat.

Lyta threw her hands up with a sigh and took a couple of deep breaths. Rebecca walked a couple of steps behind Diana and Harry. Lois walked behind them. Lyta brought up the rear and it wasn't a bad rear to bring up from where she stood.

* * *

 

A plane touched down at an airport. The airport wasn't exactly in a pleasant part of town. Not too many white collared businessman took these flights if anything else. A figure exited the plane. Her blond hair spiked up. A trenchcoat covered her body. A pair of sunglasses covered her eyes. The Latina features she had could be seen. She moved with almost methodical grace.

The limo waited for the woman. She raised a hand and knocked on it three times in casual succession. The door opened up and allowed her inside. The woman crouched down and slinked inside, wondering what this was all about.

A man dressed in a suit sat in the back of the limo. He smoked a cigar. The woman in question turned towards him.

"Right, to business."

The man took the cigar and put it out in the ash tray of the back of the limo. He picked up a file folder and dropped it down onto the woman's lap.

The mysterious Latina took the folder and flipped it open to the first page.

"This is the only known pictures of them?" she asked. "This is barely a blurred shadow?"

"This is all the information we have acquired on him at this present time," the man said. "My boss's organization wishes to employ you. Nightwing and Batman intervened in one of his previous operations, and Nightwing….he inconvenienced one of my boss's top lieutenants. He still hasn't been the same."

The woman frowned. Nightwing was obviously the one her benefactor wanted dead the most. And yet, the contract on his head skewed a bit lower. The skilled assassin didn't know what to think.

"What's the deal?" she asked.

"The standard contract," the benefactor said. "You'll kill Nightwing, and Batman as well. Black Mask pays the contract to our boss, and you get your cut. And you get the honor of having to square off against the Dreaded Dragon."

The Latina smiled. It would be such a shame to off such a pinnacle of manhood. She would have to do what she had to do. The woman placed her finger down onto the folder and stared at the photo as if attempting to will more prominent details to come to light. Her tongue trailed around the mouth.

"When will we arrive at Gotham City?" she asked.

"In about an hour," the man said. "I trust we have a deal, then?"

The woman took a second to smile and respond. She extended a hand outwards. A glove covered the hand and she placed it on the other man's had to shake it.

"We have a deal," she answered. "I'll take care of Nightwing, and Batman….and you ensure my cut is given after your boss gets his fair share."

"Of course," the man said. "I'm a man of my word."

The woman nodded and leaned back into the chair. A forked tongue came out of her mouth with a hiss.

"It's a pleasure doing business with you, Copperhead."

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 9** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_So, Rachel's a bit miffed at being put on the bench after getting shot. And Bruce's issues do have issues._

_Cobblepot and Black Mask have some tension with each other. Things are going to get worse from here._

_And speaking that tension, Lyta manages to catch an eyeful of her oldest sister and her father. That's going to be memorable._

_Copperhead shows up in Gotham City, and it's the female version from Arkham Origins, because of course it is. If you didn't think it would be anyone else, then you must be reading a different story from a different author._

_Until Saturday._


	204. Venom of the Snake Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Four: Venom of the Snake Part One.**

* * *

 

A whip cracked across the city and wrapped around a flagpole. Catwoman swung herself from one end of the building to the other .She had a destination she needed to reach and Selina intended to reach it before the sun came up. Security would be tight as always.

The change hit Gotham City hard and rapid over the past couple of weeks. Maroni had been let out of prison and now the Roman circled the wagons. Catwoman knew the security would have been heightened given the trouble in the city. Selina hung herself outside of the ledge and peered inside.

She studied the security around the building. Three individuals were right underneath her line of sight. Three more were secured in the shadows. Selina couldn't enter the room without tricking the security. She would have to take out the three towards the window.

' _Not easy,'_ Selina thought. _'They just love challenging me.'_

Selina paced her hand on the side of the window and pried it open. She slid into the window and put herself down on the shelf. Selina flipped off of the shelf and landed in the middle of the room. The thief stuck against the wall and could see a man walk over.

"Who opened the window?" one of the guards asked. "Did you open the window?"

Catwoman grabbed the guard when his attention had been kept towards the window. She hooked the head and arm of the man and pulled him into the shadows. She hammered the guard with a couple of punches to the back of the head.

One of the guards rushed into the shadows to find the attacker. Catwoman crept into the shadows and pulled the club dropped from the first guard who she dropped in the battle.

Catwoman swung the club into the back of the leg of her adversary. The man crumpled back with his leg folding underneath him. Catwoman grabbed the man around the arm and took him down.

She propelled herself against the wall and hung from the light picture. A guard pointed the gun into the shadows. Catwoman jumped down and took the gun guarding goon down.

The second goon ran around and fired the gun. He scrambled and collapsed staggered back against the wall clutching his foot in agony.

' _Brilliant, you shot yourself in the foot.'_

Catwoman kicked her adversary in the face. The man dropped to the ground. The final guard turned towards her and Catwoman snapped a whip towards him. The whip latched around the wrist of the adversary. Catwoman pulled the goon in and nailed him in the chest.

She swept her hand over the guards and found the keys on one of them. Catwoman pushed the key through the lock and the door opened.

' _Did I hit the jackpot?'_

Catwoman walked into the vault and smiled. She made her way towards a jeweled box and opened it up. The box collected nothing other than dust.

' _Damn, Falcone must have had it moved.'_

Catwoman swept around in the edge of the vault. She tried to locate anything of value. She found a couple of papers, but they weren't what they were looking for.

She turned around and heard a car pull up outside. The relief crew arrived which Selina took as her cue to leave. She slipped into the exit and back into the alleyway.

The crisp near winter winds cut through Gotham City. Selina started to walk up and she ascended the ladder. The thief made her way to the top of Gotham City.

Catwoman sprinted back to the apartment. Tonight would be an early night and she would be able to get back into bed.

Selina stopped cold in her sprint. She leaned back a fraction of an inch and spotted something stalking her through the shadows. The thief stood strong.

Catwoman jumped and landed on the edge of the building. She pulled herself back up and turned around. The figure which stalked her crouched down and moved towards her. The thief tried to step back and climbed up to a higher point on one of the buildings.

' _Who is….wow, she's….this is new.'_

Catwoman looked up in time to see a figure swipe at her. The woman stepped back and looked back towards the figure.

A Latina woman with dirty-blonde hair looked at her. She had large breasts and thick hips, along with long legs. Her entire body filled into a snake-skin vest which had filled up by her breasts. Her smooth and toned stomach stuck out and the leather pants fit around her.

"The famous Catwoman," she said.

"Please, you're making me blush," Catwoman said. She retracted the claws from her gloves.

"If I take you out, I'll draw the Dragon out."

Catwoman's eyebrow wriggled up when she watched Copperhead. She now was curious beyond all belief what the hell was going on. It clicked in Catwoman's mind.

' _The bounty, of course,'_ Catwoman said. _'Boy, don't I know the feeling of having that fact hanging over my head.'_

"And the fact you have a couple of bounties on your head is the most tantalizing fact."

' _Of course, it would have to be about me too,'_ Selina thought.

Copperhead sprung like a snake. Catwoman avoided the attack and Copperhead landed behind her. She turned around and Copperhead took a swipe at her.

Catwoman leaned back and hit him with a kick to the chest. Another kick to the chest hit Copperhead off. The leather absorbed most of the attacks. Catwoman slipped back and watched Copperhead go after her.

Copperhead smiled and slipped back. She went for a swipe of her fingers. Catwoman blocked it and flipped off of the building.

' _She wants me, I'm going to have to make her work for it.'_

Catwoman skidded on some ice on top of the rooftops. She chipped away some of the ice with the heel of her boot and tossed it up. She kicked the jagged ice at Copperhead. Copperhead leaned back and avoided the attack. She sprung forward and dove after Catwoman again.

The felonious feline dodged the attack. Copperhead avoided a punch which bounced off of the side of the building. Catwoman jumped up and wrapped her legs around Copperhead's head and flipped her down. She had been launched over the building.

Catwoman's adrenaline started to walk forward. She rushed over and leaned down to see where Copperhead fell. She looked from one side to the next. Copperhead did not land in the alleyway and she did not hang from the building.

Something snapped behind her and Copperhead wrapped her arms and legs around Catwoman's body. Catwoman tried to knock Copperhead back.

Copperhead exposed Catwoman's neck and sunk her fangs into the woman's neck. Catwoman's knees grew rather weak from the moment Copperhead planted into her.

She knocked Copperhead back and landed on the ground. Catwoman whirled around and raked Copperhead's face. Copperhead hissed and made her way down.

Catwoman staggered and flipped over on the building. The woman dropped down onto the alleyway on her hands and knees and started to breath.

Copperhead moved down to attack Catwoman. Catwoman reached underneath her glove and removed a miniature taser. She stabbed it into Copperhead's ribs which caused her to hiss one more time.

The sounds of sirens caused Copperhead to retreat in the shadows. Catwoman dropped down onto the ground and started to breathe again. She rolled over and pulled herself behind some trash cans.

Members of the GCPD SWAT crept into the alleyway. Catwoman closed her eyes. Her body heated up for a long moment despite the cold temperatures outside.

' _Damn, what the hell did she hit me with?'_ Catwoman asked.

The feet of the GCPD SWAT members skipped away. Catwoman pulled herself up and almost tipped over the trash can. She made her way forward.

' _Almost home, get it together, Selina, get it together.'_

* * *

 

Thea Queen, under her guise of Mia Dearden, jolted out of the bed at the sound of crashes in the other room at Selina's apartment. It sounded as if someone forced open the window.

Was someone into the apartment? Mia didn't know and it caused her heart to enter.

' _Keep vigilant,'_ she thought.

Mia reached over onto her nightstand and grabbed the stun gun Selina gave her for protection. Mia put her ear to the door and heard the groans. Someone knocked over a night stand the second they arrived.

' _Great, who the hell is this?'_ Mia thought.

She pushed open the door and prepared to attack. Preparing to attack and actually attacking were two different things. She could see a figure slumped against the couch breathing heavily.

"Who's there?" Mia asked. "You should get away….I'm armed."

Mia stepped closer to the figure, the stun gun held in her hand. She stopped and saw Catwoman leaning against the couch. Mia noticed the mask having slipped off and she stopped and blinked.

"Selina?" Mia asked.

She could not believe this, and at the same time, Mia could in fact believe this. She walked towards the woman and leaned down and pressed a hand on her forehead.

"You're burning up," Mia said. "What the hell happened?"

Thea Queen was all too used about seeing someone stumble in at all hours of the morning, looking thrashed because of something. She wasn't used to anything like this.

"Snake…snake…woman," Selina said. Her body started to shake in a violent manner until the younger girl grabbed her arms and held them firm.

"Keep it together, Selina, just calm down….I'll….call someone, get a doctor…no wait, that's a really bad idea given….well you know," Thea said.

She drew in a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. She closed her eyes and started to mutter something underneath her breath.

' _Think, think, there has to be something where….well you can figure out something,'_ she thought.

Selina reached forward and placed her hand on Thea's shoulder. Thea almost jumped about ten feet into the air from the grip she had. Selina's skin burned underneath her hand.

"Call him,' she said with a ragged breath. "Call…call him….."

Thea slipped back a few inches and looked down into Selina's eyes. She could see the poor woman was about ready to black out. She wondered who he was…and then it hit her.

' _Harry, of course,'_ she thought.

"Mia, call Harry…and Alex….tell them…venom….overwhelms….tell them!" Selina yelled. She rolled over onto the couch and threw up on the floor.

"Don't worry, I'll call them, just hang in there, help is on the way," Thea said.

Thea pulled away from Selina and made her way over to the phone to start dialing. A number of thoughts went through Thea's head.

' _Wow, she's Catwoman?'_ Thea thought. _'Actually it makes a whole lot of sense when you think about it, but still, it's just wow…I can't believe it…..just wow.'_

* * *

 

Carol Danvers paced back and forth on the Interceptor. She looked out into space. The Green Lantern recruit never appreciated how vast space could be until now. The stars shined bright above her and made Carol's lips curl into a smile. The majesty and wonder excited her.

She just wished there had better opportunity to explore. Carol never really had much of a chance to look out into space and there were a homicidal group of Red Lanterns intend of spilling the blood of everyone with a green power ring. One of them had been a guest of their ship. Carol bit down on her lip and sighed. She would have liked to think things were going to get better, but so far, they were no closer to catching the Red Lanterns than achieving Intergalactic peace.

Their bosses, the Guardians of Oa, proved to be about as helpful as they expected. Carol turned to one of the members of the crew, Sinestra. Sinestra kept to herself unless she needed to speak to Carol on a mission related matter. Given her charming personality, Carol thought it would be for the best.

Carol had been out in space for a long time, and….while she grew a tiny bit home sick, there was a job to do. Her arms folded underneath her chest when she peered out into space. They were a long way from home.

' _Going to miss Christmas,'_ Carol thought. A pang entered her heart as she thought of missing family dinner with her sisters and mother. _'Unless this wraps up soon.'_

The Interceptor moved as smooth as a gentle breath through space. Carol arched herself back against the wall. She awaited more news to come towards her. So far, nothing, at least nothing which was concerning.

"Interceptor, what's your status report?" Sinestra asked, breaking the silence she had delivered after what seemed like for days.

"The Red Lanterns have scattered, and without any knowledge of where their base of operations are, we have no way to locate them further," Aya said. "Without any further intel we are just going around until we run into something."

"Thank you," Sinestra said.

Carol could feel the warmth and encouragement coming from Sinestra. She did not have to think too hard about the cold and brisk weather back home. Not when Sinestra offered her own brand of cold and harshness where she stood.

"You better sit down, you need to conserve your energy in case of an attack," Sinestra said.

"You'd be surprised how much energy I have," Carol said.

"Maybe so, but as the senior member of this mission, I advise you to take some time to calm down and make sure your head is in the game," Sinestra said. "We all have people we're worried about. The entire universe will be in peril if the Red Lanterns grow in power. And yes, this includes Earth, don't even think it doesn't."

"I wouldn't bother to even consider it," Carol said.

The doors slid open and Katma walked outside. The piercing eyes of Sinestra looked towards her.

"Is our captive still belligerent?" Sinestra asked. "Or is she willing to speak with us?"

"She's still non responsive to me most of the time," Katma said. "I bring her the meals and check up on her vital. Her red ring is only running on the minimal charge possible. I would not know how to remove it even if she would allow so. Or if she wouldn't."

Sinestra rose up to her feet and peered out of the windows. She looked out into space.

Carol locked eyes with Katma. Both of the women exchanged shrugs with each other. Neither knew precisely where this went, other than Sinestra was deep in thought.

"There's no way to remove the Red Lantern ring," Sinestra said. "To my knowledge at least."

"Because you know all," Carol said.

Carol could see Sinestra's eyes fix a beady glare on her. She thought for a moment Sinestra would make her pay for this belligerent comment. Sinestra smiled a predatory smile at Carol.

"No, I only know most," Sinestra said. "The point is, the only way to remove the ring is to remove her arm."

"I'd strongly recommend against this," Katma said.

"Trust me, I have no intention of doing so," Sinestra said. "Of course, if we allow her to have the assumption we might, then she might be a slight bit more compliant."

This discussion could not go any further when suddenly, the ship started to jolt a little bit off to one side.

"Aya, what's going on?" Carol asked.

The lights in the ship started to flash around them in a repeated fashion. Carol bit down on her lip to the point where she had a real danger of starting to draw blood from it.

"We have been knocked off balance," Aya said.

"We've been knocked off balance, how?" Sinestra asked.

"There's been a planetary disturbance," Aya said. "An unknown factor is manipulating the guidance control of the ship. You should all find your way back to your seats and buckle in tight, this is going to be a bumpy ride."

Carol had no choice but to find her way back to her seat considering she had been thrown back and far. She had been knocked into the seat. The friction rose up around them and Carol held onto the seat when the ship continued its uncontrolled descent.

"Try and set course for the nearest planet!" Carol yelled.

"Yes, we are in the same minds," Aya said.

Sinestra went over her mind with constant thoughts about what exactly caused the ship to veer off course. Many different possibilities entered her mind. Each and every one of them seemed to be plausible and at the same time. She recalled the energy which infected Abin Sur and his ship and caused the crash landing which lead to Carol joining up with the Green Lantern Corps.

' _Could it be possible?'_ Sinestra asked. ' _Maybe it could have been. This ship is more shielded than Sur's ship. So I don't know what's going on here.'_

Sinestra could take one thing to the bank. They were going go down.

"I can't steady the ship," Aya said. "I'm going to have to bring it down."

"Good, land the ship, land the ship!" Carol yelled.

Carol had crashed a couple of times and she walked away. A crash in space with an alien ship sounded as if it would suck more for some reason. So many more extra variables to consider.

' _Let's hope we land on a friendly planet,'_ Carol thought.

She crossed her fingers. A real fifty-fifty shot she would land somewhere good and not somewhere which was absolutely dangerous. They pretty much had to roll the dice and see where they had been taken.

* * *

 

' _The deal is going through pretty smoothly,'_ Faora thought to Harry and Karen.

' _Yes, I agree, you shouldn't really worry about it,'_ Karen thought. _'So, how is the energy signature? Are you still with a surplus, or are you finally burning it off?'_

' _Nice of you to redirect the subject away from business,'_ Harry said. _'And I'm just a little bit above where I was….all tests indicates I've shaved about three or four months off my expected date when I can shed the watch.'_

' _Good, so all you need to do is die about seventy more times, and we'd be in business,'_ Karen thought. _'Sorry, too soon, I know.'_

Harry had a conversation in his office with Karen and Faora about business. He was also on the phone for a very early morning conversation with Alex Danvers.

"I'm just bored at the office, doing paperwork, you know the real fun stuff," Alex said. "Then again, you have a personal assistant for stuff like that, so I'm sure you don't see too much actual busy work."

Harry responded with a chuckle.

"Was it anything interested or is it classified?" Harry asked.

"No and yes," Alex said with a smile. "The TCRI investigation….well, I'd be happy if we actually got some headway on it. So far, we keep running into walls, and….I'd be lying if I was happy about it."

Alex told Harry pretty much as much as she had been allowed to tell him which was only a small amount less than what the DEO knew. TCRI was an interesting investigation.

' _So, Doctor McGee wants to go over a couple of things still?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes, nothing major, but just enough to make sure we're on the same page,'_ Faora thought. _'And we may be able to move into Starling City….which really needs a better name….no offense, but Star City just rolls off the tongue.'_

' _Well, let's add it to the list of things we do when we take over the world,'_ Karen thought in a half joking manner.

' _Oh, don't worry, I just have,'_ Faora thought in a half serious tone of voice.

"I actually wanted to ask you a favor, if you don't mind," Alex said.

"Of course, anything," Harry said.

"Dangerous words," Alex said. "Thankfully though, it's not too bad. It's just my mother….well my mother has been after me about inviting you over to the Danvers household for dinner, ever since she found out we were dating. She can be pretty persistent when she wants something, as I'm sure you've figured out."

"Well, I'd like to get to know your mother and sister better," Harry said. "I don't really see the problem about coming over for dinner….let me check out a couple of things, see where my schedule is, and I can get back to you…and when can arrange a time and a date."

"Right," Alex said. "I told her you were very busy, and it might be a while before you get back to us, but you know…she doesn't….well she's insistent."

Harry smiled. He did enjoy a woman who knew what she wanted, and she could be pretty overt about what she wanted. He could sense the tension over the phone from his girlfriend.

"Anything else?" Harry asked. "No offense, but you seem a bit tense."

"I wouldn't really take too much offense to the truth, and me being tense really is the truth," Alex said. "You haven't heard anything about Carol, have you?"

"Not since the last time we talked about this though," Harry said. "I wish I could give you more information about this, but….I'm sure she's fine. Your sister can be pretty resilient you know."

Alex responded with a crisp and obvious sigh. One could hear the frustration coming from her from the phone. A knock on the door came from Harry's home office.

' _Come in, Jaime,'_ Harry thought.

"Yes, Carol can take care of herself, I can take care of myself, but I'm sure it doesn't stop both my mother and my older sister from mother henning me sometimes," Alex said. "I guess when I've had a chance to worry about it, I've gone a little bit too far."

"Just a little?" Harry asked.

Jaime sat down at the office. She looked to have been through a little bit tonight.

' _So, what's the deal with you?'_ Harry asked.

' _You mean other than getting attacked by a bunch of people who are after a bounty on you?'_ Jaime asked. _'Okay, not a whole lot, but still about two or three people were after me. It was pretty annoying, and I just barely slipped away from trouble.'_

' _Sorry for you to get assaulted on my account,'_ Harry thought.

' _No, it's fine, this wasn't your fault,'_ Jaime thought. _'Besides, it keeps all of us on our toes.'_

"I think I'm about to get yelled at for using the phone on company time," Alex said "So, I better go…..I'll call you when I get back, and….maybe we can set up something for dinner."

"Yes, we'll do that, and I'm sure Carol's doing fine, and she'll be home before Christmas," Harry said.

"Nice of you to say that to me, and….really I hope you're right," Alex said. "Well, goodbye, talk to you later, Harry, and I hope to see you real soon."

The phone had been hung up.

' _So, she's still on our probationary period on the bond, isn't she?'_ Karen asked.

' _Yes, although she'll be on the bond pretty quick unless anyone has any real security concerns,'_ Faora thought. _'I know there are a couple of people who have been waiting for a long time, or one in particular, because one of the Alphas are blocking her out of spite.'_

' _Not out of spite, merely out of concern, and you know why,'_ Karen thought. _'She's proved herself a little bit to me, granted, but she has a very long way to go.'_

' _Will she ever get there with you, though?'_ Faora asked. _'You can be a bit too hard on her sometimes because of the fact she's a Luthor.'_

' _I'm just looking out for the dynamic of the Collective,'_ Karen thought. _'She's still up to something.'_

' _Getting back to the subject we were talking about,'_ Harry thought. He knew Karen and Faora had distinct and different opinions regarding one Alexa Luthor and he knew this discussion could go off of the rails.

Faora and Karen snapped back into the conversation at the firm words Harry had given them. Both of them knew when he told them to get off one point, it was high time for them to get off of this point and back into the point which they diverged to earlier.

' _Carol's with Sinestra, so she's in pretty able hands,'_ Faora thought. _'Sinestra and I share a connection….from years ago….and there's nothing which indicates anything is wrong.'_

' _Can you figure out anything else?'_ Harry asked.

' _Only they've been sidetracked, can't really pull up any other details than that, sorry, '_ Faora said. _'Which I'm certain you could have already figured out.'_

An early morning phone call pulled Harry out of the conversation. Selina's phone number popped up on the phone.

' _Selina wouldn't call over the phone, now she's using the bond, would she?'_ Karen asked.

Harry knew there was trouble. Now he thought about it, something was very wrong. He could not really reach Selina and she wasn't blocking them.

"Harry, it's me," the distressed voice of Thea Queen. "It's Selina, she's been poisoned by some snake woman…when she was out um…..well….that's another revelation."

' _Poisoned, great Rao!'_ Faora cursed.

"I know about Selina's night job," Harry said.

"Oh, of course you do," Thea said, with a sigh. "You need to…."

"I'm on my way."

Harry went out the door and Jaime followed behind him.

* * *

 

Copperhead returned to the flea-bitten hotel she had been set up at. It was not the best place in the world for her to hang her hate. It would have to do given the circumstances. She could hang out at this place and wait for tomorrow night. Copperhead would strike.

The couch wasn't half bad, when you got past the fact the springs were sticking out. The bath tub looked a little bit suspect, and the toilet…..well Copperhead wouldn't be here for long, so she could wait to conduct this particular business elsewhere. She stretched out on the bed and the tongue flickered back and forth.

Her phone started to ring. It was only one person in question who could be calling her right now. Copperhead picked up the cellphone.

"Hello?" she asked.

"You didn't get the job done last night, didn't you?" the benefactor asked.

"These things take time," Copperhead said. She stretched herself out on the moth worn sofa. "You didn't hire me to be sloppy."

"You went after the Catwoman…."

"As you know, the Catwoman has many bounties out on her," Copperhead said. "And she also has a connection to the Dragon. I thought she would have been worthy bait."

"And yet, you couldn't have baited the trap….."

"My orders were not to allow the police to get involved," Copperhead said. "And it would have drawn too much connection to our operations if we had dead cops on our hands."

"I've done some asking around, and Catwoman didn't even end up on the morgue last night," the benefactor said over the phone.

"Well, this is hardly my problem," Copperhead said. "And she shouldn't have gotten far with the venom I injected in her."

"Until we have a body, you'd be a fool to leave anything to chance," he said. "My men will back you up next time, if you can't handle the job on your own."

Copperhead recoiled as if having been slapped. Professional pride had been insulted the moment this man, for lack of a better term, had told her she wasn't doing the job right.

"Don't worry, I'll have Nightwing," she said. "And Batman as well….."

"Batman is merely just an accessory to my overall plan," the man said.

Copperhead did not know why he considered Batman to be less, given the fact there was a greater bounty on his head. Then again, she did not know why this Black Mask would attach a lower bounty to Batman.

"Yes, as you wish," Copperhead said.

* * *

 

The moment Harry and Jaime arrived at Selina's, Thea let them in. The poor girl's hands were shaking the moment when she let them in.

"She's not doing well," Thea said.

Harry and Jaime nodded and made their way over. Selina was sweating badly to the point where her body suit was soaking through. Jaime lifted up the mobile lab and pushed a button. It set itself up in the center of Selina's living room.

"The venom was injected to her here," Harry said. He pointed out two protruding marks on her neck.

"The world's most dangerous, hickey?" Thea asked.

Her attempts to add some levity to proceedings fell flat.

' _I believe if you get a sample of her sweat, we should be able to get an antidote ready,'_ Pamela thought. _'Lucretia, what do you think?'_

' _Yes, we will,'_ Lucrieta said.

Harry swabbed Selina. The venom was deadly and had it not been for Selina's superb conditioning, she would have been dead.

"The fact she's held on for so long, is remarkable," Harry said. "Thankfully, I have the necessary here to create."

"Solid D student in Chemistry here, so I'll leave you to your work," Thea said.

Jaime held onto Selina. She lapsed in a slightly catatonic state by this point. Harry mixed together the antidote.

' _The composition comes from a rare, but extremely poisonous snake in South America,'_ Lucretia said. _'Handling the venom is dangerous, even to the point where it has to be administered. And the snakes don't like to be messed with, and have their venom extracted.'_

Harry finished mixing the antidote and injected it into Selina's neck where the venom had been administered in the first place. Her entire body shook all over and eyes snapped open.

"How are you doing?" Harry asked her.

"I'm alive," Selina said.

"What happened to you?" Harry asked.

"I ran into some crazy snake woman, we fought, and she gave me a love bite which apparently poisoned me," Selina said. Her head tilted back a second later. "Not exactly the best way to end a night…..I hung on for a long time, didn't you?"

Harry swiped the scanner over her body.

"You're not going to stick that thing up my ass, are you?" Selina asked.

"No, it's not to take your temperature," Harry said. "Although, it can give me temperature readings, and yours is going back to normal."

"Good, that's good," Selina said. "I still feel tired though."

"You're going to feel tired for a very long time," Harry said.

"She must have been after the bounty on Nightwing," Selina said. "I'm not about to let her get away with this."

Selina tried to make her way to her feet and instead she took about three steps before collapsing back on the couch.

"You're still weak, even though the danger has passed," Jaime said. "You should get some rest."

Harry turned towards the younger girl.

"Make sure she gets some rest," Harry said. "Sit on her face if you have to."

Thea flushed at the implications of what Harry suggested. She wasn't sure if Harry knew what he implied. Selina's raised eyebrow indicated she had some of the same thoughts.

"So, you're leaving already?" Thea asked.

"Sorry, we have something we need to check out….it shouldn't take too long," Harry said. "We'll be back when we can."

Thea watched them both leave and something clicked in her mind. It made way too much sense, but it clicked in her mind. Considering she had proof Selina was Catwoman, it was much easier to make these particular revelations.

"You should hold tight," she said. "Get some rest."

"It would be a lot easier to take you seriously if you were wearing a nurse's uniform," Selina said. Her head hit the couch. Her young charge disappeared into the next room and returned with a pillow and some blankets.

' _Well, at least this won't be too bad.'_

Catwoman hated having to lose to Copperhead. The moment she had the energy, she would be back there. Something to eat, a few good hours of sleep, and it would be time for round two.

' _You better not beat me to her, Nightwing.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 11** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Copperhead strikes and gets a piece of Catwoman. Which ends up leading to Thea finding out her employer is Catwoman. To the girl's credit, she takes it about in stride as you would expect._

_Copperhead's employer on the other hand…well some of you may have been able to put two and two together._

_More adventures in space. Sinestra may need to get laid._

_Until Monday._


	205. Venom of the Serpent Part Two

**Chapter of the Week Voting At the Blog As Per Usual.  
**

* * *

 

**Chapter Two Hundred and Five: Venom of the Snake Part Two.**

* * *

 

Night fell over Gotham City one more time. Nightwing and Talon prowled the streets. Both of them stepped into Gotham City with a common thought in the back of their minds. They knew for a fact Copperhead would find her way out into the city. The moment she prepared to head for the bounty, they would have her.

Gotham City's notorious almost winter weather managed to leave them alone for one night. An unsettling silence lingered in the atmosphere. Both Potters knew silence rarely ended up being golden, especially for either of them.

' _So, assassins are now coming in the city,'_ Talon thought. _'And we thought the last few days of every D-rate crook waiting to make a quick buck taking a hit at us was pretty rough. This is an entirely new level.'_

Nightwing gripped her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Talon relaxed and the two hunted switched back into the very obvious position of being hunters.

' _We knew this was going to happen,'_ Nightwing thought. _'We just didn't know it was going to escalate this quickly.'_

The two swept into the shadows. A car pulled up and lingered for a minute. The car returned and left the area. The two crime fighters had been left alone in the area.

' _Just going to get worse before it gets better,'_ Talon thought. _'Even though this certainly escalated quickly.'_

' _That it did,'_ Nightwing did. _'We're getting close to the alleyway those two fought in.'_

Nightwing made his way to the alleyway close by where Catwoman and Copperhead fought last night. Granted, he had to go off of hearsay and rumors because Selina did not tell him anything. He noticed claw marks on the walls close to him. They were pretty close.

' _Keep an eye on the entrance, and I'll keep an eye on the rooftop,'_ Nightwing thought. _'And you know what to do if she hops out.'_

' _What's the chances of her hopping out?'_ Kara asked.

' _Pretty high, I'd imagine,'_ Harry said.

' _Isn't it always with you?'_ Faora thought.

Harry ascended the ladder all the way to the top and took a careful look around. He could see the signs of the past fight. A small stain of blood came on top of the roof top. Nightwing approached the stain and bent down.

' _Not either of our fighters, too old,'_ Nightwing thought. _'Then again, it's Gotham City, so the blood could have come from anyone.'_

' _Nothing down here,'_ Talon thought. _'Maybe she won't come back to the scene of the crime?'_

' _Given someone of her skill level, that might be too much to hope for,'_ Oracle chimed in. _'What we know of her, and it isn't too much, she's pretty dangerous. Top of the line dangerous in fact.'_

Both thought in the back of their minds, anyone actually coming back to the scene of the crime might have been a bit too much to think about. Regardless, Nightwing turned around. He could see another car circle around the block and then pull into a side alleyway.

' _Just keeping my eyes on potential trouble,'_ Harry thought. _'Never can be too careful.'_

' _Hence why none of us are going out alone these days,'_ Dinah thought.

' _So, anything on your end, Barbara?'_ Harry thought.

' _I'm trying, but nothing other than her name, Copperhead, and she's a skilled assassin,'_ Barbara thought. _'And really, if you couldn't get that earlier, then I don't know what to tell you.'_

One could almost sense Barbara's furious typing and attempts to dig up some information on the other end of the bond link. Harry turned his head to the right and then to the left.

' _Quiet,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm going to be honest, I don't like quiet. It's unsettling to me.'_

' _You and I both, you and I both,'_ Kara thought. She drummed her fingers for a couple of moments. _'I can't believe they put less money on you than they did Batman.'_

' _Really?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Well, if you're going to risk your life because of some bounty, don't you think there should be more of a price on your head?'_ Kara asked. _'Do you have any idea why Black Mask put less of a bounty on your head than he did Batman?'_

' _Well, we can only begin to guess,'_ Jaime thought. _'Then again, Black Mask has done a couple of things….beginning to think he's cracking underneath the pressure. You know, with Maroni out of prison, and Falcone re-doubling his pull in Gotham City. And if I had to be around the Penguin's sardine breath that often, I'd also be in an agitated state.'_

' _There is that,'_ Harry thought. _'So, any luck Barbara?'_

One could see Barbara peering at the screen if they concentrated hard enough. The daughter of James Gordon responded with a tense little smile.

' _Well, Copperhead has come up on the most wanted list in several countries around the world,'_ Barbara thought. _'There's been….a lot of debate about whether Copperhead is a male or a female.'_

To be fair, that had been the most tantalizing fact in the world. If Barbara could hazard a guess, she would say more than a couple of people held onto the Copperhead moniker.

' _Sounds familiar, doesn't it?'_ Jaime asked. Her lips twitched into a smile.

' _Maybe a little bit,'_ Harry admitted. _'What else do you have, Barbara?'_

' _Well,'_ Barbara thought after a long moment's pause. _'Whether it be he, or she….and Selina swore up and down this one was a she, didn't she?'_

' _Yes, she did,'_ Harry thought.

' _Rumor has it she's been forced to undergo some horrific experimentations which have made her part snake,'_ Barbara thought. _'Which would explain why she could handle a venom which is dangerous to handle. And I should know, Selina is very lucky to have you around…'_

Harry decided to stop this particular sentiment short. While true, Selina did manage to make it out of that alleyway and get to him on her own two feet.

' _No, she's lucky she's tough as she is,'_ Harry thought. _'And no Copperhead yet, but I have a feeling if I'm out here for long enough, she'll find me.'_

' _Are you going to try and find her first?'_ Kara asked.

Harry took a moment to consider something. He shook his head in response.

' _There's no need for me to track down Copperhead when she's going to come to me so easily,'_ Harry thought. _'Trust me, I know what I'm doing.'_

Everyone sighed. Harry knew what he was doing, and that was what worried them. He could end up getting in a fair amount of trouble with what he was doing.

' _I know you know what you're doing, we all know what you're doing,'_ Dinah thought. _'Why do I have a feeling these are dangerous words, and we're going to end up having regretted them by the time this is all said and done.'_

Harry smiled. It was highly likely they would. It was a risk. Someone had to have sent Copperhead out after him. He couldn't explain why he knew this, or how he knew this. It was just a pressing feeling which existed in the pit of his gut.

' _Now, we wait and we watch.'_

' _The waiting game, the best thing in the world, '_ Kara thought.

' _Wow, Kara, tell us what you really think,'_ Barbara thought. _'Although you do have a point.'_

* * *

 

The Interceptor made a firm and mostly not jarring landing. The doors slid open and Carol stepped out onto the planet. Katma and Sinestra sat around and waited for Aya's final assessment.

The onboard artificial intelligence completed her scans in a matter of seconds, and they would be able to assess what the damage was.

"Repairs should be completed in about one orbital cycle," Aya said. "Providing of course we run into no further unforeseen problems.'

Sinestra had a few guesses regarding what could be considered an unforeseen problem. She turned to the other two Green Lanterns.

"We might as well take a look around and see if we can find where out the source of what brought us down," Sinestra said. "Stay close."

The three Green Lanterns walked and they did not have to walk too far before they made their way to a large stone wall. Carol looked at the wall and heard a lot of chipping coming from the other side of the wall. A rather dizzy feeling struck her. Katma stumbled forward a little bit.

"Keep it together," Sinestra warned them.

The leader of the Green Lantern team stepped forward and the energy caused her to feel a bit more delirious. It wasn't enough to short out her ring full and complete. The flickers of energy coming through the ring gave her a great pause.

"So, where are we?" Katma asked.

Sinestra climbed onto the rocks. The crunching sound underneath her feet managed not to cause any trouble, at least as she thought. The woman leaned over the fence.

"We've run into an illegal mining operation," Sinestra said. "They're prisoners…"

"Shouldn't we shut it down, then?" Carol asked.

Sinestra paused and considered Carol's question for a long moment. She watched when several aliens, some of them who looked to be worn out and beaten up, slumped over on the field. The sound of the whip cracking echoed through the sky around them. Their skin had been cracked.

"Faster, we need the material beneath the rocks….it will be of great value!"

Sinestra peered over the fence. Her eyes shot wide open when taking full view of what was in front of her.

"It's the same yellow energy Abi Sur's ship had been infected with," Sinestra said.

Carol almost stood up straight. The yellow energy did not only infect Abin Sur, but it killed several DEO agents and poisoned Hector Hammond in the process. When she last left Earth, Hammond entered a very critical stage. He could still be in a bad state or worse dead.

"What are they after?" Sinestra asked. "What is the point of these rocks?"

Both of these questions had been left up into the air. Rhetorical question directed towards the both of them. Not Carol or Katma could have answered it anyway. Sinestra's intel was more prominent.

Sinestra leaned over the fence as much as they could be allowed. The rocks cracked open and a heavy amount of yellow dust had been put into the air. She stepped back to avoid inhaling the dust.

"Work faster, we need the material!"

Carol found a crack on the side of the fence where she could watch the prisoners. Some of them appeared to be in the process of dropping dead from sheer exhaustion. The yellow energy wasn't the only think they were after.

A large figure stepped forward. Carol stepped back. She had seen many alien creatures. This one looked like a human sized spider, with all of the arms to go along with it. He dressed in a white robe with silver trim. He held a staff in his hand.

"Yes, my friends, dig as if you're lives depend on it," the spider alien said. "And it does….believe me my friends, it does."

Carol heard the voice which could induce nightmares. It reminded her of something.

"Yes, survival of the strongest is a rule you should all adapt," the alien said. "And you are already weak….you allowed yourself to fall into crime. And there's only one use for the vagrants of the universe like yourself. Good, hard, work."

He breathed in heavily. The spider alien almost reveled in the same yellow energy which made Carol, Katma, and Sinestra sick, and had brought the Inceptor down. Carol's stomach in particular turned with disgust at the thought of anyone getting any enjoyment from this energy.

' _Well, different creatures have different feeding habits.'_

"This mineral can strike true fear into the hearts of our prey when it's chipped down, and fear is something we hunger on," the spider alien said. He licked his lips. "The strongest of you will continue to work. The weakest of you….you will be joining me for dinner.'

No one could mistake what the spider creature meant there. Carol took half of a step forward. Sinestra grabbed the other woman's arm with a firm grip and shook her head. The two women locked eye to eye with each other.

"We're going to need a plan to get in there," Sinestra said. "It's a prison….and we have a prisoner on the ship presently."

Carol blinked and the instant Sinestra suggested using their prisoner as bait, she stood up to her full height.

"No, way, no…we can't do this, we can't do this to her…Red Lantern or not," Carol said. "I'm not sure if this is even ethical….."

Sinestra's hand went up, which Carol took it as a cue for her mouth to go shut.

"No less ethical than stealing a Green Lantern ship and going on this entire mission in the first place," Sinestra said. This statement shut the woman up. Sinestra's mouth curled into a knowing smile. "We both know this is less than ideal for you….but this is the only chance we have. This is more important than some Red Lantern's comfort."

Carol looked about ready to argue some more. Sinestra already turned around and walked all the way to the ship. A resigned Carol followed her and Katma walked behind her.

"I'm the Senior Officer on this mission, and….you took an oath to obey me," Sinestra said.

"It doesn't make everything you do, right," Carol said.

Carol was all too used to dealing with people who had let power get to their head and think they had the right to command people.

' _Well, nice to know I don't have to chance too much,'_ Carol thought to herself, shaking her head.

"And yet, if we allow these creatures to go unchecked, there will be more lasting consequences," Sinestra said. "It won't be just the comfort of one prisoner you need to worry about. One prisoner who has killed, I should note."

"She hasn't had a trial, we don't know if she's killed," Carol said.

Sinestra turned away from Carol. Carol already noted the select deafness from her commanding officer.

"We'll get her into the prison, and once she's in, we'll have a look around," Sinestra said. "And then, we'll know what we're up against and shut down the entire mining operation."

"And what makes you think she won't just turn on us?" Carol asked.

Sinestra pondered Carol's question for only for a fraction of a second.

"She won't, trust me," Sinestra said. "You don't like this plan. Your feedback has been noted, and I have weighed all the options. We're going forward. And if you want me to speak in favor at your hearing for this entire mission, I suggest you ignore anything your heart is telling you about ethics."

Carol sunk her shoulders down. She figured if Sinestra knew what she was doing.

"This is on your head if something happens to our prisoner, before we find the Red Lanterns," Carol said.

"If this goes wrong, I do accept full responsibility," Sinestra said. "The good outweighs the bad."

"Maybe," Carol said. "I don't see it being a good idea to antagonize a monstrous spider who sounds like Freddy Kruger."

Sinestra paused and blinked in confusion.

"Your warning would have more meaning if I knew whom you were referring to."

Carol closed her eyes and sighed. Sinestra pretended not to hear her next complaint.

"Uncultured."

* * *

 

Nightwing tried to keep his head up when he continued the hunt for Copperhead. Several hours passed and no sign of the skilled mercenary. He hated to say he would give up hope, because he never would give up hope, despite the situation.

' _Is it just me, or do you feel like we've been going around in circles?'_ Dinah piped in.

' _It's not just you,'_ Barbara thought.

As much as Harry's search for Copperhead had been hitting a dead end, her search for information regarding Copperhead hit similar dead ends. She was beginning to see it as a personal insult to her own prodigal abilities not to find out the smallest scrap of information.

' _I bet you thought she would have popped up by now,'_ Talon thought.

Nightwing sensed something in the shadows. He was pretty sure it was not the low level common thug. The two Potters took out several of those this evening already.

"Come out, it's useless to hide in the shadows," Nightwing said. "You've lost your element of surprise."

A slithering sound could be heard. The obvious sound of a tongue pushing against a lip put Harry on high alert.

"You've been hiding in the shadows, and waiting for me for at least an hour," she said.

Copperhead sprung from the shadows. She attempted to take out Nightwing. Nightwing launched himself a fraction of an inch to the side and returned fire with a rapid fire palm thrust. Copperhead staggered back an inch and dodged another attack.

The next attempt to grab her had been avoided. She slipped out of his grasp and sprung back towards him. Nightwing caught her arms. She squirmed out once more and stepped back. Hands locked against the wall and Copperhead smiled a predatory smile. That tongue began to flicker at Harry.

"Quick and fluid," Copperhead said. "This is going to be perfect."

The baton to the face attack had been avoided from Nightwing. Copperhead ripped the item out of the hand and threw it to the side. It was more or less a distraction for attacks.

Nightwing aimed a punch at Copperhead. Copperhead avoided the punch and ended up behind her adversary. She tried to go for the attack. Nightwing avoided it and reached up. He grabbed Copperhead around the head and flipped her down onto the ground.

Copperhead flipped high into the air and landed down onto the ground. Harry followed the graceful movements and only had one thing to state.

"Not too bad for a snake," Nightwing said. "And you just slithered into the trap."

Copperhead turned around and noticed a second Nightwing in the shadows. A dagger flung towards her face. Copperhead propelled high into the air and avoided the dagger before it hit her. The dagger stuck into the wall.

"Two Nightwings for the price of one?" she asked. "I'm impressed. I hope this means I have twenty five million per head. After expenses to my benefactor."

Copperhead engaged Talon. The second crime fighter wasn't going to take this beating lying down, not at all. She jumped out of the way and passed it off to Nightwing who came in the other direction. Nightwing tripped Copperhead's legs out from underneath her. She flipped down onto the ground and pulled something from her vest. The razor sharp object flung at Nightwing. The dragon dodged it and took flight, the wings retracting from his suit and came down onto Copperhead. Copperhead slid underneath a fence and ended up in a construction yard.

Nightwing refused to let up on the attack. Copperhead peered up in time to see Nightwing come after her. She dodged the attack. A bolt of light missed the side of her ear just barely.

"So, you do have a benefactor?" Nightwing asked. "I find this very interesting you do."

Copperhead showcased a daring acrobatic flip and cleared another fence. The dragon followed her, becoming airborne as his namesake.

"Yes, you should," Copperhead said. "And he wants a cut of my work, if you can believe that."

Nightwing flung up over Copperhead and grabbed her. A titanic struggle followed, but only for a few seconds. She flipped out of his grip. Nightwing turned around and swung a punch. She ascended the wall and made her way out of the construction yard.

' _Stay with me,'_ Nightwing thought.

"So, any idea on who he is?" Nightwing asked.

Copperhead permitted herself a brief laugh before growing serious.

"He rules where I'm from with an iron fist," Copperhead said. "I don't ask questions."

The plan she formed in the cuff worked. She divided both of the Nightwings. She allowed herself a one on one battle with the male version of Nightwing.

' _Where are you?'_ Jaime thought.

' _Close, just keep it up, and get to me when you can,'_ Harry thought. _'She's planted a trap for you, I just know it.'_

' _Crafty little snake she is,'_ Jaime thought. _'Maybe you should charm her.'_

Harry considered the idea in the back of his head. He needed further study before knowing whether or not certain gifts worked. He stepped back a couple of steps.

"You flee from me?" Copperhead asked.

"No, just come into the light," Nightwing said.

Nightwing flipped a switch on a lighter. All of the lights had been dimmed around them and left them into darkness.

"You think the darkness can stop me, Dragon?" Copperhead asked. "You must have been a fool to not realized I have other enhanced senses. And snakes have a sixth."

"Yes, perception, I know," Nightwing said. "But, the thing about perception is it isn't always what you think it is."

Copperhead moved towards where the body heat was. She stopped and the realization struck her with a cold trail. A jaw jacking attack nailed her. The assassin swung her hands around in an attempt to attack her adversary. Each attempt had been avoided.

"Fight me you coward!" Copperhead yelled.

"Can't, too busy beating you," Nightwing said.

Copperhead stepped into the shadows and found the light once again. She needed to regroup and attack again later.

"Catch me if you can!"

Copperhead slithered back into the shadows. Talon joined Nightwing a second later and the two of them resumed their chase into the night.

The snake woman slipped off again, but it would only be a matter of time before they were able to catch up with her once more.

* * *

 

Selina stirred awake from a long slumber. A momentary shiver spread through her body and it took her a couple of moments to fully become awake. She turned her neck to the side. Her Catwoman costume had been stripped from her body and replaced with night clothes.

"Good, you're awake," Thea said. "Again."

Selina raised an eyebrow. Her young charge figured out her night time job. Well, given they were temporary sharing an apartment, Selina thought it was inevitable.

"What do you mean again?" Selina asked.

"Well, you were up a few hours ago, cleaned up the fridge, and then went back to the bed without a word," Thea said. "Harry said there would be side effects to the antidote he gave you, but he really had no idea. You are okay, aren't you?"

"Fit as a fiddle, with maybe a slightly worn string," Selina said. "So, you know, don't you?"

Thea's eyes locked onto Selina. The younger woman stared down at the older woman. The tension in the room heightened to a brand new level when Thea responded with a brisk nod.

"Yes, I know your secret, but don't worry, I won't tell anyone," Thea said. "After all, you haven't told anyone what you know about me."

Selina's lips curled into a smile. A part of her knew keeping Mia's, Thea's, whoever's, secret would come in handy. She just only barely expected it to come in handy in this particular leg. The woman stirred a fraction of an inch on the bed and stretched out with a frown.

"Good, I'm glad you haven't told anyone at all," Selina said. "I guess it's for the best though, isn't it?"

"Yes, pretty much," Thea said. "So honestly, how are you feeling?"

"I believe I told you I'm feeling about as well as can be expected," Selina said. "I would like nothing better than to get out there and actually get something done though. She's still out there….it annoys me how she's still out there….and she got the better of me."

Thea could tell this particular line of thought was going down a rather dangerous way.

"Harry said if it wasn't for your superb conditioning, you would have died out there instantly," Thea said. "And you weren't exactly in the best state to be honest."

Selina recalled what happened through a few foggy memories. She allowed one weakness to get put in her armor. Copperhead dipped behind her and took advantage of this unfortunate weakness. Selina would be damned if such a weakness would happen again.

"So, where is Harry right about now?" Selina asked. The woman watched with her young charge responding with a frown.

"He gave me orders to tell you to stay put," Thea said.

Selina could have laughed. It amused her how Harry would think she would listen. It amused her even more where it looked like the younger girl was going to try and exhibit the control possible to enforce Harry's directive.

' _Ah this is too precious,'_ Selina thought.

"So, he did," Selina muttered underneath her breath. "So, he did."

Selina knew that Harry knew, she was not exactly the best in following orders. She almost felt guilty about not listening to him.

' _Almost, but not quite,'_ Selina thought. _'Well, it shouldn't be too hard to squirm out of here.'_

Despite the fact Thea having not told her, Selina knew in an instant where Harry headed. He was out and about and ready to fight Copperhead. Twenty five million on his head, and he would not keep a low profile. Selina did not have room to talk, given the number of bounties which had been put on the back of her head as of late. Still, she could not help, and be worried.

"I should be out there, though," Selina said.

"Maybe, but doctor's orders," Thea said.

"Would you have allowed yourself to be benched?" Selina asked.

This argument didn't do anything to persuade Thea. It just resulted in those hands finding those hips and a glare locked onto Selina's eyes.

"I'm not the one being benched, you are," Thea said. "And Harry told her to sit on your face if you didn't stay put."

Selina almost laughed. A part of her thought Harry knew what he implied when saying this particular statement. Another part of her thought Harry was blissfully ignorant when he said this statement. Selina could have gone with a fifty-fifty shot.

"Well, that sounds pretty enticing when you think about it," Selina said. She stretched out a slight bit on the bed. "I'm going to have to pass for tonight though."

"Will you?" Thea asked.

"Yes, but I'm getting pretty thirsty," Selina said. "Do you think you could get me a glass of water for me parched lips?"

Thea figured it would be best to keep Selina hydrated. The sixteen and a half year old woman strolled over towards the sink to get a glass of water. She made sure it was cold and returned to faced Selina.

The moment she heard the curtain whipping, almost taunting her, Thea knew.

Selina was gone from the couch and the Catwoman costume which Thea had put up, had disappeared good. The glass of water almost slipped from her fingers and Thea sighed in the deepest and most frustrated manner she could muster.

' _You know, I have no one to blame, but myself for this,'_ Thea thought. _'Damn though, is she good?'_

* * *

 

Carmine Falcone sat rigid in a chair in his office. A few of his most trusted men sat close by. The Roman made a phone call which he thought was long overdue. He waited through about a dozen rings before the phone picked up.

"Hello?" a voice asked.

"Could you put me through to Roman Sionis, please?" Falcone asked. "This is urgent, it's about business….he'd want to hear this."

"Who is speaking?" the secretary asked over the other end of the phone in a fairly bored tone of voice.

"It's Carmine Falcone," he said.

Carmine listened close to the rustling of papers in the background on the phone. Both sides engaged in an intense conversation with each other on the other side of the phone. Carmine started to tap his finger lightly about the desk when he waited for the other side of the conversation to drop.

"He will be with you, in just one minute, sir."

Carmine smiled. He could wait. The news of the bounty on Batman and Nightwing had reached them. The Roman would be both a liar and a fool if he decreed he did not have his problems with both men. The problem was the way Sionis went about this issue would be extremely bad for business and Sionis hated doing things which were bad for business.

' _He's lost all sense if he thinks this is a good idea.'_

The answer on the phone took place a moment later. It was almost as if Sionis had purposely kept Falcone waiting out of disrespect.

"Yes?" Sionis asked.

"Hello, Roman, this is Carmine Falcone," Carmine said. "And I want to have a discussion with you about a rather important matter….."

"You've wanted to talk about the bounty I've put on Nightwing and Batman, don't you?" Roman asked.

Carmine chuckled. He never thought of Roman Sionis as stupid. He had a style all of his own and a style which contradicted how Carmine did things in his day. Regardless of this fact though, he understood where the man came from. The man also had a razor hot and sharp temper, along with a tongue which could stab people.

"Yes, I wish to have a discussion with you regarding this," Sionis said. "I wondered if you had considered the possible consequences regarding what may happen."

"It's open for everyone, including both you and your boys, if you want it," Roman said. "You can't deny things have not been rough for all of us ever since Batman and Nightwing came on the scene."

Carmine sighed. He could tell the man's mind was on one single track and it would be best for them all if he found a way to divert it to another track.

"Yes, I know it's been rough," Carmine said. "I'm not a fool, and I know you're not either."

"You're damn right I'm not one," Roman said.

Carmine smiled and turned towards his men. His men sat around the office in an obedient and calm manner.

"You've not considered the other possible consequences to your actions, Mr. Sionis," Carmine said. "You may bring down Batman and Nightwing, if you're fortunate enough. They have been rather adept in escaping being brought down by some rather dangerous forces."

The League of Assassins have yet to bring Batman and Nightwing as well. Carmine gave them grudging respect for this, even though he did not like what their presence brought into Gotham City.

"You think I should just back off like some punk?" Roman asked.

"You don't know what dangerous elements you've brought into Gotham City, and it could cripple both of our sides," Carmine said. "You won't just be at war with the other factions this time. You're bring in people who sooner see Gotham burn."

A long and annoying pause followed on the other end of the phone.

"Are you still there?" Carmine asked.

"Yeah, I'm still there, although I'm not sure you're going to be there for too much longer with the attitude you're keeping," Sionis said.

The Roman's eyes flared and the old mobster went straight into attack dog mode.

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Carmine asked. "His tone grew a fraction more hostile than ever before and he clutched the phone in response.

"What do you think, old man?" Sionis asked. "Gotham City is moving up and moving forward with the times. You either need to get with it or step aside. There's really no place for a relic like yourself in this brand new age of Gotham City."

"Oh, I'm sure you're wrong about that, Mr. Sionis," Carmine said. "Many have tried, and many have said the same things you have. They haven't gotten this far."

"Gotham City has potential, which you've squandered, old boy," Sionis said.

The Roman kept his tone calm, even though he thought Sionis had better watch his step. He admired the young man's ambition, but his arrogance proved what exactly was wrong with this new breed of criminals which was festering in Gotham City.

"Look, I don't know what you're problem has been lately," Carmine said. "I think though the pressure is getting to you. Your sloppy attempt to take out Harvey Dent….."

"It was not sloppy, it was a calculation!" Sionis snapped.

The tension over the telephone heightened to a brand new level. The Roman reached over across his desk with his free hand and grabbed a stress ball. He gave it a few squeezes to calm down, imagining crushing the skull of the person using it.

"Even if I wanted to call off the bounty, it's already begun," Sionis said. "And it won't end until I say it ends. Good day, to you, Mr. Falcone. Enjoy the rest of your life."

The phone had hung up. The Roman frowned and dropped the phone down onto the ground.

"You want one of us to take care of him, boss?" one of his men asked.

"We may have to," Falcone said.

The Roman looked thoughtful for a moment. He knew Sionis's headquarters was a well-guarded fortress. Given the rate the man made enemies, it would have to be nothing less. He reached over and opened the window to allow some fresh, even if it was cold, air to make its way into the building.

"We're going to have to arrange a meeting with the Penguin and Thorne, to see where they stand," Carmine said. "I have a feeling they're not completely on board with Black Mask's plans."

Carmine wondered if the mask Sionis wore had cut off the circulation of the oxygen flowing into his brain.

' _The reckless bastard, he really is asking for it,'_ Sionis thought.

* * *

 

A bus drove down the quiet city streets in Gotham City. The old man driving the boss was leery regarding some of the crowd he picked up for the late night run in Gotham City. He carried protection, both a knife and a gun. Some pepper spray underneath the seat would not go amiss.

A figure swooped out of nowhere and landed on the top of the bus. The attack was so sudden the man's body tensed up. His arm became numb and he slumped back against his seat. Labored breathing followed when a heart attack went through his body.

The man continued to have a massive heart attack in the seat of the bus. His breathing grew even more labored and he slumped against the seat of the bus.

The bus spiraled out of control. Some of the citizens scrambled and screamed which made the situation ten times worse than it really was. The bus looked to be veering towards a very populated district of downtown Gotham.

Talon flashed on the bus and managed to put a stop to it. The bus came inches away from crashing into Gotham City plaza. It skidded to a stop, and sweat spilled down Talon's face.

Copperhead flipped off of the bus and came face to face with Nightwing.

"So, you found me," Copperhead said. "Good, the hunt is on one more time."

Nightwing was fully aware Copperhead separated him from his sister again. The woman rushed Nightwing. Nightwing propelled himself into the air with a somersault and stuck a firm landing behind his adversary.

Cords fired out and wrapped around Copperhead. Copperhead squirmed out and showed her ability to slip out of tight spaces quite nicely. Nightwing rushed towards her and tried to nail her with an attack. The woman arched her spine back to dodge the attack.

Copperhead sprung up and tried to nail her adversary with a punch. The punch had been blocked and Nightwing flipped Copperhead onto her back. Nightwing gripped onto the arm and scissored it. He applied a cross-armbreaker to Copperhead and pulled back on the arm to punish her. Copperhead slithered out of the hold before her arm could have been broken.

She pulled out a knife and Nightwing responded in kind. Both of them rushed each other and went knife to knife with each other. Both knives clashed together in an intense battle with each other. Nightwing avoided the knife which stabbed into him. Another knife stab needed to be avoided the second which it had been brought into his body.

He disarmed Copperhead and staggered her back a couple of steps. Copperhead hissed.

A crack of a whip followed and grabbed Copperhead around the arm. Catwoman flipped down and nailed her adversary around the head.

"You!" Copperhead yelled.

"Yes, me," Catwoman said. She squared off against Copperhead. "You want to make me a damsel in distress? Well, I don't like that at all."

Nightwing caught his breath and watched Catwoman and Copperhead go face to face with each other. Both women grappled. Catwoman flipped out of the grapple and swung her leg. A huge kick nailed Copperhead in the face. Copperhead hissed and went towards Catwoman.

' _Selina listens to doctor's orders about as well as you do,'_ Faora thought.

Nightwing could see Catwoman moved a bit slower. She still wasn't completely recovered and she still should not have been out of here. A couple of kicks had been fired at Copperhead.

Copperhead grabbed Catwoman and flipped her down onto the ground.

"This time, I'm going to finish you off and watch you perish, Gato!" Copperhead hissed.

Catwoman slipped out of her and dodged out of the way. Nightwing grabbed Copperhead and flipped her down to the ground.

Copperhead landed on her feet and sprung her back before launching at Nightwing. Nightwing side stepped her attack and grabbed her around the arms.

The snake woman tried something rather daring. She pressed her lips onto Nightwing's and kissed him. The venom coursed through her lips and into Nightwing's mouth.

Nightwing grabbed her arm and flipped her down onto the ground. Copperhead rose to her knees in shock. The venom had no effect on her victim.

Several cords snapped around her and it had followed by an electric shock. Copperhead had been dropped to the ground and it was lights out for her.

Harry swabbed something from her skin before turning towards Selina. The sounds of sirens indicated both of them had better take an exit, stage left.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 13** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_So, the hunt for Copperhead begins in this chapter, and it ends in an amazing manner._

_The Green Lantern Crew runs into something particularly dangerous in the solar system._

_And things are heating up in Gotham City. The Roman's entire is crumbling as Black Mask has seemingly flipped his lid. But things aren't always everything they seem._

_Until Wednesday._


	206. De-Fanged

**Chapter Two Hundred and Six: De-Fanged.**

* * *

 

A rare and rather unsettling silence descended all over Gotham City. The only sound which could be heard from far away could be the sound of a newspaper rattling across the ground. The newspaper rolled up off of the ground and landed smack dab in the midst of the wind shield of a car. It continued to rattle in the wind which picked up into something nasty in Gotham City.

The sirens of the Gotham City Police Department cut through the air and ruined the eerie silence. To many, the police sirens were background noise, and on a night like tonight it was to be expected. The GCPD pulled up. Two young cops exited the car followed by a veteran cop.

"Can't believe it, a bus just rolled out of control on its own accord a couple of blocks back," one of the younger cops said to another. "And it seems like someone stopped it, put the breaks on. The poor driver died of a heart attack. What he saw, must have spoked him."

The younger cop's eyes widened. He had not been prepared for anything like Gotham City in all of his days.

"People with weak hearts shouldn't drive a bus in this city, should they?" the second younger cop asked. "Still there's been some weird shit going on. Rumors of Catwoman fighting some snake woman in the city."

"Catwoman is supposed to be a rumor, her and all of the other urban legends in this city," the first younger cop responded to his partner. "Still, you got to admit, a lot of the weird shit going down makes a lot of sense. Way too much sense."

"Will you two quit yapping?" the older cop asked.

The two younger cops looked at each other. They wonder who took a shit in his donuts. A mild light wind kicked up, at least mild compared to the last couple of nights in Gotham City. They could hear someone coming to life. The older cop walked over and leaned down to the figure.

"Not a bad looking piece of ass," one of the younger cops murmured his partner.

The first young cop rolled his eyes at the antics of the second younger cop. Still, a closer look might have bee a good idea. He had a girlfriend at home waiting for him, but he had to admit, he would have liked to go a few rounds of interrogation with this one. Even if she looked like she wanted to rip the young man's balls off.

The woman's eyes opened up and she looked up at the three men who approached her. She recognized them in an instant.

"Well, the Cerdos finally showed up," she said.

"You have the right to remain silent," the older cop said in a tense voice.

The woman responded with a round of laughter which cut through the air of Gotham City. It sounded erotic, and at the same time, unsettling. This was a woman who had some issues, and not the time any sane man wanted to take the time to work out.

"Tonight, I fell at the feet of a noble warrior," she said. "He didn't allow me a noble demise, and this is the only flaw with this otherwise noble gentleman."

"To your feet," the oldest cop said.

The woman turned herself onto her hands and knees to give the cops a rather clear view of her leather clad ass. It was a struggle where every curve of her body struggled against the tight cords wrapped around her. She didn't rise, just yet, rather smiling.

"You think one of your prisons can hold me?" the woman asked. A certain mania flashed through her eyes.

The older of the officer's looked over his shoulder and looked back towards the woman. A chilling feeling went over the back of his neck. His glance fell upon the face of the woman who's lips tensed into a smile.

"What do you find so amusing, young lady?" the officer asked.

"You, Cerdo," she said. "You think you can hold me? One of the greatest warriors in the world caught me off guard. The next time I fight the Dragon, it will be different,"

The woman rose to her feet, the cords only allowing her a sufficient amount of movement for that. They retracted her from the cords and slapped a pair of handcuffs on her. They lead her to the back of the squad car and amusement flickered through her eyes. She allowed them to handcuff her. A moment of humiliation would be more than worth it for the revenge she would enact upon them at a later date.

"You can see you're in trouble, don't you?" she said. Tongue flickered out.

"You better be quiet, you're in enough trouble….Ms…." the officer said.

"Call me Copperhead," she said. "You really think you can take advantage of me, and rough me up….I'll be out before you get your morning coffee, Cerdo."

The two younger cops looked at each other nervously. The old cop turned and faced front away from the woman.

"Maybe we should take her seriously, she looks like she means business," one of the cops managed. "She's….."

"You be in this city often enough, and you realize all the criminals do is try and shake you," the veteran cop said. "Don't you dare let this get the better of you…..now get in the front! Or I'll write you up."

The first of the two younger cops took his seat in the front seat of the squad car. The second of the younger cops allowed his eyes to linger on the woman who had been handcuffed in the back seat. She flickered her tongue at him in response.

' _Crazy bitch,'_ the cop thought.

The younger cop made his way into the front seat. He kept peaking over his shoulder.

"Relax, the doors are locked, kid, she isn't getting out any time soon," the veteran cop said and he placed his hand on the other side on the younger cop's shoulders.

The rookie GCPD officer's breathing escalated. He answered with a nod in response. One thought crossed his mind.

' _Exactly what I'm afraid of.'_

"We should get her back to the station soon though, this street….DAMN IT!"

The car almost stopped short. The two rookie cops almost jumped off of their seats.

"Damn pot holes, they're getting worse in this town," the veteran cop said. He backed off and drove to the station. "Going to get her in, and call it a night…maybe some of Branden's boys will make her more cooperative."

The more nervous of the two cops responded with a nod. The sooner they got this woman out of the back seat of their car, the better everything was going to be for them all.

* * *

 

Rachel Dawes returned back to work with a vengeance. All of her injuries had been healed up and the doctor gave her the go ahead to return to work. So she returned to work and did so with a vengeance. Things might have been a bit less annoying if about five people did not ask her how she was doing.

"Ms. Dawes, welcome back, how you doing?"

Scratch that, six people, but still Rachel's mouth curled into a smile and she greeted the older man who greeted her with a wave.

"You know me, it's going to take a lot more than a well placed bullet to shut me down," Rachel said. "I'm still living, I'm still breathing, I'm ready for work and that's what matters."

"Things are getting rough since you've been in bed," he said. "Mr. Dent's really been thrown into the fire."

Rachel was about ready to ask where Harvey ended up running off to. The elevator door slid open and a rather haggard Harvey Dent walked out. He straightened his tie, his shirt, and looked halfway presentable.

' _Speak of the devil,'_ Rachel thought.

Harvey turned around and saw Rachel standing in the office. A smile spread over his face and he made his way towards her to greet her.

"Yes, Harvey, I'm doing fine, my arm is mostly healed," Rachel said. "Still a bit sore, but I'll manage."

She had to learn to use her left arm which was a bit awkward. Harvey flashed her a look of apology. Rachel stopped him a second later.

"Never mind me, I'm still here, I'm still alive," Rachel said. "Oh, and I picked this up my way up…and good thing too, you look dead on your feet."

Rachel slipped a cup of coffee into Harvey's hand. The coffee simmered piping hot the moment Rachel pushed into his hand.

"Thanks, you're a life saver," Harvey said. "Things are getting a bit rough now…and for reasons we can't legally chase. Hill isn't about to rock the boat, Loeb is more inclined to ignore the fact certain things exist, and the City Council well….."

Harvey's commentary about the City Council had been lost. Rachel helpfully picked it back up for him.

"They're a bunch of old fools who refuse to step away from the status quo?" Rachel asked.

Harvey smiled. She did pretty much hit the nail on the head a lot of the time. The District Attorney figured his first couple of weeks on the job would be tough with the mess which had been left behind. He commended Rachel for her work. The only thing she did was keep the fort down until Harvey was able to officially fill in as District Attorney in Gotham City.

"The point is, Black Mask has put a bounty on the two gentlemen I'm not legally able to discuss," Harvey said.

"Yes, I heard rumors," Rachel said. "It seems like he's pretty sore about the fact you're still breathing."

Harvey imagined Rachel was right. He could not even begin to guess why Sionis was so hacked off at him in the first place. Something must have happened, where Harvey inadvertently pissed the man off.

' _I can only imagine what's going to happen when I intentionally go after him,'_ Harvey thought. _'Just need the right amount of evidence to pin him to the wall.'_

"It's getting to be a problem," Rachel said. "Maroni, Falcone, and Sionis, and they're just the tip of the iceberg. They're just opening the door for other problems."

Harvey nodded and made his way into the office. His desk looked to be in more disarray than Gotham City was a lot of the time. Rachel followed him into the office and sat down on the couch. She frowned and looked around the office with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry," Harvey said. "I didn't have too much time to clean up the office. I've had my mind elsewhere, and….well….."

"It's understandable," Rachel said. She shifted a fraction of an inch back and crossed her legs together. "I don't blame you at all. If I was in your boat, my office actually being cleaned would be the last thing I even considered."

Harvey finished the cup of coffee. He made a decent attempt to make his desk somewhat presentable or at least the illusion of being presentable.

"We do need to do something about them," Harvey said.

"What we need to do is remove their safety net," Rachel said. "Maroni should have been held. Falcone picked up where he left off after his stay in the Arkham Wing without any trouble."

"Yes, I know," Harvey said.

Where did he put that silver dollar? It had slipped into the clutter on his desk. Harvey grumbled and gritted his teeth.

' _Could really use it right now. Takes the tension off.'_

Rachel's voice snapped Harvey out of his thoughts once again.

"We all know, it's one of those things where we can't really talk about it," Rachel said. "The problem in this city isn't the crime, it isn't the mob…it isn't even any urban legends dressing up in this town."

Harvey could tell Rachel was about ready to start rolling forward with her rant. Harvey figured it would be for the best just to let her go because it would be a lot worse if he did not.

"It's the police and the city government, they're just going to stand back and let everyone walk over them," Rachel said. "How much support do we get? For every good cop like Gordon, they're getting to the cops before they come out of the academy. People like Branden and Loeb being in power isn't helping anyone."

"It isn't going to help any, with O'Hara retiring next year," Harvey said.

Rachel answered with a nod. Chief O'Hara was tough as nails and managed to keep some of the corruption out of the top levels, even though there was so much he could do. Rachel feared what his replacement was.

"This isn't getting any easier, is it?" Harvey asked. "Going to be assassins coming into town….and Hill won't warn the people of the danger….there's collateral."

Rachel's mind flashed to a previous time assassins came to town. The fear gas enveloped her mind and showed her horrors beyond all imagination.

"Rachel!"

Harvey's yell brought Rachel out of her thoughts. She turned around and looked towards him as if her mind had not gone into another direction entirely.

"Yes?" Rachel asked.

"You looked like you've just gone off somewhere else," Harvey said.

"It's just…..well, just thinking about all which has gone on over the past year," Rachel said. "Gotham's turn for the ugly isn't settling. And there's just….a feeling it's going to get worse."

Harvey understood. He flipped over some papers and rummaged through more objects on his desk.

"Yes, I hear you," Harvey said. "And I've been looking over the case files for the cop killer. Would like to bring them to justice before the end of the year, so at least we can end 1998 on a good note."

Harvey would be lying if he thought the cop killer was a one hundred percent bad thing. Unfortunately though, whoever was knocking off of the corrupt cops could always go too far.

' _The line between corruption and necessity is a fine one to walk,'_ Harvey thought.

"Loeb's really putting the pressure on you to get something done, isn't he?" Rachel asked.

Harvey responded with a tense nod. He peered out and knew this was going to be a bit more intense before it got better.

' _Better call Gilda, this is going to be a long night.'_

The phone cut through Harvey's thoughts. He only answered it in a couple of rings even though he dreaded what he might hear on the other end of the phone.

"Yes?" Harvey asked. "You found who….you've got to be kidding me….double security on her and don't let her out of her sight."

Harvey thought a long night might just get redefined the more he thought about it. He turned to Rachel who responded with a frown.

"A world class assassin has been found tied up on the docks by some GCPD officers," Harvey said. "She's…well she's freaking them out. She implied there's someone bigger who sent her after….her target."

"The Dragon or the Flying Rodent?" Rachel asked.

Harvey shrugged, he did not have any information regarding that. He hoped to meet with the GCPD. This looked like it needed a more specialized hand at work.

' _Ah there's my silver dollar.'_

* * *

 

Carol Danvers thought Sinestra's plan redefined really bad idea. The woman scowled at her as if this was her part. Her face would have been beautiful had it not been affixed with a murderous glare. The type of glare which indicated she would have liked to spill Carol's guts if she had a chance.

Sinestra walked forward and made sure the prisoner had been tethered to her. The prisoner's eyes hazed over. The anger left her, but plenty of mild disgust followed.

"You're just dumping me off here?" she asked. "Do you not realize what they do at a place like this? And here I thought the Green Lanterns had honor."

"Ilana this is for you own good," Carol said.

"Don't lie to me, you're just as bad as the rest of them," the woman said.

Carol decided to let the matter drop. The venom dripping from their charge's face made her feel like a real bitch for doing this. They did not even let the prisoner in on the plan.

After the moment of protest, Ilana hung her head and sighed. The gates opened up and the large spider alien, along with two guards walked out.

"Sinestra, it's been way too long since you've brought something for me," the spider said.

Carol tried not to show any anxiety with this particular creature. These creatures could smell fear and deception from a mile away. She affixed the best poker face. Having two younger sisters gave Carol plenty of opportunity to get used to not showing any anger and being calm.

This on the other hand, this situated tested her. Her hands were tied. As Sinestra reminded her, there was more at stake than the comfort of one prisoner.

"Myglom, it's been a long time," Sinestra said.

"The two of you know each other?" Carol asked.

"Yes, the Green Lanterns use this facility to rehabilitate our prisoners," Sinestra said.

"Yes, and you must be a new recruit," Myglom said. "A fine specimen you have indeed."

The spider's eyes raked up and down Carol's figure. Carol's need to jump into a vat of acid to wash away the disgust spiked up a little bit more.

"Myglom, we have a prisoner, a Red Lantern," Sinestra said. "Her ring is almost dead….only just enough charge to sustain her vitals."

The creepy spider guard's eyes shifted with interest.

"A Red Lantern?" Myglom asked. "Well, this is very interesting…given your Guardians of Oa don't seem to want to admit they exist. Despite the fact they've caused my people some trouble in the past."

His pincers clicked together. Myglom dragged the Red Lantern captive towards him.

"Yes, I recognize this wicked glint," he said. "She's nasty…the fact you were able to hold her speaks well to her…once this ring is on…there's no going back."

Myglom smiled and peered down at the prisoner with one of the most sinister leers possible. His two guards made their way over and grabbed Ilana.

"Never fear though," Myglom said. "My rehabilitation program will make something out of the rowdiest of prisoners."

Carol had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach what he made out of the rowdiest of prisoners was his next meal. She could not prove this naturally. It was just a sinking feeling which both entered her body and would not go away any time soon.

' _I can't believe you talked me into this,'_ Carol thought.

"Very well, we'll leave her in your capable hands," Sinestra said.

The two groups left each other. Katma, Carol, and Sinestra walked from the prison and made their way back to the edge of the prison yard.

"This place is….there's just something about it….." Katma said.

"It's not supposed to be a nice place," Sinestra said. "Things have changed, I will admit. It's grown a fair bit more unsettling since the last time I've been there."

Carol thought unsettling would be describing things in a bit too charitable. Regardless, the three Green Lanterns turned around and made their way back towards the prison. They heard a voice.

"Yes, yes, sorry for the interruption. They've brought me more fresh meat."

The Three Green Lanterns positioned themselves where they could see Myglom discussing something with a bulky looking figure on the other end of a view screen. The figure looked to be large and broad shouldered from what they could see.

"We've struck it, big, along with the yellow element," Myglom said. "And we have the Omridium."

"It's the only thing we want, and….we will give you more able bodies to mine even more," the large figure said from the other end of the view screen. "And no doubt you can and will use more of the yellow element for your species."

"Once my children have gotten a taste of it, they hunger for it," Myglom said. "I thank you General Tragg for your help. It is much appreciated, and I will never forget all of what you've done for me."

Carol turned towards Sinestra and asked her the very obvious question.

"What is Omridium?" Carol asked.

"It's an extremely valuable and dangerous element," Sinestra said.

"There are many uses for it," Katma said. "Seventeen of them are very illegal and another thirty….highly frowned upon, even though they're not technically illegal."

Carol always knew those grey areas were the ones which could give people the most headaches.

"The point is, if they're mining for it, it can't be for anything good," Sinestra said. "And the individual who he was talking to, things have just gotten worse."

Carol's feeling of dread heightened to an even greater level than it was before. She turned to Sinestra and frowned in response.

"I don't even know how this can get even worse than how we're getting right now," Carol said.

"Trust me when I say it can, and it not only can, but it will," Sinestra said. "Traag is the second in command to Lord Krang, the exiled evil warlord of Dimension X. According to the Guardians of Oa, he had been stripped of his body for planetary genocide and exiled to a primitive planet where he cannot do any further damage."

One could tell Sinestra was not too fond of the official word of the Guardians of Oa these days.

"He murdered entire planets worth of people?" Carol asked.

"Yes," Sinestra said. "He makes your worst criminals on Earth look rather tame. Along with many of the worst criminals in other parts of the galaxy. We do have one rather fortunate element working in our favor."

Carol wondered how any of this could be fortunate.

"Dimension X has been embodied in a civil war for quite some time, among the various races living there," Sinestra said. "They can't track him down for the planet which he had been exiled to because of all of their resources tied up. And the Guardians always hope its kept that way."

Carol wondered what planet this Krang had he exiled to. She figured the answer would amount to "classified" so she did not even bother to ask.

"We should call for back up and shut the entire operation down," Sinestra said. Carol looked back at Sinestra who smiled and added something. "And we better pick up our prisoner so she can stand trial properly."

Carol only relaxed ever so slightly. Sinestra's words did little to appease her.

* * *

 

Lyta did some stretches in the training room. She took a couple of long and deep breaths. The Amazon rose up to her feet and started to hammer the bag in the other end of the room. The punches were a bit slow at first and they grew more frantic and more rapid fire.

The doors slid open and Amanda and Emily walked into the room. Amanda wore a black top and a pair of tight spandex shorts which stretched over her body. Emily wore a white top and the same type of bottom. Both of them looked ready for an early morning sparring session.

"Morning, Lyta," Amanda said. "How are you doing?"

"Fine," Lyta said.

Amanda sighed. She could tell something haunted her niece's mind. Being the responsible, most of the time, aunt, she was, Amanda sauntered over towards Lyta and placed a hand on her shoulder. Lyta tensed up and turned towards her aunt.

"What's been bothering you?" Amanda asked Lyta.

Lyta stood up, more rigid than either twin were used to seeing her.

"Nothing's been bothering me," Lyta said. "I'm perfectly fine."

Amanda raised her eyebrow. She could tell when someone was not perfectly fine. The savvier of the two Potter twins walked towards her.

"You saw something, didn't you?" Amanda asked.

Lyta wondered how they could have known. If Amanda knew, Emily knew, and if the twins knew, there was a good chance her father could have known and maybe her sisters. Lyta rose up to a standing position.

"Maybe I did," Lyta said.

Amanda smiled. She was trying to play in calm and cool. She had been in Lyta's position a couple of times in the past, when she was younger. Boy those days seemed like more than an entire lifetime ago.

"Don't worry, you can tell your dear old Aunt Mandy," Amanda said, reaching up to put her arm around her niece.

Lyta's growth spurt had been her a bit taller than Amanda. This caused Amanda to laugh.

"Yes, I may have seen Harry and Diana…"

"Having some fun," Emily said.

Lyta's cheeks reddened. The young Amazon nodded in response.

"Well, it looked like Diana was having a lot of fun," Lyta said.

"And you watched your father tie her up and have his way with her," Amanda said.

This caused Lyta to grow a bit red around the cheek area. She looked firm and proud against the two twins and responded with a nod.

"It isn't….well it shouldn't be something you should be ashamed about," Amanda said. She cracked into a smile and looked back at Lyta. "Unless you want to be in the position Diana was in…which still really isn't anything to be ashamed about…"

"I think you've learned a lesson about curiosity in this penthouse," Emily said. "Doors are often left cracked, and curiosity gets the better of us."

A sleepy Lois slipped inside behind them and made her way over. She blinked and actually was surprised.

"I actually beat Rebecca to breakfast?" Lois asked.

"Not by much, but you did," Rebecca said, slipping in behind Lois a second later.

Lois turned towards Lyta, who looked a bit flustered already. She turned to the twins as well, who had smiles on their face.

"So, what were you talking about?" Lois asked.

Amanda and Emily exchanged a look of amusement. They both agreed to keep Lois innocent, at least for the most part. Hard to do given Lois was Lois, and she….tended to get into things. And she wasn't that innocent, given the glances she stole whenever Harry was in tight pants.

"Oh, let me guess, you were talking about Lyta lingering outside of people's rooms," Lois said.

"I….."

"Well, it was obvious," Lois said. "I think all of us did it at least once. The only way to really learn the lesson is through doing it, wouldn't you agree?"

Lyta frowned and hung her head down. She would have to agree to be honest.

"Why don't we get to training?" Lyta asked.

Lois could hear Lyta trying to divert the subject. Fine for Lois, not exactly something she wanted to discuss right about now. Lyta talked in her sleep a bit and what she said was interesting. Lois closed her eyes and got a bit flustered thinking about it.

"So, are the three of you ready?" Amanda asked. "Dinah's overseeing the training today."

Lois frowned and turned to Rebecca and Lyta. She was not the only one who had certain misgivings regarding this training.

"Let's just hope this doesn't end up too badly," Emily said. "Who wants to do the honors of stepping up against Amanda first?"

"I'll do it," Lyta said.

Amanda smiled. She meant no offense to either Lois or Rebecca when she said this, but she most certainly started at the top of the heap when she went up against Lyta. The two of them circled each other and prepared to battle.

Lyta tried to punch Amanda. Amanda dodged from the other side. She had gotten a bit quicker on her feet. She sensed Diana and Dinah both watched this little battle from the other end of the bond link. This little sparring session was to judge her as much as it was to judge the other two women.

' _Let's see if I can kick this one into higher gear,'_ Amanda thought.

Amanda caught Lyta's punch and flipped her over. Lyta landed on her feet and took Amanda down to her back. Amanda landed on the ground and kipped back up to her feet. Lyta caught her arm and turned it around.

"A bit too slow, aren't you, Aunt Mandy?" Lyta asked. "Must be getting a bit off in your older age."

"I'll show you old age," Amanda said.

Emily smiled as Amanda came back to the attack. A more even sparring session happened. Lyta was a bit quicker on her feet than Amanda. Amanda's stubbornness proved to be virtue though which would not allow her to go down any time soon.

* * *

 

Selina stared at Harry with a surprised and fairly shocked look on her face. She saw Copperhead inject him with the venom and he stood there like it was nothing. Just a normal kiss, and the surprise allowed Harry to render her unconscious.

"Let's hope the police can hold her," Harry said.

"You're not really…you don't really think they can hold a world class assassin, do you?" Selina asked.

Harry's lack of response was the only response Selina needed.

"I'm hoping to find out who her employer is," Harry said. "If I find out who her employer is, there's the real trouble."

"Of course," Selina said ,allowing her breath to leave her body. "I don't suppose I should ask how you survived the venom, should I?"

Harry's lips curled into a smile when he locked eyes onto her. He decided to give her the very honest assessment of the situation.

"When I was younger, I was exposed to one of the deadliest venoms in the world, followed by one of the most potent cures possible," Harry said. "There isn't many poisons which can affect me now."

Harry had been left with a strong sample of Copperhead's poison which he had to remove from his lips. There was not a trace of it to be honest. He could create a counter agent to pass around to all of the girls. Something told him they would need it sooner rather than later.

"And you were supposed to rest, weren't you?" Harry asked.

Selina smiled when she looked at Harry. She still wore her costume. The costume clung to her body to the point where Harry could see all of her tantalizing curves poking out of the costume for Harry's consumption and his enjoyment.

"Maybe I should have," Selina said. She pressed against Harry and her leg curled up against his waist. "I've been a very naughty kitty, haven't I?

Harry smiled and grabbed Selina's ass. He cupped it firmly and pulled her body into his. Her ample curves pressed up against his body in a slinky fashion.

"The antidote I gave you has some other side effects," Harry said.

"Yes," Selina said in a breathless tone. "I can tell."

Her lips made their way onto Harry's with a powerful kiss. Their lips pressed together, the kiss grew hungrier and more passionate. Selina's tongue pushed deep into Harry's mouth and the two swapped spit.

Harry backed Selina up against the wall and felt up her body. He kissed her neck and made his way down her cleavage. Selina grabbed onto Harry's shoulder and encouraged him to go on. She closed her eyes when Harry continued to head his way down to the pleasure point.

' _This is going to be amazing,'_ Selina thought. _'This is going to be perfect.'_

Harry unzipped Selina all the way down and ran his fingers against the edge of her dripping slit. Selina closed her eyes when Harry worked his all the way down her body.

"I wonder if I should make you earn this after defying my orders tonight," Harry said.

Selina looked up with a smoldering look and a saucy smile to match. "Maybe you should spank me?"

Harry considered her invitation for a long moment. He thought it would be a tantalizing thought. The only problem was Selina would get off of it. He decided to tease Selina by slipping one finger inside her and pumped it inside her. Selina's hands gripped against the wall.

Selina had to be reminded how powerful even one of Harry's fingers pushed inside her would be. She bit down onto her lip and allowed a tense moan to escape from her body. Nipples hardened with Harry's finger pushed into her. He worked his finger into her with a light more.

"More!" Selina yelled.

"In a moment," Harry said. "I love seeing you squirm."

Selina thought Harry could be a sadist sometimes. The wait was more than worth it. Harry eased one of his fingers into her and pumped her with a second finger. Two fingers wiggled in between Selina's thighs. A third finger joined their way between Selina's thighs and he pumped into her.

Harry worked his fingers between Selina. Her eager pussy sucked him in. He wanted to make her cum. Harry leaned in and kissed her on the neck and nibbled on it.

"Someone is busting to get out," Selina said. She tried to reach over and grab Harry's prick to caress it, to get him to rise to the bait.

Harry smiled and could tell what Selina attempted to do. Her hot hand caressed his thick cock through his pants. Harry smiled and continued to pump her hard and fast.

"Just wait, "Harry said. "It will be inside you soon enough."

"Jaime, join us," Selina said.

Jaime smiled and made her way into the room. She stripped off her jacket, top, and pants to be in nothing but a set of bra and panties. She walked behind Harry and kissed him from behind. Her breasts pressed against his back when Jaime worked her hands down him.

"Let me get him warmed up for you," Jaime said. "I know you want this badly, but…you do deserve a bit more teasing for what you've done tonight."

Selina started to protest against this. Jaime dove between her legs and started to bite down onto her clit. A wave of pleasure entered her body and Jaime's mouth joined Harry's fingers in pleasuring her.

Harry marveled at fast his sister at him on his pants and his throbbing cock was out. Jaime wrapped her hand around him and pumped Harry's full length.

"Damn, baby," Harry said. Jaime turned around and wrapped her lips around his cock.

Jaime dragged Harry's cock all the way into the back of her throat. She took his manhood into her mouth and released it with a series of intense sucks. Her tongue traveled all the way around his cock and started to warn it up.

Selina's eyes followed Jaime's sucking as she brought Harry's cock all the way into the back of her throat. Her mouth wrapped around Harry and sucked him in. She released him with another couple of intense and powerful sucks. Jaime's white hot lips engulfed Harry all the way inside her beautiful mouth.

"Mmm, this is so hot," Selina said.

Harry and Jaime took turns manipulating Selina's center. It worked her to a sharper edge. Her hips bucked all the way up. They met Harry's and started to bring the juices onto them. Harry pumped all the way into her. A couple of seconds passed before Harry released his fingers from her.

Jaime followed this up by releasing Harry's cock from her mouth. Harry reached down and picked up Selina. He scooped her up and walked her over to the bed.

Selina's entire body sized up with pleasure because of the strength Harry exhibited towards her. He dropped her down onto the bed. Selina's legs spread and Harry placed himself on top of her. His muscular body pressed against her curves.

"Fuck me," Selina said. Her nails sank into his ass.

Harry dragged the point of his cock against Selina's entrance. Her legs found their way around Harry's body and pulled him in close with a scissor lock. Her wetness brushed against his swollen head and threatened to suck him inside with a fluid force.

Selina's entire body tensed up. The heat coming from her sought Harry. He teased her and then pushed inside her. Her walls stretched all the way around his cock.

"YES!" Selina yelled. "OOH, harder!"

Harry grabbed her hair and pushed into her. Her breasts pushed against his chest when Harry pushed all the way into her. He shoved his cock all the way inside her.

"Fuck me like the filthy whore I am!" Selina yelled. "Punish my pussy…..drive it deep inside me and cause me to squirt all over your big, hard, dick!"

"Maybe we should put this mouth to a better use," Harry said.

Jaime received the hint straight away. She shoved her pussy down onto Selina's mouth. Selina pushed her tongue into Jaime's hot and dripping twat. Her tongue rolled all over Jaime's dripping hot pussy.

"Right there, you horny bitch!" Jaime yelled. "Feel my brother drive his throbbing hard cock into your slutty cunt. I bet you're wet enough to flood the dessert, aren't you?"

Selina could not answer on the account of having her mouth full of Jaime's pussy. The feelings of pleasure spiking through her body and the way she moaned into Jaime's cunt allowed her to give the entire answer.

His sister's dirty talk and Selina's tight pussy only encouraged Harry to pound her. A few rapid fire pounds of her pussy made Selina's legs wrap tighter yet around him.

"Go ahead, and cum for me," Harry said. "You know you can't resist, can you? You can't resist my cock pounding your tight pussy into submission, can you?"

The tension rising from Selina's body showed Harry she could not resist this entire fact. Harry rose up and pushed down into her with a swift and solid pump. Her pussy squished around him with the thrust. It clenched and released him the way. More juices pumped up between Selina's legs and caused his cock to slid all the way into her hot and juicy depths.

"Soon," Harry growled. "I hope you're ready for your reward."

Selina's hips rose and encouraged Harry to drive himself deeper inside her. Her wet walls caressed Harry's invading prick with a few rapid fire thrusts.

"Don't forget the big part of your job," Jaime said.

Selina would not dare forget about this prime piece of pussy draped over her face. She pushed her tongue inside and was determined to bring Jaime to an orgasm of her own.

Harry pushed into Selina's pussy and brought her over the edge to an impressive orgasm of her own. Selina's pussy closed down onto Harry's cock and tried to milk his prick into her depths. Harry held onto her.

"One more time," Harry said. His hands found Selina's breasts and he squeezed them. Jaime joined him in playing with them.

The duel assault on her breasts prompted Selina's pussy to pump around Harry's throbbing cock. He pushed all the way down into her pussy and rode it all the way into the bed. Selina's walls tensed around Harry and pushed his throbbing cock into her hot and willing depths.

"Here it comes," Harry said.

Harry buried his face between Selina's breasts. Her entire body shook from the force of Harry motorboarding her juicy tits. He hammered her pussy all the way to the explosive end.

The shower of cum from Harry's balls fired into Selina's body. Her hips lifted up to engulf his cock halfway in and then push around his throbbing balls. He injected himself full of her cum.

Harry spilled a belly swelling amount of seed into Selina's tight body. He pulled almost all the way out of her and left her dripping for him. Harry turned around and flashed a smile towards Jaime.

"I'm going to enjoy this," Jaime said.

Jaime kneeled down between Selina's legs and spread her pussy lips. Her tongue traced patterns all over Selina's dripping pussy and shoved her tongue in to taste the dripping hot juices rolling from them.

Harry took the plunge and rammed his cock into Jaime. Her tight and wet walls closed around him. Harry gained some momentum and watched her pump into him.

* * *

 

Thea Queen watched through the crack of the door. She knew she shouldn't even watch. She should just turn away and not watch the tantalizing show. Not watch….twelve inches of throbbing flesh pump into another woman's sheath. Watch the wonderful show of a thick tool pushing into the womanhood of another figure, and pump all the way inside her.

She knew in the back of her mind she couldn't watch. And Thea knew she shouldn't shove her hand underneath her skirt when she watched it either.

This may have been one etiquette lesson she skipped out on. Harry was still going despite nailing Selina for the better part of the hour. And now he went to town on his cousin, or was it sister….the entire Potter-Evans extended family tree gave Thea a headache.

A throbbing from a place other than her head distracted her from the headache. Did it really matter as long as this was sweet and savory incest? The Queen heiress touched herself at the thought of being dominated in such a way and thoughts crossed her head.

' _Oh, come on, it's only in March, it's only in March,'_ she thought. _'Your birthday is only in March, just March, five months away.'_

Another more disturbed thought crossed in the back of Thea's mind.

' _Five long and endless months, but still, it's five months,'_ Thea thought. _'You can do it, just woman up. Only five months away. It might be only November, but March is not too far away.'_

Thea peaked through the door one more time. From this position, if one of them looked the wrong way, there was a pretty good chance where she could have been caught.

This ended up being half of the fun for her, as far as she was concerned.

' _Only five more months.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 16** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Copperhead is freaking out people._

_Lyta has to deal with what she saw._

_Poor, poor, Thea. Five months can be a long time for something like this._

_Until Saturday._


	207. Dinner Plans

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seven: Dinner Plans.**

* * *

 

Carmine Falcone closed the door of the limo behind him. He took the first step onto the curb towards a high class hotel deep into the heart of Gotham City. Many thoughts crossed the mind of the Roman with what he wanted to do. Two bodyguards took their strides behind the man.

"Room 3405, Base Ace," Falcone said.

He spoke these words into the intercom. A long pause followed before the doors clicked open. The Roman slipped his way inside followed by his two bodyguards. A bored looking receptionist peered up from the desk and motioned towards the stairway.

"Mr. Thorne will see you soon," she said.

Falcone smiled, he was glad to hear it. He intended to see Mr. Thorne and discuss a couple of things about him. He did not mind taking the stairs in this instance either because of the fact it gave him plenty of time to think. The stage of Gotham had changed over the past week or so. Falcone thought change lead to some issues and more problems than there were solutions.

' _Need to see where everyone stands,'_ Falcone thought. He raised his hand and knocked on the door three times in succession.

"Enter," a rumbling voice said. No sooner did this voice speak. Carmine Falcone opened the door and entered the room. Rupert Thorne sat behind at able with a lavish feast spread out in front of.

Falcone stepped inside. It was extravagant and to the excess, just like Thorne himself if he had to say so himself.

"Mr. Thorne, it's good to see you once more," Falcone said.

Falcone and Thorne crossed the room with each other and shook hands with each. The handshake remained firm, but not to a bone crunching variety. Both men showed they would not back down under any circumstances and it was something both of them respected.

"It is excellent to see you as well, Carmine," Thorne said. "And I see you're in perfect health, always a good thing."

The Roman's lips curled into a smile. He could tell there was something else on Thorne's mind other than asking him about his health.

"What about our friend, Mr. Cobblepot?" Falcone asked. "Surely he's not going to be late for the meeting."

"Oh, he's coming, and the three of us can talk business," Thorne said. "Would you care for a drink? Maybe something to eat?"

Falcone accepted the glass of wine and Thorne's invitation to help himself to any of the food on the table. He piled food on the plate and started to eat. Thorne ate well and had some good taste for food. Even though he ate a little bit too much of it at times, but that was beside the point. Falcone took a long bite out of the food.

"Things have changed in Gotham City," Falcone said.

"Yes, I'm glad to hear you've come to the same point I have," Thorne said. "The old family ties aren't as strong. And speaking of which, I'm surprised not to see Salvatore with you."

"The Maronis do not need to be involved in this, this is just a meeting to find out where everyone stands in Gotham City," Falcone said. "And the old families will always have their place in Gotham City. I'm certain at the very least you understand this much."

Thorne responded with a rather stiff nod. Falcone kept his eyes locked on the man in question, not completely trusting him.

"Very well," Thorne said. "And you're concerned for the same reason I am. The bounty which has been put on Batman and Nightwing….by Black Mask."

Thorne paused for a brief second after he uttered the name "Nightwing." Falcone raised his eyebrow. No comment from Thorne. Falcone took a long swig of wine and indulged himself in it for a long couple of minutes.

"The old traditions need to be preserved and respected," Falcone said. "We both know Sionis is trying to change the face for Gotham City, and he's not giving anyone any time to breath. It strains our ability to get anything done….even I think you can agree with that, Rupert."

Thorne took a long swig from his wine and nodded. The wine landed down on the table with an audible clink.

"Yes, Carmine, I would have to agree," Thorne said. "Roman's made a couple of questionable decisions as of late. He's lost one of his inside men on the GCPD thanks to the Cop Killer."

"Yes, the Cop Killer," Carmine said. "Any luck in unmasking him?"

"So far, no information from the usual suspects," Thorne said. "Which means the cop killer must be working alone, because the more people you let in on a secret, the harder it is to keep. Wouldn't you agree?"

A knock on the door followed. The door clicked open and Oswald Cobblepot stepped his way into the room. He gave Falcone and Thorne both a respectful nod. His hands clutched over the handle of his umbrella and sat himself down on the table.

"Alright, Mr. Cobblepot, thank you for coming to join us on such short notice," Thorne said. "All three of us have had our differences at one point or another. And we've also had a common problem. Roman Sionis, and the bounty he has put on two fabled urban legends on Gotham City."

The Penguin placed the umbrella down on the table and looked towards both of them.

"I have a business agreement with Mr. Sionis, and I would not dare betray his confidence," Cobblepot said.

"Of course not," Thorne said. "I would not dare tell you otherwise either."

Cobblepot nodded. Distrust flowed through his eyes when he stared down Thorne. The man played a rather devious game and Cobblepot knew for a fact he detested becoming a pawn.

"You would not dare to tell me otherwise, would you?" Cobblepot asked. "Yet, you've called me here….."

"All we wanted to know whether or not he had been acting in an irrational manner as of late," Falcone said.

Cobblepot stood up to face Falcone. Falcone's two bodyguards put him between the two of them.

"You know of the bounty on Dent, you know of the bounty on Batman and Nightwing, is there anything more I can tell you that you don't already know?" Cobblepot asked. "It's been business as usual…"

"Are you sure?" Falcone asked.

"I don't have to put up with this from the likes of you, "Cobblepot said. "I see your game Falcone, you see your grip slipping. Gotham has passed you by and now….."

"No, Oswald, he sees nothing for the sort," Thorne said. "Roman Sionis is not the most stable of business partners. I think even you understand that even if you don't want to see it."

Cobblepot had no love loss for Black Mask if something happened to him. Their partnership was to fry a bigger fish. The biggest of which sat across from the table from him and looked at him with those beady little eyes.

"I talked to him on Halloween," Cobblepot said. "He was fine then. If you want any information, I'm afraid you're going to talk to him….unless you're afraid of him."

Carmine Falcone detested the implication he feared anyone at any time. He drew in a deep breath and looked at his adversary, his rival. The man who intended to take all of what he built. And if he was anything like Stanley Cobblepot, he would squander it.

"Relax," Carmine said. "I know you're feeling the pressure. We're all feeling it, we don't know who to trust, and…it's not getting any easier."

Cobblepot conceded this point. He wondered what Falcone's point was. He slowly tipped back the wine.

"We've been fighting together for so long," Thorne said. "Life is too short, especially in Gotham City."

Cobblepot nodded in response.

"All we're saying is we need to find a way to get Sionis to back off the bounty," Falcone said. "After it's all done, we'll all shake hands and get back to business."

Cobblepot would have been a liar if he wasn't thinking about a way to deal with Black Mask if he had gotten out of hand. He was not completely sure whether or not he bought what Carmine Falcone sold either. The criminal tipped himself back in the chair.

"I'll listen to what you have to say," Cobblepot said.

Thorne smiled, thinking he had the Penguin right where he wanted him. This would go smoothly if he played his cards right.

' _To get a Penguin, you just need a big enough fish to reel him in with,'_ the mob boss thought.

"It's all we ask," Thorne said. "We're all consenting adults, we should be able to work together, this bounty is not good for our business. It brings some unsavory elements into Gotham City, and it's just going to get worse from here."

* * *

 

Kara Danvers almost tripped over the rug in her haste to get the door.

"Kara, be careful, I know you're durable, but you shouldn't hurt yourself," Eliza said.

Kara smiled and she walked over to the door. For the second time in many weeks, she came face to face with Harry.

"Harry, I'm so glad you could make it, and I'm sure Alex is glad as well…she's upstairs getting ready," Kara said. "She's normally not like this….you must be something."

"Well, I'm sure a lot of girls would say I'm something," Harry said.

Kara caught herself nodding in response and grew red. Eliza Danvers walked over and joined Harry for a smile.

"Hello, Doctor Potter, it's good to see you…sorry, Harry," Eliza said. "I know you're busy, so it's an honor you're here right now."

Harry smiled and gripped the older woman's hand. He leaned down and kissed Eliza on the hand. She smiled and looked towards him.

"Believe me, Eliza, the honor is all mine," Harry said. "And I really like what you've done with your home."

"Really?" Eliza asked. She smiled. "It took forever to get it the way I wanted to. It never seemed like everything was going to get done."

"Well, perfection takes time," Harry said. "And you've done the best you've done…and I'm sure it kept you busy."

Eliza smiled. She led Harry over to the couch and gave him a look over.

' _My daughter does have good taste,'_ Eliza thought. Her eyes continued to linger on Harry for a couple of seconds and pulled away. _'Very good taste.'_

The door upstairs opened up and Harry looked up with a smile. Alex Danvers descended the steps and walked her way towards him. She dressed in a nice green dress which was not all too stylish. More practical than anything, still though, Harry would have to say she wore it well.

"Harry," Alex said. "I thought I heard you….."

Harry greeted her with a kiss on the lips. She returned the kiss with a moment.

"You are early," Alex said. She gave him a mocking tap on the face. "Which is good for you…bad for me…because I had to rush to get ready."

"I wouldn't say you did too bad of a job with it," Harry said. "You look beautiful."

In response for this, Alex leaned towards Harry and pushed her lips onto his with another kiss. The two of them pulled apart when Eliza cleared her throat. A knowing smile crossed the woman's face when she looked at the two of them.

"Dinner will be ready in a couple of minutes," Eliza said. "Feel free to take a seat."

Kara took a seat and pulled out a chair next to her. Alex walked over towards the chair, but Kara shook her head.

"That's for Harry," Kara said. "You can sit on his other side if you want to."

Alex chuckled in response when stepping back for Harry to take the chair. She took another chair next to Harry.

"So, how are you doing in school?" Harry asked Kara.

"School's….it's fine," Kara said.

Harry could hear the frustration going through her voice. There was a momentary amount of laughter from Karen, Kara, and Faora through the bond link.

' _If she's anything like me, she has to relearn everything she's known, and it's….a bit slowed down,'_ Kara thought. _'It's frustrating, and I feel her pain, I really do.'_

' _If she's anything like you?'_ Karen asked. _'I think we can both agree she's exactly like you?'_

' _No, I'm pretty sure she's more like you,'_ Kara argued.

"I'll be done with high school for the end of the year," Kara said. "It's a bit slower than I wanted to do, and the teachers are holding me back from working too fast."

Harry smiled and reached over to get something to eat. It all smelled really good. Eliza surveyed him for his feedback.

"I know they just don't want you to burn yourself out," Harry said.

"How don't you burn yourself out?" Kara asked. "I mean you do more than a lot of people do…and you're pretty fine."

Harry chuckled at her frank commentary. His eyes locked onto the younger version of his Alpha and took a couple of seconds to smile.

"A lot of practice and a little bit more luck," Harry said. "It's really hard to explain sometimes. And you're doing pretty well considering….well…"

Kara frowned and wondered what Harry was going to say. It just annoyed her to slow herself down for the benefit of not going too fast. Her mother was the same way, and her aunt was the same way as well. Her intellect wasn't quite twelfth level intellect, but it really was pretty close.

"Eliza, this tastes good," Harry said. "You're going to have to tell me how you made it."

"Oh, well…it's just mostly trial and error," Eliza said. "Cooking is like science, you have to know how to master the variables to get it right…come to think of it, a lot of things are like science….like parenting."

Harry almost cracked into a smile. Eliza's gaze turned towards her middle daughter.

"Have you heard from your sister lately?" Eliza asked.

"Carol?" Alex asked.

Eliza almost frowned at Alex's flippant little comment. It was obvious her daughter was hiding something. A mother always knew these things.

"Yes, Carol," Eliza said. "You told me she told you she would be back from her mission in six weeks, and it's been close to four or five months."

Alex sighed. She was uncomfortable even with her boyfriend's tight grip fastened around her hand underneath the table. She took a moment and almost wilted underneath the mother glare of Eliza Danvers.

"You know how Carol's work is….well neither of us know completely, because it's highly classified, and she's done a little bit of everything," Alex said. "Carol's the one of us where you didn't have to worry about her coming home after midnight. She's the good kid."

Kara snorted into her hand. Eliza gave her one of those looks.

"It's just….I worry a lot, with you girls sometimes," Eliza said. "You're high spirited, and high strung, and I know I shouldn't worry….."

"You've raised three remarkable daughters," Harry said. "And I'm sure they were going to live up to your expectations, in every way. Including in ways you didn't want to."

Eliza responded with a smile. She figured Harry had a pretty good grasp on what was going on.

"So, how are you doing at work?" Eliza asked Alex.

"You know me, it's been just nothing…too exciting," Alex said. "I've just been keeping busy, waiting for the next big thing to happen."

Harry knew from what Alex told her, Eliza had no idea about her double life at the DEO. Or, rather Alex had decided it would not be the best thing to tell Eliza. Harry thought it was her opinion. Regardless though, the topic at the table steered away from these rather dangerous waters.

* * *

 

Carol Danvers stepped into the prison. It was a bad idea to leave someone they had been entrusted with so vulnerable. She tried to keep telling herself Sinestra knew what she was doing. Katma and Carol slipped down one way, while Sinestra went the other way.

"Do you have the slightest idea what her intentions are?" Carol asked.

"With Sinestra, it's just best to go with the flow and see what happens," Katma said. "She's going to march to her own beat."

Sinestra turned around the corner and almost ran into the other three Green Lanterns. Carol almost jumped up and turned to Sinestra. The Green Lantern leader's eyes widened.

"There's been a change of plans, go, get the prisoner, and get out," Sinestra said. "I'll be right behind her."

Carol thought there was no room for argument in her voice. The Green Lantern scurried down the hallway with Katma following behind her. A wave of hopelessness spread over Carol's body when she reached the end of the hallway.

So weak, Carol couldn't even begin to describe how this weakness felt. Her knees began to buckle underneath her. Carol dropped down the ground and landed down. She pushed up and collapsed down. Another breath spread through her body. Carol scratched and pulled herself off of the ground on her belly.

"No, I can't be weak," Carol said. "Must be strong, must be….just keep going."

Katma dropped down on her knees before Carol. The two Green Lanterns turned towards Ilana. She sat in the cell and peered down at both of them with a frown.

"If this is a rescue, it needs more work," Ilana said.

Sinestra staggered back and tried to put up an energy shield. The guards rushed them. She looked over her shoulder and noticed both Carol and Katman down on the ground. They sucked in air and struggled to keep their heads up.

' _Allow the distress signal to have reached through,'_ Sinestra thought. _'Let it have reached through. If it wasn't, I don't know what to do now.'_

Myglom stepped into the picture. He turned a staff over and the yellow energy flickered. It dropped all three Green Lanterns to the ground. They shuddered and looked as weak as kittens.

"Well, look what we have here," Myglom said. "Three more guests who will be staying for dinner."

Carol tried to stand up to engage the creatures. It was a struggle, but she made it to her feet. She launched herself at the spider aliens and nailed one of them as hard as she could. One of them restrained her with a blast of super strong silk and dropped her down to the ground.

"Sinestra, I expected better of you," Myglom said. "I thought you knew the rules of the game. I thought you weren't going to double cross me like the rest of them did….but I can see you're nothing….nothing but another puppet of the Guardians of Oa."

Sinestra allowed this slight to bounce off her, staring at the alien spider warden with more contempt than ever before.

"You don't understand what's going on here," Sinestra said.

"I understand my people are receiving resources to mine for the element which is our life blood," Myglom said. "And you intend to take it away from it."

Myglom pulled one of the crystals from the wall and hovered it over Sinestra.

"It's quite the paradox, isn't it?" Myglom asked. "The very thing which gives us life blood is going to cause the decimation of the Green Lanterns. And did you really think I wouldn't see through your plot? Sending a Trojan prisoner in her as a distraction? You must think of me as a fool."

"Making a deal with Tragg, you've given me sufficient evidence to believe so," Sinestra said.

Myglom cleared his throat. He would need a moment to figure out whether or not he would want to consume these interlopers, torture them, or put them to work.

Something shifted in the ground underneath them. He broke out into a wicked smile. The prisoners must have struck the paydirt.

"Bring them to a cell," Myglom said. "I'll oversee them lifting it up."

* * *

 

Kara and Alex sat around while Eliza pulled Harry aside for a conversation after dinner.

"I have to admit, there's something I find compelling about you," Eliza said. "And I'm sure there are a lot of women who would agree with me….there's just….it's hard to explain."

Harry smiled. A lot of his girls tried to figure out ways to figure him out. He just sat back and allowed them to try and work with their theories for lack of a better term. It was extremely interesting to see what they could come up with it.

"Well, I'm certain a brilliant scientist like yourself could figure something out, couldn't you?" Harry asked her.

Eliza smiled when she leaned closer towards Harry. Her smile grew in prominence every second away.

"Well, I think I could give it my best shot," Eliza said. "There's this quality about you which draws women to you, like bees to honey. You have some kind of aura about you, in a good way. And you're not the type to abuse it, even though you have pretty much every cause to do so."

Harry smiled. Talk about hitting the nail on the head. She hit it with some room to spare.

"The best of the best," Harry said.

"Of course," Eliza said. "There are many women out there who would like a piece of you, and only a select number of them would attract your interest. Still, they must have some qualities if they see something special in the likes of you."

Eliza's blue eyes met Harry's green eyes for a long and lingering moment. No matter how much she tried and focused on the brilliance of what he was saying, there was just something about those eyes which both drew her in and enraptured her.

"It's a pack," Eliza said. "And you're the Alpha….and many more women are attracted to your strength. It's a never ending circle….so you would have to put some limitations on yourself."

"Yes," Harry said.

Eliza took in a deep size. She could still get lost in those eyes. The older woman prided herself on a fair amount of self-control. Said self-control had been pushed to the limits in the face of those dazzling and brilliant eyes which shined before her.

"It makes sense when you really think about it," Eliza said after a long moment. "Alex and Kara have been drawn to you….and Carol I'm certain would have been as equally taken by you if she was here."

Harry had no doubt about it. He could see Eliza moving around in a roundabout way to some kind of conclusion. He reached closer towards her and touched a hand to her shoulder.

"How about you?" Harry asked.

Eliza drew in her breath in a sigh. She turned closer towards Harry and took the younger man's hand into hers.

"My husband died last year, as Alex might have told you," Eliza said. "It's been….a rather trying year all things considered."

Harry could feel her loss, and she also was doing a remarkable job in trying to keep it together.

"Yes, and I'm sorry," Harry said.

"Yes, well….life does give you interesting challenges and there's a reason why when one door shuts, another opens," Eliza said. She seemed half distracted with her thoughts as she contemplated what needed to be said next. "And I've been spending a fair amount of time trying to consider the mysteries of the universe…and I'd like to take a greater crack at them."

Harry could see Eliza's attempts to avert answering the question. On second thought, maybe she did not divert answering the question. Maybe she answered it a lot better than Harry thought she did.

Alex and Kara were on the couch. Kara touched her hand towards Alex's shoulder to get her older sister's attention.

"Don't look now, but Eliza might be trying to steal your boyfriend," Kara said.

Alex smiled. She felt a tiny amount of smug superiority knowing something Kara did not know, or at least so it seemed.

"Actually, come to think of it, it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world," Kara said. "I might want to take a crack at him myself."

Alex thought her sister had to be joking, but she frowned.

"Kara, you're a bit too young for that," Alex said. Kara responded by sticking her tongue out.

Kara turned herself towards the conversation. The more she watched it, the more enraptured she had become.

"There is something special about him, though, isn't he?" Alex asked. "I think Mom's figured that out big time, and….well I think I've figured it out as well."

"Bit late to the party, aren't you?" Kara asked. She could see Harry glance at them and catch Alex looking at them.

Alex raised her eyebrow at Harry when looking at the interplay between himself and her mother.

' _So, are we going to have to have the talk with her soon?'_ Faora asked. _'You know the one.'_

' _Given she's about ready to come head long into bond territory, there's a pretty good chance we might,'_ Karen thought.

Harry would have to consider it. He locked eyes with Alex. While he ended up giving her a bit of a heads up earlier, a more detailed version would be good. And it was best digested after a night on the town if Harry had to say so himself.

* * *

 

Falcone departed because he had some early morning meanings. Thorne told Cobblepot when he called him up, he wanted the man to stay behind so they could discuss some business.

"If you think you're going to convince me to sell out my partner, I'm afraid you're just wasting your breath, Rupert," Cobblepot said.

Thorne sighed. Cobblepot's temper had always been his undoing. He would have to be delicate with how he phrase this next.

"No, we've said all we could about that situation," Thorne said. "All we can do now is play it by ear and see where it leads us."

Cobblepot took a second to digest this bit of interesting information. He could see Thorne rustle through his bag underneath the table and pull out some documents.

"Until Sionis went down the rabbit hole, I had been talking to him about what to do with Zeus's old headquarters," Thorne said. "It's just been lingering there, collecting dust, and it is pretty much not of use to anyone. He may have mentioned this."

Cobblepot recalled Sionis mentioning it in their discussions. He figured Thorne was down to business.

"Yes, and I do have some questions," Cobblepot said. "Namely, why would you hand me the headquarters?"

"Well, I'm willing to sell you the headquarters for a fee," Thorne said. "It doesn't fit it my business holdings, I'm afraid."

Many questions raised in the back of Cobblepot's mind. He would have liked to have answers, although he just settled for a crisp and casual nod. The papers slipped in his line of sight. He took the folder and opened it up. Not only were the paperwork to own the building in order.

"Zeus will not be getting out of the Arkham wing at Blackgate for a very long time, given his psychotic break," Thorne said. He took a long drink of wine. "I figured this could be the olive branch to potentially strengthen our partnership. After all, a business deal could be a boon for both of our sides."

' _So, it comes to this,'_ Cobblepot thought. _'He wants something. I'm not surprised. Let's see what he has to offer me.'_

Cobblepot took a moment to look through the papers. His eyes fixed on them. Seconds later, he directed them all the way up to Thorne.

"And what do you want out of this deal, my friend?" Cobblepot asked.

"Other than the fee you will pay for purchasing Zeus's old holdings?" Thorne asked. "I want a truce between both your organization and my commission. No one from the commission tries to impose on your territory, and you don't impose on anyone from the commission's territory."

Cobblepot began to see where he was coming from. The Commission could be very powerful allies, and not have as much blowback as him aligning with the Roman. Given the Roman considered him to be less prominent than a freak, Cobblepot had a very sour taste in his mouth regarding the man.

"A truce?" Cobblepot asked.

"Yes, and I feel it would be best for both of us," Thorne said. "And, you won't get such a deal with Falcone. We built a lot while he was incapacitated and Thorne was in prison."

Cobblepot heard the implications in Thorne's voice. What they built, the Roman intended to take a way. A long frown spread over the face of Oswald Cobblepot. His eyes continued to lock forward towards him.

"You saw the way the Roman looked at you, didn't you, my boy?" Thorne asked.

Cobblepot frowned and nodded at Thorne.

"He seemed to think of me as someone he had to swallow a lot of pride to deal with," Cobblepot said. "He sees what my father did…and he thinks I'll destroy all of Gotham City."

"I can confirm he has this attitude towards you," Thorne said. "He is afraid of the potential you might have. You could take him down….and I think it would be best for business if I worked with you."

"You'd go behind his back?" Cobblepot asked.

Cobblepot wondered if Thorne alienated Falcone for a good reason.

' _It's likely he's playing all of the sides for his own benefits,'_ Cobblepot thought. _'I'll play his game though, because I'll be able to reap some kind of benefits.'_

Thorne smiled. The best way to capture a penguin was with a fish and he pretty much handed him the biggest fish in all of Gotham, Carmine Falcone. Thorne knew his Commission could not thrive with the Roman in the way.

"I don't expect your answer tonight," Thorne said. "Mull it over and think about what's best for business. Then get back to me. It's all I ask."

Cobblepot had a lot to think about. The next couple of plays could change the face of Gotham City. He needed to make the right ones or everything could go tits up in all of the worst ways possible.

* * *

 

The GCPD officers followed a car which rolled down a lonely road in Gotham City. They noticed some out of state tags on it, which signaled a red flag.

"Out of the car," one of the cops said. He rapped on the side of the car. "Hey, are you deaf….out of the car?"

The car opened up and a rather unremarkable looking man with black hair and a mustache exited. The two cops smiled.

"Is there a problem, officer?" the man asked in a low voice.

"I don't like your tone."

The man with the suitcase responded with a crisp smile.

"I don't think you'd have to worry about it much longer."

The two cops made a movement to rough him up. The loud sound of a gun firing caused them to be surprised.

The gun fired at them and dropped them to the ground. Blood flowed from them when they dropped to the ground. The man clicked up the briefcase to reveal a concealed gun. He pulled out the information he dug up on Batman.

Deadshot rolled into Gotham City, and now he had his target, he would not let him out of his sights. It was time to become fifty million dollars richer.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 20** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Drama in Gotham City organized crime continues, and Deadshot rolls into town. When it rains and it pours._

_Also, the Danvers family all play a huge role in this chapter, in different ways._

_Until Wednesday._


	208. With a Bullet Part One

_Chapter of the Week Voting is On the Blog. Vote For Your Top Three.  http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/  
_

* * *

 

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eight: With a Bullet Part One.**

* * *

 

A crisp wind blew some scraps of paper over in Gotham City. The dark clouds came up over the moon and gave it maximum cloud cover. The maximum cloud cover allowed Batman to sneak in to the docks. He found his proper position back behind several stacks of crates. Katana made her way next to Batman and did not say anything. The two crime fighters waited for the targets to show up.

"Sionis has been making some deals, hasn't he?" Katana asked.

"Just stay focused," Batman said.

Katana thought he was not much for conversation under normal circumstances. Yet, he took a turn for the less chatty as of late. Ever since the bounty had been put on his head, he had been more focused and intense. Given a couple of near misses over the past week, Katana could see why. She doubted very much it would be the end of it.

Batman adjusted the sensors on the side of his cowl. He resolved to be more diligent after Katana pulled him out of the fire last night. It was some low level assassin, no one of note, but someone who intended to make a cool fifty million dollars. Early in the night, Batman ran the gauntlet of assassins, criminals, and a couple of GCPD members who took some shots at him.

Business as usual in some regards, and yet no less frustrating.

"He has been," Oracle said. "And he's making some deals with some low level mobsters….they don't even rank in Gotham's most wanted. Some low level smuggling and drug running, not even enough for the Penguin to squawk about it."

"What does Sionis have to gain?" Batman asked.

"You're the Detective, shouldn't you be figuring that out on your own?" Oracle asked. She paused for a long moment. "He's doing it, isn't he? He's giving me the Bat Glare of Doom."

"Yes," Katana said. "And here they come."

A truck with four or five men in the back with way too many tattoos and way too many pierces in their bodies, rolled on up. Katana actually did not mind the piercings, because it gave her something handy to grab on during battle.

' _And a couple of them have not mastered the complex art of pulling their pants up.'_

The door opened and a biracial man stepped out. He had scars covering his face, hands, and arms. He dressed in a white tank top with so much bling they could have seen him coming. He held a case next to his hands. One of his boys dropped from the back of the truck.

"They better not double cross us, man," the leader said.

The limo pulled up next to them. The door opened up and Black Mask's number one, along with a few of his subordinates, stepped out of the limo. Number One walked up to the leader of the gang. A frown went over his face followed by a scowl. Number One did his best impression of someone who stepped into something nasty.

"Show me the money," Number One said.

"We have it right here," the leader of the gang said.

Katana watched from her point. To call these men mobsters would be given them a very charitable definition of the word. They were street punks, a street gang, perhaps gang bangers with a few more connections.

The two sides exchanged the brief case. Number One held the brief case in his hand and opened it up. The man rifled through the slightly dirty money. Some of the bills were ripped, although they were legit. A few of them had a bit of a foul odor to them as well.

"This is only half of what we agreed on," Number One said.

"Hey, man, you'll get the other half when…you show us the goods," the gang leader said.

Number One turned to three of the men who joined them. For a second, it looked like this was going to descend into violence.

"Show them the goods."

A black briefcase had been set out in the midst of the streets. The goods they wanted had been shown. White gold shined as far as the eye could see.

"Well, looks like you boys have had a stand up deal, so we'll just…."

A loud bang caught the gang leader in the back of the head when he turned around to get the rest of the money. Blood splattered against the side of the pick up truck. Two of his boys turned towards Number One who took a step back.

The two gang members who turned their attention to Number One had been blown away as well. The members of Black Mask's gang looked nervous.

Batman, stepped out of the shadows, and grabbed one of the nearest thugs of Black Mask's gang. He hooked the man's hand behind his head, reared back the leg, and caught his adversary with a knee to the back. This attack brought the man down to his knees.

Katana watched Batman move his way forward. She jumped on it and disabled a pipe swung by one of the gangsters. Gangster against samurai ended in a very bad way.

Another gunshot and Batman just avoided being nailed with the gunshot. He noticed where the gun had been directed there. Batman stared over his shoulder and jumped up. Black Mask's goons had been nailed in the back of the head.

Batman withdrew a Batarang and flung it. The Batarang nailed something and caused another shot to fire into the air way past Batman.

The Dark Knight landed down onto the ledge and tried to slip off. Batman pulled himself all the way and looked towards the gun. The remote control device hooked to it had started to send sparks from it. Batman pulled the remote off of it. He frowned and looked it over.

"Remote controlled?" Katana asked.

"Yes," Batman said. "This was an attempt to draw me out."

Batman took a moment to look at the remote control. He removed a wire from his gauntlet and hooked it to the remote control. It took a moment for him to establish a connection with Oracle.

"I'm sending you the signal right now, trace it," Batman said.

"Well, since you asked so nicely," Oracle said.

Oracle thought she would not push the issue too much. She could have pushed it, but given the events of what happened tonight and what happened to Nightwing the other night, it was just best not to say anything. The assassins had begun to crawl out of the woodwork.

The sound of a limo screeching its tires caught Katana's attention. Katana frowned and stared at Batman.

"Let them leave," Batman said. "We have a more dangerous enemy to worry about."

If Batman was right, and he often was, these type of bullets were a trademark of one of the most deadly assassins in the world. He leaned down and picked up the bullet and frowned. The bullet clutched between his fingers.

"It's to water tower about three blocks down," Oracle said. "I'm sure though if you disabled his little remote, he's going to be long gone."

Batman was more than certain about this. He had no doubt.

* * *

 

Alex Danvers frowned when Harry had led her outside after dinner. The weather had been a bit warmer for this time of the year. The door opened and Harry walked out to face her.

"We're going to have to have a talk….."

"Yes, I know," Alex said. "About the multiple women thing….you know, until I stepped into that world, I didn't really think about it. And when I saw the looks my mother was giving you….you just can't turn it off if you want to?"

"I can turn it down when it's necessary," Harry said. "Your mother was right about the fact I have an Aura about me which drags women in. And it dragged you in."

Harry's arm wrapped around Alex's waist and pulled her closer towards him. Alex closed her eyes the second she went closer towards Harry.

"It's….if you asked me a year ago if I was going to enter a relationship with a man who was in relationships with other women, I would have said you were out of your mind," Alex said. "Now, I don't really know. There's just something about it which is pretty liberating if you know what I mean."

"I know what you mean," Harry said.

"And it's not like you don't have standards," Alex said.

Alex moved her hand towards Harry's and took it into hers. The two of them squeezed hand to hand and lingered closer together.

"I've figured….well don't really take this the wrong way," Alex said. "There's just something…different about you….something not human…you're like Kara, aren't you?"

Harry smiled. He wondered when she was going to figure it out. He actually thought it would take a bit longer than this. He leaned forward and gave her a light kiss on the lips.

"Yes," Harry said. "I'm exactly like your sister….although I was born on Earth….it's a very long story…and I'd wish to have the time to do it justice."

Alex smiled. She was pretty certain it was a pretty riveting story.

"I'll make the time to hear it, then," Alex said. "Let's talk about your Alpha Aura….and how it seems to drag in every attractive woman with a pulse."

"Other than the really elderly, women who don't take care of themselves, the asexual, and the happily married," Harry said. "Although, I've found there are a lot of marriages which are happy, but deep down, they aren't. My Aura as you called it has an ability to pick out these things deep at the soul level."

Alex thought this was getting a little bit deep. She smiled and decided to take the plunge for another question.

"So, what about lesbians?" Alex asked.

"Well, many lesbians are a bit more bisexual than they think at first," Harry said. "Not all at first, but it's just a matter of them finding the right man who fits their tastes."

"One could say the same thing about a lot of straight women as well," Alex said. "So, it seems like the entire world is your ocean and there are plenty of fish in the sea…sorry if that sounded tacky."

"Yes," Harry said. "But, I get what you're saying."

Alex smiled. She was glad Harry pretty much got what she was saying. It would make her life so much easier if he was able to get what she was saying.

"So, the real question is, have you gotten any death threats from men who claim you've stolen their woman?" Alex asked.

Harry laughed at the utter frank and casual way Alex framed this response.

"A couple here and there," Harry said. "I've also had a few drunken encounters at parties for people telling me to stay away from their sister. Not that I'm naming any names."

Alex smiled. Harry did live an interesting life. No one could take it away from him. As many question as her mother wanted to ask, Alex thought Eliza did a pretty good job in restraining herself. Alex had just as many questions to ask of Harry regarding what he was up to. She couldn't really figure out where to begin although she had her share of good ideas.

"For the record, there's a pretty good chance your mother will make a move one day," Harry said. "Just preparing you for the fact I won't say no if she does."

"And I'm sure Kara will be when she gets old enough, and Carol will be when she returns home," Alex said. "You have age limits…"

"Fourteen for magic users due to their enhanced maturity," Harry said. "Sixteen for Kryptonians, and seventeen for normal humans….granted I was a bit lax with these rules when I was under the technical age of consent….."

"Best you not worry about these things," Alex said. "And if they get a piece of you, I'm fine with it. Really I am…and you know why?"

Harry had a feeling Alex was going to tell him why. Her arms wrapped around Harry's neck and leaned towards him. A kiss pressed against his lips. Alex's tongue traveled into his mouth and started to do battle with his tongue.

"Because I got to you first," Alex said. She rested her hand on the side of Harry's face and smiled. "So, I'm not going to be too bothered if anyone else gets there next."

She leaned forward and gave Harry one more kiss. Alex could not get enough of him and the fact she could take him out in the garden with her sister potentially watching from the window inflamed her desires and got her extremely excited.

"There's something else on your mind," Harry said.

"There's a lot of things on my mind but….actually there's one other thing I want to ask you," Alex said.

She took a deep breath. Harry reached up and cupped her face to stare into her eyes.

"I want to ask you a question about Kara," Alex said. "Not my adopted sister Kara, but the Kara who was at the airbase, the older Kara. It's….well it may be a coincidence, but the two of them look like they could be related to each other….cousins…and Kara mentioned she had an aunt, in passing."

' _Aunt?'_ Kara, the older one said. _'News to me….how about you Karen?'_

' _I guess in her universe, this Kara's Alura had a sister,'_ Karen thought.

"And then there's Karen, she looks like she could be Kara's older sister, your Kara's….and this is going to get confusing," Alex said. "I figure they might be….well they might be related, or something."

"Yes, or something," Harry said. "How did you come across Kara?"

"Her ship crashed and Carol found it," Alex said. "She was pretty shell-shocked when she came here, but given her entire planet died, could you really blame her?"

Harry shook his head. He could not blame her in the slightest to be honest.

"She had been trapped into the Phantom Zone for a long time, and she didn't age a day," Alex said. "There's something which jarred her loose."

Harry wondered if one of his many Adventures Through Time caused Kara's pod to be jettisoned from dimensional limbo. The Phantom Zone crossed through many worlds, and Harry had a feeling several different dimensions could be crossed through the Phantom Zone as well.

"Your Kara, she may have traveled through the Phantom Zone, from an alternate form of Krypton," Harry said. "She's from an alternate universe…..it's hard to tell without knowing what happened….what happened to her pod?"

"That's a good question," Alex said. "My father had it hidden so the wrong kind of people didn't get their hands on it, and…..well where it was died. If my mother knows, she's not about to tell me….unless you want to sweet talk her into doing it."

Harry smiled. He just as well might. A couple of thoughts entered his mind.

"And there's also the matter of Kara's cousin….." Alex said.

Harry took out his Red Sun and brought up a picture of Claire and Lana mugging for the camera.

"One on the right," Harry said and he slipped the cell phone into Kara's hand.

"Hmm, it looks like adorkableness runs in the House of El Bloodline," Alex said. Harry raised his eyebrow and Alex smiled. "Yes, I know, it isn't a word, is it?"

Harry had a lot to think about regarding how this particular, and younger, version of Kara got here. Perhaps it happened during one of the many Cosmic shifts he encountered. The fact there was a potential tear in the Phantom Zone worried Harry though. He wondered if it brought something other than Kara here.

' _It could be something we should take a look at,'_ Faora thought.

"So, the night's still young," Harry said. "Why don't the two of us go out and get a drink?"

Alex smiled and leaned towards Harry.

"Sounds like fun," Alex said. "Let me get my purse…"

The purse flew out of Alex's opened bedroom window and landed right in front of her. She looked towards Harry who responded with a cheeky smile. She shook her head.

"Well, I guess we better get going," Alex said.

* * *

 

Carol walked down one corridor with her legs dragging behind her. The powerful woman had no idea how things could have gone tits up this fast. She was wrapped in this super strong spider silk and even she could not break free. What was worse was she had been separated from the rest of her team and now, she had no idea where they had been taken.

' _Okay, focus, got to get out of here,'_ Carol thought. _'If I can shift a little bit to the right, I may have a chance…those spikes look pretty sharp.'_

Those spikes could have impaled her with extreme prejudice if Carol wasn't so durable. She was pretty sure it could rip through the silk which contained her. She only had one shot and one thought which crossed over her mind.

' _I better make it count.'_

Carol rocked herself backwards and slammed herself back first the spikes. The spikes ripped into the silk and caused her to free herself.

"The prisoner is loose….."

Carol knocked the guard unconscious before he could raise the alarm. The Green Lantern stepped deeper into the shadows and took a deep breath. Her hands clenched together and Carol took in another breath.

She was going to need to find them and get out of here now. Ilana was on the other end of the prison, and Carol had no idea where Sinestra and Katma had been taken.

' _Need to find them, need to find them now,'_ Carol thought.

The chilling sensation spread over Carol's spinal cord. She could hear the clicking of several spider lays go to her direction. They were on her right, so Carol veered down her left. The tunnel illuminated with further yellow light.

' _Okay, it's just effecting when I use the ring, so don't use the ring,'_ Carol thought.

The ring was a part of her, not as much as Ilana's, still a part of her though. A sinister voice could be heard from halfway down the hallway.

"It matters little, she won't get far," a voice said, which sounded like gravel grinding across the sidewalk.

Myglom made his way down the hallway. Carol could feel the creepy crawler make his way closer towards her. The further she got, the more the yellow energy surrounded her.

Carol peered down the tunnel and noticed several egg sacs. The stench coming from them turned Carol's stomach. When Myglom said his children were down there, Carol only partially took it seriously. A bursting feeling of disgust came up from the pit of Carol's stomach.

"I'll use them for leverage….what was that?"

Carol's head turned a fraction of an inch to the side. She could hear screams of horror which made her on edge. A bright green energy light surrounded the hallway. It almost blinded the spider creatures.

The yellow crystals faded and then caused Carol to be at full power. Her strength, both normal strength, and the strength from the ring, flowed back into her.

Carol closed her eyes and created a giant bowling ball with her ring. She shot it down the hallway and caused the spider aliens to scurry around.

"Find out what the cause of this is, and put a stop to it!" Myglom yelled.

Carol refused to look a gift horse in the mouth. She scrambled further down the hallway. Heart raced a mile a minute, but at least something had caused her to have a second wind.

She wasn't the only one who had received a second wind. Sinestra popped from the other side of the hallway and clamped several of the spider aliens in jars. They gave a hiss. The containment fields kept them in place.

"Get the prisoner!" Sinestra yelled.

Carol did not even need to be told twice. She made her way down the hallway and reached the edge of a cell. She could see Ilana in the cell. Carol broke through the cell and motioned for Ilana to go out.

"So, we're done here, aren't we?" Ilana asked.

A hand placed on the back of Carol's shoulder. Carol spun around and noticed Katma standing right behind her.

"Relax, it's just me," Katma said. "We should find a way out of here though."

Carol relaxed a slight amount. She thought this was the best idea anyone could have had if she would be honest. The buxom blonde turned around and lead Katma and Ilana to the nearest exit.

"So, do you have any idea who is blocking the yellow energy?" Ilana asked.

"No," Carol said. "I think we'll figure that out when we're out of the prison. Don't you agree?"

Ilana answered with a solemn nod. She figured this would be the best idea all things considered. Sinestra worked over the spider aliens. Myglom in particular cowered in fear, an interesting change of pace.

"Get to the door, get to the Interceptor, it should be repaired by now!" Sinestra yelled. "I'm not done here."

Carol had not really registered this.

"I'm going to take care of this prison once and for all," Sinestra said. "I'm going to wipe out every inch of it where it stands….one of the most highly illegal uses of Omridium is the fact it's a potent explosive. All of this yellow energy will be gone."

"She's right," Ilana said. "We should go."

"Well, we'll…we'll come back around," Katma said.

"Don't bother," Sinestra said. "You have a mission. If I can, I'll find my own way off this prison planet."

Carol could see some form of obsession and mania flashing through the eyes of the Green Lantern. It terrified her if she was honest. The Green Lantern rushed off in one direction, with Katma and Ilana rushing off in another direction.

"I'll haunt you in your nightmares!" Myglom howled from the other end of the room. "None of you will get away with this….I will destroy you!"

* * *

 

Batman continued the search for the man who targeted him on his own. He had a good idea who it was and Oracle popped on through.

"Two cops were found on the side of the road, shot," Oracle said. "They're not the type of cops anyone will be shedding tears for any time soon. Still though, they have been targeted by the man. I did some more digging and….."

"The bullets are commonly used by Floyd Lawton, better known as Deadshot," Batman said.

"How….actually never mind," Oracle said. "You already knew, and yet you had me check out."

Batman paused long enough for Oracle to take it as her cue to continue. So she did, in a slightly agitated voice. She still continued though.

"So, as you do know, this Deadshot is Floyd Lawton, he's a former CIA operative," Oracle said. "He's among the best in the world of what he did. He returned from a mission and was never the same. He's called Deadshot because….."

"He never misses," Batman said. "Until tonight."

"Well, he didn't fire the gun with his own hand," Oracle said. "It was done to send a message to you and….did it work?"

One could hear a long pause of silence from the other end.

"Oh, well this just keeps getting better and better," Oracle said. "Actually, I wouldn't say it's getting better. Everything is getting more interesting though and not in a good way."

"Oracle," Batman growled.

Oracle decided to put up the transmission which had been broadcasted all over the airwaves in Gotham City into Batman's ear piece.

"He's hiding in the shadows, and he's a coward," the voice said low and crisp. "If he comes out into the light, I will let them go. For every twenty minutes, I will kill one of them. And then, if I've killed all of them, I will start shooting random civilians."

Katana stood at Batman's shoulder. Her mouth hung open for a brief second in shock.

"This is the news which just came in less than five minutes ago," Vicki Vale said. "A mysterious mercenary has taken city council members hostage. He claims he wants Batman to show up. As we have reported in the past, the Gotham City Police Department has claimed this Batman does not exist, and is simply a boogieman created by certain members of the Gotham City criminal underworld to scare their rivals. Yet, if the hostages are not rescued, they'll be killed."

"So, what are you going to do?" Katana asked.

The pause between the two of them lasted a very long time. The silence in the air turned rather sour.

"The only thing we can do."

* * *

 

Harry and Alex stepped inside the bright lights and moderately loud music of the club. Alex was not a club goer, however this club had a very strict no drugs policy and security could be a bit intimidating so people did not cause too much trouble. The drinks flowed fine and nice, and there was some good music.

"Nice place," Harry said.

"It is, if you don't get on the wrong side of security," Alex said.

Security gave them a good looking over the moment they entered the club. The moment they passed the muster, the security left the alone.

"See what I mean," Alex said. "There hasn't been any problems at this club, unlike some clubs in this area…the rash of stabbings, shootings, drug deals, you name it, it's happened….then again, this is a higher end neighborhood than possible. I brought Kara here a couple of times and you know I wouldn't have brought her here if it wasn't safe."

Harry stopped Alex's words cold with a kiss. It took a second for it to register.

"Don't worry, you've made a believer out of me," Harry said.

Alex smiled and wrapped her arm around Harry. She received a few looks from the various club goers. They were nothing more than a courtesy glare and to be honest, Harry told her this would happen. So she prepared herself for it mentally.

Her eyes shifted over to another direction over in the club. Surely this could not be who she thought it was? She sat in the shadows, submerged a little bit.

Harry smiled and made his way over towards the girl who sat behind the counter. She recognized Harry in an instant.

"Well…Ms. Blaire, fancy meeting you in these parts," Harry said.

Alison Blaire bounced up to her feet and threw her arms around Harry with a tight hug. The two of them exchanged a heated embrace. Their lips met with each other briefly and Alex walked over, almost shell-shocked. Mouth hung open when she approached them.

"Alison, this is Alex Danvers," Harry said. "Alex, this is Alison Blaire."

"You mean…the pop star, Alison Blaire," Alex said.

"Yes, the very same," Alison said with a smile directed towards the other woman. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," Alex said. She realized Alison's eyes were on her. "My…sister is a huge fan of her work so….I've heard a lot of your music."

Alison winced. She had met a few older sisters who had to listen to her music constantly thanks to the obsession of their younger sister.

"Well, if it's some of my earlier work, I apologize," Alison said with a smile. "The studios mandated a lot of what I did back then….when I hooked up with Harry, I had some more creative freedom to express who I truly am. It did broaden my fanbase though, so I can't complete too much."

"Well, a music visionary," Alex said.

Harry responded with a smile and Alison laughed. She reached in and placed her arm around Harry's shoulder.

"Harry is a man of many talents," Alison said. "As I'm sure you've found out first hand."

"Yes, I have," Alex said.

"Sorry, Alison it took so long I needed to….Alex?"

Another familiar figure showed up in the shadows. She looked beautiful, wearing a black tank top and a black leather skirt.

"Daisy….Daisy Johnson, what are you doing here?" Alex asked.

"The two of you know each other?" Harry asked. "Daisy, it's good to see you again."

Daisy managed to look Harry straight in the eye. The last time she saw Harry, she saw a lot of him. To the point where he haunted her wet dreams for months to come.

"Yes, I should have known I'd run into you again," Daisy said. She reached forward and shook his hand. Harry leaned forward and planted a kiss on her hand which sent electricity flowing through her body.

The four of them found their way over to a semi-private table in the corner of the club. Daisy sat down next to Alison and across from Alex. Alex sat down next to Harry and across from Alison.

"It's been a long time, I thought you dropped off the face of the Earth," Daisy said.

"No, I've just been busy," Alex said. "And I'm sure you are….although you're one of the last people I would see in the presence of a pop star."

Daisy responded with a smile. She hated lying to one of her oldest friends, but she didn't really too much of a choice.

"Alison hired me on as her personal assistant, and I'm also responsible for her security," Daisy said.

"Yes, Daisy was a godsend after the previous personal assistant…well she had a breakdown," Alison said. "Everything which went wrong…the studio blamed her…..and I'm so glad Harry had be set up with a different studio. Although I did retain Daisy, because she's pretty good at what she does."

"Please, Alison, you're swelling my head," Daisy said. "I'm sure it's not going to get through the door if you keep inflating it like you are."

"It's praise well-earned though," Alex said. "You've always been an overachiever, and anything you can set your mind to, you can do it."

Daisy smiled. She thought it was a good description from her. And there were a lot of things she test her mind.

"Oh, and to answer your question earlier," Alex said to Harry. "We were roommates in college…both of us had been fast-tracked. We could have taught some of our classes a lot better than our teachers."

"Yeah, and they didn't like that," Daisy said. "At all."

Harry smiled in response. Boy did he ever know this feeling. There were a lot of teachers who he met acted who acted like this.

' _Barbara knows the feeling as well,'_ Dinah thought.

' _So, how are things in Gotham City?'_ Harry asked.

' _Nothing we don't have under control,'_ Dinah thought.

Harry took himself away from the conversation.

"So, how are your mother and sisters?" Daisy asked. "I'm really sorry to hear about your father."

Daisy wondered if Alex had any idea of the fishy circumstances regarding the death of Jeremiah Danvers. She figured it was not the best thing to bring that up if Alex did not know.

"Yes, thank you," Alex said. "My mother is busy as usual. You know how she is….she never slows down, an throws herself into her work. Kara seems to be on the fast track to frustrating her teachers and getting into college at an early age…."

"You might not be related by blood, but she's certainly taken her fair share of cues from you, hasn't she?" Daisy asked.

Alex answered with a smile. Kara sure did at different times.

"And Carol's busy on one of her missions," Alex said. "You know, the top secret kind we can't really talk about in public to other people."

Daisy nodded, she knew about all of those kind of missions. Their drinks finally arrived at the table and the four of them settled in for a nice and relaxing night.

Alison turned her attention to Harry a few seconds later with a bright smile crossing over her face.

"So congratulations on your latest doctorate," Alison said. "It's…really inspiring all of the work you do."

"Now, you inspire plenty of people with all of your work as well," Harry said. "And I don't need the music, all of the charity work you do is pretty impressive. You should pat yourself on the back."

"Yes, I'd agree."

Alex might not have been the biggest fan of Alison's type of music, although she appreciated it a lot more than many in her genre. One thing she did appreciate though was the type of work she did for people and through charity. It caused a smile to simmer on Alex's face.

* * *

 

Anna Rameriez left Rupert Thorne's penthouse having been escorted by one of Thorne's men.

"Mr. Thorne wants it taken care of…and you know he'll take good care of you if he does, officer," the bodyguard said.

"Yes, I know," Anna said. "He told me himself."

"You have a very pleasant evening M'am," the bodyguard said.

He turned and walked out. Anna got into her car and started to turn the key into the ignition. The car made a whirling sound and would not start. She tried it again.

"Come on, come on!" she yelled. "COME ON!"

Yelling at a car did not make it start any faster. Anna exited the car. Thorne's man was back into the hotel and she would have to take a long walk.

She saw someone shifting in the shadows. The figure stepped into the shadows and Anna recognized who it was in an instant.

"What are you doing here?" Anna asked. "What are you doing…WAIT!"

The figure fired one gunshot at Anna. The first gunshot grazed her arm and dropped her to a knee. The second gunshot hit point on and dropped the officer to the ground.

A gloved hand pinned the folder to Anna's shoulder, along with several pictures with her in a compromising position in a hot tub with Rupert Thorne.

The Gotham City Cop Killer claimed another victim.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 23** **rd** **, 2016.**

_Harry is off on his night on the town with Alex, and some interesting revelations are made. Needless to say, Wanda's escapades on Friday the thirteenth melded several universes together slightly._

_Oh, and Deadshot is in town, and already he's taken his shot. Batman's urban legend status is in jeopardy._

_Another one bites the dust for the cop killer. They are getting more brazen._

_See you on Saturday._


	209. With a Bullet Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Nine: With a Bullet Part Two.**

* * *

 

Under most normal circumstances, Batman would have appreciated the amount of cover he had been afforded when he traveled to his destination. Under this circumstance, everything was a bit different. The situation resulted in some rather uncomfortable blind spots and the perfect spots for a sniper to take a shot at him. The fact he ran up against the clock also put Batman in a fair and precious position.

The Detective recalled his training and recalled all which needed to be done. He would need to get in and get out. Batman made his way off to the side. The back entrances were monitored. The warning on his suit indicated something was on the other side of those doors. It took only a moment before he could assess what it was.

' _Sensor alarms,'_ Batman thought. _'Going to have to play this by ear.'_

Batman thought of all of the ways to get inside. One way stuck out above all of the others. It was the one way inside where Batman doubted ever the gunman thought of. Batman could just as handily slip through the front door.

The man seemed like utter madness when you thought about it. The hostages were the problem and Batman noticed spotlights on the edge of the roof. Every now and then, the spotlights fired up and illuminated a rather large area which he would have to cross to get from Point A to Point B.

' _Going to have to take this one step at a time. Don't get lost on the way there. Just head there and get going.'_

Batman made his way behind a statue which gave him a bit more cover. Oracle's voice popped into his ear.

"I don't mean to be a backseat Bat, but he said there would only be two more minutes before he shoots the first victim," Oracle said. "So, I know you've got a plan likely and I know you're know what you're doing, but still…."

"Yes, I know what I'm doing," Batman said.

The forceful nature of his voice would send shivers down the spine of even the most hardened person. The Detective knew his point had been received. He kept walking around in a circle and noticed something in the window. Something started to blink from the window.

"Failsafes, great," Batman said.

Batman could see the gun were positioned on the other side of the window. One wrong move and the hostages would have been shut. Some extra pressure placed on Batman. The humming could be heard. Batman looked up to see Katana perched onto the look. The Samurai and the detective locked eyes with each other. Batman gave her a look which plainly stated "not yet."

"You know, you should step out of the shadows. I've known you've been there for about five minutes."

Batman stood up straight. A man stood in the shadows halfway inside. Batman took half of a step forward.

"Deadshot, I presume," Batman said.

"Yes, you presumed correct," Deadshot said. "I wouldn't have believed you exist if I didn't see you with my own two eyes. And Black Mask has given me fifty thousand reasons to step foot into Gotham City. Do you have any idea how sweet this is going to be?"

Batman stared down at him. The Dark Knight knew the wrong mood would mean the deaths of all of these hostages. He knew some of them were not the most humble of men. Many of them also were part of the corruption in Gotham City and the world would do a lot better without them.

To hand them over to Deadshot would make Batman no better than them. They had family, wives, children, mothers, fathers, who had no part of their wrong doing. They had no knowledge of the wrong doing. Batman knew they were innocent parties.

"Why don't you drop the gun and you can show me what you're really made of?" Batman asked.

"Sorry, Tex, I'm afraid I can't do that," Deadshot said. "You see, a man doesn't throw away his advantage….and now the world is going to see you….seconds before you're dropped. You're number one on my list."

Deadshot withdrew his gun and fired at Batman. Batman dodged out of the way and the bullet nailed the statue hard.

"Not bad ducking skill," Deadshot said. "I've never missed anyone…."

Batman jumped into the air and grabbed Deadshot around the throat. He slammed him down against the wall. The two men struggled against each other. Deadshot nailed Batman in the throat with an open handed palm thrust.

The Dark Knight staggered back and Deadshot tried to reclaim his gun. He noticed Batman had disappeared into the shadows.

"You're the one who is not playing fair," Deadshot said. "Maybe I should start shooting them to see if you'd come out. Unless you're just as bad as the scum you've fought."

Katana found one of the blind spots, both with Deadshot and the sensors which lead into the building. The samurai walked into the building and watched the city council members. They bent down with their hands over their faces pointed down at the ground.

"Please, if you're him…let us go," one of them said. "I'll pay you anything….just let me go…don't even worry about them."

Katana's face curled into a long frown and looked down at them. She resolved to leave him to the last. If she did not have an attack of the ethics, she would have left them freed. Katana walked behind two of the nearest woman. The woman was on the verge of tears. Katana walked over towards her.

"Just keep calm," Katana said. "And don't look towards the window when I let you out…either of them in front of you."

The woman nodded and bit down on her lip. The woman's body started to shake. The figure's blade started to cut through the ropes. The ropes snapped through and Katana moved over to the next one. She cut them free.

The sounds of battle happened outside. Katana positioned her body in front of them.

"Keep your eyes on the floor and don't shift them," Katana said. "The sensor works off of eye contact…in fact….."

The politician which begged for her to free him above all others had a strand of fabric wrapped around his eyes. Katana cupped her hand over his mouth and positioned him towards the exit. The samurai pushed him out of the door and the others followed her.

Katana looked over her shoulder and frowned. So far, so good, at least all of the hostages were out of the way. They were never meant to be killed.

' _The end justifies the mean,'_ Katana thought to herself.

Katana slipped into the shadows and tried to go after Deadshot. He disappeared and so was Batman. Just a moment ago, Katana heard them fighting and now they were gone.

* * *

 

Harry smiled and had some time to be with Alison. Daisy and Alex slipped off a bit away from them to get caught up and to have a couple of drinks with each other.

"It's really funny," Alison said. "The three of you can drink as much as you want to without a cross word. And you can hold it even."

Harry smiled. Even with his restricted powers, there was not much which gave him a buzz. He had looked far and wild and to some of the more exotic corners of the world. There was some hard alcohol out there. Most of it registered only like a slighter version of tap water.

"It isn't for any lack of trying," Harry said.

"Well, in a way," Alison said. "Still, I can't really go out in public with a bad haircut without half of the press getting on me about it."

Harry responded with a smile and reached across the table to place a hand pat on Alison. He could tell she had been working hard. He figured it would be a good thing to buy her a drink.

"My latest tour has ended, so I'm break until after the first of the year, actually, until about February," Alison said. "And I'm sure it will be bigger than any…got a couple of autograph signing dates before them, but it's good bad. And some charity work as well."

"No one can accuse you of coasting on your fame," Harry said. "So, is there anything big coming down the pike you need my help with?"

"Not yet," Alison said. "I'm thinking about working on a doctorate….but that's a long time coming. It's going to be hard though to balance."

Harry poured a drink and smiled. He tipped it back and looked at Alison.

"It's not a balance everyone can have," Harry said. He took a long drink and offered Alison one. "Go ahead, one drink won't hurt."

Alison took a long drink and smiled when looking at Harry. She tried and figure out where she wanted to go now and bouncing ideas off of Harry looked to be the best idea she could have at least right about now.

"I will say this not to discourage you," Harry said. "Rather though to just give you the heads up with what's to come. And I appreciate you doing the best to better yourself."

Alison smiled. From Harry she appreciated the sentiment. He always gave the girls the support which they needed to excel.

"Think about what's best to you to follow your dreams," Harry said. "It isn't the worst idea to have some kind of fallout plan in case the pop music thing doesn't go through."

Alison smiled. She pretty much got the feedback she wanted.

"I haven't made up my mind," Alison said. "I don't see why I can't have the best of both worlds though, have something real to fall back on, while doing the music for my enjoyment and have a few shows a year for charity purposes."

Harry smiled and looked into her bright blue eyes. He wished more people had their heads on straight. A lot of young teenage pop stars fell down a rabbit hole, in many senses of the world. Alison was the exception to the rule and Harry hoped to guide her. She would be a great role model for many other girls to follow their dreams.

Alex smiled and pulled herself away from half listening to the conversation. She met Daisy's eye and Daisy pulled herself away from looking at Harry.

"He really is something, isn't he?" Alex asked.

"Yes, he's really something," Daisy said. "I don't know what it is about him but….."

"Well, if you've listened to my mother, it's because he has some kind of Alpha Aura," Alex said. "It draws women…and he's said he draws the best and the brightest to him….let's face it, you don't really want some ditz who can't take care of themselves there."

"Hmm, the very best huh?" Daisy asked.

"Are you interested?" Alex asked.

Daisy turned over towards Alex and raised her eyebrow. She gave her friend one of the most obvious "are you serious" type of looks. Alex smiled and looked back at Daisy with a wide grin on her face.

"Well, isn't it obvious?" Daisy asked. "Yes, I'm interested in him. Who wouldn't be interested in him? I mean it, he's just….well….he's….."

"He invades your dreams and in a nice way, doesn't he?" Alex asked.

Daisy smiled. Ever since she got a front row seat on Harry and Alison many months back, Daisy replayed the scene in her head numerous times. She used it for purposes of pleasure a couple of times. Daisy imagined herself in Alison's place. In those dreams, she begged for Harry to take her from every single angle. And Harry obliged her. The thought of this made Daisy in desperate need of a change of panties.

"Hey," Alex said and she snapped her fingers.

"Sorry, just thinking about Harry," Daisy said, in a half distracted voice.

"Oh, I bet you were," Alex said. "And for the record, I don't blame you. I took the shot before others could jump the line."

Alex had been reminded if Carol was here, she would have gotten a piece of Harry. A really big piece as it turned out if she was honest. Her lips curled into a further smile.

"I beat Carol to the punch with something, and you know I'm never going to let anyone forget that," Alex said.

Daisy laughed. She thought the competitive fire between the Danvers sisters would be scary sometimes. It allowed them to be the very best they could be and Daisy expected it.

"Still, do you think I should go for it?" Daisy asked.

Alex corked her eyebrow with one of those long and cross looks directed towards her friend.

"You really want me to answer this?" Alex asked. "You seriously want me to answer this don't you? Completely legit you want me to answer this? With zero bullshit?"

"Yes, Alex, with zero bullshit," Daisy said.

"I'd question your sanity if you didn't go for it," Alex said.

Daisy swore Alex pinched her on the ass underneath the table. If she did, her hands were back on the table in a flash of light. Daisy watched her friend for any forward and uncertain movement. Alex took the drink and tipped it back with a frown on her face.

' _I swear, she can be something else sometimes,'_ Daisy thought. _'Something good a lot of the time though. She has some pretty quick hands. I'll give her that much.'_

"That was your cue to go for it," Alex said. "You have nothing to lose and something really big to gain."

Daisy smiled and got up to her feet. She downed a few more drinks than she thought. The young woman bounded over, a bit tipsy and almost fell into the arms of Harry Potter. Harry caught her before she fell into them.

"Hey, Harry!" Daisy yelled in a chipper voice. Her entire body shook the moment Harry held her up.

"Daisy," Harry said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Daisy said. Her arms wrapped around his waist and dipped a little bit lower. At least until Harry returned the favor and pulled her in tight. "It's been a while…and I was wonder, if I could have this dance."

' _Dance, is that what they're calling it now?'_ Amanda asked.

Harry smiled and wrapped his arms around Daisy's waist to pull her in close. He grabbed her and held up the girl.

"I would be honored," Harry said. "Do you think you can stand up or are you about to fall over on your own?"

Daisy had no idea what Harry was implying. Her hand wrapped around Harry's bicep and held him up. Her hands skimmed over his body.

Harry caught glimpse of Alex's face over Daisy's shoulder. A rather wicked grin spread over the face of the girl and Harry could tell she had something planned. He snuck a look at Alison as well, who doubled over into a fit of insane laughter.

* * *

 

Sinestra learned all about sacrifice a long time ago. She hated the term "greater good" for the simple fact of how many people misused it and misapplied. Yet, she could not think of a better way to describe what this sacrifice was going to amount to.

Like it or not, Sinestra had a plan. She watched when they made their way to the edge. Myglom had been pinned down on the ground.

"You told me I wouldn't get away with this," Sinestra said. She leaned down into the face of the foul spider. "It seems to me you're mistaken. I can get away with this, and I have gotten away with this."

"I've done you a service, and the Guardians a service," Myglom said. "All of these monsters are worth is hard labor and quick meals."

Sinistra shifted a Lantern construct into a drill and pointed it over the top of Myglom's head. It flashed over the top of the monster's head. He continued to look back at Sinestra with little fear dancing through his face.

"If you're going to do it, then do it," Myglom said. "Kill me."

A long moment paused. Sinestra had to take the step of killing a prisoner. She had learned from a couple of unsavory people the best ways to make it look like an accident. It had not been more than a time or two where she had to deliver the ultimate punishment for her adversaries.

"Let's face it," Myglom said. "You have it in you. The darkness is buried deep within those eyes…you'd like to deliver fear as much as I do. And you like to make them scream in terror. Their screams turn you on as much as they do to me."

Sinestra produced a large chunk of the metal. All she would have to do is drive the drill through it through this disgusting creature's skull.

"Do it, then," Myglom said.

Sinestra hated being rushed. This was a well done science. Each step was more important than the last. She lined up the metal on the other side of the drill.

"I'd say this is an honor, but let's not delude myself," Sinestra said. "I'm sure your buyers are going to be disappointed when you've gone down with the ship.

Myglom shifted himself off to the side. Sinestra turned the drill around and lowered it over the top of him.

"I will allow you a few more seconds to breath," Sinestra said. "It's far more than your kind deserves. It's far more than you even need."

Myglom's breath had left his body in a raspy tone. He knew she would do it. The other Lanterns would not do it.

"They've had plenty of time to leave," Sinestra said. "This can't be put in the hands of anyone else."

Sinestra brought the drill construct down onto the metal. The loud feedback sound almost dropped her to the ground in response. The metal started to vibrate and released a kinetic charge which blew through the wall and shattered all of the crystals.

A green hand shot out and grabbed Sinestra the second she collapsed. The yellow dust entered her lungs before she could really register what happened. The dust put her into a fitful state of being unconscious and dragged her off into the distance.

Sinestra passed out just before she could see who pulled her out of harm's way. The last thing her mind registered before the woman entered a nice state of being unconscious was a loud explosion echoing all around her. The prison blew into smithereens.

Both the metal and the yellow energy had been destroyed. Sinestra blacked out all of the way.

* * *

 

Batman averted the hostage crisis and now he had no choice other than to continue the hunt against Deadshot. The Detective stuck to the shadows without a word and knew what was on the line. He resolved to find Deadshot before he added more hostages to his already massive list of them.

' _Have to find him,'_ Batman thought.

Batman turned over his shoulder and so far nothing. The dark Gotham City night allowed him cover, and allowed the same cover for Deadshot. He heightened the sensors of his cowl. The moment the gun would be pointed to him, Batman would have a chance to turn around and get away from it.

' _I have to hurry,'_ Batman thought. _'I only have seconds before it would hit.'_

Nothing like dealing with a small amount of pressure. Batman stood up tall as he could and listened for any sign of a gun going off. Nothing happened just yet. Batman focused a little bit more on the gun.

"Just so you know, the hostages have been liberated," Katana said. "And as for you?"

"I'm not out of the woods yet," Batman said.

Gotham City was not out of the woods just yet until he found Deadshot. Batman turned around and looked from right side to the next. So far, nothing regarding Deadshot. No news was in fact the worst news in a case like this.

A gun fired in the distance. Batman turned his head and took the bullet in the side of the shoulder. The bone almost shattered despite the fact the armor deflected most of the shot. Batman's breath knocked out of his body and he staggered a fraction of an inch to the side. Batman placed his hand down onto the wall and held it up. A second gunshot had been ducked and the bullet impacted into the concrete wall.

Deadshot lowered himself down and started to regard Batman as if he was some kind of curiosity. A curious frown spread over Deadshot's face.

"You're tough, normally one of these is enough to put someone down for a dirt nap," Deadshot said. He watched Batman drop to his knees.

Deadshot's arm extended forward with the gun pointed at the side of Batman's head. All he had to do was press the trigger and a killshot would have been delivered.

"I'd tell you to say your prayers, but they're going to do you no good where I'm sending you, Batman."

Batman sprung all the way up and caught Deadshot with a punch which rocked him. Deadshot tried to turn his arm. Batman grabbed the arm and held onto it. Batman jumped up, did a roll, and tried to throw Deadshot in a way where his shoulder could have been dislocated.

Deadshot groaned the second he hit the ground. His arm hung off by the side next to him. The mercenary turned around and Batman went for a punch. Deadshot raised his hands to block the punch. Another punch had been blocked and Deadshot grabbed Batman's arm before he turned him around.

Batman flipped back onto his feet. Deadshot tried to reclaim his gun. Batman shot a grapnel out and latched onto the gun. The resulting force caused Deadshot to stumble around and run head long into one Batman punch. The mercenary had been taken down.

"And this is far as you go!"

Batman turned his attention around to three members of Gotham City's SWAT. All of them had riot gear and one of them already approached Batman. While their faces were covered with helmets, Batman could tell they were after the same thing every other two bit thug in Gotham City were after.

The nearest SWAT member dove towards Batman and attempted to kick his head off. Batman stepped to the side to dodge it. The man flipped over Batman's head before he could turn around. Blinding punches fired to Batman's body. The vast majority of them he had been forced to dodge one hundred percent of the way.

Batman used the quickness of his adversary against him to grab his legs and trip him up. The figure flipped down onto the ground and Batman dove on top of him. A huge forearm smash cracked his enemy down across the face. More forearms rattled this enemy and stunned him. Batman stepped back to survey his handwork when this enemy rose to his feet.

The larger of the three SWAT officers dove at Batman. His beefy punch nailed Batman the first time. The second time he tried to nail Batman with a punch, Batman avoided it.

Batman slipped behind the SWAT guard and started to hammer him with punches. The man had been backed off.

The third SWAT Guard raised a cinderblock to try and smash over Batman's head. Batman avoided being smashed to pieces. The Detective slipped around the back and nailed his enemy in the back of the leg which caused him to fold back and go down to the ground.

Batman drew in a deep breath and looked skyward. He would need to find a way out of here.

The quicker of the three members whipped a stun gun out and attempted to drop Batman to his knees. Batman pivoted around and blocked the attack from the stun gun. The figure twisted around his attack and Batman ascended to the skies.

"After him, I'm not letting the fifty million dollars escape this easily!" the leader said.

The leader had dubbed himself the Architect of this little group, due to the fact he was the brains behind the group and did most of the heavy planning. When you looked at the combined intelligence of the other two members of this group, it really did not say a whole lot to be honest.

The second member of the group was called "The Lunatic" due to this less than unconventional way of doing things. One could say nailing Batman in the head with a cinderblock pretty much fell underneath the realm of unconventional.

The third member was the muscle of the team, the Big Dog, if they will. He moved in for the kill and did it well. He was the epitome of a sum of his parts. Without his two partners, while they would do fine, he would struggle and not get as far as he wanted.

"Keep after him, keep after him, do not let him escape."

Batman walked into an area of Gotham City with more than a sufficient amount of cover. These SWAT guards refused to give up no matter how long it took.

The Detective kept a step or two ahead of all of them. Given the situation, he would have to.

"Where are you now?" Oracle asked.

"Getting chased by the SWAT," Batman said. "After the bounty….will check back in when I lose them."

Batman jumped over the building. One of them dodged behind him. The madman of the three given how he charged Batman without any back up.

The vigilante dodged out of the way of the punch and turned around before he started to hammer his enemy in the side of the head. Each punch resounded into the distance with a solid thud and Batman kept hammering his enemy with a series of rapid fire punches. The final punch rocked the SWAT representive and dropped him down to his knees.

The other two made their way in and closed in on either end on Batman. For most people, such a proposition looked to be hopeless. For Batman, he did not do hopeless. The Detective took half of a step back and reached into the sleeve of his costume. A canister slid out and dropped onto the ground.

The instant the canister hit the ground, it released a cloud of thick and choking smoke. The SWAT guards staggered back and Batman made his move.

"Damn it, don't let him escape!"

The smoke cleared and a sewer grate had been pushed open. The guards looked down at the grave.

"He must have escaped through the sewers," The Architect said. "Well don't just stand there with your thumbs up your ass, get after him."

"Yeah, right."

The SWAT guards made their movement and prepared to chase Batman. They might have had to split the fifty million dollars between them. The person who delivered the killshot would have had the most money out all of them. It would be worth it.

Batman remained perched up on the sky and peered down. They all had managed to escape and left Batman all alone. The Detective turned himself around and disappeared into the darkness.

The moment he returned to the alley, he realized someone else slipped into the night. Deadshot disappeared without a trace.

' _Great, back to square one.'_

Batman lowered himself back and watched over to the Batmobile where Katana waited for him. They would need to move fast and the Batmobile was the best place to do so.

* * *

 

A tipsy and giggling Daisy Johnson was assisted into the luxury suite of the hotel by Harry Potter and Alex Danvers. The girl staggered and Alex helped prop Daisy against the wall when Harry went and fished for a key in his pocket.

"You overdid it a little bit tonight," Alex said.

"Hey, I thought I could…handle it," Daisy said. She staged over. "You're so pretty Alex, has anyone ever told you were really pretty? I bet Harry fucks your brains out daily….I'd like him to pin me down on the bed and fuck my brains out too."

Alex smiled at the drunken babbling. She leaned towards Daisy and hoped this little statement would sober her up, some.

"I swear, you're about as bad as holding your Alcohol as Stark is sometimes," Alex said.

"Hey!" Daisy yelled. "I'm not as back as Tori Stark is…oh god, I think I can see through time."

Alex smiled and squeezed her friend's hand in sympathy while Harry opened the door. The beautiful brunettes made their way to the door. Daisy still staggered and were precious seconds away from tipping over.

"Just keep leaning on me, and we'll make it through the night," Alex said. "I'd say this is just like college, wouldn't you agree?"

Daisy thought it would be just like college. All it was missing was Alex holding her hair back so she could hurl in the toilet. Given the general state of her, this was about ready to come.

"Just hang tight, I have something which might sober you up," Harry said.

"Is it twelve inches and rock hard?" Daisy asked with a flirty smirk. "Because, that'd sober me up in a real hurry."

Daisy tried to move in. Her ankles buckled from underneath her and she fell forward into Harry. Her breasts pressed against Harry's face.

"Oh, I'm sure you'd like that, don't you big boy?" Daisy asked. "Your face pressed up against me titties like they are, oh they're so warm I bet."

Harry smiled and reached into his bag to hand it to Daisy. Daisy took it.

"It will keep you clear of mind," Harry said.

Daisy downed the hangover cure. It had a pleasant taste to it. It also had some other side effects to be honest. Namely the side effect where she grabbed Harry and kissed the ever living daylights out of him.

Harry returned the kiss and touched his hands to Daisy's hips. He roamed all over her body.

"You know, we told your charge we'd be back down once we tucked you into bed," Alex said.

"Yes, I know," Daisy said. "Alison will find her way up here and….well things will get interesting from there, won't they?"

She ran her hands down and touched Harry's crotch. Daisy squeezed him and smiled when she felt how much it hardened.

"I can't wait to have my mouth wrapped around it, and my pussy as well," Daisy said.

Harry smiled. Daisy tried to psyche him out by stroking him through his pants. He responded by picking her up and pressing her against the wall.

Daisy could feel the bulge grind against her center. Her hips rolled out a little bit and he pushed towards her. Daisy panted every second Harry had her backed against the wall.

"Oh, you want it, don't you?" Alex asked. "Harry's going to have his fun first."

"I don't see why we both can't have fun," Daisy said with a half whine.

Daisy's protests had been silenced by a kiss. Harry pushed his tongue into her mouth and the two tangled for domination. He forced his tongue down Daisy's throat.

' _Better sit back and take it then._

Harry deepened the kiss on Daisy and his hand roamed its way up her skirt. He maneuvered around and could feel her panties on the other side.

"I'm surprised she wore any," Alex said. Her hand quested on the other side of Daisy's leg and moved her hand up her thigh.

Alex removed the zipper of Harry's pants and descended down to her knees before him. Her jacket hit the ground and allowed Alex the cover needed to worship her god. This thick throbbing hunk of manhood stuck out and Alex wanted nothing better than to push her lips around it and suck him for everything he was worth. She did so.

The hotness of Alex's mouth wrapped around Harry's cock just as the same time the hottest of Daisy's pussy. Harry's fingers probed inside her. The squishness of her pussy felt really amazing.

Daisy moaned into Harry's mouth. Her tongue pushed deeper in between Harry's lips and the two of them dueled for domination. Their tongues worked back and forth against each other. Harry's hand slipped up and down Daisy's thigh and worked between her legs.

' _This is amazing.'_

Alex sucked away at Harry's cock a few more times and allowed it to be freed from her lips.

"You know, she hasn't had anything this big inside her," Alex said. "And if you've seen some of the toys we've used in college, that's saying something."

Daisy tried to protest only for Alex to turn around and plant a kiss on her nether lips. Alex slipped a cheeky little tongue swipe into Daisy's pussy. Daisy rocked back a little bit.

"Yes, take me," Daisy said.

Harry smiled and scooped up Daisy in his arms before he marched her towards the bed. The sexy biracial woman was surprised when Harry dropped her onto the bed. Harry crawled over the top of Daisy and held her arms down. He pinned her down underneath him.

Daisy watched him as the buttons had been removed from her shirt. Her black bra poked out on the other side of her shirt. Harry unfastened the bra and released Daisy's breasts out into the wild. Every single touch against her made Daisy want to be taken and savaged by him.

"Take me, fuck me," Daisy said.

Harry smiled and positioned his head against her entrance. A couple moments of teasing was what the doctor ordered for Daisy.

Daisy enjoyed the teasing and enjoyed what happened seconds later. Harry's cock slid past her walls and plunged into her body. Every inch of his massive cock plunged into her body.

"Oh, yes!" Daisy yelled. "YES….this is everything I've ever dreamed about and more!"

"You've dreamed about this?" Harry asked. Daisy responded with a nod in response. "You, naughty, naughty, girl."

Daisy lifted her hips and allowed Harry's thick throbbing manhood to enter her. It pushed into her body. Daisy rose her hips and took more of him. Only half of it was in her and Daisy did not think this was fair.

"Give it to me," Daisy said. "Give it to me all. Take your big fucking cock and fuck my brains out."

Harry held his hands on either side of Daisy's hips and pounded into her pussy. The dark haired woman scissored her legs around his midsection.

Alex smiled and relieved herself of a pair of panties. Her pussy lips hungered for attention and knew where to get the attention. The DEO agent placed her thighs over Daisy's face and lowered herself down onto Daisy's face.

"Just like old times," Alex said. "Oh, yes, this is the best spot….lick me, eat me out!"

Daisy licked her tongue between Alex's legs. The taste started to spread down her throat. More jolts of pleasure coursed through her body. Harry's hands ran up and down her legs.

"She's going to cum," Harry said. "She enjoys being dominated, doesn't she?"

"Yes, she always has," Alex said.

A squeeze of Daisy's breast caused the dark haired woman's hips to rock all the way up against his thick rod. Alex pushed her hips up and made Daisy lick her out even more.

"Make her cum, make her cum so hard," Alex said. "Yes, Harry, that looks so hot, suck on her nice breasts. Make her cream all over your giant cock….oh yes, yes, yes!"

Harry slammed into her and bent down. His face pressed down onto Daisy's breast and sucked them hard. Each suck caused the jolts of pleasure. Harry plunged hard into Daisy's wet and hot cunt. Her walls squeezed against him and caressed his thick cock when Harry pushed himself all the way in.

"Yes, again," Harry said. "You know you like to cum, you like to cum really hard. You like to squeeze my big cock with your nice, tight, pussy, don't you?"

Daisy's entire body tensed up down around his thick cock. Harry pounded deep inside her pussy with a couple of long and powerful thrusts.

Alex looked over at Daisy with a smoldering look etched onto her face. The hot woman rode all over Daisy's face and covered it. She watched Harry's hard cock pound in and out of her.

"Fuck!" Harry said. "We're really going to rock."

Harry held Daisy's hips down firm. The vibrations coming from her pussy slid up and down on him. Harry made sure she didn't get out of order. He pumped in and out with a couple of rapid fire pumps into her.

"I bet she wants your seed," Alex said. "I bet she wants it….so bad….fill her pussy with it, Harry. Make her your cum dumpster….debase her with your seed….fill her so fucking full! It's making me cum so hard all over her face."

The sound of pussy sticking to face became even more prominent. Alex rode her all the way down and watched Harry plunge into her. Her pussy grew even hotter and more pleasured the more Harry pushed into Daisy's depths.

"She's going to get it," Harry said. "As soon as she cums, I'm going to give her the nice big load I'm sure she's been dreaming of. She going to want all of this, isn't it?"

Alex enjoyed the pleasure of Daisy moaning up against her pussy lips. She knew how much Daisy wanted this and her pussy hummed with glee. Daisy finished her eating out of Alex's hot pussy.

"Yes, I know she does," Alex said.

Harry grunted the next time Daisy's pussy clenched around his hard cock. A few more swift poundings resulted in cum bubbling up in his balls. Harry pushed into her and emptied them into her. Several pumps later resulted in Harry giving some release.

The door burst open and Alison fell into the room. The second she scrambled to her feet, Alex grabbed the pop star and pulled her near. Alison yelped when Alex looked into her face.

"Hello, honey," Alex said. "Did you enjoy the show?"

Alison opened her mouth and Alex kissed Alison before anything could be said. The two played a rousing game of tonsil hockey with each other. The sexy government agent pressed her hands on either side of the girls face.

"Look," Alex said. "You want a piece of Harry, don't you?"

"Yes," Alison said with a smile.

Alison walked over towards Harry who sat on the edge of the bed and waited for her. Alison walked towards him with a dazed smile on her face. Harry wrapped his arms around Alison's waist and pulled her in close towards him. The wet pussy rubbed against him.

The jolt of pleasure spread over Harry's cock. The young man's hard cock speared through Alison's pussy. Alison screamed and grabbed down onto Harry's shoulder.

"Feels so good," Alison said.

Alex smiled and crawled between Daisy's legs. She was hungry and a meal waited for her. It spilled on either side of Daisy's thighs. Alex spread Daisy's thighs and leaned down. A kiss pushed her hot lips down between Daisy's legs.

"My god!"

Alex grinned and returned the favor from earlier. The sweet taste and combination of Harry and Daisy was good. Alex savored each and every single taste of the dripping pussy juices. She went down hard and fast between Daisy's thighs.

"Damn, Alex, you're still insatiable!" Daisy yelled.

Alison filled her pussy with Harry's throbbing hard cock. She rode him up and down like his cock could cure cancer. Harry reached over and grabbed Alison around the waist. He spread her legs and filled her with his cock.

"Yes, more, yes, oooh, cumming!"

Harry brought his lover to an amazing peak. Alison's wet pussy clenched down onto him with another rapid fire punch. The woman's slick walls caressed around his thick tool, and pumped all the way down onto it. Harry rode out her orgasm until she collapsed on him.

Alison slid off of him. Her pussy dripped wet. Harry turned around and smiled. Alex's legs spread wide for him. Her thighs dripped with a tantalizing view. Harry only could do one thing next.

Alex devoured Daisy's pussy so much she only just noticed Harry's hard cock intruding its way between her legs. She appreciated the fact Harry took the plunge and buried his throbbing cock into her.

"Yes, yes, oh yes, ride me, ride me with your big cock!" Alex yelled.

Harry decided to oblige her. He smashed his big cock into Alex's wet cunt. Harry plunged his thick manhood into Alex's wet pussy and plowed her almost all the way inside of her.

Daisy almost woke up from her pleasure induced coma. She could get a mostly visible view of Harry pounding his cock into Alex's snatch from behind. Daisy's pussy twitched and trickled. The juices rolled down her legs with each passing moment.

"Oh my god, this is so hot," Daisy said. "Yes, so hot….mmm, yeah, so fucking hot!"

Alex thought she wasn't doing her job if Daisy was still coherent. She used every trick Daisy taught her when they were in college together.

Harry's balls pushed up against Alex. He rode her to the edge and pushed into her.

Alex's pussy walls heated up when Harry injected a nice throbbing load inside her very willing pussy. The contents from his balls fired into her with pump after pump until Alex lost all sense of herself.

Harry pulled his cock from her body and Alex rolled over. Daisy spread her legs and looked up, propped up on her elbows with a wicked grin.

"Room for a little more?" Daisy asked.

Harry smiled and took the plunge into the wet cunt before him. He noticed Alex rolling over to get some pop star pussy. He pushed his finger into Alex's dripping hot slit while he plowed Daisy.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 25** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Batman gets past Deadshot, saves the hostages, but gets ran down by the SWAT team. Yeah, day in the life of Batman._

_Harry obviously came out a bit ahead in the game of life in this chapter, but that's just my opinion._

_Until Monday._


	210. With a Bullet Part Three

_Chapter of the Week Voting Is On the Blog. Vote For Your Top Three. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/  
_

* * *

 

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ten: With a Bullet Part Three.**

* * *

 

The sunrise came up over Gotham City. The Batmobile made its way down the back roads and towards one of the many secret entrances to the Batcave. Whether or not the SWAT team had finally decided to give up this wild goose chase, Batman had no idea. Far more pressing matters reared their ugly head regarding the fact there was a skilled assassin on the loose in Gotham City, and more people would have been put in danger.

The only silver lining to this dark cloud would be, Batman figured he would have taken down the assassin and caused a little bit of a trouble for him. It would not be the end of him, not by a long shot. Still, it would give Batman an ample amount of time to regroup and figure out his next move.

The next move could be crucial. The car drove into the cave and Batman exited the car. Katana followed him a half of a step behind him. A moment of questioning flashed through her eyes. Batman turned his full and undivided attention towards the samurai.

"If you must know, I'm not hurt," Batman said. "The bullets grazed my armor…it will hold. It could use work, but it would hold."

Batman stepped over towards the work bench and sat down. He placed the bullet found at the scene of the crime for Deadshot. With any luck, he could use it to track the next move from the criminal. Where they would go from here would be anyone's guess.

"If it isn't assassins, it's some two-bit mobsters or gang members," Katana said. "And if it isn't either of them, it's the Gotham City SWAT."

"The SWAT?"

Alfred made his way down the elevator with the first aid kit. He figured it would be best to be prepared in most situations, especially this one. Batman turned his head a fraction of an inch to the right and stared down at Alfred.

"Yes, the SWAT, Alfred,' Batman said. "Branden must have gotten the word out there's a bounty on my head, and some of the members of the SWAT team decided it would be for the best if they tried to take a crack at me."

Batman hoped in time to recommend taking a shot at him would be not the best option in the entire world. Now, Batman positioned himself in front of the computer and got to work. He had a lot of information.

"Shouldn't you be more concerned by the fact the SWAT is trying to take you out, sir?" Alfred asked.

"I would be, if they were anything more than a public nuisance," Batman said. "There's a bigger problem regarding Deadshot, and the people he put in danger."

"Not to mention, your little encounter with him wasn't settled," Katana said. "He could be anyone in Gotham City. I don't suppose you have any idea who he is underneath the mask."

Batman received the information Oracle sent to him regarding Deadshot. He took a few seconds to look it over and frowned.

"More of the same," Batman said. "No one knows what he looks like. There's a few conflicting reports about his ethnicity, and when you go down that particular rabbit hole, we both know there's trouble."

To show his point, Batman placed the documents down on the table in front of Katana. Pictures of Deadshot flashed in front of her face. Some of them looked like a middle aged white man, some of looked like a middle aged black man. There were a few pictures in between.

"Uses body doubles, no doubt," Katana said.

"Yes," Batman said.

Batman removed the cowl and Alfred gasped when he saw the results underneath.

"Don't be alarmed, Alfred, it's merely a shiner," Bruce said.

"I wasn't…well I would be branded as a liar if I wasn't alarmed about that," Alfred said. "It's just, you've been running ragged….and you running from the assassins and now the SWAT has to make your life a lot less easier and everything just this much more dangerous in Gotham."

Batman thought about it every single time he walked out there. The danger of fighting crime and then the danger of not coming home, and now with a price on his head, the danger increased. The only element which allowed him some level of security was the fact there were a lot of people who still did not believe he existed. The air of mystery and myth played into his favor and put some people into a false sense of security.

The moment something brought him into the public vision, that aura would disappear. Batman knew it came close to happening tonight.

"It's not as bad as I thought it would be," Batman said. "Getting punched in the face by one of those larger SWAT members were not impressive."

"You fight crime and you fight the law in Gotham City now," Alfred said.

"One could argue about how much Branden and his men uphold the law," Batman said. "They were not adept in protecting Harvey from David Cain."

Another problem Batman noticed was the lack of information regarding David Cain. Nightwing had been away on busy this week, and Batman understood he had other concerns as well. Namely a bounty placed on his head. Batman hoped to run into David Cain and finish what they started all of those weeks back.

' _Given Lady Shiva is on the hunt for him, there may very well be a long line to wait it.'_

Batman did not settle for any rest. He walked over and started to do stretching exercises.

Tatsu looked at her partner as if he had lost his mind. Actually, she gave up on the man's sanity a fair amount of time ago. There were instances like this where Tatsu had been reminded how dedicated and insane and focus the man ended up being.

' _Not healthy combinations at all,'_ she thought. She sighed and walked towards him.

"What are we going to do next?" Tatsu asked.

"Go out there and do the same thing we do every night," Bruce said. "So are you ready?"

Tatsu responded with a nod and moved towards her partner. She tried to fire a punch towards her team mate. Bruce blocked it and returned fire with a series of rapid fire punches which knocked Tatsu back a couple of inches.

"Keep your mind on the fight and don't let it stray," Bruce said.

Tatsu returned fire with more punches. She would one day win one of these sparring sessions. A couple of times, she came rather close. He lifted determination to a new level.

' _The fine line between determination and mania,'_ she thought with a frown crossing over her face. He returned fire with more punches and she blocked more of them.

* * *

 

Alex and Harry returned back to the Danvers residence after they made sure Alison and Daisy made their way home safely. Alison had an autograph signing on Monday, and she needed to spend all of Sunday to recover from it, or rather Daisy needed to spend all of Sunday recovering from it.

"I think we might have worked them a little bit hard," Harry said.

"Never," Alex said with a smile.

Harry laughed at her tone. The two of them made their way into the gate and they picked up a beautiful dark haired woman who made her way onto the steps. She wore a black leather jacket, a white tank top, and tight leather pants which fit around the lower half of her body in a way where they could catch the eyes of any man.

Alex looked at the woman and smiled. Said woman turned to Alex and smiled when she walked towards her.

"Jessica, what are you doing here?" Alex asked.

The dark haired woman turned her attention towards Alex and flashed her with a smile.

"Hey, Alex, it's really good to see you," Jessica said.

"Harry, this is Jessica Drew," Alex said. "Alex, this is Doctor Harry Potter."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Jessica said, leaning in and shaking his hand for a brief moment.

Harry could have laughed at the nonchalant way she said it was a pleasure to meet him. He had been so used to women fawning over him, when one didn't, it was a bit jarring to him. He could tell something distracted her, otherwise it would have been more offensive than it really was.

"So, I wanted to talk to you….it's about Carol," Jessica said.

Carol and Jessica were good friends, and Alex knew she could not spin the same story regarding what Carol was up to Eliza. Her mind was starting to go about a million miles a minute to process a good way to explain this.

"What about Carol?" Alex asked. "Is it about her mission?"

Jessica's eyes locked onto Alex for a long and uncomfortable moment. The dark haired girl shifted over the glance of the other girl. Harry's hand tightened around her.

"Yes, you could say that," Jessica said. "I'm not sure if you knew this, but she left a message saying she would be back in about six weeks, maybe two months….and that was about seven months ago."

"Yes, I know, but…she hasn't told me any details about the mission," Alex said.

"Alex, it's a wonder you've been able to keep what you've been doing from your mother," Jessica said in a stern voice. "It's….well it's a wonder because you're a terrible liar."

Alex was about to protest she was not a terrible liar. She had been stopped cold and wondered if being a good liar was anything to really brag about. She decided to take in a couple of breaths to figure out where she would go next with this. Harry's grip around her arm made Alex relax a slight bit.

"So, I suppose I can tell you this, because you're in a better position to know what's going on than anyone else," Alex said.

' _Oh, it's almost painful to watch, someone being backed into a corner like this,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Then, why are you still watching it?'_ Donna asked.

' _I said almost painful, not completely painful,'_ Barbara thought. _'Just got to deal with it and roll with the punches.'_

"I want to figure this out as much as you do," Jessica said. She stepped closer towards Alex. "I know you might not know where she is now, but I think you'd have a good idea where she went."

"Yes, I do…you're not going to believe me in a million years if I told you though," Alex said.

This little response earned Alex one of the most cross glares possible. She swallowed a lump in her throat and continued to look back at Jessica. For a moment, Alex thought Jessica was to say a word.

"Alexandra," Jessica said. "I've been through a lot. There's very little I wouldn't believe."

' _Fine,'_ Alex thought to herself. _'Fair enough, I guess. This one is going to knock your socks off though.'_

"Let's face it, we both know it's a space exploration mission," Jessica said. "We both know Carol will jump on any chance to travel boldly where no one has gone before. Both of us know she won't back down from any opportunity. Am I getting warm?"

"You're burning up," Alex said. "Actually, you're pretty much on fire, I would say."

"Yes, of course I am," Jessica said without missing a beat. "And this is deeper than your average space exploration mission. This is something else, something bigger than anyone on Earth could ever imagine."

"Yes," Alex said. "Jessica….she went….she went with a group called the Green Lantern Corps. I'm not sure if you ever heard of them."

Jessica cupped her hand underneath her chin and looked thoughtful. One could see these thoughts going through her mind when she considered what Alex said.

"I've heard of someone called the Green Lantern," Jessica said. "He was part of the Justice Society of America….years ago….but I never thought he was part of a bigger picture."

Alex had no idea. If Carol ever returned home, she would have had to have a word with her regarding what happened. She hoped every night before going to bed, Carol would be fine.

' _She's the only one of us you never have to worry about,'_ Alex thought. _'She's set the standard which I have to follow. She's set the standard where I could have never followed no matter how much I've tried.'_

Alex did not mean to make these thoughts sound so bitter when they came from her.

"The Green Lanterns are deeper than one man who used a codename on Earth thirty years ago," Harry said.

Jessica almost jumped up. She had forgotten he was there, and almost had forgotten who she was talking to. Her mind had been so fixated on Carol, Jessica had blocked out everything else.

"They're an Intergalactic Peace Keeping Force," Harry said.

"Are they any good?" Jessica asked.

Harry responded with a crisp little smile. He leaned in towards Jessica.

"They're about as good as any peace keeping force is," Harry said. "About as only good as the management, if you catch my drift."

Jessica smiled. She could tell what he said. The government agent frowned when her cell phone started to buzz. With little time to spare, Jessica turned to Alex.

"We'll discuss this later, duty calls," Jessica said. "And….if you hear anything, you let me know in an instant. I don't care how busy I am…and I'll do the same for you."

"Right," Alex said. "I'll do it."

One thought crossed over Alex's mind over and over again. The two of them parted ways as Jessica put herself on the phone. Guilt had went through Alex's mind. She did not know what they could do. Harry placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Problem?" Harry asked.

"Yes, a small one," Alex said. "I've been covering this situation for too long….I think I better have a talk with my mother and tell her what's been going on."

Harry gave her a sympathetic smile and a pat on the back. Alex hated this particular look on her boyfriend's face. It reminded her of a funeral mourner and this did not put her in the best of spirits.

' _Just take a deep breath and woman up,'_ Alex thought.

* * *

 

Sinestra stirred awake. Something throbbed through her head. The most agonizing feeling in the world hit the Green Lantern. She turned towards Carol with a blurred vision through her eyes. One comment slipped from her mouth.

"I thought I told you to leave," Sinestra said.

"You're welcome for the save," Carol said. "Seriously, we thought you were gone for a moment…we'd be bringing you back to Oa to get buried with honors."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Sinestra said. "And I told you to leave me be for a reason. Was I not clear? You were putting yourself in trouble. Did you think it was a good idea"

Carol marveled at the stubbornness of this particular Green Lantern. She decided to tell her a few truths, at least what Carol thought in her mind to be truths.

"It wasn't my call," Carol said.

"Yes, it was not, my duty is to protect the interests of the Green Lantern Corps," Aya said. "And it is not withint he best interests of the Green Lantern Corps for you to survive."

Sinestra smiled. Despite the fact she was angry she had been disobeyed, it did feel rather excellent to be appreciated. The Green Lantern turned herself on the cot and sank down on the bed.

"I've overrode the yellow impurity which allowed Carol to escape, and you and Katma to recharge," Aya said. "I thought I had been too late."

"You found a way to get around the yellow impurity?" Sinestra asked.

"Yes," Aya said. "It's within you to do so as well, I'm sure. I'd imagine the Guardians of Oa would have wanted a failsafe to prevent one of their Green Lanterns from going rogue."

Sinestra answered with a simple nod. A throbbing fired across the back of her head. Difficult to figure out what ot do next.

She noticed someone else in the room. Distrust filled Sinestra's eyes the moment she locked eyes on Ilana. Ilana did not blink or back off in fear. The Red Lantern stepped closer towards her.

"If I wanted you dead, I could have slit your throat while you were at your weakest," Ilana said. "But if I killed you, you would not have been left alive with the shame of knowing you're wrong."

Sinestra thought there was a distinct difference about what this Red Lantern thought was wrong and what in reality was wrong. The Green Lantern wished she could move.

"You almost died," Katma said. "So, it would be a while before you could be up and about."

"I'll be the judge of whether or not I'll be up and about," Sinestra said.

"You should have died," Ilana said. "Everything Atrocitus said about the Green Lanterns was right. You used me as bait for your own means…."

"You're still alive, aren't you?" Sinestra asked. "I'm not about to get a morality lesson from some Red Lantern. Your right to being treated humanely expired the moment you slipped the ring on your finger."

Ilana scowled at her.

"This ring latched itself to me the moment my husband died, and Atrocitus came to me to offer the training to be strong," Ilana said. "So I would not be victimized by the Green Lanterns any more…this ring is slowly killing me."

Carol frowned. Perhaps she thought a little bit too much about this, but something about this seemed a little bit unsettling.

"Well if you're such a victim, why don't you remove the ring?" Sinestra asked. Contempt raged through her voice.

Ilana's face contorted into a scowl just as much when she looked at Sinestra. Some cruel words from their way out of her mouth.

"I can't," Ilana said. "You'll find it's grown rather attached to me…and it can't be removed….and if I don't find a power battery, it will kill me."

"A big loss," Sinestra said.

Carol frowned. She hated to admit it, but this near death experience did not improve Sinestra's deposition.

"After what you've put me through, you owe me," Ilana said. "And if I die, you'll never know what the Red Lanterns are up to and you don't know where they're hiding."

"You know what the Red Lanterns are up to?" Carol asked.

"I'm not saying I know anything," Ilana said. "And I'm not saying I don't know anything. You can't afford to lose me."

"Blackmail is your game, isn't it?" Sinestra asked.

Ilana smiled in response when she looked at Sinestra. The entire crew of the ship knew what was on the line now. They needed to play ball for now.

"I don't like this," Sinestra said.

* * *

 

Kara Danvers sensed something was wrong, the moment her adoptive mother and sister shooed her out of the room so she could have a conversation. Harry sat in the room waiting for her.

"So, do you have any idea what they're talking about?" Kara asked.

"It's important," Harry said.

"Well, yeah, I know it's important," Kara said, throwing her hands up into the air. "So, what's going on with Carol?"

Kara almost caught Harry with this particular question out of the blue. He motioned for her to come over and sit down on the couch next to him. The fourteen year old girl sat down on the couch next to him.

"It isn't my place to tell," Harry said. "Your sister is away….on very important work, and it's very top secret….."

"Oh, I see," Kara said. "Did Alex make you promise you wouldn't tell me until she had a chance to sort it out with Eliza?"

"Kara, ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies," Harry said.

' _Would that have flown with me when I was that age?'_ the older Kara asked. _'I don't remember being that naïve about life."_

' _Maybe a little bit,'_ Faora thought. This earned her a scowl.

"Fine, you've told me plenty," Kara said. "You've told me all you need to say without really saying it?"

"Which is fine," Harry said. "I have something you might find interesting."

Kara raised her eyebrow and positioned herself down next to Harry. She would have been lying if she was not the least bit curious. He pulled out his cell phone and popped up the same picture he showed to Alex earlier of Claire and Lana mugging at the camera.

"Your cousin, Clara, or Claire as she is known now," Harry said.

"Ah, she's adorable," Kara said.

"Alex told me she thinks it runs in your family," Harry said with a smile.

Kara looked at the phone and was relieved to find out her cousin was both safe and sound. This took a large weight off of the girl's shoulders like she would not believe. The fact she was in the ship for so long made her a bit agitated to be honest, missing some of the best years of her cousin's life.

"I'm just glad she's….well she's fine," Kara said. "There's a lot about what I've been through which is hard to….hard to think about. I was supposed to be sent here to watch over my cousin…but she's growing up fine and she has adoptive parents…and she's not much younger than I am."

"It doesn't mean you can't be a part of her life," Harry said. "And if nothing else, I'm sure she would like to meet you, I'm sure the two of you would get along great."

' _I'm certain the two of them would,'_ Martha thought. _'We're going to have to arrange something.'_

Kara spent the next couple of minutes delivering the most intent of intent gazes directed towards Harry's eyes. It reached the point where Harry smiled in a knowing manner. Kara flushed when she looked up at Harry.

"Sorry, you have beautiful eyes," Kara almost blurted out before she could really think about what she was saying. "And no, I'm not taking it back….you really do."

"I'm glad for the compliment," Harry said. "Thank you."

Kara took a moment to sigh and try and look towards the kitchen. She thought about using enhanced hearing to listen on through. The thought of doing so sounded like it would be a bit rude though. Harry's gaze penetrated the back of her head.

"So, what do you think they're talking about in there?" Kara asked.

"Well, you'll find out later, won't you?" Harry asked.

Kara sighed. She hated to wait, really she did. The fact they talked in such a low-key manner was promising to be honest. She hated when Eliza and Alex fought, and worse, she hated when they acted like they could not hear it. Most of the time, it was because Alex was not being attentive enough with Kara.

' _Eliza worries too much,'_ Kara thought.

Harry placed a hand on Kara's shoulder. She almost jumped up at what he did in surprise. Harry cast a smile at her.

"You're worried about Carol, aren't you?" Harry asked.

"Well, yeah, I'm worried about her," Kara said.

Kara did not know what to say from here. Carol was her oldest sister and she was the one who found Kara's bond. She wasn't around Kara as much as Alex was. Still, the two of them shared a little bit of a bond because of this.

* * *

 

Eliza waited on the other side of the table when Alex sat down in front of her. Mother's instincts told Eliza when Alex told her this was important, it likely was important for a very good reason. The two of them sat with cups of coffee on the table.

"Alex, this is about what Carol's doing, isn't it?" Eliza asked.

Alex swallowed and nodded. Blunt and to the point, well to be honest, this felt really liberating to her.

"Carol was selected by an elite peace keeping organization, not just in this world, but throughout the wider known universe," Alex said with a clear breath. "They're called the Green Lantern Corps."

Eliza took a drink of her coffee and surveyed Alex over the glass.

"I see, so she's been in space, deep in space," Eliza said. "Yes, I know about the Green Lantern Corps….your father worked for the DEO before…"

Eliza trailed off as if she said too much. Alex sat up bolt right when Eliza said this statement. She never thought these three letters would spill out of her mother's mouth, especially in this particular order.

"What's the DEO?" Alex asked, trying to fish for information.

One could see Eliza's burning gaze fallen on Alex's face. The older woman grew rather calm a second later, and did not say much of anything else.

"First she encountered the alien vessel," Eliza said, abruptly changing the subject so fast Alex's head spun. "And then she was chosen by the Green Lantern Corps….it seems like everything happens to your sister."

Alex frowned. Her mother nailed the issue right on the head. Everything did happen to Carol. Alex finally got something ahead of her sister so the moment had been cherished.

"Harry thinks we shouldn't be too concerned yet," Alex said. "RAO is also working on ways to communicate with deeper space but it's very slow going. It will take a while to get everything in order to get to space in a timely manner."

"Well, if anyone is remarkable enough to break those barriers, it's Harry Potter," Eliza said.

Alex nodded and smiled. Remarkable might not have been a word strong enough to describe Harry Potter. The next question slipped out of her mouth before she had a chance to reign herself in.

"So, when are you going to make your move!" Alex blurted out, surprising even herself with the bluntness of this question.

Eliza's gaze locked onto her daughter's. A long moment passed which the two of them stared each other down.

"This is a very personal question to ask your mother," Eliza said. "And….the answer is, I don't know. I don't want to make the wrong move, and have it be….too soon. Harry's an Alpha and it would be unwise to offend him. If I do, it would cause his entire pack to be angry at me, and this includes one of my daughters."

Alex smiled at the acknowledgement from her mother. She reached forward and gripped Eliza's hand.

"You deserve happiness," Alex said. "You've thrown yourself into your work twice is hard after….the plane crash."

Eliza frowned. Her daughter brought up the elephant in the room and now Eliza had been painfully reminded about the fact Alex was not the only one who kept secrets.

' _I wish I didn't have to keep the exact details of Jeremiah's death a secret to her,'_ Eliza thought. _'But it's better off this way, safer in fact. The less she knows, the better. Carol's already got into this line of work without any prompting, Kara is extraordinary without trying. Thankfully, Alex got her doctorate early and found her way to a normal job and also found a nice man which will offer her stability. Even if she has to share him with an army of women…which also gives her a good support network, something I wish I had when I was her age.'_

Alex looked her mother in the eyes. She hated having to lie about a lot of things, like the DEO. It turned out she had been having secrets kept from her as well. Alex was curious, but did not pry.

' _Not the first Danvers to work for the DEO in an official capacity,'_ Alex thought. _'Okay, Carol worked for them as a consultant, but that's different. This is a revelation.'_

Alex's cell phone rang a couple of seconds later. She picked it up and answered it without a single pause.

"Hello?" Alex asked.

"Hey, Alex, it's Jessica," Jessica said. "Did you just introduce me to Harry Potter earlier and I just brushed him off?"

Alex barely could keep a straight face at the horror in Jessica's voice when she asked this question.

"Yes, you kind of did, but I don't think you offended him too much," Alex said.

Jessica groaned over the phone. She was afraid of that, she really was afraid of that to be honest.

* * *

 

Rupert Thorne returned from a round of questioning with the Gotham City Police Department regarding the death of the cop killer. Thankfully one of his men found the pictures which had been pinned on her first and disposed of them before the cops could arrive because it could have been bad news otherwise.

The fact this cop killer came to his back door and took out one of the cops which was a vital asset of his made it very bad for business.

The most galling thing is very few people knew about his relationship with Anna Rameriez. Those who did, well, it would have been a bad time if they had betrayed Thorne's confidence. He hoped they would not do something so foolish.

He called this meeting between two of his most trusted allies in the Gotham City mob in Carlton Duquense and Frank Bertenelli.

"Thank you for coming tonight, gentlemen," Thorne said. "I require your feedback on a very crucial issue."

Both men directed their nods towards Thorne. He had their full and undivided attention which would be a good thing if he was honest.

"Anna Rameriez was found dead her last night," Thorne said. "The latest victim of the Gotham City cop killer. Which is a problem as you may as well have guessed because very few people knew about our relationship, it wasn't public.

The two men on the other side nodded in response.

"Sionis has lost his mind and Falcone is making deals which could set this Commission back for years to come," Thorne said. "And someone killing one of my chief allies on the outside is bad for business."

"Seems like you have a stooge on the inside, Mr. Thorne," Carlton said.

"Yes," Thorne said. He took a long drink of wine and focused his attention on both of the men before him. "There's some kind of stooge on the inside which is even worse for business."

Thorne cultivated his entire business on trust and transparency. How as he to do any of that when there was when someone was going behind his back. The cop killer had to have some contacts. It was a matter of following the paper trail back and locating who did it.

"Well, Mr. Thorne, you can count on us," Frank said.

"Yeah, we're here with you, boss," Carlton said.

"Good, I knew I could count on you boys," Thorne said. "And I appreciate the sentiments, but at the same time I need answers. Firm and clear answers."

Thorne took another long drink and surveyed both of these men over the glass.

"My business partners in New York wish to have a return on their investment," Thorne said. "And when I lose out, they lose out, and they're some very dangerous and powerful people. The kind you don't want to mess with."

"Hey, relax, Mr. Thorne," Carlton said. "We'll catch the snitch."

A thought entered Thorne's mind. Could one of these two gentlemen in this room have been double-dealing him? He would have hated to think as much. At the same time, anyone was a suspect.

' _Tread lightly,'_ he thought.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 27** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Plenty of character interaction in this chapter, with the highlight being Alex coming clean with her mother, well at least on what Carol's up to. Also Harry and Kara the younger has some character interaction, which as you know, any version of Kara having a prominent role makes things so much better._

_Rupert Thorne's foundation is showing its first cracks, and he wonders who he can trust. Can't really blame him, as this point._

_Until Wednesday._


	211. Deal with the Demon's Daughter

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eleven: Deal with the Demon's Daughter.**

* * *

 

The moment Harry Potter returned back from his trip, a feeling of dread hit him. He knew somehow and someway there were some huge problems which occurred the moment he was away from Gotham City. He sat back in the plane for a leisurely flight back and got into touch with Barbara on the other end of the bond link.

' _So, Babs, I knew you said there was nothing which demanded my instant attention when I was out of Gotham City,'_ Harry thought. _'However, I just have one of those feelings something went down .Call it a hunch, call it whatever you would like.'_

One could almost hear the sigh which came over the bond link thanks to Barbara. The redhead computer hacker sounded a bit fluster and for good reason potentially. Harry only responded with the briefest of brief smiles.

' _I suppose I can't really push anything past you, can I?'_ Barbara thought. _'Guess not, I swear, there are sometimes where you're too smart for your own good Harry. Or really anyone else's own good. Granted, I don't have a lot of room to talk, but still.'_

Barbara figured Harry would take this statement from her as a compliment. Call it a hunch or whatever, she did not know. The only thing she could figure out was he would take this insane statement from her as a compliment.

' _And now you're babbling to yourself, aren't you?'_ Barbara thought. _'Not good, not good at all, just try and focus.'_

Barbara took a long and deep breath to recollect those thoughts of her. When she was sure the thoughts had returned, she pressed back on.

' _Well, I suppose I better start from the beginning,'_ Barbara thought. _'Batman was following a deal going down from Black Mask's men against your low level thugs in Gotham City. These guys don't even rank on the database. Small time smugglers, small time crooks, just small time period.'_

' _Sounds like some real winners,'_ Harry thought. _'Go ahead, Babs continue…you were saying.'_

' _The deal was going down, and it went about as smooth as you would think most deals would go in a place like Gotham City,'_ Barbara thought. _'Tempers flared a little bit here and there, so nothing is perfect. No one is perfect after all.'_

Despite the patient nature of Harry's silence, Barbara could tell Harry was telling her in the most urgent manner possible to do her very best to get to the point. Barbara drew in a deep breath and did as he had requested.

' _Batman and Katana were about ready to do their thing, when one of the top assassins in the world, Deadshot, took shots at all of the mobsters, and attempted to take shots at Batman.'_

Harry registered this statement with a frown. One of the top assassins in the world, and this bounty had barely been on the table for two weeks. The heavy hitters began to throw down their cards. He would have to think of something to discourage them.

' _Zinda, please change course,'_ Harry thought. _'We're not going to Gotham City after all…we're going….further East.'_

Curiosity killed the cat and it almost tempted Barbara Gordon to ask a couple of crucial questions.

' _What do you mean…you won't be coming back to Gotham City?'_ Barbara thought.

' _Not for a few more days….technically I knew this was going to happen, but I didn't think it would have to be done this soon,'_ Harry thought. He reached a hand to the top of his head and brushed a lock of hair. _'I'll explain to you later…finish your report first.'_

Barbara judged this little brush off for what it was .A chance by Harry to get his thoughts together before anything else had been explained to her. Fair play, she guessed.

' _Okay,'_ Barbara thought. _'Deadshot got involved and tried to lure Batman out into the open, for reasons which make sense to him and him alone. Given Batman exposed is not the top news story in every news outlet in the world, I'm sure you can guess the plan didn't work as well as planned.'_

Harry figured this out pretty quick funnily enough. He prompted Barbara to continue with her report.

' _Deadshot was wrapped up, and then….well you're not going to like this Harry,'_ Barbara thought. _'The SWAT's involved….they want a piece of the bounty as well.'_

Harry would have liked to say this was too much of a surprise, but given the past involvement with the Gotham City SWAT, the lack of surprise was the most prominent emotion Harry displayed. The SWAT were petty annoyances compared to the other threats which challenged them.

' _Not a problem, and not a surprise,'_ Harry thought. _'Barbara, can you look me in the eye and tell me you were really surprised by this.'_

Barbara threw her hands back a moment. She made her way to the computer to check something.

' _Not to change the subject on you out of nowhere, but I've got some late breaking news you might be interested in,'_ Barbara thought. _'The Gotham City Cop Killer has struck again.'_

Harry would have been lying if this particular piece of information did not give him the least amount of interest.

' _Who was the victim this time?'_ Harry asked.

' _Anna Rameriez,'_ Barbara thought. _'She really wasn't as high end as a lot of them….although she was close with Rupert Thorne….yes in the biblical sense.'_

' _And there's a wonderful image I could have gone my entire life without thinking about,'_ Dinah thought, voicing what pretty much everyone in the bond was thinking. _'And, Harry….you're going…you're going out East for a reason, aren't you?'_

Harry responded with a swift little smile. Everything he did was done for a reason, this especially. He knew what Dinah was getting at though.

' _Don't worry, I'll tell her I said hi when I get there,'_ Harry thought. _'And if you ever wanted to take the trip out, I'm sure I can make arrangements. The influence of the dragon runs pretty deep with the League.'_

Dinah nodded. She would have liked to set aside some time to go and visit her sister. Life really gotten ahold of her and made her really busy.

' _So, you haven't told me what exactly you were up to yet, have you?'_ Barbara thought. _'Come on Harry, I'm dying to know.'_

' _Well, the plan is both equal parts simple and also a little bit insane,'_ Harry thought. _'I have a good idea it will work, but it's a calculated risk.'_

One could almost hear the gears turning inside the mind of both Barbara and Dinah. Calculated risks when Harry tried to take them had a high reward and a spectacular backfire.

' _Well with you being vague, I'm not sure if I can say whether or not this plan is utter insanity or other genius,'_ Barbara thought. _'Come on, Harry. We don't like being teased….unless there's a big bang at the end of the teasing.'_

* * *

 

Batman grunted and squashed up against the wall. Deadshot a couple of nights ago tested him to the edge of his limits. The Gotham City SWAT team following him and popping around every corner caused him to re-double his efforts and think outside of the box. The constant number of low-level petty thugs and vandals and a few low-recent assassins were business as usual for the young detective.

"I'll crush you! And the money will be mine!"

The latest challenger to throw his name into the ring wore a large black bodysuit with electrical gauntlets. Underneath the bodysuit, a hood had been pulled up and only just hid the man's face. He waved these gloves which connected with the gauntlets. They sent a charge at Batman. Batman arched back an inch to avoid the shock gloves before they put him down on his back and down for the count.

The most Batman could get from the man was he called himself the Electrocutioner and judging by the way he attacked Batman, he could see why. Every single attack brought Batman closer to the edge. The Dark Knight shifted his way out of the path of an attack.

Every moment Batman dodged his enemy's attacks, the enemy grew even more flustered. Batman put himself off to the side and stuck and moved. Those electrified gloves almost nailed him.

"Stand still!" he growled. "Stand still so I can pound you into the ground!"

Batman did the opposite of stand still. He kept moving with a duck, a dodge, and weave. Every time his enemy nailed him with an attempted punch, Batman stepped halfway out of the way. He launched himself over the top of the building and landed on the other side of the building.

' _Every ten seconds, his gloves need to charge up,'_ Batman thought. _'I can use that to my advantage and make sure he goes down for the count.'_

Batman waited for the Electrocutioner to come back after him. The gates opened the mercenary came in. He slammed the gloves down onto the ground and caused an electrified jolt to be knocked into the ground. Batman launched himself high into the air and came down onto the back of his head. This caused the mercenary to turn around and try and snatch Batman out of the air.

The Dark Knight flipped over and landed on the ground. He launched a grapnel line over the shoulder of the Electrocutioner. A thunderous round of laughter echoed through him.

"Ha, you missed!" he yelled with a pump of his fist in the air.

"No, I didn't."

Three simple words and Batman pulled over a section of scaffolding. He forced the Electrocutioner to go around to the other side to evade the flying bricks and boards and metal which threatened to squash him. His gloves fired up and the mercenary charged in one more time.

Batman braced himself for another attack. Only he did not have a chance to get off the attack when a figure swooped down from behind him. He saw Talon out of the corner of his eye go after the Electrocutioner.

"Nightwing?" the mercenary asked. "Good, I'll pound you as well…get another twenty five thousand for me…thought you were a guy though.'

Talon ignored those words. Every other criminals he heard them from, she heard them a lot. The mercenary rushed towards her. She countered his attack with a series of back flips. Those gloves fired at her. She noticed a small short in them and decided to make it an even bigger short.

' _His bodysuit protects him from the vast majority of the attacks,'_ Jaime thought. _'Good, plays into my hands a lot, doesn't it?'_

Talon would have answered this particular question in a matter of minutes. This particular enemy charged her and tried to nail her with the electrified gloves. Talon shifted out of the way and went behind the Electroctuioner.

"I told you to stand still…'

Jaime found the circuit in one of the gloves. She moved in and jammed one of the batons inside before releasing a pulse of her own. The gloves overload and launched the Electrocutioner into the air. He turned into the first ever super criminal to hit orbit and crash through the root of a Port-a-Potty.

' _Pretty shitty landing there,'_ Amanda thought. _'Sorry, I couldn't resist.'_

Batman turned his attention towards Talon. The two vigilantes stared each other down for a moment.

"I could have handled it myself," Batman said.

Talon flashed a moment of a smile at him from underneath the mask. She figured he was going to take an attitude like this. She stepped a bit closer towards the Detective.

"I know you could have handled it by yourself," Talon said. She brushed her fingers together. "And now, I helped you handle it a bit better than you would have on your own….so where's your partner in all of this?"

"We got separated," Batman said.

Blunt and to the point, Jaime thought it must have been something rather unsettling if Katana had been separated from her partner. The dark haired crime fighter drew in her breath and made a snap decision.

"We're just going to have to find her, then," Talon said.

"She's in the Gotham City subway terminal…she managed to take care of the assassin which attacked both of you," Oracle said. "She told me there's no need to bother, she handled it fine herself."

Batman thought he would have been the judge of that. As of this moment though, he could not answer due to the fact three very familiar figures approached Batman on the other end of the fence.

' _Great, them again,'_ Batman thought to himself.

Talon could heard the groan and could see why. The Gotham City SWAT guards made their way through. They were persistent, Jaime would give them that. She ran into them a couple of times a couple of nights ago and it frustrated her.

' _Well, here we go again,'_ Talon thought.

"I thought I saw them," the leader of the SWAT guard said. "You didn't believe I saw them…now we're going to take it out…seventy five million dollars is coming to the bank."

"Hopefully you didn't spend your money before you got it," Talon said.

The larger SWAT guard rushed towards Talon. She avoided the attack. The air pocket created around her showed Talon of the punch he delivered. She avoided a second punch and flipped high into the air. A large cinderblock tipped over and landed on the SWAT guard.

Talon jumped up and scaled up the half-finished building.

"Don't let either of them escape….."

One of the SWAT guards turned upside down and started to hang from the edge of the building. He kicked and squirmed out of the way. His two fellow SWAT team members scrambled in for an honest try to cut him down.

"Get me down from here!" the SWAT guard bellowed. "Don't just stand there. What am I paying you for anyway?"

The SWAT team member struggled to remove the knots. This allowed Jaime to go behind and use her baton to great effect. The larger SWAT team member toppled over onto the ground. She pushed herself out.

A sound of gunshots fired in the distance. Jaime could tell the SWAT wasn't the only people who decided to cash on some not so easy money. Talon took advantage of the distract to slip off into the shadows, with Batman doing the same.

She landed with a solid thud in the midst of the Gotham City sewer system. She knew pretty much all of the ways inside the sewer and all the ways out of the sewer. The dark haired crime fighter threw her head back and allowed a sigh to pass through her body.

' _I swear, this is complete and utter madness,'_ Jaime thought. _'Harry, I really hope this plan of yours works out well, because if it doesn't, I'm not sure what we're going to do.'_

' _That makes two of us,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm on my way there, I'll keep you posted.'_

Jaime thought she could hardly wait. She switched tactics to the other end of the headset and waited for Oracle to come back on through.

"Yes, Batman got out of there without any problems," Oracle said. "The SWAT and some mercenaries are fighting over the scraps…both of them ran when they figured both of you were gone."

Jaime slipped to the edge of the exit and vanished into the night. She hoped to meet up with Diana and hoped she did a lot better out there than she did tonight.

' _Will the long night ever end?'_ Jaime thought.

* * *

 

Sara smiled and looked towards her sparring partner with a long and focused glance. The thought kept rebounding in her mind. She could to this. The foundation she had from earlier training had been built by the training through the League of Assassins. All Sara had to do was to strengthen herself and she could beat this.

"Confidence," Nyssa said. "It looks good on you."

"This time I have you right where I want you," Sara said.

Nyssa extended her gaze down towards Sara. Sara had the most funny feeling Nyssa humored her. Regardless, Sara took a deep breath and closed her eyes. One single mantra continued to be said over and over again.

' _I can do this, I can beat her.'_

Confidence filled Sara's body when she watched the Daughter of the most dangerous man on Earth size her up with a predatory smile. Sara knew after fighting Nyssa what must go through the mind of the prey before the predator attacked her.

Sara Lance resolved to be no prey. Strong and resolved, she watched Nyssa approach her. The Daughter of the Demon charged forward for the attack.

Nyssa's attack had been overextended by a slight amount. Sara caught her arm and turned around. Nyssa flipped out of it, hooked Sara around the head and launched her onto her back. Sara landed hard onto the ground with a solid smack.

' _Yes, I can do this.'_

Sara pulled herself up to fight one more time. She arched back and ran into Nyssa. Nyssa blocked the attack. Sara came down from underneath her. Her short stature allowed her to get underneath Nyssa more easily because she did not have too far to reach.

The girl's legs had been pushed underneath her. Nyssa rolled over and Sara stepped back.

"Watch yourself," Nyssa warned her.

On cue, Nyssa grabbed onto Sara's legs and pushed her over. Sara rolled over onto the ground and watched Nyssa go towards her. The blonde haired siren avoided Nyssa's attack. She caught Nyssa's arm and dipped behind her back. Sara pushed Nyssa all the way down onto the ground and knocked her back against a stone platform.

Sara's legs wrapped around Nyssa's body and flipped her to the ground. Nyssa did a cartwheel out of the move and came back up for Sara to fire a palm thrust at her. Nyssa avoided the first palm thrust. Sara took Nyssa's legs and swept them out from underneath her.

Nyssa tried to struggle for domination. Sara had her pinned back against the ground and a predatory smile spread her face. She placed her hands up on Nyssa's shoulders and caught her arms back. Nyssa struggled against her.

"You have me," Nyssa said. "I congratulate you."

"Do, I have you?" Sara asked. "This wouldn't be the first time you came back from underneath me."

Nyssa could not help, but respond with a devious little smirk. The Demon's Daughter taught her publil well. Sara managed to keep on top of Nyssa in all ways possible and would not let her up.

The sound of a pop could be heard. Sara relaxed her grip from Nyssa while she also keeping her eyes on him. The figure crept around them.

Sara had been pulled off of Nyssa as her gaze had been directed to the top of the mountain. She turned around in surprise and had been greeted with a passionate kiss by the new arrival. The hood was still on to obscure the face. No mistake could be made who these particular sets of lips belonged to.

Nyssa pulled herself off of the ground. While it would be wise strategy to attack Sara and resume their battle, it would not be wise strategy to interrupt her beloved.

' _Besides, I must wait for my turn,'_ Nyssa thought.

Harry pulled away from Sara and smiled at her.

"It's a good thing I wasn't trying to stab you, otherwise you would have been in trouble," Harry said.

"Good thing as well," Sara said. "And I sensed you were coming….although it was a misdirection on your part…..shows that sense isn't as heightened as well."

"We'll work on it," Nyssa said. "Your reflexes and your ability to turn a person's attacks against them are getting much better. I have to say, I'm impressed."

Nyssa turned her attention towards Harry and did not have long to wait. Harry wrapped his arms around her and kissed Nyssa hard and quick. He always gave an intense kiss which brought the promise for more to come. Her toes curled and loins burned before Harry pulled away from her.

"I understand you've been having problems with bounty hunters as of late," Nyssa said.

"Understatement of the century, I think," Harry said. His lips curled into a frown and walked over.

Sara, Nyssa, and Harry walked over to a spot where they could not be disturbed. While most of them knew by now why it would be bad form to interrupt the Dragon when he conducted business, chances should not have been taken.

"The Detective seems to be attacked more that you are," Nyssa said.

Harry responded with a smile. He did hate to leave Bruce holding the bag. Not as much as he hated having his girls be in the line of fire. All parties could handle themselves.

"Dinah's alright, isn't she?" Sara asked.

"Yes, unless you count being buried in school work up to her ears as being not okay," Harry said. "She does send her regards and hopes you've been training hard."

"I hope she steps up her game when I get back," Sara said. "Whenever that is."

Sara asked Nyssa when she could return back, and Nyssa told her when the time was right. Of course, there were other circumstances working against her. The simple fact Sara would be grilled with about the whereabouts of Oliver Queen, something she did not know the slightest thing at all about.

Nyssa sensed the rather prominent agitation in her pupil's expression. The Daughter of the Demon reached in and touched Sara around the shoulders and pulled her in towards her close. The two women locked eyes with each other.

"Don't worry, Sara, it will be when the time is right," Nyssa said. "You're training is going on course. Just a little bit longer, and you'll be able to move onto the next level."

Sara hoped so. She thought the training before the League was intense and put her in a pretty good state for self defense. She learned though the League of Assassin training put her in a brand new level. Sara would have to dig down deep if she wanted to be the greatest she could. The woman knew what she needed to throw into being a huge part of the League.

"Yes, I know," Sara said. The younger Lance sister turned her full attention to Harry. "So, is there a reason you came here?"

"Yes," Harry said. "He wondered when they would all get to the point. He looked into Nyssa's eyes. "I need to have Lady Shiva hired to go after the bounty on Nightwing and Batman."

This particular statement from Harry got an interesting reaction. This caused Sara and Nyssa to both look at Harry like they questioned his sanity.

"Beloved, do you think I can have a quick word with you?" Nyssa asked. She turned towards Sara. "Sara, go rest….we will resume your training after I'm done."

Sara would have liked to hear about what Nyssa said .At the same time though, she knew better than to intrude on what was a private conversation between two powerful warriors. The younger Lance sister turned around and took a couple of quick strides to the other direction.

* * *

 

Rebecca Grayson sat in an intense and scary focus few could even master. She spread a costume out on the table. The bright green and red colors flashed against her eyes with greater prominence, and she frowned when looking over the costume. She picked up the top and looked at the "R" symbol on it with an intense glint in her eyes. A sigh passed over her lips.

"So, what are you doing?" Lyta asked.

Lyta joined Rebecca, along with Artemis, Jade, and Lois. None of them had the slightest of ideas what Rebecca intended to accomplish with this little costume building exercise. Lois in particular had one of those looks which stated whatever Rebecca tried defied all sanity.

"I'm modifying one of my old Circus Uniforms for use out in the field," Rebecca said. She touched the side of the uniform. "I think this will work….although it should be sooped up a little bit."

"I'd say bring it to Lavender, to have her take a look at it," Lyta said.

"Are you kidding?" Lois asked. "That's a hideous contrast of colors. It would make Lavender have a stroke….it makes me have a stroke."

Lois looked over the uniform with a critical and a calm eye. Every inch of it had been analyzed by her in the most calm and efficient manner possible. She wished something else would speak to her other than how ugly this uniform was.

"The pixie boots are the worst part of the costume," Lois said. "Who thought this was a good idea?"

"My mother," Rebecca said.

Lois backed up when she realized something insensitive had been said. The frosty tone in Rebecca's voice caused her blood to run more cold than it would normally under circumstances like this. Rebecca turned her back and continued to look over the costume.

"Well, then…um….they're very nice then," Lois said, sounding a bit sheepish.

Rebecca brushed off Lois's critique and just went back to mending the suit. Jade looked over her shoulder.

' _Not the type of thing I would be caught dead wearing, even for a joke,'_ Jade thought. _'I bet the sentimental value is through the roof though, so it's not something you can beat there, I guess.'_

"So, what does the R stand for?" Artemis asked.

"It stands for Rebecca, duh," Lyta said, shaking her head.

"Oh, well, if she does….go out on the field," Artemis said, stretching out the last three words as if they were the most absurd thing in the world. "She's going to have to change her name. I mean, whoever heard of someone going out on the field using their real name as their codename."

"It doesn't stand for my real name," Rebecca said. "It stands for Robin."

She took a couple of seconds to get choked up before pressing on in the most calm manner possible. Rebecca's hands shook when looking at the costume.

"My mother used to call me her little robin," Rebecca said, taking in a deep breath. "For how well I used to take flight when I was out there….in the high wire…as part of the Flying Graysons…"

Rebecca did not allow the death of her parents to really hit her so hard until now. It hit her now and it hit her hard.

Lois reached up and placed her arm around Rebecca.

"I'll be the first admit this isn't the costume I'd go for, with the bright colors and everything," Lois said. "It's a decent enough start though, and it's something which can be built on….maybe you can make it yours….even though I'm sure we're going to have to go through a little more of the training from hell."

Despite the fact Lois rambled off at the mouth a little bit, Rebecca appreciated all of her sentiments. A smile crossed over the face of the Grayson girl.

"I will make this my own," Rebecca said. "I'll talk to Lavender and to Mari, to see what they think about this costume….it might be a fashion nightmare, but…..I'm actually hoping they'd take one look the costume, get distracted, and when they're distracted, they'll get punched in the face."

"You know, that's a unique perspective to things," Jade said. "I'd wear some kind of face mask which people are thrown off by before punching them in the face."

"Yeah, Becca, it's not exactly a bad strategy," Lyta said. "Although, you know, it might be a long time before you go out in the field, because of the stunt you and Lois pulled last time."

Lois detached from Rebecca long enough to cast one of those long and burning looks towards Lyta. She had done her best to avoid bringing up what happened last time.

"Yes, I know," Rebecca said, with a grin. "Just planning through the future. After Nightwing has inspired Gotham City, I think it's a good idea for all of us to do our parts when we can."

Lyta smiled and looked at Rebecca who turned to the costume. Lois turned back to Rebecca and endeavored to bit a bit more supportive to be honest.

' _I wonder if they know the Nightwings, both of them, live underneath this roof,'_ Lyta thought.

' _If they know, they're not telling,'_ Donna chimed in. _'Or at the very least, they're in a deep level of denial, so deep….well they're practically wading in it.'_

' _And if I know both of them, they won't admit it to Harry or Jaime, they want them to ask,'_ Amanda said. _'Do I seem on the mark?'_

' _Yes, you do, Aunt Mandy, you do,'_ Lyta said.

* * *

 

Nyssa Al Ghul walked to Harry with her private quarters. During the entire trip, she did not say a word. Mostly because she wanted to make those words she did say mean something the moment they were said. The Daughter of the Demon turned around a corner and drew in a deep breath.

"I have much to ask, as you may have figured out," Nyssa said. "But, I'll cut to the chase as I know you're a very busy man….why do you want me to ask Lady Shiva to attack you?"

"There are a couple of reasons as you may have guessed," Harry said. "The most obvious reason is she is the most prolific assassin in the world. If some of the assassins see she's taken an interest in me, then they might decide to back off."

"I wouldn't underestimate the foolishness of anyone, beloved," Nyssa said.

"It's a calculated risk," Harry said. "I've lived my entire life making the most calculated of risks though. And entering Lady Shiva into the equation may seem like madness to many people."

Nyssa thought Harry was charitable. She figured Sandra would jump on the opportunity to test Harry again, in a different way. Also to keep her skills sharp against the fabled Detective would be a bonus she would be able to sink her teeth into.

"If you're certain?" Nyssa asked.

"Yes, I'm certain," Harry said. "Trust me, I know it sounds insane. Sending the League after me like this….but if anyone can keep my skills sharp, it will be them."

Nyssa smiled. She always appreciated her lover's strength and also the ability for him to keep himself sharp in the direst of situations. The young man closed the gap.

"Besides, I have a feeling Shiva is testing me normally, so it's not like this is a diversion from her regular patterns," Harry said.

"I cannot confirm nor deny anything you say," Nyssa said.

Harry moved in closer and caught Nyssa's lips with a passionate kiss. She rose her hands up and met the side of Harry's face.

"There's no need to do so," Harry said. "I already know."

Harry leaned back and slipped off Nyssa's robes to reveal every inch of her tantalizing body. Nyssa's hands did the same to Harry's garments.

Nyssa returned fire with another kiss. Her tongue quested for entrance in Harry's mouth and he conceded with her actions. The two naked bodies pressed together in an immense amount of passion. Harry leaned closer towards her and withdrew his lips with a smile.

"I wish to see if other skills of yours are still intact," Nyssa said.

Harry gave her one more kiss and guided her down on the bed. The two of them swapped their kisses in a passionate display. Neither of them gave up.

Nyssa flipped over Harry on the bed and straddled his body. One move showcased how adept Nyssa trained herself to be in the bedroom in addition to the battle field. The woman's legs wrapped around his torso and pinned Harry down on the bed.

"There's about an hour before I'll be missed," Nyssa said. "Let's make the most of this time."

Harry reached around and cupped Nyssa's ass in his hands. He pulled her closer towards him. He resolved to join her in making the most of that hour.

"Yes, after you."

Nyssa kissed down her lover's body. Each and every kiss made their way towards a certain destination. She came all the way down his body with a series of intense kisses. The kisses brushed against every inch of her lover's flesh.

"Mmm, it's as good as it ever was," Nyssa said. Her fingers started to stroke Harry through his pants and worked them down to him further. His cock sprung out and hit her in the face. "It's been way too long."

Harry deduced the statement of way too long to be too long for Nyssa. Her wet lips coated the outside of his cock with kisses. Nyssa's hot breath continued to cover his cock. She traveled around the edge and took every last inch of his veiny throbbing pole closer towards her. The Daughter of the Demon inched closer.

Nyssa's passions increased. Her lips wrapped around the edge of his throbbing pole. The demon's daughter brought the tip of his cock into her mouth. The swelling of this pinnacle of manhood made Nyssa grow more aggressive the further she went down onto him. Her nails dug into Harry's waist.

"Yes," Harry groaned. "There you go right there. Take my cock into your mouth and suck it like it's your job!"

Nyssa obliged Harry. The warmth of her mouth spread against his pole along with a full service job. Her head bobbed up and down on Harry's thick cock. Harry held onto her face and enjoyed the nice warmth around it. Her green eyes looked towards him and hands quested to squeeze his balls.

The Daughter of the Demon took Harry's heavy balls into her hand and gave them a firm squeeze. The heavy amount of cum which bubbled in them gave Nyssa a taste of what was to come. She drove down onto him mouth first in an attempt to get all of the seed she wished moments later.

"Keep this up and you're going to make me cum," Harry said with a groan. "Yes, right there, you know what I like. You know how to hit the right spots. I know you want to drink my cum up when I spill every single bit of it down your throat to the last drop. The very last drop!"

Harry punctuated these words with a thrust and a spear into Nyssa's mouth. Her throat enveloped him with a couple of rapid fire thrusts. The warmth spread around his cock made Harry ache every single step. He pushed his cock into her with a few more thrusts until Harry reached the peak.

Nyssa jammed her mouth all the way down on the edge of his pelvic bone and was careful not to miss a single drop of his gift. The contents of his balls started to swell and fire into the back of Nyssa's throat. The daughter of the demon took a full load into her throat. Every single blast of cum fired far and wide into the back of her throat. Nyssa rode Harry all the way to the edge.

"Delicious," Nyssa said. She pulled off her clothes the rest of the way to reveal her bare pussy and breasts.

Nyssa's legs spread in the most tantalizing way. The juices trickled all the way down her thighs and coated her inner core. Harry inched over towards her and touched his hands on either side of her thighs. He dove down between her pussy lips and started to eat her out.

"Yes, beloved, there's the perfect spot, right where you left it!" Nyssa yelled. "Hit me with your tongue, make me cum all over it!'

The animalistic lust spreading through Nyssa's body made her enjoy every single last thing Harry did. His tongue touched the inside of her and brought the juices from her core onto his tongue. The tongue shifted in and out and acted better than any single vibrator Nyssa encountered during her life.

Harry munched on Nyssa's pussy. His cock hardened and he could not wait to enter his wife again. Nyssa's hips pushed up and encouraged him to finish the job he started. Harry took this encouragement and went all the way down on her. His tongue extended in her and shot pleasurable bolts through her.

Nyssa thanked everything which was holy for this wonderful blessing. His tongue extended deeper inside her and hit all of the pleasure points. It prompted her to roll those hips up and meet Harry when he pushed all the way inside her with a couple of swift tongue swipes.

"I'm getting close," Nyssa said.

Harry did not slow down his efforts. He doubled them. Nyssa's pussy juices oozed and the Daughter of the Demon bucked her hips up into Harry's mouth. Harry shoved his tongue all the way inside her until more jolts of energy fired through her smoldering and dripping core.

The sheer power of his tongue brought Nyssa to the edge of nirvana. Her hips kept bucking up and down and sending more juices into Harry's mouth. Harry came all the way down on her to eat her.

Harry looked down at Nyssa with a predatory grin on his face. The Daughter of the Demon's body sized up with pleasure. The promise of what he would do to her made her really enraptured with lust. Harry edged over towards her and touched his cock head against her entrance.

"Inside," Nyssa begged him. "I need you to be inside me….deep inside me, now, please!"

Her hand tightened around Harry's bicep to encourage him to take the plunge Harry worked his cock head against her opening and plunged into her hot center. Each time Harry hit her, it sent her over the edge with pleasure and energy.

Harry almost pulled all the way out of her. The tip of his cock rested on the edge of Nyssa's dripping wet womanhood. He speared into her. She craved every moment of what he gave her. Every single touch, every single temptation. Harry pushed into her and pulled almost all the way out of her with more fluid thrusts than ever before.

"Good, you're going to cum," Harry said. He leaned all the way down and wrapped his mouth around Nyssa's neck to suckle it hard.

Pleasure racked every inch of Nyssa's body. He pushed forward into her. His cock plunged inside her and muscular chest pressed against her breasts. The Daughter of the Demon lifted her hips all the way up and allowed his cock to fill her more. The orgasm filled her up and lubricated her center to allow Harry to work his way into her a little further with each passing thrust.

Harry rode Nyssa all the way to the edge of her latest orgasm, and then another orgasm, followed by another one. Each one brought her to more passion. Lustful, energetic passion, with energy flowing through her when Harry assaulted her loins with a series of long thrusts.

"Again and again, and again," Harry said. "You can't hold back, can you?"

"NO!" Nyssa yelled. "Harder, faster, give me your seed. Fill my body up with it!"

Harry thought it would be rather rude to deny Nyssa her reward. He held onto her and lifted almost all the way up before he plowed inside the Daughter of the Demon's body. A series of thrusts brought his thick cock inside her body. Her insides stretched out on Harry's engorged pole. Every last thrust inside her brought her closer to a spectacular conclusion.

Nyssa tensed up around him. Those thick balls pushed against her entrance and brought her to another orgasm. The Daughter of the Demon wrapped her arms around Harry's waist and pulled him in. The thrusts came in hard and fast. Each time one of them hit her, Nyssa had been jarred.

"It's your turn," Nyssa said.

Harry smiled and continued his quest all over Nyssa's body. He wanted to make sure she enjoyed everything from him. Every last thrust before he buried his seed inside her. Her hips pushed all the way up and accepted his cock inside her.

"After you," Harry said.

Harry's mouth marked the side of her neck. Nyssa tightened up around her in every sense of the word. Her peak had been hit in a constant and series of rapid fire barrages. Orgasm after orgasm rocked her body and made the Daughter of the Demon crave more. Greed and lust fired through her body and made her rise up with heavier passions.

Nyssa's next orgasm opened the door for Harry. Her clenching walls milked his thick prick. Harry rose all the way out of her and plowed into her with another of quick and rapid fire thrusts. She held onto his shoulder and breathed into his ear.

"My beloved!" Nyssa moaned.

Harry pounded her all the way to the final push. Balls clenched hard and fired into her body. The first splatters of cum came and painted the inside of Nyssa's walls. Her warm pussy caressed him and coaxed every last drop of Harry's white hot seed into her.

Nyssa's entire body rose all the way up and lowered all the way down when Harry fired his seed into her. Her wet center caressed him and brought the contents of those throbbing hard balls into her body. Nyssa wrapped her arms around him and smiled in satisfaction.

The two lovers came down all the way from their mutual orgasm. Harry finished inside Nyssa and pulled out of her. He watched the Daughter of the Demon roll over on the bed and present herself with Harry. A wicked smile had passed over her lips the moment she locked eyes with Harry.

"I still have a few more minutes before I'm missed."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 30** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Harry makes a calculated move. And gets some action because of course he does. It's been a while since Nyssa has gotten some onscreen time with Harry._

_The younger girls are talking, especially about the questionable value of the canonical Robin costume. But it's more of a sentimental thing._

_The heat is on Batman, as always, but he won't give up._

_Until Saturday._


	212. Leverage Maneuverings

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twelve: Leverage Maneuverings.**

* * *

 

A small group of Gotham City Police Officers twitched with nervousness. They thought they drew the short end of the stick. Their superiors forced them to escort the prisoner, a very dangerous prisoner. She had been rather belligerent the entire time, to the point where she would not cooperate with any of their interrogation. The assassin refused to speak English and there was a sense she was mocking them behind their backs. None of them could decide exactly what she was doing one way or another.

Regardless, the members of the Gotham City Police Department made their way to the back of the van to secure it. They moved her to the high-security lockup to the Arkham wing in Blackgate prison. The drive might have been short, but the nerves both sides experienced was a level of insanity.

"I don't like this," one of the younger cops said. "I saw what she did….she looks about ready to strike….and she keeps talking about how her boss is going to break her out."

"It's been about a week," the leader of the squad said. "I think you worry so much. There's no boss. There's no problem. She's sedated…by the time she wakes up, she'll be in a cell, behind a thick wall. It will be Blackgate's problem."

The first cop swallowed the lump in his throat. He did not want to even guess how this one was going. His clammy hands clutched one over the top of the other and the man took a long breath in response. He remained calm, cool, and collected. Nothing bad was going to happen. They were ready to move out without any kind of problem.

' _What's the worst that can happen?'_ the cop thought.

The younger cop had been on the scene the same night they found this Copperhead woman and brought her in. His mentor kept telling him he was being paranoid. Just because the young man was paranoid, the paranoia did not mean people were not out to get her. This woman's eyes looked malicious even when glazed over.

' _Man, she looks like she could fuck someone up if someway gave her the chance,'_ he thought.

"Hey," the leader of the squad said. "Just face front and take a deep breath. Don't let her get into your head….it's going to be fine."

The man in the front of the van nodded. He didn't need to lose his head at the thought of really losing his head. Gotham City was far different from Detroit which he transferred in from. Detroit had its fair share of criminal activity and the problems which went along with it.

' _Nothing bad is going to happen,'_ the officer thought. _'Just keep…..just keep calm.'_

The van hit a speed bump and almost ran into the wall. This jarred everyone in the vehicle greatly.

"Damn, you'd think they would fix these things!" the cop in the front seat of the car cursed.

Copperhead jumped up and reached over the seat. She grabbed the driver of the car around the throat and pulled him into the back. It took a couple of moments to realize their car had veered out of control. Copperhead ripped the keys from the driver and unlocked the back of the truck.

"Stop her…."

"Stop her? STOP THE TRUCK!"

The loud screams of the people in the van echoed and the van started to veer out of control. The van slammed into the guard rail and tipped into a ditch on the other side. It flipped over and trapped the other officers in the car. This left one of the cops alone to square off against Copperhead.

Copperhead landed on the ground and crouched down to look from the left and to the right. The cop who she pulled out of the van looked at her with a narrowed set of eyes. He withdrew a club towards her. Copperhead flicked her tongue and face contorted into the wicked grin possible. The two squared off.

"What are you going to do with that, little man?"

The police officer wished he had his gun, but it was buried in the same van which just careened into the ditch. He twirled the baton.

"Just step back and put your hands on the ground," the officer said. "You don't want to make me use this."

Copperhead's lips curled into a smile. The snake woman's tongue licked her lips. She had cooled her heels for several days around. If this police officer wanted to step up against her, he would suffer the consequences.

The officer wondered if she was going to attack. He decided to jump first. The officer swung the baton against the ground. The snake woman evaded the attack.

The cop's hands numbed and not just because of the chilling atmosphere around him. Fear spread over his body a second later. The cop's heart rose and fell against his chest. It kept beating.

Copperhead popped out of the shadow and grabbed the man by his arm. Her legs scissored around the cops waist. The snake woman bent down and sank those fangs into the back of the neck of the cop. The cop's legs twitched.

The venom hit the cop's body. Copperhead knew without medical attention, he would be dead within seconds.

' _In a moment, they'll be through the gate and after me,'_ Copperhead thought. _'Have to go.'_

Copperhead stretched herself and performed a daring leap over the fence. One wrong move and she would hit the barbed wire. Copperhead launched herself over the fence and landed on the other side. Her hyperactive senses caught a hold of the sensors. They flashed on the other end of her.

Head went to the right and shifted to the left. The sensors passed a couple of inches away from her. Copperhead took half of a step back and made her way back a couple of inches. Her head pounded even more.

Copperhead made her move and slipped into the shadows. The bounty was still on the table and now she had some time to collect her thoughts, Copperhead would have to take another try at it.

* * *

 

Oswald Cobblepot found himself in his office, deep in thought. Even the most trusted members of his inner circle knew more than enough to leave him alone in a situation like this. Thorne said a lot to him which made sense, and even Falcone made a solid point or two.

' _Well, I'm in between a rock and a hard place here,'_ Cobblepot said. _'Decisions, decisions…decisions.'_

Cobblepot took his cigar from the ashtray on the table and lit it one more time. He took a puff of it. The moment before he could do anything, the phone rang.

"Hello?" Cobblepot asked.

"Mr. Cobblepot, there's been some unsettling rumors coming my way," Black Mask said without any preamble. "I figured I'd get it straight from the horse's mouth and not from the horse's ass."

This statement prompted Cobblepot to do some quick thinking. He made no deals, other than the leverage for the property. The degradation of Black Mask's mental stability made Cobblepot question working with him, and yet at the same time, he was too far in to pull out now.

"Well, if you tell me the rumors, then I will be able to clarify them one way or another," Cobblepot said. "So, what do you want to tell me, Mr. Sionis. What do you want to know?"

"I want to know if you've been double-dealing me," Sionis said. "I want to know if you've been making deals with Thorne without cutting me in on them."

Cobblepot figured this would be the case. The Penguin was so smart and so slick, but he really had to think of a lie and think it up quick.

The best lies had some kernel of truth so he decided to spin the truth in his favor.

"The only deal I made with Rupert Thorne has to deal with property," Cobblepot said. "And the papers have not been signed, sealed, and delivered just yet. So there's no need to worry."

Cobblepot reached over the cabinet on the other end of the room. He pulled out a couple of bottles from the cabinet and tipped them over. The drink bubbled the moment he poured it into the wine glasses. Given how anxious the Gotham City criminal scene became over the past couple of months, Cobblepot would need to take a long and quick drink.

"Yes, I see, you explained about Thorne," Sionis said. "However, you didn't explain to me why would think it would have been a good idea to make a deal with Carmine Falcone. You know, the Roman? The type of mobster we want out of Gotham City. Where every single moment he's around, he gets closer to crushing our empire."

Cobblepot responded with a brisk nod. He knew where Sionis was coming from. He tipped back a long drink from the wine glass.

"I think I should clear up a couple of misconceptions," Cobblepot said. "I'm not making any deal with Carmine Falcone. He wanted to have a word with me, and I gave him the office. There's nothing more, and nothing less other than that, you shouldn't worry."

"I do worry, Oswald," Sionis said. "What did the two of you talk about."

"Nothing of grave concern, Roman," Cobblepot said. "He didn't seem too willing to form any kind of pact anyway. I think the only reason he showed up was because of the fact Falcone insisted on it."

Cobblepot almost heard the sounds of something going on in the background. The mobster tipped back the glass and took another long drink.

' _Well, if I pissed you off, then so be it,'_ Cobblepot said. _'Given how you've had a rotten attitude lately, I'm not sure whether I want to keep up with this partnership.'_

"I thought you wouldn't even listen to the drivel which came out of the mouth of the Roman," Sionis said. "You remember what he was like…..how he played no small part of how the Cobblepots disgrace. He's up there with the Wayne and Evans families."

Cobblepot's hand clenched around the glass and it cracked a moment later.

"Yes, I'm aware of what Carmine Falcone has done," Cobblepot said through gritted teeth. "And I told you, I only met with him to hear him out. It's what I did. It's what I did for you….our partnership would have never gotten off of the ground if I didn't give you a chance."

"Maybe I was wrong."

Cobblepot waited for further elaboration from this statement. Sionis did not say a word though on the other end of the phone.

"What…what are you blathering on about?" Cobblepot asked.

"I said, maybe I was wrong," Sionis said. "You are willing to listen to a man you should be putting a knife through the eyeball of just on sheer principle. Your umbrella should be rammed so far up his ass every time he opens his mouth, it opens."

Cobblepot would have liked nothing better than to do these things. He knew acting against Falcone without the proper leverage could open up a powder keg.

"I thought you would have had some fire left in you," Sionis said. "I thought you would have had the fire to get something done. Instead, you're still letting Falcone step over you, just like your father did."

"Now wait a minute, you just can't call me….you just can't say things like that!" Cobblepot squawked.

' _He lost his mind,'_ Cobblepot thought to himself. _'He's lost his bloody mind…something cause him to flip his wig…..I don't know what, though.'_

"You know, you can let me push your buttons," Sionis said. "You can let me push all of your buttons, just like you let Falcone push all of your buttons. Come on, fat man, people like Falcone look at you as a joke. You and I, we're not legit. Unless we've done something about it. I'm going to bring down Batman and Nightwing, what have you done lately?"

Cobblepot's breathing escalated for another couple of seconds. He closed his eyes and returned to a thought.

"Don't tell me what you're going to do know," Sionis said. "The time for talking is done, Oswald. I want to see what you can do. Do you have a set anymore? Or have you sold those to Falcone as well?"

Cobblepot lifted up his umbrella and clutched the handle. The last time had he been this riled up, he beat a man half to death with this particular umbrella. A few splatters of blood still remained on the umbrella. He took a deep breath and growled.

"Good, I've got you pissed!" Black Mask yelled. "Now go out and do something about it…if you kill me, at least that's something. More than the absolute nothing you've been doing."

"Oh, I'll show you something, you wanker," Cobblepot said. I'll show you something huge."

At this final word, the handle of Cobblepot's umbrella snapped underneath his hand. He took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

* * *

 

Selina Kyle took a moment to look over the new sign for the Cat's Cradle night club she ordered. She had no idea how it would be received by the people who attended the club. Her opinion mattered the most to her at this potential point.

' _There I go, not too bland, not to over the top,'_ Selina thought. _'I'm sure it will stick out big time thought.'_

Selina stretched up against the wall. The dark-haired woman turned her head and the club's front entrance swung open. Frank Bertinelli entered the club.

"Franco, it's been a long time since I've seen you in my neck of the woods," Selina said.

"Selina, it's has been a long time, but you know, I've been busy," Frank said.

Selina pulled out a chair for the man to sit down on the club.

The two of them settled down in the club. Frank crossed his arms and looked the woman in the eyes.

"So, business is booming, isn't it?" Frank asked. "Liked how you classed up the joint a little bit. Bet it wasn't easy."

"That's for sure," Selina said. "So, how is my goddaughter doing?"

"Helena is very high-strung, but she's doing well," Frank said.

Selina smiled and leaned back on the chair. She looked the father of her goddaughter with a smile.

"Yes, her mother was like that when she was Helena's age," Selina said. "Hopefully, Helena ends up having a bit more common sense than her mother did."

Frank nodded in response. His late wife was a spirited woman, almost too spirited, to be honest. Selina offered him a drink and he shook his head.

"Thanks, but no thanks," Frank said. "I appreciate the offer, but I need to keep a clear head. So they're no drinks for me."

Frank looked at the clock as if he was expecting either a hot date or a very important meeting. Selina could not tell off-hand.

"She may be transferring into GPA, to give her some sense of stability," Frank said. "She'll get the best grades she can regardless, like her mother."

"So, does she even take after you?" Selina asked.

"Not at school," Frank said. "Lunch was my best subject at that age."

Selina laughed at this statement from the father of her goddaughter. He did do pretty well later on in life. A bit of a slacker in school if Helena's mother could be believed and to be honest, it was almost by his own admission.

"So, were you just in the neighborhood, or did you want to ask me something?" Selina asked a second later.

Frank leaned back and wondered if he should have taken the drink. A long pause followed between the two of them as the atmosphere in the club grew colder.

"Yes, I wanted to ask you something, and since you always have your ear against the wall, I figured you would know something about the Gotham City Cop Killer," Frank said. "Have you heard anything?"

"Not a thing," Selina said. "I'm sorry, this has me as baffled as pretty much anyone else. It's pretty confusing, wouldn't you think?"

"Yes," Frank said.

Frank declined to tell Selina about the pressure being put on him.

"I thought you wouldn't be the one to talk business with me," Selina said. "Why start now? Is Thorne putting pressure on you?"

"The latest victim was found outside of his penthouse, and….there are whispers they had been…involved with each other," Frank said.

Selina could tell where Frank went for this one. She could not see who would want to get in bed with someone like Rupert Thorne. She was all for different strokes for different folks. Still, there was all about different strokes and then there was bad taste. This was the epitome of bad taste in Selina's mind.

"Thorne has some good lawyers," Selina said. "If he wants to make something go away, he's going to make it go away just like that."

Selina responded with a snap of her fingers. Frank nodded and rose to his feet.

"I hoped you knew something, but….you're in the dark as much as the rest of us," Frank said.

Selina shook her head in response. Something really dastardly was going on tonight and something which agitated her. She never liked being at a disadvantage. The lack of information about one of the most dangerous figures in the city put her on edge.

"Could be a jaded cop, could be a jaded mobster, or it could be some citizen who wants to clean up corruption," Selina said. "I don't know….not my job to figure that out. Sounds like it's become yours, though."

"Yes," Frank said. "Unfortunately."

Frank recollected his thoughts and checked the time.

"I better get going, I'm going to have to and pick up my daughter," Frank said.

"Tell, Ella, I said hi," Selina said. "And I might be stopping by to see her sooner than she thinks."

Frank nodded. He was certain this would make his daughter's day. He grabbed his hat, turned around, and exited through the door.

Selina had more than a lot to think about and very little time to think too hard about it. She looked up and noticed Mia walking around the corner. The co-owner of the Cat's Cradle pulled up the chair which Frank vacated upon leaving.

"So have you made a decision?" Selina asked. "Did you check out the apartment I recommended yet?"

"Yes, and it's…pretty good, actually," Mia said. "And I'll be a hop, step, and a jump away from you. So it isn't like I'll be alone."

"And my door is open at any time just…remember to knock," Selina said with a saucy wink.

The way Selina looked at the girl indicated to Mia the older women knew of the perverted voyeurism she entered a few days ago. The younger girl crossed her arms and sighed.

"And are you going to head off to GPA?" Selina asked.

"Yes," Mia said. "I got my foot in the door, the scholarship with the Shining Light Foundation. And I don't have the baggage...I had before….."

"Careful, honey, the walls have ears," Selina said with a smile.

Mia answered with a nod in response.

"Yes, I just hope I can get back on the horse and ride it for everything it's worth," Mia said.

"Well, if you need any help, I'm sure Harry could help you out," Selina said. "He does tutor a lot of the younger girls. Plus, it would give you a chance to know each other better."

"I agree."

Both of them turned around and noticed Dinah Laurel Lance slip into the club. She dressed in a black leather jacket, white tank top, and jeans which fit her. Mia watched the older woman in an appreciative manner when she approached the table and pulled out a chair. Dinah sat down next to them. Selina raised her eyebrow but did not comment about the sudden arrival.

"Just think, if you get control of your company, there will be fewer complaints if you have an education," Dinah said. "And Harry does appreciate girls who show their self-worth by working hard."

The younger girl smiled. She had pretty been convinced about how essential education was. Now, Mia could not argue about it. She wanted a part of this.

' _I wouldn't want to let Harry down.'_

She stretched back a little bit and smiled. Dinah and Selina looked at each other and both realized something at once.

' _So we just agreed on something?'_ Selina asked. _'The two of us found common ground on something, didn't we?'_

' _Hell has frozen over, I guess,'_ Dinah thought.

* * *

 

Harry Potter could not stay away forever, even though one could consider him staying away from Gotham City would be considered to be one of the sanest steps he could have taken over the past couple of months. No one mistook Harry Potter for someone who was completely sane at any time. He returned to Gotham and held his head high.

' _So, we'll see if this works,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Oh, not to ruin your return to Gotham City or anything,'_ Barbara thought. _'But, we have a problem…one nailed Copperhead. As in, she escaped from the GCPD lock up and is on the loose in Gotham City.'_

' _Better work on that snake charming then,'_ Kara thought. _'Of course, I wonder if it would work on someone who is mostly human.'_

' _I'm not certain she is completely human,'_ Pamela thought. _'She's more snake…then again, some of you would know better than I do.'_

Harry slipped into the elevator which led to the floor at Wayne Industries he needed to go. The elevator dinged up one floor at a time. Harry slipped from the elevator and stepped in. He came face to face with Tamara Fox who snapped her eyes towards him.

"Harry, how are you?" Tamara asked. "Did you enjoy your trip?"

"It was relaxing," Harry said with a smile when he approached Tamara. Overall, I'd have to say it's good to return to Gotham City."

Tamara responded with a shake of her head. Absence really did and could make the heart grow fonder, at least it could in her mind. There were a lot of excellent things about Gotham City though and a lot of things which she would not mind seeing the back of when they popped up.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it, and it's good to see you back," Tamara said.

"So, how did everything go when I was gone?" Harry asked.

"Not too bad, nothing we couldn't handle without you," Tamara said. "It helps a lot when everyone is on the same page, and no one is….well it just helps when everyone works together….all of the paperwork is ready on your desk for when you get back."

"Excellent, Tamara, thank you," Harry said. "I'm going to have to treat you to something."

The dark-skinned woman responded with a crisp little smile. She looked Harry dead on in the eye and her tongue trailed across her lip a moment later.

"Actually Harry, I was wondering…"

The elevator opened and Talia stepped out. Her hair clipped back. The woman dressed in a blouse, along with a flowing skirt, and stockings which covered her legs all the way down. Her hips swayed a bit when making a beeline towards Harry.

"Hello, Doctor Potter," Talia said with a smile. She approached him. "It's been a long time."

"It has, hello, Talia," Harry said. "And I did tell you it was Harry, didn't I?"

"You may have," she said with a smile. "I hoped to run into you. The two of us never run into each other at the office, and we don't get to know each other as well. I know I was only hired as Mr. Wayne's personal assistant, but I hoped to get to know you a bit better over time."

Harry smiled. Perhaps he had a shrewd suspicion where this one was going. Regardless of the fact, he waited for Talia to make her move. He patiently waited for this particular woman to make her move for some time.

"Speaking of which, Mr. Wayne is waiting for you upstairs, he wants to have a quick work with you," Talia said. "I'm not sure what, only he said it was urgent, and….well, you know how he is when he doesn't want someone to ask questions."

"Well, I'm sure if it was urgent, he wouldn't have exaggerated about anything," Harry said with a smile over his face. "Thanks, Talia, you work very hard, so much so I barely see you around."

"Well, I'm always there, doing what I can to help Wayne Industries," Talia said. "And you should be one to talk about working hard. You're a breath of fresh air compared to most men in this city."

Harry smiled. Talk about a statement he had heard a lot and with an increasing amount of frequency. Talia approached him to slip something into his hand.

"You might want to look these over as well," Talia said. "I picked them up from your office….sorry if I offended you….but I figured they were just lying around, and it was important to see them."

"Just get my permission next time," Harry said.

Talia shifted against the wall. Tamara simply stared daggers at the other woman. Looks could not kill, but Tamara was giving the old college try.

"I'd like to get to know you outside of the office one of these days," Harry said. "I admit, I don't know much about you, and I find it would be hard to form a relationship with you when I don't know much about you."

Talia turned her position towards Harry. The first button on her top unbuttoned, perhaps by design or perhaps by accident. Never the less, it caught Harry's attention.

"There isn't too much to know about me," Talia said, a smile crossing her face when she looked back at Harry.

"Oh, we'll see about that," Harry said. "Tamara, it's been nice talking to you, you as well, Talia….what was it you wanted to tell me?"

"Actually, I just remembered I have to get back to work," Tamara said. "I'll talk to you later, Doctor Potter."

She walked off and Harry frowned. Something was on her mind for sure.

' _I think she just got side- stepped,'_ Faora thought.

* * *

 

Ashley Kafka smiled when she looked at her young charge. Wanda sat at the other end of the table and looked rather relaxed.

"You've made a remarkable amount of progress, Wanda," Ashley said. "It turns out we were wrong to keep you in Ravencroft for this time. It didn't allow you to flourish as much as being free did."

My father did what he thought was best at the time," Wanda said with a sigh. "He didn't want to deal with things, though."

"What of your father?" Ashley asked. "Have you spoken to him?"

"No," Wanda said. "I thought it was best to avoid this part of my life. If he ever wanted to talk to me, he knows where to find me….although I'd admit I don't know where to find him. It's almost as if he's dropped off of the face of the Earth."

Ashley could tell despite Wanda's bravado there was something bugging the girl about her father. The good doctor made another couple of notes.

"So, this concludes this month's session," Ashley said. "Unless there is something you would like to talk about…"

"Actually, there is if you have a few more minutes to spare?" Wanda asked.

The doctor gave her a warm smile and reached forward to pat the raven-haired youth on the top of the hand. Wanda relaxed and decided to take the plunge.

"Well, it has to do with you and Harry, and why you haven't taken the plunge with him?" Wanda asked.

This statement caused Ashley to raise an eyebrow at Wanda. Ashley frowned when she tried to figure out the best and most diplomatic way to come out with this statement.

"You have some deep-rooted feelings for him, and maybe some deep rooted insecurities," Wanda continued. "I'm not the expert like you are. I have a feeling though you've had some bad past relationships, and it's preventing you from making the move you want to."

Ashley looked at her charge with a frown. She hit the nail on the head a little bit harder than Ashley wanted to give her any kind of credit for.

"I should make the move…but I haven't had the right time…"

Wanda smiled. She had heard this before, maybe in her own head.

"If you don't make the move, then the time will never be right," Wanda said. She leaned forward and gave her doctor a brief kiss on the lips.

Ashley closed her eyes for a moment. Wanda kissed her. Her patient kissed her. This violated so much, and yet felt so nice. She didn't really know what to think about this.

"We shouldn't…we shouldn't have done that, you shouldn't have done that," Ashely said.

"A doctor and a patient should be able to have a close relationship where there's a certain amount of trust between them," Wanda said, a smile passing over her face. "And you can't deny it didn't feel nice, and it feels right."

Ashley could not deny how nice it felt. This was the problem as she saw it. The kiss was nice and made her want a little bit more. How much more, she couldn't tell. Other than the fact she wanted even more and could almost taste what she wanted.

' _How messed up is this,'_ Ashley thought to herself.

"Actually, we're going to have to continue this at another time," Wanda said. "I'm late for my lessons."

"Well, I guess you are," Ashley said. "Until next month….."

"We'll pick up right where we left off," Wanda said.

Wanda saw her duty to get Ashley involved into the collective. Other girls recruited for the collective because Harry could not do all the work with his vast responsibilities. It was a team effort and Wanda felt good being a part of the team.

Zatanna popped up at Wanda's shoulder a second later. The two of them locked eyes with each other after a very long moment.

"So are you ready to go?" Zatanna asked.

"Yes," Wanda said. She bounced to a standing position and approached Zatanna. "So, how have you been?"

"As well as can be expected," Zatanna said. "I'd be better if I had any solid leads on my father. The people behind it seemed to have vanished into thin air…which given they were magic users, it was entirely possible."

"Yes, I can see your point," Wanda said. "Circe and Morgaine won't be that happy if we're late….they'll torture us twice as hard."

Zatanna nodded in response. She took a new appreciation to how hard her father was on their lessons together. They were patty-cake compared to how harsh Circe and Morgaine were.

* * *

 

Alberto Falcone stepped out of the nightclub, a decent looking brunette woman attached to his arm. All of his friends told him she was just a gold digger after some of that sweet Falcone money. He did not care, as long as he tapped this at the end of the night. There were certain things which were worth it as far as he was concerned.

"Let's get back, Albert, darling," she said. "It's a cold night, and I'm sure you can warm me up back at the Penthouse."

Alberto shook his head at the wrong name but said nothing. The woman was not wearing any panties so she was the type of slut who could and would put out. The group made their way into the back of the limo, with Alberto's two bodyguards making their way a bit away to give the couple some privacy.

The limo pulled off and in a moment, another limo pulled in front of them.

"Driver, see what the hell is going on," Alberto said.

The sound of gunfire from behind them caused Alberto to throw himself on the floor of the limo. His survival instincts managed to keep him a head and shoulders above the rest. The driver, his bodyguards, and date were not so lucky. They all fell back, blood splattering.

Alberto kicked the doors of the limo open and crawled out. He came face to feet with some large figure. He looked up and caught a glimpse of the Walrus.

"You!" Alberto yelled.

He plunged up to his feet and dove at the Walrus in an attempt to take him down. The scuffle lasted a few seconds with the Walrus nailing him with a right hook and putting him down to the ground.

Dudley looked down at Alberto Falcone with a grin. He turned to his boys.

"Throw him in the trunk," Dudley said.

"Why don't we kill him?" one of the men asked.

"The boss thinks he's better off alive," Dudley said. "And I agree."

The two men scooped up Alberto Falcone and dropped him into the trunk of a car. They drove off, as the sounds of sirens could be heard in the background, much too late.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on August 3** **rd** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Copperhead is out in the wild. That's really not a good thing._

_Some interesting plot points as we check up on the people._

_And Penguin just ordered Alberto Falcone to get kidnapped. That's really going to end well for everyone involved, wouldn't you agree?_

_Until Wednesday._


	213. The Game Plan Part One

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* * *

 

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirteen: The Game Plan Part One.**

* * *

 

One element remained the same regarding Harry Potter no matter what. He always found himself in the presence of a beautiful woman. Tonight was no exception. An individual would almost need to keep a scorecard to keep track of the beautiful women who Harry Potter had been in the presence of and much more he would have been linked to, even though there was no proof.

The doors opened and Harry entered dressed in style. On his arm rested a dark haired woman with green eyes and of Asian heritage. The woman wore a black dress which covered every inch of her well-toned frame. It showed a tasteful amount of cleavage and the point of the dress came down to expose her long, stocking clad legs as well. Paula Crock stepped inside, enjoying a nice night on the town in style.

"It's been a long time since you've had a chance to get out and stretch your legs, hasn't it?" Harry asked.

"Too long," Paula said.

The two of them had met at the front door. The waiter smiled in recognition the moment he saw one of the eating establishment's best and most prominent customers.

"Doctor Potter, right his way, sir, and I'll make sure you and your lady friend get set at the table," the waiter said in his posh tone of voice.

Paula was not used to these type of joints, to be honest. She felt a bit nervous being in such a classy joint if she had been honest. Harry held onto her arm and escorted her over to the direction of the table. Both of them sat down on the table in front of each other.

"Would I interest you in a glass of our finest imported wine?" the waiter asked.

"Wine would be good, what do you think?" Harry asked

"Yes, it would be quite nice," Paula said. She smacked her lips in response to show how much a nice glass of wine would hit the spot right about now.

The waiter responded with a nod and two menus had been placed out on the table for them to order.

"So, how good is the service at this place?" Paula asked.

"It's pretty prompt all things considered," Harry said. "I've never had a big problem with the service here…and they're a rather polite crowd."

"Are you sure they're not polite because you keep them in business with the number of women you bring here?" Paula asked.

Harry responded with a smile in response. He reached across the table and cupped Paula's hand in his with a nice and firm squeeze. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the touch.

' _Maybe tonight's the night you can make your move,'_ Paula said. She kept her eyes firm on the menu because she did not trust them to roam anywhere else.

"I'll recommend the steak," Harry said. "It's simple, but there's something about the taste which goes go well with the wine here….and the stew can't be beaten. Especially when you dip their garlic bread in it, because it leads to the right combination."

' _I have no idea how you can stand garlic,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Is that because garlic makes you puff up in the face?'_ Emily asked.

' _Hey, even if I wasn't allergic to garlic, I don't see how anyone could stand it,'_ Amanda thought. _'Specially when it gives you this pretty bad garlic breath. You know the type where you open your mouth and it makes anyone without a ten-mile radius keel over in agony. It's this awful, actually, it's pretty awful.'_

' _Wouldn't it be handy for warding off vampires, though?'_ Lyta thought.

' _Guess there is some kind of benefit to it,'_ Amanda admitted. _'Vampires wouldn't like it any more than most humans would….because it would knock them over big time as well. It would knock over anyone.'_

Harry turned away from his conversation with the smile. The two of them ordered their food and was assured it would be here within the next ten minutes or so. Harry knew it would be here a bit sooner because they bent over backward to make him pleased.

"So, anything from your mystery benefactor lately?" Harry asked Paula.

Paula responded with a shake of her head.

"The last couple of months, he…or she, hasn't shown up," Paula said. "It's really weird….and….still haven't heard anything about Jessie's father. He's gone missing a lot, never like this, though."

' _For all we know, Willis Todd could be a John Doe in the Gotham City Morgue,'_ Dinah thought. _'Actually, it's a pretty good possibility.'_

"Speaking of father's, anything about Larry lately?" Harry asked.

A long moment passed between the two of them. One could see the frustration boiling over the face of Paula Crock and she screwed her eyes shut. Harry reached across the table and cupped a hand over his. Their fingers intertwined the moment Harry squeezed her hand.

"Not as of late, it worries me," Paula said. "We're all, but divorced. You can't really divorce from someone though when he's not around to have the papers served."

Paula figured they were divorced, all but legally, and it was time for her to move on. She tried to stay with this for the sake of Artemis and Jade. Of course, what was she doing when her daughters wanted nothing to do with her estranged husband.

"I'm sure you find a pretty compelling reason for you to move on," Harry said.

"Hmm, maybe I already have," Paula said.

Paula tried to make her move. A noise off the distance stopped her and caused her to redirect course. She dove underneath the table at the same time Harry dove underneath the table.

Screams echoed followed by shattered glass. The glass flew in every direction and almost sliced through the face of the poor unfortunate patrons of the restaurant.

' _Damn, what the hell now?'_ Harry asked. _'Dinah, do you see anything…..'_

' _Yeah, a truck just rolled off, a couple of dark-clad people with a bazooka were sitting on the back of it,'_ Dinah thought. _'I'm going to see if I can catch up with them….they're moving pretty fast….well they would if they just blew past every street corner.'_

Harry coughed and allowed the dust to settle. He turned his attention towards Paula who kept shaking her head.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I'll be fine," Paula said. "What the hell was that, though?"

Harry figured it out a second later. His hand intertwined with Paula's and he pulled the woman in closer towards him.

"Someone wanted to send a message."

* * *

 

Harry Potter hated having one of his dates cut short for any reason. A rocket launcher being blown through the window was about on the top of the list of things he detested the most. He detested, even more, the people involved slipped away and put him back at square one. He wanted to kick something but held back to show a bit more dignity.

' _I just have a feeling this is going to be a long night,'_ Harry thought. _'Better be prepared to get ready for something big.'_

He first saw to it Paula had gotten home safely without any trouble. The moment he was sure she had a ride home, Harry suited up as Nightwing. He came face to face with Black Canary when she turned up on the roof.

"No luck," Black Canary said.

"I figured as much," Harry said. "We don't even know who was behind it."

"Rumor has it, there's another faction of the League of Assassins in Gotham City."

Nightwing turned his head to one side. Batman dropped down along with Katana. The two of them approached Black Canary and Nightwing. One look at Batman's face told him everything he needed to know.

"We heard about the attack, is everything okay?" Katana asked.

"Everything is fine," Nightwing said. "There are some people who are shaken up, though, but no one is injured. It makes me think it's a warning and not any attempt to kill them."

"So, the League's…war continues," Black Canary said. "Why do I have a feeling we're a pawn in the middle of this game?"

"Because we are," Nightwing said, with a heaving sigh.

"The attack may have been a coincidence," Batman said. "It was an attempt to draw you or I out."

Just the fact Nightwing happened to be in attendance in his civilian identity really did add some interest to everything. He kept looking over his shoulder. Something was up off to the other side of him.

"Did you see anyone on your way up?" Nightwing asked. Both of them shook their heads in response. Nightwing sighed. "Would it help to say I didn't like this?"

"If you don't like this, then you're in very good company," Katana said. She kept herself armed and ready to attack at a moment's notice. "It's….."

Batman spun around and took off at the ledge at a moment. He jumped off the ledge and latched his grapnel on the other end. With speed and agility, Batman made his way to the building on the other end. He dropped flat on the edge of the roof and kept looking from one side to the other. A figure scrambled off to the other side of the building.

The Detective caught the figure in his line of sights. The figure turned around and a knife had been flung at Batman. Batman blocked the knife and came back to nail his adversary with a series of rapid-fire punches. Batman flipped over the top of the head and nailed him in the back of the head. The figure kicked Batman off and returned fire with a kick of his own.

First kick ducked and Batman's backhand had been blocked by a roundhouse kick. Back and forth both of them went until Nightwing dropped behind him. The dark clad figure took a half of a step back and hurled a glass ball on the ground. It caused a cloud of blinding smoke.

The ninja flipped onto the roof on the other end and came face to face with Katana. The traitor, the mercenary withdrew his blade and rushed towards Katana.

Katana ducked back and the blade swiped in the air. She came down from underneath him with an uppercut to the chest. Another uppercut cracked the ninja in the chest and doubled him over. The ninja almost toppled over the edge of the building.

A rope tied around his ankle and toppled the ninja upside down. The ninja looked up and came face to face with the one and only Batman when dangling from the top of the rooftop.

"Who are you working for?" Batman asked.

The ninja prepared to do himself in. A hand reached in and ripped a tooth from his mouth. Nightwing caught the tooth in his hand and crushed it into a finely tuned pattern.

' _Cyanide laced molars, seriously?'_ Kara thought.

' _Sometimes the oldest tricks are….well they kind of are the most predictable,'_ Barbara thought.

The ninja tried to bite down. It hit him a few seconds later his method of escape was there. Nightwing dropped down in front of him. The face of pure evil, the face all men feared, the face of the dragon came out in front of the ninja.

"I suggest you tell me what's going on," Nightwing said. "And we don't have to make this rough on you. Or we can, it's up to you."

The ninja continued to swing on the rope which held him up. One wrong move and every single bone in his body will arise.

"There are ways your life can be made miserable without any of us killing you," Nightwing said. "I can bring you an inch to life, make you experience the worst pain you've ever felt, and then heal you, before making you experience it all over again."

Katana looked at the young man and shivers blew down her spine. She would have been lying if she was not impressed with how he handled this situation even though there was something very unsettling about his methods.

"Talk, because I don't know how long he's going to be patient," Black Canary said.

"The White Ghost's ascension will be at hand, the true heir of the Demon will rise to his prominence!" the goon yelled. "And he will take out the two people who have stepped in the way of his ascension."

Harry frowned. Every single answer led to even more questions.

* * *

 

Carmine Falcone's eye twitched. The veteran Gotham City mob boss could not put his finger on exactly what vexed him. Only some sickening feeling bubbled in the pit of his stomach. He was about ready to call off of his children to make sure they were where they should have been.

This feeling of dread had been punctuated by the phone ringing. The phone only just got its second ring out when Carmine snatched the phone off of the cradle and put it in his hand.

"Hello?" Carmine asked to the other end of the phone.

"Sir, sir, we just….something happened tonight, something bad happened tonight, I can't believe it…it's something….well it's just….there's nothing we could have done about it….it happened so fast!"

Carmine made very little sense out of what his contact on the other end of the phone said. The Roman took control of the situation with a steady breath and a calm demeanor.

"I'm going to tell you to calm yourself down and to tell me one time what's been happening," Carmine said. "Steady breathing, don't get yourself in a tizzy. Just tell me in a clear concise voice what happened."

"Sir, it's Alberto….the limo has been found….by the GCPD, there are bullets in the limo….his date, his bodyguards, and the drivers, they're all dead," the man said.

The longest pause followed when Carmine Falcone looked as if he aged a significant amount. He held the phone in a steady and rigid way. A breath came through his lungs before returning to the conversation.

"What about my son, did you see him?" Carmine asked.

Carmine's hands remained steady even though his voice shook just a fraction. More than enough where anyone who knew him well would have been scared to death such a flustered tone came from a man who normally had it well and completely together.

"Sir, we don't know, there are some conflicting reports….a couple people swore they saw him crawl from the limo," the man said. "I'm trying to see if he got into the hospital somewhere, someone picked him up, I'll keep you posted, boss, I….well, I'll find out something."

"Call me back the instant you find something."

Carmine hung up the phone. He did not mean to be so short. The family business could be a cruel one. His father told him this a long time ago and his grandfather told his father a long time before that. You made a lot of enemies and they struck the ones you loved the most.

The Roman could strike back as hard as anyone else. His nerve was not going to be destroyed. The man rose to his feet and stared out into the Gotham City streets. This city was his, and he would be damned if anyone tried to remove it from his grasp.

The phone started to ring. Falcone did not even let it get to the second ring this time.

"Yes?" Falcone asked.

"Good evening, Mr. Falcone," the slick voice of Oswald Cobblepot said over the phone.

"Oh, hello, Cobblepot," Falcone said. "If you want to discuss something….I'm afraid you're going to have to call back at another time, I'm very busy now."

"Oh, you're very busy now, aren't you?" Cobblepot asked. "Well, I'm sure you'll find the time for this….but, you sound like you've lost something very near and dear to your heart, don't you, my old boy?"

Falcone took a second to catch his breath. The mobster was not in the mood to hear the garbage spewing from the mouth of his low-life mobster. This thug's father gambled his entire family fortune away and blamed others for it. If he allowed someone like Cobblepot to run amuck in Gotham City, everything he built would have been destroyed.

"This isn't the time….."

"As I told you, you'll find a way to make time, if you want back what you lost," Cobblepot said.

Everything clicked with Falcone. The old man's hand clutched into the phone and held it tight. A long and deep breath passed when he continued to breathe in and out.

"You have him, you have Alberto," Carmine said.

"Bravo, and here I thought it would take you a long time to put the pieces together," Cobblepot said. "Yes, my boys snatched up your little hell spawn of a son….he's got quite the mouth on him…..although he isn't talking much after my boys worked him over."

"You hurt him….."

"Nah, I just had him roughed up a little bit, he'll survive, a couple of broken ribs, a few scars, but….he'll be fine," Cobblepot said. "He'll be back in your care in no time, providing you do what I say, exactly what I say. One slip up….and….well, I'd spare you the gruesome details."

Falcone had been too preoccupied with Sionis going off the deep end, he did not see Cobblepot doing something this brazen. The Roman knew he would have to play the game, if to even the odds.

"What do you want?" Falcone asked.

"Given all of what the Falcones have done to my family, I'm just settling some old debts," Cobblepot said.

"Your father enjoyed blaming others for his shortcomings, and the apple does not fall from the tree," Falcone said.

"Oh….hold on just a second," Cobblepot said. "Alberto, why don't you say hello to your old man?"

A long pause followed when Cobblepot held the phone out. The screams came from the other end of the phone and then they went silent.

"Guess, he needs to be toughened up a bit more, the little wanker passed out again," Cobblepot said. "In three days, we'll make arrangements to talk like gentlemen, face to face. No tricks….or you'll be arranging your son's funeral."

Falcone's voice dropped to a soft and deadly tone.

"You harm him, and you'll be arranging yours, Oswald," Falcone said.

"You better look around you, Falcone, things are changing in Gotham City," Cobblepot said. "You might have come back the conquering hero, but Caesar even had been stabbed in the back by those closest to them…three days….I'll send further word….you can think about what's more important. Gotham City or the welfare of your son."

The phone line went dead. Falcone dropped it down on the desk without putting it back in the cradle. His breathing increased every second before turning around.

' _I'll get him, and rip his throat out,'_ Falcone thought.

There were many things a father would do for the welfare of his son. Carmine Falcone intended to rip Gotham City apart piece by piece to find out where his son was. If Cobblepot wanted a war, he would find out soon why the Falcones got to the top of the food chain and people like the Cobblepots were gutter trash which belonged at the bottom.

* * *

 

The White Ghost sat with his legs crossed and eyes closed. The Albino man put himself deep into a trance and started to mutter underneath his breath. A knock on the door only pulled him out of his state of tranquility ever so slightly.

"Enter."

The door opened and a figure entered the room. He approached the White Ghost and hunched over in a low blow. Dusan Al Ghul rose to his feet and locked eyes with the man.

"Was the message sent?" The White Ghost asked. The man responded with a nod. His mouth hung open enough to reveal the man's tongue had been removed. "Excellent…and I'm certain the other message will have been sent sooner or later….now leave me."

The man without a tongue turned towards the White Ghost and frowned.

"I'm expecting a visitor, and your presence is not wanted," The White Ghost said. He waved his man off. "Be gone, be gone."

The man stepped back without another word and stepped back to allow Lawrence Crock, the Sportsmaster, to step inside. The White Ghost invited the mercenary inside.

"Sit down," The White Ghost said. "Have you thought about the terms of our agreement?"

"You can make this happen?" The Sportsmaster asked. "You can get the League of Assassins of my back. And in response….."

"I can make this happen, my friend," The White Ghost said. "It's elementary, so much even someone of your level can understand it."

"Yes, I can see," Sportsmaster said. His lips curled into a frown when he looked at the White Ghost. "So, if you don't mind, could you enlighten me on the brilliance of your plan one more time."

"You will be protected, of course," The White Ghost said. "I meant this. And in return, you will take care of Batman and Nightwing."

Sportsmaster looked on with a smile on his face. He had a feeling there was going to be some catch. He knew now his partner's game plan. Use him to take down his enemies. The criminal thought of the plan as both fiendish and clever at the same time.

"So, do we have a deal?" The White Ghost asked.

The White Ghost extended his hand. Sportsmaster looked at the hand for a couple of moments and considered his options. He reached forward and the two men clasped hands together to shake.

"Yes, we have a deal," Sportsmaster said. "There is one thing I wish to ask you, though."

The White Ghost looked at Sportsmaster. Now the sports themed mercenary had the White Ghost's attention, it was time to go forward with a question which had been bothering him.

"Did you intend to attach a restaurant with my wife inside?" Sportsmaster asked.

The White Ghost smiled. He did not want to be the one to enlighten Mr. Crock on certain truths. It would be best if he found this one out on his own.

"I had no idea she was inside," The White Ghost said. "I merely just intended to send a message to certain parties...I did not wish for her to come to any harm."

The Sportsmaster eyed his partner for a couple of moments. He considered every angle of this mess and responded with a nod.

"Fine, guess that settles that," Sportsmaster said. He needed to work together with this man, even if it was through slight reluctance and gritted teeth.

* * *

 

Black Canary and Nightwing crept to one of the less reputable districts of Old Gotham. Nightwing stood up on edge, extra alert tonight. If he listened to the wind, he could almost hear whispers which threatened every step he took. It was obvious the people here thought he did not belong here, and Nightwing needed to tread lightly.

He walked up to the door of the temple and put a hand on it. Cold, but looks could be deceiving. The dust accumulating on the door made Harry have the impression no one was here.

Looks could once again be deceiving.

' _I'm going to be the first to say this, there are times where I'm really not glad I'm not on the field,'_ Amanda thought. _'This is a place right here, which gives me the creeps, and I don't mean the good kind of creeps either. This creepy ninja motel….it's really….well you know.'_

Harry did not say anything. He pushed the door open. The hinges almost betrayed them with a loud creak. The two crime fighters stepped inside into the chilly room. An unnatural gust of wind greeted them the moment both of them stepped inside.

Nightwing took a good and long look around. Nothing of note popped up, at least nothing which could cause him any problems.

' _I have an idea where you're coming from, yes,'_ Harry thought. _'It looks pretty abandoned, though.'_

Looks once again could be deceiving. Harry half expected these shadows to move, twitch, or do something which would alert him to some kind of forward movement. Until this happened, Harry walked around in circles and stepped into the next room.

' _Yes, hence the term, abandoned League outpost,'_ Dinah thought. _'But, it's not abandoned from every member of the League is it?'_

' _No, it isn't….step inside, and be careful.'_

The two of them made their way into the inner chamber. The last room and Harry put himself on full alert once again. He checked for anything out of the ordinary. Any secret switches in the wall, anything which would be out of the ordinary. Anything which would signal there was some kind of stronghold within a stronghold.

Nothing, though, and Harry could hear the wind whistle in the background.

' _Is it just me, or is it a bit too quiet?'_ Kara thought.

' _Not just you,'_ Harry thought. Something rustled from up above which put Harry on his full alert as tense as can be.

' _Looks like we spoke too soon.'_

"You are trespassing, now you must feel the full wrath of the White Ghost."

The voice sounded ghostly and did not fit the frame of the large assassin who dropped down in front of Nightwing and Black Canary. The Assassin performed a small wave in his hand and several more assassins dropped down to form a circle around them.

' _Well, this has gone worse than I thought,'_ Nightwing thought.

' _At least we know there's someone here, and they work for the White Ghost,'_ Black Canary thought.

The assassins rushed Black Canary and Nightwing. Nightwing blocked the first jab punch of one of the assassins and twisted his arm behind his back. The crime fighter flipped over and landed behind his enemy. One huge kick sent the assassin flying in the air and smashing into the other assassins with a sickening thud.

The ninjas charged Black Canary one by one. Black Canary blocked the assaults from these ninjas. She turned and cracked one in the back of the leg. The ninja crumpled down to the ground. One of them swung a chain. Black Canary caught it and slid through the man's legs. She pulled the chain up and gave the ninja a very painful trip down to the ground.

Nightwing turned around at the sound of some white-hot daggers being thrown at him. The daggers sparked and Nightwing turned to the side. He caught them in one hand and sent them back at the assassin in question who threw them at him.

Another assassin spun around and tried to attack him. Nightwing dodged it and hit a series of rapid-fire punches. He channeled a fair amount of energy through his hand, through the brass knuckles built into his costume, and nailed him with a stunning block.

Black Canary disarmed one of the men. The sound of feet cracking against jawbone brought one of the adversaries to the ground. The wind had been put out of him and Black Canary stood over her adversary. The high heel boot pressed over the man's throat. He squirmed and struggled.

Two of them swung chains and wrapped around Black Canary's hands. She used their momentum against them and pulled them together. Black Canary crouched down. The heroine watched as the two men did a double noggin knocker and cracked their heads together. The loud sound echoed around them.

Nightwing pushed one of them against a wall and started to pound away at them. Blood spurted from the man's mouth. The mercenary crushed at Nightwing and Nightwing caught him around the throat. He tensed his grip around him.

Two more of them aimed their poison-tipped darts at Nightwing and blew into the back of his neck. Nightwing turned around and calmly ripped the darts from his neck. They backed off in fear after the poison did not have any effect of even slowing Nightwing down, much less dropping him.

The sound of two feet hitting flesh echoed and Nightwing dropped both of them to the ground. Another mercenary fell to the ground at Nightwing's feet.

"Sorry, your dental plan doesn't cover that filling," Nightwing said. "Where is the White Ghost?"

"You're a fool if you think I'd tell you," the assassin said in his native language.

"And you're a fool if you think I don't understand you," Nightwing said. He gripped his hands around the man's shoulder. "Now talk."

The assassin struggled against Harry's grip. Harry tightened his grip and made the assassin stare in his face. The assassin responded with a spit in his face.

"THE DEMON WILL RISE AGAIN!" he yelled.

The assassin twisted his neck and snapped it. Harry watched as the man's limp body fell to the ground, alongside all of the other White Ghost's men. On the bright side, they thinned his army tonight. On the negative side, the White Ghost still remained at large.

' _Well, that was no help,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Maybe, maybe not and….'_ Harry thought. _'Please tell me this isn't the alarm I think it is.'_

' _Yes, there's a breach at the Crock residence,'_ Barbara thought.

' _I'm on it.'_

Black Canary and Nightwing exited the temple and were about to go there as well. The only problem was they ran headlong into a second wave of the White Ghost's ninjas.

* * *

 

Artemis Crock walked down from her bedroom to get a drink of water. To get to the kitchen, one needed to walk past the sitting area. A flicker of the television screen caught her attention.

The blonde turned around and saw of all people her father sitting on the couch, with a beer in his hand and an empty one on the couch and a cooler on the floor. A bag of chips opened up on the bed and a sports show on the television. Artemis could not help, other than gasp. It was like he never left.

"Hello, baby girl," Lawrence Crock said with a leering smile towards his youngest daughter.

Artemis finally got over the shock of seeing her estranged father in the house.

"What are you doing here?" Artemis asked.

"Daddy's come back after a long trip," Crock said. "And now….we're going to be one big happy family again."

Crock rose to his feet to survey his daughter. A figure jumped through the open window and nailed Crock in the face with a punch. Crock flew head over heels.

Talon dropped down in from of Crock. To say the man didn't look happy would be the understatement to end all understatements.

"You interrupted my moment, you bitch!" Crock yelled.

Crock tried to nail her with a punch. Talon ducked the punch and knocked Crock back against the wall. He picked up a baseball bat left on the floor and swung it. Talon ducked it.

The noise had woken up Jade, who stood behind her sister. Paula joined them a moment later, and all three of them looked at each other in shock. None of them could tear their eyes off of the female version of Nightwing fighting Sportsmaster.

"Go!" Talon yelled.

"This way, now!" Paula yelled, shoving her daughters out the front door, down the steps, and to the car.

"Wait, Paula, I wanted to recon….."

Talon nailed Sportsmaster with a stiff shot into the back of the head before he could finish. He grunted and rolled over. His drunken breath came up in frustration.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on August 6** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Harry and Paula are attempting to take their relationship to the next level, although there are a couple of snags along the way._

_Lots of ninjas and the White Ghost is making some plans, some plans._

_Okay, walking down for a glass of water and seeing your estranged father on the couch, I don't even want to imagine what that's going to be like. But I suspect it's very creepy._

_Until Saturday._


	214. Game Plan Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fourteen: The Gameplan Part Two.**

* * *

 

Second verse, same as the first when Nightwing and Black Canary stood back to back to take down their adversaries. They refused to let the ninjas get the better of them and one of the ways they could have gotten the better of them was for them to get behind. The first batch of ninjas they disposed of were still taken down and the second batch looked better equipped.

' _Just follow my lead,'_ Nightwing thought. _'There's more to this than meets the eye.'_

Black Canary decided not to do anything to the contrary. She rushed in and grabbed one of the ninjas around the throat and knocked him back into the ground. The wind caused by another missed punch from a ninja flowed around her. Black Canary dipped underneath and started to punch him. The ninja staggered back and returned with some shuriken. Black Canary had to roll out of the way.

Nightwing stepped back and aimed a dagger. The dagger flew up and arched down to knock the blade out of the hand of his enemy. The ninja doubled over just in time for Harry to rush over and nail his adversary with a running kick to the side of the face. Harry sprung up one more time and nailed his adversary with a huge kick which staggered his enemy back.

The ninja grabbed Nightwing around the neck. The dragon forced his adversary back a couple of steps. A series of rapid-fire jabs connected to the chest of the ninja. One final jab knocked the wind out of the adversary. Harry dipped behind his adversary and grabbed him by the arm. He forced a ninja down to both knees and fired a kick to the back of the head.

' _They're not fighting us, are they?'_ Black Canary asked. _'Well, they are fighting us.'_

Black Canary's thoughts nearly had been cut off. A punch aimed at the side of her head had been ducked. Black Canary brought the point of one of her batons into the chest of the man. She dropped down and then rolled in. Black Canary gripped the assassin around the head and twirled him around.

' _They're fighting us, and at the same time they're not fighting us,'_ Harry thought. _'Yes, I can see where you're going….they're testing us.'_

Nightwing redoubled his efforts to fight his adversary. One of them tried to put a wooden staff over the top of his head. If they wanted to test him, then Nightwing would excel the test with flying colors. He blocked the staff and slammed a fist into the jaw one of the assassins. Another one of the assassins rushed him from behind. Nightwing dropped down and kicked him with a swift roundhouse punch the side of the head.

Black Canary returned fire with a series of kicks to the side of the head of one of her enemies. She pressed forward with another attack.

' _So, who do you think it is?'_ Black Canary asked.

Nightwing jumped high into the air and landed behind one of his enemies. He aimed one of the daggers and flung it at his enemy. The ninja swung around and blocked the dagger with one blade. The dagger propelled back against the wall.

The flash blinded a couple of the ninjas. Nightwing slipped behind his adversary and chained together more strikes and punches. The Dragon moved with all of the swift precision someone of his status would be expected of.

' _Dinah, you're on, get ready.'_

Black Canary opened her mouth and one huge canary cry staggered them back. They swung their arms around and tried to hold themselves up. The Black Canary returned and kept hammering away at them with more punches and kicks.

They returned back with another fight. Black Canary blocked the punch and then flipped the man over. He jumped on top of Black Canary. Black Canary flipped the ninja over. The ninja dropped on the ground behind him. Black Canary turned her attention towards him.

From afar, Talia Al Ghul observed the battle. She wanted to let this play out before intervening. The first round of the White Ghost's men had been taken down. Now, they attempted to determine what the fighting styles were like from these two men.

' _They've improved since I've last observed them,'_ Talia thought.

The dragon moved faster than Nightshade's eyes could follow. The untrained eye would assume he remained in three places at once. The trained eye would see an almost different story. She frowned when watching him.

Black Canary and one of the assassins went into a little mad scramble. Both of them exchanged a series of rapid-fire jabs with each other. Black Canary grabbed her opponent in an extended armbar and flipped the man over to the ground. The man stumbled over onto the ground. She popped up with another kick.

Someone almost came from behind her. Nightwing jumped in to block the attack and nail his adversary with a sliding kick. The man dropped down to the ground. They kept coming and Nightwing kept battling them. He avoided a razor sharp dagger thrown at him.

A cloud of purple smoke erupted around them. Nightwing swung a blistering punch to the side of his enemies face. The brass knuckles charged up and he punched forward. The blow cracked one of them into the ribs. The sound resounded.

"We have what we needed….disappear…"

Black Canary remained in the middle of a battle with one of these men. The stunning siren grappled with the man before turning him into the wall. The mask ripped off to reveal a scarred looking man. He responded with a kickoff and made his way to the top of the ladder, disappearing into the shadows.

A figure from the roof top prepared to take down the dazed Black Canary. Another figure from the other side of the roof caught him with a disarming blow with a well-placed dagger. The man's arm ripped off and the impact caused him to lose his balance.

The man fell onto the pavement with a loud crack. Blood flowed on the sidewalk. Nightwing turned his attention off to one side and frowned. Something was going on, and he wasn't certain what. All he knew which he did not like it.

Nightwing used his grapnel to ascend to the top of the roof. Black Canary followed him a second later. Both of the warriors searched the roof for a couple of minutes.

' _So, is this part of the test?'_ Black Canary asked.

' _I don't like this,'_ Nightwing thought.

Harry sensed a slightly familiar scent. It had been masked since the last time, but if Harry intended to look, he would know.

The White Ghost's men left, along with any other assassins in the area. All remained quiet in Gotham City. This type of tranquility heightened Harry's nerves.

' _So, do we join Jaime, or keep searching?'_ Black Canary asked.

' _They're gone, but…..'_ Nightwing thought.

He turned on the scanner in his goggles and searched the roof. Any trace of the person who threw the dagger which disarmed the dagger thrower from the roof. Harry could not tell whether or not this man took a shot at him or Dinah.

' _Guess it doesn't matter when he's dead.'_

* * *

 

Jaime rubbed the side of her face after taking a heavy hit. Sportsmaster escaped out of the side entrance. The only solitude she had was Paula and the kids made it out of here. Paula took Artemis and Jade out and broke pretty much every speed law in Gotham City to get them to the Penthouse.

' _And now, I'm going to break every single bone in the Sportsmaster's body when I get my hands on him.'_

Jaime started to run her fingers through her hair and slip in the alleyway behind the house. A golf club swung out and she blocked it. The vigilante started to hammer away at the Sportsmaster and stagger him back a couple of inches.

"You'll pay for ruining this!" Sportsmaster yelled.

Talon could have rolled her eyes. The number of times she heard this little statement from a villain. It started to become a bit old if she was honest. Sportsmaster charged her one more time. Talon grabbed him and hurled him further into the alleyway right next to the rest of the trash.

"It's over, Crock," Talon said.

Sportsmaster jumped to his feet and aimed a roundhouse kick. Talon ducked the kick and blocked a couple more of them. Talon launched the Sportsmaster back a couple of inches with another punch to the midsection.

"Guess, I'm going to have to change the game plan," Sportsmaster said. "You're not the Nightwing I wanted to run into…and I didn't want to run into….."

Talon knocked Sportsmaster back in mid-sentence. The villain flipped over and slammed onto the trunk of the car. The wind had knocked out of him. Sportsmaster slid off of the car and rolled over onto the ground. The man's wrist sprained from the attack.

"Guess you won't be throwing many fastballs," Talon said.

"You have your little Super Friends?" Sportsmaster asked. "Well, guess what, Nightwing, I have friends of my own."

Three figures swooped down from the shadows. They dressed in white armor with yellowish eyes on the other side of them. Their skin shined with an eerie shade of pale. Talon could not tell whether it was because of some kind of body paint of some sort or because of some kind of desire.

' _Wonderful, attack of the ninjas,'_ Talon thought.

' _Black Canary and Nightwing are having their own ninja problem,'_ Oracle thought. _'They seem to be out in full force.'_

It was nights like this where Barbara thought about stepping up and getting back into training to be Batgirl full time after her trial run on Halloween. Unfortunately, no one could handle the level of mission support she did, therefore, it was hard for her to abandon this most.

"Time to play ball!" Sportsmaster said.

' _If he makes one more sport's pun, I suggest we bust his,'_ Donna thought.

One of the ninjas charged at Talon with panther-like precision. Talon dodged the attack and turned around. A couple of rapid-fire jabs hit her. Talon only had been backed up with annoyance.

She gasped when one of the ninjas wrapped a piece of Piano wire around her neck. She backed the ninja up against the wall and rolled over. She tried to nail the ninja with one of the punches. The ninja ducked the punch. Ducked another punch, bowed, and nailed Talon in the face with a kick.

Talon flipped over and landed against a trash can. She avoided a blade coming down onto her. A piece of pipe on the ground shifted into a blade and she used it to block another attack. A bolt of magical energy coursed through Talon's blade and channeled through the ninja's blade. His right arm burned in agony.

He still fought with his left arm. These punches ended up being along the more awkward end of things. Every time he fired a stinging jab, Talon kept at arm's length from him. The punch came back towards her. She dodged the punch one more time.

A certain pattern developed with every one of these attacks. Talon endeavored to pay attention to them. The arm had been caught and she underhooked the arms. Talon lifted the man off of the ground and drove him head first into the concrete.

One ninja planted onto the concrete, with two more to go. Talon had been knocked off of the ground. One of the ninjas swung a pair of nunchaku and nailed her into the face. The other one came from the other end and stabbed a long bow staff with a sharp blade at her. The dagger caught her in the arm and caused her to stagger forward with a wince. Her breath had been caught out of her body.

' _Just focus, and do it,'_ she thought.

The wood of the nunchaku swung at Talon. She ripped it out of the ninja's hand and twirled it around. The weapon supercharged and exploded in the face of the ninja. Talon grabbed him around the head and jumped high into the air. A jumping cutter like takedown brought the man down to the ground.

Talon rolled onto her feet and coughed a bit of blood from her mouth. The vigilante wiped the blood from her mouth.

' _And then there was one,'_ Talon thought. _'And I'd imagine he was the most….'_

A punch nailed to Talon's throat. She healed easily. Two of the blades swipes caught her through the armor before she blasted the blade. The man doubled over and Jaime jumped up with a high kick.

The point of her electrified brass knuckles caught the ninja in the head. He gave an unearthly and hideous scream before he did a face plant down onto the ground.

Talon watched the ninja drop to the ground. She walked a bit wounded. Still in one piece and still with a mission in her mind, to hunt down the Sportsmaster and bring him down; Talon would not give up so easily.

' _You can run, but you can't hide,'_ Talon thought.

* * *

 

Dusan Al Ghul made a couple of rather devious deals over the past couple of months. One of the biggest deals had been with the recently departed Charles Robert Blackfire. The tome he received told him everything he needed to know about the dragon. Other mysteries remained.

One of the assassins staggered in. Dusan grabbed him around the throat.

"Were you followed?" Dusan asked.

"No," he said.

The White Ghost tightened his grip around the man's throat. He gasped underneath the tense grip of the White Ghost.

"You had best be certain," The White Ghost said. "Report to me…..did you encounter the Dragon tonight or any of his associates?"

The White Ghost expected the Sportsmaster to fail despite the fact the White Ghost got him riled up. He anticipated the battle. The Dragon would fall only at the true heir of Ra's Al Ghul. Dusan was so close he could taste it.

The man with his hand wrapped around his throat nodded. Dusan did not relax the grip around the man's neck. He gave his adversary another tight squeeze and dug the point of those nails into the man's throat.

"Yes, you ran into them, didn't you?" Dusan asked. "And you ran into something else, didn't you?"

The ninja slumped to the ground. Blood trickled out of the man's mouth. Dusan Al Ghul's eyes burned onto his adversary.

"You should feel free to speak right now, but you shouldn't try my patience any by delaying," Dusan said. "Unless I removed your tongue."

"No, my lord, you haven't…not yet," the man said.

"Good, you have not failed me just yet," he said. "Let's hope for your sake you don't make a habit out of doing it anymore."

The man responded with a nod. A trickle of blood spilled from the side of his mouth. The White Ghost walked back to the throne and sank down.

"Talia Al Ghul...I saw a glimpse of her….as we retreated…she watched…"

One of the unworthy heirs of the Demon presented themselves tonight. Dusan hated every one of those pretenders with every fiber of his being. He had been overlooked by the inferior ones. He had been at this for longer, training through his life. Yet, Ra's Al Ghul never considered him to be a worthy heir. He would rather consider an outsider for his heir than his own son.

"To your feet and face me with pride."

The ninja's ankles almost rolled out from underneath him. Dusan pulled the pathetic man to his feet.

"Today, I'm not going to kill you," Dusan said. "Tomorrow may be another day...I want you to understand we cannot ill afford any slip-ups."

This foolish man had been sent to deliver a message to the son of Ra's Al Ghul. Dusan knew the man to be less than a fool.

"Of course, you're merciful," the ninja said. "Thank you….."

Dusan thought about putting the knife through the man's throat. He let the man stare death in the eye and flinch in the face of it. The White Ghost pulled back and motioned for the man to stand up straight.

"Do not thank me yet, it is not over."

The assassin took his cue to leave. The man almost tripped over his feet. Dusan thought about stabbing the man in the back of the leg and finishing him once and for all.

' _So weak, and so pathetic.'_

The White Ghost turned around and rose to his feet. He turned his attention elsewhere and made a quick series of strides to a red curtain. He pulled back the curtain and revealed a room surrounded by stone symbols. The White Ghost knew if anyone penetrated this room, there would be a problem.

' _Time to speak with him.'_

The White Ghost removed a glowing red gem from underneath his cloak and pressed it into the wall. The wall started to hiss and retract. The floor lowered and led him into a set of underground catacombs. The White Ghost tapped the wall on the other end.

The wall retracted a moment and the shining green light brought the White Ghost inside. He approached a glass chamber. The face of Ra's Al Ghul shined back from the other side of the pod. He had been submerged in stasis fluid and gave him an eerie glow until the moment where his return would be.

"Hello, father," Dusan said. "I must say I have had little progress in taking the Dragon down."

The White Ghost pressed his hand on the outside of the chamber as if his father could hear a word he said. Nothing happened, not he expected it to. His father remained submerged in the fluids.

"You see something in him for reasons I cannot explain or understand," The White Ghost said. "The great Ra's Al Ghul should never have been blinded by a legend, shouldn't he?"

The fluids inside of the chamber remained still.

"I'm securing the services of true believers for your grand return," The White Ghost said. 'Unlike your two golden children who have forsaken you, I still believe the world is ready for your grand vision. And I intend to do what I can to prove I have a part in this grand vision."

The White Ghost drew in a deep breath and poured himself a glass of tea. He sat down in front of his father's immobilized body.

"Such power, cut down by a freak accident," The White Ghost said. "Each day, I find ways to stronger. I will prove I can be the son you wanted."

The White Ghost held a dagger and stabbed it through the edge of the table. He dropped it down.

"You thought either Batman or Nightwing could be worthy of holding the reigns to your great empire," The White Ghost said. "They are nowhere nearly as ruthless."

The White Ghost rose to his feet and turned around. He stopped and turned towards his father.

"Another few weeks and the world will bear witness to the power of Ra's Al Ghul," The White Ghost said. "The fat around the League will be trimmed and a more efficient group will be established. They will all bow down before the great Ra's Al Ghul, and I will prove my glory to you!"

The White Ghost gained even more manic energy.

"You see, the foolish Dragon is nothing, but a pretender," The White Dragon said. "He's not a God who has lived among the people, he will be a mortal, and I will prove it. HE'S NOT BETTER THAN ME!"

The sound canceling effects of the chamber prevented his manic rant from getting out. The White Ghost started to breathe and looked back at his immobilized father.

"I will crush him," The White Ghost said. "I will gain your acceptance."

The White Ghost stepped back and looked at his father with a wicked smile.

"I'm glad we can have this conversation."

The White Ghost stepped back and away from his father with a crazed smirk on his face. Every step back made him look completely out of his mind when he walked away. The madness of the man swam.

Devotion could be a virtue, and it also could make a man more than dangerous. The White Ghost's slippery slide down a certain slope showed how his devotion caused this slippery slope down the rails.

* * *

 

Talon returned the hunt for the Sportsmaster after her entanglement with the creepy ninja trio. She knew the criminal could not make it too far. All she needed to do was track down the bastard and bring him down hard. Easier said than done in the back of her mind granted, but still, she needed to power through and do it.

"You really thought you could….."

A bowling ball rolled down the alleyway to Sportsmaster. Talon jumped halfway up into the sky and the bowling ball slammed into the side of the wall. The ball stuck into the wall and left a giant hole in the middle of it. Talon lurched forced and went after the Sportsmaster.

"I don't think you're going to pick up the seven-ten split, Crock," Talon said.

"Fine, then we're going to have to change the rules of the game."

Sportsmaster pulled out a giant red ball and threw it at her. Talon dodged it and the ball landed on the ground to cause a miniature explosion. Talon jumped up to a perch point in the rooftop and dodged another ball which had been propelled at her. The ball caused the conveniently placed stone gargoyle to explode into dust. Talon dropped down and he went after her for the third time. Once again, the dodgeball obliterated the place she stood about ten seconds ago.

' _Great, dodgeball,'_ Jaime thought. _'This is giving me all sorts of wonderful flashbacks to primary school.'_

' _I wasn't aware dodgeball was a thing across the pond,'_ Barbara said.

' _In my universe it was…and I really hate the bloody sport with all my heart!'_ Jaime yelled.

Another dodgeball arched over the Sportsmaster's throat and slammed against the wall. The explosion came out one more time. Talon dropped down to her hands and knees and took a long and deep breath. Sportsmaster rushed towards her.

Talon used the grapnel to pull the bag out of the Sportsmaster's hand. He stumbled off of his feet. Talon sprung up and went for a kick.

"Get off of it!" Sportsmaster yelled. Talon tried to nail him in the side of the face. "You're not going to take me down, I don't care how much you try."

"We'll see!" Talon said. She nailed the Sportsmaster with an uppercut. He used the golf club and nailed him.

"You know, I always called golf a poor man's sport until now," Sportsmaster said. "Batter up!"

Talon blasted the golf club out of the man's hand. The criminal dropped to his knees and rolled over. He took a long breath and tried to get back to his feet.

A huge roundhouse kick nailed Sportsmaster in the face. Sportsmaster staggered back one more inch. Talon shot ropes around Sportsmaster and bound him. The criminal only could take half of a step forward before he fell over onto the ground.

"You won't get away with this!" Sportsmaster yelled. He tried to struggle out of the bindings. The only thing he did was fall over onto the ground.

"If I had a nickel for every time a criminal said this to me, I swear," Talon said. "And it looks like you're the one who is not going to get away with anything because here comes the GCPD."

Sportsmaster tried to get out of his bindings. He tried to pull himself to his feet. Tonight could have gone better. Not only did he not get Nightwing and Batman, not even close, but he failed to get his family back. Those so called heroes were real home wreckers.

Talon disappeared the moment the GCPD turned up. It took Lawrence Crock less than a minute to realize Talon stripped him of all of his toys the moment she had left, leaving him on the ground.

On the rooftop, Talon remained perched. She staggered over and almost fell back down to Earth.

' _Are you okay?'_ Karen asked. _'Yeah, stupid question I know….but you should get back for medical attention. I guess when the adrenaline wears off, the hurt comes on.'_

' _Yes, I heal,'_ Jaime said. _'Not as well as Harry when the chains come off, though, but I heal….and those ninjas…they were pretty supernatural….and they weren't where I left them either.'_

Jaime passed the place where she had taken down the ninjas, only to realize they had vanished in the distance. The creepy whisper which haunted her continued to do so. She wiped a drop of sweat from her brow and turned around.

' _So, how did you do?'_ Jaime asked.

' _Would you believe it was a dead end?'_ Harry thought. _'The League is in the middle of something. Some kind of struggle….and the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul was involved in the middle of it.'_

' _And I'm assuming it's not the one you're bedding, but the one you're going to bed eventually,'_ Jaime thought.

' _I can't prove it, although there's enough of a hint where she was there,'_ Harry thought. _'I'll keep you up to date.'_

' _Right, thanks,'_ Jaime thought.

Jaime's attention turned back to the area where the ninjas had been put down earlier. Something about the fact they disappeared into the night, without a trace, unsettled her beyond all belief. The whispers of the ninjas continued to linger in the wind.

She circled back around and noticed the Gotham City Police Department car with the Sportsmaster inside. He had been hauled off.

' _Will he stay in prison this time?'_ Karen asked.

' _Something tells me he'll be out before too long,'_ Jaime thought.

' _We're already ahead of you on that one,'_ Faora thought. _'We should have moved Paula and the girls into the penthouse, to begin with, hell Jade and Artemis spend half of their time here anyway.'_

' _No time like the present to correct that mistake.'_

* * *

 

Jade threw her arms together and scowled. Paula looked at her daughter. She had just returned from the police station to drop off the divorce papers. Now she knew where her husband was, it was easy to serve him.

"I should have known he was there at least….."

"Jade, don't blame yourself," Paula said. "I was unable to keep him out...I never thought he would find a way inside….past the locks and to put you girls in danger."

Jade responded with a nod. She did not blame her mother. The dark haired girl blamed her father for being a loser who could not get a hint when it slapped him in the face.

"I feel sorry for Artemis, she did not need to see what she saw," Jade said.

"Yes, why don't you get up to bed, and get some rest," Paula said. "Or at least try you, it's been a long day."

"For you, yes it has," Jade said. It was close to three in the morning right about now. "Your date got ruined….."

Paula smiled and waved her daughter off. She would have to agree this had been a long night. The recently divorced mother of two turned around and walked towards Harry.

"So, he's locked up, for now," Harry said.

"Yes," Paula said. "Any luck out there finding who attacked us?"

"The lead ran up, in a dead end," Harry said. "So…"

"It was very easy to put the pieces together," Paula said, answering his unasked question. "I'm ashamed I didn't do so now…but….best not to talk about it, to maintain plausible deniability."

Harry smiled in response. He escorted Paula down the hallway and they turned the corner. He opened the door and lead Paula to a spacious bedroom.

"I hope you don't mind staying here," Harry said.

"I should not have been so pig headed to not want to stay here in the first place," Paula said with a smirk. "I just hope I don't get too used to living in luxury….although I might have to."

Paula walked closer towards Harry. Her dress clung to her body and hit every curve of her mature body. The thirty-five-year-old MILF approached Harry.

"And our date didn't end like I think we both wanted it to," Paula said. Her arms snaked around Harry. "Most dates don't end with a missile going through the window, wouldn't you agree?"

"I'd like to hope not if I could avoid it," Harry told her with a smile.

Paula pulled Harry in close. Now she had been freed legally, she could do this without any shame. Of course, had things not worked out so well tonight, she planned to make her move.

Before Paula could make her move, Harry made his. He pushed his lips onto hers with a sizzling kiss. Paula gasped in surprise. Harry's hands worked on her back and started to move behind her. He cupped her ass through her dress and incited a moan from Paula's mouth.

"I know you've wanted this for a long time," Harry said, backing Paula down onto the bed, and kissing down her body. He slid the straps of her dress down to give him access to more skin. "And I'm going to get what she wanted."

Pleasure tremors came down Paula's body. It had been a long time since she had pleasure like this. And she was not about to turn down pleasure when willingly offered.

Paula closed her eyes and savored the sensations of Harry rubbing his fingers between her legs. Her panties flew off the second Harry pulled her dress off. She wanted the date to end like this. She had been sidetracked by the attack on the restaurant.

"I won't even begin to guess how long you've wanted this," Harry said.

"It's been a long time," Paula said. She lifted her hips in response.

Harry slipped one of his digits into her. The warmth of her mature pussy wrapped around him made Harry smile. She was tight for a mother of two. Harry wiggled his finger inside the MILF goddess beneath them. Harry worked his finger almost all the way up and slid it inside Paula.

Paula gasped when Harry pushed into her. She enjoyed Harry the push and the pull inside her. The warmth came up from her body.

Harry's finger slipped out of Paula. He licked his finger to taste the cum. Satisfied with the taste, Harry went down between her legs and started to eat Paula out.

Paula closed her eyes. Heaven did not even begin to describe the sensations coursing through her pussy. Harry drove his tongue down between her legs and munched out her pussy. Her hips rose up and came down. He nibbled on the outer lips and licked her inner folds.

Harry drove in. The woman's firm hands pressed on the back of Harry's head. It encouraged him to bury his face in between her thighs.

"Yes, yes, fuck yes!" Paula yelled. "I'm going to cum."

Harry used his tongue as a vibrator inside her. He licked the inside of her walls while vibrating against her. Juices pumped and Harry sucked them all down.

Paula never had a man go down on her like this. Her fingers reached up and started to rub her nipples. They ached with pleasure. Paula rubbed them up and down and shifted her hips up for Harry to drive his tongue down between them.

Harry re-doubled his efforts to eat out Paula's sweet pussy. The hunger could not be denied. He would eat out this goddess for all she was worth. Paula's legs wrapped around Harry's head and held him into place.

"Yes, mmm, yes, eat my pussy," Paula said. "Right there, eat it all up Harry….munch on my wet cunt, suck all of my juices out….there's a good spot….a really good spot. You're such a good pussy eating, making it nice and wet for it to be fucked."

Harry drove his tongue deeper inside Paula and continued to travel all the way to the center of her core. Her hips bucked and allowed more juices to spill into his mouth. Harry brought her to one more orgasm.

"You haven't seen anything yet," Harry said.

Paula's thighs clenched together at the thought of what would come next. Her slit moistened at the look of Harry's throbbing cock. He pulled down her top and freed her tanned breasts with perky nipples.

Harry pushed himself down against her and brushed his cock against her toned belly. The heat this woman gave made his cock inch closer towards her.

"I'm going to pin you down and bury my cock into your perfect pussy," Harry said. "You're going to scream my name when I keep fucking you. And then, when the time is right, I'm going to fill you up with my seed."

Harry started to nibble Paula on the side of her neck. Paula responded with another heated breath. Harry sucked on the side of her neck.

"I'm going to make you mine forever," Harry said. "I bet you would like that, wouldn't you?"

"Yes," Paula breathed as she wrapped her arms around Harry. "Make me yours forever. Push your cock inside me and drive me to an orgasm. I need a real man inside me, Harry."

Harry hovered his thick cock against Paula's dripping pussy. Her hips pushed up and almost slid Harry in deep into her with a couple of thrusts. Harry's balls throbbed when he reached closer to paradise. One more push and Harry buried inside her.

Paula's nails dug into Harry's shoulder. Her back arched to allow Harry to bury his thick cock into her. Harry pressed onto Paula's hips and rose almost all the way out of her. He buried inside her one more time.

"Yes, you feel so good in me," Paula said. "You're so my better than my husband was."

"I should hope so," Harry said.

Harry's hand's cupped the flesh orbs and leaned down to indulge in them when he fucked Paula's tight pussy. Her cunt flexed around his tool and milked every thrust into her. Harry's stamina held free when he rolled his hands down every inch of the goddess's body.

Paula closed her eyes. She never thought she had the ability to cum like this. It had been a long time. Her tight cunt squeezed Harry's cock. The energy flowed through her body.

"Let it go," Harry whispered with a couple of nibbles on her neck. "Cum for me."

Paula's wet pussy clenched around Harry's thick tool. Harry pushed into her with a couple of huge pumps. Her entire body tensed up and released cum.

The moment Paula's core grew wetter, Harry tightened the grip on her hips and pounded her pussy. A series of rapid-fire thrusts brought Harry's thick tool into her womanhood. She reached up and grabbed onto Harry's shoulder to encourage him.

More stars had been seen with Paula working her hips up. She matched Harry's motion.

"Are you almost there?" Paula asked.

"Not quite, but closer than you think," Harry said. "I want to feel you cum one more time."

Harry did not release her orgasm straight away. He made Paula think about it. The pleasure built in her body to reach a peak. Her wet walls closed up around him and tightened around him. She bucked her hips up towards him.

The sensation of the orgasm flowing through her body made Paula want to clutch Harry in. His hands roamed where they needed to be. The touches lingered at times and at other times, the touches strayed. Every single time he touched her, Paula lost herself in these sensations.

"Good, we're almost there," Harry said.

"Cum, please, I need...I need to feel it inside my body," Paula said. "Go ahead and cum for me, please."

Harry did not have any arguments about what to put inside her body. His balls tensed up and a couple more pumps would have brought Harry to his own peak. Her thighs spread wide and allowed Harry to bury himself as far deep inside her. Paula's legs wrapped around Harry's hips and pulled him in.

Paula's hips twitched up an inch. Every time Harry entered her, her pussy jolted up. He pushed inside her and made her crave every drop of his seed. She nibbled the side of his neck and ear to encourage him while running her hands down his muscular back and squeezing his prick with her inner muscles.

"Yes, right there, cum inside me," Paula said.

Their hot bodies pressed against each other and loins ground together. Harry pushed his cock into her and the contents of his balls spilled into Paula's body. Paula's hands encouraged him to inject every single drop of cum inside her.

Harry grunted and spilled every single drop of cum inside her. Paula's cunt clamped down on him and milked the contents from his balls into her.

"That felt nice," Paula said. She watched him pull out of her. "But, I'm not done yet….it's been a long time….a really long time."

Paula reached over and grabbed Harry's balls when he turned over onto the bed. Harry could tell from the fever and the lust dancing in her eyes how long it could be. She leaned down and sucked his cock to get it up to full mast.

"Don't let me stop you," Harry said with a grunt. "Oh yes, I can feel how long it's been….take me deep in your throat."

Paula did as asked and could feel tingles go through her body. The moment she stopped sucking Harry's cock, Paula slid away from him and situated herself on top of him.

Harry leaned back on the bed and grabbed Paula's breasts when she mounted the top of him. Her pussy slid down on his thick cock and had been filled all the way up.

Jade stood on the other end of the door for a moment. Footsteps snapped her out of the trance she was in and she saw Artemis. Artemis stood with an oversized shirt which came down past her ankles. Jade watched her younger sister stand before her with arms folded.

"So, how's Mom?" Artemis asked.

"She's fine...Harry's keeping her company," Jade said. "Why don't we head to bed, and we'll deal with this in the morning….just block out Lois's snoring if it bothers you."

"Yes, I'm not sure if I can really sleep," Artemis said. "Given what happened with Dad and all that, you know what I mean."

Jade knew exactly what Artemis meant. She knew if she had come down like Artemis did and saw her father, Jade may have attacked him. Not that it would have ended well, but she would have made the effort.

' _I'm not making any promises I wouldn't have done anything to the bastard either,'_ Jade thought. _'I'm not certain it would have ended well. It would have ended really bad if I'm honest with myself.'_

Jade really wanted to kill her father for putting her younger sister in danger.

' _He's locked up now, and hopefully, he'll stay there,'_ Jade said. _'Maybe he'll get the hint when Mom serves him the divorce papers, the loser.'_

Jade wrapped her arm around her sister and steered her away from the bedroom where her mother and Harry slept in.

' _Maybe I'll check up on them in a little bit,'_ Jade thought.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 10** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Ninjas everywhere, I swear, it's an epidemic._

_We finally find out where Ra's body ended up. That particular plot thread happened in 2014. It was a very long time ago, wasn't it?_

_Paula gets a piece of Harry, and it was a long overdue encounter. And Jade gets a sneak peek of what she'll be wanting several years down the line. Artemis manages to avoid having her innocence shattered._

_Until Saturday._


	215. Postgame Show

_Take Part in Democracy and Vote for the Week Thirty One Chapter of the Week Poll at the Blog. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/  
_

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifteen: The Post Game.**

* * *

 

Salvatore Maroni entered the meeting room where he had his weekly meeting with Carmine Falcone. The two mobsters crossed into the center of the room. The second he noticed Falcone, the mobster's blood ran cold. Maroni recognized the look on the man's face. This type of look signified a man who would want to murder pretty much anyone who got in his way.

"Come in, sit down," Falcone said. "Sit down, we have a lot to discuss."

The tone of his voice sounded rather cool. The chair pulled away from the table and Maroni sat down. No drinks, no food, nothing, just other than these two men and the business they had to undertake. The Roman eyed the man across the other end of the table.

"Cobblepot has gone off the deep end," Maroni said. "Have you got any leads on your boy?"

The despondent look crossing over Falcone's face told Maroni all that he needed to know.

"Nothing," Falcone said. "I intend to meet with him this weekend...I wish to have the upper hand on him."

"Yeah, well, it's not going to happen," Maroni said. "No offense, Carmine, but the man's lost his mind and then there's Black Mask. Do you think he put the bird up to this?"

Falcone took a long breath when he looked at Maroni. Not only was he pretty sure, all evidence pointed to the fact. The mercenaries entering Gotham City caused them a lot of problems. Falcone took a moment to consider it.

"Can't prove anything," Falcone said. "But, it's pretty much obvious. I still want to know what got up on Sionis's ass."

Maroni could have thought of a lot of reasons why Sionis would have lost his mind. The man always seemed to have a couple of screws loose. His parents screwed the boy up by hovering above him like a helicopter. The man started to drum his fingers on the table.

"So, you want my opinion of what to do?" Maroni asked. Falcone's eyebrow raised at him. "We turn the bird and Black Mask against either other and let them wipe each other out. Then we swoop in and take out the pictures."

Falcone raised his eyebrow in a thoughtful manner. Not the worst idea, and also not the best idea, to be honest. He considered Maroni with a long and frustrated gaze.

"Just my opinion, though," Maroni said. "If you want your boy back, I say we take something from Cobblepot. Something which he'd do anything to get back…do we know if that fat bastard even cares about anyone? I can't see him having any kids."

Falcone swooped in on this one in an instant.

"No, I refuse to descend to his level," Falcone said. "I'm a lot better than Cobblepot. I'm a businessman, and he's a thug….we'll find a common ground."

"Yeah, people are saying….not me obviously, you're getting soft out there," Maroni said. "And if you ask me, Cobblepot's balls have just dropped, and he's going to look like the bigger man."

Falcone's breath left his body. Before he could continue this argument with Maroni, a knock on the door brought them both out of the conversation.

"Yes," Falcone said.

The door opened up and Falcone's secretary stepped inside. The secretary strolled towards Falcone and leaned down. She spoke in a low voice so Maroni could not hear her. "Sir, Thorne is on the phone….he wants to talk."

Falcone nodded. He rose to his feet. The veteran mobster in Gotham City turned towards Maroni after a long second.

"We'll have this conversation later," Falcone said. "I know you have to get going."

"Yes, yes, of course," Maroni said.

Maroni would have liked to see where this conversation between Thorne and Falcone would have gone. Both of Falcone's aides walked on either side of him and Maroni knew he would not have a chance to see this conversation. The man made a defeated motion with his hand and had been lead down the steps.

Falcone watched Maroni leave out the window and to the car. The Roman watched the car turn around the corner.

"Yes, Rupert, you wanted to speak to me?" Falcone asked.

"Yes, first, I'd like to offer my condolences for the abduction of your son," Thorne said. "I can imagine how this must be a trying time for you and your father…..and I'm afraid Oswald Cobblepot may have crossed a line."

Falcone wondered what angle Thorne played here. His words held some level of legitimacy. Yet, at the same time, Rupert Thorne had been playing a rather intense chess game with the criminal underworld of Gotham City over the past couple of months. He frowned.

"Thank you," Falcone said. "I'm not sure what had gotten into him…..once a Cobblepot…though."

"Yes, he….has a lot of pressure deal with and his reputation destroys him," Thorne said. He took a deep breath. "If I may be so bold to ask, what do you intend to do with Cobblepot?"

"I hope to meet with him and make a deal with him for the safe return of his son," Falcone said. "Every person has a price, and even someone….as uncultured as Cobblepot, would have a price. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Well, I hope the meeting goes well," Thorne said. "If you would like….I can attempt to talk reason into him as a neutral party…..it would be a shame if we had to act."

Falcone smiled. Thorne thought in the back of his mind both of them were on equal ground. The mobster needed his backing as things were getting rough. The Commission of Crime ended up being the least of several evils.

' _And the only reason I even had Salvatore spring because of the changing guard in Gotham Falcone,'_ Falcone thought. He responded with a deep thigh.

"I'll speak to him," Falcone said. "Thanks for your help, Thorne."

Falcone set the phone down. Thorne played an angle. One did not ascend to Falcone's level in Gotham City without being able to pick out when someone was playing an angle. While Falcone figured Thorne had little to do with the abduction of his son, he worked up Cobblepot in some way.

' _Always a crafty planner, working his angle.'_

* * *

 

The gates of Blackgate Prison slid open. Four armed arms walked on either side of Lawrence Crock, better known as the Sportsmaster. Two more guards joined them to walk in front of him and two more guards walked behind him. The criminal's hands cuffed in front of his chest and a monitoring bracelet hooked to his ankle.

The man known as the Sportsmaster recalled the events of one of the worst days in his life. He attempted to reunite with his family earlier tonight. Only, he had been attacked by Nightwing, well one of them. They had a brief battle out in the street. Nightwing took out Sportsmaster and left him to be picked up by the GCPD and transferred to Blackgate.

To add some unfortunate insult to injury, divorce papers had been served to him. Crock blamed Harry Potter for this. The moment Crock got out of prison, and he would escape, he would get his hands on the homewrecking bastard.

"Guess you hit the wall, Crock," one of the guards said. "See, sport's reference, NASCAR, because the drivers can hit the wall when he makes one wrong turn."

Crock gritted his teeth. NASCAR was not even a real sport. It took no athletic prowess whatsoever to drive a car around in a circle for three hours. Nothing, but constant right turns, not a real sport, just a disgrace to the name of athletic competition. The only thing Crock respected less was soccer. To think a bunch of Europeans called this sport, Football, disgraced actual, real, Football, a sport of real men.

The guard who thought he was witty nudged Crock and pushed him around the corner. Crock grunted and almost turned around.

"Get going," the guard said. "You knew you'd be back here. We kept your cell nice and warm…still smells like shit, but it's worth it for someone like you."

The guard's laughter cut through the back of Crock's head. His fist curled and he responded with a grunt. One of them nailed Crock in the back of the leg with a baton. Crock's knee started to buckle underneath him. The criminal walked forward.

The lights flickered over the top of their head. Crock slumped forward and smiled.

"Lights still work like shit, don't they?" Crock asked.

"Yeah, what are you going to do, raise taxes?" the guard asked. "Not exactly high priority dealing with scum like you."

One of the lights blew out. Crock turned his head to the side and watched something move to the side.

"Hey, hey, HEY!" the guard yelled. Crock turned away. "Wipe that smug smile off of your face….what the hell are you looking at anyway?"

"Your face, when you die," Crock said.

The man's mouth hung open and he tried to say something. He never had a chance to say a word. A ninja moved from the shadows and stabbed the guard in the back. The guard slumped down onto the ground. Crock pulled the baton out of the hand of the guard's hand. The second ninja came from the shadows and sliced Crock's hands-free. Crock smiled and turned towards them. He pushed the baton back into the gut of one of the prison guards. A second guard rushed towards Crock.

The Sportsmaster ducked the baton swung. He nailed the guard in the stomach with a rapid fire jab. Another jab to the chest knocked him.

"Get more guards up here, there's been a break….."

Sportsmaster jumped over the head of the guard. The guard suffered a huge jab to the chest and had been backed against the wall. More rapid fire punches punished the guard. Sportsmaster stepped back and enjoyed his handiwork.

The mouthy prison guard reached over to a dropped gun. Sportsmaster rushed forward and nailed his adversary with a running kick to the head. The guard staggered to his hands and knees.

"Three strikes, you're out."

Crock nailed his adversary with three rapid fire strikes in succession. The guard gasped in response. Crock grabbed the guard and threw him through the gates of the open cell. The guard fell face first into a prison toilet and gave a sickening gasp.

The two ninjas who assisted him walked over. One of them cut the tracking bracelet off the man.

"I wondered if you would show up," Sportsmaster said. "Thanks for the rescue…guess you're boss isn't done with me yet."

The two ninjas looked at him. One of them extended a finger towards the exit and another spoke in a ghostly whisper.

"This way."

Sportsmaster figured it would be best for his own health if he argued with these two men. Another few months rotting in Blackgate would not be a good thing. And surely they would not have gone to all of the trouble to save him to just kill him.

* * *

 

The Interceptor traveled through space towards an inn on the planet. Ilana sat back from the rest of the Green Lantern crew. At the very least, they kept her away from the cell they trapped her in. Ilana closed her eyes and thought about her lot in life.

Not trapped in a cell on the ship, rather in a cell of her own mind. The barely charged red lantern ring burned against her fingers. The deep rooted blood rage flowed through Ilana. Every single dark thought entering her mind swam through the back of the Red Lantern's mind.

' _Need the power, need it now, need it bad.'_

Carol turned around and could see Ilana rock back and forth. She resembled a strung out junky who was a long time overdue for a hit. Despite the fact she knew in the back of her mind the Red Lantern ring destroyed the girl, she needed the power.

"She's beyond help, isn't she?" Katma asked.

"Yes," Sinestra said. "It would have been much kinder to remove her hand along with the ring."

Carol was not certain if this would have solved the problem or not. The beautiful blonde turned her head around and looked towards an inn which laid in the midst of a dingy hunk of rock. Way too large to be considered an asteroid, way too small to be a planet.

"So, Aya, are you sure the Red Lanterns have taken up residence here?" Carol asked.

"There have been rumors they have done so," Aya said. "We must check out all credible sightings, yes."

"Yes, we do," Sinestra said. "Take the ship down."

One look at this place reminded Sinestra the type of people who frequented this inn were not the most law abiding of people. She could see a couple of shady looking men enter the inn. One of them carried a case in his hand. Sinestra would have liked to take a look at it.

"Remember, we're here for the Red Lanterns," Carol said. "Ilana, are you coming with us?"

Sinestra motioned for Carol to walk off to the side. The two Green Lanterns stood shoulder to shoulder with each other.

"Are you certain this is the best idea?" Sinestra asked. "She's all strung out….and she could blow our cover…if the Red Lanterns are there."

"Do you have a better idea?" Carol asked. "Would you rather leave her alone on the ship?"

Ilana's frown deepened. The two of them talked about her future again, like she was not in the room with them. The woman's fingers curled together and she gritted those teeth with a frustrated sigh.

"I'm coming with you," Ilana said. "The two of you wouldn't be able to handle the Red Lanterns if they attacked….and I know how they operate…."

"Do you think you could do anything when you look like you're going to collapse?" Sinestra asked.

Ilana shook her head and motioned for the front of the ship to open. Katma took half of a step behind her. The three Green Lanterns and one Red Lantern exited the cell.

"Again, I'm telling you this is a bad idea," Sinestra said. "And if the Red Lanterns aren't here…this is going to be a worse idea. We're going draw some attention."

The guard at the door looked at Sinestra. The lingering gaze passed over the woman for a long moment. She stepped closer and locked eyes with him.

"Let us through, and I don't have this place shut down," Sinestra said.

The guard responded with a nod and allowed them to walk inside the club. Carol's nose wrinkled. A loud pounding echoed through the club and flashing lights appeared through the club. They bombarded her senses the second where Carol strolled inside the club.

"You look you haven't heard music before," Katma said.

"Oh, this is music?" Carol asked.

' _I'll never say a bad thing about any of the music on Earth once again,'_ Carol thought.

Ilana's head turned from the right to the left. She sensed when a fellow Red Lantern was near. She clutched her hand and a chill spread through it. The loud music continued to pound the back of her head.

"No, they have to be here," Ilana said. "We can't have gone all of this way for nothing."

"Quiet!" Sinestra yelled.

Ilana closed her eyes. Their attention had been turned in another direction. A large pale skinned man walked forward. A dark mullet stood out in the crowd along with his biker gear. He stepped towards a bar floozy.

"Oh boy, here comes trouble," Sinestra said.

Carol blinked for a moment. Katma decided to fill her in on the details.

"His name is Lobo," Katma said. "He's the last of a race of aliens known as the Czarnians…..he wiped out his entire planet."

"Yes, he built a bomb for a science project, and ended up nuking his entire planet," Sinestra said.

This entire revelation floored Carol. It took her a couple of seconds before she came out with the obvious answer.

"He nuked his entire planet…so why is he….well why is still out and about in not in lock up somewhere?" Carol asked.

Sinestra kept her gaze on Lobo for ten long seconds before she answered. "There's a couple of reasons for this. A lot of people consider the death of his planet to be a mercy killing. They would rather have one Czarnian around, then a whole planet of them around. One of them is more than enough."

' _Specially when the one is Lobo,'_ Sinestra thought.

Carol frowned and did not accept the answer right away. Her attention had been diverted towards Lobo.

"Hey, baby, I know what your sign is," Lobo said. "Your sign is you want a piece of the Main Man."

"Get back you creep…..my brother won't be happy with you," she said.

"Forgot about your brother, I'm like a Hog," Lobo said. "I could be ridden long and hard all night long."

Carol almost slapped her palm directly into her face. Was he serious? She had heard her share of really bad pick-up lines in college. The fact bad pickup lines varied little the universe over made Carol feel a slight bit better, at least in the back of her mind.

"Is this guy bothering you?"

Some short man stepped over towards him. Lobo snorted in response and looked at the little man.

"Hey, get us some drinks, little man," Lobo said. He started to tap the man on the chest. "Go, hop to it, you wouldn't want to get me angry, you wouldn't like it when I'm angry."

Lobo patted the hand on the side of the shoulder of the man. The little alien's expression bubbled over into a greater rage. He caught Lobo's hand when it stopped tapping him.

"You have at least ten seconds to step away from her," the little man said.

"Oh, I have ten seconds to step away from her!" Lobo said in a mocking voice. "Well, guess you showed me...I better make sure my watch is right."

Lobo lifted up his head and checked a non-existent watch. A couple of seconds passed before Lobo turned his hand around and smacked the little man across the face. He did it twice, a third time before his hand had been blocked a fourth time. Lobo found himself hovering off of the ground. The bounty hunter's legs and arms scrambled in his attempt to stop himself from being hurled around.

"What the frag?" Lobo asked.

Lobo hurled back a couple of inches and landed onto the ground with a sickening thud. The wind had knocked out of him. The Main Man pulled himself to a standing position. The man swept over Lobo and looked at him through those demonic looking eyes.

"I warned you!" he whispered. "I warned you."

Carol looked from the bounty hunter on the ground to Sinestra and back to the bounty hunter on the ground before she returned her gaze towards Sinestra.

"Should we get involved?" Carol asked.

The small alien turned into a large hulking monster and started to laugh. Lobo rose to his feet and tried to nail his adversary with a punch. The block had been deflected off of him and Lobo propelled him back a couple of feet to the ground.

"What's the matter?" the alien asked. "I thought you were the Main Man? Maybe you've lost your nerve….have you lost your nerve?"

"Wait for it," Sinestra said.

Lobo rose up off of the ground and crashed back down in an instant. The normally rough and tumble bounty hunter rolled over onto the table. He picked up a pool cue, delivered a huge battle cry, and rushed towards the gigantic alien. He swung the point of the pool cue and shattered it over the top of the head of this adversary. The pool cue reduced into toothpicks the moment he stepped back.

"Yes, I'm enjoying this," Ilana said.

Sinestra blinked and realized she had something in common with the Red Lantern. Lobo flew back into the bar and landed with a thud. He picked up a Biker Chain from the ground and wrapped it around his fist.

"Alright, you fragging yutz, you want to dance?" Lobo asked. He charged the man and jumped into the air with a huge punch. The alien blocked his punch. "Then let's…dance…."

Sinestra waited for the right moment to interject. She would hate to deprive the patrons of tonight's entertainment.

"Okay, now," Sinestra said.

* * *

 

Harry kicked back in his office on the telephone and prepared to talk to Martha Kent. She was not the only person he had to call today. He could have given her a call on the bond. Sometimes, though, the bond became cumbersome and there were instances where there were too many people who were trying to push for attention over the area of the bond link.

"I just wanted to call you and see how everyone was doing," Harry said. "And see if everything is okay for Thanksgiving."

"Well, barring any last minute problems, all of us should make it, and if Nell hasn't talked to you yet, she's told me to pass on the message she's coming," Martha said. "She's looking forward to it, and it looks like you're going to have a full house, aren't you?"

Harry responded with a round of laughter. A full house really did describe what Thanksgiving was. The manor really held everything in place last year.

"The Danvers family is coming over," Harry said. "Kara is looking forward to meeting her cousin…well in a matter of speaking."

"Well, that can be a tricky family tree to wrap your head around," Martha said. "And when you include your bloodline in there, it gets even more insane from there."

Harry smiled one more time. He looked at the guest list. While Harry did not have to worry all too much about security because it was in the Manor, it's better to be safe and sorry in a situation like this.

"For once, I'm looking for a nice, peaceful night," Harry said. "I know I'm pushing things….."

"I doubt you're really pushing things, Harry," Martha said. "So, do you intend to move forward with Doctor Danvers?"

"The ball is in her court," Harry said. "I suspect, whatever happens, happens. Alex has been working on her."

' _Another successful recruit to the cult of Har-Zod,'_ Lily thought with a smug smile. _'And maybe I can get her….going in the right direction. Just a suggestion.'_

' _Nah, let her come to the revelation on her own,'_ Harry said. _'I'm sure Eliza will eventually jump me sooner or later. The looks she's been giving me the last couple of times.'_

' _And you would know those looks better than anyone else,'_ Diana thought. _'Given those are the looks pretty much every single woman on the planet give you.'_

"Hippolyta and some of the Amazons are making the trip as well," Harry said. "She wants to assess Lyta has been keeping up with her training."

"Haven't you been working her hard?" Martha asked.

"In many ways, yes," Harry said. "She has been stepping up her game….especially since Rebecca and Lois are training. She doesn't want to fall behind either of them. So there's been some competitive fire with them."

Harry thought the younger girls took their strides rather well. They might not have been field ready. Harry did not know when he would allow them on the field. The current atmosphere with the mercenaries caused problems. At least under Harvey, there was a lot more of a crackdown on the law, and Hill managed to live up to his campaign promises to the best of his abilities.

"So, will she be sticking around?" Martha asked. "I remember Lily mentioning she wanted to take some time off and…"

"The hunt for Aresia has got her rather frustrated, especially after the near miss," Harry said. "I really hope it doesn't take another four years to get a hint of her again."

' _Oh, Hera help us if that's the case!'_ Donna thought. _'Why did you even bring it up, Harry?"_

Harry empathized with Donna's frustration with the experience of suffering a similar bout of frustrating as it regarded to Aresia. The Amazon slipped through the cracks, with a little bit of generous help. Harry hoped deep down Aresia would be found. Each passing day diminished any hope the Amazons had the capability of saving Aresia from her own demons.

"Let's hope for everyone's sake it doesn't take as long next time," Martha said. "Hippolyta could use some downtime. We both know how much the Queen works hard."

Martha had a certain amount of perspective about the challenges faced by the Amazon Queen by having a spirited daughter. Added responsibilities resulted in Martha's empathy for the Amazon raising several notches beyond the normal level in addition to the level of respect. Hippolyta proved the position of Queen did not come easy.

"So, I can expect you in a couple of days before?" Harry asked.

"Jonathan, Claire, Marie, and I will be in Gotham on the Tuesday before," Martha said. "Lana and Nell will follow us soon after, it's been a while since we've gotten together."

"Good, the charity drive wraps up that day as well," Harry said. "Veronica and Sapphire put a lot of work into it."

"Those girls work about as hard as you do," Martha said.

"And they should be as appreciated as well," Harry said. "Talk to you later Martha, I have a couple of meetings to head to."

Harry hung up the phone and walked to the closet. The prodigal young man snatched a jacket and turned around. Harry went over the list of everything which needed to get done before Thanksgiving. The final class for GCU ended on Tuesday morning, which gave everyone involved plenty of time to prepare for holiday activities.

' _Then, we prepare for the madness which is Black Friday,'_ Amanda thought. _'Don't leave the house without riot gear.'_

Black Friday in Gotham City resulted in a new level of madness which no city across America or around the world ever hoped to achieve. Harry wished the people working security detail the best of luck. One year venturing out into this madness told Harry more than enough about how frantic shoppers could get, never mind shoppers in Gotham. Ninety-five percent of his Christmas shopping finished, so only a few loose ends to wrap up.

* * *

 

A stack of papers dropped down hard onto a wooden table in the Cat's Cradle night club. Selina Kyle sauntered into the club and leaned down over the papers. The rustling sound of papers being flipped through filled the air in the club.

The side doors opened and Mia and Holly both stepped in. Both girls exchanged a long look at each other. Both swam with confusion of what Selina worked on at the table. Mia's eyebrow raised up and the young girl cleared her throat when looking down at the older woman.

"Sit down," Selina said. "I'm just going over some figures to find out whether or not something is plausible."

Selina intended to go over this matter with Harry at the first possible opportunity. The two business partners discussed it a couple of times in the past.

"Is this about the….more risqué version of this club?" Mia asked.

"Not only more risqué, but more exclusive," Selina said. "It's not going to be off the ground this year, though. Sadly, we couldn't get all of our ducks in a row. Next year, though, next year will be different."

Mia understood in an instant where Selina came from with words like this. Over the past year plus, Cat's Cradle rose from almost to the depths to brand new heights, all thanks in part to the hard work Harry and Selina put in. Harry insisted his work only amounted to being a silent partner in their business venture. Mia disagreed with Harry's assessment. One of Gotham's favorite sons lent a certain amount of credibility which could not be bought on any auction.

"I'm certain you'll figure something out," Holly said. "The numbers this quarter are coming in great…..and Mia's new ideas made the club a bit more profitable."

Mia tried not to look too pleased with the work which had been done. Selina smiled and placed a hand on the younger girl's shoulder to give it a light squeeze.

"You should be pleased," Selina said.

The doors of the club opened and Alexandra Potter walked in. Selina noticed just by the walk this no-nonsense woman arrived with a bit of a purpose.

"Selina, I need a quick word with you, alone," Alex said.

Mia's eyes darted up to Selina with curiosity. Holly grabbed Mia's hand and pointed something out.

"Right, of course, Mia and I will go over these figures in your office, and give you all of the privacy you need," Holly said.

Mia's protest had been cut off by Holly's rather insistent tug of pulling her away. The moment the two woman disappeared, Alex and Selina sat down on the table.

' _Hopefully, Selina doesn't get too obsessed with this one,'_ Faora thought. _'Knowing her, though, I would not be too surprised.'_

"Copperhead is out on the loose."

"Yes, I figured no prison could hold her," Selina said. "The moment Copperhead gets to me, though, this time, I'll be ready."

"Will you?" Alex asked.

Selina leaned in to grip Alex's hand and give it a firm squeeze. The two women closed the gap on the table with a sizzling kiss.

"Yes," Selina said. "Trust me."

* * *

 

Alberto Falcone's back arched and hips grew sore from being forced to sit bound on this wooden, and very uncomfortable chair for the better part of the past several days. Days seemed like months. Alberto only could crane up to watch the clock for a few minutes. Clock dragged down and passed for several long seconds. Twice a day, the mobsters brought bread and water. Only enough to sustain Alberto to keep him alive for more torture and to make sure the message sank in.

' _Any moment now, it will happen,'_ Alberto asked.

The door opened up and two roughneck thugs entered the room. One of them failed to acquaint himself with a shower in quite some time. The other's face riddled with scars and at least two fingers cut off.

"Well, the boss is meeting with your old man soon to see what he's willing to do to get you back," the thug said. "Don't really think you're worth a piece of shit on the bottom of my shoe."

Alberto performed some deep breathing exercises learned in the office of Hugo Strange.

' _I am in control. This situation will not get away from me.'_

"Look, whatever Cobblepot is paying you, I'll double it, triple it," Alberto said.

"Listen, boy," the scarred thug said. "This isn't about the money, it's about respect. The Falcones have been running this town for too long."

"I command you let me out at once, you barbarians!" Alberto yelled.

The two thugs locked eyes for a moment. The greasier henchmen's lips twitched and laughter spilled from it.

"Well, well, well, look who is being a big shot. Seems like your balls have just dropped, haven't it? Maybe the boss will let us cut them off and feed them to you."

Alberto squirmed another fraction of an inch in the chair. The pain shooting through the mob prince's body caused sweat to roll down his face. The agony registered beyond anything Alberto suffered in his life.

The door creaked open and the one and only Oswald Cobblepot waddled down the steps. The mobster's sardine breath caused Alberto to recoil as each step brought Cobblepot closer. Alberto turned in the chair and groaned.

"So, we'll see how much Daddy thinks of you," Cobblepot said. "You know what I think, boy?"

Alberto only allowed a response of a stare of contempt. Glorious images flashed through the mind which painted this encounter in a different mind. Alberto imagined a glorious escape, cumulating him with snatching the Penguin's umbrella and beating the fat bastard half to death with it.

"He'd throw you under the bus just as much as he threw my old man under the bus," Cobblepot said.

The Penguin's umbrella pressed against Alberto's chin. The knife concealed did not pop out. Penguin ensured through the knife always simmered a fraction of an inch way.

"You don't scare me," Alberto said. "The moment I get out of here….."

"You'll do what precisely?" Cobblepot asked. "Listen to me, boy, you're nothing. Don't have any beef with you….just a lot easier to get hold of than your brother or sister."

Cobblepot understood the strategy of going for the weakest link in the chain better than anyone else. One of the few profound things Stanley Cobblepot told Oswald would be an empire only was as strong as the weakest link.

"Are you calling me soft?" Alberto asked.

"Smart lad, now you're getting it," Cobblepot said. "You better get used to this place, because until your father gets me what I want….we're going to be here for a very long time."

Oswald turned around and something warm and wet hit the back of his head. The mobster turned around and peered towards Alberto with witty eyes.

"Do you think you can do that one more time in my face, son?" Cobblepot asked. "Because I'm not quite sure you had the stones to do what you really did?"

Alberto spat at Cobblepot one more time. Professor Strange said assertion would lead to respect. The mob prince stared at Cobblepot who placed one hand on his face and wiped the spittle off. A grin spread over the face of Cobblepot.

Seconds later one meaty fist nailed Alberto fresh in the face. The mobster teetered back and slumped against the chair with nowhere to go. Blood spilled from his mouth and not for the first time since Alberto's captivity.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on August 13** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Sportsmaster does speak the truth about NASCAR._

_Lobo cameo was all kinds of fun._

_Black Friday really is the tool of the devil._

_Asserting yourself can work, although the Penguin isn't in the mood to play._

_Until Saturday._


	216. To Give Thanks

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixteen: To Give Thanks.**

* * *

 

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving in Gotham City kicked off in style with one of the biggest canned foods in the history of the city. Everyone lined up around the block to pitch in their fair share. The one time of the year where everyone stepped back and thought of those less fortunate than them, maybe out of some kind of sense of obligation or something. The people who this drive benefitted did not complain.

Juno Jones walked out into the aftermath. The workers packed up several large boxes of canned food. In all of the years, Juno never saw such a marvelous effort done. Several warm meals would be put on the table for those who could be considered less fortunate.

' _Remarkable,'_ Juno thought.

Veronica Vreeland grinned from ear to ear with the final proceedings. Juno walked across the room to come face to face with one of the major driving forces behind this.

"So, do you think it's a bit much if I'm happy with how well this turned out?" Veronica asked.

"No, not at all," Juno said. "You should be happy….anyone would be happy with what has been accomplished today. Feel free to pat yourself on the back no matter what."

The outpouring from the people of Gotham City sent Veronica to a new level of excitement. She had been struck dumb by how much these people helped out in this time of need.

"And speaking of one of the driving forces, here he comes now," Juno said.

Harry Potter walked out in front of the stage. He took a bit of a backseat today, to ensure the focus was on Veronica, Juno, Kathy, and Sapphire, all of whom who pitched in more than he had a chance to.

"Now, I wouldn't call myself one of the driving forces," Harry said.

"Modesty isn't your usual colors," Veronica said. "And you did pitch in and…..if you thought you could do more, then you must have done something right."

Harry smiled. A whole lot had been done right from what every party did as far one could see. The only person who did not think this drive resulted in anything less than a rousing success ended up being the person who had the most insane of all expectations. Or to make it blunt, the person Harry Potter looked into the mirror every single time he woke up in the morning.

"I know the feeling," Juno said with a chuckle. "No matter what you do, it's never enough, is it? You always want to do more."

"Oh, we've done more this year. So much more it's just….wow….."

Sapphire Stagg staggered in and joined the three of them. Kathy slipped in next with a wicked smile to match the gleeful step. Harry found the Kane heiress thrown directly into an embrace. The embrace had been returned between the two of them. Harry matched Kathy's actions with a kiss.

"I feel like I should be thanking all of you," Harry said.

"Well, we had a good year last year," Sapphire said after taking the place occupied by Kathy in Harry's arms. Sapphire leaned in and fired a sizzling kiss onto Harry's lips. "And I just know this year would be an even better year."

"And the year after this?" Veronica asked.

Sapphire corked an eyebrow after pulling away from the kiss. A devilish grin spread over the woman's face. One soft finger planted on the other side of Veronica's face.

"If you don't think we're going to do better next year, you're out of your mind," Sapphire said. A light pop came from her lips. "Or, we're losing our touch."

Harry laughed and watched Bruce walk around the corner. The two gentleman made their way off to one side to discuss some private business.

"Good haul this year," Bruce said. "I'm impressed."

"No kidding," Harry said. "Just when these girls are given a high set of expectations, they exceed them a long and far way away."

The two gentleman locked eyes with each other for a long moment. Harry locked onto the fact Bruce looked over his shoulder with an alarming amount of regularity.

"Crock escaped from Blackgate," Bruce said.

"Yes, I heard," Harry said. "Security not only had been breached, but it had been shattered."

The Sportsmaster's new allies lead Harry down a problematic path. He hoped something would break after a time. The White Ghost held all of the cards now and Harry waited for the enigmatic estranged son of the Demon to make his next move.

"Dusan Al Ghul may have been cast out by his father for being weak, but in some ways, it makes him more dangerous," Harry said. "I'd recommend watching your back if I were you."

"Yes, it's been noted," Bruce said.

Already frequent attempts to cash in on the bounty had become more frequent three weeks after the bounty laid down. For the most part, the common and petty thugs tried to cash in on the bounty. More of the lower end of the assassin pool followed. Some of the threats grew more brazen and the threats lowered.

"At least everything is quieter," Harry said.

Bruce responded with a nod. The holidays always bubbled over with a sense of unease for the man. Crime never took a holiday no matter how ideal this particular fact seemed. Bruce parted ways having received a call.

The moment Bruce Wayne left, Juno replaced him in front of Harry's line of sight. Harry figured this would be an ideal replacement for the Wayne heir.

"The next couple of months are going to be interesting," Juno said. "Eris is ready for the Ascension ceremony. I trust Lyta and you will make it."

"I know for a fact Lyta won't forgive me if we miss it," Harry said. "Anything else I should know about? Anything on the divine front which is going to lead to a problem?"

Juno responded with a smile and looked off into the distance. The thoughtful glint turned towards Gotham City. Despite the underbelly of seediness, those who worked outside of the city reeked of potential. Many Gods and Goddesses questioned Juno's decision to set up shop in Gotham City with the seediness. The disguised goddess hoped each divine figure would understand the point.

"No more than the usual storms," Juno said. "We just best prepare for our next move and hope everything is going to go forth as planned."

Juno's hands rested on Harry's shoulders. The two of them shared the moment together whilst Sapphire, Veronica, and Kathy oversaw the crates of canned goods being brought out of the warehouse.

"I know you're preparing for war," Juno said. "And the next couple of months will be interesting."

Juno's words brought Harry's thoughts back to what Joseph Blackfire preached about back on Halloween night. The undercurrent of insanity with Blackfire's words had been coated with a kernel of truth. Harry saw something happening. Gotham City changed over the past month after since this bounty had been put on.

"I swear, sometimes it's hard to find good help these days!" Veronica yelled.

Harry smiled and decided to see what the issue was. Juno allowed him to leave with a silent agreement for the two to share a kiss. Both parted ways and left Juno to resume a brief glimpse of Gotham City.

Something told her the next couple of months would be quite interesting indeed.

* * *

 

The penthouse occupied by Mario Falcone under most normal circumstances had been well kept up and cleaned well. Not even a mite of dust had been put out of place. These days, though, the status of the penthouse changed for the worst.

A pair of beer bottles rested on the table and several more rested on the floor. Mario Falcone stepped from the bedroom and walked towards the microwave. The man's face collected three day's worth of stubble on it. A can of beans removed to the cupboard resulted in the only food which had been eaten for days.

Mario slid down the rails over recent weeks and only became worse when the news of his brother's kidnap had come to light. The Roman refused to take the war to Penguin, instead wanting to mediate. Mario believed the words spoken by a lot of people in the underworld. The old man had gone soft. Had this happened five years ago, scum like Cobblepot would be floating at the bottom of the Gotham River after having been fitted with a pair of cement shoes.

A knock on the door brought Mario's attention to the outside. The Falcone heir picked up a baseball bat and marched to the door. Mario unhinged the door and swung the door open. What stood at the other end of the door did not make Mario want to relax the bat, rather it made him want to drive it over this visitor's face.

Salvatore Maroni took a step forward. The mobster's hands rose up for a moment.

"Hey, I come in peace…and I bare pizza!" Maroni said.

A box steaming hot tempted Mario. He looked towards Maroni with intrigue, and also a little bit of suspicion.

"It's that old place on nineteenth, the guy makes it homemade, none of that processed crap," Maroni said. "We can have a nice chat and conduct some business."

Mario considered his options. Curiosity won over mistrust and the middle Falcone sibling stepped back to allow Salvatore to step inside. Salvatore walked inside and noticed a gun sticking halfway out from underneath the pillow. The mobster circumvented around several dropped beer bottles.

"Rough couple of weeks, I see," Maroni said.

"Get on with it, Sal," Mario said. "After all the crap I've had to go through, I'm not in the mood with any games."

Salvatore dropped the pizza box on the table to cause it to open. The piping hot goodness came out and Sal took a piece of pizza.

"No games," Maroni said in between bites of pizza. "No games, just business, I know what you're upset about and to be honest, I'm not in the best mood about it either. Your brother got snatched by the Penguin and his thugs."

Mario just nodded. He wasn't sure why Maroni told him something he already knew.

"Why is he still alive?" Mario asked. The beer bottle in Mario's hand smashed over the table. The glass cut into Mario's hand. "Why is this fat bastard still breathing? Why did my father allow him to get away with this?"

"You want my opinion?" Salvatore asked. "You want my honest opinion, from the bottom of my heart?"

The cogs in Mario Falcone's mind started to grind to life. The young mob prince entered two different minds. On the one hand, he thought Maroni could be stirring up some shit. On the other hand, Maroni could have been coming with information the Roman thought Mario could not handle hearing about. Only one response popped into Mario's mind.

"Tell me, straight up from the bottom of your heart," Mario said. "I don't any bullshit, just straight up facts."

"Hey, I didn't come here to bullshit you," Maroni said. "If I came here to bullshit you, you would have had me killed."

Maroni finished his statement with a chuckle. Mario found a little humor in the statement. Knowing he could not lighten the mood, Maroni pressed on.

"Right, right, yeah, right," Maroni said. "Your old man lost the plot along the way. I keep telling him people like Cobblepot, he doesn't understand anything other than violence. That's why he took Alberto, and if we let this matter lay…..your brother is coming to come back piece by piece."

Maroni took one of the pieces of pepperoni in his mouth. Mario helped himself to the pizza.

"We've been up and down this road a couple of times," Maroni said. "We've had our differences….over your old man's hotel….but that's all water under the bridge now. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, you know how it goes. And I think we can agree Oswald Fucking Cobblepot is neither of our friends."

Mario only responded with a crisp nod. Maroni smiled, the boy had been lead along hook line and sinker.

"And Thorne, can't trust that bastard as far as we can throw his fat ass," Maroni said. "The guy's saying about how he wants peace in Gotham City. I think he's been talking to the Penguin, talking to your old man, and seeing what happens when he pits each other. And I wouldn't be surprised if he riled up Sionis."

The two men looked at each other. Maroni helped himself to another long drink of wine and responded with a smile.

"What do you think we should do?" Mario asked.

"I asked myself the same question," Maroni said. "How do you clip a buzzard's wings? Well, everyone has loved ones, even a fat bastard like Oswald Cobblepot."

Maroni reached into his overcoat and presented a file. The file dropped onto the table. Mario gave the folder a once over and smiled in the most devilish way possible.

"I know what we're going to do now."

' _Glad to see the kid understands the program better than his old man.'_

* * *

 

Blackgate Manor hosted one of the largest parties of the year. Alison Blaire showed up to join Daisy and the Danvers family who turned up.

"Thank you for not embarrassing me, Kara," Alex said.

"Oh, don't act like you're so mature and above it," Kara said. "I've heard you gush about Alison Blaire about as much of the next person."

"Yeah about her work with charity, it's amazing, her music….it leaves something less to be desired," Alex said. She paused and looked at Alison. "No offense meant obviously, I'm sure your music…well it appeals…."

"Hey, everyone has their own tastes," Alison said. "If everyone liked my music, it would be a shock. Hell, I'd be concerned."

Both of the girls shared a smile with each other.

"If I didn't hear it on a constant loop, might have a bit more appreciation of it," Alex said. One look had been cast at Kara who responded with a sticking out of her tongue.

"Okay, girls," Eliza said with a smile.

Alex leaned towards Alison when Eliza steered Kara into the party. The two shared a moment together in the party before Alison would no doubt be bombarded by screaming adoring fans.

"So, how many times have you gotten that particular review from older siblings of your fanbase?" Alex asked.

"Oh, she gets it all of the time," Daisy said. "Don't you, Ali?"

"Yes, all of the time," Alison said with a smile.

"Ms. Blaire, hi," another blonde said. "I'm not sure if you remember me, but we met together before I'm…."

"Yes, I remember you, Sapphire," Alison said with a grin on her face. "Congratulations on spearheading one of the biggest can food drives in Gotham City. A lot of people will be pretty happy this holiday season, won't they?"

"Well, to be fair, I don't think I could have gotten it done alone," Sapphire said. "Veronica helped….and Kathy and Harry….Bruce pitched in, and Juno Jones helped a lot out as well."

Alison wondered if this was what running a marathon with no sleep ended up being like. Sapphire steered her over.

Kara looked around the room and saw a dark haired girl standing at the edge of the party. Harry showed the pictures a couple of weeks back. Seeing the pictures and seeing the girl resulted in two different reactions. Kara's mouth hung open a moment later.

Claire pulled herself away from Lana and walked over to look towards yet another cousin. The numb look on Kara's face almost resulted in Claire laughing.

"Hey, I'm Claire, and you must be Kara right," Claire said.

The two girls exchanged a hug in greeting. Kara pulled away from Claire and the smile could not even be removed with surgical instruments.

"Yes, I'm Kara, it's so glad to meet you," Kara said. "And I'm so sorry I didn't have a chance to be with you when you were growing up."

"Don't worry, Harry explained it to me," Claire said. "Your pod got knocked off course and then…the Danvers found you…you're going to have to tell me about them."

"Right after you tell me about the Kents," Kara said. "It was a good thing they found you, wasn't it?"

"Yes," Claire said. "I couldn't have thought of better people to help me growing up, learning about who I was. I'm not sure if I really know who I really am half of the time."

Kara sympathized with Claire's thoughts. Accomplishment followed Kara all through her family tree, not only on Krypton but through the Danvers family. Kara resolved to be the very best she could be.

Eliza smiled when the two cousins had been reunited. Something about the two of them getting along warmed her heart a lot.

"There's a lot of challenges when raising them, isn't it?" a redhead woman asked. "Oh, we talked on the phone, but we never met in person….I'm Martha Kent."

"Right, you're Clara's mother," Eliza said. "Eliza Danvers….and yes, there are challenges, but I wouldn't change it for any reason in the world."

Eliza excelled at going for challenges where many people would have just folded like a house of cards. Alex's teenage rebellion years, Carol's nature to push past the boundaries of common sense, the death of Jeremiah, and Kara's heritage, all of them a challenge.

Another challenge lurked off in the corner. Eliza stared at Harry Potter with a smile. For most things, Eliza jumped straight into the situation at hand. This time, Eliza played a slow game for some reason.

Harry approached Sam Lane who stood next to his youngest daughter. Lucy gave Harry one of those long looks when Harry approached.

"Hello, General Lane," Harry said. "Glad to see you made it."

"Things cooled down a lot, although there's some more work to do," Lane said. "Coulson has me on speed dial if he needs me."

"Yes, I'm sure he'll be on the horn if he needs you," Harry said. "Hello, Lucy, how's school?"

"Fine, sir," Lucy said. "Lois isn't giving you any trouble, is she?"

Sam's expression turned to his daughter and Lucy folded her arms. The General shut down any thoughts of starting trouble in a hurry.

"Lois is doing quite well," Harry said. "I think she's thriving rather well in the environment."

Lucy remained respectful even if she didn't believe Lois would ever behave under any circumstances. When they were younger, Lois always got into plenty of trouble, and when Lucy went along for the ride, she unfairly had gotten punishment.

"She's like her mother, a bit too much," Sam said. "If she ever gives you any trouble….feel free to do whatever you can to straighten her out…..sometimes a good firm hand works out well."

"Hello, Dad, Lucy," Lois said. "How are things?"

"We're doing well," Sam said. "I trust you're working hard at school."

"Well, I have to keep up with the rest of the girls in my class, and….Harry encourages me to do the very best I can," Lois said. "You don't believe me do you?"

"Lois, I know when you set your mind to something, you're going to get it done," Sam said. "As long as it doesn't resolve you getting into trouble."

Lois never appreciated more the fact Harry kept the excursion of Metropolis away from her father. The training Lois and Rebecca served about as well as any kind of punishment.

"I'll let the three of you talk with each other," Harry said. "I have some party guests."

' _So, are you sure it's wise to leave Lois and Lucy alone with each other?'_ Lyta thought. _'Not that I'm questioning you, Daddy, but….they've had their problems together.'_

' _They're not alone, though, General Lane is there,'_ Diana thought. _'And they do remind me a lot of you and Donna sometimes.'_

Lyta was about ready to argue she and Donna were not this bad. Unfortunately, though, any argument had been lost when Lyta lacked a convincing reason to argue against it.

Harry smiled and turned away from the conversation. Tatsu leaned against the wall and kept out of everyone's way. Harry passed Selina, Mia, and Holly before making a beeline towards Tatsu.

"You've outdone yourself this time," Tatsu said. "One night we can forget about all of the insanity in Gotham City."

"It's the name of the game," Harry said. "If we got lost in the insanity, it's over. There needs to be a lot of hope."

Tatsu spent a lot of time in a desperate attempt to figure out Harry Potter. She almost managed to determine it after a certain amount of time. The legends did the Dragon very little justice. The more time the samurai spent in Harry's presence, the more the intrigue rose.

"Yes, hope, "Tatsu said. "A funny word in Gotham City if you've gone deep out into the madness, night after night."

The woman's eyes combed over Harry for a moment and returned to the conversation a couple of seconds later when she was certain they were alone now.

"Yes, hope," Tatsu said in a swift repeat. "These parties make a lot of sense when a lot of people in Gotham City treat each day like it's their last. And….you know that much as well, don't you?"

Harry thought she hit the nail on the head.

"Yes, because being knocked out the window really shows you need to live for the moment," Harry said.

Among other things, though, with Harry figuring the window incident resulted in the most prolific example of proving life being too short. Almost a year passed, and still, people talked about the fact Harry launched out of the window.

"When will their end game be?" Tatsu asked.

Harry responded with a slight shrug. A couple of thoughts came to mind of where this never ending barrage of assassins would end. The lingering presence of Lady Shiva cut the herd down by a slight amount.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Harry said. "All we can do is enjoy this party."

Tatsu responded with a nod. The drink balanced in the samurai's hand in a calm manner. The glass contents tipped into her hand and took a long drink. Tatsu surveyed Harry over the glass for a few seconds and watched the sorcerer step out.

"When did you figure him out?" Tatsu asked Alfred who stepped in to join the parties.

"He and Master Bruce are cut from the same cloth," Alfred said. "Although there are some distinct differences between the two of them, and both have their challenges. They can be difficult to read as well. I'm not sure if we're intended to figure them out."

Tatsu hated a mystery and wanted to figure out what made this young man tick. The legends did little justice compared to what he did. Tatsu watched Harry come back from certain death with her very eyes. So many mysteries in life lingered behind those bold green eyes and Tatsu's lips curled into a tight frown.

Harry edged away from the conversation and walked in the general direction of Eliza Danvers. Eliza smiled and walked towards Harry.

"Thank you for inviting us," Eliza said. "Kara's over the moon to meet her cousin….and the two of them are going to get along all too well."

Harry laughed after sneaking a quick look at the two young girls. Kara was a couple of years older than Claire, and yet the two of them got along pretty well.

"Have there been any oddities with Kara's powers?" Harry asked.

"Well, not as many as Clara's I'm certain," Eliza said. "I'm guessing Kryptonian powers evolve in a different way when you grow into them from being an infant, as opposed arriving on Earth full grown."

"There are a couple of differences," Harry said. "It's still pretty jarring though to suddenly be able to hear everything, see everything, and by everything, I do mean everything, including those things you don't want to see or hear."

Eliza did not have to think too hard about what Harry meant. The older blonde's face pulled into a sigh.

"Yes, Kara was….well disturbed, but my husband build her a pair of lead-lined glasses which helped her control the sensations," Eliza said.

"Pretty genius….we might have to consider something for Claire when her super sensations come in," Harry said. "Do you know how he did it?"

"Well, I have a spare pair of Kara's glasses, I'll send it to you, and I'm sure someone of your genius will be able to reverse-engineer them," Eliza said.

Harry could not help and respond with a swift smile. To have such a compliment from a brilliant woman really spoke well for him.

"I want to ask you a question, about Carol," Eliza said. "You don't have any insight into where she might be?"

Harry reached in and cupped Eliza's hand in response. Eliza responded with a smile with Harry's hand meeting hers.

"She's in space, and….well as you know, space is vast," Harry said. "If it makes you feel better, we're working on several ways to try and reach deep into space. The technology takes a while to catch up, but….we'll see if we can get something together."

"Well, if I know anyone who has the ability to accomplish something along these lines, it's you," Eliza said. "Your brilliance is amazing. Good luck…..I shouldn't worry, yet I do."

"No," Harry said. "You have a good reason to worry. If my daughter was in space, I would be worrying every single moment, even if she could handle herself."

Eliza smiled and leaned forward. A warm kiss pressed on the side of Harry's face. The older woman pulled away from Harry. Something brushed against his ass from behind when Eliza made her way across the room to get something to drink.

Harry's attention turned towards Daisy and Alex who sat in the corner, plotting about something or other. Both of them cracked into smiles and both tried hard to keep a straight face. The stern glare directed from Harry to both women caused them to crack up in a loud round of laughter.

* * *

 

A dark haired man with hints of grey sat down in front of a small and practical table. A small turkey placed out on a table with a boat of gravy on the other side. A bottle of wine sat opened on the other side of the table. The man in question frowned. Thanksgiving always had been a bittersweet time for this particular gentleman.

' _I'm thankful I'm alive,'_ the man thought. _'For what it's worth.'_

The man stood out with a black eye patch covering his right eye. Scars coated each arm and stood out. Every one of those scars told an interesting story. Slade Wilson tipped back the bottle of wine and drank it. A piece of paper flipped out on the table.

On a foolish whim, Slade picked up the paper and snorted loud and awful. The reports of the attempts of these assassins making their attempts to kill Batman and Nightwing flickered out in front of Slade. The paper crumpled and almost fell down on the table.

' _Rank amateurs the lot of them.'_

Slade stood up and looked out the window. A wind blew over the streets of Gotham City. The aches in Slade's right leg told him a storm brewed in Gotham City. Ever since he returned to the city shortly after Halloween, a different feeling rose over Slade's body. Tension, almost as if the entire city lingered in the throes of madness. Slade reached down and took a long drink.

One more job, one last job, it would be done. Slade thought about what this money meant to him. Marriage shattered, children estranged, more scars acquired than an entire army. Slade's gaze lingered outside into Gotham.

' _Fifty million dollars for the Bat,'_ Slade thought. _'Twenty-five million dollars for the Dragon. Seventy-five million dollars together, when I pull this off.'_

No doubts entered Slade's mind. The Terminator zeroed in on the target and refused to let go of this thought. Slade walked over to the cabinet and removed several weapons. Guns and knives, for the most part, spread out over a table. Slade looked for one weapon in particular. The mercenary removed the large sword from the cupboard and smiled a second later. The sword rotated over in Slade's hand.

' _Perfect, as I remembered,'_ Slade thought. _'Always like shaking hands with an old friend.'_

Slade turned around and stabbed the sword into a large hanging bag. The stuffing spilled from the bag when Slade removed it. Slade turned the arm around and stabbed the bag one more time. More stuffing spilled out of the bag.

' _Perfect._

A marker had been produced and Slade drew a crude representation of a bat over the heavy bag. Slade turned the blade over and stabbed it into the bag one more time. The bag released a heavy amount of stuffing onto the ground. The mercenary pulled back one more time, satisfied.

' _All of them are amateurs,'_ Slade said.

Slade allowed whoever was underneath their masks to enjoy one final Thanksgiving meals. A small mercy as the mercenary wished to allow his enemies no excuses. The destruction and the demise of these two would brilliant. One final job before Slade stepped into the night and rested off of the money on the rest of his days.

Most people would squander the seventy-five million. Slade's tastes veered into the simple and the less than extravagant.

' _Then I hope to make matters right with my family,'_ Slade said.

* * *

 

Harry sought out Hippolyta at the dinner. The Amazon Queen's smile grew warm when Harry approached.

"So, are you enjoying yourself tonight?" Harry asked.

"Yes, thank you," Hippolyta said. "One night, I'd like to sit down and forget about the responsibilities...Artemis insisted I take the trip and I'm going to have to thank her for the idea."

"True royalty listens to their advisors when they have a good idea," Harry said.

Hippolyta answered with a brisk smile and leaned forward. She kissed Harry on the side of the mouth and pulled away from her husband.

"Yes, as I'm reminded," Hippolyta said. "You can never be reminded too much. And my daughters insisted I'd take the trip as well, and I couldn't be happier to spend any time with them."

Hippolyta noticed Diana off to the side in conversation with Kara and Karen. The Amazon Queen stole one last kiss from Harry before the two parted ways.

' _And for the record, your idea of having me assess Rebecca, Lois, and Lyta is a good idea,'_ Hippolyta said. _'Although, I'm not certain how much help it will be for Rebecca and Lois. Different needs for different girls after all, if they're not born Amazons.'_

' _They have a pretty good base, and I think they will surprise you,'_ Harry thought.

A pair of slim hands grabbed Harry. Harry turned around and an alluring sight encouraged Harry to enter the bedroom. Kathy Kane stood in Harry's line of sight wearing a shimmering green dress which clung to every single cure. Stockings and cleavage displayed in front of Harry.

"Hello, Harry," Kathy said. "Nice party."

"Glad you're enjoying yourself…"

"Yes, I'm enjoying myself," Kathy said. The woman crossed the room and wrapped her arms around Harry. The two pulled themselves together. "And you know what else I want here, don't you?"

Harry smiled and moved forward to give Kathy an intense kiss. Both of them exchanged a long and passionate kiss. Tongues and lips tangled with each other with Harry working inside Kathy's mouth. Kathy closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation of Harry's tongue buried deep inside her mouth.

Kathy had dreams which began like this. The two of them pulled away and exchanged smiles.

"I've wanted to thank my hero for some time," Kathy said. "This seems like a proper opportunity."

Harry figured Kathy may have put two and two together about Nightwing. She left little room for discussion by coming in for a second kiss. The kiss increased their passions and heated things off. Both parties stumbled over towards a lavish bed.

Kathy encouraged Harry to explore every inch. The heat rose between the gorgeous heiress's thighs and these desires could only be quenched by one thing.

Harry pulled down the straps of Kathy's dress to reveal a pair of firm breasts encased in the middle of the bra. The Alpha Male drank every single inch of the Kane heiress's body in with his eyes. Every single inch of it resembled a toned wonderment. Harry cupped the flesh and unhooked Kathy's bra with one swift motion.

"Yes, right there," Kathy said.

Harry responded to Kathy's words with a light suck of her breast. The warmth of the nipple went into the mouth of the skilled sorcerer. Harry's hands roamed the vixen's body with the dress falling to the floor and revealing nothing other than a pair of black panties, a garter belt, and stockings.

Kathy leaned back to give Harry full access to those ample breasts. The woman locked onto Harry's head to further encourage his actions. The bites delivered to the breasts caused the woman's pleasure level to spike up to a new level. Those fingers skimmed down.

Harry guided Kathy back down onto the bed. One tug brought her panties down and revealed a smooth dripping mound. Harry straddled the top of Kathy and both lovers pressed together body to body. The shared body heat turned rather intense.

The sound of Harry's pants unbuckling and cock coming out caused Kathy's hips to rise up.

"Please, I've wanted this for so long," Kathy said. "You can feel how wet my pussy is, can't you, Harry?"

Harry teased Kathy's body with an ample amount of passionate kisses. Every touch brought her closer to the edge of a passionate explosion. The throbbing piece of meat brushed closer towards the dripping sheath. Kathy's hips arched up to try and meet it.

Kathy enjoyed the teasing. Primal need filled the heiress's body. Thighs spread eagerly for Harry to slip inside her. Harry clenched on tight and pushed inside.

"Here we go."

Kathy's wet walls expanded to accept the generous intruder inside. Harry pressed down on top of the woman he pumped into. Each time this cock buried a little bit deeper into Kathy an intense feeling of pleasure spread all over the woman's hot loins.

Harry indulged the soft feeling of Kathy's stocking clad legs wrapped around his waist. Every time Harry brushed against them, Kathy's hips jumped up a bit more. The wet squelching feeling caressed all twelve inches of manhood.

"You like me playing with your legs, don't you?" Harry asked.

Kathy responded with an eager nod. One bit down on the lips enhanced the sexiness and spurred Harry to push in harder and faster. Half of the cock rammed into Kathy before pulling out and another ram into her.

"Yes, play with me, play with me harder!" Kathy mewled in Harry's ear.

Harry rose to the occasion and continued to enjoy the feeling of this particular wet sheath. Pussy juices lubricated Harry's pole and allowed the path to Kathy's insides to grow more intense. Harry rested those hands on the woman's legs and pushed in.

In and out, Harry rose and fell. Every time Harry filled Kathy, Kathy grew even needier with pleasure. Hands rested on Harry's lower back in an attempt to coax him inside deeper.

"Here we go."

The first of many orgasms exploded through Kathy's body. Wet juices shot up and Harry did not slow down. The orgasm rode out and brought Kathy to the pathway of another. Every single inch of Kathy's flesh burned up.

Harry enjoyed pressing up and down on Kathy's soft body. Rock hard nipples dug into Harry's chest with another deep thrust. More seed bubbled in Harry's cum.

"Cum for me again," Harry said.

"YES!" Kathy yelled. "I'm going to cum for you so hard and then…"

Harry's thick tool speared Kathy's center and reduced the vixen beneath him to a moan. Nails pushed into the back of Harry's neck. Kathy scratched up Harry with a primal force as he rode out yet another orgasm inside her. One orgasm piggybacked off of another one.

Each thrust sent Harry further along to the edge. The buildup bubbled deep inside Harry's tool. Hips ground together with a passionate fury of thrusting. Kathy kept up with Harry and matched him. Slick walls hugged Harry and tried to coax the load inside me.

"Give me your load….make me yours…" Kathy yelled. "I WANT TO ME YOUR SLUT! FILL ME WITH YOUR CUM!"

"Oh, I think you've earned the right to take my cum inside you," Harry said. "I'm going to spill my balls inside you and bury every drop I have left down to the very last."

Kathy tensed up around Harry. The promise of being filled up with such a potent seed excited the heiress. She hung on tight to this sex stud and increased the attempts to milk the seed out of it. The cum these balls held promised Kathy she would take him.

Harry could not hold back any longer. One final plow sent the contents of his balls spilling into the tight pussy of Kathy Kane. The cum churned out and exploded into Kathy's womb with almost a dozen rapid fire thrusts.

Kathy closed her eyes, not worrying about the consequences past tomorrow. Harry spilled the thick and juicy seed deep and far inside Kathy held on and rode out Harry's orgasm all of the way. The hot moaning continued until the satisfied woman collapsed on the bed.

"Wonderful," Kathy said.

"It was hot too."

Bette stepped in, with a way of her hips. The moment Harry pulled out of Bette, the niece took over where her aunt went off. Bette pounced upon Harry's cock and wrapped her hot little mouth around it.

Harry's hands fell onto the back of Bette's head. A rapid fire face fuck occurred for the next couple of moments. Bette's wet lips smacked around Harry's tool until she pulled away.

"Now, I wouldn't want to waste one drop of cum," Bette said.

"Oh, I think we're both in agreement."

Warmth wrapped around Harry's hardened cock. Bette's breasts spilled out from underneath her dress and Harry attacked them with an insatiable desire.

"Fuck her tight little cunt until she screams," Kathy said, rubbing circles against the dripping mound. Kathy took the combination of juices into her mouth and ate them.

Harry gripped Bette and forced her down cunt first onto all twelve inches. Bette rolled her hips up and down onto Harry in response. All twelve inches of prime cock buried into Bette's body.

"Yes," Bette said. "Fill me up, right there! Ram your big hard cock into my tight teenage cunt….remind me what I real man could do. Pump more cum into me…then you did my greedy bitch of an aunt!"

Harry smiled and held onto Bette. Those hot hips rolled all over Harry's thick and throbbing tool. Every time Bette drive down onto him, a sultry smile followed.

Kathy sat up to get a better look. The dark haired woman climbed behind Harry and lowered his head onto her chest.

"You look really good riding his cock, Bette," Kathy said. Kathy leaned around and captured her niece's lips into a kiss.

The kiss surprised Bette, even though she did very little to fight it off. Kathy's tongue introduced in Bette's mouth and forced the kiss to be returned.

Aunt and niece continued with a passionate kiss with each other. Harry's hands roamed over Bette's body to remind the girl about what her responsibilities were. Twelve inches of cock buried deep into Bette's tight body which clenched Harry in response

The orgasm flowed over the body of the younger Kane. Kathy moved and now her breasts pressed against the back of Bette's head. The warmth caused greater tingles to spread through Bette's body. The twelve inches of cock which buried into her increased the fun.

"This is so lovely, love between an aunt and a niece," Harry said. "Are you about to cum, baby?"

Bette rotated those wide hips down onto Harry and brought all twelve inches deep down. The orgasm exploded through her loins and brought greater pleasure. Bette continued to ride out the latest orgasm. Breasts jiggled which Kathy cupped.

"Aunt Kathy, this is….ooh God!" Bette screamed.

The pleasure sized up in Bette's body and burst. Those juices coated Harry's thick cock and Bette ground down onto him. No cum from Harry just yet.

Bette slid almost all the way off of Harry. Kathy crawled over and licked Bette's juice's clean off of Harry's cock. The combination of the two sets of juices heightened arousal especially when Kathy followed the trail of juices to her lovely niece's dripping snatch.

"AUNT KATHY!" Bette yelled.

Kathy drank the nectar straight from her niece's pussy. The sweet and sour sensation hardened Harry's cock even more and the moment it was done, Kathy pulled back.

"All yours to finish, love," Kathy said.

A parting squeeze of the crotch before Kathy backed off so she could watch Harry drove the pinnacle of manhood into Bette's dripping hot cunt.

Bette wrapped her hands around Harry's shoulder and moaned with passion. Every single thrust brought the College Freshman to the edge of passion. Those juices trickled down and allowed Harry to push deeper to the sweet spot.

"This time, you'll get what you want," Harry said.

"Please, oh god, please!" Bette moaned.

Harry drove into Bette and drove the teenage temptress closer to an orgasm. Nails dug into the side of Harry's neck and another scream followed through the ear of the Alpha male.

Bette came undone first. Wet juices coated the inside of Harry's cock and encouraged the throbbing rod to reach its final destination. Those balls clenched and fired their bounty into Bette's wet pussy.

Several blasts of white cum erupted inside of Bette's pussy. The dripping hot fluids spilled inside the rich heiress and coated her insides with the sweet and lovely spunk which one expected from Harry's thick balls.

Harry removed his cock from Bette and Kathy's warm lips found it to lick the combined juices cleaned. Kathy's hands clutched Harry's hips to suck the entire cock deep into a waiting and inviting throat.

' _Being a nympho must run in the family.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on August 17** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Lots of interaction in this chapter, with things ending up with a bang, a couple of nice bangs. Got to love that niece/aunt bonding, and it's a good thing Harry was able to bring it out with them._

_Kara Danvers and Claire had a conversation. Also, Eliza and Martha discussing the challenges of raising super powered children, although Martha had been on the ground floor with Claire. Seriously, though, there was a lot of key interaction in this chapter._

_Also, Slade's in town, there's some really bad news. Batman and Nightwing are going to head up against Deathstroke._

_Until Wednesday._


	217. Open the Gates

Chapter of the Week Poll At the Blog. Take Place in Democracy and vote. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/

 

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventeen: Open the Gates.**

* * *

 

A low ranking assassin of the White Ghost dragged across the ground by two more ninjas. The assassin dropped down to the floor in the middle of a room surrounded by torches. Seconds passed before the assassin noticed the trouble in the room. The man pushed up with hands shaking in insanity. A ghostly whisper surrounded him and judgment would come soon later.

The torch flickered and sparks shot in the general direction of the assassin. The wall illuminated around the room and a flicker of a dark banner swam in the wall. The banner flashed with a jagged symbol of a red foot. The foot shattered on the banner and flipped. The sounds of stones sliding apart from a secret room from behind the throne room almost brought the attention of the White Ghost's henchmen back there. One of the ninjas who dragged in him pushed the man face down to the ground.

The spiked suited man walked into the light towards the man. The assassin came face to face with the spiked gauntlet which during most times signified a gruesome end for anyone who encountered it. The assassin quivered underneath the figure which approached him. He knew enough to know the next breath taken might be the very last breath taken.

"Stand up and face me."

The White Ghost's mercenary had been allowed to stand up. The menacing individual before he peered into the man's eyes. Those sinister red eyes from behind a silver helmet signified death for anyone who went after him. The Shredder moved without humor.

"I'm going to ask you one question," the Shredder said. "And I want you to answer it with true. And know if you lie to me, your demise will be slow and brutal."

The assassin did his best not to betray any kind of nervousness. The Shredder closed the gap between the two men and peered down to lock eyes with the assassin.

"Where is Ra's Al Ghul?"

One particular question pierced the armor of this man. He made a slow attempt to rise up and face the man. The Shredder's hand clenched against the man's chest. Those spiked gauntlets did not press through the mercenary's shoulder even if they traveled dangerously close.

"I….I don't know," the mercenary said.

Those soulless red eyes stared from the other side of the helmet at the mercenary as if trying to gauge the truthfulness of what was being said.

"You don't know?" the Shredder asked.

A defiant blink from the man followed when drawing one final breath, perhaps one last breath. He renewed this glance towards the Shredder.

"I mean what I said I mean, I don't know," the mercenary said. "The White Ghost knew you were on the hunt for him, along with others. The body of Ra's Al Ghul has been moved and now…..I have no clue where it has ended up."

"Yes, I see. And I see the truth in your eyes. If you knew, you would have told me. If nothing other than to save your miserable skin."

The mercenary stared into the eyes of pure madness and pure evil. A cold chill rolled over the mercenaries body seconds before even colder steel plunged into the depths of the man's throat. This chilling final cut dropped the man down to the ground. Blood spilled from the man's mouth the sound. One final breath escaped the ragged man's throat and then no more.

"A pity you're such a waste," The Shredder said. "There are other operatives who may be more worthy.."

A figure stepped past the man on the ground. One of the few who could be allowed into this inner sanctum without any kind, with dark hair framing the young woman's face in a rather alluring manner. Her blue eyes shined out with some calculation. A white body suit covered every inch of her body with a katana off to the side.

"Yes, Karai, report," Shredder said.

The dark haired ninja bowed before Shredder and took a step back from the man who ran the Foot Clan.

"The League of Assassins is making moves to consolidate as a more unified front," Karai said. "And under the continued presence of the Dragon, they are making headway."

Shredder only responded with a nod.

"Yes, the Dragon," The Shredder said. "Do you have any progress on discerning the identity of the Dragon?"

Karai closed her eyes. Only a select few of the inner circle knew this particular secret. The White Canary was supposed to be a mercenary and not exactly part of the League. She would have to work hard to get those secrets.

"As of yet, nothing concrete," Karai said. "A small and select group knows the identity of the Dragon, and I have not gained their confidence. And I know how you detest speculation so I will not even attempt to do so."

Shredder appreciated Karai's attention to keeping speculation out of their conversation.

"The Dragon remains a danger to my plans. Every single step of my journey, the legend is there. Whispers, rumors, the Dragon's footprint has led to the creation of the Foot. It cannot be denied any longer."

Karai bowed down head first and lips curled into a soft smile. Both parties understood this.

"He presents a greater danger to my plans than anyone realizes, and I thought at first…..but it matters little, we must prepare for whatever move he makes," The Shredder said. "I trust you will deal with this threat to prove your loyalty to the Foot Clan."

Karai hid her true feelings of this declaration.

"Yes, Master, I will," Karai said.

"He is the greatest threat to my power since Hamato Yoshi," Shredder said. "But, I showed him what the Shredder does to a traitor, someone of his vile bloodline."

Karai rolled her eyes at Saki's use of that particular moniker. Fitting given the skilled assassin left many of the men who stood up to him, shredded. Believing one's hype could be a big problem.

"By now, he is long past a memory," Karai said.

"Yes."

Oroku Saki remembered it well. He left Yoshi in the sewers. By now, he would have been consumed alongside the rest of the rodents and the filth in the New York City sewer system. Fifteen years passed since this particular night, even though Saki had his regrets. He would have enjoyed drawing out the death of Yoshi more, given the man's betrayal and duel nature.

All of those who stood against the Shredder would meet their final destruction. Before he could get up and proceed, one of the ninja's aides strolled into the room. Shredder came face to face with the man who entered the room.

The ninja stood straight up and shivered. Shredder only regarded him with the merest of expressions.

"Yes?" Shredder asked.

"Sir, Mr. Krang wants to talk you," he said. "Sorry for disturbing you, but he says it's urgent."

Shredder leaned back to consider. Once he made his decision, he nodded. The ninja answered with a bow. Shredder turned back to Karai with this particular statement out of the way.

"We'll pick up this meeting later," Saki said to Karai.

Karai watched the leader of the Foot Clan leave the room. She would be a liar if a lot of respect did not get lost after the Shredder became the bottom for an alien squid.

' _Not, I'd tell Saki to his face,'_ Karai said.

A brief check of the woman's watch told her the time came for business to be done in Gotham City. She could not be late.

Slipping the mask of the White Canary back on, Oroku Karai slipped back into the shadows.

* * *

 

Rebecca and Lois entered the room after being summoned by Harry. Lyta joined the two girls and the Amazon princess smiled when the two girls walked into the room. The little shifty smirk did not go unnoticed by Lois. The dark haired girl turned around and blinked when looking at Rebecca.

"So, do you know what's going on here?" Lois asked.

"Maybe I do," Lyta said with the usual shifty little smile. "I guess you're just going to have to wait and see, won't you?"

Lois knew in the back of her mind Lyta enjoyed trolling both of them. The trio walked into the next room where Harry and Jaime waited for them. Lois folded her arms and peered across the room at Harry.

"So, what's this all about?" Lois asked.

"Take a seat," Harry said. "We'll reveal it in due time."

Lois sat down on the chair, arms folded underneath her chest. The dark haired girl responded with a slight little fidget motion. The young girl's heart skipped a couple of beats before the attention had been thrown directly onto Harry.

"Seriously, the suspense is killing us," Rebecca said. "Well actually it's killing Lois, but still…"

"Just get out with it already," Lois said.

Jaime snickered with the look on Lois's face. The older girl had more than enough time to reign in these emotions before breaking out into a fit of laughter. It turned out Lyta had less experience. Lyta brought out into a fit of hilarious laughter and almost fell over. The laughter continued with tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Are you okay?" Rebecca asked.

"Nothing, sorry, just….oh boy, the look on Lois's face, it's priceless," Lyta said.

Harry cleared his throat. All three girls snapped into line and looked directly at him.

"We've been meaning to have this talk with you for a long time," Harry said.

"Oh, well...I don't...I already went through that talk….and….it's bad enough to go through it one time," Rebecca said.

Lois froze for a moment and it slowly dawned upon her the talk Rebecca talked about. Now Lois broke out into a fit of laughter which distracted her from the levels of frustration which hit her.

"No, no, not that kind of talk, Becca, at least I don't think it's that kind of talk," Lois said. Tears rolled down Lois's cheeks when she took in a deep breath. "It's not that kind of talk, is it?"

Harry smiled and reached over to ruffle Lois's hair. This little action caused Lyta to break out into a round of laughter and almost cause those tears to come down her cheeks. The two of them looked at each other when the dust cleared.

"Okay, we're being serious about this," Jaime said.

"Oh, we're being very serious," Lyta said.

Lois and Rebecca suspected Lyta was in on whatever was happening from the beginning. These little hits told both of them they knew Lyta was in on this. The amusement dancing through the Amazon's eyes flashed for a couple of seconds later.

"Okay, now what?" Lois asked. "Please, the suspense, it's killing me."

"It really is looking like it's killing her," Lyta said. "It's stabbing her in the heart…right there."

Lyta performed a mock stabbing motion through Lois's heart. Lois swatted her hand away and scowled.

"I'm Nightwing," Harry said out of the blue. "And Jaime's...Nightwing as well.

"Ha, I knew it!" Rebecca and Lois yelled in unison.

The two girls looked at each other in one of the most epic staring contests ever. Neither girl backed down.

"Well, I told you Nightwing was a guy….and I knew it….it would have had to be Harry," Lois said. "I mean, who else in Gotham City would have been awesome enough?"

"Do you have selective hearing, Lois?" Rebecca asked. "Jaime said she was Nightwing as well…..so we were both right….."

"Yeah, but I was more right," Lois said. "If you really do some digging, you'll find out the female Nightwing didn't show up until shortly after the male version of Nightwing popped up. So, technically I was more right."

Both Rebecca and Lois locked eye to eye with each other. A long pause occurred at least until the moment where Harry cleared his throat and brought both of them back into the conversation.

"Can we just say both of you are right in your own ways?" Harry said. "And I trust you know you can't reveal this to anyone."

Lois and Rebecca nodded slowly. They understood that and respected everything.

"Fine, I get that," Lois said. "I can't believe we didn't figure out this sooner, I mean, isn't it so obvious? It's beyond obvious, and it would explain why you surveyed a really long fall out of a very high window."

Lois could have slapped herself several times for failing to figure out the obvious. Rebecca smiled and looked from Lois to Harry and back to the room.

"It does make perfect sense both of you are…well Nightwing," Rebecca said. "Why did you tell us now?"

Harry smiled at the very fair question.

"We've been considering it for a long time," Harry said. "If I know the two of you, you are the type to have figured it out sooner or later. And you would be stubborn enough not to reveal it outside. You would have wanted us to tell you outright."

Lois and Rebecca exchanged those guilty little smirks with each other. They could not lie, Harry pegged them one hundred percent spot on with each other.

"The two of you are making some progress with your training," Harry said. "Even Hippolyta agrees…so there's a good chance you may be joining some of the girls on some low-level patrols after the first of the year."

Rebecca tried not to look too happy about this news. Lois did not even make the attempt. The thirteen-year-old girl pumped her fist in the air with a triumphant smirk and a solid "yay."

"Highly supervised patrols," Jaime said. "If you pull anything like what happened in Metropolis than…you'll be put on the bench for a long time."

"Yes, we learned our lesson there, didn't we, Becca?" Lois asked.

"Yeah, we did," Rebecca said.

Harry smiled; glad everyone was on the same page. It wasn't anything cruel, to be honest. Harry thought it was best to travel in packs through the madness in Gotham City. There were times where even though it seemed as if Harry went out on his own, there was always backup a step or two away.

"Oh, and Rebecca, we're going to have to make some modifications to your costume," Harry said. "I get the sentimental value of it, but would it be too much of a problem to put you in something which makes you look less like a glorified traffic light?"

Rebecca's lips cracked into a little smirk. Lois pretty much said the same thing. She did not need to turn her head to the side to see Lois's smug smile. The laughter and exclamation of "I told you so" told Rebecca more than what she needed to know.

"That's fine," Rebecca said. "I still want to keep the general design, though, even if we make it less vibrant."

Harry agreed, he could arrange something, he was sure.

Faora sounded beyond amused when she jumped in.

' _The two of them looked pretty giddy about jumping in,'_ Faora thought. _'When you do think you're going to allow them a chance to jump in?'_

' _Not anytime soon,'_ Harry thought. _'They did handle themselves well enough in Metropolis.'_

Karen smirked at the memories of that particular event. Jaime less so.

' _You're not going to tell them that, are you?'_ Karen thought.

' _Best to keep it away from them,'_ Harry said. _'We wouldn't want to give them any ideas that kind of behavior is encouraged. Better to keep it supervised as possible.'_

* * *

 

The mess of the bar concluded. Carol, Sinestra, Katma, and Ilana moved to the other end of the planetoid. All of them stopped and turned to each other. Ilana broke the silence with one word.

"I don't believe it," Ilana said.

"You better believe it," Sinestra said.

Several Red Lanterns exited a rundown facility. One of them carried a large black box which they almost dropped to the ground. The hovering form of the big-headed Red Lantern known as Zilius Zox hovered out and stared at the Red Lanterns who carried the battery out.

Zox narrowed his eyes when one of the Red Lanterns almost slipped his grip around the battery.

"Careful," Zox said. "Careful...Atrocitus would not want us to lose that power battery….it's been modified and reformed to give us a longer charge."

"What does it run off of?" one of the Red Lanterns grunted. "This thing is heavy."

Ilana's eye started to twitch. The sensation of power seduced the woman and made her want to take a closer look. Almost seconds later, Carol grabbed Ilana by the shoulder. The blonde's nails dug into Ilana's shoulder. The woman breathed in and breathed out. Eyes glazed over and pupils started to dilate together.

"You need to let me go," Ilana said. "Now."

Carol strengthened her grip on Ilana and didn't allow her to fly into the battle.

"You go in there, they'll rip you apart," Carol said. "We don't know what they're up to."

The Red Lanterns came in their direction. Several long moments passed and the three Green Lanterns and one Red Lantern crouched behind their cover. One of them stared in their general direction.

"Quit staring at the stars, and come on," one of the Red Lanterns said. "We have a lot to get done."

"I thought I saw something," one of the Red Lanterns said.

The Red Lanterns are looked at the one who spoke out with narrowed eyes.

"Yeah, you did see something," another one of the Red Lantern said. "Likely someone up to no good. Do you remember where we are?"

The two Red Lanterns locked eyes with each other. The two of them geared up for a fight. The taller of the Red Lanterns created a corkscrew with the ring construct to push it into the chest of the other Red Lantern.

"Knock it off both of you!" Zox yelled.

Both of the Red Lanterns turned around. Zox walked towards both of them. The two Red Lanterns stared down the man with eyes becoming thin and narrow.

"You want to explain to Atrocitus why we're not done on schedule?" Zox asked. Both of them shook their heads. "Yeah, that's what I thought. So get going….we've got a lot of work to do."

Zox turned in the general direction where the two Red Lanterns looked at.

Ilana hoped deep down Zox would see them. He would try something. This smug bastard left Ilana to die and put her in the position she was in. Carol's hand remained on Ilana's shoulder. The Red Lantern tried to push away and get away from the situation. The woman's heart raced against her ribcage with a louder thump which escalated with each heartbeat.

Subtle was not in the playbook of the Red Lanterns.

"And look," Carol said.

A large metal box had been raised up. The three Green Lanterns and the Red Lantern slipped back to the Interceptor. Sinestra and Carol forced Ilana back.

"It's happening again," Ilana said.

"I concur with her," Aya said. "They're bringing the same kind of explosive device to blow up this planet."

"Why are they blowing up some glorified sleazy inn?" Carol asked. "What would that prove?"

Sinestra frowned. She refused to be the one who bring up the obvious thought, but Carol had a pretty good point. What would this prove? There had to be some point.

"They only do so because it can," Ilana said. "Loss leads to the breeding ground of hate, which blows up their recruiting ground."

A moment of clarity entered the sea of madness in Ilana's head. The three Green Lanterns stared at her.

"We're going to have to stop them," Carol said.

"We will stop them," Sinestra said.

Sinestra thought the time for playing nice was gone. The Guardians wanted to bury their heads in the sand and avoid the Red Lantern problem. Sinestra wished to bury the Red Lanterns.

"So, do you have a plan?" Carol asked.

"The plan is to rip them apart," Sinestra said. "Before they harm anyone else."

Ilana refused to be the one to stay so. For the first time ever, she agreed with the Green Lantern. And the fact she agreed with this particular woman, the same woman who used Ilana as bait shook her to the core.

' _What's going on?'_

Something seemed different about Sinestra, colder, not that she wasn't cold before. More inclined to cause fear, and Ilana feared her as much as anyone else.

* * *

 

The doorways leading to the private elevator of Wayne Enterprises slid open. Harry exited the elevator and did not even walk two steps when he had to pull back. Natalia stepped back and looked towards Harry with a smile on her face. She peered at him with a pair of glasses.

"Seems like every time I turn around these days, you're up to something, Doctor Potter," she said.

Harry almost broke into a smile. If she only knew the extent of what he was up to.

"Yes," Harry said. "It's really weird, though…..we've run into each other more than a few times over the past couple of weeks. And before then….it's almost like you've been avoiding me."

The young woman responded with a shifty little grin as if acting like she had no idea what Harry talked about. Harry endeavored to play the game, at least for right now.

"No, I don't think I've been avoiding you," Natalia said. "Busy paths don't cross as often as any of us would have liked them to, would you agree?"

Harry smiled and agreed with her. The two of them lingered next to each other. Harry hopped to the side to allow the elevator to be accessed by someone else.

"Well, we've been working together recently a whole lot," Harry said. "And to build a good relationship based on trust, wouldn't it be a good idea for us to get to know each other better?"

Talia's gaze lingered on Harry for a couple of seconds before deciding where to go next.

"I could have sworn you were asking me out on a date, Doctor Potter," Natalia said.

' _She's pretty quick, isn't she?'_ Dinah asked. _'You just wonder if she's figured out what you suspect.'_

' _It's not mere suspicion, I'm pretty sure about it,'_ Harry thought.

"You've been in Gotham City for a long time, and we've been working together a lot lately," Harry said. "I hate to say it, but I've had a lot of trouble figuring you out."

The woman answered with a smile. Talia considered it a badge of honor to be the one who would tax Harry Potter's mind.

"And this is a rare sentence you say among woman, isn't it?" Natalia asked.

Natalia wondered how much he figured out. Nyssa pretty much confirmed Harry knew, even though Talia decided not to reveal she knew Harry knew. And Harry did not reveal what he knew to Talia. Both had no idea what to say to each other.

"So, what's your answer?" Harry asked. "Do you want to give this a try?"

The woman cupped her chin and pondered. The answer was obvious, but it was best not to seem too eager.

"There are far worse ways to spend a Saturday night," Natalia said. "Is Saturday good for you?"

Harry spent at least half of a second going through the schedule in the back of his mind.

"It's perfect."

"Excellent."

Natalia leaned in and gave Harry a brief kiss on the lips. A daring move to gauge how he reacted. The reaction fell on the spectrum of neutral. Not the bad kind of neutral either, just the kind of neutral which made her really think about where to go next.

"So, what time do you want me to pick you up?" Harry asked.

"You know my address?" Natalia asked. "Well of course….you do, I'm sorry for implying you didn't."

Harry smiled. Natalia's pager went off and Harry raised an eyebrow at the woman.

"Sorry to cut this meeting short," Natalia said. "I have to leave. We'll pick this up later."

Harry watched the woman turn around and watched her walk off. Her hips swayed when moving down the hallway.

' _So, not too bad of a view, wouldn't you say?'_ Barbara asked.

' _I would have to agree,'_ Dinah thought. _'I'm surprised she accepted your offer….you knew she was going to accept it, didn't you?'_

' _I never offer something which has less than a good chance of being accepted,'_ Harry thought. _'We'll see what her move is next.'_

Harry slipped down the stairwell to see the direction Natalia went. Curiosity hit Harry hard and fast with Natalia leaving. The trail grew cold until a flicker of the woman moving around the corner could be seen.

' _Where is she going?'_ Dinah asked.

Talia turned around and entered the car. The dark haired woman looked over the front seat where Paige sat dressed up as a limo driver. The enchanting raven haired lady turned around and smiled at her mistress.

"So any luck?" Paige asked.

"We have a date on Saturday night," Talia said. "We'll see where he stands then."

The enchanted raven haired woman hid her smile. It would be bad form for her to be anything other than professional after all.

"Is this another test?" Paige asked. "Or is this just another attempt for you to satisfy your own curiosity?"

Talia did not say a single word. She could have sworn they were being followed. The limo backed up and pulled out of the parking garage. They moved further away from the parking garage and into the streets of Gotham City.

"I intend to make a decision within the next couple of months," Talia said after a long moment pause. "I've studied both of them up close it's just….."

"You're impressed he made the move first, therefore he's ahead on points," Paige said.

Talia smiled. She did not want to count either of the Dragon or the Detective out until all of the cards were on the table. Circumstances indicated they would have to move forward with the next phase of their plans.

' _Best to keep an open mind until I'm certain beyond a shadow of a doubt.'_

"He's favorable right now, but it's too close to call," Talia said.

"Well, maybe your next test to see how he does when he takes you in the back door?" Paige asked. "I wouldn't mind it myself."

The woman's lips curled into a smile and Talia stared back at her assassin. The two of them locked eyes onto each other.

"What did you call me for?" Talia asked. "There was a reason, wasn't there?"

"Well, other than to leave him hanging a bit to add build up anticipation, there was a reason," Paige said. "I want you to take a look at this."

The folder dropped down on the back seat of the limo. Talia scooped up the item in their head. Information spilled out of the folder which caused the woman's lips to curl. The papers crunched in Talia's hand with a crinkle.

"We have a lot of work to do."

Truer words had never been spoken.

* * *

 

Nightwing leaned to one side to avoid a dagger sailing over the top of his head. Another day, another assassin who intended to make a quick dollar, and Nightwing thought it would be best to make quick work of this assassin.

"Just think, when I take you down…"

Nightwing punched the man in the mouth mid-monologue. The attacker crumpled to the ground. Nightwing finished off the battering with a curb stomp to the top of the man's head. Two swift movements resulted in one unconscious, would be assassin.

' _Man, you just punched him mid-taunt,'_ Amanda thought. _'That's pretty cold.'_

' _Effective as well,'_ Kara thought. _'This is getting pretty old.'_

Nightwing concurred with Kara. Another assassin threw his name into the hat and ended up as a crumpled heap on the ground. The Dragon slipped off into the distance without another thought.

' _And here we thought Lady Shiva going after Nightwing and Batman would cut these guys down,'_ Dinah thought.

Nightwing wiped his latest opponent's blood off of his costume. The Dragon launched halfway up onto a platform and crouched down. Gotham City still had other crime. Dealing with these assassins crippled Nightwing's attempts to deal with this other crime.

' _At least the SWAT hasn't come after you tonight,'_ Oracle thought. _'Yes, I know, I know.'_

Another man dropped down to the ground in front of Nightwing. To call this man an assassin might have been presenting one of the most charitable definitions of the word. A dagger clutched in this man's hand and madness fluttered in his eyes.

"Alright finally I…"

A flash of light resulted of a blade being stabbed through the back of the supposed assassin. Blood dripped from the background. Nightwing followed the progress of the blade being ripped from the man's back.

The moment the alleged attacker dropped to the ground, Nightwing came face to face with one of the most feared assassins in the entire world. He had been legendary with the amount of kills he performed. He got his start during the time of the Justice Society of America and kept himself in good shape.

One palm thrust almost connected to Nightwing. The Dragon slid out of the way and engaged his adversary in a series of rapid-fire strikes. Deathstroke caught Nightwing and grabbed the wrist. The extended armbar had been countered with a forward flip. Deathstroke flipped over and dropped down onto the ground.

The two engaged in a second battle. Rapid fire fists and feet had been exchanged. Deathstroke pulled out a gun in an attempt to slow the adversary down. Nightwing raised a hand and the gun flew out of Deathstroke's hand. Deathstroke doubled over and flipped out of the way of a rapid fire punch.

Nightwing turned to see where Deathstroke disappeared received an answer just seconds later. A blade swung towards Nightwing. Nightwing avoided the attacks one at a time. More punches avoided as well and Nightwing grabbed Deathstroke before flipping him into the air.

Deathstroke landed on top of a garbage bin and propelled to the top of the building. Nightwing gave chase. The moment he was up, Deathstroke threw a Molotov cocktail at him. Nightwing dodged the attack and a miniature explosion rocked the building they stood on.

' _Is this guy….'_

Nightwing shut out the attempts to get through the bond link. Deathstroke brought a dagger down towards Nightwing. Nightwing blocked the attack. The Terminator sacrificed the dagger and slid back a couple of steps. More rapid fire punches connected and staggered Nightwing against the roof. Deathstroke grabbed Nightwing and flung him off.

Wings retracted from Nightwing's suit and Deathstroke dove off of the building. The attempted kamikaze effort had been blocked. Nightwing returned back behind a car. Deathstroke dove through the windows in an attempt to get at Nightwing.

Nightwing claimed a blade of his own. Swords clung together. Sparks showered the air when both of them fought. Nightwing tried to use his youth and endurance as a means to back Deathstroke away from him.

Deathstroke struggled. It had been a long time since battling an adversary this intense. The Terminator proved his skill and experience resulted in a perfect match for the Dragon. The Dragon slid back a couple of feet and the blade almost took him out.

Seconds before the blade could plunge into Nightwing, the attack had been dodged. The Dragon returned fire with more punches than he could muster. The Dragon's heart skipped a couple of steady beats.

' _Okay, got to get this done.'_

Two chains wrapped around Nightwing's arms. Nightwing wrapped the chains around and cut them loose. Deathstroke slammed into the wall. Nightwing jumped up.

Both men flew through a glass window when Nightwing speared the man through them. Broken shards of glass littered the ground. Deathstroke crept out of the side exit and Nightwing followed him into the alleyway.

The sword swung from the alleyway blocked and Nightwing caught the adversary with a snap kick. The kick sent Deathstroke staggering back a couple of inches. Nightwing caught him with another kick and a third kick which sent him crashing to the ground.

Nightwing's sense of danger increased when he heard the footsteps.

"Alright, we've got you now you vigilante!"

The members of the Gotham City SWAT turned up. Nightwing never experienced a greater combination of annoyance and relief. Deathstroke pulled himself up and wiped the blood fro his mouth.

"Run."

Deathstroke hurled one of the grenades into the ground. The grenades exploded and gave them a cover of debris and cover. Nightwing took out the nearest SWAT member and planted the man into the ground. The Dragon ascended up to the top of the roof.

No Deathstroke on the roof meant no Deathstroke in his line of sight. Nightwing dropped down for a moment to adjust the tracker on his mask. Full visibility was needed to take down this bastard.

On the rooftop across the street, Deathstroke waited for his target. The dangerous assassin waved the Dragon over. A running start allowed the leather clad superhero to land on the roof. Wings retracted and then went back into his suit. No Deathstroke.

The SWAT made their way to the rooftop, ready for round two. Nightwing was not about to give them a chance to indulge themselves on their money making scheme. Nightwing propelled himself off of the building and slipped into the concrete jungle.

' _Okay, can we speak now?'_ Kara asked. _'What in the name of Rao just happened?'_

' _Deathstroke happened…and if he's loose in Gotham City, bad things are going to happen,'_ Harry thought. _'Babs, tell Batman Deathstroke is here….he'll know what I'm talking about.'_

' _Will do, and I'm really sorry about the entire SWAT thing….'_

' _I'd face them a hundred times over before I'd fight Deathstroke again,'_ Nightwing thought.

The spirit of the Terminator lingered. Nightwing knew this particular mercenary would have come for him in a matter of seconds. Nightwing endeavored to bring the fight to him first.

' _Can't waste any time, going to have to keep going.'_

* * *

 

"Hey, hey, a good night, isn't it?"

The Walrus and a few of his closest buddies exited the night club. These boys staggered out, making a scene of themselves. The entire gang looked properly smashed and staggered around. The well-lubricated lads tried to keep themselves upright.

One of them grabbed onto an attractive redhead woman. The woman pulled herself away from him and forced the goon to faceplant himself on the pavement. His mates laughed before one of them walked towards the woman in question.

"Yeah, hey toots, I lost my phone number, can I have yours?"

Dudley smirked when waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"Get a life creep!"

The sound of a slap made Dudley break out into a fit of chuckles. He patted one of the gang members on the back in a condescending fashion. The gang member turned as if his puppy had been shut.

"Guess you struck out there, didn't you, mate?" Dudley asked.

The sound of bullets fired at Dudley and his gang. Two of the gang members went down. The other three gang members pulled out their guns and started to fire back. They had all been dropped by the gunfire as well.

"Alright, you rat bastard!" Dudley slurred in his most drunken tone of voice. "You know who the fuck I am? I work for the motherfucking Penguin and he's going to run….."

A tranquilizer dart hit the side of Dudley's neck and dropped him down the bed. A pair of well-made were the last thing the young man saw.

"Yeah, you think you're Prince Shit," Salvatore Maroni said. "Well you and King Shit, are going to be in deep shit now….hey, Falcone, we've got the little bastard."

Mario Falcone stepped out of the shadows clutching a golf club. The middle child of the Roman lifted the golf club. Maroni lifted his hand to prevent the attempted bludgeoning.

"Hey, hey, don't…he'd do us no good if we caved his skull in," Maroni said. "If the fat bird wants a war….well we'll give it to him. He doesn't mess with family, does he?"

"I say we kill him now and feed him to the fishes," Mario said.

Maroni chuckled. Finally, a fire had been lit under Mario's ass. And here he thought all of this time, Sofia was the only one of those kids who had any balls.

"Hey, we might have to do that, but right now…let's just keep him nice and safe," Maroni said. "Alright boys, he's all yours."

Several of Maroni's men walked up and lifted the beefy form of Dudley Dursley off of the ground. While he dropped a lot of weight since his heaviest, he was still no light load.

"Alright, all together now!" the leader of the crew said.

They heaved the Walrus right into the back of the truck. Maroni watched his men finish their handiwork with a crisp smile on his face.

' _The Roman doesn't want to get the job done, that's fine,'_ Maroni said. _'We're just going to have to get it done my way.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on August 20** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well, things are escalating. It's pretty much spelled out who is playing White Canary, but her employer is even worse news._

_Lois and Rebecca have some fun interaction. They're going to take their training to the next level although it may be a while before we see them on the street._

_More chaos in space with our Lantern Crew and Sinestra isn't quite herself right now._

_Talia has made her interest quite clear._

_Deathstroke coming to town means bad news for, and he's given Harry his toughest fight in a while._

_And there goes Dudley, getting kidnapped, in respond for the Penguin kidnapping Alberto. Things aren't exactly that warm and fuzzy between the Gotham City criminal underworld._

_Until next Saturday._


	218. Blood Gauntlet Part One

**Chapter One Hundred and Eighteen: The Blood Gauntlet Part One.**

* * *

 

Nightwing returned to the Penthouse after taking a long trip around Gotham to ensure he was not being followed or Deathstroke did not jump back for an attack. This particular wrinkle hit him hard. Deathstroke the Terminator's rap sheet stretched out as long as Harry's arm and there were many victims of his blade which Harry did not have detailed knowledge of.

Harry banked on one thing. Last night's attack resulted in Deathstroke taking a step back. Had he wanted to take Harry out, he would have done so without a problem. Deathstroke tested Harry. The next assault would be for real and Nightwing needed to hit first and hit hard.

The elevator doors popped out and Kara and Diana reached Harry a second later to lead him inside. Both of them looked at Harry with a fair amount of concern and it was a concern which was well learned.

"So, Deathstroke was his name?" Kara asked.

"A name he's earned well, "Harry said. "The other part of his name he earned just as much. The Terminator."

Diana and Kara had not seen Harry so focused and intense for a very long time. The emerald-eyed sorcerer made his way to the medical area while stripping off his costume.

"This time, the shields worked out, I didn't even get any glass buried into him," Nightwing said. "Just a bit of soreness, but it will pass."

"Let me scan you for poisons," Alura said.

Harry sat still for Alura to do her thing. Poisons did not affect him, although they still could enter his bloodstream until they burned out. Harry hoped if Slade did poison him, the poison still lingered behind. They could figure out some kind of counteragent and make sure the other girls did not get hit with them.

Kara sat down next to Harry. She wondered about something.

"I'd be lying if I said this isn't wearing me down a little bit," Harry said.

"Oh, is it?" Kara asked. "I thought you said….well it doesn't really matter, does it right about now?"

The hands of the couple grabbed together. Diana reached over to Kara's right side to grab the girl's free hand. She moved around and locked hands with Harry.

"Lady Shiva has scared off some of the smaller fish who are trying to get their hands on the bounty," Harry said. "The bigger fish, though, they're going to push through unless she directly takes care of them."

Harry racked his mind with all of what he thought about Deathstroke. He looked to be the type of man who took a contract for the challenge of doing things not necessarily because of the fact the money was needed. Everyone did need money for something, even though the man underneath the desk.

' _Oracle, did you warn Batman?'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, I did,'_ Barbara thought. _'He's about as grim as….well he's grimmer than normal. Which is really saying something….just who is this Deathstroke guy anyway?'_

Harry leaned back when Alura motioned for him to do so. The warm light flashed over Harry's body. It scanned him for any injury which flashed over his body.

' _I told you all I know about Deathstroke,'_ Harry thought. _'World class mercenary, pretty much top of the line. Many people stepped into his way, and it's the last thing they would do.'_

' _And yet, the SWAT intervened and he didn't kill them all where they stood,'_ Barbara thought. _'You don't suppose…..oh he can't be, he has to be testing you. Isn't he? That's it, he has to be testing you? Am I right or wrong?'_

' _Barbara, is it really surprising at this point?'_ Harry thought.

Over time, Harry built up quite the reputation. The legends had become so insane, even though he would be the first to admit how much truth could be a lot more intriguing than any kind of fiction. One thing never changed was this particular fact.

Harry leaned back against the chair and waited for Alura to finish working her magic. The scan concluded and pulled back from him.

"So, Alura, what's the damage?" Harry asked.

"For someone who suffered a beating, you're in good shape," Alura said. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yes, so no toxins, no poisons, nothing in my system," Harry said.

"Yes, there's none I can detect," Alura said.

Harry stepped to a standing position. He looked up at the map of Gotham City and pondered.

"Do you think you can bring up the locations of where we encountered the mercenaries over the past couple of nights?" Harry asked.

Kara raised an eyebrow and wondered what Harry had in mind. Alura didn't break her stride and the map of Gotham City flashed up. Several red "X's" appeared around it and he leaned closer towards the map.

"Cross reference to recent reported criminal activity in the area over the past seventy-two hours," Harry said.

The lights flashed off once again. Diana, Kara, and Harry studied the map and noticed a very obvious overlap. It became clear for all of them. Kara responded with a frown and tapped on the edge of the map.

' _Well, at least we know how they're finding you,'_ Oracle said.

Harry hated the fact there was always a mercenary lingering around in the shadows. Some of them were professionals and others were like amateur hour. Harry did not even know where, to begin with taking them down.

"Black Mask is the key to all of this," Harry said. "We take him down….there's no bounty."

"Easier said than done," Oracle said. "I've figured this was coming and taking a look at his factory, it's a well-disguised fortress. He has his own private army."

Diana thought about it and came with an explanation.

"What about hitting him at home?" Diana asked.

"Even worse if you could imagine that," Barbara said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he has snipers at the ready, reading to plug some unsuspecting girl scout at a moment's notice."

Harry agreed with Barbara's plan.

"We're going to have to be proactive, instead of reactive," Harry said. "The smaller fish are going to swim away when all of the big fish come to town and that's when we strike."

Harry knew Deathstroke would return to Gotham City for round two. Beating the Terminator to the punch was high on Harry's list of priorities for this evening. In fact, one could argue he occupied a spot of honor on the top of the list.

' _Time to go to war.'_

* * *

 

One could see the anger flashing through the eyes of Cobblepot. The last time he was this angry, people wouldn't be breathing for much longer.

"What do you mean you lost track of him?" Cobblepot asked. "I told you to keep your beady little eyes on him? Is it that hard for you to do? Can you really be that stupid not to accomplish one simple task? Do you ever use your brain or just rent out the space between your ears for the first person to move in?"

Oswald Cobblepot questioned the intelligence of his henchmen and not for the first time either. Just when the man thought their intelligence hit a brand new low, they found a much bigger shovel to start digging. The man's hand slapped down on the table.

"I warned you!" Cobblepot yelled. "I warned you what would have happened….no, that's going to raise some questions….questions about why he got kidnapped in the first place. Best we settle it our way….the old school way….."

Cobblepot almost kicked over a trash can in his temper. The bin rattled from the foot being put into it. Cobblepot leaned in and steadied the can before it dropped onto the ground. Anger swam through the eyes of this bird of prey.

"Falcone's going to….he's going to pay for this….yes, let me know."

Oswald Cobblepot hated it. A group of his men lingered outside of his office like bad house guests. The Penguin thought it would be time to go out and spread the word to tell them what was what. The doors swung open and the men scurried around trying to act like they had not had their ears outside of the Penguin's office door.

"Alright, knock that all off, the lot of you!" Penguin squawked. "I know you were out there…you can't pull one over my eyes. You all better just pipe down."

The goon squad stepped back. Their boss had been in a towering temper a lot in the last couple of months over a perceived lack of respect thanks to incidents involving Catwoman and Batwoman as of late. None of these thugs wanted to be the match which lit this particular powder keg.

"Listen and listen well," Cobblepot said. "I'm only going to tell you this once. Dudley has been kidnapped by Falcone and Maroni's goons."

"Why would he do that, boss?" one of the thugs asked.

Cobblepot stared him down. The goon could see the murderous malice flashing in the eyes of the Penguin. He swallowed anxiously, wondering if he had pushed things a bit too far.

"Oh, I don't know, Peterson," Cobblepot said. "Maybe I did something piss them off….or maybe it's because I have the product of Carmine Falcone's semen in the basement, just hanging out!"

This spitting statement caused the man who asked the question to recoil. Cobblepot looked as if he wanted to lash out on the man in question.

"Piss off, you're not worth it," Cobblepot said. "The boy might not be the sharpest tack the drawer, but he could be pretty bloody useful when he wanted to be. And now, it's like I lost….not my right hand, but maybe a couple of really bloody useful fingers."

The henchmen all murmured to each other.

"No one likes a bunch of patronizing twats!" Cobblepot squawked. "I'm going to be blunt….Falcone thinks I'm going to fold like a house of cards. He thinks I'm going to give his boy back just because he took Dudley. Do any of you think I'm going to do that?"

The men in question stared at their boss with fearful glimpses in their eye. None of them wanted to be the one to argue with Cobblepot or what he was going to say? They were not going to be the ones who spoke up and got their heads ripped off, in a figurative manner.

Knowing how snarling the boss was as of late, it would be a literal manner as well. They all had to watch their steps.

"Good, you've learned, proves old dogs can be taught new tricks," Cobblepot said. "And the oldest dog in Gotham City is Carmine Falcone. He's going to learn respect even if I have to beat him with it."

An umbrella swung out and bopped one of the nearest thugs in the face. The man recoiled in fear.

"Oh, don't be such a pussy," Cobblepot said. "This didn't hurt, this does!"

Cobblepot whacked the goon in the groin with the umbrella to bend him over. The bird slipped a half of a step back with a devious expression on his face.

The door to the basement opened up. Alberto Falcone's gaze looked up towards him.

"Your father may have well have written your own death notice, boy," Cobblepot said. "He took Dudley….."

"Oh, you mean that bastard who kidnapped me in the first place?" Alberto asked.

Cobblepot reached in and cupped Alberto's chin. Those fingers danced dangerously close to slipping around the boy's throat and squeezing him.

"Mind your tongue when you talk to me, Falcone," Cobblepot said. "I'm not thrilled with your old man. And his next play signifies whether you live."

Cobblepot retracted the hand from around Alberto Falcone's throat. The mob prince fell back in the chair and gasped.

"Or whether I send you back to him in pieces," Cobblepot said. "And I will rip you apart one piece at a time until there's nothing left."

Cobblepot turned around and walked off. The moment his temper faded, the man would call up the Roman and the two of them would have words.

* * *

 

Deathstroke approached the front door to his temporary home in the dead of night. The moment the mercenary noticed the door left ajar. A hand had been placed on the door and he opened it.

The creaking sound caused some of the element of surprise to be taken away. Deathstroke hoped to attack whoever invaded his home. The Terminator lingered around the corner. No sign of anyone around the corner just yet. Many enemies could be here, or it could be an old friend who forgotten how much he did not have a sense of humor.

Deathstroke walked around the corner and turned to see something flicker in the shadows. A dagger whipped out and flew towards the figure in the shadows. A second past before any reaction occurred. A gloved hand stretched out and grabbed it. The dagger flung over Deathstroke's shoulder and knocked over some pots and pans.

"You're not as quick as you used to be."

Deathstroke stepped back to come face to face with the dangerous and deceitful Lady Shiva. The Terminator looked down at one of the deadliest women in the world, if not the deadliest woman in the world. In a world without Deathstroke, the mercenary thought she could be considered the most deadly person in the world.

"You're not as quick as you used to be."

Deathstroke rushed towards Lady Shiva. The attack had been avoided. Shiva turned around and knocked Deathstroke back a couple of inches. The Terminator dropped down to a pair of knees and pushed back up to a standing position.

"If I want to kill you, you would know it and you'd be dead," Lady Shiva said. "And unless you give me a reason to kill you, then you'll live. For now."

Deathstroke climbed to a standing position and locked eyes onto the devious Lady Shiva. The woman stared back at him. Both of them prepared to make their next move which could end up being their adversary's last move.

"You enter a man's home….."

"This home is well below your standards," Shiva said. "Unless your divorce has left you well beneath the standards you've achieved before."

Deathstroke looked about ready to attack despite it not ending in a favorable manner. He stepped back to give them both a lot of breathing room.

"I do not bring your demons out on the table to discuss," Deathstroke said. "And I know your past relationships will give us much to…"

Shiva extended the blade and pushed it into the bottom of Deathstroke's chin. The two individuals locked eye to eye with each other.

"There's a very good reason why you don't bring the past up to me, Slade," Shiva said. "As good of a reputation you've cultivated, there's one thing you fear. And that's fighting someone stronger than you. And you're not as spry as you used to."

"I was enough to take this Nightwing to a limit," Slade said. "For the dreaded dragon, I was underwhelmed…"

"From what I could tell, the battle did not reach its natural conclusion," Shiva said. "The Gotham City SWAT's involvement prevented that. No one would have faulted them for becoming collateral damage."

"I've never been too big of a fan of collateral," Slade said.

"Which means you haven't been a fan of spilling blood you won't end up getting paid for."

Lady Shiva struck the nail on the head for Slade. The Terminator leaned against the wall and surveyed Shiva for a moment. Both of them developed a very cordial relationship over the years. Both stood on both sides of the spectrum as friends and enemies. They respected their abilities.

"We have a different philosophy," Deathstroke said. "And I doubt you came here for a cup of tea. Because if you did, I'm fresh out."

Lady Shiva took a seat on the couch and motioned for Slade to take his place on the chair in front of her. Slade did as requested.

"You're going after the Dragon," Lady Shiva said. "I'm going to give you one warning to abandon your plans going against him."

"And you decided to visit me personally instead of implying I should back off through near attacks," Deathstroke said. "I'm flattered, Sandra, I am. Warms me up, right here."

Slade's hand placed onto his heart. Sandra's dagger neared the Terminator's heart.

"Do not be foolish," Lady Shiva said. "The Dragon is off limits. The League of Assassins had their plans for him."

"I was under the impression the League was not much of anything, and you were fighting amongst yourselves because of the demise of Ra's Al Ghul," Slade said.

Shiva did not say a word. The knife retracted away from the man and gave him plenty of room to breathe. The two high-level mercenaries came eye to eye with each other.

"Do not make assumptions and you should know better than anyone else how much impressions can change," Shiva said. "And how much they will change."

Slade answered with a brisk nod and understood the game had changed.

"So, you don't want me to kill Nightwing?" Slade asked.

"This edict comes down from the Daughters of the Demon themselves," Shiva said. "You owe the League, need I remind you."

Slade wondered if this particular card would have been laid out on the table. The Terminator put his hand underneath a chin.

"Well, someone else will have to go after Nightwing," Slade said. "Does this…"

"Do what you wish for Batman," Lady Shiva said. "If you think you can stand toe to toe."

Sandra helped train the Detective during his travels of the world. She knew of the man's strength and knew it would be an interesting battle. He lacked qualities which were present in the Dragon, though, despite his own grand strengths.

"What would you have done if I had refused?" Deathstroke asked.

"Do you intend to go back on our bargain?" Shiva asked.

A long battle of wills followed with neither Lady Shiva or Deathstroke willing to back off from each other. Both sides went back and forth with each other for what they perceived to be an eternity. Only seconds passed, though.

"No," Deathstroke said. "You need not worry about me intervening with whatever plans you have for Nightwing."

A small part of Deathstroke admitted he was a far tougher opponent than previously thought and may have been holding back.

"Unless he attacks me first."

Lady Shiva's gaze met Deathstroke's because of what he said.

"Do what you must if he does, but the next blood will be spilled will be yours if he is harmed."

The blade of the sword came down onto the table and came inches of hitting Deathstroke's list. The Terminator pulled back as did the woman. She slunk into the shadows as two words hit Deathstroke which he would never dare say to her face.

' _Crazy bitch._

"And I have the information you requested," Slade said almost as an afterthought. "Cain's still keeping a step away from you, isn't he?"

"Did you read it?" Shiva asked.

The folder exchanged hands between both of them. Slade responded with a light head shake.

"No, it's yours…..if it's all there, I don't know," Slade said.

The moment Slade looked up; Lady Shiva vanished off into the distance. This left Slade to rethink his plans. Twenty-five million dollars he would not be seeing vanished from underneath Slade's loss. The bank account would not be that big of a hit, but it still was a problem.

' _If I can't slay the Dragon, then no one can.'_

Slade made plans to discourage any further attacks on the dragon.

* * *

 

Nightwing continued the hunt in Gotham City. Something brewed here tonight. Deathstroke would have to be out here tonight, he could feel it. All he had to do was be ready to attack.

Almost an hour passed with Nightwing hunting. He had not seen a hint of Deathstroke, or really any other mercenary in Gotham City. It was relieving in some ways, and also just a tiny bit unsettling in some other ways. He waited and prepared to check out everything.

' _So anything on your end?'_ Nightwing asked Black Canary.

' _Not a thing,'_ Black Canary thought. _'Do you think they're might be taking a night off.'_

' _Wishful thinking,'_ Nightwing said. An alarm went off which meant it was time for him to go.

Nightwing dropped to the ground and landed in the middle of a gruesome sight. The vigilante stepped down and could see two would-be muggers on the ground. Large gaping holes ripped into their chest. Nightwing turned to one side and noticed a figure in the shadows.

' _Here we go again,'_ Nightwing thought.

The figure started to whistle towards his direction. Something whistling brought Nightwing closer to the edge of the alleyway. He shined a light on and realized the man in question was not only already dead, but also rigged to explode. A loud explosion fired off.

Nightwing launched back a few feet and stuck a careful landing on the ground. The hit had been precise the second Nightwing landed on the ground. He looked up in time to see a figure fly down from the sky.

' _White Canary, no way.'_

Almost a year ago, Harry encountered the White Canary. He had no idea whether this was the same one or not. The Canary moved at a quick pace. A dagger stabbed towards Nightwing. He blocked the dagger and flipped the woman into the air. The woman launched into the air. Nightwing tried to grab onto her. She answered the attack with a firm kick to the side of the face.

The White Canary landed firm on her feet. The woman's attention lingered on the Dragon who rushed towards her. The two of them circled around each other.

' _I'll be with you in a second…actually, it might be more than a second,'_ Black Canary said.

Nightwing wondered if this was a test or of this attack was for real. He blocked another wild swing. The warrior retracted the second attack and flipped onto the side of the wall. She scaled the ladder and lead the Dragon up towards the ceiling. Nightwing followed a couple of steps behind the White Canary.

The two chased each other across the city. A wild goose chase, or was it Canary chase continued to occur. Nightwing turned his head all the way around to seek out the White Canary. Seconds passed before Nightwing looked up.

The figure came down on the top of Nightwing's head. Nightwing staggered back a couple of inches and avoided a wild swing. Another wild swing before the White Canary disappeared. Nightwing continued to chase and watched her circle back around.

Nightwing caught the pattern the woman developed and would not be falling for it right yet. The mercenary turned around and fired a kick towards Nightwing. A leg sweep brought the woman down onto her back. Nightwing entered the front mount. White Canary used her able legs to flip Nightwing over.

The Dragon tucked and rolled and entered a factory. The White Canary entered the factory and threw several shurikens. The shuriken sliced the ropes leading to stacks of crates to fall down. She snapped a kick off at the fact of the Dragon. Another avoided attack. The Dragon caught the kick a second time.

The White Canary turned around and delivered a snap spin kick despite her right leg being caught. This broke the grip of Nightwing and sent him flying back a couple of inches. Nightwing rolled over and avoided the White Canary's attempts to stab through the top of his head. She swung the baton out.

Nightwing flipped out of the attack and a chain flew towards him. He caught the chain in one fell swoop and yanked forward. The White Canary twisted out of the chain and caused the opposite end of the chain to snap back into Nightwing's face.

' _Got to admit, she has some pretty sick moves,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Far better trained than last time too,'_ Harry thought.

' _Maybe it's not the same person you fought the last time?'_ Barbara suggested.

White Canary rushed Nightwing. The charged attack sailed over the head of Nightwing. Nightwing caught White Canary on the backswing and flipped the woman down to the ground. The Whtie Canary flipped out of Nightwing's attack and Nightwing stopped any further attack.

The bottom half of White Canary's mask tore off to reveal a face of a Japanese woman. Her eyes narrowed and she slipped back into the shadows.

Nightwing bolted off after The White Canary in hot pursuit. Only three steps outside stopped Nightwing. The bullet hit the ground a few inches away from him. A sniper mounted on a ledge.

One canary cry caused the ledge to tilt and cause the sniper to fall to a sickening landing on the concrete. Black Canary jumped up and stomped the man into the ground.

' _So, sorry I'm late,'_ Black Canary said. _'What just happened?'_

' _Good question,'_ Nightwing thought.

No matter how much he thought about it, he did not have any answers and the fact galled him an insane amount. The two slipped off into the shadows and hoped to find Slade. This other mercenary though was of interest. Harry saw her face even though a name could not be put to it now.

* * *

 

Carmine Falcone sat on the other end of the table from Rupert Thorne. Thorne surveyed Falcone with disappointed over the glass of wine, something Falcone was not too thrilled about. He was less thrilled about what Mario and Maroni pulled off with their kidnap of the Walrus.

To show this disappointment outwardly though would make him look like a chump. The Roman found the scene in the city changing over the past couple of years.

"Carmine, I don't know what to say about this," Thorne said. "I can feel your pain, but you shouldn't…"

"Cobblepot will return my son now," Carmine said. "Or he will suffer the consequences."

He entered the biggest no-win situation ever. If the Roman admitted Maroni went behind his back and kidnapped the Walrus without his consent, it would make him look like a punk. If he kept the Walrus there, then Alberto's fate may have been sealed.

"The Penguin is not acting like a rational animal now," Thorne said.

Thorne thought this entire incident spiraled out of control in the worst possible way. The nudging he delivered to the Penguin in an attempt to rile him up about the Roman backfired in the worst way. The Roman's retaliation backfired in the worst way possible. And now both sides locked in an intense stare down where neither wanted to back off.

"No, he's not one," Carmine said. "And what do you intend to do about it, Rupert? You're the one who is supposed to be mediating an agreement."

Throne's gaze remained even. The hand clutched against the edge of table before finding its way onto a glass bottle. He took a long drink from it.

"The rules of this engagement have changed," Thorne said. The man reached over to take a cloth and wipe the sweat from his brow. "I thought we would be able to agree to a deal. Give him something and he will return your son."

Carmine took the glass of wine and drank from it. The two men locked eye to eye with each other. Every second ticked by on the clock. Carmine wanted something to break.

"He hasn't called you yet, has he?" Falcone asked.

"No, he hasn't," Thorne said. "And I fear we've offended him this time…he must think I was involved in this kidnapping."

Falcone rose to a standing position. The ball had been bounced in Penguin's court.

"Tell the Penguin I will return the Walrus if he returns my son," Falcone said. "And there's nothing else I would do."

"You do realize if he doesn't agree, Alberto is good as dead," Thorne said.

Falcone counted backward from thirty before he returned his gaze towards Thorne. Both sides locked eye to eye with each other.

"Do what you need to do, Rupert," Falcone said. "You're on the edge of a gang war and no one is going to survive it, including you or your Commission."

Thorne thought he could weather the storm. The losses which would come out after such a battle made Thorne think twice. He thought about what would happen and another meeting would need to be held by the members of the Commission.

Carmine Falcone made his way to the limo. Sofia waited in the back of the limo when the Roman entered inside.

"So, what did you talk about?" Sofia asked.

"We're going to have to make a deal, the Walrus for your brother," Carmine said.

Sofia frowned. She wasn't exactly fond of this deal, although she sympathized with her father. Still, she wondered if Alberto was worth it.

"He's a valuable asset," Sofia said.

"Yes, he is," Carmine said. "My hands are tied….and it's all down to Sionis, and I wouldn't be surprised if Thorne had something to do with this as well."

Sofia surveyed her father with a sympathetic smile. A couple of thoughts popped into the woman's head. One of the most obvious ones was it would be a huge mistake. Carmine Falcone wasn't acting in the most rational manner right now.

"If Cobblepot agrees, do you think he'll honor the deal?" Sofia asked.

"He'll have to," Falcone said. "He's lost too much ground as of late to not honor the deal, not if he wants to lose one of his key players."

Mario and Maroni's actions, as sloppy as they might have been, opened the door for an opportunity.

"The only good thing to come out of this is his relationship with Black Mask is showing signs of strain," Falcone said. "The bird wouldn't have done such a thing if he…"

"So take care both of them, then? "Sofia asked.

"They're a necessity, and also a liability," Falcone said. "They keep Nightwing and Batman's attention diverted away from some of our operations when they play the game right. And when they play the game wrong…."

Carmine Falcone's words had drifted off into mere silence. Sofia wished she could offer some clarity to her father. She only returned to help him out of concern for his health. Alberto might not have been worth much of anything, but she sympathized with the fact Carmine worried about his son.

* * *

 

"You have impeccable taste, Doctor Potter….sorry, Harry," Talia said.

The two of the sat in a cozy little booth in a nice place in Gotham City, which allowed them plenty of privacy. The food was exquisite and the atmosphere veered towards the more low-key variety.

"RAO is performing above expectations this year, isn't it?" Talia asked.

"Yes, yes, it is," Harry said. "Everything can be a lot better, though."

Talia smiled. With what Nyssa said, Harry always raised those expectations to a higher level. The younger daughter of Ra's Al Ghul took a long drink.

"So, how long do you think you're still around Wayne Industries?" Harry asked.

"Well, there's a fair amount to do, and I'm sure Mr. Wayne appreciates my help," Talia said. "He can be a bit…eccentric at times."

"Bruce has worked hard to live up to his father's legacy," Harry said. "We all have a way to go with the people who come before us."

"Yes, I can understand," Talia said.

Talia found herself in the shadow of two remarkable people, both a father and an older sister who performed remarkable feats.

"Thanks for the dinner," Talia said.

"It wasn't any trouble at all," Harry said. "Do you wish for me to drive you home?"

Talia walked on the way here because the weather wasn't this bad. She encountered some rather harsh conditions during training which some people would wilt and shiver about.

Still, he offered, and it would be rude to deny the gentleman's offer.

"Only if you allow me to invite you inside for coffee after it's all said and done," Talia said.

"Coffee?" Harry asked.

"Yes, coffee," Talia said.

The dark haired beauty leaned in and touched her lips onto Harry's to thank him for the wonderful time. She pulled back for a moment and smiled.

' _Time to see if he's everything….well, let's not assume something is going to happen until it happens.'_

The bill had been paid with a rather generous tip put on top of it. The two walked around. Harry's car was a bit of a walk away.

"Well, if it's anything like the cars I see you drive in when you arrive for the weekly Wayne Industry meetings, it should be an interesting ride," Talia said.

Talia allowed her arm to slip into Harry's. Her hand brushed behind Harry for a second.

' _And she just copped a feel, didn't she?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Yes, although she was most subtle than most,'_ Harry thought. _'Tonight will be interested.'_

' _Can we officially include another pair of sisters in your collection?'_ Kara asked. _'And no Deathstroke, no White Canary…after you're done having your coffee….we'll meet up at the usual place.'_

Harry almost made it to the car. Hairs started to tingle on the back of his neck. Something flashed through the shadows.

"Get behind me," Talia said, keeping up the charade of not knowing Harry Potter and Nightwing were one and the same. "There's...I heard something….."

Talia slipped a taser from underneath her sleeve. Not the most elegant of ninja weapons, but it would do so in a pinch.

The same ghostly whispers Harry heard at the temple of the White Ghost echoed through the back of his head. A set of fingers nudged him. Harry stood before his body snapped back and fell onto the ground.

"Harry!" Talia yelled. She noticed a pair of fingers withdrawing from Harry's shadow. "Show yourself."

The shadow gained form and a trio of ninjas clad in white surrounded Talia on either side.

"He sent you, didn't he?" Talia asked.

The three white ninjas surrounded Talia. Talia leaned forward to attack. The stun gun slid between her fingers when one of the ninjas latched onto the shadow. An invisible hand gripped Talia's throat and backed her off.

"Listen," the ninja hissed.

"What did you do to Harry?" Talia asked.

The ninjas looked towards the young man on the ground. They reacted with indifference and turned back to look at Talia.

"Paralyzed, twenty minutes will survive," the second ninja said. "Your father will return soon. Ra's Al Ghul will rise again."

The ninjas surrounded Talia. Intrigue filled the woman's mind and also a slightly dubious set of thoughts.

"Where is my father?" Talia asked.

"Safe," the three ninjas chorused in unison. "Safe from deceit. Need priorities."

Talia looked from Harry to the trio of ninjas on the ground. If he woke up before the time, she would have some explaining to do and they likely would try and kill her this time.

"What do you want from me?" Talia asked. "You have my full attention, for now, but be quick about it."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on August 24** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_So, Deathstroke is making his plans, and he's a danger to everyone. Of course, Lady Shiva gives him a warning to steer clear of Nightwing, which he respects. But there's always Batman._

_The White Canary makes her return, which is obviously interesting for reasons which may be obvious._

_Then we have, the madness involving the mobsters of Gotham City. All hell is breaking loose._

_Ninjas attack, I swear it's like an epidemic._

_Until Wednesday._


	219. Blood Gauntlet Part Two

_Week Thirty Three Chapter of the Week Poll is Available at the Blog. http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/  
_

**Chapter Two Hundred and Nineteen: The Blood Gauntlet Part Two.**

* * *

 

Talia stepped back from the downed form of Harry Potter and she looked towards the ninjas who had knocked him out. Some thoughts entered her mind and she was not too happy about them arriving at this time. The Daughter of the Demon's eyes narrowed when she looked back at these ninjas. They surrounded the woman in a circle.

The Daughter of the Demon didn't move from her position. All she did was stare daggers in all of them.

"You're here, you talk, and it had better be important," Talia said. "You better tell me about my father."

The hideous whispers came from these ninjas. Talia braced herself for an attack, but nothing came from them.

"Your father will return from the darkness, and a new world will rise," one of the ninjas said. "You need to figure out what your priorities are."

"My priorities stand where they should be," Talia said. "Tell your master we're not happy regarding his scheme and if he wishes to step into the light and face us, then he should do so. Stop with the games, stop with the deceit."

The ninjas all backed away from the Daughter of the Demon. Talia watched them and never took her eyes off of the situation. Her back pressed against the wall for several seconds. The Daughter of the Demon waited and a blowing wind came. The ninjas disappeared into the shadows.

Gone into the wind. Gone as fast as they had appeared. The Daughter of the Demon leaned down towards Harry and looked towards him. She reached down and nudged him on the shoulder.

Just as soon as the ninjas disappeared, Harry stirred awake. His eyes blurred over when he woke up. A breath passed over the young man.

"Are you okay?" Talia asked.

"I was dizzy and then I collapsed," Harry said.

Talia studied his face. For now, he didn't suspect anything, and Talia had been relieved.

' _That was close,'_ she thought.

"You should relax more," Talia said. "You've been working for too long."

Talia extended a hand towards Harry and held him up. She walked him around the corner to the car and kept sneaking peeks over her shoulder. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Gotham earned its reputation for a very good reason," Talia said. "It's best to be careful in circumstances…..even given what has been known to happen. I would have thought you would know better than that."

The sound had been quiet. Most of the criminals stepped away to avoid the assassins or tried to take a crack at Nightwing to get that bounty money. Regardless, Harry ignored the ringing in his head. He had been attacked by a mysterious force.

' _So, are you okay?'_ Dinah asked.

' _I'll be more okay when I found out what exactly happened,'_ Harry thought. _'Something tried to attack me, but…..I don't know.'_

' _For the record, none of us saw what happened,'_ Kara thought. _'Other than it happened.'_

' _Do you think she has anything to do with it?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Do, I think she has anything to do with it?'_ Harry asked. _'Not directly, I think she has anything to do with it? Do I think she's up to something, somehow? She knows who attacked me, I just need to….figure out what she knows, and that means playing along with her for a while.'_

Harry mentally replayed the incident in the back of his mind. The attack with someone or rather something thumping him across the back of the head, and Harry dropped down to the ground in response. He tried to piece together the reasons for what happened.

"Actually, there's something I have to take care of," Talia said. "I almost forgot in all of the excitement of tonight, a and tonight has been rather exciting…..I had an enjoyable time but….it has to end sometime doesn't it?"

"It looks like it," Harry said. "So, I guess we're taking a rain check on the coffee."

Talia appeared almost saddened, at least through the outward expression on her face.

"Yes, unfortunately," Talia said. "I'm certain you're used to being on the other side of this exchange."

Harry smiled, more than she could ever know. Or maybe she did know. At least a third of his dates had the potential of running into something. Which might have been a generous rate of success, if he had to say so himself. He turned towards Talia who looked outside of the window when he made the short drive towards the apartment.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked. "Sorry, it's just that you seem a little bit distracted."

Talia leaned forward and paused for a second. The dark-haired woman responded by shaking her head and looking back towards Harry.

"Just thinking about what I need to get done," Talia said. "It's nothing which will change the world. It's just mindless busy work. The senseless type of work which you imagine, but it has to be done."

The car pulled up to the curb and the door opened. Talia leaned in and kissed Harry on the cheek. The kiss looked a bit distracted and a bit conflicted when Talia turned around and walked off. She closed her eyes and continued to walk towards the apartment.

' _When a warrior is conflicted, they wear their emotions on their sleeve,'_ Diana thought.

' _We know about her loyalty to the demon,'_ Faora thought. _'And it's becoming rather obvious it's showing signs of strain. She'll be a tougher one to seduce over to your side than Nyssa is. Although I'm not sure Nyssa needed much seduction.'_

Harry responded with a smile. Nyssa really didn't take much prodding, but given her stormy relationship with Ra's Al Ghul in the past, it was to be expected in so many ways, and in so many words.

' _It could still be another test,'_ Dinah thought.

' _No, I don't think it's a test,'_ Harry thought. _'I think it's something else….whatever happened when I was unconscious, she didn't expect it.'_

' _Don't suppose it's the White Ghost, do you?'_ Dinah asked.

Harry actually figured the diseased son of Ra's Al Ghul was responsible for this particular madness. He had a lot of thoughts in his mind and he would see if any of them would pan out over time.

' _It seems likely it might be,'_ Harry thought.

* * *

 

"Come on, Emily, just a hint, just one tiny hint!"

Emily Potter broke out into a smile when her twin looked on with puppy dog eyes. Lois, Rebecca, Lyta, Jessie, Jade, and Artemis all sat around the penthouse, all of them about ready to break into laughter.

The group of girls watched both of the Potter twins stare back and forth at each other. Neither of them backed off from their stance.

"And it just keeps going, and going," Rebecca said.

"So, how long has this been going on?" Artemis asked.

"Oh, long enough," Lois said. "Talk about your battle of the stubborn wills."

"If I gave you a hint, you'd blow it for everyone," Emily said. "I know you, I've known you since….well since we were in the womb."

Amanda folded her arms together at the statement. Her lip stuck out in an atomic pout and Emily just wanted to pat her twin on the head. The Potter twin held herself back from the demeaning action, though.

"Fine, I guess I'm going to have to figure it out myself," Amanda said. "Seriously, though, I'm really excited for Christmas….it's going to be fun."

"Yeah, when you survive your midterms," Lois said.

All of the girls responded with pulling of frowns and those dirty expressions. They really wished Lois did not remind them of the dreaded exams.

"This is the last midterms for us, well in Private school," Amanda said. "And anyone who says the final year is a blow off year, I want to have words with them."

"And here we thought Bette and Bunny wound us up about how tough the final year at GPA is," Emily said. "We should have known they were telling the truth, and not just screwing with us."

Lois smiled, she was glad she would not be there for a few years just yet. One stolen look from Jade showed Lois she was not the only one who was glad. They had more than enough.

"It only gets worse, doesn't it?" Rebecca asked.

"Yes, pretty much, but hey, at least you have a few years to get the lay of the land before they hit you with everything," Amanda said. She smiled and looked at Rebecca. "You're still not struggling?"

"No, I'm getting used to it," Rebecca said. "If anything, I was slightly ahead with my mother's lessons before it happened and Barbara and Harry and Dinah…they've been doing a good job in helping me fill in the blanks."

"Yeah, they do that," Lois said with a smile on her face.

Lois thought they also did a good job in helping her train. The dark haired girl wondered whether or not they would be allowed to out on the field anytime soon.

"You're still lagging a bit behind me," Lyta said. "You better catch up…."

"Hey we're doing good," Lois said. "It's just you're way too smart for ours or anyone else's own good, Lyta."

Lyta tried not to look too happy with herself. She had a lot to live up with, because of Diana being Diana, and Donna not being too bad herself when she got over a few insecurities. Then her father excelled a standard which Lyta hoped to be someday.

"I just hope it's going to get better out there," Lyta said. "I mean in Gotham City it's…..well something's changed out there."

All of the girls didn't really know, at least the younger girls didn't. They had a feeling Harry and the others had some ideas. Whatever changed made sure they stayed in a group.

"It's because of Black Mask," Jade said. "He's lost his mind…..let's hope Nightwing can find a way to put him down."

"Hopefully once and for all," Jessie said, speaking up for the first time.

The Penthouse had been a bit more luxury than Jessie had been used to. She half expected to be dragged out of here and return back to the dingy heap which her father lived in. Speaking of which, Jessie did not hear about her father, and now she was willing to admit he might be dead.

' _At least, he hasn't popped up in about six months,'_ Jessie thought.

Without a body, though, no one could declare him dead. And someone could not very well be reported as being missing when no one missed him.

"Yes, maybe," Amanda said. "It's not that simple a lot of the times, though…..you know."

"Yes, I know," Jessie said.

"Well, at least there are some people working to make Gotham a better place, even though it's hard," Lois said. "Harry's been….working at it…and he can't do it alone….maybe we can do more."

Rebecca gave Lois a warning gaze and Lois shut up a couple of seconds later. The brunette girl thought about voicing her displeasure about being kept on the bench. Rebecca's warning gaze showed her this would not be an adequate or a good idea.

"We're just going to have to take things one day at a time, one step at a time," Amanda said. "Just like these exams, right?"

Artemis was glad she hadn't entered the Private Academy yet, although she was pretty much assured next year. She received the top grades of her year, though, so hard work and dedication were something she was not ashamed of doing.

"Yes, for sure," Lois said. "So, is there anything big planned for Christmas? I mean just because Gotham City is….well….."

"It's gone to hell in a handbasket,' Jade said.

"Well, yeah, but you know Harry and Veronica and Sapphire and Kathy and….well everyone else, will ensure we forget about it, at least for a while," Lois said. "Well, at least for one night."

The girls all responded with smiles. They all knew about those big events in Gotham City.

"Oh, I have a feeling something big would be planned," Lyta said.

"You don't know, do you?" Rebecca asked. Lyta responded with a smile. "But, I have a feeling you're right, even if I don't know."

Lyta overheard Diana and Harry talking. She couldn't really make out most of what they were talking about, but she did know it would be interesting.

* * *

 

The night of Gotham City belonged to Batman. The caped crusader hovered above the ground and dropped down into the alleyway where a disturbance had been heard. The Detective swooped down in the alleyway and saw a body slightly obscured. A blood of blood spilled down from the ground.

"Looks like a prostitute by the looks of things," Batman said.

"Would Slade really target a lady of the night, sir?" Alfred asked.

Batman had been on his guard about Deathstroke since the moment Oracle relayed of the world class assassin's battle with Nightwing. So far, absolutely nothing, although this could change in a blink of light. Batman prepared himself for the changes when they had.

' _With Deathstroke, expect anything.'_

"I don't know," Batman said. "Anything is possible."

"Yes, anything is possible," Alfred agreed. "Especially in Gotham…..my word."

Alfred caught sight of the image of the woman. Batman walked over towards the woman and looked at the woman's face which resembled raw hamburger now. The teeth marks in the face indicated something had been bitten out of her face.

"She was so beautiful; I just had to eat her up….poor girl fell onto some hard times."

A familiar and crisp Hispanic accent caused Batman to turn around. He could see a man walking from the side out of the alleyway. The white-haired man with glasses and a pink jacket with tassels everywhere walked out. A feather boa built out of the man's jacket. The shamelessly tight leather pants had tassels and frills. The man's eccentric appearance should not have been discounted, though. He was as dangerous as one would expect.

Batman put himself on guard. This man was trouble the last time they met and would be even more trouble this time.

"Eduardo Flamingo," Batman said. "The rumors of your demise have been greatly exaggerated."

The man offered a smile with his jagged teeth. A chain hung between his fingers when he advanced upon his prey.

"Yes, Batman," Flamingo said. "And thankfully your demise has not occurred before I had a chance to sink my teeth into you."

The eccentric assassin moved in towards Batman. The detective waited for the man to attack. The bounty had attracted all sorts. Including the mentally unstable, but that went with the territory.

"A man can't live off of the land alone, Batman," Flamingo said, answering his unasked question. "A man needs to work for what he eats."

The Flamingo's sickening teeth stuck out in a twisted, sickening smile for Batman. The assassin rushed Batman and punched at him. Batman dodged the attack and repelled up to the roof and made his way around the corner.

The revving up a motorcycle showed the Flamingo would not go down without a fight easily. The Dark Knight jumped high into the air and jumped on the front of the motorcycle.

"Careful Batman, you get too close, you could get burned by fire!"

Batman jumped off to avoid getting a real life fire crotch. Flamingo whirled around and went towards Batman. The Detective avoided the attack one more time and shot a grapnel off to pull the Flamingo off of the motorcycle. The criminal did a flip and stuck a landing.

"A very lucky shot, but your luck is about to run out!"

Flamingo withdrew a switchblade and looked at Batman. The eccentric assassin charged Batman with the intention of stabbing the man. The Detective twisted all around and nailed Flamingo with a series of rapid-fire kicks to the side of the head. The Detective stepped back and avoided the Flamingo's further attempts to stab him. Batman ducked, dodged, and twisted around each swipe of the switchblade. He kept back against the wall.

"Come on!" Batman yelled.

"I can see the bloodlust in your eyes," Flamingo said.

"No, just leading you into a trap."

A loud explosion echoed which rocked Flamingo off guard. Batman hammered Flamingo with a series of rapid-fire punches. Each punch caused Flamingo's head to whip back with laughter.

A net shot out from out of nowhere. Batman avoided the net and it wrapped around the Flamingo, binding him together.

The situation had just gone from bad to worse. Batman could handle someone like Flamingo. This attack was ten times worse.

The Gotham City SWAT swooped in. The same three SWAT guards which had been chasing Batman on and off, night after night, approached him. The more crazy of the three SWAT members charged Batman. Batman crouched down underneath the baton shot.

One huge punch nailed Batman in the face from the largest figure. The largest man in the party rushed towards Batman. Batman jumped over the charging SWAT member and mounted the man's back. Batman rushed him forward and charged the man towards him. The SWAT guards had been run over from Batman's attack.

"Get him, he won't escape this time!"

Batman disagreed by this one. He looked around and noticed Flamingo freed himself from the errant net. Two more problems. The SWAT tried to throw stun grenades at Batman. He ducked to evade the attackers.

' _From a shipment, they confiscated the other night,'_ Batman thought.

The stun grenades came close to taking Batman. The Dark Knight avoided the attack and continued to move forward. Those SWAT guards continued to pursue Batman off into the distance.

The one and only Slade Wilson watched in the background. Batman had been just as he heard the reports. Slade knew Batman thought about three steps of any enemy just like a well-played master of chess and Slade appreciated this thought coming from him.

' _He thinks three steps ahead, well I'm going to think four steps ahead of him.'_

Slade appreciated the interference of the SWAT for once. They gave him an opportunity to see Batman in action and take a closer look at his fighting style, as did the freak known as Flamingo. As long as they did not get in his way when Slade moved in for the kill, they would not have any problems.

Given he would be walking out of Gotham City with twenty-five million dollars less than intended, Slade did not suffer the presence of fools lightly.

* * *

 

Talia Al Ghul made her way into one of the many League safe houses in Gotham City. She stepped forward and walked closer towards the two other women she called for this meeting. Actually, only one woman, because Talia only noticed Nyssa standing before her The two Daughters of the Demon exchanged a silent greeting before the two of them made their way into the meeting area.

"Lady Shiva sends her regards, but she cannot attend this meeting right now," Nyssa said. "She has a hunt which she cannot pull herself away from.

Talia understood Shiva's mission.

"Is the lead tangible this time?" Talia asked.

The lack of response showed Nyssa pretty much all she needed to know regarding this entire situation.

"We're going to have to go forward," Talia said. "My date with the Dragon…..it had been cut off prematurely."

"And you are disappointed by this, aren't you?" Nyssa asked.

Talia brushed off her sister's commentary and managed to press forward without any further problems. The Daughter of Ra's Al Ghul drew in a deeper breath.

"Yes, I am, but not for the reasons you might suspect," Talia said. "I encountered the White Ghost's band of followers, and they attacked the Dragon."

Nyssa thought something about Harry going down was too easy. She did wonder if there was some kind of game he was playing or maybe some kind of angle. Nyssa decided to let this play out as needed.

"Is he….."

"He's fine, he told me he was dizzy and fell down," Talia said. "And there's no need for you tell me he suspects something. Trust me when I say I already know."

Nyssa thought they would not be talking about the obvious, at least not now. The older daughter of the demon could tell the younger one was disturbed. As much as Nyssa did not want to disturb Talia even more, there were certain facts which must have been laid out on the table.

"You aren't the only one who encountered the White Ghost's men," Nyssa said. "I had my own encounter of the spectral kind; he's making moves, moves which are too ambitious for the likes of him."

Talia wondered why Nyssa did not tell her about this.

"I did not think anything of it," Nyssa said. "They dropped in front of me, said Ra's Al Ghul would rise again and…..then they leave as suddenly as they appeared."

"What is he waiting for?" Talia asked. "Surely in all of his ignorance, even the White Ghost knows the longer one waits to put a body inside a Lazarus Pit, the further consequences there are?"

Nyssa could not even begin to describe the madness of their estranged brother. Despite being older than both Nyssa and Talia, Ra's Al Ghul rarely spoke of Dusan. The few times Nyssa heard her father refer to the man, it had been with equal parts scorn and disappointment.

And yet, he thought of himself as some kind of prodigal son. The man's arrogance had been very bent.

"His failure to achieve a status of a prodigal son has twisted his mind," Nyssa said. "I'm afraid he's lost all sense of reason, which is seldom something which is favorable."

"If he brings our father back…"

"There are ways, each of them dangerous, to bring a body back even after it has been cold for some time," Nyssa said. "Those ways are not advised…..given what has to be sacrificed to do so….Joseph Blackfire taught us that much."

Talia knew it would be a very long time before either Daughter of the Demon forgot about the terror which he had brought. They had finally cleaned up the majority of the mess caused by his haunting of Gotham City. A month after this event, they still had a sense of unease.

"Yes, he did," Talia said. "Our father went through the process more times than anyone else ever could remember."

Nyssa took a second to look outside. Talia's loyalty remained steadfast and stubborn towards her father, or rather the side of him Ra's Al Ghul allowed her to see. Nyssa knew the necessity of the Demon to keep the League together until a stronger leader could rise. Harry's….power instability, prevented that leader from rising sooner than she would have thought.

"He went through more than he cares to admit," Nyssa said. "We're going to figure out what Dusan intends to do and…."

The thought hit Nyssa about as quickly as anything else. The Daughter of the Demon had been tied up in so many other things the calendar had slipped away from her. She understood everything perfectly.

"What is it?" Talia asked. "Nyssa, what is it?"

"Do you know what approaches?" Nyssa asked.

Talia's mouth hung open when the thoughts worked through the mind of the Daughter of the Demon. It had hit so hard she could not believe it had been missed before.

"The Winter Solstice," Talia said. "The time where the planets will be aligned where the Lazarus Pits will be at their most potent and their most…"

Talia stopped short of revealing the rest of it. The words of the White Ghost's minions had hit her. Everything became clear now.

' _The Demon will return more powerful than ever before.'_

"What are we to do?" Talia asked.

"It's time to pay our brother a visit," Nyssa said. "Get everyone ready…we may have to go to war if he does something foolish."

Talia prepared to go to war. She would not risk her father's life. Doing nothing though would eliminate any chance he could be saved.

* * *

 

Batman escaped the Gotham City SWAT through one of the secret tunnels he cultivated in Gotham City. They would be tied up for a long time which allowed the crime fighter to continue to hunt down the man who targeted him earlier tonight.

The Flamingo would not have gone done easily. He bided in the shadows and waited for the prey to come. Batman walked in and the Detective's breathing continued a second later.

The revving of a motorcycle caught Batman's attention. The motorcycle revved down the alleyway and prepared to try to run Batman down. Batman jumped over the top of the Motorcycle and landed on the back of it. He fired some punches to the back of Flamingo's head and these attacks caused the Flamingo to skid off of the motorcycle.

The criminal's head looked up towards Batman. A bloody smirk shot in Batman's general direction. Batman waited for the madman to make his next move.

"You're beginning to lose it, aren't you?" Flamingo asked. "Aren't you?"

Batman did not respond. The Flamingo pulled out an overly large chain and swung it around. Batman avoided the chain smashing into him. The Detective dropped down behind the Flamingo. The Flamingo charged him.

"You'll wash down that hooker nicely, Amigo," Flamingo said. "If you embrace the darkness in you, it will be….."

Batman nailed Flamingo with a kick to the face. The wicked criminal's head stepped back. He reached down and grabbed a pipe to swing at Batman. Batman dodged off to the other side and nailed Flamingo with a series of punches. Powerful cables wrapped around the Flamingo and caused him to land down on the ground. Flamingo dropped down to the ground.

"Bravo, Detective."

Batman turned around and noticed the one and only Deathstroke standing several feet away from him. As dangerous as Flamingo was, Batman could not take his eyes off of Deathstroke. The Terminator withdrew a blade and charged at Batman.

A deadly dodge avoided Batman being sliced in half. Deathstroke turned around and swung for the fences again. The blade sliced a post in half and toppled it over. Batman twisted in mid-air and launched a set of Baterangs at Deathstroke. Deathstroke turned with a slight pivot and deflected the razor sharp bats back at the man who hurled them in his way.

The Terminator wasted very little words. He charged Batman. Batman ducked and hopped onto the Flamingo's motorcycle. He revved it up and tried to activate the flame launcher. Deathstroke had not been taken off guard as easily.

The assassin spun his arms in mid-air and drove the point of the blade down through the wheel of the motorcycle. The bike spiraled out of control and Batman had been forced to abort. He tucked his head, rolling over onto the ground. The Detective staggered and Deathstroke stalked his prey.

Deathstroke withdrew a dagger and plunged it into Batman. Batman blocked the attack a second later and turned around. A vicious headbutt cracked Deathstroke's mask. Batman nailed him with a series of rapid-fire punches and propelled up.

Batman jumped from rooftop to rooftop with Deathstroke following him. Deathstroke hurled a razor sharp set of throwing stars at Batman. The shuriken deflected off of Batman before he jumped behind and jumped down onto the ground.

Deathstroke rushed Batman and again tried to use the sword to run Batman through. Batman avoided the attack and turned around.

One brass-knuckled loaded punch dropped Deathstroke down to the ground. The Terminator fell down to the ground and came face to face with Nightwing who stood in the distance.

Batman stepped behind Deathstroke and Deathstroke looked towards Nightwing. So close to getting Batman, and the Dragon had to intervene.

"You have a death wish, don't you?" Deathstroke asked.

Nightwing responded by swinging a right hook punch in the general direction of Deathstroke. The Terminator dipped back to dodge the attack. The punch sailed over Deathstroke and almost slammed into the wall. The dangerous mercenary slid back and avoided every one of the Dragon's attacks.

Even if the League did not warn against interfering against the Dragon, Deathstroke did not have any desire to cause trouble. The Terminator stepped back a fraction of an inch and waited for the Dragon to charge him one more time.

Flamingo got up to his feet and went towards Batman. The chain swung over the top of his head and almost took out Nightwing and Deathstroke.

The alleyway became a bit too crowded for Deathstroke's tastes. He slipped off into the distance.

Nightwing avoided Flamingo's frantic scramble to take him down. The bloodied teeth inched closer towards Harry's face.

"You need a breath mint," Nightwing said. Flamingo flew backward onto the ground and pulled himself back to a standing position almost ten seconds later.

The man's mind had been twisted to ignore any concept of pain. This resulted in a tough battle. Nightwing would have put him down, and put him down. The two stalked each other, and Nightwing avoided Flamingo's attack on him.

"A two for one special."

Batman disabled Flamingo with one well-placed Batarang throw to the face. The jagged metal edges cut the Flamingo open and resulted in blood being spilled from his face. The assassin only became more manic at tasting his own blood.

"Take care of Purple Rain here," Nightwing said. "I'll handle Deathstroke."

Nightwing hated to leave business unfinished from the other night. Flamingo, angry at Batman making him taste his own blood, charged from him.

Batman dodged Flamingo's attacks as Nightwing stepped off into the distance before Slade's trail had gone cold.

"Good luck," Batman said.

* * *

 

Dusan Al Ghul, the White Ghost, walked over to a chart on the wall of his temple. One more day had been ripped from the calendar. The White Ghost's lips twitched into a smile the second he noted how many days it would be before the moment of grand awakening, the resurrection of Ra's al Ghul.

' _It won't be too much longer now.'_

The White Ghost smiled when looking past the wall. On the other side, his father's body had been preserved, ready to be put through the Lazarus Pit. Ready to lead his loyal army to cleanse the world of all of those who were unworthy. Ready for the White Ghost to show who the true heir of Ra's Al Ghul was.

"Soon, father you will rise once more. Soon, you will stand beside me, knowing I was your true heir…your most loyal….."

Dusan had been too tied into his monolog to notice the sounds of guards dropping down onto the ground at first. The White Ghost turned around and then turned back towards the man on the other end of the wall.

"It appears we have guests."

The White Ghost faced his two sisters the moment they walked into the room, with a small group of elite warriors. Nyssa stepped in front of Talia to lead the way.

"You've made yourself very difficult to track down," Nyssa said. "I guess it's true what they say about cockroaches. They scurry underneath every rock imaginable."

The White Ghost said very little. The shadows shifted to reveal the members of his elite guard standing. The ghostly whispers continued and grew even more ghastly.

"I knew you would come, although I didn't expect you quite this soon," Dusan said. "I expected you on the night of our father's arising."

"We've decided to come early for your demise," Talia said.

Dusan watched the blade inch closer towards his throat. The White Ghost's face curled into a smile.

"You've come to kill me," Dusan said. "Bold and at the same time, entirely foolish. Do you not realize what will happen if my demise occurs? I hold the life of the Demon in my hands and if I perish….he does as well."

Nyssa was sorely tempted to allow Talia to make the sacrifice. The only thing holding back was the intended future leader of the League was not quite at his full power or potential.

"He bluffs," Talia said.

Uncertainty hit the body of the youngest child of Ra's Al Ghul. Nyssa placed a hand on Talia's hand.

"He's a fool, but even he would not be foolish enough to lead us here without any leverage," Nyssa said. "You say, Ra's Al Ghul will rise again."

The White Ghost blinked and a very insidious smile flashed over his lips.

"The Winter Solstice, Ra's Al Ghul will rise once again," Dusan said. "All of the pretenders to the throne will be slain, along with all whose loyalties have been divided and distracted from our cause."

"Yes, Dusan, we agree on something," Talia said. "All pretenders will meet their end once the Ra's Al Ghul rises again."

The White Ghost's insidious grin deepened because of his sister's words.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on August 27** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_So lots happening on the Ra's Al Ghul front. And also the White Ghost is making his moves._

_Deathstroke is still in town, and the Flamingo throws his name back into the hat. When it rains, it pours._

_Until Saturday._


	220. Blood Gauntlet Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty: The Blood Gauntlet Part Three.**

* * *

 

Deathstroke slipped away from the battle when the scene had been too crowded. He realized the problems regarding collecting the bounty. Too many people had gotten in his way. Deathstroke would not be denied, if he could not collect this bounty, then no one could be allowed to collect it.

The mercenary made plans to strike. Those plans had been dashed by a figure lurking around in the background of the building. Deathstroke turned his attention to the figure and withdrew a blade. The mercenary stalked around the corner and began to hunt his prey. Soon, he would have it.

The fact Batman slipped away, and he had been stuck with a man who he could not kill.

"Come out, wherever you are," Deathstroke said.

Nightwing popped out of the shadows and did not wait a second. A huge kick to the side of the head knocked Deathstroke back. The Terminator slammed into a set of barrels which had been knocked over. Deathstroke pulled himself to a standing position and looked towards the Dragon. The skilled fighter stood a fair amount away from Dehatstroke.

"This is not your battle."

Nightwing did not bother to correct this matter or argue in any way. He rushed towards Deathstroke in an attempt to take him out. The dangerous mercenary blocked Nightwing's punch and pushed him back. Deathstroke nailed Nightwing in the ribs with a punch which doubled him over. Deathstroke flipped into the air and landed behind Nightwing.

Deathstroke didn't have a chance to slip away. A knife flung through the air and caught Deathstroke off guard. The assassin backed off.

"You don't understand," Deathstroke said.

"I like to finish what I've started," Nightwing said. "And what you've started."

Deathstroke hurled daggers at Nightwing. The Dragon flipped out of the way and avoided the attacks. The daggers stuck into the wall. Nightwing returned fire with a series of rapid-fire punches which knocked Deathstroke back.

Batman flew through the open window where they were fighting. Flamingo jumped in through the window and landed on top of Batman. The detective flipped over Flamingo and sent him crashing into the wall. Flamingo rolled over and landed on the ground with a solid smack.

Flamingo rolled over and looked at Batman with a bloody smile. The Detective turned his head around and motioned for Flamingo to go after him one more time.

Deathstroke rushed over in Batman in an attempt to take him down. Flamingo jumped into Deathstroke's leg and snarled in his general direction. Both of them struggled to take the other down.

"Get out of the way," Deathstroke said. "You don't deserve this bounty."

Flamingo was very annoyed someone tainted his food, and would correct this matter with an attack.

"No more than you do," Flamingo said. Flamingo used a knife to try and stab Deathstroke. Deathstroke dropped down to the ground and rolled out of the way to avoid a huge snap kick at the hands of Deathstroke.

Deathstroke and Flamingo circled each other. Both of them resembled some overly ambitious sharks who were going after blood. Both of them charged into each other. Flamingo stepped back and avoided the punches from Deathstroke. The Terminator's punches connected with the air and back Flamingo back. Flamingo looked on towards Deathstroke with a sneer and motioned for him to go towards him.

"Come on, again," Flamingo said.

Deathstroke knocked Flamingo back a couple of feet. The snappily dressed assassin dropped to the ground. Deathstroke picked up a piece of pipe and started to waffle Flamingo in the head with it. The sound of pipe cracked against skull echoed all around them.

Nightwing wondered whether or not they should get involved. He decided after a second it would be for the best if they did.

' _If nothing else, we can avoid innocent people being caught in the crossfire,'_ Harry thought.

' _Good, because I swear these two are going to end up ripping apart half of this area, fighting over scraps,'_ Harry thought.

Nightwing made a move to communicate to Batman what they needed to do, but Batman already had been position.

Batman already positioned himself up and descended down onto Deathstroke. The pipe knocked from the hand of the mercenary. Deathstroke dropped down to the ground, the wind knocked out of him. Batman slammed his fist down onto the face of Deathstroke.

The Terminator came down from underneath Batman and stabbed the blade towards the Detective's chest. Batman's armor blocked a lot of the shot.

Flamingo picked up a large chain and wrapped it around his fist. He stepped in to join them, only to come head to head with the Dragon.

"You just don't know when to stay out of my way, do you?"

Flamingo charged Nightwing. Nightwing avoided his punch and came back with several more of his own. One of them had been magnified by a brutal attack. The young man launched a series of amplified punches at the head of his adversary. One of the punches caught Flamingo and knocked him down onto the ground.

A cord snapped around Flamingo's body and sent a jolt of electricity around the enemy. The enemy's eyes rolled into the back of his head when he had been dropped down to the ground.

Batman and Deathstroke disappeared into the distance, no scratch that, Batman dropped down onto the ground. Deathstroke disappeared into the night. They both saw he was in the shadows, although none of them saw him. The game of cat and mouse continued.

The lights on the warehouse kicked open and they made their way on the edge of the entrance.

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me!" Nightwing yelled.

Nightwing's attention turned towards the SWAT guards who stalked over in their general direction. All of them aimed their weapons. One of them blasted a set of crates out of the way and eliminated the cover they had.

"We're not kidding you!" one of the SWAT guards yelled. "Hands in the air, because we're going to take you down."

Batman shifted in the shadows, and Nightwing raised his hand into the air. He dropped a grenade on the ground which broke open and released a sonic attack which caused the SWAT guards to stagger back.

The moment the SWAT officers staggered back, clutching their ears, Nightwing sprung up into the attack and stomped on the back of the heads of all of the SWAT guards. He kept driving feet down onto the guards with move after move, after move.

Batman cut the path in the other direction. Deathstroke slipped out and Nightwing caught a brief flash of him running across to a factory.

Nightwing made sure the SWAT guards were occupied, and he decided to go in the general direction of the factory. Maybe both of them could cut Deathstroke off with a little bit of effort. Everything was worth a shot after all.

' _When it rains, it pours. Especially in Gotham City.'_

* * *

 

Talia and Nyssa braced themselves for a betrayal at any moment. They knew their brother, new what he was capable of, and he had always been, and would always be a snake. They did not trust him, to be honest with them. The two Daughters of the Demon followed a couple of steps behind the White Ghost.

Both of the daughters communicated with each other, without saying a single word directed at each other. The two daughters of Ra's Al Ghul eyed each other and Dusan opened up a switch on the wall. The stones on the wall clicked open and allowed them entrance.

Nyssa looked merely bored and indifferent with what was going on around her.

"Theatrics, as usual?" Nyssa asked.

"It is a huge part of what the League is," Dusan said.

Nyssa smiled, he really talked about the history and the culture behind the League as if he had not been officially cast out a long time ago.

"We should not be enemies," Dusan said. "We should stand together, as one, as we should be. The League works better as a whole, and not as a fractured part."

Dusan's words fell upon their ears and came out of them. The elevator had been revealed and the three of them slipped inside.

Talia and Nyssa both took a long and steady look at the surroundings around them. Neither of the Daughters of the Demon wished to be trapped where they stood.

"So, do you have our father?" Nysa asked.

"I would not bluff about such a matter," Dusan said. "I would not lie straight to your faces when knowing doing so may mean an attempt on my life."

Talia thought it progressed where he admitted this much. Perhaps she was wrong, perhaps the White Ghost registered not as a fool, merely as someone who was arrogant. The two sisters waited for the walls to shift back and a bright light to emit in their eyes.

Inside a tank, preserved as they expected, rested Ra's Al Ghul. Talia and Nyssa stepped forward, unable to believe the sight of their father suspended in the tank. He had been cut down from his former glory days.

"There he is," Dusan said. "He's there, he's kept safe….safer than your faction would have kept him."

Nyssa had no idea how Ra's Al Ghul had been contained. Therefore murdering this unfortunate waste of oxygen and resources seemed to be unwise, until they knew of a way to free him without any further harm.

"So, you've had him," Talia said.

"Yes, your search is over," Dusan said. "I'm certain it will be a lot safer for your resources to be pulled back in strengthening the league for his return. Unless….you already think he can be succeeded by with another."

"Even with the Pits, my father's life cannot be sustained forever," Talia said. "If he has looked for an heir, it is none of your concern, especially given you have been banished from this bloodline in disgrace."

One could almost see the look of disgust spreading across the face of the White Ghost. His fingers tensed together and the breath left his body. Seconds passed before he could recover with any kind of retort.

"And he has been left outside of the control of the Pits for a very long time," Nyssa said. "I don't know if you've educated yourself as well as you think you will regarding the Lazarus Pits. But, as you may have realized, if you had thought this through, any occupant going through the Pits requires to be done so within a year of death…."

"Do not think I haven't educated myself regarding the nature of the pits!" The White Ghost yelled.

The two Daughters of the Demon braced themselves for an attack. The Albino assassin took a couple of long moments to inhale and exhale, before bringing himself back to the conversation at hand. He placed a hand on the wall and calmed himself down.

"Do not think I'm a fool because our father has assumed me to be lesser due to my appearance," The White Ghost said. "He was premature of his assessment, and I'll prove it by finding a way to bring him back to his life when his two daughters failed him on this front."

Talia almost protested. Nyssa side-stepped her.

"And I've studied, and there is a Pit buried deep underneath Gotham City," the White Ghost said. "It is buried deep underneath your base of operations. I believe your base of Operations is in the midst of Sheldon Park."

The two League members neither confirmed nor denied what the White Ghost said. Dusan's eyes shifted when looking at his two sisters, waiting for any kind of confirmation nor denial.

"Even if Ra's Al Ghul returning would bring Order to the League, the risk is too grand, too immense to even consider this," Nyssa said. "What have you been doing this entire time?"

"The situation has calmed down to make contact," Dusan said.

"Yes, and almost blow my cover," Talia said. "Do you realize what would have happened if he had found out what happened?"

"He would have been killed," The White Ghost said.

Nyssa spent a moment reaching into her pocket for a dagger to drive through the throat of the White Ghost. Talia gripped the other woman by the elbow and pulled her back.

"Do not flatter yourself, outcast," Talia said.

"I do apologize for blowing your cover with the Dragon," The White Ghost said. "My only intent was to give you more motivation moving forward."

The Daughter of the Demon's motivation had been to stab the White Ghost in the throat and allow the blood to flow from him. The tainted blood would stain the floors beneath them if they did not need them.

* * *

 

After dodging the SWAT, Nightwing hunted for Deathstroke. The mercenary kept a couple of feet ahead of Harry.

' _So, does this make any sense?'_ Oracle thought. _'Just two nights ago, Deathstroke attacked you without any mercy. And now he…'_

' _It doesn't make any sense,'_ Nightwing thought. _'I didn't think he of all people would have been terrified about the Lady Shiva factor.'_

Harry couldn't even begin to calculate the reasons why, although he suspected trouble.

' _Maybe there's another reason,'_ Dinah thought. The crime fighter took a moment to think this one over. _'Maybe he thought...I don't know, maybe he thought…'_

Nightwing interrupted Dinah's own thoughts by the fact there was something moving in the shadows. He had a sixth sense of something attacking him, something jumping out from the shadows and getting a piece of him.

' _Well, here comes trouble,'_ Nightwing thought.

The sinister laughter increased every second Nightwing stood in the background. He began to hate the situation he had been put in. The Dragon's eyes shifted and the young man waited for the other shoe to drop, whenever that would be.

' _Here comes trouble,'_ Nightwing though, mentally repeating something to himself.

Flamingo walked out of the shadows. Blood stained his teeth. The flamboyant assassin walked towards the crime fighter.

"Tonight was supposed to be the night where I took down Batman," Flamingo said. "But, I haven't had a chance to properly thank you for stopping me from tasting Batwoman."

Nightwing smiled. Always wanted revenge, it never ceased to amaze him how petty some people got when thristing for their little vendettas. Nightwing waited for the assassin to make his first move.

The crime fighter calculated a plan to take down Slade, but the plan would work just as well for Flamingo right about now. The crazed assassin stalked Harry and sized him up with a bloodthirsty smirk on his face. The Flamingo lunged towards the Dragon and attempted to attack him.

Nightwing sprung up into the air and started to hammer the Flamingo in the back of the head. Flamingo's inability to feel pain was something he counted on.

"Don't you know," Flamingo said. "I can't be hurt…"

"No, you just can't feel pain….."

Nightwing flipped back and Flamingo rushed towards him. The man's arms swung around in an attempt to take down Nightwing. The crime fighter dodged the attack and came down onto the back of the head of the enemy and sliced his jacket.

Flamingo shrieked and turned around. Those long fingernails extended toward him. The flamboyant assassin tried to stab Harry. Harry dodged the attacks before they sliced into him.

"Look into a manicure," Nightwing said.

Nightwing knocked Flamingo through a metal gate. Both of them staggered around into a shipping yard. Flamingo lifted up a cinderblock and tried to smash it into Nightwing. A dodge caused shattered bits of concrete to fly in every direction.

Flamingo turned around and walked into a snap kick from Nightwing. The mercenary staggered around and wiped the blood from his lips.

"The next blood in my mouth will be yours!"

Flamingo spread his arms and gave a shriek. Hands extended, only to find Nightwing disappeared into the distance. The mercenary started to curse and rush into the shadows. He smashed into a series of pipes which came down.

The lights around them started to dim.

"I can still smell you!"

"All senses can be tricked, especially with a stupid bird like yourself!" Nightwing taunted.

Flamingo charged in and tried to take out his enemy. Nightwing evaded another attack and the mercenary landed on the ground. He gripped Flamingo around the head and slammed him back into the ground.

This normal attack would have caused pain to rack through the body of the victim. The mercenary rose to a standing position and Nightwing drilled the point of a reinforced boot into the face of the Flamingo. Flamingo rolled over and moved towards a hole in the ground. Several steps forward.

' _Just a little closer'_

Flamingo jumped onto the board and stalked him.

"Well, my friend, you've run out of room," Flamingo said. "I've never tasted dragon before…..I bet it's a delicacy."

Nightwing activated a switch and jumped. Some miniature explosives went off and caused Flamingo to fall backward into the hole. He shrieked one more time!

The mercenary crawled out of the hole and staggered around. He looked very punch drunk and swung those punches at Nightwing until the mercenary collapsed down onto the ground and went to sleep, out like a baby.

Nightwing slumped back against the wall. No rest for the wicked, though. He still needed to track down Slade and bring him down. The dark haired vigilante drew in a deep breath and drew it out.

He pumped Flamingo full of sedatives, bound, and gagged him. This particular mercenary would be picked up by the GCPD.

' _Sarah, I have something for you, North Gotham trainyard, keep him gagged,'_ Harry thought.

Nightwing took a second to catch his breath. Thankfully the moment he departed, the SWAT left him alone. At least something went right on this day, and after so many things went wrong on this night, Harry appreciated it.

' _Are you okay?'_ Kara asked.

' _I'm hanging in there the best I can,'_ Harry said. _'So, is Batman still going after Deathstroke?"_

The sigh over the bond told Harry all he needed to know.

' _I wouldn't know,'_ Barbara thought. _'He isn't given me the common courtesy of answering his phone….or he can't?'_

Nightwing thought with Batman, and considering Deathstroke, pretty much either of these thoughts could be on par. He saw the GCPD arrive to pick up the battered Flamingo. A second passed before Nightwing disappeared into the shadows of Old Gotham.

' _And thus, the night which never ends continues.'_

With another sigh, Nightwing disappeared into the night.

* * *

 

Batman circled around three times. A normal person would have given up the hunt by this point. One could argue though Batman really was not exactly normal. No one would consider him as much. Slade had to be around here.

The area was empty and quiet. While trains came through this area of Gotham City, they did not stop. Batman stood on the platform outside of the tracks and around several crates and barrels. They had been piled up.

"Sir, do you think the definition of madness is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting different results?" Alfred asked.

"Are you referring to Deathstroke or me?" Batman asked.

This question had gone unanswered when Deathstroke appeared from behind the crates. The assassin approached Batman and clutched a blade before stepping forward.

"So it ends," Deathstroke said. "Tonight, it ends."

Batman's hands twitched together. He would not be taken down as easily. Deathstroke approached him and rushed the Detective.

The Detective turned around and watched Deathstroke move around. Those crates, those barrels, and a couple of abandoned buildings made for an adequate amount of cover. The cover worked both ways as Batman busted open a door to storage shed and made his way inside.

"You're trapped in there, now," Deathstroke said.

Bullets fired on the other side of the window and the glass started to shatter. Deathstroke unloaded an entire gun on the other side.

Deathstroke opened the door and looked inside. He turned around and Batman punched the world class assassin directly in the mouth. The sound of fist smacking up against face echoed. Batman reared back his arm and hammered Deathstroke with a repeated series of punches.

The mercenary dropped to one knee and grabbed Batman around the head. He hurled the Detective down to the ground. Batman bounced off of those barrels.

Deathstroke withdrew his blade and jumped into the air. An attempt to drive the blade through the ground had been avoided. Batman blocked the attack and kicked Deathstroke back a couple inches.

Batman rose to a standing position and the razor sharp blade plunged at him. The blade had been avoided and Batman went around him. He jumped up and drove the knees into the back of Deathstroke. The sound of a cracked back resounded off of Batman's knees.

The Terminator pulled himself up and reached into his sleeve. A blinding flashbang caused Batman to dodge.

Slade's heart started to thump harder. The mercenary sprung back and lunged blade first towards Batman. Batman blocked the blade stabbing into him and rocked Deathstroke back. The two clashed together again and again.

A train rumbled down the tracks from far away. If Batman had to make a guess, it was coming here. Slade perched and pulled out another gun. A Baterang flung towards the gun and knocked it out of the mercenary's hand.

"This has gone on far enough!" Slade yelled.

Slade lunged towards him. Batman dodged the attack and wrapped the arm around Slade's back. A series of punches nailed Slade at a rapid-fire flurry. Slade grumbled the second Batman released the arm.

"There's one thing we agree about," Batman said.

Slade swiped a blade towards Batman. The Detective avoided the attack. The blade plunged towards the enemy. Batman avoided the attack and the came back behind him. More punches rocked Deathstroke in the back of his head.

Deathstroke dropped down to his knees. He heard the sound of the train approaching and a wicked smile crossed over the mercenary's face. Now, Batman came closer to where he wanted him to be.

"Come on," Deathstroke said. "We're going to finish this."

The exposed part of Batman's face looked bruised and he walked a little bit less. Deathstroke charged towards Batman and punched away at him.

Batman noticed the two of them inched closer to the train tracks where a train barreled down the track. He knew in an instant what Deathstroke was trying to do. Batman nailed him with an uppercut to the chest and rocked him back.

Slade tried to drive a blade down onto Batman's cape. Batman detached the cape and slid back. The moment the mercenary had been caught on the tracks. He fell back and the mercenary's ankle cracked back when landing on the ground.

"Slade!" Batman yelled.

A grapnel shot out on the train tracks and tried to latch onto Slade. Slade ignored the grapnel from landing on the track and looked towards Batman.

The train blew past and Slade appeared to have been crushed underneath it when it barreled down the tracks. The dust cleared and Batman dropped down. He made his way over, preparing for the ghastly sight which is to become.

A mask and a sword laid down on the track, along with some blood which splattered the tracks. The sound of rumbling continued when the train continued to roll down the tracks.

"Sir, are you okay?" Alfred asked.

"I'm fine," Batman said. "I'm not certain if Slade is….but I can't prove anyway."

Batman made his way onto the tracks and picked up the mask. No decapitated head inside, which made Batman think Slade had managed to escape with some daring move.

The train passed the tracks and made its way out of Gotham City. Slade disappeared into the shadows and off into nowhere. Did he catch the train or disappear into any other way? This question dogged Batman.

A figure glided down onto the ground next to him. Batman faced Nightwing who stood out of the shadows.

"Flamingo has been taken down," Nightwing said. "What about Deathstroke?"

"He's gone," Batman said.

Was it over this easily? Batman doubted it in many ways. Slade would not have given up no matter what.

"He got away, or did he…..did he kill himself trying to take you out?" Nightwing asked.

The sound of a train rattling in the distance pretty much answered the potential question for Nightwing. Slade's obsession had been underlined. Anyone who bothered to look into the past of the mercenary knew this month. Dangerous and obsessed, that was a bad combination.

"We'll find him."

* * *

 

Sarah Essen slammed the door of the Gotham City squad car and made her way into the train yard. She stepped forward, with Ellen walking behind her. Another squad call pulled up and Bullock and Montoya walked out. A couple of other cops joined them.

"Someone called in something bad here," Bullock said.

Bullock moved his way into the train yard. The last couple of months made Gotham City take a turn for the worse. Despite encountering a rather calm and tranquil night, Bullock still shivered at the thought of the atmosphere around him. The cop stepped in and stepped back to avoid snapping on a bundle of twigs.

The large cop's mood did not improve when he noticed the Gotham City SWAT there.

"What are you doing here?" the leader of the SWAT asked. His eyes narrowed when looking at the four cops which approved them.

The tension between the Gotham City SWAT and the Gotham City Police Department reached a fever pitch. Both sides had their share of run-ins and butting heads. One side called the other the problem.

"Look, we'll call Branden in if you want to argue," one of the SWAT members said.

The figure started to squirm. Montoya looked at the man with a familiar face who they had been warned about the moment he was in Gotham City. Everyone gasped when catching a look at him.

"It's Flamingo," Montoya said. "How did he get here?"

"We took him out," one of the SWAT members said, puffing his chest up with pride. "It wasn't easy to get him out, he put up quite a fight, but….he's not as tough as anyone says he is."

Sarah narrowed her eyes at the man. In the interest of maintaining some air of being professional, she decided to let it go, no matter how agitated she was.

"Are you, Pinky?" one of the SWAT members asked when prodding him about the side of the head.

The Flamingo groaned and eyes snapped over. He had been gagged which was a good thing. The metal rod shoved in his mouth made him unable to fight out from his position.

"He's one of the most dangerous mercenaries in the world….bent as much as a coathanger," Bullock said.

Bullock cast an anxious glare at the man. Whoever did this, they actually did their homework and gagged the man. The eyes of this man looked like the eyes of a murderer.

"Well, you seem to know what you're doing," the SWAT guard said. "And just think, from what we heard, we thought you only knew how to find a doughnut stand."

Bullock's teeth ground together the second he locked eyes on this SWAT guard. He would have liked nothing better than to show him he was more than a cop who liked a few extra donuts.

"We're going to take him in," Sarah said.

"Hey, by all means," the leader of the SWAT guard said. "We set him up, you bring him in. Looks like the Arkham wing is going to have another guest."

The SWAT stepped back and left the area. Bullock watched them leave, a frown spreading across his face.

"Bunch of vultures," Bullock said. "Do they really expect us to believe they're here because they took this guy down?"

Bullock turned towards his fellow officers of the law. They all looked at him. The large cop threw his hands back and sighed. Sometimes, the SWAT made him want to scream.

"Do you really think they could have taken this guy down?" Bullock asked. "No, I don't as much as you do….."

Montoya cleared her throat and looked into the shadows. She didn't like this at all.

"Let's worry about who did what when he's secured," Montoya said.

"Right, we should," Sarah said. "We should take him in….keep close to us for backup…call ahead, and let them know this as a dangerous prisoner."

The man's eyes flashed in a blurry look when he stared at them. Sarah thought if he wasn't bound, gagged, and sedated, he would put up more of a fight.

Ellen and Sarah put the Flamingo in the backseat of the car. A dart fired into the neck of Flamingo which put him out. Ellen looked towards Sarah, who smiled.

"You can never be too careful," Sarah said.

Ellen responded with a brisk grin. She would be foolish to argue with Sarah on these particular terms. The two women stepped away from each other.

"Is it just me?" Ellen asked. "Or will I sleep at lot easier when he's locked up and secure?"

"Just hold your breath, keep your hand on your weapon, and we'll be there in ten minutes," Sarah said.

Sarah really hoped they wouldn't have problems with this one. The GCPD had a bad record dealing with some pretty dangerous criminals.

' _Let's hope they have better luck holding him then they did Copperhead.'_

* * *

 

Slade Wilson stirred awake. He remembered his daring escape and recalled the fact he came close to almost being wrecked. The mercenary sat up and a stabbing sensation filled his chest. Slade took in a deep breath and let out a deeper breath. Those breaths continued until Slade rolled up out of the bed.

The sound of waters rippling against the wall told Slade something. He had been placed on a ship. This particular bit of news seemed curious to Slade. The mercenary rose up to a standing position and walked across the ship.

He rapped on the side of the ship wall three times and waited for anyone to answer.

"If you're holding me as a prisoner, the least you have is the common courtesy to tell me who you are and how you got me here without any notice."

Slade searched the inside of the room for anything he could use to escape. The entire room had been stripped down to the barest essentials. The mercenary waited for some kind of answer.

The doors slid open and two men dressed in black body armor. The chest blades looked to be a darker shade of black than the main part of the armor. Their faces covered with masks and the eyes looked less than alive.

"Mr. Wilson….I trust your injuries have healed."

Slade paused a few seconds and responded with a nod. The injuries reflected through the mind of the mercenary. He leaned back and waited for this particular trio of assassins to lead him around the corner.

"Good day, Mr. Wilson."

Slade arched his head and noticed the man who ran this ship decided not to be present. He looked on the other side of the view screen which flashed with static.

"So, you're the one who saved me, Mr…"

Slade left the statement hanging, expecting an answer, which he didn't receive. The man's cold eyes locked on him.

"My name is not to be spoken right now," he said. "You can call me a friend and someone who is very interested in the quality of your work."

The man's tone sounded modulated. Slade's fingers twitched and he took a look at all of the exits. The only exit had several men on the other side.

"Don't worry, Mr. Wilson," the man on the other end of the view screen said. "There's no need to worry, you'll be getting off the ship….to complete the job I'll hire you for."

"What?" Slade asked.

"An operative of my organization has gone rogue," the man said. "I want you to retrieve him to an island known as Lian Yu."

"From Purgatory?" Slade asked.

"Yes," the mystery man agreed. "You know about this location?"

Slade responded with confirmation.

"I've been in the area before," Slade said.

"You either retrieve him and you be paid well, or you die and….well our agreement has been concluded," the man said. "Or I allow you to leave when you decline the contract. But I know someone of your stature will not deny a challenge."

Slade's lips curled into a devious smile and he responded with a nod.

"I always enjoy long odds."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on August 31** **st** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_A huge fight in Gotham City, ends with the Flamingo getting taken down and a trip to an island paradise._

_Yeah, trouble in the land of the League of Assassins, but that's to be suspected._

_Until Wednesday._


	221. Here and Back

_Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter of the Week Voting Is Up._  http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty One: Here and Back.**

* * *

 

New York City resembled a winter wonderland, well not so much for the people who needed to drive on the often chaotic New York City streets. The snow started to spit down all over New York outside of the Daily Bugle office building.

The doors of the elevators opened with a solid ding. Betty Brant made her way out, followed by her intern, April O'Neil. She really had gotten into the news game over the past couple of weeks and she had dug up what she assumed was a hot lead.

"So, I think there's a pretty tangible lead here," April said. "But, I want to know what you think about it?"

Betty thought about it for a couple of moments. She remembered the time where she was a young reporter, eager to take on the world. This time had passed and she gained a few more self-preservations since those early days.

"Well, it's a very interesting rabbit hole to go down," Betty said with a frown, looking at the piece of paper in front of April. "I'm not sure of the connection, but if it's true, it's going to blow the lid off one of the most private companies in the city."

April smiled. Betty could tell she considered it, and Betty wouldn't want to discourage the young journalist too much. However, she figured a warning would also be for the best.

"And it could also end up getting you in a lot of danger," Betty said.

April smiled and Betty could almost predict her response a mile away. It would be the same time of response she had.

"Well, what's reporting without a little bit of danger?" April asked. She tried to give Betty a shifty grin. "Anyway, the thing I wanted to discuss with you is whether or not Mr. Jameson would end up visiting this angle."

Betty sighed in response. She looked outside of the window and continued to watch the snow pounding down on the streets. It was going to be a bitch to get out of here and she had to work until six tonight. And the snowstorms weren't going to let up until nine.

Right now, it was about one in the afternoon, and they were just getting back from a lunch break.

"If you had some good solid proof to go along with the rumors, then sure," Betty said. "I can say a lot of things about J. Jonah Jameson…he can be a loud mouth, a bit cheap at times, and when he gets on a tangent, he can hammer it on for weeks, months, and even years. The one thing about J. Jonah Jameson though is he'll put his neck on the line for something he believes in. If he thinks the public needs to know…"

"Then they'll know, loud and proud," April said. "I figured as much whenever I hear him go off on a tangent. I just think this lead is pretty credible. And let's face it, someone needs to have blown the lid off of TCRI ever since that chemical spill fifteen years ago."

Betty recalled the outrage from the chemical spill all of those years ago, almost like it was yesterday. She studied the story because there was a time or two where TCRI came back up into the news, and Jonah wanted people to remember what this company really was like.

"Oh, from what I read, there was plenty of outrage," Betty said. "Some little boy nearly got ran over, and a boy little girl got blinded by the accident…and there was a big lawsuit there as well….it went away I think…it was a bit before my time. You're going to have to ask Jonah, I'm sure he'll talk about it at length."

April laughed. She knew all too well about how J. Jonah Jameson became fixated on certain topics at length when he really wanted to say something about them.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure he will," April said. The grin did not fade from her face. "Isn't it a bit odd about Krang? How he never wants to be photographed in public?"

Betty frowned. This was a curiosity to her. Maybe the man didn't like cameras, or maybe cameras didn't like him. He had been ruthless granted, so maybe he didn't want any photographic evidence of himself.

"I'm not sure if it's really an odd thing," Betty said. "There are a lot of quirks about those eccentric billionaires out there…..not all of them are as photogenic as you would think they are."

Betty sighed and placed a hand on her young charge's shoulder and gave her a warm smile.

"Seriously, April, I get you if you want to uncover something you believe it," Betty said. "I can see in your eyes, this story means a lot to you."

April had a bit of a personal angle to this story. She tried not to let it cloud her judgment. There were other reasons why TCRI should be brought into the public light. For public safety reasons and the fact a little girl was blinded from one of their chemical spills caused some problems.

"It means a lot to me, it does," April said. "Look, I understand why you might be concerned…and I know this could be dangerous. But, journalism isn't really a safe career, is it? There's a lot of risks? You just got to do what you have to do, and make sure everything turns out okay?"

Betty smiled and patted April on the shoulder in response.

"Well, I think you have a good head on your shoulders, kid," Betty said. She smiled at April. "You'll go pretty far in the newspaper business….if you can breed some survival instincts."

April smiled. She intended to go pretty far in the newspaper business. Straight to the top and beyond if she could help it. Excitement bubbled in the eyes and the mind of this young reporter as she thought of all of the possibilities this story could bring.

"So, what's the news?" April asked.

Betty laughed. Actually not the best day to answer this question give how slow of a news day this was. Which put Jonah in an antsy state.

"Oh, nothing much, more turtle sightings….at least nothing too tangible, though, "Betty said. "And there's some vigilante in a hockey mask busting up people on the East End."

April frowned. Something sounded pretty familiar about the East End.

"Isn't that….."

"Purple Dragon territory, yeah, "Betty said. "No one knows what his beef is."

"Or her's…..could be a her, you never know," April said. "There's Black Canary….and Huntress….and Nightwing…well kind of….different people swear up and down Nightwing is female."

Betty chuckled in response about how adamant April seemed about this. The older reporter conceded the younger one had a point.

"Okay, you got me there," Betty said. "No room for sexism in the lawless vigilante game, is there?"

April smiled. Despite the fact this conversation went in a very interesting direction, she could not deny she wanted to go in another way altogether.

"So, anyway, this could be big if I can blow the lid off the story," April said. "If TCRI has their connections to this criminal organization, and this criminal organization is backing some of the lower level street gangs….like the type our hockey masked friend is busting…..it all ties together."

Betty sighed. Talk about your one track minds.

"Yes, it all ties together," Betty said, a smile passing over her face. "Just be careful, and don't….well don't get in over your head too much."

"Don't worry, I'll be about as careful as my mentor would be in this situation."

Betty almost cringed at the way April said this statement.

' _That's what worries me,'_ Betty thought.

* * *

 

Red Lanterns surrounded them at all angles with caused Sinestra to mentally calculate a plan. Carol, Katma, and Ilana sat on either side. She knew now what was needed to disable the doomsday weapon. Having a Red Lantern with detailed knowledge helped on the disabling front, not Sinestra cared to admit as much.

Ilana's finger itched and she could not wait to get another taste of power. The Red Lantern ring flashed a couple of inches away from her.

"So, what's the plan, boss?" Ilana asked.

Sinestra decided to make the most obvious decision in the world or at least a decision which sounded obvious enough to her.

"We go in, we hit hard, and we hit them where they can't hit us anymore," Sinestra said.

"Another point where we agree, "Ilana said. "Maybe you could have been good Red Lantern material had things been a little bit different."

Sinestra turned to Ilana with a burning glare. The Red Lantern only slid back and swallowed the lump in her throat.

"You mind your tongue right now," Sinestra said.

Carol heard an angry buzzing above her head, and she doubted very much it came from bees. Actually, it did not come from bees, it came from the furthest thing from bees she could think of. Red Lanterns were about to come in their direction, and Sinestra and Ilana decided now was the time to get into some kind of bicker fest with each other.

"Hey, hey, you know, the two of you can work out whatever tension you have later," Carol said. "In case you don't realize, the Red Lantern Armada is coming after us and they're not going to back up…"

"Yes, I'm aware!" Sinestra yelled." HIT THEM WITH EVERYTHING!"

Sinestra punctuated these words by sending a green battle ax at an entire squadron of Red Lanterns. This attack forced them to scatter in every direction possible.

Carol came in charging and used a net to trap them. Katma made her way in with an attack as well.

Zox, the leader of the Red Lantern squadron, turned to these Green Lanterns with hatred burning through his eyes.

"Make sure to hit them until their faces are as red as our rings!" Zox yelled. "No matter what, don't let up!"

Ilana charged through the Red Lantern armada. She wiped them all out with one fluid shot and rushed over to take down Zox. Zox had been planted against the wall.

A shield appeared up and Zox had knocked Ilana back down to the ground. He laughed and made sure the other Red Lanterns formed a shield around him.

Carol flew at the Red Lanterns, knocking them back with a series of swift punches. They all landed on the ground and had gotten back up until Sinestra waffled them with a chain created from her Green Lantern ring.

Ilana's rage bubbled to the surface and she made an attempt to get at Zox. The crafty little bugger was one of the more cowardly and shrewd Red Lanterns they had gone up against.

"Zox, stand your ground and fight me!" Ilana yelled.

"Well, well, well, look at what we have here," Zox said in a mocking tone of voice. "If it isn't the Red Lantern traitor? She thinks she's so high and mighty, doesn't she? If you asked me, you weren't Red Lantern material…"

Ilana grabbed one of the Red Lanterns who formed a shield around Zox and pummeled him to the ground. Her face became as red as her ring as she summoned what little power she had left in an attempt to take Zox down.

"You little troll, I wanted to blast you for a long time!" Ilana yelled.

"Oh, you really think you can….ARGH!"

Sinestra nailed Zox in the back of the head. The round wonder bounced off of the rock wall and slid down, groaning from the impact.

"Red Lanterns, they should fight more, and talk less," Sinestra said. "You want the power battery, it's right in the box…..we'll disable the drill, you get your battery…"

Ilana staggered and could see Carol and Katma get to work in dismantling the drill. She noticed the power battery on the ground. Her ring hummed almost warning her it needed to be recharged.

No Red Lanterns in her line of sight, Illana could do this.

"Right," Ilana said.

A figure jumped down from the shadows and punched Ilana, causing her to slam against the wall with a thud. The woman rolled over, gasping for breath. She pressed palm first down onto the ground and looked up into the horror.

"You!" Ilana shouted.

The leader of the Red Lantern Corps, Atrocitus stared down the former member of his Corps. The bloodthirsty grin on the monster's face caused horrors to be brought to life.

"Hello, my wayward child," Atrocitus said with a peering gaze locked onto Ilana's face.

* * *

 

A rather well built black gentlemen stood in the middle of the gym. He dressed in a dark tank top and shorts. A heavy bag swung from a chain on the ceiling. The man did some breathing exercises and started to lunge forward towards the bag. A series of punches rattled the bag.

Punch, punch, punch, the sound of a fist cracked against the bag with each and every individual punch. The man gained some momentum with each punch.

' _Stand up, go left, and keep fighting no matter what, then you'll get straight to the top kid.'_

Those words of a long time ago passed through the consciousness of Ben Turner, better known as the Bronze Tiger. He needed to get stronger, faster, quicker, have a one knockout punch against the toughest fighters in the world.

The phone on the table nearby ran. Turner reached over and detached the headset before putting it on.

"Yeah, talk to me," Bronze Tiger said.

Without missing a beat, The Bronze Tiger continued with his intense training session. He pounded the heavy bag and caused the chain to swing.

"Hey, Ben, you remember the bounty on Nightwing and Batman?" a garbled voice on the other end of the phone asked.

Turner kept working over the bag. This news interested him and he heard about it. He didn't go for it, at least not yet.

"Yeah, heard about it," Bronze Tiger said. "Twenty-five for the Dragon, Fifty for the Bat, right?"

"Well, Deathstroke fell a couple nights ago, and the Flamingo a couple of nights ago," the man on the other end of the phone. "Between them and the SWAT, Batman and Nightwing are running pretty ragged. And you're in the prime of your life right now."

The Bronze Tiger smiled for a second and decided to keep pounding away at the bag before his muscles relaxed too much. The Bronze Tiger's fist connected with the bag with each solid punch. Punch, punch, punch, the punching hit the bag hard and fast with several swift blows, and he continued to keep going further.

"Yeah, you hear this, I'm stronger than I'm ever been," Bronze Tiger said. "These things should be registered as lethal weapons!"

The associate on the other end of the phone chuckled.

"Well, I'd load up those weapons and get a chance before another one of those freak assassins tried to hone in on your territory," he said. "You make this money, you'll be made for life, Ben. You don't have to slum it with the League anymore, you'll be made, man."

Turner's eyes flashed for a moment in anger.

"Don't be talking about my dealings with the League," Turner said.

The man on the other end of the phone grew somber and serious at the same time. Turner kept pounding the bag and listening to the conversation.

"I know they're no good for you," the man on the other end of the phone. "I know going after this Batman isn't healthy for you either, but it's better than worry about these shady people."

"If I take down Batman, I prove the doubters wrong," Turner said. "Don't need the League, don't need nothing, don't need to prove anything to the League, don't need to prove anything to you, or the old man."

The old man never could beat Wildcat, never could, and Turner would beat that old chump the next time the two of them fight. He'd knock him out so hard, his ancestors would be seeing stars.

"The old man loved you like a son and we were like brothers," the man said. "You're all over the place….you're a prize fighter….what prize is the League giving you?"

"Respect," Turner said. "Wildcat's nothing….and I'm going to take Batman and take him down. And then when Grant sees it, he'll be running scared. I'll hit him so hard, he'll lose all nine of his lives."

"Don't focus on Ted Grant," the man of the phone. "Batman isn't a means to an end, he is the end. He's what you want, you take him out and you get respect. You want respect, don't you?"

Turner's heart rate sped up and he kept pounding away at the bag. Each one of these punches rattled the bag and caused his breathing to escalate every single second he drilled away on the heavy bag.

"Yeah, I want respect, and I'm going to get it," Turner said. "Take down Batman, take down Nightwing, and that punk Grant will have no choice, but to face me. He ain't nothing compared to me, do you hear me, he ain't nothing? I've got it….I've got the Eye of the Tiger."

Turner was so focused on what he was doing, he didn't know the absurdity of what was being said.

"Man, you think you're some character in a movie or something?" the man asked. "I thought giving you something else to focus on, would get you off of Grant. But obviously, you're more obsessed with him than ever, man!"

Turner's nostrils flared when pounding away at the punching bag.

"No, I take him down, I've done it," Turner said. "He should have stayed down the first time. Respect, I'll get some respect. I'm not a punk, I'm not a loser, I'm not a bum….Wildcat's going down."

The associate on the other end of the phone paused for a long moment. The Bronze Tiger sped up his punches, putting a hole in the bag from one of the forceful hooks he slammed into it.

"Batman, focus on Batman. I can see why the old man said you had a head as tough as concrete, and twice as thick….."

"Don't talk to me about the old man!" Turner yelled. "He's dead….and I'm better than he ever was."

A long pause followed before the man on the other end of the phone tried once more time, in vain, to talk some sense into the Bronze Tiger.

"If he was alive, he could knock some sense into you!"

Turner threw the headset down and started to hammer the bag with an even more rapid-fire flurry. His knuckles blistered from the force of the punches. The fighter didn't care, he was in the zone, and ready to snap.

"He doesn't know, the old man didn't know, what I could become!" the Bronze Tiger yelled. "The money's mine…the respect is mine...I'LL TAKE THEIR HEADS OFF!"

Turner smashed the bag so hard it snapped off of the chain. The bag hurled towards the window and broke through it.

"I'LL KILL THEM!"

Turner stepped over the broken glass, snarling in the process like his namesake. He had been fired up and ready to hunt down some punk bastard.

* * *

 

' _So, are you hoping to meet her today?'_ Kara asked. _'I know it's been bothering you ever since you had…..well ever since the night it happened?'_

Harry exited the elevator leading to the third floor of Wayne Enterprises. A few days had passed since Harry dropped in the alleyway under mysterious circumstances, which may not have been so mysterious after all if he had thought about it.

' _I doubt she's going to be very forthcoming,'_ Harry thought. _'Her mask almost slipped a couple of times on that night. She knows it about as well as I do and she's not going to let it happen again.'_

' _Well, you can always try,'_ Faora thought.

' _Yes, it never hurts to try,'_ Harry thought.

Harry turned the corner and came face to face with the lovely Tamara Fox. She looked towards him with a sunny wave and a smile, before walking over towards him.

"Hey, Harry, how are you doing?" Tam asked.

"I'm doing pretty well, how about you?" Harry asked.

Tamara responded with one of those knowing smiles, which shifted a little bit. The woman sighed and Harry stepped back to give her space.

"Well, about as well as can be expected, busy time of the year here at Wayne Enterprises," Tam said without taking too much of a breath. She walked closer towards Harry so only the two of them could hear each other. "Still, how are you feeling?"

Harry smiled. Apparently, news of his episode had reached here. Then again, he could belch in public and about six tabloids would pick up on it.

"Other than the dizzy spell the other night, I'm as healthy as could be," Harry said. "I thought I had been getting the flu which was going around."

Tam responded with a shifty little smirk and looked into Harry's eyes.

"Oh, that's a really nasty bug, glad to see you don't have it," Tam said.

"I don't know, after falling out of a really tall building, having the flu really isn't that bad," Harry said, shifting towards her with a smile. "Still, everything checked out, and I'm here to take care of…"

Tam cut off Harry the moment he was about ready to say something by slipping an even stack of papers into the palm of his hand.

"Here," Tam said. "I got them already drawn up, all you need is about five minutes to look them over, make sure they're all in order. If they're not in order, which I apologize if they aren't, we can do something to get them into order and I can have them on your desk again, first thing Monday morning."

Harry flipped through the papers. As per her standards, Tamara managed to go above and beyond the call of duty and all of her expectations.

"No, no, it's as good as I thought they would be," Harry said, chuckling. "You did a bang up job, as usual, Tam."

Tam watched, trying not to be too happy. Harry finished flipping through the documents, a wide smile on his face when he looked at what Tam had to offer him.

"Very nice, very nice indeed," Harry said with a smile. "I might have to treat you to something nice. How about dinner on Friday night?"

Tam broke out into a wide grin. Her social calendar was wide open at any time for a date with Harry. Sapphire had been needling her about getting a move on with it, and Tam thought now would be the time.

"Actually, dinner on Friday sounds great," Tamara said. "It'd be an improvement of my night and….I look forward to it."

"Great," Harry said. "I'll get out of your hair because I know you're very busy right about now."

Tam grinned and leaned forward to kiss Harry on the cheek. The two of them went their separate ways in Wayne Industries.

' _Well, she looks pretty pleased,'_ Kara thought. _'Are you going to seal the deal with her, because if you are, it's long overdue?'_

' _You never know what dinner on Friday night might bring,'_ Harry thought with a swift smile spreading over his face. _'Just got to wait and see what would happen?'_

' _Oh, I'm excited, I don't know about you,'_ Kara thought in a tone of voice.

' _Shouldn't Harry be more excited because he's the one who is actually going to dinner?'_ Barbara thought.

' _Well, yes I should,'_ Harry thought, smiling and turning around. _'And speaking of someone who I'm excited to see?'_

Harry found the other person he wanted to have a word with. Talia turned up and noticed Harry. A few papers spilled out of Talia's arms as she headed to the elevator. Harry crossed the room to approach her.

"Good morning, Talia!" Harry called in a chipper voice.

"Hello, Harry," she said with a smile. She grew serious. "I'm glad to see you're up on your feet after what happened the other night…..do you have any idea what happened?"

Harry shook his head in response.

"Not the slightest, I'm afraid," Harry said. "At first, I thought it was the flu, you know it's been going around."

"Yes, three people have called in sick today because of it," Talia said. "However, it wasn't that, was it?"

"No, not the flu," Harry said. "Guess it was just too much work getting to me."

Talia looked at Harry for a few seconds and the smile crossed over her face even more prominent.

"There's no such thing as working too hard," Talia said. "I am glad to see you remain on your feet and ready to face whatever challenges come your way."

' _I'm certain,'_ Harry thought.

Harry noticed how distracted Talia was. Perhaps she would let something slip right now. Harry didn't want to push too hard, but a simple question couldn't hurt.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked. "Did the urgent business you had to go take care of go well?"

Talia's head snapped around in Harry's general direction and she started to nod.

"Mmm…yes…very well, well about as well as could be expected," Talia said. "It really wasn't anything groundbreaking, but at the same time it had to be done."

' _She's being evasive on purpose, isn't she?'_ Kara thought.

' _Would you have ever thought anything different?'_ Dinah asked.

"Well, it's good you've got it done," Harry said. He took a long look at Talia and pushed one more hook into the water. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm sure," Talia said. "It's a busy time of the year you know….I think we'll all be glad when Christmas and New Year's pass….no matter how important the work we are doing is."

Harry responded with a chuckle. That seemed to be the name of the game. Tedious, but rather important work and Sapphire and Veronica busted their tail to get these things done.

"Well, it can be tedious, but the reward at the end is worth it," Harry said. "I'll get out of your way...I actually have a couple of things to do before the big meeting tonight."

Talia smiled and looked towards him with a knowing smile.

"Well, I won't keep you from them," Talia said. "Have a pleasant day, Doctor Potter."

"You as well."

* * *

 

Thea Queen leaned back and watched the latest news broadcast about those missing Queen siblings. Oliver got the lion's share of the attention these days, although she had gotten a news story when someone saw someone who looked like her.

"Thea Queen went missing months ago," the newscaster said. "Even before her brother went down on the Queen's Gambit ship. The most reputable sightings of Ms. Queen put her in Gotham City within a few weeks after her initial disappearance. However, more recent sightings have put her elsewhere on the East Coast of the United States. A source has told us a young woman resembling Ms. Queen has been seen in the New York City subway systems. This tape shows her."

Thea smiled. Uncanny resemblance to her if she had to say so herself before her hair had been cut and dyed that was.

' _Hmm, interesting,'_ Thea thought. _'Guess they got it wrong a little bit, but this really works out for my favor….at least until they realize she's a look alike.'_

The door opened and Thea smiled when Dinah and Harry walked in. Dinah wore a nice black dress which shimmered in the light. It showed off her cleavage and also her legs. Legs which Thea followed with her eyes. She tore herself away from the scene before her, to look at Harry who looked quite yummy in a costume made suit which fit him like a well-formed glove.

"Dinah, Harry, hey!" Thea yelled, bouncing up to her feet. "Wow, the two of you look….wow the two of you look really good tonight."

Harry and Dinah smiled and noticed the look the face of the younger girl.

"Thanks, we're just coming back from a date," Harry said. "I figured we'd swing by and check up on things."

Thea looked at both of them at least until Dinah cleared her throat. The older woman smiled at Thea, one of those knowing smiles which caused shivers to spread over her spine.

"Right, well, you make me wish I could join you," Thea said. She moistened her lips with a few swipes of her tongue. "Sorry, it's just that….."

Dinah almost laughed and almost felt sorry for the girl. Well sorry, if it had not been so hilarious to her. She really was choking for it now and she had a long time to go.

"Patience," Dinah said. "You never know."

Thea sighed. The word patience was one she grew to detest in this day and age. She gave a shifty little smirk in response, and Harry returned with a smile which took Thea aback.

"Right, patience," Thea said.

' _Five more months, five more months, five more months,'_ Thea thought.

The mantra came into the back of Thea's mind and repeated itself on a constant loop. She could get through this, she would get through this.

"Well, the two of you look good enough to eat," Selina said, slinking out of the room. Her gaze fell onto both Harry and Dinah and a predatory smile followed a couple of seconds later. "Wouldn't you agree, Mia, they look good enough to eat?"

Thea turned to Selina, who had a knowing smile of her own in response.

"Oh, yes," Thea said. "Um, I think they have something to tell you, so I'll just let the two of you talk."

Thea stepped out of the room, having slipped into the bathroom quickly. Selina's lips curled into a predatory smirk before finally having a chance to pull away from her young charge.

"Well, she's eager," Selina said. She leaned closer towards Harry and leaned in, giving him a kiss on the lips. The sultry vixen nibbled Harry's lips before pulling away. "You rile her up anymore, and she's going to jump your bones the minute she turns seventeen."

"Wasn't that the idea?" Dinah asked.

"Oh, yes, I believe so," Selina said. "So, how are the two of you doing?"

"Fine, we actually wanted to talk to you about something," Harry said. "It's about Copperhead."

The good mood Selina had been in had faded the moment they brought up the snake lady.

"Oh right, her," Selina said.

Harry leaned in and wrapped an arm around Selina's shoulders to pull her in.

"She escaped custody a couple of weeks ago, and we haven't seen anything about her yet," Harry said. "At least until the rumors she's been sighted in Old Gotham, stalking the streets, biding her time."

"Copperhead's hoping to run into me again?" Selina asked. "Good, because I'm hoping to run into her again."

Dinah and Harry locked eyes. Both of them thought the same exact thing.

"Are you sure you're ready?" Dinah asked. "She's going to be raring to go for her rematch, I'm not sure if you want to….."

"Relax," Selina said, lips curling into a devious smile. She pressed a finger on Dinah's mouth to silence her. "I'm ready for this one, trust me."

"Oh, we trust you, it's just that….."

Selina laughed and tried to do her best to ease the tensions of the blonde before her. She could be too easy sometimes, way too easy.

"With the gift Alex gave me, I'm more than ready to take on anything Copperhead has to dish out," Selina said. "Round two…or rather three is going to turn out better than round one."

Harry almost frowned, but sad nothing. Selina was stubborn as a wall and twice as tough.

' _Faora, honey, what did you give her?'_ Harry thought.

' _Oh, and spoil the surprise,'_ Faora thought. _'Sorry, Har, but I think this is going to have to be one thing where you figure it out on your own.'_

* * *

 

Ilana squared off against the most dangerous demon in her past. Carol stepped in front of the Red Lantern leader. He rose up a hand and looked to be rather calm.

"I don't wish to fight you," Atrocitus said. "I wish to educate you….on all of the lies the Guardians of Oa have told you. At one time, I thought they were the shining beacon of light through this universe. I was wrong, and you could have been mistaken as well."

Sinestra raised her eyebrow. The thought of ripping this bastard limb from limb and drowning his little followers in the Red Lantern head's own blood appealed to her.

"The Red Lantern Corps were formed thanks to another Guardian lie," Atrocitus said. "They only care about the people they serve when it suits them, and when they can police them. When they gain independence from the Guardians, they can't stand it. Therefore, they stand by and watch as countless lives are slaughtered."

"Do you mean….?" Carol asked, voice trailing off.

"My people, countless lives killed," Atrocitus said. "The Guardians did nothing. It was on that day, I swore a vendetta to make sure the Guardians and everyone they served would be destroyed. But, you're just pawns in this game. Stand down and allow the Red Lanterns to serve justice in the universe."

Carol thought the man sounded rather convincing, at least at first. She noticed a couple of really big problems with his theory, though.

"So, you kill the Guardians, and you'll just go away?" Carol asked. "Sorry, I find that hard to believe."

"You find it hard to believe because no one in their right mind will ever believe his lies," Sinestra said.

"Nothing justifies what you've done," Carol said.

"Enough talking, let's end this!" Ilana yelled.

Ilana broke free from the ground and knocked Atrocitus back with a sucker punch. She rolled over and picked up the Red Lantern and jammed her hand into it.

"With blood and rage of crimson red, Ripped from a corpse so freshly dead, Together with our hellish hate,

We'll burn you all-That is your fate!"

Ilana's eyes glared with pure rage and she rushed forward, taking down the members of the Red Lantern Corps with a furious attack. She ripped them to shreds with a minimal of effort.

Atrocitus slammed a large spiked gauntlet down on the back of the head of the woman who tried to attack him.

"Even with your ring charged, you aren't a match for me," Atrocitus said. "You're a foolish child, dabbling in delusions. I'll crush you and your foolish friends!"

Sinestra rushed in and nailed Atrocitus with everything she had. Her eyes shifted into a slit-like state and glowed yellow. The dangerous woman knocked through and caused Atrocitus to be sent back.

The rocks underneath them started to crumble. Atrocitus jumped off to escape the wrath of Sinestra. She dove down after him with a glowing green drill pointed towards the head of this particular monster.

Carol watched and clamped onto Sinestra's legs and pulled her off. The Interceptor hovered above them and they needed to get on, now.

The Red Lanterns disappeared into the night, something which worsened the moods of at least two people on the ship.

"I WILL KILL HIM!" Ilana yelled.

"You need to calm down….your vitals have been spiked," Aya said. "You could….your brain and heart activity is abnormal."

Ilana's breathing grew even more ragged. The monster escaped, damn it, he escaped!

"I'M FINE!" Ilana yelled.

Sinestra sank down for a second before she sprung back up.

"I would have taken him out if you hadn't gotten in the way," Sinestra said, rounding up on all of them. "Do you realize what happened? Do you realize how I could have stamped out the Red Lantern problem?"

"Relax, we'll get them," Katma said. "This isn't over yet."

"They're on the move….and they're out of range," Aya said.

Sinestra smashed her hand against the edge of the ship and put a dent in the wall. Blood trickled from her knuckles.

Carol frowned. This was a bit of a violent reaction. Sinestra had been acting a bit short as of late, even for her. Regardless, they would have to worry later, right now, they needed to set course and find the Red Lanterns.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on September 3** **rd** **, 2016.**


	222. Chase for Redemption Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Two: Chase for Redemption Part One.**

* * *

 

A few rays of sunlight poured through the window of a seemingly abandoned apartment on the outskirts of Gotham City. Seemingly abandoned, although if one dared to look inside the window, they would see a curious sight. Namely, an attractive and curvy woman walking around in the nude in the minimal sunlight, and she did not have a care of who saw her.

Other than the sunlight pouring through the apartment, the apartment remained dark which was how the woman in question liked this situation. She functioned much better in the dark. This gave her a certain amount of allure when moving through the apartment. A wicked smile crossed over her face when she continued her travels through the apartment. Only one thought entered the mind of the woman.

The assassin known only as Copperhead thought about the last time she had been out and about. She encountered Catwoman and poisoned her to get the attention of Nightwing. The woman just narrowly escaped her brush with death.

Nightwing, on the other end, somehow was not affected by the venom coursing through her body. Many men dared not to touch the snake woman when she sweated. Copperhead's pours excreted the very venom which weakened her enemies.

The woman slunk back into the shadows and looked off into the distance, craning her neck. Her lips moistened with the thought of what she might do had she got her hands on Nightwing next time. Copperhead snapped herself back into reality with a couple of devious thoughts in her mind.

"He got lucky this time," Copperhead said. "It's amazing how much luck he had, but he won't get away."

Copperhead considered the name and considered the strength of this particular man. Her heart raced from the excitement. Yet, despite some unfortunate emotions rearing their ugly head, Copperhead resolved to remain professional and resolved to get the job done, no matter how long it took.

"Nightwing," Copperhead said. "The name of a mysterious man….what makes you immune to my venom? I tell you something, Dragon…..I don't think you as human as you think….but I'll find a way to bring you down. Justice will be mine."

Copperhead's tongue curled out of her mouth in an intense hiss. The forked tongue stuck out. The woman slowly traced it around the edge of her lips and popped them closed, with a thoughtful expression dancing in her eyes.

' _The hunt will be on,'_ Copperhead said.

The phone on the table cut through the eerie silence in the apartment. Copperhead allowed it to ring only three times, as per her custom before scooping up the phone and pressing it to her face to answer it.

"Yes," Copperhead said, letting out her breath in a low, but audible, hiss. Her forked tongue stuck out of the back of her head.

"I'm glad to hear word of your escape from the Blackgate security detail," the man on the other end of the phone said. "And I'm also disappointed to see you have gotten trapped in the first place."

Copperhead heard her benefactor on the other end of the world. The man always spoke with some rather coarse words for her. The assassin detested this rotten individual with every core of her being. Yet, he brought her fresh prey. So Copperhead would allow him to live for the moment.

"I had been caught off guard," Copperhead said. "It won't happen again."

The man on the other end of the phone chuckled for several minutes. All Copperhead could do was wait for the man to get out of his system. The assassin was glad he saw amusement towards her plight.

"I've heard this numerous times, from numerous people," the man on the other end of the phone said. "Let's not forget, Copperhead, when I found you were nothing. Weak, scared, and wondered where if you could find your place in the world. You remember that, don't you?"

Copperhead thought they would get to this point. He never ceased to want to remind her of all of these faults.

"You'll never allow me to forget," Copperhead said.

' _Countless times,'_ she mentally added.

The assassin waited for the conversation on the other end of the phone to continue.

"Well, you should remember where you've come from, my dear," he said. "And remember why you're in Gotham City. I trust you'll be able to succeed this time….you better hurry. Deathstroke showed up in Gotham City last week."

"Yes, Deathstroke," Copperhead said. "He's not as dangerous as the world thinks he is."

Copperhead's bravado was going to be reprimanded, she figured about as much. She waited for the other shoe to drop.

"Don't be overconfident in yourself," Copperhead's benefactor said. "This allowed you to get taken down in the first place. Overconfidence leads to you being broken, battered, beaten, and gives you a reminder of how far you've gone."

Copperhead waited for the other shoe to drop. It was coming, there was no way she could stop it from coming. The words she dreaded hearing at any time.

"Without me, you would be nothing," the benefactor said.

Copperhead let out her breath in a harsh hiss. Of course, he would say this.

"We'll see," Copperhead said. "I'll show you I'll become something more than you think I am. I'll show you."

The man's laughter on the other end of the phone dug into Copperhead's mind much like a rusty screwdriver.

"Will you show me?" the man on the other end of the phone asked. "Go ahead, and show me then. I'll be watching you and monitoring your progress."

"You'll be impressed," Copperhead said, her tongue flickering a little bit. "Nightwing and Batman, it doesn't matter. I'll take them both out."

"We'll see about that," the benefactor said after a moment. He smiled. "If you fail, this time, he'll be coming to town."

Copperhead hitched a breath when she heard the news about the person who was coming to town. It was someone she dreaded, many people in this organization dreaded above all else. She knew what was at stake and she knew everything took a turn for the worse if he had shown up in Gotham City.

"Are you talking about…..?"

"Yes," the benefactor said. "And he'll not be pleased with your failure….there's going to be a reckoning coming in Gotham City. He wants revenge on Nightwing and would prefer him to be dead. Him not being dead will cause complications….you don't want to complicate things, do you?"

Copperhead remained respectful and silent. Her resolve to get the job done and soon only strengthened. Any distractions would be dealt with.

"No, I won't complicate things," Copperhead said. "Don't worry, I'll finish them off."

Copperhead almost sensed a condensing tone coming over the phone.

"Good," the benefactor said. "I'm glad we have an understanding with each other. I expect our next conversation will be news of your success of taking out Batman or Nightwing. We prefer both. Nightwing is priority"

"Yes, I'm aware," Copperhead said. She clenched her hand and started to take a long breath. "Don't worry, their blood will run cold."

"Good, and happy hunting," the benefactor said.

Copperhead hung up the phone and looked out the window. The night was about to fall and she was about ready to go on a nice hunt.

' _Tonight's the night for redemption,'_ she thought.

Tonight would be the night where she prepared to dig herself back up. The humiliating loss at the hands of Nightwing a while back stirred her competitive spirits.

* * *

 

Tamara rushed around to get ready for the big date. Granted, she had been on dates with Harry Potter in the past, so she shouldn't think this was a big deal. Something about this date was different, somehow, Tam really couldn't explain it, other than it was. Therefore, she rushed about in an attempt to prepare for a very important date.

Sapphire watched Tam move back and forth, with a soft smile cracking over her face. She viewed Tam and shook her head.

"So, how do I look?"

The young heiress could have made the most epic meeting of face and palm possible.

"You look fine, for the last time," Sapphire said.

Tam responded with shaking her head. Sapphire threw her hands back and gave a rather prominent sigh. Tam stared at the dress in the mirror. It looked right on her, as snug as it needed to be, as comfortable as she wanted it to be, but the dark-skinned beauty wasn't too sure.

"Oh, I don't know," Tamara said. "This dress doesn't go right with my eyes."

Sapphire wondered if she could find a table to introduce her face to somewhere around here, nearby. It didn't seem worth it, to be honest.

"Wow, you've really taken a lot of too many cues from myself and Veronica," Sapphire said. She leaned closer towards Tamara and smiled. "Really, though…..you look great, and I'm sure Harry would say the same thing when he shows up as well….you said he'd be here in about twenty minutes, didn't you?"

This statement only caused Tam to look towards Sapphire. Sapphire lifted her hands back and threw them up into the air for a uniformed sigh.

"Yes," Tamara said. "You know how Harry is about being early, though, so I have to be ready….well it might have been a good idea for me to be ready about ten minutes ago."

Tamara looked in the mirror and started to mutter underneath her breath. Sapphire grew more and more amused until she finally lost it.

"Tam!" Sapphire yelled, getting her attention. "I told you ten minutes you look good. Really good….you're going to knock the socks off of him, and a few other pieces of clothing, trust me."

Sapphire's words had caused Tam to look at her with a skeptical look. The blonde heiress rose to her feet, grabbing Tam's shoulders and turning her into the direction of the nearest mirror.

"Look at you," Sapphire said. "Honey, you look fabulous….good enough to eat."

Tam shuddered at the smile on Sapphire's face and the blonde leaned in closer before stepping back to give the girl some room to breathe.

"I do, really, I do," Tam said.

"Then, go for it," Sapphire said. She paused and started to smirk.

Tam stared at the smirk for several minutes and if she was honest, the smirk caused, even more, shivers. It was like Sapphire had some kind of secret she held off, ready to be revealed at the most interesting time possible.

"What?" Tam asked.

"Nothing," Sapphire said.

Tam frowned and gave Sapphire a sharp glare which she learned from her father. It had only been reserved for when she was in really big trouble growing up.

"What…come on Sapphire, you have that grin on your face," Tamara said. Sapphire's eyes flashed over and she grinned. "Yeah, that grin, the grin which makes it looks like you're up to something, something dastardly, you know."

Sapphire's stoic expression broke and the attractive blonde descended into fits of laughter. Tam leaned towards her and Sapphire shook her head to clear it.

"Yeah, something dastardly," Sapphire said. "Actually, I have a couple of questions to ask you….are you going to seal the deal tonight?"

Tam almost jumped up in surprise because of Tam's statement. Well, not necessarily the statement, but the way she said it.

"What?" Tam asked.

Sapphire responded with a smile and leaned closer towards Tam. A half serious, half playful, expression pressed on Sapphire's face.

"Come on, Tam, don't play coy with me," Sapphire said. She leaned forward with an extremely wicked smirk spreading over her face. "You know how this is going, don't you? You've wanted it for a long time."

Tam shuddered at how true Sapphire's words were. Yes, she wanted this, and she wanted this for a very long time. She had dreams and woke up, disappointed they were just dreams. The only things she had to see for it were sticky sheets and ruined panties.

"Yes, Sapphire, a very long time," Tam said. "Actually, I thought about getting Harry off to the side in California, you know the big trip on the West Coast."

Sapphire raised an eyebrow about this particular revelation. Now she was a bit intrigued about why Tam didn't take the plunge.

"Okay, so you wanted to get a piece of Harry on the West Coast?" Sapphire asked. Tam responded with another smile and leaned closer towards her. "Why didn't you do it? What was stopping you?"

Tam frowned in response.

"Well, Tori Stark happened," Tam said. "You know how she really steals the show every time she shows up, no matter what."

Okay, that explained things a little bit. Sapphire was not going to argue with her friend about that, on this particular front at least.

"Yes, all too well," Sapphire said. "She can be a tough one to steal focus of….guess it was for the best you didn't make your move….although from what I've heard, Harry didn't sleep with her until very recently, at least as far as I know."

"Are you serious?" Tam said.

Sapphire leaned forward and smirked. "Very."

Tam had been smacked with this revelation. Okay, maybe she used Tori as an excuse, so maybe the time had not been right for her. Now, though, Tam convinced herself the time was right.

"So?" Tam asked. "So, I could have made my move, but I didn't…..and thus I blew it…..or something."

Sapphire rested her hand on Tam's shoulder and made the dark skinned beauty look at her with an encouraging and warm smile to match.

"I wouldn't say you blew it," Sapphire said. "Maybe you weren't ready until now. Now, you're ready Tam, ready to take on the world. So go out there and join the club."

"There's a club now?" Tam asked.

Sapphire responded with a round of laughter regarding Tam's rather baffled expression. Her hand did not move from the other girl's shoulder at this particular point in time.

"Well, given as many girls Harry has collected, of course, there's a club," Sapphire said. "I think you can do it, I really think you can. And not because I have a bet with Veronica which is running out if you don't get on the ball and make your move soon."

Tam raised an eyebrow and gave a long and searching look to Sapphire. Her mouth hung open for several seconds at this particular revelation.

"Seriously it's not," Sapphire said.

Tam answered a very un-lady snort. This caused Sapphire to break out into laughter at the look on her face. The glare just made her break out into a frantic round of giggling.

"Right," Tam said. A knock on the door saved Sapphire from further retaliation in this conversation. "Well, there's the door. Time to face the music…wish my hair was a little bit better."

Tam made her way off to the bathroom to get ready leaving Sapphire standing there to listen to the gentle knock on the door.

"Tam, you'll be fine!" Sapphire yelled in an exasperated voice. "Well, I guess someone is going to have to get the door.

So she did.

* * *

 

The night started very calm and extremely quiet. It was to the point where it unsettled Harry. All of the people trying to make their moves put him on guard. The mobsters moved around, and then there were the thugs and the mercenaries, not to mention all of these ninjas.

Harry decided to enjoy his life as a civilian as much he could. The other shoe might drop, but Harry was going to plan to live his life. He kept an ear in the bond link.

' _Nothing with Kara and I tonight,'_ Dinah thought. _'Selina's even staying out of trouble…..nothing we need to get involved in any way.'_

Harry had been caught off guard with this particular set of revelations. One thought entered his mind which he thought it would be prudent to voice, at least mentally speaking.

' _She must not be feeling well if she's staying out of trouble,'_ Harry thought.

Dinah almost scoffed, although it disappeared when Kara jumped into the battle.

' _Or she's actually taking you serious for once,'_ Kara said. _'You know, maybe for once we're going to have a nice and quiet night without too many problems. Dinah and I will take one more loop around and then we'll call it an evening….unless you have anything for us, Babs.'_

It took a couple of minutes for Barbara to respond to Kara's question and it only had been done through a nice and not so subtle clearing of the throat of the Girl of Steel.

' _Huh….sorry, I almost fell asleep out of sheer boredom,'_ Barbara thought. _'And that's what worries me. The last time the crime in Gotham City has been this quiet, it was right before all hell broke loose. And I'm afraid that's going to happen again.'_

Harry shook his head. He hoped for all of their sakes Barbara had overreacted to this situation. Regardless, though, he was almost late for a date. Well technically, he was due to arrive in the next five minutes. Through his standards, though, Harry considered it to be late, so it was late.

He walked in front of the door and knocked on it. The sound of two girls talking could be heard before a sigh followed. The door opened and Harry noticed Sapphire Stagg standing on the other end. She dressed in a blue blouse, jacket, and skirt combination, looking like she got back from the office and went to visit Tam.

"Hello, Harry," Sapphire said. "Tam will be ready in a minute….at least I think she will be."

On cue, Tam made her way inside. She wore a shimmering blue dress which fit every one of the beauty's curves in a snug fashion. A tasteful amount of cleavage had been on display and the dress shifted to expose some stocking clad legs.

"Wow, you look beautiful," Harry said.

Tam put a pair of hands on her hips and smiled at Harry, a twinkling look of mischief dancing in her bright blues.

"Don't I always look beautiful?" Tam asked.

Harry smiled and looked her over. The look from him caused Tam to stand up straight and pay attention. Tremors of pleasure spread down her spine. Harry looking at any girl like that would cause them to stand up and take notice.

"Well, you really outdid yourself, bumping yourself from a ten to a twelve in one night," Harry said. "Seriously, Tam, you look great…and the dress matches your eyes, and your hair is perfectly fine...I really like what you did with it."

Sapphire turned around and gave Tam a smug smile. Tam just stared down her friend in response.

"See, I told you so," Sapphire said. Tam responded with a light swat and Sapphire turned around, with a smug smile crossing her face. "Right, I need to head off to get some Christmas shopping done. I hope the two of you are able to have some fun."

Sapphire bounced up to the feet, and practically skipped out of there, well as much as she could in high heel boots. She peered at Harry over the shoulder with a wink and a smile.

"Don't worry," Harry said, smiling at Sapphire when she left. Sapphire decided not to kiss Harry, although the look she gave him hinted she intended more for later. "We will….I'm sure this will be a night Tam won't ever forget."

Harry led Tam out of her apartment and down the steps where Harry's usual fancy ride awaited. Tam smiled and just enjoyed the moment.

"It's a short drive there," Harry said to Tam the moment the two of them made their way down the steps. "Thankfully, the roads aren't bad."

Tam smiled, that was the truth. The weather actually wasn't bad for December, especially in Gotham City.

"No worse than they normally are in Gotham anyway," Tam said. She climbed into the car.

The short drive later brought the couple to one of the fanciest restaurants in Gotham City. Tam felt she needed to push her eyes into the back of the head. The place was well made. She figured even the dumpster out back was full of the most high-class garbage.

' _Not that I'm going to check,'_ Tam said.

"Wow, you're going to spoil me with a place like this," Tam said.

"Hey," Harry said. "I told you I was going to treat you to something special and you know, I'm a man of my word."

Tam laughed at this statement from Harry. He did tend to be a man of his word more often than not.

"Obviously, obviously, you are," Tam said. "Well, this is just….this is just….wow…..I like…..I mean it, I really like…it's just…..I don't know what to say.

Harry smiled at her inability to string together a couple of sentences. Tam closed her eyes tight.

"Say you like it?" Harry asked, with a grin passing over her lips.

A couple of seconds passed when Tam tried to find the right words to say in an exciting situation like this.

"Harry, I don't like it, I love it," Tam said with a smile and they walked inside. "So, how's the wine at this place?"

The two of them had been seated in a rather cozy and private booth. They could fit together here as close as they wanted to if they wanted to.

"Pretty good quality actually," Harry said. "It would give you a buzz, so you should be careful….you wouldn't want to tip over, would you?"

The dark-skinned girl gave him a smile.

"No, I wouldn't," Tam said, leaning closer towards Harry. "Even if you're here to prop me up."

Both of them exchanged a knowing smile with each other at this particular statement.

"I think I'll have the special…it's been a long time since I've had such an exotic looking stew….is it any good, though?"

Harry smiled, this tended to be a very popular item with a lot of people who went here, not just including his taste.

"They have a special spice which gives it that tangy taste," Harry said. "Some say it's an acquired taste, while others say their taste buds were assaulted at first."

"Well, I guess I'm going to have to make my opinion, won't I?" Tamara asked. "This is nice, though."

Tam leaned closer towards Harry and decided to test her daring.

"Yes," Harry said, feeling her snuggle up against him at the boost. Harry knew what she wanted and could feel her hand rest on his lap. Best to draw it out, and make her want this more.

' _Not that she doesn't want it more than enough,'_ Veronica thought. _'You always have to drag them out for that extra mile.'_

' _Of course, he does,'_ Kara thought. _'I think we're going to have an interesting night.'_

' _When isn't it interesting with Harry?'_ Donna asked.

' _Good question, don't really have an answer,'_ Kara thought.

Tam's fingers rested in a very intimate place. She figured Harry would make her wait for it, and the wait would be worth it, more than worth it.

"Really nice to get away from the insanity, though," Tam said. "There's been a lot of it lately, you know what I mean. So, it's pretty good to get away from it all…to do something more daring…different…you know?"

"Yes," Harry said a smile crossing his face. "All too well."

Tam hoped they would be able to do something different and take their relationship to a brand new level. She was confident if nothing else.

' _Yes, this will end nicely,'_ Tam thought. _'Hopefully this as good as he says, but why wouldn't it be?'_

Tonight most certainly would be a very fruitful night.

* * *

 

Batman latched onto one of the ledges of a rooftop in Gotham City and launched himself across the city. The Dark Knight landed on the edge of the building and continued to move on his patrol. Crime never slept, as the saying went, and neither did he.

The evening had been long and so far tonight, Batman had not run into any crime at all. He remained diligent and refused to back off. All it took was one moment to run into something and then the race would be on once again.

"You know, if Flamebird and Canary haven't found anything, you're not going to find anything," Oracle said. "I'd pack it in…have a nice and quiet night. Relax for once in your life….enjoy it why you can."

Batman allowed these words to go past them like they did not faze them. He could not afford to have this particular attitude. An everlasting vigilante was a requirement for the mission, and the moment he lapsed, was the moment problems would occur.

' _Crime never sleeps and neither should I.'_

"Just keep monitoring the situation," Batman said. "With Copperhead out and Deathstroke still at large, none of us can rest."

Batman ignored the scoffing at his crisp attitude over the communication.

"And you're as charming to talk to as always," Oracle said. "Not even a pickpocket at tonight…this is uncharacteristic for Gotham City."

"Yes," Batman said. The sounds of a crowbar smashing against a car caused Batman's attention to be diverted away from the conversation. "You were saying?"

"Carjacker is a pretty mundane thing for the almighty Batman, wouldn't you think?" Oracle asked.

His response was as crisp and gruff as one would expect from Batman.

"A crime is a crime."

Batman dropped down and could hear the rustling of sounds. He saw the man who jacked the car, or at least did. The man laid on his back with a face which resembled someone who had a run-in with a brick wall, while driving said car.

"Don't bother, Batman, I took him out already."

Ben Turner, better known as the Bronze Tiger, shuffled in Batman's general direction. It had been a long time since the Bronze Tiger was on the streets, ever since his encounter with Wildcat some time back. Batman stepped back from the man. The fire in the man's eyes burned with everlasting rage.

"You," Batman said.

"Yes, me," Bronze Tiger said. "Surprised to see me?"

Bronze Tiger stuck and move. He didn't move in for the attack, but Batman knew it would be sooner or later.

"Figured you'd pop up eventually," Batman said. "Still trying to escape the old man's shadow?"

The fighter's eyes bugged out. Batman could see he was not of sound mind just by the bloodshot look. Whatever he was taking, it warped his mind.

"Mind your tongue, Batman!" Bronze Tiger yelled. "I've jumped out of his shadow. Fifty million dollars to take out Batman, I'm a made man…and I'll show them….I'll show them why I should have been the one they sent to get shit done in Gotham City."

Batman swooped up and then came down in mid-sentence on the back of the trash-talking fighter's head. The Bronze Tiger landed face first onto the ground. Batman stepped back to survey his handiwork, with the Bronze Tiger pulling himself up from the pavement.

"You talk too much," Batman said.

Bronze Tiger's face curled into a scowl and he rushed towards Batman. Batman dodged the attack. Bronze Tiger turned around and went after him one more time.

"Oh, you think I talk too much, Batman?" Bronze Tiger asked. "How about that? How about that, Detective? How about I let my fist do the talking?"

Batman blocked the first punch. The second punch buried into the abdomen of the Detective. A huge straight hook nailed Batman and caused him to fly back. The punch almost busted Batman's cowl and sent a loud feedback loop back through to Oracle.

"Are you okay?" Oracle asked.

Batman looked up through blurred vision. Three different Bronze Tigers came at him, all of them with murderous intent dancing in his eyes.

"I see three of him," Batman said. He tried to rub his eyes. The blurred vision persisted and the headset crackled.

"Um, I think you should hit the one in the middle," Oracle said.

Batman dodged another attempt of a skull-crushing punch. The fist dented the cinderblock. Batman turned around and noticed only a small amount of blood dripped from the knuckles of the Bronze Tiger. The Bronze Tiger charged Batman once more.

The Dark Knight Detective dodged the attacks. Bronze Tiger turned around.

"Come on, son, I'll hit you so hard your grand babies will feel it!" Bronze Tiger jeered.

A couple of punches nailed Batman in the chest before the Bronze Tiger lifted up Batman by the cape and tossed him up against the dumpster.

' _He's stronger than I remembered,'_ Batman thought. _'Those trips through the Pit…if he has been going through the Pit, he's stronger than ever and also more unstable than ever.'_

Bronze Tiger waited for Batman to come at him. He decided it would be prudent to fire off a little trash talking in the process.

"You see, you're nothing, but a warm up fight!" Bronze Tiger yelled. "You're nothing, do you hear me, Batman? You ain't nothing? I'm going to bust you….you're going to be mine."

The fighter looked around and noticed Batman disappeared. The punk fool wouldn't be getting far with the fact he knocked him so hard.

"Get back here, fight me like a man," Bronze Tiger said. He swept into the alleyway and started to stalk his prey. The man's crazed expression flashed through the alleyway. "You're cowering in some alleyway, waiting to die."

Bronze Tiger continued to search, coming up empty handed.

"I'll hit you so hard, your mother will feel it!" Bronze Tiger said. He threw the trash cans around when looking for him.

Batman rushed from behind the Bronze Tiger and nailed him with a kick to the kidneys. Bronze Tiger turned around and Batman nailed him with a punch with the brass knuckles enhanced glove before slipping back into the shadows.

"Lucky shot, that was a lucky shot," Bronze Tiger said. "Come face me, come and face me, punk! I'll knock your lights out. I'll put you to sleep. Come on, you're nothing, you're mine, come at me, fool!"

The dark-clad vigilante dropped down and nailed the Bronze Tiger in the back of the head. The Bronze Tiger hit the ground hard and Batman bounced off, preparing to fight him one more time. He waited for the Bronze Tiger to make his next move.

"You still talk too much," Batman said.

Bronze Tiger tried to attack Batman, only to see a dark clad figure wielding a sword coming up. He stepped back, holding his hands up.

"You fight him, you fight both of us," Katana said.

Bronze Tiger eyed the woman and contemplated a fight. He wasn't about to pick some fight with a broad. They didn't fight fair.

"Forget it, my fight's not with you," Bronze Tiger said. "You're lucky she's out here tonight….if she wasn't here, you'd be a dead man, Bats!"

Bronze Tiger jumped high and made his way to the building, running out of the way. Katana watched him go.

' _I didn't think tigers were so cowardly,'_ Katana thought.

"I thought you wanted a fight?" Katana asked.

Bronze Tiger disappeared into the night, ignoring her comment. The samurai kept her eyes on the fighter until he disappeared. Katana turned her attention to Batman and extended a hand. Much to her utter shock, he grabbed it so she could assist him in rising to his feet.

"You accepted my help?" Katana asked. "He must have hit you hard."

Batman snapped back to his normal attitude and pulled away. He raced on the way.

"I'm fine," Batman said. "He hit me harder than I thought he would."

"So, I noticed," Katana said. "Let's go."

From the shadows, a figure sat perched on the skylight, waiting to pounce. She stalked her prey, waiting for the right moment. This area of the street got a little bit too crowded and she was less confident when her prey traveled in packs.

' _Not tonight,'_ Copperhead said. _'Soon, soon you'll be alone, Batman.'_

The snake woman slunk into the shadows and offered one hiss in response.

* * *

 

"So, how was tonight?" Harry asked. He looked towards Tamara and tried to gauge her feedback of the situation.

Tamara leaned up against Harry when he escorted her from the car and back inside her apartment. She made sure to press up against him, to feel his firm body. A hint of what was going to come later tonight, well if she had her way.

"Well, the dinner was good, dancing was better, and the music really rocked," Tam said. "I have to say, you really know how to treat a woman right."

' _And for once….no trouble,'_ Harry thought. _'At least no trouble…..'_

' _There was a situation, but it was taken care of,'_ Barbara thought. _'Besides, you've been run ragged…..Batman has as well, but it's harder to convince him to pack it in than most.'_

' _Yes, I've noticed,'_ Dinah thought. _'He can he persistent, to the point where it's scary.'_

Harry figured he would hear about this particular story later. Now, he had to lead Tam back to her apartment, and she had a bit to drink.

"I've had a lot of experience with treating women right," Harry said. "How about I walk you up to your room?"

"Thanks, your my hero," Tam said with a smile. "I've drunk a couple too many drinks, thankfully it's a weekend, so I'm going to sleep it off."

Harry smiled and looked at her.

"Good," Harry said. "I would hate to see anything bad happen to you."

Tam fumbled with the keys. Harry took the keys and unlocked the door. The lights turned on and the two of them slipped inside Tam's apartment. Tam winced at the lights coming on but recovered for a second later.

"Yes, I know you would," Tam said. She crossed the room and leaned even closer towards Harry. "Thank you, I really mean it….."

Tam grabbed Harry, pinning him against the wall and responded with a huge kiss. Her tongue found entry into Harry's mouth and he opened his mouth to allow it to get inside. His hands rested on Tam's lower back and he pushed against her.

One stocking clad leg wrapped around Harry's waist and he ran his fingers over it, feeling how soft the stockings were. Harry's fingers trailed over the leg and she breathed heavily while peppering the side of Harry's lips and cheek with kisses.

The dark skinned beauty pulled away with Harry, smiling in response.

"You really didn't think this wasn't coming, didn't you?" Tam asked.

"I would have been disappointed if it didn't happen," Harry said. "You know I can tell it's been a long time coming."

Tam worked the buttons off of Harry's shirt while removing his tie. The hot and bothered woman pulled him into another passionate kiss.

"Oh, I really hope you knew so," Tam said. She pressed a hand on the other side of Harry's chest and lightly traced a pattern on his chest. "If you didn't pick up this was going to happen, I would have thought you might not have been as observant as I thought you were."

"Well, you know, I'm pretty observant," Harry said. "You want to know how observant I am?"

Harry scooped up Tam and her shoes flew off. She giggled when Harry marched both of them to the bedroom door, which swung open on its own accord. The two found their way towards the bedroom and Harry placed Tam down onto the bed.

"You know I can treat a woman right," Harry said. "It's time for you to show me how well I can treat a woman."

"Well, I've heard the rumors," Tam said. "I want to be the one to see up close and personal how those rumors are. I've been a hands-on girl myself when seeing these things."

Tam slipped down the straps of her dress and slid it off. Her white see through bra, garter belt, panties, and stockings made an interesting contrast to her skin.

Harry leaned in and gave her another kiss. His hands were all over her body and Tam's loins gushed with hot fire. The fingers of her dream man were right where they needed to be.

"Oh, I know where your hands have been on this entire night," Harry said, with a light nibble on Tamara's lips.

Tam could hardly wait, this was going to be beyond amazing.

A series of kisses hit every inch of Tam's body. Harry worked his way down her body and decided to pay tribute to another set of lips. Harry peeled her panties off and kissed her a couple of times, paying attention to her navel before going down.

Tam shivered. How did he know her navel was so sensitive? Speaking of sensitive, Harry's tongue scraped against the entrance of her pussy. The juices trickled out from Harry's tongue.

"Harry!" Tam yelled. "HARRY!"

Harry responded by lapping up the juices in a circular motion. His tongue moved around the outer lips and moved around the inside of her lips.

Tam thought she had died and went to heaven. Harry treated her pussy with all the tender loving care she thought it should have been treated with. His tongue roamed all over every sopping fold and licked her. Tam closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensations pumping from her.

' _Oh, you thought that was amazing,'_ Harry thought.

Harry shoved his tongue and used it as a vibrator. Tam's hips bucked up to meet Harry's questing tongue. He drove down further and pushed the woman's buttons, juices oozing from her molten hot pussy from what Harry did to her.

"Harry, yes, Harry…mmm…lick my pussy!" Tam yelled. Her hips bucked up and down and a rapid fire pace with Harry going down and going deep inside her.

Harry did as the lady requested and ate her to another orgasm. He came up with a grin on his face.

"Harry, I'm wet," Tam said. "Please fuck me."

"Good," Harry said, unclipping her bra to reveal her beautiful breasts. The dark nipples stuck out and begged to be sucked on so Harry did.

Tam enjoyed Harry's mouth all over her breasts. A few miniature shockwaves coursed through her body and brought her to greater pleasure. Harry's fingers moved all the way over.

After treating her breasts for a minute, Harry rolled Tam over onto the bed. He gazed at her curvy ass which caught his eye when she walked down the hallway. Harry spanked it a couple of times.

"Mmm, Harry, I like you spanking me," Tam said. "But, I'd really like you to put your big cock in me and fuck me until I'm cross-eyed."

Harry ran his hands down Tam's perfect body. His throbbing cock grew hungrier for this pussy. Harry arched back and slid inside Tam's dark thighs.

"Damn, baby, you're so tight," Harry said. "I love fucking your tight pussy."

"Your cock is just right for it!" Tam yelled, clutching onto the bedsheets when Harry rammed into her. "Harder, more, more!"

Harry held onto Tam's hips and buried himself inside her. Her wet pussy caressed him in the most wonderful manner. His balls started to bubble with the thought of what he would do, burying all of his seed inside her tight body.

Tam could not believe this. Her boss's cock buried inside her like this. The assistant grabbed onto the bed and enjoyed the sensations of being filled and emptied. He did not just bring her to an orgasm, Harry led her every step of the way. He ensured all of these points had been delivered.

"Get ready for the best pleasure of your life."

"Yes," Tam said. "Make me cum all over your big cock."

Tam tingled at the sensation of Harry's cock buried deep inside her stomach. She could feel his head pressing up against her and the tingles continued leading to one big orgasm.

Harry smiled when Tam bucked wildly against him. Keeping a firm hold on her hips, Harry rode out the orgasm.

Tam thought she never would feel anything more intense than what she felt right about now. Talk about being wrong. Harry continued to ride against her and would not stop riding.

"I can make you do this over, and over again," Harry said. "As much as I want, make you beg for more until you can't take any more."

Tam's body heated up with so much pleasure. She could feel Harry's hands touching and prodding her flesh. Every time he spiked inside her, Tam thought she would lose all sense of herself. Those heavy balls slapped against her thighs with a couple of deep and powerful thrusts.

Harry smiled and enjoyed the sensation of her warm pussy squeezing him. He would cum soon enough. Right now, he enjoyed ramming her into the bed.

"How does this make you feel?" Harry asked.

"Real good."

Tam's pussy tightened around Harry's pulsing rod. Another orgasm spread through her body. This orgasm was ridden out for a very long time until Harry decided it was his turn.

The feeling of Harry's cum spilling into Tam's pussy caused the dark skinned beauty to lose it. Harry filled up her pussy with a huge load which caused more orgasms to hit her at a rapid fire rate.

The moment Harry pulled from Tam, she turned around and licked his cock. A sultry expression spread on the woman's face. She tasted Harry's cock and balls while rubbing her own pussy.

Tam turned around and ground her perfect ass down on Harry's rod. Harry smiled and reached around to cup a breast and nibble on it.

"Do it, sir," Tam said. "You know you want to fuck my ass and….I want you inside...I want this gorgeous cock inside my ass."

Harry tempted her body with a few more caresses and collected some of the juices from her pussy. Harry situated his finger and pushed it in between Tam's cheeks. He manipulated the inside of her asshole with a couple of solid pumps.

"Oh, yes, right there, like that!" Tam yelled. "But, I need your cock."

"Then you'll have it."

The swollen head pushing against Tam's rectum made her tingle with excitement. She had never had anything rammed in her ass, and she would never have considered it before Harry.

"Mmm, I love this ass."

Tam closed her eyes when Harry slipped into her ass. She rode up and trapped his cock between her tight walls.

"Damn, Tam, you're ass feels so warm around my cock," Harry said. "Does your cock feel good in my ass?"

Tam nodded, feeling rather good. Harry's bloated balls slapped against her when she slid all the way up and came all the way down.

"Yes, Harry, fuck my ass, take me like the bitch I am," Tam said. "I hoped you would bend me over the desk and take me in my ass!"

Tam thought this was more than worth the wait. Harry's fingers came down and worked Tam's pussy to the tune of working her ass.

' _Like he's fucking me with two cocks at the same time, his fingers are so fucking good,'_ Tam thought.

"Mmm, I'm cumming, hard!" Tam yelled. "Do you want to cum hard, in my ass, lover?"

Her sexy black ass bounced up and down on Harry, tightening around his cock. Harry rammed his cock into Tam's ass feeling it.

"Yes, baby, I'm your anal slut," Tam said. "Any time I'm at the office, just bend me over and ram it in, and I'll take it up my butt!"

Harry smiled. He had no idea how deep underneath her professional demeanor, there was a horny slut.

"You're going to get everything you want and even more," Harry said. "How do you like that?"

Harry squeezed Tam's tit with his free hand while stroking her pussy with the other. These duel sensations caused the pussy juices to flow freely.

Tam caught Harry's fingers into her mouth and started to suck their combined juices off of it. She ground and pumped back against him. She squeezed her ass cheeks together to make him feel really good when he came inside of it.

Harry pushed up and rammed into Tam's tight ass. He returned his fingers to her pussy so he could feel the beautiful girl exploding with an orgasm.

Tam screamed at the top of her lungs and pushed ass first down onto Harry's throbbing hard cock. She took her medicine like a champ and screamed even more loudly with each nice and fluid pump of his cock.

Harry's warm hot cum splashed into the tight hole of his assistant. Tam worked all the way down and enjoyed riding this bull for all he was worth until he filled her ass with her sticky seed.

"It feels good to cum in such a nice ass," Harry said.

"Oh, I'm sure it does baby," Tam said, rolling over and wincing. "Going to be sore when I sit down at the office this week….but at least I'll remember you."

Tam spread her tantalizing thighs and Harry got the hint. His cock hardened again when seeing her chocolate skinned body dripping in sweat. Harry hovered over her and plunged inside.

Once again, he filled her and Tam grabbed onto Harry's shoulder to encourage him to drive deeper.

"Yes, sweetie, fuck me all night long!" Tam yelled. Her legs held Harry in close and Harry's fingers caressed the soft flesh driving her to further fits of sexual bliss. "Wreck my pussy with your big fuck stick.

Harry agreed and plunged into Tam's wet pussy with a few hard thrusts. His balls swelled up with their reward.

"Oh, I'm going to fuck you so hard you're going to pass out."

Tam sure hoped so. She clutched onto Harry's shoulder and kept moaning dirty talk into his ear which caused him to fuck faster and harder like the sex stallion the girls swore he was.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued of September 7** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_So, Batman doesn't have the most productive night in the world. Bronze Tiger has a lot to prove, and he does talk too much._

_So, Tam finally gets her moment with Harry. That was long overdue, but you know, stuff happens._

_Until Wednesday._


	223. Chase for Redemption Part Two

_Chapter of the Week Voting is Up Per Usual.  http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/  
_

* * *

 

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Three: Chase for Redemption Part Two.**

* * *

 

The doors of Ted Grant's gym swung open and a young man with dark hair stumbled into the gym. Bruce changed out of his costume and decided to take a short trip to visit one of his old mentors. Given the insanity of what had been going on in Gotham City, Bruce did not have an opportunity to visit Ted in quite some time. This had been the first time these two had come face to face since the funeral of John Zatara.

Bruce held onto the wall, annoyance crossing his face. The office door walked out and Ted Grant stepped out, wearing a tank top and sweat pants when he approached the younger man. A few seconds passed with Grant looking over the man before him.

"Kid, you look like you've been put through the wringer," Ted said, giving Bruce a long and searching look and noticing the black eye the young man had gotten. "One of those super models you run around with didn't punch you in the eye, did they?"

Bruce almost smiled because of his old mentor's attempts to lighten the mood.

"No," Bruce said. "It's….well, do you have anyone coming in?"

Ted arched his head to one side and took a good long look at the clock. He had a pretty good memory for someone who had been whacked on the head more than a few times, so the schedule was down pat.

"Not for the next twenty minutes," Ted said. "Until then, I'm all yours."

The two men walked a couple ways. Ted noticed Bruce walked a little funny and looked a little light headed. And given he wasn't the kind of person to get drunk out of his mind, Ted pretty much knew the cause of his ailment in an instant.

"Kid, we should get that ice for that eye," Ted said. "Likely you should go to a hospital to make sure you don't have a concussion either, but you and I both know you won't do that."

Bruce responded with one of those long glares which he had been so famous for. The type of look which Ted took in stride, and stepped back.

"Would you?" Bruce asked.

Ted chuckled, bluff having been called all of the way. He turned around and reached to the door of the office before pushing the door open. The light had been left on, from him getting some late night work done earlier.

"Nah, I wouldn't," Ted said. "Fair enough….step into my office…..I was just going over some paperwork. It's a wonder I can still add two and two with all of the times I've been whacked in the head."

Ted offered a chair and Bruce sank down into it. Ted cleared off some papers on his desk so he could get a better look at the kid.

"So, what's on your mind, kid?" Ted asked. He leaned towards Bruce and locked eyes with him, giving him one of the most serious expressions he could muster. "You haven't been running yourself ragged trying to figure out what happened to old John Zatara, have you?"

Bruce had not forgotten about that. He swore to get to the bottom of this. Unfortunately, he had been chasing ghosts. Which was what Nightwing warned him about when dealing with magical fugitives, who always found their ways to be one, two, three steps ahead.

"Because, I have to say, I'm baffled as you are, how they could have gotten the drop on them," Grant said. "But, hey, maybe you found something, I haven't found."

Bruce answered with a sigh. There were a lot of people looking into these cases, but the men involved covered their tracks quite nicely.

"There have been no leads on that front, and I've been preoccupied with other matters," Bruce said.

"Right, there's a hefty price tag on your head," Ted said. "What did you do, piss in Sionis's cornflakes or something?"

Bruce gave Ted the glare which could melt the hardest of metals. The Wildcat slid back and raised his hands up in the universal sign for surrendering.

"Right, forgot," Ted said. "So, why did you stumble into my gym looking like you put your face through a meat grinder before four in the morning?"

"I ran into the Bronze Tiger," Bruce said.

Ted figured it would be something along those lines. It was very interesting he had not heard this particular name pop up in a while. The fact he returned now of all times made Grant have a few questions.

"Ben Turner," Ted said. "Boy, there's a good kid right there….unfortunately, he fell into the wrong crowd, the type of people who have been talking into his ear, promising in the sky, while using his anger. He hasn't been the same since his mentor died."

Ted reached into the cabinet and poured him a glass of wine. He offered it to Bruce, who responded with a shake of his head.

"No, thank you," Bruce said.

Ah, the kid didn't drink, good for him. Really nasty habit to pick up, Ted only picked it up when things got rough during the end of the JSA. Never quite got back on the wagon, although he did slow down a lot as the years went by.

"Right," Ted said. He took a long drink and tilted his head back in a wistful way. "Me and the old man, we go back a little bit. We had our share of differences. Fought in the ring and afterward, got a few drinks, had some laughs."

Bruce hated to be the one to snap his old mentor out of a trip down memory lane.

"Turner is more dangerous than ever," Bruce said. "He wants to take you down."

"Ah, well, kid's got a fire lit under his ass," Ted said. "Wonder who lit it."

The older man leaned back, in thought from a long time ago.

"Well, I won one, he won one, so we've got to have a third to see who the better man is," Ted said. "He doesn't realize there were circumstances the last time we fought, does he? I was at the end of the life cycle."

Ted's tone grew rather somber, along with his expression.

"If he ever comes to the realization, the boy might snap," Ted said.

"I think he already has," Bruce said. "He's with the League, and he's been put through the Lazarus Pit. And he's been turned, brainwashed."

Ted knew the kid already had a pretty tough life, so going through that kind of training was going to make anyone involved pretty loopy. He took a long drink.

"Ah, that can be tough," Ted said. He took a drink. "Don't know much about this Lazarus Pit you're talking about….mystical magic mumbo jumbo was more of John's territory, you see…..I just asked what to punch."

Ted decided to pull himself away from these misty-eyed recollections. No need to go all somber and serious on everything.

"The point is, last time, I was at the end of my rope, he caught me off guard," Ted said. "He wants me, well, I'm not going to make myself too hard to find. Kid wants his rematch, he'll get one."

A rumbling outside of the window caused Ted to turn his attention elsewhere. The sound of rain hitting the pavement, threatening to turn into snow because of the time of year caught Ted.

"There's a hell of a storm coming," Ted said.

Bruce shifted into a momentary smile, or at least what passed for one these days for him.

"Indeed. There always is in Gotham."

* * *

 

Katana circled around the block away from Wildcat's gym. The rain storm was about ready to come down in a fury and she found herself back on patrol, ready to face anything and everything. Until the Bronze Tiger attacked, this had been a rather quiet night. So much so, Tatsu was about ready to fall asleep on her patrol.

Now she was out alone, while Batman warned Grant about the danger he was in. This served Katana fine, gave her some room to breathe. Gave her some room to regroup and hopefully figure out what to do next.

' _A rare patrol without him hovering over me like an overconcerned parent,'_ Katana thought. _'I don't know, I think I like it…..well it's refreshing if anything else.'_

She allowed herself to smile, although not too much. Such freedom could be fleeting, so she better not enjoy too much of it.

' _I'm sure he'll be back way too soon…..'_ Katana thought. Her thoughts trailed off when something came after her.

A sound of something rustled in the shadows. Some water splashed up from where a person stood a minute ago. Katana drew her blade and stepped to the shadow. She exercised caution, someone who wished to attack would do the same.

"You can come out," Katana said. "Come out before I drag you out."

Copperhead slipped out of the shadows, a predatory smile dancing on her face. She approached Katana and circled around the samurai. Katana knew what was at stake here, so she resolved not to grow overconfident with her own abilities.

"You saved Batman earlier tonight," Copperhead said. "I'm sure he'll get a chance to return the favor….but you won't be as lucky as the Gato was."

Katana did not neglect to keep her eyes locked onto Copperhead. The snake woman, responsible for so many murders, approached the samurai, licking her lips. Those same lips coated with venom and had meant the end to so many people.

The woman stalked her prey from the shadows. Katana wasn't disturbed by the unknown as most women were. It did not make Copperhead any less dangerous of a threat.

"He'll come if you're in danger," Copperhead said.

"I know who you work for," Katana said. "And I know what you're capable of."

Copperhead let out a low hissing round of laughter. Katana situated herself and waited for the other shoe to drop, or rather another attack to occur.

"Ah, so you do?" Copperhead asked, tongue twisting out in a sadistic way. "And I'm certain this makes you special."

Copperhead's spine coiled back, resembling a snake. The assassin flung herself towards Katana with an attempted to strike. Katana veered out of the way to avoid the attempted attack. Copperhead used an amazing amount of agility and started to return fire against her adversary.

Katana stabbed the blade at Copperhead. Copperhead slid underneath and jumped at her, mouth wide open. Katana kicked an overturned rock at the snake woman and forced her to abort the attack. Copperhead dropped back down to the ground and continued to move forward.

' _Do not allow her to touch you, do not get injected with her poison,'_ Katana thought.

She dodged behind some cover, using the Water Tower on this building to her advantage. Copperhead jumped on top of the water tower and slowly crawled about the area of it, stalking Katana, stalking her prey. The woman tried to sense the body heat and listen for the increased heart beat from her adversary.

"You can't run forever," Copperhead said. "Come and fight me unless…"

A figure dressed in a dark, high-tech costume, jumped up. She nailed Copperhead with a kick to the side of the head and brought the snake woman crashing down into a heap on the ground.

Catwoman smiled and watched Copperhead struggle to her feet. The woman's tongue curled back. Catwoman adopted a battle stance and never once took her eyes from Copperhead despite the movement.

"Is it too late to join the party? Catwoman asked. "Come on, you didn't really think I was going to sit this one out did you. Especially when I heard the rumors you were in the neighborhood."

Copperhead responded with an angry hiss and rushed towards Catwoman in an attempt to bring her down. The woman dodged the vicious attacks from Copperhead and returned fire with a series of rapid-fire punches. A kick nailed her in the chest and sent her down. Copperhead bounced back up in time, for Catwoman to nail her with another vicious roundhouse kick.

"I can go all night," Catwoman said.

"I'll get you later, Gato," Copperhead said.

The snake woman returned to the shadows, slinking back. This allowed Catwoman to turn her full and undivided attention towards Katana. Katana regarded Catwoman for a couple of seconds, and Catwoman stepped back, not wanting a fight.

"So, you're welcome?" Catwoman asked.

Their adversary did not completely vanish. Copperhead returned from the shadows and Katana avoided the attack. The two women engaged each other in a rapid fire hand to hand struggle.

Catwoman would have liked to join them, but there were lights on her and SWAT guards making their way onto the rooftop. She only saw Katana flip Copperhead over the side of the roof and Copperhead land on another lower room.

"Oh, look, there's the SWAT," Catwoman said in a bored voice. "Coming to collect one of the many bounties on my head. You know boys, this is getting kind of old."

One of the SWAT guards rushed onto the roof and tried to attack Catwoman. She dodged the punch and returned fire with a kick. The kick crumpled the SWAT guard to his knees. Catwoman brought the spike of her boot into the man's face.

She dodged a nightstick which almost clubbed her face in. Catwoman retracted her claws and scratched the man, tearing off the SWAT vest. The moment the fleshy underside had been revealed, she fired back with some kicks to knock the wind out of her adversary.

Another attempt from one of the attackers prompted Catwoman to send out her whip and ensnare the man by the wrist. She jumped up into the air and came crashing down onto the back of the head of her latest adversary. The man slammed down onto the ground with Catwoman jumping back up to her feet.

"This is getting very old," Catwoman said in a bored tone. "I'm all for having a much more interesting night, but this takes the cake."

Catwoman avoided the SWAT guards and made her way to the rooftop. She spent a couple of minutes looking around for Katana and Copperhead, only they took their very early morning or late night fight elsewhere.

' _And they're gone,'_ Catwoman said. _'Time to go the same way.'_

Catwoman did not waste any time because those SWAT guards continued to play their little game with her.

' _Let's see how long they last,'_ she thought.

* * *

 

The smile on Tamara Fox's face did not leave it all through the night. As a matter of fact, she woke up with the smile on her face, and to the smell of something coming from her kitchen. She walked up, feeling the soreness and the stickiness between her thighs, a reminder of what she did with Harry last night. She had no regrets at all.

Well other than not jumping the gun sooner, or rather jumping Harry.

' _Don't really have no one but yourself to blame on that one.'_

Tam turned around the corner and took a shower to get cleaned up before she headed out. She slipped on some underwear, a tank top, and a pair of shorts before making her way into the kitchen.

She stepped in, seeing Harry dressed in an undershirt and pants, making bacon and eggs. It sizzled against the oven. She waited for Harry to step away from the oven and walk towards him. Tam wrapped her arms around his waist.

"Something smells good," Tam said, entering the kitchen with a smile on her face. "Oh, and you're cooking me breakfast after last night, you're really too much sometimes."

Harry turned around and Tam gave him a warm kiss. Their lips met in the middle with a passionate kiss, their tongues clashing together. The two of them stepped back, with a smile, salvia traveling from their mouths.

"Hey, it's the least I can do," Harry said.

Tam inhaled the scent of the breakfast and it made her smile almost as much as the amazing, amazing sex they had last night.

"Well, if you think the least you can do is a wonderful smelling breakfast like this, then I'm very fortunate indeed," Tam said. She stole another kiss from Harry before sitting down to enjoy what was behind her. "Still a little bit sore from last night….not your fault, though. I was the one who kept asking for more until I couldn't take anymore. Then I kept asking for more other than that."

Tam thought it had all been worth it, and if she had to change a thing, well she would not. Nothing beat the experience and she felt more energized than ever this morning, despite the lingering soreness between her thighs.

She watched Harry lay out breakfast at the table. Tam's stomach called for it, and she needed some more fuel after their marathon session last night.

"I guess I've been building this up in my mind for so long I had to see how far I could push my limits," Tam said.

The two of them sat down at the table and Harry reached in, cupping Tam's hand in his and giving it a gentle squeeze. Her piercing blue eyes met his brilliant green ones.

"You did fine," Harry said. "You kept up well."

Tam smiled. Given how Harry had a lot of girls which to compare her with, it really did say a lot she was able to keep up with him. The girl's ego got a bit of a jump when hearing these words.

"Well, I do work out a lot," Tam said. She waited for Harry to sit down on the table. "I can't wait to have breakfast. And you never know, after breakfast is over, I might be up for a little dessert."

Harry took a bite and watched when Tam licked some of the excess bacon from her fingers. She gave him a smoldering look.

"Don't push yourself," Harry said.

Tam's soft foot ran up the edge of Harry's pants. She wondered how far to push things before Harry shut this fun down.

' _Or maybe he won't,'_ Tam thought in giddy excitement.

"Oh, I don't know," Tam said, trailing her tongue over her lips. "There are some things worth pushing yourself over."

Tam decided she would wait after breakfast to see if they could have some fun. Mostly because she didn't really want to do anything if Harry had a busy day ahead of himself today.

"So, what's on your agenda for today?" Tam asked.

Harry spent a moment thinking about it.

"A quiet Saturday, believe it or not," Harry said. "I hoped to spend some time with the girls….the next few weeks are going to be big, I'm going to be helping Veronica and Sapphire do their thing. Big time a year for all of the charity benefits."

"Well, I'm sure they'll be happy to get some time with you," Tam said. "Those two work so hard they make the rest of us look bad….no offense to them….but I think sometimes they want to redefine what charity means."

' _I don't worry, Tam, I don't take offense of it,'_ Sapphire thought to her.

Tam's eyes snapped up at the voice inside her head. The woman's breath almost got taken out of her body in surprise, hearing the voice of one of her friends.

' _Wait, wait, what, whoa!'_ Tam yelled, almost tipping over out of the back of her chair. Her heart started to beat a little bit faster than normal when trying to stand back.

' _Tam, calm down,'_ Harry thought.

' _Wow, she got into the bond pretty quick, didn't she?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Yes, she has,'_ Kara thought. _'Congratulations, Tam, you've been judged worthy of the Alpha Council of joining the bond network…..we'll spend some time talking about what that all means later.'_

' _And I think we've overwhelmed the poor girl with way too much, too soon,'_ Barbara thought.

' _She wouldn't be the first one,'_ Sapphire thought.

' _Yep,'_ Veronica chimed in.

Tam took a couple of minutes to collect her thoughts and try and figure out what the hell was going on here. She decided it would be best to talk to Harry about this, even though it may make her look mad.

"Um, Harry," Tam said. "I just heard your voice in my head, and the voices of a bunch of other girls in my head, didn't I?"

Harry placed his hand on Tam's, interlocked their fingers together, and squeezed it.

"Yes, Tam, you did," Harry said. "Don't worry, you're not going insane, at least not from this. Trust me."

Tam hated to think she was going insane about something else other than this. She smiled in good grace, though.

' _Good to know I'm not going nuts.'_

' _Well, no more than the rest of us anyway,'_ Sapphire said.

' _Not really helping,'_ Tamara thought.

"Yes, I do trust you, it's just….never mind," Tam said. "So, I guess I'm a part of this bond link thing...I guess your network of girls is really a network of girls….how does this happen?"

' _I think it's time to have the talk with her,'_ Karen thought.

' _Oh, I'm sure she knows all about that after last night,'_ Donna said.

' _Not that talk,'_ Diana thought, almost breaking out into laughter.

"Tam, I know this sounds cheesy, especially the way I'm going to put it," Harry said. "But, do you believe in magic?"

Tam already could tell this would be an interesting conversation. She knew it in the pit of her stomach. Intrigued, she motioned for Harry to continue.

' _Well, we're going to have an interesting conversation today, aren't we?'_

* * *

 

Gwen hammered away at a heavy bag which dangled from a chain. If she hit it and it had been sent flying, then she hit it too hard and needed to find a way to temper her strength. Reilly held the bag when Gwen pounded on it.

"Whoa, slow down a little bit," Reilly said. "It looks like you're getting a little rough pounding that thing."

"Well, you'd know all about me getting rough with pounding things," Gwen said.

Reilly answered with a flicker of a smile. She knew indeed what might happen when Gwen got rough about pounding things.

The doors slid open and Kara made her way inside. She came home, showered, and changed into a white tank top and a pair of sweats. She walked in and noticed Gwen hitting the bag a couple more times before she stepped back.

"So, how was patrol?" Gwen asked the moment Kara had walked through the doorway.

Kara threw her hands back.

"That bad?" Gwen asked.

"Not as exciting as you would think," Kara said as she dropped down on the nearest couch. "Well, we were on the wrong side of town. Apparently, Batman ran into Bronze Tiger, and then early this morning, Copperhead had an encounter with Katana, and then the SWAT and Catwoman were involved. Oracle doesn't know what quite happened, although she'll be here soon enough."

Some lingering frustration came off of both women and Kara really could see why. She tried to give them an appeasing smile, even if it didn't work.

"At least you get to go out on patrol," Reilly said as she sat down on Kara's right and Gwen sat down on Kara's left. "Gwen and I aren't field ready yet…"

Reilly's frustrated statement trailed off and Kara smiled and placed a hand on Reilly's shoulder in an attempt to get her to calm down. It worked a little bit even though the stir crazy spider themed heroine did not seem completely at ease.

"Well, with the bounty, a lot of us are put on lockdown," Kara said. "I'm just on the cusp, and unless Dinah, Diana, or Harry are available to patrol with me, I'm as benched as you are. And Barbara's stepped back into the mission support role after her little trial run."

"No one's insane enough to do as much she does on that end of things," Gwen said.

Gwen shook her head at Barbara and her dedication with things. Dedication or insanity, well the line between the two of them was a pretty fine one to travel even underneath normal circumstances. Never mind the circumstances they dealt with each time.

"Mostly because there is no one as insane as she is to put that many irons in the fire," Gwen said, a smile crossing her face. "I'd try it, but I'm sure dealing with Mr. Sunshine and Personality after a couple of nights would make me want to chuck their laptop across the room."

The doors opened and Barbara had already stepped inside. She overheard enough of this conversation before she walked into the room.

"It only requires a little patience," Barbara said. "Which I know isn't really your strong suit, Gwen."

Gwen shifted her lips into a smile.

"How could you ever guess?" Gwen asked. "Nice of you to join us."

Barbara smiled, wishing she could be happier to spend some time with the girls. Dinah would be on her way after she had gotten changed. Quite the night to suit up for nothing if Barbara had to say so herself, even if all of the excitement happened on the opposite end of town.

"I'll be glad when we find a way to resolve this bounty nonsense," Barbara said. "It's becoming frustrating and causing a lot of the real criminals to be unchecked. They're not going to stop coming."

"Unless you put a stop to Black Mask," Gwen said.

Barbara almost chuckled at how Gwen framed this particular statement. One almost assumed it had been easy to do something like put a stop to Black Mask. If it had really been this simple, Barbara would have been a whole lot happier. However, simple was not a good way to describe it.

"He's not going to make that one easy, I take it," Gwen said.

"Yeah, that one's easier said than done," Barbara said. "From what I've heard….and these are just rumors, nothing I've seen with my own two eyes….."

"Yeah, Babs, we figured as much," Gwen said. Gwen received one of those looks, which she returned.

This staring contest went on for a couple of minutes before Kara decided it would be prudent to clear her throat.

"As much as I like a good staring contest, I think Barbara should finish telling us what she needs to tell us," Kara said. "Right, Barbara?"

Barbara smiled at Kara's statement and hoped to return to the matter at hand.

"Yes, yes, of course," Barbara said. She took a second to collect her bearings and took a deep breath. "Anyway, from what I've heard, Black Mask is more secure ever. No one has even seen Sionis out in public since Halloween."

All of the girls crowded around, making a thoughtful "hmm".

"That's really something," Gwen said. "That's around the time where he went mad."

"Don't see why we can't just go in there and put a stop to him right now," Reilly said.

The doors opened again and Barbara smiled when Dinah showed up, dressed for sparring in a dark tank top and a pair of stretching spandex shorts which fit her quite well.

"Easier said than done," Dinah said, sliding in to join the rest of the girls. "His steel plant, which he's rumored to be conducting the vast majority of his business these days is a well-disguised fortress. It's going to take an act of God to get in there, much less get past all of his men."

Barbara wished the heavily secured steel plant was the most troubling thing they had to deal with.

"And my files indicate Black Mask has an army," Barbara said. "If he was that easy to get, someone like Falcone would have taken a shot at him. Especially for upsetting the apple cart and bringing all of these rogue elements into Gotham City."

Gwen frowned. When they put things that way, the situation sounded pretty dire.

"Well, hopefully, we actually have a Merry Christmas," Gwen said. "Harry is doing what he can to get the small fish out of Gotham City."

"Yes, Shiva has scared off some potential players," Barbara said. "Unfortunately, though, there are more problems than that right now…..but we'll get there when we get there."

"We just got to remain strong and patient," Kara said. "Even Sionis can't play this game forever….and the more people don't succeed, the more likely he will do something stupid."

"And when he does, we'll be there to take advantage of it," Dinah said.

The girls all hoped for a better and more comfortable holiday season. Easier said than done, though, as much as they all hated to admit it.

"Well, here's to hoping we end the year on a positive note," Kara said.

They could all agree with that statement from Kara.

* * *

 

Katana paced back and forth at the rooftop. The storm in Gotham City had subsided since last night, although there was some calm. Batman was out with Wildcat searching for the Bronze Tiger, which left her to deal with the Copperhead situation. And boy, this was a situation which escalated.

She would need some backup and as much as Tatsu had to swallow her own tongue to ask this particular man, she had no choice other than to do so. A dark figure swooped down and landed next to her.

' _Right on schedule,'_ she thought.

"So you wanted to see me?" Nightwing asked.

Katana turned towards him. No matter how much she tried to deny it, he did have a presence which even rattled the strongest of warriors. His aura was very strong.

"I thought you should know the rumors of Copperhead's sightings are far more than that," Katana said. "I saw her with my own two eyes, she's active in Gotham City."

"And she's still after me," Nightwing said.

Nightwing braced himself for what was going to happen next, even though he did not have very long to brace himself. He sensed the presence, who announced herself faster than he could even manage to guess.

"You have this right, and now I've found you."

Copperhead dropped down and stalked her prey. It had been a long time and she stewed, thinking about this encounter in the months after it took place.

"So, you have," Nightwing said. He and Katana stood shoulder to shoulder with each other. "And you're not alone, are you?"

Copperhead's eyes narrowed in rage, at the implication she was a coward who needed to travel in a pack to fight her own battles. The assassin's fists balled up in a primal fury.

"I come alone, and I fight…."

Copperhead realized the Dragon had spoken wisdom. She was not alone. The mercenary turned around, eyes shifting in a very angry fashion when she realized who turned up next to her. Several armored mercenaries surrounded Copperhead and caused the woman to grit her teeth.

"He sent you here?" Copperhead asked.

The men nodded in response. Copperhead tried to stand up to exert her authority over these gentlemen. The problem was they were not easily intimidated, even by the likes of her.

"I can fight my own battle."

"You were distracted, and you allowed yourself to be caught up in a vendetta which is not fitting of our boss's agenda," one of the men said in a very thick and distinct Hispanic accent. "We're eliminating the problem, and we're eliminating the distraction."

Copperhead's rage bubbled to the surface and she wished nothing better than to lash out to take these annoyances out like they were nothing. She knew the consequences of attacking these men. All the Hispanic Mercenary could do was stew.

"How dare you?" Copperhead demanded. "I had this matter under control."

Nightwing recognized who he was dealing with. It had been a long time since he had seen this particular group of mercenaries. He had not seen them since his very earliest days underneath the moniker of Nightwing.

"They work for Zombie, I've seen them before," Nightwing said. "And if they work for Zombie, I think we both know who they work for in proxy."

Katana's jaw set. Instant understanding came. He had not been in Gotham City for a long time, but it did not mean he wasn't out there, plotting, planning.

"Bane," Katana said. "We need to take them out, now."

Katana took her own advice and charged one of the mercenaries. The mercenary dodged the attack with expert precision, doing a dance of death with the woman in question. The mercenary swung a huge punch which knocked Katana back a couple of feet. Katana staggered and avoided the attack.

Nightwing dodged behind the two mercenaries and took one of them down with a violent takedown style attack. The other mercenary tucked his head and rolled out. At least until Nightwing bound him in thick cables which electrified the attacker in one fluid motion.

Another of the hired help nailed Nightwing across the side of the head. Nightwing tucked his head and did a forward roll to avoid the attack. The mercenary sprung halfway up into the air and attempted to lower the boom on Nightwing. Nightwing avoided the latest attack and popped back up with more punches delivered to the mercenary in question.

Another grabbed him and Nightwing shrugged off the attack, removed the knife from the man's belt and stabbed it towards him. The mercenary reclaimed his knife and rushed towards Nightwing to try and wipe him out.

"You will find it not to be as easy to take us out as you first have thought," one of the mercenaries said.

Copperhead's eyes bulged out. Anger at her prize being snatched after from her surfaced even more, so she rushed in front of the Mercenary. The woman would stake her claim and move closer towards the assassin.

"Stand out of my way!" Copperhead yelled. "Nightwing is mine!"

Copperhead jumped up to go after Nightwing, thus allowing him to maneuver around and take out two of them with one hit.

"I'm afraid you've lost control of the situation," one of the mercenaries said. "Our boss has a vendetta with Nightwing and we will settle it now…..wiping out his sidekick is just an excellent bonus for today."

"Sidekick?" Katana asked.

There was little time to quibble over such details because there were more problems on the way. This was only a scouter group of mercenaries.

More would be on the way, and the trouble would only increase. Katana held her blade out and motioned for one of them to come to her.

The mercenary showed some swift skills and moved with lightning fast precision. Katana caught the man underneath the arm and snapped him back down onto the ground with a full force.

* * *

 

Wildcat and Batman had been out on patrol and had been searching around for the better part of three hours. The streets had been quiet, no Bronze Tiger, not even a misguided attempt by the SWAT to take down Batman.

"Just overturn enough rocks, and he's bound to pop up," Wildcat said. The familiar face started to walk towards them. "Case in point."

Bronze Tiger's eyes flashed in anger the moment where he spotted Wildcat. Finally, it was his time. Time to get some payback.

"Well, look who finally had the guts to turn up," Bronze Tiger said.

"Hey, you should have come looking for me," Wildcat said. "I'm not too hard to find, Turner."

"It's over," Batman said.

Bronze Tiger only now acknowledged Batman's presence in this particular alleyway.

"You better step off!" Bronze Tiger yelled. "You're nothing but a training bout, a warm up, this guy right here, he's the main event. He's mine, I'm going to beat him this time. And I'm going to put him through the concrete."

Bronze Tiger kick started the fight by swinging one violent haymaker punch towards Wildcat. Wildcat avoided the punch and popped back with another one of his own. Bronze Tiger stepped back.

"Lucky shot old man, you won't get another one!" Bronze Tiger said.

Bronze Tiger hit two punches, which Wildcat avoided and nailed him with a couple of stiff jabs to the chest, and launched Bronze Tiger back with a huge roundhouse punch.

"Fine, you want a streetfight, you got one," Wildcat said. "Keep at a safe distance, kid."

Batman kept a safe distance when Wildcat and Bronze Tiger squared off. Wildcat avoided every single one of Bronze Tiger's punches.

On the rooftop, a sniper caught sight of Batman. A wicked smile pressed across the man's face when he loaded the gun and locked to fire.

' _Fifty million big ones.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on September 10** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Usual busy night in Gotham City and shit's going down. Until Saturday._


	224. Chase for Redemption Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Four: Chase for Redemption Part Three.**

* * *

 

The sniper perched himself on the top of the rooftop ready to attack Batman. He could smell the money, fifty million big ones into his bank account. Enough for him to retire on for the rest of his life, he could taste the glory of the money. He aimed one shot, the fight distracted Batman. He would never have an opportunity like this again.

' _Let's do this.'_

The bullet ricocheted off of the ground and missed hitting Batman full on. Batman turned his head around and noticed the sniper preparing for the attack once again. Batman armed himself with a baterang and tossed it at the sniper. One solid shot disoriented the sniper. Batman repelled up to further deal with him.

The sniper just barely avoided Batman coming up. He moved to reload the gun. Batman didn't give him another opportunity to load the gun while swinging a punch to the chest of the man.

Wildcat turned his head away from the fight a moment later to present the opening of Bronze Tiger nailing him with a roundhouse punch to the side of the head. The vigilante turned around in time to duck another shot from Bronze Tiger.

"You know something old man, I almost feel sorry for you," Bronze Tiger said. He aimed another punch and Wildcat dodged the attack. "You think you're bad? You think you're something? Well let me tell you something, you're….."

Wildcat managed to get underneath Bronze Tiger and stagger him with some rapid fire jabs to the chest. Bronze Tiger had the wind knocked out of him. The fighter tried to nail Wildcat with a rapid fire punch to the side of the head. Wildcat crouched down to avoid the punch.

Another punch swung over Wildcat's head and missed him entirely. Wildcat kept moving around to avoid the punches. He wanted to ensure Bronze Tiger wore himself out. The veteran fighter knew what to do in a situation like this.

"What are you trying to do, kid?" Wildcat asked. "Make me catch pneumonia from the air from your missed punches?"

Bronze Tiger swung another right, and then a left. Wildcat dodged both of the punches. A third punch, this time a haymaker missed a few seconds away. Wildcat popped back around with a light jab, and more jabs to the chest of his adversary to take him down. Bronze Tiger stepped back with Wildcat hammering away at his enemy.

These jabs only served to enrage the Bronze Tiger, which was what Wildcat hoped for. Wildcat ducked out of the way, and dodged another punch.

"You think you can get in my head talking trash?" Bronze Tiger asked. He tried to go for an uppercut, Wildcat ducked it. "You're going to be eating it! Just all I need is one shot and I'll take you….."

Wildcat plowed his enemy with a flowing jab to the face. Bronze Tiger slumped back and Wildcat kept backing him up against the wall. Each punch caught him until Bronze Tiger grabbed Wildcat's arm and whipped him back.

Bronze Tiger aimed a huge punch. Wildcat prevented the punch from kicking. Bronze Tiger reared back and jabbed him. One of the jabs hit, and another sailed over him.

"Come on, my grandmother hit harder than you did!" Wildcat yelled. Bronze Tiger flung a huge punch with Wildcat avoiding the punch. "Come on, you can do better than that, can't you?"

Bronze Tiger plowed Wildcat in the ribs with a huge punch with doubled him over. Another punch slammed him in the ribs. Wildcat dropped down to his knees and Bronze Tiger slammed those big beefy punches into the chest of his enemy. Each punch rocked him to a knee. Bronze Tiger reared back and Wildcat just narrowly avoided a punch to the face.

He went back on the defenses. Each of these punches put him on dream street.

"I'll put you through the ground!" Bronze Tiger yelled. "Do you hear me? Do you see what I can do….."

Wildcat rose to a standing position and motioned for Bronze Tiger to just bring it. He started to bring it with more punches. The punches flew at the face of the Wildcat with a rapid-fire flurry and moved with a stinging flurry.

The sound of fists cracking against each other showed Wildcat how this fight boiled down. He saw the sweat rolling down Bronze Tiger. He put too much power into these punches, and not enough strategy.

' _All I need to do is keep him punching, he's going to burn himself out,'_ Wildcat said.

Bronze Tiger's face splattered with sweat when he made another attempt to nail Wildcat. Wildcat dodged and swayed side to side. Bronze Tiger swung a huge punch to the side of Wildcat's head, with Wildcat avoiding the attack. He tapped himself on the mouth.

"Come on, right here, right on the chin!" Wildcat yelled.

"Just wait, I've got you now!" Bronze Tiger yelled.

Wildcat turned his head off to one side to avoid the roundhouse right delivered by the Bronze Tiger. Each of these punches came close to knocking his head off. Each punch also came closer to doing one thing. They both wore down the Bronze Tiger and made him a bit more frustrated.

' _Just got to find the threshold and I have him.'_

Bronze Tiger gripped his fingernail into the mouth of the Wildcat and pulled him forward with a vicious fishhook. The Tiger headbutted the Wildcat and hurled him to the ground. Wildcat slumped on the ground, next to the trash cans.

The younger fighter stood over Wildcat with a very obvious sneer on his face.

"That's right, that's where you belong!" Bronze Tiger yelled. "Come on, get to your feet so we can both finish this! Come on, get up!"

Batman wrapped up the sniper and noticed the fight taking a turn around for the worst. Wildcat swore to him up and down he should not get involved. Given how ugly the fight turned, Batman had no choice other than to step into the battle and intervene.

Bronze Tiger turned around at the Detective landing on his feet behind him. The Tiger staggered back a few inches and scowled at the sight of Batman dropping down behind him. Tiger sized up, preparing for another tight.

"You stand back, and wait your turn!" Bronze Tiger yelled. He looked Batman in the eye without fear, perhaps because it had been conditioned out of him. "The moment I'm done with Wildcat, you're back….."

Something nailed him across the back of the head. Batman stepped back to watch the Bronze Tiger fall face first onto the ground. The moment he looked up, Wildcat stood behind him, a pair of brass knuckles slipped onto his hand.

"You said this was a street fight, didn't you, kid?" Wildcat asked. "Anything goes….."

Wildcat kicked over the downed Bronze Tiger and the fighter still had a little bit of fight left in him.

"You know, despite there being no rules in a Streetfight, there's still one rule you should follow," Wildcat said. "Never, ever, turn your back on anyone in a Streetfight."

Wildcat turned his attention back to Batman.

"I thought I told you not to get involved," Wildcat said.

"A wise man told me there are times where you have to do what's right, even though people keep telling you how you shouldn't," Batman said.

Wildcat chuckled, those words having been thrown out back around him. He figured this was, in fact, some real fair play.

"Guess, I taught you the best, didn't I?" Wildcat asked. "And some punk took a shot at you. I swear, I can't take you anywhere, can I?"

Wildcat turned around and noticed in the couple of minutes he spent talking to Batman, Bronze Tiger decided to do a runner in the opposite direction. The fighter threw his hands back into a very labored sigh.

"Well, that happened."

Batman frowned and watched Bronze Tiger leave. He didn't know what to make of his sudden disappearance, other than it was not like it.

* * *

 

' _Okay, they're skilled, but there is always one strategy to take them out.'_

Nightwing divided the mercenaries, preventing them from working as a team to take him down. Now, he had some alone time with what appeared to be the leader of these mercenaries. The man had a couple of toys, one of them being a miniature blaster which threatened to melt anything it touched.

The blast caught one of the many perch points Nightwing favored in battle and melted into a smoldering amount of dust.

' _It would be wise to take this little toy away from him,'_ Nightwing thought.

"Finally, you aren't so tough," the man said. "I'll make this as painless as possible."

The mercenary aimed the blaster and tried to fire a shot at Nightwing. Nightwing evaded the blaster shot and ended up behind his adversary. The adversary turned around and Nightwing yanked the blaster out of the man's hand.

The man's hands had been covered in spiked brass knuckles. He jammed them together, to what effect Nightwing did not have any idea. The man charged Nightwing and tried to take his head off with a vicious brass knuckles style punch.

"Is it really worth it?" Nightwing asked.

"Twenty-five million dollars to the man who takes your head off!" the mercenary yelled. "And I'm going to do it."

"You think pretty highly of yourself," Harry said. "The confidence is pretty good. A bit unsettling, but pretty good!"

The mercenary swung for the fences in an blatant attempt to take Harry's clean off of his shoulders. Harry avoided a loaded punch to the face and dropped down behind the mercenary. He kicked the mercenary into the back of the head and started to stomp away at him.

The mercenary rolled over to his feet and pulled out a miniature shock staff. The Dragon experienced a little jolt when the staff had struck through his armor plate. He corrected his motions and pretty much noticed where the staff had hit.

' _Wait for it.'_

Nightwing's opponent stabbed the miniature staff towards him, sending sparks flying in pretty much every direction. The Dragon avoided an attack and jumped behind his enemy. He wrapped his arms around the neck of an enemy and nailed him with a couple of vicious punches to the back of the neck. The Dragon dropped his enemy with one fell swoop.

A double stomped knocked all the wind out of Nightwing's enemy because you could never be too careful.

He turned around and saw another mercenary leap off the roof, swords extended. Nightwing speared him out of mid-air and took him down. The mercenary rolled over and Nightwing jumped into the air. Curb-Stomp drove the man face first into the pavement. Nightwing did a roll and watched to see something out of the corner of his eye.

The first mercenary decided he did not have enough of Nightwing just yet. He rushed Nightwing and swung a punch. This punch had been avoided and Nightwing popped off with a huge uppercut to nail his enemy in the side of the face.

Elsewhere, Katana had been tested and brought to the edge. She picked up the pace and nailed one of them with a roundhouse kick to knock her adversary down. Katana flipped up and brought an uppercut punch down onto the chest of a goon.

Out of the corner of Katana's eye, another one of those goons charged her. Katana flung her hands up, with one thought exiting her mind.

' _You've got to be kidding me.'_

Sweat dripped down Katana's face when one of these assassins charged her. They would not let up. Two of them laid on the ground, and there was a pretty good chance they would get back to their feet.

' _Best deal with this one quickly.'_

Katana avoided the blade from drilling into the side of her face. She slammed the sword against the other sword. Both sides struggled together to gain some kind of advantage. Katana slipped out from behind her enemy and rocked him with a huge punch to the back of the head.

The man flipped over and landed on his feet. He threw some kind of restraint out at Katana. Katana sliced through the restraints with her weapon of choice. The chain dropped down to the ground.

"Just think, there's a price tag on your head as well….."

"I'm sure there is."

Katana punctuated this last word with an uppercut punch to drop her enemy onto the ground. She stared down at her enemy who rolled over. Katana flipped over to avoid a grenade from another one of the mercenaries who checked himself into this particular fight.

' _I think I know what I have to do.'_

The samurai dropped down from behind a chimney and waited for one of the mercenaries to throw a dagger at her. The dagger stuck in the chimney and exploded. Bricks had been sent flying and Katana stirred the fire, kicking pieces of debris at her enemies.

The brick debris smashed two of the mercenaries in the face to take the out. The third avoided her and slammed an open handed palm towards the chest of Katana. The wind left Katana's lungs and she staggered to the edge of the roof.

"Make peace with yourself as I send you to the next….."

An electrified jolt nailed the mercenary in the base of the spine. His legs started to twitch before dropping down to the ground.

Nightwing, having claimed one of the shock staffs from the mercenary he took out, turned around. The mercenaries which had been sent to them had already been taken out, which he thought was a pretty good piece of news, all things considered.

"So, you came back for me," Katana said.

"Of course, I had to," Nightwing said. "I wouldn't have been a very good partner if I would have just left you hanging, would I?"

Katana responded with a nod. She looked down at one of the mercenaries and also looked up to see who had been conspicuous by her absence."

"Copperhead's gone," Katana said.

Nightwing looked around. The battles with the mercenaries distracted him so much, Copperhead slipped through the cracks.

"Yes, I'm aware," Nightwing said. "And she'll be back around….she seemed about as happy as we did to see these mercenaries turn up."

Katana responded with a nod. She understood the same thing the moment the mercenaries showed up. She looked down at the mercenaries on the roof and cast a rather wary look elsewhere on the building.

"They're going to be back, in more abundant numbers," Katana said.

"Which is why we should be heading off," Nightwing said.

Both of them departed from the rooftop. One thought entered Katana's mind when departing from the rooftop.

' _So, did Batman have any luck tracking down the Bronze Tiger?'_

* * *

 

"So, overall, tonight was just one big bust, then."

Wildcat joined Batman, Nightwing, and Katana on the rooftop. This brought him back to the good old days. He promised himself a long time ago not to get buried in nostalgia because he had long since moved on with his life and moved into a nice and glorious future.

"It appears so," Nightwing said, taking in a deep breath and sighing. "You said the Bronze Tiger slipped away."

Someone of questionable sanity, especially with all of what he had been through, being out in public like that, really made Harry consider whether or not he was a danger for himself or others.

"Yeah, unfortunately," Wildcat said, head hanging down for a moment, almost as if he mourned what the young man had become. Likely because he did. "I just thought, well, I thought….."

"You thought you could knock some sense into him," Batman said.

Wildcat thought he hit the nail right on the head if he was perfectly honest. The man turned around and looked out into Gotham City. There was a lot in this city which could mess a man up. He also noticed a lot in the city which could help people.

One had to take the good and the bad all together, when dealing with a place like Gotham City.

"It's an old-school thing," Wildcat said. "You hit someone in the head enough times, and you might get through to them….never did work with me for some reason."

"I can't imagine why," Batman said.

Wildcat chuckled. He would have said Batman really didn't have any room to talk, but to be honest, the two of them lecturing each other about being stubborn was like the blind leading the blind.

"I swear, there are times where I think I was born a stubborn old man, and I just got worse with age," Wildcat said. "The kid's still out there, I beat him, and…..I'm not sure if that settles anything."

Plus, as Wildcat mentally thought, he didn't necessarily beat the kid, as much as catch him with one huge punch which brought him down for the count. Or at least as close to down to the count as anyone would have gone.

"Guess, we're going to have to wait and see, if getting hit around was the wake up call he needed," Wildcat said.

"You've done what you could do out there," Nightwing said. "All we have to do is wait and have him resurface."

Another problem had been brought up and Nightwing figured this would have to be addressed. Katana stepped over and helpfully pointed out.

"We encountered mercenaries tonight during the hunt for Copperhead," Katana said. Batman turned to them. "They were well trained, and we believe they worked for Zombie. Who as you know….."

"Bane," Batman said.

Batman took a moment to allow this one to settle in. After the failed team up with the League two summers ago, Bane's organization had not had much of a presence in Gotham City. He would have complicated some rather unfortunate problems with the power struggle which was about to take place.

"Last time I encountered them, Zombie didn't come out too well," Nightwing said. "You think Bane's going to want some revenge and it's going to be on me."

"He's the slow burn type apparently, then," Katana said. "Or he used the bounty as an excuse to send his men into Gotham City."

Nightwing smiled. If Bane wanted to come into Gotham City, well there was not too much to do other than prepare.

' _He'll bring the fight, but I can bring the fight right back to it.'_

"It times like this where I'm glad I've left the crime fighting game in the past where it belongs," Wildcat said. "The three of you have prices on your head…..well...I can't say too much about you, young lady. I don't know whether or not you have….."

"Yes, I have," Katana said. "My betrayal of the League of Assassins makes them likely to have a price on my head. Although they would prefer take me out on their own accord, I think by this point, they would have rather seen me dead."

Katana thought despite past and very recent truces with the League, there was still this underlying tension with them. She needed to deal with it, as much as she could at the very least. This would not be going away anytime soon.

"Keeps you on your toes, though, doesn't it?" Nightwing said.

The Samurai answered with a very solemn nod at his blunt statement.

"This much, I won't deny," Katana said.

She did feel fortunate the League had been divided and had been thinking of their own problems, rather than dealing with her. Had they got it together, Katana would have to think a bit more carefully with where she headed here in Gotham City.

' _Just got to remain on my toes.'_

They all noticed there was a bit more sunlight than darkness, and they noticed the sun coming up above the horizon in Gotham City. The battle had gone on for a far bit longer than Harry thought, and somehow he knew it would be just the beginning.

' _Isn't it always the beginning of something?'_ Kara asked.

' _For me, it is,'_ Harry thought.

' _Wish we could get more downtime,'_ Kara thought.

' _You and I both, but we just got to take the opportunities where we can, or maybe just make them,'_ Harry thought.

"Well, sun's coming up," Wildcat said. "This pretty much calls it a day for us, doesn't it?"

Wildcat looked around and noticed Nightwing, Batman, and Katana had all pulled disappearing acts and vanished into the darkness in Gotham City. He supposed it was to be expected, them disappearing off into nothingness.

' _Well, that happened.'_

Wildcat had no choice other than to turn around and make his way back to the gym. He walked looking over his shoulder. While he knocked the Bronze Tiger around, it did not mean the fighter was down for the count.

It just meant the fighter was going to return back, stronger than ever, and then he would be back. One of the greatest fighting stories out there was a quest for redemption. And the Bronze Tiger had not redeemed himself just yet.

"Maybe, there's hope, some of us can learn," Wildcat said. "Oh, well, better get in, before I get into any more trouble.

The walk back to the gym was short, and much to his surprise, Wildcat didn't run into anything trouble.

* * *

 

Copperhead returned back to the rundown apartment, a mixture of emotions going through her mind. She did not even have an opportunity to strike against Nightwing. The woman slithered back into her room and threw herself down onto the couch.

She only remained seated for a few seconds before getting back to a standing position. Copperhead's head rotated all the way around and eyes flashed with anger. The deep breaths she tried to use to calm down had a very minimal effect on doing so.

"So close!"

Copperhead waited for the one phone call from her benefactor. The one where she would get chastised for another failure. Still, there was one silver lining to the cloud, and one thing Copperhead could think about without fail.

' _The only thing I can take some solace in is they had no more success in taking down Nightwing than I did."_

2She wondered to herself what was so alluring about Nightwing. It brought a smile to her face just thinking about this enchanting young man. Enchanting was the keyword to her. She could see the flash of energy through his eyes when just thinking about him and thinking about what he would do.

Copperhead pulled a dagger out from a sheath and fired it towards a target on the wall. The assassin retracted the dagger from the wall and stepped back further. The dagger connected with the target one more time.

' _What is it about you that makes me unable to hit the target?'_

Copperhead ripped the dagger out of the target on the wall. She closed her eyes and positioned her hand to throw the dagger at the wall one more time. The dagger slammed into the target on the wall. A crisp and creepy smile flew over her face.

She envisioned the benefactor's face in place of Nightwing's and the dagger slammed into the target on the wall with a more insane fury. She pulled the dagger out of the wall and took a step back. She was going to ram the dagger back into it.

The phone rang and thus Copperhead received the phone call she waited for all afternoon.

' _And here it comes.'_

Copperhead walked over towards the phone and waited five times for the phone to ring. The moment it rang the fifth time, she picked it up.

"Your men failed," Copperhead said.

A long, cold pause followed.

"Yes, and he's not too pleased with it," the benefactor said on the other end of the phone. "I thought it would be obvious, you would have set them up, and they would have knocked him down. I did not expect the League Traitor to be with him. It threw off the end game."

"Expect the unexpected," Copperhead hissed, tongue flickering when she talked. She took a great deal of pleasure throwing the words of her benefactor back at him.

A long pause followed over the phone and Copperhead thought she had made her point. She waited for the man on the other end of the phone to respond with his answer.

"A door has opened for you," the benefactor said. "Against my better judgment and his better judgment, we're giving you another opportunity to succeed against Nightwing. Do not squander this chance."

Copperhead could not help, but smile at the admission of failure. Had they not stepped in her way and stepped on her toes, everything would have been different. She felt it deep in the pit of her stomach everything would have been different.

"Good, I'm glad you see it as it should be," Copperhead said. Her fingers curled around for a few seconds and blinked. "You will not regret this."

"You should not give me a chance to regret it," the benefactor said. "I trust you will find a way to get this job done…but this offer is not limitless and it will run out in time."

Copperhead figured as much. With every offer which could be delivered, there came a rather frustrating caveat. She thought this offer would have no exception to this frustration rule. The woman perched back against the wall.

"Don't worry, this time, I will not fail," Copperhead said.

"Do not give me any cause to worry, Copperhead," the benefactor said. "I will check up on your progress when the time is right. Nightwing, and Batman as well….and if you can throw in any other crime fighters in this city, the boss will be pleased. He has some big plans for the future of our operations in Gotham City."

Copperhead figured about as much. These words signaled the end of the call. The snake woman put down the phone on the cradle and smiled.

She pulled the dagger up and resumed the target practice against the wall. A number of marks she made against the wall when missing the target indicated the failure for this evening.

' _Much harder to hit a moving target than a stationary target,'_ Copperhead reminded herself.

She would have to keep practicing and keep putting the dagger up against the wall. Copperhead flung the dagger against the wall and kept sticking it into the target. She did not miss at all.

' _Soon, the third time will be the charm,'_ she thought.

* * *

 

Nightwing returned and stripped off his costume to return to his private lab underneath RAO headquarters. The green eyed young man reflected the night which was and the night gave way to a brand new day.

The nights stretched out a little longer ever since he had started dealing with the mercenaries. They came after his flesh by the pound and he knew sooner or later, something would have to give. Exactly when and what it was, Nightwing could only begin to guess. He only could guess something was going to happen.

' _This is going to get a lot more insane before it gets better.'_

Nightwing plopped himself down into one of the chairs in front of the computer displays. He brushed a stray strand of hair away from his face.

"Alura, could you bring up the information we have on Copperhead, please?"

"Of course," Alura said.

All of the information they studied from Copperhead, the DNA samples, the reports on her physiology, along with her venom and how to counteract it, popped up on the screen. Harry looked over it, frowning at the curiosity involved.

' _So, what do you think?'_ Harry asked.

' _I'm thinking she was quite fortunate to survive whatever experiments she had to have undergone,'_ Karen thought. She looked over Harry's "shoulder" and took the report in. _'There must have been something deep inside her which caused a transformation of some sort.'_

' _Just like there's something inside a lot of the meteor mutants which prevented them from being squashed flat?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Yes, exactly,'_ Karen thought. _'If I would have to guess, there's some kind of meta-gene involved.'_

' _Meta-gene?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Yes, for lack of a better description,'_ Karen thought with a simple shrug of her shoulders. _'I'm not sure if we could even have a better description than the meta-gene if we wanted to, though.'_

' _No, meta-gene is pretty good,'_ Harry thought. _'It does describe why super powered people have super powers….like Dinah and her Canary Cry. Plus it's an approved term in some circles, isn't it?'_

' _That's what I called it,'_ Dinah thought. _'So, she has something in her which prevented her from being poisoned by her own powers. Or the experiment they put her under'_

Harry took a moment to look at this interesting power set before him. He did not have complete information, unfortunately, only scattered bits and pieces. Therefore, all he could do was make some guesses, even if those guesses were more among the educated type.

' _So, what do you think?'_ Dinah asked. _'Is she more snake or is she more woman?'_

' _Hard to say,'_ Harry thought.

Harry settled himself in for a long look at Copperhead and an attempt to see what made the woman in question tick. There were a number of questions which popped in the back of his head when he looked at the screen in front of him.

' _I think the real question is, is there enough snake in her to charm her, if you caught my drift,'_ Jaime thought.

Harry took a second to look at her. There was a lot about her which was different than from normal humans, and also something different than snakes.

' _As I said, it's rather hard to tell,'_ Harry thought. He took a moment to look at her. _'She's human, in some respects, but….I think she's allowed her mind to go to her serpent side. She has the cunning of a snake.'_

Harry racked his mind. Morgaine mentioned certain rituals which would enhance his own snake charming abilities. Harry would to see if they were possible in his current state and if they were enough to override the free-will of a part snake, part human.

' _She could be a useful one to have on our side if you can find a way to subvert her,'_ Dinah thought. _'And knowing you, the moment you saw her, you were thinking of the best way to get her into bed.'_

' _We're being very subtle, aren't we?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Subtle or not, you know it's heading this way,'_ Dinah thought. _'And Harry, you can't say the thought hasn't crossed your mind.'_

' _The thought might have crossed my mind a couple of times,'_ Harry thought. _'I think she could be useful. She is an assassin after all, so she would have a skill set which would be worth exploiting.'_

Harry took a moment to look over the screen. Right now, Copperhead had gone off the grid.

' _And you can't deny the appeal of having someone like her on your side,'_ Barbara thought. _'And I'm not just talking about the things she could do with her tongue.'_

Harry smiled, and he could tell the other girls had thought about it. Had the thought strayed to his mind? Maybe a couple of times, it was very obvious those thoughts entered his mind.

' _I know what you're talking about Barbara,'_ Harry thought.

' _About the tongue thing?'_ Kara asked. _'Because, we thought about it as well…..'_

' _Not about that, Kara,'_ Harry thought. _'Pretty enticing, though.'_

Some laughter entered inside the mind, and Harry smiled.

' _Oh,'_ Kara thought.

' _I was referring more to the people she answered to,'_ Harry thought. _'That to me is the most enticing part of her….other than all of those other things.'_

A thought entered Harry's mind of what he could do when he got his hands on Copperhead. Could it work? There was only one way to find out.

' _I'm sure your Parseltongue combined with your own natural ability to charm women, you're going to have her squirming underneath the sheets in no time,'_ Jaime thought. _'Then again, given the nature of your encounters….you might have already achieved some squirming of her in some respects.'_

Harry responded with a smile and got back to work. Could this work? Harry would have to test it.

' _It could work,'_ Harry thought. _'She's suspect able to me.'_

* * *

 

Bronze Tiger slipped his way into the run down flat he used as headquarters. Tonight's confrontation with the Bronze Tiger did not go as he planned. One could argue he got his ass handed to him in a way.

' _One battle, I can get him next time.'_

"Wildcat, there will be another fight, trust me!"

The moment the fighter flickered the lights on, Lady Shiva sat there with her arms folded. Bronze Tiger took a step back.

"What….."

Lady Shiva held one hand up and silenced the Bronze Tiger. It was the mark of the presence of this woman where he shut up.

"If you have any sense left, you will be silent, and you will listen to what I have to say," Lady Shiva said. "Tonight, you made a foolish error in judgment. Not only did you fail to put down the Wildcat, again, but you took your eye off of the ball."

Bronze Tiger's eyes stared a hole through Lady Shiva. He managed to stifle back any number of responses.

"And you went after the bounty, without the consent of the League," Lady Shiva said.

"I'm not the League's…"

Lady Shiva placed a dagger underneath the chin of Bronze Tiger. He wisely declined finishing this statement, knowing it would be his undoing if he had said one final word. The cold hard steel came an inch from cutting in.

"One more inch, and it's over."

Bronze Tiger's eyes showed he understood.

"The League has made you into the fighter you are, but don't think we can't bring you down just as much," Lady Shiva said. "Batman is off limits."

Bronze Tiger responded with a scowl. He punked this chump and now Lady Shiva tried to tell him Batman was off limits. He didn't play this game, he didn't play it at all. The League was trying to use him as a tool, and he wasn't fond of that.

"And Nightwing is most certainly off limits."

Lady Shiva slapped Bronze Tiger in the face hard at this next declaration. His lip split open from the hand striking it and blood started to trickle from his mouth.

"Have we come to an accord?"

Bronze Tiger stepped back from Lady Shiva, blood pouring from his mouth when stepping back. The prize fighter watched Lady Shiva leave. A bloody smile crossed over his face.

"Yes, I understand."

Lady Shiva did not hear his statement, for she had more pressing matters to attend to. A dark-clad figure entered the alleyway.

"It turned up empty, didn't it?" Lady Shiva asked. She responded with a brisk nod. "Very well, I didn't expect him to linger for long."

"Don't worry, my lady, he cannot hide from you forever," the woman in black said to step back.

"No, he couldn't."

Every single rock Lady Shiva overturned drew her ever closer to unearthing the worm. Given what David Cain took from her, she would make the streets stain with his blood.

' _You can't hide from me forever.'_

Lady Shiva cast one last look towards the window of the gym which gave her a good view of Bronze Tiger on his knees, blood dripping from his mouth. Without another word or thought, Lady Shiva slipped off into the shadows.

' _You think you can run, but you can't hide.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on September 14** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well, things are most certainly happening, as we have some confirmation of who Copperhead's benefactor's boss is, that being the one and only Bane. So, some shit's going down pretty soon in Gotham City._

_Do not screw with Lady Shiva at all._

_So, if Copperhead is part snake, and Harry's a Parseltongue, I'm sure you can draw your conclusions._

_Until Wednesday._


	225. Exchange

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Five: Exchange.**

* * *

 

Catwoman ducked into an alleyway. Despite everything, she would have to take her hat off to the Gotham City SWAT. They had been among some of the craftier people she had ever dealt with during her life. They hunted her through the city and would not give up no matter what she did. There were times where she slipped away, and then they caught her.

The encounters continued the same way every single night. It was getting harder to keep her head up and keep herself from going off.

' _It's really hard for a girl to make an honest night's work with them on my ass, and not in the good Christian sense either.'_

These thoughts of amusement passed through the mind of one Selina Kyle. She looked over her shoulder. The good news was, despite the fact they spent the better part of two hours playing this game of back and forth, Selina managed to get the better of them. The good news, wasn't really as good as she thought it was, though.

' _The bad news is the weather is going to make it hell for me to take the easy way home,'_ Selina thought. _'Alright, girl here goes nothing. Just got to woman up and get this done, for better or for worse.'_

The crafty woman prepared to make a jump. Her heart kicked up a couple of beats. She only had a few seconds to make the jump. Despite the wind and the freezing rain, Selina didn't have much room for error.

On the bright side, they didn't really have much room for error either. So, she crossed her fingers.

Selina made the jump and latched onto the side of the ladder. The rungs beneath her made it pretty difficult to get some kind of decent footing. The SWAT guards passed in the alleyway, waving those large clubs they carried. The thief spent a few seconds trying to keep herself calm until realizing something.

' _I think they're going to pass.'_

The SWAT guards spent a fair amount of time looking around. Time grinded by.

' _Just don't look up, and I'll be fine.'_

Selina held her breath, not daring to move. She started to get a small cramp in her leg, potentially because of the fact it had been banged up a bit earlier tonight.

"She can't have gotten too far, spread out and find her!" the leader of the SWAT team yelled. "Branden said she's third on the list….."

"You and I both know he didn't say anything, he couldn't have said anything, not unless he wanted to be screwed over," one of the SWAT team members said.

The leader of the SWAT threw his hands up in very comical manner and just scowled at them.

"Fine, he didn't say anything!" the leader of the pack yelled in an extremely tense voice. "But, if his hands weren't tied….he would have told us to get with it, and get the Cat…that's the most important thing. We get the Cat and Gotham City is going to be ours….."

"She's pissed off a lot of powerful people, you know," one of them said.

Selina only replied with a crisp, but devious grin. She hated to pat herself on the back. Okay, maybe she would pat herself on the back a little bit. A girl needed to do her best every now and then, otherwise, well she had to just smile.

' _They're making my head inflate, and not in a good way either,'_ Selina said. She arched back and waited for them to leave.

The men scrambled around. It was almost comical, if it wasn't so sad.

"We'll get her, she can't hide forever.'

Selina remained perfectly still and calm, despite the fact her lip started to twitch.

' _Want to bet anything?'_ Selina asked.

The moment the SWAT passed, Selina flipped down from her perch point and took the side entrance into the apartment. Not a moment too soon, as Gotham City prepared to be buried underneath at least three feet of snow as of the last forecast check.

' _Not really fit out there for man nor beast,'_ Selina thought.

Mia must not have been home, actually, she and Holly were doing some late night work at the club, something Selina entrusted the both of them to do. Given the state Selina found herself in, this was for the best, or so she assumed. The woman crept inside and walked forth with a smile on her face. The smile twisted into a wicked grin when walking into the living room. Finally, she had some time to relax, and get back into the thick of things.

' _What a night,'_ Selina said.

She sat down on the couch and barely had a chance to get out of her Catsuit, and into her natural state when a phone call came in. Selina wasted little time answering the phone.

"Hey, Alex," Selina said.

"Selina, just making sure you're alright," Alexandra Potter said. "You weren't picking up, so I wanted to make sure everything was okay."

Selina smiled, everything was fine, although she did appreciate Alex's concern. Had the situation been reversed, Selina would have felt the same way.

"Fine, perfect even," Selina said with an elegant purr. "Just got in in time….hopefully, things aren't as bad as it's going to be….otherwise the two girls will be stuck in the club….."

A lot of places shut down early today, come to think of it. Which played into Selina's game a little bit more. She perched back, legs folded.

"My night hasn't been as eventful as I thought it would be," Selina said. "The boys in the riot vests won't leave well enough alone. And our mutual snake friend, I haven't seen her in a while."

"Neither have we," Alex said. "I don't like it, it means she's laying lower."

Selina smiled, despite herself. It was just like a snake to want to lie low, to slither into the perfect position for an attack. Copperhead poised herself to strike and sink her fangs into anyone who got in her way.

"Do you think this will ever die down?" Selina asked. "I mean, after Christmas? Things are getting rougher."

Both obvious thought not, given the way the wind blew. Hope sprung eternal though.

"I don't know," Alex said. "We're relocating a few of the younger girls because things are getting rough. We're hoping it will calm down after the first of the year, and….well it's just a matter of waiting for certain parties to make their move."

Selina smiled. Sure this was the truth. She agreed with the relocation of some of the younger girls, and she thought about suggesting Mia and Holly head out of the line of fire. She figured though it would not go over well.

"Going to have to play it by ear, I guess," Selina said.

"That's the plan right now."

Selina stretched her leg out. The cramp faded away the more she relaxed. Tonight was a very long night.

* * *

 

' _Man, I hate this fucking neighborhood.'_

A man in his mid-forties stepped around the corner. A box clutched in his arms. Anyone who looked at him could tell this was a man right out of a Stranger Danger PSA. He looked to be the type of person who would wear a trench coat into a dark alleyway and lure children into his van with the promise of candy.

That being said, even this particular sleazy gentleman was a bit nervous when walking into Gotham City.

He looked over his shoulder. The man concealed a weapon up his sleeve when turning around the corner. The man's head thumped when moving around the corner. He raised a hand and started to knock on the door.

Three knocks had been delivered in succession. Footsteps shuffled as the man thought about his lot in life. Where he got to the position he was in, and more importantly why.

' _Come on, pick it up. I'm freezing my ass off, and I don't want to be out here for too long. Gotham City in the middle of the night, who thought this was a good idea.'_

Rodney Wilkes gave some of the best years of his life to the Gotham City Police Department, but a scandal caused him to be busted down the department with a cut in pay. He worked with Loeb and the jackass tossed him under the bus without any thought. Now, he supplemented his income by selling some shady tapes to anyone who was willing to purchase them.

Wilkes drummed his fingers on the side of the wall to wait for him. The door opened up and a pale man with greasy hair stuck to his forehead peered out. The man gave Wilkes the shivers. He was the type of man someone wouldn't give the time a day to, unless business.

"Finally," Wilkes said.

"Good evening, Officer Wilkes," the man in question said in the silkiest voice possible. "I trust you have the goods."

Wilkes held up his numb hands to show the man in question.

"Yes," Wilkes said, brandishing the box and opening up. The shady man took a look at it until Wilkes snapped it shut in response. "I have what you want, the question is, do you have what I want?"

The man in question walked over and picked up a drawstring blue bag. The bag overflowed with dirty money which was practically flowing out. The dirty man shoved his dirty money into the hands of Rodney Wilkes.

"Take a look at all of this," the dirty man said, tongue curling with a wicked grin etched on his face. "It's all there, every cent of it."

Wilkes knew this man to be about as stand up as a man of his caliber would be. He pulled open the bag and counted the money.

"And I have a little something for you if you can hook me up with the usual," Wilkes said.

Wilkes pulled out an envelope and handed it to the greasy man. This less than reputable individual took the envelope into his hands and started to sniff it. A wicked smile spread over his face when he ran a finger down across the envelope. He inhaled it, a dreamy look flashing through the man's eyes.

' _Yeah, guy has some issues.'_

"Mmm," the man whispered, tongue nearly curling in delight. "Clean money."

Wilkes almost threw himself to the ground at the thought of what this man would do with the money. There were some things though the cop thought himself to be better off not knowing. Regardless, he watched the man in question walk forward and drop a brown paper bag in the arms of the officer.

The slimy, greasy man, waved his hand to signal the end of this particular transaction. Wilkes, knowing not to press his luck, walked out of the alleyway and head back out into Gotham City.

' _This is the time of type where something is going to go down….maybe I'll feel better when I have a smoke,'_ Wilkes said.

Wilkes placed his bag of tapes on top of a closed trash can and moved to the alleyway to smoke a joke. The feeling of getting high put Rodney Wilkes in a more favorable mood, and he relaxed, turned even mellower, anticipating what might happen next.

A flash of light appeared and Rodney stepped back. He saw a figure approach, drawing a gun. The officer took a step back.

"What are you doing, man?" Rodney yelled. He fumbled for his gun.

The trigger person pulled the trigger and caught Rodney right in the chest. The bullet dropped the corrupt cop to the ground. Blood poured down the man when he hit the ground. His chest sized up from hitting the ground.

Two boots stepped over, grabbed the bag of tapes and put them on the ground next to Rodney Wilkes. Evidence pinned to the cop's chest.

The Gotham City Cop Killer struck one more time this evening, performing justice on another monster who had haunted the streets of Gotham City. And there were many more to come, as it would be time to fry some big fish.

* * *

 

The weather outside of the Gotham City paled in comparison to the storm which had been brewing through various factions of the Gotham City criminal underworld. One particular gentleman kicked up all kinds of hell when moving around the building.

"Well, what the hell do you want me to do?" Cobblepot asked. "If I kill the brat, there is going to be war, and the Walrus's goose is cooked for sure."

Oswald Cobblepot, known to the criminal underworld these days as the Penguin, drew in a deep breath. He had been in the midst of a conversation with Roman Sionis, better known as Black Mask. The two men's partnership had not been at it's strongest these days.

' _Guy's lost the plot,'_ Penguin thought. _'Don't know what happened, something made him snap. He was fine on Halloween.'_

To be perfectly honest, Cobblepot regretted it these days. He ignored the warning signs, but now Black Mask had lost it. Something inside the man snapped since their meeting on Halloween night.

"Well, you're in too far to back out now," Black Mask said.

Cobblepot clutched the handle of his umbrella, counting underneath his breath. He was in too far, and this was the bloody problem. Cobblepot could not, well he could not, he really could not. The bird's blood pressure hit a new and intense level.

"Yes, I know I'm in too far, and the Walrus had to pay the price!"

Cobblepot took a moment to take several deep breaths. Calm himself down, don't snap. The last thing he needed to do was snap and go out on a rampage which would end up with blood being spilled.

"There're times where you need to make these sacrifices," Black Mask said. "For the betterment of Gotham City. You want to be on top, well, scattering some pawns are really going to mix things up.

Cobblepot's outrage turned very thinly veiled. He breathed in and out, almost snarling.

"Look, I'm going to talk with the Roman, and we're going to hash this out….."

Black Mask cut off the Penguin with a very dry chuckle. He breathed in and counted to ten before allowing the man in question to say his peace.

"Don't you mean you're going to fold for the Roman," Black Mask said. "The battle lines are being drawn in Gotham City, there are changes coming. I thought you were a player, Oswald, but it seems to me you're just going to be swept up with the carnage."

The conversation went dead. The limo Cobblepot sat in the back of pulled up and the driver knocked on the back of it. The man knocked until Penguin's eyes moved in.

"Sir, we're here," the driver said, hanging his head down in a nervous fashion as if afraid what would happen if he disturbed his boss.

The longest most awkward pause happened. Penguin's tone grew rather cool, which was a nice change from the short-tempered rage he had been involved with as of late.

"So we are," Cobblepot said. "So we are."

Cobblepot took a moment to reflect how today turned around for the very worst. He remembered the promise he made to Vernon Dursley, trying to make sure Dudley got taken care of after something happened to him.

' _No fool is going to make a fool out of me.'_

One of his true friends, Cobblepot wanted to keep loyal to him. Cobblepot and several of his men marched into Maxie Zeus's former hotel. This would be neutral grounds, until after the first of the year.

Cobblepot stepped inside and came face to face with Sofia Falcone. This was a surprise.

"I assumed I was to meet with the Roman," Cobblepot said.

Sofia eyed Penguin as if she considered him garbage but other that momentary moment, she remained cordial and respectful, even though the man scarcely deserved it.

"My father asked a favor of me," Sofia said in a calm tone. "He seemed to think he would not be able to control his darker impulses had he met you on this day. And he did not send Mario or even Maroni for this meeting for similar reasons."

Cobblepot responded with a very salty nod. Those two particular individuals would be among the first people he would kill because they masterminded it. The Roman may have thought of it, but those two carried out.

' _Those men are dead.'_

He turned his attention towards the woman in question, it would be rude not to listen to what had to be said.

"Our terms are both simple, and fair," Sofia said. "And I suggest you give them the consideration they deserve."

Cobblepot heard the implied threat in the words. Sofia had two large bodyguards next to her, but the real threat had been the dangerous woman. She did not have the explosive temper Mario did, and she did not need to. Sofia had a mere presence which could and would destroy the willpower of any individual who had stood in front of her.

"Very well, I'm listening, please, go on," Cobblepot said.

"My father intends to propose a very simple trade," Sofia said. "The Walrus for Alberto."

Cobblepot clutched his hands together. He had been put in over a barrel and the Roman knew it. This entire kidnapping mess did not turn out.

"No tricks," Sofia said. "We let you live, let you walk, and we let you spend the holiday season in relative harmony, and you allow us to do the same."

The very veiled promise things would change after the holidays could be heard within her words. Cobblepot wouldn't have it any other way. Gotham City would be his, even if he had to pull it out of Carmine Falcone's decaying, rotting hands.

"Very well," Cobblepot said. "And when will this trade be happening?"

"The Gotham City docks, at Midnight," Sofia said. "Saturday night will be the night. I trust you will be there on time, and you will have Alberto."

"If you have my godson, I'll have your brat of a brother."

Sofia allowed these comments to go without any reprimand, mostly because she had referred to her brother under names which were far worse than anything Cobblepot could spew out of his mouth. The two of them locked eyes with each other.

"So, do we have a deal?" Sofia asked.

Cobblepot spent a moment thinking it over and extended a hand forward. Both of them shook hands with each other and smiled.

"I can't say it's been a pleasure doing business with you, but all the same, tell your old man he has a deal."

"Good," Sofia said with her usual smile. She'll be glad to hear it.

Now, it was time for the trade, the docks at midnight on Saturday Night.

* * *

 

The other night's patrol yielded no results for Harry Potter. He did not run into Copperhead. The Gotham City SWAT was someone he encountered yet again, and he was pretty sure it was the same three jackasses who first attacked a while back. And they continued their campaign, never once letting up.

' _Got to give them points for persistence,'_ Harry thought. _'Take some points away for them being a recurring pain in my arse.'_

' _Yeah, the SWAT's a big problem,'_ Faora thought. _'It's one Selina's been dealing with a lot as well, and I'm sure our winged rodent friend is dealing with him.'_

' _We're working on a way to deal this,'_ Harry thought. _'Of course, Black Mask upgraded his security so it's not going to be as easy to get in as we would like.'_

The people who were out on the front lines in Gotham City pretty much understood this more than anyone else.

' _He lost it when the bounty on Dent wasn't carried out,'_ Dinah thought. _'We both know what he's like when his plans haven't turned around for the better.'_

' _Word out on the street is he's lost his mind even more than he has before,'_ Barbara thought. _'It's like something really bad happened, and he couldn't handle the pressure.'_

Harry figured some kind of trauma happened to Black Mask. Then again, it wasn't a reason, more like an excuse, whenever criminals used these sob story backstories.

Right now, Harry did not suit up as Nightwing, but rather, he suited up as Harry Potter, and he had a very important meeting he needed to attend. Juno finished taping her last day of shows, and he would be meeting her for lunch. Then, the two of them would be picking up Lyta and Hippolyta, and making their way to Paradise for Eris's Ascension ceremony. There might also be a couple more guests joining them.

Harry made his way to the backstage area, after showing his pass. The stage hand responded with a courtesy nod and ushered him backstage.

"Doctor Potter, I have to say, you're back here so often, we may have get you, your own backstage pass," the stagehand said with a warm smile when she escorted Harry around backstage. "Ms. Jones will be wrapping up her last television taping of the year. She has the patience of a goddess to get through these marathon tapings."

Harry's lips cracked into a not so subtle little smile. If only they knew, if only they knew. He could only have begun to start cracking up into laughter. Instead, he kept his lips nice and tight with a little smile, which did not dare to creep off of his face.

As Juno told Harry, he helped himself to some grapes. He kicked back on the chairs and made himself at home in the dressing room.

Harry knew Juno would back here.

' _So another Ascension ceremony,'_ Diana thought, sounding rather amused about the prospect of it. _'I'm sure the island is going to be a buzz with this one.'_

' _Well, I'm certain it's going to be an exciting time for Eris,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm not sure how it's going to top Lyta's, but it's going to be grand in its own way.'_

' _Well, all Ascension ceremonies are special in their own way,'_ Diana thought. _'It's the Amazon version of graduating high school and moving up to college, only a bit more elaborate.'_

' _That's actually a pretty good way of putting it,'_ Donna thought. _'And speaking of which…'_

' _Yes, you and the twins are going to be heading up into college after this year,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm well aware of it.'_

It went without saying, Harry had something special lined up. He just wasn't spilling the beams just yet.

On cue, Juno stepped out of the room. She walked up towards Harry and greeted him with a smile. She walked over towards him and kissed Harry on the lips, before pulling back with a smile.

"So, are you excited for this as I am?" Juno asked. "I mean, nothing will top your own daughter, but still, there's always something about a young girl becoming a woman and reaching the next stage of her warrior training."

Harry smiled. He was fully aware about how special Ascension day was.

"Most certainly is something," Harry said with a chuckle. Juno swept closer towards Harry and stole yet another kiss from him. "So, are you ready for your date?"

"Yes," Juno said. "Always with you."

Juno latched onto Harry's arm, and the two of them made their way out of the side entrance of the studio. The least people would see them this way. While it wasn't as if Juno minded necessarily she would be seen with Harry, it was just, she would rather avoid as much trouble as she could when leaving the studios.

"Eris doesn't have the unique challenges, Lyta did," Juno said. "But, I think we can both agree she has something to prove."

Harry noticed about as much from the young Amazon. Given her heritage, there was most certainly a whole lot to prove.

"Yes," Harry said with a smile.

Both of them walked out into the alleyway and made their way further into Gotham City. Something to prove normally ended in some rather interesting ways, if Harry had to say so himself.

"It's still quiet on the Aresia front, isn't it?" Juno asked.

Harry knew she knew, being a goddess in all, but she wanted the conversation anyway and Harry would happily give her the information she wanted.

"Very quiet," Harry said, frowning in a deep manner. "And I suspect Ares is using pretty much every trick at his disposal to keep her hidden."

Juno nodded with a frown. She worried for Aresia and held onto hope there was something good still in her. War could taint even the most wicked of souls, as necessary as it ended up being.

Harry smiled, preparing for another trip to the island. He would be gone less than a day in real life, and Gotham City would be in good hands for that less than a day he was gone. He left before and the city didn't fall apart, for far greater periods of time.

* * *

 

The White Ghost kneeled before the altar in his room and started to mutter something underneath his breath. The day drew closer, the day where he would bring his father back from the edge. The Winter Solstice stepped around the corner and he needed to be ready.

' _Soon, you will be risen again, soon they will all remember the power of Ra's Al Ghul.'_

A knock on the door caused the White Ghost to turn around. He could have sworn instructions had been left not to be disturbed under any means. Perhaps, though, he had not made his point clear enough. Regardless, the man rose to a standing position and turned around.

One of the guards entered the room, and an eyebrow had been raised by the White Ghost. This particular guard kneeled on the ground before him. The White Ghost surveyed the man.

"Rise to your feet," the White Ghost said. "Stand before me, and face front."

The guard did as he had been told. The White Ghost's narrowed eyes fixated on the guard's face.

"Report."

The guard bowed his head and looked into the eyes of his master.

"There's someone to see you," the guard said. "He thinks you're very interested in seeing him, and the two of you can work together to restore the Demon to his proper position of power."

The White Ghost hummed and placed a hand underneath his chin. He was equal parts intrigued and also a tiny bit suspicious. Regardless, he decided to go with it and see where this one was heading.

"Very, well, let him inside," the White Ghost said.

The guard turned around and walked to open the door. The large and imposing form of Ubu stepped into the room. The White Ghost stood up and smiled. The warrior liked this particular gentleman to a dog who was loyal to his master, and loyal to no one else at all. The White Ghost locked eyes onto Ubu and waited for him to approach him.

The White Ghost wasn't going to lie, he was very intrigued with how this one was going to go.

"Hello, Ubu," White Ghost said.

"I've heard you intend to bring the master back to life," Ubu said.

The White Ghost broke into a smile. He appreciated Ubu wasted little time getting to the crux of the matter. It spoke well of the man's focus and also his loyalty for the true face of the League of Assassins.

"Yes, it's my intention," The White Ghost said. "I trust your mistresses know you're here?"

Ubu's face contorted into the most obvious scowl possible.

"I serve no one other than the great one, I serve none other than Ra's al Ghul," Ubu said. "The Daughters of the Demon have other designs on the League…"

"Do not tell me, for you still have your part to play in their camp," Dusan said. He placed a hand on the shoulder of the larger man.

For the past year, plus, Ubu had been rather lost due to the fact his master left. The Daughters of the Demon proved to be the most stable leadership so far. Now, though, Ubu found himself less convinced about their capabilities, especially when they have chosen to align themselves with the Dragon. The Dragon who had been prophesized to be the one to take down the Demon and take the League of Assassins for his own benefit.

Ubu and his clan heard of the prophecy for centuries, and they feared the Dragon who wore human flesh coming for the leadership of the League. To see him in the flesh, made Ubu tense up.

"My father has treated your clan well, has he not?" Dusan asked.

"Very well, yes," Ubu said.

The White Ghost smiled. The man played into his hands quite nicely.

"Which can assure loyalty," The White Ghost said without missing a beat. Ubu bowed his head downward and stared the White Ghost in the eyes.

The White Ghost turned over and looked up at the altar. A crisp smile spread over the man's face. Calculating and cunning, the White Ghost knew all about getting the most out of his life and getting the most out of his followers.

"I know at the end, you'll do what is needed to be done," The White Ghost said. "You're loyal beyond everyone else, are you not, Ubu?"

"Yes," Ubu said in a low and grumbling voice.

The White Ghost responded with a smile in response. Having such a loyal soldier in his camp when the Winter Solstice approached bode rather well for his plans, especially on this night. The White Ghost could hardly wait for it to come together.

If he loved nothing better, it was how a plan came together.

' _Soon, it approaches, the beginning of the resurrection of the League, and I will prove why I should have been the one true heir of the Demon.'_

* * *

 

The Gotham City docks at Midnight on a Saturday night ended up being quite barren indeed. It would be the perfect venue for a swap of hostages. Everything would finally go on without a hitch, at least that's what everyone hoped.

At five till midnight, a limo pulled up next to the docks. Two bulky looking gentlemen exited the limo and looked around. They looked up and they looked down and surveyed the entire sight around them.

"So, anything?" Cobblepot asked.

"Nothing at all," one of the gentlemen said. "Looks like this isn't an ambush.

Cobblepot's lips curled into a devious little frown. It would remain to be seen whether or not they could trust the Roman as far as they could throw him. He leaned into the backseat of the limo, coming face to face with Alberto Falcone. Alberto's contempt for the man had not lessened over the past couple of weeks. If nothing else, the contempt increased.

"Just think about this, boy," Cobblepot said. "Your father plays ball, and you may have a chance to tell your grandchildren about this…if you find a woman who is desperate enough to have you."

Cobblepot squawked at his own bad joke. Alberto's contempt grew even more when staring down at the Penguin.

"You think you're being funny, don't you?" Alberto asked. "You're a big man with my hands tied….let's see how big you are when you face me straight up….."

"Boy, I'll be on the level with you," Cobblepot said. "I don't think your balls have dropped enough to do anything to me."

Cobblepot responded with a condescending pat on Alberto's head and then snapped his fingers. The two goons hoisted Alberto up out of the limo and started to escort him forward.

"Start walking," Cobblepot said with a slight snarl in his tone. "And keep walking, if you cause any trouble….well you don't want to know what happens when you start causing trouble."

Alberto thought he should have given him some respect. He was the son of one of the most powerful men in Gotham City. Alberto could make him disappear if he really wanted to.

A limo pulled up, and Carmine Falcone stepped out. Sofia joined them, looking not too pleased to have to be present at this exchange. Three of Falcones goons walked next to them. Maroni sat inside the limo and gave an angry glare towards them.

"I can't believe you're doing this, Carmine," Maroni said.

The two men went eye to eye with each other. Chilliness didn't even begin to describe what happened when their eyes locked together.

"You've caused more than enough difficulties," The Roman said in a very ice cold tone. Carmine Falcone's gaze locked onto Cobblepots. "You have my son."

"Do you have Dudley?" Cobblepot asked.

The goons dragged the larger Dudley out. It took more of them to carry the larger Dudley than it did for Cobblepot's goons to carry Alberto.

"The minute I get out of these ropes, you're going to be dead," Dudley said.

"You make one wrong move, I'm going to gut you like a hog," Sofia said in her most dangerous tone of voice.

Even Dudley Dursley gifted with the limited sense he acquired, knew better than to shut up at these words.

"You should have never started this war, Cobblepot," Falcone said. "If I understand correctly, Black Mask was the one who put you up to this."

Cobblepot shifted, and wanted nothing better than to stab Falcone. He saw Sofia Falcone with a gun trained on Dudley and knew the bitch was crazy enough to try something if Cobblepot harmed her old man.

"And if he did," Cobblepot said. He drew in a deep breath. "Look, a deal's a deal, let's just end this tonight. Give me Dudley, I'll give you your brat, and we both walk away, have a Merry Christmas, or whatever. And after the first of the year….we'll settle this like men and leave the boys out of this."

"Agreed," Falcone said.

The two gentlemen stood across from each other. It would be difficult to see which face showed more contempt right about now. The Roman's eyes locked onto Cobblepot's eyes.

"Get out of my sight," Cobblepot said, shoving Alberto in.

"Sofia, release him," Carmine said.

Sofia let Dudley go, unable to believe her father let go such a valuable piece of the puzzle for her brother of all things. Her father's actions illustrated why Sofia would not understand the family business, no matter how many times he would explain it.

"Now, we…"

The sounds of gunshots started to rain down. No one knew who fired the first shot. The Roman's men started to shoot it out with the Penguin's men.

"Bloody hell, you wanker!" Cobblepot yelled. "I thought...SON OF A BITCH!"

Falcone should have known not to trust someone as sleazy as Oswald Cobblepot. The two sides continued to shoot each other.

"Get in the limo!" Sofia yelled, practically ripping open the door and hurling Alberto into the backseat of the limo.

Cobblepot watched in horror when Dudley dropped to the ground. Blood poured from his mouth.

"NO!" Cobblepot yelled. "FALCONE, I'LL KILL YOU, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

"Boss, it's the cops," one of his thugs said in a nervous tone.

"I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE BLOODY COPS!" Cobblepot yelled. "FALCONE, FALCONE, FALCONE, YOU TRAITOR, I'LL FUCKING GUT YOU!"

The thugs of the Penguin lifted up Dudley and through his barely breathing body into the backseat of a limo.

"Falcone's gone boss, he ran, we can't do anything about it, sir," one of the goons said. "Just get into the backseat of the limo, it's going to be….please, we need to go."

The moment Falcone was in the back of the limo, he looked at Maroni. Maroni threw his hands up.

"Don't look at me, I didn't have nothing to do with this," Maroni said.

* * *

 

A gentleman stepped back from a rooftop far away from the docks. He turned his head.

"You were supposed to aim for the Roman," Black Mask said. "But the Penguin's second in command would do just fine…..and now both sides thought the other fired the first shot."

Gotham City would be his. Blood would overflow the streets, the blood of his enemies. Black Mask's cackling grew even more prominent and he took a deep breath.

"I'll enjoy watching Gotham burn."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on September 17** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well what intended to be a nice little hostage exchange ended up turning south thanks to "Black Mask"._

_On a brighter note, Harry's making one of his trips to Paradise, and that always should be fun._

_Until Saturday._


	226. At Long Last

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Six: At Long Last:**

* * *

 

Helena Sandsmark barely had a chance to contain her excitement. It would finally happen, at long last, she would get a chance to see the home of the Amazons. She tried to remain a professional and composed woman who would not lose her mind due to the fact she arrived at a place she looked forward to seeing for quite some time.

Okay, she had become a little bit excited, just a tiny bit. Who could blame her, though? Given the company she found herself being a part of, Helena tingled in some thinly veiled excitement. Her head turned around, trying to get a look at anything.

The true beauty and wonder of the home of the Amazons could not be described by mere words. Images even didn't do the home any justice. You had to really be there to experience the entire sensory feeling of the island which the Amazons lived at.

"Keep in mind, we're just heading through the gate," Diana said.

Harry almost could smile. The island most certainly had a captivating feeling for anyone who were fortunate enough to step foot on it.

"Yeah, the really exciting part is to come," Harry said with a smile, turning her around and kissing her on the lips to return Helena back to life.

Helena blinked for a second and recovered from her initial excitement. She had been abuzz about what was going on and no one could dare blame her to be honest.

"Sorry," Helena said.

"Oh, no reason to be sorry," Diana said. "You should appreciate the wonders and the beauty of the world, and of our island paradise."

Helena smiled, the initial embarrassment having faded away from here.

"An Ascension ceremony," Helena said in a breathless tone of voice. "Diana told me about it….but I never thought I would….have a chance to see one up close and personal."

Hippolyta smiled at the passion exhibited by this particular young woman. She considered it worthy of being an Amazon. And to be honest, some of them could learn something from Helena.

"I'm certain all of your questions and then more will be answered when you have a chance to attend today's Ascension ceremony," Hippolyta said. "Just take a deep breath and soak it all in, Doctor Sandsmark."

Helena did as Hippolyta asked her, taking this deep breath and soaking in the atmosphere around here. She most certainly thought today's events would be among the most interesting in her life and given what she saw throughout her life it would be saying something.

"So, how is Cassandra doing?" Hippolyta asked.

Helena found herself glad the Queen brought up this particular point because she had something which she needed to discuss with the Queen of the Amazons regarding Cassie.

"Last week, Cassie jumped onto the roof to get her kite which had flown up there," Hippolyta said. "So, do you think…"

The question trailed off. Both the Queen and the Princess of the Amazons cracked into a smile and understand where Helena was going this one. Some of the incidents Cassie experienced had been getting further and further together.

"She's coming into her powers?" Diana asked.

Helena responded with a nod. They had a discussion regarding Cassie some time ago and knew it was only inevitable she would come into her powers.

"It may be prudent before too long to have her brought to this island, so we can see how she can progress with her abilities," Hippolyta said. "But, naturally, the final choice is up to you, it's your right as her mother."

Helena smiled and was under complete agreement with the Queen of the Amazons of this particular aspect. She hoped her daughter's abilities could be tested and brought forward.

Juno smiled when joining the group with Harry, Helena, Diana, and Hippolyta. She always looked forward to seeing another young girl come into her powers. The fact she had a very strong personal attachment to this one did speak volumes.

The moment they crossed the gates and arrived on the island proper, Helena scanned around, eyes widened, unable to believe half of what could be seen on this majestic island paradise. The majestic structure on the island caused her mouth to hang open as if she could hardly believe some of what she saw.

"It can be a lot to take it with new visitors," Hippolyta said. "If you would like, I would give you a tour later."

Helena pulled herself away from some of the architecture and smiled at the Queen of the Amazons.

"I would like it a lot if you did," Helena said.

Helena's eyes fell upon a statue of Harry Potter. She took a look at Harry and took a look at the statue. Harry smiled and responded with one of those little shrugs which endeared him a little bit more to Helena.

"Well, they have paid tribute to you," Helena said. "I can't say it's undeserved."

Diana, Hippolyta, and Juno all smiled, and they would have to agree.

"I've made my mark on this island, what can I say?" Harry asked. "The Amazons have spent a lot of time making it known how they worship me."

"Oh, I'm certain they've demonstrated it," Helena said. "And not a bad statue."

Lyta stepped into prominence, she had not contributed much to the conversation. The eyes of the youngest Princess looked over the statue. A frown tugged on the corner of her lips before a shake of the head indicated she didn't approve.

"The nose is still a little bit off center," Lyta said.

"Lyta!" Diana piped up. "The Amazons had worked hard on it…"

Juno stepped in front of Diana and tutted when looking at the statue.

"She has a point," Juno said. "The nose is a little bit off center."

Diana's face curled into a frown and Lyta smiled at Diana, at least until Diana gave Lyta one of those glares which caused the younger Amazon Princess to fall back into line.

Hippolyta turned her attention towards her two children and raised an eyebrow as if to say they should cool it. Both of them did, not wanting to incur the wrath of their mother, which would be a pretty bad thing to incur if they had upset her.

"It's very nice regardless," Hippolyta said, a smile crossing her face. She managed to look forward.

Lyta turned her attention away from the statue with the off-putting nose to the edge, where the younger Amazons were undergoing their lessons. She smiled and waited for Eris to join the party.

' _Knowing Artemis, she is not going to let up, even for a second,'_ Lyta said. _'Good, that's…..well it's good for Eris. She'll get a pretty solid foundation of values and training from Artemis, always.'_

At this moment, said lesson did, in fact, let up and one Eris stepped into the picture, trying to put herself above and beyond the rest of the pack. Her face brightened a little bit when she noticed Lyta standing there.

"Lyta, you made it!" Eris yelled, rushing over towards Lyta.

She wrapped Lyta up in a hug and smiled. Lyta situated herself where she could return the hug without being crushed.

"Of course, I made it," Lyta said without missing a beat. "You wouldn't think I would miss your Ascension ceremony for anything in the world, would you?"

Eris thought for a moment, well it did not really matter right now. The butterflies decided to attack her in full force and their large wings patted the edge of her stomach, to the point where she wanted to throw up.

The young demi-goddess refused to do anything other than look up with confidence. Today was her day, the day of her Ascension ceremony. She needed to hit a great stride and anything was possible, to be honest.

"So, are you ready?" Juno asked.

Those particular words would echo in her mind. Eris responded with a nod. She was ready, ready to go out there and prove what she had to offer out there.

"Yes," Eris said.

Harry smiled, she really did have the dedication to prove herself. Hopefully, it would work out the best for the budding Amazon.

' _Well, but things will be interesting.'_

* * *

 

Hippolyta stepped into the center of the ring to much fanfare and general applause. The Queen of the Amazons looked at her subjects with a smile and waved her hand. The applause took several moments to die down.

' _And you thought political speeches in man's world had obsessive applause,'_ Donna contributed.

"Thank you, it's excellent to return to this island," Hippolyta said. "However, you should hold the applause for the one person who it matters the most for…..the lady of the hour."

Lyta smiled and saw her friend walk off to the side. Nervousness went through the girl. Lyta wanted to ensure Eris was able to get into this battle without any trepidation.

"You can do it, Eris!" Lyta yelled, which got a bit of laughter from some of the people closest to her.

Eris stretched herself out, firing some imaginary punches and kicks at the air. She could do this, she could really succeed. The butterflies might be hitting in great succession, to the point where the wings grew to an excessive degree, but Eris could most certainly do it. She had pretty much what she wanted. She was here, Eris knew what was at state, she knew what was on the line. Eris could do this, she would not get knocked down. Every time she got knocked down, she would just drag herself back to her feet. She could do this.

' _Okay, no sweat, it's been done before, you can do this,'_ she thought.

"Every single time one of these young Amazons have their Ascension ceremony, it is a testament to how far they have come," Hippolyta said. "Every single warrior on this island has grown into an amazing young woman in their own ways. And I know for a fact this particular young woman will be the same way. Eris, do you think you could step in the center of the ring?"

Eris took a second to clear her thoughts. Here it came, the moment of truth. The young Amazon took a half of a step forward and tried not to allow her knee to buckle out from underneath her.

While the Ascension Ceremony only paled a shade or two beneath Lyta's, there was no less pressure on Eris. Nothing compared to the pressure she had put on herself to do this. Somewhere, Eris sensed the presence of her father and knew he would be watching.

The bastard never gave her the time of day, and the limited interactions they had, made Eris less than pleased about her connection to the man. The blood pumped and Eris knew it was now do or die time for her. She would either get in and do this, or she would fall. And Eris's own spirit proved to be difficult to squash. She would not run into this particular battle to lose, not if she could help it. The Amazon stood up and faced the Queen without any fear.

"Eris, have you chosen who you were going to fight?" Hippolyta asked.

Lyta had prepared for battle, thinking Eris would challenge her for a fight for her Ascension ceremony. The young Amazon almost rose to her feet.

Not that she would take it easier, but they knew each other pretty well.

"Artemis."

The announcement caused a look of surprise to spread over Lyta's face and she was not the only one who experienced this surprised look. Several of the other Amazons looked around at her and frowned. They wondered what the young warrior had gotten themselves into.

Diana raised an eyebrow and turned to Harry, who had no visible reaction.

' _Artemis?'_ Diana asked. _'She's reaching pretty high, isn't she?'_

' _Very high,'_ Harry thought, leaning back on the bench. He wondered about Eris's intentions in making this challenge.

They would have to wait and see what the Amazon had in mind for her battle strategy.

Artemis stepped forward, this would not be the first time a young Amazon challenged her for their Ascension ceremony and she doubted very much it would be the last. She asked the one question which always burned on the tip of her tongue every time a young Amazon challenged her.

"Are you certain?"

Eris responded with a brisk nod and got into a battle stance. The fire burning through her eyes indicated there was something to prove.

"The challenge has been sent down," Hippolyta said. "Let the next phase of Eris's Ascension ceremony begin."

Eris took a second to breathe in, wondering what she could have been thinking. She closed her eyes and had something to prove, both to herself and the other Amazons around her. The trainee Amazon rushed forward and tried for the first attack.

True to form, Artemis caught her by the arm and brought her down to her knees. Artemis had her in a very compromising position where she could have broken the arm had she chosen to do so. The younger Amazon tried to roll out, agonizing at the fact Artemis could have taken her out with one vicious hold.

The older Amazon released the young from her grip. Eris stretched out her shoulder, feeling the pain and burn it. She tried another strategy and fired a kick towards Artemis. Artemis ducked the kick and Eris fired some more.

Eris claimed her sword when the hand to hand strategy was not working. She stabbed the weapon forward where it met a shield. The Amazon pushed back and Eris took a deep breath.

"Come on!" Eris yelled.

Artemis swung her sword in and Eris blocked the attack. Sweat rolled down the face of the young Amazon when she twisted around and clung the sword against Artemis. The two pushed back against each other. The swords flung a shower of sparks into the air as both women tried to gain a vertical base.

Eris tried to dig her ankle into Artemis's to trip her up. Artemis stepped back and swept Eris down to the ground.

Artemis brought the point of the sword down. Eris swung the sword out to block it. The two struggled with their blades hitting each other.

Eris slid down onto the ground and almost hit the wall from Artemis attacking her. Artemis boxed her into the corner and Eris tried to fight out, doing her best impression of a caged animal when attempting to struggle out. The Amazon's breathing increased.

' _No, I can do this, I have her, I can do this.'_

Eris slid out until Artemis grabbed her around the waist and threw her down to the ground. The girl of the hour popped up to avoid another swing from the sword.

Artemis smiled, pride at how far her pupil had gone having shined through. She moved in and nailed Eris with a vicious swing with the sword. The swords clung together and both of them went toe to toe with each other.

The Amazons followed the progress of the battle with intense swords swinging together. They smacked together with a solid set of clangs, neither side backing up from their efforts.

Eris pushed herself to limits which had not been seen at any time in the past. Their swords clung together and for a brief moment, she thought she had it. She found a way to break through Artemis's attacks and bring the woman down to her knees, finally humbling her without a doubt.

This fleeting moment vanished when Artemis disarmed Eris of her sword and brought her down to her knees. Eris staggered back and Artemis took Eris down to the ground with one fell swoop. The point of the sword had been placed inches away from Eris's throat.

Eris struggled, the realization hitting her that in a real fight, she would have been dead. She would have been so dead. The blood started to rush to her head and Artemis stood on top of her, burying one foot into the chest of Eris. She continued to struggle and kick her legs.

"Do you yield?" Artemis asked.

The young Amazon's hope extinguished from her body. She thought for certain this would be a battle she could win. After all of the hard training, it ended just like this.

' _No, it can't, it won't…..'_

Eris flopped around underneath Artemis, stuck at the business end of the woman's sword.

"Do you yield?" Artemis asked.

Eris deflated and responded with a nod. It was a valiant effort, but Artemis showed why she was one of the most feared Amazon warriors on the island.

"Artemis has won another Ascension ceremony duel!" Hippolyta yelled. "Everyone give a round of applause to Eris for her valiant attempts."

Eris responded with a scowl. She did not deserve the applause. A look from Juno caused her to remove the scowl from her face.

Diana found herself worried regarding this particular turn of events. History, as Diana learned through her studies, had a nasty attempt in repeating itself.

' _Aresia made the same challenge, with the same result,'_ Diana thought.

' _Diana, I'm pretty sure it won't happen again,'_ Harry thought.

Diana rose up to her feet to give some gracious words to the loser.

"Do not feel disheartened, Eris," Diana said. "Even after all of these time, I still can't beat Artemis in battle."

Eris wished she could feel better because of the words of the Princess. Still, she gave a respected nod. Win, lose, or draw, Eris earned her armor as an Amazon warrior.

* * *

 

The mood aboard the Interceptor took a turn for the very somber very quickly. Carol decided to take one for the team, in many respects by putting herself in between Sinestra and Ilana. Both of them looked fit to kill for different reasons.

The encounter on the space rock had caused all of them to be on edge if Carol would be honest. They fought against the man who had brought the Red Lanterns together and had led so many deaths. The term close shave had never been more obvious.

Yet, there was something about his story which made Carol believe he thought there was some logic to his actions, even though this logic had been pretty demented and backward.

She looked towards Sinestra, who after her initial outrage, had not said a single word to anyone on the crew. Come to think about it, Ilana had not said a word either.

Carol and Katma met each other's eyes. They both agreed, there was something really wrong with what happened. Something was very off about Sinestra and her attitude as of late.

"So, what do you think?" Katma asked Carol, trying to ignore the two people in the room who resembled two bombs about ready to explode.

Sinestra's eyes snapped out of the funk. The woman's eyes glared towards Katma. Katma saw a look like this before from Sinestra, but it had never been as prominent with the rage.

"What do we think about what?" Sinestra asked.

Her tone had been rather calm, which gave Katma some degree of hope this could all be resolved without too many problems. Something about this entire mess though caused her nerves to be filled with an obscene amount of pain.

"Well, about the story Atrocitus shared with us," Carol said.

Sinestra didn't answer, but someone else was willing to share her two cents about what they learned today.

"Atrocitus is a compulsive liar, he'll do anything to trick his enemies into doing what he wants," Ilana said.

Sinestra responded with a nod. She found herself agreeing with the Red Lantern a little bit more, not she would admit it out loud at this point. Had it not been for her, this entire mess would be resolved, and they would be on their way back to Oa.

"The truth is somewhere in the middle," Sinestra said in a calm voice. "Naturally, Atrocitus is not going to paint himself in a negative light and there's always going to be a scapegoat in situations like this, but…"

Sinestra looked out into the vastness of space, the space which the Green Lantern Corps had sworn to protect. Sometimes they had been requested to do things without the Guardians giving any kind of directive whatsoever or rather any kind of reasoning.

They accepted it because it was what soldiers did. They did what their commanding officers asked, without rhyme or reason. Sinestra almost felt disgusted with the fact she didn't question the Guardians more often.

' _And to think, I was doing what they asked, without questioning it,'_ Sinestra thought.

"The Guardians have a lot to answer for when we get back," Sinestra said. "And I intend to get those answers, one way or another."

Carol had been taken aback by the intensity of Sinestra and her words. Frightening could be a pretty good descriptor of how she acted at this present time.

"I'm certain you do," Carol said.

A blipping flash appeared on the screen which prompted Carol to sit up straighter and pay a bit more attention to the screen.

"What's happening now, Aya?" Carol asked.

A pause followed, but not a long one before Aya found out what they were dealing with.

"There are ships following us," Aya said. "I thought they were just traveling on the same pathway as us, but they've been taking our unique course for the past ten minutes."

Sinestra could have punched a hole through the ship because of the rage she felt. This entire mess had gotten better and better, and she had no idea how bad this would get until the end. The only thing she could be certain of was it was going to get some bad, it was going to be pretty awful.

"Never assume something like this, Interceptor," Sinestra said, mouth curling up in a frustrated way.

"Can we dodge them?" Carol asked.

"Yes, but I suggest you buckle up," Aya said. "It's going to be a bumpy ride."

"Do what you have to do to get us clear," Sinestra said. "Interceptor, I have to tell you there is no room for errors of judgment."

"Then, buckle up."

The engines engaged and Aya proved to be true to form. Carol had been on some wild rides before, and this looked to be among the wildest.

' _Just another day, really,'_ Carl thought.

* * *

 

Juno, well now Hera, technically, took a step out and waited for her guest to join her. Tonight would be a rather good weekend. She dressed in a silk toga made of some of the most elegant material. It showed off her legs and her cleavage, but in a way where it would not be outlandish.

Today would be something she longed for a long time. Hera smiled and waited for her guest to approach around the corner.

Harry stepped around the corner. Hera beckoned towards him with a smile and reached in. She pulled Harry into a kiss and pressed their bodies together.

The two of them parted ways, with Hera wrapping her arm around Harry. Harry smirked when feeling where her hand strayed behind him and where it cupped.

"Today's Ascension ceremony has been fairly eye-opening, wouldn't you agree?" Hera asked.

"Yes," Harry said. "Eris challenged Artemis and well….."

Hera smiled and pulled back to Harry. Her head rested on Harry's shoulder and she guided him away.

"It goes about as well as it does for anyone else who has challenged Artemis," Hera said, escorting Harry up the steps to the nice little home she made for herself on the island when she needed to get away from it all on Olympus, or on the mainland.

Harry smiled. By her own admission, even Diana struggled to defeat her. Hippolyta was the only one to be able to take down Artemis, and it was a very even fight there. So, too close to call, if you thought about it.

"Do you think she'll get over it?" Harry asked.

Hera smiled. She had more faith Eris's ability to overcome things than most.

"Yes, she'll survive, and learn not to overextend herself," Hera said. "I encouraged her to challenge Lyta, not your daughter would be an easy fight, but it would be a more manageable one given the experience levels."

Hera's sigh grew prominent before she said her piece.

"You can lead a horse to water," Hera said. "But, you can't make them drink."

If there was ever a more truthful statement which ever been spoken, Harry never heard it.

' _Isn't that the truth?'_ Donna asked.

Several other girls chimed in with their own tones of agreement over the bond.

"Yes," Harry said. "I feel the same way about the situation in Gotham City."

Hera smiled, giving him a sympathetic squeeze of the hand.

"Well, I'm certain you feel pretty happy about being away from it for a while," Hera said.

Harry responded with a smile. Being away from Gotham City for a while was one of the best feelings, and it made him appreciate the city even more. Despite the excitement Gotham could bring, Harry thought there were times where it became a little too much.

"They call New York the city that never sleeps," Harry said. "Gotham is fitting of this moniker as well."

Then again, Gotham did sleep, the people did, the average citizens who were trying to make it through in life. The criminals in the city, they didn't rest for a moment.

Hera smiled. Given how she spent a great deal of her time in the mortal world as a part of Gotham City, she would have to agree with the fact Gotham sounded like the city which never slept. She reached in and placed a hand on Harry's shoulder.

"I'm certain things will improve soon," Hera said. "And you're making all of the right moves to improve Gotham City."

Hera smiled and placed a hand on Harry's face. The door opened and she guided him inside while stroking his handsome face.

"But, to talk about your plans about Gotham is not the reason why we're here," Hera said. "There are other reasons why we're here as you might have guessed."

Hera's lips curled into a knowing smile and Harry raised an eyebrow. Hera guided Harry towards the general direction of the bedroom.

"And I think we can agree this has been a long time coming," Hera said.

"So, I've finally passed all of your standards?" Harry asked.

Hera took a moment to flash one of those cheeky little smiles at Harry. She slowly made him go into the room and undid his shirt. She marveled at the sculpted nature of his muscles. His body was so hot she could fry butter on it.

"I have to admit, I may have milked this a little bit too much for any of our own goods," Hera said. "I intended to make the move during Lyta's ceremony, but I didn't want to ruin her big moment or cut in on her alone time with her father.

"Very generous of you," Harry said.

"Oh, I think you know how generous I can be, especially to those who have proven themselves to earn my generosity."

Hera stripped Harry's pants off and revealed his boxer shorts. She smiled when squeezing him.

"I told you, after all of this time, I deserved a hot young stud who would do everything to me I ever wanted," Hera said. "And you pass all of those marks, and after all of the courting is done, it's time to get to the main event."

Hera's fingers swirled down on Harry's abs and briefly teased Harry's boxer shorts. She teased pulling them down, but not yet. She could feel him grow.

"I want you more than life itself….."

Harry pulled Hera onto his lap and responded with a sizzling kiss. Hera gasped when feeling Harry's tongue intrude her mouth, and had been indulged with his powerful tongue. Their tongues swirled together, with Harry pushing further into her mouth.

Hera gasped the second Harry delved deep into her mouth, really taking her. His hands found their way all over every inch of her body. Hera ground up against him to encourage this behavior to continue and Harry escalated his actions.

"Christmas has come early," Harry said, pulling her toga down. "And I'm going to unwrap my present."

"I'm not going to stop you."

The nipples of the goddess poked out from behind this toga, and Harry experienced the wonderful heat to go along with her. More of her body had been revealed when Harry guided her back down onto the bed.

' _Finally,'_ Diana and Hippolyta chorused in unison.

Hera's breath filled her body when Harry stripped off her clothes and started to kiss down her body. Each and every kiss spread sexual fire through Hera's body. The Queen of Goddess's pent up frustration released between her legs.

Harry marveled at the softness of her skin, the perkiness of her breasts. They were what she wanted them to be. Harry kissed all the way down the beauty's body, making his tour between her.

"I need you!" Hera yelled. "Badly, I can't handle this anymore, I need you, so bad, I'm going to start gushing if I don't have you….."

Harry pushed his finger between Hera's folds and teased them. His finger pushed inside her to feel the tightness around them. He pumped Hera's pussy for a few minutes with her fingers.

"I bet it's divine."

Hera gasped the second Harry dove down between her legs. His tongue swirled around her hot thighs and licked. He worked her slow and steadily towards the edge of an orgasm.

Harry drove himself between Hera's smoldering hot thighs. The goddess pumped up the delightful heat and Harry could not wait to suckle up all of her honey. He lapped up the juices to bring the love goddess to another orgasm. Harry pushed further between Hera's legs and continued to lick her folds, tasting the sweet juices from her.

"More!" Hera yelled. "Show me why they love your tongue, Har-Zod."

Harry's tongue showcased how adept it was with a vibrating motion through Hera's pussy. The goddess of love rocked her hips up and Harry pushed between them. He lapped up the juices and went all the way down between her legs.

"Yes, more," Hera said. She dug those nails into the back of Harry's heads. "I'm going to cum."

Harry continued to shift his tongue and extended it a little bit inside Hera. The goddess's hips bucked up. The multiple orgasms caused Harry to be able to taste her to the fullest. He lapped up the juices to bring up Hera for another orgasm.

Hera smiled when watching her rise up with nectar splashed over his face. She pulled Harry into a tender embrace and pressed his muscular chest against her breasts. Hera's hands started to caress Harry's body, feeling each inch of it.

"Mmm, I've been waiting a long time for this," Hera said, in between nibbles on the side of Harry's ear.

Harry thought he would have to agree. The feeling of Hera's sultry form against him made his cock throb in anticipation. He would have liked nothing better than to want to slip inside her.

Hera continued to run her hands over the muscles of Harry's back, tracing patterns on it. She could feel the hard cock knocking at her entrance, preparing for penetration.

"Give me the thrill of my life, stud," Hera said, spreading her legs for Harry. Harry lifted up on her and aimed his cock into her. The tip of the head touched those lips which tried to suck him in.

"You feel like you're trying to suck me inside," Harry said.

Hera smiled and pulled Harry down into another kiss. The point of his cock stuck inside her and pushed inside. The firmness and wetness of the goddess's pussy clenched around Harry and showed him how much pleasure she can give him. Harry closed his eyes to savor the moment and push all the way down into her. His hips slid all the way down and hit Hera's.

The goddess of love cooed in Harry's ear and enjoyed the feeling of his body going into her. She wrapped her legs around him to make sure to keep this mighty rod close to her dripping hot pussy.

"More," Hera said, moaning when Harry filled up her pussy with his cock. "I love it how you fill me up."

"You're really frustrated," Harry said, pumping into Hera with each thrust. "You've wanted my cock for so long, I can really feel it."

Harry's hands ran all over Hera's hot legs. She held him against her. The wet pussy of the goddess held and released Harry's rod when he pumped into her. Her entire body molded against Harry's in the most pleasurable way possible. Harry rode her to a pleasurable edge.

"Yes, a long time!" Hera yelled. "Finally, I get what I want….what I've deserved….harder!"

Harry picked up the pace to drive down into Hera's pussy. He pushed head first between her breasts and started to nibble the generous orbs. Hera screamed hanging onto Harry.

"You know what I want," Hera said. "Mmm, yes, make me cum, make me cum all over your big cock! I'm yours….my pussy belongs to you!"

Hera's wet walls wrapped tight around Harry and he kept rocking inside of her. One of the most spectacular orgasms hit Hera. Her fingers when observing this able young god in action did her little justice. Harry entered and exited at her at a frantic pace.

Harry rode Hera's wet pussy hard into the bed. He could feel a twitch cumming in his balls. Hera grabbed onto him and encouraged his penetration to continue.

"Don't slow down, I want your nice big load inside me, soon," Hera said. "And then, we can have even more fun, don't think I'm going to stop with one load. I can't wait to milk your swollen balls dry again and again….until I'm bloated with your seed."

Their loins met together with a push. Harry's balls filled up and threatened to reach full capacity. Every single thrust resulted in Hera milking Harry's tool. He reached closer to the edge of an orgasm.

"You're going to get your wish soon," Harry said. "I can't hold on much longer."

"Don't, Har-Zod," Hera said. Her vaginal muscles flexed and squeezed around him. "Bury your cock inside me, put your seed inside me, bury it into me…..my pussy belongs to you!"

Harry pumped his cock into the goddess of women. His balls twitched and released their contents into her. Harry pushed up and pumped back in to fill Hera's pussy.

Hera screamed in passion when Harry filled her with his seed. The queen took her new lover's seed into her core. She realized this should have been done a long time ago. Legs locked around Harry's thighs, Hera took extra care not to waste a drop of seed from Harry. She wanted it all spilled inside her.

"That's it, that's it, I want more!"

Hera milked Harry all the way, giving his cock a workout. Harry shot a bigger load than he thought possible into her divine pussy. Hera took a couple of minutes before she was satisfied with him.

Harry rolled over, feeling a blissful feeling from what happened. Hera rolled over, pressing her erect nipples against his chest. She drummed a set of fingers all the way down Harry's abs and worked closer down to stroke his thick cock.

"I know you have more," Hera said. She planted a heated kiss on his cock. "And we're still going to have some fun. I'm going to take this big throbbing prick…"

Hera swirled her tongue around Harry's swollen cock head allowing him to see stars. The lovely goddess put more effort into this than she did for her ex-husband. The point of her tongue licked Harry.

"And I'm going to ride you," Hera said.

"I'm not going to necessarily complain," Harry said smiling.

Hera mounted the top of Harry, pressing the point of his tip inside her pussy. The goddess pushed up and plunged down onto Harry's rod, riding him hard and fast, making sure Harry kept his eyes locked completely on her.

Harry's hands cupped Hera's breasts and encouraged the riding of him. The goddess's walls contracted and expanded, bringing Harry into her womanly depths.

Oh, this would be a nice.

* * *

 

Good things came for those who wait, but tonight was the night.

Dusan Al Ghul smiled. Each thought drew a brighter smirk to his face. Soon, the culmination of months of hard work, and many more years of frustration would have reached. He would prove how loyal he had been by raising Ra's Al Ghul. The White Ghost's elite turned up, with Ubu walking up behind them.

"So, is everything ready?" Ubu asked.

Ubu's frustration with the two Daughters of the Demon dragging their heels regarding his master prompted him to more readily throw himself into the White Ghost's camp, because he was the end to justify the means for now.

Once Ra's al Ghul rose again, then Ubu would reevaluate where he would go.

"Tonight's a good night for the master to return, Ubu," Dusan said. Ubu responded with a brisk nod. "Tonight will be the first step of the return of Ra's Al Ghul and all of Gotham City will bare witness to his grand return."

The doors opened up and Nyssa stepped in, followed by Talia, and their elite guard. Nyssa made a step towards Dusan. Ubu walked in front of the White Ghost, arms folded. Nyssa regarded him with her usual amount of contempt.

"Down, mongrel," Nyssa said.

Ubu found it with himself to stand up to this woman, no matter what the consequences would be.

"The master will be reborn," Ubu said. "Perhaps you should consider….."

Nyssa smacked Ubu hard and dropped the other man down to the ground. The servant of Ra's al Ghul growled when the Demon's daughter brought him down to the ground.

"When I tell you to stand down, it's in your best interests to listen to me," Nyssa said. She turned her attention to the White Ghost. "You really think we are going to allow you to perform something risky like this."

"It's not what you allow," Dusan said. "You've failed our father, and now it's my choice."

"Don't be an idiot, Dusan," Nyssa said. She withdrew a blade and put it at the White Ghost's throat who stood with unblinking calmness. The members of the White Ghost's elite guard stepped forward. "One wrong move, and he's finished. And once he's gone, I have little reason to keep you alive."

The White Ghost's elite guard moved to protect their master. Talia looked from her sister to her brother and then to the Elite Guard. They would swoop in.

"Stand back," Dusan said. "She won't kill me."

The man gave her a challenge and Nyssa mentally weighed the consequences.

"Do not be so assured of your own survival rate," Nyssa said.

One move would bring the point of the blade underneath Dusan's throat and cut it. She would drain his blood. And the bastard would pay for all he has done.

"I'm telling you a fact of matter," Dusan said. "You won't slice my throat. You know what will happen. If I die, your father will never live again."

Talia looked at Nyssa. The Daughter of the Demon withdrew the blade from underneath Dusan's throat.

"You cannot hide behind the specter of our father forever," Nyssa said. "Soon enough, he will remember how worthless you were to him. And I hope I'm the one who slays you on his behalf."

Dusan turned away from his sister and turned to the members of his League Faction. The tank containing Ra's Al Ghul hovered over the edge of a closed pit. Dusan reached forward and pulled a lever leading to the opening of the pit.

Nyssa experienced a more overwhelming stench than anything she ever encountered during her life. She watched when the crank rolled around and Dusan Al Ghul had his men lowering the tank.

Talia watched, wishing this moment thrilled her more. They had worked hard to find her father to restore him back to the League. To think a glorified cockroach such as Dusan played a role in the restoration of Ra's Al Ghul. The very thought of it revolted Talia beyond all belief.

' _Let's hope he doesn't make a mess out of this,'_ Talia thought. Fingers curled around the blade.

The moment she was certain her father was out of the clear, Talia considered running her sword through Dusan. She hoped her father would recall the problems the young man said.

"You do know what you're doing, correct?" Nyssa asked.

"Just stand aside, and wait for the true heir of Ra's Al Ghul to bring the demon back."

The slight delivered by Dusan was not ignored by either Daughter of the Demon. They followed the progress of the White Ghost's followers preparing to drop the Demon into the pit to bring about new life to him. They would see, one way or another, what would happen next. Nyssa bit down on her lip in a firm manner.

The time would come. The crank had been released and the body of Ra's Al Ghul dropped inside the Lazarus Pit. The followers of the White Ghost dipped their heads downward to wait.

Nyssa waited for it and waited for it. The fact her father did not rise from the pit within a matter of moments did not allow her any encouragement. The Daughter of the Demon shifted a gaze over towards Dusan, who responded with one of the most casual and brisk smiles.

"Just wait, and watch."

Putting Ra's Al Ghul in the pits over a year after his demise was unprecedented. Nyssa hated to see what would happen.

"Stand back," Nyssa informed her guard.

The pits bubbled and the cage which Ra's Al Ghul submerged into the fluids in began to shift. Nyssa's eyes followed the progress of the Demon until he popped out of the Pit!

Ra's Al Ghul dove out of the pits, madness swimming through the eyes of the Demon. Nyssa stood her ground and watched him move.

The growl had been inhumane. Nyssa recalled months ago what happened when Sara jumped out of the pit and how feral she had been. Ra's Al Ghul looked even more feral, almost rabid as well.

Ra's Al Ghul looked around. Dusan stepped back to keep himself away from the Demon's wrath, the little weasel. Nyssa stepped on forward and stared down her father.

"Father, do you remember me?" Nyssa asked. "You're disoriented, you've been brought back.

Ra's Al Ghul jumped in and knocked Nyssa down to the ground. He withdrew the blade from Nyssa's sheath and tried to stab it towards her. Nyssa blocked the attack from her father and jumped away from him. Ra's whirled around with cat-like quickness and withdrew the blade. He charged Nyssa and the two blades clung together.

"Calm yourself, it's us, you're safe!" Nyssa yelled.

The blade snapped underneath Nyssa's attack. She backed Ra's back a couple of feet. He turned around and took Nyssa down to the ground. Nyssa folded underneath the surprising strength.

Ubu stepped in front of Talia, blocking her progress. Talia nailed Ubu with an elbow to the side of the head and brought the bodyguard down to his knees. She flung him off to the opposite side and continued the progress towards her feral father and trapped sister.

"Father, snap out of it," Talia said.

Ra's adrenaline from coming out of the pits had finally faded. Talia pulled the angry form of her father off. Ra's turned around and Talia took him down to his knees.

The guard shackled Ra's, who continued to do his impression of a mongrel dog. He tried to push away from the restraints and stare at his two daughters like he would like nothing better than to rip them apart. He looked past his son and gave no reaction, whether it be favorable or otherwise.

"Ra's al Ghul has been revived," Dusan said. "He will need to rest, and time to recover before the League of Assassins returns whole again."

Talia assisted Nyssa to her feet. Her legs dragged on the other side of her, marks all the way down the area of her neck. She cast one of the most disgusted and depraved glares she could muster at Dusan al Ghul.

"Are you okay?" Talia asked her sister.

"I'll survive," Nyssa said.

She gave one last look towards Talia and then to her father. This would get a mess.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 21** **st** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well, Ra's al Ghul is back, and he's not exactly all stable. Well less stable than usual._

_Eris lost herself in her attempts to prove herself in the Ascension ceremony._

_I'm thinking Hippolyta and Diana echoed the statements of many regarding Harry and Hera. And that was long overdue._

_Until Wednesday._


	227. So This is Christmas Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Seven: So This is Christmas(And the War is Not Over) Part One.**

* * *

 

Leslie Thompkins hunched over her desk, getting together some last minute paperwork on what appeared to be a quiet night. The quiet night did not last for long because a loud thumping sound echoed from outside of the clinic. The sounds on the other end of the door started to thump about three times and Leslie looked at the doorway.

Her clinic had a very obvious no questions asked policy, which lead to some interesting people showing up at the edge of her door. She sprung to her feet and opened the door, pulling it open. She stepped back to allow Oswald Cobblepot to step inside, with his men, and they carried a man with a rather prominent mustache who had been brought into the office building. Leslie's mouth hung open.

Her work put the medical professional in some very unfavorable positions. Leslie never asked questios because she never wanted to know half of the answers.

"What happened?" Leslie asked.

The nasty snarling form of Oswald Cobblepot looked at her. He looked both angry, and also a little bit desperate in response.

"Your sign on the door says no questions asked," Cobblepot said. Leslie responded with a nod, the brunette staring down at him. "Well, I'm going to tell you to ask no questions when you go ahead and patch up my boy."

Cobblepot's lips curled into one of the most obvious snarls he could manage. Leslie wheeled out a stretcher and with the help of the Penguin's goons put him on the stretcher. He looked pretty messed up, and the fact he still breathed seemed like a miracle.

"I'm going to help him, but I really need to know what happened," Leslie said, knowing she would have better luck having a constructive conversation with a wall.

Cobblepot rose up and looked towards her. His beady little eyes locked on the woman a few seconds later before pulling back from the woman in question.

"I told you that's on a need to know basis, and right now, you don't need to know," the Penguin said, sounding off in his usual short temper.

Leslie found herself on the business end of the guns of this particular goon squad. She drew in a deep breath and motioned for them to follow her. The injured young man had made his way to the room. Leslie noticed the problem right away, the fact the young man suffered a bullet being driven on the basis of the spine.

"Well, Doctor, I'm waiting?" Cobblepot asked.

Leslie stood up straight with her composure being retained. She drew in a breath and looked up with the courage bred during a long time in Gotham City.

"He needs a hospital….otherwise he won't survive the night," Leslie said.

Cobblepot turned to his men, already in a foul mood after what happened tonight. The mood didn't get any worse.

' _No, it's not fucking happening.'_

The mobster's eyes looked towards the good doctor. She stepped back and stared down at him, without fear.

"No, hospitals, do you understand me?" Cobblepot asked. He looked the doctor straight in the eye. "Good, I'm glad we understand each other. And you should understand one thing as well."

Cobblepot closed the gap between the two of them. Leslie recoiled from the man's foul breath for a brief second before braving it further.

"He doesn't survive the night, you're going to be joining him," Cobblepot said. He snapped his fingers and two men held the guns right at the doctor. "Do you understand me?"

Leslie had been threatened with her very life. Every single day she lived in Gotham City, she lived in fear. The doctor took a hand and placed it on the side of her face. She gave a soft murmur and turned to the young man.

' _Hopefully I can do something, although I don't really know what.'_

The doctor looked down at the young man and could see how bad he looked. She wondered what the hell happened, but it wasn't her place to answer questions. She walked over and prepared to prep him for surgery. Leslie kept her hands calm and stay.

Cobblepot fumed on the other end of the room. Someone was going to have their blood spilled. Falcone was a bastard who two-timed him, or maybe it was Maroni. Cobblepot didn't give a fuck because he planned to kill both of them. Their blood would rain down on the streets of Gotham City.

Leslie took a few seconds to steady herself. She ran against the clock. Most of what she had here should perform most minor procedures, but the problem was, a young man having a bullet lodged into the base of his spine resulted in not a minor procedure. The woman bit down on her lip.

The sounds of someone approaching the doors put Leslie on edge. She tried to keep her attention on Dudley like her life depended on it, and it did depend on it.

The door opened up and Alfred stuck his head in to see if the coast was clear. Master Bruce ran afoul of an assassin and suffered injuries which were in need of treating.

"Hey, what are you looking at man?"

Alfred took half of a step back, looking in the eyes of the mobsters.

"Sorry, I must have the wrong address….."

The two goons reached in and dragged Alfred into the room. The butler made his attempt to break free from their grip, but the two goons held onto him.

"What's the matter, old man?" one of the goons asked. "Why don't you stick around?"

"What the hell are you two blathering about?"

Oswald Cobblepot stepped out of the operating area and stared down a very familiar face. His mood darkened a couple of shades.

"Well, if it isn't Bruce Wayne's butler," Cobblepot said. "Wrong night to stop by for a booty call, eh, Jeeves?"

"Mr. Cobblepot, I can assure you…..it was nothing of the sort," Alfred said.

Alfred eyed the exits, but with the mood Cobblepot was in, he feared for his life.

"Right, because the doctor's a bit above your standards," Cobblepot said. He looked at the man and something clicked in his head. "Actually, boys, ease up on him a little bit, we may have a use for him after all."

Cobblepot extended his umbrella out and the blade retracted a few inches underneath the chin of the butler. Alfred flinched when staring down the business end of the Penguin's umbrella. He tried to pull away.

"You were a medic in the army, weren't you Pennyworth?" Cobblepot asked. Alfred responded with a nod. "Good, good, then you'll be able to help the good doctor fix my boy up."

Cobblepot shoved Alfred into the room where he almost slammed against the table. The butler found himself staggering around.

"I'm in a jolly mood, so if you and the doctor help my boy, then you won't be leaving here in a bag," Cobblepot said. "And if Dudley dies….well it will be a very red Christmas for you."

Alfred knew he had no real choice.

' _Hang tight, Master Bruce.'_

* * *

 

Talia stood still on the other side of the room, eyes locked on Ra's Al Ghul. He had been chained to the wall and attempting to break free from the chains. The Daughter of the Demon walked forward with the food which had been prepared.

The younger daughter of the demon stood in front of him. Her hands shook. It was hard to see her father like this.

"Father, you'll be yourself again in no time," Talia said. "You're going to need your strength."

Talia winced at a once great man being reduced to a primal animal thanks to the trip to the Lazarus Pit. The Daughter of Ra's Al Ghul could hardly believe it had been forced to come down to this, down to this point.

She blamed the White Ghost for this. His arrogance to try and look good, despite being inept and unworthy, may have doomed their father.

' _He will pay.'_

She breathed and stole one last look at his ravaged frame. At this point, it was almost hard to look away, no matter how prudent she thought it was. Her father barely acknowledged her. Talia viewed him ripping into the food with all of the sophistication of a mongrel and none of the sophistication she expected from the likes of Ra's al Ghul.

The doors opened behind her and Nyssa stepped out. Marks still rose on her neck from when Ra's attacked and Talia turned towards her sister.

"Are you alright?" Talia asked.

Nyssa answered with one of her more cross smiles possible and turned back towards the downed form of Ra's Al Ghul.

"I'll survive as per usual, just as I have been doing for years," Nyssa said. "Our father….is another matter entirely."

Ra's tried to break free from the chains. The man tugged on the chains which snapped back and forth against the wall. His struggles increased, along with his growls. Despite the fact they had been reinforced to prevent any kind of escape, both Nyssa and Talia found themselves at a great unease with what he had been doing. They watched him, keeping a nervous eye on him. Neither wanted to admit what needed to be done if he did not get any better, Talia less so.

Both of the daughters stared down the progress of their father, his attempts to break out of the chains increased, and the flashing through his eyes grew more feral. The two of them stepped back. The chains should hold, but it didn't put them at ease.

"I've never seen him come out of the Pit this far gone," Talia said. "Normally, his madness is fleeting, after a few hours. Nearly a day has passed, and he's not getting any better. If anything, he's getting worse."

"I know."

Nyssa's jaw became set when she looked down at her father. There was the problem in a nutshell. Her father had been brought down by the peak of his existence and had been pulled straight into the apex of madness. She could hardly even stomach what occurred, and maybe this was for good reasons.

"Dusan's weakness proved to be his undoing," Nyssa said. She turned around and faced Talia. "Both of us know this, at least I do."

Talia could do nothing other than to extend her head forward and respond with a nod. The weakness of the White Ghost caused him not to be able to act. The weakness of the White Ghost led to him acting in an indecisive manner.

"So, what happens now?" Talia asked.

Nyssa paused for a moment, stroking her chin in a thoughtful manner. Her sister asked good questions, all of the right questions. The older child cast one of the more frustrating gazes down on her father. While she had more misgivings about what he was doing than Talia ever did, and could see the dark side of Ra's Al Ghul a lot better, she thought this was no less sad.

"At this point, we're going to have to wait and see how this plays out."

Nyssa found herself taking an approach which some might judge of her to be cowardly with her father. And if she was, then so be it. She thought it would be the best to take a slow approach and if he needed to be put down, and then they would cross this unfortunate bridge.

Talia knew exactly what Nyssa thought and those thoughts crept into the back of her mind as well. She cursed the very day Dusan al Ghul had been born for putting them both in this nasty and quite an unfortunate position.

The winds blew outside of the walls. Talia kept looking towards her father. It was like a train wreck. You couldn't quite turn away, no matter how disturbing the look in his eyes would be. Those haunting eyes would feature in hear nightmares for a while.

Ra's managed to settle down enough, although there were instances where he growled and almost broke free from the chains. Talia kept an anxious eye upon him when he shifted about against the wall.

"Never will be the same again," Talia said.

"Do you think you can handle him?" Nyssa asked.

"Yes," Talia said.

Nyssa smiled and placed a hand on her younger sister's shoulder.

"Good, I must leave Gotham," Nyssa said. "I have to go and visit someone….and I'll return prior to Christmas….monitor the situation for me, and make sure nothing else goes wrong."

Talia read between the lines and understood what Nyssa meant. The White Ghost had been seen very little since the resurrection of Ra's Al Ghul. The less either daughter saw their estranged brother, the better off things would be, at least in their minds and at least in their books.

"How is Sara's training coming along?" Talia asked.

"She's making great strides, although it helps she had a solid foundation and base to work for," Nyssa said. "I would not dare put her out on the field yet, or in the line of fire."

There were at least two people who would not approve of her rash actions just yet. Nyssa and Talia exchanged a nod before Nyssa slipped into the shadow.

Talia returned to observing her father, the man's status both having enraged and upset the Daughter of the Demon.

' _He will pay.'_

* * *

 

"Oh, yes, it's going to be one of the biggest parties of the year. Yeah, I agree, there have been some pretty big ones this year, to the point where it's insane. And it's not like we're going to skip out on New Year's Eve. We've got to set the tone for 1999, and make sure, it all goes well. It's really taking on a life of its own."

Bunny returned home for the holidays after an intense set of exams and stopped in to see how her sister held up. Veronica held up pretty well by the looks of things and had been talking a mile a minute about some party. Then again, she was always talking a mile a minute about some party, so there you went.

"Believe me Kathy, all of the help in the world, and….Vreeland Industries just broke last year's record, and you better believe this year, we'll be breaking it….oh you too, well I think a little friendly competition is going to help all of Gotham," Veronica said. "I'll talk to you later….my sister has just come in."

Veronica set down the phone and turned to Bunny, who had already helped herself to a sandwich and a soda in the time where she was talking. She grinned when looking towards her older sister.

"So, I take it the charity drive thing is going well," Bunny said.

"Yes, it's….well you heard enough of that conversation," Veronica said. "Thanksgiving was big….Christmas is better….people are going to get a warm meal this holiday season, and really, is there anything more important than that?"

"If you asked any of these people, they would say this is the most important thing possible," Bunny said. She gave her sister one of those shifty little smiles and leaned back. "So, it's going to be a great year for us all."

"Great, excellent, better than our best," Veronica said. "Or at least it will be if I have anything to say about it."

Bunny could not help, but be dragged in by the excitement of her sister. Veronica's attitude was so infectious it was amazing, and she had been dragged along for the ride.

"And the Christmas party as well," Bunny said.

Veronica responded with a nod and a smile as well. She turned around and looked out the window. The weather had mandated for a clear day, and it would be a pretty mild Christmas all things considered.

"To be honest, it's been a rough last couple of months for Gotham," Veronica said. "People are going to need a reason to go on, and I think spreading a lot of holiday cheer their way will be just the thing to boost their spirits and make them get out of bed to face the day."

Bunny responded with a dry chuckle. She would have to agree with Veronica, they needed something to keep their minds of all of the insanity. It had been a big roller coaster ride over the last couple of months.

"Well, you're good at spreading it, well you, Kathy, Sapphire, and all of the rest," Bunny said. "I've been bogged down to my ears with schoolwork."

"How has school been going?" Veronica asked.

Veronica raised an eyebrow, hoping her sister had been working hard.

"Hey, don't give me that look," Bunny said. "And for your information, I've been busting my ass trying to get ready for exams. When Barbara told us all college was a couple of steps up from GPA with a lot more hard work involved, she wasn't kidding."

"Did you really think college was going to be one big party scene?" Veronica asked.

Bunny shifted in a very uncomfortable manner when Veronica looked her over with a shifty look. Given how Veronica was rumored to be in her college days, Bunny doubted she had much of a leg to stand on. Not she wouldn't try to say it, given the older sister privileges she had.

"No, well, kind of but….."

"Good, because that's a bonus," Veronica said.

Bunny almost broke out into a brilliant little smile followed by an endless fit of laughter. She grew serious enough when Veronica gave her a long look a few seconds later.

"Seriously, though, Veronica, I did pretty well on my exams," Bunny said. "Bette and I buckled down and worked hard. We have a standard to keep, and he mandates a pretty high one, you know, from our student mentor."

Veronica smiled. If nothing else, Harry's influence proved to work rather well on these girls, making them buckle down a little bit and focus on their studies, which was a pretty good thing if she was honest.

"Well, I'm just glad you can find some inspiration regardless of where it comes from," Veronica said, a smile shifting over her face. "I've just been working so hard lately….."

"So, I've gathered," Bunny said. "You know, in between studying until my brains bleed, I have found some time to look at the news every now and then, and you're pretty much all over it, you know."

Veronica broke into a shifty little smile. So she was all over the news a couple of times.

"Seriously, though, this party is going to be amazing," Veronica said. "People are coming in from all over, people who don't swing by Gotham City often. Lavender and Mari are bringing in some potential new recruits as well."

"For the fashion line or for Harry?" Bunny asked with a cheeky little smirk.

Veronica returned fire with a nice little smirk of her own.

"Why do you even think those options are mutually exclusive?" Veronica asked.

"Post exam being mind numb?" Bunny asked.

"You must be mind numb, given you can't even figure out a proper name to describe your affliction," Veronica said with a half teasing tone.

Bunny shifted her mouth into a little smile and beckoned for her sister to continue. Veronica loved talking about her various events, and Bunny would be rude not to allow her to go off on these tangents.

"We talked about Christmas, how about New Year's?"

* * *

 

Sara performed breathing exercises which put her in a state of being ready at all times for potentially any attack. Her trainer managed to drill these principles into her head..

Footsteps caused the young woman to pop up and prepare to attack. Nyssa stood in front of her and casually blocked her attack with a smile on her face. The two locked fingers for a moment before Nyssa let Sara's hand drop a few seconds later.

"Excellent," Nyssa said without blinking. "You've taken my lessons to heart. I'm very proud of you, Sara."

She could not help, but smile at the thought of Nyssa exhibiting some form of pride to her. It really made Sara feel as if all of this was worth it in some way.

Sara blinked and looked on with a horrified look to see the purple bruises all over Nyssa's neck. It looked like someone strangled her and made a pretty good job of it. Nyssa's eyes locked onto Sara for a moment and cleared her throat.

"If you're going to inquire about the bruises on my neck, I'll implore you to do so right now," Nyssa said. "It is fairly rude to just stare at them without even saying anything."

"Right," Sara said, finally finding her voice. "So, what happened?"

All versions of a lie contained some trappings of the truth. Nyssa thought she would not be lying, at leas not completely. Regardless, though, Sara was not prepared for this particular revelation.

"A fight grew a bit too heated for my liking," Nyssa said. "Rest assure, though, the two of us, we're working through the problems."

Nyssa hated to only tell Sara a part of what happened, but she needed to, if only to protect her from the trouble which she was in.

' _We're just working through it slower than I would have thought, or liked to.'_

Nyssa lead Sara to the private quarters the two of them shared when they were here.

"I saw your sister when I was in Gotham City," Nyssa said to her. "She's thriving about as well as you can expect. The streets are very dangerous, for the reasons you know."

Sara frowned.

"The bounty," Sara said.

"Yes," Nyssa said. "The League does not wish for Harry to be swept up in it, so we've sent our own agents…."

Nyssa trailed off for a second to collect her thoughts. She managed to return and say what she wanted to in this particular situation.

"The results have been fairly mixed to say the very least," Nyssa said.

For all of the dozens of minor nuisances they defeated, there were several big name players on the table. The looming threat of Bane and his crew making their move in Gotham City put Nyssa on further edge than ever before.

"The League has had their hands full lately, haven't they?" Sara asked. The rhetorical question had been asked and Nyssa really had no need to answer it, at least at this point in time. "Guess we can have some solace knowing Harry will be able to take care of himself, and….I guess Batman will be able as well."

Sara found herself rather indifferent to Batman, and his crusade and she could see how Nyssa experienced the same thoughts. Still, he was doing some good things for Gotham City, so she could support it, she guessed.

"Yes," Nyssa said. "And speaking of Gotham City, I think it's time for you to have a change of scenery, at least for a few days."

Sara perked up at what Nyssa said. Dare she even consider it?

"I have a bit of a mission for you if you chose to accept it," Nyssa said. Sara looked about ready to jump on it, which resulted in Nyssa's lips curling into a smile. "Not as much of a mission, though, as a favor."

Sara blinked for a couple of seconds and wondered about this particular clarification from Nyssa.

"I was invited by Harry to attend his and Veronica Vreeland's Christmas party," Nyssa said. "Naturally, it was a curious invite, but it would be rude for me to turn down."

Sara nodded in response, waiting to see if this was going in the direction where she thought this was going. She did not want to make assumptions because anyone with any sense knew what people said about assumptions.

"I'm allowed to invite a plus one, and I hoped you would honor me by agreeing to this proposition," Nyssa said.

Sara smiled for a second, glad to get out, return to Gotham City, even for a few hours. She wanted to get out and stretch her legs.

"The honor would be all mine," Sara said, taking the hand of Nyssa and planting a kiss on it. Nyssa smiled at her actions. The younger Lance sister tensed up and another thought entered her mind. "But….what….you know, wouldn't going to a party with a dead girl draw a lot of attention?"

Now, Nyssa had the chance to smile, with a look of content which could light up the entire room with a mere gesture.

"Have I taught you nothing about stealth?" Nyssa asked Sara. "The League is all about deception and you should try and deceive people if you catch the meaning."

Sara responded with a smile.

"Yes, I understand," Sara said.

"Good," Nyssa said. "And you should understand something else…..I'm sure you would invite the opportunity to score some time with Harry. But I should warn you, there will be other girls demanding his attention on this particular night."

Sara caught the implied meaning of Nyssa's words and grinned.

"Don't worry, I know exactly how to get some time alone with Harry."

Nyssa almost looked forward to seeing this, but appreciated the fact Sara wanted some alone time with Harry, so she would not apply. There would be other opportunities for the three of them to join together.

* * *

 

Gilda Dent left her husband's office in Gotham City after dropping off his lunch. He forgot it in his haste to leave this morning. Harvey ran out the door before having a chance to say goodbye to Gilda.

He had left quite a bit without saying goodbye, to the point where Gilda wondered where Harvey's priorities lied. To be honest, there were times where she did not see her husband for days on end. And the rumors Gilda heard about him and Rachel Dawes, well they spent a lot of time haunting her.

' _It's just how the rumors are. They just need something to talk about. It's only going to get worse.'_

Gilda knew Harvey was a stand-up guy, and would never cheat, but she could not help and think, what if, what if, what if she did not know the true Harvey Dent. What if he had a dark side she did not know about? Very few knew about the fact Harvey attended therapy due to some trauma and anger issues stemming from his childhood.

' _He can't be doing something worse, he can't be a cheater.'_

Gilda opened up the side door on her vehicle and got into the car. She turned the key and started the ignition. The car wouldn't turn it over.

Another turn and the car would not turn over once again. Gilda could have screamed. Just earlier this year, she had work done on this car, and now less than six months later, something was wrong with it again. The woman almost had a break down, sobbing in a result.

"COME ON!" Gilda yelled, almost slamming her hands down on the dashboard. "START!"

Gilda turned the key one more time and tried to get it to start. It refused to start again. The wife of Harvey Dent almost collapsed with a fit of tears.

' _I've had so much work done on this car, it wasn't even funny,'_ Gilda thought.

Thousands of dollars of repairs over the past year and the car would not start when she wanted it to start. Gilda almost punched the dashboard of the car.

"Car troubles?"

Rachel Dawes walked up and peered into the side of the window so much it gave Gilda a start. She caught her breath and looked towards the dark haired woman, who was frowning.

"The damn thing won't start," Gilda said.

"Yes, Harvey mentioned you were having problems with it," Rachel said.

"I really need to get to work in twenty minutes," Gilda said. She already missed several months due to an illness, and her boss hinted they would find someone to replace her if she missed much more. "Guess, I'm going to have to call in….."

"Actually, I'm running an errand your way," Rachel said. "Why don't you get in and I'll give you a lift? And then I can ask Harvey to pick you up after work….and call someone to tow your car."

Gilda raised an eyebrow. She grabbed her bag and entered the car with Rachel.

"Plus, the drive will give us a chance to talk, clear the air, and…..talk about something like adults...settle what's been happening."

Gilda had been surprised but was so frustrated by the fact her car gave up the ghost again she did not pay Rachel any mind.

Rachel took extra care to lock the door and turned a key to start up the vehicle before backing out of the parking space. She looked over her shoulder, before pulling completely out.

* * *

 

Leslie stepped back with a deep breath. She never had to do anything this deep in a while. She turned around and locked eyes onto Cobblepot.

Cobblepot didn't say a word. He kept his eyes locked onto Dudley and his goons kept their guns locked onto Leslie and Alfred.

Alfred shifted in great worry for Master Bruce and what must have become of him. He must have been injured if he did not attempt to save them right about now.

Dudley's eyes opened up and every single person in the room took a collective breath.

"Dudley, you bloody idiot," Cobblepot said. "You got your dumb ass captured by the Falcones and shot by them….what the hell were you thinking?"

Dudley tried to move, but Leslie moved towards him, shaking her head frantically.

"Don't…move," Leslie said. "You'll hurt yourself more if you're not careful."

Dudley returned to life and started to breath heavily. Something was wrong with him. His fingers twitched and he felt them. Elsewhere, he didn't feel other parts of his body.

"I can't feel my legs," Dudley groaned.

Cobblepot turned towards Leslie with one of those most pointed scowls on his face. The doctor took a step back, but she found herself back into the butt end of the gun.

"I did what I could for him here, and I did save him, but he may never walk again," Leslie said.

Cobblepot turned towards her. His fingers clutched the handle of the Umbrella saw hard his knuckles whitened.

"He might never walk again," Cobblepot said. "Do you think I keep him around for his brains? What use does he have to me when he never can walk again?"

Leslie shifted and found her entire life flashing before her.

"There's….there's something," Leslie said. "It's Harry Potter….at RAO….he's been working with a scientist to develop a revolutionary new method regarding spinal surgery, and while it's in the preliminary stages….."

"I'm not going to go for Harry Bloody Potter for help!" Cobblepot barked.

Cobblepot took a menacing step forward, and Alfred put himself forward. It would always be like a Cobblepot to be rude, crass, and ungrateful to someone who did their best to help them.

"Look, the lady tried her best, you vile fiend!" Alfred yelled.

One of the Penguin's goons thumped Alfred in the back of the head and dropped him down to his knees.

"Yes, yes, she tried her best, you're right, butler, you're right," Cobblepot said. "It's a bloody shame her best wasn't enough to save Dudley."

Cobblepot prepared to give the order. Before he could do so, the lights blew out and darkened the entire room.

The sound of two of the goons dropping to the ground could be heard. Their skulls cracked together with a vicious attack.

Cobblepot groped around in the dark and flicked his cigarette lighter. The face of Batman could be seen in the dark! Cobblepot almost dropped the lighter in shock.

"Bloody hell!"

Batman nailed Cobblepot with a punch. He slumped over from the impact which slumped him over.

Cobblepot staggered back and grabbed Dudley, rolling him off of the table. He threw him into a wheelchair and bolted towards the entrance, not carrying of the consequences.

"Get the bloody hell out of here!" Cobblepot yelled. "GET, GET, GET!"

Leslie put a flashlight on and her heart finally slowed down enough to catch her breath. She saw a battered Batman slumped over the floor and a shell-shocked Alfred in the corner.

"He's injured?" Leslie asked. "Why didn't you tell me that?"

"The point never came up," Alfred said without missing a beat.

"I'm fine, merely a flesh wound," Batman said, before collapsing from the cracked ribs.

"Yes, fine."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on September 24** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Dudley most certainly has seen better days, hasn't he?'_

_So has Ra's come to think about it._

_Christmas is coming, and there is going to be some chaos which comes along with it._

_Until Saturday._


	228. So This is Christmas Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Eight: So This is Christmas(The War Isn't Over) Part Two:**

* * *

 

Harry smiled, having returned from the trip to Paradise, in time for one of the biggest parties of the year. Veronica, Sapphire, and Kathy followed it up. Harry returned to Blackgate Manor, which was being used for the party. Everything had been set up nicely, and he thought they were ready to go, and they were ready to go.

Everyone who was anyone attended, as the flashing lights and silver and gold decorations greeted Harry. There were buffet tables lined up with chairs, and also a dance floor in the middle. Things had only started to kick up.

He looked over his shoulder and Kara took a place next to Harry. She wore a beautiful red dress which her body filled into nicely. Karen stepped up next to Harry, wearing a nice white dress which her body also filled out. Diana joined in a shimmering blue dress and Faora stepped off to the side in a green dress which matched Harry's eyes.

"Wow, it looks like Veronica has outdone herself," Diana said, smiling when she looked towards.

Harry looked over his shoulder and smiled. He saw Veronica standing over the door waiting for him. He had given her the key inside to get a jump start of things. She looked beautiful in the black dress which clung to every inch of her frame.

"Wow, Veronica, you really have outdone yourself," Harry said.

' _Good minds thing alike,'_ Donna thought which caused Diana to respond by laughing.

Veronica smiled when she came face to face with Harry. She decided to steal some attention from him before others swooped in. Namely her sister, who hovered around in the background, and looked to be eying Harry like a lioness sizing up her prey. The red-haired heiress swooped in and caught Harry with a kiss.

"Well, I wouldn't take all of the credit," Veronica said. "And you know, this is just a taster of things to come."

Harry admired Veronica's attempts to be modest especially when she had pretty much every reason in the world not to be.

"Yes, I know," Harry said. Veronica attached herself to Harry's arm when she walked into the party. "But, you have to admit, you've played your part."

Veronica would be lying if she wasn't smiling at the thought of playing her part. The two of them stopped and noticed Harvey Dent arriving at the party. He walked next to Bruce, and Harry noticed two people who were conspicuous by their absence.

' _So, you've noticed Gilda and Rachel aren't here, don't you?'_ Kara thought. _'Weren't they supposed to be here?'_

' _It's very odd,'_ Harry admitted. _'Hopefully nothing happened.'_

Last he heard, Rachel was searching for the Gotham City Cop Killer, but so far, there was nothing.

"So, you're sure you haven't heard from Rachel lately?" Harvey asked.

"No," Bruce said. "She was sick last weekend, but you saw her at the office the other day, didn't you?"

"Yes, I did, she was in briefly, and had to leave for an errand, and hasn't been back since," Harvey said. "It isn't like her to not return back, not for a good reason."

Harvey knew Rachel had been working rather hard and had been working very hard on trying to dig up new evidence on Maroni and Falcone as well. He hoped she had not stumbled on a lead.

"She's not picking up her cell phone," Bruce said after a pause. "I really hope something isn't wrong with her."

Harvey shook his head, knowing Bruce wasn't the only one who didn't hope something was wrong. He turned his attention to Bruce and noticed the billionaire walked with a slight limp when making his way in the direction of the party.

"Are you okay, Bruce?" Harvey asked. "You're walking a little bit funny."

"Oh, this?" Bruce asked, sounding a bit absent minded in the process. Harvey responded with a crisp nod. "It's not…..I just was on a skiing trip last weekend and I hit the slopes too much, or I guess I hit them a bit too hard. You know how it goes."

"I'm not much of a skier, so I wouldn't know," Harvey said.

He pulled himself away from the phone to try Gilda, hoping he would have better luck with his wife. He just talked to her this morning, his wife brought Harvey's lunch in fact. Despite it all, she did this much, and it made Harvey feel a bit guilty about what had been happening lately.

' _If only we can find a way to nail Sionis, my life would be a lot easier,'_ Harvey thought. _'But, that's a big if at this point.'_

Harry and Veronica walked their way over. Veronica leaned in and kissed Harry, before allowing him to slip off and mingle with the rest of the party. She turned her attention to Sapphire, who had been grilling Tam for some reason or another. Alexa sat back and enjoyed the show, with her bodyguard, Mercy, doing her best impression of a Buckingham Palace guard elsewhere in the room.

"So, Tam, tell Veronica," Sapphire said.

Tamara almost flushed, Sapphire really was going to put her up to this. She caught a look at Bette who smiled as well.

"If you must know, Harry and I….well we slept together," Tam said. "And yes, as Sapphire is going to keep telling me, it's long overdue."

"Oh, congratulations, Tam, it's about time," Veronica said. "I'm pretty sure he lived up to your expectations."

"Lived up to them," Tam said with a smirk. "And he exceeded them."

Alexa and Sapphire nodded, speaking from experience. Sapphire turned away from Alexa who was nodding and turned her entire attention towards Veronica.

"Pay up," Sapphire said. "You said Tam would jump on things after Christmas, and I said she would get to it before Christmas."

Veronica looked at Sapphire with a sigh. She had made a bet in jest, and a few drinks had been flowing, both sides had shared a mutual frustrating regarding the fact Tam had not jumped up Harry, in the biblical sense of the word. It appeared to Veronica, Sapphire took it seriously.

"Fine, after the party," Veronica said.

Sapphire could tell Veronica never expected to have to pay up. She couldn't help and be a little bit smug at the thought.

' _Now ,no one likes a gloryhound,'_ Veronica commented to her friend.

Alexa tore herself away from the conversation, lips twitching into an amused smile. She pulled herself away from such petty bets, even though it interested a part of her, at the very least. It was about time Tam got herself a piece, Alexa thought it was long overdue that Harry bedded her.

"So, have you thought about it, Tam?" Alexa asked. "About moving in with myself and Sapphire, there's plenty of room there."

Tam thought about it and was still on the fence. Sapphire leaned closer towards her.

"Oh, come on, we'd love to have you," Sapphire said. "You can't tell me with a straight face you're attached to your apartment. I've talked to the landlord there, he's a bit of a douche."

Tam almost broke out into a fit of laughter. Sapphire described her landlord in the most elegant way possible.

Harry stepped further into the party and noticed both Bette and Bunny trying to catch his eye. He walked over towards them, figuring they deserved a little bit of attention. Especially considering they had been trying to gain it like a pair of cute little puppy dogs.

"So, we survived exams," Bette said. "And we'd like to thank you for the tutoring, it means a lot to us."

"It was…"

Bunny kissed Harry on the lips. She pulled away with a smile. Boy, did she ever know it wasn't a problem. Knowing it and hearing it were two different things. She would like Harry to know how appreciated it was.

"It was not a problem, we know, "Bunny said. "I'm sure we would have been miserable, and it would hard to get through our exams without constant reinforcement."

"Not to mention rewards for good behavior," Bette said, pressing herself against Harry with a smile. Her hips wiggled against him. "And punishment for bad behavior."

Harry moved his hand around to grip her ass through the dress, feeling enough she was not wearing any panties through it. Bette looked pretty bold tonight, and Harry doubted very much he would complain. Actually, there were no real complaints when a beautiful woman flaunted what she got.

' _She takes pretty much every chance to throw herself on your cock now you have her in your web,'_ Barbara thought. She hung out with Donna, who had been joined by Kara. _'I can't say I blame her for this.'_

' _No one would fault anyone for good taste,'_ Donna thought.

' _No, of course not, not at all,'_ Barbara thought. _'I'm just making a comment, that's all.'_

No one in the bond link could blame her for this. The doors of the party swung open and Selina and Mia arrived in style. Holly stepped a bit behind them. Selina gave Holly a look and both girls resolved to be on their best behavior.

' _Remember, this party is a private function,'_ Harry thought to Selina, smiling at her from across the room. _'So, no shopping.'_

Selina nodded, giving a mock pout. Not because she had been denied, but because she had been mistrusted in such a way. Not for any kind of bad reason, because there were times where she could not really help herself.

' _Don't worry,'_ Faora thought. _'I'll keep an eye on her, and if she gets out of line, I'll keep her in line.'_

Faora smiled and caught Kate's eye from across the room. Harry knew the two of them had a couple of encounters in the past, although it had been rather fleeting meetings, just when Kate had been dragged along by either Kathy or Bette to a party. She had not been as into the social gatherings as they were.

Harry looked over his shoulder, and Nyssa stepped into the party. She looked amazing in a dark green dress which hugged against her body and came down to expose her cleavage. Harry turned to the other girl on the other side of her, wearing an elegant white dress, along with a dark wig and thick glasses which covered her blue eyes.

"Hello, Nyssa," Harry said. "Thanks for coming."

"It was a pleasure, and I have a feeling the invitation was more on your account than it was for Ms. Vreeland's," Nyssa said. She spoke, mostly for the benefit of the party. "Have you had the pleasure of meeting my friend…"

"Melody," Sara said in a faux Irish accent. "Melody Drake."

Had Harry not knew this was Sara Lance, he would have been fooled by the accent. She was getting in touch with the art of deception really nicely. He leaned towards her and kissed her on the hand. She smiled at the affection displayed by her mate.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Harry said.

"Oh, believe me, the pleasure is all mine," Sara said. She looked across the room and smiled. Dinah wore the tight black dress rather well, she would have to admit it.

' _You're checking out your sister's legs, aren't you?'_ Harry asked.

' _Not just her legs,'_ Sara said. _'And Thea Queen is checking out my ass, isn't she?'_

Harry did not need to ask why Sara figured out it was Thea. The League training gave her a key sense of observation and she could sense when someone is deceiving her.

' _I really hope she doesn't recognize me,'_ Sara said. _'Then again, given she's supposed to be missing as well, it's not like she can blurt it out.'_

Harry turned over towards Mia and she ducked her head, acting like she was in conversation with the twins over on the other end of the room. Amanda and Emily had been on their best behavior.

"Harry, there's someone I want you to meet," Sapphire said. "If you don't mind."

"Not at all, Sapphire," Harry said. "Oh, and congratulations on winning your bet by the way."

Sapphire tried not to look too pleased with herself. She knew deep down Tam had it in her and as an excellent bonus, she now had Harry inside of her, which really did a lot to spike her confidence.

Business called above all else and Sapphire steered Harry in the general direction of the woman she was speaking of. The woman stood before them, with silky black hair framing her face. She was of Asian origin, and she had all of the beautiful features of a woman of her ethnic background. Harry stared her as she wore a sleek business suit, which covered what needed to be covered. The suit also hinted at the fact she had a great body buried underneath it.

Harry was curious because of what this was all about, although he vowed to be courteous in his curiosity.

"Doctor Potter, it's a pleasure to meet you in the flesh at last," she said with a smile crossing over her face. "My name is Oroku Karai, and I've been wanting to meet you for quite some time."

"Well, Ms. Oroku it's a pleasure to meet you," Harry said, extending a handout and shaking the woman's.

"Yes, and please, it's Karai, Doctor Potter," Karai said.

"Then, I insist its Harry," Harry said. "You know, I heard the rumors of your father extending his business interests out west."

Harry heard other rumors, but he doubted this was the time or value to confront them with her at the party.

"You heard precisely correct," Karai said, smiling in response. "TND industries will expand out and forward into the future. We are looking for several top of the line companies to be a part of our family and we are holding RAO would be interested in a partnership."

Harry had not known much about TND other than it was a company based out of Japan which sold some top of the line technology, he would have to look at it, and see what Karai's sales pitch amounted to more or less. He was curious, not going to lie, very curious.

"Yes, your father, he really wastes no time, if I may say so myself," Harry said.

Karai responded with a brisk smile, leaning closer towards Harry.

"My father understands the importance of making bold deals. He would not have gotten how he had gotten today if…well if it had not been for some bold deals he had made in the past. And he continues to intend to make some pretty bold deals in the future."

Harry spent a fair bit of time analyzing Karai and looking at her. He took a long look at her face and something was up with her. Further up close, recognition was starting to dawn on Harry.

"Well, I'm certain he will continue to do so," Harry said. "And he's sent you to make the offer, hasn't he?"

"My father is a fairly busy man, with many responsibilities which monopolize his time," Karai said. "I'm certain you can relate to this."

"Oh, believe me, I can," Harry said with a smile.

Karai saw the look of calculation on Harry's face and frowned. She had brought this to him out of the blue. RAO's technology was of great interest to their business ventures, the legit ones. Karai had been running those for her father while he busied himself with other ventures, and dare she say it, with other obsessions.

"I hated to have ambushed you on your Christmas parties, but I met Ms. Stagg," Karai said, pointing a finger in the direction of the girl who had resumed the conversation with her two friends. "And she invited me along to this party. I think it would be best if we would have made arrangements to have a more serious meeting after the first of the year. Or at least a conversation over the phone."

"Yes," Harry said. "It would be for the best."

Harry's photographic memory never forgot a face, especially one was beautiful as this. And her beauty did not to hide Harry saw this face before, as Nightwing, after unmasking her.

' _Is there a problem, beloved?'_ Nyssa asked.

' _Did you know the daughter of Oroku Saki is the White Canary?'_

Nyssa had struck completely off guard by this particular revelation as Harry threw it down. It was quite the interesting revelation.

* * *

 

Carol never knew what to expect when out in space, and this particular fact had been reinforced when they had been chased halfway across the galaxy by some mysterious attackers. She held on for a hell of a ride and by the looks of things, the ride was only going to get more insane from here.

' _It's a good thing I have nerves of steel, because if I didn't, I'd be freaking out right now.'_

"Well, I've been unable to lose them," Aya said in a frantic tone. "And we're going to make a landing and it's not going to be a gentle one."

Sinestra understood in an instant and turned to the rest of the crew. There were two or three ways she saw this one ending, and none of them would be good at all. She just hoped their landing would not be frustrating.

"Everyone brace yourselves," Sinestra said.

The landing, no matter how rough, would be the gentle part, at least in Sinestra's mind. What occurred after the landing, with these particular barbarians, would be the thing which tested their mettle. Sinestra mentally promised to herself to rip off the wings of these vermins.

"Well, I still haven't almost died today," Ilana said.

A part of her hoped it would succeed, if nothing else, she would be rid of Sinestra. Although if Sinestra died, and Ilana did as well, she would still not have been rid of her, because they would be stuck together for all eternity.

And there was a part of Ilana who wondered if there was an afterlife for someone who had accepted the rage of the red lantern ring in her heart.

"Do not be alarmed, no one is going to die today….although you may be a fair bit banged up on the process," Aya said.

"Joy."

Ilana found herself less than thrilled about this particular prospect funnily enough. The Interceptor hurled its way down onto the ground before making a not so graceful landing.

The second ship dropped down onto the ground next to it. The ship opened up and revealed several hawk like creatures dressed in battle armor. Some of them wielded axes and a couple of them carried swords, and a few also had some fancy looking blasters.

"Okay, maybe, just maybe, they've come in peace," Carol suggested, which resulted in Sinestra casting her the dirtiest of dirtiest looks. "Or maybe not."

The winged warriors approached on them with murderous intentions flashing through their eyes. This was going to be very messy before it got better, providing of course it even got better at all. Carol had her doubts about that much.

"Most certainly not," Sinestra said.

"Surrender the fugitive, or you will face total annihilation," the leader of the winged warriors said, his attention directed on them.

"What did I do to them?" Ilana asked.

Sinestra rolled her shoulders back and let the moan and the groan flow through her body.

"Right, of course, yes, of course, right," Sinestra said without missing a beat. "And here I thought this particular understanding had been cleared up by the Guardians. But, as they say, assumptions are the tool of a fool"

Sinestra turned to the Leader of the Hawkmen, and Katma and Carol both thought the same thing. This was going to be a bad idea waiting to happen. Sinestra's trigger temper as of late and these hawk people, neither side were going to back down and there were going to be fireworks.

"The Guardians warned you not to intervene in the matters of the Green Lantern Corps any further," Sinestra said. "I would have thought even winged barbarians such as yourself would understand a basic order."

' _Oh, shit.'_

Carol groaned. Sinestra's bluntness would do its job in getting each and every one of them killed. She could not believe it, okay, in a way she could in fact believe it. Sinestra happened to be way too blunt for anyone's own good.

' _Why do I have a feeling this is going to suck,'_ Carol thought, her eye locking onto the cannon in front of her. _'Because, it's really going to suck.'_

The leader of the hawks stared down Sinestra. So much hate and blood thirst etched in the eyes of this monster, it was terrifying to say the very least.

"We do not answer to the authority of the Guardians," the lead hawk said. "And we do not listen to the authority…..of the likes of you."

"Well, then there is one authority you'll listen to."

Sinestra manifested a large glowing green ax and sliced the ax from the hand of the lead hawk. The hawk groaned the second the axe sliced into his. The two pushed back and forth in their battle, both trying to gain the necessary momentum to beat the other.

"Attack!"

Carol and Katma raised their rings in the air and created a large energy done which the hawks slammed into. They hacked into it. Beneath their helmets, they looked rather rabid. Almost like they should be put down for the good of everyone.

Ilana amused herself with the thought they would be perfect recruits for the Red Lanterns. Actually, they might be too violent for the Red Lanterns, maybe, it was pretty close.

"What in the hell did you do to piss off a bunch of angry hawks?" Carol asked.

Sinestra paused for a long moment, not answering Carol's question straight away. She rolled over the math in her head, what it would take to wipe out these hawk like creatures in one fell swoop.

"It's a long story."

One of the hawks rushed the dome and started to stab away at it. The enraged warrior rammed the side of the dome as hard and as fast as possible.

"What do we do to stop them?" Carol asked.

"These hawks only answer to one language," Sinestra said. "Mindless violence."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Katma asked.

The shields shattered and the hawks moved forward for the kill. Ilana's eyes glowed red and she created a large iron mace with her ring before swinging it with violence and intent to maim.

"Good, then I'll be able to speak down to their level!" Ilana yelled.

Ilana swung the mace around and caught one of them about the area of the head and face. A loud crash echoed with the hawks scattering from Ilana's efforts. Blood splattered in all directions.

Carol responded with one of the most labored sighs she could imagine. She turned her attention back a fraction of an inch and frown.

' _Well, when in Rome.'_

Carol shifted her ring and nailed the fleet with a drill. They all scattered to avoid the impact of the flying rocks caused by Carol driving the drill down into the ground.

"There really are too many of them," Katma said.

"Then, I'll help level the playing field."

Ilana caused one of the winged warriors to crash down upon the rocks. The truly broken warrior rolled over, groaning from the attack.

* * *

 

Harry walked away, with Karai having slipped into the shadows. For now, he would have to see how this played out. They arranged to meet further. If Karai had any idea he was the Dragon, she did not let on, and Harry kept his face calm, refusing to let her in on the fact she was the White Canary. He would have to hold that particular card close to his chest.

' _What a tangled web you try and keep together,'_ Dinah thought. _'And here I would have thought it would have unraveled by now. Although if anyone can keep track of all of the strands, it would have to be you.'_

Harry had a fair amount to keep track of and it wasn't getting any easier over the years. Everything started as simple, but as of late, the craziness just increased. It really started to get bad since Halloween.

' _Believe me, it isn't easy.'_

Lavender practically bumped into Harry. She wore a silver dress which shined in the moonlight. Mari walked over by her side, wearing a nice red dress which fit nice and firm against the abundance of curves she had to offer. A third girl, one of a dark skinned complexion, although slightly lighter than Mari's, stepped over. A few other girls from the fashion line joined them, most of them eying up Harry.

"Good evening, Harry," Lavender said, leaning in with a shameless kiss towards Harry. She slipped away from him and gave his ass a not so subtle pinch. "Mari and I are glad for the invitation. You know, this is one of the last times we can really let our hair down before Fashion Week and all of the preparations and stuff before it."

Harry smiled, it would happen in early February this year. Something told Harry Lavender intended to make this event better than ever before.

"Hello, Mari, hopefully, you're keeping Lavender in line," Harry said.

Mari laughed and Lavender gave them both a mock pout, sticking out her lip in the process.

"Well, it isn't easy," Mari admitted. "But, I've endeavored to do my best."

Harry knew for a fact Lavender groomed Mari to help take on some of the responsibilities which she had been unable to do given the vast amount of the operations which were piling off. Mari would one day be running the operations in the East Coast as Lavender expanded into Europe and potentially beyond.

"And this is Monet St Croix," Lavender said. "She attends Emma's school, and comes to us, highly recommended."

"Well, Monet, I'm glad to meet you," Harry said, taking her hand and kissing it.

Monet smiled, the chance to meet the famous Harry Potter enticed her to join the fashion line.

"The pleasure is all mine, Doctor Potter," Monet said. "I was a bit skeptical, but Lavender and Mari sold me on the benefits of joining."

Harry smiled when greeting the girl. She was well built and the type of beautiful woman who fit in with the rest of the Fashion Line.

"Well, you should feel blessed, because we have some pretty high standards," Harry said. "We only take the best of the best."

"Given my own high standards, it's just as well," Monet said. "Why to settle for the rest, when I can go for the best."

Harry chuckled at her words. He could hardly fault her for having such high standards. These high standards would be remarkable and should be appreciated by any means.

"Whoops."

An attractive Brazillian woman almost ran into Harry. She wore a light green dress which she almost spilled out of. Harry could see she was not wearing a bra underneath it, which added to the enticing nature. Her breasts bounced against the tight dress she was wearing and to be honest, Harry figured the only thing holding her dress up completely was gravity.

"Hello, Harry," Beatriz said with a smile on her face. "It's been a long time since we have gotten a chance to get together."

Beatriz wrapped her hands around Harry and started to grope his ass a little bit. She stopped when Harry raised an eyebrow. She didn't look that apologetic when pulling back from him.

"I hope I didn't hurt you running into you like that," Beatriz said. "I'm just so excited to be here, I really wasn't watching where I was going…..I hope you didn't get offended too much by it."

Beatriz curled her lips into a smile and looked towards Harry's shoulder.

"If you'd like me too, I'd kiss it and make it better," Beatriz said. "I'd make it all better."

The Brazilian Woman pressed her curves against her. Harry wouldn't entice the woman he did into bed half as well, if he didn't have willpower. It always amused him how far and how shameless they were to get a piece of him.

"Well, that's an interesting offer," Harry said. He could see Beatriz getting a little bit dizzy. "Are you okay?"

"Oh, I've just been enjoying the holidays, sweetie," Beatriz said, her tongue trailing over her lips. "It's been a marvelous party so far."

Tora, dressed in a snow-blue dress, walked over and grabbed Beatriz, leading her over to a couch where she could sit down before she collapsed. The snowy-haired woman turned her attention to Harry. She moved over, a bit of a quivering smile spreading over her lips when she moved in.

"She's indulged in the vodka a bit too much," Tora said. "I'm sure she intended to…what's the word I'm looking for….jump your boner?"

Lavender almost spewed her drink through the area of her nose. Tora looked at her strangely, when she gagged. Mari patted Lavender on the back to prevent her from choking to death.

"Um, close enough," Lavender said.

"Right, look, I'd like to thank you for all of the help you've given us this year," Tora said. She stepped closer towards Harry smiling. "It really means a lot to me."

Tora leaned into Harry and gave him a daring kiss on the lips. They barely brushed apart. She had been confident enough to do so when Beatriz had been a bit too sloshed to take advantage of such an opportunity.

"Well," Lavender said. "It looks like Beatriz isn't the only one who looks like she wants to jump your boner. Wouldn't you agree, Mari?"

Mari turned her attention away from the scene on the other side and smiled.

"Well, who wouldn't?" Mari asked. "Merry Christmas, Harry."

She noticed what hung above his head and knew Lavender would not let her get away with denying tradition. She leaned on in and kissed Harry.

Harry eased his arm around her and kissed her back. Mari's lips were so warm and soft pressed against his. Her tongue tried to part Harry's lips to gain entrance to the inside of his mouth, and Harry leaned back to allow her to ease her way inside. He reached behind her and cupped two hands full of her ass.

"I'll see you around," Mari said, with a smile and she stepped away from Harry.

"I think all she needs is one more nudge," Lavender said. "I'm going to check up on Felicia and Emma, make sure neither of them has gotten into any trouble."

Harry smiled, if he knew those two, trouble seemed to be their collective middle name.

Mia stepped around, having gotten a drink, and she turned around and almost ran into the dark haired girl which she had her eyes on.

Something about her was familiar.

"Whoa, watch it, you could hurt yourself if you don't pay attention to where you're going," she said. "How are you?"

"I'm fine," Mia said. "I haven't seen you around…"

"My name's Melody Drake," she said in a distinct Irish accent. "And you are…"

"Mia Dearden," she said without missing a beat.

The girl shifted into a knowing smile, but wisely did nothing else.

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you...Mia," she said, looking at her. "You look quite delicious tonight….and I'm sure we could have some fun."

Mia felt a little bit hot under the collar, and also between the legs for obvious reasons.

"Let's face it, I know you've been scoping out me out earlier," Melody said. "Can't say I blame you, though, you can't keep your eyes off it, can you?"

"Will your girlfriend….she is your girlfriend right?" Mia asked, pointing in the general direction of the dark-haired girl she saw Melody step into the party with. "Well, if she's your girlfriend….."

Melody leaned in to place one finger on Mia's face and smiled.

"Relax, we have a pretty open relationship, especially when it regards to other women," Melody said, running her fingers through the girl's short hair. "I'd look up if I were you as well."

Mia looked up and saw she had been trapped by the old Christmas cliché of Mistletoe. The moment she looked down, Melody's lips attacked hers. Mia could not really stop the kiss, and she did not want to. She moaned, getting into it a bit too much.

"Maybe we should have a fun time….."

Mia slipped away, shaking her head. She could not believe she almost let a total stranger seduce her.

' _Well, I thought that was going to end in a more interesting way,'_ Sara thought, lips curling into a knowing smile in the process. _'Guess, even I can be wrong sometimes.'_

She shook her head a couple of times and returned to scoping out of the party. It was just as well she did not get tied up with old friends. She did not make her move just yet, although she would have to pretty soon.

Harry continued to make his rounds around the party and ran into April O'Neil and Betty Brant.

"I should have known you two would show up," Harry said.

Both girls smiled. They found the perfect excuse to attend this particular Christmas party, not that they needed one. Anything they can justify Jonah paying their expenses for, they considered it a victory, given how much he clenched pennies.

"Well, we had to chase down a story in Gotham," April said. "Nothing major, though, but we used it as an excuse to attend the party."

April looked around and saw the mostly female population of the party. Granted, there were a few men here and there, but they were for the most part women.

"So, do you use these parties as a way to meet women, or what?" April asked.

"Well, they're good ways to cement future relationships," Harry said. "Wouldn't you agree?"

April nodded, pretty much seeing how much of a point he had. She shifted back a couple of steps, leaning against the wall.

"I wouldn't mind another interview sometime soon," Betty said. She gave Harry a knowing smile, which he returned. "And I think it would be the perfect chance to show April the ropes, of what it means to be a reporter…..it's not all Internet research and calling people on the phone. Sometimes you need to get up close and personal with the people you're talking to."

"Oh, you mean like some kind of mentor/protégé thingy?" April asked.

"Yes," Betty said. "Like that."

The knowing smile which crossed over Betty's face had been lost to April.

"So, how is the story regarding the giant turtles coming along?" Harry asked.

"Dismal, actually, sightings have dried up," April said. "They're either getting better at not being spotted by other people, or others were right. It was some kind of glorified teenage prank."

Harry could see the discontent in her eyes and understood precisely where she came from. If he had such a story, he would be disappointed.

"Well, keep your head up, April," Harry said. "I'm sure something is bound to break, eventually."

April agreed, although she did not know how four giant turtles could blend in, in a city like New York. It wasn't like you could slap a trenchcoat and fedora on them and no one would be the wiser, would it?

Harry stepped into the hallway, mostly because it allowed him to navigate the party. The drinks had been flowing, but it was a party.

A pair of elegant looking hands shot their way out from behind a door and grabbed Harry. Harry had been pulled into a room and turned around just in time to see Sara Lance standing there before him. She was giving him some shameless bedroom eyes.

"You didn't think I would come all the way to Gotham City without getting a piece of you," Sara said. "And given how all of these bitches are going to be lining up around the block, I want first dibs."

Harry could not fault the girl for wanting what she wanted. Sara grabbed Harry by the tie and pulled him into a kiss. The feisty blonde's tongue shoved down Harry's throat and tried to molest his tonsils.

Turnabout was fair play as Harry worked his hands around Sara and squeezed her ass. She gasped when pressing further into Harry's hips. Her able hands made quick of his pants and started to tug him down.

' _Finally,'_ Sara thought in triumphant, extracting her tongue from Harry's throat, mostly because she needed it for something else.

Sara pulled Harry's cock out of his pants and dropped down to her knees. She took his cock into her mouth and tasted it. She enjoyed the taste of it.

Harry grabbed onto the back of Sara's head. Her hands roamed all over his thighs and one of them reached up to cup his balls. Sara sucked his cock a couple of times and came all the way down onto him.

"Yes, Sara, you suck come pretty well," Harry said. "Keep it up, keep sucking my cock, baby."

Sara smiled and cradled Harry's balls before giving it a squeeze. She started to rock her mouth all the way down onto him. Sara's hot mouth popped around him before pulling all the way off of him.

"Going to save that cum for later," Sara said, stroking the slit of his cock. Harry reached over and pulled up her skirt and pulled down her panties to reveal her dripping pussy. It was obvious to even a blind man how much she wanted by the scent of arousal. "Take me, Harry."

Harry brushed his finger against Sara's hot slit and teased her. She rose her hips all the way up and grabbed him around the waist with her legs. She pulled her lover towards her dripping hot pussy. Sara lifted her hips.

"Oh, I want you," Harry said. "And I'm going to take you."

Sara moaned loudly when Harry pierced her dripping hot pussy. Harry's thick tool penetrated her and pushed all the way inside her. Sara hung onto his back, feeling the sculpted feeling of his body. His hips pressed down against hers with a long thrust.

Harry undid Sara's top and revealed her perky breasts. He viewed a nice set of nipples before her. He leaned down and started to kiss down on them. Sara gasped with her wet pussy had been penetrated with her.

"You want more, don't you?" Harry asked, leaning down and cupping Sara's breast.

She nodded and Harry's hands skimmed her body. She reached up in response and sunk her nails into Harry's back. Harry rose almost all the way up and pumped inside her pussy with a long thrust.

Sara's entire body sized up with the pleasure. She dreamed about a one on one meeting with Harry. His cock pierced her, his strong hands working all over her. The blonde's breath left her body and escaped.

"You're in me, so deep," Sara said. She leaned down. "Make my pussy cum all over your cock. Drill my tight pussy…..I want to scream from you…fuck me so hard…..fuck me really hard."

Harry sped up the thrusts which caused her to receive pleasurable moans from Sara. He pumped his thick balls all the way against her, rising up and pushing all the way down onto her. Sara's wet walls clamped around him.

Sara held onto Harry and he sped up the thrusts inside her at her encouragement. She tightened a hand around Harry's bicep with a squeeze.

"I'm cumming!" Sara said. "You're making me cum, so hard!"

Harry sped up to enjoy the pumps of her pussy. Sara held onto him tightly, with Harry drilling his cock into her with a series of hard thrusts. Her belly bulged from the side of his cock inside her.

Sara's entire body thrashed up. She grabbed onto Harry's neck with a feral force. Her nails dug into the side of Harry's head with Harry pushing all the way inside her. She moaned and Harry leaned down to kiss her breasts and lick them.

"Damn," Sara said.

The sensation of Harry's tongue swirling around Sara's nipples made her hips buck up and push him inside her. Her pussy rode out an amazing orgasm.

Harry smiled and slipped out of Sara. She made a noise of discomfort. Harry motioned for her to turn around and so she did.

Sara propped herself on the bed and showed Harry her juicy ass. Harry raised a hand and spanked Sara's rear end.

"You have such a hot ass," Harry said. He grabbed Sara's ass and squeezed it. His hands molded and played with the juicy cheeks.

"Oh, I know I do baby," Sara said, pushing her ass into Harry's hands. "And I know you want to fuck it. I want you to put your large cock inside my ass."

"Well, in a minute," Harry said, pushing his finger into Sara's ass and fingering it. "I don't think you've begged nearly enough for my cock."

Sara gasped when Harry fingered her puckered hole. Harry pushed all the way into her and drew out of her. His balls rubbed against her asshole and Sara could feel how much seed he had.

Harry opened up Sara's asshole and pushed all the way inside her. Sara rocked all the way back into her, taking Harry's large cock inside her asshole. Harry's balls pushed against her.

"Oh, fuck me, fuck my ass!" Sara yelled. "Drill my ass, and pound it…..pound it raw, I want your fucking cock balls deep in my tight ass!"

Harry smiled, ramming his cock up and down into Sara's ass. Her anal walls squeezed around him. Harry reached around her and twisted her nipples. The moans of encouragement made Harry work into Sara quicker. His balls rocked against Sara's asshole, with Harry pushing all the way inside her with a couple more hard and fast thrusts.

"Yes, you want me to fuck your tight little ass, don't you?" Harry asked. He pinched Sara's nipple, causing her to gasp. "You're going to scream when I make you cum again."

Harry's finger manipulated Sara's clit. It caused juices to flow all the way down her. He gave her more rough thrusts into her ass.

Sara relished the feeling of his thick cock drilling into her ass. He pumped all the way into her. Harry's thick balls pushed all the way into her ass.

"I bet you can't hold on for too much longer," Sara said, digging her the bed. "I bet you're thinking about pumping all your juicy cum into my tight ass."

Harry slapped Sara's cheek and she smiled. She ran her hot hands all over her body and Harry joined in the shameless fondling. His hands cupped her breasts.

"You're right, but you're going to cum," Harry said, pushing inside her wet pussy. He rubbed her insides.

Sara flexed her ass, controlling Harry's cock with her tight cheeks. She wanted the cum inside her ass. Her body tensed up at the thought. Her pussy clenched around Harry's fingers when he penetrated Sara's depths.

Harry groaned when he could feel his cock size up. He pushed all the way inside Sara's tight ass with a huge thrust inside her body. His balls ached and he really wanted to send his cum inside her tight ass.

"Here we go," Harry said, pinching Sara's hot nipples. "I hope you're ready."

"Yes, baby, I'm ready, give me your cum!" Sara yelled.

Harry pumped all the way into her ass. His balls pumped into Sara's ass and filled the tight hole up with a splattering of cum.

Each time Harry's hot cum blasted her anus, Sara's pussy clenched and rode Harry's fingers. Her entire body tensed and milked Harry's fingers just like she did his cock. He emptied a heavy load.

Sara turned around, with a sultry look on her face. She took Harry's half-hardened cock in her hand and pushed it into her mouth. She tasted herself on Harry, cleaning him up and sucking him.

"You dirty girl, you dirty girl," Harry said.

Sara pulled away from him, pushing her nipples against Harry, and pinning down on the bed. Her pussy ground up against his cock and she lowered down onto him.

"The night's still young!" Sara moaned, bringing her love box all the way down onto it. "And I'm primed to ride you all night long."

Sara's wig fell off and Harry saw her beautiful face, framed by her blonde hair. She rocked up and down on Harry. Harry reached around and touched her body to encourage Sara to moan. She coaxed him into her tight depths.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on September 28** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well, lots of things happening at that party, and Sara…ends her night with a bang. More to come._

_Until Wednesday._


	229. So This is Christmas Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty-Nine: So This is Christmas(The War Isn't Over) Part Three.**

* * *

 

Emma Frost leaned back against the wall. She had not taken many trips to Gotham City during her life, mostly because she had a lot of things on her plate before this party. Felicia insisted she would should join Emma at the party, and Emma shrugged, what was the harm of that? The year had been a rather rough one for the heiress.

' _Well, there's always room for improvement. And I think things are going to pick up right here.'_

Her mood improved when she noticed Harry Potter step out of the room. She looked at his jacket which had been rumpled a little bit along with his hair. Emma smiled, she had a pretty good idea what Harry had been up to and a huge part of her approved. And also disapproved given she had not received a chance to get a piece of Harry.

Felicia hinted at Emma and rubbed it into her face Felicia beat Emma to the punch. She had more opportunities.

' _Just wait, Felicia, just wait,'_ Emma thought.

Emma Frost would have her day, but she needed to play this one calmly. No one liked a woman who seemed very needy. She was going to be calm and casual.

"I thought I had missed you, Doctor Potter," Emma said with a smile when she approached Harry. She stepped closer towards Harry and brought him closer with her hand. "Would you care to join both of us for a drink?"

"I think it would be an insult if I didn't have a chance to join both of you," Harry said. He looked towards Felicia with a smile. "How are you doing, Felicia?"

Felicia smiled and edged a bit closer towards Harry. Intentionally, or perhaps on purpose, she stepped off to the side in front of Emma. Emma's burning gaze could be felt at the back of Harry's head.

"Really well now you're here," Felicia said. She approached Harry and touched her lips towards his with a nice kiss.

Felicia wrapped her arms around Harry and brought his body into hers. She smiled when allowing Harry's hands to quest, to show she didn't wear any underwear underneath her dress.

' _Tart,'_ Emma thought, shaking her head in bemusement.

Emma wasn't complaining too much because she enjoyed the view.

"And I can see you're doing really well as well," Felicia said, using her thumb to brush down Harry's abs before she pulled away from him. She swirled her tongue on the inside of her cheek.

"How about you, Emma?" Harry asked.

Emma appreciated the intention. They had a handful of meetings which didn't even scratch the surface.

"Been a busy last couple of months," Emma said. She threw back her blonde hair and sighed. "My father's lung cancer hasn't succeeded in bringing him down yet. The doctor gave him six months to live about nine months ago…."

Harry could not help and think Emma was wishing her father would just get down with it. Given how much of a problem Winston Frost was in the past, Harry doubted very much he was wrong.

' _She's really not being subtle at all, is she?'_ Faora asked.

' _The opposite definition of subtle,'_ Lily thought. _'Then again, Emma is Emma, so she's pretty shrewd in some respects. Even though she could blunt.'_

"My sisters are anxious as well, and they're always plotting," Emma said. "Hopefully they won't be too much of a problem. Otherwise, they're going to be in need of some discipline in the future. Hopefully, there's a strong hand which can give it to them."

Harry responded with a slight smirk. Not really subtle at all, in any way, not in the slightest, no not really at all. He could see Lily and Rose make their way over across the dining hall. Both of the Evans sisters smiled knowingly when they approached Emma to properly greet her.

"Hello, Ms. Frost," Lily said. "I hope you're finding Gotham well."

"The trip was rather relaxing and this party has good company in it," Emma said. "I have a feeling the sights and sounds of Gotham City might sour my experiences later on, but I'm willing to keep an open mind."

Lily frowned, Gotham could be a good place, only because some people worked hard to work against the common nature of the people.

' _It's a never ending grind,'_ Sapphire admitted. _'But, hey, we've just got to do what we have to do.'_

"I hope it wouldn't," Lily said with a smile when she looked over at Emma and locked eye to eye with her. "And have you given any thought of my proposal….our proposal."

Harry chuckled at the cross look Rose gave Harry. Harry responded with a smile when stepping back towards them to allow the conversation. He caught a few snatches of conversation to walking a couple of steps back.

"I think my students will be glad to have the opportunity," Emma said. "And I'm certain there will be certain perks which they will be appeased by."

Emma was once again not too subtle when she looked towards Harry. Harry answered with a smile towards her.

' _I can only imagine what those would be,'_ Kara said with a smile. She leaned back against the wall, hanging out with Donna and Barbara, along with the twins.

' _Well, I don't think they will be disappointed,'_ Amanda thought. _'It just depends on how willing they are to work.'_

Harry turned his attention towards Betsy and Meggan. Both of them had flown in for the holidays to attend the party. A second passed before Betsy rushed towards Harry and threw her arms around him. She gave him a sizzling kiss in response.

Betsy pulled away from Harry. She was pretty glad to make the trip to Gotham City. Chaos didn't even begin to describe the last couple of months.

She pushed herself back in, much to the amusement of Meggan who looked about ready to lose her mind with a fit of giggles.

"It's good to see you as well," Harry said. He squeezed Betsy's rear. "How have you been lately?"

"Busy," Betsy said. "But, I doubt I was going to miss the party of the century. Wouldn't you agree, Meggan?"

Meggan grinned at her girlfriend.

"What, about missing the party, or the fact you were busy?" Meggan asked. She leaned in and gave Harry a hug. Harry leaned down and gave her a light kiss on the lips which caused her to tingle from the action of his lips. "But…by the way, I agree with both facts."

Betsy smiled, she had been keeping Meggan in line, and they had very similar tastes as it turned out.

"I'm sure you have, you've been with me every step of the way," Betsy said. "My brother….he left a lot of problems behind, I've been just dealing with them one by one."

The authorities still stubbornly persisted Betsy's brother's death was an accident. When Meggan made peace and had decided to move on, Betsy had persisted a little bit more. She used her contacts to bring up some leads which pointed to the fact foul play could be involved.

"Yeah, he….well I'm sure he would have been proud of how you had gotten along," Meggan said. "And besides, we found each other, and found comfort in each other."

Betsy laughed. She was not certain whether or not her brother would have approved or been scandalized by the fact his sister took his widow underneath her wing. Betsy gave even odds either way. Still, she wasn't going to make any apologizes for what.

"Wouldn't you agree this is a good thing, Harry?"

"Hey, I'm all for lovely women finding love with each other," Harry said.

Betsy grinned and leaned towards Harry. She kissed Harry on the lips before pulling back.

The moment Harry pulled back from the Eurasian beauty, he noticed someone making her way through the crowd. He had been surprised to see her, given how busy she was.

"Well, I'm here," a voice said. "It's been a rough trip, but I've made it here."

"Betsy, you remember Lara Croft, don't you?"

Betsy smiled, oh boy, did she remember her all too well.

* * *

 

Gillian Loeb reflected on the year which was. He nestled himself in the back of the car, being driven back home by the SWAT of the Gotham City Police Department. He had been put on pins and needles over the last couple of months given the cop killer. Every single attack put him more in line to be raked over the coals by both the press and his peers.

His hope the cop killer had been unmasked before the end of the year caused Loeb's tension to rise even more.

A loud explosion echoed and the tire flattened underneath the car which caused it to skid out of control. The driver tried to regain control of the car with a patch of ice being the car's downfall.

"Wait, wait, someone….."

The car slammed into a telephone pole. Loeb groaned when he had been pinned into the back seat of the car. He struggled to get out. He had been pinned in pretty tightly. His heavy breathing increased when trying to get out of his spot.

The windshields in the front shattered when several well-timed bullets caught the SWAT team members guarding him in the head. The man next to him in the back seat of the car fell towards Loeb, splattering blood and brain matter over him.

Loeb realized how close he was to death. His hands twitched and kept shaking.

A sound of a crowbar breaking open the side of the car door and the sound of a gun clicking next to the side of Loeb's head followed. Loeb turned his attention to the man on the other side of the door and looked into the face of true terror.

"YOU!"

* * *

 

Carol dodged the attack from one of the Thangarians. His axe swung near her hair and just barely missed taking a little off the top in the worst way. Carol crouched down to dodge the axe from ramming into the side of her head. The Green Lantern stepped back and created a green hand, wrapping around the axe.

The hawk man growled and rushed forward. He tried to attack her. Carol dodged the attack one more time. The axe flung into the ground. Carol turned around and caught him with a blast. The axe connected to the ground and Carol caught her one more time.

Ilana had been backed off by the attack of the hawk creature. The spiked gauntlet aimed towards the Red Lantern. She swopped underneath the attack, a red glow flashing through her eyes. The Red Lantern whirled the construct from her hand and slammed it into the face of creature, dropping him down to the ground.

"Get to the ship!" one of them yelled.

Sinestra spotted the fact they went for one of the ships in particular. The Senior Green Lantern jumped in front of them. They growled when their paths have been blocked.

"OUT OF MY WAY!" she howled at the top of her lungs.

"Make me, leave."

Sinestra threw down the gauntlet to them. The hawk people rushed towards her. She blocked the swinging axe with a shield. They had been backed up. Sinestra's glowing eyes combined with a tiny amount of burning yellow eyes.

One of the Hawkmen rushed towards Sinestra. She dodged the attack and dipped behind the warrior in question. Sinestra cracked an attack down from underneath his ankles.

One of them tried to bring the axe down onto the back of Sinestra's head. Carol shot forward and knocked the swinging axe out of the hand of the goon. The Green Lantern reared her hand back and knocked the axe out of the hand of her adversary one more time.

"Get out of my way!" the brutish hawk warrior yelled.

Carol rolled underneath the attack and jumped up to take down her adversary. She gripped the axe out of the hand of her enemy and wrenched it away. The hawk warrior staggered forward before slipping on the ground. He had been put into position for Carol to rush at them. The stunning blonde lantern nailed her enemy with a roundhouse punch to the side of the head.

Sinestra brought down a net down onto the Thangarians. They tried to break free. Sinestra turned her wrist hoisting them up before bringing them down onto the ground.

"All of the Green Lanterns die!"

One of the Thangarians pushed through Katma's attack. She used a glowing pair of green surgical scissors to snap the weapon out of the hawk warrior's hand. The hawk warrior staggered a couple of steps back and Katma turned her hand around before nailing her adversary with a blast to knock the blade from her enemy's back.

The Thangarian made his way into the front seat of the ship and started to start it up. A red spike drilled through the top of the ship, forcing the hawk warrior to abort those attacks.

"Why are you running?" Ilana asked. "And here I was under the impression the Thangarians were noble warriors and didn't run from a fight!"

The creature lifted up his axe and charged Ilana with it. Ilana arched her back to avoid the attack. She dodged the incoming attack from Sinestra and put the hawk warrior in position for one of the attacks.

Now all of the hawks were down, Sinestra made her way to the back seat. She pried back one of the seats, revealing a large crate underneath. She opened her mouth and had been astonished by what she saw in the back seat. It was hard to believe it was there, what she thought it was anyway.

"Is that what I think it is?" Katma asked.

"What is it?" Carol asked.

Sinestra hoped she was wrong.

"It's unrefined Nth Metal," Sinestra said, explaining it. She picked up one of the chunks. "It's among the hardest metal on Earth, and it's what their weapons are made out of."

Sinestra picked up one of the weapons in question. She noticed one of the warriors tried to reach it. Sinestra raised her ring and caused the green shackles to crack around the wrists and the ankles.

"There's more than enough metal here to arm an entire army of Hawks," Sinestra said. "And it's illegal to transport it through this sector in this unrefined form."

Sinestra turned her attention towards the hawk on the ground. The contempt in the creature's face was only matched by the contempt Sinestra looked down on his eyes.

"You think you can stop us, can you?" one of them asked. "You think you can stop our plans, can you?"

"I don't think, hawk," Sinestra said. She tightened the grip around him. "I know I can do it."

Carol wondered how this was going to end. She guessed not well, to be honest. It had been like a plane wreck.

"We're going to take you down," the hawk said.

"Tell us what you're doing with the Nth Metal," Sinestra said.

The hawk started to laugh, sending slobber flying in the air towards the Green Lanterns.

"Disgusting," Ilana said. "He's not talking…"

Sinestra created a glowing green drill. Carol blinked, for a moment, she thought the drill looked more yellowish than green. The moment she blinked and cleared her thought, it looked pretty green.

' _Must have been a trick of the light.'_

The drill positioned towards the heart of the hawk. The bit came inches within driving down into his heart and ripping it out. The hawk looked up, contempt flashing through his eyes.

"You don't scare me," the hawk said. "Others will be after me, and he'll crush you all."

"Don't lie to me," Sinestra said. "I can see the fear in your eyes. You're a noble warrior, but you're not a fool. You know what will happen if you enrage me."

The hawk warrior's eyes flashed and he broke into a snarl, looking more of a creature than a human. Well, he was not human, to be honest, but still. The drill found its way to the point of the creatures chest and the bones started to crack.

Carol's lack of comfort increased the more she observed this rather intense method of interrogation. Sinestra's eyes flickered when she watched the Thangarian struggle underneath the point of the drill.

"Okay, I think….."

One look from Sinestra showed Carol all about what she thought of what Carol thought and it was not really much at all. Carol sighed and fell back into line the best she could. Sinestra turned away from Carol.

"I'm losing my patience, and even you need a heart and lungs to live," Sinestra said.

"We're….under a civil war," one of them said. "We need the weapons to take down the other side….and unite the planet underneath a peaceful regime."

Sinestra responded with one of the most obvious snorts possible. She did not think these hawks knew the meaning of the word "peace." Regardless, though, she had what she wanted, and withdrew the drill from the chest of the hawk. She knocked the alien out with a solid thump and allowed him to slump to the ground in a state of unconsciousness.

Finally, Sinestra stepped away from the filthy creature on the ground.

"Thangar is under a civil war?" Katma asked.

"Not surprising," Sinestra said. "If the hawks don't have anyone to fight, they're going to descend to fighting each other instead. Typical war mongering behavior."

"Were you going to kill him if you didn't get the information?" Carol asked.

Sinestra turned away from the question and returned to the ship without another word, leaving Carol out in the dust. Ilana stepped behind them and placed her hand on Carol's arm. Carol turned a fraction of a step towards Ilana.

"If it makes you feel any better, I don't think she would have had the stomach to pull the trigger," Ilana said. "At least not yet."

Ilana's theory did not make Carol feel too much better. It turned and sickened her stomach even worse, come to think of it.

' _What the hell is happening to her?'_

* * *

 

The night was getting later, the drinks were flowing, and a few latecomers showed up. Harry noticed a particularly interesting guest off to the side of the party, even though she had been dressed incognito. She wore a blonde wig and dark glasses, with a nice casual looking dress. Harry stepped towards her and smiled.

Harry heard rumors she had been in Gotham City, but obviously, she wanted to keep under the radar as much as possible.

"Hello, Marie, it's me," Harry said .

Marie Logan turned towards Harry and smiled. After their last encounter, she had been buzzing for another encounter with Harry. The Hollywood starlet turned her head towards Harry and pressed her lips against his with a sensual kiss which Harry returned.

"I had to roll back into Gotham City for a few weeks of promotional work," Marie said. "And Juno insisted I show up at the party."

Harry figured about as much, given the rumors. He was just glad to hear it straight from her.

"Well, I'm sure I speak for Veronica, and pretty much everyone else here about how we're glad to have you," Harry said. "At least, I'm glad to have you."

Marie smiled. Harry would have had her in a more interesting way back in Africa if their fun had not been interrupted. She wondered what might have been. And she wondered if there might be another chance.

Maybe not tonight, she preferred to take her shot in a more intimate atmosphere.

"And I still owe you a dinner, any time you want it," Harry said.

Marie had not forgotten about this promise on Harry's part, oddly enough, and the fact he had been the one to bring it up spoke rather well for him. She walked closer towards him, placing a hand on the side of his face.

"Going to be busy for the week I'm here, but you never know, the stars could align," Marie said. "And I'm sure you'd have me sooner or later, it's only inevitable."

Marie smiled when she looked over her shoulder, noticing another famous party guest which would have taken some of the glow and the attention off of her. She turned back towards Harry and smiled. She figured something must have happened between them recently.

It was just a theory though, one she could be right with.

"And considering Juno's glowing, I'm pretty sure she would agree," Marie said. She reached around and brushed her hand against Harry's rear before pulling it back to get a drink. "It's a nice party, you really outdid yourself…and Ms. Vreeland."

"I think she gets the lion's share of the credit, her and Sapphire," Harry said. "So….."

"Merry Christmas, Harry."

Marie leaned towards him and kissed him hard. She was glad she was incognito because any camera flashes might have ruined the moment. The starlet pulled away from Harry with a shifty grin, pressing her hips against his before turning away and walking away.

' _Maybe another time,'_ she thought.

Harry smiled, Marie most certainly knew what she wanted and got it pretty much in any way she could. Harry appreciated these qualities in women, more than anything else.

She slipped off to talk to something, and Harry turned his attention to a conversation in the corner. The twins talked with Amy Crestmere, the new girl in their class. Naturally, Harry knew who she really was, but was willing to play along with the charade, to see what card was being played this time.

' _Oh, what a tangled web you weave….it's almost like the three of you are up to something.'_

While Harry trusted his sisters, beyond all sense at times, them talking to a classmate in a hushed conversation could have been trouble. Harry walked over to join the three of them.

"Hello, Harry," Amanda said. "How have you been doing tonight?"

"I'm doing fine, Mandy," Harry said.

"How many girls have jumped you tonight?" Amanda asked, with a saucy little smile.

Emily shook her head and Amy's mouth hung open halfway in outrage. Harry chuckled at his sister's question.

She obviously had been surprised by the bluntness of Amanda. It took a while to get used to, to be honest. Harry moved towards one of his twin sisters and smiled.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Harry asked. "And anyway, the night is still young, and there are many women who I'm sure are sizing me up."

"Yes, a few," Amanda said, with a smile. She had a couple of drinks, not too many, though. Her mother and aunt were close by and thankfully in conversation with Emma Frost, conducting business.

Harry laughed at the antics of his sister. He caught eyes with Emily, who held up her drink glass which indicated Amanda had been kicking back a few drinks tonight. Which always could lead to an adventure, the more Harry thought about it. He would have to keep an eye on things and make sure Mandy didn't get into too much trouble.

' _Well, she can hold it thanks to her powers,'_ Kara suggested, with a shrug of her shoulders.

' _She gets in plenty of trouble when she's sober,'_ Jaime thought, with a slight fond smile, and a slight wince of the memory of the incident in Metropolis.

Harry turned his full attention to Amy. He had talked to her a couple of times, and he could tell her interest was obvious.

"How are you finding school, Amy?" Harry asked.

"Well, it's a challenge, and different from what I had back home, but I'm excelling," Amy said with a smile. "But, even though I transferred into the school late, I have a responsibility as a senior student to be a leading example to the younger class members. I think you can agree it's a good idea I took this responsibility seriously."

"Oh, it's not like we don't," Amanda said. "After Bette and Bunny left, there's a void, and someone has to mentor the younger kids, lead them right, and thankfully we haven't led them directly off of a cliff."

Amanda chuckled at her own dark sense of humor. Harry shook his head and leaned over.

"You have six more months to graduation," Harry said. "Then the real hard work is going to begin from there."

Harry pulled himself away from the twins and Amara. He took a nice long look towards the door where a rumbled looking Kate Kane walked out, followed by Faora. He decided to look away from them, even though he could tell what they had been up to.

' _She's a work in progress,'_ Faora thought, almost as if she had picked up on Harry's thought.

Harry turned his attention to a secluded corner of the party which Bruce disappeared in. Bruce's tone sounded more concerned. His cheerful demeanor, his mask was something Harry heard often. Harry heard plenty of Bruce's true stoic self.

To hear him sound so concerned though, Harry knew something was wrong.

"Rachel, it's Bruce, please pick up, or at least call me to say you aren't coming, something came up," Bruce said. "It's getting late, and….well we're all getting worried. So, if you can, call me, if you don't by morning….."

Bruce trailed off for a moment. Harry could tell he was about a half of a second from suiting up and going out on the streets himself to hunt down Rachel.

' _Something is a bit wrong, isn't it?'_ Karen thought to Harry. _'She isn't the type to just disappear.'_

Sara had returned to the party, managing to find her wig and glasses. She had marks all over her neck. The feisty blonde disguised as brunette flashed Harry a smile before she slid into the corner to join her sister, who had been talking to Barbara.

"Hello," Dinah said. "I wondered if you would even talk to me tonight."

"Of course, I would," Sara said. "I always have time to talk to my favorite sister; I just had some pressing business to take care of before I did."

The two of them spoke in low and hushed tones. Thankfully the hustle and bustle of the party masked any incriminating information. People had been too wrapped up in the conversation, or too drunk to really pay what the two girls were up to any mind.

"I noticed."

Dinah's eyes traveled from Harry to Sara. Harry had joined Diana and Donna in conversation, and the two of them looked as if they were trying to entice Harry to join them elsewhere in the party.

"Well, you have to admit he's an upgrade," Sara said. "Regardless, though…..I really wonder if he made it out okay."

Dinah knew what they were talking about.

"Oliver?" Dinah asked. "Yes….that was…"

Dinah really could not say anything. The news had been talking about the mysterious disappearance of Oliver Queen for months and months. Dinah tried not to pay the news much mind, if at all, even though it was all the news decided to talk about for the longest time. She responded with a crisp sigh directed towards her sister.

"For, Thea's sake," Dinah said. "For her sake, I really hope something happens….one way or another, so she can get some closure and move on."

Sara nodded in response.

"Yes," Sara said. "I agree...I thought I could prevent him from doing something stupid when we went on that boat together….but I guess, I didn't count on the damn thing sinking into the sea."

Sara was almost glad she was on the ship when it went down at sea. She would not have been found by the League and then underwent the awakening she had.

"So, how's school?" Sara asked.

Dinah frowned, talk about your abrupt about-face of conversational topics. Regardless, though, she nodded in response.

"Challenging," Dinah said. "But, it will give me a chance to do a lot, both day and night."

"Bust them at night as the Black Canary, and bust them in court as Dinah Lance," Sara said. She shifted towards Dinah with a smile. "Well, you do have your priorities in order."

For the first time in a very long time, Dinah would have to say she had a lot of her life in order. She decided to ask Sara one more question, straight forward.

"Have you called our father?" Dinah asked.

"I should really, shouldn't I?" Sara asked.

Harvey Dent tried to enjoy the party. Worry racked his mind, regarding Gilda not picking up, and then Rachel not picking up. A call on his cell phone caused Harvey to feel both a small burst of hope and an even larger burst of dread. He would know in a moment whether or not his thoughts had been spot on or not. Harvey lifted up the phone and placed it to his ear.

"I thought you should know," the man on the other end of the phone said. "There's been an accident."

Harvey's feeling of dread dropped into the pit of his stomach. The District Attorney dreaded finding out who it might be.

"Gillian Loeb has been in a car accident, and the members of the Gotham City SWAT guarding him have been shot," the man on the other end of the phone said.

Harvey felt relief it had just been Loeb, no love loss for him at all.

"One of them had been left alive long enough to tell us of the attack," the man on the phone said. "I trust you know what to do."

Harvey knew. He slipped his phone away and almost stepped back into James Gordon. Gordon nodded in response.

"We better leave quietly," James said. "Loeb's been kidnapped."

From the corner, Harry watched the two men leave. He overheard enough of the conversation.

' _Looks like the cop killer struck again,'_ Barbara thought. _'But why would they kidnap Loeb, and not kill him?'_

' _I don't know, Babs,'_ Harry thought. _'I really don't know.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on October 2** **nd** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_And after some party fun, the kidnapping of Loeb is made. Things are getting even more interesting. We'll see you on Sunday._


	230. So This is Christmas Part Four

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty: So This is Christmas(And the War Isn't Over) Part Four.**

* * *

 

The party thinned out just a tiny bit because several people had to have due to an emergency or to get home early for some reason. Harry turned his attention to a certain dark haired woman who stood off in the shadows. She leaned back against them, drinking a glass of wine, and wearing a rather prominent smile when she waited for Harry to join them.

The two of them had their share of encounters over the years, and unfortunately, their schedules made it very hard for them to get together. Still, Harry was glad she had a chance.

"Lady Croft, it's been a long time," Harry said, walking towards her.

"Yes, much too long, but you do know why."

"Yes, I do indeed."

Lara smiled, she and Harry had a chance to reunite briefly tonight, but there had been a couple of other things going on which prompted them not to be able to reunite as much as she would have liked them to. Lara invited Harry to join her, wrapping an arm around him.

"Yes, it has," Lara said. "I was hoping you would do me the honor of giving me this dance."

Harry laughed and pulled her closer towards him. Lara smiled, with Harry pressing his lips onto hers with a kiss. She returned the favor quite happily and eagerly. Harry pulled away from Lara, leaving her a bit breathless from the kiss.

"I think there would be a huge problem if I didn't have a chance to dance with someone so lovely tonight," Harry said, wrapping his arms around Lara and pulling her closer towards him. "So, I have to ask, how are you doing on this fine evening?"

Lara responded with a frown, getting her thoughts together, with what she wanted to say. To tell how she was at any given point in time would be very complicated for Lara.

' _Loaded question with her, isn't it?'_ Diana asked.

' _Well, she's pretty busy,'_ Helena chimed in. _'And she has adventures which you wouldn't believe about.'_

' _Oh, there's a lot we can believe,'_ Faora thought.

"Oh, you know all about me," Lara said, licking her lips when looking at Harry. "I'm always keeping busy, being on many adventures. Had a couple of tombs I wanted to take a look at over the past couple of months."

She responded with a sigh and locked eyes onto Harry. She enjoyed the moment before sighing, almost wistfully.

"Nothing of value, I'm afraid," Lara said. "That's the problem with going with these ancient artifacts. There are times where you hit the jackpot and there are other times where you hit up just a great deal of disappointment."

Harry smiled, dipping Lara back onto the ground in their dance. He leaned in and planted a few light kisses to the side of her neck. She closed her eyes, breathing heavily with a light smile. Harry pulled away from her and looked down at her.

"I hope this party has met your high expectations, my dear lady," Harry said.

Lara leaned closer towards Harry and stole another hungry kiss from him. Their lips met together in passionate fire before Lara pulled away.

"Oh, you know how I am about my expectations," Lara said. She touched a finger to Harry's lips and brushed them. "And this party has met all of my expectations and more…and it's a shame I can't stick around for much longer than an hour or two. A real pity, but I have to be on a boat by sunrise."

Their hips met together briefly, with Lara playfully grinding them against Harry. She needed to take extra care not to tease herself too much because she really did need to be out of Gotham City before the night was over.

"Oh, it would be a shame," Harry said, reaching behind Lara and giving her another cup of her firm ass. "It would be a real shame."

"Yes, it would," Lara said. "So, tell me about the trip to Egypt?"

' _I wondered when it would come up,'_ Harry thought.

Harry smiled the second he watched Diana and Shayera turn around. He decided to introduce them.

"Diana, you remember Lara Croft, don't you?" Harry asked.

"Yes, I do," Diana said. "I remember her taking a detour and crashing onto Paradise a couple years ago as well."

Lara laughed; no one could fault her for not remembering it. However, it would be a long time before she forgot her encounters with the Amazons.

"Yes, I'm sure you would remember it, I know it was quite memorable," Lara said with a smile on her lips. "You really know how to treat a woman, Princess."

The two women shook hands with each other, before parting ways from each other with a smile. Harry decided to introduce Lara to the other woman.

"Lara, this is Doctor Shayera Hall," Harry said.

Lara noticed the woman who she wanted to meet for a long time. She was a bit of a fan of Doctor Hall's research, also very envious of some of the places she got to go. Which said a whole lot, given where Lara went to during her time.

"Well, so it is," Lara said. "It's an honor to meet you, Doctor Hall, I'm a big fan of your work. I wished I would have had a chance to join you on the trip, but something came up. You know how it goes when something comes up."

Shayera smiled, given what she heard about Lara, there always seemed to be something going on.

"Yes, I can tell," Shayera said, reaching over to shake Lara's hand. The girl talked about a mile a minute and she was rather passionate about her work. Shayera respected this quality in a woman. "The trip was more than eventful. But, you've gone on some memorable trips in your time, haven't you?"

Lara smiled, Shayera may have spoken the understatement to end all understatements. Memorable looked to be a pretty good qualifier.

"Well, there's been some memorable moments, I'm not going to lie," Lara said. "Nothing along the lines of a long dead boy king possessing a Professor, or rather him, thinking he's said dead king, an army, and….well I only heard hints and pieces of it. I'm certain the full tale is more fantastical than any rumors I've ever heard."

Harry, Shayera, and Diana all smiled. They would have to agree with Lara's point. The facts of this matter often were stranger than any kind of fiction which could be spun in any manner.

"We'll have a drink, and we'll tell you all about it," Shayera said.

"I'd enjoy the opportunity."

The party continued to go on, as Harry moved around to make his rounds. He caught sight of Lavender making some kind of sales pitch elsewhere, and he just had to smile.

"So, what do you two girls think about it?" Lavender asked.

Harry turned his attention towards Lavender having a sales pitch to Bette and Bunny, apparently. She was always on the hunt for fresh models for their organization. Harry caught Mari's eye, who smiled and shook her head at the matter.

Mari could have broken out in laughter, but she wanted to remain as professional as possible and also very supportive of Lavender.

Bette and Bunny looked at each other, and shrugged.

"I'm not sure," Bette said.

"I understand you want to focus on your studies, and believe me, sweetie, I appreciate that more than anyone else can imagine," Lavender said, biting down on her lip with a smile on her face. "But, just think, if the two of you get your faces out there, you can really help us. It's not a big deal, a few shoots, it's for a good cause. The two of you have amazing bodies which will really give the young girls I'm marketing to confidence and something to aspire to."

' _She managed to get all of that out in one breath,'_ Karen said. _'That's really the most impressive part of it.'_

Harry smiled, boy was it ever impressive.

"Not sure, if…well….."

"They'll be as tasteful as you want them to," Lavender said. "It really depends on the girl how daring and how….enticing these particular shoots could get."

Harry stepped across the room and joined Mari. Mari smiled when tipping back her glass and looked Harry straight in the eye.

Mari moved over to leave Bette and Bunny at the tender mercies.

"Boy, she's really hammering it hard," Harry said.

"She's rather confident in getting what she wants, and she knows what she wants," Mari said, giving Harry a sidelong glance and a smile. "Bette and Bunny would be good fits."

"Hey, I agree," Harry said. "Although it's not something they really need to do."

Mari smiled, they didn't need to do it, but they would be pretty good fits.

"Well, yes, I agree," Mari said. "But, you have to admit, seeing them model some of our lingerie would pop a few eyeballs. Even if I'm sure you've seen them in a fair bit less."

Mari smiled, having caused Harry to nod. She thought about doing some modeling for Harry in the future, privately. She had been around him a fair bit, and after hearing whispered stories between Felicia and Lavender, she knew it would be time to make her move.

Heavens knows, Beatriz would have made a move if she could have stood upright.

Harry turned around from the party.

' _So, what's the latest news?'_ Harry asked.

Sarah Essen popped up over the bond link, and sounded very distressed, for a pretty good reason.

' _Well, we're not sure, Chief O'Hara has called an emergency meeting of the MCU,'_ Sarah thought. _'It's going to be all hands on deck tonight, but we're not sure what happened to Loeb.'_

Harry thought that was a mystery. He was certain the cop killer would have put Loeb's body in a very public place. He would be a trophy for him, her, or whoever was beyond it.

Something else was going on. Harry wondered, not for the first time, if someone was trying to use Loeb as bait for the cop killer.

* * *

Harvey Bullock spent a great deal of the past few months looking over his shoulder, in a constant state of nervousness, and he was not the only one who had entered this particular state. Many other members of the Gotham City Police Department had been a wreck thanks to the Gotham City Cop Killer haunting their dreams and their nightmares.

Many corrupt cops, some of them with indiscretions dating back to the 1980s, turned up dead. Some whispered whether or not they would be next. Some wondered if the cop killer looked them straight in the eye, laughing his ass off about the fact he had every single cop in the Gotham City Police Department pissing themselves.

' _Bastard things this is a game.'_

Harvey Bullock quite frankly did not find this funny, at all. The cop marched his way into the Gotham City Police Department, joined by Renee Montoya.

"So, this is the one we've been waiting for, isn't it?" Bullock asked. "Could have sworn Loeb was untouchable, but I guess no one is these days. He's about as secure as anyone else is, wouldn't you say?"

Renee responded with a nod. She could feel goosebumps creeping up the back of her neck. She wondered what the end game for this Gotham City cop killer was, or if this was an end game.

"This one is high profile," Renee said. "More than the other."

"Yeah, Loeb's the big fish, this is it, the end game," Bullock said. "We'll find out what this kook is all about, and hopefully, we'll be able to put a stop to this."

Despite his bravado, Harvey Bullock had some misgivings when he spat out these words. The neck collar of his suit grew rather sweaty. He stepped inside and met eyes with James Gordon. John Jones stood there, looking about as stoic as ever. A few member members of the MCU joined them, and they all waited for O'Hara to show up.

All of them buzzed, waiting for the news, for better or for worse, for fair or for foul. They wanted to know what they were going up against. All of them were on edge.

Then there was Howard Branden, who resembled a caged animal when he paced back and forth. One look at this particular gentleman told the story. He foamed at the mouth, and would rip into anyone who had looked him even in a little wrong.

"I can't believe this!" Branden raged. "I really can't believe this!"

Bullock took a moment to stare at Branden. Branden was this close to jumping off of the deep end into something particularly nasty. He could not; well he could see where he was heading, to be honest. It was not in a good place. Many of them jumped close to the edge, being in Gotham City for as long as they were.

Branden's anger increased when he saw no one seemed to be taking a very obvious fact as seriously as he did.

"No one makes chumps out of my SWAT!" Branden yelled.

Bullock sighed, and turned towards the man. Branden stared Bullock in the eye and looked to be begging for someone to fight him on this one.

"Yeah, my heart aches for your Branden," Bullock said. "Why don't you sit down before you pop a blood vessel?"

Branden's eyes locked onto Bullock's and both sides stare down each other. Both of them had their eyes locked onto each other.

The doors swung open and the crisis had been avoided before the rest of the GCPD had to pull Bullock and Branden off of each other.

"Alright, everyone settle down," Chief O'Hara said in his usual gruff and commanding manner. "I'm not going to lie or sugar coat this for any of you, this was something we expected….but the fact we haven't found Loeb yet, dead or alive, may indicate this is not the person we're all thinking of."

The members of the MCU and Branden all sat around. Branden, in particular, looked like he itched for a fight of some kind. His fingers continued to flex back and forth, almost about ready to wrap around the throat of anyone who dared look at him cross-eyed.

"Yes, it's not the person we're thinking of," Branden said, voice sounding raspy and cross. "Well, if it isn't the person we're thinking of then….."

A man rushed into the room, almost tripping over his feet in his attempt to jump into the room. O'Hara turned towards him, frowning.

"Yes?"

"Sir, we have a problem, "the young cop said, almost tripping over his feet. Despite this minor inconvenience and the fact he had been spellbound with so many top Gotham City Police officers in one room, the young cop recovered quickly. "It's Blackgate prison, it's under attack."

Everyone in the room suddenly became more tense at the thought of the prison being attacked.

"Under attack?" Gordon asked. "By whom?"

"Black Mask, sir."

All hell broke loose in one of the worst ways possible.

* * *

 

Number One stepped past the downed guards and towards the gates leading to the high security wing. He could not believe how much like clockwork this went. Black Mask was not the normal mobster in Gotham City, far from it. His men worked with brutal efficiency, never once breaking from their formation.

The thugs in the cells watched the men go past. One of them leaned against the bars and peered at Number One.

"You don't want to go down that way," one of the thugs said. "He's….he's the only prisoner down there…the guards throw a carcass down that shoot about three times a day….."

"Rumor has it, it's what happens to the prisoners who go to solitary and never return," one of the prisoners said, looking fearful.

The rumors had not been discouraged by the various guards in the prison. It kept them in line and kept them from acting in line. The guards threatening to accidentally throw them down with Croc made the prisoners act like perfect little angels, or about as good as they would.

"Yes, we know what's down there," Number One said. "And we know what he can do…"

"Fine, you want to go down there," one of the prisoners said. "You're crazy!"

The prisoner shook his head. He stabbed a guy over him not paying a loan, and even he wanted nothing to do with the guy down there. No one did, even some hardened murders, who killed may times, and had been transferred out of other prisons because they threatened the general population.

Number One turned the key into the door and it swung open. Number One and his men made their way down. One of the members of Black Mask's gang stepped on a very human looking skull. The skull crunched underneath his foot.

"Stay calm," Number One said. "Unless you want to be offered as a snack for this thing."

Black Mask's gang went into a more businesslike tone. They watched something move quick into the shadows. A loud and rumbling laughter echoed off to one side.

"I smell...I smell…fresh blood and fresh….well isn't that interesting?"

"We've come to let you out of Blackgate," Number One said.

Killer Croc responded with a very lengthy laugh, and the laugh increased.

"Yes, that's very brave of you," Killer Croc said, his eyes glowing in the darkness. "You think you can shake my hand and walk out, maybe we'd skip on home."

"My boss would like to give you a chance to collect a bounty," Number One said. "Haven't you heard of the bounty on Nightwing and Batman?"

Number One looked towards Killer Croc, who looked back towards him.

"Yeah, I heard," Killer Croc said. "So, you want to let me out of here to go after those two sacks of flesh?"

Number One had to choose his next couple of words very carefully. It could be the difference between getting out of here alive, or not getting out of here alive.

"Yes," Number One said. "So, do we have an agreement?"

Killer Croc stepped out of the shadows. He looked more grotesque and inhumane than ever before. Over seven feet tall of scaly green flesh stepped towards to them.

"Well, looks like you boys lucked out," Killer Croc said. "I'm going to need to leave room for Batman and Nightwing, so it looks like you won't be my main course tonight."

Killer Croc lurched out of the shadows and Number One and his goons stepped back. The large croc man exited the cell, and moved back into Gotham City. He bellowed and growled.

The prisoners backed off when Killer Croc passed them because he could. They all shook in terror. Croc locked eyes with one of the prisoners, who slumped against the wall, breathing heavily. The gates had been opened up, leading to the water, and it gave Croc access to the luxurious sewers of Gotham City.

Croc gave a loud howl and jumped down, landing the drop on both feet. He disappeared into the murky depths and when he was out of sight, the rest of Blackgate let out a sigh of relief, for now.

"Do, you think it was a good idea to let him out, boss?" one of the goons asked Number One.

Number One shook his head, but other than that, he indicated he thought nothing was wrong.

"Black Mask wanted us to do it," Number One said. "Are you going to question the boss with how he's been acting lately?"

The thugs all shook their heads. Many of them wouldn't, both out of fear, and despite Black Mask's recent questionable actions, they all had been paid. That was all which mattered to all of them.

* * *

Veronica Vreeland's entire night came together more smoothly than ever. And she would have a nice couple of days to catch a breath before it was time for the biggest spectacle on New Year's Eve Gotham City ever experienced. She walked past the party. Some of them had made it home for the night, others had been invited to stay at Blackgate Manor so they could sleep off of their various inebriations.

' _What a night.'_

Veronica stepped around the corner of the manor and flashed a smile to Sapphire. Sapphire walked towards her, coat dangling from her fingers.

"Sorry, I have to skip out on you right now," Sapphire said. "I wanted to visit my father for Christmas, even though he's not much of a conversation right now."

Veronica nodded, almost a year later, Simon Stagg remained in a vegetable state after the Metamorpho incident.

"Is there any progress?" Veronica asked.

Sapphire sighed and shook her head. Every single time she thought they would have progress regarding her father, it was backsliding. Her father would be happy Stagg Industries was holding strong and on track for a more successfully 1999. The Board of Directors had a nice heaping helping of crow when they finally realized their methods would not work when Sapphire's did.

She could not feel a bit pleased about that. Sapphire stepped back; making sure her purse was completely intact.

"We're just taking it one day at a time, well I am," Sapphire said. "Even if he wakes up…"

"He will wake up," Veronica said.

Sapphire had been telling herself this pretty much every day for the past ten months. Veronica leaned towards Sapphire and hugged her friend. The two of them met in the middle with a sizzling kiss. Veronica smiled, stepping back to allow Sapphire to step back and make her way out.

"Just have a Merry Christmas, Sapphire," Veronica said.

The blonde heiress nodded and swallowed a lump in her throat.

"Yes, you too, Veronica," Sapphire said.

Veronica smiled and she wondered about the man of the hour. Where did Harry go off to? After all of the entertaining she had done tonight, she had not scored any time with Harry alone. It seemed a bit odd, and a bit unfair she would not have a chance to do so.

' _We're going to correct this right now,'_ Veronica said.

She turned around the corner, taking about three steps. Veronica did not have to walk too far when she came face to face, into the arms of Harry Potter. Harry held her up and smiled when Veronica took a step back.

"Merry Christmas," Harry said.

"Yes, well not officially yet….well it just became Christmas Eve, or will in a little bit," Veronica said. "I've lost track of the time, I'll be the first to admit it."

Harry laughed and stepped closer toward her. Veronica enjoyed the sensation of Harry's arms wrapping around her and holding her in tight. The two of them moved in with a kiss. Their lips met together in a sizzling and passionate movement. Harry's hands dipped behind Veronica, holding her closer towards him. Their hips pressed together with a tender and hot session of lip smacking goodness.

"Well, if you lose track of the time, I think we can both agree that's what makes for a really good party," Harry said.

"Mmm, you have a point," Veronica said. "It's been a long night, why don't we go to bed?"

Harry responded with another hungry kiss, which Veronica returned. She allowed Harry to back her into the wall. His fingers quested underneath her dress, and could feel the lacy fabric between her thighs. Veronica edged her hips closer towards Harry's probing fingers.

No matter how much Veronica wanted Harry to fuck her out in the hallway, her determination to do this properly overrode any thoughts of pure and animalistic lust. She placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and ensured he pulled away from her.

"Let's take this to the bedroom," Veronica said. "I'll give you my Christmas gift properly in purpose."

Harry smiled and scooped up Veronica in his arms. His wife gave a giggle, the unfortunate consequences, of having a bit too much wine. Harry marched her over to the room. Veronica hung onto Harry's arm when he brought the two of them in front of the bedroom door.

The bedroom door swung open and Veronica raised an eyebrow at the sight of Bunny sitting on the bed, with her legs crossed. The older Vreeland sister gave one of those sidelong looks at the older Vreeland sister.

"Bunny, what are you doing here?" Veronica demanded.

"Oh, I'm sure I'm here for the same reason why you're here," Bunny said, with a cheeky little grin. "It's Christmas, and I want something other than my stocking stuffed."

Veronica could not believe what her little sister said, and at the same time she could. Harry set her down on the ground. Her dress rode up a little bit to show her stockings and panties. She turned gaze towards her sister, locking eyes with her.

"Come on, Ronnie," Bunny said, fearing for one wild minute, Veronica was going to kick her out. She had a feeling Harry might interject on her behalf, but she still wanted to have her fun. "It's Christmas, don't be a Grinch!"

Veronica turned her attention towards Harry, who responded with a not so subtle shift of his shoulders. The older Vreeland sister realized seconds later how much on her own she was. She looked down at her sister, who wore one of the most adorkable grins possible. It redefined the term in a rather nice manner, to the point where Veronica could not stay mad at her sister for too long.

"Fine," Veronica said. "You know I can't stay mad at you when you're giving that face."

"What face?" Bunny asked, lips twitching into a smile. "This one?"

Veronica sighed and she stepped forward. She touched Bunny's bare thighs with her hands. Veronica decided to give her husband a Christmas present he would not forget for the rest of his life.

Bunny had been surprised she had been allowed to stay and join in the fun with Harry and Veronica. Veronica's lips pressed onto hers which surprised Bunny even more. The older redhead dug her nails into Bunny's face and attacked her with a sexually aggressive kiss, shoving her tongue deep into her mouth.

Veronica tilted her head back, to allow Bunny to return fire.

Harry smiled and he leaned down to replace Veronica the moment she broke apart on Bunny. He kissed her hard, before motioning for Veronica to sit down on the bed.

"So, Harry, are you going to unwrap your gifts?" Veronica asked with a seductive smile.

Both of the sisters felt a draft when Harry flipped their dresses up to expose their panties, which dripped wet from want of the green-eyed young man before them.

* * *

 

Harry stroked the tender flesh between Veronica's thighs. She gasped and moaned when Harry's able hands moved between her. Her panties peeled from her dripping hot thighs and Harry situated one finger into her wet crevice, turning his finger into her.

Bunny started to pout at not getting a proper amount of attention. Harry found her heated mound with his opposite hand and pushed his finger inside her. Bunny's wet walls clamped around him and pushed her hips up.

"He's so fucking good," Bunny said, her hips pumping all the way up to meet Harry's intruding finger.

"Yes, he is," Veronica said. She wiggled her hips enticing to meet Harry's thrusting of her.

Harry finger-fucked both of the Vreeland sisters to the edge of an orgasm, and then pulled back. He left them panting and wanting more. Harry pushed his fingers into them and started to work them over a little bit.

Veronica's orgasm swelled through her body. Her dress dropped down and the heiress caressed her entire body, moaning all the way to encourage Harry to give her more. The look of pleasure in her sister's eyes showed her Bunny experienced the same thing.

Bunny's hips bucked wildly up towards Harry's fingers. She moaned when he teased withdrawing them. Harry reduced her body to a never ending stream of sexual bliss. His fingers pushed deep into Bunny's tight cunt.

"More, mmm, more!" Bunny panted. "Make me cum all over your fingers!"

"Oh, you're both going to cum harder than you ever thought you would," Harry said.

Harry proved his word true. He unleashed the orgasmic flurry through their bodies. Both sets of hips rocked up and sent the juices trickling between their thighs.

Veronica fell back on the bed, legs spreading. Juices oozed from between her thighs. Harry mounted her pussy. She spread her legs in triumph and enjoyed Harry's throbbing cock slide between her. Sparks of sexual energy shot through Veronica's loins the second Harry pushed into her.

"I got him first," Veronica said. She arched her back to accept Harry's long and powerful thrusts.

"No problem," Bunny said. She situated herself in position. "I'm just going to keep myself occupied and you will as well."

Bunny straddled Veronica's face and ground on her sister's mouth. The younger Vreeland sister's pussy sparked with pure sexual energy. Veronica tempted her inner walls, pushing her womanhood onto it.

Harry rode Veronica's tight pussy into the bed. Her tight center wrapped around Harry. Harry lifted almost all the way up out of her and rocked her sensual, sexy, body. Their hips ground together when Harry drove himself into her.

Bunny wanted some attention as well, and Harry took her ample chest into his hands. She moaned when Harry tweaked her nipples, squeezing and twisting around them. Bunny's hot hips ground up against her sister's mouth.

"Yes, oh yes, more!" Bunny said, bouncing on Veronica's face.

A sexual rush blasted through Bunny's tight body. Her sister touched her pussy, eating it the same way Veronica herself would have wanted to eat it. Veronica rested her hands on Bunny's hips and ground her into her mouth.

Veronica enjoyed the taste dripping down from her sister's thighs. She swirled her tongue about the inside of it and continued to munch down onto her one more time.

"This is so hot," Harry said, leaning all the way down on her. He squeezed Veronica's breast and she clamped around him. "I'm going to unload inside you, I hope you're ready."

Veronica couldn't say anything due to her mouth being stuffed full of her sister's pussy. Bunny smiled when looking at Harry and licked her lips. The younger sister spread her thighs eagerly and made sure Veronica lapped up every drop.

The squeezing of his cock by Veronica's sweet and tight pussy prompted Harry to fuck her even harder. Their hips clashed together when Harry brought himself all the way into her. Veronica's wet walls rubbed around Harry's tool going all the way down into her. Harry's hands rolled over Veronica's hands, cupping them and riding her into the bed.

His balls twitched and unleashed their cum into her body. Harry molded against Veronica's body, rocking down inside her. He injected his sweet seed inside her.

Veronica sighed, releasing Harry's cock the moment he injected his seed inside her. Her walls had been completely coated with Harry's cum after he had pulled back out of her.

"Time for me to return the favor," Bunny said, sliding off of Veronica's face. "Like a good little sister, you know…and I'm sure Harry will give me my present as well."

Bunny slid down Veronica's body, squeezing her sister's large breasts and kissing them. She worked down Veronica's body until she noticed her sister's pussy lips spread open. The combination of Harry's and Veronica's juices trickled down the thighs of the woman. Bunny gave her sister a hungry kiss on her nether lips and took her tongue inside her.

Veronica gasped, wrapping her legs around Bunny's head. Her younger sister's head had been pinned between Veronica's thighs. She eyed Harry when he made his way from behind Veronica. Harry wiped the head of his cock against her entrance.

"She wants it!" Veronica yelled. "She wants your big fucking cock. Shove it into her sweet little pussy and hammer it."

Harry's balls loaded up with a fresh dose of cum. He slid himself into Bunny from behind. Bunny's wet walls tightened around his tool. She rubbed against him, bringing Harry's thick and hard rod onto him.

Bunny moaned for Harry to give her more. At least in theory, in practice, Veronica's juicy pussy filled her mouth.

"Eat me out, you spoiled brat!" Veronica yelled. "Use your tongue to clean my pussy, enjoy how much you taste my juices!"

Harry held onto Bunny's hips and continued to buck himself into her. His balls loaded up and slapped against the thighs of the younger Vreeland sister.

"Mmm," Veronica said. "Just thinking about you ripping out my sisters spoiled rich cunt makes me so fucking hot. It's really fucking hot to feel it, oh you should feel how much she's moaning. She likes it, she really likes it."

"I'm sure."

Harry enjoyed the feeling of Bunny's tight pussy muscles squeezing his throbbing cock the further he buried himself into her. He rocked his hips forward, riding her into the bed with each thrust.

Bunny had been assaulted by the dual sensation of inhaling Veronica's pussy and Harry's cock cutting an intense path through the depths of her body. Each time his balls slapped against her thighs, Bunny tensed up. She wanted more of himself inside her, and she would get it. She needed it, and she wanted all of it.

The minutes ground on, the more Harry pounded Bunny's tight pussy from behind. He held onto her and rode her pussy into the bed. His balls sized up and threatened to spill their juices into her. He hung on, riding her orgasm out to the end.

Veronica received a nice orgasm of her own. Her sister's talented mouth and lips kept nibbling on her nether lips and made her pump up further.

"Ready," Harry said, playing with every inch of Bunny's body. He could feel her body react to him and squeeze his thick tool with each thrust of intrusion. "I'm going to fill you up with so much cum."

"Stuff my sister full of your seed, "Veronica said.

Veronica's pussy started to jolt up and send her juices spilling into her center's mouth. Bunny lapped them up like a good girl, munching on her sister's pussy.

Bunny's pussy twitched next around Harry's cock. She clenched down onto him, pushing his long and potent thrusts into her. Harry's balls loaded up and threatened to spill his gooey cream into Bunny's dripping cunt. She opened up to enjoy it.

Harry sped up, riding out Bunny's orgasm. His balls tightened to signal the arrival of a powerful orgasm. Harry brought himself into the depths of Bunny's tight body. She tensed up around him.

A white light exploded when Harry and both sisters came at the same time. Harry held onto Bunny, pumping her full of so much cum, it stuffed her completely full and brought her to another rapid fire orgasm.

The moment Harry slid out of her, Veronica rolled her sister over and returned the favor. Her pussy lips spread and Harry could not resist the allure of it. He would have a couple more rounds with these sexy sisters as the night ground on.

* * *

Silence was bliss, unless it was the calm before the storm.

Midnight passed and Christmas Eve had approached Gotham City. Very little activity happened on the street. There were the sounds of a few cars going up and down the roads, but it was nowhere near the previous activity which occurred through Gotham City. The silence ended up in a blissful moment of wonder.

Most people had departed Gotham City to enjoy the holidays with loved ones or decided to stay in on this early morning. Even the criminal element stepped back, with a few exceptions. It was the perfect night, almost perfect.

The type of night many thought would be too perfect. They all knew deep down what would occur next. Doom and gloom were around the corner. All they had to do was wait for the other shoe to drop, then trouble would be here.

' _Finally.'_

A figure stood on the building across from a warehouse. He lifted a lighter into the air and clicked it three times. The mysterious gentleman submerged in shadows on the top of the building turned around and walked out of sight.

A car pulled around the corner of a dimly lighted street. A door clicked open and a pair of stylish boots swung outside of the car. The figure driving the car took great care to lock the door. Turning around, the figure walked around the car and made their way to the trunk.

The trunk popped open and the figure felt the body in the trunk of the car. The body shuddered a few seconds later. The figure submerged in the shadows bent down and looked the occupant in the trunk in the eyes.

"Hold tight. We still have a conversation to continue."

The figure in boots took a couple more minutes discussing matters with a rather captive audience. The moment the figure was done with the conversation, she prepared for the next move. The trunk swung shut and the figure turned around, to continue a long and steady walk. Those boots kept walking to the side entrance of the factory.

' _Finally, it's over, we're going to make him pay.'_

Tonight, the biggest escaper of justice in Gotham City would be behind those doors. Gillian Loeb, the Gotham City Police Commissioner, would be the final bullet in the cop killer's gun. The figure peered through the window.

Sure enough, the snake Loeb was talking in a hushed tone to Black Mask's men. The Gotham City Cop Killer set up a camera in the window, trying to get everything all on tape. She situated and could see something exchange hands between the two sides. Loeb shifted, looking a bit nervous. One of the mobsters placed a hand on the shoulder of Loeb and tried to steady him, forcing him to stand up and face him.

' _The bastard should be nervous, he should be scared,'_ the Gotham City Cop Killer said. _'He should be terrified beyond all of his wits.'_

Loeb's nervousness was rather odd, but then again, he had been on the list for some time. He had decided to step out alone, perhaps feeling safe. The source she used said Loeb's SWAT guard had been given the night off. There had been no more perfect time to strike and strike hard, prior to now.

It would prove to anyone no corrupt cop was safe from her.

The men of the mobster looked Loeb in the eye and they had a brief conversation, before parting ways.

' _That bastard is going to pay.'_

The hands of this particular individual started to shape. Loeb turned around, looking over his shoulder. The mobsters left the warehouse and left Gillian Loeb all alone.

The Gotham City Cop Killer swung the doors open. The thrill of the hunt, the look of the prey looking into the face of death, knowing there was nothing they could do to stop what happened; it caused some joy to spread through the body of this particular individual. The very fact no matter what, there was a sense justice would be served, it hit them.

And to think, she made a different. They would be happy when they saw what she did.

The piece of trash known as Loeb would finally be put six feet under. The Cop Killer took a few more steps.

Loeb's attention turned towards the figure. His mouth hung open for a second in shock when the hand pointed the gun towards the Gotham City Police Commissioner.

' _Well, I'll be a son of a bitch. You've been underneath my nose the entire time.'_

"You!" Loeb managed. "You're the one who is…."

A loud bang echoed and Gillian Loeb had been struck in the chest, falling over from the gunshot. Blood poured from the Gotham City Police Commissioner when he dropped down to the ground. As quickly as he breathed, Loeb died.

Another piece of scum off of the street, another piece of scum down in the dirt where he belonged. The Gotham City Cop Killer's heart raced at the thought of a job well done.

' _Now, he'll be here a few minutes later….I'll leave another present for him.'_

Batman had a tendency to show up just seconds later, no matter what, so the Cop Killer better hurry. The cop killer stepped forward and walked further into the warehouse to approach the piece of trash on the floor.

Something started to blink on the wall. The cop killer turned her attention to one side and several explosives went off, causing flames and debris to fly towards her.

Rachel Dawes's eyes widened in horror, just seconds before the explosion engulfed her, with no way out.

The entire factory went up in flames with a fiery explosion which blew it sky high. The car parked next to the factory flew high into the air and crashed down. A second explosion caused the car to burst into an inferno.

The smell of smoke and gasoline would catch the attention of those. More explosions echoed throughout the area around them, resounding in a hideous manner.

The explosions stopped a second later, the moment where everything went completely and utterly silent. For a second, there was no hint anyone had been nearby, or around.

Suddenly, a figure across from the street peered down at the carnage which had been caused. Laughter, insidious and horrific laughter, filled the air. The chaos which would follow would cause complete and utter madness to hit Gotham City.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 5** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_And ladies and gentlemen, there's your Gotham City Cop Killer, killed. In hindsight, Rachel being the Cop Killer is the most obvious thing in the world, maybe, I don't know._

_Party scenes were pretty good to fill out this chapter, although the unmasking and murder of the Gotham City cop killer was the main event. Oh, and Croc's out and about, just when you thought things couldn't get any crazier in Gotham. What a merry Christmas that will be._

_Until Wednesday._


	231. Silent Night, Bloody Night Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-One: Silent Night, Bloody Night Part One.**

* * *

 

Explosions caught the attention of people in a matter of minutes. This particular warehouse district in Old Gotham did not attract the most salt of the Earth people. More explosions echoed, and it was a hazard.

Chaos started up and would only increase when time came on.

The whirls of sirens could be heard when two squad cars pulled up to the scene of the crime. One of the cops exited the car and staggered back. The intense heat and the sickening smell of burning flesh caught him off guard. He withdrew his gun and looked around.

The Arsonists, whoever they were, had disappeared into the night. The cop lifted his hand and pointed the gun a few seconds back. The GCPD looked around to see the source of the explosions. The chaos would only get worse.

The only good thing was the attack wasn't the cause of some great riot in the street of Gotham City, at least not yet.

"Spread out, search the area!" one of them yelled.

"They must have been gone by now!" one of the members of the GCPD yelled. He inhaled a sickening blast of burning flesh. "I don't know how anyone could have survived this."

One of them stepped on a charred license plate which dropped from the ground. The metal contorted and melted enough where they could not tell the license plate off hand. One of the GCPD members turned his attention to the shadows and noticed something shifting in the shadows. This drew their attention away from the scene of the crime.

"Hey!"

Nothing there, no answer, not even one clue of whoever lingered back there.

Just a trick of the light, there were a lot of rats in this part of town, and not the kind this particular cop normally dealt with either. His heart started to beat deep into his chest harder and he almost dropped his gun on the ground. This near action caused some of the veteran cops to glare at him.

"Keep your hand on the trigger, rookie," one of the cops warned him.

The sounds of the Gotham City Fire Department signaled the arrival of several firefighters. They pulled out a huge fire hose and tried to put out the fire. The fire shot higher into the air and the flames started to lick around them.

A figure kept back on the rooftop across the street. Nightwing dropped down, having had a chance to suit up now. Even with the protective nature of the suit, he could not get really close to the fire. Nightwing staggered back a few inches.

The immense heat made it very hard to get close enough to the fire to do anything worthwhile. He shielded himself when going on in.

' _Damn, what the hell happened?'_ Jaime asked.

' _I'm not sure,'_ Harry said. _'I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea whatever happened.'_

The cops were in heated discussion with each other.

"This was the place where Loeb had been captured," one of the cops said. "You don't suppose do you….."

"We don't speculate," one of the cops said, raising a hand. The younger cop had been smacked down from the words of the older cop. "We just get in here and do what needs to be done. Do you understand?"

The younger cop nodded his head in response. He had his own ideas. The fire was starting to go down thanks to the efforts of Gotham's fire department.

Nightwing repelled off to the side, staying out of the line of sight of the cops. Their attention had been averted to other areas, a good thing for him. The moment he perched himself on the top of a light post, he peered down into the darkness. Harry leaned a couple of inches back, stretching his neck.

The moment Nightwing knew no one was there, he dropped down onto the ground. The Dragon kept through the shadows. He noticed something down on the ground which the cops must have missed in their scramble.

A step closer saw a rather distorted looking cell phone on the ground. The cell phone had been surprisingly intact despite the explosion. The screen was cracked and some of the buttons were smashed. Other than this, the cell phone looked completely intact. He lifted his hand up and held the cell phone in his hand.

' _Who do you think it belongs to?'_ Faora asked a few seconds later.

' _Don't know,'_ Harry thought, shrugging in response. _'We're going to have to get it working later on.'_

' _Going to be a long shot if we do,'_ Karen responded.

The police swept on by and Nightwing disappeared into the shadows. They noticed the shattered glass on the ground.

Nightwing's enhanced senses picked up the decaying flesh a few feet away from him. His stomach twisted in a sickening sensation. He held himself back, going through the shadows.

' _Do you think it can be salvaged?'_ Kara asked.

' _Maybe,'_ Harry thought. _'If the card's still intact, we could…..'_

Harry's thoughts had been diverted by some noise from elsewhere.

"There's someone down there!" one of the cops yelled.

The cops made their way over and pulled the trunk off of the person. The charred remains of what was once a human being could be seen in the light. Harry could not identify who it was.

If he could stretch his arm about five feet without being noticed, he could scan for anything. The DNA might have been inconclusive, but at least he could try. Unfortunately, the cops are in the way and prevented Harry from getting a better look.

The one look he got in the carnage turned Harry's stomach.

"What the hell happened to her?" one of the cops asked.

"I don't know, but….is that rope?" one of them asked.

"She must have been tied up during the explosion," one of them said. "If I had to guess, she was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Are you sure it's a she?" one of them asked.

"Well, there's a purse….right on the ground, close enough," one of them said. He picked up the purse and the bottom broke out, sending some ashen remains of a wallet out of it. The driver's license in the purse had been burned.

"Well, who says it was a woman?"

"Who else has a purse?"

"Maybe it's one of those man purse's," one of them responded, shaking his head in response.

Harry frowned, given what happened tonight, he had a couple of theories brewing in the back of his mind. Exactly which one of them was true, he had no clear idea. Regardless, whatever happened, it wasn't good.

' _We've got another problem,'_ Barbara thought. She slipped back into the Clocktower, figuring she would be needed for Mission Support. _'Yeah, I know, understatement of the night.'_

' _Really, just the one?'_ Nightwing asked.

' _Yes, just the one,'_ Barbara thought, sighing in response. _'There's been a breakout at Blackgate Prison. Only one prisoner has been let out, but it's a big one. Killer Croc.'_

Nightwing took a few seconds to collect this. He turned around and disappeared into the night.

In Gotham City, when it rained it poured.

* * *

 

Harvey Dent dropped down onto a chair in his office for about two seconds before he bounced up to his feet. Dent paced around the office practically wearing a hole into the office. The bad vibe he had earlier tonight increased.

' _And it's not getting any easier,'_ Harvey thought.

He thought about making one more call on Gilda's cell phone but decided against it. He needed to keep the phone open just in case someone called. While Rachel wanted to unmask the Gotham City Cop Killer for Christmas, Harvey didn't think everything would spiral out of control this way.

' _Come on, come on.'_

Harvey stared at the cell phone for a second and waited for the call. For better or for worse, he had to know. He turned his attention to the wall and almost reared his fist back. He stopped from slamming his fist into it and through the wall. Harvey breathed in deep and took a couple of breaths.

' _Calm down, Dent, you don't want to lose it.'_

Harvey couldn't hear any footsteps coming down the hallway. It caused him to walk around the area of the office. He made his way to the desk drawer and shuffled through the papers. He wanted to find his coin, he needed something to keep his hand busy before putting it through the wall.

The silver dollar slipped out of the desk drawer into Harvey's hand. Harvey flipped the coin up into the air and dropped it onto the palm of his hand. He kept flipping the coin in a constant degree when muttering underneath his breath.

"Damn it!" Harvey yelled, not caring if anyone noticed his behavior tonight.

The phone on Harvey's desk rang. Harvey's hand snapped over and grabbed the phone.

"District Attorney's office," Harvey said after two rings.

"Is this Harvey Dent?" a silky voice asked a few seconds later.

"Yes, this is Dent," Harvey said. "Who are you?"

The silence on the other end of the phone unnerved Harvey. Very unnatural and also extremely frustrating, he couldn't even begin to describe how frustrated he was. Harvey waited for the man in question to answer. Every single second ticked away. Harvey placed his hand on the desk and held his phone in his hand.

"Hello?" Harvey asked. "Are you still there? Who are you? If this is a joke, this isn't funny. Just who are you?"

"I can tell you nothing about what I say is not a joke," the man on the other end of the phone said. "It's not funny at all, it's completely serious. Just think, all of you had the Gotham City Cop Killer right underneath your nose all of this time."

The man on the other end of the phone paused for a long time and let out his breath. Harvey heard a slight chuckle.

"Okay, I admit it, it's kind of funny," he said. "But, seriously, this is completely serious. I'm nothing, but a concerned citizen, wanting to figure out what's right. And what's right is I saw your wife and your mistress get into a little argument earlier."

"Mistress?" Harvey asked.

"Come on, Harv, don't you read the tabloids, surely you're aware of the rumors you've been doing the horizontal mambo with the ADA," the man on the other of the phone. "But hey, your sex life is your business."

Harvey's temper, always kept down because of years of hard work, threatened to bubble over the surface for tonight.

"If you're trying to….."

"You've been looking for someone who has been in your own backyard this entire time," the man on the other end of the phone. "Gilda Dent is the Gotham City Cop Killer. Guess dear Rachel found that out as well, because….well….they got into it….and not over your tight ass either."

Harvey had no idea why, but he had the desire to shower in battery acid. This man claimed Gilda was the Gotham City cop killer, he could not have been telling the truth. There was no way his wife could have, could she have? Harvey had not seen his wife every single moment of the day. He had been busy working with the campaign and then being District Attorney. He just took Gilda at her word she was frail, because why would he think she was lying?

"You better not be jerking me around," Harvey said.

"Sorry, dearie, but you're not my type," the mysteriously distorted voice on the other end of the phone said, cackling like a hyena on helium. "But, you should know, it doesn't matter….because both of those broads, along with Loeb…they're….well they're both dead!"

The man on the other end of the phone started to cackle in response. His cackling grew even more prominent to the point where Harvey's entire spine rolled over with more shivers than he could think about.

"Come on, Harv, laugh it up!" one of them said. "Even a sour puss like yourself has to think that's a little bit funny, isn't it?"

The man on the other end of the phone continued to laugh. Harvey realized he was dealing with a mentally disturbed person.

"Merry Christmas!"

The phone conversation went dead and Harvey's hand clenched the phone for a long moment. His knuckles turned white. The door swung open and Harvey relaxed his grip.

"Is there anything wrong, Mr. Dent?" one of the interns asked, frowning at his colleague's expression.

Harvey was really willing to chalk up tonight's efforts as a rather sick prank on the part of someone who had way too much time on their hands. The fact neither Rachel nor Gilda picked up their cell phones all night caused Harvey's tension to increase.

"Wrong number."

He refused to allow this bastard to play mind games with him. It wouldn't be the first nutcase who called to try and screw with him.

'Ano _ther random crackpot, thinking he can play games.'_

* * *

 

Harry returned to the Penthouse, where Faora and Karen waited up for him. One look at the clock showed it was two o'clock in the morning. A rather long night slowly slipped on longer, and he doubted the next morning.

"It's most certainly a Red Sun phone," Karen said, with one look at it. "Maybe if we get the card out of the cell phone, we might have a chance."

They thought the resistance to heat built into the cell phone was a worthwhile investment now. Karen moved the cell phone over to the lab.

"We'll see if it works well," Faora said. "You're distracted tonight."

"Well, there's the breakout of Blackgate," Harry said.

They removed the card from the back of the cell phone. The card dropped onto the table, and Karen hooked her portable computer onto it. Karen pressed a couple of buttons and the computer flashed with an error message.

"Damn it," Karen muttered, her teeth gritting.

"Keep trying," Harry said.

He stepped out and looked over to Gotham City. From his position in the house, Harry had the perfect view of the factory where the explosion happened. A few seconds passed when he turned his attention back towards Faora.

"Is it just me, or am I the only one getting a really bad feeling tonight?" Harry asked.

Faora sighed and placed a gentle hand on her brother's shoulder. She spun Harry a fraction of an inch to the side and kissed him on the lips. The kiss did the perfect job of relaxing him and calming him down.

"No, it's not just you," Faora said. "I can't describe the feeling, but something really wrong is going on here tonight."

The feeling had been building ever since Halloween in Harry's mind. He recalled the words from the devious Deacon Blackfire, who told him there were changes in the air.

Karen gave a small squeal of triumph which turned their attention away from this particular conversation. The record of calls on the cell phone appeared on a screen.

"At least something went right tonight," Karen said.

"Putting in this backdoor into the cell phone might have been one of the smartest things we did," Alura piped up. "Well, this phone received a lot of calls."

Faora had been caught with interest of these calls.

"And it's very odd when the phone received those calls," Faora said leaning over and looking at the dates at when the phone was used. "And the last time the phone picked up a call was six hours ago."

Harry had a pretty good hunch what was going on.

"Oracle, I'm sending a list of dates for you to check," Harry said. "Do you think you can cross reference them with known attacks from the Gotham City cop killer?"

"Yeah, give me a minute," Barbara said, chewing down on her lip and working through the dates. She took a long and deep breath. "Well, you were right….all of these calls match the dates where all of the cop killer's victims were killed. No less than a day, which means…..well I'm not sure what it means….unless you have any more data than this to work on."

' _We were very lucky to come up with as much data as we did,'_ Karen thought, stroking her fingers through the back of her head. _'I can't even begin to tell you how lucky we were to get this much data.'_

' _Oh, I might have some ideas,'_ Barbara thought. _'The phone was pretty thrashed…..hang on, I've got some more information.'_

Harry waited as patient as he could for the more information to come in. Barbara responded with a sigh when the information had been brought in.

' _There have been two more bodies recovered from the wreckage,'_ Barbara thought. _'One of them is Loeb…..that much has been confirmed.'_

Harry figured about as much. The Gotham City Cop Killer must have struck. There was one question which entered Harry's mind and haunted him with increasing clarity.

' _If Loeb was found, then who was the other person found in the wreckage?'_ Harry thought.

' _Good question,'_ Barbara thought, rolling her shoulders back with a slight shrug. _'I don't have the slightest idea, but…rumors are coming in the second victim is a female.'_

Harry had a dark thought coming through his mind. Maybe he was just jumping the gun and putting together the pieces a bit wrong. Still, the thought kept coming through his mind to the point where it would not leave him alone.

"Faora, I think the second body might be the Gotham City Cop Killer," Harry replied, brushing a lock of dark hair away from his face.

Faora blinked at this statement coming from her brother. She leaned in closer towards Harry.

"You think….." Faora said, trailing off without another word. "Do you mean the Gotham City Cop Killer had been set up, with Loeb being used as bait and someone else killed him or her I guess in this case?"

Harry's thoughts trailed towards a very dark area. Someone had access to a lot of information which she could use to pin down the cops which were victims of the Gotham City cop killer. Harry did not want to believe anything about this, but all of the facts jumped in his face. The information sounded pretty damning, at least in Harry's mind.

' _Could it be?'_ Harry thought to himself, shaking his head.

He would have to see. Right now, he stepped out, and thought about what he needed to do. Croc on the loose was also a problem they were going to have to address sooner rather than later.

' _Diana, I'll be back out to join you in about ten minutes.'_

* * *

 

Batman swooped down near the scene of the crime, and boy did the chaos cause him to step back.

The Detective found himself looking at the wrecked and ravaged car right next to him. Many thoughts entered the man's mind and recognition as well. He pieced together a grim possibility.

' _Cannot prove anything,'_ Batman thought. _'But anyone is a suspect.'_

To think the cop killer could have been close to him this entire time, caused Batman's stomach to turn over. But, jumping to conclusions was not becoming of him. He needed facts, cold-hard facts before jumping to conclusions.

"Alfred, I found something," Batman said.

"Sir, you sound troubled," Alfred said.

"It's Rachel's car, it's been found at the scene of the crime," Batman said. He bent forward to get a closer look, allowing a heavy breath to pass through his body.

"My word," Alfred said, barely able to keep himself coherent. "Are you….are you certain it's her's….."

"I would recognize it anywhere," Batman said.

These words had been dropped and no more hand spoken. The sound of footsteps signaled to Batman someone had come around the corner.

He realized it was only James Gordon, who took a closer look at the situation. Batman stepped out of the shadows which caused Gordon to take several steps back in shock.

"One of these days, you're bound to give me a heart attack," Gordon said, without missing a beat or taking a breath.

"My apologies," Batman replied. "There's something you should know about this car."

"The boys already skimmed it for clues, found nothing," Gordon said.

"The car belongs to Rachel Dawes."

Shock did not even begin to describe what James Gordon felt the moment this particular bombshell had been dropped on him. The head of the MCU's mouth hung open before he asked what he thought was a pretty obvious question.

"Do you think she's here as a victim or is she here as a suspect?" Gordon asked.

Gordon's question reminded Batman of a stone-cold reality he wanted to address.

"I'm not certain at this point," Batman admitted.

Batman refused to close his mind to all possibilities. He had no idea. Rachel may have stumbled upon something and had been the victim of the foulest play possible.

"She's above all reproach, I don't think she would have been mixed up in something like this," Gordon said.

Batman had been telling himself the same thing, or rather Bruce Wayne had .He had been trying to convince himself of the same thing. All of the pieces fit together, Rachel had all of the information she would need. She could find out details people would not through her job.

' _There has to be an explanation for all of this,'_ Batman thought.

Gordon heard the footsteps and turned a fraction of an inch told Batman, to tell him he needed to leave. Only to find out Batman already slipped off into the darkness, several steps ahead of Gordon. Time passed and Gordon saw Bullock and Montoya step on through.

"Well, the boys confirmed one of the people in the warehouse was Loeb," Bullock said. "He was the least….mangled of the three of them."

"What about the other body?" Gordon asked. "Or the one on the docks?"

The cop wrestled with himself about telling the others about who the car belonged to. Mostly because his source could not and would not be approved.

"We don't know," Renee said, sounding a bit somber. "But…..we suspect one of them may have been the cop killer."

"It's a good assumption," Gordon said. "But unless we have any hard evidence, we can't say….whether or not this particular problem is off of the street, we just got to wait."

Bullock had not been the best at reading people, but he could almost tell when someone was in a real funny mood. Not ha-ha funny, but rather funny as in they just looked like their cat had died. Bullock took a half of a step towards Gordon and placed a large hand on his shoulder.

"Jim, did you find out….."

"I know who the car belongs to," Gordon said, pointing out at the docks. "Rachel Dawes."

"The ADA?" Bullock asked. "The one where Dent…"

Renee elbowed her partner in the side of the shoulder which caused him to jerk forward with a start. Bullock had been saved from saying something inappropriate in a time of danger. The man drew in his breath and turned towards Gordon.

"The one which was….well she was so adamant about finding the cop killer," Bullock said. "Guess she ran into him or her tonight…maybe….do you think one of those bodies might have been her?"

Renee gasped when a rather unsettling theory. If true, it would be hard to take anyone at face value and look at them the same way, for as long as she lived and breathed.

"You don't think….no, you can't be serious," Renee said. "You think she might have been the GCPD cop killer?"

Without evidence, Renee could not go off of mere speculation alone. Still, the circumstantial evidence was pretty damning and it made all too much sense.

' _It makes way too much sense, which is something in Gotham City,'_ Renee thought.

"Come on that's…although it….." Bullock said. "You know, it's possible."

Gordon hoped to nip speculation amongst the GCPD in the bud.

"We don't have any evidence, all we know is….a credible source identified it as her car," Gordon said. "And we're going to have to follow up on any lead she, if she had any leads."

Bullock thought about it, and he didn't believe it completely. There was just too many questions about this entire case.

"Nah, she can't have been killing cops, she was right there this entire time," Bullock said. "She was in the middle of the investigation. No one could look us in the eye time and time again, and tell us, they were going to track down this bastard and bring them to justice, unless they didn't have any conscience at all."

Bullock did in fact wonder at times. He did in fact wonder. No, it couldn't have been her; it had to have been someone else.

What if it was her?

"We don't know, she could have been a victim of foul play."

Gordon realized if any word had hit the news media, they were going to have a field day with this. ADA turned cop killer was the type of news story those vultures ate up.

* * *

 

Nightwing dropped down next to Huntress. The two of them hit the streets in Gotham City, knowing tracking down Killer Croc was of the essence.

The moment Harry filled in Diana of some of the details for tonight, she shuddered at what he told her. She couldn't believe it.

' _Are you saying either Gilda or Rachel could have been at the docks last night?'_ Diana thought, following Harry's thought process.

' _I'm saying that both of them were, actually,'_ Harry thought. _'Not only were both of them are on the docks, but I think, one of them was the Gotham City Cop Killer.'_

Diana whistled, this was a pretty heavy hunch to lie down, and as much as she loathed to admit it, Harry's hunches were pretty much spot on most of the time.

' _It's Rachel,'_ Harry thought. _'But, there's a third party involved who must have set her up.'_

' _You do realize what will happen when this gets out, don't you?'_ Kara asked.

The shit would most certainly hit the fan, Harry could decide this fact without a shadow of a doubt.

' _Yes, I know,'_ Harry thought. _'Rachel can't be the Gotham City Cop Killer, even if she is. And neither can Gilda….both would destroy Dent's career.'_

Kara pretty much got the implied meaning of this statement.

' _You know how news gets out,'_ Kara thought. _'I'll talk to Vicki, we're having breakfast this morning….see if anything has reached the press. Given how she has her ears in everything if anyone knows about anything, she'll hear something, if there's something out there.'_

' _Thanks, Kara, appreciate it,'_ Harry thought. _'Let me know when you find out anything.'_

The scream of a woman coming from the sewers caused both Harry and Diana to stand up and take attention away from their talk of this matter.

' _Croc doesn't waste any time,'_ Diana thought.

Harry figured as much. He made his way down to the nearest entrance to the sewer. This is just exactly how he wanted to spend his Christmas Eve, wallowing around in the sewers, chasing after a deranged man, who was known to eat them.

Talk about your jolly holiday season.

Diana and Harry dropped down onto the floor of the sewer. The sound of a storm drain swishing greeted the two crime fighters. Harry noticed a trail of blood on the ground and pointed it out.

' _We're too late for the victim,'_ Diana thought, sighing.

' _I know,'_ Harry said. _'But we can make sure Croc doesn't hurt anyone again.'_

Diana set her jaw and looked over to one side. The water started to bubble and the large creature jumped out of the water. Croc looked more beastly, taller, and more hideous than ever before. He gave a nasty snarl when he set his sights on Huntress and Nightwing.

"Well, well, I just was eating dinner," Croc said, blood splattering from his teeth when he spoke. "But, you know, I can always make room for seconds."

Croc threw his arms up for a roar. Nightwing dodged the swinging of his tail and slipped behind Croc. The brass knuckles had been activated and fired up.

' _Prison life treated him a bit too well,'_ Harry thought.

' _Well to be fair, he doesn't seem like the drop the soap type,'_ Barbara thought.

Harry caused this particular visual image to leave his mind for the sake of his sanity. He spun around and pounded at Croc. Croc's scaly skin gave him armor to deflect the blows.

"You think you can stop me!" Croc growled. "You and I, we have a score to….."

Diana fired some arrows at Croc. All of the arrows had been deflected by the giant croc man. He turned around, nostrils flaring and he charged Diana. Diana slid underneath his attack and grabbed Croc by the tail. She twisted him around and brought him down to the ground. Croc bounced back up and charged Diana one more time. Diana avoided the attack.

Harry jumped into the air and launched a flare from his suit which caused Croc to stagger back blinded. The moment the criminal had been blinded, Harry sent a flare of light into the chest of Croc. No effect, but Harry prepared to use the scientific process to whittle down a weak spot.

Croc, through impaired vision, snatched at the air, trying to grab onto his prey. Nightwing kept a couple of steps ahead of him. A grapnel had been caught by Croc. Nightwing twisted in mid-air and threw some knives at the ground. The ground exploded and caused Croc to be swept up into the river of sewage beneath him.

The monster pulled himself out of the murky waters. Despite the fact he dripped with raw sewage, he was angrier than ever. Nightwing dodged underneath the attack and jumped on the back of Croc's neck. He nailed a punch to the side of Croc's neck, causing the monster to howl in agony.

Nightwing stepped back a couple of inches and Croc tore his way through the gates, making his way deeper into the sewers.

"The hunt's not over, just yet," Diana said.

"No, it's never over."

Off to the side of the sewers, a group of Black Mask's men hung back, looking at the two of them. One of them was Nightwing, someone their boss put a pretty high price on, finding him dead.

"So, should we go after him?" one of them asked.

"Nah, let the dinosaur man beat him down, and then we'll go in for the kill," one of the goons said.

"And what if Croc kills us for taking away his kill?" one of them asked.

"Well, maybe he'll be softened up, and we can make a pair of boots out of him later," one of the goons said, chuckling in an amused manner.

The others wondered if him pissing off Croc necessarily was a good idea.

* * *

 

Batman went off of a pretty big hunch. He dropped down onto the edge of the roof overlooking Sionis's steelworks plant. His head turned a fraction of an inch to the side. Black Mask's men had been seen at the same of the crime, and Batman had a hunch they were involved in the explosion.

"So, are you saying Black Mask had Loeb kidnapped and set up….whoever the cop killer was," Oracle said. "You haven't told me who it was yet."

"I have my suspicions, and I'm certain you do too," Batman said. "But, Black Mask's men have been sighted in the area, and they were around the same area where Loeb's car was crashed. And they were responsible for the break out of Croc at Blackgate."

Batman knew something was big. Sionis had been acting rather erratic and manic, even for him as of late. And he knew Black Mask was behind the explosion tonight. He could not wait for the GCPD to get a search warrant, and by the time they put two and two together, it would have been too late.

' _I need answers, and I need them now.'_

"Okay, even if you get past the security, you are going to run into trouble," Oracle said. Her fingers rubbed together with a sigh passing through the back of her throat. "As in an entire army, and that's if you get past security."

Batman was well aware of all of what he had to deal with going in.

"I'll find a way."

Batman slipped past one of the towers and maneuvered to the most convenient entrance point. The vents gave him a one minute window to slide through before the incinerator kicked back on. It happened once an hour every hour and while Batman cut it close, the window was about to open right now.

He swore he saw a glimpse of Black Mask pacing from the tower, and his gaze locked onto several snipers on the tower. The stakes had risen and Batman made his move.

' _It's time.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on October 8** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well the fallout of this last chapter in this one, and there's a pretty insane level of craziness taking place._

_Croc's bigger, meaner, and uglier than ever which doesn't bode well for anyone._

_Batman does the Batman thing and heads after Black Mask._

_Everyone is shaken by the potential revelation of who the Gotham City Cop Killer is, and the ramifications of this attack continue to shake everyone. You don't know who to trust._

_Well, things are heating up, as we head into Saturday's chapter._


	232. Silent Night, Bloody Night Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Two: Silent Night, Bloody Night Part Two.**

* * *

 

Kara Kent-Potter made her way through the double doors, showing her press pass the moment she arrived to meet Vicki Vale. Today would be an interesting day, and it had already been an interesting night. Kara dreaded the news coming in, but she was sure if anyone had been able to keep an ear out to the service, it would be the lovely, Ms. Vale.

Speaking of which, Kara spotted her off into the corner. The two of them exchanged a smile, Vicki's smile growing deeper when Kara lifted up a cup of coffee to show what she had brought to Vicki. The two met in the center of the room, with Vicki leaning in and giving Kara a brief kiss on the cheek when no one was looking. The two beautiful women pulled away from each other, with smiles on their faces.

They moved over to sit down and enjoy the coffee Kara brought.

"Thanks," Vicki said. "You're a real lifesaver sometimes, I want you to know that."

"I aim to please," Kara said. "I'm sure you got the news last night….."

The sigh coming from the fearless Gotham City investigative reporter showed she did know what happened last night.

"There's been an explosion," Vicki said. "The GCPD is doing a pretty good job at keeping a lid on this entire cop killer mess, mostly because they're afraid half of the general public would end up cheering the guy on with what he's doing."

Kara figured about as much. Still, it was nice to have some confirmation. She sat down in front of the desk, helping Vicki clear out the desk. She was not prepared to be here on Christmas Eve, but the news never slept. This was big, breaking news, among some of the biggest ever to hit Gotham City in recent memory.

"We're just waiting for the one key piece of information to tie it together," Vickie said. "You're either in the thick of things or you're left behind."

' _You're either in the thick of things, or you get left behind,'_ Kara said. _'Really, it's the news business in a nutshell.'_

' _For Vicki, it is,'_ Harry thought. _'Diana and I ran into Killer Croc.'_

Kara tried to hide the surprised gasp from her face. She readjusted herself and took in a deep breath, calming herself down. Several seconds later, when noticing Vicki didn't react to her almost gasp, Kara returned herself to the conversation as calmly as she could manage.

' _You didn't get hurt, did you?'_ Kara asked.

' _Thankfully, although Croc's latest victim wasn't so lucky'_ Diana thought darkly. _'I just think this is going to get a bit more insane before it gets better. Croc's down here, and I'm pretty sure Black Mask's men are lurking down here.'_

' _They released Croc because they want someone to collect on the bounty,'_ Kara thought.

' _Or for a distraction,'_ Jaime thought.

"What I'm trying to figure out is, now his biggest supporter is gone, what's Branden's next move," Vicki said. "The SWAT's been running wild if you believe rumors and hearsay."

Kara snapped her attention away from the conversation she had in the bond link and locked her eyes onto Vicki. She responded by settling her hand onto Vicki's and getting her attention by gently pulling her forward.

"Careful, Ms. Vale," Kara said. "You can't allow yourself to get blinded by spectacular and rumors. As a journalist, you can only go with the facts and nothing, but the facts."

Vicki's lips curled into a devious little smile. She recalled her words when giving them to Kara a long time ago and appreciated them being used. It showed her apprentice learned quite a bit from their time together. Vicki learned a little bit as well, as Kara had a keen eye for detail, picking up some elements which even Vicki missed during her time.

"Yes, I'm aware of that, Kara," Vicki said, her lips curling into a pretty gentle smile. She leaned closer towards her young apprentice. "But, we're going to have to dig deeper to find those facts, because there are some in Gotham City who are willing to bury them deep under the ground."

Kara sensed the trademark stubbornness from the lovely Ms. Vale. She always had her own way of how to do things, and if it didn't work, then Kara really didn't know what to say. She decided to retract into the bond for advice.

' _You're going to have to just keep an eye on her,'_ Harry thought. _'If I know Vicki, and I think all of us do by this point, she's going to try and seek out information about the explosion and who was behind it.'_

"I was wondering if I could ask you about a rumor if you don't mind," Vicki said.

"Me?" Kara asked.

"Well, I'm sure you don't have any inside information, well, I'm sure you don't," Vicki said, staring back at Kara.

Boy, if Vicki ever knew what Kara had access to. But, she didn't know if she knew what Vicki talked about.

"Of course I don't," Kara said, sounding a bit miffed at the thought she was shielding information from Vicki.

Kara might have been shielding Harry's theory of who was the Gotham City cop killer. Something, Kara knew would mean bad things if people drew the same conclusion she did. It was nothing, but a hunch.

"Black Mask's men might have been seen at the scene of the explosion earlier tonight," Vicki said.

"I've heard….well it's obvious," Kara said.

Vicki took a couple of seconds to drink her cup of coffee. The high-class reporter looked to be mulling over some thoughts in her head as if trying to figure out the best way to describe her theory to Kara.

"Yes, it's obvious he's up to something," Vicki said. "No one could prove he was the one who ordered the hit on Dent, which got rescinded. That one went away. Sionis….well, he's been acting odd. He hasn't been seen in public for almost two months…."

Kara frowned, and even Harry's interest perked up on the bond network.

' _Hmm, that's interesting,'_ Harry thought. _'You know, she does have a point. I don't recall seeing Sionis around the various charity events in Gotham City this holiday season.'_

' _What are you trying to say?'_ Karen asked.

' _I'm just saying it's very strange,'_ Harry thought.

Strange always was the best indicator to describe Gotham City.

"What do you think, Kara?" Vicki asked.

Kara took a couple of seconds to drink her coffee, delaying a couple of seconds. She turned to Vicki with a raised eyebrow.

"I say you're getting into some dangerous waters, Vicki," Kara said.

"Hmm, I'd figure you'd say that," Vicki said. "I'm a reporter, though, it's my job to get into dangerous waters."

No one could fault Kara for her concern, at any rate. Vicki reached forward and patted Kara on the hand. She thought times were going to get tough in Gotham City.

' _I'm really glad I'm here to keep an eye on her,'_ Kara thought. _'Why do I have the strangest feeling she's going to do something really reckless.'_

' _Because she's a reporter who is fearless, and pretty much smiles in the face of danger,'_ Harry thought.

Kara thought pretty much was it. She would have to babysit Vicki and really hope she did not do anything too reckless. Like, hunt down the lead of the cop killer on her own.

"Hey, did you hear this?" Vicki asked. Kara turned her attention around, raising an eyebrow towards Vicki. Vicki decided to tell her what she found it. "It says there was a car found totaled at the scene of the crime. There's an unsubstantiated report it belongs to the ADA, Rachel Dawes."

Kara tried not to whistle. This could have gone really good, or really bad depending on which angle Vicki decided to take this particular report.

"Well, she would have been the one investigating the cop killer," Kara said. "Maybe she was trying to track down a lead."

"Yes," Vicki said in response. "And maybe she saw something and ended up meeting foul play?"

Kara hoped they could get something out along those lines. She had no idea whether Rachel actually was the cop killer. A disturbing amount of evidence pointed to her being the one who was behind this entire mess. Kara's stomach turned at the thought of what the cop killer could do.

' _Just keep it calm, Kara,'_ Kara thought. _'No one knows anything.'_

She kept her attention on Vicki, and also dipped back for constant updates with Diana and Harry. She wanted to know everything which was going on, Killer Croc.

Tonight would be a very long night, Kara just had a funny feeling it would be. She watched when Vicki went back to study some reports, leaving Kara deep with her own thoughts.

* * *

 

The past couple of years had not been pleasant for Larry Quintin Lance. His oldest daughter's boyfriend cheated on her, and what was worse, he cheated on her with his wife. Said wife died before they could reconcile. He had been attacked after seeing something he should not have. This brought him out of active duty on the force. Then his youngest daughter, Sara, had gone missing for several months, and what was worse, she was with the same ex-boyfriend of his daughter, who had also slept with his wife.

Overall, life had not been too kind to him, at all.

' _Talk about hitting the trifecta there, Queen,'_ he thought with a sigh.

The man thought there was light after the end, though. He would just have to pull himself back up and do what he could do to survive. He still had his smarts and over twenty of years of experience as a police officer. He thought it was an accomplishment to brag about, especially given most of the time had been logged in Gotham City. A place where it was a badge of honor every day you didn't get shot.

' _Damn lucky I latest this long, long enough to see my two daughters grow up,'_ he thought.

Larry took a moment to shake his head, clearing those cobwebs out of the back of it. One of the worst cases of insomnia possible had visited him. He parked himself down in front of the television and hoped there was something else on.

' _Oh look, twenty-four hours of the Christmas Story,'_ Larry said, shaking his head.

He took a moment to look at the television screen. Maybe, he'd go out for a walk, clear his head. The news reporter caught his eye, and one coming in from Gotham City.

"Jack Ryder is on the scene on this Christmas Eve morning," he said. "In a stunning turn of events, Gotham City Police Commission Gillian Loeb has been found in the midst of a cataclysmic explosion."

Larry sat up straight. While he wouldn't be shedding too many tears for a bastard like Loeb meeting his final reward, it sounded rather curious he had died tonight of all nights.

' _Wonder who finally got to him?'_ Larry said.

Loeb stepped on a lot of people to climb to the top and he made all kinds of enemies.

"We have no idea who is behind the explosion, or even if the Gotham City Police Department has any leads," Ryder said. "All we know is gunshots had been heard no more than five minutes before the explosion. Has Gillian Loeb been a victim of the Gotham City cop killer? Or could he….despite all reason, be the Gotham City cop killer?"

The former police officer snorted at the thought of Loeb having the balls to pull anything this brazen. Something told him, Loeb would not have been the one to do the killings. To do so required him to have a conscience, something he didn't have.

Larry reached over towards the telephone and thought about calling someone. He thought it would be best to check up on his daughter, to see how she was doing. Just a bad feeling about this entire night and he had the same feeling in his gut way too many times over the past couple of months.

"Dinah, it's your father," Larry said. "Just call me back, and check in to see you okay. I heard the news about the explosion in Gotham. Guess, Loeb bought it, can't say I'm too sad….but want to know who could have gotten to the guy. I know you haven't lost my number, so please call me back."

He hung up on the phone. The warehouse looked completely burned and Larry was glad he did not have breakfast. The charred remains of one woman came into prominence of the television screen, and the slightly less charred, but still rather disturbing remains of a second one flashed around the scene.

' _I'll be a son of a bitch,'_ Larry thought. _'This is all kinds of fucked up.'_

"We've just received word through a tip, a car has been found at the scene of the crime, and it belongs to Assistant District Attorney, Rachel Dawes," Ryder said. "Our sources have said….."

The phone rang and Larry reached over to put the television on mute so he could properly hear the phone.

"Hello?" Larry asked.

"Dad?"

Larry had been caught off guard. Not the daughter he expected to call him back, but he would take it. He had been shocked. This call made his Christmas.

"Sara, Sara, it's you, isn't it?" Larry asked.

"Yes, I'm….sorry I couldn't call you before now," Sara said. "The one time I tried to call you, I must have missed you, hit your answering machine."

Larry heard his daughter's voice and it made his Christmas more than anything else. He took a few seconds to recover, and he couldn't quite find his words, to be honest.

"I'm sorry I didn't have a chance to speak to you before now," Sara said, sounding really sorry as well.

"It's…it's fine," Larry said. "I'm sure wherever you are, I'm glad you're safe….."

"Dinah and Harry both know where I was, and where I'm going again," Sara said. "I'm not ready to come home, it's complicated."

Larry figured about as much. He took a few seconds to collect his thoughts, which he seemed to be doing a lot lately.

"You're not coming home anytime soon, are you?" Larry asked, sounding a bit miffed about his daughter not returning home.

"Sorry, there's somewhere I need to be," Sara said. "And there's also the resolved matter regarding Oliver….."

Larry sighed and tried not to act too bitter about the situation. Oliver Queen always resulted in a sore spot for him, something which Larry tried not to think about all too often.

"Yes, I know about Queen," Larry said, breathing in and breathing out a few seconds later. "He's still out there, isn't it?"

The long sigh coming from his daughter indicated she was in the dark as much as Larry was.

"Well, I don't know," Sara said. "I do know this, though, if there's no body, then there's always a chance he's still out there. You and I both know it."

Larry taught his daughters, both of them, all too well.

"And you know there's going to be certain people who are going to ask questions of me, and I'm not ready to face that," Sara said.

"Merlyn," he replied.

Sara smiled, she was afraid of this, to be honest. She knew at least on Queen was close enough by.

"I'll call you again sometime soon, I really have to go," Sara said. "Oh, and Dinah's fine….she's out doing her night job right now, though."

Given the news about what was happening in Gotham City, Larry could not have been too pleased. No matter how much he knew his daughter could handle herself, he still could not help, and be concerned.

"Yes, I know you're concerned, it's your job to be concerned," Sara said. "You never have to worry about either myself or Dinah though, we're both able to take care of ourselves."

Larry responded with a nod.

"Talk to you later, love you, bye."

"Love you too, Sara, take care of yourself," Larry said.

He smiled and turned his attention to the news, well it shifted to a commercial, but it was still the thought that counted. Despite all of the pain and the sorrow he experienced over the past couple of years, Larry thought his Christmas had been made and he would get back to work after the first of the year, even if it was not what it used to be.

Still, things had been looking up. He shut off the television, not able to stomach other minute of the news coming out of Gotham, at least not tonight.

* * *

 

Batman slipped past the first line of defense and slipped onto a ledge high above. One wrong move and it would alert the snipers to Batman's position. Their presence would force him to leave, before he even got close to Black Mask.

The Detective had no intention of leaving.

Like his training, Batman caught a decent glimpse of his surroundings. The men on the ground started to move around in circles, led by Black Mask's Number One. They moved passed them.

The lack of security was unnerving, to be honest.

"I don't like this," Batman said.

"Really?" Oracle asked. "Get out of here."

Batman ignored her cutting remark to slip down onto the ground. He dropped down, peering over his shoulder. From one side to the next, before Batman did a tuck and roll and slipped back a couple of inches.

"The lack of security here is out of character," Batman said. "Other than the snipers, it's pretty barren."

Batman came to one conclusion regarding what was going on here.

"This could be a trap."

"Well, he could be following an old proverb," Oracle said. "If he wants a job done right, then maybe he should do it himself."

Batman brushed off these thoughts from Oracle, even though he suspected she was more than likely correct in a situation like this. The Dark Knight kept creeping through the shadows, looking over his shoulder and decided to make a movement in another direction.

' _No one so far,'_ Batman thought. _'I don't like it.'_

The doors opened and before they could open, Batman jumped up and made his way on the Catwalk. Number One and a group of Black Mask's men slipped into the room and started to look around. Batman pressed himself against the wall, waiting to see what they were doing.

The second one of them isolated himself from the rest of the group, Batman made his move. He swooped down and plucked the man upside down. His scream had been only about a half of a second until Batman punched his lights out, without managing to draw the ire of even one of the snipers in the distance.

The sniper had been dragged back into the shadows, with no one having been the wiser he had been brought down to the ground.

Batman slipped a fraction of an inch back into the shadows and continued to wait to see if anyone would come back around. He watched Black Mask's men move around.

"I thought I saw someone...Joey…..damn man!"

Batman slipped into a vent in the wall and lurked underneath the vents, going all the way to the floor. The Dark Knight stalked the criminal from beneath and waited for the right moment to strike.

The second one of them was alone, Batman struck. He popped out from underneath one of the vents. A goon spun around and Batman blocked a punch. He nailed one of the goons in the face and grabbed him in a cranking headlock. Batman drove his knees into the chest of the armed thug, knocking the wind out of him and knocking him unconscious.

Two down, about five more to go, Batman mentally noted.

The next two goons were easy to take out. They stumbled around, a bundle of nerves, and Batman swooped out against them easily. The heads knocked together and both of them fell down to the ground. The goons fell back injured from the impact.

A third goon walked forward to investigate the attack which brought down his two compatriots. He pointed a gun towards the shadows and pulled a trigger. He began shooting at the shadows but found absolutely nothing in the shadows. Pulling back, the goon started to breathe heavily.

' _Calm down, just calm down.'_

Batman hooked the goon in a half nelson, twisted his shoulder slightly, and rammed him face first into the wall. The goon's face and mouth busted open. Batman turned the goon around and assaulted him with rapid fire punches which stunned him. The goon dropped down onto the ground, blood spilling from his mouth the second he fell back.

The next of the goons had been dropped to the ground, leaving Batman stepping back to admire his handiwork. Two more to go, counting Number One, the one which would likely have the information Batman needed to navigate.

"They're dropping like flies!" Number One yelled.

Number One knew he had to be here somewhere.

"And you'll be the next one to drop," Black Mask growled in his ear piece. "The boys on the roof don't see anything, though, so it's almost like six of our boys have dropped down from natural causes."

Number One knew in the back of his mind this was not the case. He turned around and noticed the goon who stood by his side, no longer had stood by his side, having been dropped down to his knees like he was nothing. Number One's breathing escalated.

He turned around and the hand of Batman found his throat. Number One attempted to defend himself. Black Mask put him in this position for his strategic mind, not any level of fighting skills.

Batman sunk his fist into the abdomen of Number One and knocked him hard against the wall. Number One slumped against the ground and Batman noticed a portable computer hanging out of his pocket.

The Detective snatched the computer and started to input information into it. A few seconds passed when the lights on the computer started to blink, and Batman noticed data flashing to light. It was nonsense information, but with a little work, Batman could decrypt it.

"Any luck?" Oracle asked.

No sooner did she say those words, Batman ended up cracking the code.

"It's a detailed map of Black Mask's compound, along with all of the locations of the sniper's, and the blind spots," Batman said.

Both Oracle and Batman thought the same thing. It was almost too easy such a valuable piece of information practically fell into Batman's hands. They did not know what to make of this madness, only Batman needed to keep walking.

So he did, keep walking.

* * *

 

Huntress and Nightwing continued their hunt through the sewers. Every couple of minutes, both of them heard a rustling of movement and some booming laughter. The laughter resulted in Huntress becoming slightly more agitated as time went by. Her hand clutched around the crossbow handle.

' _I'm beginning to think he's playing mind games with us,'_ Huntress thought.

' _Well, I figured about as much,'_ Harry thought. _'And it's not a game he is going to win, not if I can help it.'_

With Black Mask and his men close by, Harry did not have much time or rather much patience to deal with the likes of Killer Croc. The sewer had been full of surprises tonight, and it had been more crowded than he thought it would have been. The young man raised an eyebrow and arched his neck back a couple of inches, looking.

' _Croc's close.'_

Diana kept her hands firmly on her crossbow. Nothing got her blood pumping like a good hunt.

Harry's attention locked onto Kara, at least halfway. So far, they had no news. No news on tonight was very bad news. The entire explosion had left the press about as confused as the GCPD. Harry's theory had some degree of validity, but no one seemed to bring it up just yet. Which, Harry had been grateful for.

' _There are other explanations,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Yes,'_ Harry thought.

' _For the record, Batman seems to be thinking along the same lines,'_ Barbara thought. _'At least I think he is if I'm reading his mood right.'_

Harry figured Bruce may have been able to put two and two together. He was annoyingly savvy like that.

' _Oh, and you should know, he's gone into Black Mask's fortress, and he's getting pretty far,'_ Barbara thought.

Harry did not have any chance to tell Barbara how much he did not like this. For at this moment, the sewers started to stir with life, and it was not life of the good kind either. Laughter began to echo deep between the waves. Diana went side by side with Harry.

Nightwing and Huntress stood perched prepared for an attack when the most sinister laughter possible continued to echo around them.

"Tick, tock, time to feed the Croc!"

Killer Croc jumped out of the water and dove towards Nightwing. Nightwing avoided Croc's attack when he jumped out of the water. The large beast spun around and tried to nail Nightwing with his tail. Nightwing responded with a series of rapid-fire jabs.

The moment Croc had been distracted, Huntress unloaded on the beast with a series of punches. The Amazon Warrior avoided the attack from Croc and aimed her crossbow at him. Croc turned his attention towards the Amazon Warrior who blasted him with a series of bolts from her crossbow.

"Ha, tickles!" Croc yelled. "Sorry to tell you, darling, but I'm a bit thick skinned!"

Nightwing hurled a rock into the air before kicking it into Croc's face. Croc staggered back a couple of inches. The monster lifted up a larger rock and hurled it at Nightwing. Nightwing dodged out of the way.

' _Well, he's not going to beat me by throwing a rock at me,'_ Nightwing thought.

The wall next to Nightwing had been disintegrated by a weapon blast. He turned around just in time to see Black Mask and his men. He was not happy to see them, as was Killer Croc.

"Get out of my way!" Croc yelled.

Croc rushed through Black Mask's men. The monster knocked two of them down with a brutal attack. One of them just barely dodged Croc's attack.

"But, we were just trying to….ARGH!"

"You're not trying to help," Croc said, lifting one of the men over his head and hurling him like a Frisbee against the other men. "You were just getting in my way. I don't like it when people get in my way!"

Croc pumped his arms up and growled in response. Two of the men backed off and ran through the sewers.

"Smarter than these other boys," Croc said. "See if I have some room for desert…"

A dagger nailed Croc against the side of the elbow and hit one of the fleshiest parts of the monster. Croc howled in pain and turned to face Nightwing. Nightwing only responded to Croc's growl by hurling another dagger at his chest.

"You'll pay for that!"

Nightwing raised a hand and motioned for the gigantic monster to come after him. Killer Croc reared back his head and roared when rushing at Nightwing. Nightwing avoided Croc's attack.

He jumped behind Croc and started to fire away with a series of punches to the back of his enemy's head. Croc whirled around in a desperate attempt to take Nightwing out. Nightwing avoided the punches from Croc and jumped into the air from behind him.

"Stand still!"

Diana slipped to the left of her opponent and nailed Croc with an uppercut punch. The punch rocked Croc hard and caused him to step back.

"You hide behind your bitch!" Croc yelled.

Diana narrowed her eyes at the terminology used to Croc.

' _I would tell you to kick his ass, but you're going to do it already,'_ Donna said.

Diana tried to wrap her arms around Croc and push him into the wall. She could not quite waist lock him, given the massive strength. Croc snapped at her head. Diana crouched down to duck the attempted mouth decapitation. The Amazon Princess ran Croc against the wall and started to breathe heavily.

"He doesn't need to hide behind me!" Diana yelled. "We stand together."

Croc swiped at Diana. Diana avoided the attack one more time and nailed Croc with a jumping kick which staggered him. The Amazon Princess jumped over a miniature pit and landed onto the ground firmly.

The monster turned around and dove into the water in an attempt to psyche Diana out. Unfortunately, for him, an electrified mine went off into the water. The charge knocked Croc out of the water and caused him to frail around like a madman.

Nightwing swooped in, raising an arm and firing a net, wrapping it around Croc. Croc struggled to find his way out of the net, almost dropping down onto his knees in the process. Nightwing drew his hand back and punched Croc, sending him crashing down onto his knees.

' _Well, there goes that.'_

Another group of Black Mask's men came down around the corner. Huntress and Nightwing locked eyes onto them and rushed them to take them out.

Huntress disarmed one of the men, namely by pulling his arm back and throwing him to the ground with a violent shoulder throw. She grabbed the man's arm and punched it several times. The Amazon avoided an attack from one of her adversary's. She grabbed him around the back of the neck, and hoisted the attacker off the ground as light as a feather. The blood rushing to his head caused him to black out before she put him down on the ground.

Nightwing slipped into the shadows. One of the men pointed a weapon in his general position and started to fire. Only, Nightwing disappeared from his line of sight.

The moment the henchman whirled around, Nightwing drove the punch into his jaw.

Killer Croc broke free out the net and disappeared into the shadows to lick his wounds and plan for his next move.

' _They won't stop me.'_

* * *

 

Frantic mumbles coming from a closet drew Batman's attention away. He paused for a minute before moving closer to investigate.

The mumbles grew even more frantic and desperate. Then they stopped as if the figure who was trying to get his attention gave up pretty much all hope.

The moment Batman opened the closet, a horrific stench greeted him which caused him to be taken aback. Batman drew in a deep breath, trying to have the stench overwhelm him.

The man had crumpled clothes, with food stains all over them. It looked like he had not bathed in two months, and boy did it show. His hair had been a mess and Batman took a look at the man in question.

Batman came face to face with Roman Sionis. The Detective removed the gag from his mouth. Sionis gasped, and he looked like he had been put through the wringer. Food, force-fed, dribbled from his chin. He was not too happy. Sloppily applied make up dribbled from his face, which made him look like a prostitute straight out of Bludhaven.

"That son of a bitch, that clown, he got the drop on me!" Sionis yelled. "He's been holding me captive for the past two months, while he took control of my organization. When I fucking get out of here, I swear to motherfucking God, I'm going to kill that motherfucking clown motherfucking dead!"

Batman had been caught off guard with this delirious rant, and the realization the Black Mask who had put the bounty on his head was not the Black Mask he had been fighting.

WAP! A figure clubbed Batman on the back of the head. The impact caused Batman to drop to the ground, completely unconscious. Another shot made sure Batman stayed down, although the figure pulled back before he ended up killing the poor bastard.

"I wasn't going to reveal myself until the ball dropped on New Year's Eve," the imposter Black Mask said. "But, you just had to be a spoilsport. You just had to be a party pooper!"

A low and understated laughter started as Black Mask dropped his mask, to reveal a sinister chalk-white face, with bloodshot eyes, green hair, and a prominent grin which had been etched onto his face.

"Now time to come out of the closet….and dressed in black leather like that, why wouldn't you?"

Insidious laughter followed when this happy looking fellow dragged an unconscious Batman out of the closet by the cape. He had big plans for the Batman.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on October 12** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_So, news is coming in of what happened, although it remains to be seen if people are going to put the pieces together._

_Diana and Harry have their own adventures, while Batman does Batman things, and ends up getting waffled. Also, Sionis has been held captive, and likely not showered for two months._

_Twenty-four straight hours of a Christmas story….oh boy, there's a staple of the holiday season._

_Well, until Wednesday, where the fun continues to build._


	233. Silent Night, Bloody Night Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Three: Silent Night, Bloody Night Part Three.**

* * *

 

Huntress and Nightwing slipped into the shadows, after having dealt with Black Mask's men. Both of them had an extended encounter with the Gotham City SWAT. They really didn't know when to take a hint, at least from Harry's experience. He disappeared into the shadows and slipped off into the night.

The two of them waited a couple of moments for the coast to be clear. So far, there was nothing, at least nothing they could see. Everyone was out for the bounty, and they just got greddier.

' _Well, there goes the SWAT,'_ Nightwing thought. _'We have a bit of a problem, though. Croc's disappeared into the night, and….that means he's not tied up.'_

' _Okay, as big of a problem that is, we have a worse problem than that,'_ Oracle thought, sighing. _'I talked to Batman when he made his way past Number One and his men. He hadn't checked in, for a really long time anyway.'_

Harry figured this was a bit of a problem. The sorcerer pushed back the hair out of his eyes.

' _Yes, that's odd,'_ Nightwing thought. _'It just gives more to the theory which he just walked right into a trap.'_

Of course, he walked right into a trap. And Batman thought he could turn the attack around. Most times he could Nightwing figured he was crafty enough under any normal circumstances. The only thing which pointed to the fact he couldn't, pointed towards Batman running into someone who is a bit craftier than he was.

The fact of the matter was something was different tonight. Harry could hardly think what might be different, but there was something that was very different.

That thought bode less than well to Harry.

' _When was the last time you talked to him?'_ Huntress asked.

The long sigh came before the answered question.

' _About six hours or go, give or take,'_ Oracle thought. She sighed, realizing something was wrong. _'I really thought nothing was wrong. You know how he is.'_

Harry pretty much figured about this much. He tried to access the communication link, on the headset. He pulled back when he got the same amount of static he had been earlier.

' _Not responding,'_ Oracle thought. _'I figured about as much.'_

Nightwing did not only not like this fact. There were a fair amount of problems with Batman not answering, and there was indications he couldn't answer, as opposed to choosing not to answer. The two of them swept deep into Gotham City, a few seconds passed before Black Canary came into the conversation.

' _Do you want my help?'_ Dinah asked.

Harry considered her question, before nodding in confirmation.

' _Stand by in case things get a bit messy,'_ Harry thought. _'I'd prefer we had a few cards left to pray. We're going to have to go deep into Black Mask's hideout and extract him.'_

Nightwing knew this was going to be a pretty bad idea. The young man turned his attention towards a trio of men moving in the shadows. One of them held their SWAT shield almost in triumph as if he excepted this battle to go better than the previous times.

' _Those three again?'_ Harry thought.

Diana had to give them some points for holding things together and keeping up, despite being smacked down on a constant basis. Even though she would deduct many points, for them, for their attempts to try and get ahold of them. The Amazon stood herself in a battle stance and one thought crossed her mind.

' _We don't really have no time for this.'_

One of the SWAT guards charged Nightwing. The SWAT guard tried to swing the baton at towards Nightwing. He jumped out of the air to avoid the baton smashing into him.

"Finally, we're going to get the money….."

Nightwing jumped high into the air, driving his foot down onto the back of the head of the goon. The SWAT guard staggered a few steps away. Nightwing dropped down to the ground behind the goon. The SWAG team member charged him from behind on the rebound.

The largest of the three SWAT goons tried to nail the Huntress. The Huntress crouched down and blocked one of his punches. He reared back and tried to nail her with another punch. Diana caught the arm and hoisted the man high up into the air. The Amazon Princess hoisted him halfway up into the air and slammed him down onto the ground with a thunderous slam.

One of the goons rolled over onto the ground. The Amazon Princess withdrew her sword and motioned for the goon to rush towards her.

Blood started to pump through her body. The Amazon dodged the attack and grabbed one of the goon's around the arm before pushing him down to the ground. One of the goons dropped down to the ground.

"Hey, we got here first!" one of the SWAT goons yelled.

Black Mask's man lifted a large grenade in the air and threw it towards the SWAT. It forced them to evacuate before the explosion happened. A choking cloud of dust filled the air when they backed off.

"Get out of the way!" one of the members of Black Mask's gang said. He turned his head about one hundred and eighty degrees in the air and frowned. "Where did he go?"

Nightwing dropped down onto the back of the head of one of the goons. The goon dropped down onto the ground and Nightwing sprung halfway into the air. Black Mask's men jumped into the air and tried to go for a kick to the face. He blocked the kick and snapped him down by the ankle.

Bones cracked down onto the back of the goon's leg. Nightwing jumped halfway up and engaged the enemy in a hand to hand battle.

Killer Croc looked from a building off to the side and started to growl. The dinner table became a bit too crowded for his own liking. He clenched his hand around the edge of the building.

' _Soon, I'm going to make my move.'_

The SWAT stepped a few inches away and one of them withdrew a bazooka. The trigger of the bazooka had been pulled and caused Black Mask's gang to scatter.

"Hold the line!" one of them yelled. He waved his hand and motioned for the goons to keep going forward. "We're not going to let them get down."

Huntress and Nightwing turned to each other, with Nightwing retracting his wings and taking flight. Diana jumped up after him.

' _So, are you leaving those groups to duke it out with each other?'_ Kara thought. _'How long do you think it's going to take?'_

' _Hopefully long enough,'_ Harry thought.

Their next trip was at Sionis's warehouse, and boy did they ever need to hurry. Nightwing and Huntress had one shot to get inside, and hopefully extract Batman. Given he had not popped back up before, meant he was unable to get out.

* * *

 

Dinah dropped down onto the couch, sinking down on the couch on one of the lower levels of the penthouse. She took a moment to take a deep breath. Everything just happened at once.

"So, this is turned into an insane morning?" Sara asked, stepping into the room to join her sister. "What the hell is going on out there?"

"I wish I knew," Dinah said. "All we can do is speculate and….try and figure out what the hell is going on out there."

Dinah sighed. She decided to return to check up on how the girls in the Penthouse were doing, and she would head back out when Harry had given her the signal. In the meantime, she extended an elbow and looked at a large purple bruise which had manifested on her elbow.

"Pretty nasty shot you took," Sara said.

Sara eyed it, not that she had much room to talk. There were a fair share of bumps and bruises which came for training.

"I've taken worse out there," Dinah said. She turned to the news and saw some of the grim news. "Why did they use this as an excuse to riot?"

"I think they're terrified," Sara said. "The Gotham City Police Commissioner was taken out, and the ADA…..it's pretty rough out there."

Sara leaned down and took a look at the nasty bruise rising on Dinah's arm. Her hand started to run all the way over the older woman's arm.

"Like I said, it would heal," Dinah said.

"Oh, I talked to Dad," Sara said. "I think I lifted his spirits when I talked to him, he seemed a bit down in the dumps when he answered."

Dinah realized her father must have heard the news, and….well it had a rough last couple of years. So his worry was well founded. Gotham was a wreck and was just getting worse, especially since Halloween. And this was despite their best efforts.

"I'm not sure if you checked your messages, but he called you," Sara said. "Why don't you go and call him back while you wait for Harry?"

Dinah thought this would be a pretty good idea. She slipped into the distance.

Sara smiled. For a few moments, she had returned back to a civilized life after spending almost five months in one of the most intense training. Sara knew she would return sooner than later, so she did not get used to it.

She pulled out a bottle of water and drank from it. Nyssa suggested Sara wait here at the Penthouse, while she took care of a couple of things. Sara wished Nyssa would have told her exactly what she wanted to take care of, but Sara decided she better off not push it, to be honest.

"Dad's fine….he's fine I'm fine," Dinah said. She had her elbow wrapped up right about now.

Sara raised an eyebrow when getting to her feet.

"I'm just curious about something….."

"Oh, if you're curious about how well my training is about, why should I tell you?" Sara asked, closing the distance between herself and Dinah. Her lips curled into an obvious smile. "When I could show you."

There had been a fair bit of tension between the two sisters, which caused both of them to smile at each other. They had gotten into it with each other. Dinah always had a bit more natural talent than Sara, although Sara pushed herself to keep in good shape, even before she started to train with the League of Assassins.

"A friendly little sparring session between the two of us?" Dinah asked.

"You have some time to kill, and I'm pretty much stuck here as well," Sara said. "We both need to blow off some steam, to be honest."

Dinah smiled, she wasn't about to argue. She decided to warn Sara of one particular point.

"Don't think I'm going to go easy on your," Dinah said, seconds passing when she looked into Sara's eye.

"Oh, you're not going to go easy on me?" Sara asked. "Are you trying to tell me you went easy on me before?"

Dinah's words twisted completely around.

"I didn't say it," Dinah said.

"Good, I'm glad, because when I beat you in battle, I want you to be as good as your best," Sara said. She shook her head and corrected herself. "I want you to be better than your best."

Dinah stretched herself out and moved to the center of the room. Sara kept one position. The two sisters stared each other and Sara made the first move.

The older sister made a way to block the punch from the younger sister. Sara withdrew herself back and swept Dinah's legs out from underneath her. Dinah dropped down onto the ground and bounced back up to a standing position.

Sara smiled and watched Dinah pull herself to a standing position. The two sisters charged each other and moved forward in an attempt to grapple each other. Sara used Dinah's height against her and sent her back down to the ground.

Dinah dropped down to the ground. Sara jabbed at Dinah. Dinah flipped over the top of her. The two of them faced off against each other.

The older sister flipped the younger one down onto the ground. Sara struggled against Dinah's grip when she pinned her down to the ground, straddling her hips.

"I won't lie, this isn't the worst position for me to be in," Sara gasped, feeling Dinah push down hip first onto her.

Dinah smiled, pinning Sara down onto the ground. Her younger sister kept struggling and squirming underneath her. A few seconds later and Sara flipped her over onto the ground. Dinah jumped onto her feet and Sara bounced up to her feet. She swung a huge punch towards her sister.

The older Lance sister dodged and Sara jumped up over her sister. She tripped Dinah up onto the ground. Dinah did a forward roll, avoiding herself. Sara jumped over Dinah's head and pinned her shoulder over her neck.

Dinah struggled against Sara's attack and tried to flip her down on the ground. Sara's leg wrapped around Dinah and pushed her down onto the ground. Dinah flipped down to the ground and Sara jumped high into the air. She almost brought her feet down onto her.

Sara grabbed Dinah's leg when she tried to kick her and rolled her down onto the ground. Dinah's leg had been pinned back. Had Sara moved her leg in the right direction, she could have broken Dinah's leg.

The two of them gave the other room. Both came up and stared each other down.

"Not bad," Dinah said, trying to pull herself to a standing position.

Sara smiled. Coming from her older sister, this was the highest of high praise. The two of them took a second to breathe and then meet in the center of the room for another early morning sparring session.

Dinah knew Sara had the ability to match her hand to hand. However, the fact she stepped up her game with some new tactics opened up the door for some brand new ways for her to challenge herself.

The intense battle continued with another flurry of rapid-fire punches and kicks. Sara pushed Dinah to her limits until Dinah managed to catch Sara into a sweeping hold and leg and arm hook which even Sara did not have an answer for. Sara struggled against Dinah's grip.

A close battle, but the older sister just barely beat the younger one on this occasion.

Sara realized the compromising position she was in, the fact her older sister could do anything to her she wanted, and the thought excited the young protégé of the League of Assassins.

"Well, guess I know what to work on," Sara said when Dinah let up on her head and arms. "So, what do you say? Best two out of three?"

Dinah flashed her sister an encouraging smile as if to tell her to bring it. And boy was Sara going to ever bring it.

* * *

 

The world blurred in a never ending haze around the man who hung from his position. The loud pounding echoed in the captive man's head.

Batman tried to bring himself back into the real world. A hand started to slap him. The hand slapped him several more times, in an attempt to bring him awake.

The Detective's eyes flickered open and came face to face with a clown with a hideous white face, a large grin which had been fixed on his face. His green hair stuck up wildly and looked at him with bloodshot eyes. The look of this monstrous man had been topped off with a stylish purple seat and a green flower added to it.

"You know what?" the clown asked. "You know who you remind me of?"

Batman's head kept ringing. He realized he had been strung up from the ceiling by his hands and arms. His belt had been removed from his body, but from where he was it would be possible to reach all of those gadgets.

"You're like that one kid, who wants to spoil Santa Claus for everyone!" the clown yelled at the top of lines. "You've had a bad home life, so you have to ruin everyone else's fun!"

The Dark Knight tried to keep his eyes open. He almost saw three of the clown depending on which angle he went at.

"Well, I assume you've had a bad home life," the clown said. "After all, what other explanation is there for you walking around, dressed like a bat of all things!"

The figure started to laugh when cupping Batman underneath the chin. He grabbed the man hard and pinched his chin.

"I have to say, this has been a long time coming," the clown said. "It's been a very long time coming. You don't even want to guess how long I've been waiting for this moment."

Batman stared at him and tried to pull his wrist free from the restraints. The restraints held forward and did not break no matter how much he tried to push his hand out of the position. He kept twisting his hand. A few seconds passed before he relaxed and tried to figure out another way out of here without hurting himself.

"Just who are you?" Batman asked.

"A good question, I've been asking myself that one for months," the clown said. "The best I can tell you is, I'm the conscience of everything Gotham City could be. I'm the spirit of Gotham City. I had just been your average Joe, but one day, I had a pretty bad day. It's a bad day which can drive a perfectly normal man around the bend."

The clown tried to rustle through his pockets before he removed a slip of paper. Upon second look, it was not a slip of paper. A crumpled playing card rested in the hand of the clown.

"My card," the clown said with a smile in response.

"Joker," Batman grumbled, taking a look at the card.

The clown lifted his hand to his lips and mocked blowing a kiss.

"The one and only, Joker!" he cheered at the top of his lungs. "Yes, the most overlooked card in the deck, but the one when utilized to its full potential could cause the most chaos. It could really upset a well-organized encounter!"

Joker leaned back and withdrew a knife from his sleeve. He teased stabbing Batman into it.

"It's the one card no one wants dealt," Joker said. "But, it's the card Gotham City has now been dealt with and they have to deal them!"

Batman looked at him and made one more attempt to get free. The restraints clamped down onto his wrists tight.

"I'm sure you're giving me a once over right now, thinking about who I am," Joker said. "And trying to piece together what my backstory is…"

The door opened up and one of Black Mask's men rushed in without knocking.

"Boss I'm….I…..I…..I…..!"

The stammering thug came face to face with Joker and also face to face with the gun. Joker pushed the trigger on the gun and blew the thug away without another word.

The thug's blood splattered against the wall. Joker responded by shaking his head.

"That was quite rude of you," Joker said. "What if I hadn't been decent?"

Joker turned his gun towards Batman and for a brief second, the Detective thought Joker would blow him away.

"Nah, that wouldn't be funny," Joker said. "Well it would have been funny, but it wouldn't be ha, ha, funny, not my brand of funny."

Joker slipped his gun back into the holster and placed a hand underneath his chin.

"Well, now the Bat has let the cat out of the bag, it's time to address the boys, and inform them of a new pecking order in Gotham City," Joker said.

He also left a pretty bad mess on the ground, but they would deal with it later.

* * *

 

Huntress and Nightwing slipped through a tunnel and continued their travels towards Black Mask's main office. The way they entered may not have been considered to be the most conventional way in the world, but it worked in a pinch. And it would lead to them where they wanted to go in the shortest amount of time possible.

' _So, far, so good,'_ Nightwing thought.

Nightwing figured there would be little resistance when he crept his way down this particular tunnel. He did not count on the fact there would be absolutely no resistance whatsoever when he crept his way down the tunnel.

"So, I'm going to be the first to say, I don't like this," Oracle said. "If there are none of Black Mask's men here, that means they must be off with Batman. Which, as I'm sure you can guess, is not a good thing, it's a bad thing."

"Yes, pretty much figured that out," Nightwing said.

Nightwing opened up the doors and according to Oracle, there was going to be an elevator across this hallway which would lead straight to the top of this building. If his guess was right, this would lead them to Black Mask's office.

Getting in was fine, what happened inside, maybe not a problem. Harry simply worried about everything else in between the office and the end of the hallway.

Huntress turned her head and noticed some doors to the side opening up. Several of Black Mask's men walked out. At first, some of them seemed distracted about something. They were in pretty funny moods about something, and they were talking to each other in low voices.

"I can't believe this," one of them grumbled.

"Well, the boss wants all…..was that door supposed to be open?"

"I didn't leave it open, did you leave it open?"

Nightwing deduced he was not going to make his way down the hallway without having to wipe out every single goon in one fluid movement. He jumped behind two of them and clunked their heads together, forcing them to drop down to the ground.

One of the goons turned around and his entire life flashed before him before Nightwing impacted a punch into the chest of one of the goons. The goon dropped down to the ground.

Huntress jumped into the fight and started to punch away on one of the larger goons. He could take her attacks and come back for more. He picked up a wooden chair and swung it against the wall. Huntress ducked and the chair shattered against the wall, reducing it to toothpicks.

Not to be deterred, the man grabbed the chair leg and tried to stab it into the Amazon Princess. She dodged the attempt of getting nailed with the leg of the chair. It smashed into the wall. Diana took a couple of steps back and took a deep breath before she swung her leg to block the chair leg.

A huge roundhouse kick dropped one of Black Mask's goons down to the ground. She stepped back and avoided the other one. She used her crossbow to blast the high tech blaster out of the hand. The goon winced when the attack caught him off guard.

"Boss we….."

The radio exploded into the hand of the man who tried to call for help. He slumped over, clutching his hand in agony, and Nightwing swooped in for the attack. Punches started to rock his adversary. He kept swinging those punches into the face of the enemy and dropped him to the ground.

Two more of the goons tried to turn at the same time and proceeded to run into each other. Nightwing took one the first goon and Huntress took out the second good. Both of them stepped back, to survey their handiwork.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Nightwing asked.

"There's going to be more on the way, aren't there?" Huntress asked.

Nightwing responded with a very cool nod. He was afraid there would be more on the way. Both sides turned away from each other and made their way to the end of the hallway.

"And I'm now inside," Oracle said. She tried not to look too pleased with herself, and her level of success. "Just step inside the private elevator, and it should get you to the top floor, where Black Mask is staked out."

Nightwing still thought this was a bit too easy. He wondered what nasty surprises waited for them the moment they reached the top floor.

Regardless, though, he and Huntress slipped inside the elevator, with both of them preparing to encounter the worst. There would be some nasty surprises along the way; both of them were for certain.

' _Any luck,'_ Harry thought.

' _Not at all, but…..it's always darkest before….yeah I know,'_ Barbara thought. _'Just keep your eyes peeled for trouble.'_

' _I always do,'_ Harry thought, smiling. _'I always do.'_

They kept moving, waiting to see what trouble they would meet down this hallway.

* * *

 

"For the past couple of months, I'm sure some of you have noticed there's something different about me. There have been different aims, different goals, and….well, a different way of running things. I'm sure you were bound to notice unless you were blind out of one eye and couldn't see out of the other."

The man laughed in a mad way before gripping the side of his mask.

"And now I think you can know why. I think it's time for us to let it all hang out!"

The mask pulled down to reveal the chalk white and demonic face of the one and only Joker. A couple of the goons gasped and one of them looked like they were about to get sick.

"And once again, my award-winning good looks leave the entire room speechless!" Joker howled. "Damn, I knew I was good, but I didn't think I was that good….anyone got anything to say, anything at all?"

Number One finally found his tongue.

"Where….where is he?" Number One asked. "Black Mask….what did…you did….didn't you?"

"Oh, he's still alive, if you can call it that," Joker said. "We've bonded over the past couple of months over some mutually beneficial interests. Needlepoint mainly if you know what I mean."

The Joker chuckled at the looks on some of their faces. Oh boy, this was too delicious.

"You know, I'm sure you boys must feel a bit betrayed," Joker said. "But, no hard feelings, there's the door, go and walk out."

Two of Black Mask's goons turned to the door and walked out.

"Hang on boys, you aren't going to leave without your retirement gift, are you?"

The members of Black Mask's gang who decided to leave turned around and Joker shot them in the face. They dropped down to the ground with a thud. He laughed madly as the others sat petrified at him casually executing them.

"Oh, I love a good laugh, don't you?" Joker asked, in absolute mirth.

He skipped over towards one of Black Mask's men and casually stole the very expensive watch off of his wrist. Then he turned, and got back to business.

"I trust none of you have any problems with the new regime, do you?"

Everyone, seeing what happened to the two members of Black Mask's gang who decided to walk off, shook their heads in response. Joker's lips curled into one of the most malicious grins possible when he looked at the goons.

"Good boys," Joker said. "Gotham City is going to change, and we're going to reap the benefits. There's going to be a new order….things are going to be a lot more interesting. And if the good old boys don't like it, well we won't just let them step aside; we'll blow them out of the way."

Joker waved his gun around as if he were going to shoot some of the henchmen at random. He decided not to do it.

"I'm a simple man, with simple pleasures," Joker said. "And Gotham City gives me the best of those simple pleasures….just like my party guest in the next room."

Joker turned his attention away from the conversation and opened the door. He expected to see Batman strung up only to reveal something shocking.

Batman escaped from his captivity.

Joker stared at the blank space which once contained one genuine long eared rodent. He stared for several moments. The Joker stared, and stared, and stared, and he stared some more. His lip started to twitch when he kept staring at the blank space against the wall. Unable to believe something like this happened. He kept staring for several long and agonizing minutes as if trying to piece together something, anything from this madness.

Madness which caused the Joker to crack and start to crack up with laughter.

"Oh, he escaped, must have been a boy scout if he broke those knots!" Joker said. "And here I thought I was being very….knotty!"

The Joker laughed at his own joke and a few of the boys started to chuckle.

"Alright, knock it off, no one likes a kiss ass!" Joker snapped. "Okay, that's a lesson well learned, the next time you tie yourself up a Bat, make sure you leave someone in the room to babysit him. Otherwise, he'll just fly it away…..I better write that down….."

Joker pulled out a notepad and stabbed a pen into the gaping head wound of one of the men he shot. He wrote a memo to himself in the dead man's blood and smiled.

The sounds of battle from outside broke Joker away from his own mirth.

"Go check it out, boys."

* * *

 

Some of Black Mask's goons had already been dropped to the ground by the combined forces of Huntress and Nightwing. Both of the vigilantes stood tall and ready for more action.

The wall started to crumble and from the other side of the wall burst the one and only Killer Croc, doing his best impression of the Kool-Aide man. The monster looked towards him, snarling at him.

"You again," Nightwing said.

"Didn't have a chance to finish dinner, " Croc said, lifting up two of Black Mask's men and hurling them out of the way. "I don't like to leave without cleaning my plate!"

Nightwing motioned for Croc to come at him. The large beast came at him and rushed Nightwing. The dragon dodged to the side and retracted his wings. He took extra note of the most sensitive spots on Croc's body and hurled a dagger at one of them.

Croc recoiled in pain when his skin blistered. A wounded animal proved to be more hostile than one who was of optimal health and Nightwing realized this. He assaulted the wound of his adversary, hammering away at it with a violent degree of punches. These punches kept hammering his enemy, blistering his chest and driving him down to the ground.

Huntress avoided one of Black Mask's men. The momentum launched Black Mask's goon into the wall and caused him to drop down.

Joker stepped back and realized things were getting a bit too crowded for his own liking. Huntress, Nightwing, Croc, and Black Mask's goons, all of this resulted in one really big mess.

"Oh, the absolute miserable chaos of it all."

Joker turned around and walked into a freed and pissed Batman.

"Oh, I was wondering where you scampered off to."

Joker withdrew a knife from his sleeve and lunged towards Batman with intention to stab. Batman blocked the hand and nailed him with an uppercut punch to the side of the face. Batman drilled his foot into the chest of the Joker.

The crafty clown made his way towards the open window.

"Getting a bit too stuffy out here," Joker said, climbing back onto the window ledge. "Going to have to go out for a bit of fresh air!"

The Joker fell backward out of the window before Batman's very eyes. The Detective watch as the clown prince of crime seemingly plummeted to his death.

He snapped his gaze over towards the helicopter, which Joker hung on by a firm grip. The two men on the helicopter began to fire at Batman forcing him to take cover.

The helicopter disappeared into the night, with the Joker's laughter a part of the wind.

Nightwing avoided Croc's latest mad rampage. Croc charged him and ended up almost being put through the wall. The sounds of sirens from outside, followed by men tramping up the stairs.

"GCPD!"

Nightwing wondered who called the cops. Croc turned his head around, which caused Nightwing to take advantage of the distraction by withdrawing a sonic grenade. He pushed a button and delivered an ear-splitting pulse, dropping Croc to his knees.

The monster dropped to his knees, and Nightwing withdrew a miniature taser. A lethal dose of electricity channeled through Croc's body. All it amounted to was stunning the monster. Thick metal ropes appeared around him.

Batman already took his leave outside of the window, and Huntress and Nightwing decided to do the same. Police helicopters surrounded the mansion, and cops were pouring into this floor.

Thankfully, Huntress and Nightwing planned for extraction and headed to the room, where Jaime was waiting.

They all escaped, by the skin of their teeth. And unfortunately, so did the Joker.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on October 15** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well, Joker makes things interesting, doesn't he? Okay, other things happened in this chapter, but the Joker steals the show, as always._

_Until Saturday._


	234. Deepest Conspiracy

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Four: Deepest Conspiracy.**

* * *

 

The chaos of Christmas Eve passed with the utter madness of Christmas. The get together before the Christmas holidays was the calm before the storm. The real madness and insanity hit a few moments later. Harry positioned himself down behind a chair and sank down at his desk with a frown. So many thoughts entered the mind of this particular young man, and he had no idea what the future lead for Gotham City.

On Christmas Eve, they had been all too close to being exposed by the Gotham City Police Department. He figured they were about as close as they could to getting exposed. Way too close for Harry's comfort or really anyone else's comfort.

' _Sooner or later, we're going to have to deal with the inevitability our actions are going to be public,'_ Harry thought. _'There are many people who figure we exist now. All they have to do is start putting two and two together, and then the insanity will really start.'_

' _The GCPD will stop ignoring us….which will be a problem,'_ Dinah thought. _'And there's where the manhunt is going to begin.'_

Harry thought Dinah hit the nail right on the head, unfortunately. The moment the criminals grew more colorful, they would need to step out into the light and face the music. The Gotham City Police Department could not follow any leads right now because they had a huge problem. The Commissioner had been killed and there was a new one.

Not too many people would lose too much sleep over the death of Loeb. Harry had a big problem with him being out of the way, though. He was not worried about Loeb dying, as much as the problems his death might lead to in the future.

' _Like him or not, Loeb wouldn't rock the boat too much, unless it rocked his boat,'_ Harry thought. _'I don't know who the new Commissioner is going to be. I doubt they do, but….we could have a problem if it's someone who is not too desirable.'_

' _So, do you want the latest news of what's going on streetwise,'_ Barbara thought. _'I hate to be the one to break it, but very little of it is any good.'_

Harry responded with a smile and motioned for Barbara to continue.

' _Well, this new guy, this Joker,'_ Barbara thought, as if testing the name out on her tongue. She supposed it worked pretty well for someone who created a steady stream of chaos. _'He disappeared into the night. Some of Black Mask's men scattered, and while a few have been taken in, most of them are gone.'_

' _What about Black Mask himself?'_ Harry thought.

' _Well, he got taken to the hospital and when he's cleared, he's cleared to go,'_ Barbara thought. _'They really have nothing to hold him on, and one could argue Sionis didn't do anything wrong. Well, on this occasion. He was held a prisoner in his own home while someone stole his identity.'_

Harry responded with a nod, scratching his chin in response. Sionis would be able to deal with the storm legally, but his support in Gotham City did in fact taper off.

' _So, have you been able to find out anything about the bounty?'_ Dinah asked.

' _Well, it hasn't officially been retracted, but I'm sure once Sionis regains his bearings, it's going to be retracted sooner than later,'_ Barbara thought. She pushed a couple of locks of hair away from her face. _'I'm worried about what's going to happen now when the shit all hits the fan.'_

Harry shared the same worry. He figured something big would go down, one way or another. The moment the bounty had been pulled off, there were going to be a lot of pissed off people.

' _A bunch of assassins being jerked around and tricked about money which isn't there,'_ Dinah thought. _'It's not going to end well, not at all.'_

' _Yes,'_ Sara said. _'It's going to get uglier before it gets…..'_

Sara took a second to pause her thoughts and consider a couple of things. Was it at all possible Nyssa's business had to do with something about the fallout from the bounty retracted? She doubted any answers would come to her, at least in a convenient and comfortable way.

Harry tucked his hand underneath his chin and responded with an obvious frown.

' _It's going to get uglier before it gets better?'_ Harry thought. _'Yes, Sara, I agree….and….you're sticking with Barbara in the meantime, aren't you?'_

' _I don't really need a babysitter,'_ Barbara said.

' _Ah, one would get the impression you don't like my company,'_ Sara said, perching herself as close to Barbara as she would dare. She knew Barbara would get agitated if Sara intruded on her personal space.

' _Well, it's not just…..who is going to find me up here?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Talia did one time,'_ Harry thought, to Barbara, but not to Sara.

Barbara swallowed as an unfortunate reminder of the past security problems. The other daughter of Ra's Al Ghul, best to have a somewhat trained assassin up here, even though Barbara would swear until she was blue in the face how well she could handle herself. The problem was the members of the League were out of Barbara's skill level. She knew in a fair fight, they would wipe the floor with her. Hence why Barbara needed to keep herself calm and collected.

' _So, Sara's with me,'_ Barbara thought. _'And speaking of something getting ugly, Croc broke away again.'_

' _Wonderful,'_ Kara thought. _'How could you lose an eight-foot tall man with a scaly skin condition?'_

' _I'm not sure he's quite eight feet tall,'_ Barbara thought. _'Although I'm not going to be in the front of the line to measure him for accuracy, no thank you.'_

Harry smiled, appreciating Barbara's nature of keeping herself out of harm's way, when it counted. He had enough people putting themselves in the line of fire and with this Joker and the damage he caused, none of it is safe.

' _Anything about the cop killer?'_ Harry asked.

' _I checked back in with Vicki,'_ Kara thought. _'So, far the GCPD is refusing to give any statements, and….no one is reporting on anything. Other than Rachel Dawes having been found dead, along with Loeb, and…..'_

Kara paused for a couple of seconds. News just came in right when they spoke.

' _Dent, Gilda Dent,'_ Kara thought. _'They identified the third body, as Harvey's wife.'_

' _Well, this just went from bad to worse,'_ Barbara thought. _'I'm sure some people are spinning a rather tangled web, and coming to their own conclusions.'_

Harry thought about the possibility of Gilda of being the Gotham City Cop Killer, and Rachel had been a victim of circumstance. It could be possible, he guessed, but he discounted it because all of the clues did not fit Gilda as much as they did Rachel.

Regardless of what way they looked at it, it would do damage to Harvey. There would be tangible evidence to put to Loeb, and with him being dead, there would be an easy scapegoat.

' _Just need one more piece to tie it together.'_

* * *

 

Amanda Potter turned around and looked at the motley crew who hung out at the sitting room of the penthouse. Her sister was there with her obviously. Lois, Rebecca, and Lyta joined them. Jade, Jessie, and Artemis hung around. Donna showed up to join them. Amy decided to stick around. The house looked pretty packed, and Barbara was working on something for Harry through the bond network, otherwise she would be there.

Lily and Rose were in the other room as well, talking about something. Amanda tried to put her ear to the door, only to get a feedback loop in it. The feedback loop continued the ring.

Emily put a hand on Amanda's shoulder and steered her way from the door. The lack of sympathy was obvious in her eyes.

"You should know our mother and our aunt want their privacy and will take every step to get it," Emily said.

Amanda rubbed her ear and frowned. Oh boy, did she know it alright, along with her ear. Her ear kept aching when rubbing over it.

"Yes, I figured that much," Amanda said. "Wonder why Harry told us to stick tight here."

"Must have been a pretty good reason," Lois piped up.

Lois was just glad to get a couple of days off from training and some time to relax. Not she minded the training, in fact, Lois really enjoyed the training. A couple of days off from the bumps and bruises of training made Lois enjoy her life just a little bit more.

"Yes, if it's Harry, I think we can all agree the reason is pretty sound," Rebecca said. "And Christmas was pretty good, wasn't it?"

It had been a tough one for Rebecca to get through because this was the first Christmas she celebrated without her parents. This always tended to be a bit of a darker time of the year for those who had lost their family around the holiday season.

"I told you it would be good," Lyta said.

"You did, indeed," Rebecca said with a smile.

Lyta turned her attention towards Donna and folded her arms underneath her breasts. The youngest of the three Amazon Princesses cocked an eyebrow at her sister.

"Okay, Donna, spill the beans," Lyta said. "There's something going on here, and I know you know something."

As much as Donna would have liked to tell them something, she had been left in the dark.

"Harry had to go somewhere after the party," Donna said. "Diana went with him, and…..well they ran into some trouble. Don't worry, they're alright."

Jade frowned. She wondered if it had anything to do with the strange news going on about there being some kind of killer clown which had risen from the depths. Jade had heard a lot of strange rumors over the last couple of days, and going on the Internet, to try and get information did not help with things. Everything just became even more muddled.

"Did you hear about the Commissioner being killed?" Jessie asked. "Can't say I'm sorry, but…..that's not going to help this city, isn't it?"

Jade would have to agree with her. It was not something she enjoyed thinking about or talking about even, but it was something she could not deny.

"No, it's not going to help this city," Jade said with a frown.

"We don't even know everything that happened," Lois said. "There's….there's something really wrong here."

She smelled a scandal, call it a crazy hunch, but there was some kind of scandal going on here. Lois wanted to get to the bottom of this.

Amanda decided to steer this conversation out of potentially problematic waters. There was a chance some of the girls might have to be moved to the Metropolis penthouse until things cooled down, and getting them riled up would not be a good idea at this time.

"We're just going to have to stand tight, and….wait to see what's going to happen," Amanda said. "New Year's Eve is coming, and I'm sure everyone is going to be excited about that."

"Yeah, it's going to be pretty amazing," Lyta said with a smile on her face.

"I heard things about New Year's Eve in Gotham City," Rebecca said. "Is it true it's better than New York?"

Rebecca had always been on tour around New Year's Eve in Gotham City. She tried to make it up most nights on New Year's Eve, although eventually sleep had gotten the better of her, and she drifted off, not seeing the New Year happen. When 1998 turned into 1999, she hoped for a more reassuring year.

"Well, we try our best," Emily said with a smile.

"How amazing do you think it will be?" Amy asked.

"Really amazing," Amanda said. "But, hey, don't take our word for it…..it will be live on the television and live at Gotham Square….we have a big screen television where it's just like seeing it up close and personal. Except without all of the people almost trampling over you."

"I don't know, I kind of want to see it in person," Rebecca said.

Amanda and Emily exchanged one of those sidelong looks.

"We'll see how things go," Amanda said.

' _See, that one's not as easy to say as you think it might be,'_ Rose thought to her niece. _'And Lily and I are talking about it….if push comes to show, we might have to evacuate the penthouse and take the gateway to Metropolis. And Paula agrees with us.'_

' _So, what's the worst case scenario?'_ Amanda asked. _'The penthouse gets attacked?'_

' _I'm not sure it's going to be that bad,'_ Lily thought. _'If the charm work held up, all of Gotham City should be leveled to the ground and the penthouse still could be standing, but it's not a worst case scenario we can actually test.'_

Gwen made her way from the side bedroom to join them. She responded with a yawn and walked over to talk to the twins.

"Reilly hasn't quite extracted herself from the shower," Gwen said. "So, what's going on here?"

"We're not sure, we'll be the first to let you know when we know something," Amanda said. She drew in a deep breath and motioned for Gwen to join them.

' _Are we in any danger?'_ Gwen asked.

' _Well, we're still on lockdown,'_ Amanda thought. _'No one is allowed to leave the penthouse….although we may have to move everything to Metropolis until the heat dies down.'_

' _How sure are you this is a possibility?'_ Gwen asked.

Amanda tried to hide her frustration from the other girls.

' _About seventy percent sure, give or take,'_ Amanda thought. _'I'm confident we won't have too many problems, at least I hope we won't'_

' _With Loeb dead, there's a huge problem,'_ Barbara chimed in from her position. _'With Joker still on the loose, there's an even bigger problem.'_

Everyone who could access the bond traffic at this point agreed with one thing. Better the devil they did know in Gillian Loeb, then the devil they did not know.

The news had pretty much had nothing tangible right now, which left everyone in the dark and extremely confused.

* * *

 

Roman Sionis returned from the hospital with a clean set of clothes, a bath, a shave, and a really bad attitude. He thought about the most probable safe house locations for his men, and where the top members of his gang will be holed up.

Blood would be spilled and this time, Sionis would be damned if the blood spilled would be his own blood. He stepped through the doorways to survey the members of his gang. The few who were bold enough to show their faces after they neglected to notice their boss had been replaced.

At least they had more sense than those who ignored the call. Sionis would destroy them given enough time.

The moment he stepped inside, Number One approached his boss, a smile on his face.

"Sir, I'm so relieved….."

Sionis shot Number One in the head and dropped him to the ground with one bullet. The other members of his gang backed off, not wanting to be the next one to be shot.

"You're really an idiot if you thought he was me for two months," Sionis said.

Sionis turned to the rest of the goons, they had been nervous. Ms. Li was among them. The attractive personal assistant decided to take the bullet, hopefully not literally, and walk forward, a tablet hanging from her hand.

"Sir, we have something for…..something you'd want to look at," Ms. Li said. She took a couple of deep breaths. "It's one of the last shipments this...Joker ordered under your name….maybe you can figure out where he ran off to….based off of this."

She let out her words in a deep breath and slipped the tablet into the hand of her boss. Black Mask took it without another word. His sunken in eyes locked onto the face of Ms. Li and she swallowed in response, showing a fair amount of fear.

"Congratulations, you get to live."

Black Mask turned his gun towards the former Number One who continued to sprawl on the ground. A series of well-placed bullets impaled the side of the head of the goon and caused him to give a spasm when they hit the side of his head.

"Boss?" one of the goons asked. "Don't shoot me, please….."

"If you have a question, ask it, and I'll figure out later whether it's stupid or not," Sionis said without missing a beat. He looked the man in question in the eye. "Well, what do you have to say?"

"Sir, it's just…..well, you know…..shouldn't you be resting, that's all?"

Sionis looked at the goon for a second, and attempted to decide whether or not to take the shot at him.

"There's no rest, only blood, only revenge, on the clown, on….what are the press calling him?"

"He called himself the Joker," Ms. Li said. "So, I guess that's who he is."

"Who is he really?" Sionis asked. "He just couldn't have popped up out of nowhere. He had to have come from somewhere."

Sionis spent a moment turning around and he peered outside of the window. The wooded area really did not represent Gotham City. Past the woods though represented a city who should have been his.

"And a large chunk of my men have decided to turn around like the cowards they are and join up with him," Black Mask said. He pulled the eyepiece off of the dead man on the ground and placed it on one of his goons. "You, you're my new Number One."

"Um, thanks, boss," one of Black Mask's goons said, unable to quite think what to say. So he just nodded in response, grateful for an opportunity.

"Don't thank me yet, we still have a lot of work to do," Black Mask said in a gruff and rumbling voice.

Sionis delved in pretty far and realized something. Not only did this clown humiliate him and make him look like a chump, but he cost Black Mask a fair amount of money. Why does someone need so many chemicals?

"When I get my hands on that rat bastard, I'm going to squeeze the life out of him with my bare hands!" Black Mask yelled. "Do you understand me?"

"Sir, at the risk of….complicating things," Ms. Li said. "He may have done damage to your partnership with Oswald Cobblepot, and also….."

Black Mask held up a hand which stopped Ms. Li from speaking. He looked the woman straight in the eye.

"One problem at a time," Sionis said. "Let the clown's blood stain Gotham's streets first, and then I'll worry about Cobblepot."

"Of course, sir," Ms. Li said, responding with a nod.

Everyone stepped around on eggshells. Sionis was on more of a hair trigger than ever because of being locked up for so long and none of them wanted to be the poor bastard who pushed him over the edge into a fit of rage.

* * *

 

Christmas passed for all of the people in Gotham City and now with the events which happened prior to that particular day, many wondered what their next move would be.

One particularly worn down thug staggered out of the one of the sleazier looking bars in Gotham City. He could barely keep upright as he walked forward, barely able to stand up straight and keep his feet flat on the ground. He responded with a not so subtle round of coughing and shook his head.

"Damn, that really hit the spot…..I'm pretty sure I parked my car around here somewhere."

The drunken gentleman almost fell over. He grabbed onto a light post and staggered. Quite a few goers were giving him a dirty look.

After he came face to face with some demonic clown after Halloween night, this particular gentleman needed to shake it off. He took a calm breath and stepped forward.

Something swooped over the top of his head which give the rattled man a start. He kept looking around, trying to figure out what the hell was going on around him.

The man shrugged after a couple of seconds and passed off what he heard as some drunken delusion. He had been hitting the beers a bit too hard. His mind started to go on a trip which it would never return from. It happened, from time to time. He could barely hold his head up.

The goon in question almost collapsed down onto his knees and gave a heavy breath. He struggled to keep his head up from the immense amount of drinking.

Suddenly, a figure swooped down and knocked him onto his back. The drunken goon found himself dragged into the alleyway. It occurred so quickly, he did not have a chance to scream. The man came face to face with the one and only Batman, who stared down at him.

The man was too scared to even shit himself properly.

"Oh, shit," the goon said.

He attempted to shove Batman away. His actions proved to be all for nothing. Batman was the pinnacle of health, and this man was a drunken mess who looked to be a few pounds overweight. So he got winded pretty quickly.

Batman spun the drunken goon around and brought him crashing into the wall with a thud. The drunken man's breath left his body in a ragged motion. He stared the face of true terror in the face.

"Where is he?"

"Where's who?" the man asked, almost sputtering out his words.

He resisted the urge of throwing up, knowing by doing so, it would be all over Batman. And throwing up on Batman would be a one-way ticket to an ass whipping which he would be feeling by next Christmas.

"Where's the Joker?"

The man jolted and tried to hold back the queasy feeling in his stomach. His entire world started to rotate around him, spinning in circles.

"There's a lot of Jokers in this city."

The drunken fool realized in a matter of seconds he had spit the wrong answer out. His attitude suddenly changed and he had been hoisted up high above the streets of Gotham City. He could feel himself being spun upside down and hung down over the city. A sudden bout of dizziness had struck him.

Batman dangled the man high over the city. His feet kicked, but there was no way for him to escape the position. Even when drunk, the man figured this would not end well for him. All Batman needed to do was loosen his grip, even for a second, and it would be a long drop onto some hard pavement. This particular thug realized just as much and tried to hitch in his breath. The struggle became rather real as the thug had been suspended high over Gotham City.

"I'm going to ask you one more time," Batman said. "Where is the Joker?"

The thug racked his brain, Joker, Joker, Joker, was this code for something?

"You were with him the other night, I saw you."

Batman's grip slipped and the thug's heart started to hammer about the area of his rib cage. His breathing increased when Batman dangled him high above Gotham City. He would become an unsightly part of an already stained pavement if he did not start talking and start talking soon.

"Oh, the clown well….oh God, please, I don't know, he ran off."

Batman's hand almost slipped to drop the goon onto the ground.

"I swear to God, I don't know, and I hope he never shows up again, hope Sionis puts a bullet in the bastard's head for what he did!" the goon yelled at the top of his lungs.

Vomit started to travel up his chest. Batman appeared satisfied if a bit agitated, by the goon's answer. He had been yanked back up to rooftop level and placed on it a couple of seconds later.

The thug's body deflated with a sigh of relief. He came very close to collapsing face first down onto the body. The thug managed to keep as calm as possible, shaking his head.

' _Crazy bastard wanted to kill me.'_

Batman left as quickly as he appeared. He swooped down and looked at Katana.

"Anything?" Batman asked.

"Nothing," Katana said. "How about you?"

"Likewise."

The samurai allowed a frown to cross her face. Several thoughts crept into her mind, one of them she decided to voice out loud.

"How does someone so colorful disappear so suddenly?"

Batman didn't have an answer to the question.

"Keep searching."

* * *

 

"How could this happen? How could a seemingly loyal housewife turn crazed serial killer? Coming up after this commercial break, I bring you the story which the Gotham City news media is afraid to tell you. This is Preston Chambers, and this is GothCopy."

Harry Potter sat on his study, unable to turn his eyes away from the television. Karen, Faora, Kara, and Diana also sat with them, silent.

"Well, this won't be fair and balanced at all," Kara said.

"Are they trying to imply what I think they're implying?" Diana asked.

Harry nodded and turned his attention to the television screen. Unfortunately, this crafty little weasel blindsided them with this television story. He could almost hear Juno fuming, and he was sure a lot of other people in the media fumed about this story.

"Over the past several months, several of the fine law enforcers of Gotham City have been swept underneath a wave of terror from a crafty serial killer. We, here at GothCorp, have exclusive information Gilda Dent is the Gotham City Cop Killer. But, her story ends in the most tragic way, when she had been caught up in another web of deceit."

The man paused, the swarminess even dripping from his tone when he stopped talking.

"Gilda and Harvey Dent married young after high school. Harvey became a lawyer and Gilda became a nurse. They were a devoted couple to the public eye, as Harvey rose to the legal ranks in Gotham City. An illness forced Gilda to become a stay at home housewife until having been cleared to return back to work recently. Yet, she had gone back to work in a different way."

A picture flashed upon the screen of Rachel.

"Enter, Rachel Dawes, another up, and comer, who worked with Harvey Dent. She became acting District Attorney and worked a lot with Mr. Dent. Many people close to them state they believe the two to have entered a steamy affair. And poor Mrs. Dent knew about it, and sources close to this reporter state she became depressed, and some believe she had snapped."

Harry would be very interested in hearing from these sources. And also hearing what people greenlighted this man to have a television show.

"Gilda had access to the same information Harvey Dent said, case files regarding both ongoing police corruption and past police corruption. Gilda hatched a plan to prove herself worthy to her husband and started to kill some Gotham City cops. It started small, but….it escalated quickly."

The image of Gilda appeared on the screen.

"She wanted vengeance on Rachel Dawes, and also decided to go for the biggest fish in the pond, the late Gotham City Commissioner Gillian Loeb," the man on the screen said. "But, it turns out there were others after Loeb, and Ms. Dent, along with Ms. Dawes had gotten caught in the crossfire. The sad tale of Gilda Dent ends in a fiery explosion at the warehouse, with Ms. Dawes and Commissioner Loeb being caught in the crossfire, the first victims of a new serial killer, who has been called the Joker."

Harry wondered when this would come up.

"What does this mad clown want with Gotham City?" Chambers narrated. "We'll find out in the coming weeks and months. Right now, though, all we can do is wait, and keep our doors locked and our children tucked safely in bed. The GCPD could not keep their own safe from a serial killer, so what hope do we have for them to do the job?"

"So much for unbiased reporting in journalism," Kara said.

Vicki did tell her though reporters with an agenda were very common. Kara did not know how pressing the example was until right now.

"Mr. Dent could not be reached by GothCopy for comment, and many questions if he turned a blind eye to his wife's actions, perhaps out of guilt for his own affair."

' _Yes,'_ Harry thought. _'Many would question it right now, given the fact you're spewing this bullshit all over television.'_

Harry almost slammed his hand down on the table. He withdrew it a brief second later and took a deep breath.

"Meanwhile, the GCPD will be naming a new Commissioner after the first of the year to replace the departed Mr. Loeb. The citizens of Gotham City wait to see if he could do a better job in keeping them safe than the man who departed us early Christmas eve morning."

They went to a commercial and Harry turned off the television.

"Any way you slice it, this isn't good," Faora said. "If the truth comes out, then people know Rachel did it, which in some ways, is worse than if Gilda did it."

"What I want to know is who is feeding Chambers his bullshit?" Karen asked. "There has to be someone with an agenda."

Harry took a few seconds to consider who might have been feeding Chambers a line or two. He came to one simple conclusion.

"The same person who has been pulling strings all this time in Gotham City," Harry said. "It's the Joker."

"Who is…?" Kara asked.

"You know, I don't have the slightest idea who the man behind the makeup is," Harry said.

Harry spent all day and all night racking his brain. Joker popped up overnight, and he manifested from the depths of vile corruption in Gotham City, to punish anyone who stood in his way. The horrific monster clown and his sick, twisted smile would haunt anyone who saw them.

The fact his identity remained unknown to Harry also caused him to step back with a start.

"So, what are you going to do?" Diana asked.

"Well, Gilda being fingered as the Gotham City cop killer is not going to be a good thing, because then Harvey is going to be thrown under the bus and from the moment he became DA, there's a lot of people who wanted to see him fall and hard," Harry said. "But, if Rachel's revealed…"

"Then you have a beloved and seemingly honest politician who has been killing cops, and then people still have questions how much Harvey knew," Kara said.

Harry's mind already went to work on a third possible explanation. All of the evidence pointed towards Rachel. He recalled, from what Sarah mentioned off hand, she and Gordon were the ones who discovered the body together.

' _And I just realized how close my father was to being killed by her,'_ Barbara thought. _'Oh, and you should know, Batman and Katana have not found anything yet. Looks like we're going around in circles.'_

' _Wonderful'_

* * *

 

On the outskirts of Gotham City, a helicopter touched down to the ground. A group of armored and well-armed mercenaries stepped onto the ground. Their faces had been covered by masks. One look in their eyes showed they were hardened killers.

A second helicopter touched down and a broad-shouldered man wearing a trench coat with a mask stepped out. The leader of the mercenaries stepped towards him.

"We are ready, Bane."

"Excellent," Bane said. "It's time for us to collect."

Black Mask would pay when the job was done, or he really would pay. Bane decided it was long past time to establish a presence in Gotham City.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on October 19** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_So, we're dealing with the after math in Gotham City. And the parasites of the press are out in very full force tonight._

_Bane's now arrived in Gotham City. Just when you thought things calmed down a little bit._

_Until Wednesday._


	235. As the Ball Drops Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Five: As the Ball Drops Part One.**

* * *

 

Kara Kent-Potter tried not to recline too far back on the chair in Vicki Vale's office, given how she nearly tipped it over. The news came through and there had been a lot of controversy from the shocking broadcast from Cameron Preston and GothCopy. The bastard had somehow gotten several hours a day on his muck racking piece.

It almost got more disgusting each moment she bared witness to the images on the screen.

Off to the side, Kara noticed the television screen playing the news story once again. Thankfully, it had been muted, because Kara doubted whether she could stomach to hear it again. All she could do was roll her head back and allow a sigh to escape from her mouth.

' _The things people would believe,'_ Kara thought.

' _The most sensational things are always the easiest to believe,'_ Barbara thought. _'And Gilda being the cop killer is a big shocker.'_

Kara nodded in response. People preferred to go for the biggest scandal and not go for anything resembling the truth. To see the fact this guy got ratings really caused the blood of the Kryptonian survivor to boil.

' _The past couple of days have been quiet,'_ Kara thought. _'I'm not sure if I like that.'_

' _You shouldn't like it because it just means some bad things are going to happen,'_ Donna thought. _'Harry talked to a lot of people and they agree, the girls should be moved to Metropolis until this entire Joker mess rolls over.'_

Kara frowned, she could only imagine in the back of her mind how well this went over with certain girls to be uprooted in such a fashion. She hoped they understood why this would be for their own best interest.

The door opened and Vicki walked into the office. She had a bag full of breakfast bagels and some coffee in her hand. She passed one of the bagels onto Kara, who responded with a gracious smile.

"Thanks," Kara said.

"No problem," Vicki said. She frowned when looking into Kara's eyes. "No offense, but you look pretty dead on your feet."

Kara shook her head.

"Just trying to keep up with you," Kara said.

"It's more than that, and we both know it," Vicki said with a firm look. "You've seen GothCopy….and oh boy, did the shit hit the fan."

Vicki took a moment to drink her coffee and look across the desk from her protégé. She sighed long and hard. Everything just was coming apart in Gotham City.

"Preston Chambers is slime, a muck racker, and he gives respectable journalists a bad name," Vicki said. "He's not shy about saying what people want to hear, no matter how controversial he is. And you better believe he lives and breaths for controversy."

Kara believed it alright. A question popped into her mind.

"How does somebody like him stay on the air?" Kara asked. "You know, if he's so hated like he is."

Vicki gave Kara a sad smile and took a long sip from her cup of coffee.

"His uncle is one of the top shareholders at the station," Vicki said, rolling her eyes at the thought of it. "As long as his uncle's in charge of running some things and signing the really big checks, he's going to get a spot, no matter how many angry letters the television station gets."

And Vicki reminded herself it was also because the fact despite all logic, Preston's television show really did get some good and quality ratings. She hated to admit it more than anyone else, but it was true.

"Great," Kara said. "Guess, you can really get far in this business if you know the right people…..but you know something, so do we."

"Do you think Harry would put the pressure on the right people?" Vicki asked.

Kara smiled, glad Vicki had caught on pretty quickly. It was what she thought about.

"Well, he sounded pretty miffed last evening when he heard the GothCopy report," Kara said. She brushed a lock of hair out of her face. "And from what I've heard, Juno is not too happy about him either."

"No, Juno's not a big Cameron Preston fan," Vicki said.

Kara could tell by the tone in the reporter's voice she tried to keep her personal opinion separate from her job, and she knew if she made too much noise, there could be some trouble.

"I think we can get him to back off," Kara said. "Of course, the biggest way to get him to back off if there's evidence to the contrary."

The silence between the two women had been rather long. Vicki looked thoughtful for a minute and thought about how Kara had some good points. Yet, despite the fact the news story resulted in one of the most sensationalistic trips ever, another thought popped into her head.

"What if he's right?"

Kara had been caught off guard by Vicki's words. She raised an eyebrow and Vicki reached forward, touching the top of Kara's hand with hers.

"There's a chance, despite all hope, he could be right," Vicki said. "And I hate to say it, but there's some hints it was someone who could get this information. It could have been Gilda or….it could have been Rachel."

Kara wondered if Vicki had put two and two together. There could be problems if she did, and then all hell would break loose. She waited for the other shoe to drop and it resulted in one of the longest pauses Kara ever experienced in her young life.

"Or it could have been Loeb."

"It could have been Loeb?" Kara asked.

"Well, it could have been," Vicki said. "Unlike some people at this station, I've done a bit of research and took a closer look at some of the cops he killed, he was involved with them in the past. He may have covered up something….and they may have had information on something he was doing wrong."

Kara only could nod in response.

"What if Loeb grew a conscience and started to kill some of the corrupt cops of his own creation?" Vicki asked. Kara frowned. "You don't think it's possible, do you?"

Kara frowned and looked pretty thoughtful.

"It's possible, Vicki, but without any proof, where do we go?" Kara asked.

Vicki smiled, Kara answered the question any single journalist could ask. Where did this story lead? She did not know, but she had an inkling she could find out. They had to find out who, when, why, what, when, and how.

* * *

 

"I've only had a chance to work with Gillian Loeb for a short time, although I've followed his career. And I have to say, I'm proud, proud to have worked for such a great man. I'm not at liberty to say who the Gotham City Cop Killer is, or even if they died in the explosion on that evening."

Hamilton Hill stood atop of the platform, addressing the people of Gotham City. The Mayor of two months stepped into office and was ready to show why he had been elected to this particular position. To do so, he needed to calm the fires as much as possible.

"It's a pity the deaths of two great public servants had to taint this holiday season," Hill said. "But, I can assure you of one thing. The people of Gotham City will not be bullied by terrorists. No sir, we won't be bullied. Gotham City will thrive and Gotham City will survive. We will move forward in a brave new era. It's what Commissioner Loeb would have wanted and it is also what the late, Assistant District Attorney, Rachel Dawes would have wanted. Clarity, where we move forward, into a brave new era."

"Mayor Hill, what about the Joker?"

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to discuss it at this time."

Harvey Dent sat in his office, a half of bottle of wine drained, and his desk half cleaned up. He took a deep breath and fiddled with a silver dollar in his hand and flipped it up and down. The coin landed in several different positions and he sighed.

The phone had finally stopped ringing; the press must have finally gotten the hint. GothCopy's story proved to ruin Harvey's day even more than his wife dying.

The implication his wife could have been the Gotham City cop killer sickened Harvey beyond all belief. Where did they come up with these theories, these ideas?"

Harvey flipped the silver dollar coin and it landed in his hand. He flipped the coin over numerous more times and it kept landing in his hand. The DA's deep breathing continued.

Preston Chambers really went to town. He was so good hiding behind his uncle's money and connections.

One more problem, the man behind the murder of Rachel and Gilda and also Gillian Loeb, the man who had been dubbed by the media as the Joker, threatened to rear its ugly head. Someone fed the media this information and Harvey reflected back to the call he had received on the morning all of this shit went down.

Some psychopath stirred the flames and wanted to stand back and wait for Gotham City burn. Harvey kept flipping his coin with one thought burning through his mind.

' _Never,'_ Harvey thought. _'Not on my watch.'_

A gentle rapping outside of Harvey's window turned his attention to the outside area. The District Attorney rose to his feet, made his way out of the exit, and came face to face with Nightwing.

They had met together a couple of times before, but it never stopped flooring Harvey how Nightwing could be wherever he needed to be in a matter of moments.

"Bring me more bad news?" Harvey asked.

To his credit, Nightwing did not take Dent's statement as an offense, no he took it in stride.

"Not exactly," Nightwing said. "I've brought you evidence regarding the Gotham City cop killer if you're willing to hear it."

Harvey stared at the armored vigilante and looked over his shoulder. He had to muster up some nerve to willingly talk to someone like him. The moment someone caught on to the fact Harvey was in the league with a vigilante, working above the law they had sworn to protect, it would mean the end of his career.

Many already started to call for his resignation because of the suspicion his wife had been involved in the cop killer slayings. No matter how much Harvey wanted to believe otherwise, he had a feeling something was not quite right, and he wondered who to trust. The duel nature of everyone involved bit away from him.

The long pause caused Nightwing to frown and clear his throat to capture the attention of the man before him.

"Mr. Dent?"

"If you have the information, I'll be happy to take it," Harvey said. "I'm not certain whether or not the press would have been inclined to hear it because they already have their story in mind. And they've already made up their minds."

"Yes, I know, I've seen it," Nightwing said.

"You and pretty much everyone in Gotham City," Harvey said.

What did he have to lose for taking a look at this information, though? Nothing, given how much he stood to lose. Even, on the off chance the information implication his wife as the cop killer, Harvey received closure, and that was the most important thing to him right now.

"Hand it over," Harvey said.

Nightwing slipped the information into Harvey's hand.

"I won't even ask how you got this," Harvey said.

"For reasons of plausible deniability, it's best you didn't," Nightwing said, without any kind of pause when he locked eyes with the one and only Mr. Dent. "I'm going to offer you up something. Do you find it odd many of the cops who were killed were tight with Loeb?"

Harvey mentally checked the references in his head and nodded, although it was more of a stoic and crisp nod than anything. Not really surprising when it all came down to it.

"I shouldn't have been shocked, should I?" Harvey asked. "And I shouldn't be shocked you have sources within the GCPD."

"Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no lies," Nightwing said.

Harvey responded with a sigh, and nodded in confirmation. Somehow he figured just as much.

"Regardless, this is a dangerous tightrope to walk," Harvey said. "I want to clear my wife's name…..if nothing else to have her memory tainted by this. But….trying to implicate Loeb on mere suspicion alone does not make us any better than the tabloid journalists which ran Gilda's name through the mud in the first place."

"Take a look at the evidence, and look into what Loeb's been up to over the past few months," Nightwing said. "And remember, dead men tell no tales."

Harvey was about to ask for Nightwing for clarification of this matter. Only for him to look up and notice Nightwing disappeared into the shadows.

' _Of course, he did.'_

Harvey decided to take a page from his book and disappear back inside himself. The cold snap going through Gotham City made it every hard to concentrate. And things were only going to get colder when they hit the grace.

* * *

 

The crew on the Interceptor renewed their hunt for the Red Lantern Corps after a brief detour. They were now continuing the hunt for the Red Lanterns and they all hoped to wrap this up in due time.

Carol kept her eyes fixated on Sinestra, who kept her eyes fixated outside of the ship. She locked eyes with Katma, who had been looking from both of them and around the ship. Ilana positioned herself towards the back of the ship and kept to herself for the entire time.

"If you're going to say something, then just say it already," Sinestra said.

The coldness of her demeanor hit both of them nice and hard, at least at first. Katma was the one who found her voice.

"Are you okay?" Katma asked.

"I'm fine," Sinestra said.

Carol knew from having two younger sisters, who were stubborn to a fault when someone said they were fine, they were the furthest thing from fine. She placed a hand on the back of Sinestra's chair and made her look towards her.

"I said I'm fine, Green Lantern Danvers!" Sinestra yelled.

Carol had been taken aback by her snappish tone.

"Because, you certainly weren't acting fine back there," Carol said. "If you didn't get what you wanted, you looked like you were going to tear the Thangarians apart."

Sinestra returned to her cold and distant act of ignoring Carol every step of the way. Carol responded with a huff and leaned back.

"I told you, recruit, the only language some aliens understand is violence," Sinestra said. "The Guardians should have wiped them out of the solar system instead of merely exiling them."

Carol wasn't about ready to give this one up without a fight.

"Certainly, you can't….."

"I'm not going to have a lecture about morality from someone who is from a species who is bound to blow up their own planet within the next century," Sinestra said.

Katma placed a shield in between Sinestra and Carol before the two Green Lanterns had a chance to rip into each other.

"You should have allowed them to fight," Ilana said in a calm tone. "It would have been far more interesting than the last couple of cycles have been."

They had not run into anything, not a Thangarian, not a Red Lantern, absolutely nothing. Ilana's rage had gone away and had been replaced by boredom. She wondered if there was a color of the spectrum.

' _Look at me, the first recruit of the Grey Lantern Corps,'_ Ilana thought in a cross manner. _'Powered by nothing but apathy and boredom.'_

"The Red Lanterns can't have just dropped off of the face of the universe!" Sinestra raged. "Interceptor, scan for them again."

"I have told you the last eight times you had me scan for them, they are finding a way to mask their presence, but….." Aya said. "Wait a minute, there's something which is coming straight for us."

"Coming straight for us?" Carol asked.

She had a feeling none of them would like this. The Green Lantern recruit braced herself for impact and something struck the side of the ship.

Several winged warriors surrounded the ship. One of them wielded a large energy cannon and aimed it towards the ship and blasted it.

"Leave no survivors!" one of the Thangarians yelled.

"He's hit the ship, hang on everyone, this is going to be a bumpy landing!" Aya yelled. "My navigational systems are down!"

Carol almost could have swore out loud, using every one of the seven words at their bad predicament. The ship started to hurl off course and the Thangarians rammed it again.

"Are you still going to call for the fact we should protect these buzzards?" Sinestra asked in a challenging tone.

"Not now!" Carol yelled.

"As much as I like a good fight, she's right, we're about ready to crash!" Ilana yelled.

The Thangarians backed off, pleased at their attack had humbled the great Green Lantern Corps, along with their prisoner, Sinestra. Their ship headed towards a large glowing planet and crashed in the midst of it.

"Fitting the prisoner gets sent to a prison planet," one of the Thangarian commanders said, with a dry chuckle. "Let's go, they're finished. They won't be getting in our way again."

The ship crashed in the middle of a field and sparks started to fly from it. The ship opened up and Carol staggered from the ship, followed by Ilana. The Red Lantern shook her head.

"You know for a high tech, state of the art ship, the blasted thing crashes a lot," Ilana said. "So, everyone's alright?"

"Yes, fine," Katma said.

Sinestra made her way out of the ship. She should have ripped the wings off of the hawks and mounted them as a trophy on their wall when the get the chance.

"I'm going to have to extract myself from the ship to get a better look," Aya said. "One moment please."

Carol wondered why Aya meant by extracting herself from the ship. Several moments passed before they received the answer. Aya stepped from the ship, looking like she could be Ilana's twin, only with the red parts of her uniform a glowing green.

Ilana stared at Aya for a few seconds, as if trying to figure out something.

"It's either the creepiest thing I've ever seen or the most flattering," Ilana said. "I can't decide which it is."

"Sorry, you were the first person who came to mind," Aya said. "There's something extremely wrong…"

"It's like the planet is preventing us from leaving," Sinestra said.

Carol's eyes widened and this particular bit of news did not settle well with her. In fact, it caused a feeling of despair to fill the pit of her stomach. Sinestra, on the other hand, snapped her fingers in response.

"I'm going to have to talk to him, and explain the situation."

Carol blinked for a second. She feared for Sinestra's mental health earlier and now she was going to talk to a planet. Why did this unsettle her just a little bit?

"Long story," Katma said.

"Oooh," Aya said. "We must be on Mogo."

Carol had a feeling there was a pretty long story.

* * *

 

Nightwing looked up at one of the clocks. Midnight had passed and put December 30th in the rearview mirror. December 31st was about ready to approach and thus one of the biggest nights of the year for Gotham City. They were about ready to ring in a brand new year.

Why did Nightwing have a feeling deep down in the pit of his stomach something was going to be really wrong?

' _It's been almost a week and nothing from him,'_ Barbara thought. _'You don't think he's planning something big, do you? For New Year's Eve.'_

' _That would be about right,'_ Harry thought. _'Any luck digging up anything tangible on him.'_

The sigh which followed showed Harry Barbara ran into a brick wall.

' _No, Joker's spawned just recently, there's not even the slightest hint of his past,'_ Barbara thought. _'Someone like him has to have a hell of a past, wouldn't you think?'_

Harry would have to agree. Knowing someone's enemy gave someone an advantage to beat them. Unfortunately, Nightwing knew very little about the Joker, which could lead to some problems.

One other problem visited Nightwing. The bounty Joker put on him and Batman, under the guise of Black Mask, had not been officially retracted. So, none of them were really out of the woods just yet. They were still under the chance for some kind of attacking.

Nightwing had a sick sense someone was watching him. Goosebumps rose on the back of his neck and he dropped down onto the ground.

' _What is it?'_ Barbara asked.

The vigilante did not have a chance to answer. A trio of mercenaries stepped out of the shadows. They were well armed and looked rather nasty, wicked, and cruel. Their eyes burned with malice when they approached him.

Three more mercenaries dropped down onto the ground next to him. Harry withdrew a breath and waited for the mercenaries to make their first move.

One of them rushed in and tried to grab Nightwing. Nightwing sprung up out of the air and landed behind the mercenary. He started to fire away with a series of rapid-fire punches into the spine of the mercenary. Each punch proved to be far more brutal than the last.

An electrified whip shot into the air and wrapped around Nightwing's arm. Nightwing twisted out of the attack and jumped up high into the air. He came down behind one of the mercenaries.

Nightwing turned around and launched a dagger towards a pedestal across from the street. Several mercenaries dropped down to the ground. Two of them had been armed and knocked out. The third staggered to his feet in time for Nightwing to jump up and nail him in the side of the chest.

One of them slammed a stun gun to the side of Nightwing's thigh and caused an agonizing moan to follow. Nightwing turned around a half of a step away and avoided a second attack. He removed one of the weapons from the mercenaries and fired. He wrapped them into thick cords which dropped them down to the ground.

Nightwing did not have much of a chance to catch his breath when a large and imposing figure dropped down. The man's trenchcoat did nothing to hide the body this particular gentleman had. He wore a black mask which stretched over his face.

"Bane," Nightwing said.

"Yes, Nightwing, I'm pleased to see you know of me," Bane said. "Even though we have not had a chance to meet in the flesh."

Bane rushed Nightwing with surprising speed. Nightwing dodged his attack. Bane put on the breaks before slamming into the wall and turned around.

"You were more acquainted with my associate, Zombie," Bane said. He craned his neck and looked at Nightwing, who shifted a nice little smile towards Bane in the process.

"I take it he's not too well these days."

Bane grabbed Nightwing by the arm and hoisted him off of the ground. He flung him hard into a stack of crates which had been set up nearby. Nightwing rolled off of the crates.

"No," Bane said.

Nightwing would have to say it was a pity. However, he did not really care much.

"He sounds more like Winston Churchill than his old self," Bane said. He picked up an iron bar and swung it back. Nightwing ducked the attack. "It matters little, though. It's time for you to meet your demise!"

Nightwing heard this particular line before. Bane rushed him and tried to take him out a second time. Nightwing avoided the attack and the metal bar clung against the wall.

He charged up the brass knuckles in his suit and jacked Bane with a punch against the jaw. Bane flew back several feet and landed against a dumpster.

Bane pulled himself up to a standing position and a wicked, bloody smile, appeared on the gentleman's face underneath the mask. His bloodshot eyes looked rather manic when he rushed forward.

Nightwing avoided a double sledge style attack and kept tagging Bane with some punches. Bane grabbed Nightwing by the scruff of the neck to avoid the assault from continuing and hoisted him high into the air. Nightwing kicked and struggled in an attempt to get himself free.

Bane slammed his enemy down onto the ground and knocked the wind out of him.

The mercenary stood over top of the man, realizing he was just the warm up course. There was still the Detective. Yet, this one was a bit more personal, because revenge of a personal nature was at hand. This vigilante crippled one of his only friends in the world. Bane was not about to forget this, or forgive this, not if he could happen.

He thought about moving in for the kill. The mercenaries who had lead Nightwing into this position had backed off.

Bane ripped a cinderblock from the wall and lifted it over to finish off Nightwing.

Before, Nightwing could respond, a sonic attack nailed Bane in the back. Bane staggered around and Nightwing made his move. He flung a dagger into the cinderblock Bane held. The cinderblock shattered and staggered Bane back.

Black Canary turned up, having dropped down. Bane turned towards her and lifted a hand before he motioned for her to bring it.

"Come on, I'm not….." Bane said. He paused and heard the sounds of Gotham's finest coming in their direction. The mercenary smiled and backed off in a respectful manner. "Another time, perhaps."

Bane gave the signal and the mercenaries stepped off into the night, without any word.

Black Canary rushed over to join Nightwing.

"Are you okay?" Black Canary asked.

"Yes, fine," Nightwing said. "Especially since you're watching my backside."

"Always," Black Canary said.

As much as Nightwing thought tonight's fun would be over, he had a sinking feeling the fun had just begun. Black Canary and Nightwing took a page from Bane's playbook and slipped back into the shadows of Gotham City, preparing for his next move.

' _Tell Batman I want to see him,'_ Nightwing thought to Oracle.

* * *

 

Black Mask's gang split into two factions. Some of them decided to return to working with the boss they knew for years and years. Other decided to go with the new boss known as the Joker. The man might have been an enigma, but some of them thought he had a flair which captivated them.

Others one the other hand, feared being at the wrong hand of his gun.

Joker showed up, overlooking the men putting together a device. They were thankfully more competent than a child's father putting together their toys on Christmas morning. And there were a lot less of Carlin's seven words used as well. Joker smiled when looking down at them.

"Not that I'm trying to rush genius, but you boys better hurry, hurry, it's New Year's Eve morning, tonight's the big night," Joker said. "Yes, after midnight, we're all going to party like it's 1999!"

Joker paused and laughed.

"Mostly because it will be 1999 by this time tomorrow," Joker said.

The clown looked out of the window. This place was a couple of steps down from the accommodations Sionis had given them. Joker proved he was an adaptable sort of fellow, though. The clown prepared for anything, anything at all.

"You know, the news has made a couple of rumblings about me, about what I've done, but it's all died down," Joker said. "Loeb has taken all of the heat off, Loeb, you're such a party pooper and you're now dead."

Joker broke out into a raucous fit of laughter. Seconds passed when he turned to his men.

"Make sure that thing's ready by tonight, and we're going to make a delivery," Joker said. "Tonight's going to be a night where…..people are going to smile."

Joker picked up the newspaper and grinned like a madman. The biggest New Year's celebration in the history of Gotham City, well they had no idea, no idea at all.

"Boss, aren't you worried about Black Mask hunting you down?" one of his goons asked.

"Son, I'm more worried about pigeons than I am Black Mask," Joker said. "And I'm sure both of them are going to try to shit on my parade."

Joker laughed at his own joke and his men, fearing death, started to laugh.

"Alright, alright, back to work," Joker said. "Nobody likes a kiss ass."

Joker smiled and prepared to get watch his men get back to work. Tonight would be the night no one would forget, and maybe even a night no one would ever want to remember, either. It seemed obvious where they were going. Joker broke into a bright smile.

It was all about timing.

* * *

 

Nightwing and Black Canary met up with Batman and Katana on the rooftop.

"Bane being in Gotham City is the last thing we need," Katana said after they explained the encounter. "Especially considering he's decided to take a direct hand."

"Joker hasn't rescinded the bounty yet," Batman said.

"What worries me is what's going to happen when he decides to do so," Nightwing said.

This particular worry hit all of them. They knew enough about Bane to realize someone was going to pay even though the Joker was not going to be the one who was going to end up paying. This particular fact hit all of them the hardest.

"He won't pay now he has everything he wants," Nightwing said.

"The only problem is we don't know exactly what he wants."

Nightwing stood up, the hairs on the back of his neck pricked up. A sense something really bad was about to happen hit him hard and fast.

"Everyone jump!"

Nightwing, Batman, Black Canary, and Katana jumped as several rockets obliterated the side of the building which they stood on. Debris and smoke flew up in the air.

Down on the ground, Bane stood with one of his mercenaries who held a rocket launcher, pointed at the position to the building. A crooked, toothless smile appeared on the face of the mercenary when he turned to his boss.

"They're done," the mercenary said. "There's no way they could have survived this."

"Are you certain?" Bane asked. "Until I see their bleeding, mangled, corpses, nothing should be left to chance."

Bane proceeded to move forward and finish off the job. He would rip them apart. Revenge would be the sweetest and he would get compensated for his efforts.

And if Black Mask refused to pay the bounty, then all of Gotham City would pay for his arrogance. It wouldn't be the first town he had to scorch due to a deal gone wrong.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on October 22** **nd** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_And Bane really strikes hard, not screwing around._

_Speaking of not screwing around, the Joker is planning a New Year's celebration._

_Fun with the Lantern Crew, who crash land on a unique planet, of Mogo._


	236. As the Ball Drops Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Six: As the Ball Drops Part Two.**

* * *

A never ending ringing assaulted the ears of Harry Potter, better known at this point as the vigilante Nightwing. His eyes started to rattle slightly. Thankfully, he jumped at the exact perfect moment and was able to follow the explosion all the way down to the ground. The vigilante started to shake his head for a second to clear the thoughts before collapsing a little bit.

Nightwing's ribs ached big time when he tried to drag himself up. The landing had not been the smoothest in the world, but it could have been worse. It could have been much worse, and he had much worse.

' _Nightwing, Harry, are you okay?'_ Barbara asked. _'You weren't picking up on the headset.'_

Nightwing pushed his hand on the top of his head and craned his neck back a few seconds later. He responded with a sigh, almost dropping down to the ground. The ringing in his ears hard barely began to subside and it kept blasting him at a never ending rate.

' _Nightwing, talk to me,'_ Barbara thought.

' _I'm fine, I'll be even better when the ringing in my ears slows down,'_ Nightwing said. _'Or even stops, I'd settle for it stopping.'_

He took a half of a step forward and swiped the dribbling blood from his head. Several parts of the building collapsed which slowed down his progress in the building. The other members of the team disappeared into the midst of the building. Nightwing took a half of a step and almost slumped over. His breathing continued when turning his head back a fraction of a step.

"Black Canary?" Nightwing asked. He wiped more blood away from his mouth. "Batman, Katana?"

"I'm….I'm here….."

Black Canary climbed gingerly away from the rubble. The rubble scratched her face and her jacket had been ripped. Other than that, she had come up pretty well whether it would be through a lot of luck or a careful amount of timing, no one really knew.

"Where's Batman and Katana?" Nightwing asked.

Black Canary responded with a brief shrug and started to look around. She assisted Nightwing in pulling back a large piece of the wall. Thankfully, no one had been buried underneath the rubble. This lead them to some troubling thoughts.

' _Maybe they went behind all of this?'_ Nightwing thought.

' _I don't know,'_ Oracle thought. _'No one's picking up, there's no answer, none at all. I'm beginning to think the explosion damaged the headsets somehow.'_

Nightwing lifted up his hand and tapped on the side of the headset. A bit of a loop flashed through the headset and he frowned again. He kept drumming those fingers over the edge of the headset and the ear piece continued to hiss in the side of his ear.

' _Yes, it's pretty much damaged.'_

One of the walls close to them had been blasted over. Black Canary and Nightwing jumped through the window, even though it was a narrow fit. Both of them landed in the alleyway, sliding back a couple of inches. Black Canary grabbed Nightwing around the elbow and held him up off of the ground.

The dust settled and the moment it did, there was trouble, a lot of trouble.

Bane and his mercenaries made their way inside. Bane lifted a large grenade in his hand and hurled it. The grenade blasted the debris to the side, burning through the material in the warehouse.

"Keep searching," Bane said. "Whether they're breathing or not, we're not leaving until we find enough of them to clarify they're dead."

Black Canary and Nightwing looked at each other and could see the mercenaries spreading out. Nightwing prepared to make his move.

One of the mercenaries went for him. Nightwing grabbed one of the goons around the head, gripping him hard. The mercenary passed out with Nightwing putting the pressure on him. After about a minute of applying the choke hold, Nightwing pulled the goon forward and caused him to slam into the wall. The goon bounced down and Nightwing quickly moved back into the shadows.

' _One down, three to go,'_ Nightwing thought.

Cold wind and snow started to blow through the cracks of the building which had been created. Nightwing dodged behind a largely shattered desk.

One of the mercenaries tipped over the desk. The desk exploded and caused the goon to stagger back a few feet. Nightwing jumped up and kicked his opponent down to the ground. The dragon took flight and slammed his feet down onto the chest of his enemy. The impact knocked the man completely unconscious with one swift attack.

Nightwing stepped back another couple of feet and waited for the final two mercenaries. He didn't have to do anything as one of them dropped to the ground thanks to a Black Canary leg sweep. The second mercenary dropped down when Black Canary grabbed him by the arm and flipped him to the ground. She nailed him with a rapid-fire series of thrusts to the side of the neck and he slumped to the ground as a result of the impact.

The Dragon turned around and had been grabbed by a large force. Bane hurled him through one of the windows which somehow remained intact because of the explosion. The glass shattered and Nightwing dropped down to the ground.

Nightwing tried to pull himself back up. The thunderous footsteps of Bane approached closer towards him. The hammering in Nightwing's head after the explosion did not improve.

"So, you survived," Bane said. "Once I finish you off, I'm hunting the Bat."

Nightwing pulled himself up and picked the bits of glass away from his armor. Bane rushed him and rammed Nightwing into the wall. Nightwing slipped underneath the grip of Bane. Bane turned around and had been nailed with a series of rapid-fire punches which caused him to stagger.

Bane gritted his teeth. He was one push of a button from accessing the venom. Yet, he felt he needed to defeat the Dragon with his bare hands, with his skills and wits, proving there was no doubt. Even though his body had already been argumented thanks to the experiences, he still remained strong.

The terrain proved to be a rough one to get their footing up. Nightwing took advantage of it by getting underneath Bane and pushing him back onto the ice. He slammed Bane into the wall where he hit with a sickening thud.

Nightwing stepped to a standing position and could see Bane go up. Not only did he have to fight Bane, but he had to square off against one of most wicked snow storms which it Gotham City. Nothing ever was easy in his life.

The skilled warrior kept his head above the ground and blinked.

Bane lifted up a large piece of concrete over his head and hurled it at Nightwing. Nightwing avoided the attack and Bane swung a tire iron at Nightwing's head. Nightwing shielded himself from the attack and propelled with an uppercut to the chest. Another couple of uppercuts nailed him.

One more huge uppercut blasted Bane across the chest and staggered him back. Bane tried to nail Nightwing with a huge punch.

"If you want to be paid, earn your money," Nightwing said.

"I don't fear hard work."

Bane grappled Nightwing. Nightwing's wing's retracted and he kicked off which sent Bane flying through the windows of a second building.

The large mercenary rose to his feet and Nightwing jumped on top of him. Bane grabbed Nightwing and flipped him over. Nightwing had been swung into a wall and tossed back outside onto the concrete. Bane propelled himself at his adversary and tried to nail Nightwing with a huge punch. Nightwing blocked his beefy fist and kicked his enemy back.

He was going to need to use his surroundings to put Bane to his knees. And Bane's mercenaries surrounded him, ready to fire should he try anything they didn't like.

"Stand down, he's mine!"

* * *

Nyssa Al Ghul sat in the midst of her temporary quarters in the League outpost. She sat with legs crossed, head bobbed back, and humming underneath her breath. Many people would go under the assumption she was at peace about everything right now. Those who had an insight into her mind disagreed.

Talia Al Ghul stood on the outside of the room. The door had only been left open a fraction of an inch. She knew sneaking up on Nyssa would be a good way to get herself stabbed, sister or not.

"If you're going to enter, then do so."

Talia heard her sister's words and walked inside. Nyssa rose to her feet and smiled. She motioned for her sister to follow her down a set of steps.

"It's….."

"Yes, I know where it leads."

Talia's mouth snapped shut when she walked down towards the area. They walked in front of a clear glass case and they could see their father, the great Ra's Al Ghul. Ra's leaned back and calmly watered a potted plant. A tranquil and calm look appeared on his face. His bed had been made neatly, his room did not have a spot of dust.

Both of the sisters watched their father, who did not notice their presence. At least, he didn't notice it just yet.

"He's returning to clarity," Talia said.

"Yes," Nyssa said. "At least when he's in captivity."

Nyssa had some misgivings about where her father was heading. He was in a pretty rotten mental state and she did not even know where to begin. At least he did not snarl at anyone who passed through. As a matter of fact, every time Nyssa came by here over the past week, he had acted like she was just another spot on the wall.

"At least he doesn't look like he wants to kill you," Talia said.

"Yes," Nyssa said. "But, at least them, I had some insight of where he's coming from. Now he's said nothing, and he's in complete and utter silence."

Talia stepped forward and tapped on the glass. She did it three times in succession. Ra's looked up for a second and stared at Talia. He turned himself around and walked over to a bookshelf. He removed a thick tome from the shelf and returned to his bed quarters and flipped it open.

"Yes, it's unsettling," Talia said. "And has….he been down here?"

Nyssa turned away from her father and towards her sister.

"If you're referring to the White Ghost, then yes he has," Nyssa said. "He's been down here several times. Almost every time I've come down here, I've seen him leaving the cell and talking to our father."

Talia took a few seconds to look at her father, who did not acknowledge her presence past the barest glance. She inhaled and exhaled before turning back towards Nyssa.

"Our father recalls very little," Talia said.

"Yes, and he either does not remember the White Ghost has been cast out for reasons of weakness," Nyssa said. "Or he doesn't care."

Talia hated to think that man inside the cell who wore their father's face was not her father. The one great Ra's Al Ghul had turned to someone who read, tended to plants, ate, and did very little. She had no clue whether her father had even trained.

"He'll be fine," Talia said. "He has to be fine."

Nyssa did not worry about her father, he would be fine. Too many people had written off Ra's Al Ghul. Some must have thought the incident in Gotham about a year ago would have been the end. It wasn't the end, though. Nyssa knew it was far from the end.

"He will be….."

The door opened and one of the League members crept towards her. Nyssa turned a fraction of an inch to the side and without warning, she withdrew a blade and put it at the League member's throat.

"I trust you have a good reason to have joined us without being authorized to do so," Nyssa said.

The League representative quivered underneath the blade. Given the foul mood, the Daughter of the Demon had been in, he had to choose his next few words very carefully.

"We've received words from some scouts," the assassin said. "He's arrived in Gotham City….Bane, he's arrived, and went after the Detective and the Dragon…"

Nyssa pulled the sword away from the goon's throat and this resulted in him almost falling over onto the ground. The mercenary dropped onto his hands and knees.

"To your feet," Nyssa said. "I thank you for the information. Now leave us."

The assassin made his way to the nearest exit about as fast as his legs could carry him. Nyssa turned her attention towards Talia who responded with a frown.

"Now what?"

"Bane is going to be reminded where the pecking order lies," Nyssa said. "Inform the relevant parties and meet me back here in fifteen minutes."

Talia responded with a crisp nod and disappeared without another word. The oldest daughter of the demon looked towards the youngest one. Even though their forces united more, they still played a pretty dangerous game here tonight.

Ra's Al Ghul continued to not acknowledge them. Nyssa figured him not being hostile was the best they could hope for and it was improvements they could prove on. And she would need to keep a close reign on the White Ghost, so he did not ruin years of well-structured plans.

Still, Bane's presence in Gotham City was very unsettling, and could come close to ruining everything.

* * *

Carol Danvers watched more than a few science fiction movies back in her day, mostly with her sisters. Sometimes, it was very interesting to see Kara's reaction about how they portrayed aliens back in the 1950s. Also, there was a lot of future tech which might be a bit closer to happening people would think.

Something about this planet reminded Carol all of these science fiction movies, rolled together in one. Her heart started to hammer across her chest. Katma looked at her, and Ilana started to murmur over and over underneath her breath. Carol leaned in and put a hand on Ilana's shoulder.

"I'm fine," Ilana said.

Carol had sisters, and knew when they weren't fine. And Ilana didn't

"You don't look fine," Carol said.

"I don't like a planet which seems to be alive," Ilana said.

"Technically speaking all planets…"

"Are living to an extent, unless all life on them has been exterminated," Ilana said. She spoke in a calm and clear manner as if she didn't know. And she did know, she knew big time. "Believe me, I know, but this is to an entirely different manner. This planet is very different, and….it's unsettling. Have you ever encountered anything this unsettling?"

Sinestra took a step back and turned towards Ilana.

"MOGO forces you to reflect upon yourself and your past misdeeds," Sinestra said. "Therefore, if you've committed something you're conscious is wrestling with, it's not going to be a very pleasant trip."

Ilana blinked a couple of moments. Flashes of what she did as the Red Lantern rolled through her head. She held the ring up to the top of her head.

"It's nothing you don't feel deep down," Katma said.

"Aren't any of you feeling anything?" Ilana asked. "Oh, I get it, the almighty Green Lantern corps are perfect, and haven't committed any sins….is that correct?"

Sinestra turned around and raised her ring. Some brush cleared its own way and made her way through.

"Given what you've seen or done, I'm honestly surprised you're not keeled over now," Ilana said. Sinestra turned a fraction of an inch towards her. "You're one of the most infamous Green Lanterns, and….well….."

"We need to reach the center of the planet to properly speak with Mogo," Sinestra said. "Keep moving, and don't let the planet get in your head."

Ilana realized Sinestra had neglected to answer her question. The sounds of screams could be heard from afar. The crew craned their neck.

A cloud of fog rose up on the ground. Carol bent down. A scrap of fabric and a bent chain laid on the ground. Carol found this particular point rather curious.

"There's someone there," Aya said. "Someone's in distress."

"On this planet, if someone's in distress, they are potentially dangerous," Sinestra said. "Tread lightly."

Aya considered Sinestra's statement for a few seconds. She did not really want to question one of her senior officers. However, a particular flaw entered Aya's mind.

"Aren't we in distress?" Aya asked.

"I never said we weren't dangerous."

Carol watched an alien plant rise up above the ground and ensnare a figure with it. She had dark hair and dressed in a ragged military uniform. She tried to withdraw something from her wrist.

"Let go of me!" she yelled. "LET ME!"

The woman tried to break away, but she couldn't. Carol moved forward and raised her ring. She created a large pair of trimmers with her ring and snapped the vines. The captive woman dropped to the ground.

The plant started to retract back into the underground of the plant. The vines wiggled around before Carol drew it back. Seconds passed before Carol took half of a step back.

Sinestra looked towards the person on the ground. Given the fact Sinestra displayed her usual demeanor towards this particular woman, Carol paid her no mind. The blonde rushed over and picked up the woman. The woman threw herself at Carol and wrapped her arms around the buxom blonde's chest.

"Green Lanterns, thank the creator you've received my distress call!"

"Distress call?" Carol asked.

The woman frowned and looked towards Carol.

"Well, regardless of whether you received it, I'm glad you're here," the woman said. She took a few seconds to breathe. "There's something wrong with this planet….my team has been…..well they're no more."

The woman dropped her head down. Sinestra stepped in front of her a few seconds later.

"Who are you?" Sinestra asked.

"I'm Drusa, myself and my team were bringing medical supplies and food to a planet in this solar system which has been ravished by war," the woman said. "The planet of Nox, perhaps you've heard of it."

Sinestra racked her mind and Nox checked out because the last information she received, the planet had been on the verge of total war which threatened to destroy it. The planet was underneath the Guardian's radars most of the time, the only thing which made it stick out was it's close proximity to Mogo.

"Yes, I have," Sinestra said. "So, your ship and your team…"

"They crashed on the other end of the planet," Drusa said. "I ran for miles and miles, and the planet…tried to kill me. I think there might be something wrong with it….this is a huge misunderstanding."

Misunderstanding, maybe, Sinestra thought there could be something wrong with Mogo's core which made the Green Lantern planet act in an irrational manner. She responded with a frown and looked at Drusa.

"The gravitational pull of the planet must have caused my ship to be brought down," Drusa said.

Sinestra frowned, something about her story seemed off. She would have to keep this particular woman close at hand, to see if the story continued to check out.

"Our ship has been brought down by similar means," Aya said.

"Oh, you have a ship ?" Drusa asked, interest piqued.

"Yes, I'm the artificial….."

Sinestra stepped in from of the Artificial construct, before she said too much.

"Aya, enough," Sinestra said. "As your commanding officer, I don't think any further information could be given. You want to be considered a Green Lantern. Then you must obey your commanding officer. Is this understand?"

Aya hung her head and nodded.

Carol frowned for a second, but then she looked towards Drusa. She looked a fraction of an inch forward. The entire planet made her be put on unease.

"Maybe if you return me to your ship, we can all figure out a way off of this planet," Drusa said. "My ship and my crew were destroyed…."

"Take us to the remains," Sinestra said without missing a beat.

"Yes…yes…of course."

Sinestra would be keeping an eye on her, very closely.

* * *

Nightwing slipped into the back entrance of one of the warehouses elsewhere in Gotham City. Fleeing would have been one of the most obvious and not to mention most intelligent things in the world for him to do. Nightwing did not flee, though, he managed to keep his head up rather high.

Bane would hunt him to the ends of the Earth regardless and he wanted to end this one, one way or the other. Katana and Batman rejoined the fight and they had been battling some of Bane's mercenaries along with Black Canary. Their battle against the mercenaries left Nightwing one on one with the big man himself.

"Dragon, is it possible you have lost some of your fire?"

Bane rushed Nightwing at a speed deceptive of someone of his size and stature. Nightwing propelled himself high into the air and landed behind Bane. Nightwing tagged Bane with a series of punches. These punches had little effect. Bane nailed him with a knee to the chest which doubled him over. Another knee to the chest further knocked the wind out of him.

"I've trained my body to withstand the harshest conditions….."

One punch dropped Nightwing, but only for a second. He bounced back up to his feet. For a second, Nightwing eyed the red solar watch on his wrist and eyed his options.

"And you can't do anything to take me…"

Nightwing used a stun gun to rock Bane and jumped on the back of his head. More punches rained down on the back of Bane's head before Nightwing wrapped his ankles around Bane's head and flipped him into a stack of crates. The large man rolled over and Nightwing nailed him with a running kick to the back of the head.

Bane rolled over and picked up a large board with nails. He swung for the fences. Nightwing used his speed to evade the attack.

Nightwing knew he had speed on Bane, and swift reflexes. Bane smashed the board over the wall. The mercenary stepped back and felt around for something on his arm.

"No, no, I must not leave any doubts…."

Nightwing aimed a dagger and cut the ropes holding heavy barrels over the top of Bane's head. The barrels rained down from the heavens and Bane had to dodge to one side to avoid the barrels coming down on the back of his head.

Bane caught Nightwing's leg and swung him around. Nightwing smashed through the window of an abandoned office. Bane jumped through the window. Nightwing used Bane's momentum to throw him through the desk and shatter it into two picks.

The Dragon pulled himself up, face swelling up underneath the mask. Nightwing stepped outside into Gotham City.

One of the mercenaries flew over the top of his head. Katana engaged two more mercenaries in battle. Sweat rolled down the face of the Samurai, despite the intense and cold conditions out there.

Bane rushed towards Nightwing once again. No rest for the weary, it seemed. Nightwing avoided these rocket buster style punches. He maneuvered Bane underneath a ledge where several jagged icicles hung.

' _Just a little closer.'_

Black Canary noticed Nightwing's position and unleashed her canary cry on the icicles. The icicles came down onto Bane, who staggered back.

"So, this is how the game is played," Bane said.

"You have your friends, I have mine," Nightwing said.

"Fair enough," Bane said. "Perhaps I should cripple one of them, to return the favor you did to Zombie…"

"Not happening," Nightwing said.

Nightwing punctuated his statement with a huge uppercut punch which dropped Bane down to the ground. The blood started to flow freely from Bane's mouth the second he dropped down to the ground.

Bane caught Nightwing's second punch and slammed him through a wall. The bricks toppled and Bane stood on his chest. He picked up a large section of pipe and wrapped it around his neck to try and punish Nightwing.

"Tonight is the night you die," Bane said.

Nightwing responded with a headbutt which rocked Bane back a couple of feet. The mercenary prepared to head in for another kill.

Several arrows shot at the ground. One of them hit Bane in the knee which really got his attention.

The South American mercenary turned around and came face to face with Nightshade and her Elite Guard from the League of Assassins.

"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise?" Bane asked. "I would think twenty-five million dollars would be a drop in the hat for someone of your stature."

Nightshade's body language showed how much patience she had for Bane. Her right hand tensed around a sword on the sheath and her left hand tensed around the quiver in her hand. It almost looked like she searched for an excuse to take him out.

"I'm here to offer you a warning," Nightshade said. "And the only reason why I don't kill you where your stand, is Ra's Al Ghul wants you to breath."

Nightwing rolled himself over. He wondered where this was going. A fair amount of blood dripped from his mouth and he coughed, feeling like he was going to hack up his lungs. Black Canary dropped down next to him, sporting her share of cuts and bruises from the battles with the Mercenaries.

"You think you have any right to tell me how to proceed in my work?" Bane asked. "You are a foolish child…"

Nightshade withdrew the sword and several of her assassins circled Bane. She pointed towards the roof and three snipers fired warning shots which barely missed Bane, just barely.

"You owe the League a debt," Nightshade said.

"Yes, but do you…"

"Ra's Al Ghul cannot be compromised," Nightshade said. "And I hate to be the one who brings you the bad news, but the bounty has been rescinded as of now. Mr. Sionis was not himself, in fact, he was an imposter. A man who calls himself Joker."

"Joker?" Bane asked. "Surely you jest?"

The look in Nightshade's eyes showed she didn't even jest at all.

"He had no intention of paying the bounty," Nightshade said. "You have come all the way to Gotham City for nothing, and you risked a blood war with the League. Something you can ill-afford now, Bane."

Bane stepped back and motioned for his mercenaries to leave, the ones who could still stand. The others who couldn't, well Bane had no use for them to begin with.

"Tonight, Nightwing had grown lucky, for, without the money, there's no point in finishing him off tonight," Bane said. "Make no mistake about it, though, there will come a day where I will take down Batman and Nightwing and….."

"Save it for someone who cares to hear your drivel," Nightshade said. "Leave Gotham City by Midnight on your own, or you will be leaving in a box."

Bane weighed his options and smiled. He gave a bow towards Nightshade and turned away from her.

Nightwing leaned on Black Canary. Nightshade and her guard disappeared into the night, as did Batman and Katana. The sounds of the Gotham City Police Department showed they could not be here.

' _Kara, we need an emergency pick up,'_ Dinah thought.

The blur shot in and got them out. They could have normally escaped on their own accord, but with Harry's injuries, there was pretty much little chance of them getting out intact.

Bane leaving raised some questions and Nightshade talking about Ra's Al Ghul if he lived once again raised even more. Nightwing figured it was inevitable.

Things were about to get more dangerous these days in Gotham City than ever before.

* * *

The weather in Gotham City might have been frightful, but the crowds outside in Gotham Square certainly were delightful on this night. They were all out for the biggest bash of the year, which would end the year, end 1998, a year which had plenty of ups and downs for Gotham City. The last few days had been an intense one.

Harry, despite the rough battle he entered not even a few hours ago, found his way out on Gotham Square to make an appearance. Lara and Alura patched him up the best they could. Kara stuck next to Harry and the Alphas stuck a little bit behind them.

' _What's wrong?'_ Kara asked, sensing Harry's lack of comfort.

' _I guess I'm just sore from the battle earlier, I'll be fine,'_ Harry thought. _'When you've fallen out of the tallest building in Gotham, getting beaten by some jacked up South American mercenary is really just at the bottom of the barrel.'_

' _Why did he just leave when Nightshade asked?'_ Karen asked.

' _Well, according to her, Bane had a debt to the League, for….well she wasn't offering up too much information.'_

Harry and Kara turned their attention to one of the largest buildings they had ever seen. It had been recently constructed over the past couple of months.

' _Hey look, Harry, a new building for you to go skydiving out of,'_ Barbara thought. The rest of the bond link responded with some of the most obvious groans possible. _'What, too soon?'_

Kara was the one who had the most obvious cringe possible. She was far from the only one either.

' _Yes, much too soon,'_ Kara said.

' _Well, I appreciated the attempt to lighten the mood if anything else,'_ Harry thought

Harry turned around and Hamilton Hill made his way to the platform. The man looked dressed to impress, walking towards the platform with a wide and large grin plastered upon his face. One might consider the fact Hill resembled an overblown cartoon characters. He looked rather happy.

"Welcome, and thanks for braving the snow storm tonight!" Hill yelled. People applauded for him. "I would like to thank Mr. Potter, Mr. Wayne, Ms. Vreeland, Ms. Kane, and Ms. Stagg for all of their work in organizing this get-together. And I'm sure they would all like a chance to thank all of you for coming out, and showing you how resilient the people of Gotham City are."

More applause followed and Hill leaned back to allow it to die down.

"Now, I would like to present GothCorp Tower, built by my good friend Ferris Boyle," Hill said.

"Thank you, Mr. Hill," Boyle said, walking to the stage. "But, GothCorp Tower is more than a celebration of my checkbook."

People laughed at the man's joke and he flashed a charming smile to the crowd.

"It's a celebration of the commerce and innovation in Gotham City, and let's make 1999 one of the best years in my life," Boyle said. "Let there be light and life to GothCorp tower."

GothCorp Tower lit up and a huge smiley face blew up on the tower with a permanent grin. Harry took a step back and knew in an instant who that particular smiley face.

"Test, test, one, two, three….is this thing on?"

The Jumbotron in Gotham Square flickered on and the one and only Joker appeared. Everyone gasped when they saw the hideous clown on the screen. Joker dressed in pilot's costume complete with aviator goggles.

"Good evening people of Gotham, and welcome to my New Year's celebration!" Joker yelled. "For those who haven't met me, let me introduce myself, Joker speaking. And I'm so glad to see so many people have braved the nasty weather. I didn't expect such a raucous crowd."

Joker broke out into a loud round of laughter.

' _Oracle, are you tracing the signal?'_ Harry thought.

' _Yeah, working on it, good thing I'm sticking to the Clocktower tonight,'_ Barbara thought.

"And no doubt many of you are about to make your little New Year's Resolutions which none of you are going to bother to keep," Joker said. "Here's one for you all to sink your teeth in….smile a little bit more. Laugh it up!"

On a whim, Kara looked over towards the ball which would drop when it reached midnight.

' _Harry, the ball's rigged to explode,'_ Kara thought. _'Some kind of gas….at midnight.'_

' _Only one minute until midnight,'_ Harry thought.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 26** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_Well, we deal with Bane(barely), and then the Joker shows up. Can Gotham catch a break?_

_Until Wednesday._


	237. As the Ball Drops Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Seven: As the Ball Drops Part Three.**

* * *

 

Sara Lance hoped for a rather calm and tranquil night. How foolish she was to think the night would be very calm. She guessed it would be way too much to hope for. The protégé of the Daughter of the Demon leaned against the Clocktower wall and saw the live feed of Gotham City Square. It was not as big and interesting as being there and in person.

' _And suddenly, this happens.'_

Something told Sara things would get a little bit more interesting. She came face to face with the psychotic clown. Sara never was too fond of clowns. Something about them unsettled her, and the Joker pretty much represented her absolute and worst fears regarding the worst of clowns.

She turned her attention towards the woman who she had been assigned to protect. Barbara Gordon kept typing away at the keyboard, in an vain attempt to locate the Joker, before something happened. And both of them figured out something was going to happen. Sara looked to the television screen to Barbara who was still hacking away.

"Damn it!"

Sara knew better than to upset a hacker when she was this frustrated. She leaned back and waited for Barbara to work her magic behind the keyboard. Frustration began to build in Sara, she needed to figure out what was going on, as soon as possible.

' _Dinah, what the hell is going on down there?'_ Sara asked. _'It's hard to really tell on the television screen, the cameras are moving everywhere, and…just what's happening…..'_

' _Well, everyone's freaking out something fierce,'_ Dinah thought. _'I'm not really sure what's happening right here, but it's…..well we're in a lot of trouble.'_

' _We're in more trouble than we thought at first,'_ Kara thought. _'The ball is about to drop in one minute, and….it's going to release gas…'_

' _Can you disable it?'_ Sara asked.

Kara thought about it for a couple of minutes, thinking of all of the potential angles where she could deal with the gas. Somehow, she doubted it would be as easy as she thought it would be.

' _Not from here, not without revealing….and I'm not sure if I can safely release it with my heat vision and get it away fast enough,'_ Kara thought. _'The people are spread out here ,and it's a pretty tight space, not much room to maneuver.'_

Barbara chewed down on her lip. The clock started to tick down on her and she needed to focus. Barbara lifted her hand and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She frowned deeper and walked over, switching position.

' _Joker's second….well he's important, but if I don't shutdown the countdown, the bomb's going to release the gas into Gotham City,'_ Barbara thought. _'Fortunately, it's going to work a lot easier from here.'_

As Barbara relayed her thoughts to the rest of the group, she accessed the countdown clock. Her fingers whirled across the keyboard as quickly and as efficiently as they could go.

' _Okay, I'm almost there,'_ Barbara thought. _'Just got to access it from this point.'_

Barbara saw there was thirty seconds left. No sweat, okay, maybe a little bit of sweat. Barbara really knew what it was like to be shoved inside the pressure cooker. Her heart started to beat a little bit more when she accessed the countdown clock.

Sara stood back and watched Barbara do her work. She believed in Barbara and her abilities to get into the tight corner. Sara looked at the clock which grinded down to the final twenty. The assassin kept her head holding up and breathing.

' _Fifteen seconds,'_ Sara thought, before she could help herself.

Barbara brought herself into the midst of the clock and started to access the counter. She typed in the commands and froze the countdown clock.

For a second, Barbara thought there would be some kind of manual override despite her best efforts. She took in a deep breath and then let it out after a couple of seconds.

"We did it?" Sara asked. She paused a second before spending some time in correcting herself. "You did it?"

Barbara looked, frozen in a moment of time. She could smile, finally.

"Yes, I did it!"

Barbara jumped up to her feet and did a little dance. She looked at Sara, who shifted into a smile and waved for Barbara to continue.

"Oh, no, don't stop on my account," Sara said. "You're amazing, but did you really have to cut it so close?"

Barbara gave her a mock pout and Sara laughed. She threw her arms around Barbara and pulled her into a nice and tight hug. Their bodies melded together with a long hug and their lips smashed together with an intense kiss.

The kiss lingered for a couple of moments. Barbara daringly cupped Sara's ass for a second and then it hit her this was not something they would want to stop.

"You know, maybe we should save this until after the Joker's done," Barbara said. "Because, I'd like to finish it and….it wouldn't be a good idea to finish anything with us, until the Joker's down."

Sara smiled and pulled out the chair for Barbara. Barbara parked herself in front of the computer and cracked her fingers before getting to work. She had a bit of a smile on her face, having stopped the countdown. And she had been on a bit of a high of an amazing kiss.

Still, they weren't out of the woods yet, not yet, not by a longshot.

* * *

 

Joker's henchmen stepped back when the man in question started to bop his head back and forth. Joker stretched himself back and forth and curled his neck back a half of an inch. He reached over with a stack of cash and picked up a hundred dollar bill. Joker lit the money with a match and then used the money to light a cigar. He started to puff on the cigar, looking rather pleased.

"Thirty seconds, and we're ready to rock and roll!" Joker yelled. "All of us better get ready, it's time for the main event. Are you ready?"

Joker bounced up and down with his eyes widened. The members of his gang stared at him, like the man had been mad. Which was not too far off of the tracks.

"And for the thousands in attendance….ah screw it, there's no time," Joker said. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four three, two…"

Joker's voice hung at two and kept waiting, waiting for the other shoe to drop. He kept waiting and nothing happened.

"Two?" Joker asked. "Come on, the New Year's should have hit in Gotham City by now, anyone, come on, work with me!"

Joker placed his hands on the top of his head and started to tug his hair back. The henchmen gave him a wide path. None of them wanted to be in the Joker's path of rage when he attacked.

"YOU'RE KILLING THE PUNCHLINE HERE!"

One of the goons had been yanked into the shadows, but the rest of them were too busy watching Joker fly into the rage. He made his way over and turned on the camera. He rested his palms on the table and stared down with a wide eyed look and a toothy, snarl.

"Whoever stopped the clock, you thought you could stop time, well you're wrong," Joker said. "You might have killed the punchline, but I'm going to have the last laugh."

Another one of Joker's henchmen dropped to the ground with a punch to the side of the head. Another henchmen noticed and opened his mouth. A third goon had been dropped before he was able to inform the Joker of anything which happened.

"You thought you could ruin my fun…whoever you are who thought it was a good idea to stop the clock!" Joker yelled. "Well, the joke's going to be on you, I'm still going to stop the clock of everyone in Gotham City.'

Joker paused a moment. Little did he know two more thugs had been knocked.

"If I can't lighten the mood with the clock, I'll do so remotely," Joker said. "It doesn't have the same zing to it, but….we're going to have to make do with what we have."

Joker rose his hand in the air and prepared to push the button. A Baterang flung out and nailed Joker down to the ground. Joker turned around and looked high into the sky. Batman came down to the top of Joker's head. The clown prince of crime had been knocked to the ground.

"You really are such a narc!" Joker yelled.

Joker reached up and pulled out a Bazooka. He pulled a trigger and Batman braced himself for the large bang.

"Ha, made you flinch!"

A shower of confetti covered Batman from head to toe. This distraction put him in perfect position for a more physical attack of the clown. Joker rushed him and nailed Batman with a roundhouse right. He wrapped his tie around Batman's neck and started to choke him out. Joker laughed like a madman.

"You've lost a step or two haven't you….."

Joker had been flung onto the ground before he could finish his mockery of Batman. Batman turned his attention towards Joker. Joker slipped his hand into the sleeve of his coat and threw a razor sharp playing card at Batman. The Detective deflected the razor sharp playing card with his wrist. Two more playing cards had been knocked back at the Joker.

"Happy New Year, Batsy!" Joker yelled.

He sent some streamers at Batman. The streamers wrapped around Batman and threatened to restrict him. He forced himself out of the streams.

"Oh, whoops, lost my marbles!"

Joker threw a bag of marbles into the air. They all landed on the ground and started to roll on the ground. Batman avoided the marbles and almost slid back a couple feet. Some of the thugs who had been left behind had been caught in the explosion.

"Are you mad?" one of the thugs asked.

Joker skipped over and sliced a rope which held a basket. The top of his hideout opened and Joker jumped into the basket of a balloon. He untied one of the weights holding it down and swung it back. He tried to nail Batman with the weight.

Batman dodged the weight and the balloon started to rise up above Gotham City.

"Toodles, and happy trails, Batman!" Joker yelled. He waved his hand. "Until we meet again!"

Joker looked down at Batman who aimed a grapnel and propelled up. He could not hold the basket back for it had gained a lot of height.

"Looks like you're coming along for the ride!"

Batman repelled into the air and jumped into the basket with the Joker. The balloon continued to escalate in height. Joker reached behind him and took a toolbox to try and take Batman's head off. The Detective blocked the shot. Joker tried to nail him with a shot with the toolbox one more time.

The Detective blocked and nailed him with a series of vicious leg kicks. Joker slumped back and Batman grabbed him with a tie before hammering him with a series of punches.

"Hey, hands off the threads!" Joker yelled. He pulled out a wrench and swung it at Batman. Batman ducked.

The people in Gotham looked up into the sky. Joker waved at them, until Batman nailed him into the basket. The basket started to rock.

"Okay, boys, bring it in!" Joker yelled.

Batman nailed Joker in the mouth and brought him down to the ground. Joker tried to pull himself up. Batman reached down and grabbed Joker before slamming him into the wooden basket back first.

"Go ahead, do more, I like it rough!" Joker yelled.

Batman nailed Joker with one more punch. The clown staggered, ending up on dream street from Batman's huge punches.

* * *

 

Nightwing tried to figure out how something like this could have taken a turn for the worst this quickly. There were a number of explanations and none of them were something he liked. He looked over his shoulder, and took a good look at Black Canary and Flamebird, who positioned themselves amongst the chaos and the people who continued to freak out.

Stealth had gone out of the window, namely because of the bright lights and the television cameras which flashed down on them. They had no choice, if they wanted to save the people in Gotham City. They would have to go pubic, in the most pubic way possible.

' _This has taken a turn for the worst,'_ Flamebird thought. _'What are we going to do now?'_

The defenders of Gotham being out in the open could not be erased, especially when they were on tape. And the tapes were being simulcast all over Gotham City and all over the Internet. Even Barbara could not stop it, especially when it had already started.

' _Just keep them away from the tanks,'_ Harry thought. _'We'll worry about everything else when it happens, but don't….just please don't lose your cool.'_

' _I don't think you have to worry about us losing our cool,'_ Black Canary thought. She avoided one of the enemies which rushed towards her. She caught him around the arm on the back swing and flipped him to the ground. She kept hammering away at him with punches. _'These guys on the other hand, I can't be too sure about.'_

Nightwing's gaze looked upwards and he could see the Joker above. He had no idea whether or not the Joker had some kind of remote trigger up in the balloon. Or if he had some backup plan in the balloon? If the balloon pooped, could it release gas?

' _Expect anything,'_

Nightwing expected an attack on the backswing. One of them rushed Nightwing. Nightwing dodged the attack and jumped onto the statue. He swung himself around one of the decorations and kicked the glass bulb into the air. The bulb smashed down onto the head of one of the attackers.

"The boss told us to keep him away from the tanks at any…"

Black Canary swooped down and unleashed her Canary Cry. The thugs staggered back and left themselves opened up with some wild punches which knocked them back.

One of the thugs jumped high into the air and wrapped his hands around the throat of Black Canary. Canary struggled and flipped the goon over onto the ground. The goon landed on his feet and Black Canary nailed him with a vicious swing.

Diana joined the party, dressed as Huntress. One of them pointed out a modified blaster device. She performed the draw quicker and knocked the blaster out of the hand of one of the goons with a well placed arrow shot. The goon snarled and rushed her. Diana blocked his hand and nailed him with a huge uppercut punch.

Some innocent bystanders stood, unable to move thanks to the fact they had been paralyzed with fear. The glass started to fall until Flamebird jumped into the air and snatched them underneath her arms. She pulled them out of the way and avoided a potential crisis and then getting sliced up.

' _Wow, my entire life just flashed before me,'_ Flamebird thought. She wiped a brow of sweat away from her face. _'And I'm sure their's did as well.'_

Flamebird had no chance to think when one of the goons charged towards her. She avoided a vicious uppercut punch which came inches away from taking her head off. She grabbed the goon around the arm and rocked him with a huge uppercut punch.

Nightwing jumped down and came face to face with several members of the Gotham City Police Department. Some of them looked like they wanted to engage them.

James Gordon stepped in front of them and stared at Nightwing for ten long seconds before he turned to the GCPD. They couldn't get caught up on vigilantes, especially with hundreds of people in the crossfire tonight.

"The civilians are the first priority," Gordon said.

One of the goons swung at Nightwing from behind. Gordon fired a shot at the goon and knocked the weapon out of the ground. The cop and the goon tusseled on the ground. Gordon won the fight and took one of the goons down. He pinned the goon's arm behind his back and forced him down onto his face.

Nightwing resumed his trek towards the device. He pried it open and could see a place to plug in.

' _Oracle, are you still with me?'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, but I really don't know what the hell is going on out there,'_ Oracle thought. _'I guess I don't have to find the Joker…how did he find him?'_

' _He's Batman,'_ Harry thought. _'There's a remote signal coming from this tank, if the Joker presses a button, there's going to be a catastrophe.'_

' _Right, I'm blocking the signal…good thing you didn't trigger the emergency relay on it,'_ Barbara thought. _'Okay, I'm jamming any remote signal, and any emergency relays, so you can unplug it and get the chemicals out of there.'_

On cue, Flamebird dropped down onto the other side of Harry. She raised an eyebrow and Harry turned his attention towards her.

"I need you to get these out of here," Nightwing said. "And come back here….I want to see what he's whipped up."

They had gotten a bit too close for comfort. Nightwing disengaged the tanks and handed them off to Flamebird. She took them and hit the skies, going up, up, and away.

* * *

 

Joker staggered a couple of inches back from the latest attack.

"You know, I'm beginning to think we're in an abusive relationship," Joker said. "I try to make you laugh, but you keep hitting me. You keep hitting me, and it's not nice! Why do you keep hitting me?"

Joker used a concealed knife to stab Batman in the thigh. He pulled Batman's cape over his head and nailed him with a punch. Joker started to punch Batman over and over again, with more rapid fire punches.

"Hey, this is fun!"

Something caught Joker's attention and he staggered back a half of an inch. His heart beat even faster.

"Not, a bird, not a plane," Joker muttered. He reached into his coat and pulled out a really long gun. "So, do you feel lucky, Batsy? Come on, do you?"

Joker prepared to fire the final bullet into the Bat. Batman popped up from the dead and nailed him with an uppercut punch. Joker avoided half of the punches and got hit with the other half of them. He laughed all of the way

"Always taking hits from someone who doesn't get the punchline!" Joker yelled. "People think my act stinks, but it turns out I'm a bit too highbrow for them. You know, a bit too savvy….."

Joker flung the razor sharp playing cards at Batman. Batman avoided the cards and the balloons stopped just before they would puncture the bottom of the balloon.

"Oh, it just occurred to me if this balloon pops…it's going to crash into that tower, and take both of us out with it," Joker said. He withdrew a large novelty pin. "Well, not to burst your balloon….."

Batman's eyes widened and the consequences would be dire of Joker popped the balloon. He dealt with a madman, utterly shameless and not carrying how many people he killed. Batman flung a baterang to the Joker and knocked him over the edge. Joker almost toppled and fell out of the balloon.

"Hey, watch it you could have…"

Batman pulled Joker back up and nailed him with a huge punch to the face. Joker's knees buckled and Batman kept pounding away at him. Joker's knees buckled and started to stagger.

"Miles above Gotham City," Joker said. "Just think of it, we both go to the top together and we both…hit the bottom together."

Joker's lips curled into a blood grin and he stared down Batman with his bloodshot eyes.

"Now, it's after midnight," Joker said. "Don't I get a kiss?"

Batman responded with a huge uppercut punch to the face and caused a few of the Joker's teeth to become loosened.

"Guess that's a big pile of nope!" Joker yelled, spitting out one of his teeth. He staggered a half of an inch and almost collapsed on Batman. "Oh well, at least I can still go down with you….."

Joker flung one of Batman's baterangs and sliced the balloon. The balloon started to leak air.

"What did you do?" Batman asked.

"Oh, I think I just crashed the balloon….not sure how we're up here for this long, there's no one up here to pilot that thing!"

Batman punched Joker in the kisser.

"Oy, I'll send you….."

Batman stomped Joker in the back of the head and cuffed his hands behind his back. The Detective rushed over in a vain attempt to pilot the balloon before it hurled back into Gotham City. The Joker's proclamation regarding the fact the balloon would crash into the tower proved to be true.

"Batman to Nightwing," Batman said. "Respond if you hear me."

"I'm here," Nightwing said. "What do you need?"

"I need the people to be evacuated from the tower, because the balloon I'm on is about ready to crash," Batman said. "I'm going to attempt to steer it away from the tower, but it's going to be a tricky shot."

One could almost hear the amused sigh coming from Nightwing on the other end.

"I'll do what I can."

Batman maneuvered his way in front of the steering wheel and prepared to do what he could to steer it away from the tower, to prevent it from crashing. Unfortunately for him, he had one really big problem, namely the Joker.

Joker freed himself from the handcuffs and jumped on Batman's back. Batman shrugged him off.

"Come on, let it crash, what's the worst that could happen?"

The two continued to struggle above Gotham City, in an attempt to gain advantage of the steering wheel. The balloon descended and was heading towards Gotham Square. It was all up to Batman's steering abilities exactly how much damage it did on the way down.

* * *

 

A certain fearless reporter made her way in the middle of the chaos in Gotham City, and boy, chaos was a term which could be defined anew tonight.

"I'm Vicki Vale, and I'm in the midst of all of the chaos in Gotham City. After tonight, I'm not sure what to say….we've seen them on camera, proof with our own eyes they exist. And I'm not sure what to say about this…..chaos has gripped Gotham Square. Many of the civilians have ran off, although some have been trapped thanks to the gang of thugs who are under the employ of this man, this Joker."

Amanda and Emily sat at the penthouse with a group of girls. Donna sat at the edge of the couch with them, Lyta a few inches away from them. Rebecca sat on the floor. Lois positioned herself on the arm charm and stared at the television, eyes widened in rapt attention. Her fingers dug into the side of her face when she continued to view the events on the television screen.

Jade looked, watching as Artemis's head slumped against her shoulder. She had fallen asleep before the excitement had started.

"Damn," Jade whispered.

"Yes," Amanda said. "I think we got out of Gotham City in the right time."

"Is everyone….is everyone going to be okay?" Lyta asked.

Lyta watched as Nightwing almost avoided some falling debris. Her eyes widened. Donna reached in and put a hand upon her sister's shoulder.

"Everything is going to be okay," Donna said. "Trust me, they'll get through this."

"They can't brush this one underneath the rug though," Amanda said. She brushed strands of hair back. She saw Talon appear on the camera.

' _At least their keeping up the illusion Nightwing might be male or female,'_ Amanda thought. She curled her fingers around the edge of her hair and sighed. _'This is a right mess, isn't it?'_

' _Yes, it is.'_

The girls in the tower looked pretty anxious at the scenes coming before them. Nothing would ever be the same again.

"Gotham won't ever be the same again, will it?" Rebecca asked.

"I don't know, it's really hard to say," Amanda said. "And Vicki's out in the middle of it, risking her neck."

"It's what reporters do though," Lois said. She had been oddly somber tonight. "It would be rather….well it would get the blood pumping to be out there in the middle of all of this. In all of the danger, in all of the excitement. And it would be pretty exciting."

Lois had gotten her share of looks, mostly from Rebecca and Lyta.

"While it would be exciting, I'm not sure if even I want to be out in the middle of Gotham," Lyta said. "Especially with the clown."

"Well, yeah, clowns are….ugh….." Lois said. "If the Joker wanted to pick a gimmick where he scares the pants off of anyone, murder clown is a pretty good idea."

"Yeah, it is," Rebecca said. "So, what do you think he is?"

"Chloe seems to think….."

"Please tell me your cousin doesn't think he's another meteor mutant," Jade said, with a sigh. She wrapped her arm around Artemis to prevent her sliding from her lap.

Jade frowned, Artemis started to drool on her shoulder. She pulled a bit of a face.

Jessie returned from the bathroom and took a seat on the rug on the couch.

"So, what did I miss?" Jessie asked.

"A whole lot of chaos," Jade said. She pushed the strands of dark hair out of her face and frowned.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," Lois said. "Chloe seems to think he's some kind of super natural being, created by all of the evil in Gotham City. You know, he's the sum of it all. It would explain why no one seems to know where he come from."

"A super natural being?" Jessie asked.

"Do you have a better explanation?" Lois asked.

Jessie shrugged and returned her attention to the screen. She quite frankly had not.

Artemis's eyes flickered awake and the first image she saw was the face of the sadistic clown. Her heart started to race when she viewed the image of the Joker.

"Well, well, well, welcome back to the land of the living," Jade said with a smile and she planted a kiss on the side of her sister's head.

"Yeah, I'm not going to be living that long if I wake up to images like that," Jessie said.

Amanda wondered what the hell was going on in Gotham City. She swore she saw Black Canary pulling someone out of the line of fire.

Nightwing jumped down and said something to Vicki. Vicki's eyes widened and she returned to address the viewing public in Gotham City.

"This is Vicki Vale, and…..if anyone can hear the sound of my voice, stay away from the tower, the Joker is about ready to crash into it!"

* * *

 

Batman steered the balloon into the parking garage of the tower. The east wall of the tower had been slightly damaged, but at least it prevented the tower from falling, which was the Joker's plan.

The Joker pulled himself out of the basket and almost staggered to his feet. He collapsed down to one knee and started to laugh.

"Hey," Joker said, turning his full attention to Batman. "Any landing you can walk away from with your britches intact is a good landing. Wouldn't you agree?"

Joker's laughter continued. It had fallen upon deaf ears when Batman pulled Joker up to a standing position and nailed him with an uppercut punch. Another punch knocked Joker through the windows and out into the street.

Batman dropped down to face the Gotham City SWAT team. Branden lead the charge and he pointed towards Batman.

"Take him down!" Branden yelled. "So, you do exist….well you can either raise your hands, and remove your mask, or I'll pull it off of your corpse, it's your decision."

Batman's eyes narrowed at the SWAT team leader and a few of the members of the SWAT.

"Do you hear me?" Branden asked. "You thought you could make my team look inept. Well, we have you now."

"Stand down!" Gordon barked.

Gordon looked from Batman to Branden. He could see Nightwing lurking around in the shadows.

"We have the Joker," Gordon said. "He's not the issue."

"He is the issue!" Branden yelled. "He's been assaulting my men for…"

One of the lights above their heads blew out. The SWAT had to scatter to avoid being burned from the falling sparks.

The moment a light returned to them, Batman disappeared into the night. Branden swore. He was so close, and his men took their eyes off of the ball.

He turned his attention to Joker who laid on the ground. Blood trickled from the man's face who smiled. He laughed.

"Boy, it looks like you boys got me!" Joker yelled.

"Get up!" one of the SWAT members yelled.

"Hey, you got me, don't tase me, bro!" Joker yelled, laughing in response.

Branden pulled Joker to a standing position and personally slapped the handcuffs on him.

Gordon watched as the madman who had caused so much trouble and carnage surrendered. He hated to say it, but it was too easy, much too easy.

The vigilantes escaped into the night. Their lives would be a lot more difficult now a light had been shined upon their activities. Which Gordon figured was what the Joker intended.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on October 29** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Leave it to Joker to change the game as far as Gotham City is concerned. And he really was the highlight of his chapter. Joker is being carted off, but we haven't seen the last of him, not yet, not by a longshot._

_Until Saturday._


	238. The Wonderful World of Mogo

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight: The Wonderful World of Mogo.**

* * *

 

Sinestra smelled a rat the exact moment Drusa turned up in their lives. Very rarely people had been brought to Mogo for no reason. The only thing which kept Sinestra from keeping from committing one way or another was Mogo had brought them here for a reason and prevented the ship from leaving.

The lead member of the Green Lantern Corps kept eyes on Drusa. Her scared rabbit look was a bit too on the nose as far as Sinestra was concerned. She turned and put herself between Drusa and the rest of the crew. Carol looked back at her, but did not question the action.

Drusa stopped for a second and looked around. Sinestra stepped closer towards her, getting behind her.

"So, how much further do we have to go?" Sinestra asked.

The woman responded with frown and looked around. She saw a light shining out in the corner. The Green Lanterns followed her, with Sinestra keeping an extra close eye on her.

"Only a little bit further," Drusa said. "I swear, it's just around the corner."

Sinestra gave a skeptical grunt and pointed forward. Drusa took a couple of seconds to clear her thoughts and walked forward.

Carol could see the mistrust going through the eyes of the senior Green Lantern with this mission. She could not believe she was thinking someone could be trouble. The more Carol thought about it, the less everything added up.

' _I can't believe I'm in agreement with Sinestra,'_ Carol thought. _'There's something freezing over here, but there's something not quite right here.'_

She sighed, they would find out for a moment. Drusa stood up and craned her neck from one side to the other. She motioned for someone.

"We have a ship; we have our way off of the planet!" Drusa yelled.

A tall and imposing figure walked over. He was the type of person who cast a shadow and Carol could sense from the first look, he was not someone to be messed with. Sinestra's expression darkened and Carol could see an instant how this particular individual was not one she liked.

"Zartok!" Sinestra yelled at the top of her lungs. Her eyes flashed with anger. "I should have known you would have been at the bottom of this."

Zartok's hatred for Sinestra matched the hatred the Green Lantern gave to him.

"Sinestra," Zartok said. "It's been a long time. I've been wanting to settle the score with you for a very long time. You'll pay for what you've done to me."

Sinestra sympathy appeared in limited supply. Not she had much sympathy for some of the most awful people in the universe. This particular individual ranked pretty low on the sympathy scale and for good reason.

"Oh, you're playing yourself off as the victim once again?" Sinestra asked. "Why am I not surprised?"

"You will be annihilated!" Zartok yelled.

Zartok rose an energy staff and fired it. The Green Lanterns scattered to avoid the energy blast hitting the ground. The menacing general raised the staff.

Ilana answered the second attack by firing a red energy blast towards Zartok. The General raised a staff and avoided the attack. The energy beam propelled back her attack.

"So tell me, just to satisfy my curiosity?" Ilana asked. "Is there any criminal in the universe who hasn't been pissed off by you?"

Sinestra did not answer the question, as fair of a question it would have been. Her eyes narrowed a second later and noticed the staff heating up in the general's hand.

"Scatter!" Sinestra yelled.

The general blew up the ground of the planet. A loud rumbling could be heard when the vines on the ground started to grow restless.

"It's been a long time," Zartok said. "You think you can put me in a prison planet and forget about me. I'll bring the entire Green Lantern Corps to their knees, and then I'll crush the Guardians of Oa!"

Drusa snuck in behind Aya in the confusion and looked an energy collar around the AI's neck. She gasped but her central functions had been shut down other than that.

"General, they're not important, let them be destroyed by the elements!" Drusa yelled. She held out Aya. "She's the conduit to the ship. We don't need anything else."

"Indeed?" Zartok asked. "It so happens I agree. And what we don't need, we'll destroy them. They will all be crushed. We will annihilate them."

"Let us go!" Drusa yelled.

Zartok ignored the warnings with a hostile expression dancing in his eyes.

"In a moment," Zartok said. "I wish to annihilate Sinestra with my bare hands, but the rest of them will cause a problem."

"You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!" Carol yelled.

Zartok's dismissive gaze became very prominent.

"You're not worthy of my time," Zartok said. "But, there are some members of this planet which have been dying to meet you for quite some time."

Zartok pointed the energy staff towards the gate of a prison and blasted it open. Several feral prisoners scattered from the cell. They moved past the piles of large bones.

Fresh meat had been brought onto Oa and the snarling monsters rushed them. One of the prisoners charged Carol. Carol put up a shield and forced the monster down to the shell.

"Secure the ship," Zartok said to Drusa. "I'll finish her off."

Zartok waved his large staff and came close to nailing Sinestra with a blast to the stomach. Sinestra pushed back the second attack and the two of them went face to face with each other.

* * *

 

Drusa held her hand around Aya's wrist and lead the Artifical Intelligence Construct back to the ship. She had seen some of the most amazing pieces of technology in the universe. She smiled when looking up at the ship. The physical representation of the ships AI were one of the most beautiful things in the universe she had ever seen. This was pretty high up the list though. Her lips curled into a devious smile.

Aya started to shake it. Her entire computer system had been compromised by the system. She had no control over her movements. The computer virus crippled her.

She tried to access the emergency firewalls. The entire system would be takendown if she couldn't. But the virus was like something she had never been trained to combat.

"No, I have to fight this," Aya said. She tried to struggle, but Drusa placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's going to be fine," Drusa said. "Trust me."

Aya's central processors whirled and clicked as she tried to figure out the definition of the world fine. She looked towards Drusa who smiled at her. The smile looked smoldering.

"It's not going to be fine….."

Drusa held the remote control device she created which had been hooked to the collar. She had no idea it would work so well. A couple of buttons pressed caused Aya to be brought down to her knees to a moment.

"We're leaving, we're getting off of the planet," Drusa said. She looked on with a bright smile on her face. "Everything is going to be fine. You're going to help me get off of the planet."

"What about you're friend, what about Zartok?" Aya asked.

Drusa responded with a cold and cruel round of laughter. She could not believe anyone would have thought of this particular space parasite as her friend. The actual truth was so far off from what Aya said.

"He's not a friend of mine," Drusa said. "He's just a blunt object to be used as I see fit. He's useful, like a tool. Just like you're considered to be by the Green Lanterns."

The space fugitive placed her hand on the side of Aya's cheek and started to stroke it. Her finger swirled around when she could feel the surprisingly soft structure of the artificial intelligent construct.

"Now, you're my tool," Drusa said. She slowly stroked Aya's cheek. "And I'll use you in any way I want to, and all you can do is sit there and obey your mistress."

A figure dropped down next to them before Drusa could properly reach the ship. Drusa took a step back and took a second to spare at the person in contempt. The Red Lantern was here and Drusa had little respect for these space barbarians.

"Stay away from her," Ilana said.

Drusa responded with a cold and high round of laughter. Her eyes continued to flash with malice when she stepped as close as she would dare to the Red Lantern.

"I don't know if you understand," Drusa said. "The ship is now underneath my control. My beautiful and wonderful ship. It's underneath my thumb, not yours. I have her, she's mine, and you can't have her. She'll do whatever…"

Ilana reared back her hand and smacked the red lantern energy construct into Drusa's face. Drusa hit a high velocity and landed on the ground. Ilana jumped into the air and swung a red spiked wrecking ball.

The red wrecking ball swung down onto the ground. Ilana rolled over onto the ground. The two women scrapped with each other. Drusa withdrew a dagger and stabbed it towards Ilana.

"She's going to be a beautiful….."

Ilana's ring construct clamped around Drusa's wrist in one fluid motion. The crazed prisoner had been pulled up into the air and hurled down onto the ground. Ilana jumped up and tried to take Drusa's head off.

"I thought I told you to keep your hands off of her," Ilana said.

Her rage mode had been hit hard. Drusa ducked and rolled out of the way. The prisoner escaped the wrath of Ilana. She rained down an attack on her.

One of the large prisoners grabbed Ilana around the head and pulled her up into the air. Ilana struggled against the iron grip of the prisoner and reared her head back. She slammed a red lantern blast into the chest of the goon and he fell back down onto the ground.

A second prisoner jumped at Ilana. His teeth bared in an attempt to eat Ilana's face. Ilana blocked the prisoner's attempts to gnaw her face off. She nailed him as hard as possible with a flowing uppercut.

The prisoners started to box Ilana in. Her rage bubbled to the surface and the blood started to boil in a hostile manner. Her heart beat harder into the back of her chest.

"STAY AWAY!" Ilana yelled.

Ilana's rage glowed and she plowed through two of the prisoners. They had been knocked back down to the ground. Ilana started to throw her attacks into a full and angry rage. The skin of the prisoners ripped underneath her attack.

She almost burned herself out with the rapid fire attacks. Ilana dropped down to the ground and could see one of the prisoner's about ready to club her with the severed limb of one of her enemies.

The limb whipped back into the face of the prisoner. The prisoner dropped back down to the ground. Blood poured from the prisoner's mouth when he attempted to pull himself back to a standing position.

The attacks of the prisoners all had been turned around on them. Ilana kept an eye on the person, he had glowed with a blue light. He wore white robes which had shined with the blue light.

' _What in the name of…..?'_

The figure turned around and retreated up the mountain. Ilana's looked at the retreating figure in curiosity and decided to follow him, if nothing to see the man's intentions.

If it was trap, well she dealt with far more formidable foes.

* * *

 

The blood thirsty and flesh hungry prisoners charged Sinestra and her crew. Sinestra put herself in front of the Green Lanterns corps. The prisoners wanted to feed off of them. So be it, for Sinestra was hungry for a fight and she would give them a fight.

One of the most dangerous prisoners charged Sinestra with an attempt to maim her. Sinestra created a wrecking ball and slammed it into the chest of one of her adversaries. The adversary dropped down to the ground. She threw back the wrecking ball and nailed another one of her adversary's with a full force.

Katma did not have the training Sinestra and Carol had. Some basic training, but she was more of a medic, than a fighter. She had been thrown off of the deep end for this battle and she needed to keep fighting. Her hand turned around and she released some bandage like constructs around the chest of one of them. The bandages snaked around the arms and forced the bastard to fall onto his face.

She realized they needed to keep up with the attack. Katma flipped her ring construct and wrapped it around the goons. The large prisoner turned his attention to the man who he had bound to. He tried to chew off his man's face.

Carol whipped her hand forward and created a fist construct. One of them had been nailed and take out.

Sinestra took a second later and breathed for a second later. For someone who really was running off at the mouth of wanting to be the one to take her out, he decided to bolt out of there.

The coward, and Sinestra, now she had the taste for the fight, she would continue to hammer her adversary with everything she had. Sinestra whipped her wrist forward and kept slamming an energy construct into her adversaries.

"I'll tell you one thing," Sinestra said. "The next time I get my hands on Zartok, he's being shoved inside a black hole."

Carol dodged a large metal spike being thrown by one of her enemies. He had the look of a crazed serial killer dancing in his eyes. Carol dodged another metal spike being drilled into the side of her head and she pulled the spike out of the goon's hand.

She whipped her wrist and dropped the goon down to the ground. Blood started trickle down the mouth of the prisoner.

"Good idea, do it," Carol said. She caught her breath and returned to the attack.

Katma's breathing accelerated. She had been pushed back. She used a pair of restraints which brought the goon down onto the ground. The prisoner had been put into perfect position for Sinestra to encase him in an energy bubble. The lack of sustainable air caused the goon to pass out.

Holding a captive prisoner in a bubble for as long as they needed to pass out required a lot of power, but she managed it and relaxed the prisoner.

Katma returned to helping Carol take down one of the feral prisoners.

"Wouldn't it be a prudent idea to try and succeed this battle first?" Katma asked.

"The Phantom Zone sounds like a nice place actually," Sinestra said. "Those two Generals could room with each other, with any luck, they'll be ripped apart."

Sinestra almost had been nailed by one of the prisoners. They wasted too much time. Energy surrounded her body when Sinestra tapped into her full potential.

"It's time to finish this!" Sinestra yelled. "No more distractions….NO MORE GAMES!"

Sinestra blasted three prisoners in one fell shot. The prisoners flew back high and almost crashed down hard. The prisoners screamed and Sinestra started to whirl her hands around.

Carol and Katma managed to retrain the prisoners when Sinestra knocked them out and put them back into the cell.

Sinestra hammered away with everything she had within her. The green energy aura wrapped around her body had been tinted yellow. The prisoners stepped ack. Despite their crazed expressions, they looked on in fear and in agony.

"ARGH!" one of them yelled.

Carol took advantage of the prisoners having second thoughts. She helped Katma herd the remaining prisoners back into the prison complex.

"They're backing off!" Carol yelled. "Don't stop it, keep it up, don't hold back!"

Carol and Katma channeled the energy from their rings. The prisoner doors sealed shut and blocked the prisoners in. The moment they were sure all of them had been bolted in, the two stepped back.

All of the prisoners other than two very notable ones who intended to escape with the Interceptor, something they didn't care for very much.

Katma bent down to check on Sinestra. The senior member of the team shook like a leaf, shivers coming through her body.

"Are you okay?" Katma asked.

Sinestra stood up straight and the yellow portions of her aura disappeared already. She had green before she shut down the ring.

"I'll survive," Sinestra said. "I'll be even better when we get our hands on Zartok. I hope to shove that staff up his throat so far splinters come out of his….."

"Thank you," Carol said. "We better hurry, before they get away."

The three Green Lanterns moved. Time was of the essence.

"Where's Ilana?" Carol asked.

Sinestra almost groaned. In the chaos, they lost track of the Red Lantern. This would complicate things a fair bit.

* * *

 

Ilana made her way up the long trek from the mountain. There were instances where she felt the mountain became higher and the journey turned into a more intense one. She pushed herself beyond her own boundaries.

The moment the Red Lantern reached the top of the mountain, she stared down the man who saved her. The man stood, with a smile on his face. He motioned for her to follow him, but said nothing.

"What is going on here?" she demanded. "I want answers. And I want them now."

The individual stared at her for a long moment. The look, which had been full of calm tranqulity, did little to ease Ilana's nerves. It just increased her heightened tension.

"Don't just stare at me like you don't know what's going on!" she yelled, looking rather agitated at the insanity involved. "Answer me, answer me, what's going on?"

He held up one hand and looked her over. Ilana scowled in response.

"Patience, all will be known in time."

The man looked out to the mountain and faced away from Ilana. He took a couple of deep breaths as if he was trying to channel the spirit of nature which flowed all around them.

He turned back towards the Red Lantern a moment later. The two figures locked eyes at each other.

"Life is beautiful, but fragile at best," the man stated. "When life is fragile, it can break in an instant. And yet, despite the promise, there is hope something wonderful can be realized. Someone's full potential could be realized."

Ilana had no idea what the point of this particular speech was.

"What's the point?" Ilana asked.

"There is hope," the man said. "You on the other hand have lost hope a long time ago. But, fear no, for where there is life, there is a potential of a fresh light. And a fresh perspective. You must hang onto those thoughts, and realize nothing is beyond hope. There is always a brand new shining opportunity."

Ilana thought deep down this was a pretty nice speech with some pretty sound sentiments. She saw one problem though with the speech and she hated to enlighten the man on this when he meant so well.

"Sorry to break this to you," Ilana said. "My hope had not only been lost, but it had been destroyed a long time ago."

The man arched an eyebrow and gave Ilana another look. She hated when people looked at her like they experienced pity. She was not some defenseless little child to be pitied.

"Has it now?" the man asked. He looked on with a raised eyebrow. "You say your hope has been destroyed, and yet, despite all of your lost hope, you still fight on as strong and as prominent as ever before. Why is this?"

Ilana did not answer this particular question. Her frown only grew more prominent when she looked back at this particular individual. One prominent question entered her mind.

"Who are you?" she asked.

The other question of, "who do you think you are to be giving me this lecture" struggled not to leave Ilana's mouth. The man on the mountain sensed this and fired a brief smile towards her.

"My name is Saint Walker," he said in a calm tone. "And you wouldn't be the first to have thought they lost hope and allowed their rage to get the better of them. Rage is an all-consuming parasite which forces you to shut down. Deep down, you have hope everything will change for why else would you still fight?"

The question pierced through the shell Ilana had put up around herself. She refused to acknowledge it or the problems involved.

"My hope has been destroyed," Ilana said. "I don't have anything. Atrocitus made sure of that a long time ago."

The man placed a hand underneath his chin and adopted a thinking man's pose.

"Ah, yes Atrocitus. From what I know of him, he is another one who has been lost, lost his hope a long time ago, without any hope of recovering it. He is truly a product of the environment which occurred around him."

Ilana blinked. The man had a point, although Atrocitus turned into something far viler than she could stomach. Did he imply she went down the same path? She wondered what the point of this particular speech was.

"The point, as you wonder, is your rage is a chain which weighs down your potential," Saint Walker said. "Until you can truly let it go, then you must find a way to channel it in a constructive manner."

"Believe me, I've done it," Ilana said.

Saint Walker gave one raised eyebrow and kept eyes firmly locked on the angry young woman.

"Have you?" Saint Walker asked. "Your fight back there told a different story. You would have been crushed had it not been for my intervention."

Ilana tried to protest. Deep down though, she knew this particular man was right and she hated him for it beyond all thought and all belief.

"You have all of the skills to do what you need to do. Now leave, and help your friends…..before it's too late. You have motivation beyond your rage and your sorrows now."

Ilana looked down the mountain. The fight had subsided which was either a really good or a really bad thing.

The moment she turned back around, Saint Walker vanished. Ilana wondered if he had even been there at all, or something deep inside of her had cracked.

' _Guess I better go.'_

* * *

 

Carol, Sinestra, and Katma trekked over Mogo. Zartok and Drusa had a bit of a head start, which was not a good thing for them. Divine inspiration hit Carol the moment they had reached a certain point.

"Didn't you say Mogo had a ring as well?" Carol asked.

"Yes, he does," Sinestra said. "I don't know why he hasn't been helping us outside of his token efforts."

Carol thought for a moment and decided to give her honest assessment.

"Maybe there's something blocked, maybe there's something obstructing the ring," Carol said. "Maybe there's a pretty good reason why he isn't helping us because….."

"He can't help us," Carol said. "The core is around her somewhere isn't it….this is where we were heading before Drusa…"

"If we unblock the core, we have a chance of keeping them from escaping the planet," Katma said.

Sinestra thought about the plan for a long second and responded with a nod.

"Very well, you two do that, and I'll go and get Drusa," Sinestra said.

An energy blast nailed the ground and stopped the Green Lanterns in their tracks.

"Forget it, you aren't going anywhere!"

Zartok made his way to face them, angry and mean as ever. Sinestra stepped in front of them and raised her hand. The energy glowed from it.

She intended to show this bastard the meaning of the word fear.

"And here I thought you had turned around with your tail between your legs and walked off," Sinestra said. She blasted Zartok with another vicious attack. "Maybe I should start giving you a bit more credit. You have a lot more in your tank."

Zartok's scowl grew a bit uglier, now that it improved his looks much. He tried to attack his adversaries. Sinestra dodged the first of the attacks. She returned fire with a pair of chains to try and hold the crazed captive in place.

"Here we go," Carol said. "Katma stand back, this could get ugly."

Carol jammed her energy ring into the ground. Her body started to vibrate and not in a good way either. She looked all shook up before pulling the ring out of the ground. Her breathing escalated and continued in a very heavy way.

Zartok continued to batter Sinestra. She had an answer for every one of his attacks and it pissed him off.

"You never respected me!" Zartok yelled.

Sinestra responded with a slight smile and motioned for Zartok to keep attacking her. He had been tripped up and launched to the ground. His energy staff charged up and he fired at her one more time. Sinestra dodged the attack from the energy staff.

"Only because you haven't done anything worthy of respect," Sinestra said. "And look here, your little companion is about ready to run off with the Interceptor…..only I'm afraid she won't get too far."

Zartok's attention turned through the window of the ship where Drusa sat next to Aya. She looked about ready to start the ship up and exit the planet.

"What?" Zartok asked. His fists curled to his side. "Drusa….HOW CAN YOU BETRAY ME?"

Sinestra nailed Zartok in the back of his head with one glowing green energy fist. The man dropped down to the ground, eyes rolling up in the back of his head.

"Because you're an imbecile," Sinestra said in a bored voice.

The energy cell from the planet rose up and caught Zartok. Zartok pounded on the cell in an attempt to get free, but just could not break for a second.

Ilana stepped into the ship and spun the chair around with Drusa in it. Drusa popped up to her feet and stared down the Red Lantern with a cracked smile on her face.

"Well, you haven't had enough, have you?" Drusa asked.

Instead of attacking, Ilana motioned for Drusa to come with her.

"I'm not going to tell you what to do for a third time," Ilana said.

Drusa declined to do anything. She placed a hand on Ilana's shoulder and gave her a rather prominent smirk.

"The two of us are very much alike," Drusa said. "You're very beautiful in your rage, and we don't need them. I don't need Zartok and you don't need the Green Lanterns….just think, we can be together…"

Ilana ripped Drusa's hand from her shoulder. Drusa responded by pulling out an energy blaster and pointing it directly at Ilana.

"I'd rather spend a year with Sinestra than a moment with you," Ilana said. Drusa fired at Ilana who dodged all of her shots. "What's the matter? Can't hit me?"

Ilana dodged all of the shots, never once letting her temper get the better of her. The gun ripped from Drusa's hand and Drusa staggered back. She tried to use a knife. Ilana dodged the knife being stabbed into her before she ejected Drusa out of the ship.

The planet started to rumble and green energy surrounded her. Mogo reclaimed his prisoner.

"NO!" Drusa yelled. The energy bubble encased her. "You can't….you can't…..YOU CAN'T!"

"I think he just did," Sinestra said. Both Zartok and Drusa had been encased in energy bubbles. "Both of you lose."

The planet shined with a bright beacon and light.

"Thank you for your assistance, Green Lantern Corps," the rumbling voice over the planet said.

"No problem," Carol said. Her body still buzzed from the ring being jammed into the ground. "I just don't want to do that again, ever."

"I don't fault you at all," Sinestra said.

Sinestra stepped over and disconnected the collar from around Aya's neck. The interceptor computer's eyes flashed open and she shook her head.

"What did I miss?" Aya asked.

"Prisoners are secure, I think we can leave," Ilana said.

Aya's systems completely came back on line and she scanned to see everything came up clean.

"Hope I didn't cause too much trouble," Aya said.

"No, because certain people aren't smart enough to use you to your fullest potential," Ilana said.

Sinestra bent down on the ground and picked up Zartok's staff.

"Just had to have a souvenir, didn't you?" Carol asked.

"More like it shouldn't fall in the wrong hands."

Carol could live with this particular explanation. One day she would get Sinestra to crack though, and show she had an emotion other than intense distaste.

* * *

 

Joker performed an animated walk despite the drab and grey clothes he had been put in. He was being lead to the Arkham wing at Blackgate prison.

The members of the press were out in full force, wanting to get some face time with the man who turned Gotham City upside down.

"Just who are you anyway? Underneath the makeup?"

"Who I am?" Joker asked. "Who am I? Well, that's an interesting question. I'm going to tell you who I am."

Joker looked thoughtful, although in a mocking way.

"I'm you, I'm you, I'm you, I'm each and every one of you watching this on the old idiot box!" Joker yelled. "I'm every man, woman, and child in Gotham City. Any one of them could have a bad day one day, that one bad day which can drive a man insane. It doesn't matter who I am. I'm nobody, and yet, I'm everyone. It's what I'm going to become that's the punchline."

"Why did you surrender?"

"Well, you see, I had some laughs, and now it's time to take a step back and just smell the roses."

Joker's grin grew even more prominent, if that was at all possible.

"I can assure you though, I'm as innocent as OJ. Only in Gotham City, OJ stands for Only Joker!"

Joker started to laugh like a madman. The laughter became more twisted as time went by.

A few gunshots had been fired. The cameras started to go fuzzy and more gunshots had been fired. The last image which appeared on the screen was a gunman who ran across and kept firing in the general direction of Joker before he had been tackled to the ground.

The cameras had been blown out even though the audio lingered for a moment.

"Get them…get them…don't let them get away…..OH MY GOD!"

Harry Potter watched and listened to this chaos in his study with unblinking attention. 

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on November 5th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_We spend some time with the Green Lanterns for a little bit. Also, Joker shows up at the end, only Joker can. Oh, and remember that Harry Potter guy, he makes a cameo._

_Until Wednesday._


	239. Never the Same Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-Nine: Never the Same Again Part One.**

* * *

 

Roman Sionis, better known as Black Mask, sat down at his study. He had a couple of bottles of wine on the table and a couple more empty bottles of wine on the floor. Several of the members of his inner circle crowded around him as close as they would dare, even though they had stayed a bit away from him for the sake of their own sanity.

Black Mask never once blinked when looking at the television screen. It was almost like the feared Gotham City mobster waited for something.

"This is Vicki Vale on the spot, outside of Blackgate prison," the reporter said without taking one single breath. "For those who have just tuned in, we had live coverage of the notorious Joker being brought into Blackgate prison. And our camera feed died when someone attacked him. It's tough to safe whether or not this was an attempt to break him out or an attempted assassination attempt. Regardless, I'll be with you, for the remainder of this broadcast, trying to get the news. The press has been herded out of the prison and the Gotham City Police Department and SWAT are inside. There's no word as to what's going on right now."

A long paused followed and Vicki appeared to be on the headset for someone who fed her information. Whether or not the information was legit, or just fed to her, it was hard to say.

"The news I can bring you right now is Joker has been put back into prison," Vicki said. "He's being held in a high security wing of the prison….and….sir, excuse me, can you tell me….."

One of the guards walked out and he was not too happy to see her.

"I thought I told all of your press goons to clear out!" the guard barked which caused Vicki to step back.

Vicki only stepped back a step and remained calm. She was not about to back down as easily by the looks of things. She stood and stared the guard straight in the eye with a strong and hard-nosed resolve one would expect from this particular reporter.

"But, sir….."

The guard's fist waved in the air. He placed his hand on the edge of his nightstick.

"Beat it!" the guard yelled.

"There you have it….we have no confirmation from inside the prison, and…"

Vicki had been caught off guard by the sight of something. The reporter watched when medics rolled a man back. A gaping hole in the man's chest told the story.

"This man was the sniper and he's being hauled off in an ambulance," Vicki said. "The GCPD SWAT team shot the man down. We'll try to get more information, as it comes to us right now. In the meantime, this is Vicki Vale, signing off. Back to the studio!"

Sionis watched them cut back to the studio. He picked up a remote control and pressed a button to mute the sound. His breathing escalated in an intense fashion.

"The son of a bitch survived the attack," Sionis said. He held up a bottle and smashed it over the table.

Sionis kept smashing the bottle over the head. He grabbed a second bottle and shattered it over the table as well. The glass opened up a cut in Sionis's hand.

His assistant, Ms. Li, passed him a towel. Sionis dabbed the blood from the table, and wrapped his hand in the towel.

"Boss, don't worry, there's going to be other chances….."

Sionis rose to his feet and looked even more dangerous without his infamous mask. The thug swallowed a lump in his throat.

"He'll be locked up snugger than a nun's cunt," Sionis said. He rose to his feet to address the members of his gang. "How did he survive? We had a clear shot, we should have taken him out."

"We'll have another chance, boss," the new Number One said.

The new Number One did not have the presence of the old one. Black Mask hoped this would change quickly, because if not, the gangster would need to scope out another replacement.

"Maybe, hopefully some punk shanks that creepy bastard when he's in prison," Black Mask said. "I'd sleep a lot more soundly if he was put down for a very long nap."

"Sir, if I may ask one thing?"

Black Mask turned to his assistant who asked this particular question. She spoke in a rather calm and passive tone of voice.

"What is it, Ms. Li?" Black Mask asked.

"Why would the Joker surrender?" Ms. Li asked.

Sinois stared at his assistant, as if he did not follow a single thing she said.

"What do you mean?"

"He performed a grandiose scheme, and could have gotten away with the perfect crime," Ms. Li said. "Why stop there? Why not keep going on?"

Sionis had been asking himself the same question all of this time. He tried not to concern himself with it too much, due to the fact it would just give him a headache.

"I don't know why, I'm not going to be the one who tries and figures out how a psychopath's mind works," Black Mask said. His teeth gritted completely down upon themselves. "The problem is, the bastard's still breathing, and that's a really big problem .One we're going to have to correct."

Sionis made plans to take down Joker. This wasn't over. He was not about to give up after a bastard screwed him over.

And caused him a lack of respect, Sionis wasn't going to forget the lack of respect. He was not done with the Joker, not yet, not my a longshot

* * *

 

The Gotham City Police Department entered a state of confusion. Joker being brought to justice put them at ease, but it didn't alleviate the problem their former Police Commissioner started to kill people. The evidence piled up damning for Loeb. He would have been a victim of vigilante justice had anyone found out he was the one behind the killings.

Perhaps it was for the best for Loeb he died before anything could be pinned on him.

Ellen Yin walked forward in a half dazed look. She held a cup of coffee and a half eaten donut. She sat herself down behind a table. Sarah joined her, her patrol shift having ended. The younger cop was glad for Sarah keeping her company. She could use the company in such a trying time.

"Loeb," Ellen muttered. "I can't believe it ended up being Loeb after all of this time…and I mean it, I really can't believe it ended up being him."

Sarah found it hard to believe as well. Life dealt people some really strange cards at times and you just had to roll with the punches to see where it brought you.

"What can you do?" Sarah asked. "He didn't seem like the type. The evidence piled up through at his doorstep. There were detailed profiles of every one of the cop killer victims at one of his safe houses, and….Loeb's whereabouts can't be accounted for at any time."

This fact pretty much showed why this investigation could be pinned fully on Loeb.

"Not we can ask him why now," Ellen said. "The press really has egg on their face right about now, don't they?"

The press really hammered the Gilda Dent was the cop killer thing hard. Harvey made a few enemies, so they no doubt got their jollies with tormenting him through his wife.

"We'll never know what truly happened," Sarah said. "Gilda did make a lot of sense. It's just the facts pointed strongly to Loeb. It could have been Rachel as well….it could have been any of us."

Ellen raised an eyebrow at this theory from Sarah.

"Even you?" Ellen asked.

Sarah smiled. Given the wrong series of circumstances, it could have been her. She had dangerously treaded close to a very dark path in her life. Something pulled her away from she could step down that particular dangerous road.

"A nobody can turn into someone dangerous," Sarah said. "Joker has proven that much."

Ellen raised her eyebrow. She wondered if the question should be asked.

"And no we don't have any leads on who he is," Sarah said. She brushed a lock of hair away from the side of her face. The fact we have no leads on him, worried her.

"I wonder what happens now," Ellen said. "There's going to be a lot of trouble soon enough. It's going to be a lot worse before it gets any better."

Sarah had asked herself this particular question more times than she cared to care. Sadly, Ellen was right. It would get a lot worse before it got any better.

"Just have faith it will be right," Sarah said. "Gotham's….we're survivors. We'll survive this. There's going to be a new Commissioner in a little bit, and we'll survive it. It will work out, trust me."

Ellen responded with a smile at the confidence brimming from Sarah's tone. She really wished it would work out for the better, she really did.

Trusting things would turn out for the better was the only way to get some measure of sanity, in the insanity which was Gotham City.

"I do trust you," Ellen said. She smiled and reached over to grab a cup of coffee. "I trust a lot of members of my team. Gordon, Montoya, Jones…hell, even Bullock. The guy might look like an unmade bed, but he'll do the right thing."

Sarah almost smiled. Say what you want about Bullock. In the end though, he would do the right thing.

"No, what worries me is what comes next. Who even wants to be Commissioner after what happened to Loeb? You hear the rumors he might have developed a split personality and killed all of those people."

Sarah heard about the rumors. She wanted to discuss with Harry about the possibility given the nature of one of his latest doctorates. Given how Harry had been busy, and Sarah had been as well, she did not have a chance to do so.

"Hard to tell," Sarah said. "Forensics is trying their best to piece everything together, but it's going to be pretty touch. No one knows what's going on right now, you know what I mean."

"Yes," Ellen said. Her lips twitched into a smile. "Yes, I do."

"And Loeb might have not been the best," Sarah said. "But, I can see why you're afraid. Better the devil we know, than the devil we don't."

Ellen frowned in response. That could be a problem. As much as they all did not like Loeb at times, there were a few people who were considered worse than him.

"Guess all we can do is wait and see."

* * *

 

The moment they departed for Oa, Ilana placed her hand underneath her chin and tilted it back in a deep round of thought. She had no idea what to do next to be honest. The words of Saint Walker penetrated her head. Despite her struggles to push them into a part of her brain which she would not have to worry about them, Carol could not help, but think about it.

' _He doesn't know what he's talking about,'_ Ilana thought. _'And if I have a problem, who can blame me? My rage isn't getting the better of me. I have it all under control.'_

Ilana wrestled with her thoughts for some often. She did not known Aya rejoined them and took a seat in front of her. The artificial construct stared at Ilana for several long moments until Ilana raised an eyebrow.

"You look troubled," Aya said.

While true, Ilana could not expect a powerful artificial construct to determine the full meaning of what she was going through.

"You have no idea what troubled is," Ilana said.

Aya nodded in response. She thought Ilana had been one who struggled to open up with those around her.

"I do know you've been sulking this entire trip back, and it has been some time since we left Mogo," Aya said. "You saw something, or rather Mogo made you see something."

Aya had been reminded of the other reason why she had been in such a mood so far. It was the other reason why she had been in a real agitated mood.

"One orbital cycle around my planet's sun ago, my husband died, and I felt rage beyond all else," she said. "So, I hope you can forgive me if I'm not exactly in the best mood today."

"Oh, you're forgiven if you're not in the best mood because of that fact," Aya said without another word. "There are other reasons though why you're acting like you are. There's something else deeper down."

Ilana hated how close the artificial intelligence hit to nailing it right on the head. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth. Her discomfort was very obvious.

"Maybe there is, but you wouldn't understand," Ilana said.

"No one will understand you when you don't tell them," Aya said.

Ilana found herself hit with an immense amount of frustration. She knew deep down how much Aya intended to help. It did not annoy her any less though.

"Don't try and save me, you're just wasting valuable processing power which could go to the ship," Ilana said. "Please, leave."

Ilana turned her attention towards Sinestra. She had been wrapped up in her own self pity for such a long time she neglected to notice Sinestra's mood growing darker since when they left Mogo.

"It appears I'm not the only one who is troubled," Ilana said when she looked towards Sinestra. "Guess the Guardians didn't train all of your emotions away. You still look like you have the weight of the world on your shoulder."

"Many worlds," Sinestra said. "An entire galaxy worth of them."

Carol frowned. She sensed the angst rolling off of both of them. She thought she escaped this particular burden the moment she left Earth and left two younger sisters behind.

"You don't have to shoulder the burden alone, either of you," Carol said. "And I can understand what you're going through, even if it doesn't seem like it. You're frustrated."

"Focus on the mission, if you please," Sinestra said.

"Yes, I'm focusing on it," Carol said. "I'm focusing on it a bit too much. Is it just me, or does it seem like we're going around in circles? There's no hope in capturing the Red Lanterns."

Sinestra resumed her usual stern demeanor. For a second, Carol was worried even Sinestra had an attack of the sullens. This look of contempt was rather welcomed.

"What did you think the Blackest Night part of our oath meant?" Sinestra asked. "Did you think it was going to be all sunshine and happiness?"

Carol figured no matter how far she went, she always went back to square one with Sinestra. No matter her best efforts, they always struggled.

"No, I didn't," Carol said. "What is the end game though? What is the ultimate goal of the Red Lanterns? Is there even an ultimate goal?"

All eyes turned towards Ilana, hoping she had insight. The Red Lantern responded with a frustrated sigh and looked back towards them.

"If Atrocitus has some grander vision, he hasn't shared it with me," Ilana said. "I never got a chance to rise up the rankings enough before them."

"So, we're back to just going around in circles," Carol said.

Everyone agreed, this situation would get worse before it got much better.

* * *

 

The excitement at Blackgate died down. The entire prison had been put on lockdown, until their new guest had been secured. And what a guest he was as well. The crazed madman known as the Joker had been escorted down the hallways and lead towards the cell. He moved in a calm manner despite the grin not going off of his face.

"So, I've already made someone's list."

"Keep your eyes front and no talking."

Joker remained quiet for a moment. The orderlies and guards treated him like a powder keg who was about ready to go off at a second's notice. No one knew what would happen when he gone off. The only thing they could know for certainty was it would be an explosive end.

All of the Blackgate staff, interns and full term doctors alike, viewed the prisoner through the other side of the glass. They examined him, unable to turn their eyes from such a ghastly individual.

' _What makes someone like him tick anyway?'_ Harley asked. She watched Joker go back. She had studied some interesting cases, but none had been more unique than the Joker. _'What makes a man like him exist? Why does he put something together like this? Such a twisted scheme. It must have been interesting.'_

Some of the interns moved in to get a closer look at the madman behind the glass. The sound of a throat clearing brought the attention of the interns away from the Joker.

"Be careful, don't make eye contact with him," one of the older doctors said. He sounded as if he had been tired and worn and for good reasons. "Someone like him, I've seen eyes like his. I've seen a twisted smile like his. He'll twist anyone around for his own benefit."

Some of them shuddered at the thought. The younger doctors realized something was up because they knew the older doctors saw a fair bit during their time and noticed the terror flashing through their eyes.

"Its pure evil in his eyes," one of the doctors said. "I never thought I'd said this about a patient but….he gives me the shivers."

"You've seen a lot, haven't you?" another doctor asked.

The other doctor's face turned into a somber frown and he responded with a crisp and clear nod.

"I've seen more than you could ever imagine," the doctor said. He stroked his chin and frowned. "Those eyes are pure evil. Sadistic….he's not human, whatever he is, he's not human."

"What is he?"

"Who is he?"

These questions sounded very valid and were well within their responsibility as doctor's to determine. However, it looked to be easier said than done to determine the answers to this particular set of questions.

"No one knows," he said. "We've not been able to match him to anyone. No prints, nothing, not a thing."

"Wow, it's just…you're serious, aren't you?" one of the doctors asked. "He has to have a past, everyone has a past."

The oldest of the doctors, the man who practiced on the criminally insane for many years, shuddered once more. He remembered the old Arkham Asylum in the days before it shut down. The rumors they wanted to bring it back sent shivers down his spine.

Some things people wanted to forget. They wanted to try as far and fast out of their brain as absolutely necessary.

"Whatever he is, we haven't been able to find his past," the doctor said. "He might as well have spawned from the deepest, darkest, most depraved parts of all of Gotham City. He's vile, nasty, and cruel….and I don't want to be the one to have to talk to him."

"Someone has to though, don't they?"

"Yes, according to the state, we need to evaluate him to gage his sanity," he said. "He's heading to the Arkham wing….."

Joker disappeared into his cell. The fact the doctors didn't need to see him, at least not yet, caused them to think more soundly.

"Is he in sound mind though?"

"He's an interesting case," another doctor said. "We'll know in a moment though how off he is. How much of his mania is an act? If he's insane or just pure evil."

Harley looked at the door where this Joker had been brought through. Many thoughts entered the intern's mind.

' _A very interesting case indeed.'_

She would never get close enough to study him, but it was interesting indeed. Trying to psychoanalyze someone like the Joker was a wet dream for a psychiatrist.

* * *

 

The group of young girls stood around in the penthouse in Metropolis. Many of them wore rather sour expressions. Some of them could not believe the situation they had been put in now. Amanda, Emily, and Donna had the unfortunate task of keeping the girls in line while they waited for any news.

"Wish I knew what was going on, " Rebecca said.

"You're not the only one," Jade said. "Term starts next Monday again…how are they going to manage to get us back before then?"

Artemis knew it would be quite easy to get them back. She wondered about one thing.

"If it's even safe to go back," Artemis said. She turned towards Amanda and Emily and looked towards the two twins with a frown on her face. "Do the two of you have any idea what's going on?"

Amanda sighed. The ball having been knocked into her court was not something she enjoyed to be honest.

"I wish we did," Amanda said. "Joker's now locked into Blackgate, but there's still a threat or two on the street."

Lois snorted. The day there was no threats in Gotham would be a bland day indeed. The other members of her group wore similar looks of disbelief with Lois being more prominent with hers.

"I'm sure Harry's going to put us on lockdown, isn't he?" Lois asked. "Even if we go back to Gotham City. Providing you have talked to him, have you?"

Lois raised an eyebrow and the twins exchanged one of those looks. She recognized the look.

"You haven't, have you?" Lois asked.

Amanda hated to admit they were not locked much more into the loop than the younger girls. The Cop Killer mess along with Joker, New Year's Eve, and everything else resulted in a lot of madness of the people in Gotham City.

"No, he's been busy," Amanda said. "We'll go back through the gate when someone gives the go ahead and not a second or two later."

"None of you knows anything?" Jessie asked. She sounded very annoyed.

Jessie hated being locked up in a cage. She enjoyed her freedom and being cooped up in a penthouse for the better part of the week did not put the girl in a good mood. As a matter of fact, it put her in a pretty sour mood.

"Jessie, you need to calm down," Jade said. "I don't like it any more than you do, but it's for safety reasons, isn't it?"

"Joker's….he's in Blackgate," Jessie said. "Has anyone even talked to him yet?"

Lyta looked at Jessie with a shudder filling through her body. "Talk to the Joker, why would anyone want to talk to the Joker? He's….well isn't he insane?"

Jessie had a theory. It was mad though. Something about Joker's demeanor from the one clip on the news seemed a little bit familiar. Was her mind playing tricks on her though?

' _I can't be for sure.'_

"Insane, yeah, I think he is," Jessie said. "But he could be pretty interesting…wouldn't you want to know who he is? Where he's come from?"

"He has to have come from somewhere," Lois said. "And…the world knows Nightwing and Batman are real….and boy, things are going to get a bit rough from here."

"No kidding," Lyta said.

The doors opened up and Kara exited the elevator. Donna rushed over towards her. The frantic beeline amused Kara.

' _Please tell me you can tell us something,'_ Donna thought. Her hands dropped to her sides and she peered in Kara's eyes. _'I'm not sure if you can tell, but the natives are getting pretty restless'_

' _Yes, I can tell,'_ Kara said. Her lips curled into a smile and she approached the girls. She cleared her throat and their full attention turned towards Kara.

"So, are we going back?" Lyta asked.

"Yes, we are," Kara said without a pause. "There's going to be some security protocols everyone is going to need to follow though when we go back. But we'll worry about that when you all get settled back in."

"Finally," Lois said. "How bad is it in Gotham City?"

Kara frowned. The information of what was going on in Gotham was hard to come by right now. The GCPD ran around in circles until they could find a new Commissioner to replace Loeb. O'Hara was in charge until further notice, but he had his hands full.

Vicki could not dig up anything which would be helpful.

"We don't know yet," Kara said. "Or rather, we don't know more than the news knows right now."

"So, in other words, you know a whole lot of nothing," Amanda said. "Great, that's just wonderful….."

Amanda trailed off. Kara placed her hand on Amanda's shoulder and squeeze it.

' _I know it's rough,'_ Kara thought.

"Harry appreciates the fact you girls tried to stay tight, well the best you can anyway," Kara said. "So, are you all ready to go?"

All of them couldn't get their bags quick enough.

* * *

 

Harry kicked back in his study and watched the news coming in on the screen. A good portion of it had been about Loeb and corruption on the GCPD. This news had begun to lose it's luster, and now they were hyping up the fact there were vigilantes. Whispers of an anti-vigilante task force being created by the GCPD had popped up.

Everyone noticed how much the news was hammering home the fact there were vigilantes among them in Gotham City. Harry could not help noticing what was going on, and neither could everyone else.

' _News is really hyping up the vigilante aspect,'_ Kara thought. _'I'm not sure if this can get any worse than it did right now. It most certainly couldn't get much better, if you catch my drift.'_

' _No, it's not going to get much better, not at all,'_ Harry thought towards her.

' _They do seem to be hyping up Batman more than you,'_ Karen offered. _'And the others are pretty much an afterthought. I'm not sure how you feel about him leaving more of an impression on the Gotham City underworld than you…..'_

' _It doesn't really matter,'_ Harry thought. _'You just realize we lost one of our greatest weapons. Our element of surprise. We used to be these dark avengers of the night, preying on the superstitious and cowardly lot. Now we pretty much lost that, and now we're nothing.'_

' _So, what now?'_ Jaime asked.

Harry took a few seconds to think over what he wanted to do and came to one obvious conclusion.

' _Instead of making enemies of the press, we should make friends,'_ Harry thought.

' _You aren't thinking about going public, are you?'_ Barbara asked.

An interesting proposal, but already Harry figured out pretty much all of the headaches. He would like nothing better than to shed the mask and go public, if nothing else than to get rid of this problem of keeping a secret identity. However, he knew by getting rid of the problem, ten more would crop up in it's place.

' _I thought about it,'_ Harry thought. _'But, it's not doable, at this stage in the game. With all of the people who would be put in the crossfire, and how the current environment in Gotham City is, that's not an option I or anyone else fighting crime has….but it's time to bring one of our most valuable allies into the circle.'_

' _You're talking about Vicki, aren't you?'_ Kara asked. _'You're going to tell her the truth.'_

' _It's about time,'_ Harry thought. _'She's pretty sharp thought. If I could hazard a guess, she's figured things out already. Or at least has a pretty solid guess. Just a hunch I have.'_

' _Your hunches are pretty spot on a lot of the time,'_ Kara thought. A smile shifted over her face in spite of herself. _'I'd say it's a pretty good bet she's figured things out.'_

' _But, she can't admit it,'_ Harry thought. _'Well, I think it's good to have someone who will shine a bright light on what we're doing ,within reason. If she's cheerleading Nightwing, that's going to raise a red flag. We just want a balanced perspective, pointing out the positives.'_

' _So, are you going to talk to her?'_ Kara asked.

' _Yes, soon,'_ Harry thought.

Harry already made plans to see, to see what he can do.

* * *

 

April O'Neil and Betty Brant made their way down the steps into the subway. It had been well past Midnight in Gotham City, and they had just tracked down a lead which did not pan out.

The unsavory sort who were taking the subway this late at night caused shivers to go down the spines of both of the reporters. April turned her attention to Betty and raised an eyebrow.

They passed a wall which had been spraypainted with a figure in a hockey mask and the words "CJ was here" written with a cartoonish looking smiley face. The art in this city most certainly had gone down hill.

"Subway at night, this wasn't a good idea," April muttered.

"Just don't make eye contact with anyone," Betty said.

Several gentleman with scars and dragon tattoos stepped in front of them. They nudged into April and Betty, and they refused to step away.

"Excuse me, what's your problem!" April snapped.

One of the thugs grabbed April by the shoulder and squeezed it hard. April tried as hard as she could to break away. This particular thug had her by the shoulder and pulled her closer in.

"I'll tell you what our problem is," one of the thugs said. "Well, we don't have a problem with you per say, but the big boss man, he has a big problem with you. And his problem is you're snooping around in his business. You think you're something special, don't you?"

April figured this had to do with the story she had been working on. It hit her these men stalked her down and were about ready to kill her.

"Well, I'm…"

"Shut your mouth!" one of the thugs yelled slapping her across the face. "It's time to teach you a lesson. You're nothing but a couple of snoopy reporters."

Betty kicked one of them in the groin, and April elbowed one of them in the face.

"Run!" Betty yelled.

The man tackled April to the ground and drove her face first down. The cold hot blade of a knife touched the side of her ear. April struggled underneath the man when suddenly the lights went off.

The sound of a scuffle followed. Grunts and cursing, along with the sound of punches and kicks happened in the darkness.

The moment the lights came back on, all of the thugs sprawled out on the ground, with lumps on their heads and busted mouths. A couple of them looked to have been cut by something.

Betty wordlessly reached over and helped April stand on her own two feet.

' _What in the hell just happened?'_

April's keen reporter instincts spotted a weapon left on the ground. A ninja Sai, splattered with blood, had been left in the midst. She looked in the dimly lighted subway tunnel for her savor or savors, but they had disappeared.

"We better get out of here," Betty said.

April picked up the Sai, and slid it into her purse, before following Betty away.

* * *

**To Be Continued on November 9** **th** **, 2016.**

_Everything is changing everywhere. With the Joker on the playing board, things are changes. Some interesting things going on in the B-Plots as well, although Harry's going to get involved before too long._

_Until Wenesday_


	240. Never the Same Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Forty: Never the Same Again Part Two.**

* * *

 

Vicki Vale spent some time in her office going over some notes on the Joker story. She realized how much she did not know, in fact; barely anyone had any idea what to make of the entire Joker situation. She looked over the papers on the desk with a frown. Boredom visited the woman.

A call had broken up the monotony. A very frantic Betty Brant called Vicki at the early part of the morning and she had been freaking out. To the point where Vicki did not know whether or not she was coming or going.

Vicki wondered if Betty was how she sounded to people when she was excited about a story.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it Betty, slow down," Vicki said. She took a moment to collect her thoughts, when Betty bombarded her a mile a moment with her words. "Please, don't freak out. Take a nice and deep breath, and keep yourself calm, just calm down a little bit. Are you calm now?"

The frantic breathing over the other end of the line worried Vicki a fair amount.

"I'm about as calm as I could be," Betty said. She could almost hear Vicki's sighing over the phone. "I got a nice cup of coffee here, and I'm ready to go."

Vicki smiled despite herself. Coffee solved many problems. And caused about as many, as she mentally noted, with a chuckle.

"Good, that's good," Vicki said. "Are you trying to tell me you've been attacked?"

"Yes, April and I, we were going down to the subway," Betty said. "I was helping her out on a story….I figured if I couldn't discourage her from reporting the story. So, I figured it would be for the best if I kept closer to her. Kept an eye on her, made sure she was okay. But that didn't work out as well as I thought it would."

Vicki's head started to spin when way too many details had been bombarded in the back of her mind.

"Betty, calm down, you're babbling," Vicki said. She tensed her fingers around a cup of coffee and put it in her hand. "Are you okay? Is she okay? You're both okay."

Betty took a deep breath and Vicki noticed how she was trying to calm herself down. Boy, Vicki could sympathsize with the struggle reporters had to keep calm when they had been wound up about a story.

"We almost weren't," Betty said. She took a half of a breath and frowned. "These guys, they were pretty scarred. They had dragon tattoos and one of them were about to stab April. Then the lights went out and…."

Betty trailed off and for a second, Vicki thought they had a bad connection. A storm brewed outside in Gotham City.

"And what?" Vicki asked. "Betty, are you still there?"

"Yes, I'm here," Betty said. She took another couple of seconds to collect her thoughts. "Someone saved us in the dark. April found a ninja weapon on the ground."

The reporter instincts within Vicki hit, especially now she knew her friend was safe and in the clear. "Did you get a look at them? Did you know who they were?"

Betty's breath had been let out in a sigh and Vicki knew in an instant she did not know much of anything.

"No, I didn't," Betty said. She chewed down on the edge of her lip over the phone. "I guess pretty much every city has their own avenger like Batman. Those who don't want to be known to the general public, not if they can help it."

Betty reminded Vicki of the current story which went around Gotham City. She figured they were only beginning to enter a state of chaos. The Joker might have been put away, but Vicki couldn't shake the feeling this was the beginning of a snowball effect.

"Yes, not if they can help it," Vicki said. "You left before the insanity happened on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day."

"Yes, I did, and believe me, I regret it," Betty said. Her fingers drummed off of the edge of the desk. She released her breath. "He was there, you saw him? Him and Nightwing….is Nightwing a male or a female?"

Vicki almost laughed. One of the greatest mysteries in Gotham City still had been preserved despite having video evidence Nightwing out and about.

"I saw both a male and female version of Nightwing at various times during the night. So, I really don't know…..everyone's focusing on Batman."

Vicki thought they underestimated Nightwing a fair amount. Something about him inspired Vicki, even though she could not put her finger on exactly what.

' _Something to think about,'_ Vicki thought.

"He seems like the type of person who mobsters share horror stories about when they meet up," Betty said. She trailed off and piped up with another couple of words. "Not that Nightwing isn't terrifying in his own right, because he is. He's just, well he's not Batman. Then again, who is?"

"Who is indeed," Vicki said. She smiled at Betty. "Take care of yourself Betty. Tell April to take care of herself too.

Betty laughed over the phone before she grew somber.

"I don't think this discouraged April at all," Betty said. "If anything, it made her more adamant as well."

Vicki smiled, having known the feeling all too well. It was not something she recommended for sake of a person's health or their sanity.

' _Well, naturally,'_ Vicki thought. _'Nothing makes a reporter know they're onto something great than when someone wants to kill them.'_

"Well, no matter what you do, I hope you take care," Vicki said. "And I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, I will," Betty said.

Vicki turned away from the phone and noticed an envelope lying on the chair. It had her name on it and Vicki racked her brain for the source. She would have normally noticed someone entering the room.

' _Hmm, was that there when I got on the phone?'_

Curiosity had gotten the better of the reporter. She looked into the shadows and appeared a bit nervous in the process. She scooped up the envelope and held it away from her when opening it up.

The moment Vicki verified she would not be blown up or gassed, she looked towards the envelope.

**I have answers. Meet me here.**

Vicki pressed the envelope in her hand and flipped it over. A map slid out with a location circled in red ink.

Her interest had been very much piqued.

* * *

 

Harry sat back in the study, a calm look on his face, followed by a smile. He had just returned back to the warmth of the penthouse and enjoyed a hot cup of coffee while he watched some large flakes of snow begin to fight.

' _Just ran into Vicki,'_ Kara thought. _'She's very intrigued with the message you slipped to her. Not sure how you did it.'_

Harry responded with one of the crispest smirks possible, amused by the question coming from Kara.

' _I have to get in and out of places real quick,'_ Harry thought. _'So, why wouldn't I be able to get in and out of Vicki's office quickly?'_

' _He does have a point,'_ Jaime thought. _'So, now what's our next play?'_

' _The ball's in Vicki's court,'_ Harry thought. _'If she shows up, she shows up. If she doesn't show up, well we're going to have to figure out something else, won't we?'_

' _I'm pretty sure she's going to show up,'_ Kara thought. _'There's another story on the mysterious Batman, and what the GCPD intends to do about him.'_

Many people gave collective thighs throughout the bond link. They would have a lot of problems before everything had gotten better.

' _It's for the best the GCPD has their own problems these days, don't they?'_ Diana asked. _'They don't even have a Commissioner anymore.'_

' _No, they don't,'_ Barbara thought. _'O'Hara is running the ship right now, but….he wants to retire at the end of the year. So he isn't in it for the long haul. It would be someone with seniority, and who has friends in high places.'_

' _In Gotham City, why do I have a feeling it will be people who have friends in low places as well?'_ Kara asked. _'I know, you might be obvious with that one but….."_

Kara trailed off, and thankfully Dinah jumped in to help out with the next statement.

' _Whoever it is, we'll deal with it, like we always do,'_ Dinah thought. _'We've always had challenges to navigate around the GCPD. So it shouldn't be too different, shouldn't it?'_

' _You have your eyes and ears out, looking to see what's going on,'_ Harry thought. _'What do you think?'_

Dinah thought about it before giving her own honest opinion on the situation.

' _I think we'll figure it out when the new Commissioner is named and how much of a hard stance he wants to take against vigilantes.'_

' _And why do I have a feeling they're going to go after us more than the real criminals?'_ Jaime asked.

' _Technically, by the law, we are criminals,'_ Kara thought. _'I know….it's a necessity, but it's…..you know what it is.'_

Harry frowned. It was a problem to be honest. The system had been busted so they did what they had to do, even though it was above and beyond the law.

' _We all know what it is, yes,'_ Harry thought. _'The next couple of months are going to be uncomfortable, even more so when Black Mask builds his empire, and the Penguin gets back in the game.'_

' _Maybe we should strike before they have a chance,'_ Dinah thought.

' _It wouldn't be the worst idea,'_ Harry thought. _'The problem is they're going to be more guarded than anything.'_

' _Guess we can say the relationship between Sionis and Cobblepot is beyond repair,'_ Barbara said. _'Joker caused a lot of chaos on his way. Is it just me, or are we….'_

' _Believe me, we're all glad he's behind bars where he should be,'_ Diana thought a second later. _'Let's just hope he'll stay there.'_

Harry thought about it, and realized it was not over. He switched over to another, rather important conversation.

' _So, are you still in Smallville, Faora?'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, I'm giving Eliza Moonstar her check-up,'_ Faora thought. _'And to answer your question, she's doing pretty well. She's completely healthy, and that's really the main thing. I'll keep monitoring her for any changes.'_

' _Yes, and she's in pretty good spirits,'_ Karen thought. _'Dani is excited about her younger sister being born.'_

Harry amused himself with the thought. The last time he visited, Dani was pretty excited, and Kyla was just as excited as well.

' _Eliza will teach us a lot about the process to give birth to children safely and painless,'_ Faora thought. _'Hippolyta was a demi-goddess so we didn't have many problems with her….and she had her sisters around her and the blessing of the goddesses to guide Lyta's birth safely into the world.'_

' _Do you still think we should bring Eliza to Paradise for the final months of her pregnancy?'_ Harry asked.

Faora thought about it for a moment before responding with a nod.

' _It wouldn't hurt,'_ Faora thought. _'The Kawatchee have been preparing for this for centuries, and Eliza in particular has been preparing for all of her life.'_

' _Yes, I noticed,'_ Harry thought, smiling despite himself. _'She's strong, no one can deny that.'_

' _No one is denying that,'_ Faora inputted with a light smile crossing over her face. _'And she knows what's at stake with the risky pregnancy.'_

' _She would be welcome to come here if she needs any support,'_ Hippolyta thought. _'The gates are low-risk and don't put much stress on a pregnant woman.'_

' _We'll think about it,'_ Faora said.

Harry noticed one party had been conspicuous by her absence from this conversation and figured she should get a rather huge part of it.

' _Are you up for it, Eliza?'_ Harry asked. _'Feel free to contribute, this is your future and the future of your child as well.'_

' _I think it would be for the best,'_ Eliza thought. _'And it would be an opportunity which I would be foolish to pass up, to get another chance to meet with a group of women who worship the same god as we do.'_

' _So, it's settled,'_ Harry thought a second later. _'How are you feeling?'_

Eliza pondered for a second.

' _I feel like I've been blessed,'_ Eliza thought. _'All thanks to you…..although the others are asking me questions. If you have the opportunity, you may want to bless some of them.'_

' _Let's see how your pregnancy goes,'_ Faora inputted. _'It's possible many more will be blessed.'_

' _Now, Faora, the mother of my child is not a science experiment,'_ Harry thought.

' _No, my god, it's quite alright,'_ Eliza said. _'I hope to guide your progeny to a safe and healthy life.'_

Harry appreciated her worship. They had a lot to do to make sure everything had gotten in order. Eliza's pregnancy progressed on, both mother and child remained healthy which was the best they could hope for.

* * *

 

A man dressed in ripped black clothing with every single inch of his body either covered in tattoos or scores, had been lead over by a large blonde man with a purple dragon tattoo on his arm. The large man had been flanked by a man of mixed ethnic representation, both Brazilian and African American by the looks of things. The look on his face showed one thing. He was not one who was to be trifled with.

"I'm going to ask you the question one time, and one time only," the larger of the two men said.

"And if you don't like the answer, then I'm going to have some fun," the mixed race man said. He brandished a knife which resulted in the thug in question flinching. "So you better have some answers quick, if you know what's good for you?"

"I don't….I don't….."

The large man grabbed the thug by the shoulder and pinned him up against the wall. The wind had been driven out of the thug when he had been pressed up against the wall. The thug shuddered when he stared down both of them.

"Hun, please, I have no idea what happened, you got to believe me," he said.

"Yes, I know you have no idea, that much is clear," Hun said. "You and your boys were supposed to send a message. And then you got humiliated. And when you got humiliated, I get humiliated. Do you think I like getting humiliated?"

The thug swallowed a lump in his throat and started to shake his head until the hand of the other thug found the side of his shoulder.

"I'm afraid that was a rhetorical question, which you shouldn't answer," the other thug said, placing a firm hand on the shoulder of the thug. "So, tell us, did you see anything?"

The thug started to tremble underneath the knife of the man. Fear rose through his body, making his heart beat much faster than before.

"Please….."

"It's a straight forward question," the knife-wielding thug said. The cold hard steel grew closer towards the throat of the man who flinched underneath the attack. "Either you saw something, or you didn't see something. You either saw something, or you didn't? We're not here to play games, we're here to get some answers. So what it going to be?"

"Well, they fought, they fought like someone….someone in the Foot!"

This stammering effect did not cause the opinions of the two other goons to do anything other than sour. Hun reached over and held onto the shoulder of the man. The man almost slumped against the wall, the breath taken out of him.

"Let me, please," the knife-wielding thug said.

"Be my guest."

The Purple Dragon goon swallowed when the knife-wielding thug looked into his eye. He almost slumped against the wall in fear. The knife-wielder pulled the goon up and placed the knife underneath the man's throat. The hardened thug flinched, and then shivered.

"This is pathetic," the man said "You're saving a bunch of punks fought as well as the mighty Foot? Surely, you jest."

"No, no, I'm not bullshitting you, Mr. X….."

"You couldn't handle any reporter in the dark," the man known as Mr. X said. "Describe them to me. What did you see? What did they look like? What did they look like?"

The thug flinched when he leaned closer to the business end of the knife as it shifted underneath his chin.

"Please, I didn't really get a close look," the thug said.

The man known as Mr. X pulled a face when he closed in on the thug in question. "If you didn't get a look, then you're completely useless. And thus you've outlived any use you've had to the master."

The thug opened his mouth to protest. Mr. X did not give him any chance to respond. He stabbed the failed goon in the chest several times and one more in the throat for good measure. Mr. X stepped back to admire his handiwork.

"Hun, Xever, report!"

Hun and the man known as Xaver made their way into the next room. A figure sat in the darkness on the throat.

"Master Shredder, we've been unable to determined who attacked the Purple Dragons in the alleyway," Xever said. "The one witness who woke up wasn't able to tell us anything."

"I trust you took the necessary steps to ensure he was punished for his failures," Shredder said.

"Yes, sir, the blood of the man currently stains the interrogation chambers," Xever said. He leaned down with a shadow of a smile. "There's one more thing you should know though."

"What is it?" Shredder asked.

"He claims the men who attacked him, they fought in a style similar to that which is taught by the Foot."

The atmosphere in the room grew suddenly much colder. Xever wondered what particular sin he committed by bringing up this point. A moment passed when he thought, for some strange moment, he was going to be punished for his actions.

"It's possible he was mistaken," Hun said. "Who would go against you? Who would dare pass the teachings of the noble Foot Clan on to another…"

Shredder raised one spiked gauntlet in the air. Hun stepped back, having been driven silent. These questions would have to wait for another day. Shredder received a message and it was not to his taste at all.

"I have a message I must take care of," Shredder said. "Inform me if there is any new developments."

"What about the reporter?" Xever asked. "She is getting closer to our operations….."

"She'll have to be discouraged through more….lasting measures," Shredder said. He rose from his throne and turned to enter an office area. He picked up a phone and answered it. "Yes."

"Of all the incompetence, you just had to draw attention to us by going after her!" the modulated, but very annoyed sounding voice of Krang said over the line. "If you had just left her be, she would have burned out and moved onto the next social justice outage. Now she's going to continue to go after us until she's disposed of. And then others will rise up in her place to continue her crusade. You could have sabotaged everything."

"Listen to me, it wasn't just your operation on the line," Shredder said. "There was much more on the line than your plans for world domination. My entire organization could have been compromised because….."

"Because of your petty schemes of revenge from years ago," Krang said. "It all goes around to you and your vengeance, Saki."

Shredder thought about something. The strangest thought entered his mind. The vengeful ninja pushed it out of the back of his mind. It had been absurd to even think about. He would not even begin to think about it if Krang did not have put the thought in his mind.

"Is everything else on your end at least on schedule?" Krang asked.

"There's no need for concern, we have all of the components ready," Shredder said. "Although I don't know….."

"In time, you'll know, Saki," Krang said. "Just make sure everything is built to specifications."

The phone call disconnected and left Saki holding the bag with nothing other than he thoughts. He did everything Krang asked, in exchange for some additional resources for the Foot. The demented mind of TCRI gave Saki a lot more than resources, he gave him a fair amount of ridicule and he was not about to put up for it this much longer.

* * *

 

Barbara reluctantly left Gotham City, on the eve of returning to GCU. Gwen practically twisted her arm with some impeccable logic even Barbara could not dispute.

"Look, you're going to need to get out of your Clocktowner eventually," Gwen said. "You're in for three more months of chaos without any break? What's the worst that could happen if the almighty and all powerful Oracle isn't in Gotham City?"

"I'm not sure if you really want me to answer that question," Barbara said. She looked at Gwen with a raised eyebrow. "Do you really want me to answer that question?"

Gwen answered with a not so obvious chuckle. To be honest, she really didn't want Barbara to answer the question, if it was going to lead to a snarky response. Which happened all too often with Barbara and Gwen.

"So, what do you think?" Gwen asked.

"I think this model is going to be obsolete in about three months," Barbara said. Her lips curled into a frown when she looked at the latest model. "And they want an arm and a leg for it. This is highway robbery if there ever was highway robbery."

Barbara and Gwen were not the only ones who made the trip to the mall. Rebecca, Lyta, and Lois came, supervised by Donna. It amused Barbara a tiny bit how they begged to get out of Metropolis, only to return two years later to go shopping. Martha and Nell took Lana, Claire, and Marie to a trip to the city, and Claire and Lana's friend Lori, tagged along.

"She's not exactly the most graceful on her feet, is she?" Gwen asked.

"Don't you remember how awkward and clumsy you were when you were around that age?" Barbara encountered.

Gwen responded with one of the most sheepish smiles possible. She was about ready to forget about those awkward pre-teenage years. Puberty hit her quite nicely, and then there was some other fun elements which hit her.

"I'm trying to forget the best I can, thank you very much," Gwen said.

"Come on, Claire, you have to try it on!" Lana yelled from across from the mall.

"It is you, Smallville," Lois said.

Gwen smiled at the interplay between the younger girls. A more innocent time to be honest. She leaned back against the wall.

"I'm really glad we're in a mall where there's no chance of a crime," Barbara said. Gwen raised an eyebrow. "Well, less chance of a crime, Metropolis still has Intergang…."

Barbara looked at Rebecca for a couple of seconds. Martha and Nell kept a close eye on Rebecca, as did Donna, to the fact where Donna came close to having Rebecca on a leash. Despite the fact the girls swore up and down they would not take another trip into Metropolis, or go after Intergang, they weren't taking any chances.

' _So, are you itching to go out on the field,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Little bit,'_ Gwen thought. _'With all of the mercenary problems Harry put a stop on the training and it was for good reason.'_

Gwen looked towards Barbara and frowned.

' _How about you, are you itching to go back out there yourself?'_ Gwen asked.

' _A little bit,'_ Barbara thought. _'After Batgirl made her grand debut, I thought I was ready. But, then Killer Moth wrecked my suit and that was a bit of a mood killer.'_

Gwen tried not to laugh at the serious situation. It was a bit of a mood killer. She turned attention to something more interesting, something which would not wreck the mood.

' _So, you're Spider-Woman, aren't you?'_ Barbara thought. _'Or is it Spider-Girl….or Scarlet Spider? Have you or Reilly ever sorted that one out, or is that one of those things where you're just going to rock, paper, scissor it?'_

' _We'll figure it out if we ever get more field ready,'_ Gwen said. _'Guess we have something in common where we both have trial runs which didn't work as well.'_

' _You'll be ready next time,'_ Donna thought.

' _How about you, Donna, have you thought about going out there?'_ Barbara thought.

Donna had thought about it to be honest. She had more than enough on her plate though right now. Last year before college, so she needed to prepare, and the pressure to do the very best was much on her.

* * *

 

Vicki took the plunge, wondering what she had to lose. She had gone to a place where someone would have information.

To be perfectly honest though, she never once stepped in a place anything like this. The reporter chewed on the side of her lip when stepping through the doorway. Her neck craned a couple of inches back and then turned around. Vicki got a pretty good view of what was going on around her.

' _Not sure what I was expecting,'_ Vicki thought a couple of seconds later. She craned her neck back a fraction of an inch and responded with a frown. _'This however, this wasn't really what I was expecting. Not by a longshot anyway.'_

Vicki found her way to a lavish penthouse suite. A nice comfortable couch set in front of her. She sat down on the couch and waited.

"Thanks for coming, Ms. Vale."

Vicki looked up and saw him. She noticed him from afar, in the darkness, and he saved her ass a couple of times. Seeing Nightwing standing in front of her made Vicki blink and nod her head. She jumped up to a standing position.

"So, it's you, you're here….." Vicki said. "I'd like to…wow, I really don't know what to say now I have you here in the flesh."

Vicki thought of so many things to say. She decided to go for one of the more obvious statements.

"Why are you here?" Vicki asked. "No offense, but why are you here?"

"I've been following your work for some time," he said. "You've done a remarkable job in trying to unmask corruption in Gotham City."

Vicki snorted. She had been hitting some dead ends in her investigation and thus had not gotten as far as she would have liked to.

"And I think the two of us can work together," he said.

Vicki raised her eyebrow and came up with one particular statement.

"You think the two of us can work together?" Vicki asked. "I don't even know who you are underneath that mask….and…"

The Dragon touched his fingers to Vicki's lips to silence her. Vicki looked into the young man's eyes and wondered what was going on. She could not even begin to determine what was going on in this particular devious mind of his.

"You're a member of the press," he said. "You're all about taking some risk to get to the end result. Here's my risk."

The mask slipped off and Vicki blinked when she saw the person who lingered underneath the Nightwing mask. Her mouth stopped working. Words formed in her brain, but she did, she was not able to say anything.

On the one hand, she should have been shocked. On the other hand, she really shouldn't have been.

"We've worked together in some respects over the past couple of years. It's time for us to take things to the next level."

"Harry….Potter," Vicki said. "You're Nightwing!"

She spat out the words and they sounded stupid, almost childish in her mind. Vicki could have smacked herself about the area of the head. Of course he was Nightwing. Why wouldn't he be Nightwing? It made way too much sense for him to be anyone but Nightwing.

"If I would have put money on the bet, I would have lost," Vicki said. "I would have lost big time."

"Oh, you didn't think there was any chance of me being Nightwing?" Harry asked.

"No….well, there's just as bunch of a chance," Vicki said. "But, I had a theory you were Batman….looks like I was wrong."

Harry moved closer towards her. The two of them almost touched nose to nose. Vicki placed her hands on Harry's chest and felt it, as if she was testing it out.

"I should have known, a lot of your injuries line up with something a vigilante would do," Vicki said. "So, what made you do it?"

"I feel as if I could trust you to do the right thing," Harry said. "I feel if I had an ally in the press, we could make some people become very nervous."

"And when people become nervous, they start making mistakes," Vicki said. He caught where he was going. "I got you, but…"

"It's not going to be easy," Harry said. "Corruption is far more wide spread than I thought. I have people who I trust in the GCPD, but….."

"After Loeb, everyone is going to double down on the entire vigilante mess," Vicki said. "Ignoring the fact all evidence points to their former Commissioner being one."

"It does seem rather obvious," Harry said, smiling when he looked at Vicki.

He had made a rather calculated risk, but after having slept with Vicki several times over the past year, he had a sense of what she was all about.

"So, the biggest story of my life drops in my lap, and I can't even cover it," Vicki said.

"I know you won't reveal me," Harry said. "Especially if it gives you the promise of hooking an even bigger story."

Vicki's lips tugged into a smile. Harry did know her well, he knew her all too well.

"So, are we working together?" Harry asked her.

Vicki leaned in and pressed her lips onto Harry's mouth with a sizzling kiss in response. He wrapped an arm around Vicki and pulled her closer into him. Their mouths molded together in a hungry manner, with Harry's hands questing down and running over Vicki's lower back.

She positioned herself on his lap and kept kissing him. Vicki's legs wrapped around Harry and she worked him over.

"I've always been a sucker for a man in uniform," Vicki said. "Why don't we further cement this relationship?"

Harry smiled and ran his fingers up Vicki's leg and kept kissing her on the side of her neck.

"I have no problems with that."

Harry shifted his hand underneath Vicki's skirt and pulled back her panties which already had been soaked. His fingers probed her outer lips and rubbed them in circles. She encouraged his constant movement by lifting her hips up.

One finger slipped inside of Vicki's dripping hot folds. She lifted her hips to encourage further penetration.

"You've been waiting for a long time about this," Harry said. "You know you're going to have to let go of my finger sometime."

Vicki protested the thought when Harry finger fucked her to an amazing orgasm. She had been dancing at the door of death so much with the recent coverage of the last couple of days she could not hold herself back. Juices trickled down her legs when Harry kept working between those wonderful thighs.

"What if I don't want to?"

Harry smiled at her words and slowly worked his finger in and out of her cunt. He worked towards her blouse and pulled it off. Vicki's large bra clad breasts spilled out. Harry grabbed her breast and squeezed it.

"Because, if you don't, you won't have my cock inside you," Harry said. He squeezed her tit which caused her eyes to flood over. "That's what you want, isn't it?"

"YES!" Vicki screamed in pleasure. Harry gave her breast another squeeze and she tried to push her ample chest into his hand. "Give me more, please….I want more."

Harry fingered her and pulled her right breast from her top. He pinched her nipple and the response was her pussy clamping down onto him. He added a second finger from his hand and a third one. He pumped Vicki.

Vicki lifted her hips up, riding his fingers like a madwoman. She pushed her chest out as well so Harry could squeeze her breasts. The pleasure went through her body. A jolt of energy followed with Vicki's loins heating up.

"Cum for me," Harry said.

Vicki's body obeyed Harry's words. His fingers pumping into her sticky twat caused her hips to rise up and down.

Harry relished the feeling of Vicki's wet and sticky pussy squeezing his fingers. He pumped in and out of her, making her juices coat his fingers. Harry smiled and pulled out of her.

"Taste my fingers."

Vicki took Harry's wet fingers into her mouth and started to suck them. Her hand reached over and undid the bottom of Harry's outfit. His large cock popped out. The reporter wrapped a hand around him and stroked him.

"Time for us to have more fun," Harry said. He pushed Vicki down onto the couch and mounted her hips to grind against the sexy reporter. All twelve inches of his cock brushed against Vicki's lips. Her hips rose up to meet him. "I'm going to hold you down and fuck your brains out. How would you like that?"

"Please," Vicki said, lifting her hips up in an attempt to coax Harry's throbbing rod inside her body. "Fuck me, fuck me hard."

Harry aimed his throbbing prick inside of Vicki's entrance. Her hole opened up to accept his thick and throbbing cock. Harry shoved himself inside her and caused her to moan.

Vicki's pussy squeezed Harry's cock. She always enjoyed this mecca of manhood buried inside her. Her hips rose up to meet Harry's thrust. She intended to have his thick cock buried inside her.

Their loins met in a passionate exchange. Harry rose all the way up and pushed into her. The redhead's breasts bounced when Harry drove himself into her. He brought himself almost all the way out, and then shoved himself back into her.

Harry started to play with Vicki's tits. Her moans increased and her encouragement to be fucked harder was obvious. Her leg wrapped around his hip and held Harry closer.

"Mmm, such a hot bitch," Harry said. "What do you have to say about this, Ms. Vale?"

"I say you're cock feels so good inside me," Vicki said. Her nails duck into the back of Harry's back. "Keep fucking me. Fuck my brains out. Jesus Christ, don't stop. Fuck me until I can barely stand. I want more….so give me more! Pound my tight pussy with your big, throbbing cock!"

Harry pounded her to a potent orgasm. Vicki's walls clamped down onto Harry and milked his intrusion. His thick balls slapped against Vicki's thighs to show the load for him.

"Here you go again, cumming again," Harry said. "You belong to me don't you?"

"Yes, I'm just a little fuck slut," Vicki said. She dug her nails into Harry and encouraged him. "Fuck my tight little pussy! Put your cum inside me….shoot your thick load."

Vicki's pussy clamped down onto Harry's hard pole. He rose all the way up and slammed into her. More orgasms rocked through her body the further Harry drilled himself into the reporter.

Harry indulged himself in Vicki's tight and wet pussy. His balls loaded up with their prize when he rode the reporter into the couch. He kept feeling up her legs and drove the fiery redhead completely nuts. Her moaning entered in her ear.

Vicki had been brought to the edge of pleasure. She submitted for his cock.

"Are you ready for your prize?" Harry asked.

"Yes, pound my pussy and cum in me!" Vicki encouraged him. "Fucking shoot your cum into my nasty, sticky, twat. Drain your balls in me, you thick cocked stud, you!"

Vicki hung onto Harry and kept talking dirty in his ear. His face buried between Vicki's breasts and his cock inside her pussy.

"I only take the very best cum in my pussy," Vicki said. "And you're cum is the very best. The very best…."

Another orgasm struck her dumb. Harry reduced her pussy into a dripping mess of fluids. He kept working into her and pumped himself into her. Harry's balls slapped against Vicki's thighs.

"I can feel how much you have for me," Vicki breathed. "More to spare…..I want you to cum for me, Harry. Please, won't you cum for me? My hungry little pussy wants your cum, all of it. I want to drain your fucking balls!"

Harry's questing fingers brought Vicki to another orgasm. Every time she thought another more powerful and potent orgasm could not hit her, Harry showed her different.

He hammered her pussy all the way to the edge. His balls swelled up with their seed and were about ready to empty inside of her. The redhead vixen's body proved to be a temptation and Harry's balls twitched the further he pushed inside her.

"Mmm, you're getting close aren't you?" Vicki asked.

"I'm not going to hold back," Harry said. He pumped inside her. "Get ready for more cum than you can handle."

"I sure hope so, darling," Vicki said. "Give it to me!"

Harry did not hold back. He plowed inside of Vicki and started to thrust inside her. Her orgasm set his off. He fired several spurts of cum inside of pussy.

Vicki clenched onto Harry's shoulder when he rode her to an amazing orgasm. Her entire body tensed up and released juices. She milked Harry's balls until he reached the end of his orgasm. He pumped a heavy load inside her.

Harry pulled out of Vicki and she collapsed on the couch with a smile on her face.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on November 12** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_We build up to Harry revealing himself from Vicki, and further cementing their working relationship inside of the press. Things are going to get a bit bumpy over the next couple of months, so it's going to be time to prepare for war._

_Also, things over in New York are heating up._

_Until Saturday._


	241. Interludes

**Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-One: Interludes of a Cold and Bitter Winter.**

* * *

 

The insanity of the holiday season tapered off and only moved over to give room for insanity of a different kind. One of the biggest events of the year, at least for certain women Harry knew, was about ready to happen. Given how big of an event last year's was, Harry could only imagine how big it would be during this year.

Fashion Week 99 lingered just around the corner. Harry found himself on a conference call with Lavender and Mari. Rather though, Lavender tried to talk his ear off about her excitement of the event and Mari sat there, half bemused, and attempted to keep up with Lavender's manic energy. She had been rather excited about this entire event for obvious reasons.

"People said last year's couldn't be topped, it would be so big," Lavender said as she bounced about with manic energy.

Harry chuckled at the nice little glint he viewed in the eyes of the woman. He came to one possible conclusion. "You took it as a challenge to top it, to prove all of your doubters wrong."

"Of course I did!" Lavender cried before taking a time to take a deep breath. "You know, you do it all of the time. The thing where you try and prove all of your doubters wrong."

Mari sighed in response and Harry almost laughed at her, even if he should not have been laughing at her very obvious discomfort.

"Have you been trying to keep up with Lavender, Mari?" Harry asked her.

Mari flashed Harry one of those smiles at him.

"Been trying, just haven't been doing a very good job at it," Mari said. "She's really obsessed with doing the best, and I have to say, I can see where she's coming from."

"You should know where I'm coming from, and besides, as a senior member of my modeling staff, you have a lot of responsibility!" Lavender cried. "Loads of it….tons of it!"

"Okay, no more coffee for you," Harry said.

He regretted introducing Lavender to coffee. It seemed like a pretty good idea in practice if he was to be honest, but not exactly the best possible idea in execution.

"No, I haven't really drank a cup today," Lavender said. Her face broke out into a wide grin. "That's right, I'm amped up all on my own, but aren't you excited?"

"You know what Lavender, yes I am," Harry said. "Last year's trip was surely eventful, and I'm sure you and Parvati are going to put together something amazing."

Lavender cracked into a smile. Half of the reason for Fashion Week was to impress Harry. She would have been lying or deluding herself if this was not the reason.

"Emma's pointed me in the direction of some promising new recruits," Lavender said. "A couple of them are in high demand though…..but I'm sure we can outbid them."

Mari smiled and shrugged her shoulders.

"I've been looking into them, and the girls from last year are all coming back," Mari said. "We do have them locked in, and I'm sure as they grow in popularity, you'll be glad you did."

Harry smiled. He doubted any of them would have been going anywhere, if he had to say so himself. Many of the girls were underneath his thumb, or other parts of his body rather.

"I've even gotten Karen to agree, finally," Lavender said. "Do you know how hard I had to work to get her to even show up for the show? Much less do something…"

"How did you convince her?" Harry asked.

Lavender's smile became one of pure mischief. Harry could only imagine what she had gotten up to.

"Well, I'll leave it up to your imagination," Lavender said. "Let's just say I had to spend a lot of time on my knees to convince her and leave it at that."

Harry already spent a couple of minutes thinking about what could have happened.

"You're overextending yourself a bit too far, don't you think?" Harry asked. "Don't you want to go more international by 2000?"

"It's why I'm delegating some of my responsibilities to Mari," Lavender said. "Oh, and there's a big time party who wants in on the fun…..I'll talk to you more when we get to New York. She wants to meet with you directly though."

Harry amused himself with how much Lavender bounced from one train of thought to the other. There was a lot more going on in her mind then a lot of people gave her credit for. Her mind leaned more towards creative endeavors than scholarly ones.

"I know who you're talking about," Harry said with a smile. "And I'm looking forward to meeting with her. I've been for a long time."

"Last year, she was busy with something else, but this year, she made more than enough time to clear her schedule," Lavender said. "And I know you're looking forward to what surprises are in store….just hope it isn't too chaotic."

"With a small army of attractive women under the same roof?" Mari asked. "Perish the thought."

Harry laughed. He really did look forward to Fashion Week 1999, if nothing else than to get a change of scenery. While he was certain Gotham would revert back to old habits sooner rather than later, he figured he could get some downtime.

' _So, how's patrol?'_ Harry thought.

' _Couple of muggers, car jackers, someone tried to break into an ATM,'_ Dinah thought. _'Not too bad all things considering what it could be.'_

Harry smiled. The snow started to come down. The winter had been harsh and bitter. He had a feeling it would just pick up from here.

He just had to wait and see what everything would bring.

* * *

 

Harold Osborn found himself regulated to one of the basement labs of OsCorp. The Board pretty much kept him on to keep an eye on him. You did not have to be a genius to read between the lines of this one. Harold gritted his teeth when putting his head down and shook it.

' _If you could see me now, Norman. Kept as a prisoner in my own company….while others reap the benefits.'_

Fisk, Hardy, Fiers, Potter, all of them were against him. Harold knew it in his mind. He could hardly stomach the fact as well. He took a heavy breath.

Harold's official title at Oscorp was senior consultant. He had not been consulted in some time, and his ideas had seldom been used. He found himself trapped, without any way to go. His fingers kept drumming on his desk in a rapid fire fashion, in an attempt to keep himself calm.

He barely heard the knock. The knock continued three more times at a rapid fire rate.

"It's unlocked!" Harold snapped.

The door opened and Michael Morbius popped his head through the office door. Harold looked at Morbius for a few seconds before motioning for him to come inside to him.

"You sound rather tense, Mr. Osborn," Morbius said in a calm and tranquil tone of voice.

A second passed, and Harold tried not to lose his cool with the man's calm manner. It was nice someone could be calm and collected during a very troubling time like this.

"Yes, I sound very tense, because I am very tense," Harold said. He stared at Morbius for a long couple of moments. The man in question locked eyes with him. "Did you come down here for a reason?"

"Only to inform you the OsCorp Board of Directors is inquiring about your health," Morbius said. "And they are quite concerned about what you've been up to down there."

Harold snorted. He was unaware the Board cared, likely because he was almost certain they did not care. They just wanted to ensure he was where he was supposed to be, like a perfect little solider. Harold crossed his arms and looked towards Morbius.

"You inform the Board I'm still breathing," Harold said. "This should be their only concern about me at this particular point."

"Harold, I'm afraid they wish to meet you," Morbius said without missing a beat. Harold blinked when he looked at him. "There's an important OsCorp meeting about to take place and they would like all hands to be on deck."

"Including the ones they just have slapped away, constantly?" Harold asked.

Harold could not be pulled away from his work. He was seconds away from reaching something groundbreaking.

Morbius looked at what Harold was working on and the man in question stared at the work.

"Are you certain this is a good idea, Mr. Osborn?" Morbius asked. "That resembles the formula which your father used in his final experiment before…."

Harold held up one hand to prevent Morbius from speaking even further.

"Yes, I'm aware."

Harold rose to his feet and grabbed Morbius by the collar of his short. Morbius twitched when Harold grabbed him. He did not slam him against the wall or slap him around like Morbius feared he might. The Osborn heir kept a firm gaze on Morbius which burned into his face.

"Listen to me, and listen to me well," Harold said. "No one is to know about this experiment I'm doing down here."

Morbius twitched underneath the grip of Harold. He tried not to pull away from Harold even though Harold held a nice and firm grip around his hand.

"Yes, sir, I understand, but I'm not sure if you know what you're doing," Morbius said. "Norman Osborn….."

"Isn't here anymore," Harold said. "So, instead of having to talk about the past, why don't you talk about the future? Why don't you talk to the future? Why don't you talk to me?"

Harold did not let up on his grip around Morbius's collar for even a second. The scientist squirmed against the wall.

"Sir, we're just concerned about you," Morbius said. "Your father met a sticky end when he had been murdered…we would hate to see you perish by similar means."

"If you cared, you'd stand back and leave me to my work," Harold said. "It's about the only thing I have left, this lab."

"Yes, and the Board may take it away if you don't at least put an appearance in during the meeting," Morbius said. "So you can see the situation you're in."

Harold finally dropped Morbius and caused the scientist to land on the ground with a thump.

"If they want me to just put in an appereance, and sit there, while they drone on about how great Harry Potter is, then fine, I'll be there," Harold said. He looked at the scientist. "If that's all they value me as, so be it, I'll be there."

Morbius shook underneath Harold's watchful eye. For one wild second, the scientist thought Harold would snatch him up and beat him down again.

"Lock the door behind you, Morbius," Harold said.

Harold turned around without a second thought and left Morbius alone on the floor to stew in his own thoughts. The scientist rose up to a standing position to take a look around.

His eyes flashed to one of the vials on the table. Morbius shook his head and made his way out, locking the door of the lab from behind him.

The green vial bubbled on the table, in an ominous manner.

* * *

 

Harry finally pulled Pamela away from her work long enough to have some lunch. Barbara intended to join them, but there was just one reason why she could not be able to join them.

' _Sorry, I have a pressing matter to take care of,'_ Barbara thought. _'School projects are lining up, I'd like to get them done before Fashion week.'_

' _And here I thought you were just as good as Harry at multi-tasking,'_ Kara said with a smile on her face. She teased Barbara, although she did it in a rather light hearted manner.

' _I am, it's just, there's a lot to do,'_ Barbara thought. _'According to the teachers, it's a very crucial part of our education. So there's more than enough to do.'_

Harry and Pamela were about ready to get down to a conversation. The doors opened up and Harley made her way inside.

"Hey, Harley, come and take a seat," Harry said.

She smiled and made her way over, not before leaning over the table and wrapping her arms around Harry for a big hug. She did the same to Pamela.

"Just got off of another shift at Blackgate?" Pamela asked. Harley nodded in confirmation. "Anything interesting?"

"Just more cross-eyed, drooling, and prisoners claiming they would get out," Harley said. "Of course, I haven't been in the high profile wing. None of the interns have. That's for veteran doctors only, and….well the senior doctor who has to go in there every day is not too pleased about the arrangement."

Harry pretty much figured out who Harley was talking about when she talked about this particular line of thought.

"Blackgate's most infamous prisoner is causing a lot of problems, isn't he?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Harley said without missing a beat. She drew in her breath with a long sigh and shook her head. "You know, he's a fascinating case study to look at."

"Just because he's fascinating, doesn't mean you should take a look at him," Pamela said without missing a beat. "I'm serious Harley, there's just something about him which is unsettling."

Pamela saw Joker on the news, and she could only imagine how he would be like to see in person. Having a look at him on the television screen gave her the creeps enough, thank you very much. It caused Pamela's stomach to curl up in disgust when she looked at him.

' _Very nasty bastard,'_ Pamela thought. _'He's pure evil in those eyes. Who would want anything to do with him?'_

"Yeah, unsettling, I agree," Harley said. "But, interesting none the less….I think a lot of us are curious about who he really is?"

Harley's attention turned towards Harry.

"I'm sure even you have a professional curiosity, Harry," Harley said.

"Yes, yes, I do," Harry said after a moment's pause. He took a second to consider this. "But curiosity can be very dangerous if it's not exercised properly. Just keep your eyes open, because he'll be very dangerous."

"I agree, he does seem pretty dangerous," Harley said without any consideration. "He already sent one of the doctors screaming."

"Should someone like that be at Blackgate though?" Pamela asked.

Harley cupped her hand underneath her chin and looked a bit thoughtful. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

"I'm not sure, but….." Harley said. "Well, you've heard the rumors haven't you?"

"About Arkham being reopened for extreme cases like Joker?" Harry asked. "Well they're just rumors right now, aren't they?"

Harry knew in the back of his mind one of Hill's big aims was to get Arkham opened. The power plant which Shreck pushed for was another big thing. There was a lot of paperwork and moving parts there, even if the media mogul.

"With extreme cases like Joker's, I think the Asylum is going to be opened up sooner rather than later," Harry said, taking a moment to look at Harley. "I don't know, you promise you be careful, okay?"

"I will," Harley said. She shifted gears at her usual rapid fire and manic pace, turning to Pamela a couple of seconds later. "So, how are things going with Woodrue?"

Pamela's smile faded when she had been asked the question.

"Doctor Woodrue is optimistic we'll be in a good place by Spring," Pamela said. "He's confident this time we're close to a break through."

"Oh, you mean like you're close to a breakthrough last fall?" Harley asked, before she could help herself.

Pamela took a moment to shake her head. Harley really did not mean any harm and she was right.

"Pamela, would you like to join me in New York for Fashion Week?" Harry asked. Pamela blinked in response. "You deserve some time off, and you could really use it."

"Could I?" Pamela asked. "Is it that obvious?"

"Yeah, Red, it's pretty obvious!" Harley piped up.

Pamela shook her head at Harley's demeanor. It was pretty obvious to be honest. More than obvious if she had to guess herself.

"I'm not sure if I can leave right now….."

"I insist," Harry said, placing his hand on Pamela's and interloping their fingers with a nice little squeeze. Pamela looked towards Harry with a raise of her eyebrow. "If Woodrue doesn't like it, he can take it up with me."

Pamela frowned. It was funny how Woodrue respected, or maybe feared Harry. Actually, there might have been a little bit of both there, with fear and respect.

"So, how about it?" Harry asked.

"Well, it would be a change of pace," Pamela said. She could see Harry's eyes and his encouragement through them. How could she say no to this. "Actually, it would be really great if I had a chance…why not?"

Harry smiled when Pamela accepted. He was really glad she did.

"I think you'll have a lot of fun, trust me."

* * *

 

Barbara finished the vast majority of her project before Kara finally dragged her away from her post. She had been lead down the steps.

"Barbara, you've been working all afternoon, and this is supposed to be your day off," Kara said. Barbara opened her mouth and Kara placed a hand over her mouth. "One hour break, that's all we ask. Otherwise, you're going to end up burning yourself out."

Barbara made a movement to protest one more time. Kara shut her up with a sizzling kiss. Barbara had been caught off guard from this action from Kara. Their tongues wrestled against each other in a sizzling amount of passion.

The kiss broke, and Barbara's attempts to argue faded from her being.

Barbara and Kara turned around and Gwen, Reilly, and Donna had been waiting for them. They had sat around in the circle and had been drinking soda. Gwen handed Barbara one.

"Good, caffeine, my old mistress!" Barbara said snatching the caffeine in her hand and drinking it down.

"Something different than coffee," Gwen said. "Which I'm certain you should have an IV to hook up to you by this point."

Barbara thought about it, but common sense, and Harry pretty much talked her out of it.

' _Sara finally left town, didn't she?'_ Kara asked. Barbara blinked a second. _'Are you missing her already?'_

' _Well, she made monitor duty very interesting,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Oh, I'm sure she did,'_ Donna thought with a smile.

' _You never seemed less stressed than you did then,'_ Kara thought.

"So, your friend left?" Reilly asked. Gwen and Reilly were kind of in on the know.

"That's a real shame, she was pretty easy on the eyes," Gwen said. "And she has a pretty nice ass, which I'm sure you know all about."

Barbara smiled when thinking about Sara's ass. She did have a great ass, which ran in the family. Something Barbara noticed a lot, nice ass and nice legs, really was there anything more.

' _I knew you were staring at it for years,'_ Dinah thought. _'It's a shame Sara had to go back right now, but she couldn't stick around forever.'_

' _With Nyssa's business finished, no she couldn't,'_ Barbara thought. _'Did Sara give you any insight on what exactly Nyssa was up to?'_

' _Not anything,'_ Dinah thought sighing. _'She doesn't know though. She's not that far up the rankings, even though she's been taken under the wing of the Daughter of the Demon herself.'_

' _It's a pity she doesn't know more,'_ Barbara thought. _'The real question is, does Harry have an idea what's going on?'_

' _Harry always has ideas,'_ Dinah thought. _'And you have to admit, they're spot on.'_

"Barbara, you really are mad for taking on as much work as you do," Gwen said. Reilly raised an eyebrow.

"And you have a lot of room to talk, Ms. Overachiever?" Reilly asked. Gwen responded with a look back towards Reilly which Reilly shook her head about. "Yeah, that's what I thought. You're high up on the overachieving list. Maybe not as high as Barbara or Harry, but a couple of others, you're pretty far up the list."

"Well, Harry inspired me to do more," Gwen said.

"You were overachieving years before you met him."

Gwen chuckled in response. Could she deny this to Reilly? Of course she couldn't. A smile crossed over her face in thinly veiled amusement.

* * *

 

Rebecca took in a series of breaths and she prepared herself. The former circus acrobat stepped in for a sparring session with Lois. Lyta slid back a few inches away from them and looked from Rebecca to Lyta and back again.

' _Oh, this is going to be good.'_

"If you think you can take me down, then go ahead, come at me!" Lois yelled.

Rebecca wasted no time with words. Decisive action was needed when dealing with someone as dedicated as Lois Lane. She had a good grounding of training, something which Rebecca found out the hard way.

She took a couple of seconds to calm herself down and remind herself how she's gotten better over the past few months. All she needed was a little bit of confidence and the right move.

The two of them made their way into the center of the ring. Lois tried for a sweeping kick. Rebecca flipped into the air and rolled in. She took advantage of her circus expertise by doing a somersault which launched herself high into the air. Rebecca dropped down behind Lois and turned towards her.

Lois threw a palm thrust towards Rebecca. Rebecca crouched down to duck the attack and grabbed Lois around the arm. Lois found herself being flipped down onto her back. She rolled over and Rebecca bounced up to hit Lois with a couple of stiff jabs. Lois turned herself to avoid the jabs and grabbed Rebecca's ankle, before pushing her down onto the ground.

Rebecca rolled herself off to the side and took a couple of deep breaths. Lois tried to nail her with a punch. Rebecca blocked the punch.

"Come on, I know you can do better than that!" Rebecca jeered.

Lois's eyes flashed with annoyance and she tried to nail Rebecca with a glancing blow to the side. Rebecca blocked the punch and returned fire with a series of kicks which stunned Lois. Lois staggered back a couple of inches and Rebecca propelled herself high into the air on the opposite side of Lois.

The older of the two Lane sisters turned around and aimed her fist at Rebecca. Rebecca dodged the attack.

"Lois, don't use too much energy," Lyta said. "Can't you see she's trying to wear you out?"

Rebecca took advantage of Lois being distracted Lyta and flipped her over onto the ground. She grabbed the elbow of Lois and hyper-extended it back.

Lyta watched the battle with increasing interest. She wanted a challenge and both of those two would give it to her, at least they would in theory.

Lois bounced up to her feet one more time.

"Come on, is that the best you have?" Lois asked. She blinked and stared down Rebecca who smiled.

"No, that's not the best I have, this is."

Rebecca jumped on Lois's shoulder and flipped her down onto the ground. Once again, Lois had been tangled up. She growled in response to the frustration she felt from this particular takedown.

Lois slid out of Rebecca's grip. She bounced to a standing position one more time.

Diana popped her head back in. She returned to give some more instruction to the girls, but she left Lyta to supervise the majority of it. It would give Lyta some good experience for the future.

"Keep your heads on, don't lose your cool," Diana said. "That goes especially for you, Lois."

Lois took a second to protest she was not going to lose her cool. Rebecca took her down to the ground and pinned her arms behind the back of her head. Lois struggled to get out, using every scrappy tactic in the book.

Lyta rose to her feet and moved over towards her older sister.

"They're not too bad," Lyta said.

Diana raised an eyebrow. "No, they're not too bad. There's room for improvement though. You and I both know that."

Lyta responded with a chuckle. Indeed she did. There was always room for improvement. She knew this more than anyone else when she trained.

"Yes, there's always room for improvement," Lyta said. "We all started somewhere."

Lyta paused a couple of seconds before she offered Diana the truth.

"Even you?"

"Yes, even me," Diana said, smiling in response. She was glad Lyta figured out. "And you could always improve as well."

They turned their attention to the battle. Lois finally had figured out what Rebecca was doing. Whether or not she had an answer for it, they would have to wait and see.

* * *

 

Morbius slipped into the shadows and returned to Harold's lab after hours. Harold would not have been back for several hours, having gone to a club with friends.

' _The perfect opportunity to get what I want.'_

Morbius's work had hit a stand still. His entire village had been afflicted with a mysterious blood disease and despite his best efforts, Morbius was no closer to finding a cure today, than he was three years ago.

The OZ formula may have been the one element they needed. He stepped into the lab and took one of the vials between his fingers.

Morbius slipped the vial into his pocket with great care and frowned. Something about getting this substance was a bit too easy. The scientist refused to question it.

He would only need a small sample for his tests, and he could return the vial by morning. Morbius had these thoughts swimming through his mind when he walked down the hallway. The morning would pass and his test subjects would be ready.

Several sick bats, given the same disease which afflicted the people in Morbius's villages, hung in cages in the lab. Morbius prepared to see if the OZ would cure them.

"Let the tests begin."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on November 16** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_We're setting up the yearly New York trip for Fashion Week, and also some other things are bubbling on in the background._

_Michael Morbius messing with OZ and bats….yeah, that's going to end well, isn't it?_

_Until Wednesday._


	242. If You Can Make It Here Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-One: If You Can Make It Here, You Can Make It Anywhere Part One.**

* * *

 

Harry Potter, despite all reason and sanity, grew fond of Gotham City. Actually, when you really think about it, there were many reasons to like Gotham City. The city did boast of some rather attractive women and the good parts of the city were pretty good. The bad parts of the city would be among the worst in the entire country, never mind the entire world.

A trip to different parts of the world allowed Harry to get a nice little change of scenery from the same old, same old. He made his way to a plaza, dressed to kill in an extremely fancy business suit. Mari looked extremely beautiful when she joined him. Her gorgeous skin displayed fully in a form fitting black dress which extended down past her thighs. She wore a pair of elegant high heel boots which she balanced on.

The two of them turned the corner towards an elegant office where they would do business. Mari perched herself next to Harry for a few seconds.

On time, another woman joined them. Her shoulder length brown hair framed a face which was achingly gorgeous. Her eyes shined extremely bright when turning up to join them. She wore a form fitting female business suit where the first couple of buttons of her blouse were undone. Her skirt, modest as it was, did nothing to hide the quality of her ass and legs.

"Doctor Potter, and Ms. McCabe, it's an honor to meet both of you," she said. She smiled when taking an extra moment to look over Harry. "It's been too long."

Harry exchanged a pleasant smile at the woman who shifted in the chair next to him.

"Ms. Van Dyne, the honor and the privilege is all ours," Harry said. "Would you care for a coffee?"

"Yes, please," Janet Van Dyne said. "And please, call me Jan, and….I guess I should call you Harry and Mari, given we're going to be business partners….well we're going to be business partners if you accept, I should never assume you're going to accept."

Her bubbly demeanor made Harry smile.

' _I like her,'_ Kara thought.

' _I would say you would, but I like her too,'_ Karen said. _'I guess our tastes can be pretty similar some of the time.'_

' _Given we're the same person, I hope our tastes can be similar some of the time,'_ Kara thought, brushing a lock of hair away from her face.

Harry leaned in towards the woman, very interested in what she had to say.

"I'm sure if I hear your business proposal, then I'll be able to determine whether or not it's something I can get behind," Harry said. He flashed her a smile, which she returned, a bit nervously. Harry reached over and placed a hand on hers.

"Well, I was thinking about expanding outwards, and Lavender mentioned to me on the phone she was thinking about the same thing," Jan said. "As she might have discussed with you, the fashion game can be a pretty cutthroat business. You're going to have to really know what you're getting yourself into before you take the plunge."

"Yes, we've noticed," Mari said. "You're talking about the planned five year plan of International expansion?"

"Yes, I am," Jan said firmly, glad they were pretty much on the same page. "I think if we work together, we can whittle the five year plan down to three years, maybe two and a half. Any sooner though, and I think it we'll be pushing things. Many companies fail when they push things too far….I have a friend who….well it was a long time ago, but….didn't really make some good decisions."

"I agree."

Jan smiled and motioned for Harry to continue with this conversation.

"Lavender showed me your initial proposal, and she regrets not being here right now to discuss it with you further," Harry said. "But, it's to my understanding the two of you discussed some of the preliminary details over the phone."

"Oh, yes, yes, yes!"

Jan almost knocked over the cup of coffee she had been drinking. Harry smiled. He figured the cup of coffee could have been a slight problem. Jan looked like a person who would get pleasantly wired when she had coffee in her system.

"Sorry," Jan said. "It's just I've wanted to meet you for along time. I'm just a bit nervous."

"It's not a problem," Mari said. "Just picture Harry in his underwear."

Jan raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, no problem," Jan said.

' _Why do I have a feeling she's pictured you in less,'_ Karen thought. _'Not that I'm faulting her for doing so, naturally.'_

' _I don't think any of us are faulting her,'_ Diana thought with a smile.

"Do you have the proposal on hand so I can look over it?" Harry asked.

Jan pulled out the folder. Despite her bubbly demeanor, her business like nature shined through and she had everything together. She slapped the folder on the table in front of Harry so he could take a look at the documents inside. He smiled and looked it over.

"I'll have to discuss it with Lavender, but I think we have a deal….."

"Sorry, I'm late, the traffic is murder out there."

Lavender Brown stepped into the room and she looked a bit frazzled. Mari helpfully pulled out a chair.

"Thanks, darling, I'm dead on my feet," Lavender said. "And I just have a feeling I'll be more than brain dead after this week."

"You do put a lot of work into this event," Jan said. "And it's nice to see you again."

"Likewise," Lavender said with a burning bright grin. "So, did Harry like the proposal?"

Jan smiled and she invited Harry to give his final verdict. Harry looked Lavender in the eye.

"The final decision is yours, and Mari's as well," Harry said. "However, in my own personal opinion, this deal is best for business and the combined might of both of our companies will sour the fashion line to new heights."

"Not to mention draw in more of the most attractive women in the world," Mari said.

"Really the highlight of my day, if I do say so myself," Lavender said. "Jan, is there anything else you want?"

"No, I think we're good," Jan said. "So do we have a deal?"

Lavender extended a hand out for Jan to shake and the two shook it. Jan and Mari shook hands next and Jan moved to shake hands with Harry. Harry planted a light kiss on Jan's hand which caused her cheeks to heat up in response.

' _She'll be a fun one to have around,'_ Jaime thought. The other Alphas concurred.

* * *

 

Hun waited back and forth with Rocksteady and Bebop. Xever joined them a couple moments later.

"I can't believe some chumps punked out the boys," Hun grumbled. "No matter….Xever will…."

"They're on their way," Xever said. "They're riding over…..I think they might be what we're looking for…what Master Shredder and his benefactor is looking for."

Bebop and Rocksteady said nothing. They stood next to Hun and Xever, looking like the stoic and menacing muscle they had been hired to be. The former members of their gang would be arriving soon and on the inside they were exciting.

To be fair, they were not a part of the Wolf Pack Gang, at least not a huge part. The two sides rode around in the same circles over the past couple of years, raising some hell and some havoc.

"Da Big Man will listen to the deal, he's all about the money," Xever said. "Their Chief of Staff though, he's a bit of a wild card."

"Doesn't he only ride with them because he funds them?" Hun asked.

"He longs to be one with the pack," Xever said.

Da Big Man, Da Bad Guy, and Da Little Man rode up on motorcycles to join the Purple Dragons who waited outside. Da Big Man stepped off of the bike and gave Xever a gang hand signal, with his pinky and forefinger extended up.

"Too Sweet, my man," Da Big Man said. He leaned his neck back a fraction of an inch and waited.

A custom made motorcycle rolled up onto the scene. Xever had to admit it looked like a pretty sweet ride, even though the man riding the motorcycle was less to Xever's liking.

The man swung his leg off of the motorcycle and dropped down to the ground. He took his motorcycle helmet up to reveal his pristine black hair. Word on the street is he dyed his hair. He looked like if someone made a Ken Doll into a biker.

"Sleazy E, my good man," Xever said. "Welcome."

"Well, well, well, Mr. X," Sleazy E said in a voice which dripped in absolute sleaze. "It's an honor to meet you at last, my friend."

Bebop and Rocksteady growled when they looked at Sleazy E.

"Relax, gentlemen, we're all here, we're all friends," Sleazy E said. "If it isn't good old Bebop and Rocksteady, you've moved up in the world since riding with the pack."

Bebop and Rocksteady nodded in response. Pride danced in their eyes, they did move up a little bit in the world from when they started to ride with the pack.

"Yes, they have, but you're here on business," Hun said. "The gang's almost all here….where's Da Big Kahuna?"

"He would like to apologize for not having a chance to be here," Sleazy E said. His voice kept dripping with sleaze. "He's been spending his time, hanging and banging in Venice Beach, in California, and he's taking care of some business….after a certain tape got leaked…..nasty business….."

The other members of the gang responded with a nod. It was quite the scandal.

"So I heard," Hun said. "So, are you gentlemen ready to conduct business?"

"Yes," Sleazy E said. He took out a comb and brushed his hair back so he could look more cool, at least in his mind. "I've got a sweet hotel suite, compliments of Uncle Ted. It's a nice ride across town…."

"Right in the middle of his territory?" Mr. X asked. He smiled. "You're pretty bold, aren't you? I like it already."

"I figured you might," he said. "I know you've been having your problems, which is why you called my boys. You need some extra muscle."

* * *

 

Fashion Week started and it was going to heating up. The party was getting going and Harry saw some familiar faces.

Many of the eyes had been on Karen, who after some intense pleading and negotiations, had decided to model the lingerie. And she looked like a vision with the blue lacy lingerie which covered her body. It fit her snugly. It displayed how the lingerie could be custom made for women who didn't necessary fill it out.

"I'm going to have to give Lavender my compliments," Jan said. She had missed last year's event and would have kicked herself. "She really does know how to organize an event like this. Wrangling together all of those women, it can't be easy."

"It's not easy," Harry said.

Jan smiled and walked closer towards Harry, almost closing the gap between the two of them. She teased both him and herself.

"But, you would know all about that, wouldn't you?" she asked. "You know all about wrangling all of the girls and keeping them in line."

"It's not easy," Harry said.

Jan chuckled and smiled when leaning closer towards him.

"I believe you've already said that," Jan said. She looked over. "I've got a couple of old college friends I need to check up on, so I'll see you later. Maybe the two of us can get together later, for a drink, if you want to."

Jan bit down on her lip, looking hopeful.

"Hey, maybe we should," Harry said.

Jan smiled and leaned towards Harry. She planted a light kiss on his cheek. Her warm lips lingered before pulling away to rejoin the party.

"Well, the party's about to get hot, isn't it?"

Beatriz slunk over towards Harry. She dressed in a nice dress which was the latest model. It was a bit tighter than Harry thought was comfortable, but the dress fit her well, fitting her like a rather well worn glove. Every single inch of the material stretched over her sensual body.

"Very hot," Harry said. "Hey, Bea, how you doing?"

"Mmm, I'm fine," she said with a smile. Very nice to see you tonight, and all of the girls are excited. All of the support you've given us, it's raised our profiles a lot."

Beatriz placed a hand on Harry's chest and steadied herself. It took her a couple of seconds to learn how to stand upright in front of Harry.

"Have you been drinking again?" Harry asked.

Beatriz responded with a shifty little grin. She pushed herself forward and wrapped her arms around Harry to pull herself into him closer. She responded by whispering into his ear.

"Not yet, I think I've learned my lesson after Christmas. It caused me to miss a rather interesting opportunity, being a bit too drunk. We could have….gotten to know each other very well over the Christmas holidays. Wouldn't you say?"

Harry would have to agree and boy were things getting pretty hot in here. Or maybe it was just him? He stole a look at both Lavender and Felicia, who looked as if they were egging her on. Beatriz reached her hands behind Harry and gave his ass a firm squeeze.

"I'll see you later," Beatriz said. She kissed him on the lips, without any shame whatsoever and gave his ass another squeeze.

' _And a hot Brazilian model wants your cock,'_ Karen thought. _'Not exactly the worst thing in the world to happen to you….even if she is spying on you somehow.'_

' _She hasn't figured out you know, has she?'_ Kara thought, sounding amusement. _'Are you planning to get her into bed before the end of the trip? Even if it is just to pump her for information?'_

" _And something tells me she wouldn't mind a good pumping, would she?'_ Karen asked. She looked on with a not so subtle grin crossing over her face. _'I mean, I'm just saying, that's all.'_

Felicia paraded around the party in a nice lacy lingerie set. If Lavender wanted to promote the product, there were worse choices to have parade around in that than Felicia. Harry crossed the room and smiled when he reached her.

"You just had to encourage her, did you?" Harry asked.

Felicia responded with one of those mischievous smiles, which Harry just made Harry look at her for a long second. "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about, Harry, darling."

Harry looked at her with a raised eyebrow. He knew what she was talking about and she knew he knew.

"Have you been a bad girl, Felicia? I don't need to have to spank you and put you to bed, do I?"

Felicia looked up and Emma Frost walked over, with a smile on her face. She held a glass of wine in her hand when walking over.

"A lot of the girls are interested in you, but….that's the primary aim of this function," Emma said. "To hunt down some fresh meat and to make a little extra cash on the side. And the girls wouldn't complain with the exposure. I know Monet practically foamed at the mouth for a chance to work with the great and mighty Harry Potter."

Harry imagined the attractive woman bouncing up and down in excitement. It was a good image to have.

"I'm surprised Lavender hasn't made you an offer," Harry said. "You would have a body which is perfect."

"I agree," Felicia said.

"Well, if you want a third opinion, I'm not necessarily going to argue," Emma said. She smiled when looking at Harry. "The thing you need to understand though is my price range would blow your budget. And I'd rather give the new talent some opportunity to gain some exposure."

Emma leaned down. Harry could see the cleavage when it plunged down her shirt. She pulled back from him, a knowing smile appearing on her face when she looked him straight in the eye.

"You never know though," Emma said. "You might be able to entice me enough to do a private show for you…..I have purchased some of the lingerie, some of the…silkier versions….upon Felicia's recommendation."

Felicia smiled and Harry found himself intrigued. He looked around the room and saw Pamela and Jan in conversation. The two girls really kicked it off.

"Wow, that would really be amazing, if you actually got it going," Jan said. "But it's a lot easier aid tha done, isn't it?"

"Yes," Pamela said. "Yes, it really would."

"So how long have you been working on the project?" Jan asked, raising an eyebrow. "If you don't mind for asking?"

"The better part of two years," Pamela said. "I'm not going to lie though, there are some days where it does seem like a lot longer. It just feels like….well it feels like I'm going around in circles, trying to figure out a way to get it done. Doctor Woodrue is confident he's close to a breakthrough though."

"The great minds all say that," Jan said. "Hopefully he doesn't get dragged down with his obsessions, and if he does, hopefully you don't go with him."

Pam frowned. She had a funny feeling Jan spoke from experience. It was just a hunch though she had.

Harry noticed a person he wanted to have a quick word with elsewhere in the party. He walked over and noticed April hanging out in the corner. She had been talking with a couple of girls.

"Interested in modeling?" Harry asked.

"No, just trying to understand the industry," April said. "I'm looking for more exposure, but I'm not sure if that's the kind of exposure I really want right now."

"It's a shame, you'd fit in well," Harry said. "And you got all the wrong kind of exposure last month, didn't you?"

April realized what he talked about and frowned in response. She eyed Harry for a couple of seconds.

"That's putting things mildly," April said. "I knew I was onto something big. I didn't know how big until they tried to kill me though. That's just….well….."

"It is big, and also dangerous," Harry said.

"A lot of people are in danger though, and if this gets exposed….well it will save a lot of innocent lives," April said. "Plus, you know all about danger and excitement."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm sure you haven't forgotten how you got knocked out of the highest building in Gotham last year," April said.

Harry smiled; he couldn't really forget to be honest. No one was going to let him forget. He could see Mary-Jane trying to catch his eye.

"Just be careful," Harry said. He could see by April's smile she had heard this spiel a couple of times before. She looked Harry straight in the eye. "I'm serious, it would be a shame if anything happened to you…because this story was too dangerous."

' _Dangerous doesn't even begin to cover it,'_ Harry thought.

* * *

 

Alex Danvers slipped into the elevator and made her way down to the lower levels of the DEO headquarters. She frowned. The holidays had been a bit flat thanks to Carol not being there. Alex really hoped she would come home soon.

Clearing the air with her mother about the true nature of Carol's mission really put Alex to ease. And she was sure it put her mother to ease.

The moment Alex stepped off of the elevator; she could heard the sound of some extremely angry voices going back and forth. She wondered what she just walked into. Alex craned her neck to get a better listen.

"We can take it from here…."

"The DEO is perfectly capable of handling this situation…..we have it completely under control. There's no need for you to interfere….."

"You think you can handle it? We disagree."

Alex could see her boss, Hank Henshaw, in conversation with a gentleman who looked like your stereotypical Man In Black, with the suit, the sunglasses, and just the usual demeanor. She took a step forward.

"The Earth Protection Agency has been investigating the TCRI connection to alien activity for the past fifteen years," the man black said. "You shouldn't have gotten involved with it."

"It's our job to get involved…"

"I have a signed order from the President of the United States himself, giving us full authorization for this investigation," the man in black said. "If you want to argue with it, you take it up with him."

Henshaw took the document in his hand and read it over. His eyes narrowed when the distaste became obvious at what he saw.

"And I think you would agree we have more experience in tackling these manners, given my agency has been around since President Grant signed it into law after the first alien invasion. While your agency only got established after the meteor shower in Kansas."

Henshaw's narrowed gaze fell onto Bishop's face. Bishop slid down his glasses to have a staredown with him.

"This isn't over, Bishop."

"You'll thank me later," Bishop said. "Especially considering I just saved your friends and family from being targeted."

Alex stepped inside and frowned.

"Is there a problem?" she asked. She frowned when she saw this man, this Bishop. She didn't trust him right away.

"There isn't a problem at all, Miss….."

"Agent Alexandra Danvers," she said when she looked at him. "And you are….."

"Agent John Bishop, I run the Earth Protection Agency," Bishop said. "It's been a pleasure meeting you again, Mr. Henshaw. Best of luck in your future work."

"Likewise," Henshaw said. His teeth gritted when he saw Bishop leave the room with a casual sweep. What he would have given to be able to wipe the smug smile off of his face.

"Sir?" Alex asked.

"Agent Danvers, do you have the report for me?"

Despite being taken aback by his sudden shift of topic, Alex grew professional. "Done to specifications."

* * *

 

Pam looked up over the balcony the hotel room she and Harry shared in New York. The first night of Fashion Week had been an interesting event and she looked forward for the rest of the week. Lavender said it was just the tip of the iceberg.

A pair of strong arms wrapped around Pam from behind and turned her around a fraction of an inch. Pamela jumped up, half in surprise. Harry's lips planted over hers in a pretty firm kiss. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the kiss.

"Are you glad I convinced you to go to New York?" Harry asked. "You're the most relaxed I've seen you in months."

"I think getting a fresh perspective will be…" Pamela said. Her cell phone started to ring and she picked it up. A frown crossed over her face when she looked at the phone. "Doctor Woodrue, I thought I told him…"

Pamela gritted her teeth and tried not to let this get to her. If she let this get to here, there would be a lot of trouble. Her breathing continued to escalate when the phone rang and rang.

"Yes," Pamela said.

"Pamela, could you fly back to Gotham City?"

Her expression darkened a couple of shades.

"What?" Pamela asked. "Doctor Woodrue, I told you, I was on vacation, and I wasn't coming back until the week is over….."

"I'm making a break through, and it would be nice if I had your assistance," Woodrue said. "You know, we're so close on this project…"

"Is this a real breakthrough?" Pamela asked. "Or is it something you just have a hunch about?"

"It's not for certain, but we won't know until we run the experiment," Woodrue said. "So, when should I expect you back in Gotham City? By tomorrow morning?"

"No, you're going to expect me back next week, when I told you I was coming back," Pamela said.

"Pam, tell him he can run the experiments, and if he needs anyone to bounce any ideas off of, he can call me," Harry said. "I'd be happy to discuss it with him."

"Is Doctor Potter there with you?" Woodrue asked, hearing the man's voice on the other end of the phone. He swallowed a lump in his throat.

Pamela smiled, a part of her glad that Woodrue was scared.

"He's always here with me," Pamela said, trying not to sound too giddy at the fact Woodrue sounded nervous. "He said if you want to run anything by anyone, to call him. You should have really done that in the first place."

"No, I don't think that will be necessary, and you know what….I don't need you, so I'll see you next week," Woodrue said.

"See you then."

Pamela hung up the phone with a sigh and stepped into the hotel room. She plopped herself down onto the bed. Harry sat himself down behind her and he started to give her a neck and shoulder rub.

"Harry, I'm going to need more than that to relax me right about now," Pamela said.

Harry got the message loud and clear. He leaned in and planted his lips on Pamela's with a hungry kiss. One which she returned with eagerness, and she tried to unbutton Harry's shirt.

Karen opened the door and stopped when she noticed Harry and Pam in the middle of a very passionate liplock with each other. Pam broke away.

"You looked lovely tonight, Karen," Pam said. "Why don't you join us?"

The redhead was feeling a bit daring and she stretched over to meet Karen. She joined her and pulled her onto the bed and started to kiss her in response. The loud smacking sounds lead to a sensual round of kissing between both of the attractive females.

Harry figured it would be rude for him not to join in on the fun and games with both of them.

Pamela and Karen continued their intense kissing with each other. Karen's tongue found its way down Pamela's throat and she unbuttoned her blouse to reveal her wearing the lingerie she wore earlier tonight.

Harry reached between the legs of both of the women and parted their skirts. He pulled back their undergarments and slid his fingers into both of them.

Karen responded with a nice set of sultry moans which vibrated in the back of Pamela's throat. Harry's finger worked its way inside of her and stretched her inner walls. She closed her thighs around Harry and could feel him wiggle inside her. Karen lifted her thighs up to meet Harry's intruding digit.

Pamela felt more of the same way. Harry fingered her and stretched her pussy out. She had been wound up from the kissing and he did a good job at fingering her stress away. His finger pushed in and out of both of their snatches.

Harry made them cum in pretty much no time all over his fingers. He pulled them out and waited for the two girls to part ways.

He slid the fingers dripping with Pamela's juices into Karen's mouth and the fingers coated in Karen's juices into Pamela's mouth. Both of the sultry vixens started to suckle Harry's fingers. Both of them resembled sultry sirens when they kept suckling and working over his fingers.

"Good, excellent," Harry groaned. "It feels really good."

"It would be a shame if we had all of the fun," Karen said. She ripped off Harry's shirt and smiled. She ran her hand down his toned abs.

"Yes, it would."

Pamela pulled down his pants and took out his hard, erect cock. She wrapped a hand around him and started to pump her fist around him. She swirled her tongue around the head of Harry's throbbing, veiny, phallus.

Karen looked on with a pout. "Let me have a taste!"

She leaned in and swirled her tongue about the area of his head as well. She kept swirling and licking his head with a wicked little grin on her face.

"Damn," Harry groaned. Karen and Pamela took turns licking him, until Pamela shoved all twelve inches inside of her mouth.

His prick hit the back of Pamela's warm and inviting throat. She bobbed up and down on him a few times before trading off.

Karen did the same thing and bobbed up and down on him for a couple of minutes and traded off. Both of these lovely women exchanged sucking his throbbing hard cock with everything they had to offer.

Harry's balls started to bubble with his cum. Both of the girls lovingly caressed and licked his aching manhood. Both of them wanted to coax every drop of cum he had to offer out of it. Karen rubbed his balls and sucked them while Pamela drove herself throat first down onto his cock.

"Ready?"

Both girls were ready for a shower of cum which was to follow. Harry's cock splattered both of their faces in his man juices.

Karen and Pamela turned around and looked at each other with their face covered in Harry's dripping hot cum. The two women made their way over and began to make out over Harry's cock. Their lips, their tongues, all of it started to lick over each other.

Harry's cock stood up straight and Karen reached behind her to give him a few teasing pumps. His balls began to load up with their precious seed.

"You want the ride first?" Karen asked.

Pamela smiled and stripped herself to her of her bra and panties. Karen did the same and stripped herself to the slinky lingerie she wore at fashion week. She pulled back the bottom half to reveal her dripping hot cunt.

The redhead crawled onto Harry and straddled her husband's hips. She rubbed her vagina across his aching prick. She opened up.

"I'm ready to fuck you," Harry said.

"Don't waste any time," Pamela said, enjoying the feel of Harry's firm hands placed on her back. "Do it, do it now….DO ME HARD!"

Pamela's wet pussy lips caressed the tip of Harry's cock and it started to ease in her ever so slowly.

Harry enjoyed the nice, warm, and friendly home Pamela's dripping pussy offered him. He groaned when she rose almost all of him and sunk down onto his hard cock. She rode his cock nice and hard with a few solid pumps. His cock speared inside of her with Pamela riding him like there was no tomorrow. She bounced a little bit higher.

Pamela enjoyed the sensation of Harry spearing inside of her. She bounced up and down and her orgasm spread all over her body. Harry reached up and caressed her breasts. Her body warmed up and trickled her juices down Harry's iron pole.

"I'm horny, Harry," Karen said. She smiled when lowering her wet pussy down onto his face. "And I know you're hungry.

Harry's tongue brushed the edge of Karen's dripping hot lips. She rose her hips up and Harry used his tongue to swirl within her hot womanhood. He nibbled on the outside and shoved his tongue inside of her. The wonderful tastes of the juices entered Harry's mouth.

Pamela rode herself up and down on Harry. Every single last orgasm passed through her body and she geared herself up for the big one. Her thighs clenched him and her body exploded.

Karen reared her head back to savor Harry's tongue vibrating inside of her. She moved her hips up and drove it down on his questing tongue.

Harry's balls released their load after several minutes of pumping. He launched it inside of Pamela's wet pussy. The contents of his balls spilled inside of her when Pamela rode out the orgasm.

A spent Pamela slid off of Harry's cock and collapsed down on the bed. Karen pulled off of Harry's face and slunk down his body.

Harry groaned, when Karen's ample breasts rubbed all over his body. She took extra care to make sure she brushed his cock on the way to Pamela's pussy.

"Looks delicious," Karen said. "And cumming has built up an appetite so….."

Pamela, who had been half dazed, jolted back to life when Karen started to eat her out. She reached up and grabbed the back of Karen's head.

Karen's pussy lips spread for intrusion. Harry thought it would be almost rude to deny her this. His cock stood and craved her body.

Harry spent some time teasing both Karen and himself. His hands caressed her supple body and moved down to her hips and he squeezed her ass.

Karen groaned when Harry worshipped every single inch of her body except for her award winning breasts. He hit all of the sensitive areas and now he slipped his cock inside.

"Damn, girl, are you trying to rip it off? "Harry asked.

Karen's muscles tensed and relaxed around his throbbing hard cock. He pushed into her body and brought her to the first of hopefully many orgasms.

"Don't worry, the fun is just beginning."

Karen drove her tongue between Pamela's dripping thighs and continued to eat out the sultry redhead. She went all the way down inside of her pussy lips and kept licking her.

' _I hope so,'_ Karen thought. _'I really hope so. Never stop…never stop fucking me. Fuck my brains out, please.'_

Harry rocked her body and shoved himself deep inside of her. His balls started to swell with their arousal. He hammered her from behind.

"Cum."

One word gave so much levity to Karen. Her body obeyed him and heated up. Harry slammed into her body and rode out her orgasm all the way to completion.

Pamela grabbed onto Karen's head and grabbed her hair. She encouraged Karen to keep eating her out, no matter what. She lifted her hips up.

Harry held onto Karen's hips for leverage and continued to pump inside her. Her super powerful cunt muscles squeezed him and his balls kept swelling up.

"Are you ready?" Harry asked.

He squeezed her breast and the only thing Karen could respond to was a sultry moan. Harry took it as a yes and made sure she could feel his bloated balls pushing against her. Harry rode Karen and plowed into her deeper and faster.

Harry's hands caressing her sensitive, large, breasts made Karen slide almost all the way down him. She took his tool in between her wet pussy lips. He hammered her, those balls loading up with their gift for her. She could barely hold it together.

"Get ready, it's time."

Harry's load reached its full capacity. Karen milked him and wanted her lover's cum to spill inside her body.

Who was Harry to deny her what she wanted? He didn't think he had the right. He kept riding her and enjoying the orgasms.

Pamela collapsed on the bed in a daze from Karen eating her out.

"You want me cum, you crave it, you can't live without it, can you?" Harry asked. "Well, here it comes!"

Harry shot his load into Karen. His thick, juicy, cum spilled into her insides. He coated the inside of her walls when he pushed into her.

The moment he pulled out of her, Karen turned around with a wicked grin on her face. She straddled his lap and pushed her breasts into his face.

"So, are you ready for round two?" Karen asked.

Harry responded by squeezing her gorgeous breasts. She gasped and situated herself over his thick cock.

Karen took the plunge and started to ride Harry while Pamela recovered from them both putting her through the paces.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on November 19** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_So many snarky little inside references that no one reading is going to get. Ah, the fun._

_Fashion Week starts for the second year in a row in this story, and naturally there are some interesting things._

_Pamela gets some attention, and given this is….nah, I won't spoil what's coming up next year. Even by saying that, I kind of did. Still, a threesome with Harry and Karen is a good way to bring her back to focus before…well, isn't it obvious?_

_Until Saturday._


	243. If You Can Make It Here Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Three: If You Can Make It Here, You Can Make It Anywhere Part Two.**

* * *

 

Harry Potter decided to take a break from the utter chaos which was the Fashion Week event to slip out and enjoy some of the sights and sounds of New York City. He could see a few similarities to Gotham City, and there were parts of the city which made him a bit nostalgic to go back home. Harry was pretty certain anyone who heard him compare New York to Gotham City would have been very offended and Harry could see their points.

' _Still, both towns get a bad reputation from outsiders, even though there are some amazing people there,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, they do,'_ Gwen interjected. _'Maybe it's just me, but I find Gotham to be a refreshing change. I guess the grass always does seem greener on the other side.'_

' _Sometimes it does,'_ Harry agreed. He smiled when he made his way down the streets. He was not out on patrol, even though he had his hood pulled up over his head so people would not see him and hound him in the streets.

He just wanted to casually step back and enjoy the view. Harry decided to perch himself atop of a gargoyle on the building and look out at the busy traffic. He noticed a Jumbotron with the face of J. Jonah Jameson a bit further away and the jolly giant of journalism started to rant about the news of the day. Harry could only hear scant words coming from Jameson. There were other things which mandated his time and attention.

A scream could be heard from afar, and Harry frowned. He turned his head a couple of inches to one side and listened for more screams. They continued to echo and just get louder.

' _Well, that's a fair bit like home,'_ Harry thought.

He dropped down to the ground and he could see an old woman staggering out of the alleyway.

"Help, police!" the old woman yelled. She almost fell over, with cuts on her face. "My husband is back there, those thugs are shaking him down."

Harry kept his eyes locked on the old woman and he noticed some thugs who were making their way down the alleyway. They looked to be the type who would accost an old man and Harry decided to take a better look.

"I told you, I'd have it by next month!" the old man yelled.

"Ah, pops, you see, you said that about a month ago," one of the Purple Dragon thugs said. "And the big boss man, he's not one for patience. So either we're going to have to get the money, or we'll just take a couple of your fingers as payment."

The old man swung his cane and nailed the nearest Purple Dragon in the face with it. He tried to make a break for it. Unfortunately a replacement hip and arthiritus in his ankles did not allow him to walk too far. One of the Purple Dragons kicked his leg out from underneath him and dropped him down to the ground.

"So, you want to be some tough old bastard, huh?" one of the Purple Dragons said. He picked up the cane and raised it over his head. "Let's see how tough you are now, you old fart!"

A second Purple Dragon grabbed the goon around the arm and stopped him from beating the old man senseless with the cane. "Hey, if we beat him up, the boss isn't going to get his money?"

A figure swooped down and grabbed one of the Purple Dragons from the shadows and pulled him up. The goon turned around and received a couple of punches to the throat before he was taken down.

From the other end, someone nailed another goon across the back of the head and dropped him down to his knees. The goon struggled to get back to his feet.

The leader pulled his head back, mouth hung agape in surprise. He waved the cane from one side to the other and looked into the alleyway.

"Someone out there want to be a hero?" the leader of the Purple Dragons asked. "Is there someone out there who wants to be a big man?"

The leader swung the cane and it smashed against the trash cans in the alleyway which caused them to rattle. He turned around to see one of his gang members fall to the ground. Blood spurted from the man's nose and mouth when he hit the ground.

Harry moved in the shadows and took out another member of the Purple Dragons with precision. Much to his surprise, half of these gang members dropped to the ground on their own accord. He had no idea what was going on, but he was not about ready to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The leader of the Purple Dragons backed off a couple of inches and ran into a gentleman who was wearing a trench coat. The trench coated gentleman pulled out a weapon, a Sai by the looks of things and jammed it into the hand of the Purple Dragon, which forced him to drop the cane.

"Awww."

A snap kick nailed the Purple Dragon goon in the face and sent him flying into the wall hard. The goon slumped against the wall, breathing heavily. The impact knocked him for a loop.

Harry watched the mysterious attacker get to work and he had to admit, the attacker worked rather well. The attacker grabbed the Purple Dragon around the arm, gripping the other man's arm in his green hand and nailing him up against the wall with a solid impact.

Wait a minute, green hand, what the hell was going on here?

Harry got a full enough view of the attacker, dressed in a trenchcoat with a red balaclava pulled over the top of his head. He could see more green skin along with some piercing eyes which was narrowed.

"The Dragon?" the figure asked. "No way."

The attacker growled and clutched the weapon in his fist. He charged Harry and tried to attack him. Harry dodged the attack and he came back with a series of kicks aimed at the side of the head.

"I have no idea what your problem is," Harry said.

"It's you, you're the problem!"

Why did have Harry the strangest feeling he was being mistaken for someone else. A series of kicks and punches had been aimed at Harry, a couple of the blows threatening to hit Harry in vital areas.

The style reminded Harry of the League of Assassins, which was worrying, even though there was enough of it different to make Harry think this was not some demented League plot.

Harry caught the arm of his enemy and turned him around. He flung his adversary into the wall where he landed with a sickening thud. Harry kept up with the attacks, hammering him with punches up against the wall.

The figure growled and kicked Harry away from him. Harry slid back and landed on the ground. His mysterious enemy tried to nail him with one final attack. Harry deflected his attack and grabbed the man around the head, before pulling the face covering off.

He stepped back and came face to face with a giant, walking, talking, living breathing, turtle! Who moved pretty fast for a turtle to be fair, and there was a second where the two of them squared off again.

The sounds of police sirens came closer and Harry turned around to see the giant turtle disappearing like a ninja, vanishing into the night.

Harry took this pretty much as his cue to do the same. He vanished into the night, without a trace, wondering what he would do next.

' _You won't believe it, but I just fought a giant mutant turtle.'_

A quick change of clothes, and Harry decided to make his way to the nearest bar. He needed a drink to process this information.

Besides, as he recalled, he had a very important appointment to keep when he head over to the bar. He shook his head, the information still stirring in his mind.

' _Yep, that's the state of my life. Fighting a giant talking turtle who knows martial arts.'_

* * *

 

Harry arrived at the bar and he could see Alex Danvers already sitting at a seat at the bar. She smiled and waved him over.

"I saved you a seat," Alex said.

"Thanks," Harry said. He looked at her. "So, tough day at work?"

Alex raised an eyebrow when she looked Harry over. She thought there was an understatement made here.

"Pretty much, but it's a long story," Alex said. She sighed and leaned back against the chair to contemplate her next words. "You look like you saw something out there."

Harry smiled. He had fought the unbelievable, faced the unbelievable, and had seen things which many people would classify him as insane for thinking were real. The one thing he saw out there pretty much classified as insane one hundred percent of the way. Harry could not make heads or tails of the insanity.

"I did see something out there," Harry said. "You're not going to believe what I tell you."

Alex answered with a knowing smile and reached over to grab her boyfriend's hand. "Always an auspicious start to any conversation."

"Indeed it is," Harry said. He leaned back and after ordering his drink, collected his thoughts. "So, are you still doing the TCRI investigation?"

Alex frowned, this had been out of the blue, and Harry answered her question with another question. Still, it reminded of her the reason why she had been frustrated.

"We had been pulled from the TCRI investigation, by someone higher up," Alex said. "You know as in the President, he intervened, and put the EPA….The Earth Protection Agency, onto the investigation. It's apparently been around since after the Civil War, when the first documented alien invasion happened. While the DEO was established after the Smallville meteor shower so…..I guess all we are good for is wrangling alien prisoners and dealing with meteor mutants."

Harry sensed the frustration evident from Alex and there were instances where he could not blame her. He squeezed her hand and took a drink about it.

"The guy's name is Bishop, and he's a real prize," Alex said. She had a couple of drinks in her already and she was far more opinionated than she would be about her work. "If you looked up douchebag government agent in the dictionary, you would see a picture of Bishop's smug shit face. Henshaw wasn't too happy about him."

"Is he ever?" Harry asked.

Alex sighed and shook her head. Her boss could be a bit of a frustrating type to piece together and to figure out even in the best of times. He had been through a couple of traumatic incidents, at least according to office gossip which he would not rather talk about. There were rumors he lost his entire team on a mission to South America, where he had been stranded and imprisoned there for months.

She did not ask, he did not tell, and Alex doubted he would tell if he asked.

"No, but…..why do you look like you've seen something that you shouldn't?" Alex asked. "Granted, it's New York, and there are all sorts here, but still….."

"I ran into a giant turtle, and we got into a scuffle."

Alex whistled in response. She had thought about all of the things Harry could have told her. This ranked about as low on the list as one could expect.

"So, they're real?" Alex asked. "You've seen one….in the flesh…well not really, but you know what I mean."

"Yes, I have an idea," Harry told her. He pulled his hand away from hers in a minute. "And he seemed a bit miffed to see me. I wonder if it's because of something I've yet to do."

Alex raised an eyebrow and Harry decided to amend the statement.

"I've time traveled before, and I have a sense I'm going to time travel again," Harry said.

The DEO agent smiled and shook her head. Only Harry Potter would talk about something ground breaking and amazing as time travel like he took a casual trip to get some groceries. Really, that was the state of his life.

"So, time travel?" Alex asked. "How did you manage that?"

"It was a controlled event, I needed to be a certain place in history," Harry said. He chuckled. "You seem more impressed by time travel, than by the fact I ran into giant turtles."

Alex threw her hands back and responded with a sigh. "Time travel is pretty impressive, I think even you have to admit that!"

Harry smiled, he had to admit it was. And he had seen a lot of impressive things in his life.

"It can be interesting, even if it causes a load of headaches when you think about it," Harry said. He paused long enough to hear the agreement from the people.

"I wonder if they're aliens," Alex said out of the blue. "The giant turtles I mean….it would make a lot of sense….maybe they came here from some distant planet, made entirely of turtles."

"Are you sure that isn't a plot to some science fiction B-Movie?" Harry asked.

"Hey, Carol, Kara, and I watched a lot of them, so I'm pretty sure it is," Alex said. "There were a lot of really weird portrayals of aliens back in the 1950s."

"I'm not sure the Turtles are aliens," Harry said. "But have you considered another possibility…"

Alex raised her eyebrow for a second before she motioned for Harry to continue with his hypothesis.

"I've been reading up on TCRI, with the chemical spill," Harry said. "The little girl got blinded, which was bad, but there was also a report about a boy who lost his four pet turtles when he tripped because of the chaos."

Alex wondered about it and she frowned when locking eyes onto Harry.

"Are you saying those four little turtles at the sight of the accident turned into those large turtles which have been sighted at the sewers?" Alex asked.

"Makes about as much sense as alien turtles," Harry said.

Alex frowned and nodded, it did make about as much sense to be honest. She suspected though she would not get a chance to look at it any time soon though because she had been pulled off of the investigation thanks to Bishop and the DEO.

Well, officially anyway, Alex thought it wouldn't hurt to do some poking around, off of the books. She knew there was something big going down and she could not let it go.

* * *

 

The big after dark portion of the fashion week event started and boy did it ever kick off in style. Harry noticed several girls moving around in the slinkiest lingerie possible, which fit nicely with the theme of the after dark event. Lavender even got in on the fun. She wore a set of black lingerie which had about as much material as dental floss, covering her nipples and vagina when she shifted around. Mari walked around in slightly more, moving around all of the girls.

Harry turned around and saw Beatriz bend over the table. The green thong rode up her sensual, Brazilian ass, and it brought certain thoughts to mind. The sultry woman turned herself around and looked over her shoulder with a sultry gaze directed towards Harry. She pressed her lips together and blew him a nice little kiss, smiling when the two of them locked eyes.

"Shameless."

Harry turned around and saw Tora standing to the side. She dressed in a nice blue lingerie set which empathized her creamy looking skin. It made it stand out.

"She's making it her mission this weekend to get you into the bedroom," Tora said. She sighed when looking at Harry. She really didn't blame Beatriz with a plan like that, but there was a way to do it without making tarting yourself out.

"She does seem pretty intent of doing so," Harry said. He looked Tora straight in the eye and she responded with a brisk nod, looking at Harry.

"Yes, you should hear some of the things she says about you when she's sleeping," Tora said.

"Oh, like what?" Harry asked.

"Well," she said, going red in the face and looking a bit scandalous about the thought of it. Especially more so when Tora remembered what she did to herself when her roommate was talking about what she would do to Harry. "It's things…you really don't want to say in polite company."

"I've got hear this."

Karen slunk over, wearing a nice red lingerie set which contained her breasts and stretched over her ass. The stockings made her legs look pretty amazing when she sauntered over.

"What did she say?" Karen asked.

"What did who say?" Felicia asked. She leaned forward and gave anyone a full eye view of her cleavage which just barely had been contained by her top.

Tora looked flushed and she wondered if she should say anything. Harry was about ready to interject, when Mari walked in and looked at the other girl in response.

"Tora, you look a bit hot," Mari said. "Why don't you go outside and get some fresh air?"

Harry smiled when Mari had lead Tora away. He turned his attention towards Karen and Felicia, who looked at him with pouting faces. Harry raised an eyebrow.

"What am I going to do with both of you?" Harry asked.

"I can think of a few things, actually," Felicia said. She smiled and placed a hand on the side of her head and placed her hand against the edge of her thong for snapping it back up over her ass.

Harry thought about it, their ample asses were ready for him to spank and do with what he wanted to. There was a lot of enticing thoughts entering his mind about what he wanted to do to either of them.

He could see Betty and April about ready to catch his eye. Harry moved over to join the two of them.

"So, how are you liking your taste of what goes on after hours?" Harry asked.

"I can see why you had us sign the confidentiality agreement," Betty said. "The after dark event can be pretty scandalous, I keep thinking there's going to be an orgy breaking out at any second."

Harry responded with a brisk smile and looked Betty right in the eye.

"And you would be so broken up about that, wouldn't you?" Harry asked. A smile flashed over his face when he locked eyes with Betty.

"Yes, really broken up," Betty said. She could barely keep the amused look off of her face, especially when April looked a bit flushed. Not she could blame the girl for looking about it. "Anyway, I got to go, there's a story to file with Jameson, and you know how he gets."

"I've heard," Harry said. "Thanks for coming, April, Betty."

Perhaps Harry had been a bit worried for no reason, but after what happened in the subway last month, Harry had his misgivings.

"Lavender, I'll be back in about an hour," Harry said. "Something has come up, do you think you can….."

"Relax," Lavender said. "I've arranged the entire event, I can keep them all in line until you get home….and you know, I heard Betty talking about the orgy. It wouldn't be the worst way to end the night."

"Just how much have you been drinking?" Harry asked.

"Enough to consider the orgy thing as a good idea," Lavender said. "Bea there looks like she's about ready to lead it off, to be honest."

Harry took one more look at Beatriz's ass for reasons of science. He knew she was getting more desperate to get him off alone, and Harry got off on making her choke for it.

* * *

 

Sleazy E and Xever kicked back in the penthouse suite, enjoying some high class wine.

"I have to say, you strike a pretty interesting bargain," Sleazy E said. He looked at Xever with a smile. "So my boys in the Wolfpack will give your boys in the Purple Dragons some added protection. And in turn, you hook us up with power."

"Yes, the big boss thinks your boys will be perfect with a little project," Xever said. He rubbed his thumb and forefinger together. "And you know it will bring in the money!"

Sleazy E was all about the money and he loved spending money which wasn't his. His Uncle Ted was a rich man and had complimented them with this hotel suite. His mouth curled into a grin when he thought about it.

"And you want to take down the Kingpin, don't you?" Sleazy E asked.

Xever smiled and withdrew a switchblade. The corporate representative of the Wolfpack looked a bit nervous because of the fact Xever waved this knife close to him. He would be the type of person who would stab someone just for the hell of it.

"Yes, the Kingpin," Xever said. "He's been making the big plays, and he's been muscling into Purple Dragon territory. This city belongs to the Dragons, and I think it's time for us to carve a little meat off of the pig!"

Xever sliced his knife through the steak and took the piece of meat into his mouth. He chewed it and smiled when he ate it. The meat entered his mouth.

"He's been too big for his britches," Sleazy E said. Which said something given the Kingpin had some pretty big britches. "Time for us to take him down an inch….."

One of the Purple Dragons stumbled through the doorway and almost collapsed down onto his knees. He breathed heavily and Xever bounced up to his feet to grab the Purple Dragon goon around the chin and yank him up to a standing position.

"This had better be good," Xever said. "You're interrupting a very important meeting, which is just plain rude, not to mention very, very, foolish."

The Purple Dragon thug shivered when he could see Xever's famous switchblade, the one who had taken out so many Dragons which failed him. He was Hun's second in command for a good reason. He did his job well and loved how he did it.

"Yes, I'm waiting," Xever said. "Tell me why you though it was so important to interrupt a meeting I was having, and barge in here, and looking like such an unmade bed when you did so."

The Purple Dragon goon started to stammer.

"It was….I saw it…the rumors are true!"

Xever put down his switchblade, only so he could have use of both hands. He grabbed the thug's chin with one hand and reared back with the other hand. He bitch slapped the thug which shook him in response. Xever stared down at the goon, and looked about ready to snarl.

"Get it together, man!" Xever snapped. "I'm going to tell you this once, and only once, you better get it together, do you understand."

The thug in question swallowed a lump in his throat and responded with a swift nod.

"Good, I'm glad you got it together," Xever said.

The Purple Dragon goon knew he was seconds away from getting it and in the worst possible way. "We were shaking down the old man you sent us after with your debts….."

"If you had trouble taking down some little old man with a bad hip, I'm going to just gut you right now and be done with it," Xever said.

"No, it wasn't the old man, he showed up, and beat us up, the Dragon!"

"I know the Dragon is real, you idiot!" Xever yelled. He took the blade back into his hand. "So, he made fools out of you and the boys….I'm sure the rest of them are just licking their wounds. They can't do anything right…"

He realized something, with Sleazy E in the room, the fee to enlist the help of the Wolf Pack would double. The Purple Dragons were making Xever look rather inept and he did not like being made to look inept. He grabbed the goon around the neck and tightened his fingers around him.

"There was something else," he snarled. "Tell me what else you saw. You better tell me, or else?"

"It was….it was….it was them!" the goon said, shaking like a leaf on a tree. "It was those creatures, the ones that everyone had been seeing in the sewers….they looked like giant turtles."

Xever even dropped the man. These turtle creatures, it would not be the first time he heard strange rumors, and his men had been taken down by a mysterious force. The thug started to put two and two together as only he could.

"So, there really are turtles," he murmured to himself. "So, they really do exist, do they?"

He looked down at the goon in question who scurried a couple of steps back and looked about ready to swallow a lump in his throat. Xever's eyes locked onto the goon.

"Soon, they will be turtle soup!"

Xever turned his attention back to Sleazy E.

"I apologize for the interruption," he responded to the raised eyebrow. "Now where were we?

* * *

 

April stood in the alleyway between two apartment buildings. She touched the phone to her ear and she was in deep conversation with anyone.

"I know, I know," April said. "Mom, I'm fine….I know it's dangerous, but you know why I took up the job…I can tell you're not over it either, despite how much you put on a brave face for our sake."

April took a long moment to sigh in response.

"Well, I'll talk to you later, I'll call you in the morning, it's getting late right now," she said. "No, I haven't been working too hard….okay, take care, you too, if you have a chance to talk to Robyn for I do, tell her I said hi."

April hung up the cell phone and sighed at the very frustrating relationship she with her mother. It had been rather strained since her father had died under mysterious circumstances.

Betty already walked home, when April convinced her it would only take a couple of moments and besides, she was standing in the street lights in a very populated corner near the police station.

' _My mother worries way too much,'_ April thought to herself. She responded to herself with a sigh. _'Then it's been that way since my father died.'_

Five years ago, her father got a transfer, with a pretty substantial paycheck to a company called TCRI. April didn't think anything of the transfer. She was just happy her father got what appeared to be a dream job and unlimited funding for his work. The dream job turned into a nightmare, and her father died under mysterious circumstances.

The official investigation pointed to an accident. April scoffed at the very thought of it being an accident. The more she investigated TCRI and their rather shady business dealings, the more she realized it was less than accident. She had become a reporter to get access to information and when she found out TCRI or the people running it had ties to organized crime, it worried her a lot.

Had her father found out something unsavory about the company? Was that why he was killed?

His death strained the family. April's mother did not approve of her employment choices, putting herself in the line of fire as a reporter. April knew her mother wanted her to take an office job like her older sister did.

' _Talk about boring,'_ April thought. _'I don't think I could handle sitting there like a desk drone for some soulless….'_

April's thoughts had been cut off by the sound of street lamps exploding over the top of her head. The street had been only illuminated by the moonlight and several figures dressed in black surrounded her. She looked on trying to figure out how they fit into the situation.

One of the figures grabbed her and held a ninja blade to her throat.

"You're coming with us, Ms. O'Neil….."

April recalled her self-defense classes and went straight for the groin with an elbow smash. She pulled herself away and one of the mysterious figures grabbed her around the wrist.

The one with the sword fell to the ground and April was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. She withdrew a can of pepper spray and tried to mace the ninja. He stabbed the can and nailed April in the stomach to slump her over to the ground. The wind had been knocked out of her the second she hit the ground.

A figure came from the darkness, and started to take out the ninjas one at a time. April slipped into a state of unconsciousness when she saw a figure move around.

Two scouter ninjas dropped down to the ground. Harry made his movements around the ninjas. He knew April would run into trouble and the second she was out alone, Harry tried to move in.

Only to run into trouble of his own. Harry flipped one of the assassins off of the side of the building and caused him to smack againt the concrete. Another ninja dropped down and flung shuriken at Harry. Harry avoided the shuriken and hurled a dagger at him. The dagger heated up in mid-air.

Harry removed a circular device and pressed a button. A sonic pulse caused the ninja goons to stagger back. Harry snapped off several kicks and punches which dropped them down.

He looked around, mindful of his surroundings and dropped himself down onto the ground. The moment Harry dropped down, he noticed something.

A figure had scooped up April and had dropped down a manhole with her. A quick glimpse of him realized he was the same turtle creature who Harry encountered the other night.

Harry jumped up and curb stomped the head of one of the ninjas, before trailing the ninja down into the sewers. He levitated himself above the ground to avoid dropping into something unsavory.

He looked at the underground. They were near a set of abandoned subway stations, and Harry figured his mystery reptile headed in this general direction.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on 11/23/2016.**

* * *

 

_And now things are heating up, and now just at Fashion Week. We see those Heroes in a Half Shell in the flesh…well so to speak._

_Until Wednesday._


	244. Heroes In a Half Shell Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Four: Heroes in a Half Shell Part One.**

* * *

 

April stirred awake and it took a couple of moments for her to remember what happened. She was talking to her mother on the cell phone. Actually, talking wouldn't have been a good word to describe what she was doing. Arguing with her mother described the contents of their conversation a little more. Anyway, she talked with her mother on her cell phone and then something happened where the lights had been knocked out.

She tried to talk a moment to adjust to the light in the room she was here as now and realize she was here. Where was here? April figured, thanks to her instincts, she had not been taken to the villain's lair because she would not be on a comfortable couch and free to move her arms and legs.

April spent a moment to adjust her eyes. Everything just swam around her mind. It was so confusing.

"Where I am?"

"Relax, you're among friends."

April's eyes shifted open and she came face to face with four giant turtles wearing face masks, of different colors. The turtle in the orange face mask leaned down and looked towards her.

"So, how are you doing?"

April tried not to scream, believe her, she made an honest attempt not to scream. However, she could not help herself from almost screaming her head off. She reared her head back and started to shake in madness.

"Okay, I'm here, with turtles, walking, talking turtles, oh boy," April said. "Okay April, there's a logical and perfectly sane explanation for all of this, if you really want to think about it. You must have hit your head harder than you thought you did, and you're imagining it. You were looking into….anyway, it's going to be alright, you're going to wake up in a hospital, and it's going to be fine, it's just going to be all a dream."

April leaned back a moment later and closed her eyes. She kept muttering "it's all a dream" in a frustrated tone of voice.

"Okay, lady, take a deep breath and calm down," the red headband turtle said in a gruff voice.

"I am calm, I am calm, I am in control," April said. She came to the realization she was not in control and this might not be a dream of any kind.

Oh boy, was that a startling revelation to attempt to swallow. April drew in a couple of breaths and tried to retain some kind of control before she returned her gaze towards the group before you.

"Why were they chasing you?" the blue bandanna wearing turtle asked.

April frowned and launched into an explanation.

"Well you see, I was doing a story, investigating a high-level technology company and their ties to a criminal empire. But apparently, I rubbed the wrong kind of people the wrong way when I did the story. I didn't….they didn't appreciate the story I did when I did it, and this is the second time someone tried to kill me…"

April paused for a second and looked towards them.

"Wait a minute, I'm talking to turtles," April said, unable to wrap her head around this madness. "I'm telling this story to walking, talking, turtles!"

"Yes, this can be a bit overwhelming."

If April thought this situation would get any less insane, even beyond the talking turtles, she was pretty much mistaken. She turned around and a tall rat wearing a kimono, leaning on a walking stick walked out. April's eyes bugged out for a second.

"Well, you do have a way with the ladies, don't you, Sensei?" the purple-clad turtle asked with a cheeky little smile on his face.

April tried to find the right words.

"Just who are you anyway?"

The orange headband turtle started to rub his hands together with glee.

"Alright, intro time, bros!" the orange hand band turtle said. "That's Leonardo, he leads."

He pointed one long green figure towards the turtle in the blue headband.

"That's Donatello, he does machines," the turtle continued. He took a moment to realize. "And by does machines, I mean he builds him, and not…..well you know."

April shook her head.

"And that's Raphael," the orange head clad turtle said. "He's crude but cool."

"Give me a break, Mikey!" the red-head band turtle yelled.

"And hey, my name is Michelangelo, and I'm the party dude!" he said. "And together we are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."

"Seriously, Mikey?"

April looked at them and started to blink. She was pretty sure she remembered how to speak, but her lips did not make any forward motion. Her throat refused to work and it locked up for a mere moment.

"So, four turtles," April said. She took a moment to look at the four turtles, yes they were real and not a figment of her concussion dreams. The blurry photo had been interesting, but never in April's wildest dreams did she ever consider she would be here, in their domain, talking to them. "Named after four of the Renaissance masters."

"Well, well, well, someone did their homework," Donatello said. He gave an approving smile before he grew suddenly serious. "However, that's not on us, that's on Master Splinter….he's the one who taught us everything we know."

"Right, the rat," April muttered. She looked at the man, er rodent in question. "No offense."

"None taken," Splinter said. "I suspect you have questions."

Before anyone could say anything, something stirred from the shadows. Leo turned towards Raph.

"Did someone follow you down here?" Leo asked. Raph looked at him with an agitated expression on his face. "Did you see anything on your way down here?"

"You know, I was a little bit busy saving someone from getting massacred by ninjas," Raph said, sounding a bit defensive in the process and for good reason, at least in the back of his mind.

"Okay, the two of you, break it up," Donnie said. "Now's not the time for…"

He spun around and deflected a dagger with his Bo Staff. The dagger launched back a couple of inches and landed against the wall. The dagger stuck into the wall and Donnie moved over. He swung the Bo Staff at the figure who had slipped into the lair. He slipped past his security systems and made a mockery out of it. And he wanted to know how something like this could happen. The figure jumped high into the air.

"I've got him, bros!" Mikey yelled. He gave a battle cry and he swung his nunchakus at the figure. The figure dodged the attack and disarmed Mikey, by lifting him up off of the ground and hurling him back down onto the ground.

"Wait, is that who I think it is?" Leo asked.

Leo rushed the dark clad figure who matched his movements and started to knock him back with a series of rapid-fire jabs. He jumped into the air and came crashing down onto the back of the head of the leader of the Turtles. Leo slammed face first onto the ground.

"See, see, I told you he was real!" Raph cheered. He pulled out his Sai and twirled it. "Alright, Dragon, this time, there's going to be no cops to break it up, you and I, we have a rematch, bring it on!"

The Sai knocked out of Raph's hands with a well-placed and well-thrown dagger. The Dragon moved with swift precision and grabbed Raph, before throwing him into the wall, causing him to be knocked down.

"Who are you?" Leo asked. He swung his Katana's around. The figure blocked it with an energy shield. "Why did you attack us?"

The Dragon knocked him back down to the ground, with the leader of the turtles taking a hard attack. Mikey and Raph rushed him from either side. The dragon grabbed them by the arms and crossed their weapons with each other, before he kicked them in the chest and knocked them down.

"How did you learn how to fight like the League of Assassins?" he asked.

"League of Assassins?" Leo asked. "Why are you talking about?"

"You're the one who fights straight from the League playbook, buddy!" Raph yelled. He pulled another Sai off of the wall and hurled it at his adversary. Harry deflected the attack.

A loud crack caught their adversary with a fluke shot from behind. Donatello busted his Bo Staff over the back of his head. The attacker dropped to the ground and the other three turtles grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground, slamming his head into it in the process.

"Let's see who he really is," Leo said. He ripped the mask off.

The other three turtles looked on in confusion, but Donatello's mouth hung open in shock.

"Oh my God, we killed Harry Potter!"

Harry knocked them all away with one swift shot. He rose to his feet, eyes widened when he looked down at the four turtles and saw them struggle to their feet. His eyes narrowed.

"I'm not dead," Harry said. "I'm here to retrieve the girl."

"He's a friend," April said, warily.

The four Turtles stood up and was raring for a fight. Splinter cleared his throat and the four of them fell back in line.

"If you agree not to attack again, I'll tell my sons to stand down and not fight you," Splinter said. He came face to face with the Dragon. He always had a suspicion who was underneath the mask, but while this did not necessarily confirm it, it did make a lot of sense. The man inclined his head and nodded in response, motioning for Splinter to do just that. "Stand down, my sons."

Everyone agreed cooler heads would need to prevail. They would have to tonight.

* * *

 

Beatriz slipped away from the insanity of Fashion Week. Judging by the looks of things, she was not the only person who slipped away. Harry had a conversation with Lavender where he needed to step out for something, and that was about two hours ago when he stepped out. No one saw any trace of Harry ever since then. Beatriz frowned when turning around the corner.

She had a lot of fun, but she knew forgetting her mission would get her in a lot of trouble.

' _Time to check in with the boss lady, and see what she has to say.'_

Beatriz dialed up the phone and waited for it to ring. It spent a few rings.

"Yes," Miranda Waller's voice said. "It's been about a year, which should be enough time to integrate yourself into Harry Potter's life. Have you sealed the deal?"

"For someone who sleeps with every woman with a vagina, he can be tougher to pin down than it looks," Beatriz said. "I'm beginning to think he might be onto what we're doing."

"You're beginning to think that?" Waller asked, pausing for a moment. "He is rather crafty, and he has been talking with Tori Stark a lot as of late….thankfully she's over on the west coast and can't attend Fashion Week this year. If she ran into you, your cover would have been blown."

Beatriz had a few words to Tori after that night where both of them spent a night in a Woman's Prison in South America. Miranda managed to smooth out things, and it had been humiliating to her, to say the least.

"I cannot remind you enough how this week is the best chance to pump him for information," Miranda said. "You know what you have to do, I don't have to remind you, do I?"

"No, you don't," Beatriz agreed. "It's kind of hard to pump him for information when he's left, you know what I mean."

"Well the moment he comes back," Miranda said. "He could be useful to our agency."

Beatriz wondered if Miranda was prepared to deal with an independent spirit. She really was her father's daughter if she thought she was, not Beatriz would say this to her face.

"Someone's coming, I better let you go," Beatriz said.

"Very well, don't fail on the mission," Miranda said.

Tora made her way around the corner and frowned when looking at Beatriz.

"Who were you talking to?"

"A friend," Beatriz said. Tora opened her mouth to protest. Beatriz stifled any attempt for her to protest by pressing her lips onto Tora's mouth and giving her a mind-numbing kiss. Beatriz backed Tora into the wall and pinned her hands behind her head before kissing her a bit more.

"Bea," Tora moaned when Beatriz released her mouth from the kiss.

"It's been a long night, let's head up to bed."

Bea had been so convincing Tora didn't really argue.

* * *

 

Harry almost could have laughed. All of those years he waited for someone to make a halfway decent cup of tea in the United States and it happened to be a giant rat. That pretty much was the story of his life in a nutshell if Harry would be perfectly honest. To be fair, Alfred could make one as well, so this was the second person who could, and Splinter's was a more Eastern flavor given where he came from.

"So, he just entered the lair and beat us up," Raph said.

"To be fair, Raph, you attacked him first," Leo said.

"Will you please let me finish?" Raph asked. He looked at him. "Anyway, he beat us up, and after a few words, it's all the misunderstanding….."

"Don't you read any comic books?" Mikey asked.

Raph looked at him with a long look and took a moment to consider dignifying his statement with an answer.

"No, I don't," Raph said after a couple of moments.

"Well, if you did, you would know the good guys always get in a big fight before they do the big superhero team-up thing, dude," Mikey said.

Raph took a moment to shake his head in response. There were sometimes where he talked to Mikey and words, in fact, failed him, about as much as common sense seemed to fail Mikey. Regardless, though, he took in a deep breath and considered what he would say and what he would do next.

"I still can't believe how he got past the security," Donnie said. He moved over to check his security to see if it still works.

The voice of Admiral Ackbar yelled "IT'S A TRAP!" over the lair which caused the turtles to recoil.

"Okay, it works," Donnie said.

"So, I'm certain there's an interesting story to all of this," Harry said.

"Yes, and it all starts with my sons reaching the age of where they attempt to indulge their curiosity," Splinter said. The wise old rodent leaned back. "For fifteen years, we have lived, mostly without detection. My sons, however, disagreed with this peaceful coexistence."

To the credit of the Turtles, they adopted very sheepish expressions when Splinter made this particular comment.

"The infamous blurry photo?" April asked.

"Yes, it was extremely sloppy on their parts not to avoid detection and to be caught on camera like that," Splinter said. "The recent incident involving the Purple Dragons in the sewer…which they encountered you the first time….was another incident which came close to undoing the masquerade."

April should have put two and two together, or at least it should have.

"Regardless of their intentions, noble as they ended up being, they caught the attention of the wrong people," Splinter said. He looked at his sons who stared back at them.

"We're not just going to stand back and let others do harm Sensei," Leo said.

"And it appears I have taught my sons a bit too well, and their code of honor is fairly strong," Splinter said. He responded with a smile in spite of himself.

April turned around and noticed something. She noticed Harry noticed it as well. A cracked green canister had been put on the shelf of the lair, with the letters "TCRI" etched on it.

"TCRI," April said. "That's the company I've been investigating…the one with criminal ties to it…."

"Yes, yes, it does most certainly have ties to a criminal, and one of the worst ones you can encounter," Splinter said. "You should consider yourself extremely fortunate my sons were around both times he targeted you."

"So, that's what's left of the chemical which changed you into what you are today?" Harry asked. "You were them…weren't you? You were once four pet shop turtles, the turtles which….had been lost by a little boy when the accident happened."

Donatello picked up a binder off of the table and placed it down onto it. He flipped through the newspaper clippings, some of them rather worn and faded. He had pieced together the information in his mind, frowning when he did so.

"Yes, that's us," Donnie said.

"We had been dropped down the sewers, where Splinter found us and took us in," Leo said. "And then…the canister had dropped down the sewer and split open, turning us into what we are today."

"So it was that canister of ooze which turned you into these…..Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?" April asked.

Mikey's mouth curled into a rather prominent smile when he looked around at the people at the table. "See, I told you the name works…"

"Oh for the love of….please don't encourage him," Raph said, placing his hands on the top of his head and sighing. "Because, the minute he gets encouraged, he won't ever stop, ever for no reason, ever, and I mean ever!"

"So the mutagen turns you into a humanoid animal," Harry said, frowning.

"Not necessarily," Splinter said. He took a second and looked at him. "It's a long story, and it all begins with deceit, of the most deadly kind. Between two me, Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki."

The name Saki caused Harry's eyebrow to raise up in surprise. Saki had been a businessman to the outside world, and Harry had met his daughter or a woman who claimed to be so, at the Christmas Party recently.

Regardless, he was always intrigued by a good origin story.

* * *

 

Alex Danvers's concern grew when Harry did not check in with her after he said he was going to. He was going off to check on Betty and April, or so he said. Given the fact they had been attacked a month ago, it would not be prudent for them to be outside alone.

The trail had gone a bit cold though after the two reporters left. Alex verified the fact Betty Brant had returned home after leaving the party.

April on the other hand, she had been a bit of a tougher one to pin down. She did not return to her apartment. Her roommate was there, but April was not. Asleep, blissfully unaware she had not been home in a while.

Then again, maybe her roommate was used to April keeping some odd hours. Even though she was a junior reporter, she spent some time on the scene, investigating everything.

Alex shook her head. She was pretty sure Harry came down this way. The young woman arched her head a couple of inches back and put a hand on the wall.

She noticed something on the wall which indicated which way she should go. Nice and subtle, almost as if it did not exist unless you knew what to look for. Alex could commend Harry for his actions. He really knew how to point someone in the right direction and where to go. She trudged in the sewers.

' _This is really the state of my job right now, isn't it?'_

Alex had been armed and ready to go, not knowing what to expect. After Harry's encounter with the turtle earlier tonight, she would not take any chances with herself. The blaster had been equipped to take down some of the more dangerous alien threats which could threaten Earth.

She was almost certain it could take down four large reptiles, at least in her mind it could. She had been trained in the DEO to take down any threats, and there were aliens which were far bigger, and far uglier than four turtle creatures.

* * *

 

Harry pondered what Splinter told him, or rather Hamato Yoshi. Everything pieced together about as efficiently as it could. Yoshi's rumored infiltration of the Foot Clan, and Saki exposing him as a spy, causing him to be cast out. Disgraced in New York, left for dead, and forced to live with the rats in the sewers until four turtles had been dropped down the drain. The mutagen followed and the rest as they said was history.

"That makes a lot of sense," Harry said at the conclusion of the story.

"And that's how we came to be….well us," Leo said after a second. He heard the origin story so many times, he could recite it in his sleep.

"The CIA just abandoned you after you had been cast out of the Foot Clan?" April asked. "You didn't have any contacts, anyone who could help? They didn't even give you a safe house to live in."

Splinter sighed and shook his head in response.

"They considered my mission to be a failure, nothing more," Splinter said. "They had no use for the likes of me after I had failed the mission, and after I had been exposed by Saki, they were done with me."

Rumor had it, Saki knew people who pretty much leaked the details to him, even though Splinter could not prove it.

"TCRI is really bad news, though," April said. "And they're really, really, bad news, if these people, this Foot clan organization, they're the ones working for TCRI. And Saki or…"

"He goes by a different name these days," Harry said. "The Shredder."

April would normally think at first to scoff at a name like the Shredder. Still, she had a feeling it was no laughing matter. Splinter's face told the story.

"Do not take him lightly," Splinter said. He talked to his sons. "He is deceitful and quite manipulative, and will be a battle I'm not sure the four of you are prepared for."

"We've been training our entire life for something," Leo said. "What if it it's this?"

"What I don't get is why don't we go to TCRI and try to get the answers?" Raph asked.

"You're kidding, right?" Harry asked. Raph looked at him. "No one has been able to get inside, and that wasn't for any lack of trying either."

It wasn't for any lack of trying indeed. Harry enlisted the help of no less than Barbara Gordon to attempt to get inside the TCRI building infrastructure. She had not been able to crack it even for a second, and she took it as a personal insult.

"No man could get inside, but what about a turtle?" Raph asked. He looked over towards Don and gave him a sidelong look. "Maybe our resident boy genius should take a crack at it?"

Donnie adopted a thinker pose and responded with a light "hmm" when he considered what his options could be next.

"You know, I enjoy a challenge as much as the next turtle," Donnie said. He took a second to consider his options and there were a fair few of them. "In fact, I enjoy a challenge even more than the next turtle…..but I wonder if it's even possible."

The moment they were talking, Alex stepped inside. She saw the four turtles, along with a giant rat, sitting at the table, drinking tea with Harry and April O'Neil.

' _My God, they are real.'_

"Don't move!" Alex yelled. She turned her weapon on the four Turtles. "My name is Alexandra Danvers, and I'm here on behalf of the Department of Extranormal Operations, and the four of you are wanted for questioning."

The Turtles looked shell shocked at the woman who pointed the energy blaster at them.

Alex's eyes narrowed when she noticed the bruise on Harry's head.

"I swear to God, if you hurt him, I'll blast you to whatever turtle planet you four are from!"

The four turtles rose up to defend their turf and Harry decided to throw himself between the two parties before this could escalate in the ugliest way possible.

"Alex, relax, this was all a big misunderstanding!" Harry yelled. He snapped Alex out of her mode and she looked at Harry. "I thought….well it doesn't matter. These were the four turtles which were in the glass bowl which got dropped….and they're not aliens."

"Yeah, we're legal and everything," Mikey said. "We were hatched on American soil."

"Not those kind of aliens!" Raph yelled. "She means…"

"Oh, wait, she means she thinks we're aliens, from another planet, like ET phone home aliens?" Mikey asked.

Alex lowered her weapon and the four Turtles broke out in a fit of laughter at the thought.

"Oh, she thought we were aliens….oh man, aliens, that's pretty rich!" Mikey yelled. He paused and adopted a robotic voice. "Take me to your leader; bring us all of your pizza!"

"You know, this thing is still loaded," Alex said, sounding rather annoyed.

The blaster clicked and Mikey looked at the business end of it, before swallowing the lump in his throat.

"And I'll shut up now."

"Why don't you sit down, Agent Danvers," Splinter said. He fixed another cup of tea for her. "And I'll try to explain this to you the best I can."

At Harry's encouragement, Alex sat down to join them.

"Brace yourself for an interesting tale."

' _Sitting here with my boyfriend drinking tea with four giant turtles and a giant rat,'_ Alex said. _'Yep, this is my life.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on November 26** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Well, nothing like a good origin story to break the ice. And Harry just taking everything in stride, like meeting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is just another Wednesday for him. TMNT was actually more easy to work into the universe than you might think, and that has to do with its roots being based in comic books._

_A few other interesting things are going on in the background._

_Until Saturday._


	245. Heroes in a Half Shell Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Five: Heroes in a Half Shell Part Two.**

* * *

Xever lined up with his crew, ready for action. Hun, Bebop, and Rocksteady stood at the forefront, ready to mount their bikes and head into New York City. Several members of the Purple Dragon Street Gang joined them with scowls on their faces. Topping up the entire crew happened to be the Wolf Pack, with Da Big Guy, Da Little Guy, and Da Bad Guy in full front and full view. Sleazy E decided not to partake because he was less of an action guy and more of a planner.

Overall, the mobster was rather pleased with the crew he assembled, at least so it seemed. His expression danced over the faces of every and every one of these goons. They all looked like they were ready to cause some havoc and he could not think of anything better in his mind.

Tonight, they were going to show the world who was boss.

"Listen up, all of you," Xever said. He practically was spitting fire when he spoke to all of them. "We're going to head out there, and we're going to hunt down some of the most dangerous threats to our operation. Already, they've made chumps of the Purple Dragons, and if they made chumps of the Purple Dragons, they could make chumps out of each and every one of you. Don't you forget that, don't none of you forget that at all."

Xever pointed out to all of the various goons and all of them looked rather intense. He was pleased with the intensity they exhibited and hoped it would carry over to the field of battle.

"I expect all of you to rectify the matter," Xever said. "This is the only known photo of our targets."

Xever pulled out the famous blurry photo of the Turtles. He could see they all doubted him and what he had to offer.

"So, it's nothing, but a bunch of foolish Turtles!" one of them growled. "It doesn't matter what kind of fools they made out of our buddies, we're still going to stomp them!"

Xever smiled at their passion for their work, believe him, he did appreciate the passion which could be involved with a hard day's work about as much as the next guy.

"Okay, listen up, because I'm not going to repeat myself twice," Xever said. "We're going to go out there and we're going to all rip into those Turtles…..Master Shredder wants them alive, and….if the boss does not get what he wants, I won't be pleased. And if I'm not pleased, then none of you can be pleased."

"Yes," Hun said, speaking up for the first time. "And if Xever is not pleased, all of you are going to have to deal with me. And I don't think that's what any of you want, is it?"

Hun's low and prominent growl came out and all of the goons responded by shaking their heads. It was the last thing they wanted to piss off someone of the stature of Hun. Not only was he high up the rankings, but he was known to have a temper. He once got side swiped by a man in traffic when on his bike. He pulled the man in question out of the car, threw him on the pavement, and proceeded to beat the man to a bloody and massive death.

No one pissed off Hun for reasons like this, and it was obvious why when you really thought about it. He could break a man without much effort.

"I think we all have an understanding with each other," Xever said. Everyone eyed the switchblade which he favored. The master of knives and other weapons kept his beady little eyes focused on the small army in front of him. "Good, I'm glad we have an understanding with each other. Maybe we can get something done."

All of them responded with nods. One of them swallowed a lump in his throat but nodded as well.

"So, what are we waiting for, let's ride?"

"Yes," Xever said. He slipped on a pair of sunglasses and moved over towards his ride. "Let's."

Xever paused before getting on his ride and turned around. He had almost neglected one detail, which he felt could be the very most important detail in a mission along these lines.

"Just one more thing, Master Shredder wants us to keep one of the Turtles alive," Xever said. "But since there are no more than four….well…..I'm sure we can be a bit creative with the other three."

All of the members of the gang nodded eagerly. Xever threw himself over the motorcycle and revved it up. The army of Motorcycles disappeared into New York City and the dangerous people had one purpose in mind.

* * *

Harry, April, the Turtles, and Alex crowded around a computer which had a blueprint of the TCRI building.

"It's very basic on the outside," Donnie said. "But, there's more to this place than meets the eye, and….there has to be more than one way into a building like this. It's hidden."

"Yeah, if it's hidden, it's hidden pretty well," Raph said.

"And this building is more than what it seems," Harry said. He had a sense something was not right. "There are a couple of entrance points which could be possible."

"Wait, what's this?" Alex asked. She pointed towards a point in the building.

Harry responded with a frown, and Donnie opened his mouth and closed it one more time, it was almost genius in how simplistic it was.

In their attempts to get inside the building, they had almost pulled up a pretty detailed floorplan which would allow them entrance into the building at several points. One of the points which looked pretty unguarded flashed out in front of their face. Harry noticed it straight away when trying to look into the building.

"Doctor Baxter Stockman's lab," Harry said. "Of course…"

"Stockman?" Mikey asked. "That name rings a bell, doesn't it?"

"It should ring a bell, his little creations are all over the news a while back," April said. "Those little robotic things which started to chomp away at the city, you know those things."

"Oh, yeah, right, those things," Mikey said. He remembered them now, how could he forget?

"And Stockman's lab is the only clear and concise way into the TCRI building," Donnie said. "At least so it appears, and it's through the old abandoned Subway Station not too far from here."

Leo looked on and was about ready to voice something about this. Only, Raph managed to beat him to the punch.

"Wait a minute, are you telling us that the answers to where we came from could have been right around the corner at any time?" Raph asked.

"Well in theory, yes," Donnie said.

Raph slapped his fist into his palm and growled in response. "Unbelievable."

"Yes, I would have to agree," Harry said. "And I wonder how they would have thought if they were close to a rather remarkable creation."

"I'm not sure though if it will be as easy to get in as it appears, "Donnie said. He took a couple of seconds to look it over. The subway had quite a few blind spots from what they remembered and it would be difficult for them to get from point to point, where they wanted to be. "There's just something about this which screams….."

"Convenient?" Leo asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so."

The leader of the Turtles looked on and looked towards his brothers and their guests.

"Convenient as it may be, we could have answers we've been looking for our entire lives in the walls of TCRI," Leo said without missing a beat. "And if there are answers there, then we really have no choice to go there. And if Mr. Krang has those answers, then we should make them part with them."

"Why do I have a feeling that's not going to be so easy?" Alex asked.

"I can see where he's coming from," Mikey said. "If there are some really bad people involved there…"

"There are some pretty bad people involved there," Raph said. "Involved with us, involved with our creation, the thought of it makes me feel pretty dirty, I don't know about you, but it really does."

"Yes, it does," Leo said. He rubbed his chin in thought and closed his eyes. "We're going to have to go in there and….."

Something caught their eye on the television station. The subway station which was near TCRI had flashed on the television screen. All of them frowned when looking in the general direction of the television screen. Several people were on their knees, as the camera shook around them. The people shook about as badly as the camera. One figure, in particular, walked in and started to mug to the camera. He withdrew a blade and held it at the side of the throat of one of the hostages.

"Keep the camera on me," he said in a rough voice. "Yes, that's right, keep it on me, you're going to want to see this, you're going to want to witness history as it's about to happen."

The man leaned in with a sneer on his face.

"Hello, everyone watching at home, and if you're watching at home, I want to send a special hello to four Turtles," Xever said.

"Do we know that guy?" Raph asked.

"I don't know if we want to," Mikey said.

"Yes, you four, have meddled in the affairs of someone far more dangerous than you, more times than you could count on your three fingers," Xever said. "I don't know how you got brought up, but from where I'm from, if we have a beef with someone, we fight, and we fight to the finish."

Xever touched the point of the blade against the throat of the hostage. She looked to be no older than about sixteen and scared for her life and for good reason. Xever looked completely and utterly nuts behind belief.

"I don't want to do it," Xever said. He touched the knife to the throat of the woman. "You don't want to make me do it, you don't want to make me kill these people. But I will….don't think I won't!"

"He's completely bent!" Raph yelled.

"I'm right around the old Southbound Subway Station, so we can have a nice little chat, "Xever said. He put the knife to the throat of the young teenager who whimpered. "Don't make me put the blood of innocent children on this knife. It would be very bad….for you. And for them."

He chuckled and the four Turtles, Alex, and Harry rose to their collective feet. Alex figured this blaster would work on human thugs, although she did not necessarily need it to kick some ass.

Master Splinter stepped out and he had viewed the scene around him. The noble old rat looked at the group of four and responded with a frown.

"Go," Splinter said. "I cannot stop you from going, but I do implore you to all be careful."

It may have been time to put their boys' training to the test. The only element which gave Splinter solace was the infamous Dragon, who was feared far and wild from the Foot Clan, would be with them. Hopefully, the level of intimidation would give them an advantage which they would be able to turn into a victory.

"April, you should stay here," Leo said. "Master Splinter will keep you safe until we get back."

April opened her mouth in response, a protest of her being able to take care of herself forming on the tip of her tongue. Harry turned his attention towards her and stopped her from doing so.

"He's right, April," Harry said. "We won't be too long, in fact, we should be back by Breakfast."

"You better be," April said.

Harry reached over and pulled the hood back on. He had a feeling it would be a more intimidating sight.

"What's with the Dragon deal anyway?" April asked.

"Long story," Harry said.

' _Surprised she hasn't put two and two together regarding the Nightwing thing,'_ Kara thought. _'I'm pretty sure Alex has, though, although she's being pretty nonchalant and chill about the entire thing.'_

' _Good for her, I'm glad some people can take things in stride,'_ Harry thought with a smile crossing over his face. _'So, it's time for us to go out and see what we can do.'_

* * *

Some time later, the Turtles, Alex, and Harry made their way into the subway station. The warnings of Xever echoed through their head.

"That Xever guy, he looks like a nut," Raph grumbled.

' _He's not exactly sane,'_ Barbara thought. _'I've been doing a background check on him. He spent some time in prison in Brazil, before the Shredder took him in….and it makes him dangerously loyal to the Shredder, and he would burn the city if he was asked.'_

' _Great, so we're dealing with a fanatic,'_ Harry thought. _'That's always a wonderful thing to think about.'_

"Turtles, Turtles, come out and play!" Xever's voice boomed and some lights flashed on to blow their cover.

They realized the lights came from motorcycles which revved down the subway tunnel. The motorcycles ran towards the group and forced them to scatter in different directions.

Harry recognized one of the riders as one of the members of the Wolf Pack street gang. They had recently suffered quite the beating from Kathy, and he came back for more.

Raph jumped on the front of the bicycle and knocked them out. Harry looked over and saw the position of the hostages. He lifted up a dagger and threw it into the air. The dagger bounced off of the wall and created a blinding light which stunned the two newest goons towards the hostages.

Harry rushed over and plucked the hostages out of harm's way before Xever could do any harm to them.

"Run, and don't turn back until you get to the police station down the block!" Harry told them.

Hun growled and wiped his eyes. The light had temporarily blinded him and he was not in the best mood possible. His mood became fouler when he realized the hostages were gone.

"Bebop, Rocksteady, take care of them!" Hun demanded.

Bebop grabbed Mikey around the head and threw him halfway across the subway tunnel. He tries to punch away at the Turtle. Mikey dodged the attacks and crouched down.

Rocksteady pulled out a large machete on his back and swung it. Leo blocked it with his sword. The two engaged in a sword fight when Katana met Machete, and Rocksteady pulled his arm back to attempt to skewer Leo with the weapon. Leo blocked the attack and the two of them continued their rough battle with each other. Neither of them backed off, not even for a second. Their weapons clashed together in combat.

"Stand still!" Bebop yelled.

"Hang on, Mikey, I got your back!" Raph yelled. He grabbed Bebop around the head and threw the dark-skinned thug down onto the ground.

Bebop rolled over and pulled a biker chain out. He wrapped it around his fist and swung it towards Raph. Raph dodged the biker chain loaded punch before it nailed him in the face. Another biker chain loaded punch had been avoided and Raph jumped over him.

"Come on!" Raph yelled.

"I'll grind you into paste!" Bebop yelled. He rushed towards him swinging the chain, malicious intentions in mind.

Raph blocked the chain loaded punch with his Sai and pushed Bebop back against the wall. Bebop slammed against the wall and landed hard against the wall.

Two members of the Wolf Pack dropped down to the ground by a well-placed blast to the knee caps. Donnie rushed in and nailed one of them with a Bo Staff to the chest as well. He spun around and swung the Bo Staff at him.

"You think your little stick can beat me?" one of them asked.

"It's not the weapon that matters," Donnie said. He swept the legs out from underneath him. "It's what you do with it."

"Shit, I think I tore my quad," Da Big Guy yelled, dropping down on the ground from an attack.

"Not again," Da Little Guy said before pulled out a pair of nunchakus and spun them around.

He came face to face with the Turtle who wielded the same particular weapon. The two of them came face to face with each other and twirled their weapons. The wood cracked together with both of them attempting to gain an advantage over the other. Mikey managed to take down his adversary with one swift move and knock him onto his back.

"Checkmate!" Mikey yelled.

Leo and Rocksteady continued their battle. Rocksteady's machete had been knocked from his hand and Leo nailed him in the ribs which took him down. Rocksteady and Bebop had a meeting of the minds when Raph and Leo threw them into each other.

Hun angrily ripped a barrel from the ground and threw them at the two Turtles in question.

"Guess, Tiny here wants to dance," Raph said.

Hun jumped forward and nailed Raph with a leaping punch to the back of the head. Mikey rushed towards Hun from behind. Hun turned around and grabbed him by the neck before throwing him through the wooden boards of the wall.

"Guy's been eating his Wheaties," Mikey said, grumbling when pulling himself up to a standing position. "Oh, shell-shocked, bros!"

Raph and Hun continued to do a battle until Hun decided to pluck Raph off of the ground by the mask.

Donnie propelled himself up into the air using his Bo Staff and nailed Hun across the back before hitting him hard with two kicks to the back of the head.

Xever turned his attempt towards the battle and stopped. He came face to face with the Dragon.

"So, it's you, you are real," Xever said. "I don't know why people are so afraid of you, you don't look so tough."

"Neither do you," he replied.

Harry baited Xever in rushing in for the attack. The knife extended out, and Harry blocked the knife before it skewered him. Harry blocked another knife attack.

Xever snapped off a vicious spinning kick. Harry arched back about a couple of inches to avoid the kick from nailing him in the face. Another attempted kick had been blocked.

Harry could tell despite his brutish demeanor, Xever trained well in what he did. The fight had continued between the two of them, with Xever almost nailing a series of strikes which would have ruptured at least one of Harry's internal organs had he not been skilled enough.

"Fine, you want to play it this way!" Xever yelled. He unsheathed a knife and aimed it towards Harry. "Time for us to get back down to basics."

The knife almost plunged into Harry, but not quite. He avoided the knife from nicking him before he came back with a couple of punches. These punches nailed Xever as hard as possible and caused him to drop to his knees.

Hun spent some time fighting off all four Turtles. Alex watched the battle and could see Hun in position. She aimed her weapon towards him.

' _Okay, take the shot because these guys need help.'_

Alex pointed her weapon at Hun and pulled the trigger. The energy blast caught Hun in the back and dropped him to his knees with a stunning shot.

It left him open for Raph and Leo to jump up and nail him with a double kick. Hun went flying back and landed into a wall of cinderblocks. One of them fell over and landed on the top of Hun's head.

"Do you think he'll survive that?" Mikey asked.

"Looks pretty hard headed to me, kind of like your shell," Raph said. "And there's our way in….."

The sound of teeth chewing and grinding against a nearby wall took their attention away from the battle. The entire group looked on and several robotic monstrosities made their way out for the battle.

"Great, more mouths to feed!" Donnie yelled.

Alex looked at the mousers, talk about having bad flashbacks. She moved down from her perch point and was glad these were not equipped with the same Technovore virus the batch she helped Harry fight last year were. She pulled the trigger on the gun and fired at one of the mousers.

Mikey rushed them and swung his weapon of choice. The wooden parts of the weapon smashed the mousers and caused bits to flying.

"It's just like playing a video game, dude!" Mikey yelled. "Hey, I think I'm going for a high score."

Raph smashed his Sais into the top of the heads of the mousers and smashed them together. Sparks started to fly in every single direction.

"Hey, hands off the Bo Staff!" Donnie yelled. He tried to shake the mouser off of the Bo when it clamped its mouth around the staff. The mouser dangled on the Bo Staff and refused to let go no matter what.

He swung the Staff down and smashed onto another one of the mousers. A set of sparks flew up into the air and caused energy waves to go in the air.

Harry waved his hand and caused an electromagnetic pulse to fry the circuits of every single last mouser in the tunnel.

"You're kidding me, right?" Raph asked. "You could do that the entire time, and you….just didn't?"

"You were doing such a good job," Harry said, responding with a shrug of his shoulders. "And they're gone…"

Motorcycles revved off in the distance, which announced the disappearance of the Purple Dragons and the Wolf Pack. A couple of the lower level thugs disappeared.

"And we better be gone too," Alex said. She caught a glimpse of men coming down the tunnel, and it was Bishop and his crew. "Trust me when I say we won't want to be caught around here for any longer, if we can help it."

"Right."

* * *

"So, your punks failed again," Krang said.

Saki leaned back and prepared to receive the footage from Krang regarding the battle which took place this evening in the subway tunnel. He had just formed an ugly theory about tonight. Whether or not it would be a correct one, he would find out in a matter of minutes how correct it would be.

"They are always tainted by failure, Saki," Krang said. "They were close to uncovering the truth. Had I not sent Stockman's mousers to distract them long enough for the humans to show up, it would have been all unraveled for you, and for everything else."

Saki said nothing for a long moment.

"The only thing we have been able to verify is the mutagen will be useful in our plans," Krang said. "Therefore if we crossbreed human and animal DNA together, of the strongest, fiercest animals in the animal kingdom, we will have an unstoppable army at our disposal."

Saki only paid the most minimal amount of attention. He had focused his attention elsewhere.

"Do you have the footage for me?" Saki asked.

"Must I do everything for you," Krang said. "Very well, here's the footage….so you can see the failure of your people up close and personal."

The images flashed on the screen with Saki watched. They were Turtles, and he noticed their fighting style. His eyes narrowed and his expression darkened the more he watched. He analyzed the fighting style and only came to one conclusion.

"Hamato Yoshi lives!"

Shredder slammed his gauntlet through the monitor and caused sparks to fly in every direction. He had not been pleased. For fifteen years, he thought his hated rival had perished in the sewers, devoured by the rats. And now, it was evidence he had passed on the fighting style of the Foot to an entirely new group of pupils.

These acts would not go on without being unpunished. Saki vowed to destroy Yoshi, but finding him was the key. And he would need to use those Turtle creatures as bait to lure him out in the open.

* * *

"Well, I guess we better be heading out now," April said. "I'm sure it's going to be….well I'm sure we'll meet again."

"With Krang working together with the Shredder, and the resources of TCRI and the Foot involved, it's a pretty good possibility, I think," Leo said.

"So, I think we agree, our paths will cross again," Harry said.

"Yes, they will," Splinter said. "And if you need our help for anything, you know where we are."

"Although, your lair could use some security upgrades," Harry said, and Alex cracked into a smile at the thought. Both she and Harry found a way around them without any problems. Donnie opened his mouth and was about ready to protest. "No offense meant, naturally, but there are a few blindspots you might want to worry about."

Donnie thought about it and nodded. It was an unfortunate flaw of living in a sewer, well other than the smells and other environmental hazards they had to deal with. Still, you had to be creative with security.

"I might have a suggestion for you, let me see how it looks, and I'll get back to you in a couple of days," Harry said. "And if you don't want to uproot from your home, I have a couple of security measures which will work in the short term."

"We'll have to think it over, won't we?" Leo asked.

"Yeah, it would be a shame to leave all of the memories behind," Mikey said. "I'd miss the sweet, sweet, smells of the sewer."

"I think the fumes might be you are how you are," Raph said.

"Hey, don't be jealous of my unique personality, bro," Mikey said.

Raph shook his head, sighing.

"So, what is the place you're thinking of, like?" Leo asked.

"It's underground, it has plenty of room, it's underneath a penthouse I use when I'm in town, although I don't use this part of it anymore because I upgraded the upstairs facilities."

Harry hated to say it, but he spent more than enough time underground when he was in Gotham City. When he left Gotham, he would have preferred something which was a bit more above ground, at least in his opinion.

"So, are you ready to go?" Harry asked April and Alex. Both of the girls nodded in question. He turned towards the guys. "So, I'll see you boys later."

"Hey, if there's one thing about superhero team-ups, there's always room for sequels," Mikey said.

Alex and April followed Harry down the sewers. The reporter, being the reporter she was, had a question for Harry.

"What's the deal with this Dragon thing, anyway?" April asked.

Harry responded with a smile. "It's a very long story…..which we'll discuss when we get you back to the penthouse."

Alex smiled and shook her head. Why did she have a feeling Harry said something was a very long story very often?

"And after we get you home, we may want to consider a few security upgrades of your own," Harry said.

"Okay, but I'm not sure if the landlord is going to approve of it," April said.

"Then, I might have to buy him out and be your new landlord if he causes you any trouble," Harry said.

April would have thought it would be absurd anyone would offer such a thing under most normal circumstances. Harry, though, she believed he would do this.

* * *

Morbius exposed a small group of bats to the OZ formula and got to work underground. He made his way towards the makeshift cages and noticed one of the bars had been bent. Looking at the quick head count of bats, he realized something.

"How very odd, one of them is missing," Morbius muttered. "It's very peculiar."

The bat landed on Morbius and the scientist tried to swat him away. The bat bit down on the neck of Morbius and resulted in a screaming pain coming from him.

Morbius swatted the bat away and staggered forward, dropping to the ground. A burning pain filled his body, beyond everything he had experienced in his life.

The bat died and Morbius dropped to the ground, screaming loud enough to raise the dead.

* * *

**To Be Continued on November 30** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

_So, we have our first official team up with Harry and those Heroes in a Half Shell, and boy things are far from over here, as the bad guys are preparing to do bad guy things. And bicker like an old married couple, but mostly, bad guy things._

_And Morbius gets bitten and….well this is going to have some ramifications, isn't it?_

_Until Wednesday._


	246. Night of the Living Vampire Part One

**Chapter Two-Hundred and Forty-Six: The Night of the Living Vampire Part One.**

* * *

 

Surreal did not even begin to describe the night one April O'Neil had. She would not forget that particular night as long as she lived. Now she mentally tried to get it together, she realized her life and what she perceived as normal would never be the same. She sought questions as a reporter, and approximately none of those questions have been answered, thus leaving her back to square one and more importantly back to one big mess of confusion.

She did not return home to her apartment, rather she followed Harry Potter home to one of his penthouses. April shook her head when the two of them made their way up into the elevator area. April closed her eyes for a second.

"The shower is that way, if you need it," Harry said.

"Thanks," April said. "It looks like you need one as well."

Trudging through the sewers made taking a shower one of the necessities in life. April and Harry separated in different directions to take their showers. It was an unspoken agreement the two of them would meet back there when the shower was done.

April finished the shower and saw a fresh set of clothes, namely a faded black shirt and a pair of jean shirts sitting at the table, along with a fresh set of undergarments. A note had been pinned to them.

_My sister keeps a load of spare clothes here, they should fit you._

Questions of how Harry knew April would be the same size as Harry's sister caused her to have more than a few questions. Regardless, she wasn't looking a clean set of clothes in the mouth. She slipped them on and made her way out, many thoughts crossing over her mind when she crossed the room.

She walked over in time to see Harry sitting down on the couch. He patted the couch and allowed her to sit down.

"By the way, I rescued this for you," Harry said.

April's eyes brightened up when she saw the Red Sun Cell Phone which Harry slipped into her hand. She thought it had been lost forever, she could almost do a giddy dance in celebration, but managed to keep herself together with a bright smile on her face.

"And it didn't get destroyed because of the fact the ninjas attacked me," April said. She held up the cell phone and looked at the screen, still as pristine as the day she got it with a smile on her face.

Harry responded with a smirk and leaned closer towards her. "Of course it remained intact. It is a Red Sun. We try and make them as durable as possible."

"Right, I should have known that," April said after a moment had passed. She placed a hand on her hip and looked over towards him. "Still, you can't deny one thing, there's something really rotten in the state of TCRI. Last night proved that enough when you guys got close enough, something smacked you back down."

"Yes," Harry agreed. "It had…but you know without physical proof, it's going to be nearly impossible to pin any kind of rap on them."

A smile crossed over April's face, something Harry caught a moment later. He gave her a stern look which caused her to try and adopt an innocent expression. The expression had only been rewarded with another stern look.

"And for the record, it wasn't an invitation to go in and try and get physical evidence in TCRI," Harry told her. The stern expression caused April to shudder.

April only just now thought about the control Harry exhibited over women with just a mere look and boy, she should have figured out how much of a cult of personality he had with those looks he gave.

"Right," April said. She checked her cell phone and as expected, it had a call. "Betty gave me a phone call, to make sure I checked in okay….she must be worried passing the floor, I better go return it, now."

April moved off to have the call off to the side of the room. Harry decided not to let her in on the fact he had super hearing which could pick up any information.

' _So, an interesting night?'_ Kara asked.

' _You don't know the half of it,'_ Harry thought.

' _And you met four…rather interesting people,'_ Faora thought. She paused and corrected herself a second later. _'Actually, technically you met five rather interesting people, we don't want to count Splinter out, do we?'_

Harry figured Splinter would be the most intricate and interesting part to all of this insanity especially when one considered the ninja master's past. Therefore, it would be unwise to count him out under any respects.

' _No, we don't,'_ Harry thought. _'Our new friends are going to have some problems. Along with April, and speaking of which, are you setting up the security on her apartment?'_

' _Been working on it since the moment you mentioned it, we should be done by sunrise,'_ Faora thought.

By the time Harry had given this particular conversation, April's particular conversation had been wrapped up on the other end of the room.

"Yes, Betty, I'm fine, it's just….well this isn't exactly something I can tell you over the phone….I had another close call last night," April said. "I'm fine; I guess I could say I had some guardian angels looking out for me. See you at work on Monday."

April moved over to rejoin Harry.

"How was she?" Harry asked.

"She's fine, I'm fine, a bit tired, but it was a long night, and at least I don't have classes today, and I don't have to be in until Monday morning so I can recover from this entire mess," April said.

Harry figured April did deserve a long weekend to just try and reconcile all of this mess. Hell, he should have been able to reconcile it himself, but he deserved a long weekend. And prepare his basement plan just in case they said yes. He knew if the Shredder had any hint of their lair, he would sent his full forces after them.

Especially if he put two and two together and realized Yoshi and Splinter were one and the same.

"The security around your apartment is almost complete, you should be able to go home after breakfast," Harry said. "I'd hate for you to have to get relocated, even though there's plenty of room at the penthouse."

April raised an eyebrow. "How many Penthouses do you have?"

Harry chuckled, a fair enough question. Although it was not as many as he thought.

"Three, one at Metropolis, Gotham, and New York," Harry said. "Although I'm always in the market for some new real estate if the opportunity ever comes up."

He had to expand because it was very practical to do so. Especially when his businesses increased.

"Of course," April said, smiling.

"Do you have a question?" Harry asked her.

"What's this about the Dragon thing?" April asked. "Are you…you are….."

"There are some things about my private life, I'd like to remain private," Harry said, and April moved over towards him.

April decided to take the plunge. Even if she ran the risk of making this seem and feel really awkward, at least one could not deny she tried to get some action.

"Well, sometimes, your privacy can't stay too private," April said. She smiled and placed her hands down onto Harry's thighs. "I overheard Betty and you talking about an interview, and she's hinted enough it would be exciting…and I was wondering if you could….well we could….I hope it's not…"

Harry pulled April into an embrace and gave her a mind blowing kiss. April could not believe what had happened and her entire body had been set aflame with passion. She returned the kiss with an equal amount of passion, and pushed her tongue back against Harry's. Both of them tried to be the one to win the battle of their dominating tongues.

"It's not."

Harry held April's firm rear end in his lap and she grinded against him in response. The eighteen year old Intern smiled when she slowly succumbed to pleasures she had not known throughout her young life. Although April will be lying if she wasn't dreaming about this point, especially for a very long time.

April closed her eyes and bit down on her lip to stifle a moan. Harry's fingers moved down her body and pulled down her shorts to reveal the borrowed pair of panties.

"Let you borrow a pair of panties, and you've already soaked them," Harry said. He pressed his finger down on the edge of the panties and this resulted in April's hips bucking up to meet his probing digit. "What am I going to do with you?"

"I can think of a few things you can do to me," April said. "Why don't you bend me over the table and punish me for being such a bad girl?"

"I can see why Betty has chosen you as an intern," Harry said. "Do you think of her bending you over the desk and punishing you when you've been a bad girl?"

April spread her legs apart and revealed her firm ass in panties. Harry raised his hand and spanked her ass which caused her to moan out. He spanked her panty clad ass a few more times.

He pulled down her panties and his finger brushed against April's tight asshole. She closed her eyes and Harry started to run his finger across her. He slid his finger into her tight ass for a moment and pushed it almost into her before pulling it all the way out of her.

"Count them out!" Harry said. "Up until thirty, and don't miss a number, or they don't count."

Harry started to spank April's rear and she started to count them out.

"One, two, three, four, five!" she yelled. Harry started to increase his spanking with frequency and slapped her on the firm rear a couple more times. "Six, seven, eight, nine, ten!"

Harry spanked her some more and it became very hard for April to concentrate on anything other than her pleasure. She kept bouncing them out reaching the end.

"Twenty one, twenty two…twenty three," April said. Her nipples grew harder against the table the more Harry blistered her ass. Her thighs spread apart to give him further access. "Twenty four, twenty five….twenty six….twenty seven….twenty eight….twenty nine!"

Harry rubbed his hand against her ass and spanked her one more final time causing her to gush.

"THIRTY!" April screamed at the top of her lungs.

His belt unbuckled and she could feel it brush against her ass slightly. Harry teased her with spanking her with the belt and April's thighs clenched together. Instead though, Harry ran his hands over her nubile body and started to kiss her over the neck. He ran his hands all over her.

"You've been very bad," Harry said. He pulled her shirt off and revealed her nice tits for him. He gave them a squeeze and she moaned. "Are you ready, Ms. O'Neil, are you ready to be really good?"

"Yes, sir," April said.

"Turn around then so you can face me," Harry said.

April turned herself around. She closed her eyes to try and avoid the pain. Her ass brushing against the side of the table made it very hard for her to concentrate. Harry edged closer towards her and pointed the tip of his cock into her entrance. April's legs spread for him, wanting to be penetrated like no one could tell.

"Please, fuck me," April said. "Please, sir, my pussy is wet."

Harry rubbed his cock against the tip of her entrance which nearly sucked him in. He smiled and gripped onto her hips and worked himself into her.

April's pussy stretched and a rush of pure warmth spread through her body. He was inside her and April could not believe this. Many of her dreams started like this and ended with sticky sheets and red cheeks. And not just the red cheeks Harry gave her through an intense spanking.

"You're so tight," Harry said. "Guess you are a good girl in some respects."

"Mmm, hmm!" she said. The sexy redhead dug her nails into Harry's neck and caused him to penetrate him. "Come on, Harry, I need it….I need to be fucked bad!"

Harry exposed her breasts further and could see her nipples stiffening up. They demanded to be sucked and who was Harry to turn down someone like April when she needed attention like this? He wrapped his mouth around one of the nipples and gave them an intense suck.

April clamped her hand down onto the back of Harry's head. He pushed his face in between her chest and devoured her breasts.

"Yes, mmm, yes!" April moaned. He sucked and licked her nipples. The more pleasure he brought her, the better she felt. Amazing did not even begin to describe the sensations going through her body. "Right there, right there….here…..HARRY!"

Harry took her nipple into his mouth and suckled a little bit harder onto it. He could feel the orgasm tense up.

"You've been such a good girl; it's time for you to cum."

April held onto him and worked her hips up. His cock penetrated her and she held him inside her. A few hints of the load contained in those balls made April gush.

The floodgates opened and April's thighs clenched around Harry's massive tool. She held onto him and pushed Harry inside her.

Harry rode out April's orgasm. Her dripping wet pussy demanded to be fucked hard and Harry pulled almost all the way out of her and pushed down onto her.

April panted in pleasure. She received one of the best and most satisfying orgasms in her entire young life. Her hips rippled up to take Harry's tool in her and milked him all the way inside of her. April's walls tightened around Harry when he rode her hard.

"Don't worry, your fun is just starting," Harry said. He leaned down and nibbled on the side of her neck. "Let's hope you're ready for the real ride."

April did not know what he meant by his words. Suddenly, it hit her, along with his throbbing hard cock when it penetrated her in a constant series of motions. He worked her over.

Harry speared himself into the tight pussy of the young intern. Her wet walls clenched around him with Harry spearing himself into her walls. His balls tightened the further he pushed into April's pussy and he knew he could not hold back.

April's body had been racked into a never ending state of orgasm.

"I need you to keep fucking me, please, sir," April said. She encouraged him with another sultry moan. "I need you to pound my pussy until it's raw…..please, sir, I'm begging you."

Harry hammered her and worked himself to an orgasm. The warmth hugged his tool and brought April to a further state of bliss. He decided something could make it better.

April's body shook from the constant and subtle vibrations which struck her clit.

"Keep doing it!" April yelled. She encouraged Harry to keep going inside her. "Don't worry about cumming, I'm on a pill….just in case…."

Her mother would kill her if she was in New York and not on the pill.

Harry decided not to let her in on the fact thanks to his Master of Death abilities, he could prevent new life from being formed. It was one of the latent powers which remained. Granted, as an advanced being, he could stop it from happening, but this gave him some extra insurance.

Not exactly the scientific conversation to be having when he rode April to her latest mind numbing orgasm. He kept hammering the redhead with each thrust and brought her state of arousal to the edge.

"Cum inside me, I need it bad!"

"Are you sure you've earned it?" Harry asked.

"Stop teasing me, and do it, please!" April yelled. "I'm dying…..fucking dying!"

April encouraged him and her moans made Harry's balls twitch. He waited for her to go off first with one more amazing orgasm before he let himself go.

The first splashes of cum fired into April's willing womb. The first splashes of cum filled her up and Harry continued to pump into her. He drained the contents of his balls.

April came and came again, and realized through all of her orgasms, Harry was still filling her up. She realized how much his balls could hold and the possibilities intrigued her.

Harry pulled out of her and looked at the heavy load of cum draining from April's pussy. She had a smile on her face, satisfied at what she had been put through.

The night had gone well if she was perfectly honest with herself.

* * *

 

Michael Morbius's entire body continued to shudder on the floor. He had been capable of conscious thought and his body occasional twitched. He remained alert to all forms of noise around him, and those noises caused a pounding sensation to enter his head.

' _What is happening to me,'_ he groaned. He attempted to pull himself up. Any attempt to get up had resulted in a stabbing pain. Almost like something had formed his body from the inside out.

The disease combined with the OZ formula resulted in his body undergoing an amazing and rather twisted metamorphosis. His eyes shifted over in a pained gaze and drool dripped from the side of his mouth. Agony followed a mere couple of seconds later.

' _What is happening to me?'_ he groaned. _'What have I become?'_

Those questions entered his mind and the sound of footsteps approaching him continued to echo. The body of Michael Morbius racked with a continuous and never ending amount of pain.

"Who's there?"

The door swung open and a security guard entered the room.

"No, stand back, get away from me!" Morbius yelled. The security guard made his way over towards him and Moribus, much to his surprise had been trying to get to his feet. The burning continued to flow through his spine, but something else resulted in him getting to a standing position.

The security guard walked towards Morbius. Morbius experienced an extremely terrible hunger which threatened to overwhelm him at the deepest and most primal levels possible.

"Doctor Morbius, what happened?" the security guard asked.

The hunger grew worse each second. Morbius doubted he would be able to hold it back if he wanted to and by the looks of things, he did not want to. His instincts took over.

"There's been a terrible accident, and there will be another one, if you don't….."

The security guard's eyes widened and he realized something. He almost looked rather pleased by the fact he had Morbius right where he wanted him, having busted the scientist.

"You've been trespassing in Mr. Osborn's lab, haven't you?" the security guard asked. "Always thought there was something shifty about you….."

The security guard made his way over to call Harold Osborn. Morbius's lightning sharp reflexes grabbed onto the man's hand.

"You don't…you don't want to call him, you don't!" Morbius yelled, a blood curdling hiss following. He lunged forward and grabbed his prey by the throat, almost slamming him into the wall. "You shouldn't have made me do this; you shouldn't have enraged me! "

The guard struggled and tried to push away. He found no way out of the grip of the horrific monster who had attempted to throttle him lifeless.

"YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TEMPTED ME!"

"You're a monster!" the guard yelled.

"I'm only what this world has made me!" Morbius yelled. Several spiked suckers stuck from the man's hands and impaled into the side of the guard's neck. The lifeblood draining from the guard caused the burning to stop and Morbius to grow stronger.

Further attempts to break free from the iron grip of Morbius had been in vain.

"Help!" the guard yelled. He aged the more the life sustaining fluids drained from his body. His body shook when Morbius continued to draw from him. "He's mad….."

The guard's body slumped to the ground. He withered and died, all of the life force having been sucked from him, without any problems whatsoever. Morbius's eyes widened when he looked down at the broken form of the guard.

' _What have I done?'_ Morbius asked. Another more sinister voice echoed in the back of his mind. _'I've only done what I've must.'_

Morbius slipped outside of the window and dropped down, heading off to the sewers of New York City. His next move would be from there.

* * *

 

Harry found himself in the midst of a Brunch not with just one beautiful women, not just a couple, but rather an army of them. He looked around at the table. Lavender, Mari, Mary-Jane, Felicia, Jan, Emma, Karen, Beatriz, and Tora all joined him for lunch. A big party got a lot of eyes, even though they rented off a section of the restaurant so they could conduct business and eat. Fashion Week was almost over and they would prepare themselves for the final stretch.

"The event has been going better than expected," Mary-Jane said. She shook her head, unable to believe how amazing the event had been going.

"Given our collective expectations have been shot through the room, that's really saying something, isn't it?" Emma asked. Each and every one of them at the table nodded. "And what does the woman who nearly broke her back to get all of the pieces in order think about this?"

Lavender placed her hand underneath her chin and looked thoughtful.

"I think it's amazing, we had a good kickoff, and things really got going on Thursday night," Lavender said. "Tonight's Friday, and Saturday's going to be a big one…the one where we need to go out with a bang."

Some of the group smiled, even though others had not been figured in yet.

"Mmm, yes, I'm sure you will," Jan said, wondering how one scores an invitational to this particular afterparty. She supposed she needed to integrate herself in with the group more and maybe by next year, she should be able to join. "And Saturday's going to be big, because it's going to really lead into next year, and really does set the tone for any business you're going to do next year."

"We're going to be big on Saturday," Karen said. "And there's Sunday…"

"Well, Sunday there's nothing," Jan said.

"Oh, I disagree, I think Sunday's pretty pivotal," Beatriz said. "It's where we sleep off the hangover we have from Saturday Night."

"Only you would…..only you would think of it in those terms," Tora said. She figured she might have to put Bea to bed again, as per usual.

Beatriz only smiled. She intended to make her move by them. And not just because Miranda Waller had been pressuring her to do so.

"I'm just glad we got some people involved which might not normally be involved in the fun and games of this magnificent week," Lavender said. She smiled when locking eyes with Karen. "You know, if you want to make this a regular thing…..it could happen….I could make it happen."

"Why does she sound like the Fashion version of a Mafia Godfather?" Felicia asked. "Because, I swear she's trying to give you an offer you can't refuse."

Everyone laughed around the table.

"Okay, so Lavender can come across as a little heavy handed when she wants something, but that's why we love her," Mari said. "Don't you agree, Harry?"

"Yes, as long as she doesn't go too far," Harry said.

"Which is why you're here, to make sure she doesn't go too far over the line," Emma said. "A little swift discipline is needed for everyone, to keep them in line and on their toes."

"I'm sure you would be speaking from experience, wouldn't you, Ms. Frost?" Felicia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"And for the record, all of you have done some great job, even though Emma and Jan aren't participating," Mari said. She looked at both of them with a smile and a wink had been added. "You know, maybe someday."

One of the parties gave it more consideration than the other. Jan brightened up with a smile. She had been designing clothes for a while. The thought never crossed her mind she could model them.

"Yes, maybe, it could be fun," Jan said.

"I'm sure you're going to try and get me to join like you did Karen," Emma said. "I hate to say it though, but I could be a bit out of your price range…"

Emma trailed off, noticing a deceitful little grin crossing over Lavender's face.

"Maybe," Lavender said. "You know though, if this year is as successful as it's shaping up to be, we could pony up the money."

Emma thought about it for a little bit. She did give the matter a bit more consideration than she was letting on. She just wasn't one hundred percent sure she wanted to take a plunge like this. As exciting as it might seem, there were still a couple of questions to be had because of something like this.

"As a wise man once said, everyone has a price," Harry said.

Emma had no counter argument for Harry's air tight logic and the fact annoyed her ever so slightly.

' _Lavender is not going to rest,'_ Kara thought. _'She's going to get what she wants, no matter how hard it is for her to get it….oh and April's back home, I'm hanging out with her…security is working like a charm…her roommate must have left to go to class, because she isn't here.'_

' _Well, just keep an eye on her, a little extra security won't hurt,'_ Harry thought. _'No suspicious characters lurking around he apartment?'_

' _No,'_ Kara thought.

Harry's mind had been put at ease by this news from Kara. His phone started to vibrate and Harry knew it was urgent. He just had a feeling deep in his mind.

"Hello?" Harry asked. "Yes, Anastasia…..I'll be right there."

Felicia's ears perked up at the conversation.

"That was my mother, wasn't it?" Felicia asked. Harry responded with a nod in response. "Is there something wrong?"

"Yes, there's been an accident at OsCorp," Harry said.

It would not be a trip outside of town without something happening. And judging by Anastasia's words, this was very serious.

"Don't worry, we understand," Karen said. "You're going to have to take care of it."

Harry moved off to take care of the accident. Something really was wrong.

* * *

 

The mutated form of Michael Morbius lurched through the sewers. He recalled something about an OsCorp outpost being close by, a lab deep underground. He needed it work in peace.

It was not the only thing he needed to work in peace. The thumping motion continuously struck the back of his head and he realized the hunger returned. It had only been satisfied for a few hours draining the security guard.

' _I must have it, I can't live without it,'_ he thought to himself. _'The power, the hunger, it's overwhelming, I must have it, there's no way I can't….can't survive without it.'_

He sensed fresh blood coming down the way. No matter how much Morbius said he did not need it, instincts told him he did.

Two sewer workers made their way down the tunnel.

"So, there's been a lot of weird things going on down here," he said.

"You can't believe everything you hear," another sewer worker said. He looked around for a moment, holding a tool. "Damn storm drains always clogging up."

The first of the two sewer workers continued to look around. He would not give up the ghost something was down here, no matter how many times his partner tried to tell him all of these stories were a bunch of bunk.

"I'm serious, Chester said he saw someone down here," the first sewer worker said. He looked over his shoulder, almost as if he hoped to see something. Nothing came around. "They were down here, I swear to God."

The second sewer worker sighed. Tonight was going to be a really long night if it kept up like this.

"You know how Chester is, he has his stories, and his tall tales," the second sewer worker said. "Giant turtles down here, honestly….that's the sort of thing you might see in Gotham City, but not in New York."

"Oh, I'm not sure," the first sewer worker said. "There was that picture."

The second sewer worker turned around. He thought they had explained this one away a long time ago.

"I thought that was proven to be a bunch of punk kids running around in Halloween costumes trying to be cute," the first sewer worker said. "Look, you can't listen to everything Chester says. Guy's a druggie and a drunk."

"He was being serious….."

"There's no Turtles, or a giant alligator, or anything down here," the skeptical sewer worker persisted. "There's nothing, but shit….lots and lots of shit….just like what you're standing in right now."

The first sewer worker jumped up in fear, only to realize he was not standing in anything. The skeptic laughed.

"Not funny at all, Dave!"

"Little sewer humor," he said. "Should lighten the mood, son. But seriously, we're wallowing in it right now and….."

Something moved in the shadows and it caused the first of the sewer workers to nearly fall over in horror. He looked on, blinking and wondering what the hell just happened.

"If there's nothing in the sewers, then what's that?"

The figure swooped in for the kill, fangs bared and pinchers on his hands extended.

"AH SHIT!"

Morbius hungered for the life sustaining fluids and these two sewer workers would be perfect for a fresh meal.

* * *

 

Harry Potter wasted little time getting to OsCorp. He could tell by the tone of Anastasia's voice something really bad had happened. Exactly what happened had been lost upon Harry.

"What happened?" Harry asked, the second he turned up.

Anastasia was about ready to say something. Harold Osborn on the other hand blew right past him and got into Harry's face.

"I'll tell you what happened, that freak Morbius stole from my lab, and….well he's paying for the consequences right now, messing with something he shouldn't be!" Harold yelled. He clenched his fists together and almost swung them into the wall.

Harry took Harold's ranting in stride. He would have sooner slammed the little shit against the wall and strangled him, but he could tell right away they had a crisis.

"What did he steal?"

Anyone with half of a brain cell to spare could see about now how Harold was not inclined to part ways with any information and Harry's eyes narrowed.

Fortunately, for Harold, a medic turned around the corner and looked to be about ready to give him the news he had been dreading receiving for some time.

"Mr. Osborn, sir, it doesn't look very good," he said. "The security guard, he was in his thirties, but…he has the body and internal organs of a ninety-five year old according to the doctors and he's lost a lot of blood and he's rejecting any transfusions."

"What did Morbius do to him?" Harry asked.

Harold's eyes narrowed in absolute contempt towards him.

"This doesn't concern you, if you don't mind," Harold said.

"Actually, Mr. Osborn, it does concern both of us," Anastasia said through her narrowed eyes. "Remember, you're a mere consultant and both Doctor Potter and myself are majority shareholders of this company."

Harold looked like he was about ready to swallow something foul. The foul swallowing did not end though when Harry stepped forward and looked him straight in the eye.

"And I'm going to insist you let me into Morbius's lab," Harry said.

"Fine, it's down the hallway, third door to your right," Harold said in a sullen tone of voice.

' _His attitude leaves a lot to be desired, doesn't it?'_ Kara asked.

' _He's dealing with a lot, I guess,'_ Reilly thought. _'And no, I'm not trying to make any excuses for him, I'm just stating a matter of fact. He's had a rather rough life, and you would too if your father was Norman Osborn.'_

' _Right,'_ Harry thought.

Harry encountered a cave of vampire bats, and they looked to be pretty sickly. In fact, they had looked to have been upon death's door to be honest. They also bared their fangs when Harry and Anastasia slipped inside the room to get a better look at them.

"What happened to them?" Anatasia asked.

"I don't know," Harry said. "I would stand back….they're dying, but rabid….being bitten by one of those things could have some unforeseen circumstances."

Harry considered his options and came to one obvious conclusion.

' _Reilly, do you think you can meet me in the ESU basement in about twenty minutes?'_ Harry asked.

' _Um, sure, it's just a swing around the corner,'_ Reilly thought. _'Why do you need to meet me there?'_

' _I'm thinking Harold's been messing out with OZ, and Morbius has as well,'_ Harry thought. _'And if my hunch is right, Morbius has created something supernatural.'_

' _What do you mean?'_ Reilly asked.

' _One of the bats broke out, bit him, and boom, instant vampire,'_ Harry thought. _'I don't think it can be any more cut and dry than that, if I tried.'_

' _Right,'_ Reilly thought, nodding in response and understanding what Harry wanted from her.

He could hear Harold shouting at someone, and it appeared once again, things did not go his way.

"I want it out of here by the time he comes back around; I don't care how you make it happen!"

' _So, something really rotten going on in the state of OsCorp?'_ Gwen asked. _'Must be another day of the week.'_

Harry frowned. Something was really rotten and he did not know what. All he knew was it was going to be trouble and lots of it.

* * *

**To Be Continued on December 3** **rd** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Congratulations to April for being the first non-Harry Potter/non-Marvel/non-DC girl to get a lemon in this series. She likely won't be the last, obviously._

_Morbius is on the hunt now, and the Living Vampire is active. That should bode strongly for people._

_Until Saturday._


	247. The Night of the Living Vampire Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Seven: Night of the Living Vampire Part Two.**

* * *

 

Harry took a couple of samples from the vampire bat so he could hopefully figure out what happened to Morbius. The early analysis of Morbius's tissue sample was not very good at all. Harry had a feeling the news was going to get a lot worse before it got a lot better, just a funny hunch he had.

Speaking of some bad news, well Barbara pretty much had it for him in abundance. Harry craned his neck off to one side, waiting for Barbara and Reilly to arrive.

' _Morbius has struck again,'_ Barbara thought. _'Not only has he struck, but he has attacked two sewer workers. One of them just barely managed to radio for help, but by the time arrived, it was much too late for anyone to do anything.'_

Harry cupped a hand underneath his chin and entered a deep round of thought.

' _Were the symptoms the same as the security guard at OsCorp?'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, they were,'_ Barbara thought. _'There's no telling what will happen next, only it likely isn't all that good.'_

' _No, it isn't,'_ Harry thought, frowning in response. He had his own ideas what he wanted to do next, and he would find out a moment later. _'Hopefully, she'll be able to shed some light on this entire mess when she gets here. Otherwise, I'll just be back to square one without any ideas where to go from here, if I can go anywhere from here.'_

' _If anyone can figure it out, it will be you,'_ Barbara thought.

Harry appreciated the confidence and the door swung open. Reilly popped into the room, not walking with her usual cheery self. Gwen walked a couple of inches behind here.

"So, you heard that, didn't you?" Harry asked.

Gwen responded with a brisk nod, not taking her eyes off of Harry. She placed a hand on his shoulder and leaned closer towards him.

"Yeah, we did," Gwen said. "Three people have been taken down by Morbius, and….it's going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. Until we find a way to stop him."

Gwen always thought Morbius was a bit of a creep, to be honest. This entire mess took the creepiness to an entirely different level if she would be honest.

"So, how what?" Reilly asked. She looked Harry straight in the eye as if trying to get some answers. "If it is the OZ….my father mentioned in his notes he almost regrets opening that particular Pandora's box, even though humanity could have some good from it."

Harry looked her right in the eye. This was a real big problem, to be honest with a lot of scientific experiments. Gwen, however, had figured out the problem.

"Things which do good for humanity, often are skewed by those who have the worst intentions," Gwen said. She leaned back and gave Harry one of those long looks in the eye. "So, are you saying this person, she can help us?"

Harry thought about it for a moment. She enjoyed her privacy, but at the same time, this person would not turn down Harry. So Harry figured she would be able to help them.

"I don't know, but the supernatural is pretty much up her alleyway," Harry said. Gwen looked him in the eye with a questioning statement. "Let's just say I know some pretty interesting people and leave it alone right there."

Harry listened to the traffic on the bond to see if they had learned anything else regarding the little experimentation.

' _I've been looking at the information from where I stand,'_ Pamela said. _'There's some heavy manipulation here, not something which is my expertise, though, at least from what I can see.'_

' _So, we're going to have to figure this out,'_ Harry thought. _'Ah, here she comes.'_

A figure made her way down the hallway. The footsteps grew even more prominent when she approached the room. Harry took a second to lean back and wait for her arrival.

The door swung open and the figure stood in shadows before she allowed herself to step inside.

"You wanted to see me?"

An extremely beautiful dark haired woman made her way inside to face Harry. Her hair came down towards her shoulders. She wore a rather professional looking business suit, with the skirt going down just enough to give her a hint of her marvelous legs. She moved towards Harry with a look which many women had given him in the past.

"Yes, I wanted to see you," Harry said. He stepped closer towards her and closed the gap between the two of them. "And I figured with your expertise, you're one of the few people who might be able to help me."

The dark-haired female raised an eyebrow and motioned for Harry to continue.

"There's something really supernatural going on….."

She touched a finger to his lips to stop him from talking.

"You're referring to the attacks when this ghoul has sucked the life and the blood out of his victims," she said. She bit down on her lip and looked on at Harry. "It has nothing to do with my people, I swear it doesn't."

Harry took her finger off of his mouth and leaned in to give her a light kiss on her warm lips. Gwen and Reilly watched when the rush of energy could be felt between the two sides.

The kiss had been broken and Harry's hand had been placed on hers to give her plenty of reassurance, at least he hoped it would give her some reassurance.

"Yes, I know it doesn't," Harry said.

"There are so few of them left," she muttered.

The woman looked on wistfully. It had been the distant past, to be honest.

"I'm among the last of them because of the plague…you know about that because you rescued me and a few others," she said. "Mostly female, though, because it was your weakness. You never allow attractive women to go wasted if you can help it."

Harry chuckled in spite of himself. Attractive females did tend to be his Kryptonite, more so than Kryptonite after he had disabled that particular weakness from himself.

"It tends to be," Harry said. "So will you help me, Alice?"

A smile crossed her face which could light up an entire room.

"Only for you, Harry," she said. "I would only come out of my normal life to help someone like you for this, guess that means I owe you a fair bit."

* * *

 

Michael Morbius staggered around in the sewers. His run in with the sewer works lead to a temptation which he was trying to fight. The blood coming from them sustained him for a short amount more. However, when would the temptations come back?

Those thoughts rang in the back of the mind of Morbius. Who was he trying to fool? The temptations hit him stronger than ever before. He could not even hold his head above the ground.

Conflicting thoughts entered his mind when he stumbled further into the sewers. Morbius tried to get the thoughts straight. The monster threatened to defeat the man and where would it leave him from there.

' _I don't know what to make of this,'_ Morbius thought. He shook his head for a few moments in a desperate attempt to clear his thoughts because, in his mind, time had been running out. _'No, no, no, none of this is right. None of this should be right, I've been transformed into this hideous abomination.'_

Morbius dug his fingernails into his temples and howled in absolute agony. He could not hold himself together no matter how much he wanted to do so.

' _Okay, Morbius, think, you still have your sanity,'_ Morbius thought. _'No, sanity, sanity is slipping, you have to feed, there's no choice, you have to feed. You have to indulge on yourself. Indulge on the monster inside of you. All you need is the lifeblood.'_

He looked above the streets. Darkness would fall in a few hours. People would walk the streets, without a care in the world. They would present themselves and their necks as a perfect target for him. Hunger racked through his body and mind. He could have them.

' _No, I must not….but what if this is you?'_ Morbius asked. _'It's what you've been made….one more time, come on.'_

The answer hit Morbius. He could not have believed it did not come to him before now.

' _What I need is a stabilizing influence, someone to make my life a bit more efficient, a bit more right, something to channel the hunger into,'_ Morbius thought. _'Yes, it's what I need….someone to make life a bit more bearable.'_

The person popped into Morbius's mind. She did have some fondness for him, he was sure. Even though she did not know how to show it, yes, that was it, she did have a fondness for him.

' _Every vampire, he needs a queen, no matter what,'_ Morbius thought. His shoulders rolled back when more pain racked through his body and his mind. He tried to focus. _'If she might not agree at first, then so be it. I will have to be the one who would convince her it's worth her time to be mine, worth her time to be my Queen….yes, in the end, she'll understand.'_

Morbius's hunger hit a brand new outlet. He had a renewed purpose in his life.

' _In the end, she'll be mine, because I will make her mine.'_

* * *

 

A group of gentleman surrounded a conference table at OsCorp. Gusev Fiers, Wilson Fisk, and Harold Osborn stood ready for this meeting. Curt Connors had been invited for his scientific expertise as well, the foremost scientific expert they had readily on hand after the demise of Norman Osborn and the disappearance of Otto Octavius.

"Well, this is quite the interesting pickle you've gotten yourself into," Wilson Fisk said. His eyes narrowed when he looked Harold straight in the eye."You've made quite the mess for OsCorp, haven't you, young Harold."

"You look agitated, to begin with, though," Fiers said.

Fisk thought about the Purple Dragons and their new partners in the Wolfpack causing trouble in his territory. To compound a rather frustrating matter, some do-gooder suited up and caused him trouble in Hell's Kitchen.

"It's because of matters which are unrelated to OsCorp, but yes, this is worthy of being agitated about," Fisk said. "We have some madman running around in the sewers. The only good thing to come out of this is Anastasia Hardy has agreed it would not be prudent to leak this out to the press, because if it gets out, we will be destroyed."

"Yes, she does see sense when it's worthy to her bottom line," Fiers said. He looked rather relaxed, namely because this presented an interesting opportunity. "Connors, have you found out anything?"

Connors shuffled his notes and began to read from the straight from the top.

"From what I could gather, the OZ formula combined with the disease which Morbius studied, it created a super virus which needs to be sustained with a steady sample of blood drawn from his victims," Connors said. He looked over his notes. "Unfortunately, the bats in the lab….are too hostile to approach."

Harold figured it out, at least what he thought was a brilliant idea.

"The one died after biting Morbius, why don't you extract something from it?" Harold asked.

"I can't…..on the account of Harry Potter taking it for his own research," Connors said.

Harold's eyes flashed at the name being said. It always came back to Harry Potter and his brilliance.

"Harry Potter has no right to do that," Harold said in a low growl. This resulted in the men on the Board giving him those long looks which caused him to stare back at them.

"Actually, Harry Potter has every right to do what he just did," Fisk said. He looked at Harold as if challenging him to respond.

"Mr. Fisk is correct, he does," Fiers said. "He does own a significant amount of this company, and….he has given you what he's found out, has he not, Doctor Connors?"

Connors responded with a nod.

"Yes, he has," Doctor Connors said. He showed the notes. "It pretty much collaborates what I found out, although he mentioned he's calling on an old friend who could help him."

"Who can help him with something like this?" Harold asked.

The other men around the table responded with shakes of their head. Harold could tell they only humored him out of respect for his late father and it caused Harold's eyes to narrow even further.

' _They think I am useless as he did,'_ Harold thought.

"Regardless of the circumstances, we're going to need to find our Living Vampire," Fiers said. "Before someone sees him and puts two and two together."

"What are we telling the rest of the company?"

"There has been an accident, and Morbius is away at an undisclosed facility for medical attention," Fiers said.

"It won't be a story which will hold up to basic scrutiny for long," Fisk said. "We're going to have to work on an antidote."

"Yes, I'm working on it," Connors said.

"And in the meantime, we should think of other alternatives," Fiers said a few moments later.

Fiers took a moment to think about the opportunity Morbius's experiment had presented itself. A creative mind always had thought of their opportunities.

"What, are you thinking of using a stake?" Harold asked. "Or maybe you could splash him with some holy water? Could that work?"

The men around the table looked at Harold for a few seconds and he could tell right away their annoyance had hit a fever pitch when staring him down.

"Harold, you shouldn't be so flippant," Fisk said in annoyance.

Harold shook his head. He knew they did not respect him and this proved it one hundred percent.

* * *

 

The members of the Gotham City Police Department had been called together for a very important emergency meeting. All of them wondered what the hell was going on. James Gordon lead the charge for the members of the MCU. Harvey Bullock was always there, along with Renee Montoya, and Sarah Essen. A couple of others moved around, them all whispering and trying to figure out what was happening.

"What's this all about?" Sarah asked.

"I don't know, O'Hara just called a meeting, and we're here," Gordon said.

"Maybe he found some new sucker….er I mean candidate to be Commissioner," Bullock said. "I didn't think O'Hara wanted to spend his last year here babysitting all of us."

Speaking of the man himself, O'Hara stepped into the picture and locked his eyes onto the men in question. He looked like he had aged badly over the past couple of months, something they all understood. It had been a rough last couple of months for all of them.

"The last few months have been among the roughest for all of us," Chief O'Hara said when he addressed the members of the Gotham City Police Department. All of the looked pretty somber when they crowded around him. "We have had the Gotham City Cop Killer, which was our own Commissioner Loeb, and several of our fellow cops have died."

O'Hara lowered his head in a somber mood and no one dared spoke up.

"Regardless of what happened, Gotham City is all about moving forward, and I think you can all agree what does not kill you, will make you much stronger," O'Hara said. He looked towards them. "Therefore, on the recommendation of our Mayor, we have found a new man who will lead the Gotham City Police Department."

Everyone looked around. They wondered who Hill could have picked to be the Commissioner. Well, he suggested it, but when someone like Hill, and his new friends, had thrown around their weight, it was a good idea to go along for the ride.

"Looks like someone called in a favor," Bullock muttered underneath his breath.

"Let's see where this one goes," Gordon said. He was optimistic, perhaps casually so someone would come here which would be a harbinger of great change.

O'Hara made sure their attention was completely on him before he pressed forward.

"So, without further ado, I hope you welcome the newest member of our family," O'Hara said. "Give a warm welcome for Peter Grogan."

A fresh-faced man with dark hair stepped in. He had a few chipped teeth and had a rather portly demeanor. Some of them recognized him, he had been on the force for a long time, although he did not make too many waves. He was good at kissing the right asses from what some of them heard.

And now he was the Gotham City Police Commissioner. There would have to be a moral to this story somehow.

"Thank you, thank you," he said. "And I have to say, it's great to be given the chance to lead the Gotham City Police Department. This department has had its share of ups and downs over the years, hell, I've lived them, having thirty years of distinguished service on the department."

His animated demeanor had caught them off guard. Given how the previous Commissioner had been driven to madness and killed a bunch of people, before getting blown up by a crazed clown.

"Regardless," Grogan said when he looked them over a couple of seconds later. "After what happened with my predecessor, I hope we can start with a brand new slate and a fresh promise to all of Gotham City. A fresh promise which all of us will be a part of it."

It seemed like political statements wrapped in political statement. Gordon figured there was something more than met the eye.

"I know it won't be easy," Grogan said. "But, I'm confident all of you will do their part in helping this city live up to its promise and make it safe for people to step outside of their doors. And for that, we need no more secrets, no more lies, and no more masks."

The implied meaning of this statement was obvious, and given the fact Batman, Nightwing, and the others now were public, no one found themselves surprised of the hardline stance taken on vigilantes in Gotham City.

"We're all in this together, and we need to prove how the law still works even in Gotham City," Grogan said. "And we will prove how the system is not broken, despite what some might think. We do not need lawless vigilantes running around, and we will prove the system still works."

Grogan looked over them, almost taking in all of their faces and their reactions to his word. If anyone looked like they did not agree, then they would not be a part of the solution.

"Remember, in the end, we're all family, and you don't keep secrets from family," Grogan said. "It will be an honor to get to know all of you, and it's time for us to get to work."

Grogan turned around and shook hands with O'Hara. He turned around to find his new office, thus leading the police officers with a lot to think about.

"Well, he most certainly has his strong opinions, doesn't he?" Montoya asked.

"I'll give him six months," Bullock said.

* * *

 

Harry figures some introductions should have been in order, so they could get on the same page.

"Gwen, Reilly, this is Doctor Mary-Alice Brandon," Harry said. "Alice, this is Gwen Stacy and Reilly Parker….."

"The daughter of Richard Parker?" Alice asked.

Reilly had been caught off guard by this particular statement. She nodded with a smile on her face.

"So, you've heard of my father?" Reilly asked.

"He's a huge part of this, isn't he?" Alice asked. "It's his experiments which have brought us here."

"Yes, I guess you could say that," Reilly said. She didn't want to admit it if she was honest, but it was really true.

"Alice is an expert on the supernatural, especially vampires," Harry said.

Alice had the decency to look pretty embarrassed. She took a moment to give Harry one of those long looks and Harry responded with a smile.

"Well, I wouldn't say I'm expert," Alice said. A smile crossed over her face despite herself. "I know a fair bit about everything, though….I guess you could say I'm expert."

"No need to be so modest," Harry said.

"Well, I know you won't be," Alice said. She smiled. "And given how extraordinary you are, if you were even the tiniest bit of modest, you would be lying."

Gwen enjoyed this interplay as much as the next person. She looked at the vampire bat, which decayed more by the second. Alice turned her attention back to it and began to study both the bat and the blood samples extracted from it.

"So, what is going on here?" Gwen asked.

Alice looked at it, frowning. The mix of magic and science could complicate things. Thankfully, though, it was more on the end of science than magic.

"Well, this vampire isn't a creation of the supernatural, but rather a creation of some misplaced science," Alice said. "I'm not sure if any of the natural methods will work in taking out a vampire."

"What, do we stake them?" Reilly asked. "Or do we just splash them with holy water? Anyone got some garlic we can use?"

A smile flickered over Alice's face. She forgot how the common misconceptions of vampires amused her.

"Hollywood would have you believe as much about vampires," Alice said. "And their depiction of vampires are quaint. They would have you think vampires sparkle in the sun…which is a hint of obsessive mania should it happens, and the vampire in question should be put down before they go full obsessive stalker."

"Why do I think you're speaking from experience?" Gwen asked. Harry cleared his throat. "Sorry, I'll behave."

Alice appreciated Harry's intervention because they didn't have little time. She decided to give them the abridged lecture about how the normally believed methods to kill vampires wouldn't work.

"Garlic, while extremely disgusting, only will give a rash," Alice said. "Holy water is a placebo, if a vampire believes it will harm them, then it real. But most don't have any belief in any kind of faith, especially the type which will harm a vampire. And then there's, the stake, which will work….but only incapacitate him or her."

Gwen and Reilly listened closely. The supernatural was not something they were not knowledgeable about.

"Should the stake come loose, the vampire comes back to life," Alice said. "The best way to kill a vampire is to chop off of his head, or atomize him…"

"Or both," Harry said.

Alice nodded in response, looking rather somber in response.

"The problem is nothing short of a nuclear blast will prevent a vampire from pulling himself together for long," Alice said. "Thankfully this living vampire will not need nothing so extreme. If you can't find a cure, merely separating his head from his body will do so nicely."

Alice turned back to the bat and decided to come to her final conclusion.

"From the bat you brought me, I see nothing but super powered rabies, enhanced by the OZ formula," Alice said. "Therefore, it can be cured….and hopefully soon…..the emotional and mental distress from what he did won't be cured as easily."

"Well, I'm sure someone of our brilliance can create a cure," Gwen said with a smile.

"Yes, I'm certain," Alice said. "And there's one more thing which I need to tell you….is there anything Morbius is obsessed with?"

"Obsessed with?" Gwen asked, getting a very bad feeling about this one.

"Yes, every vampire needs a Queen, at least in their demented little minds," Alice said.

"Well, he did shadow Felicia a lot when they were at ESU," Gwen said.

Something flashed through Alice's mind and her eyes looked glazed over for a couple of moments. Harry leaned closer towards her and started to snap his fingers.

"Alice?" Harry asked. "Alice, talk to me."

Alice snapped out of it, and Harry managed to catch her when she came out of it. One look at her haunted face showed how terrified she was.

"Is this Felicia a stacked platinum blonde with a body of a porn star?"

"That pretty much describes her," Gwen said.

"She and a redhead are in danger….right about now," Alice said.

Harry grabbed Reilly and Gwen by the arms and practically yanked them from the lab.

"Do you mind explaining why you almost ripped our arms off?" Gwen asked.

"LATER!" Harry yelled.

' _Thank you, Alice,'_ Harry projected to her.

' _Anytime.'_

* * *

 

Felicia and Mary-Jane left the coffee shop and they would be ready to join the rest of the group for the next night of the Fashion Week event.

"We're running a little bit late, aren't we?" Mary-Jane asked.

"It will be fine," Felicia said in an even voice. "Trust me, we're going to be fine….we're going to be right on time."

A creepy figure popped out of the shadows. Felicia withdrew her stun gun and moved to threaten her attacker. She hoped it would be enough to deter him.

"I don't want to hurt you," he yelled, blocking the stun gun and shoving it back into her stomach and doubling her over.

Mary-Jane was about ready to scream until she received a stun gun to the back which dropped her down to the ground.

"It's quite fortunate I have a spare to help fine tune the process," Morbius said.

He scooped up both of the women and took them down to his sewer lair where he could get to work straight away.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on December 7** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_Hey, it's Alice, from Twilight, popping up in this story. Because there are a lot of women who will be popping up in this story from various fandoms, which are flawed but have some attractive females who have their uses. I think I already set the precedent for using people from fandoms with their fair share of flaws by including Harry Potter in this story._

_And Morbius is being a creepy stalker and kidnapped Felicia and Mary-Jane._

_Also, in a little side note, new Commissioner in Gotham City. We'll see if Bullock's prediction of six months is true._

_Until Wednesday, as we set up the final three chapters for 2016 for Ascension._


	248. Night of the Living Vampire Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Eight: Night of the Living Vampire Part Three:**

* * *

 

Harry was pretty sure they broke some kind of speed record without even teleporting to the location they were going to. He knew and trusted Alice's visions. Be that as it may, even she admitted how imprecise they can be even at the best times.

She most certainly saw Felicia and Mary-Jane getting kidnapped. Given the fact Harry knew how obsessed newly turned vampires could be, it was very obvious where this one was heading.

' _I just hope I'm not here too late,'_ Harry thought to himself, wiping a bead of sweat from the top of his brow. He knew from his instincts though it was a pretty good chance he was too late.

He made his way out, and several people were gawking around. One of the women he came about looked like she was going to have a nervous breakdown, the type of nervous breakdown which came from having something traumatic.

"Looks like people are panicking," Gwen said. Her knee instincts pieced together about that much. "You don't suppose whatever happened already happened, do you?"

Harry soaked in the crowd and could see the people panicking even more. He frowned, it wasn't going to be easy to deal with, everyone and anyone freaking out, if he would be perfectly honest.

"Yes, I'm pretty sure that's a distinct possibility," Harry said. He bent down and looked at the ground. No blood spilled on the ground, which was both encouraging and frustrating at the same time. "Let's see if we can find anything which will lead us down there, at least….."

A shriek caused Harry's head to spin around. The shriek sounded very inhumane and Harry locked his eyes on someone who began to flail his arms, resembling a madman. He knew straight away he saw someone who saw something up close and personal.

"It's horrible!" a man yelled. He rushed forward and waved his arms in a manic manner. He looked about ready to collapse over when he approached them. "It's absolutely horrible...HORRIFIC EVEN!"

Reilly and Gwen exchanged a look of exasperation before the dark haired girl turned towards the frantic gentleman.

"Okay, calm down, calm down," Reilly said. She watched the progress of the man's head when it started to bob back and forth and only one thought entered her mind. "You're not calming down all you."

One look at the man's demeanor showed calming down was about the furthest thing from his mind right about now.

"One of those freaks from down the street was here," the man said, finally regaining his composure, along with the ability to speak. He stood up to face all three of them. "You know the freaks I'm talking about….those weird kids who think they're a vampire, they're all into that gothic weirdness….."

Harry placed up one of his hand to stop the tongue-tied man from choking on his words.

"I know who you're talking about," Harry said. If he recalled correctly, there was a club down the street and there had bene a darker crowd who would be into vampirism and the like. "And are you…"

"It's awful, he's…they've gone too far!" the frantic gentleman yelled. He bobbed his head up and down and resembled a giant bobblehead more than anything. "It's for one of their weirdo rituals, or something, I don't know….."

Harry grabbed the man by the shoulder in a firm manner and stopped short of slapping him in the face. The powerful jolt brought him back to life.

"Get ahold of yourself!" Harry snapped. "Who was he? What did he look like?"

"Aren't you listening?" the crazed man asked. "He was….well it doesn't matter what he was. He was one of those weirds in a trenchcoat with pale skin, he even had the fangs and anything. He jumped out of the shadows and took two women down into the sewers. I guess that's his evil lair."

Gwen blinked. Finally, they were getting somewhere, at least she hoped they were.

"What did the two women look like?" Gwen asked.

"I don't know, I'm not good at faces," the man said.

Harry frowned. This guy was not only a spaz but one of the most unhelpful witnesses he ever had the displeasure of dealing with.

"Try to remember," Harry said, trying not to lose his patience.

Harry feared he was fighting a losing battle on this particular front, though.

One look from the burning green eyes of this young man caused the gentleman's hazy memory to get jogged.

"Fine, I'll try to remember," the gentleman said. His heart started to race in a more prominent matter. "One of them was a stacked platinum blonde. The other was a redhead. Both of them look like models…come to think of it, I had seen them somewhere, or maybe I haven't, they looked familiar."

Harry frowned. He pretty much guessed the man had over concerns than fashion week.

"Thanks for the information," Harry said. "You should sit down."

"Right…hey wait a minute, you're not a cop, are you?"

The moment this question left the man's mouth, Harry disappeared down the street, with Gwen and Reilly close in tow. They already moved to the nearest manhole. Harry put up a couple of barriers to prevent anyone, cop or civilian from going after them.

' _So, we know Morbius took the girls down into the sewer,'_ Harry thought. He managed to keep himself calm enough. _'Which means we're going to go down into the sewer and go after them.'_

The manhole cover slid off and both of the girls stared at Harry, almost as if they thought he had gone mad.

' _Down in the sewer?'_ Gwen asked.

' _Watch the first step, it can be a doozy,'_ Harry thought.

Harry slipped down into the sewer and left both of the girls to have a mental argument about who would go next. Both of them had their own reservations about going down into the sewer for obvious reasons.

' _Wonderful,'_ Reilly thought as dryly as possible as she followed, taking the plunge.

Her spider sense sensed no danger at the spot she landed. Gwen dropped down and they waited for Harry to lead them to Felicia and Mary-Jane. Tension hit a high water mark and only would be getting worse from here.

* * *

 

A ringing echoed through the ears of one Felicia Hardy. She took a moment to try and get her surroundings in. It took her a while to realize something had happened. Some guy attacked her and Mary-Jane in the alleyway, and now she ended up here….wherever here was.

' _Where am I?'_ Felicia asked. Her eyes slowly flickered open and a hazy thought entered her mind. She tried to lift her arms, only to find they were strapped onto the table and she found herself unable to break free.

Felicia realized she was in a makeshift lab of some sort and she had no idea how she had brought here. All she knew there was a good idea she did not like it.

She tried to scream for help only for a hand to slap across her face.

"I don't think we'll have any of that."

Felicia looked up at the man who retracted the hand away from her mouth. She recognized him at once, even though it had been a couple years since she came across him.

"Morbius?" Felicia asked. "What happened to you?"

"It's very simple, actually," Morbius said, without missing a beat. "You recall the disease which gripped my home village?"

Felicia nodded, she recalled the story of why he came to this country.

"Well, things have only gotten worse since I had been at ESU," Morbius said. "I hoped to cure the disease and I hoped to cure it with the OZ formula. I injected my bats to see how they would recover, and one had gotten rabid and gotten loose, and….now I'm the man who you see before you today."

Morbius leaned back to show himself in his ghastly and awful glory. His eyes narrowed the moment he looked upon Felicia's face.

"I've decided to embrace it," Morbius said. "Fighting it causes me pain…but I cannot embrace it alone, and now...I will have a Queen."

The horror and the revulsion of Morbius's plans hit her.

"No, you can't….you can't…." Felicia said.

"Shh, Felicia, it's going to be okay," Morbius said. "I know you're scared….but I know in the end, you'll understand the necessity of this, and learn to accept it."

Felicia's stomach turned and disgust filled every fiber of her body. He had become worse than ever before.

"You haven't changed at all," Felicia said. Her blue eyes snapped open and glared at Morbius with utter hatred in her eyes. "You haven't changed at all….you're still as bent, you're still as insane…..you're completely mad, and now you're holding people against their will…why…for what end?"

"I do what's necessary, Felicia!" Morbius yelled, baring his teeth at her. He calmed down. "It will be….it has to be done….and you will learn to appreciate what I've done…..you just don't know it yet."

"Oh, I'm sure I know how much I appreciate you kidnapping me, and dragging me here against my will," Felicia said. "You're demented…..I only didn't press charges for stalking because I felt sorry for you."

Morbius smiled and in an instant, Felicia knew she said the wrong thing.

"Ah, there's something there after all," Morbius said. "And I've managed to re-create the serum, using my blood as a sample, which will create new living vampires…"

"Morbius, you are very sick…"

Morbius held up one hand to stop Felicia from speaking.

"No, my mind has been opened up to new possibilities, and in time, when I have my own pack, I will be stronger than ever," Morbius said. "You will be mine….and anyone who comes between you and I will be ripped apart."

Morbius looked as mad as possible and Felicia feared for anyone who crossed his path. And she had a sinking feeling a couple of people who crossed his path had already been ripped apart.

"All scientific achievements require some experimentation," Morbius said. He looked over towards the other table, where he had Mary-Jane fashioned. "She's being prepped for the procedure."

Felicia's horror accelerated when she feared for her friend and her safety.

"No, she isn't…she shouldn't have been involved in this!" Felicia yelled.

"Yes, perhaps, but I'm unwilling to deny myself an opportunity when it can be seized," Morbius said. His eyes locked onto the woman and a grin crossed over his face. "I'll use her to fine tune the procedure…..and then you will be mine."

"I already have someone!" Felicia yelled.

A wicked smile crossed over the face of Michael Morbius. Felicia thought this smile put most horror movie villains to shame.

"And then, I will rip his throat out, so you can be mine, forever," Morbius said. A primal look flickered through his eyes. He turned himself towards Mary-Jane who laid out on the table. The young woman sprawled out, ready for her medicine. "And now, time for the test."

A syringe appeared in Morbius's hands with a bubbling green fluid inside of it. Felicia's heart started to beat as he approached the unconscious Mary-Jane. Horror spread through her body when she realized whatever happened to Mary-Jane, it was not going to end well.

"Morbius, STOP! LEAVE HER ALONE!"

Morbius injected the fluid into the side of her neck. Mary-Jane's body began to thrash about on the table. The straps which restrained her only just held her down into place on the table.

"Yes, it's beginning to take effect," Morbius said. "In a matter of moments, we'll know its success."

* * *

 

Harry knew they were getting close. He did not have any special secret sewer sense. He did know the fact OsCorp had a couple of labs deeper underground which was off of the books. And he was pretty sure one of them was closer to them.

He heard a scream of frustration.

"MICHAEL, YOU'RE KILLING HER!"

Gwen and Reilly tensed up the very instant they heard that pained declaration. Harry grabbed both of their arms to prevent them from going in there, with some half-cocked attitude which would likely get both of them killed.

"At the moment of truth, slip in and get them out of there," Harry said. "Don't try and engage, Morbius."

"Right, that's your job."

"Yes," Harry said a few seconds later.

He had no cure for Morbius right now, but he could not let him run amuck in the sewers and cause problems for anyone he ran into.

"When she wakes up, she will be the first thing she will see," Morbius said. "And she will be bound to me as my Queen."

Felicia's contempt became obvious in her eyes and her voice as well.

"Don't you mean a mindless slave?" Felicia asked. "Providing you haven't killed her already?"

"Such fire, I like that…even if I'm going to have to squash it to maintain some harmony in our lives," Morbius said. His lips curled into a devious little smile when he looked down at Mary-Jane's body. "Yes, she's waking up….."

The moment Mary-Jane's eyes flickered open, a flash of light surrounded them all. Harry Potter dropped down onto the ground and landed in front of Mary-Jane. She laid eyes on Harry the first thing when she woke up.

The living vampire was shocked for a moment for the interference. A confused looking Mary-Jane was a bit rattled and hazy.

"No, you ruined it!" Morbius yelled as he rushed towards the hooded form of Harry Potter. He blocked his attack and blasted Morbius back which sent him flying into the nearby sewer water.

Harry stood over the Living Vampire who dripped in muck and filth.

"It's what I do," Harry said.

Morbius bounced up to his feet and prepared to go to the hunt. His fangs bared.

"I'll rip you apart for this!" Morbius yelled. "Your blood will taste the best of all!"

Morbius jumped at Harry and tried to sink the pinchers on his hands into the young man's neck. He tried to drain the life blood from his body.

A rush of energy spread through his body and his skin started to blister. Agony spread through Morbius's body and he pulled away before he could drain from his body.

"What…what is happening?" Morbius asked. He held up his hands which started to smoke. "I don't understand, your blood….your blood is…"

Morbius shook his head and tried to regain his composure. He had been brought back to life with a jaw-jacking punch which dropped him down to the ground. He crumpled up like a piece of paper.

"It doesn't matter, I don't have to drain you," Morbius said. He summoned all of his strength to rip a pipe out of the wall and swing it. "I will crush you with my bare hands."

Morbius swung the pipe and it smashed against the wall. He reared back and swung the pipe one more time. Again it swung and smashed against the wall. His opponent dodged the attacks from the pipe when they had been engaged.

Harry led Morbius down the tunnel and away from the two girls. He could see Reilly and Gwen move around. He placed his hand on his solar watch and turned it into the opposite direction.

He pulled the trigger and released the stored solar energy. He bombarded Morbius with an excessive amount of yellow solar radiation and resulted in a scream coming from his body.

"AHHH!"

Morbius managed to slip away and he staggered. He almost fell over several times as he had been weakened. He turned around and could see someone approaching him. Morbius recoiled for a second and then he could see the person approaching him. The face came into greater prominence and in an instant, Morbius recognized who he was.

"You? "Morbius asked. "What are you doing here?"

The figure pulled the trigger on a cannon and bombarded Morbius with energy. It caused him to explode into a cloud of dust and land on the ground.

The man in question moved quickly and scooped up all of the ashes, before he slipped into another tunnel, just before the other parties could find him.

Harry walked down the tunnel and looked around for Morbius. He could not find any sign around the man and bent down to the ground. Several moments passed when he looked down at the smoking clothes of what Morbius was wearing.

' _Gwen, Reilly, did you get Mary-Jane and Felicia out of there?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes, although Mary-Jane is insistent in wanting to see you,'_ Gwen thought. _'And she looks like she's going to fight us to get to you if you….'_

Harry figured about as much if his hunch was correct.

' _I'll be over there in a couple of seconds, I need to take her back to the lab at the ESU basement,'_ Harry thought. _'Hopefully, we can find a way to stabilize her….she's not as far gone as Morbius.'_

' _What happened to Morbius?'_ Reilly asked, curiosity hitting her hard.

' _He's…..all that's left is his clothes, something must have happened to him,'_ Harry thought.

' _You think he's gone,'_ Gwen thought. _'Or…something else happened to him.'_

' _Yes, or something else happened to him,'_ Harry thought. He had a suspicion they were not the only ones tracking Morbius and given the fact the accident happened at OsCorp, he could only guess. _'Someone most certainly didn't want Morbius alive to tell his tale to anyone.'_

Harry thought this had been as curious as anything. He wondered what the next move would be.

* * *

 

Curt Connors was on the phone and busy at work in his lab. He frowned when looking over some notes.

"Yes, I'll send you over a sample, maybe you can figure out what's going on," Curt said. "Yes, I'm sure….I'm sure you can figure out something….and hope we can figure out what happened to Doctor Morbius. And find a cure….."

He nodded and jotted down some more notes to see what he could find out.

"Thanks, I appreciate you looking it over, Kirk," Curt said. He jotted down a couple more notes "And tell Francine, Martha sends her regards, and the next time she's in New York stop by…and you should as well if you ever pull yourself away from your work long enough."

The door swung open and Connors brought his full attention to the man who entered. Gustav Fiers entered and looked as bold as ever, walking around without any consideration of knocking.

"What's your progress, Doctor Connors?"

"I've sent a sample to Doctor Langstrom in Gotham City," Curt said. "I'm confident he'll determine any way to counteract the virus Morbius created. Bats and the supernatural are among his expertise after all."

"Yes," Fiers said with a smile on his face. "He would be our best bet."

"I need to check on something," Connors said. "If anyone comes by, do you think you could tell them how important it is for them not to disturb my work?"

"Yes, it's essential, and I agree," Fiers said a second later. He waved off Curt.

Fiers watched Connors walk off. The moment he was safely out of the hallway, Fiers placed his briefcase down on the table and opened it up. He removed a glass jar full of ashes.

He accessed a high-security vault and slipped the contents of the jar inside of the vault. A smile broke over the face of Morbius when he stepped back. Excitement danced in the eyes of the gentleman when he stepped back.

The contents of the glass jar started to shift on their own accord. Fiers doubled up on the security and did his best to ensure it remained locked in the vault.

' _Doctor Morbius, you will be far more useful for us in death, then you ever will be in life.'_

Fiers left the contents in the vault locked up. He had a foreboding thought in his mind somehow, Morbius lived within the ashes. It would be up to the boys in the lab to study later.

' _Very interesting times we live in.'_

* * *

 

Mary-Jane Watson woke up from what she thought was a horrific nightmare. Some weirdo had kidnapped her and Felicia and tied her down and performed experiments on her. She realized this could have been an unfortunate consequence of watching one too many late night horror movies.

"What happened?" Mary-Jane asked. She blinked and saw Harry and another woman she didn't know, but she figured was in Harry's social circle, stand around her. "Where's Felicia?"

Harry smiled and held onto her hand to comfort her.

"Felicia has gone off with Reilly and Gwen, I think after the ordeal she's been through, she's deserved some time to relax," Harry said. "You two were kidnapped by Michael Morbius and…"

Mary-Jane gasped and horror spread through the face of the woman.

"You mean the weirdo who stalked Felicia in college?" Mary-Jane asked. She could already feel a throbbing pain coming from the back of her head which grew even more prominent the more she thought. "It's….you've got to be kidding, right?"

Harry really wished one of those times he could have been kidding with the extremely weird things which happened in his life.

"I wish I was," Harry said. "He injected you with a serum which intended to transform you into a vampire."

"Had Harry not been there, he would have transformed you into a ghoul which we would have needed to put down," the brunette said. "I'm Doctor Mary-Alice Brandon, and….how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Mary-Jane said.

"Good," Alice said, looking towards her. "I have good news and bad news."

Mary-Jane wished there had been some good news, and never the follow up bad news to rattle her day.

"Oh, wonderful, lay it on me, Doctor Brandon," Mary-Jane said.

"Please, call me Alice," Alice said with a smile on her face. She turned towards Harry and raised an eyebrow. She turned her attention back to Mary-Jane. "The good news is you're not a mindless ghoul ripping into everyone and wanting nothing, but mindless bloodshed and carnage."

"Oh good, I'm glad there," Mary-Jane said. "But, there's bad news?"

"The bad news is, we had to turn you into a full vampire, otherwise you would have died," Alice said. "The good news…yes more good news, is Harry teleporting in front of you bound you to him and you recognized him as your mate."

Mary-Jane tried not to crack up with laughter at the way she said it. The exact words weren't funny, it was just the nature she needed something like that to figure out what she wanted was quite comical to her.

"I don't need some vampire serum to figure that out, not really," Mary-Jane said. "So, I guess I can give up on trying to work on my tan and stay away from garlic….come to think of it, I don't eat garlic anyway. It's kind of disgusting."

"The sun shouldn't be a problem," Alice said.

"And if it is, I have something that might be able to help you," Harry said.

He had created a modified version of the solar watch which would allow vampires to function mostly normal in human life.

"What about the blood thing?" Mary-Jane asked. "Or is that a work of fiction?"

"Oh, you need to feed to sustain your sanity," Alice said. "Most of us feed on animals, and some of us have created a synthetic blood serum which will do in a pinch."

Mary-Jane took a moment to consider this.

"And there is an alternative….if you have a strong mate, you can feed off of them," Alice said. "If someone can sufficiently replicate their blood because of elements within them, then there's no harm with feeding off of them."

"You know an awful lot about…wait…you're…you're….." Mary-Jane said.

"Yes, I am one," Alice said. "I have been one from decades, and it wasn't easy. The serums kept me at bay….even though they tasted like a delightful combination of chalk and motor oil."

Mary-Jane pulled a face at the very thought of such a delightful cocktail. She shook her head and took a second to calm her thoughts and more importantly her nerves.

"Feeding off of Harry is your best bet," Alice said. "I've been doing it for almost two years now….and his blood will sustain you for a period of ninety days."

"How does…"

"Mary-Jane, I know this might come as a shock, but I'm not exactly human," Harry said. "And what's more, I have the DNA of two of the most potent magical creatures running through my veins."

Mary-Jane's head started to swim with questions. She was about to ask one of them. Harry leaned towards her and kissed her.

The kiss happened for a moment and Mary-Jane's mind went running wild with many thoughts. She moaned and leaned into the kiss when Harry mapped out a path inside of her mouth with his tongue. He pulled away from her and left her breathless from the next kiss.

"Are you ready?" Harry asked.

"Harry's blood is unique as it can sustain those which he favors, and hurt those which he doesn't," Alice said. She smiled and she looked towards her. "Why don't I show the newbie how it's done?"

Alice decided to kiss Harry first. Harry wrapped his arms around her and pulled her closer into her. She started to kiss him down the jawline and make her way to the pleasure point on his neck.

The sexy vampire sunk her fangs down into the side of Harry's neck and started to suckle on him. Her eyes shifted over with pleasure when she drew from him. The lifeblood had been brought from Harry.

Mary-Jane watched in interest. She never thought the act of biting someone's neck could be so erotic. She reached her hand between her thighs and started to rub herself to Alice's moans when she sucked Harry's neck.

The blue marks on Harry's neck remained for a second after Alice pulled away. The marks started to heal and reveal Harry's healed neck to them. Alice turned around, with a smile crossing her face and she turned to Mary-Jane, inviting her over.

"Your turn, love."

Mary-Jane didn't waste a moment heading over towards Harry. She sauntered towards him and Harry wrapped an arm around her. Mary-Jane copied Alice's actions and kissed his mouth, his jawline and then his neck, suckling on the skin. Her newly developed fangs sunk into the side of Harry's neck and drew the lifeblood into her. The sustaining fluids entered her body.

"There's another effect of Harry's blood," Alice said. She smiled when she ran her hands over Mary-Jane's body. Her developed body pleased her. "Do you feel that?"

The two sexy vampires smiled when they looked over their mate. Lust burned through their eyes when they stared down Harry.

"Why don't we get some cream to go with that blood?" Mary-Jane asked.

"My thoughts exactly," Alice said. She cupped Harry's crotch in the most shameless manner possible and gave it a firm squeeze. "What do you say to that, love?"

"I say I'm not about to stop you," Harry groaned, the moment they started to unveil him to the world.

* * *

Harry's throbbing cock stood out at attention. Mary-Jane had been after this prize for a long time, so to say it was worth the wait would be an understatement.

The two vampires started to plant hot and potent kisses down Harry's body. Harry leaned back to enjoy the pleasure, encouraging the two girls to go further south, and pleasure him.

Mary-Jane dropped to her knees before Harry and smiled. She ran her tongue all the way around Harry's cock and tasted every square each of that.

"I've wanted to shove this big cock down my throat for a long time," Mary-Jane said. She squeezed his balls and licked down his throbbing manhood. "Would you like me to suck your cock, Harry?"

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't."

Mary-Jane's mouth lubricated every square inch of Harry's member. She kept working him over and lubricating him with her spit. Her mouth closed in on his throbbing cock and she inched herself closer towards him. Her wet mouth surrounded his hard and throbbing cock. She pushed him all the way inside, at least as far as she could get him inside her throat.

She almost gagged on Harry's cock when it entered her throat. Mary-Jane squeezed and cradled Harry's balls when she worked her mouth up and down on it.

Alice smiled and she decided to join her fellow vampire on the ground. She took Harry's balls from her and decided to suck something other than her mate's neck.

The brunette wrapped her lips around Harry's hard balls and gave them a few more sucks. She intended to pleasure him all the way.

The combined pleasure between the two of them caused a buildup to fill Harry's balls. Balls which Alice put her talented lips around and started to suckle, with her tongue batting against his heavy testicles. It brought more pleasure.

The build up increased and both of these vampire goddesses worked their magic around Harry's nether regions. He pushed himself into Mary-Jane's mouth and fucked her throat.

"You're going to get a lot of cream," Harry said. "Enough for the two of you to share."

Harry's balls started to tense up and they fired the contents into the back of Mary-Jane's throat. The first few splashes of cum struck her in the back of the throat and filled her mouth completely up.

Mary-Jane pulled away, thinking wrongly Harry was done. One blast of cum fired into the side of her face and coated her face for the white stuff.

Alice's quick reflexes brought her mouth around Harry's still firing cock. She squeezed his balls and sucked on his cock, hard. Her mouth bobbed up and down taking his cock into her mouth and drinking a heavy load of cum from his balls. She kept squeezing them.

"I forgot how the blood transference runs both ways," Alice said. She felt his still bloated balls and his cock extending up. "Let me clean you up, Mary-Jane."

Mary-Jane turned around and the older brunette pounced down upon her. Her clothes ripped off when Alice pushed her against the wall, exerting her stance as the Alpha-Vampire over her. Their tongues pushed together with a huge kiss with each other, swapping saliva and cum.

"Go take care of your Master," Alice said.

Mary-Jane received the extra encouragement she needed to go over to Harry's throbbing hard cock. She smiled when walking over and she sat down onto him. Harry pulled her over onto his lap and positioned his cock towards her entrance.

Her tight cunt wrapped around him when going all the way down onto him. Mary-Jane received her first male cock inside of her and true to her standards, she couldn't get any higher.

"I'm going to ride you, Master," Mary-Jane said. She bounced herself up and down on his cock. Her nice, round, breasts started to sway for Harry.

Harry watched her breasts jiggle in front of him. He could not wait to touch them and to make them his. He reached on in and grabbed them with a couple of squeezes. Mary-Jane closed her eyes and rode her hips down onto him.

"Fuck her pussy, make her yours," Alice said. She worked one finger inside of her pussy and started to pump herself in and out. She lifted her hips up and down in tune with her finger pushing into her. "Yes, that's the spot, right there, fuck her tight cunt! Make her scream for your cock!"

Harry grabbed Mary-Jane's hips and forced her pussy down onto him. She started to gush hard and lubricate his pole with her clear juices. Harry made sure to bring her down onto his throbbing cock with a few more pushes.

An orgasm like she had never felt before struck through her body. Harry made her ride him. Her sweaty breasts swayed back and forth when Harry grabbed onto them. He squeezed them a few times and made her breasts his. Mary-Jane's hips rolled all the way back and came down on Harry's hard cock with a few more pumps.

"Cum for me again," Harry said.

Mary-Jane's obedient body released their juices onto Harry's cock. She drove herself down onto him and rode out her orgasm. Maybe someday she would ride out his. Her eyes glazed over when Harry grabbed her breasts and squeezed them hard. Mary-Jane's hips ground back down against Harry's throbbing hard cock and she continued to ride him.

"Good girl, cum for me again," Harry said. "Once you start cumming, you're going to keep cumming, aren't you?"

Mary-Jane didn't have anything to say. She just kept riding her lover for everything he had. All of this heavy load in his balls ,it would be hers and hers alone, if she had anything to say about it. She bounced almost all the way up and brought her tight cunt down onto him.

"Please, cum for me."

Harry decided to make her wait and make her choke for it. Her pleasure would come, the second Harry was ready for it to come through her body.

"Finally," Mary-Jane said.

She received one more spectacular orgasm when Harry fired his seed into her waiting body. Mary-Jane drove herself down onto him and made sure to pump every last drop of cum she could out of his cock.

The tight cunt of the new vampire drained every single drop of Harry's balls into her overflowing cunt. Harry drained himself into her with a few more thrusts.

Mary-Jane collapsed with Harry having caught her. He dropped her down onto the table.

"Oh, Harry."

Alice sat before him, wearing nothing but a pair of glasses and a smile. Her nipples hardened and her legs spread. Her dripping, bare, pussy made a rather enticing invitation to Harry.

Harry walked over and positioned himself between Alice's spread legs. Her wet cunt drew his throbbing manhood in. Harry rose himself up over her entrance and sunk his cock in between her dripping hot thighs.

"Finally!" Alice moaned. She dug her nails into the side of Harry's neck in thinly veiled encouragement. Her hips rose up to meet Harry.

Alice ground herself against Harry to encourage him to push his throbbing cock into her pussy.

"It's been way too long, hasn't it?" Harry asked.

Alice's thighs squeezed him in response before her smooth legs wrapped around his body. She wanted to keep him close.

"Yes, it's been too long!" Alice yelled. "Show my why you're my Alpha. Pound my pussy into submission…yes, that's it….pound it, you fucking stud!"

Harry made his way up into her and buried his throbbing cock into Alice's wet vice. She squeezed around him and Harry rode her harder than ever before. Her walls tensed around Harry and milked him with each passing thrust.

Alice's entire body heated up with more pleasure. She had almost forgotten why it felt so good. Every single nerve ending in her body being stimulated by Harry's throbbing hard cock, with the young man pressing into her.

The strongest man she ever saw, his blood sustaining her through some very tough times. And she felt it would be prudent to repay him with her body in any way she could.

' _It's not like he doesn't get anything out of the arrangement,'_ Alice thought. She squeezed his bicep.

Alice's pussy clamped around Harry when he buried himself inside her. She had one of the tightest cunts he ever had the pleasure of fucking, at least in the tight ten. It caused Harry's balls to bubble up with their fluids. He caressed her legs as they wrapped around his body.

Alice enjoyed Harry working all of those sweet spots. He returned the favor by planting bites on her neck. Each time Harry's tongue and teeth scraped against her, it sent hot and pleasurable fire through Alice's body. She could not believe what she felt. It was more than amazing.

"Mmm, yeah, baby!" Alice moaned. "Give me everything you have….fuck my pussy…fuck it so hard!"

Harry wasn't about to deny her what she wanted, especially when she was willing to give herself to him. His balls tightened up and he knew sooner or later, the pleasure would burst.

"One more time," Alice said. She made sure his head lowered down in between her breasts. He sucked them as hard as he did her neck a moment ago. "Put your cum inside me…all of your seed…..give me it all."

Alice dug her fingernails into his back with a strength which would seriously maim a mortal man. Harry, on the other hand, pushed further into her. He rocked his cock into her body and intended to dump his load inside her body.

"One more time," Alice said.

Their loins joined together with the age-old dance. Alice's pussy gushed with her fluids and made sure Harry's throbbing cock inserted into her pussy with a few more pushes. His balls grew tense and the heavy load slapped against her thighs.

The two of them came together in the most explosive manner. Their bodies and minds molded into one, and the passionate exchange of love juices caused both of them to lose their minds in the most amazing way possible.

Alice milked him for everything she was worth, making sure to caress his body, and give him all of the attention a god like him deserves.

Harry emptied the last of his seed, and from the fact he was rolled over onto his back, Alice was game for more, and so was he.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on December 10** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_So, Morbius is really creepy. I'm going to go out on a limb and say telling a woman they're going to learn to like it normally goes about as well in real life as it did here with Felicia._

_Doctor Curt Connors and Doctor Kirk Langstrom have a confirmation, and oh boy, these gentlemen will be having some interesting transformations in the future. And both have attractive wives who are going to need comforting after the fact if you catch my drift._

_So, vampire Mary-Jane was something that was on tap for Spectacular but got cut for time reasons. And popped up once before in a chapter of a Sticky Situation(the anthology of smut starting Spider-Man), even though this chapter was written before that chapter, despite that chapter being posted before this chapter._

_Harry has some fun with a couple of vampires to end the chapter. Two more chapters in 2016._

 


	249. Wrapping Up

**Chapter Two Hundred and Forty-Nine: Wrapping Up Fashion Week 1999.**

* * *

 

Felicia Hardy rolled over in bed. She could feel Gwen Stacy and Reilly Parker pressed on either side of her. She could only begin to guess what happened on the night.

' _What a night,'_ Felicia mentally. She made her way to her feet and left Reilly and Gwen remained entangled with each other. _'At least it ended a lot better than it started.'_

She swung her feet out of the bed and dropped down to the floor. She made her way to the nearest mirror. She looked in pretty good shape for someone who had been dragged through the sewer. The events of last night came to her. A mostly empty bottle of wine sitting on one of the chairs reminded Felicia of what happened, what she did to try and cope with the ordeal last night.

Gwen and Reilly helped her, and well…the night ended very sticky if she was honest. Felicia recalled one other point which brought her out of her thoughts. And it brought a smile to her face.

' _Mary-Jane,'_ Felicia thought to herself, the frown going deeper.

She wondered what happened to her. Michael injected her with the serum and Gwen mentioned Harry had to take her into his lab across town, to attempt to cure her. How was it?

Felicia figured the worst thing which could happen was Mary-Jane did not pick up the phone. She dialed the phone and waited for it to ring on the other end. A couple of seconds passed before someone picked up.

"Hello, Mary-Jane?" Felicia asked.

"It's Harry," Harry said. "Mary-Jane is indisposed after last night….and after….well after I helped her cope with the ordeal which happened last night."

Felicia was glad to hear something happened. And by the sound of Harry's tone, the worst had passed.

"I'm pretty sure there was a lot of hard coping," Felicia said. The flicker of a smile she had extended over her face. She was glad she could still find amusement in all of this, despite how rough life had been over the past couple of days. "And I'm sure the coping was the sticky type of coping."

"You know how it goes," Harry said.

"So, how is she?" Felicia asked.

A long pause followed.

"She won't ever be the same," Harry said. "I'll talk to you more about it in private, but…she's coping with her new situation, and…she's taking it in good spirits."

Felicia smiled. Say what you want about Mary-Jane, but she bounced back. She was a survivor and it put a smile on her face.

"I should have done more to be able to protect her," Felicia said.

"Felicia, you shouldn't…"

She stopped Harry's attempts to make her feel better.

"It doesn't matter what I shouldn't do," Felicia said. She allowed a sigh to escape her being. She could tell Harry was going to tell her this should not be her fault. As much as she hated to admit it, she would feel a little bit of guilt. "It's just what I didn't do, really worries me…big time."

She took a couple of moments to recollect her thoughts. Presently, they scattered all about in the back of her mind. Felicia deduced the night had been pretty rough based on the one bottle of wine she went, though.

"Last night was interesting," Felicia said. "And not in a good way of interesting. You know, I normally don't get into the habit of making myself as a damsel in distress, and there I am…..the very thing I didn't want to ever be."

"Well, what are you going to do to fix that?" Harry asked.

"Well, I had myself some personal protection, but my attacker kind of turned it around on me," Felicia said. She brushed a lock of her platinum blonde hair away from her face and scowled when looking at the mirror. "I guess things could have gone a fair bit worse. I'm not sure if they could have gone much better if I would be honest."

"That's all down to you," Harry said.

Felicia tidied up a little bit. Her mother would have a stroke if she saw Felicia tidy up because she thought something was not possible. And hell, the only reason Felicia did was to keep her hands busy.

"Of course, it's all on me," Felicia said. Her lips smacked together and she smiled when taking a nice look in the mirror. She moved around to take a closer look at some newspaper clippings which had fallen off of the tack board onto the desk. "And last night was the wake-up call. I know you can't tell me why or even how but…"

She trailed off for a couple of seconds.

"Mary-Jane's life has been affected by what happened," Felicia said. "And I left her at a disadvantage. And I'm at a disadvantage."

"I know how much you hate being at a disadvantage," Harry said.

"Especially when I don't get anything out of it," she murmured underneath her breath. A newspaper clipping pressed in the palm of Felicia's hand and she eyed it.

She looked long and hard at an article from a Gotham City Newspaper detailing the exploits of Catwoman. She smiled for a second and placed the article on the board.

"I'm sure you'll think of something," Harry said. "Just take it easy…and if you don't want to come in tonight, you don't have to. I explained to Lavender and Mari what happened, and they both agreed you and Mary-Jane should really stay in tonight. There's more than enough to hold down the fort."

"Nice of you to think of me," Felicia said. "But, honey, the show must go on."

Felicia would be damned if she missed out on the biggest night of this week. She might not have put in the hard work Lavender or Mari did, but she did offer her contributions to the entire event and would be damned if she sat out.

"And as for thinking of something, maybe I already have."

Felicia turned towards Gwen and Reilly, the two of them stirring.

"I'll talk to you later," Felicia said. "I think I'm going to have a nice breakfast today."

After she made the two of them produce their organic webbing last night, Felicia wanted a repeat performance now she was conscience and somewhat sober.

"Why don't the three of us share a shower?" Felicia asked. She smiled upon them. "You know, for the purpose of water conversation."

"Wouldn't be the first time," Gwen said with a cheeky little smile.

* * *

 

Mari and Lavender gave them the opportunity to skip this final night of the Fashion Week event. Many people would have taken it, given the circumstances they had been put in. Mary-Jane Watson and Felicia Hardy was not many people. They made their way to the pre-party. Felicia dressed in a sleek black dress which her curves spilled into. Mary-Jane wore a night little black dress and also a black choker on her neck. The choker had a dual purpose this time.

The girls looked at them. They heard about what happened, although only these three knew the full details of what happened.

"Mary-Jane, are you sure you're up for this?" Harry asked her. He looked her straight in the eye.

"Yep, I'm up for this," Mary-Jane said. She leaned back with a smile on her face. "I thought…for a minute I wouldn't be, but after last night, I feel more recharged than ever before."

The group all made their way around to greet the girls. There was a bit of concern in their voices and their eyes when they approached.

"Felicia, I thought you were going to take the night off after….what happened last night," Beatriz said.

"Was it true you got kidnapped?" Tora asked looking at the girl.

Felicia smiled, not too concerned about the question.

"By one of my many creepy stalkers," Felicia said. "He got the drop on me, but you know what, if I let him ruin my life, he's going to win. And we can't have that now can we?"

The girls all shook their heads. Many of them admired her persistence.

"Well, if nothing else, we can admire your persistence," Emma said. She locked her eyes onto Felicia and smiled. "Some might say you are very stubborn, though."

"Would you be the first on the list to attest to how stubborn I am, Ms. Frost?" Felicia asked. A shadow of a grin flashed over her face when she locked eyes onto Emma.

"Maybe I will be," Emma said. She took a second to turn her head over to one side. "Maybe I will be the top of the list."

Jan pulled Harry off to the side and the two of them were in a whispered conversation with each other.

"So, what do you think?" Harry asked Jan.

"Oh, I think we're going to have to top this next year," Jan said. She stole a look towards Mari and Emma. "And….why even wait until next year? Let the business keep going on all year around."

"Yes," Harry said, smiling when he looked at her.

The door swung open and everyone's attention turned towards the person who stepped her way into the lobby next.

"Well, now it's a party," Beatriz said. She looked a little bit nervous at the newest arrival who came through the door.

Tori Stark arrived, dressed in a sleek business suit and wearing sunglasses. She looked like she just came off a plane and decided to crash this party. Pepper came a few inches behind her and looked like she had it put together a bit more.

"Tori, I thought you were going to be on the West Coast," Harry said when the Stark heiress stepped inside with a smile on her face.

"Business wrapped up a bit earlier than I thought it would," Tori said. She looked around towards the girls. They were casually dressed and not in the skimpy lingerie she expected it to be. "You know where there are beautiful women, I'll be there….and…where you're here…..I understand you've been really busy."

Harry gave a smile. She may have made a slight understatement with her words.

"Busy doesn't seem to cover it," Harry said.

"Why don't you discuss it with me, later?" Tori asked. "Maybe over dinner, if our schedules ever line up again…..I know you've been bouncing all over New York and I've been bouncing all over myself…."

"Hopefully we can rest now," Pepper said.

Pepper thought this entire trip, which started out as a vacation, ended up running them ragging. It all started with the plane running out of fuel and needing to make an emergency landing. Thankfully, they did not crash.

"Ah, I don't mind," Tori said. "After all, no rest for the wicked. If I wasn't doing something interesting, I would question my lot in life."

"Your life is nothing, but interesting," Emma said. "Hello, Ms. Stark, it's good to see you once again….."

"Yes, good to see you as well, Ms. Frost, and we're both sober this time," Tori said.

"I think we don't need to bring up what happened the last time we were together," Emma said.

"Is that because you ended the night handcuffed?" Tori asked. She got a look from Emma, with her eyebrow raised. "Right, I'll be good right now, I swear….."

Tori looked across the hallway and saw a familiar Brazilian, although she had quickly decided to duck away in the pretext of going to the bathroom.

"Another one of your conquests who doesn't want to look you in the eye?" Harry asked Tori. "Or something else?"

"Yes, something else," Tori said. "Has she made her move yet?"

"Not, yet," Harry said. He stepped closer and leaned towards Tori. "But, I'm pretty sure she intends to before the end of the week."

"Well keep your eyes peeled," Tori said with a smile. "And it was nice talking to you again."

Indeed it was.

* * *

 

The island of Lian Yu was the furthest thing from the vacation destination of the year. It had been the final destination of many men, who had been sent there to die.

A ragged looking man who looked as if he did not shave or bathe in months leaned against the wall. The chains rattled when he tried to move. No matter how much he tried to pull himself free from the wall, the chain which held him snapped back and prevented him from escaping his predicament.

Voices could be heard, and several people were moving around, along with moving something around.

' _For an abandoned island, there's sure a lot of activity here,'_ he thought.

Two grubby men dressed in military uniform made their way over to the captive man. Oliver's head turned a fraction of the inch to one side and looked at them.

"Who the hell are you?" one of the soldiers asked. He looked at the captive as roughly as possible. He tried to free himself but found himself unable to free himself from the position. "ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

Oliver did not hasten to answer the question which put the military men in a rather bad mood.

"ANSWER THE QUESTION!"

"I don't remember," the captive said. "I….I don't remember…."

The two soldiers stared at the young man, with murderous intent.

"He's lying," the second soldier said. He turned towards his companion. "I can see it in his eyes. His lying eyes, he has the lying eyes of a devil."

"It's been all….please….you can't….." the captive said. His entire body started to shake when he had been trapped up against the wall.

"He's a liar," the soldier said. "Maybe this will give him the incentive, to tell the truth."

The soldier reached forward and gripped the captive's hand roughly. The agony which he experienced had been beyond anything he ever felt in his life when his wrist had been squeezed.

"ARGH!" the captive screamed. His index finger had been pushed back and broken. The shattering sensation going through his finger was agony beyond everything he had ever experienced in his life.

"What is your name?" the soldier asked.

The captive squirmed, but refused to give up information. Something told him he needed to keep his mouth shut.

"I….."

"Still not talking are you?" the soldier asked. He grabbed his middle finger and pulled it back. He used the exact amount of force he could to break his finger. "The next one will be cut off, do you understand me?"

The soldier withdrew a knife from his sleeve. And the knife inched closer to the man's digit. The captive tried to remain strong, even though he did not normally have much strength to spare.

"I….."

The knife edged ever so closer and sweat started to drip down the man's face.

"You won't be able to function without half of your fingers," the soldier said. "You're soft….so why don't you tell us your name, and we'll leave you alone?"

"Oliver….Queen!" he yelled, finally breaking. He started to breathe heavily. "What is this place?"

"Son, this is Purgatory," one of the soldiers said. "So, Oliver Queen, the name rings a bell, doesn't it?"

"No one we need," the second of the soldiers said. He removed a gun and pointed it towards the prisoner. "He's not anyone who would have information…so let's kill him."

The door swung open and the soldiers hesitated before they could do the deed.

"Stop."

The soldiers turned towards their employer when he stepped inside. They nodded in response.

"Stand down," the third man said. He was dressed in a rather elegant suit. He stepped towards the two gentlemen. "Leave me and him to have a conversation….you two make sure she doesn't return."

The soldiers nodded, understanding their orders. They turned their backs and departed without another word.

"Sorry about my men," the third man said. "They can jump the gun a little bit and….be a bit theatrical."

Oliver Queen's bleary eyes looked towards the gentleman. He did not look as gruff as the soldiers, or as dirty. He looked more professional in fact. He wondered what the hell was going on.

"Who are you?"

The man did not answer the question straight away, rather he just smiled.

"You can be very useful, your friends and family must wonder where you are," he said. "Especially considering many people thought you died at sea months ago, Ms. Queen. I would be able to…..return you home, in time."

"You'll be able to return me home?" Oliver asked. He sounded skeptical at this.

"I have resources and the means to do so," the man said. He considered the man's question. "Edward Fyres at your service."

He looked at Oliver, remaining deep in thought before going to his next move.

"Yes, yes, you will be very useful," Fyres said. "You may have information I need, even if you don't realize it yet. But you will realize how useful you are to me. And if you cooperate, you'll be home in a nice warm bed, with food, and all of the comforts of civilized life."

"Your men broke my fingers."

"Yes, they can be rough," Fyres said. "You must have seen something during all of this time on the island, which can help me. And if you help me, I will be a man of my word and help you."

He needed to contact his brother back at OsCorp to see how he would proceed next. Despite the modified spelling of his last name, to throw people off of the scent, the familial connection between the two men was strong.

* * *

 

A long time had passed before the Crew on the Interceptor had run into the Red Lanterns and they ran into them alright. Oh boy did they ever run into them in style.

Carol and Sinestra engaged a group of the Red Lanterns in a firefight. Bright colored beams of red and green, along with the constructs to match shot through space. Neither side backed up from their position.

"We take them out, we see what they know, we find Atrocitus, and this ends!" Sinestra yelled. Her eyes flashed when bombarding her adversary. "We have to get them first."

"Easier said than done!" Carol yelled. She created a wrecking ball with her ring and swung it around as hard as she could. The wrecking ball smashed into the Red Lanterns which caused them to scatter.

Sinestra's intense demeanor increased with each passing second. She reared back her arm and fired one hard shot off against the Red Lanterns. The group scattered back a couple of inches. She repeated her action two more times.

"Don't think about what might not happen here," Sinestra said.

The head Green Lantern turned her head to the most annoying of the Red Lanterns, and she guessed he would be considered the head of the crew all things considered.

"You, I'm sick of you!" Zox yelled. He tried to nail Sinestra with an energy spike from his ring. Sinestra dodged the attack and the spike passed harmlessly through space.

"Oh, finally, we've found some common ground we can agree on!" Sinestra yelled.

"When I'm done, I'm going to bury you six feet under!" Atrocitus yelled. He fired spiked red balls at his adversary. Sinestra dodged them. "Stand still….when I get my hands around you, Atrocitus will commend me."

Sinestra formed a shield and looked bored when she deflected the attacks of the bastard Red Lantern. His energy fired against the shield and made a ricochet effect.

"Good," Sinestra said without missing a beat. "We're going to have to pin a medal on your eye!"

Carol took out two Red Lanterns in one shot. She looked at Zox. His round shape brought a rather interesting construct to mind which she could not wait and try out.

"ARGH!" Zox yelled. He had been caught with a green foot and had been sent through space like a soccer ball. He smashed into several of the Red Lanterns, taking them out without any problem whatsoever.

As much as Carol wanted to celebrate, several glowing red terrors flew through space at her and Sinestra. They had already been separated from Ilana, Katma, and Aya, and they had a sense the fun was about to just increase tenfold.

"Don't look now, but there is more help on the way…"

Carol and Sinestra had been struck head on and they started to fly towards a planet. Out of the corner of the eye, the Red Lanterns zipped back, doing their best impression of demons which had been splashed by holy water.

The Green Lanterns put the brakes on and flew directly towards a planet which had been surrounded by purple light. Carol dropped to her knees and then pulled herself up. Thankfully, she had survived much worse crashes than this.

"Okay, that was not pleasant," Carol said. "And we're separated even further from the others….but at least we're still alive."

Sinestra took a moment to look around. The glowing purple crystals around her gave her a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach when she looked.

"Oh, no," she murmured underneath her breath. "Oh, no, no, no, no!"

Carol had been taken aback by Sinestra's sudden declaration of anguish.

"What's so bad?" Carol asked. "We didn't land on another living planet. One this time who doesn't want to help us, rather eat us?"

"No, we didn't," Sinestra said. She took a moment to look around. She could hear beating hearts near her and it was not a pleasant sound. She redoubled herself. "You're going to wish we have though…we've landed on the planet Zamaron…the home of the Star Sapphire Corps."

Carol racked her brain from the training. Zamaron rang a bell, as did the Star Sapphire Corps. It only took her less than a minute to piece together why she knew this.

"Aren't they…another color coded Lantern Corps?" Carol asked. "And aren't they…the group who is all about love and spreading it throughout the universe? It could have gone worse."

"Trust me, it couldn't," Sinestra said. "You'll find out in a moment if we don't get off of this planet."

"I'm sure the rest of the crew will find us soon," Carol said. "It doesn't seem so bad….."

Sinestra placed her hand out in from of Carol's face and made her focus. The Green Lantern frowned in response.

"Get it together, Danvers," Sinestra said. "The Zamarons may be more twisted than the Red Lanterns…..they don't just recruit women…they recruit women who have been spurned by other men….and they have a twisted perception of what love should be."

"And I'm sure you're a true expert on love," Carol said.

Sinestra understood it was meant to be a slight, even though it was an accurate one. And it still distracted them from the real problem they had to deal with.

"I don't claim to be, but I know they're not," Sinestra said. "The sooner we get off of the planet….the better….I'm already losing myself….."

The beating hearts continued to grow more prominent. Sinestra knew they had very little time before they all had been lost. They needed to find a way off of this planet and quickly.

"Ilana will not be able to step one foot on this planet," Sinestra said.

Carol waited for elaboration, but Sinestra did not give it to her.

* * *

 

Harry Potter soaked in the sights of scantily clad women dressed in lingerie pretty much as far as the eye could see. Each and everyone one of them pranced around. Some of them had been drinking. He noticed Emma had lead Felicia off into one of the bedroom suites and you didn't need to put two and two together to figure out what was going on there.

He decided to turn to the two women who made this evening's festivities possible.

"You're pleased," Harry said to Lavender who smiled and looked at the group. They were about ready to wrap up the week.

"I'm pleased with how this week has gone," Lavender said. "I'm a bit disappointed though it's almost over."

"I'm sure a few of us would be glad for the week to be over," Mari said. She took a long drink and smiled. "We can finally kick back and relax."

"No rest for the wicked," Lavender said. She smiled and took another drink. She almost stumbled over. "And I think I overshot my target…..I'll have to find my way to the bathroom."

Harry watched with a smile when Lavender stumbled her way towards the bathroom. Given what some of the girls partook in to cope with the week which was, he figured she would not be the first.

"So, are you ready to take the reins from her?" Harry asked Mari. "Given, she's stepping back in the States to focus on the International Market."

"She's groomed me for this," Mari said. She looked at Harry with a smile. "I'm going to have to just give it my best try…and I'm sure the two of us will be working more closely together sooner rather than later."

Harry moved over to make his rounds. Jan and Karen were in conversation off to the side, but his attention had been diverted by the fact Beatriz was standing on the stage and Tora looked up at her with a concerned look on her face.

"Bea, you should come down from there…..you could fall," Tora said.

"Relax, Tora, I know what I'm do…."

Her leg turned the long way and Beatriz almost fell off of the stage. It was a two-foot drop, but not one someone wanted to make in heels. Harry caught her before she smacked into the ground.

"Are you okay?" Harry asked.

"Yes, given you were here to catch me," she said with a smile. Her breasts pressed against Harry's face when she leaned against me. "Oh, I think I twisted my ankle."

"I warned her," Tora said.

Beatriz held her head back and moaned in pain, although there was a bit of an erotic tinge.

"Do you think you can do me a favor Harry, and carry me up to my bed?" Beatriz asked. "I don't think I can walk."

Harry smiled and scooped the beautiful Brazilian up in his arms. She nuzzled against him and Harry could feel her fit body pressed against his. He walked up the steps with her in arms.

' _Finally,'_ she thought to herself in triumph, not noticing the knowing smile on Harry's face.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on December 14** **th** **, 2016.**

* * *

 

_So, the aftermath, with some foreshadowing towards Felicia's eventual costume identity. The wheels are turning._

_Hey, everyone, Oliver Queen is alive, but boy does his life suck. I'm sure you're wondering why I'm even bothering, well, it actually ties into an ongoing plot thread involving something Harry is doing. Plus, there will be a very amusing addition on the island which will make the adventures of Oliver Queen a bit more entertaining._

_And we land on a planet of hot women with a twisted perception of love._

_Bea thinks she's got, Harry. Oh boy, could she be ever wrong._

_The final chapter of 2016 is coming Wednesday._


	250. Tainted Love Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty: Tainted Love Part One.**

* * *

 

The door opened up and the lights came on. Harry cradled the beautiful Brazilian model in his arms. Bea pressed her breast against Harry's check and tried to get things to heat up, in more ways than one between the two of them. A grin flashed over the woman's face when Harry placed her on the bed. He took a step back to get her situated.

"Thank you," she said. She smiled at him and patted on the bed. "Why don't you sit down for a little bit? It must have been hard work even for a nice strong man like yourself to carry me up the stairs and to this room."

"It wasn't a problem at all….."

"After all of the work you've been through, I insist you sit down," Beatriz said. A smile crossed over her face when she looked Harry straight in the eyes. "Please, for me…take a load off….it's been a long week."

Harry kicked off his shoes and climbed into bed. In an instant, Beatriz moved closer towards him. She wrapped an arm around Harry and pushed closer towards him. She started to unbutton his shirt and smiled.

Her finger brushed against his physique. An immense heat flushed through her body, which could be filled by one thing and one thing alone.

"Mmm, you're so strong," Beatriz said. Her hands rubbed his chest and abs before they dipped down a little bit further to tease him. "And you're a real stud…..relax….let us have some fun."

"You want to have some fun?" Harry asked.

"Yes, honey, I do," Beatriz said. "How are you feeling?"

Harry turned his attention towards her and pinned her arm down to the bed. He smiled when he looked her in her bright eyes.

"I'm hungry," Harry said. "And I could eat a little Brazilian."

Harry pushed Bea back onto the bed and leaned towards her. His lips met hers in a passionate kiss. She returned the kiss with an each amount of fire. Her moans increased the more Harry pushed inside of her mouth.

Beatriz lost all sense of herself. Her tongue battled with Harry's. The duel in their mouths grew, even more, wanton, even more hungry. She wanted him, all of him. He gave her a kiss which rocked her senseless and increased her heartbeat. His hands caressed her body and caused shivers.

A clink of metal could be heard and Beatrix's eyes opened. She found herself handcuffed to the bed, unable to break free. Harry released the kiss. Beatriz saw the woman she knew as Alexandra Danvers, an Agent of the DEO, even though she could not reveal it without blowing her cover.

"You're way too easy," Alex said. She took Harry's place and planted a kiss on Bea's burning lips. "And not so subtle…..and I hate you, by the way."

Beatriz raised an eyebrow in response.

"Tori Stark was right, this was how you would proceed," Alex said. "And I now owe her a drink…..I hope you're happy."

"I don't understand," Beatriz said, attempting to play coy. She failed, though, big time.

Harry and Alex both smiled and started to strip the clothing from the Brazilian Model. They revealed her toned flesh without an ounce of fat on it. Her flesh was bronzed and there was a distinct lack of tan lines on it. Her center had been waxed without any bit of hair on it.

"I have a few questions," Harry said. His hand lingered on Bea's thigh, even though it did not move up to pleasure her between her legs. "And depending on how well you answer them….you might get a little reward."

Harry's hand worked circles around her. He taunted her a few times, brushing against her. He did not penetrate her at all. Harry came close and pulled away to cause the woman's ample chest to rise and fall. Her nipples grew hard.

Beatriz could not believe it. His hands toyed with her. They worked their magic on her body, but it was really just a taste, nothing more. Her heart started to beat faster.

A zipper had been undone and Alex had undone Harry's pants. She pulled him out and smiled when she made sure Bea's eyes were locked completely and utterly on her.

Bea watched as the DEO agent sucked off Harry Potter right before her eyes. A taunting look appeared in Alex's eyes as if daring Bea to say anything, anything at all. Bea's entire body shook when Harry gave her a few momentary caresses before pulling away and leaving her on the bed.

"So, what do you say?" Harry groaned. He could see her frustrating. "What are you up to? Who are you working for?"

The loud slurping sounds caused Bea's stoic resolve to break.

"Waller…Miranda Waller," Beatriz said. She watched Alex's mouth bob up and down against Harry's crotch. She imagined herself in the DEO agent's place. "She wants you to be a part of her team, to lead them….I'm not sure what…but she's looking into Meteor Mutants who….who might be useful….who haven't been driven mad by their powers."

Harry steadied Alex's head so she could finish the job. He smiled and moved over towards Beatriz. His lips curled into a knowing smile and he placed a hand onto the sexy Brazilian.

"Well, since you've gave me the truth, I think it's only fair to reward you," Harry said. Beatriz looked hopeful. "Not tonight, not until you prove where your loyalty truly lies. But, don't worry, I'll give you a hand."

A hand he did in fact give. A few fingers slipped inside her and drove Beatriz to an amazing finish. Her hips worked up and down on his probing fingers.

Beatriz had been brought to a more spectacular end than she thought she could in the past. Her hips bucked up and worked over Harry's fingers over and over again.

"Do you have any names for me?" Harry asked. "Anyone who Waller has her eyes on?"

"I don't….know!" Beatriz yelled. "But, I can find out...OOOH….I know Agent Johnson is keeping an eye on Alison Blaire, to make sure she doesn't fall into the wrong crowd, though…"

Alex realized something. She almost gasped, breaking her momentum.

"Daisy?" Harry asked, making sure Alex kept up with her part of the interrogation.

"Yes!" Bea screamed, both to the question and Harry's efforts.

Alex frowned. So Daisy's been a very bad girl. The moment Alex got ahold of her, some discipline might have been in order.

"Alex, she's been very helpful, wouldn't you say?" Harry asked. "Why don't we give her a nice little reward?"

Bea's entire body shook the second she heard more slurping sounds. Alex did a few more passes before she released Harry from her mouth.

"Yes," Alex said with a smile. "I think we have the perfect reward for her."

Beatriz's thighs spread, finally she would get what she deserved. Only, to feel something warm splatter in her face, with several pumps unloading Harry's gift onto her face. The volume contained within him caused Bea to shudder. He painted her face completely white, unleashing a one-man Bukkake on her face.

Alex smiled and she unloaded Harry's ammunition onto Bea's face. The moment he was somewhat deflated, Alex turned to Bea with a smile.

"There you go, a reward fitting for a shameless whore such as yourself," Alex said. "Maybe when we figure out where your loyalties lie…you'll get a bit more consideration….but until then….."

Alex leaned down and she licked Bea's face, before pulling back with a smile. She wrapped an arm around Harry.

"Shall we finish in your room?" Alex asked. "Or mine?"

"Whatever works best for you," Harry said. He turned to Bea with a smile on her face. "Hopefully, your ankle feels better."

Bea shuddered at the tone of his voice. His eyes raked over her sweaty, frustrated body one more time. She could not believe it. He was supposed to want her. She was not supposed to be frustrated, wanting him, and being denied him. The thought of it made her shudder.

Mari waited from the hallway outside and was very interested in seeing the spectacle unfold. The door had been left open a slight crack and it allowed her to get a full view of Alex and Harry painting Bea's face. To be honest, it was a good look on her.

She decided to go in and check on the poor sexually frustrated girl. Mari wouldn't even dream of taking advantage of the situation, while Bea was all handcuffed to the bed with nowhere to go.

Okay, maybe a little bit.

* * *

 

James Gordon sensed the mood had changed in Gotham City, and it wasn't just because there was a new Commissioner in town. He put his stamp on things, with his gung-ho attitude. Gorgon was most certainly someone who would be interesting to work with, although James did not think it would be for all of the right reason.

Right now, he found himself returning to his desk after a surprisingly bland and dull night. The head of MCU thought he should cherish the nights like this because it would be the calm before the storm. And many storms would be about ready to strike Gotham City and turn their lives upside down.

His eye had been caught by an envelope on his desk. Gordon raised an eyebrow. He had a bad feeling about this.

Several letters had been cut out and pasted on the envelope. Whoever was involved did not want their handwriting to be found out. The words "From a Concerned Citizen" plastered on the envelope. Gordon held it in his hand and frowned. He debated on whether or not to open it.

Opening anonymous mail in Gotham City seemed like an idea which wasn't very good to Gordon. He had spent a bit of time working with the Bomb Squad when he was younger, much younger, and placing the envelope to his ear did not offer any of the telltale signs.

"So, you got one of those, didn't you?"

Harvey Bullock showed up at Gordon's shoulder. Gordon turned around a second later to look Bullock straight in the eye and respond with a brisk nod.

"From a Concerned Citizen?" Bullock asked. "If you ask me, those letters are nothing but trouble. Nothing, but some kook trying to get underneath someone's skin and trying to cause problems, taking attention away from real investigations."

"This is the third one I received in the last month," Gordon said. He analyzed the letter a few seconds later and frowned. He wondered what he could make of the contents.

"Okay, it's a very dedicated kook," Bullock said. His frown deepened when he locked eyes on Gordon. "You shouldn't let yourself get too worked up over this, Jimbo….don't lose any sleep over it."

The cop had seen the extent many people had gone.

"I wouldn't even open it," Bullock said. "And it wouldn't be a good idea to open it either, you never know what it's laced with….you didn't open any of the other ones, did you?"

"No, I didn't," Gordon said.

"There you go," Bullock said without skipping a beat. "Just toss it in the trash, and we can get a cup of coffee. You look like you could use some caffeine. Place is a morgue around here."

Say what you want about that Joker nutcase, but he spiced things up in Gotham City. And now, everything had gone quiet. It was almost like all of the mobsters had gone on some kind of holiday retreat which they had not told anyone about.

Gordon dangled the document in his hand, considering something. He dropped it in the garbage can without another word. Any thought of taking this person seriously had left him. Harvey was right. Just some kook distracting from the real issues in Gotham.

* * *

 

Harry was not going back to New York City after Fashion Week woke up. He joined Faora, Karen, and Alex on a plane to head out to the West Coast where Ferris Aircraft was located. Harry, Karen, and Faora had some urgent business to conduct with the lovely Ms. Carol Ferris. And as for Alex, she wanted to visit an old family friend.

' _And to think, it started out here, with Carol,'_ Alex thought.

' _Yes, I know,'_ Harry thought.

' _Wait….um…..'_ Alex thought, not sure how to phrase this out loud or in her thoughts without sounding like a complete and utter lunatic.

"Yes, you hear Harry's voice inside your head," Faora said. "The Alpha Council has agreed you passed all tests, especially your help with seducing the lovely Ms. De Costa."

"So, you have some kind of network of girls?" Alex asked. "Kind of like some kind of collective?"

"Yes," Harry said. "They'll explain more about it to you later, trust me."

Alex smiled; she did trust Harry more than anything. And she was so glad to have proven herself. Having some people she could call out to for support could come in handy sometimes.

She pushed herself closer to Harry as the plane turned the corner on the West Coast. The smile on her face gave way to a sullen expression.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked her. "I thought you were happy about being included in the bond network."

"Oh, believe me, I am," Alex said. Her smile grew a bit more prominent at the thought before she lapsed to her usual look of agitation. "It's just…..I can't believe Tori Stark was right. She called pretty much everything; down to the very last…..it's pretty frustrating to think she could be right about anything."

"I know," Harry said, smiling in response. "But, hey, you know underneath her party girl attitude, Tori is a genius."

Alex knew Tori Stark was one of the smartest women in the world, and when she did not use her full potential, that made things rather insufferable for everyone involved. When she could stay on the wagon, she gave some of the smartest minds in the world, some with many more decades of experience a run for the money.

' _So, I don't want to be the one to address the elephant in the room, but…..you found out about your best friend working for a super-secret government agency,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, I did,'_ Alex thought a second later.

' _That has to sting a little bit, doesn't it?'_ Harry asked her.

' _Yes, just a little bit,'_ Alex thought a few seconds later. She rolled her arms back with a slight shrug thinking about it. _'To be fair, though, I wasn't exactly honest with Daisy regarding what my line of work was.'_

Two wrongs did not make a right, especially in cases like this. Alex felt it was only fair to offer a balanced perspective, though. Harry's hand found hers which caused her to smile.

' _What are you going to do now?'_ Harry asked.

' _When I see her again, we're going to have a nice talk,'_ Alex thought. _'Depending on her response, handcuffs may have to be involved….although I'm sure she understands who she should be kneeling before.'_

Faora cracked a smile. Some girls took a bit of convincing to worship the alter of Har-Zod. Alexandra Danvers was one of the girls who jumped head on to the situation.

' _Better give her a chance to explain herself and….are you going to inform her about your work at the DEO?'_ Harry asked.

Alex thought about it for a couple of moments. She gave the matter a fair amount of consideration and she intended to have an honest conversation with Daisy anyway. To think she was holding some of the same secrets Alex did really was an interesting experience to say the very least.

' _I think it would be for the best, yes,'_ Alex thought a moment later. Her frown grew even more prominent when she thought about it. _'Well, that's one conversation I'm not looking forward to. And here I thought telling my mother about what Carol was up to….that was the tricky one.'_

Alex shifted hers position on the seat and looked outside of the window. She returned to Harry and rested her head on his shoulder. Harry wrapped an arm around her and smiled.

' _Now Beatriz has had a taste of you, she'll be more inclined to be loyal to you,'_ Karen thought, offering her two cents on the bond link. _'And Ms. Waller….she'll be an interesting one…..'_

' _She's going to be a tougher nut to crack,'_ Harry thought. _'I wonder if she'll ever decide to do the job herself.'_

' _Maybe,'_ Karen thought. _'So, are you looking to add some more chocolate into your diet?'_

' _Might not be a bad idea,'_ Harry thought. _'Although Mari seems closer to breaking, given the fact we gave her a bit of a show.'_

' _I told you leaving the door open would come in handy,'_ Alex said. Harry tightened his arm grip around her and leaned closer towards her. The kiss connected between the two of them.

' _That you did.'_

* * *

 

Sinestra thought the sooner they got off this planet, the better off they would be. There was something extremely off-putting about this world and she did not like it, in the slightest, not at all. The leader of the Green Lanterns turned towards the young recruit.

"Watch your back," Sinestra said.

Carol Danvers thought they had been going around in a circle for a long time. The Interceptor did not find them just yet, and any attempt to make communication had been stopped by Sinestra.

"Do you even have any idea where we're heading?" Carol asked. She tried not to sound too accusatory. The words slipped out before she had a chance to amend them. "I mean I'm sure you have some idea…"

Sinestra held up her hand. A flicker of green light emitted from her ring.

Carol stepped further into the valley which Sinestra had brought them to. So much pink, so much pink, she could not believe she had been surrounded by so much pink.

And they were not alone. Carol's gaze shifted, rather nervously, to the figures who showed up. Women who were dressed in white robes with pink trim approached them. They wielded weapons which pointed at Carol and Sinestra.

"Who are you?" one of the guards asked.

"Please, we don't mean you any harm," Carol said, stepping in front of Sinestra before she could say something. "We have been stranded here….we have been attacked by the Red Lanterns."

"Stand down, my children."

A strikingly beautiful woman with glowing pink skin and ample features approached the entire group. A smile crossed her face when she approached them.

"My name is Queen Aga'po, I lead the Star Sapphire Corps," she said. "I am their Queen."

"I know," she said. "I sense the emptiness within you."

Carol could not help and see Sinestra as she rolled her eyes and mouthed the words "here we go."

"Love should not be bottled up inside, being forced to conform to the standards the patriarchy have laid about for us long ago," Aga'po said. "It should be unchained. Free to go forward without any boundaries whatsoever."

She looked over towards them. Yes, they had been lost and had been forced to work in servitude to the Guardians. It was unfortunate they did not know what true love was, but women could be educated not to be submissive to men.

"And if you've been separated from the rest of your team, it's only fair to offer you sanctuary until they return," Aga'po said. "So, why don't the two of you come inside, and make yourselves at home?"

Carol decided to follow in the Star Sapphires with good grace. If nothing else, to learn more about them, and to see what made them tick. Their break up with the Guardians of Oa had been one of the most frustrating pieces of Green Lantern lore.

She took a second to look at Sinestra before allowing the Star Sapphires to lead her over to a lavish bed. The Sapphires invited Carol to sit down. Two of them removed her boots and started to massage her feet.

"Make yourselves at home," Aga'po said.

A third went behind Carol and started to massage her shoulders.

"Don't get too relaxed," Sinestra said. She looked her younger charge in the eye. "The moment the Interceptor gets here, we're leaving….."

"Why don't you just sit down and relax?" Carol asked. "It isn't going to kill you to relax for a little bit…you're always so tense."

"I'm tense for a good reason," Sinestra said. "And how can you relax when Red Lanterns are out there terrorizing the universe?"

Carol shrugged. She couldn't really do anything until the Interceptor got here.

' _If I ever become as high strung as Sinestra, I really hope my sisters seal me in a box,'_ Carol thought. _'Until I learn to be less high strung at least.'_

Carol locked eyes on her mentor and Sinestra's frown grew even more prominent to the point where it started to send some chills down Carol's spine.

"Why don't you sit down, relax a while?" Carol asked her. "It's not going to hurt anything if you actually relax for once in your life….or are you afraid you might enjoy it?"

One of the Star Sapphires fed Carol a freshly plucked grape.

"How did you get Earth food?" Carol asked.

"The Queen wanted us to ensure you had all of the comforts of your home world," one of the Star Sapphires said. Her hand ran down Carol's spine.

"See, they're going out of their way to help us," Carol said. "I'm sure they don't like the Red Lanterns as much as we do…given they're all about love and the Red Lanterns are vicious rage monsters as well."

"I'm going to go see if the ship is close," Sinestra said.

Sinestra hoped Carol would not learn the hard way how love could sting in the worst possible way. The Star Sapphires may have changed since the break, Sinestra did not know.

They would most certainly not put their worst face forward for their guests. The Green Lantern turned her attention outside and walked outdoors.

Aga'po frowned when she watched Sinestra leave the area.

"Keep an eye on her," she told her Star Sapphires. "Just in case…..make sure she doesn't get harmed in any way, though…..but contain her if necessary."

The two women nodded and slipped off into the distance without another word, to discreetly follow Sinestra.

* * *

 

Carol Ferris smiled. She was glad to see Alex as well, just about as much as she was glad to get on with some very important business. Her father's health took another turn, so she was just glad to have had something to keep her mind working.

"So, what do you think?" Karen asked.

"Well," Carol said with a smile. "I don't see how this couldn't be feasible….and all of the paperwork seems to be in order. The Board seems to be more inclined to go through with my ideas when they have Harry's stamp of approval on them."

Harry looked at her with an apologetic smile.

"Sorry," Harry said.

"No, don't be," Carol said. "And I hope you can forgive me for using your name to make them listen to me….some of them thought they would have their hooks into the company after….Dad stepped back."

"How is he doing?" Alex asked.

"Not well, but….he told me not to worry about him, and he made me promise to worry about Ferris Aircraft and continuing the legacy," Carol said. "And that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to continue this company's legacy."

Carol thought making this particular promise wasn't the easiest thing in the world to do. For her father, though, she endeavored to her very best, because that was what she did.

"So, is there any chance to install cloaking technology on the plane?" Harry asked her.

Carol responded with a frown and placed her hand underneath her chin.

"An Invisible Jet….?" Carol asked.

"I had to ask, Diana was curious about it," Harry said.

"Hmmm," Carol said. "It could be possible, although I suspect this would be for more of a private use….is there any particular reason why you would want a jet which could go invisible?"

"Diana always wanted one," Harry said.

' _Despite the fact, she can fly,'_ Faora thought to Harry with a smile. _'But, I suppose you can't knock the rule of cool.'_

Carol took a moment to almost break out into laughter. Come to think of it, an Invisible Jet was one of those things where she did not think she needed it. Now she thought about it, though, she really did need it.

"It's possible," Carol said thoughtfully. "Will require some work…and I suppose you don't want the military to even get a hint about this."

"No," Harry said.

The fact Harry had theoretical cloaking technology meant he would not be left alone. Granted, this was merely a test to see if it would work.

"Well, it's a nice little side project, in addition to all of these other projects which you dumped on my lap," Carol said. She looked at all three of them, smiling. "Not that I'm complaining, oh no, far from it…..I'm pretty pleased with what we're doing, and I hope we can do more business in the future."

Carol had been distracted by something out of the corner of her eye.

"Do you think you can excuse me for a minute?" Carol asked.

Carol opened up her office door and noticed a glowing pink light in the hallway.

Harry noticed the same glowing pink light, and Faora and Karen noticed it as well. Both of them frowned, and they all three came to the same thought.

' _I have a very bad feeling about this,'_ they thought.

Several figures exited a portal and grabbed onto Carol. They were dressed in pink and white robes, with a hint of purple surrounding them. They didn't waste any time of dragging her through the portal.

Faora knocked Carol's office door off of its hinges and went through the portal after them. Harry and Karen followed, and Alex rushed through the portal as well, on pure instincts .If this was of alien origins, then she should follow, on account of being a DEO agent.

Alex just barely passed through as the portal sealed shut and they disappeared into parts unknown.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on January 4** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Well, Bea got teased, but Alex and Harry had her worked up and got some juicy bits of information from here. Eventually, she'll get some fun, even though it might be many chapters down the line. Many, many, many chapters, knowing this story._

_A Concerned Citizen sends mail to the GCPD….that's leading somewhere interesting._

_Sinestra has the right to be suspicious this time._

_Diana wants an Invisible Jet. Of course she does._

_And Carol gets kidnapped, so our Harry Potter plot can intersect with our Green Lantern plot. It took a long time to get there, but I blame the Joker, because he really took control of the story with his arc, and threw a lot of things out of whack. But in the same way, it worked out well in the end, given this little cliffhanger closes out the year._

_Until 2017._


	251. Tainted Love Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-One: Tainted Love Part Two.**

* * *

 

A loud crack passed through the atmosphere around them and a vortex of light widened. Harry flipped through the portal and dropped down to his feet. He stuck the landing a few seconds later. He took a moment to look around and one obvious result had been gathered by a full observation of his surroundings.

' _Well, I'm most not certainly on Earth anymore,'_ Harry thought. He looked around and could feel an energy which put him on edge. Harry deduced if his mental shields were not strong, it would have been a problem. He craned his neck back and looked around.

If he was not on Earth, where was he? This particular question vexed Harry like nothing else. Faora tore through the portal after Carol had been dragged on through. Karen followed Faora, and Harry followed her. He was pretty certain he sent a signal for Alex not to follow them.

Something told Harry she would not listen at all. Harry crouched down on the ground and placed his finger on the ground. A small purple crystal poked out from underneath the ground. It resembled the energy which coursed around the planet on all sides. On edge, didn't really describe how Harry felt.

' _Something isn't right,'_ Harry thought to himself.

Harry shook his head, almost amused with himself. To be honest, this much should have been evident the second Carol was taken from her office by some mysterious force which was most certainly not of Earthly origins.

The hairs on the back of Harry's neck stood up and he turned around. Karen walked out of the shadows. A cloud of pink dust surrounded her. She looked more annoyed by the dust than anything.

' _Karen, can you hear me?'_ Harry asked her mentally while signaling for her to join him with his hand.

' _Just barely,'_ Karen thought. The closer she moved to Harry, the sharper his thoughts had become. The two of them stood close together. _'Which really negates the point of the entire bond if I can only hear you up close and…..barely personal.'_

Harry latched his arm around Karen and pulled her closer towards her. The two of them stepped forward to look around. They knew Faora was right behind them. She didn't seem to be around anywhere which put Harry on the highest alert possible.

The two of them walked around and saw a tower which was only partially visible in the fog. Harry held up a hand and looked at the tower.

' _Maybe we can find a way to rewire something in the tower, and call for help?'_ Harry asked.

' _Couldn't hurt.'_

Karen and Harry approached the tower. Something most certainly was not completely right around them. The ghostly whispers and beating hearts around them did not relax them. The entire atmosphere was off settling. Harry sensed an atmosphere with people who wanted you to believe everything was fine and okay, but the truth was.

"We better conserve our strength," Harry said. He looked towards Karen who was about to bully the door open. Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a lock pick.

' _You've been hanging around Selina way too much,'_ Karen thought. _'But I suppose, in this case, it's not entirely a bad thing.'_

The door of the tower clicked open. The good old lock pick proved its usefulness for a key, no matter what the world. The door opened.

Harry turned his head around and could see someone staggering out of the light. He turned towards the figure in the shadows and the moment Harry's eyes locked onto the figure, the figure struck. A flash of light almost blinded Harry and Karen and forced them to scatter.

A huge wrecking ball swung onto the ground. Harry locked onto the energy wave and sent the attack back.

"Great, now we're being attacked!" Karen yelled. "Whoever this is, they really don't want us into the tower."

"Distract her, and I'll get in from behind!" Harry yelled.

Karen spared a little bit of her power to jump into the air. One glowing orb shot towards her and tried to contain the powerful woman. She jumped back a couple of feet to avoid the orb before it contained her.

Harry slipped behind his adversary and grabbed her from behind. The two of them entered a tussle with the woman trying to knock Harry back. Harry jumped into the air and landed on his feet before he blocked the arm of his adversary. A few seconds passed before he realized who he was fighting.

"Sinestra?" Harry asked.

She looked at him, a look of shock and awe in her eyes before realizing who she was talking to.

"Har-Zod?" she asked. "What are you doing here?"

"I guess I could ask the same about you," Harry said.

Sinestra figured it was fair enough. She stepped back to regain her bearings. "We were chasing Red Lanterns….long story…when the ship containing Green Lantern Danvers and myself landed on this…place. I've been trying to find a way off while my partner distracts them at the palace."

"Were you two the only two out here?" Harry asked.

Sinestra shook her head. "The rest of our crew is….they're out there. We got separated, but they should be finding us."

Harry nodded and allowed that all sink in. Despite the fact he was on the same page with Sinestra, there was something a bit different off about her. He almost chalked it up to the atmosphere around the planet, except for the fact he thought that would be a bit too easy.

"They should be, yes," Harry muttered underneath his breath. A couple of seconds passed before he mentally got to himself. "A friend of mine has been snagged by a group of women in white and pink robes."

Sinestra's mood darkened when hearing the news. She knew it, she knew it, boy did she know it. For almost a minute, Sinestra tried to convince herself the Star Sapphire Corps changed their wicked ways.

"I know what happened, and it's time for us to head back to the palace," Sinestra said. "Can I count on the two of you to back me up?"

"Yes," Harry said. "But there's another problem you should know about….in addition to the friend we kidnapped, Faora is here, and…..another friend of ours has been brought here as well."

"Don't worry," Sinestra said. She knew Faora could take care of herself, and perhaps give the Star Sapphires an attitude adjustment if push came to shove. She could not vouch for the other friend, but they had far bigger problems to deal with at the moment.

Harry paused for a moment and he tensed up. Karen noticed what he sensed as well and a frustrated sigh came over her.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

Several more women closed in and prepared to attack them. Karen, Sinestra, and Harry stood together, ready to fight their adversaries.

* * *

 

Alex Danvers thought slipping through a mysterious portal to a mysterious place was not one of her better ideas. The DEO agent would beat herself up later.

No, Harry, no Karen, and no Alexandra Potter with her, which meant she was all alone. And all alone on some alien planet even, which would have been amazing for her work under any normal circumstances. Alex only saw one problem with it, though, the fact those people nabbed Carol.

Alex kept a weapon on her at all times, but would it be enough to take down an advanced alien civilization?

' _Won't hurt to try.'_

Alex thought she had been more than fortunate not to run into any kind of trouble when running around. She hoped to keep things that way. She moved her way passed a doorway close to where she landed. The DEO agent took a look around to gather her surroundings and gather further intelligence on them. She entered some kind of Imperial Palace.

The moment she stepped inside, Alex's mouth opened up in shock. She came face to face with her sister, Carol. Alex blinked a couple of times, unable to register the fact her sister was there. After all of those months, just running into Carol was rather shocking for Alex to say the very least.

"Alex?"

Alex smiled when she made her way to the center. Carol rose to her feet, moving past the two women who were with her. A red flag popped up in the back of Alex's mind the second she saw them together. These women resembled the women who nabbed Carol Ferris from her office. It put her on guard, no matter how glad Alex was to see her sister.

"Carol, I can't believe it," Alex said. "I've missed you….where the hell have you been?"

"Oh, I got tied up on a mission, you know how that goes," Carol said. A moment paused when she looked at Alex, trying to fire a smile towards her. Alex didn't blink, though. "How did you get here?"

"I was visiting Carol," Alex said without missing a beat. "Harry Potter, Alexandra Potter, and Karen Starr were all conducting business with her when suddenly a portal opened and Carol was captured, brought through the portal by some mysterious people in white and pink robes."

To say, Carol was caught off guard was an understatement. Despite what Sinestra may have thought, Carol put herself on her guard at all times. The last thing she wanted as to get captured.

"Are you sure about this, Alex?"

"I'm positive," Carol said.

"Who are you?"

Alex turned around. A regal looking woman with Elven ears and a large staff walked into the room. The DEO Agent figured she was royalty of some sort, but she also kept her eyes locked firmly upon the woman.

"I could ask you the same question," Alex said.

"Relax," Carol said. "Queen Aga'po, this is my sister Alex….she ended up getting transported to this planet…..Alex, this is Queen Aga'po of the Star Sapphire Corps."

Alex raised an eyebrow, looking off to the woman. Something about this woman, Alex could not trust off hand. She could not put her finger on precisely what, though, but it was just a feeling she had. The feeling was pretty off-putting as well.

"Well, the pleasure is all mine," Aga'po said. "I don't know how you came to be here, but….I can assure you we'll find you a way home."

Alex looked at the guards, the same type of women who kidnapped Carol. To say she was completely on guard would be the understatement to end all understatements. She didn't break her eye contact against these women for a second.

"What's going on here?" Carol asked.

"I don't follow you," the Queen said.

"Well, I'll spell it out for you," Alex said. She placed her finger on the weapon, wondering how much good it would do. The gesture made her more at ease. "Your goon squad kidnapped another one of my friends….and I'm curious as to why."

"You mean, Ms. Ferris, don't you?"

Alex blinked for a second and she responded with a nod.

"So, you don't deny you kidnapped her?" Alex asked.

"We haven't kidnapped her," Aga'po said. "We liberated her…from the shackles she has been put in. Soon, she will be one of us."

Alex raised her eyebrow, something about this seemed very much off.

"One of us?" Alex asked. "Great, you sound like a cult now."

Carol frowned when she looked at the guests. Sinestra seemed more and more right about these people. Just a feeling she had in the pit of her gut.

"I want to see her," Carol said. Her Green Lantern ring pointed towards them and a glow of light flashed.

"I'm afraid it can't be done, not during the liberation process," Aga'po said. "She will be freed soon, and then you can see her….and I'm certain she would want to see you."

Carol didn't like the looks of this. Liberation process, what the hell was going on? Liberation process sounded a hell of a lot like brainwashing to her.

"What does it entail?" Carol asked. "Tell me, or I swear to….."

The guards stepped between the two Danvers sisters and the Queen. The tension in the room rose to a fever pitch, to the point where you could cut it with a knife, to use an old cliché.

* * *

 

"Yes, yes, yes, I understand…..but, I'm afraid, you don't understand…..and yes, I understand….but you must know there are circumstances where my hands are tied, I'm going to have to….yes, yes, yes, I understand."

Hamilton Hill had made many promises on his road to becoming Mayor of Gotham City. Many individuals spoke to him, wanting him to maintain those promises. He did his best to appease all, but he was only one man, and he had a lot to do, especially now it was official there was a small army of vigilantes loose on the street.

"Mr. Schreck, the Council is on board with your idea, I can assure you that much," Hill said. "Just give me a couple more months to work on them, and it will be….yes come in….."

A knock on the door echoed and one of the Mayor's aides entered his office.

"Yes?" Hill asked.

"Mr. Mayor, this has been dropped off outside for you," one of the aides said. He dropped an envelope onto the desk in front of the Mayor of Gotham City.

Hamilton took a look at the envelope and his throat almost clenched up in shock when looking at it. The envelope flashed in front of his face and the words "from a Concerned Citizen" hit him straight in the face, pretty much taunting him. Hill took the envelope and responded with a very obvious and prominent frown.

The letters looked to be cut out of the Gotham City Gazette. Hill's mouth curled into a frown the more he looked over them.

"Mr. Schreck, I'll call you back tomorrow night, something has come up."

Hill took a moment to rifle through his desk and find the letter opener. He had no idea what he would find inside, but if one of the citizens in Gotham City took the time to send him something, anything at all, it must have been serious.

The envelope opened and Hill gasped at the contents inside. He took a moment, his hand shook.

A buzzer coming from off to the side of his office, and caused him to almost jump ten feet in the air. He had been shaken up by what he read so much he was on pins and needles.

"Mr. Mayor, Commissioner Grogan is here to see you."

Hill shook his head, put the material back into the envelope, and shoved it into his desk. The Mayor of Gotham City took a couple of seconds to resolve his thoughts and take a nice, deep breath to bring himself back to a peaceful existence.

"Inform him I'll be with him in a couple of moments," Hill said.

The Mayor shook his head, wondering what madness could follow him next. Madness and normality were two things which happened to go hand in hand these days, especially somewhere like Gotham City.

' _Keep it together Hill, the last thing you want to do is lose your mind,'_ Hill thought to himself. He brushed a bead of sweat away from his face and rose to a standing position.

Hill left his office, so many questions rolling around in his mind, and not enough answers to go with those questions.

* * *

 

Harry could tell in an instant these women might have had rough lives and fell into the Star Sapphire Corps as a way to cope. One of them powered up her sapphire and made a beeline towards Harry. Harry blocked the energy attack and knocked her back a couple of feet.

Karen could see the two Star Sapphires close in on her.

"They must be taught how much power love has!" one of the Star Sapphires said. Her voice rattled and eyes glowed. The creepiness factor show through the roof the moment she closed in on them.

"Okay, creepy cult is kind of creepy," Karen said. The Star Sapphire charged her after a second. Karen blocked the attack and whipped her arm back, sending the Sapphire down to the ground.

"STAND BACK!" Sinestra yelled. Her eyes flashed with a bright light, and she raised her arm. A whipping sound echoed through the air when Sinestra locked onto one of the Star Sapphire's and pulled her back.

The other Star Sapphires tried to make their attack. Sinestra ran them over with an absolute flurry of attacks.

Harry watched Sinestra's attacks out of the corner of his eye. He could not imagine how terrifying she could be until now, but then again, Sinestra was his sister's friend. So a truly terrifying demeanor fit into the puzzle if Harry would be perfectly honest.

The Sapphires turned around and left the field, retreating.

"They'll be back," Sinestra said. "And in greater numbers."

"Which is why we need to signal for help," Harry said. He made his way back into the tower a moment later.

Something else shuffled through the darkness. Harry turned around and grabbed the figure around the neck, almost slamming her into the wall.

Harry only barely relaxed his arm when he realized he nailed Faora into the wall. Faora didn't seem too bothered by the fact her brother nearly speared her through the wall, and not in the fun way either. Rather, she was smiling.

"I see your reflexes are on point as usual," Faora said. "Speaks pretty well for you, wouldn't you agree?"

"Yes, I would agree," Harry said. He retracted his hand from around Faora's shoulder and gave her plenty of room to breath. "Have you seen Alex?"

"I thought she would have more sense than to follow you here," Faora said.

"If she's related to Green Lantern Danvers, then I suspect sense is an area which she's lacking," Sinestra said. "Thankfully, she should have enough determination where it should work out, at least in theory."

Sinestra saw the crystal array in the tower.

"Sinestra blast the bottom array of the crystals with your ring," Harry said.

Sinestra paused for a moment, considering her options and agreed what Har-Zod suggest would be the best one. She closed her eyes and nailed the bottom crystal array with the Green Lantern energy ring. A feedback loop rang in the back of her ears and continued to ring with each passing second.

The crystals fired up and a bright light shined through the area.

Faora frowned, something was off about Sinestra. She couldn't quite put her finger on what was off about her, it was just something was. She received a rather unsettling feeling months ago, which grew in prominence.

' _I don't know, but this is insane,'_ Faora thought.

"Where is Carol?" Faora asked. "Danvers, I mean, she's with you…"

"She decided to stick around at the Royal Palace, despite my warnings for her not to, because….as I'm sure you figured out, the Star Sapphires are a tad bit off."

Funnily enough, Faora figured this out without any assistance from anyone. Her frown deepened and more thoughts crept into her mind. Was this weirdness going to get even weirder before her night was over? She had no idea, and this particular thought terrified her.

"We better get there, now," Karen agreed.

Harry agreed, unfortunately, a small army of Star Sapphires arriving in front of them would make their arrival towards the palace rather delayed. The party braced themselves for what may be a pretty intense fight all things considered.

"You would have to be right," Harry said.

"In some cases, I certainly don't relish it," Sinestra said.

Harry nodded, fair enough. They had to move on through because time was running short.

* * *

 

The more Alex walked in this palace, the more she was getting some creepy vibes. Carol walked next to her and they had the same similar vibes.

Overall, the last place Alex imagined she would see her sister would be among some creepy cult. Come to think of it, given some of the oddness which had entered her life over the last couple of months, this fact lined up pretty nicely, if she would have to hazard a guess.

' _Wonderful, my life is….my life just is like this.'_

Alex took a moment to take things all in. Carol was treating this situation with more calmness than Alex would have. She was this close to freaking out.

"I will bring you to Ms. Ferris, but I must warn you, not to disturb her during the process," Aga'po said. She looked at Carol and Alex with the utmost amount of seriousness. "It could lead to lasting ramifications."

"Can't be any worse than being brainwashed by some creepy love cult," Alex murmured underneath her breath.

Aga'po did not hear Alex's words, having developed a pretty nice case of selective hearing. The Star Sapphires surrounded them when they made their way down a set of stairs.

The Queen of the Star Sapphires placed her hand on the wall and maneuvered some crystals around. A flash of energy erupted from the wall and said wall slid open to allow them entrance inside. The Queen turned around the corner and pointed towards a chamber.

"There she is, safe and sound."

Carol Danvers frowned. She could hear the screams of absolute and utter agony coming from Carol Ferris, and it caused her frown to deepen. She turned around, about ready to wrap her hands around the neck of the Star Sapphire. Carol spent a couple of minutes collecting herself and trying not to snap.

"You're hurting her!" Carol yelled.

"Calm down," The Queen said.

The screams of the heiress to Ferris aircraft increased in frequency, and the comfort level got less and less the more they stood in the room.

"How can I remain calm when my friend is being tormented within an inch of her life?" Carol asked.

"When you awaken, it's always painful because it forces your mind to come to certain realizations which have been locked up inside," Aga'po said. "Until her mind is fixed, she'll be like that….but it will all work out in the end, trust me."

Carol took a moment to scowl. She couldn't break down the barrier by the looks of things. Not without hurting her friend, and this particular realization.

"I think you really expect us to sit back and agree with your philosophies," Alex said.

"We wouldn't expect you to do so, Ms. Danvers because you have someone in your heart who loves you to their fullest," Aga'po said. "Ms. Ferris has been deluding herself, and….the moment Ms. Danvers showed up, we understood the connection. It just goes to show you every single Green Lantern has a Star Sapphire."

"She didn't ask for this," Carol said.

"No woman asks for this because they don't know what they need," Aga'po said. "They need to be liberated from the shackles imposed on them…once Carol Ferris is free, she will be an entirely new woman."

The blood-curdling screams of agony popping up made Alex roll her eyes in response.

"Yes, she seems really liberated now."

"You wouldn't understand," Aga'po said. "Those who have not been saved from the darkness of tainted love, enrapturing their hearts."

"Sinestra said you were worse than the Red Lanterns," Carol said. The Star Sapphires all jumped up and some of them glared at Carol. Even Aga'po narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth. "I'm beginning to see how she has a point."

Aga'po took a long moment to sigh. It was always a slight bit frustrating to enlighten the unenlightened in situations like this. She took a moment to calm herself down before she ended up frustrating herself to the point of no return.

"The Guardians always reshape their history in their own image," Aga'po said. "You won't be the first to have been lead down the wrong path thanks to their secrets and lies. I just pray you won't be lead down the path for long…..at one time, we ran with them. But their minds refused to acknowledge their hearts, and they didn't care about the emotions of others, only about what was logical. Therefore, we broke free, and I made it my mission to save every single woman who had been scorned by tainted love."

She took a moment to calm herself down. Carol's screams stopped, which meant she was going into the next phase of the process.

"Your friend, Sinestra, she has been infected with an unsettling darkness," Aga'po said. "One which we will purge in time….."

A loud beeping echoed and one of the Queen's aides walked over to her.

"My queen, a ship approaches and….there's a Red Lantern on board."

"Such a filthy abomination of space….well the Red Lantern will be in for a surprise," Aga'po said.

Even if the Red Lantern steps onto this planet, they would not get off, due to the power of their energy core. Love was like poison to the Red Lanterns.

Alex turned to Carol and muttered "your friends" out of the corner of her mouth.

Carol responded with a brisk nod, figuring Sinestra would find a way to signal them.

* * *

 

"We're closing in on the planet."

Aya's declaration had been received well by the remaining members of the crew of the Interceptor. Ilana's head slumped down and almost smacked into the dashboard. The breath faded from her body the second she tried to keep her head upright.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Just give me a minute," Ilana said. The urge to throw up hit her. The longer she lingered, the more worse urges would hit. "I'd like to say I'm fine, but I'm not….we're heading into Star Sapphire territory, and their power….doesn't exactly mix well with the Red Lantern energy."

A throbbing shot across her temples and Ilana tried to keep her nerves calm.

"Maybe you should sit this one out," Katma suggested. She realized in an instant this was the wrong thing to suggest due to Ilana's rather feverish shake of her head.

"No, I'm fine….I'll be fine," Ilana said. She clutched onto the dashboard and drew in a breath, almost collapsing forward. "Just got to….focus….and I'll be fine."

"They could have been captured," Katma said.

"Well, if they were, they sent a signal," Aya said. "Brace yourself, this one will be a bumpy ride."

The Interceptor flew headlong into Star Sapphire territory, for better or for worse.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on January 7** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Harry and company are now on the planet, and boy they enter the middle of something._

_Back in Gotham City, and Hill gets a Concerned Citizen Letter, and he's more rattled by it than Gordon was, obviously._

_The power of love does not mix well with the power of rage. That should have been obvious._

_Until Saturday._


	252. Tainted Love Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Two: Tainted Love Part Three.**

* * *

Harry, Faora, Karen, and Sinestra slipped away from the fight against the Star Sapphire Corps. They knew they did not have enough time, so they needed to get to the tower. Faora was eying the crystals which were on the way to the place. She could see the same thoughts were going through Karen's eyes.

"So, what do you think?" Karen asked. Faora turned around to look at her. "Do you think they could work?"

"Anything's possible," Faora said after a moment's pause and some deep consideration. "The crystals on this planet could empower Har-Zod and restore him back to his normal form….but there's also a little good chance it could also make him blow up into a million sparkling pink bits."

Harry looked over his shoulder and locked eyes with his sister. "Maybe it's just me, but I think it would be a good idea if we can avoid that."

The three behind Sinestra stopped the moment Sinestra appeared in front of the back entrance. She held her hand up and touched the side of the entrance.

"No guards," Sinestra said. "At least none we can see."

No one needed to say to keep their eyes pealed because they already knew. Sinestra made her way into the palace. She took a long look down the hallway and viewed everything up and down. The moment she figured the coast was clear, she waved Harry, Karen, and Faora inside.

"Well, this is just like old times, isn't it?" Faora asked.

"Some things never change," Sinestra said with a blink.

And they thought they would get inside without running into trouble. They noticed someone going down the hallway.

"Only one, we can handle whoever it is," Harry said.

Sinestra approved of his confidence, she just hoped it would not come back and bite them in the face later. The figure moved around the hallway and she stopped, staring at them. The quartet came face to a young girl. She opened her mouth, and Sinestra held a hand up. The girl looked attractive, with pinkish skin, elvish ears, and rather innocent demeanor. The type of innocence which almost demanded to be corrupted.

"The Queen's niece," Sinestra said.

"What are you doing here?"

The young girl, perhaps naïve to what was truthfully going on here, looked at them.

Harry turned the three females who joined him on the trip and made a split second decision. "Let me do the talking."

Harry had a hunch he could figure out what was going on, and if he could talk to the girl, he could get some information. He turned towards Karen and Faora, who both nodded in response. The moment Sinestra saw Faora accepted her brother's words, she stood back.

' _Let's see if my hunch is right.'_

"You shouldn't be in the palace without…without an escort," the girl said. She looked at Harry, and Harry smiled back at her.

"It seems like you're walking around pretty fine on your own," Harry said. The girl had the decency to look flushed and Harry managed to find his way inside her head. He struck while the iron was hot. "My friends and I, we're stranded on Zamaran and searching for a friend of mine…..what's your name?"

The girl looked at him. Something about him seemed familiar and his green eyes drew her in. The young man coughed and the young girl looked at her.

"Sorry," she said. "My name is Ghia'ta….."

"So, you must be the Princess," Harry said. "The niece of Queen Aga'po, right?"

"Yes," she responded with a smile. She managed to take a turn for the suddenly serious when locking eyes onto him. "Look, my aunt….she doesn't want anyone to be around here…when the process is happening."

Harry thought she had said more than she wanted to say. He raised an eyebrow at the word "process" but decided not to say anything, at least right now.

"Yes, she wants me to send a signal if anyone is walking around here with an escort," Ghi'ta said. She looked a bit flushed and her eyes locked onto Harry a few seconds later. "I think it will be okay if you're stranded here and looking for your friend but…..I'm going to have to ask you to stay here….."

Harry's hand found the top of the Princess's. He looked around it with a gentle squeeze.

"What is your aunt doing?" Harry asked. He sensed some hesitation and he smiled. "It's fine, you can tell me, I won't tell her you told me."

"Wait, you're him!" Ghia'ta blurted out, practically squealing in the process. "You're him, the entity…she's…she's been searching for you all of this time, and you're here…oh….it's….I don't know what to say!"

Faora barely could hold back her smile. This girl looked pretty flustered to meet Harry. It would have been more surprising if an entire race of love crazy woman didn't have a legend about her brother, than if they did. It was just about right. Her smirk grew in even greater prominence and she looked at Sinestra.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there's a prophecy….." Ghia'ta said. She could see the young god start groaning and this caused the Princess to break out into a frown. "Wait, what's wrong?"

"Never mind," he said. "Continue."

"Well, there's an entity which will power the Star Sapphires for countless generations to come," she said, bubbling over with excitement. "And it will allow them to spread their message of love throughout the entire universe."

Harry decided he would strike while he had her full and undivided attention.

"So, tell me," Harry said. "Does a message of love consist of kidnapping women and bringing them here to be brainwashed against their will."

"No, no, it's nothing like that!" The Princess yelped. "There's been a terrible…terrible misunderstanding, we would never….."

"You don't know what the process contains, do you?" Sinestra asked, speaking up sharply for the first time.

"A friend of mine has been kidnapped," Harry said. His voice lowered and he looked into her eyes. "Help me, and I can help you and the other Star Sapphire Corps get the one thing you've hunted for since you've been created….and I can assure you, I can make it worth your while."

Harry leaned towards the Princess who started to pant. The pleasure coursed through her body, and her thighs dampened with the thought of what he might do.

"Everything you need…they're down in the level below," Ghia'ta said. "There will be guards but….I know of a way to get around them…..if you want to…."

Harry leaned closer towards her and caused the Princess to shiver. She could not believe the eyes of this powerful man locked onto her like they were now.

"Tell me."

* * *

The Interceptor arrived on the planet of Zamaron. The moment it arrived, Ilana's feeling of sickness grew even more. And the sickness was kept at bay she was sure by being trapped inside of the ship. Any second now, something would break and something would punish her, she was nearly certain about it.

"I'm not sure if you should get out of the ship," Katma said. She regretted saying anything to Ilana because it might sent her into rage mode. Yet, even her glare of death was less potent than ever before and it proved she was right. Ilana's eyes glazed over a few seconds later.

"I'm fine….well I'm not, but….you couldn't last five minutes out there alone," Ilana said. "And I suspect there's a good idea they know we're coming and they've prepared a welcome which will be both shocking and painful at the same time."

Ilana turned to Aya, who remained seated in the chair. Her eyes narrowed when looking at the Red Lantern. Ilana cleared her throat and forced Aya to sit up straight.

"Aya, open the doors."

Aya shook her head. She was bound to obey the Green Lanterns, but she did not necessary have to obey Ilana. The huge difference caused the other woman to stare her down. The burning fury entering Ilana's eyes caused Aya to blink, but she did not break.

"I'll open them," Aya said. "But, the moment you collapse, you're getting taken back to the ship."

"I won't collapse," Ilana said.

Katma said nothing, even though her thoughts pretty much said everything. She hoped for their sake Ilana was right. The doors of the ship cracked open and allowed them outside of the ship.

Ilana took every step downwards to the planet like it might have been her last. The air on the planet, despite the filters built into her ring, burned her lungs. She staggered, almost slumping over. Through sheer stubbornness, she managed to hold herself together and refused to fall flat on her face. The Red Lantern's determination may have been the most terrifying thing about her and she showcased it tenfold right here.

Katma stepped out, surprised how Ilana managed to hold it together. The atmosphere around the planet caused her to even become dazed and confused.

"We would have landed in the spot where the energies are most prominent," Aya said. Her scanners picked up track amount of glowing energy. A pause followed before a group approached them. "And don't look now, but we have company."

Company of the worst kind walked around the corner. The army of women dressed in pink cloaks approached them. One of them held up her hand, causing a wave of energy to burst through it and threaten to knock them over.

"You are trespassing on our planet…"

"You give us back our team members, and we don't break you," Ilana said.

The Star Sapphires exchanged those looks with each other. It was obvious Ilana's bluff fell upon dead ears, especially given the fact she couldn't even hold her head up straight.

"You don't terrify us," one of the Star Sapphires said. She took a couple of steps forward and the ground underneath her warped. A smile crossed over her face. "We are the Star Sapphire Corps. We will lead to your complete and utter annihilation."

"Bold, aren't you?" Ilana asked.

"You are bold as well, standing there as if you have the power to defeat us," the Star Sapphire corps said. "There is no power stronger than the universe than love! It always triumphs over hate!"

One of them sent a pink beam of energy towards Ilana. She screamed as her entire skin felt like it had been lit on fire. The inside of her body was not much better with the pain factor. She started to thrash about, the agonizing feelings continuing to go through her body.

"Stop, stop, stop, you're hurting her!" Aya yelled.

"No, she's been liberated," the Star Sapphire said.

"No, her vitals are all over the charts," Aya said. "Her heart could explode…"

"If she can't handle love, then she is not pure, and she does not deserve to exist," the Star Sapphire said.

"Forcing love on someone, that's not what it's all about," Aya said. She crossed her arms and frowned, looking at her adversaries.

The Star Sapphires looked back at Aya, with thinly veiled contempt flashing through their eyes.

"What would a machine know about love?"

Ilana gritted her teeth and plowed through the pink beam. The Star Sapphire in question looked impressed. Ilana pounded her with a spiked red glove. She whipped her ring and summoned enough hate within her to cause the Star Sapphires to flee in terror.

Katma created a net which tangled them up. The Star Sapphires did their best to break free from their containment, but their best was not good enough. She bombarded them with an energy attack which forced them to stagger back several steps.

Ilana collapsed and started to throw up. She knew the Sapphires would not rest now, not especially when they had been so completely and utterly humiliated.

* * *

Oliver Queen came to a couple of conclusions in the few days which had passed since his initial contact. No one on this island was his friend and this fact had become clearer to him. He had gotten only the bare minimum of which it was to survive, and the only reason why he was not executed was it was thought he knew information.

His heart started to beat. The second they figured out he knew very little, he would be dead. Oliver tried to loosen the bindings which held him back. A desperate attempt at freedom had been stopped when the binding snapped back and put Oliver against the wall. He breathed one more time and tried to move one more time. Another snap back and more frustration had been involved.

The door opened and Edward Fiers, or Fyres as he was now known, returned to face Oliver. A figure walked a couple of steps behind him, although Oliver could not see who it was from his vantage point.

' _Well, this can't be good.'_

"Mr. Queen, I apologize for your accommodations," Fiers said. "I trust they won't be for long."

Oliver thought it remained to be seen, but he responded with a fairly respectful nod.

"You have me caught…with nowhere…to go," Oliver groaned.

"Yes, that's the nature of being a captive," Fyres said

Oliver had almost been taken in by his cordial tone of voice, but a huge part of him knew better. He was trying to set him up for a big fall, and Oliver knew he wasn't going to fall for it. Not if he could help it anyway.

"We should come to an understanding," Fyres said. He leaned forward and touched his hand onto Oliver's shoulder. His eyes locked onto the young man's. "We both know coming to an understanding would be better for both of us in the long run."

The Queen heir looked at him and could do nothing else but nod. He swallowed, both out of the fear and the fact his throat already had dried up from the lack of water. Regardless of his intentions, Fyres seemed rather pleased with Oliver and decided to move forward.

"You give me what I want, and I give you what you want," Fyres said. "The deal is more than fair, wouldn't you agree….good I'm glad we're on some level of understanding."

Oliver had no choice, other than to comply. Once again, his throat had turned bone dry.

"Where is the girl?"

"What girl?" Oliver asked, wondering through his fogged memory what he was talking about.

"Please, Mr. Queen, I would have thought despite your reputation you would have had a moderate amount of intelligence underneath your playboy demeanor," Fyres said. He looked at Oliver with a combination of disappointment and frustration. "The girl, I want her, where is she?"

The girl was a bargaining chip for the old man and to get what he wanted. And Oliver would be the key to get what he wanted.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Fyres waved his finger and a gentleman dressed in tactical armor stepped in. He wore a white mask with red markings all over it and he had a sword strapped onto his back.

"Mr. Queen, I'd like to believe you," Fyres said. "But we can leave nothing to chance. I'm sure even someone like yourself could appreciate just as much."

Oliver, funnily enough, did not appreciate the fact he was caught on this island, trapped, with pretty much no place to go. He looked up at the masked man and the masked man removed his dagger and pointed it at Oliver. The dagger stabbed into Oliver and caused pure agony to ride through his body.

"Tell us what we need to know," the man said. "Don't worry, I won't kill you, at least not yet. But I'll make you wish you died on the ship before you were brought here."

Oliver thought it was much too late about that. Sara, the rest of the crew, they were already dead by this point, because God only knows how much time had passed between now and the time he had been washed up on the island. Another stabbing sensation filled his body.

* * *

"Good, she'll be released soon."

Carol and Alex exchanged a nervous look with each other. Nervousness filled them. Aga'po claimed she was saving Carol, but the fact was, neither sister believed anything of the sort. The two of them locked eyes with each other.

"Release her," Aga'po said.

Carol Ferris stumbled out of the chamber. She wore not even a stitch of clothes, which would have been an alluring sight had she not been shaking like a leaf. Her eyes snapped open to reveal an eerie and quite unsettling pinkish-purple glow.

"What have you done?" Carol Danvers asked.

"The two of you have a connection, and Ms. Ferris was quite frustrated about you disappearing," Aga'po said. "Therefore, Ms. Danvers, I have done you both a favor, and brought you here, for love could prosper."

Carol's eyes continued to flash with the sinister shade of pink which terrified anyone looking at it. A costume appeared on her body. It resembled a one piece with the bottom and the top cut out. Her cleavage and navel exposed, showing an ample amount of tanned skin, and thigh high boots stretched down. She balanced on the heals. A jewel sparked on top of a headdress and her eyes looked around.

An inhumane howl followed and Carol rushed the Star Sapphires. She began to attack them.

Carol jumped in and helped the avatars of love secure her friend. On the inside though, she was fuming like no one else could believe. She turned her undivided attention to the Queen, the moment Carol had been brought down ot her knees.

"What the hell is going on?" Carol asked.

"This is completely normal, she hasn't quite come to terms with her frustrations of love….."

"HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN MINE FIRST!"

Carol's irrational and quite unprovoked screams turned their attention towards one Alexandra Danvers, who looked on in shock. Alex stepped back and mouth was open wide. She watched when Carol shackled Carol.

"It's going to be okay, we're going to figure this out….."

"It's not going to be alright, unfortunately," Aga'po said. "There's a Red Lantern on the planet."

"It's fine, she's….she's had a tough life, she's misunderstood," Carol said.

Aga'po flashed a sympathetic look towards Carol, the poor girl had no idea.

"Monsters always claim they're misunderstood."

"You know what, you and your creepy love cult; maybe you're the real monsters!" Alex snapped. "And you know, for people who are all about free love, you can be pretty fucking judgmental, not to mention controlling!"

The situation could not escalate any further because there had been a trapping.

* * *

Harvey Dent returned form Blackgate prison and horror show seemed like a pretty good description of what he had to deal with. There most infamous resident, the man who terrorized Gotham for months, had not been willing to give any straight answers. He had already driven one doctor to mindless and agonizing hysterics. And another had resigned, instead of having to interview Joker.

If he wasn't insane, Harvey would have recommended he been sent straight to the chair, because that bastard deserved no less. Not only had he killed Rachel and Gilda, but he had caused his first few months as Gotham City District Attorney to be nothing other than a living hell.

' _He's not insane; he knows what he's doing.'_

Harvey was not pro death penalty…..not normally, but in some cases, he would make an exception. Joker was where the line got blurred.

' _You're judgment is clouded, Dent…..maybe you think it's your fault you hadn't done something….if you could have gotten away with it, you would have strangled the clown.'_

Dent poured himself a cup of coffee. He needed to calm down, before he lost his mind. Harvey frowned and noticed his office door had been unlocked. Had it always been unlocked?

Harvey took a couple of seconds to draw in a deep breath and walk inside his office. In Gotham City, you could never been too careful with the people who would cause problems. A second passed, and Harvey looked at the desk where a fairly attractive blonde woman sat at a chair on the edge of his desk. She had a button up red blouse, a black skirt, and stockings which came all the way down.

"Who are you?" Harvey asked. "What are you doing in my office?"

"Hello, Mr. Dent," she said with a smile and bounced up to her feet, reaching out her hand to a shake. "My name is Janice Porter….you might remember me from when you taught courses on criminal law at GCU a few years back."

Harvey racked his brain. To be honest, he had quite a few students when he taught classes and hadn't really taught them over the past five years. Therefore this woman really did nothing to stand out in his mind.

"Oh, right, Ms. Porter, I remember you now," Harvey said a few seconds later. "What are you doing in my office?"

"I'm the new Assistant District Attorney," she said. "Don't you remember…didn't you get the message, I was coming in today? Your aide let me in."

Harvey frowned for a few seconds. He told his staff to take care of Rachel's replacement, while he was dealing with what needed to be down about the Joker case, but he must have been so distracted, he didn't figure they found someone. Then again, his mind had been all over the place over the past couple of months.

"Well, welcome to the job, and I wish you the best of luck," Harvey said. "We have a lot of work to do and things are worse in Gotham City."

"Yes, I know," Janice said. "Especially with vigilantes like Nightwing and Batman on the loose."

"And don't forget the outpouring of mob activity in this city," Harvey said.

Harvey hated the fact now the GCPD's focus seemed to be directed on stopping vigilantes than actual crime. He had no problems with them, even if he could not condone them in public. If they roughed up the criminals a little bit, and deterred a few of them, then Harvey's job would be a lot easier. People like Batman and Nighrtwing were necessary for Gotham City.

' _And you have to be a bit rough with those scumbags to get them in line,'_ a harsher voice deep in Harvey's subconscious stated.

"Vigilante justice should not be tolerated though," Janice said. "I have some ideas on how to deal with them….if you'd like to hear them."

She did have a bit of a one track mind.

"Hopefully you're up to the task, because this job is not just about wrangling up vigilantes, there's a lot more challenges, especially these days."

Harvey walked over towards his desk and noticed a familiar envelope with the letters "from a concerned citizen" pasted on them. He grumbled out "again" before picking up the envelope and dropping it down into the rubbish bin.

* * *

Harry, Faora, Sinestra, and Karen walked into the chamber. Several crystals shined brightly around them, which gave Harry a buzzing feeling.

"They're close," Sinestra said. "If they've done something to my teammate….or your friend….they'll pay, trust me."

Faora smiled. Sinestra didn't really show it often, but deep down, she did care about the people underneath her care. She just had a difficult time showing it.

"Yes, I can feel them," Harry said. "Face front."

The Star Sapphire Royal Guard turned up, walking around the corner. They aimed their weapons at Harry and company. Harry and the girls with him paused, with Sinestra placing herself front and center.

"Stand down!"

The Queen stepped forward and frowned. The moment she noticed Harry, her excitement hit a new fever pitch. She lifted up a staff with a large crystal on it. Waving the staff around, she summoned energy through it. The crystal flashed with light.

"You're the one!" Aga'po said in excitement. "You're the one who can help us….and we need your help, badly."

She walked over towards him and placed a hand on his cheek.

"Will you help us, great one?"

A moment of pause followed. Karen and Faora exchanged a brief look of exasperation.

' _She's kidding, right?'_ Karen thought to herself. _'Are you smelling trap like I am?'_

Harry smelled trap a mile away. He looked towards the beautiful, even if slightly eerie, Queen.

"Yes, I'm sure I can help you," Harry said. "What do you need?"

It may be a trap. He knew it, tasted it, but given their power set, he had the perfect way to turn the trap around on them.

* * *

**To Be Continued on January 11** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Harry's legend extends to the furthest reaches of the universe, as it should be._

_We have a chance to get into the mind of Harvey Dent in its chapter. Things will be rough for Mr. Dent in the future, but that's a ways off._

_Until Wednesday._


	253. Tainted Love Part Four

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Three: Tainted Love Part Four.**

* * *

 

The Queen of the Star Sapphires escorted Harry down the hallway to their next destination. The Star Sapphires looked back Harry, some of them eying him with an interesting combination of curiosity and also suspicion. Harry figured they would be suspicious. He could see in their eyes they had been through some tough times, some hardships, and this warped them.

Faora, Karen, and Sinestra walked behind them. The three women viewed the Star Sapphires with about as suspicion as they viewed them and rightfully so. Sinestra looked like she was holding back from attacking them. Perhaps she convinced herself the matter would be more hostile if she attacked him.

"At one time, we and the Guardians of the Oa will cut from the same cloth," Aga'po said without much preamble. "We had joined together, but there had been a great divide. We split from the Guardians of Oa after a dispute over how things should have been done."

Aga'po looked wistful, almost as if she wished things had gone a bit differently. She supposed there was no use in getting hung up on the past.

"We thought love should be the driving force in the universe," Aga'po said. "While the Guardians thought will-power and strength triumphed over all, and emotional attachments were not worthy of their champions."

"When in reality there needs to be a balance," Harry said.

"Well, yes, perhaps," Aga'po said. "The attempts for the Guardians to input their philosophy on the universe did not end well. They tried to use an army of emotionless machines, which almost brought about the destruction of many sentient worlds."

"The Manhunters," Faora murmured.

"Yes," Aga'po agreed. "The Manhunters could have brought an end…they replaced them with the Green Lanterns, which was a step up. Sadly, though, old habits do die hard."

The Queen of the Star Sapphires stepped forward and pushed the door open. A blinding pink light entered the hallway and almost knocked back the entire party. Harry could feel an intense wave of energy which caused his pheromones to increase. He needed to work to keep them in check no more than ever before.

"What happened here?" Faora asked.

"The power crystal which gives my Star Sapphires their energy has been greatly compromised," Aga'po said in a saddened voice. "We have…"

Aga'po took a moment to pause and realize what she did was not exactly the best decision in the world. She did what she had to do at the time, and by each passing moment, she convinced herself it was right. Something made her realize, though, sometimes love could hurt and there were things which made them just as bad, if not worse than monsters such as the RedLanterns.

"We have imprisoned many men and some women…the ones who have spurned our recruits," Aga'po said.

She took a moment to see the disapproving looks.

"Release them," Sinestra said without skipping a beat.

"In time, I will," Aga'po said. "This much you have to believe…..and I'm sorry to say I'm wrong."

The Queen of the Zamarons sighed in response. Faora gave Sinestra a warning look. They could see several figures floating in the light. Their mouths hung open in a state of constant agony.

"Tainted love is not an adequate power source."

Harry did not want to be the one to tell her he could have figured this one out alone.

"It's causing your decisions to become more reckless and crueler than ever before," Harry said. "You're losing yourselves….your emotions are overwhelming you."

"Yes," Aga'po said. "It's created a mania among us…we want to save women, but…..I fear we're doing it the wrong and have made many mistakes."

How genuine her declaration was, Harry could not tell straight away. He figured though to give her the benefit of the doubt.

"We may be able to heal it," Aga'po said. She took a moment to look Harry in the eye. "You might be the one to heal it, great one….to create enough energy to heal the power cell…and to allow the trapped souls of those who spurned my fellow Star Sapphires to return to their afterlife."

Aga'po placed a hand on the crystal. At one time, it gave her an immense warmth. These days, though, the cell burned underneath her fingers.

"The presence of the cell corrupts us more each passing day," Aga'po said. She turned her attention towards Harry and placed a hand on his cheek. "Please, help us."

Harry did not have a chance, as a guard fell to the ground. He looked and saw Carol Ferris in all of her glory. She rushed towards Harry and pounced him, almost putting him through the wall.

"It's good to see you, my love," Carol practically purred when she nuzzled up against Harry.

Sinestra looked at the woman. She may be regaining her senses thanks to Harry's presence stabilizing her. Thus, she figured Aga'po's idea about Harry being able to stabilize the Star Sapphires, in general, had much credence.

Carol wrapped her arms around Harry's neck and nuzzled him, kissing the side of his neck. Harry put a strong arm around Carol and pushed her insides.

"She's less inhibited with her emotions, isn't she?" Karen asked.

"It's part of the entire process," Aga'po said. "So, do you think we can count on your help? I will be willing to pay any price if it means healing the women under my eye."

* * *

 

Outside, Ilana almost collapsed to the ground. Her breathing escalated the more she dragged herself forward. It felt like to her that iron daggers impaled through her lungs. Katma and Aya walked behind her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Ilana said.

She shook her head and tried to maintain a way to stand up. She tried to block out the love. Ilana tried to focus on what she would do to Atrocitus when she got her hands around him.

"I'm the medical engineer of the Interceptor," Katma said.

"Yes, I know," Ilana said. She drew in a breath, but the air was even toxic to her. Her chest was heavy with every blow.

"And as the ship's medical engineer, I'm concerned you're…about ready to lose consciousness," Katma said. "Aya, do you think you could get her back to the ship?"

"Yes, I think that would be prudent," Aya said.

"No!" Ilana snapped. A flare of red energy came up from her. "We've gone this far….way too far to want turn back now….I'm fine, fine, fine…."

"It's my expert opinion you don't sound fine," Katma said. "As a matter of fact, you're getting worse….the entire planet is reacting with your ring and causing you to….."

"I'm fine," Ilana said.

Katma placed a hand on Ilana's head and the burning sensation coming from her forehead was completely and utterly obvious.

"You know, you really don't feel fine," Katma said. She took a moment to pause as if trying to let her words register with Ilana. "At all, so maybe you…."

"You know, I was never good at following doctor's orders when I was a child," Ilana said after a long pause. She made sure Katma's eyes were locked on her. "I'm even worse when I'm….."

The entire group paused at the sound of voices and footsteps which came from the corridor very close to them. Someone walked close towards them and they did not have much time to react. They had done well enough so far having found their way here, without too many incidents.

Sinestra walked her way around the corner and looked at the trio.

"So, you three found your way here after all," Sinestra said. She eyed Ilana with what passed as a concerned look, although it may have passed more of a curiosity to Sinestra. "You don't look so good."

The Red Lantern locked eyes with Sinestra with a very bleary expression in her eyes. "I've been better….."

The newest Star Sapphire walked around the corridor. Her eyes flashed when she caught sight of the Red Lantern. Ilana didn't really have much time to react when she blasted the woman to the ground. The woman flew head over heels and crashed onto the ground with a solid and rather sickening type of impact.

Ilana found herself flat on her back, gasping for oxygen the moment this new woman was above her. She saw the Green Lantern Danvers and what appeared to be her sister moving around the corner.

"You will not threaten my king, Red Lantern!" Carol yelled at the top of her lung. "I'm going to make you wish you hadn't put on that ring."

"Much too late for that," Ilana said, once again it really did hurt to breath and it hurt even more, the more this woman pushed down on her.

Harry stepped in and sighed. He clapped his hands and forced Carol to rise up to a standing position.

"Carol, back off, it's fine," Harry said to her.

The power of authority Harry had over her was immense and rather intense as well. Carol Ferris took a couple of steps back and bowed before her lord. She didn't want to say anything.

Ilana bounced back up to her feet. Now she had the Star Sapphire right where she wanted her, it was time for them to throw down. Summoning all of the energy Ilana could from the ring, an intense glare flashed through her very being. It was time for her to get to work and to rip apart her adversary piece by piece.

"Okay, now you're going to…"

"You should calm down as well."

Most people would not have been able to grab a fully powered up Red Lantern by the arm. Harry was not most people.

"You should back off now, it's been a misunderstanding," Harry said.

Ilana suspected he had a lot of experience causing women to back off from a fight with each other. At least, it was something she figured out. She could have been wrong, in fact, there was a pretty good chance she was very wrong.

"So, you must be the great Har-Zod," Ilana said. She paused and looked him in the eyes. "It's funny, I expected you to be taller."

Ilana noticed their team there. They were not fighting the Star Sapphires. Other than the minor hiccup, the Star Sapphires were not attacking her, which she supposed was a good thing.

"Do you think we can leave this awful place?" Ilana asked. "The power of love is really bad for my stomach."

Sinestra cleared her throat and turned towards Katma and Aya.

"The two of you, escort Ilana back to the Inceptor, now," she ordered them. The two women responded with nods and did exactly what they were told.

Faora blinked and she looked at Sinestra. She had been a bit rough and hostile before. Something was a bit off with her.

"Something has changed with you," Faora said in her usual blunt tone.

The two women locked eyes, neither of them standing down. Pride would not allow either of the two women to miss a beat.

"It's the mission," Sinestra said without missing a beat. "I'm the only reason we haven't been torn apart by Red Lanterns or Thangarians."

Faora paused. Many people would just accept a statement like this at face value. Faora was not many people, though.

"We'll need to talk later."

At very best, Sinestra had just been stressed out beyond all belief, which meant there were some issues now. At very worst, there was something really wrong with her. Sinestra opened her mouth to argue but decided not to save her breath.

The two walked off and left Carol as the sole Green Lantern present. Karen stepped over.

"So, Alex told you what happened," Karen said.

"Yep," Carol said. "Can I count on you to back me up?"

"I'll do my best but my powers….they're….not functioning as well as they should," Karen said.

"I wonder if something happened when you stepped through the portal," Carol offered.

All things considered, Karen supposed it would have been the best idea. At least it was an idea which she was going with right about now.

The Queen cleared her throat and turned to Carol Ferris.

"Ms. Ferris, given Har-Zod knows you, then you can help us with the experiment," Aga'po said. "We will hopefully be able to repair the cell and the Star Sapphires can be all they can be."

She felt their savior arrived just in time. Aga'po had her own bouts of madness, and if she knew what could be coming, the other females wouldn't have a chance.

* * *

 

Lian Yu contained a lot of traffic for an island which was supposed to be off the grid. One of these people on the island was a woman dressed up in a green hooded top and black leather pants. Her face had been obscured. She caught sight of the men on the island and what they were searching for.

A frown popped across her face the second the woman took a look around.

' _I really have no idea how they got here,'_ she thought. _'And I really have no idea how they lasted for so long. All I know is my father is somewhere on this island.'_

The woman had been tricked into coming with them on the island, thinking they were government agents and for all she knew, they could have been. What she did know as she had been brought her to ensure her father's compliance.

' _They didn't count on me being a bit more resourceful.'_

She watched, from her hiding place, three members of a Private Security Force walking about the island. One of them craned his neck.

"You're going to hurt yourself doing that, you know," one of the members of the private security force said. "I thought she would have been around here by now."

"So did I, hence why I craned my neck and tried to look for her," one of the members of the Private Security Force said. He sounded equal parts bemused and kind of annoyed as well. "What do you think the boss is after anyway?"

"It's not our part to question the boss," he said. "It's just our place to get things done."

"Remember," the leader of the team said. He looked at his two fellow squad members, making sure they understood everything which was going on with the most picture perfect of clarity. "He promised a bonus to anyone who brings the girl back…..but he wants her back alive."

"Yeah, but it's no fun like that."

The team leader looked at the man. He was the type who would go for blood, no questions asked. He could not believe how bloodthirsty he could be.

"She's no use dead."

The woman pulled out a bow. She would have to choose her shots and choose it wisely. She drew back the bow and decided to take the first shot at the man who threatened her. Having taken a good look at the armor the man wore, she pinpointed a very distinct weak spot for her to go ready, aim, and fire at.

She nailed the man with an arrow which impaled straight through his chest. The second private security guard member dropped down from an arrow to the throat. The arrow tapped a vein and dropped him dead in an instant.

The woman repelled down and kicked the leader in the face, toppling him to the ground. She pulled him up.

"Where is Yao Fei!" she demanded.

The man chuckled when looking her straight in the eyes.

"Mr. Fyers is looking for you."

"You don't know?" the woman asked. One look at his body language indicated she didn't know. "You're useless."

One final arrow caught him in the chest and slumped him over. The blood flowed from the man's chest when the woman stepped back. She surveyed her handiwork and the blood which continued to flow from the chest of this particular individual.

A sound of a scream caught her attention before she could make her next move. They tortured a man.

' _Well, I have to save him….unless this is a trick,'_ she thought. Given how very little on this island was what it seems, she didn't want to know. _'But, I have to save my father….even though it would be the honorable thing to save someone who is in need.'_

Footsteps approaching her indicated the woman might have to take a third option. Her arrows ran very low and there wasn't much time left.

It would take some quick thinking to get this one done.

* * *

 

Faora lead Sinestra away from the main palace and the two of them had a chance to talk. Sinestra had not been looking forward to the conversation for the simple fact of how Faora tended to get to the bottom of the situation.

Sinestra told herself everything was fine. It was just everyone and everything kept getting in her way.

' _I can complete the mission if it wasn't for the Thangarians and….my crew not being able to make the hard choices,'_ Sinestra thought. _'And I'm sure the Guardians will give me a chewing out when I get back.'_

"Something has changed regarding you."

Sinestra turned her attention towards Faora. Faora's sharp look indicated she did not want any argument and it would be foolish for her to even try.

"Maybe," Sinestra said.

"I would have bought it was the mission if it wasn't so sharp of a change," Faora said. She could see Sinestra's argument which almost formed on the tip of her tongue.

Sinestra thought back of when the real changes came about her. One thought entered her mind.

"I have been a bit…sharper with my team ever since the yellow alien crystals at the prison exploded," Sinestra said.

' _Finally, we're getting somewhere.'_

Sinestra explained to Faora this entire adventure or some might say, a misadventure. Faora listened to every single word which came out of her mouth.

"These crystals," Faora said. She spoke slowly and did not want to do anything to agitate Sinestra. "These wouldn't be the same thing which caused Hector Hammonds head to swell about five sizes beyond its initial capacity, would it. And it wouldn't be the same thing which killed Abin Sur."

The look Faora gave her caused Sinestra almost to wilt. She stood strong and proud, never once backing off.

"It's something I can manage."

The look on Faora's face indicated she didn't believe it.

' _So, stubborn, I almost forgot how stubborn she could be,'_ Faora thought.

"You know, this is something you should get checked out," Faora said. "If this killed one man and left another with an inflamed head, I'm not sure what it could do to you."

Sinestra hated people attempting to coddle her like an infant, and could not believe Faora of all people would be the next person to try it. She took a deep breath and calmed herself down. More deep breaths followed when she locked eyes with her friend.

' _Don't want to lose it.'_

"The best medicine for me is to be out there against the Red Lanterns and the Thangarians," Sinestra said. She spoke firm and offered little room for argument in her voice. "It's what helps me cope, and the fact they fear me, makes me feel better. It makes me feel really good if I was honest."

Faora realized what was going on.

' _And here I am fighting a battle of wills which…..I'm not sure I can win,'_ Faora thought. _'No, that just won't do. Hopefully, before we return home, I can find a way to chip away at Sinestra's resolve.'_

"If you insist," Faora said. "We're joining you for the rest of the mission."

"We could use the help," Sinestra said.

' _Maybe a fresh perspective is what we need to take care of the Red Lanterns.'_

Faora found herself quite glad Sinestra was so agreeable on this perspective. There was just so much about the yellow energy which she did not know and the long term effects frightened her. She had to deal with some pretty stubborn patients during her time volunteering as a doctor in Metropolis. Sinestra may have topped them all.

* * *

 

Harry walked out into the center of the circle where a large and lavish bed had been set up. He almost expected something to happen, but he figured he should give them the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, the bond network had only been close range, hence he could only talk to Karen, Faora, and Alex when he was on the planet.

' _So, I bet the other Alphas are trying to hold it together, while not freaking out on their own,'_ Karen thought. A pause followed when she shook her head.

' _What I'm worried about is how the people are going to react to Carol disappearing,'_ Harry thought. _'The head of a top company in the United States just vanishing off of the face of the Earth. It doesn't seem to be something people would take too well.'_

' _Hey, we disappeared off of the face of the planet as well,'_ Faora thought.

' _So did you talk to Sinestra?'_ Harry asked.

' _She admitted the yellow energy had blasted her when she was on a mission and…the way she's acting is off,'_ Faora thought. _'I'm half tempted to tie her down and give her a full exam, but….she's the type of person who makes it impossible to agree with anything.'_

Harry smiled. He suspected Sinestra would spend a fair amount of time fighting any attempts for Faora to put her underneath her thumb. It was just how things went sometimes. He turned his attention as Carol stepped inside. The Queen of the Star Sapphires looked at her fellow Star Sapphires. They had bene placed behind a barrier for their protection.

' _Well, they're going to be frustrated when they see you in action,'_ Alex thought. _'You know, when they're unable to go out there and get in on the fun. They can just watch.'_

' _You realize we just have to watch too, don't you?'_ Karen asked.

Aga'po cleared her throat and the full attention of everyone involved put their eyes on the Queen. She had such strength of presence it was extremely hard not to put their eyes on her.

"We have been through some rough times, and many of you have been lead to this planet after the love you have had been tainted," Aga'po said. "I thought we could use the souls of those who spurned you to power the energy which drives us. However, the energy has been corrupted as the love you once shared with the men and women who have spurned you."

Aga'po stood up to her full height. Everyone looked at her. Especially the Princess, who had tried to tell her aunt something about this wasn't working for a long time. It was nice how the arrival of their savior had managed to crack through the Queen's thick skull.

"The energy source will now be repaired and purified, and I will set the souls of those who have damned us free," Aga'po said. "They have been punished and in the afterlife, depending on the type of person they were, they would get punished."

The Queen noticed the somewhat hostile looks dancing in the eyes of her fellow Star Sapphire Corps members. She could tell in an instant they were not too pleased with the fact their diseased loves had gone free. And they thought any punishment they will receive would have been more than worth it.

"Our king has arrived," Aga'po said. "Our savior….and I will lead by example to show you what love truly means."

Carol stepped in front of the Queen. Not too many people would have been bold enough to do so. The lovely Ms. Ferris jumped Harry and nearly knocked him over onto the bed. She gave him a passionate kiss and made sure to greedily grab onto every single inch of his body, ripping at his clothing.

"I can tell you've wanted this for a long time," Harry said.

Carol continued to pepper his jaw with kisses. Each of them grew in passion and more important, in intensity.

"Yes," she said, in between kisses. "I'm sick of being professional…"

"I think the Queen wants a moment if you don't mind."

Carol folded her arms. She did in fact mind. For Harry, she would get over it, though.

"Remember, you're mine now," Harry muttered to Aga'po when he pulled her in and kissed her with a blazing passion.

Aga'po felt something she did not feel in a very long time. True and unbridled passion spread through her body. The crystals started to hum as the energy went through the air.

Carol decided to finish the job she started on Harry and direct her worship a bit south.

* * *

 

Aga'po moaned at the sensations going through her body. Harry's mouth was all over her and pulled down her top exposing her breasts. She had forgotten what true passion and true love had been. His mouth worked down and worshiped her body, stripping off her clothes and making sure her naked skin was revealed.

Harry smiled when he looked at the Queen. She was truly beautiful and her pussy almost called to him. Harry was not about to back off.

"My King, I need you to lick me….I'm going to lose my mind if you don't lick me," the Queen breathed. Her pussy gushed at the thought of his mouth down on it and she could not wait a moment more.

Carol pulled Harry out of his pants and wrapped her hand around his member. She could feel how thick and large it was.

"Mmm, I'm going to enjoy sucking your big cock," Carol said.

Carol's warm mouth wrapped around Harry's cock. She sucked him, her wet lips smacking against his tool. She grabbed his balls and fondled them while making a couple of passes.

Harry rested one hand on the back of Carol's head to encourage her to continue the amazing and quite a sensual blowjob she gave her. She bobbed her head up and down on him. Harry closed his eyes and enjoyed it.

He turned his head around and could see the Queen's legs spread. Her pussy was soaked and ready to be devoured. Harry did not waste any time. He buried his face between her legs and started to munch on her.

"Mmm, eat it….make me climax!" The Queen moaned. Her hips bucked up when an intense sensation spread between her legs. Her loins also throbbed with Harry delving his tongue deeper into her pussy. He swirled it around and drove her to an intense round of passion.

Harry lapped up the juices from Aga'po's pussy. She was willing to give herself to Harry, to help ensure the future of the Star Sapphire Corps.

Carol bobbing her mouth down his cock was also a beautiful sight. She gave him a couple more sucks before she pulled herself up to a standing position.

Aga'po lost herself in an orgasm and collapsed on the bed. Harry felt she never had anything more intense in her life, so it would be for the best if he gave her a moment recover.

The sight of a naked Carol Ferris giving him "fuck-me" eyes caused a smile to pass over his face. Her nude body pressed against Harry's. Her pubic hair tickled his balls when she ground up and down on him, purring.

"I've wanted to go for a ride with you for so long," Carol said. She pushed her breasts into his face and he responded by squeezing them.

Energy and passion shot through Carol's body. Her loins inflamed and she needed to be driven down onto Harry. She needed his cock inside her.

"I'm going to get to be the first go, I knew him longer," Carol said. She playfully nudged Harry on the bed next to the Queen. "But, don't worry, I'm sure you're going to have your fun sooner rather than later."

Carol looked at Harry's cock which stood straight up and demanded attention. She was going to enjoy this. The dark haired vixen rose herself up and positioned herself over the top of Harry's cock. His tip almost entered her warm and dripping pussy. Carol ground herself down onto Harry and pushed the head closer towards her entrance.

"I'm going to fuck you senseless," Harry growled.

The dark haired vixen smiled as if asking Harry to bring it. She drove herself cunt first down onto Harry's throbbing hard cock. It stretched her and made her feel so good. She managed to get him all into her in one go and her body lit up with an intense amount of pleasure.

Harry reached over and grabbed Carol's tits when they bounced in her face. He squeezed them and she reared her head back in a moan.

"Grab my tits, squeeze them!" Carol yelled. She closed her eyes. "They are all for you…mmmm…."

Harry could not resist and buried his face between her sizeable orbs and motorboated her. Carol threw her head back with a moan. Harry continued to suck and lick at her generous amount of flesh. He knew he was going to drive her completely wild and he hoped she would scream for him.

"Fuck my tight cunt, suck my big titties!" Carol moaned. "You're such a stud….and just think of the willing pussy out there, who is waiting to be impaled on your fuck stick. I know her majesty is about ready to cream herself."

Carol smiled at Aga'po who lifted her hips up and down off of the bed. She tried to gain some traction, but her hips continued to push up against the air.

"Why don't we help her out?" Carol asked, practically purring in Harry's ear. "What do you say?"

Harry thought it would be a good idea if he was perfectly honest. A flash of light appeared and a pink construct appeared.

Carol managed to use the sapphire to create a sex toy construct, and it was a duplicate of Harry. The duplicate pushed his cock down onto Aga'po's entrance.

Harry could feel everything the duplicate felt, which meant there would soon be two tight pussies. Carol wrapped her arms around him and pushed Harry's face in between her big tits.

"Sit back," Carol said, licking his earlobe. "Just enjoy the fucking ride!"

Harry did enjoy the ride. He enjoyed burying his cock into Carol's extremely willing cunt as well. The dark haired vixen bucked her hips down onto Harry with lust pouring through her eyes. She bit down on her lip.

Aga'po rose her hips up to meet the second version of Harry which had been created. He penetrated her pussy, stretching it. It might not have been the real thing, but it would have to do, at least for right now.

"FUCK….FUCK….FUCK ME!" Aga'po yelled.

Such naughty language coming from the Queen's mouth caused Harry's balls to twitch. He pushed himself into Carol. Being balls deep into the beautiful woman caused him to throb.

"Don't worry, I know you're about ready, so I am," Carol said.

Her pussy gushed and released its juices. She rammed herself down onto Harry and coated his cock over and over again. Carol thought it had been more than worth the wait to have such a big cock inside her, buried into her pussy.

"You just can't have enough of my cock, can you?" Harry asked.

"No, and none of these bitches will have enough of your cock either," Carol said. "So, you fucked Alex already, didn't you?"

Harry smiled and decided to grab Carol's ass. She pushed down onto him in response. A twitch and Harry realized something had been holding back his output.

"Mmm, I know you took your big cock and wrecked her,' Carol said. She drove herself down onto Harry and made his balls load up even more. "And you're going to do the same to Carol. And I'm sure Eliza would want a piece of the action….I hear MILF does the body good….but I'm sure you'd know all about that, don't you, stud?"

Harry's balls twitched when she brought herself onto him. Her legs wrapped around him, and Harry squeezed her ass some more.

"And little Kara, sweet little Kara, when she gets old enough, you're going to break her in too, aren't you?" Carol asked. "Why settle for the rest, when you can have the best?"

Harry was about ready to explode and Carol intended to milk him down to the last drop.

"Right now, I'm going to fuck you into a sex coma," Harry growled, grabbing Carol's hips and forcing her down onto him again.

"Yes, baby, I like it fucking rough!" Carol yelled. "Drill my cunt….make it cum all over your huge fucking cock….make all these bitches jealous you're not getting your cock right now like I am."

Carol's pussy squeezed Harry and he knew he didn't have much time left.

"Cum inside me," Carol said. "Put your cum inside my body...I want it to be still dripping from me a week from now, do you understand me?"

Harry understood. Her pussy was hot enough to melt a normal man's dick off. He pounded her sopping hot core and his cock strained before shooting his load inside of Carol's body.

Carol drove herself all the way down onto him. She stretched his cock and her wet walls pumped him. Her entire body glowed with energy which powered the crystals around him.

She turned her attention to Aga'po, who had been rode into an orgasm of her own by the duplicate. Carol smiled and waved her hand.

"I'm sure that was fun," she remarked. "Nothing beats the real thing, though."

Harry slid over right next to the Queen of the Star Sapphires and his cock was ready for her. It still dripped with the combination of his and Carol's juices. He climbed on top of her and straddled her, before pushing himself deep inside of her.

"YES!"

Aga'po experienced the pleasure of all twelve inches of a huge prick shoving into her body. She reached up and grabbed Harry around the back to guide him inside of her.

Harry thought enjoying this pussy from afar would feel really good. He had no idea how enjoyable it was wrapped around his throbbing cock.

"So fucking tight," Harry said. He reached down. "How do you like it?"

"Please, more," Aga'po begged him.

He pressed his body against hers and started to plant some kisses down her body. Aga'po responded with a passionate moan into his ear when Harry rode her into the bed. His hips bucked down into hers with a few thrusts.

"Harder, fast, more!" she told him. She wanted him to bury his throbbing cock into her tight pussy. "Fuck me harder!"

Harry could not believe how much the prim and proper Queen turned into a shameless whore who wanted his cock and nothing else. He buried himself into her depths with a huge thrust, burying his prick into her tight body. Aga'po pushed her hands around Harry's lower back and encouraged him to push himself into her body.

"Harder, harder, harder!"

"Oh, I'll give you hard."

Carol was glad for the chance of having to ride Harry. However, she was less than pleased with the fact she had been kidnapped for her office.

"I think it's time for you to pay," Carol said.

"Yes," Aga'po said.

The Queen had been positioned and Carol put a throbbing hard cock at her real entrance. She pushed herself into the Queen. The warmth and spread as Carol speared into her backside, with her large breasts pressed against her back.

"Mmm, I think you're going to pay and get rewarded at the same time," Carol said.

Harry and Carol double-stuffed the Queen and brought her to a series of passionate moans. Both of them pounded her on either end, rewarding her with passion.

"The crystals are almost charged," she said. "The process is….almost complete."

"And so are you?"

Harry's hips met hers in a passionate action. The Queen nodded, a bit of drool coming down from her chin the further Harry pushed himself into her body.

"Yes, yes, yes, I am," the Queen encouraged him.

Aga'po's body warmed up and she could see a new energy overwhelming her subjects. Some of them tried to break through the barriers.

"Time for you to cum," Harry told her.

Aga'po had no choice other than to comply with him. Their bodies melded together and energy shot into the air, bringing the crystals to maximum power.

The spirits of the trapped love interests had been released. They had given moans of triumph when they had shot up into the air and had been driven on to their eternal reward.

Speaking of eternal reward, Harry would have been giving The Queen one. He pushed his cock into her depths and rode her pussy. He would make her climax and hard if he had any say about it.

"Time for you to be filled with my seed."

The Queen's body tensed, she was ready to take Harry's seed into her body. She imagined what it would do for her.

"I'll have your child," she whispered to him, biting down on his ear.

"Good, knock that bitch up," Carol said.

Harry sent his cum into her body and fired inside of her. The energy caused his balls to spill an excessive amount of cum into the Queen. He filled her up and fertilized her eggs.

The new life being created through the act of love caused the energy crystals to be empowered. The barriers dropped down and the army of Star Sapphires approached.

' _We're going to need more constructs,'_ Carol thought, watching the field of female flesh approaching them.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on January 14** **th** **, 2017.**

_Well, everything gets settled in the most amazing way possible._

_Faora notices the changes in Sinestra, although she persists in being stubborn because of course, she does._

_Until Saturday._


	254. Times Of Our Life

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Four: Times Of Our Life.**

* * *

 

Thea Queen thought she settled back into her life, about as much as she could, underneath the alias of Mia Dearden in Gotham City. She moved all of her things, what few she acquired, into the apartment across from Selina's. She had a place of her own to stretch her legs, while also being close enough for Selina across the way. Thea was forever glad for everything Selina did, and she had got her upon her feet in Gotham City and gave her the confidence. Working at the Club caused Thea to get a lot of knowledge on business, and Harry also helped her.

Another thing Thea had been encouraged to do was start to go to Gotham City Academy. She spent a fair bit of time with Harry in an attempt to get herself back to standards. She hadn't been in a school for about six months and she wasn't exactly the most attentive person in the world when she went to school. Still, perhaps this was the right time to turn things around for the better.

' _Maybe I have a chance to do a second impression,'_ Thea thought. _'Being Thea Queen, party girl, it did wonders by making me a lot of friends. But it also made me fall into the wrong crowd of people.'_

Thea placed her Red Sun on the table where it was right before her. She made sure the stun gun Selina gave her was able to be swiped at a moment's notice. Despite the locks were good, there were still a lot of dangerous people on the streets of Gotham City.

' _Just think,'_ Thea thought to herself. _'I went off to get away from the insanity and I jumped straight into it…oh well, it doesn't….'_

Thea heard a sound of thumping on the hallway and she noticed someone pacing back and forth down the wall. She opened the door and peeked out into the hallway.

No one too dangerous, at least not at first, but Thea caught a look of a young woman. She had her hair tied back and she dressed in a black leather jacket, a shirt, and jeans. Her hair was a bit curlier, and she had a dark complexion.

"May I help you?" Thea asked.

The girl jumped halfway in the air and almost smacked into Thea. Thea stepped back to give her some room.

"I'm looking for Selina," she said. "You wouldn't happen to have seen her, would you…you must be Mia."

"Yes, yes, I am," Thea said. "And you are…"

The elevator to the apartment opened with a ding. Selina stepped out of the elevator and walked inside. She caught sight of the young girl and flashed a smile.

"Ella, you're here for the weekend."

The girl, Ella, responded with a smile. She stepped over and looked towards Selina with a smile.

"I might be here for more than a weekend, it really depends on how long my father's business."

Selina smiled back at the girl. The girl's father wanted to keep her as far away from the family business as possible, and Selina could not blame him at all. To be perfectly honest, Frank only continued to work in his particular line of work because it treated his family so well.

' _The guy doesn't know any other career, he can't help himself,'_ Selina thought. _'Boy, do I ever know the feeling.'_

She locked eyes on Mia, who looked from Ella towards Selina.

"This is my goddaughter, Helena Bertinelli," Selina said. She flashed a smile. "She's staying here for the weekend….perhaps longer, due to the fact her father is in Metropolis on business."

Mia wondered what kind of business the young girl's father was up to, but she figured it was none of her business.

"I was wondering if I could ask you a favor," Selina said. Mia raised an eyebrow and motioned for Selina to continue. The older woman responded with a smile. "You know, on top of all of the other favors I ask of you."

Mia raised an eyebrow. Anyone who did not know the nature of their relationship might have taken things the wrong way. She smiled and leaned closer towards Selina.

"Sure, anything."

"Do you think you can keep an eye on Ella?" Selina asked. "Just for tonight….because I have something…which came up."

Mia raised an eyebrow. She wondered what business Selina would have had tonight.

' _Again, it's likely none of my business,'_ she thought to herself.

"Sure, I'd keep an eye on her but….I'm not sure if I have a bed for her in my apartment, so maybe….."

"Actually, here take my key, and you can move back into my apartment for tonight," Selina said. Mia looked at Selina with a smile. "I know, kid, what can I say? You spend all of the time trying to get out of my apartment. And then you're back in it."

Selina smiled and motioned for both of them follow her.

"So, are you going to actually be back by tomorrow?" Ella asked Selina. She had no idea what her godmother was doing.

Selina turned around and kneeled down close towards Ella. She flashed a smiled at her and pinched her cheek.

"Don't worry; I'll be back before you know it. Back before you wake up."

"Promise?" Ella asked.

"Promise," Selina said with a smile.

Mia wondered if Selina could follow up on this promise. The woman would do anything in her power to do so. She knew Selina's night work and how it could get some complications.

* * *

 

Oliver Queen tried to count down the moments in time. He had been only given enough medical attention to be kept alive. Any second now, that madman would be back. Any second now, he would be tormented and tortured within an inch of his life.

He didn't know who he preferred, Fyres, or the Man of in the Mask. At least the Man in the Mask, he was a bit blunter with his methods of torture. Fryes acted like he was Oliver's friend and then stepped back with the man in the mask doing his work.

Speaking of the man in the mask, he opened up. He looked at Oliver with a nasty glare. Oliver tried to lift his hand. His hand slapped against the edge of the wall.

"You're back?" Oliver asked. "What are you waiting for?"

The man in the mask surveyed Oliver for a few seconds. He responded in his usual crisp tone. "Orders."

Orders, it meant nothing to Oliver. He struggled to get out of the predicament. The chain refused to budge even an inch. It snapped back against the wall.

"I've told you, I don't know anything."

Oliver Queen couldn't even begin to tell anyone how he managed to last this long. He had a hazy memory of being lifted out of the wreckage. Everything else had been a blur and he struggled to figure it out.

"You might as well just kill me right here," Oliver said. "Right now."

The man in the iron mask continued to stare down at him. Oliver grew progressively more annoyed at his lack of action.

"I don't even know anything, and this girl, I haven't seen anyone, I was just brought here," Oliver said. "I swear to…"

"He won't save you now."

The man in the mask clamped his hand over Oliver's face and caused him to struggle to draw in a breath. The young man's breathing grew more troubled and nearly smothered.

Oliver wondered if it was just meant to end this way. If he was just meant to die, just like this, and if he was, why would he have been kept alive for so long.

"You still may be of some value, but the final decision is up to Mr. Fyres," the man in the mask said. "If it was up to me, you would have been already dead a long time ago."

Oliver wished he could have been reassured by a statement like that, but honestly, he could not be reassured, not at all. He had tried to break free. All of the survival instincts had not been beaten out of Oliver Queen.

The effort had been as futile as all of the previous efforts where he tried to escape. The chain snapped back against the wall and left him with no place to go. His breathing increased with each passing second when he once again tried to break out. And once again, his chain hit back against the wall.

The candles in the dungeon blew out. This action threw Oliver for a loop. The footsteps of the man in the mask echoed and he walked away from him.

Moments later, a figure stepped into the room. The figure held only a lantern which flashed into the light. Oliver's face had been illuminated by the lantern and he came face to face with an old Asian Man who peered down at Oliver.

"They're after you," Oliver murmured underneath his breath.

The old Asian Man stared Oliver directly in the eye for a moment. It was almost like he scanned Oliver's soul and Oliver shuddered in response to his actions. Something about his glare just made Oliver nervous.

"Yes, I know," the Old Asian Man said. He reached behind him and held a bottle in his hand. "You'll be much safer in here, then you are out on the island."

Given how Oliver was tormented and tortured, he begged to differ.

' _Guess it's not prudent to argue with the man who is bringing me water,'_ Oliver thought.

"They're asking about the girl," Oliver said. "I don't know what girl, I have no clue what they're talking about, at all. What are they talking about?"

Yao Fei managed to collect his thoughts. He knew what the men on this island were talking about.

"You stay put," he said. "You wouldn't be able to last five minutes out on this island. People stronger than you have perished."

He departed before the man in the mask came back. Yao Fei did not even make it out about three steps when he ran into Edward Fyres and his men. One of his men grabbed a girl, chicken winging her arm with one hand and holding a knife to her hand with the other.

"Shado."

He rushed over towards them until Fyre's pulled a gun alive.

"You need me alive still," Yao Fei said.

"Yes, I know, but your daughter…..I don't…"

"Let her go, now," he said. "If anything happens to her, you won't get any more help from me."

"Yes, I realize that I'm no fool," Fyres said. "But, she's useful, in her own way, as insurance….if you just tell me where the map is, we could avoid any further messiness."

"Don't tell him…argh!"

Shado slumped over, and the two goons who held her up.

"Why are you interested in it?" Yao Fei asked.

"Well, you see, I'm not, particularly," Fyres said. "However my brother is….or rather my brother's boss….my brother's boss isn't well these days, and it's something….he's been searching for which can help him get better."

Yao Fei wondered what was going on. Whatever it was, it could not have been an ideal situation, not at all.

* * *

 

Mario Falcone stumbled his way outside of the club to the point where he needed to hold onto something to keep up and about. A woman latched onto his arm, even though the woman in question looked rather disinterested in his attempt at a play.

"Come on baby, loosen up a little bit," he said. "Just come back home, and I'll get you real relaxed."

The woman unlatched herself from Mario.

"I told you, no means no," she said. "I said I'd go out with you, but if you think I'm another conquest…"

"I can make things happen for you," Mario said. "He put his arm back around her waist and started to move a bit further down this time. "Look at you, you could be a real classy lady…if you just let me…"

The woman slapped Mario and turned around to hail a taxi. Despite the fact taxi drivers in Gotham City had a less than sterling reputation, it was better than the alternative of sticking around for another moment and being gawked at by one Mario Falcone.

The young Falcone stood on the curb with a grimace. He curled his fist and was about ready to punch someone or something. His entire body shook.

"Women in this town should be lining up, to get a piece of me," Mario said. "I don't understand what her problem is, she could have had it all….she could have really had something….something special. But she just had to throw it away."

A cell phone call put the brakes on Mario's angry ranting. He reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone.

"Yeah," Mario said. "Okay, fine, I'll be there."

Mario stumbled around the corner. The flash of a camera caused him to turn around and raise his fist. The man holding the camera stepped back.

"Look, man, I'm just doing my job….."

"Next thing that camera is going to do is it's going to be rammed straight up your ass."

After the botched kidnapping with Cobblepot's right-hand man, Mario got very little respect, whether it be from the press or from his father. He turned around and coughed a couple more times. He almost stumbled and bumbled, falling flat on his face in the process.

He opened up the car door and entered his fancy sports car. He turned it on and hit the gas.

Mario Falcone burst down the streets of Gotham City, swerving and going around in circles. He barely avoided hitting two cars on his way to the meeting place. The third time, however, his luck ran out.

He hit a parked car.

"Son of a bitch, why do you have to put a fucking car right where people were driving!" Mario yelled. He backed off out of the man's driveway, trampling the flower bed and knocking over the garbage can on the way out.

The sounds of a siren echoed behind him and a Gotham City Squad Car pulled up behind him. The officer stepped out and shined a flashlight which caused Mario to recoil.

"License and registration, please," the officer said.

"Why?" Mario asked, in the most belligerent tone he could manage. "You know who I am, and more importantly, you know who my father is."

The officer was not in the mood for any kind of fun and games. "I said, license and registration."

"I'll just give you something to tide you over," Mario said. He reached into his wallet and pulled out a few one hundred dollar bills. "I'll have my father send over the rest of it….."

"Mario Falcone?"

Chief O'Hara, who had been riding along with the squad car, stepped out and looked at the son of Carmine Falcone. One look told the Chief how intoxicated the man was.

"Chief O'Hara," Mario groaned. "Is there a problem?"

"I'd say there is, son," O'Hara said. "You've run a ninety in a fifty-five, ran a red light…and hit a parked car in someone's driveway."

Mario shook his head.

"He was in my way, officer."

O'Hara took one look at the man's red eyes and saw what he had been partaking in. He put his hand on the door.

"I'm going to have to ask for your license and registration," O'Hara said.

"Why?" Mario asked. "YOU ALREADY KNOW WHO I AM!"

Chief O'Hara pulled open the door and grabbed Mario, who had not been wearing his seat belt either.

"There are also strict seat belt wearing laws in Gotham City," O'Hara said. "I'm going to have to ask you one more time, your license and registration…."

Mario reached into his pocket and the two officers with O'Hara pulled him the rest of the way out of the car and tackled him to the ground.

"I was just…trying…to get…something for you officers….."

"Make a note of attempted bribery of a GCPD officer," O'Hara said. "On three counts….cuff him and bring him downtown."

"You have the right to remain silent….."

Needless to say, Mario Falcone waived that particular right with flying colors.

"You son of a bitch, you son of a bitch…DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM! YOU FUCKING….I'M MARIO FUCKING FALCONE….MY FAMILY RUNS THIS TOWN...WITHOUT US….THERE…wouldn't be a fucking Gotham City…"

He received a taser to the ribs for his trouble.

"You have a right to an attorney…"

"Oh, my father will have your jobs for this…all of your jobs!"

* * *

 

Amanda and Emily supervised a group of Lois, Rebecca, Lyta, Jade, Artemis, and Jessie. They were all hanging out at the mall and the twins hoped this little outing would go a bit smoother than the last outing they had.

"And it turns out Senior Year is not the wash other people claim it is," Amanda said. She responded with a sigh and looked a bit tired and a bit more frustrated.

"Hey, we're having our own problems as it is," Lois said. "I'm just glad we have a bit more freedom to move around in Gotham City."

Lois knew they would not get full freedom. Not after what happened last time. And hey, Joker was in prison, but that didn't mean there weren't other people in Gotham City who could cause trouble for them.

"Oh, I think I'll have this one," Artemis said. She looked at the brand new bow which she needed for her archery class. "I've been saving up my money all year for that."

"You know, you could have asked Harry, I'm sure he would have got it for you," Jade said.

"Well, he's giving us a place to live, I think we've asked more than enough of him," Artemis said.

Jade smiled. She had been allowed to join in on Lois and Rebecca's lessons, which was also the best gift she could have asked for Harry. She figured Harry knew of her less than noble reasons for wanting to learn a bit more on how to defend herself. She wanted to hunt down her father.

"Still, you have to admit, he does take care of you two," Jessie said. "Much better than…well…you know….."

"Hey, you're always welcome here," Lyta said to Jessie. "Don't ever forget that."

Jessie knew she was welcomed to, and the fact she had a warm bed to crash in and a warm meal to feed herself in, it was both things which caused a smile to be brought upon her face.

She still wanted to find out what became of her father. Jessie had a couple of theories, and the more she looked at this Joker, she wondered if her father could have…become him. It was a long leap from general scumbag to a murderous psychopath. She understood this about as well as anyone else.

"Mia, hey!"

Amanda waved over and saw Mia who had walked into the mall. She looked at the Potter twins and their charges.

"Wow, I can't believe Harry trusted you with this group again," Mia said before she could help herself.

"I don't think we could have believed it either," Lyta said after a moment of pause and she smiled. She could see both of her aunts giving her the dirtiest of dirty looks and Lyta just flashed them a smile. "So, who is your friend?"

A dark-haired girl stepped into the mall to join them.

"This is Helena Bertinelli," Mia said. "She's Selina's goddaughter, and I'm keeping an eye on her for her…this is….."

"I know who these two are, they are Amanda and Emily Potter…there was a story about them, how they're notable names at Gotham Private Academy," Ella said. She didn't go to GPA, rather going to a Catholic All-Girls Private School.

"Right, and I'm Lois Lane," she said. "And this is Lyta Prince, Jessie Todd, Artemis and Jade Crock, and…this is….."

"Rebecca Grayson," Ella said. She looked at the girl, both of them were around the same age. "I heard about your parents and I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you," Rebecca said.

Ella smiled when she looked at Rebecca and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"I hope that bastard Zucco fries for what he did to your parents."

Rebecca gave an uneasy smile at the blunt way she made this declaration.

"Well, I'm sure one thing for certain, it will be the police or….Nightwing which makes him pay," Lois said. "Right, Rebecca?"

"Yes," Rebecca said and Lyta and Artemis both broke out into fits of laughter based off of the look on her face.

"Am I missing something?" Ella asked.

"Just a very long story," Rebecca said, shaking her head. "I'm not going to do it again, though…I wasn't thinking…now my mind's clear."

She wouldn't say no to roughing up Zucco if the opportunity presented itself.

"Hey, Amy!" Amanda yelled, another one of their friends having shown up.

"So, Nightwing will give you justice," Ella said. Mia had her eyes on the girl, all of the girls in fact. "What about Batman?"

Lois put her hands on her hips and responded as only she could. "What about Batman?"

This statement caused laughter, namely Lois's dismissal of Batman.

"Nightwing is where it's at…okay, Black Canary and Huntress are both cool as well," Lois said.

"Huntress is a pretty kick ass name," Ella said.

"Yeah, you're right," Lois said.

* * *

 

Alex Danvers cracked a smile. She saw piles and piles of downed Star Sapphires. Harry left them sticky, with satisfied smiles on their faces. Carol Ferris, in particular, was in the center of it. She curled up against Harry, who had rested off what seemed to be an endless orgy of willing female flesh.

"Good, " Alex said. "It's as it should be."

Alex took a couple of steps and turned around to meet her sister. Carol wore an expression of amusement on her face.

"I'm guessing some things have changed since I left Earth," Carol said.

"Yeah, a few things," Alex said. "Kara is doing well in school, even though she has a lot to live up to for our standards."

"Well, you had a lot to live up with me," Carol said.

Alex responded with a groan and put her hands on her hips.

"Yeah, I know, don't remind me," Alex said.

"But, hey, you did pretty well for yourself," Carol said. She crossed the distance between the two of them. "You finally found a man worthy of your standards…which you did set pretty high."

Alex shrugged her shoulders. She did have pretty high standards, but it was for good reason.

"Yes, and now maybe when we get home, we can….work on our mother," Alex said. Carol blinked in surprise. "Even you have to admit, she needs to get laid…she works way too hard."

"Still?" Carol asked. "It's been that way since Dad died."

Carol did agree Eliza Danvers needed to get laid and she was sure Alex had already figured it out.

"And you know, I can put the good word for you…before we go home," Alex said. "Unless you want to come with us….."

"Can't," Carol said. "We still have a lot of work to do…the mission isn't over until the Red Lanterns are defeated."

Alex smiled. She was curious about many things and had a hundred and one questions in her mind. Each of them had hit her hard and fast.

"I'm sure you have some stories to tell me," Alex said.

Carol grinned and leaned towards her younger sister.

"Yeah, a couple."

"We have some time to kill…until we're ready to leave," Alex said. "Why don't get you get me caught up on what's been going on in space, and what it means to be a Green Lantern? I have to admit….when you didn't come back home, we were pretty worried, even though I figured out you were on some excellent adventure."

"It was most certainly an adventure," Carol said. "I'm not even sure if I believe half of the things I saw, and I was there."

Alex smiled and snuck one last look at the carnage her boyfriend had left behind.

"Well, we do have some time to kill before Sinestra and the others get back…and we can't leave until Harry wakes up," Carol said. The two sisters sat down next to each other. "So, what do you want me to tell you?"

Alex tapped her chin and considered what she needed to learn.

"Tell me everything."

Carol wondered if her sister realized how everything meant a whole lot of things. Regardless she would best have started from the top.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on January 18** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Mario's in a lot of trouble, a whole lot of trouble as it turns out. Can't say it happened to a nicer guy._

_Interaction scenes tied together very nicely in this chapter._

_Until Wednesday._


	255. Welcome to Dimension X Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Five: Welcome to Dimension X Part One.**

* * *

 

The untamed frontier of space resulted in a significant amount of random space fire. There were a lot of sectors in space which had not been policed. Anyone who dared enter the sector in space did so at their own peril. It was a useful place to hide from detection and also a pretty ideal location to get killed. Many individuals in space took a huge gamble by traveling here, especially through the nexus point which led them to sectors which were practically other dimensions.

There were twenty-six nexus points throughout the known universe, detailing subsections of the universe. They had been classified as Dimensions A through Z for reasons which eluded many in the universe. Yet, it had been classified as such; therefore it remained classified to this very day.

One of the most dangerous points was located inside a cluster of asteroids. It had been a dimension which had been forbidden entrance. Many vessels which crossed through this particular frontier vanished and never returned. It had been called Dimension X, and it had once been the home to one of the most reviled dictators in the entire universe. And it also had been a location.

Several alien warships moved through the dimensional gateway. They had been led by the Thangarians, and several other secondary mercenary ships circled around.

"Commander, are the Red Lanterns near?" one of the Thangarians asked.

"Why, have you seen them?" the Commander asked. He raised an eyebrow.

"No, but…there's something else you should know about….."

The statement did not get concluded when something bombarded the side of the vessel. A miniature explosion resounded and the commander almost toppled over. The commander struggled to stand up and he noticed several floating rock vessel style ships moving towards them. One of them created an energy sphere which aimed towards the ship.

"Impossible!" the Thangarian commander yelled. "They shouldn't have been able to breach our ships defenses…"

The Thangarian Commander took a few seconds to catch his breath.

"Make sure you fire back at them, make those foul lizards pay," the Thangarian commander said. "I want their armada reduced to do. Do you hear me?"

"At once Commander Zortak!"

The Commander of the Thangarian Fleet narrowed his eyes and his fists clutched together. His anger heightened. He reached over a shelf on the wall and pulled out a large battle ax. It had been given to him for his years of service and now he would use it to cut them to pieces.

"Get me to the mother ship, now," Zortak said. He waved the ax back and forth and caused the other Thangarians to step back in nervousness. He growled when they moved. "Pierce their defenses...I want the head of anyone….anyone who gets in my way."

"We're trying, Commander," one of the navigators said. "They have shields up….."

"There's no way a bunch of stupid lizards should be able to get shields up which could block ups," the Commander said. He grabbed the lead navigator around the shoulder and forced him to look him in the eye. "I'm going to ask you one more time, and not again…fire at them, now!"

"Divert all power to the hyper cannon!" the navigators said. "All non-vital systems…we have one shot, let's make it count."

On the ship, a group of humanoid Triceratops gathered around. They dressed in black uniforms with a grey symbol on their sleeve. The image superimposed on the symbol was a broken horn. Their leader snarled when staring forward at the winged vermin.

Their leader showed the ravages of war. His right eye had been covered in an eye patch with a few jagged scars down it. His nose horn had been made of metal. His right arm twisted and transformed into a prosthetic limb. More scars covered his body and anyone who caught a look at him agreed how much this particular dinosaur had been put through the wringer.

"They're beginning to fire back at us," he said.

"We have to knock them out of the sky, the fugitive is on one of those ships," the commander of the fleet said. "I want them blasted from the sky."

Thangarians close to what remained of their home world. Their vile presence polluted the very air they breathed. The leader of the crew turned his attention towards the rest of the fleet.

"At once Commander Mozar."

The Commander snarled. The noble Triceraton Republic were survivors of the highest caliber. It had been a long time since their home world had been blown up in Dimension X by the vile and evil warlord known as Krang. They had been forced to retreat to a colony of rock clusters, which they modified as a space armada.

' _It's our home, and those winged vermin aren't going to take it,'_ the Commander thought to himself.

"They're returning…"

"Increase the shield and deploy the Ion bomb, I don't want to see even a feather by the time you're done," Mozar said.

"But the Ion Bomb…"

"Yes, I'm quite aware what it does, and I know we will need to power down the ships for the next three nextons to recharge, but…." the Commander said. He stopped and the ship had been bombarded with another attack. "The alternatives are for worse…now do it!"

* * *

 

Ilana remained sitting in the Interceptor. The shielding increased in frequency, and she did not feel the disgusting feelings coming from the energy from the Star Sapphires. She supposed everything would be smooth sailing from here.

"You shouldn't be affected anymore," Aya said. She sat down next to Ilana and frowned. "And yet, you look more affected than ever before."

Ilana gave her one long, frustrated look, and crossed her arms together.

"I'm fine," she replied, not sounding fine.

"Do you think of me as ignorant," Aya said. "I don't think you're fine."

Ilana sighed. She did not want to enlighten an AI of matters of the heart, especially considering she failed to understand these matters herself.

"Physically I'm fine….."

"Yes, you're fine," Aya said.

"Do you think you could let me finish?" Ilana asked.

The tension heightened between the two of them in the ship. Neither woman responded to the words of the other. Ilana and Aya looked at each other.

"I'm just unsettled."

"What is so unsettling about love?"

Aya asked a fair enough question. Ilana wondered how she could answer it without coming across as bitter or resentful. Now her thoughts had been stirred up in the worst possible way.

"I can't really put my finger on why….it has to do with the fact I gave myself up to the rage…..I wouldn't have been recruited as a Red Lantern if I didn't," Ilana said. The pause followed between the two of them and Aya looked at her. Was it with pity? Or anxiousness? "You know, staring at me like that is just about as unsettling as what the crystals are doing to me out there."

"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware if I had the permission to speak."

Ilana sighed. Aya had been rather naïve about many things, most people took for granted.

"When I stop talking, I'm giving you the opportunity….why am I even bothering to explain this to you?" Ilana asked. "The point is…love is like a dagger to the heart. You think it feels right, you feel just, but when you lose it, all that's left is a gaping hole."

"I wasn't aware a dagger to the heart was supposed to be pleasurable in any way," Aya said.

Ilana shook her head. She had forgotten how technically young Aya was, and how….well how she wouldn't be the best person.

"You know that idealism you hold, where you want to think the best of anyone and everyone?" Ilana asked. Aya responded with a nod. "I hope there's nothing which comes along to corrupt you….because it would be a shame if you had been poisoned."

Atrocitus ruined a lot of lives through his actions. The Guardians may have kicked the ball down the hill by their inaction and their indifference. Ilana hated everything the Guardians stood for, and every time she turned around, half of the problems tied back to them in some way. However, Atrocitus could have been the better person.

' _He could have been the better person,'_ she thought to herself. _'Much like I could have been the better person in time.'_

"At one time I loved and lost…and I decided to distance myself from that in the future," Ilana said. "And any reminder of it…it's not pleasant for me…..hopefully you never have a chance to understand the heartache."

Ilana trailed off. She realized how depressing she sounded when going down this particular road. Although she wasn't sure why Carol thought she should write poetry about it to get it all out of her system.

"You're depressing sometimes," Aya said.

"Maybe," Ilana said. "Life can be, though….if you chose to…..and I've chosen to."

Aya stepped back and to her credit, Ilana didn't flinch at the almost contact. She just looked the construct straight in the eyes.

"It doesn't have to be," Aya said.

"It's a part of who I am," Ilana said. She lifted up her hand with the ever present red ring flashing on it. "Just like this is who I've chosen to be."

"Maybe it's only because you allowed yourself to be this way."

Ilana didn't dispute her statement for a moment. There was some amount of validity to Ilana's point.

* * *

 

Carol Ferris returned to some level of sanity now she had her time alone with Harry. Now, she came to her senses, there was a lot of guilt which entered her body. The post-sex high faded and now she had time to think about all that happened rationally.

' _Well, this could have gone a little bit better,'_ Carol thought.

"So, the choice is yours? Do you want to stay here, or do you want to leave?"

Carol turned towards Aga'po who stood off to one side and faced her with a frown on her face. The two women locked eyes. The Queen stepped closer towards Carol. One instant later, Aga'po's hand rested on Carol's face. There was no pretense in her eyes, there was, however, a slight amount of guilt.

"So, I do have a choice?" Carol asked.

Aga'po locked her gaze onto Carol. "I took you against your will….some of these women were in a very dark place, and….I may have started with the best of intentions. You, on the other hand, you weren't in a dark place at all. You were just frustrated your friend was gone, which is understandable."

Carol responded with a nod. Now she confirmed Carol would be safe for the next little while, she supposed she could rest, at least as much as she normally could.

"You weren't well either," Carol said. "No offense."

Aga'po responded with a smile. She touched Carol on top of her hand and gave it a slight squeeze.

"None was taken, the power of tainted love can be blinding," Aga'po said. "Har-Zod set us all free."

Carol wondered why the Star Sapphires kept calling Harry "Har-Zod". She supposed it was a long story, and she had been too distracted by the amazing, wonderful, passionate sex she received to really care too much about it.

"We are going to have to reassess what it means to feel love," Aga'po said. She reached over and offered a gentle touch on top of Carol's shoulder. "Now we've been set free, we can move….I'm just glad you're not bitter about the situation."

"You only did what you felt was the best, and…you were misinformed," Carol said. She stepped back. "As long as you can be educated, we shouldn't have much of a problem."

"You're a very enlightened woman, Carol Ferris," she said. "I'm glad to have gotten the honor in meeting you….and again, the door is open for you to return…."

"I like the boots, although they don't really go with anything else that I wear," Carol said. "And I have to admit, the costume….makes me feel a bit naughty…..I guess female empowerment means you dress how you like."

"We want to show we're not afraid of anything," Aga'po said. Carol opened her hand and prepared to hand the sapphire over. "Actually, you should keep it, as a token of your adventure here. And a reminder of what's to come."

Carol raised an eyebrow and took the Star Sapphire back into her hand.

"And we could use a champion on your Earth," Aga'po said. "If you wanted to be ours."

"I'd like that," Carol said.

Carol turned around and ran into Carol when she made her way around the corner.

"So, are you okay?" the Green Lantern asked the Star Sapphire.

"I am now," the Star Sapphire responded. "So, where is Alex?"

"She's coming by soon….."

"I want to apologize to her, I was out of line."

Alex popped around the corner. Harry was a couple of steps behind her, with Faora, and Karen walking behind her. Sinestra walked next to her. Carol made a beeline to Alex.

"Please tell me you're not going to rip my head off this time," Alex said.

"No, trust me, I'm not," Carol said. She smiled when locking eyes onto Alex. "I just want to apologize to you, and say I was out of line."

Alex responded with a shrug in response. She figured, all things considered, she could not blame Carol.

"Hey, apology accepted," Alex said. "I didn't know you had….well actually I knew you had a thing for Harry. I just didn't know it was that strong."

"Well, I didn't either," Carol said with laughter in her voice. "It's good to see you all….and I guess I better get home."

Carol turned towards Harry. She walked closer towards him and wrapped her arms around his waist in a warm hug. The two of them lingered in an embrace. Their lips met in the middle with a passionate and extremely hungry kiss before Carol pulled away from him.

"Don't worry, I'll tell them…well, I'll tell them something to appease them," Carol said. "I suspect you'll be back before too long."

"That's the plan," Harry said to her. He grabbed her in another hug and kissed her one more time. "But, you know what they say about even the best-laid plans of mice and men."

"Yes, I do," Carol said with one more kiss. "So, are you coming, Alex?"

"Actually, no."

The Green Lantern Carol turned towards her younger sister and frowned. She expected Alex to return with Carol to Earth. The fact her sister didn't put Carol in a slight state of agitation.

"I know that look," Alex said. "And these Red Lanterns, they pose a danger to everyone, including the people of Earth. And the DEO was formed to protect the Earth from threats. I'm just being a bit more proactive than they would like."

"You know, it's going to be dangerous out there."

"Yes, I know."

Carol knew she couldn't really say much of anything. Alex had her mind made up and she could be excessively stubborn when she wanted to be.

A flash of light signified the portal being opened. Carol Ferris stepped through the portal and smiled, saying her goodbyes to the others. Hopefully, she would see them before too long.

"So, are you ready to get to work?" SInestra asked.

' _Har, a word if you please,'_ Faora thought.

* * *

 

Harry and Faora walked a little bit away from the rest of the group. The two of them looked at each other and Faora decided to be the one who would break the ice.

' _Is it just me, or does Sinestra seem a bit off to you?'_ Faora thought to her brother.

' _Well, you've known her longer than I have, so I would trust your personal opinion more,'_ Harry thought. He placed a hand on his hip and thought. _'Yes, there's something a bit different in her…..'_

' _She told me she encountered the yellow energy, you know the same energy which caused Hector Hammond's head to grow about five times the average size. And it already killed one Green Lantern, and who knows it's going to with her.'_

Karen slipped in to join them.

' _What are you going to do?'_ Harry asked. _'Something tells me Sinestra is not the type to just abandon a mission to go and get medical attention.'_

One could just feel the sigh of frustration radiation off of her sister.

' _She isn't,'_ Faora thought. She leaned in and placed a hand on her brother's shoulder. _'We're going to have to do something…..I'm just not sure what it would be.'_

' _I think if we are able to keep an eye on her, everything should be okay,'_ Karen said.

Faora thought about it for a matter of moments. She didn't know how anything about this entire mess could have been classified as "okay" but she figured something would have to give. She just didn't know what it would be.

' _Yes, I figured about as much,'_ Sinestra thought.

Alex and Carol popped around the corner. While Alex had bond access, she had been restricted. Carol did not have bond access, at least not yet.

"So, are you three about ready to go?" Carol asked. "Sinestra is on her way back to the Interceptor."

"You don't think she'll leave without us, will you?" Alex asked.

"It's a possibility she'd just strand us here," Carol said. "And despite their…changes in attitude, I don't really want to spend any more time here than I have to."

Alex snickered. She placed a hand on her sister's shoulder and realized way too much love could be a bad thing at times.

"So, what are we waiting for?" Harry asked. He locked eyes on all of the girls involved. "Let's go."

No reason for them to really wait around. All of the girls turned on their heels and made their way down the hallway, following Harry all the way to their destination point, back to the Interceptor.

* * *

 

Carol had been thrown off by the foreign look on Sinestra's face. Most of the mission, Sinestra wore a pretty obvious disapproving scowl. Now something else had passed over her face. It looked, well it resembled a smile. A smile which if she was perfectly honest was a bit unsettling.

"You look like you've never seen anyone smile before," Sinestra said after a moment's pause.

"No, I'm just….I'm not used to seeing a smile from you," Carol said. She thought she entered a brave new world and it threw her off ever so slightly.

"Well, the mission has turned around," Sinestra said. She strapped herself into the Interceptor.

"Let's hope you're right," Carol said.

Sinestra knew without a shadow of a doubt Carol would share the same confidence she did in due time. Now, Har-Zod and Faora were with them, they figured they would have the necessary power to take the Red Lanterns.

"I wouldn't be so happy," Ilana said. "We still have to locate the Red Lanterns, and they've been difficult to find so far."

Sinestra wouldn't even let the blatantly obvious slow her down. The Interceptor made its way from Zamaron and one could almost hear the sigh of relief coming from at least one of the parties on the ship.

"It's a marvelous vessel," Faora said. "I guess when the Guardians do something right, they do right all the way."

"Well, I think the intelligence piloting it is quite amazing by herself," Harry said.

"You are too kind, Har-Zod," Aya said, very pleased regarding the comment.

"So, it should be smooth sailing from here, right?" Carol asked.

Sounds of explosions directed from outside of the ship showed the smooth sailing might not have been the most ideal of circumstances. A firefight escalated from outside of the ship and closed in closer.

Carol shook her head. She just had to jinx them.

"Interceptor, please, get a visual on our screens, what are we dealing with?" Sinestra asked.

"At once."

The images of several floating rock fragments firing at anything which moved flashed upon the screen. One almost could see the air knocked out of Sinestra's lungs.

"There's some bad news," she grumbled. She figured she should enlighten the rest of the group on what was happening. "The Triceratons are firing at the Thanagarians and knowing our luck, both sides are going to blow each other out of the sky."

Sinestra figured on a scale of one to extremely bad, this would rank pretty high on the list, at least in her mind. She watched the flashes of light continue in the sky above them.

"As I'm sure you may have figured out, both groups have been at war with each other over the same space for a very long time," Sinestra said. "They're not going to let up until they get what they want."

"And I'm guessing they….." Harry said. "And they've locked onto us, aren't they?"

"Let's just say the Guardians have not made friends with either race and leave it at that," Sinestra said. She craned her neck back a half of an inch and frowned.

"Is there anyone in the universe the Guardians have made friends with?" Carol asked.

"Not that I'm aware of," Sinestra said after a moment's pause. A loud bang echoed and something clipped the side of the ship.

"Well, I'm not an expert on Interstellar spacecraft," Alex said. "But, in my not so expert opinion, I'm going to make a guess we're kind of royally fucked."

"We're very royally fucked actually," Sinestra said. She craned her neck back a couple of inches and watched at the ship's lights started to flash. "We're going to have to make an emergency landing."

"The only place where we can land is….." Katma said. She trailed off.

Aya slipped her way through the cluster of asteroids and had been sucked all the way through a Nexus Point. She landed on the ground.

"You know what would have been nice?" Aya asked. "If the Guardians had developed a vessel which would have been able to withstand fire a bit more."

* * *

 

Harry would have been more intrigued about their location had they not been out of the middle of nowhere. He took a step outside of the ship with a bubble of breathable air surrounding his head and an energy field protecting his body from the harsh elements out in space. He had a feeling there would not be any breathable air.

Faora and Karen walked out, with Carol and Alex following. Harry equipped Faora, Karen, and Alex with something similar. Carol did not need anything similar, thanks to the power of her Green Lantern Ring.

Ilana and Sinestra followed them out of the ship, with Katma coming out last.

"Aya says her repairs should take up to about three hours,' Sinestra said. "Which is plenty of time for things to go from bad to worse….because we are in Dimension X."

"Dimension X?" Harry asked. Why did he have a feeling of never-ending dread enter his body? Likely because he did. He turned his attention around to Sinestra, who gave him a grim nod.

"Yes, Dimension X," she replied. "So, I don't think I need to tell you to stay on your toes."

"You don't," Faora said.

"The warning is appreciated never the same."

Alex turned herself around to take a closer look at the surroundings around her. She would have thought this would be an amazing experience if she didn't have the sense something really bad was about to happen every time she turned her head.

They caught sight of a large silver robot with an abnormally large head. The robot's eyes widened and gave off an eerie glow. Harry and company turned their attention towards the robot.

"Don't shoot!" the robot yelled. "I come in peace, but if the Triceratons find you, I'm afraid we're all going to leave in pieces."

He blinked and caught sight of Ilana.

"Oh, a Red Lantern!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "You…you don't know the danger you're in…these monsters destroyed several planets….my old homeworld included…"

"Whatever we did, I'm sorry, but it wasn't my call," Ilana said. "I'm….not one of them anymore."

"But you're still wearing the ring," the robot said.

"Only because I've grown rather attached to it, I'm afraid," Ilana said.

"Just who are you," Sinestra said.

"And why the panic?" Harry asked.

"Well, you see, robots, androids… machines with a sentience, we have no rights in this part of the galaxy," he said. "It was thanks to a simple navigational error I was here in the first place….as in I navigated straight into the middle of a firefight between the Triceratons and the Thangarians."

"Who are you?" Sinestra repeated.

"Yes, I'm afraid an introduction is in order," he said. "My name is Professor Zeyton Honeycutt…or at least, I used to be…these days, I'm a fugitoid…the Fugitoid….and I guess I have the bad fortune of welcoming you to Dimension X."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on January 21** **st** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_More adventures in space and our crew runs headlong into trouble. And falls straight into Dimension X, which means bad news, as more TMNT style things get worked into the story._

_Until Saturday._


	256. Welcome to Dimension X Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Six: Welcome to Dimension X Part Two.**

* * *

 

Alex thought for all of the intelligence the DEO had, and most if it had been through her sister's ship to be fair, there were a lot of things which she didn't understand. She figured it would be best to ask a question.

"What is Dimension X?" Alex asked.

"Oh, well, that does require a bit of an explanation, yes," The Fugitoid said. He took a second to recollect his thoughts, or rather to process what was the best way to explain something like this. "There are different dimensions in the universe, even outside of the twenty-eight known and acknowledged galaxies….your ship entered through a nexus point. Twenty-Six different dimensions are an offshoot of the universe, Dimensions A Through Z, and yes I don't know why they are classified in that matter."

It seemed to be one of the broader mysteries of the universe.

"I have an idea," Harry said. The robot looked at him. "But, why don't you continue?"

"The Thangarians linger at the outskirts of the barrier leading into Dimension X," the Fugitoid continued. "And needless to say, it's gotten too close to comfort between them and the Triceratons….but then again, that's what you get when you have two warlike races which occupy the same living space."

Fugitoid took a moment to process even more thoughts and turned his attention towards the group which had settled around.

"The Triceratons have been chomping at the bit to get their hands on more resources after their home planet had been blown up," Fugitoid said. "Ever since Krang blew up their homeworld, it had not been rather good. They managed to salvage together enough spare parts to build an armada which they practically live on. Their end game is the central Dimension X homeworld, where Krang resided."

Alex heard the name "Krang" a couple of times and raised her eyebrow. She locked eyes with Harry and both of them locked eyes.

"Dimension X redefines the term forbidden zone," The Fugitoid said. "It would be for the best if we get out of here as soon as possible…for your own safety if nothing else…it's not officially named as part of the known galaxies. And any attempt to help you would get would…"

"How did you end up here?" Sinestra asked. "I take it you're not a native resident of Dimension X."

"I'm not, although I had people here who once sympathized with my plight," Fugitoid said. "Not everyone in this dimension is war mongering races, even though most of them are. It's the nature of how they were created, I'm afraid."

"You said you were in the midst of a fight between the Triceratons and the Thangarians," Carol said.

The robot responded with a nod.

"Yes, I'm afraid so…it appears I have the most rotten of luck, and there is a price on my head. The Triceraton Prime Leader would like me, or rather my brain brought before him. I could be the key to helping to defeat Krang's forces and the Triceratons taking control of Dimension X."

Harry had a feeling there was more about this than met the eye, and he would have to keep a close eye on the situation.

"I hoped to contact the Guardians of Oa, and ask for assistance of my plight," the Fugitoid said. "But, I'm afraid they didn't seem too moved or willing to assist me at this present time."

No one looked particularly surprised to hear this particular bit of news.

"Imagine that," Ilana muttered underneath her breath.

"Well, they had a reason, I'm sure," Sinestra said. She received her share of looks. "They had their reasons, I'm not saying they were good reasons, it's just they had their reasons."

The Fugitoid tried to scan the area around him. He was out in the middle of nowhere.

"If only the Thangarians and the Triceratons were the worst things we had to worry about, the pirates scouring this particular area are a particular bother," the Fugitoid said. "I'm not even sure if any of you would last five minutes alone with some of the rough crew…not that I'm…"

"Trust me, we're a lot tougher than we look," Harry said.

"Regardless, you should get out of here why you have a chance," Fugitoid said. "They will annihilate you given the chance."

"We'd love to leave," Sinestra said.

"Great, then get on your ship, and….well, I'll be seeing you….I'm certain if you blast on through, they'll be preoccupied with each….."

Sinestra raised a hand to stop the Fugitoid in mid-speech.

"We would love to leave," Sinestra said. "If we didn't have our ship's energy core depleted. Until it's back online, we're not going to survive another round with them."

Carol stepped over towards the ship. Katma followed her, and Harry decided to back the two of them.

"How are the ship's repairs coming?" Carol asked.

"Well, I'm nearly operational," Aya said. "I will need an ion coil to break through the Dimensional barrier…and those aren't easy to come by, especially where we are."

"If I may make a suggestion," Honeycutt said. Everyone's eyes and ears locked onto the Professor. "The only home world which remains peaceful belongs to the Neutrinos."

"Are they peaceful, or peaceful by Dimensional X standards?" Carol asked.

"Oh, no, they're quite tranquil indeed," The Fugitoid said. "I'm afraid I must warn you, though, the journey there is less than tranquil. I wouldn't sugarcoat it…"

"We have no choice," Harry said. "Are you sure they can help us?"

The robot spent a moment considering how to answer this question. He responded with a brisk nod, which was pretty much good enough for Harry for them to board the ship.

* * *

 

A large man who stood over eight feet tall and had skin made entirely of granite surveyed the scene around him. He dressed in military fatigues with medals pinned upon them to signify his rank. His gravely fingers curled into a fist and he snarled before turning straight around to survey his troops.

"They think they can stop me," he said. "They think their force field is strong enough to hold down a full frontal assault."

The stone general known as Traag looked down. He viewed the Royal Palace and a snarl deepened on his face. The Neutrinos were different than pretty much everyone else in Dimension X. They refused to join in on the war, and Traag was angered they had not been ripped apart for refusing to go with the natural order of things. His granite palm closed in a fist.

"Sir, I believe we may have found a hole in their defenses."

Traag stood up straight and looked towards one of his commanding officers. He motioned for the Stone Warrior to stand up on his feet and face him.

"Excellent," Traag said. "And how do you plan to exploit it?"

"We're preparing to blast at their weakest defense point, and we have a battalion ready to rush on through."

Traag though everything was about ready to go smoothly. Dimension X was an untamed wasteland now because they lacked proper leadership.

"They know where Lord Krang has been imprisoned," Traag said. "They know where he's being held…we're going to force them to speak, or we're going to burn their entire city to the ground."

"It will be done at once, General."

A loud explosion caused Traag to look skyward. Loud explosions and bangs were pretty common place in Dimension X, hence why he was not bothered by what happened.

A large chunk of rock dropped down to the ground. Recognition dawned upon Traag when he viewed at the rock fragment. He walked over towards it and removed a grenade from his belt.

"Come out and face me!" Traag yelled.

He unhooked the pin from the grenade and tossed it down onto the ground. An explosion rocked the front of the vessel open and caused it to open up. Three wounded Triceratons stepped out.

"Traag!" one of them yelled. "Do not allow him to get the technology onboard our vessel….annihilate him with everything."

The Triceratons bombarded Traag and his troops with white hot laser fire. Traag stepped back, padded and ready to avoid every blast. He grabbed another one of his grenades and hurled it into the air. A blinding bright light flashed and caused the Triceratons to back off.

"Filthy reptiles!" Traag growled. "Dimension X won't be yours…"

Another ship, a scouter this time, blasted through the air and started to fire at Traag and his army. The general of the Stone Warriors took cover. He picked up one of the blasters and cranked it to full power before firing a huge blast through the air. The blast connected with the underside of the vessel.

"Never mind the Neutrinos!" Traag bellowed. "Focus on these vile lizards, and bombard them...I want them blown out of the sky, do you hear me?"

"At once, General Traag!" one of the stone warriors yelled. "For Krang!"

The Triceratons parachuted down off of the ship. They threw glass grenades upon the ground which busted open and released a very blinding cloud of gas. The firefight escalated on both sides, neither side willing to give up for the fight.

"We might not be able to kill Krang ourselves, but we'll be able to defeat his pets!" the lead Triceraton said. "Blast him, blast him hard!"

They had a chance to defeat two of their most hated enemies, the Thangarians, and the Rock Warriors. It would be a good day to be the Triceratons if all had gone according to plan.

* * *

 

Oliver repeated the same statement on a continuous loop until he became both blue in the face and raw in the back of his throat.

"I'm beginning to believe you just happened upon this island by circumstance and sheer dumb luck," Fyers said. "You're very lucky not to go down with the rest of your crew, Oliver."

Oliver didn't feel so fortunate, to be honest.

"I'm a man of my word, and since you don't know anything incriminating, I'll send you on your way, when you're done on this island," Fyers said. "When I have what I want, a rescue squad will be sent to your location. By that point, I'll be done…"

"What are you doing?" Oliver asked. "What are you after?"

Fyers laughed at his prisoner.

"Come now, Mr. Queen…haven't you figured out your ignorance is the only thing which is keeping you alive?"

Oliver had no idea whether to take these words as a compliment or as an insult. To be honest, it could have gone either way at this point, at least for him.

"Do it," Fyers said. "Do it, or else."

Yao Fei looked at one of the mercenaries who pressed a dagger to Shado's throat.

"I'm going to ask you nicely one more time, and then we're going to see how much blood your daughter will spill…before she perishes."

"You kill her….."

"Oh, my men are professionals," Fyres said. "Dear Shado won't die, give them some credit. But there are things which are worse than death as I'm sure you know."

Yao Fei clenched his fist.

"What do you need to…."

A flash of light appeared outside and they could see one of the guards near the door having fallen over.

"For a deserted island, it's a bit too crowded for my liking," Fyers said. "Go out there, and see what the problem is….."

One of the mercenaries stepped out and pointed his gun at the shadows. The bushes rustled and the mercenary fired on the bush. The bullets connected with the branches and cracked them.

"Nothing's out here…"

A pair of feet cracked the mercenary on the back of his head. A figure dressed in a black and red bodysuit with a pair of katanas on his back stepped inside. He decked another mercenary and flipped him to the ground.

The man in the mask charged the other man in the mask. The two of them came dagger to dagger which each other and pushed back. The man in the mask flipped onto the ground and landed outside.

Shado elbowed the goon in the face and flipped him onto the ground. She ripped his knife from his hand and spun around, stabbing Fyers in the side. The knife impaled in the side of the man's chest.

"Help me!" Fyers yelled.

The first man in the mask protected his investment and scooped up Fyers, before bringing him out of the hut.

"Hey, kid, how many fingers am I holding up?"

The second man in the mask waved his fingers in the face of one Oliver Queen. The fingers kept changing from one to three, and back to two.

"How can I tell you that when you keep switching them?" Oliver asked.

"Good point."

The mercenary sliced the chains which held Oliver to the wall.

"What are you doing here?" Shado asked.

"You're welcome for the distraction," he said.

"You could have broken this man out of here at any time, and instead you waited until now," Shado said.

"Well, you know, dramatic effect," the crazed masked man said. "Aren't you glad I'm here now? Things were going around in circles. And besides, I'm here to give some added kick to this little island subplot."

"Just who are you?" Oliver asked.

"Who I am?" the masked man asked. "Who am I?"

The man turned to face a group of invisible people who stood in the vicinity of the fourth wall.

"Kid obviously doesn't get any dial up on this island," he said. "I'm Wade Wilson, the Merc with the Mouth, Gigolo for Plus Sized Woman, and Head of the Golden Girls Slash Fan Fiction Club…but most know me as Deadpool…..here's my card."

Oliver didn't take the card. Deadpool looked at the card and frowned.

"423-GET FAME?" Deadpool asked. "Wait, that isn't my card. Sorry about that."

Deadpool dropped the card on the crowd and shrugged.

"And I suggest we better get out of here before Mr. Happy comes back and thanks us all for breathing," Wade said. "He might be my dead mother's baby daddy for all I know…it's kind of foggy here but anyway…"

Deadpool kicked over a table and exposed a trap door.

"Shazam!" Deadpool said. He closed his eyes but nothing happened. "Damn it, one of these days, that's going to work."

"So, do we follow this guy?" Oliver asked.

"He did rescue us," Shado said. She turned around to consult with her father, only to find out he was gone.

There was no time for any of them to stand around and twiddle their thumbs because mercenaries were about ready to breathe down their necks. Wade grabbed Oliver, and kicked over the trapdoor, before throwing him down the hole.

"What did you do that for?" Shado asked.

"So we have something nice and soft to land on?" Wade asked. "How's it hanging down there, Casey Jones?"

* * *

 

Mario Falcone had plenty of time to sober up when sitting down in a jail cell downtown. He realized his conduct was not becoming. The only solace was his father would find a way to break him out and he would be able to continue to go about his life as he needed to. Mario craned his neck a fraction of an inch to one side and continued on with a frown.

The sound of footsteps approached his cell. Mario came face to face with Chief O'Hara. The veteran cop gave Mario one of those looks which he didn't like.

"You've been a lot of trouble tonight, Mr. Falcone."

"Yes, and it's been a huge misunderstanding," Mario said. "I…acted in a way which was not becoming of someone of my stature, and I swear I'll never do it again."

"Your father has been informed of what happened, and you're almost free to go, but there are some complications."

Mario didn't really feel too bothered by this statement from O'Hara. So he had a court date which he needed to deal with, big deal, he could handle a court date and all of the issues which come along with that.

"What kind of complication?" Mario asked. "Look if there's fine, I can pay the fine, I don't see what the problem is with me paying a fine."

"No, nothing along those lines," O'Hara said. "I'm afraid there wasn't something as easy to just write off as a fine or a court date, at least not without this situation."

Mario swallowed for a second. Something hit the pit of his gut where he had a very bad feeling about what was going on, even though he couldn't really piece together what the particular bad feeling he was feeling was all about. It was madness, no matter how many ways you tended to slice it.

"What's the damage?" Mario asked. He took in a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He tried and he failed both at the same time.

"Your documentation to enter the country is not in order," O'Hara said. "Technically speaking, you're here illegally."

Mario frowned, something about what O'Hara said did not ring true with him.

"I…illegally?" Mario asked.

"I'm afraid so," O'Hara said. "And regardless of whether you were here illegally knowingly or not, the law is the law…you will be deported after a hearing next week."

"But I…but I…"

"Sorry, Mr. Falcone, but even your father can't work his magic for you this time," O'Hara said. "It's only for your own good, I hope you understand that."

Mario rose up to his feet and punched the bars of the cell. They rattled back and Mario only accomplished a stabbing pain through his knuckles.

"O'Hara, I swear to God…..when I get my hands on you….you're a dead man, do you hear me? A DEAD MAN!"

"Get some sleep, Mr. Falcone."

O'Hara turned around. Having been a veteran cop, he was no stranger to the death threats which could be given and also many people who attempted to follow up on them. He heard Mario Falcone's implied threats bouncing off the back of his ear.

It would be a very long day for the middle Falcone child. O'Hara turned the corner and kept walking from the station hearing the threats ring in his ears. They were nothing new. Thirty years working in Gotham City made him immune to threats.

* * *

 

Harry leaned back in the chair in the Inceptor. He looked at the course which is out in front of him and figured out where they would need to go.

The Fugitoid looked around, eyes widening in wonder, and he could not resist making a comment about the circumstances which they had entered.

"Doctor Potter, I have to say, you do have the most interesting crew of people," he said. "And I find myself a bit overwhelmed and slightly intimidated by them…so…"

"Perfect for keeping you in line, then?" Faora asked.

It was in fact very possible for a robot to swallow nervously.

"Oh, no, I wouldn't dare dream of anything," Fugitoid said. "Especially with this crew of people, it just seems foolish to even try, even make any attempt but….."

The group turned their attention to the wider frontier of space. Harry finished giving Aya some information, and direction. He drilled Honeycutt for information about Dimension X and knew all of what he knew. The Green Lantern records on the ship did not have much about Dimension X.

Given the Guardians did not want their members to know about the various forbidden zones, so they would get an idea in their head it would be perfect for them to take a trip in, it might have been an ideal idea. At least in their minds, but honestly, Harry had no idea. He had given up on trying to figure out what those big headed men had in mind a long time ago.

"So, do you think the plan will work?" Faora asked.

"Well, given I'm the one who is going to have to navigate through this maze, I'm confident it will work," Aya said. "It's most certainly the safest path to the Neutrino Homeworld."

"So, that's the path we're going to have to take," Harry said. "The repairs we've made, they should be able to get us through until we get the necessary parts to get out of Dimension X."

"The sooner the better," Sinestra said.

The ship made their way off on the journey and the closer they got to the Neutrino homeworld, the most prominent sounds of battle had gotten on their way there.

"We're going to see if the shielding is going to hold," Karen said. "If it does, we're in the clear, although I think we can all agree on the constant bombardment of these high tech alien weapons."

More sounds of battle continued around them. Carol had been put on edge and for good reason. She turned to the rest of the crew.

"The Neutrino Homeworld is supposed to be one of the most peaceful places in Dimension X, isn't it?" Carol asked.

"Yes, but we're not at the Neutrino Homeworld," Alex reminded her. "We're traveling through the rest of Dimension X, which as the Fugitoid claimed is anything, but peaceful."

"Right you are," the Fugitoid said. "I would tell you to keep your eyes peeled for any problems, but….really, I think we're all smart enough to agree that…"

A rocket came up in the air off to their left and impacted a ship.

"The Triceratons and the Stone Warriors," Fugitoid said. He could see his share of looks from the ship. "Krang's personal hit squad. They're nasty little buggers…only they're not so little I guess."

Harry turned his attention from the battle.

"Aya?" Harry asked.

"Yes?"

"Get as close as you can, and avoid getting hit," Harry said. "The shields are only able to withstand a few big hits, and they're packing in the big guns."

"At once," Aya said. "I would hate to have to make any more repairs."

"And when we get back to Oa, we're going to have to have a word with the Guardians of Oa, to see if we can't have a more durable ship built."

Sinestra smiled, which caused Carol and Katma to look at her strangely.

"I'm terrified right now," Ilana said. "At her smiling."

"Yes, it's a foreign site," Katma agreed.

"Don't you want to be present when Har-Zod rips the Guardians a new one?"

No one on the ship could disagree with wanting to be present, even those who barely knew him.

* * *

 

At the Neutrino capital, a girl with strawberry blonde hair peered out, looking over the Red Sun which rose up over their capital. She dressed in elegant robes. A pair of elven ears poked up and she sighed. She placed two hands underneath her chin.

' _I really thought the war would be over when Krang had been exiled, but it's only getting worse,'_ she thought. _'The nightmare would be over when he got exiled to a planet with inferior technology, technology so primitive where he'll be mostly harmless.'_

The young princess shook her head. She had not seen the worst of the war, being way too young, but what she saw and knew had been very horrifying indeed.

She watched the constant bombardment from her vantage point. The force shields had been attacked for what seemed like a lifetime and they were about ready to break. The royal council had been huddled up in a panic room, and they had been no help. Being a Pacifist and against war was fine and dandy, but rolling over for the enemy and hiding behind a shield while they intended to kill you was another thing entirely.

' _We're going to have to do something about this.'_

Princess Tribble of the Neutrinos clutched her fist at the action of the Stone Warriors. They had no reason to do this, other than to have all of Dimension X under Krang's dominion, should he return. No good reason to cause the lives of many people to be ruined, to cause constant pain and suffering, along with blues and agony.

She turned her attention away from the situation and walked towards the nearest exit. Several items which floated above the ground dropped back into her place.

Tribble intended to have a word with the Royal Council if she could pry them out from underneath something long enough for them to face her.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on January 25** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_And we head further into treacherous space territory, which is evident as this chapter continues to unfold._

_More fun and games on the island, and shut the front door, Deadpool shows up. Which makes this about as interesting as it's going to be without Oliver getting Mirror-Boxed._

_Well, Mario's seen better days, hasn't he?_

_Until Wednesday._


	257. Welcome To Dimension X Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Seven: Welcome to Dimension X Part Three.**

* * *

 

The last line of defenses between the Neutrinos and ultimate annihilation blew up with a huge explosion. The Stone Warriors made their way to the edge of the planet, led by General Traag. The Neutrinos all looked up in horror when the feared Stone Warriors entered their village capital. It was their greatest nightmare come true.

"My troops, take the capital!"

One of them prepped a rocket launcher which sent a miniature missile and caused the Neutrinos to scatter in horror. The men made out of rock marched further into the capital and kept firing. The smell of fire and brimstone choked anyone who was close by and resulted in every single party running around in horror.

One of the children rushed to the nearest shelter and tripped. The shelter which she was about to run into had been blown up before up before her very eyes. The buildings all went up in a cloud of flames and Sulphur. The children tried to run but only ended up running into the burning rubble.

The adult Neutrino rushed in the center and tried to shield the children. The Stone Warriors locked their weapons on their hated enemies and prepared to fire.

"Why…why are you doing such a thing?" one of them asked. They had all heard stories of the horrors of Dimension X, but they thought they were safe and secure on the other side of an energy dome.

General Traag aimed his cannon at them. He paused and turned to his troops.

"Burn this entire capital to the ground because of their defiance…..all in the name of Krang!"

"All in the name of Krang!"

The name which had been considered unspeakable by all in Dimension X caused a huge amount of horror to spread over the Neutrinos. They shook and were about ready to be toppled over by the dangerous force of General Traag.

"Hey, Stone Warriors!"

Traag and his troops turned around just in time to see a robot who had been waving his arms. Their eyes all narrowed when they came across a very familiar figure.

"It's the Fugitoid," Traag growled.

"Wouldn't you like something more tangible?" The Fugitoid asked. "That's it, leave those poor people alone….and come after me…wouldn't you like to get the weapon before the Triceratons get their hands on it?"

The thought of getting the better of the Triceratons made Traag lurch forward and make a beeline towards the Fugitoid. The robot ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He ducked behind a miniature mountain.

"Blow it up!" Traag yelled. "There's nowhere he can run now….."

The mountain had been blown up and several green constructed missiles slammed through the Stone Warriors. Two of the rock soldiers blew up into several rock fragments. One of their weapons flew into the air.

Alex Danvers stepped right into the heat of the fire and picked the weapon up. She looked at it, despite it being her first shot at handling Dimension X style weaponry, she thought she handled it pretty well.

"Okay, here we go," Alex said. She clicked the cannon in her hand and fired a blast at two of the Stone Warriors.

They staggered back and avoided being bombarded by her attacks. Alex locked onto them and fired at them.

Ilana jumped in and aimed her red lantern ring. She created a jackhammer with her ring which slammed through the rock. Finally, she was able to able to attack something. She channeled all of the hate she had and slammed another blast through the rocks!

Traag looked at his rock soldiers. They were all falling down. Traag looked forward and could see a figure in the distance. The Stone General staggered back and his eyes shot wide open in horror.

"NO!" Traag yelled at the top of his lungs. "It can't be...IT CAN'T BE!"

Traag came face to face with a ghost from his past or so it appeared from his perspective. It was surprising to see the hardened stone general show fear, at least for the first time.

"Retreat, now!"

The Stone Warriors made their way to the edge of the capital. They had been fired at when they retreated.

Harry and Faora stood a bit off to the side. The Normal Interceptor Crew was holding their own pretty well in the battle and the shattered rock fragments on the ground showed how good they did. And Alex proved to be pretty adept with the blaster, at least enough where Harry was not going to jump in unless absolutely necessary.

' _Did he think I was the General?'_ Harry thought.

' _It seemed that way…which is strange, because you don't look that much alike,'_ Faora thought. _'Maybe a little when he was younger, and I suppose if they saw you at the distance, and they had a boulder brain and…'_

Faora stopped and shook her head.

' _Hey, if it works, I don't think anyone of us are complaining,'_ Karen thought.

' _Karen, you and Alex get the civilians out of harm's way, because I'm sure they'll be back,'_ Harry thought.

Harry repeated this statement out loud for the rest of them who did not have the benefit of being part of the bond.

"I have to admit, I didn't think a plan like that would work," Honeycutt said. "But, you're correct, they're going to be back in greater numbers, and….well we're going to have to be ready, won't we?"

"We will be."

* * *

 

Tribble looked out to the wreckage which neared the royal palace. The dangers became very clear and it was very unfortunate as well. She turned to their group of royal advisors, whose advice amounted pretty much to sitting here and allowing the Triceratons to smash them into paste.

"Princess Tribble, you can't go out there right now, especially with the Stone Warriors on the loose," her chief advisor said. She looked towards him and put a pair of hands on her hips. "You're….you won't be able to survive out there….and your parents didn't sacrifice themselves for their only daughter for her to get killed."

The Neutrino Princess locked her eyes onto the Royal Council and they started back at her. Both sides went back and forth with each other, neither backing down, neither blinking.

"My parents were murdered by Krang and our entire race will go the same way with his Rock Soldiers if we just sit here and do nothing," Tribble said. "And if we sit here and do nothing, it doesn't matter what sacrifice my parents made because we're going to die in an inferno regardless."

The council looked at her and Tribble felt like she had this argument with them. She warned them they needed to prepare because of Traag's constant bombardment of the force field generator, but they thought the dome would protect them. Traag found a way around them, and if it wasn't Traag, it would have been the Triceratons or any of the other races which surrounded the planet.

"The moment that dome has been brought down, we're sitting for anyone to take a shot at us," Tribble said. "We're going to have to shoot back if we want a chance….."

"I don't think that's a good idea," one of the members of the Council said. "War is strictly forbidden by our planet's laws."

Tribble wanted to respect the culture which lived on before her birth. However, allowing the Stone Warriors to run over her was something she refused to tolerate a moment longer.

"Yes, I understand all life is sacred," Tribble said. "I respect that, and I doubt anyone would disagree with that…but we're dealing with Traag and he's a monster. Even if I respect all life is sacred, you can be assured he most certainly wouldn't."

The Council looked at each other and all of them nodded in anxious ways. Tribble figured she convinced them this much, so she wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"What can we do?" one of the Council Members asked.

"Traag is a monster, but even monsters fear something," Tribble said. She turned to one of the scientists. "Do we have planetary surveillance back online?"

"At once, my lady."

Tribble waited. She knew Traag wouldn't just abort his attack for no reason. This particular monster was dangerous. And sure enough, they had the information they needed. Traag and what remained with his troops. He bellowed out the word "Zod!" when leaving the planet.

"Surely he can't mean…"

A knock on the door could be heard. The Council looked at each other and debated whether or not it would be a prudent thing to answer the door. Tribble didn't even allow them the opportunity to distract themselves with a debate.

The door swung open.

"Hello, my name is Faora Dru-Zod, this is my brother, Har-Zod, and this is Professor Honeycutt, and this is Carol Danvers of the Green Lantern Corps…and I believe we can help each other."

The members of the Council looked on in fear when catching a glimpse of Harry and Faora. The two siblings locked eyes with each other and wondered if they had picked a bad time.

"It's them!" one of them yelled. "Please, we'll give you what you want….but we have….."

"Please, let me handle this," Tribble said. She turned towards the young man and spent a moment, as did many women, being caught up in his enchanting green eyes. She pulled herself out of them and asked a question. "Why did you do this?"

"It was the right thing to do," Harry said. "To run off Traag, but you do realize he'll be back, especially when you don't have any way to defend yourselves."

"He will be back, and with greater numbers," Faora said.

Tribble gave the members of her Council a cross look and they wilted underneath the burning gaze of the Neutrino Princess. She turned back towards them.

"What do you propose we do about it, Har-Zod?" she asked. "Our force field generator has burned out, and the only thing which can power it is a crystal, which is extremely rare and…has now burned out."

Faora and Harry looked at each other and after a moment of consideration, Faora turned towards them.

"Mind if I look at it?" Faora asked. "Maybe I can rig a temporary solution up until your people can come up with a more permanent fix of keeping the Stone Warriors from your planet."

"And perhaps I can be of assistance," the Fugitoid said.

Tribble figured they were their best hope and they did run off Traag, at least for the temporary measure. She could see the members of her Council giving her very disapproving looks at daring to trust these people. She honestly didn't care at this point in time. She wanted to do what needed to be done.

"I'll take you there immediately."

* * *

 

Tribble found herself walking down the hallway leading Carol and Har-Zod. She could not believe she had been face to face with a member of the Green Lantern Corps.

"You seemed surprised to see me?" Carol asked.

The question wasn't really a question, although a statement of fact.

"The Green Lantern Corps weren't….well they exactly were forthcoming with helping the plight of the people of Dimension X or any of the other forbidden sectors," Tribble said. She chewed down on her lower lip and allowed a sigh to come up. "It's gone from bad to worse…..I don't even know how to describe the madness."

"There are times where words even fail the best of us."

Harry locked eyes with Tribble and both of them exchanged nods with each other.

"Never mind that, though," Tribble said. "We have the part you're looking for….and you'll be able to get out of Dimension X. And it wouldn't be good to strand you here…given all of the problems."

"No offense meant, but it's pretty odd a race which is lives a peaceful coexistence is in one of the most war-torn places in the known galaxies," Carol said.

"None taken," Tribble said. "I often ask myself a lot why my ancestors decided this would be the best place for our homeworld…and to be honest, there's a very simple explanation to it."

She opened up a door and entered the storeroom. Harry looked around and could see a lot of advanced technology around him.

"If you see something which interests you, feel free to take it," she told him, giving him a smile.

"I couldn't….."

"We can never repay the debt," Tribble said. "All of the times we came close to dying and if you didn't show up when you did, the Stone Warriors would have burned our villages to the ground one by one with everything in it."

"What means do they have? "Carol asked. "Why do they do what they do?"

Tribble opened up the vault and paused for a moment. One could hear the sigh of frustration which escaped the back of her throat.

"We played a small part in helping with Krang's banishment," Tribble said. "I just wish we would have helped sooner, and….well the damage was already done….he's been banished to a place where he couldn't do any harm."

Harry frowned.

' _Not so sure about that,'_ Harry thought. _'But I'm not going to be the one to rain on her parade or anyone else's….if she wants to think Krang is out of the way, then for now….'_

"The Guardians involved themselves once in our business, "Tribble said. She touched the side of her face and frowned. "Only through when Krang attacked planets outside of the Forbidden Zones. They found it was their business to do something and banish him to a primitive planet."

"Do you have any idea where Krang had been banished?" Carol asked.

"Yes, it was to a place called Earth."

Carol and Harry looked at each other. Tribble didn't notice their luck when she shuffled through the vault.

"You stand alone against the Forces of Dimension X?" Harry asked.

"Not always, there were other races, the Utroms being one of the biggest examples," Tribble said. "They kept Krang isolated in his own little corner of Dimension X….at least until Krang wiped out their planet. And then it happened, other mostly peaceful races turned into scavengers….and we're the only one left."

Tribble didn't delude herself regarding the whispers the Utrom managed to find a way to survive despite Krang's destruction of their planet.

"If you're not a fan of war, then why not defend yourself?" Harry asked.

"I've been trying to tell the Council we need to be more proactive, but they are reluctant to take any action," Tribble said. "And here's the Ion coil you need….it should give your ship the power based off of the specifications you gave me."

' _We're going to have to give them a fighting chance,'_ Faora thought. _'The Force Field should hold, but…..if it doesn't, we're back to the original problem.'_

"So, if you can't take the fight to the Stone Warriors, why don't we add some teeth to your Force Field Generator?" Harry asked. Tribble blinked and motioned for him to continue. "You have the technology to do so. And it wouldn't be war…but it would be a deterrent for conflict."

Tribble understood where he was coming from.

"I'm sure you and your sister have already figured something out which can help us," Tribble said.

She admittedly had her reservations regarding the children of Zod, and the enemy of my enemy certainly wasn't a Neutrino philosophy to be had, but in these circumstances, they had only a handful of options.

"We have our ideas."

* * *

 

General Traag endeavored not to be spooked this time. He vowed not to be terrified by the fact the specter was here in Dimension X. He knew with each passing moment, him being here resulted in some really big problems. Traag refused to acknowledge that fact. Rather, he returned.

The Stone Warriors geared up, ready to storm Dimension X in far greater numbers than ever before. The General's eyes glazed over with a wicked smile on his face. He would bombard the Neutrino capital and this time, they would be forced down to their knees in submission.

"Sir, the force field is back online."

Traag blinked. He would not have believed it unless he had seen the force field around him with his own eyes. Only a few words came out of his mouth when seeing what took place around him.

"Impossible," Traag growled. "There is no way the force field could have…"

Traag looked over the field. The Neutrino home world once again had been encased in a forcefield. They had been mocked, belittled, with no way out. Traag would not stand what was going on, not for one solitary moment.

"It doesn't matter," Traag said. "Bombard it with everything we have."

The Stone Warriors locked onto the force field and one of them pulled a trigger to activate their weapon. Something had gone horrifically wrong when their weapons crumbled apart. An energy wave struck them.

"The Neutrinos dare stop us!" Traag growled. "This force field is a mockery of us!"

Traag grabbed onto the Forcefield. If they could not break through with strategy, then brute force would have to be the method they would use to break in. The Forcefield stretched back and Traag could feel the energy warp around him. For the briefest second, Traag triumphed.

Then the rubber band effect of the force field lifted the General off of the ground and hurled him. Traag had been driven down to the ground with a solid crash.

"By the name of Krang, I swear, I will find a way to break through that force field!" Traag yelled. He picked up the weapon, only to realize it had not functioned.

Traag picked up the weapon and hurled it with great anger burning through his eyes. He had been made a mockery of in front of his own troops and this was one thing which he could not withstand.

"Sir, I'm afraid we have a bigger problem than the Neutrinos."

Traag almost opened his mouth with a flippant comment about what could have been a bigger problem than those accursed Neutrinos. The bigger problem presented itself in the form of the Triceratons. Those terrible lizards marched upon them. The only solace Traag received was their weapons also broke when in proximity with the force dome.

"Good, we'll settle this the old fashion way," Mozar said. He rolled up his sleeves and charged Traag.

* * *

 

Tribble caught a glimpse of the attempts of the Stone Warriors to breach through the gates of the palace from her windows. She smiled at the fact it did not work.

She left the palace. The Neutrinos looked down at the charred rubble. The princess tried to give them an encouraging smile.

"We can rebuild and be stronger than ever. I hope we have learned a valuable lesson on this day."

She turned the corner and almost ran headlong into Har-Zod. Tribble staggered back a step. He reached around and caught her with some reflexes it almost took her aback.

' _He's good,'_ Tribble thought with a smile.

"I have to thank you for all of your help," Harry said. "Aya says the Interceptor is up and stronger than ever. It should be able to withstand anything."

"Hopefully with the new power boosters you installed, it won't have to withstand much," Tribble told him. Her eyes locked onto his. She could get trapped in those green eyes for a long time. "Thank you for everything...I know my people don't…have the capability to stand up for themselves….you've given us a fighting chance…"

"War is a messy business," Harry said. "Defense is what keeps people safe, though. You should understand that."

Tribble did, and if at least one Neutrino had a new revelation being a Pacifist could be taken to an unfortunate extreme about as much as going to war, then she was pretty pleased with what happened.

"So, I guess we're ready to get out of here," Fugitoid said. "Once we're out of here, drop me off at the nearest asteroid….far away from Dimension X as possible."

"Would you care to stand Professor Honeycutt?" Tribble asked. The Fugitoid looked towards her with a raised eyebrow. "We will gladly offer you political asylum on our homeworld, and….we could use someone of your genius to help develop further defenses against the Stone Warriors and the Triceratons."

Honeycutt looked to be mulling it over.

"Well, I was under the assumption androids such as myself in Dimension X were lower than…well…"

"Lower than us, you mean?" Tribble asked. Honeycutt's eyes widened and she reached in to tap him on his robotic shoulder. "Don't worry, Professor, you meant no offense. And what's the worst that can happen? The Stone Warriors want to kill us more?"

"Ah, touché."

Honeycutt thought she had made him an offer which he would be unwise to confuse. The Neutrinos did have some access to some fascinating technology which he just had to take a look at, a closer look at. The Professor broke out into a smile at the thought of having access to such amazing technology.

"So, are you going to stay?" Harry asked.

"Well, being in behind a force dome is preferable than being out in the middle of the universe where everyone wants to kill you for what you are," Honeycutt said. "It will hold, right?"

"For a significant amount of time," Harry said. "But, as a scientist, you should know…"

"Nothing is foolproof," Honeycutt said with a sigh. "And the only people who think things are foolproof will often have been proven a fool, yes I know…"

Harry was glad they were on the same page now, and they could focus on moving forward, at least in the back of his mind. The two of them shook hands.

Tribble walked Harry back to the ship. She looked at him for a few seconds and a wistful sigh passed through the young princess.

"I just wish you didn't have to go so soon," she told him. "And yet, I understand precisely why you have to leave. As unfair as it seems, there's a wider universe out there for your exploration….and you need to explore it….believe me, I know, and I understand….completely, I understand."

"I'm glad you do," Harry informed her. He stepped closer towards her and at this particular moment, they went face to face. "But, it isn't goodbye forever. I'll be back, someday."

Tribble smiled.

"I'd like that," she said. "And who knows, maybe I'll come see you someday."

"You do realize…"

"Yes, I know," she said. "But there are some risks which are worth taking."

Tribble rose up on her tiptoes and kissed Harry on the cheek. She looked very pleased with her daring and pulled away from him.

"Farewell, Har-Zod, until we meet again."

Harry walked back to the ship where Karen waited for him with a knowing smile. The two locked eyes and Karen motioned for him to go over to her.

' _No matter what corner of the universe, you always run into beautiful women who practically throws themselves at you,'_ Karen thought. _'I swear, if we even with to a planet of radioactive slugs, you can find the one women who is somehow buried underneath the slime.'_

' _He is that good, isn't he?'_ Alex asked. _'Well, guess it turns out TCRI is worthy of a closer look….going to have a hell of a time convincing my bosses at the DEO this….especially given how unauthorized this mission was.'_

"We're ready to go?" Carol asked.

"Yes, buckle up," Aya said.

The Interceptor, repaired and cloak, blasted off. It was time to renew the hunt for the Red Lanterns and finish them off once and for all. With the upgraded Interceptor, it would only be a matter of time before they found them and brought them to the justice which had been long overdue.

* * *

 

A vortex opened up and an entire army of Red Lanterns poured out. Atrocitus combed the universe for the worst of the absolute worst.

"My children, it's time to get justice," Atrocitus said. "Do you feel it?"

"Yes!" they chorused in a loud voice which resulted in Atrocitus breaking out in the smile to end all smiles.

"Yes, you should feel it, because the end will be near," Atrocitus said. "It's time for us to head to Oa, and take down the Guardians. They are the cause of all which plagues the universe. And their blood will be our bounty."

The Green Lanterns would know something was wrong soon, and Atrocitus was ready to spill their blood. The bloodshed was on soon.

' _It begins, the end.'_

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on January 28** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Out of the frying pan and into the fire after this battle in Dimension X. They might be out of that place, but Atrocitus is finally ready to make his move._

_Back on Saturday._


	258. SOS

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Eight: SOS.**

* * *

 

The Interceptor charted a course which moved them all the way past the Dimension Barrier and all the way out of Dimension X. None of the crew on the ship was all too broken up to leave Dimension X behind. The Neutrinos had been left with a way to defend themselves, and the various people on the ship hoped it would be a wake-up call they would learn the difference between active violence and actually defending themselves.

Harry smiled when he fiddled with one of the pieces of equipment he received. Karen looked over at him with a curious eyebrow rose. She moved over and leaned in. The top couple of buttons on her blouse had come undone. She was just a lot more comfortable this way.

"So, what's that?" Karen asked.

"Well," Harry said. He made a couple of modifications. "This is a helmet which should enhance mental abilities like your telepathy and telekinesis. And I'm hoping with a few tweaks, I could put it on and get contact back to the rest of the girls on Earth…to give them the heads up."

Harry did not know how time and space passed. Given what he could find out, it seemed to be woefully inconsistent depending on how where you were located in the universe. Carol had been gone a lot longer than her perspective than she had been from Alex's, so Harry hoped his disappearance would have been barely missed.

' _Guess we're going to find out in a couple of minutes, for better or for worse,'_ Harry thought. He tapped the side of the helmet and looked on with a frown. _'I really feel bad for leaving Carol holding the back. I just hope cooler heads prevailed when she had gotten back to Earth.'_

' _And by cooler heads, you certainly mean not my younger self, don't you?'_ Karen asked. She could see Harry's look on her. _'So, do you think this is going to work?'_

' _We'll know in a couple of minutes,'_ Harry said. He tapped on the side of the helmet and he could feel the dormant bond links being established.

Harry figured one of two things were going to happen. Either he would succeed or he would get a really bad headache. Tribble assured him with the safeties on; the device would shut before it fried his brain.

' _The only people who think technology is all foolproof will often be proven to be a fool,'_ Harry thought. He rubbed the side of his head. _'Kara, Diana, Jaime, are any of you there? Can any of you hear me?'_

Harry took the red knob and dialed in a little bit more. He could hear a faint whisper.

' _Hello, can you hear me now?'_ Harry asked.

' _Har?'_ Kara asked. _'It's you….thank Rao, it's you, I thought….well it doesn't matter what I thought, I'm just glad to hear your voice….it was…well it…..'_

' _Kara, just calm down and take deep breaths,'_ Harry thought to her. _'Did Carol make it back safe?'_

' _Carol Ferris?'_ Kara asked. She paused a moment and nodded in response. _'Yes, she made it back safe, and I think I might have spooked her a little bit, demanding here you guys were. She….she claimed you were on some mission in deep space.'_

' _It's a very long story,'_ Harry thought to her. _'Just know we'll be back soon as we can….how long has it been for you guys?'_

' _Roughly sixteen hours,'_ Jaime interjected. _'I'm guessing by the tone of surprise, it was a bit less time on your end. We've enacted the emergency protocols, and no one really noticed you're gone. Considering you're out west on private business which isn't public.'_

Harry nodded in response. He was seen in public a fair bit, but he figured if he had not been seen in public for a few days, it wasn't going to cause an outcry. Harry made sure to establish the fact he had many interests which allowed him to travel through different parts of the world.

' _Just be ready, I should be back in a day or two,'_ Harry thought. _'Hopefully less.'_

He turned towards Ilana, Aya, and Sinestra. All three women worked diligently with their attempts to lock down a central location for the Red Lanterns. Harry figured they would be in good hands.

' _Hopefully less?'_ Kara asked.

' _Hopefully a lot less,'_ Harry thought. _'I'll be sure to tell you more when I get back, but for right now, just keep calm, and know I'll be home as soon as I can.'_

Carol spent a fair bit of her time keeping a close eye on Harry. Alex turned her attention towards her sister and gave her the biggest smile on her face.

"You caught a glimpse of him, and you can't help but wonder what would happen if you're a more active participant, don't you?" Alex asked. Carol gave her a cross look and was about ready to protest. "No, Carol, don't even deny it. You had a thing for him…..and now you have an itch with nothing can scratch other him."

"I can't believe you would talk about something like that when he's close to us," Carol said.

"Well, he's working on that Neutrino equipment, and he seems a slight bit occupied," Alex said. She flashed a smirk at Carol and Carol responded with one of the more heated glares she could manage directed towards her younger sister. "I'm sure you've been preoccupied thinking about him."

Carol thought she had Harry on her mind just a little bit, ever since meeting him at Carol's air base all of those months ago. Every woman with a pulse had Harry Potter on her mind these days.

' _Just the natural order of things really,'_ Carol thought. She exchanged a smile with Harry, who turned his attention back to something on the helmet.

"You're going in there against psychotic rage monsters who would rip us up and bathe in our blood," Alex said without skipping a beat. She grabbed her sister's hand and gave it a firm squeeze to get her attention. "Why don't you have something to inspire you?"

"He can be pretty inspiring."

"Yes, he can," Alex said.

"He inspired you to get the stick out of your ass," Carol said. She grinned at the fact Alex's glare met her face. "Don't deny it, Alex, it's true. You needed to get laid, and now you did, you're a lot better off from it."

Alex was not about ready to deny being a lot better off after she had been laid by Harry. She moved her hand up and placed it on her sister's thigh. A bit daring, she had to admit. She would be blind if she didn't have thoughts on Carol, even though she didn't act on them.

At least not yet.

"Go for it, Carol," Alex said. "Before you lose the chance…live for the moment."

Carol smiled. A plan hatched in the back of her mind and she knew what she had to do to score some time alone with the man of her dreams.

' _I think this could work,'_ Carol thought to herself, grin growing wider by the second. _'I know this will work.'_

* * *

 

Selina Kyle normally pranced around in her apartment wearing nothing but her birthday suit. She decided to slip into a pair of tight workout pants and an elegant silk blouse because of the guests which were about ready to stop by. Holly and Mia were going to be back for a moment, and Ella would return back from the mall as well. So, it was best to be presentable.

' _Good of her to have friends her own age who aren't the children of other mobsters,'_ Selina thought. _'That can't be healthy.'_

Speaking of children of mobsters, the face of one Mario Falcone appeared on the screen. Selina had it out for him after their encounter over a year ago which she ended up being pushed out the window. She thought in some twisted way, she owed Mario for inspiring her to be her true self.

' _Guess all it takes is one little push,'_ Selina thought before she could help herself.

"Tonight's top story is the arrest of Mario Falcone, who is, of course, the son of one of Gotham City's most prominent citizens, Carmine Falcone. Mario was found under the influence of alcohol and marijuana when leaving a Gotham City nightclub and driving in an extremely erratic manner which put civilians in danger. Chief Clancy O'Hara has issued a statement earlier today."

The image on the screen turned from Mario Falcone to grizzled old Chief O'Hara.

"I do this not out of any malice, but as a message being sent to anyone in Gotham City, where they're not above the law, no matter who their father is," O'Hara said. "I hope also Mario Falcone gets the help he needs for his many demons, as he was a bright and promising young man with a hopeful future."

Selina placed her hand on the glass and tipped back the wine.

"Are the rumors true? Is Mr. Falcone being deported?"

"We have a hearing next Monday where his final fate will be decided," O'Hara said. "Regardless, I can confirm there has been a logistical error regarding his paperwork and he has been in the country illegally for the past three years. Following the letter of the law, Mr. Falcone will be sent out of the country."

' _The only reason dear old Mario is even getting a hearing because Daddy Falcone is throwing his weight around,'_ Selina thought. _'Oh well, looks like we're going to have to throw him a farewell dinner.'_

"Carmine Falcone has only just been reached for comment, and he echoes the statement given by Chief O'Hara and his hopes his son receives the help he needs to live a full life. The hearing will be this Monday and we will bring you the latest when it happens."

The door opened and Mia, Holly, and Ella all walked in. They came up to the slightly horrifying sight of Selina's lips pursed into the Cheshire Grin type look which shook them to the bone.

"Selina, are you okay?" Holly asked.

"Just watching the news," Selina said. She continued to watch it. "So, how are you girls doing?"

"Great, the mall was great," Ella said.

She couldn't believe how much she had in common with a former Circus Acrobat, but Ella wasn't going to complain for a second.

"Did you survive the infamous Potter twins?" Selina asked with a twinkle in her eye. "They certainly are something, aren't they?"

"Yes," Ella said with a smile crossing over her face. "They're certainly something."

"And just think, their brother is something as well," Selina said, a twinkle dancing in her eye when she leaned closer towards Ella.

Selina gave Mia one of those cross looks when she opened her mouth. Wisely, the disguised heiress closed her mouth. Holly responded with a shake of her head and tried not to look too amused.

' _A bit too young, but you always have to plant the seeds early,'_ Selina thought. She could see the television screen fade out to a commercial which was good because she had more than enough Mario Falcone for one evening.

* * *

 

Dudley Dursley sat in the middle of the sitting room at one of his godfather's safe houses. For the past couple of months, he had remained in the wheelchair, without any hope of getting out of it. He lapsed into a fit of depression. Dudley mocked those who couldn't walk or had deformities which made them unable to get up and about. Now he had become one of them. He became the very thing he hated, a filthy cripple.

He only received a small amount of solitude when catching a glimpse of one Mario Falcone flashing across the screen. The son of the Roman had been arrested and would be deported.

' _Good, it serves the bastard right.'_

Dudley reached over on the table and grabbed a pill bottle. He pried the bottle open and dropped two of the pills into his hand.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?"

The pills dropped out of his hand. Dudley managed to turn his head to the side in time to come face to face with his godfather. Oswald Cobblepot didn't look like a happy bunny. He walked over to Dudley with his umbrella and smacked the pill bottle out of his hand. The pills dropped down to the ground.

Cobblepot stomped the pills and ground them into the carpet.

"What did you do that for?" Dudley asked.

"Look at you, you're starting to sound like your mother now," Cobblepot said. He pointed the pointed end of his umbrella underneath Dudley's chin to get his attention before he pulled it back. "Why did I do that? I'll tell you why I did that….you're throwing your life away, and throwing away all the progress we've made."

Penguin looked around with contempt at several pill bottles, booze bottles, and ice cream containers which littered the ground underneath him. He pulled up a chair and sank down on it. He looked his godson straight in the eye.

"You've been dealt a pretty wretched hand right here, I'll give you that much," Cobblepot said. "You were a pawn in that sick bastard's little game….that Joker, he could have killed you, and it's a damn way good thing he didn't."

Cobblepot forced Dudley to look him directly in the eyes.

"Of course, that clown won't be the one who needs to kill you when you're doing a pretty bloody good job at doing that much yourself," Cobblepot said. "Look at you, Dudley, you've become a wreck….you're a barely functioning junkie…do you even know what month it is?"

"It's...June, isn't it?"

Cobblepot looked at Dudley with a mixture of pity and revulsion. He tried not to lose his cool, remembering the promise he made to Vernon all those years ago.

"No, it isn't, son," Cobblepot said. "It's time for you to get it, together…..and man, up. Of course, you're going to be in the chair for the rest of your life if you feel bloody sorry for yourself."

Dudley looked at his godfather with one of those vapid expressions plastered on his face. Cobblepot lifted a hand and put it straight into his godson's face a second later.

"Did I ever tell you the story about the time I met your father?" Cobblepot asked. Dudley looked at him with a vapid expression. "It doesn't matter….I was young, I walked funny…that's where I got my name, the Penguin, you see. At first, it was a means for those who thought they were better than me to humiliate me because I walked crooked, like a waddle, you know what I mean?"

Dudley just nodded in response. Cobblepot continued with the story a few seconds later.

"The point is, they had it out for me, some of those blokes at Smeltings did," Cobblepot said. "Your old man stood up for me, and….well we were thick ever since. I didn't always see eye to eye with him, with his taste in women…an Evans, honestly."

Dudley looked at Cobblepot with a glazed over expression.

"The point is, your father told me it doesn't matter how you get knocked down, it matters how you get yourself up, and how you stick it to the bastards which knock you down," Cobblepot said. "Your old man was a tough one, and I learned a lot from him how to be a man. Now it's time for you to do him proud…find a way to get yourself out of that wheelchair. Man up, Dudley, man up!"

Dudley groaned and tried to pull himself out of the wheelchair. He fell over and hit the ground with a thump.

"At least you made the attempt, that's progress, "Cobblepot said. "We can work with that, you can work with that."

Cobblepot leaned closer down to Dudley and made sure they were locked eye to eye with each other.

"Even if I have to make a deal with the devil himself, I swear, we'll fix this," Cobblepot said. "It's time for them to remember why they should fear me."

Some in Gotham City mocked and belittled Cobblepot. They mocked him and Cobblepot wasn't going to take it anymore. It was time for him to strike back.

' _And now Mario's being deported, Alberto's a lunatic, and Sofia is distancing herself, the Falcones are not what they used to be,'_ Cobblepot said. _'It's time to show them who really holds the power in Gotham City.'_

* * *

 

Harry stepped out of the shower, wearing nothing other than a towel wrapped around his waist. He thought about the mission so far. He turned around the corner and came face to face with quite an alluring sight. Carol Danvers stood in front of his line of sight. She stripped off her uniform and wore nothing other than a pair of transparent red bra and panties. She walked closer towards Harry.

"Guess we had the same idea," Carol said with a smile. She walked over closer towards him. "But, I think now we're both here, I have a different idea."

Harry could see Carol moving closer towards him. Her eyes hungrily traced patterns across his chest when walking closer towards him. Carol's tongue trailed over her outer lip when moving a bit closer towards him.

"Don't you agree?"

Carol leaned in and kissed Harry on his lips, pushing them together with an extremely passionate kiss. Harry returned the kiss with full flavor and pushed his tongue into her. Carol opened her mouth in excitement when Harry's tongue moved down her throat. He reached behind her and cupped her ass.

Harry squeezed Carol's firm ass when she continued to deepen the kiss. Her hands went behind Harry and started to run all the way down her body.

"Harry, I want you so badly, I can taste it," Carol said. She gave him a firm pinch on the ass. "Do you think you can indulge me?"

Harry thought it would be rude if he didn't give Carol a taste of what she wanted. He pulled her in for another powerful kiss with their tongues slamming together in more passionate fury.

Carol decided to take Alex's words to heart and go for it.

* * *

 

Carol's large breasts crushed up against Harry's chest in quite the delightful sensation. He reached behind her and removed the bra strap to allow her glorious funbags to be released. He grabbed her chest and squeezed it. Her firm, large, tits, molded underneath his palms and he squeezed them a few more times.

The oldest Danvers sisters rolled her head back in enjoyment. Harry alternated between one breast than the other and kept squeezing him. His right hand performed these pleasurable actions on her while his left hand moved down. His finger brushed against her entrance a few times before peeling down her panties and pushing it inside.

Harry's fingers shoved deep inside of Carol's dripping hot pussy. She ground up against him, making sure his fingers delved into her. Her pussy clenched him and released him in such a manner where Harry could feel tight about it.

"You really don't want to let go of my finger, do you?" Harry asked. Carol shook her head, thighs still clenched around Harry at his attempt to finger her into submission. "I wonder what will happen when I shove my cock into you."

Carol's hips bucked up to get the desired reaction. Her finger squeezed Harry's finger at the strokes into her insides. His finger coated with juices. Harry slid himself all the way out of her and touched his mouth to his lips. He sucked the juices and made sure Carol watched him do so.

"Harry, I need you to fuck me," Carol said. She grabbed his hips and pushed him up against the wall. She pulled the towel off from around his waist with a stamp and revealed his erect cock. "I need you to fuck me so badly…..my pussy is aching….it wants you…badly!"

Carol ground her hot cunt over Harry's throbbing head. She wanted him buried deep inside her, fucking her pussy until she couldn't stand.

Harry enjoyed the feeling of her hand wrapped around him. She stroked him up and down and made his cock grow nice and hard. It stretched further and touched Carol in her thigh. She could feel her moist womanhood getting closer towards her entrance. Harry groaned when Carol squeezed him.

"I bet you want to fuck me as much as I want you to fuck me," Carol said. She squeezed him and moved down to cup his balls to play with them. "It sure feels like you want to fuck me.

Harry reached around and grabbed Carol's hips. He pulled Carol up and lifted her up. He made sure she hovered into the air.

Carol positioned herself over the top of his cock. It touched her entrance and Carol hooked her legs around Harry's hips. She made her way down onto his iron hard pole with grace.

"Jesus!" Carol moaned at the top of her lung.

"No, I'm sure he wasn't this big," Harry said with a comment to lighten the mood. He held onto Carol's hips and made sure she lowered herself down onto him. "You feel so good, Carol."

"Fuck me harder than you fucked my little sister," Carol said.

Harry looked at her with a smile on his face. She should really be careful what she asked for because she just might get it, and get it hard. Harry gripped her and pushed into her. His hips bucked up to meet Carol's. Carol's wet walls caressed Harry and pushed his cock in between her thighs.

"Yes, right there!" Carol screamed in his ear. "Fuck my senseless, stud….drive your cock into my tight pussy, drill me hard!"

Harry soaked in the sensations of Carol ascending and descending down on his cock. Her perfect body driving itself down on his cock caused him to throb and twitch. Her breasts bounced closer towards his face. They looked so tantalizing, so squeezable. Harry kept one hand on her ass and kept one hand on her breasts.

Carol threw her head back in a passionate moan when Harry buried his face in between her breasts. Nothing more than pleasure exploded through her body. She brought herself pussy first down onto him with a few more thrusts. Harry encouraged her to keep going by sucking at licking and biting her nipples.

Harry found all of Carol's weak spots and exploited them. He really could get her motor running with a little effort. His hand moved from her ass and touched the small of her back. A twirl of his finger resulted in pleasure coursing down her loins.

Carol drove herself all the way down onto his cock. She never came like this. Never in her life had she experienced such enjoyment from Harry's throbbing hard cock pushing into her body.

The two of them descended and Carol was laid out on the towel which had been placed on the ground with her legs spread. She spread them further to encourage Harry to push his hard cock into her pussy.

"Please," Carol said. "I've wanted for this for a long time. I've needed this for a very long time."

Harry held onto Carol's hips and positioned himself towards her scorching slit. He was going to be inside of her and make her his. Her lips taunted him. Harry aimed himself towards Carol's opening and pushed inside of her.

Carol lifted her hips to meet Harry's thrusts. He rammed into her with a deep jackhammering effect. Their bodies connected together, rubbing up against each other. Harry's hands made sure to take a full tour of Carol's body. She was certain his hands enjoyed her as much as she enjoyed his hands enjoying her body.

"Harder, baby," Carol said biting down on her lip. "Make me feel it….really make me scream!"

Harry rocked her with a huge thrust into her body. Carol's moist cunt clamped down onto him and released him. She tightened and released him a couple more times with Harry continuing his pounding inside of her.

"I'm really going to make you feel it," Harry said. "You're just another woman who squeals beneath me."

Harry's hands hit all of those pleasure points in her body. Carol shifted her hips further up to meet Harry. He plunged deep inside of her with a couple more hard and fast thrusts.

"YES!" Carol yelled. She scratched his back when encouraging him to fuck him. "Damn, you're a fucking machine!"

Carol moaned this last part into Harry's ear. Harry battered her pussy with a few more pushes. She saturated his cock so much he could slide into her with ease. He touched the edge of her womb and resulted in Carol's hips bouncing up to meet Harry's with a jolt. He pummeled her with deeper thrusts yet.

"Yes, I'm going to make you beg for me, you're going to want all of my cock," Harry said. "But, you haven't had enough, have you?"

Carol shook her head. She could never have enough of this throbbing hard piece of manhood which continued to drill deep inside of her. Carol lifted her leg and pushed Harry deeper into her. He thrust further into her.

Orgasms hit Carol at a more frequent pace. Harry rode her pleasure train all the way to the next one and the next one. She hung onto him and encouraged him.

Harry enjoyed how much stamina she had. He never had to hold back because Carol just willed him to the next orgasm. He rocked her pussy and stained the towel the two of them laid on. Carol's legs gripped Harry harder and encouraged him to go deeper. She almost willed him to do so.

"Mmm-hmmm!" Carol mewled.

"Soon enough," Harry said.

Carol saw a bright white spot from her mind just blowing. She never came this hard and the fact she did intensify the pleasure. Harry found her heat and buried himself as far deep into her.

"You fill be up, I'm never going without this cock," Carol said. She squeezed Harry's ass to encourage him to pump further into her. "Never, do you hear me?"

"I hear you," Harry grunted with another push. "Are you ready?"

Carol's pussy gushed. She wanted him to lose himself inside of her. Carol held onto him and made sure he did not stray from her pussy. She did not want to lose a single drop.

Harry released himself into Carol. Carol received the rush of cum inside her. Harry unloaded himself into her and filled her up all the way with a never ending rush of cum.

Carol's orgasm hit her two more times before Harry finally eased to a stop inside of her. She grabbed Harry and rolled him over. She gripped him by the cock and stroked him.

"Well, you're the gift who keeps on giving, aren't you?"

Twelve inches of throbbing hard penis was Carol's treat and she drove herself down onto Harry hard.

* * *

 

A couple of rounds later, and Carol found herself satisfied, at least for now. She wrapped her arms around Harry and pulled him closer towards her. Harry rested her head on her bare breasts. Carol smiled.

"Not a bad place to settle down for a short nap," Carol said. "So, how do mine stack up to Karen's?"

"I don't know," Harry said with a smile. "I think I'm going to have to….do an in-depth study to see how they match up….you know, for science."

"Well," Carol said, as she continued to stroke Harry's hair. "I'll be sure to do anything to help out with science. You know such an important thing should be discussed and analyzed and studied in detail."

Carol's hands rested on Harry's abs. She resisted the temptation to venture a bit closer down between his legs, but she couldn't resist herself. The temptation had been too great and she cupped him.

Harry turned his head and looked at Carol's face. She might have been covered with sweat, but she looked no less gorgeous than she did before.

"You just can't help yourself, can you?" Carol asked.

"No," Carol said. She decided to ease up on him a couple of seconds later and pull him on top of her so the two of them could touch. "I doubt many women could help themselves. My little sister couldn't….I'm sure my other younger sister won't be able to help herself just as much when she's old enough to be helped by you, and my mother….well…you know."

Carol reached Harry's lower back and started to trace patterns around it. Her sultry smile increased the more she met Harry's vivid green eyes.

"We better join the rest of the crew before they send someone back here," Carol said. "Although I was hoping Sinestra would come back here…she really needs to get laid."

Harry smiled at her commentary but said nothing. He figured it would be for the best they didn't. Regardless the two of them made their way to the shower for a quick moment to get cleaned off for real and then dressed.

* * *

Ilana looked towards the bathroom quarters and started to drum her fingers against the table with a repetitive and never ending tapping motion. She received a cross look from Alex.

"How long does it take to take a shower?" Ilana asked.

"Well, it may take a bit longer if they're helping each other," Alex said.

"Helping?" Ilana asked.

"Yes, helping," Alex said with an impish grin crossing her face when she locked her eyes on Ilana. "You know, helping each other with those hard to reach places. And a few easy to reach places as well. You know, helping."

"I see, and I thank you for putting that particular image in my mind," Ilana said.

Even she noticed Harry had a strong personality which was captivating in many ways. Said personality distracted Ilana from what she needed to do though and it frustrated her to different degrees.

"Why?" Alex asked knowingly. "Is it because it's distracting you from your angst and emo rage?"

"Don't you start with me," Ilana said. "Your sister is bad enough…."

Sinestra slid the doors opened and walked inside. She had been followed by Faora and Katma as well. The three of them had been following up a lead, but so far the lead had resulted in nothing other than a dead end.

"Where is Har-Zod and Green Lantern Danvers?" Sinestra asked.

"They have been in the shower room, and they said they were about ready to join us," Aya said without missing a beat.

"So, they told you that?" Karen asked, piping up for the first time.

"Actually, I managed to check in on them through my routine monitoring of this ship," Aya said. "In fact, here they come right about….now."

Katma looked flushed at the revelation Aya was likely monitoring their every private interaction. Which she supposed was more than likely for security purposes, but it still made her flushed. She and Carol decided to go off during the downtime and relieve some stress of their own. A long mission could lead to it.

' _Maybe she doesn't see anything, but scans for body heat to see everyone is where they should be,'_ Katma thought to herself. She tried not to betray her discomfort to the rest of the team.

The doors sprung open and Carol and Harry exited. Alex smiled at the sight of the glow which was coming from her sister the second she exited the room. She thought it was about time.

' _Finally,'_ Alex thought as she pumped her fist into the air with triumph. She took a second to recollect her thoughts and another one came into her mind. _'I guess it's about two down and two to go now.'_

' _Alex?'_ Carol asked, sounding a bit confused in the process. She turned towards Harry.

"Yes, you two can hear each other in your head," Harry said. "it's regarding the Collective Network….and I'll have one of the Alphas explain it to you when you get back home, although I suppose Karen and Faora can fill you in on the details while you're here…"

A loud shrill sound echoed throughout the Interceptor which resulted in Harry's words being lost forever.

"We're picking up a signal," Carol said, throwing herself back in the driver's seat of the Interceptor without losing a beat. "It's coming from Oa, a distress signal."

"Punch it on the screen then, what are you waiting for?" Sinestra asked.

Carol didn't miss a beat. The image of Ganthet appeared. It was very faint.

"If you can hear me….please hear our plea, the Red Lanterns are on their way to Oa….the Red Lanterns are here…..they are here in mass….and we can't…we can't hold them for long. All Green Lantern Corps members, this is Emergency Omega Protocol Nineteen, I repeat this is Emergency Omega Protocol Nineteen."

"An EOP-19?" Katma asked. A dark tone had been placed in her voice.

"Haul ass and get all the way back to Oa, and drop everything that you're doing, even if it's a dire situation," Carol said. She could see the tension filling the ship and Sinestra had her attention placed onto Ilana. Carol already sensed trouble. "Blaming people won't solve anything….."

"We need to get back to Oa now," Sinestra said. "And you've been leading us away this entire time. I knew you couldn't have been trusted."

Faora let out her breath with the whistle. A slight glimpse of Sinestra's eyes caused Faora to experience great worry.

"Sinestra!"

"How many times do I have to prove myself to this team before you decide to give me the benefit of the doubt?" Ilana asked. "Maybe I should remove that stick from your ass and….."

Harry cleared his throat roughly and both women turned their attention towards him. Now he had their attention.

"Not time for this," Harry said. "Aya,set a course back to Oa….divert all power to getting us there to the quickest route possible."

"Of course," Aya said.

"And I'm certain no one acted with any malicious intent," Faora said. "Whatever differences you have, sort them out, after the Red Lanterns are taken care of."

Both parties locked eyes with each other and the Interceptor made its way back to Oa to receive the distress signal, hoping they weren't too late.

* * *

**To Be Continued on January 31** **st** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Harry touches base back home, and less time has passed back home than it does in space. Ah, time-space, you can be interesting to deal with._

_Dudley doesn't have a politically correct view on the handicapped, but that should be a surprise to absolutely no one. Cobblepot pulls him back._

_Carol and Harry hooking up was inevitable. As was the trouble on Oa._

_Back on Tuesday, as the Red Lanterns make their move._


	259. Red Alert Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Fifty-Nine: Red Alert Part One.**

* * *

 

Oa had been bombarded by a vicious attack from the Red Lantern Corps. It had been an assault the likes of which they had never experienced before in their entire life. Dozens of Red Lanterns, all working as one, continuously fired their rings at the edge of the planet and bombarded their enemies in a total nonstop barrage of attacks. The barriers started to bend, but no matter what they did, they could not break out.

Kilowag stepped forward. Now with Sinestra off on her mission, the responsibility fell upon him to try and restore some semblance of order. One look at the Red Lanterns who tried to push their way through the last line of defense from the towers caused Kilowag to grumble, and turn towards his fellow Green Lanterns.

"Alright, listen up, and listen good," Kilowog said. "If they think they're going to bust through our last line of defense, then they have another thing coming. The last line of defense is the Green Lantern Corps. We all stand together, and there's nothing which can stop him."

Kilowag tried to get in touch with the Guardians. He heard nothing other than an angry buzzing in the back of his head. His fellow Green Lanterns turned towards him to try and get guidance from above. He answered with one of the most frustrated sighs.

"We're on our own, the Guardians are no help to any of us," Kilowog said. "So, stand together, and stand tall….because here they come!"

The Red Lanterns bombarded their way down the back door. Several of them appeared in front of the Green Lanterns. One of the Lanterns swung his construct and took the nearest Red Lantern down. Several shields slipped over the top of each other with an overlapping flurry.

The continued bombardment of the construct shields painted a pretty grim picture in the mind of Kilowag. He could see they would not hold, and if they managed to get the base of the Guardians, they were screwed. Kilowag summoned all of the strength.

' _Brightest day, blacked night, indeed.'_

A green energy beam surrounded Kilowag's hand. He nailed one of the Red Lanterns with one of the most vicious punches ever. He crumpled down to the ground. Kilowag turned around and snapped back his energy ring. A flash of light connected with the face of one of the Red Lanterns.

The other Red Lanterns tried to move towards Kilowag. Their arms and legs had been gripped in clamps. A cracking noise caused the Red Lanterns to look on in agony.

"Don't let them back you off!" Zox yelled. He turned his wing and started to fire at everything which moves. "The Green Lanterns are not about to back off the mighty Red Lanterns. They're not going to do it, no way, and no how!"

Zox tried to blast one of the Green Lanterns with his red energy ring. The beam of green light met and a battle of will power against rage continued. Both pushed back and forth with each other, and sparks of energy flew in the air.

"Resistance is futile!" the Red Lantern growled. "You can't stop me now…"

Red Lantern Zox bombarded his enemy with a flash of light. He sent an energy blast and tried to bombard the gates with a spike to split them open.

"No, I don't think so!" Kilowag yelled. He pointed the ring towards his enemy and blocked the spike. Another attempt to spike the gates open had been broken. "You want to get through the gates. You want to get to the Guardians? Guess what, pal, you're going to have to get through me."

"Oh, I'd gladly get through you!" Zox yelled. "You're going to crumple like a cheap deck of cards. We're going to make the blood of the Green Lanterns stain the universe. All for the glory of Atrocitus…"

He screamed in agony at the second when Kilowog smashed through the barrier. Zox propelled against the side of a building and smashed against it. The energy shield protected him, even though he slid down and left a rather blood smear behind him when dropping down onto the ground.

Atrocitus watched the battle from afar. He knew at the right moment, he would attack. The blood of the Green Lanterns would spill and it would rain down on him.

' _Now, it's time.'_

Kilowag turned around in time to see Atrocitus jump into the air. He tried to blast the veteran Green Lantern with an attack.

"You're one of their toughest, aren't you?"Atrocitus asked.

"Yeah, and you're about to find out how tough I can be."

Kilowag created a miniature missile rocket launcher and started to fire. Atrocitus blocked every single missile from connecting at him. They all bounced off and caused the ground to be rattled beneath them.

"I'm impressed," Atrocitus said. He reached in and grabbed Kilowag by the throat. "But not enough to spare your miserable life. Only enough to ensure your death is quick and efficient."

"You shouldn't have," Kilowog managed to choke out.

Kilowag broke free and the slugfest with Atrocitus reached a fever pitch. Red and Green energy connected with each other, as will and rage duked it out with the ultimate battle.

* * *

 

The Guardians observed the battle outside. They needed to prepare a course of action, now they could no longer discourage any of their Green Lanterns from looking into the entire Red Lantern situation. The Guardians had their eyes on Ganthet, who responded with a labored sigh. He did not think this was the time nor the place to have this particular discussion.

' _Especially when there are so many other pressing matters on the surface,'_ Ganthet thought. _'Well, I've done what I must. If this action is controversial, they should see what my next action will be like.'_

"Ganthet, what were you thinking calling the crew on the Interceptor?" one of the other Guardians asked. His beady little eyes fixed on Ganthet.

"I thought it would help us with the situation," Ganthet said.

"They've done more than enough damage," another Guardian said. "They have created several Crisis level events which we're going to have to clean up. I highly suggest we take all of their rings. Especially the Earth dweller, because I told you they could not be trusted to make rational decisions."

"Perhaps we've come the time where rational decision making will not work," Ganthet said. "Perhaps we need a decision based on emotion. And perhaps our crew…..while they may have been a bit…..dare I say it….preemptive with their efforts, perhaps that's what we need. Perhaps being reactive has to lead to many situations. Need I remind you of the Manhunters…"

"The Manhunters were an unforeseen design flaw. Logically speaking, they should have worked."

"And yet, they didn't despite logic," Ganthet said. "And logically speaking, we keeping the Green Lanterns in the dark regarding Atrocitus and his minions should have kept them safe…do you see where logic has left us."

"We may have been playing with some rather dangerous fire," a Guardian said in a fearful tone. "Maybe we would have told them what to expect when Atrocitus started moving."

"It doesn't excuse the fact that…"

A huge crash echoed and Atrocitus flew through the wall and landed in the middle of the floor in front of the Guardians. The Red Lantern founder popped up to his feet with a blood smirk on his face.

"At last."

Kilowag ripped through the hole in the wall and blasted forward with a glow surrounding his body. He fired the most brutal attack he could muster against the Red Lantern leader. The blast nailed the Red Lantern and hoisted him almost all the way off of the ground.

Atrocitus dropped down to the ground and rolled over. He began to snarl, with eyes glowing redder in the process.

"Run, run, get out of here….right now!" Kilowag yelled.

"I'm going to enjoy making you bleed!" Atrocitus shouted. His voice boomed and he nailed Kilowag in the ribs with a thunderous and blunt strike. A red sickle manifested in the air and swiped down towards the top of Kilowag's head.

Kilowag blocked the attack and popped up. Atrocitus wrapped a red noose around his neck and pulled him forward and sent Kilowag flying into the Guardians. The Guardians fled when Kilowag's body smashed inside.

"To the exits, quickly…run!"

Ganthet knew they would not make it to the doors even if Atrocitus was not behind them. He had a great opinion on the capabilities of Kilowag.

"Just keep moving, they're…."

All of the Guardians looked terrified. They ran into a small group of Red Lanterns. One of them grabbed the nearest guardian who struggled.

"Well, looks like the Green Lanterns will be nothing without their little friends," the Red Lantern said. "The only question is, whose blood do we spill first?"

Ganthet threw something up into the air over the head of the Red Lanterns. The blinding blue light caused them to be taken aback from a moment.

The Guardians watched in confusion when a blue ring and lantern soured out into the distance and made a trip outwards. It disappeared from the atmosphere of Oa.

The Red Lantern nearest to Ganthet regained his bearings and grabbed Ganthet around the neck. Ganthet stared him in the eye with defiance.

"What did you do?" the Red Lantern asked.

"I gave them hope, the one thing you've forsaken above all else," Ganthet said. "Do with me as you must, as you need to….my blood spilled doesn't matter now. Not when they have hope."

"Let's rip him apart, and present him to Atrocitus as a trophy."

The other Guardians stepped back in horror when Ganthet had been held by two Red Lanterns and forced to his knees. Another Red Lantern activated his energy ring. A glowing red sickle flashed in the air next to him. The Red Lantern reared back his energy ring and prepared to go in for the deepest cut.

* * *

 

Saint Walker crossed his legs and hummed underneath his breath. He soaked up the atmosphere around him. The night was beautiful in its own strange way on Mogo. Despite Mogo being used as a prison planet, he had a fair amount of tranquility around him. It was a pity the prisoners couldn't appreciate and understand it.

"Do you ever think about what your purpose is, my friend?" Saint Walker asked.

"My purpose is to ensure some of the most dangerous criminals in the universe are not allowed to escape," Mogo said.

"Yes, but do you not think you have a deeper purpose than that, my friend?" Saint Walker asked. "From the smartest atom to the biggest solar system, everything is created for a reason, for a purpose. We all have our roles to play in the wider universe."

Saint Walker rose to a standing position. He inhaled the country air around him. Excitement hit him completely when looking around. He could not have believed his fortune.

"The Green Lanterns are in trouble."

"Yes?" Saint Walker asked.

"Oa is under an attack, I have felt them enact an Omega Nineteen Protocol," Mogo said. "They are in trouble."

"Have you found your purpose?" Saint Walker asked.

"I may be the key to their victory," Mogo said. "I will need to leave the atmosphere of this planet, even if I run the risk of leading to my own destruction. And I must appear on the outskirts of Oa, immediately."

Saint Walker thought Mogo understood his purpose more than most people made of flesh and blood did. He thought about his purpose and remembered the teachings of a wise old man who he encountered many years ago. Wisdom came in many forms and this particular wise old man imparted the wisdom upon him which would define Saint Walker for the rest of his days.

The wise old man informed him what he needed, maybe not what he wanted, but what he needed, would come to him if he just stood around and waited. The universe had its own ways of equipping those who they deemed worthy. And Saint Walker found himself worthy, at least in the back of his mind.

"Do try and hang on, this will be a bumpy ride," Mogo said. "I do not know why you stay on this planet when you could have left at any time, but I thank you for your input and your insight."

"It isn't a problem at all," Saint Walker said. "And I only am here on this planet because it's where I need to be. And it's where we will stand tall."

A bright light illuminated the sky and a blue lantern flew in the direction of Saint Walker. Saint Walker waited for it to come down and drop onto the ground.

"The blue light of hope?" Mogo asked.

"Yes," Saint Walker said. "It appears it's enlightened us in many ways."

The blue energy ring landed on the ground next to him. Saint Walker scooped it up into his hand without another word and took a good long look at the ring.

"Hope is what we need to win the battle," Saint Walker said. "Will leads to strength, but if there isn't a desire in your heart to get it done, and a hope of what you can accomplish, will power will not get it done."

Saint Walker slipped up the blue energy ring. A brand new awareness of everything hit him. Most would have been alarmed with such a horrific realization hitting them.

"Are you ready, my friend?"

"Yes, let's go."

Mojo turned around and opened an energy portal, removing himself from the atmosphere and heading all the way to Oa.

* * *

 

Kilowag smashed through the door hard. He thought he had been trampled. The tough as nails Green Lantern rolled over and tried to hitch in a breath. Breathing became extremely labored from all of the times Atrocitus nailed him and came close to puncturing some very vital organs.

' _Got to focus, and fight, they're counting on you,'_ Kilowog said. _'Don't want to blow it, not now.'_

Atrocitus locked eye to eye with Kilowag. The wounds ripped open on his chest caused his own blood to spill.

"You think you've gotten me," Kilowog said. "Looks like you bit off a bit more than you can chew."

Those injuries were far greater than what would kill many. Atrocitus had a hole ripped open in his chest. He rushed towards Kilowag and slammed him into the ground. Kilowag rolled over and found his attention on the Red Lanterns. They surrounded the Guardians and were about ready to finish one of them off.

"No!"

Atrocitus stomped the back of Kilowag's head and rubbed the soles of his boot into the back of his head. "Willpower is a joke!"

Ganthet continued to look at the Red Lanterns with defiance. His fellow Guardians watched and one of them stepped forward.

"No, this is my….cross to bear," he said. "If you're going to do it, then do it, finish me off…."

"Good night, Guardian," the Red Lantern said. He swiped the energy scythe in the air and lowered the boom down towards Ganthet.

A blast of energy came from high above the ground and blew a large hole in the ground where the Red Lanterns stood. They fell into a large and gaping hole, with only two of them staggering around the surface.

Harry Potter dropped down and aimed a blaster he took from the Stone Warriors in Dimension X. He hyper-charged the energy blaster and blasted through the Red Lantern shields and caused them to fly into the air.

Carol moved over and she encased all of the Guardians in a giant energy bubble before jumping into the air and floating them out of space.

Atrocitus turned his attention away from Kilowag. His lips curled into a wicked grin when he faced him.

"I thought I smelled the blood of a Kryptonian!" Atrocitus said. He rushed towards him. "You must be the fabled Son of Zod."

Harry bombarded Atrocitus with another blast from the energy cannon. The cannon caught him in the chest and burned a huge hole through his chest. Harry locked onto the energy blast and fired another blast.

Atrocitus gave a hole of agony and summoned the full power of the red ring on his finger. He withdrew the anger felt from the entire Red Lantern armada. His wounds healed over.

"You can't stop me!" Atrocitus yelled.

"I've heard that many times," Harry said. "And everyone has been proven wrong."

Atrocitus gave a howl of rage and nailed the energy blaster. It crushed into his hand. Atrocitus rushed in and tried to slice his adversary in half.

"You will kneel before me!"

Harry bombarded him with a rapid-fire barrage of energized daggers. Each of them caught him in the chest. Atrocitus placed one hand on the ground and slammed down on the ground. The Son of Zod jumped into the air and avoided the attack before he bombarded Atrocitus with another blast of raw energy which knocked him over.

"Doubtful."

Atrocitus turned his attention towards his enemy and charged in.

Karen came up from the heavens and punched Atrocitus in the face. The impact of her knuckles cracking against the face of Atrocitus resounded and dropped him to the ground.

The leader of the Red Lanterns fell down onto the ground. His face had been smashed. He rolled over and returned to his feet and prepared to attack both of the Kryptonians.

' _Down, but not out,'_ Harry thought. He lifted a grenade in his hand and hurled it into the air.

The light blinded Atrocitus. He swung wildly into the distance until he had been opened up with another impact punch from Karen which brought him down to the ground. Atrocitus slumped down against the ground.

Karen lifted up a large chunk of the rock. She turned around and flung it at the Red Lanterns who pulled themselves out of the hole.

Atrocitus kept coming at them like a demented energizer bunny, fueled by nothing other than rage and a fury to rip into his enemy. Harry jumped straight at him and engaged him in battle. The emerald-eyed sorcerer plowed through the field and started to pick apart the weaknesses in his shield.

* * *

 

Sinestra looked to where the battle took place. She knew all about calculating risks and she knew what they were about to take ranked as a pretty high calculated risk. Regardless of what happened, she was ready to take the plunge.

"We need to shut them down, once and for all," Sinestra said. "If you know of anything, any way to stop them now might be the time for you to tell me."

Ilana frowned and decided to speak up for the first time.

"I've been thinking of a way to do it," Ilana said a couple of seconds later. "If we find a way to block the central power source from feeding into the other Red Lanterns, they will be stopped."

"Block the central power source?" Faora asked. "Yes, it could work….but wouldn't that stop you from receiving the power you need to survive?"

The thought had hit Ilana full on. She looked Faora in the eye and looked more determined than ever before. Yet, deep inside her was a slight hint of vulnerability. Sacrifices were difficult to make, even if she had made them before.

"The moment since I put on the Red Lantern ring, my entire life has been a lie," Ilana said. She locked eyes with Sinestra. "I know you don't like me. I know you don't trust me. But we're going to have to do this if we want to stop Atrocitus…"

"It's at a great risk," Sinestra said.

"Don't pretend you care," Ilana said. "If I go down making sure the Red Lanterns never spill a drop of blood as long as they live, it will be as a hero, and not as a butcher."

Faora understood why Ilana had her mind made up about this. She touched Ilana's shoulder and made her turn around.

"There are other alternatives," Faora said. "If we cut off the head, the entire monster falls….killing Atrocitus might….might allow them to regain some degree of sanity."

"Forget it, there's no control you can regain once you've tasted that power.."

Ilana rolled her eyes. Zox pulled himself up to his feet, and he joined several of the Red Lanterns for another attack.

"Well, look who we got here, it's everyone's favorite traitor," Zox said. "After Atrocitus gave you a purpose…what do you do…you sell us all out to the Guardians and their little pets."

"He's really done a job on you," Faora said.

Zox locked eyes onto the daughter of Zod for the first time in a long time and terror spread through his eyes. He managed to keep himself calm.

"I don't care what you think of me," Zox said. "It's time for your destruction!"

The Red Lanterns prepared for another attack and the rest of the group braced themselves. They never had a chance to battle because a bright blue light filled Oa.

Saint Walker dropped down and stood in front of the Red Lanterns.

"I can see I come from many who have lost their purpose in life," Saint Walker said. "Even so, rage is not the key to bringing about fulfillment. It only leads to an empty and vacant existence."

"I'll show you empty and vacant!" Zox yelled. "Annihilate him."

Sinestra viewed in horror when Saint Walker stood, unmoving and unwilling to move. One of the Red Lanterns jumped towards him and tried to nail him with an energy blade. The blade fizzled out before it could connect.

Another Red Lantern made an attempt to skewer Saint Walker from behind. Again, the energy blade fizzled out and caused the Red Lantern in question to be surprised.

"What do you bring to the fight?" Zox asked.

"Hope," Saint Walker said. "The one thing your master had forsaken. Those who have lost hope have."

Zox bombarded Saint Walker with another attack. Saint Walker stood, hands clasped, and the energy bombarded back into Zox and launched him.

"Keep him backed up," Sinestra said. "Atrocitus is mine!"

Ilana had no idea how good her attacks would do, given the fact the Red Lanterns could not function in close proximity to Saint Walker and his blue light.

* * *

 

Harry propelled halfway up into the air and landed with a thud down onto the ground. Atrocitus tried to run him through with the red light. Harry avoided the attack with his lightning fast reflexes.

"STAND STILL!" Atrocitus yelled.

Harry noticed Atrocitus's anger bubbling to an increased level. It was what he hoped happened. The angrier Atrocitus had become, the more careless he became.

Atrocitus created a spiked hammer and smashed onto the ground. He whipped a chain into the face of Har-Zod and snapped him off. The son of one of the greatest military leaders the universe ever saw rose to his feet.

The gauntlets on his costume bombarded Atrocitus with energy and caused him to scream in agony. He pushed through the energy blast after several seconds. The sound of bone crunching caused Harry to land on the ground.

Atrocitus tried to drive a spike into Harry. The attack did not work which brought Atrocitus's anger to toxic levels.

Sinestra bombarded Atrocitus out of nowhere with a blinding attack. Atrocitus flew back several feet and an energy cage surrounded him. He pounded on the cage.

"You think people are afraid of your anger, your rage," Sinestra said. "I'm going to show you what fear truly means."

Atrocitus broke free the cage.

"Your will is compromised," Atrocitus said. He nailed Sinestra with a violent and blunt attack to the stomach which rocked her back. "Once the Guardian's most prized pet goes down, I wonder what they will have left to defend them."

"I wonder where your Red Lanterns will be when I end you," Sinestra said. "Let's finish this."

"Gladly."

The exchange of contempt between the two parties resulted in time freezing and everyone watching to see what would happen next.

' _Damn.'_

Harry and Karen paused for a moment to see Sinestra and Atrocitus charge each other. Green light with a slight tinge of yellow collided with burning red light to signify the beginning of the battle.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on February 4** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Well, chaos happens pretty quickly. And we end with a hell of a battle brewing, as this arc in space is drawing to a close._

_Until Saturday._


	260. Red Alert Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty: Red Alert Part Two.**

* * *

 

Sinestra's eyes flashed with pure malice when charging towards Atrocitus. She intended to hack him in half with every single fiber of her being. They collided together with a flash of light. She reared back and brought a huge jackhammer construct into the chest of Atrocitus. Atrocitus blocked it once again and pushed her back.

Rage started to fill the dangerous fugitive. He reared back a couple of inches and once again brought the boom down onto the top of his adversary's head. Sinestra crumpled at the knees and could feel a crushing force almost brought down upon her. Her eyes screwed shut and the willpower needed to break out of the attack had been returned back tenfold.

Sinestra screamed in the most primal way possible and sent several green energy bolts towards Atrocitus. She did not endeavor for creativity; rather she just endeavored to attack him in the bluntest and violent way possible. Atrocitus blocked the bolts of energy before they connected with him.

"You can't deny it," Atrocitus said. He avoided the next barrage of attacks with the greatest of ease. He returned fire with a red scythe. She blocked it. "There's a dark force which has bred inside of you. It's resulted in making your thoughts less than clear. You can't deny it."

Sinestra refused to deny it any longer. She refused to even say a single word to Atrocitus. She created a miniature rocket launcher and nailed Atrocitus with everything. The Red Lantern had been pushed backward. She summoned every single last burst of willpower possible and bombarded the Red Lantern with a secondary attack.

The barriers cracked and resulted in a howl escaping the back of Atrocitus's throat. She reared back and nailed him with another attack. Her fist grew larger with the green energy extending it. Sinestra jumped high into the air, yellow brass knuckles surrounded in the green energy fist.

Sinestra staggered him back a couple of inches. She kept hammering away at him with reckless abandon. Each single shot rocked him with everything she could throw at him.

"You should just give into…"

"Silence!" Sinestra yelled. She flipped Atrocitus down over onto his back.

The Red Lantern fell down onto the ground. Sinestra scooped up the fallen pieces of rubble and launched them down onto the top of the head of her adversary. Atrocitus kicked and squirmed in a valiant attempt to break free, but it was all for nothing.

"It's time for you to understand the torment you've caused," Sinestra said. She summoned, even more, power and it was more than will power. She beamed him with a bright yellow light in the chest and forced Atrocitus down onto the ground. "Do you remember it? Do you remember it, Red Lantern?"

Atrocitus screamed in sheer agony with his feet thrashing. His fingers dug into the scalp as images bombarded the back of his mind. A horrific amount of flashes kept striking him at the worst possible times. Atrocitus howled in unlimited agony the more he had been assaulted by her mind.

"I'm certain you remember everything," Sinestra said. "I'm certain you remember the absolute horror you have felt. Remember how your planet had been destroyed, and you could do nothing about it! Do you feel it? Do you remember it….do you remember the failure."

The images of Atrocitus watching as his planet had been destroyed flashed through his mind. The anger and despair felt when the Green Lanterns did nothing. Where he succumbed to all of the hate and become one with the red light of rage. The Red Lantern ring flashed in his mind. His teeth gritted when the power increased.

"I….won't!" Atrocitus howled at the top of his lungs. He kept pushing as much as he could to break free. "You cannot….I refuse to allow you to…..I REFUSE!"

Atrocitus broke free from Sinestra's grip. A never ending bombardment of anger resulted in him snapping out of the despair. Sinestra had been launched high into the air and sent back down into the ring.

"You think you can get inside my head and torment me with my past?" Atrocitus asked. He swung a large battle ax down onto Sinestra. It came close to splitting her skull. "Why don't I torment you through regarding the fact you're trapped between both sides of the spectrum? Why don't I taunt you with the fact how imprecise and weak you are?"

Sinestra turned her and gasped in horror. Her lungs barely could withstand the constant bombardment. She needed to summon more of the power.

' _He must feel fear!'_

Sinestra howled in rage and returned to nail Atrocitus as hard as possible. The energy bolt cracked his chest and brought him down. He returned fire and knocked him to the ground.

Blood now fueled Sinestra as much it did Atrocitus. She scrambled up and went to fight with him one more time.

"We're not finished yet!" she yelled. "Come at me! COME AT ME!"

The Red Lantern fired back at her full blast. Both beams intersected in a battle between two dangerous adversaries.

* * *

 

The long mission caused Ilana to discover something. She allowed her grief to wrap her up a bit too much and now, the suffering she forced herself to cause had been reflected. A small group of Red Lanterns came down to face her. Ilana stepped back and watched their eyes burn onto her.

"The traitor thinks she has us all where she wants us?" one of the Red Lanterns asked. "You're nothing without that red ring…"

"Maybe we should cut it off," another Red Lantern said, creating a chainsaw construct in the process.

Ilana refused to back down.

"I'm a traitor," Ilana said. "I've betrayed my past life, the good memories I've had with my friends, my family, my husband….all for a little power….this power….the most dangerous power of them all."

She held the red ring in front of them.

"You know something, you've betrayed who you are as well," Ilana said. "But, there's always a chance. I bounced back and made my friends….you wouldn't know about that, would you? You're an extension of Atrocitus and as long as he breathes, you'll never live."

The Red Lanterns had been too blinded by their rage and their insane quest for power. Not a single word Ilana gave penetrated their skulls.

' _I wonder if I was this blind when the Interceptor picked me up,'_ Ilana thought.

The Red Lanterns looked as if they considered the best way to rip her apart and butcher her. Saint Walker flashed in front of them.

"Do you not come to the realization what you're doing is an empty?" Saint Walker asked. "The rage you're feeling leads to an emptiness and the blood you spill is not going to fill any void, no matter how hard you try to do so."

"Stand aside and let us deal with her."

Saint Walker did not stand aside. He was almost certain none of the Red Lanterns learned their lesson. The Blue Lantern crusader understood the need of trying to impart a necessary lesson on them, no matter how frustrating it had been for them to see reason.

"I'm not going to repeat myself!" the Red Lantern yelled. A red spike rose in the air and pointed down towards the face of Saint Walker. "Stand back and let us take her down!"

"I stand next to her, for she has made great strides," Saint Walker said. He looked at them, not with contempt, but with a significant amount of pity in his eyes. "She is not perfect, there is no such thing as a perfect being in the universe. If you acknowledge that, then your life will be much better."

"I told you, stand aside!"

"Saint Walker, please stand aside," Ilana said.

"They cannot harm you as much as they cannot harm anyone else in the end," Saint Walker said. "Their hatred blinds them to the truth, and the truth is something which can set someone free, or it can wound, especially the most wicked. And they have allowed themselves to be shackled from the…"

"Enough talking!" one of the Red Lanterns yelled. He tried to spike Saint Walker in the throat if nothing else to get him to shut up. "Fight us!"

"I don't need to fight you when you've already defeated yourself in this battle," Saint Walker said. "Atrocitus manipulated your rage at your most vulnerable time. He knows he can channel it as a blunt weapon, the only purpose is spilling blood. Once, he's used you, you are of no more use."

"I fight alongside the Green Lanterns now."

"You're willing to fight with them?" one of the other Red Lanterns asked. The disdain proved to be very obvious from his tone.

"No, I'm not willing to fight with them," Ilana said. She made sure to lock her eye firmly on the face of her adversary. "I'm willing to die for them, and when push comes to shove, they will die for me."

She made sure to keep her focus completely locked onto the Red Lanterns around her. The disgust was ignored.

"Would Atrocitus willing to do the same for you?"

These words finally penetrated the thick skulls of the Lanterns who had only been motivated by rage.

"Both of us stared down the abyss," Saint Walker said. "But, I'm afraid you caused a problem when you stared back into it."

Ilana heard his words and knew now it was her chance to stare back into the ultimate abyss without blinking

* * *

 

Sinestra flipped Atrocitus over onto his back. Atrocitus landed down onto the ground with a crushing force. Sinestra jumped up and buried a green energy fist into the face of Atrocitus.

"It's the end for you now!" Sinestra yelled.

"I suggest you look skyward."

An energy vortex opened up and one of Atrocitus's planet-destroying machines was about ready to touch down onto Oa.

"Yes, you can't stop it," Atrocitus said. He grabbed Sinestra around the throat and slammed her down onto the ring. "All of Oa will be destroyed, along with the Guardians, their pets, and the central power battery. Justice will finally be served when the blight of the Green Lantern."

Sinestra broke free from the iron grip around her neck. She planted a fist into the chest of Atrocitus and doubled him over. He gasped the moment he had been forced down on the ground.

"You're mad," Sinestra said. She slammed an energy beam down onto the top of her adversary's head. "You really think you're getting off of the planet intact, you have another thing coming."

Atrocitus struggled underneath the immense weight which Sinestra forced down onto the back of his head. He looked down at the woman. One of the most feared Green Lanterns stood above him. He broke free from her grip and wrapped her into a red energy bubble. He tightened the bubble, channeling all of the hate he felt for the Green Lanterns, the Guardians, and everything else.

"Am I supposed to fear death?" Atrocitus asked. "No, I don't fear death. It's inevitable for every living creature in the galaxy, even me. Therefore I don't fear it, and you will be annihilated."

"You don't fear death," Sinestra said. "Good, I'm happy for you. But there's one thing you will fear….about all else."

"And what is that?" Atrocitus asked.

A blast of pink light struck Atrocitus from the top of the ship. He screamed in blood-curdling agony when the simulated Star Sapphire energy bombarded him hard.

Sinestra broke free and made her way to the Red Lanterns. Harry, Carol, Karen, and Faora battled them. Sinestra looked towards the machine and it had already worked its way to the planet.

Carol knocked one of the Red Lanterns over. Another one tried to attack her. Harry blocked the attack and used the Red Lantern's own energy to snap it back. The Red Lantern screamed in absolute horror when dropping down onto the ground and feeling the burn.

"What are you doing?" Carol asked.

Sinestra jumped on top of the device which made its way into the planetary core. She whipped her ring forward and knocked two of the Red Lantern goons off of the back of the bomb.

"Trying to save the universe!" Sinestra yelled without missing a beat. She fired a blast of energy at the Red Lanterns and launched them off of the back of the bomb.

Carol moved over and allowed Sinestra to keep doing what she was doing. She used her Green Lantern ring to drag them over.

The pink energy came down onto the ground again and caused the Red Lanterns to flee. Several green energy beams shot from the edge of the planet and dragged the Red Lanterns off in containment bubbles.

"Looks like the Calvary is here," Carol said. Mogo dragged half of the Red Lantern armada off.

Two rather dangerous Red Lanterns dropped down onto the ground. One of them went for Faora and the other one went for Harry.

Faora grabbed his arm when he tried to create an energy construct. She twisted the arm around and brought the sickening hot energy beam into the back of the enemy. The enemy flopped down onto the ground, blood dripping from his mouth.

The Red Lantern bombarded Harry with a blast of light. Harry jumped off of the rocks out of the way and caused the rocks to blow up. The Red Lantern amped up the assault with all of the sophistication of a blunt force trauma to the face, with Harry blocking every one of his attacks.

Harry belted through the attack and folded up the Red Lantern like a house of cards. Another Red Lantern tried to nail him. A green brick wall appeared behind him and smashed him through.

"Why let you have all of the fun?" Carol asked.

Sinestra realized something. She would have to take the bomb off of Oa. Sinestra channeled her remaining energy in the ring to rip into the planet's core and dig the bomb out. Sweat dripped from her face when yanking the bomb up and out of the ground. Her heart raced with a steadier pulse when rising high up above the ground.

"Sinestra!" Faora yelled. Two of the Red Lanterns jumped her.

"Worry about them, I have this one!" Sinestra yelled.

She dragged the bomb and opened an energy vortex. The bomb was about to go off and the shockwave would kill all life there. Only if she allowed it to, though, and the Green Lantern would be damned if she allowed it. Sinestra yanked the bomb through the energy rift.

Faora tried to blast off to yank Sinestra off. The backlash of the bomb caused the gravity to be compromised for a moment. She propelled back down with a rubber band effect until Harry and Karen caught her.

The energy vortex sealed shot and left Sinestra trapped on the other could hear the further destruction of the bomb.

"Faora," Harry said. "I'm…"

"Her sacrifice won't be in vain!"

* * *

 

Ilana walked forward to face one of the most dangerous individuals in the entire universe. She stepped face to face with Atrocitus who broke into a smile.

"It's time for us to end this," Ilana said. "I used to fear you, but now, I pity you."

"Such a useless emotion," Atrocitus said. "And such raw power wasted on such disgusting sentiments…"

Atrocitus rode a high now he saw Sinestra destroyed. He might not have destroyed the planet, but he could take her out. He rushed towards Ilana and knocked her down onto the ground.

Ilana slammed onto the ground and rolled over with a huge thump. The wind had been driven from her body. Despite the force, she struck the ground, Ilana peeled herself up to a standing position.

"Is that all you have?"

"I have plenty more, as you know!"

Atrocitus bombarded Ilana with every single blood force shot. Blood poured from her mouth and nose when he attacked her. Ilana dropped to her knees, but Atrocitus ripped her down off of her knees and attacked her again.

"The foolish woman only delayed the inevitable," Atrocitus said. "I only will just rip apart the remaining Green Lanterns and the Guardians of Oa with my bare hands…but you….I'll annihilate you first."

Ilana popped back up and nailed Atrocitus with a blade. He canceled her attack and knocked her back down onto her knees.

"You lost everything!" Atrocitus said. He hoisted up Ilana and snapped her back to the ground and caused her to land. "You lost your planet, the love of your life. You've suffered more. That's why I allowed you to put on that ring. I thought you had the rage in your heart where you could be something."

Ilana flopped down onto the ground, hitching a breath. Atrocitus beat on her with another series of blunt force blows.

"I've become something, but only after I've left you."

"As long as you wear that ring," Atrocitus said. "You will have never left me….but I can remove it. And I will, once I take the only thing I've left you with. Your miserable life!"

Atrocitus plowed Ilana into the ground. Her broken body flopped around. An intense ringing entered her ear, and yet there was something else. Renewed hope she could get up a fight.

' _I can do this,'_ she thought to herself. Fingertips started to twitch when Ilana struggled to get up to her feet. _'I can do this, I will do this, I can do this...I will do this!'_

Ilana closed her eyes and she could see Atrocitus about ready to lower the final boom on her. She blocked the attack and summoned everything, every emotion she had in her. She pushed back the rage.

Atrocitus staggered back and Ilana ruptured his control with a huge ring construct blast to the face. He dropped down to one knee and Atrocitus had been forced back to his feet.

"Impossible!" Atrocitus yelled. He tried to attack her.

Ilana caught the beam at the last minute and forced it back at Atrocitus. He pulled back and nailed her with another beam, but she blocked it and summoned every bit of will she had while thinking about those she lost thanks to the manipulations of this monster.

The ring hand ripped off of the hand of Atrocitus. He screamed in agony when he been disarmed in the worst way possible. Blood dripped to the ground and his agonizing howl continued.

Atrocitus reached to reattach the hand onto his body. Carol dropped down and yanked his dismembered hand out of the way. Harry dropped down and knocked him for a loop.

The withered, weakened mess of Atrocitus dropped to the ground. He remained still alive, barely, but now his rage had left his body, it wouldn't have been a matter of time.

* * *

 

The Guardians returned back to business as usual after the near miss. Their meeting place was a bit busted up, but it would do. The Red Lanterns would be held on Mogo, with one notable exception.

Faora walked in and sat down next to Harry. She looked rather subdued. Harry wrapped an arm around his sister and Faora leaned closer towards her.

' _It's not completely black,'_ Faora thought to him. _'I just can't reach her….which means she's trapped or catatonic or…..I don't know…it's hard to tell.'_

Aya stepped in to join them. Carol and Katma followed. Ganthet rose to his feet.

"Thank you all for coming," Ganthet said. "A moment of silence for Sinestra who has fallen bravely to help preserve the Guardians and the Green Lantern corps. We may have clashed numerous times, but she's a noble warrior. We will continue to fight the noble fight, for Sinestra's noble sacrifice will not go in vain."

All of the Guardians, some of which who had gotten into shouting matches with Sinestra in the not so recent past, bowed their heads down. They all murmured underneath their breath.

"But, remember, until her body can be recovered, there is always hope she found a way to escape death," Ganthet said. "There is always hope….always."

He exchanged a smile with Saint Walker, who nodded in response.

"As much as a tragedy as Sinestra's death is, and as much jubilation as there is to be had with the fact Atrocitus and the Red Lanterns are no longer a concern, we still have the matter of the Interceptor," the Guardian said. "We've received a report this AI….calling herself Aya, has formed her identity….."

"Yes, she's formed her identity," Carol said. "And she's one of us now, whether the Guardians like it or even prove it. And I'm sure everyone will agree, we couldn't have done this without her help."

"An AI this intelligent could provide complications," one of the Guardians said. "It's my opinion that we…"

"I don't mean any harm for anyone," Aya said.

"You don't have any right to speak…"

"Yes, she does, and you're going to listen to her," Harry said. He was not in the mood to deal with their bullshit.

"Har-Zod raises a point, we should give her the opportunity to speak on her behalf," Ganthet said. "Aya, do you think you could….."

"As I said, I do not mean anyone any harm, I just wanted to help the Green Lantern Corps," Aya said. She looked over at the Guardians without blinking her eye. "Isn't that what I was designed for in the first place?"

Some of the Guardians muttered. When they commissioned the Interceptor, they didn't imagine anything like Aya being created. Nerves racked them all.

"As a member of an advanced race who knows something about Artificial Intelligence, it's my opinion that Aya is completely safe, with the proper guidance and support," Harry said. "And if the Guardians are willing to squander such a resource then perhaps they are not as wise as they perceive themselves to be."

The Guardians murmured. They respected and quite frankly feared the son of Zod, and the daughter as well. And yet, they knew for a fact they owed them and the rest of the crew their life.

"We will have further discussion on this matter later."

Alex stepped in and joined them, a bit late to the party. Carol gave her sister a smile and reassuring squeeze of her hand.

' _You were brilliant in helping navigate the Interceptor,'_ Carol said.

' _Hey, you aren't the only badass in this family,'_ Alex said. _'And besides, I guess you taught me a few tricks all….'_

' _You catching Atrocitus like that, it really rocked him I think,'_ Carol said. _'It's a shame, though…..'_

' _Yes, I'm sorry about what happened to Sinestra,'_ Alex said.

' _It's funny,'_ Carol said. _'I spent most of the mission just wanting to strangle her. And I finished the mission, and now…I miss her in a strange way. It's weird, isn't it?'_

' _Just a little bit, yes,'_ Alex thought to herself.

"Ilana, do you think you could come forward?"

The Red Lantern walked forward and the Guardians judged her even before the moment she came in. She sighed and walked towards them. The fact she was allowed to walk in on her own free will was only a small condolence. She still felt like she was about to be sent to a death squad.

"My condolences for the death of Sinestra," Ilana said. "Her ideals were not something I agreed about often, but….she was noble and fierce….and she did what she believed, and I have to respect that. So…sorry."

"There's a problem here," one of the Guardians said after they had a moment to sink in. "You're a Red Lantern…and you've willingly committed murder, several times over. You're an accessory to genocide many times over."

Ilana lowered her head.

"Yes, if you want to frame it like that, I am….."

"And yet, if it wasn't for her, none of you would be here to judge her," Harry said. "The Red Lanterns were victims, as much as some of the people they've killed. Certainly, there were some killers, but there were those who suffered lost. And they had been corrupted by the promise of vengeance."

"It's as much our mess to clean up as anyone else, therefore….we will allow Ilana to be put on probation, in the custody of Green Lantern Carol Danvers," the Guardian said.

"I'll accept the responsibility," Carol said. "You know, you might just be Green Lantern material with how strong you were against Atrocitus. Your will power is amazing."

"I'm really sick of red," Ilana said. "But, I'm not sure green is not my color…"

"Let's not get carried away," the Guardians said. "We will work with our greatest scientists in finding a way to safely remove the Red Lantern rings, and then we'll decide who was a victim and who should be held responsible for their action. All will be giving a fair try."

The Guardians left and Ilana turned towards them.

"So, I guess I'm going back to….Earth?" Ilana asked. "Is there anything I should know before we head back?"

"Yes," Carol said. "Always tip ten percent."

* * *

 

Sand blew across an endless desert within one of the Forbidden Zones. The dust tinted a glowing yellow color.

Lying on the sand, eyes shut and uniform torn to shreds was Sinistra. Several hideous whispers came in her ear and a figure rustled in the shadows.

Sinestra's now yellow eyes flashed open.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued February 8** **th** **, 2017.**

_Well, that arc in Space ends up, although something else for the future is set up._

_And we're back on Earth on Wednesday, with more adventures on the way._


	261. Coming Home

Week Five, Year Two Chapter of the Week Voting is up, linked to all of the profiles this is linked to. Go and vote for your favorite chapters of last week.

* * *

 

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-One: Coming Home.**

Gotham City became blanketed by the usual amount of snow and ice which was traditional for this time of year. Most people would enjoy the view out of a nice large obvious, with a nice large window to see the snow coming down from Gotham City.

One of the men who could not enjoy such a view, even if he had been inclined to, was Jason Woodrue. Woodrue leaned back on the chair, in the midst of a phone conversation. A phone conversation which he had been dreading having. He received a call a couple of weeks ago which made him think his benefactors were not very confident.

Notes strewn across his desk and Woodrue had a couple of empty cups of coffee on his desk. Currently, he worked on nursing on a full cup of coffee. Behind him on the wall rested numerous awards and accreditations, which did not matter to him right now. And they most certainly did not matter to his benefactors, who disrespected everything he did very easily.

Woodrue drew in a deep breath and tried, perhaps in vain, to explain to these men what were going to. "I'm telling you now, I'm working close to a breakthrough on this project. But, you have to understand, these things take time."

"Time?" the distorted voice over the phone asked. "You did assure the council this project would have been done by the end of the year."

The scientist sighed in response. Everything was not going as planned, unfortunately for him.

"Yes, I did, and you will have your results, I swear," Woodrue said.

Bargaining, pleading, whatever you wanted to call it, these factors were in the voice of Jason Woodrue. He clutched his hands together and wrung them out very nervously. He hated to be reduced to nothing other than a student, who had been begging for an extension on his work because he could not get the job done.

The sound of snow falling to the ground behind him jarred Woodrue. The long pause on the other end of the phone made him very nervous. It almost was if they strung it out for some kind of dramatic effect, making him wait and more importantly making him sweat.

"You assured us the project would be done by the end of the year, over a year ago."

"Science shouldn't be put on a timetable," Woodrue said.

"What is ideal and what is reality rarely line up, Doctor Woodrue," the distorted voice responded. "You assured the high council it would be completed by the end of the year, over a year ago. And this research must be completed for our plans to move forward. The world is being unraveled."

Woodrue heard it a million times from these people, actually, it may have been more than a million. The world had been unraveling. Woodrue took a deep breath.

"We're working on it, Ms. Isley, and I, and with Mr. Potter's research notes I acquired, I don't see where I can fail," Woodrue said.

"You better not fail, for your sake," the voice on the other end of the phone responded.

Woodrue's expression darkened several shades and he clutched the edge of the desk. "Are you threatening me?"

The scientist knew these threats were more than threats, given the people he worked with. Jason Woodrue received unprecedented funding from these people, but they demanded results. Woodrue, perhaps in a moment of arrogance, told them they would receive those results. Unfortunately, snags happened, and Woodrue found himself beating his head against the wall several times.

"Call it what you will," the distorted voice on the other end of the phone said. "We need you research. You have thirty days. Take it or leave it."

A dead phone line indicated the conversation was now over. Woodrue drew in his breath and allowed the phone to rest down on the cradle of the desk. He leaned over, looking at the notes. So close, but these people didn't understand when you changed the world.

A knock on the door brought Jason Woodrue out of his thoughts. The scientist took a moment to straighten up and act as professional as possible, in case it was a supervisor.

' _The last thing I need today is a lecture from the school board about my conduct,'_ Woodrue thought to himself, in a very dismal way.

"Please, come in, the door's unlocked," Woodrue said.

He watched when the door opened and noticed Pamela Isley step into the room. She dressed professionally as possible.

"So, your trip to New York is finally done?" Woodrue asked.

"Yes, and I feel refreshed and ready to work," Isley said. "I think the time off would do both of us good."

Woodrue couldn't really say anything against her leaving, out of fear it might get back to Harry Potter. Potter had made several donations to Gotham City University which could make his life very difficult. Woodrue knew where to trend carefully and what battles to pick. And his life depended on staying at this university.

"I'm glad to see your trip went well," Woodrue said. "And I'm glad to see you're back safely. I have a couple of ideas about our project I wish to speak to you about, and I wondered if I could receive your feedback."

"Of course," Pamela said.

Pamela sat down on the chair in front of Woodrue. She really had high hopes about the results of this project, but there might have been no high hopes, higher than one Jason Woodrue. The moment her eyes hit Woordue's, she saw a broken, and down man, who had been through the ringer, a couple of times.

"Sir, are you okay?" Pamela asked.

"I just had a distressing conversation, and my backers, they lack patience," Woodrue said. "I'm afraid, they don't understand when you change the world, you can't really put a time limit on such changes. I gave them an end date for the project which we missed."

The scientist took a second to breathe in and out. Pamela could tell something was really wrong in an instant, although she didn't and couldn't figure out what might be wrong.

"Who are these backers?" Pamela asked.

"Leave them to me," Woodrue told her. "It shouldn't be nothing you should concern yourself with, trust me. The business end of any scientific project can be nasty, and if you ever head up one on your own, you will learn that lesson the hard way. Until then, though, worry about the actual work.

Deciding to pick her battles wisely, Pamela just nodded. A slight frown crossed her face. It had not been the first time where Woodrue seemed a bit annoyed about some aspect of the project. And backers putting pressure on him for results explained the frantic call he made last week, about trying to get Pamela back to New York.

Pamela hoped for results, but Woodrue was correct because of how these things took time. And Pam supposed she could muster up the patience to wait, even though others would not.

* * *

 

Gotham City changed many times over, and Carmine Falcone wasn't too pleased with many of the changes which ruled his life. A new brand of mob rule seeped its way into Gotham, with wild cards such as the Penguin and Black Mask. The wildest card of them all had been the Joker. Carmine had no information about the Joker. At least with Black Mask and the Penguin, he knew where they came from, but with this Joker, no such luck.

Rupert Thorne consolidated many of the B and C List Mobsters into his organization. It had been a protection system, and while Thorne hadn't been overly aggressive, Carmine had been a bit nervous about what the man was doing.

Then, there was the Gotham City Police Force. Grogan was nothing to worry about, but there was the MCU who could be problems. Carmine respected the men of the GCPD for doing their jobs, and they prevented the city from plunging into total chaos. The police force needed to be competent enough to not allow the city to fall into too much chaos, but not so competent where it would loosen the Roman's rule.

Gotham's vigilantes such as Batman, Nightwing, and Black Canary also made Falcone stand over the edge. He understood they were an unfortunate result of the crime of Gotham City. Carmine had been around long enough to remember the JSA, which included another Black Canary, but those were in the days where Louie the Lilac ran the underworld in Gotham City.

Such an eccentric gentleman, but one who had an iron grip, and someone Carmine started underneath before he rose up into power.

Now, despite all of those other irons on the fire, Carmine Falcone worked towards a more personal objective, that being his son, Mario, and his recent run-in with the law. Carmine had been none too pleased when he found out Mario shoved a woman out of the window, and not just any woman, Selina Kyle.

' _My son's temper will be the death of me,'_ Carmine thought.

Not the first time, as Carmine remembered how his son, along with Maroni, kidnapped the Walrus, in retaliation for the Penguin kidnapping Alberto, and thus making a very dangerous situation worse.

"There's no chance my son isn't getting deported over this," Carmine said. "It isn't the first time he's had a run-in with O'Hara."

"Do you want him taken care of, sir?" the man on the other end of the phone asked.

"No, I respect Clancy, and I respect the years of service he's done for Gotham City," Carmine said. "He's almost out the door anyway, so let him retire in peace."

"Do you think there's anything we can do to prevent Mario from leaving the country?" the man on the other end of the phone asked.

Carmine lifted a finger to his chin thoughtfully, scratched it, and responded by shaking his head. "No, and I don't think I would if I could. I think there's a time where Mario needs to learn a lesson. His actions will have consequences. And if he can bounce back from this one, he can be a much better man."

The aged mob boss, looking much older than his years, took a deep breath.

"I want Mario's trip out of the country to be safe, and I want you to call your boys, and make sure once he's back in Italy, to keep an eye on him," Carmine said. "For his sake, more than anything else."

"Do you think someone is going to take a shot at him, boss?" the man at the other end of the phone asked.

"It's always possible," Carmine answered. "But, just get it done. And I'll be in touch later."

Carmine Falcone hung up the phone. Nothing about this situation was exactly easy, but he had bigger fish to fry. Mario had been a ticking time bomb for some time. He had the brains, but his lack of discretion made it very difficult for Carmine to trust him.

Slowly turning, Carmine took notice of his other son, Alberto, standing in the door. Alberto frowned, his arms folded when looking at him.

"You're just going to let Mario get deported, aren't you?" Alberto asked.

The tone of Alberto's voice sounded a slight bit off, and Carmine was surprised he spoke up. Normally, Alberto stuck to the shadows, simpering. He had been rather withdrawn after the Penguin debacle, understandable, given what that foul man did to him.

"There are maneuvers which need to be made, and I'm afraid there's no amount of political capital worth sacrificing to keep your brother from being deported," Carmine responded.

He would need all of the leverage he needed when the Penguin started making moves. Rumor had it that the Penguin was still very sore about what happened to the Walrus, who remained wheelchair ridden.

"I'll be retiring for the evening, Alberto," Carmine said. "Good night."

Carmine Falcone stepped past the windows, which had been outfitted with a special bulletproof glass, used by many high profile mobsters to prevent assassinations.

Alberto frowned, his arms hanging loosely by his sides. He took a deep breath and could see how cold his father was being, both to Mario and to Alberto as well. It was almost like he blamed both of them in some way, for the Penguin kidnapping Alberto.

' _Someone has to fix this,'_ Alberto thought.

Alberto moved into his room, and stopped short, taking a deep breath. He slumped his shoulders downwards with a heavy breath.

' _Someone.'_

* * *

 

"What's that smell?"

Oliver Queen didn't think it was possible he could lose his lunch. It was obvious the mercenaries who captured him only fed him the barest minimum to stay alive until they got information out of him. Oliver didn't know anything, all he remember is being shipwrecked with his father, with Sara, and then everything became a blank.

Sara, Oliver didn't really have the slightest idea where she went. Did she drown? Was she lucky enough to go to another island? Oliver didn't know, all he had was a book his father gave him and several unanswered questions.

"Yeah, you're better off at not knowing any of the smells down here," Wade responded. "Watch your step kid…ooh…"

Oliver jumped up and noticed a human skull fragment sticking up out of the ground. This particular bit of news didn't really put Oliver in the best state of mind. He found himself a bit unnerved now.

"Keep up, don't lag behind, you don't want to be left in this tunnel to die, do you?" Wade asked.

"No," Oliver said. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, you have to be somewhere," Wade said. "Alright, that was an actual question, and it's pretty fair. You can blame my parents for me being here. They couldn't afford a condom and well…"

Wade turned towards Shado who was staring him down something fierce. When women gave a man a stare like she was giving, and when the woman in question had been armed with a bow which had an arrow in it, it was time to stop cracking with the wise. So, Wade Wilson became serious as a heart attack.

"Somebody very high up in the shadow government paid me for a job," Wade responded. "I was dropped off on the island, and not allowed to come back until I complete the job. But, you see, I don't know when that's going to be. I was supposed to be after Fyers, but I never imagined dear daddy Deathstroke would be involved."

"He's your father?" Oliver asked.

"Well, I never got Maury on that sort of thing, but for all, I know he could be," Wade said. "You see, we worked together, super-secret mercenary stuff…..if I told you, I'd have to kill you type of stuff, you know, what I'm talking about don't you, of course, you do?"

Oliver was beginning to think this guy, this Wade Wilson, the cheese had slid off of the cracker a long time ago. And yet, most frustratingly, he was his best chance off of this island. As dismal as a prospect as that might have sounded like, Oliver really had no clear-cut options.

"We better move," Shado said.

Wade responded with a nod, and gripped Oliver around the arm, before dragging him down a side tunnel. The young man understood why in a blink of an eye. Several goons made their way down the tunnels and searched the area.

"He couldn't have gotten too far," one of them responded.

"Spread out," one of them said. "And mark you way back, these tunnels are death traps. If we get caught down here, we might never get back out."

Oliver drew in one of the more frustrated deep breaths imaginable. He had been sent to a place where people were destined to die. Well, he had a pretty good guess something bad might happen, given the bone fragments littered across the ground.

Shado stood in her position, ready to fire if they came close enough. Fortunately, luck had shined on them all for once, as the armed goons were looking in the exact opposite direction.

It hit Oliver suddenly Wade disappeared into the night. He wondered where the guy had gone.

"No sign of them down here, maybe they found a way out!" one of the mercenaries yelled.

"Don't give up too easily, Fyers is going to roast us on a spit if we don't find them," the leader of the group said.

"Ah, I ain't scared of Fyers…"

"Perhaps you'd be scared of his little friend then," the lead mercenary said. "Or maybe, you haven't smartened yourself up on who exactly he's answering to. There's going to be trouble if you piss that guy off."

"The Gentleman?" one of them asked.

"Hello, boys!"

The mercenaries turned around, and suddenly Deadpool came behind two of them and clunked their heads together. They both dropped down to the ground, and Deadpool turned around and plunged a Sai into the wrist of one of the goons, which caused him to drop the weapon.

"Elektra, eat your heart out!" Deadpool yelled.

Deadpool dodged the charging one of the larger mercenaries. He jabbed him in the back of the neck. The big man folded up like a cheap table, dropping down to the ground. The mercenary took in a deep breath and avoided another one of them trying to smash him.

"Yoink!" Deadpool cheered. "No fair calling your boss or anything."

Deadpool jumped up and smashed the point of his foot into the ribs of the goon. Another diving knee to the back of the head sent him down to the floor of the cave. Deadpool jumped on the back of the head of another goon and smashed him skull first into one of the skull fragments.

The dust cleared, and Deadpool stood victorious. He motioned for Shado and Oliver to join him.

"Hey, one of these helper monkeys were carrying a briefcase," Deadpool said. "Jinkies, it must be a clue!"

Deadpool picked up a briefcase and fiddled with the combination. He opened up the top of the briefcase and it flipped open. The Merc with the Mouth smiled widely.

"Standard OsCorp issue briefcase," Deadpool said. "The plot, she thickens."

"So, OsCorp is behind this?" Oliver asked. "I thought Norman Osborn died in an accident."

"Yeah, you would think that, wouldn't you?" Deadpool asked.

* * *

 

Lois smiled at the progress she and Rebecca had both made over the past several months of training. The thirteen, almost fourteen-year-old girl just had to smile with everything that had been going on.

' _Well, we're to the point where we don't really get our asses kicked by Dinah or Diana…..well not as fast every way.'_

Currently, they faced off against Lyta, two against one. They could almost handle Lyta, two against one. It was the one on one fights where they had problems with. Lois thought it was only fair, though.

' _She's been training since as long as she could walk, if not before she could wall,'_

Currently, Lois and Rebecca stepped back from the latest training session after Dinah called time for it.

"Not too bad for today, but that's more than enough," Dinah told both of them. "You two girls have progressed where you are almost ready to go on a supervised trial run."

"Really?" Rebecca asked. The former circus acrobat almost slapped her fist into her palm in excitement.

A supervised trial run would be the best they could hope for. They actually thought they would be kept on a very short leash and not allowed to stray far, after the incident in Metropolis some months back. Rebecca thought, in hindsight, it wasn't the best idea possible. Her emotions had been rather fresh from the death of her parents, and the moment she caught sight of Zucco, she pounced on the first possible opportunity to do something about it.

' _Stupid, reckless, you could have gotten yourself killed.'_

"Yes, really," Dinah said. "You can go on a trial run, but only when Harry comes back. He wants to be personally here to supervise the both of you."

Both girls exchanged smiles with each other. They figured about as much, at least they thought they did.

"So, what's keeping Harry?" Lois thought. "I thought he would be back, wasn't Fashion Week over a couple of days ago?"

"Harry had to take a bit of a side trip."

' _Yes, yes, he had to,'_ Kara thought. _'I'm just meeting with Carol Ferris now, and Harry's currently in space….he hasn't been gone for more than a day in the real world.'_

' _Time passes differently in various parts of the galaxy, doesn't it?'_ Amanda asked.

' _Yes,'_ Kara thought. _'He'll be back.'_

Dinah could sense Kara had been trying to keep it together, despite herself. Seeing Harry go inactive on the bond link always tended to be a nerve racking experience. The last time had been very extreme, as technically speaking, Harry died, even though he got better. Two of the Alphas leaving put the burden on Kara, Diana, and Jaime to keep things together.

There were a couple of other women in the bond who were hovering close enough to Alpha status, to be considered to be trusted as an assistant to the Alphas. Dinah was one, Barbara was another. They haven't achieved Alpha status, but they were still high up the hierarchy.

"Hey, Babs, do you think you can help me with something?" Rebecca asked, seeing the redhead make her way down the steps.

"Homework?" Barbara asked.

"Yeah, if you could," Rebecca said. "The teacher in my coding class didn't explain things well enough, and I was hoping if you could explain things a bit better, please."

"Sure, Becca," Barbara said. "I'll help you….what do you have so far?"

Rebecca took out her laptop, issued by the Gotham Private Academy thanks to a grant they received from the Shining Light Foundation, and parked herself in front of Barbara on the chair.

' _She's not the only one who has homework to do,'_ Dinah thought. _'I've got to put the finishing touches on a report which is due tomorrow, and then I have to sit a test next week.'_

' _Not too hard is it?'_ Barbara thought.

' _No, just a lot of exceptions to remember,'_ Dinah thought. _'The law isn't really simple at all. There are always loopholes, and if I want to become an attorney, I'm going to have to know them all. Both for the Prosecution and the Defense.'_

Barbara leaned back.

' _Is it just me, or have things cooled down a fair bit in Gotham City?'_ Barbara thought.

' _Oh, you've noticed that as well, have you?'_ Dinah thought. _'Yeah, ever since Christmas, things have been quiet. The Joker's put away, and all of the major parties are in a cold war now.'_

' _Makes you almost afraid of what this Spring is going to bring, doesn't it?'_ Barbara thought.

' _Well, whatever it brings, we'll be ready for it,'_ Dinah thought.

And speaking of being ready for things, Dinah Lance prepared to finish her report. Maintaining a balance between her civilian life and her night job could be tricky, and some, like Harry, Barbara, and Bruce mastered it, and she thought she managed it pretty well.

' _Yeah, we're going to have to be,'_ Barbara thought.

* * *

 

Carol Ferris returned to her office after being abducted from it, what seemed like weeks ago. A quick check at her office clock and the calendar in her office indicated that less than six hours had passed, between the time she had gotten abducted by the Star Sapphires and the time where she returned.

' _Well, at least your trip ended with a bang,'_ Carol thought. _'And I'm not going to lie, I liked the boots.'_

She moved her way to the conference room to meet two very important people. Vicki Vale sat there, the reporter always ready to get the story. Then, Kara Kent-Potter, her assistant, tagged along.

' _So, how are you feeling?'_ Kara asked.

' _It's weird,'_ Carol thought. _'I'm hearing voices in my head…..even after getting the talk, it's going to take some real getting used to.'_

' _It always does,'_ Kara thought. _'But, don't worry, we're all here to help you…and thank you for filling us in. It's just, after what happened on Halloween, we get really on edge when Harry vanishes like that.'_

' _What happened on Halloween?'_ Carol thought.

' _Long story,'_ Kara thought with a sigh.

"So, hello, Ms. Ferris," Vicki said. "I'm glad to see you can meet me today, and we can have this conversation."

"Believe me, Ms. Vale, the pleasure is all mine," Carol said. Both women shook hands. "I apologize that Harry isn't there to meet with us…..but….."

"She's in on the loop as well," Kara said.

Carol wasn't really surprised about Vicki being in on the loop. The shrewd businesswoman approved of Harry being in bed with a member of the press. Good press allowed good business, and it was good to form relationships with the press. If you didn't, they started to wonder what you had to hide, and while Carol had nothing to hide, it still didn't make her comfortable.

"Yes, I'm firm but fair," Vicki said.

"Hey, all I ask for is a fair shake," Carol said. "And I'm sure you're going to find that…"

A blast of energy opened up a gateway in the wall. Harry stepped out of the portal and greeted all three women with a smile. And he wasn't alone, as Carol Danvers followed out of the portal, followed by her sister Alex. Karen and Faora stepped out of the portal next, and Ilana stepped out. The last party exiting the portal moved out.

"We'll make sure everyone is settled back in," Faora said. "See you later."

The group left the conference room and left Harry alone with the trio of Vicki, Kara, and Carol. Kara pulled out a chair so Harry could sit down next to her. She stole a quick kiss and pulled away from Harry to allow him to face Vicki.

"So, I'm not late?" Harry asked.

"No," Vicki responded. "You're right on time."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on February 11** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Lots going on in Gotham City. Woodrue is getting the pressure put on him. But, I'm sure this won't drastically affect anyone, including Pamela Isley, in any way whatsoever. No, sir, not at all._

_And Harry and company are back from their trip as well, and things are going to pick up._

_Until Saturday._


	262. Long Overdue Reunion

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Two: A Long Overdue Reunion.**

* * *

 

Ilana had been more than thrown off by the arrival on a brand new world. Earth most certainly had been a different planet than any other planet Ilana had visited during her days. It was a fair bit more primitive than most of these other planets, but it most certainly was not a bad thing. Earth being primitive showed just how much room it had to grow and prosper in the not so distant future.

One burden, one reminder, of her time away, pointed out to Ilana no matter what, she would not get to enjoy the time on Earth. A red Lantern ring lingered as part of her and caused a heavy burden on the woman. She learned from the battle with Atrocitus about the consequences of removing the Red Lantern ring.

Ilana hoped, perhaps prayed a little bit, her heart did not have the heavy burdens like an Atrocitus, but it looked fairly dim, dismal in fact. She hoped for something, anything which could bring her back to life, even though the hope would be very dismal.

Harry returned her back to one of his many labs to see if Ilana could get any relief. The Red Lantern thought about Harry and realized while there would be something normally appealing about his power, with the Red Lantern powers, his Aura happened to be the furthest thing from appealing at all. Ilana had been behind a shield when Harry worked at the lab.

"This isn't going to take long, is it?" Ilana asked.

"Only as long as it needs to be," Harry responded.

Harry looked at the woman, and she had a rough life. Hell, many of the Red Lanterns had rough lives, and the sheer rage they felt had been twisted and turned for the benefit of Atrocitus. Harry's fingers brushed together and he took one of the longer breaths possible.

He stood next to Faora and Karen in the RAO Lab in Metropolis. Gotham was a very bad idea considering the nature of the Red Lantern ring. It would cause way too much hate to be fed off of, and Ilana would backslide a little bit from her current state. Harry hoped to avoid any backsliding, at least if he could help it.

Faora remained a little bit withdrawn, and Harry could see why. He reached over and placed a hand gently on that of his sister's.

' _I know it seems insane, but it feels like she's still out there,'_ Faora thought. _'It's very hard to reach her, though.'_

' _If you believe she's still out there, then she's still out there,'_ Harry thought. _'If you can't reach her, though, there's a good chance that it's because she doesn't want to be reached.'_

Faora drew in her breath and responded with a nod. That was the most infuriating part of this entire mess, Sinestra was still out there, lost, trapped, and unable to be reached. She sacrificed herself, despite willingly knowing the consequences. Faora didn't even want to fathom what happened, but something really bad happened to her.

Then there was the exposure to the energy, the same energy which ended up killing a Green Lantern, the same one which Carol received the ring which kicked off this series of adventures in space in the first place. Faora dreaded Sinestra's state after what happened to her. She closed her eyes a few seconds later.

' _She's resistant,'_ Karen thought.

Faora thought Karen could be referring to either Ilana or Sinestra, and to be honest, both of those declarations could point to being true. The Daughter of Zod turned her attention back to the scans. Energy washed over the body of Ilana when several flashing lights.

Impatience went through the body of Ilana, and obviously, Faora could not blame her. Medical procedures could be one of the toughest to go through, but the scans needed to assess the full damage, those were the dullest and boring. Faora would have preferred she had been put under. Not possible a lot of the time, unfortunately, so there could be a full assessment point of the damage.

"Atrocitus is a genius…..as well as being completely and utterly insane," Lara said.

"All of that scanning to come to this particular conclusion?" Ilana asked.

Ilana honestly didn't mean to sound so ungrateful, it just came out in this particular manner.

"It's not as simple as just letting go of the ring, unfortunately," Lara said. "The ring is infused in your being."

"I checked in with the other Red Lanterns in lock up before we left," Faora said. "They are suffering a lot, the rings have been drained of their power."

"As long as hatred is in someone's heart, this ring will be never completely drained," Ilana stated in the calmest way possible. "It's what happens when you're on the red end of the spectrum. There will always be the rage, because your life has…"

Ilana took a second to realize how much her life had turned for the very worse. She allowed Atrocitus to draft her into service as a Red Lantern, in a moment of obvious weakness.

"It's just hopeless?" Ilana asked. "If it is, then I have to say, send me to join my fellow Red Lanterns. Especially if there's a chance I can become as twisted and demented as Atrocitus himself."

"I doubt there's anything that bad," Harry responded to her.

"No, there isn't," Lara confirmed. "Alura, Peve, and I, we're going to look at the deep scans. There must be a way to break the connection, other than the only logical way."

"Death," Ilana said. "Atrocitus made it so death could be the only escape."

"Yes, unfortunately," Karen said. "But, there has to be a way to remove the ring without killing you. That's something we would like to avoid."

Ilana wasn't entirely sure death would be an option she minded. Death didn't scare her, rather living in this state, with the horrors performed as a Red Lantern was something which brought an insane amount of terror in her mind. Ilana breathed in and breathed out.

"Nothing is hopeless," Harry informed her. "There must be a way to find a way where you can channel your rage, and not be a slave to it."

Ilana's lips curled into a frown. She would have liked to think there was a way. It seemed all Atrocitus wanted was an army of attack dogs, who would rip into enemies, and bathe the universe in blood. The twisted man was away from Ilana, but she could still feel his imprint on her.

* * *

 

The Danvers household was a bit silent these days. Two of the sisters were off. Alex currently was away on business with her work, and Carol, well, no one quite knew when Carol would be back. It left the youngest daughter, Kara, along with her adoptive mother, Eliza.

Kara sprawled out on the couch, with a Red Sun, while Eliza moved about in the kitchen fixing dinner.

"So, how's school?" Kara asked. "Great, I'm glad to hear you're doing fine, Claire. It won't be too long before you're ready for high school….yeah, well, you should consider yourself very lucky."

The blonde sprawled out on the couch with a smile on her face and just basked in the sunlight coming in through the window.

"Oh, I mean, you're lucky because of the fact you were raised on Earth, so you didn't have to relearn anything you learned on Krypton from scratch," Kara said. "Oh, I'd say about five hundred or six hundred years behind, maybe. It isn't as bad as it could be. I think Harry's going to help bring Earth along. Its just….it seems like people in general struggle with change. No matter what the world."

It was one of the reasons why Kara had to keep a low profile here on Earth. Jeremiah Danvers told her that while Kara had special abilities, the world wasn't quite ready for her to share them. It was unfortunate, but the more Kara thought about it, and the older she got, Kara understood what her adoptive father was going for.

The smell of the food distracted the fifteen-year-old girl.

"Oh, maybe you should come here for Spring Break or something," Kara said. "Or, maybe if Eliza will let me, I can go to Smallville. I'm sure that might be fun….well, I think we'll just let Martha and Eliza hash that one out. If one of us runs halfway across the country, we're going to be in so much trouble."

Kara smiled when she remembered the story about Claire ending up three counties over when she got overexcited in a game of tag. She didn't know how the Kents smoothed that one over, but they did.

"Well, I'm fine," Kara said. "Journalism class is going pretty good actually. The teacher is a bit of a stick, but what are you going to do? Yeah, I'm getting top grades….good, you too. Well, brains ran in our family I think, and you got it from both ends, from Jor-El and Lara. Well, a little competition never hurt anyone."

Kara half paid attention to the door opening up, not really paying it much mind, at least not straight away. Her attention snapped around when she saw Alex stepping in. Kara exchanged a smile with one of her older sisters, but the second arrival made Kara very nearly drop the phone down on the ground. It took pretty much every ounce of self-control not to drop the phone.

Carol stepped into the room, and Kara had seen her for the first time it, what seemed like about nine or ten months.

"Yeah, I'm still here," Kara said almost trailing off. "I'll call you back later, I….well Carol came through the front door. Yeah, I know…..take care, see you soon, hopefully."

Kara placed the Red Sun back on the table and rushed over towards Carol when she was standing in the door. The next thing Carol knew, Kara latched her arms around Carol with a strong hug. Carol looked down at Kara with a soft smile on her face, shaking her head in amusement at the situation before her.

"It's nice to see you as well, Kara," Carol responded, detaching herself from the hug.

"Carol, you're finally home," Eliza said. She took her youngest daughter's place in hugging Carol, which Carol returned.

"Mom, I'm sorry, my mission….well it took far longer than I thought it would," Carol said, in a slightly apologetic tone of voice.

"It's fine, Carol, it is," Eliza responded. "Still, it's been about nine months since you've been gone."

Carol just nodded, nine months on Earth, it seemed a lot longer on her end, to be honest. Mostly because it was a lot longer on your end.

"I knew you would find your way home, sooner or later, especially when Alex told me what you were up to," Eliza responded.

"Oh, she told you," Carol said.

"Hey, you know how our mother is," Alex said. "We're not going to hide the truth from her, for too long."

Carol smiled, it's very true. She moved over to join Kara, Alex, and Eliza for dinner.

"Harry will be coming by tomorrow," Alex said.

"Oh, that's great," Eliza said with a smile. "I've been hoping to see him again."

"Yeah, we have," Kara said.

"Sorry, sorry about getting sidetracked, you know how work goes," Carol responded to her mother. "I better check in with Jess when I have a chance, I'm sure she was conducting a search party."

Eliza turned to her daughter and smiled. "Well, that's an understatement, given she came by at least once a week to see if you were here."

"And, she met Harry Potter, and didn't realize it until several hours after the fact," Alex chimed in.

Carol shook her head; she would have to tease Jessica about that one, well, a little bit at least. She hoped to settle in back home, at least for a few days. As the Green Lantern of this sector, Carol was always on call.

* * *

 

Edward Fyers would not under any circumstances lose his cool no matter the unfortunate number of setbacks. He turned his attention towards Deathstroke, who didn't back off in the slightest. His steely gaze locked onto the ice cold eyes of Fyers.

"I thought your services came at a premium for a reason," Fyers said. "Yet, you allowed them to escape."

"Your mercenaries merely complicated my methods," Deathstroke said. "You better settle down, before you find yourself at the top of my list."

Fyers knew Deathstroke had been sent here by a very interested party, who was interested in something on this island. Exactly what they were interested in, Fyers couldn't be one hundred percent for sure. He offered Deathstroke money for extra protection.

Extra protection coming out a premium was something Fyers expected to come with a great deal of competence as well. So far, Deathstroke didn't offer Fyers any level of competence, and he was slowly becoming agitated by the man.

"I was assured you were the best in the world at what you did," Fyers said. "Even what you did, wasn't exactly entirely nice."

"Actually, you might be confusing him with someone else."

Fyers and Deathstroke turned their attention to above, along with several of the mercenaries. Deadpool popped his head out of the tree.

"Hi, how are you doing?"

Deadpool dropped down to the ground in front of them. One of the mercenaries rushed Deadpool. Deadpool grabbed the man's arm and twisted it behind his back. He turned the man's arm and used it to fire off a shot with the man's own gun.

"That's right, it's time for a fight scene, son!" Deadpool yelled.

"Get him!" Fyers yelled.

"Oh, get him, you're really clever!" Deadpool yelled. "Why don't you tell me how I won't be leaving here alive next?"

Deadpool jumped behind one of the goons and pulled out a pair of swords. He sliced and diced the swords. The weapons busted apart from Deadpool's efforts. One of the goons stood off to the side, with a dopey look on his face. Deadpool jacked him across the jaw with a huge uppercut and dropped him down onto the ground.

The second goon grabbed Deadpool around the shoulder, but Deadpool fought out from his position and nailed him with a series of punches. Each punch clipped the goon on the jaw. Deadpool switched up his fighting style and ran up the tree. He flipped down behind one of the goons and dropped down. Deadpool slammed him down onto the ground.

"Okay, we've got you…."

Suddenly, two of the goons grabbed onto Oliver Queen.

"Come on, man, don't be a damsel in distress," Deadpool said.

Two arrows fired down from the tree and caught the goons in the back of the leg. This particular attack allowed Oliver to slip away, and Shado to drop down. She caught the third mercenary with an arrow, which connected to a very sensitive spot.

Deadpool winced on behalf of all men and turned around just in time to watch Deathstroke's blade being pulled from his sheath. The mercenary's eyes locked onto Deadpool's.

"It's time we finish this one off," Deathstroke said.

"Once and for all?" Deadpool asked. "Gladly, because you stole a seven figure job from me. It was bad enough you never came to my baseball games or my ballet recitals, you just had to Merc Swipe from me. That was really the icing on the crap cake, Dad!"

"Don't call me that, you wretched waste of…"

"Fall back!"

Deathstroke paused for a second, and Fyers gave the order.

"I've found something."

Deathstroke threw a grenade down onto the ground which forced Deadpool to go back as well. A choking cloud of dust made Deadpool reassess his options, although there were not too many good options at this particular point in time.

"Yeah, we're not going to take…"

Deadpool stopped mid-sentence when he saw Oliver Queen had just stepped on a land mine.

"I can't really take you anywhere, can I?" Deadpool asked. "Well, I can disarm this thing….but if you like your leg, especially intact, I suggest you don't move at all."

Deadpool hunched down to disarm the object, slowly, carefully.

* * *

 

The next night, Harry Potter arrived at the Danvers Residence as a guest of honor. All three of the sisters were finally in the same place at the same time and dressed up very nicely. It also doubled as a way to welcome Carol back onto Earth. Dinner the other night had been rather impromptu, but now Eliza had gone all out.

"It looks and smells great, Eliza," Harry said.

"Hey, I helped out, a little bit," Kara said.

"And you did a good job as well, Kara," Harry said.

' _So, she can cook better than I can when I was at that age,'_ Kara Kent-Potter said through the bond link. _'I guess there are some things in the multiverse which aren't really constantly a constant, or something along those lines.'_

' _I think you've improved, some,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Well, you're better than Mandy at any rate,'_ Emily thought.

' _Hey, I earned my C Minus in home economics thank you very much,'_ Amanda thought.

' _That teacher is notoriously easy,'_ Donna responded, shaking her head.

' _But, you're pretty good,'_ Amanda chimed in.

' _Of course, for some reason, cooking is a skill all Amazons learn at a young age,'_ Donna thought. _'Not sure how it works from a combat perspective. Maybe you just fatten up your enemy with so much good food that you can wind him easily.'_

"I'm just glad all of us can be together to have such a good meal," Alex said. "And I mean all of us."

She took a smile towards Harry and reached underneath the table to squeeze his thought. Alex's hand drifted across the table a little bit more.

"I feel almost bad you went to all of this trouble on my account," Harry said.

"Well, it wasn't completely on your account," Carol chimed in. "I'm sure, Mom wanted to make everything perfect for my long awaited homecoming."

Eliza waved her hand with a smile and looked across the table at both of them. "It wasn't really any trouble at all."

"I'm going to have to return the favor the next time you're in Gotham City," Harry said. "Didn't you say you had a trip into Gotham coming up soon?"

"Next week," Eliza responded. "Hopefully, you can show me around the city, it's been a long time since I've had the pleasure of taking a trip to Gotham City. RAO has opened up some new opportunities, though, and I don't know why, but Gotham is looking the most appealing that it has since the death of the Waynes all of those years ago."

Harry smiled and was glad he played no small part in making Gotham more appealing to people to visit. He turned his attention back to Eliza who shifted on the chair towards him.

"It will be a true honor to show you around Gotham City," Harry said.

"I'm having a bit of trouble finding a hotel," Eliza responded. "I don't know if it's the time of the year, but all of the open rooms are not in the best parts of Gotham City. I was wondering if…."

"Oh, there's no problem at all," Harry said. "I'm sure Alex can be the first to tell you I have more rooms than I know what to do with at the Penthouse."

Alex answered with a little shrug and a smile, and it pretty much told her it was very true, to be honest. Eliza smiled when she looked at Harry, and two of her daughters. She had been interested to ask Harry more questions about how the entire Collective hierarchy worked, especially now that two of her daughters.

"So, you can show me what's in the here and now in Gotham City," Eliza said. "And I'm sure you have a pretty good idea what the nicest places to get something to eat are in Gotham City."

"Oh, I see," Harry said, with a slight smile shifting over his face. "I believe you're asking me out on a date, aren't you?"

Eliza just flashed him one of those obvious smiles, which showed Harry that's exactly what she was doing. She leaned closer towards Harry.

"If you're willing to have me," Eliza said.

It had been a long time for her, but now, Eliza hoped to move on and go to the next phase of her life. She didn't want to let tragedy define her life forever.

Dinner concluded with some light conversation. Alex and Carol were settling back very nicely, after both being in space. Carol had been in space for a lot longer, so it was an adjustment to return.

"So, did you talk to Jess?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, she's…..well the look on her face when I teased her about Harry," Carol said. "Not many people just brush off meeting Harry Potter like she did. I'm sure under normal circumstances she would have been excited to meet you….really, I'm sure she would have."

"Well, I hoped she would be, otherwise, I would have to question whether or not there's something wrong with her," Kara piped in.

Eliza leaned across the table and gave her the look all mothers practiced well. Kara just shrugged it off and turned her attention had been on dessert.

Harry could tell Alex and Carol had a different dessert in mind give the looks they were casting him across the table.

"Alex, didn't you want to show me something?" Harry asked.

"Oh, yeah, I did," Alex said. "Carol, it's upstairs in my bag, do you really think you could help me with it?"

Carol nodded, in response, understanding the look on Alex's face. The two Danvers sisters and Harry excused themselves from the table. Kara turned to Eliza and shook her head.

"Yeah, I don't know who they think they're fooling," Kara said. "So, you finally asked him out on a date? It took you long enough."

"Finish your dessert, Kara," Eliza told her daughter.

Carol's old room was mostly the way she left it, although obviously, Eliza came in here to clean it and dust it during her usual house cleaning activities. How Eliza managed to raise three daughters, especially after her husband died, hold a steady job, and keep order in the household, it was amazing.

"Well, I think we all know why we're really up here," Alex said.

Alex and Carol slid out of their dresses, and Harry smiled when looking at both of the beautiful women before him. Alex wore a nice set of green lingerie which matched Harry's eyes, and Carol dressed in some slinky black lingerie. Both women stepped closer towards Harry and pulled him in, with smiles on their faces.

"Why don't we get you out of these clothes, Mr. Potter?"

* * *

 

Alex took control of the top half of Harry. The beautiful brunette woman lightly planted a series of hot kisses on the side of Harry's neck. Her fingers stroked the back of his head when going down to kiss further down him.

Carol took advantage by kissing down to his abs and kneeling down before her new god. Those pants were an unfortunate barrier to what Carol truly wanted, but good things came to those who waited. Carol kissed around the waistband and slowly edged him down.

Two hot mouths toured around Harry's body. He closed his eyes the second Carol had his pants off and his boxers off. Harry's rock hard cock stood up straight in the air. Carol lightly brushed her fingers down his hard cock and smiled when it sprung into the air, to meet Carol's lips.

"Don't worry, honey, we'll take good care of you," Carol said. "We know how to share, and how to work together, don't we, Alex?"

Alex smiled and kissed all the way down Harry's body on route to meeting Carol at Harry's throbbing hard cock. The prick stuck up in the air. Both sisters positioned themselves on either side. Alex licked down the right side of the cock and Carol licked down the left side.

"Good, very good!" Harry groaned.

Alex smiled; she had won at something over Carol. Still, she didn't want Carol to show her up when they were both here. Carol's warm mouth briefly wrapped around Harry's cock head and she gave him a deep suck. Harry clutched the back of Carol's head and guided the warm facial hole around his throbbing hard prick. Harry lifted his hips off of the bed.

"Carol, you're amazing," Harry said.

"Yes, she has a pretty good mouth," Alex agreed. "But, I think you agree, it runs in the family."

Carol detached from the big cock she sucked, and Alex took her place at the head. She slipped her warm lips down around Harry's head and drew him further into her mouth. Harry reached behind her head and slowly guided it to a certain position. Harry closed his eyes the second Alex wrapped her lips around him and gave him a good, hard suck. Harry groaned the very second Alex encased him.

Not to be outdone, Carol moved behind Harry's big heavy balls and squeezed them to feel how much cum was in it. She kissed Harry's balls and slowly used her tongue to pleasure them. Harry groaned when lifting up off of the bed. Carol then moved in to suck his balls.

The thrill of both sisters pleasuring his lower bits made Harry thrash on the bed. Alex sucked his cock while Carol slurped his big fat balls. Both of the sisters exchanged positions in a blink of an eye, never once letting up on what they had with Harry.

"Mmm, yes!" Harry groaned.

Carol smiled, those words were music to her ears. The two girls switched off and continued their relentless tag teaming of Harry's throbbing hard cock.

Harry enjoyed the feeling of the beautiful warm mouths of the sexy sisters. He switched from Alex's mouth to Carol's, and then back to Alex's. Both of the sisters brought pleasurable sensations to his cock. The competition of who could suck Harry the hardest made him the true winner in this competition of sisterly, sibling rivalries.

"You're both so good."

There could only be one, and Carol gave Harry a very incredible deep-throat blowjob. Her throat muscles contracted around Harry's rock hard prick. He closed his fingers around the back of Carol's head and shoved his immense length down her waiting through. Harry pushed all of his length inside of her.

Alex cradled Harry's balls and could feel them contract. Unfortunately, Carol was going to get the load in her mouth, but Alex accepted this fact.

Harry shot his load deep into Carol's waiting throat and filled her up with so much cum. Harry gripped the back of Carol's head and shoved more of his length inside of her waiting mouth.

After Harry finished draining his balls inside of Carol's warm mouth, Carol pulled away from him. Her mouth had been full of cum, and she turned to Alex.

"Sisters share after all."

Alex took the hint and grabbed Carol by the back of her head. Both sisters started to suck face with each other. Alex worked her tongue into Carol's warm mouth to scoop Harry's gooey delight out of her sister's mouth. Both sisters made sure their eyes were on Harry.

The sound of Carol's bra unclipping allowed her massive breasts to be exposed to the world. Alex slowly moved down and shoved her face between Carol's ample cleavage, motor boarding her older sister. Carol closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of her sister's warm mouth working its way between her cleavage.

"Alex, you're so good!" Carol yelled. "We should have done this a long time ago."

Alex would have agreed had her mouth not been full of so much juicy Carol tit. She kissed and sucked the orbs, making them feel good with her face buried between Carol's warm mounds. Slowly, but surely, Alex extracted herself from her breasts.

Harry grabbed both of the girls around the waist and pulled them onto the bed. His magical hands make quick work of their undergarments, exposing their breasts, pussies, and juicy legs and ass to the rest of the world. Harry smiled and could see how wet their pussies were.

"Please, Harry, fuck me first," Alex said.

"I'm older, you should fuck me first," Carol said.

Harry smiled and closed his eyes before swooping down and ramming his cock into one of the girls at random. He looked down and could see Alex lifting up on the bed underneath his cock. Her warm legs tightened around Harry when he lifted up.

Carol was a bit disappointed, at least at first. The beautiful sight of Harry slamming his cock inside of Alex's wet pussy made Carol forget all about her disappointed. The curvy blonde's fingers brushed off of every inch of her flesh. Carol reached down and pulled on her nipples, taking a deep breath. Her eyes glazed over in pleasure the second when she started to play with and caressed her nipples.

Alex's orgasm started to rise all the way to the top. It built, like a slow escalating roller coaster. Harry helped it along by making sure his hands never strayed from certain points of her body. He escalated the pleasurable actions.

"Feel it building, feel your sister getting off on you being fucked," Harry said. "Both of those things, it makes you feel so good, doesn't it?"

"YES!" Alex screamed.

Her voice became higher when Harry pushed his raging rod inside of her tight sheath. Alex clamped down onto Harry's massive rod when he slid into her body. He rose almost all the way up off of the bed, and then drilled down into Alex. The sensation of their thighs slapping together was a beautiful feeling to have. Harry held onto Alex and worked his way inside of her as far and fast as he could.

"Mmm, yes, right there, right there!" Alex begged him.

Harry worked his way into her and caused her to have an amazing orgasm. He pumped his cock into Alex and rode her wet, pussy all the way to the edge. Bliss, pleasure and all of those other wonderful sensations flowed through the body of Alex. She shifted her hips out from underneath Harry.

He pulled away from Alex for a second and could see Carol primed and ready on the bed. Harry climbed on top of Carol and could feel her warm breasts pressing against his chest. It was quite a feeling to enjoy these massive chest orbs against his chest.

"You want to be fucked as hard as your sister did, didn't you?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Carol said. "Harder, please."

Carol's thighs parted in anticipation for a very hard fucking. Alex was currently about a couple of feet away on the bed in la-la land after the very hard fucking Harry gave her. Harry shifted Carol's thighs as far apart as possible and aimed his huge cock for Carol's entrance.

One slide into her wet entrance made Carol's thighs expand and contract, to take Harry's cock inside of her. It was the perfect natural fit. Every nerve ending in Carol's body exploded with Harry rising up and dropping down into her. His balls slapped against her.

Harry gained a fair amount of momentum and drilled his hard cock inside of Carol's tight body. Her wet pussy clamped on his hard cock and released it at the same time. The game of squeezing and releasing his huge cock continued. Harry rested his hands on Carol's thighs and rammed deeper inside of her body. Harry pushed his hard cock into her tightening vice.

"Oooh, yes!" Carol moaned at the top of her lungs.

Carol gripped his huge cock even harder. Harry worked into her and filled her body with so much pleasure. Her orgasm escalated up to an entirely new level. Harry squeezed her breasts and made her moan in pleasure. Carol's warm walls contracted around him.

"You're getting so close to losing it."

A smile crossed Carol's face the second she raked her nails down his back and felt his hard cock pump inside of her. Harry pushed his hard cock into her body and stretched her out completely.

"Already losing it."

Alex woke up from the amazing orgasm Harry put her through and reached up to play with herself. Her fingers jammed deep into her pussy, trying to keep up with the rate Harry rammed his huge cock into Carol from the other side. At the rate they were going, Harry was going to bring Carol to a very pleasurable end sooner rather than later.

"OOOH!" Alex moaned.

"Don't worry, I'll get back to you in a minute."

Harry's promise caused Alex to drip in delight. She spent some time working her pussy and imagined what Harry would do it about it.

The force of a thick, throbbing cock pushed deep inside of Carol's willing body. Her warm walls expanded and contracted around his hard cock and buried deep inside of her body. Harry rose almost all the way out of her and slammed deep inside of her body. He stretched her completely out with his hard cock impacting her body.

"Oooh, yes!" Carol moaned.

She gushed from Harry's cock slamming into her body. Those balls throbbed, and Carol knew they were full of a nice huge load just ready to spill inside of her womanhood.

Harry merged with Carol's sexy, sultry body. Each time he rammed down into her, her loins released Harry. They stretched around his huge cock and made things rather amazing for Harry. Harry picked up a steadier pace and worked his cock inside of Carol's gorgeous loins.

"Getting closer."

Harry pushed his hard cock into Carol. She took as much of Harry, if not even more inside of her. Those big balls just kept bouncing on Carol's warm, inviting thighs. She pushed up to meet all twelve of Harry's generous inches when it pushed into her body.

"Fuck!" Carol yelled. "Fuck me raw!"

"As the lady requests."

Harry sped up the thrusts and hammered Carol's body. The gorgeous Green Lantern squirmed underneath Harry, with his massive manhood spiking Carol's body. Her warm loins tightened around Harry and released him with a couple more fluid pumps. Her thighs clenched around Harry's cock and squeezed it.

"Fuck!"

"Here it comes," Harry said.

She opened up her thighs and was ready to receive Harry's milky gift between her legs. Carol rocked up from her position and experienced the pure pleasure of so much cum being discharged from his balls into her body. Harry pumped into her body. The very instant, his balls slapped against Carol's body, he filled up her womb with so much cum.

Harry pulled away from Carol, the feeling of a good release. He moved over to see Alex crawl between Carol's legs to suck Harry's gift out of her older sister's pussy.

Alex's pussy was wet and willing, and Harry could not wait to slam into there, and take control of her.

* * *

Frustration bubbled in the mind of Jason Woodrue. One long weekend of tireless work, even more, tireless effort, and still, nothing, nothing at all. Woodrue could not believe all of his efforts had amounted to essentially what was nothing. His eyes glazed over and his mind was this close to being lost.

Woodrue slid the notes across the desk and looked over. One of the plants, which had been exposed to a prototype mutagen, withered. All he created was glorified weed killer, which was the exact opposite of what they intended to create.

"USELESS!"

The vial hurled across the lab and smashed against the wall before sliding into the trash can. The drippings of blue chemicals splashed into the bin. One very agitated, and extremely frustrated Jason Woodrue took in several deep breaths, breathing in, breathing out, as hard and fast as he could manage. His fingers twitched around the edge of the vial.

"You would think, someone who had been alive for centuries would have a little more patience," Woodrue grumbled.

Suddenly, the plant in the trash can started to sprout back to full bloom, and two more dead plants on the shelf also sprouted to full bloom after exposure to the chemical currently dripping off of the wall.

"Finally!" Woodrue yelled. "Years of trial and error have finally paid off!"

Woodrue could see the plant vine shift, almost as if it had been sentient or something. He smiled and snapped his fingers.

"Bring me the vial from the trash."

The vine wrapped around the vial and stretched out to hand it to Woodrue. He would have done a dance had it not been so undignified for a many of his stature to do so. Regardless, Woodrue had been beyond very pleased, as finally, something happened.

"Miss Isley, too bad you're not here to see the fruits of our labor."

Finally, he would have something intangible, and just in time. Woodrue needed to run an experiment on a far grander scale to achieve the fruits of his victory.

* * *

**To Be Continued on February 15** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Dinner at the Danvers, and Harry is looking to get three-fourths of the way through that family._

_Poor Jess, she'll never live that one down._

_Well, Woodrue is finally making some headway. Seems like it took him almost two hundred and sixty-two chapters to get to this point or something, but now, something very big is happening. Wonder what might happen if that serum gets used on a living breathing human being? Well, I'm sure nothing significant._

_Deadpool shows up because we appreciate his contributions to the fun and games._

_Until Wednesday._


	263. The New Evolution Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Three: The New Evolution Part One.**

* * *

 

Night started to slowly fell onto Gotham City. The people in the city had most certainly been on pins and needles over the past couple of months, not really knowing where to turn. Urban legends such as Batman became very real, and this was one of the most unsettling things for the people of Gotham City. It remained to be seen what other things which went bump in the night could have turned out to be real.

Three gentlemen stepped into an alleyway, seemingly out of nowhere. One of them moved towards the front entrance to a bank and put his hand on the thumbprint. The thumbprint started to malfunction because of this simple touch and the doors to the bank burst open.

A trio of nods had been exchanged and the three gentlemen slipped their way further into the bank. It had been closed for the evening, only one-night guard. The night guard turned his attention on the three gentlemen and pointed his gun towards them. One of them stepped forward, and grabbed the guard by the arm, before ripping the gun out of his hand with ease.

"What the….."

One backhand punch sent the guard flying up into the air and crashing down onto the ground with a thunderous smack. No question about it, these goons meant business, and they meant business in one of the worst possible ways. They circled around the bank vault.

None of them spoke, rather they all moved with the most ruthless efficiency possible. They made their way to the back of the vault and one of them put their hands on the edge of the bank vault. He ripped it open and revealed bars of gold inside of the vault, along with a fair amount of loose cash.

The leader of the crew turned to the other and offered a very crisp nod. He motioned for them to follow him further into the vault. His hands turned around, almost twisted in the process. He ran his hands over the crisp stacks of cold hard cash, no delight in his eyes.

One of the goons turned around and saw a figure dressed in black dropped down from an entrance in the ceiling. A second figure dressed in black dropped down one more time. Batman and Katana stood in front of the trio of goons. They didn't react to the fact they were there. Rather, they stared at the two with ruthless indifference.

"Okay, normally we get some kind of reaction," Katana said. "Is it just me or the fact they're standing there, not moving….isn't that the least bit unsettling for you?"

One of the men rushed Batman before any kind of response can be made to this question. Batman dodged the attack and came back around. He punched the man's chest and his skin bounced off of something hard and thick. It didn't feel like any kind of human skin he ever attacked. Batman reared back his hand and punched the attacker one more time. The second time passed and Batman bounced off of the thick chest of the man in question.

There was no dice, no way around it. Batman felt like he had just punched bark and punched it hard. Batman stepped back and fired another rapid fire punch towards the "chest of the goon."

One of the goons moved in and swung towards Batman. Katana blocked his attack and came back up into the air. She dropped down behind the goon who extended his arm outward. Katana withdrew her blade and had been surprised to see the robbers had no knives, no guns, no weapons at all which to attack their adversaries. It seemed very odd any criminal would enter the bank unarmed.

Katana caught him with a glancing blow with the sword. Blood didn't spurt out of the man's arm, rather some kind of green fluid. The goon turned around and his arm decayed before revealing a large green vine with spiky thorns on it.

A second one of the robbers shed it's human flesh as well, to reveal a grotesque looking plant monster, with multiple vines for arms, and thick thorns all over his body. The plant monster whipped the vine towards Batman. Batman found the vines wrapped around his wrist. He tried to break out.

Katana jumped into the air and caught the plant monster with a well-placed katana swing which broke the vine away from his body. The dark-haired samurai dropped to the ground.

"Not human," Katana said. "What are they?"

Katana found herself ensnared around the waist by a plant vine. She turned around and jabbed the katana blade into the edge of the vine. She rocked loose and flipped down onto the ground to avoid the attack. He swung the vine and sent thorns flying towards Katana.

The samurai pivoted on the spot and started to knock the thorns back with her blade.

Batman propelled up and released a canister into the air. It broke open and released liquid nitrogen onto one of the creatures. The extreme amount of ice caused the creature to scream in absolute agony, thrashing around, before dropping down to the ground.

The Dark Knight Detective spun around and launched the second canister into the air. The second plant monster had been disabled in the same way as the first.

"There were three of them," Katana said.

"Vault," Batman said.

The two crimefighters made their way over to the vault, just in time to notice the plant monster, or whatever, had escaped, with some of the vault. Obviously, two of them were a diversion, and the third performed the bank heist. It was a well-calculated plan by whoever was behind this.

Sirens cut through the air, which was seldom a good sign in Gotham City. Katana reached down and placed her hand on Batman's shoulder to try and get his attention. Batman remained rigid.

"We better go, the GCPD is still….."

"I know, go," Batman said.

Batman scooped up one of the vines and prepared to take it back to the Batcave for some kind of analysis. He didn't know what he would find, but he had a feeling something was going on. And it would be his duty to crack the case.

* * *

 

Pamela sprawled out on the bed, dressed in nothing other than a green nightshirt and panties, while she worked on the report. The redhead bit down hard on her lip and tried to focus on the homework in front of her, but it was very difficult. Her mind kept wandering back to the project she had been working on with Doctor Woodrue for a very long time.

' _We're so close, I can feel it,'_ Pam thought to herself, sounding very frustrated, mostly because she was very frustrated.

By now, Pamela thought something would happen. There would be some kind of breakthrough. Yet, there was nothing. It was just one big bundle of frustration like she would not believe.

' _Pam, you really shouldn't get frustrated,'_ Barbara warned her. _'You know, maybe there are some things which can't be done…..maybe the world isn't ready for what you're doing?'_

' _No, we're close...I know you don't like Woodrue, but I'm more concerned about the people backing his project,'_ Pamela thought. _'At first, I thought they wanted a return on their investment, but now, I really don't know.'_

Pamela bit down on her lip. Tonight appeared to be a very quiet night in Gotham City. She didn't know whether or not there would even be a project to come back to. They almost had it, and then it failed. Doctor Woodrue looked very disappointed when the project didn't take hold and there wasn't success. He was calm when he dismissed Barbara, telling her they would try again next week if they had funding for next week.

The redhead turned away, deciding not to have this project monopolize every single aspect of her life. She leaned back on the bed, propping her hand upon her cheek and frowned. She would have to go back to the report sooner or later.

"In the past week, two blonde girls have been abducted underneath mysterious circumstances. We are sad to report a third blonde girl has been abducted. All three abduction victims have been blonde haired, blue eyed, in between the ages of eight and twelve. We encourage the citizens of Gotham City to remain vigilant, and make sure your children are always accounted for and watched."

Pamela scrawled another note on the report.

"Commissioner Peter Grogan made in clear that vigilantes will not be targeted in Gotham City. He has been quoted by the Gotham City News Network that vigilantes are a hazard and a security risk to the people in our fair city."

' _Standard, really,'_ Pamela thought.

She turned her attention to the report, blocking off any bond traffic which ended up going in and out of her mind. It was just standard fair. Grogan had been really rallying on the anti-vigilante train over the past few weeks, and his old friend Hill had been backing him up. There were many people who blamed the vigilantes for the problems in Gotham City, without taking a look at several other big, underlying problems.

Pamela was not going to lie, she loved Gotham City, but she would not be ignorant to some of the more frustrating problems the city had. She bit down on her lip and kept working away at her report.

"A very peculiar robbery has left the Gotham City police department baffled, upon reviewing the security footage of the first bank of Gotham. The criminals battled the two vigilantes known as Katana and Batman, but that was not the strangest part possible. The most peculiar fact was what they turned into when the two vigilantes engaged them in battle."

Pamela looked up for a minute from her notes to watch the television, mostly to give her something else to focus on. She watched a few minutes of battle and watched as Katana sliced into the arm of one of the robbers. The robber's arm turned into a plant vine. Pamela's eyes followed the progress of the television screen, her mouth hanging completely open in the process. She watched every minute of this battle, a very unfortunate theory entering her mind upon reviewing each moment of the battle.

' _No, it can't be, can it?'_ Pamela asked. _'There has to be a logical, a sane explanation for all of this.'_

The bank robbers turned into hideous plant monsters. Pamela tried to justify this. Someone took the serum which had been rejected and modified it somehow, perhaps one of the plants they experimented on gained sentience, and escaped, perhaps creating two minions to somehow rob a bank. Plants under certain circumstances could exhibit human personal traits, couldn't they?

Pam bounced up to her feet and quickly got dressed. She hoped Doctor Woodrue would be able to lessen her fears. Yet, Pam's thoughts about Woodrue's backers painted to her a very grim picture of what was going on. She didn't know what to believe.

* * *

 

News about the mysterious plant monsters reached Barbara Gordon when she sat on her usual post of the Clocktower. Gwen was hanging out with her.

"So, you just can't have a normal evening, can you?" Gwen asked. "Bank robbers who turn into plant monsters are robbing a bank. That seems a bit strange, even for Gotham City. Especially when you realize plants don't start robbing banks on their own accord."

Barbara slowly nodded in response and frowned. There were a number of theories swimming through her mind about what was going on.

"No, plants don't start robbing banks on their own accord," Barbara responded. "But, one of them succeeded in the bank robbery, while the other two acted as distractions for Batman and Katana…..but there's very little we can really figure out from the security footage."

"Yeah, unfortunately, you have a point," Gwen said. She kicked back and frowned very deeply.

"We won't know until we hear from Batman."

No sooner did those words leave Barbara's mouth, her console began to light up. Barbara shook her head and leaned forward to press a button and answer the call.

"Yes?"

"We have a problem," Batman said. "I've extracted a sample of the serum used to create the plant monsters."

"So, there was some kind of serum used?" Barbara asked.

"Yes," Batman answered. "I've managed to bring up some records, on a hunch, and the plant serum was loosely based on a prototype chemical created by Jason Woodrue, with help from his assistant, Pamela Isley."

Barbara almost let out her breath. Things were getting to be frustrating and she didn't like where this was going. Woodrue was sleazy, for sure, but there was a difference between being sleazy and underhanded, and being the criminal. She closed her eyes for a minute and tried to reconcile the fact there had to be some sort of explanation.

She did not know whether or not she liked the tone in Batman's voice, because he seemed, at least to her, to be accusing Pam of being involved. Barbara understood Batman's role was to look at every angle, no matter how implausible, but it didn't mean she had to like it. And Barbara didn't really like it at all.

"You don't think Miss Isley could be involved, could you?" Barbara asked in a cool voice, trying to keep herself detached and professional.

"Perhaps not knowingly, perhaps not willingly, but a young girl who is desperate to advance herself and to complete a project could be manipulated by an older man who has experience in getting what he wants from younger women."

Barbara thought there could be nothing clearer.

"Well, Woodrue's been working on this project for a long time, by the looks of things," Barbara said. "And you think he might have backers which could be putting pressure on him to get the results they want."

The thought hung out there. The worm had been put on the fishhook and Barbara hoped it would be enough to entice Batman, to pull him in just a little bit.

"It's possible, we have to look at this from all angles and at all possibilities," Batman said. "Tell Nightwing about how there's a chance Miss Isley could be involved, and also, look further into Woodrue."

Barbara didn't even waste her breath telling Batman she spent the last two years looking into Woodrue. Pam's off-handed comment about there being backers made Barbara think she should have been looking into them as much as humanly possible, at least in her mind.

"I'll see what I can find," Barbara said. "I don't think you should go into this until I contact Nightwing either."

"There's no time to waste, if Woodrue releases any more of those plant monsters, Gotham City will be in a panic," Batman responded.

Barbara knew from Batman hanging up, he had already met his mind. Barbara took a deep breath and sighed. She hoped to appease this situation as much as possible, even though it looked like they were all going to get very frustrated by the end of the evening.

"He sure seems like a blast at parties, doesn't he?" Gwen asked.

"You have no idea," Barbara deadpanned in response.

' _Better tell Pam about this,'_ Barbara thought. _'Pam? Pam? Hey….are you…'_

She had been blocked off and Barbara knew why. She must have learned of the plant invasion and had been on her way to the Gotham City University to confront Woodrue about this. There was only one thought which rang present and clear in Barbara's mind regarding what Pam was up to.

' _Shit. Shit. Shit.'_

* * *

 

"Good, and again!"

Lois closed her eyes and rushed forward to try and engage Rebecca in hand to hand battle. The key word was try, at least in this case Rebecca used her skills which had been well trained throughout her years as a Circus Acrobat to frustrate and knock Lois away. Rebecca blocked Lois's arm when she tried to punch her and flipped Lois back down onto her back. Lois rolled over onto the ground and Rebecca stood up over the top of her.

Not to be denied, Lois bounced up to the ground. She rushed towards Rebecca one more time and tried to nail her with a punch. This time, Lois turned Rebecca's block around from her. Rebecca did a flip, but Lois knew right where she was. She grabbed Rebecca and turned her around in a double leg takedown which sent her crashing down to the ground.

"Oh, good one."

Dinah, Diana, and Harry watched from the edge of the room. Rebecca and Lois bounced up for a moment and looked at each other. Their movements had been a bit more fluid, less predictable.

"So, they've shown some marked improvements over the past couple of months, haven't they?" Dinah asked.

"Yes," Harry agreed.

"Lyta seems to think so as well," Diana said.

' _I'm just happy they're getting better because it's not fun to knock someone around who can't really fight back, '_ Lyta thought. _'Artemis might get off on that sort of thing, but I like a fairer fight, you know.'_

' _Given all of the times you pulled my hair during a sparring session, you would think you would want something opposite other than a fair fight,'_ Donna said.

Lyta shook her head at her sister's antics through the bond link and let out a very frustrated sigh. _'Okay fine, not so much a fair fight, as an even fight. Are you happy now?'_

' _I'll allow it, for now,'_ Donna thought, smiling.

Harry turned his attention towards the back and forth between Lois and Rebecca. He studied the two girls and took complete note of their weaknesses. They learned each other's moves, which was good. Both girls also adapted to whatever situations whenever possible, which also was a good thing as far as Harry was concerned.

' _So, do you think they're ready?'_ Diana thought.

' _Yeah, I think it's almost time to let them go out on supervised missions,'_ Harry thought. _'On certain nights only, if things get rough, they're going to have to come home.'_

' _Better off to give them a little taste of excitement than to keep them locked up,'_ Kara said. _'The armor should protect them most of the time, and if they're with Dinah, Diana, me, Jaime, or you, they shouldn't be too much of a problem, at least I wouldn't think there would be too much of a problem.'_

' _There shouldn't be,'_ Harry offered in response.

' _Do you think it might be a good idea if we have two of us with them at all times, just to make sure?'_ Diana asked.

' _Wouldn't hurt,'_ Jaime thought. _'Besides, we are in pairs most of the time, therefore we should be in pairs when we're mentoring the junior sidekicks.'_

Harry would have to agree. Of course, there were times where they had to split up, or one of them were caught out alone without any backup. Harry had a relay signal built into the watches which whoever was sitting in the Oracle chair could port them back to the Clocktower if things got really rough.

It took months of research, but they finally got it working.

' _Some of our best work, I have to say,'_ Faora thought. _'Even though it took a while for us to get everything working.'_

' _Hey, we could all use something like that, just in case,'_ Karen thought. _'Although marketing that kind of project doesn't seem like a good idea. The bad guys could figure out how it works.'_

' _No, let's keep some of our technology to ourselves,'_ Faora thought, nodding in agreement.

' _Harry, I hate to bother you,'_ Barbara thought.

' _No, Babs, you're not bothering me, especially if you think it's important,'_ Harry thought.

' _You haven't heard from Pam, have you?'_ Barbara asked. _'Because, there's been a bank robbery tonight, done by….you're never going to believe this, what appears to be giant plant monsters.'_

Harry believed it, oh boy did he ever believe it.

' _Woodrue,'_ Harry thought. _'I knew there was something about him.'_

' _And he has backers as well who might be shady, I'm looking into them now,'_ Barbara thought. _'Oh, and Batman is going after Woodrue himself, and he also thinks Pam may be involved.'_

' _He can't think she's doing this willingly,'_ Harry thought, clutching his fist in response to this statement from Barbara.

He let out a couple of deep breaths, calming himself down.

' _I don't think he believes it, but you know how he can get,'_ Barbara thought.

"Girls, time," Harry said. "Both you girls are doing well, and within a couple of weeks, you may be ready for supervised missions, pending of course things in Gotham aren't too dangerous."

Rebecca and Lois both nodded, understanding the potential for a supervised mission was more than they could have hoped for. They thought they might have been put on the bench permanently after the incident in Metropolis.

"Is there something wrong?" Lois asked suddenly when she peered into Harry's eyes. "No offense, but you look a little bit….well…you look a little bit off."

"I have to take care of something," Harry said. "Sorry to cut this short….if you need anything, Dinah and Diana will help you."

Harry made his way out of the door. He realized where Pamela was going, the moment she had been purposely blocking him out of the bond link. She veered close enough to Alpha status to get that kind of levity. Harry could tell her mind was a maelstrom of frustration.

* * *

 

Pamela unlocked Woodrue's lab and stepped inside, feeling something was very wrong when entering the area.

"Doctor Woodrue?"

No answer, he had been gone, and Pamela had been very nervous at the possible implications they had to deal with. She hoped someone else got their hands on the serum and used it, perhaps unwilling. Harry and Barbara had their misgivings about Woodrue, and Pamela tried to reason the man was very passionate about his work.

Pamela turned on the lights and could hear something from the lab next door from this one. Someone or something was groaning. Pamela reached in and realized the door had been opened. She swung the door open and entered the lab. She smelled something in the lab which caused her to be light headed.

Several tanks rested in the lab and much to her horror, Pamela locked eyes on the plants in the tank. Some kind of serum had been pumped into the tanks, causing them to be grotesque and mutated. And she heard something from the plants, they seemed alive.

' _This wasn't what I signed up for….I need to….'_

Someone grabbed Pamela's wrist and forced her to turn around. Pam pulled away only to come face to face with Jason Woodrue who stepped in from another area of the lab. She didn't see him at first.

"This isn't how I wanted you to find out," Woodrue commented in a very somber voice.

"What are you doing?" Pamela asked. "How could you do something like this?"

Jason looked undisturbed, in fact, he was smiling. In the light, Pamela could see how many people saw Jason Woodrue be a bit unnerved, and slightly disturbing as well.

"It's beautiful," Jason said. "I don't wish to undermine your work, it was great, remarkable, but we were running out of time. It isn't your fault, my fault, or anyone else's fault."

Jason took a moment for his creations. It was just the beginning to be perfectly honest, the beginning of a brand new world.

"My employers, they aren't the kind to take excuses kindly," Woodrue said. "We stumbled upon something great, Pamela. Something extraordinary, something which can be completely magnificent!"

"What happened to changing the world?" Pamela asked. "For the better?"

"This is changing the world for the better," Woodrue said. He grabbed her by the arm. "Just think, the two of us together, with our brilliant minds, we can create a new evolution!"

"I didn't sign up for this," Pamela said. "Harry was right about you….and you're corrupting some of his studies through this as well."

Pamela pulled her arm away from Woodrue, and she made a movement to go for the door. A vine shot out from behind her and pushed the door open, sealing her inside of the lab, along with Woodrue.

Woodrue grabbed Pamela roughly and pulled her back into the middle of the room.

"It's really important to play ball," Woodrue said. "I gave you a lot of leeway in this project because I respected you, and how brilliant you are…..but you've not given me the same respect. You've disrespected me, Pamela. And I don't think I have to put on with that."

Pamela pulled away from Woodrue and slapped him. He responded by violently shoving her into a table with several chemicals on it. Pamela flew backward and crashed through the table, drenched by chemicals and broken glass. Screams of agony could be heard as the chemicals seeped into Pamela's skin.

"I don't have to put up with that disrespect anymore," Woodrue said.

Woodrue stopped to watch, the plant mutagen seeped through the floor and caused something to rise up through the ground. Plant vines wrapped around the severely injured body of Pamela Isley and yanked her deep beneath the ground. Her weakened body let out a very frustrated whimper, which turned into a full-bodied scream.

' _HARRY!'_

This was the last thought which passed through Pamela Isley's mind before she had been dragged deep beneath the ground by the plant vines.

Woodrue stopped and frowned. A giant hole in the middle of his lab would be conspicuous, and a missing assistant would be even more so.

"I really wish you hadn't made me do that."

Woodrue reached over and scooped up as many vials of the serum as he could carry them before he deposited them in a briefcase. There would be no time to take anything else. He snapped the briefcase shut and left without another word.

Security would be coming, or worse, Batman. Woodrue slipped out of the side entrance in the lab, out of the staircase, and out of sight.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on February 18** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_And we lead to Pamela's big moment, and she came out rather badly at that one._

_Plant monsters are kind of strange for Gotham City. At least for now._

_There's a child abductor in Gotham City, targeting younger blonde girls. Keep your eye on that, because that's going to be important for now._

_Woodrue's gone full one hundred percent creepy._

_Until next Saturday._


	264. The New Evolution Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Four: The New Evolution Part Two**

* * *

 

Pamela's scream dissolved into nothing other than utter silence, the type of utter silence which brought many to uneasiness. And Harry was about uneasy as anyone else. Her emotions got the better of her, and she confronted Woodrue. Harry wasn't sure Pamela knew what Woodrue was doing, and perhaps until the very end tried to say there was some kind of explanation for what he was doing.

Harry thought he should have kept a closer watch on Woodrue. The problem was, there wasn't anything too incriminating Woodrue did, at least in the public eye. Therefore, he slipped through the cracks while other things took precedence. Harry hated to be the one to say that, but Woodrue was more than good at covering his tracks, and that made him a very frustrating person to deal with.

The man was intelligent, no question about it. Chills ran down Harry's spine when he made his way towards the side entrance of the lab he knew Woodrue was working in. He noticed dirt on the ground coming out from underneath the door.

' _What are you going to find in there?'_ Kara asked.

' _I don't know,'_ Harry responded. _'I just know whatever I find inside this lab, I'm not going to like it at all. But what choice do I have? I have to go in, and I have to go in now.'_

Harry opened up the door leading to the lab. Everyone in the bond was listening closely. Harry had not heard anything from Pamela after she screamed which rarely tended to be a good sign. Everyone worried about what was happening with her, and no one worried more than anyone, other than Barbara Gordon.

' _Okay, there's a good explanation for why she hasn't said anything,'_ Barbara thought. _'Maybe….maybe she got knocked out. I don't know but…..there just has to be a good explanation for all of this, a very good explanation for why she hasn't said a single word.'_

' _I hope you're right,'_ Harry said.

Harry noticed a tank out of the corner of his eye. Inside was a plant monster, and it looked in misery. Harry couldn't really tell with one hundred percent. The smell when Harry entered the lab almost made him keel over and gag. Whatever chemicals Woodrue used smelled very strong.

Harry looked around the corner and noticed two other figures make their way to the lab. The vigilante known as Nightwing prepared for an attack, but relaxed, only slightly, when he noticed Batman and Katana came around the corner.

"Woodrue appears to have left," Batman said.

"Something must have tipped him off we were onto him," Nightwing said. "It could be the news story, or it could be something else."

Harry moved closer to the central part of the lab. Several vines slithered on the floor, but they moved without a purpose. One of the plants descended slightly down to the hole as if it was watching something. A plant, watching something, Harry shook his head to clear his mind of the potential absurdity involved in these matters.

' _Well, let's face it, there would be more absurd things,'_ Faora thought.

Nightwing took another step. Batman assisted him in moving the plants out of the way, while Katana stepped forward to stand guard. Two of the vines slithered to threaten her, but it appeared the plant was not going to attack her.

"Woodrue ordered the plants to rob the bank," Nightwing said.

"But, what role did Miss Isley play into this?" Batman asked.

"We need to find her," Nightwing responded. "Pamela takes her work very seriously. She wouldn't have allowed her research to be used like this. Woodrue has been lying to her for two years, about the real purpose of the research. There's someone who is funding it."

"Yes, there's someone who is," Batman agreed, nodding in response.

' _Pam takes her work very seriously, she wouldn't want it to be compromised like this,'_ Nightwing thought.

Nightwing dropped down into the hole in the ground. The ground smooshed underneath his boots when dropping down. Batman followed a second later, and Katana dropped down another moment later.

A device slipped from Nightwing's belt and he moved over to one of the plants in the ground. He extracted a sample of the mutagen from the plants and hoped it would be enough of a clue to see what they were up to.

"Look!"

Katana pointed out a figure on the ground. The hearts of many people in the bond jumped a beat, and even Harry stepped towards her.

Pamela's remains laid at his feet, looking very decayed for someone who was by all intents alive less than twenty minutes ago. Harry frowned and leaned down towards her.

' _No!'_ Barbara yelled. _'No, no….it has to be….it has to be some kind of…..damn it, that son of a bitch killed her!'_

The body looked to be very off, in ways Harry couldn't quite piece together. He scanned the body and all of the moisture had been drawn out. The simplest touch would caused the body to decay. Something was off, and Nightwing couldn't put his finger on exactly what, but something was up.

' _Barbara, I'm sorry,'_ Diana thought. _'She's dead, isn't she?'_

' _I don't know,'_ Harry thought. _'There's something….really off about how her body was left down here. There are no internal organs left in her body, it's just skin and bone fragments.'_

' _A particularly gruesome way to die, then,'_ Faora said. _'Unless you think there are other explanations for what she's doing down here.'_

A loud scream coming from upstairs caused Nightwing to pull himself away from the body. It took him a couple of minutes to realize he had been left alone, downstairs, with Katana. The two of them heard the scream, and they decided to go up to investigate.

Batman slammed a young man, no older than about twenty into the desk.

"What do you know about this?" Batman growled.

"Nothing, nothing, nothing, I swear to god, nothing!" the young man yelled. "I just…..I just heard Woodrue had some extra cash, and I need it to pay…them off…..I didn't see anything, I don't know anything, please, you've got to believe me."

The man's squirming continued with Batman looking down into his eyes. It was obvious Batman very much didn't believe the man's story, despite it sounding fairly legit and almost believable, in certain aspects. He was just trying to steal from Woodrue and had the worst possible luck in being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

* * *

 

Everyone's mood darkened, and understandable when Harry returned down to the Clocktower. He took the few cell samples he was able to extract from Pamela's remains and stepped into the lab. Faora and Karen waited for him, and Lara, Alura, and Peve were all there to offer their expertise.

"Karen, look at the mutagen sample I took from the crime scene," Harry responded. "I've just got a hunch there's something more to this than meets the eye."

"Right," Karen said. "I'll get on with that, and let you know."

"And while we're on that, I need help in studying these cells for any anomalies in them," Harry said.

"You don't think she's dead, do you?" Faora asked.

Harry decided to keep this between the three of them, at least for now. Barbara had been very obsessive in her attempts to track down Jason Woodrue, who looked to have slipped away just barely.

There were enough signs his lab had been rummaged through. The chaos with the plant monsters and the mess made sure to cover enough of Woodrue's tracks so he could get out of there sooner rather than later. Harry reached up and pinched the bridge of his nose, before offering one of the more prominent sighs possible.

"The nature of the bond shows I would know if she's dead or not," Harry said. "There's something which indicates I can't reach out to her, though….but I don't think she's been killed. This is just a husk representing her body."

Harry slid the cells he found. He slid some of the cells found on one of the plants. He would have to compare and contrast the two to see if his hunch was right. While the scans were running, Harry closed his eyes and made an attempt to lock onto Pamela, but unfortunately, there was a no good there.

' _Something is foreign in her mind, or she's unconscious somewhere,'_ Harry thought. _'Exactly where did she get taken, I don't know.'_

Death would also be possible and given how Pamela seemed to have been exposed to the plant mutagen, Pamela Isley as they knew her might as well have been dead. Harry didn't really like to admit it to be perfectly honest, but it was the truth.

The information blinked across the screen. The two strands of DNA, both the plant mutagen and Pamela, they had matched together about as well as they could be expected.

"She's been exposed to the mutagen," Harry said.

' _So, she's not dead, or she is dead, or what?'_ Gwen asked. _'Barbara told me to keep her up to date. She's busy tracking down Woodrue's movements, but it's not going to be easy. The moment Pamela found out what he was doing, I think he skipped town.'_

' _I figure he planned on doing that before Pam confronted him,'_ Harry thought. _'He might also be running from his benefactors. I wish we could find out who they are. It might give us a better insight of what Woodrue has in mind.'_

' _Oh, I'd agree,'_ Gwen thought, nodding her head in response.

"The plant mutagen is far more advanced, and yes, it is partially based off of your work, although Woodrue has put enough of his own spin into it where we could not figure that out, at least at first," Lara said. "There are plant cells in the mutagen, and they are living."

"My guess is over time, they may further evolve," Alura said. "The mutagen was tailored to work with plants, there's no telling how they would work with humans."

"My guess," Peve said. "My guess is it depends on the human. The effects are going to be very unpredictable, and it's hard to tell how they will affect Gotham City next."

Harry nodded in response. He needed to figure out how to stop the situation. Three mutated plants were able to give two skilled fighters like Batman and Katana problems. If Woodrue or whoever was backing him created an army, it would be very difficult to stop him. Harry tilted his head back and closed his eyes, trying to figure out what to do.

What weighed on his mind more than anything else is Pamela's fate. It weighed on the minds of any bond links. He could find a small strand, a small sense of her out there, but he couldn't lock onto it. Harry could not hook on to this fleeting feeling.

' _And we have a problem,'_ Dinah thought. _'Woodrue's gone to town apparently. The plant growth in his lab at Gotham City University? It's spreading out, and at the rate, it's going, it's going to overwhelm Gotham City.'_

"First thing's first," Harry said. "We're going to have to develop a counteragent, to make sure the city is not overwhelmed by these plants."

"Right," Karen said. "That might take a while."

"Although not as long as we think, given the mutagen has some common origins with some of Harry's work, and we have all of the research here at the lab, at the tip of our fingers," Faora said.

"Keep me posted," Harry said.

Harry could see it in the distance from the Clocktower. He didn't know how far it would spread, or how fast it spread. The mutagen spill underneath Gotham City University caused the plants which once had been dead, to spring their way back to life, and this spelled bad news for all of Gotham City.

* * *

 

Barely, just barely, did Jason Woodrue make it towards his secondary lab. He had been surprisingly impressed by the rate the mutagen affected the city. Never in his wildest dreams did he ever expect everything to be overtaken so fast. Woodrue's lips curled into a very thinly veiled smile when he stepped inside of the secondary lab.

"Now, I can conclude the final stage of my experiment."

Woodrue turned his head around, and he wasn't alone in the lab. Three men waited for them, and they were heavily armed. One of them held a military grade weapon in his hand, which he pointed at Woodrue's chest. Woodrue tried not to blink when at the business end of this particular weapon.

"What can I do for you gentlemen?" Woodrue asked in his attempt to remain calm and collected.

This gun trained on him caused his calm façade to almost shatter. "The boss is tired of your delays. This mess in Gotham City is entirely you're doing….you have created uncontrolled chaos."

Woodrue took one look at the gentlemen in question, and they were not the type who would accept any explanation regarding facts. Woodrue's fingers started to twitch when he took a very deep breath when looking at these men in question.

"It's all part of the experimental process, you have to understand…."

One of the men roughly grabbed Woodrue by the shoulder and caused great pain to the scientist. The scientist flinched at the threat of physical violence delivered by a man who was far larger than he was. Woodrue tried not to blink.

"The boss wants you to hand over all your resources and your research to him."

"For someone who is as long-lived as your boss, he doesn't show the patience needed to make things work properly," Woodrue commented in a very abrasive tone of voice. "I'm not going to hand over my work. It took me years, I'm so close to reaching the end goal, the pinnacle."

Woodrue would not deny there had been a couple of snags along the way. It was a shame Ms. Isley would not live to see the end results of the world being changed. She forced his hand, made him do it, it wasn't Woodrue's fault he had to kill her.

Two of the gentleman grabbed Woodrue's arms roughly while the third got into his face. Woodrue could see a harsh look in the man's eyes, which burned with absolute hatred. Woodrue refused to back down from the man, no matter how threatening he appeared.

"If you like your arms, you will hand it over, Woodrue," the gentleman snarled.

Broken glass prevented Woodrue from having the opportunity to answer that question. Batman and Katana dropped down onto the ground in front of them. Katana whipped her head back into the air and noticed the three gentlemen, along with the military guard they were wearing and the vacant, but at the same time, completely manic look dancing in their eyes.

"Ghosts!"

The leader of the pack rushed towards Katana with the intention to maim. Katana brought the fight straight to him and flipped over the charging adversary. Two kicks rocked the man. He turned around, the high threshold of pain being obvious. Katana turned around and caught him with a disabling blow of her weapon of choice. Katana grabbed the man by the shoulder and flipped him to the ground.

The other two men dropped Woodrue and made a beeline towards their enemies. One of them ran headlong into one thunderous Batman punch. Batman brought the boom down onto one of the goons and came behind him with a series of rapid-fire punches.

Batman grabbed one of the goons around the throat and exercised the use of a pressure point to bring him down onto the ground. Batman rammed the point of an elbow down onto the side of the man's neck.

Woodrue took a deep breath and shoved his glasses up. He normally would not be too pleased with seeing Batman entering his lab, and causing problems. Now, Woodrue would have to make an exception. He was glad to see Batman in the flesh.

He turned around and made the first step towards the back door and rushed around.

Batman dropped the final of the three thugs and caught sight of Jason Woodrue's attempt to escape. Batman was not going to make it that easy on him, not if he could help it anyway.

Woodrue turned the corner, and Batman followed in hot pursuit. Batman utilized a full set of skills to dodge the plant growth. Vines did not seem to slow Batman down, no matter how many thorns were on them. Woodrue's heart kept beating faster, and faster.

' _He's going to get me.'_

Fortune finally shined on Jason Woodrue because a large tree began to shot into the ground, in the middle of Gotham. Batman had to stop his chase just enough to circumnavigate around the tree.

The moment Batman cleared the tree, Woodrue disappeared into the chaos of Gotham City.

* * *

 

Oliver Queen figured his entire life flashed before him right about now. He never, in a million years, expected to step on a land mine, and the fact one wrong move could mean at least the end of his right leg, never mind the end of his life, made Oliver shiver a little bit.

"You shouldn't move," Deadpool said. "I know I've left you standing on a land mine for at least two chapters, but that can't be comfortable."

"What?" Oliver asked.

Half of the things which came out of Deadpool's mouth made Oliver question the man's mental stability. The other half of what Deadpool said, left no doubt of Deadpool's mental stability in Oliver's mind. The man was absolutely insane beyond all belief.

And yet, Oliver's best chance of making it off of this island mostly in one piece. Sweat started to roll down his face, and he was starting to get a cramp.

"Do you know how to free him?" Shado asked.

Deadpool cupped a hand underneath his chin and studied the land mind for a moment. It was a very simple land mind to disable, really, nothing too bad.

"Yeah, you should stand back, and get ready to move, when I tell you to move," Deadpool said. "It's going to work out better for both of us."

Deadpool took half of a step forward and picked up a really large stick which he pressed upon the edge of the landmine. The landmine sunk further into the ground and Oliver took in a deep breath. He didn't think putting more pressure on the land mine was going to help his case.

"Shado, move," Deadpool said. "Okay, on the count of three, get ready for it. One, two, three."

Deadpool grabbed Oliver and hurled him off of the landmine causing him to land behind some trees with a very sickening sounding thud. Deadpool picked up the landmine and hurled it into the air. A large explosion of metal filled the air around them.

The smoke cleared, and Deadpool closed his eyes a second later. He could feel a few cuts, a few abrasions coming in on him. Deadpool cracked his neck and found his head was still on his body, and not hanging from a thread like he feared it might have been.

Deadpool closed his eyes and turned his full attention to the group behind him. Both Oliver and Shado kept their eyes locked on the mercenary.

"That wasn't pleasant at all, but it could have been worse," Deadpool said. "One wrong move and….well, I would have pulled myself back together eventually, but it wouldn't have ended very well for either of you, not at all, trust me on that."

Deadpool reached over and patted Oliver on the shoulder. He leaned over towards both of them.

"The next time you step on a landmine, you're on your own, kid," Deadpool said. "So, don't do that again, okay?"

Oliver didn't plan on doing that again, not if he could help it anyway. He would not step on any land mines, especially given what the potential consequences were. His life flashed before him.

"We better move," Shado said. "Fyers and his men have gotten away."

"Yes, they had us dead to rights, interesting how they ran just like that," Deadpool said. "The plot keeps thickening….better be careful so it doesn't smother us in all of these thickening twists and turns."

Oliver moved gingerly, away from the area. The last thing he wanted to do was repeat the performance of stepping on a land mine.

* * *

 

Somehow, someway, Woodrue managed to do it. He managed to get away from Batman and managed to live long enough to tell the tale of how he did so. A drop of sweat rolled down Woodrue's face.

' _Close, way too close.'_

A figure dropped down in front of Woodrue from the ceiling. He blasted through the vines blocking the path with a throwing dagger. Woodrue watched when the dagger landed against the wall, about two inches away from his throat.

He escaped Batman but came face to face with Nightwing who ripped him away from his position and slammed him down onto the ground. Woodrue screamed in agony when he hit the ground. Nightwing hoisted Woodrue back up and slammed him back down into the wall with a very sickening impact. Woodrue slumped against the wall, blood dripping down from his nose and mouth.

"What did you do to Pamela Isley?" Nightwing asked.

Woodrue's agony spread. Nightwing could have choked him to unconsciousness or snapped the doctor's neck from this position. Words would have to be wisely spoken.

"She...I had no choice…..I was so close….she was going to ruin everything," Woodrue breathed.

Woodrue tried to reach for something to defend himself. Nightwing picked him up and dropped him down to the ground. He smashed against the table hard, the wind being knocked out of him.

Nightwing looked a second away from cutting Woodrue's throat opening and finishing him off.

"She has been exposed to the mutagen," Nightwing said.

"I don't know what happened there….well no one knows really," Woodrue said. "You better look behind you."

Three plant vines crashed through the window and it forced Nightwing to turn around from the attacks. The young man did a tuck and roll, before sliding down onto the ground.

Batman and Katana dropped down to the ground. A vine ensnared Katana around the wrist. She turned around and sliced through the vine which dropped it down onto the ground.

Woodrue dropped down to his knees, breathing heavily. A large plant root ripped from the ground and ripped through his briefcase, lifting it up into the ground.

"No, my life's work!"

The briefcase smashed open and Woodrue just avoided several of the vials from landing on top of him. One vial managed to roll gently to the ground. Woodrue held it in his hand, breathing heavily.

"It's over, Woodrue.'

"I'd rather see it destroyed then conceded it to you."

Woodrue lobbed the vial against the wall. The vial smashed and a piece of glass flung back and sliced Woodrue on the arm. Several drops of the plant mutagen spilled into his cut when he dropped down to the ground.

Pain beyond everything Jason Woodrue ever felt in his life filled his body. Nightwing blasted the plants out of the way as he could see Woodrue be exposed to his own creation in his obsessive attempt to make sure no one got their hands on the mutagen sample.

The growth in the area got even more extreme now that more of the serum had been introduced into the area. Woodrue rose up to his feet, shaking like a leaf.

Batman flung a Batarang through the air aimed at Woodrue. Woodrue lifted his hand to block it. He didn't need to. One large vine popped up out of the ground and wrapped around the device before it hit against the wall. Woodrue's eyes glowed green when he turned around.

"Yes, I don't need the serum, I can control the green!" Woodrue yelled. "I am one with the green…..I have the power!"

Woodrue ripped off his own skin and revealed brown bark underneath of it. His fingers retracted into thorny vines, which he swung around and tried to take down Nightwing, Batman, and Katana. They all scattered when Woodrue controlled the undergrowth around them.

"Feel my power!" Woodrue yelled. "I am one with nature!"

His demented face looked like it had been carved into the bark and several more roots popped up from underneath the ground. Nightwing blasted one of the tree branches which shot through the window with the intent to impale him.

"I am…..I HAVE POWER NOW!" Woodrue yelled.

' _And here I thought he couldn't get any creepier,'_ Barbara thought.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on February 20** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Things are getting very grisly here. And Woodrue's creepiness factor just increased a hundred percent._

_More on Monday._


	265. New Evolution Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Five: The New Evolution Part Three**

* * *

 

Chaos occurred all about Gotham City, and more plants grew up over the city. It brought Gotham City traffic at the highest, most prominent time of the day, to a virtual standstill. The citizens of Gotham City were screaming and cursing themselves.

"Ah, son of a bitch!" one of the citizens of Gotham City shouted. "It's bad enough I have to deal with these losers, hogging all of the roads. Now I have to fight a bunch of plants. I'm going to miss the game! This is bullshit!"

A loud bang echoed throughout from miles around and the man kicked the door open. His breathing increased when he exited the car. He reached down onto the ground and picked up a huge piece of pipe which had been dropped on the ground. The man rushed over and waved the pipe at the plant, one of the vines dangling down towards the ground.

"Come on! Come on! Do you want a piece of this? Bring it! Bring it, you gruesome son of a bitch!"

The man kept swinging the pipe and looked like a mad man. He slammed the pipe into one of the plants. The vine wrapped around the man's throat and hoisted him off of the ground. He screamed in agony when being plucked off of the ground and dropped down a few feet away from the plant.

The Gotham City Police Department squad car pulled up to the road and the one and only Harvey Bullock pulled out. He took a ginger step and looked over his shoulder. Everything sprouted over the ground and he saw his partner, Renee Montoya exited the back of the car. The situation was getting extremely frustrating for the GCPD's finest.

"Son of a bitch, it's getting worse," Bullock said. "And I thought the weeds in my aunt's flower garden got out of control."

Montoya's eyes followed the progress of the plants. Those large vines rose up off of the ground and Montoya followed the progress of them all over the place. Her breath had been hitched into her body when viewing those plants, those wicked, twisted vines.

"How do you fight something like that?" Renee asked, sounding utterly shocked in the process.

"Search me," Bullock said.

The loudmouth who had threatened the tree had been dropped down onto the ground before Bullock's face. Sickening cuts and abrasions had been opened up in his face. The man tried to get to a standing position but collapsed down to the ground. The man's breathing increased, looking very harsh when he did so.

"Guy got smacked around pretty hard," Bullock muttered underneath his breath.

"Don't touch that thing," the guy warned him.

"Yeah, some good advice," Bullock agreed. "Pity you didn't take it a little sooner."

Harvey Bullock did about the only thing which made sense for a situation like this. He was going to have to wait for some kind of backup. And backup came, in the form of two more squad cars. The corpulent detective stretched his neck back.

James Gordon stepped out, and Bullock should have known he would have been in the middle of things. John Jones of the GCPD was riding with him tonight.

"They're more unruly than the earliest reports," Jones responded.

"Something happened to them," Gordon said. "We got a tip that Jason Woodrue was in the middle of…."

One of the vines shot out and tried to attack the four cops who scattered. It was a warning shot. Bullock pulled out his gun and unloaded the bullets onto it. The bullets bounced off of the vine and had little effect. Bullock looked at the gun and looked back at the plant. His jaw practically dropped in surprise at the scene which transpired around him.

There were only three words to describe what Bullock had just gone through.

"Son of a bitch!"

Bullock had no choice, other than to jump back and avoid the tree popping up from out of the ground in a blink of an eye. A third cop car swerved around them and tried to pull into one of the smallest areas of Gotham City which had ben uncovered.

"Woodrue, he works up at the GCU, doesn't he?" Bullock asked. "Would be nice to go and ask him a few questions, if we can make it through this jungle."

Bullock drew in a deep breath. They had been joined by Sarah Essen and Ellen Yin. The six members of the Gotham City Special Crimes Unit looked around. This particular attack would most certainly put their training to the test, and they had no idea how they would come out on top with something like this.

"Last I heard, Batman has been spotted at Gotham City University," Sarah said.

Bullock took a mere moment to grimace at the thought of Batman. It went without saying he was one of the last people anyone wanted to deal with today. He drew in his deep breath.

"We're not going win this by the book, so I say, let the freaks have a crack at it," Bullock said. "I'm not saying sit here with our thumb up our ass but…."

Several of the pods burst open and released a sickening green goop on the ground. None of the six members of the GCPD knew what to make it. Several human like plant monsters appeared and moved into Gotham City to threaten the population with their sadistic actions.

Bullock drew in his breath and took a moment to get things together. He would have to be very frank and perfectly honest with this particular situation.

"Yeah, we might need some weed killer, maybe a chainsaw, or something," Bullock said. "Hedge trimmers wouldn't hurt either."

All of the cops could agree the bullets wouldn't work on these things, any more than they could work on the trees they fought earlier. They would have to figure out a different way to stop them.

* * *

 

Power of a different kind swelled throughout the very being of Jason Woodrue. His excitement increased to a fever pitch.

Katana caught the man trying to draw power from nature around him. She charged him, sword swinging, realizing there might not be another chance to take him out. She swung the blade, but several thorny vines shot out from all directions. One of them wrapped around Katana's waist and pulled her out.

Groans passed through the body of the Samurai as she twisted free. The blade sliced through the vines and caused  
Woodrue to recoil in agony. Katana dropped to the ground and flipped back to avoid one of the roots which shot out of the ground. The ground underneath them was warped, and the green around them made it very difficult to see Woodrue.

Any moment, one of those plant vines could shoot out of nowhere and cause massive damage to anyone who it touched. Right about now would have been a good time. Katana avoided the plant vine which almost knocked her for a loop. One of them came dangerously close to wrapping around her throat and strangling her.

A loud crack followed and Batman came down to severe the plant vines with a sharp gauntlet hooked to his costume.

"None of you understand the power I hold!" Woodrue howled at the top of his lungs. "I can bring life to the world, or death to it!"

Batman and Nightwing stood side by side and watched as several plant vines shot towards them in a violent attempt to rip into them. Batman evaded the plant vines on one end. The game of ducking and dodging turned into a deadly one.

Nightwing supercharged the dagger into his hand. He was focused on one objective, with a single-minded focus. He had to get to Woodrue, and he had to stop this attack. Nothing else really mattered at this point. Nightwing rushed Woodrue and ripped the dagger through one of the man's arms.

A loud scream of agony followed with Nightwing having zeroed in on one clear shot at on Woodrue. He pulled back and planted the dagger into the side of Woodrue's arm one more time.

Nightwing had the pressure point he needed and all he had to do was rear back, and head in for the kill. Energy, electricity wrapped around Nightwing. Several of those vines shot up out of the ground, one more desperate, potentially vain attempt to protect the master.

He sliced through the vines and caused an electrical shock to manifest. Woodrue screamed in unmistakable agony when he had been launched back to the ground. His arm ripped off.

Most would have thought this to be the end of their adversary. Nightwing was not most people, however. He took a deep breath and saw Woodrue's arm lifted off. The electricity put him down for the count but didn't put him completely out.

"I have to admit, that hurt!"

Woodrue's arm slowly, grew back, like a particularly annoying weed which would not keep at bay. Woodrue rose up to the ground and whipped his arm towards Harry in an attempt to take him out.

More roots smashed through the ground. Harry decided to bring the battle outside, getting an idea.

' _So, dare I ask what you're doing,'_ Barbara chimed in through the bond link.

' _A little electricity caused him a bit of harm,'_ Harry thought. _'Therefore, a whole lot of electricity might just end up causing him a whole lot of harm.'_

Harry blew the large tree out of his way like it was nothing. Woodrue's agonizing screams told Harry more than enough that he was causing the scientist to lose his mind in the most dangerous way possible. All Harry had to do was to keep up antagonizing Woodrue and drawing him out.

' _So, what are you going to have him do?'_ Dinah asked. _'Punch a generator or something?'_

' _Something along those lines, yes,'_ Harry responded.

He kept his head going three hundred and sixty degrees on a swivel. Harry kept moving his way back a fraction of an inch. He watched Woodrue follow him with those glowing, those disturbing eyes. Woodrue would have sooner ripped into him than anything else.

"You've been a thorn in my side!"

"If you want me, come and get me yourself!"

Nightwing lobbed a grenade onto the ground to get Woodrue's attention. This particular method of attack worked and provoked Woodrue to continue to go after Nightwing. He rushed the young man with those vines whipping out in a very crazed manner.

"I will rip you apart!" Woodrue howled at the top of his lungs. "You're going to be crushed!"

"Come on, Woodrue, get me then!" Nightwing yelled.

He watched out of the corner of his eye, Batman and Katana fighting plant minions. They understood what Nightwing hoped to accomplish and they did their part by keeping the minions at bay, while Nightwing dealt with the dangerous man in front of him.

' _This is the bastard who….'_

Nightwing's thought process had been interrupted by Woodrue's attempts to attack him. They made their way dangerously close to a downed power line. Woodrue snapped off a vicious attack and slammed those vines against the electrical box.

It only took a second for Woodrue to realize what he had been forced into doing. Nightwing slipped the power line up and impaled it directly through Woodrue's chest. He screamed in agony when electricity surrounded his body.

Woodrue's limbs thrashed in every single direction and his plants slowly retracted back into the ground. Several thick vines wrapped around Woodrue and yanked him back into the ground before him.

Nightwing stood over a large hole in the middle of Gotham City. Woodrue disappeared into the night, but he couldn't have gotten too far. Nightwing reached over and scooped up a large chunk of Woodrue's skin which he would have future uses for.

Mostly to prevent something like this from ever happening again.

* * *

Despite the fact the master had been taken down, the slaves still were at play. One of the larger plant monsters moved towards James Gordon with an attempt to attack him. Gordon knew the gun would not work, but he had to try. Unfortunately, the GCPD didn't have the necessary amount of pesticide on hand to deal with this problem.

Two of the plant monsters surrounded Gordon on either end. The GCPD officer stared up at the creatures. He was going to stand tall and proud, fighting against them to the very last breath. He took in one of those very last breaths when coming up against those plant monsters.

' _Not exactly the most glamorous death in the world but…..'_

Something swooped in from above Gordon's head. It wouldn't be the first time he had a guardian angel, or rather a guardian bat in the process. Batman dropped down in front of one of the plant monsters and slammed his gauntlet into the stomach of one of the monsters. A discharge of electricity went through the plant monster's chest and caused him to lift up before dropping down onto the ground.

"Thanks," Gordon said in one of the gruffest voices he could muster up.

His partner, the woman Gordon glimpsed with the sword, rushed towards one of the plant monsters. The monster swung the vines at her. Her blade discharged electricity through it and knocked the plant monster back.

"Electricity," Batman said.

Gordon understood the second those words came out of his mouth. They could not have been any clearer, any plainer, or any more fluid if he was perfectly honest. A third plant-human hybrid threw his hat into the ring in an attempt to wipe out these adversaries.

' _Time to return the favor.'_

Gordon swung his arm around and slammed his stun gun through the chest of the plant monster. Energy discharged from the stun gun and put the plant monster down for the count. The howls and the screams of the monster made James Gordon almost feel sorry for it.

He would have felt sorrier for the creature if it had not been spending the last few minutes attempting to rip him apart. Gordon's eyes screwed shut and he took in a deep breath. He turned back towards the plant monster.

More of them retracted back into the ground. And they had been replaced by the Gotham City SWAT team which had turned their attention to Batman and his partner.

"It's Batman, get him!"

Gordon didn't really have it in him to tell them how their priorities were straight. One of the SWAT members moved his way forward and pointed a miniature bazooka weapon at Batman.

"Alright, nice and easy, don't make any sudden moves, or I'm going to have to blow you away," the field leader of this particular SWAT unit said. "On the other hand, go nuts, make all of the sudden moves you want to. I don't really care."

Gordon shook his head, and he wondered how Batman and his partner would get out of this one.

"You….we have far bigger problems….."

"Take five Gordon, we have this all handled…."

Several large vines shot out of the ground and caught the SWAT members off guard. They continued the chaotic nature of the city. The SWAT team members began to shoot without discrimination at the vines, but the moment that they were finished shooting, Batman and Katana disappeared into the night.

"I would have helped," Gordon said. "But, you said you had it all handled, Lopez."

The SWAT team member clutched his hand together and gritted his teeth in frustration. There would be another day, and he would have Batman right where he wanted him. That slimy little something or other wouldn't get away from him, not for long, not if he could help it.

* * *

 

Nightwing dropped down to the city. Woodrue had taken a very big hit, but not a hit which would put him down for the count. That much was for certain by the chaotic plant growth which was taking place deep underneath Gotham City. Nightwing could tell the vines, the plants were getting thick.

"You're going to need a bigger blast of electricity to put him down," Lara chimed in. "If these preliminary readings are enough….it will amplify the mutation."

' _It makes perfect sense,'_ Karen added when she had chimed into the bond link. _'We complete the mutation, and he turns half tree. Seems pretty simple.'_

Seemed pretty simple, at least on paper, but the point was, Harry still had to track down Jason Woodrue and bring him down. The man slipped away from him, just now. He would have had a chance to regroup himself.

"No, I had it!" Woodrue yelled.

The one thing Harry could always count on, was the bad guys being a bit too chatty for their own good. Woodrue was no exception to this very tried and tested rule. Nightwing turned around the corner and noticed Woodrue. His skin looked thicker which made a conventional attack to be pretty much pointless.

There was one other quality Nightwing noticed from Woodrue the moment he locked eyes onto this monster of the creature. It was the fact that his breathing turned very shallow and it was very hard for him to keep his head.

"Keep it under control."

"I don't think you have control anymore, do you?"

Woodrue's eyes turned towards the object of his agony. No matter how far he retreated into the depths of Gotham City, Nightwing found a way to follow him. Whatever happened, it was personal, although Woodrue could not quite put his finger on how this was personal.

"You don't understand, you don't understand the power I wield," Woodrue managed while taking a deep breath.

"No, maybe I don't," Nightwing answered. "But, I understand you have to to be taken down for the good of Gotham City, and so you can't harm another person."

"The world will be a better….."

Nightwing jumped through the vines which shot out of the ground. The vines cracked around him, and Nightwing zipped through them like a hot knife through butter with the blade on the gauntlet of his outfit. He had only one single-minded objective which was more important than anything else in his life.

' _Get to Woodrue, stop Woodrue,'_ Nightwing thought. _'Nothing else matters, take him down.'_

Woodrue rose up out of the ground and swung one of those thorny vines of arms at Nightwing. Nightwing evaded the attack and the vine slammed into the wall on the other side. Nightwing dropped back down onto the ground. He knew there was a generator from one of the main Gotham City power stations around here somewhere.

"Come on Woodrue, hit me with your best shot!" Nightwing yelled.

"You don't know what you're up against!" Woodrue yelled.

Woodrue's heart sounded like it was trying to force itself to work. The mutation turned him more plant by the minute. Nightwing was pretty sure he could trap Woodrue with a careful maneuver. He edged further down the tunnel and watched Woodrue's vine arms snap around

He smashed open the gate which lead to the power generator. Nightwing had Woodrue right around the area where he wanted him to be. All he needed to do was take a couple more steps to really push Woodrue towards him.

"The power will be….."

"Oh, you want power!" Nightwing yelled.

Nightwing slammed Woodrue's vine-like arm into the generator and caused a discharge of power to explode through the body of the crazed villain. He started to shake like a particularly demented leaf when more energy entered his body. The agony kept spreading through his body.

Woodrue's skin hardened even more and he dropped to the ground. He looked very much like a tree which had been toppled.

Nightwing bent down and grabbed a secondary sample of Woodrue's skin, just in case he would have found a way back around. Nightwing set his jaw and heard something coming around the corner.

GCPD had finally made their way down here, and they could take Woodrue from here. The insane plant growth tapered off now Woodrue's demented mind had not started to control the various plants which were around Gotham City. Nightwing took another half of a step into the tunnel.

It had been kind of odd how the plants parted their way away from Harry to allow him movement down the tunnel, but very useful at the same time.

* * *

 

Harry returned to the Clocktower where Barbara and Gwen were waiting for him.

"And no one quite knows what happened to Gotham City University Professor Jason Woodrue," Vicki reported. "An investigation of his lab has taken place, and the results have not come back. Many in Gotham City believe Woodrue was the victim of an experiment gone wrong."

True in a sense, given how HIVE backed Woodrue into a very prominent corner, but not something Harry was going to admit what happened.

"A husk which the Gotham City Police Department believe to be the remains of Jason Woodrue are being taken in for observation," Vicki said. "There will be more from the Gotham News Network when we have it. This is Vicki Vale signing off."

"Well, there's that," Barbara said. "Woodrue deserved what he got coming to him."

"There's still his backers," Gwen responded. "They are pretty dangerous in their own right, wouldn't you agree?"

Barbara only responded with the most courtesy of nods. She didn't discount Woodrue's backers of all, but every time she thought of it, a sickening feeling entered the pit of her stomach. This feeling could not have been broken by whatever means.

The look on Harry's face was very hard for Barbara to get any kind of fix on. He put his hand underneath his chin and stared at the window, with a very tranquil expression on his face.

"Hey, Harry?" Barbara asked.

He looked up from his position.

"I don't know what happened," Harry said. "She's still out there, but she's dormant."

"Where is she though if she's still out there?" Gwen asked. "It doesn't make any sense you can't break through to her."

"The serum changed Woodrue into something else," Harry said. "If Pam's still out there and affected by the serum, it's going to shift her into something else as well."

Barbara didn't like this particular news. It would change Pam into something else, but what. What could it change for her? Barbara had so many questions on her mind and the lack of answers made her feel particularly helpless if she was perfectly honest.

' _I'm more confused now than I ever have been,'_ Barbara thought. _'What the hell is happening?'_

Those were questions which would have to be answered later on. They would have to find any trace of where Pamela was. Barbara had been practically obsessed with locating her friend and finding answers. Despite the fact, there was a nagging part of her mind which pointed out this was not the same Pam who was.

* * *

 

The underground of Gotham City was one of the most barren areas possible. Yet, something beautiful began to flourish underneath Gotham City, several miles away from the Gotham City botanical gardens. A large red flower bloomed from the middle of the island.

Anyone who looked upon this flower would be struck down by its immense beauty. Unfortunately, there had been no one around for many miles to appreciate.

The flower started to crack open and revealed a striking redhead woman. Her full volume hair shined in the light. Her vibrant green eyes opened up with a soft face, and plump juicy lips puckered out, taunting anyone who looked upon them. Her curvy body was something to die for, with large, juicy mouth-watering breasts which were perky and defied gravity.

She slowly rose from the flower, the sultry redhead walking to the garden. Her long legs extended down and were much longer than she remembered. Her ass jutted out in the most tantalizing way possible.

The woman had an amazing body, one to die for, and very few could dare indulge in it without dying. She reached over and put her hand on the flower.

The seductress smiled, but her smile quickly turned around into a frown when she recalled the very last thing. The demented face of Jason Woodrue before he pushed her back and caused her to slam into the chemicals, oh boy, she recalled every single last wicked moment of that. Her anger increased, entering her mind. Her breathing grew deeper and more frustrated.

Her original skin and form had been shed, and she bloomed into something else, something wonderful. She only recalled one memory from her older life, and that was an alluring young man with vibrant green eyes. Everything else other than the monster which was Woodrue and that young man had been lost through time, muddled in obscurity.

"I've become something different," she breathed. "I used to be Pamela Isley. Now, I embody Mother Nature. Now, I am Poison Ivy!"

She drew in a breath and tested the name on the tip of her tongue.

"I will bring an early spring to Gotham City," she said. One of the flowers came down to her and she placed her finger gently upon the tip of it. "And I will smother all of my enemies. After all, it's not nice to mess with Mother Nature."

The fun would begin soon enough. She had to get used to this new body and these new abilities.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on February 22** **nd** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

' _It's a jungle out there, even more so than normal in Gotham City._

_Oh, and there's that Poison Ivy person as well. If I remember correctly there are some people who wanted to see this for a long time. If I recall, someone asked when Pamela was turning into Poison Ivy about once or twice._

_More on Wednesday._


	266. Blooms Anew

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Six: Blooms Anew**

* * *

Everything over the last couple of days had run over, and Harry Potter mulled everything over in his mind. As frustration as Pamela's mysterious disappearance was, Harry had some appointments to keep. Thankfully, there were others who were willing to pick up the slack.

And she had been very tricky to locate under any circumstances, whether it be through tracking her with magic or trying to hunt her down otherwise. There hadn't been very much to go on to be perfectly honest and that was one of the most frustrating.

' _We're going to find her,'_ Barbara thought. _'We're going to have to find her, there's no way we're not going to find her. She's out there somewhere, and we're going to track her down, one way or another.'_

Harry mentally reflected the confidence, the determination, in Barbara's thoughts, and agreed with them. They were going to have to track down Pam one way or another. There was no way they couldn't find her to be perfectly honest.

' _The only thing I can say with one hundred percent certainty is she's somewhere in Gotham City,'_ Harry responded after a moment. _'Maybe, I should have…..'_

' _No, you shouldn't,'_ Barbara thought. _'Until she makes herself known, if she makes herself know, Dinah, Gwen, and I are more than enough to keep up the hunt. You're just going to have to do your best to live your life and do the best you can.'_

Harry felt he had this conversation a few times before, and as always, Barbara managed to win him over through some unmistakable logic. Harry took a few seconds to reflect. He knew Pamela was somewhere in Gotham City, that was one of the things he could.

Now, Harry stood at Gotham Central Airport, waiting for Eliza Danvers to arrive. He promised to show her the sights in Gotham City.

' _Batman's on the hunt as well,'_ Diana thought. _'Do you think he might be feeling guilty that he accused Pamela of being part of this?'_

Harry only could respond with a shrug, he honestly didn't know what went through the mind of his colleague. It was one of those things which were very hard for him to figure out. Regardless, Batman would see a case through to the end for better or for worse.

' _The moment we find out anything, you'll be the first to know,'_ Barbara thought. _'Well, anything tangible at least.'_

Pam had disappeared into the night in Gotham City, and none of them had the slightest clue where they would be. Harry turned his attention towards that particular piece of business and moved into the crowd at the Gotham Central Airport. The plane Eliza was on had not quite arrived yet, but Harry was in position to see it when it did.

He could see a familiar blonde making her way into the airport. Not the blonde he intended to see, but she made her way into the airport.

"Doctor Potter, it's good to see you again," Nora Fries said with a smile.

"Nora, I've told you a couple of times before, it's Harry," he responded. "So, how is everything?"

"Well, you know, I'm just doing everything I can to keep busy at work," Nora said. "Boyle intends to do what he can to change the world, and you know how he's angling to be Gotham City Humanitarian of the Year this year. Even though he had some pretty stiff competition."

"Well, if nothing else, he's doing some good for the city," Harry answered.

Nora responded with a nod. The award did bring at the best of people, in several ways, she supposed. She thought Boyle could be a bit fanatical in his desire to get that award.

"So, I'm heading off to a conference," Nora said. "I was worried about how I was going to be late, but the plane I wanted to get onto is very late. Guess an early spring blooming in Gotham doesn't matter, given how the weather is in the rest of the world."

"No," Harry agreed. "It doesn't appear so. So, how is your husband?"

"Victor's a little bit under the weather, so he won't be joining me on this trip," Nora answered. "But, he has high hopes for our work and our research. And GothCorp is making the most of it."

Harry smiled, he was glad to see the two scientists were doing well. Some of their research had helped him in the past, and the moderate partnership they had worked as well.

"Well, I think that's my plane getting ready to board," Nora said. "So, I'll be seeing you around. Take care, Doctor P…..Harry."

Nora moved back and walked off with a smile. Harry watched Nora disappear into the crowd of Gotham City. He craned his neck a few seconds up.

' _Well, unless I missed my guess, that's my mother's plane about ready to touch down,'_ Alex thought through the bond network link.

Harry figured she would be right. Sure enough, Alex was right on the money. The door of the plane opened up and Eliza Danvers made her way off of the plane. She moved over to get her bags, and thankfully they had all been in working order.

"Well, I'm here as promised," Harry answered.

Eliza smiled and tried to balance the bag on her shoulder. Harry reached over and took the bag from her, with a very subtle amount of ease. He slipped the bag onto his shoulder and took a step back from Eliza.

"So, how is everyone doing?" Harry asked.

"Fine, Carol's settling back in, Alex is staying out of trouble, as far as I know anyway," Eliza said. "She's pretty busy with her job, you know."

' _Well, you got that one right,'_ Alex thought with a sigh. _'I'm buried knee deep in paperwork.'_

' _One of the least amazing parts of any government job,'_ Carol thought.

' _Damn straight,'_ Alex thought.

"And Kara, she's still studying hard in school, making up rather well for what she had to relearn," Eliza responded with a smile. She took Harry's free hand and enjoyed the warmth surrounding it as the two of them crossed the street. "She wants to go into Media."

' _Imagine that,'_ Kara Kent-Potter chimed in through the bond link.

"Well, we're expanding into media, so by the time she's ready, we might have an intern position ready for her," Harry responded. "It's still very much a work in process, but most of the parts are together."

"I'm not surprised, given how diverse your operations are," Eliza said. "So, what are you calling this new media venture, anyway?"

"I was thinking something along the lines of Horizon," Harry responded. "You know because we wanted to look at different angles along the horizon of the world, you know, that sort of the thing."

"I understand," Eliza said with a smile. "Well, you're going to put your mind to anything, and do pretty well at."

Eliza took in the spring weather in Gotham City. She heard Gotham had some pretty notorious and pretty nasty weather, which was pretty much along the lines of their pretty notorious and pretty nasty crime wave. It was good she ran into some pretty excellent weather if Eliza could be perfectly honest.

"I'll take you back to the Penthouse, and show you where you'll be staying," Harry said. "And as promised, dinner in one of the finest restaurants in Gotham City, after we see some of the sights."

Eliza moved her arm down to wrap it around Harry's back and pulled the younger man next to her. "It's been a long time since I've had a chance to go out on the town. I really can't wait to see what Gotham City has to offer."

She thought it would be an amazing evening, to be honest. And if she had any say about it, this particular evening would be ending in the most enticing way possible. Eliza could not confirm nor deny what she had planned, but she planned to have some fun tonight.

Fun which sadly had been lacking in her life, ever since her husband died, but it was finally time for life to move on.

* * *

Slade Wilson did not get paid well enough to babysit some of these goons. His agitation had been growing by the very moment. He had been sent to this island to retrieve something of great value for a party who was willing to pay some large money for it.

The mercenary known as Deathstroke only hooked up with Fyers because it seemed like the most convenient idea at the time. He looked around and saw the men around him. They were very good hand to hand, but not as good as Slade. If Slade wished to fight his way off of the island, he could take them out in a snap of his fingers, just like that.

Slade's vision went around three hundred and sixty degrees to stare at all of these men. His burning gaze locked on all of them and his fingers clutched together.

' _I'm not sure what my benefactor had planned, keeping me around these people, putting me on this island. I'm no closer to acquiring the artifact than I was. And he appears to have been….'_

"We're close, we're very close," Fyers responded to his men. "Keep searching, I can feel it."

Slade wondered if the feeling Fyers had was true or just a figment of his own delusions. The legends surrounding Lian Yu was it drove some of the clearest minded people completely and utterly mad beyond all belief. Slade kept his head up and looking around for something, anything.

"What precisely are you after?"

Finally, Fyers turned his attention to Slade. Both men shared a long moment of pause where it appeared Fyers was debating heavily on exactly how much to tell Slade. Finally, as time passed, he decided to tell him pretty much the clearest statement ever.

"The less you know, Slade, the better off."

Slade closed his eyes and his fist as well. Fyers turned, half-muttering to himself, even though Slade picked up enough information from his ramblings to be interested.

"The old man slipped away, and now we no longer can leverage his daughter, we don't have many more options. But, we'll capture them all…..it won't be long until the lunatic gives them all away by his erratic behavior."

"I hope you don't underestimate Deadpool," Slade responded. "His methods are very unconventional, but you should not underestimate him and what is capable of. He can and he will surprise you."

"Do me a flavor, Slade, and kindly leave the strategy to me," Fyers said. "You are only here to do what you're paid for doing."

Again, Fyers addressed Slade as an employee, someone who he could shove around, and not a skilled professional. The mercenary knew now would not be the time to stab Fyers. Fyers could lead him to the item he was after, and Slade could finally get what he wanted.

' _And if we're after the same item, then he will perish by my hand,'_ Slade mentally thought, clutching the dagger in his hand.

Slade sacrificed so much and received so little in return. He took this job as an attempt to salvage everything he had sacrifice in life.

Something rustled in the bushes, and Slade turned around to search for the source of the disturbance. There was nothing coming on through the bushes. Merely an animal, there had been a few who made the island their residence.

Slade slowly turned back around. His benefactor had not given him the proper amount of contact, at least not just yet. As long as the check cleared, Slade honestly cared very little.

There would be a serious problem if Fyers stabbed him in the back. Slade kept one eye firmly on Edward Fyers and watched his every move. Deathstroke also kept an eye out for Deadpool. His unpredictable methods could throw a wrench in all, even the most well-laid plans.

' _Kid, you're twisted, but you won't be underestimated,'_ Slade thought.

Next time he saw him, Deadpool would perish. Slade was not going to allow that nuisance to ruin his mission because he could cause some serious damage. The only problem is, what was Deadpool doing on Lian Yu? Someone must have hired him, but who, and most importantly, to what ends?

X-X-X

Eliza whistled in response when she got a nice private booth away from Harry Potter. She thought it was a good thing she packed a nice black dress which fit around her mature body very nicely. She could just settle in and enjoy the sights here in Gotham City.

"I must say, when you treat a woman, you go all out."

Harry took a look at the black dress and saw Eliza leaning over on the table. She gave Harry the smallest glimpse of her cleavage before pulling back from him.

The couple ordered and waited for their food.

"I'm surprised they aren't making a big deal about you being here," Eliza responded, reaching underneath the table to lightly squeeze Harry's thigh before pulling back with a smile. "I mean, you are Harry Potter, and you normally do attract a lot of attention no matter where you go."

Harry decided turnabout was fair play, and he reached underneath the table to touch Eliza's stocking clad legs. The beautiful blonde smiled at him.

"Yes, the people at this restaurant are more of the reserved type, and less of the shrieking fan type," Harry said. "I don't mind the attention, but sometimes, it's nice to have a nice, reserved dinner."

Eliza responded with a nod and took a drink of the complimentary wine they had been left at the table. It made a lot of sense, to be perfectly honest.

"Interestingly enough, I've been on your payroll for a while, and just hadn't known it," Eliza said. "I guess it makes sense, given there are a lot of women on your payroll….."

"Star Labs branch on the west coast," Harry confirmed. Eliza looked taken aback by this, given how Harry framed it as less of a question and more of a statement. "Yes, I know. Well, one of the branches on the West Coast. I've been meaning to pay that branch some more attention. The two in Metropolis and Central City are taking over in precedence….you know, the guy who was running it is in very bad health."

"Yeah, I know," Eliza said. "That's why I haven't had that much work through that lab, but…"

"Well, I'm going to have to make some calls," Harry said. "But, it shouldn't be too hard for you to run that lab. It's only about thirty miles away from your house after all."

Eliza looked at Harry, mouth hanging open and eyes wide when she looked at him.

' _Harry, you've done something not even the three of us could do,'_ Alex thought. _'You've driven our mother completely speechless.'_

' _Yeah, that's pretty amazing,'_ Carol said. _'And given some of what I've gotten up to, and Alex got up to, during her wilder years…'_

' _I blame half of that on Daisy,'_ Alex thought.

Alex remembered she still needed to have a nice little chat about certain things with Daisy, but that would come in the not so distant future.

"Well, I'm flattered," Eliza said.

"I would be too if you say yes," Harry said. "Doctor DeFranco isn't going to last the rest of the year, and he mentioned the last time we talked, he wanted someone he could trust with the running of the lab. And I ran your name by him, and he was perfectly on board with the idea."

Eliza released her lip, biting down on it. There was only one thing she could say because of a statement like that. Her eyes widened and she broke into a brilliant smile.

Dinner arrived, and the two of them had some light conversation, over some dinner and some wind. Eliza had been very interested to hear more about her daughter's journey into space.

"Not much more I can tell you than what Carol told you, to be honest," Harry said to Eliza with a smile.

Eliza nodded in confirmation and would have to agree. The stories lined up with each other. Her daughter always reached for the stars. There was no further reach than helping patrol most of the galaxy. Eliza beamed with pride at the success her daughter had.

She kicked off her shoe during the course of the dinner and lightly stroked her stocking clad foot up Harry's leg. She casually looked across the table with a smile.

"So, I'm thinking I'd like a bit more guided tour of your penthouse," Eliza said. "If you've had your fill here…."

Harry could feel her elegant sole lightly brush against him. His iron will had been reinforced and he leaned across the table to lightly cup Eliza's chin before looking into the eyes of the sexy older woman. Harry understood where Carol and Alex got it from immediately.

"Of course," Harry said. "Now, the question is, Doctor Danvers, can you walk on your own accord?"

"I might be a little shaky, but I've had worse in college," Eliza said.

' _Oh, that's a story I'd like to hear,'_ Alex chimed in.

' _You do realize that when she actually hops onto the bond, after Harry seals the deal, you won't be able to talk behind her back, ever,'_ Carol thought.

' _It turns out my mother has a bit of a wild past before she settled down,'_ Alex thought. _'There's no shame in that, not really, we've all had our moments.'_

* * *

 

Barbara returned to the Gotham City Botanical Gardens for the third time in many days. This time, she was not alone, she walked next to Dinah.

' _You think you're going to catch her here,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Pam loved this place, and she was over the moon when Harry bought it for her,'_ Barbara thought. _'I know it wasn't one of the first places we looked, and then we looked against the next day, but maybe she's here today.'_

The flowers around the gardens bloomed even more beautiful than ever before. It raised a very prominent red flag in Barbara's head something was in fact up. She took a couple of steps into the garden.

Barbara noticed the doors to the gardens had been locked up tight, which was surprising, as they were wide open yesterday. A sign, a notice, said that all of the people who worked at the Gardens were to be sent home, until further notice.

' _Okay, someone locked up, but it wasn't like this the other day,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Maybe one of the florists had a key?'_ Gwen thought.

' _Maybe,'_ Barbara thought.

She sounded very skeptical in her thoughts, and she had a pretty damn good reason to be skeptical. Thankfully, Barbara had a key and she stepped into the gardens. Several of the rarest and exotic plants in the world greeted her the very second she walked her way inside.

No sign of anyone in the Garden, but one of the doors had been partially opened, leading upstairs to the gardens. Barbara frowned, someone had been here.

' _Stay close to me,'_ Barbara thought.

' _No, I'm not letting you out of my sight,'_ Dinah agreed.

Barbara smiled, thinking it was fair enough. She could smell something, something which had a hint of the perfume Pamela wore. It was mixed in with something else, and the smell made Barbara feel light headed and particularly giddy. She closed her eyes to mentally come back to reality before popping back into the real world.

' _Okay, Babs, stay focus, keep your head above the water. Don't lose your cool…..'_

' _Well, I found a couple of interesting reports,'_ Gwen said, interjecting herself into the bond network as casually as possible. _'There has been some oddness in plants springing up in areas close by. There were rumors they had been containment. One of the areas, no plants had been able to grow in about twenty or so years, one about thirty.'_

' _And yet, plants are growing here,'_ Barbara thought.

She sounded a bit absent-minded through her thoughts because she very much was. Barbara turned around in the corner and frowned. They could say, at least, there hadn't been that much extreme growth like there had been a couple of days ago.

' _It's pretty eerie to see plants grow in those conditions,'_ Gwen added. _'Oddly beautiful, but it's still pretty eerie….don't really know what to make it.'_

In an instant, Barbara saw a figure move in the shadows. She caught the barest glimpse of red hair and got her hopes up.

"Pam!" she yelled.

Barbara took a couple of steps towards the nearest exit, with Dinah being as close behind as possible. Both of them moved around deeper into the gardens.

Whoever it was, if it was Pamela Isley, well she was gone now.

' _Batman just called in, he's heading off to investigate the plant growths,'_ Gwen thought.

Barbara juts nodded, not having much time to spare to those thoughts. She was so close to grabbing Pamela, it was almost like the woman slipped directly through her fingers. She took a nice and deep breath, inhaled it and exhaled it out.

' _She's gone, I was so close.'_

Dinah reached in and put a hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "We'll get her, trust me, Babs, we'll get her next time."

Barbara wondered if Pam was even the second person. The mutation twisted Woodrue, even more so than he already had been twisted. Now, Barbara didn't think Pamela would be the same person.

' _Which would account for the fact we can't reach her through the bond, no matter how hard we try to reach her,'_ Barbara thought in response, frowning as deep as possible.

She looked around, perhaps for another glimpse of the figure. Barbara feared Pam if it was her, was not going to be coming back to the Gardens anytime soon.

' _Way to blow it, Babs.'_

She threw her head back in a sigh and continued to move on, for better or for worse. They still had some investigation to go. Perhaps, the plants which were growing in dead areas would be a good sign.

* * *

 

Eliza could not help, but be impressed by the lab area. Harry showed her a couple of things which were not known by the general public. And there were many more things Eliza could not see. She managed to sober up just enough to be impressed by the lab around her.

"Wow, you really do have a world-class operation," Eliza responded.

"I do my best," Harry answered to her.

"And you know what the scariest part is," Eliza said. She leaned closer towards him and almost had her mouth at his ear. Eliza pulled back, but only slightly. "The scariest part is, you have room for improvement."

Harry answered with a nod and a smile. He would have to agree with Eliza, no matter how good he was, there was always some room for improvement. The older woman looked around the lab, with a smile, and then looked back towards Harry.

"And if you can find a way to replicate the Kryptonian artificial intelligence through Earth technology, it would change the world," Eliza said.

"The actual process would be very expensive," Harry said. "And we know how we have to plan things carefully, to make sure…"

Eliza responded with a nod. She read enough papers on AI to realize there were so many questions. They needed to make the AI learn from the mistakes of people, but there was a chance the AI could develop logical conclusions which could be wrong. A computer, under any means, which was only good as how it had been coded, and that could be a problem if it's not coded well. And if an AI had been coded with malicious intent, well there could be problems.

"I'm glad I didn't check into a hotel room," Eliza said. "I want to thank you for the nice time I had in Gotham City."

The two had been brought together with a kiss. Eliza wrapped her arms around Harry and smashed her lips against his deeply. The older woman put so many repressed feelings into that kiss. Harry moved his grip downwards to ensnare Eliza and pull her closer into him.

Both bodies pressed together in a feverish makeout session. Harry's tongue worked between Eliza's lips and he pulled her in a very sensual kiss. Her hands roamed without abandon and started to pull Harry's clothes off.

The two of them backed into Eliza's bedroom. Eliza's right leg scissored around Harry's waist. Harry used his fingers to slowly stroke her stocking clad leg and cause her to moan. Harry slipped his hand up her dress and slowly teased her. He pulled away from her lips and kissed the side of her neck.

"I brought something…ooh right there," Eliza moaned. She could feel Harry lighting teasing her in many ways. "I brought something….special for the trip, so why don't you….just take a seat, and I'll be with you in a minute."

Eliza grabbed Harry's ass and winked at him. The hot blonde woman pulled away from Harry and left him on the bed. He didn't have to wait but a few minutes from Eliza to emerge from the bathroom off to the side.

The stunning blonde dressed in slinky black slip made of see through material which allowed Harry full view of her perky breasts and erect nipples. Her body looked toned, and sexy, indicating she worked out and looked amazing for her age. Her shapely hips swayed, and Harry noticed she wore a thong. Her stockings covered her legs.

Eliza moved over onto the bed and straddled Harry's hips.

"Why don't we get you out of those pants, stud?" she whispered hotly in Harry's ear.

His cock strained against the pants and Eliza smiled. Harry reached over to cup her ass and she made a movement to work Harry's clothes off.

* * *

 

The next thing Harry knew, his clothes had been torn off by the sexy minx of a MILF over the top of him. Eliza leaned down and kissed Harry, starting at the side of his neck, working her way down his chest, and making her way to his abs, which she spent a lot of time worshipping.

Eliza tasted the delightful, firm flesh of the young man. She wanted this, so badly, this young stud, inside of her, and fucking her into a delightful sex coma, but first, she had to sample the merchandise. More kisses followed and Eliza pulled back the only barrier which blocked them from having a fair amount of fun.

Harry's boxer shorts came off and his long cock stood up straight in the air, at attention. It demanded to be sucked and Eliza wasn't one to deny such an attractive young man what he wanted.

"Do you want your cock sucked, baby?" Eliza asked.

Eliza left lipstick marks all over Harry's cock when she kissed it up and down. She lubricated Harry's long pole with saliva and made him groan when her lips moved down onto him. The minx worked her lips around Harry's cock and worked the pull. Her body craved this, and she was gushing with excitement when she had his cock firmly in her mouth.

Harry closed ranks down onto the back of Eliza's head and guided her mouth down onto his throbbing hard prick. Harry grabbed the back of the blonde's head and she sucked him, sucked him very hard. He lifted up off of the bed and brought his cock into her mouth.

"Damn, Eliza, your mouth feels so fucking good!" Harry yelled.

Several sensual slurps continued, with Eliza bringing her lips all the way down onto Harry's hard cock. It pressed into her mouth and spread her lips apart. Hunger danced into the eyes of the beautiful women when she kept sucking on Harry. Harry held the back of her head and worked his engorged prick deeper into her mouth.

"Damn, Eliza suck my cock, suck it so good baby!" Harry groaned.

Eliza kept sucking Harry. Her actions got more feverish, more sensual, and hungrier. She took this cock into the back of her throat, nice and far, sucking Harry for everything he was worth. Her fingernails lightly raked down his thighs. She tasted him.

Those large balls demanded to be squeezed, and Eliza did. Harry reached up and gripped the back of her head, to work more of his prick into her mouth. Like the divine sex goddess she was, Eliza sucked him down deep and hard. His manhood pumped its way deep inside of her mouth.

"Damn, fuck, oh this feels so good!" Harry said. "I'm about ready to blow, Eliza, I'm going to cum in your mouth. I hope you're ready to taste my cum!"

Eliza double downed on her efforts to suck Harry. Harry held on the back of her head. The MILF tightly gripped his balls and caressed them very hard. Harry closed his eyes and worked deeper inside of Eliza's warm throat. He could feel her wrapping down around his cock and threatening to drain his balls.

The MILF wanted to drain Harry of his cum, but she knew it would take some work. Her body hungered for him, calling for him. And calling for his cum more importantly. Harry guided his hands on the back of Eliza's head and guided her into his mouth.

Harry exploded into her mouth and sent a blast of cum down her throat. Eliza sucked up his cum very hungrily and took every drop of it deep inside of her mouth. She didn't break her stride, not at all, when sucking as much cum as Harry could give her, out of his balls.

"Yummy."

Eliza pulled away from Harry and planted a light kiss on the tip of his cock which caused it to twitch. Harry rose up out of the bed and grabbed Eliza by the wrists before pushing her back onto the bed. The sexy blonde squealed underneath Harry's actions, and she looked up him with a grin.

"Oh, I like how you're so aggressive!" Eliza moaned.

"You haven't seen anything yet."

Harry reached off and pulled down her lingerie top. Those breasts were still amazingly perky at Eliza's age and showed how much she took care of herself. Harry reached for her chest and squeezed those breasts before he slowly reached down towards Eliza.

Each touch brought a greater moment of anticipation into the mind of Eliza Danvers. She wondered what Harry had in store for her next. Excitement bubbled through her body the very second Harry touched her, tempted her. He slowly caressed her nether lips and made her hips rise up to meet Harry.

"Harry!" she begged him.

Harry pulled off her panties and revealed her dripping wet cunt. She shaved it off all hair but a small strip of red hair. His fingers lightly caressed Eliza's pussy lips, before he moved down. He kissed the woman's delicious looking flat stomach.

Every action brought Eliza further to the edge, and closer to an amazing peak. Harry touched her in ways which she had never been touched before. Now he swooped in between her legs and began to eat her pussy.

"You're so good!" she moaned at the top of her lungs.

Harry ran his hands down Eliza's firm thighs and slowly worked between her lovely legs. Her thighs dripped with arousal and Harry had her pretty much right where he wanted her. Eliza locked her legs around Harry's head and Harry continued to maneuver his way around the soft, the sensual flesh between her legs.

He ate her out and brought Eliza to a shrieking moan of an orgasm. Her hips bucked halfway off of the bed and then dropped onto the bed. Her moaning increased with Harry working his tongue between her nether lips and down into the depths of her body.

Eliza saw stars shooting through her mind at Harry's action. He pulled himself up out of her and leaned down to kiss the side of Eliza's neck.

"On your hands and knees."

Eliza didn't really question this fact. She moved onto her hands and knees. Harry was right behind her and his cock slapped against her juicy ass in response. Harry grabbed Eliza's nice ass and gave it a squeeze. He slowly guided his cock towards her entrance.

"Harry, please," she begged him.

Harry moved closer towards her entrance, dripping slit opened up for the powerful young man. He guided his cock closer towards Eliza and slid inside of her.

"Damn, Eliza, you're so tight!" Harry groaned.

Her pussy walls wrapped around him and it felt good to be pushed inside of such a sexy woman. She kept herself in pretty good shape and was what Harry would consider ageless. He rose back out of her and buried his thick cock deep inside of her warm pussy. She stretched around Harry when he pulled almost all the way out of her and then slid deeper inside of her.

Eliza closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of this huge hunk of meat buried inside of her body. Harry pushed deep inside of her body and stretched her out. His hands roamed and touched all of the spots on her body which drove Eliza completely insane.

"Fuck me hard!" Eliza yelled at the top of her lungs. "Oh, it's been way too long since I've been fucked so fucking hard, that I can't stand the next day. Drill me with that big cock, pull my fucking hair!"

Harry grabbed Eliza's hair and pulled back on her.

"You like being fucked from behind, you sexy MILF," Harry growled in her ear. "You like being fucked by the same cock that fucked two of your daughters."

"Oh, yes, I do!" Eliza moaned. "I can't wait to eat your cum out of one of their sweet pussies either….but we can do that another time. "

She came so hard, from Harry roughly fucking her from behind. Eliza didn't realize how much she needed a nice big cock inside of her, stretching her out in every which way possible. The deeper the huge cock went into her, the further she had been brought to the edge.

"Fuck!" Eliza yelled. "I've never come this hard."

"I can make you cum harder."

That whispered declaration made Eliza's loins grip Harry very hard. Her pussy gripped Harry from behind. He worked his way out of her and then buried himself back into her. His thick balls sprung back and slammed onto Eliza's wet pussy walls. Harry almost pulled all the way out of her and then jammed his hard cock back inside of her with a fluid series of pumps.

"Yes, harder, fuck me harder!" Eliza begged him. "Make me cum harder!"

She dropped down onto the bed for a minute and Harry drilled her pussy. It never felt so full. Eliza couldn't have gone another minute without Harry's big thick cock working its way inside of her pussy. His hands also worked their magic inside of her.

Harry pushed deeper inside of the minx underneath him. Her ass bounced when Harry drilled inside of her. He spanked her toned ass as well, Harry couldn't really exist. She was really making him want to fuck her harder.

"Good thing you couldn't hold out because I sure couldn't either," Harry said. "And get ready."

Eliza bit down on her lip for a second, before letting it out. She screamed at the top of her lungs and enjoyed the feeling of Harry's thick cock drilling inside of her loins. They released his manhood with a few more pumps. Harry almost pulled all the way out of her and then planted his hard rod inside of her again.

"Here it comes, get ready!" Harry whispered in Eliza's ear.

She was more than ready for what was to come. Those balls were so big, so thick, and so ready for cum, which would spill directly inside of her.

"Fuck, I'm ready!" Eliza begged him. "Cum inside me, Harry, please!"

Harry pushed his way into Eliza and made sure she could feel how much cum had been stored in his balls. Harry picked up a steadier pace and brought his cock out of her, before pushing it deeper inside of Eliza. Those thick balls connected against her thighs.

He pumped his load inside of Eliza's pussy. She grabbed onto the bed and screamed for more. Harry gave her more pounding her pussy.

Eliza felt the cum splatter against her inside walls and it just caused her to cum even more. Harry rode out his orgasm inside of her pussy. She clenched him, careful not to waste a single drop of cum.

Harry pulled out of Eliza's dripping, stretched, pussy. Eliza slowly turned around a predatory smile on her eyes. She grabbed Harry's crotch with a lustful look in her eyes and squeezed it.

"I know you have another load for me," Eliza said. "And your mother-in-law is not done playing with you, stud."

The sensual blonde mounted Harry's cock. The tip of it entered her pussy slit, and she dropped down onto Harry, preparing to ride him into the night until one of them couldn't go anymore.

Eliza knew he would outlast her, but she did not go down without a fight. And she could tell Harry appreciated that.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on February 25** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

**Always a good thing when another MILF is added to the fun and games. And that's three out of the four, even though younger Kara isn't quite old enough by Harry's rules. But don't worry, we'll get there eventually.**

**Pamela is playing hard to get, as Dinah and Barbara are trying to track her down.**

**We check in with Nora Fries after not seeing her for a while, and we can see where the winds are blowing.**

**Until Saturday.**


	267. Poison Ivy Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Seven: Poison Ivy Part One**

* * *

 

The Arkham Wing of Blackgate prison contained some of the most colorful and some of the more deranged criminals who had ever set foot in Gotham City over the past couple of years. Way too many people detected a change in Gotham City, a change which indicated the criminal element had gotten more twisted over numerous years. Argue what you wish, but the fact remained, there had been changes.

So many changes, many speculated the staff of Blackgate prison would not have been able to contain everything, should there be a prison breakout. Right now, some of the prisoners remained in their cells, heavily medicated some of them, but some grew restless. Some had been left off medication, but for some reason, it didn't hold any effect.

Maxie Zeus rocked back and forth in the cell at the end of the hallway, muttering to himself.

"I've had it!" Zeus yelled. "My new Olympus…..Hades took it away, he sent his vile dragon to take it away from me."

"Sure, that's what they all say," a figure at the end of the hallway said.

Drury Walker, better known as Killer Moth, was one of the more quiet prisoners. His attack against now current District Attorney, Harvey Dent, brought him here, even though he was one of the more silent prisoners here. Yet, he had been sent to the Arkham wing because he had been classified as a high-level dangerous threat.

"The flames, he killed them!" Garfield Lynns wailed. "My one true love."

"I'm detecting a running theme here. You know, there's a lot of anxiety here based on one person, maybe two if I do an informal poll. I just can't put my finger on who it could be….oh, I know, could it be Nightwing and Batman? Wouldn't that be a real kick if it was them? Oh boy!"

No one could deny one of Gotham City's inmates, that being the man who terrorized Gotham City over the past holiday season, and who had managed to take control of Black Mask's criminal empire for a time. No one knew his name, officially on record, John Doe had been written on a line. He preferred most to call him Joker.

He was one of the reasons why the staff of Blackgate at the Arkham Wing were very uneasy right about now. Joker was not rocking back and forth like many of the prisoners in Blackgate. Oh no, he sat rather calm, rather tranquil, and he just almost waited for something.

"What the hell are you smiling at?" a gruff voice asked.

"Zsazz, my old buddy, why shouldn't we smile on such a nice day like this?" Joker asked.

The sadistic killer gave the Joker a long look. Tally marks covered his torso and chest, revealing each murder he permitted. Soon, there would be a tally mark for the man who put him here, but he must not be premature. He only carved his flesh when the last drop of blood flowed from his adversary's body. When his last breath spilled from his worthless lungs, Zsazz would have his day.

"Besides, they've brought in fresh meat!" Joker cheered. "Okay, maybe not meat, more like bark, but it still counts!"

Their eyes all shifted over to the cell across the hallway which contained what passed as Jason Woodrue these days. The criminal, the once brilliant scientist, had his skin transformed into a sadistic, rotting tree. No one quite knew what to make.

Three doctors made their way down the hallway to check things out. One of the doctors was a senior medical professional in the Arkham wing, and he had been flanked by two interns.

"Oh, paging Doctor Howard, Doctor Fine, Doctor Howard!" The Joker jeered from his cell.

"Make sure you avoid all contact with him," the lead doctor told his interns in a low voice.

Not low enough for Joker not to hear.

"Oh, now you're hurting my feelings. It's very rude of you, you know! It's almost like you don't like me…actually, you really don't like me, do you?"

None of the doctors responded. One of them had already resigned and checked herself into a medical institution after dealing with the Joker. Not any in Gotham City mind you, a real medical institution.

They were going to have to find someone of stronger constitution to deal with the Joker and all of his insanity. The two interns walked passed the Joker and made their rounds for all of the other prisoners. Walker, Lynns, Zeus, and Zsazz were all where the doctors intended them to be on this side of the cell block.

"Everyone is ship shape, well….wait until you get a load of the new guy," the Joker responded.

No one knew who the Joker was, they took his fingerprints, but there were no fingerprints which matched his on file. They had been trying to figure this game out, what he was, who he was, but there had been nothing. The only thing the staff of Blackgate could do was keep the Joker locked up.

"All we have to do is take a look at Woodrue," one of the younger doctors said.

"Oh boy, here we go, this is going to be great!" Joker cheered from the other side of the cell.

They made their way into the cell, and they noticed the cell had been empty, other than a small clump of dirt. A chilling thought spread through the minds of all of the doctors involved. They realized Jason Woodrue had escaped, but how was the question?"

"The door's locked, there's no way!" the doctor yelled.

"Oh, there's always a way, if you're willing to put your mind to it!" Joker yelled. "All you need is just a little bit of willpower, and snap, you can move the world."

That insidious laughter came from the Joker's cell. One again, the doctors tried not to let him get into their head. The doctor waved his hand down the hallway, to call for one of the guards. A guard rushed all the way down the hallway and made his way.

"Woodrue has escaped!" the doctor yelled.

"That's inconceivable," the guard said.

"You keep using that word," Joker said. "I don't think it means what you think it means."

It wasn't as funny when the people set up the obvious punchline for them. The guard fumbled with his keys and made his way closer towards the lock. He turned the key into the tumbler of the lock and opened up the cell.

"Got to love the old fashion lock and door cell, no nothing is going to go wrong there," Joker said. "And nothing is going to go wrong, by opening the cell of a criminal who you think escaped, despite the door being locked up tighter than a nun's box. Nope, nothing wrong there, nope, not at all."

The guards and the three doctors entered there. Joker shifted himself on the chair and watched closer.

"Wait for it!" Joker yelled.

Suddenly, almost on cue, large, thick vines ensnared the doctors.

"Oh, I think they're all choked up to see you're still there, Jason!" Joker yelled. "Look at that…..oh come on, no need to feel so blue!"

The doctors and the guard passed out. Woodrue slowly left the cell, looking very disoriented in the process. He dragged his roots on the ground and looked from one side to the other, not quite sure where he was going.

"And ladies and gentlemen, we have a prison break," Joker said. "Come on, hook a brother up, Doc!"

Woodrue smashed through the ground and slowly descended down into Earth. He had been compelled to return to his old lab. He made sure to smash through the floor at the point where none of the inmates could escape. More guards rushed down the hallway a few seconds later.

"Well, who say that coming, other than anyone?"

* * *

Thea decided to swing by the penthouse, along with Ella, to have her meet the girls. Selina had a couple of things to take care of, so Thea agreed to take care of the younger girl. She was a bit nervous she might get along a little too well with those twin sisters of Harry.

' _Well, whatever happens, happens.'_

She mentally counted down the weeks to her birthday, it wasn't too much longer. Harry promised her what would happen the moment she turned seventeen. She made her way and saw a girl with dirty blonde hair and a ponytail begin to shoot arrows at a target. Thea noticed she's pretty good.

"Hey, that's pretty good," she said.

"Thanks...Mia isn't it?" Artemis asked.

"Yeah," she responded, remembering her cover story and her alias. "So, have you been practicing archery for a long time?"

"Just a little bit," Artemis responded. "It's just one of my things I like to do….have you ever done it?"

Thea responded with a smile and leaned towards the younger girl. "Yeah, a little bit….do you mind if I take a couple of quick shots? I was doing it a couple of years ago, but I kind of fell out of practice. So, I wondered if you would mind if I would take up the bow."

"Sure, I don't mind," Artemis answered.

She handed the bow and arrow to Mia, wondering if the girl could take the shot. The older brunette turned herself around and zeroed in on the target. She could have hit any single point on the target, but why go for the rest, when you could go for the best. Thea locked onto the most central, most pointed target in the middle and drew back the arrow.

The arrow fired and connected with the center target. Thea pulled back with a small smile crossing her face. She would have done a little dance.

"That wasn't…for someone who says they're out of practice, that wasn't very bad at all," Artemis responded. "How did you do it?"

The girl just responded with a shrug and put her hand on her hand. "Guess, it comes naturally to me."

Artemis nodded with agreement. She thought she was a natural at archery, but Mia schooled her a little bit. She wanted to make sure of something, though. A small, very devious smile popped over the face of the younger girl when placing a hand on the small of Mia's back.

"I bet you can't get the shot again," Artemis responded.

"Oh, is that a challenge?" Mia asked.

"You better believe it's a challenge," Artemis said.

Never one to back down from a challenge, especially from someone younger than her, Mia re-loaded the bow and stepped back a couple of feet. She maneuvered into place, visualized the shot, and sent the shot right into the center, once again, just like the first.

"Okay, you've made a believer out of me," Artemis said. "That was amazing."

"Easy kid, don't start gushing," Thea said with a smile. "You're much too young for that."

Her joke pretty much went over the top of Artemis's head, although one of the other girls, Lois, who had been talking to Ella over on the couch, heard it, and ducked her head, to go into a fit of giggles.

"The point is, practice makes perfect," Thea said. "So, just keep doing what you can do, and you're going to get pretty far."

Artemis responded with a nod, she knew she would get pretty far if she had anything to say about it. She resumed her practice, not quite getting the same shots Mia did, but damn, would she try to get those shots? One of these days, she would strike the central part of the target.

A smile crossed the face of Thea, and she would be lying if she wasn't happy. She kept a close eye on Ella, who was talking with Jade, Rebecca, and Lois, who were in the same age group. She turned around and came face to face with Amanda and Emily.

"Just the girl we wanted to see," Amanda said.

"You wanted to see me?" Thea asked. "Should I be excited or should I be scared?"

"Maybe a little bit of both, given what Mandy here has planned for you," Emily said. "She wants to take you shopping because your big day with Harry is coming up in a couple of weeks."

"And it's only fair you look your best," Amanda said. "So, how about it, this weekend, the three of us can spend some time together…and pick you out something nice to wear for your big day with Harry? You only have your first time once after all, you should make it memorable."

"Besides, we know what Harry likes about as well as anyone," Emily said. "So, we wouldn't want you to go in blind, would we?"

Thea just responded with a very casual nod towards both of the twins. She had no idea what they had in store for her, but she was very excited, and also kind of nervous.

"If you get nervous, just pretend Harry's in his underwear," Amanda said. "Of course, you do that a lot of the time anyway, don't you?"

The wink towards the younger girl was not missed, even though she was only slightly younger than the twins. Thea had been counting down for this big moment for quite some time, excited what might happen.

* * *

 

Harry needed to keep some of his appointments, unfortunately. He would have been a lot more at ease if he had known where Pamela was. Still, after the sighting about a week back at the Botanical Gardens, there had not been any sign of Pamela, or any more of the strange plant growth. There had been flowers blooming, an indication of an early spring.

Even in Gotham City, that wasn't completely odd. Weird, weather occurred throughout the nation. It was just the complications of climate change.

Harry showed up in Smallville, with Faora tagging along, along with Hippolyta, Diana, and Lily. They were heading to the Kawatchee Establishment. Several of the women outside gave Harry a longing look when he passed by.

' _It never matters where you go, does it?'_ Diana asked.

Diana could read Harry like a book and knew his mind wandered elsewhere every now and then.

"Harry, you didn't have to make this trip," Lily said.

"I promised a while back before this happened I would," Harry said. "It wouldn't reflect very well on me if I didn't, would it?"

Lily just put her hand around her son's shoulders, and the group made their way there. Lily was here to check on the progress the mother of her second granddaughter was making. Hippolyta was there to answer any questions, given she was the only women they knew of, who Harry impregnated, having Lyta all of those years ago. Diana tagged along with her mother, and Faora was there to check for any complications.

Eliza Moonstar stepped out, looking on with a smile when laying sight on Harry.

"Harry, I heard what happened," she said. "I'm surprised you made the trip out there."

Harry reached over and grabbed the hand of his pregnant wife, before giving it a very light squeeze. "I'm here because I promised I would be here. Six months pregnant….there have been no complications, have there?"

"No, there hasn't," Eliza said. "Queen Hippolyta, I do have a few questions to ask you, about what to expect, if you don't mind."

"Of course," Hippolyta said.

She considered all of the bond mates to be sisters, and given her and Eliza shared something unique, at least for the moment, their sisterly bond was closer.

"First, I'm going to have to say, my answer is yes," Eliza responded. "I want to head to the island, and Dani is excited about the trip."

"I'm glad you agreed," Faora said. "The Amazons know what to expect after Hippolyta went through their pregnancy. I will be able to come by very easily, you will be in good hands."

"I'm glad," Eliza said with a smile.

She followed Faora into the medical area, where they could conduct what was a bi-weekly check-up. One could hardly fault Faora, by making sure the pregnancy process of her unborn niece went about as smoothly as possible.

' _So, any luck?'_ Harry asked.

' _No more luck than when you got on the plane than when you got to Smallville,'_ Barbara thought. _'I just wish, I would have been a bit quicker, at the Gardens.'_

' _None of this is your fault, Babs, and I'm not going to hear another word against yourself,'_ Harry thought in one of the sternest voices he could imagine. _'You and Dinah just keep looking and keep me posted. I'm going to try and enjoy this visit.'_

Harry did attempt every now and then to reach out into the bond. He had a small sense, a tiny sense, Pam lurked around the edges somewhere, almost as if trying to feel him out. But there was another sense, her mind had changed enough where she was a completely different person.

' _I hate to say it, but it's going to be a complete crapshoot,'_ Dinah responded. _'Unless she comes to us, or we happen to fall into her lap.'_

Harry spent a moment looking around.

' _Kara, I'll be over in about an hour,'_ Harry thought.

' _I wouldn't have blamed you if you didn't come, and just stayed in Gotham City,'_ Kara thought.

' _No one is blaming me, but I do have a life I have to live,'_ Harry thought. _'Sooner or later, Pam's going to have to show up, one way or another, we're going to have her, one way or another.'_

Harry just hoped the one way or another was going to be a good way. Right now, he pulled himself out of the bond link and waited for Faora to give the assessment of the checkup. He wasn't the only one, with Lily, Hippolyta, and Diana all waiting patiently to see what we would bring.

* * *

 

Barbara drew in a breath and sighed in frustration. She would have liked to think they were getting closer to tracking Pamela down, but they weren't. The near miss at the Gardens had been the closest in a very long time they had to catching up with Pam.

"I don't know, it's like she's dropped off of the face of Gotham," Barbara said. "It's almost like she doesn't want anyone to find her."

They had been back to the Gardens at least once a day for the past week, but so far, there had been no Pamela showing up. Both of the girls had their nerves on the edge.

"Maybe…that's the point," Dinah said. "We should head in tonight, we've been out here, and there has been no sign, not even a flower out of place."

"I want to check out that old chemical dump site, one more time," Barbara said.

They had been shielded because of the negative effects, but Dinah wasn't sure if it was the best place to visit. And it was a very clear longshot Pam would even be there in the first place.

' _It's Batman, do you want me to put him on?'_ Gwen asked.

A long pause followed, and Barbara figured, it would be best to put him on. Batman wouldn't have called unless he had any tangible information for them.

' _Yes,'_ Barbara thought. _'Put him on?'_

"Batgirl?" Batman asked a moment or so later.

"Yes, " Batgirl responded in an equally casual voice. She had been cooled, calm and collected.

"Jason Woodrue has escaped from the Arkham wing."

"No, it's impossible, he couldn't have…" Batgirl said.

She stopped a moment after that statement left her mouth. Why wouldn't it be possible, she didn't know? Woodrue managed to get out, and he was loose in Gotham City. Harry warned them this would happen.

"They opened the cell, didn't they?" Batgirl asked.

"The report indicates that they noticed nothing other than a clump of dirt in the cell," Batman said. "When they opened it up, the dirt morphed into vines which strangled them, and then he escaped."

' _I can't believe this,'_ Barbara thought. _'Those idiots, they were warned, I can't….son of a bitch, I just want to scream.'_

"I'm tracking down a lead on Miss Isley right now, I'll keep you posted," Batman said.

There was no chance for Batgirl to ask Batman where he was heading and what he had found about Pamela because the communication link had gone dead. She curled her fingers up against the side in frustration and took a deep breath, wanting to just punch something or someone. Given how Woodrue was now at large.

' _So do you want to break the bad news to Harry, or should I?'_ Dinah asked. _'Because he's going to want to know about this.'_

' _I'll do it, just give me a minute to get things together,'_ Barbara thought to herself.

She could not believe this, to be perfectly honest. Her eyes glazed over and she only wishes to introduce her palm into her face.

' _They were warned and now Woodrue is out there,'_ Barbara thought. _'And Batman is going to go after Pam…..I don't think he's the best person to go after her. He means…well, but…..'_

Barbara pulled her way from her thoughts and decided to make to tell Harry the news.

* * *

 

Harry swung by the Kent Residence. Kara waited at the edge of the driveway and smiled. She wasn't the only one, Martha waited for him.

"Mum will be by in a about an hour," Harry said. He reached forward and wrapped his arms around Martha's waist before kissing her on the top of the head. He pulled back for her. "She juts has a couple of business interests to take care of, and she'll be back around."

"I understand," Martha said.

Kara reached over and placed her hand on Harry's, and gave it a squeeze. Harry appreciated the gesture. Hippolyta, Diana, and Faora decided to spend the night with Eliza at the Kawatchee establishment, asking any questions and concerns about the arrival of the new baby in about three months.

Harry took a second to let in a deep breath.

"So, how are you doing?" Harry asked.

"Really?" Martha asked. "Because I feel like I'm the one who should be asking you that question?"

"I'm dealing with it," Harry said. "How's Jonathan?"

"He still has a hard time listening to doctor's orders, even with the added help," Martha said. "Claire, Marie, and I try to make him listen…Claire's visiting Lana right now, but she should be back for dinner….Marie is inside, helping me get set up…..I should make sure she's…..'

" _Harry, I hate to bother you,"_ Barbara thought.

' _No, Babs, I told you to bother me if you heard something,'_ Harry thought. _'Have you found her, have you found Pam?'_

' _No, not exactly,'_ Barbara thought. _'Woodrue escaped from Blackgate….the idiots opened the cell when you told them not to.'_

Harry didn't say much of anything. He left Woodrue in a catatonic state, never to wake up again. He was beginning to put a couple of ideas together of what might have woken him up. Harry couldn't prove it, but he had his own thoughts, his own feelings, about everything.

"I know," Martha said. "I'll tell the girls something came up."

"I'll be back by when I can," Harry said.

Martha squeezed the hand Kara wasn't holding onto and leaned in to steal a very subtle, but very nice kiss from Harry. The two of them pulled away from each other.

Harry and Kara had been left alone on the path.

"So, you need a lift back to Gotham?" Kara asked.

It wasn't something Harry liked to do that often, but he nodded never the less. Night had fallen, and they needed to get back quickly. Kara could fly him back in a matter of seconds, and he could get to work tracking down Woodrue.

Harry just had a sickening feeling if he found Woodrue, he would find Pamela.

* * *

 

A disoriented Woodrue slid into his old lab at Gotham City University. He expected the lab to be trashed, and when it wasn't, it caught him completely off guard. Rows and rows of beautiful flowers grew around him, with one large flower in the central part of the room.

The largest flower bloomed and a very alluring looking redhead stepped out. Woodrue looked at her, still disoriented. She dressed completely in red, only just covering the bits which needed to be covered. She had long legs, dazzling hair, and bright green eyes, along with a very familiar smile.

"Miss…..Isley…"

The woman's smile spread, and it looked very maliciously.

"You would have to return to the scene of the crime, the scene where you murdered me," Pamela said. "And underneath your lab, is another secret lab. Your benefactors must have set you up…..I've seen what you've done with those poor plants."

"They….they….it was just harmless…"

"If you didn't think they suffered, you're wrong!" She yelled. "You corrupted both my work…and his work, for your own selfish, personal gains."

A vine slammed through the bark that was Woodrue's chest and hoisted him off of the ground.

"Pamela, please," Woodrue begged.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you."

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on February 27** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

**Joker was the highlight of this chapter. I know, it's a big surprise.**

**Poison Ivy comes into greater prominence, and something is going to happen. And Woodrue is going to pay big time.**

**More on Monday.**


	268. Poison Ivy Part Two

Usual Chapter of the Week Poll is up until Saturday. Vote for last week's chapter of the week at the blog. 

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Eight: Poison Ivy Part Two**

* * *

 

The news of Woodrue's escape and the very unconventional manner he did so, caused Batman to return to the scene fo where it all started. He returned to Gotham City University. Time was of the essence and Batman had no choice, but to head there as quickly as possible.

The Detective made his way to the undergrowth which grew outside of the window of Woodrue's former office. The students and staff had been evacuated due to the uncontrollable plant growth which had been spilling out of the windows of all sides. Batman dropped down to take a closer look at anything. It was not the strangest thing he had dealt with.

Whoever had been controlling the plants, they did not want anyone to get inside, whether it be Batman, Woodrue, or pretty much anyone else. The Detective craned his neck backward and then leaned in forwards to look through the windows. There was nothing other than the growth.

"Sir, are you sure about this?" Alfred asked over the communicator. "You're a detective not a gardener after all."

Alfred's humor just fell upon deaf ears. Batman clipped something into place and made his way to try and push the door lock open. Unfortunately for the Detective, he encountered enough resistance on his way inside of the door. Something sprung back and sprung back hard.

"I've got to find a way inside," Batman said.

Batman had a sense someone watched his every move. The Detective briefly stopped his attempts to get the door open and turned around, to try and locate the source of the person who was watching him. So far, no luck in finding them, and Batman forced himself to return to the process of getting the door open.

"You shouldn't really go into this situation without any assistance, with all due respect to your many capable abilities," Alfred responded.

"Black Canary…..and Batgirl," Batman said. He stopped for a long moment while pausing and saying this second name as if testing the validity of it on his tongue. He shook his head and continued. "Black Canary and Batgirl are on their way. But time is of the essence, and I can't wait."

One of the vines shot out from underneath the path. Batman dodged the vine and then turned around to slice another one which had wrapped around his ankle. The Detective paused and for the slightest moment, he could have sworn there was a sound of pain. It was very slight, very subtle, but at the same time, it was audible enough for him to pause for a very long moment.

Batman was very close and he could ill-afford to wait. He grabbed onto the door and pushed it until it opened.

Slipping into the hallway, Batman noticed right away the hallway was more of the same as the outside area. Roots, vines, and miniature trees grew up all over the place. Some of them threatened to trip up Batman when he slipped further inside. The Detective made his way to one central location and stopped just short of where he wanted to go. One of the vines on the ground wiggled and edged closer to him. The vine didn't attack him, at least, not just yet. It was a half of a second away from doing so.

A vine shot out and came inches away from impaling Batman straight through the chest. Batman stopped and looked directly at the vine. The whispers deep inside of the building continued. The plants were far more sophisticated and far more refined, and far more controlled than the ones Batman had to go up against during the incident with Woodrue which put a couple of thoughts in his mind.

Either Woodrue refined the process, which was possible, or there was something else up. Which was also, unfortunately, possible, but regardless, the Detective had to keep pressing forward, going deeper into the building. The soft sound of a heart beat made Batman stall before slipping around the corner.

Another one of the vines shot out from underneath the steps and tried to ensnare Batman. Batman grabbed the vine in his hand. A single rose lingered on the vine and in his attempt to block the attack, Batman tore the rose off.

The rose dropped to the ground and Batman just stepped on top of the rose, crushing it underneath the sole of his boot. Everything started to go to hell with a very obvious scream.

"You should not have done that, Batman!" a voice howled from the distance.

The vines shot around and grabbed Batman around the arms. Two more vines wrapped around his legs and pinned Batman into place. The Detective struggled against the vines as they wrapped around him. The grip grew even tighter and it was extremely hard for Batman to try and break free from the attack.

"You should not meddle in the affairs of Mother Nature!"

Batman groaned the very second the vines ripped into his costume. An electrical pulse caused the vines to retract and Batman to break free from the vines just barely. He dropped onto the ground and one of the huge tree roots pushed out of the ground, seconds away from catching Batman.

A pair of hands grabbed him by the head and pulled him through an open window. Batman slid down a vine and landed on the grounds of the Gotham City University, back to square one. He turned around and Black Canary stood waiting for him. She was calm, but a very intense look flashed in her eyes.

"You should have waited for backup," Black Canary told Batman.

These words hit Batman and had been completely ignored by him.

Batgirl made her way around the corner so suddenly that Batman was almost impressed. "The undercover is completely covering the North Side of Gotham City….most of the people found a way to get out in time, but there are still at least twenty civilians, students and staff trapped on the lower flows."

' _Pam's not thinking clearly,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Harry and I are on our way, we'll be there in a minute,'_ Kara thought.

Barbara nodded in response. She really wished it had been sooner, but in a situation like this, she figured that beggars could not be choosers. Barbara tilted her head back for a fraction of an inch and turned it all the way around, three hundred and sixty-five degrees.

The plants calmed down when she and Dinah arrived, but they were still hovering whenever Batman turned.

"You must have really pissed someone off," Batgirl said.

No answer, other than one of his trademark glares, which Batgirl both appreciated and anticipated at the same time. She looked up in the skies to wait for their support to arrive.

* * *

 

Chief O'Hara took a deep breath and shook his head. He was glad retirement was staring at him right around the corner, because if he was getting a bit too old for all of this to be perfectly honest. He looked around and walked over to address the trio of Harvey Bullock, Renee Montoya, and last, but certainly not least, James Gordon.

"Everything has gone to hell," O'Hara said.

"Not mincing words there, Chief," Bullock muttered underneath his brief.

O'Hara shook his head and took a deep breath. "Woodrue found a way to escape the Arkham Wing of Blackgate. I'm not sure how he did it, but he found a way to do it. Now, there's an increasingly unstable amount of plant life in Gotham City which is causing a further uproar. And there are twenty civilians who are trapped inside of Gotham City university, and we need to find a way to get them out and soon."

Gordon decided to step forward and give the man some peace of mind.

"We're trying to work a way out, but every time anyone gets close, the plants are very hostile," Gordon told O'Hara.

"Yes, I know," O'Hara said. "The SWAT is going to have to be put into a position to deal with this, but I'm not sure if they can even deal with it."

The moods of several people in the station darkened. Branden took the SWAT into a group of mercenaries, and they were not equipped to deal with a crisis like this, unfortunately. It didn't appear anyone in the Gotham City Police Department was equipped to deal with a situation like this.

There were only a few people who had been equipped to deal with situations like this. All three of the police officers knew, and technically, they were to be hunting them down, because they are vigilante fugitives from the law, and wanted criminals.

"I'm glad I've got my dream retirement home in place," O'Hara said. "Nice little place on the lake, far away from Gotham City."

"Yeah, I hear you, that's where I'd want to be too if I live that long," Bullock responded.

"I'd like to spend the rest of my life, fishing all day…"

"Hey, are you sure you want to talk about that Chief?" Bullock asked. "I mean, talking about retirement in Gotham City, that's a good way to get yourself shot."

Montoya and Gordon gave Bullock a sidelong disapproving glare. Bullock just threw his hands in the air and didn't say anything. Both of them knew he spoke the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. It was just the truth was something no one wanted to hear at this time and place.

No response due to the fact O'Hara turned to see Peter Grogan, the new Commissioner, who had been earning his pay and his new position with this particular crisis. Several other members of the Special Crimes Unit and some police officers, in general, began to file into the room.

Branden moved next to Grogan and Gordon noticed the two of them stepping into the room. The frown crossed the face of the man when the two of them were talking.

"Batman has been sighted outside of Gotham University," Grogan told Branden. "Now's the perfect time to take him in. I won't have a vigilante on the streets, endangering the citizens of Gotham City."

A long pause followed and Gordon cleared his throat. Grogan turned his attention to Gordon with a single raised eyebrow.

"With all due respect, Commissioner, it might also mean Woodrue has returned to GCU, and we might have a good enough chance to grab him."

"You're right, Jim, you're right," Grogan said. "Why don't you take a group of the best members of the Special Crimes Unit and go after Woodrue? Branden will follow up the lead on the Batman."

The case of tunnel vision was going to end up dooming them all, but Gordon had no choice other than to nod. He understood and perfectly accepted the fact Batman could handle himself out there in battle. There was no question about it.

Now, they had to save those twenty people, but funnily enough, the SWAT was hunting down one of their best chances to break down the doors of Gotham City University and rip those hostages out.

* * *

 

Pamela Isley's survival and metamorphosis into this Poison Ivy shocked Jason Woodrue. The scientist in him wanted to know the how's of the situation. She changed far differently than him, her beauty as amazing, but Woodrue also sensed something deadly about her.

There would be few, if any, who could touch her, and this fact could drive many people extremely beyond the bend, to loose such a sense of intimacy. All Woodrue could do was lock his eyes on Poison Ivy.

"How, is this possible?" Woodrue asked. "If you don't mind indulging my curiosity, Ms. Isley?"

"You're not here to be the one to ask questions, I am."

Woodrue could feel pain and that shouldn't be possible given the situation he was in. Those glowing green eyes locked onto Woodrue's with contempt. She slowly started to tear the bark off, like ripping the skin off of his body. A brief flicker of pain flashed through her eyes.

' _For you, I'll make an exception,'_ Pam thought.

"Please, Pamela…you have to understand, I did not mean to harm you!"

Woodrue's agony increased the further she pushed in, with powers. Pam's rage increased and it was just a firecracker about ready to explode. Woodrue didn't know how much pain he could be in. He had been electrocuted and it hurt. Pam was digging in the pain on a far deeper level.

"You were like a daughter to me…..you had all of the potential in the world….we can fix this...I can fix this…"

"You couldn't do any of this without my help!" Pamela yelled. "

"Pamela, please…"

"Pamela Isley is gone, now there's only Poison Ivy."

Woodrue could feel the agony. She could crush him into sapling if she sure chose. Something happened, and Woodrue had been allowed to breathe for a moment. It had been a moment's reprieve, but Woodrue had to take it. He just had to take in these deep breaths.

"Tell me your benefactors, who intend to corrupt my work, and Harry's work…."

"THEY'RE CALLED HIVE!"

Woodrue gave a pained declaration when he said those words. He almost collapsed down against the wall, the vines came very close to tearing him apart in the worst possible ways. That particular answer wasn't enough for Pamela though; she looked him in the eyes.

"Some vaguely defined criminal organization is not enough," Pamela whispered in anger. Her eyes flashed when locked onto Woodrue's. "Start naming names, or you're going to find out the true meaning of terror. You're going to feel everything I felt and more when you crashed into those chemicals."

"You came out better!" Woodrue yelled.

"I'll rip you apart!" Poison Ivy shouted. "I will reduce you to nothing but manure to put on my garden."

The natural self-preservations in a person kicked in at the most interesting times. Woodrue was no exception to these self-preservation instincts. The vines dug into the side of his shoulder and caused him to thrash about in agony. His breathing increased for a few seconds.

"Tell me, Jason, tell me now, or I'll destroy you."

"Damien….Darhk!" Woodrue yelled. "He's the man who you want, my direct contact. There are people higher up in the food chain who is interesting in your work...Harry's work….but he's the one who I talked to the most. They put pressure on me, I swear, I have no choice."

"Then I have no choice with what I'm going to have to do as well," Pamela informed him. "I'm going to hunt down Damien Darhk and all of his flunkeys. They will all pay for what they've done."

"Yes, yes, do it, kill Darhk."

Before the mutated woman could figure out what to do with Woodrue, a small crash from downstairs caused her to rip the vines from him. He slumped to the ground. The disturbance from downstairs caused Pamela to be a bit put off by everything around her.

She sensed it right away.

' _Harry, damn it.'_

She hoped to wrap this up before Harry returned to Gotham City. She made sure to keep a close eye on his movements, and only struck when it was known he was in Smallville, so he had an alibi and could not be investigated by Woodrue's murder.

Plans, unfortunately, had changed, and Pamela wished she had not shown herself at the Gardens when Barbara and Dinah showed up. There was a small part of her who longed for things to return to the way they were.

* * *

 

Under the guise of Nightwing and Flamebird, Harry and Kara slipped into the sewer systems which had a tunnel leading into the basement of Gotham City University. Harry's calm nature gave Kara some pause.

' _Harry?'_ She asked.

' _We're close, very close,'_ Harry thought to her. _'Trust me, we are.'_

Kara trusted Harry was close and she kept following him around the tunnel. Everything was closing in on them, in the worst possible ways. Amazingly enough, despite there being growth around the tunnel, it shifted to one side to allow Nightwing and Flamebird to head their way through the tunnel.

' _So, she knows you're here, doesn't she?'_ Kara asked.

' _If it is her doing it,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Babs, I know you don't want to admit it, but tonight Pamela's the one in the driver's seat,'_ Harry thought. _'She broke Woodrue out of prison for the oldest motive possible, simple and sweet revenge. And she wanted to do it when I was out of Gotham City, so I didn't get implicated. Because, let's face it, I have a motive to kill Woodrue.'_

' _We're coming around the corner, Black Canary, and myself, and Batman as well,'_ Barbara responded. _'We'll be right around the corner to meet you in say, maybe about a minute or so.'_

Around the other side, Batman, Black Canary, and Batgirl stepped around the vines. The vines loomed closer towards Batman and they looked like they wanted to pull him back. One look from Nightwing caused pause and the cause the vines to retract back a few inches.

"They're not going after you," Batman said.

"Of course, they're not," Flamebird responded.

Batman just nodded, so despite everything, there was still a part of Pamela Isley in there, and Harry would need to reach her, the best way he could. The World's Greatest Detective turned his head from one side to the other and noticed the tunnel.

"They aren't really going after me either," Batgirl said. "It's a good thing Pam still remembers who her friends, were, isn't it?"

"We're going to have to shield them until we can find a way inside," Nightwing said.

"Right," Batgirl responded.

It was a tense situation and the slightest provocation could set things off again. He didn't know if some of this was due to Woodrue attempting to break free from his captivity. Harry still hadn't grasped the full scale of the plant mutation that he had taken which lead to the situation they were in.

"Keep heading around the corner," Nightwing told them. "I have an idea of how to get across, and to Pamela….it's going to be a long shot."

' _Actually, it might be a straight shot up there to get Pamela and Woodrue,'_ Nightwing thought. _'I'm going to have to time this very carefully.'_

Batgirl jumped back and a large pile of dirt dropped from the ceiling and landed on the ground with a thud. Flamebird looked at the dirt, or rather the anguished looking face which attempted to pop in through the dirt. Her eyes narrowed for a second when looking at the dirt.

"Is that, Woodrue?"

The face of Jason Woodrue flashed through the dirt before he gave an anguished scream and the dirt further crumbled.

Batgirl looked down, with a look of thinly veiled contempt flashing through her eyes. Needless to say, she wasn't too broken up about what happened. "It was Jason Woodrue."

The group didn't have a chance to register it in their minds when a plant vine shot from one side and ensnared Harry around the wrist. Harry had been surprised by the sudden attack.

The vines all shot up and prevented the other four from following them. The vines restrained Batgirl, Flamebird, and Black Canary, and made a motion to attack Batman. The Detective struggled from the vines and reached into his utility belt.

It was a constricted movement, the vine wrapping around Batman's wrist, and trying to prevent him from grabbing onto the necessary device in his utility belt. He had to keep reaching belt, almost grabbing onto it.

A sonic device dislodged from his belt, and Batgirl grabbed it when it flew out. She pressed the red button on the center to release a pulse which caused the vines to retract down the tunnel. Batman's armor had been nearly ripped into by the vines. He dropped down onto the ground, completely rocked by the attack.

"The GCPD is closing in," Oracle reported.

' _Thanks for the head's up, Gwen,'_ Barbara thought to her.

* * *

 

Everything turned around in Harry's mind. He had been pulled into a beautiful garden which was more refined than the wild plants which were growing all around the underground of the university.

"Pamela, are you there?"

"I'm here, and I'm here to say goodbye."

Harry was not willing to accept that, whether or not she liked it. Harry turned his head around three hundred and sixty degrees before looking into the distance in the general area where Pamela was located.

"Come out so I can see you."

The sight before Harry blew him away. A tall redhead with glowing green skin entered. Her curves grew more abundant, her hair was more vibrant, and her lips, they looked moister, plumper than ever before. She dressed in red clothing which only covered what needed to be covered. She didn't have an ounce of fat on her body. Pamela swayed her hips instinctively.

"The mutagen, it's transformed you into something else."

"Yes, I'm aware it has," she agreed, almost sadly, almost with a fair amount of regret in her voice.

It wasn't as if Pamela wasn't beautiful before, but she was a stunning knockout now, with a body made for sin and anyone who would have looked upon her would have had certain thoughts entering her mind. Harry's eyes traced down her body and he nodded in response.

"I'm glad to see you approve, that means a lot to her," she said. "Pamela Isley, there's a few splintered fragments left her, but the mutation has turned me into something else. It turned me into an avenger of all who will harm Mother Earth, and there are many. I'm Poison Ivy, and I can assure you, I'm as deadly as my namesake."

She was upset, and for good reason. Harry couldn't allow her to go out in the world in the mindset Pamela was in. He took a couple of steps closer towards the woman in question and locked eyes on him.

"I don't believe you're completely gone, Pam."

The green eyes shut and opened to look at Harry.

"You could have killed Batman, or anyone else, but the only person you killed tonight is Woodrue."

"Woodrue is completely dead," Poison Ivy said. And here there was a little bit of regret located in her voice. "I've kept him in a state of never-ending pain."

"Pam, listen….."

Pamela withdrew from Harry a second. "You shouldn't touch me….it could be dangerous….it's turned me into something which is toxic for humans. I understand if my pheromones are causing a reaction…which is why I better leave, and not put you or another of the others at risk."

Harry Potter had never been one to listen He did the exact opposite of leaving. He grabbed Pamela and pulled her into a passionate kiss.

The sexy redhead had been taken off guard. She returned the kiss on instinct, but then pulled away. That level of toxin should have dropped anyone, but Harry stood before her with a smile on her face.

"Well, that was one of the most interesting poisons I've ever tasted," Harry said. "I'm going to have to acquire a larger sample, though, so I can create an antidote for the girl's in the bond."

Harry moved closer and placed his hand on her firm rear, before giving it a squeeze. Pamela closed her eyes and shook her head. A deep breath passed through her body, followed by an obvious shutter.

"You shouldn't have done…that….."

Another kiss caught the woman and the large flower rose up, to make a bed which Harry guided Pamela back onto. She dropped down onto the bed.

"I'm immune to most poisons if you remember," Harry informed her. "I'm among the few who could survive the poison on your lips…but it's a pretty strong aphrodisiac isn't it?"

Harry leaned down and kissed her on the side of the neck and slowly worked his way down her body. Despite her fighting against this with every fiber of her being, she just couldn't do it.

The vines removed Harry's armor for him, or perhaps Pamela did subconsciously. Her clothes had fallen off either, leaving the stunning goddess in all of her glory.

* * *

 

Harry leaned down on top of her, pressing his body against her. Her skin was softer than before, and he could not wait to run his hands all over her body. He gave her another kiss, their lips pressing together in a passionate motion. Pamela reached up and grabbed Harry by the back of his head, to guide her tongue deep into his mouth. Pamela's tongue insisted on heading into Harry's mouth, and Harry wouldn't deny her this action.

Eventually, Harry pulled away from her and kissed down her body. Her nipples stood up at attention, and Harry held them between his fingers. He pinched them and down. Biting down on Pamela's nipples resulted in the desired action of her moaning in pleasure.

"Harry!" Pamela breathed.

He gave her lips one more kiss, before going down to pay tribute to another set of her lips. Harry was amused how those vines wrapped around Pamela's ankles and spread her legs, to allow Harry to eat the pussy of the beautiful woman.

The taste of her pussy was more potent than the taste of her lips. For some, it was poison, but for Harry, it was pure pleasure. He grabbed onto her thighs and started to eat her out. Pamela's hips lifted halfway up off of the bed and dropped down onto the bed. Harry munched on her pussy.

Pamela closed her eyes. She submitted to the oral attentions of Harry many times before and this was no exception. He went into her depths and the pheromones in the air resulted in her body shifting. One of the vines tightened the grip and made sure Pamela had been held into place.

"Please!"

She came harder than ever before. Something about the pleasure centers of her body was more sensitive than before. Harry's fingers stroked down her body and made her moan underneath his efforts. Pamela shifted up.

Harry reached underneath and grabbed Pamela's supple rear. He munched on her pussy, making her shift underneath his efforts. The redhead pushed her hips up to meet Harry's efforts. The young man's hunger increased when he went down on Pamela's sweet pussy, licking her out.

She came one more time, and Harry drove his tongue deep inside of her again. He came up to her.

"Look what you've done to me."

Harry's hardened cock pointed out like a giant pole. The seductress sat up, her lips ready to take his cock in. Harry grabbed her around the back of the head and slid his cock deep inside of her warm mouth.

The moment Harry's cock touched the inside of her lips and drove deep into her mouth, it throbbed, harder than he could ever think before. Pamela grabbed onto his lower back and eased Harry deeper into her throat. The warmth of her throat surrounded Harry and buried more of his cock into her mouth. Harry grabbed onto the back of Pamela's head and pushed his way into her throat.

"Damn, that feels good."

Pamela intended to make him feel really good. The moment she had his cock, she was not letting him go, until she got her favorite seed. Harry held onto the back of her head.

Several long minutes of intense cock sucking later, and Harry could not hold back. The venom surrounding his cock made him throb even harder and make him shoot a larger load than usual into Pamela's warm throat. Her inviting throat opened up and received several long ropes of cum.

Pamela took the seed in stride, sucking down him down to the last drop. The moment she pulled away from him, his cock wasn't even soft. She looked up and smiled at him very seductively, the lust burning in Harry's eyes was very intense.

Harry grabbed Pamela and shoved her back onto the bed. He attacked her body with a series of feverish kisses. Most of the same spots which drove her wild still remained true even through the changes to Poison Ivy. Harry grabbed onto her nipples and pulled on them and sucked on them harder.

Her hot spots were even more sensitive. A single fingernail rolled down her soft belly and made Pamela's heart beat even faster. He made his way into her sweet garden and shoved into her.

"Why don't you get my garden ready for seeding?" she breathed seductively in his ear.

Harry fingered Pamela and always knew how to get her ready and going for more. Her hips pushed almost all the way off of the bed to meet Harry's fingers when they pushed into her body. Harry cupped her pussy, her warm pussy, and then pushed another finger inside of her.

Mind blown from these actions, Pamela could moan. The vines wrapped around her breasts and the end of them caressed her nipples. Harry's fingers danced down her body and brought heightened emotions through Pamela. Everything she could feel, it was far more sensitive than ever before.

Harry cupped Pamela's large breast in his right hand and squeezed it. His hard cock dragged down her front and pushed closer towards her center core. Harry's manhood came a half of an inch from slipping inside of her body. The wet walls opened up ready for Harry to enter her and to plant his seed inside of her.

"Harry, I need you."

After finishing fingering Pamela, Harry decided to do so. He pushed his cock through her narrow lips. Pam's pussy was tighter than ever and closed around him.

' _She's been reborn, new body.'_

The virgin core of Poison Ivy stretched around and took Harry's thick cock in between her thighs. He pushed up against her and drove his massive rod deep inside of her. Harry's throbbing hard cock pulled almost all the way out of her and drove himself into her.

Slick juices splashed against Harry's cock and made him throb even harder when pumping his way inside of Pamela's slick center. Harry grabbed onto her walls and pulled almost all the way out of her. He pushed his way deeper into her and stretched her loins out.

"Fuck me!" Pamela yelled.

"Indeed," Harry said.

The vines released Pamela's legs so they could wrap them around them.

"Feel how soft my legs are," she breathed hungrily into his throat. "You want to pleasure my body, don't you, lover?"

Harry grabbed onto her hips and ran his hands down her legs. True to her word, they were very soft, and they felt very good underneath his fingers. Pamela lifted her hips from this position and took her walls around him, wrapping her warm walls tight around Harry's cock.

"You're amazing, and it's time for you to cum to me."

It was like the first time Harry had been inside of her, only somehow more intense. Harry buried his lengthy cock into her being and pushed deeper inside of her. Those thick balls slapped against Pamela's wet walls and Harry pumped, harder, faster, until he got Pamela to cum, harder than ever before.

"Yes," she gasped in pleasure.

Pamela's warm walls milked Harry's rod when pushing inside of her core. Those thick balls slapped against her warm thighs. Harry pulled almost all the way out of her and dropped down onto her. She stretched around him.

Harry moved down to worship her breasts. Pamela's eyes clouded over due to Harry's tasting, nibbling, doing everything and anything he could with her breasts with his hands and mouth. Harry touched her and got her really going, pleasuring her.

"And cum for me again."

Tightening walls made this little encounter even better. Harry drove his rod deeper inside of Pamela and pushed her to the limits. He fucked her faster at first and then slowed down. It did the job of making her crave his cock inside of her. Her walls kept pumping out the slick juices which lead Harry into her core.

Every action from Harry did a good job of reaching the remaining parts of Pamela, buried deep inside of the psyche, of Poison Ivy. Then again, Poison Ivy craved this man as well, after noticing how vivid Pamela's memories were. The two of them could find a common ground and become one.

Especially when the common ground was so efficient to drive them into a constant and never ending state of orgasms.

"Closer?" Pamela asked.

"Soon, but I want to feel you cum again."

An explosion of pleasure filled Pamela's body from head to toe. Her eyes glazed over. Every touch Harry gave her made her body light up with pleasure. Harry touched her nipples and squeezed them between his fingers. Pamela panted every time Harry brought his rock hard cock deeper between her warm lips. Harry pulled almost all the way out of her and then plunged deeper inside of her.

"Fuck, that's so good!" Pamela yelled. "Harder, please, harder!"

Harry decided to make her wish come true and bury his throbbing cock deep inside of her warm body. His hands were everywhere at once. Countless subtle touches drove her further to the edge and made her clench him.

"My turn."

Pamela opened up her thighs and took Harry deeper inside of her. His thick balls slapped against her and Pamela knew the load which had been building. It was far more immense than ever before, thanks to her new form.

There was a small amount of pride dancing into Poison Ivy's body. She could not wait to feel the cum swimming inside of her, filled up. Those balls got closer to discharging.

Harry bottomed out inside of her and shot his load inside of her. The feeling of his thick cum spilling into her body resulted in constant orgasms on the part of Pamela Isley.

The second Harry pulled out of her, the plant's vines rolled over Pamela and pulled her away, presenting her dripping wet pussy from Harry as he stood behind her, along with her ass. One of the vines tickled her pussy and caused Pamela to lose control.

Harry didn't need to get a clearer hint than that. He moved in and took the plunge one more time, cock hardened and ready to go once again.

* * *

 

A fair amount of time had passed, and no one regretted anything that happened.

Pamela, Poison Ivy, it didn't matter who, she was very satisfied. She looked up at Harry, who had blown her mind and had put her in a better state.

"So, are you ready to return to the lab with me, until we can figure this out?" Harry asked her.

"If you insist."

**To Be Continued on March 2** **nd** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Well, Harry makes a very convincing argument here for Pamela._

_Batman got the worse end of that, unfortunately for him._

_Until Thursday._


	269. Poison Ivy Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty Nine: Poison Ivy Part Three**

* * *

 

Abruptly, the chaos at Gotham City University ground to a stop. Some of the thorny vines shifted away and allowed the Gotham City Police Department entrance into the building where some of the students had been unfortunately trapped. The police officers lead in particular by James Gordon, Renee Montoya, and Harvey Bullock, stepped inside. They had been trained to go after people and not plants.

Plants should not have been a problem, but when these plants were among the sentient variety, they caused a lot of problems. And when they shifted and could have attacked several times over, there were far too many problems for any of them to even discuss now.

James Gordon, in particular, moved a bit carefully. He heard so many rumors, so many whispers, from the students who still hung around outside of the school. They had been told to go home, but many of the students protested. They had friends and sometimes family who had been trapped in this wing of the college, and Gordon could not have blamed them.

It was a good thing Barbara didn't live in a dorm at the college, otherwise, James would have been concerned. It did his heart very well to see she wasn't in the middle of this.

"Hey, Jim, I think we can get the door open."

Bullock's words caused Gordon to turn away from his thoughts and to the situation at hand. Bullock held onto the door and tried to tug on it, pulling it open. The door offered a fair amount of resistance, a lot of resistance as a matter of fact. Bullock gritted his teeth when trying to pull the door open. Stubborn as it might have been, Bullock was not going to go down without a fight, and he was not going to go down without getting this door open.

"Here," Montoya said.

She kicked the door open and several students and a couple of staff members crowded around. A timid looking girl poked her way out of the room and looked around. She looked like she was on the verge of sobbing at what she had to deal with it and it was hard not to feel sorry for her at all.

"Is he gone….is the bad man gone?"

"Who did you see?" Renee asked.

"It was some redhead woman with green skin and she dragged some kind of weird man with bark skin in here," one of the students said.

Another decided to chime in with some more information in the shakiest voice possible. "You know, the other guy, the one with the barky skin, he sounded a lot like Doctor Woodrue."

"Do you have any idea where he went?" Gordon asked

Was Woodrue and the woman accomplices, or one of Woodrue's experiences who had gone rogue, and decided to develop her own thoughts and feelings? Gordon couldn't be one hundred percent for sure whether or not she was or she wasn't, and he needed to investigate. There were not enough facts right now to come to a conclusive decision.

"She took him, downstairs, to his office….around the corner….no one has been able to get up there since….."

The shakiness of the staff member's voice made Gordon think he was long overdue for a nice lay down. James didn't want to put too much pressure on these people because quite frankly they had been through a whole lot and they were trapped in the middle of it.

Ellen Yin and Sarah Essen joined their fellow members of the Special Crimes Unit. They looked around to see the shaking members of the staff and the students.

"Are you finally here to get us out of here?" one of the students asked.

"Yeah, we're going to get you out," Sarah said.

No sooner did they say it, the vines ruptured through the floor and caused a couple of the bookshelves in the makeshift area to fall over. The wood splintered when dropping down onto the ground.

"Get them out," Gordon ordered. "I'll be right behind you."

Gordon smelled something in the air which caused him to almost keel over. There were a couple of very nasty smells penetrating the air as well. One of them smelled like some kind of fertilizer, the other, he couldn't place. All he could was make his way through Woodrue's office.

He could see the students being escorted out of the building through the window. Gordon was glad that Woodrue, or maybe his accomplice, or maybe victim, he didn't know, didn't have any hostages to dangle over their heads.

Gordon made his way to the man's office. It was totally trashed and a large hole was in the floor, leading down to the basement underneath the school. Gordon's eyes shifted underneath the facility and he frowned. He noticed several other members of the GCPD coming in, with the usual crew.

"So, we're going down there, aren't we?" Bullock asked.

A wordless nod told them everything they needed to know. The problem wasn't the long drop down there, that wasn't a problem at all. The problem was everything that was down there, and what they could run into. Gordon, being a team leader, took the plunge first. Renee, Sarah, Ellen, and Bullock all followed him one at a time.

Ellen jumped back about three feet and turned her head around.

"What is it, Yin?" Bullock asked.

"I think I found Woodrue, or what passes as Woodrue these days," Ellen responded with a ground.

Gordon crouched down and came across the face of Jason Woodrue, buried in what appeared to be in some kind of dirt, or at least Gordon hoped it was dirt given Ellen just stepped down onto it.

"Better call this one in," Bullock said.

For a brief second, Gordon thought he saw a flash of two women coming down the tunnel. One of them had blonde hair and resembled the Black Canary, the other one had red hair. Gordon took off his glasses to make sure they weren't defective or smudged up.

The second Gordon put his glasses back on, the two figures making their way down the tunnel were gone in a blink of an eye, and left way too many questions for Gordon to deal with now.

"DAMN IT!"

The voice of Howard Branden cut through the room. Gordon took a step forward and saw Branden and several of his SWAT goons wrapped in thick vines which didn't seem to want to relinquish the SWAT team leader just yet. He struggled against them.

"I had him, and these damn vines!" Branden yelled.

"Had who?" Gordon asked.

"Batman, that god damn bastard slipped through our hands again!" Branden yelled. "How does he keep doing it?"

"Maybe he's just lucky to get past a competent leader," Gordon said.

There was something in Gordon's tone which sounded very condescending, but it just went directly over Howard Branden's head. He struggled and squirmed against the vines which finally retracted and dropped him and the members of his SWAT on his head.

"On the bright side, we found Woodrue," Gordon said.

"Good, good for you," Branden said, gritting his teeth.

The tension in the air passed through both gentlemen a few seconds later.

* * *

 

Batgirl and Black Canary traveled through the tunnel. They noticed the twenty or so students and staff members who had been trapped in the building had been escorted out. This very fact did the hearts of both crime fighters nicely. Batman also made his way out safely, after a very close encounter with the SWAT.

The SWAT having a close encounter with some rogue vines helped as well. Batgirl ducked her head and barely was able to keep the amused look off of her face.

' _The GCPD won't be able to get up for about five minutes from where they are now,'_ Gwen thought. _'Batman's already made his way outside of the campus, and you should do the same.'_

' _We will don't worry,'_ Barbara thought. _'Thanks, Gwen, you did an excellent job. I know this could be a highly stressful job, but you did very well.'_

' _Hey, I'm just glad I can fill your chair,'_ Gwen thought in a joking manner.

' _Dad almost caught a glimpse of us when we came out of there…but by the time he looked again, we were gone,'_ Barbara thought. _'Got to be more careful, because he's a good cop, and good at what he does. Which is a good thing, and a bad thing…..if he puts two and two together, I don't know what to expect.'_

' _Providing he hasn't put two and two together with me already,'_ Harry thought. _'Yes, I'm out of there…..and I've got Pamela out of there…..I managed to convince her to come along with me.'_

' _Did you convince her to have a little fun with the SWAT as well?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Actually, the SWAT might have picked the wrong time to come around the corner.'_

Barbara had to duck her head. They were safely out of the college, and ready for Kara to pick them up to bring them back to the Clocktower, or maybe the Penthouse. Barbara wasn't sure where they were going this time, but she knew they couldn't stay out here for very long.

' _Well, they did by what we saw,'_ Barbara thought. _'Branden won't be very happy. He was this close for his men getting ahold of Batman.'_

' _Oh, I don't think they would have gotten him, even without Pam's intervention…or Poison Ivy, as she now dubbed herself,'_ Harry thought. _'Although, she could be a force for good if we temper her powers.'_

Barbara thought so, at least she hoped to. The good thing was that Pamela had been convinced to come along and they could work on something from there.

' _They have Woodrue, and hopefully, they are smart enough not to open any doors,'_ Gwen thought.

' _Given the guards in question had been killed when they opened that door, I don't think…..I don't think they'll be making that same mistake twice,'_ Harry thought. _'Pam found a way to imprison him in that pile of….well I guess it's dirt, maybe it's fertilizer.'_

' _Woodrue smells, either way, you cut it, you aren't going to really tell the difference,'_ Barbara thought, a small smile shifting over her face.

' _Be that as it maybe, we' going to hopefully have him right where he belongs,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm having Pam checked out as soon as possible….there is so much about her powers I want to know.'_

The unspoken element Harry really wanted know about was Woodrue's mysterious benefactors, but Harry would get to that point when he got to that point.

"So, ready to go?"

Flamebird dropped down and both Black Canary and Batgirl nodded. They had been rather relieved by this mission all things considered. The most important thing to consider was there had been no civilians who had been caught in the crossfire, and that put them all at ease.

Things could have gone much worse and much uglier if Harry hadn't been there.

* * *

 

Edward Fyers knew it was around here somewhere, very close anywhere. His benefactors would pay very big money for what he was looking for.

"Keep at it boys, we have something," Fyers said

"It is something, boss, we…we just need to get it out of the ground," one of the men said.

The men struggled to unearth whatever this item was out of the ground. It was a struggle as someone buried it deep in Earth. Their lack of immediate success only caused a smile to break over the face of Edward Fyers. Excitement increased when he realized whoever buried this thing underground most certainly did not anyone to dig it up. Which mean, Fyers had to have it for himself.

Or rather his boss did. Fyers looked on with a smile and turned to Slade. Slade stood on the edge of the island, his arms folded together. He didn't say a single word, or anything when Fyers worked the item out of the ground.

"Must be very important," Slade commented.

"Very," Fyers said. "But, it does no one anyone good if we can't get out of the ground. And it does no one any good if we have any further interruptions. So keep your eyes peeled for anything."

Slade kept his hand locked onto the dagger hanging from his belt and nodded in response. He would keep a very close watch for anything and anyone who would be coming to this island. Fyers was pushing Slade, but not enough for Slade to justify lashing out and attacking him just yet.

Off at a safe distance, where no one could see her, Shado peered over the ledge of a set of rocks. She kept her eyes locked onto what Fyers and his men are doing. She turned over her shoulder and saw Oliver watching up behind her. Shado kept her gaze fixated on Fyers for a second, but she had some time to address Oliver and what he was doing.

"You should keep out of sight the best you can," Shado told him. "You are the most likely hostage if they find us, and they will not hesitate to use you."

"You don't think I can defend myself?" Oliver asked.

"I'm saying you're the least trained out of the three of us," Shado said delicately evading the question. "And you're not going to do well against a group of mercenaries. And Fyers wants all of our heads for humiliating him and his men. So keep yourself back."

Wade disappeared, Shado had no idea where her father could be, despite searching all over the island for him. It was hard to move around because of Fyers, and his apparent infinite number of men kept moving around. Then, there was Deathstroke, Shado had to watch out for Deathstroke.

He had been aptly named, because the last thing many people saw with him was the stroke of the sword before he brought their sudden and unfortunate death.

"What are they looking for?" Oliver asked.

"There are many things on this island which could be a problem for us if we're not careful," Shado responded a half of a second later. She leaned her neck forward and tried to figure out something. "There are many legends of treasures which have been lost on Lian Yu. Some which people have declared to be out of this world."

"So, aliens?"

A grunt of frustration brought Oliver and Shado's attention away from the situation at hand and more towards what the men were going.

"You almost have it," Fyers told his men. "Don't break it whatever you do. My employer needs it intact, or you will be very sorry you destroyed it."

"I think my back is going to be very sorry it's out of the ground," the goon responded, trying to yank the trunk out of the ground.

He found it was easier said than done to get this trunk out of the ground. The strain on his body made things more than frustrating.

Without another word, the goons ripped the trunk out of the ground and dropped it. The trunk landed with a solid clunk on the ground but remained intact. One of the goons eyed the trunk.

Slade moved a bit closer, and Shado and Oliver thought for the briefest instance he caught a glimpse of his location. However, Slade walked away from them both and turned back towards Fyers and his men.

"Boss, it's crammed shut," one of the mercenaries responded.

"Yes, I'm aware, I can see," Fyers said. "What's inside this chest, may verify something that people have been searching for, for a very long time. You all recall the Super Soldier Serum which created the fabled war hero, Captain America, don't you?"

All of the men nodded in response. Captain America had been a legendary figure, shrouded in mystery, having disappeared in a climatic battle with the Red Skull. There were rumors the world was close to annihilation based off of some kind of dangerous doomsday weapon.

"Well, the Japanese created their own super soldier serum," Fyers responded. "There's a rumor there's a submarine with the only known sample of the formula which survived World War II. And it's close by, but if it's off that island, there is information in this trunk which should lead me there."

Slade took a moment and considered what Fyers said. He heard the rumors of the fabled serum of many years passed. He didn't know of the validity of it.

"This is all well and good, but remember our bargain," Slade said.

"If I succeed here, there will be no chance I won't be able to follow up on our bargain," Fyers said. "Inside this box is the scroll my…benefactor wants."

His benefactor knew a thing or two about experimental formulas. Fyers could not wait to bust open the box and figure out what was inside. He almost rubbed his fingertips together with glee. There was plenty of risk to using this formula. There had been reports, unconfirmed, about the test subjects reacting in a less than a favorable way to the formula.

' _The risk is worth the reward.'_

Before Fyers could do anything, two of his guards dragged a man over to him. Fyers looked towards the old man, and a smile broke out over his face.

"Yao Fei, I wondered where you were," Fyers said. "You didn't think I would let you keep away from me for long…do you?"

"Don't hurt her," Yao Fei managed.

"I'll arrange your daughter and her new friend safe passage off of the island," Fyers said.

Slade reacted like he disagreed with this thought, but he couldn't say anything.

"Why do you need him?" Slade asked. "Wouldn't it save you some trouble if the old man dies right here on this island?"

"There are certain debts which need to be cleared," Fyers responded. The phone he carried rang. "And speaking of which, there's something I need to take care of."

Fyers walked away from his men, although he remained unknowingly close to Oliver and Shado when they kept in the shadows. He took the phone out and pushed a button on it to answer.

"Tell Mr. Osborn the plan is on schedule."

* * *

 

A small part of Pamela had been more than glad to return home, although there was still a very significant part of her who wished to make those who would harm the plants around pay. They needed to suffer.

"Harry, I can feel them," Pamela said, in a half terrified whispered.

Pam returned to the lab at RAO. The Penthouse was normally a safe place for her to feel free, without any problems in the world. However, the moment she returned, everything changed. Her psyche had been changed, and she was now in the central of Gotham City.

"What can you feel?" Harry asked. "It's okay, Pam, you can tell me."

They had her hooked up for tests and had been creating an antidote. Barbara, Dinah, and Kara stood close by, and Gwen left the clocktower to join them. Her scientific brilliance was well appreciated for this little experiment to get Pamela one hundred percent better. Alura, Lara, and Peve ran several tests.

"Every time someone neglects one of their plants by not watering it, I can feel the plant's sorrow, it's anger, it's desperation," Pamela said. "It suffers…..it's dehydrating, slowly dying, and I can feel it."

Everyone in the lab allowed this very obvious fact to sink in.

"My God," Barbara murmured.

Pamela had a connection to plants, and she had no idea how to shut it down. On the one hand, they were just plants, weren't they. But on the other hand, if Pam could feel them, there was some kind of validity to those feelings?

"We'll work on seeing what we can do to help you," Harry answered. "Just try and relax the best you can."

Relax, Pamela would try for Harry's sake. The agony of all of these plants dying very close gave her a lot of pause.

' _Her pheromones can bend the will and the minds of the people around here, even though she doesn't quite have the control,'_ Kara thought.

"We should be able to develop a counteragent from the poison and the pheromones as well," Alura responded.

"If there's any way we can find a cure, I'll…I don't know if I can be cured," Pamela said, and she trailed off, taking in a deep breath in response.

There was a small part of Pamela who wondered whether or not she wanted to be cured. It was a very frustrating thing for her to deal with. On the one hand, she had these powers which were messing with her mind. On the other hand, she could do so much good with her powers.

Her encounter with Harry stabilized her somewhat. Although, Pamela Isley, or rather Poison Ivy, still teetered on the edge, ready to fall down.

"I know one thing, I can't sit back and just wait for HIVE to make their next move," Pamela said. "Maybe, I was given these powers for a reason. Maybe I can use them to take down HIVE."

"Who was the man that Woodrue mentioned as his main benefactor?" Harry asked her.

"He was named Damien Darhk," Pamela said.

' _Ugh, a cockroach if there ever was one,'_ Nyssa chimed in through the bond link.

It was obvious to Harry, and the rest of the girls who currently hopped on the bond network, Nyssa had some very strong feelings about Damien Darhk. Harry would have to get more information regarding those feeling pretty soon, but right now, he had a couple more things to do.

"I can't force you to stay," Harry told Pamela. "But, I would be grateful to you giving me the benefit of the doubt and sticking around, to see if we can't find a way to temper those powers. And make it less painful for you when you feel the death of the plants."

Pamela just responded with a nod. She didn't know how these powers would affect her diet, which was strictly vegetarian. Would she be able to eat again without feeling the sorrow of the death of the plants she would eat? Or would those plants understand it was their purpose to be food?

It was not something she thought about until she had the empathic connection to plants. They only appreciated their beauty, but now she knew those plants had actual abstract human feelings, Pam didn't know what to make of everything.

"I owe you after all we've been through to give you the benefit of the doubt," Pamela said. "It just feels like everything has changed."

"Everything has changed," Alura said. "For all intents and purposes, your old body died, Pamela Isley as we knew her has died, but you've been reformed into that form."

"Harry's been down that road, a couple of times already," Barbara responded.

"More than I care to remember," Harry answered.

Pamela just closed her eyes and tried to consider her new status in life. She had become one with the green, for better or for worse. Being one with the green turned out to be both a blessing and a curse in many ways. She was going to have to figure out where she needed to go next.

Sticking around was the best idea, given how she would have the support of friendly faces before she would move forward in her life.

* * *

 

The lay of the land changed for many people in Gotham City over the past couple of years. One of the people the lay of the land changed for the most in Gotham City was Frank Bertinelli. Things used to be a lot simpler for him, but now things were a bit together.

"Hey, Selina," Frank said. "I know you're busy….but it may be a few more days before I get back….tell Ella I'm sorry, I'll take her out to that Italian place she likes when I get back."

"There are no problems at all with looking after my goddaughter for a few more days," Selina answered.

"Thanks, I appreciate it."

Everything changed, and Frank wasn't sure he was too fond of the changes. Thorne doubled down on things now that the power structure in Gotham City changed. He wanted Bertinelli to step back, so Thorne had more resources.

Frank was perfectly willing to work as an equal partner for Thorne, but he drew the line at flunkey, and that was what Thorne intended to make out of him.

He made his way from the penthouse he stayed in and he saw two gentlemen. One was tall and lanky, with a balding head of hair. The other had more curly brown hair, he was short, very rotund, waddling when he walked. Both of them dressed in pinstripe suits and fedoras.

' _Steven's boys.'_

Frank let his guard down.

"Do you two gentlemen need anything?" Frank asked.

"We need you to come with us, Mr. Bertinelli," the fat man said. "There's business to be discussed."

The two men motioned for Frank to move with them, and he did, without any hesitation at all. He trusted these men, they worked for a very prominent mob figure in Gotham City, someone who Bertinelli did business with in the past.

Bertinelli sat down and the third occupant in the limo surprised him.

"Huh, I didn't know you were into dealings like this….."

"Just drive."

The limo doors shut, with the driver traveling far away from the penthouse as possible.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on March 4** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

**Pam's back and the GCPD are very confused, as you would expect they would be in this particular situation.**

**And obviously Pamela is suffering, and a certain Mr. Darhk who was backing Woodrue is discussed. We'll get to him later.**

**Mr. Osborn, hmmmm? Surely not?**

**Yep, that last scene….well I won't say anything. But I don't blame you if you didn't feel a bit of a chill.**

**Back on Saturday.**


	270. Hitting the Mark

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy: Hitting the Mark**

* * *

 

Thea Queen, or Mia as she had been called these days by all, but a select few people, waited for the moment she anticipated for what seemed like an eternity. In reality, she only counted down for this particular moment for a few months now. The time ground by very carefully, until the moment she turned seventeen years old. And finally, she would get to fulfill her dreams, along with the dreams of many other women.

The beautiful heiress dressed in a nice black dress which fit her form very nicely. Every inch of the garment wrapped around her body and showed off her lovely legs and nice well-formed hips as well. With any luck, those particular body parts would be wrapped firmly around Harry Potter.

All she had to wait for was Selina to pick up Ella, who currently was hanging around Thea's apartment. Thea knew Selina knew how important tonight was for her, so she wasn't going to stick her with Ella for long. Thea waited on pins and needles, bouncing about in thinly veiled excitement. She could hardly wait for Harry to come in that door and sweep her off of her feet.

The sound of the footsteps approached the door. The twins prepared Thea for this night, taking her shopping. And she mentally prepared herself for this evening by envisioning it points for point in her head. Thea really hoped it would end the way she wanted to and nothing would screw it up.

She heard a knock on the door and quickly, Thea made her way to the door. Running wearing high heels wasn't the best idea, but in her excitement, Thea decided all discretion should be thrown out the window. She almost stumbled and landed firmly on the rug. Thea reached out to snag onto the coffee table to prevent herself from landing face first onto the ground.

"Nice one," Ella muttered, shaking her head in amusement.

Thea opened the door and came face to face with a Harry Potter who had been dressed in the nicest suit possible. It would look even nicer on her bedroom floor tonight, but Thea got ahead of herself. She looked at Harry, looking him over with a smile.

"Wow," Thea said.

"Wow, yourself," Harry said. "Seriously, though, you look beautiful."

A small smile popped over Thea's face, and she stared into his eyes. Those eyes were the downfall of way too many women, at least she suspected they might have been. She had no idea how particularly dangerous those round orbs could be, the second she stared into them. She could have a pretty good idea.

"All we have to do is wait for Selina to pick up Ella…"

Ella rose up to her feet and crossed the room. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Potter, sir. I hope, you're doing well."

Her father told her Harry Potter was a man to respect, and he represented a better future for all of Gotham City. Ella didn't need her father to tell her this, but regardless of the fact, that fact had been reinforced. And one look at Harry just told her about that much.

It helped a lot he was hot and Ella was getting just a little bit of a crush on him. Nothing major, just a little bit of one.

"Nice to meet you as well," Harry said.

"Sorry if I'm holding up your date, but…"

"Actually, that's on my account, and I'm sorry as well."

In walked Selina Kyle, dressed in a pair of jeans, a white tank top, and a leather jacket, sauntering in with the usual swagger you expected from this woman. She looked like she had just gotten off of a motorcycle, the way her hair was in disarray. She stepped over and gave Harry a very chaste, especially for her, kiss on the lips.

' _We don't want to corrupt her, not this soon,'_ Selina thought.

"So, did you hear anything from Dad?" Ella asked. She rung her hands together and looked a little bit hopefully. "It's just….well, I just thought he would be home by now and…."

"He called me last night and said he would be a bit long," Selina said.

She tried, perhaps in vain, to hide her concern. Frank hadn't called since yesterday, and Selina found that fact a little bit worrying. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time he dropped off the grid for a couple of days. The last time he did so, he lost his cell phone, and he had everyone, especially his daughter, worried sick.

"Why don't we pick up a pizza, and see if there's a good movie on?" Selina asked. "We wouldn't want to waste another minute of Harry and Mia's time, would we?"

Ella responded with a shake of her head. "No, and it was a pleasure to meet you, sir."

The two left. Harry could tell Selina was a bit more worried than she let on, but she put on a smile for Ella's sake. He turned to Thea for a moment and smiled, before offering his arm. Thea took his arm with a grin on her face and the two of them made their way out.

' _So, how's Pam holding up after all of the tests?'_ Harry asked.

' _It's a realization what her new course in life is,'_ Faora thought. _'But, I think it's going to be a very long time before she's able to assimilate back into society. Every transgression against a simple daisy could very well spark a rampage…if she's caught at the wrong time, or in a wrong mood.'_

Harry nodded, it became high priority where he would have to work with getting Pamela in a better state of mind. It would be a very long shot to attempt to calm her down, but at this point, Harry just had to do what he had to do to get everything in order.

* * *

 

Everything led to Harry and Thea heading out to dinner. They had made their way to a private booth in the back, away from the views of everything. While no one, other than the handful of people who knew better, could connect Thea Queen, with Mia, she still felt a lot more at ease when she was in disguise and in the comfort of her own booth.

They ordered a nice dinner, and they settled down to talk.

"Everything has calmed down on your end as of late?" Thea asked.

"Well, as much as I think it's going to right now," Harry said. "You can see how something could happen to set everything off again. We are in Gotham City after all."

Thea noticed it didn't take much to spark a powder keg in Gotham City. She enjoyed the steak she had, one of the best in a very long time, and the soup was not too bad either. She was finally starting to relax a little bit, after being in hiding for so long. It had been a year, pretty close, seemed like a lot longer.

She picked up and left, even before Oliver vanished off of the face of the Earth. Thea wondered if he would have gone on that trip. Maybe he would have, maybe he would not have, Thea didn't know. She recalled the reasons why she left, some of her friends had really bad addictions and almost pulled her down a dark road. And then, there was the one friend who almost had an overdose.

"Despite it being in Gotham City, I'm in a better place than I was a year ago," Thea said. "Maybe not the best place I can be, but a pretty good place."

"Hey, I'll say one thing about Gotham," Harry commented. "It can bring out the best of people."

"And it can bring out the worst of people," Thea admitted.

Harry just raised an eyebrow in response. "There are a lot of people who are the best at being their worst. It's just the nature of the game, you know."

Thea was well aware, she knew one hundred percent. She took a drink and looked over at Harry for a second.

"So, what are your plans for the future?" Harry asked.

Thea looked thoughtful for a long minute.

"Well, college is a goal, and something I don't think I would have had the chance to do if I did stick around in Starling City," Thea answered. She took a long drink and looked at him. "And I've discovered a knack for business, with helping Selina run things at Cat's Cradle. Maybe a couple of years down the line, I'll be able to open my own club or something. It might be fun."

"Hey, if you're serious, we'll talk later," Harry said.

"Right, right, we'll talk later," Thea said. "Much later."

She took a moment to take in a deep breath and looked back at Harry. She looked across at his eyes at the table.

"And, I'm getting back into archery," Thea said.

Harry gave her an encouraging smile and reached underneath the table to touch her thigh. The seventeen-year-old girl just smiled.

"Artemis mentioned that when I was back at the Penthouse, how you made that impossible shot," Harry said. "You should focus on that, you never know when it might come in handy."

"Well, my teacher said I had the potential to go to the Olympics back in Starling City," Thea said. "Back there, I did pretty well in it. I would have done better before I took part in some…well, I did some stuff I wasn't proud of."

She was just happy she could be in Gotham City, where she could be clean, sober, and as happy as possible. Thea hoped to exit the dark place as much as possible.

"I just wish I would have gotten news about Ollie, by now," Thea said. "It's been….what, about two or three months since we've gotten any news….since that chunk of the Queen's Gambit was found, or at least, they think it was a chunk of the Gambit."

The fever had died down over the past couple of months, and Thea really did hope there would be some other news, other than what she heard all of those months ago.

"Just got to keep positive he's out there," Harry said.

Thea thought about it, and she wondered how Oliver could have been alive. He would be declared dead if he wasn't back within another year, at least that was her understanding. He might have been out there somewhere, without any memories, without any sense of himself, or anything along those lines.

' _Just can be too much.'_

"So, are you ready to dance?" Harry asked.

Thea broke out of her frustrated thoughts, with a smile. "I fear for the state of your toes, but sure, it might be fun."

The two of them made their way out into the dance floor. Harry guided Thea into the middle, knowing this was only step two of her birthday present on this evening, with the real fun having been to come.

"Just relax," Harry said. "And more importantly, have fun."

Oh, if Thea had her way, they would be having a lot more fun than just dancing by the time the night was done. Harry wrapped his arm around the waist of the seventeen-year-old girl and pulled her into position. Harry dipped her back onto the floor and came close to reaching her lips for a kiss.

He pulled back with a smile and was very much amused by Thea's very prominent gasp of frustrating. He leaned closer towards her.

' _Not yet,'_ Harry thought to himself.

Soon he would have her, but it was not the time, not yet. He would let Thea stew in her own juices, and that term was literal her juices. He could sense he made her panties wet every time.

' _Just a little longer.'_

* * *

 

Slade Wilson crossed his arms and continued his impatient wait for Fyers and his men to Unearth what he needed to Unearth. Slade just had a feeling something was going to cause this entire plan to come off the rails. His benefactors still did not pay him.

He had been dumped on the island and sent to search for an item of great power and great important. Not normally something Slade hunted down, but they made sure the price was right. And he needed at least one more big job before he could retire from his work. Slade hoped to cash in on Batman and Nightwing to acquire those bounties, and later just Batman when Lady Shiva put a stop on him.

' _Do what needs to be done, and get it over with, Fyers,'_ Slade thought.

Fyers kept his eyes locked onto Yao Fei. The old man refused to back down and show Fyers the respect the man thought he deserved. Or perhaps the fear he thought he should command. It was something of a battle of wills between two very strong-willed men, and something had to give, but the question was, who or what would give first?

"You stand still and you follow the plan, and your daughter remains unharmed," Fyers responded.

"I know what you're doing," Yao Fei responded. "And I know how much you're wasting your time."

Fyers responded with a chuckle and looked across the island where he locked onto Slade. Slade lingered a few inches back, a very humorless expression dancing over his face. Fyers turned back to Yao Fei.

"You think, I'm wasting my time."

"You wouldn't be the first one who tried to uncover something on this island, based off of a false hope," Yao Fei warned him. "There are many fools who have come here….."

The box broken open and there was a piece of parchment at the bottom of the box. Fyers reached into the box and took out the paper. He unrolled it with a smile on his face.

"Is this all of the proof you need, to see that I'm not wasting my time?" Fyers asked. "Gaze upon what I have old man. And see I'm not just another eagle eyed treasure hunter who is going to this island off of false hopes. I've found it, it's here…and…"

"You have no idea what you're meddling with."

Shado made her way to the edge of the bush clearing. She would need to have taken the shot from this position, there might not have been another chance for her to fire. Shado bit down fiercely on her tongue when aiming this arrow into the distance. She drew back her bow and fired.

The longest, most agonizing moment of Shado's life past when the arrow zipped through the trees and past the clearing. The arrow came right next to Fyers, inches away from hitting him. So close, yet so far, with Shado just narrowly avoiding hitting her shot.

One of the men jumped in front of the arrow at the last minute and received it directly to the chest. The man dropped down to the ground, blood dripping from his mouth. The other men turned their attention.

"It's them!" Fyers yelled.

Yao Fei broke free of the men who held him, before being tackled to the ground. He smashed down onto the ground and he looked up at Oliver and Shado.

"Run!"

Fyers and his men were distracted by Oliver and Shado's attempts to get away. They were so distracted, they didn't really expect what was about to happen next, that being Deadpool jumping down from the tree above him. Two of the men had been stabbed with extreme prejudice.

"Yoink!"

A surprise movement ripped the piece of parchment out of the hand of Edward Fyers. Fyers whirled around very angrily with Deadpool rushing all the way.

"Get him!" Fyers yelled to his men. "I need that, it's the key to everything."

One of the goons rushed towards Deadpool, not knowing there had been a rope in the underbrush. The rope wrapped around the man's ankle and snapped him up, sending him flying over a tree, and into parts unknown, directly out of sight.

Deadpool stopped and could see another man rush towards him. Deadpool held up his hand and his face contorted into a very devious smile.

"Wait for it."

Boom went a battering ram, cutting through the distance and smacking one of the goons in question directly in the chest with one of the more solid thumps possible. The goon dropped to the ground, the breath having been driven directly out of his body.

"Okay, that's got to hurt!"

Slade watched the chaos unfold and moved his way towards the box Fyers uncovered. He wasn't asked for his help, and no help had been offered. Slade reached into the box and rifled through several of the more useless items in the box, Fyers may have overlooked something in his greed, and his attempts to gain power.

A piece of hardened plastic found its way into the hands of Slade Wilson. He broke out into a smile and looked at the plastic. In the middle of the plastic, a green gem flashed into the light. This was the same gem, which Slade's benefactor tasked him with acquiring.

' _At last,'_ Slade thought in triumph.

* * *

 

The Gotham City Police Department arrived at the docks. A strange disturbance had caused a mysterious man to call in, and claim a couple of goons had dumped something very large in the middle of Gotham City harbor. No one quite knew what to make of this claim, so it was time for the GCPD to see if they could investigate it.

The squad car pulled up and Harvey Bullock made his way out, followed by Renee Montoya. The two of them walked to the docks.

"People dumping bodies all of the time," Bullock said, shaking his head in disgust. "I'm pretty sure this is just more than the same….some John Doe…"

Bullock stopped and noticed a wallet floating in the middle of the Gotham City Harbor. Bullock bent down and picked up the wallet. The driver's license had been removed, but there was still a receipt shoved in the back of the money in the wallet.

"Not a mugging, they would have taken the guy's money, but why did they take his driver's license?" Bullock asked.

"It could be identity theft?" Montoya suggested.

"Maybe," Bullock said. "But, why leave his Social Security card?"

That was a damn good question and one look at the card would identify the man who had been dumped. However, Bullock noticed something or someone bubble up to the surface. A very bruised body had been rocked onto the docks and flipped over. His shirt had been ripped open, with blood caked, and someone had beaten him about the area of the face several times. There were slashes on his face, and it looked like someone had attempted, very crudely, to disfigure the man's face.

"This one has been put through the ringer," Bullock muttered. "Holy, shit, is that….fuck…it's…"

Montoya gasped when she looked at the man in question. She recognized him, anyone who had been at the GCPD had recognized him.

"Frank Bertinelli," Bullock said. "Son of a bitch, who would kill Bertinelli?"

The person who wanted to kill someone like Frank Bertinelli was either ignorant, desperate, or they really wanted to start a war for some kind of twisted reason. He had a lot of friends in Gotham City, in both the good parts and the bad parts. And he was one of the heads of the Five Families, although he managed to keep a clean record. Never got his hands personally dirty, at least as far as any of them knew.

"We better call this one in, and brace for the shit-storm," Bullock told Montoya.

* * *

 

Chief O'Hara stopped at the doorstep when he received an urgent phone call. He knew it was from Commissioner Grogan. He was good at his job, very good, although he could get a bit too overexcited at times, for O'Hara's liking. He decided to take the phone and answer it.

"Yes, Peter?" O'Hara asked.

"We found Frank Bertinelli's body, he had been beaten, shot, and dumped by the docks," Grogan said.

O'Hara could have sworn. Saint Patrick's Day was not looking very good for him, and this was going to mean a lot more work for the GCPD. He hated to say it, but retirement would not have come soon enough.

"Let me shower, and get something to eat, and I'll be back in," O'Hara said.

He had to do something to sober up a little bit, after partaking in the festivities in Gotham City. O'Hara placed his hands on the side of his head and started to rub his temples. He reached around to grab the door knob and pull it open.

A solid bang launched Chief O'Hara up high and caused him to land down onto the ground. Another bang was silent and caught him straight with one bullet, into the side of the head.

A figure had been waiting inside of his house and stepped over O'Hara's slain body. The figure stepped off of the porch and made his way around the corner to a white van which had been already warmed up around the corner. The gentleman had what he wanted.

The body of O'Hara laid out on the porch, having been killed the moment the bullet hit his skull.

* * *

 

Overall, tonight had been the perfect night, at least in Thea's mind. The two of them returned to Thea's apartment, where there had been a bottle of wine waiting.

"You're a bit young," Harry said.

"Well, wine isn't the worst thing I've done," Thea argued. "Besides, given what we're about to do…..I think a bit of wine isn't going to be the most scandalous thing I do tonight."

A wide smile crossed over Thea's face and she poured them a drink of wine. They picked up the glasses and clinked them together.

"Well, here's to another year of survival," Thea said with a smile.

Thea took a drink of wine and was glad tonight had gone off without a hitch. She was very excited to see what tonight would bring, at least for the rest of the evening. She leaned closer towards Harry with a bright smile on her face.

"I want you, so badly I can taste it," Thea said.

"Oh, you sure you want a taste?" Harry asked her.

Thea responded with a smile, she was sure she wanted a taste. The two of them met lip to lip with each other and kissed each other with unbridled passion. Harry grabbed onto the back of Thea's head and worked his tongue into her warm mouth. The two of them exchanged a kiss.

Her mind had been very much blown with a kiss, which Harry had been teasing all night. Thea scooted onto Harry's lap and deepened the kiss. Their lips smacked together in unlimited passion and energy.

Thea reached to undo Harry's tie but stopped.

"No, let's head over to my bedroom, so we can do this properly."

The heiress made her way to the bedroom, her hips bouncing when she moved. Harry got a nice view of her ass when she moved on through to the bedroom.

Thea stopped and slipped down the straps of her dress slowly. She dropped down her dress to reveal a silky black bra which made her perky breasts stand out. Harry looked at her nice, athletic body, built for hard work and hard sex, with her nice wide ass, and beautiful legs which stretched out. The nice thong panties she wore made her stand out even more and those black stockings made her legs look amazing.

"I want to unwrap the rest of my present, now," Thea whispered hotly in Harry's ear.

Never one to show much restraint, Thea tore into Harry's shirt and started to kiss him all the way down his body. Her lips worshiped his body, taking in every inch of his muscular frame. She could just worship him for kisses for days, but there was something else Thea wanted to worship.

"Oh, is this for me?"

Thea squeezed his hard cock and leaned in, wrapping her hand around the base of his throbbing manhood. Harry turned towards Thea and leaned in with a light smile crossing over his face. He looked Thea directly in the eye and smiled at her.

"It's yours if you want to take it," Harry told her.

"Oh, I want it," Thea begged him. "Please, I want it so bad, you have no idea how bad I want this cock. How bad I want to suck on this huge cock, and put it between my lips. Please, Harry, give it to me, you have no idea."

"Well, it's your birthday," Harry told her. "Help yourself."

Thea teased both Harry and herself by kissing his abs, before coming down to his cock. She wrapped a hand around his cock and moved between her legs. The eager teenager sucked on the balls of the older man.

Warmth surrounded Harry's balls when Thea wrapped her hand around him and started to pump him as hard as possible. Thea made her way to the point of his cock and slid the thick prick into her mouth. Thea's mouth encased Harry's manhood when sliding all the way down onto him.

"Thea, that's it, nice and slow, you don't want to hurt your jaw, this soon," Harry said.

The older man guided the teenager down his pole. Thea closed her eyes and sucked in Harry's huge cock. It had been everything she ever dreamed of and so much more. Thea could not wait to feel Harry's huge cock just pierce the back of her throat. The woman rose up onto him and took more of his huge cock inside of her mouth, sucking on him, slurping on his huge cock.

"Yes, oh, this feels really good," Harry groaned. "Your such a good little cock sucker, Ms. Queen."

She appreciated the compliment and intended to live up with it. A few more minutes had been spent worshipping Harry's cock before she pulled off of him. Thea smiled when climbed on top of Harry, to straddle him. She pulled her thong down and rubbed her wet pussy against his cock.

"I need you inside me," Thea begged him. "Badly."

Harry positioned his cock right at the entrance of her tight pussy. Thea's stocking clad legs rubbed against Harry's thighs when she slowly, but surely dropped down onto him. Harry reached behind to squeeze Thea's nice ass and give it a spank before she dropped down onto him.

He entered Thea and slid into her warm depths. Thea closed her eyes and rose all the way up before dropping down onto his thick cock. Thea closed her walls around Harry's nice hard cock and pushed herself all the way. She was tight and it felt so good to have his warm cock.

Thea was glad her hymen had been broken due to her active lifestyle, not in the sexual way, but rather in the athletic way. It made the transition of having Harry's cock buried deep inside of her much easier. Her wet thighs bounced and brought him down.

Access to her B-Cup breasts had been granted. They might have been smaller than some of the other girl's, but they fit Thea's frame very nicely, and they were very sensitive to Harry's touch. Harry reached up and grabbed Thea's nipples, tweaking them.

"Touch me, right there," Thea begged him. "Oh, Harry, this feels so good…it feels so good for you to touch me, to play with my perky tits...I love it!"

"I'm sure you do," Harry told her. "I'm going to suck on your little nipples until they're hard. How would you like that?"

"A lot, I would like that a whole lot," Thea responded, her eyes shifting over when rising up and dropping down on Harry. "Oh, Harry, take your big cock and fuck the daylights out of me, please!"

Harry did as she was asked, slamming his huge cock inside of Thea's warm and waiting body. Her walls stretched around Harry when rising and dropping down onto him. Harry sucked Thea's nipples, and grabbed her, pushing her down onto him.

The pace kicked up after Thea came for the first time. The first time with a huge cock inside of her, her walls expanding and contracting around the invading member. No other cock would ever make her feel so good again. Thea thought, and not without error, she hit the jackpot. Harry rose up and pushed his cock, filling all over her body.

Those light moans coming from Thea increased when she rode him. Harry could feel the pleasure exploding through the body of his teenage lover. He made sure to make her feel so good, fingers dancing on every part of Thea's athletic, sexy frame. She rose up and dropped down onto him.

"God, I'm cumming again," Thea said. "Oh, shit, Harry!"

Harry just slipped a single finger inside of Thea's back passage. She closed her eyes, enjoying his finger pump her in time with his cock. Thea wondered, horny as hell, about how that cock would feel in her tight ass, ripping it apart. Her heart beat even faster.

' _Jesus Christ, he's going to be the death of me,'_ Thea thought.

Her pussy contractions squeezed Harry's cock. Harry pushed inside of her and made Thea drop all the way down onto him one more time. She pushed herself to the limit and had been rewarded by Harry's thick cock pushing into her body.

Several more orgasms on Thea's part opened up the door for Harry to slide into her pussy. Harry pushed deeper inside of her and stretched Thea completely out with his huge cock.

"My turn," Harry told her.

Thea braced herself for what was about to happen next. The twins mentioned Harry had ways to prevent pregnancy unless the girl was one hundred percent sure. And while Thea entertained the possibility for the future, that wasn't a responsibility she wanted, or really needed right about now.

His thick balls discharged their load inside of Thea's waiting quim. He splashed his cum deep inside of her body, flooding her pussy with more seed than Thea knew what to do with, at least for the moment. Her bouncing body sank all the way down on Harry's cock and released him.

"So good," Harry told her. "You feel so good."

Thea smiled when she pulled herself off of Harry. She felt a bit tender , and maybe she shouldn't push it.

"It's my birthday," Thea said. "And I'd like your big cock to take my anal virginity."

Thea turned around and presented her ass to Harry, practically putting it his hands. Harry grabbed onto the cheeks and squeezed it. They looked so firm, and her hole looked so tight, just ready to penetrated and taken. Harry knew it would be a tight fit.

"Are you sure about this?"

Lightly, Harry flickered her anus with his finger. Thea slowly bounced her ass against him and lightly tapped his re-hardened cock with her booty.

"Fuck me, it's my birthday," Thea said. She bit down on her lip. "You wouldn't deny the birthday girl, what she wants, wouldn't you?"

Harry spanked her firm ass and left a nice red mark on it. That big throbbing cock rubbed against Thea's tight asshole which opened in anticipation for him. Harry grabbed two handfuls of Thea's ass and guided himself slowly inside of her inch by inch.

For a second, Thea experienced pain, but she expected it. The foreign intrusion in her back passage made her breath heavily, as much as possible. Then, Harry guided himself further into her, with his fingers reaching around and pinching her clit.

"Fuck, it's good!" Harry yelled. "I've thought about what it would be like to fuck your ass."

"Dirty old man," Thea teased him.

Harry just smiled and pushed his hard cock into her ass. An ass like this was put on this world to fuck. Harry made sure to keep attention to all parts of Thea's body. Her nipples were so hard they could cut through glass. Harry grabbed her nipples and squeezed them.

"Fuck," Thea breathed.

"Yes, that's what we're doing," Harry said. "This ass, belongs to me, but that's what you wanted?"

Thea would not have it any other way. She came again, very hard. Her ass bounced and every now and then, Harry spanked it. The sound of his hand smacking against her firm flesh made Thea leak from her pussy. Harry scooped up the cum onto his fingers and offered it to Thea. She took the fingers into her mouth and hotly sucked on it.

Time passed, with Harry working into her ass more. He sent pleasurable jolts inside of Thea's womanhood and caused her to scream out in pleasure. Her tight ass clamped down onto Harry and released him. Several more drops took as much of Harry inside of her.

"Damn, I'm not going to be able sit without thinking of you and that big cock," Thea said.

"Good," Harry said. "I'm glad."

She was too. Thea's excitement reached another level when driving her tight asshole down around Harry's thick pole. She stretched herself around his cock, rising up and dropping down with successive maneuvers. Harry put his cock into her back passage without any further hesitation.

"Mmm, yes, oooh, that's so good," Thea begged him.

"You haven't felt good yet," Harry informed her. "Release everything you've been feeling."

Unprecedented pleasure spread through Thea's body. So much so, she thought she would die. Harry picked up the pace and the number of orgasms she felt increased.

Eventually, all good things came to an end, and tonight's night ended with Harry discharging his warm cum into Thea's ass. Her wide rear bounced with Harry pushing into her and then pulling all the way out of her. His thick cum splattered inside of Thea.

It felt good with her ass milking down his balls to the very last drop. He spanked her ass a couple more times before finishing up, at least for now.

* * *

 

Harry rested in bed with Thea, his arm wrapped around her, when she snuggled lightly against Harry's shoulder. Harry leaned back in the bed with a smile on his face. Tonight had been a very good night as far as he was concerned, for both him and Thea.

' _Harry?'_ Barbara asked. _'Are you….'_

' _Just lying in bed,'_ Harry thought. _'What can I do for you, Babs?'_

' _I've got…some bad news….Frank Bertinelli's body has been found, he's dead,'_ Barbara thought. _'And that's not all….it's Chief O'Hara, someone shot him….he's dead.'_

Harry could see why Barbara was so upset and he could hardly blame her for being so. She knew Chief O'Hara since she was a young girl and he was like an uncle to her. And Ella had her father taken away from her as well, no doubt by some mob hit. But, who, who would kill Frank Bertinelli?

Harry had a feeling things were about ready to get rough in Gotham City. The calm was reaching an end.

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 8** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

**Several bangs ended this chapter. One being the good kind, with Thea. The other, involving Chief O'Hara, not so much. Also, Frank Bertinelli is dead, and that's going to lead to some severe ramifications later on. As Bullock rightfully pointed out, either someone is ignorant, desperate, or they want to start a war.**

**Slade's found something interesting on the island. Very interesting, as we'll find out in future chapters.**

**Until Wednesday, where the shit continues to hit the fan in Gotham City.**


	271. The Penguin Strikes Back Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-One: The Penguin Strikes Back Part One**

* * *

 

A group of rough and tumble men waited around for orders. Tonight was going to be the night where their boss, Oswald Cobblepot, better known as the Penguin, planned to take back Gotham City. They heard this before a number of times, but this time, they thought there was a pretty good chance he was going to do so.

Everything had been turned over in the past few months. They did not know where they stood, where their boss stood. Some of the men who waited around were no the nervous type, but never the less, they walked on the ever-present eggshells, and hoped not to upset the apple cart.

"So, do you think the boss has a plan?"

The one goon who spoke up had the eyes of several other goons who looked at him with those beady little eyes. The goon who dared speak looked pretty nervous.

"He's the Penguin, we know what he's capable of, you know what he's capable of," one of the goons said and he put a large finger into the man's chest. The man stepped back, shaking in madness. "He says we should all be here tonight, and we shouldn't be late."

The Penguin was running a little late, not that any of them could have faulted him. And no one would have dared mentioned how much the Penguin ran late. No, he was right on time, and always right where he needed to be.

The sound of a motorized wheelchair approaching brought some of the goons to full alertness. They all turned around just in time to see the Walrus make his way out of the corner. Many of them have not seen the Walrus in light after the incident regarding Carmine Falcone's son and the botched trade. He looked still as vile and nasty as ever, with that demented mustache covering his chin. He stared up at the men with his beady little eyes, never once breaking from his expression.

"Alright, listen up, and listen up good, lads. The Penguin is on his way, and he's going to tell you the score. So you better not blink twice."

The various members of Penguin's gang all stood up straight and attentive, so much so, you would have thought they were attending church. They were very calm and very casual. They looked on forward towards the door where they swung open. The man who set to rule Gotham made his way into the room. He dressed in a very stylish black suit, and a top hat. His ever present umbrella lingered in his hand. Some people speculated it had a concealed knife, others a concealed gun, and there were others yet, who just thought Penguin kept that particular item around as a means to beat his adversary's over the head.

One poor, helpless thug found out the hard way when Penguin beat him upon the head with the umbrella some time ago.

"Alright, lads, listen up, I'm going to tell you this once, and I'm not going to repeat myself," Penguin said. "So, you better all stand up, fly right, and most importantly, you better all pay some good fucking attention to me."

All of these goons did all of these things and then more. The Penguin's teeth twisted into that ever-present smile and he leaned closer towards the goons in question.

"We've come into a bit of a rough patch in Gotham City, I haven't been myself, and I've been dealing with some personal problems," Penguin said. "I think people have forgotten just what I can do. I tried to be the good guy, I tried to play nice. And it didn't work out, did it?"

Several of the goons looked at each other. Penguin just smiled.

"Of course it didn't, because, in Gotham City, nice guys always come in, last place," Penguin said. "Dead last!"

Penguin slammed his umbrella down on the table to dramatize those last words. All of these men looked at the Penguin, some of them shaking. They knew better than to test him when in this state.

"Let's look at the score card in Gotham City, shall we," Penguin said. "Sionis is busy rebuilding his empire after the Joker went through it like a wrecking ball. Falcone is playing it safe, and that's the pussy way to play it as far as I'm concerned. And Thorne…..he's rebuilding from a couple of really big losses of his own, isn't he?"

All of these gentlemen responded with nods. None of them wanted to be the one to set off the Penguin, especially during this powder keg of a moment. The Penguin's eyes shifted on each of the men in front of them. His wicked teeth came into a smile when he stared them all down.

"Tonight is the night, my boys," Penguin said. "And tonight is the night we take back Gotham, and we don't take any prisoners. No shit, not from anyone. Not from the cops, not from any rival gangs, not from Nightwing and Batman. We don't take anything, do you hear me?"

A loud roar came out from among the rabble. Penguin smiled, having they completely eating out of the palm of his hands, as it should have been.

"Tonight's the night, boys," Penguin said. "Tonight, we're not going to take any prisoners. Tonight, we're taking back Gotham City."

Tonight was the night the Penguin struck back. And he was going straight for the throat this time.

* * *

 

Late hours did not bother Selina Kyle, hence why she was already up and about when she heard a knock on the door. She slipped on a dressing gown very quickly and sauntered towards the door. She opened up the door and came face to face with an attractive woman dressed in a uniform on the other side of the door.

"Ms. Kyle, my name is Sarah Essen, I work for the Gotham City Police Department."

Selina nodded politely. Sarah showed her badge, but there was no need for her to do so. Selina recognized the woman from a part of Harry's circle. Still, the fact a member of the Gotham City Police Department visited her doorstep so early in the morning did a pretty good job in putting Selina on pins and needles. She folded her hands together and looked Sarah in the eye, at least the best she could.

"What can I do for you?" Selina asked.

A long sigh followed by the woman. Selina waited, her arms folded patiently.

"You are the temporary guardian of Helena Bertinelli, aren't you?"

Already, the moment these words left Sarah's mouth, Selina's blood ran just a tiny bit cold. Those chills blew up her spine and would not leave her along any time soon. She knew instantly what was going on and dreaded the day it might happen.

' _Oh God,'_ Selina thought to herself.

Best not to jump to conclusions either, even though jumping to conclusions would have been the easiest thing in the world for anyone to do right now. Regardless, Selina locked eyes on the woman in front of her and remained steady, strong, and just herself.

"It's better you hear from me," Sarah responded. "Frank Bertinelli, he won't be coming home tonight. We found in, Gotham City docks….it was pretty bad…..it's going to be all over the news by morning."

Selina took this matter in stride, even though there were just so many questions in her mind. The most pressing question was who would have killed Frank Bertinelli, and thought it was worth the risk. He had his enemies, granted, but Selina also knew there would be very few of those enemies who would take a bold enough step in killing him. It did not really make a whole lot of sense, at all.

At the foot of the steps, Selina heard a shocked gasp. Ella already had been woken up by the door and she dressed in a pair of purple pajamas when coming down the door. She looked at the officer in the door.

"Who killed him?" Ella asked.

Sarah looked at the young girl and her frustrated look. It was very heartbreaking to see a child like this. She looked a bit shaken, and also very angry.

"We don't know, sweetie," Sarah said.

"And she doesn't either," Selina said, cutting off the next line of questioning, whether or not Ella learned something which could point out to her father's killer.

Sarah motioned for Selina to step out into the hallway. Selina complied, making her way to the edge of the hallway with Sarah, while also keeping half of an eye inside, looking out for Ella. Selina turned her attention back to the office of the Gotham City Police Department.

"The people behind this, they might not stop at targeting a child if they think she knows something," Sarah said. "And whether or not she does know something, or not, that doesn't matter. If these people think there's a risk, there's…."

Selina put her hand down onto Sarah's to stop her.

"I know, I know, I know what these people could be capable of, and I'm not going to let them harm my goddaughter," Selina said.

Sarah frowned in response and wondered what that meant. Before she could ask any more questions, Selina made her way into the room.

"Ella, please pack your things up, we're heading out," Selina told her.

"Where are we going?" Ella asked.

"I'll explain on the way," Selina said.

Ella paused for a minute, but there were no more arguments in the young girl's voice. She scrambled to go pack up her things and left Sarah along with Selina one more time. The officer of the Gotham City police Department frowned when looking at the woman.

"I'm supposed to take Helena back to the Gotham City Police Department, so she could be put under protective custody….."

One hand risen up from Selina stopped Sarah from doing her job.

"I understand you're doing your job," Selina said. "And I understand you're one of the good ones, who would never abuse their position no matter what circumstances."

Sarah heard those words, and she knew straight where there would be a "but" attached to them. It was just the type of circumstances she saw coming about a mile away.

"We both know the GCPD still has their fair share of problems, and I'm not entrusting my goddaughter to them because there are some people….who have been known to get to witnesses even though they are in the middle of police custody."

Both women knew exactly what Selina had been referring to. The Gotham City Cop Killer was a black mark on the GCPD and one they, unfortunately, had not been able to shake, and may never be able to shake, at least not for quite some time.

"We both know where the safest place for Helena is."

Ella moved around the corner without another word. She made sure her bags were secure, the most important thing was the necklace she received for her birthday. It was priceless in sentimental value, having belonged to her late mother in the past.

"So, are you ready kid?"

"I guess," Ella said.

Sarah frowned and decided to at least make an effort do her job. She had been stuck between a rock and a hard place. The fact Harry's penthouse was safe should pacify some people, along with upsetting a whole lot of others.

"At least let me drive you to the Penthouse," Sarah said.

"If it gives the GCPD a peace of mind, I guess I can give you that much," Selina said. "Oh, and if you see Sergeant Gordon….send him my regards and congratulate him on his new promotion…and congratulations on your recent promotion to Lieutenant."

"Thank you," Sarah said. "I just wish they happened under better circumstances."

"Well, you were qualified," Selina said. "It's just, those bad circumstances sped up the road to the inevitable. Not really a big deal, is it?"

Sarah shook her head. Before they could cross the doors of Selina's apartment, her radio began to squawk. She took it out and answered it.

"Sarah, it's O'Hara," Ellen said over the radio. "He's been found shot and killed outside of his house….no fingerprints."

When it rained, it poured, especially in Gotham City. Sarah knew right from the start, this was going to be a long next couple of days.

* * *

 

The last few months put Black Mask at a disadvantage he did not like to be in. He was only starting to dig himself out of the hole the Joker put him in. He might have been regulated to around the clock observation in the Arkham Wing of Blackgate Prison, but the Joker most certainly did leave his mark. And he left his mark on Roman Sionis.

' _So much fucking ground lost because I allowed myself to be kidnapped,'_ Black Mask thought.

He lost way too much ground and way too much respect. Black Mask needed to be out among the people in Gotham City, cracking skulls, and taking names. If he couldn't do that, then was there any point in holding onto a criminal empire? He had lost too much, his empire bled out.

Several of his men, loyalists who had not split and went to other camps, waited around. They waited for Black Mask to speak them.

"We're going after him tonight, the Roman."

The other men looked towards Sionis, thinking the man had slipped even further down the rabbit hole to insanity. They had been walking on eggshells, careful not to upset the man in any way possible.

"He walks out of the nut ward, and takes Gotham back over after I broke my back for months," Sionis said. "Carmine Falcone is a relic of another time, of yesterday's Gotham. He might claim he's someone who is going to be a part of Gotham City's future, but all of us know how bullshit that is!"

The members of Black Mask's crew got all loud and one of them threw his fist up in the air.

"The Falcone Dynasty isn't what it used to be," Sionis said. "Mario has been thrown out of the country, Alberto is a bundle of nerves…..everything has only worsened, and now is the perfect time to strike and take back Gotham City. The Roman's holdings are a soft target, it would be stupid not to try and go after them!"

The various members of Black Mask's mob all had been stirred up. Sionis knew how to get his men riled up and ready to go, there was no question about it.

"What about Thorne, boss?" one of the men asked.

"What about Thorne?" Black Mask asked. He put his hand underneath his chin and tilted his head back as if to ponder this question. "A very good question, what about Rupert Thorne? We'll worry about him at another time….he's sitting smug, and pretty….maybe not too pretty given Franco got waxed the other night."

Black Mask paced around and then he turned full on to stare down his gang. The members of his gang wondered what their boss would do.

"The Roman's holdings are prime for the taking," Black Mask responded. "They're a soft target….and he thinks they can hold, even when he made a deal with Maroni. That one almost lost him his son, and it caused another one of his son's huge problems, didn't it?"

Sionis did not expect an answer. He was on a roll and there was going to be nothing that would slow him down, not if he could help it anyway.

"Caesar thought he was untouchable, but he fell at the Ides of March," Sionis said. "We're a bit late for that, unfortunately, but let's not waste time on dramatic irony. Let's destroy Carmine Falcone and take his empire. We are going to rule Gotham City, and prove that one misstep is not going to ruin us!"

Everyone grew louder and more excited. Sionis reached over and slipped his mask on.

"Tonight, the masks are done, and Carmine Falcone will not be able to hide underneath his!" Sionis growled. "And once we're done with Carmine, we're going to take out the rest of Gotham City. We're going to prove how we're going to run this city. We run his city!"

Sionis motioned for the loyal, very fanatical members of his gang to take up arms, with mask and guns. They were ready to take the fight to Gotham City and bring them back into their hands.

* * *

 

News reached Rupert Thorne regarding the death of Frank Bertinelli, and the head of the Gotham City Commission of Crime was not in a very good mood.

He suspected Frank was a potential informant of the GCPD, and after his daughter was born, and more importantly after his wife died, he didn't have his mind on business first and foremost. Still, Thorne would not deny the fact that Frank was a good soldier, and losing him on the battlefield was very deadly.

Especially given how the supporters of the Gotham Five families would be pointing fingers. Everyone was scrambling for power after some of the rules changed in Gotham City. Those older crime families wanted to keep control of the board, even after the rules had changed.

A large gentleman who cast a shadow approached the desk. Sionis looked up to look at a large, broad, albino man, who had dressed in a dark suit which was a very prominent contrast to his skin tone. Thorne looked the man dead on in the eye and finally, spoke.

"I hope you have a good explanation for this, Steven," Thorne responded.

"Bertinelli, he wouldn't divulge where it was," Steven said. "Things got rough…too rough…and I never intended to kill him…my men panicked and beat him, tried to cut off his face…before dumping him."

"I trust the people who did that have been taken care of," Thorne said.

"Yes," Steven said.

"Good, because killing him doesn't get us any closer to what we want," Thorne said. He took a long sip of coffee and surveyed the albino man. "And killing Bertinelli is bad for business…you should take a better hold of your men, before someone else does, Steven."

Dead men would not give up any information. Bertinelli could have been stockpiling information, which he leaked to Loeb after he pulled his cop killer act.

' _For all I know, he could have been selling information to Batman and Nightwing,'_ Thorne thought to himself. _'And I'll never know because dead men told no tales.'_

'I would lie low for a while," Thorne advised Steven. "You killed one of my best men, and while I understand accidents happen, in the heat of the moment, there are others who won't be so forgiving. I won't be able to help you."

"With all due respect, I know about as much of this operation as you do," Steven said.

"Steven, I understand the need for leverage, but you don't know as much as you think you do, and trying to hold that over my head is very dangerous now," Thorne said. "Security will escort you out…don't give them a reason to get rough with you."

Frustration brimmed over Steven's face. Thorne watched him leave and wondered what his next move was going to be. His phone rang.

"Boss, we have a problem….Penguin and his men, they've taken the holdings down by the East Gotham River."

East Gotham River, but that meant….oh shit, that wasn't good at all. Thorne tried to keep his blood pressure down, but it was very hard to do.

"The shipping routes, have they been cut off?" Thorne asked.

"Yes, sir, they have," the man over the phone said. "What should we do?"

"Counterattack," Thorne said. "If the Penguin wants a battle, I'm going to give him a war."

Thorne tried to mediate everything, but now, the Penguin had gone straight for the throat. He took Thorne's olive branch and shoved it straight where the sun didn't shine.

* * *

 

Several of the girls hung around in the Penthouse, doing what they could. Diana sat by the door, waiting for their guests to arrive. A knock on the door brought Diana to her feet quickly and she made her way to the door.

"Ella, I'm so sorry to hear about your father," Diana said. She reached in and wrapped her arms around the waist of the younger girl giving her a gentle hug. "If there's anything we can get you, please don't be shy, and ask."

"Thank you," Ella said.

"Your room is up there….if you want me to…"

"No, I can find it, thank you," Ella said.

"I'll come with you," Selina said.

Selina moved away from the girls in the penthouse which left Sarah and Diana alone to talk to each other. Sarah drew in her breath for a moment later and sighed.

"So, how is Barbara doing?" Sarah asked. "Or did she find out about O'Hara's death yet?"

Diana sighed. Tonight looked to be one of those nights. After a cool winter, other than Poison Ivy, things kicked up a fair amount.

"She found out, and she's not doing well," Diana said. "But, I think I'm not going out on a limb when I say no one is doing well after hearing about that."

Diana sighed, she really wished she could get through to Barbara.

' _She's shut herself up in the Clocktower, and is pouring over leads for O'Hara's death,'_ Diana said. _'This and given what happened to Pamela, it's really taking his toll on her, and we're all very concerned for her.'_

' _And for good reason,'_ Harry thought. _'Gwen's keeping her company, making sure she doesn't work too hard, but you know how Barbara is when she puts her mind on something.'_

' _I work with her father,'_ Sarah thought. _'It runs in the family. That obsession, it can't really be healthy, you know.'_

' _Yes, I know,'_ Harry agreed.

No one was doing well, and while Sarah had not been in the Gotham City Police Department, she could tell the mood had gotten a lot of ugly. O'Hara had a lot of friends in the department, and a lot of younger cops he mentored, they looked up to him. He did his best to run a tight ship, even when the waves were moving against him.

Ella made her way downstairs, where Rebecca, Lois, Artemis, and Jade were waiting.

"Sorry to hear about your Dad," Rebecca said. "I understand how hard this could be."

"Thank you," Ella said.

Selina motioned for Ella to come next to her.

"Until I tell you differently, I want you to stay put and stay out of trouble," Selina said. "Even if you think you might know who did this, I don't want you going after anyone. Is that understood?""

Ella nodded in response. Selina bent down and kissed her goddaughter on the top of the head.

"Nothing is going to make this right, but….if we can find out who did this, then they'll be locked up for the rest of their life."

Selina never really put much faith in the law to do the right thing, but she hoped one time, she could justify faith.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," Selina told her. "Listen to Harry, or Diana…or anyone of the other adults here...and I'll be back to visit as soon as I can. You'll be safe here if you stay here."

"I better be going as well," Sarah said. "The GCPD is going to want all hands on deck, after O'Hara and….well, I better go."

"Good luck," Diana said.

Sarah took three steps out of the door, and she heard her radio go off again.

"Ellen?" Sarah asked.

"Penguin has attacked the East Side," Ellen said.

' _Thorne,'_ Sarah thought. _'Damn it, they're going to start a gang war, on top of anything else.'_

The Penguin, though, she thought it would spark with retaliation from Bertinelli's death, and not something the Penguin did. Sarah thought she had all of the answers, but someone kept changing all of the questions and just leaving her pretty baffled.

* * *

 

Speaking of the Penguin, he made his way into one of Thorne's penthouses and looked around.

"Pretty damn good, not as good as your main base of operations," Penguin said. "But pretty damn good, nice enough room to stretch your legs…..might need some redecoration, though, but we'll worry about that later."

The phone rang and Penguin walked over to answer it.

"I thought we had an understanding."

Right on cue, Rupert Thorne called him.

"I thought about it, and I didn't quite agree to the terms you laid out," Penguin said. "I realized, I can move up in the world. People think I've gotten soft, and they're right…ever since I moved across the pond, I've lost a bit of my edge. Well, guess what, I'm getting it back now. Time for me to harden up."

"You aren't going to get away with this," Thorne said.

"I hear you've got your own problems….your little buddy, Frank, was found in the river," Penguin said. "That's what happens when you don't have control of your own house….when the door is cracked open where just anyone could walk in….well, Rupert, I'm interested to see….."

One of the men stepped inside. Penguin could see the frantic look in the man's eyes.

"Just one second," Penguin said. "Yeah, lad, what it is?"

"Boss, it's the Bat! He's been sighted, close by."

"Good," Penguin said. "If we take him out, we'll show the world not to fuck with me."

Batman would serve as the perfect example of why Gotham City belonged to the Penguin.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on March 11** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

**Gotham City is heating up in another gang war, although that happens about every few months.**

**Until Saturday.**


	272. Penguin Strikes Back Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Two: The Penguin Strikes Back Part Two**

* * *

 

Orders dropped down from the top from the Penguin. It was time to make a stand and time to show everyone why he ruled Gotham City. And the best way to show them that was to eliminate Batman at any and all costs. Several of the goons moved around. One of them shined a flashlight in the alleyway and pulled it back in disgust when he realized the Batman was nowhere around.

"Come on, Bat," one of them growled. "I've got something for you. He doesn't scare me."

"You haven't seen him work up close," one of the goons responded, sounding a slight bit anxious. He looked over his shoulder. "Trust me, if you would have seen the Bat up close, you would have….you would have been a bit afraid of what he could do. He gets you, you blink, and he gets you."

"Come on, he's just playing tricks on your mind," another Penguin thug said. "Besides, if you ask me, there's a lot of people who have their panties in a knot because of just one guy."

One of the thugs overturned a crate, thinking Batman might have been hiding underneath of it. Only a few rats scurried out from underneath the overturned crate. That particular sight drove the thug more to shivering than any sight of Batman might have.

"Yeah, here's the thing, though. I don't think it's just one guy. I mean, he seems to be everyone at once…and you know, how Nightwing can shapeshift? Some nights, you're dealing with Nightwing as a guy, and there are some night's where you're dealing with Nightwing as a woman."

"Not quite sure where you're going with this."

"Well, Batman seems to be at three and four places at once, so what if there's an army of him out there? What if the GCPD just as an entire group of him, just stockpiled and ready to go? What do you think of that?"

The leader of the goons turned towards the goon who had offered his theory. "You know what I think? I think you're completely out to lunch. Nuts even, but….we can't just wait around and give our little theories about what the Batman might be, what he might not be. He's out there, and he's going to cause some problems. The boss doesn't want any problems, not tonight."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

Said good gripped the gun tightly in one hand. One wrong move in the shadows and he would fill the person who moved wrong full of bullets. Tonight proved to be a shoot first and ask questions, maybe in the not so distant future kind of mood.

The thugs continued to search, little knowing Batman hovered about a few feet above them, submerged in the darkness. He waited for one of the thugs to move a bit further away from the rest of the pack. The Detective dropped down, grabbed one of the thugs around the mouth, and dropped him to the ground, rendering him unconscious in a blink of an eye.

No sooner did the thug drop to the ground, all of the others spun around to see their fallen comrade's body fall to the floor. They saw him drop down and move further.

"Oh, he's here alright!" the leader of the pack yelled. "All of you better keep your eyes peeled and watch your asses because you could be…"

One loud thump resounded, and Batman drilled another goon down to the ground. The sound of the man's head cracking across the pavement from the curve stomp brought the goon's attention forward. Just before they turned around, Batman disappeared.

"You better get him, for our sake, the boss is going to chew us up and spit us out if we don't grab him," the leader said. "Come on, he's just one man, how hard can he…"

Another thug flipped upside down and had been strung up. The shock of the blood rushing to his head made him pass out. It did not do him any favors another one of the thugs fired at the rope stringing him upside down and dropped him all the way down to the ground. The thug landed hard with a violent smack to the ground.

"Batman, I know you're out there!" the thug yelled. "FACE ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!"

Batman swooped down, grabbed the thug in a half of a chicken wing, and snapped him back to the ground. The Detective slipped back into the shadows before they had a chance to recover.

"Damn it!" the leader yelled. "Okay, Bat, you know something, I'm not scared of you. You think you're hard, you think you're shit, come on, face me, face me…"

Not one to back down from a challenge, Batman dropped down onto the ground. He caught the goon directly in the face with one huge punch. He did not drop to the ground on the first punch. Batman strung together a few more punches and caught the goon in the chest.

"There's going to be more on the way when they realize you're here," Oracle said. "Penguin is trying to make a name for himself. And….well, this is some bad news."

"What?" Batman asked.

"Black Mask and his men are on the move," Oracle said. "They're going after Carmine Falcone and his territory….they're going to spark a gang war at this rate."

"The gang war has already started," Batman told Oracle. "I'm going to have to keep moving and see if I can weaken the Penguin's stronghold. Thorne is bound to retaliate, and that's when things are going to get ugly."

Thorne would not let this one go unchallenged, but he had a lot on his plant with Bertinelli and all of the unrest in his own Crime Commission. Batman returned to the perch point just in time to see another group of Penguin's mercenaries, this one better armed than the last one ready to go in and take the fight to him.

* * *

 

Carmine Falcone knew it would only be a matter of time before the unrest in Gotham City reached his front door. Wild cards like Black Mask and Penguin caused him more than his fair share of headaches. Thorne did not help matters either, sitting firmly on the fence. And the Penguin now muscled his way into Thorne's territory, just as simply as that.

Falcone would have liked to have been upset on Thorne's behalf if he didn't have his fair share of problems himself. Black Mask decided to make a play. Months, Black Mask had been an afterthought, a joke, and Falcone hated to have gone down that road because, despite everything, Black Mask was still a very dangerous man. And he was now making a play for Falcone's territory.

The Roman Empire did not have its former strength as it did some time ago. Unfortunately, there had been more than a sufficient amount of cracks in the foundation.

Now, Maroni stepped into the room, and he looked very much worn out, and for some good reason. They both had the same problems. Despite their past differences, they could agree some goon like Black Mask was not best for business, and what was best for business meant what was best for Gotham City.

"He's going to get it if we don't cut him off now," Maroni said. "I put in a call to some of the boys, seeing what they can do to stop him. I've got a few favors, just got to make sure to call them in."

"We're not going to let Sionis overtake us," Falcone said.

The phone off to the side rang. Falcone recognized the number in an instant. He answered it in five rings, his custom when the phone was right next to him.

"What can I do for you, Rupert?" Falcone asked him.

"Penguin has made his move, and has taken ahold of parts of my territory," Thorne responded. "I want a meeting with you and Maroni. It might be in our best mutual interests for us to work together."

Falcone put his hand underneath his chin and considered the implications of accepting work with Thorne. He was more inclined to let Thorne's Commission of Crime do its thing. He had a fresh perspective, even though Carmine thought the old ways of handling Gotham City and business, worked more than enough. Still, Thorne had been relatively harmless and stayed out of Falcone's part of Gotham. So, Falcone stayed out of his part of Gotham, and it was a gentlemen's agreement.

"Interesting, you want a meeting," Falcone said. "I'm going to have to decline, for now, Thorne. Not until I figure out where you stand as far as Gotham City is concerned."

"Now, if Penguin and Black Mask run roughshod over Gotham City, none of us will be able to stand up for long, so I think it would be…"

"Yes, Rupert, I know what you believe," Falcone responded, cutting off the man at the pass. "And I also know of the rumored role you've played in the assassination of Frank Bertinelli."

"Now, I can assure you, Frank did not die on my blessing."

Falcone cupped his hand underneath his chip. "Perhaps, not, but it does make you look bad that two men working for another one of your associates were the last men seen with Bertinelli."

This particular piece of information had been released the general public, or rather, it had not been leaked to them. Carmine Falcone had his ways of getting the information he needed, to accomplish pretty much everything that he wanted.

"Now, whatever you think of me, and whatever you think I did…having people like Penguin and Black Mask have run of this city will….well it will plunge it into chaos….."

"You were the one sold the Penguin the old Zeus hotel, you seemed ready to do business with him when it suited you," Falcone said in his crispest tone of voice. "And now, it no longer suits you, you don't really have a desire to do business at all, do you?"

Thorne looked about ready to stammer and say something, but he had been cut off one more time by Falcone.

"A good day, Rupert, once I know where you stand, I'll be in touch," Falcone said.

He placed the phone down onto the cradle. Maroni just sat there, waiting for the next move.

"So, you want me to call in a couple more favors, or do we have everything we need?" Maroni asked his associate.

"We are ready and able to go," Falcone said to Maroni.

"So many of our problems would be solved if Black Mask and Penguin just ended up offing each other out there tonight," Maroni said, more to himself than to Falcone.

* * *

 

Harvey Dent and James Gordon both made their way to the rooftop of the GCPD. Both of the men looked at each other, and there was an unspoken agreement they had received a request to meet someone very important up there. And they could not meet him in the middle of the day.

Nightwing dropped down onto the rooftop right next to him.

"I don't think we can deny it any longer," Nightwing said. "Gotham City is on the verge of ripping itself apart in a gang war."

"No, we would be stupid if we denied it," Dent responded.

"The MCU is prepared to do everything it can to stop this," Gordon said. "But, we're in a hostile situation. We've confirmed many times over how Penguin has military grade weapons. And Black Mask might not be as strong as he once was….."

"He's more dangerous than ever before, with his desperation, both of them are desperate to prove something out there," Nightwing said. "The problem is, even if we do nail them on something, it might not stick. They both have the resources to be out on the street within days."

Both men responded with nods, that was unfortunate.

"If we can only find a way to remove those resources, or at least lessen them, I'd feel a little bit safer being out there," Harvey responded.

"You and I both," Nightwing said. "We know this much. Penguin's making a move into New Gotham….and Black Mask is looking for a Southwest Expansion. The battle lines are being drawn…..and war is coming."

"I'll ready everyone, and tell them the score," Gordon said.

"And if you can bring them in, I'll see what I can do to keep them locked away," Dent said. "The problem is, it's the matter of finding the right evidence. And that could be the tricky thing. Without the evidence, they're going to be out in days."

A small cynical voice in the back of Harvey's mind also reminded him that even with some evidence, there was a pretty good chance they would be out. It would not be the first time evidence simply vanished in Gotham City. It had an unfortunate tendency to vanish.

"No matter what, we do this all by the book," Gordon said.

"Agreed," Batman said. The entire group on the rooftop took the sudden appearance of Batman in about as much stride as possible. "Penguin has tightened his grip. Thorne hasn't made his move yet, but I figure he's biding his time, waiting for the best time for him to strike. And when he does….."

"The situation is going to get from bad to worse," Gordon responded. "So, you have a plan, don't you?"

"He always does," Nightwing said.

* * *

 

The revolving door of Black Mask's criminal organization had a group of men who had been given the moniker of his Number One. Many of them had been very colorful, but this Number One both amused Black Mask and agitated him. As long as the amusement outweighed the agitation, he would be allowed to live. When Black Mask ceased being amused, though, bad things were going to happen.

"Come on, let's go!" the new Number One yelled. "We're going to take back Gotham City…Falcone and his goons are old news, we're going to wipe them off of the face of the Earth!"

Black Mask looked at several of his men who armed themselves with some of the best weapons money could buy. Of course, they did not buy some of these weapons, they were stolen from shipments. Some of them, the Joker took during his time, but Black Mask did not bother to return them. The clown did a few things right, and Black Mask would be willing to give the devil his due.

Next time Black Mask saw Joker, there would be a couple of bullets in his head. After all the Joker put him through, Black Mask was not messing around. He would make the Clown pay, and pay dearly for all of what he's done.

"You see that we're going to take Gotham City from the relics who would see it wither and die. The revolution is at hand, the revolution is at hand!"

Black Mask personally thought his new Number One should contain that type of excitement to the bedroom. His eyes shifted around in time to lock onto a small army who approached. The army consisted of some of the best men Falcone and Maroni could cobble together on such short notice. They were armed.

"This is about as far as you go," one of them said. "I'm not going to….."

Number One whipped out a miniature bazooka and fired at the man in mid-sentence. The rocket tore through the man's chest and splattered blood everywhere, dropping him down to the ground. Black Mask and his men started to fire, bringing complete and utter chaos into Gotham City.

Falcone's men moved behind a parked car. Number One didn't give them any room to breathe. He did a dance, before pointing his rocket launcher at the car and firing it. The rocket launcher ripped through the air and caught the side of the car. Falcone's men were forced back into the open, to avoid being blown straight to hell by the attacks from Black Mask and his men.

"That's it, right there, you know what it's all about!" Number One yelled. "You're not going to…."

A stun grenade rolled into the field backed off Number One for several minutes. Black Mask reached behind him and pulled out a larger stun grenade.

"Take some of this, you son of a bitch!" Black Mask yelled.

The grenade connected with the field and released a pulse which dropped all of the men in a certain radius down to the ground. Black Mask caught some of his own men in the crossfire, but he honestly was not concerned about that fact. War was hell and he was going to bring down vengeance on anyone who crossed him.

"Who wants some more?" Black Mask asked. "Falcone is sitting pretty in his office, but not for long!"

Good old fashioned slugs did not bring home the bacon anymore in Gotham City. Those rounds just barely connected with Black Mask and only stepped him back a slight amount. He moved further into the battle and kept firing at him. Another two of Falcone's men dropped.

Black Mask lost some men due to them getting caught in the crossfire. He had more pressing matters to concern himself with.

A huge cloud of tear gas made some of the men back off. Black Mask had been protected by the very annoying attack. The Gotham City SWAT team made their way into the battle. One of the unfortunate goons had been jabbed in the gut with a taser.

"So, Falcone cut you a check," Black Mask said. "Tell Branden whenever you see him if you live long enough to see him, that he's a dead man too. I'm taking Gotham City. Do you hear me, I'm taking it for me? IT'S MINE!"

Another one of the SWAT goons jabbed Number One straight between the shoulders. He dropped down to the ground. Black Mask backed up and reached into a crate down onto the ground. He clicked together parts of a rocket launcher and aimed it.

The rocket launcher released a rocket which released a gas which caused great burning agony to anyone who inhaled it. It was a nasty concoction which had been ripped up. Unfortunately, the gas burned up in the air just moments after it had been deployed, but what a rush.

"We should get out of here!"

The unfortunate man who had said it had been whacked across the back of the head. The members of the Gotham City SWAT beat him down to the ground with Billy clubs. A loud smack echoed when he had been over.

The sirens came, and the SWAT members all looked at each other. The field leader stepped back and received the word.

"Okay, Branden told us to move on, keep moving!" the Field Leader barked into the radio. "Put out the next fire, come on, let's go!"

The members of the SWAT disappeared. Black Mask's men recovered, with some of Falcone's slipping away into the night.

Their problems took a turn for the worse the second Katana made her way out of the shadows. She used her blade to disable the armor of one of the goons. The goons swung directly at her. Katana evaded the attack and caught him with a series of rapid-fire jabs to the side of the neck.

Talon dropped down and cracked two large wooden staffs down onto the back of the head of the goon. She moved with swift precision and made her way into the shadows.

Black Canary fired off a Canary Cry to send a truck flipping over and crashing down onto the ground to block the progress of Black Mask and his men.

* * *

 

Everyone took one look at the Walrus's face and they knew he was not one they wanted to mess with right now. He turned his head around three hundred and sixty degrees. He pulled the switch and moved over. Some of the men were off at the side of the docks on a barge which was taking in some items.

"Alright, careful, careful, you bloody idiots!" the Walrus yelled. "There are some big guns in there, and if the Penguin sees so much as a little bit of paint chipped off, he'll have your bloody arse. Do you hear me?"

You would have to be pretty deaf not to hear the Walrus when he was barking orders. The men hauled the equipment from the ship and put them down on the truck which was ready to drive the weapons into Gotham. Thorne's shipping routes had been opened, which allowed the Penguin to move his items into Gotham City, without having to pay a token fee.

"Tonight's going to be a big night, boys," Walrus responded a half of a second later.

A rustling in the shadows caused one of the men to jump up.

"What's the matter?" The Walrus jeered him. "Afraid of something that goes bump in the night?"

Walrus paused for a half of a second and moved for the gun in the back of his wheelchair. Something was moving in the shadows, something that should not have been there. Walrus clutched his hands together around the gun.

"Open fire, what are you waiting for?"

The goons with the Walrus were not too quick up the uptake. They aimed towards the shadows and began to fire at whatever was in the shadows. Several rounds had been spent.

The Walrus rolled over and the dust had settled. He noticed nothing other than a tarp, and some rats, who had been bombarded with the barrage of bullets. He closed his eyes and gritted down his teeth. So close, so close to accomplishing something, yet so far.

One of the goons near the back had been grabbed around the head and dragged back into the shadows. The goon started to yell out something, only to receive an elbow to the point of his jaw for the trouble. Nightwing moved around and caught another one of the goons.

The Walrus spun his chair around and pointed his gun. Batman made two motions. One of them decided to disable the gun and the other to disable the motorized mechanism of the wheelchair. The Walrus screamed out in agony.

"You Bloody Bat, you'll….."

Two limos pulled up and the doors opened up. Several men dressed in suits with guns stepped out and started to open fire.

Batman and Nightwing made their way out of the line of fire. Several of Penguin's goons were not so lucky.

"Come on, come on, work, bloody hell!" the Walrus yelled. "Just don't stand there, get me out of here!"

One of the goons received a bullet to the neck for his trouble. Another goon pushed the Walrus in his disabled wheelchair and made his way out of the line of fire.

Chaos reigned in Gotham City and plenty of blood had been shed. And the night was still young. Sirens cut through the air, with the mobsters having fired their warning shots.

The truck sped away in the other direction. Nightwing shook his head, finding himself very fortunate he did not get clipped by one of the bullets. It just proved the shielding around him worked.

* * *

 

Gwen sat right at the edge of the Clocktower and peered out the window. Things had just gotten from bad to worse. She turned back to Barbara, who was busy tracking the movements of everyone.

"Well, so much for the calm," Barbara said.

"Never calm that long in Gotham, is it?" Gwen asked.

Barbara shook her head, unfortunately, it was not. She had been a bit nervous, given how close the fighting was to the Clocktower. Just because the area was shielded, did not mean that it was foolproof someone would not attack it. The only question was who would strike and more importantly, when would they strike.

A limo blew up into the air and flipped over into the street before exploding. Black Mask marched forward, along with his men. His new Number One waved a rocket launcher in his hand and looked about as giddy as a school girl with a new vibrator.

"CLEAR THE AREA!"

' _And here comes the SWAT,'_ Barbara thought.

Shielded or not, the Clocktower was a very tight spot for them to be. Anxious, and the anxiety would increase, as the night still was not over.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on March 15** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_War continues, and everyone is making their plays, both heroes and villains included. When the battle comes close to your front door things get very intense._

_Thorne lost a lot of steam due to Bertinelli's death, and he'll be feeling the backlash. Had that not happened, Falcone might have been more inclined to make a deal, as you saw._

_Black Mask has a new Number One, and he's very, well insane._

_Thug chat is always fun. Especially their wacky theories on Batman._

_More on Wednesday._


	273. Penguin Strikes Back Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Three: The Penguin Strikes Back Part Three**

* * *

 

Two bullets flew through the distance and came inches away from taking Nightwing down for the count. The crime fighter slipped underneath the assault of the bullets and disappeared into the night. The mobster in question looked very baffled and he waved his gun into the distance. Everything had gone so fast for all of them, they did not know what to do.

A blink of an eye later, and the momentary distraction allowed Nightwing to slip behind the mobster and catch him with a very violent punch to the kidneys which dropped him to his knees. Nightwing wrapped his arms around the throat of the man in question, turned his head and cracked him down to the ground.

Off in the distance, Batman had been surrounded by three heavily armed men. They closed in and thought Batman was ripe for the taking. Unfortunately for them, this fact could not be further from the truth. The Detective reached into his glove and slid a pellet out. Said pellet dropped down onto the ground and released a heavy cloud of smoke cover into the area around Gotham City.

"Son of a bitch!" one of the goons yelled. "I can't see….."

He couldn't see anything, even the smoke around him when Batman hauled off and decked him with a huge uppercut punch. The Detective dropped the goon in question to the ground. Another one of the goons charged Batman from one side. Batman slid back an inch to avoid the punch and hauled off with another massive punch of his own. The goon dropped to the ground from the solid impact.

One more loaded up brass knuckles with the deadly intention to take Batman down once and for all. Batman blocked the punch and overcharged the own man's brass knuckles. He slid back and gasped for air. Batman turned in the air and caught him with a punch. He drilled the point of the elbow before avoiding the stun grenade from the other mobster.

These men worked for Thorne and his commission and were trying to push back on the Penguin's campaign to take over Gotham City. Nightwing reached into his sleeve and quickly fired a dagger at one of the goons which caused him to drop the weapon.

The weapons these men carried were not as deadly as the ones Penguin favored. That did not make them any less dangerous, though. Harry walked forward and avoided the deadly swing of a pair of pipes from a mobster who came out of nowhere. He lost his gun but picked up the first blunt object of destruction he could find.

' _You have to give the guy points for persistence,'_ Harry thought.

Despite all of these points, he would still take the man out. Nightwing grabbed the pipes and ripped them from the man's hand. The man decided a good old-fashioned fist to the face would be more than worth his trouble to nail Nightwing. Nightwing blocked that fist, twisted it around hard, and brought his adversary down with a full force assault. The sound of bones cracking echoed through the area.

Nightwing stepped back for a moment to survey his handiwork. One goon with a popped shoulder was on the ground. Three more made their way to Batman, and Nightwing jumped behind them. He caught one of them in the back long enough for Batman to have an opening and repel to the roof using his grapnel.

' _Things are getting bad,'_ Barbara reported in.

One of the shock sticks came just a fraction of an inch of jabbing into Harry's chest. Harry grabbed onto the stick and discharged the energy back into the goon.

He noticed out of the corner of his eye one of the Penguin goons came back for more. The crazed thug pointed a rocket launcher at the proceedings and took a hell of a shot. All Nightwing had to do was dodge the shot before it kicked through the air. It scattered the mobsters and allowed Harry to maneuver around the area to easier take the mobsters.

' _Define bad,'_ Nightwing thought.

' _Well addition to Penguin's forces duking it out with Thorne's, we have the problem of Black Mask marching in on Falcone's territory, and his men are too close to comfort for the Clocktower,'_ Barbara thought.

One of the larger men pulled himself up. Harry decided to save him the embarrassment and put him back down with a huge knee driven to the back of the man's head.

Harry looked up and watched when Batman shocked two of the men through a puddle left on the ground when the snow melted from Gotham City. It was most certainly not enough electricity to keep them down, but more than enough to cause some serious problems.

' _I'm on my way, and Tatsu and Dinah are with me,'_ Jaime thought. _'We're not going to let Black Mask get much further….SWAT is a bigger nuisance tonight than usual.'_

Speak of the devils, and they shall appear. Harry came eye to eye with the same three elite SWAT members who caused him trouble when the Joker, posing as Black Mask, put the bounty on him. One of them held a huge bazooka and pointed it straight at Nightwing.

"Finally, we've got you," the leader of the crew said.

"Not tonight."

Batman dropped down from behind them and knocked them back down onto the ground. A pellet of smoke released enough cover into the area for Nightwing and Batman to disappear into the night in Gotham City, and leave the SWAT guards coughing.

"No!" one of them yelled.

The smoke cover made by the bomb made it the perfect means for Batman and Nightwing to slip off into the night, and leave the members of the GCPD SWAT just groping in the wind, frustrated they came so close to taking down their targets, and yet they fell so far.

* * *

 

Gotham City would be for the taking of Black Mask and his crew. Number One smiled when he saw the men crowd around. Their boss went off to take care of another area, leaving him in charge. And he could not wait to cause all kinds of mayhem, taking down everyone around him in Gotham City.

"Alright, let's take these cops down, and show them they can't boss us around!" Number One yelled.

The GCPD formed a barricade with the intention of blocking any further progress into the streets of Gotham City. Number One held up a grenade ad pushed a button in. Said grenade burst open on the ground to release a green smoke which made the Gotham City police department gag.

One of the more overzealous goons rushed forward with a knife extended towards one of the Gotham City Police officers. The officer hunched over and prepared to defend himself from the incoming knife nut. Fortunately for him, there was no need to do so.

Katana dropped down and blocked the blade with one of her own. The goon struggled against Katana. She caught the man flush with a sweeping kick and obliterated the tiny blade with a swing with her katana. Another one of the goons rushed her from behind. Katana blocked the man's hand, and then came back around, to nail him with repeated flowing jabs to the side of the neck.

More trouble came from the goons in the form of Talon. She retracted a baton from her sleeve and waited for one of the goons to charge her. Talon dodged the attack from one of the goons and popped him with a series of attacks. One of the flowing kicks nailed her adversary across the top of the head and brought him down to the ground. Talon flipped the man down onto the ground and wiped him out with one swift shot.

' _And they keep coming,'_ Talon thought. _'Good thing there's something to thin the herd a little bit.'_

She released an explosive charge into the field and rattled the goons back a little bit. Unfortunately, Black Mask's thugs, while very dangerous, were not the only threat on the chess board tonight in Gotham City. They all had to deal with the incoming threat of Gotham's finest, some of the members of the SWAT team.

' _Don't really have time for this.'_

Several of the SWAT members walked in. The regular members of the Gotham City Police Department had been told to go back. The SWAT aimed one of the rocket launchers at the crew. Talon stared it down and mentally calculated what she would have had to do to disable it.

Off out of the corner of her eye, Black Canary returned to take the fight to these thugs. She set herself firmly on the ground and unleashed one Canary Cry into the proceedings. The Canary Cry flipped the truck over and it skidded to a stop in the middle of the road. It blocked the members of the Gotham City SWAT team off. They would find a way around, but they would also be prevented from stopping the ground getting done what was necessary.

' _This should buy us some time,'_ Black Canary thought to the others.

One of Black Mask's goons decided to take a shot at her. Unfortunately, for the goon, another figure dropped down from the sky and cracked her full weight down on the top of the man's head. Black Canary looked up and came face to face with the one and only Batgirl.

' _Did you really thing I was just going to sit back and let them take over my home turf,'_ Batgirl thought.

' _No, I didn't think so,'_ Black Canary thought.

One of the larger Black Mask goons took a shot at Batgirl. Batgirl ran up the wall and did a very graceful backflip over the man's head. The man plowed himself face first into the edge of the wall. His face cracked up against the wall and he turned around to eat a series of rapid-fire punches from Batgirl. One huge punch to the side of the jaw dropped him down to the ground.

' _Okay, to your right, there's one cluster, I think a well-placed attack could take them out,'_ Gwen thought.

' _I'm on it,'_ Black Canary said.

She unleashed her Canary Cry which flipped over one of the roadblocks which had been put down. The debris smacked against the goons and dropped them all down to the ground.

That little problem was done and dusted, well at least for the moment. Black Mask's Number One stood in the middle of the road and picked up one of the rocket launchers which had been dropped. Despite the overwhelming numbers, he was not going to go down without a fight.

"Let's dance, bitches!" he yelled.

One blast aimed towards an approaching Gotham City Squad car forced it to veer onto the sidewalk to avoid being blown off of the road.

' _Let's get that away from him, shall we,'_ Black Canary thought.

* * *

 

Rupert Thorne took a deep breath, sweating an obscene amount. Tonight proved to be a hell of a night, and he just had a dark, twisted feeling things were going to get worse. He heard Penguin was settled in for the long haul, and his men had problems with Nightwing and Batman on top of anything else. Black Mask had gotten his hooks into some of Falcone's territory, and what was worse, Falcone was stubborn and refused to help.

Bertinelli's death caused a snowball to be kicked down a hell. It rolled, getting bigger and increasing in mass until it was beyond impossible to control. Thorne's fingers curled over. He wondered what else could go wrong tonight.

' _Everything normally comes in clusters,'_ Thorne tonight.

A scuffle from outside of his office turned Thorne away from his thoughts. He immediately knew someone was here, but the question is, was it one of his competitors or one of those do-gooders? He was not going to wait to find out. Thorne reached underneath his desk and pulled out a gun. He made sure it was completely loaded, and then without another word, he opened up the office door.

The large mobster turned the corner to the office where he heard the scuffle. He stepped into the office and looked around. He noticed the safe had been cracked open, and there had been papers scattered about on the floor. Yes, someone had been here, someone had been here, who should not have been here. Thorne looked around and held the gun. He saw a half-opened window and moved over to investigate.

Peering out the window, Thorne viewed nothing too out of place. The large stone gargoyles he favored on the roof had not been disturbed. So, there was nothing on that front. Thorne turned around and pointed his gun.

In a blink of an eye, a whip came out and wrapped around Thorne's wrist. His gun fired into the air once before the person yanked the whip hard and forced him to drop the gun onto the ground. Thorne dropped to his knees along with it.

Rupert Thorne looked up and came face to face with Catwoman. The tight grip of the whip around his wrist made Thorne unable to move. The woman was deceptively strong.

"You must be reckless or desperate," Thorne said. "Which is it?"

Catwoman's eyes narrowed and there was no amount of the usual humor in his voice.

"Why did you kill Frank Bertinelli?" Catwoman demanded.

"I didn't kill him, the GCPD already established my alibi," Thorne groaned.

"Maybe not directly, but a man of your stature can make things happen, and more importantly, they can make things disappear," Catwoman said. She flexed her fingers around the whip hooked to Thorne's wrist. "I want to know, what in the hell does Bertinelli have on you which makes you sweat….even more so than usual."

"I don't know…and trust me, I have my own problems tonight," Thorne gasped. "My Commission, it's falling apart, collapsed, and the Penguin, he's taking everything I've worked for."

"Oh, and my heart bleeds," Catwoman said dryly.

This encounter would have to have been cut short. Catwoman released Thorne's wrist and kicked him in the ribs one more time for good measure. He had been doubled over. One last parting smile, as Catwoman scooped up the ledger left on the desk, sealed, and slipped into the night.

"Boss, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Thorne said.

He could not believe it, before tonight, he had the pride of saying he had not been robbed by Catwoman, unlike every other major mob boss in Gotham City. And now, Catwoman popped off and stole something from him. That pride had been ruined completely.

"She's gone, it looks like," one of his men said.

"Yes," Thorne said. "Is there any luck on the Penguin?"

"Actually, no," one of Thorne's men responded.

The eyes of Rupert Thorne narrowed into two beady little slits. He tried to watch his blood pressure, which came so close to bursting off to the side these days.

"What do you mean?"

"Penguin and his men, they're getting closer, they're going to take this base if we can't stop him," one of Thorne's guards responded.

"Yes, I know!" Thorne snapped.

Thorne took a ragged breath and carefully weighed his next few options. He had to make a couple of phone calls and get something happening, and quick. No matter what Thorne could not have lost this particular base of operations. It was too pivotal in his control of this section of Gotham.

* * *

 

Nightwing most certainly would not be leading the charge to cheer for Rupert Thorne, but he understood one thing. The Penguin and his men could not take full control of this particular area of Gotham City. It would give them too much power, too much leverage, and cause even bigger headaches the long time.

A cluster of Penguin's men marched in the area. They caught sight of Nightwing, who dropped a spear device on the ground. The weaponized canary cry released a sonic screech which backed some of Penguin's men off. They had been divided into two smaller groups.

The first of these smaller groups slipped into perfect, prime position for Batman to strike. Batman dropped down to the ground and caught one of the goons flush with an uppercut punch. He grabbed the leg of another thug and flipped him down to the ground. Penguin's larger mercenary charged Batman.

Batman blocked the punch and strung together several more of his own in rapid fire succession. He battered the goon and dropped him down to the ground. Another grabbed Batman from behind. Batman drilled him with a huge punch to the stomach which doubled the goon over.

Nightwing stepped in to engage the goons in battle. Three more batons extended forward and sent sparks of light. Nightwing deflected them and caught the goon with a flowing uppercut punch to the side of the head. He flipped over the goon, grabbed the man's arm and twisted it back, cracking him down against the ground. A thunderous pop dropped the man down onto the ground.

' _Okay, now that one is done and dusted, we can keep going forward,'_ Nightwing thought to himself.

One huge swinging punch came inches away from clipping Nightwing directly in the face. Nightwing blocked the punch, and shocked the man, dropping him down to his knees. Nightwing stepped back and fired, catching the goon flush on in the face.

James Gordon and a small group of Gotham's finest stepped into the center ring. They released a tear gas attack.

Nightwing helped maintain the charade by stepping into the midst of the tear gas attack, and acting as if he got caught in the crossfire. Gordon made a movement towards him. Nightwing avoided the man by releasing a flash bang into the air and disappeared into the night.

Several of Penguin's thugs had been wrestled down to the ground. Chaos and anarchy spread in Gotham City, with several members of the Gotham City police department moving in, along with the SWAT

One of the goons had been wrestled down to the ground and curb-stomped to the ground by one of the Elite members of the Gotham City SWAT team. Barricades had been reinforced around the area.

James Gordon, in particular, had to draw in a very deep breath, and figure out where the score card pointed to. Most of these men, they belonged to Falcone or Thorne. They got some of the Penguin's men, but unfortunately, there was not enough of them to make any kind of tangible difference.

Penguin had been stopped from completely grabbing onto Thorne's main holdings, but there were still shockwaves to be sent through Gotham City.

* * *

 

' _Persistent bastard is persistent,'_ Jaime thought. _'I'll give him that.'_

Number One lost his little toy and had been boxed into a very tight corner by Talon. Despite the situation, he refused to go down. He stepped back and picked up a large chunk of brick to defend himself, his last stand. He hurled the brick at the crime fighter.

The crime fighter turned around to both dodge the brick and engage in another one of Black Mask's men who had grabbed her from behind.

"I've done it," Black Mask growled. "I've backed off Falcone and Maroni, it's time for you to go. I've got everything that I've wanted."

A far more stable man would have known when he was licked. Number One picked up one of the SWAT's weapons and pointed it towards the back of Talon's head. He aimed the weapon.

"This is personal, I'm not going to…"

One downward swipe from Katana's weapon of choice dismantled the weapon. Number One moved around to attack the other vigilante who wiped out his weapon. Unfortunately, for him, she slipped into the night.

Talon was back around and Number One did not have any weapon to stand with. That did not stop him from swinging one huge punch at his adversary. Talon blocked the punch and nailed Number One with a huge jaw-jacking punch to drop him down to the ground.

The man thumped down to the ground, eyes rolling into the back of his head the very second he struck into the ground.

Batgirl stepped back from a small group of Black Mask's men who they managed to knock out and left gift wrapped for the Gotham City Police Department. Black Canary, Talon, Batgirl, and Katana heard the sirens and more police approaching in the distance.

They were going to have to disappear into the night. In a flash, all four of them vanished onto the rooftops elsewhere in Gotham City.

Number One pulled himself to his feet and saw the members of the Gotham City Police Department approaching him. Number One's face contorted into an ugly scowl when taking a long look at some of Gotham's finest.

"Alright, hands in the air, and don't move," one of the officers of the law stated.

"NO!" Number One bellowed.

Number One jumped up to his feet and charged one of the officers. The officer fired a shot which pierced number one in the stomach. He dropped down to the ground and thumped at their feet. The blood aimlessly flowed out of the man's stomach when he laid on the ground, unable to move. His body began to twitch, and he reacted very badly to the bullet being plunged into his stomach.

Off in the distance, Batgirl, Black Canary, Talon, and Katana observed everything which was going down. The chaos died down on the street, at least for the moment. However, there were other problems to come.

"Nightwing and Batman, along with Gordon and his men were able to stop Penguin's men from gaining any more territory, but he's just double downed on the territory he's gotten from Thorne already," Oracle said.

"So, what you're trying to say is, while he's not sitting pretty in Thorne's big office, he's got a lot of Thorne's territory," Black Canary said. "Well, tonight's going to be one we're going to be feeling for a long time."

Everything slid into position. The battle lines had been drawn in Gotham City, and chaos was about ready to reign. Falcone and Thorne lost leverage, but when that leverage had been grabbed by the likes of Penguin and Black Mask, there were serious problems.

' _Well, let's see how this one plays out,'_ Barbara thought.

* * *

 

One of Rupert Thorne's offices, while not his main office, had given Oswald Cobblepot a good view of everything in Gotham City. He still saw the chaos, several of Gotham's finest scrambling around to put out fires. Not only did the big boys go at it tonight for territory, but several of the smaller gangs tried to use the riot as an excuse to settle vendettas.

The small takings, though, was not something Penguin concerned himself with, to be honest. All he knew was tonight was a good night. He turned his attention to Dudley and Tracey, who had big smiles on their face.

"Tonight's been a good night for us all," the Penguin said.

"I can tell, this is the happiest I've heard you in a while, boss," Tracey said.

"Oh, there's no reason to be sour tonight, not after tonight," Penguin said. "Everyone, have a drink it's on me…well, actually it's on Rupert!"

Penguin laughed at his own joke with a squawking laugh. Dudley smiled and looked very amused as well and Tracey gave a polite laugh. Regardless, Penguin poured them all a drink of sparkling champagne, compliments of the man who wanted to be the Kingpin of Gotham City.

"Not too bad," Penguin said. "Lost some man power tonight…..but that can be fixed. There are some small gangs on the fringe, who aren't too big of a fan of Thorne."

"Think they might be willing to join up with Team Penguin?" the Walrus asked.

"Dudley, my dear boy, I'll give them an offer they can't refuse."

Tonight, the Penguin gained a lot of territories, Black Mask increased his holdings, and Falcone and Thorne lost a lot of leverage.

War might not be over, but Oswald Cobblepot won the day. And he could drink to his success here in Gotham City.

"Finally, I'm going to get the respect I've long deserved," Penguin said. "It's been a hell of a night, a hell of a night!"

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on March 18** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Well, lot of fighting in this chapter. The one thing you should know is that the Penguin came out ahead of the deal. And the foundations of the Gotham City Criminal Underworld has been shaken._

_Oh, and Black Mask might need a new Number One. Not exactly a job which gives you long term security._

_More on Saturday._


	274. Battlelines Redrawn

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Four: The Battle Lines Redrawn.**

* * *

 

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Vicki Vale out of the streets, and last night in Gotham City, we were in the midst of what by all accounts was a turf war between the members of Gotham City's criminal underworld. Reports at this very moment are sketchy at best, but we do know, several men reported to be working for several of the main factions who wished to have control over the underworld of Gotham City were outside."

And Vicki Vale was outside, reporting from one of the more dangerous areas, an area which many members of the Gotham City Criminal Underworld took shots at each other last night. Thankfully for her, Vicki was not alone, she had been joined by Kara Kent-Potter, her assistant. Kara both held the camera and also kept a close watch on the lovely Ms. Vale, making sure there was no harm to come to her.

Back in the Penthouse, Diana sat on the couch, watching several of the events unfold on the television screen. She had been tasked with watching over the girls, especially over the newest guest of the penthouse. She sat on a chair, acting like she was not watching the news, although Diana was pretty much certain Ella's attention would drift over, should something about her father come to light on the screen.

' _We weren't really in the thick of things last night,'_ Diana thought. _'But, there was more than enough going on, wouldn't you agree, Kara?'_

' _Yes, and I think I was close enough to the action, you know how Vicki is,'_ Kara thought. _'Of course, most of the heavy stuff was all over by the time she found her way around the GCPD barricades. So, at least there's that much going on…things have calmed down, at least during the day.'_

Diana watched the screen with a very steady, unblinking gaze, and a sense of dread building up in her. She could not put her finger on why, but there just seemed like there might have been a powderkeg ready to explode. Something was going to get set off and they were going to be right back where they started.

' _Harry mentioned everything changed,'_ Kara thought. _'Falcone and Thorne for all their faults, they were more civil and less likely to enter extreme acts of aggression. Black Mask and Penguin on the other hand…'_

Kara trailed off and to be perfectly honest, Diana really had no need for her to further elaborate on her claims. She understood what was up in Gotham City. It was going to be a rough next couple of months, and they were just hanging on for the ride.

"While the Gotham City Police Department has declined direct comment on the matter," Vicki said. One could see instantly by the look on her face she looked particularly sour at being shut down. Still, the reporter pressed on with her statement. "They have mandated a mandatory curfew for all of the citizens in Gotham City, for the temporary part. All citizens are insisted on being indoors by ten o'clock."

' _So, can they do that?'_ Diana asked.

' _Well, in theory, they could, but it would be a hell of a time enforcing it,'_ Kara thought. _'And I think the GCPD has more on their plates than enforcing a curfew. Especially when you figure out how much everything has just been getting progressively worse since Halloween.'_

Diana sighed, she could agree with that one hundred percent. Everything just hit hard after Halloween. There had been a brief moment of calm and tranquility, but everything just flipped, like some switch. They were not going to get any peace anytime soon.

' _Good thing we're all out there, and some of the GCPD are also ready to fight the good fight,'_ Diana thought. _'Hera help them if they get brought down by the storm.'_

On the other end of the living room, Ella kept watching the news. Nothing, no updates on her father, and she felt a bit dismayed there was nothing of value which pertained to her.

"Hey," Rebecca said.

Ella scooted over to allow Rebecca a seat right next to her on the couch. She tried to smile and put on a happier demeanor, but it looked very forced.

"Hey," Ella said. "They're….looks like the GCPD has a lot on their hands now. The gangs would have to act up when my father is dead, they aren't going to find who his killer is."

Ella thought about how it was highly likely her father's killer might have been killed or arrested already. She could not have been one hundred percent sure whether or not he was still out there. Ella hated the air of mystery and all of the frustration which went along with it. She just wished for something more tangible to grab onto, and hold. She did not think it was too much to ask.

"What do you think happened?" Rebecca asked.

"He got in trouble with the wrong people," Ella said. "Paid for it…..maybe it was even someone he trusted and respected, for all I know."

Lois made her way into the room and sat down next to Rebecca and Ella. Some of the other girls were puttering around elsewhere, but Lois made it out to the sitting room area. She could see Diana sitting, watching the news. Lois watched a couple of glimpses, with Vicki watching out through the scene of the crime last night. A smile could not help being formed on Lois Lane's face.

"She's rather brazen being out there after….well, I'm not quite sure what happened last night," Lois said.

"Gang war," Rebecca said.

Lois nodded; it would have to make sense. It seemed like there was a gang war over some turf always going on in Gotham City. She turned towards Ella.

"That's an interesting necklace," Lois responded.

"My mother gave it to me, well she wanted me to have it after she…after she died," Ella said taking in a deep breath.

' _Poor kid,'_ Lois thought to herself. _'Both parents dead. At least the General is still around….and I have Lucy, even though she's a pain in the ass.'_

"Kind of think it looks like a key or something," Lois said.

"Maybe," Ella said. "But, I think it's just the shape, I don't think it really goes to anything."

Despite Ella's words to the contrary, Lois's lips just curled into a smile. She did really wonder sometimes.

* * *

 

Edward Fyers grew increasingly agitated, and he moved around the area of the island. He refused to believe that one psychopath could have gotten very far. No, he knew it, Deadpool was close, so close he could have reached out and grabbed him.

"I have to get it back from him, now," Fyers told his men. "Do you hear me?"

Those men responded with nods in response. They were hunting Deadpool, but given the man's general instability and disposition, maybe it could be deemed more accurate that Deadpool was hunting them. Regardless of the fact, it was essential they regained control of the situation before it further spiraled out of control.

"How could they have gotten so far?" Fyers asked. "I'm going to go back to the camp, and see what Slade….."

He paused, short of breath, and turned around the corner. It was supposed to be a simple mission, but everything had gone completely off of the rails.

"Slade!" Fyers yelled.

The mercenary clutched the hardened case with the gem in the middle in his hand. He fixed a burning stare on the face of Edward Fyers. Fyers marched closer towards him.

For a second, Fyers opened his mouth, but he stopped and stared. That gem Slade unearthed, where did he get it? Fyers had no idea, especially given the fact something about the gem captivated Slade in some strange way. There was power which drew Fyers in just as much as Slade.

More thoughts, motivated by some kind of greed, entered the mind of Edward Fyers. He needed to take a look at the gem, and he cleared his throat.

"I need to look at it," Fyers said.

Slade snapped out of whatever trance he was in, and Fyers stepped back. He was very fortunate Slade did not lash out and snap his neck in the process. The mercenary drew in a deeper breath, hands clutched tighter around the hardened plastic. He looked Fyers straight in the eye.

"That wasn't part of the deal," Slade said. "We only agreed to work together because it was convenient. This is the item which my employers sent me for."

"Yes, I can see that," Fyers said. "It's trapped in some kind of containment field. You couldn't get it out if you really wanted to. That wouldn't do you or your employers any good, would it?"

Slade, unfortunately, would have to concede it was not going to get that easy. He lifted up the large block in his hand, some kind of containment field. It did not look technological like one would expect a containment field to be. It was rather mundane, and yet Slade could not figure out a way to break it, without potentially damaging the cargo inside of it.

' _By design, no doubt,'_ Slade thought to himself. His eyes flashed with potential malice.

"I will offer you triple whatever your benefactor is paying."

Slade had been taken off guard by this offer. It seemed pretty generous, almost too generous if Slade was, to be honest with himself. He thought it over, but breaking a contract was not something a professional should do in their best interests. Even if it would put even more money in their pocket, Slade could not under any good conscious break his word like that.

Almost instantly, Edward Fyers received a phone call which halted the organization.

"Just one moment, please," Fyers said.

Off at a safe distance from the side, Oliver and Shado looked at each other. Both of them had a similar idea cross through their minds.

"Fyers is using something to communicate off of the island," Shado said. "If we find a way to get control of it, then maybe we can find a way to get off of the island."

"Fyers is getting together everyone he has," Oliver said. "It's not going to be easy to get to that thing."

Shado shook her head, no it was not going to be easy. It was going to have to be something they would have to do, but it would not be easy, not by a long shot, not ever.

"As nice as it would be to blow this overgrown popsicle stand, we do have the problem of Slade's shiny new plaything."

Oliver and Shado both turned around and came face to face with Deadpool, who disappeared, and then reappeared pretty much as he pleased.

"Don't do that," Oliver said. "I could have….."

"Yeah, not likely, at least not for another five years," Deadpool said. "But, seriously, Deathstroke's got some weird mystical gem thing in the weird magical plastic thing, and I think we can both agree how that's going to mean bad news for both of us."

Oliver and Shado both paused for a moment and nodded in agreement. They would both have to agree it was bad news for them.

* * *

 

Pamela Isley closed her eyes and tried to become at peace with the green. She entered a deep meditation exercise which she intended to relax her mind and more importantly calm her senses. Everything just turned around in the past month or two for her. These new powers were most certainly a revelation, and Pam was going to use them to the best of her abilities.

Someone joined her and given there was only less than a handful of people who knew where she was, Pamela guessed who it was. She opened up her eyes and came face to face with Harry. Harry moved across the room and closed the distance between the two of them with a smile on his face.

Pam rose to her feet and wrapped her arms around Harry. She greeted Harry with a very long and passionate kiss. She threw a lot of herself into that particular kiss. Several long minutes passed before she pulled her way from Harry, leaving a pleasant aftertaste on both of their lips.

"So, how are you holding up?" Harry asked.

"Better than I was," Pamela said. "But, still not completely out of the woods yet."

Pamela shook her head, it was almost amusing to her, how she would never completely be out of the woods. She moved over and allowed Harry a spot to sit down next to her. Harry did, in the middle of the serene green which surrounded them on all sides.

The two enjoyed the moment. Pam had plenty of time to do a lot of thinking, about what kind of life she wanted with her powers. She hoped to run this by Harry and more importantly, she really hoped he would agree with her because she wanted Harry's support.

"So, I've been doing some thinking," Pam responded. "And I have an idea if you want to hear it."

Harry answered with a soft smile, grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Pam's eyes flashed open, and she leaned closer towards Harry. Time to strike when the iron was hot, or so she thought.

"I'm getting a bit more fine tuned with my ability to speak with plants," Pam responded. "And maybe…maybe if I can use it to help us track down HIVE."

There was no harm in throwing out the suggestion, at least so she thought. Harry looked back for a couple of moments and looked extremely thoughtful in the process. Nervously, Pamela drummed her fingers.

"Well, it's an option," Harry said. "Something we're going to have to consider, but we don't really know the long term effects of constant use of your abilities."

Pam sighed and nodded, no there was a whole lot about her powers where they did not know much of anything. While she hoped to learn, there were some options.

"I'm trying to get in touch with Nyssa, but she's been busy and out of range right now," Harry said. "All I know is the League of Assassins has had their problems with HIVE a lot in the past."

"Well, hopefully, something breaks soon," Pamela said, folding her arms up underneath her chest, empathizing her new and much larger breasts. "I'm not the person who is going to remain rooted in the ground for long."

Harry responded with a nod and leaned over towards her. Their lips met in a passionate kiss. Brief, but heated, just like the two of them often shared numerous times in the past.

"Patience is a virtue," Harry reminded her. "Keep up with the exercises, and you'll be able to rejoin us before too long."

One more kiss and Harry stepped away. A flash of light left Pamela in the greenhouse to continue her meditation exercises, and make an attempt to put her mental facilities back in order, where she thought they should have been at the very least.

Harry entered the Clocktower and immediately, he had a call. He answered it.

"Hello, Harry, it's Bethanie, and I wanted…well, I wanted to ask you a professional favor," Bethanie Ravencroft said on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, what is it for?" Harry asked her.

"It's about the Arkham Wing's most prolific patient," Bethanie said. "Our….John Doe for lack of a better term."

Harry knew a lot of the people were not willing to humor Joker by calling him by his given name. He did have a name, but they had not been able to find it out. He had been given a lot of people in the Arkham Wing some very unfortunate fits as well. He put the screws to them, mentally speaking, of course.

"Yes, I know who you're talking about," Harry said.

"A lot of the doctors, they won't go anywhere near him, and….I know you don't have that much professional experience," Bethanie said. "But, while you only have your doctorate, you have strong constitution many of them don't have….so I was wondering…if you might want to take a crack and see if you can find out about our guest if there is anything we can find out about him."

Harry put his hand underneath his chin and thought about it for a long minute.

"Well, if you think I can have much better luck, I guess I can give it a shot," Harry said.

"Great, I'll see what I can do and call you back when we have a date you can talk to him," Bethanie said.

' _So, you're going to talk to a man who made two doctors quit, rather than deal with him?'_ Amanda thought. _'Just checking, not saying you're insane or anything, but…..'_

' _I want to find out where he's coming from,'_ Harry thought. _'Everyone has a backstory, even though Joker's, is shrouded in mystery.'_

No one knew who he was, no one knew what made him that way, and no one knew what his end goals were if he had any end goals. Harry just took a deep breath. He would have to get to the bottom of this and sooner rather than later. He just hoped his sanity would remain mostly intact when he went along with the ride.

* * *

 

The Gotham City Police Department entered a state of recovery, at least for the most part. The Death of Chief O'Hara caused a lot of the members of the force to be pretty much rattled. There were a lot of people who were friends of O'Hara or looked up to him. They said if they ever caught the sorry son of a bitch who did this, they would make him pay.

One man moved behind Commissioner Peter Grogan, and that was Edward Nashton. He walked a few steps behind Grogan and looked like a puppy dog trying to catch up with his master.

"I'm telling you right now, Commissioner, this is going to be Cop Killer the sequel, unless we find out a way to stop this before it spreads," Eddie responded. "I'm in the process of creating a program, which can pin down the person before he starts attacking."

"Your theory is just a theory, Newton….."

"Nashton, sir," Eddie said. "I think you're being a little bit short-sighted, with all of this. The cop killer started, and people claimed it was isolated incidents. Then the incidents grew more prominent, and well…it ended up being your predecessor…you remember, Gillian Loeb….."

"Loeb broke under the restraints of the job, he was sick," Grogan responded. "Nothing more, nothing less, he was just a very ill man, who…"

"I realize he was very ill, but there is another sick man, who could be killing cops again," Edward said. "So, please, just give me the okay, and we'll solve this. Just think of how much money we'll be saving if a computer program is created to solve these crimes."

Grogan pinched the bridge of his nose and turned around to face the young man behind him. He knew the kid meant well, but he was getting on his nerves.

"Nixon, drop it!" Grogan snapped. "It's been an isolated incident, we're not going through another cop killer fiasco….now I suggest you get back to work and stop with the fairy tales."

"Yes, sir, and it's Nashton, sir," Eddie said.

Grogan left him and turned around to address the members of the Gotham City Police Department. He let out his breath in an obvious sigh when looking at the members of the Gotham City Police Department.

"anytime we lose a family member, it's a tragic day," Grogan said. "And we lost a family member, in Clancy O'Hara. He has given the best years of his life to us, but we have to move on. We're going to bring his killer to justice, and we're going to prove that crime cannot prosper in Gotham City. We're going to show them why we're not going to be bullied."

Grogan took a moment to take a deep breath.

"These gangs, these vigilantes, all of them are going to fall before the day is done," Grogan said. "We're not going to be pushed around by anyone, any longer. I want you all to go out there, and show them what we're made of. We're going to stand together, and we're going to prosper. We're going to make Gotham City a much better place, where your friends, your family, where everyone can grow up."

The members of the Gotham City Police force applauded, and Grogan smiled. He needed to pep them up after a very harsh last few weeks, hell last few months. Grogan had a lot dropped onto his lap, and the Cop Killer was still fresh in all of their minds.

The words of that kid still burned fresh in Grogan's mind. He told the young man it was an isolated incident, but it was only a play to keep morale up.

Grogan returned to his office and noticed an envelope lying on his desk. A frown passed over Grogan's face, it most certainly had not been there since before he came to his office.

It was another message from one of those concerned citizens. Grogan opened up the envelope and dropped the contents inside down on the table. His mouth hung open in thinly veiled shock when looking at the contents on it. He fell back onto the chair and looked at the pictures.

"I don't believe it!"

It looked very unbelievable, these pictures, and he did not want to believe it. No matter how damning the evidence looked out in front of him.

X-X-X

Barbara Gordon hunched over the computer at the Clocktower, busy at work. She just barely looked up from her position to see the reflection of Harry behind her.

"You've been here for a long time," Harry informed her.

"I've got a lot of work to do," Barbara answered. "Even more when all of the players in Gotham City are shuffled around…Black Mask and Penguin gained pretty big, while Falcone and Thorne are on the ropes."

Barbara chewed down on her lip and clutched her hand against the table.

"And if Black Mask and Penguin patch up their differences, it's going to be some bad news everyone in Gotham City," Barbara said. "The Roman's empire is starting to crack…and Bertinelli's death, well that might have screwed Thorne over bit time."

The redhead hacker shook her head, there was no real evidence Thorne had anything directly to do with Bertinelli's death, just a lot of rumors and more prominent whispers.

"I've talked to Pamela, and she's a bit anxious about being kept up, but in good spirits," Harry informed her.

"Good, I'm glad she's doing fine," Barbara said. "I agree with what you're doing, trust me…..sorry if I seem distracted, but I really have a lot of work to do."

Harry put his hands on her shoulders and started to rub them. Barbara closed her eyes, trying not to get distracted. Unfortunately for her, Harry's magical hands proved to be a means which to bring her out of her thoughts.

"You've been at this for a very long time, and you've spent way too much time cooped up in the Clocktower," Harry said.

"Yeah, Gwen left hours ago, she said she'd be back this afternoon to make sure I was taking care of myself," Barbara said. "And I wasn't completely in this clock tower forever, you know. I went out as Batgirl."

Harry continued to rub Barbara's shoulders and she closed her eyes.

"That doesn't count and you know it."

Suddenly, her work saved and the computers shut down around her. Barbara frowned, she had no idea how Harry did it, but he found a way to do it.

"You need to relax," Harry said. "You should really get some rest, while you can because we've got a very long and very hectic spring and summer coming around the corner."

Barbara rose up to her feet and wrapped her arms around Harry's neck with a smile. "Well, maybe you can find a way to relax me."

A slight grinding of her hips against his crotch showed Harry exactly what Barbara wanted. Harry snaked his hand around her and grabbed her ass to squeeze it, before pulling Barbara into a sensational kiss. His hands drifted to the underside of her shirt, and slowly slid it off of her.

Barbara's shirt pulled off and had been discharged on the floor. She stood before Harry, wearing a nice lacy red bra which Harry quickly ran his fingers over. He moved down to feel up Barbara's toned abs and then moved closer towards her jeans to pull them down over her hips.

A pair of lacy red thong panties revealed themselves to Harry, and Harry quickly rubbed his finger down against her slit through her panties. Harry pulled her panties down to reveal Barbara's wet pussy for him. He lightly caressed his fingers down.

"You want more, don't you?" Harry whispered hotly in her ear.

"Fuck yes," Barbara begged. "But, you seem a bit overdressed, don't you?"

Barbara reached in without another word of preamble and started to undo Harry's top, unbuttoning it slowly to reveal his toned chest. Barbara lightly rubbed her hands over his muscular chest, feeling up how firm and toned Harry was underneath her hands. She smiled and kept running her hands all over every inch of Harry's body she could reach. Her fingers started to caress Harry's toned abs.

"I have to have this," Barbara said.

Barbara reached between his legs and squeezed his cock through his pants. She made quick work of Harry's boxer shorts and his pants. Harry grabbed onto her hips and then pushed her back. His cock ground against her toned stomach. The feeling of his hard rod scrapping against her smooth flesh got Barbara all excited, and ready to go. And she was more than ready to go.

"I'm going to fuck you senseless," Harry breathed in her ear.

He unclipped her bra and allowed the final article of clothing, her bra, to drop down to the ground. The beautiful redhead laid bare for him on her computer desk, legs spread for him. Harry kissed her and then moved down to the side of the neck.

Every single kiss from Harry sent electricity through Barbara's body. Harry cupped her nice breasts and gave them a hearty squeeze. Her hardening, aching nipples responded to Harry's touch. His fingers caressed them and made them stand up at attention.

"Please, more," Barbara begged him. "I need your cock."

Harry watched her legs spread out and she looked very nimble and very ready to receive his cock. Harry worked it down her body.

"You want to be fucked," Harry told her. "You live to be fucked. You're going to lose your mind if you don't have my cock inside you, aren't you?"

"Mmm, hmm," Barbara murmured underneath her breath. "Please, Harry, I need it, badly. I'll die if I don't have your cock inside me, filling me up, stretching me out. Please, Harry, give me your cock."

Harry decided not to deny Barbara for much longer. His huge cock slowly ground against Barbara's slit and teased it. His balls bounced up and slapped her on the thigh. Her warm pussy called for him, and Harry could not wait to slip in between her very familiar thighs.

The redhead locked her legs around Harry's hips and Harry rose up to push deep inside of her. She breathed a soft sigh of pleasure the minute Harry pushed his rod into her smoldering hot depths. Barbara clamped down onto Harry and released his hard cock. Harry slid completely out of her and then pushed deeper inside of her body. His balls slapped against her.

Harry reached in to lovingly caress Barbara's face. He leaned in and kissed her while staying the course. Her hungry lips nibbled against his and her mouth then opened for his tongue to drive deep into her throat as Harry's throbbing length drove into her pussy. Her hips tightened around him as well.

Two nipples stood up and poked into Harry's chest. Harry moved from Barbara's mouth. His hands clutched her hips to gain enough momentum and enough leverage to drive himself into her.

"You're about ready to cum," Harry said. "Go ahead, Barbara, let it all hangout….don't hold back on me. Just cum for me."

Everything flowed freely. Harry pushed himself into Barbara and rode out her orgasm, moving his hips down upon hers in very fluid waves. His balls smacked against Barbara's tight pussy. Her walls came down around Harry and released him. Harry pulled almost all the way out of her and dropped down into her. His balls pushed against her womanhood and pleasured her.

"Yes, I feel so good!" Barbara mewed hungrily. "Harder, Harry, please, harder, I want your cock buried inside of my tight pussy! I want to feel it stretch me so badly!"

Barbara ground her nails against Harry's back to further encourage him to delve deeper inside of her. Harry was not one to deny such a request from a beautiful women. Harry stretched her moist center, pushing his rod deeper inside of Barbara. Harry almost pulled out of Barbara and then drove himself deep inside of her. He maintained his stride, his balls slapping against her.

"Fuck, that feels so good," Harry said. "You're going to cum for me again."

No question about it, she was. Barbara enjoyed his fingers teasing the side of her leg when it snaked around Harry. Periodic kisses came down her body and made Barbara heat up even hotter around him. She slid her hips all the way up. God, he stretched her so much.

Harry pushed himself deeper into her pussy. Barbara matched his movements, grabbing onto his hard cock and releasing him. Harry steadied the course and went through the orgasm.

Suddenly, Harry slipped out of Barbara, and her pussy felt empty. Not for long, as Harry motioned for Barbara to turn around. Barbara slid off of the desk and got off to the side. She placed her hands on the desk and moved, her legs spread nicely for Harry. Her firm ass jutted out and was ready to be grabbed.

"Harry, spank my ass," Barbara pleaded with him.

Harry had never been one to turn a lady down and he gave Barbara one slap against her rear. It resounded and Harry moved closer towards her, spreading her lips out. His finger dipped deep inside of her womanhood and stretched her pussy out.

His finger had been replaced with Harry's cock. It felt bigger than ever before, pushing into Barbara from behind. Harry's hands grabbed Barbara's hips and rocked into her from behind. The young man pushed deeper inside of Barbara and stretched out her wet pussy.

"Fuck, oh it feels so fucking good," Barbara moaned hotly.

"I'm sure you feel really good, with me fucking your tight pussy," Harry said. "I'm making you cum again, aren't I?"

Barbara nodded in response. She was cumming again and cumming very hard again. Harry's hands were everywhere they needed to be and they felt so good when they were in certain places. His hands cupped her large breasts and gave them a squeeze.

"I know how much you like it when I play with your big, round, tits," Harry said. "You like it….are you feeling relaxed now?"

Barbara nodded in response, she was feeling much better. Harry's large balls continued to slap. They almost felt like they were getting bigger with every orgasm on her part. And speaking of which, another orgasm spread through her body.

"Fuck me, hard!" Barbara moaned.

Harry shoved his cock into her tight vice. He sped up the actions, drilling her over the top of the desk from behind. He made sure his hard cock shoved deep inside of Barbara's gripping twat. He pulled almost out of her and pushed back into her, stretching out her wet vice from behind. Barbara held onto Harry's cock and released him.

"I can fuck this all day long," Harry said. "And look at that, I think you're cumming again. How many times have you cum, Ms. Gordon? I wonder what we're going to do with you?"

"Fuck me, harder!" Barbara cried.

"That's a good idea," Harry informed her with a smile. "I think I'm going to do just that. Your pussy is going to get a nice work out by the time I'm done with you."

Harry always showed himself to be a man of his word. He planted his thick rod into Barbara and stretched her completely out. Every time his cock touched the inside of her body, it felt like her warmth spread around him. Harry groaned when feeling her wet tight vice.

The moments ticked by and the orgasms just increased in frequency. Barbara did not know how many times she came, but she did know her pussy was being pushed to the edge. Harry's thick balls danced against her and threatened to cum.

"One more time," Harry said.

"Oh, you should release all that stress, too," Barbara breathed.

"I will," Harry said. "Right after you cum for me."

Harry drilled Barbara at those final three words. The sexy redhead responded by retracting her pussy around Harry's prick and squeezing him. Harry slid his hard cock inside of Barbara's slick center and almost pulled out of her before shoving himself into her one more time.

"My turn."

The orgasm spreading through Barbara made her pussy walls milk Harry nice and hard. Her tight walls ensnared Harry and forced him to push inside of her, as far and deep as possible. Harry impacted her center with a series of hard thrusts. Every thrust got closer to making sure his balls had been unleashed.

"Fuck me," Harry breathed.

Harry slid his cock deep inside of Barbara's wet pussy and then unleashed his cum inside of her body. Her pussy clenched him to milk all of the cum from his rod inside of her body. Harry pushed his rod deep inside of Barbara and his load spilled into her.

The tension had been released inside of her. Barbara could feel the warmth of his cum splashing into her body. Harry buried himself balls deep into her and was not done until he emptied himself completely. And this earned two more orgasms for Barbara before she deflated.

She had been more at ease with a smile on her face after Harry had his way with her.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on March 22** **nd** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

**Mostly a cleaning up session in the aftermath of this last chapter.**

**Watch the Fourth Wall, Deadpool, I just had that thing repaired.**

**Eddie's about ready to make a right nuisance of himself, wouldn't you agree?**

**Barbara gets some one on one time for Harry. Been a while, if I'm not mistaken, so there you go.**

**Until Wednesday.**


	275. The Mind of Madness

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Five: The Mind of Madness**

* * *

A temple deep underground sat one man, one ageless man who took a deep breath. The breath came in and came out, came in and out. The man's temples rose and throbbed for a second. He clutched his hands to one side and took another deep breath. The thoughts of going through a murderous rampage went through his mind, but he needed to keep that at bay.

Death often times came at a purpose, but death without purpose was futile, useless. Ra's al Ghul learned this fact through years of constant preparation and training. The League of Assassins served a purpose to clean up the world and kill only when necessary. The actions might not have been accepted or even approved by the general population a lot of the time. However, it was a necessity and it had to do be done.

Each trip inside of the Lazarus Pit was a gamble. It left Ra's with a great anger, a bloodlust, which made him very manic in the days following exiting the Lazarus Pit. Eventually, through years of practiced effort, Ra's was able to keep these barbaric emotions in check. He took another deep breath and came to the unfortunate realization something was very different here. He could not put his finger on what, but something was different.

' _Curious,'_ Ra's thought to himself. _'Could it have been the amount of time elapsed since my latest demise? Or could it have been the matter of my death?'_

Ra's recalled that night where the Detective left him to die. The Detective and the Dragon, both men who had the potential to lead the League of Assassins, and both men Ra's still endeavored to test, to make sure they were ready. This time, Ra's had just barely avoided Death's clutches. This life span might as well be the last time the Lazarus Pit could sustain him.

' _Maybe,'_ Ra's thought to himself. _'I've gotten far more out of the Lazarus Pit than many could ever have hoped for and I will continue to get far more out of this mystical pit the longer time shall pass.'_

The exercises continued, all a means to keep the bloodlust at bay. He closed his eyes and took another deep breath. The members of the League moved around. Some trained, some waited for their next move. His devoted daughter Talia stood elsewhere in the temple, and unless Ra's was mistaken, she intended to call on him pretty soon.

Another one of his children entered the temple. Dusan al Ghul, the White Ghost, the genetic misfit, and the unfortunate mistake Ra's found himself obligated to call a son. Ra's only kept him around because Dusan played a role in his resurrection, and it was wise to keep him at arm's length, to begin with.

Only through the few uses he had, did Ra's allow Dusan to live. If those uses ever faded, then Ra's would have no choice but to exterminate his own flesh and blood.

A knock on the door brought Ra's out of his mediation.

"Enter."

Talia stepped into the temple and moved. She dropped on one knee before her father, more facing him at this point given his lotus position stance, then bowing before him.

"Rise before me."

Both daughter and father rose to their feet. Ra's looked over his daughter for a few seconds and motioned for her to speak.

"My report as promised," Talia said. "The Penguin has achieved his goals and is now in a greater position of prominence in Gotham City. Also, another wild card, Black Mask, has managed to gain territory from the Roman, Carmine Falcone."

"Petty moves on the chessboard of the city," Ra's said. "Allow these men to make their plays, allow these men to have their days. For soon, the League of Assassins will triumph, and will achieve their goals over Gotham City."

Talia answered with a nod in response. Another figure stepped into the room before her. Talia reached into her sheath and slid out a dagger. Someone who entered the chambers of Ra's al Ghul would be taught a very painful lesson. It did not matter if it was the man she regretfully called flesh and blood.

"Talia, stand down," Ra's commanded.

His daughter had no choice other to obey, even though her eyes locked firmly on the man. He pulled out a blue vial from his traveling cloak and stepped over.

"The potion, as you have requested," Dusan said.

Talia's suspicious eyes locked onto the potion. The blue color of the potion made it appear rather benign. Years of training in the League showed Talia the most benign of looks ended up being the most dangerous thing. She watched the transaction between Ra's and Dusan. The Demon took the potion in between his fingers.

"You've served your purpose quite well."

Dusan responded by nodding his head. "Thank you, father. I live to serve you, as your true heir."

Talia grimaced and was about to say something to contradict her brother's arrogant statement. She had no need to, as her father, lightning fast, withdrew a blade from his sheath and put it at the throat of Dusan before the White Ghost could even manage to blink.

"I implore you to not overstep your bounds, child."

Despite the cold hard steel pressed underneath his chin, Dusan just barely blinked.

"I've served you and found you when others did not hasten to make the effort," Dusan answered.

Ra's pulled away the blade. Dusan relaxed, the smugness factor over his face increasing by about tenfold. Talia wished nothing better than to take her blade and to plunge it into the chest of that waste of space, but her father would never have allowed her to take such drastic actions.

' _At least not yet.'_

"Retire to your quarters…and send them in," Ra's said.

Dusan nodded and stepped back. He said something to a man at the door. Seconds later, several League members brought two dirty looking gentleman inside to face the Great Demon. Ra's al Ghul locked his gaze on the men as they were brought in.

"You men have committed several crimes, far too plentiful to list at this point in time," Ra's said. "We can begin with your enslavement and assault of minors, exploiting them for your own sexual gratification and the sexual gratification of your costumes. There is no defending your actions. Society will not mourn you."

Ra's ran his blade through the throat of the first of degenerate men. He turned around and hacked the head off and sent blood splattering all over the temple.

His body relaxed, his breathing went back to normal, murder caused his bloodlust to be at bay for several days.

* * *

Vicki Vale arrived waiting for a lunch date with Harry Potter, which as doubled as an interview. She decided to mix business with pleasure. Most of the time, bringing the two things together did not work, but Vicki had to admit, Harry could turn it on and off like that.

Unlike most people, Vicki did not have to wait at the table very long for her date. She barely had some water to drink when Harry Potter showed up in the flesh.

"Right on time," Vicki said. "And after the past few weeks, and how much you have on your plate, no one would have blamed you if you would have canceled the interview."

"I would have blamed myself."

Harry leaned over and stole a small kiss from Vicki when no one appeared to be looking. She was very fair on him, and Harry gave her as much of the truth as possible. Of course, as many people learned over the years, truth could, in fact, be a matter of perspective and also from the point of view people situated themselves at times. Still, Harry knew his point could be about as unbiased. He called it he saw them.

Both paused just long enough for the waitress to take their orders. Also, to drop a piece of paper on the table in front of Harry, being not very subtle around. She was a pretty little Latina with a tight ass and long legs. Pretty decent sized rack as well, Harry thought, but really just a hot little number all around. He picked up the piece of paper and it had a phone number on it, along with an address to an apartment just a couple of blocks away from a café.

"So, you get that often, don't you?" Vicki asked him.

Harry responded with a smile. "At least twice a week, and I'm very intrigued."

"She's pretty hot," Vicki remarked casually.

"Now, Ms. Vale, you shouldn't think I just jump the first piece of ass that drops a phone number in front of me," Harry answered with a reprimand. "I said I'm intrigued, but I've gotten enough phone numbers. Some of them are attractive, and some….well let's just say there are a lot of waitresses who aren't exactly…"

"Take care of themselves all that well," Vicki offered.

"Exactly," Harry said. "Price for fame, I attract all sorts, from ones to tens."

Vicki thought it was fair enough. The attractive waitress returned and she leaned over the table to give Harry his food.

"I get off at six," she whispered.

The first couple of buttons of her uniform top had been unbuttoned to show her generous cleavage. Harry smiled politely, and she walked away, swaying her hips when going over to serve the next person.

"Too easy," Harry said.

"Are you saying she's easy?" Vicki asked.

"No, nothing of the sort," Harry responded. "It's just it would be too easy if I gave into her now. I could have dragged her into the break room right now, and taken care of her, but women want it more with time. They have to wait. If she's willing to wait that is."

"So, should we get down to business?" Vicki asked. "Because I think there's been more than enough articles about your prolific dating life. No offense, of course."

"Hey, none was taken," Harry said. "So, what did you want to ask me about?"

"It's about your partnership with Mercury Labs," Vicki said. "Are you planning to make the jump and move RAO deeper into Central City?"

Harry put his hand firmly on the table and smiled.

"It's an interesting deal and yes, that's the eventual goal," Harry remarked to Vicki. "Any business should have a steady expansion. Too fast, and they crash and burn. Too slow, and they just risk being gobbled up by so many hungry competitors. There are numerous start-up companies which fail both because people take too many risks and also people who don't take many risks. I think the partnership with Doctor McGee will be an interesting and fruitful one as we see over time."

"When do you think the deal will take place?" Vicki asked.

"It's a couple months away from happening," Harry informed her. "We'll make an announcement, and of course, you'll be the first the first to know when there's a press conference. Gotham City is still a prime and key area, for now, I'm just branching outwards and onwards."

"Fair enough," Vicki answered. "So, I've heard something….a rumor, and I didn't want to say anything unless you could clarify it for me."

"Well, I'm intrigued now," Harry said.

"You're rumored to be heading to Blackgate prison to have a conversation with the Joker," Vicki remarked. "It's…is that true?"

Her voice quivered a little bit at the thought of the clown. Vicki never really was all that comfortable around clowns, and a murderous psychotic clown reeked of all of her worst nightmares coming to life. Harry reached across the table and grabbed her hand, which relaxed her.

"It's true," Harry said. "I've wanted to talk to the clown, and get inside of his mind."

"From what I've heard, it's not a happy place to be, two doctors quit rather than talking to him," Vicki said.

"It's a favor I'm doing for someone, and I'm interested in seeing how his mind works," Harry said. "I'm not sure if he's insane as he makes himself out to be, and if he's not, that makes him all more the more dangerous."

Vicki would have to agree. She did not fear much, but the Joker caused her to shiver in response. She was glad he was locked safely away in the Arkham Wing of Blackgate prison and there was no chance whatsoever of him escaping any time soon.

* * *

Oliver, Shado, and Deadpool found a more secluded spot on the island. They gave Fyers and his men the slip, but there were a couple of other things they worried about. The mysterious item Deathstroke got his hands on caused Deadpool to shift an even higher priority to him.

"Well, we need to take them down before they pull off whatever nefarious plan they're pulling off," Deadpool said. "And also, they still have the old man."

Shado responded with a nod and she set her face. Every time they closed in on Fyers, something happened to prevent them from jumping into the battle and taking him down. The dangerous mercenary, known as Deathstroke, was also a problem.

Slumping against the tree, Oliver was breathing heavily. Deadpool looked at him and slapped him on the side of the head which only forced him to drop to his knees.

"All this running around really got you that winded?" Deadpool asked. "I thought you would have been used to running around by now, ducking and dodging the Paparazzi and all that sort of thing."

"That's…that's nothing like that," Oliver managed. "I've never thought I would have to be on an island, dodging landmines, and almost getting killed in the process."

"Yeah, well, life's just funny like that sometimes," Deadpool said. "You need to find something deep inside of you. If you don't, you'll be a bum. A rich bum, but a bum, never the less. You need to find that fighting spirit. You need to go the distance. You need to prove you're the best around. You need the Eye of the Tiger."

Deadpool started bobbing around and humming the song in question. Oliver looked at him like he was insane, a moniker the Merc with a Mouth was only too was too willing to accept.

"As eccentric as he may be, he does have a point," Shado responded. "You are becoming a liability, you need to find a way to be less of one."

"Well, good idea, but there's not a chicken anyway on this island to chase," Deadpool remarked.

"Maybe not," Shado commented, just letting his words fly completely over the top of her head. "But, he's the right build for an archer, and with a little practice, he might be able to do something."

"Archery?" Oliver asked.

She put the bow and one of the arrows into Oliver's hand. Oliver took a moment to look at it. He dabbled a bit, but not as much as Thea did. Thea was a prodigy, and to think of his sister, and the fact he never found her before he had been brought onto this deserted island caused an ache in Oliver's heart.

"Take the shot, the center of the tree," Shado encouraged him.

Oliver drew back his bow and fired the arrow, but lost his balance. The arrow shot out and landed far away from the tree and pierced the side of Deadpool's shoulder.

"Well, his aim could use just a little bit of work," Deadpool said, yanking the arrow out of his shoulder. "Oh, that one sucks, but hey, after being blown to pieces, I've had worse."

Shado frowned.

"His coordination needs work," Shado said. "I'm going to have to try and teach him the way my father taught me, but unfortunately, we don't have much time."

"I thought I heard something over here."

' _And less time than we thought.'_

Deadpool took a moment to tense up and peer through the bushes. Thankfully, the goon squad was halfway across the way, and Slade walked behind them. They were looking towards the clearing on the other end, and not the one Deadpool and his Amazing Friends currently were holed up in.

"It happens tonight."

Those three words caught the interest of all three interested parties. Deadpool realized they did not have much time ready to get a battle ready Oliver Queen.

' _And to think I'm trapped on a mystical island out in the middle of nowhere without any music for a training montage,'_ Deadpool concluded.

* * *

Despite the fact many people thought he was a bit bent for agreeing to this interview, Harry Potter arrived at Blackgate prison. He checked into the prison.

"So, coming to talk to him?" the guard asked. "Well, good luck….oh…and take this."

He handed Harry a black box with a red button on it. Harry frowned.

"If he starts giving you any static, push that red button," the guard said. "Trust me, he'll be tranquilized."

Harry had been more intrigued to talk to the Joker than ever before, after this news. He walked down the hallway where several of the doctors were moving around. Harley looked up and smiled before walking over towards him. She wrapped her arms around Harry's waist in a bone crushing hug, not so subtle about her actions.

"Nice to see you," Harley said. "So, how's Pam?"

"She's…she's doing as well as can be expected," Harry answered. "I'll take you to see her if you want to….I'm sure she'll appreciate some company."

Harley nodded, she wanted to see one of her friends. She pulled herself away from Harry.

"So, you're going to talk to him, are you?" Harley asked.

"Yes, I am," Harry said.

Harley took in a deep breath.

"He's…something else," Harley said. "I don't know how he ticks, no one has been able to figure out what make his mind work the way it does, or why, he did some of the things he does."

"He's like an onion," Harry said.

For a moment, Harley looked confused, but then she got it.

"Oh, you mean he has layers to him, and dealing with him makes you want to cry!"

Harry smiled and moved away from Harley. He took the walk, moving past some of the guests which had been put in there, thanks to him. He moved past Maxie Zeus, Killer Moth, and Firefly, just to name a few. All of those men, though, paled in comparison to the man at the end of the hallway, in the most secured cell.

Casually, the Joker sat in the cell, eating an apple. He took a large bite of it and shrugged. He looked up, and his expression brightened when locking his eyes on Harry. The barrier separated them, but the Joker got as close as he was allowed to them.

"Well, the famous Harry Potter!" Joker exclaimed. "I knew you would be sent to the nuthouse eventually with all of the women you try and juggle!"

Joker leaned forward towards the young man, attempting to get a rise out of him. The wind had been taken out of the clown's sails when he saw a stoic and calm look across the face of Harry Potter.

"So, what brings you to my neck of the woods?" Joker asked.

"I'm here to have a conversation with you," Harry said.

"Well, you are crazy, and you should be locked up in here with me, if you want to speak with me," Joker said. "Did you hear what happened to the last guy who tried to pick my mind? He ran away from here, screaming, he couldn't get away from the nutjob ward fast enough. He moved faster than a speeding bullet….zoom, right out the door, just like that."

Joker snapped his fingers to prove his point and then turned his attention back towards Harry.

"But, color me intrigued."

"You are an enigma Mr. John Doe," Harry said.

Every potential bit of humor faded from Joker's face.

"Call me by my proper name," he said.

"No one knows what your real name is, and I prefer not to call men by their aliases," Harry said. "But, no one knows quite what you are, there are numerous theories how you came to be."

"Yeah, I've heard about a dozen," Joker admitted. "And I like the air of mystery, gives my backstory a bit of a flare, makes things multiple choice, you see. Who wants just one potential origin story when they can have two, or three, or a dozen!"

Joker chuckled and put his full attention on Harry.

"Well, let's hear yours."

"Many think you're a demon who took residence in Gotham City after Deacon Blackfire terrorized Gotham City on Halloween Night," Harry said. "And the timing of when you showed up, shortly after Blackfire had disappeared into the night once again, disappeared. You're fueled by the supreme chaos in Gotham City."

"Well, that's intriguing one," Joker said. "Mystical vengeance demon, don't think I've heard that one before….might have to use that one the next time someone asks me about the old backstory."

Harry pressed on with his information. "There are other, more mundane backstories as well. You're an ex-cop driven mad because you caught your wife in bed with a high-ranking mob boss. You're a former member of the Red Hood gang. You're a high-ranking member of the Gotham City Underworld who just disappeared one day."

A look of thoughtfulness spread over the Joker's face.

"I could be anyone, anything," Joker said. "I could be an average Joe from some middle age family. I could be that one rich guy who blew all of his money and instead of diving out of the highest window, went completely insane. I could be some hobo who took the gospel of Deacon Blackfire too seriously. Hell, I might not even be a guy…wouldn't that be just hilarious?"

He laughed for a second. Harry remained indifferent to his actions.

"Or, maybe, I'm just some guy who had a really bad day. And instead of just trying to fight the madness, I embraced it. And I'm a whole of a hell lot better now than I ever was before!"

"I've spent a lot of time trying to figure out who you are," Harry said.

"Careful, careful, getting in my mind is not what you want to do," Joker said. "It all starts harmless enough. Mother wants to open her legs for every man who walks by. Father is pretty good at swinging a bottle when he's not sucking one down. And that's when it starts getting a little bit funny."

Joker drew in his breath and smiled.

"You think you can pull yourself back. Life gives you a little bit, and a little bit more, and then you just take it away, just like that."

The crazed criminal clown slammed his hand down onto the wall for added effect and started to laugh.

"Maybe I'm this, maybe I'm that I really don't know," Joker said. "Why worry about the past, when you can look to a future full of smiles….and I will be smiling. Blackgate's just a place to put my feet up. I'll be back, and this time, Gotham City will be the full beneficiary of my unique brand of cheer."

"You know something," Harry said. "Who you were before, it doesn't matter as much as I thought it did. You're just one of the countless people who is lost in Gotham City, every day. And people don't give a damn about them."

Harry put his hands flat upon the cell and stared the Joker in the eye. The only thing separating the two of them was the thick glass barrier.

"And you know something else," Harry said. "Despite all of the bravado, all of the smiles, you're just a nobody deep down. You're just a sad soul crying out for relevance. You could be anyone.."

"Oh, no, that's where you're the wrong bucko!" Joker said. "I'm one of a kind. But, we're not too different there. There's no one like you. I wonder, what makes Harry Potter tick. There has to be more than you than some good looks, a huge bank account, and an obscene addiction to sex. What madness lingers behind those emerald eyes? Now you have control, you're obsessed with keeping it. I think you might be crazier than I am!"

Joker's laughter increased to a fever pitch. He started to headbutt the wall instantly until Harry pushed the button and release the gas into the cell. Joker's laughter calmed down, but his voice grew lower and more deadly. He concluded with a whisper.

"See you real soon, Potty, see you real soon!"

' _That's…'_ Faora thought.

' _I've looked into the face of madness, and I've seen nothing other than pure evil,'_ Harry thought.

* * *

A woman dressed in rags rushed down the pathway. She tripped over her feet and landed face first firmly down onto the pathway. One of the rougher men grabbed her by the back of the neck and forced her over.

"Pay up!" he yelled.

"Please, you've taken everything," she said in a terrified voice.

The man shoved her down to the ground and yelled something to his men. They pointed their guns at the poor defenseless woman on the ground, just one of numerous groups of villagers they terrorized.

A blur shot out of nowhere and ripped the guns away from them. The men had been taken out.

The woman pulled herself up off of the dirty path and wiped blood from her mouth.

"Our angel has blessed us again."

* * *

**To Be Continued on March 25** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Harry and the Joker's conversation were both as interesting and frustration as you would expect._

_Things of interest happened in that final scene._

_Back on Saturday._


	276. Hooking Up

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Six: Hooking Up.**

* * *

 

Harry received a call from Alex Danvers, which he had to admit, had him a tiny bit interested when he received it. She just told him it was something interesting and Harry believed if she thought it was interesting, then he would have to guess it was something interesting. She told him to meet her outside of Gotham City, which was a very interesting place to meet.

He understood she had been very busy with DEO related business, but Harry was very curious to see what she had to say to him. The two of them met with each other. Alex moved over and embraced Harry and gave him a long kiss to greet him. The moment she got that particular thing out of her system, she pulled away, cleared her throat and tried the best she could to get to business.

"I've received some very interesting reports out of Africa," Alex said. "Now, I know what you're thinking, that's not exactly the center of activity the DEO should and could be concerned with, right? Well, before you start asking those questions, I think it might be a pretty good idea if you took a look at this."

Something flashed underneath Harry's eye as Alex pulled the picture out. It was a blurry image which was interesting in itself, but not something Harry could piece together a definite conclusion on. The second picture still looked blurred, even though more clear. Harry wondered exactly where this one was going.

"Something really fast, and hard to get on camera," Alex said. "Maybe that's just me, but that sounds like a certain race of aliens to me?"

"Kryptonian?" Harry asked her. His lips curled up for a second and he leaned closer towards Alex. "Do you really think there is a Kryptonian who has settled down in Africa and made it their home?"

Harry supposed there were many explanations as to why this could, in fact, be the case. He had no clue what was going on, other than there was most certainly something here Alex felt extremely strong about. She still was not done showing those pictures to Harry. She flipped over another picture and pushed it in front of Harry's face. This one looked more clear and very curious.

' _Huh, that's interesting,'_ Kara thought.

"Look very familiar to you?" Alex asked.

"Well, it should, it looks like Kara, my Kara, the older version of your sister," Harry responded. "Well, that is very interesting, isn't it?"

' _That's what I said,'_ Kara thought.

Harry spent the next few seconds in intense study with his eyes locked onto the photograph and trying to gain some answers. He just gained, even more, questions, and not to mention some very frustrating questions. He knew it was not Kara, but the resemblance to her looked pretty uncanny. A theory clicked in the back of Harry's mind, born out of some of his thoughts from earlier.

"That's very interesting," Harry said. "Do you have more to tell me?"

Alex drew in her breath and she had plenty more, much more, to tell Harry about this situation.

"She has been bouncing along several African villages, helping everyone she can along the way. She has been considered a hero to many. The few reports I've been able to grab from that particular part of the world called her their guardian angel. And they must certainly need some protection. There's a military tyrant in that country who would sooner burn everything to the ground, then let these people roam free and give them enough room to breathe. You know the type, don't you, Harry?"

Harry drew in a deep breath; he ran into those types before unfortunately. They were going to be in every corner of the world. Harry kept his eyes on the clearest picture possible, the girl in the picture even. He had his own thoughts and feelings on what was going on, although he could not be for certain.

"It looks to me you have an idea."

Alex's words brought Harry out of the stupor he was in.

"Last year, I was on an expedition with Doctor Helena Sandsmark and some others," Harry said. "We ran into some problems in a temple in Egypt. It's a very long story, and I wish to have a chance to do it justice, should the opportunity present itself."

"Well, maybe you should just tell me what you wanted to tell me," Alex responded.

"There was a girl who looked like a dead ringer for Kara, and she saved us from certain destruction," Harry informed Alex. "I'm pretty sure, one hundred percent sure, this girl and the one who is currently going around, playing hero in Egypt are one and the same."

Alex took a second to allow that to reconcile in her mind. There had been only one possible thing to do. She took a look at Harry who managed to cut her off before she could say it.

"I know, it looks like the two of us are going on a trip to see if we can get to the bottom of this."

* * *

 

Commissioner Peter Grogan took a long sigh and tried to figure out what he wanted to do. He had several damning pieces of evidence underneath his thumb towards a member of the Gotham City Police Department. A man who he had seen do some good work with his own eye. A man who had many friends, many allies, and who would cause a revolution if Grogan went after him.

The audio tape found on his desk was pretty damning, as was the pictures. There had been some letters, obviously with disguised handwriting, which implicated this man in the support of dangerous vigilantes like Nightwing and Batman. Grogan did not know what to do, and he hated the fact something would end up forcing his hand to make a tough decision, the likes of which he never had to make during his career.

A knock on the door spared him from thinking about it another minute.

"It's unlocked."

Howard Branden stepped into the room, looking as smooth and as calm as possible.

"Howard, what can I do for you?" Grogan asked, trying not to betray how tired and how beaten down he felt after everything.

"I was hoping I could get some more support for the SWAT," Branden said. "More funding, better equipment…..just money to get things done. If you want Nightwing and Batman taken down, we're your best hope in doing so. You just got to give us a chance to do so, and we'll get things done."

Grogan took a moment to process Branden's words. He raised some good points, but there were also some very real concerns about how effective the Gotham City SWAT team had been over the past several months. Grogan wondered if he could justify pouring, even more, money to a department which was not holding strong.

"I've talked to Hill, but he's dragging his feet on it," Grogan said. "It would mean more problems and it would also mean a tax hike for the people of Gotham City. It could happen, though, I'll see what I can do about asking Hill about if there's any way where we can satisfy everyone."

Branden nodded gruffly. He moved a bit over and noticed a photograph hanging underneath several pieces of clutter on Grogan's desk. His eyes flared open the second he pushed the clutter to the side and leaned on in.

"That's not, that's not who I think it is, is it?"

Grogan looked on for a moment, like someone who had been caught in the headlights. A deer would have been a pretty good description because that's what he looked like. He took in a deep breath and looked on towards Branden.

"You know who that looks like….."

"Yes, I know who it looks like, Rupert Thorne from the back," Grogan snapped, sounding a little bit miffed about the fact Branden took it upon himself to mess with the clutter about the area of his desk.

"It does look like Thorne from the back, but the man from the front, it looks like James Gordon," Branden said. "Now, that's very interesting. And pretty damning for him, to be caught in the clear shaking hands with someone was toxic these days as Thorne."

Grogan took in a sigh. He did not want to believe Gordon was not on the level because that meant that Grogan was mistaken about James Gordon and he hated that, he hated having to do that with anyone. He looked at the picture for several long minutes. It did look like Gordon, but he wasn't completely sure about it.

"You know, when this gets out, you're going to have no choice other to act," Branden said.

Deep down, Grogan knew the implication was clear, Branden was not going to remain silent about what he saw. Not without a huge payoff, and maybe he just found his in to get the funding he needed for the SWAT department. Grogan sighed, not knowing what to do, only knowing that whatever he did, would be proof of how much of a success.

"There's an audio tape on the desk," Branden said.

"Another package from this concerned citizen," Grogan said. "I haven't played it yet."

"Maybe you should," Branden said.

Grogan sighed, he could not fear what was on that tape. He picked it up and slid it into the cassette player and pushed the play button. He heard the sounds of tracks clicking for a few seconds before a conversation began to be picked up on the audio tape.

"You know….I'll do anything to make this disappear….get the charges against Bertinelli dropped clean, say he committed suicide. Whatever it takes, I'll give you the money."

"We'll make it work," another voice said. "They won't suspect a thing."

Grogan listened to that voice. And only one thought crossed his mind based off of the voice he heard on the audio tape.

' _My god.'_

Gordon's dealings with Thorne, they did not put the man in a good light, but at least Grogan excused it as business as usual in Gotham City. He knew what he was getting into. He had to deal with some unsavory people to get here, to get into a spot where he could clean up Gotham City.

An image attached to the audio tape caused all respect Grogan had for James Gordon to fly out the window. He looked at the image and saw it was Gordon on a rooftop, and he was facing the vigilante known as Batman. Grogan tried very hard not to crush the image.

Betrayal, betrayal of his own ideals, betrayal of pretty much everything Peter Grogan stood for, it reached him. His gullet sized up and he struggled to swallow. He thought he was going to get sick seeing a member of his own family talking to a vigilante, someone who threatened to ruin any good the GCPD every accomplished.

"Gordon's never been a team player," Branden said. "And now he's working outside of the law…he's as corrupt as Loeb was if you asked me. And you hear what they've been saying, he wants to be the Commissioner, he wants to turn Gotham City into an anarchy ruled by vigilantes."

"I need hard proof and I need it now," Grogan said. "Get that kid, Newton, if he wants to help me so bad, let's give him something to do. See what calls Gordon's getting, see what he can dig up on him."

"You mean that geek Nashton, right?" Branden asked.

Branden thought Nashton was a little twerp. He was the type of man he and his boys would rough up in an alleyway, just because he looked at him funny. Unfortunately, he always was smart enough not to allow himself to get caught where someone could take liberties with him, even if he was a bit of a workplace nuisance.

"Yes him, get him," Grogan said.

* * *

 

Daisy Johnson found herself not babysitting a Top Forty Pop star today, but rather, she had been sent to Africa on assignment. Miranda Waller had decided to pull her. Thankfully, Alison had been in good hands, with an old friend of Daisy filling in for her. It allowed her to focus on this particular mission.

"So, you think there's another visitor?" Daisy asked.

"Yes, there have been some sightings in the area over the past several months, more so than normal in the last two months," Miranda said. "There's a military dictator in the area who has been causing problems for the people here. They don't have much, and he plans on taking everything he can get his hands on from them."

Daisy whistled, that guy sounded like a real jackass. The dark haired woman closed her eyes for a couple of minutes and took in her deep breath.

"Focus on the visitor, don't focus on playing hero," Miranda said.

"Yeah, I'll see," Daisy said. "Didn't you mention they didn't like foreigners here?"

"Not everyone is accommodating to outsiders as America," Miranda commented. "Just make sure you keep your head up and your eyes open, and do not engage anyone unless your life depends on it."

' _Oh you will,'_ Daisy thought. _'Or rather, I will have to defend myself….you just poked Murphy with a stick, and he can be a real asshole when his fun has been…..'_

Daisy's thoughts faded when she saw two people she least expected to see in the middle of some hovel in the middle of Africa. Okay, one, because she kind of expected Harry Potter to show up in a place like this, due to his recent charity endeavors, especially given women and children were victimized by the creepy people here. However, Alex Danvers, boy was that a surprise.

Curiosity took Daisy in its tight grip. She moved over and came across Alex.

"What are you doing here?" Alex asked.

"You know, I could ask the same for you," Daisy responded a few seconds later. "Which….."

"You're working on behalf of them, I knew it," Alex said.

"Hey, wait, that means…alien activity…" Daisy remarked at the same time.

Both girls had been hanging in the wind, neither knowing what to do know that their cover had been completely and utterly blown. They both looked at each other, completely confused.

Harry cleared his throat and both of the women straightened up in a blink of an eye. There was a second where they looked at each other. And then they looked at a woman who nervously stepped out of the area. She had been speaking in her native language.

"Discussion, later," Alex said.

"Agreed," Daisy said.

"She's saying that Westerns are frowned upon here," Harry translated. "I need to talk to you about your Guardian Angel, the one who has been saving you all of this time."

The expression of the woman brightened up the very second Harry had brought up the Guardian Angel. Her lips curled into a very obvious smile.

"She has come from the heavens as a gift from God to bless them all," Harry said. "She has protected them from the evil men who try and take what little they have, and they don't have that much."

Harry listened to her words and there was some anger from it.

"They work for the Savage man," Harry answered.

"The Savage Man?" Daisy asked. "Okay, I'll bite, who is the Savage Man?"

Harry took a second to consider who this individual could be. He had more than a few ideas, but it remained to be seen. Regardless, despite the fact the Guardian Angel saved them, it would only be a matter of time before this dictator, this Savage Man, managed to gain enough of a foothold to push her out.

* * *

 

Selina dropped the ledger she uncovered from Thorne's down in front of her and she flipped through it. She found some interesting information, but not what she was looking for. Just what was being shipped into Gotham City, and also some business deals with the Kingpin of New York City.

' _Fitting given Thorne has the ambition to become the Kingpin of Gotham City,'_ Selina thought to herself.

She frowned and bit down on her lip when turning over the pages in the document. Selina spent her time reading every name to try and find something new. However, they were no big news flash to Selina, especially when you had a good idea of the who's who of the Gotham City criminal underworld.

A knock on the door caused Selina to bounce up. She closed the ledger and slid it behind a pillow on the couch, vowing to find a better hiding spot when she had a chance to do so. She bounced over towards the door.

She opened the door and the very lovely Alexandra Potter stood at the other side of the door. While Selina knew her true name was Faora, she had still called her Alexandra or Alex, due to that's who she intimately knew her as. Plus, that was still her alias in public.

"Honey, you look good enough to eat," Selina said.

"Well, I hope so," Faora said with a smile. "So, how is everything going?"

"I've talked to Mia a little bit ago, she's settling in with school quite nicely, getting good grades, and settling in, carving a nice little niche for herself," Selina said. "I'm not going to lie, Gotham City is about the last pace you would think about a fresh start."

"No kidding," Faora said. "Ella's doing fine at the Penthouse….well about as fine as a girl who lost her father."

Selina nodded, her goddaughter, she was a survivor, and she would do about as well as could be expected in Gotham City.

"She's very attached to that necklace her mother left her from behind…"

"Her mother…she never left Ella a necklace," Selina said with a frown.

Faora paused and frowned. "She claimed it was something her father gave her, saying that it belonged to her mother."

The gears in Selina's mind slowly ground to life. She had some theories, some clear, some not, about what that necklace could potentially be. She had no idea whether she was right or not, but she would have to ask Ella when Frank gave her the necklace.

It could be the key to unlocking what caused Frank to get killed.

* * *

 

Ilana sat as patiently as she could. Given she had been gifted with the Red Power Ring, Patience had not been one of Ilana's strong suits. She sat perfectly still in the middle of the lab. Carol joined them, and Ilana thought that was because she knew Carol the best. Her mother, Eliza, joined them as well, and Karen did as well. They had been performing a battery of tests.

Despite the fact, Ilana knew it was useless to attempt to remove the Red Power ring, and it would not be removed without consequence, she did what she could to help them out. Allowing them to help her sounded like the path of least resistance, at least in Ilana's mind.

"So, how are you feeling now?" Karen asked.

"Well, the inhibitor collar yourself and Doctor Danvers put together is somewhat keeping those thoughts at bay, but we both know it's not going to be a long term fix by any means," Ilana said.

"We know that," Eliza said. "The collar works for now until we can find a way to figure out how to get the ring from you."

"This could work, maybe," Karen said. "I'm going to have to run some more tests, simulate all of the variables, and just hope things work out for the best, but I think we have a pretty good idea."

Ilana's eyebrow rose up slightly, she felt they missed out on something in the conversation. Karen's lips curled into a smile and she leaned closer towards Ilana.

"I think a big enough shock to your nervous system will cause the ring to think you're dead, and leave your body. Then, we can revive you."

"That seems pretty risky," Eliza said.

"It is, but we're going to have to time it just right for everything to work," Karen said. "After all, if we shock her too much, it doesn't do anyone any good. And the instant the ring completely leaves her body, we're going to have to revive her."

Ilana cupped her hand underneath her chin and tilted her head back in deep, though. She thought about it and realized, yes, she needed to get that ring off of her is soon as possible.

' _Okay, maybe I'm out of bounds here, but why don't we go for the obvious?'_ Donna asked. _'And have Harry give her a shock to the system.'_

' _There are two problems with that I can see,'_ Karen responded. _'The first being, that type of shock would kill Ilana as she's bonded to the ring. So that's obviously out. The second thing is that it would kill Harry in his current state, from the backlash.'_

Karen thought without the inhibitor watch, Harry might have had a chance to reverse things for Ilana. With the watch on, he didn't have much of a shot, and removing it right now was out of the question. At least for another couple of years, and that depended on whether or not something didn't happen with Harry to set him back. His last death, he was very lucky that did not end up setting him back.

* * *

 

"So, are you surprised?" Daisy asked. "I mean, are you shocked I'm a government agent as much I was with you."

Alex took a few seconds to consider her answer before looking back at her long-time friend. "Oh, it was a shock, alright…..but we're going to have to discuss it later."

It was not a good idea, at least in Alex's mind, to discuss the fact she knew Daisy was a government agent ever since the trip out to New York to Fashion Week after she and Harry got Bea to spill the beans.

"So, you're with Harry a lot?" Daisy asked.

"Well, you know how much fun we've gotten up to," Alex said.

"Can't believe you're with a guy…but I guess Harry's the exception for a lot of people," Daisy answered.

Alex really did not know what she wanted out of life for a long time. Work, studies, and everything, not to mention general confusion, complicated her dating life.

"I'm his official liaison for the DEO, given that I'm around him a lot, Director Henshaw just decided to assign me to him. It's a full-time job, on top of all of my work at the DEO, but at the same time…"

Alex trailed off, if she was perfectly honest with herself, she would not have given up the chance to work with Harry for anything else in the world.

"You know, when you think about it, there's a lot of regulating agencies for something that the government claims doesn't exist," Daisy said. "There's the DEO, there's the EPF, there's….."

Daisy stopped short of her list when she noticed Harry coming around the corner. He looked pretty serious and both girls understood

"There are bandits on their way from the village," Harry said. "Keep yourselves sharp."

Daisy prepared herself for a fight, as did Alex. Harry stood next to them.

A group of heavily armed men stepped around the corner. They pointed their weapons at the group and one of them eyed Daisy for a long moment. He took one look at her uniform.

"SHIELD," he growled. "You better raise your hands up, you're trespassing on our boss's territory."

Their boss had already been upset about the Guardian Angel which had been sighted. The trio was not backing down from a fight. The only way they would throw their hands into the air would be to fight.

"You know, the price for Westerners in this part of the world is high," the man in the front said with a leer. "Especially for two young women perfect for breeding."

Daisy pulled a face, she had been revolted. The man reached in and she grabbed him by the arm before hurling him to the ground. Alex discharged a grenade which caused smoke to come into the air and allowed them to slip around them to divide their numbers.

Alex's watch started beeping which meant she was in close proximity with the Kryptonite infected.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on March 29** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Well, things could get violent._

_Also in Gotham City, we have something rotten going on. James Gordon corrupt, how could this be? Branden is all too happy about this because he sees Gordon as a roadblock for his goals. And Grogan doesn't know what to believe. Things are going to get rough._

_Until Wednesday._


	277. The Heat is On

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Seven: The Heat is On**

* * *

 

The beeping of Alex's watch indicated a meteor mutant was rather close in the area. The larger man appeared by all circumstances to be the culprit. His hands glowed with a bright orange light and said orange light heated up a few more seconds. His eyes shifted forward and sought to attack his target.

Quickly, in a blink of an eye, Daisy shoved her hand down onto the ground. The ground vibrated underneath their attackers and caused a miniature Earthquake to erupt underneath the mercenary with the powers. He had been taken completely off guard when the ground continuously vibrated underneath his feet and it launched him up and into the air before he smacked against a nearby building.

The leader of the crew looked on with a surprised look on his face before he recovered quickly with a very pointed scowl on his face. "So, you have your own meteor mutant."

"Not exactly," Daisy said.

Daisy threw her hand up into the air and sent another assault at the men in question. The vibrations rocked the men and sent them flying back down onto the ground. The goon dropped down hard. Another made his way behind Daisy and tried to blow her head clean off from behind.

Quickly, Alex shot him in one of the weakest points in the shoulder. The mercenary dropped to the ground, just enough for Alex to jump u and nail him with a huge roundhouse kick to the face which cracked the man on the side of the head. One mercenary dropped down from the assault from the lovely government agent.

"Thanks," Daisy said. "You've got some mad skills."

Daisy turned around and blocked a huge punch. She could tell already this one had supreme strength and she struggled to push him off of his feet. Daisy gained some necessary leverage and kicked the man's legs out from underneath him. The man flipped down and crashed onto the ground. Daisy flung herself high into the air and finished him off with a huge punch to the side of the head.

Alex blocked the stun baton and slid between the man's legs. She hurled a grenade which blasted open and unveiled a cloud of dust. Alex caught her attacker with a concentrated assault to the side of the head. Two punches strung together at once and dropped him down to the ground.

"Right back at you."

Harry disappeared into the night, which caused the mercenaries to focus on both of the women. That was to their error, as someone grabbed one of the mercenary's and yanked him into the shadow. Said mercenary turned around and aimed a punch at Harry. Harry deflected the punch and came back with a huge uppercut of his own to drop the goon right down to the ground.

He ripped a belt off of one of the goons which had several explosive devices hooked to them. Harry whipped the belt around with precision and flung the items, forcing them to scatter in all directions. The moment the dust settled, Harry popped in from behind them. He grabbed one of the goon's around the back of the head and took him down to the ground with adept force.

One of the goons pointed a rocket launcher at the back of Harry. Daisy raised a hand with the intention of knocking the weapon out of his hand. There was no need for either Harry or Daisy to react as something came in like a bolt out of the blue at the speed of light and knocked the weapon out of the goon's hand.

Another mercenary turned around to point at the blur who came across and disarmed two of his fellow associates in one fell swoop. Alex knocked him in the back of the head, also following the progress of the woman as she bounced around at a surprisingly adept speed. Alex's mouth hung open in shock and she only had one thing to say in this particular situation.

"Whoa!"

Several of the men had been taken down by the fast speed of this guardian angel. One of the mercenaries at the end fired an electrified net at the blur. The net wrapped around one of their super powered meteor mutants and fried the man dropping him to the ground.

The Guardian Angel dropped the mercenary down onto the ground with one huge punch drilled to the back of the head. Without any other word, she went up high and disappeared out of sight, leaving without a trace.

Harry shook his head, a smile cropping up over his face.

' _And to think, she left without giving me having a chance to say thank you,'_ Harry thought.

One of the mercenaries rolled over and groaned. His groans increased when he looked up to the young man who stood over him, with all of his weight planted in one foot on the man's chest. A small bit of blood trickled out when the mercenary struggled to look up.

"We're going to make a deal," Harry informed the mercenary. "The two of us are going to have a nice conversation with each other when you tell me what your boss is up to, who he is, and I let you breathe for a little bit longer. If I don't like your answers, well, I can make your last few breaths very painful."

A small surge of energy passed through the man's body.

"There's a warehouse, we're stockpiling weapons, he wants to overrun the people of this country," the man groaned, shaking his head. "I don't know why, but that's what he's doing. I swear, I've never talked to him…..I've talked to another guy, who talked to the guy, but he referred to him as Savage….and what he wants to do, yeah, it's Savage, but sure as hell does pay the bills, doesn't it?"

Harry looked less than amused by the man's tone.

"Warehouse is just outside of the village, used to make cheap car parts, but now it's holding the guns he got….well some guns he got from some guy in Metropolis," the mercenary said. The tightening in his lungs and across his heart made him confess a little bit more information. "391, that's the number, you should go there."

Harry, Daisy, and Alex all exchanged looks, intending to make that warehouse their top priority.

* * *

 

The trio of Daisy, Harry, and Alex made the trek to the warehouse. They fully expected to walk into some kind of full ambush. The fact they did not walk any kind of ambush put them at uneasy. Alex looked around for a few seconds. She kept her gun firmly in her hand. So far, nothing moved in the shadows, but they most certainly did not mean everything.

"So, I shouldn't really say it's a bit too quiet, should I?" Daisy asked.

Alex's sigh came out in a very obvious groan. "For all of our sake's, Daisy, please don't jinx us that bad. We don't need the full court assault of Murphy coming down on her heads, not tonight. Not after everything else we've been through."

Daisy responded with a very slight shrug and she understood what they needed to go up against now. She had so many questions, about Alex, Harry, and what they were dealing with. They had more inside information than she did, and Daisy thought it was fair enough because she kept her fair share of secrets.

Three guards were stationed at the front entrance. Well, at least they were until some mysterious forced knocked them out. Daisy let out a very prominent breath when she bent down to check them.

"Still alive."

The doors had been opened, not forced open, but someone unlocked them. Harry frowned and checked the guards for keycards. Whoever knocked out the guards had removed them.

"Someone is after the weapons, aren't they?" Alex asked.

"Maybe they're after the weapons," Harry said. "Or maybe they're here to destroy them, so no one else can be harmed by them."

The girls considered Harry's suggestion and agreed he did have a point.

"Either way, we should go in," Daisy said.

Harry wasn't about to argue with this point. The trio stepped into the room and looked around. They saw a figure moving around at the speed of light and dragging boxes into the center of the room. She stopped as if something caught her attention. She turned around very fast.

Blonde hair, blue eyes, she looked like she could be a dead ringer for Kara. Currently, her eyes glowed red and her fists balled up. She took a second to look at them, and calm down when she caught a glimpse of Harry. Her shoulders relaxed, although her ease around the other two members of Harry's party was only very slight.

"You," she said. "I remember you. You were the one who was in the temple….where my ship had been buried underneath…you accidentally broke the stasis lock I had been in. Only a Kryptonian could do so."

"Yes," Harry said. "My Kryptonian name is Har-Zod, but here in this world, I have taken on the alias, Harry Potter."

The guardian angel responded with a smile. "I am Commander Kathryn In-Ze, and I know of your family, they are a long line of decorated military commanders."

Harry took a moment to just nod.

' _She was on that ship for a long time, she doesn't know about the General, and how he tarnished the Zod name towards the end,'_ Faora chimed from afar.

' _Well, she seems to have been on that ship for so long…..I don't remember a Commander Katheryn In-Ze through my family history,'_ Kara thought. _'Then again, she must have left Krypton before records could be established. Many of them have been lost in time.'_

"Commander, welcome to Earth," Harry said. "These are my companions, Alex Danvers and Daisy Johnson. They are here with me on a mission to stop a savage tyrant."

"We are on the same side then," the Commander commented with a smile on her face. "Since you are here, and you are Kryptonian…perhaps you can help me with some matter."

Harry just had a feeling he was going to have to be the bearer of bad news. It was just a thought which came into the back of his mind.

"I've been trying to contact Krypton, but the technology on this planet has not been the best, or the most adequate," Kathryn continued. "I was hoping if you had any idea how to get in touch with the Council, to tell them that I had been lost…"

Harry held up a hand to stop her mid-statement.

"Commander In-Ze," Harry said. "I'm afraid I've got some bad news. You've been on that ship for a long time, thousands of years."

"The stasis field held that long?" Kathryn asked.

The woman had been both surprised that much time had passed, pleased the functions on her ship worked that well, and also petrified at what happened as well. So much time passed, she would just be an echo in history. Everything must have changed on Krypton, and she did not know what to think about the possible changes. Her throat seized up, getting very dry when she tried to put out a breath.

"Maybe…there's a way for me to contact home, isn't there?" Kathryn asked.

"No, unfortunately, Krypton perished thirteen years ago," Harry said. "The core became unstable and the planet blew up."

"NO!" Kathryn yelled.

She threw her hands into the air in anguish and Harry moved over to wrap his arms around the woman, in an attempt to comfort her. She was shaking madly, and Harry could not blame her for being upset. He further pulled her into a tight hug to give her some level of comfort.

"I always thought…there would be a home to come back to, "she managed.

"It's not all hopeless," Harry reminded her. "You've done some good on Earth, saving people."

"Yes, I couldn't stand by and let them be victimized by that tyrant," Kathryn said. "There's not enough, there's never enough. Before you showed up, I planned to destroy the weapon storage."

"Which we will do," Daisy said. "Trust me, that's a high priority for us, making sure these weapons aren't used by bad people again."

Alex looked into the crate and whistled. "Some of these weapons look out of this world…you know, some of them almost look like….."

"The weapons Bruno Mannheim uses out in Metropolis?" Harry asked. Alex responded with a nod. "He's passing out those weapons, well scaled down, low-tech versions of them, to Maroni's boys. And someone has copied some of the higher end shipments….or Mannheim's supplier is selling to the man behind this."

"They're more advanced than anything I've ever seen," Kathryn said.

It just hammered home how a lot had changed since she had left home. Kathryn slid out an explosive device and dropped it down onto the ground. All she needed to do was destroy those weapons, and they would all be in business, at least she hoped so.

* * *

 

A mercenary limped into a safe house. He collapsed down on one knee on the ground. His breathing continued to get harder, and sharper. It was very difficult for him to hold his head up and look forward. He looked in, realizing nothing could be said to hide the fact he had failed and not only had failed, but he had failed big time. He tried to push out some huge breath from his lungs.

"What happened to you?"

The harsh voice came from the shadows. The mercenary struggled to hold his head further up to look his employer directly in the eye. It was hard to keep his neck up straight. A strong hand from the shadows grabbed his chin and forced the man to look up.

"You don't look so good?"

"It was her…it was the Guardian Angel…and…it was SHIELD as well…they're here, but that's not the worst part of it all…..I swear to…that's not the worst part of it all….."

The mercenary closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The man in the shadows loosened the grip around his chin ever so slightly. It would not be right to break the man's jaw, at least not yet.

"Take each breath as if it were you last," he responded. "And tell me everything."

Scared to death did not really give the mercenary an accurate description of what he was feeling.

"Please, you have to understand, I didn't….he forced it out of me, I had no choice," the mercenary said. He sounded like a scared, simpering child than a hardened military veteran now. "I pointed him towards the weapons you acquired…the warehouse…the one's that HIVE replicated from the shipment they intercepted in Metropolis."

"Those weapons?" the man in the shadows asked calmly.

"Yes, those weapons," the man said, responding with a shiver. "The Dragon, it was the Dragon, we had no choice. You know how he is….he has his ability to get whatever information he wants and….he ripped it from my head. I had no chance, I had no choice, it was awful."

The man looked to be on the verge of collapsing in agony. The man's face became more visible from the shadows, looking very brutish in the process. He wore a suit, with long dark hair and a beard. His eyes glistened in the shadows looking down at the mercenary.

"Mr. Savage, please forgive me."

Vandal Savage only responded to these simpering words by tightening his grip on the man's neck and snapping it without any further communication. The man dropped to the ground, not having a chance.

Savage stepped over the man and moved over to the radio on the desk. He pushed a button and pressed in a code.

"I wish to speak to Mr. Darhk," Savage responded.

"Just one moment, I'll find him immediately."

Savage tapped his fingers on the desk and waited. Being an immortal cavemen taught him plenty of virtues, patience being among the top.

"Yes, Mr. Savage, what can I do for you?" a crisp and silky voice said over the communication.

"I want to know about the progress of the operation at Lian Yu," Savage responded.

"Mr. Wilson has not acquired what he has been sent for yet," Darhk responded. "I know you want it, but these things take time. Which you and I both have had plenty of, given our longevity."

"To me, you're only but a child, Mr. Darhk," Savage said. "And I thought you might have greater ambition to succeed….my partnership with HIVE has been a rather successful endeavor, even though there have been some setbacks. And there have been one on your end, hasn't there? The botched operation in Gotham City."

"That was the arrogance of Jason Woodrue," Darhk argued. "I can assure you, nothing along these lines will ever happen again. You can take that to the bank."

"I certainly hope so," Savage said. "I hoped I could offer you a seat on my Cabal as I change the world, but so far, you have not proven yourself, just yet."

"I've deceived the great Ra's al Ghul," Darhk argued.

"Yes, only because he has been distracted by other matters," Savage said. "But, I'm willing to keep an open mind and change mine, but for only a limited amount of time. Keep up your efforts on Lian Yu and keep me appraise. I'm currently dealing with some pressing matters."

It was important Savage cleared out the village, because of the rare mineral it gave him a path towards. He meant some unfortunate resistance at the hands of stubborn and persistent villages who did not want to give up their homes.

* * *

 

Grogan peered over the reports on his desk, signed by James Gordon. They detailed the investigation of the Frank Bertinelli death, and they had been signed by Gordon. The death had been ruled an accidental drowning, despite the fact Grogan never once gave the world to close up that particular investigation just that. He had other, very recent reports, mundane investigations which Gordon oversaw. A shipment of drugs which was coming in a pipeline in and out of Gotham City flashed in front of his face. Gordon's signature was all over them.

The handwriting experts would have to get back to him soon enough, so Grogan was going off of mere speculate that Gordon had something to do with this. His gut told him the evidence was damning, and what Branden and Nashton told him, there was too much to point the finger to Gordon, but only just barely enough to detain him.

The door opened up and Harvey Dent walked inside. He looked over the desk towards Grogan.

"You wanted to see me, Commissioner?" Dent asked.

"Take a look at this, DA," Grogan said.

The pieces of evidence implicating James Gordon slid across the table and he been placed underneath the nose.

"So, you think James Gordon has gone rogue?" Dent asked. "This looks like a lot of hearsay, nothing that's hard….."

"Dent, I know you are close with Gordon, and I want to think the best of him too," Grogan said. "But, there's a very clear difference between hearsay and hard evidence. It would take a master manipulator to fake all of this hard evidence towards Gordon. Pictures, audio tapes, handwriting samples...I need your support for this Dent because I can't nail him without your help."

"You want me to help you, put James Gordon away for corruption?" Dent asked.

"Dent, I don't want to lose a good cop," Grogan said. "But if James Gordon is in the leagues with vigilantes, the mop, and guilty of covering up an important investigation, then he needs to be put away."

Dent clutched the silver dollar in his hand and flipped it, not to make any decision, but to calm his nerves, which had gone off the rails.

"I'll do it, but there may be an explanation for this," Dent said. "I want to prove that James Gordon didn't do this, but if he did…..I'll treat him like everyone else."

He knew the accusations about Gordon working with vigilantes was true, but there was no malicious intent. Dent would cross the bridge with how it affected him due to working closely with Nightwing and Batman.

"His signature is pretty spot on the documents."

Dent could not argue with that. Every single person had a dark side, and Harvey included himself in that. He had darkness which would not fade from his mind, which had been getting worse as the stress of being District Attorney continued. Perhaps James Gordon was not the shining night everyone thought he was.

' _Look at Rachel,'_ Dent thought. _'The world things Loeb did that, but I know the truth….that's going to end up coming back to bite us in the end…but….'_

Dent sighed in response. Going down that particular rabbit hole drove him into fits. Rachel always was still a sore spot for him. And what he had to do after her death, Dent regretted it. It ate away inside of him. He entered a no-win situation here.

' _If Rachel could be driven down that road, what about Gordon?'_ Dent asked. _'Anyone could be driven mad by one bad day…it's just like that clown said….some people think he's a scorned former cop, I wouldn't be surprised.'_

"We're doing this by the book," Harvey answered. "We're going to give Gordon a chance to come quietly….to investigate him, and hear out his statements and his explanations."

"I owe him that much for all he's done," Grogan agreed. "Branden wants to drag him out of bed and haul him in, but I've put the stop on that."

Dent's blood ran cold. He wanted no part of whatever Branden might do in his very heavy handed tactics. That would have just made a pretty bad situation very worse, and it would be uncomfortable to say the very least.

* * *

 

Both Daisy and Alex ended up inside a motel room which was a bit outside of the village. It was one of the nicer areas, and mostly clean, far cleaner when Harry went through the room with a few cleaning spells. Daisy looked around and whistled at the room.

"He didn't do such a bad job at making this place halfway presentable, did he?" Daisy asked her. "Look, Alex, I'm...I guess two wrongs don't make a right do they?"

"You couldn't tell me what you were up to and I obviously had been forbidden to tell anyone what I was up to," Alex said. A flicker of a smile flashed across her face. "You know, that entire top secret government agent thing, it can be a bit of a bitch."

"Yeah, I know," Daisy said.

She was glad things had been more out in the opening, even though the chewing out from Waller was going to come. It would not be the first time Daisy had been chewed out by a superior, and it would not be the last time either.

"Oh, I figure it's only fair to give you the heads up," Daisy responded. "I'm going to tell you right now, Harry will be meeting with my boss sooner rather than later."

"Oh, I know," Alex said.

' _I wonder if they've figured out how Harry's subverted Bea yet,'_ Alex thought, very amused in her thoughts.

"So, are we cool?" Daisy asked.

"Yeah, we're cool."

The two girls met in the center of the bed, kissing and making up in the best possible way. At least until the sound of handcuffs around the bedpost brought Daisy out of it.

Outside of the door, Kathryn and Harry were walking around.

"I have to go," Kathryn said. "There's still a lot to be done, and I still need to protect these people….they're going to need someone to look over them, and I'm going to need something to do…since my homeworld is…"

"It changed a lot, you wouldn't have recognized it," Harry said.

"I know," Kathryn said. "Thanks for everything….and really….thank you."

A powerful impulse caused the Commander to lean forward and wrap her arms around Harry's neck. She kissed him hungrily, her tongue working its way into Harry's mouth. Harry clutched the back of her head to further guide his tongue into her mouth.

"So, is that an appropriate way to say goodbye a person?" Kat asked him.

"It can be if they really like the person," Harry said.

"Good, I really like you," she whispered.

One more stolen kiss before they parted ways. Harry watched her fly off. He turned around and made his way to the room. He had the sight of Daisy stripped out of her clothes and handcuffed to the bed, with Alex teasing her. She dressed in nothing other than a slinky black bra and a pair of panties.

"Sorry, Harry, I'm just punishing Daisy for being a bad little girl," Alex said.

"Seems like you're a bad little girl for starting without me," Harry said.

Harry removed his clothes quickly, and both of the girls anticipated whatever punishment was about to come.

In a second, his throbbing cock had been out for both of the girls to look at and stare at the marvel. Twelve inches of cock and Alex made her way to his cock. Harry stopped her short and gave her a very passionate kiss, before going down and cupping her ass.

Alex pulled away from Harry and kissed down his body. She worshiped his body with kisses all the way down to his cock and slowly took it into her mouth. The first few inches popped between her lips with practiced ease and Alex worked some more of his thick meaty pole down her throat.

Daisy tried to hold herself together in the handcuffs. She watched Alex on her knees, worshipping Harry's mighty rod like it was her job. She imagined herself in Alex's place and grew increasingly frustrated.

Harry pushed his cock deep into Alex's mouth. He held onto the back of her head and mentally started counting back from sixty, pointing out every time Alex took him deep into her mouth and sucked on it. Her soft fingers reached down and caressed his throbbing balls.

"That feels good," Harry told Alex. "Keep sucking, we should give Daisy a turn though afterward."

The beautiful agent of the DEO nodded and kept blowing Harry for everything he was worth. She got his cock ready to be rammed down Daisy's throat. She sucked him a few more times before Harry pulled her off.

Alex flipped over and dropped. She gripped Daisy's pussy to get her attention and slowly slid a finger into her cunt.

"You like that, don't you?" Alex asked. "You like having my finger inside you…almost as much as you like having Harry's cock shoved down your whore throat?"

"YES!" Daisy screamed.

Harry stood up next to her on the bed. Daisy's juicy lips prepared to receive Harry's engorged pole. He worked his manhood deep between those juicy lips and slid himself deep inside of her mouth. Daisy took more of his huge cock into her mouth.

The warmth of Daisy's mouth surrounding Harry's cock was a sight to see. Harry looked down into her beautiful face and a look of pure bliss danced through her eyes as Harry pushed his cock deeper inside of her mouth. Daisy hummed around his cock with Harry picking up a steadier pace. He pushed his engorged prick inside of Daisy's waiting throat. He almost pulled all the way out of her and shoved his rod back inside of her waiting throat.

"Oh, I want to feel your throat vibrate….that's it!" Harry groaned.

A pleasure few men could sustain happened when Daisy caused vibrations to come down Harry's cock through her throat. Harry's fingers gripped the back of Daisy's head and pushed his manhood deep inside of her mouth. His throbbing length took a plunge deeper into her throat.

"She's really getting into sucking your cock," Alex said. "Because, she's nothing, but a dirty little slut who likes a big strong cock down her throat. I bet you can make her your pet Harry….she is pretty obedient, isn't she?"

"Well, you would know the type, wouldn't you?" Harry asked.

He held his hands on Daisy's head and face-fucked the biracial agent in her throat. Daisy pushed her lips deeper down Harry's massive rod and her throat clenched him. Harry pulled almost all the way out of Daisy's mouth and shoved his huge cock down into her throat.

"Mmm!" Daisy mewled.

"You're going to get a nice big load down your throat," Alex said. "Harry's going to pump so much cum down your throat….oooh, you want another finger? I wonder what happen if I pull this finger out? I wonder if you would cry."

Daisy begged for something, anything to happen other than Alex moving her talented fingers. Her body erupted into pleasure when she continued to pleasure Harry's rod. She really wished she had access to her hands to cup those plump, swollen balls.

Harry slammed into her throat and released a heavy amount of cum. He pushed his cock deep into her throat and filled her mouth. Daisy managed to swallow most of Harry's cum when it spilled down her throat. Some of the cum dribbled out of her mouth and onto her chin.

Pulling away, Harry moved back to allow Alex to gain a look at Daisy.

"Sloppy girl," Alex said. "Guess, I'm going to have to clean up after you."

Alex put her hands on Daisy's face and pushed her tongue deep into the mouth of the woman in question. She pulled her tongue and licked the excessive cum which dribbled off of Daisy's chin.

She turned around and crawled over towards Harry's cock which stood erect. Alex stripped naked out of her clothes and climbed on top of Harry.

"Watch closely," Alex said. "This is the fun you have when you play for Team Har-Zod."

Alex winked and turned around. Harry put his hands on Alex's lower back and guided her down onto his throbbing hard prick. It was harder than iron when slipping between Alex's moist thighs. She clamped down onto him and pulled completely up, before pushing back down onto him again.

"Oh, yes," Alex mewled when rising up and dropping herself down onto Harry's rock-hard cock. "That's the stuff, right there!"

Daisy watched the action unfold, with Alex impaling herself down upon Harry's hard and thick rod. She pushed her thighs down around Harry's pole and squeezed him tight. Harry reached up and grabbed Alex before pushing her down onto his rod.

"Yes," Alex breathed.

Alex bounced higher and higher, making more of a show for Daisy to sexually frustrate her. Harry's hands touched every part of her body they could reach. Her nipples had been teased and toyed with. Harry squeezed them and caused fluids to spill down him.

"You're going to cum for me," Harry said.

No question about it, the middle Danvers sister was going to cum and cum hard. Harry touched her fit body and felt good about her pussy clamping down on him. She had a nice tight body and the snugness of her pussy felt really good wrapped around his thick hard pole. Harry pushed deep inside of Alex's body and spread her thighs out. She moaned deeply and reached down to bite down on Harry's shoulder before throwing her head back.

"Yes, oh great Har-Zod, thank you for making me cum!" she screamed at the top of her lungs.

Daisy tried not to comment about how melodramatic Alex sounded right now. She tried to use her powers to self-pleasure herself, like some kind of internal vibrator, but something was not working as planned. The only one who could please her now was Harry and his immensely oversized cock.

"Fuck her unconscious!" Daisy screamed.

"Oooh, someone's being impatient!" Alex sang.

Alex pushed her thighs deeper around Harry's immense rod. She rose up as far as possible and drove her pussy down onto Harry's large prick. She pushed herself deeper down onto him. Harry reached behind Alex and planted her down pussy first down onto his cock.

"Cum for me again, really cum."

Harry felt the tightening of Alex's body and knew her latest orgasm was at hand. He rode out her next orgasm, pushing his hard cock inside of her body. He stretched her pussy out with his throbbing hard cock. She clamped down on Harry's hard cock and it tightened a vice around him.

"Fuck me," Alex begged him.

"What do you think we've been doing?"

Everywhere, Harry's hands traveled everywhere and really turned up the heat. Constant orgasms flooded Alex's body. Each one built upon the intensity of the last one. Harry pushed his throbbing hard cock inside of her body and stretched out her pussy.

Eventually, Harry's balls reached full mass and they shot his load deep inside of Alex's pussy. She clenched him and milked every last drop of cum she could manage to get from those big balls underneath him.

"It's so good," Alex mewled in excitement.

"Yes, I'm glad you feel so good," Harry responded to her.

Alex pulled away from him and she moved over to unhook Daisy from the handcuffs.

"Oh, thank God," Daisy said.

"Don't thank him just yet," Alex said. "Roll over, hands and knees, and put that tight ass up in the air."

Daisy did not know what made her comply. Instantly, Alex slipped her tongue into Daisy's presented asshole and licked it, getting it very nice and very lubricated for Harry's eventual intrusion.

Several licks passed, and Alex pulled back from Daisy, to leave her prepared. She looked over, a soft smile spreading over her face. Harry's cock already had been prepared for intrusion.

"Take her ass, it belongs to you know," Alex said. "I might make her get a tattoo and everything, property of Har-Zod!"

Harry pushed his cock inside of Daisy's tight ass. She screamed when his huge cock pushed into her ass.

"That feels good, doesn't it?" Harry asked. "It feels good to have a cock of a real man pushed into her ass. You could say this ass was made for fucking, wasn't it?"

"Oh, yes!" Daisy screamed at the top of her lungs.

She dug her fingernails into the bed when Harry pushed his cock deep inside of her body. His balls slapped against her asshole when he shoved himself into her from behind. Her tight ass spread around Harry's aching cock when he pushed all the way into her.

"Damn, this ass is made to fuck," Harry said.

"Yes, it is."

Alex slipped into a strap-on and shoved it into Daisy's overheated pussy. Both Harry and Alex double stuffed their companion.

"Both of your holes were meant to be filled with one thing, weren't they, Daisy?" Alex asked. "You like that, don't you? You like being our toy, to play with, to break, and then to put back together again."

Harry drilled himself into Daisy's tight ass very hard. He had to pound her ass for everything it was worth. His balls kept slapping against Daisy when he plowed her from behind.

"I've never come so hard," Daisy said.

"I know, feeling your pussy tighten around me, it makes me pretty hot too," Alex said. "And I can't wait for you to cum again, and again until you're in nothing but a puddle of drool and cum. But, it's a good look on you Daisy….a damn good look."

She punctuated these last words by slamming into Daisy's tight pussy. She gripped Alex and made it feel really hard.

Both Alex and Harry went to town on Daisy's holes and made her feel really good. The vibrations coming through her body rocked both the bed, the ground underneath it, and a nearby village.

"Just wait until I cum in your ass, and when Alex eats my cum out of it," Harry said.

Daisy clenched Alex at the thought of Harry spilling his thick seed into her ass. She didn't want anything better than that. Harry went to town on her, plunging his thick cock inside of her.

Eventually, something had to give, and Daisy's tight ass squeezed him, wanting the bounty Harry had been storing. Harry pushed his rod deep inside of Daisy's tight ass and fired cum deep inside of her ass, spilling his way inside of her.

He rode out the orgasm in her ass, the sweet sounds of release. Harry finished emptying his balls, and no sooner did he pull out, Alex made her way in to clean up the mess and cause the cycle of debauchery all over again.

* * *

 

A pair of blue eyes watched from out the window. She would have to do a more in-depth study of Earth mating practices for making her move.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 2** **nd** **, 2017.**

_Fun little threesome concludes this chapter and needles to say, the Commander gets a little bit of an eyeful._

_More drama in Gotham, as Dent wonders if it's possible James Gordon could be corrupt. After what happened to Rachel, you can hardly blame Dent for thinking so._

_Vandal Savage and Damien Darhk is not necessarily a match made in heaven._

_Until Sunday._


	278. No Matter How Bright the Light

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy-Eight: No Matter How Bright the Light**

* * *

Barbara settled down for a nice morning with her father. James Gordon, in particular, enjoyed a rare morning at home, even though, that could change. There have been times where in his life, morning and day merged together very quickly, more quickly than he could have even thought. He took a second to sigh and enjoy the breakfast which had been cooked. It was a rarity he could enjoy anything for breakfast if he was going to be perfectly honest.

"So, how have things been since your promotion?" Barbara asked. "I thought it was long overdue."

James tried to look modest, even though he agreed. He never thought it would happen at least not this soon. It was kind of bitter that certain events lead to him getting promoted.

"Well, it shows that hard work and determination just ends up paying off in the end," James said. "The entire Gotham City Police Department….well it hasn't been good. Loeb, like him or not, he did run a pretty tight operation and now that he's gone, a lot of us are looking over their shoulders."

Gordon took a moment to take a breath. Taking a breath was not enough to calm his nerves, which always had been of iron will most of the time. These days, though, Gordon needed a little extra pick up and he did, taking a cup of coffee and drinking it up. His normal go to would be a cigarette, and Gordon had been making an attempt to cut back on them as much as possible.

The success he had doing so could be heavily debated on.

"Everyone's just pretty jumpy these days," Gordon admitted. "Trust comes very hard at the GCPD. It takes a while to earn it, and Grogan's always banging on about us being a family, and I guess, in some cases it's true. But, it's just hard to keep everything together. We have to worry about what's happening in Gotham City. Gang wars are popping up with more regularity, and….well Falcone and Thorne are dangerous men, but they're….."

"More predictable than Black Mask and the Penguin?" Barbara offered.

Gordon took a second to nod in response. His daughter, bright and sharp as she was, always had a tendency to hit the nail right on the head at times like this. He took in a drink of his coffee and smiled, craning his neck back a slight amount. His eyes snapped back towards Barbara at her position on the table.

"Yes, more predictable, that's a good word for them," Gordon admitted calmly. "Rather, they respect the GCPD, if that makes any sense. And I guess it doesn't in some ways, but in other ways it does."

"Then there's what happened with O'Hara," Barbara said.

Barbara brought up that elephant in the room both father and daughter spent a long amount of time dancing around. Gordon frowned.

"Tragic and senseless, the man spent over thirty years doing his job, doing the right thing, and he gets killed," Gordon said. "We're all split down the middle. Half of them thinks there's a new cop killer. The other half thinks it's an isolated act of vengeance. Regardless, there's something rotten going on."

A rough knock on the door brought them out of their conversation. James rose up instantly, wondering who could be calling on him this early. He opened the door and saw a very uncomfortable looking Harvey Bullock standing on the other side of the door. The man's hands clamped together when he took a deep breath.

"Jim, there's…there's really no delicate way to say this," Bullock said. "There's a warrant out for your arrest….a conspiracy to cover up the death of Frank Bertinelli, and they say you're working with Thorne. And also, Grogan's hot because someone's got in his ear and is telling him you're working with Batman. And he wants you brought in….I volunteered to do it…better me than some trigger happy asshole like Branden."

Everything Bullock said caused Gordon's blood to drop cold. He could not believe what he was hearing.

"Harvey, this…..this is….."

Gordon could not find the words. Bullock gave him a sympathetic shrug. He thought about trying to give Gordon a reassuring smile. There was nothing reassuring about this, however.

"Yeah, but Grogan signed the arrest warrant and wants you brought in for questioning," Bullock said. "I don't know what else to do, none of us do…..none of us have seen the evidence, but Branden is bragging about how it looks pretty damning and how you screwed up."

To be honest, Branden was so smug, they wanted to punch the weasel right about now.

"This isn't some kind of April Fool's joke, is it?" Gordon asked.

"Yeah, you getting that warrant today of all days, the timing is off," Bullock said. "But, I'm as serious as a heart attack….and…..damn."

Bullock saw Barbara was there eating breakfast with her father and he felt bad about what he had to do. No daughter deserved to see her father taken away, no matter what the charges. And Bullock and several of the people in the department thought they were bullshit charges, to begin with.

"I'll go with you, to smooth this over," Gordon said.

"Good man," Bullock said. He turned to Barbara. "I'm really sorry about this."

Bullock sounded very sincere. It was the most sincere and serious Barbara Gordon ever saw Harvey Bullock.

The two men walked out the door. Barbara allowed the fork to slide down to the table. Numb shock did not even begin to describe everything which was going on. She knew he worked with Batman, but all of the other charges, they were BS, pure and simple.

"Dad, this is absurd!" Barbara managed.

"I'm going to have to go sort this out," Gordon said. "Just…take care of yourself, and everything is going to be fine, trust me."

Both Gordons wondered if James was trying to reassure Barbara everything was going to be fine, or if the reassurance came from himself, but regardless of that face, James Gordon took the long walk outside. He had been flanked by several members by Bullock and Montoya was waiting.

The SWAT also waited in an alleyway, and Bullock turned towards them.

"He's coming quietly, you can back off!" Bullock yelled. "You weren't supposed to be here."

"Branden's orders, sir, just in case he didn't," one of the SWAT officers said.

Bullock gnashed his teeth, he had it up to hear with those assholes in the Gotham City SWAT. Regardless, he had to haul in a good man for questioning, and he was not in the best moods. No one saw the evidence, and Bullock was not sure if he would believe it anyway. He saw a few people get railroaded due to faulty evidence which seemed pretty airtight.

* * *

The hunt for any clues on the death of Chief O'Hara continued, and Batman dropped down to the ground. He had a solid lead, or so he thought on the death. However, as with many leads, everything had come up a dead end.

"Someone following in the footsteps of the Gotham City Cop Killer?" Alfred asked over the support network. "Why would anyone want to cause the havoc that madman did?"

Batman adjusted the earpiece in his cowl. The shop of the only man who had sold the type of gun used to kill O'Hara in Gotham City had been closed down for renovations. Of course, there was always a chance the murderer bought his weapon of choice from outside of Gotham City.

"I don't know, Alfred, he's struck only once," Batman said. "Or she….I don't know….it could have been very well personal against O'Hara, and not at the GCPD in general."

"Yes, sir, I can see your point," Alfred said. A long pause followed and a very audible gasp on the part of Alfred came over the radio network. "Oh, my word."

"What is it, Alfred?" Batman asked.

"It's James Gordon, sir," Alfred said.

Batman's blood ran very cold as mortal dread set in.

"Another victim?" Batman asked.

"No, not exactly," Alfred said. "He's been arrested on charges of corruption, helping facilitate a cover-up regarding the death of Frank Bertinelli, and also working with a known vigilante. That would be you, sir."

Time almost froze for Batman.

"They think Gordon's corrupt?" Batman asked. "He would have never covered up Bertinelli's death….."

"Grogan is holding a press conference now, surely he wouldn't jump the gun unless he had some hard evidence?" Alfred asked. "Maybe you should get in touch with Oracle, see if they have any information, sir?"

Despite his entire worldview being thrown into disarray at the moment, Batman agreed with Alfred that contacting Oracle was the best course of action right now. He pushed a button in the earpiece, and there was a long pause before the mysterious Oracle answered.

"Hello?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"You may have heard about the arrest of James Gordon this morning," Batman said.

A long enough pause followed which made Batman certain the connection had been lost.

"Yeah, I've heard."

Something about Oracle's voice, even in the modulated state, seemed a little bit off. Batman decided not to press on that matter, at least not yet. Not until he received some pretty crystal clear information regarding what he wanted from Oracle.

"I wondered if you had more information?" Batman asked.

"You're in luck because I've been doing some digging since it came in over the news," Oracle said. "There are documents which rule the Bertinelli death as a suicide by drowning. Doesn't explain all of the other injuries….anyone who would put their name all over those forms…..it's potential suicide. Yet, James Gordon's name is all over them, and Grogan claims the handwriting experts matched them…but it has to be a forgery."

Batman would have to agree. The fact that apparently, independent handwriting experts said that Gordon's handwriting on other forms matched the handwriting on the other forms. Oracle sent him the information from the reports, and Batman took them all in. He frowned when trying to find a way to explain things in a matter that one of Gotham's most honest cops was not completely honest.

"The evidence is pretty damning," Batman said. "The only thing going for James Gordon is his past record."

"You know only one part of that charge is true, and it was the part which caused Grogan to pounce on arresting James Gordon," Oracle said. "The fact you two are working together."

"We've always exercised careful discretion with our meetings," Batman said. "There's a chance whoever did this managed to create a false image of the two us meeting together…until I see the actual image, I don't know."

There was a slight possibility they slipped up, and Batman grimaced about the fact it only took once for someone to slip up and cause problems.

"It's time to pay the one man who might have answers for this a visit," Batman said. "Rupert Thorne."

Batman saw Rupert Thorne as the key. He would have had the resources to fake this, to get the police and maybe even the mob, off of his back from killing Frank Bertinelli. Batman would have to slip inside. Thorne might be on his guard after Penguin took control of several of his operations. Batman knew all about causing even the strongest of men to drop their guards, though.

* * *

Everything looked very dire for James Gordon. He had been taken in for the Gotham City Police Department for investigation. Peter Grogan looked across the table at him, like a very disappointed looking uncle. Gordon clutched his fist and took a deep breath.

"Look, Jim, I don't want to believe the worst of you," Grogan said. "But, we have to face facts. Looking the other way is what got people killed. Had we been more diligent with Loeb, we might have saved some lives."

This particular thought had been thrown back into the face of the cop. Gordon looked across Grogan at the table, his fist clutching together and his breath deepening.

"I didn't do it," Gordon repeated in a clear voice.

"I'm going to show you these documents," Grogan said. "I want you to look at them very carefully."

Several documents had been put on the table. The fact someone would think Gordon would sign these particular documents caused his blood pressure to very nearly skyrocket to a new level. He took in a deep breath when staring at the documents in front of them.

"These are the documents you signed…"

"I've never seen these documents in my life, and no self-respecting cop would sign them," Gordon responded.

"But, that's your signature on the paper, isn't it?"

James Gordon flashed his eyes downwards towards the signature. His name, it had been a perfect match to his signature. Someone spent a lot of time creating this forgery. Now Gordon wondered, perhaps in some small part, if he signed this, but he had not been willing.

There had been numerous explanations as to have, someone could have drugged him, but Gordon did not remember being drugged. There were such a thing as brain lapses, but convincing Grogan he had potentially signed these papers, if he did, under duress was very hard to do.

' _There has to be a logical explanation for this,'_ Gordon thought to himself.

"It looks just like your signature, doesn't it, James?" Grogan asked. Gordon looked towards Grogan for a moment, the words caught in his throat. "Answer the question, yes or no, that looks like your signature, doesn't it, James?"

"Yes, it does but…"

Gordon swallowed. Grogan reached over to take a cup of coffee from the table and drink it.

"I want to believe you didn't do this," Grogan said. "The GCPD is like family, we have to work together, and trust each other. Family doesn't stab each other in the back, do they? You wouldn't stab your family in the back, James?"

Gordon had no counter for this. Everything had just come crashing down around his head.

"Was it worth it Thorne paid you to sell out your principles, and everything you believed in?" Grogan asked.

"Have you talked to Rupert Thorne?" Gordon asked.

Grogan failed to answer this question because quite frankly, there was no clear answer to this question. Thorne's lawyers worked hard and heavy to stonewall any attempts to talk to him these days. He made himself rather hard to reach as well and was not in any of his usual haunts.

Harvey Dent looked on, all of the evidence pointed towards guilty. Perhaps Gordon was, but Dent needed to be sure beyond a reasonable doubt. And if there was any doubt, there was only one person who could logically find the information they needed, for better or for worse. Dent was not happy, not at all, with having to deal with this.

He pulled out his phone and made a single text message. He waited for a response, which did not take long.

* * *

"The bad news from the Gotham City Police Department keeps rolling in, as only months after the disgrace of Gillian Loeb, and his arrest, James Gordon has been arrested on charges of conspiracy to cover up the murder of respected Gotham City Citizen, Frank Bertinelli, and also collaboration with a known vigilante as Batman. Earlier today, Commissioner Grogan conducted a press conference today."

Ella watched the television, her eyes widened when she looked at the image of this James Gordon on the television screen. The news of her father coming back into her life caused her blood to boil, and things were getting very tense in her mind.

Amanda and Emily stood in the background, watching the news. This was not what they wanted to start their morning, a good family friend.

' _Barbara's….yeah, she's in the Clocktower, hard at work,'_ Gwen verified. _'She called in sick from GCU even today…which given the circumstances, you couldn't blame her.'_

' _Yeah, some of those assholes would harass her about her father, and…she wants to find out what she can do to save him,'_ Amanda thought. _'The evidence doesn't look good, in his favor, does it?'_

' _No, sadly, it doesn't,'_ Gwen responded.

"So, he was the one who did it," Ella said. "My father's murderer goes unpunished, and he's allowed them to walk the street…why, so he could get a payoff? Just like a cop in Gotham City to be rotten to the core."

Rebecca stood up almost knocking over the table from her rapid-fire rising off of it.

"Hey, come on now!" Rebecca yelled. "James Gordon is a good man…this has to be a frame up, someone would never….."

Ella responded with a snort and looked Rebecca dead center in the eye. "Yeah, there's no such thing as a good cop….."

"Gordon is one, and now they're accusing him of corruption, because of a bunch of evidence Grogan really isn't showing to the public," Rebecca said. "And it's not just because of your father….it's because he's actually doing some good, and working with the vigilantes in Gotham City, and not against them."

"Okay, fine, he has some good points, maybe," Ella argued. "But, you know….guy like that, he could be just good at hiding. There are a lot of respectable people out there, who you wouldn't expect to be doing the things is. Why couldn't Gordon be the same?"

Rebecca flinched at Ella's words. She had a point, and Rebecca hated herself. Her fists clutched to the side.

"He helped….he was there to investigate when my parents died," Rebecca said.

"Yeah, well their killer isn't brought to justice, so if you ask me, I think Gordon is….."

"Give it a rest both of you!" Lois snapped. "Neither of you has any idea what happened, so could you just knock it off? Whatever happens, whether Gordon's guilty or not, that's not up for us to decide."

Lois personally thought something was rotten about this. Gordon was getting closer to moving up the ranks in the GCPD, and some thought he was a potential candidate for Grogan's job. All of the sudden, Grogan spearheaded an investigation about him, something smelled very fishy about that.

Ella rose up and no sooner did she did, Selina made her way into the penthouse after one of the twins had let her in.

"So, you've heard the news, haven't you?" Selina asked.

"Oh, yeah, I heard it, and I heard how Gordon….."

"Yeah, I'm not too sure about that," Selina said. "The evidence seems pretty perfect, airtight, would nail Gordon, and he doesn't have a legal leg to stand on. But, you know, maybe there's something that's too perfect, someone set him up."

Ella crossed her arms. In her rage, she understood Selina to have a point. She did not have to like it, but the point was there.

"Save your judgment on James Gordon," Selina said. "Save it for the person who really matters, the one who did this, the one who killed your father."

"You seem to know who did it," Ella said. "Who did it?"

"I don't know for sure, and I don't think I should tell you," Selina said. "And I know, you're your mother's daughter. If you know anything about this person, you're going to hunt them down and make them pay. So, I'm keeping my mouth shut and reminding you to stay put. Go to school, and come straight back from the Penthouse."

Ella looked at Selina for a second, and the sternness in her godmother's voice showed Helena Bertinelli she meant business.

* * *

"Coming to theaters, this Memorial Day weekend, it's a return of an old classic. The Grey Ghost Movie, starring Hollywood heartthrob Matt Hagen in the role popularized by Simon Trent in the 1960s television series. Remade for the generation of the nineties, a sexier, more extreme adaptable of the classic Grey Ghost. Here's a special preview of the film as it comes out in theaters this Memorial Day weekend."

Rupert Thorne half watched the commercial and half bent over a piece of paper. He had the battle lines in Gotham City redrawn after the recent movements of Penguin and Black Mask. They had caused a lot of chaos when they swiped up territory, and several of the smaller crime factions tried to tighten their hold as well, causing some backlash as well.

' _I'm going to need another meeting with the Commission,'_ Thorne thought to himself.

Everything on that piece of paper flashed out in front of Thorne's face, almost taunting him for the moment. Thorne hoped to resolve this issue and to get everything in order. When his own house was not in order, there were problems.

The news about James Gordon's arrest was interesting, very interesting, given Thorne could not recall having many conversations with the man. He knew the man was honest beyond reproach. They came across each other only during Gotham High Society functions.

Thorne got a call for his lawyer, advising him to lie low, but Thorne did not need the advice. He knew now more than even it was time to step back and plan for the next move. Penguin sat pretty in one of his main office buildings. Now, Thorne was going to get it back no question about it.

The sound from the hallway forced Thorne from his seat. He rushed into the hallway and stopped short, driven completely breathless. The night time security guard had been rendered unconscious with one attack.

Things happened a certain way in Gotham City and Thorne turned around. He came face to face with Batman who stood in his living room. After the run-in with Catwoman a while back, Thorne had been on his guard and quick-armed a gun.

Just as quick as he armed himself, Batman disarmed him with a well-placed shot. He grabbed Thorne around the arm and threw him onto the coffee table using Thorne's own weight against in. The wind had been driven out of the large mobster when he slammed against the table.

"What the hell is the meaning of this?" Thorne demanded.

"James Gordon!" The Dark Knight growled. "How did you frame him?"

Thorne struggled underneath Batman as the vigilante pressed him against the table. A small amount of blood trickled underneath his lip. Despite this small handicap, Thorne managed to stand his ground.

"I'm flattered, but I didn't do anything to Gordon," Thorne said. "As you may have heard I have more pressing issues at the moment."

Batman leaned in and Thorne realized Batman put pressure on his arm. One wrong move and snap, his arm could have been broken. Thorne struggled against the hard grip of the Dark Knight, feeling the push on his arm. One wrong move, on Thorne's arm, and it could have been broken.

"It's Mandragora!" Thorne managed. "Steven Mandragora, his men were the ones that were last seen with Gordon. His people were the ones who pulled the trigger…they might be framing Gordon as well…ask him…..ask him…his address is on the pad on the oak desk to your right."

Batman turned around and spotted the address. He inputted it into his computer.

"If you're lying, I will be back," Batman said.

Security came around the corner, with a heavily breathing Thorne slumped down on the ground. He looked sweaty and very much out of him.

"He's gone," Thorne grunted.

Everything which could have gone wrong did, and Thorne knew things would just get far worse from here.

* * *

Harvey Dent understood the very calculated risk he made taking this meeting. Gordon had been nailed, not by corruption, but by working together with a vigilante. Dent understood the risks, but he also knew taking risks got things done.

Gotham City was not a place where you played it safe. Dent turned around and came face to face with Nightwing who showed up.

"You've heard what happened with James Gordon?" Dent asked.

"I've heard it," Nightwing agreed. "The evidence looks pretty damning."

"And yet, there's something off about it," Dent said. "I have enough information to realize that Gordon's just smack in the middle of some citywide conspiracy…these packages have been coming in over the past couple of months. I dropped most of them in the trash….but eventually, this guy made me curious enough to keep one."

Dent handed Nightwing the package. The young man grabbed ahold of it.

"From a Concerned Citizen," Nightwing said.

Dent understand Nightwing's skepticism immediately.

"I know," Dent responded. "And I thought at first, it was just some random kook with too much time on their hands, trying to stir up shit. I didn't open them…some took them more seriously than others...Grogan, obviously I'm pretty sure Gordon got them, O'Hara might have gotten a couple more….it happened."

The death of Chief O'Hara caused some very fresh and deep wounds to remain for all of the GCPD.

"We find whoever is sending these packages, we find who is behind this," Nightwing responded. "Whoever had this, has access to a lot of sensitive information. Or knows the people who do have a lot of access to a fair amount of sensitive information."

"I figured as much," Harvey said. "I'll see what I can dig up through the conventional channels, and you can take the unconventional channels."

"Fair enough."

Nightwing parted ways. He had a small, tangible lead. He clicked on his ear piece.

"Oracle, I have something."

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 5** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Well, Gordon being brought in has ruffled a lot of feathers and caused a lot of tension. Batman is cracking skulls to try and get some answers. Barbara is shaken up, and Harry has to be the level-headed one. He goes straight to Dent._

_There's a lot telling about Grogan's attitude if you read between the lines._

_Until Wednesday._


	279. Conspiracy Runs Deep

**Chapter Two Hundred and Seventy Nine: The Conspiracy Runs Deep**

* * *

 

The opposite side of the interrogation table proved to be very unfamiliar territory for James Gordon of the Gotham City Police Department. Heading up the special crimes unit, he found himself doing the interrogating, but he had never been interrogated before. Those charges he had been brought in on, Gordon did not know what to make of them.

He looked over the document in front of him which had his signature on it. A very distinct signature, Gordon reminded himself. Everything was made the same way. The fact Gordon, no matter how hard he tried, could not remember signing anything like that and could not draw any logical conclusions drove him completely mad. He took a deep breath and looked around the room.

Now, several members of the Gotham City SWAT team sat around the room and fixed their beady little eyes on Gordon to make sure he did not go anywhere. In his position, James Gordon was not going anywhere, not now and not potentially ever. Running would make him look guilty. Still, he was guilty until proven innocent, and unless someone came true with contradicting information, then it would be hard.

' _Maybe I've cracked,'_ Gordon thought.

Prisoners on death row never had the anxiety James Gordon had when he waited for the other shoe to drop. He heard footsteps from his position. Gordon turned his head around a second and the Commissioner, Peter Grogan, stepped into the room. He had been talking to one of the SWAT commanders.

Gordon did not fancy his chances when being left alone with the SWAT team. It had been long since established Branden hated him one hundred percent. The moment Branden had Gordon alone when everything was not going to be a good time for him. Gordon tried to keep a positive outlook even though it was borderline difficult to do at this present time.

' _Just got to ride it out,'_ Gordon thought to himself. _'It's frustrating, but damn it, justice is going to prevail, isn't it? Even in Gotham City, there's a chance justice will have to win the day.'_

The thought he would have justice was the only thing which kept James Gordon's head above the water. He heard the SWAT team leader and Grogan talking on the outside of the hallway. They debated about something, what, Gordon could not be for certain at all.

' _Yeah, just waiting to see what will happen,'_ Gordon thought to himself.

Grogan stepped his way into the room. His agitation with Gordon appeared to have reached a new level.

"You're being moved," Grogan said.

"Pardon me?" Gordon asked.

He was not the only one who was confused. One of the GCPD officers, who was in the room, keeping an eye on Gordon, turned towards him and opened his mouth. Grogan looked at the young man who dropped straight back into line before he could say anything.

"You heard me, Gordon, you're being moved," Grogan repeated. "One of our informants in Thorne's organization said he wanted to shut you up. There's a threat on your life. You worked with the bastard, and now you know too much."

Gordon suspected it was not worth his time or breath to mention he was not working with Rupert Thorne. Grogan and the others, they already had made up their mind about what was going on here.

The younger officer finally found the ability to use his tongue. He turned towards Grogan.

"You said we should keep Gordon here, at this facility, no matter what," the young officer said.

The eyes of the Gotham City Police Commissioner drilled into the younger cop. He nodded and an apology came close to dancing on his tongue.

"Yeah, well, plans change, and this situation has changed," Grogan said. "Gordon, these gentlemen are going to escort you out. Don't worry, they'll take really good care of you."

Something about Grogan's words oddly did not reassure James Gordon for a second. The officers of the Gotham City SWAT team moved in and snapped the handcuffs behind Gordon's head. They moved out, with the once proud Gotham City Police Officer, dragging him out of the room.

"I need to oversee something else," Grogan said.

The young officer nodded. His words had fallen on deaf ears, to begin with anyway, with Grogan's inability to see what was going on. He just had given up.

' _Damn, I wonder how he found out Thorne was about to put a hit on Gordon so easily.'_

The young officer, practically a new recruit, over the past couple of months, really did not have any dog in this fight. He watched and then turned back to the SWAT team member who had also been left behind. He threw his shoulders back in response.

"Not exactly what I expected to happen," The SWAT team member responded a second or two later. "But, that's not the strangest thing that's happened in my job. You'll learn just to roll with it, rookie. It's a lot better on your sanity, trust me."

The young man just shook his head and nodded. He supposed the SWAT team member was right. The young man waited, to see if anyone would come around the corner. Coming down the hallway, was Peter Grogan. Grogan walked in and looked into the interrogation room. He snapped around and looked at the young officer.

"Where the hell is Gordon?" Grogan asked.

"Um, sir," the young officer said. His voice shook a slight amount, but he stood up as tall as possible, not once backing down from the likes of Grogan. "You ordered him out of here; the SWAT came and collected him. He had been taken to a secret facility."

"I ordered no such thing!" Grogan snapped.

The SWAT members recoiled in fear at Grogan's harsh words.

"Yes, sir, I saw you," the SWAT team member who had been left behind said. "We both did, you came in here….."

"I know what I did," Grogan said.

Grogan realized something. Someone had come in her posing as him and made orders using his name to move James Gordon out of the Gotham City Police Department for some reason. He would have to get to the bottom of this and get to the bottom of this quickly. Grogan pushed a button on his radio and prepared to make contact with the SWAT field leader who was guarding Gordon.

No answer, someone blocked the communication. Someone jammed his signal and it was some pretty bad news all around for everyone involved.

* * *

 

Several pieces in a twisted puzzle slipped together. Harry, under the guise of Nightwing, stood on the rooftop, overlooking one of the better to do parts of Gotham City. He opened the file Dent gave him. It had several important documents which implicated several members of the Gotham City Elite in wrongdoing. Harry found that very interesting.

"So, there's someone out there with a vendetta against the elite of Gotham City," Barbara said. "I can't say I'm surprised….there's a lot of Blackmail material going out, and there's one person who we know who has been acquiring a lot of Blackmail material."

The most obvious suspect came to mind very quickly.

"Enigma," Harry responded in a very dark voice.

He came across that name several times throughout his investigation. Harry could tell there were going to be problems when he continued to stir up trouble in Gotham City. The blackmail material he uncovered on Gordon though, he did not know about it.

"My father, we knew he was working with Batman," Barbara said. "But, we both know Batman and we both know Batman would not have been sloppy enough to get himself caught in a picture meeting my father. Enigma stumbled onto a very lucky coincidence."

"Not very lucky for us," Harry said. "And you know, there's one other thing we need to consider."

"Yeah, I know where this one is going," Barbara said. "He played on Grogan's full blow paranoia regarding vigilantes. He knew the corruption was the order of the day. Maybe not with my father."

The long and heaving breath showed the frustration involved in both sides. Harry felt Barbara's pain and just let her get it out of her sister.

"However, my father working with Batman, that caused Grogan to act," Barbara said. "The problem is, we have not been able to pin Enigma down during our time. He's…well it's all in a name, isn't it?"

Harry would have to agree. It was all in a name and Enigma lived up to his name. He was, in fact, an Enigma, a very frustrating puzzle which neither of them had been able to solve, to be honest. He had been working, gathering information. He had been loosely involved in several operations.

"I just have a feeling Enigma is the brains behind the operation, hired to get information to destroy Gordon," Harry said. "And if that information is slightly skewed, then so much the better."

"You mean he's just the help to pull off some kind of charade?" Barbara asked. "Who would have it out for my father like that? You know, to pull off a charade like that? I don't have any idea….."

"That's the thing, isn't it?" Harry asked. "Your father ruffled a few feathers but….."

"Hang on," Oracle said.

There had been a long pause and it was obvious Oracle had a conversation with someone elsewhere, and Harry could hazard a guess who Oracle talked to. All he would have to do was wait to see it play out. Harry positioned himself to get a closer look from his location.

"Batman just went after Thorne," Oracle said. "Thorne swore up and down he didn't know anything regarding my father. And now he's on the way to talk to the man who was responsible for Frank Bertinelli's death, or so he claims Steven Mandragora."

Harry heard of Mandragora, but he normally did not act unless Thorne told him what to do. Something was up. Harry figured he would have to go check up on things.

* * *

 

James Gordon wondered exactly where they were taking him. He doubted they would tell him. Two of the Gotham City SWAT team members sat on either side of Gordon and they looked like the gentlemen who would take any chance to rough him up if the opportunity had presented itself. Gordon just had to take a deep breath and calm himself down. Things would be over before he knew it. At least, he thought they would be over before he knew it. His fingers twitched very nervously at the sound of the truck going over one of the land mines.

Surprisingly, Grogan went along with him.

"Just to make sure you get your fair shake," Grogan responded to him.

Something about that voice sounded so condescending that Gordon wished to punch the man. He had never been completely prone to violence, well more prone to violence than now.

"Are you sure Thorne won't….."

"Hey, relax, Jimbo, you're going to end up giving yourself a heart attack, and that would be a real shame if that happened before you got your day in court," Grogan said.

"Yeah, a real shame," one of the SWAT team member said with a very obvious chuckle.

Gordon understood the message. They would not hesitate to silence him of the opportunity came and they would not shed any tears for Gordon if they had to do so. He understood the message, loud and clear.

A loud bang echoed when the truck rolled over another speed bump. The driver of the car gave a grimace of frustration when the truck drove over the speed bump and veered a little bit off to the side.

"What's the matter?" Grogan asked.

"Something wrong with the brakes I think," the driver of the truck said. "I don't know what could be wrong."

"Well, why don't you pull over to the side and find out?" Grogan asked him.

The driver nodded, and the moment he pulled over, Grogan pushed something on the cell phone he had. A moment's pause and there was an explosion underneath the vehicle which disabled it completely.

Gordon did not know what to make of it. Grogan picked up the baton which one of the SWAT guards dropped to the ground with the surprised jolt the van gave off. He spun around and jabbed the baton into the ribs of the SWAT guards, and then gave Gordon one shot for good measure. Gordon doubled over and Grogan held him by the head and slammed him face first onto the ground.

"Don't worry, Jim, it will be over soon."

Grogan slipped a needle from his sleeve and stabbed Gordon in the neck with a tranquilizer dart. Agony spread through the man's body when his bodily functions slowly slipped into unconsciousness. Grogan pulled away from Gordon and made sure he was secured, not that it really mattered because the man had been knocked out.

He moved over and dragged Gordon out to a waiting van and threw him inside. Grogan stepped into the van and pressed something on the side of his neck. His face shifted into a nondescript man with gray hair and a mustache. He pressed something inside of his ear next and activated communication.

"Enigma?" the man formerly wearing Grogan's face asked.

"Yes, I'm here," a distorted voice said, coming in over the airwaves.

"I have Gordon," the captive say. "Act Two is now complete, and it's time for Act Three."

Things would go according to the script, and the faux Grogan could not have been happier to see it.

* * *

 

A large pale Albino man did not look like a man who would feel the heat obviously. Several of his men sat around the table, anxiously watching as their boss, Steve Mandragora, put away several large plates of food. He was eating the food like it was going out of style.

Some people coped with hardship in different ways. Some smoked, some drank, some decided to engage in women of questionable value, but Mandragora's drug of choice was deep fried food. Now, he was a big eater, having a large diet, to begin with. However, Mandragora looked ever bigger than ever these days, but at the same time, it was almost like he burned off some of those ample amounts of calories.

"Boss, are you okay?"

"Fine, I just eat a lot when I'm nervous," the mob boss said.

The men did not have the guts to say the man must have been nervous a lot. They all knew where their bread was buttered and they knew it was dangerous to piss off someone of Mandragora's statue. They just watched him almost choke down the chicken.

"Wine!" the man bellowed.

One of his men handed him a bottle of wine. He did not down the glass, rather he just poured half of the bottle down his throat to wash down the greasy chicken he said. Many of them watched, half in awe, and half in disgust.

"Rupert doesn't understand why we had to do this," the Albino giant responded. "Bertinelli has information which could bring down anything, or had….."

"But, it's died with him, right boss?"

Mandragora banged his fist down on the table with rattled the silverware something fierce. "Nothing is dead until we have the information in our hands. Do you boys understand me?"

All of the men responded with swift nods. None of them wanted to be the one to set off their boss when he had been in such a mood. The next thing he might chew off would be their heads.

"Maybe you should get out of town, boss," one of his men said.

"I'm not about to pull a Zucco and just tuck my tail and run because the heat's on," Mandragora said. "No, I don't work that way boys."

No sooner did he say anything, the lights started to flicker. The man guarding the entrance to Mandragora's dining hall had been taken down with one fell swoop. The other men rushed forward to engage the man who had turned up. The man in question attacked them.

An electrified grenade dropped onto the ground. The poor unfortunate souls trapped close enough to the grenade ended up getting the shock of their life when they had been taken down to the ground. A third man stepped back and ended up receiving a huge punch to the back of the head.

One of the larger goon rushed forward and punched a curtain. The curtain did not have anyone in it and all he managed to accomplish was get tangled up in the curtain. The figure moved down and started to hammer away with many rapid fire punches.

The lead man at the table pulled out a gun. Batman quick-released a Batarang and knocked the man in the chest and dropped him down onto the ground.

Batman flipped onto the table. Mandragora tried to stab Batman with his steak knife. Batman blocked it and slammed Mandragora hand first onto the table. The sheer amount of fried food he ate weakened him. Batman nailed him with a kick which dropped the large Albino onto the ground.

He flipped onto his back and resembled a turtle which had been knocked over, kicking and flailing his legs. He had been unable to get up. Batman dropped down on top of him, knocking the wind out of the mobster before pulling him towards a half standing position.

"How did you do it?" Batman demanded

"Did…what," the mobster managed.

"How did you pull off the frame job with James Gordon?" Batman asked.

"It was no frame job," Mandragora managed. "Gordon took a bribe, I paid it to him personally to make certain undesirable evidence disappear."

"You're lying!" Batman snapped.

The mobster's deep breathing continued.

"No, it's true, the city's paragon of virtue is not above the corruption which taints this city, like a vegetable placed among a steak dinner," Mandragora responded a second later. "Enigma put us in touch…it wouldn't have mattered because my men roughed up Bertinelli way too much. We never met to kill him, just make him tell us where it is….bu with guns involved, accidents happen."

Batman wondered what Mandragora was talking about. The click of several more guns at his back indicated that Batman was not alone.

"Just step away from the boss, Batman!"

Nightwing dropped down to the ground behind the goons and took them out with three well-placed hits. The goons dropped to the ground.

"How did you do it, Mandragora?" Nightwing asked.

"It was as I told him, I didn't frame him, I personally handed James Gordon a bribe, and he made evidence disappear," Mandragora said. "Of course, that really doesn't help me all that much from the mob…but Enigma claimed Gordon could get some things done."

Nightwing put Mandragora to sleep.

"He's nothing but a pawn for Enigma," Nightwing said.

"Agreed," Batman said.

"And I think someone hired Enigma to frame up Gordon," Nightwing said. "Someone who has something personal against James Gordon."

Batman nodded in response. Who would have the ability to cause such problems for James Gordon?

"I've found something interesting," Oracle popped in over the communication link. "It's a B-Movie made about thirty years ago…it has the same situation that Gordon's in. It's a cop who put away a man for a crime, and the criminal ruined the cop's life. And then he was slowly tortured until being killed towards the end of the movie."

The downer ending of that particular movie aside, Batman had one obvious question.

"What does this have to do with Gordon?" Batman asked.

"Well, the star of this movie might be an interesting note," Oracle responded a few seconds later. "He's someone who has pulled a scheme based off of one of his movies being remade before."

Nightwing's tone grew rather dark before he said two words.

"Basil Karlo."

"Of course, it's Karlo," Oracle said. "I've been doing some digging, and I've got his last known address."

X

* * *

 

Very slowly, the eyes of James Gordon opened up. He had no idea what was going on, other than the fact he had a terrific headache. He realized he had been drugged by a man, by Peter Grogan, who lashed out and attacked him without any due cause. Then Gordon woke up in a truck.

He saw several pictures of himself on the wall. He had been surrounded by some kind of demented shrine to himself. Handwriting copies littered the wall around every corner. Gordon's breath increased when looking around the area around him.

' _It's almost like he studied them very meticulously,'_ Gordon thought.

It explained why his handwriting was copied on those forms to the letter. Someone copied them down and got a good look at them. Gordon tried not to lose it where he was.

"It's been a long time, Jim."

The surprises just continued to come on. James Gordon looked up and came face to face with himself.

"What's going on?" Gordon asked, his head throbbing something fierce.

"You don't remember?" the second Gordon asked. "You should have remembered because you were the one who foiled my plan."

Gordon had played the role of putting away some many criminals it was very hard for him to think.

"I almost got away with the perfect crime. I faked my own death, and I was about to kill the subpar actor who ruined the sanctity of my masterpiece. The man who replaced me…but you had to ruin it. You had to be a hero, running the third act of my master plan!"

Everything clicked in Gordon's head instantly. He could barely speak but managed to bring out one word.

"Karlo."

The man in front of hi nodded. His face shifted to reveal several more people. It flamed from James Gordon to Rupert Thorne to Harvey Dent to Peter Grogan and back to James Gordon.

"I've always prided myself on my acting abilities, but now I can be much more than just getting into a role," Karlo responded. "My new friends offered me a device which could allow me to wear any face, with just a simple thought thanks to this holographic projector. "

Karlo leaned back and a smile crossed over his face.

"All I need to do is see a picture of the person and I can copy their facial features," Karlo said. "But with you, James Gordon, I copied so much more."

* * *

 

Basil Karlo's apartment looked very nondescript from the outside. Harry knew better though and he knew appearances always could be deceiving. Batman and Nightwing stepped inside of the main area of the apartment. They did not know what they expected to find.

Karlo's movie memorabilia had been plastered all over the walls.

"He's made a shrine to himself," Nightwing commented.

"Gordon could be around here somewhere," Batman said. "Let's split up."

"Oh, please, don't go for such a tired routine of splitting up," a droning voice commented.

The windows slid shut with iron bars and the doors locked shut behind them around. Batman and Nightwing had been trapped in the middle of the apartment, with no place to go. Nothing other than the two of them.

"James Gordon is in reach, all you have to do is solve my puzzles before the final curtain drops," the droning voice commented. "Just play a game and solve my puzzles!"

"We don't have time for some demented game!" Batman growled.

"Oh, no, no, no, my game is not demented," the droning voice said. "You see, my games, they're a mark of skill, and more importantly a mark of achievement. Not that you thugs would know anything about a game of wits."

Nightwing had been trying to track the source of this droning voice. The only thing he received was a demented feedback loop bouncing back at him.

"Perhaps we should make this more interesting? How about a nice little wager? The stakes? No less than both of your lives!"

A grate on the floor opened up. Nightwing and Batman came to the conclusion that whatever game this demented man wanted to play, they would have no choice other to play it. A holographic projector popped out of the room. Batman raised his hand to smash it, but Nightwing blocked him.

"We have to play along, at least for now."

"Wise move, Dragon," the droning voice cheered. "I knew you would be such a good sport. And for that, here's your very first riddle."

Green letters flickered in front of the two vigilantes.

"I am gained through many positive actions, but I can easily bcome lost through one failed action. What I am I?"

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on April 8** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Just when you thought everything was safe, a couple of old fiends return to cause trouble._

_Until Saturday._


	280. Broken Charade

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty: The Broken Charade**

* * *

 

Both Batman and Nightwing agreed without a shadow of a doubt they had no time to solve any riddles or play any games. Enigma took the decision out of the hands of both of them. The blinking box in the center of the room, both wondered if the box acted as a benign entity or something more sinister brewed with the box.

Regardless of Enigma's intentions, one thing could not be denied. The longer Batman and Nightwing waited around, the longer James Gordon suffered at the hands of the Karlo. Many questions still needed to be asked about how Enigma and Karlo got together in the first place, and why they worked together. Without the identity of Enigma, Harry suspected these questions needed to be answered much later.

"Come on, that's an easy one," Enigma said. "Then again, when you make a pair of vigilantes use their minds and not their fists, then perhaps it's not as easy as we make it out before. Just put those brains to work. I know you don't use them that much."

"Trust, the answer is trust."

A bell dinged in the room. Batman growled in disgust, and Nightwing would have to agree it sounded like one of the most condescending things in the world.

"Trust, the same trust people had in James Gordon which you're hoping to undermine," Nightwing said. "Countless years of good behavior build up trust. One bad mistake destroys trust."

"Trust is like a mirror," Enigma agreed. "Once broken, you can put it back together, but it never looks quite right, does it? The cracks are always there. Always present…but never mind that. Congratulations, Nightwing, you solved the riddle."

"Just get on with this game," Batman said.

The posture of Batman slumped and the vigilante's fists clenched together.

"Now, now, now," Enigma said in a mocking reprimand of a voice. "You must not be bitter you did not have a chance to solve the riddle just because your partner did, Batman. It's not exactly healthy to hold in that degree of bitterness. Just take a deep breath and…"

Batman moved towards the wrist computer and scanned the area. Only one problem presented itself, and Batman noticed it straight away. Some kind of signal blocked any attempts to scan the area around the corner.

"Now, you really can get to work, and solve my puzzle," Enigma said. "There's a catch, though, which I will explain in a minute."

The green box shifted into a puzzle and started blinking. Harry studied the puzzle and looked for patterns. Something about the puzzle sounded a little bit off in Harry's mind. The vigilante hero would have to wait and see whether or not Enigma explained it.

Nightwing would have had no fear about Enigma explaining the puzzle. The man just loved hearing the sound of his own voice. Naturally, an explanation would be the order of the day.

"This puzzle cube needs to be solved in the next sixty seconds," Enigma said. "Otherwise a bomb will go off, and you are on the clock right about….."

"Finished!" Nightwing called.

The loud sputtering in the background brought a smile to Nightwing's face.

"Inconceivable!" Enigma yelled. Several deep breaths could be heard and Nightwing barely kept a very obvious smile off of his face. He obviously caused Enigma a tiny amount of frustration. "No, no, no, this can't be….it was obviously beginner's luck. And I didn't want to end this earlier on naturally….it's opened up the door…..go on inside."

Batman and Nightwing took the first tentative steps towards the area of the basement. Both crime fighters kept watching for anything out of the ordinary. Enigma would not just let them go after one riddle and one puzzle. The sadistic man had something else on his mind.

Nightwing looked for several patterns in the puzzle system. Any luck, the game could be turned around on Enigma. Nightwing needed to play a very careful game.

"You've earned the right to progress," Enigma said. "You aren't nearly as hopeless as I thought you would. Which is good, because it's almost pathetic when you defeat someone hopeless. There's no victory in heading into a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent!"

Another box rose up underneath the ground. The blinking green lights showed question marks on it.

"Another riddle?" Batman asked.

"Yes, yes, brilliant, answer a few more, and you might have enough of James Gordon to send back to his family," Enigma said.

Batman tightened his fist and took a deep breath. Steady breaths, Batman hated to see the state of Gordon. Enigma relished causing pain and misery for James Gordon. Something person existed between the two men. Batman could only guess what.

"What starts in one place, and ends up in the same place, but only after twenty-four hours?"

* * *

 

A continuous buzzing reached the depths of Kara's mind and most of it had to do with Barbara. Kara wished to tell Barbara to calm down but knew no amount of soothing words would stop Barbara from getting very upset. Kara understood where Barbara came from to be perfectly honest. Some nutcase kidnapped James Gordon, and Barbara moved hell and earth in an attempt to find it.

The buzzing not only plagued Kara, an argument came from the other end of the office hallway. The blessing and the curse of super hearing factored in with an argument between Vicki Vale and her station manager.

"Vicki, I know you were saved by Gordon a long time ago. Hell, a lot of us respect his work. But, the guy finally got sick of being a hero cop. Good people have gone bad, and now he's done a runner."

"This is Gotham City," Vicki argued. "There's much more to this that meets the eye. Both of us know that we know the logical explanation is never the most logical explanation. Not here, not it Gotham City anyway."

Vicki felt like this point was being argued over and over again until she had gotten blue in the face. The argument drove the woman completely and utterly breathless regardless of the situation. The reporter stuck to her guns and convictions as well.

"You're overlooking one thing," Vicki said. "There are some cops who swear Grogan was the one who gave the order to move Gordon. And then you have Grogan who is swearing up and down he never gave the order. There's something rotten going on there."

"Oh, rotten? You mean more rotten than James Gordon going rogue? You mean something along those lines? You can't just stand back and defend this situation. Vicki, look at the facts right here. James Gordon has escaped police custody, with help of the Gotham City SWAT."

The argument between Vicki and the station manager continued. Kara knew Vicki had several good points. The problem with the media was, and Vicki explained this very grudgingly to her, sometimes they wanted to go not with the news, but with the right narrative to appease the public. Confirmation bias reared its ugly head at the worst possible times.

Expectations built over time the Gotham City Police Department had been corrupt by nature. The incident regarding Gordon, or at least what the public perceived the facts to be, built over time, and gave the people a false narrative even though they would not look deeper into the facts.

Kara closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Vicki picked a very interesting hill to die on. The reporter could not ever be accused of not sticking to some convictions, Kara fought tooth and nail for anyone who thought Vicki would just roll over.

A loud shrill hum echoed in the back of Kara's ear. The intern snapped head first and looked around. The other members of the office and the staff bustled around. None of them reacted to the hum at all. Kara's frown deepened when turning around to the right and then to the left.

Across the screen, several numbers scrolled against the bottom. Kara grabbed a pen and furiously jotted down the numbers on a pad of people.

' _Barbara, are you watching GNN?'_ Kara projected.

' _You mean the numbers that are scrolling across the screen?'_ Barbara thought. _'Yeah, I'm seeing them. Pretty crazy, they're a bit too fast for me to write down. Do you think they mean something?'_

' _Don't worry, I've written them down,'_ Kara thought. _'Relaying them to you right about now.'_

Kara sent the information off and waited for an answer. The screen continued to flash numbers and several members of the office staff crowded around. The station manager stepped into the room and had a very odd look on his face when looking at the screen.

"Someone pirated the signal!" the station manager yelled.

No one could say, yeah, that was the most obvious thing in the world. They had been transfixed by a green question mark flashing across the screen. Almost as if someone taunted them from afar.

' _It's a code, and it points to an address, a section of Gotham City, close to Basil Karlo's last known apartment,'_ Barbara thought. _'It's an apartment complex which has been shut down, right across the street. Batman and Nightwing had been….my father must be there.'_

' _Are you sure he's there?'_ Kara asked.

' _Maybe,'_ Barbara thought. _'Gwen, take over from me, I'm going to suit up….'_

' _No, I'm closer, you won't get there in time,'_ Dinah thought. _'Don't worry, I can get him out if he's there.'_

' _Please do,'_ Barbara thought, managing to bring out a very frustrated sigh from her voice. _'Please, please, do.'_

* * *

 

Every hustled and bustled around the Gotham City madhouse. Rumors flew through the air like a particularly bad stench and the person who they talked about the most was James Gordon. The man walked out of here and staged a daring escape.

"Get that signal back up somehow!" Grogan yelled. "Where is Newton?"

"You mean, Nashton, sir?" one of the officers asked him.

Grogan glared at the officer, hands clenching off to the side.

"Whatever his name is, that tech stuff is supposed to be his hat," Grogan said. "If anyone can get everything up and running, it would be him. I want Nathans and I want him yesterday, get him on the job."

Harvey Dent stepped into the Gotham City Police Department and something told him he stepped into the belly of the beast. Several of the cops moved around, talking in anxious, low voices, about how someone had been jamming their phone calls. Dent could not call out to the District Attorney's office either. His own office!

' _Damn it, when it rains it pours, doesn't it?'_

Dent hoped the worst could not be expected, but he would have to face some kind of facts. That fact was that James Gordon had just left.

"Commissioner, you've got to see this!"

"Not now, I've got a dangerous fugitive on the loose and you expect me to watch television."

Funny how fast the tide turned even in Gotham City? Someone could have been a beloved hero cop one day and a dangerous fugitive the next day. Harvey Dent thought it was a very raw deal, but all he could do was stand in the middle of the hallway. A silver dollar lingered in between two fingers. Dent allowed the coin to flip into the air and land on.

' _Tails,'_ Dent thought. _'Never a good sign. Hopefully not tails, James Gordon loses. If we were wrong about him…then again, we were very wrong about Rachel.'_

The world still believed Loeb to be the Gotham City cop killer. Dent was not a religious man, but praying no one ever found out about that particular nasty cover up sounded like one of the best ideas in the world. Rachel needed to remain a paragon of virtue for the people of Gotham City. Any hint of corruption would not be a very good idea.

Dent followed the progress of several officers who peered at the television screen in front of them. Several numbers blinked on the screen in a very interesting pattern. Dent could not process them fast enough. The District Attorney reckoned no one else, other than someone without super powerful mental processing could process what was going on, the screen.

"Wrap it up soon; they're starting to get suspicious."

Dent would not have normally noticed. Edward Nashton was just a blip on the radar, although something about him seemed off to Harvey Dent. Especially on today of all days, when Dent swore he saw him talking on a cell phone.

' _Funny the kid's talking on a phone. Given how someone is jamming all communications out of the Gotham City Police Department.'_

Nashton easily would have slipped out the back entrance of the Gotham City Police Department, had it not been for the eagle-eyed gaze of Harvey Dent. Dent followed him close behind and watched the man pause. A black van waited from him in the back alleyway.

"They will be in for a surprise when they find out that James Gordon is in another building," Nashton responded. "Right across the street….misdirection, that's important. It makes the world go around, just like that."

Nashton snapped his fingers in excitement. He got into the van and drove off, right in the middle of the police investigation.

Typical, the one man who could restore communication to the GCPD's lines was the man who caused the problems in the first place. Dent would like to say he was surprised, but no, not surprised, not at all.

* * *

 

"So many ways that I could kill you, and no one would ever know," Karlo said. "You see, you would die with the world thinking that the great James Gordon has gone rogue. The former hero has turned into a monster. The world is harsh enough to believe that, wouldn't you say?"

Gordon knew Karlo had a certain flair for the dramatics.

"If you were any kind of real man, you'd untie me so we could settle this like men."

Karlo laughed and turned around slightly. Gordon slowly worked away at the ropes binding him, but did not get free, at least not just that.

"I've seen enough of my own movies to realize that's a stupid idea."

Gordon once again pulled on the ropes until they had been completely loosened. He took a few seconds to break free of the ropes but waited a little bit to make the next move.

"The most amusing thing is you will die, being the very thing people expected you to be. A cop in Gotham City only has one end. He either dies for being honest or lives to be corrupt. Well, you lived long enough to be corrupt, and you will die before your name is cleared."

The rope snapped and James Gordon jumped up. He swung back and punched Karlo with all of his strength. The man dropped to the ground.

"You're making a big mistake," Karlo growled.

Gordon grabbed Karlo around the head and pushed him back onto the ground. Both of the men tussled and tried to gain the upper hand with each other. Karlo shoved Gordon off and sent the cop flying down to the ground. The drugs still in Gordon's system made it harder to stand up straight. Determination and adrenaline canceled out these drugs and caused Gordon to take a deep breath.

"Mistake, hardly?" Gordon asked. "I'm taking you down."

"Words are cheap," Karlo said. "I should know with all of the bad script writers…..look in the face of corruption!"

The face of James Gordon flashed and the two men circle each other. Karlo picked up a pipe and charged Gordon. Gordon blocked the pipe with one rapid fire, quick reflex movement. The pipe ripped back out of the hands of the crazed criminal.

Karlo stabbed Gordon in the thigh with a screwdriver. Agony spread over the face of James Gordon at the stabbing. Karlo reared back a hand and stabbed Gordon into the thigh one more time to double the man over. Gordon dropped down to his knees, breathing very heavily in the process.

"I've turned you from a hero, into a monster!" Karlo bellowed at the top of his lungs. "That's what I've done to you! Do you understand it, Gordon? Why do you keep fighting?"

"For people like you, to stop them, and to build a better Gotham City," Gordon said.

Karlo stabbed the screwdriver down. Gordon blocked the attack and responded with a headbutt to Karlo. Both of them fought over the screwdriver.

Black Canary dropped down onto the ground from the windows and landed. The first thing the stunning siren came across was two identical copies of James Gordon, doing battle over a screwdriver.

"Time to send in the extras!"

Several goons rushed in. Black Canary dodged a punch and came back with a rapid-fire flurry. No problem telling who was Karlo. Another one of the goons stabbed a taser gun at Black Canary's stomach. The crime fighter propelled high into the air and came crashing down onto the back of the goon's head with a double stomp to the back of the head.

"I'm going to fuck you up!"

Black Canary heard the thug banter, all of the threats, all of the trash talk, way too many times before. A chain swung from the direction and had been caught. Black Canary snapped the chain back and drove the man from the ground.

Batman and Nightwing dropped him. One of the goons rushed forward. Batman stopped him short with a huge punch to the side of the head.

' _So, real James Gordon?'_ Dinah asked. _'I thought I had it a minute ago.'_

' _Only one way to find out,'_ Harry thought.

Nightwing pressed a button on the grenade and sent an electrified pulse through the air. James Gordon received only a mild shock. Karlo on the other hand, the electrified pulse overloaded the circuits in the holographic projection mask he wore.

Karlo's mask flicked through several faces, from Gordon to Grogan to Harvey Dent to Vicki Vale to Hill to Harry Potter to Bruce Wayne, and several other faces in between. His ears rang harder with every flash and his nerve endings seared in pain.

"Make it stop!" Karlo howled at the top of his lungs.

The sound of a siren going through the air echoed in the man's ears.

' _GCPD warning,'_ Barbara thought.

"GCPD is on their way, we better go," Nightwing said.

Nightwing, Batman, and Black Canary stepped back and left Karlo screaming in agony.

"All of you….all of you…..!" he yelled.

The face flickered into Basil Karlo's for a moment as Harvey Bullock stepped forward and looked him down.

"Karlo?" Bullock asked.

"Yes, and I had a grand masterstroke of a plan," Karlo said in a particularly dramatic way. "I would have ruined James Gordon's life before ending it if Enigma did not play is silly little games…..for I am Basil...Karlo….the greatest….."

The mask flickered to Gordon's face and then to Grogan. The mask stopped when it landed on Harvey Bullock's face, which caused the members of the GCPD to recoil.

"Hey!" Bullock yelled. "Stop getting my face ugly!"

Bullock punched Karlo in the face and the mask sent him back with a jolt. The face mask shifted through several faces at a speed of light, before it stopped short on an ugly, withered Halloween mask version of Karlo's face. He screamed in agony from another forced change.

"You'll pay for this, you'll all pay for it!"

"Yeah, give it a rest, False Face," Bullock said. "You have the right to remain silent."

* * *

 

Edward Nashton walked down to his door with a spring in his step. He made his way to the door, when suddenly, the Gotham City Police Department stepped in front of him, with Harvey Dent following. Nashton looked at the gentlemen who stepped in front of him. He took in a deep breath, the deepest breath possible, before letting it out.

"What can I do for you, fine officers?" Nashton asked.

"James Gordon has been found innocent of all charges, Basil Karlo posed as him," Dent replied.

Nashton took a second to breathe in and breath out.

' _Okay, don't lose your cool, Eddie. They don't know nothing…they don't know anything, remember your proper grammar. Oh god, you're flustered, are your hands shaking? Your hands are shaking, aren't they?'_

"That's…that's great," Eddie said. "It's really great that Gordon's a free man…someone must have gone to a lot of trouble to fake that evidence and I hope…"

Eddie took in a very deep breath when he watched one of the members of the GCPD produce a warrant and put it in front of his face.

"It's a warrant to search my place," Eddie said. "Well, it's…there's a mess inside, and I don't think you should come in right about now."

"Unlock the door, Nashton," Dent said.

Eddie's hands quivered when trying to grab the key. He took several deep breaths. Almost hyperventilating, he could not hyperventilate, not now. There was no way they could be onto him, not now, oh no, this was not a good sign.

"The place is a mess, the plants aren't water….I haven't had a chance to dust and…"

Dent cleared his throat. Eddie had no choice other than to open the door. The quivering hands of the young man betrayed how nerves played a huge role in this situation. The latest concerned citizen packages were being prepped to send out, there were more people other than Gordon.

Gordon escaping, Batman and Nightwing solving his riddles and escaping the basement to help save Gordon, everything came crashing down. Eddie hated when an orderly world had been destroyed.

The GCPD officers stormed in. One of them walked over to a bookshelf and pulled it back to reveal a secret room full of documents, photos. They did not need to enter the room, for on the table rested several of the concerned citizen packages.

"Someone must have planted it there…..someone must have!"

Eddie had been turned around and the handcuffs had been snapped on it.

"You have the right to…."

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Eddie howled. "All her fault, it has to be her fault. She made me do it, if she was not so rude to me, none of this was going to happen. Her father was supposed to be put away. It was supposed to be a perfect….the perfect crime!"

Dent watched Eddie be moved away. Perhaps he was being paranoid, but something about this entire incident seemed much too easy.

' _Going to have to keep an eye on him,'_ Dent thought.

* * *

 

With a big smile, Kara watched Vicki wrap up the news report, detailing the information regarding today's events.

"James Gordon has been cleared of all of the charges of bribery and corruption, and Edward Nashton and Basil Karlo have both been rested and accused of conspiracy. Peter Grogan issued a brief statement, apologizing for the incident, and says the handwriting samples found at the scene of the crime prove that Karlo has been meticulously studying Gordon for a long time to get down everything. While there are still some questions which remain on the Batman front….."

Kara smiled at the good news coming in.

' _Guess, they're going to drop that as well,'_ Kara thought.

' _Oh, I'm pretty sure those charges have been dropped,'_ Barbara thought. _'They took Enigma's computers…can't believe Enigma was Nashton. Always thought there was something creepy and weird about him….he had a shrine in his apartment for Harry.'_

' _Not really my type,'_ Harry thought.

' _Oh we know,'_ Barbara said.

* * *

 

The latest man designated Number One in Black Mask's gang whistled when walking down the alleyway. A man stepped out of the shadows and pointed a gun at the man. Number One staggered.

"What are you doing?"

A gloved hand reached in and pulled a button. Three shots fired from the gun. All shots missed and put bullets in the wall around where Number One stood. Number One took a very deep breath. One punch to the ribs doubled over the gangster.

"April Fools."

The man disappeared into the alleyway. Several of the club goers stepped out and came across a very confused looking man who clutched his stomach.

Today was April Fools Day, and he had been pranked big time.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on April 12** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_The truth comes out and Eddie and Karlo are put away for a little bit. And James Gordon is back to work._

_Well, you can't accuse the Holiday Killer of not being in the spirit of the day._

_More on Wednesday._


	281. Strike Fast

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-One: Strike Fast**

* * *

The passage of time could heal many wounds, but the decay of those wounds still was very fresh in the Gotham City Police Department. The incident regarding James Gordon made many glance over their shoulder with increasing frequency and enhanced paranoia. Many people wondered what the hell happened. The distrust was not directed at James Gordon.

Rather, the distrust came with the fact the Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department jumped to the worst conclusions. Already, it had been accepted Grogan only acted against Gordon due to the vigilante connection. Many of the Gotham City Police Department did not give two shits about these vigilantes. They were there, and sometimes they made their jobs a lot easier. It was a bitter pill to swallow for many that someone could put on a fancy costume and do a better job fighting crime than men who went through a lot of time a toil for the force.

Regardless, the real men who were behind the conspiracy had been arrested. A short investigation landed both Basil Karlo and Edward Nashton into the Arkham Wing at Blackgate Prison. The wing grew increasingly crowded, and there were whispers the Asylum needed to be rebuilt sooner than later. The criminals in Gotham City who were considered to be bent enough for Arkham increased.

After an incident like this, you never looked at people the same way again. James Gordon would have been well within his rights to quit and never return to the Gotham City Police Force. He considered quitting to be perfectly honest. To quit, when the heat on, did not fit James Gordon's personality. This particular hiccup and near death experience only strengthened his resolve to continue to do the right thing.

"The Commissioner wants to see you, Gordon."

Gordon just nodded at the man's words. He was very anxious for a meeting with Grogan and for good reason. For all of the man's talk about how trust triumphed, and how the Gotham City Police Department was a family, he was quick to judge Gordon. He moved to the worst possible theory on Gordon.

' _Now, he's under a lot of stress,'_ a small voice in the back of Gordon's head stated.

James Gordon shook his head and sighed. Was there really any way to justify the actions of Peter Grogan? Gordon did not know, and that was what worried him. Regardless, the man had been summoned to the office of the Gotham City Police Commissioner, therefore it was time.

' _Anxious, and for good reason,'_ Gordon thought to him. _'The only thing in doubt is the relationship with Nightwing and Batman….which was a true charge. And a risk I have to take. I don't like them being here in principle, but they're necessary for Gotham City. And I think they feel the same way…if there didn't have to be here, they wouldn't be here. They aren't doing it for the thrills, or the kicks. They're doing it because it's the right thing to do.'_

Still, the collaborating with vigilantes charge was the only thing which really should not have been dropped. They assumed it was fabricated like everything else Karlo and Nashton did, and Gordon could not correct them.

Gordon reminded how some veteran cops warned him that the job changed men. They were never the same ever again. Gordon took a deep breath, surely he was not changed too much, was he? And yet, it did seem like he was changed in many others was. It was very hard to wrap your head around.

The things you do next year, might not have been anything like the actions you did last year.

' _Better not dwell on it too much, better go and see what Grogan wants.'_

A knock on the door and Gordon paused to wait for the invitation.

"Come in."

Gordon opened the door and walked up to the front desk. He tried to look happy with the situation, even though there was a huge part of him which obviously was anxious, and for good reason.

"Jim, my boy, sit down!"

Grogan's tone sounded very jovial, almost like it was forced, fixed. James Gordon just responded with a polite nod and made his way to the front of the desk to sit down in front of Grogan.

"You wanted to see me, Commissioner Grogan?"

Grogan responded with a nod and a smile. Gordon just waited for the man to say what he was.

"Karlo and Nashton, they convinced to setting you up, the entire plot, fabricated evidence, everything," Grogan responded. "I didn't really want to believe you were involved in anything…but I'm sure you understand the very touch position I come from. I had to make sure everything was on the level."

Gordon swiftly and very politely nodded. What else was he supposed to say, to be honest?

"You can thank Dent for making sure the investigation ran smoothly," Grogan said. "He's really committed to live up to his campaign promises. Despite any doubts I had, I'm personally glad you're not guilty of what you've been accused of. I would be losing a good hand."

"Thank you, Commissioner."

The recently reinstated cop wondered why Grogan called him here.

"But, I didn't just call you to pat you on the back for being innocent," Grogan continued. "After O'Hara's death…..well the deck chairs in the GCPD have to be rearranged. You're in line for another promotion, and I think now's the time for you to move up in the world."

Gordon knew a lot of high profile people were retiring this year, O'Hara's death bringing him out of the force earlier. They still did not have any leads on that, even after a month of Gordon being back.

"I have big plans for the GCPD this summer, and we're going to finally bring the fight to the Mob and those vigilantes who think they can run roughshod over Gotham City," Grogan said.

Grogan's demeanor amused Gordon, just a tiny bit. He sounded very much like a businessman who was announcing a proposal to the Board of Directors, and Gordon was the man he tried to sell everything to. Even though, the real people he should be seeing everything to was the people of Gotham City.

Still, it was obvious, Grogan tried to do what was necessary to save place. Diplomacy worked in a very shrewd way, especially for the likes of Grogan, and everything he intended to accomplish as Commissioner. Plus, after Grogan's reputation took a hit, he needed to act proactively.

Gordon understood where the man came from and understood the game which he played. It was one many played in the past.

* * *

Time made a fool out of many people. Through the chaotic, hustle and bustle of Gotham City, time slipped away from even the most well repaired in a blink of an eye. Everything began to change, and everything began to shift. Winter had long since turned into Spring and summer rapidly approached.

With summer came one event many young people around Gotham City looked forward to. Graduation stepped right around the corner, and Graduation would happen in a few weeks for the students of the Gotham City Private Academy. Amanda and Emily Potter both brimmed for excitement. The two of them, joined by Donna, made their way to a café which was a mid-way point between the Gotham City Private Academy and Gotham City University.

"I can't believe it's almost here!" Amanda cried.

Emily's smile grew even wider at her sister's excitement. "So, you've been telling me for every minute for days and days. Yes, I can't believe it's finally here as well."

"Yeah, I mean in some ways, we'll be on the bottom instead of the top when we head to GCU," Amanda said. "But, hey, it's a change of scenery, so that's good."

"I can't wait either," Donna said.

Finally, it seemed like she was in GPA forever, and it wasn't really a bad institution, if Donna would be honest. She might have been able to graduate far sooner, had she buckled down. Donna admitted about as much as the next person, sometimes her lack of ability to focus doomed the Middle Amazon Princess.

Diana always excelled at studies, and Lyta did pretty well. Donna was not ignorant by any means, just less focused, than both of the other Amazon Sisters.

"Amy!" Amanda called.

The beautiful Brazilian blonde smiled and moved over to greet Amanda, Emily, and Donna. The four of them planned to head into the café to meet Bunny Vreeland and Bette Kane for lunch and the girls could not wait to get back in touch with some old friends.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Donna asked.

"Oh, I'm just ready for graduation," Amy said with a smile.

Donna gave the girl a shifty little smile. "We're more ready for graduation than you are, considering some of us aren't lucky enough to be fast-tracked straight to the top."

Amy just shifted with a smile and looked at Donna. The beautiful Amazon Princess captivated the Nova-Romanian princess in disguise. She tried to learn the skills Selene taught to remain calm and stoic, even though Donna really made it hard. Her older sister made it even harder all of the times Amy ran into Diana.

' _Just take a deep breath and let it out,'_ Amy thought.

"Well, we shouldn't keep Bette and Bunny waiting any longer, should we?" Emily asked.

Amanda responded with one of the most unladylike and thus one of the most Amanda like snorts she could muster. "Yeah, knowing those two, they're going to be the ones who will make us wait."

The Potter twin's prediction proved to be more than accurate when Donna, Amy, Amanda, and Emily stepped into the café and looked around. Emily and Amanda locked eyes with each other, and both shook their heads. The more things changed, the more they stay the same.

' _At least there are some constants in Gotham City,'_ Donna thought.

All the girls in the know and in the bond agreed some kind of stability was needed. The four girls decided to lock on their favorite booth. Six girls squeezed in a booth was very tight, but at the same time, very cozy. Amanda and Emily manipulated it so Donna and Amy would be getting the seats by the window. They did not want to get packed in two tight.

"Well, here comes trouble."

The doors opened at Amanda's declaration. Bunny and Bette made their way in, dressed in elegant blouses, and modest looking skirts, along with stockings and nice shoes. They would not wear anything better than the very best. The two rich heiresses smiled when their friends were there.

"They're starting to pick up some of Harry's habits," Bette said.

"What, being so early, that we make everyone look very late?" Amanda asked with a cheeky little smirk.

"Well, yes," Bette commented. "But, to be fair, we weren't really late, well we are, but not on purpose."

"A lecturer ran wrong er I mean long," Bunny said. "It would have been something different if he had anything interesting at all to say. However, the man droned on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and….."

Bette grabbed Bunny's hand to stop her from doing the best possible impression of the lecturer. A small smile popped over Bette's face. "Okay, I think they get it."

"Yeah, we do," Donna said.

The six girls ordered something to eat and drink before going into the conversation.

"We're ready for graduation," Amanda said without preamble. "And we're more ready for the graduation party afterward. I'm not sure if the Penthouse will survive the experience."

"Mmm, I'm not sure if it's the Penthouse you have to worry about," Bette said.

Amanda and Emily locked eyes with each other. It was not the first time Bette and Bunny hinted something big was going on for graduation, well other than the obvious party. Kara smirked around them, and Diana appeared to be involved as well. The twins were both excited about the prospect, and very scared by the prospect.

"So, what are you planning?" Amanda asked.

"Oh, you know, stuff," Bette commented with a smile and a slight wink directed towards the Potter twins.

Amanda and Emily once again looked at each other. Their frustration of not being let in on the loop reached a very evident boiling point. Both of the twins tried not to get lost in that particular frustration, even though it was very hard for them to do so.

' _Well, something tells me we won't know,'_ Emily thought. _'Knowing them, it's going to be a night we're never going to forget.'_

Amanda's smile deepened when looking down across the table.

' _Amara will have a night she'll never forget either.'_

* * *

"So, anyway, I got dropped off on this island to do a job, and I ran into some rich billionaire who had been shipwrecked, and is likely to be on and off this island for no less than five years, and will have flashbacks about his time here for no more than five years. Then, we have this attractive archer lady who we're running around with, and we're fighting some douchebag named Fyers, who is working for someone, who works for someone with a really bad haircut. Seriously, cornrows, were they ever in style? Anyway, we've been playing a game of cat and mouse on the island, and have been trying to avoid Death's Stroke, not to mention Deathstroke."

Deadpool took a deep breath and let that all out. Shado and Oliver looked at Deadpool like he was out of his mind.

"Just recapping things for everyone," Deadpool said. "And we might have a way off of this island if we play our cards right. Although, we shouldn't be…"

"We should take any chance we get," Shado said. "The plan it's…"

"I'm not sure if the plan is going to work," Oliver said.

Deadpool gave Oliver one of those looks as if he did not want him to interrupt.

"Well, it's like most plans really," Deadpool said. "It could work, but at the same time, it could really blow up in our faces, in a really bad way, or maybe a really funny way. But, you never know what could happen until you try."

Deadpool took a few seconds to decide what to do next. As with any trap, they were going to need live bait, and Oliver Queen proved to be the perfect live bait, at least in Deadpool's mind.

"Okay, Oliver, do your thing."

"What thing?"

Deadpool shoved Oliver into the light and several of the mercenaries moved over towards him.

"Well, look what we got here?" one of the mercenaries asked.

"A pretty boy billionaire hostage by the looks of things," another mercenary said, a smile popping over his face.

Oliver pulled out the bow. His hands shook slightly. The billionaire never did this when having several guns aimed at his face.

From the other side, Shado gripped the far mercenary. A loud crack echoed and the mercenary dropped to the ground. The second armed men turned around. Shado grabbed an arm and kicked the man in the ribs. Another rib kick, followed by a face kick, dropped the man to the ground.

Deadpool reached over and pulled the pin out of a grenade on a man's belt. The man blew up, taking the two men on the other side with him in the process.

The lead mercenary turned around, and Oliver armed the bow before firing one arrow directly into the back of the man's leg. It pierced his knee ad dropped him down to the ground.

Deadpool blinked and looked at the arrow pierced through the man's knee. He turned to look at no one in particular, at least on the island.

"I'm not going to say it. It's too easy."

Shado nervously looked around and watched one of the downed men crawling towards a radio. The fierce warrior jumped up and drove a foot down onto the back of the mercenary's head with a vicious curb stomp which sent the man down onto the ground.

"We better get inside, quick."

The trio scrambled inside and did the best to barricade themselves inside. They turned around and looked at the communication equipment around them. A blinking light appeared on of the radios. Someone sent a message through.

Deadpool stepped over and sat down next to it. One press of the button showed Deadpool everything he needed to know.

"It happens in a fortnight."

Okay, maybe not everything they needed to know. The voice came in very distorted, and the three of them looked at each other.

"We could find a way to call home," Oliver said. "Maybe we can find a way to access the Queen Industries satellites, and send an SOS back home or something."

"Yeah, good plan," Deadpool said. "Do you know how to do that by the way?"

"No," Oliver admitted sheepishly.

"Well, we better figure out some kind of plan because we can't stay holed up here forever," Shado said.

Both men nodded in agreement, unfortunately, they could not stay holed up in this modest, if not a little bit uncomfortable shock for very long. It just was not very practical at all, as far as they were concerned.

* * *

' _I'm not even sure if we trolled them this bad with the Alison Blaire concert tickets,'_ Kara thought.

Harry smiled and decided to offer his wife a very gentle reprimand over the network. _'We're not really trolling the twins per say, we're just building up their anticipation. I very much intend to let their nights end in the best possible way. They won't be disappointed.'_

' _No, you won't leave them disappointed,'_ Bette thought. _'Still the looks on their faces, you have to admit, they're very hilarious.'_

Everything over the past few weeks ground down to a very quiet halt. Harry currently enjoyed the downtown, after False Face and Enigma's attempt to bring James Gordon down. You could not keep a good man down for very long, and Gordon was back as part of the Gotham City Police Department, and what more, he was in line for a promotion.

' _Yeah, it's amazing,'_ Barbara thought. _'Dad deserves it, he deserves it a lot more than many who are getting moved up the food chain because of this shift in power. But, you can't help but think Grogan is covering his ass some to prevent a public relations nightmare.'_

' _Cynical much?'_ Gwen teased.

' _You grow that way, and Nashton getting his hands on those papers makes the GCPD very liable for any damages,'_ Dinah thought. _'He had access to a lot of sensitive information against the top people in Gotham as well.'_

' _He'll be put away for a long time,'_ Barbara thought. _'At least I hope. No one that creepy should see the light of day for a very long time.'_

Harry smiled and set up a video conference call to talk two lovely young women, in April O'Neil and Betty Brant. Both of them smiled at Harry.

"So, how are things going?" Harry asked.

"Well, actually, they're going pretty quiet, believe it or not," Betty said a few seconds later. "And I don't mean New York quiet either, I mean actually quiet. It's pretty weird when you really think about it."

"Yes, it is weird," April agreed. "You know, Krang and TCRI, they've both been very quiet. There have been no incidents involving Krang's business partner since the last time we dealt with them either."

"Careful," Harry reminded her.

"Yeah, I know, but still, I want to see him shut down," April said. "After everything, he's done, after all of the people he's hurt….."

Harry took a moment to look over some data which had been collected, at least as much as could be pieced together from TCRI from afar. One very obvious conclusion hit Harry in a blink of an eye.

"Krang's been very busy upgrading the security around the building in his spare time," Harry answered a moment later.

' _Yeah, the DEO wants to find a way inside, but…we can't,'_ Alex thought. _'It doesn't help, but we're being stone-walled by Bishop at every turn.'_

'There's this Bishop guy who has been seen at the TCRI building a few times," Betty reminded April. "He actually came up a couple of weeks ago and told April and me in no uncertain terms to buzz off."

Harry responded with a nod, he had a feeling those two girls took that about as well as expected, which meant not very well at all.

"We don't know too much about that Bishop guy, do we?" April asked.

"Unfortunately, not, he's an enigma," Harry said. "But….I'm looking forward to heading back to New York, and maybe it will give me a chance to poke around there a little bit, maybe. You can never be too careful."

There were a lot of really big business deals on the plate this summer. Harry intended to head to New York just after the Graduation Party and boy would that be a spectacular event.

' _A certain Ms. Van Dyne keeps showing her interest about you,'_ Karen reminded him with a smile. _'Lovely young woman, it would be a shame to keep her hanging.'_

"So, you'll be seeing us in a few weeks then?" Betty asked.

"As soon as the twins and Donna have their graduation party, I'll be out and ready to go," Harry said. "There's some business to take care of, along with some matters of a far more personal nature. Gwen and Reilly are both looking forward to visiting some old friends as well."

The summer looked to be one which would be very busy on all fronts. Harry hoped to make some deals happen and some magic work, no pun intended of course.

* * *

Johnny Viti walked from a parking lot into a car with his two friends. Normally he would have spent the day hanging out with them, hitting the bars, trying to pick up women, and unfortunately getting shut down.

"See yous two later," Johnny said. "I've got to head home…mother's day and I got my Ma something really special."

"Man, you're a real sap, you know that," one of his friends said.

"Hey, the man loves his Ma, you can't make fun of that," another friend said. "Wish I could see my Ma today."

"Why can't you?"

"She's doing thirty to life for chucking some guy off a bridge," the friend said.

Johnny smiled and said his goodbyes to his friends before he made sure the mother's day gift, nice and wrapped, had been secured.

"Call you later," Johnny said. "Don't wait up for me."

The young man walked around the corner and got into the car. Carla Vitta's house was just around the corner and therefore, there was not a very long drive for Johnny to get where he needed to go. The car parked off to the side of the street.

Johnny stepped out and moved to get the package out of the backseat of the car. Pausing, the young man turned around and saw one of those black vans in the street. The type of vans where the person couldn't see inside of the window. It might be cops, messing with his Ma.

Incensed, Johnny walked over to the van and began to tap on the windows. Nothing came out so Johnny tapped on the window again. Nothing again, and Johnny followed it up by pounding on the windows once more. There had been no visible person.

"Anyone in there?" Johnny asked.

No cops, nothing, and Johnny just shrugged. The young man walked over and opened up the car door. The heavy package had been lugged from the van.

Johnny looked up and came face to face with a figure in the shadows. The young man could barely open his mouth to speak when suddenly, a gun fired and caught him in the chest. Johnny's scream pierced the air before someone else shot him.

The gunman ran off just a minute before Carla Viti ran down the stairs.

"OH, MY GOD, MY POOR BABY!"

Carla rushed over towards Johnny, bleeding immensely on the ground. The young man twitched, and coughed in response, trying to hold up his head.

"Call the hospital, god damn it, call the hospital."

Bending down, Carla gently cradled her son, blood oozing on her clothes. An ambulance could not come soon enough for her boy.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 15** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Lots leading into the summer here. Deadpool and the gang are having adventures on the island, and there's trouble brewing in both New York and Gotham City. Some girls are ready to move on from GPA as well._

_Killing a woman's son on Mother's Day, that's savage right there._

_Until Saturday._


	282. Well Earned Reward

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Two: A Well-Earned Reward.**

* * *

Carmine Falcone took the long drive to the hospital, knowing full well something bad had happened instantly. His sister, Carla Vitti, informed him of the news, her son Johnny had been shot. There had been many questions entering the mind of the Roman, but as always, engaging in reckless speculation was not a very good idea, from the Gotham City mob boss.

He knew in an instant something happened. The question of who and the question of why entered the mind of this particular mob boss. Carmine had many different enemies who would have been suspects in the shooting of Johnny. Exactly who would have pulled it off, it was a very good question and Carmine did not know the answers.

Regardless, the Roman pulled up in his limo outside of the hospital, one of the best in the country. There was still, despite the good doctors, a sense of uncertainty, but also a sense of optimism. Carmine knew of his sister's ability to freak out and make a mountain out a molehill. He still had plenty of hope his nephew was alive and kicking inside that hospital.

"Let's go boys."

Carmine talked to two bodyguards, who were well armed. These days, Carmine did not leave anywhere without well-armed bodyguards and a bulletproof vest. Those were necessary steps to take when heading out into Gotham City. The Roman no longer felt untouchable, but that lack of security would only be minimal at best. The mobster would take back what was his and take back Gotham City.

The Roman stepped into the hospital and saw Carla who looked beyond all grief. The woman's face reddened with fist's balled up. In an instant, Falcone knew what happened, and knew the worst.

"Carla?"

Carla's blotchy face and reddened eyes turned to Carmine. "He…he didn't make it. My baby was killed, shot to death by some lunatic."

"Carla, I'm sorry," Falcone said.

"YOU BETTER BE SORRY!"

The shriek echoed throughout the hospital room and caused several of the people in the waiting room to look at Carla with nervous gazes. Carmine's gaze grew more nervous than all. He looked at his sister and drew in a deep breath, before drawing out another breath.

"Carla, this isn't the time or the place."

Wrong thing to say, for Carla was pretty steamed.

"No, you're going to listen to me," Carla said, practically frothing at the mouth when looking Carmine directly in the eye. She took a deep breath and let another one out. "I've stood back, and watched Gotham City unravel over the past few months. I didn't do anything or say anything because I'd figure you would have it back under control. But, no, it's not under control, is it Carmine?"

Carmine allowed the woman to vent for two reasons. She was his sister and lost her son. Otherwise, Carmine would have let her have it.

"You don't have any control anymore!" Carla yelled. "You've lost it and let these freaks overrun Gotham City. And now….and now….and now…..Johnny's dead."

Carla's deep breathing continued to grow even more panicked. She locked eyes with Carmine Falcone and looked very nasty when speaking to him.

"The blood is on your hands, and your hands alone, Carmine," she breathed heavily. "The Mother's Day get together with the extended family was the only reason why we were in Gotham City in the first place. And that won't be happening, because I'm going to have to make preparations to bury my son."

Carmine just let her go one more time, out of respect.

"Heads are going to roll when the boys in Chicago ae going to hear about this."

"Carla, if there's anything I can do….."

The woman stuck one finger into the chest of Carmine Falcone and bared down onto. "No, trust me, you've done more than enough….just leave me in peace…and remember, this is all your fault when you've let Gotham City spiral out of control!"

Carla's deep breathing continued and she turned around with an incensed look burning through her eyes. The woman's rage would not have been capped. Carmine thought his sister should just really calm down before she got hurt, and really flipped out on the wrong person.

Rumors were the order of the day in Gotham City, but, with each passing death, Carmine thought there was some sort of validity. One of Sionis's men had been spooked on April Fool's Day. O'Hara's death on Saint Patrick's Day also remained very fresh in the mind of the people in Gotham City. Despite recent history with the man, Carmine respected O'Hara.

' _It's a shame and a loss, despite our differences.'_

The, recently, on Earth Day, a member of the Gotham City SWAT team had been killed at a Greenhouse, with the Greenhouse not growing any kind of conventional plants. All of the ingredients stirred up for some kind of deranged serial killer, and it was a Holiday Killer as well.

Now, Carmine had more things to worried about, as a grief-stricken mother could be one of the most dangerous things in the world to deal with. Carmine would give her time to reconcile the grief and hope that cooler heads prevailed. In case they didn't, Carmine needed to prepare.

There was one thing Carla said which Carmine agreed with. There was a distinct lack of control from Carmine Falcone in his own city. Time for the Roman to rectify that, and to do that, it would have to start with one phone call.

"Yeah?"

"Maroni," Falcone said. "Get everything ready, circle the wagons. We're going to take control back."

"Pretty bold play all things considered," Maroni said. "But, hey, I didn't think you would take this one lying down for long."

X-

* * *

Harry Potter enjoyed a challenge about as much as the next person, even more so than the next person. Something about getting his mind going and blood pumping really put a smile on Harry's face. Now, Harry stepped into the lab, behind a shield and looked over Ilana, the former Red Lantern, who they collected. The Red Lantern ring was an interesting science, given what it fed off of.

Karen stepped into the picture next to Harry. The latest readings came up for the two to digest and study, at least for a moment. Karen's lips curled into a frown when looking over those readings.

"We're kind of making progress," Karen answered with a shrug. "I really wish we didn't have to keep her isolated. But, when you think about it, Earth really isn't the best place for a Red Lantern."

Both of them discussed many theories and bounced many ideas to each other. Harry currently worked on an idea, partially one Eliza Danvers came up with. Harry looked at the design and back at the woman who was behind the isolation chamber.

"Well, at least the temporary inhibitor is working," Harry said. "At least working enough where I'm comfortable with going to the next stage of the plan, and Eliza's theory…and your theory as well, that the right shock could trick the ring into thinking she's dead and removing it, would work. Although there are too many risks involved to believe it can work one way or another."

"Naturally," Karen answered with a smile on her face. "So, what else do you have?"

"Well, I have an idea," Harry said. "If there's some kind of other ring which chooses her as more worthy than the ring she has, then we might be able to remove the red ring."

"There's a problem with that, as you see," Karen said.

"Yes," Harry agreed a few seconds later. "You can't just seek out a ring. It has to choose you, and the person can't be completely qualified."

' _Well, given the number of different Lanterns which have been created, you might as well create one at this point,'_ Carol thought. _'Although all of the good colors have obviously been taken.'_

Harry smiled and nodded, obviously all of the good ones had been taken. They moved in closer towards Ilana who snapped her eyes up to look both Harry and Karen in the face.

"Do you have any good news for me today?" she asked.

Harry wished he could give the poor girl some more good news and some more relief. There were just a lot of problems involved with that Red Lantern Ring around her finger. A second passed when Harry looked at her.

"We're creating a new device which helps simulate the energy you need to sustain yourself, without forcing you to go into rage mode," Harry said.

"I have a feeling me being angry about not finding a way to get this ring off, would be the best thing to simulate that rage mode," Ilana said. "Maybe I'm going out on a limb though, but that's the best thing I've come up with. And give how sick and twisted Atrocitus was, maybe that's just for the best."

"You have it within you to break the addiction," Harry said. "All you have to do is come to terms with your loss, and you might have a better chance of getting that ring off."

Harry was not one hundred percent sure this was the case, but this was the best theory he had to work with right about now, so this was the theory he was going with. Ilana locked her eyes directly onto Harry and took a deep breath, a deeper breath than the woman ever took in her life. Her eyes kept firmly locked onto Harry.

"I've gotten over my loss."

Unfortunately, those words rang hollow, and Ilana could not believe them, due to the lack of conviction within them. She knew, that Harry knew, those words rang fairly shallow. Ilana's deep breath came out one more time.

"You can't keep feeling the guilt forever," Harry told her. "Of your husband dying."

"I DON'T FEEL GUILTY!"

The sentence, followed by an angry spark of Ilana's vital signs showed a very different story. Harry looked on and decided to just let it go. Ilana's deep breathing followed when the poor woman tried to get everything back under control. It was beyond hard for anyone to do at this particular point in time. Harry understood from Ilana's deep breathing.

It would be manageable if Ilana only held responsibility for her husband's death, but rather the deaths of many other people throughout the universe. It would be one thing if Ilana did not see those faces in her dreams, and in nightmares as well. Ilana saw each and every one of those faces, screaming out in horror, and it was beyond impossible for Ilana to block the images out of her head.

The face most of all, Atrocitus, those hideous, those gloating eyes passed through that mind. The laughter, the laughter which was in every nightmare, nightmares Ilana neglected to share with anyone. They caused letting go of the ring to be rather difficult to do.

A deep breath coming from Ilana allowed her to calm down, well as much as possible. The heart beat slowed down and Ilana found herself more at ease, at least for right now. What would happen the next time something happened though?"

Harry and Karen watched the woman in the chamber. Isolated from the world, with her anger.

' _She's come a long way, but there's still a very long way to go,'_ Harry thought. _'We can't keep her locked up in there forever.'_

' _You'll find a way,'_ Karen thought. _'It's just really unfortunate the conventional ways of helping someone would kill them.'_

* * *

Amanda and Emily Potter basked in the moment; they had graduated from Gotham Private Academy with the highest honors possible. They would accept no less, and their mother and aunt, they would accept no less either, and especially their brother.

"Top of your year," Harry said. "Shows what you can do what you can put your mind to do."

Both of the twins nodded and smiled. They did the best possible, there were a couple of bumps on the way, but the Twins came out the other side better for it. They flourished under some really good teachers as well. Amanda and Emily had a couple of stinkers for teachers, but that was just how things went in Gotham City in this day and age.

"Hey, I'm pleased," Amanda said. "And I knew there would be a party to celebrate. Isn't there always a party in Gotham City?"

Everyone made their way to the party, to celebrate the graduation of Amanda, Emily, Donna, and Amy. Refreshments were plentiful, and there were many familiar faces popping into the party at Blackgate Manor. Amanda and Emily smiled when seeing Lois and Rebecca.

"Guess, we're going to have to pass the torch to our spiritual successors," Amanda said.

"Don't worry, we won't let you down," Lois said. "Well, we'll try not to let you down…although it will be a couple of years before we're at the top of the class, you know."

Donna stepped in with a smile. While she was not at the top of the class, The Amazon Princess figured she had done more than good enough to be pleased. Donna really did hope the success would continue to roll in when heading off to Gotham City University in the fall.

"Well, it's never too soon to start preparing," Donna said.

"No, it isn't," Lois agreed.

Lyta and Hippolyta moved into the party, followed by Diana. Diana stepped over and swept Donna into a hug, and leaned down to whisper in her younger sister's ear.

"I'm so proud of you," Diana said.

Donna smiled, despite any differences, she had with Diana growing up, those words meant a whole lot. It was hard to convey with any real words how much those words meant to Donna, the only thing which could convey the meaning would be a smile.

"Thanks," Donna said. "I just did the best I could do, and I hope that continues throughout college."

"Well, you've given me some standard to beat, and you've set the bar higher than I thought," Lyta said.

Donna looked towards her younger sister and smiled when leaning down. "Should I take that as a compliment?"

"You might," Lyta said. "If anything else, it gives me a challenge….and you haven't given me a challenge in a long time."

"Oh, I don't know, it's been a long time since we've sparred together," Donna said. "You might be surprised with how good I've gotten."

"Well, it's good to see you've applied yourself into all aspects of your life," Hippolyta said. "And I'm very proud of you. I know you're frustrated, being the middle child. Thinking you can't be as good as your sisters, but I think you carve your own niche, you might be able to be something."

"What are you going to study in college, anyway?" Diana asked.

"Well, I've given it some thought," Donna said. "And I think I'd really want to go into teaching…..just something I thought I would do."

"I'm surprised you didn't want to…?"

"Follow in your footsteps?" Donna asked Diana with a smile. "Sorry to break your heart, but that really isn't a place where I want to go, right now. Besides, you're doing such a good job out there; I wouldn't want to step on your toes or anything."

Donna smiled and Diana took that as the compliment Donna intended it to be. The youngest Amazon moved over where Barbara, Kara, and Dinah were talking. The twins were over onto the other end of the party and were hanging out with Bette and Bunny, and the four no doubt were up to no good.

"So, you're finally going to join us," Kara said.

"Yeah, I could have maybe been there a year earlier if I would have applied myself sooner," Donna said. "Not all of us have Barbara Gordon levels of focus though."

Barbara answered with a guilty as charged style smile and shook her head in response. It was true, she could be a perfectionist at times, working towards a greater goal.

"Well, I'm going to redouble my workload, because I'm looking towards Forensics, and Criminal Justice this coming semester," Barbara said.

"Do you plan to fit sleep in there somewhere?" Dinah asked Barbara.

"Yeah, somewhere, maybe," Barbara fired back with a cheeky grin. "Besides, if Harry could fire off the Doctorates, I think a couple of Masters should be well within my reach. I've lost track of how many he's had at this point, but….it makes a good talking point in media interviews."

Kara smiled; it did, in fact, do so. She did have a question to talk to Barbara about. "So, wasn't it your father who put the kibosh on you being a cop?"

"Yeah, Dad did discourage that, but still…..it's something important to study for my night work," Barbara said. "The forensics part especially, not saying I'm going to go all CSI: Gotham City in the world, but hey, you never really know what I could do."

Barbara didn't see herself joining the GCPD at this point in time, no respect to the many fine officers who worked there.

"Criminal justice can be interesting, but trust me when I say there's a lot of work," Dinah said. "It will be worth it in the end."

Dinah noticed a familiar face had popped into the party, well familiar with the fact she was incognito. Dinah slipped over to see Sara, dressed in a dark wig, glasses, along with a plaid school girl skirt, and a tight blouse. Sheer stockings topped off the outfit.

"Hey," Dinah said.

"I figured I'd slip away to tell you I may be joining Donna and the twins and well…you, at GCU this autumn," Sara said. "Nyssa and I talked about it, and we agreed me getting my college education is the best. And she wants more League agents she can trust in Gotham…and I guess that's me."

"Are you ever going to come out as alive?" Dinah asked.

"That just sounds weird, and I'll be honest, I don't really know," Sara said. "It looks like you will be having classes with Melody Drake this autumn….figured I could help keep you out of trouble as well."

Sara leaned back with a smile and moved over, she saw a certain another girl incognito on the party. She finally got her Potter virginity taken, and Sara could not wait to have some fun with her.

"Melody, right?" Thea asked.

"Yeah," Sara responded. "I was in Gotham City, and funny enough, I bump into you…..I always seem to be running into you at parties...Mia, wasn't it?"

Sara answered with a knowing smile. She looked at the younger girl, boy had she blossomed over the past year or so. Sara wanted to take her into one of the many bedrooms at the Manor and give her a pretty good looking over.

Elsewhere in the party, Veronica smiled when looking around. She looked at Harry with a brightening grin etched upon her face. "Well, I have to say, this is going to be the best party we're going to have for at least a couple of months…..BRUCE!"

Bruce Wayne showed up at the party, and given how busy Harry heard he had been as of late, Harry appreciated him showing up at all.

"There you are," Veronica said. "I didn't think you would show up."

"Well, it's not every day, the infamous Potter twins graduate, and with top honors," Bruce said. "Do you think I could have a word with you, Harry, briefly?"

"Briefly, yes, you may have a word with me," Harry said.

The two walked over to a secluded area of the party. Bruce decided to go into the conversation without much preamble at all. "As you know, there's been a death…..another one, Johnny Vitti, you've heard about that one, haven't you?"

"Yes, I've heard," Harry said. "And they seem to be taking cues from both the Cop Killer and the Calendar Man….the press is taken to calling him the Holiday Killer."

"Yes," Bruce said. "I'm following up a lead…..there may have been more deaths by Day planned until he got locked up in Blackgate. I'm going to head off now after I give the twins my regards."

Harry nodded and turned around. He would not neglect another recent graduation. The stunning Brazilian looking on around the party, dressed in a nice snug green dress which fit the girl's ample chest. With blonde hair and dark skin, Amy offered an exotic look and was very appealing to look at. The fact the dress was short enough for Harry to see a hint of what laid underneath enticed the young man. He stepped closer towards Amy, smiling.

"It's been a really nice party," Amy said.

"Thank you," Harry said. "When you speak to Selene, tell her I hope to meet with her in a more intimate setting."

Amy blinked for a second and took in a deep breath. Harry leaned in and smiled at the poor girl, who squirmed against the wall. Harry had her right in the crosshairs.

"I remember you very well, Amara," Harry said. "And I hoped to see you again after that fleeting meeting at Fashion Week a few years ago."

Amara's breathing increased when coming in close contact with the handsome and very powerful sorcerer. A moisture slowly stained Amara's panties and a fluttering feeling. Amara would not have minded if Harry took her right here. With many regrets in Amara's mind, Harry pulled back with a smile.

Harry stepped away and returned to the party. Amanda and Emily took his place and smiled at the poor child. Amara drew in a very deep breath and let the breath out.

"So, he pretty much told you everything," Amanda said.

"You said you had a big surprise for me," Amara said. "Was that it?"

"Oh, when we say we have a big surprise, we have a big surprise," Amanda said with a little smirk and a smaller grin on her face. "Patience, though, dear Amy, good things will come to those who wait."

For a second, Amara felt relaxed and then felt Amanda's hand grabbing onto Amara's ass and causing her to jump about ten feet in the air.

' _That belongs to Harry,'_ Amanda thought.

* * *

The party started to wind down, and the twins decided to take a very nervous Amara up the stairs for her surprise. The two of them smiled.

' _It's really too bad I couldn't join you,'_ Donna thought. _'Mother insisted I come home, for the other part of the celebration. It isn't every day your daughter graduates with high honors.'_

' _Don't worry, we'll send you a detailed account when we know you're alone in your room,'_ Amanda thought, a wicked smile crossing the face of the Potter twin.

The Potter twins marched Amara into the room to get her prize. Amara took a very deep breath and came face to face with Harry Potter in all of his glory, just waiting for her, with a big smile etched upon that face. Harry stripped off his jacket and shoes immediately, being left in a nice shirt and a pair of pants as well. Amara's eyes drank in Harry's body and a smile crossed the young man's face when Amara stepping closer.

"Hello, Amara," Harry said. "Why don't you let me get a better look at you?"

Amara slowly slipped down the straps of her dress without much preamble. Dark skin revealed towards Harry, with a pair of nice C-Cup breasts encased in a bra. They fit Amara's sensual frame very nicely. The beautiful woman's toned stomach, without an ounce of fat, revealed next, along with a pair of panties which already soaked in anticipation. Harry looked down Amara's stocking covered legs which were in fact quite gorgeous. Amara kicked off the shoes and turned around, for Harry to get a nice look at Amara's firm ass, wearing a thong.

"Harry," Amara breathed.

Harry grabbed the strip of fabric coming between Amara's ass cheeks in the thong and pulled it back with a snap. Slowly, Amara turned around and came face to face with Harry. Harry kissed the beautiful Princess, those hands skimming down every single last inch of Amara's body. The beautiful woman moaned when feeling Harry's hands roll over every single last inch of flesh.

Amanda and Emily smiled and waited for Amara to fall back onto the bed. The twins moved over to unbutton Harry's shirt and remove his pants.

"Let's get Harry warmed up for the main event," Amanda said.

* * *

 

Amara watched at the end of the bed in very perverted awe when Amanda fished her brother's cock out. The meaty organ stuck out, only half-hardened. Amanda wrapped a hand around Harry's prick and started to slowly pump it, raising it up into full mast.

Emily reached behind Harry and felt up her brother's muscular body. Her dress dropped to the ground, along with her bra. A pair of nice breasts pressed against Harry's back with Emily doing what she could to feel up Harry, feeling the muscular flesh just mold and press underneath her palms.

"Mmm, I can't wait to have my hands all over this," Amanda murmured in an excited tone of voice. "And I really can't wait to have my mouth wrapped around this."

Amanda's warm lips found Harry's cock. The beautiful redhead went down onto her brother's thick, meaty pole, pushing about as much hard cock into her mouth, stretching it around her throat. Harry held onto the back of Amanda's head and guided his thick phallus into the beautiful twin's mouth. Amanda pushed back and sucked on Harry as hard as possible. Each movement brought more cock into Amanda's waiting and very willing mouth.

Amara breathed heavily on the bed. Emily moved over and climbed on top of Amara. Amara's legs spread, and Emily slowly worked those fingers down Amara's body. The more innocent, but still devious, of the two twins, lightly caressed Amara's body and made her pant in pleasure.

"This pussy is nice and wet already," Emily said. "Shouldn't be too hard for my brother's hard cock to slide right in and fuck your brains out."

"Jesus, Mandy."

Harry looked down at the face of his beautiful young sister who kept bobbing, sucking, along with twisting her hands around the base of the sorcerer's engorged prick. Amanda sucked hard and fast, making Harry groan. The feisty redhead reached underneath Harry's balls and cupped it, slowly coaxing the cum out of those balls and into Amanda's mouth.

One more pump flooded Amanda's throat with Harry's manly essence. The sorcerer pushed back and filled Amanda's throat with so much cum, the poor girl almost choked on the flood. To Amanda's credit, she kept up a very steady pace and kept sucking Harry's throbbing cock until the juices filled the girl's mouth.

A few more sucks and Amanda pulled away from Harry, dragging her tongue against Harry's manhood with a wide smile. Amanda's warm lips sucked Harry for a few more seconds and drained the last few drops of cum from the tip of his cock.

Emily moved over as quickly as possible to share the gift with her. Both Potter Twins engaged in a steamy embrace and an even steamer kiss. Both beautiful redheads swapped their brother's cum. The stunning twin vixens engaged into pure sexual lust, running their hands around each other's backs and feeling them up. Amanda and Emily sucked their lips and dragged the cum from their mouths.

Harry looked over to the bed, cock hardened and watched as Amara rubbed hard at the images of the two twins. The sorcerer walked over and grabbed Amara's hands, pulling them together. The young woman's breathing increased with Harry leaning down onto her.

"You want this, don't you, Princess?"

"Yes," Amara mewled in a very excited voice. "Badly, I want you badly."

Harry could tell things were about ready to get hot. The sorcerer leaned down and kissed Amara on the lips very hotly. Amara reached up and grabbed the back of Harry's head. The tongue pushed deep into Amara's mouth, and the two of them swapped a series of kisses with each other. Harry felt up Amara's body and she eagerly anticipated each action, each touch.

The bra dropped down to reveal Amara's very beautiful breasts. Harry leaned down and kissed them, sucking on the nipples. The beautiful Princess moaned with Harry worshipping those round breasts.

"I bet you want me to fuck you, don't you?" Harry asked.

"Yes, please!" Amara yelled.

Across the room, Emily sat spread legged in the chair with Amanda on her knees and face buried deep into Emily's cunt. It was a pretty good shot for Amanda. Emily gripped the back of Amanda's short hair and felt the pleasure of a tongue delving very deep inside of the womanhood.

"Well, you're going to get fucked," Harry said. "You're going to get fucked hard….so hard you can feel it, I'm going to take your pussy, and then if you're lucky, I'm going to take your ass."

Harry's finger slipped inside of Amara and felt yes, the exotic babe was very tight. She reacted very favorably to the thought of anal penetration. Harry slipped another finger deep inside of Amara's tight asshole, feeling how warm it was. Good things came to those who waited.

A bolt of energy crossed the room and took both of the twins with an orgasm. Harry slid his huge prick down across Amara's front, starting at the Princess's neck and rubbing a hardened head across Amara's hardened nipples. The Princess and her toned stomach were a treat to rub against Harry's length. Harry pulsed even hard when going closer towards Amara.

The feeling of Harry dragging his cock along her beautiful body made Amara breath heavily. Harry spread Amara's legs and waited to penetrate the woman. Amara's breathing increased and the hunger, the evidence hunger showed how much Amara wanted this next play.

"Fuck me, please!" Amara begged him.

Harry entered Amara as swiftly as possible from above. Several inches of Harry's engorged prick slid into Amara's tightening walls. The feeling of her pussy squeezing felt really good. Harry pulled almost out of Amara and then dropped down into the beautiful woman. Harry's thick balls slapped down onto Amara's thighs. A huge length buried deep inside of Amara with a few hard pumps.

"Oh, yes," Amara breathed. "Right there, fuck me right there!"

Harry penetrated Amara's pussy with a few thrusts, and the Princess underneath Harry thrashed up, pushing hips first onto Harry's hardening manhood. The beautiful girl's breathing increased with those nipples. Pleasure and warmth spread between Amara's thighs the deeper Harry pushed deep down onto them.

Emily fell back onto the chair and noticed a spectral, hard-light, magical copy of her brother hovering over the top of the twin. The magical energy rolled over Emily's body and caused the pleasure to increase. The redhead's nipples grew hardened and something tugged on them. Pure magic worked its way between Emily's loins and caused the redhead to get excited the deeper it penetrated inside of her. Right until the feeling of being penetrated down to the very core struck Emily hard and very fast.

Amanda slammed against the wall and a second copy spread those hands against Amanda's body. Those nipples hardened with some mysterious force pulling and sucking on them. The redhead's body increased with pleasure, with Harry lightly caressing every single inch of the body.

"Harry, fuck me."

The prime copy of Harry pushed deeper inside of Amara. The two met each other, movement for movement, with Harry burying deeper inside of Amara. Amara's breathing increased the further Harry pushed inside. Amara reached up and Harry encouraged the roaming of the beautiful woman's hands.

"Are you going to cum?" Harry asked.

Amara nodded eagerly, biting down on her lip. Harry rocked Amara's tight core with a few more thrusts. Amara clenched on as tight as possible, holding onto Harry when feeling the penetration go even deeper. Harry's balls snapped down onto Amara's wet pussy. Amara slowly rose up off of the bed and felt as much as Harry inside as humanly possible. Harry really was going to town on the beautiful woman and making her pleasure accelerate with each single movement.

"Please, harder, deeper!" Amara begged Harry.

"Cum for me, Princess."

Those loins gushed and allowed Harry further penetration. Amara clung onto Harry, those beautiful legs tightening around Harry's waist when he pushed down into the woman. Amara closed those eyes tightly and enjoyed the moment.

Harry pushed into Amara and felt the sensation of the tightening pussies of both of his twin sisters as well. The sorcerer pushed deeper inside of Amara, the feeling of her elastic walls clamping down hard continuing. Harry picked up a steadier pace and rocked Amara hard.

"And again, cum again," Harry said. "Cum for me again, and you're going to get your reward."

Amara loved to be rewarded, so she complied with Harry's wishes. Not that the Princess had any real choice, with the way Harry played with her body and stirred up some emotions. Amara's tightening walls grew even tighter around Harry's throbbing hard cock.

"And I'm almost ready," Harry said.

Amara squeezed Harry between her thighs and could feel that hard cock pushing inside. Amara's breathing increased, it was much more than she bargained for, but that was not a bad thing. Nothing was a bad thing when it felt so good to have that huge cock buried inside.

Harry's balls tightened and spilled an immense load of cum inside of Amara's waiting pussy. Those balls clenched and released several splashes of juice inside of Amara's body.

Amanda grabbed onto the wall when the duplicate had his wicked way with her. Every little touch, coming from Harry's mind, made Amanda's body shiver and quiver, with Harry's fingers caressing deep into the redhead's nipples and the cock slamming into her hard.

"Treat me like your own personal cum rag, Harry," Amara breathed heavily. "Fuck your baby sister, pin her against the wall, and drill the shit out of her cunt!"

Amanda pushed her walls against Harry. A more reserved Emily was being pushed back into the chair and speared at the end of her brother's cock. Both sisters received multiple orgasms and loved it.

Harry Prime pulled out of Amara and lightly brushed a finger deep into her back passage. Cock hardened again, Harry squeezed Amara's ass cheek and caused the beautiful Princess to whimper. Harry light caressed the inside of her asshole with his finger.

"You want my cock inside of your beautiful ass, don't you?" Harry asked. "I can see it, you want your anal virginity taken away...Selene has likely told you about how I'd take my big cock and push it into her ass, and make it mine. Every time you see down, for weeks, you're going to be thinking about nothing other than my cock. Aren't you, Princess?"

Harry squeezed Amara's ass and caused a whimper to come from the girl in question. Oh yes, she wanted nothing more other than to feel that thick cock just buried deep inside of her ass. The thought of it got her very excited to feel Harry inside like that.

"Please, fuck me. In my ass!"

Spreading apart Amara's legs to reveal her ass, Harry would not deny a beautiful Princess of her reward. Slowly, Harry worked his manhood deep inside of Amara's puckered asshole. Inch by inch, Harry pushed deeper inside of Amara and made her breath in pleasure.

At first, Amara didn't know how she would take such a big cock inside of her ass. However, the longer it went, the more it felt really good. Amara's asshole clenched around Harry's thick tool when being pushed deep inside. Harry closed his eyes.

"Damn, Amy, your ass feels so fucking good."

Amara flushed, and it was not only Harry's cock buried inside of her ass that felt good. Oh, that did feel good, you better believe it felt really good. It was the fact Harry's fingers were pretty much everywhere they needed to be and that much excited Amara. Harry pushed deeper inside of her tightening hole and those balls smacked up against Amara's tight ass. Harry pulled almost all the way out of Amara and shoved more of his engorged prick into the beautiful vixen underneath him.

"Fuck," Amara panted, feeling that thick cock buried into tightening asshole.

The screams of the twins being fucked raw from across the room only served to get Amara's motor revved up even more. Harry pulled almost from Amara and pushed into her again. Every time those balls slapped against Amara's ass, it caused her to twitch.

"You're cumming from just a few minutes of my cock in your ass?"

Harry pushed his fingers against Amara's gushing womanhood. The Princess of Nova-Roma came very hard. Not to mention, Amara's nipples were so hard they could cut glass. The feeling of a long hard cock inside, burying inside, working Amara's ass, with everything it could deliver, just drilling her hard and fast.

The orgasms came again and again and again, and Amara came, again and again, and again. Every time Harry pushed deep inside of Amara, the feeling of a big cock inside of her made her body.

"I'm getting close as well," Harry said "I'm going to cum inside of that nice ass. Would you like that Amy? Would you like me to spill my nice thick warm load into your perfect ass?"

"YES!" Amara screamed at the top of her lungs.

Emily felt the penetration of Harry's cock and could tell by the light, Harry was getting close. Those fingers rolled over Emily's nipples and squeezed them. One or two more orgasms, and Harry would bury his load inside of Emily's very tight and willing cunt.

"Fuck me, my pussy is so much better than Mandy's!" Emily yelled.

Amanda could not protest underneath the account of being drilled and fondled as hard as possible. The duplicate might not have matched up to having the real deal, but it was the next best thing. Harry pushed deep inside of Amanda, and those balls were about ready to burst once again.

The duplicates exploded at the same time. First, they blew an immense load into the bodies of the twins, and then, the duplicates self-destructing after their purpose had been fulfilled covered both Amanda and Emily into a thick shower of cum.

Both of the twins crawled towards each other and locked in an embrace, licking the cum off of their beautiful bodies.

"That's so fucking hot," Amara breathed.

"Yes, it is," Harry groaned. "And speaking of hot, you're about to get a thick, load of cum inside of your nice juicy ass. I hope you're ready for it, Amy. You've earned your reward, and I'll be damned if I let you get away without receiving every single last drop you deserve."

Harry pushed deeper inside of Amara's tight asshole and she clenched harder when Harry worked deep inside of the beautiful woman. Harry's breathing increased when pumping deep inside of Amara's ass.

It took several moments for the full load to be buried inside of Amara's asshole. Two twins loomed in the distance, ready to clean up the mess. The soft pleasure of several release came through Amara when she collapsed down on the bed.

* * *

 

Harry laid in the room, smiling in the aftermath.

' _Harry, it's happening, Eliza Moonstone has gone into labor,'_ Faora thought to Harry.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 17, 2017.**

* * *

_So, we have the fallout of the death of Johnny Vitti and it's some very ugly business._

_On a warmer note, Amara gets inducted into the ground, with some Amanda and Emily action on the side. Party scene leads into what will be an interesting summer._

_And that's an interesting way to end that chapter._

_Until Monday._


	283. Pitstop in Paradise

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Three: Pitstop In Paradise**

* * *

The gateway opened up, and Harry stepped out onto Paradise. Lily and Rose joined him when stepping out of the gateway onto the island. Both redheads looked very intrigued about the event which was going to take place, and Harry, found himself very intrigued as well. This was it, it was going to happen, one way or another. Faora gave him the message.

After receiving the message, Harry was off, and Lily and Rose met Harry halfway, to going on the gateway. Diana, Lyta, and Donna, already on the island for the second part of Donna's celebration for graduation, stood waiting on it. Lyta bounced up and down in excitement before she ran over, and threw her arms around Harry, giving him a nice, long hug and kissed him in a very excited manner.

"So, it's finally happening, isn't it?" Lyta asked. "My baby sister is coming….I can't help it….I'm so excited…and nervous…..I'm so nervous."

Donna just smiled and shook her head. The middle Princess wondered if she or Diana were like this, overly excited. Then again, the mood on the island had been one of jubilation, due to the fact another child would be born and would be blessed. All of the Amazons looked towards the goddesses and hoped for a smooth transition for Eliza Moonstar when she had her child.

"Yes, it's very exciting."

Hippolyta stepped in with a smile. Lyta pulled away from Harry, having only a slight decency to be embarrassed in response. Artemis stepped next to Hippolyta and gave a smile. Lily, Rose, and Harry stepped further onto the inside, walking side by side with Diana, and slightly ahead of Lyta and Donna, but further behind Artemis and Hippolyta.

"So, how is everything going?" Lily asked Hippolyta.

The Queen of the Amazons smiled and took a deep breath. "Well, Faora is currently assisting our healers, and we hope for as smooth of a transition as possible. We want to make the birthing process as painless for both mother and child, and…..I should be off soon enough to offer my insight on how to make it as comfortable as possible."

Lyta's birth was very different from Diana's and Donna's, just like the birth of the new baby would be very different to any of Hippolyta's.

Harry stepped into the island and caught sight of Dani and Kyla, both of the girls looking around in awe at the scene of the island. Both of them spent the past several weeks on the island, as Eliza waited to give birth, and had the support of the Amazons and also the goddesses as well.

"I can't wait!" Lyta yelled.

"Patience," Diana told her youngest sister. "You know this sort of thing can't be rushed. The baby will come when she's ready to come."

Lyta adopted the classic arms folded position and gave Diana one of those looks. The oldest Amazon Princess just smiled when reaching over and gave Lyta a very light pat on the back. Still, Diana had to admit, the atmosphere on the island.

"So, how you are girls doing?" Harry asked.

"We are just….well, we're happy to be here," Kyla said. "Thanks for asking…..though…."

Harry smiled; both of the girls already worshiped the ground Harry walked on. They would be worshipping him in other ways in a few years when they were old enough. Harry cleared his throat and both of the girls smiled when joining Harry in sitting around. The other younger Amazons, who had been hanging out with Kyla and Dani, moved around, to get a look until one glare from Artemis convinced them it was time to return to their lessons.

' _You haven't lost your touch,'_ Harry thought.

' _I should hope not,'_ Artemis thought. _'Just because excitement has gripped the people on this island, doesn't mean, that they should slack off on their lessons. They should all remain as focused as possible, to get everything done.'_

' _Oh, I know,'_ Harry responded.

"Dani's a lot more excited than I am," Kyla responded. "But, then again, you were the one who has blessed her with a younger sister."

"Thank you, by the way," Dani said.

' _Just to let you know what's going on with your daughter,'_ Faora thought. _'It's not going to be long now, the healer is working with me, and Hippolyta is as well. We're going to make the process as painless as possible for both mother and daughter, even though we're entering some uncharted territory. Eliza is going to end the process very drained, but she'll pull out. It should be interesting to see what else we can do for them going forward.'_

' _Why do you sound like you're using my daughter's birth as a science experiment?'_ Harry asked Faora a few seconds later.

Faora did not break her stride. Harry just frowned.

' _Just making sure everything is in line,'_ Faora thought.

' _Rose and I can help if you need it,'_ Lily offered.

' _All help would be appreciated.'_

Harry just had to sit back and play the game no one liked to play at all, the waiting game. Lyta joined himself, Dani, and Kyla, and there was just a lot of excitement to go around from all parties. Harry crossed his fingers and hoped for a nice, and painless birth for both mother and child. With Faora, Hippolyta, Lily, Rose, and the Healers, along with the blessing of the goddesses, Harry felt very confident there were going to be minimal issues.

* * *

Several of the most infamous criminals in Gotham City currently resided inside of the Arkham ward in Blackgate prison. One of them kicked up his heels against the wall and looked around. A wide smile spread over the gentleman's pale face. The notorious Joker looked around, the mutterings of the inmates were rather amusing. He just started to whistle merrily.

Suddenly, Joker's whistling stopped. The Crazed Criminal Clown looked around, looked up, and saw something stirring in the shadows, and moving down the hallway to the left most side of the wing of the high profile prisoners in Gotham City.

"Oh, I think there's a problem!" the Joker cried before a moment. "I seem to have a bat in my belfry."

Certainly enough, Batman slipped inside of the Arkham Wing in Blackgate prison. He had spent a fair amount of time studying the security patterns of the wing to get inside. It was a very calculated risk to pop inside of this particular wing in the prison.

"You know, if Grogan has his way, you're going to be in that Prison Wing," Oracle's voice commented over the network.

"Yes, I know," Batman said. "But, I need answers."

Seconds passed before Oracle came in for a response.

"And you're going to get it inside Blackgate?"

Batman didn't say much of anything, but yes, he intended to get those answers inside of Blackgate prison. The Latest Holiday Killer attack, on Mother's Day, the death of Johnny Vitti, stirred up a strong amount of discontent within the Falcone camps. And a war coming would cause the Falcone camps to self-implode, but not before a lot of innocent people have been taken down in the crossfire.

Only one man could have offered some inside. Batman avoided the stare of most of the prisoners and all of the guards. The twenty-minute shift change windows allowed Batman to step into the prison without detection, but there were always risks. The risks got greater the deeper Batman entered the prison.

' _There he is.'_

Batman came face to face with a man who terrorized Gotham City through his own series of holiday-related crimes a year ago. Julian Day looked across from Batman, bald, even the criminal's eyebrows had been shaved off. The self-described Calendar Man looked at him.

"A belated Happy Mother's Day to you, Batman," Day said in a calm voice. "I do hope you had a chance to visit your mother on such a joyous day."

No answer had been given from Batman. Day smiled and looked across from the cell at Batman before pressing on.

"Unfortunately, I no longer have a mother to share the day with. It's awful, I know it is. My father really didn't want much of anything to do with me, so I will not be eagerly anticipating Father's Day, even though there are many sons and fathers who will be anticipating that particular day."

Day took a moment to sigh.

"And between Father's Day and Mother's Day is Memorial Day, and you must really keep your eyes peeled on that day, for that is when the Holiday Killer will strike next."

Batman took a moment to look at Day, who gave a very dry and very amused round of laughter. The bald man pushed against the cell. Harmless looking when in containment, but there was a devious mind continuing to work its magic from deep inside of the cell. Batman kept his gaze firmly locked on Day and did not back off for a second.

"We both know why I'm here," Day said. "You need my help to deal with this new killer, this Holiday Killer as the press has taken to call him. One of the few luxuries we are allowed in here is a Newspaper….and we're very excited….a brand new serial killer. I'm more bemused, and I can't help, but wonder if this gentleman really is adhering to the calendar…but then again, Saint Patrick's Day, April Fool's Day, Earth Day, and Mother's Day, all special days, where the Holiday Killer has struck."

"Do you have any insight on what he might be, or who might be causing this?"

A pause happened and Batman wondered if he was going to get insight or go around in circles even more.

"Hmmm," Day said with mock insight dancing in his voice. "Yes, yes, yes, of course, it's a very tricky one. And there have been a lot of strange events which have been centered around Holidays as of yet. Let us recall them. Halloween led to Gotham City being nearly plunged into darkness. New Year's Day, the Joker made his grand debut just as the ball dropped at Midnight. And the murders of Rachel Dawes and Gilda Day….they tragically occurred on Christmas Day."

Day took in a deep breath and looked towards Batman.

"Very interesting, you should take a look at Harvey Dent, and I mean, you take a closer look at him," Day said. "It's just convenient that Loeb had been implicated in the Cop Killer Deaths, and had just wound up dead. Dead men cannot defend themselves in Court. And Harvey would have the perfect motive. And after the heat is off, he's decided to switch gimmicks, borrowing a bit from the Calendar Man's playbook. Yet, the Calendar Man's contributions are not being acknowledged, and we can't have that."

"You think it's Dent?" Batman asked.

Day nodded looking like a particularly grotesque bobblehead when he did so.

"I think he framed Loeb and killed Rachel Dawes because she was close to uncovering the truth about Gotham City's shining night," Day said. "Dead men and dead women, they tell no tales, especially in Gotham City. We both know that, Batman. And you better be ready, because it's not a matter if the Holiday Killer will strike, it's not a matter of when he'll strike. Memorial Day is the day, be ready."

Batman's interview had been cut short by the pattering of footsteps down the hall. Guards made their way down to try and figure out where the noise had been coming from. Batman already slipped off into the night and disappeared.

* * *

Eris returned from helping mentor some of the younger Amazons in their lessons. No sooner did Eris show up, when Lyta almost bumped into her.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Eris asked.

"I'm doing fine," Lyta said. "School's going well….you know, maybe you should join me? It would be a great experience, and you'd see a lot more of my father. You would like that, wouldn't you?"

"I see a lot of him every day," Eris said. "He leaves a duplicate on the island….and comes by in the flesh, every few weeks to switch out."

Lyta knew about why the duplicates were switched out. They were done so so they did not start to develop beyond their purpose. Leave them out for more than a month, and there could be some serious problems.

"Maybe," Lyta said. "So, how are things going for you anyway since you went through the find of Ascension Day ceremony?"

Eris smiled and the two Amazons moved over towards a small rocky area overlooking a stream. It put them within earshot of the healer's pavilion just in case they needed to hear the good news about the baby being born. Both girls relaxed on the stream and listened to the sounds around the island. Activity on the island ground to a standstill the closer it came to the baby being born. Even Artemis, who had tried not to slack off in teaching her lessons, decided to let the younger girls have the rest of the day off.

Harry waited outside, with Faora giving him constant updates. He half-watched Lyta and Eris while listening for any news of his daughter's birth.

"She's grown up to be very beautiful, hasn't she?"

Harry turned around and noticed a tall blonde dressed in a tight toga standing in front of him, with the toga stretched over her ample features. Flowers hung from the woman's hair. For a second, Harry did not know who the woman was, and then one final look at the woman told Harry he came face to face with the Queen of the Goddesses herself, Hera.

' _Very good,'_ Hera thought. _'I've decided to visit the island, they don't know it's me…well, Hippolyta and Diana might have figured it out. But, I didn't want to take attention off of such a blessed day….and I'm sure the exciting event will be coming any moment now.'_

"We've been blessed!"

This very excited declaration came from one of the Amazon healers who walked out with a smile. There were some cheers from the Amazons who had been close by. Hera leaned over and grabbed Harry by the shoulder before leaning in and giving Harry a slight kiss which lingered.

"Congratulations."

Faora stepped outside, and Harry blinked twice. The woman had a purple stripe down her hair when stepping out into the picture. Harry could barely keep the smile off of his face when Faora stepped closer.

"Mother and child are both healthy," Faora said. "Eliza's just tired, and she's resting…once everything is okay, you're going to have to see your new daughter…and I'm certain both Lyta and Danielle will both want to see their new sister as well."

Both Lyta and Dani stepped over, both to the amusement of Kyla and Eris, who were trying not to laugh about how casual both of the girls were trying to look. They were looking very casual and failing.

"We don't want to overwhelm the child until she's done having her physical," Faora said. "So, give it about twenty minutes, and you can meet her."

Lily stepped outside, and could not help, but smile at the stripe in her stepdaughter's hair, when stepping away from Faora.

"Accidental magic just minutes after birth," Lily said. "That's very powerful….although very harmless. At least she didn't set an old man's beard on fire like you did."

Harry smiled and recalled that was one of his first acts in this world. Good times, good times.

"Well, it's the newest member of the Potter line," Harry said. "Azalea Rosemary Potter."

"Given we were going to call you Azalea if you were born a girl, it's just as well things come full circle," Lily said. "The healer shouldn't take much longer now unless there are any complications, and Faora assured me there wasn't."

"I think the birth went along as well as can be expected," Hera said. "We truly have been blessed on this day with a new child, and may she grow up someday to be a beautiful and powerful woman."

* * *

On an island about as far away from Paradise as humanly possible, Wade Wilson was sick and tired of going through this runaround. Shado and Oliver tried as they might find a way to get the equipment working.

"Okay, we're not getting any closer to getting off this island, aren't we?" Wade asked. "Yeah, I didn't think so. We're going to have to figure out another plan….and getting off the island won't solve the problem of whatever Fyers is looking for and also Deathstroke and his magic sparkle gem. I bet that's pretty dangerous."

"Believe me, we're doing all we can," Shado said. "Fyers won't rest until we're dead, so maybe we're going to have to…."

A buzzing caught all three of them off guard. Oliver frowned and started to fiddle with the radio.

"Hang on, something's working," Oliver said.

He continued to fiddle with the knob until a voice came in clear on the radio.

"You know, you're more persistent than I bothered to give you credit for," the voice of Edward Fyers said over the radio. "All three of you."

"Thanks, we do our best," Deadpool responded a moment later. "So, what do you want, Fyers? Because I don't think you have anything to offer us….."

"Oh, you're going to want to hear what I have to offer," Fyers said. "As annoyed as you might be from getting hunted down, you're beginning to become a very serious problem. No matter how hard I try, you're like cockroaches that I can't exterminate. Therefore, I'm going to have to make you a deal."

All parties had been equal parts interested and suspicious at the same time.

"What do you want?" Oliver asked.

"Oh, it's nothing you have to put too much effort into doing," Fyers said. "You stop all aggression against me, and I will offer you safe passage off of the island."

Oliver paused a few seconds later. The deal seemed very good, almost too good to be true. Wade and Shado both wore the most skeptical looks possible, and Oliver thought for a very good reason. There was something going on there, something which Oliver could not piece together, but he was pretty sure he did not like.

"And I have Yao Fei, but I swear, once I'm done, I will release him," Fyers said. "In exchange for your compliance and your lack of action against my operations. I'll even convince Deathstroke to back off."

"First, the old man got captured again?" Deadpool asked. "Talk about having the worst possible luck."

Shado's deadly gaze locked onto Deadpool. Deadpool had been immune to many things during his day, bullets, knives, and the gaze of beautiful, but killer women. So, Shado's look of death did not really do anything to agitate Deadpool. The Merc just pressed on.

"And second, you really believe you can keep Deathstroke on a leash?" Deadpool asked. "He wants me dead, just because that's the kind of abusive relationship we have. And….."

"Just let me take care of it, Mr. Wilson."

Shado took a moment to look around to both of her fellow captives on the island, well captive was a bit strong in the case of Deadpool.

"Can we trust him at his word?"

Both of the other people in the world gave Oliver a dirty look.

"We'll talk!" Oliver said.

"Very good," Fyers said a moment later. "I'll see you at Sundown, where we'll discuss the terms. If I don't see you, the old man gets it. And then we will hunt you down, and kill you on this island."

"Yeah, I guess we have no choice," Oliver said.

"Yes, we don't," Shado said.

The radio message went dead the moment Fyers offered his deal. Deadpool decided to voice another real concern, taking a deep breath as he did so.

"You know, what's to stop Deathstroke from killing us from the moment we step out in the open?"

* * *

Faora could not have been pleased with the fact her niece had been born in perfect health. The baby currently rested, after the first exam being given. Her power levels were very high for a newborn, and they would need to exercise great care when taking care of her.

Meanwhile, Faora decided to take a close look at her patient, Eliza, who had been bedridden after the event. Eliza's eyes opened up.

"Yes, you can come in right now."

Harry stepped inside to a get a look at his daughter for the first time. She slept very peacefully, at least as peacefully as a child that age could sleep.

"Sleeping like an angel, at least for now," Faora told Harry in a low voice. "But, you know how children are that age…..they can wake up very suddenly and cause all kinds of havoc."

Harry smiled and looked at the purple streak in Faora's hair. She just happened to be the victim of the first, and likely not the last, uncontrollable burst of accidental magical Azalea would perform.

"You might not be able to see it….well you can't see it because her eyes are closed, "Faora said. "She has her father's eyes."

Harry turned around and Eliza started to stir for a moment. Faora moved over to get Eliza something to drink, along with one of the healing potions that Lily made.

"It might have been rough, but it was worth it," Eliza said. "I wouldn't have traded the experience of having…another child for anything in the world."

Harry took a moment to grab Eliza's hand and the Kawatchee woman smiled.

"I'm sure Dani and Lyta want to see her…but let her sleep for a little bit," Eliza said. "If she's anything like Dani was, we should appreciate those moments when she's asleep because otherwise…well, I'm sure you have a good idea."

"Yes, I do," Harry confirmed. "You should get plenty of rest, we'll make sure Azalea gets everything she needs."

It looked like Eliza would not be able to leave the island for a while, something which Hippolyta, Faora, and Lily all speculated would happen. She would just have to roll with the punches. Eliza's deep breath continued to go through, but a smile on her face showed how much she would not change anything, not for the world.

* * *

A woman dressed in white slipped into the downstairs entrance of a building which had been owned by Wilson Fisk. The security had been among the top in the world, but it just presented a challenge to break inside. The woman in white moved towards the control panel and disabled the first line of security.

It was only one step towards a bigger journey to step inside. The woman carefully and casually maneuvered around the area, looking from the right and to the left. The woman reached into a bag and pulled out a can. Mist sprayed into the room to reveal a security grid lining the floor. One wrong step would cause the alarms to go off, well if the person was fortunate enough.

A withdrawn blade pushed into the central most grid deflected the security lasers. The woman suspected there were a few moments of opportunity to slip down the hallway. She would have had to hurry, and so the woman did, rushing down the hallway as fast as humanly possible. Several heartbeats later, and the woman dove underneath one of the laser grids, making it to the very end of the hallway.

The woman kept moving, with a steady heartbeat, going around the corner. A slight hum resounded with the woman dodging around, and doing a flip. The assassin ran up the wall and dropped down onto the ground with a thud.

Several figures appeared at the end of the hallway. The woman in white pulled out another blade. These ninjas belonged to the criminal ninja outfit known as a Hand.

One of the ninjas moved in with swift precision and tried to stab the woman in white with a dagger. The woman in white deflected the dagger, with a swipe of the sword. The woman in white got up underneath the attack and flipped the ninja down onto the ground.

A swipe of the blade of the Hand Ninja came very close to cutting the Woman in White. The Woman in White turned around and nailed the attacker with a back swing of the blade. The sword clattered to the ground and the woman continued with a series of vicious swipes.

One of the ninjas hurled a chain out from nowhere and wrapped it around the arm of the intruder. The woman snapped the chain with one swift movement and dropped the ninja down onto the ground. The ninja thumped down onto the ground hard, with the woman in white pulling back, with a deep breath. Two blades switched into the skilled warrior's hand and she charged the attackers.

Swipe for swipe, sword from sword, and the woman knocked the attacker down. Another one grabbed the attacker by the hand and tore the mask slightly.

The mask remained somewhat intact, but enough of the woman's face revealed to see the face of Oroku Karai, a member of the hated Foot, sworn enemies of the Hand. And that's when things got very deadly.

A figure swooped in from above and slammed a Sai down onto the neck of the attacker. Another attack brought the Hand ninjas down. The woman dressed in red moved around with swift precision, and the Hand intended to put an end to her when they realized who they had to deal with.

One of the Hand Ninjas turned around and spoke a simple word in a very raspy voice. "Traitor!"

Karai could only begin to guess who the mystery attacker was. The enemy of her enemy though, and Karai saw the Hand's aggressions turn on the attacker. It gave her a moment to move in, break the case, and pull a scroll out. Without another word, Karai jumped out of the window and slid down the side of the building, almost landing firm feet first onto the ground.

A detonator had been pulled out and a small explosion rattled that particular wing of the building. Karai disappeared in the chaos, leaving the fire to shoot up into the skies.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 19** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_And Harry's newest daughter is born. Well, one of the few to be born inside of the present timeline at any rate._

_That line from Calendar Man, asking Batman if he visited his mother on Mother's Day, boy was that unintentionally savage._

_And we have ninjas doing battle with other ninjas. The Hand and the Foot are going to war and there's going to be some blowback._

_Until Wednesday._


	284. Hand to Foot Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Four: Hand To Foot Part One**

* * *

Harry's little side trip to the island ended pretty well, to be honest. Mother and child both remained in good health, and they were both now in the very capable hands of Faora and the Amazon healer. Harry could leave them behind, with Faora giving him up to date information when possible when leaving the island.

Now, Harry made his way to New York City, and he stepped out into the city streets. He did not step out into the city streets alone, however. A woman met him when arriving in New York City. The tall, attractive dark skinned woman with an amazing body, put inside of a female business suit with a blouse with a couple of buttons undone, and a nice skirt coming down to her thighs, along with sheer stockings which just clung to the legs, joined Harry on this particular trip to New York City.

Mari McCabe's lips curled into a smile and she leaned over. "Nice to see you, Harry. I'm glad you can make the trip given all that's been going on as of late."

"Well, I've been as busy as the next person," Harry said. "But, you've been busy. It seems like preparing for Fashion Week is a yearlong event these days."

Mari laughed at the truth of that statement. "Yeah, pretty much, it does seem like it's a year long event. And Lavender's left me with all of the responsibilities of taking care of business over here. I guess I'm going to have to live up to her very high expectations, while she works on the expansion of her line throughout the world."

Harry leaned in and put a hand in Mari's cupping it together. Mari looked at Harry with a brilliant smile as Harry leaned forward to meet the eyes of the ebony skinned goddess before him.

"Well, if anyone can do it….she's been grooming you for that position for some time. Almost as if Lavender knew she would have to delegate sooner rather than later."

The sorcerer smiled and pulled away from Mari a few seconds later. The two of them turned around the corner in New York and made their way to a café. Another beautiful woman waited for them, in the lovely Janet Van Dyne, who dressed in the latest fashions and looked very beautiful in wearing them.

"Harry, Mari, hey!" Janet called with a wide smile on her face.

"Jan, how are you doing?" Harry asked.

The woman gave a smile when the two joined her. "Okay, I'm doing pretty good actually. There's been some business that I've had to take care of, but you know, you have to get to work and do the best you can."

Harry knew all too well about what it met to get to work and work with what you had. Jan did pretty well for herself and Harry could not wait to have joined her.

"So, how are things over in Gotham?" Jan asked.

Jan might not have realized the loaded question she asked.

"Oh, the same old there, you have to be prepared to deal with the day to day grind," Harry said. "My twin sisters graduated GPA, and they are moving up for the world. There was a big graduation party, and they were just very excited."

Regret spread over the face of Jan, and she sighed, before leaning across the table and grabbing Harry by the hand to squeeze it.

"I would have liked to show up to that party," Jan said. She took in a deep breath and signed one more time. "Unfortunately, there were a lot of business meetings. At least I sealed one very important deal. There were a couple more deals where…"

Another deep breath followed and Harry just smiled at her.

"I know you're going to do well in everything you do," Harry informed Jan and he leaned closer towards her. "So, are you interested in the co-promotion deal I sent you?"

"Well, I've been talking on the phone with Lavender and Mari, and they've been tag-teaming me a lot about the benefits of accepting the deal," Jan said. "I have to say, it does seem to be best for business, and best for the future of both of our companies."

Mari smiled. "We just think it's a match made in heaven if both of our sides get together."

Jan's eager nodding made Harry crack a smile. The woman looked very eager to get business done and Harry couldn't really blame her.

' _Well, she wants to work with you,'_ Karen thought. _'And judging by the look in her eyes, she might want a bit more personal relationship with you as well.'_

' _Obviously,'_ Alex said with a smile. _'And I have to say, she's eager to please, so why not give her a chance to please?"_

' _In due time ladies, in due time,'_ Harry thought.

"Actually, I have a few ideas where we might start," Jan said. Jan stopped for a second and looked flushed, and very excited as well. The dark haired woman took in a couple of breaths when looking at Harry and Mari, both of them who looked very amused, to be honest at her antics. "That is, if you don't mind, I wouldn't want to step on anyone's toes and think…"

Harry leaned across the table and grabbed Jan by the hand to squeeze it once more. Jan looked at Harry and took in a deep breath.

"Hey, it's your project as much as our project," Harry remarked.

"And besides, if we don't think it's a good idea, we can just as easily shut you down," Mari said a second later. "But, we never know what's a good idea. Without you telling us about them."

"Right, well, I was thinking about a small summer release, and then we really hit them for the fall," Jan said. "Fall is pretty big, with people wanting a change, but for the summer, it can give us and everyone else a chance to test the waters."

Harry nodded politely with a smile on his face. "Well, I think we're on pretty much the same wavelength there, Jan. You're right, we should maybe go for a summer release, push it into a fall. And preview something big for Fashion Week next year."

"How big?" Jan asked.

"Well, that's up to you," Harry said. "I'm sure when you and Mari put your heads together, you can create something new and revolutionary which could rock the entire world."

One look at Jan's eyes showed the woman saw it as a challenge and one she would accept if given half of the chance.

"And in the latest news, an attack on an office building by Wilson Fisk left no visible fingerprints, or no evidence anyone had been behind. The cameras had been disabled. What kind of criminals could accomplish such a thing?"

Harry had been very intrigued by the news, even though his attention had been kept to the table.

* * *

Harry Potter was not the only one who had been interested about the recent news regarding Wilson Fisk's warehouse being attacked. One particular gentleman who happened to run one of the biggest media companies in all of New York had been interested as well.

"Yes, yes, of course!" the booming voice of J. Jonah Jameson shouted. "This is news, big news in fact! We're going to blow the lid off of New York City when we get the facts in line!"

Jameson looked on with a smile, excitement brimming through the journalist's eyes. He wanted to pretty much everyone who would listen. The members of the Bugle staff had been used to Jameson going off on this wild tangents, it was just par for the course pretty much these days.

"And someone broke into the building of one of the most powerful men in New York and left nothing behind. Well, there are only two things which could do that. Phantoms…or ninjas?"

The word ninjas caught the attention of a certain reporter who had been walking around the area of the office. Jameson rose to his feet and moved back and forth around the office floor over the well-worn carpet. Jameson was on the war path now and nothing would stop the journalistic giant from getting what he wanted. Jameson moved around the area of the threadbare carpet.

"Ninjas!" Jameson yelled at the top of his lungs. "I want pictures of them. I want pictures of ninjas!"

One of the office flunkeys looked up at Jameson, with one of those looks. Jameson looked back at the flunkey, staring him down for a very long moment.

"What? What? WHAT?" Jameson asked. "Do I have something on my chin or something?"

"Well, sir, you know it's going to be difficult to get pictures of ninjas because they just vanish in the darkness," the office drone responded. "Has anyone even given a picture of ninjas?"

A second passed with Jameson gaining his bearings.

"Well, that's where we're going to find out!" Jameson yelled. "Ninjas, here in New York. Your muggers, your bank robbers, your everyday thugs? That's not news! But a secret band of ancient warriors who can sneak into the darkness and disappear into a blink of an eye, that's news….BRANT! I want you to get to the bottom of this."

"Okay, sir," Betty said in a calm voice. She could only smile.

April, on the other hand, looked out the window. Ninjas in New York, boy she knew this to be true, even if half of the staff had been looked at Jameson like he was a crazy person. Well, like he was more than a crazy person than usual, there were a lot of times where Jameson came off as pretty crazy when the journalistic giant went off on random tirades.

"So, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" April asked.

"Yes, this sounds like the Foot," Betty said. "But, there's really no proof it's them. And there has been some tension between Oroku Saki and Wilson Fisk…if Saki is the Shredder like you claim he is."

"I know you think these accusations are dangerous," April said. "But three buildings, all belonging to Fisk, attacked by ninjas. One of these reports, unconfirmed, peg a woman in white….."

The doors opened and the one gentleman who could stop an entire newsroom by just walking inside stepped into the Daily Bugle office. Harry Potter walked up and made his way to April and Betty.

"So, how are my two favorite Bugle reporters?" Harry asked.

"Ankle deep in a mystery regarding ninjas, and Jameson wants the scoop about ninjas," Betty said. "There's been only one person sighed, briefly, at all three times. A woman in white had been seen…..and wait, there's another report coming in now."

Betty pulled off the report and it described a woman in red. Harry read enough of the report to have a pretty good idea of who the report referred to and it was time for Harry to make a side trip to check up on an old friend.

* * *

Harry had plenty of room in the New York penthouse, the main one at least because he did not use the penthouse for most of the year. The sorcerer stepped through the front doors, already looking around for the person in question. A person who Harry rescued from the Hand just over a year ago, during one of his trips to New York City, after she failed on the mission.

"Elektra, you can come out now."

The stunning Greek Woman stepped out of the shadows. She dressed in a pair of form-fitting jeans and a white tank top, along with a bandanna. Anything she wore, it suited the woman. She wore something else beyond the outfit, and that was a few cuts on her face. It showed the warrior spirit within her and also raised some concerns in Harry's mind.

"So, you've come and checked up on me," Elektra said. "I told you, I can handle myself."

"Well, I'm not sure if you could handle yourself as much as you thought you could," Harry said.

Elektra's hands went to the classic hands on hip motion when looking back at Harry. The Greek woman bit down on her lip and sighed.

"You might have put me in hiding," the assassin amended. "But, it doesn't stop the fact the Hand is after me…and if they're going to be after me, I'm going to do everything to discourage further aggression. As you know, I don't take things lying down. I'm a very active part of the battle."

"That I recall," Harry answered a moment or so later. "I also know that the Hand has made it its sworn duty to kill you, so I would think you have the common sense not to stir up a hornet's nest of trouble."

Elektra leaned close enough to Harry and a light smile popped over the lips of the stunning Greek Assassin. "And that…was your first mistake."

She wrapped a hand around Harry's and leaned in. Elektra tried to lean in for a kiss, but Harry was not willing to give the woman the satisfaction she required, at least not without working it. Harry smiled and Elektra pulled back with a frown and looked him in the eyes.

"You were seen," Harry said.

"Yes, my skills aren't what they used to be," Elektra admitted in a very grudging tone of voice. "That's all the more reason for me to be out there and take the fight to the Hand, so I can keep those skills sharpened. But, I'm far from the Hand's only problem these days."

Harry nodded; April gave him a heads-up of what shaped up to be a brewing war between two of the major ninja clans, the Hand, and the Foot.

"No, you aren't," Harry said. "The Foot wishes to cut the Hand off."

Elektra smiled at the pun made, but it was a very accurate assessment of everything was going on. The Foot and the Hand engaged in a never ending battle with each other, and the only people who would have trouble based on it, were the citizens of New York.

"You do realize what's truly happening though?" Elektra asked.

"They are proxies in a war between Oroku Saki and Wilson Fisk," Harry said. "Better known as the Shredder and the Kingpin."

Elektra nodded. Fisk was the end game. That man thought Elektra could be used as a common thug for higher. No, the Greek Assassin would make Fisk pay and make his blood rain upon the streets of New York City. Red would be splattered around every corner.

* * *

Four figures moved around the city of New York as discreetly and carefully as four giant turtles could be. They moved on the rooftops and then dropped down on the alleyway. All four of them used the cover to cross from one end of the street for other.

"Dudes, that was too close for comfort."

"The idea of the training mission is not to be seen, no matter what."

"Yeah, Leo, so you've told us…..of course, these people, they have their nose jammed so far into their cell phone, it would make our jobs a lot easier."

Leo sighed and looked towards Raph. "Maybe not, but….."

A lecture about remaining focused, one which Leo heard enough from Master Splinter during training to split out lingered in the air. The ninja always remained observant and Leo's eyes traveled across the way where several figures popped around through the shadows.

"Okay, that's….that's something," Donny responded a few minutes later. "They're ninjas…but they don't look like the Foot. They do look like they're up to no good."

"Do ninjas look any other way?" Raph asked.

No one bothered to answer Raph's sarcastic quip because they knew he was right. Ninjas very rarely did not look any other way, other than shifty, and moving around the edge of the city. The entire group moved a little bit closer, to see the ninjas moving around the outside of the building.

"Well, they might not be the Foot, but that's a building that belongs to the Shredder," Donny said a few seconds later when looking around. The Turtle though for a moment the ninjas were going to turn around, but instead, they remained laser focus sharpened.

"What, is there some kind of ninja turf war, or something?" Mikey asked.

He sounded equal parts excited and scared over the prospect of such a thing. Ninja civil war sounded a cool idea on paper. Until you thought about the very real causalities, and then it became less cool.

"Maybe," Leo answered a moment later. His eyes locked firmly in front of the situation at hand.

"So, they're causing trouble for the Shredder?" Raph asked. "That's a good thing, right? Less we have to deal with from that guy."

They never directly faced the Shredder. Given what Master Splinter told them, the Shredder was not an enemy they would want to fight, a fierce warrior who spent years training to be the very best of a ninja assassin. He was the last person anyone wanted to meet in any kind of dark alley.

Leo conceded them causing the Shredder trouble would make their lives a little bit easier, but there was something bothering the Turtle in blue.

"We should take a closer look."

The four Turtles kept a stealthy path, at least until the ear piece all four of them were wearing cackled to life.

"Those ninjas you're following, they are at war to the Foot," Harry said. "They are part of a criminal organization called the Hand."

"How did you…" Donny asked. He had been both surprised, and kind of honored that Harry Potter was able to hack into his technology.

"The Hand? The Foot?" Raph asked. "What the hell is with New York ninjas and being named after parts of the body? I don't get it!"

"Bro, I don't think we were meant to get it," Mikey said. "Well, speaking of the Foot…"

The Turtles looked up and saw several of the Foot Ninjas moving on it, to trail the Hand. There was about ready to be one big ninja rumble which would rock New York City. All four of the Turtles looked on and they had to move.

"I'll be here as soon as I can," Harry told them over the ear pieces.

"Yeah, still don't know how you got into our headsets in the first place, "Raph said.

"He's Harry Potter," Mikey said. "Doesn't that pretty much explain everything?"

Funnily enough, despite logic pointing differently, him being Harry Potter explained a whole lot.

* * *

No one even gave the slightest hint that being the Kingpin of New York City was an easy thing. Each and every day, Wilson Fisk engaged in his fair share of challenges, but they built strength, and they allowed Fisk to accomplish many things during his time.

Another report sat on his desk of some do-gooder in Hell's Kitchen causing his men trouble. There were a lot of crusaders in that area, despite being one of the more dangerous places. The police didn't really touch it, which was why Fisk ran some of his more questionable operations through that particular area.

' _And now, someone intends to stir up trouble,'_ Fisk thought. _'That's interesting, very interest…and ultimately futile in the end.'_

Fisk unfolded the document on the desk and looked it over with a sharp expression. Several of the areas had been marked on the piece of paper, leaving Fisk an idea where this mysterious crusader decided to strike next.

Also, some of his operations out of state, more particularly in Gotham City, faltered. Thorne lost a lot of ground, and Fisk was not going to do business with a thug like Penguin, not if he could help it anyway.

A far more pressing problem existed in the form of the Foot and Oroku Saki. For a long time, both Saki and Fisk could exist in piece together. They had their own means of dealing with business, and Fisk respected Saki's boundaries, and for a while, Saki did the same.

Each attack on warehouses belonging to Fisk proved the Shredder was not interested in ceasing aggressions, rather there was an obvious interest in escalating said aggressions. Each moment showed the Shredder intended to prove something, or do something very drastic. Fisk waited on edge for the next shoe to drop.

He got in touch with the Hand and put a hit on one of Saki's many warehouses. It was about time for them to go to war, and it was about time for the Kingpin to take down the Shredder. All he would have to do is play the waiting game, one of the most devious games ever played.

' _Just wait for the other shoe to drop,'_ Fisk thought.

The man waited for the destruction of Saki's factory. A big smile crossed his face.

* * *

Karai heard the silent alarm trip and she figured the retaliation attack was only inevitable, given everything which took place. The woman in white slipped into the back entrance and looked for the Hand ninjas. The other members of the Foot went inside, and despite their skills, Karai really wished to make sure their work was done properly. No point in not having any kind of pride in her work. Karai stepped around the corner and walked further inside.

The further Karai walked, the more prominent the sounds of combat grew. Karai knew she grew very close to a battle of some sort. Karai stepped around the corner a second later and looked up before looking around. Something swooped down from the shadows in front of her.

Karai stepped back, in the guise of the White Canary, and looked face to face with the fabled Dragon. Karai looked very surprised but recovered quickly.

"It's been a long time," she remarked.

The Dragon's eyes burned into her face, like his namesake's fire. The man's lips curled into a knowing smile when looking at Karai. "Yes, it's been a long time, Karai. It's been a very long time."

Karai did not attack him just yet, not attack anyway until she knew what angle she had to deal with.

"I know you, you're not with the Hand," Karai said. "And you're most certainly not with the Foot…and as far as I know the League doesn't have an angle here in New York City, so what are you after? Why are you hear?"

The two warriors looked at each other from the end of a dark, long hallway. Neither attacked just yet, there was no need for either of them to attack. There had been no pressing danger, nothing to cause any frustration. Both sets of eyes lingered on each other.

"I find something very interesting," the legendary warrior stated. "Why does the Foot protect a factory which only seems to sell auto-parts?"

Karai didn't say anything to contradict. She just looked at the way, body language not betraying the ninja's true thoughts. Some sounds of battle, whether it be Foot versus Hand or even Foot versus Turtle or Hand versus Turtle, Harry did not know. Regardless, Harry kept a sharp gaze on Karai.

"Why does someone of your caliber work for the Shredder?" he asked.

"I could ask the same thing about you," Karai responded. "Why do you cater for the Daughters of the Demon?"

"You could," Harry said. "But, I'm going to have to say we're going to have to agree to disagree. One thing we're going to…..have to disagree about though is the fact I'm curious to what the Foot is really doing here. And you're not going to let me pass, not without a fight."

"Well, we can agree on that," Karai responded. "I hope to test my mettle against a worthy adversary, and may the best warrior win."

Both retracted blades and prepared to circle each other. A moderate sonic vibration came from deep underneath the ground and a hissing sound occurred. Karai stepped back from the battle.

"If the core reaches critical, all of New York goes up!" Karai yelled. "Those idiots!"

"What?" Harry asked.

"That's the reason why I'm protecting this place," Karai said. "There's a high-end power core, which can sustain an entire city of a hundred years…and the Hand must have removed the safeties in their attempt to sabotage."

Harry did not have to be a rocket scientist to know that trouble was on the way if the Hand had removed the safeties in such a way. Another vibration deep underground told Harry about as much.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 22** **nd** **, 2015.**

* * *

_Well, shit's happening. Harry obviously can't go to a leisure trip anywhere without being involved on something. Otherwise, you wouldn't be seeing it on screen._

_Until Saturday._


	285. Hand to Foot Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Five: Hand to Foot Part Two**

* * *

 

Oroku Saki's control over New York City tightened with each passing moment. Fisk was a very worthy adversary, but Saki needed more control over the city and more resources to control. If Fisk was not going to stand aside and let Saki do what he wanted to do, then there would be no choice but to take the big man down. Fisk had an extremely sizeable piece of the pie that Oroku Saki wanted to rip out of the hands of Wilson Fisk.

"Sir, there's been a problem."

One of the subordinates stepped into the room and looked up at the man, very nervously, and very anxiously. Saki's eyes locked onto the goon who almost took a step back and fell over. One single raised hand stalled any further attempts for the goon to fall over and collapse down onto the ground.

"Speak."

The subordinate swallowed the lump building inside his throat and took a deep breath, before making an attempt to speak. "Well, sir, there's been an attack, Fisk has...Fisk has…Fisk has hired the Hand, and they are going after one of your factories."

Saki expected retaliation from the Kingpin of Crime. Fisk was not the type of man to remain idle for long. Making a deal with the hated Hand, Saki was not surprised with that particular line of attack either. It was just one of those things which Saki had to deal with, to be honest.

"You may go."

The subordinate left, before Saki, changed his mind. The poor hapless man only had been sent on to deliver a message, but there were many times in the past where Saki did not like the message which had been delivered. The man's knees knocked together when practically shaking in fear. The man left the area and left Saki to contemplate what to do next.

Karai entered the area to secure the factory because Saki suspected it may be a tempting target for the likes of Fisk. All Saki had to do was ensure that the plan had gone through without a hitch. All Saki had to do was wait, watch, and prepare, something which he had no problems with doing in the past.

Saki reached over to contact Karai, but a crackling stopped it. The criminal kingpin prepared himself for the bad news which would come on the other end of the communication, knowing only one person and one person only had access to this very dedication channel.

"SAKI!" the booming voice of Krang yelled over the communication channel. "What is going on?"

"We have a situation," Saki said.

"Yes, I realize that, you dolt!" Krang yelled at the top of his lungs. "I also know that one of your factories are compromised. And not only any factory. Normally, I don't concern myself with the affairs of the petty ninja, but your factory is causing problems for me, and when it causes problems with me, that's going to be a serious problem for you."

Krang belted out this last word. Saki's fingers curled into a fist and a deep breath followed.

"What type of a problem?"

"I have a prototype energy core there, and there are some fools who are trying to remove it," Krang said. "The only thing I have yet to determine whether it is some of yours or the people who have breached the security."

"It would not be mine, they are not that foolish," Saki responded.

"Ha, we'll see about that," Krang said. "Regardless of how foolish they are, there are energy spikes which are very concerning. The core is going to reach full capacity, and it's going to trigger a meltdown. And if the meltdown is going to happen, then we can kiss any chance of domination of New York City goodbye."

Saki took a second to realize the full degree of what Krang was talking about and nodded.

"It's a prototype," Saki said. "And there are fail safes on it, surely?"

"Yes, of course, there are fail safes on it!" Krang snapped. "What kind of dumbass do you take me for?"

The racking breath showed Krang was about ready to blow his top. Saki clenched his fist, and it was obvious at this time, Krang took him as nothing more than a calm.

"We're going to have to find a way to flood the energy core, and short it out before those idiots remove it and trigger something that will blow up this entire city," Krang said.

"Yes, I'll give me word to the person on the inside," Saki said.

"I better be able to trust you to get this done," Krang said. "Because many more problems like this, and we're going to have a very serious issue with each other."

Saki just let out a deep breath. Krang treated him like an insect, lower than low, and it was starting to cause Saki's patience, which had been very low, to erode at an amazing rate. Regardless, the person on the inside would be one of the few who Saki would have trusted having to pull off some a very sensitive act.

One attempt to communicate with Karai caused a hissing sound to enter Saki's ear. A few seconds passed and Saki growled. Something was very wrong, he could not get inside. The communication had bene constantly blocked and Saki was getting extremely frustrated with the lack of forwarding movement.

' _Someone must have blocked the transmission._

Saki took a few seconds to look at the suit in the glass case. For one second, Saki thought about taking a hands-on approach in dealing with the Hand. But, Saki put faith in Karai for getting out of there. That faith would have to be necessary to prevent the entire city from going up in smoke.

* * *

 

One of the Hand members charged Karai in a measured attempt to wipe the skilled Foot ninja out. Karai twisted out of the way and ran up the wall to do a flip. Landing with grace, Karai unsheathed a pair of daggers and flung it at the Hand goon. The Hand goon twisted into smoke and Karai went towards the attacker. Karai reared back and whipped the dagger back at the goon. The goon evaded the attack one more time.

"You will pay!"

"Highly unlikely," Karai said.

Karai opened her hand and motioned for the two ninjas to rush her. A third ninja snuck behind Karai and withdrew a wooden staff. The staff stabbed towards the back of Karai's head. Karai grabbed onto the staff and cracked it back. The staff whipped back into the ribs of the goon in question, doubling the man over. Karai flipped the staff directly into the rib cage of the man and put him down onto the ground.

A second passed and one of the goons threw a very jagged ninja star at Karai's side. Karai dodged the attack and came back with multiple punches to rock the goon, dropping said goon down to one knee.

One of the Foot Ninja flipped through an opened window and dropped down to the ground. Raph jumped at the Ninja and disarmed him with one solid Sai stab. The Foot Ninja dropped the weapon down onto the ground and Raph kicked him as hard in the face as possible.

Two more ninjas struggled with Mikey in the battle. One of them almost stabbed him. Mikey blocked it and caught the ninja with a backhanded punch. One of them stabbed him again. Mikey blocked the hand and nailed him with a roundhouse punch.

"Hands off the shell, Bro!" Mikey yelled.

The stabbing motion had been avoided, and Mikey swung the nunchucks around, cracking one of the Foot Goons in the ribs. The Foot goon dropped down onto the ground. Another swing with the wooden part on the end cracked the Foot Ninja as hard as possible.

Harry avoided Foot and Hand alike. He knocked one of the ninjas off of a perch point with a thrown dagger. The ninja flipped down and smashed onto the ground with an insane impact, the wind being knocked out. Harry saw four goons trying to mess with the power core.

' _The Hand Elite,'_ Harry thought. _'I remember these guys….this is not going to be a good night.'_

A ninja teleported in front of Harry forced him to stab the assassin before dropping down onto the ground. Harry drew in a deep breath and looked around. Karai struggled with the ninjas. Harry decided to help her by knocking one of the planks out from underneath the ledge.

One hapless Hand ninja trapped caused Karai to be able to kick the ninja in the face several times. The ninja flipped over and landed on the ground without any problems whatsoever. Harry drew in a deep breath and returned to dealing with the situation at hand.

' _There's the energy core,'_ Harry thought. _'It's very powerful. She wasn't kidding when she said it was powerful enough to wipe out the entire city. She might have been understating just how powerful the core could be. There's enough power in here to wipe out half of the state, maybe most of New Jersey as well.'_

' _Is there any access point you can get into?'_

Harry noticed the Hand Elite disappeared which naturally put the sorcerer on edge. One deep breath later as Harry found a way to answer Barbara's question.

' _Yes, there's a way, and it's going to take a careful hand, some precision, and a fair amount of luck,'_ Harry thought a moment later.

A grapnel hook slammed down. Harry could see one of the turtles going around the corner, and knocking some Foot ninjas, along with a couple of Hand assassins down the stairs. Harry drew in a very calm breath and descended to the Power Core.

The humming and hissing of the Power Core were not too favorable for Harry. He noticed where they tried to disengage it. The heat coming off of it made Harry very glad for radiation shielding and wondered whether or not the Hand Elite knew or cared of the risks messing with this Power Core.

' _Watch your step, Potter.'_

The readings on the suit indicated to Harry, the time left was running down. The ticking of the clock echoed in Harry's hand.

A ghostly hiss caused Harry to turn around, and he came face to face with the Hand Elite. Harry recalled the problems with these powerful ninja goons about a year ago, and Harry prepared to head off against them again. One of the goons opened a hand and motioned for Harry to go forward, to go and attack.

Harry was not about ready to turn down such an obvious challenge. One of the Elite swung a Tonfa so effortlessly, it was almost like a pair of hands.

The seconds ticked down, and Harry needed to take these guys, mindful there was a radioactive core which could reach critical at any moment. Once the core reached critical, half of New York City would go up in smoke, and it would be bad news for anyone.

Harry dodged the attack from the Hand Elite guard and batted back the arm. The sorcerer propelled halfway up and dropped down onto the back of the Elite's hand, slamming him face first down onto the ground with a solid and very dangerous thud.

' _Don't really have time for this.'_

The Hand Elite grabbing Harry around the neck made Harry realize having the choice was not a luxury either. Harry beat the Elite back. Another tried to stab Harry in the back with a sword which even burned through the thick armor. Harry turned around and beat the Hand Elite with multiple punches which dropped the Elite down to one knee.

' _Harry, I've managed to lock onto the readings,'_ Karen said. _'It isn't good, at all…'_

Harry discharged electricity from brass knuckles and buried it into the stomach of one of the attackers. _'Tell me about it.'_

Time ran out, and Harry powered through. A figure fought from up above, and Harry could not tell through the smoke rising through the core whether or not the person was friend or foe.

* * *

Wilson Fisk sat as a conquering king in his office. The retaliation against the Foot was at hand, and now Fisk hoped Saki would get the message. No matter how feared the man was back in Japan, the Kingpin ran the roost here in New York City, and no one could get in the way of the very dangerous mobster.

Fisk's fingers slightly tapped on the table and the large man waited for a call which indicated the destruction of the warehouse. In the meantime, Fisk flipped through some reports. Business did not seem to boom as much as Fisk would have liked in the past. A large sigh of disappointment came through the body of Fisk. There had been a number of problems.

The Gotham City operations would have been a huge benefit and a huge spike in profit had Rupert Thorne not lost some territory to the Penguin. That was a real pity, to be honest, a very real pity. Fisk's fingers drummed even more slightly.

Every day, another report of the mysterious vigilante who had attacked Hell's Kitchen found its way on Fisk's desk. Every single day, Fisk grew more agitated with the actions of this mysterious crusader. Who was this person? Fisk had many enemies, so he could only begin to guess which one had been riled up enough to cause aggression.

Then there was the normal aggression so the Foot. Fisk intended to cripple that particular empire, and not lose a single man in the process. The Hand was very good at pulling out the operations which Fisk could not be legally tied to because it would be very bad business. And bad business was not good when you were trying to build an empire the likes of what the Kingpin was trying to build.

The phone rang on the edge of the table. Fisk reached in and grabbed the phone after the fifth ring.

"Yes?" Fisk asked.

"You need to call the mission off."

Fisk had been surprised by this voice, garbled, and distorted, and at the same time, very commanding. The large mobster's breath had been taken in and taken out. "I beg your pardon."

"You heard what I said," the distorted voice responded on the other end of the phone. "You need to call the mission off. There's an energy core in the warehouse, and if they mess with it anymore, if it isn't shut down soon, it will blow up New York City."

Fisk received a flash of light on the monitor, which showed the specifications of the core. The Kingpin knew more than enough about certain kinds of sciences to know there were going to be a lot of problems if this Core had been left unattended.

Could it be a well-orchestrated bluff?" Fisk entertained the possibility, but he would be a fool not to understand the risks and do what was necessary to pull the men back. A destroyed city would not be what was best for any business, especially not his business.

"Thousands of lives will be a risk, and countless more will be in danger from the fallout," the distorted voice said. "This is your only warning….tell them to leave."

Fisk had a way past the communication jammer that the Hand was using, naturally. It prevented the Foot ninja, who would most likely be on guard, to talk in and out of the building. The mobster pressed a couple of buttons on the phone and waited for an answer.

"Pull out, and leave the core alone….yes I know….just do it!"

It could have been a bluff, but Fisk was not going to risk the chance.

* * *

 

Elektra knew with the Hand in the area, it might be the perfect chance to send a message to them, to remind them how she was the most skilled operative they had ever had. The woman slunk into the area and moved towards the battle.

One of the Hand assassins looked very pleased in stomping a Foot Ninja. Elektra swooped in and carefully stabbed the man in the back. To add insult to injury, or perhaps the other way around, Elektra bounced the man head first into the wall with a solid smack.

One ninja down and only several more to follow. Elektra maneuvered around the piles of Foot and Hand ninjas on the ground and moved closer towards the sound of battle. Elektra heard the very familiar sounds of hissing and the deadly whispers of the Hand Elite.

The deadly assassin recalled the last time they met, and Elektra vowed to make these goons pay for the problems. They would learn a very valuable lesson about how Elektra was one of the most deadly assassins in the world.

One of the larger Hand goons moved in front of Elektra. The man was pretty stealthy for a man so big, Elektra would give the warrior that. The only problem was, for as large as he was, Elektra knew a very easy way to take down a goon like that. It was all down to timing and fighting the goon from the right angles.

And every enemy was the same height when being put down on their back. Elektra waited for the moment to pass when the goon circled around. The goon charged Elektra and grabbed the woman. The skilled warrior flipped out of the attack and nailed the goon in the back of the knee. The skilled warrior caught the goon in the back of the leg with multiple jabs which doubled the goon over.

The goon swung his large fist around on the other side and measured her in an attempt to knock Elektra back. Elektra avoided the punch from connecting with the side of her face. Elektra connected with a jab to the point of the elbow and another series of jabs, working over the elbow. The assassin grunted, when Elektra put the pressure point on, nailing the larger goon in the leg and then in the arm.

The pressure points being attacked took the man down. Elektra gave one more roundhouse kick to the face and knocked the goon down onto the ground. Elektra pulled back from the ninja after having been dropped down to the ground.

Another one of the goons rushed Elektra from behind. Elektra caught the man's arm and twisted it around to drop the goon down to the ground. Elektra extended the arm back and snapped the arm. The ninja showed visible pain, despite not being able to scream. Elektra bounced up high into the air and drove a foot into the back of the Hand assassin's head to knock him unconscious.

Elektra caught sight of the Dragon fighting the Hand Elite guard down. The Dragon held his own, but Elektra had never been one to be an observer.

The skilled warrior dropped down. One of the Hand Elite stepped back and caught sight of Elektra. A hideous whisper entered and the goon charged Elektra. Elektra blocked the punch and fought back with another cracking punch. Multiple strikes to the goon rocked him back down onto the ground.

The knife came inches away from stabbing into Elektra's stomach. Harry flashed in front of the attacker and caught the arm with the knife. The attacker fought back against Harry. Both struggled and Harry drove the point of the knee into the face of the attacker.

Two other Elite guards circled around either side. Elektra and Harry stood back to back with each other. The goon swiped down onto the back of Elektra's head, but Elektra avoided the attack, knocking the deadly warrior down onto the ground.

Elektra's stolen weapon sliced into the wrist of the attacker. The sounds of battle continued from up above, and the three-way battle between the Turtles, the Hand, and the Foot continued. There were too many bodies, and too many limbs just being knocked around all over the place.

Harry slammed one of the Elite down onto the ground. Another hiss brought it home to the point where Harry figured they were running out of time.

"Have to get to the core."

Elektra nodded and caught one of the Elite in the stomach with a stab. The Elite guard faded into smoke and came behind Elektra. She turned around and stabbed one more time.

Karai dropped down, landing on top of one of the Hand ninjas she fought. The control panel lingered close by. Karai stepped forward and took out a key card before swiping it. Karai pressed her thumb on the panel and started to flood the inside of the chamber.

Everything started to bubble around them. Karai cracked one of the ninjas in the ribs.

"Foot Ninja, disappear!" Karai yelled.

An electrified dose of energy caught one of the Hand ninjas.

The Turtles saw the Foot making their way to the nearest exits.

"So, that happened," Mikey said.

Harry flipped over one of the Elite Guards. They would be electrocuted when the water reached them, and Harry did not really fancy dying again. He lost count about how many deaths he had. Harry ascended all the way up.

The Elite tried to drag Elektra down. Harry grabbed onto Elektra, who kicked off at the Hand Elite goons. The goons tumbled down into the hole and landed with a smack into the electrified chamber. The sounds of ghostly screams reached them.

"Go, I'll be right out!" Harry yelled.

The Hand Elite struggled their way out of the chambers, and Harry knew they would not give up easily, not without a fight anyway. Harry slipped a grenade in hand and shoved it down into the chamber. The grenade released a blinding cloud of smoke, and Harry further barricaded the exit to the chamber.

The sounds of screaming, inhumane screaming, indicated the Hand Elite felt back into the flooded core. Harry chanced a glimpse through the window, just in time to see red smoke flicker through the air.

' _I would like to think I've seen the last of those guys, but I know better from experience.'_

Harry stepped back a couple of inches, to join the Turtles, and Elektra who moved into the alleyway.

"So, how close did we come to everything being destroyed?" Raph asked.

"Too close," Donnie said. "Much too close."

Harry nodded in response and pulled out the reading device, swiping it into the air for a moment. The sorcerer's lips curled into a smile and he took in a deep breath, relaxing a slight amount.

"Yes, much too close, I agree," Harry said. "Good news is, the radiation levels are going down, so we should be mostly good to go….and we should go."

The sounds of sirens cutting through the air made Harry understand they needed to get out of here as soon as possible. Whatever the Core was, it is destroyed. Whoever built it would have to build it back from square one.

* * *

 

Harry swung by the lair after things had settled down. The four Turtles were recovering from an intense battle and left with more questions than answers.

"Well, best I can tell," Donnie responded after a moment. "The Shredder is developing some kind of energy core which can power the entire city….which can't be good…"

"Yes, it's not good," Harry said. "But, it's likely not the Shredder we should be worried about, at least not right now."

"When can we not worry about the Shredder?" Raph asked.

"Don't worry about the Shredder," Harry responded. "Worry about his business partner Krang…and given what I've learned in Dimension X, during my trip there, Krang has developed a huge war machine which he can use to conquer worlds."

The somber looks on the faces of all of the Turtles told the story.

"The core is destroyed though," Mikey said. "So, that War Machine, he won't be able to build it anytime soon, right?"

"And even if he does, if it needs a core that size, you aren't going to be able to hide it for very long," Raph said.

"Maybe," Donnie said. "Although I'm sure with Krang's advanced knowledge of technology, he will find a way to cloak it."

Everyone in the room just responded with sighs.

"I'll keep you posted when I find out anything, and I'm sure you'll do the same," Harry said.

Harry didn't waste any time telling the boys what was going on. He made his way to the elevator, leading up to the penthouse. The Turtles and their new lair were on the ground floor, and Harry moved in to talk to the other occupant of this particular penthouse.

A second passed, and Harry blocked the attack which came on her. Elektra slammed into the wall with Harry pressed against her. The ninja warrior squirmed when Harry pushed the woman back against the wall.

"I'm going to have to keep a tighter leash on you," Harry said.

Harry responded by squeezing Elektra's ass from behind and receiving a very favorable gasp from the woman in question. Harry leaned in and kissed Elektra full on the lips, their tongues battling against each other. Harry moved Elektra into the light, seeing she changed into a red robe. Harry guided Elektra back to the bed, to unravel the treasures underneath.

The robe parted and revealed Elektra dressed in a red bra, stockings, garter belt, and a pair of red thong panties. The beautiful warrior's legs and ass were on full display, and for Harry to reach forward and to mold in hand. Elektra moaned when leaning closer towards Harry. Their lips met in another kiss, when Harry guided Elektra closer towards the bed, reaching behind and cupping the woman's beautiful backside.

Elektra made short work of Harry's clothes, leaving the emerald-eyed sorcerer wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. Slowly, Elektra rubbed Harry's crotch through his pants and cupped the manhood from the other side. Harry deepened the kiss, the tongue going deeper into Elektra's mouth with each action.

The two rolled onto the bed, with Elektra peeling down Harry's boxer shorts and kissing him down the front. Harry smiled and could feel Elektra's hand tighten its grip around the base of his cock. The organ in question stood up and Elektra kissed the tip, while slowly stimulating the nerve endings to give Harry the best experience.

"Pleasure or death, two of the ultimate rushes," Elektra commented. "Thankfully, I'm capable of giving release in both."

Elektra slowly worshiped Harry's rod with a series of licks, sucks, and kisses. The skilled woman showed a different kind of skill other than combat by slowly easing Harry's manhood into her waiting mouth. Elektra cupped Harry's balls and gave them a squeeze, feeling the organ lengthen and go into the back of Elektra's throat. Harry grabbed onto the back of Elektra's head and slowly pumped deep into the mouth of the beautiful ninja.

"Mmm!" Elektra moaned hungrily.

Harry pushed back onto the bed, the feeling of Elektra's beautiful lips wrapping around his throbbing cock made Harry want to push deeper into the mouth of the Greek ninja goddess. Harry tightened those fingers around Elektra's head and slowly worked in.

The beautiful Greek woman bobbed up and down on Harry's manhood. Those eyes locked onto Harry, Elektra's free hand rubbing the abs of the handsome warrior. Elektra wished to take this cock in every single way possible and knew the feeling of the cock deep inside of the beautiful Greek vixen's mouth.

"Damn, Elektra, suck that good, baby."

Elektra obeyed Harry's suggestion by slowly sucking the man's cock and pushed it deep inside her mouth. The woman's warm mouth slowly wrapped around Harry's thick tool, shoving deep inside and pulling it back out, before shoving it completely in.

"Jesus, baby, that's so good!" Harry groaned. "I'm going to bury my cum into your throat. Your warm throat, you want the taste of cum in your mouth, don't you?"

This statement only spurred Elektra on, with several long and sensual sucks. She grabbed Harry's balls and squeezed them, to make sure the load was still as plentiful as Elektra remembered.

The hot and intense sucking continued, reaching a fever pitch. Elektra worked all the way down to the base and pulled out to leave Harry's cock drenched in slobber. The skilled vixen took Harry deep inside and sucked on Harry even harder. Those balls swelled, practically bloating from the weight of cum about to be expelled from them. Elektra's hunger increased the deeper and more sensual she sucked Harry off.

"Fuck," Harry groaned.

Elektra enjoyed that particular statement of endearment coming from Harry's mouth and the beautiful woman redoubled the efforts to make Harry pleased. Harry gripped the back of Elektra's head and slowly shoved his cock into her mouth.

A spurting of cum followed, and Elektra drank the cum from Harry's balls like a starving woman in the deserve. Elektra's nails dug into the underside of Harry's balls when squeezing them, making sure every single drop of cum splashed into the inside of Elektra's waiting mouth.

Harry motioned for Elektra to pull back. Elektra stuck out her tongue to reveal an immense amount of cum dripping from it. Without another word, Elektra swallowed the cum with a bright smile and turned around. Her panties slid to the side and revealed her waiting pussy.

The skilled man moved in from behind Elektra and spread her waiting thighs. Harry's hard cock ground up against Elektra's dripping slit and teased entry. Entry was not the only thing Harry teased. He reached underneath Elektra's chest and gave her breasts a very firm squeeze.

"Again!" Elektra begged.

Harry wrapped a finger around Elektra's nipple and squeezed it. The erect nubs moved between Harry's fingers, the friction building. Harry rubbed Elektra's nibble and caused the woman's legs to part for Harry. Harry got pretty close to entering the beauty.

"I'm going to take your pussy," Harry said. "Do you want my cock?"

"Yes, take me," Elektra said.

Harry spread Elektra's legs and used his free hand to squeeze the ample ass of the stunning warrior. A slap to Elektra's ass made the Greek ninja drip with desire. Harry pushed the head towards the entrance and grabbed onto Elektra's hips before slamming inside of the woman's body.

Hard and rough, just like Elektra liked it. The feeling of Harry's swelling balls leaving marks on her thighs caused Elektra to grow with excitement. The woman threw back her head to make sure Harry got the full view of the pleasure, the desire when looking in the mirror.

"Damn, you're so tight," Harry said. "Maybe, I should get you to loosen up….just a little bit."

Half of Harry's cock rocked inside of Elektra before more pushed into the body of the Greek Ninja. The desired amount of tightness clamped down onto Harry's iron rod. He pulled almost all the way out and pushed back into Elektra.

Elektra's breasts looked ripe for the grabbing, and Harry took them. Harry squeezed them, molded the juicy tits in his hand before moving his hands up on Elektra's body. Harry took ownership of everything, breasts, legs, hips, ass, and her clit, everything was being played with.

An orgasm rose through Elektra's body the deeper Harry pushed inside of the beautiful woman. Those bloated balls connected to her thighs one more time.

"Fucking cumming!" Elektra yelled.

"Go ahead, cum, cum harder than you ever had before," Harry said. "I wonder how hard you're going to cum when I do this."

Harry grabbed onto Elektra's hair for leverage and jammed deep into the honey pot before him. Elektra's walls tightened and absolutely saturated Harry's cock with cum all throughout this rough fucking. Harry pushed deep inside of Elektra's tightening vice, working into her.

"I love how your pussy works me," Harry said. "It's almost like you know deep down this sexy body belongs to me. How you crave being fucked harder, and harder."

Harry worked up another load which he was about to put inside of Elektra's pussy. The beautiful woman tightened down onto Harry, the deeper the young sorcerer pushed inside. Harry drove deeper inside Elektra's body, stretching her as much as possible.

The beautiful woman's nails dug into the bed and felt the burn of Harry pushing deep inside of her waiting and welcoming cunt. Every push into her deep core made Elektra tighten with excitement.

"Your pussy just craves my cum, doesn't it?" Harry asked. "It's just waiting for it, it can't get enough of it, can it?"

Harry smacked Elektra on her firm ass hard, leaving a red mark. Elektra tightened at the small amount of pain Harry gave when pushing inside of her tight body.

"YES!" Elektra screamed.

The most amazing orgasm rocked through the body of the exotic assassin. The pleasure accelerated, even more, the deeper Harry pushed inside. Those balls slapped deep against Elektra's core, the further Harry pushed inside of the beautiful woman. The assassin's tightening walls gripped Harry when he pulled almost out and then shoved his full cock inside of the woman.

"You're getting so close," Harry informed Elektra. "And so I am? Can you take the heat?"

Harry's roaming hands brought Elektra to a very insane level of pleasure. Those hands, they were pleasure personified. Elektra did not know how much more she could take, but the beautiful assassin knew she could and would take about as much as Harry would give. Those big bloated balls pushed against Elektra's thighs and slowly worked against her.

"Time for you to feel the ultimate release," Harry said. "I know a few tricks to make a woman black out from so much pleasure….but you can take it, can't you?"

Harry pressed a point on the small of Elektra's back which broke the dam of pleasure the woman felt. Slowly, steadily, Harry pushed deeper inside of the woman.

Elektra never felt so good in a very long time, and hope for more visits like this. The cock of the legendary dragon touched all of the spots which needed to be touched and made Elektra feel beyond great. The pleasure coursed through the body of the skilled Greek ninja.

"Here it comes," Harry said. "Or rather, here you cum."

Another time and Harry drove deeper inside of Elektra, working the woman's orgasm up to the edge. Harry pushed deeper inside of Elektra, pushing as far into the woman as possible. Elektra's tightening grip got even firmer around Harry's cock.

"You're feeling it now, aren't you?" Harry whispered.

"Yes," Elektra mewled in excitement.

"Your release, it's cumming again," Harry said. "And so, am I."

Harry rode out the next orgasm before the pleasure building up came out and shot a sticky load of cum deep inside of Elektra's pussy. The insides had been coated by Harry pushing all the way inside of the beautiful woman underneath. Harry held on.

Elektra collapsed down on the bed, allowing Harry to ride her all the way to the end. Two more well-earned orgasms passed through Elektra before Harry finished up.

At least for now.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on April 26** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

  _The war for New York continues. And we have a lot of tension rising for the coming months._

_Elektra and Harry have their fun to end tonight._

_Until Wednesday._


	286. A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

There is some bonus content on the blog for this chapter. Head to my blog through the page of very important links. Then head to the Web of Chaos Archives, and either the Ascension Page or the Blog Exclusive content page. You should be able to find it easily.

* * *

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Six: A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That**

* * *

Disaster being averted occurred far too often in the life of Harry Potter. Now with the disaster of the day averted, Harry could get down to business, and maybe a little bit of pleasure could be mixed in with the business. Only time would tell whether or not the two would intersect with each other, but perhaps long term they would. The two intersecting depended on various things.

The attack at the factory registered as an afterthought on the evening news. Little did everyone know how close they were to being utterly and completely destroyed, had they reacted. Harry just shook his head and sighed when thinking about how everything had gone, at least in part to be perfectly honest.

' _So, it's odd you're meeting with someone who you fought last night in costume,'_ Karen thought.

' _Well, maybe,'_ Harry agreed a second later. _'It's not the oddest thing ever, but you have to admit, it could be pretty weird. Then again, sanity never was a huge part of my life, was it?'_

All of the girls in the bond network could agree on one thing. Life, their lives, were never the sanest thing. Harry moved straight into business mode and made his way to the conference room in New York City, where he would hopefully feel out where certain parties stood.

Things would bound to be interesting, although no more interesting than they normally were. Again, as Harry kept reminding himself, it was just another day in the life of Harry Potter. There were bound to be more twists and turns than your usual maze, and Harry could not wait to figure out where everyone stood.

The meeting was to happen at ten in the morning, and Harry showed up a little bit early, ten minutes until the meeting started. Five minutes until the meeting started, Oroku Karai strolled into the office with a slight smile on her face, and she walked with a very distinct purpose. The beautiful Japanese woman dressed to impress, with an elegant business suit, and her beauty shined out.

"Good, it appears that the rumors were true," Karai said a moment later. "You always are early to the meetings."

"Well, I figure if we're going to get down to important business, then it would be useless to try and wait," Harry informed her. "You want to get things done, don't you?"

"Yes," Karai agreed. "I do, and let us get down to the main purpose of this meeting. As we both know, TND industries is looking into a new, clean, energy source, to help power the world. Unfortunately, there have bene some security concerns, and a couple of other snags which caused us to have to scrap the project before it truthfully got off the ground."

Here, Harry just nodded in response. He allowed Karai to say what she needed to say while taking a drink of coffee in response.

"I hoped with the help of RAO, the project would not die," Karai said. "I've done my research, and it is the type of project you would want to get your hooks into. And I'm hoping we could work together to make this dream, more than a dream. We can make the dream a reality"

"Well, I've done some research as well."

Harry's words caused Karai to raise one eyebrow, just slightly. Other than a raised eyebrow, there was no real, visible reaction from the businesswoman.

"There are some unsettling rumors that TND is in partnership with TCRI," Harry said. "And actually, it's more than rumors, there's some actual proof the two organizations are working hand in hand with each other."

Karai took a moment to allow a sigh to rise and pass through her body.

"I have nothing to do with this particular partnership," Karai said. "That was all on account of my father."

Harry sensed a slight amount of distress from Karai, regarding that, and figured she did not really approve. Given the checkered past of TCRI and just the chaotic nature of what Krang was up to, Harry just about figured that to be the case. He would have to press Karai for some more information the best he could.

"So, do you think the relationship with TCRI is truthfully best for business?" Harry asked Karai.

"My father…he thought it was for the best," Karai said. "So, it's really going to be a dealbreaker? Truthfully, it's going to be a dealbreaker, isn't it?"

Karai's eyes showed desperation, and also frustration. Harry wished there could be another way. He figured the woman had been put in an awkward position, wanting to make TCRI solvent,

"Well, it's unfortunate, but I can understand your concerns, and wish I could do more to fix them," Karai said. "Perhaps at another time, we can revisit these goals. We have similar goals in our lives, it's just the ways to accomplish them, they are unfortunately far off."

Harry could see the look in Karai's eyes and realized she looked genuinely upset in the process The woman's eyes looked rather swimming.

' _There's something deep going on in there,'_ Harry thought. _'She's very frustrated, and I can't say I blame her.'_

* * *

The mixture of business and pleasure continued in New York City when Harry decided to join a group of lovely ladies. Well, it started with having lunch with Felicia. Felicia dressed in a solid black tank top and a pair of nice shorts as well. Both pieces of attire did a good job at showing off Felicia's breasts and legs. Mary-Jane also tagged along, dressed in a black top as well, which showed her growing breasts, and long legs. She wore a black choker device with a bat on it.

"Everyone at school thinks I'm a Batman fangirl," Mary-Jane said in an amused voice. "If only they knew the truth."

"Well, to be fair, the truth would terrify them," Gwen said.

"Maybe," Reilly said a few seconds later. "There are a lot of people who would be terrified by the fact there's a living, breathing vampire in their midst."

The choker was not just for fashion, although Mary-Jane quite liked it. This particular device worked as a way to block out solar radiation during the day. Granted, Mary-Jane would not step out into the sunlight and catch on fire like a lot of vampires would, thanks to her treatments, but it was not a good idea for her to be walking about in the light without any protection.

Also, Mary-Jane could not eat garlic anymore, but that was no real loss. She hated the stuff, to begin with.

"So, you're holding up alright?" Harry asked.

"Well, yeah," Mary-Jane said. "You stop by New York every few weeks, pop in to give me my injections."

Mary-Jane slipped her shoe off and underneath the table, started to rub her foot up and down Harry's leg. The sultry redhead leaned further across the table and smiled, before whispering in Harry's ear.

"Speaking of which, I think I'm about due," Mary-Jane said. The sexy vampire slowly rubbed her foot up to the base of Harry's crotch and worked it throw his pants. "So, how about after lunch…."

"Maybe if you play your cards right," Harry said.

"Guess, I'm going to have to try harder," Mary-Jane said, a wicked smile crossing over the face of the vampire girl. She kept working Harry's crotch back and forth through his pants, feeling his bulge.

Gwen just smiled and pressed a hand on Mary-Jane's firm thigh. She leaned over towards her friend.

"You can be pretty shameless sometimes," Gwen said.

"I know honey," Mary-Jane said. "And speaking of which, you look good enough to eat. I'm surprised Mari hasn't drafted you. An ass that nice shouldn't really go to waste."

A smile deepened over Gwen's face at the compliment.

"Well, modeling is really not my thing," Gwen admitted. "Besides, you and Felicia have a certain flare, which I really don't…and speaking of which, do you have any projects coming up which might be exciting?"

Felicia moved across the table, pouting at the fact Mary-Jane had monopolized Harry underneath the table. The busty platinum blonde leaned in and whispered in Harry's ears, breasts pressing against the back of Harry.

"My mother….just a fair warning, but she's conspiring to get you away on a tropical island somewhere," Felicia said. "Well, my mother and her girlfriend…you remember, Vanessa Fisk, don't you?"

Harry had been intrigued, and not just because Mary-Jane worked him over with her toes underneath the table, although that was quite nice as well.

"Your mother might be getting what's coming to her soon," Harry said.

"Well, she's like me, beautiful, busty, blonde, all of the essentials," Felicia said a few seconds later, the grin widening. "So, you know, you're going to have fun. And Vanessa….well she's frustrated I think. I don't even know if her husband realizes what's happening behind his back, and who in particular she has his eyes from."

"Fisk seems like a busy man, but I can't believe he would neglect a babe like his wife," Reilly popped up.

"Well, men like him tend to be blinded to what they have, always wanting more," Felicia said. "So, how's school doing? Are you going to end up trying to get more doctorates than Harry, or not?"

Reilly responded with a very sheepish smile when looking back at Felicia. "Well, I don't know. I'm going to have to make a good enough go at it, I guess, but it's going to be a long time before I can beat Harry."

"Well, I have full confidence that you'll do the best you can," Harry said.

"Talk about pressure," Reilly said. "But, hey, that makes you be the very best you can be in life, so what's wrong with a little pressure? Absolutely nothing, there's nothing wrong with having a little pressure put on yourself, you know. What's life without it, anyway?"

Harry smiled at the babbling of the girl and patted her on the shoulder. Reilly's wide grin, if possible, got a little bit wider in response.

"So, anyway, the shoot is getting some more national exposure, and the good kind," Mary-Jane said. "I know it's a few months away, but it's never too early to be thinking about a Halloween shoot."

Gwen smiled at her friend, and ran a hand down Mary-Jane's leg, while she pumped Harry underneath the table. "You know, you would be pretty good for it."

* * *

Oliver Queen took a sigh and stepped out into the island. Common sense told the young man that this could put him into the trap, but frustration overrode any amount of common sense Oliver might have had. To be perfectly honest, he was done. Done of running, done of hiding, done of everything. Oliver just wanted to step up and face the music, and any consequences it might bring.

One step brought out deeper onto the island, in front of Edward Fyers. Fyers looked at him with a smile.

"Well, Mr. Queen."

"I can't take it anymore," Oliver said. "All of the running, all of the hiding, all of the fighting…that's not the life I'm used to. I just want to go home."

It was not surprising he broke eventually. Fyers praised him for not cracking even sooner.

"And you will, Mr. Queen," Fyers responded. "I've always intended to have you sent home from the very beginning. All I required was a tiny bit of cooperation on your part. It isn't much, just cooperation, that's all I ask from you, Mr. Queen."

"That's all you want?" Oliver asked.

"Well, you could start by handing me those documents that Deadpool took," Fyers said. "And then we'll have a further conversation….step out and face me. We're gentlemen here after all."

Oliver moved out and picked up the folder, he swiped off of the desk. Shado and Deadpool might not be happy, but Oliver only had to do what was necessary. He pushed the documents into the hands of Fyers.

"And you know, this is very easy."

Some of the man's goons grabbed Oliver around the arms and held him into place. Oliver looked surprised, and struggled, for a moment. At least until one of the guns shoved a gun behind his head, and that's when the struggle stopped.

"I thought you said I could leave," Oliver said.

"I follow through on my promise, but I don't think you understand how valuable you are," Fyers said. "There's still a lot to be done, and there's a potential of you to be used as bait for a well-set trap."

Oliver should have known that, but for some reason, he gambled the fact Fyers would set him free with no strings attached.

Fyers flipped open to the documents only to see a bunch of rather crude, and fairly lewd drawings on the other side. The man frowned in response and looked at the documents.

"What nonsense is this, Mr. Queen?"

"Actually, that would be my nonsense, Eddie."

As if on cue, threw arrows shot to connect with the men who were holding Oliver. Deadpool dropped down to the ground behind them and kicked the man in the side of the face.

"Well, that went according to plan," Deadpool responded.

"Wait, it did?" Oliver asked a moment or so later.

"Yeah, it did, I can't believe it worked," Deadpool said. "Not as much I can't believe you haven't been retconned into a woman yet, but we'll get there eventually I'm sure."

Oliver picked up one of the guns. Deadpool always made those insane comments which Oliver had to just brush off for the sake of his own sanity. One of the goons charged Oliver, and Oliver clipped him with a shot to the shoulder. The gun jammed, and Oliver just decided to hurl back his arm and waffle the goon with the gun.

Shado dropped down and strung together multiple arrow shots which put down her adversaries one at a time. The woman turned around to a large figure who tried to nail her. Shado slipped out of the way and caught him in the back of the head.

Deadpool rushed towards Fyers, only to come face to face with the blade of Deathstroke.

"It's been a long time, Wade," Deathstroke said.

"Yes," Deadpool said. "I really don't have a snappy line right now for once, so I'm just going to kick your ass."

Deadpool withdrew two katana and held them up to charge at Deathstroke. Both of them clashed sword to sword with each other. Neither gave up any ground to the other. Both fighters were as fierce as possible, with Deadpool's knees buckling out from underneath him.

The Merc jumped forward and dodged the cold hard steal of the deadly assassin. Deadpool came inches away from being impaled at the end of a sword. Another attack had been blocked with Deathstroke jumping high into the air and slashing the sword.

"I'm going to correct a mistake I should have corrected years ago," Deathstroke said.

"You would be the pro-choice type, wouldn't you?" Deadpool asked.

' _Oh, we're going to get some hate for that one,'_ one of the voices in Deadpool's head moaned.

Deathstroke rushed towards Deadpool one more time and the two of them engaged each other. Both of them are evenly matched just as much.

Oliver picked up the bow and the arrow which had been dropped. He hoped this would work. Oliver withdrew the arrow and shot it at Deathstroke while he fought.

For one long moment, Oliver thought he would pull it off. Time had a tendency to slow down when under a lot of stress, and Oliver's stress levels shot through the roof. The arrow stuck into the ground, leaving a mark, and it caused Deathstroke to turn around.

Deadpool took advantage of the distraction by slamming his foot into the back of Deathstroke's head. Both engaged in a brutal battle.

"ENOUGH!"

Edward Fyers rallied most of the troops who walked around the area, and they held their weapons. Deadpool looked up in the air and received a punch to the back of the head. The Merc's knees buckled, and Deathstroke put a sword to Deadpool's throat.

Shado and Oliver looked around and realized there was no movement to be made that did not result in them getting shot by the mercenary squad.

"No flippant remarks?" Deathstroke asked.

"Yeah, your pits really reek," Deadpool said, gagging in response.

"It's over now."

"I couldn't agree more."

Everyone on the island looked around, and realized, they were not alone. For a deserted island out in the middle of nowhere, Lian Yu got a lot of traffic, and now everyone wondered what they had to deal with now.

* * *

Harry finished up with the girls, having some fun with Mary-Jane, and giving her what she needed, and did a few other smaller things. Right now, Harry popped into OsCorp for his meeting. He turned around the corner and saw Anastasia Hardy waiting for him, a smile on her face. The beautiful member of the OsCorp Board of Directors always was good at keeping an eye on the goings of the company, when Harry could not babysit it.

"Well, Harry, is it a good sign I'm seeing a lot more of you these days?" Anastasia asked.

"Well, it depends on what news you have more me," Harry said. "I looked at the latest financial reports, but I have a feeling they only just barely touch upon what's going on over at OsCorp, don't they?"

"Yes," Anastasia said. "We're just in transition, moving several projects. We're recovering from the disappearance of Norman Osborn, you know."

"Yes, I heard," Harry said. "Him and Otto Octavius, they might have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, but they are brilliant minds, which are missed."

"Thankfully, the Morbius situation didn't get any traction in the press," Anatasia said a moment later. "As far as the people know, he's taken an extended leave of absence for medical reasons."

Harry intended to keep it that way as far as he was concerned. Morbius lead to Mary-Jane being in her current situation.

"There's nothing too pressing though, the Board pretty much is just going to standard meetings, there hasn't been drama," Anastasia continued. "Even, Harold's been quiet, he's been kept on, and he's received his inheritance from the company, and rewarded us by not doing anything embarrassing."

Harry wondered if he should be concerned or not that Harold was quiet. It always ended up being the quiet ones who would disrupt a lot of things.

' _Norman messed him up a lot,'_ Gwen offered. _'And, I think Norman's accident messed him up even more because Harold never had a chance to prove his worth to Norman.'_

' _Would he have ever?'_ Kara asked.

' _Sadly, I don't think so,'_ Gwen thought.

"So, everything is running as I thought it would," Harry said.

"And now business is out of the way, I have a more personal manner to discuss with you," Anastasia remarked with a smile. The two of them stepped into an empty office so they would not get in the way of the people coming down the hallway.

Harry answered with a smile.

"Of course," Harry responded.

"I'm taking a leisure trip, along with some friends in August," Anastasia responded, leaning closer towards Harry, with a bright smile on her face. "I was wondering if it would be convenient for you to go along. I would appreciate it if you could, so we could get to know each other a little bit better."

"Well, Felicia mentioned it to me," Harry said. "And I don't see why I couldn't come along. It would be nice to get to know you a little bit better."

"Great," Anastasia said with a bright smile etched upon her face. "I really appreciate it, and I'm really looking forward to knowing you better outside of the office."

The knowing smile on the beautiful woman's face pretty much told the story of how much she would have liked to know Harry. Harry would have been lying if he didn't look forward to meeting with her a little bit.

"Doctor Connors claims he's close to a breakthrough based off of Richard Parker's formula, or at least the components we could find, which could change the world," Anastasia commented.

Harry marveled at the ability of the woman to switch from pleasure to business at a drop of a hat. It was a good quality for someone to have.

* * *

On this Memorial Day Weekend of 1999, Bruce Wayne's last remaining childhood innocence, as fragile as it might have been, died. That was on the day, where he saw the Grey Ghost movie, starring Matt Hagen. He moved out of the exit of the movie theater, with his latest flavor of the week date, a local model. She was stunning, although not exactly very bright in the intelligence department.

"Oh, that Matt Hagen!" the date gushed in excitement. "What a babe? He was so gorgeous, and the way he filled into that tight leather costume, it was just….yummy."

"Actually, the Grey Ghost didn't wear…"

"And that bad guy, he was so ugly, I'm glad Matty put a stop to him," the date gushed. "It was one of the best movies I ever saw. I hope the people know what a great movie the Grey Ghost is, and how hot Matt Hagen is!"

Bruce sighed and adopted the mask of the smiling billionaire playboy. The movie was not exactly faithful to the source material, to be honest, and kind of a disgrace. Hagen's melodramatic attacking was way too over the top, and the villain, well the villain had a motif where he used ice for his crimes. Therefore, he used an obscene amount of ice and cold-related puns.

Plus, the Grey Ghost having a credit card with his name and logo on it, was one of the worst parts of the movie, and an insult. Bruce hoped they did not kill the franchise.

Thankfully, Bruce had been stopped by the gushing about Matt Hagen by the phone ringing.

"It's me," Oracle said. "There's been another murder, the holiday killer has struck, and killed one of Maroni's men. Willie Peterson, he was an informant for the GCPD, and now he's dead…same way as the others."

"Thank you," Bruce said. He switched calls. "Alfred, bring the limo around."

"Brucie, what's the matter?" the girl asked in a simpering voice.

"I have something to take care of," Bruce said.

"YOU'RE SEEING ANOTHER WOMAN AREN'T YOU?" the girl shrieked in response. "Oh, I have warned about you Bruce Wayne, but I can't believe you would be such a two-timing cheat on the date….when you're supposed to be on a date with your girlfriend. I thought we would have something special."

"It's nothing like that, Carrie….."

"MY NAME IS CHRISTINA!"

She slapped Bruce hard across the face and stormed off, going down the street to go to get a cab. Bruce just shook his head.

' _The easiest way to get rid of a troublesome date…call them by the wrong name.'_

Bruce could not dwell on these matters; there were more important things to worry about.

* * *

A flash of bright light erupted over New York City. A figure dressed in green dropped down onto the ground. The blonde female, of about eighteen or nineteen years old, as far as Earth years were concerned, looked around and realized she was not where she should have been. It was supposed to teleport her elsewhere, but insane, the young girl dropped down onto the ground.

"Professor Honeycutt, I think the teleportation wasn't exact," Princess Tribble of the Neutrinos responded. "Professor Honeycutt?"

Static and no answer, and the young Princess responded with a sigh. Tribble walked past a building with the letters "TCRI" stamped on the side of the building. She checked the coordinates on the wrist device and realized something.

' _Earth, I accidentally got sent to Earth?'_

Thankfully, there were people who could help her on Earth, providing Tribble could find them. She really wanted to take a closer look around, but time was unfortunately of the essence.

Tribble slipped past TCRI, not taking notice of the security drone watching her every move.

* * *

**To Be Continued on April 22** **nd** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Well, some important things get set up for the future._

_I'm not sure if you should take your dating advice from Bruce Wayne. But, calling a woman you're with the wrong name isn't going to make them happy, I suspect._

_Well, Princess, you're a long way from Dimension X, aren't you?_

_Damn it, Deadpool, stop spoiling potential future plot developments._

_Until Saturday._

**Ascension Book 2 Chapter 286 Xtra:**

http://webofchaos.blogspot.com/2017/04/ascension-book-2-chapter-286-xtra.html


	287. Beyond Dimension X Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Seven: Beyond Dimension X Part One**

* * *

A short metal robot with a glass bubble at the top walked into a lab in the very depths of the TCRI building. Inside the bubble sat Krang, the supreme warlord of Dimension X, although he was not feeling so supreme these days having been banished the glorified mudball of a world that was Earth. In fact, these days, Krang was very furious, to be honest.

"Unbelievable, years of hard work down the drain!" Krang howled. "There's no way to recover the energy prototype….and now I have to go back to the drawing board because of that fool Shredder and his need to exert himself. The New York City Criminal Underworld is small and insignificant."

The only small amount of solace Krang could take from this entire situation was, he knew how to create the prototype, and would not have to go through the trial and error last time. A big problem and Krang saw a big problem, was that he would need to find a location to store the next prototype. The ruler of the Dimension X moved through the plans on the computer.

"Krang, what is taking so long?" Shredder asked.

"Oh, I don't know, Saki," Krang said in a snippy voice. "I have bigger problems to deal with, like the fact we needed to flood a very advanced and very expensive energy prototype to keep it out of the hands of some of your enemies. All of this is your fault, Saki, you can't…"

Krang's groans continued when he realized the mess he had entered. The alien brain's breathing continued to increase when slowly working through the process of trying to dig up some information.

"The interference, the constant interference of Hamato Yoshi's accursed Ninja Turtles, they are a more pressing problem," Saki warned them.

"It's all about you, and it's all about your revenge, isn't it, Saki?" Krang asked. "It's all about your petty revenge, against the Turtles, against Yoshi, against everyone who ever wronged you. Well, let me tell you something, it's quite pathetic really to see someone so hung up on revenge, wasting every single moment of his life trying to attempt to….."

Krang's words trailed off and the alarm started to blare off to one side. The alien brain's eyes widened the very second he heard the alarm and he noticed something odd.

"Bring up the images from Security Drone Nineteen," Krang said.

The images flashed off across the screen a few seconds later, and Krang saw a figure drop down to the ground, almost on their laps. Blonde hair, pointed ears, and that smug demeanor. Krang had to do some quick math in his mind, but it was not exactly a hard one.

"What, what is it?" Saki asked.

"She's arrived on Earth, but why?" Krang asked.

"What?" Saki asked a little bit more forcefully.

"It's the Princess of the hated Neutrinos, one of the vilest races in all of Dimension X," Krang said, giving emphasis to the last part of that sentence with a slight gurgle.

"What is so awful about these Neutrinos?" Saki asked.

"They oppose war, and they refuse to enlist in any army, they go against the entire spirit of what Dimension X is meant to be," Krang said. "And they decided to strip me of my body and banish me to this mudball, where I have been forced to work with the likes of you."

Krang did not care whether or not the Shredder heard him or not. The disembodied alien brain took in a deep breath.

"I have to grab her, I have to have her, right now," Krang said. "I must have her, I have to have my revenge….."

"Your revenge?" Saki demanded. "Didn't you just say that revenge is…"

"Not now, Saki," Krang said. "This is much more important. Not only can I make her pay, by slowly torturing her, and making her know the meaning of the word pain. Oh yes, her screams will be delicious."

Krang stopped a moment later and cleared his thoughts before the alien brain continued.

"But, she has technology which could help me, and help me gain access to Dimension X once more," Krang said. "I can gain further technology, and also gain access to my armies. My legions of loyal Stone Warriors are waiting for me in Dimension X."

The robotic arm of the bubble walker stretched out and pressed some buttons on the screen. Krang paused a second later and took in a deep heaving sigh.

"But first, first, I must have my revenge over the likes of her," Krang said. "Damn it!"

"What now?" Saki asked.

"It's the United States military, they must have picked up wind of her teleportation into the city," Krang said. "No, no, no, I can't allow this to happen. I can't allow these hairless barbarians to gain access to technology beyond the world. It should be mine. IT SHOULD BE MINE!"

Krang took in a screaming breath of frustration. He needed to gain access to the technology, so close to gaining access to the wonders of Dimension X. There was no way Krang could allow this to be pulled away from his grasp. Thankfully, the alien brain had a few tricks up his sleeve and an idea.

"Let's get a closer look," Krang murmured.

* * *

Slow realization dawned on Tribble, the natives might not have been too happy she just dropped in unannounced. The moment she stepped out of the alleyway, several men, heavily armed, soldiers, stepped out. Tribble sighed and tried to lean towards him.

"I'm not here to hurt any of you," Tribble said.

"Hands in the air, where we can see them," the leader of the army said. "What the hell are you?"

"I'm someone who just made a very terrible mistake, it was just a miscalculation," Tribble said. "Once I find out what went wrong with the teleportation trail, I'll go home, I swear I will. I don't mean to cause any trouble, please, you've got to believe me."

"Keep your hands in the air, now."

Tribble found herself on the business end of several guns and the alien princess took in a deep breath, before taking out another deep breath. To see this entire situation reminded the poor girl of her time back in Dimension X would be putting things extremely lightly. Tribble stepped back and breathed.

"Please! Don't! I'm sorry!" Tribble yelled.

In her attempt to reason with them, it only riled up these people for some reason. Tribble closed her eyes and levitated one of the native land vehicles above her head. Telekinesis occurred a lot when she had been upset. And most Neutrinos lost that ability when they were toddlers, but it appeared for some reason, Tribble regained that ability.

"I'm sorry!"

Tribble hurled the truck down onto the ground. The young Neutrino Princess jumped over a fence, and felt something rip, and fall out on the other side.

The pack on her back dropped down onto the ground. Tribble's breathing increased a moment later. The portal pack, the very item she needed to return back to Dimension X, dropped on the ground.

Several of the Earth troops moved forward. Tribble thought about returning back to go for the pack, but a strong hand grabbed Tribble by the shoulder.

"Let's go, they're going to hunt you down."

Tribble nodded, and she disappeared behind a building, towards an alleyway. The four figures lead her down, pulling back a large metal disc on the ground. The opening led her to what might have been Earth's sewers, at least judging by the smell.

Still, between trudging through human waste and being captured, Tribble knew that trudging through human waste would not be so bad. The girl dropped down behind the four figures when going into the sewers. A breath came through Tribble's body and had been let out a moment or so later.

"You're not from around here."

The light in the sewer, shining down slightly, allowed Tribble to glimpse the figures. There were four people who saved, her, green skinned, wearing masks and carrying weapons of some sorts. They had a shell of some sort on their back.

"You're not the typical Earth people, are you?" Tribble asked.

"Well, no, we're not," one of them said. "What happened, how did you get here?"

Tribble peered up through the opening on the ground and saw the military people go back. One of them held a very familiar object in his hand and the blood of the princess turned cold when she realized he carried the Portal Pack she brought in from Dimension X. Tribble's body shuddered.

"I have to go back to get it."

"You can't, they're going to secure it, and you won't be able to get near it at all," the turtle wearing the purple face mask said. "How did you get here?"

"Interstellar teleportation technology," Tribble said. "Although, due to a slight miscalculation, I ended up on Earth, and not the fifth moon of Barok. And my communicator isn't working either."

"We'll figure something out."

Tribble sure as hell hoped so because she was starting to enter a very stressful situation. The Neutrino princess brought her breath in and out with a very prominent sigh to try and calm down.

"I'm going to need to find him," Tribble said. "I'm going to need to find Har-Zod, and I'm going to need to find him now, it's of the utmost importance. He calls Earth his home."

"Har-Zod?"

Tribble snapped and could have just slapped herself. These natives might not have known Har-Zod by his given name. Tribble racked her brain, and she decided to tell them the other name.

"He has another name, his alias, he told me it, back on Dimension X," Tribble said. "Harry Potter…you know who Harry Potter is, don't you?"

"Yeah, we do," the blue-clad turtle responded. "We're going to get you to the safe place, and then we're going to get in touch with him. Thankfully, he's in the city, so it should not be too hard, and we can get your pack back."

Tribble really did hope they got the pack back because it was kind of vital to have that particular piece of technology back. The Neutrino Princess felt a large amount of frustration, without the pack on her back. The frustration would only mount further, growing and bubbling with each passing moment.

* * *

Kara knew there was no shortage of news, but now, they were reporting on the elaborate scream of Edward Nashton, and his attempts to blackmail several of Gotham's finest, and in fact, destroy their reputation. James Gordon appeared to be the tip of the iceberg, to be honest. Several of the names had been hidden, and documents had been further buried, but who else had access to them during the time where Nashton tried to hack them?

Who indeed? Kara made her way to her lunch break, finally managing to catch another person who was on her way to a lunch break. Barbara already waited for her at the table. The blonde smiled and cross the distance to the café, sitting down across from Barbara at the table.

"So, am I late, or are you early?" Kara asked.

"Actually, for once, I wrapped up early," Barbara said. "I know, that's shocking as all hell, but, it happens, every once and a while."

The third member of their lunch date had not shown up yet, but considering she currently visited her friends back home on Paradise, Kara and Barbara supposed she could have been running a little late.

"So, how is your father doing?" Kara asked.

"He's fine, Grogan's really bending over backward to appease him," Barbara said. "Dad wasn't going to make a big deal out of it, even though he didn't like it. But, still, Grogan doesn't want that embarrassment to taint his career as the Gotham City Police Commissioner. Despite, you know, it's already starting to taint his career."

Kara just shook her head in response. There was a huge part of her which believed that Peter Grogan was far more interested in maintaining appearances, and showing a respectable face, then actually accomplishing any of his goals. Perhaps it was just Kara though.

"The deck is being shuffled," Kara said. "Nashton also looked pretty smug for someone who had been sent to prison."

Barbara just shrugged in response. "I'm not sure if Edward Nashton can look anything else other than smug. It's just in his nature, you know."

Kara figured about as much. The blonde flipped her hair back and took a second to look into Barbara's eyes.

"I'm sure they're working a lot of hours, because of the Holiday Killer attacks," Kara said. "There's a lot of people thinking we got the wrong one, that the Cop Killer framed Loeb, and is just out there, biding his time, or her time, until reinventing themselves under a different motif."

"The people will think what they want to think," Barbara said. "Especially when a lot of hysteria is drummed up based on what they think…and there's more than the Holiday Killer attacks which are drumming up hysteria, you know. There are….."

Barbara sighed in response. This one hit a fair bit closer to home.

"There's another blonde girl who has been abducted, between the age of eight and twelve," Barbara said. "I guess the good news is, none of these girls have turned up dead. But the alternative isn't very pretty either…given we could be dealing with some kind of serial predator here."

Kara took a few seconds to sigh, and nod in response. Vicki had been trying to get to the bottom of this case. It was one which resounded a bit close to home for the group at the Penthouse because there had been several young girls around that age living them.

"It's crazy, someone like that can't even be found," Kara said. "No witnesses or anything…no sign of the girls….and the first two have been gone for a couple of months."

"I really hope we can find him, eventually," Barbara said. "Or her, you never really know. There are some creepy people out, gender is damned."

"Yeah, that's the truth," Kara said.

Kara could not even begin to piece together why a very sick person would do what they would do, targeting young girls in such an awful way. It was beginning to be a bit too much to think about if she was perfectly and utterly honest.

"So, how's work?" Barbara asked.

Grateful to be off of that very dreadful subject, Kara jumped in with an explanation.

"Oh, Vicki is keeping me busy, and I'm really having more opportunities to jump in," Kara said. "When Harry gets the Media Company ready, I'm going to be ready to be a huge part of it."

"Isn't he just waiting out the rest of Vicki's contract?" Barbara asked.

"Yeah, she's got another year or so left for GNN," Kara said. "I've also been talking to my younger counterpart on the phone. She's been bitten by the journalism bug as well….and I've been trying to give her some advice. There are a few people to gain influence from if she wants to step into the field."

"Iris West, Betty Brant, Vicki Vale, Catherine Grant," Barbara said a few seconds later.

Kara just smirked at the last name. "Better not mention Catherine Grant too close around Vicki. That award slipping out of her fingers and into Cat's last year, that's still a bit of a sore spot around her."

"I can only imagine, given Vicki busts her ass for it," Barbara said. "Well, hello, Donna, thanks for joining us."

"Sorry, I'm late," Donna said. "Artemis decided to enlist me as a training dummy to show the younger Amazons a move, and well...I think I'm going to need a long soak after this is over."

Kara just smiled and pulled out a chair for Donna to sit in. Donna gratefully took the chair and leaned back, a smile popping over the face of the Amazon.

* * *

Harry received a message and decided to make his way to the lair as soon as possible. The moment he stepped inside, the four Turtles, Splinter, and Princess Tribble were sitting around the area of the lair. Harry had been very surprised to see the Neutrino Princess there. She hinted a visit might be in order, but Harry was surprised Tribble showed up this soon.

' _She's taking the giant Turtles in stride, isn't she?'_ Faora asked a second later.

' _Well, she's from Dimension X,'_ Harry thought. _'Therefore, she's more than used to her fair share of exotic creatures.'_

"Tribble, it's been….."

"I….well we made a bit of a miscalculation," Tribble said. "And it's good to see you…but there's a serious problem, I missed the moon completely, landed on Earth. I don't know where Professor Honeycutt went wrong, only I had been teleported in the middle of New York City….well not in the middle of the city per say, but in the middle of the alleyway, and well….."

Tribble looked very sheepish, and Harry reached forward to cup the face of the Neutrino Princess.

"I…dropped my portal pack," Tribble said. "And your Earth government…their military picked it up, and now the Portal Pack is in the hands."

"So, they have this Portal Pack," Donnie said a moment or so later. "Is there any way you could track it?"

"No, there's a recall trigger though," Tribble said. She took in a deep breath and looked at the group around her. "But, unfortunately, the recall trigger can only be accessed from a laboratory inside of Dimension X, so that really doesn't do us any good."

"No, it doesn't," Leo said.

Harry took a moment to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"So, can they get it working?" Raph asked.

' _Alex, we have a problem,'_ Harry thought.

' _Is it about the interdimensional disturbance?'_ Alex asked. _'I'm on the scene, well the DEO is on the scene…but the EPF just beat us to the punch.'_

' _Did they pick up anything?'_ Harry asked.

' _They picked up a pack lying on the ground, why?'_ Alex asked.

' _Because, that's dangerous alien technology from Dimension X,'_ Harry thought a moment or so later. _'It's a Portal Pack…..I don't know what it would do if it falls into the wrong hands, but it could be a bit of a disaster.'_

' _Yes, I'd imagine it might,'_ Alex thought. _'I'm going to follow the EPF, see where they're going…..tail them discreetly. And once I know where they're keeping the technology, I'll let you know where it is.'_

"I got in touch with Alex," Harry said. "She says the technology is being secured by the EPF, you know Bishop and his group, and…I'm going to back her up to see if I can get it back."

"I'm coming too," Tribble said, in a very firm tone of voice. "I was the one who lost the technology, it's my fault that it's in the wrong hands. Anything that happens with it…well, it's on my head isn't it?"

"We're going to have to come along as well," Leo said. "You know, you could use all of the back-ups you can get, especially, if you're going to a secret government facility, and you don't really know what you're going up against."

The Turtles nodded, and Harry was not going to argue with them, to be perfectly honest. It was time for the group of them to leave. Harry moved back into the bond link.

' _Okay, I've got eyes on the truck,'_ Alex thought. _'I'll keep you posted when you need help.'_

The group left the lair, to the sounds of a breaking news report on the television screen.

"And in more strange news, a Rhino and Warthog have been nabbed by a local city zoo, by strange robots who drilled up out of the ground. The police are baffled as to the motives, and no ransom for the two animals has been posted at this particular time."

* * *

Alex Danvers moved in closer, keeping the closest possible eye on Bishop and his crew. The moment Harry informed her of the portal technology; Alex knew time was of the essence.

Technically, Alex did this off of the clock, because Henshaw warned her to back off from this mission. The rest of the DEO agents went home, but Alex had never been one to play by the rules, especially when there was a cause she strongly believed it. Especially when she figured Bishop had some kind of agenda in mind, that Alex could not quite figure out at the moment.

' _Okay, they're pulling into this facility right here….looks to be pretty secure, but I just barely made it inside before they closed the gates,'_ Alex thought. _'I'm pretty sure you can find a way to ninja your way in there if you really try.'_

' _I know I can find a way inside,'_ Harry said. _'And we're on your way, just stick close, and try and stay out of trouble.'_

' _Well, you know how me staying out of trouble goes,'_ Alex thought a moment later.

The DEO Agent looked around to the guards who looked at the back of the truck. The other two guards took the portal pack out of the truck. It looked like it could have passed as an ordinary backpack or something along those lines. Which, Alex figured, might as well have been the idea, to disguise it for some reason. Alex did not really have the slightest idea how Dimension X technology worked or really should work.

Alex got close enough to hear the crackling voice over the radio.

"Bring it inside," Bishop's voice said. "If we can use it to bait Krang, and lure him into a trap, then this is all over. We would have succeeded."

Alex frowned, Bishop wanting to lure Krang into a trap, well that lead to some interesting questions. A small flash of light erupted off to one side, and Alex spun around just in time to see Harry, the Turtles, and the visitor from Dimension X show up in an instant.

"So, you're here?" Alex murmured.

"Yeah, we're here," Harry said.

The portal pack had been brought into the base, which was not going to make this easy at all.

* * *

Oroku Saki walked side by side with one of the chief members of his army, the large mountain of a man known as Hun. Hun stepped back a moment and turned to lean in to talk to his master.

"They were willing to agree to be the first to undergo this little experiment," Hun said. "Their egos were bruised, along with their bodies, after going a few rounds with the Turtles. Are there any side effects?"

"There's a chance, according to Doctor Stockman, that there might be some small neurological side effects," Saki said. "They will suffer reduced intelligence with their enhanced strength."

Hun paused for a second and just responded with a shrug of his shoulders. "No big loss."

Saki answered with a nod. "Are they here?"

"Yes," Hun said. "Bebop and Rocksteady, come in!"

The two goons in question stepped into the room, and both of them looked about as surly as one would imagine. The two goons stepped around, walking up into the lab.

"So, when are we going to get a chance to stomp those Turtles?" Rocksteady asked.

"Yeah, I want to rip them, and mash them up!" Bebop growled.

On cue, Baxter Stockman walked in, half the man he used to be. One of his eyes had been ripped out and replaced with a prosthetic, which Krang could use to torment the scientist should the opportunity arise. His right arm and left arm had also been rigged with prosthetics which could be used.

"That's always Krang, wanting an arm and a leg for my work," Stockman said.

No sooner did these words leave Stockman's mouth, Krang shocked him through the eyepiece. The scientist dropped down to one knee, obviously grimacing from being bombarded with an obscene amount of electricity through his eye.

"You want power, don't you?" Stockman asked. "You want to destroy the Turtles. Well….I can make it happen. This mutagen turns you into the last animal you've touched, becoming a stronger version of yourself….you will be able to crush those Turtles in the palm of her hands."

And then, Stockman would have a chance to dissect whatever was left of those mutant abominations.

"Step inside…gentlemen," Stockman said.

The tank opened up, with the restrained Rhino and Warthog inside. They struggled against the tank, with Bebop and Rocksteady walking inside. Bebop put his hand on the Warthog who snorted, and Rocksteady pressed a calm onto the head of the Rhino.

"This might sting a little bit," Stockman said.

Stockman pressed a button and pumped the mutagen inside. The scientist held a theory that the controlled process would make them stronger than the Turtles, but only time would tell. The scientist watched with glee when the two thugs underwent some changes, mutating into the last animal they touched.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 3** **rd** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Well, the government has their hands on a dangerous piece of alien technology. That can't be good._

_And we're making some mutants as well. That can't be good either._

_Until Wednesday._


	288. Beyond Dimension X Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Eight: Beyond Dimension X Part Two**

* * *

The news of the military showing up caught many people's attention, and it caught the attention of particular reporter in question. April O'Neil made her way towards the military base, carefully lurking around the outside of the fence. The reporter could not be one hundred percent sure what was going on here, but she had a feeling whatever was going on, it was big news.

It was April's chance to uncover something big. The potential hook for alien activity got the reporter's mind going a million miles a minute and excitement started to brim. Maybe, April could figure out something, anything, and find out what was happening. And maybe, just maybe, Krang was involved.

A small voice in the back of April's mind reminded her the moment she stepped around this corner, the government could have snagged her and the reporter would be in a lot of trouble. The risk excited April and she enjoyed the fact adrenaline pumped inside of her body. April would be more than willing to risk being caught if it meant getting her hands on a very big and juicy story.

April O'Neil did not become a reporter because it was the easiest job in the world. No, far, from it. The allure of risk, the glamor of the job, both of the factors excited April one hundred percent of the way. She noticed a gate halfway open and started to make a beeline towards the gate.

A hand grabbed April and caused the reporter to tense up. Someone pulled her back into the shadows and caused April to almost jump up in surprise. The reporter spun around and tried to defend herself from an attack. The person pulling her into the shadows blocked April's hand and pushed her back down onto the ground.

"You better calm down, or you're going to get both of us caught."

April calmed down about as much as the situation warranted and came face to face with Alex Danvers.

"What are you doing here?" Alex asked.

"Well, the military picking up something mysterious, and bringing it here, its news, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is news, and it's also dangerous."

April turned around to see Harry Potter walking into the picture. The reporter should have figured that he would be in the middle of a situation like this, all things considered. The reporter drew in a deeper breath and drew out the deep breath in a few moments. Not only was Harry there, but the four Turtles were there as well. April knew right away there was something else.

"Harry, guys….and um…"

April came eye to eye with Harry, the Turtles, and also a mysterious fourth person, a blonde which April had never met in her entire life. She dressed in attire which looked very amazing, and very regal as a matter of fact. April's mouth curled into a frown the very moment she came across the girl in question.

"I'm sorry, I've never met you in my life," April said.

"Princess Tribble of Dimension X," Harry said helpfully. "Tribble, this is April O'Neil…she's a friend, and also someone who is a bit anxious to get herself into a lot of trouble, as you can figure out."

The Princess smiled at the reporter who currently had her hands on her hips at Harry's declaration.

"Yeah?" Tribble asked. "I think I noticed that."

April folded her arms underneath her chest and was about to say something. However, they had a direct line to the inside of the window. Harry hovered a device on the outside of the window which amplified the sound. It was a prototype spying device which Harry hoped would allow them to get a closer look at conversations. Or in this case, a closer listen.

Not completely perfected, but Harry figured there would be no time to perfect it like the present.

"We're going to try and take the device apart, Agent Bishop."

"No!" Bishop snapped. "You shouldn't even attempt to take the device apart."

The scientists looked very much taken aback by Bishop's outburst.

"But, sir…it could be fascinating to see how this device works, so if we can just take it apart…it might….."

"I told you no, do not touch the device, do not attempt to take it apart, that's an order, and I expect it to be followed to the letter. The device is to be stored here and not tampered with. It's not something for us to mess with."

"There are people in the government who would have liked the device," the government agent started to protest a few seconds later.

"What did I just say?" Bishop demanded. "I told you not to mess with it. It's a very dangerous device, and tampering with it at this point could lead to some unforeseen consequences."

Tribble sighed in relief. She turned to the rest of the group, a half frown playing over the face of the Princess of Dimension X. "I'm honestly surprised that he had the foresight not to start taking apart. There will be consequences if someone tries to dismantle the Portal Pack….."

"Exactly what kind of consequences?" Mikey asked.

"Oh, the fact the portal pack is going to end up blowing half of the city up," Tribble said. "Those kind of consequences."

The Turtles just all groaned, they had been dealing with a lot of those types of consequences as of late. It was starting to become kind of old hat. Harry just looked at them and made a split-second decision about what to do.

"It's going to get a bit dangerous here, especially if someone else comes here to get their hands on the Portal Pack," Harry said. "Alex, you need to get April out of the area, just in case something happens."

"Harry, I….."

"Ms. O'Neil, trust me, you don't want to be near the area in any way when the heat is on," Alex said a few seconds later. "So, once I get her to safety, what do you want me to do?"

Harry reached in and put a hand on Alex's shoulder. The DEO agent, the rogue DEO agent if her superiors caught wind to this mission, stood up and looked Harry straight in the eye.

"If we don't make it out in an hour, you know what to do."

Alex responded with a nod, if Harry Potter did not make it out within an hour, she did, in fact, know what to do. Alex did not most certainly like what had to be done, but there were just a lot of things which had to be done. She felt trapped in the middle.

Bishop, no one knew his agenda, and Alex could feel anxious, and it was for a very good reason. Regardless, Alex gripped April by the arm and the two of them scurried off in the opposite direction.

* * *

Salvatore Maroni knew the landscape of Gotham City changed. He paced back and forth, with Sal's father, Big Lou Maroni, giving him the dirtiest look possible.

"Sit down before you give me a heart attack," Big Lou said in the gruffest voice possible.

"It's this entire mess of a city, everything has just changed, those freaks like Black Mask and Penguin, they shouldn't be the ones on the top of the heap," Sal said. "Everything is just wrong. Gotham's gotten weird…ever since the Bat showed up."

"Yeah, you can pin the problems on those freaks," Big Lou said a second later. "However, it's all down to the Falcones. Let's start with the obvious. Falcone's bitch of a sister is causing problems because her fat brat got popped off by who the fuck ever. And you need to secure those routes more carefully."

"Listen, I'm trying, even cashing in on the chips I have in Metropolis isn't doing me much of any good," Sal said, grunting in response. "That fucking Penguin, he's taking control of most of the real shipping routes, and that's going to be a problem. His boys have those high tech Intergang weapons now, and who knows who he's been selling them with. Some of the low-level gangs, they're picking sides."

"Then we need to make sure they're on the right side by sending them a message we're not the people to fuck with."

Sal took a deep breath and reached to the desk, picking up a large red ball and squeezing it. The ball almost popped out of the mobster's hand. Sal needed to take a deep breath.

"And there's that fucking Holiday punk," Sal said. "Who is picking right up where the Cop Killer left off. Unless, it is the Cop Killer, and Loeb was just one big frame up….pissed off the wrong guy. Vitti might not have been a cop, but you know, that smug little shit might have heard something, or seen something, that he shouldn't. Even if his little pea brain didn't process what he saw, or what he heard."

Sal drew in a deep breath and needed to sit down. However, there was little time to slow down as a limo pulled up outside. Sal pulled back the curtain of the window and spotted Carmine Falcone walking down the driveway, and the legendary Roman, he walked with a purpose and a swagger.

"Falcone's here."

The door opened, and Carmine reached in to shake hands with Sal.

"We have some serious problems," Carmine said.

"Yeah, I agree for once with you, Falcone," Big Lou grunted. "It was a mistake, a huge mistake getting together with you."

Carmine Falcone responded with a raised eyebrow and looked Big Lou directly in the eye. The mobster did not back down from the Roman, he didn't back down from anyone.

"The Maronis were a lot better as a solo act….."

"You better shut up and listen to me, because I'm sick of your shit," Carmine said.

Sal just sighed; this had not been the first time his father and the Roman had gotten into it. There had been still some sore feelings, even though common sense told them all how much they needed to stick together. Because, if they did not stick together, they would have been all fucked over pretty badly.

"The old guard has to stand together," Carmine said. "Because, if we don't stand together, we're going to get flattened. Let's face it Thorne's not any help."

"Yeah, he had to keep that fat ass Albino from getting put away," Sal said. "If he says just the right words…"

"He's screwed, and there's, even more, territory for Sionis or Cobblepot to grab onto, and if either one of them takes over from Thorne, it's over," Falcone said. "Do you hear me, it's over?"

"I fucking hear you, but what are you going to do about it?" Big Lou asked.

"I'll tell you what I'm going to do," the Roman said a few seconds later. "We're going to take Gotham City back from those freaks. It's been too long since they've had a hold in this city, and we're not going to let them push us around…."

"Yeah, you're right," Sal said. "I'm going to make a phone call, and sort all of this shit out."

Sal turned around, walking off, thinking about how his doctor was going to jump down his throat because of his blood pressure being through the roof. Sal could not worry about that right now. The mobster started to dial the phone and took a deep breath.

"Ugly…yeah, it's me, Sal. I've got a favor I need to ask you."

* * *

The group slipped around the area where the device had been brought in. The security had been very high tech.

"This is amazing," Donnie said. "Simply and completely amazing."

"Yeah, amazing, but how are we going to get inside?" Raph asked. "Because, we got to get inside, and I figure, since you're the resident tech genius, you would be already cracking away on a way to get inside."

"Working on it, but it's going to be tough," Donnie said a moment later. "The security leading inside of that building is pretty good, second to none, world-class security. It might not be RAO levels or even TCRI levels of security, but it's pretty good, great even."

"Great," Raph said. "It's going to be breaking our shells to try and get in the front door."

"Well, I'm working on it, we just need to establish the right connection to get our foot in the front door," Barbara said. "The two of us…well technically now the three of us, we should be able to put our heads together, and find a way inside, at least that's the idea."

Barbara could say how plans could go up in smoke with one wrong move. They just had to play this one as carefully and by ear as possible.

"I think I've got something," Gwen said. "Actually, I know I have something. The front panel of the inside of the lab entrance, it's compromised. You should be able to slip in through the door."

The four Turtles looked at each other and nodded. The doors slid open, which allowed the Turtles and Harry to walk inside, with Tribble following close behind.

"Are you sure about this?" Harry asked Tribble a moment later.

Tribble drew in a deep breath in response and nodded. "I have to be sure, there are…"

Everyone stopped short and things got completely silent. Several tanks lined the wall and inside of the tanks, suspended in stasis, in cryogenic animation, were some kind of alien brains. This raised more unsettling questions than it did answers, and everyone stopped short of the area. They all took a deep breath a few seconds later, and Raph turned towards the group, the obvious question on the tip of his tongue.

"So are they working with Krang?" Raph asked. "Is this some kind of cloning lab, or something?"

"It's…not exactly the most settling thing in the world," Donnie said a moment.

"No, it's not Krang clones," Tribble said. "Any clone of Krang would have grown back his original body….no, they're Utroms…but that's impossible, they were all exterminated by Krang."

"Doesn't seem very impossible because they're all right here, does it?" Raph asked.

Tribble shook her head in response and walked over. The life meter on the tanks indicated they were still showing signs of life, but why here, and why on Earth. There were so many more questions that needed to be answered, and Tribble did not know what to even make of this. The Dimension X prisoner wondered if it was even safe to take these out of the tank.

"Maybe they're refugees, escaping Dimension X, and they had the misfortune to be held here?" Harry suggested.

"Maybe," Tribble said.

No sooner did this word leave her mouth, the alarm started to blare from up above. Raph turned around and locked eyes onto Mikey, who threw his hands up into the air.

"I swear, I didn't touch anything."

"No, he didn't," Barbara chimed in through the communication network. "That's not him…someone else from up above…"

"There's someone else who broke in," Harry said. "And they're not as subtle as we are by getting in here…this could be…"

"HANDS IN THE AIR!"

Harry turned a fraction of an inch to the side and saw a group of uniformed men make their way down the steps. They held some very powerful and very high tech weapons in the air. The business end of those weapons pointed directly at the six people in the tunnel.

"Well, this could have gone better," Tribble muttered. "Maybe they'll understand this is just a big misunderstanding."

"Yeah, good luck with that, kid," Raph said.

"Technically, I'm older than you," Tribble said a few seconds later.

"Let's not split hairs over that, right now," Leo said.

Tribble would have to agree as they were in a bit of a situation.

* * *

Deep in the heart of Gotham City, one crusader of the night swooped down from high above and dropped down. The moment the latest Holiday killer attack occurred, Batman arrived at the apartment of Officer Jefferson Anderson, the man who had been killed.

"Sir, you might find one thing interesting," Alfred said. "Officer Anderson was old classmates in school with Frank Bertinelli….do you think it might not have been a holiday killer death?"

Batman didn't say anything. This connection with Bertinelli, it raised more questions, than it did answers, and it was the responsibility of Batman to figure out all of the hard answers, no matter how long it took. The World's Greatest Detective swooped in from his position and dropped down onto the ground.

He climbed up to the edge of the apartment and began to pick the window apart. The window opened up in a blink of an eye and Batman slipped inside of the apartment. It only took a moment to realize he had not been the only one who had paid the Officer a visit on this evening.

' _Thorne.'_

"He could have given it to the officer, it has to be in here somewhere."

"Don't know why Thorne is upset, it's just some dumb key."

"You're kidding, right?" one of the goons asked. "Thorne doesn't need any trouble, and Bertinelli was stockpiling information about the mobs in Gotham City. Seems like that was his retirement plan, to get out and fuck us all over. Guy went soft when he got a kid."

"Hey, man loved his daughter, you can't really fault the guy for that?"

"Not faulting him for it, it's just that he didn't need to take food off of my table, by fucking us over," the mobster responded. "Now, where would you put a key?"

One of the men ripped an ugly portrait off of the wall and grimaced when he realized there was no safe behind it. The mobster flung the painting to the ground, allowing it to shatter into several pieces. The mobsters continued to tear apart the room, in a frantic search for the key.

"Thorne's been losing it lately, and he's just letting the Penguin in…"

"He's got to lie low for a while," the mobster said. "He burned through a lot of political capital to keep Mandragora out of prison."

Batman made his move and dropped down onto the ground. One of the mobsters turned around in surprise.

"Ah, shit!"

The Detective buried a punch into the gut of one of the goons. The goons doubled over, and Batman jumped high into the air. The point of the elbow drove down onto the side of the goon's neck and took him down to the ground. Batman flipped high into the air behind the goon and started to punch away at the lower back.

The next goon charged Batman with a shock stick extended. Batman avoided the shock stick and kicked him in the ribs. The Detective rolled to the ground, grabbing said goon from the arm, and punched him.

Two thrown baterangs disabled the men in question. Batman jumped up and dropped down onto the back of the head of the goons in question. Batman held the man on the back of the head and slammed him down onto the ground. The man's mouth cracked into the ground and blood spurted from the mouth.

One of the remaining goons had been grabbed and hoisted up. Batman turned the goon around and rocked him up against the wall with an uppercut punch.

The remaining goon scrambled on the ground. Batman grabbed the goon by the back of the neck, turned him around, and pushed him up against the wall. The Detective pinned the goon up against the wall, who struggled against the grip of Batman.

"TALK!" Batman yelled. "What were you looking for?"

"Anderson…either he had the key, or he knew who Bertinelli gave the key to…or there was something here which pointed to where the key was," the goon said, struggling against the Batman's hard grip.

"What key? "Batman demanded. "What is it for?"

The trembling thug almost lost all sense of himself. Batman terrified him witless, not he had many wits to spare before today.

"There's a lockbox that's supposed to be open, in case something happened to him…or in case he wanted to get out, I guess," the mobster said.

The sounds of sirens from outside caused Batman pause, and the mobster to slowly dropped onto the ground. The Gotham City Police Department were on their way, and it would not be a wise idea for him to be present when they showed up.

Just narrowly, Batman avoided being captured by the GCPD. He clung to the outside of the wall before slowly lowering down to the ground. He had a couple of answers, but even more, questions which unsettled him something fierce.

* * *

Agent Bishop looked over the Portal Pack with a smile on his face and widened eyes. It truthfully was some of the most amazing technology he ever laid eyes on.

' _Someone used it to leave Dimension X,'_ Bishop thought. _'Of course….it isn't a question of why someone wanted to leave Dimension X. It's the question of why someone would not want to leave Dimension X.'_

Bishop made a note that the trip to Earth might not have been intentional, even though the department was. It tempted Bishop to open up the Portal Pack, but this type of technology being messed with could have some tremendous consequences. Slowly, Bishop pressed on the edge of the Portal Pack, lifting it up in the air, and turning it over. An obvious frown passed over the face of Agent Bishop.

' _I must not.'_

Bishop set the pack down on the table for a few seconds. Krang destroyed the lives of many people, and Bishop had been working tirelessly to prevent Krang from destroying any more lives on Earth. He intended to add the people of Earth to a tremendous death toll.

An alarm started to ring and Bishop stood up straight, mouth wide open in surprise. There were only two words which came out.

"The Turtles?"

Bishop did not say this statement as a statement, but rather a question. They turned up. Bishop had been studying the Turtles for quite some time or rather studying the mutagen which caused them to become what they were. He found the entire process of study to be quite fascinating.

Everything changed, as someone else tripped the alarm. Bishop switched the view and watched in horror as two hulking figures just move their way to the door. One of them knocked out the nearest security drone and crushed it to cause the feed.

Bishop began to fear Krang might have used that mutagen which created the Turtles, to create his own mutants. This could prove to be a problem.

* * *

The EPF troops pointed their weapons at the intruders. Tribble closed her eyes, trying not to lose everything. The woman's hand raised up and caused the guns to pull out of the hands of the EPF soldiers.

"What the hell?"

Donnie was the first one to withdraw the Bo and nail the troop in the chest. The rest of the Turtles moved in to fight with the troops, and an intense battle followed.

While the Turtles distracted the EPF soldiers, Harry and Tribble slipped down out of a side entrance to try and get to the Portal Pack.

"We're going to have to get through them!" Leo yelled. "Try not to hurt them! They're only doing their job."

Raph avoided a shock stick which almost stabbed him in the ribs. The Sai wielding Turtle came down and drove a punch down onto the back of the head of the troop. Raph jumped up and dropped down before throwing two Sais at one of the men behind him.

Suddenly, the fight stopped when two figures smashed through the wall. The two nearest EPF agents went flying.

Two hulking figures of about eight feet tall, maybe larger, appeared. One of them resembled a giant humanoid Warthog, and the other resembled a giant humanoid Rhino. One of the nearest guards pointed a weapon at the large Rhino Man, clicking the trigger in the process.

"Freeze!" the troop yelled, pointing the weapon at his adversary. "Hands in the air, where we can see them, or I will shoot you, I swear….."

The Warthog Man grabbed the troop and flung him back against the wall like he was nothing.

The two creatures turned to the Turtles and snarled.

"Remember us?"

"No, but I tell you what, Dude, those are faces only a mother can love, "Mikey said.

"Bebop," the Warthog growled.

"And Rocksteady," the Rhino said.

"Oh, right!" Mikey exclaimed. He grew serious when looking at them. "New haircuts?"

"Stand aside, Turtle, or we're going to smash you into Turtle paste," Rocksteady growled. "We want that Portal Pack thingy, and you're not going to stand in our way."

"Yeah," Bebop snorted. "Stomping some stinking turtles is just a bonus."

Rocksteady hoisted a palette of cinderblocks over his head and hurled it towards the turtles who had no choice but to scatter.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 6** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Well, between Gotham City and New York, things are heating up in different ways. The various mob politics are only going to get uglier. Everyone is looking over their shoulder and rightfully so._

_And Bebop and Rocksteady crash the party in mutated form. Well, things could get ugly._

_I think it's an unwritten rule that to be a reporter you have to have a certain amount of disregard for your own well-being._

_Until Saturday._


	289. Beyond Dimension X Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Eighty-Nine: Beyond Dimension X Part Three**

* * *

The Earth Protection Force Agents spread out in the building. Harry knew what was necessary, and knew he had to stay one step ahead of the EPF agents if he wanted to survive. Tribble went around the corner to see if she could get a closer look to grab the Portal Pack while Harry moved deeper into the building. The sorcerer drew in a deep breath and knew out another breath.

"He has to be close."

Those words caused Harry to look around. One of the EPF agents moved into the building. Harry knew these men were doing their job. Just because someone was doing their job, did not mean Harry would not be very annoyed with them if they caused any trouble. Three of them separated into three separate directions. This little incident could not have gone any better for Harry if he had written their own script.

The lead EPF agent turned around and pointed the gun down the hallway. The gun clicked the very instant that the EPF soldier turned around and about in the area. Seconds passed and the agent turned his head around in the office. A deep breath followed.

Time passed, precious seconds of time. Seconds where Harry Potter swooped in from behind and grabbed the EPF agent by the back of the neck, hooked him in a reversed face lock, and brought him down to the ground in a blink of an eye. Harry stepped back to allow the EPF agent to drop onto the ground without any resistance. The moment Harry saw him drop, he stepped back.

' _Hopefully, Tribble got to the main lab without any trouble.'_

Harry needed to draw their fire. Another EPF agent came down the hallway and pointed the weapon towards where Harry was, at least where he was a second ago. Harry already swooped behind the EPF Agent. In a blink of an eye, Harry grabbed the agent around the head and smashed the point of the elbow down across the agent's neck. The agent's knees buckled from underneath him and he dropped down to the ground.

A deep breath passed through Harry's body. He would have smile. Another agent had been taken down and Harry had pretty much full access to the rest of the building on his own. There were going to be no problems, at least none that Harry could foresee in the potential future. The sorcerer kept up a steady pace when moving about the area of the building.

The last EPF agent stood at the end of the hallway. A miniature Rocket Launcher clicked into place and pointed down the hallway. Harry found himself at the business end of several major weapons before, so he was none too surprised this one was almost down his throat.

Harry flicked and a bright light caused the agent to turn around. The next move prompted Harry to teleport behind the man. One huge uppercut to the back of the neck and the EPF agent dropped to the ground. Harry stood over the top of the man and pulled back without a word.

' _Now, onto the main lab.'_

The sounds of fighting gave Harry the slightest amount of pause and it made him wonder what was going on. A loud sound, a thump, and then a crashing of glass continued. Raph flew through the glass and landed on the ground with a thump. The red-clad turtle tried to pull himself up to a standing position, but it was a very hard sell for him.

Another figure jumped through the broken window and dropped to the ground. The giant warthog snorted, and he rushed towards Raph.

Raph pumped his legs and kipped up to his feet, just to avoid being smashed down to a punch.

"Stay still!" Bebop growled.

Raph grabbed onto a cart at the end of the hallway and kicked it down. The huge metal tool cart flew down the hallway and smacked Bebop directly in the ribs. Bebop slumped over for a second, and Raph jumped over the top of the tool cart. A series of punches rocked the Warthog mutant.

Out of mid-air, Bebop caught a punch and spun Raph around in mid-air. Raph flipped down onto the ground, landing hard with a solid thud.

"Alright, now you're going to pay!"

Bebop picked up a large chain and swung it around. The chain smashed repeatedly against a wall and caused severe damage. Raph pulled himself out of the way and threw his Sai to a chain which caused a light to be knocked out. The light landed on the top of Bebop's head. Bebop growled and was not slowed down in the slightest. Raph caught him with a forward roll, nailing him in the ankle with more punches.

The ground underneath Bebop rocked, and Raph caught him back with a punch. Bebop pulled himself up, and Raph picked up a rocket launcher one of the EPF goons left behind.

"Smile, you gruesome son of a bitch," Raph muttered.

Raph pulled the trigger of the rocket launcher. Bebop avoided the attack and half of the hallway had been bombarded. He reached into the sheath to the side and pulled out a miniature grenade. The grenade launched into the air and broke apart, to release a gas. Bebop rushed through the gas and grabbed the turtle.

Another one landed on the top of Bebop's head from the ceiling up above. Bebop growled and tried to pluck the Turtle off of his head. All he did was end up smashing himself to the face.

Mikey and Raph looked at each other for a second and prepared to take Bebop down by fighting him from either side. Harry gave them a momentary distraction when hurling a throwing dagger down the hallway and catching Bebop on the side. That attack allowed Mikey to go low, and Raph to hit high which took the Warthog off balance.

The good news was that Harry was close enough to the portal pack. The bad news was that the base was swarming with both mutants and EPF troops so it was going to be hard to get to where he needed to go.

* * *

"I'm going to crush your stinkin' skull like a grape!"

Rocksteady charged over with his head extended. Donnie had the presence of mind to roll out of the way before Rocksteady's horn impaled him. Rocksteady already sent Mikey crashing through the floor. Leo laid around here somewhere, which gave Donatello some face time alone with the mutated rhino.

' _Lucky me,'_ Donnie thought a second later.

Rocksteady growled and swung that huge fist towards Donatello. The fist took out half of a cinderblock wall. Donnie jumped onto the table and calculated the measures he would have had to take to cause half of the roof to fall onto Rocksteady's very thick head. The mutant rushed Donatello halfway down the hallway, and again, he took down the hallway.

"You're really slower than a Turtle?" Donnie asked. "Then again, the mutation didn't make you any smarter, didn't it?"

Donatello whipped the Bo Staff down onto Rocksteady's back. The staff splintered as the rhino's thick back had been smashed. Donnie turned around, looking at the weapon, and also around Rocksteady who managed to grab Donnie by the headband and hurl him up off of the ground.

Leo returned to the battle and caught Rocksteady on the side of the head. The impact to the nerve ending caused pain to shoot through the rhino's body. Rocksteady dropped Donnie and turned his attention to Leo. Leo moved over and sliced the fire extinguisher on the wall which caused Rocksteady to be blinded.

"When I get out of here, your goose is cooked!"

Both Leo and Donnie came in from both ends. They nailed Rocksteady hard. The mutant wobbled but did not fall down. Not once did Rocksteady go off of his feet from the attack from the Turtles. There had been a couple of times where he fell back, but not on his own accord. Both of the Turtles rushed Rocksteady and threw everything they had at him.

Rocksteady's one leg slowly began to buckle. Leo took the rhino back with a series of punches. Rocksteady caught Leo in mid-air by the throat and rotated to try and choke slam the Turtle down into the ground. Donnie sprung forward and nailed Rocksteady directly in the face with the splintered end of the Bo Staff.

One of the grenades dropped on the ground did not go off. Donnie flung the grenade hard at Rocksteady's horn. The explosion rocked Rocksteady back. Donnie moved over and reached a hand over to help Leo up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Leo said. "If it wasn't for you, I would have had my shell cracked in half, though."

"Let's avoid that in the future," Donnie said. "I've been looking around in the lab for something to…"

Rocksteady charged them, and the two Turtles dropped down into the hole on the floor which Mikey dropped down into earlier. Both Leo and Donnie dropped down, and they heard the sound of Rocksteady smashing up the floor to try and get to them.

"Maybe we can catch him by surprise when he comes down."

Mikey flung across the hallway like a rubber band and slid to the feet of his brothers. Bruises rose on the face of the youngest Turtle brother. He groaned and tried to pull himself to a standing position. Mikey's legs flopped into place.

"Could someone get the number of the truck that just tried and run me over?" Mikey asked, slurring his speech when trying to get to his feet. The Turtle slumped over, taking in a deep breath, before falling down onto the ground. "Because I'm going to need a moment….."

Leo and Donnie pulled Mikey up to a standing position. Rocksteady stampeded above them through the stairs. It would have been the perfect time for them to pull off an ambush, but none of them were sure it could have been pulled off at this particular point.

"Okay, the cyro equipment, you know in the other lab," Donnie said.

"Yes, what about it?" Leo asked.

"I might be able to use it if I can set up a trap," Donnie said. "And it might help if we can get both Bebop and Rocksteady into the same area at the same time…do you two think you can lure them to me when I'm ready?"

"Yeah, shouldn't be too hard, I mean, they are easily lead and stuff," Mikey said. "Oh, I'm going to be feeling this one for a while. Hope Raph is okay, things didn't look too good when he was fighting old hog boy back there."

"They are stronger, we're going to have to fight smarter," Leo said.

"Not exactly the brightest bulbs in the box, so it shouldn't be too much harder to fighter smarter than….."

Donnie's words were cut off by the doorway being bust open. Rocksteady growled when he picked up one of the large metal steps leading down to this area of the building and flung it at the Turtles. They once again scattered, and no sooner did he scatter, Rocksteady grabbed Donnie and pushed him back into the wall.

"You think you can make an idiot out of me?" Rocksteady asked.

"Actually, evolution has…"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH, TURTLE!" Rocksteady growled.

Mikey took one of the filing cabinets from the office and smashed it into Rocksteady's back hard. Rocksteady smashed through the filing cabinet and shredded through documents in his attempt to get through Mikey. Mikey pulled out his nunchakus and swung them.

Rocksteady grabbed the nunchakus in his teeth and snapped them with a solid bite.

"Dude, not cool!" Mikey yelled.

Rocksteady smashed Mikey directly in the ribs and knocked him down to the ground. The wind knocked out of the Turtle. He rolled out of the way from another attack.

* * *

Alex Danvers did not mean to be worried so much. She was fully understanding of how much Harry could be, but she could not help, but be just a little bit concerned. There were a lot of explosions inside which caused the DEO Agent to hold the gun in place, and think about disobeying Harry's request and running in there.

She had always been a bit impulsive, which was something that Carol ragged about her. Alex thought that her emotions could, in fact, have gotten the better of her. The explosions continued to go inside.

"What's happening in there?" April asked. "You know, maybe we should get in there, and get a closer look, to see if we can…"

Alex grabbed April by the shoulder and pulled the reporter back. It was a noble effort, but there was no way possible that Alex was going to allow April to step into that Dragon's den. What kind of minder would Alex be if she would have let April do something like that?

"Nice try, kid," Alex said.

Checking her watch, they had been in there for nearly fifty-five minutes since they headed inside of the facility. Not nearly enough time for Alex to start panicking, but enough for her to have more than a few concerns. The DEO Agent took a deep breath when rolling her shoulders back and then looked around. Alex held the watch up and waited for something to happen, anything.

' _How close are you?'_ Alex protected Harry.

' _Close enough,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm on my way to get to the Portal Pack, but I've run into a couple of small snags.'_

Alex drew in a deep breath, and already, she knew something was going to happen. There were many things Alex loved about Harry Potter, but one of the things which frustrated her was his lack of a scale of scope of a problem. And Harry's small snag was a far bigger problem for a lot of people.

' _Define the term small snag,'_ Alex thought a moment or so later.

' _Well, there's a giant rhino and a giant warthog who are trashing the place,'_ Harry thought. _'Tribble and I are close, and the EPF have far bigger problems. Getting everyone else out of here is going to be a problem…as I said standby, and if I'm not here in the next five minutes…'_

' _I know what to do,'_ Alex thought.

Alex drew in a deep breath for a moment. She moved over towards the truck which had several military grade weapons lying on the back of it. Much to Alex's astonishment, the people minding the truck left the weapons unattended. To her, that was a very surprising and shocking thing. Alex did not even begin to understand why they would do such a thing, but she was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

' _Perfect.'_

"So, what do you want me to do?" April asked.

"Stay in this area, and don't move," Alex said. "And if….I'm not out within a half of an hour, I want you to call my superior at the DEO, using this number, and explain to him that Agent Danvers fucked up, and got in the way in over her head. Do you think you can do it?"

April figured she could do that. At the very least, it meant she contributed to the mission and that was something which excited the budding reporter. She tried not to get too giddy with excitement and vowed to do everything possible not to let down Agent Danvers or anyone else.

* * *

Another wall burst open and Bebop stepped on through. The two scientists standing over the area of the Portal Pack looked up, in fear at the large, ugly Warthog stepping into the room. The Warthog snarled when looking down upon the scientists in the room.

"Alright, scram!" Bebop yelled.

The scientists did as they were asked. They were not going to upset a large Warthog man. Bebop smiled in response and looked towards the table.

"This is the thing that Krang guy wanted," Bebop said. "Man, that's a girly looking backpack….must be some kind of….."

Raph jumped through the hole in the wall and jumped onto the back of Bebop. Bebop growled in response and hurled Raph off a second or so later. Raph flipped down onto the ground and Bebop rushed towards Raph. Raph flung himself over the top of the head of Bebop and struck him with numerous strikes to the underside of the arm, and to the small of the back. Each attack rocked Bebop.

A wild Rocksteady charged into the room, and Bebop and Rocksteady almost head a meeting of the minds. Bebop jumped over the table to avoid Rocksteady's charge. Rocksteady turned around, just in time to receive a dagger in the face.

Harry Potter stepped out of the shadows, the dagger striking Rocksteady into the face. Needless to say, the mutated rhino was not too pleased by eating a dagger in the face and registered said disapproval by running across the room and smashing into the wall.

"YOU!"

Rocksteady smashed through several pieces of equipment. Every time Rocksteady hit the equipment, Harry jumped out of the way. Harry's brass knuckles slipped on and he nailed Rocksteady with an uppercut punch to the chin. The punch knocked Rocksteady back a couple of steps and caused the rhino to hurl a punch directly towards the chin of Harry Potter. Rocksteady gave a hideous growl and kept up the attacks on Harry Potter.

"I'm going to rip you apart!" Rocksteady yelled at the top of his lungs. "There's not going to be anything left of your head when I'm done."

Bebop moved in for another attack, which forced Harry to deal with the Warthog as well.

"I'm almost done," Donnie said to Harry over the ear piece. "Just keep them distracted, the best you can."

"Working on it."

Tribble stepped into the room and made her way to the Portal Pack. Only to be grabbed by the back of the neck by Rocksteady and pulled her up in the air.

"Alright, that's enough!" Rocksteady growled. "One wrong move and I'm going to snap this little bimbo's spine. And I'll do it."

"Hey, that's the chick that Krang guy was talking about," Bebop said. "He's going to be so happy when he brings us back; I bet we get a big bonus."

"Let me go!" Tribble yelled. "You don't know what you're doing."

"Man, you're a little teenage punk, what are you going to do?" Rocksteady asked. "Text us to death?"

Rocksteady and Bebop laughed and snorted in response at Tribble's discomfort. Meanwhile, Harry was analyzing one of several different ways where he could take out both of the mutants and save Tribble. Only, the fact was he did not need to do so.

A large metal crate whipped off of the shelf and nailed Rocksteady into the side of the head which caused him to drop Tribble to the ground. Tribble scrambled away and scooped up the Portal Pack, with the tank nailing Rocksteady in the side of the face, and Bebop as well.

"Okay, the trap is set!" Donnie yelled.

"Tribble!" Harry yelled. "Give me the Portal Pack."

Tribble handed the Portal Pack to Harry. Harry made his way to the opposite end of the lab and whistled, to get the attention of both Bebop and Rocksteady.

"You know something," Harry said. "I bet the two of you don't have the brain cells between you to get this Portal Pack away from me."

"You know what, I sick and tired of this guy," Bebop said. "Why is he wearing a mask anyway?"

"Must be ugly or something?" Rocksteady asked.

"Have either of you took a good long look in the mirror?" Harry asked.

"Hey, I'm handsome," Rocksteady protested.

"I'm sure you get your looks from your mother," Harry said.

"Hey, he dissed your Mama!" Bebop yelled. "He can't do that, that's just wrong."

Bebop and Rocksteady charged towards Harry, who made his way out of the way. All he had to do is keep one step ahead of the two mutants which were not hard. Harry could have been halfway across the country at full power. Thankfully, he had to only keep up with running and keep them to back off.

"Just wait until I get my hands on you!" Rocksteady yelled.

Harry moved down the hallway, tracking to Donnie's location. There was not too much time for the two mutants would reach there. Harry kept moving.

"Hey, try and keep up if you can!" Harry yelled. "Or am I going too quickly for you? Maybe I should slow down a little bit, use smaller words."

"Get him!" Rocksteady growled.

Harry stepped into the point on the trap where he was supposed to. Bebop and Rocksteady jumped into the trap, but Harry teleported out of the way a second later. The moment Harry teleported out of the way, the trap had been set and the valves burst open.

The two mutants froze in place with the Liquid Nitrogen holding them in stasis. The mutants had a dumbstruck look on their faces when they had been caught in suspended animation thanks to a well-placed trap from Donatello.

"FREEZE!"

Harry waved his hand and the teleportation field increased around Harry, the four Turtles, and Tribble. The six of them disappeared from the building and left Bebop and Rocksteady to be frozen in the middle of the building.

* * *

Alex Danvers prepped herself to go inside with one minute left and was about to walk towards the front door, until the moment where Harry just appeared right in front of her and caused her to be surprised by his sudden arrival.

"Damn," Alex said. "You really do cut it close don't you?"

"But, I'm never any later than I need to be," Harry said, with a smile on his face. "And we got what we needed out of there, and you didn't have to put your neck on the line by going in there."

Alex smiled. It was almost a shame really, as she picked up a pretty bad ass weapon to head in there and everything. Alex thought that was a waste of time.

"So, Bebop and Rocksteady are put on ice, hopefully for good," Donnie said. "And we didn't get more than a few bumps and bruises."

"My shell is going to ache for weeks," Mikey said.

"You'll be fine Mikey," Donnie said. "I know those guys pack a real punch, but it's all over."

Harry took a moment to turn towards Tribble.

"Well, that was a close one," Tribble said. "Guess, that teaches us a lesson about trying to perfect a Portal Pack before it's properly calibrated, doesn't it?"

"Speaking of which," Harry said.

He slipped the Portal Pack into Tribble's very eager and waiting hands. The Neutrino Princess just smiled and leaned in to kiss Harry on the cheek in response.

"Why am I not surprised?" Raph asked, throwing his hands up in the air. But, there was a small bit of a smile. "So, we stopped Krang's nefarious scheme to get his hands on the Portal Pack, and put his two new pets on ice."

"Actually, I wouldn't be so sure if you stopped Krang completely."

The four Turtles looked towards April who just put down the cell phone.

"Betty just called, a truck has been attacked, by ninjas, and there was experimental technology on board which had been grabbed," April said.

"So, Krang distracted both the EPF and us by sending Bebop and Rocksteady after the Portal Pack," Leo said. "While the Shredder sent some Foot Ninjas to steal something."

"Steal what exactly?" Mikey asked.

"Well, it's top secret, so it could be anything," April answered with a very obvious sigh.

"Let's head home and regroup," Leo said.

The good news was they prevented Krang from traveling interdimensional for now and getting access to the horrific technology which was Dimension X. The bad news was Krang got his hands on something else, of unknown origin, and they could only begin to guess what exactly he acquired.

"I want to have that looked over before I leave," Tribble said. "Just to make sure."

* * *

"I'm afraid those two bumbling oafs got themselves captured, and they didn't get the Portal Pack either," Stockman said.

"Stockman, you worry too much about the minor details," Krang said. "Saki, your boys have got it, haven't they?"

"Yes, Krang, although I don't know what you want with some old junk," Saki said.

"You know what they say on Earth, one man's trash is another man's treasure," Krang said. "And this trash is the final components on Earth I need to build my new body."

The Foot Ninjas stepped into the area, carried several crates. Stockman's eye widened in response when he saw the word on the box, "AMAZO" flash out from underneath him.

"Doctor Ivo's greatest work was on a junk truck?" Stockman asked. "I don't know you realize but this is the components to an android which almost took down the great Justice Society of America and then…"

"It's highly advanced technology, practically the most advanced on Earth, especially for its time," Krang said. "If can get it reactivated and implemented into my new body…then I will be unstoppable."

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 10** **th** **, 2017.**

_Well, they got the Portal Pack and left Bebop and Rocksteady on ice. The line about being "texted to death" makes me laugh a little bit. Even if it might be a little ahead of the real world this time phrase. Fuck it, Harry brought technology ten years beyond what it was in the real world._

_And Krang's got his hands on the remains of AMAZO. That's what we call not good._

_Until Wednesday._


	290. Deadpool's Island

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety: Deadpool's Island**

* * *

The remote, deserted, island of Lian Yu, got a little less deserted when several gentlemen stepped onto the island. These gentlemen wore military fatigues which covered them from head to toe. The black masks covering their faces caused them to receive the air of looking like hoods, and not anything like the fine men of the military.

Wade Wilson took a very casual look at these men and realized there was going to be a problem. Not that there were not going to be any problems anyway. The gentlemen all pointed their weapons at the ground, and perhaps it was Deadpool's imagination, but that particular group included Deathstroke. The mercenary looked at the weapon without blinking.

' _And the plot thickens just a little bit more,'_ Wade thought to himself.

Also, things got insane enough where Edward Fyers looked a little bit surprised because of the incident. Fyers turned towards the leader of the men and took a step forward. The mercenaries did not shoot Fyers, despite the man being surprised. This pointed to the very obvious fact the two sides were in alignment with each other or something. Deadpool could only begin to guess what was going on, at least at this end of things.

"I wasn't expecting you to show up for a long time," Fyers said.

The gentleman just responded with a stiff nod and walked closer towards Fyers. "We're behind schedule. You know how he is when we are behind schedule."

Fyers swallowed in response and looked severely put out by the entire situation. The two of them looked at each other, eye to eye, and Fyers stepped back, to join his men, leading to this new group of mercenaries to appear further onto the island to do what mercenaries did in a situation like this.

Meanwhile, Wade Wilson thought this gentleman sounded familiar. It was like the two of them crossed paths before. In his line of work, Wade met some very interesting people, and to be perfectly honest, he could not keep track of all of them. This particular gentleman, however, he seemed to be a new level of interesting. Wade could only imagine what he had in store.

Deathstroke stepped forward to look towards the gentlemen and his man.

"What's going on?"

The Gentleman regarded Slade with a very bemused expression. "We're running short on time."

Slade Wilson did not enjoy being blown off, especially by some glorified goon on the island. The mercenary withdrew his blade and in a blink of an eye, stabbed it through the throat of one of the man's bodyguards. Blood spurted out the very second that it had been released, and the man dropped to the island.

"I'm not asking you a second time."

The Gentleman regarded Slade for a few seconds. Time passed, and everything looked to be about ready to get extremely ugly. Regardless, Slade did not back down.

"There's an item of great importance on this island. When we have it, all of you will be released. I suggest you don't fight this off."

Another wave of mercenaries stepped onto the island. Slade looked towards Fyers, who responded with a very light shrug as well. The Mercenary already could see this double-cross coming from about a mile away, but he did not think they had the stones to pull it off right at this very moment.

"Just stand there quietly, and no one gets hurt."

Slade decided to disagree, by taking the nearest man, grabbing his arm, and snapping the arm back. The gunshot cleared the rest of the group back a few feet. Slade grabbed the man by the neck and forced him down to the ground. A violent Curb-Stomp rattled the back of the man's neck and put him face first into the ground. Slade kept pounding away at the back of the goon's neck.

The other mercenaries moved in to attack Slade. Deadpool decided as much as he hated Slade, Slade offered a distraction. It would be foolish not to take advantage of this distraction. Deadpool caught one of the mercenaries in the back of the head and dropped him down to the ground.

"GET HIM!"

"This way!" Oliver yelled. "There's too many of them."

Shado fired an arrow towards the crew of men and caught the grenade on the belt of one of them. It was a one in a million trick shot. The shot disarmed the grenade and caused a miniature explosion. The three of them backed off, with one of the mercenaries holding a rocket launcher.

Yao Fei broke free from Fyers and his men. He jumped into battle, taking one of the men down with a punch. Yao Fei jumped into the air and caught him with a punch to the back of the head.

"GO!"

These were the last words which came out of Yao Fei's mouth when one of the mercenaries shot him in the back of the head in cold blood. Blood splattered into the air from the bullet connecting to the back of Yao Fei's head, dropping him face first onto the ground.

"NO!"

Shado's yell had been punctuated by her firing an arrow into the chest of the gunman in question. The man dropped down to the ground, blood dripping from the man's face.

"Yeah, that's not going to endear yourself to them," Wade said with a deep breath. "We're going to have to find a way out of….."

Wade stopped talking for a moment and started to think. The Mercenary grabbed one of the goons around the back of the head and slammed him head first down onto one of the land mines. The landmine triggered an immense explosion, causing dirt and dust to fly up in the air and give them the perfect cover to get out of there.

Slade slipped away, taking a small radio from one of the men. He watched the trio disappear, but there were other problems than those three.

"Track down the stone, find where Slade has it stashed."

Slade just smiled. He knew they would never find the stone where he had it stashed, but why be foolish enough to take any chances? The mercenary turned around in the corner in the blink of an eye and stopped short.

A dagger flew out of the corner and stuck to the tree next to Slade. The mercenary pulled the dagger off of the tree and unfolded the piece of paper. The words "We're coming from it" had been etched in the stone.

* * *

Harry made his way for another lunch date with the lovely Janet Van Dyne. The moment he walked into the door, he had a conversation with Faora.

' _Well, I'm very interested in finding out how the Portal Pack missed such a big jump,'_ Faora thought. _'If anyone can figure out where it messed up, and figure out how to stop it from messing up again, it would have to be Alura and Lara, wouldn't it?'_

' _It would have to be them, yes,'_ Harry thought a moment or so later. _'Not sure how long Tribble will be here, and that's not how I'm sure she envisioned her trip to Earth going as well.'_

' _Looks like everything has gone from bad to worse in Dimension X,'_ Faora thought. _'It's hard to imagine how things could have gotten worse over there, but I guess it's possible.'_

' _Anything's possible.'_

Harry turned up to meet with Jan, who smiled and bounced up to her feet.

"Well, good to see you again," Jan said. "Man, the last couple of days, it's been weird, even beyond New York weird, you know. Mysterious alien women popping out of the sky, and there have been a couple of rumors that there's been a giant rhino and Warthog driving around in a jeep, invading a military institution."

"I don't know anything about of that," Harry said.

"But, that's just part of being in the big city," Jan said. "Guess that's nothing to do with the weirdness in Gotham City…..but I wanted to ask you about something."

Jan's infectious excitement pretty much bubbled over to the fact where Harry just had to smile and let her say pretty much anything she was going to say.

"Felicia might have mentioned the little trip she planned, and the fact you're considering going as well," Jan said.

"Well, it's more than a consideration," Harry said. "I think it would be a good idea. Felicia's mother, for instance, she's a very hard person to disagree with, and I think the trip would be good."

"You've been dividing most of your time between New York and Gotham," Jan said in a matter of fact voice. "And while both of those places are pretty amazing, they aren't exactly the most conducive places for leisure, are they?"

Harry shook his head in response, pretty much smiling at Jan. No, all things considered, Gotham City was not one of the more conducive places for leisure. She pretty much had him there.

"So, I'm going to join you guys on the trip, if you don't mind," Jan said, a light smile popping over her face when she looked over at Harry.

"We don't mind," Harry said a few seconds later. He leaned over towards Jan and kept smiling at her. "You know, we would love to have you."

The suggestive smile popping over Harry's face, well Jan was not going to lie. There was something about this smile which made her smile just a little bit. She leaned underneath the table and daringly placed a hand on Harry's upper thigh before squeezing it.

"Hey, I'm glad," Jan said. "This is going to be an important next few months for us, and it's not just because of the business partnership either. Even though that's going to be really rocking, with Fashion Week just coming right around the corner."

Harry just raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I know, it's not until February," Jan said in excitement. "But, still, Fashion Week 2000, it's going to be a big event, a branding thing, and all that. You should hear Mari and Lavender, how they're just brimming with excitement over it. They might be making some new deals. Hell, I'm part of the new deals. Our fashion lines working together, it's going to be a big event, wouldn't you agree?"

"I wouldn't necessarily argue," Harry said.

Jan just responded with a very slight smile.

"And you're not just into Fashion, are you?" Harry asked. "You have a very keen mind as well….you're working with one Doctor Henry Pym….."

"Worked for him actually," Jan said, with a sigh. "Worked with him up until a year ago, until he vanished underneath some pretty mysterious circumstances. No one quite knows what happened. Hell, I was under a criminal investigation at the time."

Jan almost could have laughed at the absurdity of the situation, even though it was very scary to be accused of her boss disappearing.

"You've been cleared of all charges?"

Jan just smiled.

"Yep, cleared of all charges, I'm innocent, well on that account anyway," Jan said. "I once had an overdue library book, but thankfully, you don't get in too much trouble for that."

Harry just chuckled in response and looked across the table into Jan. Jan's brilliant smile continued to shine in this particular situation.

"Pym's daughter, Nadia, she's continuing her father's research, along with trying to piece together what happened with him," Jan continued. "If anyone is smart enough to get to the bottom of this, it's her. And hell, Hank wasn't stupid, just a bit withdrawn after the death of his wife. And he got along with ants more than he did people."

The two of them wrapped up their lunch, with Harry paying, much to the protests of Jan. With that out of the way, the duo made their way outside. Harry held Jan's arm as he escorted the beautiful businesswoman outside. She turned towards Harry in the shining sun and smiled at him.

"Thanks for lunch," Jan said. "I know you're a very busy man, and your time is at a premium, but thank you for treating me. And I hope to see you on the trip when I have a chance to get to know you a bit more intimately."

Jan pushed closer towards Harry at those words. The businesswoman's firm round breasts pressed against Harry's shoulder were a very enticing invitation. Jan's lips invited Harry, and he decided to give her a little taste, a little preview, by leaning in and kissing Jan on the lips.

The gesture had been surprising, but not entirely unwelcomed by Jan. Harry reached in and put a hand on her firm ass to squeeze it. Jan lightly mewled into the kiss, with Harry slowly mapping out a short path around her mouth with the tongue. The two worked into each other, and sparks became to fly when the kiss deepened.

It was much too soon, in Jan's very honest opinion when the kiss broke between the two of them. The trail of salvia had been left between both of their mouths. Jan responded with a very frustrated sigh, knowing all good things would come to an end.

The two of them got in a car, with Jan mentally wondering if it was too soon to invite Harry back in for coffee. No, not yet, she could tell Harry just intended to build up anticipation for his real end game. And Jan was more than willing to play along, knowing it would be more than worth it at the end.

* * *

The trio of Shado, Wade, and Oliver moved on the island. Oliver took a step back and almost fell over, taking a deep breath. This had been the most he had been ever run.

"You would think you would be used to running from people, given how often the paparazzi chases you down. Or the number of fathers who chased you down after catching you in bed with their daughters."

That comment from Deadpool resulted in Oliver taking a deep breath.

"There's got to be a way off of this death trap of an island," Oliver said. "I mean, all of these people, they are getting on the island. Therefore there should be a way off of the island, the same way all of these mercenaries came off on the island."

Deadpool slapped his hand across the palm of the hand and frowned.

"You know something, your codename should be Captain Obvious, and not the Green Arrow with deductions like that, Sherlock."

A second passed, and Oliver looked the man in the eye. Once again, he did not know what Deadpool got on about half of the time. Shado peered off to the side nervously. Every step on the island signified they were being watched, and it was not a good thing for them to be watched.

"But, yes, Mr. Queen, you're right, there must be a way off of this island," Deadpool said. "And they're going to shoot anyone who even tries to go that way, who aren't wearing standard mercenary garb. Which includes masks, which covers their faces. Direct violation of the Evil Overlord Rules, but Fyers doesn't strike me as the type to read such things."

Deadpool took a deep breath and considered each one of his options.

"All we have to do is beat up some men, strip them naked, and steal their clothes," Wade said. "Not the first time I had to do something like that, granted, but it's always pretty weird when I do it. And it's the first time I did it when sober."

The sounds in the bushes caused Oliver to tighten a grip around the crossbow. The island bred some paranoia into Oliver.

"Unless they have some kind of secret handshake, we should be able to pull this off, at least in theory," Wade said. "Of course, you know how things go. The theory is nice and all until you end up getting dropped naked in a cornfield somewhere."

"That didn't make any sense," Oliver said.

"Yeah, I'm not quite sure what I was going for there either, and I said it," Wade said. "The point is, we're going to have to attack someone, steal their clothes, hopefully, the guards aren't too bright, and when they're not looking, run for whatever transport ship is off of the island. Should be simple, right?"

"You're not getting off of this island."

Everyone turned around to come face to face with the one and only Slade Wilson, who looked at them with the standard predatory smile which made Deadpool feel like he needed an adult.

"You won't make, it, not without my help."

Obvious tension is obvious when Deadpool and Deathstroke met one more time face to face.

X-X-X

Hamilton Hill, the Mayor of Gotham City, sat himself down on one of the seats in the train leading downtown on the subway in Gotham City. The last few weeks had been a real roller coaster ride. Hill had privately pulled Grogan aside, and the two had a conversation regarding what happened with James Gordon. One of the most beloved cops of Gotham City being implicated in crimes, and conspiracy of a cover-up, along with working with a vigilante, was not good for either of their careers. Especially when the accusations turned out to be beyond false, and it just had bad news.

Gordon was not the type to hold a grudge over a situation like this, and Hamilton Hill thanked his lucky stars for every day, for the rest of his life that James Gordon was the type to hold a grudge against people. Most people would cause problems, and Hill did not need problems. None of them needed problems right about now.

Speaking of problems, Hill thought the train they were moving on was supposed to be getting to the destination about five minutes ago. Whoever ran this train made a fool out of the man who promised to make the trains run on time. This particular train was not running on time.

' _I can't believe this,'_ Hill thought. _'Don't they know who I am? Don't they know I have a very important meeting to get to?'_

These questions, which had been very rhetorical in nature, had been spoken by Hill mentally. Hill took a deep breath and tried to calm his nerves. Nerves, nerves, that's what he had been feeling a lot as of late. At least, the paperwork was about ready to go through, in a few months, and Shreck and his associates would get off of his back. The man wanted to build that Power Plant, and Hill leaned towards doing it, for the new jobs.

New jobs would mean getting some of the homeless population of Gotham City off of the street. The incident regarding Blackfire made everyone a bit nervous around those who had been cast out. Hill privately laid the blame on the apathy of those before him. Working with Shreck to put more money into the economy, put more people into homes, it would be more than a benefit.

Then there was Boyle, and the urban development project he helped sponsor. A cynical person might think it was just Boyle going for becoming Gotham City Humanitarian of the year, and they might be right.

The train skidded to a sudden stop and then started to jerk on the track. Hill grabbed onto one of the poles and his briefcase slid out of hands.

' _What the hell is happening?'_

"The train is about to crash!"

That scream caused Hill to take in a deep breath. Fear gripped the body of the Gotham City politician. Surely, the train couldn't crash. Such a thing would be impossible in Gotham City, a train could not get out of control, and more importantly, a train could not crash.

"Everyone, just stay calm!" Hill yelled.

The screeching sound on the outside caused everyone to become less calm. They broke into a very obvious panic when the train kept barreling down the tracks.

"WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!" one of the distressed passengers of the train yelled out loud. "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

Hill privately shared these claims, but there was no sense in losing their mind. The Mayor wondered what was happening. He moved his way to the front of the train, where the conductor was frantically trying to direct the train. The train was about ready to veer off of the tracks.

"Look it's Batman!" someone yelled.

Normally, Hill would not have believed such a thing. The train started to grind to a stop before it went completely off of the track. Hill moved over to look out the window, and he could have sworn a black figure disappeared into the night.

The passengers made their way out of the train, and out of the nearest subway exit in Gotham City. Hill looked up to see the flashing lights up, with a message appearing.

"Seven years of bought time. Your time is nearly up, Hill."

These letters kept flashing on the billboard, almost as if taunting Hill. Hill did not know what to make of the situation. He was completely baffled. What happened seven years ago, and why would this person, whoever it was, be targeting him now? It didn't make any sense.

* * *

Harry returned from a date with Jan and made his way back into the Penthouse. Tribble sat on the couch, dressed in a nightdress which came down to her knees. The transparent material did a nice job of showcasing her nubile body. The hair had been clipped back to show her cute little-pointed ears, and beautiful eyes as well.

"I bet you weren't expecting to see me soon," Harry said.

"Oh, I expected to see you eventually, but not underneath these circumstances," Tribble said. Her tone grew a little bit somber. "I did want to get away from the war in Dimension X, but….that wasn't my plan. I was just helping Professor Honeycutt test an alternate means of escape out of Dimension X."

Harry grabbed Tribble by the hand a few seconds later and squeezed it. The Neutrino Princess smiled when looking Harry.

"The energy shield is holding up, after the modifications you, Karen, and Faora made over it," Tribble said. "But, some days, it just feels like I'm in a box, trapped, unable to go anywhere. There are wars on all sides, while we're still trapped in our bubble."

Tribble took in a deep breath and responded. She did not let go of Harry's hand, and Harry made no motion to correct that as well.

"Might as well have been locked up in prison," Tribble said.

"Things will get better eventually," Harry said.

"We've been saying that for generations," Tribble said. "Things got really bad when we lost the Utrom…and to think, some of them made it here on Earth, where that Bishop guy is taking them hostage. What is he planning to do to them, anyway?"

Harry did not have the slightest idea. Bishop was a very difficult person for Harry to read if he was perfectly honest, and most of the time, Harry was perfectly honest.

"I believe I've figured out the problem of the Portal Pack," Alura said, popping in.

"What is it?" Tribble tensely asked.

"There's a small energy leak in the pack, and it will worsen every time you transport," Alura said. "This leak caused you to miscalibrate the jump."

Tribble found herself very fortunate things did not end up worse from where she was.

"Thankfully, I landed on Earth," Tribble said. "There are many worse places where I could have landed…..even though being transported right outside of Krang's base of operations wasn't exactly the most ideal thing ever."

Harry squeezed Tribble's hand and tried to encourage the girl. Things would have to be better before too long.

"The Portal Pack can be repaired," Lara confirmed. "But, it's going to take six to eight months for us to do it, and in the meantime…"

"I'm stranded here on Earth," Tribble said. The beautiful young Princess tried to look on the bright side of the situation, and there were a couple, to be honest. "Guess, I'm going to have to make the most of things. And besides, it won't be all that bad."

A slightly mischievous smile popped over the face of the Princess when leaning towards Harry.

"I've laid awake for many nights thinking about you," Tribble said. "There aren't many men in the universe that are like you….and I would like to thank you for all of the help. Not just a small token of thanks, but a more personal thank you."

Tribble threw her arms and legs around Harry and kissed him passionately. The Neutrino Princess eagerly sought entry into Harry's mouth with an extremely passionate kiss. Her tongue moved around, and Harry allowed her inside. Their tongues tangled together, as hands furiously rumpled their clothing.

Faora stepped inside, with a report in hand. The very first thing she saw as a Neutrino Princess with her tongue stuck down Har-Zod's throat. Faora just shrugged and placed the report on the table, before walking in and joining them.

A very familiar pair of breasts pressed against Harry's back and kissed him on the back of the neck. Faora slowly rolled her thumbs down Harry's abdomen and worked his shirt open.

"You're going to want to learn how to worship your god," Faora said. "Fortunately, I can teach you all about it. You've never been with another man?"

"No, not even a boy," Tribble said nervously.

"Then, let me teach you the ropes," Faora said.

Faora ran her fingers down the front of Harry's pants and squeezed his throbbing cock on the other side. The invader threatened to burst out of Harry's pants. Faora lightly pushed the pants down and released Harry's massive prick into the wild. The large and throbbing organ stuck out, for Tribble to look at, in barely restrained awe.

"Are they always that big?"

"No, Har-Zod is a special and gifted young man," Faora said. "And you're going to want to caress it, make sure it's at full strength before you take it. And you want to take it slowly, give it some licks to really savor the taste."

Harry felt the warmth of his sister's tongue caressing his manhood. Faora slowly worked her tongue around every single inch of Harry's manhood, and slowly slipped her lips around Harry's cock.

Tribble slowly pushed her fingers down the waistband of her undershorts, and pumped away at her slit. She slowly breathed in and out, nipples hardening at the thought of what was happening. Faora pushed that cock into her mouth with such an ease, it was almost obscene.

' _Am I going to be able to fit it inside?'_ Tribble asked, blushing.

Faora slowly worked Harry's hard cock deep inside of her mouth, sucking on it, like there was no tomorrow. There was nothing else better than receiving this cock deep inside of her mouth. Her throat stretched out, feeling the burn of Harry's cock.

"Oh, Faora, you're amazing," Harry groaned. "Suck my cock, like you were born to do it."

Faora did not disagree she was born to suck cock, this cock, the cock of her brother. The strong piece of meat sliding deep between her lips. Harry grabbed Faora's head and lightly pushed inside of her mouth. Those balls slapped against her chin, with each pump, getting deeper and more prominent inside of her mouth.

The manhood stretched the inside of Faora's mouth the deeper and more passionately she sucked the throbbing hard rod. Faora rested a hand on the underside of Harry's balls and gave them a very firm squeeze. The cock pushing deeper inside of Faora's mouth stretched it out and made her keep push the cock deeper inside of her mouth. The hunger filling her body increased with greater prominence the more Faora sucked him.

Tribble almost started to finger herself, just like the Princess did numerous nights when thinking about Harry.

"Your turn, Princess."

That large cock, covered in Faora's spit, just stuck in the air and beckoned for Tribble. Harry slid back on the couch, to allow Tribble to crawl on the couch between his legs. The Princess leaned in and slowly kissed the tip of Harry's cock, tasting him. Another movement and she eased the cock deep inside of her mouth.

Harry grabbed onto the back of Tribble's head and guided as much cock as he could in between those delicious lips. Tribble's mouth filled with Harry's cock. The cock she could not slide into her mouth, Tribble reached and grabbed the underside of Harry's manhood. Slowly, but surely, Tribble lightly pumped the underside of Harry's cock, working it up and down.

"Fuck," Harry groaned.

Tribble sucked the head of Harry's cock and slowly pushed deep down into his mouth.

"You're a natural, Princess," Harry said. "She's such a good cock-sucker."

"Yes, she is," Faora agreed as she followed the progress of Tribble pushing up and down on Harry's rod. "There's always plenty of room for improvement though."

A few seconds passed with Tribble working down onto Harry's manhood. She reached for his balls and weighed the meaty sacks of flesh in her hand. They brimmed to the edge with cum, cum for her, and Tribble could hardly hold back her lust when driving her warm lips down around Harry's thick rod. The beautiful Neutrino Princess kept blowing Harry for everything he was worth. Desire came into the vixen the deeper she pushed onto Harry's aching rod. Harry pushed into the back of her head and guided her down onto the manhood.

"I'm going to blow," Harry warned her.

Tribble could not wait to get a mouth full of a tasty treat. She kept working down on Harry, sucking him, until the climax happened. Warm, sticky cum released into Tribble's mouth, pushing deep inside of the beautiful girl's mouth. The eager Teenager sucked as much cum from Harry's balls.

The barely legal Neutrino Princess put Harry's cock and balls through the paces when slowly pushing deep down onto the base. She made sure to suck the cum out of his balls, some of it dribbling out of her mouth.

The moment Tribble came up, she came face to face with a naked Faora. The beautiful Princess flushed and the heat rose to her legs. Faora grabbed Tribble by the back of the head and responded with a kiss. The Neutrino Princess breathed in and out the very second Faora used her tongue to molest Tribble's tonsils. The Kryptonian and the Neutrino kissed each other, sucking her tongue in response.

"Let's see what you have to give us."

The nightdress slipped off, and Tribble's gorgeous, firm tits were exposed. They had cute little nipples which Faora had to pinch, and cause the Neutrino to gasp in pleasure because of the sensitivity involved. She slowly worked down Tribble's firm body, without an ounce of fat on it.

"No hair?" Faora asked.

"We…..Neutrinos only have hair on their heads," Tribble said.

Faora smiled when slowly brushing down Tribble's bare pussy lips. Her pussy and thighs and her legs were smooth. Her supple ass squeezed into Faora's hand.

The couch converted into a bed, and Faora guided Tribble down. Faora started to lick from Tribble's cleavage, down from her belly button, and then down into her pussy. Faora's warm tongue parted those delicious pussy lips.

"There, Har, she's all ready for you."

The pussy eating was over much too soon for Tribble's liking. Her soft sigh showed how pretty much disappointed she was. Harry hovered over Tribble and his cock stuck out towards her opening. Tribble's breathing increased when Harry came close to her. That massive intruder was very close to entering her body.

"Just relax, and let me take care of you."

Harry caressed every inch of Tribble's body. The Princess craved his touch, and soon his cock when it brushed against the Neutrino's eager, dripping hot lips. Harry held onto Tribble's hips and worked himself inside of the gorgeous woman. The beautiful woman snaked her lips around Harry's hard cock and eased him inside of her. The two met hip to hip from each other, being pushed down into each other.

"Right there!" Tribble begged Harry.

Harry's manhood slid deeper inside of Tribble's warm canal. The more he pushed inside of her, the more the beautiful Princess squealed.

"Make her yours, Har," Faora breathed.

Faora could feel something push inside of her pussy, and it slowly worked her insides. The gushing Kryptonian closed her eyes, it was almost like something penetrated her very being, attacking her nerve centers.

"I don't know how you're doing this!" Faora screamed at the top of her lungs. "But keep doing it…keep it up! Oh, yes, keep it up!"

Faora worked her hips up into the intrusion of the telekinetic attack. Her loins stretched because of Tribble's attack. Hunger flooded through Tribble's body in response. Those nipples stuck out and Faora closed her eyes, feeling the pleasure.

The moans coming from his sister caused Harry to push himself into Tribble. The girl's legs wrapped around him. Those smooth legs, among the smoothest and most beautiful legs Harry had ever felt. Harry leaned in, taking full inventory on Tribble's body. Those nipples stuck up, begging to be sucked. Harry leaned in and buried himself face down inside of Tribble's chest.

"YES!"

Tribble experienced a mixture of pleasures the likes of which she could only barely imagine in her life. And there was no need to imagine it. The orgasm flooding through her body was beyond her wildest dreams.

Faora's pleasure and screaming caused Tribble to feel a little bit naughty as well. It had been an accident when she figured out her telekinesis could be applied in such a way. And now, Tribble is going to make anyone squirm underneath her mental attacks.

"Fuck!" Faora moaned.

"She has…a mouth on her," Harry said. "But, now, Princess it's time for you to cum."

Tribble exploded with joy around Harry's invading cock. He pushed deep inside of her and rode the first of many orgasms out to completion.

Every time, Harry made Tribble came, she formed the most amazing vice around his cock. Harry needed to keep going deep inside of the Princess. Those balls slapped against Tribble's thighs, threatening to unload inside of her.

Each second passed, and more, Tribble wanted more. Her loins pushed and pushed inside of her.

"Mate me!" Tribble breathed. "Make me yours."

The tight barely legal pussy wrapped around Harry's cock felt very sinful, and he could not wait to bury more of himself. The screams of Faora, being humbled by a teenager, only served to push Harry deeper inside of Tribble's moist opening.

"Yes, fuck me, fuck me raw!" Tribble mewled.

Nails dug into Harry's back, the deeper he pushed inside of the gorgeous woman underneath him. A series of pumps and his balls were getting close to really their full capacity. He slapped those balls deep down onto Tribble's thighs. Tribble really pushed deep into Harry's back and felt the burn.

"I'm almost ready," Harry said.

"Please, I need it," Tribble breathed.

"And you'll have it," Harry said. "All, I need to do is have you cum for me, one more time."

Tribble's pleasure centers exploded, and her gushing center clamped around Harry's aching rod. Harry shoved deep inside of Tribble's warm center, bouncing his balls down upon her moist pussy. Tribble rose up off of the bed, breathing very heavily.

Harry's balls released their grip and caused Tribble to black out from the most amazing orgasm possible.

Faora whipped her head back and felt an orgasm of her own pass over. Every single inch of Faora's body had been bombarded by Tribble's telekinetic attack.

The very single moment Harry finished up, he saw Faora crawl over, moving to drink the cum out of Tribble's pussy. Faora's very inviting lips beckoned Harry.

Harry didn't really think it would be appropriate to deny his sister what she wanted. Faora's pussy opened up for Harry, and Harry shoved his throbbing cock inside of her. That hard cock pushed deep inside of Faora when Harry drove her to another orgasm.

The Princess might be out like a light from cumming harder than ever before, but the siblings of Zod kept themselves occupied.

* * *

**To Be Continued On May 13** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Some adventures with Deadpool and the crew and things are getting very intense there._

_We have some fun with Harry as well, and another girl finds herself hopelessly devoted to Harry. But hey, I think after two hundred and ninety chapters, we all know what kind of story this is by now._

_Until Saturday._


	291. Like Clockwork Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-One: Like Clockwork Part One**

* * *

Harry and Faora left Tribble to rest in the guest bedroom. The two of them made their way to the living room and put on a cup of coffee. Harry dressed in a pair of black pants, and also a nice silk shirt which fit him like a glove. Faora dressed in an elegant bathrobe. She walked over towards the table and put down the cup. The Daughter of Zod took a long drink from the coffee with a very thoughtful expression and smile on her face.

"So, Azalea's birth proved the process can be done," Faora said a moment later. "Granted, it's not exactly a perfect science, the birth of one of your children. It's something we can work with, to be honest."

Harry responded with a smile and a nod.

"We're going to have to see how she does over the next few months," Harry said.

Children could, in fact, be in the future for some of the members of the collective if Harry had to guess. However, children were also an element which was long ways off for some of them. Many had careers they wanted to deal with. Given Harry's longevity, and the longevity of many of the women in question, either naturally or being bonded with Harry, none of them were completely in a hurry.

"We're just going to have to take a closer look at how things are going to go, yes," Faora said. "It's a process, you and I both know that. But Eliza was well enough. She could have been ripped apart by the process."

"And yet, she was eager to be one of the first to try," Harry said.

Faora took a long drink of the coffee she had put on and just smiled when surveying her brother over the cup.

"Well, there are many who are going to rush in line to try and be the one to have their children," Faora said. "But, you do have a choice whether or not to allow them the opportunity. It's an ability that most men would wish to have because it would cut down on a lot of very pesky and very annoying lawsuits."

Both of the siblings of Zod shared a round of laughter. Faora reached over and took another long drink of coffee, a smile passing over her face when she indulged in the beverage.

"This entire mess falling in our laps in New York wasn't exactly an ideal thing in the world, was it?" Faora asked. "Although indulging yourself in a very willing Princess is a good way to cap off the mess."

"It could have been pretty bad," Harry admitted. "Krang's trying to escalate whatever plans he has to the next level."

Faora's look turned very disapproving and for good reason. She was not very fond of Krang's plan to be honest because it contradicted the plans she had and the plans her brother had. Contradicting one of them was a bad thing, but contradicting both of them, well that was just asking for some kind of trouble.

' _He's going to pay,'_ Faora thought. _'He doesn't seem like the type to leave a planet intact. How are we going to get into TCRI and shut him down?'_

' _Some of our best minds are working on that right now,'_ Harry said. _'Unfortunately, he's smart enough to lock down the building and keep things as secure as humanly possible.'_

Faora responded with a nod for a few seconds.

' _So, Karen, is it going to happen?'_ Faora asked.

' _You mean the trip out west?'_ Karen asked. She responded with a very eager nod. _'Yes, it's going to happen within the next few weeks. And I'm very excited about it. We've been working at this for a long time now. And I'm really hoping to make some deals.'_

' _You've been working on this one for a long time,'_ Harry said.

Karen smiled. _'Yeah, pretty much for months and months on end. If this trip goes right, well, we're going to revolutionize communication and pretty much control the Internet. And if we can control the Internet, well the world pretty much follows.'_

' _The Internet is going to be pretty big,'_ Harry said.

Controlling one of the biggest communication networks in the world was essential for Harry's plans to move forward. Karen had been working with one of the most prominent new Internet-based companies. Harry had plans for the future, big plans, and so did Karen and Faora. Both sides were going to work the hardest they can.

' _So, when about are you going to return to Gotham City?'_ Barbara chimed in.

' _As much as I hate to leave New York, I have to head out tonight,'_ Harry thought. _'Before I go, I need to make sure Tribble is settled in, and there's going to be no trouble regarding her.'_

Unfortunately for Tribble, she could not roam as freely as she would have liked. Both Krang and the EPF knew the Princess had arrived on Earth.

"So, what about Bishop?" Faora asked.

Harry smiled at the very loaded, but at the same time, very important question, his sister asked. He took a moment to drink his coffee and consider the best way to answer that particular question.

"Well, Bishop is most certainly something," Harry said thoughtfully. "Not sure what his agenda is, but he most certainly does have one."

The base which they arrived at had been moved. Bishop would have backup bases, some close by, and some elsewhere in the country. Harry just figured they would have to be dealing with Bishop sooner rather than later again. They had similar goals, Harry figured.

Yet, there was something about the gentleman that make Harry think the ways which they achieved those goals were going to be different and that could be a problem.

* * *

The incident regarding the train had been brushed off, and Hamilton Hill went along with his daily work. There had been a lot of nutcases in the city who had tried to get a rise out of the fine upstanding politicians like Hamilton Hill and he was not going to be taken down along with the ship.

Hill arrived outside of the Gotham Stock Exchange. The brand new machines at the exchange were something which Hill trumped as some of the most secure. He saw a few of the fine businessmen in Gotham City who waited outside. Ferris Boyle offered Hill a smile, along with Roland Daggett and Max Shreck.

"Mr. Mayor, I hope you're well on this fine morning," Boyle said.

"Yes, Mr. Boyle, I'm holding up," Hill said, with a smile.

"We heard about the incident on the train," Daggett said.

"Merely, just an unfortunate glitch with the onboard computer," Hill said. "The conductor was able to right the wrongs and get everyone safe and on with their morning."

These gentlemen regarded Hill for a few seconds as if they thought his claims were very dubious at best. A few seconds passed when they pulled away from Hill. Shreck put his hand on Hill's shoulder in a consoling manner, but there was just something slimy about the gesture.

"And Mr. Shreck, you're just the gentlemen I wanted to see," Hill said. "All of the paperwork is in place, and soon, you will be able to build your power plant in Gotham City."

"Yes, I'm glad for that, and the people of Gotham City will be glad about that," Shreck said with a toothy grin. "Just think of all the new jobs. You will truly be the man who helped bring an end to poverty in Gotham City with your actions."

"Now, Mayor Hill, I hope you're not trying to step on my toes when running for Gotham City Humanitarian of the Year, are you?" Boyle asked.

The gentlemen outside had all laughed in response. Boyle clasped the Mayor on the back of the shoulder one more time.

"Now, Ferris, I'm just one man trying to help Gotham, and I don't hold a candle to all of what you've done to help save this city," Hill said. "We can all do our parts to help make this city the shining metropolis it should be."

All of the businessmen nodded in response. They all had their own goals and they were preparing to enact them to the best of their abilities. They waited for the Stock Exchange to open. Several deals had been made to pad their already considerable bank accounts, and that could have been best for business.

"Mr. Wayne, it's good to see you this morning!" Boyle yelled. "Nice to see you get up and see the Gotham City Stock Exchange in all of its glory."

Bruce Wayne made his way into the stock exchange. As always, his trusted butler, Alfred Pennyworth, lingered behind him like an ever present shadow.

"Mr. Boyle, it's an honor to meet you once again," Bruce said with a smile. "The Gotham City Humanitarian of the Year, you've been working hard at that one, and one would think it was all in the bag."

"Now, Bruce, I don't like to brag, but I think we've all made each other work harder this year," Boyle said. "But, yes, I've heard that I'm the frontrunner, and the chairman of the committee, we go golfing every third Saturday, and he seems to think I'm the one who is going to win. But, you never know. You could be surprised. There could be an upset."

The Gotham City Stock Exchange opened, and traders rushed onto the floor.

The moment Hill stepped onto the floor, there was a sense of something being wrong. The numbers on the screen did not look favorable, and there was a set of frantic trading on the floor. Unfortunately, the frantic trading caused, even more, chaos, and even more bad numbers.

"What's going on here?" Daggett demanded. "My company's stocks are tumbling."

Daggett prepared to get on the phone with his Vice President to see what the hell was going on. The other businessmen who had attended the brand new opening appeared to be just about as nervous as Daggett was.

Hill started to sweat, he championed the brand new equipment at the stock exchange, and the first day it opened, the numbers were spiraling out of control. The Mayor of Gotham City reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to wipe the sweat off of his face.

The blinking of the screen caused Hill to almost go into a state of deep panic. Heavy, endless breathing caused Hill to wonder what the hell was going on, the chaos on the floor continued to escalate in a way which Hill could not have even tried to predict.

A message started to blip over the screen and it made Hill's morning even worse.

"Time is money, Hamilton. One second out of sync, and your entire day is ruined."

More chaos happened at the Gotham City Stock exchange, and Hill took in a deep breath, wondering what the hell was going on. Between the incident on the train and in the Stock Exchange, there were people who were making Hill look bad, and he could not afford to look bad. His public image already had been slippery at best.

* * *

There was a fair amount of panic on the floor. Bruce did not know what to say. He was trying to keep a level head of it.

"It's me," Bruce murmured. "See if anyone is tampering with the system, and causing the quotations to be disrupted."

"On it," Oracle said over the phone.

"I'll call you back," Bruce said. He switched the phone and switched to Bruce Wayne mode. "Lucius, we have a problem."

"Yes, I'll say we have a problem," Lucius said a moment or so later. "Wayne Enterprises Stocks have dropped twenty points in the last hour. And while it nearly is not as bad as some other companies, it's the most we've dropped in the past ten years."

"That bad?" Bruce asked.

"Oh, it's pretty bad," Lucius said. "I'm going to see what we can do to ease the bleeding. People are panicking, and there's no reason why people should sell the stocks at such a rate."

"Unless someone tampered with the system," Bruce said.

He turned towards Hill who looked like a pig in a sauna with how much he had been sweating. Bruce reached over and grabbed Hill on the shoulder and caused him to nearly jump ten feet off of the ground.

"Mr. Hill, I think someone has tampered with the machines," Hill said.

"It's…it's impossible," Hill stammered out.

There was a moment's pause and Bruce could see by Hill's body language and the tone of his voice, that despite Hill's claim that the disruption was impossible, the Mayor was mentally entering the fact that it was very possible. There were a lot of people who were pissed off, and there would be a lot more people that were pissed off.

"If someone messed with the machines, you're going to be hearing from my attorneys, Mr. Mayor," Daggett said in his usual rough voice.

"I'm sure it was just a very bad trading day," Hill said a few seconds later. "It's going to blow over sooner rather than later, trust me."

"For your sake, it better not be the result of tampering," Daggett said.

Hill knew this was not going to be the only businessman on the floor. He moved over and made his way to the nearest exit. His two bodyguards shuffled Hill out of the door before he could be the victim of an angry mob. The natives were getting very restless.

"My word, Hill seems to be more scared than a kitten in a kiddy pool," Alfred said.

"Between this and the train, someone is after Hill, and they have a vendetta against him," Bruce said.

"Given the number of people Hill stepped on to get to the top, I'm afraid it's not going to be an easy task," Alfred said.

The phone rang and Bruce reached over to answer it. As expected, Oracle was on the other end of the phone to give him some very bad and frustrating news.

"Well, it's just like you suspected," Oracle said. "Someone tampered with the machines. They disrupted only six companies, but it was more than enough. The losses were altered by about six points and then put on a delay. He knew what he was doing, and when to do it. It was almost like clockwork."

Bruce saw out of the corner of his eye, Vicki Vale make her way into the floor on the Gotham City Stock Exchange.

"It's just been a bad day of trading, Ms. Vale, nothing more," Hill said. "Our machines are the most secure in the entire world, and hacking them would be next to impossible."

Bruce just frowned. It would not be the first time a politician would lie through his teeth to look a little better for the entire world, nor would it be the last. Bruce just had a feeling things would be getting a lot worse here, before they got even better. And that spelled some bad news for everyone in Gotham City.

"Tracing the hacker could be a problem."

"Mayor Hill, what about the train?"

"Ms. Vale, the Mayor has a headache, and he is not entertaining any further questions," his bodyguard said, leering over Vicki in a threatening manner. "If you want to ask the questions, you need to contact the official press representative of the Mayor's Office of Gotham City."

Vicki's frown deepened, and Bruce could tell from experience the woman would just find way to dig deeper. Daggett moved around the area, and looked incensed, given his company had been hit the worst of all. Given some of the seedier business tactics Daggett employed to put profits in his pocket, Bruce could not feel too sorry for the man in question.

Still, this trading was just going to spark a panic, and this person tried to destroy the economy of Gotham City. For what reason? To get to Hill? Bruce didn't know, and there were a lot of questions and not too many answers.

* * *

Harry barely got his feet back in Gotham City, only to run into some bad news. Barbara finished filling him in on what was going on.

' _So, there's someone who really hates Hill, and wants to make him suffer,'_ Harry thought. _'Not exactly the easiest thing to find out, given how many enemies Hill made during his time in Gotham City. And not just as Mayor either. He was a lawyer a long time ago. One of his old clients who he got a lot of money from, could have been pissed off.'_

' _That's possible,'_ Barbara conceded. _'Whoever is doing this, they're causing a lot of problems. The Stock Exchange and the Trains, they're sending a message to Hill. And whoever is behind this, it doesn't look like they really give a damn who else they hurt in the process.'_

Harry responded with a nod. Barbara did have some pretty good points.

' _I'm on my way back to the Clocktower,'_ Harry informed Barbara through the bond link. _'I should be there within the next three to five minutes.'_

There was no rest for Harry Potter. He got off a train and had been thrown into anything. Thankfully, RAO had been one of the companies least affected, even though the blowback with the economy overall would cause some severe ramifications.

Without knowing who the person involved was, Harry could only begin to guess whether or not the end would justify the means.

Harry made his way to the Clocktower, where Kara just appeared in a blink of an eye above him. She smiled and the two of them made their way to the elevator.

"Vicki tried to talk to Hill," Kara said.

"And let me guess, he gave her a lot of political doublespeak," Harry said.

"Yes, and Vicki wasn't very pleased," Kara said. "She called the official Mayor's office press representative, and she gave Vicki more of the same statement. There's something going on, and there's something that Hill isn't telling us. And you know how Vicki is."

Harry sighed. He knew how Vicki Vale was, and how persistent she could be. This entire Hill mess was a scandal waiting to happen. There were a lot of people who were very angry with what was going on and for good reason.

"Roland Daggett pretty much chewed Hill out for causing him to lose so much money," Kara said. "At least, that's what witnesses told Vicki."

Daggett was a bit of a hot head, and he had been sniffing around Wayne Industries a lot lately. Anything to take that man down a peg, Harry was not too concerned about. The consequences of how this affected everyone else, and the people in Gotham City.

Harry and Kara arrived in the Clocktower, and Barbara sat in front of the computers. A very prominent frown appeared over the face of the woman who looked at the networks.

"So, what's up?" Kara asked.

"Well, trains are being delayed, and there has been one malfunction, at least one confirmed one, the train Hill was on," Barbara said. "And no, I don't think it's a coincidence the train Hamilton Hill was on, was the one that almost crashed."

"Thankfully Batman stopped it," Kara said.

"Yes, but perhaps our man knew Batman would be likely to stop it, or one of us," Barbara said. "And there have been some flights delayed as well….and now this mess with the Stock Exchange. We're dealing with someone who is meticulous, calculating, and someone who hates Mayor Hill. Someone who has a grudge for a long time."

"Hill becoming Mayor might have been the thing to trigger this outrage?" Kara asked.

"Mmm, maybe," Barbara said. "A lot of the networks in Gotham, they're pretty wonky right about now. Other than the Network the Red Sun is of course."

"Of course," Kara said, grabbing Harry's hand and squeezing it.

"He's got to be somewhere, even though he's doing a good job in masking his presence," Barbara said. "He's likely using every little dirty trick in the book to keep from getting tracked and trapped."

Barbara just offered a shifty smile and moved back to the Stock Exchange. She could see how he got it to cause problems with the network. There was a very small backdoor which only a few hackers could discover.

"I'll just have to get dirtier."

* * *

' _And I know what they say about the enemy of your enemy being your friend, but that's a pretty extreme case of that little saying.'_

Deadpool turned back and looked at Slade, who had joined the rest of the room. It had been a very shaky alliance at best involving the group. Wade knew how these things would go. Slade would be using them for as long as possible, and then, when they let their guards down, even for a minute, Slade would swoop in and stab them.

"So, can we trust him?"

"What do you think, Arrow Boy?" Deadpool asked.

"We have to work together," Slade said. "Past problems aside, Fyers, and his associates are going to come for us. Getting off this island is important."

"Yeah, well he's after your little Chaos Emerald thing, or whatever," Deadpool said. "Maybe Doctor Robotnik is his boss or something?"

That attempt at humor had just passed over the heads of everyone involved. Slade had been used to blocking out Wade's nonsense for a very long time, and Shado and Oliver were developing an immunity of being shocked by some of the things which came out of his mouth.

' _You should stab first,'_ Wade thought. _'He who stabs first doesn't actually stab last.'_

Slade moved them around to a location where a small ground of mercenaries was on the island. These mercenaries looked to be a bit worn down, a bit weakened from the battle.

"We can take them out, and get what we need easily."

"Four of them, four of us," Wade said. "Well, at least you Math good."

Mentally, Wade counted down the seconds to the inevitable betrayal. He caught the nearest mercenary with a shot to the back of the neck and dropped him down to the ground. The man's body thumped down to the side, and Wade dragged him back into the shadows.

Oliver managed to catch one off guard. He looked pretty pleased with himself. The other mercenary looked towards Oliver and turned around to raise the alarm.

Slade thumped the man on the back of the head and forced him to drop knees first onto the ground. The wind had been taken out of the mercenary, with Slade dragging him back into the shadows.

Shado drove an uppercut punch into the back of the neck of the final mercenary and dropped him to the ground. Four mercenaries and the four of them started to remove the outfits, the hoods, the masks, everything.

"Now, what to do with the bodies?"

* * *

A very elegant room surrounded by clocks was at the very edge of Gotham City. There had been exactly twenty-four clocks in the room, each and every one of them telling the time in each time zone around the world. They had been lined up down the wall, in a perfect order. There had been a note on the floor, and a picture of Hill, pinned to the wall with a busted up clock hand.

"Hamilton Hill suggested I take my coffee break later," the man whispered, recording his rant for future use. "And I was late, and lost the case of my career, and then, I find out he worked for the company I was going against in the lawsuit. Pretty slick of him. Then my career ended, my mother died because I could not pay my medical bills. My sister is getting close to death's door."

A hand slammed down onto the desk.

"And now Hill sits atop of the world, atop of Gotham City, like a king!" the man ranted. "He suggested I would relax. Well, I'm going to make it sure he never relax."

The man known as William Temple Fugate always had been intrigued by the process of time. One tiny second had changed the course of history.

In his case, six hundred seconds lead his life into ruin, and he had seven long years to plan his vengeance and make sure Hill suffered just like he suffered.

"Time for the soon to be former Mayor of Gotham City to perish," Fugate said. "Everything has gone like Clockwork, leading to his end."

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 17** **th** **, 2017.**

_That Internet thing will catch on. Harry, Karen, and Faora might be onto something._

_Trouble at the Stock Exchange and things aren't going like Clockwork. And Shreck is getting his power plant built, finally, after bringing it up every time he showed up._

_When you're the Mayor, you make all kinds of friends. And Hill didn't need to be Mayor to make this particular friend. And we end up crossbreeding the Arrowverse version of the Clock King and the BTAS version, as I tend to do when needed._

_You don't want to be six hundred seconds late when the Clock King pulls off his caper._


	292. Like Clockwork Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Two: Like Clockwork Part Two**

* * *

The increasingly brazen attacks of the mysterious enemy of Mayor Hill raised a lot of questions for Batman. The Detective wondered exactly who could be pulling off of these attacks. A flight delay here, a train delay here, and the train sabotage with Hill were only a few minor things. Granted, they inconvenienced a lot of people, but in the grand scope of everything, they were minor details to be perfectly honest.

Then, there was the attack at the Gotham City Stock Exchange which just happened this past morning. The ramifications were still being felt throughout Gotham City. The attacks affected many, and the results of the attacks would affect much more throughout the next few coming days. Batman had no idea where to begin with these attacks, only that someone had targeted to Hill.

Exactly who targeted Hill, that was a very interesting question. There were a few people with motives Batman could deduce, but the motive was one thing. The means to pull off the attack, well that was an entirely different thing altogether.

Batman made his way to the meeting point of the rooftop. Nightwing waited for him, standing on the rooftop.

"So, someone has taken a fancy to ruining the Mayor's life," Nightwing said. "I'm sure you would like to hear the latest news."

Batman responded with a nod.

"For a ten minute period, all of the security networks in Gotham City have been compromised, except for ones on the most dedicated, separate frequencies," Nightwing said.

The Dark Knight read between the lines and understood those security networks to be the one used by the RAO Corporation, Wayne Industries, and maybe a few others. Those networks would have been completely out of reach from the cyber attacker just yet.

Flamebird dropped down on the rooftop right next to him. She acknowledged Batman with only the slightest of nods before turning around towards Nightwing.

"Hill has doubled his security and put himself inside his office," Flamebird said.

"He thinks it will keep him safe," Batman said. "He can't hide inside his office forever. This person, whoever they are, they're going to flush Hill out sooner or later. And when they do, there's going to be a problem, a big problem."

Nightwing just responded with a nod. He had been trying to figure out who could have targeted Hill. There were many people who were angry at Hill for personal reasons. Being a very public politician meant there were a lot of people who were not happy with anything you did. That being said, Harry figured the person who attacked Hill did not attack him for political reasons, but personal reasons as well.

"It's a matter of finding the person with both the means and the motives, and we'll track them down, eventually," Nightwing said. "I just worry about how much damage they can do to the overall structure in Gotham City."

"Wrecking Gotham City would cause damage to Hill's reputation," Batman agreed.

Batman agreed one hundred percent about finding the right person with the means and the motive to take down Hill. Those people were very much few and far between. There were many people who Hill would have been targeted by if they could get away with it.

These many attacks, the person involved was not intending to get caught, at least not yet. The person in question wished to make Hamilton Hill squirm and make him suffer. Batman could only begin to imagine the problems caused, and what would happen with Hill. The Detective had his own idea of how they would be pulling this off. Unfortunately, ideas, could not be followed through on, not without solid evidence and proof.

"Well, I'm searching down a couple of leads," Oracle said. "It's not going to be very easy. There are a few enemies Hill has, but they aren't going to be able to pull this. And many of his political enemies are nothing but bluster. No, this is someone who he made an enemy with years ago. It's not a recent enemy."

"You're saying, in other words, this was planned over a number of years?"

"Yes," Oracle agreed. "This particular person wanted to ensure that Hill would be in the most public position possible, before enacting the plan. It was just a stroke of luck that Hill finally became the Mayor of Gotham City before this mysterious attacker."

A pause had been followed as Oracle noticed there was another problem on top of all of the other problems.

"Traffic lights are going haywire," Oracle said. "Now, it could be a couple of things. It could be another glitch, or it could be Hill's mysterious enemy trying to send a message to him."

Harry would put even odds on the mysterious enemy trying to cause problems and messing with Hill's life. Things were going to be more intense for the people in Gotham City, and worse as time went on. Harry had some questions of what Hill's enemy ended up wanting.

' _We're going to find out all too soon,'_ Harry thought. _'I don't see this guy, whoever he is, being quiet for too long. Just the type of person he is.'_

* * *

Hamilton Hill had been racked with stress over the past couple of days. The delayed flights, the delayed trains, the incident at the Stock Exchange, the fact the phone was not ringing. Also, there had been evidence someone may have hacked his personal e-mail server, and Hill was starting to sweat about that fact. The fact someone could have broadcasted his personal affairs for the world to see, it really got Hill going, and his heart started to beat even more quickly.

"No, Peter, I don't know who could have been causing it. If I did know who was causing it, my life would be a whole of a hell lot easier right about now."

Hill's tone had grown a little short. The thoughts dug into his mind rather quickly. It was very obvious to anyone who was listening, the mysterious attacker had started to get to Hamilton Hill. He caused these problems, entering Hill's mind and wrecking his thoughts. Every single waking moment of Hill's life was spent worrying about something else happening to him.

' _No one can live like this.'_

Yet, that was every single waking moment. Hill spent about a half of an hour before leaving and heading somewhere, making sure his car, had been sabotaged. He no longer took the subway. Hill dreaded the potential of having to take the plane because he feared it might have fallen out of a sky.

"Hamilton, the GCPD is working on finding this man," Grogan said. "It's very bad someone like this is in Gotham City, causing havoc all of the time. We don't want to….."

Grogan's sigh followed over the phone. Hill understood instantly why Grogan was frustrated, it was for the same reason why he was frustrated. The GCPD chased someone who had not done things in a conventional way. Most criminals left some kind of tell-tale sign behind. This criminal did not. He was very efficient, or she was. Hill did not know whether or not the criminal involved was a man or a woman.

A knock on the door and Hill jumped about ten feet up off of the chair. He winced when the side of his knee just whacked into the edge of the desk. Taking a deep breath, Hill peered forward towards the door. One of the security guards opened the door.

"Just a meet, Grogan," Hill said. "Yes, what is it?"

The guard stepped to the side and the secretary made her way inside of the office, carrying a package.

"What's this?" Hill asked.

"Someone left it outside, said it was from a secret admirer," the secretary said. She gave a ditzy little giggle before dropping the item on the desk.

Hill wondered who could have been sending him something. The Mayor of Gotham City had several misgivings about this particular package.

"You should not have brought it inside," Hill said. "Especially with that lunatic on the loose!"

The secretary jumped back at Hill's frantic yell.

"Mayor, with all due respect, it didn't ding a hit on the metal detectors outside of the office," the secretary responded. "So, I don't see what the big deal is."

Hill pinched the bridge of his nose and slowly took as many deep breaths as humanly possible. This woman most certainly was not hired for her skills or her intelligence. So, Hill was trying not to lose his mind, at least not too much. One look at the seemingly harmless package on the desk and Hill drew in his breath.

"You should not have….."

Hill paused for a second and he heard something inside of the package. The sound was very obvious. Whatever was inside the package, it was tickling. Hill jumped up from his chair and moved back against the wall like it was on fire. The Mayor of Gotham City started breathing in and out in a frantic manner. His palms shook, and the man resembled someone who was on the verge of having a panic attack, and he was about ready to have a big panic attack.

"GET OUT OF HERE! YOU MORON! YOU BROUGHT A BOMB INTO CITY HALL!"

The secretary shivered, she never saw the Mayor of Gotham City this terrifying. Hill moved his way outside, where two of the guards at the front door were waiting.

"There's a bomb in City Hall, just don't stand there, stand for the bomb squad!" Hill yelled. "NOW, WE DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME!"

Hill took a deep breath. There was something, a bomb, currently ticking away in his office. Did his staff not have any common sense? There was a madman on the loose, and Hill had no way of knowing where and when they were going to strike next. Unbelievable, it was completely and totally unbelievable just now much nonsense his staff had gone through. Hill drew in a deep breath and drew out another deep breath.

* * *

Barbara Gordon enjoyed a good mystery about as much as the next person and loved scrolling through every little bit of information. The unexplained, well there was plenty of that in Gotham City. The entire city, and the reasons for the crime rate being like it was, it was an enigma.

' _Okay, let's just narrow this down a little bit more,'_ Barbara thought. _'Let's see where Hill might have been involved, years ago, where someone decided to let their frustrations fester over the past several years. At least in the past decade.'_

Oracle saw a few news stories about Hill's company, putting a few smaller firms out of business due to some questionable practices. There had been no names tied to them. While it was true one of the many people who worked at these firms could have struck back against Hill, there was something telling Barbara this most certainly was not it. The computer hacker decided to delve deeper into information.

' _Hello, what's this?'_

Barbara made sure to bring the newspaper headline into greater prominence. "Fugate loses case after being late to court" read the headline. Barbara kept plugging away for information and the people representing the opposite came from Hill's law firm.

It was very easy, and there was a brief statement about how Fugate screamed that Hill ruined him, and Hill would pay, even if it took him the rest of his life.

' _Very interesting.'_

Barbara kept looking up more information and came across the man in question, the man known as Fugate. William Temple Fugate to be precise. He had a pretty interesting history, mother was terminally ill, sister was terminally ill. He had a reputation for being meticulous and ruthless, and rather rude to his staff, even if they were the slightest moment later.

 _'Sounds like a real piece of work,'_ Barbara thought as she kept plugging away on the computer.

The man had also been able to get his life down to the second, like clockwork. Potentially OCD, even though there had been no medical diagnosis on record for the man. Barbara kept looking for those small strands of information to link them together.

Fugate worked on the campaign for the opposition to Mayor Hill, but the two men had a falling out, over, big surprise here, Fugate's control freak and OCD tendencies. The man lost the election, and Fugate dropped from sight, never to be seen again.

Well, never to be seen again until right now. Barbara just smiled, triumph dancing in the eyes of the computer hacker. She came very close to pinpointing their man, at least she hoped as much. This would do a good job in trying to pinpoint the man in question.

"I think I found something," Oracle said. "William Temple Fugate, he's the potential lead."

"Fugate?" Kara asked. "The name doesn't really ring a bell."

"That's because he was long gone as a major player in Gotham City by the time you showed up," Barbara said. "Seven years ago, he lost a very important case, and his career was pretty much destroyed. The opposing firm going against his in the lawsuit, it was Hamilton Hill."

"That makes a lot of sense," Kara said. "So, we were on the right track when we said it was someone who Hill wrecked during his days as a lawyer."

"Yes, we're on the right track, although I doubt he intentionally did anything to destroy Fugate," Harry said. "Not, that it would stop Fugate from taking things personally if I'm right."

"This guy got agitated when someone was a micro-second late to a meeting," Barbara said. "So, he would be the type to hold a grudge for years and years, if the opportunity suited itself."

* * *

Mayor Hamilton Hill's deep breathing exercises continued. The man feared to leave the confines of City Hall with the madman on the loose, but he was not completely safe either. The Bomb Squad made their way in. Most of the staff, other than Hill and the three bodyguards who had been bold off to stay to protect the Mayor, already left the premises of City Hall. The ditzy personal assistant would not be returning, not if Hill had anything to say about it. She could have jeopardized Hill's life.

The leader of the Gotham City bomb squad was an older gentleman wearing glasses. He heard the mysterious ticking.

"In all of my years in the Gotham City Bomb Squad, I've seen nothing like this," the leader of the bomb squad said a few seconds later. He slowly worked the package open.

Everyone stood on pins and needles waiting for the next move. The tension could be sliced with a nice. Hill, in particular, felt like he had lost about five pounds on this day by sweating it all off. And the Gotham City Mayor kept shaking, kept sweating. It was just everything that happened all at once, caused him to almost lose sense of himself.

"It's because it's not a bomb."

Hill blinked suddenly and wondered if it was not a bomb, then why was it ticking. The package opened up and revealed a very handsome looking, handmade clock, which kept ticking inside.

"There's not a bomb," one of the other members of the bomb squad repeated in a clear and concise voice. "But, look, there's a small speaker inside of the clock."

Hill brushed his hair back and wondered why there would be a speaker on the clock. The speaker churned to life a moment later.

"This is just a reminder of how precious time is. I wasted your time today, Hill when you thought this was a bomb. Remember, in the end, time passes, but will you. Each second passes by, whether it be one second or six hundred tiny seconds. Will you pass along with the time?"

The Mayor of Gotham City stood in the office, absolutely dumb-founded. His mouth hung open in surprise.

"Time passes, will I?" Hill asked.

If the Mayor of Gotham City did not know better, that would be some kind of threat. Not that he was not already on edge enough. Some mysterious enemy ruined Hill's life, and caused a great deal of stress, waiting for something to happen. Each moment Hill lived, he shook a little bit more. It was difficult for Hill to process any kind of information right about now.

The Mayor of Gotham City turned his head around for an instant and shook it clear. The fact of the matter was, Hill felt like he was not alone in the office.

"There's no one here but us, Mr. Mayor."

Hill was not really sure. His shaking hands, palms sweaty, and clashing together. The person involved was doing their very best in driving Hill insane, and their very best could be very bad indeed.

Needless to say, Hill was not too far in his thought that he was not alone along with the city hall staff and the bomb squad. Nightwing stood in the shadows, and he recorded the message. The message had a couple of distinct sounds in the background, and they would need the computers in the Clocktower to isolate the sounds in the message, and perhaps figure out where the hell they were heading with this one.

' _So, you got it, right?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yeah, I got it,'_ Barbara thought. _'It's most certainly Fugate. The entire six hundred seconds thing corresponds to the being ten minutes late thing. Only Fugate would be fixated on something like that.'_

' _Yes, and given all we've learned, he's a very meticulous planner,'_ Harry thought. _'He's not going to be an easy one to deal with, that's for certain.'_

* * *

William Temple Fugate collected a few small security clips of showing several of the Gotham City vigilantes in action. Nightwing, Black Canary, Flamebird, Huntress, and Batman, the footage had not been that abundant, given their ability not to be caught on camera. Fugate showcased a very keen ability to study every single inch of even the most obscure footage. He got their movements down to the greatest micro-second.

"They won't stop me," Fugate said. "There's going to be no one that's going to stop me."

Fugate would give them their due, they had varied attack patterns, and a variety of different styles, one or two had been very obscure, but Fugate understood enough. Those vigilantes would think Hill was worth rescuing.

"It's odd," Fugate mused out loud. "We should be on the same side. Hill would sooner hunt all of those vigilantes down like dogs, and ruin their careers. He doesn't care about the good they might do, just like he didn't care about the good I do. He just wanted to put me under, my entire business over, and ruined my entire life."

Fugate, the self-proclaimed Clock King, pounded his fist down on the table and took a deep breath in response. Everything was going through so far with Clockwork. Fugate reached over to grab the towel and wipe the blood trickling from his palm off of it.

"Can't afford any misfires now," Fugate whispered to himself. "Not when I'm so close to finally ridding Gotham City of the blight that is Hamilton Hill."

The man's image flashed on the screen, from a speech he gave. One the lights on the sound stage shattered over his head, making Hill look pretty foolish. It was the first moment that Fugate targeted Hill, although the attack had been relatively minor to some of the more prolific assaults.

"He's not going to get away from me," Fugate said.

There was one element no man, no matter how powerful, they could not outrun. It would be time, time would be the mistress which would destroy them. Seven years of living the high life would run out for Hill. His time had been up.

Fugate switched through the clips and noticed something in the shadows for a brief moment. Those eagle-eyed bomb squad veterans noticed the speaker in the clock, but they did not notice the miniature camera which allowed Fugate to see everything inside of the office of the Gotham City Mayor.

Hill resembled a pig more than a human being with how his face had been scrunched up.

' _A fitting look on his face,'_ Fugate thought. _'Look at Hill, terrified that the clock might blow up in his face. Every ticking sound is trying in made. But, little does he know that each tick of the clock represents a tick which brings him closer to his end.'_

The movement in the shadows happened again, and Fugate noticed him in a blink of an eye. The vigilante known as Nightwing moved about in the shadows, for a brief second. Fugate knew he would cause most of the problems, but Fugate prepared to deal with him.

"And someone tries to hack my system, right on cue," Fugate said without missing a beat or blinking. His fingers flew over the keyboard to block the person trying to work into the system like an ever present work. "The mysterious Oracle tries to work her magic, no doubt. It's unfortunate she will not succeed in her goals, for I have a counter maneuver in place, ready to shut her down, and shut her up."

Fugate had numerous countermeasures in place, whether the attacker be through the computers like Oracle, or be someone like Nightwing, Batman, Black Canary, or just some hapless GCPD officer who was only trying to do their jobs.

A trap would be set and the trap would be swung. He knew everything would happen very much down to the nanosecond, and it was time to misdirect the heroes while the next phase of Fugate's plan had been enacted. The end game was very nearly here.

* * *

Barbara tracked Fugate to a clock shop right across from the train yard. Flamebird and Nightwing tried to check it out, while Batman followed up another potential lead on Fugate elsewhere in Gotham City.

"You know, if this wasn't a bad guy lair, it would be almost quaint," Kara said.

"Maybe," Harry said. "But, quaint could be a front for Fugate."

The two costumed crimefighters stepped their way inside of the clock shop. There were numerous clocks. Normal clocks, grandfather clocks, antique pocket watches, and the shop just had a smell of something from a far more innocent time, back before Gotham City had become overtly cynical.

One of the clocks started to tick. Kara turned around and used her X-Ray vision. It was an ordinary clock, except for a couple of minor modifications. A small speaker had been added, and an even smaller, almost indiscreet camera also had bee placed inside of the clock.

"Congratulations, you're right on time."

"William Temple Fugate, or as you were called by your staff, the Clock King," Nightwing said. "

"Yes, Nightwing, you're correct," the Clock King said. "I never really liked that moniker then, when I was working at my firm. It was a way to mock me because they didn't appreciate my efficiency. But, now I understand the merits of it. I've decided to embrace my destiny."

Clock King just chuckled in amusement.

"I don't know why you would even bother to help Hill," the Clock King said. "He would have you thrown into Blackgate, not that it would do any good. You can both escape the prison easily. I've studied your tactics, your maneuvers, learned as much as I can. And from what I've learned, I know for a fact that I can't trap you."

Kara and Harry looked at each other for a few seconds. Both of the crime-fighters understood where Hill was coming from and they sensed some kind of qualifying statement coming.

"I might not be able to trap you, but I can delay you from tracking me down," Fugate said. "As you might have figured out by now, I purposely lead your Oracle here, to delay the inevitable while I plan for the demise of Hill. I'm going to take my revenge on those six hundred wasted seconds."

"What are you up to, Fugate?" Nightwing demanded

"Quite simple, really," Fugate said a moment or so later. "There are three bombs located in Gotham City. Two of them are fakes. One of them is very real and could kill countless lives. Lives which I know you will spare."

Fugate tapped on the table with a smile growing on his face.

"Three minutes and six seconds to disable them all," Clock King said. "Oh, and you won't be able to radio your allies further into Gotham until you pass the train yard, which will take you one minute and nineteen seconds."

The smugness coming from the Clock King's voice made Harry want to reach through the computer screen and smack him.

"I have an appointment to keep, and this time I won't be six hundred seconds late."

Clock King vanished, and Flamebird and Nightwing had to locate the bombs.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 20** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Clock King is pretty efficient in certain matters. He's tricked Oracle._

_Boy, he's messing with Hill's head as well a lot. Then again, that secretary is so fired for bring a mysterious package into the Mayor's office. Even if it wasn't a bomb._

_More on Saturday._


	293. Like Clockwork Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Three: Like Clockwork Part Three**

* * *

 

Hamilton Hill drew in a deep breath a few seconds later. The Mayor of Gotham City felt the last couple of days had gone the longest. There had been the scare with the train, the scares with planes, and most importantly, the scares of the Gotham City Stock Exchange. Hill shook at that last one given the ramifications which would cause. He trumped the security of the new machines, and now it came back to bite him.

Hill sat in the back of the limo. No matter how much Hill wanted to believe otherwise, he could not stay in City Hall forever. Especially, with City Hall having been breached by the mysterious package, and it only got more nervous. It was not a bomb but it just easily could have been.

"What the hell is going on?" Hill asked.

A few seconds passed when the man in the front of the limo turned around and looked Mayor Hill straight in the eye. "It's a traffic jam. We can't go where we need to go any faster. The GCPD are going to be on their way to meet us, so hold tight."

Hill held the briefcase tight, thinking about investing in a gun or something which could defend himself. That would be a bad bit of news if something happened there. An overzealous Mayor attacks with a gun, the press would have a field day with that headline.

"Keep the doors locked," Hill said. "I don't want anyone to come into the limo."

"Hey, relax, Mr. Mayor," the bodyguard said with a smile and he leaned forward to look the Mayor of Gotham City right in the eye. "Nothing's going to happen. The doors are locked up pretty tight. There's no one getting in here. It's locked up tighter than a Nun's box."

Hill put his fingers on the edge of the seating and nodded. Every now and then, Hill flickered towards the mirror and saw the traffic moving very quickly. Each second grinding down made Hill anxiously drum his fingers down on the briefcase. The breathing continued from the Mayor of Gotham City.

' _Come on.'_

The traffic moved down the streets of Gotham City at a very tedious and very unfortunate snail's pace. Hamilton Hill's deep breathing continued when holding onto the edge of the seat. In more ways than one, and the pocket watch ticking from one of the bodyguards resulted in Hill taking a deep breath.

In a blink of an eye, a truck pulled out in front of the Mayor's limo from a side street. The driver of the car hit the breaks out and Hill almost had been jolted forward. Hill hung onto the edge of the seat and the man's hands started shaking.

' _He's not around. There's no way possible he could be coming for me. Not after everything. It's fine. It's perfectly fine, I just got to settle down.'_

The truck going in front of the limo pretty much personified a close call as far as Hamilton Hill had been concerned. The Mayor's blood pressure reached an insane rate when everything hit him. Everything was just about ready to get a little bit worse.

"Way too close."

The truck pulled back, and the limo was allowed to progress a little bit further down the city streets of Gotham City. Hill folded his hands over the top of his briefcase. They hit a stop light, only progressing maybe about thirty seconds worth of travel time.

Coming from the other side, a hummer crashed into the side of the limo on the side opposite of Hill. It jarred the limo, and Hill looked up in time to see a few men dressed in black, wearing ski masks. One of the gentlemen dressed in black swung a crowbar and shattered the windows of the limo to send glass flying in every direction.

Hill snapped back, and one of the bodyguards nearest to him dropped to the limo's floor. A dart stuck in the back of the man's neck and put him out for the ten count. Hill's sharp breathing continued, with the Mayor of Gotham City tugging his hair back every second.

' _My god,'_ Hill thought to himself, breathing in and breathing out.

"It's time, Mr. Hill."

Time, it was that word again, the word which caused Hill agony. He pulled off the seat belt and it snapped back. The Mayor of Gotham City scrambled as fast as he could in the opposite direction to the other side of the limo. The door opened up, and Hill tried to run down the street.

One of the goons blasted Hill in the back of the leg with an electrified pulse. Hamilton Hill dropped to the ground, and another one of the goons hooked Hill's arms behind his back, along with fastening his legs. The third goon slipped a face mask over Hill's face before hauling him up into a van.

The van sped off as quickly as it arrived, which left Mayor Hill's bodyguards, driver, and limo in the middle of the Gotham City streets. The Gotham City police department's sirens could be heard.

"Boss, we got him," the leader of the gang reported.

"That was close," the Clock King answered. "Almost too close. You pushed it a bit too far. You nearly bungled the entire operation. Fortunately for you, however, even you were able to pull this off and ensure that everything had gone together, ending up like clockwork."

"Yeah, we got the Mayor," the leader said. "So, now that we got him, what do you want us to do with him?"

"Listen to me very carefully, my soft-brained friend," the Clock King responded a moment or so later. "This is exactly what I want you to do with the Mayor of Gotham City."

The leader of the gang put his hands on the dashboard and nodded in response. He figured it could have been done, with very little effort. The Clock King's gang drove off, with Mayor Hamilton Hill bound and gagged, in the back seat of the van, without too much effort. Their boss was right, everything had pretty much been pulled off just like Clockwork, in a blink of an eye.

* * *

 

Flamebird and Nightwing quickened their pace and left the area of the train yard. They had made their way back into Gotham City.

' _So, what do you think?'_ Kara asked.

' _I think it's obviously a distraction,'_ Harry thought. _'The bombs are real, but I think Fugate only wants to keep us busy while we want his real target. I'm going to see if I can isolate any strange energy spikes, and I'm going to have to do it quickly.'_

Thankfully for them, Harry's gauntlet had been properly calibrated for such a thing. He took a moment to scan through the city, and found the mysterious spike of energy, which lead him to the point where one of the statues were. Harry deeply frowned and turned around to address Kara.

"It's underneath one of the statues of a Gotham City founder," Harry said. "Ezekiel Gotham….the man who founded the city all those years ago."

Kara understood where the statue was and flew at the speed of light underneath the statue. Someone loosened the foundation of the statue, and it had not completely been settled. There would be a tremendous amount of damage to a historical landmark if the Clock King had his way.

The Kryptonian survivor pulled the statue off of the ground and underneath her eyes, a bomb flickered right front of center point of the statue. Kara looked at the bomb and figured out what to. She grabbed it on other end and ripped it apart, disabling the bomb completely.

' _Okay, that wasn't the most elegant way to disable the bomb,'_ Kara thought. _'But, it was going to have to do.'_

' _There are two more bombs, one on the North of Old Gotham, and one on the South,'_ Harry thought.

Kara blasted off at the speed of light to check the bomb on the South, and Harry activated the function on his suit to allow himself to teleport and check over the bomb on the North side of old Gotham.

' _This bomb on the South end of Gotham City, it's a dud,'_ Kara thought. _'Still, I'm smashing it, just to make sure. How about the one on the North?'_

' _Same thing,'_ Harry thought.

Harry did see that Fugate put one real bomb, and they made a triangle, a very even triangle, with all three points converging at a certain area. He pulled out a miniature disc and slid it underneath the bomb. An electrical pulse disabled the components of the bomb and caused it to collapse into a heap of parts.

The next thing Harry did, and this was important, was make a scan of Gotham City for any more bombs planted in the city. Something told him there were no more bombs, but it was important and very essential for Harry to make sure. He stood on the ground, and Kara dropped down next to him.

' _So, it was just the three?'_ Kara asked.

' _Yes, it was just the three,'_ Harry thought. _'I figured about as much, but I would have had to make sure, because otherwise….'_

Harry left the statement hanging, and Kara understood instantly what he was going for. They both stood in the middle of the park outside of Gotham City. The Clock King, if he had been at the location they visited at the first place, he went further away.

' _He predicted we would take care of the bombs,'_ Kara thought. _'Even though one of them didn't have the range to do much damage, and the others would not blow up.'_

"It's happened," Oracle chimed in. "Hill has been kidnapped, by some men. The Gotham City Police Department has been frantically searching for Hill, but there's no chance he's going to be found."

"Time is not on his side," Harry murmured. "But…..I might have an idea where the Clock King has taken Hill. One of the most prominent time-based landmarks in all of Gotham City."

* * *

 

The throbbing agony spreading through the head of Hamilton Hill just increased. He hoped, perhaps willing himself against all hope that this was all a dream, some kind of never ending nightmare which he just had to wake up from eventually. Hill's deep breathing continued as those ropes tightened up against his arms when shifting against the cold hard surface.

"About now, you're refusing to open your eyes, because you never open your eyes to the realities of the world, and most important to the realities of the people you have hurt. But, slowly, it's going to dawn on you, one second, by one awful second, that what you're experiencing is reality. You are going to suffer, just like I've suffered. Just like the people of Gotham City will suffer on your reign if I allow this to keep happening."

Hill's rose up in agony. The ropes around him made movement even harder. Hill found himself in the center of the Clocktower, tied to a bell clapper in the top of the tower. Hill took a deep breath and saw the man standing in the shadows. He had dark hair, dressed in a rather bland brown suit with a bowler hat. The pocket watch dangled from the man's wrists.

"You're in the Thomas Wayne Memorial Clock Tower," the man said. "Fitting how the end of your reign and your life will only occur in the monument of one of the true pillars of Gotham City. And you only have a short amount of time left to live."

The Clock King took a look at the pocket watch and just gave a crude smile before turning back to the captive prisoner who tried as he might squirm away.

"Six hundred seconds, or ten minutes. It's fitting we have this final accord starting now, during your remaining six hundred seconds. Because that's exactly how much time you stole from me…but you stole much more from me Hill. You ruined me, just to better yourself in life."

"Who are you?" Hill demanded. "Look, if you want money, I'll pay…"

The madman stuck up his hand to prevent Hill from speaking any further.

"Lost time cannot be replaced by mere monetary gain," the Clock King responded. "Let us, quickly, because time runs short, return back to seven years ago. You advised a man to take his coffee break ten minutes later. Out of concern he was tense, stressed out, and too tightly wound."

The Clock King peered at Hill over the top of his glasses.

"That man's morning was thrown in disarray," the Clock King told Hill in a low voice. "He lost the most important case of his life, because of the fact he was late. Those six hundred seconds cost him everything. It cost him his professional reputation, his business, and many assets had been burned through to keep a modest living. The medical bills were too much, and the man's mother died, and his sister, will die soon."

The Clock King held a razor sharp hour hand at the throat of Hill. Hill looked at the man, in very real fear.

"Who are you?" Hill asked.

"You don't remember the man who you ruined to better your business, to win a lawsuit?" the Clock King asked. "I can't say I'm surprised. You will only acknowledge people when it suits your agenda. I hear all of your speeches. The people of Gotham City are just another means to achieve your agenda. Your only hope to further your legacy, and if those people suffer underneath your reign, then it's fine, isn't it?"

The time ticked on.

"You're going to die here, Hill. You're going to die…time runs out. You cannot run against it. There's no one who will save you….even though there will be someone who will try, despite your attempts to hunt him down. Thirty seconds….twenty seconds….ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…three…two….one!"

Hill whipped around and tossed the razor sharp clock hand into the shadows. The clock hand had been deflected, and the one and only Batman popped out of the shadows.

"It's over, Fugate."

"Not, quite, Batman," The Clock King answered. "You see, I've studied you. Footage of the Dark Knight, it's not easy to come by, given you stick to the shadows. You lay fear in the hearts of the minds of a superstitious and cowardly lot."

The punch had been avoided when the Clock King dodged out of the way. He avoided a smoke pellet by quickly and deftly pushing a switch on his glasses.

"I've predicted your actions, your movements, down to the merest nano-second."

The Clock King dodged an uppercut, just narrowly avoiding the attack.

"Enigma was able to scrape together the few times you were careless enough to get yourself caught on camera," the Clock King said. He spent the next few minutes playing a deadly game of ducking and dodging. "It wasn't much, but it was enough to defeat you."

A section of the ground crumbled underneath Batman's feet. Batman tried to jump to the perch point, but the second he reached the perch point, it exploded underneath him. The Detective dropped down to the ground and looked up at the Clock King.

"You can't keep this up forever."

"Not forever," the Clock King responded, sounding very smug in the process. "I merely have to keep this up for long enough, to ensure that Hamilton Hill suffers his demise. When the Clock Strikes noon, about five minutes from now, then the clock strikes doom!"

Batman tried to disable Clock King with a Batarang to the side of the head. The Clock King avoided it and smiled. He had no need to land a single punch on Batman. The Clock King's eyes looked very smug when staring down at Batman.

"The end comes for all of us Batman!"

Suddenly, a blur of light came out, and quickly untied Mayor Hill and yanked him away just before the clock was about to strike noon. Hill had been pulled away and sprinted away.

The Clock King looked at the spot of the Clocktower which he thought would be the bloodied, smashed up form of the Mayor of Gotham City. Just in a blink of an eye, Batman caught the Clock King with an uppercut which knocked him for a loop.

One punch rendered the Clock King unconscious. His plans being thrown off allowed Batman to come in and punch him. Batman rolled over the Clock King and bound the man's hands and feet behind his back, to further make sure he did not escape this situation.

* * *

 

Much time passed, and Hamilton Hill thought his entire life passed before him. Not even the vigilante known as Batman could stop the Clock King. Batman made his way into the tower and engaged the man, who had his every move tied down.

Then, just when the Clock was about to strike twelve, someone pulled Hill out. The next thing Hamilton Hill knew, he was down on the ground floor of the Clocktower, about ready to lose his lunch after what happened. The Mayor remained face down on the ground and struggled to pull himself up to his feet. He collapsed down onto the ground, the wind having been driven out of his lungs every second he tried to pull himself up.

Someone smashed open the doors and jolted Hill up to his feet. Peter Grogan lead the way, along with Howard Branden and the rest of the Gotham City SWAT team members. Some of the GCU members, including James Gordon, Harvey Bullock, and Sarah Essen stepped into the room.

"What happened?" Branden asked.

"Batman," Hill said, his tone slightly slurred.

"We better call for an ambulance for the Mayor," Grogan said. "Hang tight, old friend, help is going to be on the way soon, you just need to relax, and it will be here."

Hill just nodded while numb in shock. Today had been way too close. He would not have been the first Mayor of Gotham City assassinated, far from it. However, most of the other Mayor's were gunned down, stabbed, or had their limos blow up. Hill, on the other hand, would have been the first Mayor of Gotham City to meet a grisly demise through a very elaborate death trap.

Howard Branden looked about as giddy as a kid on Christmas morning. Unless he missed his guess, he was going to nab Batman and the Clock King.

' _Finally.'_

Branden motioned for the SWAT guards, who had their weapons at the ready. The entire group made their way into position, waiting for something to happen.

The doors opened up, and they came face to face with the Clock King. The man didn't look very threatening, although he caused a lot of damage.

"Where's Batman?" Branden demanded.

"Gone, before you idiots could even have put on that gear," Fugate responded. "Hill's going to pay, you haven't seen the last of me. I'm going to make him suffer slowly, painfully, and take everything from him."

"You're not doing anything, Princess."

One of the SWAT member guards curb stomped Fugate into the ground and caused his glasses to smash, cutting up parts of his face. The Clock King grimaced when the SWAT hurled him up off of his feet like a sack of garbage. He already had a broken nose from when Batman punched him, so he was not too happy, to begin with.

James Gordon looked at the top of the stairs where the Clock King had been hauled down. The Clock King's legs dragged underneath him.

"What the hell happened to him?" Gordon asked.

"Bat must have been rough on him," Branden said. "Leave it to a heartless vigilante to beat a suspect half to death like that."

Gordon just raised his eyebrow, but could not do anything, due to the fact he did not witness any brutality on the part of Branden. Even though, he figured that brutality was going to come.

"Looks like he's going to be locked away from a long time," Bullock said. "Looks like a creepy smug bastard, to begin with, so I can't say I'm too sorry that he's locked away."

"He's conducted terrorism, and tried to assassinate the Mayor," Sarah said. "Not exactly someone who is seeing the light of day anytime soon."

Hamilton Hill had been helped into the ambulance. There were no serious injuries, just some burns, and a couple of bruises. Given the alternate could have ended with him getting smashed half to death by the Clocktower's bell clapper, everything could have been a whole lot worse. Personally, Hill decided to count his blessings, and count on the fact that things could have gone much worse than they were already.

The saving of him by Batman, and another vigilante today, boy that caused Hill's world to be turned upside down. The Mayor of Gotham City could not, and should not condone the actions of dangerous vigilantes, that was one thing that was for certain.

After seeing one of them in action, and being rescued by certain death from another, Hill wasn't sure he felt right about loudly condemning them either. It was not the black and white, cut and dry situation Hill thought. Hill thought at first the crime rates at Gotham City was because of the dangerous vigilantes popping up.

What if the vigilantes popping up were only because of the crime rates in Gotham City? Hill wondered, and it would have to be a certain point that he was going to have to sleep on.

* * *

 

' _It's not every day you get a chance to save the Mayor of Gotham City,'_ Harry thought. _'So, you should be happy with yourself.'_

Kara was very happy with herself, to be perfectly honest. She and Harry made their way back to the Clocktower, to check in with Oracle. They changed out of their attire and made their way over rather quickly. They dressed in their street clothes.

' _Yeah, I didn't vote for the guy,'_ Kara thought. _'But, not even Hill deserves to be smashed into a fine paste. Fugate's locked on though.'_

Harry responded with a nod and just thought about how much the Arkham Wing at Blackgate was getting overcrowded. There were rumors, whispers, that because of the growing number of colorful and quite frankly very disturbed criminals, they might have been considering re-opening the old Arkham Asylum to put the criminals together.

For once, Barbara leaned back in her chair and relaxed. She motioned for Harry and Kara to come over, and the two of them took seats next to her.

"Well, Batman informed me of something that Fugate said in passing during their fight, and I decided to look into it," Barbara said. "There's a connection between Fugate and Nashton. To the point where they were sharing information, and I'm sure Fugate may have received some incriminating information on Hill in exchange for some favors."

Harry sighed, even when Nashton had been locked on, he was causing problems.

"Do we know if their network runs any deeper than it is?" Kara asked.

Barbara responded with a shrug in response.

"Hill's eating a big old piece of humble pie after this afternoon," Barbara said. "He decided to have a press conference while at the hospital…and well, this isn't the Hill we all know, is it?"

Barbara clicked on the television screen and they were visited by the images of a very somber, and very sober looking Hamilton Hill.

"I've made mistakes," Hill responded, taking in a deep breath and look on seriously at the television screen. "I just hope that people can forgive me for the mistakes I've made. As unfortunately, the mistakes from the past can and will come back to haunt us all if we allow them. I learned that tonight in the worst possible way. I'm not immune to these problems. William Temple Fugate was someone I had a brief interaction, only making a casual suggestion. But I know now, the most innocent of suggestions can turn into problems later. So we should be mindful of our actions. And all of Gotham City can take that lesson, and be mindful of their actions."

The press conference ended, and Jack Ryder's voice had been muted before he could make the report.

"So, I wonder if Hill finally got the wake-up call he needed?" Barbara asked. "What do you think?"

"Well, Hill's most certainly thinking after today," Harry said. "Saying you're going to change course, and actually changing course is too different things."

"Yes," Barbara said. "And that would also mean the people that Hill is chummy with, they're going to have to change course as well. And we all know that's not going to happen anytime soon."

"Sadly, you're right"

Harry hoped that this incident would mean Hill would back off his crusade of the vigilantes. Maybe not stop it completely, but perhaps he could ease up a little bit. Harry did not like the necessity for costume crusaders either. The problems in Gotham City ran very deep, and Harry could not know.

Barbara smiled and walked over towards the table near the couch of the Clocktower. She rustled through some notes, smiling when looking down at the papers.

In a blink of an eye, Harry stood on one side of her, and Kara stood on the other side of her.

"Tonight's been a long night," Harry concluded.

"Yes, it has," Barbara agreed. "So, what do you propose we do after a long night?"

"I have some ideas," Harry said.

Harry leaned in and kissed Barbara on the lips. The eager redhead returned the kiss. Kara moved in and Harry spun Barbara around into the arms of one of his Alpha wives. Kara gripped the back of Barbara's head and kissed her in response.

The two girls gave a passionate kiss and then turned around. Their smiles locked onto Harry, and they were very mischievous smiles as well.

Kara and Barbara had Harry's pants off in a blink of an eye, and they worked on his shirt. Barbara grabbed Harry around the neck and started to plant a series of passionate kisses on the side of Harry's neck. Kara moved down from Harry's chest and worshiped his body.

"I think someone is eager and willing," Kara said, a wicked smile passing over her face.

Kara gripped Harry's package in hand and gave it a very firm squeeze. Harry's manhood swelled on the other side of the boxer shorts.

"It needs air," Harry said.

"Well, there's no need to deprive it."

Kara slowly unveiled Harry's mighty rod to her. The rod smacked Kara on the face and she smiled. The beautiful blonde bombshell stroked the head of Harry's cock against her cheek, and lightly teased the head of it, with her lips. Kara pulled back and moved to the underside of Harry's cock. She started at the base and eased up the vein with a long lick.

The feeling of Kara's tongue caressing his manhood with her tongue was intense. Kara cupped the underside of his balls.

"Kara," Harry groaned.

"Well, she shouldn't have all the fun, should she?"

Barbara's rhetorical question hung out in the air, and she moved down, kissing Harry's abdomen, working further between his legs. That throbbing cock stood up, but Barbara was not going to tease it just yet. She lightly licked it.

Both of the girls soon took turns worshipping the cock of their god. Barbara took the length deep inside of her mouth and sucked on it for several minutes, while Kara worshiped Harry's balls. Then, they traded off, both of the girls enjoying the deep sucking.

Harry experienced the endless joy of different styles of blowjobs. Barbara's was more slow and subtle, while Kara favored a more passionate way. The two of them took turns sucking Harry's cock and edging him to an amazing and spectacular conclusion.

"I'm getting close," Harry groaned.

Kara re-doubled her efforts, moving in a blur, with Harry's cock vibrating underneath the pleasure. He grabbed the back of Kara's head and pushed his rod into the back of her throat. The contents of his balls began to fill Kara's throat, pumping into with a very fast, and fluid force.

The contraction of Harry's balls fired his cum into Kara's mouth. Kara leaned back and took the full blast of cum deep into her mouth. She sucked Harry, milking him with her lips and throat, while Barbara clutched his balls and squeezed them to coax the cum out.

The two beautiful women climbed to their feet, with Kara smiling and giving Barbara very deep tongue kiss, with the two of them sharing Harry's cum.

The next thing both Kara and Barbara knew, they were down on the couch, and their clothes were down on the floor. Kara dressed in a lacy pair of blue panties with a red ribbon on it, and a red and blue bra as well. Barbara dressed in a black pair of bra and panties. A second look at her showed that Barbara was wearing a thong.

"Well, looks like I have you two."

Harry leaned down and started to kiss down Kara's beautiful body while caressing Barbara off to the side with his hands. He caused both of the girls to whimper in pleasure the more he played with them and worshiped their bodies. He could feel the heat coming off of their pussies.

"Please, Harry!" Kara moaned at the top of her lungs. "I need you, so badly."

Harry just smiled and pressed his palms on their pussies. Every single movement from them, every single whimper of pleasure, fuel his desire. In a blink of an eye, Harry gripped onto their panties and drew out their removal off of their wet, sticky surfaces.

Kara, in particular, was hungry for Harry to be inside of her. His fingers teased the edge of her slit, as it did Barbara's once her panties were off.

Breathing increased by Barbara Gordon and her nipples hardened like one would not believe. They demanded, they begged to be sucked on, to be played with. The pleasure Barbara demanded was immense. Harry pushed his fingers at the edge of Barbara's slit.

"HARRY!"

Both Kara and Barbara screamed out the name of their mate in unison. Harry pushed his fingers deep into their pussies and double-finger fucked both of the girls. The sensual tightness of both of them around his fingers only made Harry want to delve deeper into the warmth of their bodies. Their loins pushed up, taking Harry's fingers further into them, deeper inside of them.

"I have you, right where I want you now," Harry told them.

Kara and Barbara had no choice, but to agree with this. They were in a pretty good position with Harry pumping his way into their warm centers. Both of the girls tightened their grips around Harry the further he pushed into their loins. They breathed hungrily when Harry pumped into them, further stretching them out.

Every single movement brought Kara's orgasm further up. Her hips bucked up off of the couch and pushed into Harry's fingers. The juices began to soak Harry's hands. Harry pushed further inside of Kara, and she almost lost it from the pleasure.

Harry rammed deep inside of Barbara as well and caused her pussy to feel so good. Her legs shook from the excitement coming through. Her bra slid off and Harry leaned down, lightly biting down on her nipple and sucking on it hard. Harry switched from back and forth between both girls, causing them to experience pleasure beyond everything else they experienced in their lives.

"Mmm, yes," Barbara moaned. "Take me, just like this. Suck my tits….lick my nipples...I like this...I like this a whole lot."

Speaking of liking something a whole lot, Harry worked himself deeper into their gushing cunts and dragged both girls into one of the most spectacular orgasms possible. Their hips thrust up and met Harry when his fingers pushed deep into their gushing centers.

The moment both of the girls came down, Harry retracted his fingers on one end from Barbara's wet pussy, and slid them into Kara's mouth. Kara took the fingers very hungrily, and he did the same. The girls tasted the pussy juices from each other.

"Barbara, between Kara's legs."

Barbara didn't hesitate to obey. She made her way down between Kara's legs and dragged in the beautiful scent of Kara's perfect pussy. Barbara thought she was going to lose it when presented with such a lovely, and pink center which she had no choice, but to lick.

Harry still pumped his cum soaked fingers into Kara's mouth. Kara sucked them hard, moaning. She watched as Harry's cock dragged over Barbara's lower back. The redhead positioned between the thighs of the blonde and locked on. Kara lifted her legs up slightly and spread them for Barbara to get full access.

The next thing Barbara Gordon knew, Harry's hard cock slid into her moistened and well-prepared hole. Every inch of cock slid into Barbara and almost caused her to lose her mind in the lost. Harry held onto Barbara and rolled his hands up underneath her nipples.

"Yes, fuck her brains out!" Kara yelled.

Barbara intended to tongue fuck Kara into a stupor. The redhead's able tongue rolled around Kara's dripping hot pussy. Kara grabbed onto the back of Barbara's head and pushed her hips up in response. The tasty juices dribbling from the Kryptonian center only spurred Barbara on further.

And speaking of getting spurred on further, Harry shoved his throbbing hard rod deep inside of Barbara. Barbara could feel the throbbing length buried into her body. Every single inch of Harry pushed deeper inside of her. Harry held onto Barbara's hips and worked away against her. His balls slapped Barbara hard against the backside, the deeper he went inside of her.

Harry enjoyed exploring Barbara's center. Her loins stretched out and then clamped around Harry. Harry almost pulled all the way out of Barbara and pushed his way into her tight body. Barbara stretched around Harry and he pushed deep inside of her body. Harry pumped deep inside of her with a few more pumps.

"Go ahead, cum for me."

Dragging his fingernails down her back made Barbara cum even quicker. The delicious sensations filled her body with sexual energy. Her loins clamped deep around Harry. Harry pushed as far into Barbara as possible, causing his cock to be shoved inside of her.

Most of the length worked into Barbara, and Barbara spread her thighs to allow just that much more inside of her. Harry appreciated the effort exercised by the lovely Ms. Gordon. He could take her for everything she was worth, and Harry figured Barbara to be worth a whole lot.

"MMM!" Kara moaned. "Right there!"

Barbara hit a hot spot and kept plugging away. Kara was going to be nice and wet, and ready to go. Barbara eased back and teased Kara. She stalled for a few seconds due to Harry working his own orgasm to Barbara.

Each orgasm caused Barbara to clamp around and milk Harry's cock with even more fierceness. Harry pushed as far into Barbara as possible and stretched out her pussy. The feeling of Barbara's tight walls clamping down on him only pushed Harry further into the delightful center of the beautiful redhead. Harry pumped his way deeper inside of Barbara's body.

"Getting closer," Harry said.

Harry leaned down and nibbled on the back of Barbara's neck. The tension of the redhead increased the further Harry buried his thick rod into her eager tightness. Harry worked his way deeper inside of Barbara, stretching her pussy out. The feeling of Barbara clenching and releasing him was better than anything Harry ever felt in his life. He could not wait to ride her out to a mutual conclusion.

Everything reached a fever pitch in due time. Harry pushed further into Barbara's waiting pussy, and her walls tightened around him. Harry pushed deep into Barbara's warm depths and spread her thighs out. His balls tensed up and released their essence into Barbara.

The feeling of Harry's cum coating her walls made Barbara tense up around Harry and clench down on him. She milked Harry's orgasm into her body. Harry rapid fire pumped his seed into Barbara. She only just barely slowed down the pussy eating.

Barbara rolled off of Kara as Harry pulled out. Kara, on the other hand, pounced on Barbara like a hungry lioness. Her pussy waited for Kara to tackle. Kara slowly caressed the inside of Barbara's lips and came down with a hungry kiss on the nether lips. Barbara lifted her legs off of the bed to meet Kara's tender affections and very passionate lips.

No sooner did Harry pull back, Kara already finished sucking Harry's cum. Kara hovered in the air in front of Harry and gripped his hips with her thighs. Teasingly, Kara pulled Harry off of the bed. Harry leaned in and grabbed Kara's lower back.

"Finally," Kara said with a smile of anticipation.

Barbara recovered on the bed, but should she look up, Barbara would be getting quite the little show. Kara positioned herself down onto Harry's throbbing cock and filled up her pussy. Harry grabbed Kara and positioned her, working her love box down onto Harry's mighty organ.

"I would agree," Harry grunted.

Kara agreed with his agreement. She pumped down and road Harry, with nothing other than her Kryptonian abilities holding them both up. Thankfully, Harry had the ability to levitate himself as well, even though the watch negated some of his abilities. So, it wasn't one hundred percent Kara doing all of the work, and she thanked her lucky stars for that one, every moment.

And every moment, Kara pushed her loins down onto Harry. The firmness of that wet pussy pumped down onto Harry. Those nipples stuck out with Harry squeezing them. Kara rolled her hips back and moaned in response to the pleasure. Harry lightly pushed them.

"I like when you do that!"

"Oh, you mean, this?"

Harry pushed his fingers down onto Kara's nipples and pulled them. Kara rocked her head back and screamed passionately. Her pussy rammed down onto Harry, pushing up and down. Kara rose up so high that her hair scraped against the top of the Clocktower roof. Then she pushed down onto Harry, stretching herself out on his rod.

Harry leaned up, to worship Kara's body as it should be worshiped. His hands ended up on Kara's tight ass and squeezed it in response. Kara closed her hips down onto Harry and pumped him.

"Get ready to cum harder than ever before."

The iron grip around Harry's pole increased. Kara wiggled her way down it and made sure to canvas every inch of it with her pussy. The feeling was amazing on both sides. Harry's hand did not remain idle for more than a split second as well.

Kara rode out the orgasm on Harry's cock and worked her way to another. Harry pushed Kara further down, to the brink of pleasure. She leaned back, and Harry took control of her breasts, sucking on Kara's very erect nipples. Kara dug her nails into Harry's chest.

"YES!"

The screams came even further. Harry grabbed onto Kara and pushed her warm loins around his throbbing hard cock. Kara stretched around Harry's cock and slid all the way down onto him. Each pump felt like pure magic when Kara's glorious heat stretched around Harry. Harry lifted his hips up to meet Kara. Kara came down onto Harry, pumping up against him.

Stroke for stroke, the two of them met together with each other. Kara planted down firmly onto Harry's rock-hard rod, filling him up with her pussy. Those balls grew even heavier and slapped against Kara's ass when rising up into the air. She positioned herself just right.

The two of them pressed together in air. Kara manipulated Harry's rod with her insides and stretched herself around him. Kara's light pumping of Harry's massive tool made things feel really good. Harry could barely hold back for too long.

Harry spent as much time as possible indulging himself on Kara. The two hovered over Barbara's watching if tired eyes. Kara pumped down onto Harry's hard rod, and Harry returned fire by slamming deep inside of the tight sheath of the flying girl above him.

"Cumming," Kara mewled.

"Almost there," Harry agreed.

Harry saw stars when the feeling of tension rose between his loins. His balls ached and then began to fire deep inside of Kara's waiting walls. Kara pumped Harry in response.

Both parties merged together in the age-old passion of lust and sex with Harry filling up Kara's loins. He pushed her down onto the bed, and finished with Kara on her back, with Harry slamming his rod into her, and spurting load after load of cum inside of her.

Kara arched back, a very content smile passing over her face. The pleasure, she figured, was more than worth it. Kara rocked back on the bed, feeling more amazing than ever before.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on May 24** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Hill gets saved. And he has some thinking to do. There might be hope for him yet._

_Howard Branden on the other hand, little hope for that guy. He's a real piece of work to put it mildly._

_Hey, we have some Harry, Kara, and Barbara fun to close this chapter. That's something that hasn't happened in a while._

_Until Friday._


	294. The Demon's Accord

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Four: The Demon's Accord**

* * *

Very few warriors dared go through the purge ritual. The intention of the ritual was to drag all of the negative energy off of the person involved. A very evident backfire came hand and in with the purge. If the person did not concentrate up to exact specifications, the negative energies which come on the inside and crush the person's soul beyond all repair, hence why the reason why many did not enact upon the purge ritual for very long.

Ra's al Ghul drew in a deep breath and the red mist surrounding in the air put him in a state of tranquility. The ageless warrior entered the purge about four or five times previously throughout his very long life. He enacted methods to stretch the capabilities of the Lazarus Pit beyond several times their own capabilities. Each of these trips through the Pit left a little bit of Ra's behind.

The more Ra's left between death and each trip into the pit, the more he felt life stripped away from him. The deep breath followed when Ra's felt more of the negativity spilling from his body. Ra's tightened his fingers around the dagger. The energy would be contained within this dagger, and would be used to kill enemies to satisfied Ra's bloodlust. These victims were not what would be considered salt of the Earth by any means.

The last death took a lot out of Ra's al Ghul. It took many months before he had been pulled out of the afterlife. He returned the living, if one could call what he returned to as living, as a feral, deranged shell of his former self. Only with constant usage of the purge ritual, could Ra's return back to life. His children waited to see what would happen. Ra's watched them closely, understanding they may have had their own agenda for seeing him healthy.

Ra's found himself not so ignorant about which blood flowed through the veins of those particular heirs. They had their own agendas, and Ra's knew better than to get caught up in the middle of them. He awaited the person who would have been useful to be a heir.

The battle with the Detective cut out Ra's plans. For a second, Ra's feared he might have died before the preparations have been made. Thus, the League would splinter and wither, destroying itself in war. Other factions like the Hand, the Foot, and HIVE would take advantage of the power vacuum.

One gentlemen pulled himself on his knees in front of Ra's. The drugs in his system finally woke him up at the exact moment. The moonlight shining through the opening on the ceiling put Ra's eyes on the man. The man crawled backwards, shaking in intitmidation.

"Please, have mercy," He whispered.

"Like the mercy you had on all you have slain?"

The dagger was primed to draw blood. Ra's plunged the dagger into the throat of the gentleman in question with the most ruthless efficiency possible. Blood splattered on the ground and stained the stones on the floor. Ra's pulled away with a smile and took the blood on the tip of the dagger.

Ra's traced a pattern on the floor, an ancient runic symbol which translated to mean rebirth. He leaned in and touched a single finger onto the ground. The blood soaked into the tip of Ra's finger, and caused the man in question to shake. The energy expelled into the blood soaked rune on the ground.

The leader of the League of Assassins closed his eyes tight and took a deep breath in and another deep breath out. The latest slain body freshly stained the ground around him, and he managed to tilt back a few inches. His neck rolling and the breath coming out of his body, before he let out a very ragged, and very frustrated breath.

' _This should hold me together, for now,'_ Ra's thought to himself.

Ra's did not know how long it would keep him together. Nothing latest forever, and he still had been ran ragged after his last battle of Gotham City. Everything would not have been completely on balance until he settled all business in Gotham City, and more importantly with the Detective.

He felt closer to the man he once was, but still far enough away to make Ra's feel a little bit off. There was a whole lot to be done before Ra's could have returned to normal.

A figure lingered on the outside of the room, and Ra's stood up, stepping over the slain bodies. He reached over and opened the door, allowing Talia to step inside.

"The purge is completed?" Talia asked him.

"For another few weeks, until the ritual will have to be accomplished one more time," Ra's said. "Give me your report, my daughter."

"The League's plans are getting back on track, as they should have been," Talia said. "HIVE remains a problem, as does the Foot. And there are maneuverings in New York….."

"Regarding the Foot and the Hand, yes I'm aware," Ra's said. "And given the Hand and HIVE had worked together in the past, they should be monitored closely. While the Foot is a problem, those two organizations working together in any significant way is also an issue. And naturally….."

Ra's drew in one ragged breath.

"And there is one cockroach who must be exterminated above all else. Damien Darhk eluded retribution from the League for too long."

The leader of the League recalled through great amounts of frustration how he showed way too much mercy on Damien Darhk in the past. That would not be something which would be repeated, not if the Demon could help it anyway.

"Speaking of cockroaches, what of Dusan?"

Ra's turned towards Talia and looked his youngest child dead on in the eyes. A few seconds passed between the two of them with Ra's drawing in one of the most prominent breaths he ever managed to take throughout his entire right.

"I will keep him close for the meantime."

The deal Dusan made with Charles Robert Blackfire, and the chaos that could have brought onto Gotham City, well Ra's would be lying if he said he was that pleased with it. On the contrary, he intended to bring order, and not further chaos. Gotham would be purged of all of the more corrupting influences, and it would be done on Ra's own terms, and nothing else.

"So far, Dusan proves to be useful, and as long as he's useful," Ra's said. "Speaking of children, where is Nyssa?"

"Nyssa has returned to Nanda Parbat to take care of a few matters of the League business," Talia said.

"Of course, she would have to, and I understand why she would," Ra's said. "I do hope when it is all done, Nyssa does not forget the objectives which have been set out before the League."

Talia nodded, and kept a very close eye. Slowly, her father improved in both health and coherency, but he was still a very long way from the man who he used to be. It would be a very long time before Ra's al Ghul recovered, if he ever did.

The latest trip to the Lazarus Pit took a fair amount out of Ra's, so much it caused Talia to be chilled when looking her father directly in the eye. It was a very hallowing experience to look at this man these days.

' _He's not what he once was,'_ Talia thought to herself. _'He's changed, a significant amount.'_

Talia wondered how significant those changes would become. Overtime, she would guess, those changes would become very significant. She looked at her father, a changed man, and in some cases, a very broken man. Another chill spread over Talia's body when turning away from him.

* * *

William Temple Fugate walked down the hallway of the Arkham Wing of Blackgate Prison. The man looked calm for someone who was going to spend the rest of his life in this facility.

"You're taking this well, Fugate," one of the guards said.

"I'm merely biding my time," Fugate said. "I know, eventually, my time will come and with it, Hill's reckoning."

"Oh you think that you've got a chance."

"It's only a matter of timing," Fugate said.

"Yeah, fat chance, the security on this place is foolproof, there's no way a scrawny wimp like you is getting out of here," another one of the guards responded.

He had been taken deep into the Arkham Ward. Fugate found himself in a cell, where another one of the newest inmates had been located directly across from him. Edward Nashton, Enigma, or the Riddler as he was now being called in some circles, looked across and acknowledged Fugate's presence with a very light and very crisp smile.

"You know, I'm not insane," Fugate said. "Insanity is often mistaken for extreme mental focus, and I have not lost my mind, or my grip on reality."

"Yeah, yeah, tell it to the judge."

The guard escorted Fugate into the cell and locked the door behind him. Fugate just calmly folded his hands on his lap, and was willing to wait it out.

"What is it we want to stop, but no matter our best efforts, it always slips from our grasp?"

Fugate just offered a smile across the way.

"Time."

Eddie raised one finger and started to take it up against the wall. Fugate responded with a nod, and Enigma just fired back with a smug smile.

"Oh, why don't the two of you get a room already?"

* * *

Paige dressed in a long coat, which had a hood up covering her head, as she made the always treacherous trek up to Nanda Parbat. The enchanting dark haired woman stepped up into the picture, and made her way past the guards. They parted ways.

Some of the members of the League looked nervous. Paige had a reputation of being a bit around the bend, and mentally unstable, especially when things failed to go her way, or even when things did. Still, she was a very skilled fighter, and that made her all that much more dangerous.

She currently acted as the go-between, bringing news back from Talia, while Nyssa trained her protégé/lover up in Nanda Parbat. Sara rushed towards Nyssa and tried to disarm her with the blade. Nyssa went on underneath the attack, and tried to sweep Sara's leg out from underneath her.

Sara flipped up to her feet to avoid the attack. The two of them came face to face with each other. Their blades connected with each other, and they looked eye to eye with each other. Neither woman backed off from the attack.

"Improvement is always a good thing," Nyssa said.

"I had a good teacher."

Nyssa flipped Sara onto her back with a swift attack. Sara bounced up instantly and the two fighters went sword for sword, shot for shot with each other. Neither of them backed off from the other and both was pushing back and forth against each other. Sara came down onto the back of the head of Nyssa with a huge punch and rocked the Daughter of the Demon.

Sara rolled over, and avoided Nyssa's latest attack. The sword came very close to impaling directly into the side of Sara's neck. Nyssa pulled back, as if showing Sara she could have taken her down, if she really wanted to hurt her. Sara answered with another attack and grabbed Nyssa's wrist. The two of them flipped down onto the ground.

Suddenly, Nyssa looked over her shoulder, and saw Paige standing in the archway, watching them. She held up a hand to signal for Sara to stop. Despite this signal for Sara to stop, Sara remained on her guard, something which Nyssa ingrained into her pupil over time. It was not wise to let up, even when an enemy appeared to have let up on you.

"Don't stop on my account," Paige lightly commented.

"No, that's sufficient for today," Nyssa said. "We'll pick up on this on another day."

Sara just smiled, and walked over. She kissed Nyssa, and knew it was her cue to leave, given Paige was here, and there was likely League business to be had.

No sooner did Nyssa leave the room, Paige launched into her report. "The League is further consolidating their base in Gotham City, and they're preparing to choose the next Leader."

"If it was up to me, the League would have already chosen, and my father would have…..he would be at rest," Nyssa said, choosing her words carefully. "And the Detective, while competent, is not as cut out for the job, as much as the Dragon is."

Paige responded with a very knowing smile and she leaned closer towards Nyssa. "Is this your biases speaking, or facts of the matter?"

"I've observed them both, although, yes, you know I've observed Harry a bit more closely then I have Batman," Nyssa said. "Once he's healed all of his perfections, his ascension will be quite glorious."

"If you don't mind me for saying, I don't think the current Ra's al Ghul is willing to give up his throne just yet, not without some unfinished business," Paige said.

Nyssa responded with a very obvious sigh. That was a lot that went without saying. Her father clung onto life like a security blanket, and would not be letting go, not if he could help it anyway. Dusan bringing him back might have been a mistake they would regret.

"How is my father doing?"

"He's of clearer mind than he has been before," Paige said.

"Excellent," Nyssa said. "I may return to check on him soon."

Nyssa could barely hide the worries she had though. Her father had been at peace, even though Ra's would never admit it. Dragging him back from being dead for so long, might have had some unforeseen consequences that not even Ra's al Ghul realized just yet.

* * *

Diana's smile deepened. It was very hard not to have an infectious attitude when looking at Doctor Helena Sandsmark and how excited she was at the newest exhibits being brought in. There were already the fresh set of exhibits out for the Summer season here at the museum, but the autumn would bring some new discoveries, and they could hardly wait to see what they would bring.

Also, Cassie sat in the back of the museum, playing with her Red Sun. This was the last day before Cassie went off to camp for three weeks, and the girl bustled in excitement.

"I'm sure you'll have a great time, Cassie," Helena said.

"Mom, I understand you're nervous, but..."

Helena held out a hand to pat her daughter on the head and give some reassurance.

"It's nothing, dear," Helena said, putting down the box she was holding to look at her daughter. "It's just the first time my daughter is heading off to camp on her own. Normally, during the summer, the two of us take a trip together, and…well you have your own thing now."

"Mom, I'm sure we can spend some time together when we get back," Cassie said.

Helena smiled and nodded. It was an unfortunate reality of a mother when their child was growing up, and Cassie was growing up a fair amount to be perfectly honest. She moved across from the museum, and saw a couple of the exhibits.

"You're worried, aren't you?" Diana asked.

"No more than I usually do as a mother," Helena said. "The people running the camp are good at being attentive, and Cassie could use the fresh air, and the exercise, and the group activities. She might make some new friends at camp as well."

Cassie struggled making new friends, outside of the girls at the Penthouse, some of them who skewed much older than her. Helena smiled in amusement at how much Cassie talked about how great Donna was, and Lyta as well.

"I've found something you might find very interesting."

"Shayera!" Diana called in excitement. "Long time, no see."

The redhead woman stepped into the room, dressed in a pair of tight leather pants, and a white tank top as well, along with a jacket. Shayera resembled someone who had just returned from an expedition, or something, and one look at her showed, that she did just return from an expedition, or something.

"I've got something that you're not going to believe."

Shayera pulled it out of the box, and Helena and Diana looked at it. Diana recognized it immediately, eyes widened and mouth agape, at the very sight of the Red, White, and Blue shield in front of her. It had been a long time since Diana saw it straight up.

"Is that….it looks like….." Helena murmured. She looked gobsmacked, and the shield had been right underneath her eyes.

"That looks like the same shield that Captain America used back in World War Two," Diana said.

"It is the same shield," Shayera said. "We found it on a trip to the Arctic. It's weird the things you find. No one found Captain America's body for years. Hell, there's been some people arguing whether or not Captain America is a male or a female, or if there was just one Captain America, or what happened to….."

Shayera took a deep breath and cleared her throat. It had been a subject she had been passionate about. And it had been also a subject which she had been very frustrated about to be honest.

"There's a problem," Shayera said. "Government agents pretty much shoed my team out of the area, and took control. The shield was the only thing we are going to grab, and I'm pretty sure the government is going to come knocking for it, if they find out I took it."

Helena's frown deepened. "A discovery this amazing should not have been buried by the United States government."

"No, it shouldn't" Diana said.

Diana touched the shield and memories of a time long ago, before she met Harry even, flashed over her.

"And Captain America, at least the one I fought beside, was female," Diana said, pulling her hand away from the shield. "Although, the records had been manipulated to show she was a male because it was a very prominent time. And HYDRA didn't disagree, because that would mean they were shut down by a woman."

"Yes, it was a much different time," Shayera said. "The people like HYDRA are the number one argument for feminists."

"Yes, unfortunately," Diana said with a sigh.

* * *

"Where are we going again?"

Ella followed Rebecca, who had told her the two of them were going for a walk. They made their way down the steps, and to another area of the penthouse. They entered a gym of some sort, with mats and sparring dummies, and punching bags all over the room. There were also pieces of workout equipment on the side. Ella's eyes moved to the central part of the room, some prominent black mats which could have been used for sparring.

"You have some aggression to work out, "Rebecca said. "We don't want you doing anything stupid."

"Why do people keep assuming I'm going to do something stupid?" Ella asked.

Helena Bertinelli looked very annoyed, and very good reason. She did have some common sense. Sure, it was frustrating her out how father's killers got away, but that was something she expected due to how inept the police were in Gotham City. Well, they were either inept, or corrupt, or had been handcuffed by the corrupt. The criminals ran this city.

"Take off your necklace," Rebecca said. "You don't want to get it broken."

Given it was the only thing of her mother's Ella had left, she didn't want to get it broken. There was a dresser on the edge of the room, where they could put things like watches and jewelry, and cell phones when they fought. Ella stepped into the center of the room.

"Your father taught you how to fight, didn't he?" Rebecca asked.

"Yes," Ella agreed. "I am the daughter of one of the most prominent mob bosses in Gotham City."

Ella stepped inside and went for a punch. Rebecca blocked the attack with a swift amount of skill, and grabbed Ella's arm, flipping her down onto the ground. Ella hit the ground with a grimace, and Rebecca stood on top of her, hyper-extending the elbow backwards.

"Not bad."

"Actually, that was crap."

Ella was going to fight back, no matter how long it took. Another flowing uppercut punch came close to nailing Rebecca in the side of the face. The punch had been blocked and Ella pushed back down to the ground. She slid down a few feet.

The two young fighters made their way to each other. Ella got frustrated and nailed Rebecca hard in the mouth. The mob princess pulled back when realizing Rebecca's lip had been split and blood trickled down from the lip.

"Oh, are you….."

Suddenly, Rebecca swept Ella's legs from underneath her and had the girl pressed down onto the ground. Ella squirmed out of the tight half-nelson choke that Rebecca had locked on. It would have been very easy for Ella to squeeze all the air out of Rebecca's neck in a minute.

"I'm fine," Rebecca murmured in Ella's ear. "Don't you let me catch you letting up again. Is that understood?"

Ella responded with a nod, shivering at Rebecca's commanding tone.

Rebecca thought she was a lot nicer about this than Lois would. Lois would have given Ella all kinds of hell for not going in for the kill when she had the chance. The two girls circled each other, and sparred with each other, trading punches and other attacks.

Off to the side, Amanda and Emily watched, waiting for the proper moment to strike.

' _It's a real miracle Ella didn't find out how the man who killed her father also couldn't be held due to lack of evidence,'_ Emily thought. _'And you know, who he is exactly.'_

' _We don't need a repeat of the Rebecca incident,'_ Amanda thought. _'Okay, I'm going to make my move, wish me luck.'_

' _Break a leg,'_ Emily fired back dryly.

Amanda stepped onto the edge of the dresser, and tapped on the necklace. Two identical necklaces, down to the most minor detail, laid on the dresser. Amanda picked up the necklace and shoved it into her pocket without much more effort.

' _It's a key to something,'_ Amanda thought. _'Exactly what, well that's an interesting question, isn't it?'_

The two twins moved out while the sparring session between Ella and Rebecca continued. They had what they came for.

* * *

Ra's returned to his throne and took in a very deep breath. He still was not feeling right, but something was about to happen which would bring brightened spirits to his day. The door opened up and, Ubu dragged a man into the room. The man's legs dragged behind him when Ubu hurled him in. The man seemed to be resigned to his fate, and yet, at the same time, he was not going to make it easy to be dragged inside.

The leader of the League of Assassins looked down at the poor sack of human garbage on the floor. He rose up.

"To your feet," Ra's said. "One of HIVE's little drones has moved away, and I think they have lost their way home."

The man's contempt at Ra's was obvious. Ubu pulled the man up to his feet and forced him to look him.

"When the master speaks to you, you are to look him straight in the eye with respect, dog," Ubu growled in his ear.

"Thank you, Ubu," Ra's said. "Now tell me, what is your master planning this time?"

The man's jaw clenched and refused to speak.

"I can give you release from your pitiful existence, you no longer need to be a slave to Damien Darhk," Ra's said. "Death can either be quick or painless, or drawn out and in agony. It depends on what you wish to do with me."

"Darhk…he's after an item which he thinks can bring down the League once and for all," the drone responded with a deep breath. "Darhk and his associate, they've sent a mercenary to Lian Yu…you've heard of it?"

"Yes, I have. Continue, please."

Men have been sent there, and it was a death sentence. There were mystical elements governing the island beyond the wildest imaginings of man.

"It's….."

The gentlemen collapsed to the ground like a puppet having his strings cut. Ra's looked at the gentleman and frowned. It was a true pity he had been taken down.

"It doesn't matter," Ra's said. "But what does matter, is whatever Darhk is after, it can't be allowed to fall into his hands."

Dusan listened to every moment of this conversation from outside of the door. The wheels turned into the head of the White Ghost, and a calculating smile came with it.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 27** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_People are making moves. Espeically in the League of Assassins where there's some pretty big moves being made._

_More on Saturday._


	295. Heading West Part One

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Five: Heading West Part One**

* * *

The private jet from the RAO Corporation moved out from Gotham City, out West. Karen, Faora, and Harry settled into the back of the jet, with the three of them relaxing with smiles on their face. It was time for them to head out West for some big business dealings.

Harry bounced to the East Coast, stayed in Gotham City for long enough to deal with the Clock King, along with a couple other things, and was out West to see what adventures would be out there. Harry remembered last year's trip out west, which lead to Carol receiving the Green Lantern ring, and also the incident of AIM's attack at Disneyworld. Harry wondered what today would bring.

' _Well, maybe there's a chance your trip will go smoothly when you're out there,'_ Alex said. _'Yeah, I know, wishful thinking. I could go for a little action. Things are about as dull as dishwater out here.'_

' _Be careful what you wish for, Alex,'_ Harry warned her. _'Nothing on the TCRI front?'_

' _No, and there's been no one else from the EPF,'_ Alex thought. _'I was good enough to get caught, thankfully. But, Bishop's still lurking around.'_

Harry recalled what he saw in the EPF base which was most certainly moved the second Harry, the Turtles, and Tribble cleared the area. Exactly how they moved a big government base, that raised some many questions. The tubes of these Utroms were also very curious.

"I'm looking forward to getting this done," Karen said to Faora. "This is going to change the entire world. Which is something we throw around a lot lately."

Faora just responded with a smile and leaned in, to grab Karen's hand and got her attention. "That's because we have been changing the world, one day at a time. That's what we're doing."

"We are," Karen said. "One of the hottest new Internet companies in the world, and it could expand our network. And let's not forget what Harry is doing. Sealing the deal with Mercury Labs, and maybe sealing the deal with Doctor McGee."

Harry saw Karen look him directly in the eye. He reached around and pulled her into a brief, half-hug, embrace. A smile passed Harry's face when looking Karen directly into her brilliant blue eyes. Karen shivered when Harry pulled her a bit closer. That smile on Harry's face would cause the panties of most women who would have caught sight of Harry's eyes just like that.

"Maybe, I will," Harry said. "Remember, business first though."

"Yes, business first," Karen agreed, moving a little bit closer towards Harry. Her amazing breasts pressed up against Harry a few seconds later. Harry just pushed her closer together. "And there's going to be a lot of business going on, but we can always check up on some old friends, and maybe make some new ones."

Harry leaned closer towards Karen and gave her a light kiss on the lips. Their lips parted away and left a small trail of saliva between their lips. "I plan on it."

Both of them smiled and leaned back on the plane. They would have to be perfectly honest, there were some good deals which were going to be made, and those deals were going to help move forward their business for some time to come. Harry could not wait, to be honest.

"So, how are things going on the Portal Pack?" Karen asked.

"Slow, but steady," Faora said. "Like we said, the initial estimates of having that particular item up and running within the next six to eight months isn't that far off of the mark. We'll get Tribble back home as soon as possible."

Faora thought the Princess was perfectly fine with chilling at the Penthouse, it was a change of scenery. Plus, regular visits from Harry would keep her occupied. Harry normally popped over New York, although sometimes not in a public capacity, to check up on things.

"Azalea and Eliza are both doing well," Faora commented. "The Amazons are taking good care of them."

"Azalea's magic is still a little bit chaotic," Harry added.

' _Yeah, that happens with newborn babies a lot, when they have magic,'_ Lily thought. _'Normally when they're just hungry, or they need to get changed, or if they're just cranky in general. It dies down after the first few months, although, we are in uncharted territory here.'_

' _You were able to deal with me,'_ Harry thought.

' _You were actually well-behaved compared to most,'_ Lily admitted. _'As Rose will tell you, Amanda and Emily, they were about along the lines of what normal powerful magical babies. They were a different challenge being twins because if one of them got upset, the other got upset as well.'_

Harry smiled, he was not surprised how his twin sisters could have been a handful when they were children. Regardless, the plane headed out, and they were going to make a brief trip to Smallville, where Kara already waited for them. Then, there was going to be a trip further out west to conduct some very important business.

* * *

Slade Wilson's nose scrunched up underneath the outfit. The mercenary stepped side by side with Shado, Wade, and Oliver Queen. He thought the plan would not work, due to the fact that Queen was a rank amateur, and Wade was Wade. The only person he might almost expect to pull out a bit of deception was Shado, and even then, Slade had some very obvious misgivings as to why.

"Are you sure this plan is going to work?" Slade asked.

"Do you have to be a downer all the time?" Wade asked a moment or so later. "Of course, it's going to work. We're going to get off of this island, hold hands, start singing Kumbaya, and everything is going to be great. It's going to be better than great, in fact."

"This is the most stupid idea ever," Slade said.

"No one's forcing you to stay," Wade told Slade.

Oliver and Shado watched the two go back and forth, it was like a tennis match, only instead of Tennis Balls, the two of them were playing with Bazookas. Both of the other parties worried what would happen if they had been caught in the middle. It was a very obvious back and forth.

They reached their destination or at least got close enough.

"I should have knocked some sense into you a long time ago," Slade murmured.

"Yeah, well guess what, old man, it wouldn't have done any good," Wade said. "And let's face it, half of the issues are because you left me stranded out in the middle of nowhere when we were on a very important mission."

"Yes, only because you didn't follow orders," Slade said.

"You got be captured by those Weapon X….."

Shado cleared her throat, and both Wilsons shut up in an instant. They made their way through a clearing, where a group of mercenaries was deep in conversation with each other. A couple of them were licking their wounds.

"Fyers wants us to keep an eye over here because he thinks one of them is going to try and make a break for the ship," one of the mercenaries responded, grunting and holding his shoulder.

"Will they make a break for the ship?" one of the mercenaries asked.

"How should I know?" another mercenary responded. "Just keep your eyes peeled, and ready. We're going to have to keep an eye on these people when they come through anyway."

Slade stepped out of the shadows, followed by Wade, Oliver, and Shado. All four of them had been disguised, so there should have been no problems. One of the lead mercenaries stepped forward.

"I can't let you pass without seeing some identification."

All of the parties stood rigid, understanding this to be a potential problem. The guards leaned in, the guns at the ready, pointed at all of them. One of the lead mercenaries looked rather foul in his looks and leaned closer towards them, the business end of his gun pointed.

"Identification."

"I must have left it in my other suit."

It took every fiber of self-control in Deathstroke's body to not to reach out and stab Wade right about now. Several deep breaths followed when Deathstroke calmed himself down, at least as much as possible.

"Who are you?" one of the lead mercenaries asked.

"Hugh...Hugh….Mungus!"

Deadpool whipped out a pair of swords and sliced them into the shoulders of one of the mercenaries. Another one of the goons in question turned around and whipped out a gun, pointing it directly at Deadpool. Deadpool disarmed the gun from him.

Slade plunged a blade into the back of an enemy to drop him. The blood-stained blade slid out from the shoulders of the attacker, and Slade pushed the blade deep the chest.

Shado plunged an arrow into the knee of one of her attackers. She caught him with a vicious kick to the face, and took him down to the ground, with a curb stomp to the back of the head.

Even Oliver contributed to the battle, by picking up a rock and nailing one of them in the chest with an attack. Oliver fought one of the attackers, nailing him with a series of punches to the back of the head.

Explosions followed, as the four pursuers could see the men guarding the ship, and thus their only ticket off o the island had called for backup, which resulted in some pretty bad news for them all.

* * *

A beautiful spring day, going into summer, occurred in Smallville. Claire Kent took a deep breath. She could not believe this much time had passed. This autumn would have been her ten year anniversary since arriving on Earth, and thus the ten year anniversary of the meteor shower which shaped a small town, known as Smallville. She looked over her shoulder, noticing Lana and Lori stepping behind her a few seconds.

"It's a beautiful day," Lori said. She leaned against the edge of the fence and smiled. "Beautiful, peaceful, and tranquil."

"Yeah, well the weatherman says there's rain coming in tonight."

Marie stepped out of the bar. She was enjoying the summer vacation, which would lead into her junior year of high school. To be honest, Marie could not believe how far she had begun.

"Yeah, when have you ever known the weatherman to be right?" Lana popped in.

The older girl answered with a shrug. She moved over to sit on the front steps of the Kent Farmhouse, with a glass of juice that Martha made in her hand. The other girls moved over to a table underneath a tree, and just looked over.

Claire listened to all of the sounds and just took in the beautiful smells of a country air. Everything was really great, to be honest. She just enjoyed some time away from school. Things in Smallville had always been so quiet, so peaceful. The farm hands on the farm were working away, underneath the supervision of her father.

"Your mother really knows how to take care of us," Lori said, taking a bite out of one of the sandwiches. "Maybe, we can go down to the pool sometime, and go swimming?"

"Yeah, and watch you swim circles around us again," Lana said.

Lori just smiled and shook her head.

"You're pretty good too," Lori said.

Lana just shrugged in response. "I'm not as good as Claire, and not as good as you either. The two of you, you swim circles around me. And….we might not want to go to the pool too late. There's just a lot of weird things happening at that place…depending on you believe."

"We could ask Marie to tag along," Claire offered. "No one would mess with us if Marie was around."

"Maybe," Lana said.

The girl was intimidating enough to beat up anyone who tried, and that just put a brief smile on Lana's face. She leaned back, and Kara and Martha were walking around, having a conversation.

"Thirteen or fourteen, which is coming around the corner," Kara said. "It's either going to be X-Ray vision, or heat vision….or her super senses are going to kick in, in a big way."

"You think those are the first powers that are going to come in?" Martha asked.

"I've had the conversation with Lara, and she seems to think these are the first powers which are going to kick in, at least in a big way," Kara said a moment or so later. She just smiled and looked at Martha. "You're going to keep me up to date on anything. These next few years are going to be rather tricky."

"And I thought puberty was going to be the worse," Martha said. "How about the monthly thing…"

"What monthly thing?" Kara asked. "Oh…that thing…..um, that might be worse for Claire adapting, so you're going to have to be very supportive…."

A car pulled up, and Claire bounced up, with a smile on her face.

"Harry!"

Sure enough, Harry and Karen stepped out of a sports car. Claire rushed over and engulfed her cousin in a hug. She was beginning to feel how firm his body felt pressed against hers and stepped back with a smile.

"How are you doing?" Claire asked.

"Pretty good," Harry said. "How about you and Lana? Are you keeping out of any trouble? Not going near any caves?"

"No, not lately," Claire said.

"Harry, hi," Lana said.

"How, are you doing, sir?" Lori asked, looking up at him, in awe.

"Lori, I told you, there's no need to be formal, just call me Harry," Harry said. "You were such a good friend to Lana and Claire, it would be an insult for you to call me anything else, and more importantly, to expect you to be so formal."

Lori responded with a nod, she understood instantly. A smile crossed her face.

"Marie, did you get your license yet?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, just last month," Marie said. "So, hopefully, you'll be careful out there on the road, now that I'm let loose."

Both laughed and Marie shook her head. She had a few rough starts on the road, but really, she was already all things considered.

"Seriously though, I've been running for the Kents, doing a few things," Marie said. "Jonathan used to go into town a lot, but his doctor wants to make sure he doesn't do it that often. So far, his heart's held up well, but they don't want added stress for it."

Martha smiled and moved over to greet Harry. Kara leaned in to steal a quick kiss from him, before pulling away.

"I'm glad you can make the trip," Martha said. "Especially given I know you all have a lot of things on your plate, at least recently."

"I can spare a few days for family," Harry said. "Trust me."

Martha trusted Harry alright.

"Faora will be by, the Kawatchee wanted a report on how Eliza and Azalea are doing," Harry said. "They'll be able to travel in a few months, barring any complications."

It was time to get settled in, for a couple day stay, before Harry, Karen, and Faora had to conduct business out west.

* * *

Business called for Patricia Swann. She had been ready for the annual renewal agreement for Harrison Wells, and the Central City branch of Star Labs. It would be a shame to pull support now, given Wells was in the midst of one of his great projects, and Patricia had been intrigued by what would happen if the project succeeded. It could change the world, and it could also doom it.

Science had a funny way of doing it. Patricia made the trip from Metropolis, from her base at Star Labs there, to out west, and she was very interested in seeing what Wells was working on.

"Jesse?"

An attractive brunette girl of about seventeen or so years old stepped into the room. She dressed in a very professional looking green blouse, a black suit jacket, a modest length skirt, and stockings, along with high heel boots. She was Jesse Wells, the daughter of Harrison Wells, and already one of the smartest people in any given room, at the young age of seventeen.

"Dad's busy, so I figured I'd stop by, to see how things are doing," Jesse said. "Patricia, it's been a long time since I've had a chance to talk to you. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," Patricia said. "How about you?"

"Well, I'm working on that third doctorate," Jesse responded, looking pretty pleased with herself when making this particular statement. "I've got a lot of catching up to do if I want to reach Harry Potter territory. He's figured out a way to get this all down, without sleeping."

"Hey, he sleeps sometimes," Patricia said.

Jesse just grinned. She would have to take Patricia's word for it. "I'm going to have to take your word for it. Still, I'd really like to meet him, he's fascinating, and….not too bad looking as well."

Patricia just smiled at Jesse, who snapped out of her daze quickly.

"And I want to meet him, for professional, scientific reasons," Jesse said. "I have some questions to ask him, about a paper he wrote, and I'm sure he can help me."

"Believe it or not, that happens a lot to women," Patricia said. "Are you sure, it's not just a pretext to something else? I mean, you think he's cute, don't you?"

"He's hotter than a supernova," Jesse said, and she smiled. "But, it's just that. Good looking guys are a dime a dozen, but he has brains behind the good looks, and that to me, is very attractive. I mean, there's a reason why he has so many women lining up the block. He works hard to get where he was, and you have to appreciate that. He's an inspiration, a really great inspiration."

Jesse took a deep breath and smiled.

"My father's been working hard on his project," Jesse said. "He's been distant…then again, he was always distant since the car accident….shaken up….he's been unwilling to get that close to anything. He's given me all of the support I need. He's been my biggest fan in my academic achievements. He's….well….he's supported me, but I just think he's put a lot of emotional distance between him and me."

Both of the women exchanged nervous smiles, and Patricia reached across the table to pat Jesse on the arm. The death of a loved one, they could never be the same. Harrison Wells was a different person than he was after that accident, many of his colleagues, including Tina McGee, said so. Her father even admitted that while Wells was as brilliant as ever before.

Jesse thought of her father, and also thought of these dreams. She spent more time, researching the theories of alternate lives and alternative dimensions. Jesse didn't know whether or not this had anything do with it, but she found the study fascinating. Almost as fascinating as following the academic exploits of Harry Potter.

* * *

In a bar, just outside of Bludhaven, three gentlemen kicked back, relaxed, and threw back some drinks. They were members of the Wolf Pack gang, Da Big Guy, Da Little Guy, and Da Bad Guy. They were chilling out and thinking.

"Yeah, Bebop and Rocksteady, seems like they got nailed, and they'll be away for a long time," Da Bad Guy said. "If you ask me, they were stupid enough to get caught, so I don't feel bad for them at all."

"Nah, they're not too bright, and they were working for Hun, and he's working….for the tin man," Da Big Guy said. "You wouldn't catch me dead wearing one of those Shredder suits, I tell you what."

"Yeah, you'd be some kind of Super Shredder or something," Da Bad Guy joked.

The bar doors opened, and three jolly gentlemen of color entered the room. One of them was thick shouldered, one of them was tall with dreadlocks, and the other was of the shorter size, and he carried a horn in his hand, which he blew on. They were dancing and having a good time.

"Hey, wasn't those the chumps that hung around Brother Beau?" Da Little Guy asked.

"Hey, we're here to bring the power of positivity, and light to you all," the leader of the crew responded.

"Hey, yo."

The three gentlemen turned towards Da Bad Guy who got up at the table.

"I know a place where you boys can go if you want to party. It's down there."

"Down where?"

"Down here!"

Da Bad Guy pointed towards his crotch, which caused the three gentlemen to step forward.

Everyone in the bar stopped when the doors opened. A gentleman with skin so tanned it might have been orange stepped into the bar. He wore over the top of his head, a black bandana, and sunglasses. He had a blonde mustache, and long bleach-blonde hair, along with a black beard which looked sprayed on. Two feather boas covered his broad shoulders, and the sleeves of the black shirt were ripped off, to reveal his twenty-four-inch arms. He stepped forward and surveyed the three gentlemen over the top of the sunglasses.

Da Big Kahuna looked at them.

"I'm afraid your type aren't welcomed here, Brother!"

"What? Is it because we're…..Brazilian?" the man with the trombone popped off.

"Nah, brother, you're too short," Da Big Kahuna said. "You must be at least six feet tall to enter this bar. So hit the road, Jack!"

"Nah, brother, you're too short. You must be at least six feet to enter this bar."

"Yeah, so you vanilla midgets better scram," Da Big Guy said.

The three gentlemen looked about ready to protest.

"Dixie!"

A black gentleman dressed in biker gear stepped forward, the bouncer of the bar moved forward. He cracked his knuckles and prepared to move forward to clean house.

"Good to see you back, man, "Da Little Guy said to Da Big Kahuna. "What about that deal with the tape?"

"All take care of, and I cracked the backs of the dudes who leaked it," Da Big Kahuna said. "Got to make sure my ex-wife doesn't get a cut of the settlement though. She's a real vulture, brother."

Sleazy E stepped into the ring, along with Xever of the Purple Dragons.

"Gentlemen, we have business to discuss," Xever said.

"Sounds good to me, brother," Da Big Kahuna responded.

The three gentlemen knocked Dixie to the ground and hurled him over the bar, causing glass to shatter when he fell down onto the ground. The members of the Wolf Pack retreated to the back corner of the bar.

* * *

"Oh, why can't I fly!" Claire yelled, balling her fists up in frustration. "I swear, I was able to do it once, for about fifteen seconds."

Eliza and Kara Danvers showed up to join the group in Smallville, to test Claire and her abilities, to see what she was capable of. Claire was frustrated no matter how fast she ran, no matter how high she jumped, Claire could not jump into the air and take flight. It was very obvious that Claire was frustrated.

"Sweetie, just take a deep breath, and we'll try again later," Eliza said. "I know you're upset you can't fly, but everyone works at their own pace. Your speed is a lot better."

"Yeah, you're a bit faster than me when I was that age," the younger Kara said. "Of course, by then I could….."

The older Kara gave her younger counterpart one of those looks and Kara silenced herself. She went on a flight, taking her second oldest sister, Alex along for a ride, just weeks after Kara arrived on Earth. That got her in so much trouble, Kara didn't really know what to think about it.

"We brought you something," Eliza said.

"Oh, thanks, but….."

Harry moved over to hand Claire a pair of glasses which Eliza and he had calibrated especially for Claire. Claire looked at the glasses, frowning when holding them between her fingers.

"Thanks, but my sight's fine," Claire said. "So, I don't know why I need a pair of glasses."

"It's for when your super senses come in," Harry said.

"Trust me," the younger Kara responded. "There's a lot of things you can hear with your super hearing, that you don't want to hear."

The girl shuddered at the awful memory.

Claire tried on the pair of glasses, and she didn't think they looked too bad. Hell, if she did not know she had the glasses on, she would not have known they were there.

"You look very dignified," Lana said. "I almost didn't recognize you in them."

Both girls laughed at that. Kara, Karen, and Harry all smiled, and they turned around, just in time to see Faora swing by. All three of them looked at her.

' _Visited the Kawatchee, and took care of a couple of other things. I'll tell you later. Right now, family visit time.'_

"We'll try another test tomorrow," Eliza said. "You should relax on the flight thing though. It will come to you naturally when you're ready."

Claire understood what Eliza was talking about, and still could not help, and be frustrated.

* * *

**To Be Continued on May 31** **st** **, 2017.**

* * *

**So many inside jokes going on in this chapter that almost no one reading it are going to get. Which makes them even funnier to me.**

**Hey, it's Jesse Wells, who exists on this Earth because of one of the Crisis events. Either The Mirror Box or Wanda's episode with the Scarecrow. Both of those are responsible for a lot of oddness. Or it's Barry's fault somehow.  
**

**I think super hearing would be the worst power to have. Granted, you can get all sorts of potentially incriminating information on people. But you are going to hear things that shouldn't be heard by most people.**

**More on Saturday.**


	296. Heading West Part Two

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Six: Heading West Part Two**

* * *

The side trip to Smallville had been a fairly relaxing one. Harry checked in with the girls, and Claire's tests had gone about as well as they could hope. She progressed a little bit slower than Kara, the younger one, did, but it was not enough to be concerned. She had much more time to adapt and get used to the Earth Way of life. Faora and Karen both agreed that it was encouraging how much she progressed.

Zinda touched the plane out on the private airport leading off to the side of Ferris Aircraft, and allow the trio of Faora, Karen, and Harry. They should have known that another Danvers, that being Carol, waited for them. Carol was not alone, as an attractive brunette, dressed in a white tank top and blue jeans which snugly fit her body was waiting for them as well. Harry recognized the woman.

Carol stepped back to allow the three of them to get off of the plane. She moved in and wrapped her arms around, pressing his muscular body against her curvy one. Carol leaned in and kissed, Harry. Her friend looked on with a knowing smile.

"You remember, Jessica, don't you?" Carol asked.

"Well, yes, I remember her, even though I don't think she had a good idea who she was meeting at the time," Harry said. He gave one of those knowing smiles when looking at Jessica who opened her mouth. "No need to apologize, Jessica, we all worried about what happened to Carol."

"Thank you for understanding, even though she won't shut up about it," Jessica said. She didn't seem too angry despite her words, in fact, she was half-smiling. "It's a pleasure to meet you properly when you're half distracted. And I'm glad Carol can make it home in one piece. Sounds like she had a pretty exciting time up in space. There's a part of me who wishes that I was there"

Harry could tell how those adventures could sound to an outsider.

"Carol's been doing meetings all morning, although she knows you're coming, and she hasn't forgotten," Carol said.

"The Board of Directors aren't giving her any problems, are they?" Harry asked.

"No, at least not any that Carol can handle," Carol said. "From what she told me, the last talk you three had with them, put them in place."

Jessica did not mean to listen in very closely. She wondered what they could have meant by talk. Did she want to know? Jessica pulled away and decided it might not be a good idea to have this particular discussion. Regardless, the group took the walk down the tunnel leading from the airport into the main Ferris Airspace headquarters.

No sooner did they arrive, Carol Ferris stood, dressed in her usual business attire. She had a smile to spare and moved over to great Harry with a professional handshake. Had Jessica not been visiting on business, she might have greeted Harry a little less professionally. She smiled and held onto his hand for a minute before lightly pulling away.

' _So, what's Jessica doing here anyway?'_ Karen asked. _'I think Carol mentioned something about government business or something.'_

' _She works with the same agency that Daisy does,'_ Harry thought.

' _I see,'_ Karen said. _'So, that means you're going to want to keep a close on her, to see what you have to work with.'_

Harry just smiled and turned his attention to the business at hand, well the other business at hand. He followed Carol Ferris who lead him past the doorways into her office area.

"Keeping busy, I see," Harry said.

"Well, if we don't keep busy, then we go insane," Carol said. "After my side trip a few weeks ago, I feel refreshed."

Harry nodded, getting the reference between the two of them. Carol lead them into the office.

"Ms. Drew, you can tell your supervisor the designs are more than feasible," Carol said. "I know your people want a new and improved Quinjet with stealth capabilities. I'm working on similar capabilities for another client of mine, but it is, unfortunately, slow going. The other features are a bit easier to implement."

Jessica nodded in confirmation, understanding. She was very curious about who else wanted designs for stealth capabilities, and she would have to make a note.

"I'm the client in question," Harry said. "It's a present for one of my wives. She always wanted an Invisible Jet."

Jessica smirked, confirmation that Harry knew what they knew about him, that he was married to multiple women. Daisy warned Jessica to keep on her toes but suggested that pretty soon, Harry might be calling the shots, so it was good to keep that in mind.

"Then, I have you to thank," Jessica said. "If it wasn't for your idea, then my agency wouldn't be anywhere close to accomplishing anything. So, thank you."

"Oh, you're quite welcome," Harry said.

"I can help take a look at the stealth feature, to see if I can help come up with anything," Karen said. "I've been looking into a few modifications to the aircraft, and I've got some ideas, for lighter weight and faster vehicles, if you would like to hear them."

"I'd like that," Carol said. "After we conduct business here, maybe we can talk about it in more detail. And Jessica, if you want to come with me to see what we have so far, I can do that now."

Jessica nodded. She wanted to get a better feel of Harry, but unfortunately, in this case, duty called, and Jessica had to do what she had to do to accomplish what she was sent here for.

* * *

Some people saw better days, and one of those men were Victor Fries. His clothes loosened on his body in places, and he lost weight. His face looked gaunt like he aged thirty years in a span of about three or four months. Every time, Fries tried to get rest, sharp pains filled his body. He tried to hide this from this wife. At first, Fries assumed it was a virus, and something he would have to gut out.

Fries dragged himself into the bathroom and tried to suppress a ragged cough. The cough being suppressed was to no avail. His body rocked from the agony. Fries put a hand up to his forehead, and no sweat dripped off of it, despite his body entering a shuddering state, feeling very ragged. Not good at all.

Victor slumped a couple of inches and tried to ignore the sharp pains which doubled over. The last few months had many bad days. The only thing which kept him going was the fact there were some good days. There was a time about a month back, where whatever this illness was, Victor felt good for an entire weekend, and thought the worst was passed.

It returned worse than ever, and Victor's coughing grew more ragged when he slumped a couple of inches over. The toilet in front of him allowed Victor to stand up as straight as possible. His hands shook when trying to establish a firm grip on the toilet in front of him. The world spun around Victor Fries when his breathing grew increasingly ragged and very pained in response to the coughing fit he started to enter.

He threw up, with blood splattering against the edge of the white toilet. Fries watched as the blood he coughed up came on the toilet. Victor's hand shook when holding himself up.

The sound of the door opening up caused Victor to startle. He tried to hold himself up, but no matter how hard Victor tried to keep it together, it was borderline difficult to do so. He reached over to pull a towel off of the sink and wipe the blood off of the toilet, as it drained down.

"Victor?"

The sound of his wife's voice caused Victor to stand up. No matter how hard he tried, Victor could not deny the fact something was horrifically wrong. The evidence stuck out and slapped Victor in the face. Damning did not even begin to describe.

The door of the bathroom had been left half-open, and Nora stood in the bathroom. She looked at the blood soaked towel, and also the blood on the toilet.

"Victor, you should go and see a doctor," Nora said. "This is getting serious."

"I'll be fine, it will pass like it has before," Victor said. "If I get laid up in a hospital, I will not be able to finish my work. The lives of many are more important than my physical comfort, and my health."

Victor's hand shook against the wall a matter of minutes later. All of the thoughts entering Victor's mind pointed to the fact that no matter how much he fought against the fact, it was beyond difficult for Victor to stand up. He took in a deep breath when Nora gave him one of the looks that could only be practiced through years of marriage.

"Victor, I know you're dedicated to your work, and I appreciate that," Nora said. "Still, people will never get the chance to enjoy your work if you're too ill. And you're not getting any better, are you?"

"I was getting better for a while," Victor persisted.

Nora crossed her arms and looked Victor dead on in the eye. "You were for a while, and then over the past couple of weeks, you've been worse than ever before. You couldn't beat this disease, whatever it was. And now, it's becoming how you're in pain, constantly. You can't sleep, you can barely eat, you just can barely pull yourself to the lab to work, can't you?"

A long pause followed with Victor looking his wife dead on in the eye. His jaw set, and he was trying to not show any concern. The unfortunate realization hit Victor, about how right his wife was. He could not disregard the pain and the frustration any longer. The agony spreading through him was obvious, and very prominent.

"I'll call and set you up a doctor's appointment for as soon as possible," Nora said. "You need to get this taken care of as soon as possible. Your health is much more important than our work. Do you understand?"

Victor could see the look of concern on his wife's face and conceded with a nod. The nerve endings in his hand burned when gripping onto the wall, despite the necessity of it doing so. He looked through suddenly blurred vision and nodded.

"Set one up then," Victor said.

Nora finally smiled; she got her stubborn husband to see the light and to set up a doctor's appointment. It was very much long overdue, but at least, she was able to get it through his head that there was something wrong, and he needed help. It was baby steps at best, but Nora finally managed to convince him.

They could work from there.

* * *

Carol Danvers appreciated the few minutes she had alone with one Harry Potter. The lovely blonde woman took Harry off to have some lunch, and the two of them sat down. The waitress brought back their food. They would only be alone for a short amount of time, as Faora and Karen would be returning from business soon. Carol ate her sandwich and looked at Harry with a smile, which the young man returned.

"I've been out in space over the past couple of days," Carol said. "Thankfully, nothing pressing, nothing that kept me out in space for months at a time like last time. The Guardians are deploying me on soft missions, but I guess from what I've heard, things have been relatively quiet."

"That could just be a prelude to something," Harry said.

Carol just smiled. "Don't I know it. Silence is golden for some, but not for me. They've been cordial….it's been a bit off without Sinestra though. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I missed her. Despite her attitude, she did teach me a lot."

Harry just reached across the table and put a hand on Carol's, allowing their fingers to interlock with each other. He squeezed Carol's hand just enough to get the woman's attention.

"Sinestra took some getting used to," Harry said. "She took her job very seriously, but I think she cared about doing what was right. And while she didn't do it as much as public, behind the scenes, I would think she was fighting the Guardians as hard about some of the questionable things they did."

Funnily enough, Carol received that particular impression as well. Sinestra was not as obvious with her questioning of the Guardians and what they did, but there were still some arguments there. Anyone could see it if they were willing to look hard enough.

"So, the Guardians treating everything fine?" Harry asked. "How about the Aya situation?"

"Well, the Guardians are reluctant to do anything about her, after the nice little talk you had to them, about her," Carol answered a moment later. "She's another one who is being used on soft missions. The judge is still out about what they want to do about her, but they know if she gets decommissioned, word will reach for you, and I think the Guardians don't want to stir you up, or more importantly, stir your sister up."

"Yes, she's very intimidating," Harry said. "Speaking of sisters, Kara, and your mother, they visited Smallville when I was out there the other day."

"I'm glad Kara's doing well," Carol said. "Actually, both Kara, and Alex both, even though, I think that Alex tends to throw herself headlong into trouble whenever possible."

' _Hmmm, I wonder who I picked that up from,'_ Alex thought.

Whether or not Carol heard the statement, or not, they did not know, and Alex's words had gone pretty much unanswered. Carol leaned in closer, and looked Harry dead on in the eyes, in all seriousness.

"They still haven't found anything regarding her," Carol said. "Sinestra, I mean. Nothing that indicates she's dead, but nothing that indicates she's alive. There could have been numerous places in the universe, even though there are places where the Guardians are reluctant to let their Lanterns tread in."

Harry figured about as much. One look at Carol showed pretty much how serious this entire situation was. The two of them locked eyes with each other, and Harry grabbed Carol's hand squeezing it.

"We'll find her, somewhere," Harry said.

Carol smiled, as Harry let go of her hand so she could have full use of them to eat.

"Katma's doing an admirable job at picking up where Sinestra left off," Carol said. "And Kilowog's helping break in new recruits, although really that just means his work has doubled. Guy takes it stride though. And you got to admit, it takes someone who is of very stern stuff to go in there and pick a fight with an entire group of Red Lanterns. You have to respect him for that."

"I do," Harry responded.

"Space hasn't been as exciting as it was when I first showed up," Carol answered a moment later. "I think there's something that's bound to break, but I'm not sure what. It's just a feeling that I have."

"Listen to those feelings. They could be spot on."

Carol just smiled and figured Harry was pretty much right in his assessment of everything he said. He was very much correct about the sense of revolution coming on, in the vastness of space.

"Until then, I'm patrolling around Earth, and I'm also on call for the greater universe," Carol said. She leaned in to whisper at Harry. "Not much I can't handle right now, right now, but still, I'm ready for whatever they throw at me. Hopefully, I can accomplish something."

The doors opened up, and Faora and Karen made their way in. Harry caught one look at Karen's face, and the bright smile locked onto it.

"I'm guessing the meeting went successfully?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Karen said. "They sold for us. I'm not sure they grasped the potential this company has, but now that we have it, it can be grown."

"It's the beginning of a revolution," Faora said.

Harry smiled and invited the other two girls to sit down.

"Nothing on Sinestra, just like I told Harry earlier," Carol informed Faora. "She's bound to be out there."

"Oh, I'd know if she was dead," Faora said. "But, there's just a sense there's something different about her. Just…if you come across her, you should be careful. The way she acted before she disappeared, she's not going to be the same person again. Just keep on your toes, Carol."

Carol appreciated the concern and would have to concede something was wrong. She took another drink and leaned back, waiting to see where lunch today would take her.

* * *

A bright summer day in Gotham City and Amanda, Emily, and Donna found themselves at the Gotham City Mall, supervising the girls. Thankfully they were not completely alone, as Paula came along for the ride as well, thus making things a bit less chaotic for them to manage.

' _Something tells me that Harry sent her, just in case,'_ Amanda thought.

' _Well, to be fair, Paula can handle herself in a fight, if something happens here,'_ Donna thought. _'It's just, she's been trying to keep her head down and stay out of trouble.'_

The group of Lois, Rebecca, and Ella moved by, and the twins were keeping a special eye on those three girls, given some of the things they could get up to. It was only last year where Rebecca and Lois took the trip over to Metropolis and tried to gain some revenge on the person who killed Rebecca's parents, John and Mary Grayson, at the Circus. As for Ella, well she did have her issues to work out, mostly over her father being murdered, in a mob-style hit, just a little bit ago.

Artemis, Jessie, and Jade formed another group just a little bit further on, and Lyta also showed up. All seven of the girls sported brand new stylish watches.

' _They are really enjoying the new watches,'_ Amanda thought in the bond link.

' _It's the latest style,'_ Emily thought.

' _Hey, you know, all new watches have a tracking beacon implemented in them,'_ Amanda thought in response.

They had said the idea in jest, but give Harry and Karen credit, they actually implemented it. Rose said she wished those watches had been around when the twins were that age, and given the amount of trouble Amanda and Emily got into, they could hardly fault their aunt.

"You wear out a lot of bows," Jade said. "Didn't you just get a new one?"

"Yeah, about six months ago," Artemis responded, shrugging. "When you're as serious as I am, at your craft, you have to get the best equipment. Mia recommended this one be."

"You're determined to beat her, aren't you?" Lyta asked.

Lyta wondered if she should introduce Artemis to Artemis, and she could pick up a few pointers in the process. Boy, would that be a fun and confusing conversation to have with them.

"Harry told me he would give me the money to buy whatever bow I thought I needed," Artemis said. "And it's not that expensive, but it is lightweight and durable, and it will last more than six months. And Mia recommended this one to me, it was the same type she used to train when she was my age."

Ella looked around, with Lois and Rebecca sitting down with her. The three girls ate ice cream with each other.

"I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon," Ella said. "My father's killer, I think he's slipped underneath the cracks."

"Justice just takes time," Rebecca said.

Ella would have liked to share Rebecca's optimism. She wisely did not say anything. After the James Gordon incident, she had been forced to eat a lot of crow.

"Yeah, providing you don't sneak off a bus to another city, and try and take a crack of revenge at the guy," Lois said. "Trust me when I say that only makes things worse."

Ella heard the story a couple of times, and she could not help, but think Lois and Rebecca had been sloppy, going to the city, without a hunch. Ella would have personally liked to hurt the man who did this, but, she wasn't sure how to go along with it.

"Harry's right, though," Lois said. "When he says, that you should focus on school…and I think Selina says the same thing as well, doesn't she?"

"Yes, she does," Ella responded.

It was very hard to argue with Selina when she was speaking about something. Ella did not even want to try and do so if she was perfectly honest. She just enjoyed the ice cream and the summer vacation. Ella moving from her private school into GCU was going to be a bit of a jump, but thankfully, Lois, Rebecca, and the others were there, so the jump would not be too bad.

* * *

Some people might have thought that taking the train to Central City would be a bit odd for Harry Potter, but he had a motive. He walked down to the train and spotted the woman sitting on the train. A beautiful brunette, dressed in a button up black top, a nice skirt which came down to beneath her knees. Underneath the skirt, were sheer stockings, and she wore a nice pair of shoes as well.

"Mind if I sit here?"

The woman in question sat up straight for a moment and then broke out into a smile.

"Doctor Potter, it's great to see you again," Caitlin Snow said in an excited tone of voice. "Doctor McGee mentioned you were taking the trip to Central City, to talk to her, and also to visit Star Labs as well….because there's something about the lease or something….."

"Yeah, or something, and remember, Caitlin, it's Harry," Harry told her firmly.

"Right," Caitlin said. She moved her case onto the floor underneath the seat to ensure that Harry had a spot to sit. The two of them moved together on the seat.

"You seem a bit tense today," Harry said.

"Well, yes," Caitlin said. "I'm due to give my final presentation this afternoon, to complete my doctorate, and after going this far, you wouldn't think I would be very nervous, would I? And I don't think that imagining people in their underwear is going to do such a good job, given that I'm giving the presentation in front of a bunch of old men and women."

Harry could see Caitlin's point about how that particular visual trick would not work. He just responded with a smile.

"Just a little bit nervous," Caitlin said. "What if I fail?"

"You won't," Harry said. "I have confidence in you. I can see the work you've done for your Internship, and if you put about as much work there as you have in your Doctorate, you will be doing very well indeed."

"I'm just a bit nervous, I think," Caitlin said. "Can you really blame me?"

"No, not at all," Harry said. "Why don't you turn around and I can do something to help you relax?"

Caitlin looked at Harry, and she decided to turn to the side. Harry put his hands on the back of Caitlin's neck and started to rub it. Caitlin's eyes flooded over with pleasure, with Harry's fingertips rolling over the back of her neck. It felt so good to have him.

"Oh, Harry, that's nice," Caitlin softly moaned.

It was funny how a simple neck massage could cause someone to get stirred up. Caitlin was feeling really good.

"You don't seem as relaxed as you should," Harry said.

"Oh, this is very relaxing," Caitlin lightly moaned. "But, I can think of something that will be even more relaxing."

Caitlin lightly turned around towards Harry. Harry realized she unbuttoned her shirt slightly and gave Harry a slight hint of cleavage. Caitlin moved over and wrapped one leg around Harry's thigh.

"You know something, I read that having sex before a big presentation is very relaxing," Caitlin breathed. "But, it has to be good sex which takes a bit to play out. Otherwise, you're just frustrated afterward. And I know you can help me, can't you, Harry?"

Caitlin kicked her shoe off, and pulled back, running her nylon clad leg up against Harry's side and to the bulge which started to stick out of his pants. Caitlin teased Harry's length with his foot.

Harry leaned over and grabbed Caitlin by the hair before pulling her into a kiss. Caitlin returned the kiss with a surprising amount of honor. It was always the brainy ones, Harry noted, and he tended to attract a lot of brilliant females. Harry's fingers slowly slipped up Caitlin's skirt and rubbed on her inner thigh which caused the woman's moan to increase, and her tongue to go deeper into Harry's mouth when she kissed him, and kissed Harry very hard.

* * *

 

At first, Harry eased his hand up Caitlin's leg when she kissed him. His fingers edged on the underside of Caitlin's panties, which were soaked completely through with arousal.

"You got off on a neck massage?" Harry asked.

"You hit the right nerve endings," Caitlin confirmed. "Which I'm sure was your intention all along, wasn't it, you dirty boy?"

Caitlin smiled when pulling back and squeezed Harry's package through his pants. She moved back and unbuttoned his pants.

"I have to see if I'm right," Caitlin said. "And I think my hypothesis of your cock being statistically above average is right."

The stunning scientist fished Harry's aching rod out of his pants. The length stretched up to meet Caitlin's lips. She cooed when wrapping a hand around the base, and slowly pumping all the way down. Caitlin licked Harry's cock from the tip of the head, to the base.

"I'm not sure if I can go long without your cock inside of me," Caitlin said. "I've had dreams about being fucked on a train by Harry Potter. Guess those dreams are going to come true."

"I want to feel your beautiful mouth wrapped around my cock," Harry told Caitlin.

Caitlin leaned in and touched the tip of Harry's head, easing it between her lips, and lightly shoving it deeper between her lips. Caitlin cupped the edge of Harry's balls and gave them a very hard squeeze before sucking Harry's throbbing length down her throat.

"Mmm!"

"You're such a good cocksucker, Cait," Harry groaned. "Suck my cock hard. Make it nice and wet, so it slides into your tight pussy when I ruin you."

Caitlin looked up with wide eyes and went to town on Harry's cock. She canvased every single inch of the thick manhood, worshipping it like something like this should be worshiped. Caitlin pushed her mouth down onto Harry's aching rod and then pulled back, before sucking him down into the back of her throat.

"You're really good at this."

Caitlin grabbed the base of his cock when pushing the head down on throat. She gave Harry a very excellent, full-service blowjob. She kept working the length, using those warm lips to work Harry completely over. Harry held onto the back of Caitlin's head, and it made Harry feel so very good.

"I'm going to blow in your tight little mouth if you're not careful."

The brainy brunette pulled away from Harry, with a smile. Her lips puckered up, and Caitlin shrugged off her skirt, before wrapping her legs around Harry. Harry put his fingers on the panties and slowly pulled them down. Her wet pussy dripped.

"I need your big cock," Caitlin breathed. "I need it in me so bad. I need you to fuck me like the shameless whore you always thought I could be. Please, Harry, take your big throbbing cock and fuck my pretty little brains out. You know you want to."

Caitlin ground herself on the tip of Harry's cock when it lightly pushed between her thighs. Harry reached in and held the back of Caitlin against his manhood which ground against her. Caitlin's dripping hot center eased closer towards Harry. The two of them almost met together with each other.

"Fuck," Harry groaned. "I need to be inside you right now."

Harry edged himself inside Caitlin's tight lips. She closed her eyes and could feel the manhood going deep inside of her. She was so tight, Harry's cock had to work its way in there.

"I've played with some of my girlfriends," Caitlin said. "But, nothing like this….oh, you have a really big cock, I'm not sure if I can make it fit."

"Come on, didn't think you would give up."

Harry unclipped her bra and released Caitlin's beautiful chest into the world. He took the round orbs and squeezed them, causing Caitlin's gasping to increase. The manhood lightly pushed deep inside of Caitlin the further he shoved inside of her. Harry squeezed and kneaded Caitlin's perky tits, and caused her to breathe out in pleasure. The green-eyed prodigy leaned in and pushed his lips on Caitlin's nipple and sucked it hungrily.

"Oh, more of it's inside me now!" Caitlin panted. "This feels so fucking good!"

Harry reached behind Caitlin and cupped her firm ass, giving it a squeeze while sucking on her breasts. Caitlin returned the fire by bouncing up and down and leaning back to allow Harry to suck on her tits. Harry returned favor with this little tribute by rearing back and pushing his cock into her depths.

Every single nerve ending had been stimulated, and Harry left nothing to chance. He gripped Caitlin's hips and rolled them down onto his hard, throbbing manhood. The brunette pushed down to the base of Harry's cock and released him with a few fluid pumps.

She came and came very hard. Harry pumped deeper inside of Caitlin's snug center, pushing himself as far into her as possible. Caitlin worked herself up and down on Harry's engorged rod and made it so, every single last inch of Harry's cock buried into her body. Caitlin's squeezing continued when coming down onto the tip of Harry's cock and pushing him inside of her.

"You're so good," Caitlin praised.

Harry worshiped every inch of her body in response to Caitlin riding his cock. Now she established the momentum, those wet and very willing walls closed around on Harry's cock. He moved down Caitlin's leg when she tightened the grip on Harry's waist. Harry held onto her and pushed her up, before pulling Caitlin back down, ensnaring twelve inches of pulsing penis into the brunette beauty's tight box.

Gasps of pleasure followed from Caitlin when she kept going to town on Harry's engorged rod. Every single time Caitlin dropped down on Harry, a fresh blast of pleasure spread through her loins. One of the most amazing feelings in the world hit when Harry buried his throbbing rod father into Caitlin's warm pussy. Caitlin closed her walls around Harry and released him with more fluid pumps.

"Yes," Caitlin mewled, driving her hips down onto Harry in the most sensual and beautiful manner possible. Her bouncing thighs stretched to meet Harry's throbbing rod.

"I agree, you're going to lose it soon, aren't you?" Harry asked. "You can't help, but want to cum, can you?"

Caitlin responded by shaking her head and kept bouncing. Those fingers pushed over Caitlin's nipples and caused Caitlin to drip down onto Harry's hard rod. She came one more time, burying Harry's massive hunk of meat inside of her.

In a blink of an eye, Harry pulled out of Caitlin. She whined, and Harry positioned her where she was bent over the seat. Harry took two hands full of Caitlin's ass and slapped it, which caused her to shudder, and drip even more. Harry lined up his rod against Caitlin and pushed deep inside of her from behind.

"YES!"

Those shrieks of pleasure followed, with Harry burying his rod as far into Caitlin's snug center as humanly possible. His thick balls danced against Caitlin's thighs the further Harry punished the beautiful brunette with multiple rapid fire thrusts. Caitlin grabbed onto the edge of the seat, feeling Harry pump inside of her.

"Mmm, yes, Harry, oh yes," Caitlin mewled at the top of her lungs. "Give it to me, give me your big cock, I can't wait to have it pound me fucking senseless! Fucking like that, right there!"

Harry pushed deeper into the woman. Her screams had been partially muffled by the door. He didn't care though, and neither did Caitlin. Harry pushed inside of Caitlin, pressing himself against her beautiful body. He was going to screw her brains out.

"Do you think you're going to feel relaxed?" Harry asked.

"Oh, yes, very relaxed," Caitlin moaned, dragging her nails against the seat when Harry pounded her pussy. His aching long fuck-rod just smashed into Caitlin from behind.

"When you do a good job, you might have to come back for seconds," Harry said. "After all, such brilliance should be rewarded, shouldn't it?"

Harry ran his fingers down Caitlin's back and pushed into her gripping hot loins. Moans, appreciating moans continued when Harry worked his way inside of her body. The sensual nature of this woman got Harry rocking deeper inside of her. His balls bounced against Caitlin's thighs the further he pushed inside of her.

"Yes, you are very relaxed, aren't you?" Harry asked. "And you're horny, you're so horny, you're going to explode, aren't you? Aren't you, Caitlin?"

Caitlin nodded in agreement, biting down on her lip. Harry worked his way inside of her, stretching Caitlin out and allowing her inner walls to grip and release Harry. He was very close to working his way to an orgasm. He would finish up inside of her, and leave Caitlin just demanding more. And Harry would have to give it to her because that's what he did.

"Are you ready to cum for me?"

"YES!" Caitlin yelled.

Harry triggered the release inside of Caitlin. Her body reacted to the stimulation, of Harry pushing inside of her. Every single inch of Caitlin's body had been stroked, pleasured, and the poor girl had been condemned to a death by countless orgasms just slamming over her body.

"Again."

Caitlin came again. Harry's cock and his touch, they were like a drug her body craved. It gave Caitlin the motivation to push up, to pump his huge cock. Harry pushed further inside of Caitlin's wet loins, stretching her out and slapping against her ample backside. Harry was ready to lose it inside of her.

"Get ready."

Another orgasm opened up Caitlin for Harry to slide all the way inside of her. His balls slapped against Caitlin's thighs, showing her exactly how much cum was stored in those thick balls. Caitlin grabbed onto the edge of the bench with Harry pounding her all the way to the edge.

"FUCK ME!"

Caitlin screamed out in pleasure, pushing into Harry. Those balls slapped against Caitlin's warm body in response. Harry pumped into her body, stretching her out.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck me," Caitlin breathed.

"Oh, I am, and you're going to cum for me one more time," Harry breathed in Caitlin's ear, making her twitch. "Then, it's my turn."

"Yes, it is," Caitlin moaned. "I want all of your cum inside of me."

Caitlin saw stars at the latest orgasm. Harry pushed into her and battered Caitlin with his large rod. She was going to be thinking about this during her presentation, which would give her focus. Because success would give Caitlin round two with Harry's raging hard rod.

"Yes, cum for me, Caitlin, one more time."

Harry shoved deeper into her and gave Caitlin her reward. Several splatters of white hot seed painted the inside of Caitlin's walls. She grabbed onto Harry tight, the smoothness of her inner walls, how slick, hot, and wet they were, not to mention how ball-achingly tight, milked everything.

Before Harry finished up inside of Caitlin, he delivered two more spectacular orgasms, draining his balls inside of gorgeous creature underneath him. Harry grabbed her waist and rammed his throbbing cock deeper inside, draining his balls all the way to the end.

Caitlin smiled in content, at the workout being finished. Harry gave her everything she ever dreamed.

* * *

"Good luck with your presentation," Harry said.

"I'll get an A, so I can get another D later," Caitlin said, winking and squeezing Harry's package.

Harry smiled and kissed Caitlin, helping locate her clothes, and helping clean her off. She was going to get off at her stop at any moment, after just getting off on the train.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 3** **rd** **, 2017.**

_Some fun events in this chapter. And Harry and Caitlin have a lot of fun with each othere._

_And Victor's the sick one in this universe and Nora's….well you may see where I'm going here._

_More of Harry's trip out west continues in the next chapter._

_Next Chapter on Saturday._


	297. Heading West Part Three

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Seven: Heading West Part Three**

* * *

The trip of the train really went very well. After some fun, and getting to know each other, Caitlin and Harry made their way up to the train. Caitlin checked her watch and had about two hours before she had to go do the presentation. The two stepped from the train. Harry wrapped an arm around Caitlin's waist, making sure she held the briefcase in her hand.

"So, are you relaxed now?" Harry asked.

"Very relaxed," Caitlin responded. "Thank you, I appreciate it. And I intend to take you up on the offer when I have a chance. I'm going to make sure the presentation is top of the line."

Caitlin stepped forward and put a hand on Harry's hand. The two of them looked into each other's eyes, with Caitlin lightly leaning forward. She gave Harry a brief little smile and leaned closer until their lips met together. Harry grabbed the back of Caitlin's head and kissed her deeply. The two of them indulged in a passionate kiss with each other when Harry pulled away from the woman.

"Sorry, I can't get enough," Caitlin said. "And I doubt you're the only one…guess I've been working too hard. Now, that I have a taste, I have to have much more."

Harry kept an arm wrapped around Caitlin and pulled her in close. His hand moved over and cupped Caitlin on her firm backside. The two of them leaned closer together to each other.

"I know," Harry said. "Unfortunately for both of us, business calls. You want to get your doctorate, and I have some business with Doctor McGee. I've heard she's wanted to talk with me in person for a long time."

"Yes, she has," Caitlin agreed. "Your schedules are not aligned properly, though. It took, what, a good year almost to get you to come into Central City on a day where she could meet you."

It had been a very long time since Caitlin had thrown herself into her work. That one taste on Harry really got her excited for more. It gave Caitlin the proper motivation to do what she needed to do to succeed at the presentation today.

"She won't have to wait for much longer," Harry said. "So, are you ready to take the walk up to the university, now?"

Caitlin sighed and consulted her watch. Yes, she might as well have taken a walk up to the university, and get ready. She reached in and held onto Harry's hand. The warm feeling Caitlin felt was something she craved and could not quite bring herself to pull away from.

"Yes," Caitlin said. "Wish me luck."

"Good luck, although you don't need it," Harry said. "I've taken a look at your work, you've worked hard. You've earned that doctorate, and don't let anyone tell you differently. You'll do well. Trust me, I know good work when I see it."

A smile passed over the face of one Caitlin Snow. She did enjoy the fact Harry had the utmost of confidence in her, it would be more than enough for her to move forward. The two of them parted ways with another kiss before Caitlin pulled herself away. A sheepish smile crossed over the face of the woman.

"I better go, because if I don't go now, I won't be able to pull myself away from all of this," Caitlin said. "So, I'll see you later."

Harry just nodded, and smiled, and made his way to the front entrance, while Caitlin took the short walk around the corner to the university. Harry head in a different direction, heading all the way to Mercury Labs. He did not have to walk for very long when Faora and Karen turned up. Both of them greeted Harry with smiles.

"So, she was eager to jump on board," Karen said, cutting through the tension in the air.

"Very eager," Harry agreed. "I think she's wanted this for a long time, a couple of times we ran into each other put an impression on her."

"As it should be," Faora said. "Any woman who has met you, they can't get you out of their heads. And then when they get that itch scratched, they're satisfied. And if I had to guess, Caitlin got a couple of itches scratched today, didn't she?"

Harry laughed, to be perfectly honest, that was putting it mildly. He did enjoy his time with Caitlin, and there would be more to come on this trip, he was certain. Providing, of course, nothing happened to get either of them side tracked, or something.

"Doctor McGee will be meeting with us in about an hour," Faora said. "Although she did mention to me on the phone, she might be around earlier, so it would be wise for us to head in as soon as possible."

"It's a long overdue meeting," Harry responded.

All three of them responded with a nod before they headed in for the party. Long overdue pretty much summed up this particular meeting. Christina McGee had been a very busy woman, and it had been very hard to get a meeting set up. Something which Harry appreciated, given how busy he could get at certain times as well, but now it was time for them to meet.

They walked through the doors of the very elegant and state of the art building that was the Mercury Labs facility, in Central City.

* * *

Salvatore Maroni cracked his knuckles and took a deep breath. There most certainly were going to be some big problems coming up in Gotham City. The bird got too big for his britches, and there was Black Mask. Thorne double-downed on trying to keep what remained of his empire from passing through his fingers. And that meant some bad news for everyone involved in Gotham City.

The growing number of freaks appearing in the city, and this new Holiday Killer whacko, and Maroni understood the times were changing. Dent was also trying to investigate the various mob operations. So far, the man had nothing, not yet, and Maroni was intent on keeping it that way. To make sure Dent had nothing, not anything that he could pin on any of them.

' _That son of a bitch isn't going to get the better of us,'_ Maroni grunted.

Maroni exited the limo and walked down the way before he entered a lavish nightclub in Gotham City. It was a bit of the seedier variety, but not seedy enough where it would give anyone who stepped into it a real case of the creeps. Maroni tilted his head back, and then forward.

The veteran mobster appreciated the hot piece of ass shaking said ass in one of the dancing cages. Maroni turned around and could see three gentlemen sitting in the back. One of them nursed a particularly strong drink. Another shuffled through a pack of playing cards, and the other just sat back at the table, staring Maroni down in the back of club.

Maroni stepped forward and dropped into a seat on the table.

"So, Ugly sent you here to scope out things in Gotham City," Maroni said. "You and I both know that things are…well they aren't exactly ideal."

The man who stared Maroni down looked up and down at the man for a few seconds. One of the most hideous expressions possible locked on the face of Maroni.

"Things are pretty bad, Sal," the mobster said. "And if it's bad for business in Gotham City, you better believe your bottom dollar; it's going to be bad for business in Metropolis. And the boss has been having a lot of problems. The heat's been going on Mr. Mannheim, and the bigger boss….well he's not happy because that heat will burn him from further up."

"Yeah, so I heard," Maroni said.

Maroni heard a lot of the rumors coming out of Metropolis, alright. The SPC were taking a closer look at Bruno Mannheim, and putting the squeeze on him. It was not exactly a good look for the man who was funding Intergang either, Morgan Edge. There were a lot of rumors that there were going to be raids, and it was not going to be good for Maroni. He already had been in a very anxious position to begin with, with Falcone having him grabbed by the throat, in the figurative, and perhaps literal sense.

"What do you want me to do now?" Maroni asked.

"Well, take one of the biggest problems off of our hands," the leader of the mobsters responded. "Your boy needs to come back to Gotham City because let's face it, him being there is just causing more problems."

"Zucco?" Maroni asked. "Yeah, the heat's died down on him here in Gotham. They have far bigger problems then a couple of Circus people being whacked, the GCPD does. I think we can slowly bring him back in. Tell Ugly to ship him on home."

Maroni needed all of the allies for his plans to work, and despite Zucco screwing up big time, he was a very valuable ally to have.

* * *

Harry, Karen, and Faora stepped into Mercury Labs, and the three of them felt almost like they had walked into the future, with how the exterior of the lab appeared. It looked very space-age, to say the very least, and Karen just looked around with a smile. There were a couple of models on the wall which she found herself very fascinated with. And this was just the public lab. Karen could only imagine what was going on, behind the scenes at Mercury Labs.

' _I can see that look on your face,'_ Harry thought. _'You're intrigued, very intrigued.'_

' _How could you tell?'_ Karen asked.

' _Your body language does a good job in betraying you,'_ Harry thought a moment or so later.

Faora just whistled as well. She might have done a better job in hiding the fact she was impressed, but there was no question about it, she was very impressed with what was here at Mercury Labs. Faora had so many questions, to be honest, and she was looking to have them all answered.

"Well, I take it you're a fan of the design."

A beautiful woman in her late thirties, even though she looked much younger, stepped into the lab. She dressed in a lab coat, and currently stepped from a room, with a pair of goggles on her head. She smiled when approaching Harry, Faora, and Karen.

"Finally, I have Harry Potter right here, in the flesh," she said. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Potter."

"It's a pleasure to meet you as well, after the couple dozen or so times we talked on the phone," Harry said. Both the brunette and Harry shared a laugh with each other. "Seriously, though, it's an honor to meet you, Doctor McGee, I've followed your work as well."

"Please, since we're going to be working together, call me Tina," McGee responded.

"As long as you call me Harry," she answered.

"It's fair enough," she said with a smile. "Why don't we have a seat, and we can discuss some things….the conference room has a big more space for us to maneuver, I think?"

Harry would have to agree. Tina lead the way and Karen, Faora, and Harry followed. The scientist stepped forward, with all of the boundless passion one expected from someone.

' _Can't believe she looks that great,'_ Karen thought. _'You don't think there's some kind of magical influence at play with her, is there.'_

' _No, not magic, science,'_ Harry thought. _'Or, good genetics, that works as well.'_

"I've been looking at some of your models, and I'm very impressed," Karen said. "And some of your charts as well, the theories are impressive."

Tina just smiled at the busty blonde and reached across the table, putting a hand on the top of Karen's. Karen shifted to look at Tina.

"You're, of course, referring to the trials on the human body, and how fast it can go," Tina said. "Speed manipulation is an amazing thing. It can give the illusion of you controlling time if you can go fast enough. And if you go at a certain speed, you can break the time-space barriers. But, unfortunately, time travel can't happen without the people involved having something special, some kind of meta-gene. Which will allow them to have the power of super speed. There are various technology though which can increase the speed and the stamina of the person involved. And also, regress certain body functions which can make the human body faster, in theory."

"Much like aging," Harry said.

"Well, yes, in theory."

The knowing smile on Tina's face indicated she was in on the joke.

"And the theories could be applied to jets as well, right?" Karen asked.

"Well, I'm no mechanic," Tina responded. "But, yes I feel they could be applied to jets, even more so than the human body. If you would like to study my work and see how it can be applied to that, I won't be opposed to us. Anything I can be of help, as this partnership could not have come soon enough."

Harry found his curiously suddenly piqued. "Why? You're not having problems, are you?"

The brainy brunette responded with a sigh.

"Well, yes, some of the funding has been pulled. People who have funded me for years have gotten cold feet, and while the lab can sustain itself for another couple of years, I can't also grow, and that has the Board of Directors very worried, and concerned that I might not be able to sustain."

' _Another day, another troubled Board of Directors,'_ Karen thought with a sigh.

"And also, a certain Mr. Luthor has stuck his nose in, in an attempt to buy me out," Tina responded a moment later.

"Well, it looks like we're going to have to disappoint Mr. Luthor, just like we did with Star Labs," Karen said.

"So, that's why Lionel's been taking trips out to Central City," Harry said. "But, I think the two of us can work together, and maybe I can fund these projects, in addition for your help on a couple of projects, which we need for speed."

"Well, consider me interested," Tina answered a few seconds later.

Tina most certainly did not want the lab to fall into the hands of Lionel Luthor. She recalled what happened to Cadmus Labs, which had been used for a short time, and slowly all of the scientists, who spent their years working hard, had been either fired and regulated to consultants, who had their ideas not used.

"We're working on both a car and a jet, which we want to break all speed records," Karen said. "Unfortunately, the technology, in theory, is a bit beyond what could be invented."

"Well, then we should invent it," Tina said. "We may be able to help out each other if my understanding is right."

* * *

"Well, that was a hell of a battle. There were a lot of twists and turns, and bodies flying in the air, but we managed to overcome, with the victory, to fight another day, at least in theory."

Deadpool stepped closer towards the ship, along with the crew of Oliver, Shado, and Slade. The four of them stepped towards the ship, and it looked pretty advanced all things considered. Wade took one look at the ship and noticed the OsCorp trademark on it.

"Well, he would be vain enough to stamp his name on anything," Wade said.

"This ship is pretty nice," Oliver said.

"Yes, quite the sight to die on."

The entire group turned around, and they should have figured they were not out of the woods just yet. Edward Fyers and his group of mercenaries turned up, with their weapons pointed. Some more henchmen also exited the ship. Gustav Fiers brought his own men to the party as well.

"I don't suppose we can talk this out, like gentlemen, can we?" Deadpool asked.

Deadpool made a quick calculation in his head. Math had never been his strong suit, but he was pretty sure all of these men were not going to go down without a fight. Both brothers, and their differently spelled last names looked towards the Merc with the Mouth. Deadpool looked, and they grabbed Oliver, who was obviously the weakest of the four.

"You can't be turned into a woman soon enough," Deadpool muttered

"What?" Oliver asked, before receiving a gun to the back of the neck.

"Slade, you've done well," Fyers said. "Thank you for bringing these three to one location, so we can finish them off once and for all."

"My pleasure," Slade answered a moment later.

Wade's eyes bugged open, thankfully not in a cartoon style, but it was pretty bad.

"Oh, you dirty snake. I should have seen this coming! Daredevil would have seen this one coming."

A dirty, twisted, calculated smile appeared over the face of one Slade Wilson. It caused anyone who came across it to shudder in terror. It was obvious Slade had been playing all sides now, and it was only a matter of time before the group figured out what was going to happen next.

' _And this is where we get left hanging,'_ Deadpool thought.

* * *

Tina pretty much thought the meeting went rather well. She checked her watch.

"I've got a meeting with one of the investors that haven't bailed out on me just yet," Tina said. "Although, I think we might have to get together again for lunch. It would be a shame if I let you out of my sight without getting to know you in a more personal setting."

Harry smiled and leaned forward towards the woman.

"You find a time and a place that can work for both of us, and I'll meet you," Harry said.

"Good, I'll call you when I have a better idea," Tina said. "With any luck, I'll be able to catch you before you have to return to Gotham. Or maybe, I'll have to go all the way to Gotham."

Harry remembered an interview Tina did a few years ago, where she said she wasn't interested in ever visiting Gotham. So, the fact she would come all the way to Gotham City, for a lunch date with Harry, it really reflected very well on them all.

"Until next time," Tina said. "Send Harrison my regards….even though we're now technically business rivals, I still wish him the best. He helps motivate me to do better, and I'd like to say that I do the same for him."

"I'll send the message."

Harry, Faora, and Karen stepped out, and just in time to see another familiar face pull up. Alexandria Luthor showed up with a smile on her face, and she moved over. The redhead businesswoman moved closer towards Harry.

"So, you know about Lionel's little plan for Mercury Labs, don't you?" Alexa asked without preamble.

"Yes, Tina mentioned it," Harry said. "And we're going to do everything in our power to make sure it doesn't take place."

"Good, I'm glad," Alexa said. "Let me know if I can do anything to help."

Alexa thought that anything she could do, which would ruin Lionel Luthor's day, she wanted a huge part of. She wasn't vindictive, it was just, a lot of businesses folded into LuthorCorp ended up dying on the vine when Lionel cherry picked the few people and resources he wanted. That was just business, unfortunately, but still, Alexa thought it was a waste of so much potential.

The more businesses which could be out there, the better everyone could be. Competition managed to inspire people to do even more to achieve their goals. If you had no competition, well there was just no challenge.

"So, how have you been?" Harry asked.

"You know me, I've been keeping myself busy , and keeping myself out of trouble," Alexa said. "Well, I've been keeping myself out of trouble for the most part anyway. You know how we Luthor's can be at times. I've been doing some traveling, to seal a couple of business deals. The Gotham Branch has been thriving, especially since some of the riff raff had been kicked out of the door."

Alexa just took a moment to tilt her head back and smile. There were a lot of challenges to be met on her part.

"Lionel being in Central City, made me want to move this trip up," Alexa said. "So, he's going to be very disappointed you're in place, just like you were in STAR Labs and Queen Industries."

"Yeah, and we'd really hate to disappoint Lionel Luthor," Karen said. "But, we have to do what's best for business."

"I understand you perfectly," Alexa said. "And I also was planning to meet with Patricia. And I'm guessing that's where you're heading now, isn't it?"

"Yes," Faora responded. "We're heading to STAR Labs, to speak with Patricia, and also to meet with Wells. He's working above and beyond all standards, but I think that we should have a look around, to see some of his work up close and personal."

"I've wanted to talk to Wells as well," Alexa said. "You know, about his little Particle Accelerator project? I've got some concerns about it."

"Yeah, now that you mention it, I've got a couple of questions about it as well," Harry said. "So, do you mind riding up with us?"

"No, not at all," Alexa said. "Let me go in and ask Tina if it's okay if I park here for a while, and then I'll be right out in about, ten or fifteen minutes tops."

Alexa moved into Mercury Labs to ask the question, and also to catch up with another person she worked to in the past, although their busy schedules of as late, left very little time for any kind of social interactions.

* * *

The Star Labs facility of Central City was a bit smaller than the main facility in Metropolis. What the facility lacked in size though, it made up for in unique architecture. Harry, Faora, Karen, and Alexa exited the car and made their way. Patricia had been hanging around outside, waiting for them.

"Harry," Patricia said.

"Not running late, am I?" Harry asked.

Patricia smiled and leaned in to steal a quick kiss from Harry, before pulling away with a smile. She offered pleasant smiles to Alexa, Karen, and Faora, before she turned back to Harry.

"No, you're right on time," Patricia said. "I've looked around on a few things, and I'm pretty sure Wells is making the most out of his space. He's living beyond and above all expectations, but I think if the three of you want to have another look around, then perhaps you could find something questionable I missed."

"We'll see what we can find," Karen said.

Patricia answered with a nod. "So, Alexa, what brings you to Central City?"

"Oh, you know me, ruining my father's ambitions in owning every scientific lab," Alexa said. "Harry's going to add Mercury Labs to the group of people he's saved from my father's hostile takeover."

Hopefully, the end game would be her and Harry running LuthorCorp.

"And I've also had some questions about the Particle Accelerator," Alexa said. "I won't lie, I have some concerns, about what Wells intends to do, but we'll see as we…"

The five of them stepped into Star Labs. Someone came around the corner and nearly ran headlong into Harry. Harry grabbed the person around the waist and prevented her from falling down onto the ground.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," she whispered.

Harry got a look at the girl, and she was a very attractive brunette teenager.

"Oh, my god, I've just run into Harry Potter," she whispered in excitement. "Oh, sorry, sir, I hope…I hope this doesn't go on the inspection, the fact I've run into you."

"Trust me, being run into by a beautiful young woman isn't the worst thing that can happen at one of these labs."

The girl looked flush, as some of the Potter charm hit her hard and fast.

"My name's Jesse...Jesse Wells," she said. "It's a pleasure to meet you…and if you're looking for my father, he's working at the lab, but he knows to expect you. He knows you were coming soon, and…well, I'm sure he'll be ready to meet with you."

Jesse looked flustered, and Harry did not retract the hand he put on her lower back to keep her up.

"Well, it would be rude to keep him waiting."

"I agree," Patricia said.

Harry let Jesse go when she could stand up.

"Why don't you lead the way to your father's lab?"

Jesse nodded very eagerly, happy to help out in any way she could.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 7** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Some meetings on many ends and things are getting pretty interested. Also, Alexa makes a return after being away on business for a while._

_More on Wednesday._


	298. Heading West Part Four

There's bonus content on the blog. Go to the very important page links on the blog, the Web of Chaos Archives, and either find the bonus content in the Blog Exclusive Chapters section or the Ascension section for this blog exclusive content.

* * *

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Eight: Heading West Part Four**

* * *

Anyone who laid eyes on it described the lab of Doctor Harrison Wells as very organized and well put together. Everything laid out in a certain order, and Wells worked to maintain the order of the leg. Meticulous described the lab very perfectly. Wells rose to his feet and moved to the back of the lab and walked around the entire surface of the lab. He stopped and looked one of the lab assistants in the face.

"You better re-check your calculations before calibration," Wells told the assistant. "One very small miscalculation would set us back for several years. And we need to ensure this project gets off the ground. The future of STAR Labs depends on it."

The assistant responded with a very prominent nod. Wells clapped his hands and ensured the assistant stepped back to get his work done. Scientists scurried around the lab, with all of them looking extremely busy. Wells viewed them with a very calm eye to ensure they all worked to specifications.

' _All of them work, without a proper understanding of the roles they play,'_ Wells thought to himself. _'All of them have their roles to play when reshaping the future. The smallest calculation could cause discomfort, and the smallest miscalculation could set us back several years.'_

Wells turned around and right on cue, his guests arrived. Jesse lead them in, followed by Patricia Swann, Alexandra Potter, Karen Starr, and of course Harry Potter. Wells had been almost surprised, but not completely, at Alexandria Luthor coming here.

"They're here, Dad," Jesse said.

"Yes, I know, right on schedule," Wells said. "Then again, your reputation proceeds you, Doctor Potter. You're always right on time; a quality that I wish more of my colleagues would appreciate. And I have to say, it's an honor to meet you."

Wells moved over and took Harry's hand. For a second, Harry thought there was recognition from Wells, almost like they met before.

"I feel like I've know you because I've read every one of your papers you've written," Wells responded. "You're a legend and an inspiration, and it's an honor to have you visit STAR Labs."

"Well, it's as much as an honor to meet the great Harrison Wells," Harry responded.

"Patricia, how is your father doing?" Wells asked. "I've talked to him a couple of months ago, and he was in pretty good spirits. He was very interested in learning more about the Particle Accelerator, and how I'm coming along with it. And I hope to launch it within the next five years."

"My father has his good days, and his bad days," Patricia said. "He still has a passion for science and he hopes to live long enough to see some great scientific changes."

"Virgil Swann is an inspiration, and I would not have been the man I had been without his influence and his friendship," Wells said. "Many of us have a lot to have learned from him, and his daughter is a credit to the work which he's left behind."

Wells took the lab, everything worked in order, as he would not expect any differently. An ordered lab gave him plenty of time to talk to his guests.

"Regardless, I know why Doctor Potter, Doctor Potter, and Doctor Starr are here," Wells responded. "However, I don't have any idea why Alexandria Luthor graced me with her presence."

Alexa just smiled; Wells spoke the last name Luthor with a bit of solid crispness. She knew straight away why Wells did not appreciate her last name. Harrison Wells and Lionel Luthor clashed a couple of times in the past.

"I'll ask my questions to you later, Doctor Wells," Alexa said. "If I'm not mistaken, Patricia is to discuss the matter of the lease with you."

"Well, it really isn't a problem at all," Patricia piped in. "I see no reason to pull you away from the Central City facility, especially when you've done such top-notch work."

"Thank you for your assessment," Wells responded.

"I don't see the problem in extending the lease for STAR Labs for another five years," Patricia said. "That's your projected date of the Particle Accelerator being launched, is it not?"

"Yes," Wells said. "The next five years will be crucial for its success and failure. I'm pleased to see that you've inherited your father's ability to put the faith in the people who deserved it."

"You've given us no reason to doubt that faith is warranted," Faora said.

Wells answered with a knowing smile. "Some might disagree and I can see that Ms. Luthor is holding her tongue right now, and given who her father is, she doesn't do a very good job."

"Well, perhaps not, "Alexa said. "I do have a couple of concerns regarding the Particle Accelerator, and how the potential fallout might be worse than Smallville's infamous meteor shower of about ten years back, only times about a hundred. One wrong calculation….."

"And the dark matter released would create an outbreak," Wells said. "I've run through countless simulations. That's why it's being launched five years from now, and not a year from now. It can be done though, that much I'm confident about. We will succeed where others have fallen short."

"Well, I look forward to it, and I look forward to seeing what STAR Labs could do," Alexa said.

"And believe me, I'm not discounting your concerns, Ms. Luthor," Wells said. "My staff and several of my colleagues have had some of the same concerns. As we get closer to the launch date, I will naturally look for all opinions. And believe me, when I say, I have nothing to hide. I will give Doctor Potter and Doctor Swann a complete tour of the lab in the nature of transparency, including the model of the Particle Accelerator."

A beeping came off, and Wells looked towards the Red Sun he held. He pushed a button.

"I'll be there in twenty minutes," Wells said. "Looks like the tour will have to be delayed. There's important business to attend to….although...Jesse?"

"Yes," Jesse said.

"Give Doctor Potter and Doctor Swann the general tour," Wells responded. "I'll go through the more secure areas when I get back. It shouldn't take more than an hour, or two."

Wells moved off, and Jesse turned to Harry and Patricia. She knew STAR Labs like the back of her hand, but there were parts of it that her father never allowed her anywhere near. There were dangerous materials being stored, that were being studied.

"This way, please," Jesse said, smiling.

* * *

"And Norman's lapdog is here," Deadpool remarked. "This day just gets better and better, doesn't it?"

The humor in Deadpool's tone was not appreciated by Gustav Fiers. The gentleman never smiled, and Deadpool wanted to do what he could to break the man of his humorless tone. Unfortunately, it was very hard for him to do so, due to man's general nature. Still, Deadpool made the good old college try to break the man and make him register something, anything, other than very obvious and very strong disapproval.

"You know, what I've heard these days, Stormin' Norman isn't doing too well these days," Deadpool said. The mercenary made himself fully aware of the guns, plural pointed on his back. "Unless the rumors of his demise are very, very exaggerated."

"Mr. Wilson, you've been a nuisance, and certain people on the government would like nothing better than to see you dead," Fiers responded.

"Me?" But, I have such a charming smile!"

Those words pretty much just flew over the heads of those who appreciated no humor.

"It's really nothing personal, you know. It's just all about the money and the chimichangas…and besides…you know you think you know everything about this island. Well, there's secrets here on this island, that Eddie hasn't even found out."

Deadpool pointed one long finger towards Edward Fyers, who tried to look stoic. No one could even deny this man looked very surprised when looking at Deadpool. What was he talking about, anyway? That's what Fyers wanted to know.

Deathstroke took one look at Deadpool and the obvious look of annoyance on Slade's face could be visible, even underneath the mask.

"It's not a good idea to let him keep talking," Deathstroke said. "It's just best to kill him no, because he will find a way to win, out of sheer annoyance."

Gustav threw up a single hand and there was a long pause which followed. He raised an eyebrow and looked Deadpool in the eye. It was obvious Fiers did some quick thinking. The man contemplated long and hard whether to entertain the possibility of Deadpool telling the truth, or just shooting him on sheer principle.

"Yes," Deadpool replied. "There are secrets on this island, where you boys haven't even figured out yet. I'm not going to tell you what, well, maybe I will if you ask me very nicely."

The hired help looked towards Fiers for assistance. Deadpool doubted very much they had the ability to do anything worthwhile without looking to Fiers for assistance. This particular thought slammed into Deadpool's mind and dominated the mindscape right about now.

"I won't deny that I'm intrigued. Tell me more."

Deadpool opened his mouth before a loud explosion interrupted. Fiers turned around where a small group of men stood guard with each other. Fiers looked up and saw two of his men down on the ground. The Gentlemen sauntered over to further investigate the situation as it happened.

One of the men laid face-first down onto the ground, a sword buried between his shoulders. Another laid face-first down onto the ground, the obvious signs of having his neck being cut being present. Fiers pulled out a sidearm and pointed it towards the underbrush. He sensed something, someone rather, moving around in this particular area of the island.

"There's someone here."

"No, get out of town!" Deadpool called.

Shado looked and doubted very much the type of people who were here, were very much of the friendly variety. She tried to turn out of position, but they held her into place.

"Spread out, search the area, and find them," Fiers said.

"They're not going to go into the cliché of spreading out, are they?" Deadpool asked. "That's a good way of getting picked off one at a time. Don't they know they? Don't they have any brains? Well, actually, I think I answered my own question but…"

"Silence," Deathstroke said. "It will all pay off soon."

"Yeah, well, I'll kill you," Deadpool said, suddenly as serious as a heart attack.

"I'd like to see you try," Deathstroke responded. "The attempt would be very amusing."

"You know, I've seen enough movies to know the bad guy always gets very cocky before being killed," Oliver chimed in, a cramp forming in his leg from how he had been held down to the ground. Agony did not even begin to describe the mood he was in now.

"Kid," Deathstroke responded. "It's time for you to get a dose of the real world. And you should appreciate the fact, it's a miracle that you didn't die of exposure from the first week on the island. Sheer dumb luck, in fact."

' _You know, I hate to admit when he has a point, but he has a point,'_ Deadpool thought. _'Oh, this is insane, alright, yes, it is. I wonder how much longer this is going to be dragged out to the point of sheer annoyance.'_

* * *

Jesse's excitement bubbled over, and Harry could not help, but be excited on her behalf as well. Patricia, Harry, Faora, Karen, and Alexa joined her on the general tour of STAR Labs. Jesse moved, swaying from side to side, as she pointed everything in the lab.

"And there's the observatory area," Jesse said. "Granted, we're more of a general research area for things on Earth than things in the stars, like the Metropolis version of this lab, but there's still a small area. I go up there every now and there, just to hang out, just to dream, what is out there, and what could be out there, you know. There's an entire universe of wonders and an entire universe of just potential out there. All we have to do is go out and seize that potential."

Harry smiled at how infectious her words were. He leaned in and cupped the top of Jesse's hand with a smile. She smiled even deeper when feeling the warmth of Harry's fingers wrapped around hers.

"Yes, there are a lot of wonders out there, many we can only dream about," Harry said. "You don't want to forget about the wonders here on Earth, do you?"

"Yes," Jesse said. She cleared her throat, not letting go of Harry's hand, at least not right away. "And there are a few things here, where I don't have the access codes. Curious about them, but there are some very dangerous projects. You would think after three doctorates, my father would have allowed me a little bit room to roam, but I guess that's just too much to hope for isn't it?"

Jesse trailed off when she realized she had been rambling off a little bit. The girl tried to reign that in, as much as possible, even though she did do it a whole lot when getting excited.

"So, what's this section of the lab?" Karen asked.

Jesse looked at the door and sighed.

"Not everything is a success here," Jesse said. "That's storage, where my father keeps a bunch of scrapped projects. There aren't many through."

Here, Jesse looked at Patricia with imploring eyes, but the older woman looked at the younger girl and gave her a shrug.

"Failure is a part of science as much as success," Patricia said. "I would have been concerned if your father had a one hundred percent success rate."

"Yes, it can teach us a lot," Faora said. "And the fact Wells kept these failed projects, other than throwing them out, shows how much he's willing to warn."

Faora had about as much respect to a man other than Har-Zod for Harrison Wells. The man ran a very tight and very consistent facility, and you could not argue with the results.

"So, anyway, there's some storage," Jesse said. "Science is about the only thing we bond with, but even he doesn't want me around the lab that often. He says there are some projects which are dangerous…and….."

Jesse took a moment to take a deep breath. She realized rambling started up again, and rambling was something she tried to avoid by any means necessary. The slipping off of the tongue could cause people to hear things, which were never meant to hear.

Most of them brushed them off. Alexa was able to catch onto certain statements.

"So, you have some emotional distance between yourself and your father?" Alexa asked.

"You hear what people say about him," Jesse said. "He's not been the same since the car accident which killed my mother….but you know, I can understand that. It's just….well, he's been supportive enough, and encouraged me to be the best I can be."

Jesse tried not to sound ungrateful or anything because she was very grateful for everything Harrison Wells gave him. She helped in a few small ways, even though nothing like the insane work ethic of her father, who was up very early in the morning, arriving before anyone else at STAR Labs, and then only returning home, past the time many people got to sleep. Jesse wondered if her father ever did sleep.

"Here he comes, right on time," Jesse said a moment or so later.

Right around the corner, Harrison Wells stepped around. He turned towards the rest of the group.

"Sorry about having to run out," Wells said. "One of my business partners insisted we meet, and unfortunately, the matter wasn't as pressing as he would have liked to put on."

"No problem," Harry said. "Jesse did a great job on conducting the tour. She's a credit to you."

"I knew she wouldn't disappoint," Wells responded. "I'll take it from here. Jesse, you can leave now, since you've done such a good job. Take the rest of the day off."

"Okay," Jesse said, sounding a bit put off she had been dismissed as not a daughter, but an employee. "Oh, and Harry….."

Jesse pulled out a pad of paper and jotted down two things, an e-mail address, and a phone number. She put the piece of paper in Harry's hand and leaned in.

"If you ever want to talk to me," Jesse whispered in excitement. She kissed Harry on the cheek and pulled away from him before turning to the others. "It was nice meeting you."

Jesse moved, very pleased about her daring, of kissing Harry Potter on the cheek. She hoped to get to know him much better, he was the type of guy she wanted to get to know. Brilliant, and not too bad looking on the eyes, and he had the ability to satisfy numerous women, a true Alpha in a sea of men who were rapidly becoming Betas, and submissive to the women around them. That was not dynamic as well, to be with some man who allowed the women in his life to walk over him.

' _It never fails, does it?'_ Karen asked.

' _No, it never does,'_ Faora thought.

"I believe I had a simulation to show you about how I intend for the Particle Accelerator to launch," Wells said. "Follow me."

Wells leaned in and a retinal scanner allowed him access to a thumbprint. The two-step security system made sure no one other than Wells could enter this particular area of the lab.

' _I bet I could have hacked inside,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Well, he's letting us in, so there's no need for us to do so,'_ Harry thought.

"You can see, this is what I intend to do when the Particle Accelerator is completed," Wells responded. "Ms. Luthor, do you see the numerous security protocols I have put into place?"

"Yes, I see them, alright," Alexa responded.

"And you can see, it will take a freak accident for something to go wrong, and for an explosion to happen," Wells said.

"Yes, well accidents can happen," Alexa said. "Scientists will swear up and down that it was a one and a million fluke that glowing green rocks can fly to the sky, and yet, there's Smallville."

"And as you can see, this is the intended result," Wells said. "And if those security protocols were not in place, and failed, you can see how the dark matter explosion would be contained in this chamber, thus triggering another security protocol."

"Well, what if the chamber fails and releases this dark energy into the area?" Faora asked.

"Less than a one percent chance," Wells said. "As you can see, this is just a simulation, and many more tests will be run, before the grand launch about five years from now. I will be going over everything with a fine-tooth comb, making sure there are no problems."

* * *

Talon and Black Canary hit the streets in Gotham City, to go on patrol with each other. The two of them stood on a rooftop. They had already gone their separate ways around the city.

' _Could it be?'_ Barbara thought. _'Could it be, a rare quiet night in Gotham City where there's no crime, no carnage, not even a slight disturbance?'_

' _I wouldn't believe it if you told me it was going to happen,'_ Dinah thought. _'You know, the city's just been in a state of unrest lately. Nothing has happened.'_

' _Yeah, I wouldn't push my luck about anything happening,'_ Jaime thought. _'Gotham City can be the calmest before the storm, and besides, there's always the Holiday Killer.'_

They knew that the Holiday Killer would plan to strike soon. Flag Day, Father's Day, and the Fourth of July all came up. If the Holiday Killer followed his usual attack patterns, and there was no reason to say that he would go against them, then there could be three potential attacks. The motive looked very inconsistent as well. It was almost like someone took the Gotham City Cop Killer and Calendar Man, and put them together into one demented little package.

Those two motivations squeezing together could barely be considered an ideal thing.

' _I don't like the quiet,'_ Jaime thought to herself. _'I just feel like something is going to happen.'_

They didn't know what was going to happen, to be perfectly honest. There had been a couple of loud sirens in the background, but the Gotham City Police Department could handle a lot. They were not completely incompetent enough not to be able to handle certain things.

That was very unfair, given there were many good cops in the city.

Jaime shivered suddenly. Dinah put a hand on Jaime's shoulder.

' _What's wrong?'_ Dinah thought.

The caped vigilante snapped into a trance and dropped down off of the building, to look around. Some kind of presence caught Jaime completely off guard. She moved around, looking from one side, to the other, in an attempt to find what she was looking for.

A redhead girl moved with her head down. The red hair, the green eyes, and the fact she moved very quickly. She wore a hooded sweatshirt, and a pair of tight black pants, despite it being a brisk spring, almost summer day. Jaime approached the girl and came to a conclusion.

It was the same girl who had been in Harry's dreams, several times. It had to be, hell Jaime could feel something, some kind of aura, which pulsed from the woman. She took in a deep breath and followed the woman, after pulling the hood up.

She disappeared into the subway tunnel and disappeared into the hustle and bustle of the crowd. Jaime pulled back, clutching her fist in frustration. She knew it was this girl, she just knew it was her. There was no question about it, and about who it was.

"Jaime?"

Jaime turned around to face Dinah.

"It looks like that girl, the one who has been haunting Harry's dreams," Jaime said. "I could feel a tingle, it was power."

' _So, do you think it's a coincidence?'_ Amanda asked.

' _No, it has to be her, but why would she show up in the flesh now?'_ Rose asked.

' _She might not be aware of the dreams either,'_ Lily thought. _'Or maybe she's receiving them as well, and had been drawn to Gotham City. But, it's almost like something was chasing her.'_

Jaime got the feeling as well, of something chasing this woman. She would have to have a discussion with Harry about what was going on when he returned back from his trip out west.

* * *

Patricia Swann sat on the bed of the hotel room she had been staying in during this entire trip. She dressed in a bathrobe, after taking a shower, from a long day of meetings. She waited for someone to show up. The knock on the door caused Patricia to bounce up to her feet and make it to the door.

"Harry," Patricia said.

"So, are you pretty pleased with everything today?" Harry asked.

"If you are….."

"Yes, I'm very pleased," Harry said. "I just got back with visiting Caitlin Snow, and she knocked it out of the park on her presentation. We spent the last three hours celebrating."

"I'm sure you have," Patricia said, with a saucy little smile directed towards Harry. She moved closer towards him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I just hope you didn't celebrate too hard."

"Well, I left Caitlin in her dorm room sore and smiling," Harry answered with a big smile on his face. "You just had to be there to get the full experience. And I guess, it's now the two of us, since Alexa, Karen, and Faora have their own business to deal with."

"Yes," Patricia said. She grabbed Harry by the tie and pulled him into the room. "We're alone in this big hotel room. I wonder what we can do about it."

Harry gripped the back of Patricia's head and pulled her into a very intense kiss, which Patricia returned without a second thought. The feeling of Harry's tongue going into her throat, got Patricia lit up and got her very excited for what was going to come soon.

She pulled back, and dropped her bathrobe, revealing she wore a sheer black bra, with her nipples poking out, a thong, and a pair of stockings, along with a garter belt.

"Looks like you didn't completely pack for a business trip, Doctor Swann."

* * *

 

Harry drove his tongue down Patricia's throat one more time and kissed her with heated passion. Patricia ran her fingernails down Harry's back, slowly trying to pull his shirt open. Harry reached over and unclipped her bra, leaving the beautiful redhead's breasts to bounce out of her top.

Patricia closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Harry's fingers caressing her nipples, and he slowly worked her back on the bed. Harry grabbed Patricia's hands to pin them behind the back of her head. He started to kiss at the side of her face, working down all the way. Harry cupped Patricia's breasts and squeezed them.

"I need this," Patricia begged Harry.

Harry was not one to deny a woman her pleasure. He cupped the underside of Patricia's heavenly mounds and leaned down. One of the nipples beckoned and were ready to suck. Harry pushed his mouth around Patricia's aching nipple, and sucked on it, as hard and fast as possible.

The spreading of the thighs encouraged Harry's fingers to dance down, to feel Patricia's mound through her panties. He rubbed it very hungrily, to cause Patricia's moans to increase. The young man slowly touched Patricia's pussy through her panties.

"Fuck," Patricia breathed.

Harry released Patricia's nipple and kissed down her body. The kisses followed, going down to her ribcage and making Patricia shudder. Her very toned stomach received Harry's worship next. Patricia could feel everything, everything was starting to burn up the woman and make her very wet, and very much ready for the next intrusion.

One finger hooked on the underside of Patricia's panties and pulled them down. The beautiful mound revealed to Harry only caused him to smile. Patricia dripped with arousal, and Harry swirled is tongue over his lips. He could not wait to taste this divine treat.

He spread Patricia's legs and kissed her inner thighs. The breathing of the redhead increased, and Harry stroked the sensitive skin between her legs. He reached up lightly to touch her clit, and to press a finger against it. A series of electrical shocks spread through Patricia's body.

"Eat me, eat my pussy, please," Patricia breathed.

Harry was not going to hold back. He spread Patricia's thighs and buried himself face down between her dripping womanhood. Patricia grabbed onto the back of Harry's head, the second he delved a tongue deep inside of her.

The sorcerer buried himself face-first into the beautiful pussy of the woman. He munched on Patricia's center. Harry spent a few moments nibbling at Patricia's lips and slowly eased his tongue between her warm and waiting thighs. Harry pulled back and licked the juices on the outer surface of her lips.

The teasing almost became too intense, before Harry pushed his tongue back into Patricia's pussy. Patricia saw stars, with her pussy being pleasured. Harry's tongue played havoc with Patricia's nerve centers and made her grip the top of Harry's head. Patricia wrapped her thighs around Harry's head and he delved deeper into her.

The brilliant redhead saw stars the moment Harry finished eating her pussy. Patricia took a deep breath and shuddered with delight. Every dip, every swirl, every movement Harry's tongue made, Patricia decided it was beyond intense, it was beyond making her feel really good. She felt beyond good, she felt really great. Nothing better, and Harry made her cum one more time.

The third orgasm in quick succession made Patricia just land backward on the bed, seeing stars. She recovered quickly and saw Harry's cock ready to go. The sight of Harry's hunk of manhood just made Patricia gasp. Harry lightly dragged his manhood against her body.

"How much do you want this?"

"Badly," Patricia breathed in response.

"You want my cock inside of you, don't you?" Harry asked. "You want me to pin you down, and treat you like my bitch while I fuck the ever living daylights out of your tight pussy, don't you?"

Harry grabbed Patricia's shoulders and she squealed when both bodies pressed together with each other. Patricia gasped when feeling the pressure of Harry pushing her down onto the bed. Every inch of flesh burned and Patricia spread her legs, feeling Harry work his manhood down her body.

That body tempted Harry something fierce. The beauty underneath him dripped with desire. Harry positioned himself at the front entrance and was about ready to enter.

The first few inches pushed into Patricia's depths, and it was like fire bombarded her loins. Patricia grabbed onto Harry's shoulder and squeezed him as hard as possible. Harry lifted up almost all the way out of her and pushed himself inside of her one more time, with a solid thrust.

"YES" Patricia mewled in excitement.

The feeling of Harry's aching, throbbing balls, slapped against Patricia's loins. She pushed her hips around Harry and pumped his manhood into her, going into her depths. Patricia could feel her pussy spread up and engulf Harry further inside.

"Only half of it is inside," Harry said. "The question is, do you want more?"

Patricia locked her nails on Harry's back to encourage him to plunge deeper. Harry rose up and almost exited Patricia. The woman tried to lift her legs up. Harry held them in place and massaged them, to cause Patricia's excitement to burn through her body.

"Yes," Harry answered. "It never ends."

The throbbing cock head pushed against Patricia's womanhood and almost shoved inside of her body. Patricia opened up her walls, waiting and ready for Harry to slip inside, between her thighs. The manhood spiked into Patricia's core and stretched her out.

The two bodies of the lovers molded together. Harry gripped Patricia's hips and pulled her off of the bed before plunging into her. His hands moved up to caress every inch of the body of the beautiful woman underneath, as Harry slowly rose up and pumped into Patricia's tight center.

"OOOh, yes, right there, that's a good spot," Patricia moaned.

Harry hit more than one good spot, he hit several strikes. He was like an artist, taking the proper strokes. Patricia's body twitched underneath a constant barrage. The feeling of never ending warmth began to spread through the woman. Harry buried inside of her, when pushing himself down, crotch first into the bed. Patricia tempted Harry's cock with a squeeze of her inner walls. Harry pulled almost all the way up and shoved himself further into her. Patricia locked her legs around Harry's hips and squeezed him something fierce.

The scream from Harry burying himself inside continued. Harry slapped himself against Patricia. The sound of flesh bouncing against flesh continued to escalate.

Patricia knew Harry had a marathon sex session earlier, with Caitlin, so the fact Harry pushed into her, with such vigor, reinforced what he was. Harry pumped his throbbing cock inside of Patricia's warm body. Patricia pushed up and engulfed him in her warmth.

Yet another time, the orgasm spread through Patricia, and her juices moistened Harry's pole. Harry rode out the orgasm with a constant series of pumps inside of her warm body. Patricia grabbed onto Harry and pushed herself up, wrapping around Harry and releasing him with everything she had.

"Getting close, baby," Patricia mewled hotly in his ear. "Give me your cock, I want it bad."

Harry sped up the thrusts inside of her.

"You can't control how good your body feels," Harry said. "And how good it feels when it is going to hit that peak. You're going to cum because you can't help it, can you? You can't help how you're such a willing participant in this fun, begging for my cock, enjoying how it pushes into your tight, warm depths. Feel how it pumps inside of you and makes you feel really good. You can't deny what you want, can you?"

"NOOOO!" Patricia moaned, dragging out these words.

Harry just smiled and pumped his way into Patricia's warm center. The beautiful woman clenched Harry and released him with a solid series of thrusts. Those balls loaded up and were primed to deliver. He wanted to enjoy this woman, indulge himself in her body.

Constant orgasms racked Patricia's body. Her nails raked Harry's back, her thighs squeezed him. Harry could feel the attempt to milk him. The warmth of her when Harry pinned Patricia down on the bed and drove his hard cock inside Patricia's warm body, and she responded by milking him.

She would soon milk all of the cum from his balls. Harry drove himself down and bottomed out inside of Patricia's pussy. The feeling of her warm depths holding him into place, and then releasing him through each pump only made Harry ready to blow.

"Now, it's my turn," Harry said. "You should be rewarded for a job…well….done!"

Harry thrust with each word, and at the word done, he released the load inside of Patricia's warm pussy. Patricia held onto Harry's thighs and squeezed him. She really wanted this cum spilled inside of her body. Patricia worked up, to meet Harry's thrusts.

The feeling of her own release and Harry's combined overwhelmed Patricia. Her pussy would not stop twitching and milking Harry's massive rod for everything she could. The two of them exchanged juices before Harry finished spilling inside of her.

Patricia had been left on the bed, a smile on her face. The moment Harry pulled out, Patricia just turned towards him.

"Just give me a few minutes, please."

Harry grabbed Patricia and kissed her heatedly, and that was enough to put some life back into Patricia.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 10** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

**Lots of interaction in this chapter. And some interesting moments with Deadpool on the island as usual.**

**The mysterious redhead(who is not so mysterious if you really think about it) appears in the flesh right now.**

**Jesse is the latest to fall for Harry's charms. Well one of the latest at least.**

**Until Saturday.**


	299. All is Quiet

**Chapter Two Hundred and Ninety-Nine: All Too Quiet**

* * *

 

The last few weeks, Harry had been away on both the West Coast and the East Coast and conducted several different bits of business. He finally returned to Gotham City, as Gotham prepared for the big Fourth of July celebration. The fireworks shooting off pointed to a huge lightning rod for potential trouble. The Gotham City Police Department prepared themselves for any problems, ramping off the security. Harry and the girls prepared for anything which would happen.

Expect, the unexpected, especially in Gotham City. Harry arrived at the front gates of Blackgate prison. He received another call, reminding Harry of a session with the Arkham Wing's most famous patient, the Joker. The original Asylum still looked to be close to being rebuilt, or at least rumors flew through the air about people wanting to do so. Harry knew the wheels moved very slowly in Gotham City.

' _You have your concerns about the Asylum being reopened, don't you?'_ Barbara asked.

' _Well, I don't know,'_ Harry thought. _'There's just something about the entire Asylum mess which feels very off. I'm not sure if there's something to do with it building it on an ancient Indian burial ground or something. The energy is very off though.'_

' _Yes,'_ Wanda thought, shuddering when popping into the bond link.

The trip she made to Arkham Asylum when Professor Crane manipulated her would be one which Wanda would not forget for a long time. She managed to come a long way from those days, thanks to her training, and the sessions with Doctor Kafka. Wanda tried to avoid an area like Arkham, just something about the energy sounded to be all wrong.

The gates opened up and Harry showed the pass for the guard. The buzzing allowed Harry inside, and he took a couple of steps forward. He moved over, and a few steps later, Harry almost ran into Harley who had been looking at a clipboard. She stumbled backward with a surprised squeal. Harry threw his arms forward and prevented Harley from falling back onto the ground and almost landing on the ground.

"Harry," Harley said. "I'm sorry, I didn't watch where I was going."

"That's fine, you were distracted, it happens," Harry said.

"Right, a lot around you," Harley said. "If you needed to know, he's still freaking out a lot of the doctors, most of them won't go near him, except for a few of the more brazen ones. He's interesting, scary, but interesting if someone could get into his mind, they might learn a lot, I swear."

Harry figured about as much. The Joker represented a forbidden fruit, hanging on the vine, tempting, and very dangerous, scary and very dangerous. He held Harley up by the hand and looked her in the eye.

"I actually have a safer, and more interesting project for you, if you want a challenge," Harry said.

"Oh, yes," Harley said in her usual bubbling tone of voice. She pulled away from Harry, bouncing up and down in excitement. Harley stopped bouncing a few seconds later. "I mean, I'll do anything for you, and try to help."

' _Dangerous words,'_ Barbara thought. _'Words I'm pretty sure she understands the meaning of.'_

Harry just smiled and cleared his throat a few seconds later. Harley jumped up and almost dropped down to the ground in a very amused manner. Harry motioned for her to sit down.

"I want you to be the student mentor for Amanda and Emily when they enter GCU," Harry responded. "I would like to do it myself, but there's a conflict of interest there, and they won't be able to do it."

"I'm surprised you trusted me to do that," Harley said. "I figured you'd ask Barbara or Dinah or Kara or…well someone else other than men. Not that I don't mind, I'm glad that you trust me, but it's just that, I'm surprised, surprised that's all."

Harley just spoke in a very excited way. Harry had to put a hand on Harley's shoulder to slow her down.

"I know there's a special kind of mindset of dealing with Amanda and Emily," Harry said. "I trust you can handle them."

"Sure, I'll be glad to, it will be a real honor," Harley said. "I swear, I won't let you down."

"Thanks, I appreciate it," Harry said. "Good luck with them. And I'm going to have to have a word with the Joker."

"Good luck with that," Harley said.

Harry smiled, he appreciated the sentiments, even though he was going to need more than luck. He walked down the hallway where a chair waited. The Joker stood at the other end of the grass wall.

"So, vacation was good, I take it," Joker commented. "The tan shows spent a little time on the beach. You can see, I need a tan badly, but I burn…..but, I guess in a way, I'm on vacation too, although it will be over before either of us know it. I mean, we both know Blackgate's an extended holiday."

This statement came out of the Joker's mouth a couple of times from the past. He encouraged the guards to take a closer look and keep an eye on the Joker. He still had been one of the most secure prisoners in the Arkham Wing, but maybe not secure enough.

"You just think this is a break before the next act," Harry said. "I've been thinking a long time about you….."

"Got in your head, eh, Potty?" Joker asked. "Boy, aren't you the shits?"

Joker laughed in response, and Harry looked humorless, calm, stoic, the Joker started laughing.

"The laughter, the smiles, the entire Joker persona, it's a way to mask the fact you feel very insecure with the person underneath those scars," Harry said. "I wonder who you really are."

"It's better people don't know, really," Joker conceded. "You know, people fear the unknown, and to know who a person really is, humanizes them. I mean, take Batman for instance."

Joker laughed loud and looked Harry straight in the face. Harry didn't say a word, he just looked back in the Joker.

"Take Batman, if you will," Joker said. "Would the criminals piss their pants as much if they knew who he was underneath the mask? He would just be some guy and knowing who someone really is, it just humanizes him. It makes him less than nothing. It makes him just another guy."

Harry took a mere moment to listen to what the Joker said. He just responded with a very obvious nod and looked across the table, where he looked the Joker dead on, straight on, directly in the eye.

"And that's the crux of your problem, isn't it?" Harry asked. "At one time, you're just some guy. And deep down, you're just still just some guy."

"No, no, no, no!" Joker yelled. He snapped his eyes towards Harry and took a deep shuddering breath before breaking out into a smile. "I'm a warning about how this could happen to anyone, at any time, and at any place. Even the brightest stars, they can burn out eventually."

The clown prince of crime yawned after finishing his sentence.

"Well, it's fun, but I'm bored," Joker said. "Guess, I'll be seeing you in the funny papers, then."

* * *

 

Big Lou paced back and forth and resembled a caged animal. He looked around back and forth, hands shaking like mad and his breathing increasing.

"I don't like this, I don't like this at all," Big Lou muttered.

Sal watched his father walk back and forth for a very long time. He looked towards Big Lou who was building up momentum and also sweating like a pig in a tuxedo. His breathing increased when moving back, and forth, and all the way around to the side.

"Watch your blood pressure, Dad," Sal warned him.

"Don't tell me what to do," Big Lou said. "I don't like this, I don't like this deal we have to 've been making too many deals where we've had to give up way too much. The Maronis are starting to be punks, pushovers, people who are just pushed over."

"That's not going to happen," Sal tried to say, but Big Lou just bowled him over.

"You know something, I don't like the deal with Falcone, but from a business perspective, I understand it. I don't like it, I understand it."

Big Lou took in a deep breath, with his face looking very red and very splotchy when he spoke. The breathing increased when sweat dripped down his face. Sal threw his father a towel and Big Lou wiped the sweat off of his face.

"But, handing over a piece of Gotham City to Intergang, especially with Morgan Edge involved," Big Lou said. "I don't like the bastard. He's a crafty snake. We both know Edge is not going to take just a piece of Gotham City, no, he's going to take more than a piece, he's going to take a chunk. Then he's going to leave us scrambling for the bread crumbs. So, this is why I don't like this."

"Dad, relax, I have a plan."

Big Lou snorted and finally dropped into one of the chairs by Sal. It creaked underneath Big Lou's massive girth when he took a deep breath.

"The last plan you had, involved you kidnapping the Walrus, and look how that turned out."

Sal had been slapped across the face by his father, who called that plan over Christmas time, a stupid plan, in no uncertain terms. He thought in hindsight, the plan to kidnap the Walrus might not have been the best idea in the world, but what were you going to do?

' _They should be arriving here right about now.'_

Sal checked his watch and noticed they would be arriving here at any moment, the representatives from Intergang. Sal hoped they would be meeting on neutral ground, and hoped they would give him an even deal.

The door opened, and two of the bodyguards lead in Bruno Mannheim. An imposing redheaded woman stepped in, and she looked like the type to kick ass later. Whisper, Sal believed her name was, and then bringing up the rear, the horse's ass known as Tony Zucco.

"Hey, it's good to see you, Tony," Sal said. He stepped over and slapped Tony on the shoulder. "And I've been waiting to tell you how much of a dumbass you were to your face. Not only did your nickel and dime extortion racket make us look bad, but you couldn't finish the job and kill the circus brat."

"I think I've been punished enough," Zucco said.

"Yeah, well, I don't know about that," Sal said.

"Come on, Sal, I've been living in a flea-bitten hotel for the rest of the past year," Zucco responded.

"Lost a little weight too by the looks of it," Sal responded. "Guess, I can welcome you back to the fold if you're truly sorry….so sit down, shut your mouth, and keep your ears open. You might learn something about business after all."

Sal took a deep breath and decided to add one little thing, potentially as an afterthought.

"And you should be thanking your lucky stars I have connections still, even if a lot of those connections have gone deep underground."

Sal cleared his throat and turned his attention towards the delegation from Intergang, who essentially amounted to Beauty and the Beast, at least in his book.

"Gentlemen, lady, let's see what we can do about fixing Gotham City."

* * *

 

Harry returned from the trick to Blackgate. The conversation for the Joker was brief, and any time Harry brought up the fact the Joker really was insignificant underneath all of the gimmicks, all of the frills, all of the scars, the Joker flew to the defense very quickly. Harry noted that and went on the attack whenever he could.

' _He's trying to get in your head,'_ Kara suggested. _'I haven't studied psychology as much as you have, but he's a master of doing it, you know.'_

' _Yes, I'm well aware,'_ Harry said a moment later. _'I'm very much aware of the means which he's using to try and find his way into my head. He's a master of manipulating the spoken word, isn't he?'_

' _Yes, he is,'_ Kara replied.

' _He's got this cult of personality as well,'_ Barbara thought. _'Kind of like you, where people want to listen to what he's said. Only, he's not like you, because he's going to cause trouble and terrify the people of Gotham City. He's very terrifying, very, very, terrifying.'_

' _Yes, that's putting it bluntly,'_ Harry agreed.

Harry stepped into the café, and as always, two lovely ladies waited for him to have a lunch date. Veronica Vreeland and Sapphire Stagg sat, talking with each other. Kathy had a previous engagement, with one of the charities she was working with, to help people who were victims of fraud, being taken advantage of charming con men. Given the incident with her Doctor, who had fled to Europe, just last year, Harry figured she was still passionate about the cause.

"So, how did it go?" Sapphire asked.

"It went about as well as could be expected," Harry said. "I tried to get a feel from him. The more I talk to him, the more I realize he was just someone who failed at life."

"Still gives me the creeps," Veronica said. "I'm glad he's locked up tight in the Arkham Wing….if only he was deeper underground as well, that would make me feel a lot better."

"Veronica!" Sapphire belted out in surprise.

"It's the truth," Veronica answered, shrugging her shoulders.

"I know it's the truth," Sapphire said. "Still, it must be very extreme for you to go that far….not that I blame you, he gives me the creeps, and it really shows how….how good Harry is being able to look him in the eye, even if it is every couple of weeks."

"I submitted my findings to the staff at Blackgate on my way out the door," Harry told the girls. "They're going to have to piece together what exactly he is. Of course, every time I talk to him, you find new questions. He's obsessed with Batman, I've noticed. Which really makes me wonder if they had a run in, in the past."

"Batman has run-ins with a lot of people," Veronica said, shrugging. "There are a lot of criminals in this city, unfortunately."

Both of the girls smiled and a long pause followed before everyone ordered their lunch. Time passed, before the settled back down at the table, the lunch having been delivered to them.

"We were just talking about some big charity events to close out the summer," Sapphire commented to Harry. "You know of the big one for the Fourth of July, but that's been hijacked by the Gotham City government. Hill is looking to rehab his image after the Clock King diabolical."

Harry would have thought Hill would have learned some lessons after that one, and maybe he had. Still, Rome was not built in a day, and the politicians would always have fragile egos, which needed to be rebuilt after setbacks. Hill was a born and bred politician and it was hard to go against his inner nature.

"Labor Day is going to be a big one," Sapphire said. "Hopefully, we can leave it with a better taste, after what happened a couple of years ago, you know….the Calendar Man."

Sapphire took a deep sigh, and Veronica looked very somber as well. The events of Labor Day 1997 still remained about as fresh as humanly possible in the hearts and minds of pretty much everyone who lived it.

"We should be able to break some records for charity," Sapphire said. "Hell, it's my intention to break the records set for the box office, money wise at least, for the Grey Ghost movie. I still can't believe that many people saw that…thing."

Sapphire remembered watching the old show, in re-runs with her father, every afternoon after school. It was one of the few things they shared together, where her father was not too busy, with business, when she was growing up. It agitated Sapphire how they would take a property, and spit on the spirit of the franchise.

"So, have you had a chance to see the biggest hit of the summer?" Veronica asked.

"I haven't had the pleasure," Harry remarked in a very dry tone of voice.

"Well, I don't normally advocate torture," Sapphire admitted. "But, you should really see it, just to say you had, and just to appreciate some of the quality work people put out there, in Hollywood. There are some good movies, even though this isn't one of them."

"Maybe, I'll rope Amanda and Emily into seeing it this weekend," Harry said. "You know, they would rip it apart, and it would make the experience much more enjoyable."

Everyone did look forward to the Fourth of July though, and the big celebration in Gotham City. Harry hoped very much though the Holiday Killer did not make his mark, maybe if Harry was lucky enough, he could be snagged and this could be over. Another small target had been attacked on Father's day. The biggest hits so far had been Johnny Vitti and Chief O'Hara.

They were all waiting for another bomb to drop, it was just uncertain what the bomb was, that was going to drop.

* * *

 

Harry returned back to the Penthouse, after his lunch date. As always, a gaggle of girls moved around the Penthouse, talking with each other, interacting with one and other. Harry came across Amanda and Emily, who met him. Amanda handed him an object.

"The key, as promised," Amanda said.

"Excellent," Harry answered.

Harry leaned in and kissed Amanda on the lips. She looked very pleased with her reward. Also, though, in spite of the reward, Amanda had a few questions, and a very large number of concerns to go along with those questions.

"I don't know what you intend to do with the key, though," Amanda said. "I mean, what does a key like that go to, anyway?"

Harry answered with a smile. "I intend to find out though."

"Well, you're the one who finds out this stuff," Emily said. "Ella didn't even know she was carrying a key around to something. You think Bertinelli had some kind of lockbox which could implicate some people or something?"

"Yes, I think it was," Harry said.

Bruce mentioned he came across some goons ransacking Bertinelli's apartment a while back, and there were going to be a lot of problems, to be honest.

"You did well," Harry informed the twins. "And I have found you a mentor for your school."

"Oh, really who?" Emily asked.

"Now, that would spoil the surprise," Harry said.

"Come on, can't you just give us a hint?" Amanda asked.

Harry just smiled a mysterious smile and gave both of his sisters kisses on the cheek. The only time he saw them so flustered, was during the entire concert thing with Alison Blaire, where he teased them about not having tickets, only to reveal he not only gotten tickets but backstage passes as well.

Sleeping with the star of the show gave someone many perks and benefits. Harry pulled away from the flustered twins, to make his way over to the other side of the room. A group of girls hung out, after a very obvious training session. Rebecca, Lois, Artemis, Jade, Ella, and Lyta sat around on the couch.

"Welcome back," Lois said.

"Thanks, Lois, it's good to be back," Harry said. "I take it you girls are working hard."

"Well, we have to work hard, to keep up with Lyta here," Rebecca said.

"I told you, don't get upset when I spar circles around you," Lyta said. "I've been training since about the time I can walk. That's a very long time."

"I know it is, but one day, I want to get good enough where I can at least hold my own with you," Jade said.

Harry noticed all of the girls wore the watches they developed, which Harry found to be a very good thing. They would be very useful, just in case some of the girls decided to pull a Rebecca and Lois and go off on some kind of side mission. And one of the girls who were most likely to do so.

"How are you holding up?" Harry asked.

"Fine, I guess," Ella said. "Thanks for giving me the place to say, but I'd feel a lot better if the people who did this to my father were rotting in prison….."

Ella stopped herself short from saying, or in the ground. She took in a deep breath and looked Harry directly in the eye. Harry just put a hand on Ella's shoulder and caused her to calm down. Something about his touch felt very warm and very calming to Ella, she could not put her finger on precisely what it was.

"They can't evade the law forever."

"I don't really have much faith in the GCPD, though," Ella said. "There are some good people there, but way too much corruption for them to overcome. I heard my father, when he thought I wasn't listening, talking about them. Some of them are worse than the mobsters….."

"Things are changing, and give them a chance to change," Harry remarked.

Ella didn't know what to say. Her mouth became increasingly dry, and she moved over to get a drink of water. Maybe they were, but people tried to change Gotham City in the past. They eventually became corrupt themselves trying to fight the corruption. Ella wondered why her father stayed in Gotham City sometimes.

Jaime stepped off of the elevator, and Harry walked over towards her.

' _Let me guess, you ran into her again,'_ Harry thought.

' _Yes, I did,'_ Jaime answered. _'Twice in the past couple of weeks, but still, at least we've been able to verify she's more than a figment of your dreams. Why do you think she's shown up.'_

' _Something has drawn her to Gotham City, I believe,'_ Harry thought.

' _You don't suppose that something might be you, do you?'_ Jaime asked.

Harry just gave one of those smiles from the other end of the bond link. Times were going to get interesting, and Harry was certain the only reason why Jaime came across this girl, was because of how similar the two of them were, being distaff counterparts of each other.

' _Thanks for the heads up.'_

* * *

 

Whisper A'Daire stepped into a darkened building. Disgust flooded the woman's face, after the meeting with Maroni, and Maroni's attempts to be a gentleman just creeped her out even more than most people trying to hit on her. Still, Whisper had a role to play, as the second co command for Intergang. She waited for her true masters to show up.

Two figures stepped in, one remaining to the shadows. The other revealed herself to be Nyssa al Ghul. Whisper descended to one knee before the Daughter of the Demon.

"Maroni and Mannheim have made a deal," Whisper commented. "And Zucco is back in Gotham City."

Nyssa considered what had been said for several minutes. Whisper waited for the words from her Mistress.

"This is very troubling," Nyssa said after a moment. "Do you have any headway on who is backing Intergang, and given them these extraordinary weapons?"

Whisper gave a sigh in response. She had been sent to Intergang, as a member of the League of Assassins, underneath the direct supervision of Nyssa al Ghul, in an attempt to move up the rankings. Unfortunately, she ran into some roadblocks along the way.

"I've moved a fair bit up the hierarchy," Whisper said. "Mannheim hasn't shared anything with me, and neither has Edge. Edge only told me not to worry about it, because everything is taken care of."

Nyssa did worry about it.

"I do have information about a pipeline between Metropolis and Gotham City that the League want to know about."

"Thank you," Nyssa said. "You've been very helpful so far."

Whisper left to please and lived to serve her mistress, the Daughter of Ra's al Ghul.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on June 14** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

**The League has their own nefarious plans which they are working. And things are heating up once again in Gotham City.**

**The Joker tries his normal head games.**

**We continue to work with what Bertinelli was up to what he was killed. Which is the definition of a long term plot.**

**Until Wednesday where Chapter 300 is posted.**


	300. Fireworks

**Chapter Three Hundred: Fireworks**

* * *

 

Gotham City Fourth of July celebration went around the corner as quickly as possible. Harry took a few seconds to just enjoy the atmosphere, the people around him, and also just the fresh hair. The feeling of the atmosphere in Gotham City made Harry look pretty happy.

He stood side by side, joined by Kara and Diana. Both of them stood on either side of him, with Kara attiring herself in a nice red dress, and Diana wearing a nice black dress. The three of them stepped into the picture and looked at the decorations. One thing showed itself, the people in Gotham City proved they would not live in fear.

A dark cloud hung over Gotham City, unfortunately, with Harry keeping his eyes open for the potential of the Gotham City cop killer showing up in Gotham City. So far, no hint of the man, but Harry figured he would be away from the festivities. Only time would tell whether or not the Cop Killer decided to show up or not, but Harry braced himself.

' _We're all here, and the GCPD is out in full force,'_ Dinah thought.

' _Of course, him targeting someone else, away from all of us, means that any targets would be opened,'_ Barbara thought. _'Maybe he doesn't want to run the risk of being caught or not tonight.'_

Harry did not know. He looked for three of the women who were among the most responsible of putting it together, just like most of the charity events in Gotham City. Veronica, Sapphire, and Kathy, well Harry noticed both Kathy and Sapphire. Both of the heiresses moved over, with Sapphire throwing her arms around Harry and giving him a kiss.

"Hey, so what do you think?" Sapphire asked.

"You know, you always do a good job," Harry said. "How did your press conference go, Kathy?"

"Pretty good, I've educated a lot of people I think, through my experiences, "Kathy said. "If there's anything good that comes with this mess, it's the fact I prevent one person from falling into the trap. I'll sleep a lot better at night, I'll sleep a lot better if the con-artist who did this was captured."

Last Kathy heard, Doctor Somnambular disappeared somewhere into Eastern Europe. He had contacts in there, rumored to be built up during the days of the Cold War. She did not have the resources to find him, but one day, someone would find him. Kathy kept her ear to any information about similar cons, using the Internet. The Doctor pulled a few cons like that over the years.

"I'm glad you're doing something like that," Harry said.

"I am too," Kathy agreed. "Common sense is something we could all use a reinforcement on, to be honest."

"Be careful now, common sense isn't as common as it used to be."

Kathy and Sapphire turned around, just in time to see Selina move in, and Faora, under the guise of Alexandra Potter, joined her. Selina smiled, and she leaned in, to steal a quick kiss with Harry.

"Don't worry, Alex warned me to be my best behavior," Selina said. "So, that kiss is the only thing I'm going to be stealing tonight. Although there are several willing customers moving around."

Harry smiled and gave Selina a disapproving look. He caught a glimpse of Oswald Cobblepot turning up out of the corner of his eye. Cobblepot gave Harry a very wide path, not that Harry mind. Harry leaned in and kissed Selina one more time and squeezed her ass.

Selina and Faora disappeared into the crowd to interact with some of the people around the area. Harry looked towards Veronica, who made her way to the podium. More people arrived, and Veronica prepared to give a speech. She looked at a piece of paper.

"Thank you for all coming, for one of our best turnouts ever, for this Fourth of July celebration," Veronica said in an excited voice. "We are the most amazing people in the world, the most resilient in the world, we the people in Gotham City. There have been numerous events over the past couple of years which tested our resolve."

Veronica took in a deep breath, and a smiled deep in response.

"Our resolve have been tested, and we passed all of the tests," Veronica said. "We are going to stand together tonight, being the best we can in Gotham City. Today is a day where we celebrate both a birth of this country and the spirit of the people of Gotham City."

Everyone cheered in response.

"We are going to keep standing, we're going to keep testing our resolve," Veronica said. "I could tell you all of the ways which Gotham City remained strong, but why do I need to tell you, when you all can show it. I'd all like you to consider the fact that despite our differences in income, religion, background, and race, we are all Gotham City, and we all make this city great. Just remember that we're all in this together, and we're not going to let tragedy define us, or take us down."

Veronica took in a deep breath in response and smiled. Everyone cheered, with Kathy and Sapphire being two of the loudest of them all. She took her place on the stage and moved around, where Sapphire greeted her from the bottom of the stage.

"You thinking about running for office, Ronnie?" Sapphire asked.

"No, I'll be the evil power behind the shadows while Harry runs for Mayor in Gotham City in four years," Veronica joked.

Harry responded with a smile and looked over towards her, with a look of mock outrage. "And what makes you think I'll ever run for public office?"

"Well, I think you might be the only person who could somehow win without putting one ounce of effort into their campaign," Veronica said.

Harry smiled and Veronica leaned in, giving Harry a brief kiss on the lips, and pulling away from him. She had a lot of people to talk to and one of the people stepped in front of the picture, that being Ferris Boyle.

"You sure you're not trying to defeat me in the running for the Gotham City Humanitarian of the Year, running?" Boyle asked.

"Well, I heard a rumor you already have a place of honor in your mantle cleared out for the award," Veronica said. "I think all of us inspire the best of each other, and there are no awards needed to point that out. I'm sure you'll throw your weight beyond a couple of big donations."

Boyle did not confirm nor deny anything. Harry watched the area. Falcone stepped over the only member of his family there. Sofia and Alberto could not make the trip. Also, Sal Maroni or his father did not show up. Roman Sionis and Cobblepot were there, along with Rupert Thorne. A lot of the mobsters in Gotham City kept things professional, with the coldness in the air.

' _You ever feel like one wrong word is like someone dropping a match in a vat of gasoline?'_ Barbara thought.

' _Trust me, you're not the only one,'_ Jaime thought.

Jaime positioned herself off to the side to keep an eye on Falcone, being his assigned babysitter for tonight. So far, they kept themselves in check. She looked over to briefly direct her attention at Mayor Hill, who had been surrounded by the usual suspects, the members of the Douchebag Businessman Association of America.

It became obvious how while Hill had been calm with them, one person, in particular, looked to be still agitated with Hill over the events at the Gotham City Stock Exchange. Roland Daggett still kept his eyes liked firmly on Hill and if looks could kill, Hamilton Hill would find himself six feet underneath the ground.

' _Well, there's a pretty big chance that the fireworks will start before the real fireworks start,'_ Dinah thought.

' _I hope not,'_ Harry thought.

Cobblepot, Sionis, Thorne, Falcone, that entire gang had enough sense to keep their rivalries to themselves, at least for one night. Harry thought it was particularly interesting how Maroni, one of the most hot-tempered mobsters of the lot, did not show up. Given how he and Falcone worked together a lot as of late, Harry figured he could not stay.

"Doctor Potter?"

Harry turned away out of his thoughts, and he had been caught off by surprise, just a little bit. The redhead green-eyed woman showed up, practically out of nowhere. She dressed in a very nice black dress which hugged her figure. Harry noticed by the looks of her, she appeared to be about around his age.

It was the girl of his dreams, literally. She bit down on her lip, looking nervous.

"This might seem weird, but I've been dreaming about you for a long time," she said. "My name is Jean….Jean Grey."

* * *

 

Most of the very interesting activity in Gotham City happened on the exact opposite side of town, but there were still some very interesting activities happening elsewhere in the city. One of lower members of Thorne's organization stepped outside of a penthouse, carrying an envelope in the palm of his hand. He had been fairly high up in his corner of Gotham City. Compared to Thorne and the Crime Organization overall, not so much.

A dark haired man, with graying hair, looking very worn out, and about thirty years older than his true age, stepped into the area. William Earle, the man who once helped run Wayne Industries, looked like he had seen better days. The man made sure to hold onto the wall when walking. A few drinks had been had.

"Mr. Earle, I hope you and your associates will hear my proposal," the crime syndicate member said ."And only understand, we're doing everything that's best for business, and nothing more."

Earle's mouth curled into a toothless grin. Proper dental hygiene went the other way, ever since he had lost control of Wayne Industries.

"I'll pass the message along," Earle said. "And I'll see what they can do. Naturally, I'm only one cog in the machine, but….you drive a very interesting bargain. And Black Mask and Penguin…"

"Both bad news, both very bad news."

Earle did not pay attention to the comings and goings in the Gotham City criminal underworld, feeling a little bit more sorry for himself due to recent misfortunes. Lionel gave him the cold shoulder, and Earle did not have a chance to join the rest of the group, in the last couple of functions.

After, Alexa Luthor froze Earle out, when he tried to bounce back at the failures at Wayne, by taking a nice cushy spot at LuthorCorp, the Gotham Division, that was the end of the road for him. The bitterness seeped in through Earle's mind and make him very angry.

"So, that big fourth of July thing, sounds like everyone who is anyone is supposed to be there?" the organization member asked.

Earle hiccupped for a second and the bitterness set in for another couple of minutes. He used to be someone, but now, he was less than nobody. The failure happened, and Earle found himself less than important, in the general scheme of things in Gotham City.

"Mr. Earle, you're going to bounce back," the mobster responded, patting Earle on the shoulder firmly. "You can take that one to the bank."

"Yeah, we'll see," Earle responded a moment or so later. "And do you have what I wanted?"

"Yeah, sure."

The mobster put the bag into Earle's hand, and Earle put an envelope into his hand. Earle pulled it out and a very expensive bottle of booze came out of the bag. Earle opened up the bottle and put his lips to the handle, drinking it, like a nursing baby. He sucked down the bottle for a few seconds.

The booze on Earle's breath pretty much showed this was not the first drink he said.

"I better make a showing tonight," Earle said.

"Are you sure you should drive after you've been….you know?" the mobster asked. He stopped and shrugged. "What the hell am I saying? I'm not your mother!"

The two men shook hands with one and other and parted their separate ways. It had been very rough in Gotham City over the past couple of months, and as the summer went on, the syndicate member thought things would get even rougher. At the very least, he would have his health.

The man stepped into the alleyway and came across a figure submerged in the shadows.

"I must have missed my intended target," a disguised voice said in a very harsh whisper. "It's no matter, you'll do perfectly nicely."

The mobster's mouth opened, with no screams coming out. A gunshot followed, and the mobster dropped to the ground, without another word. The sound of him hitting the ground echoed for all to hear.

Earle heard something fall and made his way to investigate. He saw the mobster, who he spoke to just a minute ago, lying down on the ground. Blood started to pump from the back of man's head, and Earle looked down at him, breathing heavily.

"Oh shit!"

Earle looked at the man at his feet, dead. It had not been the first time Earle stood over a dead boy, but this time, he had not been responsible for this man's death. Earle took a deep breath and kept looking at the man in question, breathing heavily.

The drunken Earle stood over the man, just as the GCPD arrived. They had drawn the short end of the stick, not being able to attend the Gotham City Fourth of July celebration and looked very surly as a result. Both of them approached Earle, and Earle's hands started to shake.

From the distance, the Holiday Killer watched, from a safe distance, fingers clutched together. The man slipped the gun back into his bag.

' _I'll get him next time.'_

* * *

 

Jean bit down on her lip very nervously and rightfully so. Rarely, someone met the man of their dreams, very literally and very figuratively. Harry took her over to a tent, where a few tables set up. Jean sat down at the table, and Harry sat down next to her.

"I don't know where to begin," Jean admitted.

Harry returned with an encouraging smile with Jean could not help, but trust. She took in a deep breath and thought she could most certainly do this.

"Okay, maybe you should start at the beginning," Harry said. "When you're ready."

Jean struggled to muster up the courage to do this. Several times, she found herself in Gotham City, hoping to run into Harry, and also fearing the fact he might find her. She feared others finding her as well. Jean knew some became very interested because of the powers she held.

"I've been having a lot of weird dreams over the past year or so," Jean answered. "And all of them center around you."

Harry reached in and cupped Jean's hand within his. A few moments passed with the two of them looking at each other. Harry sensed something happening, some kind of power flowing from Jean's fingertips and passing through his hands.

' _You feel that, don't you?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes, I feel it,'_ Diana thought. _'I've never seen anything like that in my life, or felt anything like that.'_

' _Me either,'_ Kara thought.

' _That's because there isn't anything like that out there,'_ Lily thought.

Harry took the words of several noted experts, with many more chiming in. Jean's hand tightened around Harry's, and would not let go, not that Harry took any steps, necessary or otherwise, to correct the fact Jean's hand locked on around his.

"There's a great deal of power in you, Ms. Grey," Harry said.

"Please, Doctor Potter, call me Jean," she said.

"Then call me Harry," Harry replied with a smile. "You have these special abilities, and you don't have a full understanding of how to use them, don't you?"

Jean smiled very nervously and nodded in response. Harry nailed the exact problem on the top of her head.

"I'm currently going to a boarding school for the gifted," Jean said.

"Have they helped you understand the power you're feeling?" Harry asked her.

Jean hesitated for a moment. She made friends at the school, and the administration supported Jean to be perfectly honest. She took a moment to look at Harry. To Harry's credit, he refused to press Jean, and she respected Harry's ability not to step on her toes, and intrude on her privacy.

"I understand Shining Light gives out scholarships to help people….well like me," Jean said.

"Jean, I hate to say this, I've never met anyone like you, in my entire life," Harry said. "It's not exactly a bad thing, you know, but I've never met anyone like you."

Jean understood perfectly what Harry met.

"Something drew me to Gotham City or someone I suppose," Jean said, smiling nervously when looking across the table at Harry. "I had to get away from the Institute for a few weeks because of…some drama that happened."

Harry decided not to press Jean on the situation. A pull on Harry's mind caused Harry to gently look into her eyes. He did a gentle, interest probe into Jean's mind, not going into her deep thoughts, but trying to get a general idea of the outlook and the layout of the woman's mind. Harry found it to be very interesting.

"You, Ms. Grey, are the guardian of something very special, and at the same time, something extremely dangerous," Harry replied a moment or so later.

Jean responded with a nod, it had been hard to hide this from Harry. Something, some cosmic force, linked their minds together. Harry took a moment to slide over to the table to get closer to Jean, without relinquishing control of the woman's hand in response.

"And for the record, you're not the only one who has been having dreams," Harry said.

"I figured as much."

Both of them leaned against each other. The force in Jean's body desired Harry, and it only increased desire Jean would already have for Harry. She brightened the smile at Harry when looking him in the eye.

"Do you think there's something wrong with me?" Jean asked.

The tone had been so blunt, something Harry appreciated. He looked into Jean's eyes and noticed something.

"There are several blocks on your power," Harry said. "Not necessarily sure if someone put them there, in fact, they looked pretty self-imposed. Something traumatic involving your powers must have happened when you were young."

Jean closed her eyes. If the trauma happened, when it was very unlikely Jean would remember at this present time. She held back out of fear. A thought crossed the back of Jean's mind, where she thought someone might stabilize her powers if joining with them.

One of the more vivid dreams of joining with Harry entered Jean's mind. She tried to take a breath and not betray her motions. Did Harry's fingers brush against her thigh now, or was it Jean's imagination?

No, both hands clearly laid on the table in front of Jean's line of sight, so it had been wishful thinking.

"Come by RAO, so we can talk further," Harry said.

"I'll think about it," Jean replied a moment or so later. "It was very nice talking to you, but….well, I have to go."

"It was nice meeting you."

"Yeah, you too."

Jean leaned in and surprised herself by kissing Harry on the cheek. The sparks flew between the two of them, and Jean felt sorely tempted to go in for a more intimate kiss on Harry. Something held Jean back, something prevented Jean from going all in on him.

' _So do you think it might be worth keeping an eye on her?'_ Kara asked.

' _Yes,'_ Lily thought. _'She has great cosmic power, power which can be both beautiful and terrifying in the same way. It would be in our best interests.'_

Harry moved out and watched Jean disappear. Harry could have sworn he saw a shady looking man looking at her leave, but he turned around in the other direction. Almost at the exact moment, when he noticed, Harry noticed the person in the crowd.

' _Very interesting,'_ Harry remarked very calmly to himself.

' _And we've got some bad news,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Yes,'_ Sarah Essen said, jumping in on the bond link. _'Just got word the Holiday Killer struck.'_

Looked like the party was over, just before the fireworks were about to go off, at least for the members of the Gotham City Police Force.

* * *

 

The poor souls working security in Blackgate really looked like they hated their job. They moved through the high-security ring, to do the headcount.

"Hurry up man," one of the guards told the other guard urgently. "All of them are in place, we know all of them are in place, none of them are getting out anytime soon. What's the big deal? Security is very tight?"

They moved closer into the cells, where several of the men. Joker looked at his wrist as if checking a watch. The other prisoners looked very casual.

"Looks like the fireworks are about to begin, boys," Joker said.

"The psycho's right, we can go outside, watch the fireworks, and then finish this up," the guard said. "Please, I'm begging you."

"Look, I don't like we're missing Fourth of July either, but we have a duty," the second guard answered. "The wife wasn't too happy that I had to work, but given all of the credit card bills she racked up when watching the Home Shopping Network, can you be surprised?"

A loud beeping sound caused both of the guards to jump up in shock and awe. One of them almost fell over, landing on the ground.

"Hey, Chad?" one of the guards asked. "Could you check that out?"

A loud beeping sound followed, and the guard rapped anxiously on the two-way radio. The man at the front gate did not pick up, and the guard's agitation increased.

"Chad, can you hear me?"

The two guards walked towards the cells. Eddie hummed a merry tune. The Clock King looked up.

"Right on time."

Those words came with another beeping sound, and the locks on the cell unlocked, including the one with the Joker. The Joker started to laugh in a giddy manner, before picking up a coat hanger he smuggled into the cell and stabbing the guard closest to him in the stomach. Joker pulled the gun off to the side and put it to the side of the guard's head.

"Alright, no one move," Joker said. "This is a jailbreak, see….and unless you want me to paint the walls with this poor little drone's brain manner."

A couple other guards were about to join, only to reveal a punch to the ribs by one of the inmates. The exits opened up and some of the prisoners made their way to horrible freedom.

"Back, unless you want this guy to have less pretty of a face."

Joker caught one glimpse of the guard in the mirror and responded with a shudder.

"On second thought, it would likely be an improvement. Boy, talk about a mug that only a mother could love."

Joker walked the guard over to the side gates, the gun still pressed firmly on the side of the man's neck. The quivering guard whimpered.

"Well, just in time for the fireworks," Joker said. "You wanted to see them, didn't you? Didn't know it would be the last thing you saw before you went up in smoke?

Joker opened up a nearby storage closet with one hand and pulled out a tub. He pulled out several cleaning supplies and poured them into the tub. The guards were dealing with the other prisoners.

"Do you have a lighter, good sir?"

The guard, fearful for his life, handed the Joker a lighter. Joker lit the lighter and threw it into the tub while kicking it out into the hallway.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

The contents of the tub made the Joker's own homemade fireworks, while also blowing a hole in the wall. The Joker dragged the guard outside, and shot him in the back of the head, before leaving into the night.

The moment the smoke cleared, Joker escaped Blackgate prison, and returned to the wild, out to cause more havoc in Gotham City.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on June 17** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

**Well, a lot happens in this chapter. Jean and Harry meet in the flesh, the Holiday Killer is out again, and Joker breaks out to cause some more carnage.**


	301. Wonderland Part One

**Chapter Three-Hundred One: Wonderland Part One**

* * *

"We have a report from the breakout of Blackgate Prison late at night on the Fourth of July. Just as the Fireworks in Gotham City started to come down, the gates of the prison opened up. Several high-profile prisoners, many of them in the Arkham Wing of Blackgate Prison have been let out."

Harry sat on the couch and watched Vicky do the latest report. Karen, Diana, and Faora sat with him. Jaime and Dinah were both out on patrol tonight, trying to track down some of the criminals. Kara found herself on Vicki duty, babysitting the reporter. Everyone sat on pins and needles, not sure what to do next. Only, Harry figured this might cause even more problems in a chaotic environment in Gotham City. Harry, Faora, and Diana sat watching the television. Very few other people were up, some slept off the events of the Fourth of July.

"Some of the prisoners have been recaptured when they escaped Blackgate Prison," Vicki said. "Others have not. Basil Karlo, Garfield Lynns, William Fugate, Edward Nashton, and last, but certainly not least, the Joker, are at large and remain at large."

Pictures of all of the prison escapees showed on the scene. Vicki remained very professional and took a deep breath, trying to avoid looking rather agitated.

' _Everyone is on edge,'_ Kara thought. _'Given who escaped from the prison, you can hardly blame people for being upset.'_

Harry could hardly blame anyone for being upset. He just had a feeling something else was going to happen, and any one of these men being at large, they would cause a lot of problems. All five of these men, being at large, Harry figured hell would about ready to be brought down.

"We are to warn you that all of these men are considered extremely dangerous and to not approach them under any means," Vicki said. "Contact the Gotham City Police Department, and do not approach them, I repeat do not approach them."

' _Unfortunately, it doesn't work when they are going to come after everyone,'_ Jaime thought. _'They're laying low for a while, which I guess is a good thing.'_

' _Maybe,'_ Harry thought. _'Maybe, they're just waiting to the point where they are going to cause the most damage. I doubt they're working together.'_

' _Someone tampered with the security in Blackgate,'_ Barbara thought. _'It has Nashton's fingerprints all over it. I thought it was too easy for him to get arrested. He got sent to the Arkham Wing on purpose, to engineer a prison break.'_

Five of Gotham's most wanted and several very lucky goons escaped the prison. Harry watched the screen and watched the report go to less personal means.

' _So, you're not scared?'_ Barbara asked. _'You know what the Joker said to you, right.'_

' _Yes, we realize what he said,'_ Harry thought. _'He's a very hard one to figure out, I'll give to that much. And he told me that he's coming after me. And the last time we met, he said that Blackgate was just an extended vacation, and he's just killing time.'_

' _Could he have known?'_ Karen thought. _'Could he have known there was going to be some kind of prison break?'_

Harry took a few seconds to think about it. Could he have known about the prison break? Harry guessed the Joker only was just playing games, and just rolled with the punches. The security footage Barbara dug up played on the Laptop. The Joker hid a coat hanger in his cell. Harry wanted to ram his head on the wall in response. Did they really not think the Joker?'

' _We'll be ready for him, and if he tries anything, he'll pay,'_ Faora thought. _'When do you think he'll try anything?'_

' _I've spoken to the Joker about four or five times, and that's enough to know he's a very disturbed mind,'_ Harry thought to himself. _'And his mind, as disturbed as it is, also is very unconventional.'_

Harry could not even begin to figure out how the Joker's mind worked, and hell, the Joker was not unintelligent. He played a very deep game. He took advantage of the first opportunity. Harry watched Joker's attack, grabbing the gun, and then using ordinary cleaning chemicals to create a makeshift bomb, before causing an explosion.

' _He took advantage, and was quick to think on his feet,'_ Harry thought.

' _Harry, Diana, are either of you up?'_ Helena Sandsmark cut in through the communication link.

Both Harry and Diana stood up. They could hear the frantic tone of Helena's voice and could see something was wrong.

' _Something terrible has happened, and….I could use the two of you here,'_ Helena thought.

Diana sensed the distress, very obviously coming from the voice of her colleague, friend, and surrogate sister. She looked at Harry, and the two of them were up, and on their way back at the door. Diana tried to be reassuring, even though it had been hard to be reassuring in this time and place.

' _Fifteen minutes.'_

* * *

Helena Sandsmark sat in the middle of her living room. She received a call just this morning, informing her of something very dire. She called the Gotham City Police Department and Sarah Essen popped up. Helena appreciated someone she could trust.

"It's going to be okay," Sarah said. "We're going to find her, trust us."

Another girl abducted, and Cassandra Sandsmark fit the profile of the girls abducted. Blonde, between the age of eight and twelve, and Gotham's latest serial predator of children struck again, in the midst of all of the chaos which had been going on during the last couple of days.

A knock on the door followed, and Sarah raised an eyebrow.

"I called Diana, one of my co-workers, and….."

"Harry," Sarah said, the second she opened the door. "I guess you know what happened, regarding Cassandra."

Diana's blood ran cold and she turned to Helena. Harry moved over to fix Helena a cup of coffee, maybe something a bit stronger into it. Diana sat down on the couch on one side, and Sarah sat down on the other side of the camp.

"She never showed up," Helena said. "She was on the bus, I saw her off on the bus. The other girls mentioned they saw a man in a funny hat moving around. They said he looked creepy."

Sarah frowned, and Harry looked her right in the eye. She accepted one of the cups of coffee Harry made.

"The man in a funny hat, this isn't a new thing, is it?" Harry asked her.

"He's been sighted at the abduction site at least two of the other girls," Sarah said. "No one has seen his face close enough to get a composite drawing of him. I'm waiting for a call from the police officer who is investigating the bus stop, and we'll see what we can do."

Any evidence could have been swept away in the meantime. Sarah remained hopeful something would pop up, as best as possible.

Helena felt despair in the pit of her stomach. The dread any mother would feel when something like this happened, gripped her body, down to its very being. She took in a deep breath and could feel Diana's hand tighten around her hand. Diana gave Helena a little bit of strength, although there were still some times where the frustration had been very evident.

The phone Sarah held rang, and the police officer called back. Sarah moved over to the other end of the room and talked to the officer for a couple of minutes. Helena waited for the good news.

None of the girls who had been abducted were found, either alive or dead, which caused Helena to feel a mixture of very conflicting and very frustrated emotions.

"The officer said one of the girls overheard the man said he was late for tea," Sarah said. "And the only piece of evidence which had been left behind was a card with strange numbers written all over it."

The picture of the evidence appeared on the Red Sun and Harry got a pretty good look at it. He could see something on the back of the card. Some kind of microchip or something and Harry really did not have any clue exactly what this microchip was. He did notice a serial number on it, so Harry committed that to memory.

"I don't know what to do," Helena said.

"Everything that needs to be done will be done," Diana said, trying to reassure her friend everything was going to be fine, even though she understood this situation seemed pretty grim.

"Cassie is the eighth one," Sarah said. "Eight girls kidnapped by this man, and the most credible accounts indicate that there is this man in the funny hat pulling off the abductions. All of the girls are no younger than eight, no older than thirteen."

"The serial number I wrote down is the best clue," Harry said.

"I'll look into it," Sarah said.

It went without saying Harry would pass on the number to someone else. The make and the model of the card dropped down made Sarah wonder a few things. Was the kidnapper taunting them? Many criminals did this, out of vanity, taunt the members of the law enforcement. Sarah saw it countless times over the years.

She just wished there had been some kind of relief for the mother in this situation. Unfortunately, there had been no relief to be had, in a situation like this.

* * *

Gustav Fiers detested surprises, and he detested wild cards. His plans veered to the more orderly, and the Gentleman hated those who would disrupt a well-placed plan. The people on the island were more than enough, but whoever caused this explosion caused Fiers to grip his hand hard, knuckles whitening.

Fiers looked over and saw several figures, clad in black, moving through the mist. The Gentleman tried to gain some kind of picture of what he dealt with, only to reveal these figures moved very quickly. Some kind of mist hovered from the top of the island, and Fiers strained to see the figures moving about, off in the distance. He took a closer look and slowly came to the realization of who he dealt with.

' _Ninjas.'_

Ninjas, mercenaries who were very skilled, the ancient band of assassins who worked for the highest bidder, Fiers never really liked dealing with them. He preferred professional military men over ninjas, no matter how skilled the ancient assassins ended up being. Fiers pulled a gun out of his side arm and walked over, with several of his men nervously following.

"Show yourselves."

The mist disappeared, the figures disappearing. Edward Fyers stepped in front of his half-brother, looking at Gustav.

"Who sent them?" Fyers asked Fiers.

"No one good," Fiers said. "Stand close by. No one gets split up for any reason. Do you understand?"

All of the men in question gulped and looked towards each other. Nervousness spread over their bodies when moving about. All of them moved shoulder to shoulder, and one of them lifted up his gun, before firing it into the sky.

Nothing other than a bird dropped from the sky. What were these assassins doing?

Fiers pointed to two of his men and motioned for them to head over. One of them bent down to the ground and the other stood to watch the man's back. These ninjas shifted a few of the mines around, so their ability to memorize the island would not come in handy, at least not now.

"Show yourselves," Fiers repeated.

No answer and the Gentleman realized his control had slipped away, having been practically lost in a blink of an eye.

Slade hovered over Deadpool, the blade still etched on his hand. The mercenary just smiled and looked over to the shadows.

"It's nearly done, they're here, and they're going to reward me," Slade said. "I think today is my moment of ultimate triumph."

Why would Slade not be pleased? Did he not intend to be the only man to step off of this island today, alive? He could see Shado and Oliver standing a little bit outside. The men who Fyers and Fiers left behind looked a bit nervous. Deadpool and Slade moved a little bit away from them.

"Whatever they're playing you," Deadpool said. "I hope it's more than enough to cover your funeral expenses."

Deadpool broke out, freeing himself from the ropes, and suddenly caught Slade with an uppercut punch to the jaw. Slade withdrew a blade just at the same time Wade did. Both of them went blade to blade with each other. Neither gave up their position.

"You've been slow," Slade said.

"No, I prefer the term gifted."

Wade flipped over Slade and hurled three shurikens at Slade. The ninja stars sliced into Slade's arm and doubled him over. It allowed Deadpool to come back, with a series of punches which rocked him.

Slade dropped to one knee, bleeding heavily, and breathing even more heavily. The mercenary dropped down but did not drop out. He withdrew a dagger from the sheath of his sleeve and stabbed Deadpool with everything he was worth. Blood spilled everywhere when Slade nailed Deadpool in the side of the leg.

Popping up, Slade grabbed Deadpool by the head and pushed him down onto the ground. The two of them battled each other, with Slade reversing Deadpool's grip and wrapping his arms around his neck. Deadpool pulled himself up. His leg bucked backward and caught Slade right between the legs.

Dripping with blood from the fight, Deadpool pulled up and attacked Slade with reckless abandonment. Each attack further punished Slade, at least until Slade caught him with an attack to the side of the neck. Slade reared back with the blade in hand and plunged it into Deadpool's shoulder and caused a massive amount of blood to be spilled.

The two half-brothers returned, in the midst of this violent fight. Eddie raised a gun to try and break this up. Gustav raised his hand and prepared to watch, at least for this short amount of time, the knife fight which took place between Slade and Wade.

Meanwhile, Shado turned around just enough and used the knife one of the mercenaries held to free herself. She kicked the mercenary in the side of the leg and forced him down to the ground. Shado jumped up high and nailed the mercenary with a huge stomp to the back of the head.

She took the knife and sliced the bonds freeing Oliver. Shado grabbed a weapon and started to fire at them.

"Let's go!" Shado yelled.

Oliver didn't argue. The mercenaries looked at them, firing a few shots.

"Let them leave," Gustav said.

"You're kidding me, right?" Eddie asked. "You're going to let them leave after all of that."

"They won't get that far," Gustav reminded his half-brother. "They have run headlong straight into the ninjas."

Deadpool wrapped his hands around the throat of Deathstroke and throttled the ever living life out of him. Deathstroke pushed out of the attack, violently breaking a few fingers in the process. A doubled over Deadpool groaned, with Deathstroke popping back up with a series of punches which rocked his enemy something fierce.

The mercenaries grabbed Deathstroke on one hand and Deadpool on the other. Deadpool and Deathstroke broke free two times and stabbed several of the men to get to each other until the fight had been broken up.

"Playtime's over, boys," Gustav said.

* * *

After leaving Helena's, as she waited impatiently by the phone because of any news regarding her daughter, Diana and Harry suited up, as the Huntress and Nightwing. They patrolled the area of Gotham City, hoping to find something, anything, which could lead them to Cassie, or any of the other girls who had been kidnapped.

"Criminal didn't really seem on our radar until someone close to us got kidnapped," Harry said. "Given who he targeted, maybe he should have been a higher priority."

"Yes," Diana said.

"I wouldn't be too hard on yourselves," Barbara said. "There are sometimes where there are criminals where you just got to stand back and let the GCPD do their jobs. They've been here for a long time, I think everything is going to be okay if we let them take a crack at solving crimes."

Harry gave a noncommittal grunt in response to Barbara's words. To be perfectly honest, Harry understood where Barbara implied. He did think though this particular criminal looked to veer towards the particularly slippery sort, and the GCPD had a hell of a time pinning this particular gentleman down.

"I've looked into the numbers on the card," Barbara said. "The card was sold as a souvenir at an Alice in Wonderland based theme park called Wonderland. It ran for seven years, up until two years ago, where someone shut it down, thanks to a lawsuit."

"Anything about the microchip?" Harry asked.

"No, but I'm working out that," Barbara said. "No one has brought the land to Wonderland, at least no one officially on the books. The place has been abandoned though for a long time, which would make it the perfect spot to keep someone if you kidnapped them."

The feeling of dread Harry felt reached a new and very impressing height. Officially, Cassie had been missing for three days. Why it took the people at camp so long to inform Cassie's mother, Harry did not know. The first twenty-four hours were always the most crucial as it pertained to child abductions.

"It's the best lead we have now, isn't it?" Diana asked.

"Yes, it is."

Harry realized with the address Barbara sent him, they were not too far. Huntress and Nightwing moved in, taking a trip to the Wonderland amusement park. Neither of them knew what to expect.

The sign leading into Wonderland looked to be broken down, no one painted it for years, thus owing up to the fact that this place had been abandoned for a few years. Harry took a look at a half dismantled roller coaster. Several of the mascots of the theme park presented themselves at the front of the park. Only one major one missed from the picture, that being the Mad Hatter.

Harry frowned, and Diana walked behind him. He moved over and looked at the gates.

"Someone has opened these gates recently," Harry said.

"Not exactly something you would expect at an abandoned amusement park, wouldn't it be?" Diana asked.

Harry shook his head and he analyzed the gates, yes someone opened these gates recently, within the last couple of days. The gates also had been oiled, the hinges swinging open the moment Harry pushed on them.

The two stepped into the amusement park and the moment Harry stepped inside, he got a feeling of the very creepy when stepping into this place. The distorted loudspeaker saying garbled words did not help Harry's thoughts, that this was a very unsettling place to be in.

Harry wondered what would happen next, and the only way to find out would be to walk forward.

No one here, which failed to make Harry's anxiety issues go away.

X-X-X

Cassandra Sandsmark's eyes fluttered open. The poor girl looked confused. She talked to some girls at the camp and then nothing. She found herself sitting at the table, wearing a blue dress and a headband on her head. The eleven, almost twelve-year-old girl's confusion reached a fever pitch.

"Hello, Alice."

Cassie's eyes snapped forward onto the table and she saw the same creepy man in front of her on the table. The same man she met at camp. He wore the same hat, the same patched outfit, looking on with a crooked, toothless smile at her. This man was one of the last things she remembered, now that Cassie's memories came back to her. She passed out and then woke up here when realizing she left her backpack on a bench at the bus top.

"Where am I?"

"Why, Alice, don't you remember," the creepy man cheerfully responded. "You're in Wonderland…would you care for a spot of tea?"

Cassie slid back in the chair, wanting to get away from this creepy, freaky man, as much as possible, and get as far away from him as possible. Cassie's heart rate increased when she looked at the table, across at the man.

"Now, don't be alarmed, Alice, it's alright, it's going to be perfect," the creepy man said. "They tried to keep her away from him. Especially him, the mean man, mean Mr. Earle….he denied you to me, Alice….and now we're together again. Everything is going to be alright."

The creepy man reached across the table and touched Cassie's cheek, slowly stroking it, with a smile of rapture on his face.

"Nothing can keep us apart."

"EW, YOU'RE CREEPY!" Cassie snapped.

Cassie rose up from the table, feeling a little bit dizzy when she did. The creepy man's smile turned into a very sad frown.

"They've done a real job on you, haven't they, my dear, sweet, Alice?" the man asked. "They've worked on your mind, dulled your senses. They've brainwashed you, to make you forget the wonders we've shared together, you and me. They've made you forget how you feel good when you're around me. How I make you feel when you go down the rabbit hole and end up in Wonderland."

The man's lips curled into a smile, with Cassie backing off.

"Don't worry though, sweet Alice," he said. "When you drink some of my tea, you will be as right as rain. It will all be good, you will be mine once again Alice."

Cassie kicked over the table and caused it to fly against the wall, smashing the tea set. She made her way to the door, trying to push it open.

Two large bald men stopped Cassie from reaching the door. They pulled her back, pulling her off. Cassie kicked and screamed, trying to fight these two men.

"I got her, Mr. Hatter," one of the men said in a slow, and deep voice.

"Excellent, bring her back here," the Mad Hatter said. "The bad man took you away from me. But don't worry, sweet Alice, the bad man is going to pay, and you're going to be back where you belong, right in Wonderland."

Both of the men held Cassie back for the Mad Hatter to look at her. His hand reached and brushed the top of Cassie's hair, with a smile. Cassie responded by screaming her head off.

"HELP, THIS CREEPY MAN HAS ME! HELP! HELP! HELP!"

"Alice, Alice, it's okay," the Mad Hatter said. "No one can hurt you, not in Wonderland...I know what's wrong….you want a hat all to your own. Well, that would really be splendid, wouldn't it? You can just ask me, there's no need to be so rude, my sweet little, Alice."

The Mad Hatter pulled out a hat and put it on Cassie's head. The minute the hat came on, Cassie's eyes flashed over in a dazed state.

"Excellent, Alice," the Mad Hatter said with a smile. He lightly touched her knee with his hands. "You will be mine, as it should be, here in Wonderland."

Cassie struggled against this force making her mind fuzzy. The impulse to obey the Mad Hatter and was very strong.

* * *

Diana and Harry stepped into the office area. The instant Harry turned the lights of the office on, he had a case of the shudders. The kidnapper built a shrine of some sort, and Harry figured the shrine had something to do with the personal effects of the girls.

"Cassie's baseball cap, watch, and backpack," Diana said.

The watch Harry gave Helena to give to Cassie just in case something happened. Whoever the kidnapper was, he had the intelligence to remove it. Harry looked and saw pictures of the other kidnapped girls, and many of their personal belongings.

"Time is of the essence," Harry answered. "The girls are somewhere here in Wonderland, but it's a maze of chaos."

"If anything happens to these girls….."

Diana's threat went unsaid, mostly because she could not think of an appropriate punishment.

"I agree, but I hope the worst hasn't happened," Harry said.

Diana and Harrysearched the office, which contained this sick shrine to this kidnappers victims, for any hint on where Cassie or any of the other missing girls might have been.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 21** **st** **, 2017.**

* * *

_The Mad Hatter always leaves you with a sense of creepiness for obvious reasons. And Cassie agrees._

_Some of Gotham's most wanted and dangerous escaping during the last chapter. Thus a tradition begins here in this story._


	302. Wonderland Part Two

**Chapter Three Hundred and Two: Wonderland Part Two**

* * *

News regarding the abduction of Cassandra Sandsmark reached Bruce Wayne through Oracle. Bruce frowned, he listened to the information regarding, and it would be the type of crime which Batman would want to go up against. What caught Bruce completely off guard, happened to do with the microchips. It gave him a sudden sense of deja-vu.

"Are you sure you have an idea who is behind this, sir?" Alfred asked when driving the limo around the corner.

Bruce studied the make of the microchip for a few seconds. The billionaire playboy took a few seconds to look it over. He would have to check a couple of things, but he really could. Finally, they also had a sketch of the man, based on several eyewitness accounts.

"I have a slight idea," Bruce commented a few seconds later. "I'm going to speak with Lucius, to see if my theory is on point. And for once, Bruce Wayne could play a big part of the criminal investigation, and not….."

Alfred nodded, no real reason to say anymore. He knew Bruce took any crime which victimized children a bit more personally than most of the other crimes. Alfred understood the reasons and the fact people like this roamed Gotham City, playing on the most innocent sickened the Wayne Family Butler to the very pit of his stomach.

The door opened when Bruce pulled around to the door. He moved to the front, carrying the briefcase under one hand, and the phone containing both the pictures of the microchip and the sketch of the suspect who kidnapped Doctor Sandsmark's daughter. Bruce swung his arms together, approaching the front entrance. The guard smiled and allowed Bruce inside.

The steps leading to the upstairs area, caused Bruce to look up and saw his personal assistant, Natalia, making her way downstairs. She had her arms overflowing with some documents, folders almost pouring out of her arms when she stopped at the front of the steps. Her smile passed over her face a few seconds later.

"Mr. Wayne, it's good to see you," she said. "I didn't expect to see you here today."

"Hello, Natalia," Bruce replied. "I figured I would stop into the office and catch up with a couple of things and have a word or two about Lucius about some important business. Have you see him?"

"He should be coming down from his meeting right about now, sir," Talia replied.

No sooner did Talia speak these words, Lucius Fox made his way down the steps. He adopted the usual businesslike demeanor someone expected from the likes of Lucius Fox. Lucius stopped just a second and looked towards Bruce.

"Mr. Wayne, I….."

"Lucius, do you think you can spare a few minutes?" Bruce asked. "I have to talk to you about something."

"Yes, of course," Lucius said. "Step up the stairs, and we can talk in the usual place."

The two gentlemen made their way up to the conference room. The two of them stepped into the office, and Lucius double checked to make sure no one walked out of the hallway. One could never be too careful, especially in this current environment. The moment Lucius verified no one had been lingering around, he turned to Bruce.

"So, what is on your mind?" Lucius asked.

"You've heard of the abduction of Doctor Sandsmark's daughter?" Bruce asked.

"Yes, I've heard, and this is the ninth girl in the past three months to be abducted," Lucius said. "This doesn't get nearly as much play as the Holiday Killer, even if I would consider this child abductor to be more dangerous."

"They're calling him the man in the funny hat," Bruce said. "Have you saw the composite? I think I've seen him somewhere before."

Lucius raised an eyebrow and Bruce put the image on the screen in front of Lucius. Lucius hitched in a deep breath when he looked at the person on the screen. The sketch, Bruce was not kidding when he said the sketch looked familiar.

"Mr. Tetch, it looks like Mr. Tetch in some ways," Lucius said. "I think all of us hoped we put that nasty business behind us."

Lucius took a deep breath and a few seconds to compose himself, as obviously, he could see Bruce's look of confusion.

"Jervis Tetch was an inventor, who was around at Wayne Industries during your tours of the world," Lucius said. "You may have seen his name and picture in the old company reports. He claimed he found a way to tap into the human mind, and perhaps he had. His inventions were never completed. He was a very odd individual, and he had his obsessions. And one of them was with the works of Lewis Carrol and the character of Alice…."

Lucius sighed very deeply.

"There was a woman named Alice who worked in Tetch's department as a receptionist," Lucius said. "Tetch had become rather obsessed with her, and there was a very nasty lawsuit due to the fact Tetch stalked and harassed the poor girl. We settled, but not before Tetch attempted to kidnap the girl. Mr. Earle fired him after this, one of his more sensible decisions."

"Surely Tetch would have been arrested?" Bruce asked.

"He would be if he didn't slip through the cracks," Lucius said. "Unfortunately, the GCPD at the time, they couldn't really focus on a simple case of stalking and harassment, especially when there were much bigger fish to fry. It was a mistake though, a dreadful and terrible mistake."

Bruce agreed them missing Tetch was a mistake. He grew more twisted, more depraved, then during this time.

"Did Tetch leave anything behind which might point to where he's gone?" Bruce asked.

"Tetch simply left a ranting note on the billboard the day his firing was announced, saying that all would pay, for keeping him away from his Alice," Lucius said. "I can't be for certain what happened to Alice. The poor girl must have moved to a different city, and changed her name, getting as far away from Tetch as possible."

Lucius responded with a sigh.

"If Tetch is behind the kidnappings, I fear for these girls," Lucius replied.

"Thank you, Lucius."

Bruce's tone turned very disheartened, and he turned around to walk off. Lucius confirmed a lot about what Bruce suspected, and Lucius had a pretty good point. Bruce feared for those girls and feared what would happen if Tetch had his way with them.

* * *

"Tetch, Jervis Tech," Barbara said. "He was an inventor, who claimed he found a way to enhance the capabilities of the human mind. He stalked a receptionist at Wayne Industries called Alice. She filed a lawsuit and William Earle fired him, showing that man does have standards. What's really scary, is that Alice looks a lot like the Alice from Alice in Wonderland, if she was all grown up."

Harry pinched the bridge of his nose. He and Diana looked up and down Tetch's stalker shrine to these young girls. Some of the pictures showed the girls asleep on the bed. Still clothed, but it still looked creepy and gave Harry a very unsettling feeling.

"That's just an awful coincidence," Harry said. "And given many of his targets, he still has traces of that particular obsession."

Harry moved around the room and had a feeling he pissed something. He walked around the office and saw, behind several of the personal effects the girl left behind a blue tack board. A blueprint hung from the tack board on the other end of it.

"Look," Harry said.

Diana looked over to the tackboard, and she saw a house which had been circled in red. She followed the trail from the main office to Wonderland and frowned.

"It's to the East of here."

The two crime fighters walked down the beaten pathway, all the way to the house. They made their way to the edge of a very quaint cottage. On the pathway there, several mushrooms stuck out of the ground. Harry put a hand on the door and turned the knob, very surprised to see the door unlocked itself and allowed Harry entrance without any pause. It also made Harry very suspicious about this fact.

He had no choice, other than to step into the room. Harry and Diana followed, and they saw eight blonde girls, all between the ages of eight and twelve, sitting around the table. Their eyes glazed over, looking very haunted, and very dazed. One of them lifted a cup of tea in her hand and slowly drank it.

Diana's heart sunk to the bottom of her stomach. Cassie did not join them, at all.

"Did he hurt any of you girls?" Diana asked.

One of the girls just barely acknowledged Diana with a very crisp smile. The smile haunted Diana for many reasons, chilling the Amazon Princess all the way down to the bone.

"Why would Mr. Hatter hurt us? He's freed us. He's brought ups here to Wonderland. He's wonderful."

Harry looked at the back of the head of one of the girls and noticed a hair clip down on the back of her head.

' _Look at that,'_ Harry thought.

' _What is that?'_ Diana asked.

The portable palm scanner slipped into Harry's hand. He lightly swiped it towards the back of one of the girl's heads and got a very distinct reading. Harry's frown deepened in response.

' _Some kind of mind control device,'_ Harry thought. _'Well, this could be a problem.'_

' _What could be a problem?'_ Diana asked. _'Do you think you can get it off?'_

" _Not without frying the brains of these girls, and I think we can both agree that's something we can avoid,'_ Harry thought. _'I can work out a way to get them off, but not now. Especially when Cassie is here, somewhere, and I don't even know where to begin to try and find her.'_

A few seconds passed, and one of the girls held up a teapot before addressing another one of the girls with an uncanny, and a very creepy smile plastered across her face.

"Would you care for more tea, Alice?" one of the young girls asked in a robotic tone of voice.

"I would be delighted, Alice," another one of the young girls said.

"Do you think you could pass over some of the tea, my way, Alice?"

"Of course, Alice," another one of the girls repeated.

"Thank you, Alice," another one of the girls said.

The girls passed the tea back and forth, amongst each other, addressing one and another as Alice. The uncanny creepiness they all felt hit a brand new level, as far as Harry had been concerned

"Where is Mr. Hatter, Alice?" Harry asked.

"Oh, he's always with us, you know have to believe," one of the girls said cheerfully.

"Yes, they don't know how Mr. Hatter went down the rabbit hole," one of the girls said. "He took Alice down there, to cause her to join, didn't he, Alice?"

"Yes, he did, Alice."

Both Harry and Diana looked at each other for a couple of minutes. They wondered what they could have meant, by the fact they took Cassie down the rabbit hole. The two of them looked on with each other and they could hear loud voices and footsteps down the way.

"Side exit," Harry murmured.

Diana agreed, they did not want to get into a fight and jeopardize the life of these girls. They moved out the exit, and moved in, to see two large gentlemen, bald, stepping in. They looked to be twins, even though one looked to be slightly taller than the other.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum appeared in front of them.

"We have to make sure they're ready to receive their new friend," Tweedle Dum said. "Mr. Hatter seemed upset Alice didn't want to play his game."

Diana's fist clenched, with Harry raising a hand and putting it on the top of her shoulder.

"Mr. Dee, Mr. Dum, you should know about the new friends we met today," one of the girls said in a cheerful voice.

Tweedle Dee looked at them, with slightly narrowed eyebrows towards one of the girls. Both Dum and Dee turned to look at each other, both of them having the same fear, the fear someone had been investigating things here. Dee stepped forward and crouched down to look one of the mind-controlled girls directly in the eyes.

"They didn't wear uniforms?"

"One of them dressed in a black and blue uniform, he had a dragon thing on his body," one of the girls said cheerfully. "Did he, Alice?"

"Oh yes, Alice, he did, he was curious to learn where Mr. Hatter went."

"Nightwing," Tweedle Dum growled.

"Who was the other one?" Tweedle Dee asked.

"She wore black and purple, black hair, had a crossbow, didn't she, Alice?" one of the girls asked.

"Oh, yes, she did, Alice," three of the other girls chimed in, in unison with each other, in creepy monotone.

Dum and Dee looked at each other, and realized, that the boss would not like the fact that Huntress and Nightwing had been searching around. They were worried about staying one step ahead of the cops, and they managed to cover most of their tracks. Why did Huntress and Nightwing come after them now? The two of them moved outside, to look around.

"Mr. Hatter isn't going to be too happy about the fact they're running around Wonderland," Dee said.

"Yeah," Dum said. "Well, we're going to put them down, and they're going to stay down."

The taller of the two twins cracked his knuckles, showing how significant his actions were. His teeth curled into a grimace, and even Tweedle Dee could feel the pain. His brother intended to cause some pain, blues, and agony, and there were going to be some more trouble.

"Let's find them, make sure they don't reach the Rabbit Hole," Dee said.

"Let's take the secret path."

* * *

Jervis Tetch looked at the girl in front of him, a pleading look dancing in his eyes. The girl sat, her hand shaking. The tea contained a special mix of his own creation, which would make the girls all more relaxed, and more willing to play his games. Jervis looked at Alice.

"Now, Alice, you should drink your tea before it gets stone cold," Jervis said.

Cassie Sandsmark scrunched up her face and took a few seconds. She tried to fight the relaxing mind control. Cassie did not want to be here. She thought of the strength of her hero, Diana, and how she would not put up with this. Cassie could fight it, Cassie could fight it, Cassie could fight it. She closed her eyes, and boy, Cassie could fight it.

"Please, don't fight it," The Mad Hatter said, practically pleading with the poor child. "You're only going to hurt yourself. Please, Alice, I'm only here to make you feel good. This is what you want, and deep down, I think you know it. I think you were abused, victimized, you miss me, you miss what I can bring you. How I can make you feel so good, please, Alice, don't fight it."

Cassie fought it, fought it tooth and nail. The girl's ability and strong will caused her to fight this, one hundred percent of the way. Her hand gripped the cup of tea, and the Mad Hatter reached underneath the table. He twisted a dial on the remote and caused a pulse of energy to erupt.

"Sorry, Alice, but you made me do this," the Mad Hatter said.

"Bastard!" Cassie yelled, through the mind-control conditioning.

"Now, mind your tongue, young lady," Mad Hatter said, wagging his finger in a mock reprimanding voice. "I'm only trying to help you."

The sound of the Mad Hatter's radio came on. Mad Hatter knew his two devoted henchmen, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum had been on the scene, making sure Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice, Alice, and Alice were all content and still drinking their tea, while the Mad Hatter tried to rescue Alice.

"Boss, you're not going to believe this," Dum said.

"I'm in Wonderland, anything is possible," Jervis said.

"There are a couple of intruders," Dee said. "They're looking a lot like Huntress and Nightwing, you know , two of those Gotham City vigilantes."

"Yes, they're the type of ruffians who would crash Wonderland, and steal Alice away from me," Mad Hatter said. He gave a very long and dramatic sigh, clutching a hand underneath his heart. "No, no, no, we must not allow that to happen. We must not allow this to happen, no, my paradise, my Wonderland, it must be intact. Alice cannot be stolen away from me, not again….THEY WERE NOT ON THE GUEST LIST!"

The Mad Hatter slammed his fist against the table.

"I'm so sorry, Alice," The Mad Hatter said. "But, I cannot allow them to take you away from me. Dee and Dum make sure they are brought down. They are not going to cause me any problems….not going to take Alice away, no, no, no, this can't be. Not after that evil Mr. Earle, he took my precious, he took my Wonderland!"

The Mad Hatter took the teapot and hurled it against the wall in a fit of anger. He saw the eyes of his captive look at him. They slightly widened and then lapsed back into a dilated state.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," the Mad Hatter said. "You just sit tight, and I will make you more tea. It's just, these people, they have to be befuddled, and I don't like it, I don't like it all. Oh, Alice, it is very awful, I can't even begin to tell you how upsetting this is, my poor child, my poor, dear sweet Alice."

Cassie continued to roll her eyes while still fighting the mind control. She kept thinking about Diana all the way, trying to push out of the mind control.

* * *

William Earle dropped down to the moth-worn couch in the apartment he had been forced to move in after the house had been taken away from him. Some bad investments caused Earle's bank accounts to be depleted, and Ms. Luthor kicking him out of LuthorCorp caused Earle's stock to drop even further. The only money he had left, he converted into the drinks pouring down his throat.

Earle pushed the gun on top of the table. Not only did Earle get put in a major police investigation, but he feared for his life. The Holiday Killer, he could be after him, after William Earle. Earle did not know why, he did not know how he just knew.

"No, no, no," Earle shuddered.

Earle clutched onto the table, and picked up the bottle of booze while keeping his gun on one hand. The down man drank his sorrows away, but even the refreshing drinks coming from this particular bottle could not keep William Earle's sorrows at bay for too long.

Dragged out most of his ragged breaths, Earle clutched the bottle and put it up to his lips one more time. Just had to drink the pain away, drink the sorrows away. Earle's reddened eyes looked out to the curtain.

Suddenly, Earle looked up and saw Batman appear in the shadows. The man picked up the booze bottle and threw it against the wall. The bottle splattered against the wall. Earle looked up and tried to make his way out of the apartment.

He stumbled drunkenly over the table, and Batman caught him before he fell down to the ground. Batman lifted Earle up by the lapels and shoved him viciously against the wall. The wind knocked out of William Earle when Batman pushed him against the wall.

"I didn't do anything!" Earle yelled.

"I know you have the lease to Wonderland!" Batman growled.

Earle's eyes glazed over a few minutes later, struggling against Batman's grip. He spat in Batman's face, a mistake, as Batman picked him up, before slamming him back against the wall. The wind knocked out of Earle's lungs when he struggled against Batman's grip.

"I sold the lease to Wonderland to pay off some gambling debts," Earle spat.

"Who?" Batman demanded. "Who did you sell it to?"

"I didn't see him, but he was willing to pay a lot of money, and I was not going to answer any questions," Earle said. "He was a guy who worked for some other guy, E. Nygma."

Everything clicked into place in Batman's mind.

"I'm a very important man, you freak," Earle said. "And you're going to pay for knocking me around."

"You're all washed up."

Batman picked up Earle and hurled him onto the ground. The man landed with a very obvious thud, amongst all of the other garbage. The detective left the area. Earle would not call the cops, due to the fact he wanted to keep them away from him, given how he had been in the hot seat.

"Oracle," Batman said. "Enigma acquired Wonderland, and that's….."

"That's how Tetch got it," Oracle said. "Huntress and Nightwing are there at Wonderland, they're investigating where Tetch took Cassandra Sandsmark. He's adapted his technology, to mind control the girls."

Batman's expression darkened. One rule, one rule, Batman never killed, but he had to remind himself of this rule, before going after people who victimized children like Jervis Tetch.

* * *

Nightwing and Huntress stepped towards the Rabbit Hole. Unfortunately, on their way there, they hit a snag, in the form of two very large bald twins, although one was several inches taller than the other.

"Well, Tweedle Dee, and Tweedle Dum," Nightwing said.

"Yes," Tweedle Dum said.

Dee and Dum bumped fists and supercharged each other with kinetic energy. In a blink of an eye, Dee moved towards Huntress, using a blast of super speed to keep her off guard. Diana blocked the attack, and the super fast punches came at her. Diana used her reflexes trained with years of being with the Amazons to block the vast majority of this punches and repel them back a slight amount.

Dum picked up a huge boulder. Nightwing threw a dagger at Dum and caused him to stagger back. Those huge rocket buster like punches came towards Nightwing.

"You are going to pay!"

The larger twin rushed Nightwing. Nightwing dropped up onto the back of the man's head and nailed him in the side of the neck. Dum repelled the attack and grabbed Nightwing before hurling him. Nightwing flew through a fence, and Dum picked up a huge section of the gravel path. He ran it over towards Nightwing who avoided the attack.

Diana waited for Dee to come directly at her, before tripping the man up. Diana grabbed the man as he ran across the other end, hooked him in a waist lock and sent him flying with a suplex which dropped him down onto the ground.

Two huge punches had been avoided by Harry. Harry jumped to the top of a ledge, scissored his legs around Dum's head and flipped him, sending him crashing down on the back of his thick neck

Dee and Dum scrambled to their feet and returned fire with a fist bump. They recharged, and once again, they rushed towards Diana and Harry.

The rapid fire attacks from Dee caused Diana to have to avert her plan of attack. She rolled onto the ground and withdrew the crossbow in a blink of an eye. Dee avoided all of the attacks, causing the bolts to fly directly over the speedy twin's head.

Dum grabbed Harry around the head to try and crush it. A supercharged blast caused Dum to fly back and Harry to nail Dum with a series of well-placed attacks to the abdomen, knocking the wind out of Dum.

Harry and Diana flipped over each other, locked hands in mid-air and launched one and other towards the twins. Diana speared Dum down to the ground, and Dee received a throwing dagger to the face when he tried to attack Harry at super speed.

The two twins rushed towards each other to charge. Harry dropped a grenade on the ground which caused a solid light hologram wall to appear. Dee and Dum smacked headlong into the wall, rattling both of them.

Diana grabbed Dee and dropped him down to the ground, knocking him out. Harry did the same to Dum, slamming him head first onto the ground. The dust cleared, and Harry and Diana restrained both of the twins, preventing them from waking up and recharging each other.

"Well, here's the Rabbit Hole," Nightwing said. "After you."

With good faith and determination, Diana jumped down the rabbit hole, and Harry followed. The two of them needed to find both Cassie and Tetch, time was of the essence.

* * *

**To Be Continued on 6/24/2017.**

* * *

**And the Mad Hatter is every parent's worst nightmare. He's….well it's obviously unclear if he's done anything with any of the girls. His mere presence is creepy enough and the way he acts around the girls without any actions. He's a demented individual.**

**Mr. Earle has seen better days. And he gets a visit from Batman.**

**Our trip into Wonderland continues during our next chapter.**

**Until Saturday.**


	303. Wonderland Part Three

**Chapter Three Hundred and Three: Wonderland Part Three**

* * *

Batman scaled the back fence of Wonderland Park. The tracking device flashed in the palm of Batman's hand. He managed to use the archives to copy the technology from Tetch and fashion a way to track him into Wonderland Park. The Detective took a half of a step forward and looked in. He looked back and forth, and no guards.

One step put Batman closer towards the gates. He jumped over the top of the fence and landed on the ground. A metal door stuck out of the ground. Batman looked down at the door and grabbed onto it. The door jammed, refusing to budge. Batman put his hand underneath the door and tried to pull it up.

Stepping back, the Detective noticed a thumbprint hidden on the edge. Batman held the wire against the edge of the thumbprint and started to hack the door. The door cracked open and revealed a set of stairs which allowed Batman to descend down to the steps. The Detective dropped all the way down to the ground.

The dust covering the tunnel showed it had not been accessed for a long time. Batman crouched down onto the ground and moved down to the end of the tunnel. He heard the sound of something grinding on the other side of the door. Batman

The Dark Knight Detective grabbed the edge of the door and pushed it. The chain clicked off and allowed Batman to step inside. He moved through the darkness, and the dust as well. Batman slipped a Batarang out of his sleeve and positioned to throw it.

Blinding red lights clicked on and Batman took a half of a step back. The Detective moved back and came face to face with a large, robotic version of the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland. Those eyes flashed and a large axe pulled out to swing towards Batman.

"OFF WITH HIS HEAD!"

Batman flipped high into the air and dropped down onto the ground. The Red Queen Robot swung the axe towards Batman again. The axe smashed against the wall. Debris flew and choked the area. Batman jumped up and descended down to the rafters. He dropped down onto the back of the head of the Red Queen.

The flash of the axe came inches away from taking a little bit off of the top. Batman clicked the gauntlets into place and grabbed the axe when it swung. A burst of power electrified the Red Queen and short-circuited the robot. The arms swung around back and forth, sending sparks which flew through the air. Batman dodged the attacks and the axe.

The front of the robot busted open and released a cloud of noxious gas. Batman slipped on the gas mask before the gas affected him. Batman dropped down to one knee and hurled something at the robot which knocked the gas valve shut, disabling the robot.

A sickening thud echoed when a piece of wood cracked Batman down across the back of the head. Batman dropped down to his knees, blurred vision. He scrunched his eyes to look at the figure who attacked him from behind. A White Rabbit rose up with a pair of brass knuckles and tried to nail Batman from behind. Batman blocked the punch and caught the White Rabbit with a series of punches which dropped the crazed criminal down to the back of the head.

A dart flew backward and caught Batman on the side of the neck. Batman's knees started to knock together when he tried to fight the drug. He reached for the belt, to try and get an antidote out of the utility belt. Two goons grabbed Batman down across the arms and forced him down onto his knees. Batman made an attempt to break free.

A large bag swung and cracked Batman on the side of the face. The Detective dropped down to the ground. The White Rabbit injected Batman in the side of the neck with another drug. He reached underneath Batman's mask.

"Don't, we must remove it properly," The Mad Hatter replied a few seconds later. "Bring him to the tea room. I wish to speak to him face to face. And keep your eyes out for the other two.

"Yes, Mr. Hatter," the White Rabbit said in a creepy, low voice.

Batman dragged off across the ground.

"Batman?" Oracle asked. "Batman?"

Batman tried to respond in some way, but just a sickening bubble appeared on the side of his mouth. The Detective could not fight the mind-control, no matter how hard he tried. The shivers followed through the body of the Detective.

* * *

Diana slipped down into the tunnel and waited for Harry to follow her. Something very unsettling reached Diana. They might have beaten up Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, but after their encounter with the girls, she knew Tetch was not going to go off without a fight. The woman's hands wrung together and took a couple of deep breaths. If something happened to Cassie, Diana would grab him and break him in half.

Harry stepped around the tunnel and closed his eyes. He sensed something, coming from the other end down the tunnel. One finger pushed down the tunnel and Diana responded with a nod.

' _She has to be okay,'_ Diana thought.

' _She will be okay,'_ Harry mentally replied.

The confidence in Harry's tone made Diana feel really good, although she had to keep her head up. If Diana gave into to emotions, it would put Harry, Diana, and Cassie all in dangers. The two made their way down the tunnel. Harry raised a hand and Diana stopped.

A white rabbit ran down the tunnel, carrying a bag full of something. He muttered in a very crazed voice.

"I'm late, I'm late, oh my, I'm very late."

The White Rabbit looked to have led them down the right path so to speak. Harry slipped a small metal disc out of his finger and flipped it down. The disc attached to the bottom of the bag. Harry leaned back and waited for the White Rabbit to disappear around the corner a few seconds later. He tapped his fingers down against the wall.

"Okay, I got it, he's going to the North Tunnel," Harry muttered

Diana nodded and held the crossbow. The moment she laid eyes on the Mad Hatter, Diana vowed to rip the Mad Hatter in half a second she grabbed onto this guy. He would pay, and pay big time.

"The boss grabbed one of them."

Harry and Diana stopped a few seconds and looked. Four men dressed in suits, with derbies, made their way down the hallway. One of them carried a large case in his hand. Harry followed the progress of them coming down the hallway. They looked like they were going in the same direction the White Rabbit headed. Harry's fingers clutched together, and he walked forward.

"Which one was it?"

"I don't know, but Mr. Hatter isn't pleased with the constant interference in his little tea party."

Diana just narrowed her eyes a second or so later. So the Mad Hatter was very upset about having his little tea party ruined. Well, Diana was going to disappoint him any more, when she crashed the party.

' _You haven't heard from Batman, have you?'_ Barbara asked.

' _We're tailing some of the Mad Hatters goons, and they said that Batman has been captured,'_ Harry thought. _'We're going to follow these guys, see what it's all about.'_

' _Yeah, I thought so,'_ Barbara thought. _'I can't believe they got the drop on him.'_

Nightwing and Huntress stepped behind four of the goons. One of the goons swung around and withdrew a knife to try and attack the people from behind them. Seconds before the knife would have sliced into his adversary, Diana blocked the knife and grabbed the goon around the side of the arm. She picked up the knife-wielding goon off of the ground and slammed him hard against the wall to knock the wind out of him.

Another attack came close to nailing Diana from behind. Nightwing blocked it and blocked the punch of one of the goons. His large frame made it very easy for Harry to take him down and to drill him with numerous quick, rapid fire punches. Each punch knocked the wind out of the goon, doubling him over when he landed down onto the ground.

The goon's breathing increased when Harry whipped the man down onto the ground. Harry nailed the goon with a very intense uppercut style punch which jacked the man's jaw and doubled him over. Harry grabbed the goon's neck and smashed him back against the wall one more time with a very vicious attack. Harry avoided the goon from taking him out and came back with repeated punches to the side of the neck, further staggering the goon. Harry jumped up high into the air and cracked the goon down onto the side of the neck with a huge jumping punch which staggered him back down onto the ground.

The third goon flew at Diana in a rage. Diana blocked the punch and held onto the man's arm, before flipping him to the ground. The fourth goon tried to rattle Diana around the neck from behind. Nightwing caught him with a shot to the ribs which stunned the goon. Harry turned the goon around and pummeled the attacker with rapid fire attacks which rocked the goon something fierce. Harry gripped the goon's head and slammed him down to the ground to knock the wind out of the attacker.

"Where is the Mad Hatter?" Diana asked.

"Follow the White Rabbit," the goon slurred.

Harry did not need to know what to do twice. The goon told him pretty much what they needed to do and what they needed to do, was follow the White Rabbit.

* * *

The first few seconds passed, with Batman trying to wake up from his slumber. He came face to face with a very unsettling face. Jervis Tetch still looked like how he did all those years ago, perhaps older, and perhaps more uncanny. The man peered down, dressed in the hat of the Mad Hatter.

Only a few more seconds passed until Batman realized he had been hooked. His hands remained fastened into the wooden part of a guillotine and the wooden part came down, holding his head down into place. No matter how much Batman struggled against the grip, it had been hard to do.

"You are very rude Batman," the Mad Hatter said. "Trying to intrude on the time I've had, with me and my special friend, Alice. You crashed our little tea party, and you're not invited."

"You need help, Jervis," Batman growled.

"Jervis? Jervis? Jervis?" the Mad Hatter asked, before giggling in a very unsettling way. "I'm afraid you're confused about something. There's no Jervis here, not anymore, there's just the Mad Hatter. I've lost touch with the real world and all of its harsh realities. I would say you would try it sometime, but let's face it, you don't have much time. You see, you've committed a very grave act."

Batman served for something, trying to use the tricks he learned from John Zatara to make a quick escape. All he had to do was keep the Mad Hatter talking.

"You are still angry about being fired by William Earle," Batman said.

"Damn it!" Tetch yelled. "Yes, yes, of course, I'm angry. We could have had something together, it could have been wonderful. I could have caused all of her cares to just fade away, just like that. Snap, boom, bang, right in a blink of an eye. But that mean, that evil, that vile man, he just had to ruin it all."

Tetch responded with shaking his head.

"Alice didn't want anything to do with you….."

"No, no, no, no, no!" The Mad Hatter yelled growing more manic in response. "She wanted something to do with me. What we were going to have, it was going to be special, it was going to be wonderful. I was going to give it to her, her own personal wonderland. It would have been paradise. Oh, sweet, perfect Alice, we were going to have something grand, something very special. And Mr. Earle took it away."

"You need help," Batman repeated.

"Seems to me the only person at a disadvantage, is you, Dark Knight," The Mad Hatter replied. "And no, I don't need any help, not from you, not from anyone else. Why, I'm better than ever, right as rain, better than ever, you can't stop me, I'm here, and soon when Alice understands, everything will be complete."

Batman slowly went to work in freeing his right hand. The Mad Hatter could cut the rope at any time, releasing the guillotine blade and it would have been all over for Batman. The Mad Hatter reached down and grabbed Batman by the bottom of his jaw.

"I do like something about you Batman," the Mad Hatter said. "That cowl, that beautiful, amazing cowl, it's magnificent. It's a marvel…and it will look good on my mantle piece. I've been having a devil of a time removing it. You dare deny the Mad Hatter? Well, I think I shouldn't have a problem removing that cowl without your head attached to your body."

Batman tried not to betray the fact he freed his right hand and was working on the lock which pinned down his head.

"As the Red Queen says, off with his….."

A long bang brought the Mad Hatter out of his words. The gentleman turned around, just in time to see Huntress and Nightwing step inside.

"Alice, you may come in my dear, you're just in time to meet them," the Mad Hatter said. "You two have come all the way to take her, but you can never take her, for she's mine, mine, mine, mine!"

Cassie stepped inside, dressed as Alice and made several slow steps. Diana held the crossbow. Harry lifted a hand up to stop it, and he took one look at Cassie's eyes. Cassie fought the mind-control, she had not been as infected. It must have been her divine heritage which was preventing the Mad Hatter from completely mind controlling her.

"Alice, offer our friends a cup of tea and…"

The Mad Hatter's words faded off in the distance when he realized Batman pulled himself free. The Hatter opened his mouth suddenly, but no words came out of his mouth.

"It's impossible."

One punch from Batman from the shadows knocked the Mad Hatter down to the ground. The Mad Hatter crumpled underneath Batman's attack.

Diana moved over towards Cassie and held onto the headband. She slipped it off of her head.

"Are you okay, Ms. Sandsmark?" Diana asked, trying to act professional and detached.

Tetch tried to crawl away, but Cassie stomped on his hand which caused every bone in it to break. The screams of the Mad Hatter echoed from the force of which Cassie stomped down on his hand. Every bone in his hand shattered from Cassie slamming down into it.

"NO!" the Mad Hatter yelled. "WHY ALICE, WHY!"

"That's for kidnapping me, you creep!" Cassie yelled.

The Mad Hatter sobbed but had been hoisted up off of the ground by the Huntress. He screamed out in agony when realizing this woman could have easily broken him in half. She settled for rendering him completely unconscious and causing him to drop down to the ground.

"The teapot is a remote control device."

Nightwing and Huntress turned around to Batman who lifted the teapot, breaking it open. The tea poured out onto the table, revealing several miniature silver objects swirling around in the tea. Nano-bots of some sort, and also there had been a remote control device implanted onto the bottom of the pot.

"It's how he's been controlling both the girls and his drones," Harry replied.

"The Tweeds did seem pretty well," Diana said.

"Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are career criminals," Batman replied.

They had to figure out what to do. The Mad Hatter had been out, and hopefully, all of these girls would wake up from their long nightmare. With any luck, none of them would remember the scarring ordeal at the hands of the Mad Hatter.

' _Let's hope they have a better future,'_ Harry thought.

"I want to go home," Cassie said.

Diana and Harry nodded, they both understood where Cassie was coming from and she would be going home soon. Harry already sent a signal to Sarah to come in, with the villain and his controlled henchmen taken out. The way into Wonderland might not have been conventional, but that was just how things worked sometimes.

* * *

Sarah Essen stepped into the room and moved towards the downed form of the Mad Hatter. He had been secured, and his mouth taped shut. The evidence given to them would put the Mad Hatter away for a long time, not to mention have Jervis Tetch's name added to several watch lists.

"The others are rounding up the girls, Bullock and Montoya are leading them, along with Yin," Sarah said. "You can come out there."

"Diana brought Cassie upstairs to meet them," Harry said a few seconds later. "I don't think I could look at this guy yet again….I isolated a sample of the nano-bots, but the GCPD is going to have to officially deliver them to RAO, so I can negate them."

The Mad Hatter twitched, he slowly woke up. Casually, Harry backhanded him back into unconsciousness and loosened a couple of teeth in the process, with Sarah conveniently looking the other way at this brutality. To be honest, given the nature of the Mad Hatter's crimes, abducting children, and what might have happened to them, Sarah did not blame Harry for the brutality. She held herself back from doing much worse to this bastard.

"He cracked, big time," Harry said.

"Yes," Sarah said. "I'm curious about something though…"

"How did the Mad Hatter get funding for his technology?" Harry asked.

Sarah replied by nodding, yes, she had been thinking about this for some time. She didn't know how to address it, but she had been thinking about it. Any detective would have that on their mind first and foremost when dealing with a man the likes of Jervis Tetch.

"Someone has been backing him," Harry replied. "I've got my ideas, who had been funding him….couple of big time criminal groups out there who would be very interested in mind control technology."

Sarah answered with a nod. She heard the carrying voice of Harvey Bullock coming from down the stairs. She turned to Nightwing, to convey to him the need to get out of there as soon as possible. No need to do so though, as Nightwing has gone.

"Yeah, we've got them all," Bullock said. "And you found the sorry bastard who did this."

Montoya gave Tetch one of the dirtiest looks possible.

"Did he….."

"Fucking pedophiles," Bullock said. "If it was up to me, I would have their junks cut off…..we better take him in. Read him his rights, Montoya, because I don't think he has any."

Renee Montoya grabbed Jervis Tetch, a truly broken man in more ways than one. One almost had pity for how far he had fallen, from the genius inventor to something like this. One obsession caused anyone to talk.

All remembered a very prominent quote from the Joker. All it took was one bad day to drive a person completely and utterly insane. And Jervis Tetch most certainly had one bad time.

"They're off for observation," Renee said. "They're all dazed, and we need to send them home. I guess the Sandsmark girl, she's lucky enough not to get infected."

"Yeah, good for her," Bullock said, without any hint of sarcasm. "Let's bring him in before I do something I'll regret."

* * *

Helena Sandsmark never left her living room and never left the phone ever since the news Cassie had been kidnapped came in. She anxiously awaited the news, tapping her finger down on the table. The phone rang and Helena snatched it up one ring.

"Hello?" Helena asked.

"It's me," Sarah said. "Cassie's been found, the other girls have been found. They were at Wonderland Theme Park, kidnapped by someone called the Mad Hatter…she's being brought home tonight after she gets checked out. It will be a lot longer than all of the other girls. The Mad Hatter used something to make them bend to his will."

Helena closed her eyes and felt her stomach turn in absolute disgust. The woman felt grateful to have the GCPD out there, working hard, people like Sarah Essen, James Gordon, Renee Montoya, and even Harvey Bullock, they did the best to make Gotham City better again.

"I'll bring her by in a couple of hours," Sarah said. "I just need to get the okay. Tetch is going to be locked up. He's going to need a lot of therapy."

Helena just waved that off. What happened to Tetch, Helena didn't really care at this point. As long as he was off the streets, and Cassie was safe, she didn't care.

A knock on the door followed when Helena finished up the phone conversation with Sarah. She made her way to the door and saw Diana standing at the door.

"Cassie's been found," Diana said.

"I know, Sarah Essen called me a little bit ago to inform me of the good news," Helena replied a moment or so later. "She's going to be brought home soon."

"Yes, once they've verified she hasn't been infected," Diana said. "She didn't seem infected, but they want to be one hundred percent sure Tetch did nothing to her."

Helena nodded, she wanted to verify that as well. You could never have been too careful in a situation like this, especially with the likes of Jervis Tetch, and what he did those girls.

"Karen and Alex, they're working on a way to negate the infection from the other girls, purge them from the nano-bots, or rather the nano-bots from them," Diana said. "Hopefully, they don't remember anything of their ordeals."

Helena nodded in response. Her daughter seemed to come out as strong, just as Helena suspected. Cassie always had been rather strong for her age.

"Your daughter broke every bone in the Mad Hatter's right hand," Diana said.

"Good girl," Helena replied very approvingly. "Thank you….would you like me to make you a cup of coffee?"

"That would be nice, thank you," Diana said. "I actually wanted to discuss something. I think that after the mental durability Cassie showed today, she's ready."

"For training?" Helena asked.

"I know I said that we might be able to wait until she turns thirteen, but she'll be twelve in a couple of months," Diana replied. "Close enough, I would have to say."

Helena did not know what to say. Her daughter was growing up, and that would be a difficult thing for any mother to reconcile in her life. Helena decided it would be time, almost, to just let it go. Right now, to give herself time to think, Helena made Diana a cup of coffee.

* * *

Fiers, Fyers, and their men stepped up to go face to face with a group of ninjas. One of the ninjas, dressed in white, stepped forward. Even the skin showing looked as white as snow, and those eyes looked a very sinister shade of yellow.

If Gustav Fiers had to guess, he dealt with a man who had been albino in nature. Things would look very interesting.

"My name is Dusan al Ghul, the White Ghost," he said. "I'm here on behalf of the Head of the Demon, and I'm after the emerald. A man named Damien Darhk has hired Slade Wilson to acquire it, and I think you know who he is."

"Yes, I'm aware of Mr. Darhk," Gustav replied.

"I want the emerald, and I don't care for anything else," the White Ghost said. "Unless you're after it, then we have a problem."

"No, we're after the formula, the super-soldier formula," Gustav said.

"You can have it if you assist me in getting the emerald from Deathstroke," The Whtie Ghost replied. "Anything else, you can take, up to and including his miserable life."

"And we will kill Oliver Queen," Gustav said.

"I promised that I would give him safe passage home," Edward argued. "Is it really necessary to kill him?"

"I detest loose ends," Gustav said. "No one will miss a man most assume to be dead."

Gustav turned his attention towards the White Ghost.

"You have our attention."

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 28** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_You would say poor Jervis, except you realize what he done and think that he got off lightly._

_Bullock speaks for many in his unfiltered way._

_And thing are afoot on Lian Yu._

_Until Wednesday._


	304. Haze Lifted

There's supplemental content for this chapter on my blog. You go to the Page of Very Important Links, and either the Ascension Archives or the Blog Exclusive content archives. It's Ascension Book 2 Chapter 304 Xtra.

* * *

**Chapter Three Hundred and Four: Haze Lifted**

* * *

Everything calmed down in Gotham City, at least for the moment. Harry knew better that calm was anything other than a short-term fix in Gotham City. Tetch had been brought to justice and this time, it did not look like he would be running. The deranged man locked up and secure caused Harry to feel a little bit better about anything. The other escaped criminals from Blackgate prison, not so much. Harry had to take the good with the bad in situations like this one.

' _One step at a time, Harry, one step at a time.'_

Harry stepped out of the portal leading onto Paradise. He arrived for a couple of reasons. The least of all of the reasons were the duplicate on the island ran its course. Harry needed to replace it with a fresh run to stay with the Amazons and also absorb anything the duplicate learned from the training. Then, Harry needed to visit his youngest daughter and her mother. Azalea and Eliza were doing well, but Harry still wanted to visit them first hand to see how well they were doing. Finally, Harry needed to talk to Hippolyta about a couple of things.

Those ideas in his mind, Harry popped out of the portal. Faora decided to join him on this trip.

' _Karen says the counter-agent to the nano-bots needs to cook overnight,'_ Faora thought. _'All of those girls were be up and back about in no time. Hopefully with a minimal of mental scarring after what they went through.'_

Faora found herself very glad she did not go on this mission and also admired Diana with the surprising amount of restraint she showed in not ripping Tetch's pathetic head off of his shoulders. Faora knew had the situation been reversed, she would have not had the same restraint.

' _Better Diana then you in situations like this?'_ Kara asked.

' _No kidding,'_ Faora thought. _'Tetch is locked up. Maybe he'll get the help he needs if he's willing to accept it. It's not my point to decide, at least not right now.'_

Faora found studying the most depraved criminal minds to be equal parts fascinating and very frustrating, very, very frustrating. The depraved mind belonging to one Jervis Tetch looked among the top of the line of depraved, but naturally, nothing beat the Joker.

Still nothing about him, and for Joker, no news was bad news. He sat out, making them wait, making them sweat, causing them to feel the worst frustration. Harry reached over and touched the hand of Faora. Faora just smiled and leaned in towards her brother, kissing him.

"This is going to be a long summer," Faora said. "One thing we can't accuse this summer of being is lacking excitement."

The duplicate showed up in a few seconds later. The modified spell made sure the duplicate understood its purpose and shelf-life.

"So, ready to get a knowledge dump?" the duplicate asked.

"We're on the same wavelength," Harry replied.

Harry and the duplicate touched hands, and Harry absorbed himself. He learned nothing much had gone on. There had been another brief sighting of what might have been Aresia, but by the time she showed up, they were gone.

' _The longer she's under the control of Ares, the more I worry about her,'_ Donna thought. _'Maybe I'm a fool to think there's still hope for her.'_

' _No, Donna, you're not.'_

Harry moved past, where Artemis moved towards an unfortunate Amazon and engaged her in battle. The general of the Amazon armies kept herself sharp in battle and her blades were about as a sharp as the woman's fighting tactics. Artemis swung her foot underneath the attacking Amazon and took her down to the ground.

"Keep your eye focused on the ball," the Amazon informed the woman she fought. "One small misstep….."

The Amazon jumped up instantly and dove towards Artemis. One could not deny the woman's very intense nature, with Artemis blocking the furious attacks. The two blades clung together with Artemis pushing her adversary back down a few feet. The woman popped up in a vain attack to nail Artemis with a glancing attack with the blade. Artemis blocked the attack with the blade and put her opponent down to a kneeling position with all of the fierceness you would expect.

"Harry!"

Harry turned around and noticed Lily standing there with a smile. She dressed in a form fitting toga which stretched against the redhead's body. She moved over and threw her arms around her son, kissing him. Harry returned the kiss, wrapping his arms around his mother's waist and lifting him off of the ground.

"And it's good to see you as well, Faora."

"Don't mind me, I'm just coming to give Eliza and Azalea their latest check-up," Faora said.

Harry moved into the room and smiled. His daughter crashed down in the crib on the island. Eliza smiled and rose up to her feet.

"You shouldn't stand any more than you have to," Faora said.

"Actually, I feel a little bit better today," Eliza said. "Harry, it's good to see you."

Eliza leaned in and planted her lips firmly on those of her daughter's father. The woman looked very beautiful today and had managed to work herself back into shape, even though Faora discouraged her from pushing herself too hard.

"She looks like an angel," Harry said.

"Well, they are all when they're asleep," Eliza said. "She takes after her older sister, she's not too fond of naps….and well, finally she gave up after I managed to rock her to sleep, at least for now."

"Eliza does take after her father as well," Lily said. "Very intelligent for her age, and also doesn't like naps, much like Harry did at that age."

' _The twins were the same way,'_ Rose thought.

' _Now Mandy likes sleeping in too much, especially on the weekends,'_ Emily chimed in with a little grin. _'At least until I dump a bucket of water to get her ass out of bed, so we don't be late.'_

Harry smiled at the antics of his sisters, with Amanda protesting. Lily just smiled and looked at Harry. "Come to think of it, I don't think Rose and I were much better when were younger, we might have gotten pretty cranky around naptime as well."

He smiled and moved down to brush the lock of hair out of his daughter's eyes.

"Have there been any outbursts?" Harry asked.

"No, actually not as many as you would think," Eliza said. "She's settled down after the first few months, and I'm sure being on the island and with a lot of people who are able to take care of her works very well."

"I'll be back later," Harry said, smiling.

He leaned in and gave his daughter a brief kiss on the forehead. She stirred awake slightly but settled back to sleep at Harry humming something underneath his breath. Harry smiled and lightly pulled the blanket over Lea's head.

' _Did you just use a sleeping spell on your daughter?'_ Karen asked.

' _No, it was merely a soothing limerick,'_ Harry answered. _'I'm going need to talk to Hippolyta. Hippolyta….are you….'_

' _I'll be out in a little bit, meet me outside of the palace,'_ Hippolyta thought.

Harry left his daughter in the care of her aunt, grandmother, and mother. Without too much more effort, Harry made his way to the palace and waited for Hippolyta to descend the steps. She walked down the steps in all of her regal glory in a very nice and elegant purple gown. The woman looked quite graceful when coming down to face Harry, a bright smile passing over her face.

"Good to see you as always," Hippolyta said, wrapping her arms around her husband and kissing him. "and I've heard what happened…with Cassandra. Diana mentioned something to me when we talked earlier, but I understand you want to talk to me a little bit more in person."

Hippolyta and Harry walked a little bit more until they had as much privacy as they would get on this island.

"We're going to ask her mother, but I think it's time for Cassandra to enter her training here, on Themyscira," Harry responded.

Hippolyta nodded in response and mulled over several of the possibilities. On the one hand, she thought it would have been inevitable this day would come. On the other hand, Cassandra Sandsmark would be ready to take a huge step and many would not be ready for it at this time.

"I know what you're thinking," Harry said. "It's a big step for her to take. I don't think I would have even suggested it, and neither would Diana if she had not done so well with the Mad Hatter and staving off his mind control. She's ready, to begin."

"I'll discuss the matter with Helena, but as always, I appreciate your judgment," Hippolyta said. "And if you think strongly about something, there's a pretty good chance your thoughts are on point. We will see what we can do with arranging Cassie some training around her schooling. And I'm certain Helena will jump at the opportunity to visit the island one more time."

Hippolyta knew Cassie reached the age where most Amazons started their training. She would have to see the girl up close in battle, but Hippolyta was certain Cassie would be ready for an early Ascension Day ceremony if she played her cards right. Things could prove to be interesting when these new Amazons reached their full potential.

* * *

Good news proved to be a necessity these days in Gotham City, so the morale of a very frustrated group of people could be busted. Commissioner Peter Grogan stepped up, standing by with Mayor Hamilton Hill. The members of the Gotham City Press Corps stood by in attendance, no doubt ready to digest every single word ready on this day. They were ready, willing, and the members of the GCPD saw themselves ready to answer everything. Grogan looked like he practiced this speed in his mind.

James Gordon, Sarah Essen, Harvey Bullock, Renee Montoya, and John Jones, they were all officers of the law, ready for action. Also, Howard Branden of the Gotham City SWAT team stood, hovering in the background. His SWAT guards surrounded the area, always ready to pounce on some unsuspecting person like the very obvious thugs they were.

"Thank you for coming here today," Grogan said. "I have some good news. The nightmare for several young girls, between the ages of eight and twelve, it's finally over. And they are being returned to their parents. I would like to thank the people of RAO Industries, for assisting us with bringing the girls out of their trance, caused by Mr. Tetch. Tetch is being held at an undisclosed location for rehabilitation as we speak, and we hope to get to the bottom of his many mental issues."

"Sir, do the girls remember anything about their ordeal?"

"This is a closed investigation as far as I'm concerned," Grogan said. He waved off the many protests of the members of the press when they tried to get the information out of him. "I'm sorry, but that's just the final word I have on it. These girls and their families, they would all want to get on with their lives."

A couple members of the press grumbled when they heard these answers, even though there were a few members of the press who decided to go with these answers because it made the most sense. These girls went through a terrible ordeal.

"Recent events, the kidnappings, and the recent prison break at the Arkham Wing at Blackgate Prison have proven now more than ever the very real necessity of being vigilante, here in Gotham City," Grogan said. "Every day we wake up and we see brand challenges around the corner. And I, as Gotham City Police Commissioner see it as my responsibility to find a solution for these challenges."

"What about the accusations the GCPD is not focusing enough on crime and focusing more on the vigilantes like Batman?" Jack Ryder asked.

"Mr. Ryder, it's the very same thing according to the law," Grogan said. "Batman is a vigilante who inspires others to think it's an acceptable practice to dress up and haunt the streets of Gotham City."

"Is it your own personal opinion Batman and other such vigilantes should be locked up then?" one of the reporters asked.

Grogan spent the next moment clearing his throat.

"It's not my opinion that's relevant, it's the fact the law states that those who are not deputized by Gotham City, are considered vigilantes," Grogan said. "If Batman wishes to be a help, he should take off the cowl, and put on a police uniform. There's a procedure here, and it's what makes the world work."

Grogan took a few seconds to compose himself. Every single press conference ended up with him being grilled about Batman. It became very old.

"Jervis Tetch was the subject of this press conference, and also, with the help of Mayor Hill, and several other like-minded citizens in Gotham City, we're going to do everything in our power to get Arkham Asylum re-opened," Hill said.

"Yes," Hill replied in a voice which was oddly subdued. "After the breakout at Blackgate, and the criminals that are at large, I think we can all agree a more secure location for the criminal elements in Gotham City is unfortunately necessary. I will be working together to make this happen by the year 2000."

Hill made a pretty bold promise, given that there were less than six months left in the year to make something like this happen. It seemed evident something was going to have to break sooner or later, and no one knew what it would be. The press and the people of Gotham City both waited.

* * *

Artemis Crock looked at the television screen, depicting the Mad Hatter. Cassie would be okay, Artemis knew about this much. Most of the other girls, they would be okay after the ordeal as well. A bit shaken, granted, given what just happened.

"It could have been me," Artemis said.

Lois, who had been half paying attention to the television, and half texting her sister Lucy, turned around on the other end, raised eyebrow. Rebecca, Ella, and Lyta all stood up, and Jade and Jessie all looked at Artemis as well.

"It could have been me," Artemis said. "A blonde girl, between the age of eight and twelve. Cassie was just in the wrong place, it could have been me."

"That's…really scary to think about," Lyta said. "Cassie's fine though….at least she said she was when I came to visit her. Some of those girls were under mind control for months though."

"That bastard," Lois said. "Something like that…"

Lois decided to keep her thoughts to herself about what could have happened underneath the mind control. Some of the girls had a more innocent perspective of the world than Lois did. Her thoughts, stood out very dark.

"I'm just thinking, Harry, encourages us to stay together," Artemis said. "He's not the only one though, Mom does it, the twins do it, Diana…Dinah…everyone here does it, and it's for a very good reason when they do it, you know. Because of things like that."

"It's very dangerous out there," Ella answered in a very somber tone of voice. She sighed in response and put a hand lightly on Artemis's shoulder. "And if you listen, strength in numbers were a good thing, the but…that guy was able to snatch a girl out in the middle of a crowd, and by the time anyone realized it, he was gone."

"That's scary," Rebecca said with a shudder.

"Yeah," Artemis said. "That just proves, there's a lot of sick, twisted people out there."

"I won't let anything happen to you," Jade said.

"You don't know that," Artemis said.

"She's right," Jessie said. "You can't be everywhere at once, Jade."

Jade just turned around, slightly sour, and folded her arms in response. It had been true, she could not be everywhere at once, at the same time. Someone would have put their hands on Artemis though, and Jade would have broken their arm. If they were lucky, if they were lucky, Jade would have broken their arm.

"I'm glad it wasn't you," Jade said. "Mom's gone through a lot, with what Dad tried to do."

Artemis nodded in response, they did not need to go through that once again. Their father, still out there, and still a potential threat to them. Neither girl really knew what they could do at this particular point. All Artemis could do was put a hand underneath her chin, tilt her head back and sigh.

' _This is a mess,'_ Artemis thought.

"I feel bad Cassie had to go through this, though," Artemis said. "No one, no one, deserved to go through this, being kidnapped. She must have been terrified out of her mind."

"She wouldn't admit it though," Lois said.

Lois would have been freaked out if some weird guy in a hat. It always terrified her when Lucy broke free when the two of them were out in public, running off and doing her own thing. There was a pretty good reason why Lois didn't like it when Lucy ran off like that, and she knew why, even though she had not been able to articulate it.

"How's Lucy?" Jade asked.

"She's actually in school where she should be," Lois said. "I actually don't try and mother hen her too much, but….sometimes, I need to keep it. I gave her one of the watches for her birthday."

"She liked it?" Rebecca asked.

"Yes," Lois said.

Lois figured out the watch also doubled as a tracking device very quickly. She decided not to let the other girls in on the secret, figuring they should have the opportunity to piece together that particular mystery on the floor. Lois thought back to Artemis.

' _Damn, if something like that happened to Lucy or Chloe, I would have done something really reckless,'_ Lois thought, taking a deep breath.

Jade turned her attention, finally the non-stop reporters of Tetch.

"This just in, the Quincy Sporting Goods store has been robbed in Gotham City," Vicki said, popping up on the screen. "The people who run the store are unharmed, as are the patrons, but several hundred dollars worth of sporting equipment have been stolen. The man behind it, dressed in blue, with a sports bag on his shoulder, and wore a hockey mask, with a ponytail."

Lois blinked and she could see Jade's attention fully on the television screen. A nervous tug at Jade's sleeve caused her to come out of the trance she had been in.

"Yeah, that sounds like him," Jade said.

The real reason was, why? Jade really would like to have known why Lawrence Crock crawled out underneath the rock he was underneath, to knock off some merchandise at a Sporting Goods store. Especially considering, a hit at a Sporting Goods Store was a fair bit underneath Crock's usual pay grade. Jade's frown increased in depth when she looked at the television screen.

' _It's very odd,'_ Jade thought, frown increasing when she looked at the television screen. _'I don't know what to make of it, but it's very strange.'_

* * *

Harry returned back home, and Hippolyta followed him, in toe. The Amazon Queen and Harry moved in, where Diana just crossed the hallway to go down the front entrance of the Sandsmark residence.

"Mother," Diana commented in very soft surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to visit Doctor Sandsmark," Hippolyta said in her usual regal tone. "Is Cassandra….."

"Yes, Cassie's back home," Diana said. "She's holding up as well as can be expected in the situation. I hope this entire ordeal has no lasting effects on her."

Hippolyta smiled, she shared the hopes of her daughter of this. Regardless the Queen of the Amazons wanted to have a word with Helena Sandsmark about a couple of things. Her resilient daughter would be the very top of the list, as far as Hippolyta would be concerned.

"I want to speak to her about Cassandra's training," Hippolyta said.

Diana smiled, she and Harry had a discussion, and Harry remarked he would bring it up to Hippolyta when he showed up on Paradise. Diana decided to be the one to knock on the door.

Only a minute later did Helena answer the door. She looked at Diana, smiling brightly, and then turned to Harry. The attention on Harry and Diana had been completely diverted, when Helena Sandsmark came face to face with the Queen of the Amazons herself, standing outside of her front door.

"Queen Hippolyta!" Helena yelled. "I'm...I didn't….this is quite the honor….why don't you come in, yes, please, come in for a little bit."

Helena looked very excited to meet the Queen of the Amazons, and she looked around. There had been a slight bit of paperwork she dealt with, lying about on the table. The woman took in a deep breath and looked nervously at Hippolyta the very second she entered.

"Forgive the mess, please, "Helena said.

"It gives your home a more authentic appeal," Hippolyta said, with a smile. "And I did turn up without warning you, so it is unfair to hold you accountable to the fact you didn't have a chance to tidy up."

Helena answered with a nod, and she moved over. She sat on the couch, with Diana sitting on one side, and Harry sitting on the other. Hippolyta took a spot on Harry's lap. Diana just gave a smile, at her mother treating this like a very casual action, like there had been absolutely nothing out of the ordinary.

"If I may ask…"

"How is your daughter doing?" Hippolyta asked.

"She's currently upstairs, sleeping," Helena said. "I don't think a parade of elephants going through my living room could wake her up right now."

Hippolyta answered with a smile, that was something good to know. Cassie recovered and would hopefully have no lasting effects on her ordeal.

"She was the only one to fight the mind control," Hippolyta said.

"She takes her stubbornness after me, but I think we can agree in this case, it was a very good thing," Helena said.

"A very good thing," Hippolyta said. "I think it might be time for Cassandra to start her training. She has shown the abilities. It's around the time most young Amazons step up in their formal training. With your consent, I can arrange her to head to the island, around her lessons. Although we can only wait until she's ready."

"Yes," Helena said. "I'm sure my daughter will be very excited to have an opportunity to train with the Amazons. And I would not miss another opportunity to head to the island, to have a look around."

Hippolyta smiled.

"And I haven't had the opportunity to thank Diana and Harry for everything they've done," Helena said. She took in a deep breath and responded with a smile. "Everything they've done to help my daughter. I would like to thank them for helping out, and also, you Hippolyta for offering to train them."

Diana and Helena both stood up on the couch, and Helena wrapped her arms around Diana. The two women kissed in a very passionate manner. Helena's hands grabbed the back of Diana's head to kiss her. The kiss occurred for several minutes.

The Queen of the Amazons followed, and Helena moved in to kiss her. It had been a very intense kiss as well. Both women enjoyed the feeling of their bodies pressing together.

Last, but certainly not least, Helena Sandsmark turned her attention towards Harry. Harry worked his tongue into Helena's throat, and Harry gave a kiss which heated up the loins of the other woman. Harry's fingers pushed against Helena's breasts through her shirt.

Mother and daughter joined in the center of the room, kissing each other heatedly, and removing each other's articles of clothing. Diana reached on the underside of Hippolyta's breast and gave it a squeeze, which the woman moaned about. She felt her daughter's very able lips work down the side of her neck, and down to her erect nipples. Diana took them between her fingers and squeezed them.

Harry worked Helena back onto the couch. Her blouse became unbuttoned and Harry made sure to expose Helena's round breasts, in a black bra. The sexy MILF kept herself in pretty good shape. Harry's fingers lightly drummed down Helena's stomach and down between her legs.

"You're so wet for this."

"Of course," Helena said.

This particular foursome ranked pretty high in her top sexual fantasies, and the fact Harry teased her, running his hands all over her stocking clad legs only got Helena even more excited. Harry smiled and shoved his fingers deep inside of Helena's pussy.

Diana smiled and brought herself between her mother's thighs. Hippolyta gasped when her daughter's talented mouth went to work between Helena's moist, waiting thighs. The Amazon Princess ate out her queen, and her mother, sucking on the juices until they came into her mouth.

"Mmm," Diana moaned.

Helena thought she would die with Harry kissing, slowly licking down her stomach, until he reached between her legs. The woman's thighs primed, ready to be attacked. Harry pushed his finger between her dripping slit while taking his hand and rubbing her clit to bring pleasure to her.

"She tastes divine," Harry said.

Harry reached behind him, handing Hippolyta his cum soaked finger. Hippolyta took the dripping digit between her lips and started to suck the juices off of it. Harry dove deep between Helena's thighs.

"Great Hera!" Helena moaned.

"You…hang around my daughter too much," Hippolyta said.

Said daughter made sure Hippolyta was now on the love seat, legs being spread. The pussy eating continued with Hippolyta's thighs rolling with every single action her daughter delivered. A deep breath followed, with Diana pushing her tongue to the very depths.

Helena grabbed onto the couch and tried to bite back a scream. She did not want to wake her daughter, sleeping upstairs.

"I put silencing spells, Cassie won't hear anything until we're done."

With those words said, Harry drove his tongue deeper into Helena's scorching womanhood and ate her to one orgasm, then two, and then the orgasms just rolled in. Harry attacked this central core.

Speaking of cumming, Hippolyta came very hard from Diana using her tongue. Diana might have been on her knees, but she did so in a dignified way, which made Hippolyta lose her mind and also all of her juices.

"Yummy," Diana said. "Why don't we kneel before Har-Zod?"

The two Amazons walked forward and Harry broke free, leaving Helena breathless from the constant amount of orgasms she experienced. Hippolyta and Diana moved to either side of Harry, kissing him, and stroking his flesh while removing his clothes.

Harry tasted Hippolyta's juices on Diana's divine lips, making this a very erotic experience. Both Amazons had Harry's clothes off and his cock out of his pants. Hippolyta descended along with Diana, both of the Amazon's lovingly sucking on his rod. Diana took the tip and sucked it down into her throat, for several passes. Hippolyta passed off.

"Good, good, very good,"

Holding onto the back of Hippolyta's head, Harry primed her oral hole for a very vigorous face-fucking.

"Yes, fuck my mother's throat raw," Diana encouraged him.

Diana went down between Harry's legs to suck on his balls, the hunger dancing through the eyes of the Amazon very obvious. She licked and sucked on Harry, the deeper he pushed his rod into Hippolyta's mouth.

Hippolyta pulled away, making sure Harry's rod was nice and slick.

"Doctor Sandsmark, I believe you wanted to thank me."

Helena laid back, with the couch converting into a miniature bed, her legs spread apart and primed for Harry. Harry climbed onto Helena's hips and ground his manhood against her. Helena's thighs spread, and Harry entered her from above, sliding his immense length inside of her warm pussy.

"Fuck me," Helena breathed.

"Yes."

Suddenly, Hippolyta found her arms and legs tied, and she found that Diana had been the culprit.

"Very clever, daughter," Hippolyta said.

Diana just smiled and pushed her fingers deep inside of Hippolyta's pussy. She pumped inside, slowly working Hippolyta up to the edge.

"You've taught me all about control, mother," Diana whispered excitedly. "I don't think you thought that I would apply your lessons quite like this, did you?"

Diana detached her fingers from Hippolyta's warm cunt and made the Amazon Queen drop down to the floor, denied of the orgasm. The process repeated at least three more times, each feeling becoming more intense from Hippolyta. She got off on being dominated by Diana, something she never thought would happen.

"Diana!" Hippolyta screamed.

"Do you want to cum, mother?"

Diana heard the moans coming from her mother, and her dripping pussy. The denial would be a very sweet thing.

On the couch, Harry held onto Helena and pushed his massive prick deep inside of her dripping warm hole. Helena tightened around Harry's rod. He pushed deeper inside of her, rising up and filling Helena completely with his massive prick.

"I believe you wanted to thank both of us."

Diana left her mother hanging and moved over, to push her dripping pussy onto Helena's face. Helena lifted up, grabbing Diana's ass, and pushing her face between Diana's pussy, to eat her out. The Amazon Princess ground all over Helena's face.

"Fuck her cunt raw," Diana said. "Make her your personal cock sleeve!"

Harry was not going to turn down a request like this. He leaned in and fucked Helena while taking Diana's nipples and squeezing them. Harry held Diana's breasts in hand while pumping far and fast into Helena's gripping center. The warm pussy closed around Harry's hard cock the deeper he pushed into her. Those balls slapped against Helena's thighs the further Harry pumped deep inside of her thighs.

Helena screamed when her pussy clenched around Harry. The screams had been caught in the inside of Diana's thighs, when the Amazon Princess rode all over Helena's face, sending juices down onto it. Diana breathed heavily, with Harry reaching in.

"Yes, like that," Diana moaned.

Harry channeled a burst of power towards Diana's clit which caused her to buck down onto Helena's face. Diana saturated Helena's face with her cum.

The sounds behind her stimulated Hippolyta's boy, even though she could not act on her lust. She wanted this, so bad, feeling Harry's cock inside of her. Those heavy balls slapped against Helena's warm thighs and brought Hippolyta pleasure.

The latest orgasm caused Helena to black out from the pleasure. Diana finished riding out her orgasm on Helena's face, covering her unconscious face.

"Fuck my mother," Diana said. She squeezed Harry's cock and leaned in to give it a very hard, and loving suck. "Don't you think she's a horny little slut who deserves being hammered with your big cock?"

Diana sauntered over to the room, her ass swaying. Harry spanked Diana's hot ass and the Amazon just smiled, when Harry walked over towards her. She leaned down and spread Hippolyta's warm thighs apart. Diana shoved her fist inside of her mother, causing Hippolyta to moan.

"All hail the Queen," Diana said.

Harry's raging rod aimed towards Hippolyta's center, pushing deep inside of her body. The Queen of the Amazon's stretched out to feel the immense length of Harry inside of her. It stretched out her pussy, Harry's balls resting on her thighs. Harry gripped Hippolyta's breasts and gave them a squeeze while pushing into her.

The sensations spreading through Hippolyta's body showed how much she enjoyed this. Her daughter's finger slipping into the Queen's back passage also increased the lust going through her body as well.

"Should I let her cum?" Harry asked.

"In due time, when she really wants it," Diana said. "Mother, do you need to cum?"

"Yes, Diana, please," Hippolyta panted.

The feeling of Harry thrusting inside of her drove Hippolyta nuts, perhaps not as much as Diana working her finger into Hippolyta's hole from behind. Harry pounded Hippolyta something fierce, driving his thick balls against her thighs. They built up with an immense amount of seed inside of them. Each movement pushed Harry deeper inside of Hippolyta, pounding away at her.

"Harry!" Hippolyta moaned hungrily.

The feeling of those giant balls and the huge amount of cock her hole was being filled. Every now and then, a flash of light spread through Hippolyta's ass crack. She shuddered the moment Harry brought his cock inside of her. The manhood spiked inside of her.

"Poor frustrated mother," Diana said.

Diana spanked Hippolyta's ass in time with Harry's thrusts from behind. This caused Harry to push deeper inside of Hippolyta's warm body with the Amazon Queen pushing deep against him. Her walls milked Harry's rod, and a huge orgasm passed through her.

"She's really choking for it," Harry told Diana.

"Yes," Diana said, tonguing her mother's ass.

Hippolyta felt her daughter's tongue, and it felt like the most natural thing in the world to be buried inside of her gripping hole. The Amazon Queen pushed against Harry's raging rod, each thrust bringing him closer to her. Those balls bounced against Hippolyta's thighs, the further Harry pushed inside of her.

"I'm going to make you cum again," Harry said. "And then my daughter is going to ride my cock while you watch."

"Oh, that sounds delightful."

Harry pushed inside of Hippolyta hard, pounding her. He worked up Hippolyta's orgasm. The warmth clutching around his cock encouraged Harry to reinforce his very strong will. Those balls slapped deep against Hippolyta's warm thighs. The further Harry pushed inside of Hippolyta, the better this all felt. Harry rose almost all the way out of her and drove himself into the Queen of the Amazons.

The feeling of Harry's cock inside of her brought Hippolyta to her greatest orgasm left. Unbridled pleasure shot through Hippolyta's loins when Harry pushed into her. Those balls slapping against her caused Hippolyta to come even harder.

Harry slipped out of Hippolyta, his cock dripping with seed. Diana turned Hippolyta around so she faced the couch, with Helena slowly waking from her amazing orgasm after all of this time. Diana leaned down and took Harry's cock, licking him of her mother's essence.

"After you, my love."

Harry moved over and Diana sauntered over. She straddled Harry's lap, her strong legs wrapping around the young man's waist. Harry's huge cock lined up with Diana's scorching center. The moment she shifted over the top of him, Diana knew she would have Harry.

"About time," Diana said. "I've been waiting for this cock all night long."

Harry decided not to let Diana wait for a second longer. He encouraged Diana to descend by squeezing the chest of the Amazon. Those warm, round, soft breasts clutched in Harry's hands. Harry pushed his head in the pillowy goodness before him, sucking on Diana's nipples and then nestling in her cleavage.

The feeling of her lover in all sides made Diana feel good. She used every inch of her body possible to worship Harry. Harry took her ass into his hands, squeezing it and spanking it. Diana descended down, first with a few slow strokes, and then she gained further moment.

Eventually, with the right tempo being established, Diana shoved her pussy down onto Harry's throbbing hard rod. The young man felt Diana's warmth spread around his thick tool. Numerous times Diana rose and descended on Harry, filling her pussy up with so much cock, it felt almost obscene.

"Yes," Diana breathed. "Right there, that's the spot."

Diana kept bouncing with a greater height, feeling Harry spread her core inside. His missile sought Diana's heat and pushed deeper inside of her. The Amazon rose and descended, taking Harry's cock like a pro inside of her womanhood.

"Feeling ready," Harry said.

"Mmm, yes, you know what I like," Diana said.

The two lovers matched each other's tempo. Every time Harry brought his full length inside of Diana's warm pussy, the Amazon closed around his tool and then released it in an instant. Diana pumped Harry inside of her, those balls being brought between her thighs.

"Yes!" Diana yelled.

Harry gripped Diana's juicy nipple in between her fingers and sucked on it. The right nipple receiving immense stimulation made Diana gush in delight. Her warm thighs closed down onto Harry with each pump, bringing more of his aching rod into her hungry womanhood.

"Fuck, fuck," Diana breathed.

The orgasm grew in intensity, and Diana noticed Helena stirring. Diana reached over and put her fingers at Helena's pussy. She drove down finger first into Helena's pussy in time with her pussy driving down onto Harry's cock. The Amazon stretched around Harry.

"Oh, I want your cum," Diana said, using her free hand to play with Harry's hair and encourage him to go deep into her chest. Harry practically submerged himself into that wondrous cleavage Diana boasted of.

Moans followed in response with Diana dropping herself full down onto Harry's rod. She spread her thighs out completely and bottomed out on Harry. The Amazon pushed herself to a higher height, bouncing up further and dropping down onto Harry.

"Getting closer," Harry mumbled.

Harry enjoyed the Amazon while the pumps lasted. Every time Diana pushed down into him, it was like pure magic. He could sense the frustration on the other woman when Diana took full control of Harry's cock, and Harry's cock alone.

"Fuck," Diana moaned.

Diana's pussy pushed deep around Harry and her pleasure increased with a steady rubber band effect deep inside of her body. Harry cupped the underside of those breasts when pushing into her. His hands moved down and touched all parts of Diana's body.

The latest orgasm triggered one deep between Harry's roaring lons.

"You've earned your reward, Princess," Harry told her.

Diana arched back to accept the ongoing rush of cum. It started slow, and picked up, with Harry rocketing his seed into her waiting loins. The Princess held on tight to Harry's cock and continued to ride him. Each lowering of him and each rise pumped cum out of Harry's cock and into her body.

Harry indulged himself into Diana, as her very eager loins took control of Harry and milked him, milked Harry for pretty much everything he was worth. The Amazon dropped down, stretching herself out on Harry's cock when being filled up.

The two increased the temple, with the last spurt of Harry's cum firing into Diana. At least for this round, but judging by the look in Diana's smoldering eyes, there was plenty more to go.

* * *

Helena draped over one side of Harry and Diana draped over Harry's other side. Hippolyta still slumped on the ground, tied up from the actions earlier on. She looked very pleased with what occurred.

A flash of light erupted in the back of Harry's mind. He saw the wreckage of the Queen's Gambit in his mind, and also an island surrounded by some kind of eerie mist. Harry envisioned Deathstroke, holding a flickering green gem between his fingers.

' _Beloved, I need your help,'_ Nyssa thought.

Harry heard those words and knew Nyssa would not ask for his help without a good reason.

' _Of course,'_ Harry thought to her.

* * *

**To Be Continued on June 30** **th** **, 2017.**

_There's some fun in this chapter to be had by all. And a tantalizing end. The next chapter will mark the fourth year anniversary of the posting of Ascension Book One if you're keeping track of these things._

_Until Friday._


	305. Journey Into Purgatory Part One

**Chapter Three Hundred and Five: Journey Into Purgatory Part One**

* * *

An urgent message from Nyssa caught Harry's attention. The sorcerer wondered what of many reasons Nyssa could have been calling him. The image of both Deathstroke with the green gem and also the Queen's Gambit going down crossed Harry's mind repeatedly. The young man stepped through the doors of the meeting location Nyssa stepped towards him.

Much to Harry's surprise, only two people arrived, one being Nyssa, and the other being Sara. Sara dressed in full League of Assassins gear, dressed in black leather from head to toe. A sword sheath hooked to her shoulder, with Sara looking very intense. She relaxed, only slightly, the second Harry showed up.

"Forgive the cloak and dagger, beloved," Nyssa said. "I had to be for certain no one would learn of this. No one has figured out what is going on, not even my sister, and I would like to keep it that way."

Harry stepped in the middle of the room. Cloak and dagger, if Harry knew anything about the League of Assassins, it was what it all was. He looked from Sara to Nyssa, and the expressions on the faces of both warriors showed Harry he stepped into a very insane situation.

"It has to do with my brother," Nyssa said.

"The White Ghost," Harry replied.

A very long moment passed with Nyssa breathing deep in and out. "Yes, unfortunately, the one and only. He has set his sights to move up the ranks in the League. His role in recent events has bought him some political capital with certain League leaders."

"In other words, he played a role in helping resurrect your father," Harry said. Nyssa blinked a few seconds later. "Are you honestly surprised I've figured it out?"

Nyssa's expression showed she had not been surprised. She figured out Harry knew where things went, and Talia, despite her best efforts to hide certain parts of her operation, Harry figured out a lot of it. Nyssa found herself walking a very dangerous tightrope. One wrong step and Nyssa would fall into the abyss, which kept blinking back at her. The Daughter of the Demon deepened her breath.

"There's no use in lying to you," Nyssa said. "My brother has uncovered the news of an item of great danger, on an uncharted island. Tell me, have you ever heard of the island known as Lian Yu?"

"The name rings the bell," Harry said. "South China Sea, it's more commonly known as Purgatory."

Nyssa answered with a nod, pretty glad Harry understood where she went for. Harry knowing of the island would cut down a lot of the explanation and also make Nyssa's life a whole of a lot more easier.

"Yes, very true," Nyssa replied a few seconds later. "This item is on the island and I don't even need to tell you what would happen if it would fall into the wrong hands."

"Catastrophe would be a pretty ideal world," Harry said.

Nyssa stepped over and walked over towards the bag. She unzipped it and pulled a dusty looking tome out on the table. The dust kicked off on the table the moment Nyssa laid it down. She kicked the dust in the air and opened up to a ragged looking page in the front of the book.

"HIVE is also involved," Nyssa said.

Harry gave a long and labored sigh. HIVE remained a step ahead of Harry each step, especially Damien Darhk. Nyssa's description of Darhk as a cockroach ended up being a very accurate description of him.

"And they're not the only one," Harry said. "Other than the White Ghost."

"No," Nyssa said. "Anyone would want to get their hands on it for reasons you can see. It has the ability to drain people of their life energy and trap them within the stone. It robs them of their very souls, and can take any enemy down just like that."

Nyssa dropped the book down on the table and Harry flipped through the book, eyebrow raised in response. The jam looked green and Harry looked at some of the effects which it described. Each second Harry read over the contents of the book, he had a pretty good idea what was going on.

' _Is it just me, or does that look like another one of the Infinity Stones?'_ Karen asked. _'You know, the Soul Jem.'_

' _It's not just you,'_ Faora thought. _'I mean, you would think the odds of two Infinity Gems being on Earth, they would be….well….'_

' _Astronomical?'_ Harry asked.

' _Precisely,'_ Faora thought a second or two later. _'Maybe it's just me though, but I don't know. There's just something about them being here, which seems suspicious.'_

"There's another reason why you were drawn to Lian Yu, wasn't there?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Sara replied, taking a deep breath. "I read the news there were pieces of the Queen's Gambit broken up, off of the shore. I want to go there and see if there's anything to them. One way or another….you know, closure."

Closure for Sara, closure for Thea, and closure for anyone else, if Oliver was alive, somehow on that island, or nearby, he would be brought home. If there was a body found somewhere, well it least they could bring him up to get buried. If he was nowhere to be found, well it would just be more of the same. Sara had no idea, but there had been nothing left to lose.

* * *

Slade Wilson drew in a breath. He looked over and noticed several ninjas making their way to the island. He recognized the leader of the ninja, someone who he, unfortunately, crossed in the past. Dusan al Ghul, the White Ghost, lingered around the outer edge of the island, with those ninjas. Slade's fingers curled together, with a dagger clutched in his hand.

' _Have to take them out.'_

"He had it around here somewhere," Fiers remarked to the White Ghost. "He had been unable to break out of the containment unit."

"Of course, he didn't," The White Ghost replied. "You would have been destroyed if he would have found a way to get the gem out. You're perfectly safe, at least for now. Stay with me, and let me get the gem, and I will leave you behind on this island."

Slade watched the image through the bushes and made a head count of the number of the White Ghost's men off in the distance. He would have to take them out, one by one, just like that.

' _Where are they?'_ Slade asked a moment or so later.

Slade thought a long time ago, his benefactors would be here to pick him up. He hated to think they would have left him for dead on the island. Perhaps they did not want to get involved with the League of Assassins business. Slade's fingers tightened together around the dagger.

"I thought I heard someone this way."

The stirring of a couple of mercenaries off in the distance caused Slade to remain very still, remaining calm and collected in the distance. They searched the area, looking for Slade. Slade did not say anything in the shadows, only sticking to them.

Two of the mercenaries searched for the longest moment. Slade looked ready for a fight, hand wrapped around the hilt of the blade. Seconds passed when they looked in the direction the man stood, just narrowly missing Slade. The White Ghost looked at the men who inclined their heads a few seconds later, grumbling in response.

"Nothing?" the White Ghost asked. They shook their heads in negative. "I'm not going to give up, not yet. Not after everything we've been put through. Slade will be around here."

Slade sensed the greed dancing through the tone of voice of the White Ghost. That particular greed ruled the man, and he wanted his hands on what Slade had, and what his benefactors wanted as well. Now, Slade's curiosity reached an entirely new level.

Fiers meanwhile looked to be chomping at the bit to get his hands on someone. Queen, Deadpool, and Shado, all of them made a fool out of the brothers during this operation. No one made more of a fool out of them than Slade Wilson, who kept a careful distance away from them in the shadows.

"No one will go off of this island, not alive."

That chilling declaration from Gustav Fiers might have chilled a normal man down to his bones. Slade just stood in the shadows, looking unblinking. He understood what would happen if this mission would be failed. The mercenary did not fear death, rather he caused it. Each attempt where someone tried to kill Slade, he only became stronger, more durable, and more ready to cause more pain against his adversaries.

Even Slade realized, in this particular situation, there were going to be problems. He noticed some of the mercenaries moved to one side, leaving them open to an attack. The only small issue the calculating mercenary could figure out was how to deliver an attack when these mercenaries were off, to not alert the other mercenaries.

' _This would have bene a lot easier if my benefactors had sent backup to assist me.'_

Nothing happened though, and Slade Wilson spent the next couple of minutes, picking his shots.

* * *

Sara found herself willing and eager to prove herself to both Nyssa and to Harry, joining them on this mission. The younger Lance sister knew herself to be very competent, but there was a fine line between being competent and being one of the best, most skilled warriors out there. Sara danced down that particular fine-line pretty much every single day. The woman drew in a very deep breath in response and caused the breath to come out.

Those rumors, those rumors about the survival of Oliver, well, Sara spent some time entertaining the possibility. A while back, Sara heard a rumor that a large part of the Queen's Gambit, or what the people thought was the Queen's Gambit was located off of the shore. Then, just a few days ago, more rumors came out, about several other smaller chunks of the boat, floating off of the edge of the sea. Sara bit down on her lip, taking in a very obvious breath. She let in a breath in and let out another breath. This calm breathing kept her tranquil, at least tranquil enough to do what she needed to do.

"You want to verify if they're true."

Harry stepped behind Sara. Sara looked behind her shoulder, jaw set firmly, and she nodded. The younger sister hoped for the best but prepared for the worst. It was something she thought about several times.

"It's pretty much an absurd possibility he would have survived after all of this time," Sara said.

"Anything is possible," Harry said.

"If his remains are close by, I want to know that as well," Sara said. "It's time we get closure."

Harry noticed the grime tone. This hanging over Sara's head for the last little while, Harry could only imagine it. Nyssa stepped a little bit closer into the picture and put a hand on Sara's shoulder. Sara jolted up to look Nyssa straight in the eye a few seconds later.

"There's a chance," Nyssa said. "Given what you've told me about Mr. Queen, the odds of his survival are not precisely favorable. However, nothing is impossible."

Sara sensed during the few times they talked, Nyssa thought very little of Oliver Queen. Oliver lived a rather troubled life, losing his parents at a young age, and he turned to less than favorable activities. Thea running off did not necessarily snap Oliver out of it, rather it just slid him down further into a spiraling depression.

"We're close."

The vessel reached the edge of the island, and Nyssa spent a few seconds to peer through the window. Instantly, they spotted something very peculiar about the edge of Lian Yu.

"For an abandoned island, it is chalked full of mercenaries."

They were able to get close enough to a blind spot on the island. Nothing out of the ordinary, the vessel they were in resembled a fishing boat. While Harry was certain this was not the ideal spot, the mercenaries did not waste any time investigating a normal fishing boat. Harry directed them closer to a blind spot and surveyed the entire lay of the land when approaching the edge of the island. The news did not look good.

"Mercenaries," Harry muttered underneath his breath. "And assassins, belonging to the White Ghost."

Nyssa reached behind her, ready to fight with any weapon she could grab in a blink of an eye. At times, a blink of the eye was the only amount of time someone had to arm themselves.

"My brother has joined forces with these men," Nyssa said.

"I've got some more interesting news," Harry said. "I recognize one of them. He works with Gustav Fiers."

"Fiers?" Nyssa asked. "He's worked with many government agencies in the United States, but that's not all because he's always worked for….."

"Oscorp," Harry replied, pulling Nyssa's words out of mid-air.

The trio made like ghosts when going onto the island. A trio of assassins moved closer to the island. Harry knew they were searching for something, just judging off of the body language and the actions of these men, as they were moving around the island.

Little did they know, they would be coming across a little more than they all bargained for if Harry Potter had his way. He slid a dagger into his hand and waited for one of the ninjas to come around the corner. Harry stabbed the ninja in the shoulder so hard the force knocked the ninja to the ground. Harry made sure he fell on the softest part of the ground. Not to prevent harm from the ninja, but rather to prevent a loud sound from coming off.

Sara gripped one of the ninjas around the back of the neck and pushed down onto his shoulder. The pressure driven down on the nerve ending of this warrior dropped him down to the ground. Sara pulled back and caught the ninja on the side of the neck with another rapid-fire punch to knock him unconscious.

Nyssa grabbed him and jabbed a dagger into the ninja's wrist. She dragged him into the clearing, out of the earshot. The ninja's eyes widened when he realized.

"If you're League of Assassins, then you're duty bound to answer my questions underneath the penalty of death," Nyssa said in the most savage way possible. Her dagger dug underneath the finger joints of the ninja.

He trained himself to deal with most pain, but this pain, on the other hand, it looked like it caused the ninja some problems.

"You will fail," the White Ghost ninja breathed in Nyssa's face.

Nyssa did not seem too impressed with this particular answer. She kept digging the dagger deep underneath the finger joint of the White Ghost, causing him increasing agony.

"The green emerald, he's after the green emerald," the ninja groaned, thrashing about in agony. The knife digging into his finger joint caused him increasing misery. "It will give him the power to slay…the Dragon."

Nyssa figured about as much, but she had to make sure. The oldest daughter of Ra's al Ghul struck one killing blow down across the back of the neck of the ninja. More came around the corner to try and find out what happened to their fellows.

Harry, Nyssa, and Sara already moved off, the trio doing what they could to pick their spots. Time ran short for all of them, and they needed to keep moving, for all of their sakes.

* * *

Oliver Queen dragged himself across the ground, holding onto trees, and pretty much everything the Billionaire playboy could get his hands on. He just barely got away from being killed, but it cost him, with a severely injured knee. Oliver dragged himself with an increasing fury over the ground.

"All I wanted to do was get away for a long weekend," Oliver grumbled to himself. "And now, I'm being hunted by assassins, ninjas, mercenaries, for some awful reason."

A small part of Oliver wondered if this was some kind of twisted karma for his playboy ways. Despite the fact Oliver learned to have many regrets while on this island, he still thought being hunted down and being forced to fight for his life, it was a bit much. Oliver's ragged breath continued when he dragged his knee behind him.

"They're going to come."

He felt flushed, and ragged, either the first hints of a fever or dehydration, neither would serve Oliver very good at this point in time, especially on Lian Yu. Oliver ground to a halt, trying to push through the agony, and boy was the agony very agonizing at this point. Oliver breathed in, breathed out, breathed in, breathed out. Everything hit Oliver suddenly with all of the force of a train to the chest.

' _Wade's gone,'_ Oliver thought. _'So is Shado, and….I'm alone…to be killed.'_

Something came in the bushes. Oliver gripped a rock in his hand, not exactly the best line of defense. The young man slowly realized the rock clutched in the palm of his hand might not be his best line of defense, but it was his last line of defense against any attackers.

"Slade?" Oliver asked.

Oliver got in a fighting stance.

"You look like a poodle trying to defend your territory," Slade commented. "As for my disgraced protégé, and Shado, they're still alive, but right now, I need your help."

Slade looked to Oliver, who looked very confused. The mercenary approached Oliver. The fact Slade did not kill Oliver, well a good sign, Oliver guessed. However, why would Slade need Oliver's help of all people?

"Why?"

"Why?" Slade asked. "You were born from money, therefore you can't appreciate the value of certain things in life. And one of the things you need to understand is that there are times were certain people underappreciate the value of certain items. One of these islands is the gem."

Slade reached in and pulled Oliver off further into the shadows. Just as he did so, some of the mercenaries passed. Slade pushed his hand over Oliver's mouth to prevent him from making any noise. The moment the mercenaries cleared the area, Slade bent down to address Oliver further.

"If the League of Assassins is after the gem, then my benefactors greatly undersold its value."

The moment the mercenaries were gone and out of earshot, Slade grabbed the leg which Oliver favored and turned it with a sickening twist. The leg cracked, and Oliver screamed in absolute agony. Slade stuffed a rag in Oliver's mouth to prevent him from screaming anymore.

"Don't be such an infant," Slade said. "Now, to your feet."

Oliver obeyed Slade. He realized while still sore, his leg was more functional.

"Follow me if you want to survive this evening."

* * *

Shado mentally recapped the very desperate situation she found herself in. She had been separated from the rest of her party, not a very good thing. Fyers and his men still chased her. Shado wished to gain revenge on them, but Shado could not, due to the fact she ran depressingly low on arrows. The annoyance crossed her face when the woman moved back.

' _Down to three,'_ Shado thought. _'I better make them count.'_

Shado's breath increased when she noticed one of the larger men moved in, with a gun. She wondered if it was now time to stop running, to fight to the last breath. Shado made peace with herself when staring down the business end of a very big gun.

"She's close by."

"I'm right here."

The two men turned their attention to Shado and stared her down. She withdrew one of her final arrows and caught the man in the knee, disabling him. Shado aimed the arrow at the man with the large gun. Both of them stared each other down for a long moment.

"Guess we're going to see what wins the day," the mercenary said. "Can you shoot before I blow your head off."

Neither had a chance to shoot before a cloaked figure dropped down from the air and caught the mercenary in the back of the neck. The mercenary doubled over from the attack. Three rapid fire punches caught the mercenary down across the chest. The attacker put his leg on the back of the head of the attacker and put all of his weight down onto the enemy, driving the mercenary face-first into the rocks.

Shado blinked suddenly, driven breathless by the attack. She turned around to see her savior and had been taken off guard with the cloaked figure. She heard the legends. Seeing the man in the flesh, it was an entirely different thing.

"Dragon?"

"Come with me."

Shado sensed the dire nature in the man's words, and decided, yes, she would follow him.

"What's going on?" he asked.

Once again, the woman sensed he had a clear idea.

"These men, they work for the bastard son of Ra's al Ghul," Shado said. "Well, the ninja do, these two men, Gustav Fiers and Edward Fyers, there are searching for something on the island. They mentioned something about a Mr. Osborn."

Harry entertained a couple of possibilities, but now was not the time for speculation. Several ninjas moved off the island.

"We have to find Slade."

"Deathstroke, he's here," Shado said. "He has something they want."

"He has something we need to keep out of the wrong hands," Harry said. "It's a very powerful gem which can drain someone of their very being, of their soul."

Shado sucked in her breath, having heard of such an item in the past. Everything would be getting more intense sooner or later. She could hardly believe this particular situation, they found themselves in.

"This way."

The Dragon, Shado followed anywhere without question. He seemed to have a way of inspiring loyalty in most people.

* * *

Wade Wilson knew he was very close to getting into some trouble. A trio of ninjas dropped down onto the ground. Wade withdrew his katana.

"Alright, we need another short fight scene, so bring it," Wade said. "That's right, one at a time because that always works."

The first ninja charged Wade. Wade dodged the attack and jumped high into the air. He turned and pivoted, sending the edge of the blade into the back of the neck of the ninja in question. The ninja dropped down to his knees, winded from the attack. Wade turned off to one side, avoiding the dagger being driven down into his shoulder. Wade blocked the attack and punched the ninja in the stomach.

The third and final ninja tried to attack Wade at close range with a very heavy chain. Wade blocked the attack and punched the ninja directly in the face. He brought the ninja head first into the ground with a huge curb stomp.

"Finish him!" Wade yelled.

Wade caught the final ninja with a spinning back fist, cracking the man's neck in the process.

Suddenly, he came face to face with a very pasty individual with haunting yellow eyes.

"You should really spend a little more time in the sun," Wade replied.

"Cute," Dusan al Ghul, the White Ghost, responded. "I hate cute."

"Careful, the fangirls will start shipping us," Deadpool said. He suddenly heard a disturbance in the force. "Oh, wait, too late."

"You're a pest, a disgrace, I've heard of you, Wade Wilson," Dusan said.

"Now, now, flirting with me is only going to encourage them," Wade replied.

"I'm going to destroy all that…"

A shot to the shoulder cut off Dusan al Ghul in mid-sentence. Wade pulled back his arm and smiled. No one needed to hear another overstuffed criminal monolog. The White Ghost dropped to his knee, and Wade pulled out one of the guns he borrowed from one of the many mercenaries on the island.

About a dozen ninjas dropped around Wade and formed a circle. They withdrew their blades and circled, preparing to attack the man who took their master down.

"Okay, fine, after this Cliffhanger, I'm going to kick all of your asses," Wade replied.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 3** **rd** **, 2017.**

* * *

_The Dragon stops by Lian Yu and things get interesting. And Deadpool is his usual self._

_We'll be back on Monday with more. Don't you dare miss it._


	306. Journey Into Purgatory Part Two

**Chapter Three Hundred and Six: Journey Into Purgatory Part Two**

* * *

Oliver Queen dared look over the pass for the island. Freedom reached him if they were just careful. He wondered if Slade could be trusted in leading him on the island. The young man leaned over, soreness still going through his knee. Each pained step forced Oliver to drag his knee underneath him when trying to make his way to the destination. His heart beat even faster, steadier, with each passing, and very painful step.

"Keep up, kid," Slade said.

The billionaire heir kept up, with each step of the way. They had not encountered any resistance making their way to the edge. Oliver hoped things would be kept that way. Each step caused pain to shoot through Oliver's knee when walking just a little bit more. At least he could walk, even though it was very agonizing.

Spirits jumped with one sight at the edge of the island. A raft appeared on the edge of the island. Oliver dropped down to one knee and pulled back up. He used a large stick as both a makeshift cane. A couple of limps caused Oliver to walk forward.

"This is my ticket to getting off of the island."

Slade stepped forward and pulled out a glowing green gem flashing in the light. Oliver nearly gasped when coming across the item in the palm of Slade's hand. The flicker of the item pressed in Slade's hand caused Oliver to lean forward, mouth hanging up in complete surprise.

"That's the thing that they're after."

Slade pulled out a dagger and put it at the side of Oliver's head. The young man had been surprised, but perhaps not too really. The cold hard steel pushed against the side of Oliver's neck and caused him to take a deep breath. The young man's legs dragged up over the ground, heart beating even faster.

"Just keep your mouth shut and you got a hell of a story to tell the people the next time you show up at the country club."

Oliver answered with a nod, feeling the dagger edge closer to the side of his neck. Seconds passed the moment Oliver dragged across the island.

"We're almost there," Slade muttered. "Keep still, and keep calm."

"This is too easy."

Slade tensed up just in time to see Gustav Fiers and his men making their way closer to the island. Two of the mercenaries on the side held their weapons at both Oliver and Slade. The mercenary's hand twitched around the blade moving very close. He half-held Oliver in place, and then pulled back. Slade looked down at Fiers.

"You're correct, Mr. Queen, but life isn't easier," Fiers said. He held out the gun a few seconds later and pointed it towards Deathstroke. "You've been troublesome so far, but all can be forgiven if you hand over the gem."

"You want the gem?" Slade asked.

"The gem for your life," Fiers replied. "You can hand it over, and I let you live. Or choose not to, and you can get blown away. It's your choice, but you better choose quickly before I make the decision before you."

Slade stood, putting Oliver between himself and the mercenaries, and made sure to keep the other hand firmly on the gem. He would not be ready to take his hand away from it and give it up without a fight.

"I was under an impression you were after something else," Slade said.

"Plans change," Fiers replied. "I'm going to ask you one more time, and I'm not going to tell you again. You either hand over the gem or I will take both of you out. You're surrounded, there's no one here."

Slade spent another couple of seconds staring down at Fiers, deciding to call his bluff. He grabbed Oliver by the shoulder and take another option by shoving Oliver forward. Oliver's body had been sent flying and smashed into the goons knocking them over.

The mercenaries scattered back and Slade jumped into the air. A dagger came out of his sleeve and stabbed one of the mercenaries in the side of the neck. Blood splattered down onto the ground. Slade pulled the blade away from the side of the man's neck and caught him with a repeated series of punches. Slade ripped a grenade out from the man. He dodged a gunshot and took the pin out of the grenade.

The grenade flew up into the air and an explosion staggered them back. Slade jumped high into the air and grabbed the man's arm. The arm twisted behind the back of the mercenary. A loud snap brought the mercenary dropping down onto the ground. The deadly mercenary jumped around and kicked him directly in the chest, knocking him down onto the ground.

' _I have to break it free,'_ Slade thought to himself. _'No matter what, nothing else matters.'_

Oliver Queen rolled onto the ground, trying to escape everything. The young man looked towards the raft and divine inspiration hit him. Oliver could get off of the island, he could be coming home. Oliver rushed towards the raft on the edge of the island, heart beating even faster when he approached the edge of the island and the raft.

"Stop him!" Fiers yelled.

A rocket flew over Oliver's shoulder and connected with the raft. Oliver threw his head back and screamed in horror when watching the raft reduced to nothing other than a smoldering wreck of wood. Oliver dropped down to his knees and almost had a breakdown. He was about ready to go home, so close from getting home.

One of the mercenaries grabbed Oliver by the neck. In a reflex action, Oliver stabbed him in the side of the neck. Blood spurted out of the side of the neck. Oliver pulled back, blood covering his hands when he pulled away from the man.

"I killed him, I killed him," Oliver murmured underneath his breath.

Slade walloped Oliver on the back of his head and dropped him down. The young man dropped down to the ground. Slade picked up Oliver by the back of the head and whispered in his ear.

"I don't need you to go through PSTD now."

Fiers and his men had been forced to back off by a triggered landmine. Slade realized there would be more of them there, and he would have needed to do something, anything, to accomplish his goals. He dragged Oliver with one hand and the gem in the other hand.

* * *

Deadpool dodged one of the large chains swung by one of the White Ghost ninjas. The chain caught in the hand the Merc with the Mouth. Deadpool snapped the chain and went behind one of the ninjas. He pulled a staff out and swung it, deflecting the throne shuriken. Deadpool slammed the staff down onto the ground and discharged a miniature blade from it. The Mercenary rushed forward and tried to nail the goon in the stomach. The ninja flashed out of the way, avoiding being stabbed.

Turning around, one of the ninjas appeared inches away from Deadpool. The dagger slammed down against the blade Deadpool held. Sparks flew with two of them going back and forth. Deadpool jumped high into the air and blocked the blade from coming into his throat.

"Not bad, but you're not going to take me down!" Deadpool yelled.

The Mercenary dodged the attack and blocked the blade before it parted down the side of his head. The Mercenary flipped into the air and tried to stab one of the ninjas. The ninja flashed out of the way and Deadpool stabbed the disappearing air. Deadpool turned around and tried to stab another ninja. The ninja disappeared and Deadpool whipped back.

Once again, nothing other than the air got stabbed. Gritting his teeth, Deadpool pulled back and stabbed one more time at the ninja. Another time, the ninja flashed out of the air. Deadpool pulled back and kept stabbing at the air with repeated attacks.

The insane mind of Deadpool picked apart the pattern of one of the ninjas. The ninja dropped down, just in the same spot where Deadpool stabbed him in the stomach. Blood splashed from the stomach of the ninja which doubled him over.

Two more ninjas dropped down onto the ground behind Deadpool. One of them teleported away from Deadpool. The mercenary caught the ninja coming down to the ground. The ninja whipped down onto the ground and smashed into a hole on the ground. An explosion rocked the ninja, with Wade pulling back from the attack.

"Okay, do any of you want some more?" Wade asked.

The ninja gave a harsh whispered and disappeared into the air. Wade grabbed the arm from the ninja, and went on a ride with him, with the teleporting ninja. The mercenary sliced through the veins of the ninja and resulted in a fair amount of blood being spilled.

The White Ghost watched the battle, very annoyed that Deadpool made fools out of his mercenaries. Deadpool received a violent attack which dropped him down to the ground. The wind knocked out of the mercenary, with the ninja pulling back from the attack. Deadpool blocked the attack, close to being driven down to the ground. A loud snap echoed a few seconds later, and Deadpool whipped him down to the ground by the arm. The arm twisted around and Deadpool pulled himself back up.

"White Ghost."

White Ghost turned around, one of the lookouts approaching him.

"Speak to me," White Ghost murmured underneath his breath.

The ninja inclined his head and took in a deep breath. The moment the White Ghost laid eyes on the scouter ninja, he knew something was not right, something was not right at all.

"Please, it's the dragon," the scouter ninja replied in a very somber tone of voice. "He's here."

The White Ghost reached forward, watching Deadpool make short work out of ninjas out of the corner of his eye. He grabbed the white-clad ninja viciously by the shoulder and caused him to jump up several inches. The hard grip around the man's shoulder forced him to look eye to eye with the White Ghost.

"Where is Fiers?" The White Ghost demanded.

"I don't know," the ninja gasped.

The White Ghost let go of the arm of the man. The Dragon arrived at the island, discovering his plan somehow. It remained important that the White Ghost locate the emerald and locate it soon. Time ran short on him and this plan. He needed it and needed it now.

* * *

Shado took a second to reconcile everything which happened. This situation sounded a far bit direr than she even realized. A few seconds passed with Shado's eyes closing shut.

Harry brought Shado over to join Nyssa and Sara. The four of them would have to regroup and take a few seconds to figure out where they were heading next.

"I never realized it would be this bad," Shado said. "That's why Slade was here, that's what he was after. And you're telling me this White Ghost, he's after it as well."

"Yes, unfortunately," Nyssa replied a few seconds later.

"I….is he here?" Sara asked. "Oliver Queen, is he here on the island?"

Sara's curiosity got the better of her before she could reign herself in and to be perfectly honest, that question just slipped out. The eyes of Shado moved over to lock onto Sara. She responded with a nod in confirmation.

"Yes," Shado told her. "He's here, although we got separated. He was very lucky to be alive. We're here with another man…his name is Wade Wilson."

Nyssa replied to this name with a very audible groan. The woman tried to hold herself together and not be too biased at this particular name.

"You've met him, haven't you?" Harry asked.

"Yes, we've had a couple of run-ins in the past," Nyssa answered. The Daughter of the Demon tilted her head back and bit down on her lip. "Unfortunately, he's not the sort of man you're going to forget anytime soon. That's…well that can be a problem."

"I can see that," Harry replied a moment or so later.

"The point is, we're all separated, and I don't even have the slightest idea where any of them are," Shado said. The woman turned around, tilting her head back. "For now, Slade Wilson has this Soul Gem…it's still trapped in a case, I don't think he's been able to get it out."

Harry figured Slade would have figured out the importance of this item sooner rather than later. The market value of such a key item would go up in Slade's eye, the moment he figured out what he had to do with it.

"HIVE is after it, and I guess now the League is after it, and I'm sure Fiers might want to get his hands on it," Harry said. "It can imprison anyone, no matter what."

"Fortunately, it's in a case," Shado said.

"Yes," Sara agreed. "It's in a case, for now."

All of them understood the true meaning behind Sara's words. This entire situation, it could change, it could shift, in a blink of an eye. All of them needed to be on their guards for very obvious reasons. Speaking of those obvious reasons, someone moved in the shadows.

"I'll go take a closer look," Harry responded.

None of them were willing to allow Harry to step forward and take this closer look. Nyssa took the first step, a bit behind her beloved. The blade readied to attack anyone who had been a threat, and there were plenty of threats on this supposed to be deserted island.

Sara followed, keeping her eyes peeled for Oliver. She needed to bring him off of this island, bring him home, to get the closure she needed to move onto the next stage of her life. Whether he was dead or alive by the time Sara found him, well she couldn't guess. Alive would be preferred, Sara figured, although closure could happen at either way.

Shado watched the hell on this island over the past several weeks. She knew one thing, and it became clear. Shado needed to stop these people and get the hell off of this island. They were after something, something very nasty. Shado stepped forward, readying to fight until her very last breath.

* * *

The trick to fighting ninjas boiled down to isolating their pattern. The mercenary known as Deadpool dodged the burning blade from coming into the side of his face. He dodged two more attacks. The Mercenary flipped himself high into the air and crashed down onto the side of the neck of the ninja. He pulled himself away and caught the ninja with a rapid-fire attack to the side of the neck. The ninja dropped down and Deadpool backed off. He punched the ninja as hard in the throat as possible, doubling him over.

"Okay, it looks like I'm finally getting the hang of this," Deadpool said.

One of the ninjas teleported away. Deadpool caught him on the way down and flipped him down. One of his legs snapped in the process. No sounds other than a very creepy growl, but Deadpool had been more inclined to go with this attack.

More of them surrounded Deadpool, a flaming blade withdrawn on one of them.

"There are days like this where I wish I was a pirate," Deadpool said. "You know, so I can settle the long-term conflict of pirates against ninjas. And I can plunder some booty as well."

Deadpool rushed towards one of the ninjas and went towards him. The two matched each other, sword for sword, shot for shot. The most, unfortunately, thing about ninjas and Deadpool understood this without a second though, was they were not much for any kind of constant conversation.

A flash of light appeared from Deadpool's side. One throwing dagger caught the ninja in mid-teleportation and caused him to drop to the ground. The Dragon turned up, and caught one of the ninjas, before taking him down to the ground.

Now, Deadpool noticed the White Ghost made himself very scarce. The mercenary avoided the attack from one of the ninjas. He watched when the Dragon flashed to one side, and then three of him appeared. It confused the ninja and his attack patterns. The Dragon synchronized one attack and brought him down to the ground.

"You know," Deadpool said. "Tradition dictates we should fight before teaming up, but we kind of threw all of those rules out of the window by fighting together here, didn't we?"

"What the hell has been going on?" Harry asked.

"Well, I'll save you the trouble, and just give you the short of it," Deadpool said. "After all, no one wants a lot of long-winded exposition about things they already know. Even though, it's a good way to tack on word count."

Harry looked very unfazed by Deadpool. He prepared himself very well from the man's insane antics.

"Alright, got sent to the island, met Oliver Queen, met Shado, we dealt with some jackass mercenaries, some more jackass mercenaries, nearly got killed several times, dealt with Deathstroke, who is also a jackass. And Gustav Fiers showed up, and it's obvious OsCorp has designs on this island."

"I've been keeping an eye on Harold Osborn," Harry said.

"Yes, but that little pipsqueak doesn't have the ambition to pull off something like this," Deadpool said in his most dismissive tone possible. "The man behind this is the man who brought cornrows back in style….well not really."

Deadpool paused and cleared his throat a few seconds later. He could tell Harry did not have any impatience.

"And they're all after some kind of Japanese super soldier formula thingy, oh and one of the Infinity Gems, I guess as well, the Soul Gem, but that's encased in some kind of alien case thing," Deadpool said.

Harry realized they were not alone. Ninjas and some mercenaries came through the area. Deadpool looked at them and withdrew his blade. Fighting side by side Harry Fucking Potter, he could check that one off of his bucket list.

"All it needs is some gorillas to really pad out the scene."

Harry watched as Sara, Nyssa, and Shado moved ni from the shadows to assist. The battle would be something else, but Harry needed to stop Fiers, Fyers, and the White Ghost. Their various minions were only a distraction for the main enemies.

* * *

Slade Wilson barricaded himself into Headquarters, with a dazed and unconscious Oliver Queen on the couch. The man against the wall, not with any men, or with any way to defend himself slumped against the wall. Fear gripped Edward Fyers when he looked eye to eye with Slade Wilson. The man looked beyond madness.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you," Slade whispered.

"Now, Slade, it's my brother, he's always had this forceful personality, and he's hard to say no too," Edward said, trying to be slick. "He overextended his boundaries on this island, and made a deal, a deal I don't agree with, with the White Ghost. I only wanted the formula."

Slade looked at Edward for a very long moment. Time passed, and Slade didn't make any movements.

"Gustav won't hesitate to kill anyone," Edward said. "But, I can tell you the way off of this island."

"Are you referring to the raft your brother blew up?" Slade asked.

"There are other ways," Edward said.

"Unfortunately, you won't be using any of them," Slade said in the most deadly voice possible which caused the man before him to quiver. "Your time is up, Mr. Fyers. There's going to be no one saving you. They're too busy with the Dragon out there, and Deadpool to come to your aid. I believe your brother thinks, and I agree, you're very expendable."

"You kill me, and there will be no one to protect you!" Fyers yelled.

Slade looked very unimpressed by those words from Fyers. He clutched onto the sword, slowly closing in on the man in question.

"It's all because of the gem," Fyers replied. "You need to get rid of it….just forget about it, and throw it into the ocean."

One blink of the eye and the night ended with Deathstroke impaling Edward Fyers. The sword stuck through the chest of Fyers and dropped him to the ground. Blood splattered everywhere.

"You've been disrespecting me all this time, Mr. Fyers," Deathstroke said. "And you must think I'm a fool, letting this gem on the floor."

Slade pulled out a crate, stepping over the body of Fyers. He set up some explosives around the area of the building. This would cause a significant amount of damage, and disrupt his plans further. If Fyers did not die from his wound, he would die from being blown to smithereens. It had been a fair trade.

"I will get off this island, and I'm taking my gem with me," Slade said. "And you will be nothing, but a distant memory. Even your own half-brother will care little to bury you."

"Slade!" Edward gurgled.

Oliver's eyes opened up. Slade turned to him cold.

"You have three minutes to find the door, kid," Slade said. "I'm done holding your hand. Good luck, Mr. Queen, for the rest of your life."

Slade stepped out of the door, as a dazed Oliver Queen looked around and saw the explosive devices armed all the way around the base of operations. All of the research Fyers did, had been in this base. Slade moved off, pretty much out of spite, and now Oliver, weakened as he was, had to find a way out of here.

' _No, no, no, this can't be happening,'_ Oliver thought to himself.

Slade took a very long walk, thinking about all of the things which had been happening. He had been lied to, disrespected, and pretty much everything else since the moment he stepped onto this island. The gem would finally be delivered to the benefactors, although they would have to pay much more than the previous asking price. Slade intended to extort the full value out of them.

The mercenary took a very long walk, to take the craft the Gentleman took to the island. It would have to be around here somewhere. Slade planned to leave the Gentleman for dead.

Something moved in front of him, and Slade set the gem down onto the ground, just so he could have both of his hands to fight. The White Ghost appeared in front of Slade, with a trio of ninjas surrounding him on all men.

"So, the disgraced heir of Ra's al Ghul comes before me," Slade said.

"This is getting very tiresome," Dusan said.

"Yes, I agree," Slade said. "No matter what you do, your father will never respect you, or what you've done. You are nothing but a pathetic disgrace to him. He seeks an heir because you can never be it."

Dusan rushed forward for an attack. Slade blocked the supposed son of Ra's al Ghul and the shot. The attack deflected back a few inches. Slade motioned for the White Ghost to charge forward for the attack one more time.

"Settling this like men," Slade said. "I'll admit, more than expected out of you, Dusan."

Dusan rushed towards the mercenary, and the two went sword to sword with each other. Both of them surrounded each other. Deathstroke withdrew a dagger and stabbed the White Ghost in the side of the leg to drop him down to his knees.

"Unfortunately, you will be everything your father says you will," Deathstroke said. "Weak, pathetic, and lacking a spine."

The White Ghost released a powder from the inside of his glove and hurled Deathstroke down onto the ground. The two of them continued to fight with each other. Deathstroke's dagger blocked a second time, and the White Ghost nailed Deathstroke with a couple more punches. Each punch brought the dazed Deathstroke back a couple of inches.

The case beneath them broke open. The green gem released from the case and engulfed the three ninjas the White Ghost brought into the battle, sucking them inside of the stone. They screamed in horrific agony.

"The power, it's real!" The White Ghost yelled.

Deathstroke caught the White Ghost with a punch. Both of them jumped into the air and punched at each other. Both came knuckle to knuckle with each other, being rocked back down to the ground. They landed down hard on either side of the stone.

It rested on the ground, and both Deathstroke and the White Ghost dashed for the soul gem.

Harry turned up, feeling the power of the soul gem, and had seen this sight the moment he walked into view.

Things would go from bad to worse if either them grabbed the soul gem.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 5** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

**Things go from bad to worse. The race for the soul gem continues this Wednesday.**


	307. Journey into Purgatory Part Three

**Chapter Three Hundred and Seven: Journey Into Purgatory Part Three**

* * *

Harry sensed something happening, and he quickened the steps. He moved closer to the battle between Deathstroke and the White Ghost. Both of them went blade to blade with each other, barely keeping at an arm's length. The White Ghost, when he could be bothered, actually held his own for the fight.

' _I'm almost there,'_ Harry thought. _'I can feel it, it's going to break free.'_

' _Get to it, we'll hold them off for as long as we can,'_ Nyssa thought.

Harry felt a warmth rise up in the island. Everything slowed down in a blink of an eye. The ninjas moved in, surrounding the battle on all sides. The case shattered down on the ground and engulfed a bright light on the island. Harry watched, hearing the screams of the ninjas, and feeling their souls being ripped and sucked into the stone. Their bodies followed, fading into the mist which had been sucked into the stone.

The bright light forced Harry to crouch down and shield himself to prevent the blast of light overwhelming him. Harry's heart sped up a couple of notches when looking out into the distance. The soul stone laid on the ground, and the White Ghost's eyes widened. His heart rate accelerated, with a brilliant smile flying over his face. A smile passed over the face of the White Ghost, with glee raising in response.

"The power is mine!" The White Ghost yelled.

Deathstroke looked like someone who would not relinquish an attempt to grab power. The blade blocked the White Ghost and his attempt to grab onto the stone. The White Ghost stood back and opened his glove, to release a cloud of dust into the face of Deathstroke. Deathstroke staggered back, and the White Ghost went towards the stone which burned into the ground.

Harry flipped into the air and kicked the White Ghost away from the stone. The White Ghost flipped down onto the ground and held out two daggers in his hand. The daggers flashed out of the hand of the White Ghost. Harry caught them and turned around to fling the daggers. The young man flipped into the air and made his way towards the stone.

Deathstroke came up and stabbed the sword. Harry evaded the sword and grabbed Deathstroke around the sword. He flipped over the top of his attacker. The Mercenary pulled back the sword and stabbed it towards Harry one more time. Harry avoided the attack from the sword coming at him.

The mercenary could not believe the lucky break he had. For the first time, Deathstroke had a chance to take down the Dragon, and make a name for himself. The need for power and respect overwhelmed the mercenary. The two men came together sword to sword with each other.

"There's no Lady Shiva to bail you out this time," Deathstroke commented.

Harry avoided the attack, just narrowly avoiding the sword coming down into the side of his head and parting his hair. The sword flashed out and knocked the blade out of Deathstroke's hand. Deathstroke flipped over onto his feet and pulled out a pair of spiked knuckles. He rushed towards the Dragon.

Both men came face to face with each other. Harry caught the arm and snapped the man down onto the ground. The mercenary dropped down to the ground, with Harry disarming Deathstroke of his weapon and throwing it down onto the ground.

White Ghost crawled over towards the item on the ground. Deathstroke caught onto him, rolling over, and blocking the arm. Both of them scrapped on the ground. Harry kicked the gem up into the air out of the way. The gem flew into the air.

Harry turned around just in time to see one of the ninjas on the tree withdrawing an arrow towards him. Another arrow caught the ninja in the back of the leg and dropped him down off of the ground.

The gem landed down into the middle of one of the holes. Deathstroke jumped into the air, withdrawing two blades at the same time.

The Dragon's wrists flicked and two energy blades came up into the blades of Deathstroke. The two of them pushed back to each other, with Harry pushing Deathstroke back. The two of them backed each other off, with Harry propelling himself back and knocking Deathstroke down onto the ground.

Deathstroke rolled over onto the ground, one of the swords busted from the attack. His eyes flashed and he realized the battle was going to be harder than he thought. The two of them charged each other one more time. Deathstroke's sweeping Harry's leg out from underneath him forced Harry to propel up into the air.

An explosion echoed from the other end of the island. The minor distraction caused Deathstroke to come inches away from stabbing the Dragon. Quick reflexes blocked the attack, with Harry turning him around, and pushing him down onto the ground.

"Who was in there?" Harry demanded.

The White Ghost crawled against the ground, trying to reach the gem in the pit. Deathstroke hurled a dagger against the man's wrist and pinned him down onto the ground. An agonizing scream followed when the White Ghost pulled away. Then, he turned back to face the Dragon.

"If Oliver Queen didn't find the exit, he's done," Slade said. "And soon, you're going to be finished soon."

* * *

Gustav Fiers took a deep breath in response. Several flashes of light erupted from the other side of the island. He needed to round up everyone, to see if he could salvage this mission. Fiers reached to the portable radio and pushed a couple of buttons.

"Edward, are you there?" Fiers asked.

The sound of static coming over on the other end of the phone, caused Fiers to feel a great feeling of distaste in his mouth. Slade disappeared, Wade was also elsewhere on the island, and there were whispers of a very dangerous assassin, who could only be called the Dragon, which unnerved Fiers more than he would care to admit.

Those men who worked for them, Fiers needed to remain calm for their sakes. He lost it, and they would lose it. Everything needed to be held together, the best he could have been. The man's eyes locked down onto the ground and then he moved to try the radio one more time.

"Edward, if you're there, pick up," Fiers repeated one more time.

A loud explosion followed moments later. One of the safe spots Edward used, went up in flames. The smell had been overwhelming. Several of the mercenaries moved forward, but Gustav lifted a hand.

"Keep searching, I'll join you in a moment."

The Gentleman stepped forward, the immense heat almost overwhelming. Fiers lifted up and shield his face, blocking the smoke from coming in. The sickening smell of the fire consumed the building. Fiers reached to the wall and pulled off a fire extinguisher. He pushed the fire extinguisher and sprayed it.

"Edward!" Fiers yelled.

He sprayed through the area. The Gentleman knew what he would find, or at least had a pretty good idea when walking forward. The smell of decaying flesh followed the further Fiers stepped inside. He coughed one more time and stepped inside. The smell of the chemicals used from a crude explosive painted a very crude picture of what was happening.

' _Damn it.'_

Fiers leaned back a few seconds later and shook his head a second later. He slipped a rag over his mouth, blocking the smoke from pouring into the room.

A charred body laid on the ground. Most of the flesh had been burned. Fiers knew precisely what to look for, leaning down onto the ground. He leaned down and pushed a finger into the chest. Most of the flesh burned away and resulted in the cause of the murder to be shielded, for at least a few seconds.

"Stabbed," Fiers replied. "Before the explosion."

The wounds on his brother's chest, despite the burned flesh, were very consistent with the stab wounds normally done by Deathstroke. Fiers stepped back over his brother and searched the area. Slade or his hostage was not anywhere in the area. The Gentleman stepped back, and he looked down, another bomb partially made, leaking fluid. The flames threatened to cause another spark, and cause an explosion.

"Edward, your death will not be in vain."

Slade Wilson would pay for killing his half-brother. Fiers stepped out of the room and hung his head. The disgusting smell of both fluids and burned flesh passed the air. The Gentleman took a few seconds to take a deep breath, taking in the disgusting smell around him.

He would not allow this to go in vain. One of the mercenaries stepped forward. Fiers snapped out, business-like and short as usual. No need to tell them what happened regarding Edward Fyers, especially when they still needed to finish this mission.

"Yes, may I help you?" Fiers asked.

"We've found something, sir," the mercenary responded.

Fiers followed the mercenaries. A large wooden crate stuck out underneath the ground. They uncovered something, with Fiers approaching it. He reached in and tapped on the edge of the crate. The crate stuck up.

"Break it open," Fiers ordered them.

Two of the men moved forward with tools while the third men held the trunk. Moments passed before the truck opened up. Several crystal vials appeared in the bottom of the truck. Fiers reached into the trunk and picked up the vial. He opened the vial and turned it over. Nothing dripped out of it, not even a drop.

"Empty," Fiers said.

Disappointing, at least first, with Fiers holding the vial and flipped it over a couple more times. He leaned down into the box and came across a map carved into a huge piece of stone. Fiers peered into the stone, a frown crossing his face. Something thoughtful spread over the face of Edward Fiers. Curiosity pretty much got the better of him.

"We have something," Fiers said. "Let's more."

* * *

The White Ghost took a deep breath, in the middle of a three-way battle. Ra's al Ghul discounted him as a potential heir, due to his perceived weakness. His eyes flashed, yellow and disgusting. The gem floated up into the air in front of him.

Slade charged towards the gem. White Ghost blocked him just a half of a second later. He flipped back into the air and snagged the Soul Gem into the palm of his hand. The energy coming from the Soul Gem burned, and the White Ghost dropped down onto the ground. His mouth curled into a frown and looked eye to eye with one and only Dragon.

"At last!" The White Ghost yelled.

Slade and The Dragon watched the manic look spread over the face of the White Ghost. The pure horror of watching this particular individual get his hand on the gem reached through their bodies. The White Ghost broke into a wide grim when a glowing energy appeared around him.

"For years, I've been told I'm not worthy of being the heir to Ra's al Ghul," The White Ghost responded a moment later. "For years, I've been told I'm not worthy of being among the League of Assassins. However, I will show the world I'm worthy of being the heir, the one true heir of Ra's al Ghul!"

The White Ghost bellowed out these final words, a glow enveloping his entire body when he stood back. The power surrounding him looked very intense to be perfectly honest. Harry stood back a little bit longer.

' _He has the stone,'_ Nyssa thought.

' _Yes, he has the stone,'_ Harry replied a few seconds later.

He wondered though if the White Ghost truly had the stone. Harry maneuvered to get in to grab the stone before things got too ugly. The White Ghost turned his attention towards Harry, a wicked smile crossing over the man's wicked face a few seconds later.

"You don't know how long I've waited for this after my father spurned me in favor of the likes of you," the White Ghost responded, a very eager tone flashing through his voice. "It has been too long, it has been much too long. I'm going to crush you under my foot and it is going to feel so good to have you down on your knees before me. You will kneel before me Dragon."

Harry just stood across of the White Ghost unblinkingly. The gem hung from his hand. Slade made a movement off from one side but did not do anything. He was waiting for the White Ghost to use the gem.

"Talk is cheap," Harry answered. "And I should know because you are one of the cheapest warriors I've ever had the displeasure of going up against. Your father refused to make you his heir because you are many things. You are weak, you are pathetic, and you have the inability to finish the job."

Dusan's eyes narrowed, and his arm shook.

' _Beloved, are you sure you should provoke him when he has the stone?'_

"You couldn't be me without this thing, and you're not going to have an easy time beating me with that thing," Harry answered a moment or so later. "Dusan, you have the stone, are you going to be able to use it without any problems? Or are you going to fail, just like you fail at everything else? Go ahead and take your best shot at me. I'm waiting to see what you have in store for me."

Dusan's eyes narrowed and he would show this man, the man who Ra's al Ghul respected more than his own flesh and blood, to be a potential heir.

"You talk big Dragon," Dusan hissed through his teeth. "But, the time for talking is over, now it is the time for action."

"I'm waiting," Harry said.

Dusan turned the power of the Soul Stone on Harry and a bright light engulfed the island. For a brief second, it appeared the power had worked, and Dusan locked onto him. The White Ghost started to look very pleased with himself.

"Your arrogance has been your undoing!"

The energy engulfed Harry and for a second it looked like Harry had been engulfed into the stone. Something fired back and Dusan found himself surrounded by the same glowing energy.

The White Ghost's hideous scream echoed from all around, surrounding him with that glowing field of energy. The White Ghost's soul sucked into the stone followed by his body.

Those screams echoed throughout the island for a very long time to come. Harry stood on the ground, not blinking for one second. He stood over the top of the gem, looking down at that. The White Ghost had been hoisted up and driven deep inside of the stone, leaving Harry Potter to stand over it.

Deathstroke withdrew another dagger and hurled it at Harry. Harry blocked the dagger. Deathstroke made a beeline from the stone.

"And a wild Deadpool appears and uses Curb Stomp!"

Deadpool dives out of the trees and nailed Deathstroke down across the back of the head. The Mercenary brought the other mercenary onto the ground, knocking the wind out of him. Deathstroke rolled over, and withdrew the blade, aiming it at Deadpool. The two of them went blade to blade with each other, both causing sparks to fly in mid-air when battling with each other.

"I'll crush you!" Deathstroke yelled at the top of his lungs.

Deadpool sweeps the legs of Deathstroke out from underneath him and causes him to land down onto the ground with another sickening, unsettling impact. Deadpool jumped up and drove his knee into the top of Deathstroke's head to knock the wind out of the man. Deathstroke tried to scramble out of position, with Deadpool holding him down onto the ground.

Harry watched as Deadpool disabled Deathstroke. He walked over to the smoking soul gem on the ground. Harry took the gem between his two fingers and picked it up. The depraved soul of the White Ghost trapped inside, and his screams echoing.

A fate worse than death, and yet, a fate very fitting to someone along the lines of the White Ghost. Harry did not feel much sorrow for this particular individual.

* * *

Slade Wilson thought everything considered, this mission could have gone a lot better. He woke up, finding himself bound to the tree. Two members of the League of Assassins, the Dragon, Deadpool, and Shado stood there. The Dragon looked at him, with those powerful eyes. Those eyes resulted in Slade staring back at them, trying to gain some level of control when he looked back over him.

No control could have been had, with Slade looking at the young man. He realized with the members of the League of Assassins standing by the Dragon, Slade's life had bene in peril, unfortunately. The mercenary turned his attention towards those right next to him, ever so slightly.

"Nothing left to lose at this point," Slade commented very lightly. "Especially when my benefactors didn't come and collect me after all."

"Who hired you?" one of the League members demanded.

Slade tried to turn in the bindings. They did not leave it to be in the most comfortable manner. Slade took a deep breath in response.

"I didn't exactly see his face," Deathstroke admitted when he looked at them.

"Where is Oliver Queen?" the other woman commented.

"He was in the house up there," Deathstroke replied, in a very crisp and very casual tone when moving around, to try and break free from the ropes. "I left him after I stabbed Edward Fyers, and blew up the house. Blew up a lot of their research, whatever they were looking for on the island. It doesn't matter, to me, though. It was their business. I worked with them only as a marriage of convenience."

"Which backfired on you."

Harry looked towards Slade.

"Do you have any ideas of who it was, even if you didn't see his face?" Harry asked.

"No, like I said, he didn't give me any hint, and they never showed up," Slade said.

Slade thought, personally, not knowing who the benefactors were, it might have been for the best. The moment he figured out who hired him and most importantly, who tried to screw him over, Slade would have simply killed them, slowly, but painfully. No one stood up Deathstroke and got away with it. No one who valued their lives anyway. Slade shifted against the ropes, the ropes snapping back and holding him face to face.

"Fiers left."

"Smartest thing the man ever did," Slade said. "I would have killed him along with his brother."

' _Why do I have a feeling this Fiers would have killed Slade if he would have had the chance?'_ Sara thought.

' _Well, given how Gustav Fiers is and how many connections he has, there's a possibility he would have wanted to kill Slade,'_ Harry thought. _'And he would have made it look like an accident.'_

Given the personal nature of the crime and the murder, Harry deduced Fiers would have wanted to kill Slade with his bare hands on this island. At least, that's what Harry figured out. He could have been wrong, very wrong, but at the same time, Harry thought he could have been right.

"The only thing left to do is turn him over to the proper authorities," Shado said. "You do have a way off of this island."

"We're fully aware of the rumored curses around Lian Yu," Nyssa responded. "And we've worked on a way to circumnavigate around that."

Shado answered with a very brisk nod in response.

"Oh, mighty Dragon!" Deadpool spoke up. The mercenary had been oddly quiet through this entire interrogation, which had been pretty much out of character for someone like him.

Harry looked up Deadpool very carefully. The one thing to expect with Deadpool would be to expect the unexpected. Harry just took a deep breath. "Yes, Wade, what is it?"

"I want to be the one to turn Deathstroke into the authorities," Deadpool said. "And not because there are five high priced bounties on his head, which want him to be brought in alive. Also, there are bounties on his head, where he would be dead."

Deadpool received five sets of eyes on him. The Mercenary looked undisturbed by the sheer number of Death glares directed at his person.

"Which are actually less than the bounties I would get from bringing him in alive, so naturally, I'm going to bring him in alive," Deadpool said. "Scout's honor, and all of that good stuff."

A look followed towards Deadpool and he felt like he was being grilled by their eyes, and hell it looked like he was being grilled.

"Screw this up, and I'll kill you," Nyssa warned him.

Deadpool had no doubt in his mind that he would be un-alived, which always was bad whenever it happened. He nodded in response.

* * *

The search on the island went on for hours and hours. They had found no sign of Oliver Queen, either dead or alive. It was almost like he vanished off of the island, without a trace.

Sara found herself completely baffled at the fact Oliver disappeared, and also a bit discouraged. Any feelings she may have had for Oliver died when she technically did the first time, but that still did not mean Sara did not want to have closure for the entire situation. Especially given his sister was still alive, and Sara wanted to bring news back to Thea, whether it be good or bad.

' _Guess, that was just too much to hope for,'_ Sara thought to herself.

"Well, I guess I should just hope this doesn't drag out for about five or so years," Sara mused.

Deadpool started to snicker in the background.

"Well, it could be worse, it could drag out for five years, and there would be flashbacks of what would happen over those five years over the next five years," Deadpool said. "But, that would be both insane and a really jarring way to take a person out of the story, wouldn't it?"

Nyssa walked up to Sara.

"Trust me, ignoring what he says, will make your life a lot easier," Nyssa said.

Sara took that advice completely to heart. The two of them walked to the ground, moving further into the center of the room. They looked down upon Slade's body, with a small stack of blades pulled from his body.

Shado stood at the edge of the island. Her father's remains had been zipped up and preserved, ready to be taken home to receive their proper burial.

"So, are you ready to go home?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Shado said. "I'm ready to head off….and I thank you for taking me with you."

"I wasn't about to leave you on the island," Harry said.

"Of course, a hot woman you could sex up later as if you didn't have enough of those," Deadpool commented.

"I did consider leaving you on the island, however," Harry replied.

Deadpool lifted a finger to his mouth and made the "speak no evil" motion with his hand. Harry looked at him.

"My sister will be disheartened, at what happened," Shado said. "But, thank you….."

Shado moved over and gave Harry a light kiss on the cheek. She moved over to the vessel, and Deadpool followed, dragging Slade. Harry levitated Yao Fei's remains onto the vessel and stored it until he could be properly buried back home.

"Several dead bodies on the island," Harry said. "And yet, none of them were Oliver's"

"So close," Sara said. "We're so close."

They had been left with several unanswered questions. Did Fiers take Oliver off of the island, or did someone else do so? Or did Oliver actually find a way off of the island?

The only thing Harry could figure out was Oliver was not here now. For all he knew, Oliver could have been abducted by aliens.

Then again, it was highly possible.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 8** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Well our adventures on the island are concluded. Oliver slips off into the distance. Is he dead? Alive? In between? We_

_All know what they say about finding no bodies in comic books._

_Nyssa was pretty blunt in laying down the law to Deadpool. She doesn't suffer fools well._

_Until Saturday._


	308. Escape From Purgatory

There's a bonus scene at the blog. Go to Page of Very Important Links on my profile, Head to Web of Chaos Archives, and either Ascension Book 2 Archives or Blog Exclusive content archives. It's Ascension Book 2 Chapter 308 Xtra.

* * *

**Chapter Three Hundred and Eight: Escape From Purgatory**

* * *

The trip to Lian Yu proved to be both a very interesting, and very frustrating one. Nyssa could not help and feel the smallest bit of satisfaction regarding the fate of her brother on the island. The fact the soul stone engulfed him, showed how Dusan's old ego proved to the man's undoing. Dusan's obsession with taking down the Dragon always would end up destroying the pathetic man.

' _He's never been one to show restraint,'_ Nyssa replied a moment later.

A few seconds passed with Nyssa passing through the gates. Several guards blocked the entrance of the gate. Nyssa hoped not to have gone through this insanity of convincing them to let her pass every single time she showed up. It began to get annoying. Actually, the annoyance increased every single second.

"I have news for my father regarding an item he seeks," Nyssa said. "Do not waste my time, for you waste my time, you will be wasting his."

The guards looked at each other and by a miracle, the guards passed each other. That allowed Nyssa to step inside and move forward. She moved past a couple of the members of the League. Ubu gave Nyssa the dirtiest glare.

"Ubu, allow her to pass."

Like the faithful dog, Ubu stood back, at the words of his master, and allowed Nyssa to step forward. She moved towards Ra's al Ghul. The Demon looked much better than when he first popped out of the Lazarus Pit. He still resembled someone who has seen much better days.

"Father, I've come to bring you news….."

"This does have something to do with Dusan's unexpected departure, does it?"

So, Ra's knew, and Nyssa figured he might have. Those eyes, once full of more life, but so haunted, looked towards Nyssa. Ra's motioned for the chair across from himself for his eldest daughter to sit down in, and Nyssa positioned herself in front of the Demon.

"He went after the item, and his ignorance got the better of him," Ra's said. "I knew it would be only a matter of time before he messed up. In his attempts to prove his value, he has just underlined how completely worthless he is."

Those words were about as cruel as anything Nyssa said against her brother. Those eyes burned a hole through the wall across from Nyssa. She imagined Ra's thought long and hard about what he would have liked to have said to his disgraced son, should he have been standing right there next to him.

"The White Ghost went rogue and went to Lian Yu, where he encountered difficulties," Nyssa said. "It is the soul stone as we suspected. And his attempts to use it proved to be disastrous, for him."

"Yes, I suspected as much," Ra's said. "The Dragon was on the island, wasn't he? My son's….inability to see past his own nose regarding his envy for the Dragon would have to have been his undoing."

The Demon rose to his feet and took several deep breaths. He walked over to the wall and kneeled down against the wall. The failures of the only son he had, who survived to this day, at least. He owed Dusan enough for helping bringing him back to life. The Demon slid a very sharpened blade out of the sheath.

"The League will move forward, with or without my disgraced heir."

Ra's tested the motions with the sword. The attacks were not as fluid as possible.

"He has it, doesn't it?" Ra's asked.

"Father, could you be more specific?"

Ra's brought the sword out, and in a blink of an eye, Nyssa retracted her blade to block the attempt. The leader of the League of Assassin's brought the blade back, very pleased at the reflexes exhibited by Nyssa. They proved to be a very good reflection on him. Ra's al Ghul pulled back one more time but did not attack. Nyssa braced for the attack, with the attack not coming.

The long-lived assassin looked into the sky. He looked at his hand, weaker than before. Ra's retained his grip, re-educating himself, reinforcing every single movement. The latest encounter with the Dark Knight Detective left Ra's very much wrecked, and not able to be as stable as he wanted to be.

"Harry Potter, the Dragon, he has it," Ra's said.

Ra's withdrew the sword back into the wall and aimed it back.

"Yes, when the White Ghost attempted to use the Soul Stone, something occurred and the Dragon reversed the energy, sucking him into the Stone," Nyssa said. "He took the Stone for safe keeping. I believe he may have been seeking them himself."

"As he should, as such power should not be just allowed to linger," Ra's said. "As are many others."

Ra's only held a passing interest in the Stones right now, due to the fact HIVE had been after them. That cockroach Damien Darhk locked onto the stones. For years, Ra's tried to seek down the man who once betrayed him, only because he detested loose ends. Darhk was an annoyance, other than a threat.

For now at least.

"He will pay the price for deceiving me should he return," Ra's said. "I've allowed him to live long enough."

Nyssa doubted very much the White Ghost would find his way out of the Soul Stone. Something just pointed to this very fact, even though she could not properly put her finger on it. Now Harry acquired at least one of those Infinity Stones, and Nyssa guessed had two, things would be a lot easier.

"Thank you for your report," Ra's said. "Once, I need your assistance, I will have you summoned."

Nyssa did not ask whether or not her father chose the one more worthy of his legacy yet. Nyssa knew the answer to that one, she knew it would remain the same every single time her father spoke of it.

* * *

The Infinity Stones contained many secrets, and Harry hoped to figure out every single one of them. He added the Soul Stone to the Mind Gem. Harry stepped through a portal, into an area where time and space, did not matter. The Mind Gem stored in this pocket dimension, where it should track the least amount of attention possible.

' _You found another one?'_ Morgaine asked. _'I can't believe two of them are on Earth.'_

Harry smiled, he heard this statement once before. Some really weird coincidences happened in Harry's life which would be insane in the minds of most people. Harry on the other hand, just rolled with it.

' _It could have been brought here,'_ Harry replied. _'At least that's the best I figure. There are other explanations. The other ones are not on Earth. It could be years, decades, even centuries before we even come across the other gems.'_

Harry stepped into the picture. He walked past Wanda who was in the midst of a training exercise. Deep breathing followed with Wanda's eyes lightly opening. She turned her attention towards Harry in surprise. Harry moved closer towards Wanda who stepped back.

"It's funny," Wanda said. "A year or two I would have freaked out because of something like that. Now, I'm more stable."

"Technically, you've been here for a few years," Harry said. "Plenty of time to get a handle on things."

Wanda moved in, ideally should we have liked to get a handle on Harry. The two met lip to lip with a kiss. Harry moved in and grabbed onto Wanda's backside to deepen the kiss. The magically powerful mutant requested entrance with her tongue, and Harry allowed it a split second later.

"And I'm feeling left out."

Harry turned around and smiled. Zatanna stood, leaning against a pillar, dressed in a white tank top, and blue jeans. She sauntered over, to give her hips a little sway. She moved closer towards Harry and greeted him with a kiss. Zatanna locked eyes to Wanda as if trying to show her how it was done.

"Show off," Wanda murmured underneath her breath.

Any competition between the two magic users would result in Harry being the victor, due to being caught in the middle. He most certainly did not disagree with that potential competition.

"You have it," Zatanna said. "Another one."

"What are the odds?" Harry asked.

Zatanna smiled and stole one more quick kiss from her husband. "Given you, it's pretty likely."

"So, the two of you have been keeping yourselves out of trouble, have you?" Harry asked.

"Circe and Morgaine are putting us through the ringer, "Zatanna said. "You can't think of two better teachers….I've needed to keep myself occupied after…what happened."

Zatanna threw herself into her studies, knowing what happened with her father would be a distraction if she didn't. In the months passing after her father's death, Zatanna was not too much closer to figuring out what happened, and that worried her.

"Harry?"

Harry turned around and saw Circe standing right behind him. She dressed in the normal elegant purple hooded robe, which her body filled out quite nicely in.

"Do you mind if I borrow him for a minute? "Circe asked. "I swear, I'll return him to you in one piece."

Wanda and Zatanna just looked at one of their teachers. They both nodded, and Circe lead Harry off. She moved across the room, just in time to see Morgaine who bent over a thick tome. The spells in it looked to be written in a very obscure language.

"How is the process going?"

Harry's answer snapped Morgaine out of the work she was doing. She looked almost relieved to be pulled away from the work. History's most notorious witch responded with a very loud sigh.

"A very slow, and grueling process, unfortunately," Morgaine answered a moment or so later. "Not as much as locating where Zatara's missing books have gone. Those are very dangerous when falling into the wrong hands."

The number of enemies Morgaine encountered in the past, the number of depraved warlocks and witches, those who thought they were doing good, she figured there would be many wrong hands.

"You have the soul stone, don't you?"

Harry pulled out the box. Morgaine tensed up when feeling the stone. There were a few demented spirits trapped deep within the stone. The item dropped onto the table in front of Morgaine's line of sight. Before meeting Har-Zod, she would have been sorely tempted to utilize the item. Now, while her curiosity grew impressive, she also knew what would happen if she tried to grab ahold of such a dangerous item.

"The power terrifies anyone who touches it," Morgaine muttered. "And I can feel them, detached, and trapped."

The world's most notorious witch touched the soul gem. She wondered if the gem had been created by mysticism, science, or some deranged, Frankenstein creation of the two.

"You still haven't been able to figure out how they were created," Circe said. "Or, I suppose, how they could have been destroyed given the circumstances."

Morgaine pulled back and looked at the gem. She did not know whether or not the stones could be destroyed, or at least depowered. Their creator weaved them into the very fabric of life itself.

"Put it with the other one," Morgaine said. "With any luck, we'll have the complete set."

Harry smiled, with any luck, the complete set would be complete. He really crossed his fingers. The Soul Stone joined the Mind Stone. Harry or none of the girls could be by them too long, only in small spurts. The insane power pulsing through the stones had a temptation. Even the most strong and fortified of minds had been tempted for the stone.

"I will continue my research, "Morgaine said. "I hope it goes on a lot better than this."

She tapped at the edge of the stone in significance. She would have something, sooner or later, Morgaine could feel it. Hope sprung eternal, even in a situation like this.

* * *

Wade Wilson showed up at a top secret government facility at the edge of the desert. People had their fair share of conspiracy theories about the top secret government places. The mercenary found himself amused by the fact only half of the stories were true. There were a lot of dealings going behind closed doors.

' _The boss doesn't like it when I'm late,'_ Deadpool thought.

' _That's women for you,'_ the voice in the back of Deadpool's head commented. _'They never like to be kept waiting.'_

Deadpool would not dare say this comment in front of a woman, especially this woman. Regardless, the Mercenary moved over. He looked at the mercenary known as Slade Wilson, Deathstroke, who had been strapped in, very tight in a straight jacket. Deadpool leaned forward and looked down at the mercenary with a frown.

"Okay, let's go," Deadpool replied.

Those eyes burned with fury, and Deadpool moved inside, grabbing Deathstroke to the location. Deathstroke could have very well walked on his own, but Deadpool refused to allow him enough movement. He might have been many things. One could not accuse Deadpool of being foolish in any way whatsoever.

The Mercenary stepped forward and raised a hand, lightly knocking on the door. As always, Wade waited to be allowed inside. Stepping inside without any kind of invitation would be rather foolish on his part, and not to mention, it would be extremely very dangerous.

The door opened, and one of the agents inside looked at him.

"I've got a delivery to make for Ms. Waller," Wade remarked a few seconds later.

"Yes, she's been expecting you."

Wade figured about as much. He double-checked to make sure Slade had been very secure, to be perfectly honest, you could never be too careful. The mercenary lead Slade into the room, who had been a perfect little angel all things considered the entire trip through. Which had been a very weird way to describe the likes of Slade Wilson, but that was very much beside the point.

Miranda Waller waited at the end of the hallway with three heavily armed and very well trained government agents watching. Needless to say, she had been expecting Wade to show up at the edge of the hallway.

"They'll take him from here."

"I've learned a lot of things on the island," Wade said.

"Lian Yu?" Miranda asked. "I'm sure you have."

"One of those things is the rumors of Norman Osborn's demise have been greatly exaggerated."

Miranda just answered with a very crisp nod, she figured just about as much.

"I ran into Gustav Fiers on the island," Wade continued.

"Fiers already found his way back, he's back at OsCorp," Miranda said. "On the books, his trip is a business trip."

"Which from a certain angle, it's very true," Wade responded a few seconds later. "He's most certainly conducting business, for Osborn. Who….what kind of state do you think he's in?"

"He's replicating Richard Parker's work, who tried to replicate the Super Soldier Formula," Miranda said. "The accident must have changed him."

Miranda just wished she could have kept a closer eye on Gustav Fiers, but unfortunately, it could not have been done. He had some contacts and some connections, which could make Miranda's life very difficult, to the point of stonewalling her.

"I came across Oliver Queen on the island," Wade commented, almost as an afterthought. "But, I lost track of him, that's a very odd one. He disappeared off of the face of the island. I don't want to say it's aliens, but….."

Wade left the comment hanging in the air. Miranda did not say anything, perhaps wisely. Another sigh passed from Wade when he shook his head and looked out into the distance.

"And to think we bonded," Wade commented. "But, not in the slashy sense, to the disappointment of fangirls all around the world I'm sure."

Miranda just disregarded these comments from Wade Wilson, given the fact she was used to this particular man and his many odd quirks.

"HIVE is also been nosing around on the island," Wade said. "I have a feeling you already knew about that, though."

A nod followed by the leader of ARGUS, Miranda did, in fact, know that HIVE was on the move, as they were usually. Something big was going to happen, given they were also a mastermind behind Jason Woodrue's plot in Gotham City. Miranda found Gotham City to be one of the more difficult areas in the world to gather any kind of substantial intelligence on.

"You will receive your payment in your bank account by sunrise," Miranda said.

"Excellent," Wade said. "Daddy needs a new pair of bowling shoes."

"You may leave now."

Wade, receiving the hint, turned around and walked to the exit. He passed several government agents on his way out, all of them watching Wade when he passed through the gates. He made his way back to the transport vehicle and reached into a bag. A Red Sun Eclipse pulled out of the bag, and Wade typed in one message.

"Package delivered."

* * *

Shado returned home for the first time in around a year. She took in a breath in the air. Something about home felt a lot different than Lian Yu, she could not put her finger on precisely what, but it did, in fact, feel different. Different, and hopefully better, at least she thought it was better.

She brought home both her father and the news of his demise. It was not the family reunion she expected with her sister. Shado wished she had been a bit faster on the trigger, to put the arrow into the man who killed her father.

Currently, Shado crossed her arms and entered a deep state of meditation. An exercise to calm the negative energies out of her body, with deep breathing following in and out of her, Shado remembering each and every single moment on the island.

"Shado?"

Shado looked up, opening her eyes, and came eye to eye with her identical twin sister Mei. Mei stood outside of the gates of the garden, a frown on her face. Some tension rose between the two sisters ever since Shado's return home a couple of days ago. Mei swore up and down she did not blame Shado.

Yet, things had not been as close as they were years previously.

"Yes?"

"May I join you?"

Shado looked towards Mei and she nodded. Her twin sister opened up the gates and walked in front of Shado. Mei leaned down onto the island.

"I was just preparing for the arrangements for our father's funeral," Mei said. "Much to my surprise, they have already been taken care of."

Shado looked up, blinking, and smiling just a tiny bit. A shrewd suspicion entered Shado's mind about who took care of Yao Fei's funeral arrangement.

"You know something," Mei said.

"He is very generous, isn't he?" Shado asked. "He brought us back, gave me the opportunity to reunite with you, and now allowed laying our father to rest much easier."

Mei hated when anyone, especially her sister, started to talk in riddles. She did not want to say it was infuriating, but yes, it could be pretty infuriating.

"You know there is only one person who could have accomplished all of this," Shado said.

"The Dragon?" Mei asked.

Mei and Shado heard the stories about the prowess and the power of the Dragon from their grandmother since the point where they were old enough to comprehend such things. Shado took to the stories a lot better than Mei did, although she had been curious.

"You met him," Mei said. "And you didn't even tell him about the shrine you made to his greatness."

"It's not a shrine, it's a tribute," Shado said. "And no, the conversation unfortunately never came up. And you've been a part of developing the tribute to the Dragon just as much as I have. Don't try and deny it Mei, we both know what we've both accomplished, together."

A shifty little smile passed over Mei's face. Could she deny it? Not really, she could not deny it. She had been part of this just as well as her sister had, just as well as Shado had.

"No, I won't deny it," Mei said.

"We'll worry about lying out father to rest," Shado said. "He deserves to be at peace, after all of he's been through. Then, only time will tell where our destiny will go from here."

Mei again nodded, she figured some good things would be happening soon. What would occur, only time would tell, for them all.

* * *

Harry stepped into a temple after the meeting with Morgaine and Circe. He came across the beautiful sight of Nyssa and Sara, standing in the steam in the temple. They dressed in kimonos, and by the looks of it, not much else. They set up a table with several massage oils laying on it.

"You're a bit too overdressed for this meeting," Sara said.

"Let's remedy that," Nyssa said.

Nyssa slipped behind Harry with the speed one would expect of a master assassin. She unbuttoned Harry's top, slowly slipping it off of his chest. Her hands grazed Harry's abs and chest very teasingly. Sara made quick work of Harry's pants, fingers brushing down on his thighs, and she also leaned down, to kiss his abs a couple of times, worshipping them with a smile on her face.

Sara's head dipped a little bit lower, but she pulled back, with a tease. Both skilled warriors left Harry in wearing nothing other than his underwear, at least for a moment.

Someone drilled a fairly sizeable hole in the table, at the point where Harry's crotch would be. While Harry prided himself on self-control, one could have never been too careful.

"My father figured out you would be the one who had the gem," Nyssa said. "But, he doesn't have the interest and the resources to go after it right now. He's just pleased it's not in the hands of Damien Darhk."

Harry laid down on the table, stripped completely naked. Sara worked out the back of Harry's neck, while Nyssa straddled his hips from behind, rolling her hands down his back. The women added to massage oils which did a pretty good job at releasing the tension built up in Harry during this mission.

"That's good to know."

Nyssa smiled, the front of her kimono coming open, and one of her luxurious breasts about ready to fall out. The tanned orb, with a very erect nipple, brushed against Harry's back. She lightly teased her lover, working her way down his body. Her fingers danced down to a certain point.

"Anything else?" Harry asked.

"There was a lifeboat found off of the coast," Sara said. She rolled over Harry's shoulders, leaning down to make sure her thighs were pressed firmly into Harry's face. Harry grabbed onto Sara's ass to make sure she did not slip off of the table. "Punctured, and it could have been how Oliver escaped."

"No signs of a body?" Harry asked.

"No," Sara said, in frustration. "Oliver could have been picked up."

They turned Harry over to his front, Sara switched positions where she took Harry's lower half, teasing his legs, her hand brushing against his stiffening member. Nyssa got the front, Harry's chest, making sure her breasts bounced in Harry's face when working him over. The tension knots working out of Harry's body were getting more and more intense.

"Seems like your very tense as well," Harry said.

"Yes, a little bit," Sara admitted.

Harry reached over and undid the front of Sara's kimono. Her very fit body exposed to the light in the temple. Harry reached over and took the oil, before slathering it over Sara's body. He rubbed the beauty over, tempting her with his fingers.

"Yes, very tense," Sara breathed. "Why don't you relieve that tension?"

Harry decided to do just that, the oil rolling down Sara's upper body until Harry reached her most taboo hole possible. He lightly brushed against the entrance, causing Sara to moan.

All of them needed to blow off some steam after this mission. This was the best way for them to accomplish that particular task.

* * *

 

Sara ground her ass up against Harry's stiffening cock when it slipped into time and time again. Harry's hands grabbed her hips when Sara teased Harry a little bit. His fingers did their magic as well, dancing up her body, and grabbing her very succulent breasts.

Nyssa dropped her robe on the ground. Her shaved pussy and toned body revealed to Harry's line of sight. Harry watched Nyssa lower herself down onto the ground. Two invisible hands grabbed Nyssa and teased her body. The energy waves rolled down Nyssa, causing her to rock down onto Harry.

Harry slipped a tongue between Nyssa's thighs and rolled it in, before throwing it out. He slowly teased her, working deep inside of her slit. Nyssa groaned when rocking herself up and down on Harry's mouth.

"Right there," Nyssa begged him.

As much as Sara wanted her ass fucked, that was the main event. She turned around and straddled Harry, slapping her ass as a tease. Sara pushed her thighs on Harry's other side. Harry reached over and guided Sara up against his cock. His stiffening and slick prick moved into Sara's tight sheath with an ease.

She proved Laurel wasn't the only screamer in the family by giving out a very pleased shriek. Harry filled Sara up when pushing deep between her thighs. She rose up a little bit more and took a little bit more of him with each passing rise and each passing drop.

The tightness of Sara closed around Harry's cock and gave him a very passionate squeeze. Harry's hunger increased the moment Sara slipped her tightness around his cock. She grabbed Harry hard and released him with each rise and each drop.

Both beautiful women lingered on Harry's mouth and his cock. They leaned into each other and kissed each other. Sara and Nyssa caressed each other's breasts and kissed each other.

Nyssa found herself at the mercy of Harry's actions. He was going to make her cum whether Nyssa wanted to or not, and to be honest, she felt the need to release. Harry slowly built up the action, to one huge point, and she came, moaning into Sara's mouth.

Harry grabbed Sara and pumped into her even faster. Sara's slick walls tightened around Harry's aching cock. She pushed all the way up onto him and dropped down, while also sucking on Nyssa's face, kissing her madly.

Several moments of Sara bringing Harry deep into her tight pussy later and Harry groaned. He made sure to bring Sara up to the most spectacular orgasm possible. He pushed inside of her, his cock swelling in response to her tightening walls.

"Harry!" Sara moaned.

Harry flicked over her nipples with a very powerful magical attack and Sara screamed in pleasure. The sorcerer pushed his raging rod into Sara's tight womanhood, pumping deep inside of her. His balls slapped against Sara's thighs when working against her and started to fill Sara up with his seed.

Spurts of warm cum fired into Sara's waiting center and made her roll her head back, feeling very good. Harry worked his hands over her body and made her cum. Nyssa tilted back as well, and Sara saw the obvious look of pleasure of being made to cum again.

Harry felt the strength of Sara's warm walls milking him. Her tight pussy felt so good wrapped around his throbbing hard cock. Sara pumped him, getting all of the seed possible out of Harry's body. Every pump brought more warm seed deep inside of Sara's welcoming and willing sheath.

Sara pulled off of Harry's cock, sliding back with her thighs spread. Her pussy dripped with an excessive amount of cum.

Nyssa pulled off of Harry's face and crawled over the top of him. Her body, now slathered in oil, teased Harry, with every inch. Her breasts, her thighs, everything brushed across Harry when Nyssa positioned herself. Sara's thighs greeted Nyssa.

"Nyssa, you know you want to," Sara teased.

Nyssa did, in fact, want to, she wanted to more than anything else in her life. Hunger danced in the eyes of the Daughter of the Demon when licking her lips. She moved closer towards Sara and parted her thighs, revealing her dripping hot pussy, ready for consumption. Nyssa wanted to drink down as much of the combined juices as possible.

The Daughter of the Demon dipped down between Sara's thighs and started to eat her out. The combined juices tasted so good, with Nyssa swirling her tongue.

Harry caught sight of Nyssa's warm womanhood in front of him. Desire flooded Harry's body and his cock throbbed.

"Fuck her while she eats me out," Sara encouraged him.

"Nyssa, I have to have this pussy."

Nyssa swayed her ass, and spread her thighs further, inviting Harry. Harry's cock, reawaken from its state of slumber, pushed at Nyssa's warm walls. He pushed deep inside of Nyssa and spread out her warm thighs. The Daughter of the Demon took Harry between her legs, with Harry almost pulling all the way out and then pushing deep inside of her. His balls slapped against Nyssa.

So good, so good to be inside of Nyssa. Her warm womanhood grabbed Harry tight and squeezed him. Harry reached over and cupped Nyssa's perfect ass, giving it a very tense squeeze. He pulled back and rubbed the swollen cock head over against her dripping slit and pushed into her body.

The warmness of Nyssa's gripping walls grabbed around Harry, expanding and releasing him. Harry pushed deep into her body, and she could feel him swell inside of her. Harry's hands held onto Nyssa's hips when he rocked back and forth, burying more of his rod inside of her waiting body. Harry pulled almost all the way out and slammed inside of her.

Nyssa could feel the pleasure of Harry's mighty rod parting her thighs and burying deep inside of her. Never one to neglect her other partner, Nyssa's tongue swirled into Sara's dripping womanhood. The Daughter of the Demon tasted her lover, feeling the hunger increase when tasting the combined juices.

Sara lifted her hips off of the bed and brought them down. Her moans increased, when Nyssa worked her pussy up to another amazing orgasm. Nyssa's talented tongue, and even more talented hands brought Sara to an insane fit of pleasure.

"Getting closer," Harry groaned.

Harry worked Nyssa up to another orgasm. The feeling of her body reacting to Harry's assault from behind made him feel so good. He pumped his way into Nyssa from the backside, pushing his rod deeper inside of her tightening vice of a pussy. Harry grabbed onto Nyssa and plowed inside of her, as far as possible. Her walls grabbed onto Harry and released him, milking him in time with those big thrusts.

"Fuck, it feels so good," Harry groaned. "Doesn't it?"

Nyssa concurred, feeling Harry's mighty rod stretch out her loins. His fingers pushed her and grabbed her breasts, lavishing them with the attention Nyssa thought they deserved. Harry took her succulent globes and squeezed them. Pleasure shot down Nyssa's body.

"Keep eating me," Sara said. "Oh, yes, my asshole too. Get it nice and wet so Harry can fuck me in my ass."

The image of Nyssa's tongue grazing Sara's tight asshole made Harry only slam into Nyssa so much harder, working a finger into Nyssa's own tight backside. Harry slapped himself against Nyssa. The feeling of the flesh pounding against flesh made Harry push his way deeper inside of Nyssa. Those balls pushed against Nyssa's thighs the further Harry pushed against her.

"She's going to cum again," Sara said.

Gripping walls showed Harry exactly what Nyssa wanted. She wanted to be slammed into hard and fast, and Harry would be foolish not to give her this pleasure. Harry pumped his way into Nyssa from behind as hard as possible. Nyssa's warm thighs closed deep around Harry the more he rammed deep inside of her body. The sorcerer rammed into her body as hard as possible.

"Together."

Harry's questing hands worshiped every last nook and cranny on Nyssa's body. He touched spots which drove her notes. Nyssa's milking center grabbed onto Harry's engorged rod. He worked her up to one of the best orgasms possible.

"After you."

Harry caressed Nyssa's body, worshipping it while ramming himself into her from behind. Sensations rose through Nyssa, but Sara made sure she stayed the course, licking Sara's tight asshole, getting it ready for Harry to slip inside of her later.

His balls released their cum into Nyssa's waiting pussy. Harry pushed into her and slammed hard as possible. The amount of cum rocketing into Nyssa's body showed how intense this situation could get. Harry rested his hands on her hips, riding into her and pushing his seed into her body.

The moment Harry left Nyssa, Sara pounced on him, wrapping her legs around him and kissing the daylights out of him. Harry grabbed Sara's head and kissed her, before pushing his finger between her ass cheeks. Harry slipped into Sara's back hole and guided her back to the bed.

Sara knew from an instant from this gesture what Harry wanted. She would be lying if she didn't want the same thing, didn't have the same carnal desire to be drilled from behind from Harry. Sara's excitement reached a brand new fever pitch with Harry rolling the tip of his cock head against Sara's willing back hole.

"Take me," Sara breathed.

Harry grabbed Sara's ass and kissed down her legs, before moving between her ass cheeks. Harry buried himself in Sara's ass, slipping his tongue into her. His finger's pushed against Sara's clit as well, and it caused her to enter a daze of emotions.

"It was made for your cock," Sara begged. "Please, fuck me in my ass."

"Well, you make a very interesting proposition," Harry said.

Harry squeezed the juicy ass of the beautiful woman and rolled her over, so Sara laid down on the bed, chest down. Her ass stuck up in the air, presented for a hard fucking. Harry ground his tip against Sara's hole, playing with her ass all the way. He positioned and then pushed into her.

That huge cock entering her ass pushed all of Sara's buttons and made her cry in pleasure. Harry put his cock deep inside of her, where she thought it belonged. Those balls slapped against Sara's ass the further Harry rose up, slid back, and drove himself deep inside of her.

"You like me fucking your ass?" Harry asked. "You have a nice ass, and it deserves to be fucked. And I'm going to fuck it all night long until you can't sit down without thinking of my cock."

"I sure hope so."

Sara's body reacted to Harry's intrusion of her back passage. His fingers took control of her other hole, and the mystical attack made Sara feel like a second cock slid into her body, ramming both of her holes. Her pleasure increased, with sweat mixed with the oil rolling down her body.

"You're so hot."

Sara smiled, she knew she was, and she appreciated this god worshipping her body, making her his. She belonged to Harry. Harry pushed deeper inside of Sara, filling her tightening hole up with so much thick, throbbing cock. The intensity of Harry burying himself inside of her made her feel really good.

Harry enjoyed the feeling of Sara thrashing underneath of him. Her sexy body squirming made Harry only want to nail her in the ass that much more. Harry pounded her warm asshole. It felt so good squeezing around Harry's iron hard prick. He pushed deep inside of her, pushing in and pulling out of her.

"Cum for me," Harry said.

The moment Harry started to roll his fingers down her body, ending at her clit, Sara thought she would lose it. She floated on air, quite literally, when Harry levitated her off of the bed. Harry smacked her ass when fucking it hard.

"Again!" Sara begged.

Harry spanked Sara's ass, causing a red mark. He leaned down to rub her ass, squeezing it and slapped it again. Harry pumped his way into her, feeling her tight back walls close around his mighty rod. Every time Harry pushed into her, Sara moaned.

He brought cum soaked fingers into Sara's face. Sara sucked on them, moaning very hotly and very hungrily. Harry punished Sara's asshole from behind, working her over to the edge. Sara held onto him, tightening around her.

Nyssa slowly stirred on the bed. Harry centered a blast of pleasure to Nyssa's loins, causing her hips to buck up fervently, cumming on the bed.

"That's so hot," Sara breathed.

"Filling both of your holes up with my cum," Harry said. "That would be even hotter."

Sara closed her eyes, and the sensation of being double-stuffed by two cocks from the same man felt her. Magic worked wonders and brought Sara to higher levels of passion. Her nerve endings sang, demanding more of Harry, demanding as much as possible.

"I've got a double dose of cum," Harry breathed.

"In my ass, in my pussy, please," Sara begged him.

Harry slipped into Sara's warm ass from behind and enjoyed the feeling of it. The duplicating spell pushed the simulated cock into Sara's quim as well and made him feel so good.

He filled Sara up, filled her up something fierce, with so much cum, an obscene amount of cum as well. Harry's balls discharged inside of Sara, releasing her. He felt the sensation of release, pumping into Sara.

All of the tension Harry felt channeled into one orgasm, eased up Sara's tension as well. She clamped down onto him, milking every single last drop. And the milky discharge dripping from her holes showed how much Sara wanted it.

A smile crossed Sara's face, when Harry descended them back to earth, still hardening cock pumping his load into her ass.

The moment Harry detached, Nyssa and Sara both pounced on Harry to both clean him up and prepare him for some more fun tonight.

* * *

**To Be Continued on 7/10/2017:**

* * *

_Well, we see who Deadpool has been working for. Because someone had to pick up the tab. Oliver has disappeared for now right, but I suspect he'll be back when the plot is needed._

_Nyssa and Sara have their fun for Harry._


	309. Deep in the Underworld

So, a couple of things. First of all, there's the Reader Survey, so if you want take that, head over to the Page of Very Important Links, and click the Megamatt09 Reader Survey. It shouldn't take you more than a few minutes.

And, a second, potentially less fun announcement has to pertain to the future of this story. There's a post on the blog which goes into greater detail to this if you're willing to poke around. To make a long story short, I'm hitting a crossroads with this project where my interest is waning and my level of frustration is growing. The good news is that I have plenty of material in the can where I can stall for time and figure out whether or not I want to do something drastic. And I don't want to make a definite announcement one way or another.

One of the most extreme outcomes would be the story to be put on an indefinite hiatus at a certain time. Which, I'll be blunt, most times, that's just BS double speak which means "dropping the project like a hot potato." That's very drastic, but I just want to prepare everyone for that possibility.

In the meantime, I will be posting chapters as written until further notice.

* * *

**Chapter Three Hundred and Nine: Deep in the Underworld**

* * *

Lois Lane's excitement doubled when finally, after months and months of waiting, she had a chance to go out on patrol. She tried not to get too overexcited with this little trial run. The last thing she wanted to do when heading out would be to blow it. Lois rolled her neck back and looked out into the surface. She dressed in a slightly modified version of Jaime's Talon costume, dark black, with a blue emblem on it. She moved to the building, holding a staff next to her.

"So, you're going to be Talon tonight?"

Lois turned around and came eye to eye with Rebecca. Rebecca dressed in a modified version of the costume her mother created for her. She dressed in a red top, and a pair of green shorts, with the brightened colors in the initial design, darkened when she looked around. The red top sported a green "R" in a dark green circle. The pair of green boots, the cape, and the green mask topped up the outfit. Most of all, Rebecca carried a retractable baton.

"Yes," Rebecca said. "And I'm Robin."

"I know," Lois said. "I just wonder if Jaime is going to get a new name so she could cut down on the confusion."

The former Circus Acrobat responded with a shrug. Very good question to be perfectly honest, and she did not have a good answer. The two of them moved out on this highly supervised patrol. Obviously, they would not be allowed to go out alone, and they respected that. They moved around, under the very watchful eye of both Black Canary and Batgirl.

Batgirl and Black Canary kept a safe enough distance from the two girls. They wanted both of them to have enough room to maneuver on their own. This was an assessment of their skills after all. At the same time, though, both Batgirl and Black Canary wanted to keep a close enough watch on both girls from where they were.

' _So, do you think they'll do fine?'_ Barbara asked.

' _They're about as ready as they're going to be,'_ Dinah thought, shrugging in response. _'And besides, it's not like they're going out there alone. We're going to be watching them pretty closely.'_

Barbara responded with a nod. She always enjoyed seeing a pair of new hands going out on the field. Gwen guided the situation from the Clocktower, playing Oracle tonight. It had been an arrangement happening more and more, as Barbara gained more confidence being out on the field as Batgirl. Either Gwen or Emily played Oracle and she stepped onto the field.

"Keep your eyes peeled," Dinah said.

"Nothing too dangerous tonight," Lois said.

"That's something you shouldn't say," Rebecca said.

"Well, yeah, not normally. Still, there hasn't been anything more dangerous than a purse snatcher tonight."

Rebecca tested the grapnel created and moved from rooftop to rooftop with graceful actions. She motioned for Lois to follow. While Lois was not as graceful as traveling from one rooftop to the next, she did very well in traveling across the building. Lois tried to ignore the heartbeat going through her.

"You'll be fine, just don't look down."

Lois bit back the very snappy retort about how telling someone not to look down was a good way to ensure they were not looking down. She watched, catching a brief glimpse of Black Canary and Batgirl before they disappeared onto the other end of the street.

' _Close enough to pull our asses out of the fire,'_ Lois thought. _'Far enough to give us enough room.'_

Impatience hit the young girl suddenly. She could not believe tonight of all nights, they picked the night where nothing happened in Gotham City. Lois bit down on her lip and let out a frustrated and very agonizing groan. She continued, following things up with even more agonizing groans.

"Just cool down, it will be fine," Rebecca said, trying to encourage Lois. She received one of those looks from Lois and just responded with a frown. "We'll have some….."

The word excitement only just barely slipped off of Rebecca's tongue. She thought she saw someone.

"What's wrong?" Lois asked.

"That looks like….."

Rebecca rose higher onto the gargoyle to get a closer look. Despite her very obvious disinterest in heights, Lois followed, looking very shaky. Both of the girls saw someone who looked like Tony Zucco step out of a nightclub, flanked by two bodyguards.

"He can't be out of Gotham City," Rebecca said. She retracted the staff and looked ready to jump down. "I have to take a closer look."

"Are you nuts?" Lois asked. "You don't want to go back there again, dealing with him. Wait for Canary and Batgirl to come around, take a closer look."

No time to argument because Zucco, or whoever looked like him was gone, disappearing into a limo. Lois sent up the signal which they trained if they had gotten in trouble. No sooner did she send up the signal, Black Canary and Batgirl showed up on either end of the building.

"I swear I saw Tony Zucco," Rebecca said.

"Maybe you didn't," Lois said. "I mean, given how he just barely got out of town last time, and he knows Nightwing would be after him, why would he do something so stupid?"

"It's been over a year," Rebecca argued.

She tried to turn to Batgirl and Black Canary. Black Canary looked nervously over at the night club which Rebecca pointed toward. Yes, it was a place where Tony Zucco frequented when he was back in Gotham City. Still, it did not mean anything, at least what Dinah thought. She was willing to entertain the possibility something happened to bring Zucco back to Gotham City.

' _Desperate times call for desperate measures,'_ Dinah thought.

"We should head back to the Clocktower," Batgirl said. "Until we figure out whether or not it was Zucco. But still, you were both right to tell us."

Rebecca looked sour, kind of glad Lois held her back from doing something she would regret, and kind of not glad. Rebecca dreamed of being the one who brought Zucco down for killing her parents. A small logical voice in the back of her head told Rebecca bringing Zucco down would not be very feasible right now, or ever really.

* * *

Marie Logan dressed to impress when she made her way to a nice little café on the outskirts of Gotham City. The Gotham Elite, when they were not making a public impression, frequently met here, to discuss various functions. She finally managed to make the trip, after trying to work it around various charity events in her schedule. Marie smiled at the thought.

She only just barely hid the disappointment of not bumping into Harry first. Still, the trio of beautiful women meeting her eased the pain. Marie crossed the room to come across the trio of Veronica Vreeland, Sapphire Stagg, and Kathy Kane.

"Marie, I'm glad you can be here!" Veronica exclaimed.

"Yeah, and you managed to make Ronnie dial down to about a seven," Sapphire said, with a smile.

"Hush, I know it's important for Marie to keep a low profile," Veronica said, smiling. "Sit down, this is long overdue, us working together."

"Are you sure you're not trying to get a few extra points for the Humanitarian of the Year Aware?" Marie joked.

Veronica laughed in response, leaning back against the chair. She took a long drink from her.

"You want to help sponsor the Labor Day event?" Veronica asked.

Sapphire, Kathy received their drinks, and they took them in. The server looked towards Marie, who had been disguised with a pair of sunglasses, with her hair pinned back, and her normal free flowing red hair in a bun. The serve looked towards her.

"Please, get me an ice tea and a couple of bagels," Marie said. "Keep the change."

She slapped a twenty dollar bill into his hand. The server nodded and moved off to get the order in response. The moment he left, Marie turned her attention towards Harry.

"Harry Potter, where have you been hiding all of this time?" Marie asked when he was only in earshot. "How have you been?"

"I've been doing well," Harry said. "How about you?"

Marie smiled and beckoned for Harry to join her. Sapphire moved over so Harry could sit between her and Marie.

"You remember several months ago, you promised to take me out on a date when I'm in Gotham City," Marie said. "I understand if you forgot with all of what you've done. You're a very busy man, after all, but…."

Harry stopped Marie in mid-sentence by squeeing her hand. The starlet in disguise looked closer towards Harry. The two of the moved together, with Harry's lips coming very close to touching Marie's. He looked her in the eye and responded. "Don't worry, I remember. And how does Saturday sound?"

"It sounds good, great if you want to," Marie said.

"Don't worry, I want to," Harry said. "We'll make arrangements after this over. I don't want Veronica to feel like she's feeling left out because she was the one who got this to happen."

"Well, she dangled a couple of good causes underneath my nose," Marie said. "As you know, I'm very interested in the animal preserve you want to open up outside of Gotham City."

Veronica smiled, sadly. Her grandfather, rest his soul, was a very avid game hunter, and often times, it clouded his better judgment. He expressed regrets to Veronica later on in life, before he died. Veronica wanted to atone with some of past sins of her family, while also building a better world for future generations to believe in. She believed, as Harry did, there was a lot of potential to be had for the future if people opened up their minds and elightened themselves to the possibilities

"I figured about as much," Veronica said a moment or so later. "I want to ask you a couple of questions, about a couple of problems I've run into. And I want your best opinion on how to deal with it if you don't mind."

"No, trust me, I don't mind, at all," Marie said.

* * *

Rebecca took a deep breath and entered the gym. She reared back a hand and started to pound the edge of a bag. She hammered, punch after punch, shot for shot, nailing the bag as hard as possible. Rebecca breathed in and slammed her fist into the back, rocking it back and forth.

She recalled the meeting and wondered if it was Tony Zucco she ran into. Rebecca gave even odds she ran into that particular man.

"What did that bag ever do to you?"

Ella stepped inside and watched, with very wide eyes when stepping into the room. Rebecca jumped up and connected with a huge kick to the back. She dropped down to the ground, picked up two staffs. She handed one to Ella.

"I know you know how to use that thing," Rebecca told her.

"Maybe," Ella said. "You could blow off some steam, though."

Rebecca responded with a nod and stepped into the center of the room. Both girls surrounded each other. They withdrew the staffs and charged into the middle of the room with each other. Both girls went blow for blow with each other, pushing back.

"I know I'm the last person to tell you this," Ella said.

"You're going to tell me I shouldn't go after Zucco," Rebecca said.

"Well, I would have thought you would have learned that lesson, after what happened during your trip to Metropolis last year."

Rebecca sighed, she was not going to ever hear the end of that one. She still was not completely sure it was Zucco. Likely, she figured it was, given how Dinah and Barbara acted. They wanted to shield her. The two of them moved back against each other.

"What would happen if you had a crack at the guy who killed your father?" Rebecca asked.

Ella spent a few months thinking about that. Likely, she would have done something reckless, and very foolish. She swept Rebecca's legs out from underneath her. She pushed the staff against Rebecca's chin and leaned down to her. Rebecca pushed out of the attack and jumped in the air.

"You shouldn't do what I do," Ella said. "I'm the last person to be getting advice on vengeance."

"I'm not even sure if it was Zucco."

Ella knocked Rebecca back a few inches. Rebecca almost allowed herself to get knocked around even more. She pushed back with the attack on Ella, making sure to match the other girl attack from attack, sending her moving backward a couple of inches.

A sound of someone clearing his throat caused both of the girls to stop. They came across the one and only Harry Potter, who stood in the background.

"Ella, do you mind if I have a word with Rebecca?"

The young girl paused for a couple of minutes, considered what she wanted to do. After shaking her head, Ella stepped out of the room. This left Harry and Rebecca alone. Rebecca walked over and took the bottled water from the mini-fridge off to the side. She took a drink.

"So, did you hear anything about the man I saw?" Rebecca asked. "Is he Zucco, or something else?"

"I don't know at this point," Harry said. "We're looking into it. I'm just here to give you a reminder about how you're not ready to take him on."

"Why have I been training for this long anyway?" Rebecca asked. "I mean…"

Harry pressed a single finger to Rebecca's lips to silence her completely. Rebecca's eyes widened when looking at Harry. Wisely, she did not say anything, because it would have been foolish to do so. Seconds passed before Harry leaned in to her.

"You've been training, and you've honed your abilities to peak physical perfection," Harry said to her. "But, mentally and emotionally, your head is not in the battle with Zucco. When you're out on the field, you need to keep your emotions in check. Unless you're really good, you can't let your heart lead you."

"And I'm not really good?" Rebecca asked.

"No, not yet," Harry said. "Give it some time though."

Rebecca sighed and moved over to the bench off to the side of the sparring area to sit down. Harry joined her. The thirteen-year-old brunette looked up a few seconds later.

"I want some really bad things to happen to Zucco," she admitted. "After, what he did to my parents."

"And I understand why you do," Harry said. "Just like I hope you understand why it's hard to keep an objective head while something like this is so personal."

Rebecca swallowed and once again thought it over. She would have been angry about something like this a while ago, but in the year or so, Rebecca came to terms with a lot of her anger. Until Zucco had been locked up, brought to justice, there would have been a small part of it festering to the surface. Threatening to break out and cause havoc, something Rebecca would have had to deal with over time.

* * *

Cloud nine received a brand new resident these days. Oswald Cobblepot found himself in a pretty good place in Gotham City, with a lot of options to move forward. The past couple of months had been a reversal of fortunes for Cobblepot, where he stepped up and did the best he could.

Presently, Cobblepot sat in an office once belonging to Rupert Thorne. Thorne's attempts to reclaim the territory from the Penguin fell flat. The supposed kingpin of Gotham City seen better days, and he was a very shallow shell of the man he once was.

"Do you know what this Sunday is, boys and…lady?"

Cobblepot turned around in time to see Dudley, some goons, and Tracey who had been working out the logistics of some various routes in Gotham City, which Cobblepot could expand his empire. Everything fell into place, almost perfectly, he would have to say.

"It's the day that Carmine Falcone turns the big Five Zero," Cobblepot said. "I say we pay the old man a visit and wish him a happy birthday. Given what's been happening in Gotham City, it might as well be his last."

Cobblepot laughed, and Dudley and several of the goons laughed alongside with him. Cobblepot's lips curled into a very nasty smile. He had a lot of ideas regarding what to do next. Oswald Cobblepot just needed to enact some of them, and when the grip of the old timers weakened, then the Penguin would swoop in and take control of Gotham City.

"So, how are those shipping routes coming along, Dudley, my boy?" Penguin asked.

"They're going along well, sir," Dudley said.

"Excellent, soon this entire city will be eating at the palm of my hand."

A knock on the door followed. Tracey bounced up to open the door. The Penguin moved about to his men, to see what they were working on. Tracey and the goon had a very frantic and hurried conversation with each other.

"Well, you better tell him, then," Tracey said.

Tracey stepped back and allowed the goon to walk inside. Penguin's eyes followed the progress of the goon who sat down.

"Yes, son, what is it?" Penguin asked.

"Tony Zucco is back in Gotham City," the goon replied.

"Well, well, well, Maroni and Falcone are scared if they brought old Fat Tony Zucco back into Gotham City," Penguin said.

He actually looked very pleased with this fact, because it showed how much they were intimidated by the Penguin. They all saw Oswald Cobblepot as a joke at first. The Cobblepots reputation became like dirt over a couple of generations, thanks to the Wayne and Evans families. Cobblepot vowed to restore that reputation.

"And Intergang might be making a play," the goon said, "And least, that's what I heard from a couple of Maroni's boys, they were drunk off of their asses."

"Well, a few solid drinks make an honest man out of a known liar," Penguin said. "Intergang, Intergang, well that's interesting. Those boys are a long way from Metropolis, aren't they? With their little weapons that look like something out of Star Wars."

Tracey could not resist piping up. "I thought it was Star Trek."

"Star Trek, Star Wars!" Penguin yelled. "Same bloody thing!"

One of the goons cringed. "Actually, it isn't, because…"

Penguin smacked the goon in question across the top of the head with the umbrella to shut him up. Said goon almost fell down face first onto the ground.

"Someone invited them here, but I think I have an idea who," Penguin said. "You know, if we got our hands on some of those toys Intergang boasts of, and figure out who they work, then we could be the kings of Gotham City."

"You know, they said Mannheim got those weapons from making a deal with the devil," Tracey said.

"You can't believe everything you hear, Tracey," Penguin said. "When we get our hands on that stash of goodness, then we're going to be the kings of Gotham City. Not Falcone, not Thorne, not even fucking Black Mask. No, no, no, everyone in Gotham City will bow down before the Penguin."

He ended the monologue with a loud squawking round of laughter, which caused the other members of the room to look nervous.

* * *

Harry Potter stepped into the car and prepared for the date.

' _No luck on finding Zucco,'_ Kara thought. _'Maybe Rebecca was just…..'_

' _No, I don't think she was,'_ Harry answered. _'She was adamant about it being Tony Zucco, and I believe her. And Diana is keeping a close eye on her, as is Donna, so we shouldn't have a repeat of the Metropolis incident. She's well trained, I'm just worried about her judgment being clouded when she jumps out in the battle.'_

' _Yes, she's in, talking with the other girls,'_ Diana thought. _'There shouldn't be any problems keeping an eye on her from this end, at least, I don't think there will be.'_

' _I know you'll keep her safe,'_ Harry thought.

' _So, I take it you all got the invitations to Carmine Falcone's birthday bash,'_ Faora thought.

' _Yes,'_ Harry said. _'All of Gotham's high society is going to be there, on both sides of the law. Tomorrow afternoon, going into the evening. It's not every day the Roman turns fifty, you know.'_

' _No, it isn't,'_ Jaime thought. _'The question is, are you going to use it as a chance to try and find out anything about Zucco? I mean, we all know it's going to be the perfect opportunity to try and find something out.'_

Harry knew as well. Something told him Zucco would not be in attendance, especially given several top Gotham City police officials were there, including the Commissioner himself. Anything had been possible when the drinks were flowing.

' _It would be in all of our best interests to attend though,'_ Harry thought. _'And surely, we all know there could be some fireworks.'_

' _Yes, so it would be in our best interests to attend,'_ Faora agreed. _'Are you taking Selina?'_

' _Yes, she wanted to go, and she didn't get an invitation, which was very odd,'_ Harry thought. _'I agreed to take her along as my plus one, as long as she kept herself out of trouble. I'm pretty sure Falcone is going to be on his best behavior. Some of the other guests though, I don't know.'_

' _If Cobblepot or Sionis are there, things are going to get very ugly,'_ Karen thought. _'And to think, you have your hands more than full by babysitting Selina.'_

' _Yes,'_ Harry thought. _'So, any luck, Dinah?'_

' _I've been tracking one of Zucco's old associates, but he's given me the slip,'_ Dinah thought. _'Barbara had to dig him up, he's gone underground over the past year. Only recently resurfacing.'_

The Flying Graysons murder died down as far as media coverage would be concerned, which might have given Zucco and company the impression the heat died down enough for them to resurface.

' _I'll let you know if I find anything,'_ Dinah thought. _'Don't worry about me, enjoy your date. She's been waiting for you for a long time.'_

' _I think tonight might be the night,'_ Kara piped in.

Harry finished making the drive to Sapphire's penthouse, where Marie crashed. No doubt a date between Harry Potter and Marie Logan were going to turn more than a few heads.

* * *

A knock on the door brought Sapphire Stagg to the door. She smiled and greeted Harry with a hug.

"She'll be ready in a few minutes," Sapphire said. "Why don't you sit down, and make yourself at home?"

Harry thought it was a very excellent idea. He sat down on the couch. Sapphire dressed in nothing other than a nice casual tank top and a pair of yoga pants, her feet completely bare.

"So, are you going to Falcone's party?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, Kathy's taking me, and Ronnie's chaperoning Bruce," Sapphire said. "I swear, he would forget the day of the week if that butler of his wasn't there to constantly keep him in line."

Harry smiled if only Sapphire knew. Sapphire moved around and checked up the stairs.

"I'd fix you a cup of coffee," Sapphire said. "I think your date is almost ready."

Sure enough, Marie Logan made her way down the steps and looked quite stunning in a beautiful green dress which fit snugly around her curves. The beautiful starlet and Animal rights activist made her way down the steps. Harry stood up and smiled.

"You look beautiful," Harry said.

"Thanks," Marie said. She looked Harry over. "You don't look so bad yourself."

The two of them joined in a sizzling kiss with each other. Harry and Marie pulled away , and Sapphire just smiled.

"If you to kids are back by sunrise, I'll be disappointed," Sapphire said. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

' _Which isn't a whole lot,'_ Veronica chimed in.

Harry smiled and leaned towards Sapphire. "I'll deal with you later."

He moved around and wrapped his arm around Marie's waist. Marie smiled, as Harry's hand lingered a bit closer down south than her waist. Not that she minded. She was proud of all the work she did to keep fit and toned.

The two disappeared out of the front door and moved down the driveway to prepare for their date.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 12** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Zucco is back in town. That seems like trouble. With a capital "T"._

_What Penguin said about Star Wars and Star Trek being the same thing is sure to be something that would end up triggering a lot of people on the Internet, if it happened in real life._

_Ella and Rebecca have a nice little conversation, and obviously both girls are in a similar boat._

_Harry and Marie go on their date which is something that's been building for a long time. One of those things that I haven't been able to pull the trigger on until now._

_The Roman's Birthday part is coming. Something's going down there._

_Until Wednesday._


	310. Roman Candles Part One

**Chapter Three Hundred and Ten: Roman Candles Part One**

* * *

 

People could say what they liked about Gotham City. While Marie did not quite like Gotham City as much as New York, she considered it to be more genuine than Hollywood. And she felt a lot safer visiting here when she did a place like New York or Chicago, or something like that, at least she figured as much.

She walked arm and arm with Harry Potter. Marie just smiled when more than a few people saw the car pull up and the two of them step out of the car. No doubt all of the gossip magazines and news shows would be talking about how Harry Potter and Marie Logan stepped out on the town, having a date with each other.

' _Well, I'm sure they'll be talking about this one for a long time.'_

Harry picked out the most exclusive place, at least from what Marie saw. Sapphire and Veronica educated Marie in some of the ins and outs of Gotham City. She moved and gripped her arm around Harry. A man with a camera stepped up. Harry frowned and was about ready to say something.

"If he wants to get a picture," Marie said. "Then we should give him a real photo opportunity."

Marie joined Harry lip to lip with a very sensual kiss. The two met each other at the mouth, tongues pushing into each other's mouths. The two of them parted ways after a full, deep kiss for a minute. Marie looked like her brain needed to be rebooted a few seconds later.

"Shall we?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Marie said.

Harry offered Marie the door first and the two of them stepped through the door. He watched the starlet's ass sway a little bit more. She looked over her shoulder with a smile, when seeing where Harry's eyes had been locked on. Marie milked his gaze for everything it was worth. They moved to the server, who greeted Harry, and the two of them ordered before they would be escorted to their table.

Both of them took a nice lit booth, a bit further away from everything else. Marie kicked her shoes off from underneath the table and leaned back. A bottle of wine had been delivered to the table.

"Veronica was pretty excited about the nature preserve," Harry said. "Her family….."

"Yes, I know about the Vreeland's checkered history," Marie said. She sighed. "We can't change what happened in the past though. I think Veronica's doing a pretty good job in making up for what her grandfather did, and her great-grandfather as well. Back then, hunting was considered a right of passage, I guess."

Harry poured them a glass of wine and Marie took it. She downed it with one drink and gazed across the table, eyes locked onto Harry's. Marie leaned back on the table, smiling when looking Harry deep in his green eyes.

"So, you're making a couple of documentaries?"

Marie took a second to think about it. The smile on her face increased, although there was a part of it which looked kind of troubled.

"Yeah, I really want them to focus on the nature preserves," Marie said. "The marketing director disagrees though. He wants to market it as starring the star of Hello Megan. It's not like that's the only thing I've done, even in Hollywood."

A few bit parts here and there, a couple of movies here and there, and while it was not the most extravagant career in the world, Marie thought she did so good other than a sitcom.

"They are persistent with never let you live that down," Harry said. "You know, Hello Megan wasn't a bad show."

Marie smiled and took a drink of her wine. "Yeah, I know, it was pretty fun to do it. It was just, it was only a season one, and yet, it has this insane cult following. Even after the Network dicked it around, moving it all over the schedule. And it ends up on the Friday Night Death Slot."

"Amanda and Emily thought your acting was pretty good for the material you were given," Harry said.

The starlet sipped on the wine for a moment and looked very thoughtful. "I'm really not sure whether or not to take that as a compliment or an insult."

Harry laughed at Marie's statement.

"Take it however you want it," Harry said. "Seriously, I watched every episode and it wasn't bad. A product of its time, maybe, but it was not necessarily bad."

Marie shook her head, she would have taken Harry's word for it. She would be perfectly honest and say there was a good reason why she did not take another role as a lead on a television show. Just a few fun roles here and there, a couple of movies, where she tried to get over the typecasting, the role of Hello Megan had given her. At least, Marie did not get into all of the trouble a lot of child and teenage actors did.

Regardless, dinner was coming.

"Sorry, if I brought up some bad memories," Harry said to her. "So, let's eat."

Marie was not really going to say she had bad memories necessarily, well not working on the show. It was what happened when the show was on an air which made her not want to work with a regular show.

X-X-X

Carmine Falcone checked up on the security for his birthday celebration. To make sure he kept up with tradition, he had to invite some of his business rivals. And Carmine stressed his problems with Cobblepot and Sionis veered to a more business nature. He had nothing personal against the men, even though Falcone would not invite them over unless he needed to make public relations.

"Catering is all in order."

Carmine turned around and saw his daughter, Sofia, step into the room. In the office area in the background, Alberto sat against the wall. He pretty much only just acknowledged the presence of both his sister and father. Sofia brushed past Alberto's spot.

' _He's been more withdrawn after Mario has been sent off,'_ Carmine thought. _'And after Johnny's death. And Carla is on the warpath after that as well.'_

The Roman needed to talk to his son. Unfortunately, Alberto's current somber mood was not something he could deal with right now.

"Are you sure you're ready for this, Father?" Sofia asked.

"Yes," Carmine said. "It isn't every day that you turn fifty. And given some of the challenges in Gotham City, each one of my fifty years was a gift."

"You're going to have fifty more birthdays," Sofia said to her father.

Carmine smiled, she really did know how to put things in perspective, and he hoped he would live long enough. He feared what would happen to Gotham City when he was gone. The short time he was away in Blackgate, Carmine noticed the hell which Gotham descended into.

"I wonder if it's a good idea to open up the party to Gotham's elite," Sofia said. "I know you know best, but….."

"It shows that I'm not afraid," Carmine responded to his daughter. Sofia answered with a nod. "The invitations have been sent out and they're all going to get a chance to come and partake in the party."

Carmine Falcone feared pretty much no man. Some people would say he had balls of steel for inviting the likes of Roman Sionis and Oswald Cobblepot. Not inviting them would result in Falcone losing a lot of respect. Falcone required respect even more than anyone else with a smile crossing over his face.

"You do have balls of steel," Sofia responded.

A smile crossed the face of the Roman. Sofia pretty much hit the nail on the head, in her own way. Carmine appreciated his daughter's bluntness. Some might think she spoke out of turn, but he disagreed.

"No, it's only a healthy respect for tradition," Carmine said a few seconds later.

A knock on the door brought Carmine's attention towards the door. The Roman stepped over and opened up the door. Alberto just looked up from the book he read, and then looked back down just in time the door opened. Carmine gave a smile towards the two men on the other end of the phone.

"Come in, gentlemen."

Carmine Falcone stepped back and lead to Tony Zucco and Salvatore Maroni stepping into the room.

"What is Zucco doing here?" Sofia asked.

"Ah, don't be like that, Sofia," Maroni said. "It would be a shame if you scrunched up that pretty little face of yours….."

"What is he doing here?" Sofia asked, cutting Maroni off in mid-sentence.

Maroni looked towards Falcone, who responded with a nod. He knew better than to disrespect a man's daughter in front of his face. Especially, considering said daughter could have knocked him and Zucco around, just as easily as anyone. Zucco gave Sofia an innocent smile. The daughter of the Roman looked with her arms crossed together. Zucco cleared his throat.

"So, do you want to be the one to tell her?" Maroni asked. "Or should I?"

"After you, I know you've been bursting to say something about what we've been doing," Zucco said. "And it's good to be back in Gotham City. Surprised you took an interest to this side of the family business."

"I'm not unless it affects the other side of the business," Sofia said. "And you and your extortion racket affected that side of the business."

One of the things she would agree with Big Lou Maroni on would be the fact Tony Zucco was a loose cannon and he could be a problem. He had a lot of friends from way back, mostly through his father and uncle, who were big time mafia figures back in the 1970s. The weasel did, in fact, have those uses, as much as Sofia would have.

"Hey, hey, simmer down, "Zucco said. "I'm not going to pull that again."

' _Only because the last time you did it, you got a well-deserved beat down from a vigilante,'_ Sofia thought.

"You better not," Sofia said. "I'm here for my father's birthday, the question is, why are you here?"

A few seconds passed with Zucco took in a deep breath. "Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it a couple minutes. I've been making all kinds of new friends in Metropolis. You have to take a look at this, both of you."

A piece of paper pushed out. Sofia and Carmine looked at the invoice, and even Alberto looked a bit interested, despite the obvious disinterest he had been showing in the back of the room.

"You going to pull this off?" Falcone asked.

"No problem, we need the leg up, if we want to survive the Penguin and his military grade weapons, and Black Mask and whatever he's doing," Zucco said. "I helped Mannheim, and he's giving me a reward.

"Mostly because he wants you to stay out of his hair," Sofia murmured in response.

That statement had been ignored. Carmine looked over things.

"Don't worry, I'm taking care of it, your hands are going to be clean," Maroni said. "We need to work together, even after the past problems."

"You do realize there are already rumors you're back in town, don't you?" Falcone asked. "There are rumors the GCPD and the Press are digging around, and I'm sure they're not the only one."

"It's been a year," Zucco said. "Surely, they haven't gotten over it."

"Nightwing hasn't," Falcone said. "And I'm certain the Bat hasn't either. I have more than enough problems, so until I get this sorted out, stay out of public sight. No more sneaking out into the club."

Zucco turned directly into Maroni who responded with a very obvious shrug. Both wondered what would happen now.

* * *

 

Roman Sionis held the invitation, inviting him to Carmine Falcone's birthday party tomorrow. He frowned when looking it over, a few seconds passing when he started the piece of paper down. He looked up just in time for Ms. Li to step into the room. The executive assistant of Roman Sionis looked him in the eye from across the room.

"So, are you going?" Ms. Li asked.

Sionis looked at the piece of paper a few seconds later. He would normally not give Carmine Falcone a time of day. It was a political move to invite him to the party. He admitted, Falcone was many things, but he was making a statement about inviting Roman to the party.

"Where is Number One?" Black Mask asked.

"I'll summon him at once."

Ms. Li went to Number One, the latest Number One at the very least. Black Mask went through a lot of them over the past couple of months, more so than usual. The Best Number One he had, at least the one with the most intelligence, had been tricked by the Joker.

No one dared mention the J-word in front of Black Mask. Ms. Li witnessed her boss's reaction when the Joker escaped from Blackgate. So far, absolutely nothing, but it did not look pretty.

"I'm here boss."

"Don't be late again."

Those words from Black Mask to his Number One cut through the air with a very, very chilling vibe. The criminal swallowed a lump into his throat, and nodded when staring back. Sionis snapped his fingers.

"Cigarette!" he barked.

Number One fumbled with a package of cigarettes and almost dropped one on the ground. He slipped it into the mouth of Black Mask. Black Mask took a lighter and lit the cigarette. He puffed a huge amount of smoke off of it, surrounding the room with it.

A couple of seconds passed before Sionis took a deep breath. He enjoyed the rush of the nicotine filling his lungs. It made him calm, made him able to focus, which was the main thing at this point. He turned around the room, locking eyes on Ms. Li and also on Number One. The latest Number One, who did not have as many brain cells to rub together, but had been a good little flunkey.

Number One took a deep breath and took out another deep breath. Sionis finished his cigarette and stared out the window, looking very thoughtful in the process when he did so.

"We know he's coming," Sionis said. "He wouldn't pass up an invitation to crash this party. He would be….well he just wouldn't pass it up."

No one dared interrupt Sionis in the middle of a speech. He put his cigarette out on a crystal tray lying in the middle of his office.

"We're going to head to that party because the Joker just might crash it," Sionis said. "I have a score to settle with that smiling bastard. He's not going to get the better of me. He's not going to make a fool out of me. I'm not going to be punked by him. Do you hear me? I'm not going to be punked by him."

"Sounds reasonable," Ms. Li responded. "What makes you think he'll show up?"

She had been the only person in the room who could have gotten away with asking a question like that to Black Mask. One could see the man's eyes widen and a deep breath flowed out of his mouth.

"Oh, he'll show up, alright," Black Mask commented a moment later. "He can't help himself. When we're there, we're going to gun down anyone who even looks like a clown. I can't stand the freaking creepy bastards anyway."

"Would be a shame if some innocent man got gunned down," Ms. Li commented. "I'll tell the boys to get ready."

She could not see Falcone as the type to just have clowns attend his birthday party, without any problems. Not even to put the screws to Big Lou Maroni. His phobia of clowns was a pretty open secret in the criminal underworld, and anyone would have known that was the best way to get to him, by exploiting the fact he had a crippling phobia.

Sionis meanwhile smiled. He would be making an impression. After all, wishing Falcone a happy birthday was just the appropriate thing to do, considering the circumstances, and considering Falcone's latest birthday, could, in fact, be his very last birthday. The mobster mused about his best suit.

"Make sure everything is in order, both of you," Sionis said. "And I don't want any foul-ups! Is that understood?"

* * *

 

Some of Sal Maroni's men waited for the shipment to come into Gotham City, through the tunnel across from Gotham City East River. The tunnel had been referred to has the Pipeline, which allowed the smuggling of several bits of very important merchandise from Gotham to Metropolis. Most of it had been legal, at least to an extent, but it had been questionable how it was getting there.

The legal merchandise always proved to be a front for the illegal merchandise though, the guns, the drugs, and everything else. Bruno Mannheim pretty much paid off the people who ruled the pipeline, and he used it to bring some weapons to Maroni across from the pipeline, in Gotham City.

"So, it's coming through," one of Maroni's men grunted.

"Yeah, just get ready for it," one of them responded.

Off in the distance, several of Penguin's men moved from the shadows. They waited until the truck had been secured, to make their move. A weedy-looking young man moved forward, being the person who would be keeping an eye on this little mission. Several other men, much bigger and bulkier in size followed behind him.

"Okay, listen up," Dudley said over the communication link. "I pretty much idiot-proofed this mission. Even a child could figure out what to do here. So none of you gits better bungle it up."

No one dared say anything about how Dudley was not the sharpest knife in the drawer either. To mock the Walrus would mean to get the ire of the Penguin. Despite the Penguin's great mood due to acquiring a lot of Thorne's territory, no one dared risk anything.

"Yeah, we got it, Dud," one of the men responded.

"Just remember, if any of you fuck up, your next bed will be at the bottom of that river across the way," Dudley responded. "Get ready, and remember, don't take any shit from anyone. The boss needs this truck, and he needs it yesterday."

One of Dudley's old school friends, Piers Polkiss, responded with a very crisp nod. He had been given the honor of leading this mission. Dudley pulled him out of a couple of tight fixes back at Smeltings, so he found himself in debt to Dudley. He looked up to him, as an older brother in some ways, and Piers would not let Dudley down, not if he could help it.

"Alright, you heard him, let's go."

All of the members of the Penguin's gang maneuvered themselves into position, ready to strike. The leader of Maroni's crew looked ready. The truck showed up and two heavily armored men turned up. They could have been a problem, unless you knew where to shoot them, and take them out.

"Take your shot wisely, boys," Piers murmured underneath his breath.

One of the men aimed his gun directly at one of the goons who turned up. He was going to take the shot, alright, one way or another. The gun pointed at the back of the neck left wide open for some kind of attack. Dudley's gang member pulled the trigger on the gun and fired, which caused the goon to drop down onto the ground.

The second armored goon dropped down to the ground. The Penguin's gang entered a firefight with Maroni's mob. One of them tried to head to the limo, to call for back up. Piers shot him in the back of the leg, and then moved over, to slam him head first onto the ground for good measure.

"Get the van!" Piers yelled. "We got about five minutes before someone else comes into the Pipeline."

One of Maroni's men tried to secure the van. A hail of bullet fire gunned him down. Blood splattered in every single direction when the man in question slumped against the edge of the van. A single hand pulled him over, allowing his blood to smear the van.

"Get going!" Piers barked.

The gentlemen scrambled into the van and took control of it. The shipment in the back of the van, of high-tech Intergang weapons from Metropolis, now belonged to the Penguin.

"We got it!" one of the members of the gang yelled.

They all threw their hands in the air and started to whoop, like a group of rowdy pub goers after a Football match.

"Well, well, well," the Penguin chimed in, with a wicked smile on his face. "Happy birthday, to me."

* * *

 

Marie enjoyed the date, and she had a lot of fun with Harry. Harry escorted her to the penthouse. Sapphire gave her a key, just in case. Marie turned the key into the lock and opened up the door. The two of them stepped into the penthouse, the light turning on.

Sapphire's couch looked made up nicely for them, with soft pillows on the around. When she was there, Sapphire showed her how the couch folded back into a bed, almost as if she hinted at something. The two made their way to the table, where a bottle of wine sat on the table, including a note.

"Sapphire said she's out hitting the clubs with Ronnie and Kathy," Marie said. "And she left the bottle of wine just in case."

"It would be a real shame if we left the bottle of wine on the table, to go to waste, wouldn't it?" Harry asked.

"Mmm, yes, a real shame," Marie said.

She leaned into Harry and kissed his lips. The two of them pulled away from each other and settled down on the couch. Marie kicked her shoes off and rested her stocking clad feet on Harry's lap. She smiled and leaned back.

"So, were those fetish websites right?" Marie asked.

"I beg your pardon?" Harry asked.

Marie lightly rubbed her foot against the edge of Harry's lap and smiled when she received a nice reaction.

"Some of the best feet in Hollywood, even after all of those years," Marie said. Her voice sounded husky when she listed off all of her attributes. "Perfect, succulent toes, nice, well-formed arches, beautiful, soft soles…why don't you take a closer look?"

Marie playfully lifted her leg and wiggled her foot in Harry's face. Harry grabbed her foot and smiled, running his fingers over it. Marie shuddered when feeling Harry play with her foot. Something about a man who didn't mind indulging in feet turned her on and pumped heat to her loins.

"They're very nice."

Harry explored every nook and cranny of her foot.

"A nice set of legs to go with them as well," Harry said. "But, I think as nice as your feet and legs are, we go up a bit North, and we get your best attribute."

Harry ran his fingers up Marie's leg and reached underneath her dress, to cup her ass. The lacy panties covering Marie's perfectly shaped, and perfectly round ass, caused her to breathe out in pleasure.

"Mmm, I do have a nice ass," Marie said. "And I work hard for it, I'll have to know. Every day, those workouts, an ass like this just doesn't grow on trees."

"Turn around so I can see it properly," Harry said.

Marie obeyed, also pulling up her dress so Harry could get a good look at the pair of lacy panties covering her ass. She also managed to rest her feet on his lap, the stocking clad souls pushing against him. Harry reached up and put his hands on her hips.

"Very nice."

Harry explored Marie's juicy rear end. The starlet's breathing increased when Harry touched her, in ways no man touched her in a very long time. Marie's mind went wild, as she felt how big Harry was from behind with her stocking clad feet.

"We should finish what we started in Africa," Marie breathed with lust burning from her voice.

She turned around and could see the tent in Harry's pants. Marie crawled on top of Harry, her dress sliding down slightly. She planted her ass firmly onto Harry's growing manhood and leaned into him. Her world class legs scissored around Harry's hip.

"I wanted you then," Marie said. "And I want you even more now."

Marie ground herself onto Harry, and Harry grabbed the redhead by the hair, before pulling her into a kiss. The two of them swapped their tongues with each other, very hungrily slurping their lips against each other. They did not bother muffling the kiss with each other.

Slowly, Marie undid Harry's tie, and kissed him madly. She undid his shirt and moved down to work his pants open.

* * *

Marie unveiled the prize she eagerly sought. Those beautiful blue eyes widened when she watched Harry's massive cock spring into the air and nearly smack her into the face. A foot long and thick enough where she needed to wrap both of her hands around it.

"I need this, "Marie said.

She allowed her drool to fall onto Harry's cock to lubricate the mighty hunk of meat properly. Marie grabbed Harry's manhood and pumped him, using her hands to work him over. Marie closed her eyes and imagined this cock rammed in every hole, starting with her mouth.

Marie's succulent lips formed a tight seal around Harry's cock head. Harry reached up and guided her head down onto it.

"That's it, suck my dick," Harry breathed.

Obviously, Harry could tell Marie wanted to pleasure him for a long time. She bobbed her head up and down on Harry's pole for several minutes. Each time, her lips lovingly smacking against Harry's throbbing cock, each time making him feel really good.

"Fucking hell, Marie."

Marie pulled up and smiled, she decided to climb up to her feet and slowly slip her dress down the rest of the way. She wore some sexy black lingerie. Her hips sway when turning around. She made sure to put her ass directly in Harry's face and wiggle it.

The starlet received a smack to her plump rear for her trouble. Marie swayed her tight ass in Harry's face back and forth, with an almost hypnotic appeal to him.

"Baby, this is going to be so good."

Marie wrapped her hand around the base and jerked on Harry's cock. She teased both of them by sliding it between her legs. Juices collected from Harry's throbbing penis. Harry reached around and slipped Marie's lacy panties off.

Her perfectly formed ass was bare and unrestrained. Harry grabbed both of those meaty cheeks in his hand and squeezed them. The sorcerer moved between those gorgeous, firm cheeks, and buried his face between them. Marie gasped in pleasure the second Harry poked his tongue inside and licked her out. The gorgeous redhead could feel Harry's tongue swirling in her tight hole from behind.

"Eat my asshole," Marie begged him, biting down on her lip.

She moaned in pleasure with Harry working his way into her tight hole from behind. Harry licked her asshole and made sure to get it nice and wet for the incoming fun. He also reached between Marie's legs and rubbed her pussy lips. The friction caused the starlet's hips to buck up and down.

Harry enjoyed burying his face between Marie's meaty cheeks and giving her asshole a nice licking, worshipping it and getting ready to fuck it.

Marie closed her eyes and an orgasm rushed through her body. The moment it finished, Harry spun it around. Harry forced a finger into Marie's mouth and made sure it was nice and moistened when she sucked on it. He grabbed Marie's asshole and slipped a finger inside. He guided her vaginal opening towards his throbbing cock.

"Not, yet," Harry said.

Marie nodded, she could feel Harry's cock head splitting her tight pussy apart. Marie felt herself filled up to the brim with twelve inches of prime Potter penis while Harry's hard cock pumped inside of her vaginal opening. Her wet walls slid down Harry's engorged prick and stretched around him.

The tightness of the sultry redhead pushing down on Harry, her ass bouncing when she rode him, made Harry feel really good. Her nice long legs snaked around him made Harry feel even better. Harry rubbed Marie's legs and received a reaction.

The perky breasts came out when Harry snapped her bra off. Harry took one of the nipples in mouth and sucked on it.

"Harry, oh, more!" Marie breathed.

The moans increased when the riding on Harry's throbbing hard cock continued. Harry fingered Marie's puckered back passage just as much as he pushed his throbbing cock into her vaginal opening. He leaned in and accessed the neck of the starlet, nibbling on the edge of it.

"Cum for me."

Harry's hot breath hitting her ear forced Marie to just do that. She submitted Harry's actions when coming up and down on him. Her pussy juices lubricated Harry's pole when she rode him.

"Fuck!"

"Oh, innocent Megan has a mouth on her, doesn't she?" Harry teased her.

"Shut up," Marie growled.

Despite her outburst, Marie did get a kinky sense of pleasure at the thought of dressing up as her old character and being drilled, while in costume by Harry. She might have to bring it up to him in the future.

Marie kept driving herself onto Harry's engorged manhood. The pleasure spreading through the former Hello Megan star's body, along with the fact Harry's able hands and mouth worshiped her, caused her to be undone more quickly than ever before.

"Here it cums again," Harry teased her.

The warm juices filled over Harry's large throbbing cock. They pumped down onto Harry's thick tool and spread over him. Marie filled her pussy with so much of Harry's cock.

Harry worked his way into warm insides of the former teenage star. Marie's eyes bulged when feeling the pleasure. She bit down on Harry's shoulder sensually, leaving her mark. The redhead threw her head back and screamed, with the latest orgasm hitting her.

Soon, Harry followed her. He rode out Marie's orgasm and channeled it into one of his own. He pumped cum into her waiting pussy, shooting it to paint the inside of her walls. Marie gripped his pulsing member and slipped all the way down onto it.

"If your pussy feels this good, I can't wait to take your ass."

Marie's body shook from the pleasure. She dripped in sweat and bodily fluids. The former starlet would be damned though if she ended this night without a cock rammed firmly in her ass.

"I know you can't wait," she breathed.

Marie pulled back and turned over, cum dripping from her pussy. She bent over, catching the cum on her fingers. Marie sucked her fingers, slurping them down very noisily. She lifted her leg up from behind, showing the flexibility that many enjoyed her for when she was Megan.

Those warm toes wrapped around Harry's cock and pumped it up. She made his cock harden as much as possible, before aiming it towards her sexy ass. The warm hole opened up, invitingly from Harry.

Harry wrapped his arms around Marie, brushing his fingers on her toned stomach. Her workouts did the body of the starlet very good. Harry kissed down her lower back and tongued her ass. Marie's pussy dripped when Harry brushed his tongue against her ass.

His cock stuck out and hit Marie on the small of her back. Shivers came down the spine.

"Oh, it feels so hot," Harry teased her. "Your ass is almost sucking me. You didn't have an ass this nice in the eighties?"

"My show might not have gotten canceled," Marie joked.

Harry aimed his raging rod at Marie's puckered hole and slid into her. The starlet's eyes glazed over at first.

"Relax. Let nature take its course."

More of Harry's prick buried into Marie's warm asshole. She stretched out for Harry's manhood. Harry grabbed onto Marie's meaty cheeks to bounce her. Her juicy ass bounced with Harry pushing his rod inside of her body.

"Mmm, yes, baby, give it to me, right in my ass," Marie breathed.

She received the cock of Harry Potter rammed firmly in her backside. Marie would not say it felt like a dream come true, but in many ways, it was making all of her dreams come true. Harry pumped his way into her tight backside, working her over with every single last thrust. Harry kept pulling back and burying himself into Marie from behind. His balls bounced and struck the actress on her rear end.

"Fuck me," Marie begged him. "Harder, harder!"

The innocent actress turned into a crazed sex kitten when being screwed. Harry pushed all of her buttons and ran his hands over Marie's sexy frame. His balls slapped against Marie's waiting thighs, and his cock submerged deep into the ass of this particular goddess.

"Mmm, yes, fuck yes!" Marie yelled at the top of her lungs. "Ram my ass."

"Taste yourself, taste how much you're cumming."

Harry pushed his fingers into Marie's mouth and she slurped on them like she would a cock. It just made Harry want to anally fuck the starlet even more. The sound of flesh against flesh echoed through the area, with Harry pushing deep into her tight asshole.

"Oh, that's it, you big dicked stud, ram your cock into my perfect ass!" Marie yelled. "I bet you jacked off to me, thinking about how you could fuck me up in every way when you watched my show."

"Well, why waste time with fantasies, when I can have the real thing," Harry said. "And how many nights in Africa did you diddle yourself raw, after our last meeting?"

Marie's bluff had been called, and she came hard, at the memories of those lonely nights with nothing but her toys and a dirty imagination at what she wanted Harry to do with her. Some of those fantasies came true tonight, although the Megan fantasy had not, just yet. She wore down so many toys from thinking about Harry coming and taking her into his strong arms and fucking her. Now, Harry made all of those dreams come true, all of those dreams a reality. Harry worked his thick rod deeper inside of Marie's tight backside, stretching out her waiting ass.

"YES!" Marie screamed.

"I know," Harry said.

Harry sucked on her earlobe and ran his hands down her body. He manipulated Marie's clit while returning his grip to her ass. All over, Harry's hands touched her and drove Marie absolutely nuts beyond belief. Harry continued to pound her all the way to the end.

The best orgasm of her life followed, with Harry planting his rod balls deep in Marie Logan's perfect ass. Then, he spilled his seed into her, groping her ass all the way when he hammered it raw.

Marie thought a nice long soak in the tub would be good tomorrow, her ass would be sore as fuck. But damn, would it be worth it. She oozed cum when Harry planted the remainder of his seed inside of her perfectly shaped, and now spanked raw, ass.

* * *

 

**To Be Continued on July 15** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

 

_Marie and Harry finally get hooked up. You could say it was long overdue._

_Meanwhile, tension is reaching a fever pitch in Gotham City with another gang war bubbling to the surface._


	311. Roman Candles Part Two

**Chapter Three Hundred and Eleven: Roman Candles Part Two**

* * *

One of the biggest events in Gotham City took place, at least for this weekend. Carmine Falcone turned the big five zero, and there had been a lot of debate about if this had been the Roman's true age. It made a lot of sense, but there had been a lot about Carmine Falcone's past which raised a lot of question.

Many people invited to this party had been very surprising. Some made them wonder whether or not Falcone had been more forgiving than they thought, or had just made a statement. The ball had been thrown into the court of some of Gotham's most notorious. Falcone was willing to give them the invitation. If they did not show up, then they would be the ones who would lose a lot of respect and a lot of face in the eyes of the elite in Gotham City.

One of the most prominent citizens of Gotham City stepped into the party. Only a few people noticed given the position he entered the party. Harry Potter moved inside. Many cameras flashed when he stepped inside. Selina Kyle stepped next to him, dressed in a very nice, sequined green dress.

"Don't worry, I'm on my best behavior," Selina said. "I know if I pull anything, I'll get it bad, but you know, not getting it."

Selina gave Harry a sultry little smile and she was on her best behavior, for the most part. She teased Harry with a squeeze of his ass. She moved around the party, and saw Alberto Falcone moving, slumped over in the shadows. Sofia was around, greeting some guests with a smile on her face. She looked to be all business for the most part.

So far, the man of the hour did not show up, and neither did his new best friend, Maroni. Selina craned her neck to look around the area. She noticed Rupert Thorne making his way into the office. Several people in the party only gave Thorne the most casual of greetings.

' _Talk about being cold,'_ Selina thought. _'Then again, that fat bastard deserves to be shunned.'_

While Thorne wasn't responsible directly for Frank Bertinelli's death, he did nothing to deflect it. He called in a lot of favors to prevent from getting implicated in the murder. Selina kept her eyes on Thorne, who looked to be only making the most token of appearances. Two bodyguards, almost as thick looking as Thorne, stood on either side of him. No one would be getting an easy shot of him.

Given some of the GCPD members, even though not in uniform, arrived at the party, you would have to be pretty bold to try something tonight. Selina caught Peter Grogan step in.

"There's Grogan, always brown-nosing everyone," Selina said. "Guess, that's how he got his job."

Grogan appeared to be marginally better than Loeb, at least from Harry's opinion. His obsession with bringing down the costumed protectors of Gotham City put him at direct odds with Harry. He saw Hill, who looked somber. Roland Daggett and some of Gotham's elite moved in. Daggett and Hill acted very cool towards each other, after the incident in the Stock Exchange.

' _Old habits die hard,'_ Harry thought.

' _I'm surprised Hill put himself this far out in the open,'_ Kara thought. _'Given that Fugate is out, you would think Hill would be sleeping with one eye open.'_

"Hello, Harry, Selina."

Both of them turned towards Sofia Falcone. She made her rounds and moved past Harry. Sofia just looked towards Selina and leaned in.

"Do you mind if I take Harry for a couple of minutes?" Sofia asked. "I want to discuss something with him, and I prefer it be one on one for right now."

Selina noticed Alex Potter entering the party, and Kate Kane joined her. "Okay, I've got some old friends to catch up with anyway. See you later."

With a smile, Selina slinked off into the shadows. Sofia gave Harry a firm grip. The young brunette dressed in a nice tight green dress, which showed off her assets. She wore jewelry, a nice necklace which drew attention to Sofia's immense cleavage.

"It belonged to my mother," Sofia said. "One of the few things that Cat left behind when she raided us."

"What was she after anyway?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," Sofia answered, giving her shoulders a light shrug. "Could be anything. After some information, my father held, for one of his business rivals. Or maybe it's just some kind of blackmail scheme. Don't really know, I haven't asked her."

Sofia moved in and clenched Harry's first firmly. She looked up into his green eyes.

"If I got ahold of her, I would tie her up, and force her to spill everything," Sofia said. "I have my ways to make people like that talk. Catwoman is pretty stubborn, but I'm pretty sure I can break her. She wouldn't be the first bitch, I've had to break."

Harry did not doubt her words, to be honest. Sofia pulled lightly away from Harry and looked him over.

"This has been a pretty up and down year," Sofia said. "And really, ever since last Halloween, Gotham City has changed, and not for the better."

Sofia's eyes widened when she saw Oswald Cobblepot make his way into the party. He gave the Roman a look from across the room. Two of Falcone's bodyguards looked across the room and cracked their knuckles. Sofia's progression moved from the bird to two of the men who stepped in from behind him. Roman Sionis followed Cobblepot into the party.

Harry casually moved in. Two men like this talking, he wanted to get a closer listen to what they were saying. He could see Cobblepot's attention locked onto Sionis. Sionis's eyes darted from left to right. His assistant Ms. Li kept an eye on Sofia from across the room, but neither woman said anything and looked at each other.

"Why are you looking around like this?" Cobblepot demanded. "You look like you're waiting for a hot date."

"I'm looking for the clown," Sionis said. "He should show up at any moment."

Cobblepot snorted before taking a glass of champagne. "Plenty of clowns around here as far as I'm concerned."

One could see Sionis swallow the lump in his throat and keep his beady gaze forward. Cobblepot allowed a gaze to float across the room and land firmly onto Hamilton Hill.

"Surprised he had the stones to show up," Cobblepot said a moment or so later.

"I agree," Hill told a couple of older men who hung on the Mayor's every world. "Yes, Mr. Sharpe, I agree that we should do everything in our power to open up Arkham Asylum."

"Agreed," the man, Sharpe, said. "The issues with the criminal element in Gotham City is getting out of hand. We need them to rehabilitate them, so we can turn them into more productive members of society."

The full attention of the people in the party turned to Carmine Falcone. He walked with Salvatore Maroni on one side of him and moved towards the podium. Maroni lifted up a glass to pound it with a spoon. A clinking motion brought the attention of everyone in the party over.

"I've lived for half of a decade on this day," Falcone said. "And some people say the best years of my life have passed. But, I disagree."

Everyone hung on Falcone's every word. Even the people who did not agree with what Falcone had to say, they still wanted to listen to the man. They would have to know their enemy and for some people, Carmine Falcone was one of the biggest enemies they would ever encounter.

"Some of my best years are yet to come!" Falcone yelled at the top of his lungs. "And not only some of the best years of my life, but some of the best years in Gotham City. Even after some rough spots, we're going to do what we can to be the very best. Strength is Gotham's strong suit, and as long as I'm around, I will fight to keep Gotham City strong."

"Here's to your health, Carmine," Maroni said in his usual gruff tone of voice. "Along with keeping Gotham City strong."

He raised his hand and several men around him, poured some drinks. A loud round of cheers went up, with Maroni's lips curling into a very prominent smile. Falcone basked in the cheers of the people around him, even if some of them had sour expressions on their face.

Alberto Falcone loomed in the edge of the room and slipped out of the back entrance.

"Where are you going, Alberto?" one of his friends asked.

"I'm going to the bathroom," Alberto said. "Something didn't disagree with me."

The friend noticed Cobblepot staring at Alberto with those beady little eyes from across the room. He could see what didn't agree with Alberto from this vantage point.

* * *

Harvey Dent received an invitation to the party of Carmine Falcone. As much as he would have like to visit the party, if nothing else to keep an eye on some of the mobsters in the party, Dent had another idea where he wanted to be. He moved to the parking deck, making sure to avoid the security cameras.

He had a lot more respect for the likes of Batman and Nightwing for all of the ways they avoided detection going through their nightly routine. Dent's neck craned back and he kept a careful look.

Dent walked up to each of the cars and jotted down license plates on a pad of paper. He searched for one license plate, in particular, that being the one from a car belonging to Tony Zucco. Rumors came on through that Zucco returned back into town.

Harvey Dent made it a personal goal as the Gotham City's District Attorney to solve the Flying Graysons murder. The daughter of John and Mary Grayson deserved justice, and if Dent put Zucco away, he might reveal what Maroni had been doing. Maroni could have violated his probation, and Dent wanted to throw him back away.

Toppling Zucco's domino would cause a chain reaction for Dent. Dent slipped around the corner and took a deep breath. He moved across the parking lot. The dimly lighted area made it very easy to slip around undetected. The dimly lighted area also made it very easy to get shot and no one would know it.

A van pulled into the parking garage and Dent put himself behind a pillar. The Distract Attorney noticed Metropolis license plates on the van. Three men exited the van.

"The boss is going to meet us in a minute."

"Make sure there's no security," one of the goons responded.

"Why would there be any security down here?" another goon asked.

"Don't argue with me!" the leader of the pack snapped. "Just look."

Harvey eyed one of the weapons. He heard of the weapons coming out of Metropolis, and Maroni's crew had some scaled down weapons. Hearing the reports, seeing the pictures was one thing. Actually seeing the weapons ended with Dent being very impressed.

These members of Black Mask's gang had Intergang weapons. Some more men descended down the steps.

"Falcone gave his speech," Black Mask's number one said. "You better be ready."

"Hey, we got everything we want," one of the men said.

Another van pulled up into the garbage. The doors blasted open and several men dressed in black exited.

"Ah, you want your toys back, don't you?" one of the members of Black Mask's mob asked.

Two vans had been stolen today, one by Black Mask's crew, and the other by Cobblepot's crew.

"We're after Cobblepot," one of the members of Intergang said, aiming a rifle which glowed with a bright blue light at the tip of it.

Dent pulled out his cell phone and dialed 9-1-1, and he sent a message for backup. A third van pulled into the garbage, and the Intergang members who turned up in the garage started to fire at the van. The windows of the van blasted open, and Intergang started to fire at Penguin's gang, Penguin's gang started to fire at Intergang, and Black Mask's crew moved around on the edge to pick their shots on both sides.

Gotham City's district attorney stood in the middle of the firefight, not knowing what to do next. He just hoped the GCPD had gotten there.

* * *

The sounds of an explosion from up above started the fire. Carmine Falcone clutched his wine glass. The doors burst open and several security guards scrambled up the steps. The Roman stood against the wall, deeply breathing in and out.

"What the hell is going on?" Falcone demanded.

"We need to get you out of here, sir."

The elevator doors blasted open and smoke filled the area. Tear gas released in the area subdued the mobsters in the area. Through the mist, Black Mask stepped inside, leading the men on in. They held high tech weapons.

Maroni almost cringed when he caught sight of these men entering the room. They held weapons and pointed them at the crew, clicking the weapons when pointing at the men.

"There were my weapons," Maroni said. "I'll be a son of a bitch."

Roman Sionis, now in full Black Mask uniform, stepped inside. He looked towards Falcone, pointing a gun at him.

"What's your play, Sionis?" Falcone asked.

The man's eyes narrowed on the other side of his mask. "You better drink, drink to your health, Carmine. It's your birthday, and it might be your last birthday the way things are going."

Sionis blasted one of the bodyguards in the shoulder at a warning shot. The machine gun the mobster held was the most low-tech thing Black Mask and his goons carried into the room. It did its job though.

"You dare come in here and threaten my guests," Carmine said. "You're not going to get away with….."

Sionis shot the curtains behind the Roman and tilted his head back. He laughed in a crazed manner.

"Oh, Joker, Joker, come out, I know you're here somewhere, you smiling son of a bitch!"

Everyone in the room looked at Sionis like he was completely and utterly out of his mind. It was not the first time Sionis received such looks for a lot of people, to be perfectly honest. The crazed man looked around the room, eyes bugged out in a very insane manner.

"That clown isn't here," Big Lou grumbled from the back of the room. "At least he better not be here."

The bottles of wine behind Big Lou exploded from one gunshot from Sionis. The crazed mobster's eyes flashed around. Everyone in the room moved around. The GCPD officers at the party had to protect civilians, but they had been surrounded by some of Black Mask's men who had weapons trained on them and several prominent party goers.

"Guess what!" Sionis yelled. "If the Joker doesn't show up, then all of you are going to pay. All of you are going to pay big time. Don't you hear me? Don't any of you hear what's going on!"

The sounds of more fighting from downstairs along with sirens followed. Roman Sionis moved around the room, a very sadistic smile on his face.

"If the Joker is here, don't you think he would have shown up by now," Falcone said. "You're making a scene, Sionis….."

"No, I'm not," Black Mask responded.

Many of the people at the party wondered how obsessed and bent Roman Sionis had to be for revenge if he would risk tarnishing his entire reputation for it in one night. The Joker holding him captive and then impersonating him for all of those months really did a number on the Gotham City mobster.

"Just put the gun down," Hill said. "Just put the gun down, there's no one here….."

"Oh, the man himself said he could be anyone," Sionis interrupted, cutting through the party. "He could be any one of you, in the shadows, in this party. Each and every one of you, you could be the Joker. All of you, you could be the Joker, you know."

If the clown did not show up for the party, bad things were going to happen. Sionis bet everything on it.

Off to the side, Harry backed up towards the exit. He could see several of the girls positioned at various points at the party. Kara and Diana could also both slip off from their position as well.

' _Sionis being held captive for all of these months, it's not done him any favors,'_ Harry thought a few seconds later. _'The man was mental before.'_

A loud explosion shattered some of the glass, and Harry knew there were more problems downstairs. Unfortunately, it was hard for them to be in multiple places at once. Sionis's men releasing gas into the party allowed Diana, Kara, and Harry to all move towards the back entrance, in an attempt to get change out and to stop this.

' _I'm on my way,'_ Barbara thought to them.

It had been a good thing Barbara Gordon did not receive an invitation tonight to the party. Much easier for her to slip out and do what needed to do, than if she had been at the party or something along those lines.

' _I've tapped into the security cameras,'_ Gwen thought. _'You're not going to like this, but Black Mask and his crew are not the only people who are making a big play tonight. Penguin's gang is also throwing their hat into the ring. And Intergang is here….likely to get back the stolen weapons.'_

Sionis kept yelling for the Joker, sounding more like a rabid animal than a human being. Captivity clearly did not do any wonders. The moment Harry disappeared off into the distance, he caught one glimpse of Oswald Cobblepot. The mobster looked about as calm as anyone would expect, in fact, even calmer than most people would expect. In fact, Cobblepot practically leaned back into the curtain and enjoyed the show.

Indeed, Oswald Cobblepot did not expect Black Mask to rear his ugly head tonight. However, it should have been something he would have seen coming, given the past problems Black Mask had. He did half expect the clown to make an appearance tonight.

Cobblepot would teach that madman some manners. Not civilized, not at all, with his crazed antics, not to be used in any kind of polite company.

* * *

Chaos went down upstairs, and chaos went down outsides. Penguin's gang looked to be winning this particular battle if there was anyway a battle could have been won like this. Harvey Dent swore in anger, blood splattering down the left side of his face. He had been caught up in one of the explosions.

Nothing too bad at least, Dent took a handkerchief to wipe the blood off and to stop the bleeding. He looked towards a service elevator. The sounds of the Gotham City Police Department approaching could be heard on the outside. Dent knew there were cops upstairs.

Cops who might be delayed getting to the chaos downstairs due to Black Mask and his efforts upstairs. The Gotham City District Attorney found himself in a very, very tight fix, and one he did not think he was going to get out of anytime soon. He pushed himself back into the corner.

To think, if he had been upstairs at the party like invited, well, Dent would have been in the same bad situation. The hot August weather made everything somewhat worse in this battle. Explosions resounded from every single direction, and a piece of debris almost clipped Harvey. His knee rolled when he tried to get out of the way.

The Gotham City Special Crimes Unit forces were outside. Only, they had been stopped by one of Penguin's new toys. A barricade which fired laser blasts to back off the members of the GCU. The Penguin's gang turned their attention to Intergang, and the firefight continued.

"Hey, look at what we got here!"

Harvey swore a blue streak when he caught sight of a trio of Black Mask goons making their way over, straight for him. It did not help with his leg basically killing him. Harvey picked up a pipe laying on the ground. Better to go down swinging than to cower against the wall.

James Gordon moved in from the other side as well and fired a shot at the back of the leg of one of the Black Mask gang members. Harvey took advantage of the distraction by clubbing the second goon in the back of the head. A stun grenade rolled across the floor and caught James Gordon, dropping him down onto the ground. Gordon slumped over, and Black Mask's men moved in.

Dent rushed them, but they shoved him to the ground. The Gotham City District Attorney received a couple of punches to the head. Dent got in a few street fights back in the day, so he was not going to go down without a fight. He bit one of the mobsters on the knuckle which caused him to recoil in pain.

A flash came from up above. Nightwing dropped down onto the back of the head of one of the mobsters. The mobster next to him pointed a gun. A quick draw fire of a dagger sent the gun flying out of the hand of the mobster. Nightwing propelled himself up and multiple kicks dropped the mobster down to the ground.

The mobsters turned their attention and Nightwing disappeared into the shadows. Nightwing came back around when the mobster did not expect it. Nightwing flipped the mobster over, hooking his arm, and breaking it with a loud crack. Another mobster's arms grabbed in a full nelson and Nightwing swept the legs out from underneath him, taking him down to the ground.

"Get him!"

Batgirl flipped into the picture, and caught the mobster with a huge knee to the face, sending the man crashing down to the ground. She dodged a punch from one of the mobster's and came back with multiple rapid-fire attacks to stun the mobster in question. The mobster almost fell back onto the ground. Batgirl zipped behind the back and caught him with a vicious headbutt down across the back of the head, further stunning her adversary.

Nightwing moved to fight side by side with Batgirl. The mobsters dropped down to the ground. Batgirl flipped one of the mobsters down onto the ground and knocked him down. Nightwing pulled a stun grenade out from the mobster's belt and lobbed it, stunning him.

' _We're in position to protect the civilians up above,'_ Diana thought.

Nightwing smiled, Huntress and Flamebird were both up above, a pretty good sign. Batgirl caught another mobster around the head and grabbed him back with a jaw-jacking punch. She moved back to check on the cop who laid out on the ground.

Barbara reacted with a startled gasp when she realized it was her father on the ground. James Gordon stirred, pulling himself back up. He looked a little worse for wear when staggering.

"Are you alright?" Batgirl asked, trying to disguise her voice so her father did not catch onto what she was doing in her spare time.

"Yes," Gordon said after a moment's pause.

"You're needed upstairs," Nightwing said. "Get Dent out of here...Black Mask and his gang are up there, and they're trying to flush out the Joker."

"The Joker's here?" Gordon asked.

Could tonight get any worse? Gordon did not want to ask that because Murphy could be particularly vengeful at times like this.

"Not now, but Sionis thinks he is," Nightwing said.

"It's just as well, the SWAT is trying to break in, and Grogan sent word he wants the GCU out of here," Gordon said.

He was the only one who would have been able to get in here. And to think, he thought being late to Falcone's party was a bad thing. Gordon moved off, sparing one more look at Batgirl before helping Harvey into the elevator.

"Another redhead," Gordon murmured when he was out of earshot. "What are the odds?"

The Penguin's barrier had finally been disabled, but in came the GCPD swat. Branden stepped inside and caught sight of Nightwing and Batgirl.

"Get them!" Branden yelled.

' _Of course, there's a gang war going on, so get us.'_

Gunshots fired, some from downstairs, some from upstairs.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 17, 2017.**

* * *

_Boy, that Howard Branden sure does have his priorities straight, doesn't he?_

_Black Mask has lost it, even more so than usual. Being held captive by the Joker almost a year ago really did some damage to him._

_Quincy Sharp, there's some pretty bad news._

_Until Monday._


	312. Roman Candles Part Three

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twelve: Roman Candles Part Three**

* * *

Everyone at Carmine Falcone's birthday party bore witness to the insane and very obvious mental breakdown of Roman Sionis. The mobster known as Black Mask looked around, eyes very much widened when he looked around for everyone. Some of the party goers looked around.

"Please, don't hurt us," one of the women at the party said meekly.

"Not going to hurt you, sweetheart," Black Mask commented in his low, gravely voice. "We're just going to make sure the Joker comes in. And if he doesn't come in, well I can't be responsible for what I'm going to do."

Black Mask broke a bottle of the wine against the edge of the wall. He grabbed one of the party guests and held the jagged edge of the bottle against the man's throat. All Black Mask had to do was shift his hand forward and he would have cut the man's throat. Horror, to put things mildly, flashed through the man's eyes. He struggled and tried to break free. Black Mask held onto him, grabbing onto the man's arm as viciously and roughly as humanly possible.

"He's around here somewhere," Black Mask said. "And when I find him, I'm going to slowly cut him apart. Piece by piece, I'm going to rip him apart. No one is going to make a mockery out of me. Do you hear me? No one is going to make a mockery out of me."

One of the men across the hallway pulled a gun and pointed it at Black Mask. Black Mask's Number One earned his pay by firing the gun across the hallway. The man dropped down onto the wall. Blood splashed on the wall when the bullet connected into the side of the head of the goon in question. Black Mask looked on the other side of the mask. He looked towards Carmine Falcone who slumped against the wall. He knew things would never be the same ever again.

"Now, does anyone else want to be a hero?" Black Mask asked. "Come on, I'm begging you. Come at me, show me what you got. Just give me an excuse, and I'll take you out, just like that. Come on, you sons of bitches, I now rule Gotham City."

He ignored the battle coming from downstairs. Intergang might have come back for their toys. Black Mask did not care because soon he would have the upper advantage. He would not be disrespected ever again.

Huntress moved from the shadows. One of Black Mask's more brutal thugs hung next to the wall and looked over the scene. He held a hand on the trigger, ready to attack at a moment's notice like a demented attack dog. Diana swept behind him and pulled the goon into the shadows with another word.

The next goon turned to one side to watch the opposite door. Diana moved behind the man and hooked an arm behind his back. She pulled the goon back a fraction of an inch and caused him to slump over. She pulled the goon into the shadows to take him out with one more violent attack, dropping him down to the ground. The wind all drove out of the man's lungs.

The Amazon Princess moved to the shadows. Black Mask looked around and could hear a scuffle on the steps leading up. He turned to Number One and another trio of goons. The fourth goon stood on the outskirts and had been opened up for Flamebird take him down in a blink of an eye.

"There's someone out there!" Black Mask barked. "Go check it out."

These goons responded with nods and they all scrambled to the stairs to get a closer look at what was going on around them. Somebody strung two of the goons up over the banister. Number One looked over to the side and his heart beat even faster. The mobster's itchy trigger finger held towards the gun.

"Batman's here."

Batman dropped down and took the furthest of the goons out. The Detective grabbed the goon around the neck and punched him in the side of the head not once, but twice. The Detective punished his attacker even more. Batman moved in.

Black Mask stepped down the steps to get a closer look. Huntress broke open the doors and started to lead people out. They should have been able to pull this one up.

' _Keep your eyes open, Kara, while I get these people out,'_ Diana thought.

' _Right, I got it,'_ Kara said.

Falcone moved away and two armed security guards rushed into the room.

"We have to get out of here sir," the guard said. "We need to get up the stairs, towards the roof. Trust me, you don't want to get down here towards the parking garage."

"Take me out here the safest way," Falcone said. "What about Alberto? Sofia?"

"Both of them already got out of here safely, sir," the guard said.

Falcone received some peace of mind, at least knowing both of his children made it out safely. He would be having a word about Maroni. Maroni swore up and down the Intergang deal wasn't going to come back and bite Falcone, but it turned out, it came back to bite Falcone.

"Get me out of here, any way you can."

* * *

Howard Branden circled the parking garage like a particular sadistic shark smelling blood. One of the thugs dropped down on the ground. He stepped over the top of him. Three SWAT Elite guards kept close behind Branden. Branden resembled a bloodhound more than an actual man when he looked around.

"Nightwing was just there a moment of so ago," one of the SWAT guards said.

"Yeah, he must have cleared off when the mobsters did," another one of the SWAT guards said.

Howard Branden refused to give up the hunt without the fight. He would have Nightwing and he would bring him in. It had been a long time coming. The vigilante spent all last winter making a fool out of Branden's SWAT time and time again. Now it was time for some good retribution.

"Keep looking," Branden said. "He can't have gotten far."

The SWAT spread out and no signs of Nightwing. The only people in the parking garage were the downed mobsters who had been either struck down by unfriendly fire or beaten to a pulp by Nightwing. Nothing indicated any of these men knew anything.

The vent started to creek. Spinning around, the SWAT team member pointed towards the vent and locked his gun. The moment someone slid out of the vent, he would have been poised to fire. Nothing happened though, and the SWAT team member lowered his gun, setting it down on the ground.

"Son of a bitch, I know he's here," the SWAT team member said. "Come out, come out and play, you miserable bastard!"

The SWAT team member slapped his hand down on his palm so hard it became rather raw. The door opened up and James Gordon left the makeshift medical station. Gordon tapped his arm up and walked around.

"What's going on?" Gordon asked. "Did you get any of the mobsters?"

"Not any of them," Branden said. "They got away, and so did Batgirl and Nightwing in the confusion. I can't believe it. You were there, why didn't you do anything?"

Gordon held up an arm. If Branden nose wasn't so far up Peter Grogan's ass, Gordon doubted very much Branden would have a job for his misconduct.

"Yeah, you should have waited for my boys to clear the area," Branden said. "You being in here screwed up my boys and their chance to nab Nightwing."

"You didn't have a chance," Gordon replied in one of the calmest voices possible.

A couple of the SWAT members shifted and Branden's face contorted into one of the ugliest expressions known to man. Both him and Gordon looked down at each other. Something would have to give, something would have to break, despite the fact neither side knowing what they might have been now.

Fortunately, Harvey Dent stepped inside. Dent looked down at Branden.

"What are you doing here, DA?" Branden asked.

"My job," Dent said. "Something you should be doing. If you would have put up a barricade to stop those mobsters instead of going after vigilantes, we might actually have something."

"Now listen here, I don't tell you how to push papers at your desk, so don't tell me how to do actual police work," Branden said.

Dent looked at Branden. He would have liked to nail Branden to the wall because of something. Unfortunately, Harvey really didn't have much of anything to nail Branden with or the political capital to nail him with anything. Until Branden lost his safety net and lost favor with Grogan and Hill, he could still run wild, providing he didn't do anything stupid.

"I'm after Tony Zucco."

"Zucco?" Branden asked. "I thought that son of a bitch was dead."

If only it were true, Dent would not have been so anxious. Of course, if it were true, then Tony Zucco would not have been brought to justice for all of the murders he committed, least of which, the Flying Graysons.

"He might have been upstairs when it happened," Dent said.

Zucco didn't park his car in the parking garage which frustrated Dent to no small degree. Just because Zucco did not park the car in the garage, it did not mean he was not down there. Dent took in a deep breath and kept looking around.

"Let's head upstairs and see if we can find anything."

Gordon tried to see if he could round up anyone from the GCPD. The moment he walked up the stairs, he noticed three Black Mask goons strung up. The grand ballroom upstairs at the hotel looked to be mostly deserted.

No Sionis, no Falcone, and no Cobblepot. All three of those men and several other figures of interest made themselves scarce. Gordon turned around just in time to see Peter Grogan rushing up the stairs. It was time for Gordon to face the Commissioner of Gotham City.

* * *

The hot August weather caused Salvatore Maroni to sweat. What caused him to sweat even more was his boy, Tony Zucco, he should have been upstairs, behaving himself like a good little boy. Yet, when Maroni put in a call, Zucco wasn't there. The mobster tried not to lose his cool.

' _Don't lose your head, Sal,'_ Maroni thought to himself. _'Act cool, because here comes the Roman. And he'll smell it if you're losing your shit.'_

Salvatore Maroni watched as Carmine Falcone made his way out to a back alley. He had been escorted down from a ladder from the roof. Wrong side of fifty or not, Falcone moved with a surprising speed. The mobster dropped down to the foot of the ladder. The two bodyguards stood on either side of him.

"Sofia?" Falcone asked. "Yes, I'm fine…and you made it out okay…yes, I can see some of them coming out of the party. There shouldn't be too many problems….just keep your head down, and I'll call you when I'm back at the Penthouse. Yes, I don't know why he did it either."

"Sionis should hang for this," Sofia said.

Falcone wanted answers. Sionis always had been a bit off. Ever since the Joker got his hooks into Sionis, he brought insanity to an entirely different level. This incident at the party was the latest in a series of very odd incidents brought to you by the crazed Roman Sionis.

"I might have to put him down like a mad dog."

The Roman had one child present and accounted for. All he needed to do was dial up the other child. Unfortunately, while Alberto's phone rang and rang, it wasn't answering.

"Alberto's not picking up," Carmine said.

Last year's incident where Alberto got kidnapped by Penguin's men made Carmine a bit nervous at his son not answering. The Holiday Killer also being out and about also put another target in Alberto's head. Sofia was safe, and Alberto, he wasn't.

"The kid's not answering, is he?" Maroni asked.

"No, he's not," Carmine said.

One noticed the very obvious concern in Carmine's face. Maroni understood, as a father. Alberto might be a little shit, but he's still Carmine's son, and you had to respect a father who would do anything for his son. Maroni thought quite fondly about his two twin boys.

' _Man, this isn't good,'_ Maroni thought to himself.

Tony Zucco stepped around the corner which brought Maroni away from his thoughts. He grabbed Zucco by his jacket and pushed him back against the wall.

"Were you seen?" Zucco asked Maroni.

"No, I wasn't seen, I swear," Zucco said. "Everyone was too busy with Sionis and his goons tearing up the area. No one saw a damn thing I was doing. Penguin's guys, Black Mask's guys, Intergang's guys, I made it out okay when I heard the gunshots. Oh, and there's a bunch of capes running around, at least that's what a couple of the boys told me on the way out."

Maroni pointed a finger in Zucco's face. Zucco flinched at Maroni's gaze.

"Were you one hundred percent sure no one saw you?"

"Chill, I wasn't seen."

Telling someone, especially with a notorious temper like Salvatore Maroni to chill, ended up being a huge error of judgment. "How can I chill when there's a chance I could get caught?"

Maroni looked around. He had a sense something was going on and someone watched him from the shadows. And his father was nowhere to be found either.

It turned out, had Maroni looked a bit more, he would have seen the figure stalking around in the shadows. He turned to Zucco who have an anxious little smile. Something Maroni did not return.

* * *

"Carmine Falcone's birthday party almost turned into a gangland massacre. Notorious Gotham City kingpin Black Mask lead a group of people into the party, with high-tech weapons. Black Mask started to shout up a storm, demanding to see the Joker. The Joker, however, did not turn up. Several party goers had to be rushed to the Gotham City General Hospital, even though it could have been a lot worse."

Back at the Penthouse, several of the girls who stayed up a bit late, watched the scenes as they played out on the televisions screen. Namely, the likes of Rebecca, Lois, and Ella stayed up very late at night. Amanda, Emily, and Donna, who did not attend the party, but had agreed to stay behind and help the girls also stayed up. All of the girls watched the raw security footage on the television screen.

Amanda wondered what the hell Black Mask had been thinking when he brought in the man. Sionis had connections, but it was sure very difficult for him to spin away this one, at least, that's what Amanda figured.

' _Everyone got out, okay?'_ Amanda asked.

' _Some people got injured,'_ Kara confirmed over the bond link. _'Thankfully, it was none of ours. There were some tense moments for a very long time though.'_

Amanda took a sip of the orange juice she half had been drinking. She could only imagine.

"We have received word that fleeing the back entrance of Carmine Falcone's party was notorious Gotham City underworld figure, Tony Zucco."

Rebecca jerked upright at the murderer of her parents being mentioned on the television screen. She saw Zucco's mugshot on the television screen.

"As you may remember, last year, Tony Zucco had been wanted for questioning for his role in the murder of the Haley's Circus Act, the Flying Graysons. He murdered John and Mary Grayson, leaving their daughter, Rebecca, age thirteen, orphaned."

Lois moved over, watching for Rebecca's response to this news which came on the television screen. She watched every single moment of it, as it came on the screen in rapt attention. Her mouth hung open when viewing the images of Zucco flashing on the screen.

"Reports have not been verified, but the GCPD consider this sighting to be credible. If you have any information, you are to target them at once. Tony Zucco is considered armed and dangerous, please, do not approach him."

The warning sunk a bit more into Rebecca's mind than nothing else. She pulled herself up to a standing position and moved over to the bathroom. She did not even walk about three steps when she realized Amanda stepped straight behind her.

"I'm just getting a drink of water."

To be honest, Rebecca did not want to try anything tonight. She might want Zucco, but stepping out in the middle of a gang war, was very insane right about now. Both of the twins followed Rebecca's every move. She got herself a glass of ice cold water.

"Zucco is not only wanted for the murder of the Flying Graysons but being the front man from a smuggling operation. GCPD also consider his former employee, Salvatore Maroni, of interest. If Maroni is also involved in this smuggling operation, then he would be in violating his parole and would receive thirty years to life in Blackgate Prison. We should point out these are just simply allegations at this point, and nothing has been proven as fact."

Insanity covered Gotham City, and all of the girls agreed there would be a lot of insanity. Tonight was only the beginning.

' _And to think, the one man who could cause the most madness didn't even show up,'_ Diana mused to Donna.

' _You mean the Joker?'_ Donna asked.

' _I believe Sionis thought in his heart Joker would show up,'_ Diana thought. _'And now he's looked like a fool again for believing something like that.'_

Not the first time Sionis had been made a fool by the likes of the Joker, and the man's hot temper made him out to be a fool from many people, by the looks of things.

* * *

Harvey Dent took a perch point at the rooftop of the GCPD. He had been waiting to meet with James Gordon. Tonight, he thought he had Zucco, and if he had Zucco, he would finally put Maroni away for good. Two birds, one stone, one less headache in the growing headaches manifesting in Gotham City. Of course, this came with a catch, as now the Intergang Genie was out of the bottle.

Dent ran his fingers down the side of his face. He had been patched up by Gotham's finest medics, after the beating he suffered. It could have been much worse.

Such was the price anyone paid when they chose to be a public servant in a town like Gotham City. Harvey drew in his breath and drew out his breath a couple of times.

"Good thing you got there when you did."

Nightwing properly stepped out of the shadows. He noticed Harvey clutched the ever-present silver dollar in his hand. Dent mentioned how flipping a coin calmed his nerves in some very high-stress situations and no situation was as high-stress as the one tonight, at least from what Harry could piece together.

"A good thing," Dent continued. "Cobblepot and Sionis, they got out of town, while the getting out of town was good. But, there's some good news, finally. The good news in all of this insanity. We might have finally gotten a lead on Tony Zucco, and we can finally end this."

"Good, I'm glad you do," Nightwing said. "I'm curious what possessed him to come back to Gotham City after all of this time."

"Money, greed, but that's about as far as I can think," Dent said. "A couple of snitches remarked that Maroni is trying to build a pipeline of weapons. Unfortunately, I don't think it's secure if the hardware Black Mask's men were packing is any indication."

"I've got Zucco in my sights."

Dent turned around and came face to face with Batman. He figured, somehow, it would be only a matter of time before one of them tracked Zucco. Harvey Dent appreciated the work they did, even though there were some who did not.

"I'm glad, do you think we can get him?"

James Gordon turned up, arm in a sling, and he looked a bit worse for wear, more so than usual. Dent turned to Gordon, eyebrow raised and wondering about his sudden appearance on the rooftop.

"The doctors cleared me," Gordon responded. "They didn't seem to think there was any real reason to hold me, and I agree."

"Yes, I can see," Dent said.

"Do you think we can have a word?" Gordon asked.

Nightwing nodded when Gordon addressed him personally. The two gentlemen stepped to the edge of the roof and Gordon looked as if he was going to choose his words very carefully.

"If you see Batgirl, tell her thank you for saving me," Gordon said. "It's a good thing she's doing, what she's doing."

' _He can't know, can he?'_ Barbara thought.

' _He's your father, what do you think?'_ Dinah asked.

Barbara answered with a very obvious sigh in response. _'He knows, of course, he does. Or at least he suspects. I guess he's saying he's proud of me, in some way. I can't believe….'_

' _Well, you are an adult,'_ Kara thought. _'I think your father knows you're old enough to make your own decisions, whether they be either good or bad.'_

Barbara nodded in agreement, she figured that was exactly what her father was implying.

' _Selina got out alright, in case you were wondering,'_ Faora said. _'She's a bit disappointed she didn't get to spend that much time with you, but I'm sure you can more than makeup for it later.'_

' _Right, thanks,'_ Harry thought. _'Make sure she stays out of trouble.'_

' _I'll try and sit on her, to make sure she doesn't go anywhere tonight.'_

Harry smiled at the imagery. The smile had been short lived, when he heard footsteps coming up the steps. Batman and Nightwing made themselves scarce. Gordon meeting with Gotham's District Attorney, it would not have been out of the ordinary.

Harvey Bullock appeared at the top of the rooftop a second later. He took a deep breath when looking at Gordon and Dent.

"Grogan's on the warpath," Bullock said. "He's not happy about what happened tonight, and how the people behind it got away before they can be nabbed. He's giving Branden an ass-chewing for not grabbing them too."

Gordon could not help, but feel a little bit of vindication of Howard Branden getting his ass chewed out for his misplaced priorities. He felt very vindicated, in some way.

* * *

Tonight had been a hell of a night for Big Lou Maroni. Sionis slipped and went absolutely insane, screaming for the Joker. To be perfectly honest, Big Lou never wanted to come face to face with that clown as long as he lived.

"Can you believe it?" Big Lou asked.

"I can believe a lot in Gotham City," the driver said, not turning around.

"He crashed the Roman's bash, and caused a lot of trouble," Big Lou said. "He's after the Joker, but he wasn't there. He would have never been put on the guest list."

"Sounds like this Joker fellow got in Sionis's head."

"Can't blame the guy, if he's freaked out," Big Lou said. "What kind of sick person dresses up like a clown?"

"Must be really bent in the head," the limo driver said. "Must have been put around the twist."

Big Lou nodded. He would have been happy if he never saw another clown. He would be meeting his son at a restaurant in about fifteen minutes. Big Lou looked out the window and realized they were driving towards Old Gotham instead of away from it.

"Hey, you're driving the wrong way," Big Lou said. "Hey, numbskull, you're driving the wrong way."

Big Lou knocked the hat of the limo driver off and he recoiled when he saw green hair. The limo driver turned around, to reveal the pasty smiling face of the one and only Joker.

"Buckle up, Big Lou!"

Big Lou flew back against the seat as Joker drove off like the madman he was, cackling madly all the way. The screams of terror only escalated before Big Lou's heart gave out.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 19** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Well, Zucco's finally been caught after being at large for a long time. And Big Lou met his worth fear. Death by clown._

_Of course your father might expect something, Babs. He's a great detective._

_More on Wednesday._


	313. Roman Candles Part Four

**Chapter Three Hundred and Thirteen: Roman Candles Part Four**

* * *

Tony Zucco got an earful from his boss with what happened. To be fair, Zucco thought Maroni had a couple of points, even though he was not too happy about getting a new asshole ripped out by his boss. Tonight, it was supposed to be the beginning of something special. The special night turned around into a very ugly night.

The one thing Tony Zucco could not shake ever since returning to Gotham City continued to stalk him around. He figured, after a year, there had been enough distance between him and the murder at the circus. He heard a few whispers they were still looking for him.

Maroni grabbed Zucco roughly by the back of the arm and caused him to stand up pretty straight. The two mobsters locked eye to eye with each other, with time passing. Maroni leaned further into Zucco and stared him dead on in the eye.

"Keep your mouth shut, keep your eyes and ears open, and let me do the talking."

Zucco swallowed a lump in the back of his throat. Maroni's burning gaze told Zucco how much he screwed up tonight. The entire Intergang deal went up ass end. The two mobsters made their way into an old warehouse. The small group of mobsters crowded around the area. One of them carried a newspaper which he rustled around. The others locked their eyes on Maroni. The tension between the members of the criminal underworld could be cut with a knife.

' _As long it's just the tension being cut with a knife,'_ Maroni thought to himself. _'I don't want to be the one ending up being cut with a knife'_

Thankfully, Zucco kept his big mouth shut and not a moment too soon. Maroni drew in his breath and decided to take his poison and have a nice discussion with the mobsters.

"Don't worry," Maroni said. "Tonight could have gone a lot better, and we all know that."

One of the members of Intergang pulled out a very sharp knife. Power play, to make Maroni's eyes follow. The knife moved around the edge of the onion which he cut it. Maroni's heart stammered a couple of beats when watching the mobster rip into the onion. The onion dropped down to the ground.

"We didn't expect the hole in the pipeline," Maroni said. "It won't happen again."

These two gorillas could rough up Maroni if he wasn't careful. He kept his eyes on the mobsters. One of the mobsters spat chew into a garbage can right between Maroni. Maroni grimaced at this particularly nasty habit.

"We have been given certain reassurances under false pretenses. You said the Pipeline was completely secure, and there were going to be no trouble."

Maroni took a deep breath. Zucco made a lot of promises which would end up screwing him over tonight. The mobster held his hands into the air as if he was trying to offer them reassurance. The eyes of those mobsters showed they did not buy it.

"We didn't expect Black Mask or Penguin to try the shit they did," Maroni said.

"You should have, this is your city. Ugly's not going to like this when we tell me about it."

Maroni took a moment to try and figure out the best way to pacify this. He could see the real reason for this meeting. These men were not happy about the fact they were going to have to report back to Bruno Mannheim about lost weapons falling into the hands of either Black Mask or the Penguin.

"Let me handle, Ugly…none of you need to worry about the…"

The words politics did not come out of Maroni's mouth. He looked over his shoulder and noticed something moving around in the shoulders.

"Figures, a place in Gotham City would have rats."

Maroni took a deep breath when he heard the rumbling going around the area.

"It's not any rat," Maroni said. "But, we do have a very serious flying rodent problem in Gotham City."

Just as Maroni said those words, two smoke bombs broke open. One of the Intergang members held the gun up in the air and pointed it towards the Detective who dropped down high from the air. Batman nailed the Intergang member directly in the side of the arm and knocked him back against the wall. The Detective propelled up and avoided the attack from the gauntlet.

Batman flipped over the attack and grabbed the Intergang goon around the arm. A series of punches rattled the Intergang member and dropped him to one knee.

Nightwing appeared next to them. One of the Intergang goons rushed Nightwing. Nightwing deflected the attack with a staff and swept the man's legs out from underneath him. No sooner did this man fall onto the ground, another Intergang goon pointed a huge cannon at him.

A raiser sharp dagger flew through the air and caught the underside of the Intergang goon's wrist. The goon dropped down onto the ground and Nightwing propelled himself up into the air. He brought down the full force of a curb stomp down onto the back of the goon's head.

Batgirl flipped through the air to join the battle. A series of kicks dropped the goon down to the ground. Batgirl flipped into the air. The battle continued, with Batgirl, Nightwing, and Batman laying a beating on Intergang.

Maroni already escaped the moment the smoke went flying. The very first second Zucco found a way to get out the door, he could. The man ran about as fast as possible, at least for his rotund figure. His heart struggled to pump blood until he ended up outside.

The GCPD showed up, with their guns pointing at him. Zucco stepped back a few inches. The sudden realization the mobster's luck ended up.

"Anthony Zucco, you are under arrest for the murder of Richard and Mary Grayson.

* * *

Sofia met up with her father at one of the secondary Falcone penthouses. She heard a couple of things which happened since she left the party and laid low. The biggest news regarded her brother, Alberto, not being found. Sofia only gave her brother the barest of interest in the best possible times.

However, she would be here and be supportive given the fact her father was worried. Sofia watched the news reports about the chaos at the party. So many rumors, Sofia, could not believe them all. She sat on the couch of the Penthouse and watched the GCPD SWAT move in, through the security only showed a small picture. The battle, the three-way gang war between Intergang took place now below. Sofia watched the battle with increased frustration. Each single moment more frustrating and more stomach-turning than the last, and yet Sofia refused to pull away

The worst part and Sofia saw it coming the moment it started, bringing Intergang's weapons into Gotham City resulted in some really big problems. Penguin had some, Black Mask had some, and Maroni did nothing other than to loosen the grip her father had on the city. Despite Sofia trying to keep her distance from that end of the family business, it affected her and stirred up a feeling of despair in the pit of her stomach. She knew things would get a lot worse before they got a lot better in Gotham City.

And speaking of getting a lot worse, Sofia watched her father pace back and forth, like some kind of caged animal. It looked very disheartening to see the formerly strong and powerful Carmine Falcone look like he aged about twenty years. Tonight started so well, and ended so badly, all due to one man's paranoia. Sofia really wanted to take Black Mask and make him pay. He slipped away from the party.

The door finally opened and Carmine stepped in. Sofia immediately rose to her feet and instantly walked up to her father.

"Any luck on Alberto?"

The Roman threw his head back and responded with a deep sigh. Seeing her father in such a way, it brought a very sickening feeling to Sofia's stomach. She moved over and wrapped her arms around her father, with a hug.

"He hasn't answered," Carmine said. "No ransom demands either."

Sofia saw her father trying to stretch for any kind of good news possible regarding her lost brother. She wondered where Alberto could have been gone. He acted despondent and withdrawn at the party. Sofia might not have paid her brother any kind of mine.

"I've heard that some of Black Mask and Penguin's men have been brought in," Carmine said. "The two of them are gone, and there's been no one important enough to do anything."

The other part of Carmine Falcone's statement went without saying. The Intergang weapons resulted in a very tougher Gotham City for all of them. The Roman did not know what the future held, only figuring that he would not particularly care much for it.

He moved over towards the cabinet to grab a glass of wine. Carmine turned over to the television screen and saw Tony Zucco being lead out of a police car. The Roman's sigh had been obvious. He did not need to turn up the television screen to know the game was over.

"Zucco, damn it!" Carmine yelled. "That's the last thing I need right now."

"Watch your blood pressure," Sofia said. She looked at the screen with Tony Zucco, with a very large amount of distasted flashing over her eyes.

Sofia knew the moment Zucco returned to Gotham City, everything would go the wrong end up. The man's extortion racket caused Maroni's operation to get a very big dent of credibility in it. She hoped they would be able to weather the storm. Each bit of bad news chipped away at the Falcone empire, to the point where Sofia thought hard about making plans to have some kind of failsafe on the off chance something happened.

"I know, I have to watch it. But, still, damn it!"

Carmine poured himself another drink. The bad luck started with Alberto getting kidnapped by the Penguin and his men last winter. Then, Mario was deported. To pour more salt into the wounds, Black Mask and Penguin pushed both Thorne and Falcone back. The attack at the Birthday party followed, and Alberto refused to pick up his cell phone or perhaps had been unable to pick up his cell phone. Each twist of the knife ended with the worst news of them all, Tony Zucco being brought in and arrested.

Everything just fell into place at once. Carmine Falcone found himself believing one thing. In Gotham City, when it rained, it poured.

* * *

"And just in, with the late breaking news of notorious Gotham City criminal underworld figure Anthony Zucco being arrested. Zucco was last seen in Gotham City in the summer of 1998, having been the primary suspect in a murder at Haley Circus, and of Flying Graysons acrobats John and Mary Grayson. Zucco had been sighted several times over the past week, only now had the Gotham City Police Department's Special Crimes Unit, led by James Gordon, having been taken in. Zucco is being held for questioning about not only the murder of the Graysons but also several crimes he had been involved in and several more crimes he may have knowledge of."

Time stood still for Rebecca, who crashed the previous night. Lois shook her awake, telling her she had to see this. At first, Rebecca woke up very grumpy and in one of her moods. Then suddenly, the fact of Tony Zucco being lead out of a police car in handcuffs jolted Rebecca all the way awake. She hardly could believe this happened. Over a year of waiting, hoping and being disappointed it did not happen, and finally, Tony Zucco ended up where he should have been this entire time, arrested.

Rebecca hardly could believe it happened, because it seemed like something out of one insane dream. She watched as the news reporter detailed Zucco being brought in. The cameras came in Zucco's face and he lowered his head down onto the ground, declining comment. Rebecca smiled, he finally had been locked up, and she could not have been happier.

She turned around to face Lois, who had been frantically trying to catch Rebecca's eye for the last couple of minutes. Both girls locked eyes and smiled at each other.

"Finally," Lois said. "Finally, it took him long enough to get nabbed. I thought it was never going to happen. I swear, it took forever."

Rebecca smiled and watched the television screen. She committed that lasting image of Tony Zucco being hauled away in handcuffs to her mind constantly, almost repeated on a never ending loop. She threw her head back and just had no choice, other than to smile.

"I really hope he stays put away in prison," Rebecca said. "You know, he is kept in there for a very long time."

Ella found some kind of contradiction slowly entering her mouth. Thankfully, the normally opinionated girl held back her thought which would burst Rebecca's bubble. The girl is so happy, and so relieved made Ella not want to say anything against her happiness. Tonight was a night for Rebecca to be happy and not a night for Ella to be that person and ruin her life.

' _Still, if I know the mob structure, and my father hinted enough about it, he'll be out sooner rather than later,'_ Ella thought. _'Especially if he starts throwing other people under the bus.'_

Still, and Ella reminded herself of this, Rebecca should not have had those harsh truths revealed to her until much later. Tonight was a time or celebration and not a time to start going around, bursting people's bubbles.

"Congratulations, they finally got him," Ella said. "I can't believe he was stupid enough to get himself caught. Especially with Harry making sure the GCPD didn't forget what he did."

"Yes, I know," Rebecca said. "But, hopefully, none of his buddies bail him out. And maybe your father's killer will be brought down someday."

Ella hoped as much, and she just put an arm around Rebecca, easing closer towards her. Jade and Artemis also moved about the screen.

"And you didn't need to do something reckless to stop him this time," Artemis said, without really thinking. "Hopefully, this one sticks."

Rebecca just gave Artemis one of those looks from across the room and sighed. The girls turned to the television screen and some of the other events of this past evening flashed across the television screen. The news of Zucco hit personally close to home. They also saw Batgirl, Batman, and Nightwing leave the warehouse in the background. It was just a flickering image, blink and you miss it, but they were most certainly there.

A smile crossed the face of the former Circus Acrobat. Finally, she could sleep, knowing justice had been served.

* * *

Monday Morning arrived after a very long, a very, very, long Sunday evening in Gotham City. Anyone who worked for the Gotham City Police Department knew that. Last night was not a total loss, even though a stolen truck of weapons being brought into Metropolis was not nabbed properly. They managed to grab onto the notorious Tony Zucco, the real treasure who had been smuggled in from Metropolis. It would only be a matter of time before he started to sing and implicate people. Mostly, if the mobster wanted to save his own skin, and given the man's past, it had been very likely he would want to save his own skin.

No one quite knew what would be around the corner here in Gotham City. A car pulled up, which had Renee Montoya and Harvey Bullock. Grogan assigned them the distinct pleasure of being on patrol in this particular area in Gotham City, and they received a tip of a limo driving out of control and then crashing, before the driver escaping the limo.

"Look at the tags," Bullock said the moment he stepped out of the car. "I've seen those before."

Renee's eyes followed the progression of Bullock's finger and she locked eyes onto the limo. She moved in to run a check on the tag.

"Yeah, no need to check, I'm pretty sure I know that limo when I see it," Bullock said. "It belongs to Big Lou Maroni."

The two police officers realized what they were dealing with, in an instant. Bullock could see the back door of the limo half ajar. He stepped over and pulled the door open, a hideous stench of human excrement forced Bullock to step back, in revulsion. He eyed the man in the limo for several minutes.

"That's Maroni alright."

Not the Maroni they focused on, in this latest round of investigations, but rather, the father of the Maroni they wanted to nail. Luigi Maroni. Big Lou to most, slumped over the seat of the car. He still had been buckled in, but the man looked to have been terrified to death.

Yet, someone took a knife and cut his face, making two scars on his face which showed he died with a big smile, the type of smile which would creep out any person who came across it. Bullock shivered when he approached the man in question. He leaned in to peer into the eyes of Big Lou.

A briefcase laid on the backseat of the limo popped open. On the inside cover of the briefcase, he noticed a crudely drawn face on the briefcase. The face resembled only one individual and that individual caused chills to blow down the back of Harvey Bullock.

"Joker."

That one word said more than anything else Bullock ever spoke in his life did. The Gotham City Detective moved over and saw in the briefcase, all sorts of incriminating evidence. Most of it implicated Salvatore Maroni in any number of crimes.

"Looks like we hit the Motherload here," Bullock responded a few seconds later. "We better call this one in. There's enough to put Maroni away for the rest of his life, even without his probation."

Renee peered around her partner to get a nice long look at the documents. She concurred with Bullock's assessment of what was going on, but she had a couple of questions which haunted her and may continue to haunt her for a very long time.

"Why would the Joker of all people help us?"

Bullock responded with a shrug, a pretty good question to be perfectly honest, and one he did not have the answer of. He prepared to call in the murder of Maroni and the finding of the evidence.

"Secure the crime scene and all….."

A loud yell could be heard.

"No, no, no, you're the one who did it! You're the one who killed Johnny!"

Bullock heard the yelling coming not far from here, and it was about the only thing which would direct his attention away from the limo. The large detective stepped over and noticed the horrified face in the distance. Bullock moved over for a closer look, and Renee followed him.

"Hey, isn't that Alberto Falcone?"

A loud bang echoed and Alberto Falcone fell back, landing in the river with a splash. It was a long drop from the docks into the limo. The man in the trenchcoat moved away, and a van sped off.

Bullock and Renee reached the docks and realized the man who shot Alberto Falcone was the same man with the same van who had been sighted at the murder scene of Johnny Vitti. More personally, he had been the one who had killed Chief O'Hara.

The two detectives watched the scene play out, and Bullock quickly turned around, making his way over to the police car.

"Yeah, it's Bullock, two things," Bullock said. "We came across Luigi Maroni, he's dead, and there's a briefcase full of evidence…..tell Dent it's what he's been looking for. And then, we just saw Alberto Falcone get shot….yeah, it's the Holiday Killer."

Bullock breathed heavily. The holiday had been the Roman's Birthday, technically it was yesterday, but it did not really matter. The gesture was well known, and the war had been started. Bullock shuddered to think what might happen and he knew as summer turned into autumn, things would get very ugly for the GCPD

* * *

Harry finally returned home to check up on everyone. He talked to Sofia very briefly, who said she had gotten home, her father gotten out, but Alberto did not. Harry found it very curious, but then again, given Alberto's very fragile mental state, Harry did not find it too odd. The attack at the party triggered him, and it was a pretty good chance that Alberto would have been holed up somewhere, shivering and shaking like a madman.

Rebecca sat up and she looked in good spirits. She moved over towards Harry and threw her arms around him, hugging him in response. She pulled away with a smile on her face moving away from Harry. She looked in a very good mood, and that good mood was not going to stop anytime soon.

"Thank you," Rebecca said. "Thank you, thank you for everything you've done. I know it's taken a long time, but the wait is worth it."

"Yes," Harry said. "And good thing it's summer vacation because you girls shouldn't have been up all night watching the news."

Harry moved around, saw that Lois and Jade both crashed on the floor, leaning against each other, and Jessie half watched the television, but her eyes had been glazed over. Lyta, Ella, and Rebecca looked to be the only ones who had been awake and alert right now.

"I can't believe it," Rebecca said.

"Believe it," Harry said. "I promised you justice would win in the end."

Rebecca knew it. She did not know how to thank Harry for what he did. Someday, she would find a way. He already did a lot to her, when taking her in, and giving her training. Rebecca moved very close to the group, smiling. Artemis came out of the bathroom and sat next to her on the bed.

Harry was about ready to head up to check on a couple of things.

"And, this just in, the limo of notorious Gotham City underworld legend, Luigi Maroni, has been found, crashed outside of the Gotham City West Side Docks. Maroni has been found in possession of several documents. While these reports are unconfirmed, these documents implicate his son, Salvatore Maroni, of illegally cultivating a Pipeline to bring weapons into Metropolis. Last night, several weapons rumored to be used by several notorious Metropolis Gangs were sighted in the possession of Black Mask. We will bring you more late breaking news as it develops."

Harry pulled away, it looked like Maroni would be going down with the ship, providing Zucco didn't already start naming names and bringing up what Maroni did in an effort to save his own skin. Harry did not know what was going to happen, only he knew it was going to be a very interesting last couple of days.

A knock on the door brought Harry out of these thoughts. He swept across the room and opened the door, and came across the very lovely Selina Kyle standing on the door.

"Selina, good morning."

Selina stepped in and gave Harry a short, but furiously passionate kiss. The brunette sauntered into the room, her hips swaying about, and she stopped short of the edge of the room. She looked at Ella, who smiled.

"Just checking up on everyone," Selina said. "You're doing fine, are you, Ella?"

"Yes," Ella said. "I'm glad to see you didn't get caught in the middle of that either."

She could not bare to lose anyone else, after losing her father. Selina just moved over towards her goddaughter and smiled.

"You're not getting away that easily," Selina said. "Harry and I are going to have a cup of coffee."

Ella just shook her head. She was old enough to know what that meant.

Harry and Selina moved past the kitchen, and up the stairs into one of the empty bedrooms. Harry always said Selina had a place to stay and a bed to use if she wanted it.

"Turns out, this morning, I have a use for a bed," Selina told Harry.

Selina maneuvered Harry through the doorway without another word. She already started to unbutton his shirt and pull it off. Harry's muscular chest came out in the light and Selina lightly caressed the prize underneath. She leaned in and kissed Harry, with Harry returning the favor.

Harry grabbed the back of Selina's head and forced his tongue down her throat. She accepted the act of domination, her hands gripping the back of Harry's neck. Hands lightly raking him, before the two of them moved back towards the bed. Selina draped herself over Harry's leg, her stocking clad legs wrapped around him. Harry pushed his hands on her backside and squeezed it.

* * *

Pulling back, Harry started to unbutton Selina's top, exposing her generous cleavage in a very lacy black bra. A series of kisses caused Selina to purr like her alter ego's namesake. She closed her eyes and felt the pleasure dancing down her body. Harry slid down her skirt and revealed Selina in a pair of lacy black panties which fit her amazing ass very tightly.

Harry moved Selina over onto the bed and pinned her hands down against her head. He already had his shirt removed and Selina could see the bulge forming on the other side of her pants. She licked her lips, hunger dancing in her eyes. She wanted that, she wanted a piece of Harry to be perfectly honest. Hunger increased each and every single moment, with pleasure dancing through her eyes.

Finally, Harry allowed Selina to undo his pants. Selina slid out from underneath Harry to do so, revealing his boxer shorts. Then she pulled them down to reveal Harry's growing stiffness. Selina reached underneath to inspect the merchandise and to slowly play with Harry's growing cock.

"Kitty needs her cream," Selina said, squeezing his balls to show Harry how much she needed it.

"I'm sure she does," Harry said.

Selina leaned in and swirled her tongue around Harry's rock-hard cock. She teased every bit and then slipped it between her lips. Selina's hand cupped Harry's balls and gave it a firm squeeze.

The beautiful woman sucking him off looked to be a sight to behold. Harry's hands grabbed the back of Selina's head and pushed deep into her warm mouth. A series of huge sucks brought more of Harry's rock hard rod deep inside of her tight mouth.

Selina worked her mouth around Harry's thick, throbbing member. Every time she sucked it into her mouth, she felt something wonderful. That cock just buried into her mouth had never been a better feeling than this. She wanted the cum and Selina reached forward to grab Harry's balls, squeezing them. She molded them into her hand without any problems.

"You damn minx," Harry groaned.

Selina smiled and licked Harry's tool, sucking it as hard as humanly possible. She wanted as much from him as she could manage. Selina slowly brought her mouth around Harry's rod and sucked him, squeezing his balls.

The prize Selina sought fired into her mouth. So much warm cum followed, and Selina pushed herself down onto Harry, deep throating him for the last few spurts. Harry looked down at her widening eyes, faux innocent dancing into them.

The pressure in Harry's loins released and kept firing in Selina's waiting throat. He felt a buzz and pulled out of her mouth.

Instantly, Harry ripped her panties off and shoved a solo finger into them. He made sure Selina was wet and ready. The feeling of her walls expanding and contracting around his finger made Harry harden ever so slightly, he wanted inside of Selina so bad, so bad he could just taste it. The glorious feeling of her tightness wrapped around him would be soon.

"You want my cock," Harry growled.

"Yes, stud, give it to me," Selina begged him.

Harry spread her legs apart and teased them. Her stocking clad legs were soft to the touch, and Harry could play with her legs. He kissed Selina's right leg, moving down to rub on her left leg. His cock danced against Selina's opening, making her groan in thinly veiled pleasure.

"Please!" Selina moaned.

Her legs kicked up, spread in the air, showing a great deal of flexibility. The more she stretched, the tighter her pussy would be when Harry slipped inside.

And Harry aimed his cock inside of Selina, slipping between her warm thighs. Selina arched back on the bed and received the full blast of Harry's throbbing hard cock inside of her body. She reached up, wrapping her legs around Harry the moment he slid inside of her.

"Fuck!" Selina yelled.

Harry pushed into her body, stretching out the beautiful woman. Selina's slick walls surrounded Harry's manhood. His roaming hands brought more pleasure to her. Selina's back arched up off of the bed, and Harry pumped inside of her.

Flesh smacked against flesh with a loud resounding sound, cock sliding inside of her body. The warmth pressed against Selina's waiting thighs. Harry pushed deep inside of her warm vice of a cunt, feeling a squeeze around him. Harry rose up out of her and planted himself inside of her.

The warm tightness surrounded Harry. Each stroke brought Selina around him. She rose up and wrapped her legs around Harry, making sure Harry did not stray too far. He had no intention to stray all that far from her. Harry reached down and cupped Selina's generous breasts. The flesh submerged in the palm of Harry's hand. He squeezed them and made the round, juicy orbs his and his alone. Harry pumped his way inside of her, stretching her out with each thrust.

"Mmm, perfect," Selina purred.

Selina's nails lightly raked against Harry's back. Another orgasm built at a fever pitch. Harry slowly worked her to the big one, with a series of light touches which brought her to the very edge of her passionate explosion. Then, Harry pushed into her body.

The warm center stretched out for Harry's throbbing manhood. His balls bounced against her, working Selina over to her latest passionate orgasm. Selina stretched and contracted around Harry. Harry felt Selina's beautiful flesh press against his. The scent of the aroused woman became extremely intoxicating to Harry.

"It's time."

Those trigger words caused Selina's body to size up. Her legs snaked around Harry and her loins heated up with passion. Harry slowed down his thrusts for a brief moment, allowing Selina's orgasm to blast through her body. Harry sped up towards the bed, riding Selina through a particular passionate climate.

Those walls contracting and expanding around Harry made him feel really good. He pumped inside of her, those balls slapping against Selina's very warm, moist thighs when he continued to slam deep inside of her pussy. Selina's walls wrapped around him, and pumped as much as Harry inside of her as possible.

With great regret, Selina felt Harry slip out of her.

"Turn around."

Selina opened, ass pointed up in the air. Harry spanked Selina a few times and caused jolts of pleasure to come from her loins. Working his thick prick against her warm lips, Harry teased slipping inside of Selina. Selina's warmth came very close to sucking Harry in. Harry worked deep against Selina's inviting snatch. He pushed into her, moving very quickly.

The young man behind her mastered every inch of Selina's body, and she felt him work harder into her from behind. Those balls slapped against Selina's warm entrance and made her feel really good. Harry worked up to her.

"Pull my hair," Selina said.

Never had a suggestion for something submissive seem so demanding. Harry milked it about as much as he could, working his fingers down the back of Selina's neck. He grabbed onto Selina's silky dark locks and gripped it hard after a minute. He used her hair, tugging on it for leverage when pushing into her.

Both of Harry's hand gripping hard onto her head when his cock slid into her with a rapid-fire fury made Selina damper then anything else. Her pussy contracted around Harry's invading missile. Each push brought her to more pleasure.

"You're such a horny bitch," Harry growled in her ear.

"You love it when I'm your horny bitch."

Harry concurred, and pulled away from Selina's hair. He grabbed the underside of her breasts and gave them a very powerful squeeze. Selina's eyes glazed over with Harry playing with her round breasts. He pushed deep inside of her with multiple thrusts. His balls slapped against Selina's thighs, working her up to one of the most powerful, potent orgasms ever.

"Yes, I can't deny that."

She came one more time around Harry's invading tool. The large phallus slid deep between Selina's warm thighs, stretching her out. Harry worked her over, putting her all the way through the paces. The tension in his loins was about ready to burst.

"I'm getting close," Harry said. "One more time."

Selina agreed, one more time. Her tension increased and then released. She saturated Harry's cock with her juices when he slid all the way inside of her. His balls brought themselves fully and eagerly against Selina's waiting center. Her pussy contracted around Harry and then released him with several fluid pumps.

Harry had Selina right where he wanted her and he slid deep inside of her body. His balls fired their load inside of Selina, painting the inside of her walls white.

The warm cum splattering inside of Selina's body tensed her up. Harry shot his full sticky load inside of her, filling up her pussy. His balls kept firing and brought Selina to a very pleasant end, having her cum two more times before she's finished.

"Shower's next door if you need it."

Selina caught the dribbling cum on her fingers and tasted the combination of their sweet juices. She moved across the room, swaying her ass. She looked over Harry, green eyes blazing seductively and hair draped over her face. She looked like this was just a momentary intermission, at least if Selina had anything to say.

"Are you coming?"

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 22** **nd** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Officially Zucco has been secured. And the walls on the criminal empire come tumbling down._

_More on Saturday._


	314. Cracks in the Foundation

**Chapter Three Hundred and Fourteen: Cracks in the Foundation(7/22/2017).**

* * *

 

The bombshells dropping over Gotham City over the last couple of days started on Sunday night and went straight into Monday morning. The rules changed for a lot of people in the city. The first shot happened with Black Mask’s attack at Carmine Falcone’s birthday party. Then, Tony Zucco returned to the city and had been arrested for his part in the murders of John and Mary Grayson.

The bad news just continued for the extended Maroni and Falcone criminal empire. GCPD officers located Luigi Maroni inside of a crashed limo with knife marks carved into his face, with a twisted small. All indications pointed to foul play of the foulest, with the one and only Joker being the one to attack Maroni. Then, the evidence on Luigi’s limo flashed out in blinking lights.

Salvatore Maroni did not even have enough time to get his pants buckled. He was very lucky not to get nailed on the same raid which brought down their allies from Intergang, in addition to bringing in Zucco. Maroni knew it was only a matter of time, but he did not know it would be this soon. The GCPD raided the place he holed up in. Someone must have snitched to bring him down. Whoever it was, Maroni would have found out.

The members of the press and several citizens watched, as Salvatore Maroni, the once bold criminal underworld leader, had been escorted out of the building, in handcuffs. His head lowered down. Maroni did not have it in him to argue with them. The death of his father this morning, on top of his right-hand man being thrown into prison, really did a number on the mobster’s psyche.

Funnily enough, Maroni learning of his father’s death might have been the very reason which brought the GCPD officers to his doorstep before many people brought his morning coffee. There were many snitches in the mob, it just went along with life.

Maroni walked out, head hung low. He could see the television cameras pointed at them. For a second, the news reporters all backed off. Despite the fact Maroni had been put into handcuffs, the man’s notorious temper made this a potentially dangerous situation for all of them to deal with.

Time stood still with Maroni locking his beady eyes on the reporters who moved in. No one knew what to say, no one wanted to say anything. Maroni just smiled when looking at the reporters. All of them shuddered in response when locking eyes on Maroni.

“Looks like you got me,” Maroni said, finally breaking the silence in more than a few words. “Looks like you finally got me.”

Those words proved to be about as chilling. Maroni did not necessarily give up, he would never give up. However, it showed that he realized the situation had gone south in a hurry. He would have to sit back and allow his very talented legal representation to do their jobs. It took a long time last time , but Maroni thought this one was a timeout again. In Gotham City, if you greased the right palms, you were going to get out of a sticky situation all too soon. Maroni’s confidence it would happen increased.

 _‘They don’t have me for long,’_ Maroni thought.

One of most ever-present reporters in all of Gotham City, Vicki Vale stepped in. She looked at her assistant, Kara Kent, who had been holding the camera as she often did when Vicki’s camera man had been out. Kara always had been there, to keep an eye on Vicki.

Vicki felt almost hurt, she didn’t really get into trouble, well not a lot of trouble at least. A little here and there, but she was mostly alright.

“The words of Salvatore Maroni were calm, casual, and at the same time, very chilling,” Vicki reported. “They finally got me. For those who don’t know, Salvatore Maroni’s father, Luigi Maroni, had been killed in a car crash. Police uncovered evidence linking Maroni to the underground smuggling operation known as the Pipeline. Exactly how many more members of the Gotham City Criminal Underworld has access to these weapons cannot be verified at this present moment. Regardless, we will have news, as the situation unfolds. Please keep tuned in, and back to regularly scheduled programming.”

One man would have been a bit more upset to see Maroni, after all, that he did to get him out, being put back in, had it not been for a phone call he received. Falcone held the phone in his hand and took a very deep breath. Instantly, when she stepped into the room to return with coffee and donuts for her father and herself, Sofia already knew what was going on.

“Yes, thanks, thanks…thank you,” Carmine said.

Carmine drew in a deep breath. The man looked more defeated than ever. Sofia put herself on the couch next to her father.

“It’s Alberto, isn’t it?”

“Witnesses saw him, the Holiday Killer shot him and caused him to fall into the waters, by the docks,” Carmine said. “They’re bringing up his body now, and I’m going….I’m leaving now to identify that it’s him.”

“Are you sure it’s the wisest idea?” Sofia asked.

“No, but it’s the right thing to do,” Carmine said. He placed a hand down on Sofia’s and made sure she understood.

There might have been a small chance the GCPD had been mistaken about Alberto. Carmine hoped, perhaps against all foolish hope there was a lot of mistakes to be made. The Holiday Killer would have targeted him though.

“Whoever it is, he will hang.”

Those words did not bring as much comfort from the Roman as he would have liked.

Harvey Dent won two small battles. The entire criminal underworld in Gotham City still hung in the balance. The Gotham City Criminal Underworld had been one of the most complex structures with all of the moving parts. The five families were the backbone which resulted in some of the events that moved through Gotham City. The death of Frank Bertinelli, in particular, caused a lot of upheavals, but it was not the only recent event which made Harvey Dent realize it was necessary for him to work overtime.

He bent over at the desk, the reports regarding both Zucco and Maroni, and them being arrested, being delivered to him. Dent was very happy to see the two of them brought to justice. He would have been even happier had he knew this would not be the end. They were two small parts, and he knew if they were needed, someone would find a way to make these legal charges disappear. Maroni more so than Zucco, as Maroni knew where a lot of the bodies were buried, and there were people who did not want those facts to come out in a court of law.

A long sigh followed with Dent holding the silver dollar in his hand. He set it down on the desk the second a knock came to the door.

“It’s open.”

Janice Porter, the Assistant Gotham City District Attorney, walked into the office. The moment she caught Harvey’s eye, she could see the frustration building up in the eyes of Gotham City’s fabled District Attorney.

“I thought you would be in a bit better spirits given how successful we were this morning,” Janice said.

“I wish, but it’s only the beginning,” Harvey answered a few seconds later. He reached over to the desk and saw the latest round of paperwork. “We might have Maroni and Zucco, but they are losing more ground. The foundation is breaking.”

Falcone’s empire being destroyed closed a door for a lot of criminals in Gotham City. It blew another ten windows open, and put spots for several, more chaotic elements to move up in the ranks. Dent found himself handcuffed when dealing with them.

“We’ve got Maroni and Zucco,” Janice said. “And Falcone, he’s slipping even more. After his son was killed earlier.”

Harvey heard of it, the notorious Holiday Killer striking. It brought out some memories and also a small amount of guilt which bubbled deep in the stomach of Harvey Dent. He took a deep breath.

“It’s just the beginning of a very long haul,” Harvey said after a second later. “Falcone’s still out there, and he’s not going to go down without a fight.”

Harvey took a few seconds to mull over a couple of things. If Falcone was the most prominent figure on the board, Harvey Dent would sleep a lot better at night. Unfortunately, there were a lot more moving parts on the board. Chess had never been a game with Harvey enjoyed, because he lacked the patience. Yet, he needed to learn patience if he wanted to be in Gotham City.

 _‘Damn it, even with all of the lost influence and lost territory, Thorne’s pretty much untouchable,’_ Dent thought. _‘He still has a lot of friends in high places. I’d like nothing better than to nail him to the wall and make him pay. The there’s Sionis and Cobblepot.’_

One would thing Harvey would at least get something on Sionis after the stunt he pulled at the Roman’s Birthday Party. It would seem to be the easiest thing in the world. Unfortunately, nothing was really too simple in Gotham City.

Papers stacked on his desk, almost a couple of miles deep, on the Holiday Killer. Harvey ran his finger over the paper and frowned.

“Who is this man?” Harvey asked.

He almost forgot Janice had been in the room. Harvey fiddled with the silver dollar pressing into the palm of his hand. His deep breathing continued. Janice looked at Harvey a few seconds later, horror moving into the woman’s face.

“You’re...I think you might need a vacation, “Janice said. “No offense.”

“None taken, because I agree, “Harvey replied. He continued to fiddle with the silver dollar, pressing it between his fingers. “Unfortunately, there was no chance to do so, not right now. Especially not in the middle of the most delicate investigation we’ve ever had to deal with, in Gotham City.”

Janice nodded, she understood. She also understood the more agitated Harvey became, the more he started playing with the silver dollar between his fingers. Horrifying pretty much described the intensity. Everyone who worked with Harvey Dent judged themselves to be very glad Harvey had been on the right side of the law. A man’s dedication like Harvey’s needed to be challenged in all of the right ways.

“From what I’ve read, he has a combination of some strange mix of Julian Day, the Calendar Man, and Gillian Loeb, when he was the Gotham City Cop Killer,” Janice said. “I’m sorry for bringing it up because he was the one who killed ADA Dawes.”

“I know,” Harvey said in a very low voice.

Harvey knew no one else, especially Porter, could know the truth about the cover-up to protect Rachel’s reputation, by pinning the Holiday Killer’s murders on Loeb. If they knew a beloved civil servant like Rachel Dawes became a crazed serial killer after she cracked, there would be an unfortunately terrifying upheaval. Harvey knew it did not happen. Any ability Gotham City would have to police their people, as low as it was, it would crack.

“The Holiday Killer might be more dangerous than Batman and Nightwing.

Harvey did not offer any visible reaction. He nearly forgot Janice kept up with a crusade against the protectors of Gotham City.

“Harvey?”

“Interesting theory,” Harvey said. “He may have had specialized training like them as well.”

Janice, despite her tunnel vision, gave Harvey something to go down the rabbit hole with. Someone as dangerous as Batman or Nightwing, on the wrong side, it caused a tension knot to build in Harvey’s stomach. He only started to flip his coin as a means to almost calm himself down. Barely, it held, just barely.

Months passed, with Victor Fries having a very serious illness. He finally, at his wife’s prodding, agreed to show the doctor. Tests had been run over the past week, and now Nora and Victor had been called back, to discuss the results of the tests with the doctor.

He could not show the small amount of fear he had with his own health. Nora worried too much, without being clued in on the fact Victor worried about his own health as well. His wife looked at the magazine, but given the fact, her eyes did not move, Victor knew she did not read a single word in front of her.

Time ticked on. Victor wished, for better or for worse, this meeting would be gotten over with. The doctor would not have wanted to tell him the news in person if it was nothing to worry about. Victor knew it and dreaded it very well.

The doors opened and a nurse stepped through the doors. Victor saw the very somber and professional face of this young woman.

“Is Doctor Raymonde ready to see us?”

“Yes,” the nurse said. “This way.”

Nora rose to her feet first, dropping the magazine she wasn’t reading down on the table first. Victor turned and followed her. He almost slumped forward when moving. Nora reached over on instincts and grabbed her husband.

No reason to say anything, and Nora was not going to be the one to bring up this point, but Victor looked absolutely awful. The sickness did a number on her husband and aged him by a good fifteen or twenty years over the past few days. Both of them made their way into the office of Doctor Raymond.

“Good afternoon, both of you,” the doctor said. “You might want to sit down.”

Victor dropped down onto the chair. Despite the air conditioning in the office being cranked up, sweat rolled down the face and the body of one Victor Fries. He drew in his breath and looked forward.

“Doctor Fries, there’s no delicate way to say this, but you’ve contracted a rare and deadly disease,” the doctor said. “McGregor’s Syndrome. It will shut down your body, starting with your nervous system, and ending with your internal organs, before you die a slow and painful death.”

Victor’s sigh could not be suppressed. No really delicate way to explain what was happening really.

“There’s a cure,” Victor said. “Or at least a treatment to make the symptoms more manageable.”

“For earlier stages of the disease, yes. But, you’ve progressed so far past these stages, it’s impossible. I would suggest you try and get your affairs in order when you still can. I’m sorry.”

Nora grabbed her husband’s arm. Victor tried to assure her without words everything was going to be okay. The scientist reached up and wiped the sweat off of his brow. Despite the fact he dripped with sweat, he felt a chill and his fingers grew slightly number at points.

“There’s a cure if you’re willing to find it,” Victor said. “I refuse to believe the situation is hopeless.”

Victor believed anything could be done, at any time. The look on the doctor’s face showed that he wished things could be different. Victor understood he might have had more of a chance if he had gone to the doctor sooner. Now, things had worsened.

Yet, for the sake of his wife, Victor would never give up. He had gone too far and had been much too stubborn to just give up now. The man locked eyes with the doctor and took in one of the deepest breaths possible.

“There’s always a way.”

“You have six months to live. And that’s at the most charitable explanations. It’s going to be difficult for you to find a working cure, especially when your body shuts down.”

Victor refused to do anything other than to stare forward, with the same calmness one expected from the scientist in the past. He had to be blunt and more importantly, he had to be very calm, given the circumstances.

“I enjoy the challenge.”

Victor started to cough, bringing droplets of blood onto a towel. He could barely sit up straight without slumping. Things were not very good for him.

“I’m going to write you out a prescription, antibiotics which should alieve some of the misery you’re in and make the next few months as painless as possible,” the doctor offered. “It’s the best I can do.”

“Thank you, Doctor,” Victor said a few seconds later.

Anything, to keep his mind occupied so he could get to work on a lasting cure. Not just for himself, but for anyone else, who had been struck with this very nasty and very real affliction. Victor Fries refused to think the door had been shut on his life. He refused to believe it, for a moment. There would be something, some kind of light at the end of the tunnel. All he had to do was reach out and touch it.

“There’s always hope,” Nora said.

The warmth in her voice caused Victor’s head to jerk up.

“Yes, there is.”

Rebecca Grayson walked to the Gotham City Police Department, a couple of days after the chaos from Carmine Falcone’s birthday party settled. The orphaned Circus Acrobat stepped through the front door, with her head held up high. Harry stepped behind her, and Barbara followed them both. The moment Rebecca reached the lobby, she stopped for a few seconds and sighed.

“You don’t have to…..”

“I do have to,” Rebecca said. She turned to Harry. “But, thank you for coming here with me, and being here with me when I do this.”

Much time passed, but wounds still dug into her body, fresh as they were over a year ago. Rebecca thought about what she might have done differently. Should she have raised the alarm even more, regarding what happened? She saw Zucco moving around, and even then, Rebecca’s instincts pointed to someone who creeped her out badly. She should have followed those instincts.

A stiffening feeling entered her body. Had Rebecca said anything, her parents would have still been alive. But, then again, maybe that was their role to die. Rebecca had been thinking about it a long time ago. It could have been easily been her up there, or any of the other people in the Circus could have experienced severe accidents at the hands of Zucco and his cruelty.

Barbara returned to the Gotham City Police Department. It had been a while since she dropped by. Everyone looked to be anxious when she stepped through the door. A few of the desk workers who knew her offered a smile, which Barbara returned.

 _‘Everything’s changed,’_ Barbara thought. _‘Between Chief O’Hara’s death, Loeb being the Cop Killer, Nashton’s little frame job of my father, there’s a lot…..I don’t think, things just feel a little bit different in here.’_

 _‘We’re going through a rough time,’_ Harry thought.

Barbara nodded and understood, they were all going through a rough time, unfortunately. She came to the very startling conclusion about things getting a little bit worse before they would have gotten much better. The Gotham City way of life mandated nothing less, no matter how much Barbara wanted to put a positive spin on things. She walked forward, and with a startling gasp, she realized something else.

 _‘What is it?’_ Kara asked.

 _‘First time I saw my father since I saved him as Batgirl,’_ Barbara thought. _‘I really think he knows. Even though he can’t really say anything.’_

Harry wrapped an arm around Barbara’s shoulders. Things most certainly changed. After being cleared at the front desk, the trio stepped through the doors to face what they needed to face. Rebecca stood up, half in fear, half in determination.

“I’m ready to face him,” Rebecca said.

“Hello, Ms. Grayson,” James Gordon said. “Barbara, Harry.”

Gordon offered the two of them smiles. Other than the smiles, it was all business from this point forward. James Gordon looked down at Rebecca Grayson, who looked back at the veteran cop.

“Come this way please, and I want you to pick the man who killed your parents from this lineup,” Gordon said. “There’s no need for you to rush. Take as much time as you need, and don’t…don't let them try and intimidate you.”

Rebecca nodded. It was just one of those things which was a formality, even though she clear as day remembered the man who killed her parents. She would not forget them, until the very day she died. The orphaned Circus Acrobat stepped through the walls.

Several men lined up into the wall. In the center, as prominent as he was the last time she saw him, stood Tony Zucco. Rebecca did not hesitate to look at the man against the wall and she pointed him.

“That’s him,” Rebecca said.

“Are you sure?” Gordon asked.

“Yeah, Number Four, I know him anyway,” Rebecca said.

Zucco mustered the dirtiest look possible he could. He left a witness behind and eventually, even many months later, leaving that loose end which needed to be tied up ended up coming back to bite Tony Zucco in the worst possible way. He swallowed a lump in his throat when watching the young girl move away.

 _‘It’s over for him,’_ Harry thought. _‘Big Lou’s gone, Sal’s up the river, Intergang isn’t going to help him after he lost a good chunk of their weapons to Black Mask and Penguin.’_

Harry reminded himself that was something they needed to look into. After the attack at Falcone’s, Black Mask and the Penguin, both laid low, which never seemed to be good.

 _‘And others don’t seem to care enough to spring him,’_ Barbara thought. _‘Looks like the career of Tony Zucco is over.’_

Justice finally had been done, and Harry thought it was not a moment too soon. What would happen next, Harry could only begin to guess. Rebecca moved away from the scene.

“Come on, let’s get ice cream,” Harry told her.

Harry decided to sit back in his office and get a few things done. He half paid attention to the news, in case anything broke about Maroni’s upcoming trial. Zucco being pinned would cause the fur to fly. The briefcase contained enough incriminating information to put away Maroni for a very long time.

Yet, Harry remembered one very crystal clear thing. The only thing certain about Gotham City would be nothing was for certain. He leaned back, got some work done, and half watched the television. All while talking on the phone.

“I know you’ve been very busy lately,” Felicia answered. “I don’t think I need to let you forget about the upcoming trip. Mari and Jan are coming along, and my mother wants you to come as well…and well, I think she really wants to get to you know better.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” Harry said. “I could use about a week of downtime, and it’s not like I don’t have people to cover for me when I need them to.”

“Excellent,” Felicia said. “So, I’ll see you when we head out on Friday?”

“Unless something dire comes up, you will,” Harry said.

Felicia laughed. “Well, let me cross my fingers that something doesn’t happen. You could use some time away from Gotham. Being in the middle of all of this, can’t be healthy.”

This entire summer had a lot of problems. Harry hoped to get a vacation in. The girls convinced him it would be in his best interest to go, and Harry, being surrounded by beautiful women on vacation, found himself not inclined to argue too much.

The door opened after a knock and Karen stepped in.

“So, how did your trip go?” Harry asked.

Karen moved across the office and kissed Harry. The two of them pulled apart from each other.

“Our business ventures out west are doing well,” Karen said.

“Excellent,” Harry told her. “You’ve been working very hard as of late.”

“Not as hard as you have,” Karen said.

Karen climbed onto Harry’s desk and made sure Harry got a full view of her stocking clad legs.

“So, I’m going to head on to this trip with Felicia,” Harry said. “I wanted to ask you if you would want to come along.”

The busty blonde put a finger underneath her chin and mulled it over, even if there were no real options. To be perfectly honest, Harry had her sold from moment one.

“I’ve been meaning to take some time off,” Karen said. “So, why not?”

Things had been settled and they were heading off. Gotham City would be in good hands while Harry left.

**To Be Continued July 24th, 2017.**

_And more cracks in the mafia in Gotham City. Also, Harry’s making some plans to close out the summer._

_Until Monday._


	315. As Summer Fades Part One

**Chapter Three Hundred and Fifteen: As Summer Fades Part One**

* * *

The last few months were very busy for a lot of people. One of the people who had her fair share of ups and downs over the past couple of months, and she considered them to be very rocky, would be Vanessa Fisk. She married her husband, Wilson, with the greatest of expectations for a happy life. The cracks in the marriage started to occur over the past couple of years.

Wilson swore up and down he would make up for a lot of what he did, and he would make sure Vanessa would have a much more enjoyable life. Wilson really sold everything to Vanessa, and she believed him for several years. Over the last year, Vanessa had many more broken promises than fulfilled ones. These broken promises forced Vanessa to become very disenchanted with her marriage and said frustration increased.

She took in a deep breath and started to pack her luggage. Anatasia worked her over this entire summer and tried to convince her this trip would be a pretty good thing for her health and her mental well-being. She tried, in one vain attempt, to patch things off. Yet, Wilson canceled the night out. Vanessa only tracked the whereabouts of her husband through the local newspaper over the past few months.

Speaking of which, Wilson shook hands of the Mayor of New York City in front of another dedication, at the art museum. Vanessa normally would have attended, given her appreciation for the finer things in life. However, she declined to do so for a couple of very important reasons. One of them being, she had been too sore with all of the spurned opportunities.

She no longer had any desire to hear Wilson talk about business. Wilson's business made Vanessa's married life very miserable. She sighed when looking at a picture of herself, and Wilson, in a time where their marriage looked a little bit steadier. Now, the foundation they stood on during the early years of their marriage crumbled and left Vanessa out in the dust. She wondered about what might have been after those earlier years.

' _Nothing is what it used to be.'_

Vanessa took a second to finish packing for the trip. She could hear a car door slam. Vanessa double-checked to make sure everything had been packed up. She moved to open the door.

"Vanessa, just making sure you didn't have any second thoughts about attending the trip," Anastasia said.

"No, I haven't," Vanessa said. "I think it's good for my health that I get away from New York."

The Hardy heiress dropped her gaze to a picture of Wilson on the front page of the newspaper. The large man gave another museum dedication and shook hands with some very important people.

"The Mayor sees more of Wilson than I do these days," Vanessa said a moment later. "But, if it makes him happy, then I guess I won't complain too much."

Anastasia looked up and locked eyes onto Vanessa. A strand of dark hair brushed out of her hair and both of them locked eyes with each other.

"No," the Hardy heiress replied softly. "Perhaps it's time for you to get something new out of your life. Wilson obviously thinks business is more important than his marriage. And that's more than acceptable for him. What do you want out of your life?"

Anastasia put her hand on Vanessa's to try and give her some perspective.

"I want something else, I'm not sure what," Vanessa said.

"You're not sure?" Anastasia asked her, looking deep into Vanessa's eyes.

Vanessa knew what she wanted, and what she wanted sank into the deeper subconscious in her mind over the past year or so, maybe even close to a year and a half if she would be perfectly honest with herself. She thought about the young man who haunted her dreams and sighed.

' _Wrong,'_ Vanessa thought. _'It would be even worse off if I were happily married though, but….unfortunately, those days have long since passed.'_

The frustrated woman opened her case to make sure everything was there.

"So, is he coming?" Vanessa asked.

Anastasia nodded, even though Vanessa could only see her on the other side of the mirror. "Felicia called Harry and made sure he did not have to back out at the last minute. He's coming, trust me. And I know you're looking forward to seeing him, aren't you?"

Vanessa's lips curled into a very knowing smile. Anastasia pretty much hit the nail directly on the head, she wanted to see Harry. She opened up the closet and pulled some very racy looking lingerie off of the coat rack. She made sure to pack it away from that briefcase.

"A couple of the girls are coming along, other than Felicia of course," Anastasia said. "It will be good to get know Harry better, outside of business. I know you've been wanting to spend some time with him for a very long time."

"Yes," Vanessa said. "I'm not the only one."

Anastasia Hardy showed her daughter's mischievous nature ran in the bloodline by giving a very devious little smile. It did not escape her attention what Vanessa packed away in the case.

"I think I can leave this behold, I won't need it."

Vanessa slipped off her wedding ring and put it with the rest of her jewelry she was not taking on the trip. They were trinkets, some of which Wilson bought for her when he courted her. She did not want to look at it, to be perfectly honest.

' _Never used to be like this, but the more power he received, the more distant he became.'_

* * *

Harry left Gotham City in some pretty good hands when touching down off of the private airplane. Karen joined him, basking off of the glory of a very good business deal. They were moving forward in their operations and preparing to control both operations.

' _Maroni is getting ready for trial,'_ Barbara thought. _'I think his lawyers are going to stall for time as much as possible, even if they can't get him out. Not with the mountain of evidence and with his probation.'_

' _No, they're pretty much screwed,'_ Dinah thought. _'Unless they get it moved outside of Gotham City, and there's just a very small outside chance of it to happen. Microscopic, I don't think it's going to happen.'_

' _If there's anything, we'll let you know,'_ Barbara thought.

Harry and Karen walked forward and saw a very familiar face. Felicia smiled when looking across the way at both of them. She dressed in a black tank top which fit over her body and a pair of jean shorts which showcased her dazzling legs. The platinum blonde moved over to greet Harry.

A perky brunette dressed in a nice black shirt and a pair of shorts which stretched over her lower body moved in front of Felicia before she could jump Harry or even Karen. Janet Van Dyne looked very pleased to see Harry.

"Finally, it's about time," Jan said in excitement.

She wrapped her arms around Harry and embraced him. The body of the beautiful brunette fashion designer pressed against Harry when she wrapped him in a hug. Harry tightened the embrace around her as she came up to Harry's chest. Harry leaned down and kissed her on the lips which caused Jan to gasp in pleasure. He pulled away from Jan.

"It's good to see you again, Jan," Harry said.

Jan finally recovered from the kiss, shaking her head. She jolted out of her foggy thoughts because of the frustrated look in Felicia's eyes. Jan almost could have fallen over into laughter, as she was close to seeing Felicia pout in response, her arms folded underneath her chest.

"Yes," Jan replied a moment or so later. "It's good to see as well, although I'm sure Felicia is just as happy to see you and she looks like she might hurt me if I don't let her have a proper reunion with you."

Harry looked up to Felicia and she pressed her body against Harry's with a tight embrace. The straps of Felicia's tank top made their way down and showed a bit of her cleavage. With a cheeky little smile, Felicia pulled up the tank top straps to adjust them.

"So," Felicia said. "Is it good to see me again?"

"I don't know," Harry teased her. "You're going to have to refresh my memory."

Felicia took Harry's words as a statement and she threw herself at Harry, arms wrapped around Harry's neck. She gave him a very explosive kiss, her tongue pushing deep into his mouth. The warmth of their lips colliding together proved how much Felicia wanted a piece of Harry. Harry decided to toy with her, deepening the kiss, and working his tongue into the depths of her very able mouth.

"Mmm," Felicia moaned at the top of her lungs.

Harry guided his tongue into Felicia's mouth and pulled back from her. He squeezed her ass and it caused the Platinum blonde beauty to jump off. Her heart sped up when looking into Harry's eyes. Harry continued to smile when looking at Felicia.

"I hope that answers your question," Harry said.

"A little bit, it might," Felicia said.

She gave Harry a longing look, which told both of them, Felicia intended to drag Harry off alone sometime when they were on the yacht. Felicia's suggestive smile and body language showed how much she wanted to have some fun with Harry. A few seconds passed.

"You remember Karen, don't you, Jan?" Harry asked.

"How can I forget?" Jan asked. "She's every fashion designer's wet dream, to model their ware."

"Just the fashion designers?" Karen asked.

Jan laughed at Karen's posture. She found her eyes drawn to Karen but for a lot less long than she would have thought. The sound of a car pulling up dragged Jan's attention away from Karen, or rather a certain part of Karen's body. Another vision of delight exited the car, with some bags being carried. The eyes of Jan, Karen, Felicia, and Harry moved over to see Mari McCabe to step out of the nice car she drove.

Mari dressed to impress with a nice tank top made of the most extravagant material impossible, and a pair of tight shorts which fit on her body. A pair of designer sunglasses balanced on her face. Mari moved very close towards the group a few seconds later. Harry reached in to help Mari with her bags.

"Thanks," Mari said. "Sorry, I'm a bit late."

"No, you're not too late, you're fine," Harry said. "We were just about ready to leave and go on the Yacht….is your mother coming here soon?"

Felicia responded with a nod and soon enough, the car pulled up outside of the yacht. Harry moved to help Mari to put the luggage onto the Yacht before he moved over. Vanessa and Anatasia stepped out of the car. Both of the beautiful women smiled towards Harry when the two of them made their way out of the car.

"It's good to see you again," Vanessa said.

"I'm glad you made it," Harry said.

"I am too."

Vanessa leaned in and kissed Harry on the cheek. It was a small act, to open up the gateway to something a lot better in the not so distant future. She pulled away from Harry, as Karen helped Anatasia unloading the bags from the back of the car.

"I really hope we get to know each other a bit better on this trip, "Vanessa said. "So, are we all here?"

"Yes," Felicia said. "Mary-Jane and Gwen couldn't make the trip, which is a shame, but we're going to have to make up to them in the future."

Harry smiled, the next week, being surrounded by a few beautiful women dressed in nothing other than bikinis, soaking up the sun. He could not wait to be perfectly honest. Karen eyed him and Harry could tell she looked just about as eager as Harry did for this nice little trip.

* * *

Back in New York City, the sounds of several motorcycles revved up, signified one of the roughest gangs in the land. Three gentlemen showed up at a biker bar. Da Big Guy, Da Bad Guy, and Da Little Guy, of the notorious Wolfpack Biker gang, moved their way inside. The bar stopped as three of the worst outlaw in the land.

"So, are you saying he's going to be here?" Da Little Guy asked.

Da Big Guy put his hand on Da Little Guy's shoulder and gave his little buddy a smile. "Sleazy E said that he was going to be here, and he doesn't bullshit us….well not on something important like this. Besides, he knows better than to bullshit his money maker."

When Sleazy E told him there was a lot of money to be made, Da Big Guy was very excited about doing business. He was always all about business, and anything less would not be appropriate, as far as he was concerned. The three gentlemen sat around the bar at their usual table. Everyone gave a wide around. Gentlemen dressed in a snazzy tuxedo who looked better dressed than the patrons in the bar stepped over.

"What will it be?"

"Some of your finest wine, my good man," Da Big Guy said.

"Get me some vodka," Da Little Guy said.

"I'll settle for some root beer," Da Bad Guy said. This caused his two compatriots to look at him strangely. "I'm trying to keep sober."

"I'll give it a week," Da Little Guy murmured out of the corner of his mouth.

The bartender moved off to get the drinks for the members of the Wolfpack.

"So, he says that there's some big money involved in this deal?" Da Bad Guy asked. "Working with the Shredder, and the Foot…..that's really something."

Da Big Guy just nodded in response. He worked with the Purple Dragons, who worked with the Shredder in the past. They allowed him to grease his palms and give him some of the bigger money.

"He's a bit obsessed, you know," Da Big Guy replied a few seconds later. "With outclassing Big Daddy Mack and making him look like a fool, even though it just makes him look like a bigger fool. I mean, I don't care, unless I get paid and I get paid well."

A glass of the wine dropped down onto the table.

"Put it on Uncle Ted's tab as usual," Da Big Guy said. "He's good for it…gentlemen, it's time to toast to our success and toast for a better life. Toast for a brand new world, which we're going to build."

Da Big Guy tipped the glass back and drank the wine. He downed over half of the glass until the door opened up. Several of the patrons in the bar stopped and stared. They all turned their attention away, when Xever, one of the key members of the Purple Dragons, walked forward. He dropped down on the table in front of the Wolfpack.

A few seconds followed, with Da Big Kahuna walking inside. Da Big Guy rose an eyebrow, and the two gang members looked at each other.

"So, did you do a deal without asking us?"

The large biker looked towards the even larger biker. "Brother, I got this one."

"Clear the room."

Xever withdrew a knife and no one questioned. They knew when Xever talked, people listened. They would piss him off, and it would piss Hun off. Pissing Hun off, it would end up pissing the Shredder off and it was not a good idea for anyone to piss him off.

The bar cleared out and the one and only Shredder walked inside, towering over them. Baxter Stockman followed a few steps behind the Shredder and had a very sour look on his face, looking like he did not want to be present at this point.

"Hey, I didn't know you hired Carlton," Da Little Guy commented.

"Very amusing," Stockman said. "Gentlemen, I believe we have a deal with you."

"Yes," Saki said when he stood in front of them. "You will soon have power and control behind your wildest imagination. Not only will you have both of those things, but you will be paid very well as well."

"You have my attention, sir," Da Big Guy said.

"I will require your help in getting a couple of assets free from EPF custody," Saki said. "A test to see whether or not you're worthy of this gift we're going to give you."

"I take it you're referring to Bebop and Rocksteady," Da Big Guy said. "Fine, tell us where we need to be, pay us, and we'll be there."

"I'll do more than pay you," Shredder said. "Just do the job, and I'll take care of you. I'll take really good care of you all."

Shredder and Krang worked together and they agreed an army would be needed to accomplish their goals. They talked about the Wolf Pack being the potential test monkeys for it in the past.

"They're perfect alright," Stockman said.

' _Nothing of value will be lost,'_ Stockman thought to himself in a very savage manner.

* * *

They left New York and the sunlight flashed over the skies, down upon the Yacht. Harry leaned back against the wall and enjoyed the sunlight. Felicia kept him occupied for a good portion of the evening, into the morning, after they finished dinner. He took in the nice sea air.

The door opened up with Jan opened up. She met up with Harry with a smile, dressed in a very nice white tank top and a pair of jeans. She wore a nice pair of designer sunglasses, with Jan's eyes looking over the top of them and smiling at Harry.

"Morning Harry," Jan said. "I noticed Felicia was out like a light."

"Well, she had a lot of energy last night, guess she got burned out eventually," Harry replied.

Jan just gave Harry a knowing smile.

"Mari and I are going to have breakfast," Jan said. "Would you care to join us?"

"I don't mind if I do."

Harry allowed Jan to take his arm and the pair moved over. Mari sat at the table, dressed in a very nice bathrobe, which moved open when she slipped it. A leopard print set of lingerie covered Mari's body and Harry smiled when greeting her.

"Morning," Mari said. "I'd ask if you slept well, but Felicia's voice carries a lot."

Harry laughed at Mari and sat down. Breakfast already had been laid out and Harry helped himself to some toast with a smile on his face.

"So, Fashion Week is coming up," Mari said. Jan gave her a long look across. "Okay, fine it's over six months ahead, but it's never too early to plan."

Jan shook her head, no matter how much she agreed with Mari. To be perfectly honest, she agreed with every single word Mari said. It was never too early to start preparing, especially given their fashion week event started to take a life of its own. So many visionary people and they all had their very good ideas. Jan wished Fashion Week in New York happened at a nicer time of the year, but she could not complain about all of the results.

"Never too early," Karen said. "Lavender choose well."

Karen joined them clad in a lacy white bra and a pair of panties, along with a pair of stockings and a garter belt. She threw a transparent bathrobe over her body, almost as an afterthought. She leaned across the table and stole an earlier morning kiss from Harry, before swapping a piece of toast.

"I talked to her on the phone last week," Mari said. "She and Parvati are kicking the ass on the European markets."

"So, I heard," Karen said.

Mari smiled. She slowly slipped a finger into her mouth to suck the butter from the toast off of her finger. Her bare foot brushed Harry's leg underneath the table, not really on purpose. She just did it with instincts, to be honest.

Harry felt one foot brushing down his thigh from one side and another foot brushing down his other thigh. Karen's legs dangled over the chair and her feet were visible on the other side of the table. Therefore, Harry figured who had been doing the under the table fun with him.

"Yes, I'm working my ass off," Mari said.

"And quite the ass to work off," Karen said. "Wouldn't you have to agree, Harry?"

"Yes, I would have to agree," Harry said. "There wouldn't be a single person who would argue about…that."

A foot brushed up the side of Harry's leg and slowly worked its pant leg. Give both Mari and Jan wore sunglasses, no one could see their eyes and any mischief which would go through them.

"I've heard some interesting rumors about you," Jan said.

Harry brushed against the foot underneath the table with his hand and he could hear a very audible gasp coming from Mari's directly. He turned his full attention to Jan who had been giving him her usual beautiful smile on the other end of the table.

"You're going to have to be more specific."

Jan almost spat orange juice out when she drunk it. Harry did have a lot of rumors about him. Jan drew in a deep breath and smiled when looking at him.

"Well, nothing too racy," Jan said. "There are more than enough rumors about you going around there."

Harry encouraged Jan to go on, so she did.

"I wondered what you had to say about the rumors of you being up to being Gotham City Humanitarian of the Year," Jan said.

"Veronica and Sapphire mentioned they might nominate me for it," Harry said. "I don't know if they were being serious, or not. And Veronica's up for it as well. I'm not doing anything differently."

"Yeah, I think you might have a pretty good chance because you're not campaigning too heavily," Mari said. "I mean, there's only so much a person can do to hype themselves up as a Humanitarian before you wonder if they really are a humanitarian."

Boyle campaigned heavily, and held a banquet next month, to give a speech about the reward. The official reward presentation did not take place until November, which made Harry think Boyle jumped the gun.

"Boyle's already holding a celebration party for it," Harry said, very amused.

Jan sipped on her drink. "You can't fault a guy for his confidence."

All four of them laughed. You could call Ferris Boyle many things, but you could not fault the man for his lack of confidence.

* * *

Breakfast ended and Harry took a long walk around. He wanted to get his early morning workout in. Harry stepped inside of the gym on the Yacht. He had been greeted by the sight of Karen, who left Breakfast a bit early. She bent over in a pair of tight spandex Yoga pants. Karen turned around and her world-class cleavage shined in a custom made blue sports bra.

"Harry," Karen said.

Harry decided to do the right thing and grab Karen's waist to help her when doing her workout exercises. She stretched on the ground, pushing herself up, and bumping her ass into Harry's crotch. Karen landed her ass against him for a few seconds and slowly ground herself against Harry.

"Time to do some sit ups," Karen said.

Harry smiled and Karen got down onto the ground. Karen spread her legs and allowed Harry to straddle her thighs to hold her down. Karen lifted herself up for the sit up. Her large breasts bounced up and then lowered every time Karen dropped and lowered to the ground. The friction of the exercise continued when Karen doing her sit ups.

She did some bridges as well in the sit ups. Her hips bumped against Harry's when she held her down onto the bed. The immense heat of Karen's loins touched Harry when rising up off of the ground and descending down without another word. Her hips rocked down onto the ground.

"I want to do my neck exercises," Karen said. "And it seems like you've brought me the right equipment."

Karen sat up and grabbed onto Harry's pants. She didn't waste any time in pulling down Harry's pants to expose the treasure she sought underneath said pants.

* * *

 

Twelve inches of prime penis came out before Karen's line of sight. She wrapped one hand around the base of Harry's cock and jerked it up. She worked her arm, using Harry's engorged prick as the object which she worked herself out with.

Each pump with Karen's right hand swelled Harry's cock up. He looked down at his beautiful wife on her knees, jerking his cock up. Each pump, each squeeze, caused Harry's cock to engorge. It moved closer to touching Karen's lips, but it did not move the rest of the direction. Karen lightly pumped Harry's hard prick.

"Time to switch," Karen said.

"Good form to make sure both arms get a very even and very vigorous workout."

Karen vigorously pumped Harry's throbbing prick with her left hand. She took Harry's balls into her right hand and squeezed them, working them while she pumped Harry. The stud in front of her held back his desire for her. Karen allowed his cock to spring back and smack her on the lips.

"Neck exercises," Karen said.

She wanted to do them first but decided to pump Harry. Harry grabbed the back of Karen's legs and guided her warm mouth into the back of it. Harry held onto Karen by the hair and pumped himself into her.

Karen's neck showed the great strength one expected. Her blue eyes filled up when the busty Kryptonian survivor went down on Harry's mighty pole. She dripped saliva all over it and counted out fifty rapid fire sucks in her mind.

"The best thing to do next is to make sure we do those chest exercises," Harry said.

Harry squeezed Karen's chest through her shirt and she moaned. She allowed Harry to remove her top. Harry squeezed her chest for a couple of moments uncovered. Her nipples stuck out.

"Back on the mats."

Karen obeyed, and she could feel Harry over the top of her. Her large breasts bounced up and down when Harry approached her and grabbed onto the fleshy mounds. Karen moaned with Harry's hands touching the top of her breasts and giving them a very hearty squeeze. Karen closed her eyes, feeling Harry's strong hands rolling over the top of her breasts, making her breath in and breathe out in a very lustful manner. Harry toyed with her nipples and caused Karen to moan. He controlled her with his hands and made her squeeze.

Then, Harry slid his throbbing hard cock between Karen's fleshy orbs. He held on and slowly pumped his throbbing cock in between her immense cleavage.

"Feel the burn," Harry grunted.

Karen felt it alright, feeling Harry's cock head slapping against her chin. Harry spent several more minutes burying himself in Karen's warm, bountiful cleavage. He worked his throbbing hard cock into the depths, feeling himself being squeezed by her juicy, succulent orbs when bouncing up and down between her breasts.

"Mmm, yes," Karen breathed hungrily. "Fuck my tits….fuck them really good!"

Harry did as she asked and pounded those juicy breasts, for a little bit. Karen's large chest bounced up and down, encasing Harry's cock, squeezing it hard and then releasing it. Harry touched the underside of those breasts and gave them a hard squeeze, making her moan in delight.

The young man pulled back from Karen and allowed her to sink back down to the ground. Harry reached over and pulled down Karen's pants to reveal her juicy pussy. Harry's hard cock pushed against her entrance.

"Work your hips," Harry told her.

Karen pumped her hips up and Harry's cock slid inside of her. She rose her hips up and down, every time Harry's cock entered inside of her body, her cunt muscles squeezed him very hard. Harry groaned when Karen's tight walls surrounded his manhood.

"Fuck," Karen breathed.

Harry smiled and held onto Karen's hips, pushing into her. The two of them connected together, the pretext of the workout nearly being forgotten. Harry took one of Karen's standing nipples into his mouth and sucked on it hungrily. Karen's shoulders rolled back, her hips pushed up, and she screamed for the heavens when Harry sucked on her nipples.

Karen's tight walls milked Harry. Harry grabbed onto the ground and did some mock push-ups. His muscular chest hit Karen's nice large breasts when his throbbing hard dick pushed into the depths of Karen's warm vice of a cunt. She tensed up around him, breathing in and breathing out in thinly veiled pleasure.

The two of them rolled their hips up and down against each other. Harry gripped Karen's thighs and plunged his big throbbing cock down into her tight vice. Karen clamped down onto Harry and released him with multiple hard thrusts. Harry's balls pushed against Karen's wet center.

"Time for you to release all that pent up energy," Harry told Karen.

Karen released everything she had into one concentrated blast centered around her loins. She rocked all the way up and pushed Harry into her far and deep. Their loins collided with each other, with Harry pumping his way into Karen's wet pussy. Karen closed her thighs around Harry, wrapping her legs around him. She then let those legs dropped.

Harry stretched Karen's legs out and it made her pussy feel tighter for Harry's work out. His meat missile speared Karen over and over again. The busty blonde rose up to meet his attacks.

"Oh, I'm being stretched, "Karen moaned.

Her breasts bounced, nipples standing up, ready to be sucked. Harry took one of them into his mouth and sucked on it, resulting in Karen closed her eyes and rearing her hips up and down in passion. She took as much of Harry's cock inside of her body as humanly possible.

Harry worked his mouth around each standing nipple and gave them the attention and worship he deserved. He picked up his hands and cupped Karen's breasts. He worshiped those round breasts and resulted in Karen to thrash her hips up and down off of the workout mat.

Vibrations of pleasure spread through Karen's pussy. Karen took her hips off of the floor and then pushed more of Harry inside of her. He stretched Karen out completely on his hard cock, the massive balls dropping down onto Karen's thighs. Karen grabbed Harry's back, pushing her nails down onto him.

"Mmm, more, baby," Karen breathed in his ear. "Take your huge cock and pound my tight pussy….really make it feel the burn."

Karen decided to turn over after her next orgasm and now she was on top of Harry. Her feet pressed firmly on the ground when she ran her hands over Harry's chest. Karen bounced slowly and she smiled when Harry watched her succulent breasts bounce up and down off of the ground, taking him in, with enraptured pleasure. Harry reached up, and grabbed Karen's round tits, giving them a very strong squeeze. Her breasts sprung up into Harry's hands and allowed him to push her tight walls around his hard cock.

"Damn, Karen," Harry said.

Harry leaned up and sucked on Karen's breasts. Karen threw her head back in unbridled passion in response. Each drop onto Harry caused him to go deep into Karen. She bottomed out on Harry, those balls filling up with tension.

Karen purposely slapped her own ass when bouncing up and down. Harry responded by grabbing a handful of Karen's ass. She fired back by holding Harry's head and guiding him between her warm, juicy breasts. Karen rose up and sank down onto Harry, spearing herself down onto him. The burn had been felt with each rise and each drop, filling herself up with more very eager and very willing cock. Karen situated herself onto Harry and pushed his rod into her body. Her warmth spread out, pushing Harry inside of her.

"Fuck me," Karen breathed. "Mmm….yes!"

Karen kept bouncing up and down on Harry, shoving as much cock into her as she could. The busty blonde became like a crazed maniac to ride Harry until she grew numb with excitement. Harry took his hands and wrapped them around Karen's sizeable chest. He squeezed her and made her ride him even faster.

Harry pushed up off of the ground and went as far into Karen's pussy as he could go. The warm walls wrapped tightly and squeezed. Harry pumped up and down into her.

The two vigorously moved against each other, their loins touching each other with a hunger which could not have been beaten by any conventional means. Their warmth spread against each other.

"Release that tension," Karen breathed. "Come on, Harry, push it."

Harry got the best kind of morning workout possible. Karen rode him, almost pulling him up into the air between her thighs before the two of them descended. Her tightness closed around Harry and saturated his cock with all of her dripping warmth.

"Fuck, right there," Karen said.

"It's really good," Harry groaned.

"Yes, I know, baby," Karen said. "It feels really, really good."

Karen descended down onto Harry's throbbing manhood and her box stretched around Harry. She squeezed Harry down and pumped him.

She came first and came very hard. Karen dropped her hips down onto Harry and sent so many of her juices down, she could flood an entire dessert.

Harry followed, slamming his throbbing manhood into Karen. Karen stretched around Harry's pole, and her warm pussy milked him harder than ever before. The tension within Harry's balls released and he fired hot cum into Karen's pussy.

Karen took a full load inside of her, riding Harry. She made sure Harry watched her bouncing breasts and the look of absolutely erotic pleasure on her face when descending up and down on Harry.

Both shared their mutual orgasm before collapsing down onto the ground. Karen pulled back from Harry, her pussy grabbing as much cum from Harry as possible. She moved over towards the workout bench and bent over.

Harry followed her, his cock recharged at the erotic sight of Karen's bare ass swaying in front of him and took the plunge into her to continue the next stage of their morning workout.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 26** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Harry's vacation is going well, very well in fact._

_Been a while since Karen's gotten any solo attention in this story, so this appears to be the perfect time._

_Until Wednesday._


	316. Summer Fades Part Two

**Chapter Three Hundred and Sixteen: As Summer Fades Part Two**

* * *

Felicia Hardy stepped out of her room, dressed in a bath robe and not that much else. The beautiful heiress stretched out and walked towards a bench off by the side. She noticed a table with suntan lotion looked to set out to the side. Felicia basked in the warmth of the sunshine and the very beautiful day which was to follow. She stretched out, feeling a bit sore, but satisfied after last night.

Harry slipped out, and Felicia was disappointed she could not gotten ahold of him for another performance today. Still, the early bird caught the worm and all of that. Felicia stepped closer towards the bench and shrugged her bathroom off. Felicia decided to put herself on the front of the bench and take a deep sigh.

The door of the gym opened up, and Felicia turned around to see Karen who made her way out of the gym. Her hair dripped wet from a shower and Felicia did not waste that much time putting two and two together at what happened to Karen. Felicia just smiled at Karen when she stepped out. Karen reached over, dressed in a pair of tight shorts. She bent over and allowed Felicia to get a nice glimpse of Karen's nice ass in the tight shirt.

"So, did you enjoy your workout?" Felicia asked.

Karen turned around and flashed Felicia one of those smiles. "About as much as you enjoyed the workout with Harry last night, I suspect."

Felicia did not deny it and she only grinned. She propped herself up on the bench, her thighs still a bit sore, although a nice long soak and maybe a massage would allow her to feel better. Felicia closed her eyes and muttered something underneath her breath, before sighing.

"Harry's coming in a little bit," Karen said. "You could use something on your back. We wouldn't want you to bake in the sun, would we?"

"No, that would be a shame," Felicia said.

Karen cupped the suntan lotion of her hands and slowly ground it into Felicia's shoulders. Her talented hands worked for circles around and applied a very steadied application of Felicia's back. She moved down a little bit further and moved towards Felicia's lower back. Karen dropped her hands down to touch Felicia's ass. Only the barest of touches caused Felicia to breathe in and breath out.

"I'm so glad you could make it," Felicia said. "You and Harry both."

Karen smiled and leaned closer towards Felicia. Her breasts touched Felicia's mid to upper back area. "I am too, trust me, honey."

A soft moan came from Felicia. She tried to keep it calm and collected. Karen was very good at what she did and what she did to Felicia, it felt very nice. She knew where to touch, when to touch, and when not to touch. Those very powerful hands stroked Felicia's flesh and made her feel good.

"I think you missed a spot."

Karen leaned in to check on Felicia and her breasts, hanging out of her shirt, pressed against Felicia's back. A light application of suntan lotion allowed Karen to finish the spot.

"Do you want me to roll over?" Felicia asked.

Karen smiled and motioned for Felicia to roll over. The second Felicia rolled over, her generous chest twins bounced proudly in the way. The beautiful heiress had a body which drove men to any kind of sin. And speaking of sin, Harry turned up a second later.

"Rest well?"

"Very well," Felicia said.

Felicia lifted her leg and lightly brushed her foot against Harry's crotch. A smile passed over Harry's lips when he moved over as if telling Felicia to behave. Felicia gave him one of those looks, a very devious looking smile. The word devious described Felicia Hardy to a tee.

"I'm glad," Harry said.

Harry and Karen took turns rubbing the suntan lotion all over Felicia's bare front of her body. Every time the lotion applied to her body, she gave a small little gasp, signifying pleasure of some kind. Harry cupped her front and made Felicia's hips rise up off of the bench in some kind of pleasurable sensation.

"Relax, honey," Harry told Felicia.

Felicia relaxed, and Harry worked his fingers down to a very obvious point. He teased the area between her thighs.

"Mind if we join you?"

Anastasia Hardy stepped out, showing everyone where her daughter got her gorgeous looks from. She dressed in a nice green bikini top with the material stretching over her breasts. The material only covered the least amount of skin possible. She wore bikini bottoms which looked painted on and on the back, a green thong rode up Anastasia's ass crack.

Not to be outdone, Vanessa Fisk turned up. She dressed in a sheer white bikini where if the smallest amount of moisture had been added, they would have seen anything. The beautiful MILF sauntered over and stared at Harry with desire in her eyes.

"Why don't you give my mother and Vanessa the same treatment?" Felicia asked.

Anastasia already put herself on the lawn chair. She seductively swayed her hips on the edge, which Harry watched, eyes drawn to it. Felicia grabbed Harry's ass in encouragement.

Harry moved over and started to apply suntan lotion to Anastasia's back. The beautiful woman sighed at the feeling of Harry's hands moving around. He cupped the area underneath her breasts and rubbed up and down. The Hardy MILF's thighs spread apart with Harry cupping her womanhood for the briefest of seconds and lightly pulling away.

He brought the sexy MILF to the brink and then pulled away. Vanessa asked for the same treatment, by showing off her perfect body and nice round ass for Harry. Harry applied some hand lotion and rubbed the woman's lower back. She breathed in response, with Harry's hand brushing deep against her, taunting her skin.

Harry smiled when he treated both women to a nice massage and lotion application. He brought them to the brink by teasing them, when pulling back from them. It would make them want this even more.

* * *

The Wolfpack made their way to the Foot Headquarters. They were all ready to go, given the big payday they had been promised, from both Da Kahuna and Sleazy E. Plus, the fact when the Shredder wanted something from you, you would just be a fool to say no.

Shredder, Hun, and Xever supervised the process, along with the one and only Doctor Baxter Stockman. Stockman may have been a shell of his former self, with body parts replaced by cybernetic implements, but he was not dulled with intelligence as he had been before. He prepared the process and turned towards the Shredder, who looked at him through those burning eyes.

"Yes," Stockman replied. "It's ready. It will be even more refined the previous batch of mutagen. There is no need to expose someone to an animal. The necessary DNA is combined within the mutagen and it would only take one small dose of the mutagen."

Stockman held out several vials, clearly marked with several strains of animal DNA. The Shredder peered at Stockman without speaking a single word. He looked very calm all things considered.

"For your sake, it better work, Stockman."

"Krang and I have made sure everything works to a plan," Stockman said. "You will have your two associates back, with this new batch of mutants…which one of you are going to be a volunteer first?"

Stockman turned towards the members of the Wolfpack. All of them looked at each other. Da Big Kahuna and Sleazy E smiled at each other. They had people who were willing to go through this mutagen, therefore, the two of them would not have to be deformed by it.

"I'll do it."

Da Big Man spoke and Stockman just smiled. He had been all about the money. Well, Stockman intended to give this large biker something more powerful than any money imaginable. His excitement increased at the first test of this new mutation chamber.

The simulations he ran showed all of the tests to be a stunning success. Stockman would not have put his professional reputation on the line, never mind his life, on the line if the chamber was not calibrated to a picture perfect success.

"And step on up, and just stand inside the chamber."

Da Big Man made his way into the chamber. He pushed his hair back when entering the chamber.

"Let's go on with it then, I'm not getting paid by the hour."

"Patience," Stockman said without missing a beat. "Genius science cannot be rushed. You will get everything you've come for and then some more. You just have to remain still. The pain of the change will be very minor compared to the previous version of this mutation process."

Da Big Man just grunted. Stockman set down the case on the table and rifled through all of the potential mutagen samples, modified. He snorted, he would have felt sorry for the poor unfortunate soul who would have gotten mutated into something loathsome like a fly. What a very miserable existence they would have lived?

' _Let's see….ah perfect….'_

Stockman slipped the mutagen into the chamber and caused it to be vaporized in the midst of the chamber. The shielding on the outside of the chamber blocked anyone from being affected by the mutagen. The person on the inside of the chamber would be sprayed with the mutagen vapor.

The larger biker inside of the chamber twitched inside of the chamber. His bones broke and reformed with his body changing. Hair grew on his body, and his already large size increased. The huge biker transformed into a hideous looking wolf creature, with sharp fangs and large claws.

Stockman waited for the vapor to fade. Da Big Man stepped outside of the chamber in his new, hideous looking form. His claws came out, with very large teeth as well.

"Give me a mirror."

A mirror rose up and Da Big Guy looked up at it. He laughed when he looked at his form in the mirror. Some might have judged him to look hideous. Da Big Guy disagreed with this particular statement. As a matter of fact, he would have to say he never looked better.

"My turn next."

Da Bad Guy flung his toothpick at the ground and strutted over towards the mutation chamber. He wondered what mutation he would be given.

Stockman repeated a process, with a different strain of mutagen. Da Bad Guy turned into a very dangerous panther creature. His skin shined, with the black fur coming out above it. Stockman smiled, very pleased with what he had created through the mutation.

"Very nice, brother. "Da Big Kahuna said. "Little man, you're next."

Da Little Guy stepped up, making a cocky swagger when stepping into the mutagen chamber. He prepared himself to be doused with the mutagen and be changed into something else.

"Two for two," Stockman said. "As if there are any doubts."

"Don't get cocky," Xever warned him. "That's a good way to get a knife between your eyes from where I come from."

Stockman shook his head. The difference between cockiness and cockiness proved to be very fine. Da Little Guy entered the chamber and Stockman slipped the third vial into the chamber slot. The mutagen vaporized and sprayed into the chamber.

"Impressive," Shredder said. "You've proven your worth Stockman. And for that, you get to live for now. As long as you don't fail, you will be given the opportunity to live."

"How very generous of you," Stockman replied in one of the driest tones of voice he could muster.

* * *

A very nice morning followed into a very nice afternoon. The girls dragged Harry along shopping. Something like this would have normally been a thing which Harry might have raised an eyebrow about. Being around with a group of women shopping, normally meant an entire afternoon would have been burned out. There were a couple of perks to this afternoon out and about in the town though, which Harry saw straight away and could not stop smiling back.

He would be around women who spent most of the afternoon standing around in next to nothing and wearing very slinky looking lingerie. Jan in particular dressed in a very lacy bedroom set. She bent over in the mirror.

"How does this make my ass look?"

Jan bent over and looked at herself in the mirror.

"Great as always," Harry said. "Then again, it would be hard to make your ass look not good."

"Harry's right," Felicia said. "Your ass looks great and very spankable…..just sticking out like that. I want to touch it."

Jan smiled and turned around. She watched Felicia dressed in a very tight black zip up top which just barely contained her massive breasts. Her chest looked dangerously close to exploding out of that top. The outfit topped off with a very nice pair of panties which hugged her hips, fingerless black gloves, and a nice little whip.

"You've been hanging around Emma too much," Jan said.

"Hey, can you blame a girl for picking up some tips from the master or the mistress in this case?" Felicia asked.

Felicia dreamed of Harry taking that whip and turning it around on her, spanking her bottom red before fucking it. She tried not to stain the panties because she was pretty sure it was a rule if you stained it, you bought it. You really needed to look in the fine print for something else.

"And the fuck-me boots are very nice as well," Karen told her.

The Hardy heiress looked herself over in all of her glory and she thought said glory looked quite glorious. Every bit of supple flesh put on display and danced for Harry. She thought about bouncing in excitement, teasing both herself and Harry with the amazing look.

"Where did Mari go?"

Mari made her way out, dressed in a nice leopard print one piece suit, which looked like a cat suit with the legs shortened. The leather material hugged against her chest very invitingly. She added some very stylish boots which topped things off. Mari turned around and the material squeezed her ass in front of Harry's line of sight. It gave everyone involved a very nice sight of Mari's perfectly rounded rear end.

"I don't know about this one," Mari said.

"Oh, I think it suits you well," Karen said. "Wouldn't you agree, Felicia?"

Felicia whistled and smiled, taking a chance to look Mari up and down. Mari felt a bit of a shiver come through her body at Felicia looking her over like a slab of meat. It made her feel very excited and very naughty at the same time. The outfit she modeled was suited for a purpose, to entice and to tease.

Mari did enjoy how the material hugged her curves. Giving the reaction from Harry, Felicia, and Karen the outfit more than served its intended purpose and made Mari look very impressive.

"You should keep that one because you look amazing in it."

Harry's review of the outfit pretty much cemented the fact Mari would be hanging onto this one, for the foreseeable future. The woman moved over towards Harry and made sure he got a pretty good look. Mari followed up modeling her curves in that outfit and leaned down, to kiss Harry on the cheek as thanks.

"Well, I trust your opinion," Mari said. "I trust all of your opinions, but I've known Harry to have some pretty good taste. So, he would be a guy who I would trust just a little bit more. Maybe that's just me, though."

"Maybe it is," Jan confirmed with a smile.

All of them turned to Jan who wore a very nice red number which made certain attributes on her pop out. Everyone could agree Janet Van Dyne wore the outfit well, wearing it like a glove which fit around certain parts of her body. The corset, the underwear, the stockings, everything all moved together.

"Jan, you can really strut your stuff," Felicia said a few seconds later. "Maybe you should be one of the ones out on the field next year for Fashion Week. You could wear your own products about as good as anyone else, after all."

Jan smiled at the compliment Felicia offered her. Too true, she could wear her products and potentially wear them pretty good. She just enjoyed the attention she got right now and most importantly, she enjoyed directing the traffic with all of the models. Being out in the chaos, Jan did not know about that. The fact she could do it gave Jan's ego a very suitable boost which it did not need, but at the same time, it was very appreciated to have.

The girls continued to tease Harry in outfits which were very obscene tight and some of them only covered the bare minimum. Harry just sat back for the entire afternoon and enjoyed the show which had been offered to him. It had been a nice change of pace from the usual mundane business, but then again, he had been on vacation, so he would have to enjoy the change in pace.

' _They got the trial stalled by about a month,'_ Barbara thought.

' _Maroni and Zucco?'_ Harry asked her.

' _Yeah, Maroni and Zucco,'_ Barbara agreed. _'It's happening next month, with Zucco going first.'_

Harry figured about as much. Zucco would crack, which would make the case for the Maroni's trial happening. It still happened in Gotham City, so whatever magic Maroni's legal team intended to try and pull in about a month, something about it made Harry think it was not going to work. Stranger things have happened though.

He had been distracted momentarily with Karen being stretched into a very slinky pair of black underwear, which contained a see through black bra and a pair of transparent black thong panties. She managed to find a pair which was mostly geared for women with a greater endowment, even though very few had been endowed more than Harry.

* * *

Vanessa Fisk tried to talk herself out of doing something very bold and something very daring. She could not bring herself not to take the plunge. Her mind had been about as far away from New York City as possible as she stretched out in a lawn chair on the beach and soaked in the sun.

Anastasia joined her a few minutes later, with a very nice, vintage bottle of wine. The sexy blonde poured the wine and handed Vanessa a glass.

"So, are you finally being able to unwind?"

"Yes," Vanessa said.

"He's in your head, isn't it?"

The question from Anastasia hit Vanessa with bluntness. She never shied away from saying what she meant. Still, Vanessa decided to fire back with as much fury as she could.

"Isn't he in yours?"

Anastasia smiled. "For the longest time….ever since I observed him take my daughter on my own desk during a trip to New York. At first, I thought they didn't know I was there, but knowing Felicia, and knowing Harry as I know him now, both were perfectly aware."

Vanessa looked very interested.

"Harry came by to visit her about a month back," Anastasia continued. "And he fucked my daughter for hours straight, and I watched every single juicy moment later. My daughter's nothing but a shameless whore, who took Harry's large cock in every single hole like a pro. But, at the same time, she has pretty good taste. Why settle for the rest, when you could go for the best?"

"How big?" Vanessa asked before she could help herself.

Vanessa always had been a bit obsessed with size. A small voice told her deep down that size should not matter, but another voice shut it down, saying that she was a woman with needs, many needs and if her husband had not been fulfilling them, than someone else who was capable of them too.

"Twelve thick juicy inches," Anastasia said. "Now, granted, this could be a ballpark figure, I didn't exactly get down on my knees and measure it in person. For all I know, it could have been busy. Anyway, the best part was when Harry threw Felicia against the wall and spread her willing thighs. He teased her for a couple of minutes, and then took his huge cock and slammed it repeatedly into my daughter's snatch, while I fingered myself raw. She screamed until her legs gave out. And Harry held her up, and she couldn't take no more."

Vanessa breathed heavily.

"How long?"

"Oh, it must have been a good four or five hours," Anastasia said. "And that's when Felicia blacked out. I was going to offer my relief, but then that Mary-Jane girl decided to tag out. And Harry spent the rest of the afternoon shagging her senseless."

"This is not helping with my attempts to stay faithful."

"You were being true to your marriage vows," Anastasia said. "But, it was Wilson Fisk who didn't honor them first. When's the last time you even saw him for more than a few minutes out of the day."

Vanessa did not even remember.

"A perfectly good woman shouldn't be forced to waste the best years of her sexual prime to stay faithful to a husband who neglected her for power. Especially when there's a young stallion who is fit to give in to all of your needs and so much more."

One more push would have broken Vanessa. Hell, she had been teasing Harry, hoping that he would take her and fuck her. She fantasized the young man jumping her. She would beg a little bit that she was married, and they should not be doing this. However, it would just only entice Harry to take her more and ravish her.

Juices soaked Vanessa when she breathed in and out very heavily. She should not waste the best years of her sexual prime, that statement kept coming out and taunting her. Anastasia was right, damn her.

* * *

Back in a top secret government facility, Agent John Bishop returned from his duties. A chess game laid out on the table, and behind the table, sat quite the interesting figure. An eight-foot tall humanoid crocodile waited about as patiently as he could to play.

"You're making a remarkable amount of progress due to the latest medical reports," Bishop told the huge crocodile across from him at the table.

"Yes, no thanks to Krang."

The crocodile had been surprisingly mild mannered and docile until the subject of his captivity had been brought up. Which Bishop and anyone with any sense understood, as anyone who had been experimented on by Krang and his subordinates would never have been the same again.

Krang sat without anyone touching him, like a king. Bishop wished to be the one to knock him off. It had gotten rather personal between the two. Bishop closed his eyes, and recalled the experiments, on him and his brothers and sisters. Bishop had been lucky enough to survive, but the others, they were in a very bad state.

' _Someday, I will fix you,'_ Bishop thought.

"Check," Bishop said a few minutes later. "We will get Krang. I've lost a lot to him, family."

"Oh, I'll get him alright, and I'll tear him into bloody chunks!" the crocodile raged.

Memories flashed back, of being a pet who had been flushed down a toilet by a cruel older brother. Then he fell into some green slime and grew several times his normal size until he had been picked up and brought to the TCRI building. Experimented in every way, until some day, he escaped.

He had been given the name Leatherhead, but one thing which kept him motivated, even during the days which survival was not guaranteed was the thought that he would get back at the man who captured him, Krang.

"Calm down," Bishop said.

Anger management therapy would not have been the best thing for a giant crocodile, even though he really needed it at the moment. Leatherhead growled, obviously needing to work on some issues.

An alarm blared, and Bishop checked his watch.

"Sir, facility nineteen….."

Bishop breathed in. The facility of where Bebop and Rocksteady had been held, had been breached. That would not be good for any of them.

* * *

**To Be Continued on July 29** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

_Naturally, we have trouble because why wouldn't we have trouble._

_Harry's vacation is going by quite nicely all things considered. And things are about to heat up._

_And speaking of heating up, the heat is on Maroni and Zucco._

_Until Saturday._


	317. As Summer Fades Part Three

**Chapter Three Hundred and Seventeen: As Summer Fades Part Three**

* * *

Several rows of filing cabinets made one of the lower levels of the Earth Protection Force look like a mundane office building. A closer look would show how much the Earth Protection Force did not look mundane at all. They might give off the impression of a government facility, no different than what one would expect from any other government facility.

Appearances ended up being deceiving though. Behind the bookshelves had a staircase, which led to an elevator. The elevator brought the EPF scientists down several levels. The sounds of subway trains rolling across the track rattled from behind the wall. The scientists heard the sounds on the outside. The builders treated the wall with a special material which allowed the people inside to hear on the outside, and those who are on the outside not to hear the people on the inside.

Just around a month ago, two large mutants stormed the EPF facility to acquire an object which had been obtained from a mysterious visitor after she dropped down from Earth. The EPF lost the object and despite constant searching never were quite able to track it. They did acquire the two visitors. One giant Rhinoceros, and one giant Warthog stood out from behind the glass.

The scientist stepped over to read the life signs and the DNA scan. Several notes already made, and several notes still to come, painted a very vivid picture of the two mutants on the other side. The DNA had human origins but also had been intermingled with the mutant DNA.

"Their DNA has trace chemical elements of the TCRI chemicals spilled approximately fifteen years ago," the scientist said. "We believe they have come from a modified form of the same mutagen which has mutated the Turtles and also the mutant crocodile known as Leatherhead."

The scientist paused to scratch behind his ear and to flip back the filled up page. At least three pages of countless notes needed to be flipped back before he started to write on the page some more.

"More tests will need to be done. It's my recommendation to keep these two mutations under wraps as well. Allowing them outside in the general population would not be ideal. They will pose a danger to themselves and with….."

A sound of a motor cycle revving up stopped the scientist in his track. He moved down the hallway and already, two EPF guards stepped down. Both of them held weapons which pointed down the hallway. Their steady hands maneuvered in perfect position.

"You heard that, don't you?"

The lead security guard nodded. It was possible they just drove down into the subway tunnels and did not cause any problems. They had been given their orders for Bishop, to deal with any threat, no matter how big or how small. They waited when the roaring sound on the outside stopped.

Click, click, click, the sound of something clicking came from outside. Following the click came a big boom and the two walls blasted out. The scientist threw himself down onto the ground just to give the guards room to start firing. High tech laser blasts came at the attacker.

A large hulking wolf creature came inside.

"Another mutant?"

The wolf grabbed the attacker around the neck and threw him down against the wall. A huge thud followed when the guard dropped down. The other guard backed off. Gun held out, yet scared as everything. Shaking hands struggled to point at the gun.

"Stand back, there's more on the way….."

A blur came in and a black panther knocked the man down against the wall. The guard dropped down against the wall. One outstretched hand lifted the guard off of the ground. Flying backward, the goon slammed deep down onto the ground.

Two steps back and the scientist moved back.

"Were you created….like the other ones?" the scientist asked, stammering over and over again. His curiosity got the better of him, even though the entire situation scared him to death.

Terror continued when a very dangerous looking reptilian mutant moved behind him.

"We're the new breed, we're going to destroy anyone, and we're going to take our brothers back," the reptilian mutant said.

The scientist pushed a panic button alarm. This mistake proved to be deadly when the reptilian mutant grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him down to the ground. Lashing out and biting the scientist immobilized him, paralyzing him with a deadly strain of venom.

"More on the way," Da Big Man grunted. "We're going to hold them up."

Da Bad Guy grabbed a series of weapons and passed them around. These weapons skewed towards the more high-end scale of the spectrum, high tech technology, perhaps either modified or based off of alien races. The huge mutated wolf smiled, the cannon looked very easy off. The cannon flashed into the hands of Da Big Guy when the doors opened up.

Explosions followed with a grenade breaking open as followed. The EPF guards dropped down to their knees. Da Little Guy nailed one of the guards to the side with a series of kicks. Each kick connected with the man, the educated feet of Da Little Guy pounding several knots on the head of his adversary.

Hun turned up, with several of his Purple Dragons goons. The cables containing the containment tanks blasted and the fluid came up.

"Stockman says we only got about ten minutes before their security kicks back up," Hun warned them. "We're going to have to be out of here by then."

The fallen, weakened forms of Bebop and Rocksteady dropped down to the ground. Containment fluids splashed all over the ground from the creatures after they had gotten fairly beaten, to a rather unfortunate pulp. Rockstead in particular opened up one of his eyes.

"Get them to the truck," Hun ordered his men. "I'll make sure no one else comes down here.

Ripping a large cable off of the wall, Hun slammed it against the wall. The electrical pulse fried the circuits of the sliding doors and slammed them shut. No one would come down here, not without Hun's express consent. The large man stepped back, folding his arms, looking more than pleased with the level of success coming through tonight.

"We've done it," Hun informed them. "Let's go."

All of them left without another word. Bebop and Rocksteady walked a bit staggered. The two large mutants moved to the rest of the Purple Dragons street gang, where a getaway vehicle waited for them.

"Thanks for the rescue, Hun," Rocksteady said.

"If the boss doesn't need you, I wouldn't have bothered. You know what the Shredder is when he wants something. He'll never take no for an answer."

"Must be real fun on a date," Bebop said.

* * *

Harvey Dent spent a few seconds looking over the records. Things were going to get more chaotic in Gotham City before they got even better. Everyone remained locked in their position, ever since Maroni and Zucco had been brought down to trial.

Others would follow, names would be named. Everything had pushed back for about a month. Dent talked to some people he trusted to keep a close eye on Tony Zucco. Zucco became more and more of a liability each second, and Dent knew in the world of organized crime, accidents happened. And they would happen very often and with a disturbing amount of regularity.

' _I can't believe I'm putting in all of these favors to make sure nothing happens to Zucco.'_

Yet, Zucco ended up being the lynchpin in the entire investigation. The man had friends. Dent also was looking into closing the black market distribution pipeline between Gotham City and Metropolis. He talked to his counterpart in Metropolis, and it took the DA over there a while to warm up.

Old prejudices died hard. A lot of people in Gotham considered those in Metropolis to be nothing, but a bunch of soft-hearted idealists. They never worked through real adversity, and never did anything which could be considered risky. Crime in Metropolis was considered to be a joke because the criminals would be among the lowest end of the spectrum in Gotham if you listened to a lot of hardline Gotham City citizens.

Those in Metropolis considered the Gotham City people for the most part to be deranged sociopaths at best, who were in a city which needed to be avoided. They were considered trash, who lived in a city which had one of the highest crime rates in America, only third as far as the current statistics said behind Detroit and Chicago.

' _And to think, things would have been a lot worse had it not been for Batman and Nightwing. Just stop and think about that for a minute.'_

Harvey took in a deep breath and considered some more options. He turned to see a figure walk towards the door and knock on it.

"Come in, Janice."

Harvey's Assistant District Attorney stepped into the office.

"I've been talking to Zucco all morning," Janice said. "He might want to take a deal, to name names. It could get both Falcone and Maroni."

The mind of Gotham City's fabled district attorney worked into overtime. He had been in a couple of minds about this one. Maroni and Falcone were more dangerous to be left out on the board. If they had been taken out in one fell swoop, it might open up a vacuum. It would also make anyone think twice. No one was untouchable in Gotham City, and no one was above the law.

The thought of leaving Tony Zucco to be free, even if it put some more dangerous people away, did not settle well with him.

"I don't know if his information is as valuable as he thinks he is," Dent said. "I'd prefer to see whether or not it would stand up to the scrutiny of questioning before we start making deals with a known murderer."

"You said it yourself, Harvey," Janice said. "He's much less significant than Maroni and Falcone. If he knew he would get something out of the deal, he might be more inclined to slip up. He also wants around the clock police protection."

Zucco sweating made Dent smile just a little bit, the fat bastard deserved every bit of a misery which could be thrown his way. Dent had him trapped like an oversized rat.

"Falcone's lawyering up," Janice added. "You think he's scared?"

Dent did not know what to say about that, about Dent being scared. To be perfectly honest, he had been in about two minds of the entire situation. Falcone might just be on edge. One son deported, the other son dead, and his daughter had been the only person who stood beside him in all of this. Dent did not know whether or not she got involved that much.

All roads in Gotham City lead straight through Carmine Falcone, at least they used to. People like Black Mask and Penguin figuring in their own plans made Harvey wonder if all roads lead straight to Carmine Falcone anymore. No matter what, things changed.

* * *

Harry and the girls returned from their extended shopping trip and impromptu modeling session. Mari returned back to her room, smiling when she approached the bed. She decided to help Harry carry some of the bags in.

"What kind of woman would I be if I let you do all of the work?" Mari asked. "I've got a few new ideas in here. Nothing like a good bit of competition to spurn some interest."

"I agree."

Mari laid her purchases out on the bed.

"From what Lavender's telling me, the European lines are taking on a life of their own," Harry said. "But, you're closer to that end of the operation than I am."

Mari smiled.

"Lavender always is one to hype up her own business, and she more than lives up for the hype. Yes, the Europe line is expanding out, she's doing a lot of promotion work over there. Fleur and Gabrielle are the stars of that line, along with some of their cousins."

' _Somehow I'm not surprised,'_ Karen thought. _'I mean, of course, those two would have been in the middle of everything. I'm surprised Lavender didn't make them the stars of the line over here.'_

' _Fleur and Gabrielle milked it for all it was worth,'_ Daphne chimed in, through the bond link. _'They always got the best deal possible, they're pretty smart, smarter than their own good.'_

Harry smiled, very much true if he had to say so himself. He noticed Mari spread out the purchases on the bed. Felicia and Karen pretty much goaded her into purchasing some rather slinky pieces. Not Mari needed too much prodding. She moved over towards the dresser and moved towards the drawer. She opened it up and checked it, looking at a necklace.

"Checking to see it's still there," Harry said.

"It's about the only thing which I have left of my birth parents," Mari said. "It's not even the real thing, rather a replica my mother hand made before she died. The real thing is lost though…."

Mari looked off in the distance, with one of the more obvious far off looks a person could have in their face. Harry reached up and put a hand on Mari's shoulder.

"What is it, if you don't mind me for asking?"

The African beauty smiled in response. "I don't mind you. It's a mystical totem which has been passed down in my family for years. My grandmother gave it to my mother, and well she was going to give it to me….until a fire claimed my parents, and left me orphaned."

Mari took a deep breath.

"I've been brought here, and put under foster care," Mari said. "I still haven't been able to get a straight answer why I was taken halfway across the world to be put into foster care. My adoptive parents are great, but I want to have some answers, what happened to the totem…it has to be around somewhere."

"It will be if you believe in your heart it is."

Those words rang in Mari's ears and she just smiled at them. She closed her eyes.

Birth parents died when she was young, and her adoptive parents died when she was a teenager in a mysterious car crash. Mari hated the fact how any answer she would receive from them, no matter how big, no matter how small, those answers would be taken with them to the grave.

"You've been through more than I've thought," Harry said. "You'll bounce back, you're a survivor, and you're…."

Mari wrapped her arms around Harry in mid-sentence and pressed her very supple body into his. The two of them lingered in each other's arms a few seconds.

Harry, refusing to allow himself be distracted for too long, pressed on with the rest of his statement. "There's nothing, that will get you down. You've become the face of a fashion line, but I think in time, you're going to be much more."

Those strong words from Harry made Mari think she could tackle anything. As long as Harry stood in her corner, and she had the support of a lot of friends, she could get that extra little nudge to tackle much of anything. Mari's eyes glistened when looking at Harry. She pulled away and turned around. It would be unwise to leave the day's purchases lying out, just strewn about on the bed.

"The two of us never have been out on a proper date, despite the fact we've been hovering around each other for ever."

Harry smiled and nodded.

"Felicia mentioned it to me," Mari said. "Well, Felicia said something else to me. Let's try and maintain the illusion of courtship though. Just to….I don't know, do things properly. If there is a proper way to go through dating these days."

Both of them shared a laugh.

"The next time we're both in New York?" Harry asked her. "And the next time I have a couple of hours to spare? What do you think?"

Mari smiled and gave Harry a playful smile. She crossed the room and looked him directly eye to eye. Her smile deepened when further approaching Harry. "I'd enjoy that. I'd enjoy that a whole lot."

* * *

School approached right around the corner. Amanda Potter sighed with a smile crossing over her face. To be honest, she thought summer always had gone too fast. And boy, had summer been a hell of a ride, with many ups and many downs during this summer. One thing a person could not argue is a summer in Gotham City had more than its fair share of twists and turns and challenges. Amanda only could imagine what the next few months, leading into the end of the year would begin.

She, Donna, and Emily would be heading off to college, going down that particular road for the first time. Given the roads of great expectations Harry paved for them along the way, Amanda would be lying if she had not been a slight bit nervous about things. Harry lined up a student mentor. One thing Amanda would say about Harry was he always lined up someone very interesting.

The younger girls mulled around the room with each other, speaking, and Lyta and Donna were getting along for the most part. They were talking about a visit home they had.

"Eris is doing rather well," Lyta told her.

"I'm glad she's doing well," Donna said. "Mother said she's leading by example, mentoring the younger Amazons on the island. She can have a bit of a temper, unfortunately."

"Yes, unfortunately," Lyta agreed. "Then again, most of the spirited warriors show fire when they are put under pressure."

"Are we speaking from experience?" Donna teased her.

"Well, both of us, and Diana, although she's the most mature of the three of us," Lyta said.

"Only because she's had the most time to reign herself in. You heard what Artemis said before. Diana was not always the perfect one she claimed to be."

Everyone started rough around the edges, even those who were born on the island. It took years for many of those rough edges to be smoothed off and the person, in particular, to be turned into a more solid person. Donna, in particular, knew this a lot better. She remembered how much of a brat she was during those awkward teenage years until Harry and Diana helped straightened her out.

' _Just seems like a lifetime ago,'_ Donna thought to herself, bringing in her breath with a sigh.

Lois and Rebecca walked up from the sparring room. They dressed in the usual sparring attire for the younger girls, sweat pants, and tank tops. They dripped with sweat and looked about ready to hit the showers, after a nice break. Lyta offered them a cool drink which both of them accepted.

"Nice workout, I take it?" Lyta asked.

"Yes," Rebecca said. "I hope we're going to be able to go for another practice run."

"You're going to have to ask Diana or Dinah about that one," Lyta said.

"Or Harry when he gets back?" Lois asked.

Lyta nodded in response. Her father went on vacation and damn right, he deserved one. She just hoped he would not run into any trouble. Trouble had a very nasty knack of finding Harry no matter where he went in this fine world. It just was something which could not be argued, something which they would have to take to the bank.

"Zucco's trial is coming up," Rebecca said.

"Two weeks."

Everyone turned around and Barbara Gordon stepped into the room with a surprising amount of stealth. The entire party in the room had been taken off guard by this woman showing up, especially during the moment she did. Rebecca turned to the older smiled.

"Yes," Rebecca said. "I heard."

She marked down the date on the calendar. No one confirmed it yet. Rebecca might have to testify, and Harry told her she would have to relive the events of the death of her parents. Rebecca did not particularly care to do so, but if it brought down Tony Zucco, she would bite the bullet.

' _Anything to help Zucco be taken in.'_

"You're going to be okay with testifying?"

Rebecca nodded at Barbara's question. She thought going to the station to point Zucco out of the lineup would be the most difficult thing she would have to do. Attending the trial might be more difficult. Rebecca would have to suck it up though. She would have to do it.

Zucco could not be let out if she was scared. All of the evidence needed to put him away for a very long time.

* * *

Harry returned to his bedroom after a long day. He half expected Felicia or Karen to be there to jump him when returning. They pretty much hinted at getting him alone after dinner and after the day of teasing, Harry was ready to take one of them.

The sight greeting Harry Potter perched on his bed made him smile. Vanessa Fisk sat on the bed and looked up at him with burning desire in her eyes. She settled the glass of wine down on her thigh. Harry got a good look at the woman. Her hair hung very freely, and flipped like a curtain, showing Harry only brief hints of the seduction burning through her eyes. Her tight black corset top stretched over her very generous looking chest. It cut at the bottom and showed more flesh, her toned stomach.

A hip hugging pair of panties came down and they were transparent, showing Harry only tantalizing hints of what laid beneath. She dressed in a pair of "fuck-me" thigh high stockings, and a pair of high heels which dangled from her perfect feet when on the bed.

"Good evening, Mr. Potter."

Her voice dripped with pure seduction. Vanessa lifted the glass of wine and took a drink from it. Harry drank in the body of the mature woman on the bed for him. She beckoned him over.

"As you may know, I'm a woman of very high-end tastes," Vanessa said. "And my husband was a very charming man years ago. But unfortunately, years of marriage and years of him becoming more prominent with his business ventures soured him somewhat. He made a choice, and I respect his choice."

Vanessa rose to her feet and put a hand on Harry's chest. She slowly played with the buttons and undid them, one at a time. The smile increased with Vanessa playing very slowly with the buttons on Harry's shirt. She opened them one at a top and ran her fingers down the side of his neck. A coy smile played on the corners of her mind.

"I respect his choices."

She closed herself against Harry and lifted on leg.

"Just like you must respect my choice to trade up in the world."

Vanessa kissed the younger man with a passion. Her tongue demanded entry into Harry's mouth. Harry returned fire, their tongues battled together. Harry showed his dominating personality on Vanessa. He reached behind her and grabbed two hands full of the ass which she teased him with earlier.

The brunette mafia wife closed her eyes and kissed Harry even harder. The warm tongue shoved deep inside of Harry's body.

"And you're having a private party, and I wasn't invited."

Anastasia Hardy stepped into the room. Her black bra could barely be classified as dental floss, two small strips covering her nipples and showing the vast majority of her large breasts. Her supple, tanned body looked to be on display as well. Her ass and center covered with two more strips.

"Well, Anastasia, you're here now."

"Call me, Ana," she said with a smile. "I think we shouldn't be too formal, especially with what you're going to do. It's time I get a taste of what leaves my daughter sore and smiling."

Ana reached and grabbed Harry's crotch before she kissed him. The blonde mother of one of his girlfriends, not exactly a thing Harry was unfamiliar with, kissed him even more heatedly than ever before. The two of them ground against each other.

Vanessa took a spot behind Harry and kissed the back of his neck. Her breasts brushed up against his back, those fingers lightly dancing against the back of his neck. She slid her panties off to the side, so she would be willing and willing to receive anything Harry gave her.

* * *

 

Harry pushed Ana back on the bed and she fell with a smile. Slowly, Harry turned his attention to Vanessa and grabbed her around the waist. Harry guided his fingers down to Vanessa's legs and stroked the outer lips. Her pussy juices dripped against Harry's fingers.

"Inside me."

Harry jammed his fingers inside of Vanessa and rocked her world. An intense finger fuck drove himself deep into the woman's sticky depths. Her walls contracted around and released Harry. The deeper he entered her, the more her thighs pushed up to meet Harry's probing fingers.

The tightness of Vanessa's pussy made Harry only want to explore it. He pulled his fingers out of Vanessa and tasted the drippings off of her.

"Want more from the source."

"Soon enough," Ana said. "I think we both want a taste of that big cock."

The businesswoman undid Harry's pants and pulled them down. One huge cock pushed out in front of both of them. Ana smiled and tightened her fist around him. She stroked the manhood up and down and then moved in to greet Harry's throbbing manhood with a very light kiss. The warmth of her mouth spread against Harry's cockhead and made him swell, just a little bit.

Ana brushed a thumb down his cock and made him swell.

"I'd like to see it in your mouth."

The Hardy heiress just smiled and parted her lips wide. She took the first few inches of Harry's cock into her mouth. She looked up at Harry and sucked him, very hard. The suction sounds just fired around his manhood. Harry reached behind Ana's head and guided himself, his throbbing hard erection deep inside of her mouth.

"Fuck," Harry groaned.

Ana only responded by sucking down harder on Harry, wanting to taste every single inch of cock he had.

Vanessa, never one to be ignored, took Harry's balls in hand. She cradled them to feel how big and swollen they were. Vanessa leaned down and wrapped her mouth around Harry's right testicle. She sucked Harry's balls while Ana sucked his cock.

They tag-teamed his manhood and Harry enjoyed the dual feelings of these warm mouths pleasuring him. One look into their hungry eyes showed they enjoyed pleasuring him just as much. Ana took his cock, Vanessa took his balls, and both of them worked over Harry.

Ana thought she would have died without this cock in her mouth. The manhood pulsing and shoving deep inside of her mouth got her very excited. She could not wait to taste what came out of his cock into her mouth.

Both beautiful older women tag-teaming Harry's cock made him feel like he was about ready to burst. They pleasured him with their mouths.

The first few spurts of warm cum shot deep into Ana's mouth. She sucked down the cum, drinking every bit of the goodness, but retaining enough. After all, a good friend shared the spoils of her conquest and she was willing to share the conquest with Vanessa.

Ana beckoned Vanessa to her feet. They kissed each other, their tongues meeting each other in the center. The two of them swapped cum with each other. Both vixens felt up each other's body, the unsubtle heat rolling off of their passionate kissing sessions.

"You need it more."

A squeeze of Vanessa's ass gave her all of the encouragement needed. She walked over to see Harry sitting on the bed, cock standing high in the air. Vanessa locked eyes on the object of the desire of many women. Her hand guided down to the base and positioned the cock.

Her bare pussy exposed for Harry and dripping wet. The older woman leaned down and attacked Harry with a series of passionate kisses all over his neck, chest, and face. Her dripping cunt lowered around Harry's throbbing cock. Vanessa slid down to the base of Harry's cock.

"YES!"

Vanessa felt the first few inches enter her. Almost as if a fire had been released from her, Harry's mighty staff worked between her.

Ana sat on the edge of the bed and she took a long dildo, licking it, looking very seductive. She deep throated the sex toy, when keeping her eyes on them. Her pussy ached for Harry's cock.

Harry grabbed the straps of Vanessa's top and pulled it down. Two round breasts with juicy nipples popped for Harry. Her ample chest proved to be the perfect surface for Harry to grab onto, to touch, to play with.

Vanessa tilted her head back and allowed Harry to continue to toy with her amazing chest. Harry moved in to suck on her nipples, and then roll his hands down. Every inch of her body canvased by Harry's touch. It did not take him too long to learn the spots which drove Vanessa the wildest.

And she appreciated just about that much. Vanessa's eyes widened when bringing her pussy down onto Harry. She squeezed him and then started to feel it. The feeling of a very potent orgasm washing over her body struck the woman hard. She bounced up and slid down onto Harry, taking as much of her body as possible.

Vanessa threw her head back and came very hard around Harry's engorged prick when it slid into her. A constant train of orgasms, each more intense than the last went through her body.

"Stay with me."

The nod coming from Vanessa showed she would stay with him, all of the way. She hung on through the latest orgasm, dropping her head on Harry's chest. Harry caressed the back of the neck and rose her up off of the bed. She dropped down onto his huge cock, filling herself up with it.

"I feel so good," Vanessa moaned the second Harry's cock speared inside of her.

"I know, honey," Harry said. "You should feel good, amazing even. Take it inside of you, you know you want it."

Vanessa chewed on her lip and nodded. She wanted Harry so badly. Off to the side, she caught a glimpse of Ana diddling herself raw with the dildo. It only increased Vanessa's desire to plunge down onto Harry's rod. She took it inside of her body.

The young sorcerer reached up and touched Vanessa's chest to squeeze it. The pleasure went through her. Rising and dropping, rising and dropping. She stayed with him most of the way, taking a huge amount of cock inside of her. Her body molded into Harry's with a pleasure.

A second MILF on her hands and knees before him made Harry pull away from Vanessa riding his cock like there was no tomorrow. Ana pushed the dildo inside of her and slapped her ass. Hand smacked against flesh with more repeated spanks. Her fingers touched her ass and slapped it one more time.

"Fuck her senseless."

Vanessa hung on for as long as possible. Her loins stretched and squeezed Harry's cock. She tightened around him and milked Harry. Every drop, every push, brought new feelings into Vanessa's body, feelings blasting warmth through every center of her body. She drank him in like a drug.

Harry rammed his cock into her one more time and gave Vanessa the biggest orgasm ever. The tightness squeezed Harry and she dropped down onto his cock, milking him. Harry piggy backed off of Vanessa's orgasm with one of his own.

Warm fluids shot into Vanessa's tight hole. Harry fired his essence inside of her, draining every single last drop of cum into her waiting, stretched out pussy. She took him as hard as possible.

Harry pulled away and his cock did not stay soft for long. It stood up with Ana's legs spreading over. Harry stepped over and pulled the dildo out of Ana's pussy. She whined at the loss. Only briefly, as it would have been replaced by something better.

A very strong body pressed against her back and burned up all of Ana's skin. Harry tempted her with several light touches. Each of them growing more intense with each passing moment. His hard cock ground up against Ana's pussy.

"Position me next to Vanessa," Ana breathed.

Harry did so and grabbed onto Ana's hair. Twelve inches of cock prepared to work deep inside of her warm pussy. The young man dragged the tip of his cock against Ana's scorching slit.

"Fuck me."

Those words came out from the heiress. Harry positioned himself at Ana's entrance and slid inside. The first few inches of cock touched Ana's eager walls. A fresh pussy wrapped around the young man's tool of pleasure and it made both of them increase with more pleasure.

Harry picked up the pleasure and rammed deep inside of Ana. He buried inside of her with several very hard thrusts. Cum-swelled balls slapped against Ana.

Ana moved over and noticed Vanessa half dazed on the bed. The combination of juices trickling out between her legs tantalized Ana. She crawled over and buried her face between Ana's thighs. Her tongue grazed her to taste the first hints of juices.

Vanessa jolted away. The sounds of sex around her made her be more than ready for round two, even though she could not take it just now.

Harry plowed Ana's center and could feel it build up. The climax she desired, with a huge cock pounding her and stretching her out. Harry pushed as far in as possible, his balls resting against her pussy. His fingers touched Ana's sensual body.

The Hardy Heiress attacked the pussy of her friend. Not for the first time, she ate Vanessa out, but this time proved to be one of the better times they encountered each other. She sucked the warm juices from Vanessa, moaning inside of her pussy when Harry rammed into her from behind.

"Fuck," Harry groaned.

Two large balls slapped against Ana's thighs. Harry planted his mighty rod inside of her. He pulled almost all the way out of her and touched the tip on her slit. He shoved deep inside of her and stretched out Ana's warm core. She pumped heat around him.

Every orgasm Ana received, brought Harry closer the edge. She took his hard cock inside of her squeezing core. Harry pumped deep inside of her.

The evening rolled up with the orgasms rolling over Ana. Harry took himself to the edge, encouraged to go on by the sounds of both women, screaming, writhing in pleasure on the bed.

"Get ready."

A single orgasm, more powerful than all of the other ones before it, struck Ana down. Harry plowed inside of her, working inside of her body. Her pussy stretched and then squeezed around him. Harry finished pumping inside of Ana and released himself.

Cum splashed inside of Ana's warm pussy. He sent the juices inside of Ana, filling her completely up with them.

Ana collapsed on Vanessa's pussy, the orgasm subsiding just a moment after Harry finished spilling inside of her. Both mature women had their worlds rocked completely.

* * *

**To Be Continued July 31st** **, 2017.**


	318. Last Ditch Effort

There's a post which is currently located on the Page of Very Important Links as of the date that I'm posting this(July 31st, 2017), titled "What's Going on with Ascension Book Two." It discusses exactly what it says on the tin, regarding the future(or potentially lack there of), of this series and universe.

* * *

**Chapter Three Hundred and Eighteen: Last Ditch Effort**

* * *

Someone redrew the battle lines in Gotham City over the past six months, at the very least. Some people speculated the changing of the guard of Gotham City took place even further back. Many remembered the terrifying events of Halloween Night. No one pieced together the events of that night and what happened, only the after math.

Joker arrived in Gotham City. He rose up from the depths of the festering hellhole of the city. Many threw out their theories about what the Joker was and where he came from. At the end of the day, they were just theories. No one had any proof of who the Joker was, where he came from, and more importantly, what his end game was. All of these variables came together.

"Gives me the creeps man."

Three members of the Vitti faction of mobsters came up from Chicago. The crime in Chicago technically skewed a little bit higher than in Gotham City. The danger factor did not bother them. The weirdness factor flying off the scales very much terrified them.

"Relax, it's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal? Not a big deal? Are you kidding me? Are you fucking with me? I'd rather you be fucking my mother than fucking me right about now."

The other two mobsters exchanged nervous gazes at the third mobster's choice of words. The frantic member of the Vitti family threw his head back.

"We've got Johnny, Johnny, Carla's son, he was popped off. And then we got the Roman Falcone's boy get nailed. Can you believe it? And now, the boss lady wants us to step up here in Gotham City. Are we going to go after some crazy killer that not even the Batman has been able to touch?"

"Man, he isn't anything."

"No, he's something, he's something alright. I heard how he took out a dozen SWAT team members with only a flashlight. That's something. That's not anything, that's something. That's…"

One rough slap across the back of the head of the mobster caused him to snap out of it. Finally, the hit brought him back down to life. He took a deep breath. One of his buddies handed the mobster a pack of cigarettes. He pulled one out and took a lighter to take a smoke.

"Thanks, man, needed that."

The mobster nursed the cigarette like it was his last life line. Two more joined the original three making the group of five. The oldest of the mobster, who had been working the scene for almost thirty years, circled the group. He slapped one of the mobsters hard on the back of the neck and forced him to stand up.

"Hey, what was that for?"

"For slouching on the job," the elder gangster said. "Boss Vitti, she's on the warpath already. Trust me when I say when she's upset, she's not going to pull her punches at all. So you better not give her a reason to turn her attention on you. Is that clear?"

All of the mobsters bobbed their heads up.

"Stop it, you look like you should be at the novelty shop of a sporting good's store."

The door opened and Carla Vitti stepped inside. She walked past the men for a minute and looked out of the window. Anger spread through the woman's body when the grip tightened around the handle of a briefcase which swung in her hand. She hurled the briefcase down on the table. Her men jumped back.

"Stand up straight. I don't know where you learned your manners, but when you're in a presence of a lady, you stand up and look her straight in the eye….eyes front!"

Carla smacked the mobster in the face. The sound of the hand coming across the cheek bone told him that Carla was not fucking around.

"My nephew, Alberto, just got knocked off a couple of weeks ago by this Holiday Killer," Carla said. "It's been months since my poor Johnny was killed by this monster."

She choked out the words a few seconds later. None of them dared react. They all had mothers, some of them had children. They knew not to get in the middle of that kind of grief.

"Carmine's lost his spine, and he's not doing anything," Carla said. "Why else would he let these freaks like Penguin and Black Mask run free? Attacking his own party? Destroying his reputation in the process? Now he allows his own son get killed. DISGRACE! DISGRACED! THAT SON OF A BITCH…"

"Relax, boss, you just done insulted your own Ma there," another mobster piped up bravely.

Carla took a deep breath. The transformation from the normally classy woman to a very vicious Doberman happened in a matter of minutes. She moved to the briefcase and whipped it open. Medical documents hurled on the desk and almost slid off to the floor. Carla caught them before landing over the top of the desk.

"There's something off about Alberto's death," Carla said. "He made it clear if anything ever happened to him, he was to be cremated afterward. Thought he had some mental problems, but what person plans for this? Especially give hen wrote up his wishes just six months ago."

"The GCPD has his body, don't they?"

Carla nodded and came a bit more calmly. She would get to the bottom of this. Johnny's death deserved this much. It flashed through her nightmares her son dying in her arms. That cruel twisted Holiday Killer, whoever it was, Carla would destroy him and make sure her brother also paid for enabling this. It was time for someone to take control of Gotham City, and cleanse it of all of the freaks.

She would bring old school respectability back to this city. If Carmine could not hack it anymore, he was not part of the solution, he was part of the problem.

* * *

The will of the human mind could train itself not to even accept the progress of failure. Victor Fries understood what his doctor told him. Early detection might have saved him. Victor decided to press through, to correct his mistake. One simple reason drove Victor to complete the work on finding a cure for the disease.

Should he die before the cure had been finished, future generations would build upon his work and create a cure. Victor intended to create as much as a baseline as possible.

After a couple of days of hard work, Victor discovered he needed to create something which would buy him the one thing no amount of money could. Time and lots of it, if Victor found a way to freeze the progression of the disease, then the various brilliant minds in the world would find a way to come up with a cure.

' _No matter what, they will have a chance to benefit from my work.'_

Victor sketched the design on the piece of paper. Not much of an artist at heart, the scientist showed he could acquire some amazing skills when push came to shove. The situation pushed him to rise to another level and to complete his work.

A soft knock on the door brought Victor out of the zone.

"Yes, Nora, it's unlocked."

Nora stepped down the steps. She dressed in a bathrobe when coming down the stairs, and looked like she had not slept in days, maybe even a couple of weeks. Victor zeroed on the very tired look on his wife's face.

"You should get some rest, darling."

"You should as well."

Victor's smile was merely a front to hide from his own sadness. Each tick on the clock, each moment he spent in relative comfort, he appreciated. His mind forged on despite the expiration date put on his body. Future generations would benefit from his work, and his attempts to cure himself, even if he could not.

' _It was not over yet.'_

"The time for me to rest has long since passed. No matter how long this takes, I'm going to have to press on. I'm going to work on the cure, until the moment I can no longer do so. Whatever I have, it can be built on."

Nora pulled over the chair to the side of the desk and lowered herself down onto it. She wanted to give Victor the best support possible, to be honest. He did not necessarily given up. She both thought his ability to put his own needs behind those of others, even complete strangers happened to be Victor's most admirable quality.

It could be frustrating, she did respect it.

"I'm developing this chamber," Victor said.

"You're going to put yourself in Cryogenic suspension?" Nora asked.

Victor calmed himself down with deep breaths and looked at the documents in front of him. All of the notes pieced together his idea, he knew it would work.

"It will give me more time. It's only if a cure is found by the time my body starts to fail. I will need to go in soon, I fear as each day, it hurts even more."

Victor coughed a couple of times. Nora reached out to steady her husband. Victor's skin chilled over when he took a deep breath.

"I've already frozen rats," Victor said. "But, I'm afraid when bringing them out, they lived only for minutes, until dying from shock. They has to be something I'm missing."

Nora patted her husband on the hand. Victor appreciated the warm touch, even though it was not as much as it used to be. His nerve endings dulled ever so slightly, perhaps due to overwork or perhaps due to the disease. Victor worked his hands raw over the past few days to try and calculate a working design for the suspension chamber.

"There's always a way."

His wife's words caused Victor to sit up a bit straighter. He could beat this, he could beat this if he just pushed himself a little bit harder. He would only have a few months to live. Each one of those moments would be very good.

"There's equipment at my lab in GothCorp which….."

A loud coughing fit interrupted Victor. Victor doubled over, gasping for breath. Nora looked at him in concern. He waved her over towards the water jug. She moved over to grab Victor a glass of water. Victor took it and downed it down. His coughing fit subsided for the most part after drinking the water.

"Thank you," Victor said. "As I said, there is equipment at GothCorp which is more potent than the equipment that I have on hand here."

The research for the cure would continue until Victor could not draw breath. He looked at the design of the chamber. Nora looked it over and between the two of them, they would have to get something working. All they wanted to do was help people, and they were going to continue to do that for however long it took.

"I think we can modify the design."

Nora made a few notes on the paper and Victor looked at them, very impressed. It could work, although he would have to run some tests just to make sure.

* * *

Two years ago, Julian Day, the Calendar Man, gripped Gotham City in a wave of terror. Labor Day resulted in the death of several pregnant mothers and their unborn children. Many people still remembered that very gruesome day, and it tainted Gotham City over the past couple of years.

Day remained locked away at Blackgate, one of the highest profile inmates not to escape during the recent prison break. Many feared the Calendar Man's legacy was reborn thanks to the Holiday Killer. Many waited nervously, who he would strike against, whether it be mobster or cop.

Veronica Vreeland found herself in the middle of a huge charity event and also in the middle of lunch with Sapphire Stagg and Kathy Kane. The three girls, as close as sisters, put their heads together to get some ideas. Veronica pulled away from them.

"I'll admit, I was a bit leery about this one," Veronica said. "Two years have passed. It feels like a lot longer, but it's been two years since it happened."

In Gotham City, murder rarely stood out as something shocking. The death of pregnant mothers and unborn children took the cake as one of the most shocking events in Gotham City. It cast an entire shadow over the festivities of what normally would have been one of the more relaxing days.

"We're not disrespecting the victims," Sapphire said.

"No, that's never my intention," Veronica said. "It's just, after everything, there are still a lot of people who were sore. Daughters, mothers, sisters, they were all lost on that day."

Kathy reached across the table. It affected a lot of them, and the attack was very senseless. Only done so it could line up for the holiday, Labor Day, and Calendar Man did it to deliberately gain attention to his crimes. Murder was always senseless, especially when the life was so innocent.

"Ronnie, don't worry, no one thinks badly of you that you….."

Veronica held Kathy's hand and smiled. "You don't think bad of me. The general public will always have their say and they will twist every world."

"It's for a good cause, and you're intending to match what is raised," Sapphire said. "Harry is as well, and is Bruce going to empty his bank account for a good cause again?"

"So much money has gone to charity this past year," Veronica said. "On the bright side, better hospitals, better schools, and better shelter for the homeless."

She would give people the tools to help themselves. They hoped they could prevent another Deacon Blackfire from happening. Unfortunately, there were always those who wanted a little more than they were rewarded and became vengeance happy because of it.

"Juno and Marie are really championing the Brighten Gotham fund," Sapphire said. "You've got the celebrity endorsement there from the two people who are very well known for getting behind actual helpful charities."

Veronica would have chosen a better name than the Brighten Gotham Organization, but her publicist convinced her it was for the best and Veronica never discounted free advice from someone who was her job to be in public relations.

Everything the organization intended to do though, it set out and do and Veronica could not be more pleased because of that.

Seconds passed before Kathy sighed deeply. She said something which was on the mind of pretty much all three women who were in the room.

"Things have been pretty hectic in Gotham," Kathy said. "People could use something to get their minds off of what's been happening."

"Yes," Sapphire agreed. "They should be able to. But, then again, it's always the case in Gotham City. Everything is always hectic, very hectic."

That was one of the hazards of living in such a city. There were a lot of good people here. Many more good people thought had been turned bad and bad people who had just been turned worse. You just had to take the good with the bad to be perfectly honest.

"Harry's going to be back just before the holiday weekend," Veronica said. "I'd like to go over some things with him, he said that he would help sponsor the fund raiser."

"For someone who doesn't want to win Gotham City's Humanitarian of the Year, Harry sure does a lot of it," Kathy said, smiling.

* * *

Harvey Dent prepared to step into a battlefield. The Gotham City District Attorney knew deep down he could get Zucco without any question. Zucco incriminated himself in a lot of ways, and a lot of people lower down on the totem pole would have wanted to sell out Tony Zucco for a better lot in life.

Salvatore Maroni, on the other hand, a bit more of a question mark as it pertained to whether or not Dent could get him. They all thought Maroni had been locked away for a very long time once before. The delaying game Maroni's attorneys played did worry Dent ever so slightly. The man frowned, said frown going a little bit deeper in response. He clutched the edge of the desk and sighed.

A light knock on the door brought Harvey out of his thoughts before they could really begin.

"It's open."

James Gordon stepped into the room. The first second he noticed Harvey, he noticed something had been slightly off about the man. His eyes glazed over and he looked more intense than ever before. It was a scary kind of intensity as well, the kind of intense which brought horror into the hearts of men.

"Are you okay?"

Dent scratched away on the paper. He made several notes which might help him on the pad of paper. He took in a deep breath and smiled.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

The Gotham City District Attorney cleared his throat. The clearing of the throat changed into a full blown cough. At least until the very moment, he took a drink of coffee.

"This could be a major war to the gang wars," Dent said. "But, I can't help, but think something. No matter how much we try and nail Maroni to the wall, we're handing some territory to Oswald Cobblepot and his crew. They've been quiet."

They have been quiet, too quiet since the truck had been stolen.

"Maybe the weapons they got from the truck don't work."

Gordon's hopeful statement made Dent pause in consideration. He really did wish this to be the case. Something told him no, despite how much Dent hoped for it to be the contrary. Something rotten happened in Gotham City, and it smelled like the Penguin was about ready to pull another nasty play. He was not content with his own territory.

"We can't legally get him yet," Gordon said. "We've been stonewalled there."

"Penguin's better at covering his tracks," Dent said. "We're going to need to get into deep to grab onto him."

Just one chance, for Harvey Dent to jump in, reach over, and grab the Penguin by the throat to squeeze the life out of him, that was pretty much all he needed. The Gotham City District Attorney smiled at the very thought, the thought of getting Cobblepot on something nasty. He could hardly wait to get him.

"I've been talking with a couple of the members of the Metropolis MCU," Gordon said. "About the Intergang weapons?"

Dent nodded in confirmation. Gordon had his full attention, at least for right now.

"They're in lock up. Their best minds don't know how to get them to work."

The ever-present silver dollar found its way into the palm of Harvey Dent's hand and he looked up. The item, the item which he obsessed over, lingered between his finger tips. Dent flipped the coin up and it landed down on the desk.

"We're no closer to figuring them out than they had."

If the gangs of Gotham City entered an arms race with weapons which some people swore were something out of Star Wars, then the autumn leading into the winter would both be extremely bitter in Gotham City.

X-X-X

Victor Fries spent the last couple of days trying to convey something very important to his wife. His health did not get better, in fact, his health slid down even more. The scientist wished he had a few more days to enjoy the finer things in life. Yet, those days, they were not going to come anytime soon.

' _Cure, it must be possible.'_

His mind slowly weakened from the lack of sleep as well. Victor Fries shivered and then went from hot to cold. He could barely hold a pen without immense pain. He coughed a couple of times.

"A cure cannot happen without funding," Victor said.

"Maybe you should go to Boyle?" Nora asked.

"By the time Boyle gets back to me on any proposal, it will be much too late," Victor said. "It's going to have to happen. There are no ways around it. I must enter cryo-genesis soon so my work can be completed by another."

"The process is not refined," Nora warned him.

"It should be safe," Victor said. "I have calculated all of the variables. The human body can withstand more of a shock than the small mammals I have been using."

Victor grabbed onto the desk to hold himself up. Nora handed him his medication which he took. It only allowed him hours of relief, which was far more than he would have had otherwise. Victor drew in a breath, a sharp ragged pain assaulting his lungs as he did so.

"The doctor may have been generous with his assessment I only had six months."

Pure panic set in on the face of Nora Fries. He started to hunch over and cough, cough worse than ever before. Victor held himself together, taking a deep breath, but it was very hard for him not to collapse in a fit all over the table. Blood slowly trickled down the edge of his mouth.

"Discuss the matter with Doctor Potter when he returns," Victor said. "I loathe to pester him, but I'm certain he may be up for the challenge or one of his employees. They can cure this."

"We should have gone to him earlier," Nora said.

"Like I said, I am reluctant to bother him, for he has a lot of projects," Victor said. "Still, I know he won't turn down a project of this magnitude, not if it can save lives."

Victor coughed and he waved towards the tank. Over the past couple of days, Victor's condition worsened, and now he had to be on oxygen. Nora handed him the tank and put the mask on Victor.

"Breathe, breathe easily, that's it."

Nora tried to tell herself everything would work out fine. Her husband could beat this. They could beat this, all they needed was a little bit more time.

* * *

The Joker decided to enjoy an early cook out on a Friday afternoon, therefore he invited himself to the backyard of a lovely family of four. Mother, father, daughter, son, all four of them were transfixed when the Joker and some of the various low-lives he rustled up appeared in a back yard.

"Nice place you got there, kids," Joker said. "Nice trimmed grass, painted house, Picnic fence, loved what you did with the Petunias there."

Joker laughed and he moved over. He dressed in a blue apron with the words "Kiss the Cook" printed on them.

"So, last weekend before the kiddos get sent back to school," Joker said. "Are you excited?"

The two children's petrified looks at a known serial killer appearing in their back yard were obvious. Joker just shrugged.

"Driven speechless, are we?" Joker asked. "School, well it was a barrel of laughs. Except for Mrs. Henderson, she never smiled. I wonder if she's still around. Hope not, the old bat must be about three hundred years old by now."

The laughter continued and the Joker prepared to heat the grill. He sprayed lighter fluid on the grill and threw the bottle of the way. He lit a match and huge flames shot into the sky right next to the captive family of four.

Several pieces of paper dropped down on the table.

"Labor Day is always a somber day," Joker said. "Ever since the Calendar Man decided to off a bunch of pregnant mother's on Labor Day. Guy was a bit touched, but he has some real flair does he….oooh, what do we have here?"

Joker's eagle eyes popped onto a flyer talking about a big fundraiser for Labor Day, sponsored by Harry Potter and Veronica Vreeland

"Well, well, move over Jerry Lewis!" The Joker chanted. "Boy that Harry Potter, he's always a swell guy…..visited me in the Arkham wing, trying to get in my head. Well, guess what, I'm going to get inside of Harry Potter's head, the old fashion way."

Joker held up a large butcher knife and waved it in front of the face of the girl.

"Did Harry Potter get in your head yet?' Joker asked. "Are you old enough to have those feelings?"

The girl looked on in confusion.

"I guess not," Joker said. "Ah well…hey Dad, do you think the grills hot enough to roast some wieners?"

Two of the goons picked up the father, and Joker grabbed him by the back of the head. Joker shoved the father head first into the grill. His screams caused his family to scream even more. Joker ground his face into the flames as he laughed like a mad man.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 2** **nd** **, 2017.**


	319. He Who Laughs Last

**Chapter Three Hundred and Nineteen: He Who Laughs Last**

* * *

Harry very much enjoyed one of the real proper vacations he had in a long time. He had moments of downtime and days where he would be able to relax. Yet, a specter of something dangerous always hung over the top of Harry's head. And the specter returned the very second he stepped back into Gotham City. Harry left the private jet after spending a couple of days in New York dealing with various business proposals.

Labor Day weekend reached them all, and Harry allowed himself to readjust to the Gotham air. He would need to check in with a few people to see what happened since he had been gone in Gotham City. One person, in particular, would have been able to clue him in on some of what he missed. The person who watched over all of Gotham City.

' _Actually, it's pretty quiet,'_ Barbara thought. _'And I don't me quiet for Gotham City, I just mean quiet in general. And I can almost hear you thinking.'_

' _Well, you're in my head so yes, I would agree,'_ Harry replied. _'I'm glad nothing too major happened. And let's hope this Labor Day weekend is a lot better than the one which happened about two years ago.'_

The parties inside of the bond network responded with very evident sighs. Two years ago, everyone remembered the attack from Calendar Man. Cruel and calculation the attack was, it caused many who lost family, the siblings they never knew, the children they never knew, and the mothers of those siblings.

' _We've no closer to pinning down the Holiday Killer,'_ Barbara thought. _'And if the GCPD has any good leads, I don't know about it. Aren't you meeting with one of your people on the inside.'_

' _Shortly,'_ Harry answered.

The Sorcerer stepped out where a limo waited for him. He still found he was very relaxed. Barbara read the newspaper which sounded like nothing but high society gossip and a few other puff pieces. The kind of news Harry preferred to be honest. Also, the kind of news which made him figure they would pay for their bad fortune.

' _And the Joker's been sighted.'_

Barbara's abrupt thought cut into Harry's thought process. He reached up and put a hand underneath his chin. The frown deepened.

' _Where?'_

' _Well, he was seen lurking around one of the residential areas, and there was a family of four found killed,'_ Barbara said to him ' _The father had his face severely born and the children and the mother, their faces were paralyzed. They died with their eyes open and big smiles on their face. He wrote the words "Happy Labor Day" on the gate in the blood of one of his victims."_

Harry rode in silence. The Joker sent a small message to remind everyone he was out there. He moved out to the car towards the coffee shop. Sarah Essen stood outside and invited him in with a smile on his face.

"Did you enjoy your vacation?" Sarah asked.

"I found it very enjoyable," Harry said. "You look like you could use one."

"Yes, we all could use one," Sarah said. "The GCPD is really short-handed now and it's not going to get any better. I don't know if you heard, but the Joker's back on the loose. And he's struck after lying low after the past two months. We found the bodies."

Sarah and Harry stepped inside to order some coffee. The meeting would likely be very short as there always would be a chance for Sarah to be called back to the station. She wanted to enjoy the time spent with Harry for about as long as she could.

"You've heard he's murdered."

"Babs told me," Harry confirmed. "And I'm going to talk with Veronica about seeing what we can do about increasing the security around the event."

"It's going as planned, still?" Sarah asked.

Harry sipped his coffee before sitting it down on the table. He looked at the GCPD representative from across the table.

"Maybe not directly as planned. We all preach about how Gotham is strong and how we are going to be able to handle anything. Canceling an event just because it's threatened by one man, one insane man, isn't a good look on any of us. We're going to do everything in our power to make sure everything goes forward."

' _I've already been on the phone working on it,'_ Veronica chimed in.

"Do you think that will be enough to deter him?" Sarah asked. "Between the GCPD and the added security?"

Harry considered her question. He spent more than enough time entering the mind of the Joker, and even then, the man's mind worked on a different level. Harry was not certain it was at a higher level. Joker's intelligence could be debated. He arranged the entire Black Mask incident. The criminal clown wedged himself firmly in the mind of Black Mask, screwing him even after all of these months.

"With the Joker, you have to expect anything."

Harry threw down the Gotham City survival mantra and really the survival mantra for any cop. Sarah never had as many instances at the unexpected than in Gotham City. Most of them came from the new breed of criminals who showed up over the past couple of years. The likes of Firefly, Maxie Zeus, the Calendar Man, the Clock King, and the Joker, they had colorful gimmicks, colorful names, and even more colorful personalities.

"Zucco's trial will finally happen next week," Sarah said. "His attorney is trying to stonewall it. He's run out of options...I have to warn you of something."

"The State wants to cut a deal with Zucco, don't they?" Harry asked.

Sarah nodded in response. She did not really know what else to say other than that. She would not have agreed with cutting any kind of deal with a known mafia figure like Tony Zucco, no matter what the reasons. The State threw down some pretty good reasons.

"Maroni's the one they want," Harry said.

Harry hated to see what might happen if Zucco would be allowed to walk free just so they could seal Salvatore Maroni away. The only thing which gave him solace, which really was not solace, is Zucco really did have to watch what he said now. Things happened to people who made their way to the Mafia.

* * *

The night darkened in Gotham City. Batman swooped down onto the city streets. Ever since the break of the high-security wing at Blackgate Prison around two months ago, Batman waited for the right moment. He waited for the right lead coming in.

Batman swept himself over the street. Rumors could be a dime a dozen in Gotham City. This rumor Batman heard could be easily verified through some sources. The Joker planned something and they were on the eve of a very big charity event.

The Detective looked up, joined by Katana. The two crime fighters stood shoulder to shoulder without any words. Batman proved to talk in actions. He extended a finger forward and pointed it towards the window of a warehouse.

Four men dressed in clown masks circled around a table. A fifth man sat tied to a chair. One of the clown masked men peered down at him. The sick smell of gasoline filled the room. A large wooden board lit on fire. Nails stuck up from the board to add to the potential of pain.

"We need to move."

Katana agreed and she slipped in the side entrance while Batman came down from underneath. The Dark Knight Detective stuck to the shadows.

"Come on, you want to run with my crew, you're going to have to take a little bit of pain," the leader said. He smiled and slammed it down on the table. "Don't worry, I won't hurt you, well I won't hurt you punch. It will be just a little prick."

The man squirmed and continued to frantically stare at the hideous abomination. The lead clown mask man waved the weapon in his hand.

"It's nothing personal, just got to make sure you're not an undercover cop or something. You know how the boss man is. He doesn't like being tricked."

Speaking of not liking being tricked, the man guarding the door could have sworn he heard something. He picked up a large flame thrower and pointed it towards the edge of the room.

"Come out and play," the gang member grunted. "I know you're here. I know you're here!"

The Dark Knight caught the lead gang member with a punch to the side of the head. The second he moved away from the attack, Batman jumped on the man, much like a Doberman attacking a very large stack. Each punch rocked the man. The goon reached for a knife of some sort. Batman caught his arm and hooked him around it. Batman drove him viciously to the ground with a solid smack.

The second goon raised a grenade into his hand.

"I'm not going to hurt you," the goon said. "I'm just going to rough you up a little bit."

Batman came behind the goon and cracked him down across the back of the neck. Down went the henchmen with a punch to the head dropping him to his knees. A second punch to the stomach dropped the henchmen down onto the ground, knocking every ounce of wind out of him.

One sadistic man with a flaming board moved around. Something moved through the shadows.

"SHOW YOURSELF!"

The yelling of someone to show themselves did not work. The clown wildly swung the weapons. Swing and a miss, followed by two more swings and two more misses. The figure coming out of the shadows came in and caught her attacker flush in the ribs with a kick. Another series of kicks rattled the attack before driving him down to the ground with the most vicious assault possible.

The attacker stepped back to reveal Katana. Both crime fighters moved in on either side and stalked the remaining clown. Said clown backed off and threw his hands up into the air.

"Screw this, I'm out of here!"

Batman grabbed the attacker by the neck and hurled him directly into the wall. The force of the bones cracking against the wall made the thug's agony increase. Batman picked him up and rammed him against the wall.

"Where's the Joker?"

"Boss isn't here," the clown said.

Dazed and confused was not a way to get someone out of some alone time with the Batman. Batman jerked him up by the scruff of the neck and threw him against the wall one more time.

"WHERE IS HE?"

The clown giggled. Joker's henchmen exhibited madness just slightly beneath his own. The laughter continued when Batman's glare burned beneath the mask of the henchmen.

"The boss, he's building a masterpiece for Gotham City. It's going to be beautiful. He's going to build a brand new world, filled with nothing but smiles. It's going to be amazing…amazing...HAHAHAHA!"

A small collar released a toxin into the face of the goon. He ripped his mask off to reveal the nondescript face of a man in his early thirties. The only feature of his face which made him look like he stood out from the rest of the fact was a very wide and very prominent smile picking out.

They had to restrain the man from gouging his eyes out in a fit of laughter. Two huge punches nailed the man in the back of the head.

"So, now what?" Katana asked.

"The event tomorrow," Batman said. "He's going to strike."

Neither of them knew how the Joker intended to strike. The only thing they could say with one hundred percent certainty was the Joker was going to make this Labor Day weekend into one of the most jarring and spine turning in all of Gotham City.

* * *

Common sense dictated Veronica Vreeland cancel the event. She spent the better part of the last several months talking about how Gotham City was strong and they would not bow down to external pressures. Canceling a long awaited event would be the worst possible thing she could do at this point.

' _You're scared going up there, aren't you?'_ Sapphire asked.

People started to file in with identification being checked and triple checked. A small part of Veronica felt guilt about subjecting these people to such a process. An even larger part of her realized it was mostly for the best. Each potential person here could be in danger.

' _No,'_ Veronica thought. _'Tonight's a big night.'_

The wounds of two years ago buried deep within the people of Gotham City. Veronica Vreeland stepped closer to the top of the stage and drew in a very deep breath. She had to do this, no question about it. Veronica leaned back, shoulders rolling on the stage. Terror would not be entering her mind, not even in the slightest.

"Good evening people of Gotham City."

Everyone applauded Veronica standing on the top of the stage. Kathy and Sapphire stood a little bit away. Juno and Marie also positioned themselves to the left, surrounded by some security. The two famous people did not draw attention there.

Harry stood with Diana on one side and Dinah on the other. Vicki stood covering the event, with her ever-present shadow, protégé, and part time bodyguard, Kara Kent-Potter standing on the other side of her.

"Thank you all for coming out here. I know the last few months have been very rough for all of us. We've gone through a lot recently."

Some light applause followed. Veronica smiled and made sure she could be heard. She adjusted the microphone and the sound of her breathing came over the loud speaker for a minute.

"We're in Gotham City to show the world what we can do. Gotham is made great by the people who are in it. We can be great any day, and tonight's event shows how strong we are. I know many of you don't want me to bring this up, and I apologize that I have to. It's to give us perspective. Two years ago, the Calendar Man killed several expecting mothers. Julian Day is currently locked away. Gotham could have wilted underneath the panic, but we didn't. We have been through many more events over the past number of years than I can do justice. Deacon Blackfire, The Scarecrow, The Clock King, The Cop Killer, and many others terrorized our city."

The one name many thought of was not brought up in Veronica's speech. Those who had been listening could have only guessed why she decided not to bring it up.

Veronica took a deep breath and looked out all of the people who hung on her every word. Nothing like that to put some very undue pressure on someone.

"I've been inspired to do some great things by the people around me, and I'm pretty sure you can all be inspired to your own form of greatness as well. We will all need to stand together, as Gotham City moves into a new day. Inspiration, it's what has brought us here. It's what keeps us alive….just remember that tonight as we remember those who have been lost and give another hand to those who are less fortunate than us."

The speech ended and a lot of the members of the crowd burst out into applause. Veronica smiled and descended from the stage. She looked at Kathy, who smiled the moment Veronica stepped down from the stage.

"Pretty damn inspiring speech, Ronnie," Kathy said. "You're getting pretty good at them."

"Yes," Veronica said. "I've only had to give them once every couple of weeks anymore it seems."

"You're Gotham's official morale booster."

Veronica took in Kathy's words and just nodded in response. They made a whole lot of sense to be perfectly honest. Only so much could the morale of Gotham City be boosted. Tonight, through all of the shadows of everything which has gone on, Veronica thought she reached a lot of people through her words. Tonight would have been the perfect night to do that.

"You're amazing as always."

Veronica heard Harry's words. Harry detached himself from Dinah and Diana for a brief moment and walked over to Veronica. The two met in the middle with a kiss. Brief, but intense, the two moved away from each other after the kiss had been completed.

"And you and Bruce both agreed to match the net contributions for tonight," Veronica said. "And I will as well. Tonight's going to be a big step."

So far, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Many of the guests arrived. Harry hoped tonight would not be a repeat of the incident at Carmine Falcone's birthday party. Personally, he prepared to smack anyone down who would cause problems. Well, he would, if the security would not have been the ones to stomp them into the ground first. They were remarkable for being on the ball tonight.

Harry looked around for anyone. He could have sworn he noticed the Penguin show up. The Penguin appeared and disappeared.

' _You know who isn't here?'_ Kara asked. _'Unless I missed him.'_

' _Sionis,'_ Diana said.

' _Right,'_ Kara replied a moment or so later. _'It's a very good thing as well. I don't think we need him causing a stir at another party tonight.'_

No Sionis, and no trouble just far. Harry noticed the usual suspects from Gotham City's usual businessmen. William Earle skipped another huge charity event. He had gone off of the rails from what Harry heard, and Batman's latest visit regarding the Mad Hatter did wonders in upsetting him.

"Mr. Potter…excuse me, Doctor Potter."

Harry turned around and went face to face with Ferris Boyle, the man who thought he had Gotham City's Humanitarian of the Year award all but wrapped up. He talked to another older gentlemen off to the side. Still, for the moment, his full attention locked on Harry Potter.

"Ms. Vreeland has made sure there's a hell of a turnout tonight," Boyle said. "She's going to have to make me step up my game."

"Competition is the key to a successful enterprise, Mr. Boyle."

"Agreed," Boyle said.

He smiled and looked across the way towards Harry. The look in his eyes was one of a very calculating man.

"I was just talking to Mr. Sharp here…"

"The Quincy Sharp?" Harry asked.

He had been very interested, although for all of the wrong reasons. Sharp had been a strong proponent of opening Arkham Asylum back up. After the Blackgate Prison breakout, Sharp gained, even more, support towards his endeavors of bringing the prison back open. No one could deny Sharp had his share of fans.

Harry knew something was very off about Arkham in general. The place did not have the most stirring reputation when it was open and thriving, for lack of a better term. Now it had been closed for several years, the couple of times Harry visited it left him with a very vivid impression.

' _I don't want to step foot in that place ever again,'_ Wanda thought.

' _Most people wouldn't,'_ Diana thought.

' _It's built on the top of an ancient Indian Burial Ground,'_ Barbara said.

"I've heard you've been making some waves as of late, Mr. Sharp."

"Just merely trying to nudge some people in the right direction," Sharp said. "Blackgate is normally very secure, which made the recent attempted break out very shocking. I'm sure anyone can understand the growing need for a facility to assist with holding Gotham's most notorious. Along with a staff who could help them get shaped back into the members of society they should be."

Harry nodded in a very respectful manner. He had his share of doubts, to be honest.

"Well, Mr. Sharp, your endeavor is interesting," Harry said.

"Just trying to do my part to help the people of Gotham City," Sharp replied. "The Mayor is not even safe from those who will do him harm. He still looks rather shaken after the Clock King debacle. And the fact he's out there again because of the cardboard prison, it doesn't do any help to the Mayor's psyche."

One look at Hill verified Sharp's words. He acted like his charming self for the most part when talking to some of the people around him. He carried on with both Grogan and Branden, who showed up at the party. All three men laughed at something and judging by the woman who walked away from the trio, the joke did not seem to be too appreciated.

' _So far, tonight's gone on well,'_ Harry thought.

Harry turned over to Vicki. The news would cut in with a brief cut in as everyone donated their money. The trio of Bruce Wayne, Veronica Vreeland, and Harry Potter prepared to give their own large donations at the end of the night to match the collective contributions of the elite of Gotham City.

' _Just how rich are you anyway?'_ Vicki asked.

' _Well, that's a bit of a personal question,'_ Harry thought. _'And the answer is very.'_

* * *

Several hours went by and the donations had been made. Everyone relaxed, had a good time. Harry smiled when he looked at the turnout. Veronica looked pretty pleased with herself.

"Amazing," Veronica said. "So, how long should you give for anyone to make any last minute donations before we wrap up tonight, and throw in our own?"

Harry considered for only a second. "About ten minutes, give or take and…"

Those words ended up trailing off at the sound of a very large truck moving into the area. The truck bumped up against the edge of the police barricade. The members of the GCPD and the SWAT team stepped in. Harry shifted his way over to get a bit of a closer look at the truck.

' _Here we go.'_

Kara's words cutting through told Harry all he needed to know. Something was about to happen.

"Get that truck open!" Branden barked.

One of the SWAT team members pulled out a hapless man. He shook like a leaf.

"I just was paid to drive it here, I don't know nothing, about nothing!"

The man found himself face-first on the ground, roughed up by the SWAT member. The back of the truck opened up to see if there were henchmen inside.

The contents of the truck contained cake and balloons. The candles of the cake burned down and started to hiss. Seconds later, the cake exploded and covered the various members of the GCPD in a sticky frosting.

"What the hell?"

The balloons released out of the back of the van and floated up into the atmosphere in Gotham City. One of the cops reached for his gun, only to find the frosting around him growing even more constrained. The more the cops shifted, the more the frosting tightened its grip around their bodies.

Harry and several of the girls stood on their guard. Bullets fired into the air, and several armed men dressed in clown masks made their way into the party. A good two dozen men stepped into the picture, all of them looking very amused.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! Is it too late to make a donation?"

The voice belonging to the man they all expected to show up showed up. Security dropped to the ground, having been nailed with something. They shook, stun. Joker made a fool out of the security and moved forward.

"I'm here to make a sizeable donation to Mr. Harry Potter."

Joker dangled a large novelty check in his hand. The check had the face of the Joker printed on it. He tore the check open and laughed, laughed like a madman when smoke came out.

Harry analyzed the battle. Several low-level gangs and Joker had more, snipers positioned on the rooftop. They all wore those clown masks, which Harry suspected doubled as gas masks of some sort. Harry prepared to engage the Clown Prince of Crime, no matter what the cost would have been.

"And you see, those balloons up there?" Joker asked. "They're not just for decoration. Once they reach high altitude, they're going to rain acid down on the people of Gotham City. Now, you could burn to death, but I hear a good acid rain is good for the soul."

Joker turned his head about. He did not see Harry Potter in the people at first. A second later, he found Harry where he should have looked in the first place. Between an attractive blonde and an attractive brunette, and a smile came across the Joker's face. He got down to business.

"Hey, Doc, I'm ready for my next session!"

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 5** **th** **, 2017.**


	320. Hostage Crisis

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty: Hostage Crisis**

* * *

A stampede of criminal clowns separated the group from each other. Barbara Gordon moved back a couple of feet from the position. She knew better than to draw too much attention to herself. The daughter of one of the best cops in Gotham City would be a prime target for criminals who were looking to make an impact. These criminals had to. Otherwise, why would they settle up with the Joker?

The scrambling of voices inside of her head made Barbara wish for a nice quiet place to go down and to take a deep breath. Unfortunately, she would not find a nice quiet place around here. People screamed and half of the GCPD struggled against their bindings. The other half of the GCPD, they had been barricaded on the outside. Joker waved around a remote control device in his hand.

With Joker, you could never tell what he wanted to do. The remote could be to someone's television, or it could be ready to unleash a bomb somewhere in Gotham City. Barbara stepped back and could see Dinah trying to move back. She looked for a gap to slip out and go all Black Canary on them all. It was easier said than done at this point though.

Barbara stepped back, taking in a couple of deep breaths. She eased slowly, surely, back. Every step made Barbara think she was going to step on a potential landmine when heading back. The daughter of James Gordon threw her head back and gave a pained grimace. Everything was going to get a whole lot worse before it was going to get much better.

' _Words I'm saying way too much,'_ Barbara thought. _'Okay, Dinah, just hold on, I'm coming.'_

Two of the goons came her way. Several of the citizens moved back in fear at the crazed criminal clowns. They shook in absolute terror. Barbara was not too happy dealing with what she had to deal with as well. A couple more deep breaths and Barbara stepped back. The second she stepped back, it was almost into the stun gun of one of the crazed criminal clowns.

"Going somewhere, sweetheart?"

The man spoke in a distinct, and very mocking Brooklyn accent. Barbara took a few seconds to breathe in. As long as she did not make any sudden moves. She lost sight of Dinah, which meant she must have slipped out. Or at least got in a better position to save the civilians, Barbara hoped at least. Her health only became second to the overall welfare of the people of Gotham City.

"Hey, I know you!"

The clown gripped Barbara's shoulder very tightly. An imprint left on the shoulder of the young redhead made her wince. She tried in vain to slip away. The vain attempts to pull away had been pretty much all for nothing. The tightening grip of the criminal clown clenched her shoulder.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the criminal clown asked, pretty much mocking his captive. "We have the daughter of a high profile hero cop here. Who would have thought it? Who would have thought it? I've seen you in the paper, my pretty. You look a lot better in person."

"She won't look that much better when we're done with her."

Barbara elbowed the man who held her in the face. She tried to attack the second clown. The second clown sprayed her in the eyes with mace and stung Barbara's eyes. The clown reached into his pocket and pulled out a very long, rusty butcher's knife.

"Say goodnight, princess!"

Barbara's reddened eyes stared up at the man in defiance. She absolutely refused to back down from him.

No need for Barbara to fight back and a swing of a katana blade come down. It knocked the rusty knife out of the hand of the man. The goon swore out loud and he turned his attention around. He looked up and noticed the woman known as Katana standing up.

"Hey, it's the Bat's….."

Whatever snappy had been lost to history. Katana slammed her fist into the gut of the attacker and snapped him back down onto the ground. She jumped up and curb stomped him directly into the ground.

"Are you alright?" Katana asked.

Barbara nodded at the woman. "Yeah, I'm fine. Mostly, he maced me in the eyes. But I'll live, we should….the others are there."

Batman and Nightwing in their civilian guises were out there, and she knew Tatsu knew this as well. Flamebird, Huntress, and Black Canary also stood out there. Time pretty much stood still for the entire group. Barbara stepped back a couple of feet with Tatsu, slipping into the darkness to regroup.

"I have a place where we can go," Barbara said. "You're going to have to trust me."

"Trusting you is the only option I have now, Miss Gordon," Tatsu said. "Lead the way."

* * *

The balloons hovering over Gotham City brought a danger of things left to come. Everyone's favorite clown prince of crime.

"Harry Potter, come on down, you're the next contestant on the Price is Right!" The Joker cheered. "Rod Roddy, eat your heart out."

Joker looked around in the crowd and whistled like a master who was searching for his dog. He put a hand to his forehead and mocked into the crowd.

"I'm here."

Two gentlemen stood face to face with each other. Harry Potter refused to back down from the Joker. Everyone watched in anxiety. Joker's eyes fell onto the face of Harry Potter. The criminal clown whistled as three of his men stepped in to guide Harry into the center of the room.

"So you are, so you are," Joker said. "You know, one of the dreams I've had for a minute is that I really liked to be a journalist. Make the people really sweat by asking them the tough questions. Throw them into the hot seat and watch them fry."

More laughter came from the Joker. He stopped laughing and became deadly serious. He looked over where two of the clowns moved a certain redhead over. One of the clowns put a gun on the back of Vicki's head. The reporter locked eyes with Harry.

"So, your sick game is to shoot someone live on television?" Harry asked.

"Please, give me some credit," Joker said. "You see, I'm a big fan of Ms. Vale's work. It might be a bit rough around the edges, but she most certainly is not. Plus, I know you're boning her on the side if you know what I mean, and I think you do."

The Clown Prince of Crime paused and frowned.

"Can you say bone on national television?" Joker asked. "And not be talking about digging up dinosaurs, or something? Oh well, I guess that we're going to talk about it….so tell me, Mr. Potter, how do you think tonight's festivities have gone?"

"They've gone great," Harry said. "The only problem I've had is a couple of people have shown up uninvited to the party."

Joker nodded in response. Harry was willing to play his games.

' _Are you positioned underneath the balloons?'_ Harry thought.

' _I'm working on it,'_ Kara said. _'Breaking them would be rather bad. But, we can't let them float. There's only a small chance I can save everyone with my super speed. And that's a very small chance.'_

' _Without getting exposed anyway,'_ Faora thought. _'GCPD's trying to get in. I really want to strangle this bastard clown back here, and I'm not the only one.'_

"Oh, those people, they show up uninvited, they drink all of your milk, they use all your toilet paper, and they don't put the toilet seat back down," Joker said. "Wait, you're talking about me. Aren't you, are you talking about me?"

"I didn't see your name on the guest list, Mr. Doe," Harry said.

"I told you, my name is Joker!" Joker yelled. "Do you hear me? Joker. JOKER?"

"It's just a mask you wear," Harry said. "You're upset about something. I can see why. You've not been able to rattle me like you've rattled everyone else. You've grown obsessed, fixated on me. About as much as fixated as you have on Batman."

"Oh, Batman, Batman, Batman, it always comes back to him, doesn't it?" Joker asked. "He's always around when something bad happens. And the GCPD and the SWAT couldn't catch him if he dropped off a ledge on top of them."

Joker laughed a little bit at his own joke. His laughter stopped when he grew about as serious as a heart attack.

"I want to know why you're not scared of anything," Joker said. "The fearless Harry Potter stands here on the edge of death. I wonder if you could be killed. There have been far stranger things in Gotham City. I mean, no one should be able to do as much as you can and as many people as you can. Not with being some kind of demonic entity. So, what are you, really?"

"A guy who is making his way through Gotham," Harry said. "What are you?"

"Don't try and turn the question around on me, bucko?" Joker warned him. He waggled one finger in front of Harry's face.

Off to the side, the trio of Dinah, Diana, and Kara watched the balloons when they very slowly hovered to a certain point high above Gotham City. Kara knew heat vision would be a bad idea right about now. They were going to have to swoop them down.

' _We need to collect all of the balloons, and get them as far away from civilization as possible,'_ Kara thought. _'Any luck on the collection drones.'_

' _There are a couple of defects in them,'_ Faora thought. _'There has to be some remote control process controlling them. Something causing them to expand and pop.'_

No one could quite have guessed how the Joker got his hands on such a technology. They were going to have to prevent them from going up into the skies and bursting. Time ran down. Each tick of the clock ground by, each tick of the clock resulted in ever lasting frustration.

' _We're close,'_ Barbara thought. _'We're close.'_

' _We have to be close,'_ Kara thought. _'Are you…you got out of here?'_

Barbara jumped back in to confirm. _'Tatsu and I, we're heading back to the Clocktower. It's about the only thing I can think of. It's going to work out. You're going to have to be ready for the Joker.'_

' _Harry's got him distracted,'_ Diana thought. _'If Harry keeps him distracted, we can take down the smaller goons.'_

* * *

The samurai prepared herself for everything. Tatsu long suspected there was something interesting about Barbara Gordon. She was more than what meant the eye.

"I'm going to have to…tell you something."

"You're Oracle," Tatsu said. "Given everything, it's perfect sense. I'm not sure if he's figured it out. If he hasn't, I will give you the courtesy of telling him yourself. Or if you wish, you can wait for him to confirm it to yourself whether or not he knows."

"Thank you."

Barbara moved over to the keypad and unlocked the elevator leading to the Clocktower. They just barely managed to escape. She needed access to something from RAO to help track down the balloons. Barbara and Tatsu entered the elevator.

' _And she hasn't figured out your other identity, yet,'_ Barbara thought. _'At least, she hasn't said, she's figured out your other identity yet.'_

Both of the women entered the Clocktower. The moment they entered the Clocktower, they saw they were not alone. Katana moved in front of her companion and the sword came out. The leather clad figure standing in the back of the room of the Clocktower looked from the other side of the mask with green eyes. Her companion stood next to her and several other women lingered in the background.

"The Daughter of Ra's al Ghul," Katana said.

"I'm surprised to see you here, Ms. Yamashiro," Nyssa said. "But, perhaps not as much as I should have been. We're not here to fight. We are all on the same side tonight. The Joker's activity in Gotham City impacts us all and it presents a very big problem."

Everyone in the room knew that the Joker's plans also put the League's in peril. Some things were better left unsaid.

"I have a team ready, getting in position," Nyssa said. "They are going to stop the Joker's balloons from reaching the high altitude they are."

"Joker has a remote control device," Barbara said. "It may be some kind of remote detonator."

Nyssa nodded in response without any hesitation. They would have to take Joker down. Innocents would not perish, especially not without reasons. Nyssa only intended to use the League's resources to kill only when necessary, only where it had any sort of meaning.

"We have thought about the possibility, and we're taking steps," Nyssa said. "Paige, are you getting ready."

"Yes, nearly," she replied crisply. "We've managed to find a weak link in their defenses. The GCPD has not gotten through, but it will make our jobs a whole lot easier."

"Keep me posted."

Barbara moved over to book up the computers governing the Clocktower. Her fingers moved against the keyboard like a blur. She made her way into the security cameras at the plaza. The snipers were on the rooftop, three at a time. They were spread out every three buildings.

"Hey, Babs," Sara said. "Sorry about leaving Nyssa and the others again but it was an emergency. And I figured we could use the Clocktower to track what Joker was using to control the balloons."

"I understand. You can make it up to me later."

With those words, Barbara sought out anything which might point to where the balloons were heading. Barbara counted the number of variables where something could go very wrong.

' _So, how is everyone at the Penthouse?'_ Barbara thought.

' _Well, everyone is freaking out,'_ Donna said. _'The twins and I are here, trying to keep things very calm. I don't know how much we can do from in here to help.'_

' _The best thing you could do is stay put,'_ Barbara told her. _'Trust me, it's going to get very ugly out there pretty soon. Best you don't get thrown into the crossfire any more than you can.'_

* * *

Amanda Potter could not bring herself to watch away from the television screen. Her brother, well there was a lot of times where she questioned his mental stability. One of those times was the fact he was off on television, chatting with the one and only Joker.

' _Harry's lost his mind,'_ Amanda said. _'I don't know what it is about this guy which makes him different than any of the other…'_

The television camera started to shake which caused Amanda to blink very fast. She chanced a look at the television screen and noticed one of the SWAT team members down on the ground. He tried to jump into the battle. Say what you want about the SWAT, and their corruption under Howard Branden, but this man performed a very heroic deed. Said heroic deed cost him big time.

Lyta, Lois, Rebecca, Ella, Artemis, and Jade hung around the outskirts of the room. Donna finally looked up and acknowledged them.

"He'll get out of this one," Lois said.

"Of course…of course, he will," Lyta said. "They all will."

Her father was down there. Her sister was down there, and several of her father's wives were down there as well. Lyta's hands clenched together, trying not to lose sense. The shaking started to go until Donna put a hand on her younger sister's shoulder.

"It's going to be okay," Donna said.

Donna knew she did not agree with that. She could tell Lyta under any normal night would have called her out on the bullshit of that statement. This night though, this night was very different. Lyta staggered in and wrapped her arms around Donna with a very tight hug.

"You know, if you may, you should clarify something," Harry said. "Perhaps it will tell these people a little bit about the type of person who lingers underneath that big bold smile."

Joker stood up straight as possible. A few more sounds of gunfire off in the distance made the Joker chuckle. His chuckling ceased. While he still smiled, the eyes told a pretty different story.

"I thought I was supposed to be the interviewer guy here. You can't go flipping the script on me, Potter!"

"You've said your father was a hardened alcoholic," Harry said. "But, you told me also that you never really knew your father, how he left your mother when she was pregnant for you. And then, you told another doctor how your mother drank yourself to death…."

Joker withdrew the knife and pointed it at Harry's throat. Two goons grabbed Harry from either side.

"This is a distinct breach of etiquette of Doctor-Patient Confidentiality, pal!" Joker yelled. "You know something, you want to know something. You're not that much different than me. You're just a different kind of sociopath. You sit there, playing the game. But deep down, you're as depraved as anyone else. You go out there and take all of these women. You got to catch them all, don't you?"

"I have a very clear identity," Harry said. "You're still trying to find yours."

"You don't get it, none of them get it!" Joker shouted. "They look at me like I'm insane. And yes, I'm very bent. But it's the way he made me."

"Your father?" Harry asked.

"No, no, no, no, no, NO! Not my father, this is a bit more personal than anything my father did, if he did anything at all. I see it every night. I see him standing by, while I fall. He could have helped me. He's helped many others, but he refuses out of arrogance to help me. No, he just watches me fall. I see him, and he's like me, and he's a lot like you. He's definitely a lot like you, which makes me wonder sometimes."

The girls watched the camera started shaking again. The balloons hovering in the sky proved to be a harbinger of something. The GCPD finally started to make some headway against the gang. Sniper shots from the roof pointed towards a very long and ugly evening.

"You see, you stand here tonight, baffled by what's about to happen," Joker said. "It's going to happen. My masterpiece for all of Gotham City. I'm many things, some of which you can't even begin to comprehend, Harry Potter. And one of those things is a performance artist. And I will bring my masterpiece to light in Gotham!"

' _We're all in position,'_ Harry thought. _'I know he has a failsafe plan. People like that do. He's crazy prepared. Barbara, any luck?'_

' _Working on it,'_ Barbara thought.

The television feed knocked out. Amanda never felt more relieved and nervous at the same time. The grisly scenes no longer played on the television screen. Without the scenes though, the only way to listen in on what was happening, was to stop on the bond link.

* * *

Talia al Ghul kept herself at a discreet location during the entire charity event. No one batted an eye of her showing up. She was a very valued employee of Wayne Industries. Her not showing up raised, even more, suspicion than her showing up.

A nice, relaxing night turned to darkness. Talia's skin crawled when the Joker turned up in Gotham City. The blight on the city which already had its problems took the event hostage, and pretty much, he took Harry Potter hostage. Talia looked at the young man. He showed no fear and gave about as well as he could take. Talia hoped, for the sakes of everyone here, the plan would work. If the plan did not work, she did not know what to tell anyone.

The Daughter of the Demon looked for Bruce Wayne. Bruce tried to discreetly move back. Harry allowed him a distraction to slip off. Almost twenty minutes after the Joker commandeered the stage, and his gang showed up, Bruce had been searching for a way out.

Two goons finally caught him trying to escape. One of them grabbed the Detective around the shoulder and forced him to stand up very straight.

"You're not going anywhere, rich boy," the lead goon said.

The second goon laughed and slapped Bruce down across the back of the head. The billionaire stepped back a fraction of an inch.

"What's the matter, rich boy? Late for a hot date, or something?"

"I don't want any trouble."

One of the goons pulled out a large knife and dangled it in front of Bruce's face. He cut the man's tie off and laughed at the garment ripping down. Another plunge of the knife ripped into Bruce's expensive tuxedo jacket. It once belonged to his father and now it ripped to shreds.

"Give us any more trouble, Wayne, and the next slash was going to be through your face."

Bruce released a cloud of gas from up his sleeve. The goon doubled over, with the tear gas catching him in the face. The goon stepped back, blinded. Bruce caught him with a right hook across the face.

The second goon clubbed Bruce down across the back of the head.

"You just made a really wrong move, you rich son of a bitch."

Talia maneuvered herself behind the goon and stabbed him in the back of the neck with a concealed blade. She pulled away and quickly slid the blood soaked blade directly back into its sheath. The Daughter of the Demon returned to the shadows.

Bruce pulled himself to his knees, in time to see three more goons come after him. A figure dropped down from the ground and brought her sword down onto the pipe of one of the attackers. Katana caught the attacker with a flipping kick to the back of the head of the attackers.

The third attacker charged Katana like a dangerous bull. Katana dodged the attack with careful maneuvering. She sliced the sword deep into the side of the attacker. It slowed him down. The goon grimaced and dropped to one knee. Katana flung her foot back and nailed him in the face.

"We should get you to safety, Mr. Wayne," Katana said.

She smiled at Bruce Wayne being her damsel in distress for this evening. He had a role to play.

* * *

Paige and two subordinates slipped into a control tower where several of the Joker's goons holed up. The dark-haired ninja noticed one of them controlled the balloons, as they raised up to a certain altitude.

All three Assassins, clad in skin tight black leather, moved in. The two goons nearest to the door did not have a chance because Paige took them out. Two blows delivered to the side of the neck dropped the ninjas down to the ground without giving them any chance.

The second ninja grabbed the goon in front of the control panel by the arm. She flipped it down onto the ground and twisted his arm, bending it back. The much larger Joker thug rode in pain when several bones in his arm snapped. The redhead ninja nailed him in the back of the head.

The final ninja came face to face with a man who wielded knives. She released a cloud of gas into the face of the man. He screamed out loud when the gas burned his face. The woman jumped up onto his shoulders and flipped him down to the ground.

"That was easy," the final woman said, in a distinct Australian accent.

"Easy, yes, maybe, but the easy part is just beginning," Paige said. "Secure the area, make sure no one else comes in."

"Yes, boss lady," the other ninja said, her red hair visible from the mask, speaking in an Irish accent.

Paige turned around and smiled. Sara stepped into the room.

"There's a control mechanism you need to override," Paige said. "You've got about ninety seconds."

"Yes, thank you."

Sara stepped in front of the computer. Both women were very concerned about what Joker's Plan B might be when the balloons were stopped.

' _Ninety seconds. Wish me luck.'_

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 7** **th** **, 2017.**


	321. Last Laugh

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-One: Punchline.**

* * *

"You better keep that camera feed there if you know what's good for you. Are we live? Excellent, we're live!"

The camera man in front of the Joker nodded his hand. He filmed the carnage. It was the most excitement he had in a long time. It would also be the last thing he would have ever done if the Joker was right. Joker turned to the camera and peered into it.

"You can't turn the channel no matter how much you want to!" Joker cried. "It's like a glorious trainwreck. You know it's going to result in carnage. Bodies are going to be broken. Blood will spill. You can't turn away from it no matter how much how hard you try."

Joker looked around to several of the people on the ground. The GCPD tried to regain some kind of control. He split the force in half. Half of them were still balls deep in sticky white goodness. The other half of them could not fight through some of the traps. They raced against an enemy none of them could go against. Time and time ran out. The Joker followed the progress of the balloons when they came to the top of Gotham City.

"I know you're all asking the question. Will he? Won't he? Will it work in getting everyone to embrace a new side of themselves? Some of you could use a facial. Acid would change your life. Hell, the warm embrace of chemicals changed mind."

Joker looked at his watch. Only thirty seconds away from the worst case of accident rain hitting Gotham City. The Joker bopped back and forth on the heels. He wished he had some kind of countdown clock. Things were getting very tense for them.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages. Get ready, because we're about to get one of the biggest cases of acid rain. Five, four, three, two…"

Joker stopped and realized the balloons drifted out to the harbor and away from the population of Gotham City. The criminal clown peered up into the sky and waved his arms.

"Hey, did someone fall asleep at the switch?" Joker asked. "People are this way. They're supposed to be this way. This isn't funny. This isn't funny at all."

"Oh, I think it's funny."

Joker slowly turned on his head to Harry Potter. The jolly jester lifted a finger in the air and pointed it at Harry. "You!"

"Who me?" Harry asked.

"Yes, you!" Joker yelled. "I don't know how you did it. You took my balloons. My beautiful balloons…you burst my beautiful balloons. This was supposed to be a masterpiece! This was supposed to be my grand moment. It was supposed to be my criminal masterpiece!"

Harry knew Joker started playing games. He knew the man had gotten mad.

' _Thanks, Babs,'_ Harry thought.

' _Wish I could take credit for this,'_ Barbara said. _'It's not on me.'_

Joker took a deep breath and looked very serious. The smile on his face grew the least prominent at all. He pointed a large gun at Harry. Two of the larger goons grabbed Harry around the arms. Harry looked over the Joker's shoulder and saw a figure swoop down. The figure cupped his hand on the clown's mouth. He pulled the clown back into the shadows and took him down with a snapping strike to the back of the head. Another clown followed him when Batman dragged him into the shadows one more time.

"It's time for you stop smiling."

Batman flew out from the distance and knocked one of the clowns down to the ground. The Joker turned around as did the crowd. They were all distracted by Batman.

Kara rushed in like a blur from the side when no one was looking. She took both of the clowns down and ripped the guns from their belts. Both of them dropped down to the ground.

"Finally, I wondered if you would show up tonight!" Joker yelled. "Finally, it's you and me!"

Joker aimed the gun at Batman. Batman flung a Batarang at the Joker and took the gun out of his hand. The Joker dropped down onto the ground. He motioned for two of the goons to come over towards him, to protect him.

"Finally!"

Batman dodged a punch and came back up. Multiple punches plastered the goon in the chest. The goon's arms flailed back and he fell down onto the ground. Batman avoided the knife before it came down to his chest. Batman yanked the knife out of him. The Detective propelled himself behind the attack. He hooked him in the pocket on the back of the leg and yanked.

Huge kick to the ribs crumpled the goon to the ribs. Batman smashed the head of the thug down to the ground.

The Gotham City SWAT team turned up. Batman locked eyes with a couple of the SWAT team members. They made a movement to head towards Batman.

"No, you're not taking this one away from me!"

Joker picked up a grenade and hurled it into the air. The SWAT team members backed up when the explosion rocked them. Joker claimed a baton dropped down to the ground. He swung the baton at the nearest SWAT guard and nailed him back to the ground.

"Get back, Batsy's mine!" Joker yelled.

Off in the distance, Diana and Dinah motioned for the crowd to go through. Both of the girls understood they ran out of time. Batman dealt with Joker's gang and Harry and Kara left. This left both of them on crowd control. Dinah pointed towards the exit.

"Everyone move!" Diana yelled. "Single file. No shoving, we want to get out of here just as much as the rest of you do."

One henchman charged towards Diana. The fierce warrior caught him before he attacked the civilians. She threw him halfway across the street. The force mandated the thug end this night with more than a few broken bones. The other thugs backed off, more willing to deal with Batman. They paid for it. Batman uppercuted one of the thugs across the face and dropped him to the ground. Another goon flew back to the ground from Batman's uppercut punch.

Batman lost sight of the Joker. The Detective knew he would have to be stopped.

* * *

James Gordon wished he could go at least a month without being in the middle of a riot. A month, maybe a couple of weeks, but more time to wish what could have been. He had to deal with the very real situation. He stepped inside with several members of the GCPD tailing him. They had the tools needed to get the officers out of the cake frosting the Joker entombed them in.

Only in Gotham City could Gordon put such a sentence in a police report and have it be judged to be remotely normal. The MCU all looked at their fellow officers.

"Everyone keep your head on tight," Gordon said. "We're going to have to worry about the civilians and our fellow officers."

"Got the memo a little bit ago, Jimbo," Bullock said. "Man, I don't think I would have wanted to get this stuff all over me. I'm not even sure I want to know what's in it."

They freed some of the GCPD officers. The saw cut through the frosting and removed the GCPD officers from their containment. They all dropped down onto the ground.

"Thank god!"

Sentiments could have been shared all around.

One of the clowns flipped down onto the ground. He pulled out a miniature saw and charged one of the attackers. The GCPD members recognized her as the vigilante known as Katana. Katana avoided the attack from the blade. The attacker pulled back and she disarmed the attacker. Katana dropped the attacker down onto the ground with one fluid strike.

The pressure point deflated the man in question down to the ground. Another attacker moved inches away from nailing Katana. Katana blocked him before he could get the drop on her. The Samurai swept the legs out from underneath her attack. Two more circled her and without pause, Katana made them pay for the attempts to attack her. The blades cracked against him.

Batman dropped a SWAT guard who tried to grab him at the worst possible time. He needed to find the Joker, find him before it's too late.

Gordon took a moment to finish calling in for medical attention. The events of this Labor Day would be remembered for quite some time.

"They're mostly okay," Gordon told the person on another end of the phone. "I would rest a little bit better if they all checked out. Keep me posted on what you need to keep me posted on and I'll be with it."

The figure of Batgirl joined the battle. Her enemy fell down to the ground. She flipped over the banner and cut it. The banner dropped to the ground and blocked the vision of one of the attackers. Batgirl kicked the man in the head with his face covered in the manner.

She flipped the attacker over onto the stage when Veronica gave her speech earlier. The attacker climbed up to his feet and something nailed him from the curtain.

James Gordon flinched when he noticed some invisible attack dropping a criminal clown. Blood spilled out of the back of the neck of the attack. One of the snipers in position flew down from the roof. Another sniper dropped right next to his partner, resembling a sack of potatoes who just had been knocked out of a building. Gordon viewed the situation and wondered exactly what was going on here. He had his own suspicions, to be honest.

' _Maybe I'm seeing things.'_

Given all of the toxins, gases, and everything present in Gotham' s atmosphere, Gordon figured it was a good thing. Still, ninjas fighting clowns was not something a sane mind concocted under any means.

* * *

Batman evaded the SWAT team members. They had their own problems now. Batman focused on the one person who was a pressing concern. The Joker slipped off into the distance. Batman turned around and tracked the clown from his position.

"Going somewhere?"

A pumped up henchman entered the fray. He ripped off the trench coat. Batman locked onto the muscles which resembled something only for show. One would see though. The figure picked up a huge cinder block and hurled it at Batman.

Batman dodged the cinderblock. The large piece of concrete smashed into the ground. Batman kicked the dust up to blind the attacker. The pumped-up brute punched the air. Batman waited for the attacker to tire himself out. Batman grabbed his arm and drilled him down onto the ground. The Detective slammed him down onto the ground with a vicious attacker.

Another goon rushed Batman with a huge piece of rusty pipe extended. The Detective avoided being driven straight through with the pipe. Batman discharged the electrified knuckles on his suit. The charge of energy nailed the brutish minion in the side of the head. Batman reared back and nailed him with more attacks.

"Oh, well, you can't really find good minions these days."

Joker stood back into the distance. Most of the people had the decent sense to get out of the way.

"It's over."

"Oh, really?" Joker asked. "You think just because you told me I'm done, I would just pack it in and head on home. After all, we've been through. We barely scratched the surface over the holidays. And now, I've spent some time getting into the head space of Harry Potter. Who you might be for all I know."

Joker chuckled in amusement at this potential idea. He snapped out of it. Those wide bloodshot eyes locked onto Batman for a second later.

"It doesn't really matter who you are though. All that matters is you're going to be with me. You see, I didn't get what I wanted tonight. I always take a consolation prize."

Joker yanked a figure out of the alleyway. The woman shook in fear. Batman noticed her as an intern who worked at Blackgate Prison. Harleen Quinzel stood rigid with the Joker holding a hand against her shoulder. His hand held a knife which moved up underneath his hostage's throat.

"Let me make one thing clear, Bat Guano. You have my fun ruined. And I'm going to make someone pay. Now, I saw this cute little thing peering around the edges. She thought I wasn't looking. She wanted a taste of the forbidden fruit. Sure, it could condemn you for life. But, boy wouldn't it be worth it, wouldn't it?"

The criminal's grip tightened even harder around Harley. She felt a combination of excitement and fear. Her blood never rushed even faster.

"You see, you think I'm interesting. Well, I'm a very interesting guy, especially when you get to know me. But, do you really want to know what goes on inside of that head?"

A thug walked up from behind Batman to club him. Batman blocked the punch of the thug and knocked him back down to the ground. The impact of the blow crumpled the thug down onto his back.

"Nightwing's on the way."

"Let her go," Batman said.

"She's not involved?" Joker asked. "It's between you and me. Is that what you're going to say? I could spill every drop of her blood on the ground. People would cry. Then they would move on. You know why? Because people don't really care about death in this city. The city is completely mad. You're best to have the laughs you can while you can."

Nightwing swooped down and grabbed Harley out of the way. Joker avoided being snatched by Nightwing and stumbled back a few steps. A dagger flew in his direction. Joker threw himself down onto the ground to block it.

"Shit, I forgot about the other one," Joker said. "Let me guess, you're going to tell me it's over. You're going to tell me it's done. You're going to tell me it's the end of the line for me."

Nightwing made sure Harley got completely out of the line of sight. Batman turned his attention to the Joker who crawled backward. He moved onto a patch of dirt on the ground. A platform stuck out from underneath the ground. Joker whipped out the remote and pushed a button.

' _So, that's what that was for.'_

Joker sprung into the air with the platform. The jack in the box propelled him high into the air. A waiting helicopter hovered over the ground. One might have mistaken the Joker for a Circus Acrobat when grabbing onto the dangling ladder.

"We've had some laughs! Tonight, we had some fun. But, for now, the game ends, boys!"

Sounds of helicopter blades whirling kicked up in the air. A choking cloud of dust decreased visibility to see where the Joker was getting away to. The clown would, in fact, get away tonight, much to the chagrin of both Nightwing and Batman. One more trick up his sleeve showed he would make a very clean getaway.

Joker reached into a bag and pulled out a pair of clattering teeth. He tossed the teeth over his shoulder. Teeth connected to the ground and exploded to send jagged white fragments flying at the two vigilantes on the ground. A second and a third pair of teeth flew out of the bag and landed in a similar manner.

The exploding teeth added insult to injury. They could no longer deny what stood out in front of their faces. The Joker got clean away and disappeared into Gotham City. He got away. Somehow, he escaped. The helicopter blades disappeared into the distance, dust cleared, and several rustling footsteps appeared directly next to them.

"SWAT."

Nightwing's grunt only alerted Batman to what he already figured. The Detective reached into his belt. He deduced they should make a getaway and live to fight another day. SWAT members lined them up for a shot. Branden grinned very wildly.

The grin melted off of Howard Branden's face the second Batman dropped the smoke canister. The SWAT guards threw their hands up to block what might have been an explosion. Smoke blasted through the air and choked the SWAT guards. One of them punched at the smoke to try and get it away from his face. It did not do any good.

The smoke cleared. Batman disappeared. Nightwing disappeared. Branden reached over and hurled a riot shield down onto the ground.

"Not again!" he shouted.

* * *

' _So, how are you doing?'_

Harry walked down the hallway to check to see how Harley was doing. He decided it would be high time to check in with Vicki Vale. Vicki proved she would be able to get back up to work after being in the thick of things. Harry respected her. Sometimes he questioned her sanity. Still, one respected this kind of dedication for the work they did. Anyone who put in all of the long hours Vicki did, despite critics nitpicking how she did things, deserved praise.

' _I'm fine,'_ Vicki said. _'I would be a lot better if Joker went in with the rest of them.'_

Vicki took a very deep sigh. Harry felt her pain and agreed. Agreed, they had the Joker right at their fingertips. Harry underestimated how the Joker had a plan for everything. He grabbed some qualities from Batman and Nightwing. Like it or not, there was a whole lot going up in that mind.

Joker made his mark. He might not have killed anyone at the Labor Day event. Everyone would talk about what the Joker did for days to come, weeks to come, and even months to come. Harry knew he won in some way despite the minimal casualties. No one would sleep easy tonight.

' _We all will,'_ Harry said. _'I heard some of the members of his gang were rounded up.'_

' _Only a small comfort,'_ Vicki replied. _'Kara won't let me go. That wouldn't be under your orders, will it?'_

' _I didn't order Kara to do anything,'_ Harry said. _'She knows keeping an eye on you is important. The fact you can handle yourself means you'll be in even more danger.'_

The sigh Vicki gave over the bond link showed Harry she wished for more of a way to handle herself. Harry understood Vicki. He did not discount her strength as well. Vicki stood in the heat of the moment. Many people would run in the other direction as soon as possible. She did not. Joker might have terrified her. A small part of Harry feared what the Joker might be capable of at his fullest.

' _He's a study of what the human mind can do when pushed over the edge,'_ Harry thought.

' _Terrifying,'_ Faora thought.

Harry felt himself linger out in the darkness numerous times. He stepped outside and looked around the room. Harley sat on the bed.

Harley's anxiety reached a fever pitch. She did not care what happened to her out in Gotham City. Joker held her hostage. He could have killed her. Harley felt a rush of adrenaline at being at the edge of danger. She never knew being a hostage could be so exciting. She thought it was interesting to see how the human mind worked under times of crisis.

"Hey."

Harley jumped up off of the bed. She settled back down to a sitting position. Harry stood in front of the door. She smiled and invited him in.

"Hey," Harley said. "For the record, I'm fine. I'd be even better when these quack doctors let me go."

"You've been through a terrible thing today," Harry said.

"Hey, I was just minding my own business and two clowns just snatch me and hold me," Harley said. "Guess Joker recognized me from the Arkham Wing. You have to admit, that's the most exciting thing to happen to me in a long time."

Harry shifted an eyebrow and slid closer to Harley. He looked her straight in the eye. "You don't think your work is interesting?"

The bubbly blonde woman shrugged. "Yeah, yeah, it might be. I mean, I talk to a lot of interesting people. I might not get that far. But, I talk to them. I try and get inside their head when I talk to them. Their headspace though, man it's a scary place to be. You wouldn't want to move in there."

She grinned at him, drew breath, and continued her spiel.

"The Joker though, no one knows who he is. No one knows quite what motivates him. He's just, he just is. I don't know how to explain it. He's a psychiatrist's wet dream."

Harry reached over and touched the top of Harley's hand. Harley slid a bit forward towards Harry on the bed.

"Careful. Going down the rabbit hole in that way is what leads to madness. I'm sure you'll be discharged. You have my number if you need anything."

"Yeah, yeah," Harley said. "Don't worry, if I need you, I'll call you. Hopefully, these dingleberries let me out of here. I was just roughed up. Nightwing saved me. That was really exciting too. But, I guess you wouldn't get to live and talk about a near death experience if you didn't have the respect."

The two parted ways. Harry moved down the hallway. A figure loomed in the shadows.

"She'll be fine."

The figure in the shadows nodded.

"She seems very interested in finding out the way the Joker worked," she said. "I know how a complex man can lure you into his web. I'm living proof of it."

"I'll keep an eye on it," Harry said. "Harley knows what she's doing."

The woman in the shadows responded with a very hard sigh. Harley could handle. That was what worried her. The fact Harley could handle it. Harley had an insanely confident view of her abilities. Those abilities could get her in trouble in a lot of ways.

"She would have liked to see you, Pam."

"Maybe, she would have," Pam said. "But, Gotham City isn't the right place for me now. I've got to keep moving. I just wanted to pop in to check on her, Barbara, and you. And I've got work to do."

Mother Nature never rested and those who committed crimes against her. Pamela sensed destruction around her. Those who harmed the fruits of the Earth would be crushed. No one trifled with her babies and got away with it. No one would dare.

"See you soon," Harry said.

Pamela Isley, Poison Ivy, slipped into the distance. Harry decided he still had a few more rounds to keep. A doctor and a nurse went in to check on Harley. Harry expected them to get quite an earful.

* * *

Harry's next stop led him to the front steps of Veronica Vreeland's penthouse. Sapphire and Kathy waited there as well. Harry moved up the front steps and knocked on the door.

Veronica swung the door open. She threw her arms around Harry and gave him a very tight hug. The body of the billionaire heiress pressed against him.

"Harry, I'm glad you're here," Veronica said. "I was going mad after tonight. Also, you being up in the middle of that against the Joker. He's fixated on you. I'm not sure if I like it."

"He's not fixated on me as he is on Batman," Harry said.

Harry began to wonder if the reason why Joker was so fixated on Batman, was that Batman was present at whatever incident the Joker had been created at. This opened up a fresh new can of worms. The number of petty thugs who could be the Joker increased with each moment.

Veronica grabbed Harry and escorted him straight into the main bedroom.

"Kathy and Sapphire are in the bedroom," Veronica said. "They weren't as close to it as I was."

Veronica drew in a very unfortunate sigh. It would not be an event in Gotham City without an unfortunately immense amount of chaos. She opened the door. Two empty wine bottles and a half full one sat on the table. Sapphire perched on the edge of the bed. She dressed in some very alluring lacy black lingerie. A transparent top, see-through panties, a garter belt, and a pair of stockings. Her sexy body appeared on displace.

Kathy wore more of the same, only in blue. She stood up to look at Harry.

"We figure you could use some stress relief after what happened."

Sapphire smiled. "Is there anything sex can't cure?"

"I'm not sure if it could cure everything," Veronica said. "It can just help out with a whole lot."

Veronica took off her underclothes. She dressed in red which contrasted with her skin quite nicely. The redhead unclipped her hair and stepped forward.

"You're overdressed for this party, Doctor Potter."

She leaned in and kissed Harry on the lips, taking domain of his mouth. Harry returned as he could feel the other two girls moving in to caress his body.

Harry felt a pair of hands cup him down low and tease him for a few seconds. The fun and games would start to begin with these three rich heiresses.

* * *

 

Sapphire unbuckled Harry's pants and lightly teased the underside of his stomach. Her warm fingers caressed Harry's flesh and moved down.

"Someone wants to come out to play," Sapphire said.

Kathy leaned in and kissed the back of Harry's neck. Each kiss made her unbutton a button. She untied Harry's tie and dropped it to the floor. Veronica leaned back from Harry to allow Kathy the proper amount of room to throw Harry's shirt off.

Now wearing his underwear which strained underneath his erection, Harry stood in the center of the room. All three girls brought Harry over to the bed and pushed him down onto it. Kathy started to kiss him on the side of the neck. Sapphire took control of his chest. Veronica kissed his stomach. Her lips brushed against his erection several times when playing him.

Their hot mouths made Harry feel good. Veronica lightly cupped him from the other side of his shorts.

"Mmm, let's let him out," Veronica said.

Sapphire and Kathy worshipped Harry's upper body. Veronica decided to go for a very familiar friend. His hard cock came out in her hand. Veronica caught it in a grip and squeezed it as hard as possible. Harry's manhood stretched into her hand.

"I can't wait," Veronica said. "I need it inside me, now."

"You horny bitch," Kathy said.

Sapphire yanked off Kathy's panties and slowly rubbed her cunt lips. "You know from the glass mansion you live in, I wouldn't be throwing stones."

One heiress crawled over the bed against the other. Kathy grabbed onto the mane of blonde hair. Sapphire kissed away at Harry's stomach.

Veronica played with Harry's cock for a little bit. Harry reached up and relieved the heiress of her panties.

"You're dripping wet, Veronica."

Her pussy throbbed at the sexy way Harry said her name. Veronica wanted him inside of her. Her pussy demanded the meat. She climbed over the top of Harry and his tip guided into her. Veronica prepared to greet an old and familiar friend. She slid down onto him with practiced ease.

Harry reached up to caress Veronica's body. He unclipped her bra which got in the way of touching Veronica's round breasts. Harry took control of them and gave them a very firm squeeze. Veronica gasped and bucked up when she rode Harry.

Kathy closed her eyes and sighed in content. Sapphire worked patterns around Kathy's core with her very able tongue. The Kane heiress shoved her pussy deep into Sapphire's waiting mouth. Sapphire licked even deeper. Each tongue spike into her made Kathy buck up.

Sapphire munched on Kathy. The sweet taste of lemons coming into Sapphire's mouth made her hunger for more.

Veronica rode Harry. Her stallion reached up from underneath her and touched her. His hands slowly gripped her.

"Faster," Harry said. "You want to go faster."

Veronica did go faster. She worked Harry with her tight walls. Each squeeze engulfed his cock. Each release made him feel really good. The sticky warmth surrounded his cock. More juices pooled around Harry when he pushed up.

"HARRY!" Veronica yelled at the top of her lungs.

She descended into pure madness. Harry touched a spot inside of her which turned her into fine jelly. Veronica came once again. She tensed around Harry and squeezed him. How many more orgasms would it take to break Harry Potter?

Harry took a chance over and noticed Sapphire and Kathy switching positions. Sapphire's sweet moans cut through the air. Kathy worked her pussy over.

"I bet you use your own niece…as a practice dummy!" Sapphire breathed.

Kathy did not say anything. She only continued to go down onto her young lover. Sapphire's cherry flavored juices filled Kathy's mouth. She drank them straight from the source. They tasted really good for her.

Veronica sped up the motions when she bounced up and down on Harry. Harry touched her breasts and then other parts of her body. Her collarbone lead to a surprising amount of enjoyment coming from her. Harry nibbled on it and then moved back in to attack her glistening spheres when they dropped up and down.

The latest orgasm brought Harry closer to the edge. He finished Veronica off with this one and gave her a very nice reward in the process. His balls tensed up inside of her and launched his contents inside of her.

Veronica milked Harry with each rise and each drop. Her tight walls squeezed around his cock and released them. She finished draining his essence from him. Her last action drained him to the very last drop.

The redhead dropped down onto the bed. Harry sat up on the bed and waited to see who is next lover would be tonight.

Kathy finished Sapphire and turned her attention to Harry. She grabbed Harry by the crotch and smiled.

"I want you to fuck me against the wall," Kathy breathed. "I want you to take my body in any way possible."

Kathy squeezed his cock and released it. Dark-hair flung over Kathy's face as a very disappointed Sapphire had been left on the bed. Kathy put her hands on the wall to assume the position for her lover.

Harry bounced out of bed and grabbed Kathy around her body. He rolled his hands all over the fit form of the woman. She smelled so good as well. His cock inched out and prepared to take her pussy.

Sapphire pulled her way over to the bedside table. She got a full view of Harry about ready to plunge into Kathy. She found Veronica's toy collection. A large dildo pulled out of the drawer. She aimed it against her lips and shoved it deep inside of her pussy.

"YES!"

She envisioned the dildo being Harry's nice thick cock when it pushed into her. She wanted it to push into her, just like it pushed Kathy into the wall. Each push of Harry inside of Kathy made Sapphire just hotter for him. She wanted Harry to take her.

Kathy felt the intrusion inside of her. Twelve inches of prime penis pushed into her from behind. The Alpha Male from behind her shoved deep inside of Kathy. Her wet pussy clamped down onto him and released him. Every thrust brought Kathy closer to the edge. Harry edged her closer. He could have given her the orgasm much quicker. He allowed for a more natural build.

Harry sensed Kathy's want when he pumped inside of her. Every single nerve ending of Kathy Kane's body lit on fire. Harry felt the heat concentrated around him. He could feel her warm up.

Sapphire worked herself over with the dildo. She closed her eyes for a moment. Kathy's screams painted a very devious picture for her. Sapphire rose her hips up to shove the length inside of her. She imagined Harry's strong hands rolling over her body. His large chest pushing into his.

The two lovers against the wall made their way over to the mirror. Kathy got off at the look on her own pleasure ridden face when Harry plunged into her. His hard balls slapped their way against her thighs. Repeated actions drove Kathy over to pleasure. His hands rested on her stomach and then shifted to her clit. He rubbed her as hard as he fucked her. Pleasure filled the mind of Kathy Kane. Pure, unbridled, sickening sweet pleasure cascaded through every last inch of her body.

"HARRY!" Kathy begged him. "Please, let me cum."

"You want to cum?" Harry asked.

Kathy thought she made that clear with her words. Harry prevented her from collapsing down onto the ground. Her legs barely stood up. Harry plunged into her. He felt every single inch of her with the plunges. Kathy felt fresh enjoyment when Harry touched her. Her body shook underneath the touches from the handsome young man behind her.

"Yes," she panted. "Please. Yes."

Harry released her and Kathy never knew how much she had to give. She pumped her walls against Harry's invading cock. Harry stretched her all the way in.

His essence followed with Harry pumping his balls empty inside of her. Kathy grabbed onto him and milked him. The heiress watched as her eyes faded over. She could see her body coming undone in the mirror. Kathy's face contorted and she screamed in pleasure.

Harry finished his actions. He pounded Kathy into the crowd and allowed her knees to come undone. He descended the beautiful woman down onto the ground. Kathy dropped down.

"Mmm, Harry. It's my turn."

Sapphire spoke in a sweet voice. She ground her hips up and down off of the bed. The vixen made sure Harry's eyes locked on the toy sliding in between her lips. She pumped up off of the bed and then descended back down. Sapphire pushed as much of it as possible inside of her.

"You're going to be the death of me."

She just smiled. Sapphire stretched out and showed her flexibility. She almost got her legs up behind her head. The exercise classes paid off. Her flat stomach rose up, as Harry put his hands on it. He leaned down and gave Sapphire a very forceful kiss.

Sapphire returned fire. She wanted Harry so badly. She reached around and rubbed his shaft. It extended to the full length it should. Her pussy glistened with need. All she wanted was for Harry to take her in any way.

Harry teased every inch of Sapphire. Her skin practically scorched underneath him. Harry touched the underside of her nipples and gave them a very tense squeeze. Sapphire rolled her hips to meet Harry. Harry put his cock at her entrance and teased her even further.

"Harry," Sapphire breathed. "I need this."

"You want it?" Harry asked.

"No, I need it."

Harry just had to make sure. She spread herself out. The sight of the blond stretching to accommodating herself for Harry made him hard as a rock. He plunged into Sapphire.

The two met together. Sapphire rocked back and then rocked forward. Her inner walls tugged at Harry. Harry gained balance on her hips. They met together with fluid motions. The warmth of Sapphire's pussy sucked in Harry.

Harry brought himself down into the gorgeous blonde underneath him. Sapphire clenched around Harry and released him. The two lovers worked a steady pace against each other. The silkiness of Sapphire tightened around Harry. She squeezed him and released him.

"More!"

The emerald-eyed sorcerer reached down. His eyes burned with passion. Harry touched the underside of Sapphire's breasts and molded the flesh into his hands. He then released them. She moaned from the loss of Harry's hands on her. He touched her again.

The slow and steady build up to her first orgasm tonight with Harry inside of her happened. Harry filled her with his long engorged cock. He pushed into Sapphire and stretched out her womanhood. The wizard slammed deep inside of her to stretch out her. Sapphire rose up to meet him.

The two pumped their hips against each other. Sapphire tensed around Harry and released him. Their bodies met each other with the age-old dance they enjoyed.

Harry slowly pulled Sapphire to the edge. He teased her with false hope twice in a row. Sapphire whimpered underneath Harry. The backup of her orgasm increased.

Kathy found her way back onto the bed, and Veronica recovered from her ride as well. Both of them indulged in each other. Harry would have liked to see what was going on. His eyes locked on the beautiful blonde on the bed underneath him.

Her tight loins clamped down onto Harry and released him. The milking reached Harry to the end. He wanted to bring Sapphire to an orgasm before he came inside of her.

"It's time," Harry said.

"Stop teasing me," Sapphire whimpered.

"The time for teasing is done," Harry said. "Do you want to cum?"

Sapphire bit down on his shoulder to empathize how frustrated she was. Harry took pit on her and released her orgasm. The rich girl underneath Harry screamed when the pleasure spread over her body. Her loins pumped Harry. She craved something from Harry.

Harry sped up the thrusts on the back of Sapphire's orgasm. She wanted him. Sapphire clawed his back like a depraved lioness. She wanted the feeling of Harry to spill inside of her. His balls sized up and slapped against her. Sapphire dropped her legs to pump Harry inside of her more hungrily.

Their bodies connected with each other. Harry touched every part of Sapphire he could get his hands on. The touches increased with Sapphire's body gushing with pleasure. Harry buried into her slick center and started to pump. His balls clenched and the end was here.

Sapphire saw stars the second Harry pushed into her. Her head rang from the orgasm. Her body soared to the highest heights when Harry finished up inside of her.

They parted ways with Harry finishing spraying the last bit of cum on Sapphire's tight tummy. Kathy and Veronica parted ways to join in on the fun.

After tonight, they all needed something less stressful and good for the soul.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 9** **th** **, 2017.**


	322. Shuffling Papers

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Two: Shuffling Papers**

* * *

Everyone in the Gotham City Criminal Underworld stood on pins and needles as they waited for the upcoming trial of Tony Zucco. Zucco's trial served to be only the preliminary round to the main event. Maroni's trial would be the very interesting one. Providing the trial happened.

Many people suspected Maroni would find some way to avoid actually going to trial. He would stew in prison for six months, a year, maybe a little bit more. The seasoned mobster would be back out of the prison. The cycle would continue anew until the end of the time.

One thing was different other than the last time Maroni was in prison. Big Lou Maroni perished at the hands of the Joker. Maroni refused to say a word to anyone regarding his father's demise. He remained rather mute about pretty much everything in prison. No one knew what the man said. No one knew what defense his lawyers would try to muster. The only news coming out of the underworld was speculation.

They all felt like they sat on a ticking time bomb. One wrong move and it would all go up in Gotham City just like that. No one dared make any moves. The smaller gangs folded underneath the pressure first. Joker and Penguin scooped up whoever they could. Some defected Black Mask, and a few sought solace in Thorne. Everyone picked teams.

Carla Vitti only cared about one thing. She needed to prove something to both herself and to all of Gotham City. Her brother refused to investigate into his own son's death. He refused to throw all of his power behind murdering the son of a bitch who did it. Carla smelled something wrong about it. She had to be one hundred percent certain.

The mobster found herself in front of the desk at the Gotham City hall of records. She took out the pages on the various Holiday Killer victims. Several pictures had been snapped and shuffled away to be forgotten. The GCPD switched their attention on the manhunt of the Joker.

Freaks were a dime a dozen in Gotham City. Carla shifted her attention closer to home. She needed to piece together the one clue. She looked at the pictures. The crime scene of her dear Johnny's death caused a pang to go through Carla. She shivered when dropping the picture down onto the table.

The mobster looked over her shoulder. No one should be here. She paid the guards to take a walk and give her peace for this evening. She moved through several deaths. Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, Flag Day, all of them flipped through her. Fourth of July followed. Carla looked at the crime scene. The description of the van, the same van which had been seen driving away after Johnny had died. It was a beaten brown van, with the windows blacked out. It should have stuck out like a sore thumb.

Did the Holiday Killer drive into town on holidays to commit his crimes? Carla flipped through the paper and found the number. Gotham's funeral homes both were short-staffed and underfunded, owing to the number of victims. Bodies lingered for weeks before they were dealt with. Countless John Does were never claimed. They just tossed them into a shallow grave.

Carla looked through the countless of hours of documentation. She noticed the note Alberto wrote. They photocopied it, and it hung between her fingers.

"If something happens to me if he gets me, I want to be cremated," Carla said. "Why?"

Alberto never seemed like the type of person to be worried about being killed as far as Carla knew. Perhaps she misjudged her nephew. He grew very withdrawn after his ordeal at the hands of Cobblepot and his stooges.

' _That type of thing causes someone to suffer a mental break.'_

The second to last puzzle piece Carla needed slid into place. The Holiday Killer killed Alberto Falcone for a simple reason. Alberto was getting in the way of the Holiday Killer's work.

"That little rat!"

The horror of Johnny's last few minutes also flashed in her mind. Carla pretty much knew what happened. She crushed the copy of Alberto's last will and testament. She dropped it down to the ground.

Her phone rang and Carla took it.

"We found something. The tags to the van. You'll never guess who they were registered to."

Carla guessed. She guessed. She needed proof that the body in the morgue was not her nephew's. Everything tied together in a bow. Her poor baby suffered because of some issue Carmine had with his son. That could be the only purpose.

"Meet me back at the hotel."

* * *

Harry decided to take a trip to New York City. The recent events in Gotham made him want to take a trip to check up on a couple of things. His business ventures in New York bloomed as always. Success came very easily to Harry. He had a few snags along the way. He moved around them and rose up to the top of the snags.

Betty Brant and April O'Neil waited for him at a table outside. Both of the women smiled and waved Harry over. April bounced up to her feet and engulfed Harry with a long hug. The grip around Harry's waist lingered for a few seconds.

"Sorry," April said. "I know you were here last month. It still seems like a long time."

"Yeah, it does," Betty said. "It's good to see you."

"Same here," Harry said.

The two moved in for a hug. Harry pulled away and sat down at the table. He could tell by the looks of both of them that Betty and April had some good news to give him. He could not wait to hear it.

"So, when are you going back to school?" Betty asked.

"Next week, my classes don't start until next week," Harry said. "I've got a lot of flexibility when I can take my classes. I've proven to the teachers I'm willing to put in the work needed."

April laughed. "You are going for your fifth doctorate, or is it sixth? I think you've more than proven yourself. Although, you've slowed down a bit over the past year."

"To this point, I'm not certain if there's much more than I can do academics wise," Harry said. "Every time I say that a new door opens. So, I'm pretty glad that I have a chance to start a bit later. Donna, Amy, and the twins are settling in this week. They're in good hands."

"And besides, they can easily get in touch with you if they need any help," April said. "What about your two partners in crime? Miss Vreeland and Miss Kane?"

Harry took the cup of coffee and sipped on it. He surveyed April over the top of the coffee cup.

"They're studying hard as usual," Harry said. "Given their aunt and their older sister, they both have a big legacy to live up to. I think they'll going to be more than up for it."

The sound of birds twittering in the sky oddly sedated Harry. He appreciated the two did not discuss his very public meeting with the Joker. Harry would have gladly given them an account if they asked. He just preferred not to give an account. He saw both of them had been eager to tell him something. What kind of gentleman would Harry be if he deprived these two ladies the opportunity to share something with him?

"So, what's new in the news?"

Betty broke out into a mild bit of laughter. That joke was as old as time itself. It still amused the woman to no small degree. She turned to April.

"Are you going to be the one to share it with him?"

"Gladly," April answered. "There's been mostly quiet in the city lately. There have been a couple of problems though. And a very suspicious looking break in. Take a look at this."

Harry looked at the report in front of April and frowned. He had a pretty good idea something was going down the moment he looked at it.

"A rhino, a warthog, and a giant wolf broke into a chemical plant," Harry said. "What did they steal?"

April shrugged and her nose scrunched up. "That's the weird part. Nothing. They stole absolutely nothing. They just entered the plant and caused some havoc. Then, as quickly as they arrived, they hustled back out. You have to admit, it's very weird."

"Yes," Harry said. "Yes, I do."

Harry could only begin to imagine what kind of chaos would be happening now. The rhino and the warthog sounded very familiar. Baffling given the last known location of Bebop and Rocksteady.

"They're still locked up?"

Betty's question sounded like a very likely one. Harry just allowed an hmm to pass through his lips.

"As far as I know, they're still locked up," Harry said. "Unfortunately, Bebop and Rocksteady were last seen by the EPF. I think we can both agree how Bishop and I are not on the best speaking times."

"Do you even know where the EPF facility is anymore?" April asked. "It's gone from the last place. They just upped and moved an entire government facility."

Harry thought it could not have gotten far. The Utroms in the basement told Harry pretty much all he needed to know. He looked at the picture and the report for a long moment.

"I'm not sure if Bebop and Rocksteady broke out or not," Harry said. "I can ask around to see if anyone knows."

' _I'll see what I can find out,'_ Alex chimed in.

' _Will you?'_ Harry asked. _'Thanks.'_

' _It might be hard,'_ Alex thought. _'I can ask a couple of people who are about as close to the EPF we can get. All of that cloak and dagger they had thought.'_

Harry returned back to his thoughts. The giant wolf was an interesting new addition. Harry figured Krang must have been making more mutants. An entire army of them roaming the streets of New York meant there were rough times ahead for them all.

* * *

Amanda and Emily Potter stepped into the bright new world of Gotham City University.

' _It's weird,'_ Amanda said. _'Last year, we were the top of our class. Well, the senior girls in the class among our group. And now, we're the new girls on campus.'_

' _This is just like entering our old private school back in Scotland,'_ Emily thought. _'A brave new world. I wonder where our new student advisor.'_

"Hey!"

A bubbly voice caught the attention of Amanda and Emily. The form of Harleen Qunziell stepped into the room. She dressed very professionally in the button up red blouse and a nice long skirt. She added a tie to the outfit. Amanda and Emily were impressed.

"You're the new student advisor?" Amanda asked.

"Ta-Da!" Harley cheered. She threw her arms out in the air. "Harry didn't tell you, did he?"

"No, he didn't," Amanda said.

Emily decided to jump back in where her sister left off. "Well, he did not tell us other than it would be a surprise."

"It was surprising when he asked me," Harley said. "I don't want to disappoint him. And disappoint you, because you two have a reputation with people who disappoint them."

"Hey, we're not that bad," Amanda said. "Okay, we might be a little bit bad."

Harley motioned for the twins to follow her. The trio walked down the hallway to talk with each other. Donna and Amara made their way down the hallway. Both Princesses entered the halls of Gotham City University. They walked past several trophy cases. GCU's Football program was one of the top ones on this end of the country. Their soccer and baseball programs were decent too, but not as well liked as their football program. GCU held a high standard for academics.

"Donna! Amara!"

Both women turned around to face Diana.

"Glad to see you're here," Donna said. "So, how is being a student teacher?"

"I still have my own classes," Diana said. "It's an interesting experience. An extension of the work I have with Doctor Sandsmark already."

"I heard her course fills up fast," Donna said.

"You did sign up for it?" Diana asked.

Donna smiled back at her sister. "Given how much I've heard you rave about it, of course, I did. I can't wait for it."

She wanted to become a teacher first and foremost. There were other areas of interest Donna said. Diana moved past her towards Amara.

"And you're my student mentor?" Amara asked.

"Of course," Diana said. "If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them."

Amara smiled. She was glad Diana would have taken care of her interests when heading to school. Donna watched as her sister went. Donna wondered who Harry arranged as her mentor. The Princess did not have to wait until long until Barbara Gordon came around the corner.

"Hey, Donna," Barbara said. "I don't know if they told you or not. I'm your mentor."

"Really?" Donna asked. "Well, that's great news!"

Donna smiled and moved closer towards Barbara. Barbara had a bag slung over her shoulder. Donna wondered how much work she took on this year. A couple girls matched Harry for studious potential. Donna never intended to slack on her studies. She might have before the Princess grew out of it. Time passed and people grew.

"I just wonder when you find time to do everything," Donna said. "I don't mean to offend you. You can get pretty busy."

Barbara waved off Donna's words with laughter. To be honest, if the dedication she had to her studies was the biggest slight Donna could give, then she would not take any offense to her. The two girls moved off to a private area to have a discussion with each other.

The two bumped into another woman who made her way down the hallway. Dark hair came down past her shoulders. She dressed in a white button up top. A tight white skirt added to the outfit along with the thigh high black boots and fishnet stockings.

"Hello," Barbara said.

"We may have met at the party," the girl said in an Irish accent. "My name is Melody Drake. And I'm here to see what I can do about getting an education at GCU."

"Well, you've come to the right place, if you want an education," Barbara said.

"I'm looking for the student mentor they gave me," Melody said. "Dinah Laurel Lance is her name if I'm not mistaken."

"Oh, don't worry, Dinah should be coming here in a little bit," Barbara said a second later. "Just hang tight, and I'll introduce her to you."

Melody smiled and moved a little bit closer to Barbara as they waited for Dinah to arrive. Little did anyone know who Melody Drake truly was underneath the wig and the makeup. She would make so no one found out if she had anything to say about it.

' _Harry mentioned something about you being here,'_ Barbara thought. _'I didn't think I would believe it with my own eyes until you showed up in the flesh. Welcome back to GCU, Sara.'_

' _Well, I'm not going to let the fact I'm legally dead stop me from getting an education,'_ Sara said.

Most people would have seen it as a roadblock. Death could be pretty final to be perfectly honest. Barbara smiled. It did really reflect well on Sara how she went to get her education at GCU. She thought there might have been other motives. Barbara figured the less she knew about those motives; the better.

It did amuse her that by being under an alias, Sara got to spend more time with her sister. She would not have gotten Dinah as a student advisor had it not been for the fact she had been under the Melody Drake alias. She had about that much going for her at the very least.

* * *

Princess Tribble of Dimension X resembled a kid in a candy store. She did want to return home. Yet, all of the amazing advances Harry had made, well she could hardly hold back how impressed she was. It just showed the collective universe's knowledge of Earth was a little bit out of date. Or maybe, just maybe, Harry was a little bit beyond the entire collective knowledge of the planet of the Earth.

She turned around, and one of the four turtle creatures walked out of the elevator. The one with the purple bandana, Donatello, if she was not mistaken, he looked around like a kid in a candy store at being in one of the research labs as well. Tribble laughed at him.

"It's pretty amazing, isn't it?" Tribble asked.

"Yes, it's stunning," Donnie said. He shook his head to clear it. "But, as much as I like to ask a million questions."

"Do you think you can come up with a million questions about what I'm doing here?" Harry asked.

Donnie just responded with a very brisk smile. "I'm pretty sure I can come up with an attempt to do so. Still, this technology, I feel like I'm taking a peak in the future. I'm glad you gave me the opportunity. My brothers might have made fun of me for taking an interest."

"Hey, everyone has their own interests," Harry said. "You should be able to indulge in anything you want to. Regardless, we've got it ready."

"Yes, the Portable Portal Projector," Donnie said.

He lifted his hands to rub them together. The Turtle stopped when he realized doing so might make him look like a super villain which was an image he tried not to project any more than he could help it. He took in a deep breath and turned his head to the right, and then to the left.

"You've fixed it?" Tribble asked.

"We'll know when we make this test run," Harry said. "If it's ready, you can head home. And you can tell Honeycutt that his calculations were just a tiny bit off."

Tribble snorted at Harry's casual under exaggeration. More than a tiny bit off, but to be perfectly honest, she saw where Harry was going. The portable portal projector looked ready for them to go.

"It's your portal," Harry said. "Why don't you do the honors?"

"Gladly."

Tribble's hope burned eternally that she was just one push of a button away from being able to return home. She breathed in deeply and breathed out even more deeply. She pushed the button and energy started to kick up from the portal. A wave of energy shot through the portal.

"I think it's working!" Donnie yelled.

He did have a small amount of input in helping fix it, so he was happy. Not as much as Harry or his sister, but to be honest, Donnie just felt good to help out. He watched as the energy flowed, and the portal opened.

Another discharge of energy ricocheted off of the portal and canceled it out. Tribble gave an anguished scream at it happening. The portal shut down along with half of the power in the city. The power surface did not affect the power in the RAO penthouse.

"Someone else tried to open their own portal," Harry summarized. "I won't even begin to give you three guesses who did so."

* * *

Deep beneath the bowels of the TCRI building, Krang worked on a project which he intended to complete for quite some time. The portal was almost ready.

"At last! After much of preparation, I have done it. I will have created this Interdimensional Portal. Built tirelessly from the primitive Earthling technology. Once more, I will have access to Dimension X!"

Krang basked in the moment of triumph. He would be able to open the portal. The portal would lead to him being able to obtain anything he wanted from Dimension X. Time almost stood still as Krang reached over with the robotic arm of the bubble walker. He pulled the lever open.

Energy swirled around the doorway to the portal. Krang could feel it.

"Yes! Finally, Dimension X."

The power cells on the portal started to smoke. Krang's eyes widened.

"Oh, no. No! NO!"

The power cells burned out. The portal crackled and the scream cracked. All of the power inside of the lab blacked completely out. Krang responded to the power outage with one of the most anguished howls possible. He could not believe it. So close to achieving true power, so close to obtaining access to Dimension X one more time. He could not believe it.

Krang howled one more time. He groped around in the dark for a flash light.

"This is what I get for having to use spare Earth parts to stabilized power cells!" Krang ranted. "Stockman! Stockman! STOCKMAN!"

"You rang?"

Stockman's voice cut through the darkness. The only solace Krang had through the pitch dark was he did not have to see Stockman's gruesome face.

"I blew the power," Krang said. "I need to know what went wrong. And I need to know it…NOW!"

Stockman's tone cut on through with a very snarky response. "Did you ever think of trying to check the fuse box?"

"Don't crack wise," Krang said in a deadly serious voice. "I'm going out of my mind again."

"Pretty impressive feat considering your current circumstances."

Stockman paid for that slight at Krang's body dearly. Krang accessed the button which leads to a blast of electricity coming through Stockman's eye piece. Stockman howled in blood-curdling agony. Every single nerve ending in the scientist felt like it had been set on fire. Stockman dropped down to his knees. His body shook very roughly after being slammed with the electricity.

"Now, do we have an understanding?" Krang asked Stockman. "Do we? DO WE, STOCKMAN?"

"Yes," Stockman said. "I'll see what I can do about finding what went wrong."

* * *

Raph jumped on the top of the rooftop. He skidded to the stop and left a skid mark. The smell of cheap booze filled his nostrils when he moved into one of the worst parts of New York. He twirled his Sais in hand and flipped them down into his hand.

The turtle decided to head out from the lair to blow off some steam and get some fresh air. The sound of a car alarm was all too common in New York. He caught sight of some very familiar gentlemen who tried to break into the side entrance of a shop. He noticed the dragon tattoo on the back of one their necks.

"Purple Dragons," Raph growled. "Finally, some action."

The hot-tempered Turtle teen jumped down. He noticed the blue-Mohawk gentleman trying to push the crowbar into the door.

"Don't think that entrance is for people like you."

The Purple Dragons turned around to face Raph. Raph held out his Sais. One of the men charged Raph while swinging a chain. Raph avoided the chain from nailing him. He grabbed onto the chain with his Sai and slammed his fist down onto the back of the head of one of the charging Purple Dragons.

Raph flung the gang member to the ground with a very vicious through. He was just glad to get his hands on some moving punching bags.

"Alright, freak, time to punch your card!"

Raph twirled his Sais. "Bring it, Bozo!"

A large hulking figure grabbed the Purple Dragon around the neck and pulled him into the shadows. The man in question screamed. The sounds of bones cracking in the shadows echoed.

"Let's get out of here!"

The Purple Dragons tore out of the alleyway as fast as their legs could carry them.

"What the….."

Raph looked up and laid eyes on the man. A large hulking figure stepped into the picture. Three horns, orange skin, very short and stocky, but built like a tank, the dinosaur resembled a Triceratops on two legs. The face plate on his mask cracked and he drew in breath.

"34-Alpha, Left Center, Omega Coordinates," the humanoid dinosaur blurted.

"Huh," Raph said. "Um, big guy?"

"Need to take them down, last hope," the humanoid dinosaur said.

Raph knew a walking talking dinosaur in New York was not a good thing. He only had one course of action and that was to call his brothers and Master Splinter.

"Guys, you're not going to believe this."

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 12** **th** **, 2017.**


	323. A Triceraton in Time Square Part One

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Three: A Triceraton in Time Square Part One**

* * *

Alex Danvers arrived at the scene of the disturbance. She did not know what to expect. A huge energy spike in the middle of New York knocking out half of the power in the city put the DEO agent on the edge. She walked across the city street. She held a gun in position. Alex stepped across the street and drew in a very deep breath when walking to her destination.

"Cover me."

The DEO agents with her agreed with Alex's orders. She had been the senior agent of the team. Unfortunately, that meant she had been saddled with a group of rookies who did not understand how dealing with pressure came with the territory. Alex really hoped she could find a way to calm the herd as much as possible. She looked from the right and to the left.

She noticed Harry walking out of the corner. Alex came face to face with him.

"I really wish we didn't keep meeting when something weird happened," Alex said.

One of the Turtles came up next to Harry. Donatello, Alex remembered he had been called. Two of the other Turtles, Leonardo, and Michelangelo, stepped around, and they were not too surprised to see Donnie or Harry standing in the middle of the alleyway. They were even less surprised to see Agent Danvers.

"Well, I should have known you would be here," Leo said.

"Yes," Alex said. "Energy disturbance and it was dangerously close to the TCRI building as well. Krang's been cooking up with something that he shouldn't."

"Krang tried to open his own portal," Donnie said. "At the same time, we tried to open up Tribble's Portable Portal Projector. It worked for a moment."

"So, we've basically learned that two people opening up two portals within the same city is not so good," Harry said. "Did you hear about the energy disturbance?"

Leo looked over his shoulder before he turned back to Harry and answered the question. "We're not here because of the energy disturbance, believe it or not. We're here because Raph said he saw something we're not going to believe. And…"

"Omega base! Krang must fall. Storm the walls! Destroy the Stone Warriors!"

Alex turned around. She pointed her weapon at the figure who stumbled around the alleyway. She had been surprised to see something like this. Her little side adventure into Dimension X made her familiar with these creatures.

"That's a Triceraton," Alex said. "They're at war with Krang and his Stone Warriors in Dimension X."

"What's he doing here?" Mikey asked. "He's seriously freaking me out, dude."

"ENGAGE THE ENEMY!" the Triceraton yelled. "Make him fall. Ground Traag and his troops into gravel. Commander Mozar says the base must fall by the next dawn. Thirty-Four Alpha! Storm the gates!"

The crazed ranting of the Triceraton continued. He did not do anything to engage any enemy. His arms just swung in the air and he looked rather crazed. His eyes flared every second as if he saw some imaginary enemy base in his mind eye. Every now and then his fist clutched against a gun that he did not have.

"He's been at this for about twenty minutes," Raph said. "It's a wonder that he hasn't caused more of a scene. I mean, a nine-foot dinosaur isn't going to go off."

"DEO has the area blocked off," Alex said. "Although, not for long, we're going to have to get him out of here and to a safe place."

"Where, pray tell is a safe place?" Raph asked. "Look at the guy. Do you think he's the type of guy you can just stash in a basement or something until he stops ranting and raving?"

"FOR THE REPUBLIC!" the Triceraton yelled at the top of his lungs.

That anguished declaration followed the alien dinosaur dropping his knees. The breathing grew even more painful every time he started to draw in a breath. His coughing echoed in a very painful way. His fingers clutched against the wall.

"Earth's atmosphere is choking him and causing him delusions," Harry said. "He must have already suffered injuries of some kind by going through the portal. His mask is cracked. Therefore, he's breathing his air. Triceratons breathe a combination of Nitrogen and sulfur."

"So, the air is causing him to be kind of loopy?" Raph asked. "Yeah, I guessed that. You know with the way he's coughing and stuff. And I don't know what to do with him. He's not someone you can smack around and you can take anyway."

"Everyone stand back," Harry said.

Harry cleared his throat.

"My name is General Har-Zod," Harry said. "Kneel before me if you understand my authority."

The Triceraton dropped to one knee. Whether it was by choice or because of the fact that he could barely stand, hard to really tell at this point.

"To your feet and at ease support," Harry said. "Give me your name and your status report."

"Yes, sir, thank you General Har-Zod, sir," the Triceraton said. Despite breathing he maintained an air. "On this….very rough terrain it's hard to breathe. So, if you could give me a minute…to catch my breath…."

"Touch this," Harry said.

The Triceraton touched a disc device Harry rested in the palm of his hand. The disc teleported them all off into a section of the sewer. Alex, Harry, Four Turtles, and a Triceraton dropped to the ground.

"My name is Admiral Zog," he replied. "My team and I were to take base Alpha Thirty-Six, and steal the Shockwave to use to take the Stone Warriors down."

"What is the Shockwave?" Harry asked.

"It is Krang's own personal weapon," Zog said. "It's usage is said to cement his rule as the main ruler of Dimension X. He used it to obliterate several planets in Dimension X which had been unable and unwilling to conform to his authority."

Harry figured why Krang was attempting to open a portal now. To get this Shockwave weapon and any other nastiness he might have had stored.

"I had been separated from the rest of the team," Zog said. "The mission was a failure. Requesting permission to terminate for abject failure, sir."

"No, no, no," Harry said. "The mission is still ongoing. We can still get the Shockwave from Krang. But, first, you need to be able to breathe easier. Let's see what we can do to fix you up."

"Sir, thank you, sir," Zog gasped. The poisonous atmosphere of this strange planet burned his lungs. "It's more than I deserve, for not retrieving the device from Alpha Thirty-Five, sir."

* * *

"How is one supposed to take over the world when they are surrounded by nothing other than incompetent boobs? It seems like no matter hard I try nothing works. It just is one miserable frustration after another. Just failure after failure. I'm sick of it. I'M SICK OF IT!"

Krang raged in pure anger when he looked at the state of his lab. A very powerful Dimensional Portal with rare power cells should have given him the gateway to Dimension X once more. The state of his forces in Dimension X without his help, well Krang shuddered to even think about it.

"Stockman? STOCKMAN! Don't just lolly gag around there. Tell me what's wrong. Are they beyond repair?"

Baxter Stockman bent and looked at the power components. Touching the crystals directly would cause Stockman a great deal of pain. The cybernetic arm might have protected him from a lot of trouble. The trouble was with those crystals still could have caused pain.

"There should be some kind of energy readings coming off of the crystals," Stockman responded. "The only problem is, there are no energy readings. I believe your crystals are completely and utterly fried."

One look at Krang showed the living brain was this close to losing his mind. Again, Stockman wondered how it could be possible. If Krang lost his mind, what else would he have anyway?

"Oh, that's just great," Krang said. "THAT'S JUST GREAT! You know something, Quantum-X5221 Power Cells don't grow on trees. That was one of the last ones I've used. There has to be a way to get them powered back up!"

Stockman would have found Krang's raging to be very amusing if not for one simple fact. Krang could have just as easily directed the rage upon Stockman with one fluid movement. Stockman found himself on pins and needles waiting for the next move.

"That's what I get for using cheap Earth technology, and trying to mingle them with Dimension X parts," Krang said. "I need more technology. I need better technology. I need a way to get back to Dimension X. If Bebop and Rocksteady wouldn't have failed to get the Portable Portal Projector, I would have been ruling this world under my fist."

Stockman opened his mouth to make the obvious quip. Krang's robotic arm lingered towards the edge of the device which could be used to shock Stockman back into compliance. Krang's teeth gnashed when he finished speaking.

"Not one word. Do you hear me? Not a single word. Do not ever think anything right now. I don't want to even hear you breathe until I finish this!"

Krang moved around to reconfigure some circuits in the computer's motherboard. Stockman was about as much help as ever before, that being said he was no help at all. The device slipped into place. Krang got the view screens back up and the main computer.

"I might not be able to open a portal for the foreseeable future," Krang said. "I can still find out what went wrong."

The former ruler of Dimension X searched for the disturbance. It turned out it did not happen locally. Someone else opened a dimensional portal elsewhere of the city.

"Of course," Krang said. "A one in a million shot. Two interdimensional portals opening to the same exact location. The odds must have been so lean it would make even the riskiest gambler on Earth to disregard any potential."

Krang caught some security footage of something appearing from the sky just out of TCRI. It was the last image the cameras picked up before they went beyond dead as well.

"Oh no!"

Stockman raised an eyebrow.

"It's a Triceraton," Krang said. "One of those horny simpletons being on Earth….."

Stockman cracked up at the terminology Krang used. He got shocked for his trouble and dropped down to one knee paying for his moment of mirth.

"A Triceraton being on Earth is not ideal," Stockman said. "Bring in my mutant army. Inform Shredder. He must be captured at all costs."

The audio did not work on the video. Krang normally would not have given the time a day to these barbarians. He was very, very curious to see what he was saying. No words came out from what he was saying.

"Yes, boss," Stockman said.

* * *

Misery was in every breath of the Triceraton known as Zog. Every breath made him feel like he was being tortured. He could not train his mind not to breath under these harsh conditions.

"Okay, I don't mean to be that guy," Raph said. "But, are you nuts trying to fix his breather?"

"I've been called far worse for a lot less," Harry said.

"No, just think about this," Raph said. "If Hornhead gets a clear head, he's not going to be happy about you tricking him. And he's going to rage on you and us."

"Okay, I'll agree with Raph," Leo said.

"You do?" Raph asked.

"In principle, at least," Leo responded. "It's right from an ethical standpoint. And it's wrong from an intelligence standpoint. But I'm sure Harry knows what he's doing."

Harry and Donnie finished rigging the equipment. Alex did not necessarily agree with them trying to fix the breathing problem. If his head cleared up, they were going to have one pissed off Triceraton to deal with. She knew Harry though and she knew he would be savvy enough to put in some kind of failsafe.

"I know it's not the best set up in the world," Donnie said. "At least you're going to breathe a little bit easier."

"Sir, thank you, sir," Zog breathed.

He drew in a more familiar combination of air. The filtering system worked. Raph, Leo, and even Mikey sat on pins and needles.

"So is it just me, or are we just waiting for the other shoe to drop?" Mikey asked. "He's after something of Krang's. And you know how tough Krang's base is to get into."

"We can close, sir," Zog said. "We can close to breaking it in. We need to get the Shockwave. And destroy the Stone Warriors. Then, when we find Krang, we will finish the job we started."

The Triceraton's hazed vision saw these individuals in front of him as a general and his officers. A figure came in and he saw a very important high ranking Triceraton officer make his way in. Zog stood up straight and proud in front of the man.

"The best thing to do would be to find a way to return Zog home," Splinter said. "Do you think Princess Tribble's Portable Portal Projector Device will be sufficient enough?"

Donnie thought about it. He supposed, in theory, it would potentially send Zog home. The tech-minded terrapin figured out any number of ideas which he could be used to send him home.

"In theory, we can send him home," Donnie said. "Providing, of course, it was the Personal Portal Projector which brought him here. If it was Krang's portal which sent him here, well, I don't know…."

"KRANG IS HERE!"

The rumbling tone of Zog caused all of them to jump up into the air. The word "Krang" caused the dazed Triceraton to somewhat snap out of it. Had he gripped onto something, it would have been crushed in the palm of his very large hands. Zog breathed in heavily, several times, eyes flaring underneath the moderately repaired breather mask.

"I cannot return to base until I complete my mission, and that mission is the destruction of Krang."

"There you have it," Raph said. "I don't think he's going to go anywhere."

"Well, it's not like we've been able to get into the TCRI building," Mikey said. "I mean, that place is so secure, you think…well, it's just a really secure place. And do you really think Krang would let him get close enough? I mean, what's the entire deal between Krang and those Triceratons anyway?"

Harry pulled out a portable computer and interfaced with the computer back at the Penthouse. He pressed a couple of buttons to allow coordinates to flash on the screen. They flickered in blue writing. Way too many to try and calculate now. Thankfully, with several sufficiently advanced Artificial Intelligence, Harry had no need to study them. All he needed to do was find a way inside.

* * *

Shredder stepped down the corridors. Annoyance crossed underneath the mask of the criminal mastermind. Krang summoned him to a meeting. And he was not the only one Krang summoned. Hun, Da Big Kahuna, and Sleazy E all stepped in from behind Shredder.

Bebop, Rocksteady, and the trio of new mutants from the Wolfpack jumped the battle as well. Now they were back and ready to go, Bebop and Rocksteady returned to their usual grumbling selves. They were about ready to rip into anyone who got into their way. The two mutants hated being locked up in cages for so long.

"Do you have any idea why we are here?" Hun asked.

"We'll find out in a minute," Shredder said. "Krang is to meet with us. For his sake, it better be good."

Krang turned up in his bubble walker. Several office drones at TCRI wheeled a large metallic canister. The canister contained mutagen. The bubbling green ooze popped the second Krang and his henchmen came in. Shredder grunted in acknowledgment when Krang turned up.

"So, are we ready to do this?" Sleazy E asked. "You wanted my boys. Our three golden boys are here, and there's a small gang waiting outside, ready to be mutated."

"With any luck, they will be willing volunteers to move forth this experiment," Krang said. "Now though, we've prepared a mutation bomb to be placed underneath New York City. All it needs is to be properly detonated and we will have any number of willing volunteers."

"Are you sure this will work?" Sleazy E asked.

"Your boys will be the one who will be planting it," Krang said. "And we will have an army which to crush our enemies, including those miserable turtles."

Shredder stood up straighter than ever. His metal gauntlets flicked out and pointed to Krang. The alien brain did not back off from Shredder's steely gaze.

"The Turtles and their master, they're mine."

"Relax, Saki," Krang said. "You will get your petty revenge. We just need a diversion to get all of the pieces in place."

Shredder nodded. He hoped none of these bungling fools messed up and prevented him from gaining what was his. He thought he murdered Yoshi in the sewers with the mutagen all of those years ago. The man proved to be unfortunately very durable, much as Saki detested admitting it.

"Stockman has informed me that everything will go off without a hitch," Krang said. "Isn't that right, Stockman?"

Stockman's lip curled into a sneer and his one eye narrowed at the entire group. "Once again, you wound me how to disregard my genius and my expertise. Of course, it will work. The third batch of mutants will be stronger than Bebop and Rocksteady, and stronger than the Wolf Pack."

"Hey wait a minute!" Da Big Guy yelled out. "I'm not sure if I like that."

"Hey, me neither," Rocksteady said. "I thought you said we were going to be the strongest, most durable mutants."

Da Big Kahuna cleared his throat and made a breaking motion with his hands. The squabbling mutants managed to fall back in line. Boy, was Da Big Kahuna glad he did not get zapped with that glowing green goop? He did not want to be turned into some kind of monster.

"You're certain it will work?"

Stockman almost hurled his hands back. The lack of faith he received was unbelievable.

"I will have the Foot assist with planting with the device," Shredder said. "And if the Turtles interfere, they will pay dearly with their lives."

"Yes, do that," Krang said. His voice dropped even lower. "And Sleazy, your boys in the Wolf Pack will keep an eye out for this. This is a Triceraton and he will cause problems with his mere existence."

The image flashed from Krang's bubble walker of a large bipedal alien dinosaur. Bebop and Rocksteady growled in particular when they set eyes onto the monster.

"Just think, there's something bigger and smellier than those two out there," Da Bad Guy cracked.

He exchanged a high five with Da Big Guy. Bebop and Rocksteady allowed the slight to fly over their heads. If this stupid dinosaur got in their way, they would crush him.

"Man, first a bunch of Turtles, then one filthy stinking dinosaur," Hun grumbled. "When did this city go to the freaks anyway?"

* * *

Agent Bishop processed all of the reports from the chemical plants which Krang's mutants turned up at. Some of them, they stole nothing of value. This perplexed Bishop until he read over the reports of the chemicals which they did stole. They hit about twenty plants in the past ten days. The intruders muscled their way through the plants with the force of a very large tank.

The government agent wrote down all of the chemicals stolen. The very second he was certain he had a comprehensive list, he ran it through the computer.

"It's the chemical components needed to create a fresh batch of mutagen," Bishop said. "This is not an ideal development. Krang must have run out of his stock creating those two."

Bishop moved over to check on a couple more things. His men moved off to check on the very weird security disturbance which was going on in New York City. Always in New York, Bishop thought that place held a mysterious aura for some very odd alien activity.

One government agent knocked furiously on the door. Bishop ambled over to throw the door open to properly face the man. Said man's heavy breathing forced Bishop to pull him into the room.

"Stand up straight. Straight, take a deep breath, and look me in the eye."

The man managed to catch his breath just in time to give the report.

"This is what our drone in the sky picked up, right above the TCRI building."

Bishop took the glowing orb in his hand. The agent, without any visible reaction, pressed the button. The button flashed to reveal an energy signature flashing in the air. Someone opened a portal and judging by the weird intermingling lights, someone opened up two portals.

The figure crashed down in the middle of the streets. Bishop held the device away from his body to make sure he could see it. The government agent would hate to think his eyes would have deceived him at such a crucial moment.

The figure landed very close to the TCRI building. He scrambled to a standing position and almost collapsed from the impact of being driven into the ground. As Bishop lived and breathed, he came face to face with an actual, real-life Triceraton. Bishop could scarcely believe what he saw.

"This is an undesirable development," Bishop said. "I'm going to put the base on Red Alert."

The combination of Krang creating mutagen, an immense amount of mutagen, and this Triceraton worried Bishop to no degree. Everything he worked so hard to keep together was rapidly becoming unraveled. The government agent took in a deep breath.

' _Only way he could create this much mutagen would be to build a mutation bomb. But that's…no, he can't do that. That's just….'_

Bishop realized that was exactly what Krang had in mind. He intended to build some kind of huge mutation bomb to rock the entire city in one fell swoop. More mutants and more panic, and Bishop ran low on options to try and deal with it.

"You're going to need my help."

Bishop walked past the rumor containing Leatherhead.

"He's going to mutate the city, and then overrun it," Leatherhead said. "You're going to need my help to stop it."

* * *

The Turtles, Alex, Harry, and Zog made their way from the Underground. Zog put himself a fair distance ahead of his handlers to scout the area. They did not mind having a large shield.

"So, what are the chances that he snaps out of whatever he is in?" Leo asked. "Just so we can be prepared in case worse comes to worse."

"I'm not sure talking about it when he's in an ear shot is going to help him not remember," Mikey said. "I'm just saying, bros."

"It will be a long time," Harry said. "I've scanned him, and the Earth's Oxygen did a number on his brain."

Brain damage did not just snap back, unfortunately. It was possible he would end up coming out of it.

Harry surveyed the area around him. He saw nothing other than a couple of dumpsters, some graffiti tagged walls, and chalk with various amounts of gibberish written on the sidewalk. Nothing he could put to having any kind of trouble. Harry turned his attention to the alleyway behind him. The alleyway lead from the TCRI building. The loud roar of a motorcycle followed by several more motorcycles.

"Alright, finally!"

Bebop showed up at the front of the pack. He came in front of the group on a motorcycle decked out with weapons. Rocksteady followed, and the rest of the Wolfpack rode in directly behind him. The laser weapons pointed at their enemies.

Alex reached for her side arm to pull out a gun. She felt very naked against this barrage of high tech laser weapons.

"Alright, you're not getting to Krang!" Rocksteady growled.

"KRANG! Anyone who works for Krang will be utterly destroyed."

Zog's eyes flared with anger and something inside of the Triceraton snapped. He smashed the front of Rocksteady's bike and knocked the giant rhino off of it. Rocksteady hurled to the ground.

The Turtles, Harry, and Alex braced themselves for a fight.

"FOR THE TRICERATON EMPIRE!"

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 14** **th** **, 2017.**


	324. Triceraton in Time Square Part Two

Vote for up to your top three favorite chapters of the week in the chapter of the week poll. Head to the page of very important links in my profile, click on Chapter of the Week Voting. And you know, vote in the poll.

* * *

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Four: A Triceraton in Time Square Part Two**

* * *

Rocksteady let out a hideous grow the second he came face to face and horn to horn with the large dinosaur in front of him. The large mutant pulled out a laser blaster and pointed it towards the Triceraton with a hideous snarl coming over his face.

"I'm going to send you back to Jurassic Park!"

Rocksteady blasted Zog with the laser weapon. The lasers bounced off of Zog and only proved to be potent enough to piss him off. Rocksteady stampeded at Zog. Zog grabbed Rocksteady by the horn and hoisted him up into the air. Rocksteady flew high into the air and smashed down onto the ground. The solid impact brought him down to the ground.

Bebop flung a large chain down against the horn of Zog. Zog reached behind Bebop and hurled him like he was a piece of paper down to the ground.

One Komodo Dragon mutant dropped down to the ground. He pulled a pair of nunchakus from his belt and spun them around in a threatening manner. He jumped high in the air and made an attempt to take out the Turtles. Da Little Guy came face to face with the master of the weapon himself.

Mikey pulled out his weapon of choice and twirled them in the air. The two wooden weapons clashed into the air. Mikey propelled himself over the head of the attack and dropped to the drop. The komodo dragon mutant moved very crisply and pivoted to go for a palm strike. The palm strike had been blocked and Mikey repelled back the attack. Mikey caught his attacker with numerous rapid fire punches to the top of the head.

The large panther charged in and knocked Raph back a couple of inches. The Turtle dropped down onto the ground. Donnie jumped up to help his brother. The panther used his speed to catch Donnie and drop him to the ground. Donnie used his Bo Staff to waffle the panther in the face.

The leader of the pack, the large wolf, came face to face with Leo. Leo pulled his swords from his sheath. The wolf ripped a large pipe out from the back of the motorcycle and looked at the Turtle with a very devious grin on his face. The wolf twirled the pipe and pointed towards Leo.

"Let's fight!"

Leo dove towards the wolf. The pipe swung through the air at Leo. Leo dropped down to avoid the pipe from waffling him across the back of the head. His swords came up and smacked the pipe hard. The pipe busted apart and dropped down to the ground.

"I don't need a weapon to rip you apart!" the wolf growled. "I'm going to rip you apart with your bare teeth."

"Looks like Rahzar's pretty pissed," Mikey said. "Then again this guy is….hey, stand still so I can whack you!"

Mikey waffled Komodo with the weapon of choice and dropped him down to the ground. The wolf circled Leo and he extended a hand outwards. Leo charged him and the newly dubbed Rahzar grabbed the sword out of Leo's hand. The mutant turtle pushed his opponent back.

Two more Wolf Pack goons, neither of them mutated, stood at the end of the alleyway. Alex caught them with stun darts to the shoulder, taking him down.

"We've got a problem," Alex said.

"Really, just the one?"

Harry heard the growls of Zog, Bebop, and Rocksteady. The two mutants gave about as good as they could receive on the two alien dinosaurs. Three goons popped up around the corner. Harry took Alex by the arm and dropped a gas pellet down on the ground. The cloud of smoke filled the area.

' _We need to really think about a uniform for you and some secret identity if you're going to be out here in the open like this with me,'_ Harry thought.

The Purple Dragons moved around the alleyway to get a good look for the person. Alex took in a deep breath and was pretty sure she would be able to get a shot at them. Harry stopped her from shooting. He had a plan, she could see that much.

"Man, Hun doesn't want anyone to interfere, and you know what will happen if he interferes," one tough said. "Especially him, why did it have to be him? I mean, isn't it bad enough that he's in Gotham City?"

"Be thankful we don't have to fight those Turtles or that dinosaur," a second gang member said. "You saw what happened to Fangtooth. He doesn't have any teeth left after that Turtle with the red headband got ahold of him."

The Purple Dragons shuddered and made their way down the alleyway. Two of them separated from the other one. Harry dropped down to grab the lone Dragon straggler. He put his hand around the mouth of the dragon and caused him to pass out. The knee directly to the back of the dragon dropped him to the ground.

"Hey, Spike, what…ah, shit!"

Harry smashed down from the ledge down onto the back of the head of the Purple Dragon who went up to check on his buddy. The Purple Dragon smashed head first down onto the ground. His face broke the pavement from hitting so far.

The third Purple Dragon dropped to the ground. Alex stood over the top of him. The two slipped further out into the alleyway, and behind the building. They knew something big was going down tonight. They just did not know what exactly

* * *

The Shredder stood from a command post. The drones from TCRI observed the battle without any problems. Two of the hench-mutants charged the Triceraton. Said Triceraton dispatched his enemies with ease. The sound of the dinosaur dropping his adversary to the ground held. Bebop fell to the ground first.

Rocksteady put a little bit more of a fight up. Saki adjusted the camera to lock onto the Turtles. Hamato Yoshi's prized pupils fought against the three members of the Wolf Pack. The wolf thrived just as much. They would prepare the Turtles for the final battle.

Revenge would be best served cold. Saki clenched his fist even harder and took in a deep breath. He watched the movements of all four Turtle creatures. It was almost a pity. Almost a pity they had been tainted by Yoshi's corrupt influence. They could have been very valuable Foot clan members in another life.

"We're on schedule."

Shredder turned around to just in time to lay eyes on Karai stepping to the ground. Karai bent forward to her knee towards her clan leader.

"To your feet."

Karai rose to her feet and waited for the word to be given. Shredder motioned for her to continue. She almost noticed his constant fixation on the screen even though he attempted to pay attention to what she said. Karai drew in a breath and gave the report the best she could despite the constant attacks.

"The Foot has brought the Mutagen Bomb into the city," Karai said. "Also, Krang may have found a way to restore the damage to the cells at the TCRI building."

Had Shredder been paying attention to a single word Karai said, he would have noticed the distaste in her tone regarding Krang. Karai hated the fact the noble Foot clan had been co-opted by Krang. The once noble Shredder allowed Krang help.

' _He needs you a lot more than you need him,'_ Karai thought.

"Make sure everything goes according to plan," Shredder said. "We are at the state where we cannot afford any foul ups. I want tonight to go on perfectly."

"What is the end game?" Karai asked.

"The end game is to bring this city completely under my foot," Shredder said. "And more importantly, the destruction of the Turtles. And I will finish what I started when I crush Hamato Yoshi. They will lie at my feet broken until I remove the life from them."

Karai had no doubt the Shredder's end game was always what it was. His obsession never ceased to amaze Karai. All she could do was show her loyalty to the Foot Clan. The loyalty which compromised thanks to Krang's growing influence. That alien squid would have been nothing had Shredder not found him lingering on life support of the pod.

Krang's uses did not outweigh the problems.

"Go and make sure the mutagen bomb is secure," Shredder said. "It will go off in the subway at eight thirty in the morning."

Why would the Shredder want to make mutants? Why would he do it when he perfectly loyal Foot soldiers who were more than capable of performing his plans? Karai had many questions.

"It will be done," Karai said.

She might not like what she said. Karai felt a strong sense of duty towards the Foot. At this moment, Shredder lead the Foot, and he was the one she answered to. She just hoped this entire mutation scheme did not blow up in the face of her master.

Karai stepped out into the command post. Shredder turned his attention back to the view screen and continued his obsessive observation of the Turtles.

* * *

A large amount activity from the ground beneath them caught Harry's interest. Harry descended down the steps to the subway tunnel. Every creek and every possible movement made Harry wonder what the hell was going on. He heard something grind down the tunnel.

Alex walked a couple of steps behind Harry. Every few seconds she moved just a little bit closer. The DEO agent peeked around the corner. Several men clad in black circled around the train car. They moved something very large into the subway tunnels. Alex did not know what.

"That's it. Any of you jar this loose, we're going to have a huge problem."

Xever spoke in a low tone to some of the Purple Dragons. The second in command, beneath Hun, stepped a couple of inches back. The Purple Dragons wheeled a cart out of the train car. Six canisters of some glowing green ooze were hooked to an explosive device. Three Foot ninjas stepped in and made certain all of the cables were secure.

"That's…is that a mutagen bomb?" Alex asked. She moved closer than most would dare for a more accurate glimpse of the device. "Yes, that's a…shit, it really is a mutagen bomb. That's the type of thing they're bringing into the tunnel, aren't they?"

"I'm afraid so," Harry said.

Alex and Harry moved behind a wall with a hole punched out of it. They got a closer look at the figures moving down the tunnel. Several Foot Ninjas walked down the subway tunnel. Harry noticed another familiar figure.

"Make sure that's secure by morning."

Xever spun to face Karai.

"You need to relax. Just calm down. I've got this one. The Shredder didn't need to send you down here."

"I'm down here because this operation needs to go by without a hitch," Karai said. "I don't need to tell you what would happen if you upset the boss."

The bomb hooked to a second car. The two Purple Dragons on the tracks looked down the tunnel. Harry could not get as close as he would have wanted. The tunnel swarmed with both Purple Dragons and Foot Ninjas.

"I tagged it," Harry said.

"The car?"

Harry answered with a very light nod. He was going to have to deal with these Foot Ninjas soon enough. He and Alex moved as the car got away. The Purple Dragons disappeared elsewhere into the subway. They were moving it from the Old Manhattan Subway Station to the New Manhattan Subway station.

"Eight thirty in the morning," Alex said. Harry turned around. "This place is going to be swarming with people. If a mutagen bomb goes off in the subway then, it's going to be a mess."

Harry understood perfectly where Alex came from. He felt something stir deep in the pit of the stomach. Harry figured they refined the mutagen and could intermix it with various animal DNA. An entire army of mutants running loose in New York was going to attract a little bit of attention as anyone could sense.

' _And it could end up just like the meteor shower in Smallville. Some people get the gifts. Other people get killed or get mutilated. Or turned into a dripping puddle of goop.'_

Alex tugged at Harry's sleeve to get his attention. Three government agents moved down the adjacent tunnel and searched around for something. Harry and Alex followed the progress of them.

"Bishop," Alex murmured underneath her breath.

"You see what they're up to," Harry said. "I'll go after the Foot."

Alex nodded and released Harry's hand. The two went their separate ways. Alex knew she would be in a lot of hot water if she had been seen interfering in another one of Bishop's operations. The only small argument she could muster was that it started as a DEO operation. Bishop just happened to get involved.

She was on the scene first, tracking the Triceraton.

* * *

Karai only could speculate the mindset of her father these days. Actually, she had a hunch that his obsession with the Turtles clouded his better judgment. She could only see one reason why he would create such a hideous mutation bomb.

"Do not do anything to disrupt the cables," Karai said. "You detonate the bomb prematurely, then you're going to be in a world of trouble."

One thought crossed Karai's mind. She did not know how the Foot would be out of here in time. Krang would be the one to detonate the bomb.

"Make sure it's secure, and we're going to have to get out of here….."

"Hey, hey, make sure you get that thing there. To the left, and to the center, and that's just perfect. Really, great, you to put that bomb there. You're doing such a bang up jump. If you were my employee, I'd give you a promotion. But since you aren't…well I can't really help you, can I?"

Foot Ninja and Purple Dragon goons alike turned around just in time to see the smug face of Sleazy E. He walked into the picture in all of his glory, a smug grin on his face when he moved into the picture. Karai, in particular, grew severely annoyed with the man the moment he turned up. Almost as if someone had dressed up their Ken Doll as a sleazy biker, Sleazy E had the tendency to rub people the wrong way.

"Hey, you're alright too, kid," Sleazy E said sticking his thumbs up into the air. "So, Da Big Kahuna says that we are going to change the world. We're going to get this show on the road. Just get over here a little bit, and then a little bit to the right. Those people, man I tell you, they aren't going to see this one coming. Are they?"

Karai reigned in her frustrations with several very calming breaths. It would not be good form for a Foot Clan superior to stab someone like Sleazy E in the back of the neck where he stood. No matter how much he deserved to suffer, Karai could not do that, and she should not do that.

"Hey, hey, hey, there we go!"

She never thought it would be easy to calm herself in the face of such annoyance. Karai turned around to the tunnel and back. She waited for the word that they could clear the tunnel before Krang or anyone detonated the bomb. The fact the bomb was still in play caused Karai no small amount of discomfort.

"Yeah, we've got this one," Sleazy E said. "Right here, right now, don't you worry, we've got it. Right here, right now! This is taking on a whole life of its own."

The loud booming voice coming down the corridor had not been conducive to stealth. The sound of the voice bouncing off of the old subway tunnel made it very easy for Harry to make his way through the tunnel. He crouched down and slid against the wall to avoid anything. He noticed the moderate number of ninjas. Not as many as Harry would have thought there would have been.

"It's secure."

"Of course it's secure," Xever said. "You don't give me and my boys enough credit. This entire city, it's going to belong to the Shredder by this morning. Are you not excited?"

Was it going to belong to the Shredder? Not if Harry could help it. Harry slipped around and moved behind one of the ninjas. He kept his eyes forward and did very little in mind his surroundings. Harry could pick him off easily to thin the numbers.

' _Those who remove themselves from the rest of the pack are the easiest to take down.'_

Harry reached up, grabbed the ninja, and spiked him down onto the ground. One punch to the back of the head resulted in the ninja hitting the ground at a very frightening velocity. Harry pulled back from the ninja warrior and left him dazed down on the ground.

He had to keep moving. No question about it, Harry had to keep moving from where he was. The Sorcerer stepped back a couple of feet and noticed the ninjas coming around. They realized they were not in the tunnel.

"Make sure whoever is here doesn't leave," Karai said.

Harry had no intention of leaving. He could not leave until the mutation bomb had been disabled. Harry flicked a rock against the wall. The sparks from the rock caught the attention of two of the ninjas who made their way over some rickety boards to search the area.

' _Perfect.'_

One dagger slid out of Harry's sleeve. He propelled the dagger into the rickety boards and an explosion resounded. The ninjas dropped through the boards. They struggled to pull themselves out from their positions. The sound of a leg snapping or maybe an arm made this just that punch easier.

"That's it!" Xever yelled. "Whoever you are. Come out and play! No more games!"

Two knives slipped into the hands of Xever. He flung the knives into the shadows at where he thought their pursuer was. The knives connected against the wall and left nothing.

"He's not there."

Xever craned his neck to look up. He studied every single blind spot when someone could have been hiding. No one would get out of this tunnel alive, not if he had anything to say about it. Xever's teeth gritted down when he continued his search around the tunnel.

Another Foot Ninja dropped to the ground. Someone nailed him in the side and dropped him to the ground. A second one and a third one fell in battle. Karai moved closer to the scene.

"He's here," Karai said.

"It can't be him!" Sleazy E yelled.

"Don't pretend you know what we're talking about," Karai said. "Just be silent."

Harry picked off about six or seven Foot Ninjas in his quest to thin out the herd. He still needed to even the odds a little bit more. Some of them rushed to check another tunnel for their mysterious attacker. Harry thought that played into his hands about as nicely as possible.

' _Time for the kill.'_

* * *

Zog fell down to his knees and started to snarl. The large Triceraton fought some fierce opponents in his day. These two really rose his ire. Zog made his attempt to stand up over to get nailed in the ribs by a huge punch from Rocksteady.

Rocksteady nailed him directly in the chest with another punch. Two further punches knocked the wind out of Zog. Bebop swung the chain and smashed the heavy links down across the back of the Triceraton's neck. The two mutants punched and kicked at Zog.

Leo dodged the attacks from Rahzar who was the only one out of the Wolf Pack who still stood. Raph jumped into the battle. Rahzar caught Raph by the arm and flipped him back against the wall. Donnie dove behind Rahzar and brought the Bo Staff into the back of the wolf's hand.

Mikey jumped up and got caught by the leg from Rahzar. Rahzar spun Mikey around and hurled him down to the ground. The Turtle dropped to the ground. Rahzar's teeth gritted and he snarled before heading back to the attack. His claws clashed against Leo's sword. Both of them jockeyed for position.

"Ha, take that you stinking lizard!"

Rocksteady grabbed Zog's head and smashed it down into the ground. His horn cracked from the impact of Rocksteady taking him down to the ground. The stamps continued to escalate with Zog grumbling underneath the attack.

"That showed him," Bebop said.

Rahzar jumped up to a ladder leading a rooftop. He reached into his belt and hurled a grenade behind his back. The grenade exploded to release a cloud of smoke and debris which backed the Turtles off. Rocksteady picked up a miniature rocket launcher laser.

"Alright, Turtles, finally, we get you now!" Rocksteady yelled.

"Ah, s…."

Raph's curse had been cut off by an insane blast of laser fire. Every time the laser blasted at him, Raph just narrowly avoided being caught by it. His fellow Turtles evaded the assaults to the best of their abilities. Raph rolled underneath the fire and caught the underside of the laser weapon with his Sai. Sparks flew with Raph pushing underneath the weapon and forcing the mutant to back off.

Bebop swung his meaty fist at Raph. Raph dodged it and allowed Mikey and Leo to come in and double team Bebop. The giant warthog would not go down underneath their assaults. Bebop just growled and ripped a large chunk of pavement out from the street.

"Take that!"

Bebop hurled the pavement at the Turtles and forced them to scatter.

"Man, this is easy," Rocksteady said. "We're going to be able to bring them back. Krang wants them, but that doesn't mean we can't rough them up a little bit!"

Zog's eye slowly opened and he growled. The name Krang resulted in Zog pulling himself back up and heading into the battle.

"KRANG!"

Zog grabbed Rocksteady around the head and threw him back down into the ground. The rhino mutant made a huge crater in the pavement from hitting the ground at such a frightening velocity. Zog charged Rocksteady and nailed him with the biggest, hardest punch he could muster up. The huge punch cracked Rocksteady directly across the face.

"Hang on!"

Bebop charged over with a car engine in his hand and waffled Zog in the back of the head. Zog faltered for a very short second. Bebop pulled back on the armor and smacked it down across the back of Zog's head for a second time. The third time proved to enrage Zog.

The hard headed dinosaur punched through the car engine and grabbed Bebop through the throat. He threw Bebop down and planted him hard with a choke slam through the section of street Bebop tore out earlier during the battle.

Rocksteady rolled down and dropped down. Zog smashed Bebop into a wooden wall. Fragments of wood showered everywhere from Zog ramming Bebop repeatedly into the wooden wall. Bebop slumped over with blood spilling from between his lips.

"Hang on!"

Bebop rushed both of them and smashed them. All three of them smashed through the wall. The water from underneath the ground bubbled up and swept them down into an underground river.

The Turtles dropped down. Leo followed the progress of them disappearing into the water. They could have been anywhere. The Turtles rushed around the edge of the sewer and made their way to a water pumping station.

"They could be anywhere," Donnie said.

Raph threw his hands up in the air. "Yeah, yeah, I don't think…"

Something swooped down behind them. All four mutants pulled their weapons out. They came face to face with a figure right behind them dressed in sinister silver armor. The plated armor had plenty of spikes jutting out from every direction, mostly from the shoulder and the hands. A helmet covered his face where his red eyes glowed on the other side.

"So, Hamato Yoshi's prized students."

"That's….that's….that's….." Mikey stammered unable to get the word out.

They did not expect the Shredder to be so tall or maybe that was just the way he carried himself.

"Your master may have told me of you," he said. "My name is Oroku Saki, but you may call me, the Shredder."

"Hey, he's just another guy, and there are four of us," Raph said.

"That is not just another guy," Donnie said.

"Yeah, well we'll see how badass he is when we pry him out of that tin suit," Raph said.

Raph dived at the Shredder. The Shredder held one hand up and blocked a single Sai. The sound of Raph's arm crunching caused his brothers to grimace. Shredder hurled Raph down to the ground like an unwanted gum wrapper.

"Who challenges the Shredder next?"

Donnie hurled his Bo Staff. Shredder slashed his gauntlet forward and broke the Bo staff into three pieces. He grabbed Donnie around the neck and punched him to send him crashing to the ground. A purple bruise laid on Donnie's neck. Shredder made no wasted motions in his battle.

"Okay, tin can man, let's see if you can…."

Mikey jumped up for the attack. Shredder casually stepped to the side and nailed him in the back of the head. Shredder punched him hard and dropped him to the ground.

"You're not going to harm my family!" Leo yelled.

Leo charged Shredder with his swords. The two engaged in a very momentary battle of wills. Their steel ground together with Shredder pushing himself back against Leo's katana blades, at least until the very moment where Shredder smacked Leo down to the ground with a supreme amount of force.

All four Turtles crawled over to assist each other out.

"Right, going at him one at a time was a stupid decision," Donnie said.

The Four Turtles rose up and jumped at the Shredder all at once. He spun himself around and knocked them away from him one at a time. For the second time, all four Turtles found themselves fell to the ground. They sucked air from how hard they connected.

* * *

Through his mediation, Splinter suffered a very horrific premonition which caused his eyes to bolt open.

"Shredder!" Splinter yelled. "I must find them before it's too late."

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 16** **th** **, 2017.**


	325. A Triceraton in TIme Square Part Three

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Five: A Triceraton in Time Square Part Three**

* * *

A flash of light flickered down the tunnel as a trio of Foot Ninjas searched the tunnel high and low. They looked up in anger when Sleazy E stood on the platform above the Mutation bomb. He flashed the light up and down and caused the Foot Ninjas to throw their hands up into the air in frustration.

"Keep searching!" Karai yelled. "You, make sure the bomb is secure."

"Hey, hey, relax!" Sleazy E yelled. "I've got it. I've got it to be perfectly honest."

Sleazy E threw his hands into the air and flashed a smile at Xever. Xever did not respond with a smile, in turn, rather he clutched his daggers and they tightened around him. The Dragon would come after him. Xever prepared himself and was ready. Ready to carve up the Dragon the second he came on through.

"Come on, come out to play," Xever said. "I'm not scared of you. You're not so tough. Come on, you're not as dangerous as everyone thinks you are."

Xever's words fell upon deaf ears a few seconds later. His eyes flashed to the top of the tunnel with the loud rumbling coming. The train from up above would be coming in the next morning to give them an entirely new strain of mutants. He rubbed his knuckles together and took a deep breath. He swiped at the figure moving in the shadows with the dagger.

"Cockroaches!" Xever yelled.

"Where?" Sleazy E asked.

Sleazy E almost staggered from the platform. His hands started to shake when he searched around for the source of the cockroaches. Something else came from the shadows and caught the Foot Ninja directly in the back of the head. The second shot nailed the second ninja to nail him back onto the back of the head.

The third Foot Ninja turned his attention to the figure who moved in the shadow. The Dragon sent a flare of light to properly distract the Foot Ninja. The black-clad assassin hurled his hands backward and swiped the shadows. The figure in the shadows moved.

Nightwing caught the ninja's hand and discharged enough electricity to drop him to the ground. Xever came up from behind him and withdrew his knives. Nightwing was quicker on the draw and flung his daggers at the Purple Dragon. The daggers knocked the knives out of the hand.

"You got lucky!"

Xever pulled himself to his feet and rushed his attacker. A third knife slipped out of the sleeve. Nightwing bent back to dodge the knife stabbed to him. The knife pushed back a few inches and caught him. The arm of Xever gripped hard with Nightwing flipping himself up over the air and landing on his feet.

"Watch out!"

"Don't worry!" Xever said. "I've got him."

Another dislodged knife came inches away from connecting to Nightwing's side. Nightwing blocked the attack and turned back. Another punch and then he shifted to the right to block. Xever went flying head over heels onto the ground. Nightwing propelled himself up and came inches away from bringing his foot down onto the back of the head of Xever.

Xever hurled a piece of wood at the head of Nightwing. Nightwing dodged the attack and the piece of wood knocked into the step which Sleazy E stood on. Sleazy E launched over the railing and fell over down onto the ground. Sleazy E looked up just in time to see a second knife fight between Nightwing and Xever.

Xever pulled back and took a huge knife out in an attempt to fling it at his adversary. Nightwing dodged the knife and it plunged into the side of the mutation tank. The mutation tank started to hiss in a very sinister way.

"Back off!" Karai yelled.

Karai, Xever, the Purple Dragons, and the Foot moved off. Nightwing watched as the mutation oozed out of the tank and splashed over the hand of Sleazy E. The mutation splashed onto his hand just as a cockroach did. He screamed in a very agonizing way.

"The bomb has been destabilized!" Karai yelled. "Go!"

Karai looked down at Nightwing who moved over to the bomb. The mutagen hose oozed out. Nightwing blocked the mutation away from him. Karai looked at Nightwing.

"You're going to have to disconnect the takes from the detonator," Karai told him. "It's over the platform."

Nightwing worked to undo the tanks underneath the bomb. He could hear something rising up from the ground. A giant cockroach mutant rose to his feet. The smell coming from the mutant caught Harry completely off guard.

"NO!" Sleazy E yelled at the top of his lungs.

* * *

Once again, Raph found himself hurled down to the ground by the Shredder. Raph pulled himself to a standing position and grimaced. He noticed Donnie and Leo trying to take down the Shredder. Shredder blocked the nearest attack and he kicked Donnie in the ribs to double over. A repeated series of attacks punished Donnie and doubled him over.

Mikey tried to catch the Shredder from behind. Shredder held him against the wall with a huge thud. Mikey bounced off of the ground. Shredder kicked him directly in the ribs and caused him to skid to the side.

"I assumed this would be a challenge," Shredder said. "This is pathetic."

Leo stabbed the blade at Shredder's neck. At the very last second, Shredder turned around and put the sword between his blades. He ripped the blade away from Leo's hands and received a boot buried into the stomach. Shredder hammered the back of Leo's neck and tossed him back down onto the ground.

Raph, Leo, Donnie, and Mikey pulled themselves up to a kneeling position. All four Turtle teenagers took a deep breath as they tried to hold themselves to each other.

"I don't know…the exact moment…where we lost control!"

Shredder charged to the kneeling Turtles and gave them pretty much no quarter. He smacked down all four of the Turtles. Raph flew down to the ground, with Mikey dropping down to the ground the second, Donnie following, and Leo going down to the ground last. The Shredder stepped back from the Turtles and looked them over.

"You can't fight me, you can't even stand."

Raph struggled to pull himself to his feet. Shredder stamped him down across the back of the head and punted the Turtle directly in the ribs hard. The insane pain gripping the Turtle made him scream out loud. Shredder pulled up Raph and slammed him into the wall.

"Hey, hands off my, bro!"

Mikey rushed in for the attack. Shredder casually blocked his attack. He grabbed Mikey by the back of the headband and smacked him into the wall. The huge impact of Mikey slamming face first into the wall caused the wind to knock out of him.

"You can't stop me!" Shredder yelled.

Donnie and Leo tried to attack Shredder on two fronts. Donnie came down from underneath. Leo came down from over the top. Donnie received a back kick directly to the chest. Leo received a back hand punch to the side of the head to knock him down onto the ground.

Leo took a deep breath and rolled over.

"I'm going to leave you fallen beneath my feet. You will not breathe another breath as long as I can. And then, I will deliver your broken, beaten bodies for Hamato Yoshi."

Shredder kicked Leo in the side of the head one more time. The rapid fire punches knocked Leo around. The bruises rose up his face. Leo fought on through with sheer determination.

"You won't…you won't…."

A huge blast knocked Leo down onto the back. His body rocked with the attack from Leo. Leo struggled to his feet. He watched when Shredder came over a battered Mikey. Shredder slung him around like he was nothing other than a sack of garbage.

"Saki, listen to me!" Krang yelled. "You have them dead to rights. You should finish them off. Finish them off, because you will never have another chance."

Shredder ignored Krang's words. The ninja pounded away at Leo with multiple attacks to rock him. Leo pulled in a very ragged breath when Shredder hit him as hard as possible. Leo could be rattled.

Raph pulled himself up and threw the Sai at the sewage pipe. The pipe bust open. The stream only slowed down Shredder for a few seconds, just enough for the four Turtles to get back their feet. Shredder swiped his hand across the row of the Turtles.

They all went flying and dropped down to the ground. Their bodies laid at the feet of the Shredder.

"You are pathetic. If this is the best Hamato Yoshi could do then I'm offended. You could not defeat me, no matter how much you tried."

* * *

Rocksteady rolled over when he slipped around in the sludge. He pulled himself up when trying to get a glimpse of his partner in crime.

"Bebop, are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

Bebop pulled himself up. He walked with a slight limp. Every moment he stepped over, his knee buckled underneath from him. Bebop searched for the stun laser he dropped. It disappeared into the sewer sludge. His face contorted into a very obvious grimace when looking down onto the ground.

"Where's the dinosaur?" Rocksteady asked.

Zog pushed himself to a standing position. The Triceraton took a deep breath when almost collapsing down to both knees. He slammed down onto the ground with the first attempt. The second attempt resulted in Zog standing up. His horn busted, face mask buttoned, blood dripping from his body. A large slash on the back of his neck made him stagger. He pulled a huge piece of pipe out of the small of his back. Zog grimaced when moving forward towards Bebop and Rocksteady.

"Let's get him!"

"You won't…you won't get me!"

Zog rushed towards Bebop and Rocksteady. He grabbed both of them around the waists and hurled them back onto the ground. Both of the mutants flung down onto the ground. The wind knocked out of their lungs.

"You will fall you Krang supporting scum!"

Rocksteady smashed Zog across the back of the head with a huge piece of sewer pipe. Bebop picked up a cinderblock and smashed it down onto the back of Zog's head. Both of the mutants punched and kicked at the Triceraton and beat him down onto the ground.

"Stay down!" Bebop yelled.

Bebop shattered the cinder block over the back of the neck of the Triceraton. His fingers twitched when he tried to pull up. His agony spread through his body when trying to pull up. He collapsed down onto the ground from the assault of what happened.

"Freeze!"

Bebop and Rocksteady stopped clubbing Zog from within an inch of his wife. The Earth Protection Force stepped down into the sewer tunnels. Their weapons pointed at Bebop and Rocksteady.

"Stand down!" the EPF command leader declared.

Both of the mutants responded with a very prominent set of snarls. They reached down onto the ground and picked up pipes from the ground. The two mutants moved to engage the EPF. The first couple of warning shots connected with the mutants when they connected with the two mutants. They staggered back a couple of feet with Bebop and Rocksteady dropping down to the ground.

"No, we're not going back there!" Bebop yelled at the top of his lungs. "We're not going back there. You're not locking ups back up there again! You're not going to do it!"

With each sentence, Bebop hurled pieces of debris at the EPF guards. Rocksteady reached down and claimed a laser blaster. He fired at the men who engaged him in battle. The laser blasts connected to the EPF goons who stepped a few inches. Bebop and Rocksteady moved back a couple of inches to get themselves some cover. They stood in the blood stained sludge on the ground, over the broken body of the Triceraton.

"Come at me!" Rocksteady yelled. He blasted a laser blast at the end of the tunnel. "Come at us! Come at us! You're not going to take him down. You're not going to put us down!"

A growl followed which caused Bebop and Rocksteady to stand up straight and look down the tunnel just in time to see a large mutant crocodile making his way down the sewer tunnels. Both Bebop and Rocksteady took several steps back. The EPF locked their weapons on Bebop and Rocksteady who both rushed down the tunnel.

The two mutants ran away as fast as their legs could carry them. They might have been able to handle a group of EPF soldiers and one wounded alien dinosaur. One very pissed off mutant crocodile was something else entirely. To fight something like that would be like to tempt fate.

* * *

A hideous person came directly face to face with Harry. The cockroach mutant slobbered some slime down onto the ground. The splatters of slime burned holes into the ground. Harry waited to see what he would do.

"Yes, I'm something else," the mutant said in a low voice.

' _Very hideous?'_ Emily chimed in.

' _Oh come on, I'm sure someone might love that face,'_ Amanda said. She shivered when she looked at the mutant. _'Granted, I'm not sure what could love something like that.'_

The cockroach mutant walked closer towards the warrior. He opened his mouth and spat at Nightwing. The shields around Nightwing's shirt caused the acid to splash up against it.

' _Scumbug looks like he wants to party,'_ Amanda thought.

"I thought you were going to take me down," Harry said. "Come at me! Come at me! If you think you can take me down. Come on Scumbug!"

The cockroach mutant stopped short of what he was doing. Nightwing aimed a throwing dagger up over his head and blew up the ceiling above him. Three chunks of concrete dropped down onto the ground and blocked Scumbug's path from approaching him.

Harry returned to the mutation tanks and linked it up with his suit. Most of the mutation drained out of the broken tank. The other five tanks were still hooked to the explosive devices. He realized one wrong move would result in an explosion.

"Disengaged," Nightwing said. "And just in time as well."

A splash of acid spit came through the rocks. Scumbug jumped through the rocks and directed his attention towards Nightwing. Nightwing stepped back to engaged him.

"You just won't stay down, will you?" Nightwing asked. "Alright, Scumbug. If you want to dance. Let's dance!"

"Scumbug?" Sleazy E asked. "I like that. I like that a whole lot. Everyone is going to know my name!"

"Just keep telling yourself that."

Harry caught the sound of something rumbling about three feet above his head. Just in time to see Scumbug rush towards him for another attack. Scumbug made an attempt to burn Harry to a very obvious crisp. Nightwing caught him with a dagger to the face to take him down and drop him down to the ground.

Scumbug healed very quickly. This could be a problem given that many felt in the event of a nuclear holocaust cockroaches would be the only that which would survive. Harry dodged the flew blasts of scum from Scumbug which burned through the walls.

' _What's that roaring sound?'_ Alex asked.

' _I don't know,'_ Harry said. _'Maybe I can use it to take down Scumbug.'_

The mutation bomb still being in the sewer with five full tanks of mutation, even when disengaged, made Harry a little bit edgy. He viewed Scumbug who charged him one more time.

Harry could hear something above them. Something was starting up just slightly above the ground. Some kind of fusion engine kicked into gear which could fry Harry directly where he stood. He took a deep breath and flashed out of the way just as Scumbug launched at him.

Scumbug dropped to the ground just in time to get baked underneath the flames of the fusion engine. The doctor ordered one mutant cockroach extra crispy. Scumbug's yells penetrated the tunnel just as the flames burned him.

* * *

Leo drew in a deep breath when he fought through the agonizing pain. One thing pushed Leo further to fight when most people would have dropped down for the count a very long time ago. His brothers were here with him. Shredder would butcher them if Leo allowed to. Leonardo refused to allow him to do so. As long as he could draw breath, no matter how painful, he would not stop. He would not stop fighting.

The walls of the sewer blurred together when Leo pulled himself up. He could not hear where the Shredder went in the battle. He figured it would not have been goon. Leo breathed in a very ragged breath. Mikey fell down to the ground next to him.

' _Still breathing.'_

Leo whipped back against the wall. The sound of his back striking against the wall punctuated a great deal of pain coming from his body. Leo squirmed on his belly and tried to pull himself up. Shredder stepped on his right hand to block him from grabbing the katana. Pure agony shot through Leo's body the very second Shredder forced the pressure down.

"It's over."

Two words almost punctuated by the Shredder's spiked gauntlet coming down against the throat. A walking stick blocked the gauntlet from going down and Shredder looked up. He noticed a figure wearing a robe with a hood over it. The hood came down to reveal a rat who came face to face with him. The rat's eyes narrowed when looking at Shredder.

"Hamato Yoshi!"

Shredder ripped his gauntlet away from the walking stick and drove his blade towards his hated enemy. Splinter dodged the attack with Shredder slamming the gauntlet firmly into the wall. Splinter backed off and motioned for Shredder to come after him.

Splinter jumped to a rickety ladder. Shredder followed him out of the sewers.

Donnie rolled over, as it Raph, and Mikey. Three of the four Turtles dragged their broken bodies over the floor. Small splatters of blood splashed against the ground when they moved to stand up. As hard as it may have been, they would have to try to stand.

"Splinter, he's here," Leo said. "It's going to be alright."

The other three Turtles sighed in relief. Leo strained to be the one to get up, to lead by example, and lead his brothers out of the tunnel. His face twisted into a grimace. Every ounce of Leo felt like he had been set on fire. He still had to rise, rise to his feet.

Leo stood up and staggered a step back. He motioned for his brothers to follow him. A beaten Donnie tried to get back to his feet next. He used one of his broken pieces of Bo Staff as a crutch to try and get himself to his feet. He staggered an inch back and collapsed.

Raph followed to his feet next, bent over. He winced with every movement. Raph turned his head down and offered a hand for Mikey to get him. Mikey took the hand of his brother and winced. He closed his eyes and wished he did not have an all over pain. They all did.

The entrance to the tunnel bust open. Bebop and Rocksteady ran out to the collective groans of the Turtles. The Turtles followed the progress of them and realized something chased them down the tunnel. Leo followed the progress, turned back to Raph, and then to the others.

"I'm not just seeing things. Right? That was a giant crocodile chasing Rocksteady and Bebop down the tunnel?"

Raph leaned against the sewer pipe on the wall. His deep breathing made it very hard to stand. "Not…just…you..bro!"

The figures stepped through the dust in the sewer. They drew the laser blasters and pointed them at the Turtles. Red dots flicked in the air and landed on the chest of each Turtle from the end of the hallway. Each Turtle moved back and groaned. They held their hands up to the air. The mere gesture caused all four to drop to their knees. Mikey let out a scream with the other three Turtles letting out more looks.

"You better come quietly."

A shrill sonic blast filled the tunnel. The EPF goons clapped their hands to their ears and howled out in pain at the sirens who came down the corridor. A bright orb engulfed the four Turtles and flashed them out of the way.

On the rooftop, Splinter ascended the building with speed. Shredder chased him, running at Splinter's tail. Quite literally given how Shredder slashed at Splinter's backside. Splinter pulled himself up and came to the rooftop.

"This ends tonight, Saki!"

Shredder pulled himself to the rooftop and faced off against the man he thought he killed sixteen years ago. Now, there would be no mistakes about it. He would slaughter the rat where he stood.

"Yes! It ends tonight. And it will be your end, Hamato Yoshi!"

Unfiltered hatred appeared in the eyes of the Shredder when facing off against Yoshi. The mutated rodent refused to not stare into the eyes of his hated enemy. The two circled each other and moved before they jumped into the air.

Shredder's gauntlet extended in the air came very close to stabbing into Splinter. Splinter dodged the attack and dropped down behind Shredder. Splinter caught Shredder with two rapid fire kicks to the back of the leg. Shredder spun around and sliced at Splinter's head.

The support beams for a water tower cut from Shredder's assault. Splinter looked down at Shredder and motioned for him to go forward one more time. Shredder dove at Splinter with pure hatred and slammed through another support beam to the water tower. Splinter forced the Shredder to cut his way through, two more times.

The water tower tilted with Shredder looking up. Splinter kicked him down to the ground and then went behind the water tower. He kicked it over with one vicious attack. The water tower toppled over to collapse on top of the Shredder. Both flew off of the edge of the building.

Shredder hit the ground hard and was buried underneath the debris of the water tower. Splinter looked down at Shredder. The sounds of sirens approaching made the rat know he needed to depart as soon as humanly possible. A part of him had been at peace knowing his ancient adversary had been crushed. A part of him, however, mourned for the darkness which entered Saki's soul and twisted him into the Shredder.

' _You could have been much more.'_

Splinter dropped down to collect his sons. He stopped when coming face to face with Harry.

"They got out just fine."

Splinter nodded and looked around to assess the full danger. Try as he might, he could not stay here. There were people who lurked around and he knew of the danger.

"They're back at the lair," Harry said. "The EPF came close to nabbing them. I was just there in time to grab them. You should go back now to tend to them."

"Right, thank you," Splinter said.

Harry watched Splinter scurry off to check on his sons where he should have been now. Water dripped down from the rooftop above Harry. Harry followed the progress of where the Shredder's broken body landed. He decided it was time to check up on a couple more things.

' _I made it to the TCRI basement, almost,'_ Alex thought. _'But, there's…there's nothing down there…and there were some weird explosions nearby the building.'_

' _I know what it was,'_ Harry thought. _'Krang has something big underneath the city. He's not going to let anyone get close to it. Not until it's finished anyway. He's got it deep under the city. The fusion engine went off and fried the cockroach mutant I was going up against. Scumbug.'_

* * *

Harry tracked what he needed to go, standing next to Alex. The two stopped at the end of the tunnel and noticed a large alien dinosaur lying face down on the ground. Alex stepped and rushed over towards him. She stopped, turned around, and checked the area. Something she should have done first before rushing to the aid of a large alien dinosaur.

"He's just breathing. But barely."

Zog had been rolled over. He looked like he had been beaten down severely. The injuries he had were massive, and Harry doubted very much they could do much good for him right now.

"Was…the mission successful?" Zog asked.

"We did it, soldier," Harry said. "We stopped Krang from carrying out his attack."

"Thank you, sir," Zog said. "Sorry, sir."

The Triceraton faded with his last breath. He expired, thinking he had done some good. His last act had been to stick it to Krang and stop him from committing more crimes. Harry stood down and offered a moment of silence out of the respect of the soldier.

Once his respects had been paid, Harry now had to figure out where to store the corpse of a giant alien dinosaur.

* * *

Karai followed the trail of carnage down to the Shredder. She half-expected to fight him dead. Several Foot Ninjas appeared behind her. The crashed water tower showed what he had to go through during the final moments of his existence.

"It's important we find him," Karai said.

Karai would have liked to say Shredder's obsession should have taught a very valuable lesson to all of them. Some people never learned their lessons, unfortunately. Karai walked closer towards the water tower. She paused and listened closely.

Ragged breathing came from underneath the water tower. Karai could hardly believe it.

"He's still alive."

"Dig him out," Krang popped in over her ear piece. "And get him back to headquarters, immediately. He's not done yet."

Karai motioned for the ninjas to do their work. They made quick time dragging the Shredder's body out of the rubble. Had it not been for the thick armor, he would have been crushed instantly. His sufferings could not have been minimized, as the only signs he offered was breathing.

"Yoshi," Shredder groaned in his only word he managed.

"Get him back to TCRI," Karai said.

The Foot hoisted Shredder up over their heads and carried him off to receive the medical attention he needed. They had no idea what was in store for their master next.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 19** **th** **, 2017.**


	326. When the Dust Settles

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Six: When the Dust Settles**

* * *

Miracles were needed for Harry to haul the broken body of Zog out of the sewers and into one of the sub basements of the penthouse. He had to worry about a few things. The EPF, any police officials roaming around, sewer workers, and more importantly, the Foot, they were just some of the worries which visited Harry's mind. Harry managed to get Zog out of the sewers and into the basement.

His remains entered a containment tank. Harry figured straight away there was nothing to do to save the person inside of the tank. Harry figured Zog lived on some very borrowed time the moment Earth's atmosphere poisoned him. Harry did not really know if there was anything to do to save him.

He had the Triceraton here, and also a few pieces of equipment laid out on the table. Harry would have to pick them together to see what high-tech technology the Triceratons developed. Or rather, what high-tech developments the Triceratons likely stole. Either way, Harry took extra care to make sure he collected pretty much all of Zog's equipment from the tunnels.

Alex returned back to the DEO. The Turtles and Splinter were one level beneath the lab Harry was in. They suffered a hell of a night, the guys especially. Harry got them out of there just in time. The last thing he wanted to them would be them to end up in an EPF facility somewhere to be poked and prodded.

The lab doors slid open. Faora stepped into the lab and looked at the creature in the tank. She never thought they would have a Triceraton with them here on Earth.

"It's surprising he was the only one who got picked up in the Portal stream," Faora said. "Say what you want about Triceratons. They travel in packs. They are always in groups. You can see one of them and the others, they are not far behind."

Harry answered with a nod of agreement and looked at the creature inside of the tank. He did not expect anything from the alien dinosaur. He checked his vital signs and ran a few tests. No chance in reviving him and with the injuries, he would be living in absolute pain.

"That's what worries me," Harry said. "What's the chances of the Triceratons trying to track him to Earth?"

"A lot less now that you disabled all of the relay components in his equipment," Faora said. "It's still possible. It's just not as easy."

Tribble stepped into the room through the open lab door. The Neutrino Princess gasped the very instants he saw the rough Triceraton come into the lab. She never expected one to show up on Earth. The unease of the Alien Princess only slightly lessened when she realized he was dead.

"He won't harm any of us," Faora said.

She moved over and wrapped her arm around the shoulder of Tribble. Tribble slumped a little bit with Faora's grip tightening around her. She took in a deep breath and nodded. Anxiety increased through the alien Princess for a long second.

' _So, do you want a heads up on what's going on?'_ Alex thought.

Harry could tell because of her tone straight away that there was going to be something going down. Not only was something going down, but it was going to be something that was going to have a huge fallout.

' _Go ahead. Tell me what you have.'_

Alex drew in her breath and jumped into the report straight away without sugar coating anything.

' _The situation is absolutely FUBARed. The DEO and the EPF are going to butt heads over this. Bishop thinks our interference prevented us from nabbing Krang. And the EPF got in our way of getting inside of the TCRI building. I don't think either of us really came close if you want my honest opinion.'_

Harry sat down at the table and started to fiddle with one of the pieces of Triceraton equipment. He made sure it would not give off a signal when he took it apart. You could not be too careful in a situation like this.

' _The EPF has a new enforcer, and well, you saw what happened when he chased Bebop and Rocksteady down the sewer tunnels,'_ Alex thought. _'Speaking of which, Bebop and Rocksteady are missing. As is Scumbug and Rahzar. The others have been contained.'_

' _What did you tell Henshaw about the Triceraton?'_

' _I told him to take it up with you,'_ Alex thought. _'And yes, I did warn him that they would be coming. And the DEO is taking the steps to prepare for an invasion.'_

Tribble rubbed the fingers down across her temple. She would have been lying if there were not a lot of worries entering her mind. One of the biggest worries which entered her mind was the fact that they would notice Zog was missing.

"They're coming," Tribble said. "You know they're coming."

Harry pushed himself off of the table away from the equipment. Tribble stepped back to give Harry plenty of room. His hand reached up and wrapped around Tribble's waist to pull her in to comfort her. Faora took Harry's spot in playing with the alien equipment.

"That disables enemy bombs," Faora said. "Pretty handy."

"Yes," Harry said. "And yes, Tribble, I know they're coming."

Tribble faced the man of her dreams. Her breathing increased. She heard a lot of horror stories about the Triceratons. They might have been enemies of Krang, but they were no better than Krang. In some ways, the Triceratons were very worse.

"I know they're likely to come," Harry said. "And they're going to come in massive numbers. It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow. It might not be even next month or next year."

Her hand found his and Tribble smiled when he squeezed it.

"We'll be ready. They're not going to get the drop on us."

The warm hand around Tribble's made her take a deep breath in response. Harry leaned into her and pulled her closer towards him. The Princess had her doubts and fears. She regretted the nature of the war-torn dimension she hailed from. Tribble almost dreaded the Portable Portal Generation.

"There's a call for you," Peve chimed in. "It's Mari."

"Put her on."

Peve put Mari on the phone into the lab, broadcasting her voice.

"Hey, Mari," Harry said. "What can I do for you?"

"Just calling up to confirm our date for tomorrow evening," Mari said.

Harry could tell the anticipation in her voice just by listening to her. She really looked forward to the date. Harry planned to give Mari a night she would never forget.

"No, trust me, I haven't forgotten," Harry said. "Even if I'm down in the lab, getting some work done, I always keep my social calendar in mind."

"That's good to hear," Mari said. "You seem busy."

Harry could almost laugh at the casual nature of her statement. He did not mean to poke fun at the situation, or at Mari. She did hit the problem today. Harry's workload increased when having to house a Triceraton, and also the Triceraton's weapons, in one of his spare lab basements.

"Always am," Harry said. "It keeps me out of trouble."

* * *

One of the most anticipated trials in Gotham City approached. The entire world watched and the entire world included the members of the press who were watching to see what Zucco would talk about during this trial. The mobster leaned back, trying to be calm and casual. He knew what would happen if he lost his cool.

The state put police protection around Zucco around the clock. Actual good cops who could not be swayed by bribes kept close to Zucco and made everyone who might cause him harm think twice about attacking him. Zucco leaned back the chair on the stand. His defense attorney talked to him and noted that he would have to cooperate, name a few names, bury a few people.

Zucco came face to face with Harvey Dent.

"Mr. Zucco, why did you flee Gotham City?" Dent asked.

He really was asking this question. Zucco swallowed the lump in his throat.

"You know, I was afraid of my life. That stunt at the Circus, it was a really bad idea. But, you know, someone told me that I wasn't pulling my weight. So, I had to do something. And yeah, it's a shame that the kid had to see that."

"It's only a shame because you expected her to be up there with her parents," Dent said. Dent lightly slammed his hand down on the table.

"Objection," Zucco's attorney said. "District Attorney Dent is overstepping his bounds and trying to bully my client. He's not well because of this."

"Your honor," Dent said. "Please recall the evidence of Zucco's medical examinations which have been introduced to you a few days ago. Zucco's mental evaluations proved him to be of sound mind. He was relaxed, oddly cool because of this."

"I agree the only mental trauma Mr. Zucco caused is only brought on by his own actions," the judge said. "Still, remember to keep a professional tone when dealing with him. I do not want my courthouse to turn into a Circus like the rest of Gotham City. "

Dent responded with a respectful nod.

"You were gone for a year, Mr. Zucco," Dent said. "You were in Metropolis, weren't you?"

"Yeah, I hung out there for about a year or so, until the heat died down," Zucco said. "The heat was on me for a long time. And I realized I had been called back too soon when they were after me."

"Who was after you?" Dent asked.

"Batman, Nightwing, the GCPD, they all wanted to bring me down," Zucco said. "I should have never been back in Gotham City. I wouldn't have been brought back if Maroni hadn't been desperate. He knew I worked for Intergang for the better part of the year. I could get his weapons to him in a way."

Dent realized what Zucco said.

"So, are you telling me Salvatore Maroni was the one who asked you to get the weapons through?"

Zucco took in a deep breath. He saw Maroni from across the room, watching in handcuffs. Maroni looked at Dent through gritted teeth.

"Yeah, he made a deal to get back into town and take me off of Bruno Mannheim's hands," Zucco said. "You see, Mannheim told me that he would take care of me if I did some work from Intergang."

"And what work would he be having you do?" Dent asked.

"Objection!" Zucco's attorney yelled again. "The crimes committed by Mr. Zucco inside of Metropolis are not relevant to his charges inside of Gotham City."

"Sustained," the judge said. "Stick to the charges involved which happened inside of the Gotham City limits for this trial."

"Who were the men working on the Gotham End of this Pipeline you mentioned in your deposition?" Dent asked. "If you could tell the jury and the judge."

"Sammy West and Joey Peterson, they are the guys that you're looking for," Zucco said.

This statement caused the members of the jury to jump in surprise. Samuel West and Joseph Peterson worked as Gotham City councilmen and had over two decades of distinguished service between the two of them. Dent tried not to show his triumph. He had been trying to get something incriminating on West and Peterson for a very long time. They were corrupt scum.

Maroni took in a deep breath from the other side. He was halfway across the court room and was not able to do anything other than stare down at Zucco from the other end of the room with severe hatred in his eyes.

"The Gotham City Councilmen?"

"They signed off construction of the tunnel which we're using as the main part of the pipeline," Zucco said. "All you have to do is look back. William Earle was a part of it as well. At least, he was a part of it before he lost it. Don't know how much he knows."

"Are those people you saw with your own eyes?"

"West made a trip to Metropolis this past May, and Peterson made a trip to Metropolis the month before," Zucco said. "They stayed in Metropolis for a week each. You might have noticed Peterson driving up to City Hall with a new car around that time."

Those who knew the score did, in fact, notice Peterson's new high-end sports car as well.

Maroni's burning stare focused onto Zucco. A man who he took in and made something turned on it and pretty much ruined his operations. They would call in Peterson and West for questioning. Then they would get deeper and deeper. Maroni's fingers twitched when holding onto the edge of the chair he stood at.

"Mr. Maroni?" the guard asked.

"Davis, please hand me my medication."

Maroni took his ulcer medication. The stress of the last couple of months resulted in some really bad health problems. This trial could end up putting Maroni in the grave. And it was hard telling what Falcone might do if his operations started getting compromised.

' _That son of a bitch doesn't know anything about that end. Thank God for small favors.'_

* * *

Harry stepped out of a stunning red car and walked to the front of an entrance to a high rise penthouse in Manhatten. Today had been the night where he knew Mari looked forward to for a long time. Harry moved to the entrance of the penthouse only to catch sight of the vision of beauty coming down from the top of the steps.

The stunning red dress greedily clung to her beautiful Ebony frame. Her hair covered her face and those alluring eyes, cat-eyes for lack of a better term, looked down at Harry. Mari moved down the steps and walked as gracefully as possible in those high heels. She dropped down to face Harry and smiled at him.

"You look beautiful."

Mari leaned towards Harry and smiled.

"You don't look bad yourself."

Harry offered his arm to Mari. The two of them walked out of the door with each other, moving towards the nice sports car.

"So, where are heading tonight?" Mari asked.

He did not answer her question straight away. He opened the door and moved to allow Mari inside of the sport's car. Harry stepped back and closed the door. He stepped into the front of the car.

"A nice dinner, and maybe we can swing a club. Felicia recommended one to me, that I haven't been at yet."

"Felicia recommended it?" Mari asked. "Is it bad that I don't know whether I should be excited or terrified? Or some strange combination of both?"

Harry laughed as he pulled out of the streets of New York City. The happy couple prepared for their day.

"So, how about my place after we're done?" Mari asked. "Unless you want to go back to my place. I'm not picky, to be perfectly honest."

Harry chuckled at the tone Mari used. He could tell for a long time, especially the way she was teasing on the trip, that she wanted to get with him for some time. At the very least, since the last Fashion week event, and to be honest, she hovered around long enough for Harry to think tonight would be the night to make the move.

"Someone is eager."

"The girls have been talking you up," Mari said. "It's exciting to think about."

Harry did not disagree with Mari. He could only imagine what Felicia, MJ, and Lavender have been corrupting Mari with. His girls were the greatest agents of recruitment for Harry's collective. A collective which grew more and more insane with each passing year as Harry's girls recruited for him more.

"Anticipation builds character."

He touched the top of Mari's thigh for a brief second and pulled away to put both of his hands.

"I must have a lot of character by now."

She certainly did not intend for Harry to hear her low mutter. The fact Harry smiled in a knowing way out of the side of his mouth showed Mari how much he heard. He enjoyed toying with her and frustrating her.

* * *

Krang shuffled through a control room in the depths of his base of operations. Machines lined up over the walls as far as the eye could see. Each machine had their own specific purpose to monitor a certain feature. Krang followed the progress of each machine with a very narrowed eye. The machines did not meet up to the high standards Krang expected from his operations.

' _Only eighty-five percent operational.'_

The rumbling of engines told Krang at least this particular part worked. It was about the only thing which had gone right for Krang so far tonight. They just barely got the Technodrome out from underneath the TCRI building and moved it elsewhere to New York.

The war machine still needed some minor adjustments for conquest. Namely, Krang figured a working Interdimensional Portal would be the top of the line. It still upset the alien brain about the fact the portal flew offline when someone else opened the portal. No matter how hard Krang tried, no sign of who opened the offending portal which knocked his out of orbit.

"Blast this!" Krang growled. "Only eighty-five percent operational? This is unacceptable. To fully achieve my goals, the Technodrome must be one hundred percent operational."

The only solace Krang allowed himself and even this was very minor, would be that they could search the basement of the TCRI building high and low, and not find anything. His machine could move through the large tunnels cultivated underneath the city from years of constant work. Krang looked on with a smile when he noticed they were on route to the sports stadium which would be the new home for his Technodrome.

Krang shifted his attention elsewhere. He moved past the double sliding doors and down the hallway. He went to an operating room.

The broken body of Oroku Saki better known as the Shredder laid on a bed in a room surrounded by just purely white walls and metallic machines. The tubes connecting to his body only performed the most minimalistic amount of life support possible. Krang stood over Saki's body. The shallow breathing only was as much as Krang would allow from the machine. The alien brain surveyed his partner in crime with the most casual of contempt possible.

"Look at the sad state of you."

The feeding tube lodged in his throat brought only the most minimal amount of nourishment Saki needed to survive in his body. Krang moved over to look at the clipboard hanging over the bed. They detailed all of the injuries Saki suffered in the most graphic and horrific detail possible.

"Internal injuries," Krang read off. "Most of your bones have been broken. Organ punctured, and you can only just breathe because I've allowed it. You might say the Shredder got shredded."

Krang allowed himself a hideous round of laughter. The alien brain stopped laughing and grew deathly serious when he locked eyes on his colleague.

"It's very pathetic you've allowed yourself to become this broken," Krang said. "You allowed some decrepit old rat to humiliate you. And what was worse, you didn't finish off the Turtles either. Despite you having multiple opportunities to do so."

Saki only gave the barest signs of life and no certainty whether or not he heard a single word Krang said. Krang most certainly did not care whether or not these words penetrated his thick skull. Krang only cared whether or not he had a chance to vent about Saki's various shortcomings, of which he had many.

"From now on, I'm going to take control of this relationship," Krang said. "It's obvious you just can't cut it anymore. But don't worry, I will repair you. And I will remake you."

Krang let out a very large breath.

"STOCKMAN!"

Stockman and a few Foot Ninjas wheeled a large piece of equipment into the room. Two tubes slid into holes into the top of it. One of the tubes contained the very familiar mutagen and the other contained a bubbling blue fluid which hissed when it moved.

Krang viewed his minions turn up with the equipment he requested and smiled.

"Stockman, are you certain this will work?" Krang asked.

"Yes," Stockman said. "Of course it will. The process will pump a combination of the mutagen, and the contents of the pit which we found underneath the stadium. This Lazarus chemical, I believe it was called."

Karai turned up at the door and her mouth hung open in thinly veiled shock when she looked at the state of the Shredder. The only thing which caused her mouth to hang open more was what Stockman acquired from underneath the Stadium.

"That's from a Lazarus Pit," Karai said.

"Thanks for the information," Krang said in a dull voice.

"You stole from a Lazarus Pit," Karai said. "Which means you stole from the League of Assassins."

"They weren't using it right now, whoever this League is," Krang said. "Plus, I believe you humans have a saying. Finders keepers, losers weepers!"

Krang laughed at himself. Karai seemed less than amused and decided that the consequences would be on Krang's head if he incited the wrath of Ra's al Ghul and the League. Any resource, even one that was not being used, belonging to the League being taken without their consent would be akin to a declaration of war. And that meant they would target the Foot in battle.

' _I wonder why I even bother these days,'_ Karai thought.

* * *

A nice night on the town ended with a nice evening indoors. Mari only had a couple of drinks tonight to relax and have some fun. She knew her limit and knew what would happen if she indulged in more drinks. Mari already felt very daring when she lead Harry up to the main level at the penthouse suite. She could feel Harry's eyes glued on her swaying backside when moving to the front door.

"Thanks for the evening," Mari said. "I really appreciated it."

"No problem," Harry said. "The only regret I have is that we didn't do it any sooner."

"Yeah, me too."

Mari fumbled with the key for a second until opening the door and allowing them to go inside to the main floor. A sitting area greeted them. Mari kept a very nice home. Her portfolio rested on the table in a neat stack. Tackboard covered the walls which contained pictures of various shoots she had done over the years. A couple of artifacts she picked up over the years hung on the walls. She walked over the maroon carpet and dropped her handbag onto the fine imported couch made out of the best materials.

"I'd make you a cup of coffee," Mari said. "But, we know the real reason why you're here."

The beautiful vixen slinked over to Harry. Harry watched as the moonlight bathed over her beautiful body. Her stunning eyes locked onto Harry. Mari slipped her hand around Harry's waist and pulled him in close to her. Harry leaned down a little bit.

"We do."

The two kissed with Mari really going in for the kiss. Her nails lightly dug into the side of Harry's face. She had been dreaming of a private moment like this for close to two years. Damn if she would not make the most of the kiss. Her tongue pushed into the depths of Harry's mouth. Their kissing increased until both of them pulled apart from each other.

Mari stepped back towards her room. She turned on a light and moved over to the lavish bed with leopard printed sheets and many soft pillows all around. She kicked off her shoes and moved to invite Harry over onto the bed. She grabbed him by the tie and pulled him onto the bed.

The dark-skinned temptress pushed her tongue into Harry's mouth for a second kiss. Her hands worked feverish on his shirt and kissed his body. She could feel something getting very constrained when pulling off Harry's shirt.

Mari made quick work of his pants but only just the pants. She stopped with an encouraging smile and stepped back. Mari slipped off the straps of her desk and allowed her clothes to fall to the ground. Harry saw all of her being unveiled, from her beautiful face, down to her slender shoulders. Her round breasts strained in the middle of a silky white top which contrasted very nicely against her dark skin. A stomach trained to be flat by constant exercise and healthy heating appeared. Mari's hips curved out to show her delicious rear stretched into a pair of transparent panties. Then her legs, her legs still wrapped into those sheer stockings.

Harry sat on the end of the bed which allowed Mari to crawl on her hands and knees towards him. Both parties laid on the bed in their underwear and they would soon be in much less.

They met one more time with a very explosive kiss with each other. Mari wanted to go in for much more.

* * *

 

Mari sucked on Harry's lips and moved down to kiss his chest. She slowly worked her hands down his body. His cock begged for release and to be released from the confines of his boxer shorts. Mari squeezed around his tool to tease him.

"I think it wants out."

Mari slowly moved Harry's pants down. She saw his cock from afar a few times when he pleasured another woman. Seeing it up close and personal with her hand wrapped around the base, it was something else entirely. Mari dropped down and touched the tip of his cock into her mouth. She tasted the precum coming out of it.

The gorgeous chocolate-skinned beauty lightly touching his cock with her lips and tongue caused Harry to leap up. Mari paid special attention to his cock and made sweet love to it with her mouth. She looked up with those gorgeous eyes that caused Harry to twitch in her mouth.

"Fuck!" Harry groaned. "I thought you'd be good."

Mari inhaled his cock into her mouth with one fluid shot. The manhood being shoved deep into her throat made Harry's cock swell as much as possible. She moved down to cradle his balls and increase the good feelings which came from this perfect sexual act.

The throbbing cock inside her mouth felt so right. Mari enjoyed the reaction she received from Harry. Her mouth bobbed repeatedly around Harry's swollen tool and pushed more of it between her very able, hungry lips. She smacked down around the edge of the cock and kept sucking him, sucking him until Harry's balls started to twitch. Mari cupped the underside of them and squeezed him.

Mari pulled away and kissed Harry on the tip of his cock. She turned around and slowly teased Harry by dropping her bra onto the bed. Two round chocolate orbs came out in front of Harry's line of sight. Mari stood up on the bed and dropped her panties down. Her shaven pussy appeared for Harry. She turned very slightly so Harry could see her ass.

"You like something you see?" Mari playfully asked.

Harry looked over her body and smiled. "All of it."

"Good," Mari said. "I'm glad. So how do you want me stud?"

"Nice, wet, and ready," Harry said.

Mari crawled over to Harry one more time. Her breasts crushed against his chest when she pushed herself against him. The lovers indulged in each other. Harry reached up to grab a heart handful of Mari's ass and squeeze it. She ground against him and the feeling of his needy cock against her.

"I bet you'd like me on my hands and knees, wouldn't you?"

The African beauty pulled away from Harry. Her curves were on full display on the bed. Mari almost stuck her nice wide ass into Harry's face. Harry moved in and touched her body. His hands moved over her gorgeous skin which shined beautifully in the moonlight. Harry kissed her a few times on the back of the neck. He worked himself into position.

Mari only knew it would be a matter of time. Harry edged closer towards her. His lengthy cock came close to tapping against her needy lips. Mari pushed back.

"Do it," Mari said. "Do me?"

Harry wrapped his arms around her waist and lined up with her center. He shoved his cock inside of Mari from behind. She swayed back with Harry touching every inch of her body he could get. He needed to touch Mari's body as he was inside of her. It burned up underneath his hands.

"Harry!"

Mari's enjoyment rose to a peak. Harry worked her body just like the girls said they would. He made every spot he touched count. Mari almost had been taken off guard by how many little pleasurable shivers she received. Her nipples grew hard under the touch of the young man behind her.

Her chocolate-colored skin dripped with bodily fluids when Harry shoved into her. She looked so sexy that Harry needed to touch every bit of her body. His cock pushed deep into her body. Those warm thighs clenched and the inner muscles worked Harry.

Harry tasted the back of her neck and nibbled down on it. He could see she particularly enjoyed one spot being attacked. Harry bit down on her neck and caused Mari to almost become undone.

The Fashion Model underneath Harry squirmed and creamed underneath him.

"Are we having a good time?"

Harry pushed underneath her to take full mastery of Mari's jiggling breasts. He grabbed the firm orbs and squeezed them before moving up to touch her world class ass. The state of her gushing center told Harry everything he wanted to know about how much fun she had. He just wanted to hear it from her mouth.

"Oh…..Harry….YES! FUCK ME!"

He deepened the thrust inside of her warm body. Mari tightened around him one more time to milk Harry's ever swelling pull. He could feel his balls grow even tighter with each passing orgasm.

The discharge brought his liquids inside of Mari for the first time tonight. Harry drained his heavy balls into the loins of the goddess and pushed it inside of her.

Mari pulled away from him, her pussy still buzzing. She rolled over onto the bed, her entire body on display for Harry. Mari parted her thighs and ran her fingers teasingly over her body. She pushed one of her round tits into her mouth and sucked on the Caramel covered nipple before releasing it.

"I want more," Mari purred on the bed. "Please, Harry, don't leave me….."

Harry decided to tease her by fondling her breasts and moving down her body. Mari's loins pumped so much heat from them that Harry needed to be inside. Harry pushed his hard cock at the edge of her entrance. He grabbed Mari's hips and used them as a base to lower into her pussy.

Mari stretched one more time. Harry straddled and rode her warm pussy. She stretched around Harry and released his cock which almost slid out of him.

The thrashing woman underneath him made Harry feel so good. He took his hard cock and plowed Mari as hard and fast as possible. Every time her pussy came up to meet him, it clenched Harry in a very amazing vice. His cock rose up and buried deep inside of her. He held onto her ass as it rose up the bed. Those powerful legs lifted up for Harry to push down inside of her.

The two lovers matched each other on the bed. Mari marveled at this sexual wonder just taking her over. Her entire body felt like it received a very potent massage all over her. Her loins gushed as hard as possible.

The sound of their flesh smacking together made Harry feel very good. He worked Mari up to another orgasm. She rewarded the pleasure by squeezing Harry's large throbbing tool inside of her body. Harry picked up a steadier pace when taking the plunge inside of her body.

"Harry," Mari breathed in his ear. "Harder. Please, harder, don't…don't slow down. Please, don't slow down."

Mari kept tightening around Harry. Every time his cock slid into her it felt like pure super-charged magic. Mari held onto Harry the second he drove himself far inside of her. Her nails dug into his back and encouraged him.

"You're so sexy, "Harry said. "I like your body writhing underneath mine. I like how much you're cumming. And you're going to cum for me again."

His words proved to be her undoing. Mari shifted her hips up and released more juices around Harry's rod. Harry pushed into her as far as possible and rode Mari to the edge of another orgasm. The minute her last orgasm ended, Harry built her up for another one.

"Harry," Mari panted in his ear.

"Yes, darling, cum for me again."

Mari came again with her hips rising and falling against Harry's thrusts. She took him inside of her. The second time for this evening, she wanted a load buried inside her pussy.

Her loins gushed and pulled Harry inside of her. His balls kept slapping down on her thighs and repeated the actions where he thrust inside of her. Deeper and faster Harry went to stretch Mari out as far as possible.

"My turn."

Mari could hardly wait. Harry ruled every inch of her glorious body. Something would have to give and she would have to cum. Mari held on for the ride to take as much of Harry inside of her as humanly possible. Her eyes faded over when the pleasure filled her.

The two came together. Their bodies only warmed up from the pleasure. Harry rode Mari all the way to the end. She grabbed onto him and held him against her rising and falling form careful not to lose a single drop of cum from those swollen balls.

Harry finished inside of her. The last few discharges of cum blasted Mari's walls and painted them completely white. Harry lowered down onto her, lying on her body. Hard nipples dug into a firm chest when Harry emptied the last few splatters of his load inside Mari.

"Perfect."

The Sorcerer smiled at Mari's assessment.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 21** **st** **, 2017.**


	327. Stopped Cold

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty Seven: Stopped Cold**

* * *

The honorable Gotham City courthouse was one of the oldest buildings which had not been rebuilt over the last decade. The city designated the court house as a land mark. Many fascinating trials took place in the court house. Some of the most fabled District Attorney's stood.

Two sets of steps lead up into the courthouse. Seven steps lead up to a platform and a further eight steps lead up to the actual entrance of the courthouse. The parking lot divided on either side of the court house. Golden railings with a little bit of rust jutted out in every direction. Everyone waited to see what would happen when the court house let out.

One of the women who waited to give the news was Vicki Vale. She relished the opportunity getting to report one of the biggest stories in the entire history of Gotham City. Only time would tell how this story could be judged in the entire history of Gotham City. Vicki knew they were witnessing history.

Several court reporters moved on the outside. Vicki heard from her person on the inside the big news. She switched the ear piece on.

"Are we going live soon?" Vicki asked. "In ten, great."

Vicki snapped into her professional demeanor the second the news report went live. The reporter drew in a very deep breath and smiled brightly. The camera panned up to get a full short of the court house, then Vicki standing in front of it, and then it zoomed in on Vicki Vale herself.

She had a sixth sense that only a lifetime of news reporting could have. Vicki launched straight into her news reporter.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Vicki Vale and I'm standing out live in front of the Gotham City Courthouse. As we discussed earlier today, Tony Zucco, notorious for his murder of the Flying Graysons and several other crimes, has pled guilty inside. The jury did not take too much time to discuss what would happen with Zucco. While he will not be facing the death penalty, Zucco will have life in prison."

Vicki paused just long enough to allow those words to sink in for the television viewing audience.

"Zucco has given several pieces of key evidence which implicated several people in Gotham City. I have been unable to discuss anything at this time whether or not the GCPD is taking these matters seriously and will press forward with an investigation on these implicated parties."

The chaos which would come in Gotham City was just par for the course of living here. The breeze blew outside and Vicki adjusted her stance just slightly so she could lean back. The camera panned up to zero straight into her face.

"One of the implicated figures is notorious Gotham City criminal kingpin Salvatore Maroni. Maroni was previously released, under probation, after being charged with the violation of the RICO act. Should Maroni get convicted of the charges, based off of Zucco's testimony and the testimony of others, he will be facing a hundred years to live in prison."

Vicki took a moment to allow that to sink in.

"The trial of Salvatore Maroni will take place next week. I will bring you more coverage from the aftermath of the Tony Zucco trial. This is Vicki Vale at the Gotham City Courthouse, signing off."

A limo rolled around the city block three times. A television flipped on in the limo revealing the report. The plush purple seats pushed against the back of the occupant of the limo. Despite the comfortable seats, Carmine Falcone did not seem too pleased by the outcome.

His body language shifted and his breathing increased. Falcone zeroed in on the television screen and focused on the news coming across the bottom of the screen.

Falcone knew the next week would be a rough one. The entire landscape of Gotham City shifted in ways which he could only just barely envision.

Black Mask destroyed his entire reputation due to his very vicious actions at the birthday party just a few weeks back. The Penguin moved up in battle and was getting ahead.

The only thing Falcone could say with any certainty was his name commanded respect. Even though he lost a lot of his desire to do much of anything after the death of his son, Alberto.

"Make sure those storage units get moved," Carmine said. "I don't want them to fall into the hands of anyone. Not Penguin, not Black Mask, not Thorne, not the GCPD. Do you understand me?"

"Yes, sir."

Carmine would have torn into the people involved for not getting this done sooner. He just did not have the same zeal he had in the past from getting these things done. He waited for all of his enemies to make their next move for better or for worse.

The Roman drew a very ragged breath and knew the next few days would show if Maroni was going to turn complete stooge to save his skin. Dent made sure Maroni could not be reached. The District Attorney knew how to play the game and was a worthy adversary he respected.

* * *

Victor Fries sat in his basement and faced the laundry hanging from the downstairs lines. The sound of the washing machine going through the next load oddly soothed the scientist. He thought about the mistakes made in this process. One of them was ignoring some rather obvious signs something was wrong and trying to push forward with his life.

' _We all make these errors.'_

The wood paneling of the basement proved to be a pretty practical area. He moved over to a shelf and pulled off some laundry detergent. Nora walked down the steps next to Victor and stopped when staring him down from behind.

"Victor Fries is doing laundry? Will wonders ever cease?"

Victor just smiled. "We have to experience something once before the end. And it allows me to think…and I didn't mix the lights with the darks either."

The scientist held his hand against the bottle of laundry detergent and tried not to drop it to the ground. Every now and then he felt a numbness shoot through his hands. It was borderline impossible for him to clutch it for very long and it would only get worse as his illness progressed.

"I'm ready to take the steps we talked about."

Nora pulled out a chair in the basement so she could sit down on it. The woman's eyes flashed open. Victor could see the discomfort in her eyes.

"I know you have your misgivings."

"Yes," Nora said. "You should….are you certain this is going to really work?"

"I cannot think negatively now," Victor said. "I cannot see failure in front of me. I have to do this. And I have to have your support when I do this."

Nora folded her arms and looked at Victor. He had her support just like he always had her support. It was just, it was a project which was dangerous. Nora could have mentally counted all of the things which could go wrong in this situation.

"Lives can be saved. And my life, if we can manage it. Time freezes, and so will I. We just need to get the equipment."

"We're going off to GothCorp?" Nora asked. "Now?"

"Yes, we're going off to GothCorp, now," Victor confirmed to his wife with a smile. "There has never been a better time for us to take this step. Boyle is preoccupied with his own preparations for an award which he has not completely won."

Victor only followed the Humanitarian of the Year proceedings with detached emotion. He did notice that there were a lot of contenders. Boyle did have the connections to make the award happen and he performed a lot of noble acts in Gotham City.

He pulled out the sketchpad on the table and the picture of the chamber. So many lives, so many lives which hung in the balance, each one of them was more fragile than the last to be perfectly honest. So many people succumbed to diseases, and this one was said to be not curable.

Victor Fries refused to have a death sentence stamped on him though. He looked towards his wife.

"We'll get through this," Nora said. "I'll get the car warmed up."

Victor prepared to enjoy one last ride before he was put under. He was under no delusions that this could not go wrong. Victor just refused to vocalize the possibility in front of his wife. There were a lot of things which could go wrong with this.

* * *

The Gotham City University cafeteria bustled in attention. While many of the students went off campus for lunch, there were many students who decided to head on to take launch. Banners hung against the wall from all sides some of which described the athletic and academic accomplishments of some people.

The entrance had a line of the meal of the day, today being pasta. Off to the right near the windows, a snack bar stood out with various treats, chocolate, chips, and salad as well for the more healthily included students. Snack machines lined up on the back of the wall along with a coke machine.

Amanda and Emily stepped into the room to grab onto one of the biggest tables in the back of the room. Bette and Bunny claimed it last year, as they were told. Amanda and Emily decided to secure the claim in the back of the cafeteria.

"Finally, it's good to be back," Bette said.

"It's a very nice place to sit," Dinah said as she joined them.

Melody stepped across the room and took a seat next to Dinah. Sapphire and Harley walked into the area, followed by Donna and Harley. All of the girls circled around the table putting their meals down onto the table. They positioned themselves on seats on the table. The chatter filled the lunchroom.

"Nice?" Harley asked. "Are you kidding?"

"You don't like it?" Bette asked.

"No, it's not just nice, it's perfect," Harley said. "I mean, you can see a very nice view out the window. And it's a nice day. We should be eating outside."

"GCU put the kibosh on that after an incident last year," Sapphire said. "I don't know what happened."

"Can't blame them for putting some extra security measures, I guess," Amanda said. "The first week of classes have been pretty good. No problems, the workload isn't too much higher than GCU."

Bette could not resist smiling. "Just you wait. You're going to think everything is a cake walk for the first month or two. Then the teachers really start hammering you hard."

"She's kidding, isn't she?" Amanda asked.

Dinah smiled and patted the younger girl on the shoulder. "It really depends on the teacher. I think you two will be fine though, trust me."

"Hey, things aren't that bad," Harley said.

All of the girls looked at Harley. Harley just shrugged and decided to dig into her food. It pleased her Amanda and Emily were doing so well in their studies the moment they stepped into college. Most importantly, it pleased her that they did well because that meant she would be living up to Harry's expectations.

The twins kept Harley on her toes. She had been thinking about furthering her career as well and hanging out with this group caused her to look into the minds of some very interesting people. Some very, very, interesting people, Harley reminded herself.

"So, where's Babs?" Donna asked.

"She'll be here when she can," Dinah said. "She got tied up with a couple of things."

"Is she trying to get an extra hour of class during her lunch hour?" Harley asked. "I like the girl. I really like the girl, but I wonder when she finds time to sleep. Then again, I wonder that about Harry sometimes."

All of the girls wondered where Harley was going to go with this one. The bubbly blonde pressed on when they did not further engage her in conversation.

"I mean, what the hell is going on there? Does he have some way to warp time and space and make there more than twenty-four hours in a day? Because, if he does, he's holding out on us. We could all use more time in the day."

Both Potter twins caught each other's eyes and started to laugh at each other. Both of them had a fair amount of amusement to what Harley was saying. She was pretty close.

"I think we all could," Amanda said. "But, I'm sure many of us would find a way to waste some of that extra time."

All of the girls responded by nodding. They ate their lunch and made some light conversation. The hours started to grind by when Barbara made her way into the lunch room to their table. She dropped down onto the chair across from Dinah. Dinah just raised her eyebrow.

"Glad you can make it."

Barbara was pretty glad as well. Bette smiled at her in response.

"You know, you might be overachieving too much if you're working over lunch," Bette said.

Barbara shook her head. It was not because of her actual school work which made her late for lunch. Dinah looked over at across the table and was very curious to what was going through Barbara's mind. Barbara mouthed "later" at her long-time friend.

She did enjoy the last little bit of lunch. The food at GCU was among the best, the people who funded this university would accept nothing less after all.

* * *

A high rise penthouse overlooked all of Gotham City. The penthouse gave a look of a place which had not been lived in a very long time. Carla Vitti looked over the entrance of the Penthouse and knew looks could be deceiving.

"Look."

One of her pent pointed to the dirt by the side. Someone stepped down into the dirt very briefly. It had been very recently, within the last day, given how the rain had not washed it away. The first mobster pulled out a gun to point it at the door.

"So, is this where the Holiday Killer is holding up?"

Carla knew whether or not she would be right one way or another. This penthouse was not even used by her brother. Her nephew, Mario, stayed here before he had been deported due to the moving violation.

"Keep close, "Carla said. "He's a little rat. We're going to have to flush him out."

The door creaked open. They made their way into the penthouse. The sound of two people talking greeted them the second they made their way into the penthouse. The man in the front whipped his gun out and fired at the source of the voices.

He put a bullet through the front of a television screen.

"You idiot," Carla said.

Carla reached over and noticed a plate of half-eaten chicken and a bottle of cheap booze on the table. She placed a finger onto the chicken and then pulled away from it.

"Still warm."

Carla stepped into the bedroom and swung the door open. The unmade bed showed that whoever was here left in a hurry. Her men covered Carla when she looked around the room. She moved in and pulled open a drawer. Several pictures laid on the wall. She saw a picture of her son, Johnny, stacked on the front. A red line scratched through the edge of the phone.

She flipped through the papers and saw Alberto scratched out. Pictures of both herself and Carmine still laid in the folder. She noticed Sofia as well, unmarked, and several very crucial Gotham City officials, including Hamilton Hill, Peter Grogan, and Howard Branden. The Holiday Killer had a hit list and rubbed out his victims.

One of her goons stretched out against the wall. The curtain rustled next to him which made the hood slowly turn around. He investigated the curtain and took a look, a good long look at what caused the flipping curtain disturbance.

Nothing other than a rat, and not the rat they were looking for, an actual rat, an actual rat from an infestation caused the disturbance.

One deep breath followed and then one shot to the back of the head dropped the mobster. Blood splattered down onto the ground.

The other members of Carla Vitta's mob turned around and started to fire without discrimination through the shadows. A figure knocked off two more of them in the process.

"Show yourself!" Carla yelled. "I'm going to make you pay for killing my Johnny did, you bastard!"

The Holiday Killer caught her point blank with a shot to the chest and forced her to drop the gun. Blood poured out of her chest. The Holiday Killer stepped over to the top of the downed mobster. His breathing increased when looking down at the men.

"This wasn't supposed to happen. Not this way. No, this is all wrong."

Footsteps coming up the stairs made the Holiday Killer slip through the open window, to the balcony, and drop down to the alleyway below. He made his way to the van and tour out of the alleyway. A carefully placed plan to kill on the holidays turned very ugly thanks to outside interference.

The doors blasted open to allow the GCPD inside. They had been called thanks to the disturbance. Several dead mobsters, wounded mobsters, and Carla Vitti bleeding out on the rug were shown.

* * *

Harry stepped into a bus station which was very busy with some people. The skies shined bright and the birds sang. It was a beautiful day in New York City, the type of weather which was not too hot and not too cold either. Harry found the weather to be just right.

A figure stepped around the corner. She dressed in a black leather jacket, tight pants, and a black top as well, with sunglasses covering her eyes. Her hair pinned back. Harry watched when the figure reached in and grabbed him by the hand. She pulled Harry away from the middle of the bus stop and into a more secure side alleyway, before pressing him against the wall.

The woman kissed Harry on the lips, her hand pinned against the back of his head.

' _Don't look now,'_ she thought. _'But, I'm being stalked by a couple of really strange people, and I don't have the slightest idea why they would be.'_

Betsy Braddock gave Harry a kiss, and Harry wrapped his arms around her firmly. The two of them turned around and saw a large figure with wild hair and a trench coat moving around. His sandy brown hair looked very unkempt like he had not groomed it for a wild. The coat looked brown, with several knives protruding through every corner of the coat. Harry realized in a few seconds whom he dealt with.

' _Victor Creed,'_ Harry thought. _'Sabretooth, he was part of the Weapon X program up in Canada. And he's not someone you would want to mess with him.'_

The telepath in his arms tensed up. Harry held his old friend very tight against him with a nice little smile. He gave Betsy a slight kiss while keeping his eyes on Sabretooth and his companion, some ugly bald gentlemen who were very thick. He had muscles for his muscles. The man craned his neck to look into the crowd.

' _They're trouble, both of them,'_ Harry thought. _'I do have some good news, though. I'm one hundred percent sure they're not after you.'_

Surprise filled Betsy at this revelation. Tension eased off of her body and made her arms slide off from around Harry's waist.

' _If they're not after me,'_ Betsy thought. _'Then who are they after?'_

Harry followed Sabretooth and his friend as they moved off. Sabretooth sniffed the air and pointed in a direction toward something or rather someone.

' _Something tells me they're going to tell us,'_ Harry thought.

The two stepped closer to attempt to get a closer look. Harry could feel something. Energy coming from the distance resulted in the hairs on the back of his neck standing straight up. Harry tried to lean in to get a closer look. Betsy tightened the grip on his arm.

' _You see that, don't you?'_ Harry asked.

Betsy nodded without another word. She had been struck by some kind of unmistakable force of power. It was the type of energy which could take a person completely off guard when they ran into it. She had many questions regarding the source of the energy.

The only person who stood nearby and could be the source of the energy happened to be a very beautiful redhead girl who walked down the alleyway. Harry looked at the girl as she followed, and Betsy could sense he was familiar with said girl.

' _Who is she?'_ Betsy asked. _'Because I can tell by the look on your face. You know who she is, and you know why it's concerning that this Sabretooth and his friend are stalking her.'_

' _I'm not quite sure what their end game is,'_ Harry admitted. _'It could be very concerning though. Her name is Jean Grey. She's the physical representation of a cosmic force as old as life itself, or maybe it's vessel. There are a few mysteries around her which I've yet to figure out.'_

' _And I'm sure you intend to pierce every one of them.'_

Harry never once let his eyes away from Creed. He knew this monster would need to be followed. Someone pulled his strings as well which could lead to some pretty bad news. Creed getting his hands on Jean could prove to be a huge disaster.

* * *

Nora knew there had been no taking her husband out of what they were about to do. She just hoped to in the end, even though it was borderline difficult to do so. Victor made up his mind, he would be put under today, and it would be in his lab.

So much could go wrong with the process, Nora feared, but she had to be strong and supportive. Victor fine-tuned the process. She was to go to Harry Potter and explain the circumstances, then they could work together. The only thing Nora really feared was what Boyle's reaction would be.

"I have leased the equipment," Victor said. "My contract is not up for another three years."

"Then let us hope that you will be out in three years, "Nora said.

For her sake and his sake, but still, Nora hoped a cure could be found. She walked Victor back into the tank, and then pressed the button. She watched as he slowly froze in the tank. One last smile before Victor slipped into a state of suspended animation.

A long sigh followed, but suddenly, the sound of footsteps from outside of the lab could be heard. Nora tensed up, looked at her frozen husband, and looked at the lab opening up. The door opened, and Ferris Boyle entered the lab.

"Mrs. Fries?" Boyle asked. "What are you doing here?"

"My husband, he's…"

"You froze him?" Boyle asked. "You put him under cyro-suspension."

"Yes, sir, but….."

"No, no, no," Boyle said. "I have no idea what either of you were thinking. This is very dangerous. I can't be….this looks bad…and this is an unauthorized experiment. Did either of you stop to think what this looks like? Have either of you considered the implications of what this looks like?"

"You authorized Victor's…."

Boyle put one hand up. He called in the two gentlemen who followed him into the room. They were scientists, one old and balding, the other younger with a full head of dark hair.

"I've authorized cryogenic experiments on animals and not another human being," Boyle said. "Victor should have known better than to use these experiments on another human being."

Boyle's eyes turned to the scientists. They stood up ready to hear the request from their boss for one way or another.

"I want Fries out of there," Boyle said. "Now."

Nora grew deathly pale when she heard this particular request. The scientists moved over towards the console. A moment of intense studying told them everything they needed to know.

"We can't remove him without…."

"Disable the process," Boyle said. "Let him thaw out."

"It could kill him."

"I've seen his medical reports," Boyle said. "The disease will kill him within months. I'm doing him a favor, a mercy killing."

"No, you can't!" Nora yelled. "It's my husband. It's his equipment."

"It's company property, and company resources that your husband is using," Boyle said. "I may have given him permission to lease the equipment. But he's still using the power and the lab space. And he's using the equipment in terms which he shouldn't."

The two scientists looked reluctant to do anything. Boyle nodded and stepped outside of the lab.

"I won't let you do this," Nora said.

"I'm really sorry, Ms. Fries."

She threw herself against the tanks hooked to the machine. One of the scientists grabbed Nora and pushed her away. The woman crashed against the shelves with knocked over. The contents of the cooling chemicals on the shelf spilled on her.

"You shouldn't have done that," the older scientist said to the younger one.

"And she shouldn't have interfered," the younger one said. "Let's get these tanks out before Boyle fires us."

The scientists worked to disengage the tanks. They pulled them away and the cooling started to unfreeze in the tank. Boyle watched them through the window from the lab and grimly nodded.

"That wasn't supposed to…."

The words from the older scientist cut completely off at one of the Cyro-Tanks sizing up and exploding. The entire lab covered in snow and ice, freezing up completely.

Ferris Boyle watched from outside of the lab, eyes widened. Nora Fries, Victor Fries, and the two scientists were all trapped in the frozen lab. Their death had been assured. Boyle could not even get the door open.

"I need to clean this mess up," Boyle said.

He worked to formulate a cover story as well to explain this horrific mess. Victor should never have performed this experiment, Boyle kept reasoning with himself.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 23** **rd** **, 2017.**


	328. Phoenix Ashes Part One

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Eight: Phoenix Ashes Part One**

* * *

Jean Grey stepped into one of the most prominent shopping malls in New York. She wore a very casual outfit of a white tank top, and a pair of jeans, along with a pair of leather boots. She held a handbag over her shoulder which was pretty practical. It contained both her money and cell phone, nothing else.

Several stores stretched out from every direction. In the middle of the long walkway stood a fountain and a couple of benches, which anyone could sit down for a few minutes after a long day of shopping. The redhead looked up to the escalator where several more stores laid. She needed a new laptop.

Jean made her way up the escalator to the hustle and bustle. So many places in the mall changed. At the very least, the shopping mall remained in place. Jean stepped around the corner and stood with the hairs standing on the back of her neck. The redhead moved back and looked around.

Nothing and Jean walked into the mall. She stopped and peered over her shoulder. Jean sensed someone stalking her for the second time this afternoon. Jean reached into her handbag and went for her cell phone. She would need to call for help.

Something moved off to the side. Jean stopped dialing the cell phone and took a deep breath. Her chest rose and lowered. Jean took another deep breath and stepped forward. The security guard who watched the mall dropped down onto the ground.

"Finally!"

The growl caught Jean off guard. A hairy man rushed towards him. He looked dangerous and bad to know. He charged at Jean with his hands outstretched. Jean prepared to defend herself only she knew there was no need to.

The man who attacked her flew backward and landed onto the ground. The people in the mall screamed when the large man ripped the trash can out of the floor. One large metal trash can had been flung off into the distance towards the attacker.

The trash can blocked in the air with Harry pushing the trash can back. The trash can slammed down onto the ground. Two movements later led to Harry jumping high into the air. He grabbed Sabretooth and hurled him back against the edge of the mall.

"You shouldn't have stuck your nose in," Sabretooth said.

Jean watched the two circle each other and prepare for battle. Her would-be stalker jumped at Harry with his arms outstretched. Harry blocked the attack and caught the arm of Sabretooth. Everyone moved off of the floor leaving Jean on this floor alone.

Well not alone, as a figure stepped behind her. Jean stood up and came face to face with a beautiful woman dressed in tight leather. Jean frowned at this person.

' _My name is Betsy Braddock,'_ she thought to Jean. _'I'm a friend of Harry's. And we need to get you out of here for obvious reasons.'_

The man lifted a bench off of the ground and rushed to Harry. Harry avoided the bench smashed into his body. He came behind the attacker and clipped him with a series of jabs. Three jabs nailed Sabretooth in the back of the leg. Sabretooth responded with a large growl and charged forward one more time.

Harry caught Sabretooth's arm and flipped him down to the ground. The large man dropped down onto the ground and came back up. He pulled out a large knife and charged his attacker. Harry blocked the stabbing and came back with a series of kicks to the side of the head. Harry blocked the second stab again.

A series of rapid fire jabs caught Sabretooth. One of them nailed him in the side of the head. Sabretooth swung towards Harry. Harry blocked the attack and kicked him back. A repeated number of attacks caught Sabretooth down. The combination of kicks and punches rocked Sabretooth back a few inches.

The glass shattered with Sabretooth being put through the window leading him to the parking lot. The mutant dropped down onto the ground.

Harry followed him with Sabretooth picking up a huge chain. He rushed the young man with the chain swinging at him. Harry jumped high over Sabretooth and caught him with a rapid fire series of punches. Each punch stung Sabretooth and dropped him to the ground.

"Who are you working for?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

Sabretooth stated his word in a mocking tone. He reached into his coat and pulled out a large grenade. The grenade flung out and blasted onto the ground. A bright light surrounded Harry along with smoke and gas. He shielded himself from the inevitable debris.

The sound of a grating rolling off followed and the moment the smoke stopped, Sabretooth disappeared. Harry turned around and noticed Jean and Betsy behind him.

"Why did…why did….."

"I don't know," Harry said. "We're going to find out."

Sabretooth left some kind of residue on the ground from his foot. Harry bent down to scrape the residue off of the ground and looked at with a frown. He would have to take a good look at it.

"We should get you back," Harry said. "And figure out what his plan in."

* * *

Jean had been given a ride back to the Xavier Institute. Betsy and Harry joined her to walk up to the gates of the mansion. A handsome stone wall rose up and on the other side of the wall, Harry knew the fabled Charles Xavier Institute for the gifted rested on the other side.

The gates pushed open and Harry walked up the stone pathway which lead up to the Mansion. The Mansion was three stories long. On the bottom floor was the Xavier Institute, the actual school for the gifted. The second floor, as Harry learned, held sleeping quarters. The third floor, Harry had no idea whatsoever. Some parts of the Mansion looked freshly done, especially the roof of the mansion.

"We've done some work over the past couple of months," Jean said. "The upstairs room…well, the training for the advanced students did not go as planned."

Harry and Besty decided not to press on the matters. They had other things to worry about. Harry decided to be the one to ring the doorbell.

He did not have to wait very long to answer the door and for a stunning woman who opened it to greet him. Her chocolate-covered skin shined out in the light with gorgeous white hair. She dressed in a very elegant black blouse which contained her chest. She boasted of the perfect hour shape glass, having the figure of a stunning goddess.

"Hello, my name is Harry Potter," he said.

"Yes, yes, it's a pleasure to meet you," she said. "My name is Ororo Munroe. I'm the acting Headmistress of the Charles Xavier school of the gifted."

"So, Professor Xavier isn't here?" Harry asked.

Ororo shook her head in negative. "I'm afraid he isn't. He had to deal with a couple of pressing matters. I really do wish I could reach him for you."

Harry could see her eyes fall on Betsy with a smile.

"Betsy, it's good to see you again," Ororo said. "It was a shame you did not choose to join the Institute. I could see your reasons, as could Charles, and we both accepted that."

"Yes," Betsy said. "I wanted different things in life. And I'm afraid the Xavier Institute would not give me exactly what I wanted."

Ororo turned to Jean and she could see Jean had been oddly quiet. It was almost like she had encountered something very traumatic.

"Jean, are you alright?" Ororo asked.

"I wouldn't have been if Harry hadn't shown up," Jean said. "Why don't we talk to you about it?"

Ororo nodded and stepped back to allow the trio to step inside. She knew of the work of the famous Harry Potter and had been impressed. About a year ago, Harry had been in Africa dealing with some personal problems. Ororo visited her homeland and had been very disappointed to find out she missed Harry.

The two walked down a hallway which had been repainted with black walls and had very even paneling coming down the surface. The corners looked sharp enough to cut the head of anyone who rammed against it.

Harry almost did not dodge in time when a brunette figure made her way around the corner around the same time he did. Harry reached up to grab her and stop her from landing on the ground.

The thirteen-year-old girl looked mortified for a second that she almost ran head long into a complete stranger. She managed to look the person she collided with in those green eyes of his. She stopped and realized who she came face to face with.

"You're…you're Harry Potter!" she breathed.

"Please to meet you," Harry said. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sorry, I'm such a klutz sometimes," Kitty said. "My name is Kitty Pryde…and I was just heading off to class right now. I don't want to be late."

Harry noticed a couple more students rushing from the second floor. Teenagers did like their sleep.

"It was nice meeting you," Kitty said. "If you're here to talk with Ororo…with Ms. Munroe, I'll get out of your way…bye Doctor Potter, and Jean and….oh, by the way, when's the next Red Sun coming out?"

Harry almost laughed at the about face she had. He could see one of the newer red sun models slid into her pocket. Creating a model which fit into the pocket of your average teenage girl was pretty much essential as far as Harry was concerned.

"We haven't set a date yet," Harry said.

Kitty nodded up and down. She figured the media would be making a big deal about it. The last couple of releases had been hyped. She followed the exploits of Harry Potter. The man was brilliant and did so many things that Kitty wondered how someone like that stayed insane.

"Why don't you head off to class?" Ororo asked.

"Right, okay, cool," Kitty said.

She moved away to class. Betsy tried to stifle a smile. It was very hard for her to do so. Harry giving her a side long gaze just made Betsy's attempt to not crack a smile even more prominent.

' _She's a bit over excited,'_ Betsy thought. _'Hopefully, she holds on that in a few years. She'll be one to keep an eye on.'_

Harry just smiled and walked over to join Ororo. A Teacher's Longue area was where she led him. The moment he entered the area, he noticed a coffee machine, a small fridge, and other essential items which were needed for the staff room. Ororo dropped down on one of the chairs, and she invited Betsy, Jean, and Harry to sit down.

"You've heard of a mutant called Sabretooth, haven't you?"

Ororo's body language grew very rigid. Harry did not need to ask her even further.

"Yes, yes, I've heard of him….."

"And if he's involved, this can't be any good."

A dark haired man with wild side burns who looked like he just got off from a long motorcycle ride stepped into the room. He took two steps across the room and opened up the fridge to pull out a beer. The beer rested in his hand as he took his claws out and slit the beer can open.

The one and only Wolverine took a long drink from his beer. He turned slowly towards Harry.

"Potter, you've been staying out of trouble?"

"It's not really troubling if I can easily get out of it," Harry said.

"You just keep telling yourself that," Logan said.

"I have to say, I didn't expect the famous Wolverine of all people to be in the Xavier Institute."

Logan only responded with a round of laughter. He did not even know where to begin right now.

"To be honest, you and me both. I never thought I'd be here of all places. Chuck got me out of a tight spot of trouble a while back. And you know how I am. I don't like leaving debts unpaid. I want to square up everything. But, you should know, after the last time we've met."

"Still haven't gotten your memories back?" Harry asked.

"Bits and pieces, they don't make any sense," Logan said. "But, the one thing I do remember is how much of a monster Sabretooth is. We're going to have to make sure he doesn't hurt anyone again."

* * *

The main office which Carmine Falcone operated in looked like it had seen some much better days. The Gotham City mobster tilted back in a chair. The painting on his wall hung more crooked than ever before. He did not shave for a couple of days. The tension of a changing city started to get to him.

"She's in bad condition," Carmine said. "The Holiday Killer struck again."

The Holiday Killer struck Falcone's empire more than he struck anyone else. It made the Roman wonder what the hell he did to piss off the Holiday Killer. Running Gotham City lead to him having more than a few enemies over the years. Those enemies returned to cause him trouble. The Roman took a deep breath and looked out the window again. His city started to become unraveled each time.

"I know, I know what will happen if she dies in that hospital bed," Carmine said. "Make sure we get the best care possible."

"She's lapsed into a coma sir," the man over the phone said.

Carmine's hold on his desk tightened around. His knuckles turned completely white when pushing down. One could argue his hand came way too close to falling asleep. He wrenched it away.

"We cannot under any circumstances see her get any worse," Carmine said. "My sister and I had our differences. But I know the people up in Chicago are going to get even frostier if she…if something happens."

"The Holiday Killer normally finishes his victims," the man on the phone said. "No offense, but do you think…what do you think about this, sir?"

The only thing anyone could hear was the wind blowing outside and the rain splattering against the windows. Carmine Falcone grew very silent when trying to piece together a sensible motive for the Holiday Killer. Every second brought him more ever lasting misery when trying to deduce how this monster thought.

"I don't know," the Roman said.

It was a good question. Carmine Falcone used to have all of the answers, both good and bad. Something changed and something shook him. One could argue Carmine Falcone lost his nerve.

Falcone lost nothing. Gotham City changed. Every change led to worst times. The Penguin turned up. Black Mask rose up. Then, there was the worst change of them all, the change which even the most hardened mobsters feared, the Joker. And then there was Batman, Nightwing, and all of the other vigilantes in Gotham City.

Gotham would not burn under Falcone's watch. He would not allow these men who would see the world burn destroy his city.

"It's not over," Carmine said. "It will never be over. Not as long as I breathe."

"Boss, don't talk like that," the man over the phone said.

Carmine thought he was bringing on misfortune by talking about his latest breath as if it was his last breath. The Roman cared very little to be perfectly honest.

"Has Lucia been informed?" Carmine asked.

His niece wanted even less to do with the criminal empire than Sofia did, but still, it was right that she knew about her mother's worsening conditioning.

"Lucia has been informed," the aide confirmed. "She didn't care when her brother died. She's not too happy that her mother has been shot. And there could be problems. Carla has…."

"You don't need to tell me the loyalty my sister has."

The cool winds rocked the window. Carmine hated to think the storm outside represented a metaphor for the storm which gripped all of Gotham City. His agitation increased the more he viewed the storms outside. Everything happened for a purpose and everything happened for a reason.

' _Gotham won't burn.'_

* * *

Sabretooth never expected to run into him. The mutant thought about taking the fight to the Dragon and perhaps gaining some respect. He decided it would be for the best to report back to his boss and see what said boss had to say to him.

The darkness in the tunnel placed Sabretooth completely on the defensive. The dangerous man walked around the corner and took in a whiff of the contents of the tunnel. Raw sewage and nothing else surrounded him. The dripping of the pipe off to the side caught him on edge.

Light trickled in from a small crack above his head. Sabretooth sniffed the air again. He grew rapidly close to where he needed to go. Sabretooth pushed his hand against a door which opened up.

The winding set of stairs looked to have been built in years ago, at least Sabretooth felt. Every step had a crack on it which made the mutant question how stable they were. Sabretooth took the first step up the steps. The step slid a tiny bit underneath his foot.

Sabretooth tested the stability of the step before making his way another inch up of them. He ascended the stairs to the top landing. A second door appeared. This time Sabretooth had to twist a dial. The door opened up to lead him into a lab.

The first half of the room contained tanks with specimens, some of them whole, some of them mangled. Sabretooth smiled at the pain these specimens must have been brought to get here. The edge of the lab was in more darkness. Two hands moved across the table. Both of them held surgical tools to scrape against the edge of the body strapped to the table.

"Did you find her?"

"I ran into trouble."

The figure gave a sigh in disappointment.

"This is the thanks I get from restoring you to your former life. Failure."

Sabretooth snarled at this tone.

"It's not my fault," Sabretooth said. "He interfered. That green-eyed dragon kid that I keep running into, makes me wonder if Weapon X has some kind of offshoot program in the United Kingdom or something."

Knives scrapping against the table made Sabretooth feel relief that he was not the one on the table to receive surgery. His master moved in the shadows.

"It's something far deeper than you can comprehend," the sinister individual said to the shadows. "The Dragon is something that even I do not fully understand. What I do understand is his power."

The sinister individual in the shadows did not say another word. It left Sabretooth feeling more than chilled, to be honest.

"Remember our deal," Sabretooth said. "You helped me and I got a chance to settle the score with that runt."

The knives continued to scrap together against the body Sabretooth's boss had on the table. The knives clattered against the table. Something about the man's demeanor from the shadows changed in a blink of an eye. Sabretooth could not put his finger on precisely what changed about the man's demeanor.

"Do not get too arrogant. Especially considering your past failures."

* * *

The lab once belonging to Victor Fries transformed into what basically amounted to an Arctic setting, and Boyle stood on the outside. He knew his scientists would be discreet, as would the security guards. A few members of the GCPD who he knew were trustworthy came inside.

Boyle knew they could hardly fault him for an accident, accidents happened. He already worked to cause the security feed leading into the lab to become corrupted. No one would ever know what became of Victor Fries, Nora Fries, or the two poor scientists who messed with very expensive equipment on Boyle's orders.

The lab started to spit snow and ice like a malfunctioning freezer. The two scientists, dressed in heavy protective suits, stepped into the lab. The moment they entered the lab, it was very hard for them to stand on the ground.

"If you can't get in, pull back," Boyle said.

The last thing Boyle needed was more bodies on his head. The body count between Victor and Nora Fries already had been a little bit too high. He did not wish to have more bodies on his head.

"You're not going to believe this, sir."

Boyle heard these words coming from one of his scientists inside of the lab, who could only get so far before the constant blast of ice inside of the lab backed him off. The scientist turned around to Boyle. Even on the other end of the protective helmet, Boyle sensed the look of despair coming from the eyes of the scientists.

"You're not going to believe this."

Boyle held up one hand to prevent the scientist from telling him whether or not he would believe something yet again.

"Given what I've been through, you would be surprised what I can believe. Tell me what's going on and I'll figure out whether or not I will believe it."

The scientist decided to throw down the implausible scenario which he ran into.

"There's someone who is breathing in here, sir."

This particular statement heightened Ferris Boyle's curiosity. Someone survived that explosion and was still breathing, still trapped inside of the ice. Just how much they would have sustained would be nothing short of remarkable.

"Find a way to get them out of there," Boyle said.

The scientist inside of Boyle found himself more than curious to find out a way to determine how someone could have survived being blasted with ice like this.

* * *

An abandoned lab outside of the city had several broken windows. The windows which were not broken had boards over the top of them. The paint job on the lab faded over the years and weeds grew up both on the dirt and through the cracked pavement.

A smell of a place which had not been cleaned for a long time caused Logan to almost drop back from the overwhelming stench. He turned to Harry with a narrowed and very disgusted expression in his eyes.

"Are you sure this is the place?" Logan asked.

"The residue is from a chemical which was only made from this facility," Harry said. "It was supposed to treat and store body parts severed from the human body, to keep them from rotting."

Logan popped his claws to open up the door. The only thing was that he did not need to for the door just flung open on its own accord to give them entrance. Logan led the way, with Harry making his way inside, and then Jean following. Harry faced Jean.

"You don't have to do this."

"I know I don't have to," Jean said. "I have to do this. If someone is after me because of my powers, I want to face them straight up. I want them to learn that I won't be pushed around."

Harry dropped the matter at that. The determination in Jean's eyes created a very vibrant blast of power the second everyone entered the room. The sounds coming from the room made Harry stand about on edge as a man could be.

"Got to find a light switch," Logan said.

Logan pressed in the light switch and they stepped into a lab. The lab had several tables with dusty clothes covering the contents of the table.

"Knew you couldn't resist, could you, runt?"

Sabretooth made his way up the stairs and growled. Logan growled in response at him and the two men charged each other. They've been doing this dance fighting each other for so long that Harry figured some kind of mysterious force pulled them together to fight.

"They're not alone."

A white-haired woman stepped into the battle. Her face curved into a sadistic expression with the green and white bodysuit curving to her edge. A well-built black haired woman dressed in black followed. The huge bald man which Harry noticed tagging along with Sabretooth turned towards him. Finally, a crazed looking purple haired man dressed in a trench-coat came next to him.

Vertigo, Archlight, Blockbuster, and Riptide turned up to face Harry and Jean just after Wolverine and Sabretooth fought. Jean and Harry stood shoulder to shoulder to prepare to fight them. These four proved to be so far gone they did not fear these two staring them down.

"The Dragon stumbling here would be too good," Riptide said. "Both him and her, the master would want to have his DNA."

"Why don't we bring him back a sample?"

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 26** **th** **, 2017.**


	329. Phoenix Ashes Part Two

**Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Nine: Phoenix Ashes Part Two**

* * *

The white-haired woman known as Vertigo took a couple of steps forward to go up against her adversaries. Her eyes flashed with thinly veiled malice when approaching her adversaries. An expression of pure intensity spread over her face when her hand lifted up.

"You will all succumb to Vertigo."

Harry prepared himself for the attack which came. The entire room twisted and turned. A normal person would have had severe nausea at this attack. Harry and Jean locked hands with each other to give the other some mental strength to get through the room. A brief second saw all of Essex's forces split into several small factions. Harry made his way further into the room to try and get to them. His dizziness increased with each step when moving just as closer.

Vertigo lifted her hand and summoned more power deep within her. She frowned at the fact they were still standing. Ideally speaking, they should have all dropped to the ground by now. Yet, they were coming forward, ready for more. They were ready for the attack.

The thumping in her head made it very hard for Jean to hold her head up. The telepath in training powered on through the assault from Vertigo. Her ears started to ring. Jean could feel her stomach twisting like someone plunged a knife deep into it. The burning sensation coursed through her abdomen to fling her attacker back.

The psychic vibration struck Vertigo head on and caused her to fly back to land onto the ground. Jean stumbled forward an inch and very nearly collapsed down to the ground. Her skin burned the second she pushed through. Jean really needed to pull herself back up to a standing position despite the hellacious moment.

' _Are you okay?'_

Harry held Jean up and she nodded. Both of them stood up to their feet. They came eye to eye with the dangerous looking Blockbuster who charged them in the attack. Archlight came from the other side as well.

The bulky punch of Blockbuster came inches away from nailing Harry in the side of the head. Harry caught the arm of the attacker and twisted the large mutant down to the ground. Archlight stabbed at Harry with Jean catching her from the attack. The dark-haired woman whipped back and landed on the ground with a thunderous thud. The wind knocked out of the woman the very second she hit the ground.

Archight pulled herself up for the battle and charged at Jean one more time. Jean blocked the attack with another telepathic shield. The attacks bounced off the shield. Jean whipped her back.

"You're going to fall to the master!" Riptide yelled.

He spread his arms and sent shuriken flying at Harry. Harry dodged the sharp edges and returned fire to rapid-fire throw a dagger at Riptide. Riptide spread his arms and prevented the dagger from piercing through his shield. Riptide snapped his hand back and knocked his adversary back down onto the ground.

This mutant was far more dangerous than Harry suspected. Riptide moved up as did Vertigo. Vertigo raised her hand in an attempt to bombard the top of Harry's skull with a very deadly attack. The Vertigo effect caused Harry to see stars.

Archlight and Blockbuster grabbed onto Jean. Jean's eyes glowed and a psy-blast knocked them to the side. She pulled Vertigo away from Harry and the two locked in a battle of wills.

A figure caught Riptide in the back of the head. Harry took advantage of Betsy's mental distraction to find a hole in Riptide's defenses. He slammed the knife into the man's stomach and doubled him over. A painful blow dropped him down to the ground.

' _It's a good thing I'm here.'_

Blockbuster lifted a large cinder block off of the ground. Jean and Betsy both blocked the attack with their mind. Betsy had a little more ease doing so, but they could chalk that up to Jean's inexperience more than her ability.

"Okay, you need to take a seat!"

Betsy propelled the cinder block back at her adversary. It struck the enemy directly in the face and knocked him to the ground. Blockbuster staggered to a standing position. Betsy rushed over and amplified the force of her kick with the power of her mind to knock the larger man out.

Jean looked at Betsy with reverence dancing in her eyes. "You're going to have to teach me that one."

The purple-haired telepath fired back with a smile. "I might just have to give you a couple of pointers."

Betsy stepped over to go through the minds of the downed and subdued mutants in question. She figured out a couple of things.

' _Essex wants your DNA, Luv,'_ Betsy thought. _'It seems like there's no surprise that Archlight and Vertigo want to extract your DNA in a very enticing way.'_

' _You don't say?'_ Harry asked.

' _Blockbuster and Riptide have been gathering potential subjects for Essex,'_ Betsy thought. _'None of them know where Essex's main lab is at all.'_

' _I figured as much,'_ Harry thought a second or so later.

Jean could tell a conversation had been going on. Psychic-vibrations came back and forth on the other end. Betsy turned to Jean and smiled at her.

"Don't be a stranger, jump in on the fun," Betsy said.

The sound of a battle from beneath caused the foundations of the building to shake. Harry figured they would have to deal with whether Wolverine and Sabretooth disappeared off to. They were still fighting down there and they were still going at it after all of these years.

' _Some things never change.'_

* * *

Logan rolled over onto the pavement of the basement. His head smacked into a boiler after Sabretooth chucked him over to the side. A healing factor kicked in when the sound of something moving in the shadows moved around. Logan popped his claws and sniffed out. He did not have to sniff too far because the foul stench of Sabretooth was overwhelming.

The feral mutant jumped out the shadows to grab Logan around the neck and shove him against the wall as hard as possible. Logan struggled against the attack from Creed. Creed's snarled so hard that spit came into Logan's face. The two former test subjects of Weapon X jockeyed for position as the never ending battle between the two of them continued to reach a fever pitch.

"You know what I hate about you, runt?"

Logan growled and pushed back against Creed. He jumped into the air and punched Creed in the side of the head. A repeated series of attacks with Logan's claw swiping at Creed had just been avoided. The two mutants surrounded each other and kept fighting until their final breath.

"There's a whole list of things I hate about you."

The two long-time blood rivals jumped at each other. Logan grabbed Sabretooth around the arm and flipped him down onto the ground as hard as he could manage. Sabretooth did a roll about and popped back up to engage his adversary one more time. Both of them jumped at each other. Their fists connected with each other in mid-air with Logan and Victor pressing knuckle to knuckle on each other.

"Yeah, I've been wanting to get my hands around your scrawny little neck for a very long time."

Sabretooth wrapped his beefy hands around said neck and squeeze. Logan's rage reached a fever pitch. He could not get the leverage otherwise he would have knocked Sabretooth off of him by now.

"If Xavier and his little crew of bootlickers didn't get involved the last time we had a throw down, then I would have crushed you. I would have crushed you underneath my foot. That's where garbage like you belongs."

Two clubbing blows slammed a full force down on the back of Logan's head. Logan faltered before dropping down on the ground with a third blow. Sabretooth pulled his leg up and stomped down onto the back of Logan's head in the matter of ultimate humiliation. Logan pushed down onto the ground with Sabretooth hoisting his boot up and stomping Logan a couple of times more.

Everything broke within the mutant. His claws retracted, he turned them and stabbed Sabretooth as hard as he could in the side of the foot. Sabretooth screamed out in thinly veiled agony. Logan popped up and nailed Sabretooth as hard as he could with a rapid-fire attack. One huge blow caught Sabretooth on the side of the head. A second strike dropped Sabretooth to the ground.

Sabretooth lifted up a huge piece of pipe and swung it. Logan blocked it with his claws and nailed him back. The two mutants engaged in battle and knocked each other around. Bruises healed quickly when the two of them pounded away at each other.

The doors leading up to the stairs opened. Betsy caught Creed with an attack which assaulted the back of his head. Creed pushed forward and frothed from the mouth like a feral dog. He rushed towards Jean, Harry, and Betsy.

Not amused, Jean lifted her hand and blocked Creed from attacking her. She knocked Creed back to the ground. The second Creed hit the ground his body started to smoke and he dissolved into a pile of sludge.

"That was not what….that's not what I wanted to do."

Harry put his arm around Jean and shook his head. "No, it's nothing you did. It's just a clone, a clone that Essex made."

"I thought something about him smelled a little off," Logan said. "Don't really know why anyone would want to clone Sabretooth."

"Makes for an easy attack dog."

Logan would have to agree. Being a glorified attack dog was pretty much all he could see Creed be good for a pretty much anytime. Now, they had been left with more than a few questions and the answers had not been exactly of the most plentiful type.

"Guess we better take a good look around."

* * *

Did they expect to find anything when going in the lab? Not really, but Harry did get a picture into the demented mind of the person who did this. He heard whispers about the work performed by the likes of Nathaniel Essex. He moved past the operating tables and pushed back the covering. He eyed the body parts which Essex used to perform his demented experiments.

These were the body parts which had been picked apart, left discarded. Harry doubted very much it would be easy to pinpoint the DNA from the body and match it up to the people involved. He suspected as much at least. He moved to the side of the lab and pulled open a cabinet.

Harry found nothing other than cobwebs and a few spiders. The spiders scuttled around. They appeared to be harmless and there were many more dead spiders on the ground. He moved across the lab and made his way to another cabinet to throw open the doors.

' _Still nothing,'_ Harry thought.

Nothing other than mysteries which made Harry wonder what Essex intended to do with all of the mutant body parts he harvested. So many questions, not enough answers had been grabbed. This fact left Harry's mind in a constant state of flux.

The doorway of the basement cracked open. Betsy and Jean were at work searching the basement. Neither of the girls found anything.

"Well, I guess he's smarter than we give him credit for."

Logan popped his head around the corner. "Yeah, I don't think he can be too smart if he's cloning Sabretooth. There's something down here alright. I don't know where, but there's something down here. We just got to dig deeper."

The depths of which they would have to dig to find something, anything Essex left down here. There were more boxes in the basement which was full of nothing of dust. Harry suspected, and he could very well be wrong, these boxes once contained more parts for Essex's experiments.

"They replaced that boiler over there," Logan said.

Harry moved in to take a closer look at the boiler. The rumbling of the device echoed. Harry could tell someone had shoved something back. He felt around behind it. Strands of red light erupted from Harry's finger tips and caused the boiler to separate from the wall.

A choking cloud of dust popped into the air. Harry raised a hand and siphoned the dust away before taking another step forward. The dust faded just a tiny second later. Harry watched when Betsy and Jean followed their way into the basement. Jean turned on the light to this underground lab.

The bulb hanging from the top of the lamp flickered on and off. It added to the appeal of the lab. The walls carved with weird markings. The words "help me" had been written on a section of the wall. A smear of dry blood filtered on the wall when someone clung on.

Rusty chains hooked to the wall to hold a prisoner. A couple of containment tanks, one of them cracked stood in the back of the wall. The floor boards creaked with every step. One of them had been rotted completely through which made Harry's need to maneuver around them all that much the more pressing.

"This is fucked up."

Logan said what they were all thinking. He sniffed the air and the stench overwhelmed him. Harry stepped back a little bit and pulled out a rusty box. He moved it over and dropped it down onto the table. More dust came up. He shoved the box underneath the table and forgot about it.

"Okay, I half expect to find a severed head in there," Betsy said.

Jean grimaced and hoped that Betsy was completely wrong about the entire severed head in the box deal. They would find out one way or another, for better or for worse the moment Harry put his hands on the edge of the box. He fiddled with the latch of the box and pulled it open.

Not as much dust popped out of the inside of the box, as it did the outside of the box. A large black journal slid out of the box, and Harry dropped it down to the ground. The contents of some of the pages had been rubbed out. Essex had been almost too clever for his own good.

"He's hiding something," Jean said.

"I noticed," Betsy said.

Both telepaths looked at Harry who smiled in response. Harry took out a pen and caused it to flash on the edge of the paper. He ran down the paper and the words which once had appeared on the paper before being rubbed out became visible from when the line showed on the paper. He flipped through and noticed a couple more pages which slid out.

"He's been researching the Phoenix Force, "Jean said. "And the Dragon."

"And he's got a few promising mutants that he wants to keep a close eye on written down," Harry said.

"It says something about a key," Logan said. "Sounds like nothing good to me."

Harry had to agree with Logan's assessment. A couple of the names sounded familiar to Harry on the list. Alison Blaire's name was the most prominent mutant that Essex would be keeping an eye on. Harry would have to give Daisy the heads up on that one. Wanda was another one, but given how she had been under constant supervision from Morgaine and Circe, Essex getting ahold of her would prove to be challenging.

"He's been working on this for a long time," Harry said. "He's searching for a power of an ancient mutant if I'm reading these pages right."

Harry half-wondered if Essex left the book here to tantalize Harry in the first place and mess with his mind. He had a pretty good clue it might be. Still, there had been a few interesting bits of information which Harry needed to digest.

' _This is getting stranger,'_ Harry thought.

The thoughts in his mind swam. Each wrinkle in this insane plot showed a different twist and turn. Harry held the book and shoved it into his back. He would have to take a closer look at it.

"I think he wants to combine our DNA into one super mutant," Harry said.

"That's not going to end work, is it?" Jean asked.

Logan responded with a chuckle at Jean's question.

"You want to be the one to tell her?" Logan asked. "Knock yourself out…I just remember what happened to the last mad scientist who tried to use your blood for one of his experiments. It didn't end well for him."

"Logan pretty much summed it up," Harry said. "Anyone who uses my blood without permission is going to be in for a hell of a time."

The group decided to poke around in the basement for a little bit longer. They figured they found all of what they were going to find through this search. Essex cleared out everything except for the journal which he tried to erase the pages from. Or maybe he left it here by design. Harry still could figure out certain pieces of information.

* * *

Vertigo stood outside of the lab. She sighed at the mission having gone wrong. Archlight moved over to join her. At least they fared better than Riptide and Blockbuster who suffered a beating. Both women collapsed onto a cot in a room with barren walls. The only thing they could focus on was a small crack appearing on the wall.

"We felt his power," Vertigo said. "The power of the Dragon. It was everything the legends said it was going to be and then so much more."

Archlight did not know what to think. She always had some nagging doubts about Essex. These doubts just increased over the last few months when his obsessions increased with each questionable move. She tried not to show it, but yes, the power of the Dragon slipped inside of her internal defenses.

"We should try and not make a stir," Archlight reminded Vertigo. "Essex will not be happy if we do so. He will kill us. Harvest us for our DNA, and create clones which are more obedient like he's done with others."

Vertigo came to the conclusion that she, in fact, worked for an absolute madman. Like it or not, she could not come to any other conclusion when thinking about what Essex was one hundred percent of the way. She took in a deep sigh and let out another sigh.

"I wonder if we're clones already."

Archlight gave Vertigo one of those side long looks. When she was certain that Archlight's attention had been on her completely, Vertigo pressed on a little bit more.

"Essex could have cloned us already. Our original copies could have been long since dead. We would not have known it if he did."

Archlight took a few seconds to consider what Vertigo said. Did it make sense? It would make a lot of sense and line up with some of the past behavior of Essex. Was it something she really wanted to think about? Again, it was not something she really wanted to think about.

"Don't complicate the matters anymore."

Blockbuster stepped into the doorway. He grunted which was the signal that the two of them were needed. Archlight and Vertigo climbed up to their feet to see what their employer wanted them.

* * *

Harry heard some whispers throughout history regarding Nathaniel Essex. He knew all of the obvious rumors about how insane the man was and how he had been for a very long time. The young man walked up the pathway to the gates of the Xavier Institute. He stopped and put the phone up to his ear.

"Nathaniel Essex, huh?" Daisy asked. "Oh boy, that's a pretty rough one. I don't even know where to begin with, him. And let's face it, our intelligence is not exactly the most complete with him. There are a lot of puzzle pieces missing throughout history with him."

"Just try and start at the beginning and work from there," Harry said.

"The beginning?" Daisy asked. "Okay, right, got you. Let's see…we know he's worked with HYDRA during the second world war. He was kicked from the group though due to unethical experiments. Experiments which HYDRA was uncomfortable with."

"Wait, HYDRA was uncomfortable with what Essex was doing?" Harry asked.

He could hardly wrap his head around the fact that a glorified group of Nazis would have a threshold where someone would go too far. They worked underneath one of the greatest monsters in history, the Red Skull, more than a few times.

"Just to let you know there's a list of mutants of interest which Essex is working with," Harry said. "I'm going to copy it and send it over. Your charge is on the list as one of the key figures."

"Alison?" Daisy asked.

"Yes," Harry replied. "And there's a couple other mutants I know that I'll be keeping a closer watch on right now. Still, figured you would know."

"I knew she was a person of interest to some people," Daisy said with a heaving sigh being allowed out of her voice. "I didn't know she was a person of interest to someone like Essex. Thanks for the heads up."

Harry smiled, he was glad to help when he could. He decided to push for something else.

"I need you to arrange a meeting with your boss as soon as possible."

The hint of hesitation over the phone showed Harry it was not going to be that easy to arrange a meeting with Daisy's boss. Harry figured it, anticipated the lack of ease, but he needed that meeting.

"She's very busy now."

"Make it happen," Harry said. "And I'll make it worth your while."

Daisy took a few seconds to pause and she decided to concede that it was long overdue.

"I'll see what I can do."

Harry made his way back to the Xavier Institute. Betsy was keeping an eye on Jean, and also Logan, even though keeping an eye on him demanded a little bit of hazard pay. Regardless, Harry needed to swing by to check up on a couple of things and talk with Ororo as well.

He lifted his hand and knocked on the door three times.

* * *

Ferris Boyle kept the story out of the press even though he had to call in every single favor imaginable. The GCPD, Grogan in particular, agreed to keep everything discreet. Some favors would need to be called in.

They managed to pull two prominent scientists out of the fire, or the ice, rather. One of them had been iced, and it didn't seem like he was going to recover. The other, well her condition defied any and all reasonable explanation.

Nora Fries laid on a bed in an undisclosed facility relating to Boyle. The cool air pumped in. Boyle stood on the other end of a window, warmed up and not entering the room at all.

"How are you feeling?" Boyle asked.

The breathing of Nora started fellow shallow.

"I'm going to have to live the rest of my life at fifty degrees below zero…Celsius."

"It was a terrible accident," Boyle said. "Victor shouldn't have performed an unauthorized experiment."

The room resembled the inside of an Arctic cave with the icicles hanging on the walls. This was the fate Nora had been condemned was considered to be a fate worse than death for some individuals.

"You'll be moved to a nice facility up North to get all of the help you need. Don't worry, Nora, everything will be okay. You and Victor…"

"Victor," Nora managed. "WHERE IS VICTOR?"

The animated tone was surprising from her voice. Still, it was just only a slightly louder monotone. The cold temperatures deadened her ability to emote.

"Is my husband still alive?"

"We're taking good care of Victor," Boyle said.

Nora caught sight at a remorseful expression on the face of Boyle. She could not turn her head too much more thanks to the collar on her neck.

"I'd like to interest you to an old friend of mine who will help you in the facility I'm moving you to. Nora, this is Aldrich Killian."

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 28** **th** **, 2017.**


	330. Phoenix Ashes Part Three

**Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty: Phoenix Ashes Part Three**

* * *

Harry stood at the front door of the Xavier Institute after his meeting with Daisy concluded. The wind blew in his face and Harry just waited for someone to answer the door for him. The sound of footsteps indicated Harry's wait would not be for very long. The door swung back open for Harry to come face to face with the very lovely acting Headmistress of the Xavier Institute, Ororo Munroe.

"Jean got back fine," Ororo said. "She's a bit shaken up after what happened. Understandable, I'm sure she would want to see you afterward."

"Actually, I'm fine, thank you for your concern."

Jean stood in the corner. She changed into a more casual white tank top and a pair of blue jeans. Both pieces of clothing clung to her fit teenage body. The eighteen-year-old girl crossed the room to look Harry in the eyes.

"Did you find out anything else?" Jean asked.

She reached out almost as if considering grabbing his hand. Harry noticed the moment of hesitation along with the nervousness coming through Jean. He reached out and touched the top of her head. Their fingers intertwined with Harry pulling her close to her.

"Nothing more than more unsettling questions on top of the questions we already have. I don't think this is over from Essex."

Jean let out her breath in a pained sigh. She figured Harry would know better than anyone else. The amount of notes Essex made on the Phoenix Force and her in particular in what he left behind unsettled her greatly. Jean's skin crawled when thinking of that particular creepy man and how many more notes he would have had on her. It was an entire lifetime full of work.

The redhead sauntered a little bit closer to Harry, arms tightened around his waist. Harry pulled Jean into a very warm hug. The redhead offered a relaxed smile when moving closer to Harry's position. His hands found their way at her lower back when he pulled her in.

"Thanks for helping me out," Jean said. "It's just…well, I've been dreaming about you for so long. You really are everything I could have hoped for and that much more."

Some cosmic energy pulled her and Harry together. It took Jean a while to realize there had been a pretty good reason why she and Harry pulled together in such a way. There were some things which were just simply meant to be. Jean's fingers lingered against the back of Harry's head when he pushed her closer towards her.

"Any time I can help, I'll be glad to," Harry told her.

Jean was glad he was glad to help. The two edged close to a certain point and kissed Harry on the lips. Jean really wished the kiss could last forever. Her entire body felt good when moving up against Harry's, feeling up every inch of firm flesh that she could. Harry reached behind Jean and pulled her closer into him. Jean took in a deep breath with Harry kissing her on the side of the mouth several times.

"I'm glad you're here as well," Jean murmured when she pulled away from Harry.

She gave him a final tender kiss. Jean turned away from Harry to Ororo who gave both of them a smile.

"Ororo wants to talk to you about something," Jean said. "I suppose I can let her borrow you for a few seconds."

"Thank you, Jean, I shouldn't keep him for too long," Ororo said.

Jean would not let go of Harry's body just yet. The woman reached underneath Harry's ass to give him a very tight squeeze. Jean felt him up and then moved her fingers back up to cup Harry's face. She kissed him one more time.

She turned away from Harry.

"My room is the third one to the right on the second floor," Jean said. "I'll be waiting for you if you want to come up and see me."

Jean knew she would not be able to rest until she had a piece of Harry. If her dreams he matched up to Jean's dreams, then she would be in for a very interesting time, and it would be very exciting.

Ororo motioned for Harry to follow him down the short way. Harry watched as the woman, who had been worshipped as a goddess in her homeland for good reason, walked. Every step, Ororo performed them with the most regal of grace. She moved over to her office and took a seat behind the desk. Harry sat down on the chair.

The wood paneling of her office was pretty much bare under than a couple of trinkets from back home and a teaching certificate on the wall. One corner of her desk had been set aside for paperwork, the rest of the desk completely clean other than the cup of coffee Ororo put down. She poured Harry a cup which he took with a smile. A tan filing cabinet off of the side held the many records.

"You actually know a couple of mutants the Institute has been looking to recruit," Ororo said. "Sadly, they have declined to attend the school."

"Yes, I believe who you're talking about," Harry said.

"And I would not even dream of telling you to convince them to come here to the Institute should they really not want to," Ororo said. "The first is Alison Blaire. You've met her a few times."

"Yes," Harry said. "I know the lovely Ms. Blaire quite well."

"She's gifted, but she prefers to use her gifts to entertain," Ororo said. "And obviously, I say nothing against her because she has brought so much joy to so many people through her music. Even though Kitty tends to overplay her music so much it can be a bit tiring at times."

"I understand how that might be," Harry said. "Alison would be the first to admit that her music is an acquired tasted."

Ororo sipped the coffee while it was still piping hot. She surveyed the handsome young man over the cup of coffee.

"Agreed," Ororo said. "And I understand the other mutant you know is currently living on a farm out in Kansas."

Harry took his turn to drink the cup of coffee. He did not answer, at least at first. Finally, after downing half of a cup of coffee, Harry decided to answer Ororo's question.

"You are referring to Marie," Harry said. "I've been working with her with fine-tuning her powers. She's had a rough past which has led to a couple of roadblocks. She's finally getting over those stumbling blocks. I would hate to have to remove her from the Kent Farm for whatever reason."

A smile on his face followed Harry drinking another swig of the coffee.

"Besides, she's been such a big help to Martha and Jonathan that I would hate to have to remove her from that environment," Harry said.

"Well, there is a place for her in this Institute if she wants to be here," Ororo said. She gave Harry a warm smile.

"I'll keep that in mind," Harry said. "I'm going to leave tomorrow, I have to get back to Gotham City. Whenever, Charles gets back, send him my regards, and tell him I enjoyed the paper he did last year."

"I'm sure he'll be pleased to know you read it," Ororo said. "And I know you have to leave, but perhaps the next time you're in New York, we can get together."

Ororo looked a bit pleading, and the look served her well. Harry reached across the desk and patted Ororo on the top of the head.

' _I might have been talking you up to her just a little bit,'_ Betsy thought.

' _I'm sure you have,'_ Harry thought.

"With a woman as gorgeous as you, I can find for us to get together next time I'm in New York," Harry said. "And there are a lot of rumors I'm curious with about you. Like the rumors that you were worshipped like a goddess back in her homeland."

Ororo gave Harry a smile and took his hand into hers. She squeezed it firmly before dropping her eyes on Harry.

"It was a lifetime ago," Ororo said. "Naturally, though, if anyone knows about being worshipped, it would be you. Many women line up to come to your altar and pay tribute."

Harry looked at Ororo with another smile. "Would you be one of the women?"

"I think there's a woman in particular upstairs who would be very disappointed if I kept you here much longer," Ororo said. "Perhaps another time?"

* * *

Everything felt all wrong for Nora Fries in ways she could not imagine. She had been put to sleep and woke up in another facility. The walls of the facility looked rather space age, with the designs on it. Nora tried to push her hand off of the bed.

They strapped her down, not that she was going anywhere. Nora felt very sluggish with her body. She searched for a thermostat at the edge of the room. Once she found it, Nora saw the temperature had been only forty degrees below zero in this room. It was not enough to kill her, but it was enough to keep her weak and docile. Nora's breathing increased when she tried to rattle her way out.

Several people observed her through a glass. Nora tried to sit up to get a better look at them. Her body descended back down onto the bed. The wind knocked out of her lungs the second she connected with the bed. Nora could hardly believe what was going on here. She opened her mouth to scream.

"The key is within her."

Key, what key? Boyle said he sent her off to this facility, and she assumed Victor because they needed help after the accident. All Nora remembered through her foggy, pained thoughts was going to the lab. She did remember Victor going through. She wished she had a way to remember everything else with further clarity.

The explosion, Nora remembered that. Her heartbeat very slowly. Vapor filled the air around her. Blue light scanned Nora from the ceiling before.

"Boyle does not know what he missed on stumbling upon now," a soft voice said. "We're going to have to move her again to run some tests. I think we found it."

"Does she have any kind of latent powers?" one of the scientists asked.

The first scientist studied the scans very carefully. The numbers flashed across the screen, making no sense to anyone other than the individual watching the numbers across the screen. He was no expert to be perfectly honest.

"We're going to have to run more tests on her," the scientist said. "We're going to need to get the authorization to move her to the lab across town."

Across town, where were they? Boyle only mentioned he would send Nora up North. Stabbing pains came into the back of her neck. The cold air sucked out of the room when the airtight doors opened. Several gentlemen dressed in heated body suits stepped into the room around her. They observed Nora like she was not a human being, but a test monkey to be prodded.

"What are you doing to me?" Nora asked.

Icicles slipped from her fingertips before they shattered, melting in a blink of an eye. Nora's ragged breaths continued to grow even more frustrating.

"I was promised that I would be comfortable," Nora said. "Where is Killian?"

One of them slipped a mask on the top of Nora's face. Air entered her lungs and caused her body to enter a state of sedation. She tried to fight being put over, no, she would not be subdued. Nora Fries demanded answers. Her body struggled underneath the mask.

"You're going to help change the world," the man said. "Just sleep well, my child."

Nora could not resist the allure of sleep again. Her body entered a state of total rest. The gentleman pulled back the mask to allow Nora to further descend into her state of rest.

* * *

The final days of summer lingered on with a very warm day as Gotham City reached autumn. Lois leaned against a tree outside of the Gotham City Private Academy on the phone. The last summer had been interesting, if not a little bit crazy. Lois looked up several of the students who made their way into the school. She wondered what they would be so excited about.

"So, how long do you have to be before you get to class?" Chloe asked.

Lois checked her watch to make sure she had plenty of time. She did, which made the fact that all of the students rushed to the school like the ground was on fire.

"Oh, I've got about ten minutes to kill," Lois said. "I'll know when the warning bell rings that I have to shut up."

"Yeah, me too," Chloe said. "I've heard a lot of weird things about Gotham City."

The young brunette almost could have laughed. The thirteen-year-old girl kept ahold of her phone before it slipped down onto the ground and out of her fingers.

"Well, you're going to have to be a little bit more specific than the very vague weird things in Gotham City," Lois said. "Because, we are in the nexus of weird, the capital of strange, the…."

Chloe cut off Lois before she could really get going. "Okay, I get it."

Someone almost ran into Lois's shoulder. Lois jumped up and wondered once again why they were so excited to get inside of the school. Normally, they would stand outside for as long as possible to talk especially on a very nice day like this.

"Well, what exactly did you want to talk to me about?" Lois prompted.

"I read some rumors there was a mini-Nightwing running around in Gotham City," Chloe said.

Lois could tell Chloe had been very intrigued about this. Then again Chloe had always been intrigued with the weirdness going on in the world and some of the stranger things. Lois decided to adopt the calmest tone she could muster in a situation like this.

"I don't know about that. You can't believe everything you read on the Internet."

She only had been out on the field in very light supervised missions with Rebecca maybe about three or four times, at maximum, and already there had been urban legends about her. Lois smiled at the thought. She couldn't really argue that it made her feel anything other than good.

' _Of course, Chloe is Chloe, and it's only a matter of time before she starts putting pieces together. She's just way too smart for my good, or her good, or really the good of anyone else.'_

A figure popped around the corner. Artemis stopped short of Lois and looked excited.

"Could you wait just one minute?"

"Yeah, I can hold."

Lois put the phone down onto her chest and turned to Artemis. The younger girl looked about ready to burst with excitement.

"Spill!" Lois demanded.

"I've got in," Artemis said.

"What?" Lois asked.

"Well, I managed to get a spot in the archery club," Artemis said a few seconds later. "You know because today is school club today and everyone is signing up to be a part of a club."

Lois's heart sunk when she realized why everyone was rushing around like bats out of hell to get into school. Today was the day they signed up for the clubs for the year. It was a credit as well, to help promote school spirit. Lois wasn't completely fond of that, but she did want the best grades possible.

"Shit," Lois grumbled. "Forgot…damn it…."

"Well, you better hurry because all of the good ones are going to be taken," Artemis said.

The brunette made her way into the school. She almost sent her cell phone flying.

"Talk you later, Chloe, I forgot today is school club sign up day," Lois said. "I can't believe I forgot, it happens the same time every year, the second Friday after we get back from the school year, and…"

"Slow down, Lois, take a deep breath," Chloe said. "You should hurry because you wouldn't want to get saddled with something like ballet or something."

Lois groaned when she realized knowing that would likely be the case. All of the girls had been talking about what clubs they wanted to sign up, and the older girls gave the younger girls advice about what clubs were good, which was lame, and those that were just okay.

Rebecca and Ella came down the hallway. Ella smiled the moment she came eye to eye with a very frantic Lois.

"You forgot today was school club day didn't you."

Lois sighed, she was so screwed if everyone had signed up before her.

"You better hurry so you don't get saddled with ballet," Rebecca said.

Yes, Lois did not want to be saddled with that, the lamest of all of the clubs at GPA. She moved into the sign-up sheet, where the last few students moved over to try and not get saddled with a lame club. Lois followed the progress all of them. All of the really cool arts and crafts clubs were all filled up.

Lois noticed two particular clubs had been left open. She moved her way to the list and snagged the last spot on the club which was not ballet.

' _Journalism,'_ Lois thought. _'Well, fine, I guess that works.'_

Three students groaned the very second Lois dove in to lock in her spot. They realized that was the final spot, and it was ballet for them.

"That's what you get for sleeping in on school club day," Lois said.

Lois turned around to meet Ella and Rebecca. Both of the girls shook their heads when Lois left the room. She blinked and stared both girls down.

"What?"

* * *

The Daily Bugle was busy as they wanted to get the weekend edition of the paper out. It was one of the highest grossing papers, so they needed a hell of an article.

Betty watched as April filed the story about the mysterious Earthquakes in New York City. This can easily be verified, and she managed to tie it into the fact the TCRI building had been closed off. Something happened, and no one could get close enough because of the government people who had been walking around the building. Krang and his cronies were long gone.

"They're just guessing that the place just got shut down because TCRI spilled even more dangerous chemicals," Betty said. "Which given what happened fifteen years ago, that's not too unreasonable to assume."

April just nodded when she went through the latest reports. She really did hope that something would break. The guys suffered a horrific beating when going up against the Shredder. The investigation of the falling watertower also lead to no significant leads.

Everyone involved in that little fiasco just up and vanished off of the face of the Earth. April stuck the cap of her pen in her mouth and sucked on it. Betty followed the progress of her protégé with amusement. April dropped the pen cap down on the desk and sighed.

"You do have your charming little quirks when you get nervous," Betty responded. "Don't worry, sweetie, it happens to the best of us."

April just responded with a nod. Yes, it happened to the best of them, but still, there was just a lot which put her on edge. Krang was still out there, and no one could even begin to figure out the sounds of those miniature Earthquakes going from underneath TCRI. No reporters would ever get close enough to even try thanks to the lockdown on TCRI.

"There's a gang war brewing," April said.

The brunette reporter looked at the younger redhead reporter and gave her a very slight smile. Betty's hand touched the top of April's head before pulling it back.

"There's always a gang war going on in New York it seems," Betty said. "Be thankful this is not Gotham. I'm sure you've heard the news and the big messes coming out of there."

April responded with a nod. Any reporter worth their salt would be keeping a pretty close eye on some of the events going on. Still, April's mind kept drifting back to the events of that battle between the Turtles and Shredder. She did not witness it. At the same time, a second-hand account was more than enough.

"If the Shredder's dead, they're going to jump on his territory," Betty said.

The younger reporter returned back to her old habit of chewing on the pen cap. She looked out of the window despite nothing interesting going on out there. The night was very dark and dismal with not a cloud in a sky. The cars ran up and down the streets about the same way they would normally.

"Not sure if he's dead."

Gang activity dropped as far as the Foot and the Purple Dragons were concerned. That was both equal parts good and bad. April figured that someone else would jump into the ring to take the spot that the Shredder left behind.

Vicki's news report regarding Maroni's trial which would be taking place on Monday started to come on the television screen.

"After all of this time, Salvatore Maroni will be arriving at the Gotham City Courthouse this Monday to stand trial. The trial of Tony Zucco revealed some incriminating information. Everyone in Gotham City is waiting to see how many…."

"HEY, HEY, HEY!"

J. Jonah Jameson popped his head out of the office door and stared at the Bugle staff. One of them nearly spilled a cup of coffee on the ground because of the fact the Jolly giant of journalism startled him so much.

"I didn't pay you to watch the news!" Jameson bellowed. "I paid you to report on it. So get out there and start reporting!"

Break was over, and the television went dead. April was grateful for the kick in the ass to put the finishing touches on her story. Mostly because she needed to stop obsessing about what might have been.

* * *

Jean sat in her bedroom just waiting for him to show up. She knew he would. No question about it, he would show up. Jean had time to take a shower while Harry had a nice little meeting with Ororo.

The door opened and right away, Harry stepped into the room. Jean stepped off of the bed.

Her room contained pretty much everything one might expect a room of a teenage girl to have. A desk, along with a computer, sat in the corner of the room. A dresser by her bed had her cell phone on it. A wardrobe off to the side contained her clothes. The red carpets felt soft underneath Jean's bare feet when she crossed the room to grab Harry's hands and pull him into the room.

"You knew I would come," Harry said.

Jean smiled and extended a hand forward to put a hand on Harry's shoulder. She walked closer towards him, a slight smile tugging at the corners of her lips.

"I knew you would come," Jean agreed. "Ever since I've been here, there's been a part of me which feels like something is missing. Then, I figured out what it was after I met you. Months, years, even it took me after having those dreams of you. The handsome green-eyed man who was just out of reach."

She took in a deep breath and smiled.

"There's been a lot of tension with my family for what I am," Jean said. "My sister's been pretty supportive. My parents…not as much I'm afraid. "

Harry reached up and took Jean into his arms. The redhead smiled while getting closer to Harry. His strong arms tightened their grip around Jean.

"You're the light at the end of my tunnel."

The two met in a kiss which sent sparks flying through their body. Jean's body heated up from the mere touches Harry gave. He wrapped his arms around Jean to tighten around her body.

"You're amazing," Harry said.

Jean smiled and slid off her bathrobe to reveal herself dressed in a night dress. The thin green material came down to her thighs and showed the matching green panties underneath. She added stockings to the outfit as well, a sheer green color as well. Jean bit down on her lip, showing her nervousness when looking Harry straight in the eye. Harry looked at Jean's entire body from a beautiful face to her deep cleavage, to her flat stomach which showed due to the material rolling up. Her panties stretched over a very well-formed ass. Those legs came down all the way.

The two met one more time for a kiss, with Harry reaching around to feel Jean. Their bodies both heated up with pleasure. Jean started to wrap her legs around Harry. Her tongue danced against his lips to beg for entry. Harry allowed Jean to enter and slip her tongue deep between his lips.

The two pulled away from each other as the strap of Jean's night dress slid down.

"We better go somewhere safe, because things are going to get hot."

The room around them turned into a bright light. Harry and Jean appeared in a desolate area out in the middle of nowhere. Harry closed his eyes with a room appearing along with a nice lavish bed. Jean grabbed Harry's shoulders to get his attention.

"Let's get you out of these clothes."

The clothes ripped from Harry's body with the sheer force of Jean's mind. The gorgeous redhead licked her lips when moving in for another kiss. Her hand reached down, pleased what she found.

* * *

 

Jean took hold of Harry's stiff cock. She squeezed the manhood. It had been the first time she had this piece of meat in her hand. Yet, she felt she knew it all too well.

The feeling of Jean's warm hand caressing his throbbing manhood made Harry kiss her even harder. Jean pulled away from Harry and dropped down onto a rug which appeared before her. She ran her hands over Harry's toned abs and kissed him. Her finger wrapped around his cock and slowly worked it all the way up the length. The throbbing manhood twitched inside of Jean's skilled hand. She pushed down to the base to squeeze it as hard as possible before pulling it back.

Harry groaned at Jean working his pole over. The redhead leaned in to plant a kiss on him.

"I can't wait to be in your mouth."

The fire in Jean's eyes showed she could not wait to have Harry in her mouth. She pushed her lips down onto him and allowed his cock to slide into her mouth one inch at a time. Jean took her time to get Harry's cock into her mouth. Harry grabbed Jean around the back of the head and helped her ease him into her mouth. The warmth of Jean's lips worked around Harry's hard cock.

The slick heat pumping around her lips made Harry want to drive into her mouth. He started slowly not to overwhelm the girl. Harry held the back of her hair and drove himself into her mouth. Jean gasped around his cock, before holding onto him. She made some lovely sounds and introduced new sensations.

Harry pulled Jean off of his cock. Disappointment filled those green eyes as Harry brought Jean to a standing position. Her stiffening nipples stuck on either end of her shirt. Harry pulled down her straps to allow it to fall onto the bed. Two beautiful spheres stuck out for Harry to grab onto.

"Harry," Jean whimpered.

Two hands groping her breasts made Jean lose her mind. Her thighs clutched together. Jean longed for him inside of her. Harry held her chest in hand and gave them a squeeze. Attention shifted down to Jean's backside with one of Harry's hands. He pushed her back onto the bed.

Jean lifted her legs up to tighten around Harry's waist. Harry leaned in and started to plant kisses down her collarbone. Harry cupped the underside of Jean's breasts and came down to kiss her breasts. Every inch of her breasts had been worshipped with a series of light sucks, kisses, and bites.

The gasp of pleasure made Harry only go to town on her chest even more. His hardness poked against Jean's thigh. Harry waited for her to part.

"You want my cock?"

Jean nodded, biting down on her lip. She put her hands on Harry's back. Jean wanted him so badly that she could almost taste it. Her insides became uncomfortable with the burning desire. Jean lifted up off of the bed and waited for Harry to slide the first couple inches of himself inside of her.

The more Harry slid his cock into her body, the better her heat rolled up against him.

"Relax," Harry told her.

Jean nodded in response. She grabbed onto Harry tighter with her legs to push him deep inside of her. Harry's throbbing balls brushed against her thighs. Harry rose up a little bit and buried himself a little bit deeper inside Jean. Jean held onto the back of Harry's head with her nails brushing against the back of his shoulder. An inch up and another two inches down.

Steady momentum had been established with Harry driving himself into Jean's waiting core. Her inner walls clenched Harry and released him. Harry spread her legs and felt up on them.

"I like it when you touch me," Jean said. "Your hands feel so nice, so strong."

Jean would be liking him a lot when Harry was done with her. His hands brushed all over her body. Their scorching loins met together with Harry rising and falling. His balls slapped firmly on Jean's aching flesh. Jean ground her nails into the back of Harry's head.

Harry brought his cock into Jean and enjoyed the feeling of her orgasm building ever so slowly. She pumped his hard cock with Harry planting himself into her. His balls kept slapping against her, building up a steady stream of thrusting.

The redhead saw stars with the rising of the orgasm in her. Jean drove her hips up to milk Harry's rod. Harry returned fire, riding Jean all the way to a great orgasm.

The Sorcerer pulled himself out of Jean. Her body dropped down onto the bed. Harry motioned for her to roll over and Jean did.

Jean laid chest down on the bed, her thighs spread to be penetrated from Harry. Harry leaned into Jean and put his finger at the edge of her gushing entry. He brushed against her and collected the juices against his finger before sliding it over Jean's body.

His finger stopped to Jean's mouth. Her hungry sucking of his finger made Harry's cock throb. He lined himself up to Jean, pushing against her from behind. Harry pushed down into Jean to enter her warm body.

That hard cock pushed inside of Jean's body and stretched her out completely. A few steady pumps started Harry slow into her. Jean grabbed onto the bed.

"I want more," Jean said. "Please!"

The untold request to get pounded harder only spurred Harry harder to bury himself inside Jean. The sound of firm flesh smacking together took place with Harry working his hardness into the wet center. Jean grabbed onto Harry and held him as tight as possible. Her warm walls squeezing and releasing Harry brought a growing tension inside of her loins.

Jean threw her head back and moaned in an insane manner. Every so often, Harry hit a sweet spot inside of her which made Jean lose her mind. The instincts of this talented lover to pleasure Jean as only he can got her going completely nuts. Harry pulled almost out of Jean and drove into her.

All of those sweet spots had been hit. Harry picked up the pace and plunged his hard cock inside of her tight center. He pulled almost all the way back and went into her again. He buried himself as far deep as possible. The sound of his heavy balls striking against Jean's thighs triggered more passionate moans. Those moans dragged Harry into burying himself deeper into Jean.

"Don't hold back. I want to feel all of you."

Harry's roaming hands got Jean's motor completely running. She never wanted have Harry stop fucking her. Harry pulled back and shoved his hard cock inside of Jean's center as it kept tensing around her. Harry reached around to hold onto Jean to rock his cock into her body.

"Me too," Jean said.

Jean's peak erupted to a high point and crashed down all the way. Her body sized up with energy. White hot flames licked every inch of Jean's body in addition to Harry's fingers going down her body. He touched the lower back of the redhead goddess underneath him.

Each thrust introduced new sensations within Jean's heated core. Harry's hands never remained idle for too long. They brushed against her with the barest moments. The sensations within Jean continued to build until her orgasm hit completely.

The heat pumping through Jean's core made Harry drive himself. Lubrication swelled Harry's hard cock even more. The desire to be coated in Jean's juices allowed a fever pitch to be built. Harry slammed his rod inside of Jean's center to allow her to grip and release him in time with each thrust.

Jean's orgasm prompted one to release in Harry. Throbbing balls finally received their release. Harry planted his seed inside of Jean. Each thrust brought her to the highest heights and made her crash down onto the bed.

He finished unleashing his cum inside of Jean. The final few spurts finished and Harry pulled out of Jean.

The second Harry recovered, Jean pulled herself up. She dragged her fingers over her body. The combination of both of their juices wrapped around Jean's finger. She shoved the finger into her mouth and sucked on it.

The taste only drove Jean further to the edge. She jumped in and dove on top of Harry. Harry swelled and Jean drove herself down onto Harry to ride him with reckless abandon.

"One taste is never enough."

Jean just smiled and bounced up and down on Harry's throbbing cock. He took her breasts in hand to squeeze them to encourage Jean to ride him even faster.

* * *

**To Be Continued on August 30** **th** **, 2017.**


	331. Burned

**Chapter Two Hundred and Thirty-One: Burned**

* * *

A very prominent smile fixed on the face of Jean Grey. She did not know how she returned back to her bed. The only thing Jean knew was that she was back in her bed with Harry's arms wrapped around her. His warm body pressed against hers with those arms wrapped around her.

Jean knew this could not last forever no matter how much she wanted it to. Still, a very prominent grin filled the face of Jean when she shifted against Harry. Harry's fingers unconsciously brushed through Jean's hair. The breathing increased with each dilation of her body. Harry touched the back of her neck and gave Jean a light kiss on the back of the head which brought her back out of her sleep.

"Jean?" Harry whispered in the back of her ear. "Jean?"

Jean turned her attention back around to Harry and gave him a very prominent smile. "Last night was amazing."

The telepath pulled herself away from Harry. The two lovers kissed each other for a moment. Jean's tongue guided its way into Harry's mouth with a very hungry and extremely passionate kiss. Harry grabbed her hair and kissed Jean even deeper.

"I really don't want to let go," Jean said. "But, I know you have to leave."

Harry rolled out of the bed. Jean watched him leave with a look of sorrow in her eyes. Harry stopped for a minute and bent down to collect his clothes off of the floor. The clothes which ripped off in the mindscape during the last evening had been magically still intact. Harry allowed the clothes to disappear in the air before reappear back onto his body.

"That's handy, "Jean said.

"When you are as busy as I am, you use all of the little tricks you can to make the morning go a little bit quicker."

Jean nodded in response at his words. They made a whole lot of sense and really put so many things in perspective. She decided now would finally be the time to pull herself out of bed and get on with the day, shuffling around for her clothes.

Last night redefined the term amazing. Jean feared what might happen if she had become too unchained. She feared what could have happened when it was time for her to let go and just be herself. However, Harry convinced her to do what was necessary to let go.

Jean wrapped around Harry's neck and leaned in to give him a very strong kiss upon the lips. Harry held the back of Jean's head and pulled her into the kiss. She guided her tongue into his mouth, with the two of them enjoying the moment of indulgence on each other.

' _Besides, it's not like I won't be in your thoughts,'_ Harry thought.

Jean pulled back from Harry in surprise. She should not have been surprised, but at the same time, she had been taken just a little bit off guard.

' _So, you're…is this because of my telepathy, or something else?'_ Jean asked.

' _Something else,'_ a voice thought. _'My name is Karen, and I am one of the Alphas of Harry's Collective.'_

Jean had been caught off guard by the phrasing she had used. One of the Alphas, as in multiple alphas, well that raised some very interesting questions that Jean wanted the answers to. There had been a lot of mysteries with Harry she wanted to answer, and not that much time to answer all the questions.

' _It's a pleasure to meet you,'_ Jean thought.

' _Given how much we've seen of you in Harry's dreams, the pleasure is all mine,'_ Karen thought. _'It's my responsibility to let you in on the ins and outs of the Collective. I'm going to try and explain everything to you, the best I can.'_

' _I'll try not to burden you with too many questions,'_ Jean thought.

Jean noticed Harry had been dressed, and it was time for him to leave, no matter how much Jean did not want to let him go. She wrapped her arms around Harry and gave him a kiss before letting him slip out the door.

Harry, now completely dressed, made his way down the hallway. He only walked a little bit down the steps before stopping and meeting Ororo who had been making her rounds for this morning at the Xavier Institute.

"It was nice to meet you," Harry said.

Ororo gave him a warm smile. "I agree. And I hope the next time you are in New York, I'll get to see you. And maybe if you're not busy, some of the students can get the benefit of your knowledge. If you don't mind."

Harry smiled and took Ororo's hand to shake it one more time. He decided to lean in and kiss the woman on the hand. She gave him a smile and stepped back into her office. Harry walked back half of a step and almost ran into Betsy when she came up the steps on the other side.

"You really never take a trip without recruiting anymore, do you?" Betsy asked. "Or do you need to try?"

A smile crossed over the face of Harry when he pulled Betsy into a one-armed hug. The two of them leaned against each other with Harry leaning in to plant a light kiss on her lips before pulling away.

"So, are you ready?" Harry asked.

"Yes," Betsy said. "I actually need to head back to the airport the same time you do. Got some unfortunate business to deal with, you know how things like this go."

* * *

Not too many people had been allowed to go down to police lock up before the trial. Carmine Falcone stepped past two of the guards who parted the way. He came across two more guards. These guards looked far less easy to appease than the guards who let him passed at the first time.

"I come in peace," Falcone said. "I just want to talk to my old friend. Just let me through."

"It's the Commissioner's orders, everyone needs to walk through that gate to be scanned," the guard said.

Falcone walked through the gate without any argument. It was a calculated risk to step into the prison without any protection. Any number of people would take a shot at Carmine Falcone and make a name for themselves now more than ever. Falcone waited for them to finish his scan through the medical detector.

The metal detector came out as a complete negative. Falcone walked out of it and the two guards allowed him to go down the hallway. The Roman walked past. Several of the inmates at the lock up stared at the very imposing Gotham City mobster as he passed them. Falcone knew he made some very dangerous enemies in this prison.

He stopped at a very lavish looking cell. Salvatore Maroni leaned back against the cot in the cell. The cot was very comfortable, he had a few comforts of home, although not as many as he would have. Salvatore looked up from the book he looked at and came eye to eye with Carmine Falcone.

"This doesn't look good."

Carmine thought his old friend summed up his position in pretty much the only way possible. He would have liked to offer Salvatore some words which would make things okay. He much preferred Salvatore being free. The mobster might have been a little rough around the edges, with his temper, but Carmine respected the man unlike several of his competitors.

"The landscape has unfortunately changed," Falcone said. "It might be the best to sit in there and cool your heels before the dust settles."

Maroni took a second to swallow the lump growing in the back of his throat. All of those years of service and this was the thanks he got, trapped in this cell. For the second time, he had been left behind, and he did not really care to be honest, not anymore at least. His father had been killed by the Joker, and his good friend, Zucco, he stabbed him in the back in front of his face.

' _After all, I've done for that worm.'_

Maroni considered slamming his hand into the glass of the prison cell but stopped when he realized it would not do him the slightest bit of good.

"What about…."

"I'm not going say there are no problems out there," Falcone said. "There are more problems than I care to admit. The Penguin's breathing down my neck. And despite the fact he's been neutered due to how much faith he's lost after Bertinelli got plugged, you can't count out Thorne."

Salvatore knew why the Roman said all of these things. He drew in his breath. Each breath caused a burning sensation to rise into Salvatore's chest. The ulcer returned to him.

"You need my help," Salvatore said.

The two men, they grew to respect each other, and maybe like each other a little bit. It did break the Roman's heart to have to do what he had to do, but there was really no choice other than to do it.

"You're a liability, Sal," Carmine said. "After what Zucco said, I cannot run the risk of helping you again. Things would…"

"So, it's over!"

Salvatore Maroni's fist clenched and his breathing increased. He really was at wits end because of this situation. He tried not to lose his mind as hard it was to keep calm. His blood pressure was up along with his ulcers, and the stress level caused his hair to thin a little bit.

"That fat bastard, after I got him out of this town, and gave him a year of freedom, he stuck the knife in my back. Unbelievable, I can't…that son of a bitch, he's going to get what's coming to him when I'm done with him. He's going to wish he never screwed with me!"

"Just remember our deal," Carmine said. "Just remember that it's still in play when you're up on the stand tomorrow. You can get out of here in a year if you play nice."

Salvatore swallowed when looking at the man. Carmine Falcone noticed one of the guards moving very close and moved away to leave Salvatore in the cell alone.

"I'm not a stooge," Sal grumbled. "I'm not a rat. Wonder how long you're going to last though before someone else gobbles you the fuck up."

Everything in Sal's empire came crashing down on the back of his head. Things were not looking so well, and Salvatore mentally recapped all of the reason. Sister in bad shape, and her supporters ready to go to war with him. One son killed by the Holiday whackjob, and the other had been deported. Cobblepot acted more and more like a vulture than a Penguin.

Soon, the guard would come to bring Salvatore to the court house where he would face that smug bastard, Dent. After everything, it was Dent's face which Salvatore Maroni hated the most. He would have liked nothing better.

"Sir, your ulcer medicine. Your doctor prescribed extra strength."

Maroni nodded in a grim manner. "So he did."

* * *

Several very prominent pieces of equipment laid out on a table with a couple of men dressed in lab coats with goggles looking over them. One of them pried open the back of the piece of equipment and twisted back of it open. A few sparks of light flashed in the distance. The scientist almost slid back against the wall and took a deep breath.

"Well, what do you have?"

The two technicians looked up in time to come face to face with the one and only Oswald Cobblepot who stepped into the room. The Penguin had been followed by the Walrus who rolled in with a wheelchair.

"I've never seen anything like this before in my life," the technician said. "These power cores, they have enough juice in them to level an entire building if you know how to use these things."

Cobblepot put a hand underneath his chin and looked very thoughtful. The man thought of the possibilities such a powerful set of weapons.

"Boys, Intergang is the most feared gang in all of Metropolis for a reason," Penguin said. "And that's not because people cringe every time they get a look at Mannheim's mug."

Dudley broke out into a fit of laughter, and the other two goons beside them chuckled nervously. The techs laughed as well until the Penguin cleared his throat.

"But, we've got plenty to do," Penguin said. "You managed to get one of the crates open. Good job on that, about time you did something right."

The technicians felt pretty damned with some faint praise. The Penguin gave them one of those wide smiles when looking them over for several minutes.

"But, we still got a lot to do."

Penguin snapped his fingers and two men rolled in a very high tech looking crate. The crate on the ground looked to be locked up pretty tight. Another gentleman, dressed in a fancy suit with a stylish bow tie with. He had buck teeth, a fat face, and thick coke-bottle glasses covering his face.

"I can feel it in my bones, boys," the Penguin said. "The key to everything that we want is in this crate. They have this crate locked down tighter than a nun's box. They have something in here. They have something that I want in here. And we're going to crack it open one way or another."

Penguin slapped his hand on the edge of the box.

"The lock is programmed to accept a set of numbers, and also the DNA of three high ranking Intergang members," the hacker said. "If I can override the biometrics, or alter them to accept your DNA and two of your gang members, we're in business, sir."

The Penguin only had the slightest idea what this kid had babbled on about. Still, he knew a good score when he saw it, and all of the good stuff inside, well the Penguin could have done a little jig.

"Make sure you get straight to work with that, boy," Penguin said. "I want it open. I want to get ahead in Gotham City."

He had no idea how much of the Intergang loot Black Mask managed to figure out how worked. Penguin could not have allowed Black Mask to get too far ahead of him. Sionis and Cobblepot might have had their business dealings in the past, but those dealings were over and Cobblepot needed to go forward.

Cobblepot walked down into the main area of the warehouse to check on some of his more law-abiding operations. He stepped in and came face to face with the very lovely woman that he hired to help monitor things.

"Candy, what do you have for me?" Cobblepot asked. "And you're looking like quite the fine bird on this morning, aren't you?"

"I have some papers for you to sign, sir," Candy said.

Coblepot nodded and took the papers into his hand. He looked them over just seeing the standard fare with the shipping. It was really nothing too deep out of the ordinary for him. Cobblepot did not even hesitate to put his name on the dotted line.

"Thank you, Mr. Cobblepot," Candy said. "There's been a lot of movement on the third floor. Is there…anything I should be concerned about?"

The Penguin looked at his aide. The poor naïve girl just tried to work on honest job. She did not get down and dirty like Tracey did. Which suited Cobblepot just fine, because if he threw fewer irons in the fire, they would be a lot better off, to be honest.

"No, nothing you need to get concerned about, love," Penguin said. "Walk your ass slowly to the office, and file away all of this paperwork. These shipments could fetch me a mint."

Candy answered with a nod, lightly biting down on her lip and releasing it. Penguin watched her leave and smiled before walking off. The loud whooping sound coming from one of his hackers caused Penguin to smile. They finally made some progress.

' _About bloody time.'_

* * *

Kara settled herself in a booth across in the window already overlooking the Gotham City courthouse. Police security had been ramped up. The sun shined very brightly today.

' _So, it's going to happen,'_ Dinah thought. _'Maroni's actually going to trial.'_

' _I don't know how he's going to get out of this one,'_ Diana thought.

' _He's going to do what he can to plea,'_ Dinah thought. _'But, I think if he gets anything less than life in prison, I'll be very surprised.'_

' _I'll be pretty surprised too,'_ Kara admitted. _'Still, you have to admit he has one more trick up his sleeve.'_

Vicki returned to join Kara for some lunch. She sat down on the table looking across at her protégé with a smile on her face.

"Think you're pretty glad to be a part of history?" Vicki asked. "I never thought Maroni would actually make it to trial."

Kara smiled across the table at Vicki. She took a bite of her sandwich to give herself something to chew on and to think about.

"Is it because you thought someone would off Maroni before he got to the Courthouse? Or was it because you thought he would pull some kind of legal magic to keep from getting to the courthouse?"

The shrug Vicki gave showed Kara she could have been in either mind.

"I really want to know whether or not he's going to try and undercut Falcone," Vicki said. "There's no proof of it, but I think he made some kind of deal to get out the first time."

Kara figured Vicki was essentially right. There had been some backdoor dealings going on, more than she could really figure out right at the moment. That was just how things worked in the underworld in Gotham City. She took a drink and surveyed Vicki thoughtfully.

"So, noon, we might know something," Kara said.

Vicki nodded in confirmation. She checked the clock and it was about a half of an hour until that moment. She had been on pins and needles, waiting for something, anything to break. She had been ready to cover what could have been one of the most essential stories of her entire career.

"I don't think there's going to be any time for dessert."

Laughter came from Vicki at Kara's statement. She thought the girl had a very clear point. No time for dessert when trying to cover the news in Gotham City. It would be hard enough to digest. She took a few more bites of her food, took a drink, and slid the plate across from the table.

"Check please."

* * *

The old Humble Brothers novelty shop once had been one of the top places for prank items in Gotham City. Business failed when some larger businesses pushed the Humble Brothers down until they had been forced to close down and leave in Gotham City. No one knew what happened to old Hank and Harv, but one thing was for certain, their old place of business had been closed down and had been ripe for the taking.

Joker walked down between two moderately sized walls of dusty shelves. The items on the shelf had not been there for quite some time. The Clown Prince kept walking to the edge, smiling when looking around the room. Pure giddiness filled the mind of the Joker.

"Oh, this is going to be good," Joker said.

He walked across the room to the microwave where some popcorn was popping. Joker pulled the microwave open and grabbed a large stick of butter before splashing the popcorn with some buttery goodness. The smell of well-done popcorn filled the Joker's lungs. He grabbed a bottle of cola before walking over towards a moth worn sofa, in front of an old black and white television set. One of his men stood behind the television screen, adjusting the coat hanger antenna on it.

Chipped paint fell off of the walls before Joker's very eyes. The sadistic clown dropped down onto the moth-worn couch in front of the television screen.

"Boys, it's time," Joker said. "It's time, it's time, it's time, for the trial of the century. I can hardly wait! This is going to be the one that Gotham City is going to be talking about for a very long time. The trial of Salvatore Maroni, oh boy, I don't know how he's going to get out of this one."

After popping off old man Maroni, Joker figured Sal would be running out of options. Falcone cut him loose like some kind of old dog. Joker popped a piece of popcorn into his mouth. It just had the right amount of butter soaked into every last kernel. Joker's eyes closed when savoring the delicious taste of this popcorn.

"Boys, it's showtime."

They were going to enjoy the show alright. Joker's laughter increased when the news feed cut into the trial which was about to take place.

* * *

Salvatore Maroni looked up at Harvey Dent, the smug bastard who put him in this position. Dent, he thought he was something.

"And everything Zucco said was true?" Dent asked.

Maroni just barely acknowledged the question. He fiddled with the handle of the ulcer medication bottle until Harvey firmly placed his hand on the edge of the witness stand. Those bright blue eyes burned into the face of Maroni.

"I said Zucco was a rat," Maroni said. "Never called him a liar…but he's just a rat, a filthy rat, who will get what's coming to him someday."

Maroni's agony spread when he tried to pull the cap off of the bottle. Dent hammered away at him with questions. Only every now and then, his attorney interjected in.

"Is it true you were behind the Intergang weapons going into Gotham City?"

"Well, what do you think?" Maroni asked.

"It's not relevant what I think, Mr. Maroni. It's what you say in your defense at the trial."

Dent kept his gaze on Maroni who continued to fiddle with the bottle in his hand. Finally, Dent said something.

"Put down the medication bottle and answer the question," Dent said. "Or, I'll have it taken away from you."

Maroni's hands clenched and began to shake. The man's head lifted up and stared at Dent. Pure waves of rage came through him.

"I'm sick! SICK! Don't you get that, you son of a bitch? You want me to put me away. You already got the information you want from that fat son of a bitch Zucco. He screwed up because he just had to do his….god damn it, this stupid bottle!"

"Put down the bottle now, "Dent said. "Or, we'll have it taken away from you."

"CAN'T YOU SEE THERE'S A HOLE BEING EATEN THROUGH MY STOMACH!"

Maroni upped and lobbed the ulcer medication bottle. The bottle broke open and the contents inside splashed against the face of Harvey Dent.

"ARGH, GOD!"

Dent screamed and dropped to his knees. A searing pain rolled over his body. The guards rushed in to secure Maroni at the witness stand while also tending to Dent. The worst pain ever grabbed onto Harvey Dent's face. The right side of his face, where the acid splashed on, felt burned down to the skin. Several drops of acid also burned the right side of his body, causing half of his suit to be discolored as well in the possess.

"MARON…ARGH!"

"You like that, Dent?" Maroni asked. "That's what happens when you try and be a white knight in Gotham City. They say you're some pretty boy, savor. But, now, you're not going to look so good."

"Someone call for an ambulance!"

Dent screamed as Maroni just smiled down at the man. Finally, that son of a bitch got what was coming to him.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 2** **nd** **, 2017.**


	332. Shattered Part One

**Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Two: Shattered Part One**

* * *

Every single person in Gotham City committed the following piece of footage into their memories so far they could close their eyes and see it. The various news networks in Gotham City replayed the footage several times throughout the past couple of days. Everyone saw it, it was ghastly in what they had been shown.

One could piece together a timeline of what happened. Salvatore Maroni, under great strain, finally snapped and threw a bottle which supposedly contained ulcer medication across the room. The bottle broke open and struck Harvey Dent in the face. The man's screams could be heard for a very long time until medical personnel came out. The image of the beloved Gotham City District Attorney in so much pain burned into the minds of the collective citizens a city which showed some very distinct signs of strain.

The footage wrapped up and the always present Vicki Vale stepped onto the scene, with a frown etched upon her face. She stood outside of Gotham General Hospital. One ambulance came out and another ambulance came in.

"We still do not have an updated report on Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent," Vicki said. "The attack at the Courtroom you just saw left him in critical condition. On his way to the hospital, Dent went into arrest, but the doctors managed to pull him out of it."

The camera panned over the hospital, and Vicki kept pressing on with her report.

"For obvious security reasons, the exact room that Mr. Dent has been placed into has not been disclosed to the general public. Assistant District Attorney Janice Porter has picked up where Mr. Dent has left off and has been given additional protection from the Gotham City SWAT."

Those with keep observation skills noticed a small amount of skepticism sliding into Vicki's voice at how well the SWAT could be with protecting anyone. Ever the old pro, Vicki recovered quickly and kept reporting on the facts as she saw them.

The news report continued with Harry watching it from his office. Kara rejoined them, this having been a replay of an earlier news report. So she had been free to sit down and join Harry. Faora made her way inside, having returned from making the rounds at Gotham General. Harry turned to her. Faora walked across the room and took a seat on the couch in the corner of Harry's office right next to Kara.

"So, how did it look?" Harry asked.

"It doesn't look too good," Faora said. "Half of his skin had been burned off on his face. The fact he's still alive, it's a miracle. If Maroni had thrown that acid just a little harder or at a different angle…"

Harry had no need for Faora to finish. The news went to a commercial, with any late breaking information scrolling across the street. Maroni had been detained at the Arkham Ward because they felt he gone temporarily insane and cracked from the pressure.

"The point is, he is very, very lucky," Faora said. "Even though, judging by what the nurses and the doctor told him, he doesn't feel lucky."

"The man got half of his face burned off," Kara said.

"Yes, he's just lucky to be alive," Faora said. "There's going to be some nerve damages, permanent scarring if he gets through this. His heart already stopped once on the way to the hospital. The entire right side of his body down to his torso, it doesn't have any feeling in it."

Grim reality set up for Harvey Dent. Harry hoped that something could be done, for Harvey's sake and the sake of everyone in Gotham City. Losing another pinnacle and a great public figure was not going to be good on the overall health of the city.

"Do you think there's any chance that he might be fixed?" Harry asked.

Faora put her hand underneath her chin and looked thoughtfully at her brother. "There's always a chance if we have enough time."

Surgical advances made a lot of things that were previously impossible more possible. Faora figured at this current rate it would take cares. The fact Harvey was not killed gave them a window of hope. It was a small window hope, but hope was hope never the less.

The phone in Harry's office rang. Harry picked it up on the third ring.

"Cobblepot is planning something big," she said. "He's figured out how to use the weapons he stole from Maroni…and he's opening up the sewers to move something around the city. The fifth district warehouse, there's a lot of activity around there."

The news Harry waited for, for days finally came. Harry turned to Kara.

"Penguin's up to something," Harry said. "Do you mind coming along?"

Kara practically jumped at the opportunity. It had been a long time since Flamebird and Nightwing had a chance to hit the streets of Gotham City.

* * *

Oswald Cobblepot felt like nothing could touch him. There were a few challenges, but they were going to be wiped out. Still, despite his glory and the fact he was dancing on cloud nine, Cobblepot would have been a fool to not cover all of his bases.

The mobster walked down the steps to the basement of one of the facilities which once belonged to Rupert Thorne. Two of his best hands stepped behind him. Years ago, underground tunnels had been dug to the facility, leading from the basement down into the sewers.

The two goons, normally very hardened gentlemen, flinched when stepping into the sewers. The man behind then turned around, his teeth curling into a very obvious grin.

"Come on boys, time is money," Cobblepot said. "Waste my time, and you're wasting a lot of money. And that's just some bad business sense, that is."

One of the thugs found the courage to speak up. "Are you sure about this, Mr. Cobblepot, sir?"

Penguin did not say anything other than opening up the entrance and leading them into the sewer. A whiff of what you would expect in a sewer filled his nostrils. Penguin managed to step up onto the concrete which was dry and not stained with sewer water.

"About as sure as I am, that I'm smelling shit. Come on boys, business first. And let me do all the talking. You don't want to stir this guy up."

The two men who followed Cobblepot down the sewer tunnel did not know what to say. They moved over and passed several human looking bones. One of them reached for the weapon instinct when they heard the growl. Cobblepot swung his arm with his umbrella and rapped on the wall.

The sound of something large and nasty eating echoed through the sewer. The figure stopped eating and walked into the shadows. He was huge, scaly, and looked mean enough to take on anything if he ever chose to do so. The man could intimidate anything by eating them up.

The two members of the Penguin's gang stiffened up. They had been too afraid to say anything, and they decided it would be the best to allow their boss to be the one to handle business. He knew how to speak the language of these roughneck people.

"Did you think about my deal?"

The large imposing figure locked his beady little eyes on Cobblepot. He wouldn't even eat the bastard because of how foul he was.

"Yeah, you drive an interesting bargain, and I hear the whispers of guys on the street before I drag them into the shadows. You're building an empire over the ashes of the one the Roman, and Maroni left behind. And you say you can give me my little corner of Gotham."

"In exchange for my men to move through the sewers," Cobblepot said. "I can keep you well fed as well, my friend. Anyone who goes against me, I can send your way, and you can sort them out."

Killer Croc leaned out of the shadows in greater prominence. His eyes locked onto the cagey bird in front of him. A huge smile crossed over his face.

"Does this include Batman and Nightwing?"

The Penguin gave a loud squawking round of laughter. He poked the thug next to him with the handle of his umbrella. The warning had been given and the thugs responded by laughing nervously along with their boss.

"If the opportunity presents themselves, I'll leave enough of them to fit on your plate, with room for leftovers," Cobblepot said. "They've gotten involved too many times."

Croc folded his arms when looking at the Penguin and then to his men.

"They tend to do that," Croc said. "And you can tell your men to stop pissing themselves. There's not enough meat on their bones for me to even bother."

"Cool it, boys," Penguin said. "So, do we have a deal?"

"Give me what I want, and I'll let your boys move whatever you need to move through the sewers, no problem at all."

Croc extended an arm forward. The Penguin reached in took Croc's hand before shaking it. The two insidious gentlemen locked hands with each other, both making sure never to lower their gaze from each other.

"And you'll be rewarded handsomely for your cooperation," Penguin said. "It's time to clean up Gotham City, make it a better place. Make it free from infestations."

"Yes," Croc said. "Yes, I think that will be very ideal. We're going to make sure this entire city knows who will rule it."

Penguin could not have been more pleased. He had some very strong muscle to go with his high tech toys. What more did someone like him need? Gotham City would fold underneath him.

"Bring the meat, and I'll treat you well," Croc said.

Penguin snapped his fingers and three more of his men brought down a bag. Movement from within the bag showed someone in the bag, kicking and squirming. Croc smiled.

"Dinner is served, partner," Cobblepot said.

The bag opened up to reveal one of Thorne's aides who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was a stocky fellow with a lot of meat on his bones.

"Please, I can give you money, anything you want," the aide whimpered.

These were the last words before Croc bent down and snapped his teeth around the man's face. Cobblepot and his men recoiled at seeing the fabled Killer Croc in action, devouring the flesh of the gentleman underneath him.

* * *

Harvey Dent's future was very uncertain at this point. The doctors did not tell him much of anything, which frustrated the man. The Gotham City District Attorney laid in the hospital bed, half of his face covered in bandages, his right hand covered in bandages.

Dent took a deep breath. It hurt to even talk through the right side of his face, it hurt to breathe. He was very lucky to be alive if you called this kind of life lucky. Dent did not call it lucky laid up in a hospital bed. Somehow, Maroni smuggled it in. He might be going down, but he got the last laugh on Harvey. And Harvey was laid up in the hospital bed in never ending pain.

Nothing could be worse than what he went for. The best years of his life had been given to Gotham City. He reached up, annoyed at these bandages wrapped around his face. Another sacrifice he made for doing the right thing, which ended up being a very wrong thing in the end.

' _Pathetic,'_ Dent bitterly thought. _'I give everything for this city, and they let Maroni…that son of a bitch.'_

A knock on the door and Dent turned his attention to the door. He noticed the nurse walking in, looking a bit nervous, and almost looked at him with pity. Harvey detested pity.

"What do you want?" Dent growled at the nurse.

"Mr. Dent…there's a visitor for you."

A few seconds passed before Harvey just gave a noncommittal grunt to the nurse. The nurse saw it as her cue to send the guest in.

"He's not feeling that well."

"Don't worry, I won't be here for long."

Janice Porter stepped in and looked at Harvey on the bed. She wished she could say he saw better days. The Gotham City District Attorney, once proud, and strong, had been bandaged. The side of his face that was visibly twisted into a constant grimace of pain underneath those bandages.

"Porter," Dent said. "What do you have for me?"

"Maroni's been sent to the Arkham Ward, and he'll be in there for a very long time," Porter said.

Dent only nodded. He did not want Maroni to languish in prison. The man deserved to suffer, deserved to burn with everything he had been through. Dent reached for his bandages and tore at him. The doctors warned him not to mess with the bandages. This order made Dent wonder what he was hiding.

"Get me a knife, Porter!"

"Harvey, I don't think…."

"A KNIFE!"

Dent growled and Janice walked over. She wanted to help out her boss and former teacher. It was obvious the bandages on his face caused him some discomfort. Janice reached onto the table and picked up a knife to hand it to Harvey. Her hand shook very nervously when passing off the implement to the Gotham City District Attorney.

The bandages cut from Dent's face. Janice reacted with a stunned gasp. She read the medical reports, but reading a second-hand report on Harvey's face and actually seeing it up close and personal was two extremely different things. Janice kept her eyes firmly on Harvey.

"Mirror!"

Janice jumped up at Harvey's request. He demanded a mirror and Janice reached through the surgical equipment to get him one. He snatched the mirror out of Janice's hand and peered into his face on the other end of the mirror.

The hideous glimpse of his scarred face made Harvey recoil in very thinly veiled horror. His face had been marked with scars, gruesome, ugly scars. Every inch of his face poked out from the other end of the mirror. Dent's shaking hand almost dropped the mirror down.

His right side of his face, it was completely burned. Dent reached back and hurled the mirror as hard as possible against the wall. The mirror shattered into several pieces when it connected to the wall.

The doctor, hearing the sounds, stepped into the room. He saw Harvey with his bandages off, a terrified looking woman slumped against the wall, and the shattered pieces of the mirror littered on the floor.

"You weren't supposed to see that."

"I'm a deformed freak," Dent said. "How am I supposed to do anything when people can't stand to look at my face in the light?"

The doctor moved over, reaching for the needle on the side of the table. He would need to sedate Harvey.

"Doctor Potter is talking to us about some options. She'll sort you out."

Years of pent up frustration reached the surface and finally boiled out. Harvey reached up and grabbed the doctor's arm to block the syringe from injecting. He overpowered the doctor and slammed him down onto the bent. The doctor struggled against Harvey's attack, but Harvey held the knife to his throat, pulling him up.

"Not one step, unless you want to be operating on one of your doctors," Harvey growled. "I mean it."

The doctor shook his head when the security guards came into the room. Janice still slumped into the wall, mouth completely open. This could not be happening. She could not help, but blame herself for this, being the one to visit here.

Harvey shoved the doctor down to the ground and punched him twice in the back of the head. He picked up a large chair and smashed it through the window. Glass shattered, and Harvey jumped out of the window. One of the security guards reached for Harvey.

The nurse near the door shrieked as did Janice from Harvey Dent jumping through a broken window down several stories. The doctor on the ground was also a cause for concern, with blood oozing from the back of his neck after Harvey clipped him.

* * *

Nightwing peered over the top of a very prominent looking gargoyle. Penguin took control of a Thorne operation which gave him a strategic view to a Falcone location. The vigilante observed three men coming around the corner. Their voices were so low which they could not get picked up.

A truck rolled down to the gates inside of the territory. About six or seven well-dressed mobsters stepped out of the area. They all brandished old school guns. The other three mobsters, working for the Penguin, stepped in. One of them wielded a high tech looking gauntlet which came out of some science fiction show.

The frown came over Flamebird's face when leaning in. She turned around to her partner.

"They figured it out."

"You're moving in on Carmine Falcone's territory," the leader of the more traditional mobsters said. "You know, we should teach your boss some respect."

"Yeah, well, you were the ones who rolled into our territory," the man with the gauntlet said. "If you ask me, you're getting pretty much everything you ask for coming in here. You don't go into someone else's house without getting invited. That's just rude."

The two vigilantes watched to see their options. Falcone's mobsters would be easier to take down. Kara looked over and gasped when she saw one of the storage trucks. Three more mobsters laid in wait with a very powerful looking cannon.

' _That cannon is going to be a problem.'_

"Step off before you get wrecked."

Falcone's men refused to budge. One of them fired a shot with the gun. A field appeared around the mobsters which stopped the bullet cold. The man with the gauntlet turned his arm and blasted the Penguin goon off of his feet and sent him crashing down onto the ground. The impact of him slamming into the ground resounded very hard.

The back of the truck burst open and the cannon unleashed a huge sonic blast. A sonic blast more potent than any Canary Cry knocked the goons to the ground. Blood poured from their mouth and ears killing than instantly.

Nightwing dropped down to catch one of the goons from behind. The goon with the gauntlet rose his dipped behind him and distracted him. Nightwing found a hole in his defenses and stabbed him in the air. The gauntlet ripped off of his hand.

"Fire the cannon!" one of them yelled.

The sonic cry from the cannon cut through the air. Both Flamebird and Nightwing disappeared into the distance. The goon manning the cannon received dagger to the back of the neck through the back window leading to the back of the truck.

One of the Penguin goons dropped down to the ground. Nightwing joined him in battle. He blocked the Penguin goon's punch and punched back at him. Each punch dropped him to his knees. One of the goons jumped forward with gloves which enhanced his punches.

Flamebird jumped in front of Nightwing. She blocked the hands and forced them back. She felt herself just barely able to block

One of the goons threw a grenade into the air and it nailed Flamebird in the back. The explosion rocked her body and caused her to fly up into the air and land down onto the ground.

The goon who used the grenade on her looked very pleased. His joy was short lived with Nightwing rushing towards him, kicking him in the ribs and taking him down to the ground with a full force attack. Said goon bounced off of the ground with a very violent force after Nightwing got done with him.

Nightwing picked up Flamebird, who slumped against him.

"Damn, it…that hurts like hell," she said with a wince. "It feels like my ribs have been broken."

It should not even have been possible, but by the looks of things, it very much was possible. Flamebird collapsed against the side of her partner, as he struggled to hold her up.

' _We're going to have to get out of here now.'_

She really did not have it in her to protest what was happening. Some of the Penguin's goons and their weapons had been down.

The moment Harry prepared to get them out of there, something rolled out of the truck across the street. It looked like a large black boiler type device. One of the goons pushed a button and an immense glowing light popped from the boiler. A drill came down and prepared to drill into the base across from the street.

The readings on Harry's suit picked up a heat signature which he did not like. Still, he would have to get Kara out of there and investigate things further. Harry used the automatic recall on both of their suits to teleport them back to the Penthouse.

* * *

Nora's eyes opened up and she wondered what the hell happened. What did they do to her? Despair spread through the woman and the chill continued to rise through her body. She had been asleep and moved to another room. The woman tried to lift her head up and then collapsed down onto the ground.

A door opened up and a figure dressed in a bodysuit stepped into the room. He had been covered from head to toe in what amounted to a space suit, which allowed him to function in this type of environment. He stopped and nodded at Nora.

"Thank you for your help."

"What about Victor?"

The man looked pretty pleased for some reason. "Well, it's not like he can help us where he is right now."

The chilliness level in the room dropped and it was not because Nora needed progressively colder temperatures to survive. She closed her eyes, wincing when an icicle slipped out of the palm of her hand.

With a surprising burst of adrenaline, Nora ripped herself out of the bed and stabbed the man in the chest, causing him to double over. She managed to impale him straight through the chest.

Nora used the icicle to rip herself free from the bed. She leaned down and stripped the AIM goon of the suit, leaving him to freeze to death on the floor of her containment cell. Nora slipped the suit on, after altering the temperature control to be fifty degrees beneath zero.

She used the suit's onboard control to open the door and walked across the hallway into the lab. Several components laid on the table. Nora studied them quickly and picked up a gun, sliding two of the packs out of the gun. She hooked a cold tank of liquid nitrogen to the gun. She made sure to adjust it.

' _It will do.'_

Nora left the lab and several AIM guards came down the hallway.

"Freeze!"

Nora pointed the weapon at them and shot a crude blast of ice. The ice froze several parts of their body. She shot the ground underneath their feet as well so that the moment the goons tried to go for her, they slid on the ice. Regardless, they were not following her out, at all.

Opening the door, Nora escaped away from this facility.

* * *

Kara leaned back with a very evident grimace flowing over her face. She had been patched up, with Harry studying the weapon.

Faora finished patching Kara up. She was about to tell them both about what happened at Gotham General Hospital, although it could wait for now. They had a far more pressing matter on their hand at the moment.

"You are powerful," Faora said. "Having power does not make you invincible, and you should have kept your eye on the guard. Even with your full powers, you ran into weapons which packed a punch. And judging by this grenade Harry snatched, they are meant to drop gods."

She parked Kara underneath a yellow solar radiation ramp and cranked it up to high frequency. About twenty minutes under the lamp should do the trick, although another shot like that.

"This technology is not of this planet," Faora said. "Which makes me wonder who the hell Intergang's backers are."

"We have another problem," Alura said. "While Kara will heal, there's something else. The temperatures of Gotham City are rising ten degrees above the statistical average for this time of year."

Harry groaned, and right away, Faora tried to get a few on the strange device Harry noticed them unleashing.

"Those idiots have gotten their hands on a thermal explosion device and they're using it to try and drill through buildings," Faora said. "Dangerous weapon of mass destruction, which can burn through planets and cause instabilities if left unchecked."

"Which you can?"

Faora studied both of the heat signatures from Harry's suit and the instabilities coming in. She nodded in confirmation.

"If I can get to it soon, yes. These idiot goons do not know what they're getting to."

Harry looked at the news and saw the footage of Harvey Dent jumping out of the hospital window. Faora put a hand on his shoulder.

"That's a problem," Faora said. "And the other thing I wanted to tell you about before you can back with Kara injured. But, we'll worry about that later. Dent won't matter if Gotham City burns to a crisp. All three of us are going to have to deal with this."

"All three of us?" Kara asked.

"Yeah, as much as I hate to say it," Faora said. She took a deep breath. "I'm going to be out there. Disabling this device requires a steady pair of hands, and well, I've had to do it before."

Kara pulled herself away. She was recharged enough to do this, and turning down the frequency on her solar watch would get her the rest of the way there.

"And it needs to be disabled in person, not remotely," Faora said. "Keep the Penguin's thugs out of my hair, and I'll do the rest."

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 5** **th** **, 2017.**


	333. Shattered Part Two

**Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Three: Shattered Part Two**

* * *

The foundation of the building they needed to get into drilled open. Maroni used this place as a storing house for more of the weapons he had brought in from Metropolis. By some miracle, the GCPD did not get to it just yet, although it would only be a matter of time.

The cops couldn't get anything if the Penguins' men got to it first. The leader of the pack smiled when they were almost inside of the building. This drill thing worked its way into the foundation and caused the wall to crumble.

One of the men reached a hand up to his forehead and wiped a few beads of sweat away from it with a handkerchief. When they came out, they all had to dress in jackets, and not for any kind of protection either. The man sweated bullets even after stripping off his jacket. He reached up to dab his face and move over to grab a bottle of water in the truck. He blinked, as the water tasted terrible. It was all hot and disgusting tasting.

"Hey, is it just getting hot in here?" the goon asked.

Another one of the members of Penguin's gang prepared to make a quip about him needing to shed a few pounds. The intense heat made him stop with this potential quip. He tried to lick the inside of his lips, only to realize something had most certainly gone wrong.

"Yeah, it's getting hotter out here," another goon said. "Maybe it's that global warming nonsense that all of those liberal ferries are talking about."

None of them knew anything about what was going on in here. All they knew was the temperatures turned completely unbearable with the type of scorching heat which made it very hard to think. One of them moved to the device but almost keeled over at the heat.

"What the devil is the holdup?" the Penguin demanded.

"Boss, we have a problem…."

Penguin refused to listen to a single word this gang said. "Oh, you have a problem, don't you? Well, you better harden up and fix the problem. For your sake at least, I don't want any problems. Not tonight, bucko, not tonight. I'm not going to deal with this, do you hear me?"

The statement from the henchmen fell upon deaf ears. Tonight was a night where the Penguin did not want any excuses. The henchmen's mouth hung open and then snapped shut in a blink of an eye. He just nodded, grimly and gruffly.

"We're…we can't get inside," the man said bravely. "The device on the ground is too hot."

"It's too hot!" the Penguin yelled. "What do you mean it's too hot? Listen to me, and listen to me well, you better not have fucked this all six ways from Sunday. If that drill is damaged in any way, I'm going to take it out of your asses. If you don't get Maroni's stock now, I'm going to take it out on your asses. Do you hear me?"

The henchman nearest to the drill almost keeled over. "Yeah, loud and clear boss."

"The boys are a block away are coming in after they take care of some business," Penguin said. "Considering you ingrates can do nothing right."

The Penguin's men would have argued they would have done something right. They had to do a few things right to get this far in Gotham City. Still, they waited for their back up.

"Did you hear that?"

A man leaned over to listen for something. He thought the man who brought up the point had lost his ever loving mind by doing so.

"I don't hear…"

Those famous last words caused him to stop short and turn around into two feet slamming him in the top of the head. Nightwing flickered into the light and caught one of the Penguin's goons in the back of the head. He punched the goon's lights out with a couple of swift shots.

One of them threw out the energy cannon, only for Flamebird to grab onto the cannon and rip it from his hands. She caught the thug in the ribs with a stiff jab. Another stiff jab before Flamebird flipped him down onto the ground, turned him over and knocked him completely out.

Kara, to be honest, did not feel her best. She saw one of those grenades come close to being lobbed at her again. This time, Kara jabbed him in the air to stop him and then turned around. She flipped him down onto the ground. One of the goons released a glowing knife from his wrist band and charged.

Harry blocked the knife and kicked the tough down to the ground. Another man, this time wielding the same gauntlets he tried to take down Harry with came for him. Harry blocked the gauntlets and kicked the man down onto the ground. Harry twisted the arm into position and dropped his adversary down on the ground.

"It didn't work the first time," Harry said. "Why did you think it would work the second time?"

The thug tried to nail Harry as much as humanly possible. He only received a hand to the back which pressed down on a nerve ending. His legs gave way and another pinch rendered him completely unable to move.

Faora stepped over the man who had dropped down on the ground.

' _Try and keep them off of my back,'_ Faora thought to them.

Harry grabbed another one of the thugs who realized in the scuffle he dropped his weapon. He tried to smile at the vigilante. Nightwing wrapped his arm around his head and then drove him down across the knee. The thug groaned at his back cracking.

Flamebird dodged one of the attackers and grabbed his arm. She rolled him onto the ground, hyper-extended the limb out, and drove a couple of light elbow strikes to the side of his neck which rendered him loopy. She caught a glimpse of a figure rushing out.

' _We've got a runner.'_

Nightwing instantly ran for the man and noticed he had gone down the sewers. A large hand reached out of the manhole and pulled Nightwing into the hole.

Flamebird did not waste any time screaming. She just jumped down the manhole after Nightwing.

Nightwing came face to face with the adversary, kicking him away. Killer Croc growled when squaring off with Nightwing.

"Finally, it's been too long."

A dagger from Nightwing's sleeve rapid-fired threw and knocked Croc back an inch or two from his position.

* * *

Oswald Cobblepot knew all about striking when the iron was hot. Gotham City would be ripe for the taking. While everyone was trying to figure out what Maroni being taken out of the picture meant for them, Penguin knew what it meant for him. He knew all of those lovely toys Maroni had was his for the taking.

The people who had the territory would have the power as far as the Penguin would be concerned. So much power he could reach out and grab it into the palm of his hand. He rose up after being taken to his lowest sometime before Christmas. He kicked Thorne while he was down and a fourth of the territory formerly belonging to Thorne now was ruled over by the Penguin.

He wanted more and the warehouses the mobster acquired from Thorne were in a strategic position to get the drop on good old Falcone. Falcone, he had a score to settle for kidnapping Dudley.

' _What the devil are they doing?'_

His men were supposed to liberate something from Maroni's storage house, which was a hop, skip, and a jump away from Falcone's territory. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned and communication had been lost. Penguin tightened the grip around his umbrella handle.

Time was running out, he knew Falcone would try and have the base secured when he smartened up to the fact that Penguin was trying to do something. The bird put a hand over the top of his head. Sweat dripped down the brow of the man and he took in a deep breath. Why was in sweating like a pig in a suit? What the hell was going on anyway?

The doors pushed open and Dudley wheeled in from the elevator from downstairs. Sweat rolled down his mustache. Dudley looked very shaky when he handed a thick folder to his godfather.

"Latest reports of movements, sir," Dudley said. "Things are getting very hot out there, in more ways than one."

"For their sake, they better not have screwed up with the drill," Penguin said.

Penguin had a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach that something went completely and utterly wrong, even more so than usual. Dudley looked at him from the wheelchair.

"My tech guys assured me there were going to be no problems," Penguin said. "I could drill through everything. How did they screw up to such a monumental degree?"

Only just now, Cobblepot realized the futility of having such a conversation with Dudley of all people. He considered the boy family, but thinking was not his strong suit. It would be like talking to the Amish about modern convenience.

"They're trying to find another way in," Dudley said. "And two of those heroes….Nightwing and Flamebird, one of your scouts have seen them."

Penguin thought those two had been taken care of earlier. It would just be like his boys to jump the gun with something like that. The Penguin drew in a very deep breath to calm his nerves. He turned to Dudley, and much to his shock, the lad started to smile.

"You're happy about those two showing up?" Penguin asked. "You're actually giddy with joy that those two meddlesome bastards are pissing in the porridge?"

Dudley poured a face at the imagery, but he recovered quickly.

"Well, your men might have been gotten to," Dudley said. "But, Croc….why don't you take a look yourself, sir?"

The Walrus handed the Penguin a portable device which monitored the activity in the sewer. Penguin watched the images pop up on the screen. Killer Croc stood on one end of the fight and Nightwing stood on the other end of the fight. Flamebird also had been knocked down to the ground sometime and just pulled herself up.

"Croc's going to rip that bastard's spine out and floss his teeth with it," Dudley said.

"Maybe," Penguin said. "But, at the very least, he'll keep him off of our arses long enough for us to get what we need."

The Penguin knew all about the folly of counting his chickens before they hatched. A couple of years ago, he thought he finally got some revenge on Harry Potter, holding him at the newly opened Iceberg Longue. It blew up in his face, quite literally, unfortunately. It caused the Penguin to be a bit more careful in celebrating victory until he was certain it happened.

"This should be very interesting," Penguin said. "But, we shouldn't crack the champagne bottle open…."

The ground rattled from underneath them. Penguin almost fell back onto the desk. He held onto the thick oak surface to pull himself up. Dudley almost had been jolted out of his wheelchair from the sound of the vibration. The two men locked eye to eye with each other and both had many questions and not enough answers.

"Report!" Penguin growled. "Report, damn it!"

No answer whatsoever left the Penguin with gritted teeth and increasing frustration. How could simple height go so tits up like this?

* * *

Faora knelt down on the other side of the device. She needed to focus on it. The shields around it started to falter which meant the device heated up to a point where it could very well melt through the city streets if they did not stop it. Faora intended to stop it, one way or another.

The sounds of fighting stopped from around her. Two of Penguin's goons came up from behind her. They still had not quite smartened up to the fact that this device going off meant certain doom for all of Gotham City.

' _I don't really have time for this.'_

One of the goons made a movement to threaten Faora. She popped up from her position and grabbed him by the arm. She flipped the goon onto the ground and drove the full force of a knee down onto the man's wrist, snapping it. Another goon received two fingers to the throat before he could even get close to drawing any kind of weapon on Faora.

Faora stepped back and almost turned her attention away. Three more Penguin goons made their way towards her. Their attempts to take her down very much amused Faora, even though she had less than enough time for this. She withdrew a Canary Cry grenade.

The sonic vibration from the grenade backed off the Penguin's goons and dropped them to the ground. Faora looked around and listened for anyone else approaching. No one came, which allowed Faora to return to work on the device on the ground.

She disabled one of these devices before, a long time ago. The problem, unfortunately, as Faora saw it was this device was a tiny bit more sophisticated than the one she had to disable. The other problem, as much as Faora hated to admit it, was that this device was further along in its life cycle and would detonate at the slightest nudge of it.

Faora touched the device which would have burned up the hands of a normal person. The area had been cleared out. She took a deep breath when edging the panel loose of the back of the explosive device. Surgical precision would be required to get it open.

The heat almost blistered Faora. She had no desire to see Earth replay the end of Krypton, so any small physical discomfort was blocked from her thoughts. She worked around and noticed several wires feeding into one tube. The tube glowed with the intensity of several suns, and if it reached its hottest, it would burn everything in its path.

Some unsettling questions were raised as to why some Earth goons got their hands on a world destroying a weapon of mass destruction. Faora blocked the thought from her mind and went to work. The core being removed would render the drill unable to cause destruction and burn through the Earth to increase the heat.

Unfortunately, the core was unstable when not hooked to the drill, so Faora only had a limited amount of time to get rid of it. She understood the score and worked with the core as much as possible to attempt to dislodge it from the inside of the machine.

' _Easy,'_ she thought. _'Piece of cake. It's the only entire world that's on the line.'_

Nothing like a little bit of pressure to make the day more interesting, at least that's what Faora figured. She dug her fingernails up against the metal which heated. The metal should not have contorted in such of a manner if the device had been configured properly.

Not only were they dealing with a weapon of mass destruction, but they were dealing with a cheap bootleg of mass destruction. Faora worked her hand underneath the core, something that any scientist would advice against doing because it could have severe effects.

The shoddy makeup on the bomb made it so Faora had to work even more quickly. She tore out the core of the bomb without disconnecting it from the drill. The drill stopped and shuddered to a stop. Faora would have felt more relief had it not been for one tiny little problem.

The very unstable core in her hand heating up to an intense degree, which caused Faora to know she only had maybe a minute or two before jumping into the sky.

All people would have seen was a blinding light when Faora jumped into the sky. She flew as fast as possible, taking the core up into the sky as far away from Gotham City as possible. She cleared the rooftops and made it as high into the sky in the time allotted. The heated device released a burning charge in the palm of her hand.

She threw it high, causing it to fly past Earth's atmosphere into the vacuum of space, where the core burned out. The rupture came down and caused Faora to fall like a shooting star down to the Earth. Faora slowed down her descend and dropped down to the ground.

' _Never again.'_

Faora really hoped that there were not another one of those devices which she had to disconnect. For now, it was time for her to head off and join her two companions in the sewers.

The drill collapsed underneath its own weight, smoldering when Faora passed it.

* * *

Killer Croc had a victory so close, he could taste it. The tingle on the edge of his lips when the fresh meat rushed towards him made the hunt even more thrilling.

"You can't fight me down here," Croc said. "You can't…."

Nightwing popped out of the shadows. Croc grabbed him by the torso and flung him halfway across the sewer. Nightwing stuck a landing with a solid flip to land on his feet. The crazed crocodile charged his adversary and reached for him.

Flamebird came in from underneath and clocked Croc with an uppercut up to the side of the head. Each punch narrowly missed the side of the head of the vigilante. Every time Flamebird got close to grabbing ahold of Croc, something jarred her back a couple of steps.

An explosion rattled the sewers and caused the water to rise up from the area. Croc guided both of the crime fighters into his element. The water rose up and Croc stepped back.

' _We have to take him out before he becomes a problem,'_ Nightwing thought.

' _Agreed,'_ Flamebird thought.

They had no idea how many more explosives he planted in the sewer. Nightwing scanned the area. The scanning would have to wait because Killer Croc jumped out of the water with hands outstretched towards his adversary. The swipe almost came inches away from catching Harry in the side of the head. Harry blocked the punch and grabbed Croc around the arm. He violently twisted the madman down onto his knees and reared back before connecting with a violent kick to the side of the head.

Croc jumped into the water one more time. Flamebird and Nightwing ran up a set of steps to higher ground. They hoped that Croc would follow them.

"There's nowhere you can run!" Croc growled. "Not from me! You can't hide, no matter what!"

"Just keep telling yourself that," Nightwing said.

Croc rose up out of the depths. The moment he rose up out of the depths, Flamebird fired heat vision at a set of pipes. The pipes were broken and released a cloud of steam into the sewers. The large man strained, with the hissing blocking out his sense of hearing as well.

"You can't hide from me forever. I can still smell you."

Nightwing threw a dagger into the sewage pipe and blasted it open. The smell of raw sewage interrupted with Croc's sense of smell. The hissing of the pipes and the smell of the raw sewage combined to give him the ideal cover.

From one side, Flamebird came in at the speed of light and knocked Croc in the abdomen. Clawing at the air showed Croc's frustration increasing more and more. Flamebird blocked the attack and whipped the hand back onto the ground. The thunderous explosion of Croc rocking back echoed throughout the sewer.

"I will rip you apart."

Nightwing came from behind Croc. Punch clipped the side of his head. Another punch clipped the side of the head. Croc flung a back hand swipe, but Nightwing dodged out of the way. A rapid-fire stinging jab to the rib cage caught Croc.

From the mist, Croc finally got ahold of his adversary and flung him hard. The gate broke open from the solid impact of a body connecting to it. Nightwing looked up just in time for Croc to dive after him.

A figure dropped down from above and caught Croc down across the back of the head. The crazed criminal rose to his feet and snarled. Blood shot eyes indicated the level of rage going through the adversary. He reached out to grab the third party who attacked him.

Faora looked back at her enemy and hurled him back as hard as possible. Croc reached down onto the ground to pull out a knife he used. The knife had been blocked by Faora's outstretched hands. She planted the point of the foot into the ribs. Two more kicks to the ribs staggered Croc before the knife ripped away from him.

The monster's tail swung out. Faora caught it and obliterated one of the walls when hurling Croc directly through the gate. He impacted the wall hard.

Flamebird and Nightwing followed the battle deeper into the sewers. Croc rushed Faora. She dodged his attack and slammed him head first into the wall. She grabbed Croc and hooked him in a modified Kati-Hajime judo choke. Croc smashed her into the wall to break off.

The ledge Croc stood on the top of threatened to give way. Nightwing whipped his hand and caught his foot on the edge. Croc flew off the ledge and landed into the rising water below.

Nightwing hurled a grenade down the tunnel after Croc. The water electrified. Croc pulled himself out of the water before it became a problem. He growled and prepared to make his way straight up to engage his adversaries.

Only the water from above started to flood the tunnel. The tunnel from up above collapsed and swept Croc away, with two more explosions coming off as Croc disappeared to the end of the tunnel and lead off to sea.

The three Kryptonians already cleared the tunnel and just in time too. It collapsed and left Killer Croc trapped in an apparent tomb.

* * *

Today could have gone a lot worse. Faora, Kara, and Harry finished bringing the drill in pieces. Another couple of toys brought in from the city had been laid out on the table as well. Harry dropped two more of the grenades, a few weapons, and a pair of the gauntlets on the table. They would have to look over them at the earliest possible opportunity.

"We will need to take a look at these," Faora said. "At least some of it is off of the street."

"And after all that, the warehouse they have been trying to break into was empty."

The world almost had gotten destroyed for no good reason whatsoever. That galled them the most. Kara's tone of frustration could be heard loud and clear. Harry reached over to touch the top of hand and relax the girl who smiled back at him.

"Faora saved the day," Harry said.

"Pretty good for someone who didn't want to go out on the field," Kara said.

Faora hid the look of triumph dancing against her lips. She needed to figure out how to get her hands on more of Intergang's weapons. She also needed to find Intergang's supplier, and perhaps, by some miracle cut it off at the source.

"You have completely healed from your injuries," Alura confirmed.

"Thank Rao for that," Kara said.

Faora smiled and leaned in to give Kara a quick kiss. Kara pulled away from her with an appreciative smile on her face.

"Croc wasn't found," Harry said. "And with the Penguin hiring him, we've got a lot to deal with."

No one had a chance to disagree with Harry's assessment. The trio walked to the lab. It had been a long time since the three of them had a chance to work together on their own. They turned and moved to the elevator.

Harry would have to get some deeper scans. Kara and Faora disappeared for a short amount of time. Harry pulled off his underclothes and looked at his body. He had a few bumps and bruises. There was far worse that could have been had.

The doors opened up. Kara stepped into the room dressed in stunning red lingerie. Faora stepped into the room dressed in sheer black lingerie. Both of his wives smiled when working closer towards Harry. Faora grabbed Harry and kissed him.

Harry grabbed his sister in a kiss the second Kara dropped down to her knees. They had perfect cause to celebrate after stopping the world from burning to a crisp.

* * *

 

The beautiful blonde temptress on her knees undid Harry's pants to pull his cock out. She smiled when the half-hardened member came out to smack her in the face. Kara cupped the underside of the tool and tightened her grip around it.

Faora wrapped her arms around Harry and kissed the side of his neck. She moved down to slowly worship every inch of her body.

"Let us both worship your manhood," Faora said.

Kara slid off to the side so Faora could have a piece of Har-Zod. She kneeled before him and took the thick prick deep inside of her warm mouth. Harry pushed his cock into the warm mouth of Faora.

"Suck my balls," Harry encouraged Kara.

Kara did not even need to get told twice. She dropped to her knees and took Harry's balls into her mouth. Her warm lips sucked on him. She could feel Faora bumping against her the second that she slid her lips down Harry's rod.

Two beauties descending to their knees and worshipped Harry made me feel so good. He touched down on the back of Faora's head and started to guide his mighty rod deep inside of the mouth of the stunning woman. Faora worked her mouth around his cock and ensnared him between her lips. She sucked Harry as far and deep as she could go. Harry held onto the back of her head and started to work her down. Her lips parted and drew Harry inside of her warm mouth as much as possible.

The two worshiped him, looking like a treat while down on their knees before Harry. The powerful young man bucked his hips forward and started to shoot his cum into Faora's mouth.

The warm juices spilled into Faora's throat. She took Harry deep inside of her throat to suck him down. His clenching balls tightened and released with several hard spurts. He slid his fingers on the back of Faora's head to continuously spill his creamy essence into her waiting and extremely willing mouth.

Faora popped away from him and pulled Kara up to her feet. The two Kryptonians kissed each other for Harry's benefits. Their hands tugged at the fabric of their outfits teasingly before making their way down over to the bed.

The two survivors of Krypton dropped on the bed. Faora lightly shrugged down the straps of her top just enough to slip a breast out for Kara to suck. The gorgeous body part slipped into Kara's mouth. She sucked on it, hard and fast, working the hardened nub with her digit.

"Both of you look beautiful," Harry said.

Kara exposed her pussy for him. Harry enjoyed the lemony smell of Kara's sweet pussy. He slid his fingers inside of Kara and edged her to an orgasm.

The warm walls ensnared Harry when he kissed Kara's back, tasting her lovely skin underneath his demanding lips. Kara ground her slit against Harry while getting to work on Faora.

The worship on Faora started to go down her body. A kiss to the right breast, a kiss to the left breast. Kara slowly kissed her cleavage as well and moved down to plant several warm smooches on Faora's body. She worked her hips back while leaning in to kiss her. She planted her lips on the top of Faora's panties, kissed her slit through the panties, and grabbed the panties with her teeth. Kara snapped them back onto Faora's dripping twat.

The warm pussy exposed for her caused Kara to smile. She lightly nibbled on Faora's outer lips and stuck her tongue inside.

Speaking of getting inside, Harry's hard cock ground against Kara. Her familiar pussy opened up for Harry. Harry pushed through her lips and entered the Kryptonian survivor. Her wet walls grabbed around Harry's hard cock and squeezed him.

"Oh, that's perfect."

Faora's words devolved into loud, intense moans. She grabbed the back of Kara's head and guided the younger girl's face between her wet thighs. The vibration of her tongue passed through Faora's slit and into her warm pussy. The sensation of Kara going down on her made Faora only rock herself up and down to meet Kara's very hungry licking.

Harry brought himself a little bit further into Kara. He slammed his cock inside of the beautiful girl extremely hard. His balls kept smacking Kara on her thighs in the firmest way possible. Harry slid almost all the way out of her and then slipped back inside with a repeated series of thrusts. The feeling of his balls growing, swelling with desire just inspired Harry to keep going to town on Kara's accommodating center.

"It's time, Kara."

The trigger words rolled over Kara's body. Her loins tensed up and released the flood of cum onto him. The juices splattered onto Harry. Harry pushed into her harder and rode out the orgasm. No sooner did the first orgasm subside, Harry already dragged her down the path for another one. His hips bucked in and slid deeper into Kara. The depths Harry's cock went got Kara all excited and ready to receive something very deserving.

"Finish her," Faora begged.

Harry just smiled and kept building anticipation inside of Kara. Her walls pushed against Harry. The warm grip and the tight squeeze only made Harry pummel the beautiful girl underneath him. He slid deep into her walls, balls swelling up even more.

The fun reached its edge. Harry made sure to press against Kara's body to feel every single inch of this familiar flesh burning him up.

"Get ready," Harry whispered.

The firmness of his voice, the finality of what was going to happen, set Kara off in the best way possible. Her loins tugged on Harry's invading rod and allowed him to sink into her. Harry slid back and plunged as far into her as humanly possible. Those balls slapped Kara's flesh to make a delightful sound.

An even more delightful sound followed. Kara increased her oral attentions on Faora while Harry plunged into her. Those balls tightened against her and started injecting Kara with a fair amount of seed. The warm juices clenched and released, burying Harry's essence inside of Kara's inviting hole. Harry pulled almost all the way out and slid himself into the depths.

Harry released the build-up into her. The warm juices milked out thanks in part to Kara's warm pussy. She mewled in delight to take as much of Harry as possible.

The moment Kara descended back down to Earth, Faora crawled over onto the bed. She put out her round tits and pushed them around Harry's massive rod. Faora slid down to the base and pulled away from Harry. She dropped up and slid all the way down to Harry's engorged prick.

The filling between her breasts made Faora feel hot and heavy. The Daughter of Zod found her pussy to rub her warm lips up and down. Faora slipped those round breasts around Harry's cock and then released him. Said cock sprung out from her cleavage.

"Good, I'm glad you're ready."

Faora rose up to straddle Harry's lap and descend down onto his throbbing hard rod. Harry reached in to cup Faora's breasts and give them a firm squeeze to give her some further incentive to drop her warm pussy down onto Harry's rod. She took him in between her wet walls and squeezed him.

A very familiar tempo had been allowed, with Faora wrapping her legs around Harry and pulling him gently off of the bed. She pushed them back down to Earth and dropped down onto Harry. The base of his cock slipped inside of Faora's clutching pussy. She rose up even further and dropped down onto Harry.

This ritual repeated a few more times. Harry grabbed hold of every inch of Faora's sultry body as possible. He grabbed her in tight and lead her straight to the promise land of pleasure. One look in Faora's lovely face showed the pleasure she received.

"Har, more, I need you! I can't have enough of this."

The juices splattered onto Harry's rod. Faora bounced up and down on the engorged prick of her brother. Her younger brother hit all of the buttons on her like no other one before. The unrestrained exploring released Faora from her inhibitions, not that she had many. The woman's walls grabbed onto Harry and squeezed him.

Faora rolled her hips up and down to engulf Harry's rod. Their loins met together in the age old dance of passion. Kara laid next to them, before sitting up and hovering in midair. Kara spread her legs when looking down on Faora driving herself down onto Harry. Her legs found her clit and started to rub circles around it. Kara gave a hungry gasp, her lips chewing together.

Another orgasm rocked Faora's world.

"Are you ready for the big one?" Harry asked him.

"Mmmm."

She did not think anything this session would be bigger than the last. There had been many times where Har-Zod had proved her wrong though. Faora sent herself down onto him. Sparks of energy flowed from the slow, but erotic, stimulation of her clit.

Faora's mind racked with pleasure. Her brother worshiped every inch of her body that he could reach. Faora responded to this worshipping by driving herself down onto his engorged prick.

The next orgasm proved to be more potent than the last. Faora impaled herself as hard as possible down onto Harry's rock-hard prick. Her nipples stuck into prominence with Harry touching them and continuing the very intense toying with them.

Kara turned over into the air and slapped her ass before finger fucking herself. Harry responded by channeling an attack through her pleasure centers. Kara almost crashed on the end of the bed, her legs twitching.

Faora rolled her head back and screamed from the heavens. Harry pushed his rod inside of Faora every time she lowered and descended on him. She clenched hard and reached a very thrilling release.

"My turn."

Another warm throb of her pussy and Harry grabbed onto the woman who would not stop riding him. She grabbed and released him once. Her walls grew snugger than ever when grabbing and releasing him the second time. The third time she milked Harry's rod like there was no tomorrow.

Harry spiked his rod inside of her and injected so much cum inside of her that Faora started to overflow before Harry finished sending his essence inside of her body.

Kara rolled over onto her hands and knees, the second Harry pulled out of her. Her fingers detached from her pussy and then shoved inside.

"Come to me, Har-Zod," Kara whispered sweetly.

Faora decided to give Kara some time with Harry. After all, sharing was caring.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 9** **th** **, 2017.**


	334. And the Winner Is Part One

**Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Four: And the Winner Is….Part One**

* * *

Over the last few days in Gotham City, people kept an ear out for any information as it regarded to one of their beloved city officials having disappeared. Harvey Dent snapped under the pressure of severe disfigurement. He threatened the doctor, the nurses, and the security at Gotham General Hospital. No one saw Dent ever since he smashed the window and jumped down several stories to his doom.

All of the places where Harvey might have gone, he was not found. Harry had a good idea Harvey may have blended in with the homeless population somewhere in Old Gotham. It might have been hard to hide within the normal population with the heavy scarring on Harvey's face.

Harry wondered when the next turn would come. Halloween came around the corner. And Halloween always had been a day which Harry never had the best of luck with. Harry was buried alive on Halloween last year by the once again departed Deacon Joseph Blackfire. That particular evil perished from the physical world but still lingered.

Every so often Harry heard the voice. Every so often, he heard those crisp words. The flickered in his memory and taunted him a fair amount of the time. They were the harbinger of something very dangerous. They opened the flood gates for chaos.

So, as Halloween approached, Harry could not help, but be slightly on the edge. Diana, who joined him to wait for their guests, noticed this shift in her husband's body language. Diana leaned in and put a hand on Harry's shoulder to straighten him up.

"Halloween is coming," Harry replied.

Diana did not need to ask any further questions. There had been something about Halloween in Gotham City which put everyone involved on pins and needles. Diana, in particular, felt the feeling too, it could not be misplaced by any means. Something was going on, and it was not anything she liked.

"So, what time is our guests arriving?" Diana asked.

Glad to have been pulled away from the conversation regarding the upcoming day of Halloween, Harry turned to Diana with a smile on his face. "Pretty much any moment by now."

As if on cue, three figures could be seen exiting a plane. Harry noticed them before they noticed him. Doctor Christina McGee led the way, only one of three beautiful brunettes who exited the plane. She walked with a supreme confidence and good posture which caught the attention of several people. Caitlin Snow exited the plane and had been the first to catch sight of Harry the moment she left the plane.

The third girl walked with a boundless energy and made her way over. She looked at Harry and Diana and rushed towards both of them. Caitlin almost laughed when Jesse made her way, very quickly. She almost tripped over a rise in the sidewalk.

Harry's reflexes prevented the girl from embarrassing herself too much by falling directly on her face. Harry caught Jesse in his arms and held her up firmly. Those bright blue eyes looked up into his. Harry made sure he had her adjusted.

"As you can see, Jesse is just tripping to be here."

Those teasing words from Tina McGee caused Jesse to just respond with a smile and a very simple shrug. Guilty as charged, as much as she hated to admit it.

"It's good to see you again," Jesse said. "I know you've been busy. But, I had to tag along with Caitlin and Tina on the trip, to see Gotham City. And…well…."

"I understand," Harry said.

' _Well, there's another one who has fallen hard and fast for you,'_ Barbara thought.

Harry finally let go of Jesse, who looked very pleased with a smile on her face. The green-eyed young man settled his eyes onto Tina.

"It's good to see you again," Tina said.

"Yeah, it's really good to see you."

Caitlin moved over and decided to embrace Harry before kissing him. Her body pressed against his, and Caitlin obviously remembered their last couple encounters quite fondly. While she was not ready to achieve bond status, Harry figured sooner or later she would.

Tina waited patiently for Caitlin to get it out of her system. The moment Caitlin did, she pulled away from Harry with an unapologetic style.

"This is Diana," Harry said.

"It's nice to see you again, Doctor McGee, Doctor Snow," Diana said. "And it's a pleasure to meet you, Doctor Wells."

Jesse almost could have laughed, it was always kind of awkward to hear herself being referred to as Doctor Wells because her mind always went to her father.

"Please, Jesse," she said. "I get called Doctor Wells, and I always think of my father."

Diana smiled, that was a fair enough assessment, at least the best she figured. She stepped back and Tina motioned for Harry to come and walk with her.

"Have you heard from Nora Fries as of late?" Tina asked.

"No, I can't say I have," Harry said. "I haven't heard anything regarding Victor or Nora in about a week…they say they're on vacation."

Harry could tell Tina bought this story about as much as he did, which was to say, she did not buy the story in any way whatsoever. Victor's rumored health problems would mean the two would not just go up and leave on vacation. Harry did not know what was going on, but something very suspicious was brewing.

* * *

Several parts of GothCorp had been renovated, with no one being allowed on the floor of GothCorp's recent accident. By some miracle, news of the attack at GothCorp had been kept out of the press. All of the employees knew better than to start running their mouths as well.

Two security guards made their way down the hallway towards an elevator. They engaged in some light small talk which ended when one of the guards stopped short and looked in the process of scoffing. Thinly veiled amusement flashed through his eyes. A single finger extended to point at the large bust which had been commissioned.

Ferris Boyle's smiling face looked out in front of them. The bust stood on a glass case which was large enough to contain a huge award. The security guard snorted when looking at the obscenely large display case.

"He really must be planning to win that award more than once," the guard said.

"Well, he's in a good mood thinking it's in the bag," the guard's partner said to him. "Imagine what would happen if he didn't think it would be in the bag."

"You wonder if he practices his victory speech every morning?"

The guard responded with a chuckle at the naïve words of his partner. He knew for one simple reason that Boyle went over his speech in his mind on a constant basis each and every morning. He had acted like it was in the bag for months.

"To be fair, the man has done a lot for the city," the security guard said. "I hope he is going to do a lot for my bank account when the holidays come around."

The first guard smiled at the second guard's words. They all had to think about themselves and their families, as much as they thought GothCorp was doing some good for the city. Boyle should not have been that focused on winning some kind of vanity prize, as far as these two were concerned anyway.

"Well, look on the bright side, the award ceremony isn't that bad. I mean, look on the bright side. We have free food, get out of work early for his ceremony. Likely there are going to be a lot of pretty ladies if you know what I mean?"

The other guard looked away modestly.

"When you're married, you would know nothing about that."

"Nothing wrong with a little window shopping though."

The guard decided not to dignify that particular statement with a comment, on the grounds that it could be very incriminating to both himself and his marriage. The two made their way around the building. It was just a normal quiet late night and early evening from patrol. No one caused any trouble in GothCorp, and besides, why would they?

Well, no one except for the mysterious lab accident a couple of weeks back. Everyone inside of the building had their theories as to what happened, but no one could really prove those theories with any kind of definite conclusion. The two guards stopped at the top of the steps where one aide waited for them.

"You can't come up here," the aide responded. "This part of the building is too dangerous…rest assured there are no problems up here though."

The two guards looked at each other. It went without saying that Boyle had been very nervous about anyone stepping into this particular part of the building. To the point where it was almost very insane the lengths he had gone to protect them.

An alarm cut through the air and also resulted in the aide jumping halfway into the air. A figure made their way from the side entrance. The two guards turned just in time to notice a concentrated blast of blue light flow from the weapon in the woman's leg.

The obvious screams of someone being flash-frozen by the leg hit and hit hard. The two guards raised their hands and the intruder pointed their hands.

"You're going to tell me everything you know about Boyle's ceremony. You're going to tell me the security detail and where he's going to be at all times."

"Freeze!" the security guard yelled.

The security guards received blasts of ice to the chest which pinned their arms, guns included to their chest. They fell back and landed against the wall. The intruder looked down, through the front plate of the helmet.

"You have seven minutes."

"There's….it's in my pocket, there's a portable computer," the aide breathed heavily. "There's everything that you need for tonight, the password is VanityTrophy."

"Fitting," the intruder said.

The intruder fished through the pocket of the aide. Both security and the aide watched, shivers coming down their body. The aide stepped back and moved to the temperature regulation control to turn up the heat just enough to melt the ice.

By the time the shivering aide and two frost-bitten security guards had been released from their icy prison, the intruder disappeared into the night.

* * *

Jesse Wells felt honored to be in a place where many people did not have a chance to look at. She heard about the facilities. She stood next to Harry who made her way through the main lab. It had been much larger than she thought it would be, and to be honest, Jesse did not think it was small.

"You really are securing a better future," Jesse said. "I've heard about this place."

Tina and Caitlin had the pleasure of touring the Metropolis version of the RAO facilities. It was pretty much scaled down from the Gotham City version. Jesse always found it quite curious that Harry decided to put his base of operations in Gotham City.

The more Jesse thought about it, the more sense it made. Gotham might not have been a Metropolis or Central City or New York, or any of the other big markets. Something about it drew a lot of people who had potential. It was just a pity that some people utilized that potential in the wrong way.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Jesse moved over to the display case. She was careful not to go one step behind the red tape on the floor. The last thing she wanted was to corrupt whatever amazing invention Harry put in there. Awe danced in the eyes of the teenage scientific prodigy as she gazed on the invention.

"Well, it depends on what you think it is?"

The teasing tone from Harry caused Jesse to break out into a smile. She spun around towards her hero and looked him dead in the eye.

"A portable solar energy generator," Jesse said. "Not only can it make clean energy, but it can store solar energy for future use. That's pretty amazing…how did you create a power cell which was durable enough to keep such an energy at bay?"

"I have my ways," Harry told her with a smile.

Caitlin and Tina watched in amusement the younger girl as she looked around with awe. Sometimes, they thought that Jesse was going to drop to one knee and purpose to Harry. Or do something else entirely, which Caitlin really had no room to talk about. Because of all matter of things she did with Harry during her trip to Central City.

"I'm sure you do," Jesse said. "And all of those ways are both wonderful and wicked."

The prodigal brunette realized what she said and responded with a smile. She realized that came out the long way. There were a lot of parts of this lab she had yet to take a really good look at, and Jesse wanted to soak them all in from where she was standing.

"I think we've overwhelmed the poor girl."

Karen walked into the room behind Jesse. Karen Starr and Alex Potter, two of the other big names beyond RAO came in front of her line of sight. Two beautiful women, which Harry surrounded himself, but nothing other.

"Do you have any male employees?" Jesse asked before she could help herself.

Caitlin ducked her head to break into laughter at the obvious question. Tina shook her head at the brashness of the young girl. And to his credit, Harry just took the question in great stride.

"There are many men who work for me and many who my larger company is in partnership with," Harry said. "There are numerous side corporations, along with research and development being done. Women do get a higher level of opportunity at this company, but only if they are willing to work and willing to achieve their dreams. I'm a believer that people should work to their potential."

"Well, that does make a lot of sense," Jesse said.

"Although, we are always on the lookout for women who have ambition," Karen said. "And you are the type of women who we are looking for. You've graduated high school at an early age and are on your second doctorate."

"Yeah, not as good as Harry," Jesse said.

"Well, we all have to start somewhere," Harry said.

"I don't think that being underneath you is a bad place to be," Jesse said.

The scientific prodigy smiled, very unapologetic at what she said. Harry laughed, and both Tina and Caitlin looked very amused.

"And I'm thinking about moving a facility closer to Central City," Harry said. "Maybe, you could be one of the first I hire to work there?"

Jesse could not have believed the offer she had been given. It was like a dream come true, the possibility of working for the great Harry Potter. She really had nothing other to say.

A small smile tugged the corner of Caitlin's lips. She put a hand on Jesse's shoulder. "I think you just made most of her dreams come true."

And she was pretty sure that the rest of Jesse's dreams were going to come true if Harry had any say about it. Caitlin looked on with a very evident smile crossing her face.

"It's going to be a long term project," Harry said. "Still, there's no problem with planning for a better future."

Jesse nodded in understanding. She could not wait to be a part of the future that Harry Potter would build. There would be some brand new things coming up in the future. She hoped, intended rather, to get in on the ground floor of these things, whatever they might have been.

' _Harry, I have something…something important to tell you about,'_ Barbara cut in. _'I don't think this can wait.'_

She sent a text to Harry's cell phone to make sure he had an excuse to head off into the distance. Harry looked at the three visitors to Gotham City.

"Excuse me for a moment," Harry said. "Something has come up. If you have any questions, Alex and Karen will be glad to answer them to the best of their abilities."

* * *

James Gordon had been completely thrown off his game over the past couple of weeks. Harvey Dent was missing and now this mysterious attack. He heard some strange rumors about something going on at GothCorp, but he did not know what to go about.

He made his way up the steps. Security had made it very difficult for the GCPD to get in and do their job. That raised a very suspicious flag in the mind of James Gordon. Perhaps he was being paranoid, but the paranoia was very justifiable in many ways.

Bullock and Montoya came down the stairs to meet Gordon and both of the detectives looked very somber.

"Two guards were attacked," Bullock said. "And an aide. They're going to need medical attention."

"Do they have any idea who attacked them?" Gordon asked.

Both Bullock and Montoya both slumped. The testimony of the two guards and the aide, it did not make a whole lot of sense from where they were standing.

"They were going on about some weird woman in a space suit with a cold gun," Bullock said. "You think they might have believed there had been some weird alien invader here or something."

"It's just another rival attempting to sabotage my company."

Ferris Boyle stepped down the hallway. Gordon noticed the man's posture as someone who was trying to keep very cool underneath the face of obvious fire.

"I've taken care of the guards and my aide, and I will pay the bill for their medical treatment," Boyle said. The three GCPD members gave him a once over. "You know, you can't be Humanitarian of the Year without doing something good for the men who attacked you."

"Do you have any idea who did it?"

Gordon's question caught Boyle for a second. The man recovered quickly and smiled at the GCPD officer.

"I have my suspicions. I've made numerous enemies over the years. But, I don't have any clear ideas. Rest assured, security will be doubled for tonight's event. And I've already spoken with Commissioner Grogan about increasing the GCPD's presence tonight. And naturally, I would want a top notch and well-talented man such of yourself here tonight for my protection."

A small nod followed. Gordon would have needed to have a clearer look around, but somehow, Boyle would not be allowing that to happen. The businessman had some good reasons, this particular end of the of the building contained hazardous materials which could be dangerous.

Gordon stepped back to take a look at the parts of the building that he could be allowed to look at, while Boyle discussed matters with the other officers at the GCPD. The moment Gordon stepped back, he saw a very familiar figure lurking in the shadows.

"I should have known you would have been here."

Batman popped up from the shadows and stared down the hallway at Gordon.

"There's been an accident," Batman said. "And I think Victor Fries might have been the one involved…it was his lab which was in the area. And he was the one studying the usage of cooling equipment."

"Yes, that might be something to that one," Gordon said. "Unfortunately, there is just one flaw to that plan. The men involved were not talking about a man in a space suit. They were talking about a woman wearing a space suit."

To say Batman had been thrown off would have been putting things very gently. He did not have much of anything to say until security made their way down. Gordon opened his mouth to say something, but he had been already gone, as quick as he appeared.

They would have to keep a look out for her, this mysterious woman in the space suit. Gordon walked back and came into Bullock, who had just got off the phone.

"Apparently, she had been sighted somewhere else," Bullock said. "She's being called Lady Freeze. Now, you would think that they would learn to stop naming them. Just encourages these people, I swear."

* * *

Boyle made his way to the office after the GCPD left down. Not today, not today of all days, but he needed to calm down. Immediately, his phone lit up and he reached over to take the phone call. Boyle drew in his breath when answering the phone.

"Yes," Boyle said.

"Mr. Boyle, we have a problem."

The voice of Adriach Killian coming over the phone to tell Boyle they had a problem was not exactly a happy moment. It was just another screw buried into his head of what was going to end up being a pretty awful day. Killian let out a very harsh breath.

"What problem?" Boyle asked.

"Nora Fries, there's no delicate way to put this, but she's escaped," Killian said.

"You should have put her on ice," Boyle said. "I put her in your trust, and now she's broken out. And stolen a couple of pieces of your equipment as well, and put some improvements on them."

"AIM will have her," Killian said.

Boyle took in a deep breath, holding onto the edge of his desk. It was best for him not to lose his cool in a situation like this. "No, no, no, I'll handle it. You just….you just be ready to make sure nothing else goes wrong. Our partnership is not going as I hoped."

"I'm sorry, but you remember our deal?"

Boyle remembered making a deal with them. He did not like honoring deals which the other party did not hold up their end of the deal.

He tried to relax. Security was doubled, there would be GCPD protection, and Boyle personally had a couple of other things to ensure this woman was not going to attack him. It was a horrible accident, and he regretted it, but at the same time, Victor did not gain his permission to use that equipment.

* * *

Nightwing stepped through the doors of a lab which Victor Fries used, which was owned by GothCorp, although it was slightly away from the main building. He had a hunch, which deep down Harry feared was right. But, that could be dealt with in due time. Now, Harry walked into the lab.

A chill spread over his body when going into the lab. Nightwing looked up at the doors which were opened. The security panel had a sheet of ice over it. The motion sensors in the room had a similar process done to it. Whoever entered knew where the security was.

Another step brought him down to two security guards on the ground. They had been frozen from the neck down and shivering very badly.

' _They're going to die of severe frostbite and hypothermia if they don't get treated,'_ Faora thought. _'I've already called the paramedics….you should move quickly though.'_

Harry noticed a lab door which had been half-jarred open. He heard some rustling and stepped into the lab. Several pieces of equipment covered the table. Someone arranged those pieces of equipment in a half-hazard way.

The intruder removed a couple of power cells from the package. The door had been left open and Harry stepped out of the lab. He noticed the woman in the space suit bending at the knees and slicing the power cells into a tank. Just as he approached her, the tank strapped onto her back.

Nightwing came face to face with the one and only Lady Freeze. Her gaze fell onto his

"Nora?"

Nora stiffened at her name being said.

"I'm sorry."

She pushed the trigger and blasted Nightwing full on with the freeze gun. The suit's heat shields could not even stop the inevitable from happening.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 13** **th** **, 2017.**


	335. The Winner is Part Two

Feel free to head to my blog through the page of very important links and vote for the chapter of the week for last week.

* * *

 

**Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Five: And the Winner Is….Part Two**

* * *

Everything went fuzzy as far as the vials in Harry's suit were concerned. In fact, there was a huge problem which caused Faora to send someone after Harry from the monitoring station. Diana and Kara, under the guise of Flamebird and Nightwing, stepped their way into the sub-lab.

Kara stuck to the shadows, knowing that the medics already arrived to help the men who had been frozen in the attack. She looked on with a deep breath coming out of her body. Diana watched them, as they were talking. They just saw the medics giving reassurance to the two security guards, as they had been defrosted from the ice.

' _You have to move quickly,'_ Faora reminded them. _'Finding Har is important. You need to find him. You need to find him now.'_

She repeated that statement constantly like some kind of mantra. The other two girls wished they could give Faora some reassurance that everything was going to be alright. Unfortunately, the bad feelings they had were reaching a very steady fever pitch. The two of them walked around the corner of the lab. The hallways chilled a little bit more every time they walked.

' _I don't like this.'_

Kara's words could be agreed with by every single person. They had a faint signal where Harry's suit was. The last transmission was him following the trail to see if he could do anything about the mysterious woman in the space suit. Then, everything faded to black.

' _Do you think she could still be here?'_ Kara asked.

' _I don't know,'_ Faora thought. _'The security cameras have been disabled. Have you managed to access anything, any kind of back up?'_

Barbara popped up after being addressed by Faora. _'No, I'm afraid that I haven't. With the cameras frozen, I think we've run out of options. We're just going in there blind.'_

Kara did not like going into a situation blind. She very much hated having to deal with the unknown. Her heart skipped a couple of beats when walking forward. The frost hanging from the ceiling and the hinges which had been covered by more of the liquid ice, still intact despite the heat being on a steady amount to account for the autumn weather.

"There's more of this ice upstairs," one of the medics said. "We better go and check to make sure there's not someone else there."

Kara heard those words and realized that they were coming their way. She started to react, only she did not need to. Diana already jumped on the case and closed the door leading up the steps. She grabbed a bar and shoved it through the doors before bending it around in a pretzel to keep the door from opening.

"That should hold them for a while," Diana said.

' _That might only buy you a few minutes,'_ Faora thought. _'You need to keep looking…although you might find something. The last location that Har's suit gave off from his vital signs was just around this corner. Just keep your heads steady.'_

They stepped into the lab, hovering over the ice which covered the floor. The inside of the lab had been messed up. It resembled a place where someone tore about looking for something very quickly. At least, that's what the two of them figured.

"He's on the other side of this door."

Diana pointed, and Kara followed the Amazon Princess. The two crime fighters passed the door and what they saw on the other side came very close to stopping them cold.

The frozen form of their husband stood in the hallway. The ice surrounding him showed he had been unable to move. His hands rose in a position where he defended himself. Unfortunately, whatever freeze gun had been used, it was very quick on the draw.

The two women stepped forward, mouths agape when they looked towards him. Kara rose her hand to try and break him out of the ice.

' _We found Har,'_ Kara thought. She tried to keep her thoughts even and not at all shaken up. _'He's been frozen solid…his suit is glowing.'_

' _That means the heat shields haven't completely konked out,'_ Faora thought. _'You're going to have to get him out of here…now….gently lift him up off of the ground. I'm going to open up a portal to the lab from your position.'_

' _Isn't that dangerous without a gateway being set up here?'_ Diana asked.

' _I've been studying Tribble's portable portal, and I've found a workaround,'_ Faora thought. _'I don't want to make a habit of punching holes in time and space. But given the circumstances, I think we can both agree this is the best idea.'_

The portal opened for Diana and Kara. They lifted up Harry and brought him through the portal, all the way to the other side.

* * *

Nora Fries hated having to do the things she had to do. Yet, her mind also had been clouded by an extreme amount of frustration. The woman, dressed in the trademark silver space suit, stepped into a hideout. The abandoned meat locker might not have been one of the most glamorous places in the world, but it would have to do. Plus, it had what she needed to keep her equipment cool.

She took one careful look at the tank. AIM did not have an adequate power source for this item, at least until Nora returned back to her husband's old lab and found the cooling power cells. She repaired the tank, doing her best to fix it. Unfortunately, her best had only been merely adequate, as much as Nora loathed to admit it. She only watched what Victor did and picked up a lot.

Enough, at the very least for Nora to get to work and start repairing certain parts of the equipment she strung together during her escape. Nora walked past the table in the lab and looked at the freeze gun. It was good enough to stop Nightwing in his tracks.

Something she regretted the necessity of. Nora really did regret the necessity of many things, although she had fewer regrets the longer she had been in this state. Boyle knew where they were keeping Victor, and Nora had to confront the man on this.

Her previous attempt had just missed Boyle by about five minutes. No innocents would have needed to perish had Nora not grabbed onto him.

"And as we prepare to name the 1999 Gotham City Humanitarian of the Year, one man who has done a lot of good for this city, is Ferris Boyle."

Nora's face contorted into a very ugly frown when looking at the television screen. The face of Boyle came over the screen at her. Nora's composure remained intact even though she came face to face with the man who caused so much hurt for her on the television screen.

The picture of Boyle faded, and Summer Gleeson returned to give the report. Nora knew she should have shut off the report for the sake of her own sanity and for the sake of her own mental stability. She kept her eyes locked on the report, watching and waiting, to see what else the report would bring.

"Boyle has given his time to help the less fortunate in Gotham City. He is a man of the people, as you can see here as he has arrived with a check to the dedication of yet another orphanage in Gotham City."

Nora watched the image of the television screen of Boyle stepping onto the screen. He shook hands like the consummate politician. Everything they said on the news was very much true, he did do a lot of good things for the people of Gotham City.

The problem was, all of those good things were eliminated by all of the bad things. His reaction to what Victor did, despite the fact it could save a lot of people, was the last memory Nora would ever have which involved her husband, she feared.

Nora held her hand up and pointed the freeze gun at the television screen. More images of Boyle, giving dedications to several buildings, donating time and money to the less fortunate of Gotham City.

"I come before you, to build a better future. I cannot build it though without the help of each and every one of you. You are the spirit who drives Gotham City. It is people who go out there every day and work hard. They work hard to accomplish great things."

Boyle gave a smile when standing on the podium.

"I dedicate this honor to each and every one of you. To my employees, to my consumers, to the people who understand that GothCorp is a symbol of honest and ethical business practices. And I am honored, in a field of many great names, to be your Humanitarian. I truly could not have been as great as I could have been, without people inspiring me to be greater."

Those words dug into Nora even more than the ones before. She tightened her fist around the freeze gun.

"You pulled my husband from an experiment," Nora breathed hotly.

In five Boyle owned facilities, there was no sign of her husband. Nora figured now it was time to go straight to the source. She turned her freeze gun to the television and pulled the trigger to freeze Boyle's image on the television screen.

* * *

One frozen Harry Potter made his way back into the lab area. Faora moved over to the console to study him. She had to keep cool under pressure. Kara and Diana watched as Faora tried to find a way to get Harry out of the block of ice. Every idea she thought, would have left her brother dead.

"Get me, Caitlin Snow," Faora said.

Anything wrong with this request, Kara did not question it. She just stepped out of the lab and moved down. There would be plenty of things to discuss later.

Faora returned her guise from her brother. The backup heat shields kicked on, which kept Har-Zod from perishing quickly. The ice did not melt, and Faora needed to figure out a way to melt the ice before the backup shields came back down.

The doors swung open and Kara returned with Caitlin. The brunette scientist had been baffled that she had been grabbed and even more baffled to what she saw. One vigilante sat in the back of the lab, completely on ice. The normally brilliant scientist's mouth stopped working.

"That's…that's Nightwing isn't it?" Caitlin asked.

"Yes," Faora said, and she kept her eyes to the temperature monitoring gaze.

"How did Nightwing get here of all places?" Caitlin asked. "And what is he doing….like that?"

Kara let her breath out in a sigh. This was going to be hard to explain, and Harry would be pretty good at explaining it. Providing, of course, he was not the one who was on ice. She slowly turned to Caitlin who looked at her with imploring eyes and a frown.

"Would you believe it's a long story?" Kara asked. "The problem is, we could use your help, to get him out of there."

Caitlin stepped over to check the monitor which Alexandra Potter stood in front of. Her mouth hung open when looking at the images on the monitor, not to mention the numbers which kept flashing on her face. She came to one very obvious conclusion.

"There's no way he should be alive," Caitlin said. "By all rights, he should have been dead a long time ago…but his suit is giving vital signs. How?"

Caitlin realized, perhaps very quickly, that there would only be a small amount of time before they could get him out of that suit.

"When those heat shields burn out," Caitlin said. "When they burn out, the suit is going to let all of that cold air in. He'll suffer severe hypothermia, and die…unless we get him out of the ice. But the problem is, the shock will cause all of the organs to fail."

"Does the suit have any kind of overload safety?"

The entire group turned around to see Jesse stepping into the lab. She pretty much hit everything in stride when stepping into the lab.

"Yes," Faora said.

"Well, you're going to have to disable the overload safety," Jesse told them a few seconds later. "And with those safeties disabled, it should generate enough heat, to weaken the ice. But not too quickly as to overwhelm his nervous system and his organs."

"What if the heat shields end up melting his body along with the ice?" Kara asked.

"It shouldn't happen if you slowly power down the safeties, rather than disarm them at once," Jesse said.

Faora took a moment to consider what Jesse said. She thought about it for a minute. The girl was a genius and that could have worked. It seemed to be the most obvious thing in hindsight.

"I could kiss you," Faora said.

Jesse did not seem too opposed to that. Faora turned her attention back to the monitoring station and pushed the buttons necessary to slowly shut down the override safeties on the suit. She made the mental calculations. Har-Zod would be weakened, but not dead. And the suit would be completely destroyed, but that was only a small mercy for them to pay.

' _Let's do this.'_

Faora pressed another button and the second to last override of the suit disabled. The ice started to weaken around Harry. His arm twitched and smashed some of the ice. The heat coming from his body made him able to break free from the ice.

The final safety came undone, and Nightwing broke free from the ice. His lungs burned when the warm air filled them. Harry thought he was going to collapse from the oxygen. He was alive, just barely.

The mask came open so Nightwing could breathe a bit more easily. He would not have done so, had he not been in such a delirious state. He looked up to see the faces of both Caitlin Snow and Jesse Wells standing in the background. Jesse gave him an apologetic smile but then turned to Caitlin.

Harry, in his slightly fatigued state, swore he could have seen Jesse mouth the words "I knew it" to Caitlin. Caitlin rolled her eyes at the younger girl in response.

Diana and Kara moved over to help Harry over to his feet. Faora decided to direct traffic. She would have to deal with those two knowing her brother's secret later. Right now, his health was the most important thing, and there was nothing else that Faora cared about other than that.

"I'm fine," Harry breathed.

"No," Kara said.

"Well, Nora's not fine, she's…."

"Lady Freeze?" Faora asked. "That's what they're calling her on the news."

Harry did not have the slightest idea why the press had to name them. Kara and Faora moved him off to help him out of those wet clothes. Also, the fact that Harry had to deal with two new people knowing his secret was an issue in the back of his mind.

His entire body shook as Kara, Faora, and Diana brought him to the next room to help Harry out of his wet clothing and into some dry ones.

* * *

Harry took a deep breath, changed into some warm clothes, covered in blankets. He was shivering, freezing, this was the worst he ever felt since the last time he died. Which was technically worse because if he didn't get killed this time.

The Kryptonian gave a sneeze. The Red Solar watch kept his body from breaking apart, but it now caused him to struggle through an illness. He looked at Faora who stepped into the room. She handed him some tea, mixed with honey.

"I think I'm getting better at it," Faora said.

Harry smiled and drank down the tea. She set a tray containing chicken soup down on the table. His hand shook, but steadied around the drink. He allowed the drink to hit him and he felt somewhat better. He was not completely out of the woods yet.

He sneezed and took the chicken soup into his mouth. He drank it down, feeling a little bit better, but not completely out of the woods just yet. Every time Harry moved, he could feel those shivers coming down his body.

"Well, I've got to get ready for tonight," Harry said.

Faora blinked, an obvious surprise coming from her at this particular revelation from Harry. After all, he had gone through, no one would have faulted for Harry if he would have called Boyle's party off. Harry moved to his feet as steadily as possible. One could see he could barely move from this particular position.

"You shouldn't go," Faora said. "And I'm not saying this because I don't think you're capable. I'm just not sure you can handle one more round with that ice gun if she turns it on you."

She looked at Harry who moved around. He looked very pale when moving around. His hand lingered against the edge of the red solar watch but decided against it.

"I'm on track by the time I'm twenty-one," Harry said. "I don't want to set myself back on five years because I've got a small case of the sniffles."

Faora would have argued that he had more than a small case of the sniffles.

' _Sarah, can you hear me?'_ Harry asked.

Sarah Essen stepped into the bond link. _'Yes…you sound terrible…maybe it's just me, but the bond link, just seems a bit off, like you're at the end of a tunnel or something.'_

' _I'm a bit under the weather,'_ Harry managed.

' _You get sick?'_ Sarah asked him.

' _Occasionally,'_ Harry thought. _'Especially when I have an encounter with a freeze gun.'_

' _Oh, Lady….'_

' _Please, Sarah, don't encourage that kind of behavior,'_ Harry thought. _'It's Nora…Nora Fries…something happened at that accident. Boyle was lying through his teeth when he said Victor and Nora went on vacation. And if she thinks Boyle is blame to the accident, then she will come after him with a vengeance.'_

Harry thought that there was no thinking about it. He knew that Boyle was responsible for the accident. Harry sneezed.

"Rao bless you," Faora said.

' _GCPD is on watch, and I'm sure our…mutual friend will be in attendance as well,'_ Sarah thought. _'Maybe you should sit this one out.'_

Harry took a moment to look over what he needed to do. He turned to Faora.

"Is my extra suit ready?'

Faora sighed and decided to go off to get it. She figured there was no arguing with it. They made some upgrades to the Nightwing suit.

"You don't look too good."

Harry looked up and came face to face with Jesse. The young science prodigy frowned when she could see the lack of color coming from Harry's face. He noticed that Jesse was not alone. Tina stood outside of the door for a few seconds before inviting herself in.

"You too?"

Tina waved off Harry's words at that exact moment. As much as she wanted to have a discussion about Harry's secret identity, Tina knew that this was not the time and this most certainly was most certainly not the place to have that particular discussion.

"I know Nora Fries is the mysterious woman in the space suit with the ice gun."

Harry nodded in confirmation.

"I prefer to bring Nora in for treatment. And not at Blackgate…or at Arkham when it gets rebuilt. But, that's not going to be easy."

"Caitlin and I have been working on something which will be able to negate that freeze weapon of hers," Tina said. "Of course, without running a beta-test, but…."

Harry staggered forward. No matter how much he wanted to say he was doing better, Harry was rocked by the effects of his near-death experience.

"I accept all of the help I can get right now," Harry said.

"Oh, you're going to like this then," Jesse said. "I made some modifications to your suit. Nothing that would ruin it, but you should be able to withstand at least one blast from the gun so you can get close enough to use Caitlin and Tina's device to disable it."

She handed the tablet over to Harry which showed the modifications of the suit.

"Brilliant," Harry said in a hoarse voice. "I could kiss you….but I don't think you want what I have right now."

"Technically, the type of illness you have shouldn't be contagious, given it wasn't spread through germs," Jesse said.

"We might not want to chance the risk though," Tina said. "I do not relish explaining to your father that you can back to Central City violently ill…because I was responsible for you."

Jesse crossed her arms and pouted. She could not believe Tina shut that idea down. Still, she could see Harry was not feeling his best. And to think, he was Nightwing of all people, that was amazing.

* * *

Harry Potter showed up at Ferris Boyle's party because why would he not. Veronica frowned when she caught sight of Harry, how pale and how out of it he looked. He tried to put on a smile and a good demeanor, but everyone could see that Harry was not his best.

"You look terrible."

"Yeah, I know, Veronica," Harry said. "I was on the wrong side of a cold snap."

' _It's a very long story,'_ Harry told her in the bond network.

Bruce stepped around, managing to get a particularly clingy date the slip under the pretext of having to use the bathroom.

"A word with you, Harry, if you don't mind."

Harry did not mind and followed Bruce across the room to a secluded corner of the party.

"You don't look good."

A smile crossed Harry's face. "You know, you're about the eighth person tonight to make that deduction."

"Alfred has a good recipe for chicken soup that should do the trick," Bruce said. "I'll see if I can get him to part with it for your sake…and no signs of trouble. But, you better take it easy."

"Would you take it easy if our positions were reversed?" Harry asked.

With Bruce Wayne's bluff sufficiently called, the billionaire nodded. Harry moved over and ran through the party. The usual suspects were talking, but damn if Harry was not really paying attention to much of what they said. Another shiver passed through his body.

The man of the hour arrived, Ferris Boyle. Branden and his SWAT guards flanked the wound be Gotham City Humanitarian of the year. Harry kept a look at Boyle, who started to shake hands Ronald Daggett who passed on through the party. Then he came across Hill and the two of them locked hands and shook it.

' _This wouldn't be any fun if I was well,'_ Harry thought.

' _Part of being one of the elites in Gotham City,'_ Kara reminded him. _'But yeah, there's a lot of ass-kissing and back-patting going on tonight, even more so than usual.'_

Some of the Gotham City Police Department members were in attendance, disguised as waiters and waitresses. He caught a brief glimpse of Falcone who looked pretty withdrawn these days. He just allowed people to come to him and engage them in light conversation.

Harry sneezed and almost fell over. He moved over to get a piping cup of hot coffee and started to drink it. He moved past Dinah and Diana, who disguised as waitresses as well. Both girls smiled at him.

' _No one would blame you if you weren't here tonight,'_ Diana thought.

' _I would blame myself.'_

Harry walked around the lobby area and kept a close eye on Boyle who had been talking with a couple of members of the Gotham City elite. They were on the selection committee, so it was obvious where Boyle was coming from talking to them.

"Tonight's in the bag," Boyle told Branden.

"And don't worry about Lady Freeze," Branden said. "She won't make it past the front door. My guys will stop her completely cold."

Harry stood by the wall and noticed a pool in the lobby area, which led towards the main banquet hall. More people came out of the lobby, to the main banquet hall.

' _Everyone in position, it's showtime.'_

If Nora would attack, she would do so when Boyle was making his grand standing speech. It would make her point.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 16** **th** **, 2017.**


	336. And the Winner Is Part Three

**Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Six: And the Winner Is….Part Three**

* * *

The eyes of the elite of Gotham City settled on one Ferris Boyle who looked very happy. One could not even tell there was a hit out on his life, based on the smile on his face. Harry leaned against the wall and watched Boyle along with the rest of the girls. Kara stepped off to Harry's side to get ready. They both noticed Bruce moving around to the side to get a better view and also to avoid a date which he regretted taking to the party. Dinah and Diana were also in position.

The man of the hour approached the top of the stage with one of the biggest grins on his face. One could see how Boyle smiled when his eyes swept on them. He adjusted the flower on his jacket and stepped up to the podium. Branden stood against the edge of the stage, with his SWAT team members into place.

Boyle positioned himself at the top of the podium. One would think he was running for public office by the smiles he gave people. And to some extent, there was a lot that was very political about the Gotham City Humanitarian of the year award.

"I thank all of you for coming tonight," Boyle said. "Gotham City, we have had many challenges over the past couple of years. But, what drives this great city is people who are able to give back. I see many of the greatest people in Gotham City in this crowd tonight. Not all heroes wear capes, no heroes are just like you and me. They come in and help the less fortunate. They give the people who are willing to work for it a second chance."

One might have guessed and they would be right that Boyle prepared this speech. Those who saw him as he did the local talk show circuit in Gotham City heard him give this speech about a million or so times. The gentleman took a deep breath and looked around for them.

"I cannot do this without you," Boyle said. "Each and every one of you should raise your glasses in the air. And have a toast. A toast for the people in Gotham City."

Boyle took the glass of wine in his hand and lifted it in the air.

"Everyone, say it along with me!" Boyle yelled. "For Gotham!"

"FOR GOTHAM!"

The sound of several glasses rising into the air and some of them clinking together could be heard. Boyle took the glass of champagne and drank it with a smile.

"Every single person here plays a part in making this city work," Boyle said. "And together, we are going to show why Gotham is the greatest city in the world. We will take back this city for the people. We will make Gotham the greatest it has ever been."

Those words had been given by Boyle. The Humanitarian took another sip from his glass and kept looking over each and every one of them.

"As the Gotham City Humanitarian of the Year Award draws closer, I don't think I'm slowing down. Just because the odds might be in my favor, you do not want to count your chickens before they hatch. GothCorp must maintain a standard of excellence. We must continue to be strong, and maintain the standard of excellence. As the voting draws near, remember, GothCorp is always there, whether you honor me with an award or not."

Everyone laughed and Boyle leaned back. He looked at the large smiling portrait of himself hanging above, looking over everyone in the room with a fair amount of good humor in his eyes.

"For Ferris Boyle!" a voice shouted elsewhere in the room.

Everyone held their glasses up for a second to give the toast. Boyle adopted a look of false modesty before lifting his glass to the air as well to give the toast.

A concentrated blast of ice came through the air and struck Boyle's glass to freeze the liquid inside. He looked up and came face to face with Lady Freeze who pointed her gun at the patrons.

"Everyone in the pool, now!"

The people stepped into the lobby pool, dropping down into it. The chilling water came up to their waists. Some of them had their shoes ruined. One look at that freeze gun made them think twice about complaining about it.

The three members of the SWAT elite guard tried to rush Lady Freeze all at once. The woman turned around and blasted her gun at them. They had been frozen in place. Their faces were uncovered so they could be allowed to suck in breath from where they had been.

She noticed Boyle trying to get away from the stage. She blasted the stage steps and caused him to slid down, landing on the ground. Nora stepped over and noticed several people trying to move over. She released the curtains and frozen them solid to trap half of the guests in the party.

A small group of GCPD officers made their way in to try and take a shot at Nora. Nora turned her hand and pointed the gun. A concentrated cold stream blasted into the air and caused a huge wall to block them off.

Off to the side, two men managed to slip out. The entire ballroom revered into a winter wonderland, and Nora stepped closer towards the man on the ground.

* * *

Ferris Boyle dropped to his knees and started to shiver. The frost fell down from the ceiling. The Humanitarian stared down the cold weapon that brought Gotham's finest to their knees. He looked up at Nora who did not smile or show any signs of emotion whatsoever from her position. One cold and never ending stare locked onto Boyle's eyes when she approached, the freeze gun at the ready.

"Please, there's nothing I can do," Boyle said.

"You took our lives away from us," Nora said. "I will never be able to feel the things you take for granted ever again. Because of your greed, because it was not something that you authorized."

Boyle slipped down on a patch of ice which put him down onto the ground. The man's terror increased when this woman stared down at him with a sinister glint dancing in his eyes. Boyle had never been more terrified in his entire life than he was right now.

"I could kill you."

A click of the gun went off and a ring of ice surrounded Boyle from all sides on the floor. The GCPD looked on, having been frozen to the floor.

"Are you going to tell them?"

"It's….no one regrets what I did more than I do," Boyle said. "I didn't…I didn't know that was going to happen. I didn't know that stopping the process was going to cause the equipment to malfunction. But Victor, he never should have done what he did."

Boyle shook very violently on the ground. He had no idea what was going to happen other than the fact that Nora was going to take him out if he did not choose his words carefully.

"I wanted this to disappear, that's why I sent you away!" Boyle yelled. "I thought AIM would have taken Victor and you off of my hands. It doesn't look too promising for Victor, but you're back, and if you just let me help you…."

"You confess you killed him," Nora said in a very icy-cold voice.

Boyle swallowed, the cold air started to burn his lungs. He nodded in confirmation and several gasps came through the area. Boyle realized one more blast of ice would mean his tomb. He needed to look this woman straight in the eye and make things life. His own life depended on it.

"I'm sorry."

Everyone looked on to see what would happen regarding Boyle now. Nora held her gun at him and there was a long second where silence occurred.

"You killing me won't help you bring peace," Boyle said. "I'm sorry what happened, I truly am, but killing me is not the answer."

"If my husband is gone, it's the only answer," Nora said. "Unless you can tell me without any doubt that he is alive. Then, you will be spared. Otherwise…."

The sound of the freeze gun clicking resulted in Boyle looking up. He could feel his entire life flash directly before him. It was going to be over. On the greatest night of his life, what was supposed to be the greatest night of his life, it would be over.

A dark swooping figure came down from the shadows and dropped in front of Nora. Nora turned her attention to Batman who hurled a grenade. She went to blast it, but the moment the cool air from the gun hit the air, it triggered the quick release of the grenade. The grenade exploded in Nora's face and covered the front plate of her helmet.

"Everyone get out of here!" Kara yelled. "This way, hurry!"

The GCPD chipped away the ice. James Gordon lead the charge, making sure all of them had gotten out of there. The beam of ice shot from the distance and frozen the ground. People slipped around on the ice, but thankfully no one was caught in the crossfire.

Nora Fries had been blinded by the attack. She turned around and made a movement to engage Batman in battle. Batman dodged the attempt from her to blast him and moved around from the other end.

Off to the other side, another figure staggered in. He moved a bit more sluggishly than before, but still managed to get the drop on Nora by ripping the gun out of her hand. Nora turned around and came face to face with him.

"You survived, "Nora said. "How?"

"Good health."

He tried to avoid hacking up his lung. An icicle shot from Nora's wrist at Batman. He avoided several rapid fire blasts of the same icicles coming close to penetrating the side of his neck. The Dark Knight disappeared into the shadows the second that Nightwing came up against his adversary. Those cold eyes locked onto him, with the icicles appearing and ready to go.

"You should have never interfered."

Harry could see most of the ballroom had been cleared out. Diana grabbed Boyle and dragged him out of there as well. This left Nightwing to come face to face with Nora.

"Would Victor want you to have murdered half of Gotham City?"

Nora spent a few seconds taking a deep breath. "There's no choice."

"There's always a choice," Harry reminded her. "If you let there be one, there's a choice."

Nora acted like she was going to attack Nightwing. She regretted the necessity of freezing him earlier, and despite not looking good, she was kind of glad.

"You have a choice," Nightwing repeated.

She dropped her hand down to the ground. The cold air surrounding it caused her to take a deep breath and nod in agreement. There was always a choice, and she needed to make the right choice.

"It's the end of the line!"

The SWAT team found a way back around. The moment they caught sight of Nightwing and Batman, they resembled glorified children at a sweet shop. Those weapons pointed towards the two vigilantes.

Nora grabbed her cold gun from Nightwing and sent a blast of cold ice to block them in. She slipped the gun into Nightwing's hand, and disappeared out of the side entrance, into the night.

Batman did the same, and Nightwing followed. He hoped that Nora would take his words to heart.

' _The sooner I get out of here, the sooner I can pass out somewhere.'_

He held back a huge sneeze and a desire to cough because neither of those was that conducive for stealth purposes.

* * *

The disgraced man, Ferris Boyle, hung his head down with a very obvious sigh. Everything came crashing down at the finish line because of one mistake. The guests either walked out or had been brought out to receive medical attention. By some miracle, no one was fatally injured. Boyle's mouth hung open when Gotham's finest lead him to a squad car. His hands kept shaking when they moved past him.

Harvey Bullock stepped in to look around. Tonight had been a hell of a night and it ended the way a lot of nights ended in Gotham City. People screamed in terror. It was just another day. He looked at Gotham's former great humanitarian who looked in shock. The press already swooped around to get a look at the man who likely had been just knocked out of the running.

"I'm pretty sure attempted murder is a black mark against you," Bullock said in his usual voice.

The regret and the shame coming against Boyle's face were obvious. They got a picture of him, not accepting an award, not shaking another hand, not donating a bunch of money. Their latest picture of him ended the night with Boyle being hauled into the back of a squad car.

Renee Montoya stepped out. She had been caught in the blast and shivering. She shook completely madly, with Bullock handing her a cup of coffee and also a warm blanket. Renee took it around her shoulders and sighed in response.

"Thanks."

It had been a very long night for all of the members of the Gotham City Police Department. The young detective thought about what happened and how close they were to all being attacked. That freeze gun was completely out of this world, and that was saying something.

"So, what do you think happened to her?" Bullock asked. "It's screwed up what happened to her, but she killed a lot of people. Guess there are no easy answers in Gotham City."

James Gordon walked away from the car after seeing Boyle off. He had always been in the thick of thing, getting as many people out of the party. He moved over to the mobile station and took a cup of coffee before drinking it. One could argue that Gordon needed something a bit stronger than this cup of coffee.

"It's been a hell of a night," Bullock said.

"Too often," Gordon said. "It's too often."

He would have to be honest, tonight's events took him out of the thoughts he had regarding a certain rogue Gotham City District Attorney. Still, no sign of Dent, not that was a high priority tonight. Gordon took a deep breath and a long drink from his coffee. A few moments passed when he sipped on his poison of choice. He needed a smoke, even though he had been trying to cut back for the sake of his health.

Unfortunately, some vice was needed the longer that you worked on the Gotham City Police Department. It was just the way things worked sometimes.

"Thank god we're not as bad off as the SWAT," Sarah said when she came to join the rest of her team. "Well, we might be if you didn't hog all of that coffee."

"There's still enough, but be quick about it," Gordon said.

Sarah nodded and took the piping hot cup of coffee. She drank the coffee with the warmness filling her body. She came close to getting blasted. Someone sped her out of the way and the large portrait of Boyle hanging into the distance was the only thing that froze up.

"YOU USELESS SONS OF BITCHES!"

The members of the SWAT had been brought in front of Branden. The SWAT team field leader looked them all directly in the eyes.

"You could have had them," Branden said. "You could have had either Nightwing or Batman. And you let them slip away. You let them get away. What is it you have to say for yourself? I say you're useless!"

Overall, they had gotten away with this a lot better than the members of the Gotham City SWAT team by a huge country mile. Gordon turned around and did a head count. Everyone had been present and accounted for, which was the main thing as far as he was concerned.

* * *

Harry Potter dropped back against the bench, wrapped completely from head to toe in warm blankets. He ate some more chicken soup, compliments of one Alfred Pennyworth, which did the trick in relaxing him, at least somewhat. He looked in the side mirror and looked a little bit better.

A light knock on the door caused Harry's eyes to perk up and look towards the door. He drew in a breath and smiled.

"It's open."

The door opened and Tina stuck her head inside. She smiled when looking at Harry.

"Some of the color is returning to your face finally," Tina said. "That's an encouraging sign."

Harry stretched and could feel himself drop down against the chair he was setting in. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"I know you're resting, but I wanted to tell you something really quick," Tina said. "Caitlin and I have been looking for the cold gun. It's remarkable technology. And it could be used in surgery in the right hands as well, to freeze the spread of certain diseases from the body. At least it can in theory."

He knew the cold gun would have more useful applications than revenge. He took another long drag of his chicken soup which really was good for the soul.

"I'm sure you're going to want to look at it yourself," Tina said.

A buzzing sound caused Harry to sit up straight as possible. He was feeling better, but not completely out of the woods yet. He reached across the desk and pushed in the crystal. The three-dimensional form of Alura popped up on the screen to offer Harry a smile.

"Nora Fries is here to see you," Alura said.

"I'll see her then."

Harry rose up and took a few steps away. He was walking a little bit more fluid. A huge part of him was glad he did not have to throw down too hard with Nora.

The woman stood outside to him, still dressed in the suit. She took one look at Harry and could see he was not feeling well. A theory entered Nora's mind which she dismissed straight away. There simply was not enough time in the day for him to pull that off.

"You're the only person I can come to for help," Nora said.

"Of course," Harry said. "After all of the work I've done with you and your husband, the door is always open for old friends."

Nora did not know what to say. She must have missed Harry at the party, although he was looking very terrible. She stepped further into the lab. Harry had every right to turn around and call the police on her. Nora was very glad that he did not do so.

"I don't know where Victor is now," Nora said. "I do know where I was. I was underneath the eye of a criminal organization known as AIM."

The very visible cringe Harry gave caused Nora to be taken aback.

"I've heard of them."

Nora looked at Harry and saw that this AIM, he had a past with them which he might not want to talk about.

"I've taken and modified the gun and the suit from them," Nora said. "And it is well within your rights to turn me into the GCPD. I have committed crimes, and I should be punished for them."

And if she did get to prison, at least the world knew what kind of person Ferris Boyle was now. Nora waited for Harry to pass judgment on her, for better or for worse.

' _So, what do you think?'_ Harry asked.

' _I really think we should help her,'_ Faora thought.

' _I agree,'_ Karen thought.

Harry smiled at her.

"I believe we can work something out," Harry said. "Now I'm going to have to run some tests to make sure that we can find a way to help you. Doctor Snow and Doctor McGee, I'm sure they're going to help me and Alex figure out a way to help you."

Meanwhile, Harry had been troubled by some thoughts of AIM not only developing a dangerous weapon like that but a dangerous weapon which could stop him in his tracks. The only solace Harry held was he was almost sure that they did not know what they stumbled across.

X-X-X

After checking out Nora, and taking a couple of samples of blood from her, Caitlin came to the most obvious conclusion possible.

"I'm pretty sure that she's not going to be able to function without that collar or the suit anytime soon," Caitlin said. "I'll have to look at these blood samples more closely when I get back to mercury to see if there's anyway to reverse the effects without killing her."

Jesse held up the pad with some of the notes Caitlin wrote and whistled in response. She could hardly believe what she read, and some of the conclusions that Caitlin came to with her tests.

"Wow, it's really a miracle she's even breathing."

Caitlin nodded in response. She came to that same conclusion a little bit again. She looked at Harry to figure out what he had to say about it. Harry leaned in and touched the top of Caitlin's hand.

"I've already prepared an area where she can stay and be most comfortable until we get this figured out," Harry said. "I'm going to have to move some furniture around, but I believe I can manage it without any problems. I won't rest until I find a way to help her after what happened."

And also find Victor, if he was still out there. Harry had some grim suspicions that something bad happened to Victor Fries, even though he could not prove it. He felt a calming hand on his shoulder. Tina stood in the background with a soft smile on her face.

"It's not a burden you should have to hold on your own," Tina said. "I'm willing to research a way to help Nora. You have more than enough on your plate."

"Thank you," Harry said. "But, I have some ideas which I'll run by you."

She patted him on the shoulder and remained smiling. "I'll be happy to hear them."

Now, the three girls were there, Harry needed to have a serious discussion with them. Nora settled down to rest in the temporary refrigeration unit on the other end of the lab which left Harry alone with these three lovely women.

"So you know about my hobby," Harry said. "And I have to say I trust the three of you, but…Alex and Karen would sleep better at night if you sign these."

"Well, I figured the NDAs were coming for something like that," Jesse said.

"I know you won't be spilling my secrets, but this gives an added layer of protector," Harry informed all three women to nod. "Sign here, here, and initial here, please."

Jesse, Caitlin, and Tina all looked over the documents and the terms seemed very fair if they were perfectly honest. The girls signed on the dotted line.

"Are you forgetting something?" Jesse asked.

She held out her hand and Caitlin sighed before putting a twenty dollar bill into the younger girl's hand. She looked at Jesse and shook her head.

"Don't spend it all in one place."

A smile popped over Jesse's face and she decided to turn focus back towards Harry.

"So, what would you have done to us if we hadn't signed?" Jesse asked him.

"I would have kissed all three of you and none of you would have remembered the past twenty-four hours," Harry said. "My salvia has an agent in it with induces amnesia."

Jesse and Caitlin looked at each other and then looked back at Harry. They wondered if he was being completely serious or screwing with them and not in a good way. Tina looked like she struggled to keep a straight face.

"Well, good thing we signed," Tina said. "Shame we missed out on the free kiss though…even though none of us would have remembered it."

The phone off to the side rang and Harry picked it up.

"Is this Doctor Potter?" the woman asked.

"Speaking," Harry said.

"Hello, Doctor Potter, this is Marcy Davis from the Gotham City Society Commission," the woman on the other end of the phone said. "We are pleased to inform you that you have been awarded the Gotham City Humanitarian of the Year award."

Harry could have laughed at this.

"Congratulations, and we'll see you at the ceremony in November."

' _And to think, I didn't campaign for it,'_ Harry thought.

' _It doesn't really matter,'_ Veronica said. _'All of the things you've done, your work speaks well enough for itself. It's not about the ruthless campaigning and holding banquets before the award winner has been chosen. That's just not what it's about.'_

' _And Boyle going from hero to zero in ten minutes pretty much put you on board,'_ Kara added.

' _Don't you mean sub zero?'_ Amanda asked.

Everyone in the bond groaned at Amanda's statement.

* * *

Lara Croft slipped down a rocky incline and dropped down. She had to see this one through, even though this mission really did not give her anything of value on it. The tight jean shorts and the top black tank top clung to her body.

' _Maybe I can head to the States, visit some old friends,'_ Lara thought. _'But first things first, I need to make sure there's nothing in this temple before I call this one a day.'_

Lara tensed up when she heard some voices. She could not make out who was saying what or what they were talking about. The one conclusion Lara came to was she was not the only person who had been raiding this particular tomb on this day.

' _Guess it won't hurt to take a closer at everything, '_ Lara said. _'What's the worst that could happen? I get in even more trouble. I've been there, done that more than enough.'_

Lara took a deep breath and watched the men who made their way into the temple. A small group of gentlemen wearing glorified bee-keeper outfits combed around the temple. Lara pulled herself up and crouched down onto a pedestal to get a closer look.

"More of it's in the temple. The element which mutated me…it could cure my condition."

"Well, get on with it. If it's as powerful as you said it was, then we have to have it."

The tomb raider watched not one, but two big headed people moving around the tunnel. They were up to no good, but that went without saying. Lara decided to step closer to see what was going on.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 20** **th** **, 2017.**


	337. SOS

**Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Seven: SOS**

* * *

The Lady Freeze incident had been something that the members of the Gotham City Police Department all had been frustrated about. The GCPD did not have any leads on the woman who just disappeared into the night as quickly as she appeared. Boyle was very shaken up and an incoherent babbling wreck. The best night of his life turning into the absolute worst night of his life left the man completely beyond comprehension.

James Gordon stepped down the hallway and past the people who were talking. Everyone was on pins and needles based off of what took place over the past couple of months. James Gordon understood their nerves and knew things were going to get a lot worse for one simple reason.

Halloween would be right around the corner. Last week, Halloween ended up being one of the weirdest nights in the history of Gotham City. The only thing Gordon could do to describe the night was very weird. The ghost of Joseph Blackfire appeared before them, taunted them.

Then the ghosts of the past disappeared as quickly as they appeared. Everything went to hell in a hand basket to put things bluntly. The Joker showed up, the gang wars got worse, the Holiday Killer turned up, The Clock King's attack on the city, Enigma's plan to discredit Gordon personally, and then the Gotham City District Attorney had been wounded and disappeared, presumed dead.

Anyone or two of these things together would have led to a very rough time for the people of Gotham City. All of them together at once and Gordon thought the road was going to be covered with even more curves. The high-ranking police officer looked around and he asked the question that many people asked in a situation of great adversity.

' _Now what?'_

A figure walked her way down the hallway. She dressed in a very elegant and professional business suit. The woman who for all intents and purposes was the acting Gotham City District Attorney stepped into the room. Janice Porter stopped, holding a cup of coffee in her hand.

"May I help you, Ms. Porter."

Janice motioned for Gordon to follow her. To be honest, Gordon did not know what to think about Janice Porter. She was young and ambitious, but she focused on the wrong things. She cared about upholding the law but did not understand the importance of people like Nightwing and Batman.

Gordon really wished they lived in a world where there was no need for Nightwing and Batman in Gotham City. He really wished they lived in that kind of city.

"Have you heard from Harvey?" Gordon asked.

One could tell that this question hit a very raw nerve with Janice. She drew in her breath in a sigh and drew it out, touching the side of the wall.

"No, I haven't heard from him," Janice said. "I would hate to think that my last memory of him would be what happened at the hospital…him being a raving lunatic and throwing that chair out the window. It was just an awful thing to see."

Janice allowed a ragged breath to come out and she settled back down.

"But, Harvey or not, I have a job to do," Janice said. "And it's about time that we tackle a problem which is long overdue. And I think that we both know what I'm talking about."

Gordon let out his breath in a long sigh. He knew this was coming. He supposed there was literally nothing he could do to discourage Porter from going down this particular path. It had been an obsession of people like Branden and Grogan, and Loeb before them.

"We're going to have to deal with the vigilantes before they become a huge problem," Porter said to Gordon. "They're coming out of the woodwork quicker than ever before. The epidemic is spreading."

The woman's look of intensity made her look like she was not going to take no for an answer and was going to roll over Gordon if he tried to argue against her. Gordon took a moment to pinch the bridge of his nose and sighed.

"They shouldn't be in Gotham City by law," Gordon said. "But, given the types of people they take down, their presence isn't a bad thing. As long as they stay inside of the law…"

Janice held a finger up in Gordon's face. The officer responded with a very respectful nod.

"All of the criminals coming out of the woodwork are a symptom of these lawless vigilantes," Porter responded. "I hope you and your team will be ready to do the right thing once the Zero Tolerance Act gets signed off on."

Gordon heard about the Zero Tolerance Act, an act which cracked on unauthorized law enforcement in Gotham City. This was going to cause more problems than it solved, but it sounded good to the people. Even though your average person on the street supported the actions of Batman and Nightwing, as someone doing something right.

Again, Gordon did not particularly care for that fact.

"Focus on the vigilante, and you rip precious GCPD resources away from the real threat," Gordon warned her. "You take us away from doing our jobs and bringing in criminals….which if you went after them, there would not be a need of vigilantes."

Janice took a step back, unwilling to properly meet Gordon's eyes. Did something he said to go through her thick head or was their disgust?

"If I didn't know any better, you support people working above the law," Janice said.

"It's not supporting them, it's understanding there are higher priorities we should be focused," Gordon said. "Rachel Dawes understood it, Harvey Dent understood it…"

"And look what happened to both of them," Janice replied a split second later. "It's time for something different."

Gordon sighed, he tried to convince her, but there was just no convincing some people. Janice turned her shoulder and walked off. Bullock passed Janice and looked at her.

"So, who shit in her cheerios?"

"She's obsessed with getting the Zero Tolerance act through," Gordon said.

Bullock just shrugged. Not his beat dealing with the capes, to be honest. Deep down, with freaks like the Joker, Bullock thought it would be better to point another freak at them.

"We might have a lead on Dent."

For the first time, Gordon felt a sense of optimism about something in Gotham City.

* * *

Lois took a deep breath and looked at the information out in front of her. She entered that journalism club and was surrounded by nothing, but nerds. Okay, that was really unfair, because those who were in journalist were not in fact nerds. It was hard to call people like Vicki Vale, Catherine Grant, or Betty Brant out on being geeks, nerds, or losers. They were far from social outcasts, they were very successful and driven career women.

Still, it was not an ideal club to be perfectly honest. Thankfully, it was not ballet, which Lois thanked her lucky stars every day. She looked up just in time to see Kara walk over from the room. She held two glasses containing cola. She slipped one to Lois who smiled.

"Figured you could use it," Kara said.

Lois smiled at Kara and took a long drink of the cola. She sipped the drink and studied the information. Kara looked down at the pamphlet and chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Lois asked. "No, seriously, what's so funny."

"It's just….I think that they have a very interesting philosophy on journalism," Kara said. "This information won't get you that far though."

Lois looked at Kara back down to the information with a very slight shrug. She would have to be honest, she did not know. She supposed Kara knew best.

"Just some of things are they're talking about is fluff pieces and not real news," Kara said.

"Yes, I figured that much," Lois said. "It's a club and we're all helping out on the school newspaper. Just stuff like going around the school, talking about events that what happened, fund raisers, sporting events. There aren't any scandals like a teacher doing something that he or she shouldn't."

Kara looked at Lois with a curious expression on her face.

"Not that I'm saying that there's a teacher doing something that they should not be," Lois said. "Still, it's just a piece of our credit, so full steam ahead with the busywork."

"Well, you're going to just have to find something to sink your teeth into if you want to go forward with your journalism aspirations," Kara said.

Lois just responded with a shrug. "Not sure if they're really aspirations, to be honest. They were just something that fell into line. Something that I just had to go with because it was the first elective there."

Still, the excitement of being a journalist, a real journalist, not just writing school puff pieces, appealed to Lois's sense of adventure. She really hoped that something really amazing would happen other than the usual puff journalism pieces that they had her focusing on.

"You just have to find your voice," Harry said.

"Harry's right," Kara said. "This might not seem like the most glamorous opportunity, but we all have our starts. Sometimes that start is in a converted broom closet in the middle of a private school."

Lois would have to agree that was not the most glamorous of starts. Kara did have a very solid point though, she would have to make the most of this opportunity the best she could.

"Vicki had her start working on writing up the lunch menu in her school newspaper," Kara said.

Lois's drink almost left her body through her nose. She could not believe that the famous Vicki Vale would be doing lunches in her school newspaper.

"Are you serious?" Lois asked.

"Yes," Kara said. "She also broke a story about how the school was using low-budget meat that was a few days past the due date after a couple of kids got sick. She could have just stuck to safely reporting the lunch menu, but she decided to go against the system."

Lois thought about what Kara was trying to tell her and she knew the girl had a point. She just had to find that one big thing.

"Vicki got suspended from the school paper," Kara said. "Of course, by then the damage was already done, at least she said. The school had been forced to answer for their crimes by a lot of unhappy parents."

"I can only imagine," Lois said.

"Don't jump in there before you're ready," Harry said. "If you are not one hundred percent certain about a story than either find the facts to back up what you're saying or back off."

Lois doubted there would be many scandals in Gotham Private Academy for some reason. She returned to looking over the information, which stressed dragging your reader in and also talked about how fluff articles were essential in keeping your readers from getting depressed.

' _So, how are things going with Nora?'_ Harry asked.

' _Well, she's about as well as could be right now,'_ Karen said. _'We have her in the cell, she's comfortable. Not exactly very talkative, but who could blame her.'_

' _AIM is going to be a huge problem,'_ Faora said. _'I know that is a surprise to you. Still, that freeze gun weapon they created, they created something which is potent enough to take down Kryptonians in one single cold air blast.'_

' _Nora's going to be okay,'_ Karen added. _'Well, eventually, we've got some pretty brilliant minds working on solving her condition.'_

The most brilliant minds in the world being drawn together for a common cause, the world would function a lot better if that was the rule as opposed to the exception. They needed more of that, and less of some of the petty infighting which seemed to dominate many conversations.

' _Carol's in town, and Carol is as well,'_ Alex Danvers chimed in. _'I know you're still not feeling your best, but if you want to join us for lunch still….'_

' _I didn't forget,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm going to clean up and get ready. I'll meet you three there in about an hour.'_

' _We'll hold you to it,'_ Alex thought.

Harry's health did improve after almost being frozen to death by Lady Freeze. The modifications of his suit and the studying of the cold gun should prevent a repeat event from happening again.

* * *

A hunched over figure made his way through the shadows of Gotham City. He dressed in battered rags with a balaclava covering his face. A glove covered one hand and the other hand had been completely bare. He stepped across the way and took in a deep and very ragged breath.

Harvey Dent spent as much time as possible lying low in Gotham City. He heard the whispers on the street about Gotham's district attorney losing his mind. His hand tightened around a weapon he held, a screwdriver dropped and forgotten.

The only money which Dent kept on his person was a deformed silver dollar. It was a trick coin with two heads. The half side had been scratched out to match the dual personality Harvey Dent now had. One face good, the other bad. One face the same shining light which brought hope to all of Gotham City. The other side of his face the horrific side, the dark side to Gotham which destroyed anything good about the good side.

His face became a metaphor for what this city was, what it had become. The scars on the city were because of people like Maroni. Maroni, Maroni, every time Dent heard that name in his mind, his fist clenched. He would have liked nothing better than to wrap a hand around Salvatore Maroni's throat and choke the life out of that son of a bitch. Dent grabbed the silver dollar in his hand and flipped it a few times.

' _That bastard is going to pay.'_

Dent had been completely broken beyond all repair. His breathing increased, and suddenly, he turned around the corner to face a group of six Gotham street toughs. The markings on their shirt indicated they were a low-level gang known as the Caps. As in, they would bust a cap in your ass if you got in their way.

Despite their reputation of being pretty bad ass among the small timers in Gotham City, Dent did not back down from them. The members of the gang walked over. The leader looked to be the most arrogant of them all.

"Hey, don't you know something, bum?" the gang leader said. "You're strolling into Cap territory, brother. And you know what happens when you come around our parts without permission, dontcha?"

Dent took a few seconds to calm his nerves. The larger of the six men grabbed him by the shoulder and shoved him back. Dent's eyes snapped up to meet the man's face.

"You get a cap busted in your ass…."

Two of them stood behind Dent, two stood in front of them, and the other stood on his side. They all had knives.

"Would have expected guns from a gang who calls themselves the Caps," Dent growled.

He did not fear these punks, they were nothing other than punks. Dent took his hand out and flipped the silver dollar. It landed in his hand.

"Quit flipping your coin," the leader of the gang said. "It's time to pay the toll."

"Bad heads," Dent said without acknowledging his words. "Bad luck for you."

The thunder started in Gotham City, and Dent quick released the screw driver before jabbing it into the gut of the largest of the men. The goon dropped to the ground and fell down hard.

"Get him!"

The other five Caps rushed their supposed victim and shoved him down onto the ground. Dent was not going to allow himself to go down without a fight. He punched one of them in the throat, while the other two wrestled him to the ground. His lower back received a knife to it when the struggle continued.

"You've made a very bad move."

The mask tore off, and they came face to face with a very horrifying sight. Half of the face looked completely normal, if not a little bit smudged and dirty as if the person did not take a shower. The other half of the face was completely scarred and blistered.

The shock had been taken advantage of by Dent when he wrestled the knife out of the hand of his adversary and plunged it into the throat several times of the leader. The leader's blood splattered when Dent stabbed him violently with the knife.

"All the people you killed, all the people you robbed, all the people you raped!" Dent yelled. "You are finally going to be held accountable for your crimes."

The blood curdled from the leader. The remaining four members of the gang backed off. One of them took a tentative step forward.

"We don't want any trouble, man."

Dent gave them a very devious, slightly crooked smile. "Come with me, and none of you will have any trouble. There's going to be some changes in Gotham City. And you boys might actually benefit from it."

He was going to start cleaning this city up by using the lowlifes who made this city the way it is in the first place.

* * *

Harry made his way past the luscious curtains of the Chez Gotham. Not exactly the most original name for a restaurant, admittedly so, but Harry figured that a place like this would have some level of charm. He stepped into the room after showing the reservations to the smiling waiter off to the side.

"Of course, right this way, sir."

Three beautiful women sat at the table. Carol Danvers returned to work after her adventures in space, and Carol Ferris returned to work as well. Alex sat at the table and moved over so Harry could take a seat next to her and across from Carol and Carol.

"I'm glad you could make it," Carol Ferris said to him across from the table with a smile.

"So, you've been keeping out of trouble?" Harry asked.

"Well, it depends on which one of us we're talking about," the dark-haired businesswoman said with a smile. "After the little incident with the Star Sapphires, I've been keeping out of trouble for the most part. Those two, I couldn't really say one way or another."

Alex and Carol just smiled with duel shrugs. They were guilty as charged to put things bluntly. The lovely Carol Danvers turned towards Harry.

"So, I know you've been busy," Carol said. "And I've been away for a couple of weeks on Green Lantern business."

Thankfully nothing as insane as the last time Carol was away on Green Lantern business, but it was still a couple of things. Most of the time, it was just the Guardians giving her information. Nothing too out of the ordinary, but still it was those important things which mattered a whole lot.

"I heard you left," Harry said. "I'm glad you came back and didn't end up in space for that long of a time."

"Yeah, I'm glad as well," Carol said with agreement. "Still, speaking of lanterns, I want to know if there's any progress on Ilana."

The conversation stalled for a moment when the waiter brought them their drinks. Harry took a drink. He could tell the blonde Green Lantern recruit was concerned about what was going on with Ilana. Hell, Harry understood for the simple fact the Guardians released Ilana into her custody.

"Progress has been unfortunately slow," Harry said. "We're still looking for a way to remove the Green Lantern ring for her and it not being fatal. Unfortunately, there have been some drawbacks."

Harry leaned across the table and put his hand on Carol's. She looked up and flashed a smile of understanding.

"The Red Lantern Rings has got a tight hold on her," Harry said. "I believe there's a way to help her, to get the ring off of her."

Carol frowned and nodded. She had racked her brain for a way to get the Red Lantern ring off of Ilana as well. So far, nothing, not even the slightest idea entered her mind.

"So, what do you think about the plane design I sent you?" Harry asked. "When do you think the next test flight will take place?"

The owner of Ferris Aircraft looked at the design and smiled when biting down on her lip. She was very impressed as always with Harry's work.

"Spring," Carol said. "And the modifications should allow it to fly under the radar."

"So it is plausible," Harry said.

Carol gave him a soft smile. "Honey, for the right money, anything is plausible these days. You just have to have some imagination to do so."

"She does have a point," Alex said.

They enjoyed some more lunch and some small talk to just catch up with each other.

* * *

Harry, Carol, Carol, and Alex stepped their way back into the lab at the RAO building. No matter how many times Alex entered the lab, whether it be the one in New York, the one in Metropolis, or the one in Gotham City, Alex could be impressed. The new solar energy source orb Harry developed caught her interest.

"You aren't the only one to be impressed by that," Harry said. "Unfortunately, it's still in the prototype stage."

Carol smiled at her sister. "Well, I'm pretty sure it will be impressive when Harry gets it up and running, like pretty much everything else he creates."

"I don't doubt that," Alex said.

She could see both Carol and Carol moving off to one side. Both beautiful women obviously did not come all the way to Gotham City without getting a piece of Harry. They might have both had business in the city. It still did not hurt to do a little bit of multitasking.

"Feel free to take one of the rooms while you're staying here," Harry said. "Whether the two of you want to sleep together or not...and if you want a separate room, there's plenty to go around."

"Oh, if there's plenty to go around," the lovely Ms. Ferris chimed in.

The lovely Ms. Danvers popped in where her friend left off. "We're going to have to keep that in mind if there's plenty to go around."

One alluring dark-haired woman stole the kiss from Harry first. Then, a gorgeous blonde bombshell came in and captured Harry's lips with a very passionate kiss as well. The two women tried to top themselves by kissing Harry, for a good couple of minutes.

Alex was about ready to jump in and show them how it was done. Unfortunately, she had a call which drew her attention away from the fun and games.

' _Of course,'_ Alex thought.

Carol and Carol disappeared as Alex decided it was for the best she picked up the phone. She put it to her ear and sighed.

"Yes, yes, I understand. I'll be right there as soon as I can."

Alex turned to Harry. The frustrated woman was going to be even more frustrated. She crossed the hall and wrapped her arms around Harry before kissing him on the lips. She pulled away from him.

"Duty calls," Alex said. "I'd tell you to tell Carol and Carol that I'll be back soon. Unfortunately, I don't think that they'll miss me too much."

Harry laughed and stole one last kiss from Alex. He understood and sent Alex on her way. The door had been cracked open in a very tantalizing manner. Harry stepped inside. It was good that he was feeling better because he was going to need to be in the pinnacle of health.

Carol Ferris sat on the bed in some very slinky looking black and blue lingerie. The nightie covered her alluring body in a very enticing way. Carol Danvers dressed in a red corset top, thong, and knee high stockings. She moved closer towards Harry.

Both women undressed Harry with their eyes and soon would escalate to undressing him with their hands.

* * *

 

Carol Danvers pulled Harry's pants off and dropped to her knees before him. Carol Ferris kissed the side of Harry's face and then his neck as well. The two stunning beauties using their mouths to make Harry very happy was the order for today.

"I think someone wants to come out to play," Carol said with a smile twitching in the corner of her lips.

Harry's engorged cock came out to face her. The blonde on her knees skillfully used her tongue on Harry. She canvased every single inch of him while easing the straps down on her pants. She teased Harry with her breasts for a second before going down and sucking Harry into her mouth.

The lovely Ms. Ferris took a spot behind Harry and kissed the back of his neck. Her hands lightly rolled down Harry's chest and abs, working him over. She decided to drop down to join her friend on her knees in front of Harry.

One Star Sapphire took his balls into her mouth and sucked on it while the Green Lantern on her knees blew Harry. Both of them almost ran into each other a couple of times. It took a moment to establish some momentum with them.

They took turns sucking on him and switching off. Harry could feel the heat build up in his loins. The young man took his prick into Carol's warm mouth, her blonde hair falling on a curtain against his cock. Those expressive blue eyes locked on.

Then, both women moved on either side and sandwiched his cock between their breasts. They kissed each other while giving Harry one of the most amazing feelings, a double tit fuck which caused Harry to groan. Those tantalizingly beautiful breasts rubbed against Harry's tool and made him throb as hard as possible the more they worked on it.

"You're too much," Harry groaned.

"Yes," the lovely Ms. Ferris agreed.

"And you're too much for any one woman to handle."

They took their large pillows and smothered Harry's cock between them. He grunted the more they worked him over with a never ending pleasure covering his cock. His balls tightened and were about ready to unload.

Harry shot his load all over him. The healthy discharged over their chests and faces showed that Harry was feeling much better than he was.

The two women took a healthy load of cum all over their breasts. The Green Lantern rose to her feet and smiled at her Star Sapphire counterpart. The two of them met each other in the middle with a deep kiss to taste cum off of their lips. The sizzling hot blonde worked her tongue into the mouth over the dark-haired vixen next to her. Carol and Carol dropped down onto the bed.

The oldest Danvers sister took her own position between Carol's warm thighs. The owner of Ferris Aircraft crawled down and covered her good friend's body with a lot of soft kisses. The enchanting raven-haired woman gasped with Carol kissing and sucking on her.

Harry saw the beautiful sight of Carol Danvers lowering herself between the thighs of Carol Ferris. She positioned herself for Harry to penetrate her. Which was what Harry intended to do, and he did, ramming his cock into her after a moment of teasing.

Carol would have reacted to Harry drilling into her from behind had it not been for the fact her mouth was busy worshipping the dripping pussy of the lovely Ms. Ferris. Those hands traced down those nice firm thighs with Harry working into her.

"Good, so good," Harry said.

He held up so far, so good, underneath the inner muscle contractions. Carol's very curvy body stuck out in front of him for Harry to grab onto her. He touched the underside of her breasts, cupping them in his hands. Those nipples poked out and were ready to be attacked by Harry. Harry eased his fingers underneath those stiffening peaks. He worked his fingers against Carol with each passing thrust. He pulled back from her and drove the point of his cock inside of her very needy cunt.

The lovely Ms. Ferris rolled her hips up. She could feel the moaning coming from the oldest Danvers sister, which came into her pussy with a nice little vibration feeling. Those good vibrations kept working over her womanhood. Carol grabbed onto the side of her lover's hair and pumped up to meet the mouth coming in.

"She's going to cum," Harry said.

His hands touched Carol. The blonde clenched and repeated Harry with numerous thrusts. The young man shoved his rod into her and stretched out the body.

Moments ticked by on the clock with Carol feeling the feeling of pleasure rushing through her body. Harry slammed deep inside of her from behind. The insides of her walls were manipulated by a master. Harry reached around her and touched her body. The sensitive spot on the back of her neck shot pure fire.

Harry dragged Carol to another spectacular orgasm. His balls slapped her pussy with the latest thrust.

"Carol, cum."

On cue, both of them came at the same time. Carol Danvers jammed her questing tongue deep into the quivering quim of Carol Ferris. At the same time, her warm pussy clutched Harry's engorged rod to suck it inside of her body. Her clenching walls grabbed onto him, squeezed Harry as hard as possible and released him with a solid pump.

Harry's balls started to churn when they rubbed against her walls. He was this close to exploding inside of Carol. He held tight for a few more minutes to make sure a second orgasm hit an apex.

The moment it did so, Harry jammed his cock into Carol to send the contents of his balls spilling into her. He kept hold of the Green Lantern and drove his cock inside of her body. The other Carol on the bed thrust her hips up when Carol gave a moan into her.

The contents of Harry's orgasm exploded into the warm walls of the lovely woman underneath him. He took control of her body with a series of repeated thrusts inside of her body. Harry held back and sunk his throbbing cock into Carol on a repeated and never ending basis.

He pulled out and allowed Carol Danvers to descend down on the bed. His cock still was half hard and replaced when the lovely Carol Ferris climbed over him. Those alluring eyes looked up at him when sliding his cock into her mouth and sucking on it.

"You really know how to use that mouth," Harry said. "Talented, smart, beautiful…you really are the entire package."

Carol slurped Harry's hard prick into her mouth and released it. She crawled back on the bed and spread her knees out. She propped up on her elbows, hair dangling over her face.

Harry did not need much encouragement to shift himself and drive down into the smoldering pussy of the lovely woman underneath him. Carol pushed her thighs against Harry's hips, to allow him to rise up and drop down into her. Ripples of lust flowed between her bodies.

Those gorgeous breasts jiggled when Harry drove down into him. Two nipples both stuck up for encouragement. Harry squashed those breasts underneath his muscular chest and gave her a kiss while pistoning his way inside of her pussy. Carol returned fire with a kiss of her own.

The two moaned into each other's mouths, with their hands groping at each other's bodies. Carol's inner walls took a tight grip onto Harry the very moment he drove himself inside of her. He rose up as far as possible and descended down into Carol's tight womanly depths. She grabbed onto him and moaned.

"Harry!" she breathed the moment Harry released her mouth.

Carol Danvers smiled and used her energy ring for purposes which were not covered in basic training. She channeled a bolt of energy at her clit, stimulating it just as she watched Harry. Harry's long cock stood at the gates of her friend's entrance. The dark-haired woman received a heavy plunge with that cock spiking inside of her body.

The ripples of a very heavenly orgasm coming from Carol made Harry groan. Happiness was reaching a fever pitch. Harry rose up and lowered himself into her.

"You're amazing," Harry said. "But, it's not your time to cum yet."

Harry smashed his way into Carol's gushing center. Her womanhood grabbed onto Harry and released him. He pushed his rod inside of her squeezing walls. He rose up almost all the way out of her and planted his hard rod inside of her. Harry worked his hands down her body and showed her the meaning of pleasure.

"My time…will come," Carol panted.

Harry was pretty certain it would. Right now, he needed to plant himself into her. The brunette grabbed him and released him. Her body eagerly grabbed onto him and Carol's soft moans continued. Her mouth nibbled the side of Harry's ear when he drilled her.

Everything would reach a fever pitch sooner enough. The orgasm building up in Carol was fuel for Harry to continue. Every sound she made just made Harry's cock throb even harder and his balls to strain against her. He slapped against Carol's warm thighs when planting his way into her. He was getting close to the end. Close to bringing her to an end, which he both felt and welcomed.

His balls tensed up, but he waited for Carol to reach her end.

Carol's entire body received a full court attack. Her hips rose up off of the bed and took Harry into her warm depths. She squeezed him when descending down all the way onto the bed and then dropped down. They met each other.

"So…fuckin good of you," Harry groaned. "Cum again anytime."

The warm juices combined with Harry slamming his rod into Carol. His balls discharged so much cum into her, that she started to overflow from that moment.

The moment Harry pulled out of her, Carol Danvers climbed onto his lap. Bouncing globes stuck at Harry's eye level as Carol got his cock up to full mast at no time.

Then, she took the plunge and showed Harry that this fun was just beginning. She would more than pick up the slack while her friend slept off Harry's hard pounding.

* * *

Both women sunk down on either side of Harry. Harry was about ready to settle in for a nice long rest.

' _Harry!'_

The voice of Lara Croft popping into the back of Harry's head caught him very much off guard. She had been one of the last people Harry expected to hear tonight.

' _Yes, Lara, what can I do for you?'_ Harry asked.

' _I got into a spot of trouble,'_ Lara thought.

' _Tell me everything.'_

* * *

**To Be Continued on Septe** **mber 23** **rd** **, 2017.**


	338. Matters of the Mind Part One

_Sticky around around this chapter for some news on the future of this story and my writing in general._

* * *

**Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Eight: Matters of Mind Part One**

* * *

Harry Potter arrived outside of a temple which looked particularly ancient. A chill of the wind came down to his bones a few seconds later. And the doors of the temple were jammed open when the two of them approached. He looked over his shoulder, to see the Green Lantern of Earth, and the Star Sapphire of Earth walking behind them. Despite their workout earlier, they were ready and willing to go.

' _So, what do you think we'll find in here,'_ Star Sapphire Carol interjected in the back of Harry's mind.

The sigh coming from Harry obviously pointed out something. _'Nothing good, I'm afraid.'_

A slight thumping came from the other side of the wall. Harry knew right away that there was someone here. And Lara was most certainly here, somewhere. And she would not have raided a tomb without getting into some kind of adventure. The more cynical people would have said trouble, but Harry thought that he was above such petty things as calling someone getting into an adventure trouble.

Realizations dawned upon Harry that Lara Croft was not the only one who was present by a longshot. The trio made their way inside of the front of the temple, where they saw a long and spiraling set of stairs leading down. At the bottom of the steps, several members of the Advanced Idea Mechanics group were moving around. One of them stood in front of a large drilling machine.

"I swear she was down here," one of the AIM members said with a deep breath.

"You mean the Tomb Raider?" another one of the AIM goons asked.

"Who the hell else did you think I was talking about?" another AIM goon asked. "She's the key to all of this, you know. We find her, she might have a good idea what is down here."

Harry watched the AIM representatives move in. A familiar face coming into the picture was most certainly a surprise, it was someone who had not been seen in public for a year. Green Lantern Carol Danvers gave a light gasp when seeing the figure of Hector Hammond.

"Whatever it takes to find it, I just want to get this under control," Hammond said. "That Carol Ferris, she spurned me and tried to take it out. Now….I hear all of your thoughts. Every single one of your simple, pathetic thoughts, they're digging into my brain. Do any of you have the slightest idea how much it hurts to have the thoughts of such raging simpletons always going into your mind?"

The various AIM goons looked at each other, not saying anything. The fact that this Hammond fellow could hear pretty much everything that they were saying crept them out just a little bit. The shivers coming down their mind.

"She should have never spurned me!" Hammond yelled. "And if she would have just sat back and let me do my job, nothing would have happened. Nothing would have happened….I'M NOT CRAZY STOP THINKING LIKE THAT!'

The throbbing continued to go through Hammond's temples. He moved over to calm himself down and go to a dark place where he could not hear the overwhelming thoughts of numerous simpletons.

Had he been able to think a bit more clearly, he might have been able to figure out that the subject of his deranged rant was just a little bit away. Hammond's head rattled when he tried to clear his mind, dragging in a deep breath with a sigh.

' _Someone is bitter,'_ Star Sapphire Carol said.

"The sooner we find those energy cells, the sooner that we can deal with this," Hammond said. "The sooner that I can deal with this and have a clear head….stop thinking at me like I'm crazy."

None of them were thinking it. Hammond's paranoid delusions made him think that they thought he was crazy. And maybe there was no thinking about it, from this position that they were in.

"You're not crazy," the Scientist Supreme said. "Your brain just processes at a level which even a strong and intelligent man like yourself could not process."

Hammond looked about ready to accept that fact.

"The sooner that we find it, the better off we will be," Hammond said. "And we'll all get what we want. Locate the Tomb Raider and go from here."

One Green Lantern, One Star Sapphire, and Harry Potter stood off to the side. Carol decided to address one particular point.

' _So, can he hear us?'_ Green Lantern Carol asked.

' _My mind's blocking him,'_ Harry thought. _'He shouldn't hear us.'_

He needed to locate Lara before AIM did, while also dodging Hammond. And where AIM was, he figured there was some nasty technology about ready to do him in close behind. Harry carefully stepped around the corner.

* * *

The slow footsteps of Harvey Dent continued when he maneuvered himself around the greater area of Gotham City. He had been surrounded by a never-ending cesspool of crime and corruption. His fist clutched together when taking a deep breath.

Unlike the previous night where Dent took this walk, he was not alone. Several members of a low-level, low-life, Gotham City street gang, the Caps followed him. Dent delivered a hostile takeover on their gang and now he was in charge. And it felt good to have that kind of power.

Harvey grabbed the lock of the building. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key. The key opened up, and the members of the gang followed him in. They noticed crates, a couple of them open on the ground. One of them whistled and reached for the crate.

"Hands off," Dent growled.

The thug retracted his hand from the crate. "Come on, with this stuff, we can become the kings of Gotham."

"You'll become nothing," Dent said. "You might get a few lucky shots in before the larger mob outfits roll you over with sheer numbers."

Another gang came inside. They looked at the Caps the moment they can it. Dent cleared his throat.

"You two are going to rip your numbers apart in the midst of a turf war," Dent said. "But, if Cobblepot or Sionis want your territory, you will be wiped out."

All of the goons looked at Harvey Dent with scowls on their face. He did not personally care whether or not he had upset them. He was only telling them the truth, the whole truth, and nothing other than the truth. One of the gang members walked in and handed Dent a paper.

"You might want to take a look at this, sir," the gang member said.

The face of Salvatore Maroni plastered on the front page of the paper Dent received triggered some angry emotions in the man. He clutched the coin up between his fingers and then flipped it up into the air. The coin spun in the air and it landed firmly in his hand.

"Maroni thinks that he's safe," Dent said. "He thinks this will all just blow over. I'm pretty sure he thinks that I'm dead. I think that he's mistaken."

Half of his face curled into a smile, the other half curled into a snarl. Harvey Dent's mind came to a conclusion that trying to deal with scum like Maroni by the book, it just wasn't going to work. A bastard like that just could not be reasoned with at all.

"We're going to need a more stable base of operations," Dent said. "The GCPD is coming after us, and it will be a matter of time before they grab us."

One of the gang members started to laugh at the thought of the GCPD catching them or anything else catching them. Some of the low-level gang members had a very low opinion of the police of Gotham City. Dent's eyes flashed towards them and suddenly, the gang member stopped laughing. Things got very serious in a hurry when Harvey's eyes burned onto them.

"Don't joke, they are not as useless as you think they might be," Dent said. "They are woefully understaffed to deal with the higher-level criminals. Because they chase vigilantes…because they are blinded, to the truth of what's happening."

The man took a ragged breath. He got used to functioning with just one untainted side of his body. Regardless, those breaths grew very hard the more Dent took them in. His eyes glazed over, clutching his coin in hand.

"So, what are you going to do?" one of the gang members asked. "Are you going to take over Gotham City or something?"

Harvey's fingers flexed against his silver dollar. The silver dollar came up and then landed it down. None of the gang members got a close look at what Harvey did. They only knew what he decided, or rather what the coin decided when it dropped down on the ground.

"It's about time someone takes this city over," Dent said. "The smaller gangs, if they know what's good for them, they'll fall into line with the plan. They'll become cannon fodder for Sionis, Cobblepot, or worse, the Joker."

The members of the mob all shuddered. One of them tried hard not to let out a scream. The Joker was only active in Gotham for less than a year and already carved out a reputation of someone you did not want to screw with, at all.

"Alright, listen up. Here's what we're going to do."

* * *

Lara Croft had to move around extremely carefully from where she was. One wrong move and it was going to have about a dozen or two dozen heavily armed men on her ass in the worst possible way. Lara stepped around the corner, biting on her lip very nervously. Her heart started to race as much as possible when going around the corner. What were they looking for, she wondered?

' _Could be anything,'_ Lara thought. _'And here I thought this temple was not worth much of anything. Guess I could be wrong._

She could have been very wrong as it turned out. Two gentlemen walked around the corner and started to talk in low voices. One of them stood up and pointed a modified gun at the corner. The other gentleman raised his eyebrow at the first gentleman.

"What the hell are you looking at?"

"I could have sworn there was someone around here," the goon responded. He could hear a loud dripping in the distance which caused him to be on edge in the worst possible way.

The first goon responded with a sigh and looked the second goon over. "You be here for long enough, you start hearing things. There's something about this place that gives you the creeps."

Had they turned about a half of an inch, they would have seen one Lara Croft, crouched down off to the side. Thankfully, by some miracle, they did not catch a glimpse of her.

' _Okay, maybe you're lucky,'_ Lara thought. _'Maybe they did not see you. Maybe you can get out of here without getting into too much trouble.'_

The woman took a step back and moved around a rickety platform. She made the jump, showing her skills in the process.

' _Lara?'_ Harry asked.

' _Yes, Harry,'_ Lara thought.

' _Stick tight, I'm on my way,'_ Harry thought.

Lara would have to stick tight. The sound of rocks crumbling off to one side caused Lara to stand a bit rigid. She watched two gentlemen pass through the rocks. The moment they turned, they saw Lara, she knew that it was going to get rather rough in a hurry.

One of the gentlemen reached for a radio. Lara showed some very impressive reflexes by grabbing the man by the arm, twisting it around his back, and bringing him down to the ground. The other gentleman was quick on the draw with a knife.

Lara prevented the knife blade from plunging into her abdomen by simply not being around for the blade. She grabbed the goon around the arm and flipped him down to the ground. This bee-keeper almost withdrew a weapon. Lara grabbed the weapon from him.

Three more came down the tunnel. Lara stood to fight her ground against them. She held this weapon in the hand that she grabbed off of one of the beekeepers. And a frustrating realization dawned on her.

Lara really had no idea how to use this particular weapon. That was a spot of bother, it really was. Her heart started to rush a little bit faster when those goons made their way down the way towards her. She prepared to fight them the best she could.

Stun batons came out with sparks of electricity flying at Lara. The Tomb Raider braced to defend herself. A blast of light followed and trapped the AIM goons. They lifted up off of the ground, submerged in Green energy bubbles which wrapped around their bodies. They tried to fight out, but the ripples of energy coming around them prevented them from breaking out of their prison.

The Green Lantern of Sector 2814 turned up to take them down. Another figure, the Star Sapphire showed up. She knocked them back against the wall and showed them how much love hurts.

"Well, that was timely," Lara said.

The AIM goons had been rendered unconscious on the ground, beaten and battered from the attacks. Harry made his way around the corner just in time to see Carol Ferris collapse down on the ground. The breath knocked out of her lungs when she struggled to draw in any kind of air.

"Just give me a minute," Carol said. "There's something in this temple which is contradicting my powers."

Harry figured out what.

"It's what Hammond and AIM are after."

They knew they had to move before AIM moved in. And they would have to locate whatever AIM was after before they got to it.

* * *

Selina Kyle crept around the edge of a building with practiced ease. She had been way too used to doing this so many times, and at a building owned by the Falcones. She was so close to uncovering the truth of what she already suspected for a long time.

Unfortunately, without that one damning piece of evidence, Selina found herself just speculating. She just kept guessing way too much. It cost her big time way too many times to be mindlessly speculating. She let in her breath in a deep breath before letting it out when moving around the tower.

No way she could get to Falcone, especially as Catwoman. She would have liked nothing better than five minutes alone with him. She knew it would never happen.

' _Doubt he would even talk to me as Selina.'_

Brushing that thought off to the side, Selina resolved to get straight to work. She moved through the opening and made her way down the dark hallway. The security system was pressure sensitive and as long as Selina did not touch certain points on the building, she would be fine. She wore a pair of goggles to show where the lines were. The woman kept walking around the corner.

The sound of voices Selina heard put a stop to her maneuvering around the building rather suddenly. She wondered if it were guards which she would have to deal with. Guards, Selina could most certainly deal with them. The figures which came around the corner, Selina paused when looking at them.

Sofia Falcone walked down the hallway, followed by her cousin, Lucia Vitti. An olive-skinned woman who was shorter than Sofia, but with no less of a temper, Lucia had stared down a woman most would not dare to do so. Hell, sometimes, Selina was a bit intimidated by Sofia.

"Uncle Carmine has obviously lost sense of why he's doing what he's doing said," Lucia said. "My mother, she paid for it as well."

"I'm sorry, but my father had nothing to do with it," Sofia said. "It's the Holiday Killer and he will be taught a lesson."

The look on Lucia's face burned with skepticism when she looked over at Sofia. The smaller girl decided to choose her words carefully.

"Uncle Carmine is a relic, he's obsolete," Lucia said. "He should be removed, the old ways are enough….hell even people like Thorne are progressive enough to work within the confines of the New Gotham City."

"You won't say anything against my father," Sofia said.

"Well, just a fair warning, Chicago is going to take a greater interest in Gotham," Lucia said. "My mother's condition is not going to go unanswered. This Holiday Killer will pay."

To be honest, her mother's condition was a blessing in disguise, not that Lucia would admit that out loud. She could make some necessary moves which would allow her to flourish. The two women parted ways and walked down the hallway.

Sofia drew in her breath when parting ways with her cousin. The woman took a deep breath. The last thing her father needed was another child who had lost it. Mario is gone, and Alberto dead, Sofia was the only constant that Carmine had.

A sound of someone moving softly in the tower stiffened Sofia up. Someone was going through a cabinet which they should not have been. Sofia reached into the holster hooked to her hip and made her way around the corner. She was ready to point the weapon at the person who robbed from her family. Nothing was going to stop her from doing so.

It was Catwoman who hunched over a cabinet. She had been working her way through several documents in the cabinet. The sound of the gun clicking behind her caused her to stand up.

"Stand up and face me," Sofia demanded. "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but it ends tonight."

Catwoman stood up and faced Sofia. The breath drew attention to the woman's chest. Sofia tried not to lose sight of what was going on and that was a dangerous thief in her midst, pretty much jammed underneath her thumb.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't blow you away."

"I'm not stealing from your family for my own health," the thief said. "The truth is, your father hides many secrets. You don't have any idea. I'm after the truth. I have to know."

Sofia continued to train the gun in front of her. The woman's breathing increased, the gun waving in her face. She would have blown the woman straight away at another time. Something held her back, and Sofia did not like the fact that she grew soft.

"You've stolen from the Falcones. And people who end up stealing from the Falcones end up dead."

A simple moment of indecision caused the whip to come out and wrap around Sofia's wrist. The leather cut into the wrist of the woman and caused the gun to fly out of her hand. The crafty woman moved out through the window.

Sofia rubbed the side of her face. She was not wounded nearly as badly as her father did despite pulling a gun on the woman, who was long gone. The vault open caused her to move over.

She stole nothing, but the folder left open in the vault caused Sofia to raise an eyebrow.

' _Damn.'_

* * *

The Scientist Supreme frowned when studying the markings on the temple. It had been technology which he had never seen in his entire life. And it was technology that the Advanced Idea Mechanics had to have their hands on, period. There was no question about it. There was no question about it at all, they just had to have it.

Much like all scientists, the Scientist Supreme found himself blinded by his curiosity. He also knew that the man he answered to was not a very impatient one.

"You better hurry with getting that vault open," the Scientist Supreme said a second later. "Our leader is not happy with your recent failures."

The members of AIM all rolled their eyes. They had been blamed for the failures when the failures reflected on the leadership of AIM. The Freeze Gun being stolen was not on their watch, and given what Lady Freeze did with it, it was an extremely potent weapon.

The scientist who created it had been killed for losing it. Seconds later, they realized that he left no way to document the creation of the gun.

"We're trying to get through the best we can," one of them grunted. "I don't know how this is jammed so tight."

"You better figure out a way to un-jam it for your sake," the Scientist Supreme warmed him. "You mess up, and he's not going to be happy. And if the boss is not happy, none of you are going to be very happy."

They all knew that. One of them managed to find a crevice on the wall.

"Hand me that disc," the AIM guard said to another one. "I have an idea."

"This isn't anything like your last idea, is it?" the guard asked.

"Just hand me the disc."

The AIM scientist put the disc into the hand of the gentleman in question. The disc pressed against the side of the wall and caused the wall to rattle. The smoke came down from the disc when they were trying to break the wall down from its position. The AIM scientist who worked the wall open looked very happy with the fact that something was happening to break the wall out.

"Finally, something has gone right today."

"Don't get too arrogant," the Scientist Supreme warned. "As you know, you should not decide if an experiment is a success without taking all of the variables into question."

All of the variables, many of the variables, have been decided. The wall opened up and the vault cracked open on the other side of it. A shining bright light bombarded all of the scientists. These men had no idea what they were about ready to deal with.

The Scientist Supreme took a step forward. The promise of power beyond all comprehension captivated the man when he approached the edge of the cell. Excitement built in the Scientist Supreme when walking close to the edge of the vault.

"It's a gateway," the Scientist Supreme said. "A gateway to ultimate power. A gateway to knowledge beyond all wildest imagination. It's a gateway for us to become the masters of the world."

The scientist all sounded excited, but one skeptical voice in the background sounded rather disinterested by the entire process.

"I'll believe that when the power is actually in our hands."

The Scientist Supreme frowned very deeply at his buzz being halted. The large-headed leader of AIM looked at him through narrowed eyes and pointed one short arm forward into the gateway. The flash of light emitted on all sides from the temple around them.

"Go inside."

That look from the Scientist Supreme made six of AIM's best agents step through the gates. The last thing any of them wanted to be was test subjects of some kind. They crossed over on the other end of the gates. The coolness rushing from the temple made all of them wonder what the hell they stepped into.

At least one of them felt lighter than air when stepping through the gateway through the temple. They could tackle anything, and be on top of the world. They could not believe this amazing feeling which rushed through their bodies when passing through the temple.

Stacks upon stacks of gold, shining in their face came in front of their faces. The AIM scientist reached forward to take the gold.

"No, we're here from the power source."

Yet, the allure of the riches inside of this temple caused all of the AIM scientists to be blinded from their purpose. A chest at the top of the mountain shined brightly with an energy the likes of which none of them ever saw before and very few of them would ever have a chance to see again. One of them unstuck his throat long enough to make a declaration.

"It's beautiful."

Power often was beautiful, and one of them scaled up the mountain of riches. All of the diamonds, all of the riches, all of the precious jewels, they called to the scientists.

The item at the top of one of the piles called to the scientist even greater. His hands outstretched when he noticed the item. It flashed in his eyes and whispered to him. A glowing orange power battery drew the scientists of AIM in.

"That's not what we want."

The orange power battery lifted up into the hands. The power flowing was greater than the AIM scientist ever knew. The moment he touched the battery, something stirred.

"MINE!"

The owner of the Power Battery woke up and he was not happy about people messing with his precious.

* * *

Several of the AIM goons laid out on the ground after Harry, Carol, Carol, and Lara made their way over towards the edge of a gateway. They took them out in no time. The Scientist Supreme and Hammond were nowhere to be found.

The Green Lantern lifted her hand in the air with a flash of light coming from it. The glow coming from the ring caused goosebumps to rise on the back of Carol's neck. A ragged breath followed by this woman.

"That's not good," Carol muttered.

"Okay, I'll bite," Lara said. "What are we dealing with?"

"The Orange Lantern," the Green Lantern said. "And he was sealed away in there for a very good reason. He will wreck Earth so he can have everything that he can get his greedy little hands on. If we allow him out."

"We won't," Harry said. "Although I wonder how many colors of the rainbow there are at this point for Lanterns."

The Green Lantern shrugged in response. "Good question."

The sorcerer put his hands on the gate and attempted to seal it. The gate rumbled but did not seal behind him.

"Well, it's time for me to head inside and see what's up," Harry said.

"Alone?" both Carols chimed in unison.

"Well, he wouldn't be Harry without making things complicated," Lara said.

"Still, fifteen minutes," Harry said.

Harry paused and noticed something on the shelf. He thought it might do him some good. He picked up the item and pocketed it.

' _Be ready in fifteen minutes,'_ Harry reminded them.

Then without another word, he slipped through the gateway into the unknown.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 27** **th** **, 2017.**

* * *

So, as everyone who follows my blog likely knows, Ascension Book Two is wrapping up with Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty which will be posting on November 4th, 2017. So, we have twelve more chapters to be posted by my math.

As for when I come back to this universe, I'm still debating heavily on it. There will likely be smaller mini-books of about five to eight chapters released on a quarterly basis, tying up some of the loose plot threads. Whenever there's anything posted at all. If it happens in 2018, I will say that June 30th is the five year anniversary of Ascension Book One and September 18th is the ten year anniversary of my first stories, Aspirations. Not saying that anything will begin to drop on those dates, but if something happens in 2018, those are the most likely.

And I've been kind of hinting around at this over the past couple of months, but I'm more than likely going to be distancing myself from Harry Potter related works for a time after Stranded and Emerald Flight 2k17 are finished up. Other than the Breeding Ground and Calendar Girls. Calendar Girls has all of 2018 chapters already written. And Breeding Ground has plans up until June 2018. As I reach Chapter 250, I'll make a decision as to that stories future. Likely still going to exist, although it may get cut back from the twice a week schedule.

It might be a couple of months break, or it might be longer. I don't really know. And my level of interest could improve once I've had some time away from writing Potter related projects. This is a break that's at least a year overdue. I was reluctant to take that decision sooner though because Ascension Book Two was obviously a very long term project and Breeding Ground was catching fire and getting hot. Hell, that's still far and beyond the highest read story that I'm putting out for reasons which may be obvious.

We still have some things to post. Ascension Book Two wraps up in November. Stranded in March. And EFk17 is very likely to wrap up in April, although that's not exactly one hundred percent clarified. I never wanted to be known as a writer of Harry Potter fanfiction, and really, Emerald Flight(the original) was intended to be a one time return. But, plans change. And it's my fault for sticking to a fandom that I was kind of losing interest in more as the years go by. Not that I hate it, but I'm more excited when I go and write an Under the the Hood chapter.

So, likely just Breeding Ground and Calendar Girls for a while after this set wraps up, and then maybe eventually I'll drop some Ascension Mini-Books every few months once the mood strikes me.


	339. Matters of the Mind Part Two

**Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Nine: Matters of Mind Part Two**

* * *

Stepping through the gateway caused a very weird feeling to rush over the body of Harry Potter. He could not place this feeling, but it gave him an unsettling desire to want more than he already had. The desire to have it all and to take it all hit Harry hard in the ribs like a runaway freight train. The young sorcerer stepped forward and took in a deep breath at this interesting feeling when it came through his body.

Something most certainly was off about what was going on. The sound of something else rumbling in the distance caught Harry even more off guard. He did not know what to make of this, only that there was something else happening around him. The sorcerer put his fingers up to his temple and reinforced his will. Deep ragged breaths followed as Harry had to have every bit of his mental shielding in place.

A sound of something flying around the corner behind him could be heard. One AIM guard crumpled down to the ground with a sonic crack as he hit the ground. Harry turned his attention around just in time to see Lara walking into the room. Two more AIM soldiers flew back down onto the ground. A large green fist buried into the chest of the AIM guards when they dropped down onto the ground.

' _Well, there goes stealth.'_

The ground started to rumble underneath them. Harry would have held onto the wall to steady himself. Unfortunately, for Harry, there did not seem to be any wall to hold onto. Just an unsettling cloud of mist, and also several figures moving past Harry including two large heads.

One of the larger AIM scientists aimed a blaster at Lara. Carol Danvers flew across the tunnel and nailed him with a huge punch to the ribs. The armor blocked most of the shot. Carol took control and found a weak spot in the armor, which caused him to drop down onto the guard with at thud.

Several other people rushed down a different path. Harry saw one big head, then a second, and instantly he figured out what was going on. AIM arrived and were ready to start taking control in this situation.

Lara made her way down the path. She saw a half open vault and the shining of the light distracted her. The glint of gold in the vault caused her to step closer towards the vault. The piles and piles of treasure waiting for her in the vault was a wet dream for the Tomb Raider.

She stepped in and the treasure disappeared into a cloud of dust.

"An illusion," Lara said.

Carol and Carol held the vault open, and Harry guided Lara out of the vault. The quartet looked at each other the very second that they cleared the vault.

"An illusion, yes," the Green Lantern said. "But it's an accurate one, and his stash is somewhere….The Green Lantern Corps stored him away from the treasures from the planets that he stole from."

"And why wouldn't the treasures be sent back to the planets?" Lara asked. "Unless…."

Lara trailed off, having answered her own question. Larfleeze ripped the planets apart and took everything for his own. Everything was pretty ripe for the taking and Larfleeze just kept taking it.

Carol's ring kept flicking out and she stopped short. It was the same energy from when…well it was too painful to even remember.

' _Still missing,'_ Carol thought. _'Even though we haven't seen a sign of her for a very long time, so it's not looking too promising.'_

' _We better keep moving,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm going to keep our minds shielded, but it's going to be a rough trip.'_

* * *

There was no question about it, Hector Hammond's greed reached a very dangerous fever pitch. He wanted it all and would do everything that he could to take it all. Those power cells called out for him. Unfortunately, the plan was not going to go off without a hitch.

Hammond ignored the constant throbbing in the back of his head when going forward. The moment Hammond stepped back, he could feel the thoughts of this entity guarding the treasure. Hammond took one step over the top of the AIM agent who had tried to take the glowing orange battery.

The yellow cells were what Hammond wanted, the power battery might have been a very interesting door prize. To be honest though, Hammond did not really care about getting his hands on the secondary power source. He approached the man in question, who peered down at him looking like some crazed lunatic when locking his eyes onto Hammond.

"No, you can't have it," the creature whispered in a harsh voice. "You can't have it! YOU CAN'T TAKE MY PRECIOUS! MY PRECIOUS!"

The creature hoarded the object into his hand and something rattled underneath him. Hammond walked over, not really caring about whatever the creature babbled on about. All he wanted was the object which could cure his affliction.

"Give me the cells," Hammond said. "Give me the cells, and me and my associates will leave everything else alone."

The thoughts going through the mind of the creature almost knocked Hammond completely over. He needed those cells because every single thought entering his mind, even the thoughts of greed, were very overwhelming. These particular thoughts made him want to claw his eyes out one hundred percent without another thought.

"Larfleeze," Hammond said. "They're of no value to you. We'll leave everything else. Just give us the cells."

The creature's thought process zeroed in on the fact that someone else wanted it.

"They're valuable to you," Larfleeze said. "If they're valuable to you, then they're valuable to me."

"But, we can give you riches beyond your wildest imagination."

Larfleeze took a moment to consider. His imagination and his desire to get everything possible could stretch very wild. These riches they were talking about, he doubted that they would be enough for him to part with anything. But despite it not being enough to part with anything, he wanted it. He would have to have it, and the temptation was just too great.

It had been torture to be locked away from some time with everything he had, with the thought of everything that he didn't.

"Where are you from?" the creature asked.

"We are from a magical place with untold riches known as Earth," Hammond said.

Larfleeze never had heard of this place. Still the prospect of unknown and untapped riches tantalized the creature just enough to consider playing along with these two big heads and their strange cronies for now. He considered those words with a big, ear to ear smile crossing over his face.

"So, you're going to give me all of the riches, for the cells," Larfleeze said.

"Yes, anything you want, it's going to be yours," Hammond said.

It always pained Larfleeze to give up everything because he worked so hard to get his hands on pretty much everything. Even for something great, he did not want to give up an insignificant thing like these power cells. He took painstaking detail to rescue them from their planet.

"Why give, what I can take though?'

MODOK finally stepped in. He was not too pleased with how this was going. His eyes locked onto the entity, his lips curled, and a growl of "enough" came from his person. He reached in and bombarded Larfleeze with a mental blast.

"You will give me the power cells, creature!" MODOK snapped.

Larfleeze's eyes snapped shut. The agony of his mind being ripped apart made him very restless. And also very angry, angrier than he ever felt, that anyone would dare steal anything from him. No, his.

"NO, MINE!"

The thoughts of greed attack MODOK's cranium and caused him to spin back a few inches. The creature breathed very heavily, almost frothing at the mouth after the trick that AIM tried to pull on him. The creature's eyes bulged up and he started to breath heavily. The heavier breathing increased the more angry he got.

"YOU WILL NOT TAKE IT! IT'S MINE! MINE! DO YOU HEAR ME? DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME? IT'S MINE!"

The loud scream coming from Larfleeze echoed throughout the chamber. His mind created a hideous abomination of a dragon which rose out in the distance. The AIM guards, Hammond, and MODOK backed off.

"I command you to cease this aggression at once," MODOK said.

These words fell on completely dead ears when the dragon gave them a mighty road and attacked those who would try and steal Larfleeze's treasure

* * *

Many different places in Gotham City held many different secrets. One of those places which stored a significant amount of secrets were the Gotham City armory. It was directly at the city limits, in a place where not many people would go. All of the buildings had been run down. Anyone who walked down a street would have been greeted with a significant number of condemned signs.

Rats scurried from the alleyway. One of the guards on the outside of the lab looked at the place. The smell of piss and shit filled his lungs and it caused him to almost keel over. He turned to the other three guards who were waiting inside of the doorway.

"Man, I can't believe they would put all of this junk in this place," the guard said. "They really think anyone is going to go all the way into the shit end of Gotham City to start stealing stuff."

The second guard shook his head at the comment of the first. "Well, obviously they think someone might. Otherwise, why the hell would we be here?"

"And for your information, none of this is junk," the third guard chimed in. "A little bit of Penguin, a little bit of Black Mask, a little bit of pretty much everything. All of those weapons coming in on the pipeline, from Metropolis either that we managed to get."

"What I want to know is why are we keeping them?" the third guard asked. "Why shouldn't we just take these god damn weapons and destroy them?"

The other guards just had puzzled expressions on their faces. The guard closest to the door tried not to keel over at the horrific and quiet noxious smells coming from the alleyway. There were very few homeless people in this particular part of Gotham, that was how bad it was.

And unfortunately, based off of everything he heard, Bludhaven was just a tiny bit worse, if the guard could believe that. His turning stomach showed that there were some really pressing issues going on here.

"Yeah, I learned at this point not to ask too many questions. Just be thankful you're in a place where there's really no gang war going on."

The first two guards nodded in response. They thanked themselves for that every single day they were on this particular job. Even if the décor was not really the best, at least they did not have to deal with the dangers that a lot of the other offers in Gotham City came here.

"Everything's just peachy here," the oldest guard said.

He lit one of those cigars and took a long drag from it. Normally the smell of the cigar smoke would have been enough to knock the other guards over. Given the circumstances here, not that bad.

"Thinking about setting up a retirement home here?"

"Oh yeah, nice place to settle down, if the grandkids even bother to visit," the oldest guard said with a smile. "But, everything should be fine. Even though we're out in the middle of bug-fuck nowhere, in the worst part of Gotham, the security is locked up tight."

"Tight?" one of the guards asked.

"Yeah, pretty damn tight," the oldest guard confirmed. "So tight, it would be easier to get inside my ex-wife than it would be to get inside of this place. Trust me, everything will be fine."

"If you say so," the first guard said. "Who did you say took care of the security for this place, anyway?"

A loud gunshot echoed in the background, the sound of screeching tires, and people cursing at each other. All in another part of Gotham City, thankfully, which was something all of them had been pleased about this entire time.

"Dent did it," he said.

"Man, it really sucks what happened to him," the younger guard said.

"If you ask me, it was a set up," the oldest guard said. "I bet you anything a couple of the members of the GCPD gave Maroni that bottle, hoping he would lash out. Hoping he would burn Dent…that's what they do to people who get too cute when they try to fix the system."

The two younger guards looked at each other in awe at the older guard. Half of the time they did not know whether or not he was talking bullshit, but it was some pretty interesting bullshit never the less, no matter what way you sliced it. They all listened, very intrigued to what the man would have to say to them.

"There's a secret society who is controls everything in Gotham City," the oldest guard said. "If you don't play ball with them, they can make bad things happen. People have disappeared, and never been found again."

The two guards looked nervous. Given this was Gotham, the home of the strange, they were not too surprised about it in any way whatsoever.

"So, Dent arranged for the security around this place?"

"Yes," the oldest guard confirmed. "Every two weeks, weapons are taken out, and I assume they are destroyed. I've never seen it, but you never know with this city."

This conversation stopped when the sound of an alarm from the back entrance of the building blared over the room. The guards stepped into the room and men dressed in black ski-masks entered the room. The guard nearest to the door had been grabbed from behind and had a knife pressed to his throat.

"Open the damn vault!" the thug yelled at the top of his lungs. "I'm serious, you better open that damn vault!"

The oldest guard shook his hand and pressed a hand to his vault. The vault opened to reveal several crates on. The leader of this gang of thugs pressed the knife against the throat of the younger guard he grabbed. One wrong move and it would end up cutting into his throat.

"Get the damn crates into that truck out back."

"Fine," the oldest guard said. "Is this what you want?"

The two other guards walked over to load the guns into the van. They knew it would be about ten minutes before the GCPD had been.

"Not as many as we thought," the thug said. "But enough to do some serious damage…oh and Two-Face sends his regards, by the way."

The young thug muttered "Two-Face" and responded by shaking his head in response. The guard's knife worked around the man's neck, while he pointed to the vault.

"Get inside, now."

The two guards made their way inside of the vault. The rest of the goons reached for the door and slammed it shut to lock them inside of the vault.

Finally, the knife released from the man's neck. He dropped down to the ground, the breath drawing from his lungs.

"Looks like you have a choice to make. Save your buddies, or go after us…let's go boys, it's what the boss told us."

The young guard rose up, hearing the doors shut, and the truck speed off back into Gotham City. He worked the lock of the vault open. The doors swung open and caused the guards to be relieved.

Less relief happened when the guns were brought back into the general population of Gotham City.

* * *

Kara sat on the floor next to Lois, helping her go to the story for journalism club she was writing about the big Football match, American Football, happening this weekend. It was not the most exciting thing in the world, unless you knew the heat between the two schools and understood why this was a big deal.

Lois nervously waited for the critique. Kara marked on the paper with a red pen.

"So, it's pretty bad?"

"Just a couple of errors, nothing too major," Kara said. "Oh, and writing the name of the star player on the opposite team is a pretty big one. And there were a couple of times you repeat yourself."

"Yes, that's a problem sometimes," Lois said. "I'm just…this is the first thing that I've written. And sometimes, the pieces from the club get published by the school newspaper. Even though I heard the person running it is pretty picky….still I feel pretty good. Maybe there's something to this journalism thing."

Kara just smiled in response and put a hand on Kara's shoulder.

"It's a pretty nice feeling, isn't it?" Kara asked. "Going out and digging deep for a story. Even if the story is nothing more exciting than the latest match between two long time sport's rivals."

"Yeah, it's pretty cool," Lois said. "I just hope that this passes muster. Maybe I could get something in the paper."

"Don't get frustrated if you fall on your face once or twice," Kara said. "Or a dozen times."

Lois just looked at Kara for a minute. A small smile came across the face of the younger girl when she locked eyes upon Kara.

"Why do I get the impression that you're speaking from experience?" Lois asked.

Kara just gave Lois a soft smile in response. "Because, I am…seriously, you just got to keep writing, and keep trying to find your voice. That was one of the things my journalism teacher taught me…and if there was ever a teacher who was a tyrant, it was her."

"Really?" Lois asked. "That bad?"

Laughter came from Kara when she smiled. "Yes, that bad. Although she was pretty good at what she did, so you can't really say anything against her. I think though that print media isn't for me, and television is where it's at, at least until something comes along to replace television."

She would have to admit that getting rode hard by her journalism teacher and not in the good way, made Kara work hard enough to get the internship with Vicki. Granted, Harry put in the good word for her, but still, Kara thought that some of what she did made her keep working with Vicki after all of this time.

"Is that an article by Catherine Grant?"

Said article slipped out Lois's line of sight. She noticed Harry's name in the headline and wanted to look a bit closer at it. Kara put the article away and looked at Lois with a stern look.

"You're too young to read that, especially in this magazine," Kara said. She took a quick look at the article through her bag with her X-Ray vision and pulled away. "I'm not sure if it's even appropriate to over-eighteens to read."

"You have to admit, Catherine Grant is an inspiration in a lot of ways," Lois said. "She went from the gutter to fetching coffee from Perry White to being a reporter in her own right to owning one of the biggest media companies on the rest coast."

Kara was quite familiar with the biography of Catherine Grant, although she hoped Lois did not read the official biography. There were some pretty tawdry details.

"Don't say anything to Vicki about Catherine," Kara said.

Lois raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"They have a bit of a professional rivalry," Kara said. "Even though Vicki will swear up and down that Cat's brand of journalism is closer to Summer Gleeson's than hers."

"Noted," Lois said. "Maybe I should write her a letter…we're supposed to talk to a famous journalist as part of our club, and half of them are writing to Vicki, so I'm pretty sure she's swapped."

The teenager frowned and had a couple ideas in her mind what to do. She thought about J. Jonah Jameson or Perry White, two men who seemed to be in journalism since longer than Lois could care to think about. For some reason, she thought she would get more out of Cat.

"Are you coming?"

Jade watched at the door and Lois nodded. She turned to Kara.

"Some of the girls are going to the mall," Lois said. "The twins are going with us, and I swear, we're not going to run off to Metropolis on a trip of vengeance this time."

Kara smiled and waved Lois off. She turned her attention to the article, where Catherine Grant talked about how Harry Potter was the greatest lover in the world. Granted, these type of accounts were very common to the point where Kara could set her watch by them.

' _Wonder if Harry and Cat ever crossed paths while Harry was on the West Coast,'_ Kara thought. _'Suspect I can ask him when he gets back.'_

* * *

Harry and his team made it. Somehow, they made it to a certain point. The fog grew thicker the closer they got to their position. Harry most certainly figured something was going to happen.

' _It's just getting stronger from here,'_ Lara thought. _'Even with the mental shields, I can feel it happening.'_

Carol's Green Lantern ring started to sizzle out the second she walked closer into the mist. Every inch of her body had been on alert. She could hear the whispers, the disgusted whispers, coming from. The greed was almost intoxicating, but Carol focused on what was important. Her family, Kara, Alex, her mother, they were the most important things to her right now.

The Star Sapphire hated how much the power of greed interfered with the power of love. A more cynical person would say that these days, greed and love went hand and hand. Carol disagreed to be perfectly honest.

"We're getting close."

Harry's muttered declaration had been interrupted by the screams of several people. Several AIM drones ran in the other direction from where they needed to be. The moved down the path with one of them collapsing. The expression of very crippling and very intense fear spread over his face. He could barely stand and could barley breath. The AIM drone took in a deep breath, ragged as it might have been.

The hideous scream coming from the background caused the entire team to be on the highest alert possible. Harry could already feel something building off in the distance. Those screams only got more intense, and more needy the closer that Harry walked down the pathway.

"I will be free!" the garbling voice of Larfleeze howled in the distance. "No one will stop me taking everything. They will be mine! They will be mine! Everything will be mine! They can't have it! THEY WON'T HAVE IT! I WILL TAKE EVERYTHING! IT WILL BE MINE! MINE!"

A couple more AIM soldiers moved down the path. One of them did not make it when he had been smashed about by the attack of this particular monster.

' _We better go and take down Gollum before he breaks out,'_ Carol thought. _'Even though my green energy ring is not going to do us much good because it's power is dampening for some reason the further we get in.'_

' _You recharged it?'_ Harry asked.

' _Every day and after a big mission, so this really shouldn't be happening,'_ Carol thought.

The problems would continue from there the closer they got. The loud screams continued to echo, and Harry, Lara, and both Carols stepped into the picture through the glowing mist. The mist caused shivers to roll down the back of Harry's neck and he doubted very much things would improve from here on out the further he stepped in.

' _It's a damn good thing we can adapt in situations like this,'_ Carol thought. _'Sinestra warned us….'_

That particular thought process had to be interrupted. The piles or riches strewn across the ground caught them off guard. Larfleeze was obviously an avid collector, some would say a hoarder. There was a fair amount of useless junk scattered along the piles and piles of riches laying on the ground.

"NO ONE WILL TAKE MY PRECIOUS! IT'S MINE! MINE! DO YOU HEAR ME?"

A large glowing orange dragon rose up from the edge. The lifeform's eyes locked onto the AIM agents who fired at it. Their attacks were very ineffective and only serving to enrage the creature.

Harry spotted a crate of glowing yellow power cells in the distance. Everything slowly came to life. He knew precisely why AIM was here, and why Hammond was here.

The entity swept through, and the crate rattled. The energy from the power cells seeped into the glowing orange dragon guardian.

' _What happens when orange and yellow energy mixes?'_ Harry asked Carol.

The Green Lantern feared that it could be nothing good. Sure enough, the creature turned into a brilliant shade which stopped Larfleeze from doing anything. The creature tried to control his beast. The master of greed had been surprised when his own guardian dragon had been knocked out of his control and swooped down into the piles upon piles of riches. The creature came down and started to consume every bit of gold its greedy little jaws could get its mouth on. The hideous growl escalated when the creature swooped into the piles of gold and took control of everything that it wanted.

"NO!"

Larfleeze clutched his orange energy battery. The parasitic creature consuming all of his riches was among his worst fears coming completely to life. The AIM soldiers howled in absolute agony when one of them had been consumed.

Harry and his crew turned up, with MODOK and his backing off. MODOK turned face to face with the Dragon.

"I suggest a truce, for the moment," MODOK said. "It's the most logical scenario."

After all, it would take a dragon to slay a dragon.

* * *

**To Be Continued on September 30** **th** **, 2017.**


	340. Matters of the Mind Part Three

**Chapter Three Hundred and Forty: Matters of Mind Part Three**

* * *

The creature gave a hideous growl and rose up to a fuller height. Everything it touched, it consumed, and it wanted to touch everything. He considered MODOK's offer, and nodded.

' _You're really taking him up on his offer?'_ Lara asked. _'I know you can be oddly pragmatic at times, but do you really think you can trust him?'_

' _Do I think I can trust him?'_ Harry thought. _'No, not really, but given the circumstances, we're going to have to play ball with him, at least for now.'_

The creature grew in mass, with the orange energy surrounding his body. The creature gave a loud howl as MODOK locked onto the creature's "mind" and bombarded it. The creature gained some level of sentience.

"It's…the combined force of all of the Orange Lanterns who ever held this battery," MODOK yelled. "If you get to the battery, and find a way to shut it down….we might…have a chance to get something done."

Sweat rolled down MODOK's face the second he had been bombarded by a never ending assault on his mind. Screams continued to echo the more he had been attacked. It was nearly difficult to keep his head above the water and a constant struggle.

The Star Sapphire screamed when dropping down to the ground. The overwhelming combination of greed and fear was an awful thing. Her Green Lantern companion grabbed her around the arm and tried to pull her to her feet. Carol summoned a fair amount of will power inside of her.

One large green fist came out of the ring. The fist faded into nothing, just sparks of light before it connected with the enemy to take him out. Carol felt completely and totally drained the very moment this happened.

Harry jumped in to the battle and moved to the creature. The creature swatted him away for a second. Harry super charged the knuckles on suit, but the creature sent the ground flying. Harry really had no way to answer the attack. Out of the corner of his eye MODOK kept flying over than the ground.

Hammond stepped back in an attempt to escape from the door. Only, there was nothing, nothing other than a blocked door to prevent him from leaving. The large headed man turned his attention towards the monster. He lifted one hand and tried to project a mental bolt.

"No, it's too much," Hammond said. "It's too much. It's going to rip me apart!"

He gave a pained howl with the creature forcing himself into Hammond's mind and taking his mind apart piece by piece. Hammond struggled to break free and just barely did.

Larfleeze kept rocking back and forth, dragging his nails against the ground. He saw his orange power battery floating out of the distance. Some of his treasures had been absorbed and he gave an anguished scream when charging to the orange battery.

"No, no, no!" Larfleeze yelled at the top of his lungs. "NOT, MY PRECIOUS!"

MODOK returned to back up Hammond on the attack. The creature's mind became a completely maelstrom of chaost and threatened to overwhelm them.

' _Carol, do you think you can attack him?'_ Harry asked. _'Both of you.'_

Carol Danvers and Carol Ferris both nodded and locked hands with each other. They drew in a very deep breath and charged themselves with energy. It took the combined force of them to throw a combined green and pink bolt. A very strong and powerful love combined to take the creature out.

The creature howled in agony when its entire worldview had been threatened.

' _Harry, over here!'_

Lara dove through the flying debris. She came inches away from the power battery. Larfleeze rushed towards her and blocked Lara from grabbing the battery. The two of them struggled against each other.

"I'm trying to help you!" Lara yelled.

"No, it's mine, and you can't touch it!" Larfleeze yelled.

He resembled a toddler who had someone else wanting to play with his favorite toy. The scream coming from Larfleeze echoed as no one would get his hands on his precious.

Harry rushed in and picked up said power cell. The moment Harry touched the orange power battery, the entire universe could be in the palm of his hands and at the tips of his fingers. The desire to have it all tempted Harry severely.

* * *

Janice Porter walked with a purpose, arms swinging back and forth. She moved into the high security wing in the Arkham Wing of Blackgate prison. All of the guards, as usual, they had been on guard even more so than usual. Once the Asylum had been rebuilt, some of these prisoners would be moved. They would be rehabilitated and returned to society having paid their debts.

After having been put into the position of District Attorney, Janice appreciated the hard work Harvey Dent put in. He was truly a remarkable man to deal with all of the challenges possible. It was just a pity everything had to crash down like this.

' _I'm not going to fall, not like him,'_ Janice thought. _'I'm doing this for him, I'm doing this for Harvey Dent. I believe in what he was trying to do to make a better Gotham. And it's time to finish his work and shut this down.'_

Janice showed her city identification card to a very disinterested looking guard who sat at the front desk. He nodded and motioned for Janice to make her way inside to walk up towards the front desk. She moved past another checkpoint. The man sitting at the desk checked the list.

"Yes, Ms. Porter," the man droned on in a droll monotone. "You are here to see Salvatore Maroni….well, you have thirty minutes to talk to him."

Janice nodded, all of the new protocols meant that she could not carry her cell phone or purse, or really anything into the prisoner area, into the Arkham Wing. The only thing she was allowed would be a pad of paper and a pen, which took some wrangling to get inside of here. Hill reluctantly signed off on the permission, when Janice convinced him it would look good on his record.

Regardless, Janice did not concern herself with the politics in Gotham City. She concerned herself with getting things done and the business of doing something.

"So, it's you again," Maroni said from the other side of his cell.

Prison life did not do Maroni any good. He looked like an unmade bed.

"You look terrible," Janice said. "But, I'm here to offer you a deal."

"I might be listening, but you really know how to flatter a guy," Maroni said. "So, how's Dent these days? I hear he's looking about halfway decent."

Janice heard the rumors as well, but kept them firmly planted in the back of her mind. Maroni bated her, and she would not allow him to do so, not if she could help it.

"You know about all of the pipelines leading in from Metropolis," Janice said.

"Well, wouldn't you like to know?" Maroni asked.

"Zucco claimed you knew about them."

The name of that rat caused Maroni's expression to darken several shades. He took in a deep breath.

"Of course that rat did," Maroni said. "Well, without my lawyer, I'm not telling you nothing, not that I don't know nothing about nothing."

Maroni took a few seconds to consider something.

"Oh, and advice, last person who helped Dent ended up dead," Maroni said. "Guy's a jinx."

A loud explosion prevented Janice from having any kind of retort. Several men dressed in masks and wearing body armor similar to the Gotham City SWAT team entered the area. One of them swiped a key card through the lock and clicked the door open.

"What the hell is going on?" Maroni demanded.

"Come with us," one of them said.

Maroni did not have any choice, due to the fact that guns were on his back and a bag had been shoved over his head. One of the goons kept a gun on Porter.

"GET AGAINST THE WALL! AND DON'T MOVE UNTIL I TELL YOU!"

* * *

It took some searching, but Harry found what he was looking for. It was just getting there was the problem. The creature gave a howl and jumped towards Harry. The AIM agents kept firing at it, but the attacks were not done. MODOK and Hammond performed a duel mental assault on the creature.

"No, no, no, no!" Hammond yelled at the top of his lungs.

The creature fed off of the fears and insecurities of Hammond. The Green Lantern created a cage to contain the creature. Of course, the cage only held for a short amount of time. It started to burn out with the creature thrashing around in the cage.

' _I don't mean to be a bother,'_ Carol thought. _'But, none of us can hold this so too long, so if you have a plan, it might be soon.'_

Harry snapped out of it. The orange power battery showed him the truth. He reached inside and grabbed onto the energy. The temptation to take this entire world and put it underneath his heal was strong, but no, that would be too easy. Despite the fact that Harry could take it just like that.

' _Just have to focus the energy,'_ Harry thought to himself. _'Grab onto enough power to blast the creature back. You've got this one. You have this one Harry. You just have to focus, and get this done!'_

The energy erupted through Harry's fingertips when he drew it out. The creature charged Harry, but Harry knocked him back with a glowing punch to the face. Harry once punched a dragon in the face in another lifetime, but this was difference.

Another punch reared back and smacked the glowing orange dragon directly in the face. It responded with a thunderous growl before going after Harry. Harry dodged the attack in a blink of an eye with the dragon going after him. The growling continued with the creature baring its fangs to drop down onto Harry. He dodged the attack one more time with the dragon rising himself up off of the ground.

"Come on!"

Harry smashed his hand into the dragon one more time. The glowing orange knuckles super charged the beast and caused the yellow energy to retreat back into the cells. The box sizzled and burned out with Harry smacking his hand into the dragon directly with a huge punch. Harry reared back and nailed him with a third punch.

This punch was the thing that knocked the dragon completely down. It blew apart into countless particles of energy which dropped onto the ground. Harry pulled back from the dragon to catch his breath, while shaking his head.

' _Well, that wasn't easy,'_ Harry thought to himself.

Carol could feel the Green Lantern energy coming back to her. The block faded and allowed her to take a deep breath.

"Now!" MODOK yelled.

MODOK, Hammond, and the remaining AIM agents made their way to the front door. Harry watched them go, figuring about as much. He motioned for Lara, Carol, and Carol to follow him, only to be stopped by a rising Larfleeze who looked much larger than before.

"You aren't leaving with anything that belongs to me," Larfleeze said with a very crooked smile at his people. "And now, you all belong to me!"

Harry slipped a diamond out of his pocket and threw it at Larfleeze. Larfleeze caught it in his hand and looked at it, momentarily distracted by the shininess of it.

By the time he snapped out of his greedy daze, Harry, Carol, Carol, and Lara escaped the gateway. Harry grabbed onto it and sealed it completely shut before Larfleeze came to his senses.

AIM backed back forward, when they stood up at the business end of several powerful weapons from some government agents. Daisy led the charge.

MODOK tried to attack them, but found his mind did not work, and neither did Hammond's. They collapsed down to the ground to allow the government agents to swoop in.

' _So, that's sealed?'_ Carol asked.

Harry acknowledged the Green Lantern with a smirk. _'Yes, Larfleeze is trapped with his precious forever._

As for AIM, well they were being rounded up. Daisy caught Harry's eye and both of them exchange da smile with each other.

* * *

Salvatore Maroni had no idea what he was going up again. Something told him, despite all common sense and logic, he would have been more grateful to be stuck in prison than where the mob boss had been put here. These gang members surrounded him in a circle. Two of them held guns on the side of his neck and one of them held a gun on the back of the mobster's neck.

Maroni would not be moving. He got a good enough look at the warehouse. No idea where he had been brought, given the fact that he was knocked completely unconscious the moment they brought him here. Still, Dent was here, and he wondered what would happen next. The paint of the warehouse peeled off of the walls. The windows were cracked, and dust rose off of the floor in the most visible way.

"You just sit tight and the boss will have a word with you for a minute."

Maroni wondered what the hell was going on here. He was pretty sure that he would like none of it to be perfectly honest. Maroni's eyes flashed forward when the door opened up. Several more gang members entered the room and they parted like the red sea.

The Gotham City mob boss looked forward just in time to see the one and only Harvey Dent step into the room. Half of Dent's face burned, half of his suit discolored. He looked at Maroni with one dead eye and one blinking eye. Maroni looked at the man he disfigured.

"Dent, you son of a bitch!"

Dent slapped Maroni hard across the face and caused the Gotham City mob boss to recoil in pain. The slap brought Maroni back to his senses and made the mob boss slowly realize something. He was not in a court of law, and therefore Dent was not bound by any rules of conduct.

' _Son of a bitch,'_ Maroni thought to himself.

"Maroni, it's been a long time," Dent said. "Some would say it hasn't been long enough."

The snappy retort coming from Maroni's mouth had been stopped. This was a man who by all rights should be dead. Maroni hurled the vial of acid at the man's face and he should have killed Dent. He should be dead, but for some reason, for some reason, he was not dead. He stood in front of him with that ugly half-face.

"I've bene doing a lot of thinking," Dent said. "I thought I could eliminate gang warfare in Gotham City. But, you know something, I thought the best way to eliminate gang warfare and violent was to eliminate the heads."

Dent held up three gnarled fingers and put his finger on Maroni's face.

"Falcone, Cobblepot, Sionis, Thorne, yourself, they are all just symptoms to the overall disease," Dent said. "A divided Gotham City is a dangerous Gotham City. And I plan to do something about this division. I plan to do something about that. Would you like to know what, Maroni?"

Maroni could not help, but make a snappy retort.

"It's not like you're not going to tell me anyway, Dent," Maroni grumbled.

Dent just responded with a crooked smile. The coin flipped into the air and landed. Dent flipped the coin over and allowed it to land on top of his hand. Dent looked over at Maroni with a smile.

"I'm going to unify the gangs," Dent said. "I'm going to take control of this city."

"Unify all of Gotham?" Maroni asked. "Not even Falcone can do that…not even Thorne could do that….and Sionis and Cobblepot would never go for it."

Dent just responded with a crooked smile. There was something about that demeanor that Maroni did not like and it caused chills to blow down his spine.

"It's the only way to end the problems in Gotham City, bring everything together under one leader," Dent said.

Maroni knew the plan was completely insane. Since Dent had been driven mad beyond all comprehension, he knew better than to say anything. It was going to be a rough haul for him.

* * *

The mission had gone mostly according to plan. Harry and Daisy made their way outside of the government facility. Several highly trained government agents made sure their prisoners were completely locked and ready to go on the ship. MODOK and Hammond had been the two most high-profile of the prisoners they needed.

"We have a containment cell with their names on it," Daisy said. "Two more threats to the world off of the streets, I really can't believe it."

"Believe it," Harry said. "So, you remember what I asked of you a while back…."

Daisy pushed a finger up to his lips. The wind blew through her hair as she locked her eyes on Harry for a couple of minutes. She just enjoyed the moments spent with him before she nodded.

"Yes, I remember," Daisy said. "You know how hard it is to get anything done these days at the highest levels. There's a lot of red-tape and a lot of paperwork to get through. But….it does help when the person in question really wants to meet you for a variety of reasons."

Harry gave her a knowing smile. She had been playing some interesting games to get his attention if she really wanted to meet him.

"Indeed," Harry replied a little moment. "Well, I'm looking forward to meeting her….you said she didn't really give you any clues of what she wants with me."

Now, Daisy responded with a shrug. To be perfectly honest, while Daisy had some ideas what her boss wanted with Harry, there was still a bit of mystery. Her boss and her boss's boss managed to consolidate a lot of the various government agencies, or at least get them communicating better than with each other. There were still a couple of outliers which did not work directly. The DEO still had their secrets, and the EPF worked to their own drum.

"No, not really," Daisy admitted. "We're just going to have to ask her, and hope she gives answers. If there's one man who can get answers out of someone who is stubborn, it's you."

Daisy leaned back for a second and decided to offer Harry a smile.

"I still can't believe Alex was a secret agent for the DEO," Daisy said. "It goes to show you, when you think you know a person, they pull something like this out. It's really insane to think about, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, it is," Harry said. "One could say the same thing about you. No one knew you were a double-secret agent…and you spend half of your time babysitting a world famous pop star."

"Who is now a target of some madman who has been around since Victorian times," Daisy said. "Regardless, I've hired a trusted staff to keep an eye on her, when I'm not around. And I'm sure you have your own people who are keeping an eye on her, and the others, after what you learned."

"Maybe," Harry replied. "Still there are a couple of targets….I want to know what Essex wants with some six year old girl living on a farm in Russia though."

Daisy did not have any clue. They were going to find out, because it was their jobs to find these types of things out, for better or for worse. Daisy nibbled down nervously on her lips.

The two moved through the doors into the next checkpoint. Daisy had been scanned, both her ID card and the retina of her eye. The guards also allowed Harry inside.

' _Should I be concerned they already have my DNA on file?'_ Harry asked.

' _It's the government,'_ Daisy thought. _'They have everyone's DNA on file.'_

Daisy and Harry stepped into the picture to keep walking inside. They saw a woman at the front desk with short shoulder length hair who looked at Harry. She had been taken aback from him, but recovered correctly. She checked something on the computer to avoid looking at him. Then, the woman looked up with a bright smile crossing her face.

"The Assistant Director will see you now, sir."

"Thank you," Harry said.

The woman smiled and allowed Daisy and Harry to step in through those doors. The two stopped at the sight of a Chinese woman walking down the steps. She looked very nice wearing the standard issue tight bodysuit that this government organization offered. She was talking to a younger agent.

"Don't let it happen again," she said. "When you're out on the field, you can't just run in there for a moment of glory. You need to back up your partner when you're on the field."

' _Oh boy,'_ Daisy thought. _'I'm glad I don't have that job. Or I'm in basic training anymore because that quite frankly sucked.'_

' _You came out a better person, though,'_ Harry said.

Daisy could not dispute she came out a better person. Just like she could not dispute that training at this academy was tough. Necessary, but tough, as you had to weed out the people.

"Good afternoon, May," Daisy said to the woman who was talking to the new recruit.

"Agent Johnson," she said. "And you must be…"

"Harry Potter, at your service," Harry said.

For a brief moment, the stoic demeanor on May's face broke. She reached in and shook Harry's hand, while giving him the once over. She returned to look into his eyes.

"Melinda May," she said.

"Yes, I've heard about you," Harry said. "You're one of the top field agents, and taught Daisy everything that she knows…and I must say it reflects well on her."

"It wasn't easy, but it never is to make someone well rounded," May said. "It's a pleasure meeting you, Doctor Potter."

She excused herself for a minute. Daisy could have sworn she saw something very unfamiliar pass across May's face when she walked off.

' _You don't want to know how unsettling it is to see her smile,'_ Daisy thought. _'She hasn't smiled since…the incident…which isn't my place to talk about.'_

Harry figured as much. Something happened, at least according to the rumors he heard.

' _Still strange to see her undress you with her eyes,'_ Daisy thought. _'Guess it shows that she's actually human after all and not some May-Bot who has been programmed to serve this agency.'_

Both of them crossed into the final doorway, an elevator leading up the bosses office.

' _She'll be pleased, we got some of AIM,'_ Daisy thought. _'Of course, with people like Killian at large, you can't count them out.'_

* * *

Larfleeze collapsed down onto the ground. Those monsters finally left and left him alone with his treasure. The thing that consumed his treasure coughed it all up. Finally, finally, he was alone with everything. He was alone with his precious as well.

The glowing orange battery shined light into his ugly face. Larfleeze rocked back and forth, with a big smile crossing his face. Alone, alone at last, finally, completely, and utterly alone, and yet, he felt the loss despite still having everything that he ever did at another time.

"I have to have it!"" Larfleeze howled at the top of his lungs. "More, I must have more! I must have everything! I must….I MUST HAVE IT ALL!"

Larfleeze stepped back a couple of inches and looked over everything. His eyes fell onto the exit point which now had been sealed. He almost walked over to check to see if it was really sealed beyond all belief. But, by leaving his treasure, would leave it unguarded.

The greedy individual swept over the box of the ominious yellow cells which had been left behind. Most of them burned out, but some of them looked to be still intact. Why did they want these things? Someone threw it out as debris, and Larfleeze grabbed it to have. Now he had it, no one else would have it.

' _One person's trash is my treasure,'_ Larfleeze said. _'It's mine now….MINE!'_

Larfleeze laughed rocking back and forth. Suddenly, the wind around him stopped and a footstep came over the distance. The creature tensed up for a second when looking out into the distance. Something was here, something else to steal his precious.

"Come out," Larfleeze come out. "Come out and face me. I know you're there. Come out!"

The figure stopped in the shadows. Whoever it was, she had a similar yellow light to the power cells lying in the box on the ground. The figure moved in the distance and Larfleeze locked his eyes on a glowing knife moving in the shadows.

"You have something that is mine."

Those words triggered Larfleeze. He rose up to his standing position and practically spit white hot fire when looking off in the distance. His breathing increased when looking at the person moving in the shadows.

"NO, IT'S ALL MINE!"

The shriek echoed for miles around when the crazy Orange Lantern threw his head back, forth, and all around. His breathing intensified with each moment that passed. The figure in the distance looked at Larfleeze with thinly veiled amusement before stepping forward to face her target.

The pink-skinned woman had dark hair which looked slightly unruly. She dressed in a yellow version of the standard Green Lantern universe, but a Green Lantern ring dangled from her neck in a neckless. She fashioned a second ring, which had been powered by yellow energy. Those eyes glowed yellow.

"No, no, no," Larfleeze said.

The creature tired to steady himself from what he saw. He could not believe the figure approaching him with eyes flashing in the distance. Larfleeze came close to losing all sense of himself before he busted out with one warbling word.

"YOU!"

Sinestra gave her target a smile when stepping out of the shadows. Her yellow ring started to flash and an axe glowing completely in yellow comes to the ground. It chops down onto the ground which caused Larfleeze to jump back in thinly disguised terror. He whimpered when looking at the sadistic woman standing across from him. Her face showed no compassion.

"I can show you a world which you fear."

"No," he whispered.

Images flashed in Larfleeze's mind at him floating in the vortex of space. The yellow energy bombarded his mind with several thoughts. Thoughts of a world where he kept floating out in space, surrounded by absolutely nothing. All of his treasure just disappeared in a blink of an eye.

He started to scream out loud. Sinestra stepped in and picked up the yellow box. She turned towards the figures standing in the shadows.

"We have what we need. Let's move."

Larfleeze continued to scream in never ending agony with thoughts of having absolutely nothing bombarding inside of the back of his head. By the time he recovered, the box was gone, so was Sinestra and her followers, and Larfleeze ended up whimpering around the ground.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 4** **th** **, 2017.**


	341. Hospitality

**Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-One: Hospitality**

* * *

The latest adventure with Harry left Lara Croft with a smile on her face. She hoped to stick around Gotham a little bit more, but she had business. There were a few very important people backing her and she hoped to check in with them. She arrived at the very historic Gotham City historical museum. The case underneath her arm made for a very slow travel, but Lara did manage it with several steps when reaching the front door of the museum.

The door opened up and a tall raven-haired woman dressed in a blue blouse, a black coat, and a skirt, along with sheer stockings turned up. She had her hair pinned back and wore a pair of glasses. The attire was somewhat conservative, but Lara still found it very hard not to be drawn in by the radiant beauty of the woman on the other side.

"Princess," Lara stated with a smile etched on her face.

"Lady Croft," Diana said.

Lara and Diana exchanged pleasantries outside of the museum. Diana took extra notice of the large crate that Diana was carrying. She reached over and helped Lara haul it into the museum.

"You should have called one of us to help you," Diana said.

Lara and Diana walked the crate past the front lobby of the museum. Hardly anyone turned up today, this being one of the slowest museum days of the year for some reason. Then again, Tuesdays never was a good day for museums to be opened.

"Blame that on my stubborn pride," Lara said. "I know from what Harry mentioned that you acquired some of it, and well you're going to get some more of it."

One of the women who helped uncover these ancient artifacts stood. The redheaded woman dressed in the same attire which Lara wore many times when going deep into the tombs stood in front of her. She looked like she just came back from the trip.

"Lady Croft," she said.

"Doctor Hall," Lara said. "I see I'm not the only who has just recently returned from their expedition."

Shayera looked on with her shoulders slumping. "Yes, unfortunately, I wasn't a success in finding what I needed to find. It looks like that you haven't come back empty handed."

An extra set of hands maneuvering the case where it needed to be was to get in into place. Shayera had been more than ready to take the case, break it open, and see what it was inside. Still, she was mindful and patient, and knew that an artifact like this would have to be handled with the utmost of care.

The three women set the case containing the artifact down on the ground. It was a bit more of a haul than they thought it was. Lara and Shayera wiped the swat off of their brow.

"So, where's Doctor Sandsmark?" Lara asked.

"She's talking with a client on the phone," Diana said. "She will meet with you as soon as she…which is right now apparently."

Helena Sandsmark stepped down the stairs. She had looked to be a bit frustrated by something.

"Lady Croft," Helena Sandsmark said. "It's been too long."

"I feel like I say that a lot," Lara said. "So, how have you been doing?"

"It's been a long summer," Helena said. "But, I really hope that the autumn season is going to a very successful one."

Helena's eyes fell onto the crate laying in the middle of the floor. She smiled and looked on with excitement. She could hardly believe Lara hauled that item all the way here.

"And here I thought we got them all," Helena said.

Lara tapped lightly on the case, careful not to disturb the priceless artifact inside. "No, they were more spread out than you thought they were."

Helena could see the point of the Tomb Raider and smiled. She could not wait to see what was inside of the case. Finding these artifacts was much like opening a gift on Christmas morning. She opened up the crate and saw a very well preserved piece of armor.

"Hera," Diana murmured underneath her breath.

"It's very impressive how well preserved this is," Lara said. "It's thousands of years old. But at the same time, it looks practically pristine."

"Yes," Shayera confirmed. "That's because of the magical properties of the armor."

She put a hand on the armor and could feel something familiar about it. The armor held something in it, something which triggered memories from Shayera's past life.

"Do you think I can talk to you about this armor?" Shayera asked a second later.

"Sure," Lara said. "What do you want to know about it?"

"Just about the outlay of the temple, and anything you remember," Shayera said.

The two women walked off to discuss the armor. This left Helena and Diana alone. Diana turned to her colleague, friend, and surrogate sister.

"Cassie's training is starting off well," Diana said.

Cassandra Sandsmark took a deep breath. Nervousness pretty much described the emotions going through the body of the girl at this moment. However, she resolved not to be too particularly nervous. She looked across from Lyta who gave her an encouraging smile.

"Don't be afraid," Lyta said. "You're just starting out. You can't expect to be a warrior over night."

"Yeah, I know," Cassie said. "I want to be able to defend herself."

While she could not consciously remember a lot of the incident where she had been kidnapped, unconsciously, it was another matter entirely. That guy was a creepy completely, one hundred percent of the way. Cassie stepped around and moved towards Lyta.

The two women locked up and tusseled with each other. Lyta appreciated how strong Cassie was. Cassie pushed her back a couple of steps. Lyta smiled and went for a punch. Cassie evaded the punch and blocked another punch. Another light punch tapped her on the shoulder. Nothing to hurt, but more than enough to snap her off guard.

Both of them moved in the center of the ring to each other one more time. Cassie tried to attack Lyta with a punch. Lyta held her hand out to block Cassie's arm. There was any number of things Lyta could do to disable Cassie.

"You telegraph your attacks way too soon," Lyta said. "It's a common mistaken. One I've made way too much. It will end up with you on the ground and your opponent standing over you."

Cassie pulled away from her. The pre-teen girl prepared to try and take the legs out from underneath Lyta. Lyta avoided having her legs swept out from underneath her by leaping over the sweeping attack. Lyta stuck the landing very perfectly and very carefully behind Cassie.

"You're just showing off," Cassie said.

"Try again," Lyta said, avoiding answering the declaration from the younger girl.

Cassie moved to the center of the work and tried to do something. She faked a punch with her right arm to try and catch Lyta off guard. She came back around with another solid punch with her left arm. Once again, Lyta blocked the punch and held her into place.

"Not a bad attempt to fake me out," Lyta said. "You should have tried for a double-fake out though because I saw that one coming a mile away."

Cassie took a moment and slumped her shoulders. It was hard to not grit her teeth and throw her hands back in frustration. Lyta really was perfect in every way and amazing in many other ways. She was able to pick apart the flaws in any attack.

"A well trained enemy will be able to see what you're doing," Lyta said. "The exact moment they start sensing your frustration, they will pounce on it. You will not and should not be frustrated. It just leads to your enemy getting the better of you."

Lyta smiled and motioned for Cassie to go in again for an attack. This time, Cassie managed to rock Lyta a little bit, before Lyta used her momentum against her and took her down onto the ground. Lyta stepped back to allow Cassie to regain her bearings.

Some of the girls watched from the couch, while others did their homework. Artemis turned to Jade who was watching with a smile on her face.

"Cassie's about having as much success as I did against you," Artemis said.

"Well, you get knocked on your ass enough times, and you'll start to learn," Jade said. "Or you get angry enough to make more mistakes."

Jade learned through constant repetition about how to turn her anger into a weapon which could be used. Still, she knew against a skilled opponent, she had a lot to learn. Dinah or Diana had been doing this for years and years, and they did not necessarily need weapons when their bodies were the weapons.

"Lyta's really good," Ella said. "You have to admit that. Have you ever seen her lose a spar to anyone?"

"Only to Harry," Jessie piped in. "And also, to Diana."

Jade put a hand on Jessie's shoulder. The daughter of the departed and presumed dead Willis Todd met the gaze of the daughter of the wanted and unfortunately alive Lawrence Crock.

"And there's no shame in that."

Off to the side, Rebecca had been looking over a letter that Lois had written. She was really going to do this to be honest. Rebecca almost lost her demeanor in a couple of places.

"It's that bad, isn't it?" Lois asked.

Rebecca came out of her thoughts for a minute. She shook her head.

"No, I wouldn't say your letter is that bad," Rebecca said. "Although, you did misspell a couple of words, inspiration being the one of them .And you could have split up a couple of those paragraphs. You don't want them to linger on too long."

Lois just frowned and nodded. She could see where Rebecca marked the paper with the red pen. She would have to show the letter to Kara or Harry or someone before it had been sent out.

"It does come on a little bit thick in places," Rebecca said. "But you were pretty smart in using Harry's name to grab Cat's attention."

"Yeah, I figured it would work out well," Lois said. "Do you think that she's going to bite though?"

"It might," Rebecca said. "Providing of course Catherine Grant is the kind of person who reads her own letters. And doesn't have a flunkey do it."

That could be the problem, Lois figured. Oh boy, could that ever be the problem, if Cat declined to read her own letters. Still, she had to try.

* * *

The elevator doors opened up with Harry and Daisy making their way down the hall. An attractive looking black woman in her mid to late twenties waited for them. She dressed in a conservative looking female business suit, with a rather bland grey color, with a tiny bit of red on it. She looked at Harry for a few seconds before motioning for him to follow her.

"Agent Johnson, if you could give us a minute."

Daisy looked towards Harry who just smiled. The two parted ways with Harry following the woman down the hallway. They moved past a couple of agents who rushed down the hallway in an attempt to get something accomplished. Harry watched them move past.

"This meeting has been a long time overdue," she said. "My name is Miranda Waller."

Naturally, Harry knew this. The two of them shook hands instantly. It was hard to tell what Miranda was thinking straight away. She had been the type of woman who trained herself not to reveal little things like emotion on her face. She locked eyes with Harry for a very long moment and pulled back with a smile.

"Yes, I know," Harry said. "And I've heard a lot about you. How you've worked your way up the rankings, and did your best to stand aside from the shadow your mother cast."

Miranda would like to say that trying to get away from Amanda Waller's imposing presence was key. She still was as tough as ever and running the show at Belle Reve. That was an interesting place, but Miranda decided not to focus on that. She instead focused on the young man standing before her.

"I've had my eye on you from the longest time," Miranda said. "If it wasn't for your other activities, I would have asked you to join this agency."

Harry could not have said he was surprise, especially the moment that Bea started to hover around him.

"I would have respectfully declined the offer," Harry said. "As you know, I have a lot on my plate, and Gotham City is the first priority for me now."

"Yes," Miranda agreed. "I have done my homework and understand the situation in Gotham City."

Privately, Miranda thought that Gotham City was beyond any saving. Those who protected it made the most noble effort, but it would have been a lot better off to just cut your losses. Unfortunately, Miranda was not able to make that decision.

"I'm glad to see we're on the same page," Harry said. "But, if you're not going to recruit me then there must have been another reason why you have been watching me."

"Yes, there's something that you may want to see," Miranda said. "It's not something that the agency is having much success for. But it is a fairly significant pet project of the director."

Yes, Harry wondered about the director, the big boss, the woman who apparently consolidated all of these government agencies together underneath one roof. Miranda might have helped run the day to day operations, but she was not the final authority.

"This is something the director is working on?" Harry asked.

The nodding was all of the confirmation she needed. "It has been a long term project of hers to find this person, or at least confirmation that they were dead."

"And I hope to get to meet your boss someday," Harry said.

"Someday," Miranda confirmed.

They walked past a set of double doors. The moment before Miranda accessed the door, she turned around to face Harry.

"Your friend, Helena Sandsmark, she might have uncovered Captain America's shield. We have a far bigger prize in mind."

The doors opened up and Harry faced a figure submerged in a very thick block of ice.

"Our best scientists have been working around the clock," Miranda said.

* * *

Harry returned from the meeting with Miranda Waller and interesting did not even begin to describe it. He moved to his office and checked to see if there was any work he needed to get done. He had been surprised that nothing had bene left for him.

' _Slow day,'_ Harry thought.

Carol and Carol returned back as well. Alex had not checked back in for whatever she was working on for the DEO, but she implied that it was nothing dangerous. Still important, but nothing dangerous, and unless Harry had probable cause, he was not getting involved.

Harry stripped off to a white tank top and a pair of workout pants. He moved down the hallway to see if he could get a nice early evening workout. Only, he almost bumped into someone in the hallway who had the same idea.

Lara smiled when Harry wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a kiss. They had not really had a proper reunion after the two fought for their life. They were more than making up for lost time with the two of them exchanging a very passionate kiss.

Harry released Lara with a parting nibble on her lip. The two stayed in the hallway, enjoying the moment. Harry locked onto Lara's angelic face before looking at the tomb raider with a smile on his face.

"Well, I'm taking my first vacation in years," Lara said.

Harry wrapped an arm around her and held Lara in tight to him. "Only you would not call going to some of the most exotic areas in the world anything other than a vacation."

Lara just smirked back at Harry and caught his lips with another light nibble. It really had been a long time, and it would not be much longer before the two could have a proper reunion if Lara had her say. The two of them stood with each other.

"Maybe," Lara said. "Today's adventure made me think that I just need a little bit of a break. Maybe, instead of looking for the artifacts, I can help study them for a change."

The two lingered at each other. Despite the Penthouse being very crowded at its most active times, it was very oddly quiet tonight. Harry wrapped an arm tighter around Lara and moved to place a hand firmly on her backside. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath .

"Well, you need a change of scenery every now and then," Harry said. "And I would like to see you around Gotham a little bit."

A pause had been capped off by Harry moving a hand to touch Lara's bare back. She shivered the second Harry's fingers touched her back. Harry leaned closer to her with a soft smile popping over his face.

"Did they enjoy the gift that you sent to the museum?"

"Yes," Lara said. "Shayera…Doctor Hall, she was very intrigued by it. I can't believe they've uncovered so much armor. It was like there was an entire group of these winged warriors living among us."

"History is interesting," Harry said. "For all of what people say about wondering whether or not there was other life out of there, they don't know that life was living right underneath their noses for several years."

Lara would have to agree with Harry's assessment. Every one of those artifacts she raided out of those tombs told their own fascinating story. Lara could not help, but be intrigued by what she could find out about them. Harry tightened his grip around her and Lara put her arms around Harry.

"So much about history has been loss and rewritten," Lara said. "So, we could not know….still I hope to uncover even more when I'm here."

"Well, regardless of the reasons why you're here, it's good to have you in Gotham City," Harry said. "And I mean that."

"Oh, you're always honest," Lara said. "And I appreciate a man who is completely honest a lot."

The two lingered a fraction of an inch away from each other. They came close to kissing, but Lara decided not to go in for the kill just yet. The two enjoyed each other's company for another moment.

"So, the Nexus Point?" Lara asked.

"I've got that portal well sealed off," Harry said. "It's a mercy we were able to reach it in time. Imagine if Larfleeze was able to break free through Earth."

"He would have fit in well on Wall Street," Lara said.

Harry smiled at Lara's quip. He could feel her body touching against his. Lara leaned into him and whispered in his ear.

"I want you, now."

She nibbled around the back of his ear, and started to undo his pants in the process.

"Right here in the hallway?" Harry asked.

"And yet, with the two of us, this is not the weirdest place we've ever shagged," Lara said. "You should know that, besides we're all alone. And if we weren't…well an audience would spice things up."

Harry pushed his lips onto Lara with a searing kiss when his pants dropped down his ankle. If the beautiful tomb raider wanted to be fucked, then she would get fucked as hard as Harry wanted her to be.

**S-S-S**

Those strong hands, Lara missed them feeling up every inch of her body. The athletic woman took a deep breath the second Harry dove in for a very hungry kiss. The kisses increased with each tick of the clock. Harry took her breast in one hand and her ass in the other hand.

The squeezes made Lara react to Harry's touches accordingly. He swiftly dragged a finger down Lara's abdomen and made her breath in. He slipped off of her shorts and dropped them down to the ground.

The next thing to go was her top, and Lara squashed against the wall, completely naked. Harry already had his cock out of his pants and it would so been inside of her. Lara closed her eyes with Harry dragging his fingernail lightly down her finger. The first touch of her inside made Lara throw her hips back.

"Not yet."

Harry prevented her from getting any kind of relief. He leaned in and slowly kissed Lara on her warm lips. Every time their lips touched, Harry enjoyed Lara's eagerness.

"Please, don't," Lara said.

"Don't what?" Harry asked.

He lightly brushed her nipple and made Lara take a deep breath. Lara thought about taking control and mounting his cock herself. Unfortunately, Harry drove her past the edge with his light brushes against her nipple. It stiffened against Harry's finger with a light touch.

Lara could feel the heat build inside of her body. Harry touched all over the body of the Tomb Raider.

"Are you sure you don't want to raid my tomb?" Lara asked.

Harry smiled, he could not believe she said it. He stuck a finger inside of Lara, this time not pulling back. He finger-banged Lara's tight pussy with her hips rising and falling against the wall, the slick walls clamping down and releasing on Harry's finger the deeper he pushed inside o fher.

The tension built up in Lara's body in a nice and fast level. Lara's hips thrust up and met Harry's fingers. Three skilled digits slid inside of the woman. Lara pushed up and could feel the tension rising in her body.

Harry pulled out of Lara and almost caused her to collapse up against the wall. The young man spread Lara's thighs and cupped her pussy.

"Nice and wet," Harry said. "It won't be too long now."

"That cock's looking pretty stiff," Lara said.

Harry allowed Lara's right hand free so she could reach over. The veiny rod pulsed in her hand and demanded to be inside her. Lara took a deep breath and waited for Harry to give her the good word. Harry pulled away from her and Lara whined.

"Assume the position, my good lady."

Lara's pussy ached in need when spreading her legs. The skilled young man rubbed his cock down against Lara's warmth. The pulsing pulled him inside of good body. The juices pooled around his mighty rod, when lining it up from.

The young man took a plunge deep inside of Lara's hot body. Lara reached around and grabbed onto his back. She was afraid he would pull out of her if she allowed him to.

Harry plowed Lara's wet pussy. It was as nice, as hot and wet as ever, not to mention tight. It always felt right around his throbbing cock. The brunette woman leaned against the wall with Harry almost pulling completely out of her and then plunging his mighty rod inside her perfect body.

"Harry!" Lara said.

Lara's legs pushed up to assume their position. Harry started to rub down the elegant souls of the woman and down to her ankles. He then traveled down to her leg while pumping inside of her.

The dark-haired explorer experienced Harry's cock exploring the inside of her body. The young man rose up against her with pumping deep inside of her. The tightness ensnared Harry's hard cock. She could feel her body rising up with so much pleasure going inside of her.

Harry enjoyed guiding Lara to the edge and then just a couple of steps beyond. He slowed down the thrusts when driving her into the wall. Lara whimpered in Harry's ear when he drove his mighty rod inside of her warm sheath.

"More, love," she begged him.

Always aiming to please, Harry gave her pretty much everything that the explorer desired. Those warm walls grabbed Harry and hugged him. He almost pulled out and then brought himself into her. Lara pulled him inside with a never ending heat caressing Harry's stiff cock.

The thrill ride went up and down as did Harry's cock inside of her. The feeling of her orgasm passing through her body rose up high and came crashing down to Earth. Harry pushed his rock hard cock inside of her body.

Lara threw her head back and gave an inspired moan. Harry responded by taking his cock inside of her with a series of hard plunges. Lara worked her hips up against him to meet his cock inside of her.

"Let it go," Harry said.

Those words triggered the orgasm in Lara's body. Her hips kept thrusting back and forth to take more of Harry's engorged rod inside of her. Lara lost her mind the second that Harry planted his rod inside of her.

"Yes, right there," Harry said. "Just like that."

Harry was not finished with Lara. He instead pulled out of her and moved her over a little bit to bend her over a table. Lara pressed her palms flat on the table. The reaction to the lack of cock inside of her started to become insufferable. Harry took his fingers inside and touched her.

"Harry," Lara breathed.

The young man pushed his length against her moist and welcoming slit. Harry pushed his agonizingly hard rod inside of Lara, slipping inside of her. Her walls ensnared Harry the very second he worked inside of her. Lara grabbed onto the wall and returned fire with a very soft moan.

"Yes," Lara panted.

Harry drove himself into the pleasure point. His hard cock slammed into her body with a slow and steady thrusts. The thrusts grew even harder the deeper he went. Lara's quim reacted to him.

"YES!" Lara screamed one more time.

Those hands rolled over every inch of Lara's body. Her nice breasts molded underneath his hands, her toned stomach, and her clit, her sensitive clit rubbing underneath Harry's attention. Two cum loaded balls hit her pussy repeatedly, being shoved inside of her very hungry pussy.

"You enjoy that," Harry said. "You're going to enjoy cumming for me. Go ahead, Lara, let it go. Cum for me…cum on my nice hard cock, just let it all go, honey."

Harry filled her body with another pump. He was getting close to discharging. His balls ached, with Harry repeatedly bringing his cock inside of her body. He got closer, closer, closer, with every pump. The delirious friction caused a tingling feeling to spread through his loins.

First, Harry planted his thick rod inside of Lara as deep as possible. His balls caused a tingling feeling through her pussy the harder he thrust inside of her. Harry pulled almost all the way out and planted his rod into her body. The churning of cum eased up his rod all the way to the end.

And the end was very glorious. Harry slammed inside of Lara while also stimulating her nerve endings. Lara's toes curled with the repeated slams. Harry's throbbing spear discharged its creamy treat inside of her body. His warm cum splattered inside of her waiting womb.

Harry finished, drilling inside of Lara's body. She hung onto the table he bent her over for the last few pumps and milked Harry all of the way.

A dazed smile spread over Lara's face when her knees buckled. Harry pulled out and turned her around. He scooped Lara up into his arms, and she looked at him with a smile.

"Why don't you show me where I'm sleeping? Even if I'm not too keen on doing much sleeping now?"

**S-S-S**

* * *

Salvatore Maroni had seen his fair share of insane plans in the past. But, boy, he can tell you something. This plan was the most insane of them all. Especially given that the GCPD had been given an order to bring him in dead or alive. And he did not even mastermind his own prison break.

Not to mention all of the members of the mob who would have hits out on his head to shut him up. Yeah, Maroni was living very dangerously. The mobster stepped into the middle of the warehouse. Several of Gotham's lowest level gangs of lesser notoriety were about ready to show up. Maroni waited for them.

' _This is nuts,'_ Maroni said. _'Then again, Dent is pretty nuts these days. He's lost his mind…which is all on your account by throwing that acid in his face.'_

Maroni decided to stand up as much as possible. He could see several of the newly dubbed Two-Face's men. Two-Face, an ironic name for a politician, if Maroni had to say so himself. Of course, compared to many in Gotham City, Dent was practically a boy scout.

' _Pretty boy never even ran over a cat,'_ Maroni thought to himself.

The rumbling of the doors opening forced Maroni to stand up straight. Dent put him in the middle of the room with no guns, no way to protect himself. Just his mouth and hopefully the ability to talk his way out of anything, which Maroni figured was on purpose. Only one phrase in particular summed up this situation very nicely.

' _That son of a bitch.'_

Dent knew what he was doing when he left Maroni here, ready to face the music. Several of Gotham's most notorious criminals stepped into the room. One of the men, an ugly man with acne scars on his face, and a jagged cut down his forehead, stared at Maroni.

"Yeah, what are you looking at?"

The mobsters all growled. One of them resembled an over excited bulldog. The knife in his hand showed Maroni how reckless this entire plan was.

He would say that Dent was trying to get him killed. But, there was no trying about it, if these low lives have their stay.

"You all better back off," Maroni said. "I can make you made men, or I can put you in the bottom of the Gotham City River. It's your choice boys. I really don't care one way or another right now."

Despite the harshness of Maroni's words, the goons all laughed. They knew his statement had pretty much no teeth.

"You're going to make us?" the mad-dog looking goon asked. "That's pretty rich, considering you've been disgraced. There's been a couple of bounties put out on your head. A guy could really clean up by cashing in on your smug little face."

"Yeah!" a short man piped up. "You used to be something, but now you're nothing. And now we're going to make a name for ourselves."

The sounds of gunshots firing through the warehouse could be heard. The Caps showed up to join the party. The Mad Dog gang, one of their rivals, stared them down. The leader, the aptly named Mad Dog, turned to Maroni.

"Man, I didn't think you were a stupid enough shit to bring the Caps here," Mad Dog said. "Now, I'm going to put a cap in your…."

"Put together your stupid little feuds for a minute and open your eyes," Maroni said.

"You don't tell us what to do, you're nothing, your name is lower than dirt in Gotham City."

"You're right."

The former Gotham City District Attorney, Harvey Dent, now known as Two-Face, stepped into the picture.

"But, I've had Maroni bring all of you together for one simple reason," Dent said. "There's a storm brewing in Gotham City, and there can only be one man standing. You have some options, you can be with the Penguin, you can crawl to beg for Roman Falcone's favor, or you can get sucked into Thorne's empire."

"Work for the fat man?" Mad Dog asked. "You've got to be fucking with me, boy."

Dent did not even acknowledge a word this hothead said.

"Or you can be fodder for Joker and Black Mask," Dent said. "There's one more option….join up with me, and we can bring order back to Gotham City."

Dent smiled and flipped his coin. He had their attention at the very least.

"It starts with me liquidating whatever is left of Maroni's empire before the Roman can grab it, and try and fix his fractured control," Dent said. "And then Caesar will fall!"

Dent's eyes looked at each and every gang member. They were hungry and dangerous.

"Stand with me, or fall with Falcone. Your choice."

"Man, I'm with you, sir," Maroni said.

"Sorry, your fate has already been decided," Dent said. "Mad Dog Mason?"

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Kill Maroni."

Maroni protested by two of Mad Dog's men grabbed him. The rough looking man raised his hand and smashed Maroni's face in. He took the gun and shot him three times point blank in the head.

"Boss, it's going to be an honor doing business with you," Mad Dog said.

He was sick and tired of all of the big guys taking food off of the table and giving the Mad Dog nothing, but scraps.

Two-Face stood over the slain body of Salvatore Maroni. One down, but there was another bigger cancer he needed to take down.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 7** **th** **, 2017.**


	342. Preludes Part One

**Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Two: Preludes Part One**

* * *

One of those slow nights gripped Gotham City, and boy, Thea Queen would have been enjoying those slow nights while they passed. She took some time to get a head's up on the bookkeeping over at the Cat's Cradle. Thea bit down on her lip as she went through the pages and pages of documentation in front of her. She looked up to see Holly walking over with two cups of coffee.

"So, you just got back from Wildcat's?" Thea asked.

"Yeah, there was some new kid there who was talking a lot of smack. Guy has a couple of decent punches. And if he's willing to curve his attitude, then Grant will teach him. The usual type of guy who comes there, rough home, looks like he had been in a couple of scraps."

The woman sipped on her coffee for a second in consideration.

"And a couple of scraps where he ended up coming up on the bad end of those scraps. Believe me, I've been there, I've done that."

Thea knew from Holly's past that she had been there and done that. The younger girl took a good look at the books.

"A pretty good month this month?" Holly asked.

"Yeah, we're in the black," Thea said.

"I figured about as much," she said. "There's a lot less low lives coming here. Sure there's some…strange people, but no one who you want to throw out of the door. They might be a little weird, but they are here for their entertainment and nothing more."

"Yes," Thea said. "To be fair we are running a strip club."

No one could argue with that point. The doors opened up, which caught Thea's attention because business had been about as slow as it had been in a long time. She looked up and opened her mouth in shock at the person who entered the room.

Dark hair, a great figure, although a bit of a stony expression on her face, Thea had been blown away by her, and even more blown away by who she was. Sofia Falcone, the daughter of one of the most prominent figures in Gotham, stepped her way inside of the club.

"Hello?" Thea asked. "May I help you?"

"Yes," Sofia said in a short and crisp voice. "I need to speak with the owner of the club."

Thea bounced up from her seated position quickly. "I'll go see if she's available."

Sofia watched the younger girl make her way towards the back of the club with interest which was not even disguised. She appreciated the view from the back when she walked.

' _It's nice to see Selina has some taste. Cute, perky, with a lot of energy, this one might be fun…but business before pleasure.'_

The door swung open and Selina stepped out. She almost stopped in her tracks the moment her eyes fell on the woman standing in the back of her club.

"Hello, Selina," Sofia said. "Long time, no see."

"Yes, it has," Selina said.

"Come walk with me," Sofia said. "I'll come and buy you a drink."

"Well, you know," Selina said. "It's my club. The drinks are on the house when you're here…and I'll happily get you a drink."

Sofia nodded in appreciation at Selina. She watched Selina as she walked over. That walk had a lot of confidence. More than the slightly uncertain, but still spirited woman, Sofia knew several years ago. Then they all changed, hell the landscape of Gotham City changed as well. She watched Selina, studying her movements when the drinks had gotten poured.

"Here you go," Selina said. "What happened to your wrist?"

The question took Sofia off guard for a moment. She noticed that the scratches all over her wrist were more visible than she thought they were at first.

"Oh, that?" Sofia asked. "It was a feisty little kitten who lashed out and attacked me."

The two of them settled down at the table with a pair of drinks.

"I like to offer you my condolences on Alberto's death," Selina said. "He's not someone…well, I'm sorry about your loss."

Sofia appreciated her condolences. The number of people that Alberto rubbed the wrong way had been very many. Still, he was blood and Sofia should pay the proper respect to the deceased.

"So do you have any idea who the killer is?" Selina asked.

"I don't know," Sofia said. "Whoever it is, he'll hang for it. My father has aged a lot over the last couple of months and….I'm concerned that could be a problem."

"Yes, but you know Carmine's resilient," Selina said. "He'll end up bouncing back."

A second passed with Sofia taking a drink. It looked like she spent the next couple of minutes considering something. She frowned and pursed her lips.

"You've been very busy. With this club, and the new, more risqué one that I hear you're planning on opening within the next couple of months."

Selina would not have had a chance to answer for a figure made her way towards the group. Alexandra Potter stepped in, someone who Sofia acknowledge with a smile.

"It was nice to see you again," Sofia said. "But, if I interrupted your date night, I really apologize for being so inconsiderate. Do be careful….Gotham City is dangerously."

Sofia stooped down and kissed Selina on the cheek. The two of them parted ways, with Sofia taking the long walk out to the parking lot and out to her car in the club.

Selina turned her attention to the slip of paper left on the table. She was certain that Sofia did not leave this piece of paper entirely by accident. She picked it up, pocketed it, and turned to Alexandra with a smile.

' _I'm ready.'_

* * *

On the rooftop, stood Batgirl who peered down into the streets of Gotham City, and she could not believe it had bene such a surprisingly quiet night. She looked over to see her partner return from looking at the other end of the street. Black Canary turned up off to the other side to join her.

' _So, nothing?'_ Batgirl asked.

Absolutely nothing, Black Canary responded with a shrug. The two heroines looked over a very quiet looking Gotham City. They had been taken aback by how silent and how peaceful everything was. And they also were very nervous, as Halloween approached ever closer still.

' _Nothing, and I'm not sure I like it,'_ Black Canary said. _'It gives us an easier night in theory, but that just means we get a much harder night later on.'_

As pragmatic as Dinah sounded there, Barbara would have to agree. They would have a much harder night coming around the corner. They all settled in for the long haul when suddenly there was a loud explosion coming from the distance.

' _Well, looks like tonight is going to be not as boring as we thought it was,'_ Barbara thought.

The two crime fighters swept in through the shadows and got a closer look at the source of the explosions. A shipment truck ran off of the road with two flat tires. The driver of the truck just had been ripped out. The two men riding with him already laid on the ground. One of them bleeding and screaming out loud. The other did not move and looked to be already done.

' _That looks like Maroni's men,'_ Black Canary thought. _'Attacking a Falcone shipping.'_

' _Maroni hasn't been seen since the attack of Blackgate,'_ Barbara thought.

Her expression darkened a little bit the very second that they moved into place. Maroni had not been seen and the escape of Black Gate just added a significant amount of fuel to the fire to those who wanted Arkham Asylum brought back after all of these years.

' _Let's go,'_ Barbara thought.

They dropped down to the ground. Black Canary struck first with a Canary Cry. It caught the two men nearest off guard, but the others had their heads heavily armored. Black Canary almost received a pipe down across the back of the head.

The pipe had been dodged the last possible second. Black Canary caught the hand of her enemy and pummeled away at him with repeated punches. The punches dropped him to the ground. Just in time to get the hands of the other goon wrapped around her neck.

Batgirl popped high into the air and came down onto the back of the neck of the charging goon. The goon swung a blistering punch towards her head. Batgirl blocked the incoming hand and came back with a couple of snap punches. She followed things up with a nice leaping stomp to the back of the head to take her adversary down. She got her wind back just in time to have to dodge the grenade.

' _These guys are more organized than your standard mob mooks,'_ Barbara thought.

At the instant she said that, Batman came out of nowhere. The three or four goons on the ground where he came indicated that Batman had been here for a long time.

One of the largest goons packed a bazooka to match. Batman grapel-hooked the bazooka from the guard's hands and jumped up to kick away at his enemy with a repeated flurry of strikes. The goon gave a very angry grunt and swung his fist an inch away. Batman caught him with a punch down to the back of the head.

Batgirl released a cloud of smoke which allowed her to get behind one of the attackers. She flipped the gang member to the ground. Another mobster came in for the attack with Batgirl blocking the arm and flipping him down onto the ground. She snapped the arm back in a way where he could not hold a gun.

Batman clotheslined the ever living hell out of one of the goons. The final man left standing rushed over. Black Canary tripped him up to prevent the man from reaching a getaway guard. Batman picked him up off of the ground and slammed him against the truck to get his attention, but to not knock him out.

"Where is Harvey Dent?"

"How…how should I know?" the goon asked. "Do, I look like Dent's nanny?"

Not the answer Batman was looking for. He thumped the thug in the side of the head and dropped him down to the ground.

"Harvey Dent has been held captive by Maroni's gang and the man who has taken over by the mob," Batman said. "He calls himself Two-Face. And they're terrified of him. He's mobilizing all of the lower level gangs."

Barbara looked on. Dent had not been seen for almost a month after the trail went cold. If this new player on the board had Dent, and maybe had broken Maroni out of Blackgate to gain control of what remained of his criminal empire, than it was going to be a very long Halloween approaching.

' _Still haven't found Maroni, or Dent or anyone,'_ Barbara thought. _'Two-Face, just what Gotham needs, another power broker.'_

* * *

Lois Lane sat on pins and needles, her excitement about ready to reach a fever pitch. She tried not to lose her mind, in excitement, even though it might have been one of the hardest things in the world to do. She finally was going to do it, she finally was going to see her. Lois could not believe it, this was going to be one of the most exciting things in the world.

' _Okay, Lois, just calm down,'_ she thought to herself. _'Just calm down, take a deep breath and calm down. Yes, that's it, just stay calm, take those breaths. Take those deep breaths, and don't lose your mind. It will be fine. It's just an interview. With one of the best reporters, one of the most famous and respected self-made women in the world.'_

A couple of seconds passed with Harry looking across the table at Lois. His amusement dancing through his eyes looked pretty obvious. Lois hitched in a nice little breath when staring across the table at Harry.

"So, are you calming down?" Harry asked her.

"Yeah, a little bit," Lois responded a minute later. "It's just, it's Catherine Grant. She's coming right here. Right now. I can't believe she said yes."

Harry just said nothing. He knew Lois sent the letter, Kara told him. It was about a week ago when she did. Harry decided to grease the wheels a little bit. He knew Catherine Grant would give a lot to have a chance to meet him. The only consideration Harry had was that she would talk to Lois about her journalism project.

' _She's pretty excited,'_ Kara commented lightly. _'But, then again, it's not like Catherine Grant makes too many trips outside of the West Coast these days.'_

' _Yes, that's a very true point,'_ Harry said. _'But, she's been wanting to get an interview for me for years. So, playing nice and interviewing Lois is very important. Trust me, she'll play along if she wants to interview me at the end of the day.'_

' _Using such devious manipulation tactics,'_ Veronica said. _'Oh, Harry, I can hardly believe it.'_

' _That's nothing, when I was in my private school, I was a bit rougher around the edges,'_ Harry thought. _'I think if anything, I mellowed out over the years.'_

He turned his attention to Lois who looked very fidgety in her chair when moving up and down. It was going to be time, soon enough. Harry could hardly wait and he knew Lois could hardly wait as well.

The door opened and Catherine Grant entered the room. The woman dressed in the most expensive attire possible, those boots she cost a significant amount of money and were made out of the finest designer materials. They shined in a very glossy manner as well. Her blonde hair pinned up, to cause her beautiful shining face. Her figure could only be slightly visible, but she was quite the woman.

"Harry Potter!" Catherine called in an excited voice. "It's an honor to finally meet with you at last…and I was so happy that you would meet with me today….I have so much to talk to you about, and….I'll stop everything to get you on the front page of this month's magazine."

Harry opened his mouth, but Catherine pressed on, much to the bemusement of Lois.

"How are you doing?" Catherine asked. "Was it surprising that you got the Gotham City Humantarian of the Year? And the Red Sun Millennium, are you expecting records sales to be recorded? And most importantly, what about the rumors of you being recently intimately involved with Marie Logan? Are they true?"

A chuckle passed through Harry's lips. He reached across the table and touched Catherine's hand which caused her to straighten up.

"As much as I would like to talk to you about all of this and more," Harry told her. "I'm just here for Lois, who wanted to talk to you for her journalism club."

"Right, of course," Catherine said. "It's just…you can't expect me to see Harry Potter, and not go into autopilot just asking all of these questions."

Harry figured about as much. Still, Catherine gave a polite smile and turned to Lois.

"Ms. Lane, I understand you wanted me to ask a couple of questions about your club," Catherine said.

The demeanor on Catherine Grant's face showed she normally did not do these sorts of things. If a letter like this had come without the promise of Harry Potter, well it would have gone unanswered. Still, Harry was going to exploit Cat's obsession with talking to him.

"So, how did you get your start?" Lois asked. "Was there a journalism club or did you just decide one way…."

"Well, there was the school newspaper…actually to call it a newspaper would be giving it way too much credit," Catherine said. "It was just a glorified gossip rag about who was dating who, who broke up with who, what members of the Football team were on drugs, that sort of thing."

Lois smiled, as Catherine went into her life story, pretty much answering whatever questions she could to Lois along the way. It had been kind of impressive the level of recall she had.

"The most important thing you've ever learned as a reporter?" Lois asked.

"Well, I get asked this question a lot," Catherine said. "And I'm going to tell you something that I learned pretty quickly. You should never be afraid. You should never be nervous. You should never back away from your convictions. If someone thinks you're nervous, or intimidated, they will chew you up and spit you out."

The more seasoned reporter looked at the budding reporter from across the table with a smile.

"You have to be the aggressor. Otherwise, they will chew you up and spit you out. It makes people nervous…but pick your battles. As a reporter, you'll learn pretty quickly the best hills to defend and the ones that you're only going to go for."

Lois smiled and jotted down the notes. It made a lot of sense.

"Thank you for your time, Ms. Grant," Lois said.

"Anything to help out an aspiring reporter," Catherine said. "Oh, and Harry….do you mind if I call you Harry?"

She gave him an accommodating smile and for a brief second, Harry felt something brush against his leg underneath the table. An expression of innocent spread over Catherine's face after fluttering her eyelashes at him.

"I'm in Gotham City for a couple more days," Catherine said. "So, if you can squeeze me in, I'll be happy to make the time to squeeze you in."

"I just might," Harry said.

Catherine handed Harry a piece of paper with her hotel room number, and a key. She smiled at the man.

' _And she's about as subtle as a runaway freight train,'_ Vick thought.

' _To be fair, you weren't very subtle either,'_ Kara said.

While she did not necessarily deny this, Vicki did not necessarily acknowledge this point from Kara either.

' _At least her taste in men aren't bad,'_ Vicki said. _'And she does break some hard hitting stories, occasionally, although she's the Queen of the Puff Pieces.'_

' _Are you sure that you're not sore that Cat was invited for a journalism conference that you weren't?'_ Kara asked.

Another question which had gone unanswered. Kara figured she was not going to get a straight answer, but as a journalist, she had to make an attempt.

* * *

The media rush never stopped for Harry Potter. There always was a new product or two Harry would have to promote. He waited in the Green Room of the Juno Jones show. His appearances started to be a monthly thing and according to Juno, one of her most highly rated segments, believe it or not.

A knock on the door caused Harry to stand up straight. Juno's assistant popped her head in with a smile.

"Doctor Potter, you're going to be on after the commercial break," the assistant said. "I would tell you to get ready, but I think that you're already beyond ready."

"Thanks for the heads on, Rosalyn."

The women smiled and stepped back. Harry made his way out to the curtain. He could see the last minute of a commercial playing. The countdown clock on the miniature screen started to tick down moment by moment as Harry waited for his time to go on.

Harry had been through the media rounds so much that he knew his cues. He smiled and could see the commercial fade. Juno's image came back onto the screen with her sitting on the couch.

"And we are back. And we are back with one of our most requested and beloved guests. With the Red Sun Millennium coming out in time for Christmas, it's only appropriate that I get him back on to have a conversation with him. Everyone, give a nice warm welcome for the one and only, Doctor Harry Potter!"

The applause in the studio was so deafening, one could struggle to be able to think. Regardless, Harry slipped his way onto the stage with a significant amount of fanfare and a smile on his face. The one and only Harry Potter stepped into the picture with a fair amount of excitement as it happened any time he showed up.

Juno popped up and shook Harry's hands. She moved in for a warm hug and then dropped down onto the chair.

"We're doing this so much, I'm pretty sure that the networks are thinking pretty hard on asking what it would take to get you a television deal," Juno said.

Harry laughed at the statement. "You know something, they might be disappointed. The amount of work I've been doing would make such hobbies be hard to pull off."

Juno smiled, she knew it from experience about how much work it took to do a talk show.

"Right, and you've been busy," Juno said. "For instance, the Third Generation of the Red Sun is coming out in stores just in time for the holiday rush. The Red Sun Millennium Edition will be out on stores just in time for Black Friday, but it will be a highly sought after item as usual."

The two shared a knowing smile with each other. Harry drew his breath.

"Yes, I'm sure the various mall security forces around the world are preparing themselves for the rush. I would like to tell the people involved that it's important now more than ever to start pre-ordering the phone. 3641 Gotham Square Boulevard is where you can sent your preorder, or you can call the number that Juno is scrawling across the screen right now. You can either get your phone sent straight to your house, or you can wait to have it picked up at the malls which Red Suns are stored."

"You better get those orders in fast," Juno said.

Harry smirked. "Every time that I'm on this show, it seems like I sell out pretty quick. I'm sure my office staff appreciates the overtime though."

"Well, just trying to help the economy in any way I can," Juno said a second later. "So, I understand you've been busy? You've been looking into a couple of Internet companies."

"Yes," Harry said. "The Internet might seem like a strange invention to a lot of people right now. As the trends are going, we feel that within the next decade or so, the list of people who are not on the Internet will be much shorter than the list of people who are all on the Internet."

A few people in the crowd cheered although for many, this Internet was this strange thing that only outcasts did. Harry was intending to change it right away.

"Karen, Alexandra, and myself have invested in a company which is relatively new on the market," Harry said. "I think though it does have the potential to dwarf everything else on the Internet."

He could tell pretty much everyone just humored him on this Internet thing. The way trends were going through, Harry was confident that something big was going to happen.

"It might not be enough to retire on, but it's going to be big," Harry said. "This upstart company known as Google, we'll heavily investing in it."

"Well, a lot of people think you are just jumping on the latest trend," Juno said.

"I can understand why those people might think that," Harry said. "But, they're wrong in the sense that I'm not jumping on the latest trend. The Internet is more than a trend though. Like it or not, it's here to stay for a very long time, and I'm hoping to bring it to more people."

Everyone applauded Harry. Juno waited the applause to die down.

"And now you're working on developing your own Internet Service Provider company as well," Juno said. "But, while we only have a limited amount of time today, it would be just wrong if I let you leave without discussing the Gotham City Humanitarian of the Year award."

Harry had to be amused by that. He knew he was not going to leave this interview set without Juno bringing up that prestigious award.

"I heard you were up for it," Harry said.

"Well, you deserve it," Juno said. "If anything else it gives me a chance to step up my game next year."

Both of them laughed, as Juno's producer gave her the time cue to go to commercial, which they did.

* * *

' _And you just keep knocking them out of the park,'_ Karen thought. _'I mean, it's not like any of us couldn't do the interviews.'_

' _You would be a lot better in doing the interviews than I would,'_ Faora said. _'You or Harry both, but Harry has them down to a science. It doesn't hurt that he knows some of the people interviewing him pretty well.'_

' _It's taken years to get it down right,'_ Harry thought. _'I'm sure the two of you should prepare for a volume of pre-orders, even before the holiday rush.'_

' _We've taken all of the steps possible to make sure that the supply is going to match the demand,'_ Karen thought. _'We're not going to get caught like we did for the Eclipse.'_

Regardless, Harry could not help, but beat his own record. Even before Halloween, the media rush was going to be a big one as he started to promote the next generation of the Red Sun plans. He had some big plans as a new year, a new century, and a new millennium hit.

Harry made his way up to Juno's Penthouse, where Diana sat waiting for him. The Amazon Princess jumped up and threw her arms around Harry.

"The interview was amazing as usual," Diana said.

"Well, it's just been the same interview I've been given for the past couple of weeks," Harry replied with a shrug. "And I thought you were at work."

"Well, I'm not going to get into any trouble watching the interview if my supervisor is the one who turned it on," Diana said. "Besides, everyone in Gotham wanted to listen to what you said. Even the people who hated you."

"Yes, especially the people who hated you."

Juno stepped out of her bathroom after taking an after work shower. She shed the disguise a little bit, being somewhere in the mid-way point between Juno and Hera. Still extremely beautiful no matter how she sliced it, as the bathrobe she wore clung to her divine body. Her dark curls stuck to her face form the shower.

"Know your enemy," Harry said. "They wouldn't be worthy if they didn't know me."

"Yes," Juno said. "And I'm pretty sure that last interview will reflect well on my performance bonus at the end of the year.

Juno dropped in to kiss Harry and then pull away from her.

"The Amazons are doing well, I see, integrating into more spots in Harry's companies," Juno said. "I just really wish we had more encouraging news on the Aresia front."

The divine help she had cloaked Aresia from detection from the goddesses. And she had been in an establishment by the Amazons elsewhere. That was always a sore spot the Amazons they failed, who had left.

"After the incident in Egypt, there have been no further sightings of her," Diana said.

Juno answered with a very obvious sigh when surveying the Princess of the Amazons. Her sigh grew more prominent the second time before giving her assessment.

"Well, Ares is shielding her. We can't really help that now, can we?"

Diana thought Juno would be right. Ares manipulated the fear and prejudice of Aresia to turn her into something more awful. She would need a lot of help if they ever got ahold of her. Although, Diana feared for Aresia's life, with Ares filling her head with reckless thoughts.

"So our plans for the holidays are still the same?" Diana asked.

"Yes," Harry said. "Lyta's excited about visiting home. I'm going to have to be back before the New Year's party at Veronica's, but that shouldn't be a problem."

They all hoped for the sake of everyone that New Year's was not going to be as eventful as pretty much everyone else. Juno put out some wine for them and the three sat for a few minutes to make some light talk.

"So, Great Hera?" Juno asked. "You really enjoy taking my name in vain, don't you?"

Diana shifted a little bit. The Queen of Goddesses eyed her up like she was eying up a prime cut of meat. The Amazon tingled at the thought of what Hera might be able to do with her.

The next thing she knew, Diana was sitting on the couch wearing nothing other than a sheer black bra with a matching pair of panties. The cups were see-through, with Juno pressing her hand on Diana's thigh. She looked up to see Harry sitting in nothing other than a silken pair of shorts.

"So, why don't I show you how great I can be?"

Hera appeared completely in her divine glory, shining without a stitch of clothing on her beautiful, feminine body. She leaned in and kissed Diana's lips to send electricity spiraling through her body.

* * *

 

Another kiss pushed Diana to her lips. The hands of the goddess rolled over her body and caused Diana to breath out hungrily. Hera rolled Diana's top off and exposed the breasts of the Amazon in a blink of an eye.

"Very nice," Hera said. "You're a very beautiful woman, Diana."

Hera leaned in to worship Diana's breasts. The Amazon tilted her head back a few seconds later. A series of kisses down to her abdomen made Diana thrust her hips up. Hera hooked her finger inside of the edge of the panties and pulled them down to reveal the beautiful pussy of the Princess.

"Let's get her ready for you, love," Hera said.

She pushed a single finger inside of Diana. Diana reacted to Hera's intrusion. The slick finger pushed in and out of Diana with practiced ease. Hera knew pretty much all of the spots to touch Diana and manipulated her tightening core with the greatest of ease.

Harry watched the juices ooze out of Diana when Hera added a second finger. In many ways, all of Diana's best dreams came true, and Harry took a look at the look on her face when she was being finger fucked. She turned her neck and smiled at Harry to beckon him forward.

The Kryptonian male had the cock out of his pants already. Diana reached up to wrap her hand around it and guide the hardening organ into her mouth. The slick warm lips of the Princess of the Amazon slid around Harry's engorged tool and made him groan the second he slid in between those perfect lips. Diana held his hips and sucked as hard as humanly possible.

"Good mouth, Princess," Harry said.

"I know she has one," Hera said. "And it can be a very naughty mouth as well. I can't wait to have a go at it, but first…."

Hera pushed her lips at Diana's nether lips. Her sound of pleasure momentarily had been blocked by Harry driving his hard cock inside of her throat. The vibrations coming from her throat picked up the harder Harry drove his rock hard cock inside of her accommodating mouth.

In a second, Diana lost both Harry's cock in her mouth and Hera's lips on her nether region. Diana shuddered in frustration. Harry smiled waited for Hera to step back so Harry could get a good look at Diana.

With well-practiced obedience, Diana spread her legs for Harry to aim his cock at. He slid into Diana's pussy which gripped him very tightly. Harry slid almost all the way out to tease her before shoving his mighty rod all the way inside of Diana.

"Great, Hera!" Diana yelled.

"Present," Hera said with a eager little grin on her face.

Those warm, divine thighs were now on either side of Diana's face. The fine wine which beckoned to be tasted oozed from between the divine thighs of the goddess. Diana really had no choice. She had to taste Hera's pussy. It was the most important thing in the world.

The soft moan of delight coming from Hera was a tease. She positioned on Diana's face so Harry could see what the goddess was doing. Her nice round ass bounced on Diana's face when the Amazon shifted deep inside of the slit and came almost all the way out. Diana tasted Hera and ate her up like candy.

"Make sure to get that pussy nice and wet," Harry said.

"Yes, I need that big cock inside of me."

Hera still had not made up for centuries of repression and disappointed. Still she could wait, seeing the reflection of Harry riding Diana into an orgasm in the corner of her eye. He stimulated Diana's nerves from her toes all the way to the top of the Amazon's head.

"Now, Princess."

Obedience spread over Diana the second Harry pushed his cock inside of her warm tunnel. Her body reacted to his touch, his voice, and just everything about him. Their bodies connected together with Harry moving in to touch Diana's breasts.

Harry grabbed onto Diana's warm breasts and squeezed them firmly. The Amazon's tight walls pumped around Harry's cock the deeper he drove inside. Harry almost pulled all the way out of her and then pushed inside of her.

A brief touch of her ass made Hera become unhinged. That was the not the only thing which made her happy. Diana's tongue spent some time touring between Hera's slick thighs. The Amazon closed her eyes and continued the rocking motion the further Hera pushed inside of her.

"That's good," Harry grunted. "That's really good."

Diana nibbled on Hera in response to try and get the goddess to break her stoic demeanor. For a second, Diana thought she had Hera where the goddess should be. As quick as it came, it was good. Harry broke Diana's concentration. As quick as that moment of triumph came, Diana came.

Harry finished pushing away into her.

"You're getting excited," Harry said. "You like that divine taste. You want to cum even harder. You want to cum faster. Well, I'm not going to deny you what you want. I'm not going to deny you what you need. I'm not going to deny you this."

Harry slid his cock inside of Diana's very hungry slit and pulled almost out of her. He rose up and dropped down into her to increase the play. The constant thrusting burned Diana up. Harry manipulated the friction searing in Diana's loins and buried his hard cock inside of the Amazon.

The sorcerer sped up the burial of his cock inside of Diana's scorching loins. Her walls clamped down onto Harry and caused Harry to only resolve to drill Diana as hard as humanly possible. The weight of two throbbing balls turned into too much for Harry to handle. He picked up the pace inside of Diana.

Hera smiled and continued to work her pussy into Diana's mouth. Diana lapped up the juices which came from Hera the further Harry buried deep inside of the Amazon.

"We're getting close."

A few more pumps opened the gate for Harry's balls to start aching and then spilling their bounty into Diana's body. He shoved inside of the Amazon to make sure every last blast of cum coated the insides of the beautiful woman.

Diana milked Harry all the way up to completion. One sensational orgasm rode all the way to completion with Harry pumping his hard rod inside of Diana's slick center. The Amazon's warmth released and gripped Harry all the way to completion.

The moment Harry finished releasing ended in Diana's delight. Diana collapsed back on the bed with Harry pulling back a slight amount. It put Hera in position to crawl down on Diana. Diana rewarded Hera's actions with very soft moans every time she came down on her body. The Amazon's entire loins ached with need the closer that Diana reached the nether lips.

"Yes," Diana mewled underneath her breath.

Hera cupped Diana's warm pussy and smiled. The treat oozing out of it smelled divine. Hera motioned for Harry to move back. The Queen of the Goddesses got into perfect position to suck the juices from Diana's pussy when dropping down.

Harry viewed the very hot sight next to him for the next couple of minutes. Hera kept herself positioned for Harry. Delightful swaying of Hera's hips drew Harry's attention to her not to mention a hardening cock approaching further from the Amazon.

Light touches eased into more firm ones when Harry kept touching Hera's back. Harry slipped a finger deep inside of Hera's warm pussy. The Goddess held onto Harry to encourage the teasing of a scorching hot slit. Harry feasted on Hera's opening before pulling back and sliding in.

Twelve inches of Kryptonian cock buried inside of Hera's warm pussy. Harry slipped almost all the way out and plunged deep inside of Hera.

"Way too long since we've done this," Harry grunted.

Hera agreed with Harry's assessment. The harder Harry pushed inside Hera, the more Hera reacted to the movements. Harry spent some time getting acquainted with Hera's pussy, which could be much like getting reacquainted with an old friend from what Harry was doing.

"Hera!" Diana breathed.

The divine tongue touched all of Diana's most sensitive parts. Hera natured a wonderful feeling buried inside of the loins of the Amazon

Harry buried inside of Hera with several hard pumps. The more Hera begged for it with her body the better things felt. Those warm moist walls grabbed around Harry. The blinding light of her beautiful body encouraged Harry to step up. He leaned in to nibble the back of Hera's neck which resulted in a very prominent whimpering sound coming from the goddess the deeper Harry plunges inside.

"Take her," Diana said. "I want to taste your cock with all of our cum…all….."

Those words failed Diana. Hera stuck Diana with a sharp poke with the tongue and brought the Amazon to the edge and beyond. The Amazon reached in to cup her warm breasts and gave a very firm nipple squeeze as well. Diana kept rolling and touching those bountiful breasts. Moans vibrated from Hera's throat the deeper Harry pushed inside of divine beauty.

Hera thought it felt so good to have all twelve inches of Harry stretching out and shoving inside. One orgasm started to build just as another one end. Hera recharged underneath Harry. Harry buried deeper inside of Hera. Pulling almost all the way out, Harry drove deep inside of Hera.

"Getting closer," Harry said. "Getting closer! Much closer. It's time!"

Juicy walls clamped around Harry's hard rod. He pushed into Hera's slick center and rode her out until the end came. Discharging his cum inside of Hera made Harry grunt with the pleasure of release. The complete contents of Harry's thick balls fired inside of Hera's womb.

Hera breathed heavily. The goddesses had not come to an agreement about who would get to bare Har-Zod his first daughter by goddess yet. As much as Hera would want the honor, this should be done in a fair and orderly. Harry finished gifting Hera with the contents of his loins.

The moment Harry pulled back; Diana decided to taste Harry's cock with Hera's juices just dripping off of it. The combination tasted about as divine as everything else.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 11** **th** **, 2017.**


	343. Preludes Part Two

**Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Three: Preludes Part Two**

* * *

Three HIVE agents stood around in a barren facility. Grey walls, stone floors, and the only thing of value on the wall were markings which looked like half circles which had been crudely broken in half. One of them leaned against the wall and waited for something to happen, something interesting to catch his attention. As of right now, the man had been completely bored out of his skull.

Nothing other than the faint traces of light from the torches on the wall illuminated the room. The eyes of all three drones locked on the door until it opened. Stepping through the open doorway was a beautiful brunette woman. Her face had soft features, with blue eyes full of intensity, and soft lips. She dressed in a conservative female business suit when stepping in. Those soft lips pushed into a frown when looking down at the three gentleman.

"Status report," she said in a very crisp and very professional tone.

The first man stood up straight and cleared his throat. "Everything is here. We're just waiting for the okay to move it."

The woman slipped a piece of paper into the hand of one of the goons. Three more joined the original three, leaving half of a dozen goons from the criminal organization known as HIVE. Officially, they had been known as ghosts, as many of them died. Some died overseas in a war, some had been believed to have been killed, and others yet, just faked their own deaths to start a new life.

Drones, though, given their fanatical loyalty to the HIVE master would have been the more accurate assessment of what they were.

Up in the shadows, Nightwing watched them into position. The woman involved was not his target tonight, even though all indications she might have been a very high ranking leader as a part of HIVE.

' _I've done some digging on her,'_ Barbara thought. _'Her name is Ruve Adams. She's one of the senior leaders of HIVE. She's pretty important and a lot of the main decisions are made with her opinion in mind.'_

' _And she's gorgeous as well,'_ Faora thought. _'And about as dangerous as she is gorgeous as well if I had to make a guess.'_

' _And she's also married to Damien Darhk,'_ Barbara thought.

This particular revelation on Barbara's part got some very strong reactions from the rest of the group. As always, some of the usual parties in the bond had to chime in with their two scents.

' _Well, an attractive woman with a poor amount of sense,'_ Amanda thought. _'There seems to be a few of those these days.'_

' _Of course, in your mind anyone who is not getting currently boned by our brother has a poor amount of sense,'_ Emily thought.

' _Even taking Harry out of the picture, she could do better than Darhk,'_ Amanda thought. _'Anyone can do better than Darhk.'_

' _Yes, no one should have to suffer like that,'_ Pamela said.

These days, Pamela appeared very rarely in the bond network. She needed to spend a significant amount of time getting her powers in check. Tonight, things were different, tonight, pretty much everything mandated her to be close by to listen in.

' _To be fair, I'm ninety-five percent sure it's a marriage so they can consolidate two factions of HIVE,'_ Barbara thought. _'Which, happens a lot of the time in organizations like this.'_

' _And since Darhk was a member of the League, she would have married him to gain access to those resources,'_ Gwen reminded her. _'I think it's safe to say that Darhk doesn't outrank her in his own house. Although, she's given him a fair amount of freedom to work within HIVE.'_

Harry navigated the shadows and moved from one perch point to the next to lean down. He listened for individuals as they kept moving around. Ruve was saying something to a senior officer, judging by his dress.

"The caveman is an asset for now," Ruve said.

"The caveman's partner is the one that gives me the creeps," the drone said.

Ruve nodded and turned her attention away from the scene. She paused and looked back over her shoulder.

"I'm going to need to meet with Doctor Larvin. She's settled in at Mercury Labs and I want to know the extent of the project."

The HIVE leader cleared the area. Harry looked down and waited for her to leave. Ruve might have been a person of interest, of a lot of interest. Still, not the target so Harry waited before she was completely gone before he struck.

One drone pulled into the shadows. Nightwing muffled his screams and drilled the elbow into the back of his head. Nightwing caught the attention of the other drone and twisted the HIVE henchman's arm behind his back. The goon grimaced and dropped to the ground.

One of the goons rapid pulled a gun out and pointed it into the distance. No sounds from the shadows which made things quiet.

The silence had been broken with Nightwing grabbing one of the drones around the neck and pressing on a nerve ending. The drone's legs buckled and forced him down to the ground. Nightwing dodged a knife coming from him. He grabbed the hand and disarmed the man.

The goon nearest to the door tried the old cyanide tooth trick. He screamed when the offending molars tore from his mouth. Blood splattered from the man's mouth with Harry coming back with a huge snapping punch to take his adversary down.

Another goon fled and a vine shot out from underneath the ground to ensnare the man in question. The thorns poked into his side when lifting up off of the ground.

"Where is Damien Darhk?" Pamela demanded.

"I don't….I don't know!" the man gasped.

"That's a pity," Poison Ivy said. "Well, it looks like you would be more useful as compost than you would be breathing."

"Wait, the vault…you can get in to it by pressing on the stones," the drone sputtered.

"I told you he would cough up the information if you just asked him."

Harry moved over and pressed on the stones. The vault broken open, and Harry saw a box full of enhanced versions of the same serum which gave Pamela and Woodrue their powers. The serum, Harry reminded himself, had been based off of his own research.

"They made more of it?" Pamela asked.

Harry responded with an elegant nod. He found a book in the vault. A large black book which once belonged in the collection of John Zatara, and had been stolen upon his death.

"Who gave you this book?" Harry asked.

"Witch boy!" the man in the vine's grasp breathed before passing out.

"He's dead," Pamela said.

She was matter of fact when saying it. There was really nothing else left to say other than to let the man drop down onto the ground. Battered and broken, the man fell to the ground.

' _Overall I think her trial run worked out rather well,'_ Harry thought. _'And finally, finally….'_

"WHO DID THIS?"

Harry jolted out of the thoughts. He heard a seething Pamela who stood with shaking hands.

"Who forgot to water this planet?"

Her empathy for the green obviously still had not been something she could control. Harry tried to calm her down, even though she was incensed that someone allowed a simple potted flower to wilt and die on a table, untouched by sunlight.

* * *

Amanda and Emily returned from a day of classes at Gotham City at Gotham City university. Their Friday afternoons were actually pretty much clear going. It was not necessarily a day where they could slack. It was a day though where they could get caught up on other projects.

Harley came down the steps of the cafeteria after lunch to meet with her two young charges. Amanda looked amused at the fact Harley looked frazzled.

"Sorry, I just had to give a long presentation," Harley said. "And I swear, some of the people in the group this time…well, never mind."

Harley had something to say about people not showing the proper level of respect or rather the proper level of interest. One of the assholes decided to obnoxiously eat in the back of class. Harley remained as professional as possible not to slap the asshole across the back of the head.

"So, how was your week?" Harley asked. "Are you getting ready for mid-terms?"

"Well, yeah, but that's not until December," Amanda said.

"Trust me, the teachers throw a lot of material at you," Harley said. "Including some material which is in the textbook which they don't go over in class. It isn't their fault though, they are just following the state's guidelines, and they only have a limited amount of time to teach."

Amanda and Emily figured that Harley had a lot of information on this. A large broad shouldered man with a bad haircut and a bad attitude stepped into the room. He sauntered across the cafeteria with two of his buddies whooping and hollering and egging him when he crossed the room. A girl who looked spaced out, and looked like a good wind could blow her over stood in the background.

"Hey, you're related to Potter, are you?"

"Yes, we're his sisters," Amanda said. "What do you want?"

The man obviously was the type of guy who got into college on his sports prowess alone and not of any academic achievements. He could string a couple of sentences togethers.

"You know what. I'm sick and tired of hearing how great Harry Potter is! He's not that special….just because he's rich and successful…it doesn't make him better than anyone else. But….he thinks he can take any woman. I swear, he should leave some women for us guys. Some of these women, they belong to us."

"Oh, and you think the women don't have any choice of who they're with, do you?" Harley asked.

The football jock waved his hand.

"I'm sick of it all!" the jock raged. "I'm sick of hearing about how great Harry Potter is. And how handsome and special and popular and powerful he is. He wouldn't be anything…anything when compared against a real man. And I'm sick of him….I'm just sick of him."

"Well, if we compared him to you…." Amanda said while trailing off.

"My girlfriend is talking about how great he is," the jock said.

Harley looked over to a girl who looked about ready to break into tears. She had been in such an abusive relationship by the looks of things. The type who swore that the man never meant it! Swore up and down that he loved her! Swore he could change. She could change him! The guy never meant it. It must have been something wrong with her. Those type of people were worthy of pity.

"Well, I'm sorry if your girl has good taste," Harley said. "It couldn't be that good if she had to settle for you."

The girl might have looked like a three or four, maybe could be bumped up to a charitable six if she took better care of herself. She looked at Harley with an angry glare.

"Hey, you can't talk about my man like that!" she shrieked.

"Yeah, that's right, you can't talk to me," the jock said. "Only a real slut would open her legs for Harry Potter. He likely has a bunch of STDs."

Amanda could not be bothered to educate this bastard on his sheer ignorance and how much he was divorced by facts.

"Nothing but a bunch of hoes!"

Harley grimaced. That bastard called a bunch of her friends hoes, and she was not going to put up with his attitude. It was bad enough she had to hear about how Harry was toxic to women from a bunch of nutjob Bedroom feminists who shared her class. This guy was the other end of the spectrum, the toxic male end as opposed to the toxic female end.

The jock turned around and Harley reached for a knife on the table. She did not know whether or not she would have the guts to go through with it though.

"Harleen!"

Doctor Bethanie Ravencroft appeared. Harley allowed the knife to slip out of her hand.

"That asshole better watch himself," Harley grumbled. "I'm coming Doctor Ravencroft!"

Amanda and Emily decided to leave as well. That asshole would not get away with it. They had made plans to put a couple of bitchy feminists in their place, but this could wait. This dude-bro came to the top of their list.

* * *

Zatanna stepped back to relax after finishing a lesson. The dark haired girl dressed in a black tank top which rode up as she walked and a pair of blue jeans without any shoes. Wanda had gone off elsewhere to leave Zatanna with a couple of moments to catch her breath.

Every second Zatanna trained, she thought about what would happen if she encountered the person or likely people, who killed her father. They had done so over simply greed and killing a man over such a baseless motive caused Zatanna to just grit her teeth in thinly veiled frustration.

A flash of light caused Zatanna to bolt straight up. She turned and came eye to eye with Harry Potter. She rushed at him and threw her arms into him with a hug.

"It's been a long time," Zatanna said.

Harry decided to make up for lost time by pushing his lips onto Zatanna's and kissing the dark-haired enchanter. His hands teased Zatanna's body and rumpled her clothes to feel up the girl's body. Zatanna really wanted more than just a mind-blowing kiss, but sensed there was something else on Harry's mind as he pulled away from her.

"I've got some good news," Harry said. "I acquired these."

Zatanna's eyes widened and jubilation filled the body of the young girl. Some of her father's collection found their way in front of her line of sight. She could have bounced up and down in celebration. Still, she settled for grabbing Harry and giving him another kiss to show the excitement.

"Finally," Zatanna said. "I thought some of them had been lost forever."

Being lost forever actually was the better case scenario in Zatanna's mind. Falling in the wrong hands sounded like the absolute worst case scenario and also the most likely scenario.

"I'm just happy that they're found," Zatanna said. "So….do you know who took them?"

"Well, I know where they were found," Harry said. "They were found in the possession of HIVE."

Zatanna frowned deeply when thinking about this. Harry put the leather bound books on the table. Something told her not to touch them until they were completely sure if they were clear of curses. Harry managed to get them here, but it did not mean anything.

"HIVE?" Zatanna asked. "Hmmm…well I can see them being the muscle, and Darhk does have his rumored fascinating of the occult. Still, there is something else going on here, isn't there?"

Harry gripped Zatanna's hand for a few seconds and squeezed it. Zatanna returned to squeezing Harry's hand back when he pushed in.

"One of them said Witch Boy before passing out."

"That's not good."

Out of the blue popped the one and only Morgaine le Fay with a frown on her face. She obviously knew Harry's arrival because this was a realm she ruled. The two exchanged a brief kiss with each other, before the world's most infamous witch pulled back.

"Klarion is his name," Morgaine said. "He's a force of complete chaos, and I shudder to think what he would do with even a peak in some of the books in Zatara's collection."

Zatanna would have to agree with Morgaine about it being potentially terrifying what this menacing force could do with her father's books. Her father, being an avid collector, had no idea precisely all of what was in his collection.

"Oh, and for your father's other books," Harry said. "I have them on lockdown. No one is going to get to them."

The books which had been accounted for anyway, and if someone could get to them, Harry would know straight away. Even the chance of them trying was something which Harry was not inclined to take a huge risk with.

"If he has access to any of Zatara's collection, then the world may be in for some challenges," Morgaine said. "But, it would be difficult to predict how he would act. He's a force of chaos. They are not governed by standard conventions. To say he has a plan would imply he is a manifestation of order which as we all know is a false assumption."

Harry would have to conclude Morgaine was correct.

"I'm just glad that you locked down the rest of my father's collection," Zatanna said. "Darhk and HIVE having possession of one of those books even for a second is terrifying, never mind Klarion."

Harry placed the book down and started to scan it. So far, no nasty surprises had been left on the book. Klarion must have thought the book would not serve him well in any respect and just left it in HIVE's possession.

"Do me a favor and scan it," Harry said. "Make sure that there is not anything that I missed."

Morgaine nodded in affirmation and disappeared with the book to put it through the full battery of tests. Zatanna turned her attention to Harry with a soft smile. She could not thank him enough.

"Months and we finally found something. I just hope we have a clearer idea of who is behind this."

* * *

The months went by pretty fast and Halloween was just around the corner. The Holiday Killer moved into a brand new base of operation. It looked pretty rundown compared to the other locations he was at. The carpet was stained in places and ripped in other places. Unsightly nicotine stains covered the walls and the desk in the corner with several folders had one leg.

The Holiday Killer dropped onto the rickety couch and sat in the shadows. He lit up a cigarette and smoked it. Halloween came around the corner. In some ways, the Holiday Killer could feel it. He could feel how much it would be the biggest night possible especially with Gotham City. He nurse the cigarette with several pumps before putting it out in the ass tray.

' _Everything did not go according to plan.'_

The serial killer crossed the room. He circumvented the broken glass on the carpet. The desk held several folders, pictures of victims and past victims alike. The picture of Alberto Falcone lingered in the palm of his hand for a number of minutes. The Holiday Killer looked at the face of this individual. His breathing increased when slowly crinkling the paper in the palm of his hand.

' _When you died, everything should have been perfect.'_

The Holiday Killer took a knife out of the holster and stabbed the picture of Alberto a couple of times.

' _It was supposed to fix everything. Your death. Instead, your death has thrown an even larger spotlight on me. And now, they're not going to rest until they start coming after me.'_

Stepping over, the Holiday Killer moved over to the calendar which he rescued from the dumpster and wrote on a wall. A red pen put an X through the 22nd on the calendar. A little over than a week before Halloween, less than a week before the strike which would bring all of Gotham City to attention.

The Holiday Killer returned to the papers. He flipped through them and noticed Peter Grogan's face lying first in the paper. He flipped through it one more time.

The smug face of that asshole Howard Branden blinked out from the other side. The Holiday Killer crumpled the photo of this man. He and his band of SWAT team goons acted like a private security force for every low life.

The Mayor of Gotham City, Hamilton Hill also was among the list of pictures that the Holiday Killer held for consideration. The Mayor thought with his security, he sat pretty and safe.

Harry Potter flashed into the images just next. The Holiday Killer hated him, hated everything about him. Hated how he was the symptom of everything that was wrong in the world. Every woman conspired to get in his pants and that was just not natural. That was not healthy for that many women to be interested in one man. Something was either in the water, or he had some way to mind-whammy women into being submissive pets.

Bruce Wayne was less annoying. Also a potential target, because he was the guy who did absolutely nothing for this city, despite his city giving him everything. Thomas Wayne also saved Carmine Falcone from sudden death by performing emergency surgery on him. The world would be better off without that bastard.

Speaking of Carmine Falcone, that particular picture came out in the line of sight of the Holiday Killer. He grimaced and looked over the picture.

' _Soon, soon you son of a bitch. Soon, you will pay for all of what you've done.'_

The television screen flickered in and the words "Maroni found" came across the scream. The Holiday Killer crossed the room to the desk and turned up the volume. He made it just in time to hear Vicki Vale give her report.

"Late breaking news tonight in Gotham City as notorious Gotham City mob boss Salvatore Maroni has been found in the Gotham East River. Last month, Maroni assaulted Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent as you can see here."

The footage played of Dent getting acid in the face. The Holiday Killer crossed the room and pulled out the picture of Salvatore Maroni along with a lighter. He put the lighter to the edge of the picture and burned it as the news reporter continued.

* * *

Sarah Essen got off of an extremely long shift. It had just been more of the same. She arrived at the café where Harry waited for her with a fresh cup of coffee.

The café was decorated with the usual Halloween décor some might have expected. Pumpkins, goblins, witches, ghouls, and perhaps the most fitting for all of Gotham City, there were a fair amount of bats. Sarah found herself not enjoying the Halloween decorations as much as she would have liked to. She took the piping hot cup of coffee and started to drink it as a few seconds passed.

"So, you've heard about it?"

Harry reached over to put his hand on hers and give it an encouraging squeeze.

"It's what we thought it might be for ages," Harry said. "Maroni's done and someone took his place. And they're working pretty hard in consolidating the gangs in Old Gotham. Someone knows a lot about how Gotham City works."

Sarah had some doubts about this campaign and how successful it would be to unite the various gangs who were moving around Gotham City. If it worked though, then perhaps everything would be fine.

"Yes, they're calling this person, Two-Face," Sarah said. "Providing of course it's just one person, and not a collective of people, who are fed up with being pushed around by the larger syndicates."

Harry wondered if they truly knew about the game. The larger gangs were many things. They might have been at each other's throats most of the time, and with wild cards like Penguin and Black Mask, one could expect as much. They would not like another player in an already crowded and already dangerous scene in Gotham City.

"Well, Maroni has twin sons, doesn't he?" Harry asked. "Maybe they popped off the old man?"

Harry decided to take a stab in the dark. A couple other theories moved to the level of baseless paranoia. Sarah looked thoughtfully over her coffee when surveying.

"Doubtful."

Harvey Dent came to mind. The last place anyone could account for him was when he jumped out of the window of the Gotham City General Hospital after catching a glimpse on the scars of his face. The most ideal scenario was that Dent was dead.

"And our new District Attorney is not making matters any better," Harry said. "Well, Acting District Attorney at the very least."

' _Still, hoping that Dent could be found?'_ Faora asked.

' _Yes,'_ Harry agreed.

Harry noticed another car pull out to the café. Not entirely unusual to see a squad car pull up at the café after the cop in question had gotten off a particularly long and grueling shift.

' _It's always possible to heal the physical scars,'_ Faora thought. _'I've been looking into it. The mental ones are a bigger concern.'_

Obviously, Harry knew that more than anyone else. The months leading up to the incident at the courthouse put Harvey Dent closer to being knocked over the edge. Harry's mind drifted to the words said by a certain criminal clown at Blackgate prison.

' _It doesn't take much. All it takes is one bad day to drive a person completely and utterly insane.'_

The doors opened with Renee Montoya stepping into café. She stopped at the edge of the table and greeted Harry with a smile.

"Congratulations on winning the Gotham City Humanitarian of the Year award," Renee said.

"Well, I'm surprised as anyone else that I won it," Harry said.

"Actually, you're more surprised than anyone else," Sarah chimed in. "Boyle might have been actively campaigning for it, but you were the one who was perfectly inline to do so."

"I wonder if you ever thought about joining the GCPD," Renee said, more to herself, than anyone else. "We could use a few good hands. Although, I'm pretty sure that you are busy enough."

Harry smiled at the Gotham City detective.

"I am. I do appreciate the good work that the fine men and women of the GCPD do. And support them as it can't be easy."

Renee would have been cynical enough to say that it was partly because of the city government where their job became harder than normal. As she rose in prominence, Renee had to deal with those assholes even more.

"So, why don't you join us for coffee?" Sarah asked. "It's been a long night."

"That's all we have in Gotham City," Renee said. "Long nights, every day for the past year it seems."

The nights were going to get even longer as Maroni's downfall broke open a power vacuum which could sweep anyone in its wake.

* * *

Rundown apartment in the center of Gotham was not the best place in the world for them to be. The sounds of screaming, loud arguments, and the occasional gunshot blew through the air. Regardless, one gentleman in particular knew they would have to lay low for a little bit.

William Temple Fugate escaped from Blackgate and spent some time calculating the most ideal and most efficient way to gain revenge on Hamilton Hill. He mapped out a potential schedule, stringing together a revenge plot by the micro-second. Hill frowned in response and then crumpled up the piece of paper.

"No, this isn't right."

Fugate walked the paper over and dropped it into the waste basket. He needed to clear the flaws of the plan as soon as humanly possible. No room for error. No room for flaws. No room for missteps. Fugate needed to calculate the plan down to the letter.

Also, if his calculations were correct Edward Nashton currently walked up the steps. He knocked on the door just as in on cue, and Fugate answered the door.

"Here," Nashton said.

He moved over to the table with the Chinese Food in his hands. He dropped it onto the table.

"Was I not correct that there would be the least amount of law enforcement in patrolling the Chinatown district when I had sent you out to acquire our dinner?"

Nashton took a few seconds to close his eyes. He hated Fugate. Hated how smug the asshole was of his own intelligence and his own meticulous planning. Some might consider Edward to be smug at times as well so perhaps he should not fault him.

"Yes, you were right," Edward said. "No one likes someone who rubs their intelligence in the face of others."

"You must really detest mirrors."

No further conversation points were needed after those words passed Fugate's mouth. The two men gathered around the table and ate until the lights started to flicker above them head. Fugate stiffened up.

"It's just these old buildings," Eddie offered.

Fugate grasped the edge of the table. It was something other than the old buildings. He knew it and he knew that Enigma knew it as well. The door swung open and a figure stepped out. Face had been halfway submerged in the shadows when he arrived.

Edward came face to face with Harvey Dent, who stood with one side of his body in the shadows. He found this quite a particular action from this man. Eddie dropped the chopstick and rose to his feet.

"Well, if it isn't the bastard who prosecuted me…"

Dent's hand found Enigma's throat. He throttled the life out of the little punk. Enigma also saw his full face.

"You can hold that choke for approximately one minute and thirty-nine seconds more," Fugate helpfully pointed out. "Any longer and he starts losing oxygen for the brain and could cause extensive brain damage."

"What…can….I do…for you…sir?" Enigma choked out.

Harvey broke the choke and allowed Enigma to catch his breath before his time ran out.

"Acquire information about Falcone's security," Dent said.

"Hard to do without a working computer."

Dent snapped his fingers and several men rolled in all of the computer equipment that Enigma needed. They began to set it up in the corner of the room.

"Well, time to go to work."

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 14** **th** **, 2017.**


	344. Preludes Part Three

**Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Four: Preludes Part Three**

* * *

A wrecked truck flipped over on the streets of Gotham City. Gasoline leaked from the truck, and the smell of something foul came from the truck. The Gotham City Police Department already arrived on the streets and established a barricade.

The door opened up and Ellen Yin stepped out of the truck. She had been followed by Sarah Essen. The two women made their way from the truck and kept walking forward. The hissing of the air having been left out of the tires caused both of them to stiffen up. Sarah let out an exasperated sigh which caused Ellen to answer with a raised eyebrow.

"Sorry, it's just the closer we get to Halloween, the worse things seem to get."

Less than a week away, actually five days to be more accurate they were to Halloween. The people of the Gotham City Police Department were just waiting for something else to happen. Last year, some of them still could not figure out what the hell happened last year.

"I don't think any of us will forget what happened last year," Ellen said. "I don't think anyone us want to remember what happened last year. Do you think that Blackfire really is…."

"I don't really know," Sarah said.

Gotham City turned eerily quiet. Sarah would have under many circumstances found this very peaceful. Yet, tonight, under these circumstances, she found things to be very alarming. She stepped over to take a look at the truck.

' _I don't know what it is,'_ Sarah admitted to herself. _'Everything just seems worse this year. Two-Face, the Joker, Penguin, Black Mask, it's just going to boil over. And the Holiday Killer, he's going to strike. And I have a feeling he's going to make an impact on Halloween.'_

"This year might be worse?" Ellen asked.

Sarah bent down and reached into her pocket to pull out her red sun. She ran a check on the license place. The GCPD officer dropped her shoulders with a sigh.

"Falcone," Sarah said. "The truck belongs to one of his shipping companies."

"So, what's on the truck?"

Sarah's answer would have to wait due to a sickening gunshot coming up over Gotham City. Another gunshot followed by several more rounds on them.

"Alright, you son of a bitch! You better step off. This is the Penguin's turf now!"

Two cars screeched to a halt and an explosion rattled every building from a mile long. Sarah and Ellen walked over to view the battle going on. Two sides were about ready to rumble with each other. On side, several classic old school gangsters, likely from Falcone's faction pointed guns at the men. The men appeared to be from Penguin's faction given the weapons they carried.

The windows of a nearby building shattered from being caught in the crossfire. Both sides started to fire on each other, neither side backing down. Reckless abandon did not even begin to describe how hard both sides were firing at each other.

"You son of a bitch! Do you hear me? You're going down! We're not going to let you get any more!"

"I don't think you've heard the memo! Gotham City belongs to the Penguin! Get it?"

The gang members closed in and were about ready to start with the shoot out against each other. Sarah moved over to radio in for backup.

Batman and Nightwing dropped down and put a cloud of smoke against the gang members. Sarah stopped for a minute and realized the backup was on the way.

"Normally, I wouldn't support vigilantism," Ellen commented. "But, they really are a necessary evil in Gotham City when you really think about it."

Sarah would have to agree as she watched Nightwing take down one of the gang members. A larger man with a rocket launcher could be a dangerous enemy. The Batman took him down with one sweeping motion and dropped him to the ground. The battle continued to rage on for several moments.

More sirens pierced the air with the GCPD arriving to this party.

* * *

Harvey Dent wondered how he got anything done by being a nice guy. People were a lot more willing to comply when you threatened their lives. The scarred Gotham City District Attorney turned towards the former technical support guru of the GCPD.

"I'd like you to get into Falcone's network, and I want it done tonight, or else," Dent growled.

"Yes, or else, well I'm working to get whatever information I can," Enigma said. "It would be a lot easier to get this done if you were not breathing down my neck."

"You better not be screwing around on purpose," Dent said. "I'm warning you right now, Enigma."

"Enigma?" Nashton asked a moment later. "That name was quaint, almost cute at times. However, it wasn't a name I wanted to be called for very long. I want to be called something else. I want to be called the Riddler."

"You better not pull any of that stupid riddle shit with me," Dent warned him. "If you even think about trying it, I'll cut you, straight down the throat."

The newly dubbed Riddler looked a bit put out. He returned to the computer system. To the dubious credit of these mouth-breathers, they managed to get him some equipment he could actually use. Perhaps, they had been a step above cavemen, just dragging their knuckles on the ground.

"And I think you've….well the new you is more suiting for Gotham City," the Riddler said. "I must say the look is something different. You fit in with the rest of them now. I think this might be the start of a beautiful partnership between the two of us."

Dent growled and started to flip the silver dollar. Riddler noticed it was quite the compulsion and wondered what the backstory was behind it. The obsessed could have their fair share of strange compulsions, as Enigma noted to himself in the past.

' _Some people just have their own twisted ideals,'_ Enigma thought to himself.

"We'll see about any future team ups if you succeed tonight," Two-Face said. "To me, you're nothing, but a low-life punk who hides behind his little word games. You were upset that someone spurned you and you took it out on the girl's father."

"It wasn't her, he's too good for her!" Riddler yelled.

"Shut your mouth," Two-Face growled. "Just shut your mouth. If you thought you could have Harry Potter, you must be more delusional than I thought. You're not his type. Even if you were a woman."

Fugate responded with a whistle. He was not up on the hip lingo these days. He thought that was what many of the kids these days would call a sick burn.

"And things have changed in Gotham City," Enigma said. "The Roman isn't what he used to be. Some of the territory has changed. Penguin has taken a chunk of it in addition to what he's taken from Rupert Thorne. Then, we have Black Mask who has taken some of it. And then he lost some of it back, now Thorne has swept in. And there's…well there's one oddball."

Two-Face growled and flipped his coin. Riddler took this as his cue to answer the question.

"What is the one card in the deck of playing cards which no one ever wants to see?" the Riddler asked.

A rough grab of the back his chair caused Riddler to bolt up straight up. His knee almost connected with the edge of the computer desk.

"I told you before, Nashton. No Riddle games! Tell me!"

"Well, the answer is obvious to even someone of your intellect," Riddler said. "But, perhaps, I should spell it out for you, yes. And implore you to work on that severe impulse control problem of yours…it's obviously one man. One crazed man. One Joker!"

"Joker," Dent said in a low and gravely voice. "I'll deal with him in due time."

Riddler had no doubt Dent intended to do so. He moved back to get further intelligence in the weakest spots to bring in Falcone. The Roman sat pretty for a very long time. Even after recent defeats, someone needed to bring him down off of his pedestal.

* * *

The moment Catherine Grant received a message to come and meet Harry Potter for dinner, she jumped at the opportunity. Did it make her look a little bit desperate? Potentially it did, but Cat did not care how it made her look if it meant that she had a chance to meet Harry Potter.

The normally career-driven woman stepped out of the limo. Her full face shined with a bright smile, her lips curled, ready for business. She dressed in a nice red dress which hugged pretty much every curve she had. Her breasts and hips would draw the attention of pretty much every man and some women as well. The stockings clung to her legs as well. Catherine painted her nails in a dark shade of red and lipstick brought her full lips into prominence as well. Her long eyelashes fluttered.

About ten steps into the restaurant, she almost ran into Vicki Vale. Catherine stepped back to get a good look at Vicki. She looked good these days, a figure which would make most women jealous. Her breasts were a bit larger than Cat's, and natural by the looks of things. Still, Catherine got some satisfaction in knowing she had a more toned ass.

"Victoria," Cat said in her normally crisp voice.

"Catherine," Vicki said in a calm voice

Catherine had a few years of experience on Vicki. She also may have been a bit rude to a young and ambitious reporter as well when Vicki was trying to rise up the ranks from where she was. It was really nothing personal.

"So, are you still working at the Gotham News Network?" Catherine asked.

"Yes, "Vicki said. "I'm one of the top reporters there, although I'm now keeping my options open. How about you?"

"Well," Catherine said with a smile. "I've moved on from the Planet. Put some good years in there, but it's time to move on. I've established my own company. One of the most prominent media companies on the WestCoast. I think you've heard of it. CatCo."

Vicki responded with a smile and a nod to confirm she had in fact heard of CatCo. Who hadn't heard of Cat's little vanity project these days?"

"Well, you're so modest, aren't you? "Vicki asked. "With the naming of pretty much everything after yourself. Including your daughter. She must be about twelve these days, right?"

The successful career woman brushed off the slight from Vicki.

"She's thirteen at well. Just about to enter one of the best private academies on the West Coast with top honors. She's bright. A very gifted child….almost to the point where she disappears most of the teachers."

Vicki smiled, despite Grant's many faults, and there were a fair few, at least she seemed proud of her daughter. Willing to trumpet her achievements from the highest height, but Vicki could not fault a woman for being proud of her own flesh and blood.

The moment both of them turned around, they noticed Harry Potter standing there.

"Thanks for meeting me!" Cat and Vicki yelled in unison.

Both of the reporters turned to each other and engaged in a very intense staring contest. Harry looked on in amusement, and almost had a sheepish frown crossing over his face. It appeared there had been a simple lack of communication from all parties.

"You've lost track of all with all you're trying to do?" Vicki asked. "Granted, it was bound to happen sooner or later, but….you still schedule two interviews in the same night. Don't you have people to keep track of that sort of thing?"

Catherine had been about ready to ask the same question. She had been disappointed at the fact that Vicki beat her to the punch.

"Kara was supposed to mention to you that the interview was supposed to be rescheduled for tomorrow night," Harry said.

' _Whoops,'_ Kara deadpanned through the bond link. _'I guess it must have slipped my mind.'_

"Guess the two of you are going to have to share me tonight," Harry said. "If you think you're capable of doing so."

Vicki gave him a smile and stepped forward. "Of course, I'm a professional. I'm willing to compromise. You should know how flexible I am."

"Mistakes happen, "Catherine said. "Even from men who most of the world think are the pinnacle of perfection."

The three of them settled down at the table.

"So, what do you have to say about the rumors of you purchasing controlling interest of the Gotham News Network?" Catherine asked. "You might be her boss before too long."

"Actually, I heard a different rumor," Vicki said. "And naturally, I think we should ask the source. What about creating your own media empire?"

"Competition builds business," Harry said. "And yes, you're right, Vicki. I'm planning to create my own media empire. It's been slow going. I've just been waiting for a couple of contracts to come due so I can get some people involved to be the cornerstone of the network."

He turned to the other reporter who frowned back at him.

"You're not entirely wrong," Harry informed Cat. "I've seen what you've done with CatCo. And you've done a lot of good work, especially when everyone counted you out."

A bottle of wine delivered to the table set the stage for tonight. Cat and Vicki looked about ready to outdo themselves to get the better interview with Harry.

"So, do you think the Red Sun Millennium is going to shatter all records made by the Red Sun Eclipse?"

* * *

A special holiday came up for the people of Gotham City, one which was near and dear to the heart of one happy man in particular. The shut-down comedy club which he made his hideout had been littered with decorations. Bats hung from the ceiling with their heads chopped completely off. Crude cardboard cutouts of people splattered in blood with knifes stabbed into their chest. Hideous monsters who came across their victims.

"Trick or treat! Smell my Feet! Give me Something Good to Eat!"

The one and only Joker started to laugh like a complete madman when he smeared the curtains of the comedy club with red paint. The clown prince of crime started to bob his head back and forth to the eerie music playing in the background. Eventually, the music cut in with screams. The screams grew in prominence and got louder and more horrific with each beat.

"So, I can see, that's just music to my ears!" The Joker called laughing out loud like a madman.

Halloween last year, well technically the day after, everyone's favorite clown made his debut in Gotham City. The city had never been the same and some would say the city would have been better. He made the city so much better bringing smiles to the faces of many people who were down.

"Halloween, oh I love it!" Joker called. "It's one of my favorite times of the year."

The clown decorated the place up a little bit by slashing at the curtains. He picked up some red paint to splatter the curtains and the wall to make the club look more like a murder scene. Ever the artist, the Joker stepped back and admired his handiwork.

"Art, one of the beauties of the world!" Joker yelled.

The Joker barged into the room where a small group of men who dressed in Halloween masks crowded around the table. They had stacks and stacks of candy on the table which they were putting into little Halloween baggies. A gang member reached for the candy bar. One of his buddies slapped his hand away before he would unwrap it.

"You nuts or something?" the gang member asked. "You realize what that candy might do to you. You know he tampered with it, don't you?"

"Ah, but they only have this one in the stores around Halloween," the thug said in a forlorn voice.

"Besides, eating candy isn't really good for you. All of the sugar, it goes straight to your thighs and then….BOOM!"

All of the gang members jumped up just in time to see the Joker standing right next to them with a wicked smile upon his face. He moved his way over with a knife in hand. Every member of the gang stood rigid. They knew that the Joker would be the one to stab them if he thought it was funny enough to do so.

"Relax, I'm not going to kill you," Joker said. "But, if you eat too much candy, I tell you, the calories are murder! MURDER I tell you!"

Joker chuckled as he confirmed what the gang members already suspected. Something happened to this candy.

"Then, there's the cavities, oh the sweet cavities," Joker said. "You have to wonder if there are some dentists out there who own these sweet companies. That way, they can make a mint selling sugary goodness to kids. And make even more by fixing their cavities. It's such a brilliant scheme, it's almost criminal!"

Joker laughed and the other members of the gang laughed along with him.

"Alright, that's enough," Joker said. "No one likes a kiss-ass. And even fewer people like a brown noser. The point is, I love Halloween. Although in Gotham, I tell you some people think it's Halloween three hundred and sixty-five days out of the year!"

To punctuated this point, the Joker held up a newspaper clipping he found out on the street. The latest grainy image of Batman who took down some of Penguin's men flashed out in front of the face of the Joker. The Clown Prince of Crime tutted loudly as he looked over the paper.

"There's a man who is in the spirit of the season all of the time," Joker said. "Of course, he might just have some mental issues. And maybe some Daddy issues as well. I mean, why kind of man willingly goes out dressed as a flying rodent night and night?"

"One who is screwed up in the head?" one of the gang members asked.

Joker picked up a particular large candy bar to waffle his goon in the back of the head with it. Said goon dropped down onto the table.

"First of all, that was a rhetorical question," Joker said. "And second of all? GET BACK TO WORK! I will not have you lazy jackasses slacking on the job when there is work to be done."

Joker turned his attention away and looked out into the windows. All of Gotham City rested in the palm of his very able hands. All he needed do is reach out and snatch the city. Heh, snatch, funny word all things considered.

"Trick or treat indeed," Joker said. "Batman and Nightwing denied me my treats. Now it's time to give some tricks to all of Gotham City."

A trademark round of laughter followed with the goons getting back to work. They knew that if this was not done before Halloween, the Joker would have their heads. Not to mention their spleens and pretty much any other body part he chose to have.

* * *

Catherine led the way upstairs with a slightly staggered step when she made her way up to the room. Vicki followed shortly behind them, and Harry made his way behind the two of them.

"So, what possessed you to write the article about me?" Harry asked.

A long moment passed, and Catherine did not answer the question. She started to fumbled through her purse to find the keys to the hotel room. It was a disaster area of pretty much everything she needed and a few things she didn't need. Finally, after a moment, Harry reached in and in three seconds, found the keys to the hotel room.

"I don't know what I'd do without you," Catherine said.

The blonde reporter clicked the key into the door and opened it up. The three stepped inside to the room. The lights came on and the hotel room was well cleared. Catherine stepped into the room and reached over for a pitcher on the table.

"Just water, I swear," Catherine said. "Something to…water down what I had tonight."

She took in a deep breath and drank the water. The cold refreshing drink coming through her body made Cat feel so much better to be perfectly honest. The moment she had been refreshed, Cat sank down on the couch right outside of her bedroom.

"So, you want to know why I wrote the article?" Catherine asked.

"Yes," Harry said. "Just call me curious."

"Well, perhaps I should have been a bit more tactful," Catherine said. "I'm sure you've gotten a lot more women throwing yourself out. Even more so than usual."

A small smile twitched on the corner of Harry's lips. If nothing, the brilliant gentleman was modest.

"I haven't noticed."

Catherine just flashed him a knowing smile. She actually would have normally called bullshit on this statement if not for one simple reason. Harry did not lack female attention. Therefore, he might have just gotten very used to women pretty much throwing themselves at him left, light and center.

"Well, yes, you might not have," Cat admitted. She almost fell forward, with Harry catching her. "Oh, that's…that's going to be a mistake. Thankfully, I don't think no one saw me."

Her divorce caused her to fall a little bit off of the wagon to be honest. Catherine managed to pull herself out of the public spotlight for about a year and only started to bounce back now. Unfortunately, nights like tonight reminded her that social drinking was a definite and very obvious no-no.

"I don't think anyone saw you," Harry confirmed to the woman. "You are back in your penthouse, you know, completely safe."

Harry reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle.

"Here," Harry said. "It's….well it should sober you up a little bit."

Vicki smiled, thanks to the privileges of being bonded with Harry he had a slightly higher immunity to alcohol. It was a bit unfair to expect Cat to keep up.

"So, you're marketing your own drunk cure?" Catherine asked. "Wow? You really do think of anything?"

"There's one thing you should know," Harry said. "Any emotions you felt when you're drinking are heightened. So if you're pissed off about something, than you might be on a trigger for about an hour or so."

"Well, beats stumbling around like a fish out of water," Catherine said with a shrug.

She downed the liquid. It had a pleasant taste and caused a buzz of a different kind to go through Catherine's body. She looked at Harry like a particularly juicy slab of meat. The horny business owner licked her lips and started to subconsciously slide the strap of her dress from her shoulder.

Common sense and decency prevented Catherine from stripping all of her clothes off. Even if it was getting so hot in here, the dress was uncomfortable. Harry wasn't kidding about the emotions from tonight being heightened at the drunk cure he gave her.

"So, you really want to know why I wrote that article?" Catherine asked. "You should know…that sex sells a lot! And I'm pretty sure many women could agree that Harry Potter is the greatest lover in the world. Maybe the greatest lover in all of human history."

Even Harry would not go that far, although the thought of some people thinking it did make him smile.

' _I would have to agree,'_ Faora thought. _'But, why stop in all of human history.'_

"Wouldn't you agree, Ms. Vale?"

Vicki noticed how Cat's hands enticingly swept over her body. It did not take much, did it? It would not take much to give her that one last nudge over the edge.

"Did you verify your sources?"

Catherine smiled hungrily. Her hands left her body and came down on either side of the couch. The feisty blonde leaned down so her dress almost fill to expose two round breasts. She was not wearing a bra underneath. Harry noticed this by looking down her top.

"Well, unfortunately, no, not yet, not personally," Catherine said. "I could not have a chance to verify the story."

The hungry tigress placed a hand down on Harry's abdomen and leaned towards him. Her breasts threatened to spill out of the top of her dress. Catherine's hungry eyes swept over Harry.

"Fortunately," Catherine breathed. "I've been able to get a couple of good sources who can personally vouch for Harry. These two young ladies were able to tell me everything that I needed to know about how skilled…and gifted Harry Potter is."

Catherine Grant tugged at Harry's belt and snapped it off. His pants started to slide down.

"No apologies for what I'm about to do tonight, either."

' _Sapphire, Veronica,'_ Harry thought in a tense voice.

' _Why would you think it was us?'_ Veronica asked.

' _Well,'_ Faora said. _'You two seem to be the most likely candidates to start talking about Har's prowess to a Gossip columnist. Thank you for the free publicity by the way.'_

' _No problem,'_ Sapphire said. _'Hey, not that we….'_

' _Yes, you did,'_ Harry thought.

Catherine stood up straight and put a hand on either side of Harry's face. She leaned in, her hot breath coming in Harry's face. She slipped the straps of her dress down and did not bother to pull them back up. Catherine Grant dropped the dress to the ground and stood exposing her fit body wearing nothing but a pair of slightly damp panties.

"But, I think that I should have gone with a more in-depth investigation, "Catherine said.

"Yes, she really should get a first-hand account," Vicki said.

Catherine had Harry's shirt undone as well. He stood in his boxer shorts. Harry rose up off of the couch and grabbed Catherine before pulling her into a blistering kiss. Catherine returned fire by slipping her tongue inside of his mouth.

* * *

 

Roaming hands moved all over Harry's body. Catherine had been swept off of her feet and pushed onto the bed. She landed onto the soft sheets with a smile on her face. Harry pulled away from her and allowed her to get a look at his large cock.

"Not yet."

Catherine felt disappointing spread through her body. Harry smiled and climbed on top of the head to give her a kiss. His hands ran all over her stocking clad legs when running up and down on them. Harry pealed back her panties and slightly teased her greedy nub with a few strokes.

The reporter thrust her hands up to meet Harry's fingers. The second his fingers touched Catherine's core, she moaned. He slipped a finger into her briefly and started to pump inside of it. Her nipples grew hard and there was a mouth on her which had been surprising.

Vicki Vale kneeled down beside Catherine's side and took a breast in each other. The blonde woman hitched in a deep breath with Vicki's warm mouth pressed against her rising nipple. A light suction have been delivered, with Harry moving over to suck her nipples on the other side.

"Well, the gossip magazines were wrong."

Catherine did not have an opportunity to ask Vicki what she could have meant about that. Harry's magical fingers came down and teased her opening. Catherine locked her eyes on Harry's mighty cock which was about ready to plunge inside her body.

"I need this," Catherine said.

"Get on your hands and knees."

The power he seemed to have over women with a few words had been taken effect. Catherine had been control every day every day at the office. She was sure a few interns broke out into tears because of the high quality of work demanded. A few personal assistants handed in their resignations rather than work another minute in the employ of Catherine Grant.

Now, the opportunity to give up control enticed her. Catherine sunk into her bed on the hands and knees. Harry climbed behind her. Hands slowly found their way feeling up Catherine's body. She made sure to allow Harry to get a perfect grip of her breasts.

"So, are you ready to get a hands on account?"

Harry seemed to be the one getting a hands on account of her. Those hands received a nice account of how warm and firm Cat's body was. He rolled his fingers all the way down towards the reporter's slit. His fingers touched her and slowly eased energy inside of her body.

"Yes," Catherine said. "Please."

Harry almost caused her an orgasm from the merest touch. He slowly pulled back and ensured the fact Harry just denied Cat to sink into the reporter of the horny woman.

"Make that horny bitch beg for it," Vicki said.

"Like you haven't begged for it before," Catherine said. "Like you haven't begged to have Harry's hard juicy cock slide in between your thighs and then push straight into your pussy. Like you haven't begged to have his rock-hard shaft wrecking your pussy, spoiling it for anyone else!"

Just as Catherine said these words, Harry ground his hardening cock against Cat's slit. It was so rock-hard that Catherine needed it of it.

"Maybe she begged for it," Harry said. "Maybe she didn't. But, I can tell you're about ready to lose it. Do you want my cock in you? Or don't you?"

Harry started to pull teasingly away from Cat. Her breathing increased the second Harry pulled away from her loins. The aching spread through her. The heat, the desire of wanting Harry's mighty rod stuck inside of her loins. He was this close to being inside of her.

"Please," Catherine said. "Fuck me."

She looked ready to receive on her hands and knees.

"Fuck me with that obnoxiously large cock!" Catherine demanded. "Show me first hand why the girls think you're the best lover in the world. Show me what you can do with that huge cock. Show me what you do to demanding bitches like me!"

Harry pushed down on her lower back and cupped Catherine's firm ass. His cock grinded against her and this time started to ease into her. Her pussy stretched very nicely to accommodate the thick rod inside. Catherine's warm walls spread out far to take Harry's mighty rod inside of her body.

"FUCK!" Catherine yelled.

"And to think, that's only just a few inches," Harry said.

He teased Catherine for several more minutes. Inch by inch worked inside of her pussy. The woman stretched out to accommodate Harry. A warm feeling spread against Harry's loins the second he pushed further inside of her. He wondered how much of it could take.

"Are you slowing down?" Vicki asked. "You know I was able to take more of that during my first go around."

Vicki stripped her panties off and fingered herself at the sight of Harry pushing his cock slowly into Cat. She got off at the bitch whining at the feeling of the cock sliding into her body.

"Deeper," Catherine said. "Deeper than you ever got inside of that smug Gotham cunt!"

The spirit of competition was alive and well. The professional rivalry extended to the bedroom and Harry could not think of a better feeling in the world than to have Catherine's moist slit pumping it's generous heat around him. He groaned and raised back before sliding down inside of her. Harry pulled back and filled Catherine with constant and rapid fire pumps inside of her.

"Like this?" Harry asked her. "How about this? Is this enough cock for you?"

Three-fourths of his cock violated Cat Grant's pussy. However, she wanted even more. The entire package would need to be spiked inside before Cat was completely surprised. Those warm juices pumping out of her cunt just made Harry push over her. Harry spent the next few minutes exploring Cat's sexy back and making her dance like a puppet on a string to the tune of his large cock.

"More!" Catherine demanded. "MORE!"

"Patience," Harry informed her. "Good things come to those who wait."

Catherine tried to convey the fact she did not want to wait any longer. She wanted this cock inside of her in every single way possible. Harry pushed into her core. The feeling of his throbbing flesh inside of quim enhanced Catherine's pleasure. The intensity of his love making brought Catherine over the edge. His cock shoved inside of her and filled her completely up.

She always had been a greedy bitch who wanted more. Catherine never felt more satisfaction than she did to feel Harry's balls grinding against the edge of her womanhood.

Vicki worked her cunt with even strokes. She wanted Harry's cock inside of her. Still having his cock buried inside of Catherine Grant and making her cum all over it, it caused Vicki to almost lose her mind. Harry's huge balls slapped over Catherine's back. Harry touched her body and drove her completely nuts.

"Are you learning anything, Ms. Grant?"

No question could be answered due to Cat being dragged over the edge. Harry planted his thick rod inside of Catherine's pussy when it gripped him. He almost pulled all of the way out and kept driving into Cat. He repeatedly worked her up to the first major orgasm.

"Now, it's your time," Harry said. "Are you honored?"

She most certainly was. Harry drove his prick inside of Cat's tight pussy. Harry rested his hands on her lower back and moved over to cup her ass. A nice smack caused Catherine's loins to twitch when Harry kept working into her. The well-earned orgasm passed through her.

Harry enjoyed the feeling of Catherine's hot walls pumping his manhood. She gripped him tight and released him with even more fluid pumps. Harry could feel her warm walls milking his throbbing rod.

A brief pause followed and without too much preamble, Harry shoved his hard cock deep inside of Catherine's warm pussy. The gripping warm walls held Harry as hard as possible. He almost slid out of her. When a moment passed and when Catherine was hungering for his prick some more, Harry shoved his aching rod back inside of her.

One orgasm might have been enough. Harry brought her to a second orgasm without ejaculating inside of her. The feeling of not having his seed inside of her made Catherine feel really good. A steady series of thrusts brought his cock deep inside.

"Yes!" Catherine moaned. "OH YES! YES!"

Harry enjoyed the moans coming from the reporter. She took his cock like a champion. Harry pulled almost all the way out and plunged inside one more time. His balls ached at the thought of spilling his load inside of Catherine's beautiful pussy. He slid in as far as possible and almost slid completely out.

"It's time," Harry said.

The touches on the back of her legs and the fact Harry grabbed her firm thighs while pushing inside made Catherine gush even more. His cock planted inside of Catherine with a constant barrage of never ending thrusts. Harry worked his way up and into her. Her walls tightened around Harry and clenched warmly around him.

Harry drove his rod inside of her.

"Hope you're coherent enough to being taken detailed notes of this."

The talented lover sucked the back of Catherine's neck and caught a sensitive spot on her. She enjoyed having her neck nibbled on and Harry pushing inside of her. His balls rested against her warm pussy and rubbed against her walls. Harry touched her and brought her to the end of an orgasm.

The end came for this round. Harry's aching balls discharged his load inside of Catherine. He pumped in and out of her to send more cum inside. The final few pumps rocked Catherine's wet slit full of his cum. Harry held onto her with a grunt which filled Catherine's pussy with the contents of his balls.

The reporter sank down onto the bed completely satisfied. One reporter to another, as Vicki turned her attention towards Harry. She sat across from him on the bed dressed in nothing other than a lacy purple bra and a pair of panties. Harry smiled and pulled Vicki onto his lap.

Vicki wrapped her arms around Harry while straddling his lap. The two of them gave each other a passionate kiss with Harry's hands pushing onto Vicki's lower back. Vicki breathed heavily when Harry reaching around and unclipping her bra to release her breasts out into the open.

Her panties followed suit, and Vicki could feel his cock growing the minute that they started feeling each other's bodies up. Vicki pulled back a couple of inches to position herself. She mounted Harry's lap and dropped her scorching opening onto his thick cock. It pushed inside of Vicki all the way with Harry holding onto her breasts when she rose and dropped down onto him.

"Harry," Vicki said with a sultry groan.

Harry ran his hands down her legs to only encourage Vicki to bounce on him even more. Her warm pussy rose up and slid down onto his cock. His balls loaded up the deeper Harry penetrated in the woman's warm body. Vicki slid her warm pussy walls down onto his throbbing hard cock.

The woman's breasts pushed into Harry's hands. He squeezed them with a couple of movements. Vicki's nice bouncing breasts grabbed into his hands. Harry squeezed them for a minute and released them. He contented himself to watch her bouncing breasts just rise and fall onto the bed.

Vicki threw her warm pussy down onto Harry's engorged rod. It filled her completely up for a second and then came almost all the way out of her. Vicki dropped down onto him again. Harry's hands roamed to grab as much flesh as they could grab. Harry buried face-first inside Vicki's chest and sucked on her eager nipples to cause the woman to throw her head back.

Harry brought Vicki as far down on his engorged pole as possible. The two lovers engaged in their passion with each other.

Fingernails scraped all over Vicki's body. Turnabout being fairplay ended with Vicki driving her nails into the side of Harry's shoulder. She drove her wet pussy down on his engorged cock with a few solid drops. She filled herself up with his cock and rode him all the way to the end of their exchange.

Vicki came all over Harry's long cock for the first of many times. Harry enjoyed watching the sultry reporter rise and drop on his cock to stretch out her loins all the way on his member. Vicki threw her head back and gave a moan which reached the heavens until the moment they shared a mutual release.

It did not come too soon, thankfully.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 18** **th** **, 2017.**


	345. The Long Halloween Part One

**Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Five: The Long Halloween Part One**

* * *

The late night on October 30th, and Midnight was about ready to pass at any minute. Howard Branden of the Gotham City SWAT team and his usual gang of SWAT guard members made their way around the corner. All of them had looks on their face like people who were about ready to get a big prize.

' _Finally,'_ Branden thought. _'I finally got the son of a bitch.'_

The SWAT guard members crept around a truck which sat out in the middle of a junkyard in Gotham City. Several whispers on the street pointed to this particular truck being an outpost for the vigilantes of Gotham City. Howard Branden in particular wanted to see whether or not the rumors were true.

All of these years he had been humiliated by the likes of Batman and Nightwing, well it stopped tonight. Branden prepared himself to get the prize.

' _And Porter will be pleased once I've taken in two of her most wanted.'_

Branden could never get in with Harvey Dent as the Gotham City District Attorney. He was too much of a straight arrow who did not quite understand how things worked in Gotham City. And what happened to him? He got a face full of acid. Just like that, everything changed. Dent's life changed in a blink of an eye.

Porter would be a lot easier for Branden to work with. She did not nearly have the connections, but still, it would be something to get her on his side. Branden already had been in well with Hill and Grogan. Time to cover all of his bases. Branden vowed to get her on his side.

Another vow Branden made was to get inside of this truck. It was time for him to stop these vigilantes, stop them from running over Gotham City. Stop them from making fools of Branden and his men, something which he hated much about.

' _Alright, you son of a bitches, finally, I'm sick of this.'_

The SWAT guards stayed perfectly quiet with Branden setting up station outside. Three of the men moved forward to investigate the truck. One of the guards froze and looked at the truck.

"What is it? "Branden demanded.

A grinding followed and then the truck doors blasted open. Gas blasted the two people nearest to the truck. Four more a bit closer also got a whiff of the stuff. They had hideous smiles on their face. The SWAT team members whipped at their riot batons and started to beat each other and also beat the other SWAT members who had not been gassed as well.

Branden moved over and made his way out of the exit. He was going to need more backup. Someone rigged the truck to get his men. Who would have done such a thing?

"Trick or treat!"

The Gotham City SWAT leader jumped into the air and came face to face with the grinning madman in the alleyway. Joker stepped out with Branden sputtering like a madman.

"You're…you're crazy!" Branden yelled.

"So, no treats, huh," Joker asked. "Fair enough. Here's my trick."

Joker pulled a gun on Branden. It made a loud bang and Branden braced to be shot dead even though the armor. Joker held the gun with a flag pointing out. The words "HA! HA! HA!" had been written all over the red flag.

A loud round of laughter followed as Branden sighed in relief. Then Joker laughed even harder and pulled the trigger a second time. The flag discharged into Branden's throat and sliced through one of his arteries.

"Looks like I get my trick and my treat at the same time!" Joker said. "And all the freaks come out on Halloween Night."

Joker paused and looked off to the side as if addressing some invisible audience.

"Well, technically Halloween morning. But why split hairs? Guess Branden isn't going to be getting any treats tonight."

In one shot, the Gotham City SWAT leader had been struck dead by the Joker.

* * *

"And it's time to stop."

Lois took a deep breath. She thought her timing was getting a little bit better on these things. Lyta just smiled and handed Lois a towel to wipe the sweat off of her face.

"One of these days, I'm going to make you sweat," Lois said.

Lyta reached forward and patted Lois on the shoulder. Rebecca and Ella, who already wrapped up their little smile, also smiled and moved over to get themselves some nice refreshing drinks of water. Harry and Dinah stood off to one side to view Lois, Ella, and Rebecca from moving off.

"You realize she's just getting better as well," Rebecca said.

Lois answered with a shrug. She was glad today was a Sunday, so she could take it easy and relax for the most part. Of course, that just meant Sunday was just one more step closer to Monday and Monday meant going to school.

' _Well, at least I'm too old to trick or treat,'_ Lois thought. _'Besides, what kind of parent leaves their children going door to door collecting candy from strangers in Gotham City?'_

Harry smiled and walked over to turn on the news. Dinah sank down onto the couch at one end, while Kara, and Diana joined him as well.

"They are making a lot of progress," Kara commented to Harry.

"Yes," Dinah confirmed. "Lois, Ella, and Rebecca, all three of them, have stepped up their game. Lois still has a few issues with going in there and letting her emotions get the better of her."

"Lyta's helping correct those nicely, I thought," Diana said. "And I think all of the girls have that problem. It has something to do with their youth. We never had that much patience when we were that age either…at least I know I didn't."

Hippolyta constantly reminded Diana of the fact she was as headstrong as pretty much anyone else when at a younger age. The Amazon Princess just smiled at the thought, some of the stories her mother told, and Artemis collaborated, did show how much she grew.

"I don't think I did either," Dinah said. "I'm sure my mother, rest her soul, if she was here, she would tell me about how much I had thought with my heart instead of my head. And I'm pretty sure Wildcat, if you just went down to his gym, would tell you all about it."

The four sat and watched the morning news. Something nagged at Harry all morning. They did a trick or treat safety tips story. The usual stuff about wearing bright clothing, not going inside the house, not going to any doors which are not lighted, looking both ways before crossing the street, and also not eating any of your candy before your parents looked at it.

' _And that's actually better advice because some nutcase in Gotham City would be the type to slip razor blades or whatever in the candy,'_ Barbara thought. _'Slow morning though, but…'_

Harry hoped for their sakes it would remain slow. The last thing they needed was a repeat of last year's Halloween with the rise of Deacon Blackfire. They moved through their usual Halloween report until the special report signal flashed across the screen.

An early Sunday morning news broadcast full of fluff had been interrupted by the grim face of Jack Ryder who appeared on the scene.

"The body of Howard Branden, the long-time senior member of the Gotham City SWAT team, has been found in the dumpster by two youths earlier this morning."

Harry watched the television screen. He was not going to be too sad about the death of Howard Branden. The man had caused him a lot of problems over the years and the way he operated the Gotham City SWAT department was like a pack of mercenaries. Everyone knew it, but because Branden got himself so well connected no one could do anything about it.

"He was well protected," Kara said. "And someone just got to him."

"Just what I was thinking," Harry said. "This isn't good, it isn't good at all."

"Branden is the latest of a series of deaths which has plagued Gotham City, and as we have arrived on Halloween night, we must ask ourselves one question. Has the Holiday Killer struck again?"

' _The Holiday Killer?'_ Harry asked. _'Maybe, but it seems pretty much doubtful. There's something else going on here. There's something else…'_

The image of a television screen going fuzzy over Jack Ryder's face pulled Harry out of his thoughts. Jack Ryder's face had been replaced on the television screen by the one and only Joker.

"You know in this day and age, you really can't trust a lot of what comes out of the mainstream media," Joker said. "There's been a whole lot of fake news coming out from the big media publication country. Liberals, what are you going to do? Conservatives, what can I tell you?"

The Joker laughed at the fact he just triggered a bunch of people by talking about politics.

"But, you see, I'm all about integrity in the media and people getting the credit that they deserve. And I'm not going to tell a lie. I'm the one who killed Howard Branden. I popped that smug little bastard off and it was done just last night. Go to the old Gotham City scrap yard and you can find the rest of his team. Or whatever's left of them anyway."

One sadistic face and a cold stare locked onto the camera. Joker's serious look burned into the camera.

"Holiday Killer, I know you're watching," Joker said. "And I know you're listening. Therefore, I'm going to implore you to step off. Halloween is Joker's night. And whatever little plan you have in store for Gotham, it's going to be nothing compared to the fun I've got in store."

The clown continued to grace them with a brighten smile.

"So, why kill Branden? Well, it was funny and he was there. But, you know what else is funny. The mob just lost their little safety net. I did something that the good eggs at the GCPD could not do. I did something that Batman, Nightwing, Black Canary, and all of the other do-gooders could not do. I just wiped out one of the biggest cancers in Gotham City!"

Insidious laughter filled the air. Joker's wide grin got even wider.

"One, two, Joker's coming for you. Three, four, you better shut the door. Five, six, grab your crucifix…."

' _Barbara?'_ Harry asked her.

' _I'm in the process of tracing the signal right now,'_ Barbara confirmed to him.

* * *

Several people ran around in the GCPD. The Joker's statement proved to be true with several of the missing SWAT members found in the Gotham City scrap yard. A grim looking Harvey Bullock made his way through the station for a minute.

"The damn Joker's just getting started," Bullock said. "I'm not going to lie to you guys. This is going to be a long Halloween so you better get ready."

One Sarah Essen was among the members of the GCPD officers who were around to see the crime scene photos in all of their jarring glory. The Joker's gang took the SWAT team members, who thankfully had already been dead, to the Gotham City scrap yard. Sarah shuddered to think what would have happened if they had been shoved through the machines alive as opposed to dead. None of them really wanted to think of it.

Renee Montoya passed Sarah. She went to fix a cup of coffee, even though today she needed something a bit stronger to get through her morning. Unfortunately, being at work did not afford her that luxury.

"So, not what I expected to wake up to on a Sunday Morning," Renee said.

"No kidding," Sarah said. "Howard Braden's been killed. You know something, I thought that he would be always around."

There were times where Branden escaped certain retribution, times where his job would have been on the line. Sarah thought the Gotham City cop killer would have gotten Branden. Especially considering the cop killer was Loeb, who knew likely some of the more depraved details of Branden's operations. Palms got greased, or so Sarah saw. She never witnesses any backroom dealings of the GCPD.

"He was a survivor," Sarah said. "Guess, you can only go so far when you run into someone like the Joker, though."

Sarah would have had to agree. The atmosphere in the Gotham City Police Department redefined the term tense. Everyone stepped on eggshells, no one wanting to make the wrong move which would get someone upset after tonight.

"I wouldn't put it past the Joker to blow up the entire station."

The statement might have been made in some dark humor attempt to lighten the mood. Sarah, on the other hand, took it very seriously. The doors opened and James Gordon walked into the view, along with Peter Grogan. Grogan stood up very straight.

"Joker's now Gotham's most wanted," Grogan said. "We're going to find the bastard and bring him to justice. He killed one of our own. That behavior can't be tolerated in Gotham City."

Some would have argued that the Joker should have been on the list.

"I got off the phone with Hill," Grogan said. "And we're not going to put Gotham on lockdown."

"Are you sure about that?" Gordon asked.

Grogan stood up with his chest puffing up proudly.

"Jim, I've never been more certain of anything in my life. If we start bend to the whim of one madman, than Gotham shuts down. They all start coming out of the woodwork. It will be fine, the GCPD is on high alert, and the SWAT…the SWAT will want to take the bastard down just as much."

He even took focus off of Batman and Nightwing tonight, this was how high priority Grogan saw the Joker.

"As long as I live I won't let some madman terrify the good people in Gotham City."

Gordon figured it might have been useless to tell Grogan it was not just some madman they were dealing with. They were dealing with the Joker.

* * *

Severe winds were warned from anyone traveling through Gotham City, and rain was threatened to happen closer towards midnight. Not that a little bit of bad weather bothered the people traveling in Gotham City. They had been used to the bad weather. A more cynical person would argue that bad weather would be a good night in Gotham City compared to some of the nights in Gotham City.

Catwoman clung to the gargoyle overlooking Gotham City. She looked at some of the patrons moving into the Matchbox club. It rocked with booze, gambling, and loose women on this Halloween Night. Selina did not care about the illegal activities. She did not even care about the financial opportunities which would come. All she cared about was one gentleman and how he was positioned in the club.

Carmine Falcone arrived at the Matchbox every Halloween night. He was there for no more than a half of an a hour, maybe an hour, but Falcone did have a couple of drinks and pay his respect to the owner of the club. The two went back several years apparently.

' _You make friends with the right people. You get set up for life. That's how it works in Gotham City any more.'_

Selina thought for a brief minute though that perhaps this year, due to circumstances, Falcone would not make his traditional Halloween appearance at the Matchbox. The crafty thief would have to wait and see to see whether or not he would show up.

A limo pulled up to the side entrance. Two bodyguards stepped out of the front of the limo and two more bodyguards got out of the side exits on the limo. Selina frowned when the one and only Carmine Falcone exited the limo. He walked with none of his usual swagger. At least until he got to the front doors where people could see them. Then Carmine stood up and proud.

' _Not looking too good these days,'_ Selina mused. _'Sofia was right.'_

Given the tragedies in his life recently, Selina could not really fault this from happening. Alberto was a little shit, but Carmine still cared deeply for his son. Mario, Selina did not have too many kind words to spare about him these days. Mario getting sent out of the country did Carmine no favors either. When you coupled in with his empire starting to crumble, Maroni, and pretty much everything else, Carmine Falcone, the once iron-clad untouchable ruler of Gotham City, hung up by a thread.

Someone would snip that thread sooner or later.

Selina decided tonight would be a night where she would get answers as Selina Kyle. She moved down to the alleyway across the club. The woman fiddled with a lock and slipped into the side entrance. Moments later, she remerged as Selina Kyle, the gear of Catwoman discreetly shoved in a bag over her shoulder.

"Ms. Kyle," the guard said. "Sofia Falcone said to expect you."

Being invited straight in without trying to bargain in threw Selina's entire game off for just a minute. She recovered quickly gave a smile and slipped the hundred dollar bill into the hand of the door guard all the same.

"Thank you."

Selina slunk off to the side of the club. Carmine Falcone sat at the head of the bar in front of some really big windows which overlooked the streets of Gotham City.

"Thank you for coming out," Carmine Falcone said. "I know this year has been one of challenges. This coming year, as we go into a new millennium, I'm confident that those who helped build Gotham City will prevail. Some men unfortunately like to watch the world burn."

"To old friends and traditions!" one of the patrons yelled out.

"To old friends and traditions!" another one of the patrons shouted out.

Everyone clinked their glasses together, and Falcone looked about ready to hold court. Selina knew despite how much she wanted to, it was going to be a challenge getting close enough to Falcone. Thankfully, Falcone was entertaining people.

"Congratulations on the healthy birth of your son," Carmine said. "Children are a blessing, and I'm sure you thank yourself for every day you get to spend as a part of their life."

A brief moment passed while Carmine grew briefly reflective. Only a fleeting moment give how much he recovered from what happened.

The sound of whirling rockets echoed and shattered open the front windows of the club. Several of the people unlucky enough to get near the shattering windows had been impaled by glass. The doors blew open and one of them flied off and hit the woman who Carmine just blessed in the back of the head.

The impact killed her straight away.

"So, the little twerp was right, you were here."

Carmine Falcone stood up tall as did his bodyguards. The Roman came face to face with the one and only Two-Face. A shootout began with screams of panic going.

Falcone ducked his head in the conclusion and made his way to a side entrance. Two guards outside of the club grabbed Dent and pushed him into the backseat of the limo. These were the last actions those guards performed before they had been shot cold as well.

Sparks flew from the power box and fire started to shoot all over. Selina made her way out the back door in time to catch a glimpse of the face, the unscarred half, of Two-Face.

' _Well, fuck me sideways,'_ Selina thought.

"GO!" Dent yelled. "That bastard's not getting away. Not tonight. He's going to pay, and Gotham City is going to have order once more!"

* * *

 **A** whistling wind came over Gotham City outside of the Matchbox Club. The police car containing Ellen Yin and Sarah Essen already arrived. They pulled up into the parking lot into the side entrance. Already, this night was going to be one of the ages in the length it had caused. Already, someone had struck given the state of the side entrance of the club. The smell of smoke and gasoline in the front of the club churned Sarah's stomach. They already were running into trouble and they were barely there.

Ellen took a couple of steps. Her hand placed against her side arm at all times, ready to draw it at the first instance of trouble. Seconds passed as she and Sarah stood next to each other. Seconds might have be minutes as Ellen navigated around the broken glass.

"So, should we call for the backup?"

The sound of more cars pulling up outside of the club entrance answered Ellen's question. There was no need to call for backup when the backup already arrived. The first vehicle they saw was a truck belonging to the Gotham City fire department. The fire fighters exited the truck and went on the defense against the fire. Sarah and Ellen turned around to see Renee Montoya and Harvey Bullock.

Bullock already entered a very intense conversation with the man owning the club. Judging by the look on both of their faces this conversation did not go to their of their likings. Two men stepped out of the club and Bullock exchanged some words in.

"Look around outside," Sarah said. "I'm going to head inside."

Ellen did not disagree with her partner's assessment. Now the fire, however prominent it was, had been put out, there was no risk of heading inside. Sarah already stepped through the doors.

Bullock and Montoya investigated the club goers and some of the patrons outside. Sarah noticed an overturned table near the back of the club. Playing cards littered the floor, with broken glass, and a cigarette burned a hole through the carpet on the other side of the overturned table.

Another peak outside showed Sarah that Bullock and Montoya was investigating. She turned her attention to the shadows just in time to catch a glimpse of Nightwing. She figured that he was here.

"So, I shouldn't be surprised," Sarah said.

"No, you shouldn't," Nightwing said. "I thought someone would get to Falcone tonight. I just thought it would be the Joker after his little television show this morning."

Every single person in Gotham City saw the Joker's broadcast whether it be live when it happened or during the various replays on the Gotham News Network throughout the day.

"He was long gone by the time Oracle tracked him," Nightwing said. "And now, we'll be able to see who took Falcone."

The images flashed on the security screen in front of them. Harry noticed for a brief instance Selina in the corner. She was eying Falcone which resulted in a very evident frown crossing Harry's face.

"Two-Face," Sarah said. "Well, I'll be a…."

Words failed both of them. Grim realization dawned on Harry. He heard the rumors, the whispers, but discounted them as that, even though in the back of his mind there was a very nagging feeling. The unscarred half of his face was completely visible and there was no mistake about who it was.

"So, it's Dent!"

Sarah turned around and came face to face with James Gordon. Gordon looked from Nightwing to Sarah for a second. Explanations came close to entering the tongue of the Gotham City detective. Gordon just held up a hand to stop them from coming.

"I'm not surprised you're working with Nightwing," Gordon said. "I don't have any room to throw stones. But…Bullock and Montoya are coming back around. They'll be inside to investigate in a few minutes."

Gordon turned to Nightwing now. Obviously, the man had not gotten any sleep since the Harvey Dent incident. And Nightwing understood it, Harvey was good man and a standup guy.

' _All it takes is one bad day to drive a normally well-adjusted person completely insane.'_

"Have you heard from Batman?"

"No," Nightwing admitted. "I've been trying to get into contact with him lately through a mutual contact. So far, nothing, he's gone silent after since the Joker's latest plan."

Gordon turned to the image flashing across the screen. He did not want to believe the rumors about Two-Face yet this was proof for the first time shining out in front of his face. Conclusive proof could not be argued no matter how much Gordon wanted to disagree with it.

"Dent's responsible for several murders," Gordon said. "We might have worked together in the past. Now, I'm going to have to treat him like any other criminal."

"Do what you have to do, Captain."

Harry turned his attention back and closed his eyes.

' _Vicki, I'm sending you some information,'_ Harry thought. _'This news is going to get out soon enough, and it's video proof of Two-Face's identity. It's Harvey Dent.'_

' _You've got to be fucking kidding me,'_ Vicki thought. _'Dent is Two-Face.'_

' _I wish I was fucking kidding you,'_ Harry thought. _'I have to believe what I see and what I see is Harvey Dent attacking the Matchbox tonight. And he's responsible for all of the other crimes attributed to Two-Face as of late.'_

Harry had another concern. Dent knew that Rachel Dawes was the Gotham City Cop Killer and not Gillian Loeb. It was difficult for Harry to predict Dent's next move, but things were about ready to take a turn for the ugly. If he decided to spill that secret, then the morale of Gotham City would shatter.

Two beloved public servants who seemed to be a shining beacon in Gotham City becoming criminals within a year of each other really would create a panic.

* * *

Peter Grogan stepped a little bit out of the way to the GCPD. The moment he was pretty sure that he was out of harm's way, Grogan pulled out a cell phone. He drew in a deep breath when beginning to talk.

"There's nothing to worry about," Grogan said.

For once, the man on the other end of the phone did not seem to take him at his word. Normally, Grogan could reassure this man with a few words. Now everything pretty much changed.

"I disagree with everything being fine. After what happened to Branden, you can't…you can't just think everything would be just fine."

The frantic voice of Hamilton Hill came over the telephone. Grogan wanted to do his very best to reassure the man even though reassurance had not been that easy. The man pinched his nose for a minute.

' _Hill's never been the same since the Clock King went and messed with his head,'_ Grogan thought in a very regretful voice. _'It's a real pity he's changed. And it's not for the better.'_

Grogan noticed something buzzing at the other end of his phone.

"I'll talk to you later," Grogan said. "I have a call on the other line."

It had been just around eight o'clock in the evening on a Halloween and already there had been some pretty bad news breaking. Grogan somehow knew that there were going to be some trouble.

"Yes," Grogan said.

"Sir, we've…we know where Dent is."

Grogan could have jumped with joy. Finally, after all of these weeks, some good news regarding the departed Gotham City district attorney, or maybe it was good news. Grogan came to the realization that Dent could have been dead for weeks and they just found him.

' _Still, closure is closure,'_ Grogan thought. _'And him being dead is much better than some of the rumors to the contrary.'_

"We've gotten video footage which shows Dent at the Matchbox. There's no denying it. There's no denying who he is. He's the mysterious mobster known as Two-Face, sir."

Peter Grogan's blood ran completely cold at this revelation. He could not believe it. Dent, Dent of all people, he turned bad. Grogan hated to say this, but he could cause a lot of damage with what he knew. Hell, there were things Dent knew about Gotham City which Grogan himself did not know.

"Son of a bitch!" Grogan yelled. "You…we need to do something about this. We need to do something about this right now!"

"What do you want us to do, sir?" the officer over the phone asked.

"Hunt down Two-Face and stop him," Grogan said. "Give the order, on my behalf. Lethal force is authorized. Dent is too dangerous to be allowed in Gotham City."

Grogan hated to be pushed into this. Everything over the past couple of months pushed him to order Dent to be hunted down. He put down the phone and needed to walk down the alleyway. Grogan pushed a pack of cigarettes out of his coat pocket and prepared to light it up.

He stopped and dropped the unlit cigarette to the ground. Peter Grogan came face to face with a trench coat figure at the end of the alleyway. Grogan's mouth hung open for a minute.

"No, you're dead!"

The man's face had been recognized in light. A shot resounded through the alleyway, and Peter Grogan dropped to the ground. He received a bullet to the stomach and a second one to the chest. It pierced an internal organ and made him bleed to death, the latest victim of the Holiday Killer.

Eight O'clock PM on Halloween Night, Peter Grogan had been the second commissioner of Gotham City's Police Department to die in less than a year.

A figure swooped from the heavens and landed down. Batman came across Grogan just as the unmistakable van found at the scene of many crimes.

Batman was not alone with Grogan. Several members of the GCPD moved in. Batman sensed the guns pointed at the back of his head.

"Put your hands in the air, Batman. You have the right to remain silent."

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 21** **st** **, 2017.**


	346. Long Halloween Part Two

**Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Six: The Long Halloween Part Two**

* * *

Cold winds whipped outside of the warm penthouse Sofia Falcone sat herself in for the evening. The dark haired mob princess walked over towards the television screen. She dressed in a casual black shirt and a pair of tight pants with slippers. The day of Halloween put her of unease. The woman could hear the winds kick up when settling down on the couch.

No rain, just yet, but Sofia figured that the rain was going to come sooner or later. She kicked back and took a drink while flipping on the television.

"And more in this late breaking news on Halloween night, Commissioner Peter Grogan has been found dead in the alleyway by the fabled Gotham City holiday killer. Grogan was last seen just several hours ago, giving a statement to the citizens of Gotham City about how they would not be threatened by the likes of the Joker."

Sofia took a drink and listened to the television.

"Grogan was rushed to the nearest hospital and pronounced dead upon the scene, just another victim of the Holiday Killer."

' _Well, that son of a bitch.'_

The winds kicked up outside. The lights in the building started to flicker without the power going out. Sofia threw her head back for a moment and brought her breath in for a very deep sigh.

"Further rumors have it that the Gotham City Police Department found Batman on the scene of the crime. Recently, acting Gotham City district attorney Janice Porter has issued an order to bring in Batman, Nightwing, Black Canary, and other Gotham City vigilantes at all costs."

Sofia listened to the news before the screen went fuzzy. The storm knocked the signal on the television screen out. Sofia picked up the remote and flipped to another channel. The cable was out on all of the channels which resulted in Sofia just turning off the television and putting the remote down on the table.

At least it was only the cable on the television, and not the power entirely, even though those flickering lights worried Sofia. She moved over to turn over the radio when suddenly, a loud thump echoed from outside. Another thump brought Sofia over to the drawer in the kitchen.

Two gunshots from outside dropped the two guards on the outside. Sofia threw herself behind the couch to avoid the bullet going through the glass on the front door. The door broke open to reveal a man dressed in a trench coat with his face covered in a mask.

"You son of a bitch!"

Sofia pointed her gun at the man and fired a shot at him. The gunshot missed and pierced against the wall. Both fired their guns at each other, with both missing.

Holiday was going to go down. Sofia was going to put one bullet directly in the man's hand. The gun fired at the wall and narrowly missed. Holiday fired at Sofia one more time. The bullet connected a few inches away.

Sofia saw his face in light and lowered the gun on instinct. This proved to be an arrow with the gun catching her right in the side and dropping her down onto the ground.

Footsteps brushed across the carpet with the Holiday Killer making his way over. One gun pointed to the top of Sofia's head and it looked like this was going to be the end of her.

A figure dropped down from the skylight and landed on the ground. The Holiday Killer stepped back a couple of inches, game completely thrown off. He fired two shots at Nightwing. Both of them hit the armor and did not put a dent on him.

The Holiday Killer put his next bullets at the window, shattering it. The glass broken and the Holiday Killer rushed as quickly as he could to the Penthouse. He noticed Nightwing advancing on him.

Panic set in and the Holiday Killer launched himself over the railing and down onto the ground.

Nightwing almost went after the Holiday Killer. He stopped for a second and noticed Sofia on the ground in pain. Nightwing leaned down to work towards stabilizing the woman's wounds.

She bled very badly, but things would have been a lot worse. The Holiday Killer only got off a deliberating shot. Nightwing reached in to hand something to Sofia.

"Bite down on this."

Sofia took the object in her hand. Nightwing moved in and pulled the bullet out of her. Blood splattered all over the carpet when he tried to get to work. It came inches away from hitting something vital or worse, causing her to be paralyzed.

"Alberto," Sofia moaned.

The name of her deceased brother had been spoken in a very delirious state. Nightwing continued to work, but realized despite the bullet being removed, she would need medical attention. He gave the woman a light sedative.

' _He's been busy tonight,'_ Barbara thought. _'You think the Joker's broadcast might have riled him up.'_

' _It's likely,'_ Nightwing answered as he scooped Sofia up into his arms and off of the ground. _'I'm going to have to get her to the Clinic.'_

A hospital would be out of the question tonight. Nightwing knew the next stop would be the clinic of Doctor Leslie Thompkins who did not ask too many questions.

* * *

Joker whistled merrily at all of the fun and games he was going to get up to on this Halloween night. The criminal clown leaned himself against the truck and waited for his boys to start to unload them. Boy, hell of a windy night kicking up here tonight. Given how there was usually a fair deal of rain and lightning on a Halloween night in Gotham City, things could be worse.

' _And so far, no dead preachers coming from beyond the grave,'_ Joker remarked to himself.

A second passed with the sound of two men dropping to the ground. Joker took a step back and came face to face with a very familiar face. Well, half of a very familiar face, which caused a bright smile to pop over the Joker's face.

"Harvey! My good lad! You're really looking halfway decent these days, aren't you?"

Those eyes of the Joker just burned into half of the face of Harvey Dent. Dent reached in and grabbed Joker around the throat to pull him halfway up off of the ground. The Joker gagged when the strong hand of the now wanted Gotham City District Attorney.

"Was it something I said?"

Harvey only relaxed his grip enough for the Joker to slip out of it and drop down to the ground. The heavy breathing of the clown and the rubbing of his throat made it very hard for him to hold his head up straight.

"Out of all of the criminal scum of Gotham City, you may just be the absolute worse."

"Ooh, you big flatterer you. You're making me blush. But, I'm afraid if you want to get into my bedroom, you're going to have to wine and dine me a little bit more."

Harvey answered Joker's statement with a well placed kick to the ribs. Joker grimaced as the detached district attorney looked down into his eyes.

"Batman and Nightwing, their reputations are clean. They might be considered vigilantes, but they…they won't kill you. They should, but they won't. The only way to deal with criminal trash like yourself is to blow you straight to hell. And that's what I'm going to down."

The rogue district attorney pulled out a gun. Joker just chuckled when the gun was in his face. Something caused Dent to pause and not splatter his brains against this truck, even though Dent really should. Joker just dug into him with that insidious laugh.

"You should really do it you know. Shoot me. Blow me straight to Bludhaven. But, tell me something, before you pull that trigger. Is that what you really want out of life?"

Dent lowered the gun just a fraction of an inch. Joker understood any wrong moves would end with a bullet in his head. It was not how he expected to spend this Halloween night to be perfectly honest.

"You could have much more and instead you waste your time on petty revenge schemes," Joker said. "You've convinced these people that you're the best man to help lead the law in a lawless town, haven't you?"

"What's your point?"

Joker made a loud tutting sound and followed it up with a wide grin which spread over his sadistic face.

"My point is, you can have much more. You can have all of Gotham City, just jammed underneath your fingertip. You can have every single person in this city rallying at your beck and call. And you've already done a bang up job, haven't you? You've rallied all of the scrub gangs in this city. Turned them into something."

One blink of an eye caused Joker to rise to his feet and push Dent's arm down. The gun completely lowered.

"Why stop at the little leagues when you can take the big league down just like that? Black Mask, Thorne, Cobblepot, Roman Falcone, all of the are ripe for the picking?"

Joker took a moment to let that sink into the bent mind of Harvey Dent.

"You know, you and I, we're not too much different, Harvey. I like you. I like you a lot. And all it takes is one really bad day to drive a man insane. I had my bad day, and you had your bad day. Now it matters what we do after these bad days are over."

The gun once again trained on the Joker. Joker looked back in one fear.

"And you had a really bad day when Maroni gave you that unscheduled facial, didn't you?"

Joker chuckled before he grew very serious. He looked Harvey dead in the eye. The handsome half of the face of the District Attorney who had stolen the hearts and minds of Gotham, the side which caused the Joker's stomach to churn with a desire to vomit. Then, there was his more beautiful face, with more personality, with scar tissue covering it. It was a face of at true monster, a face of a hardened killer.

"My point, in all of these words is, sure you can kill one little clown. But at the end of the day, you killing me doesn't bring this city together. It just cuts off one lunatic. You can do so much more by taking control from the mob boys."

A widening grin flashed over the face of the Joker.

"If you pull that trigger, those snipers will blow you all the way. And if you don't, then I'll let you walk and Gotham city will be yours."

Dent looked around to the rooftop, making the cardinal error of taking his eye off of Joker.

"I don't see any snipers."

Joker chuckled. "Of course you don't. They wouldn't be very good if you just saw them as clear as day, would they?"

One crazed look from Dent's eyes saw that he thought the Joker might have been bullshitting him, but he could not take the risk. He held out the coin and flipped it to make the choice. The coin landed and the play had been made.

"Well, looks like you get to breath," Dent said. "See you around, clown."

"And a good luck to you," Joker said. "The world is going to be your Oyster, and soon, all of Gotham City will be bringing you sauce."

Joker laughed at Harvey walking off into the night and leaving the Joker mostly unscathed. Oh, tonight was going to be a good night, and there were still a few more hours before the witching hour occurred.

* * *

Somehow, Doctor Leslie Thompkins knew this was going to be a rough night. It had been rough ever since she established her medical practice. The dark haired doctor took a look over a bald man who received three bullet wounds to the chest. He should have taken to a hospital, but the man refused to do so. Thus, he had been left Leslie's tender care.

The wind rattled outside, and Leslie did not even have the news on tonight. She would hear about tonight's events. Every now and then, a gunshot made her wonder if there was a potential patient. She left the man to heal after his emergency surgery.

The back entrance opened, and Leslie felt sudden dread. Only a handful of people had access to the back entrance. Leslie stepped into the backroom, a flashlight in one hand and a stun gun in another hand. You could never be too careful in Gotham City.

She came face to face with one of the last sights the doctor expected to see. Nightwing stepped into the backroom with a woman in his arms. It took a second for her to realize that the woman in question was the daughter of Carmine Falcone, Sofia Falcone.

"I stabilized her, but she needs care," Nightwing said. "And I didn't want to come into the front desk because I might unsettle some of your other patience."

Leslie wondered how many of her patience came here because Nightwing roughed them up. Never the less, she stepped back and allowed Nightwing to carry Sofia passed and into one of the medical rooms.

"What happened?" Leslie asked.

Seldom she got a straight answer, but as a doctor, Leslie felt it was her duty to ask these questions.

"The Holiday Killer happened," Nightwing said. "The Holiday Killer attacked her, and I have a feeling he was targeting the Roman. He's been busy tonight."

"Busy?" Leslie asked. "I…there's been another attack, hasn't there? I haven't really been keeping up on the news."

Nightwing nodded grimly, as Leslie made her way to check Sofia's temperature when putting her on the operating table.

"Grogan. Grogan's been killed by the Holiday Killer."

Leslie let out a breath. The second Commissioner in closer to a year being killed did not inspire anyone with a lot of confidence. A second passed where Nightwing looked on to see Leslie checking her out.

"She was very lucky," Leslie said. "Lucky for both you to be there when you did, and also lucky for the bullet not to hit anything vital."

Nightwing figured about as much, and he made his way to the door. He stopped before almost slipping all the way out of the back door.

"Black Canary and Batgirl are patrolling outside," Nightwing informed her. "They're close by if you need anyone. And if someone gives you trouble, use this, and they will come to help."

Leslie did not have that much trouble. The worst trouble she had was around Christmas last year was the Penguin. She took the communication device Nightwing slipped her.

"I'll be back by morning."

' _I just hope it's not as one of my patients,'_ she thought.

* * *

Batman ducked behind another alleyway and slipped his way into one of the most treacherous parts of Old Gotham. The Detective breathed a little bit easier when he gave the GCPD the slip.

"Are you alright?"

Alfred's voice cut into the system. Batman spent a moment readjusting to his breathing before he answered the faithful Wayne family butler.

"I'm fine, Alfred," Batman said. "I just managed to escape the Gotham City Police Department, although it won't be too long before they start to pick up the trail again."

Some of the officers only made a token effort to come after him, although some jumped to the wrong conclusion that Batman was the one behind the death of Peter Grogan. Once again, Batman had come in at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Well, sir, you're going to be happy to know you're not being blamed for the death of Peter Grogan. Witnesses confirmed the Holiday Killer's van in the area. You would think that someone by now would have ran a check on the license plates."

"I already have and they are registered to a man who has been deceased for three years who was living up in Minnesota," Batman remarked a moment later.

"Oh, well, that doesn't do us any good," Alfred said. "And, while they do not target you for the death of Grogan, they still want you for questioning."

Porter tried to do the right thing, but by doing the right thing, she lead to the people who gave this city a fighting chance to be put down. Batman took in a deep breath when making his way to a perch point to look over the city.

"And I hate to tell you this, but I have some more bad news," Alfred said. "For the second time on this Halloween night, the Holiday Killer has struck."

"Who was his victim?" Batman asked.

"Well, he failed to kill his victim this time due to intervention from Nightwing," Alfred said. "The intended victim was Sofia Falcone, and I believe he might have gone against Carmine Falcone."

Half of the targets had some kind of connection to Falcone's empire which were obvious, and Batman bet his cowl the other half would have as well. All of the puzzle pieces fit on the table firmly, and Batman just needed to rearrange them in a way which made perfect sense for this investigation.

A theory formed in the back of Batman's mind. He was ninety-five percent sure it made sense and pointed to the identity of the Holiday Killer. Batman had to make sure though. Regardless of whether or not he was correct about this theory, catching Holiday was one hundred percent the most important thing on this evening.

"Oracle," Batman said. "I need to verify something about Holiday."

"You've heard about his latest attack," Oracle said. "The one on Sofia Falcone, right?"

"Yes," Batman said. "I need you to run a check on all of the attacks from Chief O'Hara on up to the attack tonight. I need you to find any connections that they would have to Carmine Falcone. And more importantly, I need you to focus on one attack in particular."

Oracle took out a breath and wondered what Batman had in mind. The Detective was about ready to tell her.

"I need you to pay special attention to the death which took place on the night of Carmine Falcone's birthday."

"That's….oh I see," Oracle said. "I'll get back to you in a few minutes."

Everything pushed together, the jigsaw puzzle pieces might have been scattered. Batman picked them back up and put them all into place.

* * *

Carmine Falcone thanked his fortune about slipping out of the nightclub. He spotted the face of Harvey Dent, half of the face of Harvey Dent, and the memory resulted in goosebumps coming down Falcone's head and neck. He stepped into run down factory. Not the most glamorous place in the world, but one where very few people these days would even bother to look for Carmine Falcone.

' _It ends like this,'_ Carmine thought.

It was still nine o'clock on Halloween night so this god forsaken day did not end. Falcone cut himself off from the rest of his men. It left him in a state where he was very vulnerable, and for the first time in a long time, Falcone thought that he was more than screwed.

' _No,'_ Carmine thought. _'Tonight is not going to be your end.'_

Falcone picked himself back up and would step back to face his adversaries. It was time to rally his men, wherever they were. Scattered in what territory he had let. Penguin and Black Mask closed in on both sides to squeeze him out. Now, Two-Face, with Maroni's scraps, and the lower-level gangs he rallied together came on through the other end. Falcone put a hand to the scars on his face.

"This never ending Halloween."

"You're having a rough night, aren't you?"

Falcone did not reach for the gun straight away. It was not the gravely voice of Harvey Dent, or the insane voice of the Joker, or the gruff voice of Black Mask, or the Cockney accent of the Penguin which greeted him. All of those would have been the thing to push Carmine Falcone over the edge tonight of all nights.

No, this voice was very soft and very feminine, but at the same time, almost taunting. Carmine Falcone felt something drop to the pit of his stomach when coming face to face to face with Catwoman. He reached up and felt the scars on his face after she clawed him a while ago.

"We need to talk."

Carmine Falcone looked at the woman who held a whip to the side. She did not attack him just yet.

"You robbed me over a year ago," Carmine said. "I still remember. I will never forget. You've been targeting a lot of my safe houses. You're after information. What are you after? Who sent you?"

"I am after information," she confirmed. "And you're the only one who can tell me. Straight up, no bullshit."

Falcone wondered what the hell this woman was talking about. No one knew who Catwoman is. There only had been speculation, rumors, and innuendo about the woman's identity. There had been rumors some rogue members of the Gotham City Police department paid her to disrupt the criminal empires by robbing them. Carmine was not willing to buy it although it did some interesting.

"Fine," Falcone said. "You may not like the answers."

"I'm a big girl, I can take anything you give me."

Now, the moment of truth arrived. Selina was going to get some answer, whether or not she liked them.

"Does the name Maria Kyle mean anything to you?"

That particular name caused Falcone to tense up even more than he should have. This woman leaned down towards him, eyebrow raised when staring him directly in the eye.

"That was the name of an airline pilot I used to know," Falcone said. "It must have been a good…twenty, twenty-five years ago. Time moves so fast anymore it's hard to keep up. I was a runner for Louie the Lilac in those days."

Catwoman seemed not to interested in hearing about the Roman's criminal past. He pressed on to the best of his recollection.

"When I came across her the first time, she was a real mess. Her husband was an abusive asshole. He was drunk. He did drugs. Pretty much anything that you could think of….he's a piece of shit and no one missed him when he died."

Having never known the man, Catwoman just took the Roman's word for it.

"We met a lot at an old bar which got torn down years ago. Guy who ran it made sure to keep the peace. He had only a couple of simple rules. You start shit in his bar, and you were done. Anyway, I met Maria, and I tried to convince her that asshole was not worth it. She was a real classy lady who deserved better. She deserved a hell of a lot better than what she got. A classy dame like that."

Nostalgia overwhelmed Carmine Falcone for a few seconds. A bright smile passed over his face.

"I had to talk her out of ending it after one night. Tell her the bastard wasn't really worth it. We spent the night together and well….two consenting adults….I don't think I need to explain to you what happened. But, after that night, she avoided me. Went back to the bastard, never really saw much of her again. Don't even know what became of her, as I had my problems. The Lilac and Luigi Maroni were….well they went to war, and I lost track with Maria until she up and left just one day, never saw anything of her again until I read her death notice in the paper."

Falcone looked Catwoman directly in the eye.

"Why do you want to know about this?"

The answer would have to wait when Catwoman grabbed Falcone and threw him down onto the ground. A rocket launcher flew through the window and almost blew them up. The windows, the walls shattered, and holes had been blown in parts of the floors from the impact.

Someone clicked the rocket launcher and prepared to go through for the second attack of the night.

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 25** **th** **, 2017.**


	347. The Long Halloween Part Three

**Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Seven: The Long Halloween Part Three**

* * *

Nightwing hunted Carmine Falcone. Two people at the very least was after him. The first person after the Roman was the Holiday Killer. The second person after him was Two-Face. This was going to be an ugly night to be perfectly honest.

He stopped at the rooftop and pressed in the ear piece where Oracle slipped in on the other end.

"Anything on Falcone?" Nightwing asked her.

"Not as such," Oracle said. "You that Catwoman has been sighted. She was at the club, and she might have followed Falcone wherever he goes next."

Harry nodded in response. Catwoman's obsession with Falcone increased for some reason. He thought it would cool down after Mario Falcone had been deported from the country. For the longest time, Selina held a grudge against him for shoving her out of a high-rise penthouse window. It made a lot of sense, almost too much sense as a matter of fact.

Gunshots brought Nightwing out of his thoughts.

' _Thanks, Gwen, keep an eye out for him,'_ Harry thought.

While Barbara patrolled the clinic outside as Batgirl, Gwen jumped in to take up the chair of Oracle. Harry knew others were patrolling although he lost sight of where Batman would have been tonight.

More gunshots and Nightwing decided to make a side trip. His investigation of Carmine Falcone would have to wait as he came across something else entirely. He dropped onto the rooftop right in the middle of Black Mask's territory just in time to witness a shootout between Black Mask's men.

They were being pushed out, and just barely holding strong. Nightwing held his breath in and mentally recapped the movements of this evening.

' _Penguin's still holding strong. Thorne's doubled down to lock down what territory he has left. Two-Face is making moves on Falcone, who seems to be the big loser along with Black Mask tonight.'_

"You son of a bitch!" one of them yelled. "We're not going to take it anymore!"

The sounds of these two sides about ready to scuffle showed there was going to be some huge problems about ready to rise. Nightwing got in position, only to realize he did not have to.

Huntress moved her way from one side. She grabbed one of the larger goons, hoisted him up off of the ground, and dropped him onto the ground. She moved off to avoid the bullets. Not she needed to, but it was best to maintain the illusion so they did not bring out even more dangerous weapons which shot anything worse than bullets and put people in danger.

Nightwing caught a glimpse of Flamebird dropping to the ground out the corner of his eye. One of the goons charged through her with knives extended. Flamebird grabbed the hands of the attacker and flipped him to the ground. Two more moved towards her. One of them held a cannon which looked like it had been cobbled together from some spare Intergang technology which came in through the pipeline.

Not liking the humming, Nightwing dropped down and planted his feet onto the back of the head of the street tough in question. Flamebird caught the other street thug with an elbow to the back of the head which dropped him down to the ground.

"Nice of you to drop in."

Nightwing and Flamebird stood back to back and fight the thugs as they came at them. Flamebird caught the thug with a huge leaping kick to the side of the head to drop him down to the ground. Nightwing caught the other thug with a thunderous elbow smash, smashing the point of the elbow down across the back of the head of his enemy.

"We've got more trouble."

Huntress joined the attack and put an arrow into the elbow of one of the goons. She blocked his awkward left arm swing and threw him down onto the ground. More goons came from the street.

Some of Maroni's men came up on the street, now Two-Face's men. They marched down the street and fired shots at Black Mask's men and Falcone's men when going forward.

Nightwing had a plan to deal with them. He hurled a smoke grenade into the air. The thick smoke allowed Nightwing, Flamebird, and Huntress to go through the shadows and pick their spots.

* * *

Selina laid flat on her belly on the ground. The ringing sensation through her ears made it very hard to concentrate. She only took solace in the fact she still lived, still breathed, even though it was very faintly. Selina looked through the dust and the debris.

Tonight, she had been so close to finding out the truth. Now, Selina would be going to her grave without knowing. Providing Carmine Falcone did not get sent to his already. The woman pulled herself across the ground, checking herself for any injuries. By some miracle, none of the shrapnel hit her which was very good thing. Selina took several moments to get herself situated, and calmed down just enough.

' _I'm going to die,'_ Selina thought in a very cynical way.

No, she was not going to die, Selina hated being the one to have to say such a thing. The doors burst open and several footsteps came in. Selina trained herself to listen to how many sets of footsteps came when making a quick escape. At least a dozen, make that closer to about twenty men came in. Selina realized fighting her way out of here might not be the easiest thing in the world.

"Spread out!"

Dent's voice, the voice of a man who was a once beloved servant in the Gotham City, cut out through the area. Many people believed in Harvey Dent so it had been terrifying to think he had been turned to this.

"Falcone!" Dent yelled "Falcone!" I know you're there! I know you're out there! It's time for you to face justice. Your final justice! The only justice that matters! You're not going to worm your way out of this one. The day of reckoning is finally at hand."

' _He lost his fucking mind.'_

Selina had been blunt with her words, but it was the truth. She pulled up and thankfully, no bruised ribs or other injuries. She caught a glimpse of the scarred face of Harvey Dent. It was a pity. Selina did not necessarily believe in Harvey Dent as much as many, but it was still a pity.

' _I don't give a damn about politics, but he could have been Mayor.'_

No sign of Carmine Falcone or anyone, but Selina could not be bothered by that. She needed to find an exit and found one off to the side. Selina crept out from behind the boxes and moved closer towards the door. She took a deep breath and much to her frustration the door opened behind her to allow more of Dent's men inside.

' _Shit.'_

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?"

Two of the men grabbed Selina from behind. The men crowded around her on all sides. Selina took a deep breath when seeing these men around her. One of them held a gun on Selina. She stared down at the business end of the gun without fear, without too much fear.

"This is just a misunderstanding, boys," Selina said. "So, if you just let me go, we don't have to bring up the fact that we didn't meet each other."

Selina realized now she came face to face with the one and only Harvey Dent. Maroni's acid really did a number on his face and getting scarred like that did a very prominent number on his mind. Selina drew in her breath and drew it out. She just had to keep calm and not lose her senses. It was going to turn out for the best, Selina was sure of it.

"So, what were you doing here?"

"I thought Falcone had some money on him, so I wanted to rob him," Selina said.

Dent looked at her for a second and just twisted his face into a snarl.

"I think you're lying."

Selina decided to move while the getting was good. She elbowed the man in the chest. Catwoman jumped high into the air and slashed at one of the goons. She snapped off a huge kick and then came back. A whip cracked out and pulled the goon up.

The leather clad woman kicked the man in the back of the head and caused him to drop down onto the ground. Catwoman slinked to the nearest exit.

"Leave her!"

Dent's coin landed and he looked at the men. The men were about ready to protest, but Dent had no time or room for arguments.

"Stop, focus on the Roman."

Falcone had to be here somewhere, and Dent would sniff him out.

* * *

The address Oracle dug up hoped to be one which would lead Batman to where he needed to go. The Detective drew in a couple of deep breaths in his lungs when moving across the rooftop of Gotham City. The hellacious winds kicked up which resulted in it being a difficult path to maneuver. Batman's eyes glazed over as he could see the time on Halloween was running to a close.

A scream caused Batman to stop short of where he was. The Detective drew in a deep breath and another pair of screams made Batman avert his attempts to get to the Penthouse. Batman swung over to a gargoyle and looked at the source of the screen.

Tricker or treaters backed up with one of the goons who attacked them smashing the Halloween bucket with a baseball bat. The kid screamed in terror. Batman noticed one of them wore a costume very similar to his own. The clowns advanced on the kids.

"Hey, kids, you should learn how to share your candy," one of the thugs said. "Man, I used to love these things as a kid. Mom wouldn't let me have any candy, because she was too cheap to pay all the dentist bills."

The kid screamed. The trio of clowns laughed at the trio of Trick or Treaters. They enjoyed seeing the terror etched in the eyes of these young victims.

Batman decided to make them pay for their Halloween fun. The Detective dropped down from the heavens and landed behind one of the three clowns. The clown nearest to the shadows received a hand over the face. The man's surprised gaps had been muffled just in time for Batman to rear back and nail him with an attack to the back of the head which dropped him down to the ground.

Another one of the clowns turned around to see his buddy drop to the ground. Blood pumped through his veins and ran pretty cold. His skin felt like ice when turning his head to the left and to the right. He could hardly believe what was happening. Stammering around, he looked up and looked down.

"Shit, he's here."

The third clown looked from the man to the Trick or Treaters. All of them looked at awe. Then, a cable wrapped around the ankle of the third clown before it could say or do anything. A scream echoed before two punches caught the clown in the face and another one to the ribs took him down. Batman wound up and elbowed the man in the chest to drop him down to the ground.

One final clown had been left in the middle of the ring to fight the Batman. The clown reached into his vest and removed a large knife. His breathing started up high when darting around from the left to the right. The clown tried to steady his hand.

"Alright, come for me!" the clown yelled. "Come for me, Bat I'm not scared of you! The Joker is going to make you burn! Just like he's going to make all of Gotham City burn."

The clown lunged forward with the knife, but hit nothing other than shadows. He turned around to receive a large hand over the top of his head. The clown gave a muffled cry with Batman rearing his head back and knocking the clown for a loop with a massive headbutt. Batman dropped his adversary to the ground.

Any attempt to get to the knife was blocked and Batman hoisted the clown up. The clown whipped hard into the wall with the wind being knocked out of him. Blood poured down the mouth of the clown when he tried to give him a toothless grin in response.

"Talk!" Batman snapped. "Where is the Joker?"

"Joker," the clown said. "Joker, oh Joker, well none of us know quite where he is. But, he's already, he's always around, isn't he?"

A kneelift to the chest stunned the clown and doubled him over. Batman dragged him up a ladder and dangled him from the building from the ankle. The clown screamed and was not amused by this turn of events in any way whatsoever.

"He's at the Plaza!" the clown yelled. "Gotham City Plaza, he and a bunch of the boys have a Halloween surprise planned….now please, don't hurt me!"

The sounds of the GCPD sirens showed Batman it was his cue to get out of there. The Detective slipped into the darkness, knowing that Gotham's finest would take care of these children.

Batman moved away from the Penthouse and directed his attention to the Gotham City Plaza. This was a more important mission than whatever the Holiday Killer was, especially considering there were children at the plaza tonight.

* * *

The images of the television screen flashed through the worn down television screen. The images started to flicker as the Holiday Killer reached out with one hand to steady the glorified coat hanger which was being used as a television screen.

Flickering images continued to be a thing which was happening, as the Holiday Killer kept his hand on the screen. Seconds passed as the sound came into full prominence.

"And no one knows what happened to Carmine Falcone. Two members of Gotham City's homeless population saw Carmine Falcone escape the attack at the Matchbox night club to head inside of a warehouse which has been attacked by the criminal known as Two-Face. Who earlier this evening, we reported as former Gotham City District Attorney Harvey Dent. Once again, we at the Gotham City News Network plea for Mr. Dent to turn himself in and get himself the help he needs."

The Holiday Killer held his hand tight on the screen and took in a deep breath. He could see the images of the warehouse where Falcone stepped into a short while ago. The explosion echoed from the Holiday Killer. If he was standing right by those windows, then there was a pretty good chance that the Roman was no more.

He planned on doing it, making Carmine Falcone pay with his own hand.

"No one can verify if Carmine Falcone is alive or dead. The Gotham City Police Department has been unavailable to give comment. We will bring you the news as this breaks, as we thank you for staying with us on what is starting to be a very rough Halloween night."

The Holiday Killer tore the television out of the wall. He lifted it over and hurled the television onto the floor to shatter it. The breathing came through the chest of the Holiday Killer. Deep insane breathing and he lifted a hand to start punching his face.

"Calm, calm, find an outlet!"

The Holiday Killer reached into the closet and pulled out a baseball bat wrapped in tape. He screamed as loud as he dared and smashed the television screen with the baseball bat. Pieces of glass flew everywhere when the Holiday Killer hoisted the bat up into the air and smashed the television screen over and over again. The constant attacks with the bat caused the television to be reduced to smashed pile of rubble.

Not content with just destroying the television screen, the Holiday Killer smashed the bat into the walls repeatedly until the bat broken. He kneeled down at the wall and started punching at the wall repeatedly until breaking his right hand. The Holiday Killer rose to his feet, the aura of calmness gone from him.

Deep and disgusted breathing came from the Holiday Killer when he walked over to the ground. None of this went his way.

"It was supposed to be so beautiful," The Holiday Killer said when dropping down onto the couch. "Everything, the scales of justice, it was supposed to be set right."

Holiday dropped down onto the couch and mentally was losing it. Tonight was supposed to end with the death of Carmine Falcone. The Roman was supposed to die at the hands and finally, all of the pain Falcone caused would be over.

No, this Two-Face, this Harvey Dent, robbed the Holiday Killer of what belonged to him. He was just like all of the rest, taking what belonged to him.

"You are in control," the Holiday Killer muttered. "They fear you. They whisper your name. You finally have the respect. Respect you would not have ever gotten if you would not have killed that spineless fool Alberto."

Yet, the walls in the mind of the Holiday Killer kept crashing down. Fear cascaded over the body of the man when he rose up and dropped down onto the ground. Frustration pumped all through his body with heavy deep breathing. The Holiday Killer wanted to grab onto his hair and just tear it out from the roots. More horrific thoughts followed in his mind.

"No, lost control tonight, failed against Sofia. Nightwing took that control away from me. It's just been wrong, all wrong. These attacks aren't working any more. I got Grogan, but Grogan was just a small attack. Joker told me….Joker took that moment away from me by killing Branden."

He could fix this. The Holiday Killer calmed himself down and moved out. He controlled his own destiny. Halloween was still over and he would still leave a deeper mark on Gotham City before the evening was over.

* * *

Sofia Falcone woke up from the sedated state a little sore. She had been taken to the free clinic in Crime Alley run by Doctor Leslie Thompkins by the looks of things. It sure beat being taken to a hospital, because she really needed to get out of here.

"You were very lucky."

The dark-haired doctor came over towards Sofia. Sofia saw her to be an attractive woman in her early to mid-forties, and she aged pretty well. Regardless of the fact that Sofia would have liked to give her a more firm thank you for her services, Sofia hated being laid up in a hospital bed.

"Lucky?" Sofia asked.

She would establish what happened. After seeing Holiday's face, Sofia's mind completely shut down. She did not know what happened. Hell, for a couple of minutes, the person behind the guise of the Holiday Killer became nothing other than a blur. The moment she remembered it, it just served to piss her completely and utterly off. Sofia drew in a deep breath.

"Yes, lucky," Leslie confirmed. "I wouldn't move if I were you. The bullet that hit you did not hit any vital organs. Had you not been fortunate enough to be standing where you were, it would have paralyzed you or severely damaged your vital organs."

Sofia knew she missed one piece of the puzzle. The Holiday Killer normally killed his victims. The closest he did not come to killing someone was her Auntie Carla, who was on life support until her cousin, Lucia, made the decision to pull the plug just yesterday because it wasn't improving.

"Someone saved me," Sofia said. "I guess I have some kind of guardian angel."

She said it as if she was surprised by the utter absurdity.

"It was Nightwing."

Sofia's eyebrow rose up in surprise. Nightwing had been a very surprising individual to be perfectly honest. She did not find herself as annoyed by Nightwing as many of the other vigilantes in Gotham City. Then again, Sofia understood they were doing the best and even her father respected them, even if they did interfere with his work.

Arm and side was all taped up and Sofia was more agitated about the fact she had been laid out than anything else. She tried to rise up off of the bed, but then dropped back down with the breath being knocked out of her body.

"You should get rest, and you'll be discharged in the morning if I'm satisfied," Leslie said.

By the morning, Sofia was not going to be happy about that. The morning would be much too late to do anything. It was too late to have her revenge on the bastard who tried to kill her. He would slink into the shadows until the next holiday and Sofia could not have it.

Sofia considered the doctor's words and responded with a nod. Soon, she would have her moment to get out of here. Everything had just gone south for her family ever since Alberto had been kidnapped by the Penguin last year.

Alberto, Alberto, Alberto! The name clicked in the mind of Sofia Falcone as she remembered the face in light. The woman's nails clutched onto the edge of the worn bedsheets. A scream from another patient brought Sofia out of her thoughts for a moment.

Nothing could distract her from coming to the very grim realization. Alberto had been killed and requested to be cremated. Out of character, because it was out of character, something caused the little spaz to snap completely. Penguin holding him captive was just the straw that broke the camels back.

"Rest," Leslie said.

"Right."

Sofia could not rest even though she had the luxury. She waited to see Leslie make her way to the front of the clinic. Another patient must have come in or something. Sofia pulled herself out of bed and took a deep breath. She gathered up some spare clothes.

' _I'm really sorry, but this has to be done.'_

She could not really apologize all that much. Something had to be done. Sofia needed to slip out into the night and back into Gotham City.

The moment Sofia could be certain that Leslie busied herself with a patient, she made her move. Sofia backed out and left the clinic. She made her way into a Gotham City which had tapered off.

' _Two hours. Halloween isn't over yet.'_

Sofia Falcone vowed to find Holiday and put an end to him tonight. He would hang for his crimes.

* * *

A happy group of children moved around the Gotham City Plaza. Their parents attended the Halloween party one floor down, while some of them still lingered to keep an eye on their children. Most of the parents, trusted their children with the entire staff of happy clowns.

"Here you go kids!" one of the clowns yelled. "Plenty of candy for all of you. Plenty of sweet goodies….just remember not to eat it all in one place."

"Yeah!" another clown yelled. "You eat too much of that candy, your tummy is going to explode."

Two of the clowns exchanged a knowing grin which just completely flew over the heads of all of the kids involved. They were enjoying the candy which had been handed out without one ounce of care in the world. The leader of the clowns moved around the area and pumped his hands in the air.

"That's right!" the lead clown yelled. "Plenty for all! Plenty! Plenty of candy for all. Don't shove, you will get your chance."

He reached into a large bag and pulled out two large candy bars. The lead clown passed them to the children in question. The children looked very happy at receiving the candy bars in question. Three more children came up and the lead clown and his assistants continued to hand out candy bars with wide smiles etched on their faces. It was a very joyous night for all in Gotham City.

"Whoa, look at this!"

The lead clown pointed towards a young trick or treater who dressed like the Joker. He nudged both of his fellow partners in crime in the side.

"Would you look at this?" the lead clown asked. "I tell you what, that Joker, he's sure something, isn't he?"

"He's one of the coolest bad guys in the city," the little kid said in an excited voice.

The lead clown chuckled before going completely stern.

"Well, the Joker's not supposed to be cool. Bad guys aren't supposed to be cool, and in fact, he's a crazed serial killer. He is the type of guy who will come up to you in your bed and….getcha!"

The young boy giggled at the antics of the clown. The two goons laughed until one of the goons received a firm shot to the stomach by the really big bag of candy.

"Not like that, you goons," the clown said. "But, still, I have to wonder. What kind of parent allows their kid to dress up like some crazed serial killer?"

A long pause followed before the clown grinned from ear to ear.

"Obviously, the best damn parents ever!" the lead clown said. "That's a pretty good likeness kid, here you go, an extra bit of candy on the house."

Another kid came down the line, dressed as Batman. The lead clown gave him far less candy than he did the kid in the Joker costume.

"Your taste leaves something to be desired, kid."

The kids looked up and screamed. A full-sized man, dressed as Batman, dropped down to the ground. The leader clown looked on with mouth opened wide in shock, but recovered very quickly to flash a grin at the man who turned up.

"Aren't you a little old for trick or treating, Junior?"

Batman responded by punching out both of the clowns nearest to the size. The lead clown found himself hurled into the air. He crashed through the pumpkins with Batman advancing on him. The mask ripped off and revealed the insidious face of the Joker.

"Fine, no treats for you!" Joker yelled. "Hey, Rocko, send in the clowns!"

Pumpkins burst and paper cats ripped to shreds when an small army of clowns approached the scene. The children backed up, whimpering, some of them shaking, a couple of them having wet themselves at the sight of a small group of killer clowns dressed in military fatigues stepped into position.

Katana came in to back up Batman. He turned over his shoulder to address her.

"Get the children out of here!"

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 28** **th** **, 2017.**


	348. Long Halloween Part Four

**Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Eight: The Long Halloween Part Four**

* * *

One of Maroni's men groped through the darkness and the shadows. Tonight had not been the night for him. Nightwing jumped high into the air and caught the gentleman in question with a huge punch to the back of the head. The man's legs buckled before they collapsed underneath him.

The GCPD sirens coming off indicated they were going to be joined by some company. Huntress and Flamebird already disappeared into the shadows. Nightwing was going to do the same thing had he not come face to face with a particular persistent henchman.

"I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart!" the henchman growled.

Nightwing blocked the man's punch and ripped his arm back. No time to play and no time for wasted movement, so Nightwing whipped him down to the ground and drove the point of the elbow down onto the back of the head of the henchman in question. The moment the henchman dropped to the ground, Nightwing was gone.

Tonight, the GCPD had been run ragged putting out several fires. And Halloween was not quite over just yet. Until Midnight passed, the worst would be yet to come. And even after midnight, Nightwing doubted any kind of ceasefire would be in the works.

' _Yes, it's just another Halloween night in Gotham City,'_ Nightwing thought. _'Did you two get out okay?'_

' _Yes,'_ Kara thought to them. _'The GCPD, I can't help, but feel bad for them tonight. They're really earning their paycheck tonight. We're putting out as many fires.'_

' _To be fair, we're just the clean-up crew tonight,'_ Barbara chimed in. _'There has been an attack outside of the Clinic. Far enough not to cause an immediate threat, but close enough to be a slight problem if we allow it to be a problem.'_

' _Yes,'_ Dinah said. _'Black Mask's goons made a play for that area of the city. Them targeting Park Row is not going to make them a lot of friends with the wrong people.'_

' _And speaking of making the wrong kind of friends, where's Batman?'_ Nightwing asked.

A long pause followed as Gwen started to look up their associate at the Clocktower. The girl could almost have sighed.

' _Last I heard of him, he was on his way to the Penthouse which the Holiday Killer might have been holed up on. Then, he ran into some trouble. I thought he mentioned something about the Joker being at the Plaza or something.'_

The Gotham City Plaza and Shopping Mall, it was running a trick or treat event for children while their parents got sloshed at a party. Harry pinched the bridge of his nose and could feel frustration coming on him. The Joker would have caused a fair amount of trouble if he would have crashed that particular event tonight.

' _Any word on him since he went off to crash the Joker's little party,'_ Nightwing thought.

' _I'm afraid not,'_ Gwen thought.

' _And we have another problem.'_

Barbara's voice cutting in through the bond in such a frantic manner took Harry aback. He always hated when hearing about some bad news. Harry took in a deep breath and prepared to hear what Barbara had to say.

' _We were heading into the clinic to check things out, but Leslie informed us that Sofia slipped out in the confusion.'_

Harry did not say anything right away. That little bit of news qualified as pretty bad, especially considering how vengeance happy Sofia Falcone had become on this evening. Harry kept himself about as calm as possible even though the situation had gone dire.

' _She's moving across to Falcone's territory,'_ Harry thought.

' _How do you know?'_ Barbara asked. _'Wait a minute? You knew she was going to leave the Clinic the first chance she had?'_

The answer had been so blatantly obvious that Barbara should not have even asked the question. Yet, her own curiosity, her own foolish curiosity, had gotten the better of her.

' _I'm going to find her and I'm going to find Falcone before the Holiday Killer does,'_ Nightwing thought. _'Or before Two-Face, Joker, or anyone else out there tonight does.'_

The sounds of more violence from the distance straightened Nightwing up. Halloween always had been a night which brought up some memories. While this was not as bad as last year, there was still a sense of dread.

' _What about Batman?'_ Flamebird asked.

' _He'll be fine, Tatsu is likely there with him,'_ Harry thought. _'She'll back him up.'_

Harry followed the beacon of the tracker he slipped on Sofia before the trail had gone cold. If it was not one thing, it was another in Gotham City.

* * *

Tonight, had been so close for Selina Kyle, it had been so close and had been ripped away from her so hard, it frustrated her to no end. The woman moved down the tunnel with a deep breath coming over her. Her rippling breaths continued to increase with each step down the tunnel.

' _No. He's down here somewhere. I can feel it.'_

Most would have decided to call it a night after nearly avoiding being blown away by attackers. Selina had not been like most to be perfectly honest. She had been determined to solve this mystery. The mystery of what connection Carmine Falcone had to her and her past. Selina had a couple of near misses, and looked for that smoking gun.

He would be the only man in living memory to tell her what was going on. The evidence so far was circumstantial at best, and the dark-haired woman made her way down the tunnel.

"I tell you. If he isn't down here, then where is he? He has to be somewhere. We just got to keep looking. He's a crafty son of a bitch, I'll give you that."

"Which is why we're rigging these tunnels to explode," one of the goons said. "We're going to trap him down here like a rat. Son of a bitch thinks he can just dictate terms. Well, the new boss….."

"Yeah, the new boss sure is something, and I sure wouldn't want to cross him," another gentleman said. He had a rough cough after speaking. "Still, he used to be the DA, and now he's a mob boss. I don't know about it."

"Hey, he's one of the good guys now," a goon said. "You have to admire a guy who knows when to move over to the right side and stop being some do-gooder for justice."

"Always about justice," he said. "Let's keep going, the tricky bastard has to be around here somewhere."

"Don't know, Falcone could be halfway to Bludhaven by the time we find him."

"Boss won't like that."

Selina leaned against the wall. They had been too preoccupied with their conversation and rigging the tunnel to explode, they did not notice Selina. She hoped to keep things that way for as long as possible.

' _Let them pass, and go now.'_

Selina waited for the goons to pass. She took in a deep breath and moved down the tunnel. Selina tried to figure out what the hell was going on tonight. Everything just turned out for the worst.

' _Halloween in Gotham City, it's like nothing else.'_

Selina turned around the corner and almost ran into something. Catwoman jumped back a couple of inches and prepared to defend herself. The figure in question held out a gun to point at her.

Sofia Falcone, now with a gun she stole off of one of the many downed goons which littered the Gotham City streets, looked at Catwoman. Had she not been quick enough to pull back, she would have blown the bitch straight to Bludhaven. Regardless of it, Sofia held her hands against the gun and stared down her adversary for a couple of minutes.

"What are you doing here?" both women asked at the same time.

Catwoman just smiled. "Fine, I'm looking for answers. And I really didn't mean to rough you up the last time."

"Be thankful I'm in a hurry," Sofia said.

Catwoman could have never thought herself to be so fortunate. She needed to find Falcone, and it looked like Sofia was going to do the same. Sofia would have never allowed Selina to get too close to her father.

' _What to do?'_ Catwoman asked.

"I thought I heard someone coming up this way."

Catwoman heard the sounds of them coming. Sofia looked through the crack which lead to the tunnel on the other side of the wall. She looked rather agitated.

"Get back and stay out of my way," Sofia said.

Sofia needed to maneuver herself into the perfect position to take these goons out one at a time. They were not going to cause any trouble. She could see Catwoman's gaze locked on the back of her head for a moment before the woman stepped back to allow Sofia all the room she needed and then a little bit more.

"There's nothing down here, but rats. So just get the rest of the explosives down. We're going to track that son of a bitch down here, if it's the last thing we do."

"Yeah, famous last words."

Sofia followed their movements. She could have sworn something else was trailing her. Sofia turned around and noticed Catwoman slipped off into the shadows.

Perhaps the woman had grown more intelligent for tonight, and cut her losses. Sofia crossed the tunnel and made her way over just in time to avoid running into Two-Face's men. The men passed the location she stood, unaware of the fact Sofia just disappeared down the tunnel.

' _Father, where are you?'_

* * *

One of the clouds charged Batman with a large iron bar in his hand. He gave a mad war cry when rushing over to Batman. Batman dodged the attack with the clown's sadistic attempt to drive the metal deep into his chest. Batman came down onto the back of the clown's head with a huge punch. Another punch rocked the clown and dropped him down to his knees.

Batman needed to stop the clowns at all costs, and more importantly reach their leader, the Joker, before he pulled off whatever sadistic scheme possible. Katana already got the civilians out. Batman twisted around just in time to see a pumpkin flying at his head. Batman stepped to the right to dodge it.

The pumpkin smashed onto the ground and left a significant amount of goop on the ground. Batman nailed the attacker with a barb to the chest. The electricity flowed through the body of the man.

One of the clowns threw a large hammer at the back of Batman's head. Batman blocked the attack and came back with a repeated series of kicks to the chest. Batman flipped up and turned around to almost receive a dagger from one of the clowns.

"One on, Bats!" one of the clowns growled. "It's time for us to put a smile on that face."

Batman decided against it and punished the clown with a barrage of attacks. The Detective threw the enemy down onto the ground and pounded the side of the clown's neck. The clown crumpled out from underneath the assault of the World's Greatest Detective.

' _Have to keep fighting.'_

Batman threw a smoke bomb on the ground to confuse the clown. One of them picked up a rocket launcher and fired it into the ground. Batman braced himself for the contents. No need to because the clown shot nothing other than harmless confetti in the air.

"Damn it! Wrong one!"

The clown did not have a chance to reach for the right blaster to nail Batman. Batman swept himself down onto the ground and caught the clown in the back of the head with a vicious double foot to the back of the head. The impact dropped the clown on his face.

One of the criminal clowns rushed in to charge Batman. Batman avoided the attacks and came back with a series of punches down across the back of the head. Two of the clowns grabbed Batman by either side. Batman jabbed one of the clowns in the wrist which resulted in a thunderous howl.

The clown's agony spread to a new level. Batman popped him with a punch to the back of the head. Another attack dropped the clown down onto the ground with a double stomp to the back of the head. Batman pulled back to a standing position and backed off.

Two more of them moved in for the attack. Batman readied himself for the fight. The clowns moved around and rushed towards Batman from all sides. Batman blocked the attack from the clown and knocked one of them down onto the ground.

Three of them dropped down the ground. Batman turned his attention to Katana who stood on the back of the head of one of the clown.

"The children are out safely," Katana said. "And the GCPD is rounding up all of the candy which has been handed out. And they're on their way here. Which means…."

"We should go."

The clowns dropped to the ground, but the leader of the pack, the one and only Joker, decided not to make his presence felt tonight. Halloween grinded on to its final hours, but Batman had a feeling it was far from over.

Joker's plan, whatever it was, had been stopped, and that was only a small favor. Katana and Batman moved outside, as Gotham's very overworked police department stepped in for tonight.

* * *

Carmine Falcone took a deep breath and just calmed himself. Despite the fact many people were after his head, Falcone remained as calm and cool as could be. Gotham City burned down around the man who once built it up. The Roman stepped around the corner. His hands were injured, and he walked with a limp. Yet, these were only minor injuries because of one simple fact.

Falcone survived the onslaught on Gotham City. He survived the onslaught on his city. Two-Face wanted to bring him down, but yet, Falcone escaped certain doom. He made his way to the tunnels which would lead to a penthouse which had been fortified with some of the best security in Gotham City. All he needed to do was reach the end of the tunnel.

' _Finally, this long night will be over.'_

Twice, Falcone almost ran into trouble down here. He moved back into one of the hidden tunnels memorized as clear as day like the back of his hand. Falcone drew in another sharp breath and looked over his shoulder one more time. The nightmare could and would be over soon enough.

' _I can breathe once everything is done,'_ Falcone thought to himself.

The rumbling of something made Falcone stand up straight. The Roman reached into his suit pocket. Nothing to defend himself, as his one gun had been lost in the chaos of the evening. The Roman just stood with a deep breath coming through his body.

A footstep imprinted into the mud. Falcone decided against running despite it being the most easy thing in the world for him to do and also the most logical.

"Show yourself!"

Many people were after his head tonight. Falcone stood up like a man to face his latest attacker instead of running away. He came face to face the covered face of the Holiday Killer. The man who killed his son was standing in his grasp. Falcone clutched his fist and took in a deep breath.

"So, you're him. You're the one who has caused people to be afraid. You're the feared Holiday Killer. I'm honored, but Halloween's almost over."

"Not over yet," Holiday said. "Not over until the last breath comes from your body. It's almost not over until the last drop of blood spills from your veins. It's not over and at this point, it's never going to be over."

Falcone looked the masked man in the eye. Tonight, he had the look of someone who was pissed off in the world and also scared at the consequences of his own actions. Terror came through the eyes of the man in front of him.

"You're here to kill me. I know you. I can see it in your eyes. You want me dead, but yet, you're afraid of the consequences of what this action will bring. You've killed before, but I'm the biggest death you'll ever pull off. And the one that will topple the dominoes and cause chaos in Gotham City."

Falcone could barely breath, but he summoned enough courage to face this man and to speak to him.

"I want to see my killer face to face. Take off your mask and show me who is there."

Holiday did not do anything. His hand did not touch the underside of the mask to pull it off. One grisly look came down into the eyes of Carmine Falcone.

"You see this mask?" Holiday asked. "It's who I truly am. The face is my mask."

Several men moved around the tunnel and Holiday knew they were getting close. Two-Face would be here soon, or his men would. He would finish the job and steal Holiday's kill. He would not have everything taken from him that easily, not if he could help it.

"The Falcone family will never hurt anyone again."

"No," Carmine said. "The greatest regret I've had is the pain I've caused my family over the years. But, at the same time, I've built them a better life. Without me, Gotham would be left to animals who would ravage it."

"You're no different."

These cold words followed the Holiday Killer shooting Carmine Falcone in the head. The instant the first bullet connected, the Holiday Killer experienced a tiny bit of remorse. His hand shook for a brief moment. Steadily though, he reminded himself of one simple fact.

' _I'm in control now.'_

A second bullet to the chest and another one to the head ended Carmine Falcone's night and his life.

The Roman was dead.

* * *

Sofia parted ways from Selina and continued to walk down the tunnel. Every step she did not come across her father meant a moment had been lost . Sofia hated to imagine the very worst had happened. Tonight of all nights, there was no question about it. Something bad was going to happen.

' _I have to find that son of a bitch.'_

She stepped back and noticed a couple of men pass her. One of them wrung his hands out and muttered underneath his breath.

"The damn Roman gave us the slip again. Man, the boss is not going to be happy."

Sofia could not have helped, but feel relief and also a fair bit of contempt coming over her body. Those men would have to suffer. The woman took a step down the tunnel and watched the goons coming away. They passed her and allowed Sofia to keep walking.

' _I'll deal with them later.'_

She felt a bit of a fatigued feeling coming on. The bullet she took earlier took a whole of a hell more out of Sofia. Yet, she gutted on. Sofia heard a sound of something falling and kept moving.

The sewer grates opened up, and Sofia watched in horror with her father sliding against the wall. He left a nasty splat of blood on the wall.

' _No.'_

Sofia took in a deep breath and came across the man who did it. The accursed Holiday Killer turned around. His surprise at Sofia's arrival caused him to freeze up.

"You should have died. This is all wrong."

Without any retort, Sofia nailed the Holiday Killer in the chest with a bullet. The impact knocked him back. Sofia realized that he had some kind of armor underneath which protected him from further injury. However, his head is not armored.

"Face me, coward!"

The Holiday Killer rolled over to grab his gun. He pulled it out and pointed at Sofia Falcone. She shot him in the hand to cause the gun to be blocked. Sofia grabbed the Holiday Killer and hoisted him off the ground. His mask ripped off to reveal the face of one Alberto Falcone.

"You little bastard," Sofia said. "I wouldn't have believed it. I thought I was seeing things. You…you….you killed our father."

The Holiday Killer did not respond. Sofia allowed him to fall to the ground like the piece of garbage he is.

"Well, what do we have here? We have a little mob princess and a dead man…oh…shit…the boss isn't going to be happy about this one."

Sofia shot the goon in the neck point blank. This dropped one of the number, but the other goons turned their attention towards Sofia. They prepared to attack her.

Smoke filled the tunnels and for the second time tonight, Sofia watched as Nightwing swooped down from the shadows. He disarmed the man who posed the most prominent danger to Sofia. The sound of his skin ripping apart from the knife caused a flicker of a smile to appear over Sofia's face.

The attacks continued, with Nightwing attacking the men in the shadows. The smoke cleared, and suddenly, Alberto slipped away in the confusion.

* * *

James Gordon had no idea how tonight could have gone so horrifically wrong. The Joker, the mob wars, the Holiday Killer, the death of two public servants, and a third who might as well have been dead, tonight had not been a good night for Gotham City. And now, the tunnel they were in collapsed.

"Gordon!" one of the voices yelled from the other end of the tunnel. "Are you there? Are you hurt?"

"Yes," Gordon said. "Keep your eyes peeled, and I'll find another way around. No matter what, don't lose hope. That's the only thing we have in Gotham City."

Hope, it was a funny thing to have in Gotham City. James Gordon remained defiant against all odds that he would find his way out of this particular situation. He drew in a breath and stepped down the tunnel. Gordon was very fortunate that the tunnel did not collapse on him and crush him.

' _Luck,'_ Gordon thought. _'That's not something I attribute very often to Gotham City.'_

Gordon continued his travels down the tunnel and could hear muffled gunshots down in the background and also from above. He put his finger to his cheek and felt the scratch over it.

Three armed men came across Gordon. They all held their guns towards him. One of them recognized the man in front of him. A big shit-ass grin spread over the face of the mobster in question.

"Well, what do we have here? Some hero cop lost his way from the rest of the pack."

Two more came down the side tunnel and all had their guns pointed on Gordon. He stood and realized something very dire. James Gordon had been boxed completely in. Gordon held his ground despite fighting some very rough odds from the members of the gang.

"Well, Jimmy Boy, fancy meeting you here tonight."

For the first time since that day in the courtroom where his life changed, Harvey Dent locked eyes upon James Gordon. Gordon looked up, fully aware that several guns had been pointed at his person.

"It's not you. What you're doing, it's not you."

"You're right. It's not me. It's not the former me. The weak son of a bitch who allowed himself to get acid hurled in his face by that rotten bastard Maroni. But he got his coming, just like he's got all of Gotham City."

Two of Dent's larger men took a very tight hold on Gordon. Gordon almost pushed out of their grip before the men pulled him back into position.

"I've got something very interesting to share with all of Gotham City," Dent said. "I've been sitting on this information for a very long time. And now, all I have to do is decide whether or not to let it out with a flip of the coin."

Gordon tried to yell for help, but one of the men muffled his mouth. Dent held the silver dollar in his head.

"Shall I bleed just a little bit more hope out of Gotham? There's no hope, not when this city drives its beloved civil servants completely and utterly mad. I'm not the first person who cracked under the pressure and turned to a life of crime. There's more, more than you know. Don't know whether I'd tell you though. Let's flip for it."

One of the henchmen rushed around the corner. He looked to be rushed out of breath.

"Holiday Killer got Carmine Falcone," the thug said breathing heavily. "I saw his face up close. It was Falcone….Alberto Falcone."

Dent's eyes widened and his hands started to clench. It was supposed to be his hand which brought justice to Carmine Falcone. Alberto Falcone, the Holiday Killer, whatever you wanted to call him, he robbed Dent of a chance to perform justice, swift justice to the Roman.

"Hang tight," Dent said. "Things are about to get ugly."

Gordon knew for a fact they could.

' _Let's hope the backup arrives soon."_

* * *

**To Be Continued on October 31** **st** **, 2017.**


	349. Long Halloween Part Five

**Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Nine: The Long Halloween Part Five**

* * *

Every step Harvey Dent took caused him a greater deal of agitation. He did not want to believe that someone beat him to the punch. He refused to believe someone beat him to the chance to finally put Carmine Falcone out once and for all. The thought of his men lying gave him more solace. The alternative would be that they were right and Falcone was dead. That son of a bitch could not be dead.

Dent stepped into the tunnel and noticed Carmine Falcone down on the ground. It did not take much to realize that one of Gotham's most notorious mob bosses expired before Dent could get tonight. Dent noticed several of his men down on the ground as well.

The detached district attorney looked around three hundred and sixty degrees, his neck craning back. So far, nothing, and Dent hated the fact there was nothing. He stepped over to Falcone. James Gordon followed, being dragged into the tunnel by his men.

Dent stared down at Carmine Falcone. He leaned down to check, to verify the man expired from the attack. No question about it, Carmine Falcone expired. Dent pulled his hand back and took a deep breath. Only one statement came out of his mouth.

"That son of a bitch."

Dent could have kicked Falcone. He could have kicked the person who swiped justice. Dent pulled out the gun and fired one more shot at the head of Falcone. The bullet caused Falcone's head to tilt back and more grey matter to spill all over the sewer walls.

"That little son of a bitch stole my moment! This was supposed to by my moment! That little bastard!"

Dent could hear someone from a tunnel off to the side. He was breathing very heavily. Dent stepped in and noticed the figure slumped against the wall. Dent came face to face with Alberto Falcone. The Holiday Killer, one of the most notorious serial killers in some time in Gotham City, who kept pushing himself against the wall and breathing.

"No," Alberto said.

"It may not have the appeal of bringing a notorious mob boss to justice, but you'll do just fine."

The Holiday Killer looked up with a very evident wince going through his face. Agony spread through Alberto Falcone's body when he tried to look Dent firmly in the eye. Dent looked at him with no sympathy involved in his eye. Alberto tried to rush Dent. Dent grabbed him and hurled him to the ground. Dent stomped the ever living hell out of Alberto and punched him in the chest several times, repeatedly punishing the bastard of Carmine Falcone.

Two-Face stopped just short from beating Alberto to death with his bare hands. He gave a crooked smile and looked at his adversary.

"You're nothing without the element of the unknown. They don't fear the Roman's useless son. You're nothing, and it's time for me to put you out of your misery."

Two-Face enacted the only law he would be following for this moment on. The law of averages, and he would flip to see the fate of Alberto Falcone. The coin was about to land.

Suddenly, a figure swooped down and knocked Harvey Dent down a few feet. Dent fell to the ground and his coin landed on the ground. It slid underneath a crack in the concrete. Dent gave a howl when rising up and coming face to face with Nightwing.

A scuffling brought Dent's attention away from Nightwing. Dent scrambled to a standing position and pulled a gun out. He looked from the left and to the right. One of Gotham City's protectors vanished in a blink of an eye, leaving Dent standing in the middle of the sewer.

"What are you doing?" Dent demanded. "We're both on the same side."

Nothing, nothing, not one word coming from the man, which made Dent grit his teeth. He looked around with the gun held in his hand.

"I'm enacting justice on a lawless city," Dent said. "You surely can see what I'm doing is the right thing to do. You can see it. Can't you?"

No sounds just yet. Dent turned his hand around and pointed it to the distance. He wanted Nightwing to come out and face him. Dent drew in a deep and ragged breath.

"I'm just fixing a system which is broken! Corrupt! That little son of a bitch killed some good men. Chief O'Hara, remember him? He didn't deserve to die. He's just a part of the problem."

"Alright, it's the end of the line!"

Dent looked up with his gun pointed at the figures. James Gordon broke free from the men who held him in place. And he did not break free alone. The members of the Gotham City Police Department made their way in to face off against Dent. Dent looked like he would have wanted to fight them.

"Hands in the air, Harvey."

Dent took a moment to look around. He allowed the gun to drop to the ground.

"I respect you, Jim, so I'm giving you some free advice. Put me away if you must, but if you put me away, all of Gotham City will fall into disarray."

"You have the right to remain silent."

Dent could not say he didn't warn them. Now anything that happened was on their hands. He allowed himself to get handcuffed.

Gordon looked at the bloodied and beaten form of the Holiday Killer, Alberto Falcone, and backed off.

"Someone better call for an ambulance."

* * *

Several of Carmine Falcone's men stood around in a meat packing plant. The cold air resulted in these men shivering when they attempted to get some semblance of thought going on.

"Man, Falcone buying the big one," the goon on the right stated. "I can't believe he's gone. You know something, I always thought the Roman Falcone would be here. And now…what the hell are we going to do?"

"I don't know," another one of the gang members said. "Imagine crawling to Penguin or Black Mask or Thorne after all of this. I'd rather throw myself in the Arkham wing with all of the other lunatics."

The other members of the mob shuddered. Despite the half facetious statement from this mobster in particular, he had a bit of a point. They had a lot of problems coming up. The future here in Gotham City was one of uncertainty and none of them particularly liked what was to come.

"Oh buck up! The future is so bright that you might as well be wearing shades."

Several heads turned around to see the source of the voice. One of the mobsters recognized it and he grew increasingly nervous. The one and only Joker turned up with the few clowns in this town he had managed to scrap together. Falcone's men stepped back. One of them raised his hands in the air in the international sign for surrendering.

"We don't want no trouble."

"So, wait, you want trouble?" Joker asked. "Double negatives, they're a real bitch, ain't they?"

Joker laughed in response to the nervous man. He held his hand out for a gun only to pull off a handkerchief and wipe sweat from the man's brow. He put the piece of fabric back on the table.

"Well, despite the fact you want trouble, I'm here not to bring you trouble. But, rather, I think we're both in a bind after tonight."

Falcone's men did not relax in the slightest. Everyone in Gotham City grew to distrust the Joker and fear what the man was capable of, and it was for very good reason they had these fears.

"To think it happened on tonight of all nights, one year to the day of my glorious debut in Gotham City," Joker said. "Granted, I didn't go public until around the Holidays, but hey, I'm coming it. And this city has been a lot more cheerful after I've shown up, hasn't it?"

The members of Falcone's mob looked completely transfixed on what Joker had to say. He just jumped in to keep talking to them.

"But tonight, oh boy, tonight everything changed," Joker said. "Caesar has fallen! And to think, it was his own brat who played Brutus. That was….that was just way too much."

Joker always enjoyed a pretty good joke to be perfectly honest. He took a few seconds to recover from it as the members of Falcone's mob stepped back. A small group of clowns staring them down terrified these hardened mobsters.

"Well, you need leadership, and I need a few good men," Joker said. "And while you can't handle the truth, I can tell you one thing. We're going to take control of Gotham City, and I can tell you this much, there's going to be a few changes around here!"

That insane bit of rambling took a bit more out of him than Joker realized. He just flashed them a light little grin.

"Those who stand with me are going to stand tall. Those who don't, well I don't have any room in my new Gotham for washouts."

Joker pulled out a gun and killed the mobster who gave him some back talk earlier.

"And I don't have any room in my organization for double negatives," Joker said. "So, you boys have a choice now. Are you going to stand with me and actually get some shit done? Or are you going to come cry and whimpering for Cobblepot or Sionis to nurse you on their teet?"

Every member of this mob had a decision to make. Joker had confidence they would make the right one.

* * *

"As another Halloween passes into the distance, we have to face facts that Gotham City is once again never the same. Trust and faith in the people in this city is lower than it's ever been before. This time last year, Harvey Dent campaigned for Gotham City district attorney. He showed several times about how he was not willing to cave into the demands. He refused to cave into the threats of those who threatened his life."

The grim face of Vicki Vale pointed the picture as a picture of Harvey Dent in happier times flashed across the television screen. The picture slowly shifted into the face of Harvey Dent, now the mob boss known as Two-Face, being lead out in handcuffs by the Gotham City Police Department.

"And now, in a blink of an eye, that trust is gone."

Everyone in the world would have been asking the question of now what. What happened to Gotham City? The mob wars would only get worse now that Carmine Falcone was out of the picture. The Gotham City District Attorney had been lead off. The second Commissioner in less than a year had been murdered. The SWAT team leader also perished in the events of this long Halloween.

Sofia Falcone stood in the living room and watched the news on the television. They had not reported on the Holiday Killer as of yet. Dent's downfall was far worse.

The shattered pieces of the Falcone empire painted a very grim picture as far as Sofia was concerned. She never took much interest at that particular side of the family business. Now there was going to be some blowback.

"Several Gotham City Politicians declined comment on tonight's events. Many are still in around the clock security, including Mayor Hamilton Hill. This morning, we must wonder what will happen next."

Sofia could not have put those words better herself. She had a pretty good idea what needed to be done next. Her father would be buried. And with the Falcone empire in a state of disarray, Sofia only could guess what would be happening next on her account.

' _Maybe it's time to take over and start trimming the fat.'_

She winced at the injury. Things could have been a whole lot worse at Nightwing not intervened when he did.

A light knock on the door followed. Sofia did not even bother to wait for the bodyguard to answer the door. Even though after tonight of all nights she should have been more alert and a slight bit paranoid about someone knocking on the door.

She opened the door and came face to face with Selina. Despite all that happened, Sofia was very glad to see the woman got in one piece.

"What happened to you?" Selina asked.

Sofia decided to play the game Selina wanted to play, at least for now. "Well, I've had a hell of a night last night. I don't know if you've heard what happened to my father….."

"Yes, it's all over the news," Selina said. "And I'm sorry."

Selina reached over and gave Sofia a light hug. Sofia wrapped her good arm around Selina and pulled her in tight. The two brunette women made their way over to the sofa and dropped down. Sofia picked up the remote and muted the news.

"And it's not reached the news, although I know it will by morning," Sofia said. "Alberto's the Holiday Killer."

This revelation caused Selina to be taken aback, and to be honest, Sofia did not blame her for the shock. It had been one to see that Alberto had lost his mind to such an epic degree as well. She took a deep breath and put a hand on Selina's shoulder.

"It's unfortunate," Sofia remarked. "Tonight, I would have killed him, if I had the opportunity."

"I know you would," Selina said.

Sofia took a moment to consider something. She decided to break the news to Selina who could take it any way she wanted to. She decided there was nothing left to lose by trying to tell Selina the truth of the matter. She would react however she would react.

"My father knew your mother," Sofia said. "They were pretty close. Closer than I thought they might have been in fact, if this paperwork has anything to do."

Sofia put the document in Selina's hand. She tried to play coy about the entire situation. Did Sofia….well of course she did? Not that Selina was going to come close about it.

"Catwoman breaking in the other night showed me that you deserve the truth," Sofia said.

The payments were coming in shortly after she was born, and then stopped after her mother's death, after Selina had been shipped off to the Orphanage. Then she became a teenage runaway and fell into some pretty bad crowds before pulling herself back together. Still, the piece of paper confirmed another piece of the puzzle.

' _And the only man who can say for sure is six feet under.'_

It was a good thing Alberto Falcone was taken away. Selina would have ripped him apart.

Sofia heard her phone ring and picked it up.

"Hey," Harry said. "Doctor Thompkins told me what happened tonight."

"And let me guess, she also told you how I'm not the best patient in the world at following orders."

A pause followed over the phone as Harrry registered a moment of amusement.

"I'm fine, would have been a lot worse if Nightwing would not have not saved my ass for a second time in one night," Sofia said. "I guess I owe Thompkins an apology for skipping out on her."

She held it together pretty carefully tonight, although that Falcone hot blood got Sofia in trouble. She turned to Selina who already had left.

"I'll talk to you soon," Sofia said. "Unfortunately, I have a funeral to prepare for."

"I'm sorry about your loss," Harry said.

"Thank you," Sofia said.

* * *

Alberto Falcone looked in a pretty sad state after tonight. He had been hooked to machines and would be brought to the Arkham Wing after he had been given a completely clean bill of health. Everything after tonight, it just was all wrong. Halloween must have passed by now.

' _The nightmare is not over. He was supposed to be dead. Why did he come back and haunt me again? WHY?'_

He was barely aware of the other individuals who were watching him. One of the men, James Gordon stared at the young man.

Gordon really wished that he could be happier about the Falcone empire having a huge chunk ripped out of it. Gordon knew better. He learned after all of these years that nothing was that simple. He learned that in Gotham City, that just meant Falcone's territory was going to be grabbed by someone else. Someone who might have been potentially worse.

' _Maybe Gotham City can't be fixed.'_

The cop shook that negative thought out of his head. He had been having way too many of them tonight. Harvey Dent cracking under the pressure made James Gordon really take a good long look into what he was doing. How much good it was actually doing?

Gordon wanted to be nothing other than a cop his entire life. Through trials and tribulations, Gordon moved up through the ranks in Gotham City, from a lowly officer who once comforted a young boy who saw his parents shot before him all the way to Captain of the GCPD. Gordon reached into his coat and pulled out a pack of smokes. He knew it would not be allowed in the hospital, and he had been trying to cut back.

' _Not tonight,'_ Gordon thought. _'Maybe in the morning.'_

He saw a person who tested his resolve not to delve into the latest pack of cigarettes. Janice Porter stepped down the hallway with a cup of coffee in each hand. Gordon turned towards the acting Gotham City District Attorney.

"Porter," Gordon said.

"Gordon," Porter said. "I figured you could use a little something to pick you up tonight."

The cup of coffee slipped into Gordon's hand. Gordon took the coffee and smiled.

"Thanks."

Porter did not say anything for a minute. Her eyes just fell onto the body of Carmine Falcone's son. The Roman was dead, and now everything had changed in Gotham City. And now with Harvey Dent officially locked away, things were just going to get worse.

"He confessed to it," Janice said to break the silence. "He said he killed Peter Grogan."

"Batman's a vigilante," Gordon said. "He's not a killer."

It would have been the easiest thing in the world for someone to walk the find line from hero into being a monster. Harvey Dent proved that constantly. Gordon bitterly reflected on the memories of tonight.

"I know he's not," Janice said. "It just means he only has obstructing justice on his rap sheet, and working above the law that the GCPD hopes to enforce."

Gordon had not been in the mood to have this conversation with this woman. No, not tonight, not after all of what happened. Gordon just drank his coffee and kept his mouth shut. He looked in on Alberto who looked more pathetic. James Gordon almost felt sorry for the young man.

"Tomorrow's Monday," Porter said conversationally. "It's going to be hell."

Gordon thought she really hit the nail on the end. Actually, by his watch, it was Monday already, although he knew what she meant.

"You're the front runner to be the new Commissioner," Janice said. "And I'm the DA, so it looks like we're working together."

It had been the furthest thing from Gordon's mind that he would end up Commissioner out of all of this. He turned to Alberto who groaned on the table.

"I tried to exert myself," Alberto groaned.

* * *

From the hospital to the rooftop of the Gotham City Police Department, Gordon looked at his watch. Two in the morning, and Halloween was finally over. The real agony began over the next few weeks and months when the pieces started to settle.

Last night, Gordon never knew there to be another night like last night. He turned his attention to the skies of Gotham City. A cup of coffee in one hand and a lit cigarette in another had. Gordon took a moment to take in everything in Gotham City.

"I just put one of the best men I ever knew away after this city destroyed him."

Gordon turned around and just on time, Batman turned up.

"There has to be some easier way of contacting you," Gordon said.

"Considering that I'm wanted by the law, it's not exactly the best thing to do to advertise the fact that you're in contact with me."

Gordon answered with a nod, he had a point. Hill backed off on the hardline stance on vigilantes. While he did not endorse them, Hill did not spend as much time ripping into them after the incident with the Clock King. Porter, on the other hand, now that she was going to be Acting District Attorney until an election took place, there could be a huge problem.

"Halloween has passed."

Nightwing joined them a few seconds later. The Dynamic Duo, for lack of a better term, stood on the rooftop to look over at James Gordon.

"Harvey Dent should be up here meeting with us," Gordon said. "He should he been here as we plan our next move, after the fall of the Falcone empire. But now, there's just nothing. He's in Blackgate."

"It's not your fault, Jim," Nightwing told him. "Someday, Dent may recover."

Gordon appreciated the young man's optimism after all that happened. He took a deep breath and looked up over Gotham City. He turned his attention towards two of its best protectors.

"Any one of us could have slipped down that road," Gordons aid.

"Unfortunately," Batman said. "But, after Dent killed Maroni and Alberto Falcone killed his father, we have a serious problem."

Batman brought things back around. Some might consider what he did to be cold and callous. Gordon disagreed to be perfectly honest. He took a deep breath and allowed his thoughts to come around full circle.

"Yes, I understand," Gordon said. "And as much as we all mourn for Harvey Dent, we're going to have to move on. His goals were twisted around by the accident. He wanted a better Gotham City for everyone."

There were many people who believed in Harvey Dent who was distraught about hearing the news of what happened to him. A great man fell from the highest heights. When Loeb was outed as the Gotham City cop killer, there was moments of outrage, but no one really could get too upset. Loeb's checkered past showed that he was capable of doing a lot.

Now, with Dent, everything turned around for the ugly.

"Falcone's territory is up for grabs," Batman said. "What's left of it anyway?"

Gordon took a deep breath and nodded. He coughed. This night took about a good ten years off of his life and he had a feeing the worst might have been yet to come.

"The Joker's at large, and after tonight, he's going to be making a huge power play," Nightwing said. "I don't like it anymore than any of you do, but…."

"We understand," Gordon said.

Joker, he slipped out into the night, and disappeared. The thought of that crazed criminal clown getting the biggest piece of the Gotham City pie sent shivers down the spine of Gordon. He tried to reconcile anything worse, and to be honest, he could not come up with a simple idea of anything that could be worse.

"Penguin has the next biggest piece of the puzzle after the unclaimed Falcone and Maroni territory," Nightwing said. "We better watch out for him."

"We can't count out Thorne either," Batman said.

"No, we can't," Gordon said. "And he still has enough friends in high places where he's pretty much bullet proof."

The only people who had the capability of knocking Rupert Thorne down a peg were people that no one really did want in power. Gordon's fingers clenched at the very thought of one of those huge power brokers gaining control in Gotham City.

' _This is going to be a long and cold winter,'_ Gordon said.

"And Black Mask is a desperate man, so we can't necessarily count him out, "Batman said.

Gordon was not going to count the likes of Roman Sionis out. Desperate men did some pretty desperate things and Roman Sionis redefined the term desperate after what he pulled at the Carmine Falcone birthday party a couple of months ago.

"I don't know what else can happen," Gordon said. "I hate bringing this back to Dent, but I can't get what happened to him out of my mind."

"That's understandable," Nightwing said.

"If Dent can turn rotten, than is there any hope for anyone else in Gotham City?"

For once, Nightwing and Batman did not have any answers. Gordon heard footsteps coming from the staircase up until the rooftop. He moved to tell Batman and Nightwing to depart. Only to realize that once again, there was no real need to do so.

The Long Halloween passed and a cold winter was coming in Gotham City.

* * *

**To Be Concluded on November 4** **th** **, 2017.**


	350. November First

**Chapter Three Hundred and Fifty: November 1** **st** **.**

* * *

October the Thirty First Nineteen Ninety Nine passed into the ether and November the first replaced it. A brand new day occurred and a brand new era in Gotham City. Vicki Vale grew used to plenty of late nights, but tonight had been the latest. She had been on the clock always to report some new twists in the events going on. The around the clock coverage continued with each wrinkle representing a new twist in the future of Gotham City.

Twisted sounded like a pretty good descriptor of what happened. The GCPD entered a state of transition, two of the biggest constants in the underworld over the past two decades were now officially gone, and unsettling rumors abounded that the Joker was about ready to stage a power play. Things had gone from bad to worse.

Vicki also drifted to Harvey Dent and the hardest story of her career. She saw the downfall of more than a few politicians ever since becoming a reporter. The problem was none had hurt more than Harvey Dent. She believed in Harvey Dent.

She stepped out of the car and made her way to a café outside of Gotham City. A lot of businesses shut down after the aftermath of the last evening. Vicki made sure her cell phone was on so she could receive any calls which might bring her back to the studio to report on the latest.

After the Long Halloween, Vicki could not have thought anything else happened. Dent's downfall, Falcone's death, and just a growing instability in Gotham City mixed together into a very dangerous cocktail.

"Thanks for coming."

Vicki smiled at the gentleman who greeted her. The only and only Harry Potter took her hand and pulled her into a steady embrace. He had been the one constant in Vicki's world over these past several months. The two kissed without hardly anyone around to witness it.

"Everything's changed," Vicki said.

"I know."

Those two words demonstrated a whole lot to Vicki, more than she could ever know. Harry and Vicki walked over to settle down into the café. Only a couple of other patrons this morning, two men who busied themselves with donuts and newspapers.

"The GCPD has their work cut out for them," Harry said.

"And you look awful," Vicki said. "No offense."

Harry just gave Vicki one of those long smiles. At least he did not seem to take much offense to her commentary of him looking awful and tired.

"I'm used to keeping these late nights," Harry said. "But, I don't think that there has been a night as late and frustrating as the one last night."

"Everyone is calling the last year the Long Halloween," Vicki said. "Everything from Blackfire's assault and the birth of the Joker all the way to the fall of Harvey Dent and….it's just been one horrific event after another over the past year, hasn't it?"

Harry could not argue with Vicki's point at all. He thought about what would happen in the future. They would all have their work cut out for them in the not so distant future. Harry prepared to face whatever he had to face in the not so distant future.

"Harvey was a good friend and ally until it happened."

Vicki's words put some finality on everything. The past tense she spoke of Harvey Dent in, it made Harry just nod in response at her.

"He could have still done it, despite the accident," Harry said. "He could have turned everything around. Harvey Dent could have been the hero that Gotham City needed. He could have been an inspiration."

"Even with the handicap?"

Harry thought there was hope to cure Harvey's scarred face. The scars on his psyche was an entirely different thing.

"Well, we can never know what happened, with Dent hauled off and out of the way," Harry said. "He's going to be on the other side of the witness stand now."

Two-Face standing trial for his crimes caused Harry to wonder whether or not he would spill what he knew about the entire Rachel Dawes thing. They pinned the Cop Killer murders on Loeb for a reason. Now that Harvey was Two-Face and not exactly in the most stable state of mind, that particular reason was gone.

Vicki could see something going through the eyes of Harry. She looked at him, a deep frown passing over her lips. Vicki touched the top of Harry's hand.

"What happened last night is going to stick with me for a long time."

"It's going to stick with all of us for a very long time, I think."

A ringing of the phone followed, and Vicki moved to answer the phone. She listened to the man on the other end of the line and drew in a very deep breath.

"It's my producer," Vicki said. "No time for rest in the news business, I'm afraid…..guess, we're going to have to reschedule this sometime."

Vicki leaned in and kissed Harry on the lips before moving away to head back to the station. They needed her to report the very least.

' _She really needs a vacation.'_

" _I'm afraid I'm not familiar with that term,'_ Vicki chimed in.

* * *

The Gotham City Police Department prepared to investigate what the Joker left behind. Finally, they took a deep breath, or at least some of them had been able to leave just long enough for a cup of coffee and a bite to eat.

Harvey Bullock oversaw the investigation and wondered what the hell happened. He turned to Renee Montoya, who just returned from a donut run.

"I wonder we can be the first people to pioneer the keg of coffee," Bullock said. "After last night, I thought that would never end. And we never did catch that damn clown."

"Keg of coffee?" Sarah asked who turned up to drink a cup of coffee. "I don't know about that one. But, you're right, Joker's still at large."

"It's only a miracle that no one got around to eating this candy," Renee said.

"Yeah, I wonder what the clown did to it," Harvey said. "Poison? Razor blades? Exlax? Who really knows what that sick freak?"

"That's what the boys in the lab are going to find out."

Harvey reached into his pocket to pull out a fresh toothpick only to realize he had been out. He had gone through a whole box and a half over the last night. An odd habit, chewing on toothpicks, but it replaced an even nastier and more expensive habit of smoking. Something that a good fourth of the GCPD went into.

Bullock turned his attention away from his toothpick dilemma to come across a very ragged looking James Gordon who slipped into the station. Everyone who knew Gordon said that the man aged about five years in the past couple of months and it was hard not to see why.

"Sorry about having to face Dent last night," Bullock said. "You look like you've been thinking about him. Still think you could have done something else?"

"No, I was just talking with our new DA," Gordon said.

Bullock responded with a gruff nod. There was really no need for Gordon to say anymore. Bringing up the new DA told them pretty much all he needed to know.

"She's persistent in trying to get us to hunt vigilantes," Gordon said.

"Yeah, well, I'm not fond of them," Bullock said. "But, has she realized we have far bigger problems than a couple of clowns in capes? We got a far bigger clown, don't we?"

The members of the GCPD all persisted with very grim looks on their face. Things had turned out for the worst tonight to be honest.

"And now, looks like you've got just a lot more to deal with," Bullock said. "Heard that you're going to be Commissioner. Which, given that you're trying to reign us in line, guess you're the perfect man for the job."

Gordon did not really know what to make of everything that happened.

"Not going to be easy," Gordon said. "But, I guess none of us would be cops in Gotham City if we went for the easy way."

"No, if that's not the truth, I don't know what is," Bullock said. "Still, can't believe Dent did what he did. But, then again, I still have trouble wrapping my head around Loeb being the cop killer. The guy might have been an immoral bastard, but to kill his own people, I don't know about that."

Gordon did not know about that as well. There was no use of digging up past crimes, but something about Loeb being the cop killer seemed less right. He just believed Harvey's evidence, but with Harvey now having gone off the deep end, Gordon did not know what to believe anymore.

"It's all clean."

The men in the lab turned up, and Renee looked at them with wide eyes.

"You've got to be kidding."

"No poison, no razor blades, not even cat excrement," the lab boy said.

The Joker made them spend the better part of the morning looking over Halloween candy which he did not bother to taint. Bullock cleared his throat.

"Well, then I better dispose of it," Bullock said.

* * *

Early Monday Morning brought the girls up bright and early. The first rays of sunshine indicated a surprisingly beautiful November morning, which all of them could not wait to be a part of. Each girl woke up at this time. One of them was Emily Potter who stepped into the living room.

Last night, she assisted Gwen in being in the big chair as Oracle to take over for Barbara who made her way out on the field. Needless to say, four eyes were better than two in this particular situation. Emily hated how last night ended and even as she woke up on this early morning, it was very hard to reconcile what just happened.

"It's been a busy night?"

Amanda stepped around the corner down the hallway and handed Emily a cup of coffee. She took it and the two twins made their way in. The other girls would be moving around the Penthouse soon enough. They bumped into Donna who greeted them with a smile. Lois sauntered in, followed by Rebecca, Ella, Lyta, and Artemis, and then pretty much all of the occupants of the penthouse stepped in.

' _You could say it's been one for the ages,'_ Emily thought. _'It took two of us to do the job that Barbara normally would do if she's not out on the street. Make of that as you will.'_

' _Well, if Barbara ever figures out how to create some artificial intelligence to run the Clocktower, you might be out of a job,'_ Amanda teased her sister.

' _That's something,'_ Barbara thought. _'Although, it would be more of a digital assistant than anything. I'd be more comfortable with some real human hands running things. And besides, you and Gwen did fine.'_

And speaking of Gwen Stacy, she stepped into the Clocktower, along with Barbara Gordon. Also, one Reilly Parker showed up, figuring she would swing by the Penthouse.

"Good morning," Amanda said. "Hope you are all well this morning."

"I don't know about you, but after last night, I'm ready for a long vacation," Gwen said.

The girls shrugged, they had been unfamiliar with that particular term if they were perfectly honest. Never the less, the older girls all sat around while the younger girls went off to get breakfast and to start getting ready for school.

"Looks like school's being canceled today," Lois called from the living room. "GCU and GPA both!"

Amanda had been very surprised and also very concerned to be perfectly honest. She moved over to see the news and the bulletin that schools had been closed for today and potentially for the rest of this week as well.

"It's pretty bad," Ella said. "Schools never get closed in Gotham, especially due to something like this. I mean, we're ass deep in about six feet of snow and they still make us go to school, don't they?"

"Pretty much," Amanda agreed.

Amanda, Barbara, Gwen, Reilly, Emily, and Donna all settled in among the younger girls. It was an unspoken agreement they would be locked down in the Penthouse today. Unsettling images flashed across the screen of several clowns on the screen.

They started to rattle some homeless people laughing, before throwing one of them on the ground. One took out a can of spray paint and sprayed a crooked smile on the face of one of Gotham's homeless people. The man whimpered as the clown looked over the top of him.

' _That's awful,'_ Kara thought.

"We are Gotham City!" they all yelled. "We are what happens when you're heroes fall!"

More images flashed across the television screen. Amanda reached over to shut off the television, but she paused for a second. They all attacked a billboard with Harvey Dent's face.

"You all believed in Dent! When will you learn that no one in this city is safe? Stand with the Joker! He's the face of what it truly means to be in Gotham City!"

The screams echoed when the last image they saw on the television screen was the billboard with the right half of Dent's face burned off now. It was a symbol of everything that changed in Gotham City, and a symbol of what was to come.

* * *

Oswald Cobblepot topped over a table when he moved through the bar area of the Iceberg Longue. He was not getting in any business today in Gotham City because half of the city had been shut down. He found himself fortifying his entire territory, and for one reason at all.

Two of his men picked up the table and set it back up. Cobblepot turned to the edge of the club and took a very deep breath. He tried not to lose it, even though it would be the easiest thing in the world to lose.

A whirling sound of a wheelchair announced the arrival of one Dudley Dursley, better known as the Walrus.

"That son of a bitch, he's going to screw up everything," Cobblepot said. "I thought at first, he was just another flavor of the week freak. But, everywhere I turn, there's nothing, but clowns. And there's a small, sadistic cult of people in the city who worship him like some kind of savor."

"Who are you talking about boss?"

Penguin turned to one of the thugs as if he was a complete moron.

"I'm talking about the bloody Joker!" Cobblepot raged. "You see, I never knew what to make of the freak at first. I figured, he was just more of the same. But he's just the type of person who just tips over the entire applecart. He upsets the balance of power. I don't like it. I don't want to have to deal with it!"

Two beady little eyes fixed upon the face of the Walrus who sat up in rapt attention when looking at his boss.

"He's the type of freak myself and good old Vern would have taken out in the back of a pub and kicked the ever living shit out of. He's some kind of ponce, prancing around in that get-up, and Vern and I used to straighten that type out back in the day."

Cobblepot took his cigarette and took a long drag from it. He gave a hacking cough which turned into an angry squawk. He took a deep breath.

"But, now, now, that son of a bitch is pretty much untouchable," Penguin said. "He has an army, and Falcone's army, Maroni's army, and every other two-bit low-life who wants a small little sliver of Gotham. He has them all. And that son of a bitch is going to ruin everything!"

They all backed off from their boss. The last time Penguin got like this, some poor thug got beaten to a bloody pulp with an umbrella. The mobster turned to face the entrance of the Iceberg Longue as if he expected someone to come in the door.

"It's bad enough that he brings his little Circus of Crime into town," Cobblepot said with a loud grumble. "Now, he's got the actual mob on his side. He's just snapped up Falcone's land, and I doubt very much he's going to give it up without a fight."

Cobblepot readjusted some furniture in the Iceberg Longue. He stepped back and picked up his umbrella before swinging it. The men jumped back the second the umbrella waffled across the table.

"You know something, if he wants a fight, I'm going to give it to you. I'm sick and tired of people like Joker taking the piss out of me. Well, I can make some calls as well."

On cue, several well dressed gentlemen stepped into the club. Penguin's thugs grew tense, as did the Walrus, who reached for a button on his wheel chair. Black Mask sauntered into the Iceberg Longue. He stepped into the shadows where he faced Cobblepot. Black Mask slipped off of his face to reveal Roman Sionis underneath.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Sionis," Cobblepot said. "I have a business proposition for you that I think that you would want to hear."

"I'm listening," Sionis said.

Both Cobblepot and Sionis looked over their shoulders to their men. On cue, they backed off and allowed their bosses to have the floor. They sat down on a table. A woman dressed to the nines brought a bottle of wine to the table along with a couple of glasses.

"You hate the Joker."

The eyebrow of Roman Sionis raised up. He clutched the wine glass. It was difficult to hold the glass of wine without it popping in his hand.

"Yeah, I hate him," Sionis said a moment or so later. "That bastard ruined my reputation."

A year later, he was still recovering from what the Joker did. Roman Sionis would have liked nothing better than to stuff a gun down the Joker's throat and blow his guts out. The problem is the bastard always had to be one step ahead of him.

"Son, he presents a problem," Cobblepot said. "And we're going to have to work together."

"Yes, all of us."

Rupert Thorne joined the party and walked in. Cobblepot inclined his head at Thorne with a very brief nod.

"We might have all had our problems in the past," Thorne said. "Any issues we have is going to pale in comparison if the Joker gains control. We'll get the city back in order and worry about dividing it up later. Or go back to war over the scraps."

"That sounds reasonable," Cobblepot said.

"Yeah, it does," Sionis said. "Guess we're going to have to work together, or we're going to burn up resources dealing with each other that could be better off with stamping out the clown problem in Gotham City."

"And we're going to need everything that we can," Thorne said. "Some people say that the Joker's not even human. He might be a manifestation of a demon Joseph Blackfire conjured up…or so that's what some people are saying."

"Bunch of bullocks if you ask me," Cobblepot said. "Regardless, we have to work together…make a deal, and then figure out what to do next only after the clown's out of the picture."

"I tried to talk to Sofia Falcone," Thorne said. "But, she's insistent on doing things on her own."

A very ugly scowl crossed over Cobblepot's face. He poured himself another drink. This morning, he would need one. A bit of his territory had been chopped off thanks to Dent and later the Joker, and he had been very surly about it this morning.

"Stubborn bitch, that one. Not that I'd tell her to her face."

* * *

"Yes, he's dead," Sofia said. "It's a shock to me as well. And yes, I swear, it was Alberto who did it."

Currently, Sofia had the honor of being on the phone discussing some matters with her brother, Mario, from halfway across the world. As far as she knew, in the months after being deported, Mario kept his nose clean. Their father's death, Sofia feared that something would happen to trigger something deep within in Mario.

"So, Alberto killed our father?" Mario asked in a surprisingly cool voice. "And then, he's incarcerated? He's going to be in the Arkham Wing at Blackgate, isn't he?"

Sofia took in a deep breath. According to her father's sources on the inside of the GCPD and in the Mayor's office, Alberto was going to be locked away with the rest of the lunatics. Sofia could not say she disagreed with this. She just kicked herself for not recognizing the warning signs.

"To the new wing in Blackgate, and then over to Arkham Asylum when they rebuilt it next year."

"I see," Mario said. "I see."

This oddly measured reaction made Sofia a tiny bit nervous. She waited for the other shoe to drop and for Mario to lose all sense of himself. It did not come yet. Regardless, she remained as calm as possible, despite this situation being very unsettling for them both.

"I'm going to make arrangements for you to come back for the funeral."

"Thank you," Mario said. "You know none of this would have happened if it wasn't for that dumbfuck Cobblepot ruining everything. He's the reason my brother was like that. If he wouldn't have been kidnapped….."

"Listen to me and listen good!"

Sofia saw the signs were there from a long time ago, about how Alberto was not exactly mentally well. She just decided to ignore it. It was easy to blame Oswald Cobblepot or Gotham City in general, or their father, but something really was wrong.

"I want you to get over yourself and not do anything stupid when you're back here," Sofia said. "If you have any respect for our father, you won't do anything stupid. The funeral is next week and our father is being buried in the Falcone Family Mausoleum right next to Mama like he wanted to. Is that clear?"

She would have sooner buried Alberto in a landfill if she had pretty much anything to say about it.

"You're coming back to the country just to pay your respects, and you're back on the plane the next day," Sofia said. "It's my father's requests if something happened to him."

The implied statement that Sofia would not have done anything with Mario if she had her say hung in the air. The man on the phone grunted in response as if he understood.

"I'll have collect you. And if you do anything to cause trouble, the next time you get deported, you're being deported in a box. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Sofia," Mario said. "I'll be on my best behavior."

Sofia could not be bothered to figure out whether Mario had been sincere in his words or he had been flippant. Regardless, she hung up the phone.

' _Selina might be the only family member I can half stand. Well, Lucia, at times, every now and again, but she has her own agenda that I don't necessarily like.'_

The next move would be an interesting one, as Sofia had to take some kind of control. Her father's operations remained up in the air and she had been so busy preparing for his funeral that it remained secondary.

Someone knocked on the door and Sofia took her strides over the door. She swung open the door only to see Harry on the outside with three of her bodyguards crowding around him.

"What are you waiting for?" Sofia asked. "Let him in!"

The bodyguards moved back at their boss snapping. Sofia could not believe this. The bodyguards chose now of all times to be competent and not when she was about ready to be attacked by a serial killer. She moved in to see Harry step into the penthouse. She shut the door behind them.

"Sorry about that," Sofia said.

"It's fine," Harry said. "They were just doing their job."

Sofia's only response was to give a very long sigh. She reached over towards the cabinet and thought about getting a drink, but she thought better of it. She did unbutton a couple of buttons on her blouse before turning around to face Harry.

"I just wish they would have done a better job the other night," Sofia said. "I wouldn't have needed to get saved by Nightwing of all people. He is pretty remarkable, but not as much as some people."

Harry could only smile in response at her.

"And I know I already offered my condolences for your father, but I'd like to say how sorry I am that he's gone."

"Well, I am as well, and the way he died….I'm not particularly pleased with."

Sofia only could barely care about the fact that Alberto was getting the help he needed. She drew in a deep breath and looked at Harry. She made sure his eyes were focused on her, her dark hair, youthful face, with a couple of freckles on it, ice-cold blue eyes, and a skirt which she subconsciously tugged up to show her stocking clad legs. Also, her breasts which were quite round and perky as well.

"I'm glad you're here," Sofia said. "Because, I can use someone to help me take my mind off of things."

A small smile tugs on the corner of her lips. "Stay a while, why don't you?

"I will."

* * *

A steady crowd of people from both within Gotham City and also outside of Gotham City gathered around on a chilling November morning to pay their final respects to the late Carmine Falcone. Many of the people respected Carmine Falcone, even though they clashed with the mob boss.

An elderly preacher stepped over to dress the crowd. He had not seen this crowd of this magnitude for a number of years. It almost overwhelmed the gentleman. Truly, the turnout was one that was fit for a king and one could consider that to be Carmine Falcone. He was a glorified king in Gotham City.

The preacher cleared his throat and turned to address the immense crowd who gathered around to pay their last respects to one of Gotham's most prominent citizens.

"Welcome today, as we say goodbye to Carmine Falcone. Who left us at only fifty years of age, an age many of you might say is all too soon. The good Lord works in mysterious ways as he enacts his grand plan. And his grand plan has recalled his servant, Carmine Falcone, to the eternal plane on October Thirty-First, the year of our lord, Nineteen Ninety Nine."

Everyone watched as the preacher shifted his eyes over to look at the crowd.

"Carmine was a man who loved and respected the arts, and was a businessman and an entrepreneur, who also supported the dreams of many men in Gotham City and beyond. He leaves behind three children who have grown up to be remarkable in their own ways. Sofia, Mario, and….Alberto."

The pause in the preacher's voice at Alberto's name did not go unnoticed. There was a sense of general unrest from the funeral goers.

"Carmine would not have wanted to you to stop your lives on the account of his death. Rather, he would want you to have realized that this was all part of some grander plan. For his death, was not in vein. For his death was not out of some chance. But, rather, his death was something which served a grander and greater purpose."

Mario Falcone looked a bit unrestful. He knew better than to cause a scene at the funeral. Still, the way he looked at certain people at the party, they all knew. Sofia seemed to be ignoring him, just sitting alongside of her cousin Lucia, and behind them sat Selina Kyle.

That particular woman flustered Mario to no end. He took a deep breath and turned towards the ever imposing force of Bobby Gazzo who sat next to him. He came in from Metropolis to pay his respects to the Roman, and also to keep a close eye on him. Sitting a few feet behind Gazzo was one of his biggest rivals, Bruno Mannheim, who had been also here to pay his respects.

"No, Carmine would not have thought his death in vain. For, he understood his role in this world. And he understood his role was to serve our savior, Christ the lord."

Mario took a deep breath. Gazzo's eyes burned on the back of his head. He realized it was a good thing they did not let Alberto out to attend his father's funeral. That would have been difficult.

' _Then again, I'm not the one they have to worry about stabbing the bastard.'_

Still, the fact Alberto was not there, caused them to have a little bit of peace of mind.

"I look out there and I see many men and women who share the same sentiments they did. We are going to want to say goodbye to him. We are going to want to say farewell to Carmine. And most importantly, we are going to want to say thanks. Thanks to all he's done. For he is a father, a loving husband, a great man, and someone who has constantly given back to the community of Gotham City."

One Oswald Cobblepot sat in the background, his head inclined, and hands wrapped around the umbrella. He took a deep breath and gave his respects. Dudley and Tracey sat on either side, with a couple of Cobblepot's bodyguards. Roman Sionis sat down, his head inclined and not really making eye contact with everyone.

Thorne positioned himself in a place of prominence. He had been moved to tears from this service, as the music kept playing in the background. He respected Carmine's contributions, and intended to consolidate Gotham City further after today.

Off to the side, Selina Kyle mourned the death of a man who she always did respect somewhat even though she did not respect two of his children. Also the death caused some unanswered questions in Selina's personal life which would eat away at her for the rest of her time. She took in a deep breath and took out another deep breath when focusing her eyes on the top of the stage.

Many men and many women stayed her to pay their respects. Selina watched Sofia who had been in near tears. Her cousin, Lucia, handed her a box of tissues. It had been hard to see the tough as nails Sofia. Selina, who sat with Alex and Harry Potter on either side of her looked down.

' _A shame,'_ Selina thought. _'An even bigger shame that you just left this world without explaining much of anything. You've left a lot of questions behind. And sadly, not as many answers as we would like to have.'_

The preacher's spiel continued as he looked around and put his eyes on the family

"As we prepare to say goodbye to Carmine Falcone today, remember, those who believe, will be rewarded in their lives. Those who believe will always have a place, as the humble servant of our savior. Let us all bow our heads in prayer as Carmine is guided to his humble reward for his service to our Lord and Savior."

Everyone bowed their heads for a moment, although some kept their eyes open. It was second nature given that enemies sat pretty much shoulder by shoulder. The members of the Gotham City Police Department sat with the mob and security had been ramped up for this funeral.

It had been an unspoken agreement by everyone to put all of their differences aside. It was a time for them to mourn the loss of the man who many of them knew and many of them respected. All of them bowed down to prepare for this moment of great mourning.

"And today, as Carmine is laid to rest in his family mausoleum, next to his also departed love ones, we remember, that the legacy of this great family will not die with one man. For Sofia, for Mario, and for Alberto, and for any of their heirs, they will live on the great legacy. They will cherish the future, and cherish the memories that this man had left behind. And today, Gotham City says goodbye to a great man, as do all of you, who have known this man."

The preacher stepped out and the first person who he greeted was Sofia. She leaned forward and shook his hand.

"Thank you," Sofia said.

The preacher moved over to shake hands with Mario. Mario managed to speak for the first time.

"Thank you."

The preacher moved and shook hands with Bobby Gazzo, and then the moment that was done, everyone started to file out of the funeral home. Harry moved next to Sofia, who had been walking forward. Sofia did not even acknowledge Mario, who had been trying to catch her eye.

Gazzo grabbed Mario by the shoulder and whispered something to him. Mario's head inclined down and he looked sternly reprimanded.

A long second paused when Dudley wheeled out right in front of Harry. The two locked eyes, and Dudley motioned for Harry to go on ahead. He did, with Harry, Sofia, Selina, and Alex made their way out, followed by Sofia's bodyguards, and Lucia and her bodyguards.

Sofia was not going to sigh in relief until they had passed and until her father's body had been safely entombed with her mother and grandparents.

Everyone filed out. A lone figure stood on the hill overlooking the cemetery and the mausoleum next to it. He covered himself in a heavy raincoat and a hood pulled over his head.

"Carmine Falcone's death will just speed up Gotham City's nature state of decay. We are going to have to act quickly."

The gentleman turned around to the larger man who stood next to the fence and out of sight. He also wore a raincoat which covered himself.

"Ubu, let us depart."

* * *

James Gordon took in a deep breath. He had been thrown in the deep end, so naturally it was important for him to take a couple of deep breaths. Gordon tilted his head back a small amount and allowed the oxygen to fill his entire body. The members of the press gathered to see what the new Gotham City Police Commissioner had to say.

' _Commissioner Gordon,'_ he thought. _'I never thought I would see the day.'_

Gordon had been through a lot during his time in Gotham City. The gentleman stepped forward and could see the members of the press. Standing at the edge of the stage, were the trio of Harvey Bullock, Sarah Essen, and Renee Montoya. Other members of the GCPD stood and politely applauded their new commissioner. Gordon could not help, but think they thought he was a temporary fix for Gotham City Police Commissioner at any rate.

' _We'll see,'_ Gordon thought to himself.

He stepped over and Hamilton Hill stood off to the side of the stage. It had bene hard to read the man in this case. Gordon figured Hill had still been upset he had to bury a good old friend in Peter Grogan. Regardless, the moment the lights were on the eyes were on his face, Hill was all smiles. He reached over and patted Gordon on the head. He leaned forward and shook hands with Gordon.

"You deserve it, Jim," Hill muttered.

Those words of endorsement took Gordon aback. He just responded with a nod when shifting back on the stage. He could see that Hill was about ready to make an announcement.

"We've been through a rough year which started last Halloween," Hamilton Hill said. "But, I'm confident that adversity builds character. And we are going to build a lot of character over the coming months in Gotham City. And the man I bring before you today has character."

Hill turned his head towards Gordon who waited on the stage. His hands firmly wedged in his pocket when waiting to be given the announcement.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I welcome to you, a man who has proven himself to be a true leader in his field. And the man who will finally get a chance to show what leadership is all about. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, James Gordon, the new Commissioner of the Gotham City Police Department."

Gordon made his way to the top of the stage to applause. The members of the press sized him up, as did some of the members of the GCPD. The remaining members of the SWAT, who had not resigned at the death of Branden, looked uncertain about their futures.

The new Gotham City police commissioner would have to figure out what to do with certain members of this department in due time. He waited for the applause to die now. It put a small on his face, even though some of it just looked to be put on.

"I'm not a man for speeches," Gordon said. "And I know for a fact none of you want empty words and more broken promises. You want men and women who will step up and make sure the Gotham City streets are safe. As a father, I understand that I want to live in a world where I don't have to lay awake at night, worrying about whether or not I'll get a phone call confirming my worst thoughts."

Gordon took a deep breath and allowed his words to sink in.

"As Gotham City Police Commissioner, I intend to make this department and this city, something to respect," Gordon said. "I intend to work with the Gotham City District Attorney, Janice Porter, to determine the best and most efficient way to bring in the dangerous criminals which plague our city. And I hope that I do a job which will make you proud."

The members of the press started to buzz. Some of them wanted to ask questions.

"Mr. Gordon, are you intending to bring in fresh blood to the GCPD?" one of them asked.

"We're always looking for good men and women who want to serve," Gordon said. "As long as the people involved are willing to work and able to serve and protect, there will always be a place for them in Gotham City."

It was true, Gordon had been looking to expend the Major Crimes Unit, to help better police Gotham City. He would have liked to also officially endorse Batman, Nightwing, and other protectors of Gotham City, and make them honorary members of the Major Crimes Unit. In this current political climate, Gordon knew it was something that he would never get away with it.

"Mr. Gordon, what are your feelings about the fact that the last two Gotham City Police Commissioners left their post in a bodybag?"

The question would have been expected to come up. Most people would have been thrown off for it. To his credit, Gordon had taken it in stride.

"I'm sure a few people in this city are eagerly counting down the days for that happening with me," Gordon said.

He learned a few laughs from the crowd. Some of his co-workers, those who worked the closest to Gordon, shifted uneasily. James met the death glare of a redhead college student standing in the crowd amongst her friends.

"And my daughter, thinks that's a case of too soon, apparently. But, I can assure those who support me, that I will take every step to ensure my safety. Gillian Loeb and Peter Grogan, they put in their time of distinguished service, and I do not want to disparage them in death, but I intend to be Gotham City police Commissioner up until the time where I'm ready to retire from this madness."

Those who were in the know sadly knew that retirement in Gotham City did not mean a gold watch a lot of the time. Unfortunately, retirement meant a bullet right between the eyes.

"Commissioner, who will be taking your place as the Gotham City Police Department's Captain? What about the head of the Major Crimes Unit?"

Gordon cleared his throat and smiled at the press. He turned to a couple of individuals.

"I've been looking into a replacement to run the Major Crimes Unit," Gordon said. "My good colleague Harvey Bullock has graciously agreed to help run the department in the meantime as I look for other qualified candidates. And another woman who is more than qualified for the job, Sarah Essen, will be the new Captain of the Gotham City Police Department."

The two people in general rose and they had gotten applause. Gordon thought they would do good, even though Bullock had been placed into his role as a very temporary measure. Gordon hoped to find someone else in the New Year.

"What are you planning to do with the SWAT?"

"The Gotham City Police Department's SWAT Team had gotten a fair amount of criticism thanks to unique management style of Howard Branden," Gordon said. "Branden's gone, and him and I rarely agreed on philosophy. I think that the SWAT needs overhauled. Therefore, I think that we need a fresh perspective, and my new SWAT supervisor, Renee Montoya will help myself and Captain Essen overhaul it."

The members of the SWAT looked up, and had been in shock. They were not happy about Branden's replacement. Regardless, they all saw Renee who rose up to nod at the stage.

"I would like to remind everyone that over the months and years, I intend to earn your trust. And ensure that the Gotham City Police Department takes a turn for the better."

Gordon cleared his throat and turned around to face a certain Mayor of Gotham City who stood with his arms folded.

"And now, I've talked for long enough," Gordon said. "I'm going to give the floor to Mayor Hill, who has wanted to speak on a very important issue. The floor is all yours, Mayor Hill."

"Thank you, Commissioner Gordon."

Hill stepped to the front of the stage. Ever the politician, he looked towards the people on the stage with the standard amount of swagger.

"I would like to officially announce the renovations are under way at the former Arkham Asylum, and the Asylum will be reopened after the first of the year," Hill said. "I know this has some controversy, but I think we can agree that with men like Edward Nashton, William Fugate, and Jervis Tetch, a more secure facility is needed."

"Mr. Mayor, what about the Joker?"

"Well, he goes without saying," Hill said. "We still have not been able to determine his true identity, therefore to refer to him only by his moniker will encourage him in the wrong kind of ways."

Hill hoped he could get by without talking about that crazed clown for one day. The GCPD had not been able to capture him, the Mayor's office received a fair amount of criticism because of it, and now the heat was being turned up.

"We will not let anyone trample over us," Hill said. "And this man, Quincy Sharp, will be the new Administrator of Arkham Asylum."

A balding gentleman with a dull grey suit and thick glasses stood at the top of the stage. He inclined his head and looked at several people.

One Harry Potter narrowed his eyes ever so briefly. He stood next to Barbara, who was here to support her father as he had been named Gotham City Police Commissioner. Dinah stood behind them, alongside Sara, who had been in incognito.

' _You don't seem like you're much of a fan of Sharp,'_ Barbara thought.

' _He's got some interesting ideas on how to rehabilitate criminals,'_ Harry thought. _'But, I doubt they're going to be too practical. And he's former colleagues with Hugo Strange.'_

' _Hmm,'_ Barbara thought. _'We haven't seen Strange much after Kathy's little ordeal. But, at least we know he hasn't dropped off the face of the earth like Somnambular did."_

Sharp stood at the stage and made sure everyone got a look at him before Hill continued his spiel about the re-opening of Arkham Asylum.

Change has just dawned upon Gotham City. The old era is out and a brand new era is in. Many prepare to see what opportunities had been presented for them to take.

And Harry Potter laid in wait to see what his next step would be.

* * *

**End.**

* * *

**And we reach the end of Ascension Book Two: Eternal. All three hundred and fifty chapter of it, and I have to say that in the end, it's been a hell of a ride over the past almost four years.**

**Unfortunately, there were some missteps along the way, more than I care to talk about. There were times where I thought about rebooting the entire universe, but common sense and sanity stopped me from doing so.**

**Now, I'm certain people are going to ask about a continuation regarding this series. And I'll be perfectly honest, I don't really know when it's going to happen. Well, I have a good idea, but I don't want to tell people because I don't want to put pressure on myself to deliver on the date that I plan on delivering.**

**Should I return, there will likely be a few mini-series stories which will close off a couple of dangling plot threads.**

**And maybe someday, there will be an Ascension Book Three, but that's a ways away for me to even consider that. And thankfully it won't be as long as this. I hope.**

**For those of you who constantly have read this story from the beginning and have kept with it through this overly long and grueling journey, I thank you. You're awesome, if not almost as insane as I am.**

**We'll see what ways the wind blows. Thanks for reading.**


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